#very silly. you know what though he's actually generally very chill about women and like. homeless people

[vulpinesaint]

yes of course our main concern about eddie brock. his political correctness (read: the killing and killing and killing and killing and—

[areallyyellowmango]

What’re your Milkplane headcanons?

Thank you for the ask! Here are some of my headcanons for Milkplane (Steven x Francis)!

》 Despite being casually friendly with most of the neighbors, Steven is the only one Francis would consider an actual friend, or the closest thing to that

Steven was the only one able to break through Francis’ metaphorical shell, out of sheer stubbornness and repeatedly trying until the milkman couldn't just give him small-talk monosyllable answers anymore. People usually gave up on befriending Francis before ever reaching that point, but for some reason, the man was persistent

》 Steven often invites Francis for a smoke in his apartment to decompress after work.

Francis doesn't really smoke too often, but entering the Rudboys’ apartment without getting caught up in the smoke and smell of cigars and cigarettes is nearly impossible, so he allows himself one or two every now and then

Steven doesn't smoke quite as much or as often as his dad does, but he thinks it makes him look cool, so naturally he does it when Francis is around

Sometimes they chat for hours while they smoke, sometimes they just hang out together silently. It all depends on Francis’ mood. If he feels like talking, then Steven is more than willing to talk

》 Mclooy is very welcoming of Francis, eventually warming up to him almost like his own son

He invites (read: damn near forces) Francis over for dinner often, knowing the milkman rarely eats more than noodles and stale bread for dinner if allowed to

In exchange, on the days when he's off work, Francis often helps Mclooy out with shopping and cooking.

》 It gets to a point where, in the evenings, it becomes much more common to find the milkman in the neighboring apartment rather than in his own, most days of the week

Mclooy often jokes about the two being together so often they look like they're together together

He doesn't really mean it in a meanspirited way, but certainly as nothing but a joke, considering this was 50s

》 Eventually, to their surprise, so much time together did result in unexpected feelings, after all

Steven fell first, Francis fell harder

If he was to be honest, Steven had always found Francis to be an objectively attractive man, ever since first laying eyes on him. It may or may not have been one of the reasons why he was so insistent on trying to get close to him.

Steven is very good at hiding it behind his usual chill and easygoing demeanor, though. The sunglasses are also a big help.

Francis is a disaster when he's into someone, though. Sometimes he doesn't really know what to say, his already sheepish-looking rare smile becomes even more awkward, and he mentally hits himself whenever he ends up doing or saying something he considers stupid

》 Steven is one of the very few people who know about Francis’ past with Nacha, and that he suspects Anastacha might be his daughter due to the timeline of her birth and how alike they are. He doesn't mention it further unless Francis brings it up first though.

Other than that, they don't know much about eachother's romantic past at first

》 Steven has loved many women in the past, but he's also been with men during his time in deployment with the airforce, and is pretty comfortable with the fact that he's into any sort of person at this point

Francis had never been attracted to another man before, and it felt scary to him at first, the fear of finding out something so new about himself, and of being chastised for it

》 It takes a looong long time before the two of them get together. It's a long process between Francis coming to terms with his attraction, feeling comfortable enough to explore it, and the two of them taking it slow and gentle.

Per Francis’ request, they keep it a secret for a long time as well, to the point where getting into their little unspecified relationship even distances them from eachother a little bit for a while, only truly getting to be together when they were alone

And now some silly general headcanons about their relationship!

》 Whenever Francis is over for dinner, Mclooy every now and then makes jokes about him to Steven in spanish - their first language -, knowing the milkman won't understand it and purposefully leaving him confused

Eventually Steven teaches Francis some basic spanish, just enough for him to be able to understand what his dad is saying, allowing him to catch Mclooy redhanded. It did result in a good laugh between them since it was all in good fun, and it actually made his father-in-law-to-be like and respect him more

》 Francis doesn't do well with heights, which isn't a very good match when dating an aircraft pilot who is hellbent on taking him on a scenic flight in a private plane someday

》 Steven doesn't do well with dairy, which wasn't a very good match when having a crush on the milkman, and when the only excuse he had to talk to him everyday at first was whenever he brought bottles upon bottles of milk to his apartment

Instead of telling Francis about it and risking him stopping coming over altogether, Steven just stocked the milk bottles away in the fridge, only remembering about them when it'd already long gone bad

》 Their first kiss was very “hasn't kissed anyone ever vs expecting a kiss with tongue” coded. Obviously Francis had kissed other people before, but he had no idea what to do or where to put his hands when kissing another man.

》 Their song is “My Funny Valentine”

And by “their song”, read “a song that played constantly on Mclooy's radio and Francis could hear from his apartment through the painfully thin walls, and while he hated the noise at first, he began to relate the song to the Rudboys and to Steven in particular overtime”

》 Francis is the only one in the building (besides Mclooy) who knows what Steven's eyes look like underneath the sunglasses

》 They have code words they say to eachother whenever they first meet each day to make sure they're not doppelgangers

[imaginewarehouse]

Various Males x Fem!ExModel!Reader || Oneshot

Plot: You, a retired model get hired at Cloud 9 and, not-at-all-surprisingly, you get harassed by every allegeable (According to them) bachelor in the place- but god fucking damnit! You’re just here to get a paycheck??!  

“You can’t knock ‘em out, you cant walk away,

Try desperately to think about the politest way to say,

“Just get out of my face,”, “Just leave me alone,”

“And no you cant have my number,”,

“Why?”

“Cuz I lost my phone.”

(Inspired by Lily Allen’s Knock ‘Em Out)

Includes (In order of appearance after the introduction bit): Sal Kazlauskas, Garret McNeil, Tate Staskiewicz, Isaac (And I think my favouritism here definitely bleeds through*Cough*), Elias Greene, Cory, Jonah Simms, and Marcus White.

Warnings: Sal, harassment (They leave after you say no though. Just to be sure) 

🔆  🔆  🔆

“And uh, yeah one last thing before we all hop off to work! We have a new Cloud 9 family member. Y/N! Would you like to stand up?” Glenn, the lovely man who took your interview a week ago and then went out of his way today to look for you out front in the morning to show you around quickly and guide you through clocking in, finds you in the crowd of workers and gestures for you to stand.

Oh, uh- uhh, okay! Up we get, then, you think as you stand up like he said and take a look around at all the judging eyes, which normally wouldn’t phase you but here is a lot scarier than what you’re used to. This an entirely different environment to getting up at a modelling gig- you know nothing about working this kind of job! You’ve never done it, so, you’re afraid they’ll judge you right off the bat and make it difficult for you to ask questions. And you can’t keep bothering Glenn- he has more important things to do.

Oh god, you hear whispering. You peer around. Where is that coming from?-

“This is Y/N L/N! She’ll be working with Go back’s today,” Right, Go Back’s Easy enough; Glenn explained them earlier before the meeting started. “So if you see her in your area- be sure to say hello and see if she needs some help, K? Good. We’re jazzed to have you with us Y/N.”

“Thank you!” You quip quickly, then sit down and focus on Glenn again, hoping dearly at the same time that attention disperses from you immediately.

Glenn smiles, glancing down at his clipboard for any last-minute messages. “Okay! I think that’s it, so- “

The whispering from before suddenly cuts off. “Uh yeah, question?” Glenn stops short when a man in the back kind of rudely cuts him off, but sighs out a ‘Yes, Marcus?’ as the woman beside him - Dina, - rolls her eyes severely. Oh, you let a tiny ghost of a smirk slip over your lips. That’s kind of a reaction, isn’t it? “Yo- new girl.” What- me- w h y- You immediately get awkward again and twist around in your chair, but don’t really know who to look at. Luckily the tall brunette in the warehouse uniform is pointing, so you figure it out pretty quick that that’s who you’re looking for, and calm down. Mostly. 

Yeah? You raise one eyebrow. “Hi?”

He grins back to the right and the left of him, to his equally pleased buddies and pals, before raising a Vogue magazine- and it’s the issue on which you scored the front page. Jeez, that was months ago! “Is this you?”

A chorus of ‘Ohhhhh’ and general excitement travels around the room and for the first time ever, you’re half ashamed to admit that yes that is you. In your usual circle this is something to be proud of… but you get that it isn’t really like that, in non-modelling circles. In fact, it could be something to be embarrassed about.

Especially seeing that oh dude and his gang of Michael Myers fashion wannabes look like a hungry, dim-witted, wolves rather than plainly interested about your modelling career.

But, still, you smile politely and nod. Hopefully it’ll be forgotten before the afternoon, at least. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Nice.”

Hmm… you really, really hope that it’s forgotten soon, at least, as you turn back around to face the front again as Glenn sends everyone off to work. Because if not, then these boys are going to learn the hard way that models take self-defence classes religiously.

Or at least you are going to have a very uncomfortable day, which is just great. You groan inwardly at the thought, as you gather up your coffee from the table beside you and drop it in the trash can on the way out.

~

You’re just doing your own thing and someone

Comes out of the blue,

They’re like,

“Alright”

But he’s saying

“Yeah can I take your digits?”

And you’re like, “No, not in a million years, you’re nasty.

Please leave me alone.”

There’s already so many Go Back’s! You think excitedly, as you get to work looking for where things should be. You’re glad to have something to do- at your first job with Chuck E Cheese, before you got into the modelling thing, you were basically useless the first day because you weren’t allowed to grill yet, you didn’t know how to assemble, and they didn’t want you out on the floor for the birthday party that was happening, in fear that you would mess up royally. So you just sat around trying not bother anyone, and that felt terrible. So, wandering the aisles of Cloud 9 with a full shopping trolley searching for products and neatening things up? Sounds like a good deal to you. Yes please.

“Uhh, hi.”

You practically jump entirely out of your skin, hearing the voice right beside you and whip your head around to see a balding guy in a blue Cloud 9 jacket. Is this man licking his fingers!?

“Uh,” You step back with your brightest, most polite smile, picking something up from the Go Back’s cart and rounding it to put it between you and the man, before acting like you’re stupid enough to be putting barbecue sauce in the Barbie section, and then… “Oh, oops! Silly me!” You flash the guy a nervous look. “I’m still working things out… “

Well? Better to look like an absolute idiot, then be standing within grabbing radius of the creepy man licking his fingers that you’re all alone in the middle of an empty aisle with. “Um… so, what’s up? Did someone send you to find me, or… am I doing something wrong? You know better than me, after all!”

“No… “His gaze licks up your form and if it weren’t for all your ‘training’ in staying still and not feeling this kind of thing- you absolutely would have wigged out. “You’re doing fine… Just wanted to see you.”

Boy- if anyone else could see your face right at this moment, full of disgust and mild horror, you’re sure you would be YouTubes next hit. Or a meme. “Oh… “You nervously chuckle. “Um, well, I’m gonna… go… “You pull the trolley around so that you can back up out the back of the aisle and escape through stuffed toys, into the open but his hand comes down on the other end of the trolley- stopping it. Before you can stop yourself, verbal diarrhoea spews from your lips. “Glenn has my resume- there’s a photo on there you can have.”

“That’s okay I prefer them to be breathing.” Both his hands are on the end of your trolley now, tight so his knuckles turn white, and he’s breathing unnecessarily heavy. He’s even leaning over the trolley some like his body really can’t handle whatever terrible heat is plaguing it right now. Oh god, oh god oh god oh god… this is so gross.

“Well, that’s… u-understandable...”

He looks up into your eyes, now, and doesn’t blink. Who the hell is this guy?! “Say… “ Oh no, oh no- he’s coming around the trolley-he’s coming around-he’s close-too close-too close-mayday-MAYDAY- Slowly, in your face, he licks up his thumb, makes an ‘Mm,’ sound, and you deeply wince; So much so in fact that one of your eyes completely closes. “Could I take your phone number?”

You absolutely couldn’t have helped what happened next if you had wanted to.

“Eeeeuuuwwwwwwww no not in a million years, your nasty, please leave me alone!!” You exclaim in a high voice before abandoning the trolley and rushing off to customer service.

~

“No you cant have my number,”

“Why?”

“Cuz I lost my phone.”

By the time you got to the front desk, you had basically calmed down and were mostly just stressed that you left the Go Back’s behind- but still must look troubled as the guy manning the front desk makes a confused, half-concerned but mostly intrigued kind of face at you as you stop there. You’re about to explain your appearance - that or just shrug, not too bothered about reporting whatever mess that was. Not on your first day, at least. No way. - when his face relaxes, and he nods. “Ohhh. Damn, Sal got to you?”

Sal? Was that the guy’s name? You didn’t check. “Oh, was that his name? I was a bit too preoccupied by his eyeballs sucking out my soul, to notice his name tag.” Now that you’re thinking about it, though, you glance at this man’s name tag. Garret.

“Yep, that’s Sal. That’s just one of the wonderful things involved in working here that you’ll just have to get used to.” Garret grins, offering you a chill perspective with a side of cynicism. You sigh, truly feeling relieved that you’ve found a normal person and relax your back against the taller part of the desk.

“Brilliant.” The sarcasm drips off the tip of your tongue.

“You’ll have to deal with a lotta that here, though, looking like you do.” You turn your head to the side to look already exhausted just by the idea, at him. He shrugs. “Hey, I don’t make the rules. I just speak the truth.”

“God- I feel sorry for the other women working here.”

“Oh, no. They’re in a completely different wheelhouse to you. Sorry.” Garret leans on his forearms on the desk, and you roll over to lean on your shoulder and pay attention. “See, you’re a model- “

“I was a model,”

“You were a model- which through primitive male thought process makes you prime real estate. Whoever manages to ‘bag’ you, for lack of a better word I apologise, gets some serious bragging rights.” He shrugs, and looks vaguely apologetic but still some how shameless as this utter bullshit slips out of his mouth. “We can’t help it- some of us don’t even know we’re doing that, but we are. Actually, I’m probably the only one who’ll admit it… which… kinda makes me your best option. Self-awareness, and all that.”

Oh. A dry laugh comes out of you as you feel a text come through in your back pocket and pull out your phone. As you see that its not an urgent message, you immediately put the phone back and glance around for any supervisors before returning to your conversation with Garret. “Oh- of course it does.”

“Exactly!” He grins, and you can’t tell through his expression at all whether he’s genuinely this clueless or if he’s just shooting his shot. “So- “

“No, you can’t have my number.”

“Why?”

Deadass, in a very monotone voice, you say: “I lost my phone.”

Then the two of you just have a stare off for a minute. Garret because he just saw you use your phone, and you because you wont back down.

~

“Oh yeah, actually yeah I’m, I’m pregnant. I’m having a baby in like 6 months, so no. Yeah, yeah… “

“You know,” The chemist pipes up from behind the Pharmacy desk as you put back some pill boxes he said were fine to return to the shelves, and you glance over at him to show you’re listening, and check his name tag. “I myself considered a career in modelling, before this. People even say, now, that I could model.”

Oh boy. You think, fighting not roll your eyes. And how old are you? Early 30’s? I don’t think so buddy.

“Oh, well, I wouldn’t recommend it.” You flash him a nervous grin before returning to your shelving. “You’re good for, like, 3 years. But then you hit 22 and unless you look like Victoria Justice shared with you whatever youth fountain she got chucked into, then you have to find something else to do with your life- despite having nothing to fall back on.” Okay… so… I might be a bit bitter.

Tate chuckles - and oh boy, he sounds just like your old manager. Totally fake, -, hiding his hands in his lab coat pockets. “Yeah, you’re probably right… Besides, I got the better end of the deal, anyway. Doctor for the doctors, they call us.” They call Pharmacists that? Who? That’s news to you. “Ahhh, yeah… I’m doing pretty well for myself.”

“Yep.” Forcing a fake smile his way, you leave the shelf you were stocking and get closer to the desk to stock another, as Tate’s eyes follow you waiting for encouragement of some kind. Doesn’t he have a job to do?? “You chose well!”

“Yeah, thanks. I know.” Ffffff-f a r out. This guy! “You know, you and me, we’d make a good couple.”

Oh? Dear god? You pause your shelving in surprise at the bomb this man has just dropped so casually, fish oil tablets paused on their journey to the shelf mid-air. Could Garret’s crazy-pants theory have been right?

“Ohh,” You giggle nervously, returning to work a bit faster now. “I don’t know. I think for a pharmacist like you, I would envision, like… “An actual doctor? No, I can’t say that. “A personal trainer, or something. Keep you both healthy all-round, you know? Now that’s a power team.” As long as that personal trainer has humility enough for the both of them, at least.

“Mergh,” He makes a face, like ‘What the heck are you talking about??’, before shaking his head of the things you just said and leaning over the desk towards you. You keep packing, even faster now. Like the Flash. Go! Go! Go! Death Con 5!! “So, whadaya say? I could pick you up Friday after work, and we could head up to one of my timeshares?” He says that like it’s such a selling point! You think, fighting off the powerful urge to laugh but still feeling the panic deep in the pits of your soul. “Stake it out together for the weekend? Get to know each other?”

“Uhh… “Excuses! What are they? You slowly stop stocking, turning around to face him and crossing your arms. The man deserves to at least be faced as he’s rejected; You’re kind enough to give him that, at least. “I’d love to! But, the thing is… “Chewing your bottom lip, you think hard.

Ding Ding Ding!!

“The thing is, Tate… “You fake some nerves, now. “I’m actually, uh… “You look up, face relaxing. “Pregnant.”

Oh boy, the way that man recoils at that word, like a terrified, disgruntled, blonde hedgehog. You’re going to laugh so hard about it, later!! “Oh.”

“Yeah! Oh, I mean, yeah… I’m gonna be having a baby, in like, 6 months so… yeah… Yep.“ You shrug to him, as if its just so unfortunate. “Shame.”

~

She looks in her bag, takes out a fag, tries to get away from the guy on a blag,

Can’t find a light.

‘’Here, use mine.’’

‘’See the thing is I just don’t have the time.’’

Ahh, lunch. Now you can check your texts! Hmm, you look through your notifications and gradually lose excitement. Mum… mum… mum… phone bill company… friend… mum again…

Ah, the glamorous life of the famous.

You roll your eyes, and get to responding to your mothers texts about dinner and when you’ll be home and how your first day is going, not noticing the not-so-jolly, not-so-green-(unless-you-meant-pot) giant approaching you. When you finally finish responding to both your mum and your friend, you put your phone away and start unwrapping your lunch- a typical ham sandwich that you’re actually pretty excited about. That’s one good thing about your sudden drop in financial status; You can put in your damn sandwich as many pieces of ham and cheese as you like. Grinning excitedly, you pick it up and have it halfway to your mouth before another person - a very heavy, large person, - drops down beside you on the bench you’ve commandeered behind the store. You close your mouth without any delicious lunch inside it and look up, politely to the person who’s joined you.

And all you can think, is wow.

He could put you in a suitcase and walk off with you right now and have no problems.

That’s wow.

“Hi! I’m Y/N,” You introduce yourself, offering a hand for him to shake.

“I know.” Oh, well yeah okay that’s understandable. Glenn did introduce you to everyone this morning. Despite the man’s less-then-excited response, he takes your hand in his and shakes. It makes you all giddy inside, honestly. So b i g. “Names Isaac.”

Do you remember Isaac in the breakroom this morning? You wrack your brain for him, because surely if he was there you noticed him-

Oh. Yep, you remember him. He was one of that Marcus-Dude’s pals chuckling and whispering behind him. He was one of the men that had the magazine with you on the front, and if there’s one thing you know about men who carry Vogue in their locker’s it’s that they fit into only 2 groups- interested in fashion, obviously… and interested in the women. And this man clearly is not interested in fashion. Immediately, on this realisation, you feel disappointed- you really could have liked this man right off the bat…

But it looks like he’s just going to be another of the men at this store you have to get to know, before becoming friendly with.

“So,” He starts, and you fight off a wince. Hopefully, you don’t know what’s coming. But… the likeliness of that is not high. “You wanna go out, some time? I’m a big fan of your work.” He smirks.

“Oh, ha ha.” You laugh sarcastically, shaking your head and returning to your sandwich. You take a bite and- Ahhhhhh, so worth the wait. Oh my god. Food orgasm. “At least you’re honest!”

“Yeah, so is that a yes?” His face brightens a smidgeon, which is a lot seeing as he doesn’t seem to be totally all there, in the first place.

You look up at Isaac, and look apologetic. He was honest with you so its only fair that you’re genuine with him. “Sorry… “

“Ah- actually, I don’t know if this’ll change your mind, but I have 2 weeks to live, so… “

Never mind on that honesty thing, then.

Dull-eyed, you stare up at him. “… Uh-huh.”

“Its true! I have, uh, cancer.” He insists, nodding his head and forcing his eyebrows up his forehead all serious-like.

“Cancer.” Right.

“Yep.”

Right, time to look in the bag... You start to wrap up your lunch again - sadly, as now you’ll have to wait until the end of the day and the bus ride home to eat it, - and plop it back away in your bag, getting up and pulling out a cigarette instead- that should hold you over until the end of the day. “My lunch break is actually over, so I should go- Damn, where’s my light?“

Isaac rifles through his pockets until he pulls out an old looking neon orange lighter, and offers it to you. “Here, use mine.”

Oh, no. You stare at it like a deer in headlights. If you accept that, like you really want to right now because it’s been a month since your last smoke, then you have obligations to sit with him for another couple minutes, at least.

Aghh… You groan and whine on the inside, before making up your mind and flinging the cigarette into a puddle. “See the thing is, I don’t actually have the time-”

~

“Go away now, let me go.”

“Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?”

“Ughhh… “This one has been giving you looks all day, but had no courage until now to speak to you- but the thing is? He didn’t have the smarts, either, to take off his wedding ring at least before he decided to be a bastard and bother you. So you feel absolutely no regret about being exactly as dismissive or plain rude, as you feel. “Elias? Go away now.”

The nervous man, who’s been ringing his hands this whole time and stuttering through failed date requests that you pretended you didn’t understand because of his struggle, gets panicked. “Just let me ask!- Will, will you go out with me?”

“No.” You yawn, dropping a piglet toy into a basket.

“But!- “

Turning away, you start pushing your trolley along to get to the next aisle. “Let me go.”

“We can go wherever you like!”

Sighhhhhhhhh. You turn around and grant him an audience, putting your hands on your hips and raising you brows at the wedding band on his left hand.

“Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?”

~

“Please fuck off.”

Oh good god in heaven, they’re going bigger with their proposals.

“Y/N! Will you go out with me?”

This man, Corey, has grabbed the announcement phone now that you’re walking away, making you freeze like the dad possum in Over The hedge and seriously consider playing dead, too, as you slowly turn around to look at him again.

Oh, if only looks could kill- he would be so dead that even Vlad the Impaler’s victims would laugh.

This is your first day, and the fact that you’re being harassed by multiple stupid men is bad enough but now he’s calling attention to you like this? Glenn’s going to think you’re a troublemaker!! Jesus fucking Christ- you need this job! Corey continues to talk into the speaker phone, even as he looks into your eyes and sees his death.  “And… now… you’re looking at me like that, so uh… I’m just gonna… say please?”

… “’Please’ fuck off.”

“Yes ma’am-“  

~

“Go away now, I’ve made myself clear.

I don’t think so.

Nah its not gonna happen.

Not in a million years.”

Since the run-in with Corey and the following spike in your blood pressure, you’ve calmed down again. But now you’re looking into the two faces of a ‘Mateo’, who you apparently work with, and a ‘Castor’ who does not work here and is not shopping but is still in your face and is t h i s close to feeding that ugly tie to his cousin.

But, still, you’re going to stay graceful, because Castor constantly looks like he’s 3 seconds from pooing himself. “Now please go away, now… I think I’ve made myself clear.” By explaining, politely, that you aren’t looking for a man but thank you for the offer, Castor.

