#when i was drafting everything out at the beginning of november

[homosexual-fanfiction]

okay theoretically .. if you were to look at the word count for a chapter.. how many words do you think would make you say "this is too fucking long"

[misctf]

No Nut November

For Tommy and his friends, No Nut November had become a yearly tradition. While he didn’t necessarily look forward to it, the blonde always seemed to win- often being able to outlast his buddies. And while this year had certainly been close, it looked like Tommy was going to take to take home the bragging rights. Sure, his dick ached with need and he had been neglecting it for the past couple of weeks. And while his boyfriend often made fun of him for engaging in such a “stupid contest”, Tommy was more of a strict bottom anyway and got plenty of his needs met that way.

“Congrats on your victory babe.” His boyfriend had texted him, “I have a surprise for you when I get home.” The winky face at the end of the message told Tommy everything he needed to know- and he was definitely looking forward to whatever activities his boyfriend had planned.

But as Tommy continued to go about his daily activities, still ignoring the ache in his dick, a new feeling settled in his stomach. He rubbed his sore abs and took a few deep breaths as he felt an odd cramping sensation welling up from deep within him. He assumed it must’ve been something he ate and walked to the bathroom. But the discomfort didn’t seem to stop- only getting worse as his body temperature rose. He quickly removed his clothing, the cool air of the room feeling nice on his warm skin, while a cool draft caused his cock to stir with pleasure and pain. Tommy nearly doubled over at the feeling in his aching member- staring at it as it grew. He touched it gently and immediately fell to his back from the intensity of the pleasure.

“Wh-what the fuck.” He breathed out, lying on the ground, his eyes unfocused from the waves of pleasure and pain that coursed throughout his lean body.

And like a sudden compulsion, he felt his arms forced to extend above his head, an aching sensation emanating throughout them. He watched as his arms started to fill with muscle, while his hands started to shift and change- becoming wider while his fingers shortened and became stubbier.

“Fuck yeah, finally!” Another voice called out softly, so softly that Tommy barely heard it.

“Who’s there?” Tommy replied, fear taking hold of his mind.

But before he could register anything else, he felt another creaking and cracking of his muscles. This time, he watched as his pecs appeared to sink into themselves, his nipples disappearing, while a small hole formed in the center of what used to be his chest. At the same time, it appeared as though his legs were also beginning to shift. His feet were taking on the appearance of hands, while his leg muscles shifted, taking on an appearance similar to incredibly muscular arms. Tommy looked down at what used to be his arms and his eyes widened as he realized his hands were now two large and calloused feet, tufts of hair on the surface of them. And as his arms packed on more and more muscle, he felt his head being squeezed on either side.

“Ah this feels so good.” The voice was less soft, louder and more present.

Tommy let out a surprised yelp as he felt his body push itself up until the blonde found himself doing what felt like a handstand. And that’s when it dawned on Tommy. His arms were now a pair of muscular and powerful legs, ending with large manly feet. He tried to crane his neck to look up but barely could.

“Ha-ha broooo.” The voice called out, “Fuckin’ look at me.” It said in its deep baritone voice. The same stupid voice that Tommy associated with frat bros.

“St-stop...pl-please.” Tommy called out, his own voice becoming softer. He noticed he was having a harder time moving his mouth to form words.

But he was ignored and suddenly found himself swinging from side to side as his body began to move on its own. He could do nothing as he continued to feel himself change further. First, he felt as though he was no longer able to move his neck and he watched as he blond locks fell from his head. And then for a split second, the world went dark before his field of vision returned, albeit somewhat limited. The same with his hearing. The muscular legs on either side of him became coated in hairs. As he tried to call out again, Tommy felt what he initially thought was phlegm rise from the back of his throat. The liquid was salty and seemed to dribble from his mouth, causing him to want to gag, but he found himself unable to. None of this made sense, and he was trying to get a better glimpse of himself. All he could make out was what looked like a hairy muscular abdomen above him, and two thick hairy thighs on either side of him. Questions filled his mind as he tried to understand his situation. But before he could think more on it, he heard a dumb chuckle and suddenly, Tommy felt as though his face was being stretched- another aching sensation coursing through his head and neck.  

“Ya know you’ve neglected me for a long time.” The booming voice said. Tommy wanted to yelp as he felt a hand wrap around him, “But I’m not gonna do that to you bro.” Tommy barely had any idea what the voice was saying, “Huh, that’s right. This might be a bit confusing for ya brah. Here have a look.”

If Tommy could, he would’ve screamed. In the mirror was one of the largest, hairiest men that he had ever seen. The guy looked like he played football, the pinnacle of masculinity with a stupid dopey grin on his chiseled face. But that was less shocking compared to what Tommy soon came to realize. The man was holding his fat, enlarged member, which is when Tommy was able to put it all together.

“That’s right bro, you ignored me for so long, I just had to take control.” The jock laughed, “And well that means we had to switch places.”

Tommy felt a sense of dread well up from deep within him. This couldn’t be happening- he was a human! Not a cock. This wasn’t possible. As his mind bounced around trying to rationalize his way through this, the jock smiled.

“Well aren’t you eager.” He chuckled in his dim voice, scratching at his hairy pec, “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

And that’s when Tommy felt it. The hand around his cylindrical body began to pump up and down, faster and faster. His thoughts became harder to focus on as pleasure coursed throughout his body- the calloused hand that played with him igniting wave after wave of pleasure. He felt himself twitch, his hard cylindrical body throbbing in anticipation. The jock smirked and quickened his pace.

“Yeah, you like that, huh? Think you could just ignore me?” He moaned out, his pace quickening, “Never again bro. Turned you into my needy cock. Showing you what a real man looks like.” Tommy could barely register any of the words, the liquid in the back of his throat rising faster and faster, “Fuck dude!” The jock moaned out as he finally came, sending wave after wave of cum from Tommy’s new mouth.

Tommy could barely process the level of pleasure that rocketed through his new body. His mind was nearly shattered as his cylindrical body softened and dangled limply between the jock’s legs. But as Tommy was winding down from the pleasure, he felt something cover his entire body, throwing his world into darkness. The jock smirked and posed in the mirror, showing off his bulge and ass, which were covered in black compression underwear. There was another dumb chuckle, and Tommy twitched in pleasure as the jock grabbed him through his underwear.

“Welcome to your new home, bro.” The jock chuckled, “Now let’s go find that boyfriend of yours. If I had to guess, that ass of his was also feeling pretty neglected. Someone ought to help him out, don’t you think?” And Tommy felt his new body quickly expanding, pressed up tightly against the confines of the new jock’s underwear.

[sanjisblackasswife]

Working on all my November /October drafts before tumblr deletes em🤦🏽‍♀️ enjoy baby💓 i also added luffy because edging him would be so fun :)

Edging Monster Trio + Kidd (NSFW)

Black Fem Reader in Mind

Cw: …sex bro its sex

Zoro

2nd biggest brat of the four.

Zoro is a naturally easily flustered boy. Just a single compliment from you and he’s already red in the face.

But poor baby he tries so hard to mask it. It’s almost like he turns into a literal brat when you edge him on.

“Why—why do you want to hear me beg, are you some kinda sadist?”

“Lil bit.”

“WHAT—“

Edging Zoro is a treat because he would rather bite his lip until he bleeds before blessing your ears with his whimpers and begging

But you knew Zoro would be difficult so you made a bet. And in this bet he loss and that’s how he got here:

Strapped on your chair, naked, with you riding his thigh with a vibrator in your hand.

“What the—hell is your problem!” 

You could hear the strain in his voice. Zoro’s chest and face are so red, but not as red as his cock right now. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead, he was looking at the wall and everything else, but you, and it made you upset, he couldn’t seem to want to look at you, being a little brat he was you grabbed his wet cheeks, mushing it together a little, forcing him to look at you.

“Hey…”You nod at him a little, he begins to huff and breathe through his nose, chest rising and lowering quickly almost as if he were struggling to catch his breathe, you smile, “focus on me…”

Nothing could compare to the shock shown in Zoro's eyes, it brought a chill down his spine to see you turn your demeanor in such a 180, and yet...he couldn't be more turned on.

"Ple-"

Your eyebrows rise, it's been 15 minutes of consistent moving the vibrator on his cock and pulling it away, yes Zoro can have amazing self discipline, but you knew just how to push the envelope.

"Say it.."

"Fuck.." Zoro puffed out, head tried hanging low, but you picked it back up with one hand , while pressing the toy back on his leaking tip, precum now falling over the head of the vibrator. "...please..please let me fucking cum."

You almost felt bad for being so mean, you knew from his blushed chest and face, the way his thigh twitched under you cunt, and how a moan slipped through his teeth he was at his limit, but if he wasn't such a stubborn little asshole maybe he would have came sooner.

Luckily, you're not too mean and you let him do just that making a sticky mess on not only his abs but your hand as well.

Kid

Biggest brat.

Most annoying brat

First off good luck trynna convince him and good luck trynna get him to beg

"Fuck you and that idea."

Edging Kid just...won't happen... not unless you are on top...possibly.

"Keep--fucking going dammit!"

"No."

You have spent 30 minutes trying to break this asshole and he finally started to whine just a little when you started to grind yourself on his cock just how he likes before cumming and stopped. Now, it's time to edge him.

"I'll never fucking beg for you."

"Then I guess you'll never fucking cum now will you.."

Kid is usually the type to call your bluff, he has done it plenty times in the past, but tonight you were tired. You were tired of his bullshit and trying to tell you what to do and that glint in your eye showed him you weren't playing around with him anymore.

Pressing your body against his your lips latched to his weak spot as you lazily humped his dick, damn your ass felt good slapping against his thigh he couldn't keep himself from biting his wet lips.

"Sssssshittt!" Kid got choked up, his lips began to part, eye furrowed focusing on cumming since he was so so close as you nibbled and licked on his neck, but alas, you knew his body like the back of your head so you move away, causing him to curse again.

"Say. Please."

"Fuck. You."

His voice was quivering when he said thta, you sigh, sure you were close to an orgasm as well, but you set your pleasure aside to show him you meant what you said.

And that's exactly why after 2 more times of stopping him from realsing inside you he broke, "Ple...please...make me cum..."

Sanji

Swears he hates it but he just cant get enough.

"Aah! W-wait wait wait wait wait! Sssssshhiit Y/N babe!-"

Fuck his moans were some of the sluttiest things you could hear from a man like him, he whines so much you almost wanted to give in and slide yourself on top of him, his voice alone made you so wet all by itself you kept rubbing your thighs, clenching over nothing when you heard him cry out beside you

"You're not ganna give up so easily are you? My pretty boy isn't THAT weak to temptation is he?..you already failed earlier, here's your second chance to show me you can handle this.."

His fingers were nearly ripping through your sheets, looking down to see you slowly push his black shirt higher over his chest, his underwear to his ankles and your pretty small hands around his throbbing cock, it was a sight to see as he laid uncomfortably still watching you pump so vigorously, just to stop all together.

Your breast now stained from prior, he came way too fast and way too easily when you rubbed his slit with your thumb.

"Y/N...baby...I--ah!"

Yes, you want to hear him beg, but it was more fun hearing him whimper, your hand was gliding against his wet shaft, using his cum as lube as you suckled his nipple, it was all too much for Sanji to take and feeling you stop him from cumming again, he started to get choked up, tears falling from his eyes

"Please!" He coughed, "pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease, let me cum for you please!"

Ugh. You really had a soft spot for this pervert. His cheeks were so wet and pink you kiss his lips passionately as if your were apologizing for being so mean.

Not parting your lips from him you flew your leg over him, pulling away slowly to let him watch you sink down on his cock, sharing such a slutty moan together, "Yes! Yes thank you, baby thank you I love youiloveyou i love--aahhh mmmmfuck!"

You let him thrust himself up into you, holding on to his shoulders as his tear stained face was mushed against your soon to be sucked on breast, still moaning into your skin about how good you feel and how much he loves you.

Luffy

Has no patience for it HOWEVER he enjoys it???

As you pop off from sucking his cock his body jerks up, a broken moan turns into laughter from him and it oddly enough turns you on.

"C-common! ahaha! Keep suckinggggg!"

"Say please first!" You both share a giggle, this was supposed to be where he begs and cries for more, but instead he's making it fun for the both of you.

"M' not saying please.." He then crossed his arms and pouted, but his little childish attitude was cut short when you spit on his pretty brown tip and swirled your hand on it, it was almost as if his eyes started to twinkle as his cheeks blushed stubly, "Y/Nnnnnnnnnn...ah.."

Luffy's moans got very scratchy and whiney when it came him him close to cumming, he began to raise his hips and grind them against your hand to push you to--

"Put your mouth back on itttttttt commonnnnn! I put my mouth on you!"

"Lufffyyyyy.." Your voice sounded playful as you moved his hips back down, "Say please first."

"Uh uh." He shook his head, "Suck it first."

"Then no."

You knew how to get him to do what you want, granted you didn't want to take such drastic measures but you were sick of him being a little impatient baby so with your opposite hand you pull his chin in for a kiss, it was soft and sweet, until Luffy grabbed your head to lower it back on his dick, "Stop itt!!!"

"Suck it--ah! Fuck!"

You cupped his balls, massaging them, immediately noticing his eye shut tightly gripping the covers beside him on your bed, he broke out into a soft moan, he hated when you touched his so so so sensitive--

"Stop touching down there...PLEASE JUST SUCK--op." Luffy quickly covered his mouth realizing what he said and it made you smile a little. "No! No! I didn't say please!"

"yes you did.."

"NU UH I--OH!"

You just shut your pretty flustered captain up by moving your head back down to take all of his cock back in your mouth.

"M-maybe I did saaaay it." Luffy voice kept stuttering watching you wink at him bopping your head up and down.

Dammit he was so cute like this.

[insidemyrottenbrain]

Henry, meus cupitus - TSH

TW: gore, toxicity

Where do I even begin? I should start by mentioning that this little piece was inspired by multiple books including but not limited to: "The Meek One" by Dostoyevsky, "Lolita" by Nabokov, "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis and "The Iliad" by the one and only Homer.

This is the toned-down version. I felt that the original was much too explicit to post, but nevertheless it will continue to live in my drafts. Keep in mind, that this version may still be incredibly violent for a part of the audience. Read at your own risk.

Henry, meus cupitus, the last season of the year. My sin, my soul. Henry Winter marching down the banks with his umbrella and books.

