#totally made up all the designs on the fly

[extinctionstories]

On April 19th, 1987, a bird known as Adult Condor 9 was captured in the Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge, near Bakersfield, California. After decades ravaged by the threats of lead-poisoning and pesticide exposure, and intense debate over the ethics of captivity, it had been determined that captive breeding was the final hope to save a species. As his designation might suggest, AC-9 was the ninth condor to be captured for the new program; he was also the last.

As the biology team transported the seven-year-old male to the safety of the San Diego Wild Animal Park, his species, the California Condor, North America's largest bird, became extinct in its native range. It was Easter Sunday—a fitting day for the start of a resurrection.

At the time of AC-9's capture, the total world population of California condors constituted just twenty-seven birds. The majority of them represented ongoing conservation attempts: immature birds, taken from the wild as nestlings and eggs to be captive-reared in safety, with the intention of re-release into the wild. Now, efforts turned fully towards the hope of captive breeding.

Captive breeding is never a sure-fire bet, especially for sensitive, slow-reproducing species like the condor. Animals can and do go extinct even when all individuals are successfully shielded from peril and provided with ideal breeding conditions. Persistence in captivity is not the solution to habitat destruction and extirpation—but it can buy valuable time for a species that needs it.

Thankfully, for the California condor, it paid off.

The birds defied expectations, with an egg successfully hatched at the San Diego Zoo the very next year. Unlike many other birds of prey, which may produce clutches of up to 5 hatchlings, the California condor raises a single chick per breeding season, providing care for the first full year of its life, and, as a consequence, often not nesting at all in the year following the birth of a chick. This, combined with the bird's slow maturation (taking six to eight years to start breeding), presented a significant challenge. However, biologists were able to exploit another quirk of the bird's breeding cycle: its ability to double-clutch.

Raising a single offspring per year is a massive risk in a world full of threats, and the California condor's biology has provided it with a back-up plan: in years when a chick or egg has been lost, condors will often re-nest with a second egg. To take advantage of this tendency, eggs were selectively removed from birds in the captive breeding program, which would then lay a replacement, greatly increasing their reproduction rate.

And what of the eggs that were taken? The tendency of hatchlings to imprint is well-known, and the intention from the very beginning was for the birds to one day return to the wild—an impossibility for animals acclimated to humans. And so, puppets were made in the realistic likeness of adult condors, and used by members of the conservation team to feed and nurture the young birds, mitigating the risk of imprintation on the wrong species.

By 1992, the captive population had more than doubled, to 64 birds. That year, after an absence of five years, the first two captive-bred condors were released into their ancestral home. Many other releases followed, including the return of AC-9 himself in 2002. Thanks to the efforts of zoos and conservationists, as of 2024 there are 561 living California condors, over half of which fly free in the wilds of the American West.

The fight to save the California condor is far from over. The species is still listed as critically endangered. Lead poisoning (from ingesting shot/bullets from abandoned carcasses) remains the primary source of mortality for the species, with tagged birds tested and treated whenever possible. Baby condors are fed bone chips by their parents, likely as a calcium supplement—but, to a condor, bits of bone and bits of plastic can be indistinguishable, and dead nestlings have been found with stomachs full of trash.

There's hope, though. There are things we can change, things we can counteract and stop from happening in the future. It was a human hand that created this problem, and it will take a human hand to fix it. Hope is only gone when the last animal breathes its last breath—and the California condor is still here.

-

This painting is titled Puppet Rearing (California Condor), and is part of my series Conservation Pieces, which focuses on the efforts and techniques used to save critically endangered birds from extinction. It is traditional gouache, on 22x30" paper.

[yakutarts]

Nightmare and Dream but feral, non-skeletal body!

For the love of god PLEASE click on the image for better quality + close ups and clothed version under the cut!!

Would you kiss them?

Video process:

I made these using a specific context

A while ages ago I drew and posted a drawing of Nightmare and Dream on their light ball form but with some alterations/personal headcanons.

On the post, I expressed my desire to draw the twins in a universe were Nim didn’t need to give them bodies, and just let them grow naturally. And specifically give them an animalistic appearance, instead of a humanoid one like most artist do.

You can see on the process video that it took me 1000 sketches to make something that looked good and I was happy with, the video is obviously sped up, the total time it took me to make this was 28 hours and 15 minutes.

Now explaining some things:

Why are they so big?

I read on a post made by Joku that Nim, before giving them skeleton bodies, tried to make them human ones, but the pure amount of magic and power the twins had made the human bodies explode or some shit. So she picked skeletons since the magic could flow freely through the bones without being confined by muscle and flesh. That made me think if their power had physical forms, it would be gigantic. So I gave them gigantic forms to better represent their status of strength and power, beings made from raw magic to serve as guardians of all emotions throughout the multiverse, of course I needed to make them big and intimidating!

Why the horns?

Artistic design choice, I gave them little horns and a chubby tail in their light ball form to purposefully make them more animalistic, wanted to keep it while making these. Also just giving them a smooth head with nothing much going on looked weird and boring.

Why the draconian look?

Dragons had been created and depicted as symbols of pure power above humanity and worshipped as deities throughout several cultures around the world, different depictions of dragons has been one of the only things present among almost all cultures, like a default folklore creature. While I tried to incorporate other mythical creatures in the design, the draconic body plan felt more right due to the influence of dragons on human beliefs, and their representation as magical and powerful beings beyond human comprehension. Plus I just really love drawing dragons.

Why the clothing choice? Also why is Dream half naked while Nightmare has everything covered?

While designing the clothes for Nightmare, I used as reference clothing that usually royalty would wear, Nightmare has a really big ego and sees himself as a king, so he uses fancy, expensive clothing and jewelry, adapted and designed for his anatomy. Not practical for battle, but his corruption can go through the fabric without damaging it, and most people and monsters just run when they see him, so he doesn’t worry about it getting dirty or tearing, Nightmare just expects every soul to instantly submit when they see him, so he never worries about getting into a battle and getting dirty he has that big of an ego.

Dream is the opposite, his style of clothing much more practical for running, jumping, flying, fighting and general exercise. He has 4 bags in total, 2 on each side, inside them he keeps several items, be it healing food, magical artifacts, first aid kit, gifts he receives, stuff he buys or random things he finds and wants to take home with him. Dream’s crown is now a colar couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the head shape and horns, his cape is from his official design, but changed to white, was planning to make it yellow but when I looked at it my eyes hurt because there was too much yellow everywhere. I made Dream’s clothes with the intent to match his official design, I didn’t to the same for nightmare because a turtle neck with a hoodie on a dragon would make him more huggable than intimidating. Plus I like to think that the leg warmers was a gift from Blue, and the ring on his horn a gift from Ink. Didn’t add more stuff on him because I couldn’t think of something that would look good and match Dream’s vibe, the rest of his clothes on his official design didn’t translate well here. Oh, while I was drawing this, I drew the colar and the leg warmers first, without the cape, Dream looked like a twink with a pet play kink.

Side note; neither Nightmare or Dream see the use of clothes as a necessity or as decency. For them clothes are nothing but pure decoration and to show off status for Nightmare, they can wear full body suits, partial clothing, just jewelry, or nothing at all, which is what they usually go for when at home, wearing or not wearing stuff doesn’t make that much of a difference to them at all.

Do they act as animals or do they have human intelligence?

Despite me using the word “feral” all the time to describe them, they do not actually act as animals. I’m only using “feral” to describe their body/anatomy, Nightmare and Dream are fully sentient and have human level intelligence/awareness. They are capable of speech and have opposable thumbs on their front paws, they can grab, write, hold… do anything a human can do with their hands with dexterity. But they do have to use only hand one at a time, and balance themselves with the other. To use both hands, they have to be sitting, or be supported by something, they can balance themselves on their wings if they have to.

And now contradicting what I just said, they have some animalistic behaviors. The twins can growl, purr and roar. Despite Nightmare being able to use his tentacles and Dream being able to shoot magic arrows out of his wings, they to also scratch and bite while fighting. Since they are big and heavy, they can easily crush bone under their weight and their bite force is strong enough to split someone in half. If you need a reference, just use Smaug from The Hobbit, he has more or less the balance of animal behavior and human intelligence I’m looking for.

Expanding more on this, the twins stretch just like felines, and often sleep in positions usually cats sleep in (they don’t actually need to sleep but do anyway). Dream likes to go fishing, and by fishing I mean jumping in a lake and chasing the fish underwater. He finds it more fun than sitting around and waiting for the fish to come to you instead.

I guess you count their lack of necessity to wear clothes as animal logic too?

_________________

If you have any more questions about them, I will be happy to answer!

And yes, I do plan on making more drawings of Nightmare and Dream on this form!

Dreamtale belongs to @jokublog

Feral concept/design by @yakutarts (me)

[ventismacchiato]

O8.5 stuck with you — idols inferno !

scaramouche x gender neutral reader

YAE MIKO: Welcome cuties to "Idols Inferno," or I², where idols ignite sparks in a tropical paradise! Here’s a comprehensive guide on how our upcoming and hot dating show will unfold!

1. Island Oasis: Our contestants, members from two different idol groups, DELUSION AND WINDBLUME, will embark on a journey to a stunning island getaway. They'll leave behind the glamor of the stage to immerse themselves in the raw beauty of nature.

idols inferno island! doesn’t seem like much…

2. Living Arrangements: While they compete for hearts, our idols reside in a cozy dormitory area. Each contestant will be able to enjoy their own private rooms, but will be sharing a dorm building with all the other contestants. Don’t get too excited, these dorms are designed to be as uncomfortable as morally possible in order to motivate our idols to work harder for the rewards!

an adjustment from the life our idols are used to!

3. Survival and Romance: Here’s the twist! Our idols aren’t just here for love—they’re also here to survive. From beachside cookouts to forging alliances, they'll fend for themselves while navigating the highs and lows of island life. The kitchen will be replenished with ingredients every two days, but contestants will be expected to put together meals on their own everyday. A water well will be located a mile away from the kitchens, contestants will have to trek to fill up their containers everyday. 

4. Games and Challenges: Throughout the journey, our contestants engage in thrilling challenges designed to test their teamwork and chemistry. Picture competitive strength challenges like partner piggyback rides or hilarious two-legged races on the beach! Make sure to tune in because the weather is hot, which means less fabric to wear! ;)  

5. Confession Box and Matchmaking: After every activity, participants visit the confession box to anonymously choose another contestant they are interested in. Matched pairs have the chance to enjoy better food, upgraded accommodations, and even a night in a nearby five-star hotel instead of the usual shitty dorms!

note: example image does not depict show events

6. Contestant Dynamics: With a total of 13 contestants, including 3 mystery guests to be revealed at a later date, tensions and emotions run high as new arrivals shake up existing connections. 

oh whoever could these be?

7. Interviews and Real-Time Updates: The end of every episode features intimate interviews with one of the contestants, offering viewers insights into their thoughts and emotions. Episodes are recorded and edited the following day, ensuring they're posted by midnight for viewers to keep up with the drama and romance in real-time.

Amidst palm trees and pristine beaches, bonds deepen and sparks fly as our idols explore their connections. Will they find lasting love or simply a lifelong friendship?

In the end, hearts will be won and memories made as our idols return home, forever changed by their time on "Idols Inferno." Tune in to not miss a second!

stuck with you!

masterlist — prev | next

guys i drew/edited that map myself cus i wanted this to make sense pls tell me you like it i know it’s extra but 🤗

short mini chapter to explain the show i’ll explain anything else if i need to in later chapters xx

also pretty obvious if ur chronically online but can you guess who the mystery guests are? 😍

synopsis after the disaster that was the live award show, where you and scaramouche got into an argument on stage after both of your groups got a tie for top artists, your guys' PR teams have been in shambles trying to scrape up your mess. that's when the idea to send you both off with some other idols to a remote location for a survival dating show to mend your public image comes up. before you know it your bags are packed and you’re on a plane to a remote island. the only obligation is you need to end up with scaramouche at the end of the show, whether you end up liking him or not doesn’t matter to your managers as long as the show’s ratings stay high. whatever you do in between to get there is up to you!

notes — after this ad break we will get back into the story xx

taglist closed — @na1lea @cindywasneverhere @lunavixia @aestherin @mlaakai @camvrin @retiredmommylover @iheartpieck @jangyung @cartierfiles @loveariel @silly-ez @mochipls @pomeiu @chuuismylife @flowerypesky @creammpuff @justanothertiredreader @boxdisappeared @kissmiere @kissingkzuha @webbywill @kazusboyfriend @s3xpistolss @pjsucks @bunns-wonderland @lordbugs @localgirlywithnolife @kosumos @danfelions @featuredtofu @pinxeajin @herebyaccident0 @haeunoo @scaradooche @pglt19 @chemiru @childesbabygirl @simonisferal @shutingstar @vxcmx @domimiki @ttalgi @esuz @tokkishouse @kitsuvil @scarasmood @ihearttori @nomurahayami @starringyau @androxphobic @kazuhasbabe

[ktaerssoi]

HOW HAVE I READ ALL OF YOUR WRITINGS AND NOT FOLLOWED YOU… ANYWAYS PLS DO AN ANGST WITH KATE MARTIN AND THE READER 🙏🏾

awww tysm for the compliment im blushing 🤭

stone cold

kate martin x fem!reader

(872)

summary: kate martin wants her girlfriend at her game.

you hadn’t been able to make it to kate’s game for a few reasons, the major one being that it was your close friends birthday and you were all going out to lunch. you had thought about canceling and just going to the game instead, but kate had assured you you should go.

so you did.

you had a great afternoon and bonded with not only your friend but others as well. that’s not to say you were watching the game, every now and then you would get a buzz on your phone letting you know Iowa was still in the lead.

you wanted to be there, you did, but you also weren’t upset that you skipped it. that was until you got the final game notification, Iowa had lost because of a random 3 point shot made by the other team with just seven seconds left.

not much later after that the party had dispersed and you were on your way home. you hadn’t heard from kate but you could guess she wasn’t exactly jumping with joy from the outcome of the game.

you had pulled into the apartment car park to see that kate’s car was yet to be in her designated spot. that’s odd, she doesn’t usually take more than 45 minutes to get home after a home game.

heading upstairs, you unlock the door, pushing it open with a sigh. you walk back to your’s and kate’s shared bedroom, getting changed out of your semi-formal clothes in some random pajamas.

you hear the door unlock as your sitting in the living room a little while later, “hey kate, i heard about the game, sorry-“ you’re cut off when you see kate hold up her hand, motioning for you to stop talking. “sorry,” you whisper as she sits down beside you, lifting your legs up and placing them now over her lap.

“sorry, just a stressful game.” the words are meant to be apologetic, but she says it with a hard stare forward, not even looking at you. her hand is resting on your ankle, and you feel her hand tighten and loosen a few times.

"so how was your little date." you look to see kate clenching her jaw, obviously annoyed. "it wasn't a date k, but it was okay i guess, i kept getting distracted by the notifications about the game." she nods, brushing some fly aways from her ponytail back down to her scalp. "if you were so distracted you should have just come to the game. it was sort of an important one."

you're stunned for a moment, not totally sure how to respond. "kate, you know i would have stayed if you asked me to? i thought you were okay with me going, you had told me you were." you sit up straighter on the couch, pulling your legs out of kate's lap to your chest.

she looks at you for what seems to be the first time since she got home, "yeah well i thought you would get the hint that i really did want you there, i had told you it was important to me so many times." her elbows are on her knees now as she "explains" to you.

