#using all the tags so this reaches the intended audience

[stall1iion]

champion's love - eight

Content Warning: the following chapter is intended for mature audiences only, contains strong language and profanity that may not be suited for children and sensitive adults. I will mark when the smut starts and ends for those who wish not to read that part. Thank you. 

tags: smut, needy max, equally needy reader, teasing/banter

Minors dni!! Warnings below!! 

warnings: cunnilingus, p in v, dirty talk 

liked by maxverstappen1, bsf1, bsf2, victoriassecret and many others

y/nofficial thank you Victoria Secret for allowing me to showcase your newest summer bikini! Link in my link tree, get 30% off using my code!

tagged: victoriassecret

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username9 HELLO?? THE BODY IS T 😫😍

username2 😫can max fight??

username34 the way my jaw just dropped

username123 why did she think anyone would want to see her skinny ass? It’s barely giving curvy

⤷username55 first of all, she’s an athlete, of course she’s going to be skinny and lean, second that gives you no right to talk about her body like that, it’s giving jealous

ynsteponme: y/n could run me over, beat me with a bat, set me on fire, please just do anything to me i really don’t care

⤷username99 literally so down bad for her

landonorris you look gorgeous.

⤷y/nofficial i appreciate this, but i post for the bad bitches only.

⤷landonorris i am the bad bitch you speak of.

⤷y/nofficial my bad gang 💪

username1 just looked at myself and sighed

username78 max watch out bc you and i are not friends

⤷username45 so we all in love with y/n right?

⤷username8 of course we are!

⤷username7 i mean LOOK at her 😻max can’t handle all that fr

maxverstappen1 GOD DAMN

⤷bsf2 HELLO??

⤷bsf1 my brother in christ…😀

⤷OscarPiastri oh he’s down bad…

⤷danielricciardo oh max…

⤷georgerussell63 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

⤷charlesleclerc why have you never publicly declared your love for me?

⤷y/nofficial charles your not beating the lestappen accusations, my dear

username59 BRO MAX’S COMMENT?? 😭

lilymhe it should be illegal to look this good 💗

⤷y/nofficial says you 😘🤤

⤷lilymhe don’t make me wife you up 🤭

⤷y/nofficial when’s our wedding baby?? 🤭

⤷alexalbon I will throw you in the ocean 😻

→ smut starts here

Twenty minutes later you were both amused and in disbelief when you heard the front door to Max's house open. Sitting up and turning to look at the door, you spoke before you even saw him with a laugh. “Stop, what are you doing here?”

Max let out a chuckle, getting closer to you with a grin on his lips and a fervent look in his eyes. Reaching you, he placed his hands on either side of the couch, caging you in as he looked down into your eyes. “I said I’d come and show you who bro was, didn’t I?”

“I was just joking around though” you said with a chuckle, not moving the rest of your body now as the living room felt heavy and intense.

“And I said sorry wasn’t going to save you” his face was so close to yours, literally hovering above you. “Plus, you didn’t seem against it earlier”

“Oh so you did read my message?” you raised an eyebrow at him, your eyes watching as he licked his lips at the question before looking down at your body - his shirt, one of the few that didn’t brand red bull on it at least, draped over your body for the most part. Fulfilling the objective of being oversized but tight enough that he could see the faint outline of your boobs, more than enough for his hungry eyes.

Max leaned back, opening his skirt up and exposing himself to you more, a silent confirmation that he was allowed to do what he said he would - and one he wasn’t fully sure you’d give him. He knew you were both being careless and playful, but this would be their first time together, and he didn’t want it to be the result of him pressuring you. He was fine with stopping here and cuddling if you wanted, he would deal with his own desire and they could put on a movie.

You knew he was giving you that option, that cop-out if you felt like it; but surprisingly…this process felt natural to her. No nerves, no fear, just pure attraction and desire. So after staring at his body for a while, you reached your hand out and placed your palm on his chest first, noticing how his heart pulsed against her hand rapidly with the concealed strength he had been using to control himself. Looking up at him, your hand slid up his shoulder and down his arm before wrapping around his wrist.

Slowly you guided his hand to grab your boob through the shirt. It might’ve seemed weird from anyone on the outside, but between the two of you, alone with your desires, he knew that this was you giving him that confirmation and his hand slowly grabbed at your boobs, fondling them through the shirt for a few before, albeit hesitantly, reaching under his - your shirt and feeling your bare skin.

A small shiver went up your spine at the difference in temperature, his hands just a bit colder but he seemed to be enthralled with your boobs now, a groan leaving him causing you to giggle. “What’s so funny?” he asked with a smile as he glanced up at you.

“You seem so engrossed in my boobs” you said with a smile and a chuckle and he chuckled and pulled his hands away, sliding himself in between your legs with a smile

“Their nice, saw a glimpse of them in that post of yours” he said and you chuckled, “God you're totally a tits man”

“Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boy” he said in retort and you laughed

“Are you daring me?” you asked as you looked at him before reaching and pulling your shirt up, Max finally able to see your boobs in all it’s glory and he folded like the man he is, letting out a deep groan as he looked and she laughed. “Mystery Solved!” you said, pulling the shirt back down with a shit eating grin as you looked at him and watched him run a hand through his hair.

“Don’t do this to me” he said, pushing himself against you so that you could feel his erection against your clothed pussy. “I’m not doing anything” you said with a giggle and almost in defeat, he leaned his head on your shoulder. Part of you thought he was going to beg and sat up a little straighter to pull him closer. Yet, like always, Max was unpredictable and said something she didn’t expect.

“You want this as much as I do” his head raising again and staring right into your eyes - that matched with one of his hands now being placed on your thigh, thumb caressing it softly, contradicting the needy pressure he was applying with it. It was no surprise when your body started vibrating with sensations that spread across your skin and honed into a throb, and you both crumbled at the same time.

Max lost his control first though, bringing his lips to yours, kissing you roughly like he planned on consuming you, as if he was containing an urge for too long and could do nothing but let it explode out. Your body melted as you reciprocated his kiss, his tongue grazing your lips before biting you, a whimper escaping your lips as he did so.

“You like that?” he mumbled, his hips grinding against you already, anticipating traveling throughout his body. You could only nod in affirmation as he leaned back to look at you before leaning you down onto your back, his hand sliding up your leg in the process as if in preparation.

He let his hand explore your body, moving upwards and upwards before reaching your underwear. Through it, he could feel the damp spot already seeping through, exposing how wet you were, and he let his fingers softly caress your clit with a triumphant smile. “Mystery solved” he said, throwing back your own words at you and you rolled your eyes, your back arching just a little bit. “Screw you” you managed to say between breaths as he sped up his movements.

“Oh trust me, I plan to” he replied, and the way he managed to be so cocky just intensified your need for him. As if guessing this just from your blissed expression, he pulled his hand away, accompanied by your whines as you looked to see what he was doing. His hands moving up and grabbing the band on your underwear before pulling them down, you lifting your hips to help as he slipped them off your feet and then reached for your shirt, leaving you fully naked on the couch.

“Fuck” he cursed, his cock throbing in his pants. Desperate, he almost gave up on his attempts to control himself. However, he did not want to stop teasing you, looking at your flushed cheeks and open mouth, it was worth the self control he had to possess. Looking down at your body, his eyes zeroed in on one thing he didn’t expect, a tattoo. It was on her v line, properly hidden by underwear and most outfits.

“When did you get this?” he murmured, lowering his face down as his lips hovered over it, his breath warm against your skin.

“Um…2018…after the olympics” you answered, your voice sounding out of breath as you pushed up on your elbows to watch. His lips slowly leaning down to kiss the spot. “It’s pretty” he said as he looked up at you, and god if only he knew how pretty he looked like that, his teeth grazing against it teasingly causing your breath to hitch. He chuckled before his arms linked under your legs and pulled you up to his face, glancing up at you before diving in like a starved man.

The way Max ate pussy was almost disgusting, like he was trying to suck your soul out of your body. Your hands dropped to his hair, sliding through the strands and bucking your hips up to meet his tongue. He looked ridiculously good while lapping at your pussy or sucking your clit in his mouth, his eyes shining, his hair being pushed back and the way his shoulders were wider than your hips, giving a good place to rest your legs on. You were so distracted by his looks that you only realized he had slipped a finger inside you when it curled into your cervix and you let out a loud moan.

“Can I put a second?” he mumbled against your skin, kissing your thigh as he looked up at you and you nodded, encouraging your boyfriend’s movements and easily enough, he pushed a second finger inside. His fingers curled even better as his mouth worked exclusively on your clit, his left arm reaching to press down on your hips to keep you still, making you feel his movements even more intensely. You threw your head back as you arched off the couch, your fingers keeping a merciless grip on his strands, hard enough that you might have been worried about pulling some out as he worked you up. He could feel when your legs started tensing around his neck and how your walls tightened around his fingers, both signs that you were close to release so he sped his movements. It was a particular deep stroke of his fingers to your insides that had you coming for him, your legs shook around him as you experienced an unexplainable strong orgasm. Max continued to eat you through your orgasm and it was only when he pulled away did you notice his face was covered in a transparent liquid, realizing you had squirted on him.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry” you said, covering your face to stop the embarrassment you felt as Max sat up

“Sorry for what, baby?” he asked, kissing up your body before pushing his shirt off his shoulders, “didn’t know you could do that, huh?” he whispered into your neck and you shook your head.

“No” you said, burying your face into his neck, “it was embarrassing”

“That’s okay baby, you don’t have to apologize for that. It was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen, you look so pretty when you cum, darling” he said and you chuckled before letting out a sigh

“Still embarrassing” you said and he chuckled before leaning back and kissing your forehead.

“Whatever you say, do you still wanna continue? Or are you all good here?” he asked and you shook your head

“No- no, i can keep going” you said and he looked to make sure you were sure before he nodded

“Alright, if you say so baby” he said with a nod before unbuckling and taking off his pants. Your eyes watched religiously as you watched him kick them somewhere on the floor before grabbing his boxers, and sliding them down. You watched as it bounced back up and rested against his stomach with a small gasp before she looked up at him. “You can touch baby, only fair” he joked and you reached down, your fingers wrapping against the base before giving it a nice pump which caused him to hiss.

“Fuck” he cursed, and you stopped for maybe a split moment before he interrupted you. “No, no- keep going…it’s just, it’s been a while” he said and you nodded before you continued, jerking him off for a few moments before he stopped you, way too close and he wanted to wait. You were a little sad you weren’t able to taste him but you figured you could do it another time. He reached for his pants again, pulling out a condom from his pocket and rolling it on before he slid back in between your legs.

“You ready?” he asked and you nodded. He brought his tip to your wet pussy, sliding so well that he couldn’t help but moan. Your gasp of pleasure made it all worth it, and your cry of frustration as he pulled himself out drove him absolutely insane. The way you craved him made him dizzy, intoxicated with your drunkenness of him, having you all for himself the way you were in that moment being almost a dream. He pushed back in, his large cock filling you and the small pain from stretching was overtaken by pleasure as you felt his hips grind against yours. The rhythm was nothing like his fingers, nothing like his tongue, it was slow. He was slow, like he was savoring every moment of this.

You clenched, you squealed, begged, anything flowed out your mouth and none of it was coherent, but Max liked that. In fact, it only quickened his pace as he watched your eyes roll to the back of your head and moan his name.

"you're taking me so well" his voice is raspy, husk and faint. “Such a good girl…”

A moan rippled through your body at the sound of him, every thrust from him sending butterflies into your stomach until one in particular hit your cervix and you let out a cry as you came on his cock.

It takes a few more thrusts from him before he’s spilling into the condom with a low groan, his face leaning into your neck as he trembled a bit. The two of you panting and getting your breathing under control as you came down from your highs. He slips out after a few minutes, tying the condom before getting up to throw it away, and coming back with a warm wash cloth, sitting next to a relatively fucked out you and after wiping your leg to warn you, starts to clean you up, even if it’s your own fluids.

→ smut ends here

liked by maxverstappen1, bsf1, bsf2 and many others

y/n.jpg Been at home all day, Jimmy is especially obsessed with me as you can see (shoutout to waking up with sassy behind my knees) 

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username7 stop 💀is she in the bath and jimmy and sassy are staring at her?? 

bsf2 awww look at Jimmy on your chest 🥹

maxverstappen1 tell jimmy to get out of my spot 

⤷username6 hello?? 💀is he talking about your chest

⤷bsf1 ignore him, he’s different without his meds 

username23 is it just me or is max and y/n like suddenly really affectionate? 🤔like no hate, I love it, it’s just a crazy shift 

⤷username2 nah you're so right moot, especially max 💀were they released from pr jail or something?? 

⤷username4 well y/n sure as hell wasn’t 😂she’s always been unhinged, it might just be her influencing max 

lilymhe never wanted to be a cat so badly 

⤷y/n.jpg don’t worry baby, I got you 💋

⤷alexalbon I give up 

⤷maxverstappen1 a wise choice truly

charlesleclerc how come sassy is nice to you?? 

⤷y/n.jpg girls just recognize girls 

⤷bsf1 lies, she’s just freakishly good with animals 

OscarPiastri can I pet them? 

⤷y/n.jpg osc! of course you can, just tell me what day you plan to swing by bc I wanna make snickerdoodles 

⤷logansargeant I heard snickerdoodles 

⤷y/n.jpg 💀yes logan, you can come too i guess

→ we have a contact name change for max, goodbye max, hello maxie 

→ Jimmy and Sally love their new mommy, especially Jimmy 

Author’s Note!! 

Hey Guys, sorry about the wait for this chapter, I lowkey didn’t know how I was going to do this and switched the format at least 7 times. I also broke my wrist on my dominant hand 🙂(didn’t know the ao3 curse applied to tumblr too) thankfully I can type with both hands but finishing out my first smut chapter with one hand was difficult. Speaking of smut, this was my first hand at writing this stuff so 🥹hopefully it’s good, I did not reread it bc one hand but also bc I’m indecisive and will change it, anyways hope you enjoy this chapter!! 

taglist: @boiohboii @ale-522 @ietss @theseerbetweenus @jaxx-7 @sainzluvrr @the-untamed-soul @ashy-kit @hc-dutch @nichmeddar @delululeclerc @sweate-r-weathe-r @dhanihamidi @tellybearryyyy @luvsforme @samantha-chicago @theblueblub @woozarts

༉‧₊˚  CHAMPIONS LOVE ༉‧₊˚

⤷ Following the messy breakup between Max Verstappen and Kelly Piquet, Max’s manager comes up with a solution to divert the attention – a fake relationship. His new girlfriend? Two time olympic gold medalist figure skater, y/n for the USA team. Easy? Well…

[underlove-official]

What is UnderLove?

"UnderLove" is an AU created by Radicalrainbow, based on the renowned role-playing game Undertale. In the universe of UnderLove, the struggle between love and hate shapes its story. It introduces a unique twist with love-centric magic and the contrasting power of hate. Characters’ appearances are heart-themed, adorned in shades of pinks, reds, and whites, with frilly trims, fluffy details, and prominent heart motifs embracing a Valentine's/Lovecore theme. Yet, this AU can show more than just one side of the coin.

Underlove's history

History of the Underground: Long ago, humans and monsters lived separately and in disarray upon the surface. Humans were known for their ruthlessness, hostility, and HATE, which led them to push the kind and loving monsters away.

Tragedy struck one night when the king’s life was brutally taken, leading Asgore to ascend to the throne. Blinded by his own growing anger, Asgore sought to avenge his father, and the once kind and loving monsters turned hostile as war was declared against the humans.

The war raged on, with magic clashing and bodies falling. Eventually, humans emerged victorious, and with the help of a powerful mage, they sealed the monsters underground. The Underground was filled with despair and darkness, but the magic of LOVE gradually began to bloom again, restoring harmony among the monsters.

The royal family made certain that their people remained full of LOVE, fearing the resurgence of HATE that had swept the surface. Royal guards were tasked with protecting the Underground by preserving love and happiness, removing those who began to corrupt with hatred, and dealing with any humans who entered their realm.

Chara’s Arrival: After many years after banishment, their peace was interrupted when a human named Chara fell into their midst, seeking refuge from human cruelty. The Dreemurr family adopted Chara despite their initial wariness, it came to be the best decision of their lives as the two kids grew up together.

Tragically, Chara fell terminally ill from consuming red rose seeds, causing them to cough up petals and roses. Before the illness could fully silence them, Chara expressed a dying wish to see the surface sky one last time.

Asriel, their adoptive brother, absorbed Chara's soul and carried them through the barrier that separated their world from the humans. However, upon reaching the surface, they were met with misunderstanding and rage, resulting in the tragic demise of both Asriel and Chara.

The Dreemurr family, torn apart by the loss of their beloved children, decreed that any human who fell into their realm would be imprisoned in the depths of their castle dungeon.

Official Character Illustrations

FAQs [to be updated]

Question 1: What inspired "UnderLove"? Answer 1: [I've always favored the theme of Lovecore and the holiday of Valentine's Day!]

Question 2: How is "UnderLove" different? Answer 2: [UnderLove started off as a simple theme overhaul, with the characters and locations falling into its theme. Yet I wanted it to be unique, so the story follows a different path from Undertale and other AUs]

Question 3: Can I create fanart for "UnderLove"? Answer 3: [Yes! Absolutely! I'd love to see artwork done of these characters! Just make sure to tag me or use the hashtag #UnderLovefanwork so I can see it!]

Question 4: Can I draw my OC depicted in "UnderLove"? Answer 4: [Of course! I'd love to see what their designs turn out to be and how they'd interact with the cast of characters.]

Question 5: Does "UnderLove" have a wiki page? Answer 5: [Yes it does! I created it a while back and I intend to keep it as updated as possible for UnderLove]

Ask Guidelines

Respect: Be kind and respectful in your questions. Any asks that reflect HATE or are disrespectful will be ignored. No NSFW Content: Please refrain from submitting any NSFW content or questions as this blog and AU are intended for all audiences to enjoy.

