#were a signature symbol of my fave

[cruyuu]

out of all the official art featuring sukuita, do you have a favorite? (or maybe a top 3?)

Hii anon!

I love them all tbh. It's like asking me to choose if I like breathing air or inhaling it. Like it's the same thing. Still tho, since you asked, I'll try to rate them. Key word: try since all of them are Mona Lisa's to me (special, lovely and unique in their own way <3).

MC vs. Villain (but lowkey sexual)

Changed the trajectory of everyone's lives when it dropped. THE art. THE piece. I am still obsessed with it. Sukuna touching the inner part of Yuuji's wrist, feeling his heartbeat.... FOR WHAT LIKE WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR THE WRIST FEEL EXPLAIN.

Yeah. That's my sukuita. Weird as hell "enemies" who don't beat each other to death, they just use that excuse to touch each other so no one pays attention to it.

2. The Wheel Turns

The poetic piece and hence it's my second fav. I know the most agreed on thing for normal fans (aka not sukuita shippers) is the Dharma wheel (cue deep dive into Hinduism) but to me this holds connection to the never-changing cycle these two were stuck in. The "cycle" that Yuuji breaks at the end of the manga by killing the unkillable, befriending the avoidable and loving the unlovable (Sukuna). The opposite forces which clash and cannot combine but finally do combine at the end, achieving harmony. Essentially, becoming one (<3333)

Orrrr, because I'm insane, it could also be about them finding each other again and again. The wheel which keeps on turning, again and again, represents something which is repetitive and has no end and to say that they (Sukuna and Yuuji) have no end is sweet. It could also be about many other things but these are just off the top of my head since if I think about this image too long, this'll be a whole 30k post.

3. Back to Back

Fun fact about this little image is that it used to be my favorite for a long time before the #1 would drop. What I love about this image the most is the fact that they're standing as equals even if turned away from each other (representing their relationship and their vastly differing viewpoints) and considering this is an older piece it just serves as foreshadowing that the only equals they could ever have is each other but considering they're turned away from each other, they have no way of ever knowing that and seeing that. Also could be that they know but refuse to acknowledge it (how I interpret it).

Total opposites + Yuuji looking drop dead gorgeous and serious + Sukuna in a kimono are all just bonuses. This piece cemented my love for them and drove me into how I feel about them now so it's also special for that too <3

4. ENEMY

This could've been a #3 easily and also #1 easily since... the throat grab, the direct eye contact... Have mercy on me Gege. S1 sukuita had me in a chokehold way stronger than the one Sukuna and Yuuji have here tho, that's for sure (which is saying a lot lmfao). Also... I always found it weird how Sukuna's hand seems not to be gripping but nearly... holding... Yuuji chin?? Or maybe that's me high on them obsessed over each other nvm

5. Divine Black Flash (see what I did there?)

Signature moves (aka abilities) plus them next to each other twinning and winning. Also one of my faves but the others were way more symbolic so had more of a grip on me but this one slays too. All of them do, don't take my list too personally y'all.

And there you go anon! Thank you for the ask <3

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

Have you read “so happy together”? If so, what did you think of it?

OOO I know I’ve been shit about checking my inbox but I RAN for this!!!

So for anyone who isn’t familiar with the fic we’re referring to here, it’s So Happy Together by Jwink85. Y’all know I’m a pretty big fan of a lot of their works, and I did enjoy this one, so let me break it down. (Probably spoilers so under the cut)

Jwink has a few really interesting takes on obsessive Craig in Cryle fics, and this is a phenomenal one for that. It’s always intriguing to see characters who are so fucked in the head that they genuinely think they’re in the right despite actively hurting the person of their desire. Again, I’m a big jwink fan, particularly because of the attention to detail in their stories and the complexities of characters, their flaws and motivations. For instance, (spoilers) Craig’s obsession with Kyle in this bloomed from Kyle being nice to him when they were growing up, when Craig was really in need of someone. He took it to the extreme of course, with the stalking, and eventual “rescuing” (kidnapping) when Kyle was impaired and vulnerable. I found it really really interesting from a narrative standpoint that Craig is referred to as “the man” until (HUGE TW) Kyle’s attempt, because we’re seeing the story from Kyle’s perspective and he genuinely doesn’t remember Craig. Seeing Craig have to fight his fucked up impulses, especially physically, throughout the story is incredibly unnerving and makes the reader feel unsafe, because he hadn’t done anything outright yet, but we can feel it coming, feel the fight slowly leaving Kyle when he realizes life as he knows it is over, feel his hopelessness.

This brings me to the Red Umbrella, and thus the Stan of it all.

Kyle in this story is INCREDIBLY fucked up from the very beginning, excessive substance use, one night stands, and pining for the best friend who led him on. Now I could deep dive into common themes with jwinks Kyles and their lack of satisfaction in life, but I’d like to reign it in to focus on the one sided style/ implied ending style in this one. Kyle chasing after Stan his whole life is a huge obstacle for Craig making sure he and Kyle are “so happy together” that when he eventually truly snaps, in Stan and Wendy’s house no less, it’s especially brutal. I mean, Craig seeing from a distance Kyle sharing his red umbrella with his best friend who forgot his own becomes such a symbol for him that he has a tatto of it, makes it his signature on his artwork and uses it as his calling card when he’s keeping tabs on Kyle. I love that Kyle still holds a torch for Stan, and Craig’s hatred of that fact. Now, in conversations with the author, (yes we know I’m a serial commenter) I’ve learned that style isn’t a favorite of theirs, nor is Stan as a character. I’m saying this because I LOVE how Stan is characterized in this story, especially for the situation. They really captured his indecisive nature and deeply rooted insecurities that effect those around him beautifully. There are some common themes in jwinks Stans too that I could go on about, and I’ll refrain after recommending Winter Butterfly for the millionth time, but BY FAR my favorite scene in SHT is when they’re caught in the storm so Kyle can tell Stan (under threat by Craig) how he’s hurt him and he doesn’t quite get there. Right when Kyle’s about to ask for help and doesn’t get there just AAAA and THEN the style moment in the porch with that weighted kiss with so much tension and years of uncertainty behind it, oh my lord beautifully done. And like I said, the author told me directly that style isn’t a fave, but I do think that they write the dynamic wonderfully (also recommending Behind The Wall that is easily my favorite jwink Stan he’s so messed up but still well meaning)

Ok let’s get into the keeping of Kyle. I didn’t put this one on the kidnapping rec list because Kyle lost his fire, right up until the end. And let me say this did NOT feel out of character for me as a reader even after the third read, because it felt justified. He gave up on life early on, stopped fighting and became so desensitized to life that he tried to end his. It wasn’t until the VIOLENT physical violation that that aspect of Kyle came back to life, and he fought back. I liked that we’re never 100% sure of how much of Craig’s story is true, that I’m still not convinced it was Kyle’s date that drugged him. Ok the shock collar. That whole deal, the constant reminder around Kyle’s neck that he’s a prisoner no matter how much Craig insists otherwise, that tangible symbol. That got me. It scared me tbh. Kyle in the beginning begging for some autonomy, for his life back, but learning there were consequences, some dark shit man. A decline that felt sickening and was written in a way that made me feel Kyle’s hopeless.

MASSIVE SPOILER IF ANYONE HATES SPOILERS!!! I love that Kyle was the one to almost kill Craig. It had to be him. I love Knight In Shining Armor Stan as much as the next guy (ok prolly more and too much let’s be so fr), but IT HAD TO BE KYLE and I’m so glad it was.

I’m not lying when I said little things from fics stand out to me in ways that remind me of them irl. Like the other day I bought Reiner cherries just because of an inconsequential moment from this fic that I was reminded of when I saw them in the store.

And I love Nice Cryle AND Dark Cryle. A lot. I really did enjoy this fic so thank you so much for asking!

[fourseasonsfigs]

Orange Peel Sister and Mountain Egg Girl

For something a little different, today we have fandom figs - of the fans! Yep, that's us fans there looking so cute!

These were sold separately, but I decided to post them together because they go together so well, and because they're really very specific figs.

This fig maker is incredible - she's an artist who originally designed and sold Junzhe jewelry, who then branched out into making figs and now, all other kinds of merch! These are her own designs, and she has a lot more figs she wants to make, which I really hope become reality. As you can tell from these figs, all of her art is beautifully detailed and just delightful.

For these figs, you could pick if you wanted multicolored eyes (one blue, one orange). I did not myself, but it was a cool option!

Unfortunately, there was a known issue on the earlier figs that shipped, where the custom indent in the polystyrene was too big, leading to this unfortunate result! The factory fixed subsequent shipments by packing with cotton, but mine had already shipped.

Something out of my fig nightmares! (BY the way, my friend asked me, if by any chance, the ghost story books that I read as a young, impressionable, and very sensitive child was by any chance Scary Stories to Read in the Dark. And YES, they sure were. I had blocked them from my memory. I also blocked the stacks and stacks of lurid pulp horror/ghost story comic books populating the kids (?!?!) section of the library out of my mind, but I'm sure I'd recognize them again if I saw them.)

Despite how overly dramatic I made it sound, it was a super easy fix. Just put some glue in the neck socket (ugh) and good as new!

She's adorable! Frankly, the accidental loosening of the head from the body really wasn't bad at all, I'd far rather that happen, than have the leaf or a pigtail or lollipop break, for instance.

Her ponytails act as a brace to keep her standing! It's fantastic. I will, however, have to put her on one of my bigger fig stands so the hair can remain level with the base.

You can see the gardenias in her hair, the symbol for Zhehan, turn into oranges in the back of her hair. What cute ponytail holders! I'm sure a version of these exist out there in the fandom world, I know the fan merch makers are too clever not to have one or more versions of this out there. This is also a nice angle to see the leaf on her orange head!

She's of course wearing Gong Jun's signature color Jifeng Blue, and I'm assuming her sweatshirt is from his 361 endorsement brand that we all know and love (I must say I really do, I've been super happy with everything I've bought from them!). This however, has our two faves' initials!

You can really see how her hair serves to brace her, which is good because, as you'll see later, those cute little tennis shoes on her feet are TINY.

They don't look very small here, the whole fig just looks adorable and cute. I love how she modeled oversized hoodie. The rounded edges is very distinctive in her style, it gives her art a very sweet look.

A great view of the gardenia in her hair from this angle, as well as the really beautifully detailed shoes. Also a perfect angle of the lollipop in her hand - she, like many of her orange sisters, is enjoying some candy! Her eyes are beautiful and her whole expression is super cute. I love her!

Hmm, I guess her feet don't look that tiny from this bottoms-up angle, if I don't max out on my 30-photo limit I'll compare them to another fig. They were actually so small I was going to cut a fig sticker in half to accommodate before I realized that her hair would help hold her up.

The top of her very cute head!

I mentioned the fig maker started off as a jewelry maker, right? I have my eye on this earring set of hers right now (and by "eye" I mean, it's hanging out in my Weidian cart)

She had an extremely inexpensive optional add-on to include a pair of matching orange earrings, which of course I sure added on.

And the earrings in action. It's surprisingly hard to take a selfie picture of your ear, I'm just saying.

Alright! On to our precious little mountain egg!

No travel damage here! She arrived with no issues at all.

This dandan represents the particularly sweet and innocent fans, and is big eyed and cute indeed! She's holding blue and red hearts for Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing, respectively, emblazoned with the initials for langlangding, the CP side of the fandom.

This fig is tiny! The zoom on the pictures are a bit deceptive that way in that it's so blown up it's hard to tell how small she is. I'll make sure to do a comparison post at the end!

Her little blue puff of a dress is too cute. Look at the little puff detailing at her sleeves, and the little white collar. Adorable.

Her hair is the rich yellow of a fluffy new chick!

You can see more pintuck detailing on her little blue dress, which is also Jifeng Blue.

The paint job on the eggshell hat is absolutely pristine - I imagine it was a separate piece that was glued on the figure.

The little baby chick elements are SO CUTE. She did such a nice job on this fig!

Aww, you can really see the faces on the baby chicks here, as well as the enormous heart eyes of his slightly bigger baby chick! You could also have opted for different colored eyes for her, but I did not. When the remainders post and other folks who want them have a chance to get them first, if there's any left of the multi-colored eyes I think I'll pick them up. I like variants and different colorways of things a lot. It's the collector's bug in me, I think.

Her little legs are so, so small. Stay tuned for the comparison fig!

Ooops, I didn't think this shot through by having a white-on-white effect! I put some shadow in there in a desperate attempt to make it work. Oh well, you can see the little chick, that's what's important here.

And here's the two sisters! Looking adorable.

WHY is this pic so blurry? 😢 You guys deserve better than my rudimentary iPhone skills, I am sorry. If you squint past the blur, you can see how tiny their little legs and feet are, especially with the little Mountain Egg sister there.

Oh, you can see the different color eyes on the box photo! That's excellent, especially since I am out of pic space (30 pics go so quickly).

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 342

Scene Count: 24

Rating: We fans are so cute!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[meetmeatthecoda]

⭐ for Elysium 🏛️🏺

Ahhh, my dear Robot!! 🤖😍 Thank you so much for this, I'm so honored you want to know more about any fic of mine, let alone my fave Elysium!! 🏛️🏺(Love those emojis btw!! 😍) I shall make a bullet point list under the cut for your convenience 💙🤍

I remember I focused a lot on the beginning section, setting the scene with lots of description when it came to Liz's dress & the room itself. Even though the fic was set in a scene from an actual ep (7.09) so we all knew what the room looked like, I just really wanted to establish the feel of the space, that was super important to the tone of the fic I was imagining - brown & warm & indulgent.

Omg, flirtatious Red is at an 11 in this lmfao I liked the detail of him watching Liz swallow her drink just cause lol plus his completely nonchalant attitude when it comes to the actual objective of the undercover op & the fact that he's just 100% dedicated to being on a date with Lizzie.

Omg, the dance was so. much. fun. to. write 😏😏😏 I very much had the whole Liz-thinking-Red-is-leaning-in-to-kiss-her-but-he-moves-in-to-smell-her-and-brush-his-nose-along-her-neck-instead moment in mind prior to writing, that was a veryyyyy specific image I had for this fic & I lovedddd including it LOL

Liz's dress inspired the Grecian theme of this fic, which was only meant to be a dance for @theythinkimabitch, but once I thought of a Greek theme, I realized it was perfect since we both love Greek mythology, so I gave Red the pleasure of starting the analogy by commenting on Liz's dress cause, you know... he would & then Liz picks up the parallels from there & 🎶 I went overboard 🎶

I loved the idea of Liz saying it was hard to breathe up on that pedestal where Red has a habit of putting her, both bc it was a good reminder for him that she's human - not a goddess - but also bc I thought it was very "Red" of him to panic & think she was actually having trouble breathing LOL

And Red has to twirl her in their dance & of course he absolutely has to hold her there & give her a once-over at the same time, I mean come on

Liz is Persephone ofc.

