#wicked part one said bisexual rights

[morethanonepage]

GELPHIE SHIPPERS WE* ARE SO BACK**

[angelofverdum]

BEYONCE by Beyoncé

I've been listening to this album none stop and I don't know why.

Since March I've been going From Las mujeres ya no lloran to Cowboy Carter nonstop, they got me like

But I said mmm let me go listen to these two queens' whole discography, after I finished I went back to Beyonce's self-titled and I'm stuck there.

The first time I heard a song from this album I was still learning English, so I was like what the hell is a "Partition". I know I know, but I was tiny with pure thoughts.

I barely remember when the album dropped but the world was in shambles, I wasn't a fan then but I liked some of her songs, mostly the singles.

Everybody was talking about Partition because of the damn chair, but to me, the song sounded crazy like the rhythm was wrong, idk what it was but I didn't like it.

But I kept coming back to Partition even tho it sounded weird to me, but I was like this this:

Anyway, BEYONCE is the album that made me a fan, a few years later tho, I knew more english and I've matured. I listened to the album again and realized what a masterpiece that album is.

It's my favorite album from her, all the albums that have come after are probably better because Beyonce keeps growing as an artist and even today she hasn't peaked which is scary but BEYONCE is like an after and before of her career.

It feels like she said fuck commercial success, and I know she's been saying this since 4, but what she did was very risky and she made history.

BEYONCE is my favorite album because she was having fun, being horny, bisexual, and got a bob, how can I not love this album.

Like did she need to do all of this? no, but she did and we are thankful.

So I'm gonna talk about every song in her album because I feel like it

1. Pretty Hurts.

I think this is her weakest opening for an album. It's not one of my favorite songs from her in general but it's not a skip like people like to say, and somehow set the tone for what the album is. Also watching Beyonce throw up was shocking to me as an easily impressionable young girl.

2. Haunted.

Probably one of her less commercial songs but a masterpiece nonetheless. It's so so SO good, I wish I could eat this song. "Working 9 to 5 just to stay alive" She is so right for that and "Probably won't make no money off this, oh well" with the ghostly voice. A masterpiece through and through. "My wicked tongue where will it be". One of my favorite videos too.

3. Drunk in love.

Beyonce is a very horny person she put all of that in her art but when she sings with Jay-Z I feel they often get too close to giving too much information bc why was Jay saying they conceived Blue in Paris at the OTR tour? Me, personally I didn't need to know. Anyway, this song is a hit, it's better than Crazy in Love (a timeless hit) but not as good as Deja Vu.

But hello? The surfboard line and the "your breastesses in my breakfast" line. Just horny people and like he said "My wife Beyoncé, I brag different" I'll be like that too.

Also, this iconic dance that I have to do every time I listen to the song

4. Blow.

Her horniest song until now when she released Desert Eagle. "Can you lick my skittles in the middle" "Pink is the flavor" "I can't wait 'til I get home so you can turn that cherry out" the whole song is crazy and the best part she doesn't even say a bad word or an explicit phrase.

Well, "Gimme that daddy-long stroke" is kinda nasty. Also, what does she mean by this?

Does she want to taste that pink flavor? Ok BIyoncé

5. No angel.

In this song, Beyonce is saying that no one is perfect, not even her, and that if you are in a relationship you have to work hard and fuck harder

"Stop actin’ so scared, just do what I tell. First, both of my legs go back on your head. And whatever you want, yeah, baby, I’ll bet it comes true"

And we should listen bc that's on 16 years of marriage

6. Yonce/Partition

The best song on the album. The badassery in Yoncé. The bisexualism that is the video. One of the best bars ever written for a song "I sneezed on the beat and the beat go sicker". The song is so perfect and sexy and nasty. "I don't need you seein' 'Yoncé on her knees"

In this song, she is supposed to be singing to her man about having sex in a car but she is also fantasizing about a threesome with another woman "The kind of girl you like is right here with me"

She had a woman liking her neck, appearing from between their legs and touching her sensually. Oh, Partition you'll always be famous.

7. Jealous

This is the kind of song that made me wonder how much of this was biographical and how much was imagination. Here she talks about waiting for him at home and she says something similar in Lemonade. I don't want to repeat myself but I really love this song. It's just so good.

Also wtf Jay? She is in her penthouse half-naked, cooking a meal for you naked. So where the hell you are?

8. Rocket

I think this one is the only song I had trouble liking it. And I know now that is a good song, don't love but I like it enough to not skip it. Beyonce asks from the jump if she can sit her ass on you. What's not to like? She is guiding you through the whole song"Hard rock, Steady rock" and "Got me screaming to the lord" I just know she has Jay tired.

9. Mine

This song is so good that I can listen to Drake's annoying ass. I wish it was her voice only. Her part is so good "I'm not feeling like myself since the baby" "Me being wherever I'm at worried about wherever you are" also "Alone in my place my heart is away" You'll crumble Sean Carter for making her feel this way.

10. XO

It's crazy how this song makes me feel so nostalgic. It's like it brings happy childhood memories. That kind of feeling makes me love and appreciate this song so so much.

11.***Flawless

She went to the studio mad as hell, ready to invent feminism to tell the haters fuck you.

12. Superpower

The most underrated song on the album. Still relevant to this day. Pharrell and Boots did their thing with this one, and Beyoncé of course. And the social implications, the feminism, the iconism, the cultural significance of this moment right here:

Destiny's Child, you are so loved by me.

13. Heaven

Heaven makes me so emotional. Letting go someone you love is not an easy thing to do. Boots is pretty good at what he does.

14. Blue

The iconic Blue Ivy Carter. Imagine your mom is Beyonce and she writes one of the most beautiful songs for you. It's not my favorite song and it's definitely not her best close song for an album (That goes to Summer Renaissance).

Platinum edition

Yes, I'm writing about these six tracks because the cowboy lady decided that the platinum edition will be the only one available on Spotify, even tho everybody knows that the deluxe versions of an album always suck and the standards are always better.

1. 7/11

This is one of her most fun videos just laughing and dancing. However, why is she saying that she wants to "Kick it" with a girl and a guy? Also, this is the song she chose to celebrate the legalization of gay marriage in the US and this is how she perform live that damn song

Jay-z you'll pay for getting to her too young and not letting her experiment.

2. Flawless remix

Nicki did her thing she was the best rapper in town. The Beynika stans were born and they were claiming Nicki and Bey were in love. Fanfics were created. You had to be there. The song is fine. I can listen to this version or the solo version, it's the same to me.

3. Drunk in Love (Remix)

Nobody listens to this song. A skip totally. Like Kanye should just shut up, thinking he can do a decent verse next to the best rapper in the game and Jay-Z. Beyonce was wrong for inviting him.

4. Ring off

I'm not going to say anything nasty because I support women's freedom and Mama Tina getting out of her sad marriage because it was time she put her love on top.

5. Blow Remix

Shut up Pharell. Coming here to ruin a perfect song.

6. Standing on the song remix

The Creole lady said you gonna get the remix and you gonna like it. I'm giving this song its 8.5 for giving me latinyoncé.

"Mix up passion with fruit, sangria BB Cubana, ay, qué lindo ya tú sabes, camino como cocino, primo"

Grown Woman

I know this song is not a track on the album but I wanted to include it on this list because first, it's so good, and second it's fascinating how Beyonce did this for a Pepsi commercial, release a whole ass video on the visual album, and only 10 years later she put it on streaming. She is crazy.

Nothing else to add besides BEYONCÉ is so important to the music industry. It popularized visuals (She doesn't do that anymore tho) and established Friday as the official day for music releases.

After this Album Beyonce has been releasing masterpiece after masterpiece.

I'll stop yapping now after saying I love Beyoncé and we should invent immortality for her.

[wickedsrest-rp-archive]

Name: Sydney “Syd” Herrera Species: Balam Occupation: Campsite manager Age: 26 Years Old Played By: Ci Face Claim: Lizeth Selene

"Well fuck, I guess that cat’s outta the bag. It’s a good thing I can land on my feet."

Tradition carried the Hererra name forward, the spirit that lived within both of her parents’ passing down onto Syd the moment she took her first breath. As she grew older, she was taught the intricacies of what it meant to be a balam, as well as how to care for the spirit that lived within her. They were partners, and if she treated it as such, then they could coexist in peace. It was odd, at first– existing outside of her body and coming to after the first few shifts. As a toddler, she’d never been able to recall how it felt as the jaguar took over. Once she’d gotten older, she remembered it all. It was important to remember, her mother had said, for if she blocked herself from the shift, then surely she was blocking herself from the spirit within her. 

Along with growing beside her spirit, Syd began to learn other things about herself. Between sexuality and gender expression, Syd had long term discussions with those she found who could identify with her, and finally came out as bisexual and genderfluid to her parents when she was seventeen. The process, no matter how terrifying, came to shed light on her relationship with her parents. They were supportive in every way imaginable, and she felt as though if she made the spirit within her proud, then they too, would be proud.

Syd learned quickly– the ins and outs of what it meant to be a balam. What to fear, what not to fear (though, that list was limited). Her parents lived life to the fullest, pouring themselves into everything they loved, including Syd, herself. Though the world could be cruel, Syd had been taught to push past such opinions and find an existence that suited her and the way that she wanted to live. Even if the world could capsize at any moment, there would always be a tomorrow if she went looking for it. And so Syd did just that– looking forward to the next day, allowing herself to live up to her fullest potential. Art, music, theater– these were all things that caught her interest, and her parents supported her, despite the warnings she’d been raised with. 

As they grew older, Syd learned what Wicked’s Rest really was– a cesspool for uncertainty. Between the hunters, witches, and others like them– both in spirit and not, she knew that fear should take hold, but instead, it made her feel more alive. She pushed herself to befriend those like her, learning of other species’ existences, despite her mother’s careful warnings. If Syd were to believe in a life worth living, this was what it looked like– making friends from all ends, existing next to one another without fear. Maybe that part had been a little naive, or maybe she’d been right. Their parents did little to fight her on the company she kept, because as long as she wasn’t hurting them, or herself, then who cared?

Syd would never go on to hurt a living soul. Instead, it was a zombie friend. Unfed, chased down by a hunter. In his last moments of consciousness, he had asked Syd for help. Only problem was, when she got there, the jaguar had other plans. She wasn’t sure what happened, but the foul taste of rotting flesh was stuck between her teeth for weeks afterwards. She waited for her friend to make an appearance, but he never did. They blocked the possibility that it had been her fault, not wanting to succumb to the idea that they did hurt somebody they cared about. 

Time went on, and his absence became far more noticeable to those closer to him. It was deduced later that they had a run in with a hunter, and while Syd knew that was correct, it didn’t tell the whole story. She would go to the grave with what she did, and she refused to look back– or rather, couldn’t, for the sake of her sanity. Things fell back into normalcy for a while, up until her friends decided to go to the abnormality and have a bonfire. She knew it was a bad idea, because anyone with eyes could just tell something was wrong with that place, but upon their insistence and never being able to say no out of fear she’d be missing out on something fun, Syd went with them. 

It would take weeks until the effects of it began to show themselves. While at work, it became harder to focus on the lines she was etching into skin. Their temper began to fluctuate, kind and calm into something that had the jaguar threatening to uncoil. It became harder to ignore, and so she began to see her friends less and less. Nobody else seemed as though their lives had turned upside down. It was only them; unable to hold a conversation, unable to look others in the eye. Their parents were unaware, and Syd would keep it that way. They had a dream of making a trip across both North and South America. Syd couldn’t tell them, because if they did, they would call it off, and the last thing she wanted for them to do was put their dreams on hold for them. 