"okay well then you obviously need better communication skills, because that message was not clear." kate groaned at your comment, annoyed that you weren't understanding. "the point was expressed perfectly clear, you just don't even pay attention to me anymore!" kate was standing in front of you now, no, towering over you now.

she usually looked kind and sweet and like a living teddy bear, but at the moment you just saw jealousy take over. "kate you and i both know that i pay plenty attention to you. the issue is when i, god forbid, give anyone else an ounce of my time." you cross your arms, looking up at her trying to get a sense of what she was thinking. you couldn't.

kate takes a deep breath, nodding. "yeah, you're right i know, it's just, you're like my good luck charm. i feel like i can't play well without you in the stands watching me. you're what keeps me going durning games, i just don't know what to think without thinking of you." kate's eyes are glossy as tears start to fall down her cheeks, prompting you to open your arms wide for kate to come lay with you.

"kate, babe, you know it's not me who makes you win? its your talent, and your passion, and your sportsmanship. i'm only here to cheer for you, and trust me, if i am not there in person i am most definitely cheering you on from somewhere. always." you kiss the top of her head as she buries herself deeper into your embrace, not wanting to let go for a moment.

she lets loud a quiet "mhmm" before quickly drifting off to sleep, finally being able to relax in your arms. even after a fight, you guys could never spend more than five minutes without one another. you quickly joined her in sleep, waking up the next morning in a tangle of limbs.

"morning babe," kate mumbles as she pulls you impossibly closer.

okay chat, can someone please explain to me why only my paige posts do good?? like don't get me wrong i love p, but where is my caitlin clark love story?? also wtf is happening with them? i keep seeing like sad edits but idk what happened 😭 anyway, thats it from me tonight. - kate

[fortunelowtier]

Ok so for those who didn't see the news, recently 5 rich people went “””missing””” (they're totally fucking dead) in a “Titanic tourist submarine”, basically made as a way rich people can tour (what's left of) the Titanic's wreckage for a small fee of $250,000 per person.

Anyways, setting aside the horrific implications of dying in a submarine at  13,000 feet (~4km) below sea level, the more I learn about this entire situation the more I become morbidly...amused??

so for starters, the submarine was literally the submarine from Iron Lung. its a metal cylinder with one singular porthole at the front of the vessel that is bolted shut from the outside, and has no seats, its literally just a cylinder

the second thing you need to know is that this thing was wireless, as in it was being controlled from the surface and the people inside had no control, which is concerning in multiple ways because a ship this scuffed should have a safety cable leading to the “mothership” (basically if you've ever watched ocean documentaries and they always have that long cable attached to the sub, that's for in case the wireless control fucks up and they need it to be wired)

what makes this little fact so much more morbidly funny is that this thing was controlled using the remains of a Logitech Gamepad controller from ~2004/2005, a controller notorious for being one of the most clunky pieces of gaming equipment ever designed. so clunky in fact that few people even recognized it, originally mistaking it to be a combination of an Xbox 360 and a PS1 controller. estimated price of $30.

“but Fortune” I hear a very few of you asking, “it shouldn't matter what its controlled with, as long as the connection is good”

and to that my dear reader you would be correct! there are indeed submarines out there controlled with even simple joysticks, and using game controllers to control stuff like this isn't new (why do you think army recruiters prey on low GPA high school gamers to fly drones)

no you see the issue comes when you realize that what this sub was using to transmit controls. was fucking. STARLINK.

Yes, that's correct, Starlink, the service that can barely do its job on land was being used to transmit data through 2.5 miles (4km) of water, at a depth where anything that isn't highly pressurized is crushed instantly 

-----

And at the end of this, if some of you still feel bad for the rich people who spent a quarter of a million dollars to get bolted into a metal cylinder with no seats and a singular porthole that was being controlled by Elon Musk's barely functioning wireless service and one of the most notoriously clunky gaming controllers of all time that was probably bought from a thrift store, just know that it was most likely over quick. 

The likely thing that ended up happening was cabin depressurization, and at such a depth this means they were knocked unconscious by the rapid loss of pressure in the vessel almost instantly, and then shortly thereafter crushed by the weight of the ocean around them. 

Scientifically speaking, they were likely dead so fast that the brain likely couldn't even comprehend what was happening, the most they would've felt is a little pop in their ears for a fraction of a second.

[cheesycatz]

The Making of: Life-Size Malworm Plush

(Wormton AU)

STATS

16 ft 3 in (495 cm) long

Total time: 150 hours

Material Cost: $124

Theoretical minimum cost (based on seamstress wage): $2,524

(Progress photos and commentary below)

I'll be referring to my life-size wormton plush as "malworm" for convenience sake.

Unlike my Spamton NEO, Caine, and Fake Peppino plushies, I didn't spend a lot of time on concept art. Since I planned to make the malworm plush as close as possible to its 2D design, I didn't have to add much stylization, other than simplifying some details (no way in hell was I going to make 104 separate embroidered stitches for the segments of his toes, sorry). I mainly used the planning stage to calculate how wide the body pieces needed to be, plotting it out in 1/4 in : 3 in scale and using circumference formula to find the values I needed. I planned to make it around 10 feet long, the length of a young adult malworm. A lot of this project was improv, but, I mean, it wasn't my first or second or third time making a spamton centipede.

The head was quite a complicated shape, so I carved a tiny model out of craft foam, covered one half of it in masking tape, then cut the masking tape mask (hah) into flat pieces. I then traced the pieces onto graph paper and manually scaled them up by using the fact that I wanted the nose to be 1 ft long as reference. The rest of the pattern pieces were very simple, as wormton's teeth, body, legs, etc were very easy to translate into 2D shapes. I used old school notes as paper for the body, as I needed a lot of it. It was entertaining cutting exerpts of Moby Dick and English Renaissance biographies into body parts. I ended up making the body significantly longer; I had to spend $100 dollars on fur anyways, so why not make a maximum size one?

Making the pattern pieces took around 8 hours. While waiting for the fur to ship, I started cutting out the teeth, legs, and eyes. By the time the fur arrived, I had already sewn 36 worm teeth. I did an 11hr all-nighter to cut all the fur in one sitting the day it arrived. After a long vacuuming session and an uptake in the amount of polyester fiber in my lungs, I finished cutting the pieces, taking about 18 hours and 40 minutes.

As usual, the head was the first thing I worked on. It was...kind of wonky once I flipped it inside out. I trimmed some of the fur so that I could actually see what was happening. The main issues were the lack of any forehead, the nose being way too wide, and the cheeks being too flat. I did some ladder stitching as well as modifying the thing from the inside, and eventually made the head look much better. The cheeks still don't stick out that much still, but I'm happy with how the head looks now. I think it conquered the sopping wet owl resemblance. I inserted wire into the nose and jaws to help them keep their shape.

When I started this project, I wasn't sure whether to make it based off of Wormton or just a copyright-free malworm; I decided to do both. I went with red for the non-Spamton version, as I think it really fits the cartoony fly/mothman-style cryptid look malworms are supposed to have.

I sewed a square pouch into the throat and put in all those teeth. I used hot glue to wrap blue squares around a wire for the proboscis, because I think I would've gone bonkers cuckoo bananas if I had to hand sew that entire thing. The throat pouch holds the proboscis when it's not extended, as well as anything else I wanted to shove in there. I never measured it, but it's around 4-5 ft long. I finally made the Spamton... eye patches(?) and a pair of eyelids, though I didn't end up using them in the photo shoot. I also made a new pair of nostrils, as the old ones kind of got swallowed up from all the plastic surgery I was giving him

Now that the head was finished, I got to work on the body. I sewed the white belly and segments of the body together. I left most of the tail open, as the fur was too thick for me to flip it out at a certain point. I worked on the legs, next. After living out my cosplay dreams by putting the claws on my fingers like bugles chips, I grouped the claws together and sewed most of each leg and foot together, leaving me with many pairs of charred drumsticks (did not taste good)

I attached an extra long wire structure into each set of claws, then threaded the wire through each respective leg and stuffed them. I ladder stitched the claws to each foot, then stuffed each with some plastic beans in order to give the feet weight. I then finished sewing each foot shut. I now had a pile of disembodied limbs and one very long scarf.

I wound many long pieces of wire together to create an armature for the body. While the plush's body is way too heavy to be properly posable, the wire does still give some structure. I wrapped the extra long ends of the legs' wires to the metal spine, using the body's leg holes for reference. I then pulled the body up the metal armature like a sock.

I pulled the legs through their respective holes and stuffed the body. It was the first time the malworm was huggable! It's sort of like an oversized body pillow, in a way. I had to ladder-stich all the limbs, the head, and the rest of the tail, as it would've been completely impossible to flip inside out. It was quite difficult to do on furry fabric, and my thread frequently broke from the force I had to pull with to keep the stitches tight. Eventually, I got everything attached to some degree.

The last details I worked on were the mane, tail tufts, and scopula pads. The mane and tail tufts were ladder stitched onto the body, but I decided to use glue to attach the pads to the feet. I think the extra blue details make his proboscis fit much better, and who doesn't love spider paw pads? I also glued some velcro to the eye patches so that they stay attached better. They slide under the black eye rings.

My malworm was finally finished! I tried to put a lot of effort into the photo shoot so that people who don't know about the AU can enjoy it. I wanted to make it seem like some weird entity whose only goal is obtaining more Spamton brainrot. Hence it making Spamton on Mario Kart DS under the bed, obsessing over the Spamton Plush, inspecting the Spamton Shrine, and just generally harassing the photographer (me, I guess?). I wanted to capture the silliness, creepiness, and lack of respect for personal space that Spamton is known for. I thought about giving him a bag of doritos under the bed like that one image of the isopods eating them, but went with the DS instead. I thought it would be funny to see this thing playing Super Mario 64 DS (or Super Spamton 64) and here the "buh bye!" sound effect when it closes the DSi XL.

That's all from me, for now. I have other Wormton related matter to attend to.

Don't let the parasitic Spamton larvae bite

[obscuretobyfox]

The recent UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE Newsletter revealed a ton of concept art for enemies, done by Splendidland! There's way too much to make individual posts on, so I'll just post all the art with notes here!

"My friend Samanthuel (aka Splendidland) did a ton of concept art for Chapter 2! Sadly I couldn't use all of it because many of the concepts didn't end up aligning with my final vision for the game, but the designs themselves are super amazing! I'm thankful I got to use any of them.

Specifically I really wanted to use the paint enemy as a miniboss, since I thought it would be really fun mechanic.

Below were her notes on all of them! She also provided ideas on how she thought they could be used." - Toby Fox

"I was given the broad theme of "cyber world" and told to pretty much just design whatever I wanted, expecting only a handful to actually make it in. I made all of these within a couple days, just making whatever came to my mind." - Splendidland

(From here on out, all quotes are from Splendidland.)

"01: Hacker Guy (idk what their name is), wants to discover the secrets of the world and has special abilities, though they aren't aware of them. "Hacks" by randomly smashing keys and even swinging their mouse around in the air, could keep escalating in silly ways.

02: Handsome Face...

03: When they stand over a spot that can be "hacked into", their cursor shaped head turns into a pointing finger. They don't notice this change, so it's up to you, the player, to help them."

"04: heheh....

05: Funny Egg, their body contains a virtual pet. Can the fate of this pet be altered? Maybe not... Has an existential crisis if the pet dies, as their body is a battleground of life and death.

06 :Broken Image, their life is in ruins

07: Recycle Bin

08: Trash Fly, represents uncollected "garbage data"

09: Kiss-kiss"

"10: Painter, would basically be like Adeleine but with crude ms paint effects, especially the airbrush."

"11: Diskette, spins in place until talked to. "despite my looks, i am totally unable to save your progress"

"12: some kind of "internet" thing idk

13: "Data", little icon like creatures who march onwards with unknown purpose. they take part in the festival."

"14: Popup. hides underneath a tile and springs upwards annoyingly. touching its forehead makes it return underground temporarily. a pest."

"15: Virus, its head sways back and forth as it tries to hover in the air."

"16:Anti Virus, is it a cop or a doctor? maybe they see you as an enemy as you're an "outsider"?

17:Corrupted data or something"

"18:"Cyber World", a rough vision of what a world inside a computer could look like

19:Cyber House"

"20: Masked Dancers, they participate in the festival, each colour has a different movement pattern and dance style. very rough concept" Which one is your favorite? Mine is probably the tiny data creatures!

[tomiyeee]

donnie had. SO. much concept art lol. i really enjoyed the whole design process though. his base design is very difficult to work with because of the battleshell, but it gave me a lot of chances to get creative and i'm happy with the results :)

(also as a disclaimer so i don't get asked about this: i don't have motivation to finish raph or the wish art for donnie, so i'm just posting what i've got)

i didn't annotate these as much since there'd be a lot to write, but i'll write out some of my thought processes and go into some detail about his final design below the cut if you're interested! (it's long. i'm talkative 😔)

1st row - first iteration; much more literal 1:1 translation of his design into a fantasy setting. very steampunk-y. ended up completely scrapping it because, simply put, he looked more like an npc than a playable character. obviously, several features did still carry over throughout the design process :3 also wanted to imagine his attack pattern cuz i thought it'd be fun to incorporate his spider arms.

this was actually the first design of any of them i'd come up with! i've definitely learned a lot about genshin's character design style since then and i think it shows 😂

2nd row - playing around with the idea of a floating battleshell (rather than a backpack-like one in the the show & first version), inspired by nahida's cape. also hard light constructs/attachments. was leaning too into the sci-fi and rectangular motifs with the design, but i liked the idea.

3rd/4rth rows - concepts for his final outfit and shell designs (the colored/more-detailed pics are the more finalized ones). took a lot of inspiration from sumeru this time around. it's a lot sharper, shinier, and less rectangular than his og aesthetic, but i think it's more in-line with genshin's design philosophies.

5th row - not entirely sure why i went through all the trouble of making a 3d model for this. i mostly just thought it'd be fun and good for reference. i was right, but i don't know what to do with it now lol. can't be bothered to be a perfectionist about it though, so don't look too closely at it 😭

6th row - incomplete thumbnails of his burst/wish art. not super sold on that "wing" design in particular, but i do like the idea of his shell splitting and deploying hard light weapons/rocket launchers/etc sort of like in canon.

battleshell/misc notes - i'm thinking his battleshell is controlled using the pink sensor on the back of his coat, possibly in combination with his headset. it floats behind him by default and is sturdy enough to protect his back, but he can also freely fly it around like a drone if he wants. the holes on the side are mainly for the spider arms and the banners(?) and handles(?) with the blue/pink gradient are made of hard light and only appear when the shell is in use.

i imagine like in the series, his tech here isn't necessarily very reliant on his vision/powers; much of it he likely made himself long before he received a vision and he just uses his vision to enhance it.

his burst is a barrage of missiles from his shell that lock onto an enemy and deal a large burst of electro damage in an AOE. not sure if i want his skill to be a deployable or some sort of electro-infusion/boost 🤔 maybe something that involves deploying his shell to boost his damage while leaving him vulnerable, like a glass canon? though i'm not sure he'd be that sort of risk-taker... 😅 dunno! his signature weapon would totally be his tech bo though.

that's about all i can think of. thanks for reading!

[be-missed]

Find You Again

Jenna Ortega X Fem!Reader

(pictures not mine)

Summary: Reuniting as stars, former high school sweethearts stage a fake relationship to boost their public image. Navigating the scripted romance, sparks fly. The big question: can this staged connection reignite their real love?