I have many books on Greek gods & goddesses & I referred to them to make sure I was getting all the mythology right, just to be sure LOL

I loved the parenthetical that Liz wasn't "abducted from a field of wildflowers, so much as escorted to a black site in a helicopter." I thought that was cool.

And the fact that she doesn't want Red putting her on a pedestal, but also doesn't want to be the weak maiden in need of saving seemed very "Liz" & of course Red would never dream of it, bc he knows just how capable & bad-ass (canon) she is & he loves her for it 👌

When I was originally planning out the mythology for this, I obviously went with Red as Hades - Persephone's husband, perf - but then I had the thought of him also being Cerberus... but only for Liz. I think I was in the shower (I do spend time out of the shower btw, I promise, I just get good fics ideas in there lmfao) & just went HEYOOOOOOOOOO cause I loved that so much 😂

I'm very much in love with the idea of Red & Liz communicating non-verbally in undercover situations, so the idea of the lights going out as they did in the actual ep was SUPER INTRIGUING & of course I had to add a little thigh grabbing, I mean come on 😏

I also adored the parenthetical of Liz realizing she's the only one that can calm or sway Red - as Persephone does Hades - BUT it's not the control she relishes (*cough* like canon!Liz might *cough*) & she instead considers it a privilege. The distinction was important to me.

Red throwing his signature hissy fit - as he did in the ep, but this time x10 - over the safety of the owl bc honestly, he's not a monster while Liz sits there all heart eyes mf was something I desperately wanted to include cause... couple goals, honestly.

Also, the owl itself was a happy coincidence, as something that was already in the ep, bc I realized I could easily tie it into the Greek theme since owls are the sacred animal of Athena & Red clearly has the mind of a strategist, & when I figured out how to work that in I just went yessssssssssss

The fact that Liz knows to get up when Red turns the lights back off & finds his hand in the dark made my shipper heart happyyyyyyy

I wanted to give Liz a little extra shout-out as a capable agent - cause she is, especially after Red stole the spotlight with his whole owl tirade - so I was happy to include that she studied the blueprints of the building & knew where they were when Red didn't & of course Red was all 😍😍😍

And Red being weirded out by the owl was in the end of the actual ep as well, long after they escaped their undercover op, but it was such a cute little moment (James was so fucking cute about it omg I can't even & Megan/Liz had her heart eyes going again & Dembe was sketching the owl, like??? amazing) anyway, it was so cute in the ep that I knew I wanted that to be the thing that made Liz throw herself in Red's arms & finally make out with him lololol

And I threw in the Aphrodite reference cause it fit & at that point, it was just like... "ok, how many gods & goddesses can I actually fit in this fic??? 🤷🤷🤷 Let's see!!" 🥳😂

Also Red reminding Liz of Cerberus with his lil whine as she's kissing him made me tingly & warm so I had to include it 😏

And thennnnnn Liz pulling Red out of the labryinth (Ariadne & Theseus in the maze anyone???) was beautifully symbolic to me.

And lastly, the ending lines: "They’re no Greek tragedy. They’re going to be a legend." came as a surprise but I loved it. I vacillated between "triumph" & "legend" for the last word. I almost went with "triumph" just for the alliteration, but eventually stayed with "legend" cause it went better with the Greek theme.

Anddddd that's it!! 😁 Thank you so much for asking about my fave fic, Robot, I really hope you enjoyed this little BTS look!! 🥰 Much love to you always, my dear friend!! ❤️

Fanfic Writers: Director's Cut

[fragilevixenfic]

Dulce Periculum

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24031747 (read it here or continue below)

Summary: Dulce periculum translates to “danger is sweet”. Takes place nine months after the episode “…And in the End.”Maxine and Spencer have continued seeing each other, in spite of the interference brought to the surface by Cat Adams. Spencer continues to work closely with the BAU after it nearly dismantled, with signature members scattering to the winds, leaving behind only a few, including himself, to keep working on their caseload. After a long, intense case, Spencer returns home to a little more than a can of worms.

Rating: M

Ship: Spencer/Maxine

Show: Criminal Minds

Category: Fluff/Angst/Humor/Smut

Note: “Seduce my mind and you can have my body, Find my soul and I’m yours forever.” – Anonymous

I am nowhere near Spencer’s level of intellect but I hope I did him justice. I didn’t want it to be too smutty or too fluffy so I hope the angst didn’t overtake the story. I hope that I lived up to the request - this is my first foray into this world of Criminal Minds in spite of it being one of my FAVE shows. I adore these characters. 

  A modest demeanor arouses

Thoughts of seduction.

-Mason Cooley

 9:30 PM

Spencer Reid’s Apartment

Washington DC

                 Exhaustion had been a familiar friend for longer than Spencer wanted to admit as his keys stabbed at the keyhole, missing four or five times before finally intercepting and setting off the mechanism inside. Instinct had carried him home and pure adrenaline had kept him from losing the battle with gravity as balance was a cruel mistress that had him hanging by a thread. Twenty-six hours, fourteen minutes, thirteen seconds, and the time was still ticking away. That’s how long it had been since he’d slept and J.J. did her best to distract him long enough on the jet back from their case but, it only made her relaxed enough to pass out in mid-story. The white flag sailed as he watched her for a few moments, relieved over the reclamation of their friendship, and indulged in a Rossi-like activity by accepting that glass of single-malt from Alvez as the clouds moved by.

               The scent of books, old and new, wafted across his nostrils, ushering him over the threshold until the juniper paint, patterned wallpaper, and walnut wainscoting adjusted in his line of sight. It was home even if it hadn’t always inspired a feeling of comfort or care. Tonight, though, it was different, as the warm air nipped at his wrists and his Adam’s apple as he loosened his loudly patterned tie above the curve of his vest while he kicked out of his shoes. Spencer hadn’t considered himself the drinking type but he was eyeing a bottle of cabernet sauvignon from Sonoma Valley gifted to him by Garcia the week before she left. He’d made a promise that it wouldn’t just sit and collect dust but it had started to do just that as he looked at it nestled between a section of old Shakespearean collections.

               Poetically placed, he had figured, as he pulled the bottle from the shelf and smiled at the wine’s vintage of 1981. He chuckled over the choice of a wine from the year he was born and at the intentional way that Garcia knew how to appeal to his attention to detail. Missing her presence didn’t do it justice as he pulled his phone from his pocket, formulating the text to the bubbly woman that never ceased to put a smile on his face even at the darkest of times. She really had become his rock and kept him sane as the world seemed to be falling apart around him.

               I made you a promise when you gave this to me. I’m getting ready to pop the cork on this one.

               He snapped a picture of the bottle and sent it with the text, a smirk still resting on his lips as he pushed the phone into his pocket and glanced at the closed door behind him. It was quiet and lonely in the room, almost to the point of agony as he went to the stereo equipment in the corner, flipping through the albums until a Jazz compilation stood out. The cover was bright, loud even, and represented everything that Spencer wasn’t as he put the vinyl on and let the needle touch the ridged surface as it spun. The melody filled the room with just enough sound to be a murmur that played against his eardrums while he went to the kitchen in search of a corkscrew.

               The phone buzzed in his pocket and Penelope Garcia’s name lit up across the display as he took a peek, conjuring a smile that rivaled a first kiss as he pressed the speaker. “Garcia…You didn’t need to call me while I open the bottle.”

               “Nonsense, mon ami,” Garcia’s voice was refreshing and missed as he searched through a kitchen drawer that was uncharacteristically cluttered, rifling through everything. “Where’s that lovely girl Maxine? You should be popping that bottle with her not sitting there alone.”

               “I sent a text when I got back to DC but she hasn’t replied yet,” Spencer unearthed a corkscrew with a red handle from the mess and pushed the drawer closed, a confused look on his face as he went to work on the bottle. “I know that she was complicit in the Cat ordeal, but there are times that I feel as though it’s still hovering over our heads like a dark cloud.”

               “You’re literally the smartest man I know but you’re also the dumbest, Reid,” Garcia’s remark coaxed a scoff as he popped the cork free, the sound echoing in the nearly sterile kitchen as he let the bottle breathe. “Sometimes, you have to woo a woman even when she says you don’t need to woo her.”

               “Speaking of wooing…how are things with Alvez?” Spencer opened the curio and retrieved a squatty wine glass with a gold rim, a faint smile appearing as he carried it and the bottle into the living room. “Every time I inquire he threatens to take my sidearm and shoot me.”

               “Shut the front door…I wouldn’t have pegged him for a privacy guy,” Garcia’s laugh in Spencer’s ear was a welcomed distraction as he poured the wine and sank into a leather chair, the squish considerable as he felt it give beneath his backside. “We’re taking it slow. Dinner and movie nights every chance we get, nothing extravagant yet. I’m, shockingly, okay with it with respect to my relationship history.”

               “I’m absolutely overjoyed for you, Garcia,” Spencer took his first sip of the deep red liquid and let it wash over his palate for a moment before swallowing, appreciating the blend of flavor that his friend had picked for him. “As expected, the wine is exactly as it should be and more. Thank you.”

               “Oh, it’s good? I was worried that it would be too pungent with the vintage but something about it spoke to me and you know me. The louder the message, the quicker the grab,” Garcia couldn’t hide the excitement through the phone as her voice climbed a little higher while his eyes watched the bubble in the burgundy shade swirl. “You’re being honest, right?”

               “I’m a notoriously bad liar when it comes to you and I wouldn’t lie about a gift from you, Garcia,” Spencer was enraptured by the texture of the label on the bottle as he twisted it with the tips of his fingers as it sat against the top of the table next to him. “Drinking alone, though? I’m out of my element.”

               “You should call her, Spence,” Garcia’s tone softened as she referenced Maxine with a soft implication, tapping at the weaker parts of his psyche as he picked the glass back up and elevated it, before taking a sip. “It couldn’t hurt to have company. Just rip off the band-aid.”

               “It couldn’t hurt to have a lot of things but I seem to find new and exciting ways of ripping open a perfectly good suture,” Spencer was thinking of Maeve, haunted by her pale ghost to the point that he could almost see her visage standing at the window with a book open while delivering a pointed look that scolded him for even thinking of her right now. “I don’t know what to do without sounding like a desperate, lonely man.”

               “Desperate is kind of a subjective term for your situation, my philosophical friend,” Garcia had him curious and confused, which unsettled his stomach as he leaned against the armrest, elbow digging into the leather while the sigh hovered in his lungs. “No one should be alone unless that is what they actually want—and I don’t get the sense that you want to be alone.”

               Garcia had been right about him. Spencer Reid’s naiveté was oozing from his pores, lighting him up in neon as the air finally left his lips in a huff. A man could read every book ranging from the scientific methodology to the psychological qualities of beekeeping but it would not be enough to get by in a real-world situation. This wasn’t beekeeping and while hedonism could be quantified, it could not be taught. This was the one time that paying extra attention to Derek Morgan might’ve done him a little bit of good but he shied away from that kind of bravado back then. He could already picture the smirk on Derek Morgan’s face if he were present; the white flag flying to be shown the ways of natural masculinity that Spencer really never wanted to utilize.

               At least, he never wanted to until the flash of Maxine’s deep, mahogany eyes passed through his consciousness with that mysterious, playful smile that enraptured him.

               “That would involve her actually answering my calls or texts,” Spencer swallowed a considerable mouthful of the wine and tilted his head back, letting the vertebrae crack back into place with a satisfactory series of pops. “I haven’t heard back from her since yesterday when she called to tell me goodnight before we finished the final day in Chicago.”

               “Was your invitation a normal invitation or one of those signature Spencer Reid-style invitations buried in sarcasm and symbolism that only your closest friends might actually understand?” Garcia was tinkering away on her end as she let out a laugh and became an echo with a change to speaker. “You’re on speaker while I wrestle with a cork.”

               “It was a standard invite, I think,” Spencer wrinkled his nose and stood up, pacing the floor as the needle bounced against the stopper and the music came to a halt, muting the noise in the room. “Are you joining me in a glass via telephone?”

               “No, I’m letting it breathe before Luke gets here,” Garcia’s voice preceded the pop of the cork as Spencer switched the vinyl to an Annie

Lennox album in an effort to depart his typical mood. “We’re watching Hardware, drinking chardonnay, and eating fruit and cheese.”

               “You’re watching a horror film about androids?” Spencer had a smirk hiding on his lips as the androgynous, melodic vocals filled the room while he adjusted the curtains. “I wouldn’t have expected that from you.”

               “I lost a bet to Luke about the number of texts, emails, and phone calls he could squeeze in while on a case,” Garcia was reluctant with the admission as the comment had Spencer’s interest piqued fully. “He managed to nearly double the number that I said he’d do and he, literally, sent me a text that said, ‘I win, I win, I win’ like a six-year-old.”

               “So that’s why he was on the phone so much,” Spencer started to laugh as he recollected each moment that Alvez was on his cell phone while having a full-blown conversation with him, the realization that he was paying attention to Garcia absolutely hilarious as he let the pieces fall into place. “I’m glad you’re happy, Garcia.”

               “It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?” Garcia’s question blended perfectly with the distinct tapping against the door from the exterior hallway, bringing Spencer’s attention toward it without hesitation.

               “It really has,” Spencer got up, leaving the wine behind on the side table as the spirit of inquiry took over and encouraged his feet forward until his hand was at the lock to turn it.

               “Was that a knock at the door, Spence?” Garcia asked, the muddled reverberations of glass tapping together moving through the phone as she kept him on speaker.

               Spencer didn’t fully absorb the question as he clicked the deadbolt until it unlocked the door, the shift of the door vibrating against his palm as his equilibrium spun. Spencer’s anxiety jumped and his palms began to sweat as the subtle tapping of heels against the floor preceded the sigh that he could hear through the barrier between them. He had his conclusions as to who it was and the excitement was taking a backseat to the paranoia he couldn’t help but feel. Maxine hadn’t talked to him since the day before and her showing up to his apartment unannounced wasn’t one of her typical characteristics. It had him reeling as he opened the door to confirm his guesses as her brown eyes stared up at him beneath waves of dirty blond locks.