“Oh, but you haven’t heard what Castor does for a living! He’s in insurance,” Mateo explains to you, like this is some huge game changer. When you don’t react, he adds that there’s good money, insurance.

You almost laugh. Does this boy really think you’re such a gold digger? Boy- if I wanted riches then I could’ve easily become a C-Class actor who has no skills in the area, but is pretty so gets praised like she does- like a lotta my model friends.

Instead I’m here, at Cloud 9.

Come to your own conclusions.

But instead of saying that, though, you just shake your head nervously. “I don’t think so… “

“But!- “

“Nah… sorry, its… not gonna happen… “

“But Castor is- “

“Not in a million years… “

~

“Aw, no. I gotta go. My house is on fire.”

Now, at least this one is respectful, you think, listening to him talk about the products you’re shelving together. He had come over and offered to give you a hand when you looked confused, as a ‘Cheyanne’ had handed you a scanner earlier and then promptly ran off, despite your utter incompetence. You were so relieved that this guy turned up!!

“… so, you just punch in reduce .50, and scan! Its pretty easy, if you have it properly explained to you. I- I was actually in the same situation, as you! When I first started here, except I ended up, uh, reducing all the items in electronics to 15 cense rather than discounting it all 15 percent.” A grin spreads across your lips at the story, and thank god that Jonah had turned up before that happened to you and, with your luck, you got fired for it.

“Oh no!”

“Yeah- Amy, our uh, floor supervisor, was pretty cranky with me about that… “He laughs himself, resting his hands on his hips; Still looking nervous at the memory.

You look back down at the scanner you’re holding and shake your head. “Well at least you know, now! And thank you so much for coming to my aid, haha. I was so lost- you’ve been a huge help! A life saver, truly.”

“Yeah… “ He gives a cute little, reserved smile. “So, uh, its basically the end of the day! Hope you’re first day hasn’t been too strenuous. At the end of my first day, I know I was tired. But I got to go out with a couple of the other employees and have a drink, to destress. If-If you were free, we could… do something. Together.” Your eyebrows slowly raise up your forehead at that, and you turn to look up Jonah, sceptical. What was that? You sure have had a long day, and its about to get a lot longer if this boy is asking what you think he is. “Sorry! Sorry, that sounded weird. Um, I guess what I’m really asking, is… would you like to, I dunno, go out with me sometime? I know some great places.”

Oh, noooooo! You cry, on the inside. You thought you found a normal one!

Still, he is being so nice… The least you could do is let him down easily.

“Oh, Jonah, I actually… oh- sorry.” Your phone beeps in your pocket and you take it out quickly to have a glance - its just your mother… again, - … and suddenly get an idea. Feigning shock, you quickly put the phone away and put down the scanner. It’s time to clock out and go home, anyway, thank god. “I have to go! That was my mum, uh- I really have to go!”

“Wow, wow, wow, what’s wrong?? Can I help with anything?”

Oh… he looks so concerned. He’s sweet.

But before you can rethink your words, this living horror slips out. “My-my house is on fire.”

Oh god, you’re a horrible person.

~

“I’ve, I’ve got herpes. No- Syphilis!”

Oh thank god the day is over. Rolling your shoulders back, you kneel down at your bottom locker, open it up and take out your bag. Now you can go home and put on Gotham on Netflix, wear no pants and eat thin mints until you fall asleep.

When you get up, you aren’t watching out for a man to be standing barely half a foot away from you - Your mistake, obviously, - so you jolt right out of your skin when you see him and curse. What is wrong with these men? Does Cloud 9 offer complimentary staff ninja classes along with their lack of health insurance? Man, classy company. “Sorry!” You look up past the coveralls after stepping a safe distance back from him, and immediately feel dread deep in your chest. “Oh, hi. Marcus, was it?”

“That’s me! How was your first day?” He asks, seeming polite enough despite the fact that you’re cornered between tall boy and the lockers. And you’re too tired to try and slip away- this boy will get out of your way.

“It was good! Thanks for asking. I’m ready to go home and collapse, though.” You admit, shoulders dropping and a tired smile on your lips. Mmm… thin mints… bed… blankets… Cory Michael Smith… I can taste it… Marcus just needs to get out of my way.

“I hear that.” Evidently not quite as deeply, though, as he moves on pretty fast. “Listen- I was thinking if you’re into it we could… go out, some time.” He tilts his head forward to clarify, “On a date,”, in case that part hadn’t translated, and chuckles. “We could see a movie or get drinks, or something, I don’t know. How about tonight?”

T-tonight? The word nearly slips from your lips; All disbelief and tears and exhaustion, included. You’re so tired. “Um… you know, tempting offer, but um… “He looks so hopeful. It nearly changes your mind. “Not tonight.”

“OH! So like, tomorrow?” Oh christ- “Cuz I’m supposed to watch Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here with my mum, but… no, I can blow that off! So, tomorrow?”

You take a deep breath, not really knowing what you can say. “Marcus… “He raises his eyebrows, waiting for an answer. “… I have herpes.”

“Wait, what??” He steps back, nearly tripping over a table in his fear that just being near you will cause him to contract the disease, and you let your guard down in relief. Yep, for sure, definitely. If it makes him back off, then yes- you have herpes. You have a raging, festering case of herpes.

“Yeah! Or-“ Squinting, you pretend to sift through your brain. “Was it Syphilis?” This boys eyes basically bulge out of his head and you’re totally going to laugh about it later, but right now you have to get out of there. You waive your hand dismissively and walk on by him towards the door like you don’t have a care in the world. Before you leave though, you turn around a flash Marcus a big smile. “Either way, ew, right? Well, see you tomorrow buddy! Gotta go! Enjoy I’m A Celebrity with your mum.” Then you’re gone.

Tomorrow is going to be a much better day, once that rumour is properly spread.

[the-ghost-king]

You know how everyone has at least one minor rrverse character with no significance but they're you're favorite? Okay Mitchell from the Aphrodite Cabin is one of mine...

Make him Italian, probably Southern Italian I like to imagine his family immigrated from the Florentine area

Trans masc

At first he thinks he's just a gnc trans guy but after he starts medical transition he realizes he's nonbinary

Uses he/they pronouns generally

But when people he's close to talk about or to him and they're using nouns to describe him they use female gendered nouns (ex: daughter, lady, girl, etc), and yes these are a part of his gender expression

Also the type of person to hyphenate their deadname with their original middle name as their new middle name

They definitely are the type of person too who just invites invasive and awkward questions (as long as they're being asked in good faith) for educational purposes, and he'll give you the most derailed answer if that's what you want

Also he might be femme but he's not weak and he will beat you up if you're just being unnecessarily transphobic

His dad is a high quality fashion designer and because of this Mitchell is kind of spoiled (okay very spoiled) about clothes, always having high thread count clothes and also personally tailored pieces

They've got some casual plans to take over their dad's business but he thinks that he wants to expand it out into a more affordable fashion market for the average person (they like affordable and sustainable fashion too! The artistic pieces are nice but it's not a long-term sustainable business model!)

He personally dresses very camp, even the cishets look at him and go "oh he's you know... _/‾"

They love a good suit, very gender to him

Him, Nico, and Chiara all getting together to talk in Italian; and have culturefests or something

Watching Italian films, and TV shows, updating Nico on modern Italian culture, etc

Bi or Pan, but doesn't really feel the need to label himself, usually just says multisexual or mspec unless someone doesn't know what that means

His attraction to women is gay, his attraction to nonbinary people is gay, his attraction to men is gay... If you can't handle that you're not their target audience

Idk how old they are but Rick's timeline is fake and so are ages then, so him and Austin are dating

Very cute couple, very casual dynamic, probably have won "cutest couple award" or something at some point

Definitely went to all their high school dances together

Their favorite color... Probably green or pink... Yellow is also a good option

Mitchell probably wears glasses for the "aesthetic" but has worse vision with them on

Would not put it past him to be a social media influencer but have a secret Twitter account for BL

He definitely reads GL too

Very into anime, jdrama, and manga, likes manhwa and kdrama and any other variation of those things

Yeah probably kpop too

They probably like stuff like "My First First Love" and "Cherry Magic!" etc

First anime was probably one of the ones everyone seems to start with so maybe "Your Lie in April" or "Ouran High school Host Club"... His all time favorite is probably "Given"

First Manga... Probably "Orange" or something unexpected like "Black Butler"

He's definitely the person who introduces Nico to anime and such... The whole thing just sort of confuses Nico but he likes a couple of them, "Death Note" and some other psychological or horror type stuff

Definitely has some talent when it comes to hair styling, lots of people at camp are always going to him for haircuts and styles so he starts charging $2 or something for it and basically has a summer job at camp

He lives in the New York area year round (honestly, he probably goes home on the weekends sometimes from summer camp and goes to camp for the weekends sometimes in the school year)

Because of how close he is to camp other people in the area will often call him to do their hair and makeup for homecoming/prom/etc and he always agrees unless he's visiting family in Italy or he's touring with his dad

Likes to chill with Austin at the infirmary, partially to hang out but also probably because that's one of the few places in camp that has air conditioning

Will is always getting after him for sitting on the counters, something about it being unsanitary but they don't think it should matter as long as they're not in any of the operating rooms

Austin likes him too much to tell him no but yeah it's not sanitary, but to Austin the choice is a sanitary counter or a happy and comfortable boyfriend... He's picking happy boyfriend

Also Mitchell is very supportive of Austin's music career and always trying to convince Austin to let them use tracks of his music on the runways at their dad's shows

But Austin always says no because he wants to "make it big on his own" which Mitchell thinks is a bit silly but if it's what Austin wants he'll support it

Mitchell is super into camp's drama, they don't do anything with the information or all the secrets they just like knowing all of it

If you ask them to keep a secret they absolutely will

But that embarrassing story about you that went around camp five years ago that you lowkey wish everyone would just stop talking about, he's the one that keeps restarting the cycle

He babbles to Nico all the time about all the ongoings of camp because Nico is also good at keeping his mouth shut, but Nico doesn't care about the drama for the same reasons though (Nico: "Hold on, back up, you said Drew knows Sadie Kane? Interesting..." Mitchell:"okay Mr. Ominous, and also yeah, I did say that, so anyhow... ")

Very artistic person in general, he can probably play the piano okay, he's no professional and no Apollo kid but he can play some songs, and they have enough practice to learn new songs on their own!!

Definitely was voted by camp to have the worst taste in music though

Says his favorite movie is probably "Bring It On" or "Heathers" of something similar, but his actual favorite film is one of those cliche silent black and white ones that's only available in French

They definitely did dance for a few years growing up, has a ballet, tap, and hip hope background to work with but he left it behind when we was 13 or so but eventually they start to get back into hip hop and keep up with various types and lessons and places through their 20s

He's always the person to start groupchats

They think they're fun but they rarely take off without prompting from him

Also often times plays matchmaker for people ("they would be a cute couple wouldn't they? I don't know though, does she like girls? I think so?")

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head, hopefully you enjoy!

[haifengg]

WayV Dealing With Period Related things

TW: This doesn’t contain anything graphic! But you might not want to read this if you’re grossed out by the topic in general.

Genre: Fluff // Crack

-> Kun. So here is someone who randomly reads up on the topic. And one day he found this fact about women only bleeding roughly a shot glass worth of blood every month. Which got him in fact very confused. So he hastily walked into the kitchen, his eyes opened in shock: “Is this true??” 

You quickly scan the article and nod. “Yeah, that seems about right.”

“It’s just this much??” 

“How much did you think it was??”

-> Ten. Probably the most chill person to be around. I kind of expect him to have a lot of female friends who openly talk about this kind of thing right in front of him. So even if he mind in the beginning he doesn’t anymore. You can literally ask him to get you whatever or cook for you and he will do it. He would probably do the chores if you’re in a lot of pain. As well. Let you wear all of his shirts if you want to and you get to decide what shows to watch. But he would either in a very subtle way do all those things or make you praise him lol. Like “Look what a great stay-at-home husband I can be! You’re very happy to have me.” Just because he knows you don’t like to be obviously pampered. You rather have all the work taken away from you by force and not expect him to do it.

-> Xiaojun. You usually never ask him to get pads or anything because you know how much it kind of grosses him out (even though he would never admit it, because he loves you). But there was this on time where you didn’t manage getting them yourself and you would run out of supplies the next day so you asked him to pick something up on his way home. But you immediately regret asking him as you hear him assuring you it was no big deal on the phone. Because, well, you it kind of was. Xiaojun was ver much clueless. And your intuition should not be failed.

 As he came home and unpacked the bags he proudly presented you diapers. After you ask him why the hell he got diapers and not just common pads he said: “They had this as well but the package said something about anti leaking and then I started to think about leaking. And if there would be leaking - well, I figured you didn’t want that. So to fully prevent it I got you these!” He looked so proud and manly, gaining full pride from having thought about his girlfriend this much and actually read the package at the store without being embarrassed. But you just blank look at him and bluntly say:

“Xiaojun, I am menstruating. I am not shitting myself.”

-> Lucas. May I present you the most childish one. You may correct me but you can’t change my mind about hi having the highest sex drive in this group. And the most ludicrous humour. So he cracks jokes about it all the time including the one about real men moving into the Red Sea. But in his case the only place men move to is the sofa at night because you heard this joke too many times. Overall he is sweet though. He will use the jokes to cheer you up because he knows you share that sense of humour. He will also get you these cliche things like chocolate. 

But just the second you think he stopped being dirty minded and came to care for you he pulls out an article saying orgasms being a great pain reliever because of endorphins and such. 

You hit him with the paper. “So this is what it takes to get you to read a medical journal??”

Nevertheless you have to admit that with all his silliness, he is actually reliable and without his jokes it would be a pretty triste week.

-> Hendery. Women having their periods are his war flashbacks. Having grown up with loads of sisters has taken it’s toll on him. It used to be very chaotic and hormonal. So he is kind of every careful with you when you’re on your period. Extra nice and quiet. Just as if he’s trying not to wake up a beast. At first you were really offended by his behaviour. Then you got to meet his sisters and even though they are very sweet you could see by the way he was behaving next to them and how he was their little brother; you understood where is caution came from. So you just let him be. For the time being he disappears and yo barely get to see him. But your cramps are not so bad in the first place so you’re actually fine on your own. 

It takes him a while to realise you’re not moody or cranky at all - just hidden somewhere in a lot of blankets. So he occasionally drops by to bring food.

It is actually very sweet how he chips in to be there for you  every now and then. 

He obviously tries his best.

-> Winwin. Usually keeps his questions to himself. He also doesn’t google because he is scared of what he is going to find. So he takes matters in his own hands and tries to find answers to his questions himself.

So hone day you come home early and catch him in the kitchen, soaking a clean tampon in a glass of water. Winwin obviously got scared and panicked not only by you coming home and catching him red handedly but also because this thing just soaked up so much water and got huge. You stand in the doorway looking at him curiously. He’s looking back in shock. But you didn’t say anything since Winwin tends to do weird things from time to time and you’ve gotten used to it. After three seconds of silence he couldn’t help but ask: “W-why is it so big?? How does that possibly fit??” And you just burts into laughter. Apparently he just still is a kid after all, so you say whining away a tear: “First of all that is where your dong goes - and secondly it is also where babies come from so it better stretch.”

 His looks is worth a million bucks, really.

-> Yangyang. He is and will be a kid. Not because he is young but because he is childish. So you don’t trust him at all and actually google a picture of the product you need. Yangs offered and insisted of getting you supplies because he somewhere picked up that this is what responsible boyfriends do. So for shits and giggles you let him. But you know he will chicken out once he is facing the aisle. Hence the picture.

“If you don’t know where to find this, just ask a shop assistant. They know.” 

He reassures you that he is fully capable and you should not worry.

When he came home he handed you a small bag not only with the product you asked for but also some more enhanced ones. And you find your boyfriend avoiding your eyes mumbling: “The lady said you might like these better because they are more comfortable. It’s a new product so she thought perhaps you want to try it. But honestly I have no idea what ‘wings’ mean or why pads need them.” 

He is kind of embarrassed but you are proud of him that he said ‘pads’. So you spare him the explanation.

Masterlist

[robininthelabyrinth]

Three Gates - on ao3 (for content warnings check Ao3) - on tumblr: pt 1

- Chapter 2 -

It turned out that the party had been a meeting of important cultivators, sect leaders, and that meant, of course, that his father had been there.

His father. No wonder his mother had been so excited!

And even knowing that nothing had come of it, that his mother had returned empty-handed, despite himself, when he heard it, Meng Yao was excited, too, feeling a frisson of hope run down his spine. He regretted, now, that he hadn’t been able to go to the party as a server, thinking of the might-have-beens if he’d gone, if he’d done something to impress the man, if his father had finally decided to take them away from this place –

“He was too drunk to recognize me,” his mother said, sad and eyes distant. “And some of the younger girls had gotten to him first…I couldn’t catch his eye, and in the end they sent me away with one of the other sect leaders.”

As a joke, she didn’t say, an old whore with a man too drunk to tell the difference, but Meng Yao wouldn’t guess at that truth, the source of so much bitterness, until much later.

“Not Wen Ruohan, right?” Meng Yao asked, and breathed a sigh of relief when she shook her head.

“You shouldn’t refer to your elders by name, A-Yao,” she reminded him, always trying to teach him etiquette – though now that he thought about it, Nie Mingjue had used the man’s name directly, too. Maybe it was his way of trying to make the man seem less scary. “It would be ‘Sect Leader Wen’…and how do you know any of the sect leader’s names, anyway?”

“A cultivator came here last night,” Meng Yao explained. “He gave me a qiankun pouch, and some money –”

“In return for what?” His mother’s voice was sharp. “A-Yao, I told you, you’re not allowed to make deals with people –”

Meng Yao’s shoulders went up by his ears. He knew what she really meant, that he wasn’t allowed to sell himself or his body because it’d give him a bad reputation in the future; he wasn’t allowed even if it meant the difference between a hungry night and a full one, a freezing one and a warm one.

“I didn’t do that,” he muttered. “I just –”

“There’s no just. No deals at all, A-Yao; if you get into the habit of seeing everything as something you can buy or sell, then it’s only a matter of time before someone buys you.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Meng Yao protested. “He gave me a pouch, and he said –”

It was the wrong thing to say, especially after a disappointment like last night, and his mother started scolding him fiercely, alternating with tears, and in the end he decided it was better to say nothing.

Nie Mingjue would come back with the manual, the way he’d come back with the money, or else he wouldn’t, and either way there was nothing Meng Yao could do about it.

And anyway, after a few months, he realized he had bigger problems.

It started pretty unnoticeably: a tightness in his mother’s face, an unusual refusal to take on clients for the more lucrative type of engagements, spending more on food than usual…at first Meng Yao thought that it was only that she was happy to have money again, even if it spilled through their fingers like sand on getting her new clothing and better make-up, larger shoes for Meng Yao and a warm coat, only slightly torn from previous use.

He’d been worried, although not unduly so, when she’d started being sick sometimes – she’d claimed it was food poisoning, and they had been eating more meat than usual, so maybe…

Foolish.

One of the other ladies called it out one day in mockery, not a single doubt in her voice, and his mother didn’t deny it. Meng Yao’s stomach dropped, his heart frozen in terror.

Pregnant.

Again.

And she hadn’t taken any steps to get rid of it, the way she should have – whores had their ways, even if they weren’t perfect, and his mother knew enough of them. He knew that she would have been acting very differently if she intended to abort, would have been less cautious, less resistant, less –

She’d bedded a sect leader at that party, he remembered, doing the miserable math on his fingers. Not his father again, no, she wouldn’t make that mistake twice - would she? She’d gone there to see him, after all.

No, in the end, she was still counting on Meng Yao to earn his way into his father’s graces on his own, for the sake of both of them. But she had gone to bed with another one, and if it had taken…

Meng Yao knew his mother loved him, but for the first time in his life, he feared losing that love.

He tried to keep his fears to himself, tried not to burden her, but in the end he was a child and not yet good enough at hiding his expressions; she spotted him soon enough, took him into her arms and coaxed his fears from him.

“You silly goose, A-Yao. Don’t you know it’s for you?” she whispered in his ear, putting his hand on her belly. “I’m too old and sick to have a strong child, all the doctors said so; even if this one is born, he’ll be weak and sickly, likely to be swept away by the first chill of winter. I don’t need that sect leader to support me – we know already that they won’t do that. I just need him to feel guilty enough to take you with him back to his sect as recompense for having burdened me with a child that was lost.”

Meng Yao felt a touch of ice run down his spine. “But...what if the child lives through the winter?”

“There are many ways for a child to die,” his mother said, and her voice was calm and gentle, a pool undisturbed by the ripples beneath, just the way she’d always taught him. “Only some of them are winter.”

Meng Yao knew his mother loved him, but for the first time in his life, he feared what that love might mean.

His mother had grown cunning since his birth and more cynical since his father’s most recent rejection. She decided not to write to the sect leader with the news at once – that would be risking a rejection, a dismissal, an accusation that the child could be someone else’s son, or worst of all a blow to make her miscarry. She planned instead to wait until the child was almost here and only then she would summon him, knowing he would come to check just in case it was true. It was said that cultivators had a means of testing birthright, the way regular people didn’t, and that they were very cautious about such things.

That way, when the child died at birth or immediately thereafter, there would still be enough time for the sect leader to feel guilt and to be coaxed into taking Meng Yao in as a disciple, and once Meng Yao had learned the basics of cultivation, he could make his way to his father’s place to prove to him that he was worth taking in, that it was time to make good on all the old promises he’d made.

It was a good plan, if a cold one.

It would have worked, too, if Meng Yao hadn’t blundered his way into something better.

Perhaps that was giving him too much credit: he wasn’t the one who did the blundering. That was all Nie Mingjue, who six months after he’d made a crazy promise to return had actually gone and done it.

“You live in Qinghe,” Meng Yao said accusingly instead of greeting him, because he’d gone to listen to the gossips talk until he’d managed to figure out where the cultivation sect surnamed ‘Nie’ resided. “That’s not even in this part of the country; how can you be back so soon?”

“I promised you I would, didn’t I? I keep my word,” Nie Mingjue said with a smile, as if it was that easy – as if a child could make decisions like that, ones that involved crossing mountains and rivers and going deep into another sect’s territory, when Meng Yao couldn’t even walk too far down the street without the brothel owners cursing him out as a would-be runaway. “Don’t worry about it. The Jiang sect doesn’t really pay attention as a general rule, and even if they did their current leader’s too busy with his angry wife to care about who’s traveling through his domain.”

Meng Yao rolled his eyes - he’d heard that gossip, too. But he didn’t care, that wasn’t what mattered; there were more important things to focus on. “Did you bring it?”

Nie Mingjue produced a manual out of his sleeve. The quality of the paper was far better than any of the ones Meng Yao’s mother had bought for him, and he knew at once by looking at it that this was no fake. He tried to grab at it with both hands, but Nie Mingjue pulled it back.

“Cultivation is dangerous,” he warned. “You need a guide, at least at first, to make sure you don’t make any mistakes – it’s easy to make mistakes, especially at the beginning, and that can lay the groundwork for a qi deviation in the future. I’ll let you read it, but you have to promise that you’ll only practice with me for the first week or so, okay?”

“You’re staying a week?”

Nie Mingjue’s cheeks flushed red. “Uh, well – I was planning on two, if you don’t mind…”

“Of course I don’t mind! You can stay with me in my attic.”

“I brought enough money for a room at an inn –”

“We can use the extra to buy more meat,” Meng Yao told him, already pushing and shoving him, and Nie Mingjue was easily convinced.

He was easily convinced to follow him back to the brothel, too, which was a little frustrating: how could anyone be that naïve? If Meng Yao had wanted to sell Nie Mingjue, he probably could do it, cultivator or no; there were a hundred things to fear in a brothel, hidden in the tea or the incense or the smiles of seemingly friendly strangers.