Topic: Try to keep asks relevant to the blog and UnderLove in general. Any asks that are off-topic may be passed over to my main blog @radicalrainbow

Repetition: Before submitting your ask, check if it has already been answered via the hashtag on the blog #AsksofLove

No Roleplay Asks: While I love the enthusiasm for the characters and its story, this blog is not set up for roleplaying.

Patience: I try to respond to asks as quickly as possible, but response times may vary depending on the volume of questions and the progress of the story. If your ask doesn’t receive an immediate response, please be patient!

UnderLove's story

The official story of "UnderLove" will be told as a written narrative across multiple chapters. Each chapter will feature illustrated titles, and the written story will be accompanied by drawings that bring key scenes to life. These illustrations will help you better visualize the scenes that are being told. Artist Collaboration While I will be the main artist creating these illustrations, I’m excited to announce that other artists can collaborate on this project! If you’re an artist and would like to contribute: Contact Me! Reach out via my Discord handle or send an ask to the blog (please note that anonymous asks won’t be considered). We can discuss how you can get involved and the specific scenes you might illustrate.

All contributing artists will be fully credited, and I’ll link back to your social media profiles so the community can see the amazing work you’ve contributed!

Written Story chapters

Chapter 1: The Journey Begins

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

There's alot more to come to Underlove, so stay determined and keep an eye on this blog for the upcoming story, official artwork, fanart, and updates! Your support and love fuels this story's creation!!

In this world it's Love or be Loved!

[devsgames]

"Is Tumblr Blaze Worth It For Promoting My Indie Game?" - a Postmortem

Lately I've been thinking about marketing and promotion of my games and wanting to explore new avenues. Tumblr Blaze was one of those things I wanted to dip my toes into a bit to understand how it works and if it has potential for advertising my sort of stuff. Like as not, there's no point in making games if nobody actually plays them after all!

Conversely I have also heard bad things about Tumblr Blaze; that it's not very targeted, the reach is fairly limited, and people on this site generally hate anything that is Blazed to them.

I wanted to test all these waters a bit to see if it's something worth investing in, and share what I found for my own benefit and the benefit of others. Finding various info on topics like this for indie dev can be a pain, so why not share my findings?

The Plan and Goal

While Centauri Dark is still in development and is the thing I actually want to advertise more of right now, Bombing!! 2 is already out and is much more marketable with some cool art made by community members. I think as a first impression it tends to show well, so I decided to make my test post with that to get exposure to it and see how it goes.

My goal was mostly to see what a Blaze post does for advertising a launched indie game and how much "eyes on" it actually gets in terms of actual engagement.

Posting

From the outset I knew I wanted to make a post that 1) wasn't annoying to people just looking at the webbed site 2) featured a call to action of some kind I could measure 3) wouldn't break the bank.

Here's what I came up with:

The intention was to flash some cool looking art to grab their attention, explain what they're looking at, and then link the game a couple of times while mentioning "Buy or Wishlist" for good measure as a call to action.

Since Bombing!! 2 is such an art-forward game, I found the coolest art pieces made by community members that felt the most "Tumblr" to match the audience, and would also show off the range of art you could make in the game. I also wanted to make it personal, like me writing a message to whoever would read it instead of something that sounded like a standard ad. Generally I think it was a fairly reasonable little post that catches some interest and doesn't overstay too much of a welcome. What I think also helps is it's explicitly a "hey this might interest you" sort of framing (as opposed to a more "why am I even seeing this" sort of post you tend to get from Blaze sometimes).

I also think it's worth emphasizing that writing a posted explicitly intending to be Blazed was a much stronger approach than just Blazing some random post I had made for my own followers months ago, because I could align it to my promotional goals. It also assumed that random people on the Internet would be the ones seeing my post, and not the followers and friends who already know me and my work.

Blazing

As I looked into Blaze early on there was actually a few key things I wasn't fully aware of about the system.

It guarantees a minimum amount of views

It guarantees it will be Blazed for a minimum of 24 hours no matter how many views

You pay a single base rate for the whole campaign (great compared to some ads which tend to price based on views/engagement).

You can define an audience explicitly (some info that was floating around lead me to believe this wasn't the case).

Campaigns come in a few amounts:

I paid for the 2nd tier; $17 USD for a campaign, which amounts to $25 CDN. I wanted to go a little more into it than the lowest tier offered, since I figured the lowest wouldn't give me as much data as I would've liked and I wanted to know what to reasonably expect should I decide to do it again in the future.

Since Bombing!! 2 sells for ~$20USD I also figure if the Blaze campaign prompts at least two people to buy the game then the Blaze would have paid for itself.

Blaze lets you use tags to define which audiences you want to reach. Unfortunately it doesn't let you view that data after you've applied it, but the tags I chose were generally anyone who spoke English and has an interest in Digital Artist or Video Game circles.

The campaign ran for 24 Hours, starting yesterday and ending today.

The Results

I definitely noticed a sharp uptick in engagement during the campaign! It hit the target audience of ~7k around one hour into the campaign, after which point I noticed engagement take a sharp decline.

Here's the Blaze campaign analytics provided by Tumblr (which was also very helpful to have):

So it seems ~12.5k views from Blaze, ~370 likes, ~80 reblogs, 5 shares elsewhere. The post itself has ~520 notes, so I assume there's some reblogging and liking happening from beyond the Blaze campaign that isn't pictured here. The good thing is that despite having reached its 7k target after only 1 hour, it continued to circulate and be Blazed until 24 hours later. Eventually the post made it to ~12k views overall, which was nearly double the amount promised by the campaign - I attribute this mostly to a strong post/target audience/subject matter and I'm sure it's not standard.

Here's the general velocity of engagement around when the post was Blazed:

It jumped much more than I honestly expected, but you can tell Blaze seemed to put it in front of people's faces more than my regular posts do. You can see it drops off sharply as I hit the quoted amount as well, back down to the normal amount of engagement I get on Tumblr.

But this stuff isn't really what I was looking for; I was looking for sales and keeping an eye on 'conversions' - or how many users followed my call to action because of the post. Likes and stuff are fine and cool, but how many people bought or wishlisted the game on Steam as a result of seeing the post on Tumblr?

Tumblr and Blaze obviously have no way of telling me this, so I'm looking to Steam to show me changes there.

Here's what Steam shows me happened to the Bombing!! 2 views yesterday:

That's not nothing! This shows the last month's worth of traffic to the Bombing!! 2 page, and that number was at least double yesterday as it was regularly. It's very cool to know a number of people did actually click through to the game page in order to view the game from the Blaze post.

But the real REAL question is how many bought or wishlisted the game because of this post?

I'll start with Sales, on a graph of 1 month of data:

Flat line :( Which is fine though, as the game wasn't on Sale and was just reaching people for the first time. I didn't honestly expect any immediate sales from this, and was more focused on other engagement anyways. Honestly I would be surprised if someone saw the game on a Blaze post and bought it immediately. I mean it's good but it's probably not THAT good!

Now to Wishlists, which can be a good indicator of who might likely buy your game in the future. Basically if someone has added a game to their wishlist, there's reason to believe they might buy it in the future, which is good for your game.

Here's the Wishlists for Bombing!! 2 from the last month:

That's 23 Wishlists in one day! That's roughly ~18 Wishlists more than an average day!

It's hard to know if some of these are because of the post or just a statistical fluke. However, when compared to previous trends on the game page that's quite a noticeable difference. It means even if no one bought it now, they were interested enough to add it to their shortlist. Looking at it another way, if two people who Wishlisted decided to buy the game in the future the campaign will have paid for itself.

Conclusions

I think like any advertising if you go into it with a plan in mind and try to build something around a specific action, Blaze seems pretty worth it to me especially if I just want to get eyes on something. On top of the obvious data telling me people were interested in the game, there was a few folks who just plain complemented the game or acknowledged it 'was the first Blaze post they were actually interested in', which felt worth it in it's own qualitative sort of way. It's also worth noting my game sells for $20USD, so the margins are large enough that making it back isn't too challenging.

I think having an idea of the message I wanted to send really helped, and I'm sure I'd happily do this again with a larger audience and another plan (and probably will do it for when Centauri Dark releases).

[n3on-graveston3s-calling]

Rating: E Characters: Portgas D. Ace, Fushichou Marco, Izou, Thatch, Reader Warnings: Temperature Play, BDSM undertones, Wax Play Series: Kanon's Kinktober '24 Do not interact with this post if you are under the age of 18; the following material is intended for mature audiences only.

Summary:

“You’re killin’ me,” Ace murmured, reaching out to smooth his fingers down your spine. You gasped at the trail of heat they left in their wake, your movements stilling. “Eh? Você gostou disso?” He questioned, his head tilting, watching as you quickly struggled to tug your pants off the rest of the way. Bingo. “I don’t know why you decided to do this new fancy trick with your hands-” “It’s not just my hands.”

Notes:

HAPPY FIRST WEEK OF KINKTOBER. Some fun notes: -I'll be posting one fic for the next 4 weeks for Kinktober; my work schedule doesn't give me the free time to do a fic for every single day, so I decided one a week, posted on every Wednesday, with a bonus one on Halloween itself. -Each fic will be tagged appropriately, I'll even include a rundown of what to expect here in the notes. -First up is Ace, with Temperature Play ( Devil Fruits Are Fun! ) + Wax Play, with a fem!Reader. There isn't anything too crazy in here, just Ace being a little possessive and absolutely drunk on the reader. Also, Ace does use Brazilian Portuguese in this fic. c: As always: PLEASE PRACTICE SAFE, SANE, CONSENSUAL SEX. THIS IS LOWKEY BDSM MATERIAL. You should always have a system in place to check in with your partner when partaking in more intense scenes, and multiple ways to communicate if you can't speak for some reason- as well as a hard stop Safe word. Neither are used in this fic, but it is discussed in the fic, just in case. PLEASE use candles that are created specifically for wax play ( low burning candles ) if you want to safely try out wax play. Also, always be careful when using fire to not burn yourself, your hair, or anything around you. There are candles you can buy for this. The wax doesn’t heat up to such a high degree. Also, don't be silly, wrap your willy. <3

It was a rare treat to find the Moby Dick and fleet docking at an island for longer than a few hours for a restock run. The latest storm that was churning up the oceans in their pathway had made it too dangerous to even consider taking the whole fleet through. Ace didn’t mind, really; it meant more time to spend with the holder of his attention, the object of his affection. His gaze followed you across the tavern as you laughed with Thatch and Izou. His jaw worked slowly as Izou reached over, tucking a strand of her hair back from your face. Izou wasn’t interested in you, he knew that; Izou had his eyes on someone across the ocean from them.

Still, some part of him- some deeper part that he almost loathed- burned with the urge to make it clear to everyone just who you belonged to.

You was his, and his alone.

“You look ready to burn a hole through the wall,” Marco chimed in as he plopped down beside Ace, his gaze tracking Ace’s own. Ah, the little deckhand. “Got rooms for everyone, yoi. Go.” He waved a hand, and that was all Ace needed to hear as he rose from his seat, leaving a few berry behind for the flagon of ale that he hadn’t even touched- which Marco was greedily reaching for, his own gaze shifting to follow a pair of long legs.

“Ah, speak of the devil!” Izou greeted Ace as he approached, a brow raising as he took in the expression on his face. “I think your free time is over, dear.” He hummed, looking over to Thatch, who snickered into his ale.

You sighed as she leaned back in her chair, gaze flickering up to meet Ace’s in faux innocence. You knew just what had gotten him so worked up- you. Your antics from that morning, getting him all riled up before leaving to go attend to your duties, leaving him high and dry. A shame, really; it had left you aching for more, with this odd sort of anticipation that lingered beneath your skin. “Marco got us all rooms.” You informed Ace, watching as his gaze narrowed slightly. He hadn’t even spoken, yet. Oh, you were in for it.

“Have you eaten?” He asked finally, his hand smoothing over the back of your neck. The touch sent shivers down your spine despite how warm his palm was.

“Mhm,” you answered, bobbing your head. “Guess it is getting late, huh?”

“Don’t break her too hard, Pops wants us out by daybreak.” Izou warned, watching as Ace’s eyes widened, as his cheeks colored. Ah, that cool facade broke far too easily.

“I-I’m not- shut up!” He hissed, ducking his head as his hand dropped from your neck, only to be grabbed by your own hand, fingers lacing as you rose from your seat.

You reached over, stealing one more roll before winking at Izou and Thatch. “See you two in the morning.” Ace sighed with silent relief behind you as you led the way out of the tavern and down the hall. You glanced down at the key Ace was carrying, catching sight of the ruby numbers: 13. The last room in the hall, how nice.

He reached past you, sliding the key into the latch, unlocking the door with a soft ‘click’. You pushed the door open, eager to both be alone with Ace, and to have an actual bed rather than a hammock. As soon as the door closed, his hands were gripping your hips, pulling you back against him. “I’ve wanted you literally all day,” he murmured, lips brushing against the shell of your ear. “Do you know how hard I’ve been?”

“If an erection lasts longer than four hours-”

“I’ll bite you.”

“Do it. I’ll like it.” The teasing was normal, easing both of you into more of a relaxed state as you turned in his grasp. Your arms reached up, winding around his shoulders as you bumped your nose against his own. “You showered,” you whispered, fingers toying with the soft curls at the base of his skull.

“‘S nice to be clean,” his hands squeezed your hips gently, thumbs sliding beneath the hem of your shirt. “I got a question for you, baby.”

His hands were still warm. Oddly so; it wasn’t abnormal for Ace to get heated- literally- when you two were together. But something felt different here. It made your heart begin to slowly speed up behind your ribcage, had you pulling your head back to meet those gorgeous brown eyes of his. “Talk to me, love.”

His cheeks were rosy, his gaze unable to meet your own as he looked to the side. Despite the bravado, he would get shy with you. You were his weakness. “You mentioned an idea the other night that’s been on my mind.”

Your brows furrowed. What had you… Oh! “The candles?” You asked, reaching up to carefully pluck his hat from his head. Your fingers returned to his hair, slowly working through the slightly damp tresses. “Did you wanna try it on me, Ace?” You asked, voice soft- low. Your nails gently brushed against his scalp, watching as his eyes fell shut, as a shudder worked its way through him. “I wouldn’t mind it. I think it could even be pleasurable.”

He groaned softly, his head dropping, chin resting on your shoulder as he simply held you close for a moment. “You’re gonna torment me, huh?” He mused with a soft chuckle, turning his head to press a kiss to your throat. His eyes were heavy; he was tired, but not from exhaustion. The damned narcolepsy… “Strip.” Ace whispered, his lips trailing up towards your jawline. “All the way down,” a kiss to the corner of your lips, “like a good girl.” He finished with a proper kiss to your lips, one of his hands raising to cup your jaw, tilting your head back to deepen the kiss.

You were weak for him, and Gods, he knew it.

You didn’t whine, didn’t pout as he pulled back, a cocky grin pulling at his lips as he sat down on the edge of the bed, eager to watch you disrobe. Cheekily, you turned away from him, your fingers grasping the hem of your shirt, slowly lifting it to reveal your back. Shirt tossed aside, you leaned down, unlacing your shoes slowly while Ace admired the view of your rear. Boots unlaced, you toed one off, then the other, followed by your socks. Slowly straightening back up, your arms raised high above your head, stretching. The movement allowed Ace the grace of seeing the subtle swell of your breasts- and the hint alone got a soft groan from him. “Merda,” he sighed, shaking his head. Your hands smoothed over your sides as you continued your little show, fingers hooking in the waistband of your pants. Slowly- as slowly as you could manage, you lowered your pants down your thighs, over your knees, down to your calves before bending over-

“You’re killin’ me,” Ace murmured, reaching out to smooth his fingers down your spine. You gasped at the trail of heat they left in their wake, your movements stilling. “Eh? Você gostou disso?” He questioned, his head tilting, watching as you quickly struggled to tug your pants off the rest of the way. Bingo.

“I don’t know why you decided to do this new fancy trick with your hands-”

“It’s not just my hands.”

Your eyes widened as you turned around, facing him with blown pupils. “... Fuck.” You whispered, taking in the gorgeous sight in front of you- much the way he was also admiring the view of your nearly nude form. While you’d been giving him a show, he’d stripped down completely. The tan line from his shorts was always comical, but you weren’t focused on that. No- sweet Poseidon, he was already half hard.

“Trying to,” he reached over, hooking his fingers under the side of your panties, tugging you closer by it. “Gotta enjoy this meal in front of me first before I do anything else, though.”

“Ace-” You gasped, cheeks flushing at his eagerness, a hand raising to cover your mouth as his lips pressed against the sensitive skin beneath your naval.

His lips worked down, teeth scraping against the sensitive, soft skin before hooking in the hem of your panties. Wordlessly, he sank to his knees, tugging the fabric down with him. You knew the rules, now- hold on, and don’t let go until he was done with drinking his fill. Your panties fell around your ankles, and he did help you step out of them- just so that he could have you raise one leg up, settling it over his shoulder. You had nothing to brace against except for Ace, but he liked it that way.

The first press of his lips against your folds was gentle, an almost loving kiss pressed to such an intimate, sensitive space. Your fingers wove through his hair with one hand, the other reaching down to grasp his shoulder as his tongue smoothed through your folds, parting them for the near burning touch of tongue to sensitive clit. “Ace!” You gasped in surprise, nearly jumping back before his arm looped around your other leg, holding you in place.