               “Hey,” Maxine’s voice was in that tenor between mousy and pointed as she tucked her hair behind her ears and rocked in her heels, folding her hands behind her back.

               “Hey,” Spencer bit down on his bottom lip until it hurt and felt the fog lift as he could hear Garcia saying his name in his ear. “Garcia, I’ll call you back. Have fun with Alvez and your wine night.”

               “Go get her, Tiger,” Garcia had an unmistakable perk in her voice before she hung up the phone, leaving Spencer with the cellular up near his face like a nervous teenage boy.

               “Are you going to let me in or is the plan to stare at me until I disappear?” Maxine exhaled slowly, her eyelashes fanning down then up as she slowly blinked.

               Spencer made a short, sweeping motion with his hand and moved to let her in, the hesitation written on his face as he furrowed his brow while closing the door. “You didn’t call. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”

               “Sometimes, I want to keep you guessing,” Maxine had been a subtle, welcomed surprise in his life but the tone in her voice was different as she leaned against the back of his sofa and narrowed her stare as he turned to look at her. “Can’t a girl be a little bit mysterious once in a while?”

               “That would intimate that there was a need for something titillating and I didn’t think we’d gotten to the point where things were boring,” Spencer swallowed hard, the mental processes rocking as her smile took shape and the curves of her cheeks softened that stare for a moment. “Have we?”

               “I didn’t say that,” Maxine coiled her index around the center button of his vest closure, lingering along the flat, pearl finish as she chewed the center of her lip and looked up at him. “I have moments where I can’t get it out of my head seeing her in your arms and I want to know if you think about it, too.”

               Spencer knew she was referencing Cat as he nearly swallowed his tongue and stepped away from her, moving toward the kitchen to retrieve another glass to offer her wine. “I think I need a refill…would you like a glass? It’s from Garcia.”

               “Sure,” Maxine had been taking notes, toying with Spencer in some way as she leaned against the armrest of the sofa and crossed her legs, perching there like an elegant bird as she studied his movements. “You’re not answering me which leads me to believe you have been thinking about her.”

               “I have a photographic memory, Max,” Spencer was pouring her a glass near his own, the contents of his dwindling bottle evident as it became lighter in his hand. “I’m incapable of not recollecting pieces of my history at any given moment of the day.”

               “You know that’s not what I mean, Spence,” Maxine’s tongue lingered on his name as she went to the record player and moved the needle until the downbeat of Annie Lennox’s “Cold” began filling the room. “I have eyes. I can tell myself on a daily basis that it wasn’t loaded but there has been a part of me that just wonders…”

Don’t I exist for you

Don’t I still live for you

(Cold, cold, cold)

               “You’re not her,” Spencer extended the glass of wine and watched her big, bright eyes track up his arm until they met a gaze they’d never seen before as a swallow nearly betrayed his cool exterior. “You don’t need to be.”

               Maxine took a sip and scrutinized his body language as he battled with nerves and a desire that hadn’t quite manifested all of the way in front of her yet. “I really want to believe you but I feel like I was just the safe choice to keep you from looking inward. I don’t want to be your crutch.”

               “You’re not a safe choice and you’re definitely not my crutch, Max,” Spencer’s tongue was loosening as he raised his glass to his lips, watching her from the rim until he tipped it to drink. “You have been so much more even though I’m the worst at elucidating it.”

               “I know that she’s dangerous and you seemed to like that about her,” Maxine pressed her lips together, mingling the wine with her lip gloss as she moved them gently back and forth while angling her chin down just a touch. “Saying what you mean really isn’t your forte…you should be trying your hand at showing it for a change.”

               The comment was loaded but Maxine wasn’t wrong about her observation as she blurred the line drawn in the sand with her toe, palming the glass as the distance between them seemed like miles. Spencer wanted to be gutsy and the wine was dulling the separation between bravery and stupidity as he held the bottle in the air, tilting it toward her like a peace offering. Maxine met him in the middle, letting him fill the glass until the last drops splashed into the deep, claret liquid. The sound of Annie Lennox over their mutual silence only added to a sense of anticipation between them as Spencer let the bottom of the bottle touch the top of the table with a resonating clink.

Dying is easy

It’s living that scares me to death

I could be so content

Hearing the sound of your breath

               “It’s a little pathetic that it took a couple glasses of wine to cross the proverbial bridge, Max,” Spencer nearly melted into the floor over her fingers around his tie as she tugged it loose from the deep green and gray woven blend of his vest. “Gives a whole new meaning to the words failure to launch, doesn’t it?”

               “I see no failure in anything going on but you’re definitely going to have to tell Garcia this wine is fabulous,” Maxine grinned from behind her glass, the warmth gathering at the back of her throat with each sip as she looked up at him. “You’re overthinking being here in front of me. Do I make you nervous, Spence?”

               “Only since the second I met you,” Spencer wouldn’t have ordinarily admitted it but the combination of the wine playing on his inhibitions and her free hand tugging his tie was more than enough to tip the scales. “You’re one of the few women that I’ve encountered that speaks her mind so freely and it never ceases to amaze me. It isn’t danger that I seek, though…I need you to know that.”

               “You’re talking around the subject as though you think I’ll be bruised by what you’ll say to me,” Maxine gave the satin material between her fingers a firm tug, bringing Spencer off balance as she elevated to the tips of her toes to nibble the curve of his lip, tasting the wine that had stayed behind. “Stop being afraid of the possibilities for once in your life.”

                The needle began to stutter against the center of the record player as Spencer elevated his glass to his lips, finishing the last drops in a final swallow. Reluctance nagged at him as he pulled his tie free and moved around to the extensive collection of vinyl, thumbing through until he found Annie’s album Medusa sticking out from a section of her others. It was something about the combination of wine, Maxine, and an impromptu confessional that had him desiring the sound of Annie Lennox crooning in the background. It was an odd thing, though, that he couldn’t remember the last time either of these records had been played, let alone the last time he wanted to keep hearing more than classical emanating from his speakers.

               “The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality,” Spencer had her captivated as he managed to dull and heighten seduction in the same breath as he placed his glass next to the empty bottle of wine.

               “Marya Mannes?” Maxine still had a fair amount left of her drink in the glass as she eclipsed the distance and leaned against him, arching up to breathe against his neck. “All really great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction.”

               “I had thought about going with that one but I figured you’d see right through me,” Spencer was already identifying the notes of her perfume and body butter as she directed his chin down with her fingers while she extended her arm to put her glass down. “Is this why you didn’t text or call?”

               White tea, sage, a hint of citrus. The combination was intoxicating, but not overwhelming. Delicate and sophisticated, but not girly.

               “Talking myself into coming over here with a singular goal in mind and arguing with the resistance against it?” Maxine tasted his lips again, letting a kiss develop as she ran her fingers through his hair and steered his hand around her before looking into his hazel eyes. “Agonized all day over the potential for rejection.”

               “And now?” Spencer let her tug his jacket off and toss it aside, knocking over a stack of previously read novels on the coffee table in the process. “Feeling particularly brave or brave enough to get by?”

               “Actually, I’m contemplating the impracticality of seduction when one wears as many layers as you do,” Maxine laughed as she popped the buttons free on the vest, loosening his tie as the front of his shirt finally peeked out. “How long does it take to undress alone when you wear this much? You better not be wearing an undershirt like the prim and proper man I think you might be.”

               Spencer had a bright pink sheen to his cheeks as he fiddled with the delicate material of her cardigan, folding it open across her shoulders over the top of a chemise while his eyes stayed balanced on hers. “I don’t think I get dressed thinking I’m going to have anyone trying to seduce me. I thought this was a good, sensible choice for attire when I was arranging clothes for the week.”

               “The week?” Maxine’s lips curved into a grin as she loosened his tie and gave it a tug, freeing it from his collar in a smooth motion while she licked her lips and watched the nervousness form on his face. “You really are hyper-vigilant aren’t you?”

               Maxine beamed up at him as her thumbs slid underneath of the top of his vest, guiding it away from his arms until he was casual in nothing more than a linen shirt and his slacks with those dark, houndstooth patterned socks. Spencer was captivated but his analytical eye was paying attention to the little swell of her lip as it moved between her teeth between sharp inhales. Maxine was controlling her breaths and giving him ample opportunity to read her, learning the little things that drove her crazy even as she was trying to explore him and push his limits.

               “No, I’m a specific planner so I can fit everything in a suitcase with enough foresight to anticipate the possibility of a longer than normal trip,” Spencer was rationalizing his anal-retentive behavior while Maxine was halfway down the front of his shirt, undoing each button without taking her eyes off of his. “…you’re unusually deft with buttons, has anyone told you that?”

               “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that,” Maxine had him in a tailspin to the point that his rear bumped against a bookshelf as she curled her index to draw him forward. “I really am making you anxious. It’s written from the top of your head right down to your toes.”

               “I take it back, you are a little dangerous,” Spencer swallowed another knot of nervous energy, the cold air wafting across bare skin as the linen fell away from his chest and abdominal musculature, exposing the expanse of gooseflesh as the light caught the pale gleam of his skin. “I have officially sobered up.”

               “I have to find a way to keep it interesting,” Maxine had previously admired the constant politeness from Spencer but she wanted something more from him as she felt havering fingertips against her collarbone. “We’ve tiptoed around each other for long enough and we both have nothing to lose.”

               The soft declaration was an invitation and the fire in her eyes simply provided the spark as Spencer took that leap to pull her in, taking the lead. Studying the rhythm of her beating heart on nights they’d spent wrapped in each other’s arms on his couch watching an obscure movie together had given Spencer just enough ammunition of where begin and how to continue. Maxine had also begun to learn patterns of Spencer’s subtle bits of signaling, though, as she felt his hands down her arms, guiding the sleeves away from soft skin. She expected nothing less from him as his agonizingly sweet, tantalizing care with each part of her elevated the pace of her breath and pushed forth urgency as she watched him slip to his knees with each nibble of skin along her stomach.

               “You can’t tell me that you didn’t think about your outfit before you put it on, Max,” Spencer was pushing boundaries and hiking up her skirt, tugging at the nylons that were barely masking the natural porcelain skin that captivated him. “The material, the color…the fit…everything is has a purpose and my assumption is you changed clothes before you came here.”

               “Ah, fuck,” Maxine held onto the edge of the stereo stand as Spencer bit down on the space above her belly button and pulled her nylons down, pushing his fingertips against her skin to awaken the goosebumps. “I did. I had on jeans before and wanted something less, binding.”

               “We’re not so different, then, are we?” Spencer led her out of the sensible Mary Janes and finished the removal of her nylons while the lace-trimmed material of her panties peeked out from the bottom of her shoved up skirt. “You’re breathing really hard, should I stop?”

               “No, don’t stop, please, don’t stop,” Maxine breathed through a tight space between her lips as she gritted her teeth and gathered a fist full of his hair, holding him against her skin as his breath crept down, narrowing the fabric of her skirt into a bunched section at her hips. “Keep going.”

               Spencer smirked as he tilted his chin up, rubbing the five o’clock shadow of his jaw against her until the moan left her lips and her knees involuntarily parted. “Could do a study on the action versus reaction of my mildly unshaven face versus different parts of your body…using the pitch of your groans as a baseline.”

               “Oh, my God,” Maxine tossed her head back, narrowly missing a shelf of books behind her, the smile on her face as she felt the curve of his jaw move to her thighs, eliciting a lower, more drawn-out whimper. “How did you make that sound hot as fuck?”

               “Intelligence doesn’t have to inspire a chorus of yawning,” Spencer hadn’t had an opportunity to undress anyone in far too long but the feeling of Maxine’s goosebump covered flesh against his lips encouraged his hands to continue as the skirt was discarded onto the growing heap. “It can make you moan over and over.”

               “You are going to get so many complaints from your neighbors,” Maxine bit down on her lip as Spencer nibbled his way up her stomach, dragging fingers along the curve of her body until it met the soft layer of chemise to lift it away. “I want all of you…right now.”

               Rational, well-constructed thoughts and actions went out a window as Spencer stood, the material of Maxine’s chemise between his fingers as he felt her warmth radiating against his bare stomach. It had only been minutes and the tables had flipped as Maxine looked up at him with a growing throb between her thighs, an ache becoming a need as she moved her knee forward, rubbing his inner thigh with it. The wait had been worth it even as Spencer let Maxine tug the belt from the loops and pop a button from the thread in an eager attempt to free him from his confines. Spencer had a mind for painstaking enticement but Maxine was less-than-apt to follow along with his pace as her teeth found his collar on a shirt that didn’t belong on his uniquely-well-built frame, tugging him close.

               “Jesus…Christ,” Spencer uttered the words as a budding erection pushed against her while his slacks slid to his knees, trapping them together. “You’re going to wind up killing me.”

               “I don’t want to kill you, Spence,” Maxine bit her lip and made a gap between the elastic waistband of his shorts and his skin while gazing up at him. “I want you to finish what you’ve started.”

              Spencer’s eyes rolled as her index fingers grazed a flood of warmth as the erection continued to build, triggering an involuntary spasm as he squeezed her thigh and writhed the rest of the way out of his pants. Maxine gasped as Spencer’s eyes finally focused on hers and his grip slipped to her ass, giving her a decisive squeeze as the shelf behind her rattled again. Spencer covered a waiting moan with a fervent kiss, his tongue sliding beyond lips and teeth to find hers as one of his hands teased the satin and lace trim between her thighs. She was already soaked as his middle finger pressed the material along the tender flesh until he could feel the building twitch against his palm as she bucked against his hand.

              Maxine tossed her head back a second time and felt the cool air for a fleeting moment as Spencer guided the thin, wet material to one side to slip his middle finger inside of her. “Oh, my God, yes, yes, please!”

              “You’re so beautiful,” Spencer curled and withdrew his finger, repeating the motion as her moans directed toward the ceiling and echoed in the room. “The most cliché thing I could ever say while my finger is strumming but it’s so true—you are, so fucking beautiful.”

              “Sex…is…cliché…and, fuck, don’t you dare stop,” Maxine cooed and helped him along, covering his hand with her own while giving his hard on a not-so-subtle squeeze as she ground against him.

              Spencer wanted to shake the perfectly organized and categorized books free from their spot on the shelf as he shyly withdrew his finger and palm from her, the squeeze of her muscles grasping at him in his absence as he took a step back to admire her. Maxine let out a drawn-out whimper as she chewed her lip, watching his erection move against his boxers as he gave a final pull of his sleeves, rejecting the well-fitting linen onto the floor. There was a part of Spencer that didn’t want to rush as he watched her reach behind her back, the springy-click of her bra tapping against the well-constructed shelving behind her while she keened from the friction moving across her breasts. Maxine knew what she wanted and she was daring Spencer to move as he took another step forward, gliding the straps off of her shoulders then down her arms to reveal the ivory and flushed flesh that had been carefully hidden.

