#start in the middle of season six. who cares

[tomatoluvr69]

all this discourse about the correct m*a*s*h watching order...how bout you start with whatever 2 episodes are on MeTV tonight and just keep going until it loops back around to where u started

[mostlysignssomeportents]

"Efficiency" left the Big Three vulnerable to smart UAW tactics

Tomorrow (September 22), I'm (virtually) presenting at the DIG Festival in Modena, Italy. Tomorrow night, I'll be in person at LA's Book Soup for the launch of Justin C Key's "The World Wasn’t Ready for You." On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine.

It's been 143 days since the WGA went on strike against the Hollywood studios. While early tactical leaks from the studios had studio execs chortling and twirling their mustaches about writers caving once they started losing their homes, the strikers aren't wavering – they're still out there, pounding the picket lines, every weekday:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/09/how-hollywood-writers-make-ends-meet-100-days-into-the-writers-guild-strike.html

The studios obviously need writers. That gleeful, anonymous studio exec who got such an obvious erotic charge at the thought of workers being rendered homeless as punishment for challenging his corporate power completely misread the room, and his comments didn't demoralize the writers. Instead, they inspired the actors to go on strike, too.

But how have the writers stayed out since May Day? How have the actors stayed out for 69 days since their strike started on Bastille Day? We can thank the studios for that! As it turns out, the studios have devoted so much energy to rendering creative workers as precarious as possible, hiring as little as they can getting away with and using punishing overtime as a substitute for adequate staffing that they've eliminated all the workers who can't survive on side-hustles and savings for six or seven months at a time.

But even for those layoff-hardened workers, long strikes are brutal, and of course, all the affiliated trades, from costumers to grips, are feeling the pain. The strike fund only goes so far, and non-striking, affected workers don't even get that. That's why I've been donating regularly to the Entertainment Community Fund, which helps all affected workers out with cash transfers (I just gave them another $500):

https://secure2.convio.net/afa/site/Donation2?df_id=8117&8117.donation=form1&mfc_pref=T

As hot labor summer is revealed as a turning point – not just a season – long strikes will become the norm. Bosses still don't believe in worker power, and until they get their minds right, they're going to keep on trying to starve their workforces back inside. To get a sense of how long workers will have to hold out, just consider the Warrior Met strike, where Alabama coal-miners stayed out for 23 months:

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/warrior-met-strike-union/

As Kim Kelly explained to Adam Conover in the latest Factually podcast, the Alabama coal strikers didn't get anywhere near the attention that the Hollywood strikers have enjoyed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvyMHf7Yg0Q

(To learn more about the untold story of worker organizing, from prison unions to the key role that people of color and women played in labor history, check out Kelly's book, "Fight Like Hell," now in paperback:)

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-Like-Hell/Kim-Kelly/9781982171063

Which brings me to the UAW strike. This is an historic strike, the first time that the UAW has struck all of the Big Three automakers at once. Past autoworkers' strikes have marked turning points for all American workers. The 1945/46 GM strike established employers' duty to cover worker pensions, health care, and cost of living allowances. The GM strike created the American middle-class:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-18-uaw-strikes-built-american-middle-class/

The Big Three are fighting for all the marbles here. They are refusing to allow unions to organize EV factories. Given that no more internal combustion cars will be in production in just a few short years, that's tantamount to eliminating auto unions altogether. The automakers are flush with cash, including billions in public subsidies from multiple bailouts, along with billions more from greedflation price-gouging. A long siege is inevitable, as the decimillionaires running these companies earn their pay by starving out their workers:

https://www.businessinsider.com/general-motors-ceo-mary-barra-salary-auto-workers-strike-uaw-2023-9

The UAW knows this, of course, and their new leadership – helmed by the union's radical president Shawn Fain – has a plan. UAW workers are engaged in tactical striking, shutting down key parts of the supply chain on a rolling basis, making the 90-day strike fund stretch much farther:

https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-09-18-labors-militant-creativity/

In this project, they are greatly aided by Big Car's own relentless pursuit of profit. The automakers – like every monopolized, financialized sector – have stripped all the buffers and slack out of their operations. Inventory on hand is kept to a bare minimum. Inputs are sourced from the cheapest bidder, and they're brought to the factory by the lowest-cost option. Resiliency – spare parts, backup machinery – is forever at war with profits, and profits have won and won and won, leaving auto production in a brittle, and easily shattered state.

This is especially true for staffing. Automakers are violently allergic to hiring workers, because new workers get benefits and workplace protection. Instead, the car companies routinely offer "voluntary" overtime to their existing workforce. By refusing this overtime, workers can kneecap production, without striking.

Enter "Eight and Skate," a campaign among UAW workers to clock out after their eight hour shift. As Keith Brower Brown writes for Labor Notes, the UAW organizers are telling workers that "It’s crossing an unofficial picket line to work overtime. It’s helping out the company":

https://labornotes.org/2023/09/work-extra-during-strike-auto-workers-say-eight-and-skate

Eight and Skate has already started to work; the Buffalo Ford plant can no longer run its normal weekend shifts because workers are refusing to put in voluntary overtime. Of course, bosses will strike back: the next step will be forced overtime, which will lead to the unsafe conditions that unionized workers are contractually obliged to call paid work-stoppages over, shutting down operations without touching the strike fund.

What's more, car bosses can't just halt safety stoppages or change the rules on overtime; per the UAW's last contract, bosses are required to bargain on changes to overtime rules:

https://uaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Working-Without-Contract-FAQ-FINAL-2.pdf

Car bosses have become lazily dependent on overtime. At GM's "highly profitable" SUV factory in Arlington, TX, normal production runs a six-days, 24 hours per day. Workers typically work five eight-hour days and nine hours on Saturdays. That's been the status quo for 11 years, but when bosses circulated the usual overtime signup sheet last week, every worker wrote "a big fat NO" next to their names.

Writing for The American Prospect, David Dayen points out that this overtime addiction puts a new complexion on the much-hyped workerpocalypse that EVs will supposedly bring about. EVs are much simpler to build than conventional cars, the argument goes, so a US transition to EVs will throw many autoworkers out of work:

https://prospect.org/labor/2023-09-20-big-threes-labor-shortages-uaw/

But the reality is that most autoworkers are doing one and a half jobs already. Reducing the "workforce" by a third could leave all these workers with their existing jobs, and the 40-hour workweek that their forebears fought for at GM inn 1945/46. Add to that the additional workers needed to make batteries, build and maintain charging infrastructure, and so on, and there's no reason to think that EVs will weaken autoworker power.

And as Dayen points out, this overtime addiction isn't limited to cars. It's also endemic to the entertainment industry, where writers' "mini rooms" and other forms of chronic understaffing are used to keep workforces at a skeleton crew, even when the overtime costs more than hiring new workers.

Bosses call themselves job creators, but they have a relentless drive to destroy jobs. If there's one thing bosses hate, it's paying workers – hence all the hype about AI and automation. The stories about looming AI-driven mass unemployment are fairy tales, but they're tailor made for financiers who get alarming, life-threatening priapism at the though of firing us all and replacing us with shell-scripts:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/09/autocomplete-worshippers/#the-real-ai-was-the-corporations-that-we-fought-along-the-way

This is why Republican "workerism" rings so hollow. Trump's GOP talks a big game about protecting "workers" (by which they mean anglo men) from immigrants and "woke captialism," but they have nothing to say about protecting workers from bosses and bankers who see every dime a worker gets as misappropriated from their dividend.

Unsurprisingly, conservative message-discipline sucks. As Luke Savage writes in Jacobin, for every mealymouthed Josh Hawley mouthing talking points that "support workers" by blaming China and Joe Biden for the Big Three's greed, there's a Tim Scott, saying the quiet part aloud:

https://jacobin.com/2023/09/republicans-uaw-strike-hawley-trump-scott/

Quoth Senator Scott: "I think Ronald Reagan gave us a great example when federal employees decided they were going to strike. He said, you strike, you’re fired. Simple concept to me. To the extent that we can use that once again, absolutely":

https://twitter.com/American_Bridge/status/1704136706574741988

The GOP's workerism is a tissue-thin fake. They can never and will never support real worker power. That creates an opportunity for Biden and Democrats to seize:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/18/co-determination/#now-make-me-do-it

Reversing two generations of anti-worker politics is a marathon, not a sprint. The strikes are going to run for months, even years. Every worker will be called upon to support their striking siblings, every day. We can do it. Solidarity now. Solidarity forever.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/21/eight-and-skate/#strike-to-rule

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Neil talking about the responses to Good Omens Season 2 - from the Neil Gaiman interview with Brian Levine for The Gould Standard (x,x)

BL: The audience that you have built is a very passionately engaged audience. They, frankly, they love you. And one of the reasons they love you is that you fit into what I think of as one of two great divisions in art. There's, or in writing, um, there is: I'm entertained, I'm amused. I may be even enchanted; and then there's this hits me at a visceral level. You understand me as no one else does. You have touched something very central to my experience. And it seems to me that Much of your writing, maybe all of your writing, actually reaches your audience at that latter level. You know. I would say in the former category, sort of my quintessential and beloved example would be P. G. Woodhouse. He amuses me, but I don't feel like he's revealed my inner self at a very deep level. Um, were you aware that you were going to be able to achieve that? Um, that this is something... was it a startling thing when people began coming up to you, who'd read your work and said, this means so much to me?

Neil: Yeah. It was huge. And it wasn't expected. I... if I had a mountaintop I was heading towards, it was gonna be P. G. Woodhouse. Um, I wanted to be a proficient entertainer with a clear prose style who could tell stories. Um, it probably wasn't until Sandman that I found... I started to realize that in order for a story to work, I had to show too much. In order for a story to resonate, in order for a story to matter, I had to let it matter too much. And, and I remember the first people who would start coming up to me and saying, um, you, you know, your, your Sandman comics got me through the death of a loved one. Your death character got me through my child's death, through my parent's death, through my partner's death, through my friend's death. Um, and that left me kind of amazed. I'm like, well, I didn't write it to do that. I wrote it to feed my children. I wrote it to satisfy myself. I wrote it because nobody else had ever written it. And if I didn't write it, it wouldn't be written, but I don't think I wrote it to give you what you've taken from it. And I spent really about 20, 25 years feeling awkward about that. And then my father died, in March 2009, and never got to cry about it. Never... I, you know, I've, I've got on a plane and I went to the UK and dealt with the funeral stuff and organized all of that stuff and came back and go toff the plane and went and did Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report and wearing the funeral suit because and that was all I had with me and carried on. And then, somewhere in the middle of summer, I was reading a friend's script. They'd sent me a script and said, can you look this over? And I'm reading it, and on page 20, the lead character meets somebody, and on page 26 maybe, she's dead, and I burst into tears. And I'm bawling. I am sobbing. It is coming out of me in giant racking waves. And I realized that it's everything that I'd been, hadn't let myself feel, or hadn't been able, hadn't stopped enough to let myself feel, was suddenly being given permission to feel by the death of a fictional person who I'd met six pages earlier, ia script. And I thought that... and it was huge for me, and I thought, okay, that's that thing that people are talking about sometimes, when they come tome and they say, you, you did this. So right now, I'm in this weird, wonderful place where I think a lot of people in Good Omens Season 2 thought they were signing up for the P.G. Woodhouse, and didn't know that, no, no, no, you've, you've signed up for the whole thing. You've signed up for the feelings. You've signed up for the emotions. I... it is my job to make you care and to make you feel and to feel things you haven't felt before. And which meant that the first week or so after Good Omens came out, I was getting angry, furious, deeply upset messages on every possible social medium telling me that I had betrayed people, and it was awful, and they couldn't stop crying, and why would I do that to them, and did I hate them? And they hated me. And then a weird sort of phenomenon happened as people would watch the show again. And again. And now they started to know, okay, this is where it's gonna go, this is what's gonna happen, this is how it works. And they started realizing that they were actually feeling things, and that was good. And that they were caring about two people who don't exist. You know, I made them up, and then and Terry Pratchett made them up, and then, um, David Tennant and Michael Sheen gave them life, and then they get to walk around on a screen and you know they don't exist, but you can cry for them, you can love them, they can make you laugh, they can make you exult, and most important of all, they can make you care. And the number of people who are now writing to me, saying, 'This was so important to me. This has changed my life. This makes me feel like I belong. This makes me feel like I can cope. And it's let me sort of find myself. P. S. I hope you get to do Season Three.' is, is huge.