Warning: curse words, notify me if there are any. Credits to the owner for the picture that I used below the cut.

A/N: I'm so excited to write this, enjoy. New series for y'all.

Song: I Can See You // Taylor Swift

Masterlist

Chap 1

______________________________________________________________

Flashing lights are all that Y/N can see, facing all the cameras in different angles, her name being shout by different people, and different set of eyes are focused on her. Walking the red carpet was one of the things that Y/N enjoys when she is invited for an event like the MET Gala; the other things that she enjoys, well, the women who walks with their wonderful dresses. Men? Not really, but the press and the people doesn't need to know that.

"You are staring" a voice from behind her said—her publicist, Emilia notified her when she was staring far too long to the woman that was in front of her. Y/N just shrugs and shakes her head, waiting for her turn to be interviewed.

A few minutes have passed, she is now the next in line to be interviewed, "So Y/N, what a lovely fit you have. Can you tell us who you are wearing?" the interviewer asked, and Y/N answered, "I am so honored to be chosen as one of Givenchy's Ambassador for this event, honoring one of the most prominent person that anyone knows in fashion..."

Y/N's voice got buried with a loud screaming from the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately Y/N got to finish her answer before she looked down. Then there she was, looking like a doll, dress to kill, looks that can melt; Jenna Ortega was standing in the bottom of the stairs, posing for every camera that she caught.

A smile creeping in Y/N's mouth has been caught by the reporter and the camera, this gave the reporter a chance to segue a hot topic that you and Jenna dance around, answering yet not giving the exact information that the people want, "Looks like Jenna Ortega arrived in the house, there have been rumors going around for quite some time now, that the two of you have a history?" the reporter asked with a malice on his voice.

Y/N smiled and answered "Well, we were uhm, friends way before our careers, so yes, we did know each other and yes I can say that we have a great history, but there's no bad blood between us" and chuckles, that leads to the reporters new question "So, if that's what it is, is she the muse for the new single titled 'I Can See You' that you dropped a few weeks ago and will perform later?"

Y/N chuckles and rubs her chin, trying to think of a way to dodge the question, "I mean, Jenna is a wonderful woman, I can't deny that, WE can't deny that. But you know, where is the fun of writing songs if I'm just gonna admit who I'm writing for, right?" Y/N leaves with a wink to the camera and entering the venue.

"That was fucking close. What's with the media trying to come up with something between me and Jenna? It's been going on for months" Y/N whispered to Emilia, trying to find a champagne that she can drink. "There are photos that are circulating in the internet from when you were in High School with Jenna" her publicist answered.

This statement made Y/N look at her publicist with a questing look "Okay, now what? I mean what can they make out of the pictures? I'm pretty sure Jenna is denying it for sure" and got the chance to seat at their designated table. "Yeah, she's totally not denying it, the both of you kept on giving vague answers. But they are the media and your fans, connecting every song that you write and the events that happens to your life and Jenna's life," Emilia said with a knowing look and sipping a champagne.

"How? I mean, I kept on using a he/him pronouns on my song to lower the connection. Don't tell me they are that smart to know and connect things, don't you?" Y/N said to her publicist, looking so worried about the on-going rumor that can't seem to die.

On the other side of the venue, Jenna was taking a seat with Enrique trying to hide an annoyed look. "What's with the rumors and Y/N, they kept on reoccurring, why can't it die?" Jenna said trying to fidget with pearls that on her dress. "You know that the both of you aren't denying anything, right?" Enrique said to the girl.

Jenna then send Enrique a look that can kill and said "I am denying it, that's for sure. While HER, she keeps on dancing around it" Enrique then shakes his head "Oh no darling, you weren't denying it, the BOTH of you are dancing around it. Please don't deny it" then Jenna answered him so quick "I am denying it, I kept on saying no..."

Enrique just chuckles and said "See, the both of you aren't denying anything. You and Y/N always say that the both of you are 'good friends' and for the record, the both of you are always in the same event" and ended his sentence with a shrug trying to prove his point.

Jenna just rolled her eyes and tries to listen to whoever is speaking. While Y/N got called backstage to get ready to perform.

The host announced that Y/N was about to perform. Lights were dimmed and a shadow in the middle can be seen, the intro starts, and the crowd began to applaud and scream for Y/N's name.

Jenna noticed the intro and looked at Enrique and said "Really, she's gonna sing this? Out of all the songs?" and Enrique chuckled at the comment and replied "Well that's her new song, what can we do but to listen and enjoy, right?"

The performance ended with pyrotechnics in the stage and a wild crowd.

As the host again took over the stage, Jenna decided that she needed another drink, because what the fuck was that lyric, it just added gas to the burning fire, nice move, she thought in a sarcastic tone.

"One sour whiskey please" Jenna said to the bar tender, wanting to seat in the bar stool but sadly, her gown is restricting her. While she was waiting for her drink, whispers can be heard from behind her, not wanting to know the drama she still decided to maintain her focus on the bar.

"Nice dress you have there"

Once the voice registered, her eyes widen and her hand clenches into fist. Thinking if she ignores the voice, it will just go away, because if she faces the other girl tonight, she don't know if she will make a scene. But to no avail, the voice speak again, now beside her.

"I said you look good in your dress, Miss Ortega" Jenna heard, now feeling a smirk plastered on Y/N's face. With all her might Jenna faced the other girl with a tight smile, her hand clenched by her side and said "I heard you the first time, you know?" with an eyebrow raised, "Oh so you were just ignoring me then?" Y/N said now trying to make a sad face.

Jenna's jaw clenched, how can Y/N take this like a joke, "Yes you are right, I am ignoring you" focusing back on the bartender, "But I thought we were 'good friends', right" Y/N answered while trying to tease Jenna, "In case if you didn't notice, I say that for us to have neutral grounds, now can you please piss off?" Jenna answered and thought that it might be a little harsh but she really just want to be away from Y/N.

Before Y/N got to say something, the bartender gave Jenna her drink, and when she's ready to walk away, a photographer got in her way and said "Hey Y/N and Jenna, can you please pose so that I can take a shot"

Y/N greeted the photographer with a smile and accepted the request, she pulls Jenna near her, while Jenna tries to stay her ground, "Come girls closer" the photographer again said and Y/N thought, "This man surely knows how to stir the pot"

The both of them smiled for the camera, closer than they have been for 5 years. This was the first picture of them that they were this close to each other after their career boomed and well, after what they had.

"Thanks ladies, enjoy the night" the photographer said and left the duo. "Okay you can let go now" Jenna said, "For your information, I also don't like being linked to you, so I came here to clear things out, yeah?" Y/N said with a nod in her head.

That surprises Jenna "Okay, I get that, then go on and deny that we had a history" Jenna said challenging Y/N, "You first, you are always out doing interview, unlike me, I don't have any premiere shows or any other events like this" Y/N smirked.

It made Jenna's blood boil again, inhale and exhale, she reminded herself. She doesn't want to make a scene and be banned to this gala, this is her second time, she doesn't want it to be her last she thought.

Y/N walked away and left Jenna stunned with her drink on hand.

---

After the MET Gala, of course there would be an after party, Jenna was invited to many but decided to go to the nearest one to her hotel.

Trying to fix her make-up inside the car that she is on, she hears Enrique say, "Okay, slow down with the drinks, we don't need you going around the place" with a knowing look, Jenna then replied "That was ONE time oh my god, please let that go" with an annoyed tone.

Her car stopped at the entrance, looking outside through her window she saw a dozen of paparazzi trying to get a picture of none other than Y/F/N Y/L/N.

"Fuck, no fucking way" Jenna said to Enrique, still looking at the window, "What? What's the problem?" Enrique asked her worriedly, "Y/N is here, I can't stand another minute of faking smiles with her, every time I see her I fell like my stomach churns and I want to vomit so bad. Enrique please, let's go to another party" Jenna pleaded that earned a shakes to Enrique's head.

"Nope, can't be, your manager chose this party so you can mingle with different artist. I can't say no to that, and you know it" Enrique stated with a stern look, not giving Jenna a chance to say another word.

With a grunt Jenna whispers to herself "Here goes nothing" and exits the car. Another set of cameras are now trying to capture Jenna and her outfit for the afterparty, looking at the entrance, she saw Y/N rolled her eyes, Jenna thought "The fucking nerve of this girl t roll her eyes"

Now that they are in the same vicinity again, the paparazzi wasted no time and asked for a picture of them together, which they don't say no, since they don't want to cause another issue.

Y/N greeted Jenna with an open arm and huge smile, when Jenna got situated next to Y/N, she heard the other girl say "Are you stalking me?" which made Jenna look at the girl, with the heels that she is wearing, she stepped on Y/N's toe that made Y/N jerked in pain, with a worried voice Jenna said "Are you okay?"

With that, the security ushered the cameras away and assisted the both of them inside.

"DO you really need to step on me?" Y/N said, "Oh, I didn't mean to, really" Jenna answered, voice filled with sarcasm. Y/N have a deadpan look not believing what Jenna said "Yeah? You sure there?" Y/N said challenging Jenna, and that made Jenna smile "Of course not, I would do it again and again."

With that, Jenna left Y/N speechless. Y/N thought to herself "Is she that fucking angry at me? What did I even do to her?" and proceeded to enter the party and mingle with other artists.

The party actually went well for the both of them, avoiding each other like a plague, Y/N performing in the party and joining the DJ in the booth while Jenna tries to expand her connections and tries to know new faces.

Another hour have passed and Y/N was now taking a break from all the mingling and faking smiles and went to the bathroom, as if like faith is trying to take the both of them as a joke, she saw Jenna bending over the sink.

"Are you fine?" voiced laced with worry as Y/N walked slowly towards Jenna, "Don't come near me" Jenna said head still hanging low. Y/N stopped in her track and said "You are tipsy... or like drunk? You need to go home."

The statement made Jenna look at Y/N and said "What now, you're my mom now?" Y/N just rolled her eyes knowing that it is impossible to argue with a drunk Jenna. Y/N fished out her phone and texted someone, "Come on, I'll bring you to your hotel, can you tell me where it is?" Y/N asked while staying on her track.

"No, I won't go with you, I don't want to go with you can't you see that? Leave me alone" Jenna said trying to fix her make-up in front of the mirror, "Why not? You clearly can't walk straight I bet" Y/N said and chuckled. Jenna hates it, she hates that Y/N is right, that is why she is in the corner holding herself through the sink and not moving an inch because she knows she'll stumble with her drunk state and her heels so high.

Y/N take Jenna's silence as a cue to go to the other girl and support her. Jenna then said "We can't be seen going home together, I don't wanna be seen with you" It made Y/N's heart ache, is she that fucking bad in Jenna's perspective to the point that she doesn't want to be seen with her? Y/N just swallowed down the pain that she feels.

"Yeah, I messaged Enrique, he will meet us at the entrance and I'll make sure to not be seen with you." with a heavy sigh, Y/N supported Jenna to walk out of the bathroom through the crowd of people inside the party and into the entrance.

"Jenna, Enrique said he'll meet us at the front" Y/N notified and it made Jenna shakes her head "No... Y/N Nooooo" Jenna whined, it made Y/N chuckle, if she can have Jenna like this every time, not wanting to cut her throat, or sending sarcastic comments, she would make Jenna drink alcohol for as long as she wants, but she knows she can't.

But like their situation right now, Enrique can't really enter so they need to meet him in front.

"Jenna, I'm very sorry but we really need to meet him in front" Y/N said and telling to the security that they will go out of the establishment, which the security ushered them to.

Flashes of light welcomed them to the outside world, not far enough Y/N saw Enrique waiting for Jenna. "Thanks, I'm really sorry I can't meet you inside" Enrique said which Y/N answered "It's okay, take care, I'll be back inside"

___

"WE CAN SEE YOU: Jenna Ortega and Y/F/N Y/L/N seen going home together after the after party for the MET GALA"

Actress Jenna Ortega and Singer Y/F/N Y/L/N seen together leaving the after party hand in hand. But before this, they are also seen in the red carpet, fans capturing how the singer look at the actress. They have also been asked with questions pertaining to them being together but the both of them swam around the topic. Another photo of them was released mingling by the the bar inside the MET, having all smiles and flirting with each other.

Their fans have been speculating that they were together ever since High School and just kept it lowkey due to their reputation and their careers. The fans also tried to make sense of Y/N's released songs and connected it to the actress, which can somehow make sense, but we can't be for sure knowing that the singer also have a list of exes.

The fans and the media seemed to not disagree and hate their dynamic, instead they hope that what they speculate is real, knowing and seeing how beautiful they look together.

Stay tuned for the latest update towards our favorite couple, or may I say duo? Who knows, right?

______________________________________________________________

A/N: Hope you enjoy this new series, thoughts?

Chapter 2

[redflagshipwriter]

Halfa Cass Chapter 7 part 1/2

Masterpost

“I see,” said Alfie, hands full of breakfast dishes. “When can I expect you to return home, Miss Cassandra?” Calm. Composed. She followed at his back with the empty water and juice pitchers.

She hummed, doing math in her head. 90 minutes on a fast bike, unknown time there, 90 minutes back. “Dinner?” Cass guessed. “Will message again at 3 with updated estimate.” She put the pitchers down beside the sink silently.

Alfie gave a brisk nod at that sensible plan. Approval. “Very well, Miss. Please drive carefully.” He paused. “And do not forget hydration and your sunscreen.”

“Love you too,” she said, and went to put on the sunscreen. Then she was a whirlwind to get ready. Athletic undersuit, first. Pullover mask in the back, a long hood design that hooked back in on itself. Convenient! Gloves in black jeans pockets. Ankle boots, good for kicking and for driving. 

Cass put her flying suit in her student backpack and put her hands on her hips. She looked around. Room? Clean enough. Equipment? Packed. Reasonable projection of needs? Cass crinkled up her brow and made her best judgment. Probably minimal. Combat not expected, companion powerful. 

“Jacket,” Cass muttered to herself, sudden realization! She darted across the house to get it. The green jacket was important. It was a talisman. It was representative. It was a civilian flying suit that reminded her she was powerful and beautiful. 

When she had it on, she went back for her student back bag and then left from the upper level garage. Black bike, nondescript. Mid range price. 

Cass paused astride the bike, feet firmly planted on either side on the crunchy white gravel of their long driveway. She unzipped the front left pocket and withdrew her phone. To Marvel, she said,

🦇 🏍️ ⬆️ == 1.5 h ⌚ 

Then she opened a new message to Batdad. She didn’t want him to worry. So she said,

💕 👋🏼  🏍️ 

The last person to get a message was Stephanie, who was not flying because she was still in medical schooling. Cass sent,

Just because it was funny. It would make Stephanie laugh.

Then she was off.

Cass pulled her black bat hood down when she found the right area. It was day. Many stares that she loftily ignored. The meeting spot wasn’t Gotham or Fawcett. The laughing magician was in dingy small town, smoking and drinking. Captain Marvel found him first and hauled him out, friendly arm over shoulder. Cass crouched on the roof of nextdoor building to silently peer down, batting a little for the comfort factor of bat things. He was still big-man Marvel-lie, but with new clothes. Happy face with torn jeans and t-shirt. She squinted. Same Marvel shoes. Hmm. No budget, Cass decided. If any budget, better shoes.

Constantine blinked up at Captain Marvel, dazed from alcohol but interested in big handsome man. “Where are you taking me, prettyboy?” He slurred. He was a mess. He reached up and cupped Marvel’s face.

Cass moved. 