He was Henry when we spent our weekends at Francis’ country house, rowing on the lake, finding out about the moon landing. Henry Winter was him, spreading around campus like a dark November mist or in Julian’s attentive green eyes. But he was and still is Henry Marchbanks Winter ever since my ears listened to the convoluted story of the scar; ever since he started forgetting the Latin diary in my sight; ever since our ἕνωσις.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, what right have you to judge me? No one should speak of love in the third person, for it is intangible, running so differently through our bones, that it mimics our soul’s very rhythm and so drowns each of us with unique scents, extorted from the desire for which we spill blood. And yet, here it is, my poor heart standing trial for its depth. Little lords and gentlewomen of the jury, I urge you to be magnanimous and instead ask yourself: how will I ever stay behind all on my own? 

We met at Hampden. Our fates intertwined unexpectedly, gloriously, under the pressure of Julian’s classes and consequently under his guiding gaze. We were each other’s equal, neither of us possessing the ability to surpass the other. Though our views on matters weren’t, generally speaking, that different we still somehow managed to find little details so insignificant that the vast majority forget. What I believed in he stood against. What he stated I debated. A continuous chase between cat and mouse, except neither of us hid in walls. Oh, please, listen, how beautifully we were at each other’s throat with winged words whispered by Pallas Athene herself! With every class, my desire to stomp on his toes, to cut out his tongue and compare it to mine, to reduce him to absolute submission grew. As I’m sure did his. My only wish, which Zeus who drives the storm clouds later granted me, was to have him under my despotism. It was sickly divine and it consumed my insides raw. 

Fate is funny in its own sadistic way. And so, despite everything, despite every warning that I’m sure his precious guts gave him, he fell in stride with me. Dangerous, obsessive me. Slowly, with every argument we lost ourselves in the other’s carefully crafted web, our souls moving to do their twisted dance. We couldn’t stop and certainly, we did not want to stop mixing that which made us two. The knot of selves was but a mere preamble to the waltz of unification we performed under the influence of all the gods above. 

Now, most esteemed jury, that you understand the extent of our strange relationship, I can begin to narrate the following events: his demise (and the attempt of mine). I’ll tell it as I myself see fit and understand. That’s the horror of it for me, that I understand everything.

On October 11th of a certain year which I fail to recall, we were sitting against each other on the couch in his apartment, talking, quietly laughing, wasting our minds with wine as one does during the exam period. Take note, that Henry is reserved while his usual self, however, alcohol slightly enables the more emotive side of him. Through our conversation, he grew serious. I didn’t have to ask I knew he was going to tell me.

“You ruin me. You must know since you keep doing it.” Henry mumbled under his breath.  “You lurk through the darkest depths of my mind,” I looked at him, his expression a mirror of mine “I wander dazed, like Hades’ dead undead, unable to form a single coherent thought.” He scoffed. “You are my worst nightmare.” 

I remember closing my eyes for a moment. Knowing he was suffering because of me filled me with bliss. I could see that he was terribly irritated with his emotions, but I wasn’t going to soften anything. Oh no, on the contrary, seeing him in such a state made me deliberately want to intensify it. And then I opened my eyes only to find him, him, holding a knife to my throat.

“This has to stop.” He said solemnly, yet my gaze fell on his shaky hand. “I don’t want to plague my rationality further with you.”

I knew that all he had was his mind. And so, when I felt the sharp metal press against my neck; when I saw his determined, icy gaze I knew I had to twirl around him again. To prove to him that we are far from equals, that I am the sublime.

“You don’t have to love me.” I started out almost desperately, though it was only a trick, I assure you.  “Don’t answer me anything, don’t take any notice of me at all, and only let me look at you from the corner, turn me into your thing, into your little dog..” I whispered.

With his thumb, he wiped away the wetness falling from my eyes (not tears). He was distracted and so I gripped his arm turning it away from my throat and towards his chest. He reacted and used his force to push it in my face. I stopped it with my free hand just before the tempting edge deflated my round eye and all the liquid from it spilled on my face. However, doing so, Henry did severe my ring finger. It ripped from the last jagged skin and juicy flesh that held it tied to my stained hand, fell on the sofa and rolled down onto Henry’s oriental rug with a barely audible thump, all while leaving dark red stains behind. I got up and used my body to push him to the ground. I step on my lost finger. It lets out a crack. He drops the knife due to the force and I get my greedy hands on it. He hurried to get up but I straddled his hips and kissed him, pushing my wet tongue into his warm mouth. I lost myself in it and I only snapped out of my daze when I felt his thick blood staining my skin. Drip, drop, little ladybugs everywhere. 

I opened my eyes only to find his, or rather my, icy eyes still staring at me. What was left of my finger I dipped in blood and licked it. The glorious taste of his fluids mixed with mine exploded on my tongue and a voice whispered. And I believed it blindly, madly, terribly.

You all whom you believe yourself above me, pitiless hermaphrodites, inquire endlessly about the location of his body. It is not good manners to insist. Settle down, brutes, I’ll give you a clue just so you’ll leave me alone to mourn.

I listened to the voice that sang so sweetly in my ear. That is where his body is, in eternity with me.

Pass judgment on me, for that is why you’re here. However, you all are witnesses to my ‘crimes’, so judge yourself too, with the guidance of the Gods, for every accusation that leaves your wretched lips is a cast of your own dark depths. Answer if you are without sin: is it wrong to prove yourself to the one you love?

[4littlefishies]

The Eighth of September - No Making Fun of the Birthday Boy

satoru gojo x suguru geto

warnings: smut :3

wc: 10k

previous chapter here!

The months of October and November seem to whizz by in a flash, and before they know it, it’s the beginning of December. Neither of them were really all that surprised when they found out that the house was theirs, but of course they were absolutely elated at the news. More and more boxes are piling up around the apartment as they gradually start packing up their belongings for their move in just under two weeks before the start of new year. Satoru wanted to get into their new house as soon as possible, but Suguru was just doing his best to make it through the end of the year at work. He sits at the tail end of a meeting with Yaga, as well as a few other managers from different departments at HQ. 

“Geto-san, please get that email sent to me asap. I need to have it by 8 o’clock tonight so that I can send it out to everyone on Monday morning.” Yaga says as they’re starting to wrap up the meeting that they didn’t get to earlier during the work day. It wasn’t often that he’d have to have a meeting so late after work, but with everyone’s busy schedules, it had to be done.

“Yes sir, I’ll have that over to you within the hour.” Suguru says as he looks down at his coworkers in small boxes on his laptop screen. He wasn’t the only one that was busy and this meeting just confirmed it. They all felt like they were chickens running around with their heads cut off - and looked like it too - but that just seemed to be the normal for December in this business. Everyone signs off with burnt-out and weary goodbye’s and weak waves and Suguru gets back to finishing his extensive to-do list.

“Roo!” Satoru shouts from the hallway back towards where Suguru sits at his desk in the office. “Do you know where my headband with the cat ears went?” He had been listening in to make sure that he didn’t interrupt Suguru’s meeting and waited until he heard that everyone had signed off before shouting out. 

“Where did you leave it last?” Suguru sighs before he responds, not looking up from where he scrolls on his laptop, trying to finish the work that he desperately needed to get done.

“I thought I left it in this bathroom, but now I can’t find it.” Satoru says, now leaning up against the doorway of the office with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

“It probably already got packed away because you never use it, my love.” Suguru’s voice is calm and sweet as he lifts his gaze and looks past his screen. His eyes are tired from looking at screens all day, but this needed to get done, no matter if it was a weekend or not. It was the end of the year, so things were extra busy trying to get everything wrapped up as well as going along with normal tasks. “Can you shut the door behind you?” He asks, hoping that Satoru will take his hint and leave him alone to work. Suguru had been working longer days at the office and had been doing more work from home after his already long days. It definitely helped that Satoru was always there for him when he came home, but it didn’t make it any less tiresome and stressful. 

“I do to use it.” Satoru defends, closing the door and walking into the office and around the desk to see what Suguru’s working on. 

“That’s not what I meant.” Suguru grumbles mostly to himself.

Satoru watches as he types away, trying to finish drafting up an email that’s going to be sent out to all of the heads of operations at each branch across the country. He rests one hand on Suguru’s shoulder and the other on the desk, leaning forward to see what he’s writing. “What’cha writing?” Satoru asks curiously, the smile on his face loud in his voice. 

Suguru takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before continuing to type on his keyboard. “Something that should’ve been done earlier this week, but needs to be done now.” He emphasizes. It was early on Friday night, the night before Satoru’s 30th birthday to be more specific. He was trying his best not to snap at his husband on account of it almost being his birthday, but Satoru was seemingly doing his best to make it extra difficult.

“You can’t get someone else to do it?” Satoru whines, leaning further down to try to get Suguru to look at him. “It’s my birthday eve and I wanna spend time with my husband.” Satoru grumbles with his brows knit together. 

Suguru’s mouth twitches towards a smile at Satoru’s use of the phrase ‘birthday eve’ and finally takes the bait, pausing his typing and turning his head to look Satoru in the eye. Satoru tries to lean in for a kiss, but is met with a short and simple, “No,” Before Suguru turns his head back to finish typing. 

“Unhh!” The noise that leave’s Satoru’s mouth is only describable as a whine but also a groan at the same time.

“I said no.”

“I can’t even have one kiss?” Satoru stands up as he lets out another whine, leaning his head back and squeezing his eyes shut dramatically.

“No, because one will turn into two which will turn into me not getting this done before 8, which is when it needs to be done, Satoru.” Suguru slightly raises his voice as he’s trying his best to focus. He wants to finish everything in the next 30 minutes and he doesn’t have enough hands to finish it all even if he wasn’t being bothered by his husband. Satoru is quiet for a moment and Suguru inhales and lets it out with a slow sigh, feeling shitty for snapping at him. “I’m sorry, Roo… I just really need to finish this and- can you please just leave me alone for just a little longer? I promise this is the last thing I need to do.”

“Do you want me to help you with anything?” Satoru asks softly as he straightens back up. He was no stranger to helping out Suguru with work things; he was practically his assistant at this point.

“No.” Suguru says, shaking his head. “I’m okay for now.” He says, trying not to sound so harsh when Satoru’s genuinely trying to help him. Most of what needed to be done were things only he would know how to do, and they needed to get done quickly, so he didn’t have time to teach Satoru how to do them.

“Okay.” Satoru finally takes his answer and presses a soft kiss to the top of his head before heading back towards the door. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.” Satoru says teasingly, looking back over his shoulder with a smirk as he heads out of the room. Suguru has the faintest smile on his face, looking up at Satoru for a split second and meeting eyes with him just before he shuts the door behind him. 

Letting out a sigh, Suguru leans back in his chair, stretching out his arms for just a moment and twisting himself around to crack his back before getting back to work. Well I feel like an asshole. He opens his notes on his computer only to see the litany of things that had yet to be crossed off of his to-do list. Year-end meant working with accounting to plan out the budget for next year, working with department heads to work out the performance goals for the next year, working with his own department to track and set new KPIs, and a myriad of other things that didn’t even make the list. 

For being only six months into the job, it felt like everyone in the world hated him, although he knew that wasn’t the case whatsoever. It wasn’t only on his shoulders, but every little thing that was going wrong felt to Suguru like it was all his fault. He knew it really wasn’t that serious, but after the last couple of weeks that he’d had at work, it for sure felt like that.

“How am I gonna get all this shit done?” He whispers tensely to himself as he rakes his fingers through his hair. He shakes his head as he stares down at the list before opening up his email once again. Thankfully, this was the final thing that needed to get done for the day; the rest could technically wait until Monday, so once he was finished, he could relax a little bit and try to enjoy his Friday night. 

After finishing the three different tasks he was simultaneously working on, as well as the email, he decided to proofread it one last time before sending it off. The words feel like a jumbled mess in his mind, but as he reads it back to himself, it mostly makes sense. “Baby?” He calls out loudly, knowing that Satoru will hear him and come running in like a dog. 

Sure enough, footsteps are heard hurrying down the hallway and Satoru opens the door with a smile on his face. “Yes, my sweet?” Satoru responds in a singsong voice which causes an eye roll and puts a grin on Suguru’s face.

“Can you just read this and see if it makes sense before I send it to Yaga?” He asks as Satoru saunters into the room. In his previous position, Yaga felt more unreachable - like he was just some distant higher up who didn’t know he existed. But now, as the Vice President of Operations, he was one of his direct bosses. “I feel like my brain is fried and I don't know if this actually sounds decent.”

“Of course I can.” Satoru says, rubbing Suguru’s back as he leans over him, reading the long email that would be sent out to every head of operations come Monday morning. Suguru has a tired smile on his face feeling Satoru’s warm hand on his back through the fabric of his tshirt. He had been so busy all week that he’d barely had any time to spend with him. “Sounds good to me, Suguboo.” Satoru says, standing up with a smile. “I think you’re good to send it.”

“Thank you.” Suguru says quietly, his voice tired as he clicks send and shuts his laptop. “I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier.” He leans back in his chair and rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands before letting out a long sigh. 

“It’s okay. I get it.” Satoru says, his voice soft and gentle. “Thank you for apologizing though.”

“It’s not okay though… You really are the best.” When Suguru brings his hands down from rubbing his eyes, Satoru is leaning up against the desk right next to him looking down with a big smile on his face, his hands on either side of his hips with his fingers wrapped around the top of the desk. “What did you do?” He asks, knowing that he’s for sure up to something.

“I know I’m the best.” Satoru says confidently. “Why do you think I did something?!” He asks, the smile on his face a telltale sign that he did indeed do something. 

“You have that look on your face.” Suguru says with narrowed eyes, looking up as Satoru shakes his head at him. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Satoru says as he sits down and makes himself comfortable right in Suguru’s lap.

“I’m not so sure this chair can hold the weight of both of us.” Suguru warns, wrapping his arms around Satoru’s waist and holding him close despite his statement. He rests his head against his back, closing his eyes as he takes a deep breath in and lets it out slowly.

“Sure it can!” Satoru assures him. “I did do something though…” He says as Suguru sits there with his eyes still closed.

“Oh yeah? What did you do?” He asks, curious to know what Satoru’s been doing while he’s been holed up in his office since he got home earlier.

“Come on.” Satoru says, trying to stand up, but realizing that he’s still trapped in by his husband’s strong arms. “Baby, you have to let me go if you wanna see.” Satoru says, trying to turn around to see his face, but it’s still buried in his back. 