[englishsub]

book rec by me

so you want to get back into reading books but have no idea where to start and disdain booktok (if you get me started on this however i will become an unskippable cutscene so that's for another day). understandable. there is so much out there and it is all so overwhelming and you don't even know what you like now that you've been a decade out of the game. again, understandable. it does not have to be scary. i will help you. below i have created some categories that can get you started.

i want to read Literature

literary fiction, with crossover from historical fiction and magical realism

PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING by melissa fu

THE VASTER WILDS by lauren groff

THE FAMILY CHAO by lan samantha chang

OUTER DARK by cormac mccarthy

SEVERANCE by ling ma

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS by ryka aoki

IDENTITTI by mithu m. sanyal

PIRANESI by susanna clarke

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that won't break my brain

sci-fi and fantasy that is gentler on the brain cells. easier to grasp magic systems with multiple but not an overwhelming number of overlapping plotlines

EMILY WILDE'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF FAERIES by heather fawcett

KINGS OF THE WYLD by nicholas eames

THE JASMINE THRONE by tasha suri

THE CITY OF BRASS by s.a. chakraborty

A RIVER ENCHANTED by rebecca ross

JUNIPER AND THORN by ava reid

BLACK SUN by rebecca roanhorse

THE FINAL STRIFE by saara el-arifi

THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart

i want to read sci-fi/fantasy that forces me to lock the fuck in

i would not recommend picking these up as your first foray back into books after many years of not reading recreationally, but i'm not your mom.

THE SPEAR CUTS THROUGH WATER by simon jimenez

JADE CITY by fonda lee

THE FIFTH SEASON by n.k. jemisin

THE RAGE OF DRAGONS by evan winter

A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE by arkady martine

GIDEON THE NINTH by tamsyn muir

THE ART OF PROPHECY by wesley chu

THE GRACE OF KINGS by ken liu

horrify me!

there is far more to the horror literary canon than stephen king and dean koontz, i promise. consider looking up warnings for these.

TENDER IS THE FLESH by agustina bazterrica

THE RUINS by scott smith

CONFESSIONS by kanae minato

EPISODE THIRTEEN by craig dilouie

REPRIEVE by james han mattson

MARY by nat cassidy

DEAD SILENCE by s.a. barnes

AUDITION by ryu murakami

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by cassandra khaw

don't care, i want romance

some of these feature crossover genres, like fantasy and horror.

VAMPIRES OF EL NORTE by isabel cañas

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by sue lynn tan

SEVEN DAYS IN JUNE by tia williams

HAPPY PLACE by emily henry

ONE DARK WINDOW by rachel gillig

i want QUEER romance

again, a mix of historical, fantasy, and contemporary crossover genres.

WE COULD BE SO GOOD by cat sebastian

IN MEMORIAM by alice winn

MOST ARDENTLY by gabe cole novoa

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE by foz meadows

A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by freya marske

THE EMPEROR AND THE ENDLESS PALACE by justinian huang

SPELL BOUND by f.t. lukens

SORRY, BRO by taleen voskuni

ONE LAST STOP by casey mcquiston

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE by ashley herring blake

i haven't felt anything since i read percy jackson/the hunger games in middle school/high school

adventure is still out there.

SCYTHE by neil shusterman

WE HUNT THE FLAME by hafsah faizal

SIX OF CROWS by leigh bardugo

GEARBREAKERS by zoe hana mikuta

i'll read anything that's not straight or white

many books in the above categories fit this, but here's even more, across a variety of genres.

LAST NIGHT AT THE TELEGRAPH CLUB by malinda lo

BABEL by r.f. kuang

WHEN THE RECKONING COMES by latanya mcqueen

THE UNBROKEN by c.l. clark

IF YOU'LL HAVE ME (graphic novel) by eunnie

LEGEND OF THE WHITE SNAKE by sher lee

THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone

SHE WHO BECAME THE SUN by shelley parker-chan

"all ya books suck"

like any other genre or book age group, there are duds and there are standouts. ya is not special in this regard. try some of these!

DIVINE RIVALS by rebecca ross

STRIKE THE ZITHER by joan he

THE RED PALACE by june hur

A STUDY IN DROWNING by ava reid

EMPIRE OF SAND by tasha suri

LEGENDBORN by tracy deonn

i check out and read a lot of these books for free via my local library by using the libby app (you can even add your friends' library cards to gain access to libraries in places you don't live). when i'm feeling like reading via audiobook, i use libro fm!

look, no one HAS TO read diversely. no one is going to be reverse fahrenheit 451'd and locked in a room with no fanfic and only books and not let out until they work their way through the entire literary canon. but reading, and reading widely, and reading diversely, is what teaches people to form their own opinions and question the things they are told. it's why they hang up stuff like "READ READ READ!!" in grade school classrooms.

we live under systems that increasingly benefit from going unquestioned. no, of course reading ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE by robin hobb is not going to dismantle these systems tomorrow, nor probably even in our lifetimes. but doing it will help set up a world capable of doing it in the future. and until further notice, we are all part of this wretched world. might as well read a good story while we're here.

anyway, i'm reading THE WEST PASSAGE by jared pechaček and the new cmq book this week.

[totaly-obsessed]

Revelations

Katie McCabe x reader request

-> Katie and you watch Aine play football for the first time

-> 2 requests in one - I hope you like it!

➳ Masterlist

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

‘I want another one’ somehow happened quite fast and not even a year later – Aine was getting ready to be a big sister. Telling her didn’t quite go as Katie or you had planned…

“Baby in Mummy’s tummy!”

A deadly silence had fallen over the kitchen as your wife and you just exchanged glances, trying to figure out who had snitched, both convinced that it was not you.

“What do ya mean lovie?” Katie tried to act unknowingly but apparently forgot that Aine had gotten the sass from her.

“You need to listen better!” You could barely hold yourself up with how much you were shaking with laughter and the Irishwoman’s shocked face. “Watch ya tone, Missy!”

By now the young girl had attached herself to your leg, clawing at you for ‘uppies’ as she had once called it. When you finally caved and sat her on the kitchen counter, she was quickly joined by Cooper who nuzzled his head into her side.

“You’re right doll. There is a baby in Mummy’s tummy – you will be a big sister.” Both of you were curious about how the seven-year-old would react to the news, not even caring at this point how she had figured it out.

“Like Mama and Auntie Lauryn!” Cooper by now had enough of the excited bouncing, opting to leave and look for a pretty spot in the sun where he could nap until his small human companion would inevitably find him and smother him in pets.

“That’s right bub! What do you think of that?” Back was the tense silence, as Katie grabbed your hand, giving it a loving squeeze – this was much more terrifying than you had thought. At least you didn’t need to actually tell Aine the news, she had taken that upon herself.

The small brunette looked around the open kitchen and living space, her pigtails swishing through the air as she scooted closer to the edge of the countertop, getting her face right next to yours. Katie’s hands were ready in case she fell, which she wouldn’t but Katie would always worry. “Pssshh! Don’t tell - this was my biggest wish for Santa! And it came true!”

Your wife couldn’t help but laugh, kissing her daughter's forehead before hiding her face in the very familiar brown hair. “Well, Santa came early then, huh?” It was in the middle of November, but ever since last Christmas, the seven-year-old had started a wish list. “He did! Cause I wanted it so badly – and Mummy did too!”

This had gone over much better than you could have imagined, and for now, you were just fine with her thinking that Santa was the way her little sibling would find its way to her. “You’re right Lovie. Mummy and Mama wished for it really badly too.”

---

---

It was no secret that Aine wanted to be just like her Mama, so her playing football should really not come as a surprise to either of you but it turns out that seeing her little girl get accepted into the Arsenal U8s team was something entirely different.

The little brunette had tried out for them, just like any other kid (no matter what haters would say), and got accepted with no problem. At their age group, it wasn’t considered as ‘Academy’ training, but rather ‘Pre academy’, with two training sessions a week and ten games across the whole season. They also weren’t separated into a girls' and boys' team just yet, so the Arsenal U8’s was a mixed team that would compete against other fixed games and also just boys teams.

With spring break coming up, Aine’s first match was also coming closer and closer. Katie had never felt so many emotions. Seeing you at six months pregnant and now well rounded while her little girl went to training after training, each time coming home with a bigger smile.

“Look at this! You’ll look just like Mama!”

Katie really couldn’t hold her tears anymore – with you holding her hand Aine admired herself in the mirror, wearing her game-day kit for the very first time.

But instead of Katie's 15 on her back, she had a 10 – for Kim Little, the best Midfielder there was and your daughter's biggest idol, much to her mama's disappointment.

“You look so grown up, Doll.” Seeing your wife this emotional, and Aine so happy gave you the rest. Now both of you were bawling your eyes out while the little brunette hopped around the house, before running back with Katie’s phone in her little hands.

“Take a picture, Mummy! For Auntie Kim!”

In the picture you were holding the grinning girl in your arms, as she proudly kissed your tummy, refusing to properly pose as she wanted to show Kim her little sibling as well.

This was the best day yet for the young gunner. After all, she was going to be a big sister, so she had to be a good example and play good football – just like the grown-ups.

“Do me a favor, my love?” Aine stood in between her mother's legs when she finally composed herself a little. “Hmmm?”

“Grow up a little slower, will ya?”

---

---

Turns out preparing for gameday, and actually experiencing one, were completely different experiences – especially when it was a double game day.

Aine was already hopping through the house like an excited bunny when Katie made her way down the stairs to make breakfast.

The Irishwoman had kissed your forehead, gently waking you up with a mumbled “Mornin Love. Thirty minutes.” Before going downstairs. God was her morning voice attractive.

It was seven in the morning. On a Sunday. Entirely too early for a six-month pregnant you who had put a giddy child to bed, that didn’t want to sleep. But your wife was gracious, giving you thirty more minutes to wake up fully before helping her daughter bring breakfast in.

You could get used to this – a delicious meal in bed with your wife and daughter, although a little later would have been nice.

“Mummy, when do we have to go?” This was the third time Aine had asked in the last ten minutes, and every time either Katie or you had given her the answer but the small brunette couldn’t help herself – she was just too excited.

This was the fastest you had ever seen the seven-year-old get washed and dressed after breakfast. She was so fast, that she had gotten impatient with your much slower speed. Aine took it upon herself to get you dressed while you brushed your teeth while sat on the closed toilet.

“Foot please Mama!” You did as asked, picking up your legs off the floor so that your daughter could slip socks over your feet.

And with a quick zoom, she was in your bedroom again, just to return with wide, comfortable pants that you just knew that your wife chose. Instead of giving them to you, she threw them on the floor. “Step in please!” Good thing you were already wearing underwear, huh? As good as she could, Aine helped you get them up and over your bump, but not before giving it a kiss and whispering a small “Hi!”

It went like that until you were fully dressed and she pulled you to the hallway, where your wife helped you into shoes as you could barely see the ground anymore.

“Is this okay? I thought maybe I should have given her longer socks because it will be cold – but then we have a blanket so maybe you will get too hot an-“ Katie’s rambling was cut short with a passionate kiss. “It’s perfect – Thank you, my Love.”

“Let go, let go, let's go!”

---

---

“Now you know how it feels to watch you play!” Katie was tense as she leaned against one of the beams that surrounded the football pitch.

The drive here had gone by fairly quickly as Aine made sure to tell your wife all about her teammates. You had met most of them already during practice or while picking her back up again – the small brunette would always chat with anybody who would listen until you walked over to take her home. Her chattiness definitely came from your wife – but right now there was nothing in the world that could make the Irishwoman relax.

“She’s tougher than she looks, my Love.” By now you had taken the footballer's hand, rubbing calming circles on it in a desperate attempt to calm her down.

Aine was one of four girls on the pitch – two on her team and two on the other. The rest were all boys. And while you knew that she was feistier than she looked, much more like her mother than you, the size difference between her and some of the boys was terrifying.

“Oi Ref!” Your wife’s hand shot up when an opposing boy had clumsily taken your daughter down with him in an attempt to stop her from getting even closer to their goal. “That’s a free kick! Ref!” The guy refereeing the game didn’t see the incident at first, angering Katie even further – but when he did look over the first thing that he saw, was a tiny brunette shoving a boy at least a head taller off of her.

The shrill sound of a whistle agreed with Katie, and the Arsenal U8s were indeed allowed a freekick in a very good position for them, as your daughter had been very central on the field and closing in on goal.

Katie’s grip on your hand tightened with stress – she knew what she would do in this situation. But did her seven-year-old know it as well? They spent countless dinner conversations talking about football and plenty of different techniques, with impressive input from Aine, so she had to know what she was doing, right?

 And she did.

The brunette passed to one of her free strikers and started running through the masses. She was small, fast, and agile – and before the opposing team could blink, her striker passed back to her when she was standing directly in front of the goal.

“Yes! That’s my daughter!”

Katie couldn’t contain herself any longer – the ball had hit the back of the net with a surprising amount of force, their keeper jumping in the other direction, making this a perfect goal. Her first goal.

After high-fiving every player on her team your daughter sprinted over to where you stood and gave a quick kiss to your belly just like she had done earlier in the morning. “For you, baby!”

The match ended shortly after Arsenal's third goal, assisted by your daughter who once again looked at you and Katie, to see if you watched her – which you did.

One of the trainers had brought a box of mixed ice-creams and even though the young brunette wasn’t supposed to, she took three of them and quickly made her way to you and your wife.

“Don’t you wanna eat with your friends baby?”

“Nuh-uh. You are my best friends.”

Well, there go your hormones again as you couldn’t hold your tears at bay any longer. “I love you so much Aine. And you played so well.” The seven-year-old kissed your forehead much like Katie did, before ensuring that someone had recorded the game so that she could show Auntie Kim her goal.

“That was my first win for baby sister, Mommy! Now Mama needs to win tonight so it’s a perfect day!”