She bid them farewell with the promise that she would look after not only herself, but their livelihood as well. She put the call in to quit her apprenticeship at the tattoo shop and began spending more and more time with only Xena and Lola for company. Her friends began to wonder where she went, but she couldn’t tell them something was happening to her, because if she did, then it would be real. The question of whether or not it had been the guilt of killing her friend or the abnormality stirred in her mind. Was she really some kind of monster?

Character Facts:

Personality: Spontaneous, alert, enthusiastic, observant, playful, blunt, fickle, impatient, reactionary, unconvincing

Syd’s parents ran a campsite just out of Wicked’s Rest State Park. After they left town, Sydney took over and now lives out of a bright yellow winnebago and manages the campsite. 

Prior to touching the abnormality (and thus disturbing her jaguar), Syd was apprenticing at a tattoo shop. She’s put the dream to rest due to the nature of her jaguar and the fact that it comes out at inopportune times. If you’re a close / trusted friend, she might think about taking you as a personal client. 

She has a pet bearded dragon named Lola whose enclosure takes up most of the winnebago, as well as a leonberger named Xena. 

Loves the outdoors; prefers it to being indoors, and can often be found in a lawn chair outside of her winnebago soaking up the sun, as well as listening to her archaic walkman. When she becomes tense and overwhelmed, music is the only thing that can really settle her down. 

Most of the time when her jaguar pulls one over on her, she finds herself being stuck in trees and having to shimmy her way back down. 

Syd is genderfluid and uses she/they pronouns. 

[skybreath]

‘ gong yoo, cis male, he/him, 45 / 450 , high fae ’ ― cauldron save you. it seems orion kwon has been teleported to the dusk court, the lord/scholar from the spring court is said to be intellectual and is said to describe themselves with parchment scattered across a desk, a long stem candle burning right down to the wick, loyalty that is bone deep and ever persevering, tomes of knowledge that are older than time itself and with all of this in mind their anti-social nature always seems to get them into trouble. may the mother hold them as they navigate this unthinkable time.

generics.

nickname: rion, ri

place of birth: spring court

sexual orientation: bisexual

physical features: 6'2, slight stubble above his lips, a swirling tattoo on his left shoulder that peaks up onto his neck a little bit, a gold signet ring that was once his father's constantly worn on his left thumb.

alliance: the high lord of the spring court

moral alignment: lawful good

character inspirations: rupert mf giles (btvs), amren (acotar), minerva mcgonagal (hp), bruce banner (mcu), obi-wan kenobi (sw), marco alisdair (the night circus), emily wilde (eweof).

history.

rebellion thrived within him when he was young. his father was a scholar before him, as well as his father before that. a family legacy that as a young fae, orion held no interest in. it chaffed at him, the thought of being stuck in something just because it was expected of him. though such rebellion did not stop his intrigue when it came to history, his thirst to know the how and why of things often all encompassing.

his mother was more of a fighter, a soldier who dedicated herself to her court and insisted that orion pick up a blade too. he trained in most forms of combat, most comfortable with a sword in his hand. though it thrilled him to be considered strong with it, that feeling wouldn't last forever.

he found trouble often when he was young. he searched for suriels and tried to catch them, taunted wraiths, picked fights at the local tavern. he thought such actions would help him outrun his desertion of expectation, though fate seemed to have other plans.

he was barely an adult when that rebellious spirit came to a grinding halt. it was his idea to see if they could track a naga, and yet the day ended with one of his dearest friends dead to the hands of one. all because orion was chasing the thril.

he settled down after that. he went all in on the family business, studying as a scholar just as his father expected of him. he studied endlessly and found the love for history that he'd pushed aside before, spending hours upon hours in the library with his nose in a book.

he met his first wife in that library, falling for her quickly and easily. marriage follow, and as did a son who quickly became the centre of his very world. he was so caught up in the happiness that he didn't see it coming when his wife told him she felt stifled in her duties as a wife and mother, abandoning them quickly afterwards and hiding herself away in another court.

he hadn't intended on loving again when he met josefina. hadn't been looking to fall for her determination and the way she loved his son like she was the one who birthed him. he loved her so much that it masked his previous heartbreak, made him want to spend his life with her. marriage was the easy next choice, as was the child that followed. his family is everything to him, and while he is not a violent man, there is very little that he wouldn't do for them.

his loyalty to the spring court runs deep, so while becoming part of the inner circle was an honour, it wasn't a surprise. any problem that they faced, he would study his books, turning to history and fact for a solution that could benefit them. he believed especially in his high lord's rule, backing him wholly when it comes to keeping him in power.

it's not unusual for him to get caught up in a topic that grabs his attention, disappearing into his study to research for hour on end or taking off to other courts in search of answers he can't find in his own. for the last several years, he's been especially interested in kelpies and trying to figure out how and when they went extinct.

personality wise, he's a pretty chill guy who values fact over emotion a lot of the time. not that he lacks empathy, but he can be a bit obtuse when it comes to feelings sometimes. he's more of a lover than a fighter, but getting his hands bloody when it's necessary is hardly something he's opposed to. he's all for pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing dramatically at the shenanigans that go on, and definitely sees himself as like a voice of reason and someone that people turn to for advice.

tldr: nerdy scholar good dad who fucked up in his youth then decided to walk the straight and narrow and became obsessed with the history of prythian

possible connections.

oldest friend, maybe even one that was there when orion got his other friend killed.

ex-lover(s), he used to be a bit of a whore back before he got married the first time.

academic rival, someone that maybe loves research as much as he does, maybe another scribe. it would be kinda funny if they were always trying to outdo each other when it comes to new discoveries.

allies in other courts, especially other scholars that he can share resources with.

maybe new flame, he does love his wife, but they've very much grown apart while lost in their own work the last few years. it might leave room for someone new in his life

[xdarkhowlx]

Raiju, where the hell you been, loca?

TIMING: Shortly after the cemetery incident with Van and Nora. LOCATION: Midnight Drive-In PARTIES: @xdarkhowlx and @bountyhaunter SUMMARY: Kyle and Daiyu try to enjoy their movie. They're interrupted by a real-life Pokémon. CONTENT WARNING: gun use

The mere idea of a Twilight marathon was enough to gain Kyle’s attention. The viewing being at Midnight Drive-in only piqued his interest further. An emo cinema icon, in an iconic format. What more could he ask for? Of course, he had to be parked behind the one truck to block his view. The owner of the truck sat atop the vehicle instead of inside, which put her at just the right height to obscure his view. At first, he decided not to say anything. He figured out quickly that if he leaned out his window a little, and craned his neck, he could see much better. This was fine for a while, but his favorite scene was approaching and he was beginning to get a crick in his neck. He debated just moving his car, but that seemed inconvenient at best, not to mention inconsiderate. He weighed his options briefly, before deciding he had no choice but to ask the truck owner to move. 

With a drawn out sigh, Kyle stepped out of his Jeep and approached the truck parked in front of him. “Hey,” he called, trying not to interrupt the movie for anyone. “Could you maybe actually get off of your truck? I can’t really see past you, and the baseball scene is coming up.” A stranger on their truck would not ruin the scene for him. 

—

Maybe it was sad, how big an accomplishment this was to Daiyu. But she’d never done something like this — a neighborhood initiative. Most of the time her ‘initiatives’ involved causing a ruckus and accidentally lighting a trash can. Besides, she never tended to tie herself to places and so to organize something like this rather than just watch the bad movies at home was something. But it had been a funny idea that had snowballed into something real and now here she was, sitting on top of her truck cross-legged. She wasn’t doing it to be rude — she just wasn’t thinking. 

So when someone approached her about it and she was pulled out of her focus on the movie, she felt the urge to apologize and then, immediately after it, the inner demand that she shouldn’t. “Can’t see it well through my window, though,” she said simply, giving him a glance before looking up again. In the distance the sky rumbled. Whether it was another quake, the movie’s audio being very good or a storm coming, she didn’t know, but it barely mattered.  Something tugged in her stomach and she wondered what it was – this guy, or one of the other people surrounding them. She couldn’t go a day without having something in her body go off, though, so she tried to ignore it. She was here for the movie, not for her hunting instincts. Daiyu sighed, straightening her legs and sliding down her window onto the hood of her car. The window held, much to her relief. (She had wanted to look cool and totally had.) “There. Better? Don’t wanna ruin your Supermassive Black Hole needledrop.”

—

Can’t see it well through my window, was a flimsy excuse in Kyle’s eyes. He frowned. “Better clean your windows, bestie,” he said. His ears pricked at the sound of thunder. He hoped it wouldn’t be a storm. His dad complained when he came home smelling like wet dog. On the other hand, that would make for a wicked cool backdrop for the rest of the flick. 

Kyle’s smile returned at the Supermassive Black Hole comment. “Hey,” he said, raising his hands in mock defense. “You can’t tell me it’s not the most iconic scene in the first movie.” He shrugged, looking from the stranger to the screen. “Alice and Jasper in the baseball scene were a crucial part of my bisexual awakening.” Looking back to the stranger, something clicked for Kyle. “Hey, aren’t you the one who, like, organized all this?” In the distance, thunder rumbled again. Maybe that background storm would pop off after all.

—

She glared at the other and his unwarranted advice. “Clean your own windows,” she retorted, which made no sense but was still a very good comeback. Better than pointing out that she was in the forest a lot and that keeping her windows clean was a sisyphean task. She didn’t know what the word sisyphean meant, anyway. 

Daiyu let out a chuckle. Even if this person had come to complain, he made a good point. “It absolutely is. Banger soundtrack, Alice being an icon, et cetera. I’m not going to lie, I know Vic is a villain and all but she was a crucial part in my gay awakening.” She shot a look at the screen, where Esme was talking to Bella. It wasn’t very important. “Hell yeah I am. I also organized the thunder, actually. Talked to the weather gods and everything to make it fit the mood.” She hadn’t, but she liked having bragging rights. As if on cue, there was a flash of lightning. Two seconds, and then a roar of thunder. “You’re welcome.”

—

Oh, so it was like that. “My windows are clean,” Kyle contested with a grand gesture at his clean, albeit cracked, windshield. “I just can’t see through people on top of trucks.” He wasn’t actually upset, mostly inconvenienced. His car didn’t have the height benefit of a truck. If he sat on top of his car, he figured he probably still wouldn’t be tall enough to see.

“You’re into gingers?” he said, sounding critical. After a moment’s pause, he nodded in approval. “Good taste.” The well timed thunder sent a shiver down Kyle’s spine. “Wow, impressive.” He gazed up at the sky, half expecting the rain to start, too. “You’ll have to show me your raindance, eh? Teach me what the weather taught you.” Glancing back at his car, Kyle started to excuse himself back to the movie, but he was drowned out by another rip of thunder. He could almost feel it in his chest. Another flash of lightning arched across the sky and connected with the ground somewhere in the distance. He could almost see where it flickered just beyond the farthest cars from where they stood. It was too close for comfort. Kyle let out a whoop. “Your storm is shaping up to be something.”

—

“Mine are clean too,” she retorted easily. She was very good at these kinds of endless exchanges, the back and forth, the yes-no, did not-did too’s of the world. Spending a youth with two older siblings did do that to a person. “Well, you should get x-ray vision, then. Next time, that is. I’m down now.”