“Not yet. Wanna just sit here for a lil’ longer.” Suguru says, his face squished against his soft tshirt. After a few more quiet moments Satoru tries to stand up once more, only to be squeezed even tighter.

“Sugu… Can’t breathe like this.” Satoru says, his voice pained as he tries for a third time to stand up, only to be held by Suguru’s boa constrictor like strength. 

“Not yet.” Satoru isn’t one for patience when he has a surprise waiting to be revealed, so with one good push, he’s able to break free from Suguru’s hold and get himself up. “Nooo, you smell so good.” Suguru says, readjusting the grip of his arms around Satoru’s torso once again, this time his face pressed against his stomach with his eyes closed once again and a soft smile.

“I’m done waiting, come on.” Satoru says, reaching down just far enough to reach under Suguru’s legs. In one fell swoop, he picks him up from his spot in the chair and starts to carry him out towards the kitchen. 

“I’m falling!” Suguru shouts out with a laugh as Satoru tries his best to walk with the awkward hold he has on his husband.

“It’s not my fault you’re holding onto my stomach. Stand up and grab my shoulders.” With that, Suguru plants his feet on the ground and Satoru is able to easily pick him up once again. This time, with Suguru’s arms wrapped around his shoulders, he’s able to walk normally with his koala-like husband out to the kitchen where he has dinner set up on the table for the two of them. He gracefully sets him down and lets out a, “Ta-daaaa!” As he holds out his arms towards the food set up on the table. 

“Toru.” Suguru coos, sticking out his bottom lip as he takes in the view in front of him. “Why did you do all this?” He asks, recognizing soba from his favorite restaurant almost immediately. 

“You’ve been so stressed out at work this week, I thought you could use it.” He says as Suguru pulls him in for a hug. He presses a kiss to the side of his head and holds him tight. 

Suguru feels like a weight has been lifted off of his shoulders. “Thank you, baby.” He says, his voice just barely a whisper. “But your birthday is tomorrow, I should be doing this for you.”

“Don’t you worry, Sugu. You can do whatever it is that you have planned for tomorrow, but I can still spoil you for tonight.” Satoru says with a smile as they sit down on either side of the table. Suguru chuckles lightly as he looks at the spread in between the two of them. “So…” He starts as they both pick up their chopsticks and get to eating.

“So?” Suguru asks, waiting for Satoru to finish what he obviously wants to say.

“What do we have planned for tomorrow?” Satoru asks with a smile on his face before he takes his first bite. Suguru had asked if he wanted him to plan something and Satoru agreed, so of course he had a few things planned for them throughout the day that he knew Satoru would enjoy. 

“Don’t you want it to be a surprise?” Suguru asks with one eyebrow cocked. “I thought you liked being surprised.”

Satoru twists his mouth to the side, thinking about it for a moment. “You’re right… Actually, I wanna know… Wait! No, don’t tell me.” Satoru goes back and forth, deciding if he wants to be totally surprised or not. 

“Do you want me to tell you one thing we’re doing?” Suguru suggests, knowing he’s going to give himself a headache if he keeps going back and forth on whether he wants everything to be a surprise to him or not.

“Are we getting matching tattoos?” Satoru guesses, his eyes wide as he looks across the table.

Suguru furrows his brows and tilts his head slightly to the side in confusion. “Baby, why would that be one of the surprises?” Satoru had never mentioned anything of the sort, so it came completely out of nowhere. “Do you want to get matching tattoos?” He asks, looking at Satoru with a questioning look.

“I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I wanna look like my cool sexy husband.” Satoru answers, giving him a wink as he says it, which pulls a slight chuckle from Suguru.

“You’ve been thinking about it?” Satoru nods his head eagerly. “Why haven’t you said anything sooner?” 

Satoru takes a bite of one of the tempura shrimp, thinking for just a second before he answers. “I dunno.” He shrugs, swallowing the bite in his mouth. “We’ve just been really busy and it’s not that pressing of a matter.” 

“We can go to my artist if you want, Toru.” Suguru suggests. “We’d probably have to get in next month though, he’s usually pretty booked up.”

Satoru feels excitement building in his chest at the thought. “Really?” 

“Yeah, I can message him later. Have you thought about what you want?” He asks, ready to make a mental note of it so that he can let his artist know. 

Satoru pulls out his phone and quickly scrolls through his camera roll, looking for the screenshot he’d taken a while back. “I was trying to think of something that would also look good with your dragons, but I think something like this would be nice.” He says, showing Suguru a simple looking design with two koi fish, almost in a yin and yang position, one black and one white. “Also I want something that doesn’t really scream I’m in the Yakuza, you know?”

Nodding his head, Suguru smiles. Of course Satoru wouldn’t pick something that had no meaning behind it. The koi fish, as well as the yin and yang symbolism quickly stood out to him. “Oh yeah,” Suguru says, grabbing Satoru’s phone from him and looking more closely at the screenshot. “Choso could definitely do something like this. Can you send that to me?” He asks, handing Satoru his phone back. 

Satoru quickly texts it to him and sets his phone back down. “I just want it to have some meaning, you know?” He asks.

“I definitely get it, baby.” Suguru smiles across the table at him. Naturally he would want his first tattoo to mean a lot to him. “I think it’s perfect.” Satoru smiles back at him, glad that he approves of his choice of art for both of their bodies. “Then maybe your next one can be something a little different.” 

“Well, let’s see how I feel about the first one before we start talking about more.” Satoru says, an excited, but slightly nervous feeling in his stomach already. “Tattoos might be more of your thing than mine, but I want at least one. You can’t be the only one in our family with a cool tattoo.” 

Suguru smiles at his use of the phrase our family. “You sure you’re gonna be able to sit still long enough for him to do it?” He teases as he picks up another bite of his soba. “It doesn’t feel very good.”

“Are you already trying to talk me out of it?” Satoru asks, raising his eyebrows at Suguru. “I’ll sit so still you’ll think I’m a statue.” He says, extremely sure of himself. Suguru nods his head, not as sure about that, but excited at his seemingly newfound interest in getting a tattoo. 

“I’ll message him tomorrow. Hopefully he’ll be able to get us in before the new year, but usually he’s pretty busy this time of year, so don’t get your hopes up, okay?” Suguru lets him know. “I think it’ll be better to do it after we move, anyway.” Satoru nods his head, just happy that it’s going to happen at all. “Did you actually want me to tell you something that I had planned for us tomorrow or not?”

Satoru furrows his brows, thinking for a moment before answering. “How many things do you have planned?” He asks, curious to know more about the day ahead of them.

“Baby, do you want me to tell you or not?” Suguru chuckles lightly. “I know that if I tell you one thing, you’re gonna keep bothering me to know everything, so I’m either telling you the plans for the whole day or everything is staying a secret.”

“Okay, okay, tell me, I wanna know.” Satoru finally decides, the feeling eating him up inside.

“Well first we’re gonna go to a patisserie in Setagaya for lunch where you can get whatever your little sugar-crammed heart desires.” Suguru starts. Satoru’s eyes light up at the thought of it, but Suguru continues before he can say anything. “Then we’re going to karaoke with Shoko, Utahime, Haibara, and Ijichi.” He continues, seeing Satoru’s face light up even more, as if that was possible. “Then we’re gonna have dinner and spend the night at the Mandarin Oriental.” 

Satoru’s mouth hangs open upon hearing everything that Suguru has planned for his birthday. “Sugu…” He starts. Suguru looks up from his noodles at him, waiting patiently for him to finish what he’s about to say. “If we weren’t already married I’d ask you to marry me right now.” Satoru says with complete seriousness on his face.