“Geez no pressure huh?” Everything was packed up now and the pitch was getting emptier by the minute as multiple parents made their way to their cars at the same time you did.

“Aine I have a question.”

“Yeah?”

“What if it’s a baby brother instead?”

She was now buckled into her car seat, with Katie still at her door trying to work out something that has been bothering her ever since your daughter had announced that you were pregnant again. Neither you nor Katie have been told the gender of the baby, yet the youngest family member seemed sure that it would be a girl again.

“It’s not. It’s a baby sister.”

“How do you know that?”

You tried to watch their interaction as well as you could from your passenger seat. Your Wife’s eyes were wide with curiosity, something that you saw in Aine nearly every day.

“I just do.”

“You terrify me, Kid.”

[gleefullypolin]

Stacy's Tipsy Musing's - Colin Bridgerton Hot Takes - Part 1

Ok boys and girls, we need to have a little chat about Colin Bridgerton.

Part 2 has been out now for a couple of days and there have been a lot of hot takes to come out of the season. A LOT of hot takes.  I’m going to break this down into 4 parts. 4 questions that I'm seeing really bad hot takes about Colin.

Now none of this is new, I gotta say before Season 3 aired Colin was a hot button topic anyway. He seemed to be the Bridgerton brother that lots of people love to spew hate takes on anyway. But damn I gotta say its painful seeing the Polin fandom have so many bad takes falling from their lips.

So, I figured...having a little drink tonight, sitting down for Father’s Day (Happy Father’s Day, Colin) I’d give you the opinion on some of these takes that you didn’t ask for...Mine!

Ok let’s start with the hottest take. Question 1:

Does Colin really believe that Pen entrapped him in marriage?

“Perhaps that was another part of your planned entrapment”

Ok I have to say, I have never seen one line inspire SO MANY BAD TAKE FANFICS IN ALL MY LIFE! Let’s start at the beginning...he found out about Lady Whistledown by following Pen because he noticed she and his sister run off together and disappeared. His sister who was not speaking to Pen previously from his knowledge. So not only is he suddenly feeling betrayed by his future wife, but also his sister.

Now add to this, his trying to reconcile this lie in the middle of planning a wedding to the woman he thought he knew most of his life as quiet little Pen, who just weeks earlier he was trying to teach how to flirt and land a man. He is confused and angry.

But that’s only 2 layers of hurt. Let’s keep adding to that. Layer one, we have the lie. Layer two, we have a woman he thought he knew. Add in Layer three, the Marina situation.

The original LW lie for him was about Marina’s lie. The original entrapment. An entrapment that Colin was willing to look past. He was still willing to marry Marina despite her deception. He still checked in on her post marriage to Phillip to ensure she was happy, to see if she regretted NOT marrying him. Colin always regretted his behavior to Marina’s entrapment. An entrapment that LW pushed into the light and forced a different decision for him. I don’t think he cares about Marina now, he never once accused her of taking Marina from him, he never loved Marina, but she took his agency, his decision.

Now for the fun of it, let’s add layer four. Portia’s already accused Pen of entrapping Colin during his confrontation with her. An accusation he strongly defended her against. An accusation which led to him telling her he loved her for the first time and them sharing their first time together. Which he is now reminding her of.  “I’m a man of honor. And we were intimate.” Colin knows how to hurt Pen. We always know how to hurt those we have known for a long time, and they are of course the oldest of friends. He is striking her where he knows it will hurt her the most. Because he is hurting, and she caused the blow.

So let’s talk about the biggest blow of them all. “Perhaps that was another part of your planned entrapment” He doesn’t look her in the eye when he says any of this. He can’t, because he KNOWS he’s being an asshole. He knows its below the belt. But she hurt him. He’s angry, hurt, lashing out.

Because of Layer five...Hot anger at what she wrote about him at the beginning of the season. This person who knows him better than anyone else, wrote truth to page. No one knows the real Colin the way Pen does. His brothers toasted him when he returned home because of his new female attention, his friends said he was more fun this season. But Pen called his new persona a ploy for attention. She saw him for what he was. A fraud. If he is to forgive Pen, he is to also start to acknowledge that there is truth in things she says that perhaps Lady Whistledown does not tell lies.

But then there is layer six. Jealousy and shame. Colin has sat in all of his emotions, yes he’s angry about what she has written,but we get to the heart of it, he’s jealous of her and that makes him ashamed of himself. That’s very Book!Colin coded who was very ashamed of his jealousy, so much so that Pen mistook his silence and brooding as shame of her. But this Colin is brooding in his own shame and jealousy and lashing out at her.

And then we get to layer seven. Colin loves Penelope above all else. And with this love and hurt and shame and jealousy, there is nothing that will stop him from marrying her. And in part, that is where his ire in this pointed cut comes from. He’s reminding her that they will marry. This will happen. This woman who is a successful writer, something he thinks he will never be, will marry him. Because he has laid claim to her. He has bedded her. They were intimate, she was compromised, and they have entrapped each other. But above all, he loves her, and Lady Whistledown will not change that decision for him this time. This time, he will marry.

Seven layers of lies, deception, past hurts, parental pressures, anger, jealousy and shame, and above all love sat on his tongue and wormed through his thoughts for days until they cut out at the small woman beside him that he needed to hurt in that moment. The woman he had been avoiding for that very reason.

Colin is not a hateful man. He was a kind man. He was rarely angry. But when he was finally put in a place where anger was his only emotion, he avoided Penelope, so that he didn’t hurt her, so he would not say things that were unkind and would hurt her. But when put into the place that he could not avoid her, he lashed out. He made it very clear how things were going to go and he pouted, and he brooded and he said unkind words.

And he was ashamed. And after that he did his best to avoid her, (by being out drinking, sleeping on the couch, avoiding intimacy) so he would not lash out at her again. Because he was ashamed.

Stick around for Part 2.... Why would Colin send Pen home alone after finding her on the street at night?

[tippenstoepens]

Prettiest Girl in the Room

Anyone would kill to play Joseph Quinn's wife on television. Anyone except you.

part 1 - part 2 - part 3

Wordcount: 1.8k

Clubs were not your thing. But you were wrapping the first season of the show that gave you your first lead role on everyone’s favorite streaming service alongside 2022’s it-guy - Joseph Quinn. So you understood why this might be a night out that you couldn’t pass on. Even if it did end in disaster, it was a memory begging to be made.

The main cast had agreed on and planned this night out for the past three weeks in the group chat. The destination was a popular speakeasy in New York, the kind you needed a password for and entered through an inconspicuous door hidden behind a dumpster. 

There you sat at the table, forcing the coolest attitude you could conjure sitting across from your TV husband, Joe. In the six months you spent as his TV wife, you couldn’t imagine why everyone was so head over heels for this guy. Sure, he’s handsome and good with fans, but is that all it took? Was the bar truly that low? Your heart cried for women everywhere. 

He could also be kind of cocky and a bit of a smartass. He would make passive aggressive jokes at your expense. Maybe it was some kind of culture thing you weren’t picking up. He was British after all. He kept calling you “Mrs. Henderson” instead of your own, real name after you had asked him multiple times to stop calling you by your character’s married name when you weren’t filming. Then he just began to tease you about it.

“Good morning, Mrs. Henderson.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Henderson.”

“Good to see you, Mrs. Henderson.”

Holly Vanguard made sure to get the seat to Joe’s right, laughing too loudly at all of his dry humor. She even laughed when he wasn’t making jokes. Maybe she was just stuck in character. She played Joe’s secretary on the show. “We’re both British,” she took care to remind you often. “We get each other.” Why Holly excluded your very British TV father from this covenant, you’ll never know. David sat to your left.

Every so often he would reach over and squeeze your hand in reassurance. When you looked over to him, he’d be smiling softly with encouragement in his eyes. You had developed a negative reputation throughout filming the season because you preferred not to agitate your social anxiety by leaving your trailer. David was the only one you had confided in about it after a particularly stressful day on set. You’d heard whispers of your “stuck up attitude” after passing on a previous night out with the cast (which you suspected was started by Holly). You were sure your bickering with Joe when the cameras weren’t rolling hadn’t helped.

This was your first real gig and the circus of it all drove you crazy. There were a lot of politics involved in being part of a cast of public figures. Apparently, people weren’t supposed to disagree with anyone who had more public recognition than you did - especially if that one was GQ’s Man of the Year. You suspected Joe liked your attitude at least a little bit, but you couldn’t be sure.

“Why don’t we play Spin the Bottle?” Holly suggested to the table, giving Joe eyes.

Groans of opposition came from the older cast members and they excused themselves to the dancefloor after everyone had a laugh. And then there were five. You silently wept at the loss of your emotional support TV father.

“In the middle of a pandemic? No,” Jackson shut it down and made a different proposal. “Let’s play a good old-fashioned game of Truth or Dare. But you don’t get to choose either or - the person asking chooses for you. If you refuse a dare or question, you’ve gotta take a shot of tequila.”

“Every 20 minutes, I’ll refuse a question,” Joe declared and slapped a palm onto the table. His dirty martini shook next to the point of impact. 

The group made rounds around the table and when it came to you, you asked Jackson what it was like to be the most fashionable person in the room at all times. 

“Oh my god, finally someone acknowledges my plight. It’s exhausting. I spend all this time planning outfits and looking amazing, but do I get invited to the Met Gala? No. I don’t even get to look at myself all day, everyone else gets to see my color coordination and I have to look at everyone else’s sweatpants and Wallabees. No offense, Joseph,” Jackson said with no remorse.

“That’s fair,” Joe shrugged and smirked.

In the few rounds you all had, you noticed Joe always dared people to do absurd things like pose with the statues in the back of the club and “stay in character” for a full five minutes or take the fish skeleton off of the plate of the table next to them and cuddle it for a full round.

You thought it was sweet that he only came up with dares that wouldn’t inconvenience the staff and other club go-ers or violate anyone’s boundaries while still managing to be funny. He could easily be obnoxious if he wanted to. He’s not so bad, you guessed.

When his fourth turn came around, he broke the pattern. Joe said your name and you prepared to fully commit to whatever zany bit he’d come up with this time, but he said:

“Truth: why don’t you come out with us more often?”

“O-oh,” you blubbered, caught off guard. “I just… I’m not good with crowds.”

“Oh, come on. I want a real answer.”

“That is my real answer. I’d just make a fool of myself. I’m not…”

“You seem to be doing just fine so far.”

“Well, that’s because David-” You turned to look for him and found him attempting a very bad vogue in a small group of younger people. They cheered and let all sorts of onomatopoeia in encouragement. “...was helping.”

“Alright, alright, but if you don’t come out with us next time, I’ll be wounded.” Joe pressed both hands to his pectoral over his heart.

“Next!” Jackson jeered.

“Oh! Would you look at that, it’s my turn!” Holly squealed. You didn’t have the highest opinion of Holly, but the feminist in you refused to dislike her until she committed an actual crime like vehicular manslaughter. Being annoying wasn’t a serious enough offense.

Holly dramatically adjusted herself in her seat to face Joe.

“I dare you to kiss the prettiest girl in the room,” Holly slurred and puckered her glossy lips, tilting forward a bit to display her cleavage. Your stomach dropped. Everyone at the table exchanged glances, wondering if Joe was drunk enough to entertain it.

Joe’s eyelids fluttered and his head tilted as he processed what had been said. Had she really just done that? It was only after his eyes flicked over to you that you became aware of the jealousy on your face. Your recovery was quick, but not quick enough. Hopefully he took it as concern or judgement. He knit his brow and chuckled. Shit.

“You got me,” he surrendered. He grabbed a tequila shot from the tray and chucked the liquor down his throat. He didn’t even make a face. It was kind of sexy. No! It wasn’t. It was most definitely not sexy.

Holly exhaggerated a pout to play off the embarrassment. 

The rest of the night went smoothly. The game had got you loosened up enough to make your way to the dancefloor. Everyone whooped and hollered when you did. 

You couldn’t decide if it was just the liquid courage or if you were actually dancing very well. Your movements felt so fluid and you hit every beat - an uphill battle when you were sober. Judging by everyone’s surprise and the circle that formed around you in the middle of the dancefloor, you’d say your theory was accurate. Who knew the shyest cast member could be such a party animal?

After a verse of the 90s R&B song that was playing, you pointed to the first co-worker you laid eyes on and joined the circle as they took your place. 

…

The group stumbled through the hallways of the hotel at four in the morning, trying to keep the volume at a minimum and failing miserably. Your ears must’ve still been ringing from the club. Everyone was giggling and “SHHHH”-ing and repeating their room number.

“25D… 25, 25, 25…” Alex repeated.

“Shhhhh! We’re still in the under 20s! That’s 12D!” Jackson shouted.

“Both of you shut the fuck up! People are trying to sleep!” David whisper-shouted.

Joe shushed all three of them. 

When all the oversized toddlers were dropped off at their respective rooms, there was only yourself and Joe left. You’d wished you had booked a room further away just to talk to Joe a little longer. He was giggly and flushed from the drinks and you had never seen him so… cute. 

Before you knew it, you had arrived at your hotel room door. 

“Have you got your key?”