Constantine noticed her rapid approach and stumbled upright. Eyes sharp, intelligent. Then: dismay. “Fuck,” he said. Very unhappy. Genuine dislike. “A bat. Which one are you?” Disdain. 

Cass frowned. “Hands off,” she demanded. She crossed her arms. “He’s baby.”

“What?” Marvel said, sounding distressed. Ah. He didn’t know that she knew.

“Really?” Constantine said, wrinkling his face up and looking between her and Marvel pointedly. Because he was a foolish little man who didn’t understand facts that walked into his life. “A nightmare like you pulled this bloke? Fuck my life.”

Yes. A nightmare. Your nightmare.

Cass stretched her mask mouth wider so the teeth would stretch and pull even bigger. She leered at him with all her scariness. He looked like he wished she would leave. Wondered if he made good decision. Regret. Regret. I run my big damn mouth.

“Hey!” Marvel rallied, totally missing the body language interplay. “She’s not a nightmare! Black Bat is very kind and smart.” He put his hands on his hips, which happily meant he had to stop supporting middle-aged wizard weight.

Constantine said some curses under his voice that she didn’t know. He fished around in his pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. The rattling from inside told Cass: three cigarettes. No metal, no secret hidden weapon unless it closely resembled cigarette shape. Maintain wariness. He lit it on fire with his fingers.

What? No lighter? Cass saw no lighter.

While Cass was busy frowning about that the wizard turned on his heel. “Toodles,” he said, and then Marvel grabbed him. 

“Wait! We need your professional help.”

“Do I look like I’m working?” Grungy wizard demanded. He waved a hand up and down his body, showing off his sleeveless tank top and tight pants. 

“Yes.” Black Bat took a couple steps closer. She knew this. “You were working. You’re not so intoxicated. You were running a scam for funding. You need money?” She kept anything out of her tone that could sound like judgment, leaving it cold and empty. No-nonsense. “I pay for consultation.”

Grungy wizard paused, looking her up and down. He took a drag on his cigarette. Stinky wizard. He blew it out at Marvel, RUDE wizard. “Really?” He was dubious. “Where’s the catch?” Stinky wizard scrunkled his face at her. “Usually it’s all ‘you owe it to the world, it’s for the good of humanity, don’t you have any decency?” with you people.

Cass rolled her eyes. “Can we cut the-” her eyes darted to Marvel. “Bullshit?” she finished, because it was the right word even if there were little ears present. “One thousand dollars American.”

Captain Marvel looked at her, eyes wide. Shocked. Envy. Small.

Oh. She hid her sudden bad feeling. 

“...Make it one and a half thousand, Bird, that’s a love,” oozed the Stinky Wizardman. He didn’t expect, but-

“Fine.” Cass said briskly. She didn’t want to spend a lot of time on money. She pulled out her wallet and withdrew one hundred dollar bills until she had 15. The Wizard cursed jealousy and ran a hand through his hair. Marvel was fascinated. Hmm. She held it out.

The wizard wanted it. He looked. He really wanted it. But: wary. No trust. Can’t trust a bat.

She let out a disgusted sigh. Black Bat shook the bills at him impatiently. “My Black Bat fund,” she said, in a tone that meant ‘do you have a brain that thinks thoughts?’ She continued, “For my use in-suit. Obviously real money. Obviously non-consecutive legal tender.” Duh.

“Okie Dokie!” Marvel said cheerfully. “We’re back on track.”

The wizard snatched it and stuffed it in his back pocket, hungry dog, don’t take it from me, I need it. “Let’s not talk here. I have a hotel room.” 

‘Did the stinkyman invite Marvel-baby to his hotel?’

Cass cut the wizard a death look.

He coughed and avoided looking at her. 

That was a yes. “You’re a bad judge of people,” she told the wizard, voice full of disdain. “Yes. Let’s go.” She pointedly moved in between him and Marvel-baby. 

[impactedfates]

L Bozo Ratio!! - Dr Ratio x GN!Reader

★ Notes: I couldn't think of a better name haha, finally got to finishing and posting this!! This is slightly in a scenario format. They’ll be mini time stamps ^^ It's a kind weird format but it's one that made sense at the time of writing it

☆ Characters Included: Dr Ratio (Romantic) + Aventurine (Supporting)

★ Genre/Trope: (one-sided) Rivals to Lovers (but no one gets together yet) + Fluff + Crack(?)

☆ Warnings: None

★ Extra: Dr Ratio may be OOC // I'm not actually sure if the Intelligentsia Guild has a school but just pretend for the fic // Not fully proof-read // First half may be slightly dialogue heavy

“And you’re sure you don’t know when this started?”

The blonde asked as he shuffled some cards, peering at you through his heart shaped glasses

“Positive!! He was decently kind to me when I first joined the Guild. I don’t know what happened!!”

Aventurine chuckled, dealing out the cards between the two of you.

“If I know the doctor, I know he wouldn’t dislike someone for a reason-”

“He dislikes me?? Why! I didn’t-”

“Let me finish [Name]. He’s not someone who dislikes another for no reason, and I do believe you haven’t done anything wrong. So perhaps there’s a different reason why he acts this why”

He slowly places the remaining cards down, looking at you with a small smile that almost hinted he already had an idea.

“Now tell me the whole story, how you met and how it started. And the things that happened afterwards, just tell me everything from the start to now”

"Huh- Uh okay?"

.

.

.

HOW YOU TWO MET

You had just joined the Intelligentsia Guild. Setting up your classroom and preparing for future lessons with the students who had already signed up for your course when you heard a knock on the door.

You went and opened it and were met with the eyes of a purple haired man who stared at you.

"You must be the one everyone's talking about. I am Veritas Ratio, but many here just call me Dr Ratio"

He speaks before you could welcome him or even utter a greeting. You only smiled before responding yourself.

"People are already talking about me? That makes me a bit nervous...but yes, I'm the new teacher here. You can call me [Name]"

"No ones talking ill about you, don't fret. I just came by to introduce myself. If you ever need anything, my room is just down the hall. Just don't interrupt too much, especially if I'm teaching"

"Oh! Thank you Dr Ratio. I appreciate the help"

He peered inside the room, taking a small look around at the decorating you had down so far.

"Perhaps call an interior designer before you start your lessons, you may need it"

"WHA- Hey! I'm not even do-"

But he was already off walking down the hall before you could finish. With a sigh escaping your lips, you closed your classroom door again to continue decorating

WHEN IT STARTED

You weren't sure on the exact date, I mean who could name the exact date someone randomly seemed to despise you when you thought you had a good relationship?

Sure you weren't close with Dr Ratio, but you weren't exactly not friends with him either. You two would chat, especially when the two of you had free time, but one day he just ignored you?

You weren't sure why, until some of the yearly exam results came out and he proudly showed how well his students did. You were confused at the sudden appearance but it wasn't unwelcomed as you happily showed your classes results as well.

"Our students are pretty smart!! All our classes passed with flying colours"

You happily said as you slid over the total marks your classes did. You expected him to congratulate you or...something? You weren't sure what to expect from his reaction, but not for him to glare at the score, throwing his paper carelessly and walking out, turning to face you. He said in a determined voice. "I'll beat you next time Mx. [Name]"

"...Beat me in wha-"

He slammed your classroom door...

You grabbed the paper from the ground and double checked the two scores, there must be a big difference if he suddenly challenged you or well...vowed? To get a higher score than your class? Even if it was out of character for him to care-

.

.

.

A 1% difference...?

DURING THE "RIVALRY"

You tried to talk to him, tried to pinpoint why he suddenly cared so much about "beating" your class in test and exam scores. Sure you didn't know him that well, but at the same time? You knew it wasn't in his nature to care about this kind of thing.

Honestly you didn't know anyone who would actually care...

It was just test scores, just showing how well the two of you taught a class...he wasn't trying to show he was a better teacher right...?

Sure the students praised you more but that was merely cuz he was stricter with his teachers. Apparently he threw someone out the window?? At least that's what you heard in passing...

In any case, you couldn't think of a logical conclusion as to why he suddenly wanted to have this sudden rivalry. But you wanted to find out.

You tried to talk to him, knock on his door a few times a month to talk to him, giving him his favourite food. Heck you even gave back the chalk you accidentally on purpose forgot to give back to him.

But he was dry with his response, looking away when you tried to talk to him or heck even smiled at him.

YOUR SMILE WAS NOT THAT BAD.

This became such a habit the other teachers noticed. They already noticed how kindly Dr Ratio already treated you compared to the others when you first joined, and when he became more cold and dry to you they noticed more.

You could see their lingering stares as the scholar once again shut his book with one hand and walked off without another word to you. You tried asking the other scholars but they weren't sure what was going on either. None of them have dealt with this so-called rivalry.

You knocked on his door once again, to which he slowly opened. Being accustomed to the soft knocks that came from your hand.

"Ratio!! I brought you some Stargazer cake!!"

"....many thanks [Name]"

He muttered, taking the plate from your hands.

"So I just wanted to-"

He shut the door in your face...again. Does he have a thing for not letting people finish or are you the lucky one?

CURRENT

"And that kinda brings us to here? But yeah, I'm not sure why he started the rivalry"

"Perhaps it's to hide something~ Something he doesn't want to tell a certain someone yet"

"What? Hiding something...what could he be hiding"

"That he lo-"

"That's enough Aventurine."

You snapped your head up to the source of the voice, as the gambler leaned his head back to look at the new addition to the room."

"Doctor~ Funny to see you here again, good to know your interrupting habits and not letting someone finish their sentence doesn't only apply to your cru-"

"...Shut it gambler...I need to have a word with you"

Aventurine chuckled, as he stood up and placed the cards down on the middle of the table. Telling you he'd be right back as the two of them went into another room.

You sat there, for maybe a minute or two. Until curiosity hit you like a brick. You knew they were talking about you. Or at least, that was most likely, and if you were right. Then that means the duo were chatting about Ratios behaviour...surely a small listen wouldn't hurt?

You slowly walked over to the room, careful to be quiet as you listened to the conversation.

"And what makes it so hard, Doctor? Just tell them. You can't keep using this whole rivalry thing to buy you time"

"You don't understand...it's easier said than done...besides, I'd rather make it more special. I can't just go out there and tell them in this situation"

"What would flowers and a more romantic setting do?"

"Make them feel special...make them hopefully feel the exact same way I felt when I realised I loved them"

FINALLY FINISHED IT!! I got my computer fixed a bit ago but still struggled to find the words to continue but here I am >:D Hopefully this was worth the wait sipadgpsirp

[thecapricunt1616]

Sampaguita (c.b. one-shot)

𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓻𝓫 (𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓑𝓣𝓒): It was your final Gala of the year, the 60th Art and Design Juried Student Exhibition. This is what you’d been working towards all year. Your Professor had assured you that you were one of the most promising Expressionist Mural painters he’d taught in quite a long time. He was quite certain you’d be commissioned, as many high paying clientele were coming to view the art that would be on display.  You stepped back, observing the large canvas mural you’d painted, resting your hand on your hips and sighing softly. 3 months of work, all leading up to this moment. There were many things you thought you would change about the work, but nothing to your eye that you painted would ever be perfect, there would always be something you wish you would have made better or omitted completely. You nervously twirled your gold and mother-of-pearl bangle over your wrist as you continued to look over it, deciding to step outside for some fresh air. You walked down the back hall, your heels clicking on the tile floor as you did so. You heard the back door close and a loud boisterous laugh “Dude dude and she was all ‘No you’re totally right man’ and that’s when-” the loud man comes around the corner holding a big box full of napkins and smacked right into you, sending you flying back on your butt and you let out a big ‘oof’ as you land.

♡ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐨: The Sampaguita flower is considered the flower of love in many South Asian countries, Indonesia and the Philippines. It is used in wedding and religious ceremonies to symbolize love, devotion, purity and divine hope. ♡ 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: You & Carmy meet at your biggest gala of the year, smut ensues! ♡ 𝐖/𝐂: 10.0k+ ♡ 𝐀/𝐍:Hello all! Welcome back to another installment of "Capri can't write something short to save her life!" I've been working on this literally all week as I wanted it to be the most thoughtful and good I could come up with, as it's requested by my lovely wonderful Wormy @carmybrainworms - welcome home my little worm, me and the fellow bearblr baddies have missed you terribly! I hope you enjoy this welcome home present! ♡ 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐁𝐓𝐂: Not terribly edited (we die like men), Swearing, Smoking, Smut, Spanking, kinda dom? carmy, i think thats it! (R is 22, short, with long hair & glasses also is v petite bc it's DC to wormy but you can imagine yourself ofc :D)

♡ 𝐌𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐬 ♡ ➵ 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 ♡ ➵ 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞 ♡ ➵ 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 / 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘵 ♡ ➵ 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 ♡

It was your final Gala of the year, the 60th Art and Design Juried Student Exhibition. This is what you’d been working towards all year. Your Professor had assured you that you were one of the most promising Expressionist Mural painters he’d taught in quite a long time. He was quite certain you’d be commissioned, as many high paying clientele were coming to view the art that would be on display. 

You stepped back, observing the large canvas mural you’d painted, resting your hand on your hips and sighing softly. 3 months of work, all leading up to this moment. There were many things you thought you would change about the work, but nothing to your eye that you painted would ever be perfect, there would always be something you wish you would have made better or omitted completely. You nervously twirled your gold and mother-of-pearl bangle over your wrist as you continued to look over it, deciding to step outside for some fresh air.

You walked down the back hall, your heels clicking on the tile floor as you did so. You heard the back door close and a loud boisterous laugh “Dude dude and she was all ‘No you’re totally right man’ and that’s when-” the loud man comes around the corner holding a big box full of napkins and smacked right into you, sending you flying back on your butt and you let out a big ‘oof’ as you land.

“FUCK bro you didn’t say corner! You ok sweetheart?” a taller, leaner man with a brunette buzzcut and striking blue eyes offers you a large warm hand to help you up. “This is why Carmy is so fuckin’ uptight about this shit man! Can’t have you in the kitchen, imagine she was holding a hot pan or some shit!” he scolded the other man as you took it and he hoisted you up easily.

“M’sorry about that sweetheart, you alright?” He patted your shoulder in a friendly way. “Fuckin’ apologize!” he slaps the mans shoulder that knocked you over 

“Sorry! I’m sorry. You’re pretty, like an angel. I’m Neil” he stuck out his hand and you giggle a little bit at his forwardness. You introduced yourself as well and the other man hums

“Cool name- Sorry about this one he’s a big clutz- I’m Richie” he bent down with Neil and began picking up the napkins, and you bent down to help them as well. 

“No worries at all- sorry about that it’s my bad I wasn’t really paying attention. Sorry- are you here for the dining hall? It’s in another building I can take you there if you want” you place the last stack of napkins down in the box

“No, we're helping Bear with the catering stuff you should come!” Neil said enthusiastically to which Richie chuckled a bit. 

“It’s only for the students at the Gala and the faculty bud. You goin’t’that?” he asked you and you smile and nod.

“Totally! I uh- I actually have a piece in the show. I was actually just going to get some air- Nice meeting you guys!” you scoot past and pushed the back door open , being greeted with the scent of American Spirits.  You rolled your eyes a bit to yourself, realizing that you wouldn’t be alone, and look over to see a impossibly handsome curly blonde smoking a cigarette. 

“Sorry I- I didn’t realize someone was out here” you twirl your bangle over your wrist again, a nervous habit you’d picked up opposed to picking at your hands. 