Daiyu wondered if he’d slam her for liking the villain as he critiqued her. Logically, she should despise Victoria the most — she was the kind of vampire that required putting down by slayer or even a skilled ranger. But she’d liked her, because it was all nonsense. “Yeah,” she said, nodding fervently. “I’m known for my amazing taste, you should follow me o—” Her self promotion was cut in half as the lightning crashed through the sky again. She looked up, impressed at what the sky was capable of. “Damn.” She was a little impressed with herself before remembering she hadn’t actually caused the storm. 

As her eyes traveled from the sky to the screen something caught her eye. It was lightning, but not quite in the way lightning tended to travel. It was like a ball passing past the treeline behind the screen. Another roar of thunder crashed through the sky and this time there were no flashes of light in the sky — just the creature. “Shit.” Daiyu glared at the creature, then rolled off her truck and rushed to her passenger seat door and swung it over. She eyed the other person from the other side. “Hey, yo — you should get the fuck out of here.” She pointed up. “Weather. Bad.”

___

“Then why— y’know what? Forget it. Thanks for moving.” Kyle wanted to argue back, but there was no real point to it. He could already tell he was being wound up just to end up chasing his tail. Metaphorically, of course. “I’ll work on being a little more Clark Kent and a little less Lois.”

Kyle followed the stranger’s gaze up toward the sky as the first couple notes of Supermassive Black Hole began. Shit, he was gonna miss it anyway. “Woo, good job on that timing,” he said, cracking a smile and taking a few steps back. But the mood had changed suddenly. The stranger was distracted. Her focus was elsewhere. Again, Kyle tried to figure out where she was looking. He could see that flickering lightning low at the ground again, but this time it was closer. As he was urged to leave, he didn’t look away from it. The lightning seemed to bend around something; it was vaguely animal shaped, and coming closer. 

“What the hell?” he thought aloud. He looked between the electrified animal and his new acquaintance. She looked tense, maybe even a little worried. “What is that? Is that like—like a generator? A power box? Should I call the fire department? I mean, I can—“ He was cut off by another rip of thunder, with no accompanying lightning. The beast seemed to light up brighter at that and Kyle stepped around the truck to stand beside the other movie goer. “This might be outside of the fire department’s jurisdiction,” he posited.

—

Once, a long time ago, Daiyu had asked her father if she’d been named after raiju. He’d not liked the question, as it was his late wife who’d chosen their youngest name. Besides, the idea that a ranger’s name could be inspired by a beast was absolutely unacceptable, and he’d made that very clear. That hadn’t stopped her brother from calling her one, especially when she was throwing a tantrum. Storm’s coming!, he’d yell, mimicking the sound of thunder.

But whatever kinship she felt with the beasts was ignored in the face of the situation at hand. There was a storm. There were multiple people sitting in metal cars that would become death traps if touched by the raiju. There was the baseball scene still playing, too — and she couldn’t even give it her full attention. She pulled a crossbow from under the passenger seat, grabbing a set of bolts with her other hand. The human – was he human? – was talking and Daiyu popped her head up, staring at him.

She wasn’t very good at this. “Do not call them,” she said. A firetruck was an even bigger death trap. Water would make everything worse. She’d gotten electrocuted by a raiju before – years and years ago – and she didn't recommend it. “You need to – fuck!” She cursed, realizing the impossible way the cars were parked as she glanced around. Daiyu felt frustration rise, the white hot anger that so often cradled her but also sometimes rendered her useless. She could not give into it now, with all these people. (Maybe the person in the woods was right, maybe she was a protector – or wanted to be, anyway.) 

She glanced at the screen, where Edward was running through the forest. The raiju seemed bothered by the noises. Dread rose. She threw a look at the other person. “We need to take it out. I need to – you should —” She was no good with words and just started to make a run for the creature, synchronizing with the Cullen’s as she left her car door open, leaving her arsenal open for the picking. 

 —-

Watching from across the truck, Kyle tossed his hands up defensively as the crossbow was withdrawn. “Easy, cvpon,” he said. “Maybe we should just chill out with the weapons. What are you gonna do? Shoot the electricity? Fuck’s sake.” If he wasn’t supposed to call the fire department, what was there for him to do? He glanced around at the cars surrounding them. Maybe someone had a fire extinguisher in the boot of their car. His new acquaintance cursed and he snapped his attention back to her. All he’d wanted to do was watch a classic film from the comfort of his car. Now, he was caught up in something he didn’t quite understand. 

Coming to this town had been one strange experience after another. Goo, and crystals, and werewolves—now a trigger happy Twilight enthusiast going after a moving ball of electricity. Kyle opened his mouth to protest further, but before he could get much out, she was running off. “I just don’t think— wait! Wait, where are you going?” He cursed under his breath and ran around the truck to at least close the door. What he found inside wasn’t exactly expected. There were knives and ammunition of a few different calibers, as well as a hunting rifle sitting ripe for the taking. Kyle looked over his shoulder at the stranger running headlong into battle, then to the screen where Jasper and Alice whisked Bella to safety. Wouldn’t that be too easy. He glanced back at the stranger, then the rifle. “Fuck.” He grabbed the rifle, fumbled with ammunition, and took off towards the electrified mass.

“Hold up!” Kyle called. He was immediately shushed by fellow movie goers as he dashed between cars and called out again. “I’m coming with you!” He flipped the bird at a particularly upset man in a Kia. “Don’t yell at me, I’m trying to save the day, bruh!”

—-

It was good that humans didn’t know about all the shit that lurked in the shadows. Real good, as it meant they got to live life in ignorance without worrying about being eaten by werewolves or vampires or being trapped by weird grass or sand. Daiyu envied them sometimes. But right now, she thought regular humans were very annoying. None of them were seeing the ball of lightning as a threat and worse, the guy who did see her shooting into action telling her to chill.

She didn’t have the time or tact to explain the situation, which was why she just ran. She tended to hunt alone, anyway — and maybe this time it would be with an unwanted and annoyed audience, but hey. She wasn’t going to see all these cars go bzzzt with electricity and the people’s skeletons light up when they did. If that was even real. The guy was following her and at least it confirmed something: he was the cause for the tug in her stomach.

Fucking awesome. A shifter was helping her kill some beast. 

“Alright, okay, cool, that’s awesome and also great!” Maybe the shifter knew something about raijus. Or maybe he was just … stupidly brave. Which Daiyu didn’t want, because those were qualities she liked in people. She ignored all the protests from viewers (even if it was very nice that people were this passionate about Twilight in 2024!) and jumped on the hood of one of the cars in front to get a good look. She whipped her head around, her ponytail smacking her in the face. “Do not get too close.” She noted the rifle – her rifle – in his hands. Well, good. As long as she got it back. “It’s gonna shock you if you do. Yeah? How’s your aim?” She whipped her head back, the cacophony of sound – movie, yelling moviegoers, storm, someone eating popcorn with their mouth open – made her dizzy but she tugged at the sound and made it one large hum of noise as she attempted to take her aim.

—

The closer they got, the more the creature took shape. Kyle figured it mostly resembled a dog, you know, if dogs went Super Saiyan. That would be a show he’d watch. Dragon Ball Z, but they’re all dogs? Focus, Kyle. He could daydream about anime when he wasn’t in imminent danger of being barbecued. He came up next to Daiyu, mouth agape as he looked at the dog. “I’m gonna have so many questions after this,” he whispered, glancing at Daiyu. He didn’t know if the dog could hear them, but if its hearing was anything like his, it definitely would. 

“Don’t get too close, don’t get shocked, don’t die. Got it,” Kyle replied. He didn’t want to take his eyes off the ball of lightning, but it was getting hard to look at, like looking into the sun. He blinked hard and steadied himself. He drew the rifle and scoffed at the question. “How’s my aim? You think I would pick up a gun if I wasn't pretty confident I could use it? I’ll follow your lead.” He had hunted back in Canada with his cousins. He knew how to take down a deer, or any manner of wild fowl, and even coyotes if the situation called for it. This was probably like coyotes, if the coyotes could decimate the power grid. Simple. 

After a moment, he looked at his new partner in crime—or maybe partner in justice was a better title. “I’m Kyle, by the way. I just figure we should know each other’s names in case we, y’know…” He made a cut throat gesture paired with sound effects.

——

At least the shifter was down to clown — or, like, kill a raiju. Even if he didn’t know what it was. Daiyu tried to shrug off the comment about having to explain what was going on, as that was the part of hunterisms she was worst at, but she offered a quick look and a random thumbs up. “Gotcha!” Which was not a promise or an agreement, but just something to say so she could go on with her purpose.

Which was … what, exactly? Hadn’t she decided to make her code be as simple as the local bounty board? To be moved by money, not by considerations of morality or heroism. Still — even if she wasn’t going to catch any coin for this, could she just let the people die? It wasn’t something worth pondering about. It was simple. Almost as simple as picking a random bounty from the board and going for it so she could pay her rent. These people were in death traps without knowing it. Daiyu wanted to watch her movie without people dying. 

“I don’t know, people are pretty stupid when it comes to guns,” she responded, before offering her name as well: “Daiyu! You’re a —” She changed her mind halfway, deciding it better to not ask what kind of shifter the other is. “Not going to die.” She swished her head towards the raiju, squinting one eye close and taking aim. Soon enough her finger pushed the trigger and her bolt shot towards the lightning creature, piercing its hind thigh.

—

Kyle was satisfied with the thumbs up as a clear promise to fill him in if neither of them died. He was pretty sure that the stranger–Daiyu, as she identified herself–knew what she was doing. Otherwise she was doing a damn fine job pretending. The thought gave him a moment’s pause. Was she pretending? Was Kyle about to be on the bad side of killing a creature like him? The thing didn’t seem to have any sense of rationality, as it was actively walking into a minefield of sitting duck humans. But then, Kyle couldn’t call himself rational when he shifted. He had never taken issue with hunting before. Each animal gave its life for the greater picture. That was simple. It was nature. But where did he, a werewolf, fit into the greater picture? It was never something he’d considered. 

As the creature’s leg was struck, a shower of sparks burst around it. He flinched, abandoning the existential crisis for later. It would keep him up every night this week, but it wasn’t important now. The sparks and crackles from the beast reminded Kyle of a transformer exploding. Like live wires, the beast writhed in pain for a moment. In that same moment, the storm above them roared some of the loudest thunder he had ever heard. It left his ears ringing. Werewolf hearing be damned. The creature recovered itself, and charged in their direction. Beginning to back up, the rifle snapped up as Kyle reflexively took aim. “Aim where they’re going, not where they’ve been,” he murmured to himself, and lined up his shot. A crack rang out, and another shower of sparks rained down around the animal, halting its approach. He breathed a steadying sigh, and smirked at his new accomplice. “Nice to meet you, Daiyu.”

—

Frustration rippled through her, a familiar yet always unpleasant sensation, as her bolt did not pierce the creature through the heart or head but rather its legs. It was fine, she could have just used the immobility to fire another shot. But there was an audience, kind of. There was a hunting partner, which was really not her speed. And the hunting partner – Kyle, the shapeshifter – had a gun and that guy managed to get the killing shot in. The sparks were a welcome distraction, though, a large rain of them sprinkling around the screen. And then, it was done. No more sparks, no more rumbling thunder that came from the creature — just a still corpse.