Suguru chuckles lightly at the phrase that he’d become more and more used to hearing. “I know, and you know that I’d say yes every single time.” Satoru smiles back across the table at him, restless with anticipation of the day that is to come. 

~~~~~~~~~~

“Where are we going for karaoke again?” Satoru asks, looking over at Suguru as they drive towards their second destination of the day. 

“Baby, I think this is the third time I’ve told you that we’re going to Karaoke-Kan, the same place we go every time.” Suguru says, tapping his hand on Satoru’s leg as he drives. 

“Oh yeah.” He says, mostly focused on the bag full of treats sitting on the ground between his feet. He had picked out his own birthday cake, as well as a whole other box full of smaller sweets that would have given Suguru a heart attack once he heard the price if he hadn’t done the thorough research that he had. He made sure to set aside a lot more cash than he thought he would need because of course Satoru would need to try at least one of everything that they had. “What time is our dinner?” He asks, looking over to Suguru once again.”

“We just ate lunch and you’re already thinking about dinner?” Suguru asks with a slight chuckle, although he isn’t one bit surprised.

“What can I say? I’m excited, Gugu.”

Suguru gives his thigh a slight squeeze before he answers his question. “We can check in to our room at 5:00, but our dinner reservation isn’t until 6:30, so we have some time to get ready beforehand.”

“I'm excited.” Satoru says as he looks out the window as they approach their second destination of the day. The sky is cloudy and the air is cool, but nothing out of the ordinary for a typical December day.

“I can tell.” Suguru says, looking over at him with a smile. 

Once they find a place to park and make it to the building where they’re heading, they’re quickly shown to their karaoke room where all of their friends are already waiting.

“Happy birthday!” Haibara excitedly shouts out as soon as Satoru opens the door to their room. The other three hadn’t noticed until he had already shouted that they were there, so they missed the cue, inadvertently leaving him alone. 

“Happy birthday!” Shoko, Utahime, and Ijichi all say in unison after recognizing their mistake.

“Hey guys!” Satoru says with an elated smile on his face as Suguru closes the door behind them, not even noticing the poorly executed happy birthday exclamation. 

“I hope you guys haven’t been here too long. Somebody couldn’t decide what kind of birthday cake he wanted.” Suguru says, raising his eyebrows as he makes eye contact with Shoko.

Satoru smacks Suguru lightly on the arm. “It’s my birthday, Sugu, you’re not supposed to throw me under the bus like that.”

“My mistake, I was taking too long to pick out what flavor of birthday cake I wanted for my birthday that’s definitely today,” Suguru says with a grin as he sits down on the bench next to Satoru. 

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Shoko nods her head with furrowed brows in agreement.

“So have you guys done any songs yet?” Satoru asks, already having some song ideas ready in his head. 

“Nope, we wanted to wait until you guys got here.” Haibara answers as Satoru scrolls through the options, looking for the first song that he wanted to do.

Suguru already knows exactly what Satoru’s looking for. It’s always the first song he goes for when they go to karaoke, no matter who they’re with. “If you’re looking for Butterfly, you already passed it.” He points out, watching as Satoru furrows his brows looking for it.

“Of course I’m looking for Butterfly, Sugu.” Satoru says, scrolling back up to find the song that he hadn’t seen that he passed already. 

“There it is!” Suguru, as well as Haibara shout out, watching as he scrolls past it for a second time.

“Thanks guys.” Satoru says as he presses on it and grabs the microphone from the table that sits in front of them. The song starts to play with the lyrics coming on the screen, but Satoru doesn’t need to so much as glance at them because he knows the song by heart. 

“I can’t believe you’re actually 30.” Utahime mutters, shaking her head as the lyrics for the Digimon Adventure theme song start up on the screen. 

“Utahime, no making fun of the birthday boy.” Satoru says into the microphone in a ridiculously silly voice just before he starts singing along perfectly. Utahime shakes her head with a roll of her eyes as Satoru sings along. 

Suguru smiles, watching his husband seemingly have the time of his life. “He’s actually really good at this.” Haibara says, looking over at Suguru with a wide smile on his face. Suguru chuckles and nods his head, agreeing with him.

Haibara quietly sings along without a microphone until Satoru notices and hands him the second one, urging him heavily to sing along with him. They have the room for two hours before Satoru and Suguru have to head off to finish the rest of what they have planned for the day. It’s a very loud and excitable two hours, filled with plenty of Satoru yelling into the microphone to get everyone’s attention. 

“Satoru, we’re right here, you don’t have to yell at us.” Utahime says with her eyes narrowed and brows furrowed as she sips on her drink. Ijichi covers his ears, trying not to accrue hearing damage from Satoru’s antics with the microphone. 

“I just gotta make sure you guys can hear me.” He says with a smirk on his face as he picks up an onion ring off of the tower that they’d ordered. 

“We can hear you plenty without it.” Utahime grumbles to herself as she leans over and rests her head on Shoko’s shoulder. 

Suguru sings a couple songs with Satoru and one with Shoko, but leaves most of the singing to the others, as does Ijichi. Sitting between Suguru and Utahime, Ijichi focuses on watching and having a good time just watching everyone else sing, deciding against singing something for most of their time there.

“Ijichi, if I sing with you, will you please sing something? Just one song?” Utahime asks, hoping that he’ll do it at least once. He looks over at Shoko who nods her head with an excited smile,  urging him to do it.

He takes a deep breath and lets it out with a sigh, really thinking hard about it before he finally gives in and agrees. “Only if you’re actually going to sing with me though.” He says, hesitantly taking the microphone from Haibara after he just finished a song on his own.

“I’m not gonna leave you hanging, don’t worry.” She says with a smile as she scrolls through the songs, looking for one that they could sing. 

“Did you have a good time?” Suguru says quietly into Satoru’s ear once he feels his head resting on his shoulder. 

“Mhm.” Satoru hums in response, nodding his head as it sits on Suguru’s shoulder. “Thank you for planning this.” He rests his hand on Suguru’s thigh and gives it a squeeze, which in turn, Suguru responds with a kiss on the top of his head. The smile on Satoru’s face is wide as he listens to Utahime and Ijichi sing along to Shinunoga E-Wa. Utahime confidently sings at Shoko from the front of the room, while Ijichi is a bit more reserved like he’s trying to curl in on himself, his voice barely picked up by the microphone. Satoru starts singing along with them, noticing that Ijichi isn’t as sure of himself as Utahime is when it comes to karaoke.

Ultimately, Shoko, Haibara, Satoru, and Suguru all join in and sing along with the two of them as they make their way through the song, excited to be spending time together as a group after they hadn’t all been together in nearly a year. 

“You guys are sure you can’t stick around for another hour?” Haibara asks as Satoru and Suguru are getting ready to leave. “I think we’re gonna stay for a while longer if you guys want to.”

“We’d love to, but we really have to get going, we have to check in and have reservations that we can’t be late for.” Suguru says, picking up Satoru’s jacket and handing it to him. 

“Well thank you guys for inviting us! Have a great dinner and happy birthday Satoru!” Haibara says with a smile, followed by a chorus of happy birthday’s from the rest of the group as they head out the door. 

“Thank you guys!” Satoru calls out as he closes the door behind him. He lets out a huff, not realizing how hot it was in the room until he’s out of it. “That was really fun, Roo.” Satoru says, grabbing onto Suguru’s hand as they walk back towards the front door. “Thank you for planning all of this.” 

“Of course, baby.” Suguru says with a smile as he opens the door for Satoru, the cold December air hitting their cheeks and quickly making their exposed skin prickle at the temperature. They hurry to the car, wanting to get out of the cold as quickly as they can. The drive to the hotel isn’t long, and when they get there, Suguru hands his keys to the valet attendant so that they don’t have to worry about parking. Satoru grabs their small shared bag from the back seat and carries it inside, his other hand laced in Suguru’s. 

They head towards the elevator and up to the hotel lobby that sits on the top floor of the building. They make their way up to the front desk and easily get checked in and get the key to their room. The woman helping them at the front desk leads them back towards the guest elevators, presses the button to go down and steps back while they wait for the doors to open. Satoru gives Suguru’s hand a squeeze, not knowing what kind of room to expect. 

“She gave us tea!” Satoru says excitedly as the doors close and they take the quick elevator ride down the couple floors to the 33rd floor. Suguru smiles as he presses a quick kiss to his cheek just in time for the doors to reopen to the small elevator lobby. They follow the signs to find their room. “3308, right?” Suguru nods his head as they head down the hallway towards the end.

Satoru taps the key to the door and turns the handle once the lock clicks. He pushes open the door to a dimly lit room. The sun had already gone down, leaving the room almost completely in the dark. After flicking on the lights and closing the door behind them, Satoru’s mouth hangs open as he looks around. “Wow, Gugu. You really went all out huh?” He asks, turning around to look at Suguru who’s checking out the bathroom. 

“I didn’t think it would be this nice.” Suguru admits from the bathroom, looking out the window that sits behind the large bathtub. “This is gorgeous.” He says, stepping back out into the main room where Satoru sits on the chaise that’s in front of the large floor to ceiling window. He had already found the button that opens up the curtains and was looking out the window. 

“It’s like the same as at home, but still different, you know?” He says, looking behind him as Suguru walks across the room to sit next to him. 

Suguru chuckles lightly at his observation. “I do know.” He says with a smile as he sits down next to Satoru and wraps his arm around his shoulder.

“Thank you for all this, Sugu.” Satoru says, leaning into Suguru and resting his head against his chest. “You made my birthday really great.” 

“Sorry I didn’t get you the cheesecake from Okinawa this time though.” He points out as they look out across the twinkling city lights together. “I’m afraid that’s reserved exclusively for anniversaries.” He continues, the smile apparent in his voice. 

“And I’m perfectly fine with that.” Satoru says, looking up into Suguru’s warm eyes through his snow colored lashes with a smile on his face. “I love you.” He says softly.

“I love you too.” Suguru says, leaning in to press a tender kiss against his lips. “Happy birthday Toru.” He whispers before going back in for another kiss, this one lasting a little bit longer than the first. They smile up against each other’s lips, leaning into each other more and more. 

Satoru pulls back and looks quickly down at his watch on his wrist for a moment. “What time did you say our dinner was?” He asks with a devious smile. Suguru looks down at his watch and sees that they don’t have to be at the restaurant for well over an hour. It was only 5 floors up, so it would only take them minutes to get there, if even that. He doesn’t even answer Satoru’s question as he leans back in to kiss him once again, this time more needy to mesh their lips together. Satoru lets out a soft moan into his mouth as he leans back into the chaise and Suguru moves over top of him. He lets Suguru’s knee slot its way in between his legs as he kneels over him. “Can I ask for one birthday present?” Satoru murmurs in between kisses.

“You want it now?” Suguru asks, slightly confused, thinking that they were just about to start something. “I was going to wait until dinner to give it to you.”

“No, no, I mean…” Satoru trails off as he slowly unbuttons Suguru’s shirt, revealing his tattoos that he’s grown to know like the back of his hand. “I wanna fuck you.” He says, looking up into his husband’s eyes through his own wispy lashes with his bottom lip in between his teeth.

Suguru’s eyes widen in surprise and he starts to laugh slightly until he realizes that his husband is serious. “Oh, you actually mean it?” He asks, his mouth slightly agape as he looks down at Satoru.

“Why wouldn’t I mean it, Sugu?” Satoru asks with furrowed brows. “Are you saying I can’t?”

Suguru shakes his head quickly, trying to hide the smile on his face. “No, no, baby. I’m not saying that you can’t, I’m just saying…” He stops for a moment trying to gather his thoughts. He clicks his tongue before he continues on. “It’s just- you can barely handle me fucking you, how do you expect to be able to do it?” Suguru asks, a slight teasing tone in his voice.

“You don’t think I can?” Satoru asks with his brows raised and a smirk on his lips, now seeing it as a challenge and wanting it even more. 

Suguru bites his bottom lip, looking at the way Satoru looks underneath him. He looks so sweet, his cheeks pink just from their few kisses and his eyes full of love. “I didn’t say that… I’d love to see you try, I just don’t think you’ll last longer than a minute is all I’m saying.” 

Satoru scoffs at his answer with knitted together brows. “Oh yeah?” His voice is full of sass as he asks, really wanting to prove him wrong now.

“Yeah.” Suguru doubles down with a nod, looking back at his cocky husband with a smirk on his lips. He dives his head down against Satoru’s neck, pressing a few kisses to the skin below his jaw which earns a shaky moan out of him. “You can barely handle this, Satoru.” Suguru teases, his breath hot against the skin of his neck as he whispers. He lets his tongue trace lightly up the side of his neck, trying his best to reduce him to a shaky, whimpering mess just with his tongue. 

“That’s n-not the same thing.” Satoru says with his brows furrowed as he already feels like putty under his husband’s touch. His breath is shaky as he feels Suguru’s hot lips and tongue against the skin of his throat as he kisses and sucks expertly on the most sensitive spot. 

“How about…” Suguru starts, his voice warm against Satoru’s neck as he speaks, “I fuck you now-” He’s interupted by a whine from deep in Satoru’s chest. “Hey, I wasn’t done yet. If you stop your whining and behave yourself, maybe after dinner I’ll let you do it. We have all night and won’t have to rush anything that way, hmm? How’s that sound, baby?” Suguru suggests, not even waiting for an answer before going back to pepper kisses along his neck once again. 

“Ha-ah.” Satoru’s breath gets caught in his throat for a second as Suguru sucks lightly on the spot just underneath his earlobe. “Deal.” Satoru manages to get out as he starts unbuttoning his own shirt before tossing it to the ground. 

With a smile, Suguru sheds his own shirt, tossing it onto the floor and bringing one of his hands up to cup Satoru’s face, the other holding him up as he hovers over him. He lets out a groan as Satoru brings one of his hands down to massage the bulge between his legs. He smiles against Satoru’s lips as he quickly feels himself growing harder. Grinding his hips down against Satoru’s hand, wanting more friction, he lets out a soft groan at the feeling. 

Satoru hastily unbuttons his pants and Suguru does the same, sitting back on his knees for a moment. With help from Suguru, Satoru pulls his pants and boxers off in one go. Suguru does the same, kicking his off onto the floor beside them. “How did I get so lucky?” Suguru murmurs as he leans back in, his lips attacking Satoru’s once again like they were air and he was suffocating. Satoru’s whole body feels like it’s on fire. No matter how many times he hears Suguru’s sweet words, it sends an electricity throughout each and every nerve like it’s the first time all over again. Now with nothing on but their wedding rings, they grab eagerly at each other, warm fingers gripping into soft skin as they make out like teenagers on the chaise in front of the open window, 33 floors up. 

As he pulls back slightly, Satoru whines, not wanting Suguru to pull away just yet, but is quickly met with his fingers in front of his mouth. Without needing to be asked, he parts his lips, letting them inside past his teeth. Suguru presses his middle finger into the warmth of Satoru’s tongue, licking his lips as he watches his lips close around the digit. “Always so good for me.” He praises as Satoru opens his lips once more to let Suguru press another finger against his tongue. 

“Mmm.” Satoru hums happily, his mouth wetting Suguru’s fingers because he knows exactly what to expect next. He looks up at him through his lashes with needy eyes, wanting to feel his fingers inside of him already. His cock is hard, resting against his stomach as he watches his husband smile at the sight in front of him. Suguru looks down at him, a devilish smile on his lips as his bangs hang down between them, tickling the skin of Satoru’s cheeks ever so slightly. 

After a couple seconds longer, Suguru slides his fingers out of Satoru’s mouth, the same smile on his mouth as he looks into the bright blues beneath him. As he trails his hand slowly down between them, his fingers slowly trace down the underside of Satoru’s cock, making his hips twitch upward. “Ah- Sugu,” He whines out as Suguru’s wet fingers ghost the skin of his fully hardened cock, “it’s my birthday, no teasing.” 

Suguru’s eyes dip to look between the two of them, almost seeming like he was contemplating something for a moment. “Even the birthday boy has to be patient, Toru. You should know that by now.” Suguru says, sitting back on his knees for a moment and quickly yanking Satoru down closer to him by his legs and in one quick move, throwing his hips up over his own shoulders. His knees are now just about on either side of his head as Suguru has him folded in half over himself. 

“Sugu what are you-” He starts to ask, but is quickly silenced as Suguru’s hot tongue is pressed against his hole. “Ah!” Satoru cries out, surprised by the sudden change in position. The way Suguru licks and sucks at his hole is enough to have him grasping at anything he can get ahold of. He brings one hand down on top of Suguru’s hand that sits on the back of his thigh holding his hips up and grasps for his fingers. “Fuck,” Satoru moans, Suguru locking their fingers together as he turns his husband into a whiny mess. 