“No worries- I’ll be out of your way soon just had to grab a smoke I know I’ll be busy the rest of the night somethin’s bound to go wrong at one of these catering things” he chuckled to himself a bit and shook his head. 

“Oh- are you Bear?” you smile a bit, recalling what the tattooed goofball that knocked you over had said. He looked at you a bit surprised, eyebrows scrunching a bit as his eyes racked over your face and frame trying to recall if you’d met before

“Sorry do I- have we met?” he took another drag, the smoke blowing out of his nose subtly as he exhaled.

God he’s hot while he smokes.

“No! I’d have remembered such a handsome face, I think I met your other coworkers in the hallway, uhh - Richie and Neil? Funny tattooed guy? Kinda knocked me on my ass but it’s cool not the first time it’s happened i’m a clutz” you said and his cheeks go pink at the compliment, chuckling.

“Jesus- Yeah he’s a fuckin idiot, m’sorry is y’r….ass ok?” he asked and you stared at eachother for a moment before bursting into giggles. 

“You wanna check?” you teased turning around and he laughed 

“I’m just making myself sound like a creep, uhhh- shit. Sorry you can probably tell that I don’t get out much- I’ll um..I’ll let you be, nice meeting you-”

“My friends call me bunny! You don’t have to go- I was actually gonna ask to bum a cigarette off you cause I’m realizing that I forgot my vape inside in my bag..” you said and he looked at you, brows raising and he chuckled a bit. 

“You use one of those damn things? These dont taste like candy er’ whatever if that’s what you want” he teased as he fished the cigarette carton out of his pocket once again and flicked it open. You rolled your eyes amusedly taking one out of the carton and putting it between your lips “I like a cigarette once in a while. You can vape inside if you’re sneaky enough most places” you mumble through the cigarette, causing him to huff a laugh as he lights it for you. 

“Isn’t that defeating the whole purpose, because you’re only supposed to use it like a cigarette?” he asked, watching as you took a long drag and did a french inhale, causing his brows to knit “And how fuckin old are you?” he muttered as he watched you pull the cigarette from your lips and hold it delicately between your fingers. 

“Old enough, I think you meant to ask where I learned this and the answer is my evil ex-boyfriend but he did teach me a cool party trick at least” you mused, causing him to chuckle again.

“Funny little thing you are huh” he mused, causing a light blush to stain your cheeks and a smile curls on your lips

“Hey I didn’t dog you for your height that’s fucked up man” you teased and he chuckled

“You aren’t from here” he said, more as a statement than anything. You look up, squinting at him

“It’s not that obvious” you retort

“Trannnsplant” he teased, making you giggle and hit his shoulder playfully

“Is this how you flirt with all the girls you meet?” you shot back, making his cheeks go that cute shade of pink again.

“Who said I was flirting?” he asked and the door got pushed open, a young pretty girl with dark braids sighing in relief. 

“There you are- Carmy! Get in here! Fak dropped an entire pan of garlic knots so I have to run back to the restaurant, which means that you have to set up the risotto and the shells and the-” 

“Got it- Chef” he stomps out his second cigarette. “It’s nice meeting you, Bunny” he said and grabs the door from the young woman. “Thanks for the cigarette, Carmy” you said, now knowing his real name other than the funny nickname his employees gave him. He looks back, flashing you a small smirk before letting the door shut behind him.

You found yourself smiling like a goof and thinking about that damned chef the entire time you finished the cigarette that he’d given you. It wasn’t often that a man who piqued your interest came about. That just being because your experiences with men up until this point hasn’t been the best, but no matter how many times you just kept going back to the same ones, so it excited you to try something new- different. 

That was if he was feeling the same way. When you got through with your cigarette you stomped out the butt with the end of your black pointy stiletto. You pulled the door open and heard the soft chatter of guests and the sort as well as the smell of some delicious food. You first made your way into the back room, washing your hands at the students sink to rid your hands of the smell of cigarettes and walking over to your locker to spray on some body spray before putting on some lip gloss to replenish what got lost on your cigarette. 

You heard the door to the art room open and a deep sigh, before the sound of running water. You carefully shut your locker and walk out to the main area again to see the same curly head, bent over the sink splashing his face with water. “So…do you like Carmy, or Bear- or did I totally rat them out by telling you that they called you Bear” you said, coming over and taking a few paper-towels out of the dispenser and offering them to him.

“Bear is a uh…” he wiped his face of the excess water, flicking it into the basen of the sink before turning off the water and looking over “Thanks- It’s a family name” he cleared his throat and wiped the paper towels over his face, slicking his curls back with a wet hand. 

“Oh- uh how’d you get that name?” you ask and he smiled a bit, crumpling up the paper towels in his large, tattooed hand

“How’d you get the name Bunny?” He shrugged a bit 

Your cheeks flush a bit and you look at your feet, shuffling them a bit, realizing even though he wasn’t as tall as the other guy you’d met with similar blue eyes earlier - even in your heels he still towered over you. “I’m jumpy when I get nervous” you said a bit shyly. 

“Shit- well I’ll try t’not let Richie around you, he’s a fuckin…bull in a china shop” he said, causing you to giggle a bit and look back up at him with a small smile. 

“So… your turn, Mister Bear” you said and he huffed a laugh, shaking his head as his cheeks got pinker at your silly comment

“Berzatto is my last name, so growin’ up me and my siblings we’d call ourselves the bears it’s…stupid, bit it stuck w’me” He said, rubbing the vein on the side of his neck and you couldn’t help but notice the sheer size of them in that moment and think about the comparison of them to your neck.

“It’s cute…so what’re you doing back here, you thinkin’ of enrolling?” you joked and he chuckled a bit.

“Big groups of people aren’t uh…really my thing I just needed a sec to y’know” he leaned on the counter, crossing his arms over his broad chest, causing his biceps to become more prominent. You nodded, resting your hip on the same countertop, playing around with your bangle bracelet.

“I get that…mine either- well it depends on my mood I guess, did you make that food? It smells really good” you said as you stare at his lips, finally finding a way to tear your eyes back to his, nibbling the inside of your lip and worrying that you were rambling. 

“I did! I did..uh me and my Sous, Sydney, Cola braised short-rib and risotto - the Cola is coke, but we can’t say that Sugar says for like legal reasons or whatever.” he said and you found yourself smiling, this guy also seems to come from a circle of nicknames.

“Sugar?” you asked and giggle a bit “Is sheee…really nice?” you asked and he chuckled again

“She uh- in a way- yeah, she is but uh. It’s a whole story” he said and brushed his hair back again. 

“Well- have you eaten?” you asked and he raised his brows, thinking for a second

“I did uh- family meal earlier, why?” he asked and you blushed a bit, shrugging with a sheepish smile 

“Y’wanna show me to the food then? Sorry it sounded really good when you said it…never had risotto before” you looked up at him and he smiled

“Course- Of course, yeah, S’not out yet, but I can sneak you a plate, come w’me” he tossed the crumpled paper towel into the garbage and you followed him as he walks you down the long corridor into a room that was long forgotten by you as the culinary arts room, since barely any people you knew took the class it flew right over your head.

It was bustling, multiple people in chefs coats running around and the same girl you saw earlier with the braids now tied back into a neat ponytail with a pretty silk scarf adorned with black and white polkadots tied around her head. “Alright were gonna be moving in 10 people I want the sweet tea out of the chiller and into the buckets tina how many minutes left on the garlic knots?” she called loudly over the clanging of the pots and pans.

A woman not much taller then you goes over to the industrial oven and checks the time, “4 minutes chef!” she called out.

“Alright so those come out I want them plated right away and for you to be brushing the garlic herb butter.” the girl with the braids called out to which the shorter woman called out another ‘Yes Chef’ 

“Wow- all professional and shit huh?” You nudge him playfully earning a chuckle from him

“Yo cousin- these fuckin forks have spots - wait-” the same Richie you’d met earlier, calls loudly over all the noise and stops when he meets your eyes.

“Hey again! I’ll stay out of your way this time, scouts honor” you joke and lean against the wall near the door to keep out of everyone's way. 

“Hey how about - actually, I’ll make you a plate with a little-a everything for you, and take it back to the uh- the room that we were in” he rested his hand on your shoulder and it nearly made you flush the way that his hand nearly swallowed it whole.

“Yeah- Uh..ok, thanks” you said, suddenly feeling intoxicated with the natural dominance he held without even seeming to realize he did so. You nodded, heading out and heels clicking quickly as you made your way down the hallway back towards the art room.

It wasn’t very long until Carmy was coming back to the art room, carrying not 1 but 2 plates of steaming food and balancing 2 cups as well on a small tray he’d likely found in the culinary arts room. “Alright- as promised- a little bit of everything for you here,” he set the plate in front of you “We got the short ribs, risotto, garlic knots, also got a little ceasar salad for you and then some sweet tea- School said no liquor it feels like a crime to not have wine with short rib but y’know rules and shit” he said, pointing to each as he explained and you once again found yourself staring at his lips and mouth watering at the way his chain dangled as he rested his hand on the table and pointed to each dish and you found yourself envisioning sucking on it.

“Yeah..” you said, looking back down at your plate and grabbing the fork he’d given you. “It smells…really good” you said, trying to clear your head of all the messy, dirty thoughts that were running through it. “Thought you said that you weren’t hungry?” you mused as you stuck your fork in some ribs before grabbing some risotto and trying it, moaning at the heavenly taste and closing your eyes as you chew.

“Holy shit you should go on fuckin masterchef er somethin’ this is fiiiire” you said with a little giggle. He chuckled a bit, chewing one of the garlic knots he’d brought for himself, that adorable pink flushing his cheeks again, this time flushing all the way to his chest. 

“Thanks I uh…I try” he said, continuing to look at his plate “Like your um…your shoes- they’re cool. They comfortable?” he asked, finally looking up at you again. You weren’t sure if he really liked them, or if he was just bad at taking compliments. Either way, it was sweet of him to mention especially for you since they were your favorite pair. 

“Why thank you very much, guys usually don’t notice stuff like that” you held your foot out, admiring your cute pointy toed shoes. 

“They uh- they remind me of Morticia Adams, No offense” he chuckled a bit and you gasp in delight.

“That is exactly the look I was going for! Thank you so much, that is a huge compliment to me actually!” you happily sipped on your iced tea, humming when you realized he had put lemon in it. “This tea is tea” you joke and he snorts a chuckle, Rolling his eyes amusedly.

“Yes- the tea is tea” he said as if it was obvious, you nod and point with your fork to the risotto

“This risotto shit? Also tea” you said and had another bite, earning an adorable confused look from him. 

“Theres- theres no tea in that where are you getting tea? What kind of tea?” he questioned, grabbing his own fork and trying a bite of the small helping of risotto he’d put on his own plate. You laughed, covering your mouth with your manicured hand and he chuckled “What! What why you laughin’ at me? There’s no tea in this!” he said again and lightly poked your arm. 

You shook your head, catching your breath from your giggle fit “Gosh how old are you - you aren’t on the internet at all?” you questioned, not able to stop yourself from eating more of the risotto and short rib he put on your plate, the stuff was proving to be addicting. 

“One place I am not is on the internet it fuckin…stresses me out I’m old school I text call , email even if youre wanting to go back even further, I guess my siblings were older then me by a bit so…never really learned how to use it. Is that some kind of slang like chill? I remembered learning that one a few years ago” he said, finishing off his plate that he’d brought and downing his cup of iced tea in nearly one go. You chuckled to yourself a bit.

“Such a guy” you teased, taking a bite of the salad he’d put on the side for you and humming in satisfaction at the way you could tell the dressing was made and not from a bottle. 

“What’s that supposta mean?! I’m fuckin thirsty kitchens hot as fuck” he chuckled, resting with his legs stretched out and his arms resting behind his head, again causing his large biceps to become even more prominent. 

God did this guy know what a slut he was?

“So why does everyone else have to wear the silly little coats but you don’t- you top dog or something?” you joked and finished off your food, grabbing his empty plate as well and throwing them away for you both.

“They aren’t silly, they’re professional, there - paint princess and I guess you could call me top dog er’ whatever. Syd’s technically my partner but I don’t put too much weight on er’” he said as you cursed yourself, dropping one of the paper plates and bending over to pick it up.

He didn’t miss the way the skirt of your little black dress rode up just enough for the ends of your lacy panties to peak out as you grabbed it off of the floor and chuck it in the garbage, standing up and feeling yourself flushed as you realized and you pull your dress back down, smoothing it before turning around to see him staring with his plump bottom lip between his teeth.

Oh.

“Cute panties, right?” you teased, figuring if he had the balls to stare he didn’t mind you pointing it out. 

“W-what? Huh?” he asked, pale cheeks turning red as tomatoes and flushing all the way down his neck. “What- like- like”

“The navy blue lace- did you not see enough to judge? Wanna see more?” you sauntered up to him, thumbing his St. Anthony chain & wrapping your finger around and tugging lightly. His breath gets caught in his throat and he looks up at you, blue eyes wide and cheeks on fire.

“Are you always this forward?” he asked, his voice lower and huskier, almost a whisper. 

You smirked friskily, leaning in and tucking back his curly hair whispering in the shell of his ear “Why, d’you like it?” you said, hand splaying out over his chest and rubbing over it gently, feeling his racing heart. 

“Drives me kinda fuckin’ crazy, if’m’honest” he pulls you to sit in his lap and you squeak in surprise, giggling a bit and wrapping your arms around the back of his neck for balance.

“Yeah? M’pretty sure it would drive your girlfriend crazy too t’see me in your lap like this” you leaned forward, brushing his hair from his eyes and he looks up at you with a small smirk.

“Do I look that much of a prick that I’d pull some chick in my lap if m’seein someone?” he gently adjusted your necklace, the soft brush of his fingers nearly giving you shivers.

“I guess I’ve just had bad experiences with pretty tattooed men…” you spoke quietly since your faces had been getting closer and closer now ever since he’d pulled you into his lap.

“Oh so I’m pretty now, mm?” he asked as you gently twirl his curls around your manicured fingers.

“I think you’ve been pretty since the day you were born but that’s just a guess” you said and gently traced your thumb over his bottom lip and dragging it down gently. While doing so, he gently took your thumb into his mouth, dragging his tongue around it sensually before beginning to suck on it. Your jaw falls slack at the action, breathing becoming heavier and a wave of warmth crashing over your core. “Do you want to see my studio?” you asked boldly and he smirks a bit, pulling off your thumb with a pop and looking up at you with those lust blown blue eyes.

“Lead the way Bunny” he said, causing you to giggle and stand up, taking him by the hand. You carefully look outside the door just to be sure that there was no prying eyes in the hallway before quickly taking his hand and leading him to the back stairwell. As a fourth year art student who had been brought in to help teach students that were your Freshman as well as grade their work- you were given access to the senior studios, and you were in one so often it had basically been claimed as yours by this point, meaning you could trust that you two wouldn’t be bothered. 

That was one of the nicest things about being a favorite of your professor, being able to work alone and without being pestered.

You’d realized both of you had been skirting around the age question. It didn’t bother you much, you’d been with older men before - and you were 22 after all, so it wasn’t like you couldn’t make your own decisions on who you slept with.

You swayed your hips a little bit extra on the way up the stairs, knowing that he was not so secretly looking at the globes of your ass being accentuated by the thin fabric of your black sundress. By the time you’d gotten to the top, and dug around in your purse to find the keys to your studio in your tote bag, Carmy was quietly and awkwardly adjusting his erection in his jeans as you fiddled with the keys due to your nails, pushing open the door and flicking open the light.

