#the company earns millions of dollars off these skins and the people who made them are unemployed and get no revenue at all

[swagging-back-to]

who else hates the intro for paint the town blue

[irawhiti]

i can't speak for inuit so i'm obviously not gonna comment on tunniit being appropriated but in regards to tā moko, since this comes up literally every time our imagery gets appropriated without fail i'll explain to people in the notes who seem confused (and quite hostile actually!) about why this isn't "representation"

first of all, tā moko is sacred. each moko is unique and you're able to trace where you're from, your family, your ancestors, your status, your career/life path (my moko shows other māori that i'm an artist for example! when i add onto it next it'll show that my mother is a musician) and more. it takes an extremely long time to become a qualified moko artist because you have to learn how to show all of these things using specific cultural imagery. it's also drawn freehand onto the skin to fit you perfectly compared to being designed in advance on paper like other tattoos. it is extremely rude to steal someone's moko for Cool Imagery because - sacredness aside - you're copying something completely unique to that person.

in particular facial moko are the most common choices to get lifted by video games as they're the most striking and recognisable. they are also particularly sacred and something that generally requires your community to decide you've "earned" it as they're heavily representative of leadership and respect. not that tā moko in general is something to be taken lightly but face moko is a HUGE step.

and look, a lot of people will disagree on how representation of tā moko should be shown in media. hell, some māori disagree with my choice to portray some of my characters with tā moko and i get where they're coming from! personally i think it's okay to have tā moko in a game if the developers specifically work with and commission a qualified moko artist for a design to match a specific māori character. inversely i think it's not okay to have tā moko as a cookie cutter customisation choice to add to an empty-slate player character. only māori are allowed to get tā moko and it's inappropriate for something so sacred to be available for any random person to make their character look cool. i don't even know a single māori who'd want to use a random moko. like again they're personalised. it'd be shallow and... i dunno, empty. meaningless. i truly have no idea how you would even design tā moko for a blank slate character.

and you know what? none of those nuances between opinions held by māori even matter here! because while these tattoos are clearly appropriative (the kauae/chin moko more obviously so), these are not real tā moko. the symbols are random spirals and lines that are trying to mimic our cultural imagery. there are design choices with both of the tattoos shown here that are leagues beyond just "clumsy", they're specifically stomping on actual moko (e.g. not leaving a blank space down the centre of the face to represent values that are fundamentally ingrained into māori culture and history).

there is a complete lack of understanding of māori art theory in these designs and a complete lack of research done on even the absolute most basic (googleable!) things here. this is not representation, this is a team of people deciding that scary tribal tattoos look cool for their video game.

so i have to ask: why do so many people in the notes of this post (and many other posts that point out appropriation of cultural tattoos) think that we deserve a bullshit knockoff of our sacred practices as "representation"? we've gone through centuries of tā moko being targeted, colonised, systematically destroyed, made illegal, stereotyped as violent criminal/gang tats, decades more of reviving and reclaiming what's rightfully ours no matter the cost (speaking from experience my moko has opened me up to a hell of a lot of racist hatecriming), just to get them time and time again mangled and thrown back at us by AAA companies making millions of dollars off of their games because some dumb fucks in their design studio thought that tribal warrior tats look sick.

why do you think we would want this?

most importantly, why are you speaking for us? if you're saying shit like "wow everyone is so sensitive, what about the people who want representation? what about the māori that want this? 🙄" i would suggest that you think inwardly about why you feel so comfortable speaking for a group of people who did not ask to be spoken for. we're right here, we can speak for ourselves, thanks.

Baldur's Gate 3 Appropriates Sacred Indigenous Tattoos

I was so disappointed to boot up the character creation for Baldur's Gate 3's full release, only to see they added tattoo designs that are very clearly copying from sacred tattooing practices of the Inuit and the Māori.

^ This is clearly copying Tunniit.

^ This is clearly copying Tā moko.

Please do not use these tattoos. Larian should never have included these designs. I personally plan on modding them out of the game at the first opportunity.

[aliveanddrunkonsunlight]

Amazing race or Modern P&P?

Amazing Race - So, uh, this has been sitting in my Google docs for over a year. It’s never going to get written, so I’m gonna post all of it.

The first day of the race is the hottest day of the year in London. Brienne said goodbye to her dad, making sure he knew where all of the production office phone numbers were, in case he needed to get in touch with her. “I’ll be fine, love.” He said and kissed her on the cheek. “Have a lovely time.” They’d exchanged a long hug in the entryway, guilt clawing at her chest, before she swung her backpack onto her shoulders and walked out to where the scheduled car waited for her. 

The Race had been a popular show in the States for over a decade. With ratings dropping, the producers had decided to partner with media companies across the world and open the competition to participants worldwide. Instead of having competitors audition for the show in pairs, or “teams” as the producers called them, this season was also different because everyone auditioned individually. 

Once Brienne learned she was going to be on the show, she received an email which included fact sheets on all the other participants. Contestants were supposed to look at all the profiles and narrow down their choice for a teammate to three or four people. On the first day of shooting--today--they would have a chance to meet, interview, and pick their teammates. She was dreading that bit. Despite her size and strength, she’d always been picked last for team sports in school, and she could do without being retraumatized by it as an adult. She’d been diligent about doing her research on the other participants and stuck her top three list in her back pocket.

The car takes her all the way to the north side of Tower Bridge, where Brienne has instructions to get out and walk across. Her driver wishes her luck and hands her a bottle of water as she loads on her pack. She’s going to be a sweaty mess before she even arrives at the start. 

Reminding herself of her yoga breathing, Brienne stares out at the slow moving water of the Thames for a few seconds before she starts her walk across. She has to dodge around tourists, her pack gets jostled as people pass, and Brienne starts to understand why the producers asked them to do this. It’s good training for the rest of the race. She knows they will be traveling through tight spaces with their backpacks and probably in hotter conditions than London’s. Once she reaches the south end of the bridge, she can see people in purple Race shirts. “Hi!” One of them greets as she approaches. “You must be Brienne Tarth?”  

She can feel her adrenaline kick in and all she wants is to do this. To get started. The young woman gives Brienne instructions, but she’s barely listening. At the bottom of the stairs of the bridge, someone else wearing a Race shirt directs her to the right. 

Brienne blinks, trying to take in the scene. There’s a small park, which is blocked off for filming, and she can understand why they picked it, as it’s nestled between City Hall and Tower Bridge. Not to mention that on the other side of the Thames is the Tower of London and a view of a few of the modern skyscrapers added to London’s skyline in the last few years. “Brienne?” she hears a familiar voice and looks up to see Catelyn Stark striding towards her, her long auburn hair piled up on her head in a messy, but elegant bun. Catelyn was half the reason she was here at all. “We’re starting to gather all the contestants so we can start filming you choosing your partners.” 

The older woman gestures for someone and a minute later, a young woman with a slightly upturned nose and glittering brown eyes is standing in front of Brienne, dotting her face with a makeup brush. “You have lovely skin,” the young girl tells her. “Just taking away some of that shine for camera.” 

Surveying her fellow contestants is a surreal feeling. She recognizes them all, due to the producers’ email, and her own time spent narrowing down a top three list. Brienne has to wonder if the others did as much research on her as she has on them. Her gaze continues around the circle until she spots him. 

He is somehow even more beautiful than his pictures. His golden hair glitters brightly in the sunlight. He’s cut it since casting, it’s cropped closer now, but it doesn’t make him look any less attractive. There’s a slight smile on his face, as if all this is entertaining more than anything, and he keeps raising his eyebrows when anyone meets his gaze. He hasn’t noticed her staring. Yet. 

The strangest thing about him is while most people are dressed in athletic wear, he’s wearing a white button up shirt. Anyone else might look out of place, like they’re wearing their father’s suit, but he has the sleeves rolled up, showing off his tanned forearms, and he looks relaxed. She hates him for it because she feels as if she’s about to lose her breakfast. 

He folds his arms across his chest and she can see the swell of his bicep through his shirt. Seriously, fuck him. 

Except he had the best resume by far. He had grown up splitting time between Spain, Denmark, and the United States, so he had knowledge of several languages. Had played all variety of sports his whole life, although he preferred lacrosse and football. He’d even played in a professional league, but when he injured his right knee, he’d had to give up any burgeoning professional career. 

She knows she’s probably not even on his radar, so she’ll have to approach him quickly once the producers give them permission. Cameras and crew seem to be circling around, so perhaps it’s time. Brienne feels her gut tightening with nerves. Catelyn comes to the middle of their circle, a clipboard under her arm, and makes a short welcome speech. “Okay, once I step out of the circle, a horn will sound, and you are free to approach each other to choose your team.” She tosses a wink at Brienne and then the horn buzzes. 

She’s taken all of a single step when she notices Jaime striding towards her. “Hi, I’m Jaime.” He smiles and she expects two rows of dazzling white teeth, but she notices a couple of his bottom ones are crooked. It makes him all the more appealing, somehow, knowing someone who looks like him has flaws. He extends a hand, shaking hers. 

“Uh, hello, yes, I know. From the producers’ email?” She stutters, eyes averted. He’s too pretty to look at for too long. She takes a breath, steadying herself. “Anyway, I’m Brienne.” 

“Hello, Brienne. So why should you be my teammate?” 

Now she looks him levelly in the eye. “I’m strong.” He crooks an eyebrow up at his, perhaps impressed by her candor. “I’ve done sports for most of my life. Fencing, football, rowing. I came in fourth at Olympics qualifying three years ago.”

“Brava,” he says, slightly snidely, but pushes on. “Any languages?”

“Italian. A little Greek.” When this earns her another surprised look from Jaime, she explains, “My father is a classics professor.” She is about to ask why she should pick him, even though she’s mostly had her mind made up about him for weeks, when another contestant, a slim girl with long brown hair curled carefully, comes over to Jaime and touches him on the arm. 

“Hi, I’m Margaery.”

“Uh, hi,” Jaime says, a little distractedly, and Brienne can understand why. Unlike most of the other women here, who are wearing tank tops and leggings, Margaery is wearing only a sports bra, her midriff bare, showing off her tiny waist. Not to mention her sports bra appears to be a push-up one--Brienne didn’t even know they made those, but of course they do--because her breasts have an amazing amount of cleavage for someone so petite. Jaime can barely keep his eyes on her face. She lets out a sigh, realizing her top pick for teammate all too easily has fallen for the nearest pretty thing. But before she can step away to talk to her second choice, Jaime manages to tear himself away from the young woman long enough to tell her, “It was nice to meet you, Brienne.”

Maybe hope isn’t lost after all. 

When the twenty minutes are up, they all stand in a circle again and announce their top choices. There are some complicated rules about what happens if multiple people pick the same person, but they’re fair rules, so Brienne is fine with it. She’s too busy trying not to freak out that she didn’t plan this strategically enough, because now it’s obvious to her that everyone will want Jaime as a partner, and she should have selected someone else as her first choice. But it seems too late to change it now. She’d spoken with her second and third choice and they’re both lovely, but they’re not Jaime. To her, he was the only partner who could match her athletically, thus giving them the best chance of winning the grand prize: a million dollars.

Her heart hammers in her chest. The announcement is alphabetical, so it means she probably has to go first, except the cameraman is setting up in front of someone else. Addam. Oh thank god.

Another cameraman approaches her, but she barely has time to think about it, because Addam is already announcing his pick. “Margaery.” Margaery’s eyes widen, but she covers quickly, smiling prettily and giving him a small wave.

“Brienne,” the cameraman whispers, prompting her. “Jaime,” she says solemnly. He smiles politely and nods at her, his expression giving nothing away about how he feels. A couple other people pick him as well and they’re not even through the first half of the alphabet yet. It doesn’t really matter, she tells herself. It’s over. Jaime will pick Margaery and Margaery will pick him. 

She’s so caught up in her thoughts she’s barely paying attention when the cameraman finally focuses on Jaime. He flashes that million watt smile and says, Margaery. “Brienne.” 

What? She opens her eyes--she hadn’t even realized they were closed--and stares at him, mouth half open. Oh god, she is an idiot. He lets out a small laugh and winks at her.

[thepapercutpost]

Female Artists Fighting For Their Due Are Not Being Greedy; They’re Defending the Futures of Their Industries

Both Swift and Johansson have incited high profile disputes, and both have been called by critics the “wrong person” to serve as the figurehead for the big picture arguments based on how much money they make... Actually, it makes them the best voices for their causes.

"Scarlett Johansson" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (left). "File:191125 Taylor Swift at the 2019 American Music Awards (cropped).png" by Cosmopolitan UK is licensed under CC BY 3.0 (right)

In May of 2010, Iron Man 2 introduced Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

A few months later, Netflix—whose subscribers were, in majority, still receiving DVDs—began offering a standalone streaming subscription independent from its DVD rentals. It wasn’t until nearly ten years later that Disney, parent company of Marvel Entertainment, would launch its own streaming service, Disney+. And in 2021, after three pandemic-related delays, Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff’s solo film which fans had been demanding for 11 years, was finally released.

The long-awaited film garnered $80 million in North American theaters during its opening weekend, more than any other film released during the pandemic era. (In comparison, MCU’s last pre-pandemic release, Spider-Man: Far From Home, made $185 million). Because of the somewhat mercurial state of indoor gatherings around the world, Disney chose to make Black Widow available simultaneously in theaters and for an additional $30 fee for Disney+ subscribers. After opening weekend, in an unprecedented move in streaming service transparency, Disney revealed the film had grossed $60 million through Disney+’s Premier Access feature.

The next weekend, the film suffered a 67% drop in box office sales. Disney has not since released streaming numbers.

Within a month, news broke that Johansson was suing Disney over the film’s hybrid release. Her suit claims that her contract for the film guaranteed an exclusively theatrical release and that her compensation was largely tied to box office revenue, which was impacted by the film’s simultaneous availability on Disney+. The breach of contract is a serious allegation against the company, and it comes from the embodiment of one of the longest-standing pillars of its most successful franchise.

Disney’s response? Make her the bad guy. Paint her as the greedy, insensitive Hollywood prima donna. Publish her salary to prove it, despite a policy of “never publicly disclos[ing] salaries or deal terms.” And blame the pandemic.

In a statement, the company claimed Johansson’s suit had “no merit whatsoever” and called it “especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Their argument here is twofold: 1) the pandemic prevented them from releasing the movie in theaters, and 2) she should be happy with the millions she has already gotten.

We have all had to make concessions due to the pandemic, albeit most of us on a smaller scale. But Disney’s sudden overwhelming concern for public health and safety is less than convincing. Their claim that they couldn’t have released the film in theaters proves baseless on account of it, well, being released in theaters. What they seemingly meant was that the pandemic meant a smaller payday from movie theaters, so they found an additional method of distributing the film that just so happened to free them of the obligation of splitting its revenue with the star, not to mention movie theater companies.

Appealing to the sympathies of the billions of people in the world who can’t even fathom the amount of money Johansson and her movie star peers earn for each film they make is a slightly smarter move. After all, a jury who decides whether she wins her case will likely consist of non-millionaires who may be biased against a woman who out-earns them by two or three digits. Regardless of the amount of money in question or the wealth of the individual, a deal is a deal, and a written contract is legally binding. The bottom line is that Disney failed to honor the agreed-upon contingencies (ie. a theatrical release). Not to mention, this argument expects us to forget that Disney itself is a conglomerate worth hundreds of billions of dollars, hardly a poor, innocent victim of a rich woman’s greed.

In fact, Disney’s mentioning of “the $20 million she has received to date” only broadens the scope in Johansson’s favor. She is a Tony winner, two-time Oscar nominee, and one of the highest-grossing actors in box office history. If she retired today, her entire family would be able to live a life of luxury for generations to come without having to work a day. So why nitpick over the extra $50 million or so she could have earned with a theaters-only release, cause a Hollywood-sized fuss, and risk the company dragging her name through the mud, as they so predictably did?

Let’s ask Taylor Swift. The singer-songwriter shot to international superstardom in 2008, making her the face of pop music. In recent years, she has fiercely advocated for artists’ rights after experiencing her own long and ultimately failed attempt to buy back her master recordings from Big Machine Label Group, which was acquired by music manager Scooter Braun in 2019.

Similarly, Johansson’s representatives attempted to reach out to Disney after the announcement of Black Widow’s hybrid release, which could possibly have amended their agreement and avoided the lawsuit altogether. But, like Swift, she was ignored.

Swift famously writes her own music, often from her own experiences. Scott Borchetta, founder of Big Machine, claims that she had the opportunity to own her masters, but, from both his account and Swift’s, the offer was contingent upon her staying with the company. Seeing as doing business with his company was what landed her in this situation, she was not willing to accept this condition, nor did she later accept Braun’s offer to buy back her music, a deal from which Braun would have profited and which came with its own condition: an NDA.

Her claim that Braun’s deal “stripped [her] of [her] life’s work” ignited a highly publicized feud not just between Swift and Braun but between their friends, loyalists, and supporters. Swift’s team shared her stance on artists’ rights while Braun’s defended his nice guy image. Braun himself didn’t comment, instead allowing his allies to take shots at the singer. His wife, Yael Cohen Braun, in an Instagram post referred to Swift as a “bully” and to her claim as a “temper tantrum,” telling her, “the world has watched you collect and drop friends like wilted flowers.” Justin Bieber, a client of Braun’s, suggested Swift's intention when expressing her disgust over the deal was “to get sympathy.”

Even after selling her masters to a private equity firm for $300 million in November 2020, Braun continues to profit off every CD and every stream of every song from every one of the six studio albums Swift recorded while she was signed with Big Machine, an agreement she first entered into at age 15.

Where Johansson is clearly in the right legally, Swift is morally right. Borshetta and Braun were under no legal obligation to sell her the rights to the songs she wrote and created, but they should have.

Both Swift and Johansson have incited high profile disputes, and both have been called by critics the “wrong person” to serve as the figurehead for the big picture arguments based on how much money they make. Two multi-millionaires are hardly the best representatives of the little guy trying to make it in the entertainment industry. It’s no skin off either of their noses if they don’t revolutionize the way artists and actors are paid.

Actually, it makes them the best voices for their causes. The millions of dollars at stake in each of their deals, while massive amounts to the average onlooker, would be a drop in the bucket of their wealth. Yes, they both have huge platforms and established fanbases they can use to garner support, but the fact that they have no skin in the game is their real strength. They don’t need the money, which proves they’re not doing it for themselves.

Disney is trying to hide behind the pandemic to defend its decision to release Black Widow on Disney+, but the issue was present even before the pandemic started, evident in Johansson’s agreement that the film have an exclusively theatrical release. Her suit claims she insisted upon this contingency when the streaming service was launched.

Streaming changed the game. Johansson is likely not the only one to have lost out on media companies’ failure to compensate talent fairly in the wake of the streaming evolution, but she is the first to draw the amount of attention to it that she has. Her claim opens the eyes of fellow actors, film distributors, and the public to an issue that extends beyond her: if the film industry is capable of adapting their content to this new source of distribution, then they can accommodate the role of actors into the changing environment and pay them, and other individuals who make their films possible, what they’re owed.

Record companies can stand to shake things up, too. Contracts that grant an artist’s masters to the labels that produce their music, such as the one Swift signed with Big Machine in 2004, are the norm in the music industry. Hers is far from the first battle to be fought by artists over the rights to their own music. There was the famous Paul McCartney v. Prince debacle in the 1980s, for example. In most cases, revenue is doled out to the label, the producers, the managers, and, last and least, the artists. It’s a system that assumes the performers are just lucky to be there, to have the opportunity to become the next Taylor Swift.

But streaming isn’t just for the movies—it’s changing the music game, too. Artists used to be entirely dependent on record companies to promote their music and get it into the hands of radio stations, but streaming sites and social media have allowed artists to release music independently. Working with a record company is still highly advantageous to an up-and-coming artist, but the other options available to them leave some breathing room for an artist to negotiate and retain the rights to their own music.

So, will wins for Swift and Johansson mean making two rich people richer? Yes. But it also starts a conversation. It gets the word out to young artists and actors that they should expect more from the publishers and executives they work with. And it sends a message to CEOs and big corporations: change with the times.

Since leaving Big Machine, Swift has signed with Universal Music Publishing Group in an agreement that guarantees her the rights to the music she creates with them, from Lover on. She is also in the process of re-recording her first six albums, an endeavor that began with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April and will continue with the scheduled release of Red (Taylor’s Version) in November.

“Hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation,” Swift wrote in a post. “You deserve to own the art you make.”

[ahgaseda]

to kill an empire || chapter 23

⇥ synopsis : when you agreed to marry Jaebeom, the heir to a lucrative but not quite legal organization, you never expected the boy who was once your greatest rival would inevitably become your most powerful ally...

⇥ warnings : this story in its entirety includes but is not limited to strong language, recurring gang violence, mentions of drug or alcohol abuse, and explicit sexual content, and is intended for an adult audience only!

Over a week had passed since you last saw Jaebeom.

The trio of mirrors formed a crescent before you, allowing you the opportunity to glare at yourself from three different angles. The stylists were in a flurry around you, desperate to please your mother lest they suffer her wrath.

Your hair was curled. Your makeup made sleek, but understated. And the ebony gown left little to the imagination where your curves were concerned.

“The limousine is here. Let’s be on our way,” your mother announced with phone in hand.

The attendants were quick to scatter out of her path and you almost chuckled if you hadn’t been so nervous.

Your mother called your name in reproach and chided, “Put your shoulders back. Slouching is for sad people.”

“Yes, mother,” you droned, breezing past her and toward the door.

You were fortunate to have Youngjae as a buffer from your insufferable mother. After previous events, your personal assistant rarely left your side. But he never forced you to speak and you were grateful for the silence.

When the limo came to a stop, Youngjae was quick to jump out and offer his hand to you. Eagerly you accepted and allowed him to loop your arm through his. He was a welcome comfort at your side, though he did very little to settle your nerves.

“Jinyoung just texted. Jaebeom will be here in five minutes,” said your assistant softly.

You sucked in a hard breath. Youngjae squeezed your hand in his tender grasp as the two of you moved through the double doors, held open by white-gloved, tuxedo-clad men.

The hall was filled to the brim with the affluent members of your parents’ high society. You recognized the hollow, plastered smiles of the women and the arrogant frowns of the men, and you hated the world you had been born into all over again.

Now that you knew the truth - how many of these people also had innocent blood on their hands?

“Youngjae, please provide me with wine as soon as possible,” you murmured under your breath.

Youngjae waved over a waiter breezing through the crowd and took the glass from his tray, handing it to you. “Champagne.”

“Close enough,” you snarled, taking a swift look to make sure your mother wasn’t watching and downing the flute in one gulp.

Across the hall, Mrs. Lim exclaimed under her breath, “Where have you been?”

Jaebeom dragged his feet toward her, hair disheveled and falling into his eyes. He replied meekly, “I’m sorry, mother.”

His mother gently combed back his long locks and tightened his loose tie. She calmed herself and spoke rapidly, “You need to be sure to greet every shareholder and exchange pleasantries. Can you manage that?”

“Yes, mam.”

Her voice stiffened. “With your wife at your side.”

Jaebeom swallowed the lump in his throat at the thought of you somewhere in the same room as him. “I’ll do my best.”

His mother sauntered away to mingle, but Mr. Lim was quick to take her place. “I hear you’ve made yourself quite busy of late.”

Jaebeom grabbed the glass from a passing waiter and put the rim to his lips. “Business.”

“Need I remind you that I am still CEO of this company,” his father hissed, anger seething beneath the icy surface.

Jaebeom rounded on him, eyes scorching. “It’s over. I want none of it.”

“My son, you’ve undermined me for the last time.”

Jaebeom shrugged. “I don’t care anymore.”

“You will.”

Jaebeom let his father’s voice fade into the background. There you were across the way, people parting just enough for him to catch a glimpse of you.

You stopped, eyes meeting, and all of the air whooshed from your lungs.

Jaebeom approached without hesitation, trudging across the room as if he were marching to the last place he wanted to be. Once before you, all he said was, “Wife.”

“Husband,” you returned his bland greeting.

He held out his arm. “Shall we?”

“If we must,” you replied, slipping your hand to the bend of his elbow.

Jaebeom moved about the crowd and you glided dutifully at his side. It was a relief to lean on him. He handled most of the small talk with the investors and shareholders. You only had to chime in with an affirmation and a smile here and there. Most of the men didn’t give a damn about the opinions of a female.

The others knew you were the heir to your father’s illustrious company and made great efforts to be in your good graces. One even offered to let you and Jaebeom stay at his multi-million dollar vacation home in Bali.

“I know our honeymoon recently ended, but I’m ready for another,” Jaebeom replied in a low growl, turning to you. “How about you, dear?”

I wish we had never left, you wanted to say and Jaebeom could read that answer in your eyes. “Yes,” you finally replied, ending the silence.

The two of you moved from one wealthy couple to another, mingling as expected.

During a hard-earned break of bullshit small talk, Jaebeom leaned close and whispered, “Wasn’t there a dress that showed less cleavage?”

You were reminded of the low-cut gown and the push-up bra that you considered Old Faithful, and retorted, “My breasts take away the attention from my resting bitch face, according to my mother.”

“Well,” Jaebeom murmured, glancing down again at your exposed chest. “She’s not wrong.”

You flushed.

Women gawked at the massive ruby held by a delicate chain just above the swell of your breasts, but the men hardly hid where their eyes fell. Jaebeom wanted to claw them all out.

“You must be enjoying your time as newlyweds,” said a woman without a man at her side. You recognized her as having inherited her late husband’s share of a fortune 500.

You narrowed your eyes. She glanced at Jaebeom as if he were a full-course meal. When she reached over and touched his arm, you wanted to pounce on her.

Smooth as ever, Jaebeom didn’t pull away, but he replied, "She sings for me every night."

The woman let her hand fall from his arm, and you tightened your fingers in his suit. You wanted to be mortified, but instead you pressed your lips together to hide a smirk.

“Best of luck to you both,” she said stiffly, skulking off.

You had been avoiding Jaebeom’s eyes, which was easy from your place at his side, but now, you moved into his path and stared up at him.

He looked so tired, so broken of joy and desire. Flames used to burn hotly in his eyes. Now he looked a frozen shell of his former self.

You wanted to touch him, comfort him. You wanted to bury your face in his chest and chant apologies into his skin until your voice gave out. Hurting him was evil. You knew how long and how hard it had been for him to open his heart to you again.

Jaebeom could see the struggle on your face and he reached out, running a thumb over your cheek. “Tell me what happened.”

You paused. “I can’t say anything.”

Jaebeom snapped under his breath, “You think I don’t already know?”

“Please don’t make me cry in front of five hundred people,” you murmured softly, hanging your head.

He sighed, eyes welling with tears at the tremble in your voice. Reaching for your hand, Jaebeom said, “Follow me.”

You did as told, letting Jaebeom pull you behind him toward the adjacent hall. Panic raced through your veins. Yuto must have been watching. He would see you sneaking off with your husband, the one you were under strict orders to abandon.

This reminded you of the many nights Jaebeom gave you an escape from another boring fundraiser or dull as hell dinner. The two of you would race about the dark hallways, pretending the walls were trapping you inside like a maze.

Yuto’s warning rang out in your mind again and you harshly yanked your hand free of Jaebeom’s grasp, planting your feet. “I meant it when I said I hate you,” you murmured.

He turned. “You will never hate me as much as I hate myself.”

“Jaebeom…,” you trailed. “Don’t say that.”

You desperately wanted to kiss him; wanted to hold him in your arms and tell him everything would be alright.

Jaebeom stopped. The way you were looking at him was agony. He reached for your hand again carefully, lacing his fingers through yours, and whispered, “Come with me.”

You nodded.

Jaebeom led you by the hand to another dark, empty hallway. You turned to watch if anyone had witnessed your escape.

Behind the second door was a lavish powder room adjoined to the row of chrome stalls and oval mirrors. While there were more than enough sofas to choose from, Jaebeom was out of patience.

The moment he closed the door, your husband rounded on you, crashing his lips on yours and wrapping his arms possessively around your waist. You threaded your fingers into his hair, kissing him with abandon and longing.

Jaebeom didn’t hesitate to roam his hands over your ass, grabbing your thighs and hauling you into the air. You barely noticed when he set you down on the counter, but you quickly locked your ankles behind his back.

He kissed you until he lost all sense of time and space. You panted and whimpered at the urgency of his mouth on yours, how hungrily and desperately he kissed you. It felt like centuries had passed since you last woke up in his arms. Legs wrapped around his waist and arms draped around his shoulders, you trapped him to you with all the strength you possessed.

Jaebeom slowed his kisses, pulling back to nip playfully at your lips before seizing them again in a searing wet kiss. He nuzzled your nose with his own, pressing a gentle peck to the corner of your mouth. You giggled and shivered at the affection, melting into his touch and moaning at the gentle but intent movements of his hands up and down your back.