It’s not long before he brings his free hand with his already wet fingers up and presses one inside, pulling his mouth just far enough away to allow them to do so. “You doing okay, baby?” Suguru asks despite already knowing the answer. He slowly pushes his finger all the way in before pulling it out almost painfully slowly before pressing it back inside once again. The way Satoru’s walls are already squeezing around him tells him all he needs to know about how he’s feeling. Nothing but a faint whimper escapes Satoru’s mouth, putting a small frown on Suguru’s lips. “I know you can do better than that, Toru.” He says, his already slow movements coming to a halt as he looks down at his obviously flustered husband, waiting for a response to the question he asked. 

“Yes, Sugu,” He mewls out with his brows knit together, “Feels so good, please don’t stop.” 

“See, I knew my good boy Satoru knew how to use his words.” Suguru says, his tone slightly teasing as he pushes his finger back inside, only to quickly add his second finger, pulling another moan from Satoru’s chest. “Doing so good for me baby, you always take my fingers so well.” 

“Nngh-” Satoru moans, his walls squeezing around Suguru’s fingers as they slowly massage him from the inside. His teeth dig into the flesh of his bottom lip and his fingers grip harder onto suguru’s hand as he revels in the feeling.

Watching similarly with his bottom lip in between his teeth, Suguru smiles at the way his husband twitches around just his fingers, looking up at the way his face twists and contorts with pleasure. With his other hand, he strokes his cock a couple times before pulling his fingers out, earning a needy whine from Satoru. He lets his hips down gently before he kneels between his open thighs, eager to be inside of him already. He presses his already leaky tip against Satoru’s wet entrance, pausing and teasing him for just a second before he slowly pushes inside. A moan rips from both of their chests at the feeling. After Suguru’s incredibly busy week at the office, they hadn't had the time, let alone the energy to have sex in nearly a week - which they both thought had to be some sort of record for them. They’d both been waiting for this all week, and now that it was finally happening, neither of them ever wanted it to end. 

“Fuck, baby.” Suguru hisses out as he presses all the way inside. “So fucking soft and warm for me, yeah?” He says, looking down at Satoru who nods up at him with hazy eyes. “It’s like you were made just for me.” Suguru mutters, not caring how cliche it sounds because he fully believes it himself. 

“Mhmm,” Is all Satoru can manage to get out as he wraps his arms around Suguru’s neck, pulling him down, crashing their lips together. He licks lazily into Suguru’s mouth, wanting to feel closer to him in any way that he can - as if he can’t already feel him so deep that he swears he’s in his throat. Suguru’s thrusts are slow and deep, his cock dragging against every wrinkle and ridge of Satoru’s gummy walls. “So slow.” Satoru manages to get out against Suguru’s lips, his teasing tone obvious even is his already fucked out state. He was already feeling himself creep closer to the edge, but didn’t want it to be over just yet. 

“Slow? If this is too slow for you, you’ve gotta tell me what you want, birthday boy.” Suguru murmurs back against Satoru’s lips with a smirk as his hips come to a stop. Satoru pushes back on his abs and he pulls out, although slightly confused. They both let out a moan at the sudden emptiness and lack of warmth from one another, but Satoru quickly flips himself over and positions himself on his knees. He looks back at Suguru with half-lidded sapphires and a fox-like smirk on his face. Suguru smirks back, twisting his mouth to the side as he pushes his hair back over his shoulder and out of his way.

“I want you to make it so I have a hard time walking to dinner.” Satoru says, sounding very sure of himself. So sure of himself that it takes Suguru a bit by surprise. He’s left kneeling behind his husband with his mouth slightly agape, not entirely used to him being like this in the bedroom.

“Yes sir.” His hands find purchase on either side of his hips before he all but slams back into Satoru, much more aggressive this time. 

“Ah- f- fuck!” Satoru cries out with a wide smile on his face as he grips onto the back of the chaise while his husband relentlessly fucks into hims from behind. Somehow his cock manages to perfectly hit his sweet spot with every thrust, Satoru letting out endless trails of moans at the feeling and at the continuous praises that spill from Suguru’s mouth.

“You’re absolutely perfect, Toru. Breathtaking in every way.” He says, literally sounding out of breath. “Don’t know how I was the one that got so lucky to have you. I love you Satoru.” Satoru lets out uninterrupted cries as his eyes roll back into his head at the euphoric feeling - both of the physical feeling, as well as the rush from Suguru’s sweet saccharine words. Suguru arches himself over, leaning down to press kisses along the back of Satoru’s shoulder blades. The lewd sound of skin slapping together, Suguru’s occasional grunts, and Satoru’s whimpers fill the hotel room. “That’s a good boy, let me hear you whimper.” 

“Haa-hnng,” Satoru mewls out as Suguru’s relentless thrusts and never ending praises cloud his mind. “Mmh,” He hums as he looks over his shoulder with his brows knitted together and arching his back, desperate to feel his lips against Suguru’s. Their lips come together, Satoru letting moans escape into Suguru’s mouth and keeping his mouth open to allow his tongue to snake its way inside. 

Suguru mutters quietly into Satoru’s mouth. “Can feel you squeezing me, baby. Can you cum for me, my handsome boy? Can you do that for me?” Suguru knows that Satoru’s close, feeling the way his walls twitch and squeeze around his cock at the sweet talk as he continues jackhammering his hips into him. He can feel his own orgasm about to tip over the edge as Satoru cries out, gripping back onto Suguru’s wrist tightly and digging his fingers into his skin as his climax rips through him. 

“Yes! Yes! Yeah- mmmmh,” Satoru cries out, feeling a familiar warmth deep inside him with the twitch of Suguru’s cock as he himself cums onto the cushion beneath. He pushes back against him, wanting to feel it all.

“Fuck baby,” Suguru groans, resting his forehead against Satoru’s back as he rides out his orgasm, emptying himself into his husband. “You’re trying to kill me?” He asks as Satoru pushes his hips back, attempting to milk every drop from his cock. 

Satoru can’t answer, just looking back over his shoulder with his face against the back of the chaise with a tired smile, his hair sticking to his forehead and his cheeks flushed pink. A thin sheen of sweat covers both of their bodies, skin sticking together as Suguru lifts his forehead from where he rests against Satoru’s back, leaving one last tender kiss as he does so. 

“You okay, Roo?” Suguru coos, still breathing hard as he slowly pulls out, the mess of his cum leaking out of Satoru’s hole following behind. They both whine at the sudden feeling of emptiness and the loss of one another’s warmth.

Satoru smiles to himself at the nickname that they’d both started using for each other, breathing heavily with his cheek pressed against the fabric. He nods his head, the dopey smile on his face a testament to how hard Suguru had fucked him. 

“Fucked you so stupid you can’t even talk, huh?” He teases, hurrying to the bathroom as to hopefully not make more of a mess than they already had. 

“Mmhm.” Satoru hums, still with his hips and ass in his air and his face now down against the seat. His eyes are closed as he waits for the princess treatment that he knows is coming from Suguru when he hears the faucet to the bath turn on. 

Suguru hurries back with a towel, wanting to clean up the mess on the seat before anything else. “You made a real mess, baby.” Suguru says as he does his best to wipe up the sticky puddle underneath Satoru. He hears a slight chuckle from Satoru as he heads back to the bathroom. “What’s so funny?” He asks as he tosses the towel on the bathroom floor and hurries back out to retrieve his husband.

“Nothin’.” He replies, the spent and worn-out smile still on his face as Suguru scoops him up into his arms. “Just happy that I’m married to the best man in the world.” 

With a click of his tongue, Suguru shakes his head. “I really fucked you dumb this time, didn’t I?” He teases as he sets Satoru down next to the tub as they wait for it to continue filling with hot water. He runs his hand under the water, checking if he needs to adjust the temperature before throwing his hair up into a quick bun to keep his hair out of the way. He takes off his watch and sets it on the vanity next to where Satoru had set his, not wanting to get it wet. After adjusting the temperature slightly, he steps in, helping Satoru in as well. 

“No, I think I’m of sound mind right now.” Satoru says, climbing over the edge of the tub and sinking down into the water in between Suguru’s legs with his back up against his chest. “I’m just thankful to have you as my husband.” He grabs Suguru’s hand from under the water and laces their fingers together before holding their hands against his chest for a moment. 

The smile on Suguru’s face is soft as Satoru leans his head back against his shoulder. “I love you, Satoru.” Suguru coos in his ear, his voice just barely above a whisper. Satoru smiles as he looks out the window at the twinkling lights of the city just outside. 

“I love you too, Sugu.” Satoru says, his voice just as quiet. They sit in silence for a moment, nothing but the sound of the rippling water as Satoru brings Suguru’s hand up to his lips to press his lips to the back of it. Suguru lets his fingers of his free hand trace over Satoru’s leg under the water as he presses tender kisses to the back of his shoulder. “Thank you for a great birthday.” He says, fidgeting with Suguru’s ring as he analyzes his hand.

“Of course, baby. You deserve it.” Suguru replies before they sit in silence for a little bit longer. He lets his eyes close for a moment as he leans his head back over the edge of the tub and looks up at the ceiling. “It’s not over yet, though. We have to head up there in probably about 20 minutes.” He says, having noted the time when they first got into the bath. 

“Are you telling me we have to get out already?” Satoru asks, still mindlessly fidgeting with Suguru’s fingers on top of the water. 

“Just a couple more minutes, but I need to brush out my hair and fix it up all nice.” 

“I think it looks perfect just like this.” Satoru says, not even bothering to turn his head to be able to look at his husband.

“Roo, I can’t show up to a gourmet restaurant with my hair in a messy bun.” Suguru tries to reason with him, a soft chuckle coming from his chest and vibrating against Satoru’s back and causing ripples in the water. 

“Says who? I think you look perfect.” Satoru shoots back, sitting forward and moving to sit on the other end of the tub so he can look at Suguru.

Suguru shakes his head with a faint smile on his face as he looks out the window. “Says me, Satoru.” Satoru furrows his brows and crosses his arms across his chest. 

“What if I refuse to get out of the bath and just sit here all night?” 

“Then I guess I’m going to dinner by myself.” Suguru says with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Unnh!” Satoru cries out at his response, earning a laugh from Suguru that has the water rippling away from him. “You wouldn’t really leave me alone on my birthday, would you?” 

“Baby, it wasn’t easy for me to get the reservation, I’m going with or without you.” He says, looking into Satoru’s eyes seriously with his warm honey ones. “And I think you’re really gonna like it anyway.” 

“And then we can come back and eat cake, right?” 

With a smile on his face, Suguru looks out the window once more before looking back at Satoru. “Yes baby, we can come back and eat cake.” Satoru smiles happily upon hearing his response, eager to try out the cake that he had picked out earlier in the day. After a couple more minutes of soaking, Suguru stands up and grabs a towel from the rack next to the tub and dries himself off before stepping out and wrapping it around his waist.

“You’re getting out already?” Satoru whines, looking up at him as he walks out of the bathroom to grab his bag.

“Satoru, we’re not going to be late for this.” He says as he’s grabbing his bathroom stuff from the bag out in the main room. Satoru is still laid out in the tub as he comes back into the bathroom with his small bag and his brush in his hand. He looks at Satoru as he’s spread out in the bath and stands at the edge, looking down at him for a moment, trying to keep a straight face. Satoru looks up at him for a moment with a cheeky smile on his face before he reaches out and swiftly yanks Suguru’s towel down off of his hips and onto the floor. Suguru doesn’t react and just shakes his head and leans over to pull the drain plug on the tub and tosses it over the edge, leaving it hanging from the chain.

“Hey!” Satoru shouts out with a laugh, a similar laugh coming from Suguru’s chest as he turns around to look at himself in the mirror. The sound of the water going down the drain is quickly overrun by the sound of Satoru standing up out of the water. He grabs a towel and dries off before stepping out next to Suguru who stands there, his towel left on the floor where Satoru pulled it off. Satoru presses a kiss to Suguru’s bare shoulder before heading out to grab his clothes for dinner.

“Can you grab mine too?” Suguru asks as he brushes out his hair, pulling half of it up into a bun and tying it off at the back of his head. 

“Sugu?” Satoru asks as he brings both of their changes of clothes into the bathroom so that they can get changed for dinner. 

“Yes, my love?” Suguru asks sweetly, turning to look at his husband with a smile.

“You mentioned earlier that you got me a birthday present…” Satoru says, looking at him with a sly smile.

“Yes?” Suguru urges him to continue. “What are you getting at?” 

The smile on Satoru’s face is enough to signal to Suguru that he’s probably up to no good. “Do you think I could maybe open it now?”

“I said you could open it at dinner, Roo.” Suguru pulls his shirt on and starts buttoning it up.

“Yeahhh… But I thought that maybe you love me and would let me have it a little early.” Satoru tries to play to Suguru’s soft side as he does his best to get him to give him his present early.

Suguru has a smile on his face as he tucks his shirt into his pants and starts snaking his belt through the loops. “Baby, I do love you, but you’re not getting your present before we’re up there.” 

Satoru lets out a huff as he gets dressed, his plan having failed. “I guess I’ll just have to wait.” He says dramatically, leaning his head on Suguru’s shoulder as he looks at him through the mirror.

“Yep.” Suguru curtly agrees with a nod, not playing along with his games. 

With one more huff, Satoru crosses his arms and stands up with furrowed brows. He stands in the doorway of the bathroom, leaning against the doorframe with a slight smile on his face. 

“I love you, Satoruuu.” Suguru says in a cheery voice, watching as his husband does a terrible job of pouting in the doorway.

Satoru can’t help himself but step into the bathroom once more and wrap his arms around Suguru’s waist from behind. He leans in and presses a soft kiss on the back of Suguru’s neck before whispering softly in his ear with a smile, “I love you too, Suguru.”

chapter 5

[writeblrgarden]

PLANT GROWERS - MEET THE WINNERS - RAE

Meet Rae, who got third place in our grow a plant event in november! Rae goes by she/her, has a second degree black belt in kendo, and you can find her at @koala2all. She has been writing for about 30 years, primarily YA fantasy.

Tell us about the WIP you'd like to talk about today.

I'll be talking about The Pirate Knight. Being a pirate is all Nonie has ever wanted. Freedom, camaraderie, and a beautiful girl in port to welcome her back. But returning from a lucrative voyage, she finds her home in shambles and her bonny lass missing. Desperate to find her, Nonie makes a deal with the god of the sea. In return for helping return her lost love Nonie vows to become his holy knight, saving the weak and defending the helpless. Together with a cynical sorcerer, a naive orc, and an ex-girlfriend from a rival ship who promises not to rest until their mission is a success, Nonie sets out to prove that she can be a hero in time to save the love of her life. But when a world changing secret is revealed, Nonie will need the help of her friends to navigate the tempest.

Describe your writing process. Do you like to plan everything or are you more spontaneous?

I'm more spontaneous. I usually start a bit backwards actually. I know how I want a story to end, then where it begins, and the rest is a matter of figuring out how to get from point A to point B. Music plays a huge part in my process, as well. I often get inspired by a song for a set of characters or a situation, then I try to figure out where it can fit.

What have you found to be the most challenging and/or rewarding about writing?

The most challenging part of writing for me is that I often feel like I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just kind of winging it, writing stories that make me happy about characters that I enjoy writing about… but up to a year ago I didn't know what a beta reader was. My background is in theater, so I know how to frame a story in three acts… but without the background in creative writing, the imposter syndrome is real!

Below the read more is more of our conversation with Rae

What inspires you to write?

Books were such an escape for me when I was little. All those amazing worlds and vivid characters really helped me through some tough times. And that's what I want to share with others. The world is a hard place right now. I want to give readers a place that they can escape to, with characters they can empathize with as they face trials and overcome them. And maybe take a little hope with them when they're done.

Share some advice for other writers.

The best advice I ever got was from a Terry Pratchett quote. He said, "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story." I am definitely the type of person who dreams of the first draft coming out absolutely perfect. When it doesn't come out that way, I can tend to get a little frustrated. But after I heard this quote, I realized that the first draft is going to be rubbish. That's okay, and that's what editing is for. First, I just need to tell myself the story.