And here you were, thinking that the ice you’d used a few weeks back had been a shock to the system. Nothing could have prepared you for the feeling of his abnormally warmed tongue lapping at your pussy like a man starved. He moaned against you at your taste, fingers squeezing the back of your thigh in appreciation. His nose brushed against your clit from this angle, each movement of his head giving you sparks of pleasure. His tongue lapped at your weeping center, drinking what you offered him. Your head tilted back, hips slowly grinding against his tongue, his nose, his lips, taking the pleasure he was greedily offering you.

You could stay like this for hours, with his head between your thighs, desperately licking at your core, at your swollen clit, gasping and moaning his name- and you had, multiple times. But something told you Ace had other ideas- and you weren’t ready to cum, not yet. Not that your legs would hold you up if you did, anyway. “Ace,” you panted, jolting with each hot swipe of his tongue across your clit. You glanced down- and good Gods above and below, that was a mistake. His hair was a wavy mess from your fingers running through it, tangling it. He was looking up at you, gaze lidded and afire, his cheeks rosy and as he pulled back for a moment, his chin and mouth glistened. “Holy shit.” you couldn’t help but whisper as he grinned, pupils blown so wide, they swallowed the chocolate of his gaze. “Baby- not yet, please.”

It almost pained him to pull back- but he did, only after placing a teasing kiss to your clit. “Lay down on your back.” He murmured, gently lowering your leg from his shoulder. He watched you stumble, reached out to grab you around the waist and tug you closer. “Careful, meu bebê.” He chuckled, grinning as you regained your balance. “Can’t have you falling. Unless it’s in love-”

“Your dick is within squeezing distance, Portgas.”

“Point taken.” Still grinning that mischievous grin, he released you, watching as you fell onto the bed. His gaze raked across your form, drinking down his fill. Shaking his head with a soft whistle he turned to the room. “Let’s see if I can do this.”

“Do what?” You asked, watching him curiously as he wiggled his fingers. The fire is him, and he is the fire- that’s what he had told you when you first started getting to know one another. You knew a fair amount about Devil Fruits, the different variations between nature based ones, animal based ones, and the weird ones that don’t fall into either category. Ace had insane control over his, could create a wildfire with a flick of the wrist. And now- now, with a wave of his hands, the candles throughout the bedroom flickered to life, their wicks catching flame with such ease. You gasped in awe as the golden glow of the candles bathed the room, as Ace looked at you over his shoulder with that damned smug smirk.

“That.” He answered, settling down onto the bed beside you. “Now- let’s lay out a few ground rules, yeah?” He reached over, brushing his knuckles against the apple of your cheek. “What’s the safe word?”

You thought for a moment. Something easy to remember, but not something you would just casually bring up in conversation. “Peppermint.” You decided, nodding. “And the basic color system. Green for keep going, yellow for a break, red to stop.”

“And if you can’t talk for some reason?” Fingers warmed by unseen flames traced your collar bones, dipped down to brush over the swell of your breast.

A shaky breath drawn in, you answered, “One tap for okay, two taps for slow down, three to stop.”

“Good girl.” He leaned over, capturing your lips in an eager, heated kiss. His tongue ghosted against your bottom lip before he pulled away, teasing. “You ready?”

You were nearly shaking with excitement as you nodded. He leaned over, grabbing one of the pillar candles from the side table. Easing back up onto his knees, you are gifted with a near godly sight. Ace, kneeling above you, his cock hard and the tip weeping- but even further up, the way the light from the candle bathed him in gold. He looked like a God.

Sometimes, you wondered if he was a God in mortal skin.

You watched as the flame flickered, the candle tilting slowly over before wax dribbled out- and onto the skin of your hand. “Too hot?” He asked; a test, you realized. Smart. You shook your head ‘no’, and he hummed. “Good.” The next drops landed on the tops of your breasts, making you gasp loudly in surprise. The sensation was sharp, the feeling almost painful at first before the wax began to cool on your skin. You drew in a deep breath, nodding.

And so, the game began.

Slowly, Ace dribbled wax across both of your breasts, until you were a squirming, whining mess. “I bet you’re even wetter now, huh?” He mused, head tilting slightly as he let wax build up one more in the candle’s hollowed out center. A part of him considered helping speed the process along- but that could make the wax too hot, and he’d like to avoid causing you actual harm. The candle tilted, and he watched the wax dribble down the center of your sternum, down over your tummy. You hissed as it got close to your naval, but he skipped down- and for a brief moment, you both wondered what would happen if it dripped further south.

He very carefully did not spill any, there.

No, instead, he moved it to your thighs, letting the wax spill over and drip down the insides of your thighs as you hissed and squirmed, moaning with the sharp form of pleasure the wax was offering you. “Ace,” you whined, legs spreading wider as he painted your sensitive inner thighs with wax. “Ace, please.”

“Please, what?” He asked, reaching down to cup your core, his palm heated up, mimicking the warmth that the wax offered. You shuddered at the feeling; your words failing you as his fingers parted you, brushing against your nub in slow, deliberate circles. “Words, Amoreco.” A soft tap- it couldn’t even be considered a slap, not with how gentle it was- was delivered to your core, making you jolt from the feeling.

You met his gaze, your own hazy. “Fuck me,” you whispered- and that was all it took for Portgas D. Ace to break. He leaned over, setting the candle on the floor away from the bed before sitting back up. You hummed, arms open as he slid into your embrace, his fingers seeking out the foil packet he’d placed on the bedside table preemptively. Just in case.

You never know.

A hiss escaped him as you rolled the condom onto his weeping cock, your touch like heaven for him in that moment. “Lube?” He whispered against the column of your throat. You huffed, reaching over for the small bottle as his fingers toyed with your entrance, teasingly dipping in before pulling out, feeling how wet you had become due to the toying. “Fuck, you’re dripping,” his words held no small amount of awe as you reached between the two of you, dribbling the lube onto his cock. He let out a noise not quite a hiss, not quite a yelp at the temperature difference that sent you into a giggle fit.

“Oops,” you snickered, feeling him pout against your throat. Your amusement was short lived as Ace lined himself up, the fat head of his cock slowly pushing in. The stretch was something you never got used to, your breath escaping with a soft, “Oh, yes,” as he sank in inch by glorious inch. Once he’d bottomed out, you both lay there for a moment, enjoying the feeling of being filled and filling you.

Until you could feel Ace physically growing warmer- all over. He grinned in a rather feral way against your throat as his hips pulled back, only to slowly roll back into you, making you feel every inch that sank in. A wordless moan pulled free from your lips as he kept the torturously slow pace, his heat sinking into your skin- inside and out. “You feel so good,” he whispered, biting down on your shoulder gently. He was holding back.

Well, that wouldn’t do.

Your hands shifted from their position at his shoulders to smooth down his back- before you adjusted your hold, your nails raking down his back, leaving red lines in their wake. “Ace,” you purred, rolling your hips to meet his stuttering ones, “Puedes follarme mejor que eso.” The resulting groan and shudder was your answer. Ace liked being close when you two were together, but this required him pushing up, sitting up on his knees to gaze down at you. You moaned at the subtle change within, the head rubbing against that one damned spot that promised to make you see stars.

“Brat,” he muttered, his hands settling on your hips- holding you down as he pulled out. The next thrust in felt like a punch, your breath leaving you in a half-yell as he set a punishing pace. His hands felt like brands on your hips, and you almost hoped that they would leave a mark in his wake. You couldn’t speak, not with how he was moving, your mind stalling. “Takin’ me so fuckin’ well, look at that.” He groaned, reaching between the two of you to press his fingers against your clit, rubbing it in time with his thrusts. “Who’s this pussy belong to?”

“You!”

“Say it again, couldn’t hear you.” He leaned down, tongue laving over one of your nipples, leaving an almost burning trail in it’s wake. “Who’s fuckin’ pussy is this?”

“Ace!” You sobbed, feeling your impending orgasm rapidly build- faster than you’d ever experienced. “My pussy is yours!”

Ace groaned, his lips circling a nipple as you wailed, the waves of your orgasm crashing over you. He grinned around your nipple as you shook, your walls clenching around him rhythmically. He didn’t slow his pace, groaning against your bust as he began to chase his own release. “Baby-” he moaned, brows pitching as he felt his balls drawing up, as that thread threatened to snap. Your hands grasped his face, tugged him up to capture him in a kiss- and oh, how he snapped. His hips stilled, buried to the hilt within you, as he moaned into the kiss.

Music to your ears.

His forehead pressed to your as you both panted, catching your breath. “That… Was amazing,” he laughed breathlessly, pecking your lips, the tip of your nose, your cheeks. You hummed in agreement, bone weary after everything. Ace slowly- carefully- pulled out of you, quickly discarding the used condom to the trash. He was tired, too- but before he could sleep, he needed to tend to you. He stepped into the bathroom for a moment, wetting down a wash rag with warmed water. He kept the rag warm in his hands as he returned, settling down beside you. “How are you feeling?” He asked softly, reaching over to cup your cheek, directing your gaze to meet his.

“Good,” you replied softly, blinking lazily. “Tired.”

He nodded in agreement, chuckling. Slowly, he cleaned off the wax bits from you, using his palms to heat them up to clean them off easier rather than simply peeling them off bit by bit. Red whelps lay in their wake, each one soothed by the gentle caress of the rag. By the end of it, you were clean and warm and freckled with the evidence of your coupling.

You brushed your fingers over one of the groups of whelps on your stomach as Ace joined you back in bed, curling against your side. “I like it,” you murmured as his head tucked into the crook of your neck, his arms winding around your middle. “The cleanup is more tedious than ice is, but I like it.” Turning your head, you pressed a kiss to his forehead. He was already half asleep, legs tangling with your legs.

“‘M glad,” Ace mumbled, his breathing beginning to deepen. It was a miracle he hadn’t fallen asleep before now. You smiled, enjoying the warmth he offered you as sleep took him away. Love wasn’t something either of you mentioned; the topic was a difficult one for him to speak about. But it showed in other ways- like him taking the time to clean you up meticulously, how he wrapped himself around you when he slept. How his fingers still sought out one of your hands, even when holding you now. No, love wasn’t something you said out loud-

But with Ace, actions would always speak louder than words.

[librababe99]

hi!! can i request enemies to lovers w sexual tension with young charles xavier?? <33

Hi Anon!! I had about three different ideas on how to take this request and I think I found the one that will work the best🤭I hope you enjoy!

A Heated Debate

Tags: MDNI, 18+ ONLY, Young! Charles Xavier, Female Reader, Enemies to lovers, sexual tensions

Summary:  In the high-stakes world of mutant politics, You and Charles are bitter rivals. You’re, a fierce advocate for an aggressive approach to mutant rights, constantly clashes with Charles’ pacifist ideals during public debates. Their verbal sparring is intense, charged with both political conflict and unspoken desire. 

Word count: 1.5K

| Masterlist |

The room buzzed with the aftermath of the debate, the murmurs of the audience still echoing as people began to file out of the grand hall. You stood on the stage, arms crossed, seething beneath the carefully crafted mask you wore for the public. Another debate with Charles, another frustrating round of endless philosophical differences that seemed to lead nowhere but further entrenchment in your views.

Your fingers curled tightly around the notes in your hand, the paper crumpling slightly as you glanced toward him. Charles Xavier. Brilliant, articulate, annoyingly calm in the face of your fiery arguments. His peaceful rhetoric grated on you, especially in times like these when the world seemed to be falling apart for mutants.

"Mutual understanding," "humanity will come to accept us in time," "we must be patient." How could he still believe that? With anti-mutant violence rising, governments around the world pushing for mutant registration, and so many of your people living in fear—how could he remain so naively idealistic? Worse, how could he make it sound so convincing?

You had to admit it—he was good. Too good.

The crowd had loved him tonight, responding to his polished arguments with the kind of enthusiasm that made your stomach turn. And yet, beneath your frustration, there was something else. Something that made your pulse quicken every time you locked eyes with him during these debates. Something you despised acknowledging.

You heard the quiet click of his shoes as he approached from the other side of the stage, his posture as effortless as his argument had been.

“You handled yourself well tonight,” Charles said, his voice that smooth, infuriating calm you had come to know all too well.

Your eyes snapped to him, a fire igniting behind them. “I don’t need your compliments, Charles. I’m not here to be handled.”

His lips quirked slightly, that maddening half-smile playing at the corners of his mouth as if he enjoyed needling you. As if your frustration was amusing to him. “That’s not what I meant,” he replied, tilting his head ever so slightly, his blue eyes fixed on yours with an intensity that felt as though he were trying to read deeper into you than you were willing to show.

“You always mean something,” you shot back, stepping down from the stage, heels clicking sharply against the polished floor. “Some noble little phrase to make everyone believe that you’re the reasonable one, and I’m just the reckless, angry woman.”

Charles sighed, running a hand through his hair as he followed you offstage. “That’s not how I see you.”

“Well, it’s how you come across,” you said, pivoting to face him when you reached backstage, your voice lowering, but the fire was still there, crackling between the two of you. “You don’t listen, Charles. You talk about peace and patience as if you’re the only one with a real solution, as if my stance—our need to fight for our rights—is just noise.”

“You think I don’t understand the urgency?” he asked, his own frustration starting to show through his calm exterior. “I know what’s happening out there. I see the pain. I feel it every day, but���”

“But nothing! You’re not fighting hard enough!” Your words came out sharper than you intended, but you were too angry to care. The pent-up frustration you’d carried for months, perhaps years, finally spilling over. “Every day, mutants are targeted. We can’t sit around and wait for humanity to wake up and suddenly decide we’re equals.”

Charles closed the distance between you, his eyes narrowing slightly as he leaned closer. “And you think war is the answer? That more violence will somehow win us the respect we deserve?”

“Sometimes, force is the only language they understand,” you shot back, meeting his gaze unflinchingly. You could feel the heat between you, both figuratively and literally, the air between you charged with something far more intense than simple disagreement. “You’re too soft, Charles. Too idealistic.”

“And you’re too angry,” he countered, his voice low, the calm veneer slipping away to reveal the passion underneath. “You’re letting your emotions dictate everything, and that will only lead to more destruction.”

“You don’t get to tell me how to feel,” you snapped, stepping forward until you were inches away from him, close enough to feel the warmth radiating from his body. The proximity sent a shiver down your spine, though you refused to let it show. You couldn’t show weakness. Not to him.

“I’m not telling you how to feel,” Charles said, his voice dropping even lower, almost a whisper. “I’m asking you to see that there’s more at stake here than your anger.”

You stared up at him, your breathing shallow, chest rising and falling rapidly as the tension between you became almost unbearable. You could feel it now, the pull that had been lurking beneath the surface of every debate, every heated argument. The attraction that neither of you had dared to acknowledge.

And at this moment, the debate wasn’t just about politics anymore. It wasn’t about mutant rights or the philosophical differences that had driven a wedge between you and Charles for so long.

It was about the two of you. The crackling, undeniable heat that had been building with every word spoken, every glance exchanged.

“Why do you care so much about what I think?” you asked, your voice quiet but intense, eyes locking onto his. “Why does it matter so much to you?”

For a moment, Charles didn’t respond. His jaw clenched, his eyes searching yours as though he was weighing whether to say what he really wanted to say. The moment stretched on, thick with unspoken desire and frustration, until finally, he answered, his voice so low it sent a shiver through you.

“Because you matter to me. More than you know.”

His words hung in the air between you, and for a second, you weren’t sure if you had heard him right. But the look in his eyes—the way they darkened with something far more primal than political disagreement—told you everything you needed to know.

Before you could think, before you could stop yourself, you closed the final inch of space between you, your body pressing against his as your lips crashed into his.

The kiss was fierce, driven by months of unresolved tension and anger. His hands gripped your waist, pulling you closer, and you responded in kind, fisting your hands in his shirt as if to anchor yourself to the intensity of the moment.

You shouldn’t be doing this. Everything about this was wrong. But you couldn’t stop. The fire that had fueled your arguments had turned into something much more dangerous—something neither of you could control.

His mouth moved against yours with a desperation that matched your own, his fingers digging into your hips as though he couldn’t bear to let you go. You could feel the heat of his breath, the way his chest heaved as the kiss deepened, as if all the arguments, all the frustrations of the past, had boiled down to this singular moment of passion.

But then, just as suddenly as it had started, you pulled away, breathless, your heart pounding in your chest.

“What are we doing?” you whispered, your voice barely audible in the quiet backstage room.

Charles’ forehead rested against yours, his breathing just as ragged as yours. He didn’t answer for a moment, his fingers still gripping your waist as though he wasn’t ready to let go.

“I don’t know,” he finally admitted, his voice low, filled with the same uncertainty you felt. “But I can’t pretend this isn’t happening.”

You swallowed, your mind racing as you tried to process the fact that you had just kissed Charles Xavier—your rival, your ideological opposite, the man who represented everything you were fighting against.

But he wasn’t just that. Not anymore. Not after this.

“I can’t…” you began, but the words faltered as you felt his thumb brush lightly against your side, the smallest of touches that sent electricity through you all over again.

“I know,” Charles murmured, his lips hovering just over yours. “But we don’t have to figure this out right now.”

You stood there for a moment longer, your breaths mingling as you struggled to regain your composure. The weight of everything that had just happened hung between you, but for the first time, it wasn’t oppressive.

It was electric.

Finally, you stepped back, creating a small but necessary distance between the two of you. You had crossed a line tonight, and while you weren’t sure what it meant, you knew that things would never be the same.

Neither of you spoke as you gathered your things, the silence thick with the knowledge of what had just passed between you. As you turned to leave, you cast one last glance at Charles, who was watching you with an expression you couldn’t quite read—part desire, part regret.

“Until next time, Charles,” you said, your voice steadier than you felt.

He gave you a small, knowing smile, his eyes still dark with the remnants of the fire that had burned between you.

“Until next time.” 

You walked out of the room, your heart still racing, your mind spinning with the weight of what had just happened. The debate wasn’t over. Far from it. But the battle between you and Charles had just changed—forever.