“Tell me you love me,” he finally said, voice lower.

So hopelessly lost in him; lost in how he made you feel and filled you with fire from head to toe, you answered without hesitation, “I love you.”

“Tell me I’m the only man you’ve ever loved.”

Eyes winched closed, you pulled his hair and deepened the kiss. “You’re the only one.”

Jaebeom took your bottom lip between his teeth before grabbing your jaw with a broad hand. “Tell me you lied to save me.”

You bit your tongue and your eyes flashed open.

Jaebeom’s eyes burned like hot coals. “Say it, baby. I already know.”

“I would die to save you.”

Jaebeom nuzzled you, slipping his tongue teasingly between your lips. “Oh, baby girl. I would die - and kill - for you.”

You braced your hands on his chest, thinking of the taut muscles waiting beneath his suit. “I have to convince him I left you. That I broke you. I need enough time to find where he’s weak.”

“Mm-hm,” Jaebeom hummed, palming your thigh. “Play along. But you won’t be the one to destroy him, I will.”

You swallowed. “Jaebeom, he wants to kill you.”

“He only thinks he does. Being with you made me soft. I forgot my reality.”

You watched him turn his head, kissing your wrist tenderly. “What are you gonna do?”

Jaebeom then kissed your brow. “Plausible deniability, sweetheart.”

“Jaebeom…,” you started. That was a term your mother taught you at a very early age.

“As far as you’re concerned, I won’t do anything and neither will you. We had a moment of weakness, but you’ll return to your house and I to mine. I expect divorce papers to be served to my assistant, but don’t expect me not to put up a hell of a fight in court.”

Tears filled your eyes. “Marrying you is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Jaebeom smiled faintly. “And loving you is mine.”

You gripped the lapel of his suit hard and tugged him closer, burrowing your face in his neck and purring, “Make love to me.”

Jaebeom chuckled darkly, pulling back only far enough to look deep into your eyes as he roamed the palms of his hands under your dress. “How would you explain limping out of here, baby?”

Your eyes widened. “You would go that hard, huh?”

He cocked a brow. “I’ve been away from you for nine days. Do you think I would be gentle when I take you?”

“I never want you to be gentle,” you whispered.

“Ugh,” he groaned. “Don’t tempt me.”

You laughed.

The playful mood turned somber again as you fell in the darkness of his eyes. Jaebeom pressed himself snugly between your thighs and kissed you sweetly.

“Play the game for now, baby. I won’t be far away.”

You didn’t want to go. You wanted this moment to last forever. Adrenaline replaced arousal and fear filled your face. Jaebeom was a man on a mission. It had been many years since you had seen him this angry and his temper was notorious. And duly feared.

“Jaebeom, promise me something.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t kill for me. Don’t die for me,” you said, cupping his cheeks in your hands. “Just live for me.”

Jaebeom sighed heavily, leaning his brow against yours. Then, he finally replied, “You know I don’t make promises I can’t keep.”

chapter 22 ⇤ chapter 23 ⇥ chapter 24

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{ copyright 2018-2020 © ahgaseda // all rights reserved }

[darker-soft-starker]

Starker 007 AU >>

---------------------

The painting is hideous, there are no two ways about it. 

The longer Tony stares at it trying to find a justification for the thirteen-thousand dollar price tag, the more dumbfounded he becomes. Affixed to the wall it presents like a gaudy canvas banner, a bewildering clutter of haphazard spills and splotches that might have a certain panache adorning the walls of the penthouse of the pretentious elite, but Tony can’t make sense of it. 

The gallery is lined with paintings of a similar aesthetic, abstracts that look like psychedelic blood-spatters, moody self-portraits and ten-feet-tall modernism canvas of writhing, spaghetti-lines that looks like it belongs in a first grade art class. 

Maybe Tony is a simpleton, but he has at least some taste.

A man slips beside Tony to observe the painting, head tilted up to peer at the artwork in quiet consideration. Outside the corner of his vision Tony can tell the man is stunning. Suit expertly tailored, the sharp lines of his jaw and cheekbones beautifully chiseled, milky skin brushed with a hint of gold and long, long that fingers that wrap around a perspiring glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

Tony sips his whiskey, a smooth burn down his throat as his interest is piqued. He’s seen a hundred, a thousand of men just like this one - well dressed and impeccably styled - but however girt by the exquisitely woven threads he may be, the unconscious tug of the mans smile seems genuine in partner with the down-to-earth brown of his eyes. He’s beautiful but doesn’t flaunt it.

It takes only a beat for the man to notice Tony’s staring, the mellow harmonic chords of the piano lulling away in the near distance. He offers a shy smile at the attention, turning his gaze back to the painting to resume his quiet scrutiny, eyes flickering over the slapdash strokes.

Oh yes, Tony thinks. He’ll do just nicely. 

He clears his throat roughly, catching the startled gaze of the younger man, mouth falling open in quiet surprise. 

“Stark,” Tony introduces himself, holding his hand out in greeting. The man's grip is pleasingly firm when he shakes Tony’s hand after a moment's still contemplation. 

“Parker,” the man smiles, eyes crinkling adorably at the sides. “Peter Parker.”

He tries to not find himself charmed by the way the hairs of one of Peters’ eyebrows are swept skyward like he’d rubbed his face, or the way his long fingers tap at the stem of his wine glass as he sips from it, licking his bottom lip to catch a wayward drop.

“What brings you here, Mr. Parker?” Tony inquires, surreptitiously tracing temple of his glasses to activate the sensors built within them. 

His vision goes blue for a prolonged moment as the AI brings up schematics and data in a blinding stream of text and symbols. Another tap has EDITH zeroing in on the younger man, registering his heat signature in blistering oranges, his recent social media and his squeaky-clean criminal record.

PETER BENJAMIN PARKER

24 YEARS OLD 

PLACE OF RESIDENCE: QUEENS, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES. CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CIVILIAN

A quick skim of the hurried cascade of information informs Tony that Peter was tardy eight times in high school and is now currently an engineer for Oscorp. 

That’s a shame. Tony guesses being pretty doesn’t account for taste.

“My employer is a patron of the arts,” Peter smiles. “What about you Mr. Stark? Is this business or pleasure?” He gestures with his half-empty glass to the sea of people, a motley swarm of greasy politicians, haughty high-flyers and glittering socialites.

“A smart man finds a way to do both at the same time,” Tony winks, giving the younger man a deliberately slow once over, warming the hollow patch behind his ribs when the man's cheeks bloom pink. Peters eyes drops to Tony’s lips when he licks the residue of whiskey off them, lingering there for just a moment before politely looking away. 

Play indeed. Sure, the auction for the artworks is set to begin at any moment and Tony’s mark is idling somewhere in the background - but there is always time to enjoy himself, Tony justifies as he turns in towards Peter and gives his best charm.

Potts always did drone on to him about having a proper work-life balance.

“What do you think?” Tony asks, pointing to the abstract artwork, analysing Peter as he breaks from their stare and assesses the nervous mess of brown and splintering white acrylic. 

“The Delicate Spider,” the man orates expertly, not missing a beat. “Ruth Bauer Neustadter.”

“Wow, just rolls right off your tongue there,” Tony blinks, mildly impressed. “You some kind of art aficionado or something?” 

“Nah, I just like spiders,” Peter shrugs, looking over the piece appreciatively. “What about you, Mr. Stark?”

“Me? No thank you to anything with more than four legs and whatever this is,” Tony says truthfully, lifting his hands sheepishly. “Although I couldn’t tell the difference between a Pollock or a Picasso if you paid me, so.”

Peter seems amused, the corners of his lips twitching upwards as he rocks on his feet. He’s adorable and would look far more inspired contrasted against Tony’s black silk bedsheets than any one of these works of art.  

“That’s a shame, Mr. Stark.”

“It is,” Tony concedes with a smirk. “It’s a very hard life being so uncultured.”

“I can tell. Maybe I can give you an education some time.”

Tony grins, catching Peter’s gaze. “I’d like that very much Mr. Parker.”

The spell is abruptly broken when the interface of Peters smartwatch lights up, distracting them both. He looks to Tony sheepishly after reading its contents, using his pinky to tap away at it. The wriggle of the small finger shouldn’t be charming, honestly. 

“Ah, I’m afraid I must be heading out, Mr. Stark. Auction’s starting.”

Damn.

“Don’t let me hold you,” Tony supplicates, raising his glass to him, even if he is sad to see him go.”It was a pleasure.”

He can’t help the quirk of his lips at the word, nodding politely at the other man whose smile is tinged with regret this time, and the modest sweep of his gaze over Tony’s body tells him everything he needs to know. 

Not that it matters, when a warning red flashes alarmingly over his smart-glasses. His mark is moving, which means he needs to get moving himself.

“Pleasure’s all mine, Mr. Stark.”

“Call me Tony,” he calls out when the younger man waves and moves to leave, offering a roguish smile. “Maybe we can catch up afterwards. Get a start on that education.”

A chestnut curl falls delicately over Peter’s forehead when he turns to peer back at him. “Maybe,” he nods, waving again before departing for good.

He takes only a second to leer at the generous swell of Peter’s ass and mourn the missed opportunity, sighing to himself. This is what he gets for having a bonafide actual work ethic - if he were any of his sloppy, bone-headed colleagues he’d have had his tongue buried in that ass five minutes ago. 

Nonetheless once he’s out of sight Tony taps his glasses again, following the transparent map that pinpoints where his mark is. 

He’s got a job to do.

------------

Neil McGarrett was a wealthy, eccentric billionaire. A media mogul who made his fortune from humble beginnings, starting from the sale of a single newspaper and now has his name splashed over his own cable news network. 

Decidedly right-leaning, McGarrett had an inclination of sensationalism over what some might traditionally label journalism, but it was undeniable that he was favoured by the republican voters in droves, if prime-time ratings were anything to go by.

The man regularly made headlines himself - from his sixth marriage falling apart, to his more unsavoury public affairs. Being photographed naked whilst snorting cocaine on his ten million dollar yacht every other week was commonplace. He’d been photographed dining with sex-offenders and simpering politicians and the wall street elite, caught on film talking about underage women and applauded for it by his peers.

He was a misogynist and a xenophobe and all of supporters loved him for it, dressing it up nice and pretty in what they called classic American values. 

For all of his questionable morality McGarrett was also a patron of multiple charities. He gave his time and money to various causes, was caught strolling the red carpet of many a gala and fundraiser and, sometimes, on occasion held a fundraiser - or an auction - of his own.

And that leads Tony to his current assignment, dressed to the nines and brushing shoulders with the obscenely wealthy, pretending like he knows a damn thing about art. 

McGarret had decided to generously place a portion of his infamous art collection up for auction and donate the earnings to charity - for the veterans, he had proclaimed, an endearing cause no one could fault him for - even if the charity receiving the funds was for-profit and only repurposed fifteen percent of their donations to actual veterans and its founder was vitriolically transphobic.

It only makes the reconnaissance that much more satisfying.

One of those sparkly big names that McGarret had been associated with was one Justin Hammer, a weapons developer. Whilst the two have little outward affiliation outside the sphere of the billionaire-boys-club, government intelligence suggested that their association may be something more than meets the eye.

Which led to Tony’s mission, scouring McGarrets’ Manhattan abode and gathering evidence that would confirm him as an accomplice to Hammer - the latter of whom was suspected to be selling arms to small island nations and aiming them squarely at American soil. 

Innocuous on the surface, they already knew McGarret paid for someone to disguise the transactions between the island nations and oil rich company executives, the media mogul looking to make a quick buck out of warfare and the ad space of the top rating morning program breaking news of an attack on American allies. Shockingly that top rating morning news program ran on McGarrets cable network and more of a ‘surprise’ was that McGarret owned stock in those oil companies and in Hammer Industries. 

The auction is a perfect setup for a distraction. McGarret, the mark, will be entertaining his guests, the crowd will have another focus and security will be concentrating on protecting the artworks. 

And Tony will be helping himself to some Saturday night intelligence gathering and infiltration. Perfect.

When he starts hearing the raucous bids from the ballroom it’s time for Tony to start moving.

He nods at various dignitaries, toasts to inebriated politicians as he wanders from hall to hall, politely acknowledging the lingering bedroom-eyes men and women cast upon him as he passes, Glock 26 rubbing against his lower back as his hips sway into the heart of the building. 

EDITH guides him to the third storey to a plain-looking room down the hall where McGarrets office is located and fewer people are found. The office doors are lined with the kevlar and shotguns of three men, each eyeing Tony with suspicion when he approaches with a teeth-baring grin. 

Holding his hands up in mock surrender Tony winks, incapacitating the armed guards with a flash of his palm-central gauntlets, tutting to himself as they slump to the ground in an ungraceful heap. 

Whilst he missed the old days of a good pistol-whip or an elbow to the face, there was a particular poetry to the flash and efficiency of the new tech. A certain je ne sais quoi in watching grown men crumple like a house of cards with the twitch of Tony’s fingers.

The EDITH glasses are the only development that Potts has allowed him to bring on field - which is honestly a travesty, however experimental and unregulated his tech is they’re missing out - it’s why they hired him after all.

With a grateful pat to the unmoving hip of one of the guards Tony delicately plucks the access pass from their belt and has EDITH check their vitals. 

The little red light turns green when Tony presses the pass against the reader, lock unlatching with a quiet, electronic whir.

The room is dark when Tony enters, lit dimly in a sickly yellow glow by two standing floor lamps. The blinds are drawn, slivers of pale moonlight streaking across the desk as Tony approaches it.

There’s a photo frame on the desk of McGarrett and a busty blonde with her arms around him, fingerprints all over the glass. When Tony picks it up for better inspection his fingers come away suspiciously sticky. 

Gross.

Wiping his hands on his suit Tony fishes out the USB from his pocket and leans over to place it in the processing unit of the desktop computer. The monitor awakens in a bright technicolour glow as the tech works it’s magic, hacking itself into the system and retrieving the data, storing it not only on the USB itself but transmitting it back to base wirelessly.

All Tony has to do now is wait for the download to complete, mourning to himself how frightfully boring it is when missions go this easy. 

It’s hard being efficient sometimes, he muses, wondering where McGarrett stores his scotch and if he’d notice if Tony helped himself to some.

“EDITH, how long since the download commenced?”

“Three minutes, twelve seconds, sir.”

Tony groans, already bored. Maybe he can join the afterparty and get inappropriate with one of the Victoria’s Secret models on the guest list. 

He sighs, turning to face the window - only to be surprised when someone behind him punches him in the face.

“Wha?” he manages, slumping against the desk momentarily as his vision spins, head pounding. He doesn’t have time for any reprieve however as his assailant lunges forward to attack him again - Tony barely manages to duck, aiming an elbow at the tall figure and making contact with their face.

It’s hard to be sure in the dark but the figure appears slight, but masculine and he recovers fast, charging forward to grip the lapels of Tony’s jacket in his hands. He pulls Tony forward and moves a leg upwards to knee Tony hard in the stomach.

The pain steals his breath but only riles Tony up, shooting his fist out to swiftly sock the other man in the throat, slamming his head down against the other guys skull. 

It’s enough to release his grip and Tony uses his bulk to crowd the other man against the windows, head throbbing. One hand shoots out to wrap around his attackers throat, the other reaching for his glock and pressing against the mans temple.

Even with a gun pointed at him, the man struggles against his grip, kicking his legs out ineffectually in an attempt to gain the upper hand. 

The movements shift the blinds open for enough street light to bleed in, illuminating the attackers face, young features twisted in a snarl.

“You,” Tony muses, blinking in surprise.

It’s the man from before - Peter Parker.

Except, all his previous air of innocence has all but dissipated, brown eyes cold and calculating. 

It’s a mistake to look.

Peter uses Tony’s startled pause to knock the gun away and out of Tony’s hands with surprising strength, slipping free from the chokehold with a kick to Tony’s ribs.

Goddamn that fucker is quick, Tony thinks as he stumbles back, clutching his side.

“When I said we should catch up later this isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Tony snarks, dodging another fist to the face.

With a twist of his body he sweeps his legs out at Peter’s shins, the smaller man falling to the ground in a kneel.

“What, a little late night espionage not romantic enough for you?” Peter retorts, whipping a pistol out from his jacket and aiming it at Tony’s chest. 

Tony acts quickly, legs moving on instinct as a well placed kick flings the weapon away.

There’s a split second where Tony gets distracted because outraged pout on the man's face is adorable - it’s however shortlived, when Peter rushes at him, clocking him upside the jaw as they tumble to the ground in a heap, their weapons discarded somewhere to the side. The two wrestle for dominance, rolling over the floorboards, elbows flying as they try to one up one another.

 Tony gets another fist to his face and immediately tastes copper in his mouth. 

“On the contrary,” Tony groans, using his weight to roll over the younger man, straddling his slim waist to hold him down. “Sounds like a perfect date.”

“I don’t date thugs.”

“Well that’s just a shame, here I thought we had something,” Tony tuts patiently, pressing his thumbs against Peter’s windpipe, the younger man gasping for air as he bucks his hips upwards to try dislodge Tony. 

“So, who do you work for, Peter Parker? Hmm, you one of Hammers’ goons?”

Peter’s face goes pink, eyes bulging as his airway is cut off. He scrabbles at Tony’s wrists and tries to take another swing at him only for Tony to press down further. 

“What makes you think I work for anybody,” Peter snarks back, bucking his hips as Tony presses him further into the ground.

And, oh. That should not feel as good as it does, Tony thinks as Peter writhes underneath him. The younger mans’ back arches pleasingly as he tries to gain leverage, biting his bottom lip as he chokes.

“For one,” Tony comments, moving his hand from Peter’s throat to grip his wrists, “these little bracelets you have here are definitely off-market and two,” he tilts his head towards the open air-vent in the ceiling, “you definitely weren’t invited in here.”

Tony abruptly finds his back to the floor when, in lieu of answering and in a truly impressive feat of flexibility, Peter brings his legs up from behind Tony to wrap them around his chest.

Using the new leverage, Peter reverses their positions, using the strength of his thighs to slam Tony’s torso to the ground, his arms in a bind against his chest. On top, Peter straddles Tony’s hips, seating himself right over Tony’s groin.

Dazed, Tony tries to not be attracted to the way Peter looks when he retrieves a small dagger from his suit and holds it to his neck, the sharp tip grazing his vulnerable skin. Tony’s hips roll anyway. 

“Are you getting hard from this?” Peter hisses incredulously, holding the dagger lengthways along Tony’s throat column.

The metal is warm from Peters body when Tony swallows roughly, throat bobbing against the dagger. Goddamn he’s here to do a job.

“I refuse to take the blame for that. I mean, it’s not everyday that I get my ass kicked by someone so pretty and snarly,” Tony admits, looking skyward for some kind of means of escape. “Even if they’re a petty criminal.”

“Petty -- “, Peter cuts himself off with a growl - and god that’s hot too - reaching back into his jacket pocket to fish out a leather-bound badge, shoving it against Tony’s glasses. 

“FBI, asshole.” 

Of course he’s a fed.

Tony laughs, muscles going lax despite the weapon aimed at his throat. 

“You’ll have to do better than that, sweetheart,” Tony drawls, ease trickling down his spine as EDITH verifies the badge.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Who are you --”

“CIA Special Agent Tony Stark,” Tony talks over him, “Also referred to as TS007 - and that’s my dick you’re grinding on.”

Peter looks down at his own slow rolling hips in surprise, still pointing the dagger at Tony as he rises up on his knees to put some distance between them.

“Show me your badge so I know you’re not full of shit,” Peter demands, lips turned downward in a disbelieving frown. Tony smirks as he complies, retrieving his battered badge from his pocket and waving it aloofly in Peters’ face. 

It seems to do the trick. Peter stands to let him up, still looking at him dubiously. 

Tony grunts as he stands, back aching and head pounding, all his new wounds becoming known as the adrenaline subsides. He tries for a cocky grin but a sharp pain makes him wince at the action. He licks over a welt on his lip where it swells on one side.

He thanks Peter quietly when he retrieves both of their guns from the floor, passing Tony’s over.

“What are the suits doing here?” Tony prods, lifting his thumb to his lip to stem the blood. When it comes away wet he sticks it into his mouth, lapping at the metallic taste. 

“That’s, uh -” Peter stutters, eyes on the digit in Tony’s mouth, “ - that’s classified. What are the CIA --”

“Also classified,” Tony smirks. It’s true, but it’s also fun to watch the muscle in Peter’s jaw clench in petulant frustration. The younger man turns towards him and taps his smartwatch again, fingers flying over the interface as he types in a code at breakneck speed. 

“What division are you in?” Tony queries, siding up next to the younger man, looking surreptitiously at the USB that still appears to be downloading.

“That’s classified,” Peter mumbles, adjusting what appears to be a well-hidden earpiece with his other hand, body slumping as the fight goes out of him.

“You’re a bit young to be a field agent, aren't you?” Tony presses, EDITH catching a swarm of heat signatures outside of the room down the hall. 

Peter scoffs. “I have a particularly special skill set - and before you ask, that too is classified. ”

His irateness only makes Tony grin, reaching over the desk to switch on the desk lamp so he can see the guy better. Peters curls are in disarray, his cheek is already beginning to bruise and Tony can see where his own handprints have burst the capillaries on Peter’s pale throat. God, he’s a fucking vision.

“A man of mystery, huh? So secretive, I mean not that that’s a negative trait whatsoever, I can certainly get behind that.“

“Do you always flirt on the job?” Peter queries with a frown, but nonetheless spreads his legs slightly when Tony moves to shift between them.

“Only when I have a beauty like you in front of me, darling. You’re a real distraction, anyone ever tell you that?”

“And you’re a shameless old man,” Peter counters. “Anyone ever tell you that?”

“I already told you my policy on mixing business and pleasure,” Tony nods shamelessly, slides his hands up Peter’s thighs. “What can I say? I’m multi-talented.”

“You’re arrogant.”

“You like it.”

“I have a job to finish,” Peter parries, even as an unwilling grin stretches over his face.

The mood is broken when the heat signatures draw closer and sudden yelling is heard outside as the bodies Tony left at the door are discovered. 

Peter peers at the door confusedly, crouching slightly to plant what looks like a listening device on the underside of the desk. There’s a commotion of footsteps and raised voices, someone is yelling to hand them over an access pass.

They’re going to have to act quick.

“We’ve got guests,” Tony turns to Peter, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket and dragging him close. “We’re going to need a diversion.”

The look he receives is unbridled bewilderment as the younger man stumbles into Tony, and for the first time he can appreciate the clean smell of sweat and copper and aftershave from the younger man. 

“What are you --” is all Peter gets out before Tony reels him in and kisses him. 

Peter’s surprised hum is swallowed by Tony’s lips and he goes rigid for just a second before he snaps into action.

Strong hands grip Tony’s hips, driving him backwards against the desk. The sharp maple edge digs painfully into his lower back as Peter presses against him, slipping his tongue into Tony’s mouth as he boxes him in. The press of Peter’s body against his feels fucking incredible when he moves, all ridged muscle as he presses them chest-to-chest, biting on Tony’s lower lip as he takes control of the kiss.

“Fuck, kid,” Tony breathes, snaking a hand down to cup Peters ass through his slacks, bringing their bodies closer together until Tony can feel that Peter too is just as hard as him. Tony gets lost in the small groan Peter breathes into his mouth, the kiss growing steadily sloppier as the voices grow louder.

The door flies open and the click of multiple guns loading breaks their lip-lock.

“Oh no, how embarrassing.” Tony gasps, pretending to act shocked as the room fills with armed men. “We’re so sorry - as you can tell we needed a room.”

“Put your hands up!” One man yells, readjusting his grip on his gun.

“Great diversion,” Peter mumbles against Tony’s lips, eyes flicking to his periphery as he slowly inches away. 

“It was worth a shot,” Tony smiles crookedly, assessing the situation. A number of armed men surround them, firearms aimed squarely at the duo. Going by their uniform they look like untrained goons, security for hire rather than any law enforcement. Perfect. Tony hates paperwork.

“You’ve got four at your six o’clock,” Peter mutters, shuffling discretely retrieve his pistol from his pocket, resting it against Tony’s thigh.

“You’ve got six,” Tony comments quietly, sliding his hand to grip his own glock in his pocket. “Not to gloat, but I think I can take out more than you, shortstack.”

“I said put your goddamn hands up!” The same man yells.

Peter looks delighted by the challenge. The two quickly shuffle so they’re back to back, facing the circle of pointed firearms. 

“Loser pays for dinner?” Peter asks.

Tony smirks, raising his gun and gauntlet at the same time Peter raises his. 

“Deal.”

[costaricafarm]

pineapple Costa Rica

Why is Costa Rica famous for its Pineapple Production?

 Costa Rica is the most developing area in Central America. As Costa Rica develops in all places such as real estate. And stocks, and tourism, one significant development is the pineapple plantations in pineapple Costa Rica. Latin America is famous for its pineapple exports.

                        Costa Rican pineapple has increased in overwhelming prices for a long time. Back in 2019, the rate of one pineapple was $0.43 per kg, wherein in 2021, it has doubled. 

The costs will increase in the coming days, and the pineapple exports will also increase. Entire Europe imports Pineapple Costa Rica. 

 Since pineapple is a tropical fruit that only grows in some places. People rely on pineapple Costa Rica for its pineapple production. 

How pineapple production is affecting the social and environmental factors?

The authorities have taken the notice about the worse kind of effects of

pineapple Costa Rica

production on people.

The most significant issue is that the pineapple industry uses a lot of pesticides and toxic. These toxic chemicals are well known as Paracetamol. It is so harmful that it causes environmental degradation. 

 There are other 50 kinds of sprays sprayed to allow greater and better yields of pineapple in Costa Rica. These chemical sprays pose health issues to all the workers working in that industry. Pineapple Costa Rica can not grow without chemicals and pesticides. Also, the risk of birth defects in the slips (pineapple seeds), are kept at an acceptable level using chemicals.

If you have been to Costa Rica. If you are planning a Costa Rica vacation. One term you should be familiar with is “Pura Vida” (pronounced poo-rah vee-dah). 

 Other than that, there are severe human and environmental problems. 

 How is it affecting the workers in Costa Rica?

 Most of the pineapple workers are migrants from Nicaragua. They are very content with work.  The pineapple farms allow them to work longer hours than normal city jobs and they also work overtime when needed.

As such they are able to make 2-3 times. The salary that they would have been able to make at home in Nicaragua. The government is ensuring to do the regular controls at the larger pineapple farms and pineapple companies.

These people have been living in miserable conditions. Nunez, a worker there, says," I now have many chronic illnesses and so do my children." Their working conditions are so hazardous that they can even kill them and their children.

 In Costa Rica. the large areas with pineapple production concern the general public as they are afraid of water contagion. They are controlling and testing the local water supplies regularly to ensure that the level of toxins and chemicals are below the regulatory limits for drinking water.

Workers affected by COVID-19

 The working conditions in Costa Rica pineapple production farms ensure that local workers have the possibility to support their families. These workers normally spend their entire lives working on these farms and some end up working as supervisors or managers. Local union members represent all the workers in that specific area to ensure that they are getting their regulatory rights such as 13th-month salary and overtime payments.

 An average worker working in Costa Rica pineapple production only earns $100 a week. But can earn up to $150 a week with overtime. Which is 4 times more than he would have made in Nicaragua. 

They have the opportunity at some farms to collect their days off and go home once a month. Most Nicaraguans enjoy the possibilities that Costa Rica offers them. A secure job with a much better salary than they would ever make at home.

What are the improvement steps taken there?

Since pineapple, Costa Rica production holds an important place and health departments started banning pesticides and harmful chemicals, people become more aware daily. 

 They have taken some steps to ensure that clean drinking water is available to all near the bigger producers. The most significant achievement so far is the 5-year suspension the government has implemented on the pineapple Costa Rica farm. 

 CRUSA has also given aid to improve the water condition and has invested $4 million for betterment. They will arrange a few more years of age for the homes of people who work at the Pineapple Pharmacy. To improve their quality of life, many other Costa Rican dependencies and investments should easily invest there to improve their quality of life.

 Pineapple monocropping is causing serious negative impacts on the environment and on local communities. They set the price to pay to small farmers, endorsing the already existing. Disparities in some of the low-income areas of the countries. Even though small and independent farmers exist, the big transnational companies such as Dole or Del Monte maintain all of the power.

Health Risks & Environmental Degradation

Pineapple Costa Rica 

Pineapple grows as an exclusive crop in these large trees.

This lack of diversity in farming results in high levels of investment pesticide and chemical use in order to maintain high yields.