The smell of paint overcomes you, and he mutters a soft “Woah” as he looks over your various half finished and some abandoned works leaning against the wall and hung up some places, various canvases everywhere. “So you really uh…do the thing huh” he nervously rubbed over his hands as he looked over the walls. You shut the door behind you, clicking the lock just for extra security before following to where he was standing in the middle of the room. 

“I do- do you wanna try?” you asked, planting a gentle, open mouth kiss on that pretty vein on his neck, smirking at the way you heard his breath get caught in his throat when you do so. You brought your hand back up, gently rubbing over his chest and finding his chain again, playing with it. 

“I um- uh- my forte is more with pencils or- um” he stuttered as you continued, beginning to feel hot and his erection pressing more and more at the confines of its cloth prison. 

“What if…we do it together- You’ll be my muse for my final project of the year” you gently trail your hand under his shirt, feeling the toned ridges of his abs under your nimble fingers. Your smile curls up more, feeling his stomach tighten and goosebumps appearing on his flesh as you do so. 

“Uhhh- you’re um, you’re like fuckin 21 right- jesus christ” he shudders as you pop open the button of his jeans and tease down his happy trail with your jeans, tugging the hem of his boxers open with your nail and he grabs your wrist, his entire hand easily wrapping around your wrist as he pulls it back “M’not about t’fuck a kid. How fuckin’ old are you, Bunny” 

You rolled your eyes “I’m 22! Such a gentleman though- that’s okay, right?” you look up at him and he breathes what looked to be a sigh of relief and lets your wrist go. 

“Ok- sorry i’d feel like a total fuckin perv if you were younger then that- still kinda fuckin young” he chuckled a bit and stroked your hair back “I’m uh…I’m 29, is that ok with you?” he asked to which you nod enthusiastically 

“Totally cool- can we keep going now or any other burning questions, chef?” you mused and leaned in, kissing below his ear and gently nipping at the lobe. He finally gives in and squeezes your ass, spanking you lightly.

“You have a fuckin’ mouth on you, bet it getcha in trouble alot mm?” he teased with a grin as you nip at his neck “and no marks, I’ll never hear the end of it if Richie sees that I hooked up with someone here an’e’ll probably infer that it was a student since I’ve never shown any interest in dudes and uhh…all y’teachers down there are men” he tilted your face up with a firm hand. “Y’gonna let me kiss you now?” he asked in that soft low way he took on downstairs and it nearly made you melt where you were standing. 

“Please- please do” you breathe, your eyes fluttering shut as his lips met yours. It felt like an explosion of butterflies in your lower belly, feeling a pulsing begin in your panties that was red hot with want. You brought your right hand back down to his boxers, rubbing your nails playfully over the hem of them and teasingly snapping it to his skin while your left hand worked at the small knots through his sandy blonde curls. He hummed gently into your mouth when you tugged at his roots, tugging your dress over your ass so he could get a better grip on it. He teasingly tugged your panties up over your cheeks, thumbing the inside of the lace and snapping it back against the skin,

Pulling away a bit, he mutters “they are cute, by the way” he said before continuing to kiss you. He swiped his tongue over your bottom lip and you opened up immediately for him, humming when you tasted the sweet and bitter mix of iced tea and american spirits on your tongue. 

The fervent nature of your kisses had you stumbling  back, back, until the backs of your thighs were pressed to the tabletop, and he was hoisting you up by your thighs to sit down, to which you gratefully accepted. He tugged off your little black dress, pulling it over your head swiftly so he wouldn’t need to break the kiss for long. It was only moments before you felt his palms over your breasts. They were the perfect handful for him, rubbing his thumbs back and forth over your nipples causing them to perk up at the attention. 

You felt yourself gushing in your panties, unable to squeeze your thighs together to ease the pulsing ache that was starting to grow more and more. You mewled into his mouth, the panting coming out of your nose and fanning his upper lip as he nearly devoured you getting faster and more desperate as he pinched and tugged your nipple just enough to make your clit twitch. He pulled away, and you panted softly into his mouth as he asked, “I can suck on these, right?” he asked, his voice huskier and lower than before. 

“Course- please” you gently combed through his curls with your fingers as he wasted no time working his lips down your chin and jaw with hot open mouthed kisses, gently sucking and licking over all the right spots. You whine and moan as he takes your left nipple into his mouth, sucking lightly and swirling his tongue over the sensitive bud while he massages your right breast in his hand between rolling your nipple lightly in his fingers. You look down at him, jaw falling slack when you saw those icy blue eyes staring up at you, darkened and lust blown. “Jesus Carmy-” you breathed out, causing him to smirk a bit and he pulled off with a pop, licking and flicking his tongue over the now firm bud. 

“You have perfect fuckin tits” he complimented sultrily, the tips of his lips brushing your nipple lightly as he spoke, his hot breath causing that pulsing feeling in your panties to turn into a throb, and he kissed your left breast before politelly moving his attention to your neglected right one and giving it the same star treatment. You had wiggled your hips to the side of the desk, pathetically humping the corner to get any kind of relief. His eyes fluttered down to see what you were doing and he pulled away, chuckling a bit “holy shit. Y’want some help there sweetheart?” He mocked teasingly, spreading your thighs more and cupping your heat with his hand. The relief of him finally touching where you needed him most caused you to gasp lightly, pulling him into a kiss as you quickly rut your hips into his hand, groaning into his mouth as you felt yourself getting closer and closer to release. 

“Lets get these off mm?” he purrs in the shell of your ear, guiding you to lift your hips and slipping off your little blue lacy panties in one swift motion, leaving you in nothing but your stilettos. The feeling of his tattooed digit prodding at your slick entrance to gather some arousal, before swirling it around your clit. Your hips buck into his hand, feeling eager to be filled by something. 

“C-Carmy-” you breathe out, tongue darting out to wet your lips that were dry from the growing pants coming from your lips. “Need you inside” you admit, cheeks heating slightly. 

“Yeah? M’gonna need t’stretch you out Bun’” he swirled his finger back down in your wetness, prodding the first knuckle of his middle finger inside of you and watching you carefully as your head fell back in bliss at the relief it brought. A whiney moan tears from your throat as he pushed the finger inside deeper, sinking down to the second knuckle and curling it wonderfully. This action caused your hips to rut into his hand causing him to sink the rest of his finger open and the sensation was so pleasurable and intense your hand slid up your chest to massage your breast just to have something to hold. 

“More- More please” you begged, eyes opening once again to see him looking fully blissed out over you, hooded lids and parted lips, looking utterly entranced with the sight of you falling apart beneath him. 

“Sure y’can handle it? God y’fuckin tight, angel” he added another one of his thick digits and the delightful burn that came with the stretch caused the faintest of smirks to curl on your lips. Carmy in that moment felt his heart flutter, he’d never hooked up with anyone who made his heart do that before. He hadn’t even met many people who made his heart do that anyhow. He brought his lips to yours as he explored your walls with his fingers causing your brows to furrow for a moment before he pressed on a spot deep inside of you, yet to be found by any other partner. 

The feeling made your mind go blank, your head felt fuzzy and hazy around the edges and it was a white hot pleasure as he curled his fingers into the spot. In tandem, the feeling made your toes curl and back arch slightly. “Theeere it is” he muttered to himself cockily. “Y’gonna cum, Bunny? Mmm? Y’drippin’ down my hand pretty girl” he rasped in your ear, kissing the side of your head as he curled his fingers quicker, increasing his pressure and you let out sounds you had never heard yourself make before. You couldn’t find any words, you were too focused on the way your muscles were tightening and releasing, and your thighs were beginning to shake. 

It all felt too good to be nervous, but that hadn’t ever happened before. You nod fervently at his request and he rubs his palm against your clit in such a way that had him covering your mouth with his other hand and pushing you down against the desk so your screams wouldn’t be heard by the Gala-Attendees downstairs. “Tha’s it- let go baby s’ok” he purred in your ear lowly. You weren’t sure what happened or what caused it, but suddenly you felt as if you were out of your body for a moment as you heard a gushing noise.

You were snapped back into yourself though as the most intense orgasm you’d ever been privy to washed over you. You couldn’t scream, you could just squirm and shake and claw at Carmen’s buff arms as he worked you through it. “Jeeesus you fuckin soaked my hand, Bunny- hottest shit I’ve ever seen, gonna make you do it on my cock next, god- you good?” the sound of his soft yet dominant voice brought you back. You opened your eyes and looked down to see a puddle of clear water-looking liquid on the floor and looked back at Carmy, blinking a few times as you found your wits. 

He cradled your thigh under his large bicep, stroking your pussy gently as your hips lightly twitch, just looking at you and patiently waiting for your answer. “I- I did that?” you asked, a bit surprised. 

“You’ve- you never squirted like that?” he asked, and you shook your head in response. “Well let’s do it again then, mm?” he slipped his wallet out of his pocket and pulled a black foil packet out of the cash slot, that made your eyes widen as he ripped it open easily with his teeth and popped the button on his jeans. A bareskin Magnum. 

You swallowed thickly, throat suddenly feeling dry. You’d never seen a Magnum condom in real life, none of your partners had ever needed one. You’d seen them in porn, sure, but even then you found it slightly insane that there were guys who needed thicker condoms considering in health class in school they told you most people will never need specialty condoms like that. You were glad he brought his own because all you had in your bag was a regular durex, which seemed now wouldn’t ever fit. 

“Y’good?” he questioned as he tugged off his shirt in that guyish way by grabbing it by the nape of his neck and tugging it over his head, causing his gorgeous messy curls to become even more ruffled by the action. You nod again, feeling completely in a daze and there was a sharp knock at the door, and the sound of the door jiggling before your professor called your name and asked if you were in there. Your eyes widened and you held your lips up to tell Carmy to be quiet. 

“Yeah?” You called back, sitting up on your elbow to speak with him through the door.

“Are you…going to come present your mural? The donors shall be leaving soon- your work has raised the most money, the buyer wishes to meet you.” he explained and your head fell back in frustration rubbing over your face and trying to quickly come up with a lie. You didn’t want to meet anyone and talk about your art with them, especially a rich snob that likely didn’t understand anything behind it and just bought it for another one of their foyers in The Hamptons, and you also wanted to continue your time with Carmy because - the guy knew his way around a pussy and you needed to see the full of his abilities. 

“Uh- I-I’m sorry, I got….inspired. I’m working on my final project. You know how I get - Thank them for me and uh- read the description I put for it on the school site it says everything I want to!” You said quickly and he was quiet for a moment. 

“So be it….but I’d like to review what you’re working on tomorrow, please” he said and you sigh in relief.

“Thank you, Professor, You wont be disappointed” you told him and sighed softly in relief as you heard him walking away. 

“So- What are we…working on?” Carmy questioned. You got up. Going and grabbing the biggest canvas you had at the moment which perfect for your needs was one that you could comfortably lay over. Then, you grabbed a small bucket of Colombia blue paint and dump it over the canvas, lightly smearing it with your hand and tying your hair up.

“You’re gonna fuck me on this” you put your thick rimmed glasses on the desk so they wouldnt get covered in paint before carefully laying on the canvas and wiggling your ass around a bit so the lace of your panties (that would now be ruined) would add nice texture and pattern to the paint as you spread it out. He chuckled, shaking his head a bit and settling in front of you before resuming tugging his jeans off and rolling the condom on. 

“You’re quite the little character, know that?” he asked, but you didn’t really hear him as you were focused on the largest cock you’d ever seen in person staring back at you. “Yo-” he tapped your cheek gently to get your attention and you look at him

“Is that gonna fit? It just whispered in my ear and said it was gonna rip me in half- thats a third leg” you said jokingly causing him to laugh, resting his hand forward next to your waist causing his hand to become covered in paint as he lined himself up at your entrance. 

“It whispered in your ear” he snorts a laugh, his stomach swarming with butterflies. Something about this experience felt… freeing for him. He’d never met someone who made him feel so put at ease while having such a large and silly personality other then… well, other than his brother, so a lot of the feelings he was having were good but slightly overwhelming.

Both of your minds though went blank as he nudged the tip of his thick girth inside of you. Fuck you were glad that he’d stretched you out slightly with his expert fingers at first because that familiar slight burn as he split you open for him was bring tears of pleasure to the corners of your eyes. He leaned over you, caging you in with his arms as he sunk in you fully and you bit his bicep, hard to stop from screaming out. He hissed, patting your cheek lightly as he chuckles “I tap out, I tap out!” he teased “Jesus, Bun, gonna leave a bruise” he said and you blushed slightly as you pulled away, looking at the perfect divots of your teeth imprint, that he was right, would surely bruise in the shapes of your teeth. 

“Sorry…didn’t wanna scream” you said sheepishly and gently kiss over the area. 

“Y’can bite, bun’- but just a little higher up so people don’ask questions mm’?” he said gently “Can I move now?” he asked and left gentle kisses along your jaw, down your neck. When you let out a little hum he began to slowly grind with you in a way that caused the mushroom shaped tip of him to rub against that spot earlier that made you see stars. Carmen had learned years ago now, that especially with his size and shape rather then deep snapping strokes, it feels better for his partners if he does a deep grinding motion. He knew this trick worked for you as well when you began to gush and clench around him tightly, back arching and squirming below him on the canvas.

“Ho-holy fucking shit, Carm” you whine out, back arching and gasping out when you felt him rub your clit with his paint free hand, wrapping your thigh around his waist so he could hit deeper, and the new angle nearly made you squeal. 

“Oh- Fuck- Fuck Bun’ - squeezin my shit so fuckin tight, God” he nearly let out a whimper as he felt you gush around him, the creamy liquid sliding down over his balls and dripping onto the tile below. “Fuck- fuck gonna take you from behind, yea? Gonna feel so good baby” he said and before you knew what was happening you were on your stomach, breasts slipping back and forth over slick blue paint as he lined himself back up and began to thrust hard and fast from behind. Whenever he grinded up into your ass the tip of his cock gave your cervix a gentle kiss that made you see stars.

“Oh- I’m gonna cum” you whine out, paint covered hands leaving fingerprint smudges all along the canvas as he uses your hips as leverage to push and pull you back on his cock. You felt him so deep it felt as if he was in your stomach, whimpering and clenching around him in a way that made him grunt when you felt him spank your ass roughly. 

“Shiiiiit- I can fuckin feel that- gonna make you cum all over my cock babygirl- fuuuuck” he groaned, head falling back hotly as he absolutely pounded you. You were letting out sweet grunted uh’s and ah’s with each snap of his hips. Carmy spanked you again, leaving handprints of blue on your ass, before spreading your cheeks and watching the white cream sticking to his cock in strings of arousal as he continued to thrust. When you heard, and felt him release a glob of spit onto your other hole, watching mesmerized as it dripped down over your pussy, getting lost and mixing with your arousal almost immediately, that was all it took for you to reach your peak. 

Your thighs shivered, and hips bucked uncontrollably, clenching and releasing around him in a way that made his hips stutter and thrusts falter. “Christ- fuckin cumming” he warned, before burying himself to the hilt with a grunt and spilling into the condom. You laid beneath him, a panting, paint covered, sweaty mess. He caught his own breath, pulling out and gently rolling you over. 

“I think I passed out and saw god” you joked, earning a breathless chuckle from him as he tied off the condom and slipped his boxers back on, going to throw it in the trash. 

“Does this shit come off with water?” he asked you and you sat up, getting off the canvas and taking your heels off finally.