Daiyu was still for a moment, disregarding Kyle the shifter and staring at the dead body before sliding down the hood of the strangers’ car. She patted it awkwardly before approaching the beast. If she was a hunter with a code to protect humans and keep them ignorant – which she wasn’t – she should get rid of the body. She gave a something to Kyle, though she wasn’t entirely sure what it was. A scowl, a grin, a smirk. “Yeah, man, that was a great shot. Nice to meet you.” He got the killing shot. He had her gun. And she’d … really made a mess of whatever it was she’d tried to do here. She extended a grabby hand. “Can I get that back?” The rifle, she meant. “So you … whatever. I’m gonna clean up.”

—-

He followed Daiyu to the dead beast, approaching it cautiously. It was certainly dead, but Kyle wasn’t sure if it still held a charge. “Sorry to steal your shine,” he said, passing the rifle back as asked. He couldn’t tell exactly what emotion she was feeling, but he got the impression that it was directly linked to the final blow. “My family is big on hunting. I’ve been going on hunting trips practically since before I could walk. I know my way around a rifle.” Maybe his experience would assuage whatever emotions were going through her head. He wasn’t some inexperienced punk rolling in off the street. He was a well-versed punk.

Looking over the body, Kyle grimaced. Up close it looked even more like just some unfortunate dog. Again, that guilt he’d never felt before tugged at his stomach. Was he so much different than this dog? “Okay,” he said, turning his attention on Daiyu. “Now is the part where you answer my questions. Like what the fuck just happened? Do you do this often?” Having just handed the rifle over into her hands, he shook his head. “Scratch that last one, I don’t need to know. How did you know what that was?” 

—-

She wanted to burst out laughing at the notion. Not that Kyle the shifter was apologizing for stealing her shine, as that was very bothersome because she felt very seen, but that he said that his family was big on hunting. Daiyu wondered what that meant, but didn’t want to pry. She didn’t recognize the other and that meant she hadn’t seen him on the board, which meant there was no good reason to pry. “Oh, awesome. Yeah, my family’s like that I guess too, you know? Hunting elk and pheasants and stuff.”

She took the gun back from him. It was getting harder and harder to ignore all the sounds around them so she trudged forward towards the dead creature. It looked almost like something normal, but she knew better than to just leave it there. “Well,” she said, “We just killed a lightning creature. That could have made all these cars go –” She made a crackling sound with her mouth, followed by a booom. “Oh, I just know. You know? Some people know how to do math. I know how about weird shit.” Like how the other person was a shifter. “Like you and anyone else in this town doesn’t.” She slung the rifle over her shoulder after flicking the safety on and then crouched down at the raiju. “We should get it away from here.”

—-

“Yeah, elk, deer–hell, squirrels if you can get ‘em.” Kyle nodded in agreement, bonding over their shared hunting skill. He wanted to tell her to not let her nerves get to her next time, genuinely wanting to be of assistance. But something told him that would not be received as intended, and he was okay letting it drop. “I used to go out with the uncles, and then my cousins when we were old enough. Family traditions and whatever.” He waved his train of thought away with his hand. This was a stranger, and she didn’t need the specifics of his upbringing. Especially when he had more questions.

He looked from the carcass to the cars, nodding slowly. As he’d pictured in his head, it would be absolute chaos, carnage, and bloodshed. “Good thing you were here, then,” Kyle affirmed. “I might know how to use a gun, but you provided it for me. Which brings me to another question; why are you driving around strapped like that? You get in trouble a lot?” It was another question he didn’t really want the answer to. He was connecting some dots, and the image he was piecing together unsettled him. What if she killed all sorts of creatures? What if she found out he was a werewolf? Would she kill him, too? Or did he need to present himself as a threat first? Those questions he left unsaid. 

Kyle wanted to protest to her that he knew more than he let on. But to do so was a tricky needle to thread, so he simply nodded. “I’m learning.” It was the truth. He’d learned about werebears, and maybe cemetery spirits. He’d heard talk of vampires and zombies, though he hadn’t ascertained if those were real or not. Now, he was learning about real life Pokémon. Kyle crouched beside her, looking down at the sad little coyote. It was much less threatening when it wasn’t actively sparking. “You need help carrying Jolteon here?” 

—

Hunters were traditionally meant to keep humans safe and separate from the supernatural world, but the Volkovs had lost that traditional and honorable cause a long time ago. A higher purpose was so easily translated into something uglier — like the divine right of kings, for example. So Daiyu didn’t do this often and Daiyu didn’t fucking know what to do. Especially because this guy wasn’t human, or at least not fully, or not all the time. So what did it mean when he said he hunted with his family? Were they a bunch of sirens, chasing prey, or bugbears? Or did they hold up human traditions despite being something else? Or was he unfortunately cursed with a werewolf’s bite?

The thoughts were dizzying. “Yeah, same here. Hunting trips with the fam, what a time,” she said off-handedly. Daiyu glanced at Kyle, then back at the raiju. It would be little issue to carry it, with her hunter strength. Should she still be trying not to come off as a ranger, though? Or was that too little too late? She chewed on her cheek as his question bounced around her head. “Nah, I usually am the trouble.” Cheekiness seemed like a safe bet. “But yeah, whatever, I’m just someone who’s prepared for these kinds of things. I try to be more subtle about it usually, though.”

She took the hind legs of the creature, gesturing that he could take the other. A laugh left her lips at the mention of Jolteon. “Fuck.” She huffed. “That’s good. That’s — yeah, Jolteon, that’s right on the god damn nose. Let’s just take –” Her eyes scanned their surroundings, the angry people in their cars. It’d be best to store the creature in her car until she could find a proper way to dispose of it, but to walk it past all those moviegoers was asking for trouble. “Into the woods. Hide it for now.”

—

The mention of her own hunting trips brought forth yet another question that Kyle couldn’t keep from tumbling out of his mouth. “When you say hunting, you mean the elk and not these—,” he looked down at the corpse, but without a real word for it, continued unsure. “These…monsters, right? That’s what this is, a monster?” Yet another question he didn’t want the answer to, but this time the need for it pressed him on. “You know, since you’re so prepared for anything.” He gestured with his chin to the rifle she now held. 

Kyle shouldn’t be prying, not here in the middle of a movie, not with Kristen Stewart monologuing in the background. But hunters were a fairly novel idea. He hadn’t thought they were real, just more fairytale fodder. Like werewolves. It felt stupid to admit to himself that he hadn’t once worried about being hunted down for the crime of being bitten. The very idea made the hairs on the back of his neck raise. It wasn’t something he’d had to consider. The apartment he lived in was above a cryptid-themed souvenir shop, which, conveniently, had a basement for mostly storage of old junk, tools, and broken mannequins. The basement did a pretty good job of holding a bloodthirsty werewolf, and his dad being the building’s super was just the cherry on top of his cover story.

Kyle tried to keep his tone and his expression neutral. He didn’t want the skepticism of being predator and prey to cross his face and give him away as he danced carefully around the topic. “Sorry, Jolteon,” he said, trying to break some of the tension as he took the front legs of the animal and hoisted it with Daiyu. “Can’t catch ‘em all.” 

——

She stared at him, at his clumsy way of speaking, at the way he hesitated to name the raiju anything. Beast, monster, creature, pest, prey. So what was she supposed to say? That she hunted elk? She didn’t, she hated hunting regular animals. She found it — well, she didn’t try to pass judgment, as that started a whole moral debate in her head, but she found it something. “I mean, this is just a coyote with sparks,” she quipped. Daiyu lifted the creature up, wanting to tell the other to fuck off, but here she was. Doing teamwork again. With a shifter, again. 

She could feel it rise within her, the clumsiness. Her father hated this about her, the way she had no control over the things that came from her mouth. Not just because she was vulgar, but because she was too forward. Daiyu tried to press her lips together, to keep her from blurting something out, “But yes, a monster. I hunt monsters. What are you?” Her eyes slanted upwards and she cursed herself inside her head – something she did very commonly – before starting to move. She didn’t owe the other secrecy, because he wasn’t human, but she did owe herself secrecy, didn’t she? But it had to be clear by now what she was.

The pokémon references didn’t help. It made the other too damn likable. Daiyu kept trudging into the woods, the raiju swinging between them. (If pokémon were real, would she be hunting them? That would be really fucked up.) She grit her teeth and managed to not reply this time, for which she still cursed herself.

—

More questions pressed to the front of Kyle’s mind. Why was she so hesitant to confirm his suspicions that this Pokémon-from-Hell was a part of the weird shit? He knew it was supposed to be left unsaid, (he had heard enough from his grandmother,) but they had clearly passed that point when they took it down. A coyote with sparks didn’t satiate the need to understand what he’d just witnessed. His thoughts were beginning to race as his mouth tried to form multiple questions at a time. How much of the oddities of Wicked’s Rest had she known? Would she have answers about werebears, too? Shit, did she know more about werewolves than Kyle? He thought of those questions as off of the table. Surely he couldn’t just ask–

What are you? The question hit him like a crossbow bolt of lightning between the eyes. Every hair on his body stood at attention. “Um.” He floundered for a moment, grasping for any words to respond. He almost tripped over his own feet and dropped the stupid–monster. If this dog was a monster, was that what Daiyu was looking for? For Kyle to admit to being a monster? Was that what he was to her? His stomach felt like a stone falling through him. “Could you be more specific with that, uh, question? Please?”

—

Her hunting training hadn’t covered this. Truth be told, her training hadn’t covered a lot of communication techniques, unless you considered the best ways to trick shifters or interrogation tactics as such. Daiyu felt frustration fly through her system, heard Vissa yell something about a storm coming as her face turned a little stormy. There was at least the creature between them, a good distraction from how the other fumbled with his reply to her forward question.

“Whatever,” she said, “I’m not gonna hunt you.” He wasn’t on the board. Besides, he’d helped. Her sister would talk this guy into the woods and prod and poke until he’d reveal his true nature and then slit his throat, to trick the shifter the way she’d been taught. But Daiyu didn’t want to hunt this guy, and it was only because he wasn’t on the board. No ulterior motive. It wasn’t because of the weeping heart in her chest that her sister Inna had chastised all her life. Just because there was no point in it. (The Raiju hadn’t been on the board, either, but somehow that distinction wasn’t made.) “But like … snake? Wolf? Bird? What are you?”

—

I’m not gonna hunt you, was all the confirmation Kyle needed. He was on the menu, so to speak. Maybe not to Daiyu, maybe not now, but to someone out there. It took him a beat to grapple with his new place on the proverbial food chain before he could get anything out. “Wait,” he said, immediately derailing once more. “There’s weresnakes and werebirds? I mean, fuck, it makes sense, you know, I’ve heard about the little people all my life, but I oonly knew about the bears and the wolves.” There were dozens of questions he had about the other shifters. Like, did the birds follow the same rules? Were they bound to the sun rather than the moon? Could you get bit by a snake and get turned into a snake? Even if the snake was venomous? Was it like Spider-Man, and the venom is what turned you into the snake? He set aside the questions for later (and maybe for Google).

Licking his lips and shrugging, Kyle replied, “I guess I’m the wolf variety.” He clicked his teeth and continued, “Shtah, I feel stupid being at a fuckin’ Twilight viewing and admitting this, man.” 