Many communities bordering pineapple plantations. Now forced to rely on government tanks for drinking water after reports of skin disease breathing problems, birth defects, and other illnesses.

The Real Cost of a Cheap Pineapple from Costa Rica - Sloth Conservation

  In stores and supermarkets in North America and Europe, you can buy a pineapple from Costa Rica for just a couple of dollars. But what is the real cost behind that cheap price? 

The reduction in retail prices is sabotaging their positive objectives. And aggressive procurement practices that lead to cuts in wages and insufficient resources to improve working practices," said Catherine Nicholson, CI's program coordinator.

 https://buymyfarm.co/

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 21, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

As we enter the home stretch to this election, we are bombarded with so much news the only way to make sense of it is to divide it into categories.

The president is angry and self-pitying while campaign officials are trying to tip the election with the dubious laptop story. Administration officials are also working as quickly as they can to push through whatever they can while they are still in power, hoping what they are doing flies under the radar with so much going on. And this flurry of activity means there are bad slips.

At the same time, Democratic candidate Joe Biden is trying to get elected, but in such a storm of crazy that his actual policies, which are quite developed, are simply not getting much airtime. Instead, people have begun to look to him as a return to an America in which strength was measured not by dominance but by caring.

The president began the day by tweeting about Biden’s proposed tax plan, which he calls “the Radical Biden-Harris Agenda.” He claims that the plan will “slash the typical American’s income by $6,500 per year. They will raise TAXES by $4 TRILLION DOLLARS – triggering a mass exodus of jobs out of America and into foreign countries…. Your 401k’s will crash with Biden. Massive Biden Tax and Regulation increases will destroy all that you have built! Additionally, 180 Million People will lose their Private Healthcare Plans.”

In fact, though, it is the administration that is talking about slashing things, including millions of dollars from Democratic-led cities that Trump and Barr have labeled “anarchist jurisdictions”: New York City; Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.; and Seattle, Washington. That money would cut federal grants for coronavirus relief, HIV treatment, newborn screening, and so on. Officials from the affected cities, as well as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, say they will sue if the administration tries to follow this through.

In a move that threatens to destroy our nonpartisan civil service, Trump today signed an Executive Order creating a new category of public servant who is not covered by normal rules. These employees can be hired by agency heads without having to go through the merit-based system in place since 1883, and can be fired at will. This new “Schedule F” will once again allow presidents to appoint cronies to office, while firing those insufficiently loyal. It also appears to shield political appointees from an incoming administration by protecting them from firing because of political affiliation.

Yesterday, an inspector general for the United States Postal Service issued a report requested by Congress examining the effects of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s changes to the postal service. The report concluded that the changes resulted in “significant negative service impacts across the country.” DeJoy is a Trump loyalist. The USPS Board of Governors, made up of Trump appointees, rejects the report’s conclusions.

Meanwhile, a number of senior administration officials and lawmakers from both parties are worried that the White House is fast-tracking a business deal worth billions of dollars in what is essentially a no-bid contract to a company associated with Republican operatives, including Karl Rove. The company, Rivada, wants to lease the Department of Defense’s mid-band spectrum. This spectrum is wildly valuable for the 5G market, the next-generation mobile network. Pentagon leaders are opposed to the deal since the military uses that spectrum, and they say they have not been able to study the effect of commercial use of the spectrum on military readiness. Pentagon lawyers say the White House has no authority to sell or lease its spectrum. Lawmakers of both parties oppose the deal. One senior official told CNN, “Something is really fishy about this.”

Today, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe blamed Iran for hacked emails purporting to come from the alt-right Proud Boys warning Democrats to vote for Trump. Ratcliffe said “we have identified that two foreign actors, Iran and Russia, have taken specific actions” relating to the election. He said the emails were designed to hurt Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Rachel Maddow that intelligence officers in a classified briefing about the matter did not, in fact, say that there was any attempt to hurt Trump. “I’m surprised that Ratcliffe would say that to the public…. I had the strong impression it was much rather to undermine confidence in elections….”

Meanwhile, Trump continues to push the laptop story. He is reportedly considering firing FBI director Christopher Wray after the election because Wray has refused to announce an investigation into Biden, his son Hunter Biden, or other Biden associates. After Wray’s refusal to back up Trump’s insistence that this summer’s violence was from “Antifa,” the FBI director’s unwillingness to announce a Biden investigation is apparently infuriating the president. In 2016, then FBI director James Comey announced a new investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails just 11 days before the election, an announcement political scientists say helped to swing victory to Trump. While the president can, in fact, fire an FBI director, it is unusual, and certainly should not happen because the director refuses to attack the president’s political rival. The term of the FBI director is set at 10 years so the director serves at least two presidents, and is not bound to the political cycle.

Trump is railing not just at Wray, but also at Attorney General William Barr. Trump was counting on Barr’s probe of the Russia investigation to implicate high-ranking members of the Obama administration just before the election, but Barr has backed off on delivering the report. Trump is frustrated, recently retweeting a photo of Barr with the caption “for the love of GOD ARREST SOMEBODY.” Barr has been staying out of the news lately, although he was in Memphis, Tennessee, today, announcing arrests made there under his Operation Legend, the name for the police crackdown in a number of cities announced in July.

Pushing the story of Hunter Biden’s laptop got a lot more difficult today when Sacha Baron Cohen revealed that his new Borat film shows Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani—the source of the laptop-- in a compromising position with a young woman. Giuliani insists the scene is a “complete fabrication,” but the stills I saw (and I was trying really hard not to see any of this) indicate that this explanation will convince only those determined to be convinced. As many observers have pointed out, if Baron Cohen could prank Giuliani so easily, what does that say about how well Giuliani could identify foreign influence operations?

For his part, Biden is acting like a normal presidential candidate, which just doesn’t grab the headlines the way Trump’s actions do. After Trump attacked Biden’s tax policy, though, a number of stories noted the actual terms of the plan.

Biden proposes to raise taxes on the wealthy. He would get rid of some of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, including the cut in the income tax rate for people making more than $400,000 a year. Trump cut that rate from 39.6% to 37%. Biden would put it back where it was. This change would affect fewer than 10% of taxpayers. People would also pay into the Social Security payroll tax for incomes over $400,000. That tax is currently collected only on $137,700 of earnings. Under this plan, the nation’s top 1% of earners would bring home about 15.9% less money after taxes than they do now.

Biden also proposes to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, and establish a 15% minimum tax on the so-called “book income” of a corporation, that is, the amount its directors report to shareholders, which often makes a corporation look quite profitable while it pays little or no tax. He would also increase taxes on international profits. These proposed taxes would make up more than half of the revenue the Treasury would see from the new measures.

The Biden proposals would raise between $2.4 and $4 trillion over a decade. The Penn Wharton Budget Model concludes that the top 1% of earners would pay about 80% of the tax increases. Its report continues: “All groups outside of the top 5%... see their after-tax incomes fall by less than 1 percent.” The Washington Post awarded four Pinocchios to Trump’s attacks on Biden’s tax plan. The Tax Foundation could not score Trump’s own plan because he has made no actual proposals.

Biden had powerful help today getting out his message. Former President Barack Obama, who has largely stayed out of the political fray, has reentered it powerfully. In a speech in Philadelphia, Obama directly attacked Trump, tearing apart his successor’s response to the coronavirus and his administration in general. No one gets under Trump’s skin like Obama does, and the former president seemed to be deliberately needling the president, perhaps to prod him to more self-destruction at tomorrow’s debate.

His appearances were not just attacks on Trump, though. They were reminders of what the presidency looked like just four years ago, and they were designed to make sure people get to the polls. “We’ve got to turn out like never before,” President Obama said. “We cannot leave any doubt in this election…. A whole bunch of people stayed at home and got lazy and complacent. Not this time,” he said. “Not in this election.”

Still, what made most news for Biden today was an old video of the former vice president at a memorial service for Chris Hixon, the athletic director at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who died when he tried to disarm the killer. In the clip, which circulated widely on social media, Biden expresses his sympathy to Hixon’s parents and is walking away when Hixon’s son Corey, who has Kabuki Syndrome, runs up and, as Biden turns to see what’s happening, throws himself into Biden’s embrace. Biden spontaneously kisses the young man’s forehead and asks if he’s okay. When he shakes his head no, Biden hugs him, cradling his head, and reassures him, “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay, I promise.”

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

Heather Cox  Richardson

[shesawriter39049]

|FAMILY TIES| M| MAFIA AU| 3.5

Smut/Angst

FT- JOON/HOSEOK/JIN (MORE SO JOON THOUGH) 

***NOT DOUBLE CHECKED AS OF 6/25...I NEED A BREAK FROM THIS LOL! But I know you guys want it so I’ll spell check the full 12k tomorrow..it was checked in portions though!****

This chapter of “Family Ties”  which I’ve labeled as chapter 3.5, can be read as a stand alone and there won’t really be any confusion. BUT it’s necessary for part 4, as the majority of that chapter takes place in Shanghai, there was some backstory that needed to be unwrapped prior to them heading to China. So I thought it would be better to do it as a little excerpt...

WARNINGS: LORDT, semi public sex, slight cum and spit play, very very very light daddy kink, light dom Tae, ugh I guess alochol play...I mean he poors Vodka down her body so yeah...oral (F recieving) Sex ontop of a marble bartop, dirty talk...non protective sex….OH light drug use (Weed) Alochol ..lanuguage...I mean it’s a mafia fic sooo…

12K ...Dialog/storyline heavy as per usual

11:30 AM Downtown LA (About 3 months prior to chapter 1 ) 

ONE SHOT SUMMARY: Just a “normal” monthly recap with Henry, who runs one of there bigger distribution warehouses in China. Well,maybe the meeting will be normal depends on if he’s keeping shit together or not!  I’ll give you a hint...he’s not (This dose tie into chapter 4, as it’s the same warehouse! ) 

Once their done with “that”, Taehyung impromptuly decides it’s been a little too long since he’s had Luxx to himself so they Jet off (literally) to Veagas for the rest of the day. 

-If your new to this, the only thing you may wanna know is Luxx or Luxxy is (Y/N’s nickname, the same way V is Taehyungs) 

-The actually seres itself is centered in Boston so both of them have accents.

Lastly at the time this is a somewhat dysfuctional fuck buddy/business partner situation, that was still in it’s very early stages. The actual series is set around an alliance between four families..so Luxx and Tae, are the children of two very power bomb bosses within the same alliance. That also run multiple multi million dollar “Facade” companies as well.( I.E..business that can explain their wealth, now weather the monies actually dirty or clean..is none of the government's business) 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The restaurant was dimly lit, aesthetically pleasing would be an understatement, The white Parisian designed ceiling tiles, against the black accent walls. All of the gold infused marble detailing that danced along the bar, the drop down candle lit lanterns...every over the top element you could think of this place had it. But to be fair the “WOW” factor kinda wore off after the 3rd visit now it’s just.. “Oh this place has really good pasta and seafood!” 

Killing time as you scrolled through your phone, skimming through your DM’S on Instagram, finding yourself rolling your eyes at the majority of them. The scent of “Armani Code Profumo” danced through your nose as Taehyung took a seat to your right. His black Barocco silk Versace shirt was anything but subtle as it caught your peripheral. The shirt itself sat extremely low, clearly he wanted the world to know he’s been hitting the gym with Mazda. The strong muscle definition that was forming along his chest, radiating off his warm caramel complexion. A couple thin gold chains layered down his chest, one of them had a V in the middle which could stand for Versace..or “V”.

 Thick, dark, wavy locks sat loosely tousled, along his head, this was the longest it’s been in a while to be honest you prefer it this way. Gave you more to tug on when his face is smothered between your thighs, a couple strands fucked behind his ears showcasing two modest diamond studs.

Hand coming down to rest casually on your bare thigh, not even bothering to say one word, as this is the first time you've seen him since arriving at brunch. The two of you drove here separately as you had a nail appointment prior. Not even sparing him a glance since he didn't have the nerve to speak.

 “Ah Mr. Khan, I’m so sorry I didn't notice you arrived can I get you something to drink?” The waitress sounds slightly out of breath you wouldn’t be surprised if she literally ran over once she noticed him. 

Khan, Taehyung-Khan-Kim, Taehyung Kim, Taehyung Khan, Kim Taehyung, V...they were all the same person, and they all held the same amount of power. Just depends on the atmosphere and more importantly the relationship. Or in some cases the light he wanted to be seen in, businessman by day, Mob underboss by night.... All of you had hyphenated last names..to the public typically his last name was Khan, on the black market it’s Kim or “V”.

It was clear he got the same gist, as he silently observed her body language the arrogance that laid within the chuckle that rumbled through his chest said it all. Licking his lips slowly, head cocked slightly to the side and he gazed up at the women in front of him. "Your fine love relax, I just got here, but yes can I get a bottle of Charbay Release III? Oh and about 4 more glasses” 

Smiling back in her direction as you tried your hardest not to roll your eyes at the way he was just toying her around his little finger. Taehyung was well aware of the affect his voice had on people, and knew how to manipulate his tenor depending on the audience. At the moment it was currently up for debabte if he said “I want whiskey and 4 glases or if he said, let me bend you over this table and fuck you” 

By the look on her face, it seemed like he said the 2nd option, her cheeks turning a very vibrate shade of red. The poor girl looked like she was a second away from passing out before she turned away. “Yes sir, I’ll get that right away..” A quick smile leaving her lips before she scurred over to the bar, stopping herself dead in her tracks once she realized she hadn’t addressed you as well. 

“Luxx? Are you still doing okay? Would you like another Ciroc X on the rocks?” Regardless of the fact that she was a second away from jizzing her pants..her customer service skills did not falter between the two. She was just as attentive to you as she was Taehyung which you deeply appreciated. 

Slowly lowering your phone from your face to greet her with a quick smile before responding “No, babe I’m good, I’m actually gonna babysit this, I havent really eaten’ much today. Thank you though…” Fluttering your lashes in Taehyung's direction as she walked off, his thumb moving in slow circles along your thigh, before allowing his entire palm to join in. Hating the fact that you could feel the goosebumps raising along your skin and it wasn’t because you were cold, it was solely due to the man to your right. 

“Oh your fine love…” Mocking his overly flirtatious delivery with a roll of the eyes, bringing your attention back to your phone.

“What was that? Is someone a little jealous..don’t I tell you your fine enough as it is?” OH now he speaks!? Tone blanently teasing as he nuzzled his nose behind your ear, taking in your scent briefly. Toying the skinny white gold hop in your ear around his teeth, tugging lightly, just the way you like it. Forcing yourself to put on your best poker face as he pulled back from you swiftly, you could feel the smirk on his face without even looking at him.

Another scoff left your lips as you sip your drink “Yeah you wish….” 

“You look really sexy by the way….” Eyes taking you in and undressing you all at the same time , you weren't wearing anything super dramatic. Just a short, black long sleeved silk dress that draped open slightly in the front..exposing a not so modest diamond body chain the hung perfectly between your breasts. Hair pin straight parted down the middle purposely tucked behind your ears while the rest draped down your back. The rich shine of your hair rivaling the silk on his shirt and it should. As much as you pay to keep it looking like this because lord knows you don’t do it yourself.! 

“Yeah I know,” Your snapback was almost instinctual at this point you didn't even process the words before they left your lips, as you tossed the straid of hair off your shoulder. Earning a snort in response, an almost menacing smirk tugged on the corner of your lips at the way his eyes were shamlessly fucking you as we speak. The pads of his fingers continuously moved inward, massagings your inner thigh against his palm.

“Such a fuckin brat….”There was always the perfect combination of frustraion and arousal laced along his tongue whenever he called you that...always… 

Before you even had time to response the waitress was bringing the bottle and Mazda was bringing the Henry. I guess his flight from China finally landed, you swore this motherfucker looked like he barley skimmed past customs or something from the look on his face. Already ready to shit 3 bricks and you havent even spoken to him yet. 

“Well, this looks promising” you whispered out low against the side of his neck, sarcasm oozing from your lips earning a chuckle, while he dug his nails into your inner thigh.

“Shhhh….”

“Henrryyy!!!” The two of you yelled out in unison..sliding out of your seat to greet him as he made his way closer to your table. Giving him a warm welcome hugs and all,exchanging the norms “How are you? How as the flight” blah blah blah. 

Taehyung instructed Namjoon and Mazda to head over to the bar, grab a drink get some food, just chill out while the three of you had your little meeting. 

You noticed a leather backpack handing off his shoulder which he placed in the empty seat to his right as he set parallel to Taehyung and yourself. The backpack was Louis Vuittion which was actually surprising, he was paid well but lived VERY modest. A minimalist if you will, never really one to splurge, it was rare you say him in name brands of that caliber. The waitress waiting patiently for him to get settled before asking what he’d like to drink.

“Oh ugh, can I just get-Ummm..” The tremble in his voice was saying more than anything even the waitress noticed he seemed utterly terrified. 

“Don't get shy all of a sudden, you can get whatever you want Henry you know that, hell I mean you deserve it right? You've been down there busting your ass for us for what Tae? Three years now?”

Head cocked to the side slightly as you await his response sipping down the rest of his drink before humming out . “Hell yeah. I mean honestly we don’t know what we’d do without you, out of all of our warehouses revenue wise, your sitting at the top of the boards right now man! “ 

Switching has gaze seamlessly from Henry to the waitress, shooting her his award winning boxy smile “Can you please just bring us a bottle of your best...do you prefer dark or-”

“Whiskey!..umm any type of whiskey please and thank you.” Smiling faintly in her direction before she scurried off to grab another bottle. 

You watched him reach into his bag to grab out 3 folders..they were his monthly reports from the past 4 months..he made triplicate copies one for each of you.

“Always the professional” Smiling back at him fondly as your eyes dusted over the well put together package in front of you.

“How about we look over the menu first and place our orders, then we can dive into the good shit.Yeah?” Eyes glancing over to Henry’s and yourself who both seemed to nod with zero hesitation, you both knew Henry was probably starving. 

“I don't know what I even have a taste for…” The words left your lips sing song like and smirk appeared on Tae’s as he moved a little closer. Bringing his voice barely above a whisper...

“I know what I want..buttt it’s not on the menu…” You couldnt help but snort out a lugh it was cheesy as fuck but even wth that you still found it extremlly sexy. His voice alone worked wonders, it also didn't help that his hand was still positioned dangerously close to your bikini line! A row of extremely thin white gold bands dancing along almost every finger, as the metal brushed against your flesh. 

“Down boy…” Patting his thigh slightly, swiftly bringing his opposite hand down to meet yours, placing it in his lap. Making you take a quick squeeze at this dick through his black jeans which were extremely tight by the way. The way this man's thighs were set up you really didin’t understand how they even fit on his damn body!

“Oh no he’s definitely not down right now…” He didn't even care to whisper that part and the fact that it slipped out his mouth a full volume with zero context sent you 100%! 

This time the cackle that left your lips wasn;t even close to subtle causing Henry to shoot up glancing over in confusion. You found yourself laughing until tears were threatening the corners of your eyes. 

“You good Luxxy? Jet lag kicking in orrrr…” Taehyung asked faking a plea of innocence as he glanced over at Henry.

The light playful energy the two of you raitated started to calm him down, maybe he really was just over analyzing everything. Hell you typically had monthly and or quarterly meetings so why was he so nervous about this one!? 

The waitress came back to take your food orders, you three joked, laughed, had a couple drinks ...split 3 appetizers amongst yourselves. Once the entrees came to the table  it was time to get down to business…

“Sooo, as Tae said earlier, your numbers are looking really good, were very impressed! I feel like we may owe you a raise or a new car or something…” A slight smirk danced along your lips before wrapping your lips around the piece of bourbon shrimp that sat on top of your fork. 

You watched Henry almost choke on his piece of stake once you said that..a smile tugging on his cheeks, bowing his head as a way to say thank you.

“Yeah and the staff..everyone still doing good? Everyone still pretty lowkey? Happy? Showing up on time, the full nine?” 

This time the questions came from Taehyung as he stuck his fork in a piece of lobster, eyes glancing in Henry's direction.

“Yes, everyones great honestly you put me with a great group of people, no one complains, they work hard every day...you guys pay me well. I have no complaints...I’m very grateful! And I’m glad that I’m delivering on my end as well!”

The two of you hummed out in unison ...exchanging a slight smile, Tae observing the way you were eyeing his asparagus, sticking his fork in it before placing it in your mouth.

“And we're really grateful for you too, all of you, actually so much so that we personally sent out checks and little memos to the employees just as a thank you! When was it like a month or so ago Luxx?”  Brow arched at the implied question while you took another sip of your vodka to wash down your food.

You observed Henry damn near choke on his piece of Broccoli once you said that,suddenly he finally became very aware of the fact that the entire restaurant was completely reserved. There was literally no one in it but, a couple cooks, the waitress, and  the people he worked for. 

“Yeah, and the memo on the payment said that the check was equivalent to there normal weekly pay just as a..bonus if you will. And as you mentioned...everyones just so, sweet and honest that I actually a couple calls...”

You swore you could damn near see the beads of sweat dripping down his ace at this point as he sat in silence waiting for you to finish talking.

“Oh yeah! That’s right, damn,I almost forgot about that….” Taehyung and yourself deserved an Oscar the way you two were playing this out as casual as can be! 

“And what was interesting about the calls, is people were saying we paid them too much. Which for one I’d never call and tell anyone that , I mean hey your fuck up not mine but again like we discussed there all better humans than I’ll ever be. And can you hand me the salt Luxxy?” 

What made the situation even more nauseating was that there wasn’t a shift between the two of you, neither were yelling, nor did you seem upset. Even though he knew you were yet you still carried on eating your dinner and nonchalantly just conversing back and forth as if your talking about the NFL draft or something. 

“Right, so then that had us doing some research we looked into what was coming out of the bank, the paystubs, the amounts that the reports show they should be making, overtime..blah blah blah. And then we had them send us their pay stubs for the past 3 and a half months…” 

You paused slight, for no other reason but to be a dick and make him almost shit his pants …”Apparently, we told them we started taking out what would be equivalent to the taxes owed in the US?” Brow quirked in his direction eyes daring him try and say otherwise, actually daring him to speak in general. 

“I ugh…” He stammered and wasn’t getting to far 

“Shhhh..noo ,stop don’t do that, don’t talk it doesn't work out well for you just eat, eat..and listen..”  shushing him in an alarmingly calm tone of voice , gesturing to the food on his plate that he instantly deserted once you started talking. 

“That stamanet alone just mind fucks me if im honest…”Taking out the American equivalent” while in China!? “ Taehyung's tone elevated slightly and even though the way he ended the statement, it  could be taken as a question Henry knew better. 

”Now for one, every states different so which state did you choose? And second if your taking out taxes were exactly are they going? Because this is starting to sound very Wesley Snipes to me and I’m not down...I’m not really in the mood for jail time.“ 

“No, Tae, I was just trying to-”

“To what!? Huh?Fuck me? Because if that’s the case you should probably lean over and kiss me too because I prefer to be kissed when I’m getting fucked!” 

It took every fiber in your body to not laugh at that, the look on Henry's face didn't help either. “Joonie…” Barley raising your, as the restaurant was  pretty much empty. Cocking his head slightly brow ached waiting for you to continue.

“Can you bring me that folder please?” Namjoon reached into his own leather backpack to bring out your own triplicate copy of what the past four months REALLY look like. Upon placing them on the table you took it upon yourself to deliberately throw Henry’s on the floor.

Leaning forward to rest your chin on your palm while Taehyung shuffled through the reports, eyes zoning in on the last page. ‘’So it seems, the employees were shorted between 100-200$ a paycheck yeah? The average was around $125, and that lasted for 3 months.”

Running through the list quickly as if he was checking off mental bullet points as he spoke.”There's 10 people in the shop...and in those 3 months what we've received as a whole hasn’t increased. Henry your a smart dude so I'm sure you can tell where our concern is coming from yeah?”

The two of you observed the way he fiddled with the papers is brain trying to think of something...ANYTHING. Fingers shaking as he turned the pages, eventually landing on the page that Taehyung was referring too. 

“So…” Pausing to clear his throat “W-what do you guys want…” His tenor wavered like a leaf in the wind struggling to make eye contact.

“Really? That’s how you wanna start this off? That sounds real fuckin’ remoresful Henry!” If you didn't know any better you’d think you could actually feel your blood boiling, “ This was wayyy more than a little fucked up,l for one I’d like you to tell me when you started paying yourself cash. As far as I understood you were the ONLY one who was paid salary and  E-deposit…”

“I, had some financial issues, debt wise, and I was worried because of collections so,  I just thought it would be easier to-”

Unlikely, HIGHLY unlikely...like I said the man lived modest..if he owned someone, or was in debt in anyway it wasn;t through a collections company. But you didn't have it in you to argue that point right now!

“Okay, so if that's the cause you couldn't just call and run that by one of us first? That thought never crossed your mind? More importantly the fact that you actually had the balls, to steal from us,we pay you well we paid your fucking aprtment off and Teahyung fucking bailed out outta shit’s creak and THIS IS-” Your tone elevating slightly, the grit becoming stronger and your accent getting thicker by the syloboll.

“Stop..” Taehyung on the other hand sounds years calmer than you ever could, which was terrifying.  “Not here, not like this…”  It was clear you were getting more than frustrated as your thigh started to tremble under the table. Taehyung's grip tightening as an attempt to ease you “Shhh” He cooed out low against the side of your neck, tone adjusting to as if it was just the two of you in the room.

“I just don't-” The arch in his brow cut you off instantly. 

“What did I just say? Not.Now.”  It’s insane how tranquil he sounds yet his delivery held so much dominance, enough to make you actually shut up and listen. Letting a deep slow exhale leave your body as your eyes flutter anywhere but in Henry’s direction because to be fair you were ready to stick that stak knife dead in his neck!

“If I’m being honest, I’m really tempted to just take you to the back and blow your fuckin head off…..” Henry swallowed so deep you could literally hear it, there was something extremely creepy about Taehyung’s calm presitation.To be fair Henry would have preferred he scream and yell, this on the other hand was borderline haunting. 

“But a dead body does me no good at the moment, soooo, here’s a temporary solution, Hoseok and Jin are on there way here...there about meh, an hour out. They're going back to China with you, and you have 48 hours to make this amount..” 

Bringing his hand over to the highlighted number at the bottom of Henry's packet which read $16,750,89. “Re-appear, let’s not forget you weren't always Henry Choi, and if you thought life was hard before you became him…” 

Dropping his head slightly making sure he had Henry’s undevided attention “Then trust me when I say, if you fuck this up even more than it already is, you’ll really fucking wish you never met me. Arasso?

Taehyungs tone never wavered but the base this man had, the power that radiated off of his body was something you'd have to see to believe. People tend to underestimate him, he’s young,pretty, still has a baby face goes to brunch in a $1200 silk shirt! But you never ever wanna forget who Kim Taehyung really is at the end of the day, because he'll show you with zero hesitation..

Clearing his throat while readjusting his glasses on his face “Yes, I understand…May I ugh, go to the restroom” 

Not even responding just flagging his hand in the general direction of the bathroom...and Henry took that as his approval.  Taehyung waited a good 30 or so seconds before he also got up, not even heading in the direction of the bathroom, instead...the kitchen.. Which was surprisingly empty…

“Fuck, I thought I tought you better than this man, I’m a way better shot than you, I don’t miss, even with my eyes closed so if your smart you won’t make me aim.” 

Within seconds he heard shuffling around the corner, Henry tentatively making his presence known. 

“What do you want!? I know you, your not just gonna let this go…” His voice was hiccuping at a tone in his throat that almost sounds as if he was a second away from throwing up! 

“I want...you..to tell me who your doing this for, I know you, your not this fuckin stupid, you wouldnt risk this for 16K. So what the fucks really going on Lau!?” Stepping over in his general direction,  the calm Kim Tahyung was long gone because now he was hurt.

“I-”

“WHO!?” It was a simple word a simple question yet one word held so much emotion the amount of grit that laid within his voice was unreal.Stepping even closer now not even centimeters away from Henry as he sat trapped between Taehyung and a wall. 

“I said fucking WHO!? Who fuck has so much power of you, that your willng to fuck me, ME of all fucking people over Henry WHO!?”  Grabbing him by the collar of his button up, slamming his back against the wall with so much force Henry couldn't even help the way his eyes teared up from the impact. 

“Tae, I swear it’s not-” The name alone caused Taehyung's entire body to stiffel, releasing his hold. Dropping him back against the wall pulling his hands from him in a manner that resembled throwing away trash. With the lightest flick of the wrist, not even worth putting anymore energy behind it  , jaw clenched painfully tight, he wanted it to hurt.