Nie Mingjue was lucky that Meng Yao had longer-term goals in mind for him.

They passed the day quite pleasantly, eating meat skewers and dragon’s beard candy and discussing the basics of cultivation – Meng Yao read the book (his book!) and asked questions, and Nie Mingjue did his best to answer them – and then in the latter part of the afternoon the women at the brothel roused themselves, coming out to prepare for their nightly work, his mother included.

She was fairly heavily pregnant now, but there were men who liked that sort of thing, as long as there was something she could do for them, and the brothel owners wouldn’t waste their money by kicking her out no matter how annoyed they were at her for keeping the child. She wasn’t allowed to roam too far out of her room, being as she was a specialized service that might frighten regular customers, and so it wasn’t until she came to find Meng Yao to make sure he was all right that Nie Mingjue saw her for the first time.

“This is my mother,” Meng Yao said, his back stiff with expected insults even though Nie Mingjue hadn’t said a single word about Meng Yao living in a brothel so far.

Nie Mingjue stared at her with eyes so big and round and surprised that Meng Yao irritably wondered if he’d never seen a whore before, or perhaps it was the idea that one might be stupid enough to get pregnant and keep it. Maybe he would save his insults for that, instead, and Meng Yao would be forced to try to break his handsome face…

“You’re the lady they sent to my father’s room,” Nie Mingjue said, his voice faint and shaking with shock. “You’re – is that my brother?”

It turned out that the Nie sect, unlike the Jin sect, cared a great deal for matters of blood and children born of it; Nie Mingjue didn’t even demand a test or anything before he’d insisted that they come back to Qinghe with him, both of them, absolutely certain that his father would be overjoyed by the news.

Meng Yao and his mother exchanged looks, each of them skeptical and cynical to the core, and tried to convince him to slow down a little. To write a letter, perhaps –

“No! You have to come right away,” Nie Mingjue insisted, his cheeks pink with excitement. “We have doctors to care for you, and, oh, he’ll need a saber, someone will need to start on that right away – and anyway, a Nie should be born in Qinghe.”

“There’s still some months left to go,” Meng Shi said, though Meng Yao could see that she was a little amused by Nie Mingjue’s earnest enthusiasm. “Tell your father to come here and take me away, if you’re sure he’ll care so much.”

“I am sure,” Nie Mingjue said. “He’s just busy at the borders again, with Qishan Wen causing trouble all over; who knows how long it’d take for him to get word? Why do we have to wait for him to come in person anyway?”

“Because we can’t leave,” Meng Yao said, finally condescending to point out the obvious. “Mother belongs to the brothel, and we haven’t saved up enough to buy her freedom.”

Even an old whore was an expensive proposition, especially if she knew skills like singing and dancing and playing instruments the way Meng Shi did – and one with a burden like Meng Yao could be exploited to do all sorts of things that a normal woman might refuse. It would be costly to redeem her, more costly than anything a young sect heir might have expected to buy.

Meng Yao had expected that to be the end of it, but he’d apparently underestimated Nie Mingjue’s stubbornness: he went to the market and sold every last piece of metal he had on him, right down to the silver crown off his head, and was about to go try to barter away his clothing or sell his strength to a dockworker when Meng Yao shoved the money he’d so carefully saved up into his hands.

“With this it might be enough,” he said, biting his lip with guilt as his mother gaped at the glittering gold in his hand – he hadn’t dared tell her about it, about the fact that he’d been saving up again. She’d told him before that there was no point in buying her freedom, that she had no other skills to sell and a bad reputation to boot; they would live free for a single summer only to have to sell her back again in the winter, and the brothel owners wouldn’t be pleased at all by that.

“It will be,” Nie Mingjue said. “Even if I have to buy the rest on credit, it will be!”

“At least be clever about this,” Meng Shi sighed, giving in even though she clearly didn’t think it was a good idea. Meng Yao supposed she figured that if it came down to it, there were brothels in Qinghe, too, and at least she’d be something new there with her soft Yunping accent and manners. “If they think you’re desperate, they’ll raise the price – you should be more arrogant. Act as if you were doing them a favor by taking me off their hands.”

Nie Mingjue’s nose wrinkled.  

“Pretend they’re surnamed Wen,” Meng Yao suggested, and that did the trick: Nie Mingjue’s lip curled at once, vicious and angry (and a little scared, but only deep down where most people wouldn’t see it easily). He marched right inside the brothel and demanded they sell Meng Shi to him, flaunting himself as the son of what he called a Great Sect.

It might not have worked except that he made such a fuss that people started to gather, including a passing cultivator and his wife – a much more respectable-looking pair than gawky too-tall-for-his-age Nie Mingjue with his hair now bound only by a ribbon, with a horsetail whip in the hands of the woman and swords on both of them – and the man’s eyebrows had gone up as high as his forehead. “Nie-gongzi,” he called, and even saluted properly and everything. “What are you doing so far from home?”

“Trying to complete a transaction,” Nie Mingjue growled, glaring at the brothel owner even as he saluted back. “I think he doesn’t think I’m good for it.”

The female cultivator snorted, shifting the baby she carried on her back from one side to the other. “That’s brave of him. Doesn’t your Nie sect like to break things that disagree with you and pay for the damages later?”

“He’s too young for that,” her husband told her. “Look, he’s not even carrying his saber yet.”

“I wasn’t talking about him,” she said. “I was talking about the retainers his father almost certainly sent to track him down – didn’t you say you saw some very angry-looking cultivators entering town not long ago? They looked fit to slaughter.”

Nie Mingjue blanched, suggesting that he hadn’t expected company quite this early – or perhaps hoping that he could hide away from them – but the cultivators’ words had made the brothel owner quite contemplative. He finally agreed to sell him Meng Shi’s contract for all the money Nie Mingjue had and a letter of promise for that amount a second time over, an outrageous price even after they’d used all of Meng Shi’s tricks on him, but Nie Mingjue had agreed to it in a heartbeat.

“Won’t your father be angry at your spending?” Meng Yao asked, wondering. It was so much money.

“I’ll make it up to him,” Nie Mingjue said dismissively. “As soon as I get my saber and start night-hunting, money flows free and easy. It’s hard to explain, but you’ll see what it’s like once you get there.”

Meng Yao blinked. “What?”

“Aren’t you going to be a cultivator?” Nie Mingjue asked, blinking at him. “You’ll be part of my Nie sect, of course, so the same rules that apply to me will apply to you.”

“No,” Meng Yao explained. “I’m going to be part of –”

His mother pressed down on his shoulder. “You’d be willing to accept A-Yao into your sect?” she asked, her gaze sharp and penetrating.

“Of course,” Nie Mingjue said, sounding puzzled. “I was willing to do it before, just for helping me out, and now, well – he’s the brother of my brother, isn’t he? That makes him all but family directly, especially if you marry in as a concubine.”

They both gaped at him.

“…do you not want to?” Nie Mingjue – hapless idiot, fulfiller of dreams – asked, actually sounding worried. “I just assumed you would, to make sure the child isn’t born a bastard…”

“I wouldn’t object,” Meng Shi said, her voice full of rich irony that only Meng Yao understood. “But I think your father might.”

“You don’t know my father,” Nie Mingjue said simply. As if it was simple, as if people were like that. “He’ll do the right thing.”

[maggotzombie]

LIEBE LIESE: ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴠɪ - 𝒰𝓃𝒹𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓈𝓊𝓇𝑒

→ CHAPTERS LIST — CHAPTER V: BOYFRIEND MATERIAL WORD COUNT: 3,8k TW: Alcohol, swearing, so much fluff. A/N: GUYS! I’M FINALLY BACK! Posting a new chapter of this fic makes it official. I’m so happy I’m able to update it, you have no idea. Also, so many great plots came into my mind while I was in this forced hiatus. Things will spice up hehehe Okay, now I’ll let you guys read it! :D HEADS UP: Dialogue between “[  ]” is in German.

“SO… THE girl,” Nik starts casually as if he wants nothing.

Oh, yeah... Very smooth, Niki. Very smooth.

He and Simon share a glance when Henry does not reply, eyes fixed on the TV.

“Henry,” Nik calls.

“Yeah?” He replies without prying his eyes off the flat screen, mildly paying attention to his brother.

“The girl,” His brother repeats.

“Hm,” Henry hums, sipping on his bear. “Who?”

“The one you’re seeing,” Simon quips in.

Now they have the actor’s full attention, but he plays it off by keeping his gaze on the TV.

“Woman,” He says, licking his lips. Giving the fact that he has actually dated girls, he feels the need to point it out. “She’s a woman,” He explains.

His brothers share another knowing look.

“So, you’re seeing someone,” Nik remarks with a grin.

Henry hasn’t said anything about Liese to any of his brothers yet. He mentioned, briefly, that he was taking someone out for dinner but that was it. And now interrogation starts, as it seems.

“What’s her name again?” Simon asks.

“I’ve never said her name,” The actor muses, finally looking over at his brothers.

Their interrogation confidence falters slightly as the tactic fails.

“Does she have white hair?” Charlotte inquires all of the sudden, coming from outside.

The man frowns, looking at her. “Yes,” He confirms. “How do you know?”

Charlie calmly reaches down on the back of his shirt. The long white hair strand is a stark contrast to the black fabric and she picks it up gently, bringing it to Henry’s eyesight. Just then he realizes that is the shirt he borrowed her after they’ve met (aka the night he ripped her dress open).

“She has a nice perfume, too,” The woman adds, getting a water bottle from the fridge and walking back out of the door.

With the most confusing expression, Henry pulls the collar up to his nose and sniffs it. Surely enough, there’s a whiff of Liese’s perfume on the fabric – giving the fact that she washed and kept the shirt with her clothes before giving it back to him. Nevertheless, it’s impressive that Charlie could pick that at all.

“How the heck did she smell that?” Henry asks, confused.

Nik and Simon shrug, both of them also impressed by Charlie’s heightened sense. “What’s her name, Henry?” His older brother now asks, joining the conversation.

“Liese,” He replies without any mystery.

“That doesn’t sound British?” Piers says.

“Yeah, her family is German,” The actor explains.

“Oh,” Nik smirks suggestively at Simon and Henry rolls his eyes.

Some cheers come from the TV but it’s long forgotten by now.

“And how old is this woman of yours?” Simon teases and the actor gives him a look, meaning he doesn’t appreciate the joke.

“She’s not mine,” He clarifies. “And, I don’t know…” Henry frowns and nips on his bottom lip thoughtfully. “But she’s a doctor. So, I’m guessing about my age.”

Eyebrows shot up in surprise. “A doctor, huh?” Nik muses.

“Yup. Pediatrician and A&E doctor,” The actor nods.

“She’s a woman, after all,” Simon grants, making a face.

“Are you sure she’s real?” Nik plays along.

Henry flips them off, something he rarely does, which makes all three of them laugh in amusement.

“Seriously,” Nik starts as he stops laughing.

“She is real,” The actor emphasizes.

“Right, Hollywood star,” He shakes his head. “Do you have any photos of her? We need visual confirmation,” Nik says.

A grin spreads on his lips. “I do, actually,” He says, fishing his phone from his pocket. “Just a few, though.”

Simon snatches the phone from his hands and Nik and Piers gather around him to look at it. They quickly locate the woman in a figure-hugging red dress with a generous cleavage amongst random photos and videos of Kal.

“This is her?” Nik looks back at Henry, not believing his eyes. “Wow.”

“Damn, she’s gorgeous,” Simon says, sliding from a smiling photo to one which she gives Henry a much seductive look.

“Is that all of it?” Nik seems disappointed when Kal shows up at the screen again. “Didn’t even have the time to properly access her.”

Piers chuckles. “Knock it off, you two,” He says before looking at Henry. “She’s beautiful, brother.”

“Beautiful? She’s hotter than all of his exes!” Nik declares.

A scowl sets on his face as he takes his phone back. “What are you boys up to?” Kiri comes into the house with the other spouses following behind.

“Still picking on poor Henry?” Charlie inquires.

“The woman he’s dating is amazing,” Nik says to the women, making a gesture to imply Liese’s boobs.

“Oooh,” Victoria says excitedly before Henry could correct his brother. “Show us the photos.”

Once again, a crowd gathers around Henry’s phone to gawk at Liese. And not only the wives, but also his brothers to take a second look at the doctor.

“Only these?” Kiri scoffs after looking at the four photos. “Are you kidding me, Henry?”

“Right?” Nik nods at his sister-in-law.

“I only took her out once, okay? And I didn’t want to spend the entire date on my phone!” The actor tries to defend himself.

“Is she nice?” Charlie asks.

The silly smile is on his face before he can stop it. “Yeah, she’s pretty amazing,” He nods.

“How do you spell ‘Liese’?” Simon asks with furrowed brows while Kiri, Niki, and Vicky look over his shoulders.

Henry’s smile faints. “What are you doing?” He asks suspiciously.

“Trying to find her Instagram,” Nik replies.

“It shouldn’t be hard with her name,” Vicky chimes in, and Kiri nods.

“I don’t know about that,” Henry narrows his eyes. “There’s a lot of people on Instagram…”

“Found it,” Simon interrupts him. “She’s ‘Liese Hartmann’ with an ‘e’ and double ‘n’, right?” He asks just to confirm but the woman in the profile picture is definitely her.

Nik chuckles slightly. “Totally German.”

“What?” The actor frowns, moving to look at his brother’s phone as well. Sure enough, it’s Liese’s profile. “Yeah, that’s her.”

With the confirmation, Simon clicks on her profile and the group of nine adults all gather around the phone screen that has become way too small. There was nothing too revealing nor pretentious – not even a bikini photo sipping on a glass of champagne in a boat. It’s actually the other way around.

There are a lot of children; both from the association and her nieces and nephews. The doctor is either wearing her scrubs or casual clothes, surrounded by said kids, friends, and family. There are a few selfies then and there and some pets. Overall, just what Henry expected to see from knowing her, even if very little.

“She’s thirty-three,” Simon says, tapping on a photo.

Liese has a birthday hat on and she’s holding a cake, blowing the number thirty-three candle on it. Henry knows it was taken in the association given the background, the kids surrounding the doctor once again, and her scrubs.

“That was last year,” Kiri points out the date.

“Well,” His brother shrugs. “I’ll take it.”

“And she’s really pretty,” Vicky remarks.

“Works a lot, though,” Nik says.

Henry shakes his head. “Alright. Are you done?” He asks them.

“She seems good with kids,” Charlie says but her comment doesn’t have the teasing tone like the others.

“Yeah. Are any of these hers?” Vicky looks back at Henry.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “No, most of them are her patients.”

“Even the blonde ones?” Simon asks. “Some of them look a lot like her. Like this little girl,” He shows a photo.

“They’re her nieces and nephews,” Henry replies with a sigh.

“Are you sure?”

“Have you met any of them yet?”

The questions are asked at the same time and the actor frowns, glaring at them.

“Alright. Enough of this,” He shakes his head, taking the last swing of his beer.

“You’re leaving?” Nik asks with a cheeky grin and his wife nudges him to stop.

“Yeah, I have some things to do,” He says, taking Kal’s lead. “Kal!” Henry calls.

“No, Henry, don’t go! I promise they’ll stop,” Charlie says, nudging his brother again to act like a grownup but Nik’s smirk is set to annoy.

“Yes, they’re done,” Piers’ smile turns into a stern look directed towards his brothers and wives, including his own.

“Thanks, sis,” The actor kisses her cheek. “But I do need to go,” He says.

Kal comes into the house trotting with the kids following behind. “Uncle Henry is leaving?” Grace asks with unruly hair for running after the dogs.

“Yeah, he’s gonna see his girlfriend,” Simon replies, picking his daughter up in his arms.

Oh, how badly Henry wants to punch him right now. But the smack he gets from Victoria is satisfying. It looks like she’s okay teasing Henry around the adults, but not in front of the kids.

“Uncle Henry has a girlfriend?” Willian asks with a weird expression.

“Lucy?” Thomas adds, beside his brother.

“NO,” The actor emphasizes quite quickly. “I don’t have a girlfriend,” He says, latching Kal’s lead into his collar. “Uncle Simon is joking.”

“What’s a girlfriend?” Harry asks, frowning in confusion as he looks at his father.

“It’s when…” Thomas starts to explain but Henry cuts him off.

“Nothing you should worry about, mate,” He says, grabbing the boy’s head and leaving a kiss on top of it. “Now give Kal and Uncle Henry a hug because we’re leaving.”

-

After working in the morning, Liese tries to relax and take a nap. But she’s too tired and with a head full to just lay in bed to wait for sleep to come.

Instead, she tries to chill out by studying. Unconventional, but what’s new to the silver-haired doctor.

Just as she’s reviewing her notes from a paper about a study on leukemia treatment, her phone starts to ring. She reaches out to the coffee table and retrieves the device.

A smile tugs on her lips at Henry’s name on the screen.

“Hey,” She smiles at him, answering the FaceTime call.

“Hello, gorgeous,” The actor greets her with his handsome smile. “I didn’t know you wore glasses,” He tilts his head adorably.

“Only for reading when my eyes decide they had enough,” The woman chuckles.

“What are you up to?” Henry asks, biting his bottom lip slightly.

“Studying a bit,” She replies and she can tell she just crushed his plans.

“Oh,” He utters.

Liese chuckles slightly. “Why?”

“Nothing,” The man shakes his head quickly. “Kal and I were just wondering if you wanted to go to the dog park with us. But you’re busy, so it’s okay.”

She laughs with mirth. “Well, tell Kal I’ll be honored to go to the dog park with him,” She says.

Henry’s smile returns to his face. “But what about your studies?” He frowns.

“It’s not like I have a test or something like that,” The woman replies, abandoning the paper on the coffee table. “I’m a doctor, love. I’ll always have to study something,” She explains.

“Okay,” He says hesitantly. “I just don’t want to get in your way.”

“You won’t,” Liese guarantees, walking towards her room. “Can I sleepover?”

“You don’t have to ask. I’ll pick you up in a few,” Henry replies.

She frowns. “Nonsense. The dog park is your neighborhood. I won’t let you drive all the way down to Brixton just to pick me up.”

“But I want to! I don’t like making you take the Tube every time you come to see me,” The man tries.

“You don’t make me, I chose to,” Liese explains. “But I’ll take an Uber if that’ll bring you peace.”

He makes a face. “It doesn’t. It actually makes me more uneasy. Just let me pick you up, please? I swear it’s nothing…” He insists.

“[No! Stop insisting! I might cave if you continue to do this adorable pout,]” The woman replies in German unconsciously.

Henry’s response is a delicious laugh. “Okay, okay,” He says. “I think I might have pissed you off right now but I hope you didn’t just cuss me.”

She chuckles, realizing the switch of the languages. “You didn’t piss me off and I didn’t cuss you,” She clarifies. “But I’ll hang up to get ready because I think Kal might get upset if I make him wait too much.”

“Oh, yes. We don’t want that,” He shakes his head and glances over Kal. “Actually, he’s already too excited. Look.”

The man turns the phone to the dog so they can see each other. A big smile takes over Liese’s face as she sees the large bear sitting expectantly in front of his owner.

“Hey, Kal! How are you doing buddy?” Liese asks and his tail starts wagging immediately at the sound of her voice. “Do you wanna go to the park?”

The well-known question makes the dog stand up in all fours and bark on the phone. Then he tries to sniff and lick the device which makes the woman laugh.

“Alright, buddy. I’ll be right there,” She says to Kal and then Henry turns the phone back to him.

“Wait! I have to ask one little thing,” He says.

Liese nods, biting her lip in concentration. “Shoot.”

“Can I go and pick you up?” A smirk grows on his lips slowly and a laugh reverberates through his chest as she rolls her eyes and ends the call without answering him.

-

“I’m just around the corner,” The woman says immediately after picking up the call.

“So, you’ll be at the door when I get there?” Henry asks.

“Probably,” She replies.

“Okay, then,” He says. “I’m walking towards the door.”

Liese chuckles in amusement as the Uber driver stops in front of Henry’s mews house. She mouths a ‘thank you’ through the rear-view mirror and steps out of the car. When the actor opens the front door, the phone glued to his ear, he makes good use of his quick reflexes to grab the giggly woman jumping to his arms.

His hands keep a strong grip on her things and he chuckles at the pleasant “surprise”. With her arms around his neck, the woman kisses his neck softly before untangling herself from him to give some attention to Kal, who’s barking like crazy. As usual, she greets the excited dog in German without sparing compliments.

Henry closes the front door and puts his phone down, looking back at the gorgeous woman peppering his dog’s face with kisses.

“I had an idea!” Liese says, straighten up to her feet. “How about we make a picnic?” She suggests excitedly.

“A picnic?” He frowns. “Baby, it’s cold outside,” He points out.

Then he realizes: while he’s wearing a T-shirt and warm sweatpants, the doctor is wearing a tank top and shorts.

“Aren’t you cold?” The man asks.

“No, I’m fine,” She shrugs off. “But I guess you’re right,” Liese nods, sounding very disappointed.

“You’re so German,” He says, shaking his head and walking towards her. “If you want to, we can have a picnic.”

Her face lights up in excitement. “Really?” She asks, looking up at him.

“Really,” Henry nods again, smiling at her.

He laughs with mirth when she, once again, jumps to his arms. “[You’re the best,]” She says in German but the actor has a good idea of what it means. “What do you have here?”

Liese moves away from him to check his kitchen, but he grabs her arm before she can go any further. “Hold on,” He says.

The woman looks back at him and he pulls her back. He reaches out to her face and seals their lips together. A small giggle escapes Liese’s mouth when she opens it to let Henry’s tongue get into it. She feels warm and tingly from the kiss and she glues her body to Henry’s, fitting perfectly to his strong and tall build.

“Hey, you,” She says quietly against his lips when they break the kiss.

“This is a proper hello,” Henry pecks her lips.

“I like it,” The woman agrees, clasping her arms around his neck and pulling for another kiss.

The second kiss doesn’t last long as Kal jumps on them, whining. Liese laughs, looking down at the bear. The man groans slightly before looking at Kal too.

“You’re supposed to help me out, pal,” He says.

“He is,” The woman says. “Why do you think I came all the way here from Brixton?” She teases.

“Oh, yeah? You can sleep with him today,” Henry squeezes her waist.

“I will. He sleeps in your bed, anyway,” She winks at him.

“Fuck, that’s right,” He laughs and Liese steals another kiss from him, but Kal paws them. “Alright, buddy.”

Liese orders the man to go get ready while she prepares something for their picnic. She organizes everything she can find into plastic containers and Henry finds a bag to put the food into and a thick blanket. An overly excited Kal gets into his leash and they finally walk out of the house.

The actor doesn’t let Liese carry the bag, so she walks with Kal.

"Did you go to work today?” The man asks casually.

“Yeah, but just for a little bit. One of my kids isn’t doing great, I went to check on him,” Liese replies.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” He sends her a sympathetic look. “Is everything going to be okay?”

She sighs and Kal looks at her worryingly, picking up the shift in her humor. “I don’t know,” The doctor shakes her head. “This disease is really hard to figure out. The immune system can start functioning again or... I don’t know,” She shakes her head again. “How about you? How was your morning?” Liese changes the subject, smiling at him.

Henry doesn’t press on the subject, instead, he smiles as well. “It was good, I had lunch at Nik’s.”

“This sounds nice,” She says, smiling wider. “Did you have a good time?”

“Yeah, I was having a good time until they started teasing me,” He shrugs off.

“Oh?” Liese looks at him, puzzled.

“Yeah,” Henry scratches his beard in thought. “They’re asking me about you and they’ve found your Instagram profile which I haven’t even seen before,” The man says.

“Really?” She grins at him. “What did they say of me?”

Henry smiles. “I believe the words used were ‘gorgeous” and ‘hot’.”