— 

Oh, shit. This was not the first time her big mouth had talked too fast and too much. Daiyu assumed that shifters all knew about each other, that they had some kind of big shifter text chain where they talked about eating humans and shedding issues, but maybe werewolves were excluded from that. “Yeah! Those totally exist too,” she said, nodding. It would be strange if lamia and sirens only transformed during the full moon, but probably better for society and humanity as a whole. 

She let out a huff of amusement, looking over her shoulder at the drive in behind them as she kept walking further into the woods. “Nah, it’s cool. It’s fun. I like these movies ‘cus of it.” There was something about watching bad movies about the supernatural that made Daiyu feel comforted. It was why she’d watched all of the Vampire Diaries multiple times — but mostly just the first three seasons. “Little bit stupid for telling me though.” She dropped the raiju to the ground. “Kidding.”

—-

Fueled with knowledge, Kyle couldn’t keep his mouth from running. “You probably have so much knowledge on all this stuff, right? I mean, probably more than me. Definitely more than me.” That felt like a mistake to admit as soon as he’d said it. He didn’t want to come off as inexperienced or ignorant. Worse yet, he didn’t want to come off as a problem. “There’s no real guidebook for all of this. Lot of trial and error and error and error,” he amended with a toothy grin. “It’s,” he gestured vaguely to the space around them, “all about learning and shit, though, right?” Maybe that didn’t help his case, but he’d rather be somewhat honest with the hunter. She had given him her word. She wouldn’t hunt him.

“As far as werewolves go, it’s bad,” Kyle mused. He had a lot to say on the topic, but kept it succinct for now. His head snapped up at the joke threat, but he relaxed when he realized she wasn’t serious. Cracking a grin, he huffed a laugh. “Yeah, maybe. I don’t have much experience with, uh, hunters. That’s what you’d call yourself, right?” He looked down at the animal at their feet. He almost wanted to ask what Daiyu planned to do with the pelt, but it didn’t seem particularly germane, given the circumstances. 

—-

If there was any way to appeal to Daiyu, it was by saying that she was better at something than someone else. And though this wasn’t something she was particularly proud of, it was still true. She was more knowledgeable than this stranger, “Yup! I know a lot. I’m pretty much a genius when it comes to this.” Compared to him, she certainly was. Compared to other hunters, especially her siblings … well, it wasn’t knowledge she’d ever excelled in. Reciting species’ weaknesses had always been something that tired her — she’d rather find out through just hitting them. “Guess you’re gonna have to find shit out, huh?”

It had to be hard to be a werewolf. At least most other shifters were raised amongst one another, were taught what they were and how they could use that against others. But bitten werewolves, they were just left to their own shitty devices. “Twilight’s a shit resource for sure. And um, yeah, yeah, hunters — maybe that’s coolest for you, right? Just stay outta trouble. Don’t eat people or whatever.” She considered their surroundings, the dead animal at their feet, and started to gather some twigs, sticks and leaves to cover up its white fur. “This one’s called a Raiju, FYI.”

—-

The urge to ask for more and more information wouldn’t die down inside Kyle. He didn’t want to come off as entirely ignorant, but the hunter said she was a genius when it came to this particular subject. “Alright, Encyclopedia Daiyu, I’ll have to have you teach me more about all this sometime,” he said, hoping she’d agree so he could flood her inbox later. “I think I have a lot to learn.” The admission felt like one of weakness rather than simple ignorance. The feeling didn’t sit well inside his chest. Exposing your belly to the enemy couldn’t be a smart move. He had to remind himself that she had said she wouldn’t hunt him. 

The comment about eating people had Kyle grimacing. He had shifted a handful of times outside the safety of his building’s basement walls, but he hadn’t eaten anyone. Had he? The thought made his stomach do a somersault. “I’m good on the not eating people.” He followed the hunter’s lead, covering the animal’s corpse with forest detritus. “Raiju. Ha, kinda rhymes with your name.” He didn’t want to make another Pokémon reference, lest she think of him as a nerd. But there was a Pokémon based on the creature before them. “Real life Pokémon,” he quipped, unable to keep his mouth shut.

—

The concept of her – a ranger – helping a werewolf was absolutely beyond her comprehension. The whole situation was hard to grasp in general, what with her hunting this creature out of some kind of feeling of duty, enlisting a shifter for help and standing here, still and without action. Daiyu swallowed, shrugged, “Whatever, man,” she said, which was non-committal and not an answer at all to his non-question. She didn’t deal with unshifted werewolves a lot — the most she saw of them was when they were feral and wild in the woods.

She felt something press in her skull. A headache. A moral quandary that she didn’t have the tools to solve. These days those were the same. “Neat. I mean, that’s kinda … not cool, you know. Guess that’s gonna get you … targeted. Anyway.” She frowned at the twigs and leaves. “Maybe. I’m not a good — I don’t help people.” She poured some sand over the dead creature, let out a huff of air. “Yeah, it does. And yeah, it is. I used to wonder if the creator of Pokémon like, knew of these kinda creatures.” She started wiping her hands on her trousers, looking up. “Good enough, I guess. There’s still … movie left.” She’d get the creature a proper hiding place later. She held out her hand, though didn’t specify if it was to get her weapons back or to have it shaken.

—

Kyle got the feeling that maybe he’d overstepped some invisible line he hadn’t known was there. Maybe befriending a hunter was reckless, even when she didn’t feel like a threat. At least, she hadn’t felt like a threat. Her deflection read as dismissive to Kyle. Perhaps he didn’t view her as a threat because she didn’t view him as a threat. Something unfamiliar tugged inside his gut. He wanted to be respected by her, not brushed aside. Part of him wanted the hunter to fear him. The thought felt almost out of place as soon as he’d thought it, but wasn’t it sort of true? Wasn’t he a beast to be feared? He huffed a chuckle to himself. That didn’t feel like it fit right, either. Better, but not exactly. “Yeah,” he said, after considering Daiyu’s words for a moment. “I’ll do my, uh, best, I guess.” He met her extended hand with his own, both passing her back the ammunition she’d lent, and shaking her hand at the same time. “For the record, I don’t help people either. One time Pokémon battle.” He turned back towards the screen, frowning at the movie. It didn’t feel worth it to stay. It didn’t feel worth it to leave either. He looked back to his new not-enemy. “Walk you back to your truck?”

—

There should be another bolt in her crossbow, aimed at the heart of the untransformed werewolf. This could be her easiest hunt of the year. But that wasn’t her hunter’s code — if she even had one. Hunting the raiju also wasn’t part of her code, but maybe saving a bunch of people who are watching Twilight could be something she added. As for Kyle the Werewolf, there was nothing that demanded she hunt him besides the nagging lessons taught in youth. There was no immediate threat, nor was there a bounty on his head as far as she knew. So Daiyu simply shook his hand and took her weapon back and tried not to think about it all too much.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” she said, starting the walk back to her truck with one weapon in each hand, wondering if someone had called the authorities. Hopefully the sounds of thunder and Supermassive Black Hole had covered the sounds of the gunshot, though. “Was a good one, though. Good Pokémon battle. No fried people and shit.” She gave Kyle a look, a semi-grin. It wasn’t so bad, what they’d done. “Edward would be proud.” 

—

There was still some kind of unease that sat alert at the back of Kyle’s mind. On one hand, Daiyu had promised not to hunt him. On the other, she was a total stranger who had just played a hand in taking out a creature. Was he feeling conflicted about hunting the creature? He hadn’t long considered his new role in nature. Were he and the raiju equals? Had he too implicitly trusted this gun wielding Twilight-goer? He would have to sit with the topic later. He thought the hunter might combust if he started grilling her about her moral compass, and he didn’t want to put out any fires tonight either.

Kyle scoffed. “You think I care about Edward’s opinion? He would be a normal type trainer in the most boring way. He would have a team of fuckin’ pidgey and–y’know, never mind.” His face wrinkled in disgust. “Point being, I’m not ‘Team Edward,’” he concluded, with air quotes accenting his words. He crossed his arms across his chest as they reached the truck. Goodbyes felt awkward, especially given the circumstance of their meeting. “Hey, thanks for being cool,” he said flatly, with an air of hesitation. “I mean, letting me make you look like a chump with a bow.” He cracked a teasing grin and gave her finger guns. “You’ll get ‘em next time, bro.”

—

Once arrived at the truck, Daiyu worked on returning her weapons to it, making sure they wouldn’t go off if she went too hard over a speed bump (a common occurrence). A small laugh left her lips at the other’s response to her throwaway comment and she looked up with a quirked eyebrow. “Team Jacob, then? I think you’re biased.” She shrugged, straightened up and closed the door. “I mean, I’m totally team Alice, for what it’s worth. And she’d be totally proud too.” She would probably hate Daiyu for what she was, but luckily she wasn’t real.

She nodded at his comment, head bopping at his thanks. There were no guides for situations like these and Daiyu wished there were, and that they were shared at hunter camps. Guidelines for social interactions where you accidentally roped in a shifter into a hunt and didn’t kill them, or whatever. “Yeah, yeah, you’re welcome. Totally let you win, for the record.” She hadn’t, and it was annoying — because even though she was certain she would have been able to kill the raiju if it had been just her, she hadn’t killed it this time. “I sure will. Er – enjoy the rest of the movie. Won’t get in your way again or whatever.” She raised her hand in goodbye, ready to continue to watch the rest of the movie in escapist solitude.

[wickedlyqueer]

Is there anything that you actually like about the Wicked movie? I’m thrilled Erivo has played a queer lead before and I can see the movie leaning into the queer aspect of the books (let’s face it, the stage musical totally dropped the ball on that). And I’d much rather have twice the Wicked onscreen, so I’m down for two movies.

oh damn have i been that negative about the wicked movie? Anon, I call the book and musical trash fires and garbage all day long. :') The movies are and will not be exempt. I expect things I'll fucking hate (like I do in the books and musical) but will still find so much to love.

I'm at the point where I see Wicked (in all its adaptations) as a big sandbox I get to play around in and build my own things. it's what I've done for years and will continue to do once the movie(s) come out. But to your question:

Things I'm Looking Forward To In The Wicked Movies:

I, too, am excited about Cynthia Erivo. Not only has she played a queer lead before, a quick wiki search tells me she actually identifies as queer and bisexual. A bisexual queen portraying a bisexual icon? Let's go!

Ariana Grande. Yes, I know, quite the controversial opinion, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. Most criticism I've seen is that they think Ariana is just gonna play... Ariana Grande in the movie. Not Glinda. And it speaks to how much and how well of a Personality™ she has crafted over the years. Like, did you know her hair is naturally curly? She deliberately does not wear it in public, because that's a very personal and private thing. Always opting for the stylized high ponytail instead. Why am I bringing this up? Because unless you know Ariana Grande personally, all you know about her, is a public image. Remind you of someone? Right. Glinda. If she can tap into that part of herself, the public vs. private self, and use that to portray Gilnda. Hot damn are we gonna get a juicy second act!

("but she's not a full soprano!! and whistle notes don't count! >:(") she has a four octaves range and is literally one of the most popular and talented singers of our time. stop pretending your local fav and classically musical trained actress with no screen experience whatsoever would be able to do a better job.

("but when she performed at A Very Wicked Halloween she wasn't all that good!") Yeah, that came to my mind too, but I did a bit of a google and it turns out she nearly dropped out of the performance due to anxiety from a recent break-up, but also, oh you know, the goddamn Manchester Arena bombing, that killed 23 people, injured over a 1000 and left so many with PTSD and trauma, including Ariana. Just. Imagine singing. Doing your job. And as people leave your concert. They get killed and injured. Yeah, you know what? She gets a pass for not being "at her best" when it seems a lot of personal shit was happening at the time.