What do consider your writing strength?

Dialogue and worldbuilding are my strengths, for sure. I have such a strong sense of the world my characters find themselves in. My favorite technique is to not explain too much to the reader, but let them come across the world naturally as the characters navigate through it. It's my favorite way of experiencing the world of a story! Dialogue writing is so much fun. I love bantering with my friends, and imagining the banter between two characters is just as entertaining. I myself am a bit snarky (in a delightful way, of course) and that tends to make its way into at least one of the characters speech patterns.

What has been the nicest compliment you've received or what has been the toughest criticism you've received?

When I finished my first novel, I sent it to a knitting acquaintance of mine who happened to be a book reviewer as well. It was nerve wracking, since I had only let friends and family look at any of my writing before, but I had dreams of publishing and wanted to make the story as good as I could before I started sending it out. Her review came back glowing. Four out of five stars, and compliments about the worldbuilding, the characters, the plot, the dialogue. It was such a good feeling!

What do you love the most about writing?

My characters, and sharing them. I love making characters… ever since I was little. I get such a kick out of giving a character a backstory, and then seeing how they grow through the course of the story. Sometimes they really surprise me! And seeing them become important to the readers is really exciting, too!

[a-d-nox]

Heyy I just wanted to come on here to say that I reallyyy love your blog. I was just messing around and found an old post of yours titled "Pluto in Aquarius: what's to come" and I thought it was soo well written. I love the choice of pictures for the post as well. You don't even have to answer this ask. I just wanted to come on here and appreciate your work, that's all. Keep up the dedication!

pluto retrograding back into capricorn: a prediction of what's to come

hahaha too funny!!! "i didn't have to answer this" but it was so well planned! i was in the middle of drafting this post when this ask notifications popped up!! so thank you so much for the compliments and i hope you enjoy this one equally!!

house matters:

THIS IS THE FIRST OF TWO PLUTO RETROGRADES THAT WILL OCCUR - this one will last from june 11th to jan 20th, 2024. we likely won't see too much wildness because we only recently started experiencing what pluto in aquarius is like. we know the vibe of pluto in capricorn already and likely still feel comfortable with its predictability. THE FINAL RETROGRADE BACK INTO CAPRICORN will be september 1st, 2024 to november 19th, 2024. then we are full steam ahead with pluto in aquarius until march 9th, 2043.

live in the USA so my post likely will be slightly more focused there examples wise so i apologize in advance! feel free to comment, dm, or reblog with other examples from your country based on my prediction key phrases.

i personally am NOT a witch or anything wild, everything i am saying is purely theoretical - it is not fated to happen just because i am saying it. i am simply socially aware. i know what's up generally in the world today and what was up in world when pluto was in capricorn.

like last time i am going to start light and get darker so mentally prepare yourself for that (tw: COVID-19, assassinations, and other abrasive topics that may make people uncomfortable) depending on where they are currently reading from - but we are talking about pluto so... expect the unexpected?!

let's get to it!

time and schedule changes

in the US people have been saying that daylight savings hour should be concluded indefinitely because it is unnecessary. we don't need "daylight" like we used to because we have advanced technologically. there are more risks with keeping time change then there is with getting rid of it. i could also see this being about the 4-day work week because it was trialed at the beginning of the aqua pluto transit and it was a success. capricorn is a worker and can be about workplace efficiency too, so we could see the work week become "refined" to be 4 days only.

the rise of new non-tech and/or tech-intensive careers

where there are AI doomers, there is a market. we will see old-school businesses and professionals trying to justify and reestablish their career without AI involvement - ground zero for this prediction is real-estate (people fighting virtual or 3D-tour technology) and politics (look at the tiktok ban nonsense - i can see them saying their jobs are necessary 100% of the time... or they don't need to evolve...). capricorn again represent efficiency when it comes to working, so we could see people commingling with tech to make the most out of AI in new ways to make their careers and the work they do more efficient (and less time consuming to piggyback off of the 4-day work week prediction).

the collapse of dead space

there is a chance we will see some sort of conversation about what to do with places we no longer use - strip malls, movie theaters, mineshafts, etc. pluto retrograde makes me think of fear mongering (yes, i see the irony between that statement and this post) - i can see where with climate issue and the haze that is falling over old-money US currently that people might start talking about building bunkers in preparation of a mass natural disaster or "apocalypse." my logic behind this is that capricorn represents reliability, money, and underground places while pluto is demolition and extremes.

technology failures and setbacks

enjoy your air conditioning when you have it and if you have it - i sense that we will likely face more blackouts and rolling blackouts this summer than ever before. i also think we could see AI doomers in full swing or we will see that AI is monitoring more than it should and people will distance themselves from it.

extreme weather and climate shifts

as we have seen in the past few days, wildfires are on the rise across canada. pluto can represent extremes and electrocution while capricorn can be ashes, dryness, and old trees - people are predicting "dry thunderstorms" and stating that wildfires can occur because of these storm systems/conditions. while it is not winter here in the US this retrograde, the second retrograde will be near enough to the season: expect an extreme and EARLY winter. capricorn symbolizes cold, ice, and snow. the extreme of that being a blizzard, of course. this past winter in buffalo, new york we saw how bad it can get. where i live (almost three hours from buffalo) we had no solid snowfall... i don't think i will say the same in 2024 - the movie the day after tomorrow comes to mind.

repression of freethinkers

pluto retrograde can make people less likely to "fight against the patriarchy". we might see those who were fighting back being prosecuted or jailed (incarceration is pluto ruled). while aquarius welcomed change, shifting backwards into traditionally-minded capricorn can cause this silencing.

real-estate crisis

real-estate is starting to straighten out but i want to point out that when pluto initially entered capricorn in 2008, there was a huge scandal surrounding the housing market. the subprime mortgage crisis caused a recession to occur because the market crash and lenders couldn't return on their loans. we might see similar problems again. right now lots of homes are overpriced and if certain lenders are using the money on loan and we crash again we can see another market crash.

recession or depression

speaking of market crash... it's the roaring 20s. i don't think it is a coincidence that the Great Depression was in the 1920s, while the Great Recession was when pluto initially entered capricorn in 2008. could there be a Great Depression part two? MAYBE. considering pluto in retrograde typically indicates trouble with power dynamics and capricorn can represent business and the economy.

the death of politics and/or the church

2024 the year of the election - it's early to be talking about it for some of us, i know, BUT the campaigns are beginning. i want us to be aware that going between tradition capricorn and utopian aquarius during this time may cause some chaos... we have biden and trump again on the trial... two recent POTUSs... there are a lot of extreme people who are not happy with either of their times in office. i want to just put out there that JFK was just passing through texas on a friendly visit when his assassination occurred. pluto represents assassinations, so it might be in the stars during the retrograde seasons (hopefully not though). i feel like it will be someone close to the presidents if so because capricorn can be a "watchman" while pluto can be betrayal. since capricorn is the church, we could see the death of a pope or higher church official that causes havoc as well. alternatively, we could see people saying (towards the end of the second retrograde) / questioning why we even need a president.

capricorn terms i can't think of change in but seem important to note / keep in mind: colds (COVID being labelled the common cold while it is mutating?), hair, hysteria (another outbreak? panic early in a presidency?), limitations (lockdowns? maybe for COVID or the air conditions because of wildfires?), minerals (running out of them), mining industry (the end of this industry all together and switching to renewable resources by the end of this cap pluto era), old age (the boomers are dying off? or are we going to make a discovery of some sort about aging or age related diseases), orderliness, responsibility, tile, afghanistan, greece, lithuania, mexico, and tombs (are we going to say goodbye to cemeteries?).

plutonian terms i can't think of change in but seem important to note / keep in mind: aliases, alibis (governmental riffing similar to how no plan was in place when for COVID-19), cemeteries (removal of that method if too many are dying at any giving time - mass graves?), convicts (prison release due to overcrowding? the mega-prison of el salvador?), corruption (governmental likely?), earthquakes (more environmental issues on top of the wildfires?), liars, massacres (the rise of crime?), murder, nihilism (the rise of philosophy at the time of war?), ransom (war?), satire (rise of political satire?), stolen goods, and taxes (trump-esque no? likely to be brought up during the presidential campaign).

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[drippingmoon]

Aquiver, Aglow: Beta Call Post

After being one of the biggest parts of my life for some years now, I'm very very happy to announce 'quiv is ready for its beta stage. I'm gonna echo my previous post: writing this story has been a soothing experience for me, and I'd love for this to apply to everyone. Never heard of 'quiv? No problem, new eyes are often wise. Old acquaintance? No pressure on you. Take a cup of steaming tea, or maybe not since it's summer, lean back and just tell me whatever crosses your mind. Believe me, it will help me enormously. And the stress is all with me, not you. So while I'm asking for help, I truly wish whoever gives me a hand to have a pleasant experience🥰

Sign-up period: till July? I might be more flexible, depending on the applicants, and there won't be any selection (a maximum of 7 people), which means you can start on the day you sign up

Deadline: October (SOFT deadline, since ideally I want to do another round of line edits then proofreading in November), with the possibility of extending until December (and don't sweat it if you need more)

Long story short: a human child restores faith to an angel, who in turn restores faith to Heaven.

Long story long: There's a place beneath Heaven where, in a shoddy little cottage, a mother and her child live. They are to wait for her promised day, when angels shall descend and devour their souls. For faith has been broken. Memories of kindness and warmth remain mere whispers, cracked under two centuries of prayers answered with bloodied chapels and trails of corpses, and callous wings plucking souls out of their once faithfuls' chests.

Tyrone knows his Mother is just waiting for the day the angels will come. She wishes to sacrifice herself to see her child out of the Promised Lands, so she fills his childhood with horrible stories meant to make him afraid and get him used to the inevitable. She succeeds. Tyrone is afraid, but of everything. Most of all, of the loneliness that keeps him company, and disperses only at night. Because, under the stars, he sees an angel on the rims of Heaven, taking care of her field of clouds, a mirror to how he toils over his wheatfield. That’s when he first feels they are the same. So when she falls one day, he asks not that she spare him, but that she stay.    And, slowly, the nights turn so very warm.

It’s been two centuries since the angels knew where they wished to go. They live suspended in time, caught between memory and hatred. Anne, their Angel of Lies, has only ever cared for Heaven. For them, she’d draw their anger onto herself, if only they acknowledged they were still hung up on humanity. She’s tired. She’s old. Even the stars have closed their path off to the angels, and she doesn’t know what to do. So when she is met with sincerity for the first time in centuries, she wonders if she’s found a way. If nothing else, anger would reanimate Heaven, and for a little while stop the angels’ slow fall towards death. She listens to a child’s quiet wish, and agrees.    Curiosity, she calls it.

They begin by using each other. With time, this no longer holds true, and they learn something. It was a thin line between that and caring about one another. And warmth, as it were, comes with sorrows shared.

GENRE: character-driven dark fantasy with humans, angels and stars interspersed with peaceful moments

WORD COUNT: 195k (standalone)

STATUS: sixth draft

WARNINGS: violence, gore, suicidal thoughts, abusive relationships, terminal illness

What I'm looking for

Content criticism, as in character arcs, plot development, your fav and least fav parts, and mainly if you think there are too many feathers in the story

The sky's your limit actually. Every thought counts 🙌

Typically you can ignore typos, but if any of them really pisses you off, feel free to shout at me

Same with line edits. The style is meant to be experimental at times, but not at the cost of intelligibility. So if I went overboard somewhere, please do shout but otherwise it's due a line edit

You get

Return betas! No time limit; and of course no word count limit

To save Private Jan (my penname lol) because there's no way I can afford editing prices, so we're pulling off an Atlas here no matter how many drafts I'll have to go through

Hopefully a great time?

You can just contact me in the DMs, but I'll put up a Google Forms as well for whoever would prefer that. Also, you can request a sample (the first/first few chapters) to see if it's your thing.

And that's it! Hope to see volunteers, and thanks so much for your interest! Have a lovely day🥰

[the-wip-project]

SloMo WriNo: Q & A

A few questions about how the SloMo WriNo challenge have come in, so here's the answers to a few of the easy ones. (Don't worry, more complicated questions will be getting their own posts!)

When does it start? The official start date is November 1st.

However this challenge is about you finding your own long term writing rhythm. So if there’s some reason why you can’t begin for a week, a month, or even until next year, that’s fine. Feel free to jump in at any time, and even if you feel like you can’t ‘officially’ start your novel just yet, perhaps you can still begin trying out writing in a SloMo way. You may find yourself easing into things anyway!

Is this plan/event supposed to be just for novels?

Definitely not! I’ve had one person express their intention to write a series of novellas, another to do a second draft, and others plan on writing fanfiction. It’s for whatever you want to write but have been struggling with.

Do those min/max brackets apply for everything one would write in the year? Ideally yes! At least when it comes to writing you’re doing for your own self. (Writing for work and school obviously need to get done at whatever pace you’re required to do them!) The goal here is to establish writing as a long term sustainable habit. Now as time goes on you will probably want to tweak your minimum and maximum word counts, as you get more familiar with your own process. Please go ahead and do that, and then keep on writing within that adjusted ideal zone.

I’m kinda burned out. Should I even try to attempt this? That’s a tough one, and really something you need to answer for yourself based on your current situation and emotional state. If you do decide to attempt the challenge, I recommend keeping your goal word counts (at least initally) at a level that feels ‘too easy’ and taking at least two days each week off writing. If it starts feeling like too much, dial it back even further, or take some time off. This challenge will be going on all year, so you can hop in and out whenever you need to. No guilt needed!

Who are you and why are you claiming to be an expert on this stuff anyway? Actually no one has been so mean as to say that, but there’s been a little confusion about who I am and why I’m posting here. My name is Maree, and Barbex (the one who actually runs this blog) was kind enough to help me out with this challenge and let me post on the WIP blog and the WIP discord. (you can find my own blog at mareebrittenford.)

I completed my first novel in 2015, and since then I’ve written 8 novels, as well as assorted shorter stories and a few (okay maybe more than a few) fanfics. I have managed to publish 4 of the novels and a few short stories have made their way into magazines and anthologies. Now I don’t claim to be a great writer, but the one thing I’m confident of is that I’ve become very good at is Finishing My Stuff. (And finishing stuff with ADHD is a very special skill!)

I created this challenge to share all my tips and tricks, and hopefully help other people also Finish Their Stuff.

If you have any other questions about the challenge (or for me personally) you can reblog with comments, send an ask, or hop onto the WIP discord

[quihi]

Okay, overall thoughts on Fablehaven and Dragonwatch. I hope to write in more detail later - I have a first draft of a post about my take on some of the religious themes and allegory in Dragonwatch - but I gotta start somewhere (that requires less citations).