“It does…” you mutter, not expecting what was to come next. He went over to the sink in the corner of the room, setting the tap to cool water, and pumping loads of paper towels. He soaked them all, before adding soap to some and wringing them all out, before folding them up to be like little wet wipes. He came over to you, gently taking your paint covered hand with one of the soapy cloths and cleaning all of the paint from your hands before rubbing them off with the ones with just water, and repeating the process wherever there was paint. Neither of you said anything, you weren’t sure if that was just because the process was so intimate - or that you’d never had a hookup take such care of you after sex before.

“Uh- Thank you” you finally settled on, he looked up at you and smiled a bit

“F’what?” he asked, grabbing your dress for you and helping you put it on. You shrugged a bit, goosebumps covering your skin as he carefully zipped it up, his fingers soft and gentle over your skin. You felt yourself flush and look over as he tugged his jeans back on, waistband of his Calvin boxers sticking out over the waistband of them just a bit. Jesus he’s so fucking hot. 

“Being so like…nice and stuff…dunno” You took your hair back down, combing through it with your fingers. 

“I’m just doin’ what you deserve, Bunny” he said kindly as he put his shirt on.

The next day, after being sure to exchange numbers with Carmy, of course, you headed back to your studio bright and early. You unlocked the door and walked in, beginning to clean up the mess the two of you had left the night before. After a swiffer of the floors and a good wipedown of your desk, you took a proper look at the piece you two had expertly crafted together. 

Smiling at the memory, seeing fingerprints (and other prints) that only you knew what they were, grabbing more blues and some greys as well. You took your brushes, getting to work, using your brushes and hands to create a beautiful abstract mix of strokes of color. You of course got lost in the work, listening to your usual heavy rock playlist you had going when you were painting, humming to yourself a bit as the music blasts through your headphones.

Finally, you were satisfied with the way that it looked so you went over to your sink and began washing your brushes, being sure to let them dry standing so they wouldn’t ruin. You did your usual routine after, of washing up, cleaning up the studio, and leaving the canvas on your easel to dry. Finally, you dug in your jacket pocket and pull out your phone. It had been on Do Not Disturb the whole 4 hours you were working, not wanting to be bothered - and strangely see 3 texts from Carmen. You clicked them open and see

Hey - Craziest shit happened. 

Wanna come by the restaurant later?

Have something to show you.

You raised your brows, slightly confused, but send something back nonetheless 

Sure? Send the address, Need to show prof. Our collab ;) 

Slipping your phone back into your pocket, you grabbed your things and headed across campus to your professors office. When you finally got there, you took your headphones off, resting them around your neck and pausing your music before knocking on the door. You waited for a come in - before entering. He greeted you by your legal name that all your teachers called you, before asking. 

“So, I’m excited to hear what you’ve come up with for your final project” he motions for you to sit, taking his reading glasses off and setting them on his desk, crossing his hands in front of him.

“Oh- Professor- I am so excited to tell you about this, so you know how all semester you’ve been wanting me to try abstract work - but I was just too nervous to let go and let my brush do the work?” you asked and he sat up, more interested now. He had been on your case about trying abstract work, but each time you tried it became another modern escapism or surrealist painting, instead of being abstract. You found it hard for yourself to just go with shape and color other then painting a feeling or an idea. He nodded, to let you know to go on.

“Well…I finally was able to do so- I have a photo for you here, I think i’m going to call it the passion of letting go” you pull the photo up on your phone and hand it over. He put his glasses back on, holding the phone back how seniors usually do and his face lights up when he gets a good glimpse of it. 

“Oh- My- yes, I love this! This is just wonderful, I can’t wait to see it in person!” he said proudly, handing your phone back. “I wanted to let you know, that your mural was an absolute hit! It was the talk of the whole gala! I do wish you were there to see just how much it touched people.

“Was it?” You said happily, the smile on your lips grew slightly. You had been extraordinarily proud of your project, so the way it was enjoyed by so many people warmed your heart. 

“Oh yes, the gentleman that bought it was quite determined to have it, he got in bidding wars with 3 other people at the gala!” He chuckled a bit. You felt your phone buzz in your pocket and slickly check it under the desk while the professor went on about how he used one of your most recent realism works to help teach the freshman students about shading as you read over the address to the restaurant that Carmy had sent.

“I really hate to cut this short Professor, but I have to get going I just came by to finish off that painting- we can catch up more next week, yeah?” You got up, grabbing your bag and he nodded. The two of you said your goodbyes and when you left and were walking towards the L platform, you couldn't help but feel a bit giddy. 

Carmy saw the space where you were most creative, your natural environment, as far as you could tell just in your short-ish interaction with him, the kitchen was that place for him. You put your headphones back on, sending a quick text to Carmy and sharing your location until the end of the day so he could expect your arrival as you blasted music into your ears to try and calm your nerves. The train over was fairly quiet, it wasn’t rushhour yet and it was a Monday afternoon, so most people were still at work or school.

As you walked towards the restaurant with your apple maps directions being your guide, you couldn’t help but feel as if you’ve seen it before. As you continue to walk, you rack your brain, until finally you remembered. On your way to your dorm in your freshman year when you had first moved here, you had went to this amazing little sandwich shop. The Beef! Yeah! That was it, your mom had been complaining she was hungry the past 2 hours so you and her stopped at the first hole in the wall spot you could get something quick and got 2 beef sandwiches that you still dream about and never had again since your school was across town and you didn’t have any friends over on this side of town, so there wasn’t really any reason to come back here.

You hoped it wouldn’t offend Carmy, but you wanted to grab a sandwich before you stopped in because you knew if he tried it he’d love it too. You quickly cancel your route and type in ‘The Beef’ and click for directions - thankfully it was the exact same time away as The Bear so you could guess that Carmy already knew about the restaurant, oh well- their sandwiches still were fire enough you’d risk offending your new chef friend to get one. 

You continued walking and saw The Bears sign in the distance, looking around trying to find The Beef, but you didn’t see it. You figured you’d just ask Carmy where it was and grab a sandwich on the way home. As you approached The Bear, though, your apple maps chimed into your headphones 

“Arrived: In 50 feet you will see The Original Beef Of Chicagoland on your right” You crinkle your brows, a bit confused and just end the route. The stupid thing only knows how to get somewhere half the time anyways. You tugged open the restaurant door, to see Richie standing at the host stand. 

“Yo! What the hell you doin’ here tinkerbell? You dyin’ f’more garlic knots?” he teased as Carmy came out of the kitchen

“Hey! C’mere got somethin’ t’show you” Carmy came over and rested his hand on your lower back, guiding you through the dining room. Your cheeks flushed as Richie looked at the two of you confused as Carmy slid his hand to your waist and asked

“Havin’ a good day?” in that low, soft way that made your stomach have wild flutters. That caused your gaze to be torn away from a very confused looking Richie, and pull it back to the Greek-God like blonde beside you and you smiled a bit, looking up at him and nodding

“It’s ok… I have something to show you too -” you told him as he stopped in front of a door labeled *AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY* and dug keys out of his chefs coat. Jesus he looked so amazing in that coat. You could imagine him throwing you up on the desk in your studio after a long shift and pounding you in it, so excited to see you he couldn’t even get it off before he-

“Close your eyes” he stood behind you, gently covering your eyes and your breath hitched at the sudden feeling of him pressed behind you, his hard muscle pressing into your back as he holds your head to his chest, hand cupped over your eyes so you wouldn’t look. The simple gesture had your core on fire. 

“Oh- Ok- Ok they’re closed” you mutter, letting him lead the way. You heard a light switch after he pushed open the door, leading you forward and stopping in the room, 

“You ready?” he whispers in your ear before giving your neck a gentle kiss that made you shiver, your breath hitched in your throat and you gently bring your hand up, tugging his hand away from your eyes and opening them. You blink a few times, getting adjusted to the light and when you noticed nearly straight away what it was you looked up at Carmy, a shocked look on your face. 

“Who did this?” you asked, head snapping back and looking at your Sampaguita Skies mural, shades of whites and yellows and blues. 

“The crazy thing is I didn’t even fuckin’ say anything. This is uh- I run the place, but my uncle owns it - f’now, i’m uh…workin’ on that, but he’s been really into art lately, got us the gig at that gala I didn’t even wanna do it in the first place but I do what he says y’know. And uhh..yeah- hes gonna be mounting it on that empty wall next to the host stand after he gets it preserved” he explained and you blushed, shaking your head in disbelief as a smile grew on your face.

“Fuckin- crazy” you said and giggled a bit, resting a hand on your hip and looking back at him. “Hey I was gonna ask you- There was this place over on this side of town- The Beef - have you been?” You asked and he chuckled amusedly, nodding as he leaned against the wall and rubbed over his chin with a smile. 

“I uh- I have why?” he questioned

“Oh! Well… they have super good sandwiches you probably know I was kinda in the mood for one - sorry I’m not a fancy person, do you know where it is I was gonna grab one on the way home” you said and he nods.

“Yeah, lemme take you” he extended his arm for you to take 

“Wh- no! No- you’re working I wouldn’t want to put you out-” you start to decline but he stops you 

“Not putin’ me out at all, c’mere, I’ll take you to get one” he said and you finally relented. He took you by the hand, closing and locking the storage room behind him and leading you back towards the kitchen and he pushed open the doors.

“Yo Ebra- 2 italian beefs please for back of house” he called and got a heard chef In response. You look at him confused

“Carmy I know you're a good chef and everything but -”

“Welcome to the beef” he said with a cocky smile. You look at him even more confused, because you had been to the beef, and it was…not this fancy place. 

“Are you that competitive? That you can't let me have some other dudes sandwich?” you said and he guided you by the hand again, this time over to what looked like a drive through window except no space for cars, it was like a walk up window you’d have seen at Jersey Beach. 

“This - this is The Beef now, The Beef was us, but we wanted to do something bigger- and the locals would have had me burning on a stake if I stopped doing sandwiches, so we operate as 2 separate businesses but in the same building” he explained. 

“Holy shit - so you’re saying I can get a free beef sandwich whenever I want cause i'm your favorite artist in chicago?” you teased and he rolled his eyes with an amused smile, taking you with him back to an office and flicked the light on 

“Anytime Bunny, anytime. You gonna show me what you said you were workin on?” He shuts the door behind him, sitting down on the big plush black leather office chair and sighing in relief. You can only imagine how long he’d been on his feet today. You came over, plopping in his lap and wrapping your arms around his neck. 

“Mmm yea- but I deserve a kiss” you pucker your lips and he laughed a bit, before leaning in and pecking your lips sweetly 

“For what? Guilting me into having someone make you a sandwich?” he teased and you shook your head, digging your phone out of your pocket

“For not climbing you like a tree the second I saw you in your sexy little Chefs coat, I behaved myself soo well out there” you unlocked it and found the picture, showing it to him and his brows raise in surprise. 

“Shit- we made that?” he asked, a hint of amusement in his voice, zooming in on different parts to take it all in. 

“We did” you said happily, gently running your fingers through the curls at the base of his neck.  “Can we make another one t’night?”

Tagging bestie boops: @carmenberzattosgf @gallaghersgal @mouseymilkovich @daysofyellowroses @l4long-winded

[milliesfishes]

President Coryo falling for someone on his staff and totally favoring her at work slow burn request😭 he falls first and harder

౨ৎ coriolanus falls for his assistant౨ৎ fem reader x coriolanus snow

One of Coriolanus' favorite things about being president was the sheer number of resources he had at his disposal.

There was nothing that wasn't laid before him, no door that couldn't be opened. The entire world was at his fingertips.

But when you began to work for him, he found he didn't need the entire world.

Quick and efficient, you were the best assistant he could have asked for. It amazed him, how easily you adapted to him, anticipated his every need. It didn't hurt how breathtaking you were as well, even in the simple clothes you wore so you could move around quickly.

He found himself thinking about you more often than not, calling you in just so he could see you, because he knew you'd come every time. Sure, it was because you were being paid, but sometimes he pretended otherwise.

Every time you entered his office, bearing lunch or stacks of papers needing his signature it was like seeing an angel in the doorway. Your silky, soft looking hair, clothes hugging your body unassumingly. Today you were wearing a white button up shirt and a black skirt to your knees. It was plain, but you made it look like a gown.

"Do you need anything else from me?" you asked sweetly, your hands behind your back.

A kiss. "No, thank you. That'll be all," he dismissed you, and the sound of your heels clicking away from him was disheartening.

Coriolanus knew you were professional. You wouldn't dream of making a move on your boss of all people. But he oh so desperately wanted you to.

The next day, he was fiddling with a pen, staring at the door and debating sending for you. Today you were wearing a simple blue dress that wouldn't have done a thing for anyone else but had you stunning. He wondered what you'd look like in something nicer, designer even. You would likely be ethereal.

He wanted to find a catalogue and buy all of it and leave it at your desk. But that would be coming on too strong, he knew as he dove into the fantasy. Now he was imagining you coming into his office, thanking him, and then taking off your clothes so he could see the name brand lingerie he'd gotten you-

No. Not yet anyways. Still, a gift was a good idea. It was thoughtful; you were an excellent assistant after all. Maybe it would be the first step into something more.

So, he found something for you. A bracelet, silver with a diamond in the center. Subtle enough, but still beautiful. It was wrapped and left on your desk, right in the middle where you'd see it first thing.

Hours later, you rushed into his office wearing a big smile, thanking him profusely, happily. Your appreciation brought him more joy than he could have guessed. "It's not a problem. You're an excellent worker. Just think of it as a token of my appreciation."

That smile. It was engrained into his mind for the rest of the day. If giving you things could make you that happy, he would shower you in pretty things.

Over the next few weeks, he left all sorts of things in that spot on your desk. Perfumes, rings, necklaces, scarves. It pleased him when you wore the things he got you, filled him with a satisfaction that couldn't be understated.

Every time he gave you something, he counted the seconds until you'd fly through the door, gushing over the newest trinket. Honestly, it was like he'd gifted you gold and jewels. Which, he guessed, he technically was. But he still wanted to give you more.

As he was browsing a catalogue for inspiration before his next gift, he came across the most beautiful dress. Deep red with thin straps, he knew you wouldn’t wear it in the office. But still…

Of course he bought it. It was delivered straight to his desk, wrapped up with a bow. Thrumming his fingers on the box, he wondered if this was a stupid idea. Should he really do this? Throw all caution and dignity to the wind and give you something nice?

In the end, he remembered he was the president. He could do what he wanted. So he had someone take the box to your desk while you were getting lunch around one.

You didn’t come to his office for the rest of the day. When he rang, someone else was sent up in your stead, and that made him nervous. Were you avoiding him? Was this a slow burn into your resignation? Coriolanus could hardly focus on his work with thoughts of you swarming your mind.

He ended up staying later that night to catch up on the hours he’d lost worrying. It was nearly eleven by the time he set his pen down, standing up and stretching. About to go get his coat, he was surprised when the door clicked open and you appeared, all smiles.

“I’m sorry if I startled you,” you said sheepishly, stepping inside.

“No, that’s alright,” Coriolanus quickly said, the sight of you bringing his resolve back. “Did you need something?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to still be here.” You shut the door behind you. “But I figured I’d check.”

“Ah, yes.” He ran a tired hand through his hair. “Busy day.”

“Me too,” you gave him a soft smile. Then, hesitating before you did, you stepped closer to where he was, on the other side of the desk. “I wanted to come up earlier, but there was a lot going on downstairs.” Folding your hands in front of you, you looked up at him brightly. “I-“ you paused, and then your arms were around his neck, your soft body pressed into his. “Thank you for the dress. It’s so beautiful.”