The woman frowns. “Which photo did they see to call me hot?”

“I may have shown a few from our date?” He replies with a face.

Liese’s eyes widen. “With that dress?” He nods. “Oh my God, Henry! No! They must think I’m such a pretentious posh!” She says, mortified.

He laughs. “Look at you! Speaking British!” He teases.

The woman whines and tries to push him, but Henry doesn’t budge an inch. “I’m serious!”

“You’re great, love. They don’t think that of you,” The man reassures her.

“How do you know that?” She asks with a pout.

Fuck. That’s so adorable. She’s so adorable. I’m so falling for her, Henry thinks.

“They’ve stalked your Instagram,” He starts. “They’re probably doing it again. You’re not posh at all. You’re thoughtful, you care for your patients, and you’re lovely,” The man places an arm around her shoulders, bringing her close.

Liese smiles, looking up at him lovingly. “And gorgeous and hot?” She raises an eyebrow jokingly.

“Well, that’s obvious,” He says.

The woman laughs and leaves a kiss in the corner of his jaw, which gives Henry goosebumps.

At the dog park, they set up their picnic blanket under a tree and Liese leaves the man there to play with Kal. The overly excited dog forgets his size and ends up knocking the doctor on her ass.

Henry quickly gets up, worried about her. “Kal!” He calls with a stern voice. “Are you okay?” He asks, reaching out a hand for Liese.

She giggles in response. “Yeah. I’m okay,” She takes his hand and the actor quickly pulls her up.

With a frown, he looks at his dog. “That wasn’t nice, Kal,” He chides.

“Ah, don’t scold him,” The woman says, dusting off her backside. “He’s just too excited and forgot his size,” She defends the dog, petting his head fondly. “Right, buddy?”

“You’re going to spoil my dog, aren’t you?” Henry asks, watching Kal trots beside her as she walks towards their picnic blanket.

“I’m most definitely will,” Liese nods, sitting down and looking up at him. “Wow, what a sight from down here,” She immediately says.

The actor chuckles and shakes his head, taking a seat by her side.

“Say,” She starts. “What would happen if I were to kiss the famous Superman actor, Henry Cavill, right now?” She teases.

His mouth waters and his pupils dilate immediately. “Guess we’re going to find out,” He says.

Biting her lip, Liese gets closer to him and places a hand on his cheek fondly. The kiss is short and sweet, after all, he’s in the public eye and, although the park is empty, you’ll never know if a paparazzi is lurking around.

The woman keeps her promise to spoil Kal as she gives him all the belly rubs he wants. Henry is mortified when the bear, not so kindly, pushes him away from Liese and takes his place. She simply laughs it off and kisses his pout.

After an hour or so in the park, they decide to head home. The doctor finally feels the tiredness catching up to her but she refuses to yawn while Henry excitedly tells her about a match he's gonna watch at his favorite pub next Friday with some friends.

“So, I was thinking,” Henry starts not even fifteen minutes after they got back to his place. “I know it’s too soon, but we could go out for dinner,” He suggests. “It doesn’t have to be in a fancy place, though,” Henry adds, walking from the kitchen to his living room, where Liese is. “What do you think?”

He stops talking at the sight of the sleeping beauty snuggling with Kal on the sofa.

“I guess we’re gonna order in, then,” The man whispers, grabbing the overthrown blanket on the backrest of the sofa and covering her. “You’re supposed to help me get the girl, not steal her from me, mate,” He says, patting Kal’s head.

-

HENRY CAVILL GETS COZY AND PACKS ON PDA WITH A HOT STRANGER

The 34-year-old Superman actor was seen out and about this afternoon with a mysterious white-haired woman and his dog. The couple shared a hug and a few kisses on a lovely picnic at the park.

While we do not have more information on the lucky lady, we know our beloved British Superman is back on the dating scene. Back in February, Cavill ended his relationship with stuntwoman Lucy Cork after almost a year together.

Check out the photos from the romantic picnic here.

* * *

— CHAPTER VII: BADDEST BITCH

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: January 2021

A new year but this monthly recap of media consumed keeps on keeping on! Here’s how January shaped up.

……….FILM……….

Little Shop of Horrors (1986) I’d forgotten how bonkers the ending is. Just so much fun and hopefully someday I’ll be able to check a stage production of the musical. Funny and horrifying in a way that only the absurd can be.

Time Bandits (1981) Just surreal. I wasn’t exaaaactly sure what to expect but somehow it completely delivered. I love a good fantasy picaresque. Silly and sincere but perhaps not the best pacing, I still love the whole premise and execution.

A Simple Favor (2018) In looking up what year this was released, it appears to be billed as a black comedy and...okay. It’s absolutely a weird movie and maybe putting it into a category is unfair. Some of the twists definitely feel like they’d work better in a book. I sound like I hated the movie but I mean...it kept me hooked the entire runtime, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Like I said, it’s a weird one.

……….TELEVISION……….

Chernobyl (Episode 1.01 to 1.05) Oofadoof. I mean I knew it was going to be bleak, but I wasn’t expecting the parallels to the current situation (science denial, underplaying severity due to politics, and just a general attitude of “I can’t see it so it’s fine”) to really hit home. Not for the faint of heart but really fantastic television for those that can stomach it.

Superstore (Episode 1.01 to 1.11) After Chernobyl, we needed something a little...lighter. It’s one of those sitcoms where you don’t reeeeeally need to watch them in any order, and it’s nice and light and fun. I mean I was sold on the idea that the co-lead is Ginsberg from Mad Men.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Episode 4.01 to 4.08) Across four seasons there were absolutely a couple episodes that really delivered on the premise (or at least what I had hoped from the series). Batibat! The “TV” episode! All good stuff. But the rest of the time it just felt like it both had too much going on (in the background) and not enough happening (in the foreground). And I was shocked, SHOCKED, at the implications of the very last scene. Why include this?!? Anyway I might check out the comics in the hopes that it delivers a little better.

The Bachelor (Episode 25.01 to 25.04) This season started strong, but I’ll admit that Victoria feels like a villain from the early 2000s and this past episode (where new contestants are introduced) felt like the show at its worst (mean-spirited, focusing on women fighting each other, and at the same time kinda dull). Will it get better? I mean hell if I should know. 

The Stranger (Episode 1.01 to 1.08) Solid British mystery series and Rupert from Ted Lasso makes an appearance! The season started with some...frustrating decisions being made, but the series evens out after a few episodes and most of the characters learn from their questionable decisions so overall, a satisfying watch.

……….READING……….

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (Complete) I’ve always loved Pratchett’s writing and Discworld is, without a doubt, my favourite fantasy setting. It really feels like he’s hit his stride with balancing fantasy tropes, novel ideas, his humour, and his good-natured characters. Fantastic read and I can’t recommend this series enough. If you’re looking for an alternative to grimdark fantasy, this is it.

Animal Wife by Lara Ehrlich (Complete) A beautiful collection of short stories that almost feels like a collection of long-form poetry. There’s a rhythm and musicality to each entry that is unlike anything I’ve read before. Perhaps not as over-the-top or...fun...as the cover would hint at, but it’s still a collection I 100% recommend.

Feel it Out by Jordan Sondler (Complete) While certainly not a replacement for therapy, it’s great to have a lot of general advice and support in a concise, beautifully illustrated format! Check out Sondler’s work and if it resonates, so will this book.

Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern, Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, and more (Complete) Having only seen Doctor Doom in a few cartoons and the movies, this is still my best introduction to the character and gives a glimpse as to why he’s such a good villain. It actually works well at introducing both Doctors and has a great inciting incident as to why these two join forces. Really great reread and now I want more stories of both characters!

Silver Surfer Black by Donny Cates, Tradd Moore, and Dave Stewart (Complete) Rereading this cause I love how concise, fantastical, and psychedelic it all is! This and Cosmic Ghost Rider (who I’m just learning was also written by Cates) are two of my top reads of recent Marvel stuff so I plan on checking out his Guardians of the Galaxy and Dr. Strange offerings next!

……….AUDIO……….

Off Menu (Podcast) Love the concept (interviewing mostly comedians on their ideal meal) and the hosts are excellent.

The Chernobyl Podcast (Podcast) An excellent compliment to the series and I wish more series would dive into production like this; I love a good peek behind the curtain.

……….GAMING……….

Inside (Playdead) So atmospheric and spooky and probably the upper limit for me, as far as “scariness” in games is concerned. It does a great job of changing things up and each puzzle really feels like a set piece. No filler and I’m only now just mentioning how beautiful the game is. 100% recommend.

Hades (Supergiant Games) I wasn’t sure I’d like it (Roguelike games are not my jam) but this is proving to be a loooooot of fun! Though I have a deep love of Greek mythology so there’s probably some bias creeping in. Anyway I’m knee-deep in this and am more than happy to chat about it if you’re playing as well.

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) Holiday special has wrapped up and now the group is stuck in a hive of giant insects! The longer recap is on Reddit and is chock full of hexcrawling details.

And that’s it! As always, let me know if you have anything to suggest and happy Sunday!

[xingplytwelve]

𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝟪 𝓁𝒾𝓂𝒷𝓈

Author’s Note: It’s quite funny, this prompt came to me while I was doing Muay Thai in the gym. If only I have a hot-ass instructor like zyx! Pairing: Yixing x Reader Genre/ AU: Fluff, Smut, Gym AU Rating/ Warnings: NC-17 Word Count: 4.6k 

Epilogue 

‘What the fuck, y/n! What have you been doing?!’ Your boss raged as he slammed the deck that you’ve been working on, burning the midnight oil for the past few days. You flinched at the impact of his anger, as you looked at him blankly. You did exactly what he had told you to, but he must have forgotten what he had mentioned to you, for the nth time. You had been in this creative agency for the past two years, and sometimes, you don’t even know how you managed the time you spent here. Your boss, though not the worst boss ever, but definitely not the best either. You were getting sick and tired of how you had to handle his ever-changing moods, and how he always told you one thing but expect the other. You remained silent, while your boss shouted over to your colleague, ‘You do it instead!’ She gave you the ‘he’s being crazy again’ look before acknowledging your boss, and you gave her a faint smile. Luckily for you, you knew exactly how to relief your stress through the art of the 8 limbs. Not to mention, you were also crushing on one of your instructors as well. But that’s only normal right? Who won’t have a crush on zhang yixing, the best-looking muay thai instructor around. The girls in the gym were always talking him, about how he’s the hottest and the most attractive. There were even some who joined the gym because of him. But unlike the rest who were head over heels for him because of his good looks and physique, you were secretly crushing on him because of how he’s always so focused, serious, and attentive to each and every student during classes. The way he helped and cared for the students was what caught your attention, and his looks were really just a bonus. You just couldn’t wait for the day to end, so that you can head to the gym and smash some pads, not forgetting to also take a look at yixing. 

‘Hi y/n! How are you?’ Yixing greeted the moment you stepped into the gym, as he walked past you to go for a quick break. You nodded at him as a form of acknowledgement, knowing that he was simply being courteous, greeting the regular students. Though you knew that very well, but you can’t help but to feel heebie-jeebies whenever he talked to you. Not to lie, but the way his training attire showcases his lean body was definitely breath-taking. An hour of drilling cardio ended fast, and you started to packed your things lazily, staring into space at times. You had vent out all your frustrations through the bags earlier on, leaving you with little energy to barely do anything. Very soon, you were one of the few students left in the gym, since it was getting a little late. You then gathered your remaining strength and took your belongings, heading to the changing room to take a quick shower before heading home. 

You undressed yourself, and drips of water started falling on your skin. This has got to be one of the best feelings in the world, taking a shower after a workout. As you immersed yourself in the shower, you started to think about what happened in class earlier on. As if intensity of the workout wasn’t enough for your heart, you could have sworn your pulse was racing double its pace when yixing looked into your eyes, his soft skin brushing against yours while correcting your techniques. He was simply oblivious to the effect he had on you, or rather, women in general, or so you thought. Your thoughts were interrupted when you heard a voice saying, ‘the gym is closing soon!’ You then got out of the shower reluctantly and prepared to head home, when you saw yixing stepping out of the guy’s changing room. Your heart skipped a beat, not expecting to see him still here. He gave you a charming smile, which you returned with a tight lipped one, trying to hide how flustered you were to see him dressed in casual clothes, which made him even better-looking. You left the gym quickly, and were waiting for the lift when someone tapped on your shoulder. Your heart might have stopped beating for a second when you turned around, to realise that yixing was the one who tapped on you. ‘Hey y/n, are you okay?’ He started off, leaving you puzzled at his question. ‘You were really smashing the bags just now, doesn’t your feet hurt?’ He added, pointing at your legs which were still a little reddish from the impact earlier on. You blushed a little at his attentiveness, as you answered while avoiding his gaze, ‘Just a bad day, I guess.’ ‘You wanna talk about it?’ He then asked, taking you by surprise. You were lost for words, not knowing what is the best answer you could give. You wanted to say yes, so badly, to talk to someone about your problems, and also to spend a little bit of time with yixing. But at the same time, you wasn’t sure if he was just being polite, or was he really extending an invitation to you. You didn’t want to sound silly and desperate for him, even though you were in fact, silly and desperate for him. ‘I’m actually heading for a pint of beer before heading home, do you want to come with me?’ He prompted, seeing that you’ve yet to give him a response. Oh my gosh, he’s not just being polite, you thought to yourself as you try to formulate an answer that doesn’t expose your inner thoughts. ‘I would really love to, can I?’ You answered, as you mustered up your courage to look at him, trying to hide a grin. ‘Of course! Would be nice to have some company,’ he said with a bright smile, showing off his sweet dimples.

‘You know, you’re the type of girl that I won’t expect to see in the gym,’ yixing said, as he took a sip of his beer, leaving some of it’s foam on his lips, his seemingly tasty lips. You can’t help but to stare at them, after which letting a chuckle escaped. ‘I’m sorry, what do you mean?’ You then asked, as you looked at the slightly embarrassed yixing who was wiping his mouth with a napkin. ‘I’m not going to tell you after you laughed at me,’ he responded, as his brows drew together to form a tiny frown. ‘So, what happened?’ He asked, shifting his attention to you. You wasn’t sure how did you managed to feel more at ease with his presence now, perhaps it was that he had abandoned the context of a instructor-student relationship, and the fact that you guys were just chilling at a bar like normal friends, so you started sharing more about yourself with him. You told him how your day went, and how you anticipated to hit the gym everyday just so you can get rid of your stress, leaving out the part where you actually looked forward to seeing him. Time flew past and it was getting pretty late, as yixing took a look at his watch and exclaimed, ‘I’m sorry y/n, I didn’t know it was this late already! Is your boyfriend coming to pick you up? It’s dangerous for you to go back by yourself at this hour.’ You shook your head, answering, ‘It’s fine, yixing. I didn’t realised the time too. And don’t worry, I can go back on my own, I don’t have a boyfriend.’ A familiar expression soon came into your sight, when he asked while frowning, ‘what? Why?’ Why? You knew the answer to his question, but simply shrugged it off. How could you tell him that you’ve been single because you were having a crush on him? Though you did not answer yixing’s question, he was actually pleased with it. He just had to ask, to make sure, before he make any more moves. He stood up, and yanked you off your seat by tugging your wrists. Not knowing how to response yet again, the most you could manage was a, ‘Where are we going?’ Yixing simply ignored your question, till he reached his destination. You guys were at a carpark near the gym, in front of a bike. ‘I’m sending you home, silly,’ was his delayed answer to your question. ‘You don’t have too, really…’ you mumbled, but yixing, as usual, simply disregard whatever you were saying, as he put on his extra helmet for you. ‘Oh, I see that you’re scared of riding bikes,’ he teased, as he gently adjusted the helmet to ensure that it fits you, then clipping the sides together. ‘I’m not, ok!’ Your answer came in a rush. You were always a sucker for such goads, and yixing knew exactly that. He could tell from the way you were when you had your gloves on in the gym. A small smirk appeared on his face, barely noticeable. He hop onto his bike and started the engine, while you carefully got on, placing your hands underneath the seat. 

He laughed at your actions, without you knowing since you could only see his back view. But he was determined to make your hands leave the seat, and he knew exactly how to do that. He started off slow, but soon speed up when it was on the expressways, making you tugged onto the hems of his leather jacket. You could feel your heart thumping almost out of your ribcage, at how fast he was going, instantly making you regret your answer earlier. Maybe you should have admitted that you were just a teeny weeny afraid of riding bikes. As he made a sharp drift once the roads hits a turn, you hugged his waist tightly, fearing that you might just fall off the bike if you did not do so. ‘You should have done this earlier on,’ yixing shouted, his sentence disappearing into the strong wind that was blowing against y’all. Fear soon disappeared, since you felt safer holding onto him, and you were starting to enjoy the ride back. He soon arrived at your place, and helped you to take off your helmet once you got down from his bike. He smiled, showing you his lovely dimples as he patted your head, before bidding goodbye and speeding off again. You stay put, looking at him before he completely disappear within your sight, before finally heading back home. You threw yourself down onto the couch, and replayed every single part of the night you spent with yixing in your mind. Not only did you had a proper, and in fact, deep conversation with your crush over a beer, he had also sent you home, and you had also held onto his waist so tightly. Not forgetting that you had also shamelessly exchanged numbers with him earlier on, as you took out your phone and contemplate if you should drop him a text. But what are you going to say? You started crafting your message, but edited it repeatedly over and over again. You just couldn’t think of a way to express yourself without sounding that you were overly infatuated with him. Just as you were about to give up, a notification popped up. 

Yixing Z

Don’t worry about me (if you are, even). I just reached home

You stared into your phone unbelievably, and was consumed by your own thoughts before another message appeared. 

Yixing Z

I’m guessing you’re asleep already? 

It brought you back to your senses as you quickly typed away, and finally pressing send on your carefully crafted reply, hoping that you won’t regret it. 

Y/N

I’m still awake, haha. Thank you for the night, I had a really great time just now. And thank you for sending me back too! 

Yixing Z

You’re very welcome ;) 

What does that wink even mean, you wondered as you looked at his reply. You soon head to bed, and giggled inevitably when yixing flashes in your mind again. The bad day at work turned into a great one after all, you thought, and soon drifted into deep slumber. 

Since then, you had undoubtedly gotten closer to yixing, and it was getting pretty obvious among the people in the gym. He was always disturbing you during classes, and you knew he was seldom like this to other students. You didn’t know exactly how he felt towards you, but you had always assumed it to a normal friendship that had blossomed by chance. Even so, you felt contented, and happy, that your crush had somehow became a part of your life, not only as your crush, but as a friend. This whole twist of fate was simply, bittersweet. 

You had ended work especially late this day, and since you had already brought your training stuffs out, you figured that you should probably go for the last class, even though you were pretty exhausted from the crap that you were getting from your boss. It was a rather quiet day in the gym, there were barely any students when you stepped in. Typically, there would still be a few students who would still be here, but today, you were the only student taking the last class before the gym closes. Yixing, who had just woken up from his nap, walked out of the resting room reluctantly, but a bright smile soon appeared on his face at the sight of you. ‘Ended work late?’ He asked, as he walked towards you and patted your head gently. You nodded, as you said coyly, ‘I’m so tired, let me off today ok?’ Yixing looked at you in surprise, before asking, ‘How about some light sparring today?’ You returned him with a pout, hesitant about his suggestion before finally agreeing to it since it was a good chance for you to apply the techniques that you’ve learnt during classes. ‘Great! We can take all the time in the world, I’m also the one closing the gym today,’ he added. What you didn’t know was that he actually had some other plans in mind to make full use of the empty gym, though you were pretty certain that you saw a tiny smirk escaping his lips when he ended off his sentence. 

You were sure that you were going to get owned by yixing the moment you guys started sparring. You found it hard to focus on the swift movements of his body, when all you could see was the entire universe beneath those beautiful eyes. Yixing noticed that, which he then questioned, ‘Are you okay, y/n? You’re not focusing that well.’ You nodded sheepishly, as you snapped out of your thoughts. You were getting more and more fed up as the minutes passed, no matter what you threw, be it a jab, a hook, or a roundhouse kick, yixing seemed to have predicted everything, in which he dodged all of your attacks perfectly. You, on the other hand, were unable to foresee what he was going to throw. Though he was very soft in his attacks, the fact that you wasn’t able to get a successful hit was beyond frustrating. He then threw a jab that you didn’t managed to dodge, causing his gloves to brush against your cheeks lightly which made you flinched a little. ‘Oh my gosh I’m so sorry y/n, are you alright? That must have hurt,’ he apologised, after which taking off his gloves and placed his hands on your cheeks gently, examining if you’ve been hurt by him. ‘It’s nothing, you didn’t really hit me. I’m alright!’ you replied. Your cheeks were getting heated up, and it wasn’t from the jab, but from the way he was caressing your face. In that instant, all your frustrations were gone and you actually regretted avoiding some of his attacks earlier on, if you had known that he would have done this. That was how much you were craving for his touch. ‘This will lessen the pain ok,’ he said as he stared into your eyes, before giving you a soft peck on your cheeks quickly. Your blood were streaming with hormones by his actions, your pulse racing, as your cheeks gave out how flustered you were with shades of pink. Yixing chortled at his sight, making you extra embarrassed, while your mind went into fight-or-flight mode, in which you fled. You ran off to the changing room, and looking at your reflection made you want to vanish into thin air immediately. Your body had totally given you away on how you’ve felt towards yixing, despite trying to hide it all these while. You took off your gloves and splashed a few drops of cold water on your face, hoping that it’ll ease the blush, still evident on your cheeks. Just then, you heard a knock on the changing room’s door, and yixing’ voice. ‘I’m coming in,’ was what you heard. You remained still nervously, as yixing walked towards you. He took a  few steps closer, while you took the same number of steps back, until you found yourself up against the wall of one of the shower cubicles. Great, you don’t even have anywhere to flee off to right now. Yixing had one of his hands up against the wall, while the other one on your chin, raising it up so that you’ll stop avoiding his gaze. ‘y/n ah, you’re so oblivious, do you know that?’ He started off. What does he mean by that? You thought he was the one who had zero idea of the effect he had on women. ‘I know there are many girls who were nuts over me, I just didn’t care. Because I liked you,’ he whispered, looking at you fondly. You almost couldn’t believed your ears, it was as though you were living in a fairytale, whereby the prince that the princess loved so much, loved her back too. 

Before you had the chance to even said anything, yixing had playfully lifted the lever right next to him, and warm water was soon pouring on the both of you. You shut your eyes at the impact of the water droplets, and felt yixing’s lips crashing on yours. You were now tasting his lips that was like honey, and that answers your question of how those lips would have tasted like, which had probably came across your mind countless times. The kiss was gentle and affectionate, and you found yourself getting lost in it while drips of water continued to soak the two of you. You opened your eyes the moment he parted your lips, and the sight in front of you was simply mesmerising. His rash guard, already tight-fitting, was now damped thoroughly, allowing you to see how defined his body was. Noticing that you had your eyes fixated on his body, yixing then said, ‘you’re quite a sight yourself too.’ He meant what he said, you were just as soaked as he was, and your top had sank into your skin, allowing the outline of your sports bra to be seen. You could tell that he was extremely pleased with what he was looking at. He then leaned in, tilting his head slightly as he kissed you again. You were expecting him to go soft like earlier on, but instead, he was demanding and harsh. He was literally tasting your lips, and was taking over your mouth like it was his property. You eventually gave in and returned his kisses, releasing soft whimpers along the way. As the two of you broke away, you saw a smirk on yixing’s face. He already had his hands on the curves of your waist, and his touch had set your hormones on fire. His sneaky hands were slowly creeping up to your breasts, followed by him asking, ‘May I, princess?’ You wanted to scream yes, so damn badly. You wanted him to continue whatever he was doing, leave traces of himself all over your body, and to have him inside you so bad. But the way he called you princess so delicately made you weak, causing you to only manage a nod. ‘I swear, I’ll make you feel good princess. So good, that you’ll forget everything else but me,’ he added seductively. 