              Beautiful might not have accurately described her as her chest heaved and responded to his touch as he bent to kiss a trail along the curve of her neck while his digits teased the alabaster and pink of her breasts. Maxine had been waiting, impatiently, for his hands and lips to make their mark as he worked his way down her curves, sloping past eager nipples and a soft stomach as he neared an apex. Spencer’s eyes looked up at her as her tongue slid off to the side of her lips while she watched him move, her fingers weaving through his locks as he liberated her of her underwear in a smooth, downward motion.

              “Jesus, fuck, oh my God,” Maxine gripped his hair and the shelf at the same time as his mouth found wetness and his hand guided her leg higher, squeezing her thigh while he hummed against her lips, parting them with the flat of his tongue. “Spencer…I’m so close…”

              Spencer slipped a finger into Maxine’s wetness and felt a quiver from her muscles before the nerves tapped against him, clamping down as he moved along her clit, grazing the tender bundle with his fingers before circling with his tongue. She telegraphed the movement, matching the synchronicity as hips betrayed her and bucked against his face, stuttering the sound of a groan as he ignored a throb between his own legs. He wanted this for her and he wanted to hear her as a prelude to more. The moans scattered and became louder as his mouth mimicked the eagerness her body was conveying until he heard his name proclaimed, raggedly from her lips.

              “Do you need to stop?” Spencer’s erection would’ve been screaming if given a chance as he stood, licking the taste of her from his lips as she met his gaze. “I know that an orgasm can take a lot of energy out of most women.”

              Maxine shook her head slowly and glanced at the bulge as it bumped against her, the smile creeping across her lips as she stood up straight, reaching for him. “I’m not most women.”

              Spencer didn’t have time to let that comment absorb fully as the sensation of Maxine’s fingers wrapped around his cock was doing little for his processes, making every nerve over-fire as the cold air nipped at his backside. The electricity in the atmosphere increased as his shorts slid to his ankles, leaving nothing more between them than a breeze and the brewing heat from readied friction. The shelf didn’t stand a chance against their hedonism as Spencer guided Maxine’s legs around his hips, into a position that beckoned so much more than the intertwining of bodies. They collided and the space between them all but evaporated as Spencer thrust slow, burying himself inside of her as she came down to meet him.

               Mouths met and the shelf shuddered from the top to the bottom as Spencer manhandled Maxine, rocking her backside against a smooth edge until a stack of books came tumbling down from the top. The mutual moaning blended with a series of laughs as he cradled her ass, moving her away from the unstable mess they’d created before carrying her to the sofa. Maxine maneuvered her way onto him as they tumbled onto the cushions, straddling his thighs as she took charge of the motion, giving him no time to recover before riding him. They had become a touch graceless as Spencer held onto her thighs while she rocked and swiveled her hips, repeating his name in a series of whispers as the whimpers rivaled his.

               “I’m so close,” They both found the words as the murmur became a little closer to a wail.

               Spencer grasped her wrists and pulled her close, rolling uncoordinatedly onto the floor, knocking the throw pillows in every direction in the process, as he made a valiant attempt to switch positions. A laugh left Maxine’s lips as they met the rug with a thud but was replaced with a drawn-out moan as Spencer thrust deep and flicked his tongue across a nipple. It lit a spark as the thrusts could barely be met and the movements became frenzied with every little move he made while sweat began to glimmer across the surface of their skin. Maxine tilted her head back as the climax hit her in a rush and set off the one waiting in the wings from Spencer; the flood gates opened and the cries reverberated until their rhythm finally slowed.

               “I think I bruised my tailbone,” Maxine groaned as they stayed wrapped around each other on the floor, breathing hard as muscles continued to spasm while the room spun.

               Spencer snagged the pillows from their discarded roll before groping for the throw blanket on the edge of the couch to cover up with, glancing back at the mess of books that were now all over the floor across the room. “It’s going to take at least an hour to re-organize that shelf.”

@pprettyboyreid​ @dreatine​ @theauthor97​ @criminalgubler​ @gublernation​ tagging you all...I’m not normally into shameless self promotion.

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What's up gamers today we're taking a stab at guessing why and how in the world a depressed, unhygienic, ketchup-chugging skeleton like Sans became an internet sex symbol if you like this video don't forget to like and subscribe to my channel and click that bell button to get notific

Here's a question for you: if you played all of Undertale without knowing anything about the fandom, and after you were done I asked you who you thought the fan favorite was, who would you say? No really, I'd like to know, because I have no good or honest answer to this question. Because the more I think about it, the more sure I am that, while in many fandoms it's clear who the fan favorite is going to be(and that character may even have been designed to be the fan favorite), Undertale doesn't really have that.

Most times, the fan favorite is a young guy with good looks(a specific kind of look too, usually what you would describe as a "pretty boy") that has a good sense of humor and/or is flirtatious and/or is flippant. Sans is a jokester, sure, but he's not a pretty boy. And as I said, he's depressed and chugs ketchup at local diners and is a slacker, and his jokes aren't flirty or insulting(aka "attractive" jokes), they're just bad puns. These things certainly makes him feel more like a real person(or as real as you can get when you're a skeleton), but they don't make for a good fan fave to drool over. So why was Sans chosen to be transformed through fanon as the fan favorite? I think the answer lies in the no mercy route.

I'm pretty sure we all know this is the biggest contributor to his popularity. Although nowadays I prefer the pacifist route, even I was fascinated with the no mercy route back in the day. And there's a perfectly good reason so many felt the same, for a lot of us(myself included) it was an introduction to "darker" stories, where bad things happened and they didn't get better, or were previously fans of games like fnaf. A lot of the fandom was my age at the time(14) or younger. And since the no mercy route was the main focus for so many fans, what, or who was the staple of it? Sans. And honestly, the sans fight really was made to make an impact. It takes a lot of tries, sometimes even more than undyne the undying, the music is the fourth iteration of Toby's signature song Megalovania, and Sans' dialogue reveals more about his character and opens up a possible mystery by saying strange things that he doesn't explain(remember how I said a lot of people were previously fnaf fans? Well it and similar games became popular largely because of the mysteries they presented. So Sans' popularity also grew because of his connection to the larger gaster mystery). So Sans ended up being the most popular character in Undertale, and Undertale became insanely popular, so by proxy Sans became a very popular character in general.

So here's a summary of why Sans is the fan favorite, even though when just looking at him by himself you'd never guess he'd have risen to this level of popularity(aka the TL;DR): Undertale has a distinct lack of characters that fit the typical "fan favorite" mold, and Sans was the character that most closely fit it. His popularity was largely helped by his significance in the no mercy run and his ties to the gaster mystery, which made him more appealing to young fans in particular, who loved the no mercy route because of its darkness and gaster because of the unsolved mystery. Thus, he became the most popular character in Undertale, and since Undertale was so popular itself, he got a huge fandom.

I also want to take this time to look at some other characters who had the potential to be the fan favorites had Sans not taken the role. Most/all of them fit other, "lesser" fan favorite archetypes that I will explain. A lot of these characters are still pretty popular.

Gaster

This one's pretty obvious. If Sans didn't have ties to both the no mercy run and the Gaster mystery, then Gaster himself would be the fan favorite. Even with Sans(or sometimes because of him), he's inescapable. If he was the fan favorite, the loud part of the fandom would largely stay the same, there would just be less focus on the no mercy run.

Undyne

There's two ways Undyne would've become the fan favorite: being a lesbian icon like Catra from spop, making the fandom a lesbian haven, or through straight weeb men who fetishize lesbians. Those two types of fans already make up the Undyne fandom in our quiet little corner, but we would've seen this on a much larger SCALE(lol) if she had been the fan favorite. And let's be honest, what does Sans have that Undyne doesn't? Let's just look at the facts here: A glowing eye that only shows up on the no mercy run, of which they have one of two of the epic battles for that route that are famously hard to beat, both have a mysterious part of them that's not really explained(Undyne's missing eye, why she melted/came back to life instead of turning straight to dust, determination motif, UNDYNE'S MYSTERIOUS TOO GUYS), connections to a royal scientist, I could go on. I can really only think of one reason that Undyne, the buff angry wlw who isn't conventionally attractive, isn't very popular.........

Asriel

Asriel falls under another type of fan favorite archetype that I like to call, "HOLY SHIT CUTE CHILD." The only other example I can think of right now is Niko from oneshot, who is the fan favorite of their game. And Asriel is indeed a cute child! I would've liked to see him be the fan favorite, because I think the Chara & Asriel subplot is underrated in this fandom. Asriel is fairly popular, but he's mostly seen either as flowey or by fans of the KFCA gang nowadays.

Frisk

Frisk being the fan favorite would be a combination of "HOLY SHIT CUTE CHILD" and "protagonist that I can project onto," with a side of mystery due to their ambiguous backstory. So pretty much how they're portrayed now. They're best done by fans of the KFCA gang, but they're seen more often than Asriel, either as a prop in cool art of a place/another character, or to be the kid in those post-pacifist works.

Mettaton

He's another one that's already fairly popular, this is just about what the fandom would be like if he was The fan fave. And if I'm gonna he honest, I'm kinda surprised Mettaton isn't the fan favorite. He's pretty much exactly what the fan favorite archetype is. He's a pretty boy. He's one of the more popular characters in the fandom, sure, but compared to Sans he hardly shows up. And I honestly don't have any good guesses as to why this is. It could be that he's gay and trans coded, but too "flamboyant" and makes the cishet fans uncomfortable, but even that doesn't check out considering how much people fetishize him being trans. If anything, they like that, even if in the most gross way possible. So yeah, I've got nothing.

Chara

They were probably the fourth most popular character back in the day, after the skelebros and gaster of course. And just like Sans, it's because of their ties to the no mercy route. If they were the fan fave, the fandom would probably be a much darker place. Which is sad, because if you look at how KFCA fans depict them, they're great! But anyways, the fandom as a whole has always focused more on "demon" Chara than looking at maybe a more nicer side of them, so if they were the fan favorite, the fandom would be even more focused on the gritty and dark parts of the story. Oh, and people would keep misgendering them, too.

So there you have it, an in-depth analysis of how Sans became the fan favorite, and then what other fan favorites might look like I guess. Even after writing all of this, I still can't quite comprehend Sans' popularity. Fortunately I've found a good niche in the fandom that appreciates all the characters equally. KFCA fans, waterfall gang fans, gorls fans, etc. Everyone is good! But I've stayed holed up in that little community for so long that I don't know the fandom at large's current condition regarding aus, sans, etc., so really this meta is written from my memory of the fandom back in 2016, which is probably outdated somewhat lol. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the read!

[izzy-b-hands]

Tagged by @dabitchisback​ thank you!!!!

do you make your bed?

dsalfd nope. I should probably, at least once in a while, but I’m always going to just...use it again...and no one else is gonna see it...and even if they were, if that bugs them, then they probably wouldn’t be in my room to begin with lol. 

what’s your favourite number?

2 and 6 seem to follow me in my life a lot, so I guess I like those okay!

what’s your job?

Medical switchboard operator is the Big Official Title aka I answer phones for an eye clinic 

if you could go back to school, would you?

I would really like to get my Master’s, so yeah, if I could do it with no debt and with the guarantee that any job I would have during that time would let me keep my schedule flexible, then hell yeah I’d go back.

can you parallel park?

...I’m too gay (and anxious w/some PTSD related to past car accidents) to even know how to drive. I don’t even have my permit or license lol. 

a job you had that would surprise people?

Probably none of them? Because I haven’t had very many. My first was an after school gig from like...fourteen to about sixteen at the neurology clinic my mum worked at, putting their physical, old-school, paper charts together with that days dictation updates. Then I worked at the local public library for about six years, and then I ended up at the eye clinic and have been there nearly seven years now I think? None of which are real surprising places for me I suppose.

do you think aliens are real?

Yeah? I guess? Idk, I figure they could be, but also if I was them, I don’t think I’d bother with the Earth. That’s just my thoughts on it.

can you drive a manual car?

No, but I once had to help my granddad move a barely working one slightly down a hill, so I have technically driven one, kinda (if pushing lightly on the gas for two seconds and then helping park it so it doesn’t roll counts lol)

what’s your guilty pleasure?

I don’t know? I’ve been in therapy long enough to be trained to like...not have those because otherwise I let myself be consumed by guilt and then feel terrible for weeks after doing whatever it is I’ve just done even if that thing is totally harmless to myself and others, SO. Long story short, maybe chocolate? Because sometimes I eat more than I maybe should in one sitting? 

tattoos?

*cracks knuckles* okay here we go with The List. I have my Queer/Love tattoo on the in and outside of my left wrist, my Ghost (the metal band) rat pope on the outside of my left forearm with a Grucifix near it on the very bottom interior of my forearm, just before the Love of aforementioned wrist tattoo, my David Bowie tribute tattoo with symbols from Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and Blackstar, my Avatar Country tattoo on the outside of my left upper arm, just above that is the bird that is the mom/kid tattoo me and my mum got, and right on the center of my left shoulder/upper arm is my Saints Row purple Fleur de Lis. 

Going across to my chest: I have a creepy/sad eye flash piece that Rich designed right in the center of my chest (and yes, that part of the body really fucking hurts getting tattooed, but it was worth it lol), and then a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern flash also designed by Rich. On my right shoulder and upper arm I have my Devil’s Carnival half sleeve, on the outer portion of my right forearm I have my Black Waltz Avatar lyrics tattoo, on the interior of my right forearm is my Repo! The Genetic Opera tattoo, and then I have Freddie’s signature on the inside of my right wrist, and ‘life’ in his handwriting on the outside of my right wrist. 

On my left thigh, just kinda near my hip area there, idk how to describe it?? I have my Freddie ‘Cat Daddy’ Mercury heart tattoo that was some flash designed by the other tattoo artist I see a lot now named Nikki, then lower on that thigh is Rich’s signature piece of a snail, then on that ankle I have a cute lil flower flash by Rich, then finally on my right lower leg/calf I have my Freddie memorial tattoo with his fave flowers and colors and his initials. 

I would go on about all the ones I want to get done (sometime in the future, since I have to sorta slow down on tattoos to save money for my transition stuff) but that would make this entry even longer so...we’re just gonna leave that for a different post lol. 

favourite colour?