[falling-star-cygnus]

somebody reblogged my appleradio post and tagged it as "not a ship" ...

anyway, budding qpr Lucifer and Alastor because i love them :D Duckie Deer pt.1 {pt.2}

{Lucifer is hunched over his new desk in Charlie's hotel, his grin bordering on maniacal as he puts the finishing touches on his newest rubber duck. In a flourish, he holds the little thing high- or as high as he can feasibly reach anyway- in the air}

"Now presenting..."

{The King of Hell pauses for dramatic effect, despite not actually having any audience except the judgmental stares of his scattered ducks}

"The Wendigo Peace-Offering Red Radio Rubber Duck! ...That switches hands!"

{Lucifer grins a bit more genuinely as the little thing teleports from one hand to the other, twisting into the shadows between his fingers and out to his palm. The more tolerable version of it's intended recipient, he thinks}

{For the sake of Charlie, he had begrudgingly decided to try and befriend the agitating Radio Demon. After all, if they were going to be sharing the space here for the foreseeable future it only made sense for them to get along, right? Or at the very least, try to tolerate each other}

{And what better way to do that then with a rubber duck?}

"Heh heh heh..."

{The king chucks the duck at the door}

"Who am I kidding, nobody wants a rubber duck look-a-like. That's weird, it's a weird gift!"

{As Lucifer rants, he fails to notice the rubber contraption nailing the object of his ire in the forehead. It bounces with a squeak into red tipped hands}

"I'd argue talking to yourself is weirder, your highness."

{That familiar mocking drawl and static covering, the sarcasm on his title, it causes the king to whirl around. Alastor is indeed standing in front of his door, pinching the horn of the duck between his claws with a raised eyebrow}

"Alastor! Just the annoy- uh- just the demon I wanted to see. At this exact moment. ...How much of that did you hear?"

{Smooth. Totally nailed that.}

{One of the hair tufts upon Alastor's head twitches in his direction, confirming Lucifer's suspicion that they were, in fact, ears. It's embarrassing how much effort it takes to stifle the coo that wants to erupt from him at the subconscious movement}

{He has a feeling the Radio Demon wouldn't take kindly to it}

"Hm... Is there any particular reason for this... look-a-like, as you called it? I can't imagine anyone in either of circles would appreciate a duck of my visage."

{Oh good. So just the last part, then. He could still salvage this}

"It's for you!"

{…Damnit.}

{Lucifer sounded too eager. Waaay too eager, actually, if Alastor's steadily raising eyebrow was anything to go by. The king clears his throat}

"Ahem. Uh- it's for you, actually. A peace offering! Since we're going to be around each a lot more often, I figured- well, we might as well try to get along- right? For Charlie's sake. Not- not because you're tolerable. Or because I like you. Heh. No."

{The deer demon blinks slowly, raising the rubber duck up to his eye by it's horn. His perpetual smile- seriously, is that thing stitched on or something? -looks painfully strained.}

"Is that so?"

{His voice is less staticky then usual, which encourages the King to keep going. Lucifer nearly lunges forward, grabbing Alastor's hands and adjusting the duck to rest in one of the Radio Demon's palms}

{He feels a little bad for the flinch and hitch if static that comes with it, but he ignores it for Alastor's sake. He'd like a comment about that even less then a comment about his adorable ears}

"What are you do-" "It switches hands!"

{Alastor quiets at that, his glare softening just slightly around the edges with a blink. Again, Lucifer takes the small allowance and runs with it. He uses his thumbs to push against the joint of Alastor's fingers, furthering flattening his palms; an awkward laugh spills from him}

"Hah- Give it a try! Just- think about it switching and-"

{The duck slinks into Alastor's other palm before the king can finish his sentence. It goes back and forth a few times, filling the deer's eyes with a sense of unguarded wonder that has Lucifer's breath hitching}

{It's gone as soon as Alastor remembers his company}

{The Radio Demon pulls his hands away from Lucifer's, keeping the duck tucked securely in his hand. The king tries not to mourn the loss, both of his surprisingly warm fingers and of the glimpse into his head Lucifer was so graciously privy to today}

{Baby steps, he reminds himself. Something dangerously hopeful stirs in his chest}

"I see..."

{Alastor looks, on some level, like he's lost his footing. He came in here expecting to trade insults like usual, no doubt, especially after getting bonked with a rubber duck of all things upon entering}

{And instead he's left cradling a gift made in his image}

"Well! It'd certainly be rude to refuse such a thoughtful gift from his majesty. Even if it's a silly one."

{It's a feeble attempt at regaining control at best, they both know it. Lucifer sticks his hand out with a flat expression.}

"If you don't like it, give it back."

{Alastor's smile tightens, just like his grip on his rubber duck}

"Now, now, I just said it'd be rude to refuse. Surely your manner aren't lowering themselves to your height?"

{And just like that, normalcy is restored as Lucifer sputters at the jab. The king stomps forward, maybe childishly but no one who matters is around to judge him-}

"What did you even come up here for? If I recall, your 'radio tower' is on the other side of the other side of the-"

{The deer demon had stepped on a wild rubber duck in his subtle attempt to keep distance between them and with a burst of static, Alastor had begun to fall backwards}

{Lucifer acts on instinct and summons his cane,- he's pushed his luck with touch already today- bracing it behind the wendigo's back.}

{It leaves the two in an... awkward situation to say the least. Alastor's long legs pulled out from under him and his lanky torso held up purely by the thin rod of his staff.}

{It leaves Lucifer looking down for once to make eye contact}

"...who's the short one now?"

{Alastor melts into shadows, still holding the rubber duckie look-a-like in one hand as he reappears behind the king. He can feel the radio demon's hand on his collar preventing him from falling flat on his face.}

"Still you, my friend."

{...friend. Lucifer could get used to that.}

[pastshadows]

Shadows of the Past

Chapter 11: Fate's Folly

Summary: After a year of blissful cohabitation, Astarion disappears without a trace, leaving behind a heartfelt letter explaining his departure. Determined to find him, you traverse Faerûn in search of your lost love, only to realize that some absences are meant to be permanent.

Returning to Waterdeep, you find solace in the company of Gale as you come to terms with Astarion's absence. But just as you begin to heal, Astarion reappears, begging for a second chance at love.

The question looms: can you forgive his abandonment and trust him once more? As you grapple with your emotions and trauma, a sinister force lurks in the shadows, targeting you for unknown reasons.

With danger closing in, you must navigate the treacherous waters of trust, love, and betrayal to uncover the truth behind the mysterious entity's motives. Will you be able to reunite with Astarion while facing the demons of your past? Can you unravel the secrets that threaten your very existence?

Setting: Post End-Game. Mostly canon compliant.

Word Count: 6.4K

Content: Explicit 18+ - intended for mature audiences.

Warnings: [Additional tags will be added, but expect mature content / read at your own risk.]

Spoilers. Mentions of in-game missable content. Violence. Sexual Assault [Implied/attempted sexual assault: Chapter 7]. Past Trauma. Murder. Death. Longing. Sexual themes. Smut. Blood drinking. Angst. Innuendos. High use of sarcasm. Completely fabricated camp interactions. Panic attacks. Anxiety.

Winter has gripped Faerûn in a deadlock. The trees have long since shed their leaves, and the bare limbs reach for the sky like bony fingers trying to scratch the heavens. The winter sun is dipping below the horizon, leaving the land stark and frigid. The wind whistles over the plains and whips your hair, churning it wildly around your face. You can’t even pick your feet up anymore, so your boots scuff across the hard earth.

How long have you been walking this road without stopping to eat or sleep? Your feet ache, your eyelids feel like lead weights, and your mind urges you to make camp for the night to allow yourself to slip into your trance, but you dare not. You don’t want to be assaulted by your nightmares any longer as they feed off sorrow and torment you. They pain you more than this exhaustion ever could.

Your fingers are frozen and numb. Lifting your hand, you try to summon fire, but you’re so tired even the Weave has abandoned you until you rest. With a defeated sigh, you pull your hood up and wrap your arms around yourself, shivering so hard your muscles cramp painfully, and your jaw chatters, clicking your teeth together.

If I can keep walking, at least I am advancing toward him.

… Hopefully.

As you continue your sluggish walk, your eyes begin to drift closed of their own volition. You’ve pushed your body too far, and it’s succumbing to exhaustion. You trip, sending yourself sprawling, and pebbles, twigs and gravel bite into your palms and knees. With no energy left in your reserves to push yourself up, you can do nothing but slump over on the cold earth and curl up.

If you do not trance, it will force itself upon you, and you quickly fade into a half-conscious state. You can feel the ground sap your body heat and infuse you with a raw, frigid sting that balls up your muscles and lances your skin as it permeates your robe. Your head hits and cracks the thin layer of ice atop a muddy puddle, splashing and submerging your hair in the slush. The murky liquid is piercing on your forehead and scalp, but you don’t have the energy to move. Unable to keep your eyes open, you drift and see Astarion in your mind’s eye.

Astarion relaxed at home, reading to you, cuddled up in bed while you giggle at his theatrical character voices. He only does these for you. He would never do such a thing in front of anyone else.

Astarion and you drinking his favourite wine by the fire all day, laughing, and dancing.

Astarion and you jump into a cold lake in the dead of night because he challenged you to see who would get out first. He won, of course.

Astarion walks through the rabble of taverns, playing your little game with a mischievous glimmer in his beautiful eyes, and he winks at you when he catches your glance.

Astarion and you making love. Your ears twitch, and you can almost hear his voice panting, “I love you, Kamena, my only one.”

Astarion humming a soothing tune because you were having trouble sleeping while you lay on his chest.

A wolf howls somewhere in the distance. When your eyes finally allow you to open them, your eyelashes are burdened with frozen teardrops, an icy stage for your woe. Your hair is an icicle of mud rooted to the ground. The first snowflakes drift from the sky, kissing your cheeks. You don’t have any strength left to rise, so you lay there as the snow starts to form a blanket akin to a death shroud on your body. You can’t even weep. You lay and wonder if this is it. Is this the end of your story? A powerful, fierce sorceress, torn asunder, doomed and destroyed by true love?

Why did you leave me, Astarion? What did I do?

You wake with a start, lunging upright and taking deep breaths. Your bones still ache from the cold, the remnant of your dream still evoking shivers. You flex your fingers, forcing them to release the bed linen balled in your fists. Nightmares still plague your meditation, but at least this one didn’t wake you up screaming. You glance at Astarion’s side of the bed, letting your hand slip over the silk sheets. He must still be out hunting. Every time he leaves, you worry that this time is the time he does not return.

Will I ever be able to trust him again?

Winter is starting to settle over the land, and the nights have become far too cold for your liking. There is no way you’ll be able to fall back into your trance. Flicking your wrist, a fire roars to life out of thin air, and you push it to burn unnaturally hot. Slipping Astarion’s shirt on, you sit on the floor before the fire and hold your fingers close to the flame, hoping the heat might blow away the remains of the dream gripping you. It doesn’t work. Your fingers still tremble with that panging soreness that will not relent.

Intense shivers run up and down your spine, making your body tremble with the same verve it did on that rigid, icebound earth. A cutting, frigid cold settles over your body as if you’ve been plunged into a crevice and fallen to the very depths of Cania. The flames of the fire start to turn a frightening blueish-white. Yet, no matter how hot you push it to burn, you cannot get the gnawing ache to abate.

You don’t hear Astarion enter, and you jump when he sits in the plush chair behind you, with you between his legs. He drapes a blanket over your shoulders, rubbing your arms, “You are up late or early, depending on how you view it. Nightmares again?”

“Yes,” you sigh as you pull the blanket around you. Your teeth continue to chatter despite the sweat sheening your skin.

Astarion kisses the top of your head, “I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

What does he expect you to say? The year you spent without him by your side still haunts your dreams and thoughts. Lately, it has been all-consuming, and it’s absorbing your happiness. You can feel yourself slipping, and no matter how hard you try, the slipping never seems to stop. Anything you say will hurt him, and he’s had enough pain in his life. He does not need to bear your misery.

“We used to talk about everything and anything. I told you all about my…,” Astarion’s jaw clenches. He’s uncomfortable talking about that night he cried in your arms for hours, but he pushes himself to continue, “My feelings and fears. It’s not easy for me either, you know. I am unaccustomed to sharing my weaknesses. Hells, I’m not even used to feeling it. I spent so many years feeling only hatred, disgust and loathing, and then you came along and ruined it all,” he smirks, trying to lighten the gloomy mood.

“We used to before you left me,” you whisper. There’s a hint of irritation in your voice. Being pushed to share your pathetic moments and weakness grates at you, but then again, maybe you need someone to drag it out of you. You’ve been keeping this woe bottled inside you for so fucking long, “I’m not sure what you want me to say, Astarion. Whatever I tell you will be painful to hear, and I don’t want to do that to you because it’s not your fault.”

Astarion bursts out of his chair. He shouts with an inflection rough as gravel, “It is my fault! Stop making excuses for me because there is no excuse for what I did. I am not a fool, and I am not fragile. What did you ask of me? The truth even when it hurts? Do I not deserve the same courtesy?”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” you whimper, hand covering your mouth and blinking away tears.

“I deserve the hurt, and I can handle it. Let me bear it with you.”

“No,” you shake your head, eyes fixed on him, “You don’t deserve it.”

Astarion wracks his fingers through his hair and over the frustration that darkens the planes of his face, making him look severe, “Stop being so bloody pig-headed!”

You’re swayed in a sudden grip of outrage. It festers in your veins, heating your skin and palms. The fire leaps wildly as if pure alcohol were poured onto it as you jump to your feet. You can’t help yourself, and you pace as you scream at him, “What do you want me to say, Astarion?! You want me to tell you that I walked for days at a time. All day and all night! I never stopped to eat or rest because if I did, I didn’t know if I would have the strength to get back up!”

Good Gods. You’re so fucking livid that flames are starting to writhe over your skin like snakes in a pit. That draconic fire is hard to control when your emotions are high. All the feelings you’ve been tampering start to spew out of your mouth spitefully, and you can’t stop the avalanche.

“You want the fucking truth?” You roar, unable to stop the emotion seeping from your pores, “I walked until my feet and legs were numb from pain. I walked until I was so exhausted that my eyes closed without consent, the Weave, even fire abandoned me, and my pathetic body forced me to stop. Do you know what happened when I stopped? Exactly what I feared would. I had to relive memories of when I was happy, memories of us, as the cold earth sapped the rest of my strength. When I came to, I did not have the strength to continue, so I lay there while snow blanketed me and considered letting death have me because I was so godsdamned miserable without you!”

Tears stream down your face, dripping from your chin. When you look at Astarion, his cheeks are as wet as yours, scarlet eyes ashine behind sorrow. This is what you did not want to do. You don’t want to hurt him. Astarion told you he left you because he was afraid, and at the time, it felt like the best option available. That need to run, ignore, and flee your problems is an old friend now, and you can’t blame him. It’s what you did for a year and are continuing to do.

Instead of facing the fact that he was gone and he did not want to be found, you kept pushing your body to its limits and putting yourself into stupid situations because you could not accept the fact that maybe he did not want you any longer. Your heart is hammering as you choke and suffocate on all the memories you’ve been repressing. Days and nights of walking or running as far as your feet could take you until you were senseless. Battles with brigands, ne’er-do-wells, and all manner of beasts. The boiling heat of summer and the glacial cold of winter. Staring at the moon while you wept because your soul could practically feel the distance between you enlarging.

The fact he’s made you upset him stokes those embers of anger further. You rasp low, wiping your eyes, “There. Now you know how pathetic I am. I am not a fearless leader or a fucking hero. I am just a broken, foolishly weak woman who could not even take care of herself and could not accept that you left me. Is that what you want to hear? Are you happy now that my fragility and broken pieces are displayed for you to gawk at and judge? Go ahead, Astarion. Tell me how objectively stupid I am.”

Astarion’s brows furrow as tears tiptoe from the corners of his eyes, gliding down his cheeks. Astarion’s voice is gruff, a woven lace between anger and anguish. “By the Gods. Why would you do that to yourself? For me, of all people?!”

Good Gods, is he truly so blind? 

“Because I love you! The way I fell for you was as effortless as breathing. When you left, the moon split, and the stars fell from the sky into the sea I was endlessly suffocating in. I watched my whole world crumble.” Splaying your hand on your chest, you try to halt the ever-increasing tightness constricting your lungs. You laugh sarcastically at yourself, “And it’s all my damn fault. You are not accountable for my happiness or lack thereof, or how I handled you leaving, or what I did after the fact. It’s all on me.”

It’s an epiphany of sorts. All that anger, fear, and hurt you’re holding onto, repressing, and running from is not his doing - it’s yours. You cannot blame Astarion for how you reacted to his leaving, regardless of how he handled it. You’ve been smothering yourself, and your anger is entirely misplaced. You are angry at yourself, and you have been for some time.

The silhouette standing in the road, blocking you from happiness, is yours.

You need air and space to think, and you dress quickly while Astarion begs you to stop and talk to him. Gods, you’re going to asphyxiate if you stay in this house. Your chest heaves in short, quick breaths that only make you dizzier. Your heart is thudding in your ears. Your muscles tremble with the urge to run, and you lunge toward the door.

Run.

Astarion steps in front of it quickly, “No,” His voice shakes, tears streaking down his cheeks as he blocks your path.

“Get out of my way, Astarion,” you snap at him sharply. “Get out of my way, or I will move you out of my way.”

Please don’t make me move you.

“Then move me,” he challenges with a scowl.

With a grimace, you cast Telekinesis and glide Astarion across the floor to the other end of the room gently. His eyes round, shocked. You’ve never cast against him in anger before. Guilt devours you, consuming whatever was left of your rationality.

Once again, panic takes the wheel, and you run.

I’m sorry, Astarion. I’m so sorry.