Which brings me to my final point about Ariana: she loves Wicked. I've said it in the first ever post I made after the casting announcement and I'll say it again: Ariana Grande doesn't need to go up for acting roles. She's at the top of her game career wise. If anything, doing a bad job as Glinda could leave a dent. So she wouldn't have gone up for the role, if she didn't want to fully commit to it. In my google search I also found out she's currently not working on new music so she can focus on Glinda. So. Literally pushing away the most successful part of her career to do a goddamn movie. That's commitment. She won't half-ass this. She's committed to the role. And I wish both her and Cynthia the best and that they can fully embody those meaty roles.

In that same vein, I'm quite happy to see Ariana and Cynthia bonding prior to shooting. I don't have much fate that the movies will strengthen the queer subtext (we can always hope, but i prefer not to set myself up for disappointment) but they very much understand that Glinda and Elphaba's relationship are at the core of the show. If I got some delicious subtext to chew on, I'm good.

The director Jon M. Chu gives me hope as well! I haven't seen his whole filmography but it seems he had several directing gigs and is used to mixing it with musical elements. I have seen Crazy Rich Asians (albeit a few years ago) but I remember it being campy but also heartfelt at the right moments and being able to switch between the two. Hey. That's similar to Wicked's tone! Honestly, watch Crazy Rich Asians and see how much it vibes with Wicked's tone of voice. I think you'd be surprised and pretty hopeful he can pull that balance off with Wicked too!

I obviously can't speak much about the actual movies, the plot, the storytelling, the cinematography, the acting, the costumes, the set design, the singing, and... pretty much everything that makes a movie. And I'm not really into speculating on the movie. I'll wait until the final product is here and pick and choice from there what I like. Getting new content for a fandom that hasn't really gotten anything new since at least a decade, is exciting on its own!

Bringing me to the one thing I unequivocally look forward to the most:

The movies will draw in new fans! Listen, I love tiny fandoms. I love our tiny fandom. But it's also, at times, a bit of a wasteland. Even if the movies become everything we fear, so many people will (re)discover Wicked!

And even if all of us elderly fans will be grumpy and mad that the movie isn't our 2D animated dream version we've all collectively embraced as the Better Movie... a real movie can never beat the fantasy version perfectly tailored to all the wishes in your own head. But that's where the fandom part kicks in. We can have our own fun!

So yeah, I'm exciting to all the people who will become curious about Wicked once the movies come out. Yes, even the people who only watch the movie bc Ariana is in it. Yes, even if they don't ship the ship I ship. Yes, even if I hate the movies with my entire being but they absolutely love it.

A bit of fresh perspective can really revive this fandom, but we have to let it. And I for one, cannot wait to see the new perspectives the movies and new fans will bring to us!

[live-the-fangirl-life]

Your fics are so cute. If you have time I would love to see this as a prompt for Rowaelin maybe? (Make it crazy if you want 😘)

“I would love to kiss you right now but my lips are on fire.”

For the Aesthetic

Aelin Galathynius x Rowan Whitethorn - Answered Prompt

“I would love to kiss you right now but my lips are on fire.”

Masterlist | Read on Ao3

Warnings: Language

1305 words

***

The party was in full swing by the time Aelin and Rowan arrived. If there was one thing Dorian did better than anyone else—even her, she’d begrudgingly admit—was throw a kick-ass party.

Cobwebs hung from the ceiling, bright purple and orange lights flashed, and dry ice was bubbling up from around the bloodied punchbowl. Aelin caught glimpse of her friends dressed like zombies, sexy cops, celebrities, superheroes, sexy superheroes, and a dozen other obscure costumes.

She smirked as she took in the cheap, generic-looking outfits. If Dorian won at throwing Halloween parties, then Aelin won at attending Halloween parties. She’d scoured the internet and thrift stores for the perfect pieces for her and Rowan’s ensembles. Her costumes were always the best, and she’d made sure that this year she and Rowan had the most amazing couple’s costume.

Rowan knew that Aelin would take reigns for Halloween, so he simply sat back and let her put together their costumes. Even if he tried to help or offer a suggestion, she shushed him and told him that Halloween was hers and that he could be in charge of one of the boring holidays. The insult was sweetened by lots of kisses, so Rowan didn’t put up much of a fight.

This year, she’d decked them out in full pirate costumes. Rowan’s shirt hung open to show off his broad chest, something Aelin had insisted upon with a wicked smirk. Aelin wore an authentic corset, and they both had shining swords hanging from their hips.

She had even found this website that specialized in edible glitter lipsticks. Aelin bought four different colors and was currently wearing the gold shade, making her lips look like shimmering sunlight or golden doubloons...and even more tantalizing than usual given the way Rowan could hardly keep his gaze off them for more than a few moments.

It didn’t matter that her lips had felt tingly ever since she put it on. Or that she felt a slight burn along her tongue after she’d licked her lips, but that was probably from the shot she’d taken before leaving the apartment.

They’d said hello to their friends before Aelin reached for a cup of the spiked punch. Maybe another drink would take her mind off her burning mouth.

Aelin dragged Rowan into the living room where the furniture had been pushed aside to create a make-shift dancefloor. He spun her around once they found an empty space before pulling her back into him, grinning.

Rowan’s hand on her waist tightened as he pulled her closer and moved his hips with hers in time to the music. Aelin let herself get lost in the dancing and the feel of Rowan as he leaned down and trailed kisses along the column of her throat. Aelin didn’t hold back her soft moan as he found the sweet spot right behind her ear, the music drowned out any noise she made, anyway.

When he brought his face up to hers, his eyes were dark and a smirk pulled at his lips as he admired the marks he’d left on her skin. Rowan bent his head to kiss her, but Aelin pressed a firm hand to his chest. He froze, the heat in his face dimming as he gave her a questioning look.

Aelin winced, wanting nothing more than to let him keep going, but she couldn’t.

“I would love to kiss you right now, Buzzard,” she told him, pulling him close so he could hear her over the music, “but my lips are on fire.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Rowan jerked back and his eyes scanned her face, landing on her golden, shimmery lips. His brows furrowed and he focused on her mouth before his eyes shot back to hers.

“Aelin, your lips are swollen.” He told her incredulously, “Did you have any strawberries?” he glanced over towards the food table, “I didn’t see any, but you know you’re allergic, you can’t eat them just because they taste good.”

She winced. Allergic. She must be allergic to the lipstick.

Rowan caught her wince and his concern deepened as he surveyed the food table with unerring scrutiny, searching for a fruit he wouldn’t find. She squeezed his arm, pulling his attention back to her, and told him, “No strawberries.” His shoulders relaxed a fraction, but he was still tense, trying to figure out why she was in pain, “I think it’s the lipstick.”

His eyebrows shot up as he focused on her lips once more. “The lipstick. Damn.”

It was her turn to look confused. “Damn? Why?”

He snorted but was already grabbing her hand to lead her from the dance floor and towards the door. “Because I really liked that lipstick.” He winked at her over his shoulder as he steered them out of the party. “I wanted to see it left on other places.”

Aelin blood turned molten...almost as hot as her lips felt.

She focused on them again and couldn’t contain the sharp inhale as she fully registered the pain she was feeling now that they were out of the suffocating party.

Her lips were on fire, so was the tip of her tongue, and she was positive they were swelling up to the point where she’d be unable to talk soon.

As soon as they got into Rowan’s car, Aelin dug into the glove compartment for her emergency bag to grab a pack of makeup remover wipes. Rowan started the car and got pulled out onto the road while glancing over repeatedly at her to watch as she scrubbed furiously at her lips, desperate to remove the cruel lipstick

It took three makeup wipes, but as soon as her lips were clean, Aelin immediately felt better. They were still swollen and felt like a dozen tiny fire ants were making their home on her face, but it was better than it had been on the dancefloor.

“Did it hurt the whole time you had it on?” Rowan questioned from the driver’s seat, reaching over to thread his fingers through hers.

Sighing, she leaned back and relaxed into the leather seat, “Yeah, but it wasn’t so bad at first. By the time we left it was only an incessant tingle.”

His head whipped towards her, “You felt it before we even left the house, and you still kept it on?” He shook his head trying to understand his girlfriend’s thought process. “You didn’t think maybe it’d be a good idea to get rid of the thing that was irritating you?”

She raised a single brow at him and smirked, refraining from making the obvious joke. He rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what she wanted to say.

Aelin used her free hand to tuck a stay wisp of hair behind her ear and lean closer to him across the center console. “It’s all about the aesthetic, Rowan. The lipstick completed the look,” she scoffed, “I wasn’t going to go to Dorian’s Halloween party with a sub-standard costume.”

Aelin grinned as Rowan loosed a long-suffering sigh and glanced side-longed at her, “And I suppose you have a reputation that not even physical pain would deter you from upholding.” He said drily.

Aelin just squeezed his hand in confirmation and he huffed a laugh before squeezing back.

“I might not be able to wear the lipstick,” Aelin murmured, inching closer to him, “But I do have a part of my costume you haven’t seen yet.”

His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel as his eyes flicked back to hers, now wicked with amusement. His gaze roved over her scantily-clad body before saying in a voice an octave lower than normal, “Part that I haven’t seen? Are you wearing it now?”

Her answering smirk had Rowan speeding the rest of the way home.

*****

Taglist:

@acourtofsnakes @allthebooksunderthemoon @astra-ad-mare @becarefuloflove @bisexual-genderfluid-loki @booklover41802 @charlizeed @cookiemonsterwholovesbooks @danibutterr @doubt-less @emily-gsh @enormousbooklover @foughtconquered @fromthelibraryofemilyj @hakunamatatazz @i-have-but-one-brain-cell @in-love-with-caramel-macchiato @jorjy-jo @lemonade-coolattas @mariamuses @mayhemories @midsizewitch @miserablesmusings @morganofthewildfire @nehemikkele @rowaelinismyotp @rowansfirebringer @sayosdreams @sheharahu @sleeping-and-books @stardelia @story-scribbler @superspiritfestival @surielandiareendgame @swankii-art-teacher @tomtenadia @westofmoon @whimsicallyreading @ladygabrielli1997 @moodymelanist @realbookloverproblems @gracie-rosee @julemmaes @yesdreamblog @the-regal-warrior @rowanaelinn @thestoriesyoutell @autumnbabylon

[shadyelizabeth]

"BABY"

Samira lay tucked against Keanu’s chest, her back to his front, turning a thought over and over in her head. The ceiling fan spun in slow circles above them, pushing a light breeze around the room. Fireflies floated in lazy patterns outside his window, slowly blinking in and out of existence, and Keanu’s arm was thrown over her waist, a finger lightly tracing across her abdomen.

“Babe,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She turned over so they were face to face, nose to nose, knee to knee, breathing in his spicy citrus scent. “I’m gonna ask you a question, and I hope you don’t get upset.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’m intrigued. What’s up?”

“You and KB. Have y’all ever . . .?”

His eyebrows raised toward his hairline as he waited for her to finish.