I have more than one, but my mainstay one nowadays is yellow!

favourite type of music?

My mum raised me on rock and roll, but I also like pop and hip hop and just...idk I like a lot of stuff lol. I’ll give most music a try if someone gives me a CD or shoots me a Spotify link. 

things that people do that drive you crazy?

Purposefully and pridefully ignorant people who don’t care if their ignorance hurts others, and also I hate hearing people chew and swallow and shit. idk why, the sound just Sucks. 

do you like doing puzzles?

I love puzzles, but I often don’t have enough space to finish them (my Queen puzzle is glaring at me, half finished, rn lmao.)

any phobias?

Oh Jesus. So many. They’re all dumb af and relate to various odd PTSD shit and/or minor trauma from my childhood and/or stuff with my anxiety (and like all of this is co-morbid/intertwined per my therapist so like...aldsfaj it’s all A Lot.) I’m legit too embarrassed of them to say any of them here, forgive me. 

favourite childhood sport?

I was actually decent at volleyball, so that was one I didn’t try to get out of in gym class. That and tennis and badminton. I get bad competitive with badminton though like the Jock in me comes out that normally barely even exists. 

do you talk to yourself?

Sometimes yeah. Out loud if I’m alone. My therapist is cool with it because it helps me work through stupid anxiety shit a lot of the time, so like it’s dumb, but also If It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It, ya feel?

what movie do you adore?

Oh god A Lot. I’ll just say Rocketman for now for a recent one, and Kiki’s Delivery Service for a childhood/still current one, because if I actually list all the movies I’ve adored since I was a kid, this post will become too big to post lol.

coffee or tea?

Tea, especially chai. 

first thing you wanted to be growing up?

I don’t know actually. I thought about that recently, and realized the answer is probably writer, but that I only wanted to be that after adults told me I was good at it and I earned approval from them, which is Definitely Something, but we don’t have time to unpack all that! 

Tagging @skylinepigeon, @s-k-y-w-a-l-k-e-r (I’m not sure if I should use your side or main for this, my bad if I tagged the wrong one on here!!), @the-heebiejeebies, and anyone else who wants to do this!!

[asakurahaos]

Ive been watching b/leach today and at some point i just thought, why do i have such positive feelings whenever i watch it?

Like, even tho it has some lighter and comedic moments, the show is basically one bad thing happening, then another, and another and.... Its not a happy show at all, so why am i feeling so happy when i watch it?

And now it hit me that it was the last show i got into and loved before depression really took hold of me

But then i thought, hey but why dont i feel the same for n/aruto then? And after thinking abt it for a bit i figured out n/aruto doesnt bring back the same happiness as bleach (and s/haman k/ing and hp) bc n/aruto was my main fandom during my (then) worst depression

I did get into all of these before it got bad, and they were my main focus when i was happy. I did read/watch all of these when it got bad too, but n/aruto was my main focus at that point . So i guess my brain is now like, b/leach, hp, sk = happy times, good memories, childhood and n/aruto = a coping mechanism, bad days and a bunch of problems

[hils79]

Denver Shenanigans

I was going to do a whole write-up of my trip to Denver but, honestly, it would end up being huge. 

I’ve posted about my adventures on the ice at Pepsi Center, about meeting Tyson and Gabe, and embarrassing myself in front of Colin.

Here’s some other highlights.

We saw Marc Moser very briefly behind the bench before warmups at the first game we went to. One of my friends, who is local, mentioned I was over from the UK and like some sort of mystical Avs Santa Moser pulled a pop socket and pin out of his pocket and passed them to me. We couldn’t hear each other through the glass so we mostly communicated by mouthing words and using hand gestures but he asked me how I was enjoying my trip and I told him it was great.

Big Z caught me taking a photo of him during warmups.

Kerfy got out of his car to pose for a photo with a little kid and then stayed out for everyone else. We’re laughing here because we both got distracted by something someone else was doing and forgot we were supposed to be looking at the camera. Also, he’s very warm. Like I’ve got about 4 layers on here and I could still feel how warm he was when he put his arm around me for the photo.

Long Beach Native Matt Nieto is the sweetest guy. He took the time to read the poster I was getting everyone to sign and asked me how I was enjoying my first visit to Denver. 

Barbs was also really sweet. He asked me if we had a hockey league back at home and we talked about that a bit. He was disappointed to hear that my city doesn’t have any sort of well known soccer team.

We did a tour of Pepsi Center while the Canes were practicing. Dougie Hamilton photobombed us.

We ran into Lauren Gardner and Conor McGahey during the tour and they are absolutely the nicest people. Even though I’m sure they had places to be they stopped and chatted to us for a good 10 minutes. Lauren called me Red, hugged us all multiple times and told us to come up and see her before the game that evening. Conor is a total nerd (and I say that with love as a fellow nerd). We talked about comics and playing musical instruments (he plays sax). He always says hi to me on the radio when I tweet to say I’m listening and I got to thank him for that. Also, if you think his voice sounds good on the radio that’s NOTHING to what it sounds like in person. So rich and smooth. I could have listened to him talk all day.

I joked that I was milking how far I’d traveled and that every sign I was making was going to mention that I’m from the UK. Lauren said she’d try and get our signs on TV. Haven’t actually watched any of the games we were at to see if that happened yet.

I was really hoping to meet them both and was considering tweeting them to ask before this happened. Lauren is such an inspiration for women wanting to get into sport broadcasting. She really knows her stuff and is smart, warm and kind. I’m so sad she’s leaving Altitude but I know she’s going to do great things. And I got to tell her how much I love listening to her on the podcast. There’s always something missing when she’s not able to make it and one of the other guys fills in. 

They insisted on taking a photo with us before they left and then debated whether we should stand in front of the goal or in front of the Zamboni.

We got to see where Coach Bednar does all his press stuff

And where Lauren does all the intermission interviews

We went shopping before the game and I came away with a ton of stuff including this amazing tshirt. Technically it’s a youth shirt but one of the perks of being short is that youth stuff fits me.

As requested we went up to see Lauren before the game and she gave me a high five for getting a puck from Tyson. You could tell she’s feeling really emotional about leaving and she gave us all more hugs and said she was going to miss everyone.

The lights are super bright for the cameras so we all look really washed out while Lauren in her stage makeup looks flawless

Our signs made it onto the Avs Twitter and look at this perfect timing of Tyson skating right in front of my sign. 

The next day we went to Sobo which is the liquor store Mark Rycroft owns. We wanted to buy some gifts for friends/family and he was super nice. He walked us around, gave us recommendations based on our budget and insisted on getting a photo with us before we left. He was so excited that our group was from all over. 

It’s pretty common knowledge that Tyson Barrie loves Dairy Queen and when I mentioned we don’t have it in the UK the rest of the group decided we must go there. So here I am having my first ever Blizzard (cookie dough). It was pretty good. 

For our third game we all made signs for Gabe and wore Landeskog jerseys to show that we miss him. We all ended up on the jumbotron which was kind of cool (I clearly do not know how to draw the # symbol). 

I survived Colin Wilson staring right at me while wearing a backwards hat

Also, EJ looking like he’s about to murder me

During one of the intermissions we met Bernie which was super fun.

At the end of our final trip to practice I had a pretty decent collection of signatures on my poster. I’ve now bought a frame for it and I’m going to hang it over my desk in my bedroom. I appreciate Colin and Tyson signing next to each other even though I met them on different days. My two faves together. 

I love that for our last game we all inadvertently ended up wearing jerseys with different players’ names on. We have a broad selection of faves. 

Once the game was over and it was starting to hit me that I was leaving the next morning things took a turn for the amazing. The other #DenverShenanigans girls had been plotting and snuck off and bought me a game used Colin Wilson stick for my birthday. This whole trip was technically a birthday present for myself (I turn 40 in September but there’s no hockey in September). I honestly had no idea they’d been planning this and pretty much started crying in the middle of the bar at Pepsi Center. I’m so lucky to know such wonderful people. 

And then @some-say-this-is-a-blog made me a beautiful quilt in Avs colours. I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve such amazing friends. 

And that concludes my Denver Shenanigans. Honestly, Denver is one of the most friendly places I’ve ever been to. Even the TSA guys at the airport were friendly! 

We’ve already started making tentative plans to go back next year for the Stadium game but it’s going to depend on the schedule. I definitely want to go back next year but I want to do like I did here and go to block of home games. It’s a long way to travel for just one. 

[siriusstarx]

Some Quintessence naughtiness!! Cardia Blackwell: D, T, V Sisi (THE GIRL NOT THE DOG... I think she might be my fave /)//v//(\ ) : E, F, G, W

Yay! With great pleasure! 

These asks are related to my Contemporary AU fic “Quintessence” which I still need to write a proper summary for and post publically. (It is available on request if you don’t mind a description instead of a truly elegant summary.) It follows the reborn soul of Cardia and the decendents of the Lupin Gang (along with the immortal and long lived members of the Gang.) Since only two people have read it so far, I’m putting this behind a cut. 

Cardia Blackwell: 

D: Dirty Secret. At first I was like ??? Cardia is very much a virgin. She has fiercely suppressed all desire for a lover, thinking such things forever impossible for her to have. But… when I did a little digging…

Cardia went to Egypt when she was 18 with her Advanced Ancient Studies group. While there, they visited a newly excavated cave dwelling that she heard of through her alchemy connections. The caves were empty except for three pieces of stone furniture, a workbench, a chair, and a raised bed, all clearly and beautifully carved with some of the most ancient symbols of alchemy known. Cardia was mesmerized by them, but was only able to do a few rubbings and take pictures to examine later before they had to leave. 

She was examining the photos late that night when she noticed a familiar symbol on the stone table— Hermes Trismegistus own ancient personal signature. 

It was one of Cardia’s most cherished desires to visit one of Hermes Trismegistus’s laboratories. Not stopping to think… Certainly not acting at all like the serious, mature teenager known by her teachers and classmates, she crept back to Hermes laboratory with her chemical kit. Her goal to find out when Hermes had lived there.

She finished her work, but couldn’t make herself leave. She could almost see a tall, beautiful man in robes working at the bench making medicinal elixirs. She could feel his presence in the cave. She wondered what it might be like to have lived there with him— the only man she had ever desired at that point. She laid down on Hermes‘ bed and, caught up in the enchantment of the moment, masturbated to a spectacular orgasm… and fell asleep. 

She dreamed (???) that she heard a deep sigh, “It has been much too long since these eyes and walls have seen such a sight.” she felt a big hand stroking her head and a soft touch on her lips, “It is all right. Be at peace, you precious soul.” 

She awoke from a very sweet dream two hours later and returned to her absolutely mortified senses. She pulled up her jeans, scrambled to pick up her chemical kit and bolted out the door, feeling a confusing mixture of elation and mortal embarrassment. 

The next day Cardia found a beautiful emerald cabochon finely etched with Hermes symbol in the pocket of her jeans that she DEFINITELY didn’t remember picking up. She was afraid to test its age and authenticity. She is still horribly ashamed for pleasuring herself in Hermes laboratory, but if she could ever admit it, it was the most daring and thrilling moment of her life before she met Saint. 

 I sometimes wonder if she might have crushed a little on Fran as a teen- a gentle alchemy  professor who she trusted completely… but I haven’t gotten that from her yet. It was only Hermes that she wanted! (Though in her imagination he sometimes looked more like Saint. Especially in her dreams.)

She still carries the emerald in her purse to the present day. I want Noreen to get the truth out of her someday!

T: Toys. Once she is with Saint, he will be all she needs. Saint doesn’t have much use for devices, but he sometimes enjoys using pieces of fruit or other edible things to stimulate her. She was horrified at first! She doesn’t want to admit that she especially likes the way melon pieces feel… 

Before Saint, she had a small vibrator that she received as a gag yankee swap gift at her bookstore. She told her coworkers she threw it away, but secretly she kept it… She probably even named it. I haven’t gotten the name out of her yet. I expect it to be pretentious and Latin, though. 

V: Vocal: Cardia is usually very quiet, making only soft gasps, sighs and quiet moans. She doesn’t speak much until she’s close to coming and then just repeats Saint’s name over and over, rarely anything else. Saint absolutely cherishes the sound of her voice when she whispers his name that way. She sometimes cries when they make love. Often they both do. 

Sisi Barbicane: 

E: Experience: Very little. None of it good. Being a vampire among humans is very hard for Sisi. Most humans are either afraid of vampires or fetishize them. Sisi has a warm heart and can be overly trusting, but she is pretty shy when it comes to romantic relationships. She was seduced by a teammate as a teenager, but it turned out he was dared by his buddies to find out if it was true that having sex with a vampire would give him special powers. He dumped her pretty fast when he found out she was just a physically strong, vulnerable girl with fangs. He spread rumors that she was a whore and a fake vampire. She was terribly hurt and hasn’t been involved with anyone since. 

(That teammate left the team soon after. He suddenly decided to become a missionary despite no previous religious or altruistic inclination… and disappeared soon after. He’s currently on the missing persons list. One REALLY does NOT fuck with the children of the Lupin Gang.) 

F: Position: She’d love to have a lover strong enough for the piston. She likes being picked up and cuddled in general. She would be happy to do the same for them. She’s definitely strong enough to hold her lover in position! She doesn’t have a speck of dark kink in her, but she’s flexible and athletic and would be up for trying different positions, even exotic ones. Her lover really likes the cowgirl or any position they can watch her. They love her long gorgeous red hair and the sight of her pretty face… when they get more experienced, they’ll also enjoy 69. 

G: Goofy: When she’s happy in love, she can definitely be silly, at least sometimes. Sisi’s lover adores to make her laugh, and doesn’t mind if it is at their own expense, They’ll just do whatever it takes to make her smile. Her lover doesn’t have much of a filter or a capacity for lying, so  they often just come out and say embarrassing, perfectly unadorned things in bed as if they were NBD. It always makes Sisi laugh. But if Sisi is feeling sad, they let her cry on their shoulder and show her how much they love her with all the serious skill they can muster. 

W: Wildcard: The best way to win Sisi’s heart is to be kind and honest. She wants to trust people, but she’s been hurt, so she’s scared. She has a vulnerable heart. 

Despite her extraordinary physical strength and skills, she would love to be romanced and cherished like a normal human girl. Flowers, chocolates, romantic walks in beautiful gardens, swimming in the ocean, romantic cafes… more flowers… all of that.  She’d also love to have a lover who could share her passion for flowers, playing sports and flying, too. It all seems like an impossible dream to Sisi to find someone like that who also doesn’t mind that she’s a vampire. 