You could already feel your knees weakening merely by his dirty talks, and you just couldn’t wait for yixing to take you however he wanted to. You had your hands tugging onto his rash guard, which you then helped him to remove the moment he ended his sentence. His body was simply a splendid result of his consistent workouts, his abs were so well-defined, and not forgetting his deep V lines. ‘You wanna touch it?’ Yixing asked, extremely satisfied with the way you were thirsting for him. ‘Yes… yes yixing,’ you answered softly, as you reached out for them, but your hands were gently slapped away by him. ‘You have to please me first. Take off all your clothes, now’ yixing ordered. The way yixing switched between his traits of a complete gentleman and a dominant alpha was driving you fucking insane, and you did whatever you were told immediately. ‘Good girl,’ yixing said, as he checked your naked state out, before grabbing onto your hands and placing them on his V lines, as he promised. ‘Yixing, please… take me already,’ you begged, as you bit your lips in desperation. Yixing sneered at how helpless you were, before pressing his body against yours, making sure that you felt his hardening cock, to let you know how much he wanted you, before showering you with sloppy kisses all over. You started moving your hands down his hips, when yixing whispered, his face only inches apart from yours, ‘you have the honour, princess.’ You then helped him to remove his satin shorts, pulling them down entirely with his underwear, as you watched his thick cock being released. ‘How will you like to be taken?’ Yixing asked, as he started nibbling your damp skin, his rock-hard dick rubbing against your entrance. Just as you were enjoying that, he started to suck on your nipple gently, in which you returned with a moan. You’ve yet to answer yixing’s question, which got him to pinch your other nipple that he was playing with with his fingers. You whined, as you ran your fingers through his wet hair when yixing said, ‘I asked you a question, and I expect an answer.’ ‘However you want, yixing,’ you answered breathlessly. 

Hearing that, yixing then shoved himself into you immediately without wasting much time, causing you to mewl at the impact of his length. ‘Trust me ok?’ Yixing said softly, as he gave you a light peck on your lips, before carrying you up by the underside of your thighs. You grabbed onto him naturally, and then swing your arms around him so he could have a better grip, in the position that he wants to fuck you in. Yixing then started thrusting inside you slow and gentle, making sure that you’re comfortable. Having his cock inside of you had became very much pleasurable as your clit soon got used to him. ‘Mm yixing…Keep going mm,’ you moaned right beside his ear, which you then hid your face in his neck. Yixing grinned, as he started to intensify his pace by rocking you upwards and down with his masculine arms. Your hands were starting to run wild on his bare back, your nails leaving markings of yourself and your mouth, biting into whatever was available uncontrollably. Yixing groaned as you bit into his flesh, but he clearly enjoying it. He’ll gladly take in anything, as long as it’s from his little princess. Your walls were clenching onto his dick, as you started begging yixing to go even harder. It was exactly what he had been waiting for, to fuck you rough straight up against the wall. He smirked, as he teased, ‘Is that what you want?’ You had your face up to look at him, as you nodded excessively. Yixing then gave you a heated and possessive kiss, before placing you down gently and said, ‘turn around please, princess.’ He had no idea how aroused you get all over again whenever he calls you that, as you obeyed obediently. Yixing had his arm over your stomach, preparing you for the impact as he penetrated into you in one powerful stroke. You squealed from his thrust, as you held onto his arm, your grip tightening as he continued thrusting inside you hard from behind. His name was escaping louder and louder from your lips as you grew closer to your orgasm, and had your other hand up pressing against the wall. ‘YIXING,’ you screamed in pleasure the moment you felt tingling sensations all over your body, and yixing wasn’t too far behind as well. He went even faster, while you were still trying to catch your breath from your high, the sound of his hips slapping against your butt cheeks were nearly as loud the splashes of water that hit the floor. ‘Ahh,’ yixing moaned, and you felt him filling up your insides with his thick, hot cum. He rested his chin on your shoulders for a few seconds, hands running up and down your curves while the two of you overcome your euphoric state, before planting a soft kiss on your nape as he took a few steps back. He took your hand, turning you around so that you were facing him. Tucking your damped hair back so that he could see the whole of your face, yixing then explained, ‘A hot girl like you in a martial arts gym full of boys, I’m a lucky one, aren’t I.’

‘Oh, so that was what you meant back then,’ you answered, as you tried to pinch his cheeks but had your hands slipped off from his wet skin. Yixing chuckled, as he pressed on the shampoo dispenser, and started applying them on you. You were extremely sweeten by his gesture, and noticing that, yixing then said, ‘when I call you princess, I really meant it, ok. It’s not a this only happens during sex kinda thing. Unless you don’t want to be mine?’ You looked at him in disbelief, how could this man even had thoughts like this going through his mind when he had just fucked the hell out of you. ‘Haven’t you just had me already?’ You answered, as you started poking his chest with your forefinger shyly. ‘I want to hear it coming from you,’ yixing said in a firm tone, as he tugged onto your wrist. He had made you giggled like a little girl, as you added, ‘I’m yours, yixing, all yours.’ ‘That’s more like it,’ yixing answered in delight, placing his forehead on yours as he gave you a peck on the tip of your nose. As you attempted to give him a hug, the slippery wet floor had given you the chance to fall into his arms. If he haven’t caught you perfectly, you probably would have been kissing the floor then. ‘Wow, you’re so eager to be mine huh?’ Yixing laughed, holding onto your arms to prevent you from slipping again, as you simply hid your face in his chest in embarrassment. ‘You’re hella cute when you’re shy,’ yixing confessed, before adding, ‘stay over at my place tonight ok?’ You nodded, and you could have sworn hearing yixing said, ‘maybe we could have another go at it, clean and dry this time.’ 

[popculturebuffet]

House of Mouse: Mickey and the Culture Clash (Commission by WeirdKev27) or “What the Hell, Clarabelle?”

Hello, hello, hello... I wish I could say I was in good spirits but i’m tired, have covid induced chills running down my spine.. and oh yeah there was an armed insurrection i the captial last night that showed just how broken this country was. And while Monster Bash would still be relevant... I couldn’t do it. I admit to being unable to do an episode where the millitant racist nutjob who harms people runs off into the night, and does much worse in later episodes, while the people she harassed are arrested the night after a bunch of millitant, racist, sociopathic, selfish nightmares sieged the captial, killed a woman, raised the fucking maga flag over the buildling and took pictures like they were goddamn heroes.  We got a stark reminder, not a wake up call, not an opening a REMINDER of just how badly broken our country is last night, and it wasn’t till this morning I found out just how BAD it was. The deaths, the flag, the fact josh fucking hawley, MY STAT’ES SENATOR and registered piece of shit, raised  A FUCKING FIST IN SOLIDARITY, which gives me the crippling fear his stupidity and unabashed racisim and support of a cou could mean riots at best and attempted uprisings at worst and who knows what kind of hate crimes against those of color and those in my own queer community. I am afraid, tired, and I am pissed and I feel we could ALL use something wholesome, warm and far removed from the shit going on. And in my hour of need to figure out something like that to put on the schedule.. Kev brought up a wonderfufl idea.  Every month this month till the end of it Kev is going to comission one episode of a show near and dear to both our hearts that has it’s 20th birthday this month. House of Mouse. He was intitally going to request Pete’s One Man Show, which is one of my faviorites, but was ironcially one I already planned to cover next month to celebrate both the show’s anniversary and Pete’s Birthday. But since he was happy to wait till then to comission it, he instead asked for another classic and one with easily my faviorite character on the show: Moritmer Mouse. 

One of the best things House of Mouse did was bring back Mortimer Mouse. Introduced in Mickey’s Rival, Mortimer was an ex of minnies who showed up for one short to be a dick to mickey before running off and leaving Minnie at the mercy of a bull he pissed off. He also weirdly kept electrodes and a car battery in his pants. The short itself is.. not great mostly because Minnie dimissies Mickey rightfully being pissed someone is hitting on his girlfriend in front of him, making jokes at his expense, and generally being a pillock as being jealous... which yeah, yeah he is. Most of the time jealousy and supscison of your partner is ugly, gross and damaging to a relationship.  You should trust them unless you’ve been given good reason not to, and if your paranoidly jealous about every friend she has she could be attracted to.. get some fucking help. Seriously, I need to, not for this for various other problems, but get some therapy to help with your trust issues or if your just being the kind of dick who naturally assumes men and women or men and men or women and women or men and nonibinary persons, or women and nonbinary peeps and so on and so on cannot be friends if they could possibly be togehter romantically... grow up.  I say all of that because those are serious underlying issues and I didn’t want it to seem like for a moment I was supporting them... and because sometimes i’ts OKAY to be jealous, to either just feel a little jealous of someone, or to you know be irate because your girlfriend’s ex is hitting on her in front of you and she’s being entirely receptive to it. 

So yeah i’ts really hard to feel bad for minnie’s bull attack or find the ending sweet after Minnie was you know, what ramona said for an entire short. However my point for this rant, besides giving out about the short again because I clearly didn’t enough in my Mickey Birthday Special, is that Mortimer is still pretty great. He’s a frat bro in the 40′s sense sure, but the idea of a local douche hoping to swoop in and woo minnie away, who has an oddly specific sense of humor and a bizzare, memorable and wonderful walk, seriously the short is worth watching for mortimier’s “I got two car batteris in my pants’ walk, is a good one. While he’d naturally show up in comics and what have you Mortimer just sort of vanished. But clearly someone on the House of Mouse staff, and Mousewerks before it, agreed because Morty was made easily one of the best and most recurring characters in the HOM, and often more prominent than Horace or Gus. While he still tried his old “I’m gonna do your common law wife act” a few times he was mostly there to be an annoying douche when the ep needed one and to be taken down a peg by everyone in the house. And that VERY MUCH includes Mickey. That’s also part of why I love this show bringing him back: It gives Mickey someone besides pete to give out too on a regular basis. He’s still his charming self about it but it’s lovelyt os ee Mickey sarcastically roast someone. And I honestly attribute the main factor of his sucess on the show to VA Maurice LaMarche. While his original VA, Sonny Dawson, was fantastic.. it’s Maurice who very clearly made the character his. While others like Jeff Bennet have taken over since i’ts Maurice who gave him his signature “ha-cha-cha” catchphrase, swagger and signiture voice. And no i’ts not lost on me that one of Maurice’s OTHER best roles is another cartoon mouse.. and I now very badly want him to meet Pinky and the Brain. But yeah, Maurice just oozes the smarm that defines mortimer for me, oozes condescinon and assholery and he, is., glorious. He was a faviorite as a kid, he’s a faviorite now, and Disney needs to use him more.. and also have Maurice voice him for wonderufl world of mickey mouse, though Jeff Bennett is not bad at all I just prefer the master at the role. 

So obviously, after the nightmare of an evening america had yesterday, an episode not only about how wholesome mickey and minnie are but about Mickey teaming up with Mortimer was EXACTLY what i needed. So pitter patter, this is Mickey and the Culture clash. As always for house of mouse i’ll be chonking it up and since this one starts right with the wraparound, and sicnce you know I spent a godo few pagraphs going over mortimer and he’s only IN the wraparound this episode... let’s start there

Mickey and the Culture Clash: Don’t Go Changin, To Try and Please Me So we open the episode and the review proper with Mickey performing a banjo sernade for Minnie, their song in fact. It’s a really sweet scene.. that’s quickly ruined by Clarabelle being an asshole, who says i’ts a bit crude. Minnie counters that while “It’s not mozart”, it’s nice and she clearly likes it and the gesture. Instead of you know leaving it there like a good friend, like she’s SUPPOSED to be to Minnie in most continuities, Clarabelle.. takes the things she said and her having to run out to wrangle pluto out of context, painting it as her thinking he’s not sophisticated and then running out because of it. Oh and she tops it by pointing to a classified add from a MM looking for sophisticated companionship. 

It just paints Clarabelle not as Minnie’s friend or a chatty gossip, but as a heartless bitch who has no trouble implying one of her best friends would cheat on her boyfriend TO HIS FACE, and is fine wrecking a perfectly lovely relationship just to have more to talk about. Seriously she starts gossiping to everybody on top of it just in case you thought Clarabelle was a decent person in any shape this episode. She’s the one thing about this episode that dosen’t work despite being integral to it.. well two but hte other thing is a small, end of episode gag we’ll get to. This.. this is an integral part of the plot. It also relies on Daisy and Donald being absent for the episode for what I can only assume is their annual sex decathalon because otherwise the second she heard about her friend doing this, before reassuring Minnie, Donald would be holdiing her while Daisy beat the absolute shit out of her for hurting thier closest friend and not bothering to take a look into anything when leveling such a rough accusation at Minnie. In a really stellar, really well paced episode, Clarabelle being so heartless stands out. It’s also, might as well get this out of the way, teh final episode not inlcuding the two holiday specials.. and it’s a good note to go out on otherwise, I just can’t ignore the obnoxious cow in the room.. in both senses of the word. 

So yeah Mickey’s trying to be fancy, and Mortimer gets a good dig in about him reading “You having trouble sounding out the words”, but once he hears what’s going on, or rather once he realizes mickey things Mortimer’s personal add is in fact his girlfriend cheating on him, he decides to help Mickey. And to his credit for this con.. Mortimer actually thought things out on how to trick his rival, and his plan here is douchey as hell but incredibly genius: he offers to help mickey and while that’d normally be suspcious he offers a genuine, and very mortimer explination for helping him become a bit more sophisticated to win minnie back: if Minnie finds a handsome, sophisticated guy to date, what chance does MORTIMER have against that? At least with Mickey, in his deluded egocentric view of things anyway, he has a shot at beating him. 

So Mickey classes it up a bit, taking some sopshitcated stances when announcing and trying to woo minnie by talking in ye olde english. When that fails, she just finds it silly but charming, Mickey finds Jose.. hitting on her.

Just.. I expect better from you man. Woo ladies all you like as long as your respectful but I expect better than to hit on someone else’s girlfriend.. which granted he has but given the last time we saw him do that, he nearly got stabbed a bunch and the last time he agressively hit on a woman he got punched in the beak as he should, you’d THINK he’d of learned something. Seriously once again Donald is only missing because this time Daisy would be holding Jose down while Donald hit him. Or possibly they’d take turns. Point is Jose REALLY shoudln’t be doing this and knows better.. marginally. But.. it is in character enough so ti’s not as bad as Clarabelle the homewrecker. 

So Mickey tries being fancy and goes on to do poetry instead of letting O’Malley and the Alley Cats play.. which is a nice running gag the series does as they NEVER get to play.. which while funny is a shame since I love the Aristocats. So then we finally get what Mortimer’s been playing at, he swoops in, claims MICKEY dosen’t need HER, and uses the same personal add to trick her. See, while what Mortimer’s doing is vile.. unlike clarabelle I can repsect it at least. I don’t condone it and i’m glad he gets foiled.. but as a bad guy plan it’s pretty clever and for someone like Mortimer whose usually pretty incompitent.. it’s pretty suprising he could pull this off. It’s still pretty damn low and scummy, no question, but props to being able to outwit and nearly outplay two people who deal with your crap on a regular basis and still convincingly conning both.  Thankfully while he tries to take Minnie out Mickey, in a great visual gag, puts two and two together, and busts out their song, with Mickey and Minnie heartwearmingly reuniting on stage as seen above. Then we get that gag I mentioned not liking: Mickey gets Morty back by planting a false marriage proposal from Moritmer to Clarabelle, again under MM and he gets carried off.. HAHA HE’S BEING FORCED INTO A MARRIAGE HE DOSEN’T. LAUGH. LAUGH AT IT. The gag just really hasn’t aged well, as otherwise it’s clever Mickey used Mortimer’s own trick against both him and the person who caused all of this but really.. Clarabelle gets no real compuance. At worse sshe finds out she was tricked.. but she again you know tried to break up her close friends relationship for shits and giggles. But .. it’s at the very end of the episode and very easy to ignore, so it dosen’t really bother me too bad, and compared to some gags of the type i’ve seen, it could be MUCH worse.  Overall this wraparound is one of the series best and a good one to go out on. it has a simple premise, a brilliant antagonist plot, some great bits from all involved, and even a great Belle and Beast cameo. All in all a really good wraparound only hampered by a sexist and dated ending and Clarabelle being portrayed as ...

She’s the worst, in the world. Okay onto the shorts.

Mickey’s Piano Lesson: That was a Fun One

It really was. It’s a simple premise: Minnie wants MIckey to do a piano recital and he decides “I don’t need practice i’m mickey mouse. “ And it’s REALLY nice to have a short that has, rather than aw shucks mickey, shenanigans mickey. While thanks to the new shorts we’ve had tons, it’s still nice to get one in the House of Mouse era, and it’s just fun to see Mickey take the usual donald roll of letting his overconfidence punch him in the face> It fits both though: Both are everyman and while I lean towards the duck, to no one’s shock, Mickey is just as capable, and his lack of practice comes off less like the angry and hostile way donald would dismiss it and mroe just loveable procastination. And as someone who REALLY struggles with procastination I related to this short, as Mickey does everything else he’d rather do from bathing the dog to skydiving till Minnie, in a great bit informs him everyone from the president, to several dignitaries from other countries, to a televised audience will see. We then get two really great and really beatuifully animated bits as MIckey wrestles with the notes on thep age then fights with his piano as he performs, still pulling it off but destroying the thing and rightfully earning a glare form his girlfriend. Just a fun, slapstick short with a great premise. 

Dance of the Goofys: Scary Children Set to classical music, this one has a bunch of goofys as Fairy’s, who are making the flowers go and the one who sleeps in ends up saving the king from a horrifing looking little brat. He reminds me of Montanna Max a bit.. speaking of which Creer Summer recnetly announced Elmyra won’t be in the reboot. And while this does make me fear actually good characters like Fifi, Montana Max, and more will be cut like the animanics reboot and I do feel for Cree not getting to be involved and hope they find another roll for her as, given her status in the industry she deserves better.. THANK FUCKING GOD. I’ll go into this in another review I have planned for the future but unlike the cuts made to animaniacs this was a REALLY good decision i’m really greatful for. Thank you crew thank you. 

Back on topic, it’s just a fun, really beautifully animated short about the goofies and hteir shenanigans with a really great high concept. 

Maestro Minnie: Brahm’s Lullabye: Simply Irresitable Another simple but clever and lovely to watch one, and one I like quite a bit more. Minnie is conducting some living violins to Brahm’s Lullabye to get a baby Violin to sleep, and we get some really beautiful shots of her as she does so.. only to get comically interuppted by other insteruments turning up the noise. Not much to say on this one as it’s short and simple.. but sometimes short and simple is just what you need and the fun premise nad really beautiful especially for tv animation at the time visuals really sell this one.  ONce again, good stuff. 

Overall: This was a REALLY good note to go out on. While as I said the Clarabelle stuff can eat my entire ass, everything else is really damn good and I highly recommend checking this one out. Next time, in about a month, we’ll be looking at Pete’s spotlight episode for his birfday. While you wait tommorow we have my first look at legend of the three cabs. But for now, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

[gothwarlocks]

17. How were you introduced to the fandom? 25. What type of ship would you fly? and 30. Do you have any headcanons (was thinking of how you've talked about the underground scene in SW but this can be about anything)?

thank you Raven!! 🖤🥰

Placing under a cut bc I ended up rambling a lot! It’s a long post.

17. How were you introduced to the fandom?

I didn’t actively participate in any true Star Wars fandom for a while, actually. When SWTOR launched in 2011 I was about 16 and hadn’t had great interactions with SW fans since the majority I bumped into were gatekeepy cishet men, and being a closeted gay trans kid... lol, you get it. I mostly just chatted with irl friends about stuff I was excited about. And also, the fandom wasn’t really established too well on here yet, so there’s that. I would peek around tumblr occasionally but short of a couple people chatting about it or posting fanart there wasn’t a sense of community yet (at least, from what I saw).

In 2010 though, idk If anyone will know about this at all but if you ever heard of Clone Wars Adventures I was very very present there haha. I interacted with mostly other teens or the occasional chill adult that was there for some reason (this was a very...kid-oriented online game). I was hounded a lot by other players bc I would always be top 5 on the leaderboards for a couple of the silly little minigames :) it was really fun, actually! I would log on and since you can see peoples’ online/offline status, I would get messages within minutes from players wanting to challenge me to a 1v1 of some sort lol. There was also instanced housing, and there was more free reign on building stuff, so people got really creative. I myself built a functioning cantina/music venue on the roof of my Coruscant apartment (which should not have been reach-able lol) that was sometimes used for group chilling.

If anyone ever is interested, look up some videos. The things players would build and boundary-break to do is very cool lol. Once SWTOR launched though, players that had formed friend groups or guilds just migrated there. It was interesting to see!

25. What type of ship would you fly?

HMMM there are so many ships around in the EU lol. Almost too hard to narrow it down... When I was a kid I was obsessed with A-wings, X-wings, and Naboo starfighters. From SWTOR, I think my favorite ship is either the Phantom, for it’s sleek and elegent design, or the smuggler’s freighter, for it’s cozy and communal atmosphere.

30. Do you have any headcanons?

Oh yeah!! Like you mentioned I do love thinking about subcultures in the galaxy and expanding on that, but here’s a few for SWTOR and EU(?) that I enjoy:

(Sorry in advance for how many run-on sentences there are and if anything just sounds harebrained lol. CW for talk of transition, I suppose!)

Dathomirian Zabraks in the Old Republic Era... I just accept that their witchy culture(s) have existed for millennia, but were just very isolationist and did their best to remain undetected from the rest of the galaxy--different groups could have had other policies though. The group portrayed in CW could be maybe the last group to survive, or something like that (since in Jedi Order it’s presented like that, right?). Anywho, as a matriarchal culture that unfortunately enslaves Zabrak men, I think they would have a unique take on gender. I think trans women/trans feminine people would be wholly embraced and exalted as having “ascended” out of the male lower caste for discovering who they really are, and trans men/trans masculine people would be, well, not so cherished(?) having--and I say this as a trans man--“lowered” or “belittled” themselves. The witches can change/enhance body shape through magic, as seen with Maul and Savage. So I imagine they would help trans people that want to physically transition to help fit them into the social roles they were always meant to have, and beyond that there isn’t much to blink at. I headcanon Lorn still has the skin pigmentation of a Datho witch (and he retains some of their powers), but his tattoos are given to him by fellow Zabrak men and his horns and other body characteristics are given to him through witch rituals. And as for non-binary Dathomirian people, I would hope they just have the choice to belong to either the witch clans or Zabrak tribes. I’d love to hear a non-binary person’s take on this, to be honest 👀

Rattataki should have little to no sexual dimorphism, and they could stand to look more...alien. (Plus, they desperately need lore-building.) I just think of all the species they could have done this for out of the game, this one could have been it.

I also just absorb and adopt a lot of HC’s I see going around for all sorts of stuff, here’s a few of my fav that aren’t my own:

Twi’leks having headgear designed for trans or gnc twi’leks to help them express themselves. Also lekku accessories in general are very cute and fun to think about.

Cathar behaving a little bit feline... In cute ways :)

Togruta with sharp teeth and montrals that can grow into all sorts of forms!

Sith Purebloods having black sclera and pointed ears is a pipe dream of mine but it’s cool if they don’t given their integration with Humans.

[arysthaeniru]

✨ and 💢 for botw!!

✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it?

I’m constantly intrigued by the themes of legacy and growth that happen over and over again in Breath of the Wild? The main storyline is filled with themes of legacy, especially since all the Champions (except Teba, because the Rito are woefully incomplete as a section) are in the shadow of the former, dead Champions, and a lot of their story is coming to meet the weight of the past that has marked itself physically into the landscape? Rising to meet the memories and idolizations of martyrs and dead people. That’s basically one of the main basis of my research project as a PhD student: the weight of memory in people, but especially how it manifests in physical locations.