“Yeah,” you reached into your bag and retrieved the plastic card, holding it in your hands for a bit too long before looking up at Joe. You didn’t want the night to end. His eyes were glossy and full of - dare you say it - admiration.

“Well, I guess-“ “I think you’re-“

“Oh, sorry.” 

“No, no,” you said. “I, um…”

There was another long pause of sustained eye contact. It should have felt awkward or uncomfortable, but it didn’t. A smile spread across his face. You huffed a smaller laugh and found your own lips spreading. 

“Good night,” he said softly.

“Good night,” you barely whispered.

Joe walked down the hall as you swiped your key and turned the handle.

“Oh,” He muttered and snapped his fingers once.

“I’ve almost forgotten,” Joe called. He jogged back to your door and took your head into his hands. “I owe you.”

He pressed a gentle kiss into your lips. Then another. And another. Before you knew it, you were both nibbling on each others lips and swirling tongues into the other’s mouth. Which should have been raunchy and drunken and a huge mistake, but it didn’t feel like any of those things. He was so gentle and soft with you in a way that no other man had been before. Before you knew it, you were standing there: eyes blissfully closed and lips still slightly parted as Joe floated away from you.

“Good night, Mrs. Henderson,” he purred in that deep, chocolatey voice of his and walked back down the hall, disappearing into the elevator.

You stood there in front of your door for a good thirty seconds before coming back down from your high and slipping into your hotel room, dreaming of the next kiss Joe had in store for Mrs. Henderson. 

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

Apparently my every post has now become a target for “Tolkien experts” talking about Elven purity culture, Celeborn, and the usual bullshit.

Folks: “Rings of Power” has Tolkien experts to assist with the writing of their scripts. Not only that but the Tolkien estate has to approve every decision they make.

And if the Tolkien estate greenlighted Galadriel being in love with Halbrand (Sauron) and being sexually attracted to him, there is nothing you can do about it. You don’t own Tolkien’s legacy. The Tolkien estate does, and they approved.

The infamous John Boorman's script and Tolkien stamp of approval

I’ve seen some people crying over Tolkien’s approval of the infamous John Boorman’s script for a “Lord of the Rings” movie adaptation in the mid-1970's. Why is this script infamous? Because it has Galadriel having sex with Frodo before he looks into her Mirror. This movie was never made for lack of funds, but a copy of the script is in Marquette University Tolkien collection.  

Tolkien agreed to this wild take (Galadriel x Frodo sex), for whatever reason. And it wasn’t because of the money (as I read some saying) because he was approached for Disney Studios and he, promptly declined: Disney would surely pay him more than Boorman’s team. And he didn’t say “no” because he hated animation (his later hatred for animation probably started because of his feud with Walt Disney), but because he believed the studio wouldn’t make his work justice (he particularly hated Disney's dwarves).

The fact that Tolkien was willing to entertain Boorman’s crazy script, and even allowing it to be made, in the first place, does mean something. And Tolkien was, indeed, protective of his work, so it’s highly unlikely he would consent for a script to be adapted to the cinema without him knowing what was on it. And something as insane as Galadriel f*cking Frodo in the middle of the woods was surely not hidden from him. Boorman was close with personal friends of Tolkien, and this script took six months to be completed after extensive research into Tolkien lore. 

This scene hits differently now, huh?

Why would Tolkien ever accept such an insane take as Galadriel having sex with a Hobbit in her kingdom? Don’t know. It could be because of the pagan and Old Norse inspirations (or even Greek) on his work, where priestesses use sex in a ritualistic manner.

Tolkien already established Galadriel as a different she-elf from the rest on several occasions, and in the “Unfinished Tales” she takes Celeborn as her lover before they are even married. Maybe Tolkien did wrote her a sex positive character, who knows? She's rebellious and doesn't care about the rules, already! Or maybe there’s a secret draft on his archive with Sauron x Galadriel, and Sauron possessed Frodo to have sex with her (since he no longer had physical form at that time)?

Tolkien changed his legendarium so many times, and there are so many versions of it, extensive studies have to made about it because no one knows what is what. There is no "Tolkien canon".

So, yeah, maybe Galadriel already rode Sauron's D, or will in future seasons, just like Tolkien intended with the Boorman's script.

But Tolkien estate said "no sex scenes" on "Rings of Power", so this is the sex scene we got:

(And brace yourself for more sexual symbolism and innuendo in future seasons).

[misshoneyimhome]

I have a question. can you make write something about Matty(kniesy) and Joe threesome with reader. like Kniesy and reader are dating or it’s Joe and reader that are reading and they let Matt/Joe fuck reader with them? Idk I js think it’d be kinda sexy to read about a threesome about those two and reader🙃

Babe, I'm not sure what I've written 🙈 It almost feels like a saucy and steamy tale featuring two adorable golden retrievers! Nevertheless, I put my best effort into it, and I hope it's somewhat enjoyable 😉🤍

Warnings; 18+ smut; threesome - boyfriend!Joseph Woll x Reader x Matthew Knies; Oral sex (f and m receiving), fingering, hand job, penetrative sex (p in v), cum inside, protective sex (p in v);

Word count; 3.6k

➼｡ﾟ

With a Honey in The Middle I Matthew Knies & Joseph Woll

You'd always felt a deep connection with Matthew Knies since you first met him. However, it was Joseph Woll who ultimately won over your heart.

_

You met Joe last year during the off-season, and as you spent a couple of months dating, he gradually introduced you to his team. However, it wasn't until about three months into dating, when you officially became exclusive, that he started inviting you to team events.

At first, you wondered if Joe was ashamed of you, but you soon realised that wasn't the case. He simply wanted to take things slow and ensure you were comfortable with his lifestyle and career before getting too serious. To say the least, Joe was nothing but considerate and respectful.

Moreover, he had a rule about not having penetrative sex until both of you were committed to a serious relationship. Though, you had engaged in other forms of physical intimacy, like touching and kissing for extended periods, it wasn't until he’d asked you to be his girlfriend that you took that final step. However, after that, you spent quite the number of hours together naked in bed.

Joseph Woll was nothing but an outstanding boyfriend in many ways. In fact, he was the complete opposite of the jerks you'd dated in the past, and his sweetness and caring nature were like a breath of fresh air.

Joe fulfilled all your desires. Or at least most of them. He was attentive, kind, always vocal about his feelings for you, and willing to tackle any issues that arose—again, a stark contrast to your previous experiences with guys.

To be honest, your lifestyle before meeting Joe may have leaned towards the wild side. After enduring a devastating breakup, where your ex and your best friend betrayed you by secretly dating and hooking up behind your back, you chose to focus on yourself and embrace a carefree and open way of life. However, this approach also led to some wild incidents from time to time. So, last summer, you decided to dial it back a bit, which was when you crossed paths with the goaltender. And it had felt like he was sent to you like an angel from above or something along those lines.

However, despite all that Joe offered, there was a lingering sense of something missing. For a long time, you couldn't quite put your finger on it, and even around six months into your committed relationship with Joe, that feeling persisted. And you knew you had to figure out what it was.

Then, at the Leafs’ New Year's celebration party, it occurred to you. 

It was later in the evening, while Joe was engrossed in conversation with some of his teammates, where you found yourself standing somewhat apart while Cornelia went to the loo.

Seeing you standing all alone, that's when Matthew Knies approached you, as he wanted to check in and make sure everything was okay. And you didn't mind one bit. After all, Matthew was one of your closest friends from the team.

From the moment you first met, there was a special connection between the two of you. It wasn't anything romantic or sexual though, but rather a bond of genuine friendship, built on banter and cheesy humour.

Of course, you couldn't ignore the fact that he was good-looking, and despite him being a couple of years younger than you, you still found yourself drawn to his charm and outgoing personality. Yet it was nothing but friendly, or at least you thought so.

It wasn't until that New Year's Eve, that you realised what you’d secretly been missing. When the clock struck twelve, and Joe was still engrossed in conversation with friends, your New Year's kiss unexpectedly ended up being with Matthew. Though, it was just a simple peck on the cheek, delicately placed, you still felt a tingle of joy where his lips had touched.

At first, you weren't quite sure why he did it. But then a few days later, when he apologised, he tried to explain that it was just a spontaneous gesture in the moment, with no intention to seduce you in any way.

Yet, deep down, you couldn't ignore the spark he had ignited within you. He had awakened a desire that you hadn't felt with your boyfriend.

Naturally, you were consumed with guilt. You loved Joe deeply, and the thought of entertaining feelings for another guy, especially in that way, filled you with unease. Yet, despite your efforts to push aside the feelings Matthew had stirred within you, they persisted. So, you made the difficult decision to confide in Joe.

To your surprise, Joe's reaction was not one of anger or hurt, but rather calm and composed understanding.

"He likes you," Joe stated softly, his expression gentle as he looked at you. "And you like him."

You were momentarily stunned, absorbing his words before silently nodding in acknowledgment. ”But I love you," you affirmed firmly yet quietly, meeting his gaze.

"I know," Joe responded simply.

His composed reaction left you slightly bewildered. You had expected a more emotional response from him. However, as you engaged in deep, heartfelt conversations, you realised that Joe had his own concerns and insecurities. He was worried that he wasn't living up to your expectations, and his greatest fear was that he wasn't meeting your needs.

Moreover, Joe wasn't oblivious to the connection between you and his teammate. Despite his trust in you and your commitment to honesty, he sensed that your bond with Matthew went beyond mere friendship.

_

In fact, it was Joe who proposed the idea of inviting Matthew into your personal space, specifically, the bedroom.

This suggestion had been brewing in his mind for a while. And after witnessing your interactions with the younger player on the team, he noticed a different side of you—a side that was more playful, flirtatious, with a spark in your eye.

So, when you revealed the New Year's kiss to him, Joe felt compelled to act on his idea. He was a little surprised though by his own confidence and excitement about the prospect of inviting his teammate into an intimate encounter. It was as if the fantasy of you fulfilling your needs with him also brought Joe pleasure. And perhaps, he hoped that your intimacy with Matthew would bring some sort of closure to your longing for him.

Initially, Matthew hesitated, wary of overstepping boundaries with Joe and jeopardising his relationship with the goalie. However, after discussions between the two players, and Joe's reassurance that you had expressed your desire for him, he eventually agreed.

It was no secret that Matthew had thought about you, maybe even fantasised about you a few times. But he genuinely didn't want to be the cause of any rift between you and Joe. He cared deeply about both of you. Yet, the temptation of the idea was too strong to resist, especially since it was Joe's own suggestion.

And when Joe shared the idea with you, you were equally taken aback. Your initial assumption was that he was only doing it to please you. However, as he explained the reasoning behind the idea once again, you realised that it wasn't necessarily about your attraction to Matthew. It was also about fulfilling Joe's sexual fantasy of sharing you with someone else, all in an effort to satisfy you. And that was something you couldn't bring yourself to reject.

_

The atmosphere in the spacious bedroom was already charged with heat as the three of you came together. Soft piano tunes played in the background, and the lights casting a gentle ambiance.

However, before diving into the moment, you had all agreed upon some ground rules: prioritising protection if things escalated with Matthew and he wanted to be inside you. Proceeding at a comfortable pace. And ensuring everyone's comfort throughout.

Taking a deep breath, you acknowledged the gravity of the situation, but also felt an overwhelming sense of excitement. Matthew was undeniably attractive. His stature was imposing, with strong arms and a sculpted torso that exuded power.

Though slightly bulkier than Joe due to his muscular build, they shared the same towering height of 6"3, making you feel almost like a mouse between them.

With Joe standing behind you, Matthew stood before you and slowly began to undress you, revealing you down to your underwear. Then, in a moment charged with anticipation, he leaned in and closed the distance between you with tenderness.

Cradling your face in his hands, Matthew connected his lips with yours as he shared your first real kiss on the lips. The kiss was both gentle and profound as his tongue delicately explored your mouth, intertwining with yours. And surrendering to the sensation, you let your hands roam over his bare chest, feeling the solidity of his muscles beneath your touch.

Then breaking away from the kiss, you gasped for air, taking a moment to catch your breath as Joe's arms enveloped you, his hand guiding your chin to turn back towards him, eager to connect your mouths. Meanwhile, Matthew seized the opportunity to strip completely, his gaze fixed on you as he freed his hardening member.

The atmosphere was thick with sensuality as you then shifted your focus back to the man before you, while Joe discarded his boxers, followed by the men taking off your underwear as well. And with all pieces of clothing removed, exposing your breasts and core, the anticipation mounted. Their hands explored and massaged your breasts in another sensual moment before guiding you onto the bed.

Despite your previous adventurous nightlife, engaging in a threesome was uncharted territory for you. So, you simply allowed yourself to be guided by Joe and Matthew. While neither of them had experienced this before, their sexual prowess allowed them to navigate the situation with confidence.

And as you all settled onto the mattress, Matthew assumed a slightly more dominant role, despite being the invited guest. He instructed you to lie on your back while Joe lounged beside you.

You then shared a deep kiss with Joe, his hands gently caressing your breasts, while yours took a hold of his shaft. But as Matthew positioned himself between your legs, a gasp escaped your lips when you felt his tongue trace along your folds, igniting a wave of pleasure.