Carlotta Van Helsing: 

Y: Yearning: Carlotta has a robust sex drive. She’s second of the younger generation in terms of experience, and enjoys a good fling with a spirited and, above all, INDEPENDENT lover now and then. She HATES clinginess. She’s fine going alone for extended periods of time and just taking care of things herself. It is less trouble than a bad relationship. She isn’t currently in a serious relationship, but she’s got her eye on someone special. 

Z: How fast she falls asleep: It depends. If she is with an experienced lover who hit all her buttons, she falls asleep pretty fast. If she’s with someone who is nervous or shy and who she needs to guide, she tries to make sure to make them feel safe and cared for. She does enjoy teaching lovers sometimes.

[crazy4tank]

Gus Dapperton – Post Humorous

New Post has been published on https://fashiondesigne.com/2021/01/12/gus-dapperton-post-humorous/

Gus Dapperton – Post Humorous

A unique live performance for Vevo DSCVR, the channel for the best within new music.

2020 was a large year for Gus Dapperton. The New York indie-pop vocalist dropped his second LP, ‘Orca, ’ which both press and fans recognized for the insightful way this addressed mental health challenges. One outlet called the lp his “ most clear and honest piece of work however. ” Showing off further development, Dapperton wasn’t afraid to include more danceable moments in order to his otherwise plaintive repertoire. At times, ‘Orca’ has a happy-go-lucky vibe, like the disco-tinged “Palms. ” In the same problematic vein, check the job that he plus fellow DSCVR artist BENEE’s did on the feel-good-in-isolation quickly pull, “Supalonely, ” which place the indie kids at the top of the particular charts. Style-wise, the vocalist even ditched his signature bank bowl cut last year, which usually had been his signature seem since his opening-act times at Williamsburg gigs. Yet worry not, he’s nevertheless an unapologetic fashionista. My numbers were so high that he let one of their pals dot some brand new ink beneath his remaining eye. He says the tat symbolizes themes from the concept album. We think it looks great as hell. Same for your two outfits he wore for his DSCVR shows of “Post Humorous” plus “Medicine. ” Hit the to tell us which one’ s your fave.

Gus Dapperton https://twitter.com/gusdapperton https://www.instagram.com/gusdapperton https://www.facebook.com/gusdapperton/

Vevo http://facebook.com/vevo http://twitter.com/vevo http://instagram.com/vevo Executive Producer: Micah Bickham Director: Bram VanderMark Producer: Maddy Schmidt Maker: Cole Brian Director associated with Photography: Janssen Powers Publisher: Austin Prahl Music & Talent: Cynthia Todd & David McTiernan

#GusDapperton #PostHumorous #DSCVR http://vevo.ly/bwRJsl

[twdmusicboxmystery]

More Movie Posters From Nicotero

Okay, a few weeks ago, I did a post about Nicotero's post for the Omega Man, which he put Daryl. It's HUGE that he's calling Daryl the Omega Man. Huge clue for Beth's return. Details HERE.

The thing is, it wasn't by far the only movie poster Nicotero has done. It was just the first one that caught my attention and gave me the TD tingles. So I've been wanting to do another post to mention the other posters he's put together. Because quite frankly, guys, they're all pretty suspicious.

1. Back to the Future. 

I think the biggest take away from this one is that Carl and Rick will be "going back in time." Which is symbolic, of course. But that goes well with the two of them being at the gas station in 8x01 and all the callbacks to Season 1 we know will be present.

In terms of TD, just want to point out a few details:

1) The time question. We know there was a time-screw with Beth's arc and this seems to say we'll see some time stuff in S8.

2) Carl is wearing his cowboy hat. I know it's Carl's signature and everything, but he would have still been recognizable without it (especially with the eye-patch) and Nicotero had to do more to put it in and make it so he's holding the hat rather than the glasses from the original poster, which you'll note he left on Rick. (Beth = New sheriff in town.)

3) If you're familiar with the actual movie, you know it takes place in the 80s. Marty's parents met and fell in love (and hence the time he travels back to) in the 50s. 30 years earlier. If they're messing with time in S8, it suggests we might travel back to S5, to when important things happened for a certain couple, and see what really happened back then.

4) Convenient Details. These are things that were already on the original movie poster and therefore Nicotero didn't have to put them in, but they're things that we've seen a lot in the show. I'm just saying it made the poster super-convenient to use, and if any of these affected his choice of poster, that's good for TD: 

A) I know the part of the Delorean that's open is the side door, which lifts upward, but it LOOKS like an open trunk and, let's face it, that door is a hatchback (hatch-side?). 

B) The tires also feature prominently here. Again, it's a trait of the Delorean in the show that they turn sideways like that, but we can see them very well and we've seen a lot of askew tires around Beth symbolism in the show. 

C) Red shoe laces. Doc wears them in the original film poster, but OH how convenient. 

D) Rick/Doc is wearing yellow, which could parallel Beth's yellow polo.

2. Alien Poster

In the Safe Zone, we discussed these at length, and we had a little trouble with the Alien poster, but still came up with a few things.

1. In terms of the poster itself, lots of green.

2. Ripley is a very strong, female character. And (spoilers for the Alien films here) she often ends up being the last survivor of her group or on her ship. In other words, she ends up taking a lot of long journeys alone. Most of the time, she's just trying to get home.

3. Nicotero used the poster for the first Alien film (which is probably at least somewhat a copyright issue), so I don't know if I can count parallels from Aliens (2nd film) but Ripley does famously save a little girl in that one. So it made me think of the Beth-As-Protector-of-Children Theory. But again, not sure that counts.

4. In other countries, sometimes Alien has the subtitle of "The 8th Passenger" or "The 8th Passenger is Death." Kind of interesting.

5. Also the tagline. Nicotero changed it to "When you're dead, no one can hear you scream." We couldn't help but wonder if it's a reference to no one knowing Beth is alive. We've discussed before that maybe she was awake in her own head, but no one knew it. I've also talked before about how many of the bond walkers have messed up mouths or jaws, and have wondered if this means Beth will have speech problems or won't be able to talk. I think her being unable to speak will more likely be symbolic than literal, and this tagline may be further evidence of that theme.

3. ThunderBall

1. This is an old 007/James Bond film. First notice that instead of 007 it says 001. Probably a sign of the callbacks to S1, but also a backwards 100 for episode 100 (8x01).

2. The second bar is an ocean scene. Now, maybe we couldn't read Beth into it too much (because there's an ocean scene on the old poster too; it becomes a convenient detail like the in the Back to the Future poster) but notice that Rick's shirt is yellow. The same yellow as Beth's polo. Kind of suggests a "sheriff" escaping via water?

3. At the beginning of the film, Bond attends the funeral of a Specter agent. The thing is, the funeral is a sham. The agent is actually in disguise and attending his own funeral. So we're talking about a funeral for an empty grave. Obvious ties to Beth. Also there are those empty graves in Alexandria FG used to fool Negan into believing Maggie was dead.

3. Tagline again. Nicotero changed it to "Here comes the biggest badass of them all." There are lots of badasses on the show. Daryl, Rick, and Carol. Maggie, Carl, Rosita, Tara. But this tagline suggests a new one is coming. Those who are already on the show (and the poster) are already known for their badassery. We've already seen it. So unless Judith is gonna pull a machine gun out of her crib, this is someone else, who's badassery has yet to be seen.

4. Raiders of the Lost Arc

This one is very recent and one of my faves, I think.

1. All the Indiana Jones films have biblical connotations. Arc of the Covenant. Temple of Doom. Last Crusade. So again, a convenient poster to use.

2. In this installment, Indiana Jones's love interest is named Marion. (Robin Hood Theory)

3. Marion has a death fake out. It's very different than Beth's. She's in the back of a truck that explodes while Indiana is trying to rescue her (*coughs Daryl parallel*). No way anyone could have survived the explosion. It incinerated everyone and everything involved. The thing is, there was a bait and switch. The bad guys pulled her out of the truck and put her in another car, using the first one as a decoy so he'd chase it. It worked. He didn't realize she wasn't in the truck anymore. He's super sad and even drinks his troubles away for a time. Meanwhile, Marion pops up again later in the film. Ah damn romance novels!

4. Indiana Jones is looking for something that's lost/hidden.

Update: So I wrote this up about a week ago and before posting, Nicotero did two more posters. Just a quick word about each, but I'd encourage you all to go look them up and draw your own conclusions. Because, you know, it's kind of fun. ;D

5. Psycho II:

Not much to say here except that Norman returns after being held for 22 years in a hospital, I mean mental institution. 😏 Just saying. And I'm sure this isn't a thing, but I gotta wonder if the main character being named Norman was a deciding factor here. 😉

6. Night of the Living Dead: 

This is the old version from '68. Let's just take a gander at the synopsis, shall we?

"Barbara and Johnny visit their father's grave in a remote cemetery *coughs Bethyl in Alone* when they are suddenly set upon by zombies. Barbara…takes refuge in what seems to be an abandoned farm house *coughs funeral home in Alone*. She is soon joined by Ben, who stopped at the house in need of gas. *coughs gas stations in S1 and S8* Beset by the walking dead all around them, Ben does his best to secure doors and windows.” *coughs Alone into the sunset*

They also find 5 people hiding in the basement. Kinda reminds me of the inmates in the prison in S3, but there's that pesky number 5.

For the record, we could also interpret this as Beth "getting away" after being shot and holing up in the white cabin Emily filmed at that we haven't seen footage for yet. Just saying.

So. Bottom line. Nicotero and his crew are having WAY too much fun dropping hints for TD about S8. Thoughts?

[taperjeansgirl-blog]

The Bucket Tracklist: Blue

Before Taylor Swift became synonymous with singing about her relationships, there was Joni Mitchell. On her 1971 album Blue, she harnessed her heartbreak over the end of her relationship with fellow singer James Taylor, creating one of the most vulnerable albums of all time. Mitchell has been quoted saying:

“[On] the Blue album, there’s hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of mylife, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn’t pretend in my life to be strong – or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either.”

This translates itself to moments of heartbreaking music, where Mitchell is – in both lyrics and melody- completely unguarded. Her signature octave-switching is in full force throughout the album. With no warning, she leaps to the most unexpected of notes, but somehow makes it sound right. This is probably due to the fact that she has an extremely clear and crisp voice that sounds as comfortable in falsetto, if not more so. One of my favourites on this record, Little Green, typifies this; there is a seamless transition from the lower notes, which give the song a little edge, to the high notes which are the typically beautiful and heart-wrenching tones you’d expect. Before first listening to this album (and definitely after reading the quote from Mitchell) I half expected the whole record to be slow and miserable, but that’s not the case. Just as she laments over what she lost on the sad songs, she talks about the future, or rather potential futures in upbeat tracks, such as Carey. In this song, she shows her ability to summarise a complex relationship in one line: “You’re a mean old daddy, but I like you”.

There seem to be specific references to her relationship with Taylor sprinkled throughout the album. For example, All I Want mentions the sweater she knitted for him at the time. She includes this in a list of all the things she wants to do with him (or any love), such as “shampoo” or “renew [them] again and again”. This is a good example of the kind of social realism that underpins the majority of her songs; she sings about the mundane and yet makes them extraordinary in the tone of her voice and the conviction she has in the songs. However every now and again she explores the more abstract lyrics, such as in A Case Of You. This is most probably the most famous track from this album (even James Blake covered it), and within the lyrics she experiments with the more obscure symbolism: “I am a lonely painter / I live in a box of paint” to show love at its deepest.

Whether or not it’s just her and the piano, or a full band, Mitchell’s voice cuts through the music so that it sounds incredibly close to you when you listen. This gives the whole record a sense of immediacy that I think really enhances the listening experience, and highlights just how good these songs are. As a massive fan of people who were really influenced by Mitchell (such as my fave, Laura Marling) this is very much up my street. Even if that’s not really your type of music, though, I still recommend listening to this record anyway. If nothing else does, the sheer honesty and willingness to be vulnerable she shows should impress you. Long live Joni.

[fragilevixenfic]

hey!! could we have some smutty/fluffy spencer reid fic if ur comfortable?? 😀

Oh my gosh...I so hope I do this justice.

Summary: Dulce periculum translates to “danger is sweet”. Takes place nine months after the episode “…And in the End.”

Maxine and Spencer have continued seeing each other, in spite of the interference brought to the surface by Cat Adams. Spencer continues to work closely with the BAU after it nearly dismantled, with signature members scattering to the winds, leaving behind only a few, including himself, to keep working on their caseload. After a long, intense case, Spencer returns home to a little more than a can of worms.

Notes: “Seduce my mind and you can have my body, Find my soul and I’m yours forever.” – Anonymous

Note: I am nowhere near Spencer’s level of intellect but I hope I did him justice. I didn’t want it to be too smutty or too fluffy so I hope the angst didn’t overtake the story. I hope that I lived up to the request - this is my first foray into this world of Criminal Minds in spite of it being one of my FAVE shows. I adore these characters. This was an anonymous request via Tumblr, so go easy on me.

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

A modest demeanor arouses

Thoughts of seduction.

-Mason Cooley

9:30 PM

Spencer Reid’s Apartment

Washington DC

              Exhaustion had been a familiar friend for longer than Spencer wanted to admit as his keys stabbed at the keyhole, missing four or five times before finally intercepting and setting off the mechanism inside. Instinct had carried him home and pure adrenaline had kept him from losing the battle with gravity as balance was a cruel mistress that had him hanging by a thread. Twenty-six hours, fourteen minutes, thirteen seconds, and the time was still ticking away. That’s how long it had been since he’d slept and J.J. did her best to distract him long enough on the jet back from their case but, it only made her relaxed enough to pass out in mid-story. The white flag sailed as he watched her for a few moments, relieved over the reclamation of their friendship, and indulged in a Rossi-like activity by accepting that glass of single-malt from Alvez as the clouds moved by.

              The scent of books, old and new, wafted across his nostrils, ushering him over the threshold until the juniper paint, patterned wallpaper, and walnut wainscoting adjusted in his line of sight. It was home even if it hadn’t always inspired a feeling of comfort or care. Tonight, though, it was different, as the warm air nipped at his wrists and his Adam’s apple as he loosened his loudly patterned tie above the curve of his vest while he kicked out of his shoes. Spencer hadn’t considered himself the drinking type but he was eyeing a bottle of cabernet sauvignon from Sonoma Valley gifted to him by Garcia the week before she left. He’d made a promise that it wouldn’t just sit and collect dust but it had started to do just that as he looked at it nestled between a section of old Shakespearean collections.