She dropped her eyes and started, “I know sometimes bros are just bros, but y’all have this, like, almost affectionate relationship. You don’t shy away from blowing kisses at each other and grabbing each other’s butts. And I didn’t say anything because I kinda wanted to see how things played out, but earlier, when I stepped outside to take a phone call, through the window, I saw KB wrap his arms around you from behind; you leaned back into him, and it was an intimate moment.” Meeting his waiting gaze, she continued, “So, I’m just wondering if you guys have, like, ever dated or hooked up or something?”

He chuckled, the sound escaping through his nose. “Before I answer that, would it bother you if we had?”

“Of course not!” She said, shaking her head, her loose curls lightly hitting her in the face. “I think I’ve said that I’ve dated girls, in passing, but if not, to lay it on the table, I’m bisexual, myself. I just wanted to know if I was picking up the right vibe or seeing things that I might’ve wanted to see.”

“Might’ve wanted to see, eh?” He pulled her closer, wedging his knee between her thighs, applying gentle pressure. “Am I learning something new about you, right now?”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “Let’s not pretend like you don’t know that you’re hot. KB is hot, and if you two hooked up, it would be fucking molten.” She ground down against his knee, unsure where this was going but excited to find out. “But you haven’t answered my question: Y’all got history or nah?”

Keanu bit his lip and nodded. With a sly smile, he said, “Yeah.”

“Fuck.” The mental picture in her head right now was overwhelming. Too many positions. Too many possibilities. All those hard, lean muscles and tattooed skin . . . She needed details and stat.

Rolling on top of him, she straddled his waist and pinned his arms above his head. “Tell me everything!”

He grinned and easily pulled his wrists from her grip. Placing his hands on her waist, he said, “Or . . . we could show you?” He was looking directly into her eyes, watching her reaction.

Samira had never been in a threesome before nor was it something she was necessarily dying to take part in, but she wasn’t opposed to the idea, given she felt comfortable in the situation.

When she’d first met KB and saw how close he and Keanu were, the idea had crossed her mind, jokingly at first, but the more she saw them interact, the more she thought Maybe . . . But she didn’t want to assume that’s what he meant, so she cleared her throat and said, “Come again?”

“You definitely will, multiple times, if you say yes.”

A shiver ran down her spine and she knew he felt it.

His eyes sparked with a mischievous glint and a wicked grin unfolded across his mouth. He rolled them over, so she was flat on her back and he was pressed up against her side. Propped up on one elbow, he splayed his other hand flat against her stomach. “If this is something we decide we’d all like to pursue, obviously, there needs to be complete and total honesty, so I’ll start at the beginning: KB and I have been friends for practically our whole lives. Neither of us have ever been shy about our sexuality.

“In high school, after some weird locker room exchanges, we both thought we might be into dudes, so we experimented with each other. We didn’t go too far, but we made out and touched each other’s dicks, got each other off. But it never went past that. We realized we were both more into women than we were into men, so we thanked each other for services provided and went on with our lives.”

“Is KB a good kisser?”

Nuzzling into her neck, his breath was warm on her skin when he said, “Very.” He placed a soft kiss on the underside of her jaw.

“That’s hot.”

“Yeah?” She felt his lips curl against her neck. His hand slid over her mound, rubbing her through the thin material of her lacy panties.

“Yeah,” she said, as her eyes fluttered shut.

“But you know how once you get a taste of something, even if you don’t want it regularly, every once in a while, that craving will sneak back up on you?” He bit her earlobe, continuing to rub circles with the tips of his fingers. “That’s kinda how it is with KB and me. There’s never been any romantic feelings, but every once in a while, we get an itch only the other can scratch.

“At first, we always had a third who was a woman. We knew what we wanted, but we also knew once we crossed that line, there was no going back. Being with a woman gave us an excuse to do more, especially if it meant pleasing her, if it was for her enjoyment—”

Samira’s imagination immediately put her in that scenario—being pleased by these two gorgeous men, their hands and mouths all over her body, her mouth and her pussy being stretched and filled by their beautiful cocks (even if she hadn’t seen KB’s yet, she knew it had to be a masterpiece)—soaking her panties through.

Keanu took notice because he pushed them to the side. His fingers quickly dipped into her wetness before swiping across her oh-so-sensitive clit. She moaned and tried to shift deeper into the bed, but he didn’t stop; his touches became more persistent. She could hear the smile in his voice as he continued to speak.

“But after a while, we decided we didn’t need a third. We enjoyed each other’s bodies, and if we couldn’t admit that to ourselves and/or be with each other without someone else, we figured we shouldn’t do anything more until we could.

“So, we went back to being just friends, until one night, we were hanging out at KB’s old place. We’d had a little bit to drink, but neither of us were drunk. We were tipsy and vibing. His hand ended up in my hair. My face ended up in his neck. Our lips ended up fused together. We took it back to his bedroom, ripping each other’s clothes off as we went. At that point, we hadn’t gone any further than sucking each other’s dicks and inserting a finger or two, but one thing led to another and that was the first time we fucked.”

He timed his words perfectly, sliding his fingers into her pussy as ‘fucked’ left his lips. Her eyes shot open; that wicked grin still plastered across his face. He held them there, continuing to rub light circles over her clit with his thumb. Her breathing was shallow as she focused on not coming too quickly.

Focused wholly on the sensation between her legs, she had to take a deep breath and swallow before she was able to ask, “But not the last?”

He shook his head, the tips of his hair tickling her bare shoulders. “Nope.” His lips popped around the ‘p’.

“I can’t—I can’t decide which of you I think would be the bottom.”

“Who would you want it to be?” His fingers started to move in and out of her, rough and rhythmic. Every time he thrust in, his middle finger rubbed sweetly inside of her in a come hither motion. She bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt not to moan.

When she watched gay porn, she tended to watch burly men together. There was just something about two jacked men going at it, especially when one was moaning and vocal, saying how much he loved getting fucked. It was a man in a traditionally submissive role, relishing and moaning in exquisite pleasure when their special spot was hit, that really turned her on. She could cum from audio alone, and between Keanu and KB, since she knew Keanu better—knew the curves of his moans and the tastes of his screams, knew how dominant he could be in the bedroom—the idea of him in a receiving role made her gush.

“You—fuck! I can just see your hair wrapped in KB’s fist as he fucks you from behind.”

“God,” he moaned, his lips barely grazing hers as he spoke. “I can feel how much you like the idea of that.”

“I love the idea of that.” She tangled her fingers in his hair, needing something to hold onto.

“What else?” His pace sped up, fingering her faster.

“You,” she said, shakily, her breath uneven and voice trembling, “moaning like a dirty little cock slut every time his big dick fucks against your prostate.”

He was practically on top of her now. She could feel the length of his hard cock through his sweatpants, grinding against her hip and kissing her deeply, licking into her mouth. Her hips gyrated as he kept up on his onslaught on her cunt and her clit, her juices flowing down her crack, soaking into the sheets. She tried and failed to catch a breath.

“It always feels so good when his huge fucking dick hits just”—pump—“the right”—pump—“spot”—pump, his fingers squelching in her wetness.

“Ohmygawd.” The words came out in one breath. No spaces. No thoughts. Just pleasure.

“You’re gonna love his dick, baby,” he said against her lips.

“Fu-kuh!” She grabbed her nipples and pulled, hard, trying to focus on the picture they’d been painting. “And when he’s done using you, he comes in your tight little ass?”

“Uh huh.” He nodded. “And licks it clean afterward.”

“Jesus Christ!” She knew how much Keanu liked getting his ass eaten. She’d done it a few times herself, but there was something about KB’s face buried in Keanu’s hole that sent her over the edge.

“Fuck, I’m gonna cum!” she exclaimed, the delicious sensation between her legs growing more and more intense.

“Do it, baby!” He pulled his fingers from her pussy and started rubbing her clit and her lips quickly back and forth with the flats of his four fingers, his calluses adding extra friction.

It felt soooo fucking good! She kept tweaking her nipples, wishing she had a mouth (or two) to suck on them, but her fingers would have to do for now. Her back arched up off the bed, her thighs shaking as that white hot pleasure kept building and his fingers never stopped moving and—

“Cum for me, Mir,” left his lips, and, as if waiting for his command, she came, biting her lip to keep from crying out. She trembled with the intensity of her orgasm. Her pussy clenched and contracted, feeling the absence of something inside of her, the sound of her sopping wetness spurred her on and on until, finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

Not trusting herself to speak, she swatted his hand away and rode the wave of her climax back to the shore, taking in deep breaths in an attempt to steady her erratic heartbeat.

Keanu pressed gentle kisses to her face and her neck, to her shoulders and chest while lightly trailing the tips of his fingers over the tops of her thighs and across her belly, the aftershocks of her orgasm still twitching through her body.

“That was so hot, baby.” He nipped at her jaw, the scrape of his teeth almost too much on her overly sensitive skin. “I can’t believe we’ve been dating for six months and I didn’t know how fucking filthy you were.”

She mustered up enough strength to turn her neck. Dropping a kiss on his forehead, she said, “I can’t believe we’ve been dating for six months and I didn’t know you were really into men.”

“Just one. From time to time.”

“Mmm.” She hummed, still enjoying his light caresses. “Have you guys hooked up since we’ve been together?”

“No.” He shook his head, looking up into her eyes. “We only fool around when we’re both single, and trust me when I say that there is nothing you or this relationship is leaving me wanting. But being here with him has . . . reignited some old engines.”

Pushing his hair behind his ear, she rubbed his ear softly, thriving in this tender intimacy of postcoital honesty. She wouldn’t say it was better than the sex, but sometimes, it was just as good.

“I believe you, and I get it. Our bodies tend to want what they want, sometimes regardless of what our heads and our hearts say which makes me wonder . . . You don’t think you’ll ever want anything more from KB? Like an actual relationship?”

He shook his head again, his hair falling back into his face. “Every time we’ve hooked up, we re-examined our relationship, to see if we’re okay with what we’re doing and to see if we’d like to give something more a shot. At this point in our lives, we’re okay with our current arrangement. We’re friends, first and foremost, who occasionally use each other to fill space when we’re lonely. ”

She nodded slowly, digesting his words. “So, if I say yes, would this be the first time y’all have hooked up with one of each other’s significant others?”

“Yes.”

“Why me?” she asked softly. “Are you just looking for a hot night of sex and debauchery, or . . .?”

Lacing their fingers together, he said, ”Even though we haven’t known each other that long, Mira, I feel like I’ve known you for much longer. We have a connection unlike any I’ve ever had with someone I’ve dated. The only other person who knows me as well as you do is KB, and the way you two automatically got along from the moment you met, I just—I wanna share this closeness with each of you, with the both of you, at the same.

“Plus, KB is, like, smitten with you.”

“Lol what?”

His eyebrows shot up again, but this time in surprise. “You didn’t know?”

She shook her head.

Kneading her hip, he said, “He didn’t say anything, but we’ve known each other forever. I know what it’s like when he’s into someone, and if you had just been a friend of mine, he would have shot his shot by now.”

“Hmm. Good to know I still got it!”

He rolled his eyes. “Let’s not pretend like you don’t know that you’re hot,” he said, throwing her words back at her.

Bringing their clasped hands to his lips, he pressed a kiss to the inside of her wrist. “But that’s it; everything’s on the table now. Take as much time as you need to think about it. If you have anything you wanna talk about with me and/or KB, we’ll talk. If you say no, we’ll understand. If you say yes, well . . . we’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s a night you’ll never forget.”