"Oh... shi..." you moaned as his mouth expertly explored every inch of your sensitive flesh, from your entrance to your clit, savouring every drop of your nectar. And with his hands he held firmly around your hips, anchoring you in place while he worked his magic.

Matthew was undoubtedly skilled at oral pleasure, leaving you utterly mesmerised by his technique. While Joe had only occasionally gone down on you, it wasn't his preferred activity, and you never wanted to pressure him into it. So, having Matthew between your legs, unashamedly indulging in eating you out, it filled you with pure, unadulterated pleasure.

And as the intensity grew, it became increasingly challenging for you to focus. Still, you made an effort to gently stroke Joe's member, interspersing sloppy kisses between your shared moments of passion.

But it was a struggle. Matthew's talent pushed you beyond the brink, and you could feel the tell-tale signs of an impending orgasm building in the pit of your stomach. Your moans grew louder with each passing moment until Matthew suddenly pulled back, allowing you to gasp for air as you shifted your attention to Joe.

However, the moment your lustful gaze met Matthew's, he wasted no time inserting two long fingers into your core, eliciting a loud moan from you. It was almost effortless for him to stretch you, and as he pumped his digits in and out, stimulating your walls, you couldn't escape the imminent climax.

Then with a smirk on his face, Matthew watched as you squirmed and rolled your eyes back in pleasure, while Joe felt his own arousal throbbing in your hand, his eyes fixated on your every movement.

It was surprisingly arousing for him to watch you being pleasured by his teammate in a way he hadn't done himself. And as he kept his gaze fixed on you, he sensed your impending climax as the motion of your hand increased in speed, only to suddenly halt as you gasped for air.

Matthew's fingers continued their expert work, maintaining a steady rhythm of motion, scissoring, and curling to pinpoint your sensitive spot. And when he hit the mark, evidenced by your near scream of pleasure, he responded to your plea of "just like that" by repeating the motion with precision.

And it didn't take much longer for you to close your eyes completely, arching your back as you reached your climax, both men holding their breath as they savoured the sight of you in ecstasy. You didn’t know how many seconds went by before you then gradually regained control of your breath, and Matthew gently withdrew his fingers, leaving your pulsating core feeling stimulated and empty.

"Fuck, you're hot when you come," Matthew muttered, his eyes fixed on you as you lay before him.

And slowly opening your eyes to meet his gaze, you couldn't help but flash a satisfied smile before biting down on your lower lip, your eyes then shifting to Joe's.

"Did that feel good?" Joe asked softly, concern evident in his tone, and you offered him a gentle nod. "Do you want more?"

"I want you," you replied sweetly, the desire to feel the touch of your boyfriend overwhelming you.

Then with silent communication between the hockey players, they shifted positions so that Joe positioned himself between your legs, with Matthew kneeling next to you. Joe leaned in to share a passionate kiss with you as he then lined the tip of his length up with your entrance and slowly pushed himself inside. Thanks to Matthew providing you with your first orgasm of the evening, he slipped in with ease.

As Joe supported himself by kneeling back, he took hold of your leg and placed it on his chest and shoulder, rocking his hips to penetrate you deeply. Meanwhile, Matthew fetched a pillow to support your head, ensuring your comfort as you took a firm grip of his shaft and began pumping to the rhythm of Joe's thrusts.

It was a scene of sensual pleasure as the three of you indulged in each other. With Joe's member stimulating your sensitive walls, your moans reverberated through the room, intermingled with the boys' heavy breathing as they felt their climaxes building.

And sensing your enjoyment, Joe picked up the pace slightly, watching intently as you stroked Matthew's cock. He observed your breasts bouncing to the rhythm, and when he noticed Matthew relaxing into the pleasure, he increased his speed.

In sync with Joe's motions, you jerked the younger player off, licking your lips as you watched him revel in your touch. Matthew gazed down at you, running his fingers through your hair before tracing his thumb across your lower lip and teasing it into your mouth, prompting you to suckle gently.

"Mmm... want those sweet lips around me..." Matthew muttered under his breath as you continued to stroke him. And with a soft moan, he withdrew his thumb, relishing in the sound of your pleasure.

Then, casting a glance at Joe, Matthew seemed to convey a silent command, asserting his dominance in the moment. Following his lead, Joe gently withdrew from your heat, releasing your leg as Matthew held a smirk on his face, instructing you to roll over onto your stomach.

Bending one leg slightly, you offered Joe access to your core once more, supporting yourself on your arm as he quickly found your wet pussy. With one knee supporting him and the other bent, Joe pressed his throbbing member into you, filling you up to your depths once again.

Meanwhile, Matthew moved to kneel before you, his hard length standing proud and ready to be greeted by your mouth. And gently, you took him in, coating his shaft with your saliva as you seductively gazed up at him, stroking the part your mouth couldn't reach.

The scene was nothing short of scorching. Your pussy was beyond stimulated by Joe's thrusts, causing you to moan in sync with the two lads. Matthew felt a rush of pleasure as you eagerly took him down your throat, while Joe sensed his climax approaching with the tightening of your muscles around him.

You did your best to bob your head in sensual motions, but as your mind drifted into a blissful state, your vision blurred, making it increasingly difficult to maintain a rhythm. You had to pull away a few times to catch your breath, though still stroking Matthew before taking him in once more.

You felt Joe's hands on your hips, his fingers digging into your skin as he sped up and increased his force, and you could sense his impending climax.

"Mmm... damn..." he muttered under his breath, as he tried to hold back his release. He wanted you to come with him, just as you always did. And sensing your cunt clenching around him, he knew you weren't too far away either.

It was almost overwhelming, the sensation of Joe's shaft filling you so perfectly, as if it was tailor-made for you. And unable to keep up the rhythm with Matthew's cock in your mouth, you had to let go, your mind consumed by ecstasy and your cries echoing loudly in the room.

"Joe... babe... I'm close," you panted, your eyes almost closing as you continued to pleasure the man in front of you.

With your warning, Joe thrust harder and faster, the sound of your bodies colliding mixing with your moans. And with a few final thrusts, you both reached climax, him releasing into you as you peaked.

Letting out a deep grunt after he'd finished, Joe slowly pulled back, and you had to pause your movements, still coming down from the intensity of your second orgasm. A moment of heavy breathing followed, the air thick with sweat and the scent of sex.

And as you returned to the present moment, you looked up at Matthew, the only one yet to climax, gasping slightly as Joe carefully withdrew, and you felt his cum dripping from your cunt. 

"And how do you want to finish, Kniesy?" you asked him with a sweet, flirtatious smile.

Considering his options for a moment, Matthew thought about it. Your talent with your mouth was undeniable, making it an easy choice to finish with your skills. However, he also desired the feeling of being inside you, despite Joe's preference for using protection.

So, with a confident smirk, he chose option two.

Joe then handed him a foil package, prompting him to cover up, followed by Matthew instructing you to roll onto your back once again. Then once covered, he positioned himself between your legs and entered you.

"Oh yes," you cried out as Matthew filled you up, his member slightly larger, or at least thicker, than Joe's, and swiftly he established a rhythm, eager to maintain the momentum toward climax.

And as you surrendered to his movements, you lifted your body slightly and supported yourself on your elbows, while Joe knelt beside you once more. His member still hard, you couldn't resist giving him a hungry look, parting your lips to take him in and clean him up. You tasted a mixture of your own fluids and his salty, sticky cum.

Though you knew he couldn't come again, you heard his soft, contented moans as you pleasured him.

Meanwhile, you felt Matthew increasing his pace, thrusting vigorously against you, nearing his climax. 

"Fuck, you feel amazing…" he moaned, his breath heavy as he approached his peak, his movements becoming more intense. The combination of your fluids and Joe's release provided an incredibly slippery sensation, and as he lost control, he became rougher than you'd ever experienced with Joe.

Releasing Joe's cock, you had to let out a deep breath. "Oh, shit…" you exclaimed as Matthew overstimulated you, a few tears trickling from your eyes.

And at last, he reached his climax. With a loud, deep grunt, Matthew closed his eyes and leaned back in ecstasy, releasing into the condom with force.

Your body felt numb from the intense encounter with the two hockey players, rendering you unable to speak. And as you all settled down from the moment, Joe smiled down at you, satisfaction evident in his eyes. He relished seeing you satisfied, and as Matthew carefully withdrew and headed to the bathroom to dispose of the condom, Joe leaned down you share a deep kiss with you.

"Thank you," you murmured softly, genuine gratitude etched on your face. Though it hadn't been overly adventurous, it had been a change, and exactly what you needed.

"I just want you to be happy," Joe replied softly as you both slowly shifted positions and settled on the bed, facing each other.

"I am, Joe, I really am – I'm just amazed you let me have this experience," you whispered softly, pressing your lips together before offering a sweet smile.

"I'd do anything for you."

It was a tender moment, the connection between you palpable as you shared another gentle kiss.

Turning your gaze to Matthew emerging from the bathroom, the three of you exchanged heartfelt chuckles.

"Got room for one more?" the younger player quipped cheekily with a smirk, and in response, you simply gestured for him to join and lie behind you, spooning you while your hand intertwined with Joe’s.

You couldn't deny that your attraction to the forward hadn't disappeared. If anything, it may have been heightened by the experience. But you still knew your heart belonged to the goalie. And as the three of you lounged together, with you in the middle, you exchanged soft and tender kisses with both of them.

[boopsiesdaisies]

Check (Spencer Reid x Reader)

Literally my first fanfic since middle school, sorry y'all. I got that Spencer Reid brainrot. ALSO how does this work on Tumblr??? I legit haven't done this since you could fancast on Wattpad.

Spencer Reid x Reader | 1,470 words | Fluff | GN!Reader

Literally you two on the jet playing chess, set in season one/early season two.

“Do not even think about it!” You yelled, “I’m going to win if this is the last thing I do!”

Reid struggled to stifle his crooked smirk. He knew you were just going to get more upset if you saw him smiling. “I was just going to say you’re in check.”

“I’m going to put you in check in a second, Reid.” The chessboard was beginning to mock you. It must have been rigged. There must have been magnets underneath the board changing everything making this impossible to win. Plus Morgan’s soft snorts whenever you yelled at Reid reminded you that the rest of the team was watching you get your ass handed to you.

“Actually you have less than a three percent chance of doing that,” Reid explained. “And if anything about the last six games have been telling then it’s probably lower than that.”

“I swear to God, Reid,” you exclaimed. “I’ll show you what check looks like.”

You weren’t even sure how you got here. Gideon had cornered you after the case saying “he needed to rest on the jet” and that “you should get Reid to teach you how to play chess” something something “it’ll make you a better profiler” something something else. You were bad for not always listening to Gideon’s Dad-isms, but you couldn’t always help it. You wanted to rest! The week in New Mexico had been exhausting. You wanted nothing more than to close your eyes on the jet with your headphones blasting whatever awful audiobook you started before the case that you didn’t really care about and sleep. Sleep like no one could wake you up for another thousand years. Plus, you were pretty sure it was more of the case of Gideon was worried about Reid and less of you needing to be a better profiler. Sure, you weren’t the top of your class but you were far from a fledgling who needed chess to make you better at your job. 

Despite that, there you sat. Six lost games of chess later, and only an hour and a half into the four and half hour flight. Maybe it was pathetic to try to fight at this point. The cheat sheet Reid had written up for you felt useless. The pieces all blurred together and what even was the difference between a rook and a bishop?

“Are you going to make a move?” Reid asked.

“Yes! I’m just thinking,” you shifted the way you were sitting, slightly bumping the table, getting a terribly brilliant idea. The pieces had just jumped slightly as you hit the table by accident. You just had to sell it.

“Do you feel that Reid?” You asked, the fake worry dripping like honey from your voice.

“Feel what?” He snapped his head back and forth between you and the side of the jet.

“Oh no! Turbulence!” You shifted your legs again, crossing them differently; in the process you kicked the table from underneath as hard as you could. The chess pieces dramatically went flying much further and harder than you expected. Rooks and pawns scattered across the table and the floor in front of both you and Reid.

“What? There’s no turbulence, you can’t just scatter the pieces because you were losing!” Reid yelled trying to grab pieces and place them back in their positions. “Plus, I have an eidetic memory, I know where the pieces were!”

The rest of the team was laughing; pulled away from their activities to watch the commotion. You groaned and leaned under the table to grab the pieces.

“If you don’t want to play, you don’t have to,” Reid’s face hadn’t fallen, but from the tone of voice part of you felt it was laced with something. It felt reminiscent of disappointment, but like he was trying to mask it. 

You sensed it before you processed it and began to speak on pure instinct. “Sorry, Reid, why don’t we reset?”

Part of you wanted to get to know the brainiac doctor better and this was the opportunity to do so, but it would mean admitting you were bad at something. Somehow you were the most competitive person on the team, and Gideon must have known that. You were always getting your nose into arguments trying to win sheerly for the fact of wanting to win, less about caring about a topic. Some people saw that as a flaw, but you always saw it as the trait that got you here. You lived your life out of spite, and competitiveness was the unfortunate consequence of that. By the time you had grabbed the single pawn off the floor, Reid had leaned under the table searching for it too. 