I also think that Link having amnesia is such a fascinating look at legacy of the self. I often feel overwhelmed by the expectations my past self had for me, and of course, Link’s journey is different. He’s literally forgotten who he was before, but I feel like a different person every year, and living up to the weight of your past failures is both daunting and freeing all at once, and Link is a fabulous little exploration of that? I constantly think about the joyless, stern Link we see in the flashbacks, and the stupidity of being the player and trying to find joy in the present? It’s a silliness that comes from knowing failure, and that’s fascinating to me.

It’s also just such a soothing, calming world to explore and filled with little secrets and funny NPCs. The music design is wonderful and minimal, and the scenery is consistently pretty. There’s something very beautiful about the world after the apocalypse in Breath of the Wild, and finding life in the ruins and making something new, just because you must, is such a theme that’s near-and-dear to my heart (which is why Diurnal Ending constantly makes me weep.) 

I find the korok secrets some of the most delightful little motivational goals? In terms of game design, the shots of dopamine come frequently and are usually quite fun to wrangle into place, but unlike other collect-a-thon games, the korok seeds are actually useful for later gameplay. It’s a masterpiece not only of world design in general, but game design too. 

The awe of coming across a dragon for the first time is like nothing else. The whole thing you do on Mount Lanayru is a genuinely breathtaking sequence.  

💢 what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it?

As they always do in Zelda games, the Gerudo have...weird, almost racist undertones to everything about them. Their outfits are stupid and overly horny, and the whole sequence of Link finding a disguise to get in is dealing with some BAD trans stuff. The fandom has done their best to make Link chill or make it better by making Link non-binary or trans! But it doesn’t change the fact that the person he gets his Gerudo clothing from,Vilia, is a bad trans stereotype. I also think about the fact that every Gerudo you meet who’s looking for love is actually deeply unsatisfied with whoever they find is awful? It’s get that it’s supposed to be funny, but it’s a weird message about settling that’s only applied to the brown women. Even though I LOVE the two main characters we get, Urbosa and Riju, the rest of it is...questionable. 

In terms of bigger structural problems, I think Breath of the Wild’s main plot is....barebones at best? The Rito and the Gorons are not really fleshed out at all. The Rito especially have been shafted, since you end up knowing NOTHING about the current-day champion, Teba, and his problems. You do nothing in the Rito area in the build-up to fighting the Divine Beast, like you do in the other regions. It’s just often very rote and dull when you get to the plot, which is...sad? It means you just want to get the main plot stuff over with, so you can go back to the good gameplay and world design in the rest of it. 

And even when they try very hard with plot, the Zora area is FILLED with boring, stupid dialogue that’s horribly telegraphed? At one point, one of the old Zora that hates you, Muzu, points out that it’s deeply convenient you get back your memories of fish-wife being in love with you when you’re trying to get him to help you with your mission, and I have to say, I 200% agreed with him! My god. None of the Zora section makes sense! They’re very old and stuck in their ways, everybody there hates Hylians, they can breathe in the water and in the air, because they’re amphibians. Why the FUCK do the Zora care about the dam breaking and the Divine Beast flooding Necluda? The only one that should care should be Sidon, and it should be you and Sidon doing your own thing against the express wishes of the rest of the Zora council. That would contribute to the theme of growing to meet the legacy of the Past Champions: doing the right thing even when it’s hard. This is not a difficult thing to realize, but it’s very clear that the development team did not care very much about the plot of this game. 

I think the memories are repetitive and kind of dull too, and if you think about it too long, make absolutely no sense. How the hell did Zelda take a picture of Kara Kara Bazaar that’s completely empty, it seems to be a bustling world in her time too? When did she have time to take a beautifully serene picture of the Bottomless Swamp as they were running for their lives from the Calamity? Why does Impa seem to pretend that these were carefully selected memories that Zelda left for you, instead of random pictures left over from before that might jog your memories? If Zelda knew you were going to have amnesia after your time of slumber, why the hell is everybody else surprised by it???? 

This game is not perfect by any means. But what it does right, it does INCREDIBLY right, so I just seethe about these things I hate, and try to write fic to fix it xD 

[nerianasims]

Billboards #1 1964

Under the cut.

Bobby Vinton – “There! I’ve Said It Again” -- January 4, 1964

*sob* This song is so bad. Is there even a beat at all? It's so slow. It should not be so slow. Vinton sounds both self-satisfied and whiny. It's a love song, I suppose, but this doesn't sound anything like love to me. It sounds like it was created by the Moral Majority. Help, I need someone.

The Beatles – “I Want To Hold Your Hand” -- February 1, 1964

Yeah, I did that on purpose. It's fashionable to hate on The Beatles these days, but I will not be joining in. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" is not one of their best songs, but if I'd been there at the time, I'd have been screaming my head off for them too. After going through the past couple years of hits, I feel ready to scream for them now. There's a beat. There's forward motion. There's understanding how to sing a song. That wasn't totally lacking on the charts until them -- Ray Charles, after all, and some others -- but what a wasteland it's been generally. The bad stuff has been so very, very bad. Anyway. "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" -- okay song today, but pure oxygen in 1964.

The Beatles – “She Loves You” -- March 21, 1964

This is one of my favorite songs. "Hey idiot, this great girl you thought you lost due to your idiocy still loves you." Implied: Either you go on her knees to get her back or I go after her. And it doesn't sound anything like any #1 I've covered so far. Major interesting bassline, great harmonies, good drums, guitar, everything lines up perfectly.

The Beatles – “Can’t Buy Me Love” -- April 4, 1964

What else is there to say at this point? It's good. It's true. It's romantic. It's fast. McCartney knows how to sing. Notice that none of these three hits in a row are heartbreak songs? There have been way too many of those on this list, and most of them were bad. These songs are happy, and not fake happy. They're driven. They're alive.

Louis Armstrong – “Hello, Dolly!” -- May 9, 1964

The person to finally kick The Beatles down the charts was one of our greatest homegrown artists. It's like people had finally woken up after Bobby Vinton's horrible song in January. Not Louis Armstrong's best, but it's Louis Armstrong. So it's thoroughly enjoyable.

Mary Wells – “My Guy” -- May 16, 1964

Motown is well and truly here. I adore this song. It's sweet without being cloying, the beat is fun, and of course Mary Wells is amazing. And as a woman whose taste in men has never matched up with what I'm supposed to find attractive, and has taken a lot of crap for that, I connect with the song personally.

The Beatles – “Love Me Do” -- May 30, 1964

I think this is the worst of the Beatles' hits so far. Which doesn't make it bad. The harmonica's great. But the lyrics are kinda, well, dumb. Thankfully they're dumb and cheery, not dumb and doleful like so much I've covered.

The Dixie Cups – “Chapel Of Love” -- June 6, 1964

Earworm alert. That hook is a killer. The song gets at the overwhelmed, slightly stunned happiness that comes from getting married. We went to city hall, not to the chapel, but the feeling's the same. I can't say whether I like the song exactly -- the hook is so overpowering, it doesn't really give you a chance. It's in your head now, forever.

Peter & Gordon – “A World Without Love” -- June 27, 1964

The narrator doesn't have a girlfriend so he's going to hide in his room until his true love shows up. Or maybe he was dumped by his true love and therefore is going to hide? It's not very clear, which is unusual for a song written by Paul McCartney. But there's a reason he gave it to someone else. It's actually a fine song, good harmonies, good beat, very teenage sensibility without being annoying. Not too special after the last six songs though.

The Beach Boys – “I Get Around” -- July 4, 1964

I can never hear this without picturing the 1986 film Flight of the Navigator. As usual with Beach Boys songs, the music is excellent and the lyrics are deeply dumb and repetitive. So it's a fun song, but not one I go out of my way to listen to.

The Four Seasons – “Rag Doll” -- July 18, 1964

Gah Frankie Valli's falsetto again. Also it's overproduced. This guy loves a poor girl but his father says nope, she's a poor so you can't marry her, and he just accepts it. I really don't like anything about The Four Seasons.

The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night” -- August 1, 1964

My mom and I once rented the movie A Hard Day's Night, and were surprised at how fun it was. (She was a little young to experience the full force of Beatlemania when it hit.) The song written for the movie: Also very fun, and good, and sexy. "But when I get home to you I'll find the things that you do will make me feel all right." Things sure changed fast in 1964.

Dean Martin – “Everybody Loves Somebody” -- August 15, 1964

Dean Martin was constitutionally incapable of being serious. Sometimes his smarm worked. Not here. It could be worse, but it could be a lot better. I'd have been much happier if it had been just about anyone else's version, though Peggy Lee's is my favorite.

The Supremes – “Where Did Our Love Go” -- August 22, 1964

Have you noticed how good pop music suddenly got? It's not just The Beatles. This is a heartbreak song without a hint of schmaltz. It makes you feel better, not worse, and you can even dance to it. But it's still sad. Motown was amazing in its heyday.

The Animals – “The House Of The Rising Sun” -- September 5, 1964

I've loved this song since I was a kid. And I understood it; "gambling causes ruin" is perfectly comprehensible to an 8-year old. It's dark and real, and Eric Burdon's voice and singing give me chills. The keyboard is like nothing I've heard on this list before. I think this might be goth. It's something great, anyway.

Roy Orbison – “Oh, Pretty Woman” -- September 26, 1964

I hate the movie Pretty Woman. A lot. This song became a hit again when the movie came out. Obviously I associate this song with that movie. So I don't have an opinion about the song that's separate from a movie I hate and that Roy Orbison had nothing to do with. I'm passing on this one.

Manfred Mann – “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” -- October 17, 1964

Two number ones in a row about a pretty woman walking down the street. They sort of sound similar in parts too. Anyway, pretty woman walking down the street singing nonsense, narrator ends up making out with and then getting engaged to her. It's silly, and it's okay. "Okay" has a much higher bar than it did just last year.

The Supremes – “Baby Love” -- October 31, 1964

I have a problem with The Supremes, and it's that their first four #1 hits have exactly the same subject matter, and that subject matter is being in love with a man who no longer loves them. After this list, I'm sick of heartbreak songs, and they were never my favorite anyway. Four love songs in a row and I'd have been happy. Dance songs, ditto. But if we must have heartbreak songs, can we have a little righteous anger too? Not just plaintiveness? Anyway, "Baby Love" is a Supremes song, which means if you hear it far apart from their other songs, it's great. When I hear them together like this, though, the formula gets painful.

The Shangri-Las – “Leader Of The Pack” -- November 28, 1964

I hope this song was meant to be funny, because I find it goddamn hilarious. How'd she meet a bad boy whom she knew was sad at the candy store? I like the message that you shouldn't dump your boyfriend solely because your daddy tells you to. But I don't think there's any intended message here. I think it might be a song making fun of the 50s motorcycle bad boy aesthetic and all those "girlfriend/boyfriend died" schmaltzfests people suffered through.

Lorne Greene – “Ringo” -- December 5, 1964

A baritone spoken word piece about a Western outlaw. I doubt it would have gone anywhere if Ringo Starr hadn't been named Ringo. It's probably good for its genre, since Lorne Greene was a good actor, but I can't tell.

The Supremes – “Come See About Me” -- December 19, 1964

It doesn't sound like a heartbreak song, but of course it is. And a super severe one; she gave up all her friends for him, and then he left her too. But she still wants him back. Eesh. Of course Diana Ross doesn't sound sad singing it, because she never sounds really sad singing these songs. The technique obviously worked, but the more I think about it, the more I don't like it. It's a really good song. And not for me, now that I've actually thought this much about it.

The Beatles – “I Feel Fine” -- December 26, 1964

A sitar has been spotted! Anyway, he and his baby are in love, and he brags about buying her diamond rings. The Beatles never had any shame about buying the women in their songs stuff to make them happy. I like that. And I like this song.

BEST OF 1964: "My Guy". Yep, not a Beatles song. This is thoroughly subjective, after all. But what a lot of great songs there were this year, and how relieved I am to be able to say that. WORST OF 1964: "There! I've Said It Again", overwhelmingly.

[golddaggers]

untouched || chapter two

gif’s not mine!

pairings: alpha!thor/omega!reader, mainly, some thor/natasha and natasha/reader (friendship guys).

warnings: just a whole lot of fluff, thor acting as a father figure, mentions to arousal, but eh, nothing explicit, don’t need to worry about people behind ya! haha

a/n: i know. two fucking months to get this out. but life has been so so so messy and i got that writer’s block bad guys. it’s here though, i sincerely hope it was worth the wait!

word count: 7,8k+

song to this chapter: delicate by taylor swift

A gush of cool air ripples across the room, stirring Feisty awake yet again that morning, her achy body groaning in pain when she curled under the sheets, seeking warmth, gripping the pillow that still smelt like him. Petrichor strong in the back of her mouth. It soothed her, pinning her down to the room, bringing joy to her eyes.  

Thor, unfortunately, was no longer there. He had left a little past five am and despite doing everything to keep quiet, Feisty jolted awake with the lack of him nestling her in his arms. The lack of his broad, strong chest pressed to her back, thick fingers swirling on the skin of her tummy that glowed bare. Something she never knew she wanted until she experienced it.  

The whine she let out still pooled blood on the back of her neck, embarrassed of her actions. There were stories about the attachment of a new Omega to the Alpha of a pack, which often ended as soon as a new one joined the pack. A tinge of jealousy widens her eyes as she realised she didn’t want that to come to an end. Yes. It would be nice to not feel so heightened around him, as if he switches on a button inside her, lowering everything and yet keeping her running. But the way he made her feel protected? That she didn’t. She wished nothing but to sleep between his arms every night, hear the thrumming of his heart as he dozes off into sleep, snoring lightly. 

After so long, more time than she would ever admit, she had had a decent night of sleep. Although the reminiscents of the prior day still made themselves very noticeable, Feisty felt somewhat relaxed. At peace. 

Gazing over at a small clock on the wall, one that the woman failed to notice up until earlier that morning, she realised she still had a few minutes to just lie there. Soaked in her thoughts. She wished her mother could be here with her to instruct as to how to act with all these new things happening. All these experiences she hadn’t had before. 

A low sigh escaped while she buried her face back on the pillow, closing her eyes and wondering to herself what would she do that day. Nat hadn’t given her a schedule or something like that, so she wasn’t sure if today they were going to go back to the mat and punch some more sandbags or do something else entirely. Perhaps Steve would steal her away to show the rest of the property like he promised he’d do the night before, at dinner. 

The meal with the others was nice, they were welcoming and overall gentle with her, though Feisty was sure they were only doing what Thor must’ve told them to do. With Steve, however, it was just different. She could tell he genuinely wanted to talk to her, to listen as she went on about old grannies from the nursing home. It was oddly satisfying. Refreshing even.

Flipping onto her back, eyes still sealed shut, she allowed her mind to spin around his beauty. Maybe there was something in the water that made those wolves so absurdly beautiful. The blond hair swept to one side, sweet blue eyes shining when he spoke about his teen years, squared chin and a strong body that certainly put many of his fellow pack members to shame. 

The ink and old parchment smell was easy on her nose, drawing her in. It wasn’t quite like Thor’s. Not even remotely close. Still, when he leaned in closer to whisper some joke on her ear, the odour made her feel at ease. Ugh. That house was a festival of scents that got Feisty feeling funny. 

Sounds from the outside stole her attention away, the girl reassuring herself briefly that it was better not to focus on that. Men, Alphas, in particular, were nothing but trouble. At least, it was what she wanted to believe in. 

Still putting her mind into the chirping birds sound, she stands up, heading to the bathroom to at least brush her teeth. This time nobody brought food to her bedroom, which meant she'd have to go to the kitchen herself. Not that she was expecting to be treated like that all the time, but the thought of people catching her making herself food made her nervous. Like she was stealing or something on those lines. 

With a heavy sigh, she splashed water on her face, drying it swiftly with a fluffy towel by the sink. Glaring at herself in the mirror, Feisty huffed, noticing that she still had bags under her eyes regardless of sleeping well the night prior. It would take a lot more than two days to recover from all sleepless nights she's had. 

Cleaning her teeth felt incredible and so did combing her hair up in a ponytail, deciding that she'd only shower after a good walk around the house. She slipped on a pair of black leggings and a pink tank top, shoving the pyjamas in the back of her wardrobe in a messy pile. 

Feet in flip flops, Feisty went out to an empty corridor, taking careful steps towards the kitchen. Everyone was probably already up and about, nonetheless, there was still a lingering need to keep it quiet, sure to not bother any single living soul. 

While she made her way downstairs, she noticed a few paintings hanging on the wall, from a long line of immeasurably gorgeous people. Women, men. Families even. This house was older than she thought it to be. At last, by the staircase, there was his picture. Blond hair pulled back, fair strands framing his handsome face still, a long beard, enough to have it braided, and eyes. Electric blue, so poorly depicted. A chill ran down her spine as she remembered it. It was art, in the literal sense of the word. It could’ve been the creative imagination of a painter if she hadn’t seen his beauty with her own eyes. 

Only then it came down to her that this house, it had been passing on through the generations of the supreme Alphas. She was standing in the wooden ground where the most powerful wolves, ones that lead revolutions, had stood years and years before. It made her feel fuzzy. Actual history had happened within these very walls. 

“I must say it’s not exactly my most endearing portrait.” A whiskey deep voice came from behind, Thor towering as he stood beside her. A surprised gasp slipping as she failed to notice him approaching. “How are you feeling today, little wolf?”

“Good,” She shrugs, “I was going downstairs to eat.” 

“Wanda made pancakes today,” One heavy hand falls to her hip, guiding her down, “Do you like it?”

“Yes, of course!” Cocking a brow, she musters an act of unknown courage to joke, “Who in their right mind doesn’t?”

“Believe me, Bruce utterly hates it.” His laugh is light, melodic, it has Feisty unconsciously leaning towards him, a grin beaming on her face, “Come. I can tell you need food.” 

As if it was agreeing with him, her stomach groaned, Feisty placing a hand over her tummy to muffle it. Thor simply chuckled, inching her closer to him, fingers going up so he could have an arm draped around her shoulder, a place she fit way too easily. He was warm, welcoming. Exactly like the bed she had left. 

The kitchen was packed with a couple of toddlers. Morgan and Harvey were soundly asleep in a bassinet, tiny hands together. There were four more at the table, one little girl and three boys. She had to be about six years old and the most adorable kid Feisty had ever seen - freckles peppered her pale skin, a blazing red hair falling in soft locks and green eyes sparkling as she saw Wanda approach her with a plate stacked with pancakes. She sat at the left corner of the table. 

Then there were the boys. The first one that caught her attention was the eldest of them, he couldn’t be more than eleven years old, he just had a childish gleam in his blue eyes. Thor’s eyes. That boy was his miniature. So alike it gave her goosebumps. Maybe it was his son? She looked up at him, silently quizzing. His eyes met hers with tenderness, easily figuring out what she wanted to know. 

“That’s Vithar, my baby brother.” The said boy scowls, rolling his eyes and muttering a curse under his breath, “Manners!” 

“You know I hate that name with all my strength, Thor.” He counters, snorting. “And who is she?”

“Don’t be rude, Vi,” A second boy elbows him. Brown eyes kind. He was probably the same age as Vithar, she presumes, “I’m Sam, by the way. And that’s Humphrey, but we just call him Freddie. He’s new around here. Nat told us your name is Feisty? Is that true? Because that’s such a cool name!”

Humphrey was pale and nervous. Feisty had to refrain the urge to wrap him in a hug, relating to him in some sort of way. She was a shy kid herself, always seeming about to cry. Probably why the other kids picked up at her so much when she went to a public school in her early years. Sam, on the other hand, was tall and confident, a bright smile forever resting on his thin lips. 

“You boys so silly,” The little girl says, quirking brows at them whilst rolling her eyes, “I’m Rosie.” 

“I, um-” Thor pats you on the shoulder, in hopes to comfort you with all that interaction with the kids, “Yeah, I suppose you can call me Feisty.” 

“Cool!” Sam screeched, “You’re going to help Auntie Wanda out? You look so nice! I mean, I can tell why Mr Thor likes you so much.” 

“He does?” Her ears get suddenly warm, the boy earning a stern look from his Alpha. 

“Enough,” Wanda finally intervenes, “You’re all scaring her! You know, they have the most unspeakable energy but are actually pretty nice when you get to know,” Tugging Feisty into a hug, Wanda presses a quick kiss on her cheek. She smells like white lilies. Soft and sweet. “Good morning, sweetheart. Why don’t you take a seat? I can fix you scrambled eggs or some toasts, what do you want to eat?”

“No, please, don’t bother doing anything else. Just the pancakes are good.”  

“Okay. Right. Well, there’s coffee on the coffee pot.” She directs a glare towards the man beside Feisty, “Will you stay with us, Boss?” 

After a brief nod from him, she goes back to the stove, pouring more of the sticky batter into the frying pan so more pancakes could be made. By now, the kids had swooped all of them into their plates, soaking with maple syrup. She snickered at the sight, accepting gladly when Thor puts her sitting down on one of the chairs at the table, whispering that he’d fetch her some coffee. 

She shrinks a bit in her seat, her gaze lost over the children, fumbling with her fingers as she waits for Thor to sit next to her again. Rosie’s eyes inspect the new girl closely, chewing her pancakes slowly, a pout growing on her lips, which draws Feisty's attention, who tilts her head at the girl, frightened that she was going to start crying any time soon. 

A tall, white mug filled with coffee appears in front of her, a hand squeezing her shoulder fondly, stealing her attention away from Rosie. She looks up at him, his blue irises blown, pupils very little. There's nothing but unspoken care swimming there.

It spreads a thick wave of peacefulness through her, eyes suddenly growing heavy. Thor lets out a harsh breath, sitting beside her, one large hand going to her knee, refraining the urge to rub his cheek against hers and then bury his face in the crook of her neck. It wasn't fair that she smelt so good. 

Wanda placed a plate filled with food, three fat pancakes, scrambled eggs in one corner and two slices of bread on the other. It's more food than she thinks she's able to eat, but, fork in hand, Feisty digs in, humming lowly to taste, so scrumptious and easy to swallow. 

"Where's Nat?" It's nearly a mute question, focus on the half-eaten pancake in front of her. "I thought we were going to pick up where we left off…?" 

"Natasha is busy," Shrugging off, Thor steals a bit of her eggs, shoving a full spoon into his mouth, "You'll be with me today. Hope you don't mind." 

"No. Not at all." 

Their little chat came to an abrupt end when the seven-year-old girl ran off of the table crying. Feisty's eyes widen in shock while Thor sighed, possibly already knowing what was going on. He presses his cheek lightly on hers, mumbling that he'd be right back, that she shouldn't worry.

Still quiet, she watches him leave, walking in large steps towards the girl, gripping her by one ankle and bringing her back to the kitchen, tears still staining the flushed cheeks. He was carrying Rosie like she was a bratty pup. Wanda leans against the countertop, glaring as Thor sits Rosie back on her chair. The boys are laughing at this point. 

"Now, leaving the table like that, especially when we have guests, it's not nice, is it?" The tone is austere, but Thor looks soft as he speaks, "I'm sure that's not what auntie Wanda teaches you." 

Her bottom lip quivers while she cries hard, sobbing childishly. Feisty grows concerned, worried that she might have done something without realising it. 

“Show some respect and apologise to her, Rosie. She’s a friend and deserves to be treated nicely.”

"N-no, Uncle Thor," Crossing her little arms flush against her chest, she stares at him, bottom lip sticking out sweetly, "She's no friend. She's stealing you from me, that's not a friend." 