              Poetically placed, he had figured, as he pulled the bottle from the shelf and smiled at the wine’s vintage of 1981. He chuckled over the choice of a wine from the year he was born and at the intentional way that Garcia knew how to appeal to his attention to detail. Missing her presence didn’t do it justice as he pulled his phone from his pocket, formulating the text to the bubbly woman that never ceased to put a smile on his face even at the darkest of times. She really had become his rock and kept him sane as the world seemed to be falling apart around him.

              I made you a promise when you gave this to me. I’m getting ready to pop the cork on this one.

              He snapped a picture of the bottle and sent it with the text, a smirk still resting on his lips as he pushed the phone into his pocket and glanced at the closed door behind him. It was quiet and lonely in the room, almost to the point of agony as he went to the stereo equipment in the corner, flipping through the albums until a Jazz compilation stood out. The cover was bright, loud even, and represented everything that Spencer wasn’t as he put the vinyl on and let the needle touch the ridged surface as it spun. The melody filled the room with just enough sound to be a murmur that played against his eardrums while he went to the kitchen in search of a corkscrew.

              The phone buzzed in his pocket and Penelope Garcia’s name lit up across the display as he took a peek, conjuring a smile that rivaled a first kiss as he pressed the speaker. “Garcia…You didn’t need to call me while I open the bottle.”

              “Nonsense, mon ami,” Garcia’s voice was refreshing and missed as he searched through a kitchen drawer that was uncharacteristically cluttered, rifling through everything. “Where’s that lovely girl Maxine? You should be popping that bottle with her not sitting there alone.”

              “I sent a text when I got back to DC but she hasn’t replied yet,” Spencer unearthed a corkscrew with a red handle from the mess and pushed the drawer closed, a confused look on his face as he went to work on the bottle. “I know that she was complicit in the Cat ordeal, but there are times that I feel as though it’s still hovering over our heads like a dark cloud.”

              “You’re literally the smartest man I know but you’re also the dumbest, Reid,” Garcia’s remark coaxed a scoff as he popped the cork free, the sound echoing in the nearly sterile kitchen as he let the bottle breathe. “Sometimes, you have to woo a woman even when she says you don’t need to woo her.”

              “Speaking of wooing…how are things with Alvez?” Spencer opened the curio and retrieved a squatty wine glass with a gold rim, a faint smile appearing as he carried it and the bottle into the living room. “Every time I inquire he threatens to take my sidearm and shoot me.”

              “Shut the front door…I wouldn’t have pegged him for a privacy guy,” Garcia’s laugh in Spencer’s ear was a welcomed distraction as he poured the wine and sank into a leather chair, the squish considerable as he felt it give beneath his backside. “We’re taking it slow. Dinner and movie nights every chance we get, nothing extravagant yet. I’m, shockingly, okay with it with respect to my relationship history.”

              “I’m absolutely overjoyed for you, Garcia,” Spencer took his first sip of the deep red liquid and let it wash over his palate for a moment before swallowing, appreciating the blend of flavor that his friend had picked for him. “As expected, the wine is exactly as it should be and more. Thank you.”

              “Oh, it’s good? I was worried that it would be too pungent with the vintage but something about it spoke to me and you know me. The louder the message, the quicker the grab,” Garcia couldn’t hide the excitement through the phone as her voice climbed a little higher while his eyes watched the bubble in the burgundy shade swirl. “You’re being honest, right?”

              “I’m a notoriously bad liar when it comes to you and I wouldn’t lie about a gift from you, Garcia,” Spencer was enraptured by the texture of the label on the bottle as he twisted it with the tips of his fingers as it sat against the top of the table next to him. “Drinking alone, though? I’m out of my element.”

              “You should call her, Spence,” Garcia’s tone softened as she referenced Maxine with a soft implication, tapping at the weaker parts of his psyche as he picked the glass back up and elevated it, before taking a sip. “It couldn’t hurt to have company. Just rip off the band-aid.”

              “It couldn’t hurt to have a lot of things but I seem to find new and exciting ways of ripping open a perfectly good suture,” Spencer was thinking of Maeve, haunted by her pale ghost to the point that he could almost see her visage standing at the window with a book open while delivering a pointed look that scolded him for even thinking of her right now. “I don’t know what to do without sounding like a desperate, lonely man.”

              “Desperate is kind of a subjective term for your situation, my philosophical friend,” Garcia had him curious and confused, which unsettled his stomach as he leaned against the armrest, elbow digging into the leather while the sigh hovered in his lungs. “No one should be alone unless that is what they actually want—and I don’t get the sense that you want to be alone.”

              Garcia had been right about him. Spencer Reid’s naiveté was oozing from his pores, lighting him up in neon as the air finally left his lips in a huff. A man could read every book ranging from the scientific methodology to the psychological qualities of beekeeping but it would not be enough to get by in a real-world situation. This wasn’t beekeeping and while hedonism could be quantified, it could not be taught. This was the one time that paying extra attention to Derek Morgan might’ve done him a little bit of good but he shied away from that kind of bravado back then. He could already picture the smirk on Derek Morgan’s face if he were present; the white flag flying to be shown the ways of natural masculinity that Spencer really never wanted to utilize.

              At least, he never wanted to until the flash of Maxine’s deep, mahogany eyes passed through his consciousness with that mysterious, playful smile that enraptured him.

              “That would involve her actually answering my calls or texts,” Spencer swallowed a considerable mouthful of the wine and tilted his head back, letting the vertebrae crack back into place with a satisfactory series of pops. “I haven’t heard back from her since yesterday when she called to tell me goodnight before we finished the final day in Chicago.”

              “Was your invitation a normal invitation or one of those signature Spencer Reid-style invitations buried in sarcasm and symbolism that only your closest friends might actually understand?” Garcia was tinkering away on her end as she let out a laugh and became an echo with a change to speaker. “You’re on speaker while I wrestle with a cork.”

              “It was a standard invite, I think,” Spencer wrinkled his nose and stood up, pacing the floor as the needle bounced against the stopper and the music came to a halt, muting the noise in the room. “Are you joining me in a glass via telephone?”

              “No, I’m letting it breathe before Luke gets here,” Garcia’s voice preceded the pop of the cork as Spencer switched the vinyl to an Annie

Lennox album in an effort to depart his typical mood. “We’re watching Hardware, drinking chardonnay, and eating fruit and cheese.”

              “You’re watching a horror film about androids?” Spencer had a smirk hiding on his lips as the androgynous, melodic vocals filled the room while he adjusted the curtains. “I wouldn’t have expected that from you.”

              “I lost a bet to Luke about the number of texts, emails, and phone calls he could squeeze in while on a case,” Garcia was reluctant with the admission as the comment had Spencer’s interest piqued fully. “He managed to nearly double the number that I said he’d do and he, literally, sent me a text that said, ‘I win, I win, I win’ like a six-year-old.”

              “So that’s why he was on the phone so much,” Spencer started to laugh as he recollected each moment that Alvez was on his cell phone while having a full-blown conversation with him, the realization that he was paying attention to Garcia absolutely hilarious as he let the pieces fall into place. “I’m glad you’re happy, Garcia.”

              “It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?” Garcia’s question blended perfectly with the distinct tapping against the door from the exterior hallway, bringing Spencer’s attention toward it without hesitation.

              “It really has,” Spencer got up, leaving the wine behind on the side table as the spirit of inquiry took over and encouraged his feet forward until his hand was at the lock to turn it.

              “Was that a knock at the door, Spence?” Garcia asked, the muddled reverberations of glass tapping together moving through the phone as she kept him on speaker.

              Spencer didn’t fully absorb the question as he clicked the deadbolt until it unlocked the door, the shift of the door vibrating against his palm as his equilibrium spun. Spencer’s anxiety jumped and his palms began to sweat as the subtle tapping of heels against the floor preceded the sigh that he could hear through the barrier between them. He had his conclusions as to who it was and the excitement was taking a backseat to the paranoia he couldn’t help but feel. Maxine hadn’t talked to him since the day before and her showing up to his apartment unannounced wasn’t one of her typical characteristics. It had him reeling as he opened the door to confirm his guesses as her brown eyes stared up at him beneath waves of dirty blond locks.

              “Hey,” Maxine’s voice was in that tenor between mousy and pointed as she tucked her hair behind her ears and rocked in her heels, folding her hands behind her back.

              “Hey,” Spencer bit down on his bottom lip until it hurt and felt the fog lift as he could hear Garcia saying his name in his ear. “Garcia, I’ll call you back. Have fun with Alvez and your wine night.”

              “Go get her, Tiger,” Garcia had an unmistakable perk in her voice before she hung up the phone, leaving Spencer with the cellular up near his face like a nervous teenage boy.

              “Are you going to let me in or is the plan to stare at me until I disappear?” Maxine exhaled slowly, her eyelashes fanning down then up as she slowly blinked.

              Spencer made a short, sweeping motion with his hand and moved to let her in, the hesitation written on his face as he furrowed his brow while closing the door. “You didn’t call. I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”

              “Sometimes, I want to keep you guessing,” Maxine had been a subtle, welcomed surprise in his life but the tone in her voice was different as she leaned against the back of his sofa and narrowed her stare as he turned to look at her. “Can’t a girl be a little bit mysterious once in a while?”

              “That would intimate that there was a need for something titillating and I didn’t think we’d gotten to the point where things were boring,” Spencer swallowed hard, the mental processes rocking as her smile took shape and the curves of her cheeks softened that stare for a moment. “Have we?”

              “I didn’t say that,” Maxine coiled her index around the center button of his vest closure, lingering along the flat, pearl finish as she chewed the center of her lip and looked up at him. “I have moments where I can’t get it out of my head seeing her in your arms and I want to know if you think about it, too.”

              Spencer knew she was referencing Cat as he nearly swallowed his tongue and stepped away from her, moving toward the kitchen to retrieve another glass to offer her wine. “I think I need a refill…would you like a glass? It’s from Garcia.”

              “Sure,” Maxine had been taking notes, toying with Spencer in some way as she leaned against the armrest of the sofa and crossed her legs, perching there like an elegant bird as she studied his movements. “You’re not answering me which leads me to believe you have been thinking about her.”

              “I have a photographic memory, Max,” Spencer was pouring her a glass near his own, the contents of his dwindling bottle evident as it became lighter in his hand. “I’m incapable of not recollecting pieces of my history at any given moment of the day.”

              “You know that’s not what I mean, Spence,” Maxine’s tongue lingered on his name as she went to the record player and moved the needle until the downbeat of Annie Lennox’s “Cold” began filling the room. “I have eyes. I can tell myself on a daily basis that it wasn’t loaded but there has been a part of me that just wonders…”

Don’t I exist for you

Don’t I still live for you

(Cold, cold, cold)

              “You’re not her,” Spencer extended the glass of wine and watched her big, bright eyes track up his arm until they met a gaze they’d never seen before as a swallow nearly betrayed his cool exterior. “You don’t need to be.”

              Maxine took a sip and scrutinized his body language as he battled with nerves and a desire that hadn’t quite manifested all of the way in front of her yet. “I really want to believe you but I feel like I was just the safe choice to keep you from looking inward. I don’t want to be your crutch.”

              “You’re not a safe choice and you’re definitely not my crutch, Max,” Spencer’s tongue was loosening as he raised his glass to his lips, watching her from the rim until he tipped it to drink. “You have been so much more even though I’m the worst at elucidating it.”

              “I know that she’s dangerous and you seemed to like that about her,” Maxine pressed her lips together, mingling the wine with her lip gloss as she moved them gently back and forth while angling her chin down just a touch. “Saying what you mean really isn’t your forte…you should be trying your hand at showing it for a change.”

              The comment was loaded but Maxine wasn’t wrong about her observation as she blurred the line drawn in the sand with her toe, palming the glass as the distance between them seemed like miles. Spencer wanted to be gutsy and the wine was dulling the separation between bravery and stupidity as he held the bottle in the air, tilting it toward her like a peace offering. Maxine met him in the middle, letting him fill the glass until the last drops splashed into the deep, claret liquid. The sound of Annie Lennox over their mutual silence only added to a sense of anticipation between them as Spencer let the bottom of the bottle touch the top of the table with a resonating clink.

Dying is easy

It’s living that scares me to death

I could be so content

Hearing the sound of your breath

              “It’s a little pathetic that it took a couple glasses of wine to cross the proverbial bridge, Max,” Spencer nearly melted into the floor over her fingers around his tie as she tugged it loose from the deep green and gray woven blend of his vest. “Gives a whole new meaning to the words failure to launch, doesn’t it?”

              “I see no failure in anything going on but you’re definitely going to have to tell Garcia this wine is fabulous,” Maxine grinned from behind her glass, the warmth gathering at the back of her throat with each sip as she looked up at him. “You’re overthinking being here in front of me. Do I make you nervous, Spence?”

              “Only since the second I met you,” Spencer wouldn’t have ordinarily admitted it but the combination of the wine playing on his inhibitions and her free hand tugging his tie was more than enough to tip the scales. “You’re one of the few women that I’ve encountered that speaks her mind so freely and it never ceases to amaze me. It isn’t danger that I seek, though…I need you to know that.”

              “You’re talking around the subject as though you think I’ll be bruised by what you’ll say to me,” Maxine gave the satin material between her fingers a firm tug, bringing Spencer off balance as she elevated to the tips of her toes to nibble the curve of his lip, tasting the wine that had stayed behind. “Stop being afraid of the possibilities for once in your life.”

               The needle began to stutter against the center of the record player as Spencer elevated his glass to his lips, finishing the last drops in a final swallow. Reluctance nagged at him as he pulled his tie free and moved around to the extensive collection of vinyl, thumbing through until he found Annie’s album Medusa sticking out from a section of her others. It was something about the combination of wine, Maxine, and an impromptu confessional that had him desiring the sound of Annie Lennox crooning in the background. It was an odd thing, though, that he couldn’t remember the last time either of these records had been played, let alone the last time he wanted to keep hearing more than classical emanating from his speakers.

              “The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality,” Spencer had her captivated as he managed to dull and heighten seduction in the same breath as he placed his glass next to the empty bottle of wine.

              “Marya Mannes?” Maxine still had a fair amount left of her drink in the glass as she eclipsed the distance and leaned against him, arching up to breathe against his neck. “All really great lovers are articulate, and verbal seduction is the surest road to actual seduction.”

              “I had thought about going with that one but I figured you’d see right through me,” Spencer was already identifying the notes of her perfume and body butter as she directed his chin down with her fingers while she extended her arm to put her glass down. “Is this why you didn’t text or call?”