“I got it,” you sigh and go to stand up. In the moment of fate, your confidence was struck down even lower to the lowest of clichés. In a flash of an instance, as the two of you attempted to right yourselves and unfold from underneath the table, you hit heads. It was just like those cheesy rom coms that Garcia forced you to watch on your girls’ nights that you pretended to hate. 

“Oh shit, sorry Reid–”

“No, I’m sorry– I–I’m–Um–Sorry, I–” Reid stuttered, and you realized just how precarious your position was, nose to nose under the table where no one could see you.

It was the first time you were that close to Reid, the infamous germaphobe who refused handshakes from everyone always seemed to keep his distance from you. You finally got a good look at him. Glasses that framed his face, his soft doe-like brown eyes, and brown hair that curled just so gently under his ears. The heat began to rise to your face, and Reid’s face had the same reaction. The red blush spread from the apples of his cheeks to his ears and down his neck. You cursed the universe that he was exactly your type: gangly limbs, genius-intellect, perfect eyes and all. 

Reid practically jumped trying to get out from under the table, hitting his head as he went and sat back at the seat. You steadied yourself with a deep breath and climbed out from under the table. When you resurfaced, you avoided Reid’s gaze, and Morgan’s eyes were the first that you met. As began to realize your mistake, he began to purse his lips and rub his hands up his arms as if he was poorly making out with his imaginary woman. 

“Morgan, if that's how you kiss a woman, I feel sorry for Garcia,” you laced your words with as much venom as you could muster.

You turned back to Reid who was carefully lifting and replacing the chess pieces on the squares. 

“Did you know that chess was actually called chaturanga when it was first played in India in the 8th century CE? Plus it was actually played on an eight by eight grid and it wasn’t until it began to spread to Europe in the 10th century CE that it began to shift to the chess we’re playing. Even then it would take over a thousand years before either of us would know how to play,” Reid was coping as best as he could, even though you were afraid you broke him. He was relying on his intellect to avoid the topic at hand. 

Why was he even so embarrassed? Why were you? It wasn’t like you thought he was attractive. Sure, he was your type! But that didn’t mean anything. You could think a man was hot without wanting to date him. And sure, he was perfect for you, and maybe you were even more competitive than usual because you wanted to impress him but that would be ridiculous. 

Oh…

You were down bad. 

“I didn’t know that, although I’m sure you can play chess, I think I’m just moving pieces around,” you shamefully admitted.

“You’ll get it, don’t worry, once you know how the piece moves it will get easier,” Reid’s reassurance immediately struck your heart. Damnit. 

“Why don’t you just explain it all to me again?” You asked. “Like treat me like I’m a kid, maybe I’ll get it better then.”

“Okay, so there are 32 pieces on a chessboard, and you control 16 of them. There are six types of pieces…”

“You knew what you were doing,” Hotch leaned over to Gideon watching the two members of the team playing chess; staying as carefully out of earshot as he could. Reid carefully re-explaining the pieces, pointing to each one. 

“Of course I did,” Gideon said. “If  the two of them pined after each other in silence for two more minutes I thought I was going to lose it. Now they have four hours to spend with each other because neither of them will give up.”

[hughesyodaddy43]

Six Flags ⎸ L.H

Pairings: Luke Hughes x fem!reader , Platonic hockey players x reader  Genre : Fluff Synopsis : You go on a group trip to six flags word count: 2.3k+ (first fanfic so let me know what ya'll think)

The summer air smelt of light rain and flowers, the sun was bright and hot. The windows in the car were rolled all the way down and my hair was flying all over the place.

You were all on a road trip to six flags, it was the off-season and frankly really freaking hot. 

Quinn was driving with Trevor in the passenger seat, Luke was in the middle seat behind them with Jack on the right and you on the left of him, behind the both of you sat Cole Caufield and Alex Turcott.

Trevor was banned from playing music after he put on the worst edm songs known to man, so instead Cole took over the bluetooth and started  playing unwritten by natasha bedingfield. Soon enough the whole car was filled with mixed voices that were a hundred percent out of tune but nobody cared.

You and Luke had been dating for around 10 months, the two of you went to college together before he left for jersey. You were the only one in the friend group still at UMICH and you would be lying if you said college was the same without luke. You invited Ethan,Luca, Adam and their girlfriends to come but there wasn't enough room in the car for you to join the girls, so now you were stuck in the  car behind them with hockey guys and no other girls . As much as you loved them all, it got tiring trying to beat the ‘puck bunny’ allegations. 

“Are you excited?” Luke's voice echoed in my ear “yes i am. Will you go on all the big rides with me?” I asked him “or are you too scared?” I add as I examine his reactions, he sucks his teeth with a grimace “i'll be fine” he straightens his back as he finishes while i giggle at his comment  “so is that a yes?” “yes”.

We pulled up to the park, it was almost impossible to find a place to park the cars, it was absolutely filled with people. We all got out of the car and stretched before making our way over to the others. It was such a relief to talk to the girls, who knew being stuck in a car with hockey players for hours would be so hard.

We walk through the entrance of the park, Cole is almost bouncing with excitement as he cheerfully walks ahead with trevor. Jack was walking just behind the two with his hoodie and sunglasses on, stating that he's ‘too popular’ to not disguise himself as if he's not attracting more attention by what he's decided to wear. Quinn is next to Jack, slightly shaking his head at his brother's attire, Luke and I are trailing behind the two while everyone else transitions into a conversation behind us.

Once we are past the gates and have our wristbands on, we gather as a group to see where we should go first.

“Okay so, where do we wanna go first?” Quinn asks 

“We should go get food” luke suggests 

“Food before rides? Thats a bad idea” i say to the hockey player 

“alright , why don’t we go grab a guide and-”

“Wait. Where's Cole and Z?” Jack interrupts his older brother, securing an annoyed eye roll from the 24 year old.

We all looked around and counted heads to discover that Cole and Trevor had disappeared.

“They're probably at the rides, Cole was so giddy about coming here earlier”

 I say

“Okay so then why don't we just split up and meet back here when we're done? We can text each other if anything goes wrong” Alex says this and it doesn't go unlistened, everyone agrees with what he says and we all go our separate ways.

Luke begs me to go get donuts with him but I tell him we can get donuts after we go on the slingshot.

Walking around the park was fun, we found cole and trevor lining up, jack was with them and told cole to measure himself so he's sure he can fit on the  ride 

“Hey caulfield, go measure yourself over there, don't want cha’ to fall out”

“Very funny hughes, i'm not that short”

‘Well” trevor chimes in with a smirk 

“Shut up” Cole does the walk of shame over to the marked line, stomping his feet like a child. 

“NUH UH, HEELS DOWN, BUDDY” Jack yells out to cole.

 Cole huffs as he slowly lowers his heels, Trevor giggling over Jack's shoulder. A worker comes over to Cole, making sure he meets the marked line. The 5 '8 hockey player lets out a relieved sigh as he's told he's tall enough, just before stomping back over to the boys, ready to tell them off.

“Hahahahhaha bitches, I made it. ”

“Barely”

“ I can see the little lift your shoes give you” Trevor states while gesturing to his slightly lifted shoes 

“The height limit is 5’4, I am NOT 5’4”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night” Jack adds, allowing Trevor to slightly snicker at his comment.

Luke and I snicker at the two ganging on about Cole’s height before continuing our walk to the slingshot.

“Are you excited?” i Ask, slightly raising my voice so he can hear me over the loud music and distant chatter

“Yep, stoked.” Luke say

We reach the slingshot and Luke's grip on my hand tightens a bit as he watches the people on the ride fly into the air.

“Okay, i'll buy the tickets really quickly, you can go wait in line before we lose our spot.” I say to Luke while gesturing towards him. The line isn't too long just yet, it's just after lunch so most people are eating or resting before going on anything yet.

Luke walks towards the line, looking like a scared puppy or as Ethan would say, a ‘hairless cat’.

I quickly buy the tickets and walk over to my undoubtedly scared boyfriend. I've never seen him like this other than when he's on the ice. I mean the man is 6’2 i never thought heights would be one of his fears. 

He swallows hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he watches the ride reload.

“Are you okay, Lukey?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah” the boy says while playing with his hands 

“Are you sure? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were scared?” i say as i raise an eyebrow at the 20 year old 

“I don't think you know better cause i'm not scared” he hisses 

“don't get your panties in a bunch, Luke. If you're not scared, you aren't making it look like that”

“What do you mean?”

“No offense but you look fucking terrified” i tell him 

“Mmhmm” is all Luke is able to make out before we are at the front of the line and ready to get in the seats.

We sit down and get ready, the workers have to do some things before we are ready to go 

“Okay, Y/N, what if I told you I was a little scared?”

“Its okay, i'm a bit scared too” 

“Okay , what if I said I was a lot scared? What would you say?’”

“i’d say i knew it, sorry honey but you didn't make it very believable that you weren't back there”

“Oh, how did I look?”

“you looked like you were shitting your pants”

Luke shakes his a head a bit, opening his mouth to say something before being cut off by the ride operator coming over with a microphone 

“Okay, who's ready to rumble?”

‘Would you like a countdown or no?”

Before I can answer, im interrupted 

“YES, please” luke yells out, his voice a bit squeakier than usual

“alrightt”

I hold onto Luke's hand that's deathly gripping the bar, his knuckles going slightly white.

The seat moves back and luke lets out a small whimper, I can't help but giggle a bit at my 6’2 boyfriend being so scared. 

“3”  

I sigh as i get ready , sitting back and stroking luke's hand lighty

“2”

BOOM 

We fly up into the air, Luke's screams being the only sound that's audible. Luke screams out so loud, I swear everyone can hear him. You want to scream too but you're too busy laughing as luke pants in his seat, palms sweaty as the seat comes to a slow stop.

“W-why are you laughing??’” luke questions

“Because I've never seen you this scared” I say between breaths of laughter.

“That's mean”

“Why?”

“You shouldn't laugh at your boyfriends expense” 

“Sorry Lukey, but you're just too funny”

“Nuh uh, stop laughing”

“What? Are you gonna hiss at me?” 

“Bro, that was one time”

“Twice”

Luke scoffs while shaking his head before continuing.

“My throat hurts”

“Mhm i bet” 

We are lowered back to the ground and are offered the video of our ride. Luke walks off not wanting to see it but I put my email in so I can see it later.

Luke gathers our bags and waits for me at the bottom of the stairs. I follow down the stairs and take my handbag from Luke's hand.

“Can we get food now? I need compensation” 

“Do you even know what that word means?”

It takes a minute before luke response 

“Yes? Maybe idk”

I snicker lightly at my slightly dumb but cute boyfriend.

“Because you went on the ride with me, we can get food” I laced my fingers with his and we made our way to the donut shop.

x

x

We all made our way back to the Hughes Lake house after Six flags, everyone was staying at the lakehouse for the night before they made their way back home, with the exception of a few stragglers. Luke played pool with his brothers while I stayed downstairs with Cole, going through my message before I found the email from six flags that held the video of Luke and I’s time on the ride. Cole looks over my shoulder while munching on doritos 

“Damn girl, you must have been terrified judging by that scream” 

I giggle before showing him my phone

“That's not me, it's Luke” I begin laughing as I watch Cole's eyes widen and his lips curl up into a cheeky smile.

“we gotta show the boys” he whispers 

“I know we do, why do you think I told them I had a video for them to watch after their game?”

“You're an evil woman, you know that?”

“mhm, thank you” I say, straightening my posture before lifting up from my seat, getting ready to screenshare on the tv. 

The guys finish their game and pool into the living room, grouping up on the couch with a few sitting on the floor.

Jack, Quinn, Alex sit on the right while Luke and Ethan cuddle up together in the middle with Adam and Luca squishing up on the left with their girlfriends finding spots in between. Cole and Trevor both move onto the blowup mattress on the floor, in front of the couch.

“What do you have planned, y/n?” Ethan asks 

“Yeah, is this gonna take long?” Quinn says 

“Why, is it past your bedtime, Quinny?” Jack adds 

“Okay okay, relax. I have a fun video from our day today that i'd like to share”

Luke's body tenses up, his movement not going unnoticed by Ethan who is tightly wrapped around luke in a warm embrace 

“What did you do, Rusty?” Ethan whispers in Luke's ear, only gaining a glare from the boy.

“Hey, y/n, since your boyfriend has been taken by ethan over there, why don't you cuddle up to me?” Cole says with a big smile on his face before frowning after luke kicks his back 

“Back off, dude” Luke growls 

“As much as I love your confidence, Cole. I'm not into short guys, and it's way too hot for that” i say before gaining a whoop from the girl and an ooo from the boys 

"its only hot cause Alex is here" Trevor adds while turning his head to face Alex, blowing him an imaginary kiss. Alex doesn't say anything, instead he shows off his dimpled smile with a toothy grin while shaking his head at the young boy.

“Just thought I'd ask.” Cole shrugs as he lays his head on a cushion.

I giggle before sitting down in between Cole and Trevor, Cole grins at me while he waits for me to start the video.