A heavyweight falls upon her chest. So she was indeed responsible for that tantrum. There was no way she couldn't have known they were so close, not that it helped either way. She was overwhelmed with guilt, this was not the scenario she had in mind when joining them for breakfast.

"You're such a daddy's girl, Rosie," Sam rolls his eyes, mouth still full. It seemed like a normal day for them, "And he's not even your real dad."

"Rosie, I…" She's hesitant when speaking, bringing everybody's attention to her. Feisty feels her stomach swirl, "I'm not stealing him from you. He’s still your Uncle Thor." 

"Liar!" Rosie cries and so do the sleeping babies. Wanda groans, easily allowing Thor to do the parenting while she grabs the bassinet, taking the infants to their nursing room. "You are here for only a day and my Uncle Thor is always with you! That's stealing."

"Okay, enough, Rosalie," Thor's features are grim now, he stands up in front of her, his size making her smaller than she was already, "You are not to treat anyone like that. I won't allow it." 

"Thor, I, well, it's fine," Feisty voices weakly, "Don't treat her like her, I can leave. It's not a problem." 

"No, little wolf." With a short wave, he dismisses her attempt to leave, so she sits back, complying, "Rosalie, she needs our help, okay? Look at your brothers, they've all welcomed her nicely, you're always so proud to be as grown-up as them, and, still, you're acting like a spoilt brat I know you’re not." 

"But Uncle Thor…" It breaks the woman's heart to see that little girl crying, instincts haywire to protect and care for her, "I-I miss you vewy much and 'm jealous of Feisty, she has you a lot."

Taken aback by her words, his face softens as he falls back to his knees, eyes meeting hers filled with tenderness. One of Thor's hands cradles Rosie's cheek, big enough to cover her whole face, one thumb circling soothingly her red chubby cheek, wiping away the tears. Feisty watches everything quietly, her heart melting upon beholding the way he treats her. The awareness of how great of a father he'd be ignites something inside her, something she has to fight it off to keep herself grounded. 

Before Feisty can even consider her steps, she stands beside the magnificent Alpha, her hand seeming small when it gripped his shoulder. The boys were watching with weary eyes, though what really gets her is the warm blue, a grin pulling those pink lips up. 

"Rosie" The little girl is fierce when she looks at the new Omega. She envies her strength. Despite her youth, Feisty could smell she'd be an Alpha. "Listen," 

Rosie hums, exchanging a glare with Thor, who nods, signalling for her to pay attention. Then blazing green stares at the woman, chin up like she's about to defend herself. 

"I am not here to steal anyone," There's hope a reassuring smile is bright on her face. "You're still his favourite girl. You'll always be, okay?" 

"B-but-" Stammering, tears well up in her eyes. "Do you pwomise?" It sounds so sweet all she manages to do is shoot a smile at the child, nodding, "Am sowwy, Feisty. You are pwetty nice." 

"I told you she was, my sweet girl," Thor winks at her, pressing a quick kiss on her cheek, her cheerful laughter making everybody smile. "And I'll make sure to be around more often." 

"That is great. Now we'll have a watch." Vithar complains, being the first to discard his dishes in the sink. "Way to go, Rosalie." 

"You talk like we're doing something wrong." 

"Sam, haven't you realised by now that Thor always finds something wrong in the things I do?" 

"You are so dramatic, Vithar." 

A rough hand intertwines with Feisty's, an amusement gleam in Thor's face as he hears his brother's banter. She giggles too, lowering her head and taking some time to inspect their smells. It was a habit she developed whilst growing up. It’s still child-like, so they hadn't reached their first rut just yet, which was funny to realise, because, with Rosalie, Feisty could just tell she'd be an Alpha. A powerful one and she was further from them to have it decided. With the boys, nonetheless, it was still blurry, undefined. Even Thor's brother.

There's uncertainty in her face, but she quickly shrugs it off. It's not unusual. Nothing she should be worrying about. A lingering, tepid touch sneaks up her arm, snapping her out of the thoughts, Thor nudges her to go back to the unfinished plate and half-filled mug. He whispers something like she's going to need the energy for later. 

Both Sam and Freddie go over to the sink, standing beside each side of Vithar. The three boys start cleaning the dishes, mumbling to themselves things Feisty doesn’t bother to catch. She stuffs eggs between two pieces of bread, eating some more, her stomach stretching with the delicious, full meal. 

Rosie's puffy eyes slowly fade away as she goes back to the syrupy pancakes, humming in satisfaction. 

"Is Maggie up for a ride today, Vi?" Thor's booming voice fills the room, alongside the banging of plates. They are nearly done cleaning them, "I only checked up on Stormbreaker, but you know he's not with the rest, so I didn’t see her at all."  

"I do, yeah, but I honestly have no clue. Clint has been using Maggie to teach Rosie, but that was a few days ago." He stares at the little girl. "Which reminds me, tomorrow is your day, miss." 

"I know." 

"Also, that’s kind of Peter’s responsibility, Thor.”  

"Vithar, how many times will I have to tell you that when I'm not here, you're the one supposed to watch over the others? Anything that happens in this house is your responsibility." Electric blue eyes fly back to Thor, pink bottom lip puckered. His baby brother looks like he's been told nonsense, "Now, little wolf, are you good? Do you want more food?" 

"I'm good." 

"Then we should get going." 

With a nod, sipping on her mug to end the coffee she still had left, Feisty gets back up, collecting the things she used so she could wash them quickly. Thor snorts, taking them away only to pile them up with the rest, earning a dreadful glare from his baby brother. 

Feisty sees herself refraining a laugh. She never had any siblings, so it was nice and new to see those sort of interactions. A large hand tugs her hip, guiding her out to meet a rather sunny, warm day. White, fluffy clouds peppered across the blue sky. It never ceases to amaze her. 

Thor is quiet, softly pulling her to follow him. He doesn't feel like letting go of her, although he knows she can follow him. The silky of her skin feels comforting under his fingertips, a pungent smell of relaxation coming from her. It's good on his nose, good on him.  

The walk comes to halt when they reach a beautiful stable. Strong, wild horses running freely across a green field, only a wooden fence keeping them contained. A little giggle slips as she sees them play together, groomed and well taken care of.

As a child, she never had the opportunity to do these things. It was all far too complicated, there was no time to be a kid with a father like hers, despite all of her mother's efforts to make sure she had a nice childhood. 

"Do you like horses?" He questions, palm flush with the small of her back as he leads her towards a small door, ducking when following her inside. 

"Um, I'm not sure. I didn't-" Feisty purses her lips in a polite smile, "-I didn't have any animals. My father didn't allow them." 

"Oh" There's a shade of sadness beneath his voice whilst he reached for two pairs of boots stored above the wardrobe. It smelt like dust when he dropped them on the floor, "You'll need that, flip flops aren’t exactly nice footwear for riding. It belonged to Natasha, I figure you two have the same size." 

“Won’t she be bothered?”

“No, I don’t think she will. She hasn’t ridden in years.”

"I see. She doesn’t like it now, does she?" 

Thor shakes his head briefly, bending to undo the ties on his brown leather boots, he is quick to replace them with the rubber ones, smirking at Feisty once he's back on his feet. It makes her stomach do a spin, the way the blue in his eyes sparkled electrifying something inside her. It's so strong she sees herself looking away, cheeks warm. 

Kicking the flip flops away, she tries out Natasha's shoes, surprised that they fit her nicely. He stands beside her, gripping one of her arms, the flesh soft under his rough fingertips. Thor feels at ease when he touches her and it scares him. This, all of it, it's too much too soon. But she doesn't push him away, all she does is stare at him, curious. 

They both remain silent as they move to the gate that meets the place where the horses are running up and about. There's riding gear piled up on a dusty table. The whole place looks like it needed a thorough cleaning. 

Before Thor gets to instruct her to stay back while he deals with them, a buzz on his phone disturbs the bubble he's in. It near insanity how she can just make him forget there are other duties he needs to focus on. 

He grunts annoyed. 

"Wait here, okay, little wolf?" There's a slight pressure of his cheek on her temple, his beard itching her skin in nicely, "I'll be right back." 

Feisty barely makes a nod, a spasm on her lower tummy almost urging a whimper out. The petrichor lingers when he leaves, her lips parted in a shallow breath. It's embarrassing how he can affect her so much with such small actions. 

In the first minutes, she just stands there, hands clasped together, shifting the weight between her legs. Though she knows she doesn't have to be frightened to explore, the years of getting scolded by her father for being curious get her restrained. At first. 

On the opposite side of where the Alpha had escaped to the outside, there's another door. It instantly lights up her curiosity, so there's no time to hold back the footsteps that lead to opening it, finding a comfortable room in which an absolutely gorgeous horse sleeps. Its fur glimmers in the dim light, pitch black. What indeed draws her attention, however, it's the size. That animal is at least twice the size of the rest! 

It had to belong to him. A majestic ride fit for royalty such as Thor. She walks softly towards him, being careful to fall to her knees, the horse suddenly awake and confused to the unknown presence. He stands up way too fast, startling her and affecting her balance, she falls to the hay covered ground. 

A low chuckle slips as she looks up at the animal, mumbling under her breath a nasty word. He watches her with daring eyes, black as the night, like he's questioning whether she will or not try to do something to him. 

The Omega props herself up on her knees again, moving towards him just enough to pet his nose. It feels wet against her hand, she's glad he lets her touch him. His fur is soft as she goes further up his nose. 

"You had me worried for a minute there, little wolf," Thor leans against the door's threshold, thick arms crossed, "Stormbreaker isn't nice to strangers, I'm glad he hasn't done anything, but you should've been more careful." 

"Oh" Guilt sinks in as he helps her up, "I'm sorry. I just- I'm really sorry." 

His smile is soft and tender, one large hand wrapping around her wrist to pull her back out. The horse follows them promptly. 

"I was worried, that's all. You shouldn't be wandering off alone."  

She nods then, remaining silent and constraining herself to just watch him gather the necessary gear. Thor is taken aback by the scared, saddened way she acts and looks at him. He drops what's in his hands to swoop her in his arms, bent to rub his cheek on hers. 

There's a smooth noise coming from her chest as she closes her eyes. Scenting it's not unusual between Alphas and Omegas, although it's normally done after they have mated. Either way, Feisty holds no strength to fight back to the easiness the gentle bristle of his beard against her temple gives. 

A deep rumble shakes his chest when she places her hand there, fingers toying with the buttons of his shirt. Her fingers feel like pure fire marking his skin, burning every bit she touched. Thor couldn't shake away that all of it was insane. Yet so delicate. That pure Omega in his arms brought out all of the animalistic instincts he tried so hard to shove inside the pit of his being. 

"Don't feel like I'm giving you orders," It comes out as a whisper, his voice pitching lower than usual, "I want to keep you safe, little wolf."

Feisty lets out a little grunt, clinging to him, standing on her tiptoes to get hold of his neck. It's heady, addictive. And day after day it feels like it's growing stronger on her when it should be fading away. 

"When…" The words die on her lips, his thick arms lightly holding her up, bodies glued together, "Never mind."  

There's a wrinkle between his eyebrows, blue eyes curious. 

"What is it?" 

"It's embarrassing." 

"I thought you weren't shy when I was around," His laugh is warm, it makes her smile absent-minded, "When what happens?" 

"I know this-" She points to the two of them, "-I know it's because I'm new. But I, well, you make me feel safe, Thor. I don't want that to end." 

"I'll always protect you, little wolf. As long as you need me to." Thor squeezes her further in his arms, "This isn't about being new or not. It's my duty." 

"Sleeping with me is not your duty," Feisty brings up, blood warming her face as she feels shame settle in, "Is it selfish of me to not want to share that?" 

Her body slides against his as he lets her back down, despite not breaking the skin contact so soon. Thor isn’t sure what to do. What to say. He doesn’t feel like sharing that bond either. It doesn’t matter that it was new, that it was way too rushed. Her presence felt better than any of the other Omegas that had tried to sneak their way into his arms. None had the sweet, flowery-like smell that put him through his paces like she did. Plus, the thought of another Alpha laying hands on her, well, it made him way past angry. It was wrath. Fury. A predatory instinct that had frightened him from the very first moment. 

Thor’s nose trails up along her cheek, smooth lips pressing a kiss on her cheekbone. 

“No” It’s low, filled with something neither of them can pinpoint, “Because I don’t want to share this either. Don't wanna' share you.”

A gasp escapes as he tightens the grip on her waistline, only to finally let her go, regardless of dreading the idea. He picks up the riding gear, Stormbreaker glaring at him with judgy eyes, which makes him roll his. That horse sometimes felt like an actual human person. 

Feisty approaches him again, her chubby, child-like hands running along with the jet black horsehair. Stormbreaker neighs, leaning towards her to get her to scratch his ears, bringing a laugh out of the woman. A sound that makes Thor sway on his steps. He'd heard her giggle, seen her smile, but an actual laugh, it was the first time. 

If it was even possible, that makes him even more aware of his craving for her. No. Sharing that intimacy with somebody else was not an option for him. 

"I was going to get Maggie for you," He says, fastening the girth to secure the saddle on his horse, a bright blue saddle blanket underneath the leather seat, "But since he's taken a liking for you, I don't mind you riding him." 

"Isn't he too big for me?" Uncertainty soaks up her question, "What if I fall off?" 

"Don't worry, Stormbreaker is a nice horse-" Thor is cut off by a loud neigh, a booming laugh following, "-See? It'll be fine."  

"Okay," She smirks patting the majestic animal again, "Go easy on me, alright?" It comes off as a secret between her and Stormbreaker, the Alpha gazes at that amused. Feisty certainly belongs to that place, "How do I, um, get up there?" 

"Here, let me help you." 

With a quick instruction to place her left foot in the stirrup, Thor helps her up to settle on top of his horse, her shaky fingers barely grasping the reins to remain in place. This is going to be fun, he thinks as he watches her finally find balance. He doesn’t want to admit out loud, but on those thin leggings, boots and all perched up on his horse, he’s never seen someone so gorgeous. 

The soothing words he mumbles, whilst they go out, give Feisty a sense of protection. There is no doubt he’ll watch her and care for her. For once, she doesn’t feel vulnerable in that position, it actually imbues her with a sense of bravery she always lacked. Feels good, reassuring, so a grin takes up, hips wavering to the slow stride the horse is taking. 

It’s not before they reach an empty field, far from where the other horses were, that he stops, giving back the reins to her so she could be the lead. 

“It’s quite simple” Thor discloses, blue all blown out in those eyes. Feisty couldn’t remember seeing that colour before, it made her all wobbly and warm inside, “One tug at his belly, he’ll walk, two, he runs. If you want him to stop, pull back the reins gently.”

Feisty nods in agreement. Indeed quite simple. 

He crosses his strong arms against his chest, a smile encouraging her to start, which she doesn’t do right away, opting for a big deep breath instead. Then, Feisty looks back at him, admiring for a second his unique beauty, the way his hair falls on his shoulders and how the skin glimmers under the bright sun, a peach shade of pink covering the skin of his cheeks. 

“Thor?”

“Yes, little wolf?”

“Will you be watching me?” 

There’s a shift in his breath and he pierces his stare at her, giving one short nod.   

“Yes, now go!” He urges, giving one last squeeze to her hand, “I’ll be right here, watching you.”

As she finally goes off, steadily controlling Stormbreaker as if she had done that many times before. Thor can’t help but drift off into his thoughts, spiralling around the sweet scent she lets off. Two days. It was insane. He had been with Jane for far more than that and she never quite got to him like that. Not in the same way, at least.  

Doomed. That’s what he was. And when Natasha finds out, she’d be sure to break his nose yet anew. 

Grey, heavy clouds started to gather up as the hours went on, a thunderstorm ever so close from pouring down. It drives him to whistle so his horse returns with the lovely Omega atop him. The lesson ending a little earlier than he had planned. Being fairly honest, he’d have to find something else to teach her, she was just a natural at horse riding. If she hadn’t told him she never ridden one before, Thor would be sure to say she grew up riding one. 

Stormbreaker came back trotting at full speed, Feisty bouncing above him, legs tight around his stomach. There was an easy smile shimmering on her face, something that bubbled up Thor’s insides, a proud smirk as he welcomed her back, arms stretched out to help her come down to the ground, which she did as soon as she stopped, gently tugging the reins. 

There was a playful giggle when she jumped into his embrace. 

“You’re in a good mood today, little wolf.” 

Her arms are clasped around his neck, eyes pierced to his for a split second. 

“Should I not be?” 

While she slips down and stands back up on his feet, he snorts, like he’s been told gibberish. 

“Yes. Of course you should.” Thor mumbles, his gaze analytical when noticing a slight tinge of pain on her steps back inside the stable. “Are you okay? Do you need some medicine?”

“I am fine,” Her voice goes back to the shy, low tone. As if the memory of whom she really is sinks back in, the fleeting moment of wilderness over, “I really am.”

“If you say so.” 

With a shrug, he drags Stormbreaker back inside, careful when removing the saddle, the saddle blanket and the reins. His big hands stroking its neck for a moment, murmuring something Feisty couldn’t quite make out. Despite not knowing what he’s saying, the Omega can’t help but find the interaction sweet. It was definitely a side of a supreme Alpha she wasn’t expecting to see. 

As an infant, all she heard was that they were ruthless, cruel. Never measuring the consequences when deciding to strike. Thor, on the other hand, was gentle. Sure, that scent coming from him warned her that he was powerful, dangerous even, nonetheless, reminiscing on how he dealt the Rosalie situation, how he watched over his baby brother and how… How he nurtured herself. It strayed far from that definition.

Sitting down on the sand-covered floor to remove the rubber boots, she once more thinks about her new life under his care. It way past what she thought she deserved. But after the second day, being there was starting to grow roots within her, which was a completely foreign sensation to an abandoned Omega such as Feisty. 

“It’s almost lunchtime,” A deep voice comes from above, hands sneaking under her arms and lifting her, a squeal escaping from her while he does so, “Are you hungry? I don’t know if you’ll eat what Wanda cooks today.”

She scoffs, dumbfounded that he’d think such a thing. Thor glares at the Omega in confusion, one brow cocked. 

“I spent days without any food, Thor... Whatever she cooks, it'll feel like heaven to me,” His fingers greedily take hers, feeling them cold under his touch, “Don’t pity me, please.” 

“I’m not," Sighing, he pulls her deeper into his embrace, guiding them both out, the wind stinging, a lot rougher than before, “There’s so much I still don’t know about you.”

Feisty smacks at her lips, unsure of what to answer. Embarrassed that there wasn’t much to tell, self-conscious about what he’d think once he knew she was nothing but a mutt. It wasn’t something she gave a lot of attention to, however, when it came to him, there was this need to impress, to show herself off. This… She didn’t understand. Didn’t want to. 

They start walking back to the house, her mind swirling around what to reply. 

“And what is it you want to know?” It’s shaky and unsure when she finally speaks, “There isn’t much to know about me.”

There’s an abiding moment of silence, the tugging of his thick arm around her growing tighter. He doesn’t quite know where to begin, wishing nothing but to dive deep into her memories, into her niceness. Thor enjoyed the quietness she gave him, how he could be entirely silent and she’d respect his space, never urging words, never urging a stance. It made a whole lot easier to be around her. 

Slightly pressing his nose to her temple, a fainting soap smell mixing with her natural one coming off of it. Inwardly, he wondered if he would ever grow tired of it. If the effect she had over him would weaken with time. Feisty looks up at him then, questioningly, half a smile on her lips. Right then, he feels a tightening sensation on his lower abdomen, an awareness that, by that simple act, she had answered his silent question. 

No. He wouldn’t. 

“I’m curious about you too,” She as much as whispers, distressed at his sudden silence, “If I can, I mean.”

A puff escapes, his plump lips finally pressing her face, a peck on the cheek, not more than that. He mouths a yes against her skin, anything, little wolf. And that alone brings goosebumps to crawl all over, a secretive gasp falling. Feisty feels the shift in the air, the way Thor reacts to her sounds coming off too strong. She can taste his need. 

There's a subtle recoil on her shoulders, eyes growing heavy. It was nowhere near what it had been the day before, when she was left a heaving mess, yet, powerful enough for her to feel drawn to him. 

“Is it too much?” 

“Not too much,” A giggle slips as she hides her face on his chest, by now they were almost home, visible to people, “but I figure it's better to keep a little distance, I don't want people to think-"

“Think what, little wolf?” 

“That I, um-” 

The moment was suddenly over when, the exact minute they walked into the porch, little arms wrapped themselves around Thor’s legs, Rosalie much too excited to see him again to not throw herself against him. He smiled, quickly breaking the contact from Feisty to perch the girl on his hip, a childish grin on her cute face, dimples deep into her cheeks. The Omega couldn’t stifle the grin in pure glee that followed. 

"Hi, sweetheart" He presses his lips to her head, ever so fondly, "Are you okay?"

"Yes" Rosie snickers, green eyes turning to Feisty, "You liked Maggie? She’s a lil’ nowty with stwangers.” 

"Oh really?" 

Rosie nods, nosing Thor's cheek fondly, "She's a nice horsie, though my favourite is Stormbweaka,” The child scowls at the word, “Stormy, Uncle Thor’s horsie.”

"He's beautiful indeed," She agrees, still sustaining the smile. It feels so painfully domestic, a child on his arms, the way he sneaks a glare towards her… Feisty finds herself fighting off the urge to lean towards him, fighting his strong magnetic field, "Have you ever ridden him?" 

"No," A pout grows on her little face, "Uncle Thor says he's too big for me." 

"He is," Thor chimes in, putting her back down, one hand grasping hers and the other on Feisty's shoulder, urging both of them inside, where they met a delicious smell of food being cooked, "If you were to fall off of him…" 

"I'm a big girl!" 

There's a booming laugh, "Even big girls get hurt, Rosie," A large hand strokes her much smaller cheek, the two exchanging a swift gaze, "Now go, wash your hands so you can have lunch." 

"They're clean!" She cried. 

"Rosalie…"

Before the girl disappears into the hall, possibly heading to the bathroom as she was instructed, Feisty is still able to hear a whispered “fine”. It makes both her and Thor laugh, her eyes quickly darting to him, staring a little bit too obviously - today she just didn’t seem like she could prevent herself from it. Nor contain the way her imagination ignites a fire inside her, going on and on about how smooth his skin felt under her touch. 

There’s no hiding those emotions from him, a sweet flavoured infatuation stealing a grunt from the Alpha. 

“It’s not polite to stare, little wolf,” In no time she feels the piercing blue onto her, shame drilling into her brain and forcing her gaze down, “No, no. No need for that, it was a stupid joke.”

“I’m-, I know I’m crossing boundaries, I-”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” A rumbling shake his chest, “God knows I want to stare at you all day long.”

 “Why?” Bottom lip quivering, she shoots subtle look towards the Alpha, “I know why I want to stare at you, but me? I’m not really that special.”

“Don’t say that,” Thor frowns, nearing her slowly, “You really don’t know what your scent does to me, do you?”

Feisty gasps, shaking her head weakly as he finally holds both her hands, bringing them to his lips, kissing the knuckles with an adoration. She was so astonishingly delicate, regardless of all the bad situations she must’ve endured - such a stark contrast to him. Thor could tell she was starved of all that human interaction. 

They stay like that for a little longer, not minding the fact they were standing in the middle of the hallway, that anybody could see them. A thick bubble surrounding them that was only broken when Natasha runs inside, almost bumping into them, quickly endorsing them to split, essentially ending the mood that enveloped the pair. Feisty swallows dryly, diverting her glaring to the red hair. 

There’s nothing but plain uncertainty on her face, the smell of fear and anxiety easily stealing Thor’s attention. It was probably related to the business that had kept her away all morning, the Omega presumes, and, by the looks of it, whatever it was, she didn’t bring good news about it. 

“What happened? Are you okay?” His voice dropped a tone, eyes wide, “Natasha...”