“Don’t, fuck you man, we don’t have that type of relationship anyhmore, I’m V not Tae,not even Taehyung. It’s V,  just like I am to any other casual mother fucker on the street that I could give less that a fuck about. And since that’s where we are, please don't doubt that if that money isn't in Hoseok's hands in 48 hours I won't hesitate to treat you just like some random motherfucker on the street.” 

“Just let me explain-” He was pealding at this point a second away from crying but that didn't change shit, his expression did not falter one bit. Taehyung's face was stoic to say the least, there was zero emotion left to be read as Henry gazed up at him.

Shaking his head in response, scoffing in disgust and disbelief as he wavered backwards… “Mazda” Elevating his voice just enough to allow it to bounce off the walls he already knew he was probably waiting outside the door. It was only a matter of seconds before Tae heard footsteps.

Flicking his nose with his thumb as he cleared his throat, trying to shake of the shaky tenor that kept trying to float through his lungs. “Just ugh, wait here with him until Jin and Hoseok get here…” Mazada didn't say anything but Taehyung's tone of voice really fucked him up, he could tell he wasn't angry he was hurt.

“I got you man..” Squeezing down on Taehyung's shoulder as he walked past, Henry suddenly found himself even more nervous being left alone with Mazda, knowing how close the two of them were on a personal level as well. Mazada was 2 years older than Tae and he was one of his  first “real” friends he made when he moved here from Korea when he was 7. So if Taehyung was hurt so was he, and Mazda definitely wasn't the kinda  guy you wanted to meet in a dark or light alley to be honest. He was another pretty boy that could royally fuck you up with zero remorse, especially when it comes to Taehyung. 

Once Taheyung stepped outside of the kitchen he allowed his body to sink down into a low squat. Just taking a couple deep slow breaths as he ran his fingers through his hair,pulling himself back together. I mean shit he’s use to this, that’s why is circles small he just ddint, fuck he didint expect this.  He didn't allow himself to sit in it though, he refused to sulk in the moment, he’d rather shoot someone than cry. His motto if you fuck me then fuck you, but there’s limitations to that, theres nothing worng with acknolweding and actually feeling PAIN! It’s normal, healthy…..

It was barley a good 60 seconds before he snapped himself out of it, getting off the ground slowly he found himself aimlessly admiring you from across the room. Just watching you, in your normal element, touching up your hair makeup while you waited for him to return. 

He couldn't even help but smile, as you sat there,looking like everything he wanted, needed, and could have. But the fear that the world would take you away once he finally got you always stifled him. To be fair, that same fear sometimes hindered you as well, the only difference is. YOU were working towards changing that while it seemed as though Taehyung just fought it by building more walls whenever you started to break them down. 

So what’s the solution to all this? A distraction, and there's no one that can ease his mind better than you. No matter how much he hated, the effortless control you also often held over it as well...

“Soooo…” your voice rang through the empty space once you heard Tae’s footsteps.

“Hmm?” Humming out almost as if he’s already forgotten what just took place, that’s how normal shit like this has become. More importantly and actually on a scarier note that’s how numb he’d become to shit like this.The not so subtle snarl and eye roll remind him what you were referring to as he shuffled closer placing his hands on your shoulders.

“Ohhhh...that, yeah he tried to escape through the kitchen….” Tone as nochlant as can be as his hands romned down your sides until they landed on your hips. Initially making a strong indentation with his thumbs, the very specific hand placement making your mind roam to one thing and one thing only. 

“Well that was…….stupid” The dramatic pause twoards the end earned a chuckle as he expected soemting a little more detailed than just “Stupid” but hey..not that he couldnt use a good laugh.

 He leaned down slightly letting his lips brush over your neck. You knew him well enough to know he wouldnt kiss you in this type of setting, this felt a little to personal..too “intiimate if you will but he had no primble teasing the fuck outta you. 

“You okay?” You dared to ask, already well aware of the way he was in situations like this but you were still concerned. 

“When’s the last time I made you come?”  The sudden shift in tone and conversation caught you completely off guard as he nuzzled his nose into your hair. Purposely ghosting his lips down the side of your neck while he awaited your response. You figured he’d avoid the question but not like this….

“Ugghhh..” Fuck, you hated how instnatly thrown off you became, it never took much when it came to Kim Taehyung, trying to shuffle through instgram as a buffer while you got your thoughts together. But it was too late you could feel him smirking against the crook of your neck..teeth grazing the skin gently.

“Ugh, yeah I don’t know, it’s been a minute…” Your voice came out a little shakier than you hopped as his hands found there way back to your inner thighs from under the table. A humm left his lips in response.

“Yeah it’s been a least 2 weeks right?” 

That’s because two weeks ago the too of you had your first “Oh shit moment”  And to be fair you both kinda spazzed out a little, for first time after the two of you had sex more times than you could remeber. Then, once it was over, while you were getting ready to call your driver, he asked you to stay over. The morning after was, more than you even knew Kim Taehyung could possess, he cooked you breakfast while you walked around in nothing but one of his silk button ups. A secret that a lot of people don’t know is Taehyung can sing, really well actually. His tenor sitting exactly where you’d expect deep and husky but surprisingly really soulful, you jokingly asked him to sing to you while he cooked and believe it or not he did. Letting his walls down to the goofy Taehyung you knew back in middle school, don’t get me wrong, yes he let you in more than most. But as you guys got older since you've known him since you guys were like shit, 7 the shift once his mother passed was very evident in your eyes. 

Even when his walls were down you knew they were never fully down until that morning, that was the first time you felt like he really let you all the way in. While the two of you split an entire bottle of  Armand de Brignac, lounged on his couch watched Netflix..Narcos was a fav ..hmm wonder why. Binge watched “The Try guys, and Shane Dawnson videos, while you fed each other chocolate covered strawberries. 

The mans sex drive and stamanina was unmatched so of course you had sex on his couch...the floor...ontop of his island, against his floor to celling windows inthe living room. . After that he filled up his oversized jacuzzi that he rarely used and you both just soaked in it for what felt like hours. Reminiscing about nothing but bullshit, work wasn’t brought up once which is rare. Usually that topic streamlined most of your one on one conversations because the idea of having more intimate talks in that kinda setting absolutely terrified him.  Or at least when it came to you, because you were the only person outside of his father and Mazda that he’d ever get that deep and carefree with. After the bath he ordered your favorite gourmet pizza which you two ate in bed, before you passed out on his chest, and surprisingly even though the feeling was completely forigen it just felt right.

The 2nd morning the two of you work up extremely hungover and extremely awkward, his hand resting comfortable around your waist while your nose sat nuzzled in the crook of his neck. A call from his dad is what woke the two of you ,the level of comfort is what made it terrifying. Not sure how you went from fuck and leave/ midnight booty calls to operating like a couple thats been datng for 5 plus years! Neither of you knew what to say so you..just said nothing,he didn't ask you to leave or anything it just..the vibe was off. Once you pulled back from him you both just kidna gazed at each other like a deer in headlights.

Or more accurately, like you just woke up from a drunken one night stand with no recollection of how you got there, or who the person in front of you was. Because to be honest...the night before you were both versions of yourselves that you hadn’t let the others see in years!

Every day after that you two kept it short, nothing more than just business and somehow, about 2 days ago the two of you had to meet with an investor. Of course you kept it professional, not wanting your awkwardness to seep into the work environment. And I guess while “Pretending” shit was okay..it actually became okay.  After the meeting was over everything just seemed normal again or at least your definition of normal…now...here we are.

Eyes fluttering shut as his fingers traced the perimeter of your lace thong, it took everything in you not to buck your hips in to his hand. As his fingers started to tease over your clit through the fabric of your panties. 

“How does Vegas sound?” To be honest his delivery was more of a statement than a question.

“Likeeee...today?” Turning your head to the side slightly to face him which was a bad idea because of course this asshole didn't pullback. He stayed exactly where he was..face barley a centimeter away from his, you could damn near taste the whiskey on his tongue. Licking his lips slowly the tip of his tongue barley grazing against your lipgloss as it swept along his lip. 

Another humm left his lips in response as his eyes dropped down to the glitter reflexes that danced along your lips…..

“Anddd what exactly where you looking to do in Vegas Mr. Kim?” Egging him on slightly as the question rolled off your tongue.

“You, on the balcony at the sky villa…” You couldn't help but let out a deep almost exasperated sigh at that eyes fluttering shut briefly…

“Thennn..I thought maybe we could head out...I don't know go check on the club, you know we've been needing to that for weeks now..See how Kook and Jay are doin’ ”

Referring to the strip club that was technically owned by your family, but most of the money that they washed came from Kim line. 

“Fuckkk, but you know if we go there it will turn more into another work trip everytime I go in there I find something to bitch about. I’m starting to wonder if they’ve rigged the system because I don't understand how they have a damn near five star rating..” 

Taehyung's face crumbled at that breaking out into a fit of laughter his head fell into the crook of your shoulder causing you to laugh from him unintentionally tickling your skin.

“That shit’s not funny! You know I’m right…” Taking a sip of your drink as he brought his eyes back up to meet yours… 

“Well, I could always fuck you first...that way you’ll be too tired to bitch…” 

You couldn't help but moan at that, and you knew good and well you should say no, at least put some sort of stipulations on the situation. Yet you couldn't be bothered, all the blood from your brain was running straight to your clit the more his hands rashivled your body over the silk of your dress. 

For one, you just missed feeling him inside you, nobody fucked you the way Kim Taehyung did, he knew your body like the back of his hand, the man could get you off in the dark, in complete silence. He never needed any type of instruction, always down to try anything, just as if not dirtier than you ever could be. Also sex with Tae was just aesthically pleasing, he was fine you were fine, both of you boujee and extra as ever. Who dosent wanna fuck in a bed with floor to celling windows which you’d of course leave wide open... in a 30k a night suite while various peices of overpriced jewerly danced along your skin. 

And finally...even though he was trying to act like it didn't mean shit, you knew better, the situation with Henry really has him in his feels. Just giving him another fucking reason to build walls and not trust people and you know he needs a distraction. And of course he wants, actually needs it to be you. Yes, theres a damn good chance that you could regret this before midnight but as of right now...fuck it..let’s get it!

You couldn't help but smile as you gazed up at him shaking your head in self defeat..you didn't stand a chance, it’s not like you didn't want it too. “Fuck it, I’m down…” 

That award winning boxy grin lit up ihs face as he whipped out his phone “Don’t worry..I’ll make it worth you while…”  Feathering a couple kisses down the side of your neck as he stepped away to call one of the girls in accounting to set up the room and get the jet ready.

As he walked towards the bar you noticed Hoseok and Jin walk in..both in blacked out aviators, skin  extremely tanned. They had just finished some “Clean up’s “ in Brazil, 2 weeks in that constant sun had their skin glowing.  Hosokes hair sitting a deep burgundy while Jins was a honey blonde.Both messy pushed out of their faces, as the made their way towards Taehyung. 

Tae reached out to give Hoseok a solid one handed bro hug but he wasn't having it pulling him into his chest wrapping both hands around the youngers frame. Hoseok didn't say anything, he didin;t have too. Observing the way Tae faintly laid his head on Hoseok’s shoulder before pulling back, flashing him a smile that you could tell was forced. Jin greeted him the same way, both knowing how fucked up this situation really was, and he would never be the type to ask for a hug but that doesn't mean he didn't need it.

A good 10 minutes later the two of you watched Henry be taken away, by Jin and Hoseok,Taehyung wouldn't even look at him no matter how hard he tried to get his attention. I don't think he had it in him, to look Henry in the eyes right now. It didn't go unnoticed the way he slipped his shades on right before they escorted Henry to the blacked out SUV.

Before they pulled off Hoseok hopped back out the truck walking over to Taehyung “Just so were clear, in 48 hours if he doesn't have ittt…” Letting his words dance in the air, waiting for Tae to fill the void and clarity his instructions.

“Then you handle it, he’s not getting a pass, been there done that four years ago when me and you went into that house in Taiwan..and cleared out every...body except him. Because for some reason my gut told me he was innocent...and apparently my gut failed me...so that’s it. No more special treatment..he has it in the next 48 or he's done.” 

Hoseok nodded slowly letting out a slow breath “And if he doesn't , do you want me to call you first?”

There was a slight pause before he spoke “Yeah, actually call me and wait ...don’t do anything until we talk..I might wanna come down there…”

“Kim Taehyung…” his tone was stern..he was techionally Tae’s elder even if Taehyung had higher ranking within the circle. “If it comes to that..let me..do my jo-” 

“Just call me..yeah?” Cutting him off with the driest tone imagainale walking away before Hosoek had a chance to say anything else! 

They pulled off and within the next 5 minutes you car was there to take you to the airport, he kept the glasses on the entire ride. The car that picked you up from the restaurant already had your luggage from your Airbnb in the trunk. He even kept  them on once you boarded the jet, the flight was barely an hour and a half, but one the four of you landed that’s when you say enough’s enough. You knew you needed to get him out of his head a little. 

The four of you were in the back of a blacked out limo, Tae and yourself together on one side while Mazda and Joon sat parallel. Taking a long slow drab from the gold tipped dab pin positioned between your lips, grabbing Taehyung's face which was currently glued to the view outside the window.

 Turning his head in your direction before gently pressing your lips to his, instantly reclining his jaw to allow you to slowly release the smoke from our lungs to his. You were trying to get him faded so he'd chill and you also knew his limits, pulling back slightly so he could breathe but instead in pulled you back in. Gripping the side of your neck as he slid his tongue into your mouth,lacing it around yours before sucking it between his lips. 

Sliding you onto his lap,with his opposite hand,sliding it down to find a home on your ass, clawing his nails through the thin fabric of your silk dress. Bringing your hand over to the nape of his neck, take a firm grip on his thick mane, a slight moan moved up your throat in response to the growl that left his. Flicking his sunglasses off with your opposite hand before being that one down to cradle the side of his neck. Licking his way into your mouth with ease, a content hum leaving his lips as you rocked your hips down against his lap. Licking along your bottom lip before he sucked it back into his mouth, letting his tongue lazily massage against yours. “Thatt boy..” left your lips in a playful tenor as licked up the side of your neck

“Damn, Joon you have some nice ass lips…”

“Really? Because you skin, it just mmm, butta, man butta, and this beard how do you keep it so soft!” 

Clearly Namjoon and Mazda we're not a fan of the show as the two of you broke out in a fit out laughter...Taehyung slid you off his lap but kept you close. Taking a couple more drags from the pin, releasing a cloud of smoke through his nostrils. 

“I mean don’t get me wrong I’m glad your smiling bro but like, I didin’t know I signed up for a sex show..” Mazda popped in as he took a sip of champagne from the neck of the bottle. 

“Also it wasn’t giving us good angles we couldn’t see much so it just wasn't far..” Namjoon added with a slight wink, thankful for the much needed change in atmosphere.

The mood shifted, as the four of passed the dab pin and the bottle of Dom Perignon Rose around, the suite wasn’t ready right when you arrived. The average person isn't booking a suite of that calabar at that price on a whim so the 4 of you killed time at the casino. The impromptu decision worked in groups favor though, Mazda and Namjoon won about 1k each which wasn’t a shit ton but considering they were just rolling to kill time..it’s a hell of a pickup. While Taehyung bought into a game that the minimum buy-in was 5k, and he walked away damn near tripling that..Again not bad for just finding something to do to “Kill time” …

Now, no matter how many times you guys stayed here, this suite never lost its luster for some reason...for starters it was damn near 9 thousand square feet. Had a private pool, game room, massage room, 24/hr butler ervies, a bar that sits 17 people and was spread out of 2 stories with floor to ceiling windows everywhere! 

It was a little after 5 in the afternoon once you guys were settled in the suite and it was damn near 80 degrees outside so it didn't take long for all four of you stip down into your swimwear. Multiple platters of sushi lined the bar as you guys just dabbled, not super hungry but wanting to keep your stomach coated from all the liquor you’d been drinking. You were sat on top of the counter while Taehyung stood in between your legs,  wearing a leopard bikini that didn't leave much to the immigination but he wanted a distraction right? 

He would never get this touchy freely in public with you or really anyone he was pretty private unless he trusted the people he was around and obvious it was only the four of you in the suite so he didn't mind. Appreciating your body heat pressed against his back. Arm’s draping over his shoulders, casually running your palms over his chest.“Sooo my father said Leo’s back in the hospital…” The words left your lips suddenly while Joon and Mazda glared up at you from the bar shaking their heads .

“How does he keep suddenly getting sick, I really don’t understand”  The frustration in Taehyung's voice was clear as day while licking the soy sauce off his fingers, he was right though it really didn't make sense. 

“The bad Juju from his secret love child..” Namjoon’s delivery was dry and somewhat sarcastic but you could tell he was serious…”No forreal..like people's bad vibes and energy can be the death of you man..”

“Oh fuck no, don’t go there man, there’s no way he hell I’d work with that mother fucker, I’ve never liked him, nor do I trust him. Funny how you typically only show up on holidays but now that Leo’s sick your his saving fucking grace! Fuck outta here with that shit...” Tae snarled in response...clearly this wasn't a good subject to bring up, you would feel his muscles starting to tense, bringing your hands up to massage his shoulders and it didn't take long for his body to cave in. Melting effortlessly into your touch...

“Yeah but there's also Dino-” Mazad tried to be helpful but you all knew the answer to that...Dino pulled out of this shit 10 years ago...theres no way in hell he’d step back in.

“Dino lost his son in his shit man, you know he’s not comin back…no fuckin’ way ” the words left Tae’s mouth slowly..saying what you were already thinking.. .

“Did he ever get a DNA test? “ Namjoon cocked his head to the side slightly flicking his tongue around the edges of the chopsticks

“You already know Leo’s not-” It was suddenly became very hard for you to focus, mainly because Taehyung decided to nuzzle his face in the crook of your neck. Cearly he was getting antsy and reallly wanted the three of you to shut the fuck up so he could do what he wanted! 

A ding from your phone broke the silence that danced in the air, as you find yourself getting lost in his touch, completely forgetting were you where and what you were originally doing! A growl ruptured in his chest, a second away from throwing your damn phone if one more distraction got in the way of him finally being inside you again after 2 weeks! 

“Yayy Melissa’s here..” Patting Taehyung's shoulder so he’d move as you hopped off the counter. His eyes glued to the way your ass bounced as you walked. 

“Who the fucks’s Melissa?” Joon mouthed out in silence while the other too shrugged, in slight confusion since you said her name like they should've automatically known.

The door swung open and she damn near tackled you to the floor, her deep red bikini rivaling yours as far as which one covered less. The two of you babbled about whatever as you walked towards the bar to introduce her.

“Guy this is-”

“Your a Mangjuhl, aren't you?” Tae asked with an arched brow..eyes dissecting her physical features..

A snort left her lips in response as she eyed the pool “ Well hello to you too, and it depends on who's asking I may be a Mangjeol””

Taehyung nodded in agreeance his face reading a solid “Touche” as he could be a Khan or a Kim..also depending on who's asking…leaving the conversation were it stood.

“Sooo are we actually going to use that...it’s hot as balls outside…”  Gesturing to the pool while Namjoon and Mazda didn't hesitate to get up. 

“After you..” Namjoon waved his hand signaling for her to go first, she glanced back at you to see if you were coming but quickly realized you were a little preoccupied.

Once the three of them were outside Tae brought his attention back over to you, cornering you  between the barop and his body “A Mangjuhl aye?” Brow arched tongue playing with the corner of his lips. 

A smug smirk moving up your face as you shrug your shoulders “What can I say...I like my bitches dangerous…” You teased against his bottom lip as he lifted you on top of the bar.

“Yeah?” tongue brushing against yours as he spoke, dropping his voice down to nothing but a bourbon coated whisper. Nodding your head faintly in response, purposely brushing his lips against yours so you’d try and chase after them. 

“Me too...” Licking his way into your mouth as he tilted his head to the side giving himself more leverage, sliding your body closer towards the middle of the bar. Hoisting himself up as well, the bar has much more length than width,  but it did fit your frame perfectly.

 Using on arm to support his weight while the other trickled down your stomach, cupping your pussy in his hand as you moaned out against his tongue. Arching into his touch, completely disregarding the fact that your on top of a marble bar, while your friends were outside in the pool. All of the windows were wide open at the moment, the currants pushed to the side, luckily because of where you were positioned there was a gold and marbled thick beam in the way cutting off your lower frame but it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to know what’s going behind it!

Sucking his bottom lip into your mouth as you clawed at his back, abruptly pulling back for you, both equally winded , eyeing the megum bottle of Grey Goose.  Opting for a cherry instead of a lime, he leaned down again.. “Stick your tongue out…” and you did, cradling your jaw in his hand as he lathered over your tongue with his own before sucking it back into his mouth moaning out at the way you started to grind yourself against his knee that currently sat between your thighs. Bringing his hand down smacking your pussy hard enough to make your entire body tense, chucking arrogantly as he watched your stomach muscles contract. “Fuck I can already feel how warm you are….look at you grinding that pretty litttle pussy all over my thigh. Wouldn't you rather have daddy’s cock instead?”

Not even giving you a chance to respond before he placed the cherry between your lips, stem already removed, reaching over to free you nipple from your swimsuit..which was barely covered anyway..I guess he decided that's where the salt was going. Sprinkling it around the areola...sliding down your body, lathering sloppy kisses down your neck, over your collarbone. Sucking around every area of your breast besides the target, loving the way you arched into his mouth. Almost as if you were trying to direct him elsewhere. Everytime your body arched your hips subconsiously rolled against his thigh, allowing him to feel how wet you were getting “ I bet I could slide right in and you’d take me so fuckin well, even without me streching this pretty little cunt of yours out…already so wet for me...aren’t you baby?” 

Excepting the slight whimper that left your throat as a response as he readjusted, eyes locked on yours as he slowly let his tongue roll out of his mouth, taking a long slow drag around the perimeter, licking up every drop before sucking your nipple into his mouth. Letting his teeth graze the overly' sensitive peek, your moans coming out muffled due to your lips being preoccupied. 

“Mmmm..I kinda wanna lick you all over so I guess I start at the bottom and work my way up .” Trickling the bottle of Grey Goose from your neck down to your belly button, actually attempting to fill it since that’s tectionally the point of a bodyshot. Starting at your navel, sucking first, before flicking your belly button ring with his tongue that slowly lathered it’s way up your stomach over your breast and into your mouth. Completely disregarding the cherry, opting for your tongue instead. “My two favroaite things on my tongue at once, you and liquor…” Smirking against your lips as he reached down to pull your panties to the side gently teasing your entrance with his index and middle finger a low moan resonating in his throat from how wet you already were. “I want you to come down my face ….” The words slurred out against your tongue as you rolled your hips into his palm.

“Then put your tongue on my pussy,...” Both of you smiling into the kiss loving how equally shameless you were.

Kissing his way down your stomach, sucking bruises into every inch of skin he could wrap his lips around. Licking along your bikini line..toying the thin G-string between his teeth as he nuzzled his face against your inner thigh. Biting, licking, sucking his way down until he your pussy was front and center. Legs supported on his forearms, as he used one had to keep your bikin to the side, opting to not completely strip you due to the circumstances. “Babbyyyy…” cooing out against your heat, you were already dripping down the marble countertop.

Initially pressing a light kiss right on your clit before licking slightly “Tae!!” already whining you really weren't in the mood for this and the chuckle that left his throat was telling if he was complying or making it worse. 

Tisking against your folds “You know being a brat gets you nowhere”

Now he was literally just kissing your clit...not even using his tongue at all “Tae, pleaseee…” 

“Good Girl”  The next flick of his tongue had a lot more pressure, and had your head spinning in circles as your eyes fluttered shut. Finally wrapping his lips around your clit, sucking hard, sliding his opposite hand from under your thigh. Flicking at your bottom lip, opening your mouth willingly, lapping your tongue around his fingers moaning against his skin as he started grinding your hips into his face. Coaxing you to fuck yourself self against his tongue as he laid it flat against your pussy, licking from top to  bottom, ending each stroke of the tounge with your clit smothered between his lips. 

Bringing his hand back down and sliding all three fingers in at once “Oh my god…” back coming to almost a complete arch as you fingers found there home in his hair, not even realizing how loud your voice was probably bouncing off the walls at this point. Pumping his fingers in and out mercissly, moaning out agaisnt your lips, he always sounds so fucking good when he’s going down on you. Moaning out as if he’s the one getting head, sending every vibration straight through you, it didn't take long for your muscles to start to seize up and your body to completely shatter, he’d been toying with you all day. His name falling from your lips weakly in something comparable to a montra as that’s all you said…

Pulling back using his index and middle finger to pull your lips aparts, slowly sliding his tongue between every niche he could find, sucking your clit into his mouth one more time just to watch your body shutter around him..Blowing on the tip before sliding back up your body!

“Fuck me…” Brushed past your lips and rolled onto his, reaching down to free him from the opening in his Gucci trunks.

Sliding his fingers through your juices again , bringing them up to his lips to slowly lap his tongue around him, A moan leaving his lips “Best thing I've tasted all day..” 

He could tell your were trying to shift your body to go down on him and he stopping you pushing on ontop the counter“Fuck no, I’ll come too quick, I’m already hard enough ba-” A groan leaving his lips as you leaned over to spit on the tip of his dick, working him in your hand, you could litterally  feel him puling against your palm “God yes….moreee” . You knew exactly what you meant, neither of you afraid to get a little messy when to came to sex, leaning over again, letting more lubericant drizzle from your tongue. 

Eyes heavy as he watched you work him in his hand, rock fuckin hard within seconds, you knew his weak spot was right under his tip. So you’d alternate the flucationing in your movements so he didn;t get use to it, tighten your grip towards the top and relaxing your hold  the closer you got to the base. 

“Your throbbing in my hand, Tae fuck….fuck me…” Toying his bottom lip between your teeth as you continued working him in your palm, shuffling his position on top of you swatting your hand away with a snarl. He had you rest your weight on one arm as he hovered over you with one of your legs hooked over his shoulder. Both of you slightly sitting upright as he teased at your clit with the head of his length. 

“You want it?” Lips hoving over yours, both panting heavily as he took his dick in his hands, teasing up and down your folds, costing himself in your juices, edging at your entrance but not sliding in full.

“Fuck you, you know I-” Your bitching was relplaced with a high picted moan that yuu knew they all heard there’s no way they didint. He started sliding in, the deeper he got the lower he got, until you were filled to the brim and he was laying flesh on top of you...bringing your legs up to rest on either side of your shoulders. 

Holding the position, while you both took in the feeling of you pulsing around him, and him pulsing inside of you, the angle had him deep, you felt every inch of him. Using on hand to cradle the side of your neck the other to support his weight. “Baby, fuck move, please movee..” Damn near begging at this point as he slid his tongue into your mouth, while he slowly started to roll his hips into you, every thrust felt like he was cutting off your airflow from how full you feel. 

“God, nothing feels as good ..as you do…” His breathing was already ragged you knew neither of you would last as he spoke through gritted teeth grounding his hips into yours. Pulling out completely every time, before slamming in with such force your body rocked against the counter. The sound of skin slapping, echoed throughout the suite, eyes never leaving yours as he rolled his hips into you mercilessly, your walls were already started to clench around him.

“Your so fucking thick, Tae…” Arching up slightly, pursing his lips out to spit on your clit, the sensation making your body tense even more. “Fuck… you feel soo fucking good …” Reclining your neck giving him better access as you tugged on the hairs at the back of his head, his teeth finding the side of your neck as he bit down. Knowing you like it rough so he didn't hold back, damn near breaking skin once he made contact.  

“Yeah? You like the way my dick fills you up baby? You gonna be a good girl and come for me again?” You nodded and he kisses down your neck slam into you even harder “Play with your pussy and come for me baby…” Not hesitating to do exactly as he instructed, aggint steady pressure, feeling the nerve get harder and harder by the second!

“ Oh shit-” breath hiccuping in your chest at the sudden change in pace. Taehung wasn’’t one to fuck super hard like this he was usually a slow and deep kinda guy. There it was again your walls were pulsing hard, milking him for everything he had.

”Fuck, there it is baby, come on baby come for me, come all over my dick baby come on…” He cooed in your ear , coaching you on before biting down hard on your shoulder. 

“ Fuck Tae, oh my god oh my fu-” back slamming agaisnt the marble, a scream leaving your throat as your orgasm ruptured through your entire body. While he continued rocking his hips into you working you for very last nerve he could shatter.  It felt like his dick got even harder after you came around him. Body humming in sensitivity as you purposely clenched your walls as tight as you can around him, edging him towards his release.

 “Fuck just like that , dont stop ,dont stop,” He whispered into your hair , as your brought your nails back over to his back, knowing how much he loved the sensation. Using the last bit of energy you had, slowly rocking your hips until into him, meeting his thrust everytime, hitting the spot you both needed. “Yes, fuck yes…”  Eyes fluttering shut as he moaned out, the strong brassy bartone that ruptured through the walls, the angle you added made him feel even deeper than he already was. 