I press play on the video, my screen showing up on the tv and the video of Luke screaming echoes through the room.

Everyone begins giggling and cackling, all except for Luke who is sitting there, still entangled with Ethan and sporting a bright red blush on his cheeks. 

The video ends and the group wipe the tears of laughter from their eyes and all stare at luke.

Luke looks at me with a look of annoyance before giggling and curling his lips into that wonky smile I love so much.

“Im sorry, babe but i had to show everyone” i say to my embarrassed but happy boyfriend 

“Its fine, i'll just have to get you back later” he replies while pulling Ethan a little closer 

“Yeah, y/n im taking yo bae” Ethan jokes. 

“Yeah, whatever” i say before turning around to face the screen 

“we should watch a scary movie” Adam request, earning a nod from his older brother

“Nope, it's bedtime” Quinn says as he moves from the couch, he gives me a small side hug while moving to say goodnight to everyone else before retreating up the stairs to his room, Trevor quickly stealing his spot on the couch. 

After the movie, I look around the room to see Luke, my boyfriend cuddling Ethan while sleeping. They are spread all along the couch as everyone migrates to their designated rooms, Cole and Trevor staying downstairs on the mattress. Instead of waking up the tired hockey players, I simply kiss Luke on the head, say goodnight to everyone and go to bed, enjoying the space in the bed and access to pillows.

[wileys-russo]

golden boot, golden girl II r.daly x reader

this started off as a blurb but about 2.3k words later, it's a fic 🕺

golden boot, golden girl II r.daly x reader

"go on girls push up on em, hug em tight!" katie cupped her hands over her mouth and shouted to you all from the corner as you began to shove in as close to the goal as you could get. you were two down and though you refused to check, you knew your time to get anything on the score sheet was running out fast.

as katie connected for the kick the ball came in hard and fast, angled almost perfectly for you to get your head on it and hopefully send it into the back of the net. 

however you felt an elbow dig into your back and with a half step forward you lost your footing, falling to the ground and glancing up to see the ball fly right over you toward the back post, quickly kicked out of play by a defender as the final whistle sounded and the crowd errupted with cheers, the villa players all running to celebrate with one another in the middle of the field.

letting out a deep sigh you rolled onto your back and stayed laid down on the pitch, feeling the warm afternoon sun bathe your face as you covered your eyes with your arm. "come on up now, no time for sulking." manu kicked gently at you as you lazily swatted her foot away and mumbled something she didn't quite catch, the older woman retreating to console the rest of your team.

"hey you, you played really well." another gentle poke to your side. 

you removed your arm and squinted one eye open to meet the caring and concerned gaze of your former team mate, jordan smiling sympathetically as she sat down beside you on the pitch. "i missed three sitters and gave away two free kicks, one of which was scored from!" you grumbled in annoyance, slumping your arm back over your face with a sigh.

"that doesn't mean you didn't play well, the better team just won." jordan poked teasingly again at your side, the older girl having been somewhat of a sisterly figure in the years you'd played together you knew she didn't mean anything by the comment. 

"i am at least glad you're getting the minutes you deserve jordy." you pulled yourself up into a sitting position, the older girl wrapping you in a tight hug before excusing herself to celebrate with her team as you once more flopped back down onto the pitch. 

much as you were at first angry and disappointed when she'd informed you of her transfer, with time you understood why it was needed, and her successful season had only confirmed it for you further.

"oi lazy, the grass called and complained you're squashin it!" a much less gentle kick to your side had you glancing up at the grinning irish woman who offered you a hand. though you should have known better than to accept, as just after your fingers touched she was quick to drop her grip, sending you stumbling back onto your bum.

"mccabe!" you brushed yourself off and glared up at her, kicking your legs out to try and sweep hers out from under her but you were much too slow as she sent you a cheeky wink. 

"come on then, up we get now!" with that she grabbed your hands again, this time properly pulling you up and slinging a strong arm across your shoulders. 

marching the two of you across the field she talked your ear off about not being so hard on yourself, which given the nature of the fact you were your own harshest critic, was a speech you'd heard after almost every match you played. and if it wasn't from her, it was just coming from someone else.

after shaking hands with most of your opposition, exchanging friendly end of season small talk with those you knew well from playing at a national level, you found yourself again sat on the pitch but this time sandwiched inbetween leah and katie, across from you were rafa, beth and viv, the six of you sat in a circle soaking up the sun and discussing your upcoming planned holidays during the off season.

"how's it feeling?" you quietly murmured to leah glancing down at her bandaged knee where her crutches lay beside her, resting your head on her shoulder. even without needing her to confirm you knew she wasn't okay, but you'd also known her long enough to know she wasn't someone easily pushed into opening up. 

"physically? it's alright. everything else? story for another time." the blonde pressed a kiss to your forehead, affectionately patting your leg and nodding for viv to give her a hand up. as your circle dispersed you wandered around looking around for the one person you were yet to speak to, who was also the one you'd been dying to all match.

"hi squinty." tattooed arms wrapped tightly around you from behind, rough but warm lips pressed a few soft kisses to your jawline as you spun around in your girlfriends hold. "you promised you'd stop calling me that." you huffed, smacking at her shoulder as the blonde grinned, loving nothing more than to tease and wind you up and boy was she good at it, and in any way that she wanted.

"well if you wore your contacts when you played or your glasses every other day, i wouldn't need to, would i?" rachel teased, hands moving to rest on your hips as she pushed you softly into the barrier behind you, pressing her body into yours and leaning in. you closed your eyes expecting her lips to touch yours however they simply pressed a kiss to your cheek and she stepped away.

"sorry i can't be seen snogging losers, its bad for my reputation." she shrugged crossing her arms over her chest as you rolled your eyes. but your girlfriend knew she was the only person who could get away with sledging you after a loss without you taking it personally, she was avidly also your biggest supporter and made sure not to let you forget it.

"didn't realise your reputation as a naff muppet would be affected by kissing a cute girl." you shot back jumping up to sit on the edge of the barrier, crossing your own arms over your chest with a satisfied smirk. "oh a naff muppet she says does she?" rachel scoffed, slotting her body inbetween your legs as you nodded in confirmation.

"yeah look i've actually been meaning to end this-" you gestured between the two of you, "-we had our fun and all babe but really i'm just...i'm just too out of your league. i can't keep settling it's a bad look, fitties have to date fitties and..." you trailed off, looking her up and down with a wince.

"you were the best 557 night stand i ever had kid." you continued dramatically with a sigh, placing your hands either side of her face and squeezing her cheeks as she stared blankly back at you, waiting patiently for you to finish. 

"it's not you it's me. ahh i like you too much, i'm holding you back. what else? oh! in order for us to be a better we, i have to be a better me." you paused to think before continuing, finishing with a beaming grin at the unimpressed look on the older girls face. "are you done then?" she quipped with a roll of her eyes.

"yeah i think that pretty much covers it?" you stroked your chin mockingly, looking off into the distance with a contemplative hum. though you let out a yell as suddenly you were looking at the ground again, your girlfriend easily slinging your smaller form over her shoulder.

"rach! put me down." you couldn't help but laugh as the blonde smacked playfully at your bum with her free hand. "i will, gonna water board you in this cooler here first though." your girlfriend replied, waving to your team mates who called our their usual teasing remarks, you flipping them off as you were carried past. 

"wait i have to go get my stuff!" you tried to jump down as she walked off the field and toward the villa change rooms, though her hold on you only tightened. "as the one whose just been dumped i get to go first thanks." 

~

"kiss it!" you struggled underneath the taller girl as she sat on top of you, arms firmly pressed to the bed by her knees as she grinned, the seasons golden boot trophy held tightly in her hands.

"no! i refuse." you pressed your head back into the pillow, shaking your head from side to side as she wiggled the shoe shaped piece of silverware in your face. "baby you either kiss it willingly and i get off ya and we go to dinner, or we continue on like this and you miss out on your pizza." the blonde shrugged, looking down at you.

"are you threatening me right now?" your eyes narrowing at the thought of missing out on eating at your favorite restaurant. 

the two of you hadn't been on a proper date in what felt like months, and rachel had made sure as soon as the fixtures for your final game of the season came out she had a table booked and your evening plans locked down.

though that's not to say the blonde wouldn't keep her word and make you miss out. both of you hot headed and quick to rise to a challenge, sometimes your arguments could last days without either of you willing to compromise, both just as stubborn as one another.

"no i'm promising." your girlfriend smirked, hands resting either side of your head as she slowly lent down, ghosting her lips over yours without any actual contact and pulling away with a teasing smile, wiggling her trophy mockingly in your face once again.

"fine." you muttered with a glare, quickly pecking the cool metal and trying to sit up but your girlfriend pushed you back, head thumping into your pillow. "no, a proper kiss." the girl smiled smugly, feeling your body let out a deep exhale of annoyance beneath her. 

"i am not snogging your trophy just to placate your inflamed fragile ego!" you warned seriously, eyes glaring daggers up at her, only spurring her on further. "well then you're also not getting your pizza baby." rachel shrugged simply, holding out the golden boot expectantly as you threw your head back and let out a loud frustrated groan.

"this is for you, my beloved bella italia." you looked up to the ceiling and spoke, dedicating your actions to your favorite italian restaurant, properly macking on with your girlfriends trophy for a few seconds.

"i hate you daly." you huffed, shoving her harshly off of you as she collapsed onto the bed, clutching at her chest to try and catch her breath, loud booming laughter echoing around the room. "i'm hiring someone to come and take that and throw it in the river when we're in portugal!" you warned bluntly, sitting up and glaring down at your still laughing girlfriend.

"she didn't mean it don't worry you're coming with us to portugal." rachel whispered reassuringly to the trophy in her hands, stretching over to place it down on her side table and grabbing at the back of your shorts as you rolled your eyes and tried to leave, pulling you back down onto the bed and trapping you in a tight hug.

"kiss me like i'm a golden boot." the blonde whispered seductively before her face broke into a grin and she pressed her lips to yours, cold hands wandering up your jersey as her tongue slid into your mouth, your hands pressing on the back of her head to deepen the kiss only spurring her on further.

"you're insufferable." you pulled away, gently biting down on her bottom lip as you did, the girl on top of you holding back a moan. "you're insufferable." she echoed back, a pause lingering between the two of you before your mouth curled into a smile and you pushed your head up to continue the kiss.

your golden boot winning girl, and you couldn't be prouder.

[nuhahani]

Thin White Lies

Thin White Lies by 5SOS

+18 JJK x Reader

I don’t feel your love and I don’t ask too many questions

You didn’t ask who it was the day he started smiling at his phone and not you. You didn’t ask, naturally you assumed that if he was unhappy he would tell you. Why would you need to ask your boyfriend of six years if he was interested in someone else instead of you? You shared an apartment together, spent holidays with each other’s families, he even place that boulder on your ring finger himself. You should’ve asked more questions. You should’ve asked why he volunteered to take her home from the party you two were hosting at your own home. You should’ve asked why he was ‘stuck in traffic’ for so long on his way back from dropping her off. You should’ve asked about the missed calls and deleted messages. The staying late at work and the cancelled plans. You should’ve asked but you didn’t, not even when his phone lit up with a notification on the nightstand as you were packing your clothes in the middle of night. His sleeping form too exhausted to notice you had gotten out of bed. He hadn’t cared enough to even notice that your belonging were slowly disappearing from the apartment. Carefully and quietly as if not to wake a sleeping tiger, you left in the dead of night.

-Geto, Sukuna

Calling my name, I don’t wanna say but I’m wide awake

You heard your name called from across the crowded hall, a door slamming from behind you. You heard him, clear as hot summer day you heard him calling your name. You pretended not to hear. The sight you had walked in on was all you needed to finally wake up from the deep delusion of being his one and only. Everyone and anyone the two of you could possibly know were at this party, after all it was hosted by your now ex-best friend. You felt stupid but not embarrassed, at least you dodged a bullet with both of them. A full two years of dating and 10 years of friendship that always seemed to be too good to be true, like a dream you refused to wake up from. You heard people stopping him to catch up and talk as he watched your figure flee out the front door, calling your name.

-Gojo, Yuji, Nanami

Just one more taste of you my love

The love was no longer there, you both knew it. It wasn’t a matter of who hurt who or who committed wrong against the other. You both had simply fallen out of love with each other. As the seasons changed so did your feelings, this was a conversation you had both acknowledged you needed to have. So there the two of you sat at your kitchen table in tears. The sun was setting outside and the temperatures were dropping with your confidence. You thought you were prepared for this conversation but suddenly the words were suffocating you. You reached for each other’s hands, intertwining your fingers. You’re not sure how it happened; what words and movements lead to it but you had your back pressed against the wall as you stuck to each like glue. Bodies bringing each other back to life, skin burning under each delicate, desperate touch. The two of you fell into bed the same way you had done so many times before. The lips on your neck left marks and bites only to leave you alone in a cold empty bed the next morning.