“I’m fine,” Nat’s voice doesn’t mirror what she says, trembling, “It’s just… They almost saw me, Boss. I almost ruined everything.”

“Breathe, Natasha, they didn’t see you after all, did they?”

She denies with a head shake, “Brunhilde helped me.”

“You talked to her?” 

“Yes, she says she’s down to help us, with a price. Honestly, the things she told me...” Suddenly, as if only then she was realising they were in company, her speech comes to pause, glaring at the Omega slightly behind where both her and Thor stood, “Hey, sweetie,” Feisty gains a sympathetic smile from the red hair, “Look Boss, I can’t discuss it all here, it’s just not safe.”

“She won’t tell anybody,” He counters, “Will you, little wolf?”

“No, it’s not that I don’t trust her,” Natasha shrugs, inhaling deeply, “We just need to gather everyone and-”

“So you did find out something,” It wasn’t a question. 

The air started to thicken, Thor’s anger boiling and stretching to the three people that. His reaction brought an itching curiosity to rest annoyingly at the back of Feisty’s brain; she wanted to understand what affected him so much, as if it was her responsibility to soothe him, to make him calmer. Possibly why she reached for his hand, noticing him go tense before melting to her touch.  

“Yeah,” Nat nods, slowly gathering her emotions, “It’s far more complicated than we thought it’d be. I-I, damn. I don’t know what we can do.”

“Just,” Squeezing the hand intertwined with his, the Alpha tries to unclench his jaw, he needed to keep himself grounded, for the sake of everyone, “Calm down. Nobody saw you,”

“No, of course not.” 

“Then we still have time to figure things out,” Caringly, he pats his friend on the shoulder, "I suggest you go rest and later we will discuss everything." 

"Are you sure?" 

Admiration seeps from Feisty's eyes, the firm way he nods and reassures Natasha, the way he leads. It's mesmerising, despite her just then realising there was trouble looming over the pack. Perhaps, and this got her feeling sick, it was her fault, maybe a witch placed a curse so troubles followed where she went. 

The strong figure of a man towering her senses the troubles nagging her. This time he doesn't push the itch on his lower abdomen back, just tugging the woman to his arms, noticing how she complies gladly, finding the place that appeared made especially to fit her. More than ever, Thor feels the insane will to protect her, like a secret. 

"Do you want to go somewhere?" 

"I think-" Warmth reaches her cheeks, "Um, I should be asking you that." 

A quick, low laugh slips as he murmurs for her to follow him, guiding her outside, towards the big garage where several cars were parked. She gawks in awe at all of them, walking behind him until they stop in front of a sports one - Feisty was nearly sure that was a Porsche, but she didn't know enough about cars to risk it. 

They don't talk, it's not necessary. One large hand settles on her knee whilst he starts the car. Feisty feels odd - she hadn't felt this energy before him, like pure lightning coursing through her veins when he touched her. Either way, it didn't stop her from craving more. To soak up every bit of care he was willing to give her.  

Neither needed saving, but both wanted to run away from everything. 

tags!

the ones in italics i couldn’t tag for some reason!

forever

@sea040561 @momc95

marvel

@frenfics @mrscutiefandobhaz

thor

@lancsnerd @rishlo @desia22 

untouched

@slutlanna976 @rahma29417 @truthdaze @innerpaperexpertcloud @watermelons-aura @gluemakesmyhandsticky @ellsbells2143 @ghostlysweetsturtle @lovelylostminds @shelbyaesthetic @dreaminofpoison @marikochi @bagpipes606 @littlephyschos-world @mannls @savagemickey03

[wheremytwinwatches]

[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 17

Ah, right. We left off with Ross being arrested for Hughes’ murder. And something tells me that the Goths having a member who can literally walk right into Central undetected, to say nothing of the Fuhrer himself being a Goth, means that the deck’s stacked against her.

Yup, Ross is in an interrogation room, a scowling MP just dropped a deformed bullet onto the table. The very one that killed Brigadier General Hughes. Ok, so what if it’s the same caliber as her pistol? This is the military, everyone’s gonna have the same firearm. What about the ballistic fingerprinting? Fire a round from her gun, and see if it matches with the killing round. Unless the Goths stole her gun for the murder and then returned it… Oh! Well that’s pretty damning - a requisition form for a single bullet. But that shot was fired to defend Ed… at the “unmanned” Fifth Laboratory that’s now a pile of rubble. An eyewitness? Bleh, that’s right, they would have seen Ross (or Gracia, but I’m assuming Envy switched back to Ross afterwards) leaving the scene. But who saw her? Paperwork that she fired one bullet around the time of the shooting, an eyewitness saw (someone looking like) her leaving the murder scene, and her only defense is family testimony that she wasn’t there that day. Yikes. Ok ok, she doesn’t have a good alibi, but what about motive? Why would Ross of all people want to kill Hughes? Explain that, copper! Outside, Armstrong’s been turned away from seeing Ross while she’s being questioned. And then Brosh comes running up. Ouch. He’s confirming Ross’ story, saying he fired a single round at the Fifth Laboratory too, but everyone’s ignoring his report. Armstrong wonders if the Conspiracy is trying to frame Ross for the murder. Episode 17 - “Cold Flame” Winry’s still looking sad, cleaning Al’s armor and remarking how up close she can see all sorts of dings and scratches. Al’s brrrrr, sorry, bit silly and creepy at the same time to see headless Al just calmly polishing his helmet. All Al can do is give a weak chuckle at the comment. Aw, why must my babies be upset? Winry asks Ed what their next move is. Ed doesn’t know. [Flashback!Elicia]: “Mommy… please don’t cry.” NO. BAD SHOW. VERY BAD SHOW. Ed asks what Winry thinks. The mechanic is surprised that Ed’s actually asking her for advice. Damnit, stop being melancholy, show. I don’t want to listen to Winry’s voice shake as she talks about the brother’s digging up dangerous information that could get them killed. [Winry]: “I mean, you could die… I’d still be here, and you’d just suddenly not be there anymore. Like my mom and dad.” GUH. Would you quit it, show? Stop being so Leto-damn depressing! So to sum up, Winry’s torn between supporting their goal to get their bodies back, but also wanting them safe and alive. In the end, she really doesn’t know what they should do. THANK you, Al! Little bro teases Winry about how nice she’s being, lightens the mood at the expense of a few more dings and scratches. Good for you, little guy. In the Warehouse, Falman and Barry are playing chess when the newspaper comes by, no question what the main story’s going to be. Yup, Falman takes one look at the paper and jumps to the phone. Ed’s in his room, going over his notes when WHAM Al bursts through the door with the newspaper. Wait, convicted?! The brothers rush out to see someone in charge. In prison, oh hey it’s Ling! Who’s complaining about his ID cuffs, while chatting up the guard. Wait, only 15? Huh, I was thinking early 20’s. Running guards? Intruder? Oh, the Ninjas must have finally tracked down their wayward master. Although the music’s a bit spooky… NOPE, not the ninjas! It’s Barry! How did he get out of the Warehouse? He’s just striding forward, bullets bouncing off of him.

Even Ling’s guard with a high-power rifle just knocks his helmet off. Crap, run red-shirts, ru- wait, he knocked them out? [Barry]: “This would be a lot more fun if I was allowed to cut ‘em up.” Oh! It’s a prison break! With the conspiracy framing Ross, Roy’s crew sent Barry to bust her out! How in the world did they convince him not to kill innocents, though? Ling asks the Soul Armor to let him out, Barry almost walks by, but picks up on Ling being from Xing. That opens the door for some reason, and Barry tells the Prince to go with him. Hey Ross, wanna leave this dump? Of course Barry has to be unnecessarily creepy breaking her out, but shows her the paper and offers an escape. After a bit of despairing about a life of crime and apologizing to her parents, Ross is heading for freedom. And methinks Barry has yet another crush on a tough lady. The Inquisitor gets news on the jailbreak, orders the men to scour the city for her and her violent accomplice (what, doesn’t Ling get any love?). Along with shoot to kill orders if she “resists”. Cue picture of Angry Roy donning gloves. So wait, was this your plan, or did your crew do this on their own? The escaped convicts are running through the alleyways, when oh hai Elric Brothers! [Al/Barry]: “Ah! You’re that guy!” Aw crap, the Elrics are trying to figure out what’s going on, but Barry’s irritated at them being slowed down, orders Ross to run to the Warehouse while he holds them off. Ross has to run into the darkness as the Elrics call after her, asking about Hughes. Aargh. Ok, ok, miscommunication continues to stand in the way of a good time, but as long as Ross can get to the- oh. Oh crap. [Pissed-off!Roy]: “You’re Maria Ross… right?” Roy. Roy, just hold on RoY ROY NO WHAT THE FUCK ROY That was an explosion. Um. Al’s arrived to find Roy facing away from a burnt… body. Um. Was Roy in on the plan? Part of me is thinking that this is a decoy, convince the authorities that Ross is dead (oh jeez this is gonna kill Brosh). And once “they got her” Barry was quick to run away… but if Roy wasn’t in on the plan? Then he was facing down the person that was convicted of murdering his friend. I honestly don’t know which way the show will go. ...those are the burnt ID cuffs. W 6186 Maria Ross. Kinda leaning towards Situation #2 here. Mid-show cards ID the Inquisitor as Henry Douglas. Back in the alleyway, Ed oh dear he’s charging Roy. And Roy just decked him. [Roy, adjusting collar]: “You threaten a superior officer?” Maybe he’s just acting so detached? If the Conspiracy is listening in, then Roy has to act the good soldier, following the “shoot to kill” order. Even if it means standing over the possible charred corpse of a friend of the Elrics. Leto, these poor boys. The MP have arrived, taking pictures of the evidence while Douglas demands an explanation from Colonel Mustang. Who has no chill as he questions if one of Roy’s crew helped her escape, just so that Roy could kill her personally. Roy calmly says such speculation is best avoided. All while the Elrics sit quietly against the alley wall, Ed glaring daggers at Roy. At the hotel, Armstrong’s apologizing to the boys for not telling them about the murder sooner, tries comforting Ed when he says that it was his fault. Wait, doctor? Ah it’s the hospital, not the hotel. Aaaaand the doc says while the body was almost completely destroyed, the dental work says… it was Maria Ross. Um. The Doc proceeds to chide Roy for turning her into charcoal, while Roy just sits on a bench and says nothing. [Doc]: “Is the vengeance as sweet as you imagined it?” Roy gets up to leave, when Armstrong… [Armstrong, trembling with emotion]: “Colonel… Please allow me to apologize for one of my own officer’s actions. I could never have imagined that Second Lieutenant Ross would commit such a heinous murder. She was so straightforward and earnest… compassionate… A truly fine officer!” Armstrong’s glaring at this point. Argh, if this is all an elaborate ruse to get Ross away, then Armstrong doesn’t know about it, does he? He’s not in Roy’s crew. So from his perspective while he speculated that Ross was framed, he believes Ross was killed by Roy in vengeance for Hughes. Roy just tells Armstrong that he looks fatigued, recommends he take some leave back where he was. No big city noise, and lots of beautiful women. Is… is that his way of saying Ross was sent east? Or just Roy being the womanizer from the shorts? Monsters in cages, Envy is meeting with the Goths and letting them know about Ross’ fate. Lust is irritated that the plan to keep Roy amiable fell through, but Envy points out that he shouldn’t be distracted with Hughes’ murder being free now, and that there’s a bonus of his crew not trusting him anymore. Cue Riza putting a request for leave on Roy’s desk. Ok, still hoping beyond hope that it’s a ruse, but if it’s not, if Riza’s leaving to get away from a murdering boss for a while… Leto. Roy approves the request and Riza briskly leaves, slamming the door behind her. Wait, Roy’s smiling? Please tell me… Barry’s humming while he sharpens his cleavers, Falman’s freaking out over Barry going out on his own? Crap, if there was a plan Falman wasn’t in on it? Oh, and Barry brought back Ling as well! Who’s building a signal fire/cooking a fish oh hey Ninjas, nice of you two to finally show up. [Snarky!Ling]: “Wow… Impressive response time.” Poor Falman. Roy’s chatting on his office phone, to Elizabeth? Wait, who’s this? Why does Roy call her when Riza’s not around? Where’s this character coming from, messing up my ship? In any case, Roy’s paperwork gremlins are irritated as Roy natters about how he hasn’t had a day off since he got to Central, invites Lizzie on a fishing trip. Sudden bombastic military music as the Blonde Trio lounge in their room, Ed goes to answer the door and SUDDEN MIGHTY ARMSTRONG PUNCH what the Leto. Ed’s sent sprawling as The Mighty Armstrong strides in and picks the boy up, announces that his automail is broken and says he’ll escort him to Resembool immediately for repairs. I am just as confused as Ed right now. The Mighty Armstrong glares directly at Al, saying that he’d stand out too much so he must remain in Central. Wait why are you breaking up the Brothers? What on earth is going on here? If The Mighty Armstrong needed an excuse to take Ed somewhere, was saying that his arm needed repairs while standing next to his mechanic and telling his brother that he’d stand out in his own hometown really the best one? The Mighty Armstrong’s carrying our Protagonist through the hotel foyer like a sack of flour, says that he can’t put the boy down because of his orders. From “him”? Cut to Roy being told that The Mighty Armstrong and Ed are on the train, causing him to smirk and think that “everyone’s out of the way.” What is going on?! Is Ross dead or not?! In the Goth Cage Room, Envy’s passes on a sketch of Barry as the one who orchestrated the breakout. No direct connection to the Colonel known, but Envy bets that he was the one behind it. Doesn’t know where Barry is though, complains that he’s short on manpower. Are these chimeras finally going to get play, then? Wait, what? [Lust]: “Looks like you’re finally on… Barry the Chopper.” [Humanoid in cage with bone-skull-mask-thing]: “Graaaah!” Hold up, did the Goth’s kinda-sorta resurrect Barry? But his soul’s still in the armor! Or is it like a soulless clone, a chimera copy? Oh crap if they can make chimera clones, as much as I freak out about having a shapeshifter the ability to make evil copies of our heroes has the potential to be much worse.

Well, I’m lost! I honestly can’t tell if Ross is dead or not, I mean how do you fake dental work? I suppose the Doc could have been in on the scheme, but if Roy isn’t even telling The Mighty Armstrong about the plan then I doubt he’d bring in anyone else. If she’s not dead then please let us know soon for me and the poor kids’ nerves, if she is dead then what the hell show.

[eldritchsurveys]

674.

have you ever violated school dress code? >> I wasn’t allowed to wear anything that would have violated any school dress codes, so I have no idea how that would have ever happened.

if you are listening to music, is the singer male / female? >> I’m not listening to music.

what [ if anything ] do you give up for Lent? >> I don’t observe Lent.

what phrase leads your mind directly to the gutter? >> I mean, I can’t think of any on command, but there are plenty I come across online and stuff that make me snicker. I just like wordplay, tbh.

when you feel like giving up, how do you convince yourself not to? >> I mean, it’s mostly Can Calah who gives the impassioned arguments in defense of not giving up. I just listen and gripe and wait for his infallible logic to work its magic.

what are your opinions on immigration? >> I don’t have a blanket opinion on immigration. I have no personal issue with individual immigrants, no matter their story. They’re just people to me, who want the same things I want -- to survive, to have their needs met, to make a better life.

would you tell an actual immigrant your views? >> Of course I would, if they were unsure where they stood with me.

what was the subject of the last list you made? >> I don’t remember the last time I made a list.

do you ever get nervous before interviews / important meetings? >> I mean, I would if that was a thing that occurred in my life.

who pays for the majority of your belongings? >> It’s pretty evenly split between me and Sparrow.

would you ever willingly shop in a thrift store? >> Of course...?

what is the most that you would ever spend on an outfit? >> I mean... that depends on many factors, including what the outfit is for and how much money I have.

is there anything you do that just outrages your parents? >> ---

when was the last time you were embarrassed in public? >> I don’t remember.

have you ever won an award you were actually proud of? >> I mean, maybe a long time ago. Doubtful, though.

the importance of education, rate it from 1-10, 10 as most important? explain your choice to rate it as such? >> I rank formal education rather low on my personal importance scale, but I rank informal, interest-based learning very high on my personal importance scale. I love to learn, but I don’t operate well in school settings and actually end up learning less in those settings.

what is the coolest science experiment you've ever done? >> I haven’t done any cool science experiments. :(

are you experiencing difficulties with any friends right now? >> No.

how do you deal with a fight between yourself and a friend? >> I don’t know how to deal with that kind of thing anymore.

when you apologize to someone after a fight, how do you go about saying that you are sorry? >> I haven’t been in this situation in a long time, I don’t know.

have you ever played around with "dry ice"? >> No.

do you think parents are responsible for the actions of their children? >> Of course they are, if we’re talking literal children (not teenagers). It takes some time for a small human to develop the sense of independent reasoning and reckoning of consequence that would allow them to take full responsibility for their actions.

how do you, personally, define music? >> I never really thought about it, it’s one of those concepts where I basically take my understanding of it for granted.

should the military draft take both men AND women? why / why not? >> That’s not a debate I’m willing to get into. I want nothing to do with a draft and I ideally wouldn’t want anyone else to have to deal with getting drafted, actually.

when was the last time that you corrected someone? >> I don’t remember. It was probably something really minor and not a big deal for either party. --Oh yeah I remember now, it was about why Bourbon Street is named Bourbon Street.

when was the last time you were corrected? >> It was also probably about something minor and nbd. I think the last time might have been when I misspelled “Lolth” because believe it or not, I’ve been doing that since 2009. I always misspell it “Lloth”, it’s just what happens.

when did you last say " i told you so "? >> I don’t remember. I try to avoid saying that unless it’s about something funny/silly.

is there any celebrity you like to " keep up with "? >> Not especially. I mean, there are definitely actors and directors that I pay attention to more than others when they get involved in new things, but I always forget to like, keep regular tabs on them or whatever.

celebrity gossip: YAY or BOO? >> Boo.

what is the most life-changing book you have read? >> I couldn’t say. A lot of books I’ve read have had a significant impact on me in some way.

have you had a negative impact on anyone's life? >> Sure.

has anyone had a negative impact on yours? who / why? >> Absolutely. I’m not going to elaborate, the negative impact that others have had on me is both 1) way too lengthy and sensitive to elaborate on and 2) not worth dwelling on right now when I just want to chill and take a survey.

what does marriage mean to you, specifically? >> It means legal recognition of our partnership, which is necessary for things like, say, being each other’s advocates in a medical emergency.

how will you know when you are ready to get married? >> I didn’t bother fretting over whether I was “ready” or not. We’d been living together for a couple of years by the time the topic even came up, it didn’t seem like a weird next step to make.

how much time have you spent contemplating your own death? >> Way more time than is logical, probably.

is there a joke that you just can't stand? >> I mean, probably. There are a lot of insensitive jokes out there.

have you ever read any self-help books? >> Yeah.

what's your take on the obesity problem in america? >> I don’t have a take on it. You know what I do have a take on? The constant social pressure to be thin, and the resultant contagious obsessions with eating the “right” foods, compulsive exercising, and worrying about a number on a scale. Being fat, of all things, shouldn’t be this dramatically frightening or repulsive to people, but that’s what we’re made to believe, and that’s the message we’re all internalising on a daily basis. I’m fucking tired of it. I got enough problems.

what is something you used to love, but now greatly dislike? >> I don’t think I’ve ever flipped that hard on anything. There are things I’ve liked casually that I ended up not caring about later on, but nothing that I loved that I started hating later. I might shift from being obsessed with something to just being chill about it, but that’s it.

what is something you used to dislike, but now like? >> I disliked Metallica as a child.

when ( if ) you become a parent, what will you do differently, compared to how your parents raised you? >> I don’t plan on being a parent, but how I treat children in general is almost directly in contrast to how I was treated as a child. I treat them with respect, I listen to what they have to say, I let them feel their feelings, I show interest in their interests, etc.

do you equate spanking with physical abuse? would you spank a child? >> Let’s just say that I did not ever feel loved or respected when I was spanked. I felt terrified and shameful and being left alone to self-soothe afterwards with no real understanding of why I was being punished so harshly definitely didn’t help. I don’t feel like my understanding of right and wrong was healthily developed by corporal punishment. I don’t see any benefit to it, but I see a lot of harm. So, no. I would not spank a child.

what's the most ridiculous thing you've done this week? >> I have no idea. I don’t think I’ve done anything especially ridiculous?

--- did you regret it / love it / hate it / want to do it again / etc? >> ---

is emotional cheating ( in a relationship ) as bad as physically cheating? >> I have no opinion on this, it’s irrelevant to my life.

if your bf/gf wanted to wait until marriage for sex, would you be willing? >> ---

when you look at the sunset, what do you think about / feel? >> I mean, it all depends, don’t it? I don’t have the exact same thought every time I look at something.

is there someone you wish you could trust / you wish was trustworthy? >> No. I just wish I didn’t have such overdeveloped trust issues.

is there anyone that you no longer want in you life? who / why? >> Well, yeah, and those people are, therefore, no longer in my life.

how has your outlook on life changed in the past few years? >> I’m not sure, I haven’t really kept track.

have you ever walked out of a boring movie ( in theaters )? >> No. I did want to walk out of Infinity War, though. Not because it was boring, but because it was pissing me off. (Also, that was back when Anthony was still around, and he wanted to walk out too.)

how open are you with people you know online? >> It depends on how I know them, what we have in common, how long I’ve known them and to what degree, etc.

what do you think of athletes that take steroids? >> I don’t think about that.

if a celebrity is involved in scandal after scandal, is that likely to effect how you view him/her & his/her work? >> Not really. I barely notice when scandals like that happen, anyway. It also seems like most scandals are just sensationalised overhyped nonsense to get people talking about whoever it is, for publicity, and has nothing to do with, like, the merits of the performer’s art or whatever.

what is one celebrity that you have zero respect for? >> ---

what is one fashion trend that you hope makes a comeback? >> ---

what is one that you wish would just die out already? >> ---

have you ever driven under the influence of alcohol / drugs? >> I don’t drive, period.

are you overly attached to your material possessions? >> No. I can be a bit under-attached, in fact. I’ll throw a thing away in a heartbeat. (This doesn’t apply to like, electronics, or any other expensive thing that I use on a constant basis. But like, t-shirts, books, toys, novelty items, other shit that ends up just taking up space and collecting dust? Bye.)

have you ever ridiculed anyone for their clothing choices? >> Not since I was a teenager, most likely.

living in poverty: what do you think it'd be like? >> I... I have lived in poverty. Poverty is my default state of existence. I don’t really know what to tell you about “what it’s like”. What’s it like to not be poor?

what is one " diet " that you think is just utterly worthless? >> All of them are worthless to me.

what advice would you give someone that is uncomfortable with his or her body / appearance? >> I wouldn’t give them advice. Advice is what the entire world is going to try to give them. I’d imagine they’d be tired of advice (unless they’re specifically asking me for it, I guess). But I’ll always have a “mood” or “I know that feel” to offer, because... yeah. Same. The shit sucks and there’s no easy way out of it.

what advice would you give someone about to start high school? >> I don’t even want to think about that phase of life, I’ll pass.

what foreign food are you NOT interested in trying? >> *shrug*

what foreign country do you believe is misunderstood? >> I mean, I don’t know. USian attitudes towards and assumptions about a lot of countries are... misinformed at best.

have you ever felt entirely unwanted and alone? >> Yeah.

in your eyes, which is worse: rape or murder? >> Nope, don’t care.

do you understand / read shakespeare? >> I have never been able to grok Shakespeare, and I’m not interested enough to keep trying.

would you feel comfortable living with someone that owned a gun? >> Most likely not. Luckily, that’s not likely to happen.

do you know anyone that lives in a foreign country? >> I mean, yeah, I use the internet.