His heart stopped when he felt you wrapped around him, and then his arms slid around you. “It was no problem.”

“You get me such lovely things and you don’t have to,” you murmured, pulling back. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve it.”

”You’re a wonderful assistant,” he said softly, looking down at you, his hands still grasping your arms. “And…” the fingers of his right hand tucked a strand of hair behind your ear. “You’re just wonderful all around.”

Cheeks slightly rosy, you looked down shyly. “You’re sweet.”

“You are,” he murmured, and you giggled softly, music to his ears.

Coriolanus caught your eyes, and he found himself unaware to pull away. You were a force drawing him in, and he was helpless to stop it.

Before he knew it, his lips were on yours, moving gently. You froze, and then you were kissing him too, your lips soft and succulent against his. His other hand found its way into your hair, pulling you up closer.

Your hands found the collar of his shirt, body slotted betwixt his knees and molding against him. He spun you around, lifting you by the hips so you sat on his desk, pushing your skirt up and parting your legs to stand in the middle of them.

He was fisting your dress, using it as leverage to hold you to his body. Coriolanus trailed his mouth hotly from your lips to your neck, kissing slowly and roughly. He made sure to leave his mark on you, but not too boldly. It was enough to show everyone that you were utterly his.

When he parted from you, he opened his eyes and saw the tiny smile forming across your face. You were somehow prettier now than you’d been before.

He stroked your cheek, nudging his nose against yours. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow night. Wear the dress.”

[foone]

Now I'm imagining a totally different version of that mini-story shitpost (I'd call it a ficlet if it was more serious), where it's a story about a floret elaborately planning an escape, but with a twist.

(mini-hdg fic follows. No sex, but this an inherently dubcon/noncon setting and there are some very minor references to that)

They figured out how to bypass some restrictions on the matter compiler by asking for things with components that could be reused. They've hidden tools inside some of their plushies, pushed to the back so their owner won't accidentally notice them.

Finally, it's time. The door to her quarters falls quickly from the acid attack (she's been doing hidden chemistry for Weeks). The ion storm will blind some of the sensors, so they only need a little extra help to not notice a DIY escape pod falling out of an auxiliary cargo bay.

The escape pod soft-lands (well, mostly. It hit a few tree branches on the way down) on the nearby habitable planet, and the door pops up. A floret in some brightly colored doll clothes resewn into hiking gear pops out. She holds up a sensor with a little screen on it, and it shows one big blue dot. Suddenly the dot grows, the screen's image is swamped out, and then it returns: nothing. No dots. The Cembroides has jumped out of the system. She's free without anyone noticing. She tosses aside the sensor she rigged out of a hair cutting machine, grabs some supplies from the pod, and hikes north.

A few kilometers later she finds a clearing with a small log cabin recently built in it. She opens the door without knocking, and says "Did you miss me?"

Her owner puts aside her book. "Of course I did little one! I was worried when your pod came down in the dense forest, but I see you made it safely here."

The floret smiles. "I wasn't worried! I used some hoverunits from an old medi-bed design, so my pod was slowed down enough that I just got jostled a bit. The real trick was figuring out how I could make the pod smart enough to land me near the cabin but not so smart that it'll discover what I'm doing and alert the Cembroides AI... I ended up with a nano-computer out of a dining tray wired into the thrusters. It thinks it's keeping my lunch warm, not flying a spaceship!"

Her owner beams an expression of leafy pride at her. "That's all very interesting, and I look forward to reading your report on it. But for now, come cuddle with mommy, and drink up. You've been hiking through the forest, you need hydration and nutrients now, little one."

The floret jumps into her vines, literally, and buries her face in the leaves of her owner. "it was a lot of fun! I've got some great ideas for the next time, too". She yawns, and cuddles closer, her eyes slowly closing. "But for now I think I'll rest..."

A distance away in the alien jungle, a small creature scurries out of the abandoned escape pod, as the discarded sensor loudly beeps an alert as one of the Cembroides' shuttles makes an FTL jump back into the system.

Back at the cabin, the Affini gently pats the head of their floret. You gotta make sure your pets have plenty of enrichment, you know? And sometimes that means letting them "escape", just so they can have the enjoyment of figuring out their escape plan.

The shuttle sets down besides the cabin, and the Affini carries her sleeping pet out to it, pausing only to activate a system to reclaim the cabin back into biomass for the forest to use. The shuttle takes off silently, and the sound of birds and other forest wildlife slowly returns, as the cabin slowly melts like a sand castle at high tide.

That sensor by the pod beeps again as the shuttle jumps out to meet up with the Cembroides, and something not entirely unlike a deer darts off into the denser forest in fright.

[nilboxes]

How Sunday is Perfectly Morally Gray

Original thread on Twitter

Sunday is a misguided savior—made to believe he is the sole salvation of all, who was willing to be the lonely scapegoat/sacrifice/host of a place where everyone else but him lives in a beautiful never-ending dream.

Repeatedly during 2.2, Sunday alludes to a story about the Charmony Dove and how he believes an injured bird who can't fly should be caged, pampered and fed to live the rest of its days in comfort. It is alive, that is what matters the *most*

Sunday's thoughts to me probably go—Why can't we be all caged like the Charmony Dove? Where is the place that we can exist without predators and hardships? Everything should always be nice and unchallenging, we should just leave in perpetual peace and happiness and indulgence

This idea of a paradise free of suffering is reflected in the "sweet dream" of Penacony, but Penacony itself is fueled and fed by its dreamers who slowly lose themselves as the dream eats away at them.

So Penacony can't be the paradise, there needs to be a better, a newer dream that someone will bring forth so that everyone can be the Charmony Dove in the cage. No more hardships, no more sadness, no more disease, no more death, everyone lives their best lives.

Sunday was brainwashed into thinking HE would best suit as a sacrifice to these needs, he was ready to be the lonely host of this new and so much better dream where everything is all good. He designated himself as the cage, he is the sacrifice so that everyone else can have it good.

Everything about this heavily references an old short story by Ursula Le Guin called "Those who walk away from Omelas" which is basically a story about a wonderful utopia called Omelas where everything great and stuff, BUT it comes with the price of one single child suffering very badly

The story details how most people are horrified to learn about this child who lives in total abject misery, darkness and filth, but they see the utopia they live in and go "this is fine, this beautiful paradise is all worth the suffering of one person"

But SOME people can't deal, even just one person suffering and not being part of utopia is a no go, it's not worth it, so they "walk away from Omelas" and go somewhere not better objectively, but just away from that place and that price they had to pay for utopia

Sunday literally wants/offers himself up to be this child. He is willing to be the sacrifice so that everyone else can live happily. Because, selfish as it is, he feels like everyone should be put in a gilded cage so they can have it good and easy.

There's a very misguided savior complex here where he thinks everyone should be subject to this sort of "salvation" like there's a special mindset here of Sunday's, self-sacrificing and very Catholic that HE can choose what is good for others and be willing to pay the price for it

And like, it's terrible but also commendable at the same time. Sunday says if you are weak that is fine, he will give you a dream where you can just live your """best life""" and be ""happy"" but is it really happiness if it's "fake"/handed to you on a platter and decided for you

But the message of Penacony says dreams are just dreams and you should wake up and strive for it, not live in the dreams. Omelas says if even just one person has to pay for your paradise it will never be worth it.

Sunday is terribly misguided, was brainwashed/conditioned to believe this, using his childhood grief to perpetuate a misguided ideology where he will basically Jesus himself for a thing that is objectively not really any good for anyone.

But like, he is rather straightforward as a character and yet his motivations and what thoughts he might have while believing in this is so so fascinating…

Anyway I stop yapping maybe don't hate Sunday, maybe read Omelas

PS: Does Sunday think he is unworthy of his own paradise because he failed to save his mom if so that's so Catholic of him dude needs therapy

[midchelle]

I was looking through my drafts and found this compilation of quotes I put together of Beatle girls talking about other Beatle girls. It's probably not totally comprehensive, but I thought some people might find it interesting.

Cyn + Mo

Far from being a shy little thing, Maureen was talkative, full of laughter and great fun: we all liked her enormously and thought she was good for Ringo.

All of the Beatles’ women got on with each other, but Maureen, who was one of the most down-to-earth, honest people I ever knew, became my closest friend. After their son Zak was born in September, seven months after the wedding, she and I used to go up to Knightsbridge to shop. Anthony would drop us off and we’d do the rounds of Harrods, Harvey Nichols and the designer shops in between, then stop for lunch in a smart little bistro. We’d buy cute little outfits for our sons and we were always on the lookout for something different or special for the men. We loved to surprise them with a psychedelic shirt, a piece of ethnic jewellery, or I would buy John a new plectrum for his guitar. John always loved prezzies, as he called them. No matter how small they were, he’d be delighted and I loved looking for things to surprise him. Much as Maureen and I enjoyed our outings, she always made sure she was at home for Ringo when he came in. Such was her devotion to him that she would stay up sometimes until four in the morning to greet him with a home-cooked meal. She wanted him to feel loved and cared for and, like me, she had been brought up in a family where women did the caring and nurturing while men provided. We often went over to their house and hung out with them, it was always party time at the Starkeys’. Ringo was gregarious and fun-loving, a clown and a joker with an infectious laugh. Together, he and Maureen made an irresistible double act, both extrovert and uninhibited. Ringo had installed a replica pub in their front room, which he called the Flying Cow. It had a counter and till, tankards, mirrored walls and even a pool table. He’d nip behind the bar to serve us all drinks, while Maureen supplied us with endless plates of food. It was a cosy, comfortable house with what felt like the ultimate luxury at the time: a TV – usually switched on – in every room. They had large grounds, in which Ringo had built in a go-kart track. He and John would race the go-karts or play pool while Maureen and I chatted over a cup of tea or took Zak and Julian for a walk. Ringo’s other passion was making his own short films. He had lots of equipment and loved to experiment, so after the nanny had taken over Zak and Julian we’d watch his latest movie. One was a fifteen-minute study of Maureen’s face. Innovative, perhaps, but not the most riveting entertainment.

Cynthia Lennon, John

Cyn + Jane

Jane was different from the girls Paul had been out with previously. The daughter of a psychiatrist father and a music-teacher mother, she was highly intelligent and cultured. She had a strong inner confidence, with a maturity and grace way beyond her years.

Paul stayed for a while. He told me that John was bringing Yoko to recording sessions, which he, George and Ringo hated. Paul had broken up with Jane Asher a couple of weeks after John had left me. I was sorry because I’d really liked Jane.

Cynthia Lennon, John

Cyn + Pattie

I liked Cynthia, but of all the Beatle wives and girlfriends I found her the most difficult to make friends with. She and I came from such different backgrounds; she had no career, she was a young mother, and we had no point of reference apart from our attachment to a Beatle. She wasn’t like my friends, who enjoyed a giggle and some fun: she was rather serious, and often, I thought, behaved more like John’s mother than his wife. I tended to leave her to her own devices but invited her to join me for shopping. I think she felt a bit out of her depth in the smart, sophisticated circles in which the Beatles were now moving in London. And I don’t think it helped that John thought I looked like Brigitte Bardot, or that I got on so well with him. There was a rumor—I don’t know where it came from—that John and I had an affair, and I suppose Cynthia may have believed there was something in it. It was completely untrue: we never had an affair. I wouldn’t have dreamed of it and neither, I am sure, would John.

Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me 

Meanwhile George, who had just turned twenty-one, had met a young model called Patti Boyd and fallen in love. Pattie had been given a part in A Hard Day's Night, playing a schoolgirl, because she had appeared in a successful crisps advertisement -- she was known as the Smith's Crisps girl. She was blonde, beautiful, and a sophisticated Londoner, like Jane Asher. But, like the rest of us Beatle girls, she was friendly, too, and easy to get on with.

Patti and I were becoming close friends. I admired her gorgeous figure and perfect fashion sense, and I think she enjoyed the company of someone who’d been with the Beatles from the beginning and knew the ropes.

Cynthia Lennon, John

"George has a lot with the others that I can never know about. Nobody, not even the wives, can break through it or even comprehend it. It did used to hurt me at first, as I slowly began to learn there was a part I could never be part of. Cyn talked to me about it."

[Pattie speaking] "It's not so bad these days, but it happens. Cyn was attacked not long ago in the street. Some girl kicked her in the legs and said she had to leave John alone, or else. Isn't it amazing, after all the years that John and Cyn have been married?"

[Pattie speaking] "Some people do understand. If they've been developing a lot themselves, growing up more, they know what it's all about. Cyn was very helpful at first, telling me what to do. That was when we thought of the boutique."

Cyn now and again would like to try something new, to have a job, perhaps use her art-college training in some way. She and Pattie, George's wife, did discuss the idea once of opening a boutique together in Esher, but it never came to anything.

Hunter Davies, The Beatles

Mo + Jane

I got to know Jane as well during that trip. While Paul and Richy were off horsing around, Jane and I chatted quite a bit. She’s such an intelligent person and I thought them quite an odd couple at first. Paul is such an assertive fellow (you know) he knows what he wants and Jane is that way too. I often wondered to meself how they ever stayed together as long as they did (you know). 

Maureen interviewed by Maurice Devereux for Le Chroniqueur (July 1988)

Mo + Pattie

Again, she and I had little in common but she was jolly and friendly, more relaxed than Cynthia. We got on but I felt there was definitely a north-south divide among the wives and girlfriends. And I had the definite impression that the girls from the north felt they had a prior claim to “the boys.”

The final straw was his affair with Maureen Starr, Ringo’s wife. She was the last person I would have expected to stab me in the back, but she did.

Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me 

Pattie + Jane

Jane Asher was the girlfriend with whom I felt most at home, but because we both had heavy work commitments she was also the one I saw least. She came from a professional family, had grown up in London and, like me, had been privately educated. The family lived in Wimpole Street; her father was a psychiatrist and her mother a music teacher—her brother Peter became half of the pop duo Peter and Gordon. She was three years younger than me but we got on well and I’ve always been pleased to see her whenever we’ve met.

Pattie Boyd, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me 

BONUS: Mo on Linda + Yoko

I always thought [Yoko] strange. I mean she would always interrupt the lads when they were working or do strange things without any reason whatsoever. I was there when John brought the bed, and said something about wanting Yoko to be there. I asked Richy about this and he just shook his head in disbelief. I often wondered how they all put up with her. Even Richy would come home and tell me all these strange stories about her. He once told me about her moaning into John’s microphone while they were recording a song and how the two of them would make-out during takes. I always avoided her in the studio for those reasons. She was just too strange for me.

Q: What was it like to sit in the studio with John, Paul and George? A: It was like watching a couple of actors rehearsing a scene in a movie (laughs). I would sit there with a cup of coffee in my hand and watch them for a while or maybe gossip with Linda [McCartney] or Mal [Evans]. When I did watch them, I always thought to meself, so this is what he’s been doing for the last six years! (laughs) I sometimes felt like a fly on the wall, but I knew that I had to be the luckiest fly in the world. Pattie [Harrison] would sometimes be there, but she would always leave early.

Maureen interviewed by Maurice Devereux for Le Chroniqueur (July 1988)

Can't really find any proper quotes from Pattie about Yoko or Linda. She mentions both in her book without much judgment and there are pictures of her with both of them throughout the years so they probably got on okay. I don't think Jane has ever been in the same room as either Linda or Yoko. Same with Cyn and Linda. Cyn's thoughts on Yoko are probably well-established at this point.