He watches the slow rise and fall of her chest and listens to the somnolent beating of her heart as she trances by the fire to keep warm. He only needs a taste, a nibble, to test how far this newfound freedom truly spans. He can walk in the sun, and so far, Cazador has not been able to control him, but is he still bound by the rules Cazador planted in his mind?

If he’s quiet enough, he should be able to… Her eyes snap open, and she jumps to her feet with a scowl.

“…Shit.” He puts his hands up and backs away slowly, watching her intently to see if she reaches for a weapon or if magic starts to dance on her fingers, “No, no - it’s not what it looks like, I swear!”

Shit. Shit. Shit. He’s got to recover from this. Quickly, or she might try and stake him, “I wasn’t going to hurt you. I just needed - well, blood.”

“How long since you killed someone? Days? Hours?”

“I’ve never killed anyone! Well… not for food,” He glances at the ground. How much should he reveal? It’s a fine line to tread. He needs to tell enough of the truth to earn trust but not enough to unveil his “little plan.”

She is not wholly soft-hearted and pure, but he’s spent two hundred years manipulating people. He can surely get her to spread her legs for him, to fall for him, and ensure his safety. The living are as much of a slave to their more animalistic desires as he is to bloodlust. It makes them simple prey.

“I feed on animals. Boars, deer… Kobolds. Whatever I can get. But it’s not enough. Not if I have to fight! I feel so... weak. If I just had a little blood, I could think clearer. Fight better.” He slips on his expert manipulative demeanour and intonation, ”Please.”

He feels an odd pinch in his mind as it half unfolds for her. Gods. She has access to his memories and thoughts. Will she intrude into his mind unapologetically and violate him as so many have in the past? More than likely. He sighs, resigns himself and awaits the transgression.

Her brow quirks up, and her defensive stance relaxes slightly as she shakes her head to rid herself of the unfamiliar sensation of the tadpole writhing behind her eye. Her voice is gentle, almost hurt, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She… she didn’t force herself upon him? She didn’t take the bait and play his mind like an instrument, plucking the strings of his memories?

“At best, I was sure you’d say no. More likely, you’d ram a stake through my ribs. No, I needed you to trust me. And you can trust me.”

She scrutinizes him in a way that makes him feel like he’s been stripped of his clothes and naked. “I do. I believe you.”

“Thank you.” he sighs, relieved. She trusts him? Objectively stupid, but he will take it. “Do you think you could trust me just a little further? I only need a taste, I swear.”

She nods, “Fine. But not a drop more than you need.”

His brows shoot up his forehead. Is she really just going to allow him to bite her? Stupid woman. “Really? I - of course. Not one drop more. Let’s make ourselves comfortable, shall we?”

“Wait!” She halts him, pushing him back by the shoulders.

He recoils, a little aggravated at her blockage. He was so, so deliciously close. “What is it, Sorceress? Don’t tell me you’ve chickened out already. I’ll be gentle, I swear. It will only hurt for a moment.”

“No, Rogue,” she frowns at him. She is cute when she’s angry. Her fingers hover by his lips, “Pain does not frighten me. Open your mouth.”

“Open my mouth?” He arches a brow at her, “Why?”

“I’ve noticed your fangs, but I’ve never paid them much thought,” she muses with a wily grin. “I would like to see what you’re about to plunge into my neck.”

He scoffs, “I am not an exhibition for your eyes to feast upon.”

“Do you want to eat or not?” She smirks, “I believe it’s a simple request.”

“You’re very strange,” he clicks his tongue but opens his mouth for her with a roll of his eyes. It is a small price to pay if this works.

She pricks her finger against his fang, “Ouch! Sharp!”

“No, shit.” He chuckles with a scoff, “Have you finished examining me now? Shall we continue?”

She scoffs back at him, “You’re very impatient. Very well. You may continue with your supper.”

She lolls her head to the side. His fangs break her supple flesh, and her blood flows freely into his mouth. Cazador’s rules do not bind him any longer. Gods, she tastes like clouds parted, heaven is stroking his tongue, and angel wings flutter through his veins. She leans into him with a sigh. Her body shakes, excited. Excited? An odd reaction, but alas, who is he to complain? He can feel her inside of him. Her essence fills him, and his nerves hum a sonnet he’s never heard or felt. He loses himself in her.

She pushes against him feebly as her body starts to grow cold, “Stop! It’s too much.”

Reluctantly, he removes his fangs, cleaning his lips, and licking his fingers. He will not waste a drop of that liquid bliss, “Ah! Of course. I was just swept up in the moment. But it worked. I feel good. Strong. Happy.”

He got carried away. He will have to watch himself more carefully if she ever allows him near her again.

She wavers on her feet, hand coming to her forehead and eyes glossy. She groans, and he expects her to chastise him. Instead, she steadies herself and chimes resolutely, “I’m looking forward to seeing you fight.”

That’s it? No beating? No flaying? No putrid rats? Not so much as a “bad vampire!” Just... looking forward to seeing him fight. What in the Hells?

He hides his surprise behind that practice veneer of confidence, “Shouldn’t take long. So many people need killing. Now if you’ll excuse me, you’re invigorating, but I need something more filling,” he lies. He’s full, happy, but inexplicably highly aroused.

Is this something that always happens with thinking creatures? Is it simply a natural response because she’s his first? He has nothing and no one to compare this experience to.

“This is a gift, you know.” She might be a gift from the Gods after they’ve ignored him for centuries. He is no longer bound by his puppet master or the rules rooted in his brain. He has broken his chains. He purrs, “I won’t forget it.”

She stops him, giggling lightheaded and ethereal, “The boar was you, wasn’t it?” 

She is clever, isn’t she? He chuckles, “Yes, my dear. I said a vampire killed it, did I not?”

She plops down on her bedroll, “You conveniently left out that you were that vampire. Very clever, Astarion,” she smirks. “I’ll watch you and the pretty words that leave your beautiful mouth more closely from now on. Happy hunting.”

She thinks his mouth is beautiful?  

The door slams hard enough to cause the tower to shake, and she’s gone. Kamena had always been the unshakable light of their group of misfits. She took everything in stride.

Gale’s orb might explode and kill them all? No problem, we will find magical items for him to consume.

Sharran Cleric? No sweat. Your beliefs are your own.

Warlock bound to his contract? Easy. We will find a way to break that.

Murderous Gith with a superiority complex that could rip out her spine? Tell me more about you and your people.

Tiefling spewing Hellfire from her body with an infernal engine for a heart? Welcome aboard. Now, let’s find a way to fix that heart of yours.

Vampire spawn who tries to bite her while she tranced one night? No matter. I trust you. While we are at it, let's make a pit stop and kill your master so you can be free. 

She never flinched when confronted that they might all burst into Mind Flayers any second. She always kept the group moving forward toward their goals while taking the time to sort out everyone’s problems. His stomach sinks. It’s nearly dawn, but he can catch her before the sun rises… probably. He sprints out of the room and down the stairs.

“Let her go, Astarion,” Gale grips his arm and shakes his head.

“Are you mad?” He pulls his arm away. “Don’t touch me.”

“You look lost,” Gale pats his shoulder. “Despite our differences, we do share one thing in common. Our love for her.” Astarion’s jaw tightens. “Purely platonic on my end, of course,” Gale assures with a genial smile. “If you need to speak to a trusted… friend. Well, I do hope you might consider me one such friend.”

“Are we,” he quirks his brow at the wizard and grimaces, “… friends?”

“Perhaps friends is a little superfluous,” Gale chuckles. “But I am here for you if you need a friendly ear or advice. I have navigated the waters she’s currently treading. It can be a dark path.”

“Ugh,” he scoffs, crossing his arms. The wizard always likes to beat around the bush. He prefers someone to speak their mind, “Just speak plainly.”

“Come, my friend,” Gale gestures toward the sitting room, “Let’s sit. I would offer you some tea, but… I know that doesn’t fit your particular dietary needs.”

Astarion groans, relinquishing his hold on the door handle. He looks longingly, willing it to open and for her to rush back into his arms. He sits on the sofa and lets his head fall into his hands. His fingers splayed into his hair.

“Do you want to be with her, Astarion?” Gale begins.

“What are you getting at, Gale?” He mutters annoyance weaved in the deep baritone of his voice that he can’t hide, “Get to the point.”

Gale’s voice loses the honeyed intonation, “Do you want to spend your life with her until hers ends, or will you run again when it gets hard? There is an imbalance in your relationship. You are immortal. She is not.”

“You know as well as I that there are ways to extend life - beyond my… condition,” Astarion drags his hand through his hair.

“There are, but nothing is assured,” Gale retorts, “If she cannot extend her life or find a cure for you, are you willing to stay with her when she gets old, and you remain forever young? It’s an eventually you must consider.”

Can he do it? Is he capable of spending the next 800 years with her only to have her age and die, leaving him alone again? Gods. A world void of her fire? Perish the thought.

Astarion cants a brow at him and scoffs, “If this is your attempt at a pep talk, you’re failing abysmally.”

“You have enough pep,” Gale chuckles, rubbing his hands together. “No, I am trying to have a real discussion with you, and you are making it exceedingly gruelling.”

“Yes,” he answers truthfully. Astarion swallows hard, trying to dissuade the ball in his throat to ease, “I want to be with her. More than anything.”

“Good,” Gale’s hand comes to his chin as he contemplates. “Then you must keep fighting for her. Every day, you must treasure her. When the days are cold, warm her. When the shadows disturb her rest, hold her tight. When she needs space, let her go. Show her you can handle the storm, and be prepared to weather it with her.”

“I am trying,” he sighs, leaning back in his chair. His brows furrow as he eyes Gale with palpable caution. Gale is still in love with her, and he knows. It makes him wary to have these conversations with him, “I have never done this - a real relationship. Love. It’s all new to me, and I have no idea how to navigate it.”

Gale’s bourbon brown eyes reflect the firelight as he examines Astarion with a probing case that makes him uncomfortable, though his expression remains nearly blank. Is there empathy in his eyes? Delight? Pain?

“You hurt her deeply, but I don’t need to tell you that,” Gale finally says and leans forward. “You, of all people, should know that pain leaves scars, whether visible on the skin or unseen on the heart. Remember, Astarion. When you’re speaking to her, you are touching her scars.”

Hells below. He had not thought of it like that before.

Gale smiles, “Now, that awkwardness is over. Tell me, Astarion. What do you know of the Wish spell?

Astarion balks at the quick change in subject, although he’s happy about it, “Wish? I know it’s a powerful spell, but not much else. Spells are not my expertise, Gale. You know this. I leave magic up to you and Kamena - much more so Kamena.”

“Kamena is a substantially powerful sorceress. We have not seen the like of her kind for some time,” Gale smirks with an amused chuckle. “She gave up sparing with me because I could not keep up. Can you believe that - an archmage unable to keep up with a sorceress? I often wonder if her ancestor is Tiamat herself.”

“I am well aware of how powerful she is,” Astarion snickers, “But you’re getting off-topic. What of this Wish spell?”

Gale’s eyes brighten, and he beams. “Kamena never stopped looking for it, you know. Even when you left, she continued and persuaded me to continue as well. I have a lead - an excellent lead.”

“Is Kamena capable of casting it?” Astarion mouth drops. “Could she actually use it?”

“She is more than powerful enough to cast it,” Gale nods, but his expression turns sullen. “Though spells of this power often have a cost and can be rather… finicky. It could be dangerous - for you and her. I have not found it yet, but I believe we are getting close. In theory, she could use it to cure you, but it might go awry. We cannot be sure of the consequences, though. We have not found any documentation on such.”

“Can it kill her?” Astarion asks bluntly. Spells of such power often have unforeseen consequences. You cannot evoke such power without cost. Sometimes, it is minimal. Other times, it is life itself. He’s read enough books to know this much.

“Possibly,” Gale concludes with a grim look. His jaw clenches, setting his lips in a thin line.

“Stop looking for it, Gale.” Astarion shakes his head. His heart sinks a little. This would be the closest thing he could get to a cure since he didn’t complete the Rite, but he cannot justify the payment, “Her possible death is not worth my possible life.”

“My friend, you will have to speak to her about that,” Gale chuckles with a sullen shrug. “She has already been appraised of my objections.”

“Ugh,” Astarion scoffs, tousling his hair, “Let me guess. She said, and I quote, “Your objections have been noted.”

Gale’s laugh booms through the halls, “Yes, precisely. She is stubborn, and that silver tongue of hers is dangerous. Sometimes, she persuades me to do things I was adamant I didn’t want to do! Are all Elves like that, or is she just special?”

“Gale,” Astarion smirks, “I think we have much to discuss. I do not indulge in tea, but do you have something harder?”

Gale’s fingers come to his chin, “Like wine?”

“No,” Astarion tuts, clicking his tongue with a scoff. “Much harder.”

Gale grins widely, “Oh, now you’re speaking my language, my sharp-toothed friend! Join me in my cellar, and pick what you like best!”

You close the bedroom door softly behind you and lean on it. Astarion is sitting before the fire in one of the chairs. He does not even twist to look at you, but he would have heard and smelt you coming even before you reached the manor. He sits with his head in his hand, propped up by his arm.

You take a deep breath and force the fire to take the shape of a dragon, fly out of the fireplace, around him and to you before you make it land on the log and continue burning in its natural state. Astarion does not flinch at your display. He barely seems to blink as the dragon gambles around him, driving and twirling. It’s a sure sign that he’s angry, which is precisely what you wanted to know.

You have been caught in a stormy ocean of despair. You’re being tossed like a ship on rough waves. Some days, the waves calm, and you feel like yourself again. On other days, the waves are agitated, and you toss, just trying to stay afloat, but sometimes you get dragged under the surface and start drowning again. It does not matter how hard you kick or fight to break the barrier. An anchor on your legs and arms that drags you down into the depths.

Perhaps it’s time to stop fighting the storm and weather it instead. Emotions are messy, and you are not well acquainted with these. You’ve never been in love before this. You spent most of your adult life alone, hunting down the wizard who purchased you and tortured you for your childhood in the name of “teaching you to master your talents.”

“I’m sorry, Astarion,” you murmur from the door, not daring to get closer to him. “I should not have cast on you. It was uncalled for.”

“You shuffled me across the floor,” he chuckles, twisting in his chair with an amused smile. “That hardly requires an apology. I am impressed with your control. However, I would prefer it if you don’t use magic when we argue. Otherwise, think nothing of it. I should not have pushed you. I was too harsh... I’m sorry.”

“I need to be pushed, I think,” you sigh, combing your fingers through your hair. “I keep trying to calm myself, but I just need to weather it as it comes. Sometimes... I get swept away, and there’s nothing I can do. I think... I need to stop trying to stop it and try to survive it instead.”

“Come,” Astarion taps his lap with an affectionate smile and empathy shining in his eyes. “Sit with me, and we can talk.”

Walking over, you discard your robe and are left in your underclothes. Astarion’s arms wrap around you as you ease down onto his lap, and he pulls you close to him. He kisses your temple, his cheek on your forehead.

Astarion takes your hand, interlocking your fingers with his and squeezing slightly. He asks blatantly, “Do you want to be with me, or is my presence here just hurting you further?”

“What?” You cup his cheek with your palm, and he nuzzles your hand. Astarion’s silken lips ghost over it, and he kisses it before resting on it, “I want to be with you more than anymore, but I need time. I told you. I am broken. I mentioned I was drowning when you left, but I am coming up for air now. I’m fighting to keep my head above the waves, but sometimes I fall below them…. I don’t want you to leave. Please, stay with me. You are all I need.“

He nods. Astarion’s scarlet eyes swallow you, and empathy and understanding wash over you. “You are not broken, sweetheart.” Astarion places a soft kiss on your lips. “You are healing, and sometimes healing is messy. I know that better than most.” Astarion pauses and nuzzles your cheek, “Stop running from me and start running to me, Kamena. I can be strong when you feel weak, just as you are for me. We do not walk these roads alone any longer. We walk them together, my Solicallor, my only one.”

Solicallor… His Elven nickname for you means “Warm light of the sun.”

What did I ever do to deserve someone so understanding? 

That’s it, that breaks you, tearing you apart and rending you inside out. Your breaths come in rapid heaves, and your heart feels like it might fly out of your throat onto the ground before you. You clutch at your chest, and you start to tremble. Your eyes swarm with tears. You slip your hands down the back of Astarion’s shirt, needing to feel the cool chill of his skin, but are careful not to touch his scars. He doesn’t appear to notice when your fingertips accidentally brush the raised edges.

Astarion purrs, crushing you against him, “Breath with me, my love. Deep breaths. In” he counts to 30, “and out,” he counts to 30.  You try to synchronize your breaths to his as best you can.

“You have not called me Solicallor in some time,” you shake while forcing a fireball to circle you as if you’re the gravity keeping it in place. You push all your hurt, fear and anger into that fireball, making it double in size and burn white-hot. “I can be your sun, Astarion. For now, at least.”

“Yes,” he chuckles, but there’s an edge to his voice that you didn’t expect. “Gale and I had an interesting chat today, but we shall discuss that later.”

“He told you of the Wish spell.” It’s not a question. You knew Gale was going to out you eventually. You’re going to have to scold him later for it. You were not going to tell Astarion until you had the damn spell in hand and were sure you could cast it.

“He did,” Astarion nods, rubbing your back and weaving his fingers into your hair. “But that’s a conversation for another time. Let’s focus on us for tonight.”

“I am going to have to chastise Gale,” you frown. You cannot help the anticipation dripping from your voice, “Us?”

“Don’t chastise him too hard, darling. He is rather insecure, but who wouldn’t be with me around?” he chuckles with an arrogant smirk. “Yes. Us. Whatever that may be right now. We can stay in this limbo of indecision as long as you need. But to me, we are still us. You are only mine, yes? Or do I have people I need to murder?”