“Come for me daddy..” You heard the neediness start to ring through his throat at that, every one that left his lips was stronger than the last.

“I know you wanna fill me up…fuck I need it please, come in me..”  Purposely adding a whiney tinge to your voice as, bucking your hips even stronger this time .He cupped the back of your neck pulling your face back to his as he moaned into your mouth. Grabbing your waist tighter letting you know not to stop , and you didn't, you felt him fall apart on top of you as he moaned into your mouth, kissing you deeper and deeper as he road out his high, arm’s shaking until he just gave in on top of you. Snaking your hands into his hair,while his romaned up and down your body, both panting heavily against each others tongue. Your entire body felt limp, neither of you in any rush to move..regardless of your current situation, just lazily letting his tongue explore your mouth. About I don't know a good 5 or so minutes went by and then you heard.

“Are you two done yet!!?”  You expected it to be Joon to be honest but it was actually Melissa, there wasn’t shit either of you could do but laugh. Tae’s palm coming to soothe your thighs..

“Yeah give us a minute…” Pulling you off the counter, readjusting your swimsuit for you as he positioned you over the ledge, wincing slightly at the contact, reaching behind the bar wetting a towel, to whip you and the counter down . Letting the warm cloth stay flesh to your heat for a moment before pulling away knowing damn well you could use it. Bringing another towel to dab at your skin, trying to ease the current sticky feeling a combination of sweat and well..vodka. 

Shaking his fingers through his hair,messily brushing his bangs out of his face since they wouldn't stop sticking to his forehead.  Hair sitting in a messy middle part,the two of you heard tentative footsteps and couldn't help but smirk over at each other. 

“Your good…” He stood between your thighs while, your legs dangled off the ledge of the bar, so his back was facing them as the walked over, his hands still soothing your thighs. He could tell they were still shaking…

“Dayummm..she fucked your shit up…” You watched Namjon go wide eyed as he stepped closer to investigate the welts across Taehyung skin. Install finding your head buried in his hair...not even wanting to look at any of them right now.

“Is it that bad? Damn I guess I was doing something right..” You didn't even have to look at him to know he had the biggest grin on his face.

‘Sooo what are we doin tonight?”  Mazda, walked over to the lounge area plopping down on the leather ottoman.

“Wellll..what time is it right now like a little after 6? How about we meet around 8:30..grab dinner somewhere then head over to the club..check on the boys..see how business is going…” Patting your thigh for some sort of confirmation and you just humming out in response. Reclining back against the counter, still slightly dazed, just needing to hop in the shower to wake up a little.

“Sounds good to me…Mel you down?” 

It didn't go unnoticed the way Mazda and Namjoon pipped up at the question...a smirk tugging on your face as you observed the dynamic unfold. 

“Yeah I’m down..I didn't plan shit else tonight anyway sooo..” 

“Okay, well I’ll call you in an hour once I know where we're going oh, who's doing you glam tonight? So I know who not to call because there's no way in hell I’m doing my own”

“Mmmm..Probaly Aria…” 

Nodding in response..you prefereed Arielle anyway so that worked in your favor “Okay well, Tae, can you walk her out, I would, but to be fair..I’m fucking exhausted..just no I love you..” 

A snort leaving her lips in response “Nah I’ll let you slide..form what I heard you have a reason to be tired..” Shooting a wink in your direction and not to your surprise at all Namjoon and Mazda volunteered to walk her out.

“Oh she get’s dual service ...well isn't she special…” Tae teased as they escorted her to the door.

“OH! Wait what time are you think tomorrow?” You heard Mel Yell from acoun d the beam, scurrying back in your direction.

“Ughh around like 8 tomorrow night sound good?” 

“Yes ma’am” A smirk tugged on the corners of her lips before she headed back towards the exit, you didn't even have to look at Taehyung to know the look on his face.

Leasurily cocking your head to the side to meet his curious gaze “And what the fuck was that about?” 

A dry chuckle leaving your lips before leaning down to graze his bottom lip with your tongue. His tone taking “Daddy” to a completely different level. 

“Don’t worry about it “ …

Mazda and Joon returning moments later.

“So we just gonna ignore the massive hickeys on your necks orrrrrr…” Sipping from the leftover bottle of Grey Goose as you reclind along the bar. 

“I mean...she just looked so sweet and innocent I didn't expect-” 

“Yeah she’s really sweet...a sweet innocent.. money launder” Taahyung purposely stalled the ending..just waiting for their eyes to bulge out of their sockets making you damn near coke on your drink.

“There's no way…” Namjoon’s face was priceless..utterly priceless 

“Ugh yeah, how the fuck do you think I knew who she was!? I know you didn't think she was just some Instagram model did you? It’s Luxx were talking about here. You should’ve known better”

The two of them just kinda glanced at each other not even knowing where to start when it comes to peacing this together in their minds.

The four of you got ready for the night, Arielle came over and beat your face, and curled your hair for you. A quarter to nine you all met Mel at Bar Masa, and slid into the club around 11, which didn't go as smoothly as you hoped. Let’s just say it’s a good thing you never leave the house without a weapon on hand, the edge of you blade found it’ home in someone’s shin! It was around 4 am when the four of you crawled back into your suit, unfortunately returning with a briefcase of papers..which is why you told tae you didn't want to go in the first place! 

It wasn’t until damn near two the afternoon when the four of you rolled out of bed, Taehyung and yourself sat and ate lunch while going over the mounds of paperwork. Luckily because there was “work” related shit to do, and the fact that Mazda and Joon were there that kidna eased any awkwardness that might have taken place upon the two of you waking up together.  Ya know since the little sleepover you two had at his place two weeks ago that ended in a trainwreck! 

“Fuckkkk!” the word screeched form both of your lips in unions as you looked over the numbers.

“They can’t lave that kinda money just sitting like that….”Taehyung held his temples between his index and middle finger. “Shit, Hoseok and Yoongi are both in Asia right now, and there booked out until-”

“Mel can do it, she’s already moving a good 20 for me tonight, we can add this to her route, she can get it across the border before the next drop…” Your eyes never made contact with his as you dissected the numbers on the screen..

“I mean yeah, If you trust that she-”