              White tea, sage, a hint of citrus. The combination was intoxicating, but not overwhelming. Delicate and sophisticated, but not girly.

              “Talking myself into coming over here with a singular goal in mind and arguing with the resistance against it?” Maxine tasted his lips again, letting a kiss develop as she ran her fingers through his hair and steered his hand around her before looking into his hazel eyes. “Agonized all day over the potential for rejection.”

              “And now?” Spencer let her tug his jacket off and toss it aside, knocking over a stack of previously read novels on the coffee table in the process. “Feeling particularly brave or brave enough to get by?”

              “Actually, I’m contemplating the impracticality of seduction when one wears as many layers as you do,” Maxine laughed as she popped the buttons free on the vest, loosening his tie as the front of his shirt finally peeked out. “How long does it take to undress alone when you wear this much? You better not be wearing an undershirt like the prim and proper man I think you might be.”

              Spencer had a bright pink sheen to his cheeks as he fiddled with the delicate material of her cardigan, folding it open across her shoulders over the top of a chemise while his eyes stayed balanced on hers. “I don’t think I get dressed thinking I’m going to have anyone trying to seduce me. I thought this was a good, sensible choice for attire when I was arranging clothes for the week.”

              “The week?” Maxine’s lips curved into a grin as she loosened his tie and gave it a tug, freeing it from his collar in a smooth motion while she licked her lips and watched the nervousness form on his face. “You really are hyper-vigilant aren’t you?”

              Maxine beamed up at him as her thumbs slid underneath of the top of his vest, guiding it away from his arms until he was casual in nothing more than a linen shirt and his slacks with those dark, houndstooth patterned socks. Spencer was captivated but his analytical eye was paying attention to the little swell of her lip as it moved between her teeth between sharp inhales. Maxine was controlling her breaths and giving him ample opportunity to read her, learning the little things that drove her crazy even as she was trying to explore him and push his limits.

              “No, I’m a specific planner so I can fit everything in a suitcase with enough foresight to anticipate the possibility of a longer than normal trip,” Spencer was rationalizing his anal-retentive behavior while Maxine was halfway down the front of his shirt, undoing each button without taking her eyes off of his. “…you’re unusually deft with buttons, has anyone told you that?”

              “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that,” Maxine had him in a tailspin to the point that his rear bumped against a bookshelf as she curled her index to draw him forward. “I really am making you anxious. It’s written from the top of your head right down to your toes.”

              “I take it back, you are a little dangerous,” Spencer swallowed another knot of nervous energy, the cold air wafting across bare skin as the linen fell away from his chest and abdominal musculature, exposing the expanse of gooseflesh as the light caught the pale gleam of his skin. “I have officially sobered up.”

              “I have to find a way to keep it interesting,” Maxine had previously admired the constant politeness from Spencer but she wanted something more from him as she felt havering fingertips against her collarbone. “We’ve tiptoed around each other for long enough and we both have nothing to lose.”

              The soft declaration was an invitation and the fire in her eyes simply provided the spark as Spencer took that leap to pull her in, taking the lead. Studying the rhythm of her beating heart on nights they’d spent wrapped in each other’s arms on his couch watching an obscure movie together had given Spencer just enough ammunition of where begin and how to continue. Maxine had also begun to learn patterns of Spencer’s subtle bits of signaling, though, as she felt his hands down her arms, guiding the sleeves away from soft skin. She expected nothing less from him as his agonizingly sweet, tantalizing care with each part of her elevated the pace of her breath and pushed forth urgency as she watched him slip to his knees with each nibble of skin along her stomach.

              “You can’t tell me that you didn’t think about your outfit before you put it on, Max,” Spencer was pushing boundaries and hiking up her skirt, tugging at the nylons that were barely masking the natural porcelain skin that captivated him. “The material, the color…the fit…everything is has a purpose and my assumption is you changed clothes before you came here.”

              “Ah, fuck,” Maxine held onto the edge of the stereo stand as Spencer bit down on the space above her belly button and pulled her nylons down, pushing his fingertips against her skin to awaken the goosebumps. “I did. I had on jeans before and wanted something less, binding.”

              “We’re not so different, then, are we?” Spencer led her out of the sensible Mary Janes and finished the removal of her nylons while the lace-trimmed material of her panties peeked out from the bottom of her shoved up skirt. “You’re breathing really hard, should I stop?”

              “No, don’t stop, please, don’t stop,” Maxine breathed through a tight space between her lips as she gritted her teeth and gathered a fist full of his hair, holding him against her skin as his breath crept down, narrowing the fabric of her skirt into a bunched section at her hips. “Keep going.”

              Spencer smirked as he tilted his chin up, rubbing the five o’clock shadow of his jaw against her until the moan left her lips and her knees involuntarily parted. “Could do a study on the action versus reaction of my mildly unshaven face versus different parts of your body…using the pitch of your groans as a baseline.”

              “Oh, my God,” Maxine tossed her head back, narrowly missing a shelf of books behind her, the smile on her face as she felt the curve of his jaw move to her thighs, eliciting a lower, more drawn-out whimper. “How did you make that sound hot as fuck?”

              “Intelligence doesn’t have to inspire a chorus of yawning,” Spencer hadn’t had an opportunity to undress anyone in far too long but the feeling of Maxine’s goosebump covered flesh against his lips encouraged his hands to continue as the skirt was discarded onto the growing heap. “It can make you moan over and over.”

              “You are going to get so many complaints from your neighbors,” Maxine bit down on her lip as Spencer nibbled his way up her stomach, dragging fingers along the curve of her body until it met the soft layer of chemise to lift it away. “I want all of you…right now.”

              Rational, well-constructed thoughts and actions went out a window as Spencer stood, the material of Maxine’s chemise between his fingers as he felt her warmth radiating against his bare stomach. It had only been minutes and the tables had flipped as Maxine looked up at him with a growing throb between her thighs, an ache becoming a need as she moved her knee forward, rubbing his inner thigh with it. The wait had been worth it even as Spencer let Maxine tug the belt from the loops and pop a button from the thread in an eager attempt to free him from his confines. Spencer had a mind for painstaking enticement but Maxine was less-than-apt to follow along with his pace as her teeth found his collar on a shirt that didn’t belong on his uniquely-well-built frame, tugging him close.

              “Jesus…Christ,” Spencer uttered the words as a budding erection pushed against her while his slacks slid to his knees, trapping them together. “You’re going to wind up killing me.”

              “I don’t want to kill you, Spence,” Maxine bit her lip and made a gap between the elastic waistband of his shorts and his skin while gazing up at him. “I want you to finish what you’ve started.”

              Spencer’s eyes rolled as her index fingers grazed a flood of warmth as the erection continued to build, triggering an involuntary spasm as he squeezed her thigh and writhed the rest of the way out of his pants. Maxine gasped as Spencer’s eyes finally focused on hers and his grip slipped to her ass, giving her a decisive squeeze as the shelf behind her rattled again. Spencer covered a waiting moan with a fervent kiss, his tongue sliding beyond lips and teeth to find hers as one of his hands teased the satin and lace trim between her thighs. She was already soaked as his middle finger pressed the material along the tender flesh until he could feel the building twitch against his palm as she bucked against his hand.

              Maxine tossed her head back a second time and felt the cool air for a fleeting moment as Spencer guided the thin, wet material to one side to slip his middle finger inside of her. “Oh, my God, yes, yes, please!”

              “You’re so beautiful,” Spencer curled and withdrew his finger, repeating the motion as her moans directed toward the ceiling and echoed in the room. “The most cliché thing I could ever say while my finger is strumming but it’s so true—you are, so fucking beautiful.”

              “Sex…is…cliché…and, fuck, don’t you dare stop,” Maxine cooed and helped him along, covering his hand with her own while giving his hard on a not-so-subtle squeeze as she ground against him.

              Spencer wanted to shake the perfectly organized and categorized books free from their spot on the shelf as he shyly withdrew his finger and palm from her, the squeeze of her muscles grasping at him in his absence as he took a step back to admire her. Maxine let out a drawn-out whimper as she chewed her lip, watching his erection move against his boxers as he gave a final pull of his sleeves, rejecting the well-fitting linen onto the floor. There was a part of Spencer that didn’t want to rush as he watched her reach behind her back, the springy-click of her bra tapping against the well-constructed shelving behind her while she keened from the friction moving across her breasts. Maxine knew what she wanted and she was daring Spencer to move as he took another step forward, gliding the straps off of her shoulders then down her arms to reveal the ivory and flushed flesh that had been carefully hidden.

              Beautiful might not have accurately described her as her chest heaved and responded to his touch as he bent to kiss a trail along the curve of her neck while his digits teased the alabaster and pink of her breasts. Maxine had been waiting, impatiently, for his hands and lips to make their mark as he worked his way down her curves, sloping past eager nipples and a soft stomach as he neared an apex. Spencer’s eyes looked up at her as her tongue slid off to the side of her lips while she watched him move, her fingers weaving through his locks as he liberated her of her underwear in a smooth, downward motion.

              “Jesus, fuck, oh my God,” Maxine gripped his hair and the shelf at the same time as his mouth found wetness and his hand guided her leg higher, squeezing her thigh while he hummed against her lips, parting them with the flat of his tongue. “Spencer…I’m so close…”

              Spencer slipped a finger into Maxine’s wetness and felt a quiver from her muscles before the nerves tapped against him, clamping down as he moved along her clit, grazing the tender bundle with his fingers before circling with his tongue. She telegraphed the movement, matching the synchronicity as hips betrayed her and bucked against his face, stuttering the sound of a groan as he ignored a throb between his own legs. He wanted this for her and he wanted to hear her as a prelude to more. The moans scattered and became louder as his mouth mimicked the eagerness her body was conveying until he heard his name proclaimed, raggedly from her lips.

              “Do you need to stop?” Spencer’s erection would’ve been screaming if given a chance as he stood, licking the taste of her from his lips as she met his gaze. “I know that an orgasm can take a lot of energy out of most women.”

              Maxine shook her head slowly and glanced at the bulge as it bumped against her, the smile creeping across her lips as she stood up straight, reaching for him. “I’m not most women.”

              Spencer didn’t have time to let that comment absorb fully as the sensation of Maxine’s fingers wrapped around his cock was doing little for his processes, making every nerve over-fire as the cold air nipped at his backside. The electricity in the atmosphere increased as his shorts slid to his ankles, leaving nothing more between them than a breeze and the brewing heat from readied friction. The shelf didn’t stand a chance against their hedonism as Spencer guided Maxine’s legs around his hips, into a position that beckoned so much more than the intertwining of bodies. They collided and the space between them all but evaporated as Spencer thrust slow, burying himself inside of her as she came down to meet him.

              Mouths met and the shelf shuddered from the top to the bottom as Spencer manhandled Maxine, rocking her backside against a smooth edge until a stack of books came tumbling down from the top. The mutual moaning blended with a series of laughs as he cradled her ass, moving her away from the unstable mess they’d created before carrying her to the sofa. Maxine maneuvered her way onto him as they tumbled onto the cushions, straddling his thighs as she took charge of the motion, giving him no time to recover before riding him. They had become a touch graceless as Spencer held onto her thighs while she rocked and swiveled her hips, repeating his name in a series of whispers as the whimpers rivaled his.

              “I’m so close,” They both found the words as the murmur became a little closer to a wail.

              Spencer grasped her wrists and pulled her close, rolling uncoordinatedly onto the floor, knocking the throw pillows in every direction in the process, as he made a valiant attempt to switch positions. A laugh left Maxine’s lips as they met the rug with a thud but was replaced with a drawn-out moan as Spencer thrust deep and flicked his tongue across a nipple. It lit a spark as the thrusts could barely be met and the movements became frenzied with every little move he made while sweat began to glimmer across the surface of their skin. Maxine tilted her head back as the climax hit her in a rush and set off the one waiting in the wings from Spencer; the flood gates opened and the cries reverberated until their rhythm finally slowed.

              “I think I bruised my tailbone,” Maxine groaned as they stayed wrapped around each other on the floor, breathing hard as muscles continued to spasm while the room spun.

              Spencer snagged the pillows from their discarded roll before groping for the throw blanket on the edge of the couch to cover up with, glancing back at the mess of books that were now all over the floor across the room. “It’s going to take at least an hour to re-organize that shelf.”

@rationalcashew @monikafilefan I know this is not our normal but...ahhhh

Oh, I should tag @nerys2 @blameitonthenight21 @haleydiamondis since they liked the post I made about Spencer :)

[crazy4tank]

Gus Dapperton – Post Humorous

New Post has been published on https://fashiondesigne.com/2021/01/12/gus-dapperton-post-humorous/

Gus Dapperton – Post Humorous

A unique live performance for Vevo DSCVR, the channel for the best within new music.

2020 was a large year for Gus Dapperton. The New York indie-pop vocalist dropped his second LP, ‘Orca, ’ which both press and fans recognized for the insightful way this addressed mental health challenges. One outlet called the lp his “ most clear and honest piece of work however. ” Showing off further development, Dapperton wasn’t afraid to include more danceable moments in order to his otherwise plaintive repertoire. At times, ‘Orca’ has a happy-go-lucky vibe, like the disco-tinged “Palms. ” In the same problematic vein, check the job that he plus fellow DSCVR artist BENEE’s did on the feel-good-in-isolation quickly pull, “Supalonely, ” which place the indie kids at the top of the particular charts. Style-wise, the vocalist even ditched his signature bank bowl cut last year, which usually had been his signature seem since his opening-act times at Williamsburg gigs. Yet worry not, he’s nevertheless an unapologetic fashionista. My numbers were so high that he let one of their pals dot some brand new ink beneath his remaining eye. He says the tat symbolizes themes from the concept album. We think it looks great as hell. Same for your two outfits he wore for his DSCVR shows of “Post Humorous” plus “Medicine. ” Hit the to tell us which one’ s your fave.

Gus Dapperton https://twitter.com/gusdapperton https://www.instagram.com/gusdapperton https://www.facebook.com/gusdapperton/

Vevo http://facebook.com/vevo http://twitter.com/vevo http://instagram.com/vevo Executive Producer: Micah Bickham Director: Bram VanderMark Producer: Maddy Schmidt Maker: Cole Brian Director associated with Photography: Janssen Powers Publisher: Austin Prahl Music & Talent: Cynthia Todd & David McTiernan

#GusDapperton #PostHumorous #DSCVR http://vevo.ly/bwRJsl