“We are us.” You agree with a broad smile. Wrapping your arms around his neck, you pull yourself close, “And I am yours.”

“Only mine?” He sounds agog as if he cannot imagine you would be wholly his.

Does he still not believe he deserves me?  

“Only yours, Aerasumé,” you kiss his cheek, calling him the nickname you gave him in private derived from your language. It means “Silvermoon of the Evening.” You’re reluctant to say it, but it’s been on your mind since you met him, “I think I was born to be yours, thiramin.”

Astarion stiffens at your mention of “thiramin.” It is your Elven word for what is basically a soulmate. His clutch on you strengthens, and his fingers start running through your hair, but he doesn’t say anything, and his jaw is tight. Your heart sinks into your stomach. Have you gone too far? Have you frightened him? Will he run?

“You don’t have to say it back, Astarion,” you encourage in a honeyed intonation, running your fingers comfortingly up and down his neck. “I do not expect you to feel that same. I just… I guess I just wanted you to know how I truly felt.”

Astarion’s mouth opens and closes, but no words come out. He swallows hard, making his Adam's apple bob. It’s one of his tells when he’s uncomfortable. He kisses you intimately, but his reluctance to answer causes your heart to spasm, clench and descend into your stomach. Are you more in love with him than he is with you? Is that why you were so incapable of letting him go, but he so easily ran from you?

“I think... I need some space,” Astarion murmurs. “I’m sorry, I-”

You cut him off, slipping off his lap and shaking your head. You remain stoic, forcing tears to stay behind your eyes, “It’s okay. I understand. Goodnight, Astarion."

I went too far.

Thank you to all those who read/like/comment/follow/reblog/etc. I'm forever thankful for the support.

Chapters Master List - Shadows of the Past

AO3: Crossposted

If you're interested, I also write fanfic for Ascended Astarion x Spawn Tav - Fangs and Fractured Hearts

Small Notes:

I just wanna hug Kamena.

Also Astarion

And Gale too for good measure.

[blackdollette]

"lights, camera, acción." | miguel o'hara

put me in a movie. - lana del rey

synopsis: the porn industry's biggest star is set up to shoot a scene with you, so you decide to get to know him a little beforehand.

✮⋆˙ [tags] @burnt-toast234

new taglist form!

camgirl!reader x pornstar!miguel

word count: 1.8k

contents: masturbation (both), size kink if you squint, sexual tension

the clock struck 11:37pm, marking precisely 4 hours since miguel had logged onto your stream. miguel was considered a god in the porn industry. his picture-perfect frame, all large and angular along with his veiny length gave him a boost in his sexual appeal before he’d even started this field of work.

 *444rockstargf is live!* he got the alert on his device. 

a cynical expression remained on his chiseled face the entirety of the stream. in the first hour, your hair and makeup had been all clean and neat, not a single detail out of place. your perfection made you look like a doll, which your audience held sinister, inhumane intentions for.

by the time your viewers had pushed you to your third orgasm, forcing you to abuse your tight little cunt with the vibrating dildo that you had been gifted, makeup ran from your flushed cheeks and your legs were a quaking mess. there was a white, milky waterfall that flooded from between your legs. you were completely fucked out, but that was only the beginning.

miguel couldn’t deny the bulge that pressed against his pants, but his mind reminded him that he was forced to log into your stream tonight, which kept his mindset on the business aspect of the situation. he had been instructed to watch how you did things so that chemistry would be maximized when you got together. your account

had grown rapidly since you’d begun streaming, and the boost nearly had you as adored as he was.

hearing these words from his manager set off a fire in his head. he had spent years trying to make a name for himself, one that had people worshipping the ground he walked on, and you looked fresh out of school, clearly not having as much experience as him. but here you were, nearly at 2 million viewers as you squirted all over the silicone toy once again.

you and him were scheduled to work on set sometime this week. he didn’t know the exact day, but he was far too arrogant to care. he already had something against you. he leaned back in his game, running a veiny hand down his face. he hadn’t noticed that he’d been drooling. or that his tanned cheeks had a pink tint to them. you were already having an effect on him.

he shut his computer with more force than he intended to deliver. he spun around in his chair and stood up, slowly making his way to his bed. he didn’t realize how much time had passed. darkness poured into his room, except for the pale beams of moonlight that seeped in. he yanked the curtains shut and threw himself onto his bed.

this upcoming event had his mind buzzing, which was an unfamiliar sensation to him. he stared blankly at the ceiling, allowing the silence to swallow his thoughts. then every nerve in his body was drawn to the hot sizzle in his pants. the boner was still there, rubbing against the fabric of his sweatpants in an attempt to earn even the smallest amount of pleasure.

he grumbled to himself, not being able to fight the desire growing in his core. he sat up, reaching an arm to his desk and pulling up his laptop, resting it on his chest as he opened it, welcoming the bright light of you back into view. you were still live, but he could tell that you were standing on your last leg.

he had logged back in at the perfect time. you were shoving your fingers in and out of yourself as you pressed a vibrator to your clit, breathlessly counting down to your final climax. miguel frantically pulled out his solid cock, smearing the precum from his tip and using it as lube as he pumped himself up and down, raspy groans fleeing from his lips.

you choked out overstimulated sobs as you counted down from 10. he could barely make out your words through the computer, but he could tell what you were getting at. his balls slapped against the base of his hand as he ghosted his palm against his tip repeatedly, his shaft already throbbing from the stimulation.

with each number you barely got out, his composure diminished. he groaned like a wounded animal, chasing the orgasm that his body had been craving. his chest heaved up and down as he started to imagine you in different positions. underneath him with your legs spread and one tossed over his shoulder as he pounded into you, on your hands and knees in front of him as your ass recoiled with every thrust, the possibilities were endless.

he waited for you to get to the final digit before he finally released his load all over his palm. his balls tightened up as they emptied themselves all over him, shooting thick white ropes all over his stomach. his shirt had crawled up his defined torso just enough to allow a pool of cum to flood on the surface of his stomach.

he was breathless, beads of sweat starting to drip from his forehead as he thought about what he had just done. his cock had started to soften, but he couldn’t shake the sound and image of you out of his head. the tension had he placed between you two had grown, but in a different direction. his feelings of envy had all turned into lust, and a great deal of it too.

you ended the stream with a tired wave, blowing a kiss to all the viewers. a wave of reality hit him, he would be able to live out all his fantasies in a matter of time. he clicked off the stream, closing the browser. he noticed a red alert at the bottom of the screen. it was an email from an unknown messenger, but he recognized the name right away.

444rockstargf@email.com: “heard we’re filming a scene tomorrow. excited to work with you!”

you signed the email with a few star icons, making it hard for him to keep up his cold disposition. he pondered over the email for a while. you had sent it 6 hours ago, so any chance of a polite response was out the window.

he recalled his manager saying something about this being your first time working with someone else in the industry, making you as close to a virgin as he’d ever experienced. in all his years of work, he’d always been with people who craved as mich control as he did. he imagined himself being able to press you against any surface he wanted, roughly pounding into your tiny hole as you begged and pleaded for more, your pussy gushing all over him.

whether he responded to your message or not, you two would still have to get it done. he’d never believed in first impressions, but he decided to type out a short message that would get the formalities out of the way. 

miguel.ohara@email.com: “likewise.”

the night had been sleepless for you. after you logged off of the stream, you sat at your desk, anxiously waiting for any type of response from him. not only was he your first-ever colleague now, but he was the one that you’d always touched yourself to in the depths of the night, silently wishing that you could have a turn with him. it was what encouraged you to do this in the first place.

sunshine seeped into your dimly lit bedroom. you read over the schedule that you and he had been sent. recording would start at 11:00am, meaning that you both had to arrive an hour earlier for set up. you got there at 9:00am, already prepping yourself for your first major set. unlike when you were alone, you had people around to help you out in your dressing room, taking off a lot of the edge.

you kept an ear open the whole time, trying to hear as much as you could about miguel. you automatically got the impression that he wasn’t thrilled about working with you, but you couldn’t let that blind you from the bigger picture. you were getting what you’d always wanted. everything was finally falling into place.

you were left alone for a moment as your makeup and clothing were finished up. the makeup was casual: eyeliner, muted lipstick, and a light setting spray on top. your body adorned nothing but a red silk robe that could easily slip off your body with a wrong movement. it was perfect, you thought, exactly something that he’d be attracted to. 

you could hear his arrival, his heavy footsteps causing your heartbeat to accelerate. your eyes flickered to the nearest clock. 10:51. the moment was nearing quickly. you gazed at yourself in the mirror, drinking in the reality of everything that was about to happen. the tangled thoughts in your mind were interrupted by a soft knock at the door.

you stood up, taking slow steps before unlocking it, peeking your head out just enough to see the large figure standing in front of you. your eyes didn’t meet his, but you could feel his condescending gaze crashing down on you. your stare travelled upwards until they finally met, his dark eyes seemingly studying you.

you were a lot smaller in person, he thought. he was at least one foot taller than you and had to be twice as large. you held the eye contact for a moment, trying to read his expression. his cheeks were slightly flushed, which was something you always noticed in his content. possibly a good sign.

the sexual tension grew as if you two had been long-lost lovers who craved eachother more than anything. he looked at the way your nipples poked through the thin material of the robe. he examined your curves and angles, imagining his hands all over you. at this moment you knew, he wanted you just as badly as you wanted him. and now it was finally happening.

your trance was interrupted by a loud call. “actors on set!” now was the time. you opened the door fully, miguel politely offering you his hand as you made your way to the main set. there were cameras and bright lights all around the perimeter of the room, but in the center was a large bed that was draped with blankets and pillows that matched your robe.

miguel had gone off to the side, stripping off his clothes as he got ready for the call. you were led to the bed, sitting down in the center of it as the hair & makeup people did a few last finishing touches on you. this was it. miguel, now only wearing a pair of boxers that perfectly accentuated his bulged, sat beside you, your thighs pressing together.

your heart raced, your mind buzzing with thoughts. you could feel the heat radiating off his body as he looked at you one last time, the hunger in his eyes evident. any negative emotion that he had previously felt had vanished, now being replaced with desire and passion. after a wave of heat ran through his veins, he pressed his lips into yours, kissing you deeply as the clock finally struck 11:00.

it had begun, and just in the nick of time. as the hungry kiss livened, you heard the final call of the director announce the beginning. “action!”

author's note: idk how to feel about this one :( rory fic coming out tomorrow or the day after. i broke my computer but that won't affect my posting :))

[joyce-stick]

Good evening,

I am contacting the team in relation to the current policy of the tag wranglers on "All Media Types" tags. I have heard from various community members that the policy of the tag wranglers is, as of this moment, to remove these tags. I am writing primarily to express my opposition to this policy, as it is not clear what problem it is intended to solve, and broadly has the potential to cause more harm than good (if any good at all).

You have likely already heard about the impact this policy has on anime and manga fandoms, as many Japanese media franchises exist across mediums and installments that share a singular continuity, and many adaptations are 1 to 1 transpositions of the source material's narrative to the target medium with no meaningful narrative deviation. Bang Dream, the Monogatari series, and virtually every manga with an anime adaptation (such as Bloom Into You, Bocchi the Rock, and My Hero Academia) all fall into this. There are counter-examples, such as Fullmetal Alchemist's manga, and its 2003 anime adaptation which takes a drastically different narrative direction, but these exceptions are few and far between.

Anime and manga fanfic writers often tag both the anime and the manga of the series they are writing about, because the fandom for both is often one and the same. Removing the All Media Types tag makes the act of searching for fics in any anime/manga fandom more difficult, as well as making it harder to filter out crossovers, because the option to do so removes any writers who have tagged both the anime and the manga for the reasons of fandom continuity mentioned earlier.

This policy, if applied consistently, also has the potential to have an incredibly destructive impact on the searchability of any fic for a media franchise split across a large number of installments and continuities, which can potentially number in the dozens, and in some extreme cases, the hundreds. The Transformers franchise, in particular, has numerous spinoffs across many mediums and continuities, as do many other popular franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gundam, and a litany of others. There are also the obvious examples of franchises such as Star Wars, Marvel, and DC, many of whose installments also share continuities or other elements. Removing the All Media Types tag makes it difficult for people who wish to search for fics from any of these franchises generally with no interest in any particular spinoff, and solves no apparent problem.

The child tags already exist for readers who want to search for media based on any specific installment, as well as for writers writing a fic not based on any spinoff or continuity in particular. Someone writing a more general interpretation of a popular character may have to pick a single piece of that franchise to tag the story under, where they might otherwise simply use the general "All Media Types" tag. This is a serious oversight, as while the wranglers may claim that the removal of these tags is to make the search easier, it in fact makes it more difficult for writers to reach their audience, and audiences to find stories they might have otherwise discovered more easily.

I would strongly encourage the wranglers to observe the following posts, and the response to them, which should be ample evidence that many in the community are not in favor of this policy and that for many fandoms it does not have the intended impact of improving the website's ease of use;*

[1] [2]

If there are no plans to reverse course on the policy, I would strongly implore the staff to publicly announce this change and open a dialogue with the community on how to handle this. I personally am opposed to it, but I am obviously not the only one. Right now the general perception seems to be that this practice is of no convenience to anyone except the tag wranglers themselves, and that they are ignoring the voices of anyone contacting them to say that it is not appreciated. At an absolute minimum, I believe transparency from the team about why and how this policy is being implemented is required, because right now, there is no open communication on this that I have observed and the only way this became openly known was by people on social media passing around screenshots of individual email responses from the Archive's support team.

You can rest assured that I will be doing the same if the response to this inquiry proves unfavorable. Regards, Joyce Celeste Silvia Fisher

*I put a plain colon rather than a semicolon in the original message but tumblr didn't like that for some reason.

Proof:

[buckymorelikefuckme]

spice up your life

jake jensen x fem reader

words: 1k

warnings: none i don't think?? maybe a tiny bit of secondhand embarrassment. otherwise this is just fluff! but let me know if there's something i should tag pls.

a/n: i've had a beloved girl group stuck in my head all morning and this was my outlet for that. sorry not sorry for yet another jakey story. that's my baby and i love him. no proofreading whatsoever, just vibes!! any and all mistakes are mine, feedback is encouraged and greatly appreciated ♡ xoxo

On this blessed weekend morning (afternoon, actually, but that’s not important) you’ve just finished your shower. You’re dressed in a tiny tank-top and a matching pair of panties, your hair wrapped in a towel while you sit on the bench at the end of your bed and rub lotion into your freshly shaved legs. The Spice Girls are blasting through your bluetooth speaker and you’re happily singing along without a care in the world.

“Say you can handle my love, are you for real?” you croon, wiggling in place of dancing until you’re done with the lotion. “I won’t be hasty,” you wail louder, “I’ll give you a try. If you really bug me then I'll say goodbye.”

You stand with a bounce, alerting the room at large that you’ll tell them what you want, what you really, really want. As you put away your lotion, you shimmy your chest and shake your hips. You even stop for an extended dance break.

“Slam your body down, and zig-a-zig ah! If you wanna be my lover,” you finish with a flourish, giggling.

The next song starts playing and you let out a gasp of delight, reaching for your hairbrush and using it as a microphone. You set yourself up in front of your mirror, using yourself as a makeshift audience and doing what you can remember from the choreography.

“Slam it to the left, if you're havin’ a good time! Shake it to the right, if ya know that you feel fine!”

You have a split second of thinking that you should probably calm down, since you just showered, and working up a sweat because you can’t help yourself from putting on a one-woman show would be very annoying. But… it’s the Spice Girls. It’s next to impossible to not dance and sing along. At some point, your now damp hair has fallen out of the towel, and instead of using your brush for its intended purpose, you continue singing into it. When you start getting almost too warm, you make yourself stop flailing around and actually brush your hair.

You pull it up into a messy bun on top of your head when you’re done and skip out of your room to the kitchen, taking your speaker with you. You’re feeling kinda hungry, so you go about fixing up a sandwich for yourself, still warbling away with whatever song that plays.

Since it’s early spring, the weather is still relatively cool out, so you’ve got your windows open to let in the fresh air and natural light. It never crossed your mind that perhaps your audience of one was actually an audience of two. However, when you’re in the middle of singing through a mouthful of your sandwich, you just so happen to glance out the window in your living room.

“All that joy can bring, this I swear—“ You freeze, eyes growing wide, cheeks bulging with food, and heat crawling up your neck when you lock eyes with the tenant across the courtyard of your apartment complex.

It’s just your luck it turns out to be the new guy—the cute, nerdy, beefy one. He’s equally wide-eyed behind his glasses, mouth open a little in surprise. You squeak and dart out of his line of vision, mortification consuming you as you lean against the wall and groan. What a fucking first impression to make. Prancing around in next to nothing and stuffing your face like a goddamn squirrel. Jesus.

Your music is still blaring, though, and you've kind of lost your groove, so you hastily scamper back across the kitchen to jam your thumb on the button to lower the volume. Even with the song continuing to play, it feels much too quiet now. You try to finish your sandwich and act normal and not like you were just caught parading around in your underwear. Very pointedly, you do not look out the window again. If you can't see him, then he can't see you. Seems logical.

Except… You sigh dreamily. Oh, man, he's so cute, and he looked even cuter with that dumb look on his face. You try to fight it for as long as you can (which is, to your shame, not long at all) but your gaze drifts back over to the apartment across the courtyard. You're not sure if it's excitement or dread that swirls in your stomach when you see he's still standing there. He waves, sending you a lopsided smile, and you find it impossible to prevent yourself from smiling back.

“Nice moves,” he calls out of his own open window.

“Thanks, I try my best,” you reply with a bashful laugh as you approach the windowsill.

“We should tango together sometime,” he offers, immediately flushing after.