“She’s good..were good...I got it, I’ll have transported tonight….” 

~~~~~~~

It was now going on 5 o'clock, the sun and heat still in full effect...

“Oh fuck me, that shit’s harsh!” You sounded like you  were hacking up a hairball as your breath hiccuped in your chest after taking one drag from the gold plated cigar in Namjoon's hand. You wanted to be annoyed at the three of the cackling their lives away while you legit felt like you were dying while growing chest hair. But there was something so pure about the sounds that escaped Tae’s mouth, and just the genuine smile that was plastered across his face. Especially in comparison to yesterday, but that bliss was quickly interrupted once his phone rang. Hoseok’s name popping up on the screen, as he hopped out of the pool, even with the time difference Taehyung played fair. If he said 48 hours Henry would receive a full 48 hours, so the fact that Hoseok was calling early had you slightly opesmestic.

About 10 minutes later, when Taehyung had not came back your curiosity and concern got the best of you. To be fair this warehouse facility, business wise was just as much his as it was your own, upon eventually making your way to the master suite you heard the shower running. That alone had your stomach turning in 827828 knots, as you approached the room. Only to see his luggage sprawled across the bed, closing the door behind you, resting your back against the frame as you observed him silently resituating his clothing. Surprisingly the aura in the room was calm, almost too calm as you watched the way the sunlight danced over his caramel coated skin. The muscles in his back flexing as he kneeled over to continue shuffling through his bellongs. 

“So your leaving?” The words floated off your tongue so light it almost sounds as though your whispering. Not giving you a verbal response, not even looking at you just nodding his head slowly, you watched him slide every piece of jewelry off his body, placing them in a leather bag. Until he got to the gold “V” necklace, taking it off, and walking over in your direction, seamlessly hooking the chain around your neck, still in complete silence as he hovered over you before pulling back tentatively, walking towards the bathroom.

That alone, kinda already let you know what was what, rule #1 if your going to kill someone you never wear anything personal. Especially not jewelry, not something that could accidentally fall off or leave an imprint on the victim's body. 

Trying your hardest not to get frustrated with how distant he was being because you knew this was exceptionally difficult for him on a more personal level. “So what? I mean it’s not a full 48 hours so does he not have the money? Or are you just going to talk and check on the warehouse?” Your tone was still calm, warm even, just trying to ease your way through his nine thousand defense’s. 

Still, absolute silence, a loud huff left your throat as you stomped towards the bathroom “Hey!” Tone elevated slightly, pasung until he actually turned around and made eye contact with you. “ I know this shit with Henry really fucking sucks, but this business is just as much mine as it is yours. You don’t get to just ignore me when I’m asking questions about OUR company Taehyung!”

The look on his face never faltered, not even with the emotion that radiated through as you spoke, it was like talking to a brick fuckikng wall right now. 

“Yes, but THIS” Brow arched in your direction, but an immense amount of infinces on the last word. Wanting to make sure you knew exactly what, or who he was referring too.

“Is nobody’s business but mine…..” You knew this version of Kim Taehyung far too well and it really concerned you, he lacked so much emotion as he spoke yet radiated so much rage, your swore you could hear his blood pumping. 

At this point you just kinda gave up, you can’t help someone who doesn't wanna let you in, but for the first time, him shutting you out like this hurt. It felt like someone stuck a knife in your stomach just keeps slowly turning it, and turning it until it just aches. You told yourself you’d probably regret coming on this trip and you were right, you just weren't aware of the reason you'd regret it. Now you know, weather you want to admit it or not, you were starting to fall for the one personal you always told yourself you never would! 

Dropping his swim trunks on the ground before opening the glass panel to the walk-in shower “I ugh, I'm leaving in about an hour, I’m only taking the black leather Keepall, so when you guys leave tomorrow, could you take the rest of my bags home?” 

You found yourself staring down at your feet as he spoke, arms crossed over your chest, squeezing down on your own biceps extremely hard as you nodded in response. Walking yourself out of the bathroom, letting your eyes scan the bed, you knew you’d hate yourself for looking but you couldn't help it. 

Letting your fingers dance over the bag which he hadn't zipped yet,upon looking you found yourself slouching over the bag unintentionally. Eyes squeezed shut as you just shook your head...there was nothing it in but “Cleaner gear” all black, all sterrel, gloves, a 5 Beretta 92FS,  Ruger Mk II., a black baseball cap and ammo...that was all that was sitting in his black leather Keepall. 

THAT’S ALLL SHE WROTE ...FOR NOW LOL...this does leave a lot more questions especially going into part 4 now that you know a little more backstory. 

If you liked it show this some love and lemme know,and I’ll start on part 4...

Love you guys as always ,

Rocki! 

[bodyswapmischief]

The Promotion

- Hey are you there ... did you get the file.

- Yeah, I just looked over it this morning.

- And...

- Well, these doctor records show that you have become fat enough ... overachiever lol, but send a picture so I can see if you look fat enough.

- WTF dude. You just told me to get fat. Never said anything about looking fat "ENOUGH." If you don't hold up your end...

*Picture Sent*

-Damn what happened to you ;) lol. You don't have anything to worry about, your size is just right. Well, I guess you could always get bigger. More money in it for you.

And I wouldn't be making threats to anyone, with that massive gut. Might get a heart attack. You aren't getting any younger lol. Plus, I can ran circles around your fat ass lmao. See you at work tomorrow, and wear something sexy.

- Fuck you, I'm not your new sexy toy and I'm not even gay.

- Don't worry give it some time. I like playing the long game. And I'm serious, be careful about your stress; I don't want you dying on me ;)

After the phone call, I threw myself on the bed. It creaked with the massive weight that just suddenly hit it. Oh shit I forgot; I need to be more gentle, I thought to myself. Looking down all I could see was my massive gut. I felt blood move quickly through my veins and my heart beating fast. Still worked up from those text from my boss. What the hell did I do to myself? Was it all worth it?

It's been a little before a year since this journey has began. If you could believe it, I was at peak fitness. My arms were massive, with muscle. I didn't have this gut, jiggling with every step I took. No, I had abs that anyone would kill for. My legs were powerful. Now they used what ever power is left to carry my fat ass.

I worked for a big company, for about ten years. I started when I was in my mid 20's. Yeah I would get pay raises, but I wanted more. I wanted to move up in the company. I've seen coworkers move up. Mostly women. A few men. And those men all ended up fat. I always told myself, I wouldn't let that happen to me. But, I know better now. I know the deal they made.

To put it simply someone had a heart attack and a position opened up. I saw my opportunity and went into my boss's office demanding that promotion. He was a man in his late 50's but was incredibly fit. If you didn't know better, you might mistake him for being in his mid 40's. However impressive his body was, mine was greater. His aging body required more work and focus. Something running a busy life doesn't leave you. Maybe if he was younger, he would have a body the rivaled mine.

He looked up at me and smiled. "Close the door, so we can continue this conversation," he said. I explained all the reasons I was qualified for the promotion. But. I could tell he wasn't paying attention to my words. He eyes were focusing on my body. He had lust and rage in his eye.

"Okay, I heard enough" he finally interrupted. "Let me tell you the truth...I'm jealous of you. Why do you think you haven't been promoted in the 10 years you have been working here. You are probably one of the best employees, and it is because of all that charisma and fucking hot body. I hate you ... but, I love you. That's why I just give you enough to want to stay. Every year I wait, for you to slip up and let your self go. But, no you keep getting more fucking ripped and hot. How is that even possible? Where do you find the time?"

I just sat there dumb founded. My boss's voice ringing through my ears. A mixture of trying to convince me of something and yelling. I never heard him talk like this. I finally cut in "What the fuck is all this about."

He stops and pulls himself together. "Well right now, I realized you are the perfect man for the promotion. My new right hand man. But, I need to tell you. I have a fetish. I love watching men that are fit, healthy, and younger than me let themselves go. I like to see them get fat. This is the one condition for your promotion."

"Your fucking sick. What the hell is wrong with you. I can go to HR right know!" I responded.

"Yes you can. And, I will probably lose everything or for every pound you gain you get this added to your yearly earnings..." He stops and starts writing something on a slip of paper. He hands it to me.10,000 dollars. He continues, "And the minimum weight I want you you to gain is 50 pounds. So, you would be making half a million dollars every year."

I stood there in shock. My mind weighing all the options. I could quit and be stuck with no job. Get my boss fired and lose out on this deal. Or be rich, save up money for a few years and then quit. And, lose the weight I would gain. "Okay, I'll do it."

My boss smile and brought out a scale. I went on and it would read 187 pounds for the last time. I signed the paper work and he explained that to start off I would go on a 6 month cruise. To help me fatten up. And so I went along with it. I showed up with my bags packed. I even bought myself some bigger clothes, for my expected weight gain. I noticed my ticket was different. Printed on blue paper, and when I got to the front it was clear I was a "special guest." The staff brought me straight to the medical room.

I waited for a while. Then finally a doctor and nurse entered the room. The nurse was pushing a tray with a syringe filled with blue liquid. "Mr. Fuller?" The doctor asked. "Yes I respond." The doctor nods and ask me to take off my shirt. He sees my muscled up body and shakes his head, in pity. "And are you sure you want to do this?" I nod. He sighs, "I guess if I was offered that deal too, I would have a hard time turning it down." He grabs the syringe and brings it closer to my arm.

"Wait was is that for." I motioned to the syringe. "Weren't you told what was going to happen." The doctor asked quickly pulling the syringe away. "Yeah? My boss wants me to get fat." I responded. "Damn, he always pulls this shit. Nurse get Mr. Sterling on the phone." He says before turning his attention on to me. "And how do you think that is going to happen?" He asked. “By coming on this cruise and eating?"

The doctor shakes his head ... "That is only part of it. Based on those abs ..." he begins to rub and examine parts of my body " this body is going to need help to gain weight. See, we are not going to be baby sitting you making sure you get fat. This is all on you and how much work you put in.Your stomach is not use to eating beyond its limits. Also based on your body, you are not one to just sit and relax. So any work you do in trying to gain weight will just be worked off. Also, there is the requirement of having to maintain a 50 pound weight gain. Just .01 pounds off at any moment and the contract can be void. So this shot will help with all of that. It will make you hungry. When you are full it will be less painful. It will help your stomach stretch, it will make you slightly lazier. But, with the cost that any weight you gain will be permanent. All these symptoms will be removed after the trip, when we give you the antidote, but like I said any weight gain prior to the antidote will be permanent."

"Doctor Mr. Sterling is on the phone." The nurse chimed in. "You think about everything I said." The doctors said as he left the room. I could hear him yelling at the phone. "You fucker! You brought me another ill informed client ..."

His voice zoned out ... as I weighed this new information given to me. I signed the paper ... all that money is just one shot away. But, is fifty permanent pounds worth it. I would be 230 pounds. With all that money I would be making ... would I even care about being 50 pounds heavier. I mean I am getting older ... I wasn't going to be fit my whole life. The doctor came back in.

"I'm ready." I said. He looked at me and halfheartedly gave me the shot. "If it ever seems to much for you we can stop at any time. I will give you the antidote early. If you want you can come in for monthly weigh-ins. And I will give you the antidote when you hit the 50 pounds you need to meet the requirements, so you don't gain any unnecessary permanent weight."

The first month went on. I Stuffed my face eating everything I never let myself eat, before. I was always eating, always had a snack bag. I did try to stay active. Swimming, running, and using the gym. But each day, my body would be able to do less.

(I would spend hours every day at gym. Now I could barely do 3 hrs a week. I know I am never going to lose this weight, but I just like the way I feel after working out. It reminds me of who I use to be. I did have to leave my old gym. First because a lot of people knew me. I would always have to answer a million questions about my weight gain. They would also give me the pity: well just keep working out you'll have your body back in no time. But, I could never tell them the truth. Secondly, the the gym was more for hardcore people. So, I would always get disgusted looks. The last straw was when I was using a treadmill mill and some asshole came up and said "are you done yet fatty you,re wasting my time. Stop hogging the treadmill, that gut isn’t going anywhere anytime soon." Luckily I did find a fat friendly gym)

By the end of the first month I gained 10 pounds and had a panic attack. Did I really want to do this? I felt depressed. I realized these weigh ins were not good for my mental health. I told this to the the doctor and he was understanding, but still wanted me to come in. However, I didn't go back until the trip ended.

I spent months eating, sleeping, laying around, and watching TV. I also tried exercising, to no effect, when I had the energy. By the end the biggest clothes I bought were tight and barely able to cover my body. I couldn't fit into my underwear. I kept my pants unbuttoned. My shirt hugged every new fat curve of my body. Every thing was skin tight. I went back to the doctor and he weighed me. I told him I didn't want to know. The damage was done no matter what. He gave me the antidote. And I went home, on a Sunday. I climbed on my scale and it read 270. I felt my heart sink. I gained 83 pound. 33 more than I needed. And to be honest, I cried the rest of the day. Mourning my old life and getting use to my new one.

The next day, I called up the office. My boss told me to use the next 3 months to become adjusted to my new life. He saw my paper work from the doctor and gave me the full years check. 630,000 dollars. At the end of the 3 months I would need to send an update from a doctor he recommended, a new doctor that would understand my case.

So, I did what he suggested. I went out in public. I bought myself new clothes. Joined a new gym, knowing I will never lose this weight. I was able to gain some new confidence in this body. The trip to the doctor was a new experience. He explained to me that this weight I have gained had real side effects on my body. It turns out 1% of users gain health problems. I was one of them. My cholesterol levels raised, but with constant exercising and eating right I can reduce them. But, I learned I now have permanent high blood pressure.

The doctor continued to squeeze my fat and I got new sensations I never felt before. I did numerous test. A Stress test where I ran on a treadmill. Unluckily, it was in front of a mirror and I saw how ridiculous I looked running.

I will have to watch what I eat. Which is okay, after the antidote shot my appetite returned to normal. But it sucks having having a fat body with out the benefits of being able to eat whatever I want. I will live the rest of my life as a healthy person living in a fat person's body.

Now, I am just laying here, waiting to see what happens tomorrow. And, thinking of all the money I will be making. Was it worth? I guess time will tell.

[peachydyoung]

money talks | k.dy (m)

— genre ➙  sugardaddy!au + smut + angst — words ➙ 8k i love writing doyoung please kill me — member ➙ kim dongyoung — warnings ➙ graphic smut, dirty talk, rough sex, softdom!doyoung + sub!reader, oral sex, fingering + strong language + inappropriate scenario // 2 smuts in one

The owner of a multi-billion dollar company plans to invest in your career for a small price. He gives you one rule... Don’t get attached.

↳ 01 completed

— ⚠️ DISCLAIMER⚠️ ➙  This contains a very problematic scenario. I personally do not advocate for this, and please know that this is writing, a story with an intriguing topic to read about, not to act upon. Each fic will have their own set of warnings, look at them and evaluate if they are for you. My intention is not to offend, or trigger anybody, I am here to entertain you and exercise my passion as a writer. a/n here’s a nice long doyoung smut, 2 sex scenes cause there is never enough and doyoung my bias. 

“I haven’t seen you before,” A dark-haired, broad-shouldered man smiled, raising his wine glass in front of him. His penetrating eyes and gummy smile made you unconsciously lift yours. Although it was your first time at this party, you wondered why you hadn’t seen him earlier. He was senselessly gorgeous.

You were insecure under his stare, he stood there in front of you with his fancy suit and handsome face. The only dresses you could afford were the ones from forever 21. And even then it was still a little much. Nonetheless, you could always manage to make five dollars look like hundred.

“Uh, yeah, I’m a plus one,” you said apprehensively, but the man seemed to catch on to it. Taeyong had brought you along and asked that you mingle to make more connections. He noticed that you were becoming more and more insecure about your photography with every new job that turned you down.

“Mmm,” He hummed, taking a sip of his wine and letting his eyes rake over your body. “So you’re here with a man? Women? By yourself?” He was easy on the eyes, especially wearing an expensive black suit and being in his mid or late twenties.

“My friend… you might know him, his name is Taeyong. He’s pretty popular amongst the mainstream dancing thing. He has a lot of friends.” His eyes widened comically, a big smile playing on his youthful skin as he let out a laugh. You didn’t wanna be here at all, but you knew coming here meant photography connections and you needed that before college ended.

“Me and Taeyong? We go way back,” He said grinning as if he was reliving a past memory. “Can I?” he gestured to the open chair next to you, his smile making you say yes to anything he could have asked.

“Yeah of course!” You adjusted your body to look more presentable. With a nod, he sat on the stool next to you, placing his glass on the counter of the fancy bar and drumming his fingers on the granite counter.

“So…has no other man come to talk to you yet?” Your cheeks were blanketed in a red sheer glow as he asked the question. To answer his question, no, nobody had come to talk to you. You either scared them away or were a ghost to the rich and snobby crowd.  “I apologize if it makes you uncomfortable it’s just a question a man has when they see a beautiful woman sitting alone—I’m Doyoung by the way, Kim Dongyoung.” He had manners too, something you liked in a guy. And this one wasn’t a frat boy, he was a real man with a job.

“I’m Y/N, and no, nobody has.” The beginnings of a smirk were present on his small lips. His answer didn’t shock him,  he knew that you would be his by the end of the night. “And if you’re wondering, I don’t have a boyfriend either,” You added on playfully, earning a chuckle.  He sipped his drink, mischievous twinkling in his eyes.

“Well, I don’t have a girlfriend either.” A smile illuminated his face, he looked down, something about it was bittersweet. “So what do you do?” He asked. “What do you do to make a life for yourself.”

“Photographer, I’m a photographer.” He nodded. “I uh, I’m going to college right now majoring in photography, which is going very well. I want to break into high fashion photography for models, especially nude shoots, those are always fun.” He laughed, it was deep, low, and genuine. “It’ll never happen though, should've become a dentist like my mom suggested.” You paused momentarily, holding eye contact with the man. His eyes were dark, narrow, and discerning.  “Fine art photography is my backup, but it’s even harder to make a name for yourself. Photography is hard to break into now, you know.” You laughed awkwardly. “Part-time jobs are my income and will continue to be that way.”

“Consider yourself lucky. At Least you’re doing something you love. Do you know how many people have money and office jobs and hate it… a lot, I’ll tell you that much.” You guessed he was right, he looked rich enough to make the assumption. “ If photography truly makes you happy, pursuing it is the only way to go. We live most of our lives in work anyways,, don’t play dentist because your mom said so. Novelty wears off.”

“And are you happy?” You tilted your head, earning a silent laugh from him.

“Do you know who I am?” He inquired, looking more and more smug by the minute. “Never heard of KDY Enterprises? Or Entertainment?.” You were ashamed of not knowing, nodding your head no shyly. He didn’t seem to mind, he actually looked a little… happy?

“So you have money? And an office job?” He was hesitant to answer you but decided to say it anyway.

“Yeah, yeah I do.”

“So, tell me first hand, do you hate your job, does the novelty of money wear off?” He cocked his head to the side, his tongue poking from his cheek as he swallowed your playful retort.

“You know what people don’t know?” He asked, setting down his drink and narrowing his eyes at you. “I might have a busy job, but money never gets old. Despite what people think, I can buy happiness.”

“Sure you can. You can buy food, mattresses, houses, plane tickets, all of which that would make one happy, me included. But what’s the point of buying a house when it’s empty? You can have a bag of groceries, but you won’t finish all the food. Mattresses get cold when one side is slept on more than the other.”

A shaky sigh left his lips, you guessed that nobody had really talked to him like this, after all, he was the CEO of his own company. “My penthouse is pretty empty,” He shrugged, ogling you. “My bed’s cold as well.” A sly smirk found its way to his face. “I like sharing. With my friends… family...charity.” You chuckled at him, sipping wine from your own glass.

“I know people in the fashion business, I know models, I know photographers.” You knew a business opportunity when you saw one, you cocked your eyebrow and looked at him through hooded eyes.

“I don’t follow.” You looked everywhere but him, at the ceiling, at the ground, just left of his head. You even spotted Taeyong talking to some girl. But you were too nervous to look at him, too nervous to hear what he would propose.

“Because I’m lonely and rich as you so kindly pointed out,” He retorted. “Why don’t I help you with your photography dream. And If you’re so willing we can even share a  bed.” You started at him, watching as he got up from his chair and stepping in front of you.

“And how did you intend on doing that?”

“Sweetheart, come with me and let me show you.”

With his arm outstretched and his hand offered. You took it, not knowing you made a deal with the devil.

A year later

Your eyes hurt and were dry from keeping them open. Your photoshop was broken, and you couldn't email the photos without your computer shutting down. No matter how hard you tried none of your photographs were looking the way you’d imagine them to turn out like. Fine art photography wasn’t supposed to be forced, but you’ve been in a rut for at least a month.

It wasn’t always like this. Your creativity would be bursting at the seams when he was there. Everything seemed to be going right when Doyoung showed up. When he was gone it was like you were living your days in an endless loop of loneliness and fame. The world went on without you, life passed you. It was when you were with Doyoung that you could catch up to it again. Without him, you were stuck, life stopped.

Doyoung offered you an easy out of your part time jobs with mediocre pay and wage times. He introduced you to a world of magic and wealth. Although you were skeptical at first, you had no choice but to agree, there was no way you could get through college and then get a decent job. College at that point was getting pretty shitty with all its stressful exams, and you needed a way out. And there was your opportunity.

Of course, there were rules you were to follow religiously. If you were to break any of them you don't know what Doyoung would do to you, he could be super creative at times. Regardless, you followed them because you were grateful for all he did for you, not just because he told you too.

You weren’t stupid, you knew that he had other girls spread across the world waiting to be fucked just like you were. They were probably held up in a penthouse just like you. But you didn’t ask questions, you didn’t care. You broke rule number, don’t get too attached. And that was the first mistake you made with your dangerous life with Doyoung.

You shut your laptop and groaned, pulling the instant noodles you made earlier towards you. You took a spoonful of the now cold and mushy noodles. You had been able to pay back Doyoung the million dollars he gave you to start your photography career and made nearly 20 times more. Yet you still stayed and ate less than mediocre food. Bad habits never change.

“This is fucking disgusting,” you muttered to yourself, snatching the cup of noodles up in your hand and sauntering over to the kitchen.

The house was pretty minimalistic. It was mostly all white with black furniture, cool toned things and such. It was all open concept, the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Every countertop was white quartz, every cabinet war of the highest quality wood, you lived lavishly.

You opened the trash can and threw the mushy noodles in. Doyoung had promised to bring you dinner that night, and as the clock struck closer and closer to twelve you knew it was a lost cause. And instead of calling, you turned into a muttering mess. “Doyoung, when you come back I’m gonna fucking kill you for making me wait—”

“Now baby,” a familiar voice cut through the air behind you. “You’re not actually planning on doing something  stupid, right?”

The familiar sight of his white button-down shirt came into vision. It was a nice sense of normalcy when you saw him sweaty after work,  his white shirt clinging to his skin. It made you feel like one of those conventional couples, the ones where the wife greets the husband when he gets back from work.

He dropped his briefcase on the ground and lean up on the counter across from you.

“Fuck you.” He pretended to look shocked from what you had said, but to be frank, this whole month you had been giving him attitude and you yourself didn’t even know why. This doesn't surprise him.

“Cute,” he remarked. “It wouldn't be the first time I have.” You had become so comfortable with him in the year you knew him. But as you grew comfortable,  his slide remarks didn’t turn you on like they used to, his broken promises actually hurt, the relationship actually meant something to you. And you didn’t know if any of those things mattered to him ” I wonder  when  you’ll  learn to behave and not disobey me.” He ran his finger through his black hair and smirked. “I’m in need of a destresser.”

“You have other whores for tha—”

“Aren’t you brave tonight?” He raised his voice at you. “Like I said.” He pronounced each word clearly and loud. “I’m stressed and I missed you. I’ll dismiss the fact that you just said that to me as well.” He looked around the kitchen, finally locking eyes with you. “You should be happy I’m here, I’m a busy man you know.”

“Oh my god, thank you Doyoung for gracing me with your presence that wasn’t even spontaneous, it was promised!  Better yet! Thank you for being five hours late!” You never really got mad at him, even now the anger wasn’t at its breaking point, but this month things started to change.

“I don’t understand why you have to be so rude. You’ve been doing it a lot lately.”

You narrowed your eyes at your employer, finally a real anger brewing inside of you for all that he put you through. He sensed that, and despite his usual half-assed sorries, he pulled one out of his ass and made it sound even a little real. “I’m sorry Y/N. What can I do to make it up to you? Money? Jewelry? You name it. ” You were fully prepared to make an escape to your room and not see him for a couple of more months. You walked away.

“Y/N, don’t leave—” But you were already walking, walking, and walking away. “Y/N stop walking…  stop now.”

If it hadn’t been for how scary his voice was when he yelled, you might’ve not stopped, but maybe a part of you still would’ve.

“Get the fuck over here, right fucking now.” His voice was deep when he shouted, it was scary. In that moment you knew you were gonna fuck him, from the moment you saw him you knew.

“Why don’t you get the fuck over here, since you miss me so bad.” You turned around and looked at him. He was still leaning on the counter, staring at you. He reluctantly got up with a huff and paraded over meeting you at the dining table. His hand cupped your cheek while his other brushed some stray hair away from your face, pulling your face up. 

“Who do you think you are?” He said just above a whisper. “I don’t like fucking attitude,” he spat at you. “You should remember how you acted when you first got her, cause you weren’t like this.”

This was the fourth time he’d visited that week. Each time he came he was more stressed than the last, and you were becoming more reluctant as the days went on. It was one of the longest times he came. 

You wondered wh yourself was giving him attitude, he was generally a nice person with good intentions and you could tell that this was hurting him. But he was hurting you, he was always hurting you. Maybe the attitude would compensate for the fact that you actually had feelings for the man and pushing him away would help in the long run. “Bedroom, princess.”

He was right behind you quickly heading into the master bedroom like he was your parent tucking you to bed at night. You hated when he did that. He pushed you down on the bed roughly, letting you get enough time in to look up at him. He ripped the buttons of his button shirt open so hard you heard the little sounds of beads falling on the ground. He pulled down his pants so quickly you thought you heard a tear.

Faster than a heartbeat, his lips were pushed against yours feverishly. Doyoung always kissed rough and quick, always being careful of not kissing you too long so you never got the wrong idea. He was pulling on the hem of your shirt, leaving a trail of warm kisses down your neck as he struggled to pull it off your body.

Doyoung was everything you needed in bed. He was confident, caring, rough, and surprisingly exciting. Once he had pulled you top off, he was pulling down your jeans, throwing them somewhere behind him and chuckling. He ground his hips against yours. Enough to get you wet and leave your juices on soaking your panties.

Despite what people thought Doyoung's lips were soft and warm, not cold at all like the media portrayed. He was warm and inviting. So as he kissed you, you let your hands knot in the roots of his hair and pull.

He sighed pushing his tongue deep inside your mouth, a moaning. Your hips rocked against his, creating more and more friction for the both of you. His hands slipped to your waist, pulling the panties down on the right side. It was the fourth time this week his body was on top of yours, and you loved it.

“Doyoung—”

“Sweetheart you lost the right to talk,” He hummed, pulling your panties down and teasing your slit. He looked down at your pink pussy and intricately pleasured you, making you gasp. He was always in charge—always. He was the one that would leave you thoroughly fucked or in a crumpled up mess waiting to be. That was the way it was, and you liked the high stakes. A suppressed moan fell from your lips and was caught in his when he pushed the pad of his thumb on your clit.

“You can moan baby, I won’t stop you from doing that, ” He snickered, feeling your wetness gather up around your clit and entrance.

“You’re already dripping.” He smiled against your mouth than peppering kisses down your neck in sloppy unorganized kisses.

Without warning, he pushed a finger inside you, and you tried hard to suppress the scream that crawled at the back of your throat. Normally Doyoung liked to rile you up, he thrust his long fingers in and out of your pussy, in a search for your sweet spot. When he curled his fingers, he found it, rubbing it gently to push you over.

“Doyoung.“ He pushed his lips onto yours again roughly, surely leaving a bruise from how hard. All you heard were your muffled screams as his fingers were buried deep inside your pussy. You arch your back into him, letting your tits cover his bare chest.

“Baby I’m want to fuck you so bad now.”

Doyoung wasn’t the longest, but he fit you, he fit you better than a lot of men could and he knew how to fuck. You could see the outline of his member through his white tenting boxer shorts. He was painfully hard, he palmed himself through his boxers and groaned.

“Let me,” You sat up,  reaching out towards his boxers pulling them down steadily. He let you, watching the excitement in your eyes as his cock sprung free from his boxers. But he pushed your hands away.

“Let me be inside of you right now.” Doyoung was so incredibly gentle with you, no matter how many times you saw him in bare skin it excited you. Even when he was rough, he always found a way to make you feel okay, and you hated that he shared that with other girls.

“But I—”

“Please baby, please.” He spread your legs slowly across the bed, peeling each leg from the other to accommodate for his lanky body. This wasn’t how he usually liked to fuck you, he was normally rough, very rough. Him skipping a blow job, using a gentle touch, not calling you names was weird for you. Nonetheless, you didn’t object to it. No matter how you felt, one thing remained certain. You wanted him.

On his knees, he stroked himself, spitting on his hand and beginning to pump his shaft slowly with one hand. He lined himself up, slowly beginning to lay down on top of you. Within seconds he entered you in one hard thrust that made you moan out in pleasure. You never got over how well he fit inside you. Your friends would always talk about how their boyfriend had the biggest cock, but you doubted the notion that they pleasured them well or even at all. With Doyoung, every flaw you both had, everything about you two fit together, he knew what you wanted and made sure to give it to you. And you were sad to say that you felt at home with the whore hoarding CEO.  

“God, you always feel so good,” He hissed, his face falling into your neck and a loud muffled groan drop from his lips. He moved slowly at first, pulling out of you with little force before burying himself in your walls once more.

You moaned, head thrown back on the silk sheets and your hands knotted in his hair. “Doyoung,” You croaked. “Why aren’t you going faster?” you could barely talk, your voice came unsteadily. Gripping your hips tightly with his slender hands.

“I wanna take my time tonight.” He wanted his time for you. Regardless of how many girls he had, he wanted to savor this. He made sure to thrust deep, hard, but slow. Working to find your sweet spot than to blindly fuck you. You could feel his tip hitting your cervix in painful pleasure.

“Doyoung!” You squealed, as he thrust harder, followed by a high moan.

“Keep moaning like that.” He grunted, eyes falling to your face.

So you did as he asked, performing for him, you cried even louder. A chain of panicked moans left his mouth as you involuntarily clenched around his cock, he was hitting all the right spots inside you, but he needed to do more to compensate for the slow speed.

“Can I touch you?” You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to find the words to tell him to do it, to make you writhe at his will. But instead, you nodded, seeing his hand travel down in between you, and rubbing small circles over the swollen bundle of nerves. “Like this?”

“Y-yes.” You choked out. Doyoung was so calm, yet filled with so much pleasure. You didn’t know there could be this side of him. Through your gasps and unprompted shudders, he had to lean only a centimeter to capture your lips in his.

His slow thrusts continued, alongside his fingers, still rubbing your clit as he tried to kiss you. Wrapping your arms around his neck, letting them dance across his back, he drove his tongue into your mouth widely. All at once a collective wave of emotions swarmed you, an urgency filled the room as you climbed closer and closer to your climax.

“I’m going--to come…” You groaned. Your fingers pulling the roots of his hair.

“Y/N.” Your vision blurred, you pulse around him, breathing shallow and sweat gathering over your body.

“Oh my god…” You whimpered, you had become oversensitive. Your legs began to rattle against his body, a loud string of low moans leaving Doyoung as you felt him realize into you. His head fell into your neck, moaning against your sweet skin.

He held you in his arms, continuing to moan until you both finally released. You both stayed in each other's arms for a moment, catching your breath, breathing ruggedly as Doyoung rolled off of you. Just as quickly as he got into the bed, he slung his legs over the side and got up, pulling on his discarded clothes.

“You’re leaving so soon?” He looked at you, zipping up his pants and shrugging silently. Your heart sank.

“I need to. We have a meeting tomorrow and I need to take a quick flight to Busan, I’ll be back princess, you’ll see me tomorrow, don’t worry.” You wanted to act like a man, your man, your boyfriend, your husband, but you knew you would asking too much. As much as you wanted him to be yours, you knew he never would be, and so your anger showed in your attitude.

“Why bother with Busan, we’re in Seoul.” A small smile played on his face, he seemed happy that you didn’t want him to leave. You wrapped the pale pink silk sheets around your body, and slowly ascended from the bed. You stood in front of him, hoping he wouldn't leave. Still smiling, he leaned forward and kissed your head, a little too lovingly.

“I got you something just before I came. I waited a couple weeks for it. It’ll  atone for leaving so soon.”

You glanced at him curiously, your eyebrow cocking inquisitively. He did it again. He came, fucked you, stayed, and then left. He did it over and over again until the cycle felt never-ending. At first, you didn’t see a problem, but now, now you were in too deep.

He disappears behind your door, you can hear his quick footsteps as he goes to retrieve whatever it was he got for you. You couldn't help but be excited. Doyoung had money, Doyoung helped you with your career, but it wasn’t every day that he got you something without a request. He came back, a black necklace box in hand.

“For you,” he said, handing you the back box and excitedly awaiting your reaction. You opened it, a surge of happiness and shock flowing through you.

“Doyoung. How?” Your eyes widened, an ear to ear grin appeared on your face as you opened the box.  

A month ago you had managed to get a seat at one of the most famous auctions there ever was. All the proceeds went to charity, but you were there for one thing. Taeyong always said you looked best in pearls, but not any pearls, not counterfeit imitated ones. Real, natural white pearls. And he was right, they looked gorgeous on you.

You had a budget of a 1.5 million, now that you could afford to make such a risky purchase, but someone outbid you. You were so upset when you found out you wouldn’t get the pearls that Doyoung had to spend at least a week putting up with your rants, irrational mood swings, and attitude. But now you were staring at the pearls, and it was because of him.

“I knew you wanted them so I had to get them. I want you to wear them tomorrow, you look sophisticated and elegant, and beautiful in pearls.” Doyoung’s voice sounded sensual as it trailed off.

“Thank you so much—Oh my god, I could photograph this! Did you know Pearls promote centeredness, faith, loyalty, truth, and purity. I mean, my fine art project could really—oh my god, thank you so so so much.“ Your mind ran in every which way, thoughts of gratitude and respect raced through your head, while there were ideas of love and photography. You lunged at him, arms wrapped around your waist, playfully pulling at the sheets. “It must of cost so much—”

“Don’t worry about it… but Y/N, I really need to get going. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He pulled away from you.

And without another word he was gone. And there was no proof he ever was actually there.

“I need to turn down that offer, I’ll take new photos for the design, but I won't allow you to use my past works!” You folded your hands together, glancing around the room at the businessmen that observed your photography portfolio. There was one girl there. She looked like she was plucked from a gucci store in some beautiful country, but she had a mental capacity of a fifteen-year-old.

“I mean, using your old ones would ensure they would turn out good, you photos recently have been pretty—”

“Pardon me for asking, but who  are you, I haven’t seen you here before.” You sat at a table with reputable officials of Dyoung's company. You were held in high esteem at his enterprise. You were someone who was able to give Doyoung's company a mainstream vibe, generating buzz with the main media.

“Oh,” She laughed obviously as if you should've known who she was. “I’m new, but I’m Kim Dongyoung assistant, I take care of all the office needs and his needs as well.” You knew what she was. You never met his assistants, but people told you he went through them like cigarettes to an addict.

“This is a professional meeting with esteemed entrepreneurs, executives, and merchandisers. In this world, you build yourself up to power by connections and talent. I commend you for having such a difficult job, and starting a path to invent yourself. But you’re an assistant, know your place. Especially around people at this table. If I say that I don’t want past photos used then you can give me a concept or we can end the meeting and the company doesn't need me. Are we all  clear?” Everyone nodded, taking what you had said into consideration.

You learned very fast that your vocabulary and persona had to change at places like this, sometimes you let yourself slip, as you did now. But you couldn't help it,  she had this aura around her like she was fucking the CEO. Nevertheless, the rest of the people nodded, some smirking at your statement. To say the least, nobody really liked her.

“Ms. Y/L/N, I think since it’s going to be for the new computer he’s making, maybe we could go in the path apple had gone in. Great landscapes, flowers, I know you could absolutely make those amazing.” You smiled at the man, glancing at the girl momentarily and writing notes on your notepad. Where the fuck was Doyoung.

“Yes! I like that, but we could also do hipster things maybe,” the older women smiled. “My daughter, she goes to a lot of festivals and takes fantastic photos, they look so amazing, maybe we can get in touch with the interest of modern media and take pictures of those things.