I saw Carnival Quest on the library shelf last November, read that, and had so much fun I decided to go for more Brandon Mull and reread Fablehaven. (I don't read a lot of kids books, as an adult, but I hadn't felt like reading in awhile and this made reading fun.) The first book was rough, honestly—it was his first published book and it shows. The prose felt clunky and awkward, but I got used to it and it improved. Seth drove me insane—so much of the plot was driven by "Seth screws up." But it was a quick and easy and fun read, and the world and concept were a delight!

Books 2–4 were great. I only read the books once or twice over ten years ago, so all I remembered was the general concept, a little about Kendra and Seth, and a vague idea of the final battle. I got to experience all the twists again! It was very fun to see the people who populate this increasingly large world, and the people around the edges like that rich couple in Georgia who have fairies but have never seen a preserve. Like, how did they get involved, how much do they know? It's clear that Kendra and Seth are way more deeply involved than someone who just discovered the preserves normally would be. I have a lot of thoughts about their parents and how Fablehaven fits in with their lives, and I think I think about that a lot more as an adult—it doesn't bother me but I find it more sad now.

Keys to the Demon Prison was big, and wow did we see the world. It added a lot of stuff that hadn't felt foreshadowed at all—the Eternals, Vasilis, Bracken—so it felt a little disconnected and like there were some deus ex machina. I liked the ending, though, and how everything wrapped up with swapping the demon prison and the fairy realm.

So, fun series! They definitely felt like kids books, but I would still recommend them to kids and adults who want to read a fun, magical adventure.

After this, life got busy, and I needed a break, and time to let the books sink in and read a few other books, so I didn't start Dragonwatch until January. I raced through the first three books, then took about a week off before I could get myself past the beginning of Champion of the Titan Games, then finished the series in under a week. They got so frustrating and dark that I needed that break, but I'm glad I didn't force myself to keep reading when I was worn out.

Okay, look, I know this seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed them. I don't know if it helped because I read them all in under a month and didn't think too hard or reread them in between, and I hadn't been eagerly awaiting them—I don't think much about Mull or keep up with his new books. I didn't notice a lot of the continuity errors that I guess were there, though I did notice the big thematic change from darkness being neutral to being more evil (though I have some thoughts on that, too). There were definitely some weird choices. The structure of book five felt very similar to Fablehaven's book five.

I liked Knox and Tess. I see reasons they would be introduced, and while they could have done more (Tess: spends entire series as the innocent girl, gets teleported around a couple times but never to anywhere from which she can get home), I couldn't help liking them. They're decent foils for Kendra and Seth, at least. I think I'd have liked more of them, over cutting them. I badly wanted Knox and Seth to sit down for a good conversation about mistakes and forgiveness.

One of the story choices that baffled or irritated me most was not putting Marat or Agad back in charge of Wyrmroost, after Celebrant lost his status. I guess the best argument is there wasn't time between them returning from Stormguard Castle and Seth's disappearance, and the explicit consent of both Kendra and Seth was needed, but like, that should have been the first thing they did. I guess no one thought of it. And I suppose there was still the issue of no easy way to leave.

There was a lot of religion, which I began to notice in Master of the Phantom Isle, and was surprisingly blatant in Return of the Dragon Slayers. Religious themes in books don't bother me, though I know that's a YMMV topic and I understand why some people don't like it. (Thank you to the Fablehaven fandom for, as far as I can tell, not getting into absolute hatred of Christianity.) But, well, they were still overall the fun adventures that I was reading for, even as they got more sad and the character arcs got deeper. I'm glad I finished and read through the whole series.

I was left with a lot to think about. I have ideas for fanfiction. Mostly canon compliant, set after Dragonwatch, with some earlier, and also one romance AU that I'm worried about people's reactions to the ship. I'm buying a lot of the books to reference more easily, since I like referencing books when I write and I'm no longer twelve years old with the time and urge to flip through and reread books a dozen times until I know every plot point by heart by the time I return them to the library, but I do have more disposable income.

So, uh, I'm not really one to rate books, but I'd still call these solid and fun overall, though they have their flaws. I far prefer enjoying books to criticizing them, so I'd rather like them and try to find ideas and headcanons that improve them, rather than linger on the elements I dislike. I want to be positive!

[laprimera]

alrighty so after some reflection and getting some outside stuff prioritized Im done some blog housework so I can get comfortable here again.

im still gonna continue my hiatus until november cause the rest of October still has a lot of rl appointments and stuff going on. ill be nuking my ask and drafts to get into maximum turtle plot overdrive and just start things clean, but here's the skinny under cut:

. Ive went and cleaned up my followers list. mostly of inactive blogs, non-mutual or blogs that haven't reached out or interacted at all. I use to think I liked a busier dash but I think trying to keep up with it had been giving me anxiety even if my muses weren't involved in anything plot wise. FOMO has been really killing my vibe more then anything and I need to cut that habit out.

you're a-okay to refollow though! I'll do the same. none of this was done out of malice or a personal dislike, and I get being so busy w/ life and personal plots that you cant interact with everyone in a convenient moment. but if you see this as an opportunity to reach out then by all means! that and I might've accidentally unfollowed one or two of you cause side-blog deal, clumbsy thumbs, and uuh, dont mind me realizing that later down the line-my bad!

. unless carefully plotted otherwise, anything outside my own canons, affiliated blogs/mains or plots is no longer canon to my own. any interaction or thread initiated towards my muses will default fall into my lore/verse unless vice versa or its plotted and etc etc. It's no longer just hanging there in the void so to speak. I need to feel more in control of my own narrative I think and trying to puzzle a lot of contradicting outside plots, dash events, etc has been mentally taxing when rp shouldn't be occupying so much space or anxiety to begin with lol.

this isn't to say everything thats happening in the dash or w/ other characters isn't important ofc! and I still want to participate; it'll just fall under a crack/non-canon tag. if things end up lining up p' well with whats going on here then I might take it into canon. This is p' much what I've been doing to begin with, it's just more concrete now and Im being more careful of what Im willing to accept now. Im ofc open to discussing stuff! DMs and disco for those who have it are open always even if I take a moment to get to it!

. Im no longer answering anon asks that are personal in some way, ie, around subject matters that aren't general headcanons asks or 'hey how do you feel about-' sorta deal. I dont feel comfortable taking it to public and while I understand having the fear of being identified, it's not fair if I'm the only one bearing the subject so to speak. If you want to talk to me through DMs you can either tell me your UN (no burners either) so I can bypass permissions here to chat or you can reach me at @shiny-miltank where my IMs are not barred to mutuals only. I don't bite really! and my discord is not public. tbh Im still very anxious about being on disco to begin w/ cause social anxiety flare ups. idk tumblr dms always seemed easier to chat until I know you on a personal basis-its just worked that way.

. making it more strict that you dont? put my geeta in place of plots, events, etc that I havent participated or plotted with, nor can you make assumptions for them based on said events. as slapped on every piece on my about/rules/pinned/etc shes heavily canon-divergent to begin with so no one knows her intentions/actions (save for me ofc) and wont act in what presumed canon-geeta would do or your own version so to speak. easy enough to slap me an IM for "is it okay to-", plotting, or just make a nebulous npc stand-in.

. things that havent changed are the use of my lore and headcanons into your own! I love seeing it integrated or adapted into other lore and seeing just how much it inspires and changes over time!

this all seems rigid but really it's just reiterating whats already in my rules and no one here has been a huge offender at all :' ) this is more for me to follow and I cant thank everyone enough for their patience and creativity for as long as I've been here. Im loosey goosey and go with the flow 90 out of 100 times.

this goes for the rest of my muses, which Ill probably clean up when Im back-but yeah! miss ya'll! hope you've been doin' good! the terrapagos plot will continue then and Ill resume reaching out and leaving details! hopefully in time for dlc ; >

[prettylittlelyres]

Violins and Violets - Series - WIP page

1784: Katharina Schmidt and her brother Hans grew up composing and performing music for royalty all over Europe. Now they are adults, only Hans is allowed to pursue his music, while Katharina's father tells her it's time to find a husband and settle down. Katharina's attempts to do as she's told only convince her that it's not what she wants to do, and she must decide how far she's willing to go to keep making music.

Hello, friends! It's been a minute since I updated the links on my blog, and I have just seen that I still have the "Beta Readers Wanted" post linked to the "Violins and Violets (WIP)" button... from the draft I finished and started querying in 2019 / 2020!

Things have... changed somewhat since then...

"Violins and Violets" is now a series, of (I expect) five books. None of them have titles yet, so I'm just referring to them as "Violins and Violets 1," etc. I thought it was time to make a new WIP page.

Book 1 tag - WIP page - first draft completed in December 2023, second draft in May 2024. (Earlier titled "Ladies Don't Write Music" - but this may be a better name for Book 2.)

Book 2 tag - WIP page - first draft completed in January 2024, now writing second draft in June and July 2024.

Book 3 tag - early planning stages, hoping to create outline in October 2024, with a view to writing the first draft in November and December 2024. Hoping to redraft in 2025.

Book 4 tag - hoping to plan and draft in 2025.

Book 5 tag - hoping to plan and draft in 2025 or 2026.

Series tag - all posts made about "Violins and Violets" since I realised it needed to be a series, no matter what book I'm talking about.

Everything "Violins and Violets" - the whole story, right from the beginning, when I started writing the first draft of a single book for Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2018.

One-Shots - short stories that I've written for the "Violins and Violets" world.

"Vogeltje" - another novel that takes place in the same world, and features some of the same characters.

I'm trying to bring each book in somewhere around 75,000 words, taking three months to write a first draft, and two months for each subsequent draft. I find it easier to focus on the story proper when I write quickly and regularly, so when I have a draft on the go, I try to write every day. Between drafts, I am trying to take whole months off writing, so that I can rest my creative muscles, as it were.

You can follow my progress here on my writeblr, and on the NaNoWriMo website.

Characters:

Katharina Schmidt - musical prodigy and composer who performed for royalty as a child, but is no longer allowed, because she's a woman. Disguises herself as "Sebastien", and flees Salzburg to start a composing career in Prague

Hans Schmidt - brother of Katharina, who is also a musical prodigy and composer, but is allowed to pursue his music as an adult.

Franz Schmidt - solicitor; father of Katharina and Hans, who wants to see his daughter married well enough to put silly ideas of music out of her head.

Julia Schmidt - lady of leisure; mother of Katharina and Hans; wife of Franz, who loves to make tapestries and knitted garments; wants the best for her children and is willing to let Franz decide what this is.

Barbara Kirkmann - housemaid to the Schmidts, Katharina's closest friend and confidante.

Elisabeth Meyer - daughter of Franz' boss, Katharina's first "acceptable" friend, and the oldest sister of many siblings; keen to get married and start a life of her own.

Miléna von Tritten - Elisabeth's best friend, and daughter of one of the Meyer firm's wealthiest clients, Baron von Tritten; expected to marry a noble, but totally absorbed in Johann Schneider.

Johann Schneider - training to be a magistrate, under pressure to get married, but totally uninterested in... anyone? All the ladies want him; none of them can catch him. Absolutely tone-deaf, but loves to watch musicians play; friends with Katharina.

Louisa Schneider - Johann's younger sister, also tone-deaf, but keen to become a musician under Katharina's tutelage.

Magdalena Fialová - an opera singer who wants to get more young women into music; one of "Sebastien's" first and best friends in Prague.

Miklós Kovács - a fellow violinist who persuades the management of the Malá Strana Opera House to give "Sebastien" an audition. Best friend of Magdalena, and very close with "Sebastien".

Background:

Yes, Katharina Schmidt is based on Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart, who deserved a much better life than she got. I have always wondered what would have happened if she had defied her father when he told her to stop composing. Would she have known as much fame as her brother?

Yes, Katharina Schmidt is a lesbian. That's because she's only based on a real person; she isn't actually Nannerl Mozart. I have no idea what Nannerl Mozart would have called herself, or how she felt, and I think it would be rude for me to try to guess. This part of Katharina's character is inspired less by history than by my own experiences and desire to see more representation of Queer people in historical fiction. (She's not the only person in the series who isn't straight! Who are the others? You'll have to read the books to find out... or just follow here; I'm yappy about it.)

[helloitisiafellowgay]

another part of my Steve gets Vecna’d AU, where i provide very little context lmaoo sorry

i’ve been working on this for OVER A YEAR and still have a few scenes to finish 😭 my draft rn is almost 19k so I’ll hopefully get it out before like November at this rate :)

vague context: this is the night before The Big Fight TM and people like JUST found out that steves possessed and eddie is cleaning steve’s demobat wounds

other post

——————

“Do you—“ the drug dealer looks conflicted, debating whether to poke at a neglected bruise. “Why didn’t anyone notice?”

There’s a knot in his throat, a tightening of his larynx. “What do you mean?”

”That you were hallucinating? Having nightmares?” Before, Eddie wouldn’t meet his gaze. Now, he won’t let Steve look away, slowly regaining his certainty, his intensity. “Why was I the only one to even consider anything was wrong? You’re not that great of an actor— you aren’t, don’t look at me like that— and they’ve known you so much longer than I have.”

And isn’t that the question he’d been shoving out of his own mind since the beginning of this whole mess? That small seed of doubt, pushing forward and flourishing now that someone else had stopped to water it.

He knows, he knows— they don’t care about him as much as he cares about them. Sees it in the way the kids dismiss him as soon as they arrive at their destination, only call on him when they want something; the way he gives it every single time regardless.

Each girl in his bed, driving him like a crash-test car; the excuse to leave, the cold sheets in the morning. A freezing bathroom at a party, the echo of bullshit refracting off the cold tile.

The crack of ceramic against his skull, the fist in his sternum, the stifling ash in his lungs in a buried tunnel. Interrogation tactics, missing fingernails, drugged out of his mind; flesh monster, the loss of the one male adult he could actually depend on.

And before it all, the steel door, the silhouette, the—

No.

No, Steve knows that he is, at his core, what he has always been: unloveable.

After the reactivity, the intentional cruelty of his youth, he expects nothing other than a warning label.

Danger: do not interact. Prone to violence.

Steve is his father’s son, after all. They share the same ruthless ferocity, the same scarred knuckles.

He has spent so long convincing the world that anything can be turned into a weapon, and he started with his hands; if he squints long enough, blood pools itself into the crevices of his palms, fingernails curving into sharp edges and the remnants of whiskey bottles.

A product of his environment, no doubt; the weight of his family name, absent parents, superficial friends.

King Steve with a hollow crown, sat in his pristine castle with everything a teen could ask for except anyone to make him feel worth following. Like something other than a cheap toy, a pretty face, a chore to be put off until a more convenient time.

It’s fact of his life, something he felt no reason to doubt when people keep proving it to him, over and over and over.

He’s useful— for rides to the arcade, for a place to hangout when everywhere else has been vetoed, to wield a baseball bat studded with nails, the last line of defense, the one who can be counted on to take the hit— but not their friend. Not wanted, not valuable, and certainly not lovable.

So how can he possibly justify this unwavering loyalty, his propensity to follow them around like a stray dog waiting on table scraps? Why he keeps coming back, offering every part of himself when none of them would do the same for him?

Steve shrugs. “They all have their own shit going on, they can’t help it. I didn’t want to make things complicated.”

The drug dealer frowns, already shaking his head in disagreement. “That’s not— not good enough. They’re not too busy, they just don’t…”

Care.

They just don’t care.

Steve catches the moment that the other boy sees the bundle of scars peeking just over the hem of his boxers. Tears his own focus away from those small, circular burns; old enough to be suspicious, obvious enough that even a ten-year-old could come to the correct conclusion about their origin without much effort.