You see his mouth move as he whispers tango? under his breath, an incredulous expression on his face as he shakes his head. You cover your growing grin with your hand.

He scratches at his jaw and shrugs. “Or, you know… any kind of dancing.”

“I just do whatever comes naturally,” you flirt, tilting your head coyly.

“Right, yeah, makes sense,” he agrees with a lot of nodding.

Good grief.

“If you came over,” you start, raising your eyebrows significantly, “I could show you.”

It looks like he short circuits for a second, standing perfectly still as he processes what you just said. He suddenly jerks back to life and points a finger at his chest.

“Jake.”

You laugh and mimic the gesture, saying your name in return. Jake grins as he repeats it, soft and pleased, like he's trying it out on his tongue.

“So, I’ll just…” He trails off and waves in the direction of your apartment with a question in his eyes.

You tell him your unit number, then bite your lip to tamp down on your smile. “See you soon, big guy.”

Jake giggles, high and nervous, before clearing his throat. “Yeah, see you soon,” he replies in a gruff tone.

You cover your mouth again to stifle your own giggles, wiggling your fingers in a wave. He starts backing away from his window, his shoulder knocking into the doorway because he isn't paying attention to where he's walking. With a salute that he appears to regret instantly, he hurriedly leaves, the slam of his door echoing across the courtyard.

Okay, so, maybe your day took a turn, and you might have to shower again anyway, but it's so worth it.

[nightshadehoney]

I never watched James Somerton's shitty Killing Stalking video because I was trying to be good to myself and avoid something that I knew would make me very angry. In fact, I never watched any of his stuff because the fact that he made a video like that was enough to discount any thing he ever had to say (also I heard about the Celluloid Closet plagiarism).

But man, is the James Somerton discourse bringing a lot of Killing Stalking-related feelings back up for me. Because I'm mad; I'm still so mad. There are a suprising amount of people on social media who are saying they never watched any of his stuff except for the Killing Stalking video. I'm annoyed not just to find out that the vid had that sort of reach and influence, but also because Somerton's unmasking hasn't seemed to make people reasses the validity of the kind of thing he was saying. People are just now being like "hmm I think this guy might have Issues With Women" but that doesn't warrant any reflection on what exactly the motivation is of people who complain about women enjoying a niche webcomic? Because I don't actually believe you're concerned about the influence of some obscure piece of media when you advertise its existence to your large audience many of whom had not heard of it and would never have heard of it but for your transparent outrage porn video. It's rage bait and the target was women that are perceived as straight. A big channel has publicized the fact that they excised a section that endorsed the opinions in this video from their own because they became aware of Somerton's plagiarism and dishonesty (presumably; if it was actually because they recognized his views were coming from a sexist place I would welcome a clarification). And you know, I don't think that's a good look actually. That you needed to be told he was a bad person and couldn't idependently put together that the misogynist man was saying misogynist things.

The comic ended years ago and the fandom has gone mostly quiet, but to this day people are still the peddling the"fujoshi/stupid teenage girls who don't know what's good for them are shipping these characters because they are too braindead to realize it's not a romance; it's a horror, two things I believe are mutually exclusive. I am smarter than all of these cringe degenerates" bullshit. It's in the comments of the hbomberguy video even; one comment was such a gross misrepresentation of the series that my friend needed to talk me down from getting into a pointless youtube comments argument (bless him) because these people are officially making me lose my marbles.

This narrative is full of shit, it's demonstrably not fucking true. You can go on the artist's twitter right now and its full of her retweeting shippy fanart of that pairing readers were apparently never intended to ship.

(I don't think Koogi knows or cares about James Somerton; she just reblogs the works of fans who tag her. This made me laugh though).

Now this is all speculation because he died decades before social media existed, but I think if Nabokov was alive today his twitter would not be full of Humbert Humbert x Dolores Haze fanart. And yet, I have unironically seen people compare shipping Sangwoo and Bum in Killing Stalking with the misreading of Lolita as a precocious sexual temptress more than once.

And this isn't me saying that Killing Stalking is the disgusting"pro-sexualized abuse" comic that tumblr purity police used to characterize it as either. One of these days I'm going to go truly bonkers and end up banging pots and pans on the street corner, yelling at random innocent passerbys about how stories about romantic and sexual relationships are not required to be Hallmark movies. You can make art about the negative, dark, and troubling parts of these feelings and relationships without creating a pat morality tale. You don't need to approach media analysis like your 7th grade teacher has assigned you an essay on explaining what a novel's "message" is.

Nobody, not the author and not the fans, genuinely thinks that Sangwoo and Bum have a healthy or aspirational relationship. This hypothetical person that does not understand the relationship is toxic doesn't exist. Because girls and women, even the ones having cringey fandom fun on tiktok or whatever, are not so stupid and naive that they are unware that breaking someone's legs and locking them in a muder basement is bad. The type of concern troll rhetoric Somerton employed in his video is directed near exclusively at women interested in men and there's a reason for this. Women are not responsible for abuse that men do to them; nobody is responsible for their partner abusing them. If I never saw people spit this bullshit again it would be too soon.

[helelmcgrippers]

Attention, members of the Pro-shipping, Com-shipping, and Dark-shipping communities!

Before we begin, I would like to make it clear that I firmly stand by the concept of the phrase, "ship and let ship" as long as it does not exceed from the boundaries of fiction. As the beholder, we should be aware of when to integrate fictional content into reality and when to refrain from doing so. We possess the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, and to understand moral standards in the real world.

Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that there are aspects of our interests that are not suitable for younger audiences. While I advocate for freedom of speech, it is imperative to share these interests on a platform that is appropriate for the audience.

It has come to my attention that some members of our community share their ships on Tiktok. My babes, Tiktok is a platform that caters to a vast audience, primarily composed of minors who are often anti-shippers...

I understand that we have the right to share our interests and passions, but we must consider the limitations and drawbacks of using tiktok as a platform for such content, which can include:

1.) Tiktok caters to young audiences which are mostly MINORS - Let's face it, while there may be a significant number of adult users on Tiktok, it is important to keep in mind that the main purpose of the app is for children. As our content is mostly intended for adults, it's not similar to the tagging system that you see on writing or reading websites (ie. Ao3), where the hashtags are visible before seeing the content. Therefore, I suggest using a platform such as Tumblr or Twitter, which has a more robust tagging system that will help your content reach a more targeted and appropriate audience.

Speaking of tagging system...

2.) The tagging system on Tiktok is heavily nerfed - While it is possible to use appropriate hashtags on Tiktok, it's important to note that the platform's algorithm can still show users videos that they have previously indicated disinterest in. Based on my personal experience, even when I had already pressed the "not interested" button, such videos may still appear on my feed the following day. With anti-shippers lacking respect, it's important for us to be the more mature individuals and adapt accordingly. As such, I recommend sharing content on other social media platforms, such as Tumblr or Twitter, which have more robust tagging systems for reaching the appropriate audience.

3. Tiktok is not a suitable environment for our community - Given the misunderstanding and incorrect usage of the term "pro-shipping" by anti-shippers, TikTok has become a risky environment for us, as our stance has been unfairly associated with controversy. I have personally witnessed situations in which pro-shippers are subjected to harassment because of their opinions, and in severe cases, they even risk losing their followers, especially for those with a larger following. For your own good, it would be best to find communities that are more accepting of your ideas and opinions.

This concludes all of the topics I wish to share with you today. If you have any further suggestions or feedback, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts, as I am continually seeking ways to improve our community and make it a safe and welcoming space for individuals like ourselves.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to all of these ideas! Remember to take care of yourself and stay hydrated ♡

[avelera]

Hey guys, reminder that shouldn't need reminding, but do not fucking tag Neil Gaiman on my meta posts about his work, m'kay?

I cannot fucking stress enough that as a writer of fiction and someone who analyzes media for funsies on my anonymous personal blog, that I have zero fucking interest in having the actual author show up for the discussion.

This is in part because I'm going to give some cutting criticism at times in a death-of-the-author way that isn't stuff I would ever fucking say to the face of a real living, breathing person who has feelings. My analysis sometimes makes points I would not make if I was workshopping this person's work and if I was workshopping it to a living breathing human, I would temper my criticism accordingly. That's not how my literary analysis works when fellow fans, not the actual fucking author of the piece, are the intended audience.

Do not do this for fun or as a joke or because you think he might like it or might respond to counter it. Just don't fucking do it. If you do, I will reach out to politely ask you to remove the tag and if you don't remove it, I will fucking block you and be personally very angry with you, even if Neil doesn't see it because he's a busy man with better things to do.

It's very cool of Neil to be here on this site and we are lucky to have him here being ever so patient with us. It's less cool for me personally when I want to analyze his works as a major author at this big party we're all at and there's a remote chance that he's not actually far away or in the next room but in fact standing right behind me. Please do not make it worse for everyone involved by calling his attention to my personal, thought experiment discussions of his work, please and thank you.

[middleearthpixie]

Something in the Night ~ Chapter Twenty-Four

Summary: Following the Battle of the Five Armies, a seriously wounded Thorin Oakenshield returns to Erebor to recuperate and eventually ascend the throne as king. With the deaths of Azog the Defiler and his son, Bolg, Thorin no longer has to worry about the bounty the Defiler placed on his head and can instead concentrate on restoring Erebor to its former glory. 

Nina Carren of Esgaroth has one goal—to make Thorin Oakenshield pay for unleashing Smaug the dragon unto her home—where he destroyed the town and killed her family. The Defiler might be gone, but his bounty remains very much in place, and she fully intends to collect on it. 

Finally, the opportunity shows itself for her to do just that, only to have it go horribly awry. Wounded and now at his mercy, neither Nina nor Thorin stopped to think what might happen, should things not go quite according to plan…

Pairings: Thorin Oakenshield x ofc Nina Carren

Warnings: None

Rating: T

Word Count: 3.4k

Tag List: @mrsdurin @i-did-not-mean-to @fizzyxcustard @lathalea @legolasbadass

@xxbyimm @kibleedibleedoo @arrthurpendragon @exhausted-humxn-being @knittastically

@notlostgnome @myselfandfantasy @medusas-hairband @guardianofrivendell @jotink78

@ruthoakenshield @frosticenow @quiall321 @dianakc @msjava1972

@glassgulls @evenstaredits @heilith @asgardianhobbit98 @way-too-addicted-to-fandoms

@sazzlep @night-ace @lyl1pad @mistresskayla-blog1

If you’d like to be added (or removed) to the tag list, please just let me know!

Previous chapters can be found here. 

Darkness crept into Dale and Nina tried not to notice the passage of time, even as she lit the lamp on her bedside table. A sense of unease swept through her, especially when she went out into the sitting area, where she found Sigrid at the battered kitchen table, knitting. 

Sigrid said nothing, but merely arched an eyebrow and that somehow made her feel even worse. Had she been a fool? Had Thorin sought to get even with her by using her, making her think he felt something, and…

No. She refused to even consider the very notion.

“It’s almost eight,” Sigrid remarked, lowering her knitting.

“I know.” Nina sank onto the arm of the sofa with a low sigh, a feeling of idiocy swirling through her. “Perhaps my faith was misplaced.”

“I had hoped not.”

“So did—” The sudden rap on the door cut her off and her spirits rose as she did. Nina smiled over her shoulder at Sigrid. “Perhaps it wasn’t after all.”

Sigrid smiled. “Only one way to find out.”

Nina drew a deep breath to quell the thousands of butterflies that had taken up residence in her belly as she reached for the door handle. But when she pulled it open and her gaze alit on Thorin on the far side of the threshold, those butterflies multiplied tenfold.

He offered up a sheepish smile. “I know I’m late, but I do have a good reason.”

“Come in, Thorin. And then you can offer up your reason.”

He bobbed his head. “Fair enough.”

She stepped back to allow him room to enter the flat and as he did, he said, “Miss Sigrid, how do you fare?”

“I’m well, thank you. And yourself?”

“I’m good, thank you.”

Sigrid rose from the table, scooping her knitting into her arms. “I will allow the two of you—”

“No, there’s no need to leave, Miss Sigrid.” 

“That’s fine. I have a book waiting for me and you two don't need an audience.” She smiled. “It was nice seeing you again, Thorin.”

With that, she swept into her room, and Nina turned to Thorin. “I’m listening.”

“Oh, right. I was waylaid in Erebor.” He offered up a sheepish smile. “Balin was working on something for me and he was supposed to have finished it by now, but did not.”

“What was he working on? Something to do with Esgaroth?”

“In a matter of speaking, yes.” He gestured to the door. “Now, I believe I promised you supper, didn't I?”

“You did.” 

“Then come along and we will enjoy a meal not cooked out in the open by Dwalin.”

“We enjoyed several like that in Mirkwood,” she reminded him.

“And not surrounded by elves, either.” 

“Fair enough.”

Once they were outside, he reached for her hand, linking his fingers with hers, and as they touched, Nina felt the snap of electricity between them and wondered if she would always feel it. Thorin looked over at her, his eyes soft, and without a word, lifted her hand to his lips. 

“You felt it, didn't you?”

“Felt what?” He winked and his fingers tightened about hers. “Where should we go?”

“Anywhere but the Black Swan.”

“Agreed.”

They made their way along Stone Street, and out to the main street, which was twice as wide, but far more quieter at night than it would be come morning. Some shops had closed for the night, but plenty more remained open, their brightly colored awnings still unrolled over the doorways and soft warm light within welcoming any and all shoppers. 

“This city has come a long way,” he said, gesturing to the buildings to his right. “Half of these were in ruins a year ago. Now look at them.”

“The first few weeks here were terrible,” she told him as they strolled toward the low wall at the far end of the street, overlooking the plains, and in the distance, Erebor. “Thranduíl had been somewhat generous, bringing much needed food and clothing, but there were still so many people and so few resources. Bard proved his gift for leadership during that time. And it’s amazing what people can accomplish when they work together.”

She looked over to the west, where some buildings had been restored, but others were still in various stages of ruin. “An enormous troll lumbered through here, just swinging this equally enormous club this way and that. I’d never seen anything like it. He was horrifying, and so ugly, you couldn't help but stop and stare at him for a moment.” 

“I did not see the one who tore through here, but I've battled trolls before,” he replied, pausing to sink against the rough stone wall. “Before we reached Rivendell the first time. We’d stopped for the night and mountain trolls made off with several of our ponies. Fíli and Kíli took Bilbo in an attempt to get them back and we all almost ended up on the troll menu.”

“Ew. They are foul creatures.”

“That they are.” 

In the distance, pale gold light spilled through elegant bay windows and she nodded toward it. “The Provincial House. That’s what Sigrid gave up to share a tiny little flat with me.”

“I’ve spent more than my share of time there since Smaug.” His thumb brushed along hers. “The bowman has done well for your people.”

“He has,” she nodded, then gazed up at him. Moonlight danced lightly along his hair, glinted off the ornaments woven into the black strands, and gleamed off the silver streaking it. Without thinking, she reached up to brush her fingers through it. 

She let her fingertips trail along the braid woven at his left temple. At its end, a silver cube had been woven it. It lay heavy in her palm as she said, “What is this?”

“This?” He caught the braid from her, catching the small cube between his thumb and forefinger. “It was a gift, from my father.”

“An odd gift, that.”

“To Men, perhaps.” He smiled, letting the braid go slack. “But to dwarves? It is not odd at all. To dwarves, hair is sacred. That’s why you will not see a clean-shaven dwarf, nor one with what you would call a sensible haircut. We take great pride in our hair, and we protect it as if it were a living being.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “You’ve seen even the women have beards, and most of them are decorated and almost all of the decorations have meaning behind them. No one touches a dwarf’s hair unless he or she has proven themselves utterly trustworthy to the dwarf in question and has been given their permission to touch it.”

“I didn't know that. I just thought you felt it made you look more threatening.”

He grinned then. “Am I so threatening to you?”

“Well, not now. But when you first came through Esgaroth? It was easy to see you making someone uneasy. But at the same time, it was also easy to see why your men followed you all the way from the Shire. I’ve the feeling they would willingly die for you, if necessary.”

A hint of color rose along his cheekbones, only just barely visible in the moonlight. “I owe my life to them, all of them. But especially the hobbit.”

“Bilbo, right?”

He nodded. “Bilbo Baggins of Bag End in the Shire. At first, he had no desire to join us, no desire to leave his home and all of its comforts. And to be honest, I don't know why he changed his mind, other than he was afraid of what would happen if he didn’t.”

“You never asked him?”

That color along his cheekbones deepened. “I—uh—never got the chance. We had a bit of a falling out and it wasn't until I thought I was dying that we—that I apologized for my role.”

A hint of sadness crept into his voice. She moved to ease herself between his thighs and let her hands come to rest upon his powerful shoulders. “If you don’t wish to speak of it, I understand.”

He gazed up at her, his eyes soft and pale. “The memories are unpleasant. I put many lives at risk. I cost so many innocent people so much. You don't need me to tell you this, you know it firsthand.”

“I do, but… just… now you’re atoning for it. Look at this place,” she swept one hand out behind her, at the buildings that had risen from the ash, “and see for yourself. It was a ruin and now, it’s not entirely reborn, but it’s getting there. You’ve kept your word, Thorin.”

He brought his hands up to rest on her hips, his thumbs grazing along them as he murmured, “I love you.”

She smiled, then leaned in and caught his lips in a teasing kiss. His hands tightened on her hips, pulled her snugly into the vee of his spread legs, and when she drew back, she murmured, “I love you, too.”

“We should go find someplace to eat.” He rose without releasing her. “Before the hour grows too late and every place is closed.”

****

After a quiet supper in a cozy little cafe on the eastern side of Dale, they strolled back along the promenade, toward Stone Street. Her fingers laced with Thorin’s, her head resting against his shoulder. Nina was certain she’d never known the happiness, the contentment, like those swirling through her then. Everything was right in her world, more right than she could have ever imagined. 