-Megumi, Nobara

She said she love me, she don’t show it

You had gotten tired. Cancelled and forgotten plans, missed birthdays and weaponized incompetence. She had done a real number on you. Every text, phone call and FaceTime ending with those poisonous three words. “I love you”, she says everyday but she never shows it. It almost like she’s talking to a parent when she says it to you. A forced display of affection as if it’s mandated to say instead of something she wants you to know. You’re not sure why the two of you started dating anyways, she was always busy with her friends or work. If you asked to make plans then she already had something to due as if you weren’t busy as well. It wasn’t always like that though, at one point in time you thought she genuinely may have meant it when she said she loved you between kisses and late night drives. But as your mother used to say, love can fade if not maintained. However your efforts went wasted and directly rejected. You didn’t even bother to call and tell her you were done, you simply stopped replying. You stopped answering. You moved on.

-Shoko, Maki

A/N: Toji’s not here because he can do no wrong that’s why he went to heaven

[alwaysonf1]

lewis is doing what?

Pairing: Charles LeClerc x Hamilton!OC

Genre: Slice of Life; Fluff

Word Count: 3k

Warning: Changes in the timeline for the sake of the story.

Rating: PG-13

Author's Note: This is my first F1 fic, which makes me nervous so why not start with a series.

Many Drive to Survive haters like to pretend everything that comes from the show and what it’s about are beneath them. That they couldn’t possibly care, and that the only important thing is the race on Sunday. And yet the day after the latest season drops you can find them amongst the chaos trying to figure out what the hell were all those hints about a new form of content that F1 plans to release. 

Interwoven with the usual storylines and mild dramatics there was a lot of talk about how drivers show their families the support they’re given. How they show up for them in their careers and bits of their lives. It was weird at first, but then it sent off alarm bells when an almost fourth wall breaking moment happened where the Netflix team was blatantly dismissed. 

“I think we have this one Netflix, but thanks for the help.” Those were the exact words spoken by the head of marketing as she closed the door to a room where you get a glimpse of team paraphernalia but see no faces. 

Every social platform that you can find an F1 fan on has it trending and the conversations (and screams into the void) are fast paced. But Twitter is where the real unhinged and brain cell losing behavior is happening. 

And the most accurate guessing.

Almost everyone within the community is discussing what that snippet could mean. Is it the end of DTS as they know it? The end of it completely? Are F1 and Netflix severing ties? Will F1 be taking over? Is this some little game they're playing with their viewers to keep them tuned in? Is it something completely different? What the actual fuck is going on?

In the middle of those questions are those who think themselves a genius or are delusional enough that they can’t help but form some wild ideas of what’s to come.

Someone must be retiring. Multiple people are retiring. There’s going to be a reality show ala Keeping Up with the Verstappens, where everyone learns that Max’s little trauma dumpy memories with Jos are just the surface level of how insane that man is. Someone is getting married. Someone is getting married to another driver. A nepo baby is going to become the “voice of the fandom” and host a show about the drivers during race weekends and it’s going to be all the wrong things. A dating show for all the singles. A behind the scenes at the lives of drivers and their families, but like Family Feud. And the penultimate dude bro dream of them getting to spend the season hanging out with drivers and get confirmation that their toxic thoughts that alienate most of the fan base is true.

After about twenty-four hours it all dies down. Everyone is still wondering, but they don’t feel like they’re losing their minds while they try to be the one who can say they were right when they news drops.

As if timed, the second that F1 drops in trends the F1 admin drops a graphic with the faces of six people who are clearly positioned like the thinking face emoji on every platform that they use. In the captions it says: Week in the Life - Sibling Edition.

If Twitter was home to the first wave of screaming, it belongs to Tumblr the second go round. Everyone is so excited for the content that someone must have thrown up from how aggressively happy they feel. Everyone is talking about who they want it to be and what content they’d love to see from which sibling. Those who make gifs are especially excited to get everything they can, though they won’t be outdone by those whose brains and fingers will be entities on their own once they get hold of a singular moment that will inspire the fic of everyone’s dreams.

Those who always have something negative to say are there as usual, but they aren’t as loud or upset as they often are. Being nosy doesn’t stop just because you want to pretend that you only care about the race, as if someone doesn’t have a file of screenshots from all the times, they’ve attacked the character of a driver for something not race related at all.

The reaction to this is the kind that instills faith in what is being done. The kind of thing that tells all the upper management who didn’t like it that it was a good idea, but also puts a certain bit of weight on the content team. They need this to deliver. Need to keep the hype, especially since the first episode doesn’t drop until the start of December and they’ve already recorded half the series so a failure could stop the rest.

So once the Singapore GP ends, Daniel Ricciardo’s face is no longer gray. You get to see that goofy smile and wink. You’d think they told everyone he was getting a permanent seat with a three year contract with the reception to it.

It’s Charles Leclerc for Japan. 

Lance Stroll for Qatar.

Carlos Sainz for COTA.

Alex Albon for Mexico.

And coming off his first P1 of the season, Lewis Hamilton for Brazil.

For the next week or so if a tweet isn’t about excitement, disdain, or shock in regard to this new F1 exclusive content, it has a certain main character at its center.

[midnightechoes]

So this week is going to go down as maybe the most sapphic week in animation history. It’s going to have a great case, there are so many sapphic shows or shows with prominent sapphic couples airing this week.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here’s a quick rundown:

Yuri Is My Job!

Premiering on Crunchyroll on April 6th.

Yuri is My Job! is based on a yuri manga of the same name. It follows high schooler Hime, who cares deeply about her image as sweet and helpful, even though she’s actually selfish. She accidentally injures the manager of a cafe, and agrees to work there to make up for it. But this is no ordinary cafe, it’s like a cafe dinner theater where all the waitresses play characters from a fictional high school and act out skits for the patrons. Hime’s character is supposed to be in love with one of the other waitresses’ character, but she starts actually falling for the girl. Only problem is, behind the scenes the other waitress seems to hate her.

Yeah, that sounds kind of bonkers! I can already see the story now, Hime starting out playing a role, and eventually having to legitimately earn the love of Mitsuki.

Birdie Wing: Golf Girls’ Story

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Friday, April 7th

Ah Birdie Wing. If you saw season one, you know just how delightful wacky this show is. It follows the stories of Eve, a golfer that plays in illegal underground golf matches for the mob, and Aoi, a golf prodigy and the new sensation of the golf world. Their lives crash into each other and the chemistry is overwhelming and immediate.

Technically Eve and Aoi aren’t canon as of the end of s1, but it’s hard to imagine that the show isn’t heading in that direction. It makes no effort to hide the fact that these two are into each other.

I’m so excited to see what season 2 has in store for these two. Birdie Wing is just a delightfully weird little show.

Princess Principal: Crown Handler Chapter 3

Premieres in theaters in Japan on Friday, April 7th

Alright, so this won’t be useful to a lot of people reading this, as this is only premiering in Japan this weekend. But I wanted to mention it because (a) it’ll come over to the US sometime this year, and (b) Princess Principal is awesome and I want to promote it when I can.

Princess Principal was a 12 episode series that aired in 2017, and Crown Handler is a six-part sequel OVA series.

In a nutshell, Princess Principal is a steampunk spy thriller set in an alternate universe European kingdom that has been divided by a wall, Berlin-style. It follows a team of spies, masquerading as high school girls, as they try to prevent the two sides from going to war.

I know, “why is this on a list of gay shit?” Well, because it is. Two of the main characters, Ange and Princess Charlotte, are big-time into each other and while the original series does the anime thing of “we’re only allowed to go so far with this”, the OG series has a lot of intimate scenes between the two and does end *SPOILERS* with the two of them sitting on the beach together while holding hands.

And perhaps Crown Handler, being made years later, can finally take their relationship farther.

RWBY Volume 9

Volume 9 episode 8 airing on Crunchyroll on Saturday, April 8th

RWBY has been ongoing, and the current volume has been airing since February, but there’ll be another episode this Saturday. Right now RWBY is in the middle of dealing with a lot of trauma, BUT, the bees are canon and dating so every episode of RWBY is now officially gay. So says me.

The Owl House: Watching and Dreaming

 Series finale airing on the Disney Channel on Saturday, April 8th

I’M NOT READY TO LOSE THIS SHOW! 😭

*ahem* The third and final season 3 special airs on Saturday, and promises to be mega emotional and super gay.

I’m grateful that this show had a chance to finish its story, something a lot of sapphic media doesn’t get to do. But I am still pissed about it getting cancelled in the first place simply because it didn’t fit their “brand” (read: this show is too gay for Disney).

But I just know that Dana and her team put together a sensational finale.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch From Mercury

Season 2 premiering on Crunchyroll on Sunday, April 9th.

Affectionately called G-Witch, season 1 of this show was a revelation in the fall. It follows the story of Suletta Mercury, precious cinnamon roll and the most talented mobile suit pilot around, and Miorine Rembran, daughter of the president of the Benerit Group, a mega-corporation that has massive political power.

The show revolves around a school that’s mostly full of the children of powerful people. And then there’s Suletta, a nobody that just wants to be a normal girl and have a normal school life but through a series of events ends up in a mobile suit duel that she easily wins, earning her the title of Holder, which makes her Miroine’s groom.

At first, the two treat the arrangement as a business arrangement, both seeing practical value in this arranged engagement. But it’s obvious that Miorine is actually pretty into Suletta from the start, and we see Suletta slowly falling for Miorine too.

G-Witch is incredible. Part awesome mecha fights, part political intrigue, part romance between two useless girls who’d rather die that admit their actual feelings.

I am SO EXCITED for season 2!

LGBTQ media hasn’t had it great as of late, with a ton of frustrating cancellations and it almost feeling like Hollywood is going backwards in terms of its commitment to giving us space to tell our stories.

But animation, both in the US and in Japan, seems to be making great strides, being our light in the dark.

All five of these shows are airing episodes this week, and Crown Handler will be in theaters this week and on streaming/blu-ray later this year. RWBY has been airing for weeks and its been the gayest volume yet. the Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady just finished airing and was wonderfully sapphic. I’m In Love With the Villainess is scheduled to air sometimes this year. And just maybe we might get Arcane season 2 before the end of the year.

I’m excited for how sapphic and yuri animation is progressing, I hope it keeps going forward.

[captain-sodapop]

In the middle of season 7. Each rewatch, I feel like my focus goes to something new, and this time around, it's really sticking out to me how - because the show presents Sam through the lens of Dean - how Dean thinks there is something inherently wrong with Sam from the start. And that never changes. Like yes, Dean loves Sam, he really does, but but it's always something. If it weren't for the fact that Sam's psychic abilities and the demon blood (things he didn't ask for, by the way) made him different, it would be the simple fact that Sam does not buy into Dean's worldview. When Dean confronted Sam about Amy, when he called Amy a freak, it was heartbreaking to see Sam's hurt reaction to that. If Sam himself weren't dealing with severe mental illness due to his own trauma (which Dean finds freakish), he would be a freak simply by association by empathizing with Amy.

And speaking of Sam's hallucinations and mental health struggles in season 7 in particular (which, Dean obviously has his own struggles that deserve sympathy, but that's not what we're focusing on right now), it's all a repercussion of what Sam has been dealing with since the beginning of the show. We know that Sam has always felt like there was something different about him, and if you take John's journal into account and remember Lucifer showing him all the demons that have been following him his whole life in "Swan Song", then there's always been something...well, supernatural about him. Brady gets possessed, introduces him to Jess, he starts to get visions, he discovers he's psychic and has powers, that he's Lucifer's vessel, that "you didn't need the feather to fly, Dumbo, you had it in you all along"...then he goes to Hell, where his soul is stuck for months, being tortured by Satan himself. And because Cas brought him back without his soul, Dean's trust issues with him continue through season six and into season seven. He doesn't trust that Sam is stable. He doesn't trust that Sam isn't somehow wrong. Somehow a freak.

And it's not fair. It's so sad. You can understand, in a way, why Dean is wary. But Sam didn't ask for any of this. He does bear some responsibility in certain situations, yes, but he was forced into these things, or manipulated, or was simply born that way. There is nothing inherently wrong with the fact that he was born with these abilities.

It goes against Dean's worldview, though. It goes against the idea that his family should be all-in on what they do, that Sam should just fall in line, that the world is black and white and that there is something inherently wrong with people who have these abilities and differences that makes them less than human.

Remember when Sam got pissed at him for not telling him that Jack was planning to die in order to defeat Chuck? And Dean was upset that Sam asked ethical questions? So Sam, who is - according to many, including sometimes his own family - supposedly less than human, is the one asking and confronting these ethical questions, is pushing back against the popular worldview of the people he is associated with, and that pisses them off. They get upset that Sam pushes back. (God, if I'm not careful, I'm going to go into analysis of how Sam's hair represents his resistance.)

Look. Sam is the protagonist of the show. We see him through Dean's eyes, and because of Dean's worldview, the way we see Sam is skewed. And maybe that's the point. Maybe we're supposed to be questioning Dean more than people do. When Sam says in season eight that the trials are "purifying" him, that he always felt as if there was something wrong with him, we shouldn't be agreeing; we should be horrified at the fact that he has gone through life feeling subhuman. We should be questioning the world around him and the community he is a part of that simultaneously seems to detest his very existence.

The guy is literally part of a hostile environment, and every time he tries to break away, he gets guilted back into it. Either he serves the system, or it'll kill him.