“What’s your name Miss?” You asked flipping a page in your notepad to write it down.

“Oh!” She grinned happily.

“Ho Hyang-Soon. Spelled H-Y-A-N-G-Soon.” In the blink of an eye the door slowly creaked open, tensely, Doyoung appeared from the door.

“I’m sorry I’m late, I was held up at another meeting, if I had known I would have been late, I would have canceled, my deepest apologies,” He bowed down at everyone. He was good at lying sometimes, this was a lie he was particularly good at executing. You knew he had to be with one of his other girls. Regardless of what he was doing, you never asked you just nodded and did as you were told.

The meeting got pretty boring from that moment forward, they told you what photographs they wanted you to take and then you were basically done, the rest of the duration consisted of Doyoung calling more shots on the design of his computer.

You had never felt more happy to leave a meeting. Sometimes you thought they were fun. It was like coffee hour when Doyong wasn’t around. Other times they were absolutely boring.

You stood over Ms. Ho Hyang-Soon’s desk discussing her ideas towards the desktop art and photograpghy. You could tell she was flattered you had decided to talk to her and acknowledge her idea, it was very hard to do that with Doyoung.

However, the smile soon disappeared from your face when the doors to Doyoung’s office opened and revealed him and his shotty new assistant. Her hand was placed on his shoulder as he talked to one of his office friends, her smile wickedly evil as she glanced at you. You touched the pearls on your neck, realized that you had worn something he had given. You looked weak.  Despite having an agreement, you felt betrayed.

Dismissing yourself from the women and sauntering past the couple, you got angrier. As tempting as it was, killing someone in a workplace would be incredibly unprofessional and you were no insufficient pirahea. You in fact were a great, great businesswoman. You reached to back of your neck, unclasping the pearls that burned your skin with embarrassment and shoved it into the pocket of you pants suit. How could he do this to you? In a workplace as well.

You didn’t turn around, although you did hope he would call your name to go after you, he didn’t.

Minutes later, of more pining and pitying of yourself, you decided to get back on track and talk to more people. It was as if every minute Doyoung wasted, made you more and more anxious about him not coming at all. It almost hurt how much he didn’t care. As much as Doyoung had helped you, somehow you felt that he still thought of you as a little girl. You tried desperately to show him you were women, in more ways than one.

You excused yourself from yet another person and strolled over to his office. You loved being in there, it was massive, it had a huge window with a view of all of Sueol. You reached his door, pulling it open. “Doy—oh my god.” You stood at the door, seeing at the door, opened halfway seeing his assistant on his lap, her dress pulled up, and his pants pulled to his ankles. Doyoung's eyes widened, glancing at the girl who had taken his cock. You closed the door, making sure nobody behind you had seen.

You shook your head, trying to get the visions out of your mind and to keep going. But all that was racing through your mind was the disgusting pictures playing through your mind. You didn’t think sex was disgusting. But when you watched someone you liked doing it, it got hundreds of times more abominable and atrocious than just watching porn. You had immediately set off to find that women again, you had been having a nice conversation with her before this whole mess started.

And then not so long after he came out, leaving his assistent behind. It was amusing to you how composed he looked, it was as if nothing ever happened. He fixed his tie while looking around the fancy office searching for you. It was as if he wasn’t just being pleasured. Frankly, you didn’t care if he had sex, it was who it was with the mattered to you. You wanted that to be you, and only you.  He took long strides over to you, brushing his black hair from his eyes and standing in front of you and the women.

He bowed to the women, verbalizing something in Korean, before turning to your and motioning his head in another direction.

“Could I please talk to you Y/N?” His eyes looked everywhere but your eyes, too embarrassed to look at you.

“It’s okay Ms. Y/N, I’ll be fine.” Bashful about turning down Doyoung in front of someone in public, you had no choice but go with him, and you weren’t looking forward to what he was going to discuss with you.

Pulling you into an empty corridor, he heaved a heavy sigh and knotted his finger in his hair. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” He whispered quietly. “I didn’t mea—”

“It’s fine, luckily I found you and not somebody else.” You felt defiled, dirty even, awaken to what scandalous deed you two were actually doing.

“Yeah, but still, I don’t know how I would feel If I saw you bein—Why did you take your necklace off? It looked nice.” You felt like hitting him very, very hard. If you don’t know how you would feel, then why do it?

“It’s not like we’re dating Doyoung, it doesn't matter.”

Everyone at the meeting was praising you, but even with recognition from everyone in the world, if you didn’t have Doyoung’s you weren’t satisfied. He shrugged, after hearing from you.

“I guess your right,” He mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. “But why did you take it off?”

“I think pearls aren’t for me,” You trailed off. “But what about the symbolization, didn’t you say it promoted centeredness and such. “

“Loyalty actually.” Doyoung nodded, his big brown eyes soft as he looked at you. He didn’t say anything, making your uncomfortable under his stare. “Like I said, I don’t think they’re for me. And I should get going.” You started to walked away, but his grip on your waist stopped you.

“Is Ji-Su bothering you? I heard what happened before I got to the meeting.”

His stare held concern and a twinge of sadness, continuing to search for your shifty eyes.

“She seems nice.” You complimented. “When she isn’t acting like a bitch.”

“I’ll fire her,” He blurted out shifting on his feet awkwardly. “If you don’t like it, I mean. I’ll fire her. You have to come here, and I don’t want it to be unbearable.”

You turned to look down the corridor at the elevator. “Yeah, well, my work here is done. I need to get home.”

It’s funny how things like this work. One moment you’re a struggling college student and the next you’re a world-renowned photographer, loved by artists and models. Now you were in Japan taking landscape photos and plant photos for Do-young's new computer system, trying to find the perfect default screensavers. That day after you caught Doyoung, you got home and threw yourself into your photography, being able to get more fine art pieces out, before you esteemed Calvin Klein campaign you were shooting a week later.

Doyoung had said he wanted to come with you, that he would be arriving a day after you in Japan to help choose things to photograph. But it’s been four days in Japan and four weeks since you’ve seen him.  You figured like always that he was either busy with work or with one of his other whores.

But maybe they weren’t as dumb as you, breaking his first rules and actually starting to like him. This was a deal, a partnership, not a thing for you to break your heart over. He had money to throw away, which is probably why he was letting girls take his money so easily. He was in fact, despite what he says, a very, very lonely man. Even with all the girls on his side,, there was no denying there was a void inside his lonely heart.  Sometimes you asked yourself why you stayed with him. And then you realized that you had no desire to leave because you would be just as lonely as him.

When it read eleven PM on the illuminated digital clock, you knew he either didn’t care or simply forgotten. It was most likely the fact he didn’t care. You set the teapot on the stove of Doyoung's unused Japan vacation house and set it at a low heating level, letting the fruit tea settle in the sifter. You heard the door slam, and the familiar footsteps of Doyoung’s dress shoes. You turned around, his hair was disheveled, but his suit remained classic and elegant. He stormed towards you, passing the dining table and living room to get to the kitchen.

“I’m so so sorry Y/N,” He pushed you into the counter, brushing the hair from your face.  He was out of breath as if he just ran here. He kissed you suddenly. The smack of your lips filled the room as he continued to kiss you. And then he put both hands on your waist, steadying himself and his kisses changed, something you never got from him before. He kissed you slowly, passionately. His hands roamed up your body and cupped your throat, moving to your cheeks. “I’m so sorry.” Your arms tangled up around his neck, wanting it, wanting him.

“You’re always sorry,” You mumbled on his lips, kissing him slowly again.

“I mean it this time. I do.”

“Mmm,” You joked, letting him slip his tongue into your mouth. His fingers were like matches to your skin, even a graze lit you on fire.

You knew he didn’t love you back or even like you. But you didn’t care, you couldn't resist his touch. He pulls away softly, brushing his lips against yours again. It wasn’t sexual, no, it was innocent as if he was having his first kiss again.

“Doyoung what’s wrong with you.”

“Nothing.” He kissed your cheek, a defensive lilt in his voice. His kisses traveled down your neck towards your ear. “I just missed you so much.” You couldn't believe him.

“Are you sure? Where have you been?”

“I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but all I want right now is to fuck you. Can you do that?” He said a little annoyed. But you didn’t listen to the annoying part, you listened to how scared he was.

“Yeah baby, we can.”

In an instant, he grabbed the underside of your thighs, pushing you onto the counter and tearing your sweatpants down your legs. Trying equally as hard to pull off your pink panties you wore just in case for scenarios like this. He peeled your legs from each other and looked down at you, the most exposed you. He ran his dainty finger over your slit all the way to your clit. He looked pulled your legs above his shoulders, leaning down slowly and coming face to face with your heat. He kitty licked you slowly. You squirmed at the feeling, waiting for him to do more to you. He didn't always eat you out, he used it as a reward system, but you didn’t know what you did that was worthy of his reward. And then he pushed his head into you, his tongue darting deeper and deeper inside of you, licking up your wetness that he started to create.

In pleasure, you took a fistful of his black hair, pushing his head further, you could hear his muffled moans as you did. His mouth was placed gently of your clit, sucking and darting your tongue under the little hood. You bucked your hips into him, your legs beginning to shake against his broad shoulders. And then he pushed two fingers inside of you.  Gasping at the sensation, a high moan leaves your lips.  With every thrust of his fingers, you feel yourself reaching your climax.

“C’mon baby, come for me.” And just as he said that you came onto his fingers, your juices quickly being lapped up by his tongue. You were never good with polyamorous relationships, you got too jealous for your own good. You didn’t want anyone else being pleasured by Doyoung but you, and you wanted to be the only one to touch him. He pushed your legs off of him, glancing at you momentarily, before taking his lips onto yours.

“Do you want me to fuck you?” He whispered his breath on your lips. You nodded slowly, feeling him grab your thighs and lift you up in his muscular arms. You turned your head and glanced at the counter, there was still a small pool of come next to the stove, and you suddenly became hyper-aware of how wet you were. You could be dripping onto Doyoung right now, or even on the floor.  Nevertheless, he carried you to the Japanese bedroom.

The room was nearly pitch black except for the tiny leak of moonlight that spilled into the room. Something about him now was so gentle, the way he lightly set you down and watched you as he took off his clothes, peeling the black suit off his body. He did it early slow, observing your body furthermore. You sat up, waiting for him.

And when he sat down on the bed, fully naked except for his black boxers, you threw your legs on either side of him and got comfortable on his lap, continuing the slow, fervid kissing. He moaned into the kisses, his hands moving to your ass, to your hips, all over the place.

Ever so slowly, you place both your hands on his chest and pushed him down until he was lying on his back. You kissed and licked behind his ear, nibbled on his lobe, and kissing down his jawline to his cheek.  You could feel the beautiful man’s clothed member hit your bare pussy, and you wanted him, you had wanted him so many times before this. But now, you didn’t just want to fuck him, you wanted to make love. And although you didn’t know quite what that was, you thought you could do it with, you thought you could find it.

You kissed his bare chest, worshipping every part of his body you came across until you got to his boxers. You took his boxers off, sliding them down his legs while your head followed, kissing his thighs, the inside of his knees. And now that the boxers were gone, you were going to take what you wanted for a long time.

You put your hand on his shaft. Feeling it smooth and under your touch. You stroked it gently. Up and down. It needed lubrication and I had just the perfect thing. Beads of pre-cum oozed from his head, licking it up with your velvety tongue. Doyoung mumbled something in Korean, looking down at you and grabbing a fistful of your hair.

Circling it slowly in your mouth, you moaned on his cock, finally feeling it in your mouth after months. He was smooth under your tongue, probing the tip and igniting every nerve. You licked lower, beneath the head and all the way down to the shaft. You massaged his balls in your hands, and slowly took his laugh in your mouth.

He was a good six inches, but a thick six inches, which was probably why he felt so good. To you, there was nothing better than a thick above average sized cock. You bobbed your head, moving up and down, hollowing out your mouth. You wanted him to make you his favorite, nobody could do it like you.

He pushed your head down, you could feel the tip of his cock hit your throat eliciting a gag, but you regained a hold of yourself. And soon you weren’t in control anymore, it was him, pushing your head up and down along his cock. Moaning words of encouragement to make him come. Then he stopped, slowly sitting up, prompting you to mirror his actions. He let you steady yourself on his lap, holding onto his shoulders.

“You have the mouth of a slut,” he whispered into your ear. “In and out of my beds.”  He kissed down your neck and moved the strap of your tank top. “Take your shirt off, princess.” 

His fingers played with the hem of your shirt, helping you pull it out. Luckily you wore no bra and you were completely naked in front of Doyoung. He took your breasts in his hand, kneading them roughly as you moaned. He chuckled a little, capturing your lips and kissing you.

He took your nippled between his fingers, rolling them over and making them hard.

“You’re so sexy princess,” He whispered, bringing your nipple to his mouth and sucking on it slowly, holding eye contact. You grabbed onto his shoulders, throwing your head back and moaning.

His slender fingers traced around the area, grabbing your tit and sucking softly, moving to the other breast.

His mouth hovered over you, his hot breath washing over your just-kissed skin. He squeezed your nipple again, while he took the other in his mouth, with enough force so you barely had time to register the pain. He left a couple hickeys. His hand gliding over your side and look down at where your bare pussy met his pelvis.

“Are you going to ride me, princess?” You nodded, getting up on your knees and holding onto his shoulders so he could position himself to enter you. You didn’t ride him a whole lot, it was when he was at work sitting in his chair or tired, maybe even a little vulnerable that he let you ride him. It meant having you in control, and he didn’t like that. He was a CEO, he wanted to be in control.

A stuttered groan came from Doyoung, reaching for your hips guiding your up and down as you made out slowly. He kept biting your lips and squeezing your ass. He leaned back a little, watching his cock plunge deep into your pink pussy.

You sped up, harshly slamming down on his cock, prompting high moans, and low moans.

A guttural moan released from his throat, he through his head in your neck and kissed you there, pleasure clouding his actions as he groaned at the feeling of your pussy.  You loved how he acted when he was being pleasured, it was as if he couldn't take what you were giving him, he acted helpless, sometimes desperate.

You started fucking faster, Doyoung was meeting you halfway, slamming into your further, his thick cock stretching you out even more. You almost screamed, gripping on his shoulders and digging your nails into him. He moaned, flipping you quickly so he was on top of you.

“You’re marking me now?” He growled in your ear.

One thing he hated was being marked, that was one of his rules. Don’t mark him. You always thought it was because he was a businessman and he never wanted people to see it. But that wasn’t it. He must have liked being marked since he did it to you a lot, but even if you accidentally left bruises. “You can’t help yourself can you.” He took one hard thrust into you, making you whine out in pain and pleasure. You felt his warm seed fill you up a chain of profanities leaving his mouth. It came in spurts, one creaming into you, and the other shooting hard. His breath grew ragged and he whined out.

He gripped your hips. He wanted to fuck your harder. And he fucked you until you came, but he didn’t stop, he kept going, despite the fact he knew you had never gone farther when getting fucked with a cock. He increased speed as you held with him each thrust. He pushed into you so hard his breath got even shakier.

You were both panting, whining. Way over your breaking point, but you liked it. You wanted to come again. Even though Doyoung was at his wit's end, he wouldn't stop pushing himself until you came again, until you couldn't take his cock anymore. Your legs began to shake, they usually did whenever you had sex with Doyoung, and you came all over his cock. It was too much, he had fucked you to hard and too thoroughly. He pulled out of you slowly, watching your face relax.

You fell next to you, sitting up slowly and glancing over. You took heavy breaths, trying to calm yourself down.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow then. What hotel are you staying at?” You said, reaching over and snatching his black pants off the ground. He took them from you but didn’t make any advances to get up or put them on.

“Actually…” He said softly, reaching his long arms over to grab his boxers. “I think I want to stay the night.”  He glimpsed at you shyly, asking for some seal of approval.

“Why?” He was silent, getting up momentarily to pull his black boxers up his legs. “Doyoung, what’s wrong?”

You asked the questions knowing he wouldn't be able to answer the question. He wasn’t good at articulating his emotions. He didn’t like putting himself out there, he didn’t like feeling vulnerable or looking at it. But he just ended up looking vulnerable anyways, keeping everything bottled up.

“You’re the only one,” he said whispering.

He wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead, his face illuminated from the moonlight. “What?”

“I want you.” He said more firmly. “I want you.” “Again? I mean we can go for one mo—” “No,” he stopped you, looking into your eyes softly. “I want you.” You finally knew what he meant. That he wanted you just a little more than what he was getting. That this sex was good, but he wanted a little more.

“Do you like me?” You asked, seeing him nod no slowly. But you knew he liked you, he admitted right then and there. “Do you love me?” He looked away from you, a shaky sigh leaving his mouth.

“I—”

“You don’t have to say it… if you do, you don’t have to say it.”

Love is a beautiful and scary thing all at the same time. For someone like Doyoung, he’s never tied down, so feeling something like that was new to him. Saying it to someone was weird and otherworldly. It made him feel vulnerable and you knew that. Baring out your heart and soul might leave you prone and vulnerable to hurt and pain, but sometimes taking the risk and letting it all out is one of the most amazing things that you’ll be able to experience. Doyoung needed his time, and he didn’t need to say it to you for you to know he did love you. He showed by his actions. Like the beautiful pearl necklace he got, and the relentless sorries he would always give.

So as he got up, pulling the covers off the bed and slipping in right before you did. A whisper left his lips.

“Thank you.”

And that’s how you knew he did. That’s how you knew he felt the same back. That you weren't just fucking him all this time, you were making love.

[sonicranticoot]

About CTR, Money, and Both Together: Part 2

Continuing from part 1.

Somehow it has been brought to my attention many more things that just...don’t say any good things, any good things, about the situation of the game and possibly the entire Crash and Spyro franchises going forward. I’m known to keep a very positive image here and I want this to continue, but sometimes, life sucks and then you die. So yes, this one is a lot angrier than the one before. You got to let it all out sometimes.

First thing is how these are actually out now, and boy are they terrible. Not just the fact they exist, but you can make 2500 in about an hour each day with online play. Or just pay Activision (not Beenox) $2.49 for that. A lot of people have been talking about how ridiculously overpriced the bundle for the Probulot 2000 is, and that can take a while to grind out even for online players (I have the dearest sympathies for people who don’t have their console’s online service and are stuck with offline payrates). Or, you could just hand that nice old Activision marketer (not Beenox) $9.99 for coins that disappear as soon as you buy them. I remember years back when Capcom got major slack for selling people costumes in Street Fighter IV for $3.99 a pop. Except there, you got a costume for five characters, and each costume had ten palette swaps. And that’s not going back to before that game, where you could get those in games at the low, low price of being earned as an in-game reward like beating the game on a certain difficulty or whatever.

It just goes back to how it used to be. Crash Team Racing is a 20-year old classic game that had a wealth of content you did not have to pay a cent for past the initial purchase of the game. Some people may say, “well, nothing in the original CTR can be unlocked with microtransactions”, and although that may be correct, it is completely missing the point. Content shown heavily before launch, like all the characters from Crash Nitro Kart and the new karts taken from Tag Team Racing, the stuff that was used to show “hey, look, it’s a little more than just CTR”, that stuff is locked behind an in-game store that allows you to spend real money. That’s not even going into the people who want to put N. Tropy or his digital skin in the shop. I actually commend Beenox for putting in something that, unlike the Pit Stop, forces players to get better at the game to have in their possession. The whole thing takes some pride out of the game. It barely feels like it’s a reward for people who didn’t pay up anymore because now people can go out and buy it with real money. Maybe.

That goes back to the fucking Fortnite store layout. Yeah I know this shop was problematic before, but didn’t go into as much as detail on why it is. Let’s say someone wants that one special skin, they want to buy Crunch that badly, that special car, or paint job. The store is set up to force players to wait, or buy things to roll again and hope what they get shows up. And with the addition of microtransactions, now, you can brute force, but even that still doesn’t help you if the Pit Stop gods don’t feel like playing nice and that special skin you wanted is the very last one in rotation. Some people aren’t that patient. This especially goes for offline players who have to spend hours trying to spend up for even one item. This type of impatience leads to kids stealing daddy’s credit card and spending $1,300 on gambling in FIFA. That’s really where this whole shit stops being “optional”, and feels like a deliberate part of the game. Because it is. It is a deliberate decision made on Activision’s part to make a predatory store. The paid solution now exists to a problem they created, and said paid solution doesn’t even fucking work.

Yes. Some people saw microtransactions coming. Some of these people like the game. Others didn’t like it, and are rubbing it into the former’s face. That doesn’t actually solve the issue here. What is the issue is that they weren’t there. People played the game for over a month without them. All the reviews were out, they were great. YouTubers praised it, both Crash-oriented and otherwise. The ESRB didn’t have to put a warning on the box. It’s all nice and cozy.

Then they do this. I’ve seen the review bombing of Metacritic. I’ve seen many Youtubers who have loved the game before either turn against it, or just express endless disgust over it. The ESRB can’t even do their fucking job of warning people that they are in the game, because there are a lot of copies out there that don’t have the “contains in-game purchases” label on them without glancing at one sentence in size 2 text on the back of the box as if Activision is playing their own twisted game of “ok, how can we tell people they’re in, but in such a way they won’t know it”, so someone, let’s say said person has a gambling problem, can buy the game, hear the good word of mouth from people who played it when it did NOT have MTX, and all of a sudden, they found a game that can prey upon them. I mentioned last time Activision did not make the message clear to consumers. Activision doesn’t want their message clear not just to consumers (and that goes for all consumers, from kids, to people with impulse buying problems, to genuine gambling addicts), but ratings boards either.

In short, all that goodwill Activision built up with this game, Spyro Reignited, Crash N. Sane, it’s gone. Not all of it is. But denying it’s done a crippling blow to things would be foolish. This game has a ton of issues. They’re all still here. MTX are though. It doesn’t give me, or anyone, a reason to trust them about what they do with these franchises, because they aren’t immune to any of the MTX bullshit that regularly plagues Call of Duty or whatever. I like the Crash and Spyro games for many reasons, but one big thing is that their newest release were free of this shit, they were old school ways of making people sold on games: by being really, really good games. You payed for a game. It’s good. Simple. Sweet. To the point.

You know what? Like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, Activision’s own Call of Duty sold millions and reviewed very well when it didn’t have microtransactions as well. FIFA did too. Grand Theft Auto did as well. Mortal Kombat also did. Deus Ex did. 2K sports games did. Fallout did. Elder Scrolls did. Plants vs. Zombies did. Quality games make money by being that. Quality games. Who would’ve guessed. Obviously Activision didn’t make all these games. And that’s the problem. Crash isn’t even new to this shit, it’s just one of countless classic, acclaimed franchises now subjected to the scummiest predatory practices that again, were initially made for free-to-play games that didn’t cost a dime to start playing. You didn’t see these in console games because they weren’t build for that practice. Yes, they make money, but console games could again, make money in a way a F2P mobile game can not: straight-up buying the game.

One of the worst (that’s a drinking game at this point) things is that let’s say people do get the message: everything in CTR can be earned in-game, not all the hard to do at that, the MTX coin rates are terrible, and thus, most people don’t buy the MTX. As in 99% of people don’t buy MTX. But you have whales, that 1% of people who these types of business practices specifically are psychologically engineered to pander to, spending literal thousands of dollars on coins for a cartoon kart racer and Activision can get the idea from them and only them of how to make money. And those types of practices become more accepted because of this, rinse, lather, repeat. There’s no winning scenario except for not having them in the game.

In short, Activision is the single slimiest, greediest, dirtiest, most absolutely fucking disgusting money-lusting pig of a company in the video game business and I am very, very disappointed in how corrupting classic games and franchises with pure filth meant to destroy bank accounts has consumed the industry. Activision is obviously not the only company that does this, but I can’t say many of the others are willing to do things like lie to the people who’s job is to warn people about these things. Fuck. Straight. Off.

Let it be known despite all that I am still a big Crash fan. I love the game. I’m eagerly anticipating Beenox to confirm Pasadena as a playable racer, I want to see how Brio looks in the game as well as what kind of race track the game will see when he is introduced, I want to see the Spyro stuff, I want to see what kind of crazy costumes they make or old school vehicles make a return, etc.  I payed $40 for it. That’s the only money I’m giving it because that’s the point. I’m just disappointed. And that’s severely underselling it.

[sophisticatedloserchick]

Fanfic - One Night; Two Interesting Men - 1/1

Summary: In the course of one night Iris gets to know the two new men in her life; billionaire Barry Allen and Green Arrow. 

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 4011

A/N: A sequel to my Barry!GreenArrow fic “Kissing Green Arrow Under the Mistletoe”

The first thing Iris noticed about Starling City after she moved is that it rained a lot.

For the past week she'd live here Iris woke up to the sound of rain pelting against the glass of her window. This city seemed to constantly be under the cover of dark grey rain clouds, a stark contrast to Central City where the sun always shined. It gave Starling City the appearance of coldness that would get under your skin.

Not for the first time Iris wondered if she made the wrong choice moving here. When the opportunity to be Starling City's correspondent for Picture News Iris took it to the surprise of everyone. Her friends thought she was crazy. Her dad worried that she was going through some sort of a crisis. Iris didn't know what The Flash thought nor did she care to find out.

Maybe some would say she moved to Starling City for a man, two men if Iris was being honest, but that wasn't the full story. Iris moved here because she felt this is where she could make a difference. To be the type of journalist that brought down those in power who preyed on the weak. She didn't think she could achieve any of that in Central City which is why she left.

But she wouldn't deny there was a pull of getting to see billionaire playboy Barry Allen or the masked vigilante Green Arrow again.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iris sipped at her coffee while going over the papers she had spread out over the table. She'd been tracking a new drug that had hit the streets in the last month. A strong opiate highly addictive that had devastating consequences. No one knew the source of the drugs making it harder to stop the constant flow of it into the city

Lost in her own thoughts Iris didn't hear knocking at her office door.

“Miss West?” Her assistant kept calling out. “Miss West do you have a moment?”

Iris blinked back into reality and turned to see her assistant standing in the doorway holding a crystal glass vase that held a large bouquet of red roses. Iris already knew which one of her admirers had sent them to her.

“These came for you,” Her assistant said while struggling to carry the heavy bouquet over to the desk.

Iris reached over to pluck the card out from the roses to read the note.

'Dinner tonight? - B.A.'

“Wow you got Barry Allen asking you out on a date,” Iris's assistant gushed. “You're so lucky.”

Iris rolled her eyes even though deep down she felt charmed by the gesture. Not everyday you got flowers from a man who's yearly earnings was more than most countries. But Iris needed more than flowers to be convinced to go to dinner with man regardless of the money he had, or how cute he was.

“What are you going to say?” The assistant asked eagerly.

“Nothing,” Iris put the card back in the bouquet.

“Nothing??” Her assistant looked at Iris like she was crazy, “You have to tell him something.”

Iris walked back over to her work without a second glance at her flowers, “If a man wants to ask me out to dinner he should do it face to face.”

“Um well about that...”

Iris glanced over at her assistant only to have her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the familiar tall figure standing in the doorway.

“Guess you don't like flowers too much,” Barry smirked at her.

“I like them just fine,” Iris squared her shoulders off. “Just not when a man uses them as an excuse not to put in an effort.”

Barry laughed under his breath as he walked further into her office. Her assistant scurried away leaving them alone. The two of them eyed each other both speculative and appreciative.

A month had passed since they had last seen each other at the gala. He still looked handsome even without a tux because he looked just as good in a well tailored suit. His auburn hair in that intentional mussed up way. And something about his green eyes kept drawing her in.

“Working hard?” Barry gestured towards all the papers spread out across her desk.

“Its what a good reporter does,” Iris replied simply. Her brows furrowed together as Barry stared at her paperwork longer then she expected. The movement of his eyes gave the impression that he was carefully scanning every word.

“What about you?” Iris asked trying to get his attention again. “Spend a productive day on your yacht?”

“Not quite,” Barry briefly glanced up at her. “Morning at the golf course then in the afternoon a boring meetings at my company.”

“I guess most meetings at billion dollar companies would be boring,” Iris said sarcastically.

Barry finally looked up from her papers with a smile on his lips that made her heart beat faster.

“You know if you're going to scold me it be better if you did it over dinner,” Barry gave her a knowing look.

“You still want to go out for dinner?” Iris folded her arms over her chest. “Won't that interrupt your 'busy' schedule?”

“Well I did buy the flowers and all,” Barry gave her a boyish grin that she had no doubt he knew was irresistible. “Be a shame for them to go to waste.”

Which is how against her better judgement Iris agreed to go on a date with Barry Allen.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Barry hadn't been this on edge for a long time.

Which said a lot because Barry on a regular day dealt with corrupt politicians, drug kingpins, and ancient ninja clans. For years he had survived on a island that every day challenged his survival. Going out on a date with a beautiful and intelligent woman should be easy. Yet here he was sweating bullets in his suit, fidgeting nervously with a napkin at the table, all the while trying (but failing) to subtly glance at the restaurant entrance to see if Iris arrived.

None of this was doing his suave and cool playboy image any favors. Barry had worked hard to convince the people of Star City that he was a shallow and self-indulgent playboy they all expected him to be. Its what made his nightly activities as Green Arrow possible.

The fact that going on a date with Iris West put a chink in that facade should be a concern for him. He should listen to Diggle's warnings about the dangers of getting involved with a woman whose job was to seek out and expose the truth behind lies. Barry couldn't deny that Diggle had a good point that Iris West was dangerous.

But one look into Iris's dark brown eyes and Barry didn't think any man alive could resist her.

His head jerked when he caught the faint sound of her voice. His keen senses proving useful even in the setting of the restaurant.

He spotted the maitre'd helping her out of her coat. She picked a simple strapless navy blue dress that exposed the smooth brown skin of her shoulders. The soft silk fabric hugged her curves perfectly making his heart pound faster in his chest.

Oh yeah he was in big trouble.

“Sorry I'm late,” Iris said giving him that mega-watt smile of hers.

Barry remained silent and composed while the maitre'd helped her into her chair. Most would take that as him being unaffected but truly he was doing everything possible to hold it together. One look at her and Barry could feel his tenuous grip on his control slip. She looked like something out of a dream. Her full lips painted a light pink. Her long dark waves of hair piled up in a bun that showed the the heart shaped curves of her face.

“So,” Iris gave him a perplexed look since he hadn't spoken yet. “I would say I'm impressed you got the best table in the most expensive restaurant in town but you are Barry Allen after all.”

“The benefits of owning the place,” Barry said with what he hoped was a confident smirk.

Iris rolled her eyes but a smile still tugged at her lips.

The rest of the evening went fairly smoothly. Iris was quickly becoming his favorite person to talk to. She had knowledge on a wide range of topics from the latest blockbuster movie to the recent politics at Star City hall. She spoke concisely but thoughtfully with a sharp sense of humor that had Barry laughing more than once. He did his best to keep up with her not wanting her to think he was a dumb playboy who didn't know anything beyond his golf game or which model was on the cover of Sports Illustrated this month. He loved making her laugh too. Her eyes crinkled and she laughed with her entire body.

Before Barry knew it the maitre'd was bringing them coffee and that night's dessert. He became momentarily mesmerized as Iris hummed in pleasure while eating chocolate mousse. His mind drifted to more forbidden thoughts of how he would be the one to get her to moan in pleasure.

He debated if it be too forward to ask her over to his place. So far he'd been lucky that no criminal activity required him to suit up as Green Arrow. He might not get another opportunity and if the way Iris kept casually touching his arm and her eyes drifting to his lips he had a feeling she felt just as attracted to him as he was to her.

Before he could find a way to go about it Iris's phone dinged.

“Sorry,” Iris shot him an apologetic look as she fished her phone out of her purse. “I leave it on for works reasons.”

Her dark eyes narrowed as she looked at her phone screen. Barry noted her entire body went rigid. He could tell her mind was running through a million thoughts but none of them involved him or their date.

“I'm sorry,” Iris forced a smile as she looked back up at him. “I have to cut the night short.”

“Is everything okay?” Barry asked as she hastily got up from her chair.

“Yes of course it is,” She reassured him. “The work of a reporter never ends.”

Barry stood up and followed her to the entrance of the restaurant. He helped her into her coat letting his hands linger on her shoulders and arms. Iris turned back to look at him with eyes soft with guilt and he knew she felt bad for leaving.

“I had a really great time tonight,” Iris gave a shy smile. “I hope we can do it again.”

“I'd love that,” Barry said sincerely. “We can have dinner on my private yacht if you want.”

“You're something else Barry Allen,” Iris laughing. “I have a feeling dating you will be very interesting.”

Barry hoped he didn't let it show on his face how ecstatic he was that Iris thought of them as 'dating'.

He watched her leave with restaurant with a big smile on his face and a warmth spreading in his chest. He couldn't remember the last time being with someone made him this happy.

But even in this moment Barry's instincts kicked into gear. Iris's reaction to that text troubled him. His night as Barry Allen might have ended but Green Arrow's was just beginning.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iris wondered why dangerous drug dealers couldn't meet up in more respectable places. A coffee shop or some brightly lit street where people felt safe enough to walk their dogs. No they always had to meet up in abandoned warehouses in shipyards after midnight.

Not to mention it was a particular cold night. A harsh wind came off the ocean cutting through her. She could tell from the heavy clouds that it would rain again soon. Luckily Iris had changed into a pair of jeans and sweatshirt  that she kept stashed in her car because as a journalist you never knew when a change of clothes would come in handy.  

Iris stood outside watching the top drug dealers of the city walk into the building. All she needed was to get pictures of them all meeting here. From there she would investigate how they kept funneling drugs into the city. But the distance and the fog in the air made it difficult for her to do it from her position. Which left her no choice but to get in closer.

Taking in a deep breath Iris made her way across the ship yard to the warehouse. She had spotted one armed guard at the front so she circled around to the back. Luckily the door had only a basic lock that Iris could easily pick open. After quietly prying open the metal door Iris slipped inside.

With her back against the wall she slowly made her way through the darkness. Distantly she could hear the sound of men talking. Following the sound Iris could see them gathered around a table. Iris noticed the guns on the table, along with a black duffel bag no doubt filled with money.

Carefully Iris took out her phone and started to take pictures. Her eyes tracking each person waiting until the right moment to get the shot. Her heart pounding from both fear and adrenaline. Normally Iris never took risks like this but maybe something about being in Star City made him a bit more reckless.

Completely focused on taking pictures Iris didn't notice the tall dark figure coming up from behind her. Iris let out a sound of surprise that was quickly smothered by a leather clad hand covering her mouth. His other hand grabbed her right arm and pulled her back further into the shadows.

“Don't move,” a gruff but familiar voice said in her ear.

Despite the shadows covering them both Iris could tell it was the Green Arrow. She'd probably should be more panicked that she was at the mercy at the city's most notorious vigilante but him saving her a month ago at the Allen Christmas gala had her trusting him. Besides not many would complain their body being pressed up against a handsome masked avenger.

Seconds letter it became clear why he pulled her away. A very large, heavily armed guard walked right by where Iris originally stood. If it hadn't been for the Green Arrow she would of been caught.

The Green Arrow's grip on her loosened enough for her to turn around. Iris could barley make out his face with the mask covering the top half but she could see the lips that had kissed her under the mistletoe.

Green Arrow inclined his head signaling her to follow him. Quickly the two made their way to a door that led up to a dimly lit stairwell. This is probably when Iris's self preservation instincts should of kicked in. Her dad would have a fit if he ever found out she followed a strange leather wearing man with a habit of shooting people with arrows to a more secluded place. But Iris had always a living in the moment kind of girl.

After a silent climb up the flights of stairs they went through another door to the roof of the building. Iris felt a relief at the cold wind against her face. A quick scan of the roof Iris spotted two guards knocked out, bound and gagged at the far corner no doubt the work of Green Arrow.

“You're taking a lot of risks,” Green Arrow finally spoke up.

Iris squared her shoulders off as she turned to look at him. From her dad to The Flash she had men telling her all her life what not to do. She might find Green Arrow attractive but she wasn't about to let him try to do the same.