“What’s on your mind?” Thorin asked, his voice low and gentle.

“Not much, really.” She lifted her head to peer up at him. “I’m happy. I mean, I’m still sore, but I’m happy.”

He released her hand, easing that arm about her shoulders. “Happy, eh?”

“Very happy. Why? Shouldn’t I be?”

“I didn't say that.” He pressed her against his side. “It’s a nice sight to see, you happy.”

“What about you? What’s on your mind?”

Thorin stopped then, stepping before her. “I am also happy.”

“Good. I’ve the feeling it’s been a long time since you were happy, Thorin.” She reached up to curve her hand against his bristled cheek. “And you should be happy.”

He blocked out the moon as he leaned in and their lips met softly. Nina melted against him, easing one arm about his neck and the other about his waist. He bent her back, his lips parting, his tongue meeting hers and her heart sped up at the slow teasing. 

Thorin broke the kiss slowly, pulling away to sweep his lips along her jaw, toward her ear, where he whispered, “I should see you home, mesmel.”

“I hate to see this evening end,” she confessed, tucking her head against his chest.

He wrapped her in his embrace, pressed a kiss into the top of her head, and murmured, “There will be more like this.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“There will. I promise you this.”

With that, she slowly pulled out of his arms, but caught his hand once more and in comfortable silence, they strolled back toward Stone Street. 

At her door, she smiled. “I had a lovely time this evening, Thorin.”

“As did I.” 

“Would you like to come inside?”

His eyes glinted and his grin grew feral to send heat spiking through her, but then he slowly shook his head. “As much as I would love to, I should be going. But, if you are free tomorrow afternoon, there’s something I’d like to show you.”

She nodded. “I’m free. I have to work tomorrow night, though.”

“I will have you back in time. I’ll be by around noon.”

“I’ll see you then.”

He leaned in, brushed her lips with his once more, and then stepped back. She opened the front door and reluctantly stepped inside and as she closed it, she heard a soft, faint whistle as Thorin strolled back down Stone Street. 

“You look happy.”

Nina turned to see Sigrid at the table, this time a book open before her, and she smiled. “That is because I am.”

“Because of your dwarf?”

“Because of my dwarf.”

Sigrid chuckled. “I must admit, you could do far worse than him. Perhaps he is not so terrible after all. Should I give him another chance?”

“I wish you would.” Nina crossed to the table to draw out a chair and sank into it. “You’re my dearest friend, Sigrid. I would like it if you and he could at least be civil to one another.”

A hint of color appeared along Sigrid’s high cheekbones. “Da did say he was keeping his promise, the one he’d made that night he and his company broke into the armory.”

“He is. At least, as far as I know, he is.”

“And we are out from under the Master’s incompetence as well. Did you know his lackey made a pass at me once.”

“What?” Nina couldn’t keep the disgust from her voice. “When?”

“I had gone to speak with the Master about something, something my father asked me to take care of for him whilst he was out on the water. And while I was there, in that gaudy house, Alfrid happened upon me and thought he might take a liberty or two.”

Nina couldn't help the shudder that rippled through her. Alfrid Lickspittle was every bit as sleazy as his name suggested and she did not envy Sigrid’s having to deal with him. “Tell me you punched him straight in the nose. Or somewhere it would hurt even more.”

“I wish. No, actually, I burst out laughing at him, which was terribly rude of me, I suppose, but somehow, I’m not at all sorry for it.”

“He was a horrid little man. If he touched me, I think I’d have to lop that body part clean off.”

Sigrid burst out laughing. “Nina, that’s terrible!”

“So was he.”

“I’ll not argue that with you at all.” Sigrid sat back in her chair. “Why do I think His Majesty does not make you wish to lop off any body parts?”

Nina could hold back her smile, heat spilling through her at the memory of her and Thorin in the infirmary the previous night. “No, he certainly doesn’t. Not one bit.”

“Well, I am happy for you. But know this, if he ever hurts you…”

Nina reached across the table to give Sigrid’s hand a squeeze. “Thank you.” 

The trek back to Erebor was uneventful for a change. Still, Thorin did not leisurely stroll home, despite his good mood. It was a clear, cool night, and the walk was pleasant, but even so, he felt no little relief when he crossed over the obsidian bridge spanning the narrow river before Erebor’s main gate. Perhaps one day he’d once again be able to travel without always looking over his shoulder, without wondering who out there might be taking aim at him, but it would not be today. 

A sigh bubbled to his lips. In so many ways, being just Thorin Oakenshield was far easier than being king. Oakenshield could come and go as he pleased, without worrying about any bounty on his head. 

He frowned. No, that wasn't entirely true, as Azog had put that bounty in place long before Thorin ever crossed Erebor’s threshold. He just hadn’t known about it until his not-so-chance meeting with Gandalf at the Prancing Pony in Bree that led to his decision to retake Erebor. 

So much had happened since that rainy night. So much, indeed.

“Ah, there you are.” Balin strode toward him. 

“You’re waiting up for me?”

Balin chuckled. “Yes, but not for the reason you might think.”

“A relief, that.” Thorin met him about three-quarters of the way across the Great Hall. “For what reason, then?”

“I’ve finished.”

Thorin halted his stride. “Already? You thought it would take several more days.”

“Well, I did at first, but then I figured out what was giving me such trouble and then, I finished it.” Balin offered up a proud grin. “Would you like to see it?”

“I would, yes.”

“Then come along. Your lady will be here come tomorrow, is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Then come with me and I hope you approve.”

Thorin fell into step alongside Balin to trek down to the lower level, where Balin’s workshop was located. “Why do I think that won’t be a problem?”

“Well, it probably won’t be, but still…”

“Balin, you know I trust you.”

“I realize that, but this is an important piece.” Balin glanced over at him as they descended the main staircase. “It is not every day the king is betrothed, you know.”

Thorin couldn't hold back his smile. “I do like how that sounds.”

Balin let out a soft chuckle. “I have to admit, they are not words I thought I’d ever utter, but here we are.”

“Here we are.” As they reached the landing, overlooking the treasure horde, he paused, hands on the marble rail. “Tell me, do you think anyone will have concerns where Miss Carren is concerned?”

“They might,” Balin admitted with a slow bob of his head, “for she is unknown to us. But, your people trust your judgement, so in time, if she’s won your heart, I’ve no doubt she will win the hearts of the others as well.”

Thorin turned back to the treasure, glinting beneath the flickering candles in their sconces high up on the stone walls. “Balin, there is something I think you should know. But,” he looked over at the dwarf who was his conscience personified, “what I am about to tell you must never leave this room and it must remain between you and I.”

“This sounds serious.”

“It is. And that is why you must give me your word.”

“Of course. You needn’t even ask, really. I keep what we discuss between us as a rule, unless you say otherwise. So, what is it?”

“It’s about Nina—er, Miss Carren—and how she and I came to be together.”

“Well, I know that already. Dís told me. She offered herself in service as a bodyguard of sorts.”

“Well, yes, she did,” Thorin hedged, linking his fingers. “But, that’s not quite the whole story.”

“Thorin?”

“You know of the bounty, do you not? The one Azog set upon my head.”

“Yes, of course. The Goblin King was quite sure he was going to collect on it.”

Thorin chuckled, remembering their time in Goblin-town. “Aye, quite sure, indeed. If only Gandalf had been in agreement with him.”

Balin joined him in his laughter for a moment, but then, his expression grew serious. “What about that bounty?”

Thorin hesitated, then drew in a deep breath and went into the story of how Nina came to be in his company outside of Rivendell. He waited for Balin’s shocked expression and was not disappointed as the older dwarf stared up at him in wide-eyed surprise. “Are you so certain marrying her would be wise, Thorin?”

Thorin scowled. “I told you, she has no intention of claiming that bounty any longer and of everyone, I’ve come to know her best. I’ve been alone with her, I’ve slept alongside her, and—”

“Here, you mean. On dwarven territory, within your kingdom.”

“No,” Thorin shook his head, “not only here. The first time we were together, we were in Mirkwood. And I was as vulnerable there as I would be anywhere. And yet, here I am, alive and well and in one piece.”

“Thorin, you cannot let this be known,” Balin told him, his voice low, “for should anyone else learn of this… the consequences could be dire.”

“And that is why this will remain between you and I,” Thorin replied evenly.

“Well, yes, of course, but does anyone else know?”

“Only you and Dwalin know. No one else does, not even Dís. And I fully intend to keep it that way.”

“I should hope so,” Balin told him with a stern look. “It would be disastrous, should this get out.”

“I know. In time, perhaps it won’t be, but for now—”

“It will be kept under wraps.”

“Good. And do not let it color your perceptions of Miss Carren. I assure you, she is not going to slice my head from my body any time soon.”

Balin shot him a long look, then resumed down the second staircase. “I certainly hope not.”

“Trust me.”

“I do. But I know you. I do not know her.”

Thorin rolled his eyes. “Give it time, Balin. It won’t take long for her to win you over as well.”

[sunbadger]

Mini detectives / Chapter 1

Next chapter Read on AO3 Rating: General audiences, no warnings apply Relationships: Levi/Erwin, Gabi & Falco Tags: Attack on titan spoilers, post-rumbling, Erwin is still dead, slice of life, mystery solving, a little bit of comedy.

Summary: There is an unsuspecting, wooden urn on Levi's shelf. Since it's incredibly rude to ask him about it, Gabi and Falco instead decide to investigate to find out who it belongs to, and why the flowers in the vase next to it change every week. First they stalk Levi, then they search his whole house, then finally go through all of his personal belongings. It's an ethical operation lead by detectives Gabi and Falco! Background that may be helpful: - This is set post-rumbling and Erwin is still dead. - I believe Erwin is the only body that Levi really had access to after they died, so this urn is incredibly special to him. - Gabi and Falco are around 14 - Levi's got his own little cottage and a tea shop.

Rest of the fic under the cut, it's 1600 words.

The wooden box on Levi’s bookshelf had always stood out to Gabi. The feathers of her duster brushed against it each week, tracing the chiselled lid and the space around it. On its own, it would easily be overlooked due to the lack of decorations and details - only naturally decorated with the wood's marbled pattern. What truly made it interesting were the constantly changing flowers in the vase next to it.

Every week, Gabi would come over to clean, and every week there was a new set of flowers. Her nimble hands turned the box left and right, tilted it back ever so slightly to check the bottom, and forward to see the top - but alas, there was no name, nothing engraved, and no indicator of what it was. After finishing his work elsewhere, Falco put a stool down in front of the shelf. He glanced at her.

“I think that’s an urn, Gabi,” he said, “you shouldn’t be touching it.” Gabi pouted.

“I'm just trying to find a name on it.” She put the urn back in its intended spot. “I wanna know who Levi’s lover was.”

“Lover?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” She asked, touching the vase. This week’s flowers had petals as deep and blue as the ocean.

“Well… flowers are used for anyone,” Falco said, “and Levi doesn’t seem to be very popular, to be honest.”

“Yeah, I guess,” she sighed. Falco climbed the stool to reach the top of the bookshelf to wipe it with the soaked towel in his hand.

“Why don’t you just ask him?” Gabi’s jaw dropped.

“You can’t just ask about dead people like that!” She exclaimed. “What if he, like, starts crying?” Falco shrugged.

“Maybe he’ll be happy to talk about them, since he clearly cares about them so much.”

“You go ask, then!”

“I could, but…” His mind drifted.

“Why are you asking about my dead friends, huh? You thought that would make me happy? Mind your own business, brat.”

Falco shivered. “B-Besides, you’re the one that’s curious.” Gabi glared at him. “Okay, maybe I am a little bit curious.” He stepped down from the stool. “But I don’t want to ask.”

“Let’s continue cleaning for now, and we’ll figure out a plan later, alright?”

“A …plan?” She nodded, gave him a thumbs-up, and brushed past him towards the kitchen where more cleaning duties awaited her.

Falco was nearly crushed into the dirt as Gabi leant over him, trying to get a better view between the leaves. The fedora that Jean had leant him for the day was already smudged with dirt and his coat threatened to rip from the thorns of the forest they had walked through. He would probably have to “lose” the suit and hope Jean forgets about it once the mission was over.

“The target has approached the destination!” Gabi bursted out. “We will observe closely before making our first move!” Falco crawled his way towards an opening in the bush. Just like Gabi had reported, Levi’s familiar figure was currently making its way down the plaza. They had done a thorough analysis on his schedule and deduced that he would be most likely to visit the flower shop on Fridays at 5 pm, one hour after closing his shop. A small miscalculation meant they had actually been waiting in the dirty bushes of a hill for 30 minutes too many, but otherwise, it was a perfectly executed plan. 

The hill allowed them to have a great overview of the whole street, and the leafage surrounding them provided cover. Falco had expressed doubts that Levi would be on the lookout for small kids in bushes, but Gabi brushed him off. Her eyes shined as they fixated entirely on the target, suspensefully watching to continue the mission. Falco was happy to be living a normal life, but it seemed that Gabi almost missed the conflict of their old lives. She was always excited to put herself in danger, and maybe this was her new way of getting that kick of adrenaline. Well, as her best friend, he would never turn her down, even for something as trivial as-

“Falco, pay attention!” She grunted, suddenly staring straight back into his eyes. He gulped. “Are you ready?”

“Y-Yes sir!” 

“Ready…” His eyes shifted to Levi, who was now taking a moment to browse the array of colours set up on the porch of the flower shop. The lady working there must have noticed him coming, and was kind enough to hold the door open for him as he rolled up the ramp to the entrance. 

“Set…” As soon as he disappeared behind the glass door, Gabi hit Falco’s back. 

“Go!” she yelled.

Pressing the hat down on his head, Falco ran down the hill, doing his best not to trip as he made his way towards the building. Their predetermined route allowed him to move as swiftly as possible while avoiding any doors or windows due to the slight curve. With one last, clumsy jump over the edge of the street, Falco got as close as he could to the wall of the building and hunched down. His breathing had quickened somewhat, resulting in quiet pants as he collected himself. While the door to the shop had closed, the window was thankfully open, allowing him to listen in and analyse the situation.

Operation one: Gather information

“Do you need my recommendation today, Levi?”

“You should know I don’t have any knowledge on these things,” he grumbled, “I just need it to look nice.” Falco was able to make out a faint sigh. “Something happy, preferably.”

“Something happy,” the cashier echoed. “Would chrysanthemums do the trick?”

“Chrystanthe-what?” She chuckled.

“Bright, yellow flowers,” she said, picking a pot from the shelf. “Makes you smile, right? They make for a great addition to any home, and are used both for memorials and decoration.” Falco’s ears perked up at this. He determined that he would have to leave his position outside the shop in order to observe the flowers. The visuals could hold essential information, after all. He quickly glanced up to the hill where Gabi met his eyes with a thumbs up. With a deep breath, he gathered courage and pushed the door open, simultaneously pushing his fedora down over his face. 

“Welcome!” The lady helping Levi greeted him. He opened his mouth to greet her back, before remembering that his voice would give him away. Awkward social situations were a necessary compromise for the operation to succeed. Instead, he slipped as far as he could into the opposite corner of the shop, turned around and pretended that the bags of soil in front of him were really interesting. Gabi acted like the disguise was perfect, but even with the fancy jacket and matching hat, Falco was unsure if he could pass as a random civilian with this behaviour.

The store was crammed to the max with as many plants that could possibly fit into such a small building. Everywhere possible, there were pots with flowers or boxes full of gardening equipment. If you were too reckless with your movement, there was a risk of bumping into obstacles everywhere you went. While it was difficult to stay far away from Levi in the cramped shop, it did instead provide many shelves to hide behind, as long as he was careful. Regardless, Falco was somewhat confident that he could execute the job flawlessly.

“Decided yet, Levi?” She continued. “Daffodils are also a great choice,” she tried again. “They reach high towards the sky with ambition and strength.”

“Quite on the nose.” She laughed.

“Well, you’re not a roses kinda guy, are you?”

“Definitely no roses.” Falco gazed over his shoulder as subtly as he could, catching the sight of the two. The lady dragged the pot of a yellow pair of flowers off the shelf and held it in front of Levi. They didn’t look very romantic, in Falco’s opinion.

“No matter what your choice of flower is, I assure you that your love will shine through.” Her smile beamed with light this time. “Because flowers are the best gifts.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he deflected. “Let’s do those daffodils this time.”

Falco frowned at the choice of flowers, but regardless, he had gathered the information he came there for. It meant almost absolutely nothing, but enough to potentially, maybe, sort of confirm Gabi’s theory that the flowers are meant for a lover. Feeling satisfied with the information, he walked towards the door, but the crowded room unfortunately included tons of things he was capable of knocking over. With a loud clang, an empty, metal watering can hit the floor, and Falco felt his mind scream in embarrassment.

“...Falco?”

“O-Oh, Levi!” He exclaimed, lifting his fedora and thus giving the disguise up. “Didn’t see ya there!” Levi’s expression turned sour. “I mean, I was so absorbed in the- uhh-” He looked at the shelf in front of him. “These new gardening gloves! I’ve been meaning to get some.”

“...Right. For your gardening.” Falco suddenly realised what Levi’s scowl was about and began a frantic attempt at brushing the dirt off of his coat.

“Me and Gabi are trying out this new idea of planting veggies for everyone!” After his failed attempt at cleaning himself, he walked over to the wall of seeds instead. “Maybe potatoes!”

“Oh honey,” the flower lady butted in, “potatoes won’t be in season until april.” Falco’s smile wavered. “Let me help you.”

Falco left the store with a bag of lettuce seeds, gardening gloves, and an empty wallet - without much of a clue to report back to Gabi.

//// That concludes chapter one! Next time, they'll have to try another approach. Comments, likes and reblogs appreciated. This is my first published fanfic, so please be kind lol!