A kid with cigarette burns— not common, but definitely not rare.

A rich kid with cigarette burns? That just doesn’t happen.

“Doesn’t Vecna go after people with trauma? It’s not like Steve—”

His stomach roils, a distant nausea working its way up his esophagus. The younger teen holds his breath and waits, but Eddie doesn’t ask, just furrows his brow and grazes over the puckered skin with a single, calloused thumb.

Steve shivers, bites his lip, fights the urge to dislodge the soft touch and flee the room. He doesn’t.

Eddie goes back to taping the raw edges of his wounds closed.

A sick, twisted heat takes root in his stomach; invasive and insatiable, it chokes out his heart until it has nowhere left to go except up into his throat, and flourishes in the abandoned cavity left behind.

“Do you think when he chose me… do you think he knew?” Steve’s a conglomeration of dull apathy and the underlying static of panic; he feels like he’s back under the water, suspended in time and trying desperately not to drown. “That I wouldn’t say anything? Wouldn’t want to tell them, you, about… That… that they don’t…?”

The musician pulls out a roll of gauze, presses one end to his rib cage with more care than anyone has shown him in a long time.

“I think that you hide so much from everyone, more than anyone thinks that you do. And I think that, to someone like him, it’s easy to mistake that for shame.”

Oh.

“And what if I am?” Steve clenches his jaw, flattens his lips to disguise their infernal trembling. “Ashamed… of being known? Afraid that people will hate what they find, if I were to let people in— share those parts of myself?”

The last of the sunset dissipates from the sky, leaves the world outside of the window cast in a deep indigo.

A murmur, almost subconsciously, from his healer: “Isn’t everyone?”

He is some sort of wretched thing— must be, to warrant this raw, gnawing ache in his core. The withering, the erosion at the fringes of his being, exposing the live-wire at the heart of him.

Pressure, as the dressing is applied to his wounds. The light brush of skin against skin.

“You aren’t an inconvenience, you know.” Eddie wraps the last of the bandage around his abdomen, secures it in place. “You are allowed to ask for help. And other people want to help, if you let them.”

The babysitter hums, a non-answer, omitted confirmation. Can do little else, lest he wilt under the force of this personification of a star.

“I might not know why none of the kids said anything, but...“ Off to the side, the discarded towel is depositing water on the floor. When Eddie reaches for it, there’s a damp patch on his jeans that the babysitter stares at while his hands are taken, dabbed at with damp cotton. “Robin, Nancy, and I literally followed you into hell. You’re not taking anything from us that we wouldn’t freely give.”

The older boy’s gaze is wild, reverent. From where he is crouched in front of Steve, it must look like he’s kneeling before a monarch, a King.

What a resolute act of devotion: tending to the wounds of a martyr, washing the blood from each finger as if every millimeter of exposed skin is something worth defending.

Steve doesn’t know what he’s done to deserve such absolution; this exoneration from all of the sin coating his fingers and dripping from his teeth. He is nothing more than a child devouring overripe berries in another family’s garden, filling his vacant stomach with sweet crimson nectar that he will never be able to justify aching for.

He is no deity, no patron saint or messiah. He’s barely a king. ”I’m not worth—“

He has never been religious— or, at least definitely not after the monsters came into the picture. But he knew then, knows now— there is no heavenly father, no almighty God, that could give him back that purity, that holy golden ichor.

Whenever Steve had plead to this creator, prayed for help while pinned to the ground under the malicious intent of another— there was no response. Just the echo of his faith, his questions, being tossed back at him, neglected and unanswered.

”You’re worth everything, Steve Harrington.” Eddie’s intensity, his conviction, makes Steve’s heart lurch somewhere in his chest. “There is nothing you could ask from us that you haven’t deserved a hundred times over.”

The cloth, damp and abrasive against his palms, collects strawberry residue within its woven fibers.

His crown must be less hollow than he thought.

There is no god that can restore his virtue, slip the innocence back into his pockets, baptize him in the light of unconditional love— but Eddie… Eddie is just a man.

Just a man, who wiped each of his fingers clean; dressed his wounds with such gentle hands. Just a man, who kissed each bruise, each old scar, without the intent to hurt.

Just a man who held him, who pulled him back when his whole body was on the edge of a precipice.

Who answered his questions without judgement— without stripping him of his divinity, casting him down from the heavenly throne and into the sulphuric pits of eternal damnation.

Just this boy, who looks at him like he is worth more here, in this moment, than he ever would be nailed to a cross.

What god has ever done that for him?

[the-log-ffl]

S10:W10

From the front office of the Sarnia Slut Slayers

I just lost $10 Canadian on the Golden Bachelorette with my Canadian Mother in law. I'm sure Raj topped that gambling degeneracy but I tried. I also lost $50 to Dusty betting on Kamala, lost $50 to Ricardo betting the Dodgers wouldn't win the World Series. I need a Jake Paul victory over Mike Tyson to win $50 from Max and break this losing streak. 

But, there is no losing streak in LOG for The Slayers(our pronouns are Slayer/Slayers, and not Slut/Sluts) They are off to a fantastic start.  Not only are they 9-1, have almost double the FAAB than the rest of the league, but have also won a nice bottle of tequila from Ethan, $50 booze to drink with Brad on Christmas, Lunch with House at High Street, getting to piss in Raj's face, and a guaranteed job with Petey at his restaurant.  And he will only sexually and verbally harass me a little bit.

I would have never believed that at the beginning of the year that I would make two singing bets with Hames, but I guess that's why they play the games.  Hames has to sing the iconic "Touchdown" at a seedy place next year pre draft, and this week the loser of our Matchup has to sing the national anthem to kick off next year's draft. I recommend you all make at least one matchup bet this year. Do a double stack and get weird with it. 

I did lose one bet this year and owe the Mish a fancy as fuck lunch at Stickaman's The Galley.  Mish recently paid his bet from last year of being a Spectrum Classic ball/water boy.  He earned all of the volleyball players respect and we called him "Ball Man" by the end.  He brought the highest quality H20 and rose the Spectrum Classic to a new level.  I have no doubt that good karma and cold plunges have led the Commish(long may he reign) to his best start of his life. He has applied his new mindset to fantasy football. "Make a trade, you pussy." "I don't watch football, kids first" It's really paying off.

The cream has risen to the top, but that cream has left everyone still alive for a playoff berth. Everyone is within three games of the playoffs with 5 to go. 

Even the Halloween Store has a chance in November to pivot to selling Pilgrim and Indian costumes?

Raj could get pissed on again and turn his life around and stop being a piece of shit?

Dusty could return from the honeymoon and hit the waivers?

Brad and Ethan can show why they are former champions and sneak into the playoffs?

Hames could keep winning and turn around that tough start?

House could overpay to trade for McCaffrey and have his lucky charm back?

Petey could not start Tee Higgins when he is out for a third straight week?

Anything could happen!  I'll be home Thanksgiving to Christmas. Let's get as many as possible together for a Sunday at Raj's or somewhere to watch it unfold.

Also the 111th Grey Cup is this Sunday, November 17th.  Get together and eat poutine and ketchup chips. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers will attempt to win their 13th championship, while the Toronto Argonauts will attempt to win their league-leading 19th championship.

Playoff Picture as of today

1. SlutSlayers

4. Discipline=Freedom

2. Burd Turds

3. Sordidus

Weekly Dick Recap : Sorry I have been hogging all the big dicks lately. I am working on a calendar and need to fill it out by next winter.

BIG DICK OF THE WEEK

Sarnia SlutSlayers : 173 points 

small dick of the week

house the small cock : 81 points

2024 Big Dick of the Weeks...so far - $100

Slayers              4

Odusty               2

Fish Fucker       1

HouseCock       1

Romancer         1

Hames              1

Biggest Dick of the Year: $100

ODusty 177 : Week 2

Shawn the Big Dick House has the Throbber - 190.64 Points

(S9:W3)

Ethan has the fresh stanky double dick - 48.14 Points 

(S10:W3)

Good luck and keep putting gravy on everything.

Maier

(slayer/slayers)

[speedofsoundsketches]

I like you’re shadow and jolt comic giving me insperstion to create my own comic with my oc and shadow tbh I pictured my oc and shadow doing the same as shadow and jolt which is giving me courage to do my own comic with them fancomic obviously but do you have any tips on how development of a comic would work how long did it take for you to plan the comic

I've been working on this comic for about five years this coming November. From the start of developing the story to when the first comics were posted, it was about a three or four month long period of early development.

To be honest, I'm never NOT developing the comic. Each update is sort of treated as a self-contained session and while I have a plan of how everything connects, you don't really know how it'll actually work out until you're making the pages themselves and piecing the puzzle pieces together to make it all coherent. If you go to my Patreon, you'll see all the raw, first drafts of my comics and how much they changed in the final pages.

The following are my personal tips but I highly recommend also reading this post by the creator of Lackadaisy on the same subject. I followed her example for my work a lot and thankfully she's open about her secrets. :)

Tip #1: Know what your End Goal is for your comic

A lot of eager hopefuls start with a strong passion for their stories and it seems clear in your head how it will pan out. Over time, your interest starts to dwindle, passion is replaced with procrastination, writer's block occurs and you wonder why this thing you loved so much has become a total chore.

This is often due to not knowing the overall POINT to making your comic at all. What's the theme? The message? What do you and your audience GET out of it?

Shadow and Jolt has a clear progression and ending in mind that all relates to the Themes and Messages I want to impart to my readers. Try dissecting your favorite Sonic stories (or any story in general) and analyze why you like them and what made them impactful to you. Determine their themes and messages then observe how each part of the story, character arcs and such were written to serve them. What were the creators trying to tell you or make you experience?

That's the difference between a story with intention versus one that's confused or directionless. Because even during writer's block, if you know what message you're trying to tell, it gives you a lighthouse to paddle towards and keep you from getting lost in the ocean of vague notions.

Tip #2: Script It Out!

Before I ever drew a single comic for Shadow and Jolt, the first thing I did to help me develop a more solid plan was to write scripts. Some were fully realized with dialogue and action sequences. Others were outlines to help me see the full picture from beginning to end.

I've written over 30 different scripts. Many are just a few pages each but some are about 50+ pages.

And guess what? Every single one of them STINK.

These are not my best work because they don't need to be. They're meant for playing around with character dialogues, motivations, relationships and manner of speech. If a script resonates with me enough, I'll try doing a draft of it in comic form to see how it feels on paper and continue tweaking things from there. It was such a horribly cliche story at first but it's ok because to determine what's wrong, I need to see it actually in front of me and not as some ethereal mess of images in my mind.

Tip #3: Gather, Research and Conceptualize

I cannot stress enough how much doing this has helped with this project.

References I used included the games I liked the most, their production history, interviews with Sonic Team, compiled images/inspirations I found around the internet, etc. I used all this material to strengthen the ideas I had so I could start drawing concepts.

Characters, vehicles, environments.... everything and anything gets concepts. Lots of sketches, sometimes with color. I've possibly gone through almost 10+ sketchbooks for just Shadow and Jolt alone. There were a lot of things that needed testing and fleshing out, especially because it's such a big project. (and I'm just one little ol' me ;-;)

From the beginning, the plan was that Shadow and Jolt would be based on the games so my research was spent digging into the entire timeline and reminding myself of what the games are about and how to capture their essence as close as I can. I'm not sure what setting you plan to base this story on but you'll have a different set of research to do if you plan to include things from something else like Archie, Boom or whatever.

Tip #4: BEWARE SCOPE CREEP

In game development, teams start by deciding on the full scope of the project and settle on what's going to be in the game. The team makes projections on how long it'll take to complete it, set deadlines and then move to act on it.

A few weeks into production, maybe you decide to add a new animated action for the main character. Maybe then you add in a new weapon that will require another full move set to program and animate. Maybe you want to add a new character that you came up with during lunch. Maybe you have a whole extra side quest that adds a whole new plot point that adds even MORE characters who all have unique functions and animations you'll have to make-

See how quickly that can happen? That's scope creep. You start adding way more than was initially planned, thus it ends up extending the time it takes to actually finish the project.

Obviously, it's less dire than a product meant for sale but the lessons are the same. With any changes you make, be mindful of how that's going to effect you getting the story done and if it even really adds anything to your End Goal.

Remember, you only have so much energy in a given day to dedicate to your comic. Manage it wisely!

Tip #5: Live life!

This is a bit of an odd one maybe but for me at least, it's super valuable.

I've mentioned in previous posts how real world experiences helped inspire my comic. Part of what makes Sonic's world feel so lived in is the dedication the team put into making each level feel that way! Sonic Unleashed is maybe the best example of this point. I feel that Sonic was made by people who not only wanted to make a fun game series but who use it to celebrate the actual act of adventure. Living life, seeing new sights, meeting new people, eating unique cuisine, you catch my drift!

Some of my best ideas came from having a lived experience. You won't be able to write authentic stories staying in a bubble of your own making. Outside of my fancomic, I like going on long walks, exploring places or simply hanging out with my friends. So my final suggestion for you is to live a full life and be inspired by it! Nothing beats reality anyway. :)

[gently-decaying-flowers]

i wasn’t gonna post this- it’s been in my drafts since like….. early november? i guess i was worried about getting hate, or being seen as rude? i dunno i overthink a lot

alas, multiple people have told me that this is actually really interesting! so i think it’s good to share now

so here we are

i have a strange outlook on personal religion. my grandparents were pretty religious, we said grace before dinner, we’d go to church (but only for easter and christmas) but i guess i never really believed in it because my parents don’t.

i definitely believe there is some sort of god or other force outside of us, whatever it may be. when i was younger, i would “pray” asking for guidance or just for things to get better (this was mostly when i started to get very depressed during 2020, i was also only about 12 at that time)

to be honest, it really helps believing there is something looking out for me. i found comfort in knowing i wasn’t thrown into this to deal with it myself. even now, things get shitty but i know everything happens for a reason. i know im not just shoved out in the universe-

actually, i don’t really see it quite like this anymore…. but when i was younger i used to think about how there could be a specific being assigned to each person. not a god, nor an angel- except i guess that would be the closest comparison. but- it’s like- there’s something here. watching over just you and focusing on you and looking toward your future.

there’s so many bad things that have happened to me that ended up leading me to the most amazing things, things i could only begin to dream of. there’s no way that’s just- chance. i’m not that lucky.

i never told anyone about this. which is why i’m so hesitant to put it out here, but i find it really interesting…

especially now. my grandpa died in 2020. since then- we stopped going to church. honestly the memories tied to it are too much to bear without him.

but every holiday season i start hearing christmas music, silent night especially, since my church used to give everyone their own candles to hold as we sang it together, and i miss it. i would never admit this to my mom- i’m not sure she’d understand.

there’s just a certain atmosphere about it, something about being there. it’s weird too- i don’t really want to participate in organized religion (although i would NEVER reflect that on someone else. if you are involved that’s amazing, and i’m happy as long as you are. my general outlook on everything is: that’s cool for you and i don’t have a problem until you try to make me do something i don’t want to do)

i guess i just like being inside a church. it’s so calming, tranquil. maybe it’s the actual nostalgia tied to it, maybe it’s a connection with how i view a higher power… either way- it’s a non-traditional approach to religion. i hardly think of it as religion anyway… but it’s something that’s brewed in my mind for years and i’ve never really processed it- or spelled it all out before.