“It was worth the risk,” Iris argued back. “The men down there are destroying lives for profit and someone needs to do something.”

“That someone had to be you?” Green Arrow crossed his arms over his chest.

“No one else came here tonight,” Iris countered. “The cops are in over their heads. The mayor's office is corrupt. Star City doesn't have have a hero like Flash or Supergirl to defend them. All this city has is me and you.”

Green Arrow took a moment to process what she said before he spoke again in a less put on gruff voice.

“You don't think I'm a superhero?”

Iris had to try hard not to laugh at how put out he sounded.

“I think of you as more a vigilante. Because no offense,” Iris gestured to his black and dark green leather costume complete with mask and hood. “You don't come across as a family friendly superhero.”

Iris couldn't be completely certain because of how dark it was but she swore she saw him pouting.

“What do you plan to do with those pictures?” Arrow finally asked.

“Publish them,” Iris said. “Let the whole city know who has been destroying their neighborhood by pushing their drugs.”

“That will do nothing,” Green Arrow replied simply.

“What would you have me do?” Iris narrowed her eyes. “Turn them over to the police?”

“No that would put a target on your back,” Green Arrow said in a voice Iris thought she could hear concern in. “The police force has its fair share of corrupt cops that work as informants for the drug cartels.”

Green Arrow now walked towards her but Iris held her ground. She kept flashing back to the night of the gala when he'd kissed her under the mistletoe. The soft feel of his lips contrasting with the hard edge of his appearance. Iris felt that flutter of anticipation once again the closer he got to her.

“Keep the pictures to yourself for now,” Green Arrow spoke lowly despite them only being inches apart. “Help me figure out who the informants are in the police then we'll go after the cartels and their leaders.”

“You want my help?” Iris asked taken a back.

In vain she tried to look up into his eyes but the hood and mask obscured his face. She should of felt scared this tall imposing figure towering over but something in Iris compelled her to trust him.

“I need your help,” Green Arrow finally answered.

Iris couldn't explain what came over her. It was as if a temporary madness washed over her. Or maybe deep down she wanted confirmation that she'd feel the same rush of electricity as she did when they kissed under the mistletoe months ago. After all she was a reporter who investigated till she got the answer she wanted.

Both her hands went to his shoulders as she went on her toes to reach him. The Green Arrow had a startled look on his face (that Iris took great pride in cracking his usual stoic demeanor) that quickly turned to understanding when Iris pressed her lips against his.

Her arms curled themselves more securely around his neck as the kiss deepened. His own arms wrapped around her waist holding her close and keeping her in place. Iris felt as though she was flouting as he lifted her several inches off the ground.

His lips moved against her perfectly. He seemed to know exactly how to kiss with the right amount of coaxing and demand. His teeth biting hard on her lower lips only for his tongue to swipe over the mark he left behind. Every cell in Iris's body felt electrified. Her sensations heightened by being pressed into his body.

When they finally pulled apart Iris felt dizzy and her skin felt hot to the touch. Despite them being in a less than romantic setting on the roof of a warehouse with unconscious guards several feet away and a meeting of drug lords taking place inside but if Green Arrow wanted to take things further she'd let him.

“I need to go,” Green Arrow said in a voice thick with want. Iris could feel his eyes staring at her lips.

“Right now?” Iris asked hopefully.

For a second the Green Arrow seemed to angle his head down as if to kiss her again but suddenly he let her go.

Iris could feel the heaviness of the cold night more acutely without him being close to her.

“Leave out the same back door you came in,” Green Arrow instructed. “I'll make sure no one follows you,”

“What about the information I need,” Iris pressed having no intention of him thinking that the kiss would make her forget their deal.

“I'll make sure you get it,” He said in return.

Iris could tell by the finality in his voice that nothing else would be discussed or done tonight. Which made her feel a little disappointed and a little regretful she kissed him in the first place.

Without a word Iris turned and left out the door they came through. Not once looking back to see if he made good on his promise to keep watch but she felt his eyes on her all the same.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iris got back to her apartment as the sky had began to turn pale grey. A light rain had started to fall leaving Iris damp and cold and very grateful to be back home. Iris shrugged off her jacket and walked over to collapse on the couch. Her body felt like dead weight but her mind kept running with thoughts over what happened.

Last night had been both long and exhilarating. Her date with Barry Allen went far better then she expected. She was now not only attracted to him but enjoyed talking with him in an open and real way. Iris hadn't dated seriously for years but she could see herself being with him despite his reputation as a billionaire playboy.

Then there was Green Arrow. A man that Iris really should avoid being alone with. As much as she respected what he did for the city she wasn't about to put on her rose colored glasses and believe he could do no wrong. But at the same time she wanted to help him with his mission to save Star City.

One night, two very interesting men that Iris didn't know how to feel about.

Iris reached over to check her phone a little surprised to see a text message from Barry.

Barry: I know this might seem forward but can I take you for breakfast?

Iris smiled as she read the text and without thinking about the time instantly called him.

“Well this is a nice surprise,” Barry answered when he picked up the call.

“What do you mean? You texted me remember,” Iris scoffed.

“I didn't think you get back to me at 5 in the morning,” Barry replied is amusement.

Iris cringed and silently cursed hoping he didn't think she was a complete freak.

“Sorry I don't keep regular people hours,” Iris rushed to explain.

“Its fine, neither do I. Its not uncommon for me to be up all night and getting no sleep.”

“From all your partying with super models and celebrities right?” Iris teased.

“Yeah,” Barry laughed with an edge Iris couldn't decipher. “Something like that.”

The two of them made plans to meet up at diner down town in an hour. Iris pushed herself off the couch to make her way to take a shower. She probably shouldn't of agreed to meet up with him but she felt compelled to see him again.

She had a feeling that Barry Allen would be no different from the Green Arrow as a man she had her misgivings about but couldn't stay away from.

[caroline18mars]

A Man On Fire - Chapter 14

“I'm gonna get your seat completely soaked, sorry” her teeth were clapping as her frozen hands unsuccesfully tried to zip down her jacket, “It's not my car, so I couldn't care less, I'm more worried about you, we need to get you out of these wet clothes before you catch pneumonia or something, I thought you were gonna take a cab”. Whoaaa wait a minute floppy hair, don't put the blame on me now “thought I'd go for a walk instead, but then I got surprised by this tsunami” she breathed with her fingers to her mouth, trying to warm them up “but a dry spot and a hot coffee sounds really great right now”. Jared tried to keep his eyes on the road and turned up the heating to remedy the fogged up windows, one near-collision was enough for one day, “we should be downtown in 10 minutes”. Good, thanks for the ETA, bossman, enough time to sit back a bit and enjoy the sloshy noise the wheels were making on wet tarmac, somehow that was a happy sound, made her want to snuggle up in her seat and watch the world pass by. Finally someone he could have a comfortable silence with, she wasn't angry, accusations weren't flying, she just sat there, soaking wet and cold, but completely at ease, completely refreshing from all the drama queens he was surrouned with every day. “This place alright for you?” she heard him say as he parked the car in front of a coffeeshop, while she was looking in the vanity mirror, wiping the streaked make up from her face and her wet hair tied up in a bun, “looks fine' she quickly muffled the wet wipe in her bag, everything about her was wet right now. Oh, hello cute bubble butt, she'd never noticed until now walking behind him to the coffeeshop that was crowded with people all taking shelter from the pouring rain, “what would you like?” he caught her staring as he turned around. “Hmm, surprise me” she shook her head trying to avoid eyecontact, “ok..you go find us a table” he hummed, shit, floppy hair noticed her staring, but apparantly she wasn't the only one, because so was the rest of the coffeeshop, staring, whispering and then staring again as he walked up to the counter, oh there was a free table by the window, excellent. She quickly unzipped and shrugged off her drenched jacket and put it on her chair, before pushing her icy hands on the heating as she sat down, even though a little painful at first, it.felt.gooood to get her blood flowing again. “Caramel latte for you, hibiscus tea for me, that ok?” Jared put the cups on the table and sat down as well, “that's lovely, thank you” Harper smiled as she finally stopped the nervous plucking at her wet clothes. She looked so fresh, her skin so clear made her dark eyes stand out like glowing pieces of charcoal, distracting? Absolutely! “Harper..I..” he cleared his throat “I finally got the chance to thank you face to face for all that you've done, I mean you singlehandedly given us the solution we needed, I don't think we've actually discussed the financial side, well, you're on the payroll obviously, but I was thinking about a bonus for designing the lightshow”. Don't drool, Harper, try not to drool while floppy hair pulls out his phone, “how about” he quickly tapped something on his phone and then showed it to her, “this”. She blinked nervously looking at the calculator, 10,000, dollars? whoooaaa, wait, yeah ok, she was stunned by his offer but shouldn't she be bargaining with him right now? Pokerface and all that? “that..seems reasonable, yeah ok” paint, a zillion colours, new canvasses, brushes and she could put something aside for rainy days too, a hard day's work earned her more than the 500$ Joe had offered for a painting. He liked doing business with this woman, “ok, I'll make sure you have it in your account by the end of this week”.

”Excuse me, but could I have a picture?” a girl came walking up to their table, jittering with excitement, Harper pushed her chair back and stood up, “same?” she gestured at his empty cup, it was 'selfie with a rockstar-time' and the perfect time for her to escape his intense staring. Professional and discrete, Harper, I like it, and hello, nice butt, young lady, yeah you go ahead and walk real slowly to the counter, that butt was poetry in motion, oh selfie, right, ok, silly face, NEXT!. While waiting for the order, Harper pulled out her phone, floppy hair still taking selfies, good, time for her and Joe, ooohh yes new e-mail..ex..shes's amazing..very complicated..red flag, definitely red flag, he was still in love with his ex..fuccckkk!. “Hibiscus Tee und caramel latte?” the barista's voice brought her back to reality, “yes..uhm, danke”, had she read or interpreted this entire mail conversation wrong, or was he just blowing hot and cold on her all the time? He had practically begged her to let her guard down and when she did he just rammed..the truth down her throat..well, Harper sweetie, at least he's being honest about it. try not to stress, just read it again when you're alone and maybe you'll find a context..right, back to floppy hair and his incessant stream of female admirers. “You're welcome, I really need to go back to my conversation with my friend, ok?” Jared noticed her walking back to his table and took his privacy back from the line of fans that was forming, “is she your girlfriend?” some smartass in the queue decided to pop the million dollar question. “I'm not anyone's anything, I'm me and for Jared I'm his light designer” Harper judded her hip, staring at the girl with a smile, “oh” the girl stepped back a little intimidated. “Must be exhausting being you” Harper put the new cup of tea in front of him and sat down again, somehow she seemed more subdued, distracted even, “I'm not even gonna answer that” he grinned and sipped the hot tea “maybe you should have been so assertive with Shannon's new flavour of the month”. She leaned back with her warm cup of coffee between her hands and stared out of the window, yep definitely distracted “something wrong?” he tried to get her attention. “I don't know..yeah, no, everything's ok” liar, come on, he doesn't have to know, “don't worry about what she said, she's just some golddigger with a nose for dope..that's all she cares about, not exactly what I call the perfect company for my brother who's got a past with illegal substances”. Harper turned her head, this was interesting,  at least he wasn't as perfect as he looked “and you're worried she's gonna get your brother on the wrong track?” perfectly diverted attention from her own worries, Harper 1 – Jared 0!

From: HCDeRobiano

To: BJLCubbins

Subject: I don't know, but I'm confused

Joe,

You say you're a Coco-addict, but maybe you're as confused as I am and you meant that you were a Cocoa-addict, if that's what you meant, I would understand perfectly, you made a typo and your fingers skipped over the 'a' which is a shame because it's a beautifully curled letter.

I can just imagine the confusion on your face right now, don't worry it took me a while too to figure this out, because the other option is just too confusing, like your ex being called Coco as well or what? and from what I've read I can't tell if she's really your ex..

Regards from another Cocoa-addict, (in the chocolate sense of the word, by lack of an ex with benefits like yours).

Coco

Harper's fingers flew over the screen, sent, done, the phone flew on the bed and she sat down next to it, get out of these damp clothes, and go take a nice, long bath, cook those negative thoughts out of your brain, switch this annoying fucker off and try to get back to yourself after all that coffee and extensive talk with floppy hair, interesting talk though, there were no holds barred whatsoever, not even with such a delicate topic, she had gained Bossman's trust, for sure, or maybe he was just a compulsive talker, off to bath you go, foam, bubbles, foam, foam and hot waterrrrr, hmmm.

Jared closed the door coming back in his room and leaned against it for a minute, oyyy, that was the best rainy afternoon he had spent in a very long time, sooo easy to talk to and genuinely interested, she didn't judge, she just listened..simple as that, who still did that in these times of shallowness? Harper did..'Beep' his body jolted forward, Harper switched off, switch on Coco, hell yeah!. Huh? What?? ok read it again, what happened? Cocoa, Coco, chocolate? The fuck was she on about? He quickly scrolled to his last e-mail..'But yeah I still see her on occassions, you know..I guess you could say it's (very) complicated, and sweet and nice'..oookayyyy, yeah, the 'complicated' part was a bit too, well, complicated for her probably, she must have understood differently from what he meant by that, Cameron and him..they weren't an item anymore and they hadn't been for a long time, but yes on scarce occassions they did meet again and each time they did, it was beyond nice, like reliving a rosy memory of the couple they once were, they could talk to each other without holding any grudges these days..he had always hated how they had spent all these years apart being resentful of each other..she had a special place in his heart after 4 years of unbridled passion they had spent together and she always would but that was all. Now try and explain that to Coco..she didn't know all that, but she was the one who asked about the details..oh god, it was more than high time that they actually met so there were no moremisunderstandings..on the other hand, her being all stroppy about that meant that she cared, or maybe, just maybe, she cared a little bit more than she'd liked to admit right?

Harper let herself slide in the hot water, ohhh niceeee, all her muscles strained and then relaxed as the heat caressed them. Sighing she closed her eyes and before covering herself in bubbles, she turned up the bathroom stereo system and let the bass pound in her ears. Shayla stood there looking at her lover from the other side of the hallway, she couldn't stand being cooped all by herself in Köln, so she decided to pay her man a surprise visit, yeah you go inside that hotelroom baby, you will need to lie down to recover from the surprise I have for you, she giggled to herself as she followed him once he stepped inside, oh he had left the door open, no you weren't going anywhere anymore loverboy, tonight was just you and me! Sean couldn't handle the silence between him and Harper any longer, so what if he had snatched her second keycard to let himself in when he wanted to? Loud music thundered out to him, where was she? Jared was back already so she most probably was too, “Harper?” he shouted and then knocked on the closed bathroom door, no answer..his curiosity got the better of him and he slowly opened the door, “Harper?” he called again but when there was no answer he stepped inside slowly. Harper was nodding her head to the music but when it stopped abruptly, her eyes shot open in fright. A frightened pair of eyes met a couple of admiring ones “Sean! What?..” she was hardly able to speak as she tried to recover from the shock, what was he doing here in her bathroom, how did he even get in? Arrghhh she was naked! “I'm..I'm sorry..I just wanted to..check..I wanted to talk and..”, instead of backing away, he clumsily took a step forward to the tub which made her shoot up in shock. “What the hell? SEAN?” Shayla yelled as she stormed inside the bathroom seeing her lover and his so called best friend who was quickly trying to cover up her naked chest, “I knew it..I..I just can't..you and that..that SLUT!” and out she stormed again with Sean in hot pursuit after her, leaving Harper to sit there, completely speechless, what the hell just happened?

[deathtouch]

💛 femfeb day 1 | my femfeb masterpost 🧡 xposted → ao3 | dw | pf.io  💖 ashe/symmetra | 2k | explicit 🧡 pwp, strap-on, rich sex, money, multiple positions 💛 ashe and symmetra fuck on a pile of money

The trouble was getting the actual money; the physical paper bills. Ashe had well over a million dollars. After all her thieving, robbing, and looting a million was a drop in the bucket of everything she’d earned. It was just that it was tied up in assets, stored in several different offshore accounts, hidden in trusts and shell companies. She didn’t bother with that side of the business. Her interests were in high stakes heists, not accounting. She paid other people to launder her cash and hide her stolen earnings from the law. She never thought twice about her bank accounts or credit cards... not until Satya made a special request. (“A million dollars,” she whispered, voice low and sultry. Her lips pressed to Ashe’s ear, their bodies curled in close to one another, skin touching skin. “I want you to fuck me on a bed of a million dollars.” How could Ashe say no?) She knew she couldn’t just go to the bank and withdraw a million bucks. Most banks didn’t keep that kind of money on the premises. It was too much of a risk with people like Ashe in the world; people who wouldn’t think twice about storming in, shooting up the place, and filling bags full of banded bills. No, she had to accumulate it slowly over time. Fifty thousand here, two hundred thousand there. She made demands of rival gangs, testing the strength of their alliances by asking for cold hard cash in return for favors. She fenced expensive items, constantly withdrew from ATMs, robbed inconsequential little stores and gas stations. Everything she could to collect enough cash. It was probably dumb and dangerous to keep the money in her safe. If someone caught wind of what she was up to, she was liable for a home invasion. Somehow that made it more fun, dancing on the razors edge. Recklessness has always appealed to her, and this was no different. When she finally had enough cash, she made an event of it. She took Satya out to dinner, dressed up all nice just to please her, bought expensive wine for the table. She took Satya out to the club, showed her off to all the patrons, let them all see the beautiful woman Ashe called hers. They tore through the dusty back roads of New Mexico on Ashe’s bike, engine thunderously loud. She sped too fast, took turns to sharp, forced Satya to cling tight against her back. Their hearts were pounding by the time they were home, the both of them fired up and ready. They didn’t even make it in the front door before they started kissing, grabbing at one another. Ashe fumbled her keys, yelled for Bob to come help before diving back in and kissing Satya again. The big omnic came to open the door for them and then smartly made himself scarce as Satya crushed Ashe up against the wall inside. “Wait, baby,” Ashe breathed between kisses. She nodded towards the stairs. “My bedroom.” Satya’s dark lipstick wasn’t even smudged despite the night of drinking and dancing, and now their kissing in the dark. She stared hard at Ashe, golden eyes glinting with lust. “I want you now,” Satya said to her, bossy as always. She grabbed at Ashe’s shirt collar, dragging her in. Ashe kissed her again and again, intending to pull away after each one, but she got so caught up in the taste of her lips and the way their bodies felt molded against one another. She eventually found the strength to pull back. Satya pressed kisses to her jaw, her neck, anywhere she could find pale white flesh. “I have a surprise for you,” Ashe told her, getting the words out because if she didn’t say it now, they might not make it upstairs. “A surprise?” Satya asked, eyebrow quirking up. She liked surprises. Ashe winked one dark red eye at her and nodded towards the stairs again. This time they actually managed to climb them up to the second floor. They hurried through the hall and into the master bedroom. Everything was all set up and ready inside. Ashe let Satya walk in first, closed the distance between their bodies, and then hugged her tight from behind as she turned on the light switch. The mattress was hidden under a sea of stacked bills. A million dollars laid out in ten thousand-dollar stacks, neat little rows of them. Satya gasped and stilled momentarily to admire the perfect symmetry of the lines and the way it all fit on the queen bed without any uneven excess. She arched back and reached for Ashe behind her. “You thought I forgot?” Ashe smirked, nuzzling into Satya’s dark hair, kissing the back of her neck. It had taken a while to get all the money, after all. “It’s all real, it’s all there, it’s all for you.” Satya turned to face her, fisting her shirt collar again, dragging her in for more heated kisses. They were just as desperate as ever, frantic and lust-filled. “Fuck me,” she demanded. She wasn’t a girl who begged or pleaded. She was beautiful, and dangerous, and she got what she wanted. Ashe loved that about her. She loved having the world at her fingertips, if only to offer it to Satya. Satya undressed, unwrapping her orange and gold sari and stripping off her petticoat underneath. She knew how beautiful she was, how perfect her body was, how stunning she looked naked. Ashe had seen it before, a thousand times, but she was still struck dumb as the sight of Satya in the nude before her. Wearing only a gold bracelet and necklace, she walked over towards the bed. She dragged a finger over the stacks of cash, relishing in the opulence of it all. When she mounted the mattress the stacks shifted, some fell off the side, the perfection of it all went awry but it didn’t matter. Satya made a throne of it anyway. She leaned back on one hand, dug her heels into the money and spread her legs. “Fuck,” Ashe whispered under her breath, wondering how she had managed to find a girl as incredible as this. She was already half undressed herself, and she hurried to shed the rest of her clothes. She made quick work of retrieving the strap-on and putting it on. When it was good and secure, obscene silicone cock jutting out from between her legs, she went to join Satya on the bed. Satya was already touching herself, fingers steadily working her clit. She had a hungry look in her eyes, like she wanted to devour Ashe whole. Ashe watched her pleasure herself, relished in the tantalizing sight of it. She considered stepping away to grab lube, but the wet glistening of Satya’s fingers and the juicy glimmer on the stack of cash beneath her pussy told Ashe otherwise. She was good and wet already. She mounted the bed and more stacks of money fell to the bedroom floor. She dove in to kiss Satya’s lips, chasing the taste of her spit. She reached between their bodies to grab for the faux cock between her legs. She lined it up just right, slid the tip up and down to get it slick, and eased it inside. Satya clutched at her with one hand, still leaning back on the other. Her fingers wrapped around Ashe’s neck, painted nails digging into her skin. Ashe groaned, in love with the pain. She started fucking Satya in earnest. Ashe knew just the way Satya liked it. It wasn’t about speed, it was a steady rhythm that mattered. Fucking hard and deep at a good, even pace. The consistency of it, the slide in and out, the thudding of a hard cock deep inside… it set Satya moaning. Passionate noises tore from her throat, punched out with each thrust. She threw her head back, rolled her hips to meet Ashe’s in perfect time, chasing even more pleasure. Ashe kissed her throat, licked the salty sweat from her skin. They made the bed frame shake, stacks falling to the floor with each thrust. The paper under her knees wasn’t particularly comfortable, and it was probably even less comfortable for Satya who was sitting on it, but it wasn’t about comfort. It was about getting fucked on a pile of one million dollars. After working up a sweat, they switched positions. Ashe pushed Satya on her back. She laid her body out over the bills, a fucked-out beauty in a sea of pale green paper. Her dark hair splayed over the stacks of cash, as messy as the rows of money were now. She hooked her heels into the small of Ashe’s back and they went at it like that, Ashe fucking her hard into the bed of cash. Satya arched up into it, moaned, panted heavily. With both hands free she grabbed for Ashe’s back, scratched down her shoulder blades with her nails. Ashe hissed with pleasure, fucking her harder, dripping sweat from the steady work of pounding into her. Ashe could only keep it going for so long, though. Eventually she got winded, exhausted from the non-stop sex. Her rhythm slowed and she paused to catch her breath. Satya panted underneath her. She looked debauched and sinful so fucking beautiful. Ashe kissed her, bit her bottom lip, breathed hot and heavy into her mouth. “You wanna ride me?” She asked. Satya groaned with pleasure at the thought, nodding eagerly. They switched places. Ashe laid back on the millions. It was as uncomfortable as she thought it would be. The corners of stacks dug into her skin and stuck to her where she was sweaty. Satya mounted her readily. She sank down on the cock, moaning gently. The time for punishing sex had passed, both of them too worn down for anything strenuous here and now. Languid and sultry Satya rolled her hips, gently rocking back and forth. Ashe reached out for her, grasped at her waist, slid her palms up her ribs, softly caressed the full swell of her breasts. She was a sight to behold, glorious in her rough-fucked beauty. When Satya wanted to come, she reached down and took care of it herself. She rubbed her clit with her back arched, head tipped back, a constant stream of deep moans rising from her throat. Her beautiful body trembled as she orgasmed, voice rising to a cut off squeak. Ashe could feel her own pussy pulsing, thudding with pleasure at the image before her. Then it was all over, Satya was done. Exhausted and spent, she climbed off of Ashe and collapsed down on the money beside her. She grimaced at the feel of stiff paper. Ashe hadn’t come but that was okay. Satya was satisfied and that was all that mattered. She turned over, dislodging the stacked of bills beneath her. She cuddled up to Satya, pulling their bodies together. Ashe pressed her face to the soft curve of Satya’s neck. She smelled like sweat and sex and money and it was so goddamn perfect. The only trouble now, was what she was going to do with this money. All these physical bills. It wasn’t like she could just drop it all off at the bank, sticky with their juices. Ashe smirked, nuzzled further into Satya’s damp hair. It was a problem for the morning.

i'm taking femslash february suggestions year round send requests or prompts ➝ here follow me on twitter ➝ here thanks for reading ✩°｡⋆

[saltyblazestudent]

The Video Game Industry

Video games have come a very long way. From humble beginnings as a simple interactive exhibit to an entirely new form of interactive storytelling and ways to experience adventures with friends. The video game industry has been ripe with change, controversary, technological strides, and amazing works of art and commentaries on society.

Key Terms-

DLC- Downloadable content available for a game offered for a small extra price after the full release of the game.

Micro Transactions- Payments made with real money to get in game currency used to buy in game content.

FPS/TPS- First person shooter/ third person shooter.

Cabinet Game- An arcade style video game built into a cabinet like structure.

Console- a gaming device that can be used at home by plugging it into a TV screen.

Sandbox environment- A game environment that allows the player to roam where every and do almost whatever they want.

Triple-A Games- games that are very popular, make great sales on release, and is usually annualized to release a new game every year or two.

 Historical developments-

The first video game was invented in 1958 by Physicist William Higginbotham and it was called Pong. The game was created was by Higginbotham as an interactive exhibit for the Brookhaven National Laboratory Group. The game was displayed on an analog computer and was based off tennis with players using two knobs to control two parallel bars bouncing a ball in between them. This simple concept was eventually ported to an arcade cabinet style and later an at home console game and led to the development of other cabinet style arcade games and at home video game consoles.  

The 1970’s was the decade that arcade style video games became mainstream. Even a year before Pong was ported to a cabinet there was Atari’s 1971 game Computer Space a simple joystick-controlled game where you control a small spaceship and the first Arcade Cabinet game. These successes paved the way for all sorts of companies to start developing some of their own games to be made into arcade cabinets and played for a few cents a play. One of the most famous arcade games is Pac-Man a Japanese game licensed and distributed in the U.S. by Midway games and released in 1980. This is a simple arcade style game in which the player uses a joystick to control a small yellow circle shaped character named Pac-Man. The goal of the game was to earn points by going through a maze eating small dots while Avoiding Blinky, Pinky ,Inky, and Clyde four ghost who chase you through the maze. This simple yet incredibly fun game led to many sequels spinoffs and even a Hanna Barbara cartoon series.

Pac-Man isn’t the only game or character to receive mainstream popularity. The Japanese company Nintendo had a game and a character that would truly become timeless, he was a short Italian plumber, that wore a red hat, overalls and a large mustache and had a very funny accent. His name was Mario and the first game he was featured in was a 1981 arcade game called Donkey Kong. This game had Mario trying to rescue Princess Peach from the giant gorilla Donkey Kong. The player would use a joystick and buttons to guide Mario up platforms and over barrels being thrown by Donkey Kong. Mario would later get another main role in Mario Bros which introduced Mario’s brother Luigi. Mario has since become the face of Nintendo and is their flagship Character and shows no signs of losing any popularity.

  It was popularity such as this that helped gaming companies make the next big leap from the arcades to peoples’ homes. These consoles usually had the same games you could play in an arcade preloaded onto them so you could play them as much you wanted for free at home. The first at home console was created in 1967 and was called simply the Brown Box and offered only six games ping pong, tennis, volleyball, hand ball, a chase game, and a light gun game. The Magnavox Odyssey was another early at home console that was so primitive to modern standards that it didn’t even have audio. These early 2-D arcade consoles eventually led to the rise of another technological breakthrough in the industry, 3-D gaming. These were not 3-D in the sense that the images appeared to be jumping out of the screen but more with the art style and how the games were graphically improved. For example in Super Mario Bros the character models are created from small colored squares called pixels. These pixels are colored and stacked into shaped to create a 2-D shape on the screen such as the image of Mario. Fast forward to the 3-D tech breakthrough and the number of pixels being used to create Mario increased dramatically, this meant the game developers could make much more detail character models that you could view from any angle. These advances in 3-D character modelling led to the development of one of the most famous consoles created, the Nintendo 64 was a huge leap forward for mainstream gaming and introduce help introduce the concept of a handheld controller with smaller buttons and a small joystick instead of a single joystick for controls. 

The N-64 also brought amazing games such as Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, James Bond: Goldeneye, and Mario Tennis. The popularity of the N-64 paved the way for other companies like Sony and Microsoft to hone in on the gaming console market with the release of the Sony PlayStation and the Microsoft X-BOX.

Notable Artists-

           The gaming industry is filled with brilliant artist, studios, writers, programmers, and other types of creators that dedicate their time and effort to creating beautiful and stunning games for us to enjoy.

Shigeru Miyamoto- Creator of the Mario Franchise Japanese game developer Shigeru Miyamoto has one of the most creative and colorful imaginations in gaming. The worlds and characters he creates are colorful, cartoony, fun, and most of all memorable. Miyamoto claims to have been inspired by stories such as Alice In Wonderland in his design of the game world and the characters who inhabit it. Miyamoto has created characters such as Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Goombas, Toad, Yoshi, and countless others.

Rockstar Games- Rockstar Games is a company the develops and produces some of the most detailed and expansive Sandbox Environment Games that not only present the player with amazing film quality level story and script writing but also a massive world to experience it all in that feels very close to real life.

Rockstar has published numerous successful game franchises such as the Max Payne, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Bully and many others. Rockstar games are notorious for amazing sales records as well with Grand Theft Auto V  has made over $6 billion dollars in sales since its release in 2013 and Rockstar’s newest release of their Wild West epic Red Dead Redemption II making $725 million three days after the game was put out.

Recent Trends-

           Video Games like any other form of media is subject to trends and the consumers demanding video games that are new, exciting, and interesting. In the 90’s the trend was first person shooters which were popular with computer gamers. First Person shooters consist of putting the player in the first person view of the protagonist, this makes actions like shooting at enemies much easier and more immersive. Games that pioneered this “FPS” (First Person Shooter) genre were games like Wolfenstein, and Doom. The FPS trend evolved in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and was greatly influenced by the 1998 movie Saving Pvt Ryan. After the film’s release there was a huge spike in WWII themed FPS games. A couple of these games almost recreated the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Pvt. Ryan perfectly, allowing player to take part in one of the most famous battles of WWII. Trends in gaming have again evolved with the popularity of the “battle royale”(BR). The BR genre consists of dropping up to 100 players on an island or other large area and having the play area slowly shrink as the players fight for supplies, weapons, shelter, and to be the sole survivor.  Games like Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds and Fortnite popularized the genre and now larger annual game titles such as Battlefield and Call Of Duty have included BR game modes in their newest games.

Exemplary Examples-

An amazing and fairly recent example at how far gaming has come and shows just how amazing gaming can be as a mode of storytelling. Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption II is the sequel to the Highly praised Red Dead Redemption. After an eight year wait Red Dead fans flocked to stores to pick up the high anticipated sequel, and they were not disappointed. Red Dead II raked in not only over $725 million after only three days but also almost universal praise from the media. The game was in the news not only on gaming websites and magazines but also in the mainstream media. The game takes place in America during the year 1899 and has a strong Wild West theme to it. The game offers over sixty hours of gameplay just with the main story but adding in side activities and side missions to that play time can exponentially increase the play time for Red Dead II.

Red Dead II offers fun and in detail activities besides the main story missions, such as hunting. Hunting in Red Dead II consist of travelling to a location on the huge map where the animal your hunting is found for example if you want to hunt Alligators you must go to the swampy southern end of the map, if you want to hunt elk you must go to the snowy mountains in the north of the map. Once in the region of the animal you must rack it by looking for clues, once the animal is tracked you must decide the best weapon to take it down with-out damaging the skin. Animals skins that are intact and in better shape when you hunt them can be sold for more money or crafted into clothing for your character in game. This hunting mechanic is just one example of Red Dead II’s highly immersive world.

 Ownership-

           The video game industry lives on game developing companies that actually create the games. These companies like any other industry vary from small independent companies with a limited number of employees to large corporations and conglomerates that push out Triple-A games on a monthly basis.

An Example of a smaller independent developer is Tripwire Interactive. Tripwire specializes in FPS games especially “hyper-realistic” type FPS games like Red Orchestra and Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad. The Red Orchestra games were a welcome change to the type of gameplay offered from most WWII themed FPS games at the time. While other games feature fast gameplay with things like regenerating health and a Heads up Display (HUD) that displayed a mini map, health bar, and ammo count, Red Orchestra cut all that out. Tripwire focused on making a more realistic experience. This included mechanics such as realistic bullet ballistics with shots staring to arch over a certain distance, excluding a HUD feature altogether, and having the player venerable enough to be killed by a single bullet to add to the realism. These mechanics later carried on into other Tripwire games such as the Pacific Theatre WWII game Rising Storm and the Vietnam War game Rising Storm II.

An example of a larger and more corporate game developer that makes games similar to Tripwire. Dice Studios is a very well-known studio most famous for the production of the Battlefield franchise and more recently the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise. Dice is owned by Electronic Arts or EA a huge gaming development conglomeration that has many smaller game developers working for them. Dice has been making battlefield games since 2002 with the first title being a WWII FPS called Battlefield 1942. The game saw great success and EA recognized this and now has Dice pumping out Battlefield games almost every two years.

 Demographics-

           The demographics of gamers are actually a lot more diverse than one might believe. The usually stereotype is that gamers are either boys between the ages of 7-17 or young men in their twenties that live in their parents basement. There’s also a major stereotype that females do not like video games.

64% of the US general public play video games, The average age of the male gamer according to a Nielsen survey is 33 years old, according to the Entertainment Software Association the average age of female gamers is 37 years old. The countries that make the most from gaming revenue are The US bringing in an average of $25,426 million, Japan with $14,048 million, and China with a whopping $32,538 million.

 Controversaries-

           The gaming industry and its companies are not immune to controversary and culture movements.

The Grand Theft Auto Controversaries- Rockstar Game’s Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise is their most successful and most controversial franchise. The games are usually themed around crime and the main storylines have very graphic violence, drug use, and sexual content. The sandbox nature of the game also allows the player the opportunity to commit violence against non-enemy NPCs (non-playable characters) or go on shooting sprees until the cops kill you. GTA V came under harsh criticism for a playable scene In the story mode in which the player is forced to torture an FBI prisoner for information with anything from shock with a car battery, pulling teeth with plyers, or waterboarding. This scene especially got lots of media attention with many people asking the question if GTA games are to violent especially in today’s culture. Rockstar however uses this publicity and actually counts on it with each GTA release because it ultimately drives up their sales.

The Doom Controversary- On April 20 1999 two high school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold entered their high school armed with guns and homemade bombs. They killed twelve people that day and themselves, and in the subsequent investigation it was found that the boys were fans of one the first popular FPS games Doom. Doom is centered on very simple gameplay with an interesting story with the main character traveling to Mars and to Hell to fight demons. It was the demonic themes and violent gameplay that led some to believe that Doom was actually sending Satanic subliminal messages to players trying to corrupt them to violence.

          Sources

https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200810/physicshistory.cfm

http://pacman.com/en/pac-man-history

https://www.howtogeek.com/trivia/in-which-game-did-mario-make-his-first-appearance/

https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/19/415456813/the-legendary-mr-miyamoto-father-of-mario-and-donkey-kong

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/10/30/red-dead-redemption-2-sales-revealed-725-million-in-three-days/#79f7000455d7

https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-red-dead-redemption-2-2018-9

https://www.tripwireinteractive.com/#/company/#top

https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/#video-gaming-industry-overview