[sinnaminsuga]

(gif credit: @littlefreya )

Title: Hatefuck

Summary: mike and the reader hate each other and end up fucking it out.

Word Count: 1,868

A/N: yes this a high school setting but mike and the reader are intended to be seniors so they ARE of legal age!!!

Tags: @littlefreya @wendimydarling @october505 @killjoy-assbutt-1112 @infinite-shite @inlovewithhisblueeyes @hope-to-hell @viking-raider @the-soot-sprite @raspberrydreamclouds @thelastsock @connieisland @nuggsmum @wolvesandhoundshowltogether @foodieforthoughts @geek-eat-repeat @oddsnendsfanfics @oddduckthatgirl @feralrunaway @its--fandom--darling @madbaddic7ed

There was no denying that Mike was hot as fuck. He was one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. But unfortunately, Mike was also a giant fucking douchebag.

I dropped my cigarette on the ground right in front of the school and crushed it with my boot. “Here we go again.” I thought to myself as I pulled the heavy door open. I started my trek through the main hallway while shoving my pack of Marlboro Reds in my pocket. And that’s when it started. Thats when Mike opened his fucking mouth.

“Hey Y/N! Smoking kills!” He shouted from across the hall. Surrounded by his usual gaggle of football playing idiots, he stood there smack dab in the middle, leaning against his locker, shit eating grin plastered across his face.

But little did that neanderthal know that today, was the day I had had enough. Every fucking day we engaged in the same back and forth, venom laced banter. Mike and I never liked each other. I can’t remember a time when he was even remotely nice to me. We just didn’t mix well. We ran in different circles and did different things so it never made sense to even try being friends. But somewhere along the lines, a general dislike for each other turned into full blown hatred.

I put on my most wicked smirk and sauntered over to him. “I didn’t quite hear you babe. Can you repeat that?” I said sweetly. “I said, smoking kills. I saw you shoving your box of cancer sticks in your pocket.” He replied with a smirk, his gang of numbskulls laughing right along with him. My grin widened as the gears in my brain turned. I laid my hand over my heart in mock surprise.

“My my my! I didn’t know you kept such a close eye on my every move! How sweet of you!” I said. “I-I don’t watch you. I glanced in your direction and made an observation that's all. I mean I-I don’t even like you. I hate you actually. Yeah. Um. so.” He stuttered, clearly surprised that I was responding to his usually ignored behavior.

I looked at him for a long few seconds before speaking again. I leaned closer to him and grabbed his face to pull him close to me, his lips hovering in front of mine. “Ya know Mikey, you’re so fucking hot that it really is a damn shame that you ruin it by opening your mouth.” I whispered, the corners of my mouth twisting up into a wicked smirk. Mike’s breathing was uneven and I watched him gulp before shoving him back to his original spot. His group of friends were equally stunned. I turned my back to him and began to walk away.

“Yeah w-well fuck you Y/N!” He shouted at me. I stopped walking and turned my head, smirk still in full effect. “Oh baby, if you wanna fuck me, all you gotta do is ask.” I winked and made my way to class.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Later that night, I made my way to a party on the other side of town that Jenny Bosley was having. About an hour into the party, I had had a few drinks and had successfully avoided Mike. I knew in my slightly inebriated state, anything could happen and I didn’t need to have yet another confrontation with that prick.

“Y/N! Come on! We’re playing spin the bottle in the living room!” Jenny waved for me to follow her. I made my way through the crowd and into the living room. Everyone was in a circle getting ready to play and I sat down beside Jenny. Mike made his way into the room and joined the circle, much to my dismay. Jenny explained the rules and the game began. Kisses were traded and laughs were had, until it was Mike’s turn. He spun the bottle and it landed on Jenny so he leaned across the circle to collect his kiss. Jenny leaned forward and Mike slid his hand into her hair, capturing her lips with his. I watched as his tongue swept into her mouth and her eyes fluttered closed. Their mouths moved in tandem and I was mesmerized at the sight. I found myself wishing I was in Jenny’s spot and I hated myself for it. “I hate him! WHY do I want to kiss him?!” I thought to myself.

Jenny and Mike separated after what felt like hours and returned to their seats. His gaze flickered to me and I rolled my eyes to let him know how COMPLETELY unbothered I was. The game continued until it came to me. I took a deep breath before spinning the bottle. It spun for a while before landing…on Jenny. I took a quick look at Mike and he was staring directly at me like he was a kid on Christmas, waiting to open his gifts.

I turned to look at Jenny. She was gorgeous and I had no qualms about kissing her. My main mission now was to kiss her better than Mike ever could. I cupped her face with my right hand and ran my thumb over her cheek before grazing her bottom lip. I looked into her eyes and she let out a shaky breath. That's when I knew I had her. I leaned in, slowly letting my eyes flick back and forth a few times from her lips to her eyes. When she was close enough, I pressed my lips to hers. My hand slid down to graze her neck as I licked her bottom lip. Jenny’s soft lips parted and I slipped my tongue into her mouth. We continued kissing for another minute or so before pulling apart.

Jenny settled back into her spot before shouting “Either I’m really drunk, or I’m REALLY bisexual. Sorry Mike, Y/N was better.” Everyone started laughing, even Mike himself let out a small chuckle. “Lets step this up! Whoever the bottle lands on when you spin, you have to take them into the hall closet for 15 minutes!” Kara, another girl in the circle, suggested. Everyone decided this was a good idea and the game continued.

Mike’s turn inevitably came and he grinned before spinning the bottle. My heart flew into my throat when it landed on me but I put on my signature smirk and stood up to make my way out of the circle. Without turning around I shouted “You comin’ Mikey boy? Or am I gonna have to get off all by my lonesome?” Seconds later I heard his heavy footsteps behind me.

Once we were in the closet I grabbed him by the shirt and slammed our lips together. It was all teeth and tongues and heat. I started pulling his jacket down his arms and he stopped me. “Wait I thought you hated me?!” He questioned. “Oh sweetie, I do. I absolutely do. But you’re also extremely attractive especially when you AREN’T talking. And haven’t you ever heard of “hatefucking”? It’s hot. So here’s how this is going to work. We have 15 minutes and I am horny as hell. So you are going to fuck me and we are never going to speak of it again. Got it?” I whisper-shouted. Mike furiously nodded and we resumed kissing.

Clothes went flying and our breathing was heavy and all I could think of was getting his dick inside me. He started kissing down my neck and I gasped as he bit into my shoulder. “Fuck I-I can’t wait anymore.” He grunted against my neck. Mike flipped me around and pressed my face into the wall as he lined up behind me. A litany of filth spilled from my lips as he pushed into me, my walls squeezing and attempting to force him out. Never in my life did I EVER think I’d be begging for Mike to fuck me in a closet.

He began slamming in and out of me, snapping his hips at a steady pace. He was hitting my g-spot on every thrust, rendering me speechless. At this point I was a writhing mess. “Please please please!” I whimpered. Mike tapped his fingers on my lips and I opened them to suck on the digits. “Oh fuck Y/N! Your pussy is so fucking tight. Yeah thats right you little slut. You're squeezing my cock so nice. Fuck! I could do this for hours babe.” He grunted into my shoulder. His fingers were still hooked into my mouth and he was prying my jaw open so I was slobbering all over his hand and panting into the humid air.

“Mike please! I need to cum!” I cried as best as I could with his fingers still in my gaping maw, my heated face pressed to the cool wall. “Yeah I know you do baby. I’m gonna make you cum don’t worry. Just hold on a little longer.” He said, punctuating his words with his thrusts. Mike’s hand left my mouth and slid down to rub tight circles on my clit with my own spit until my legs were shaking. His hand came back up to clamp around my throat. “Come on babe. Cum for me. I know you can. I know you want to.” He ground out, driving into my g-spot one last time. An inhumane sound ripped from my throat as I came around his cock, my internal muscles spasm king around him.

I could feel him throbbing inside me, close to his own orgasm. “Wait Mikey, not inside me.” I panted. He pulled out of me and I sank to my knees. I gripped his cock with my left hand and sucked him into my mouth. I started bobbing my head and hollowing my cheeks as I felt his hands pull my hair into a makeshift ponytail that he used to guide my mouth up and down his shaft. “Fuuuuck yeah. Thats so good. You look so damn hot with my cock in your mouth sweetheart. If I knew you were this good I would have fucked you a long time ago.” Mike groaned above me. I sank my mouth down as far as I could until I gagged around him. He was moaning and his eyes were screwed shut so I knew he was close. I jerked the portion of his dick that wasn’t in my mouth and sucked hard on the tip. He bucked his hips and came, hot and thick, down my throat. I looked up at him through my lashes and swallowed. He looked down at me with glassy eyes and flushed cheeks.

I stood up and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and started gathering up my discarded clothes. “That was the best sex I’ve ever had.” Mike sighed, a small grin on his face.

I patted his cheek and before reaching for the door. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet sweetheart. Call me and I’ll hatefuck you within an inch of your life.” I winked at him and he let out a deep breath. “I might take you up on that. And I think it’ll be sooner rather than later.” He said, winking right back.

THE END

[acedormouse]

Oh Prussia for the character list?

send me a character and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: What a fucking dude am I right? I detest that Hetalia is how I learned of this country’s fucking existence but what can you do. The whole debate on how the hell this bitch is still alive and the angst people create of how he’s slowly dying and so close to being an actual human is good shit. He’s an annoying piece of shit and he’s 100% proud of it. His brother is his world (Mister You Can Call Me Big Brother for the 482nd Time) and he’s a goddamn war machine. He’s been diligently writing diary entries since his birth like bruh. Man go from haha laugh at the funny man to I will silently slice your throat in a second. He’s neat, organized, wild, and loud and is capable of so much depth. Bitch said I’m dying but sure as hell it ain’t gonna be quiet.

least favorite thing about them: The fandom really just latched onto one part of his personality and ran with it and I’m kind of sick of it but the dub is also guilty of it too soooooooooo life goes on.

favorite line: “Wow it’s a lot tamer than our stuff but I like it- she float your boat?” / “Say what you want but my heart won’t listen.”

brOTP: Germany bro c’mon. Bad Touch Trio but they fuck.

OTP: Pruhun be still my beating heart

nOTP: Prucan- I’ll say it again but to have another answer, him and Austria as a functionable romance.

random headcanon: Wicked talented at a bunch of stuff. He was already skilled at a lot of things but since his identity as an actual nation went into decline, he’s gained a lot of free time. He’s picked up a lot of hobbies and he just knows how to do a little bit of everything. He’s like a retired old man. He goes to local community centers or colleges and offers to teach classes or just helps neighbors out with whatever they need; I think he really just needs to do things cause if he’s left alone to sit idly at home he gets too much inside his own head. He likes being active and he gets upset when his body gives out much quicker than it used to. Reminders of how different he is now from his brother and best friends are ones he avoids.

unpopular opinion: He’s kind of one my least favorite characters. I don’t hate him but the content to enjoy him is really specific. Maybe being in this fandom for so long and just going through everyone liking him in 2012 just... I don’t know. I see moments where his character really shines and I want more of that. I guess what I hate is what he sort of got reduced to in the fandom and how I see him written in so many fics. I’ve been seeing a major turn around in recent years and I’m very happy for it.

song i associate with them: Who Wants to Live Forever by Queen, The Sharpest Lives by My Chemical Romance, Raging on a Sunday by Bohnes

favorite picture of them: Halloween just got some of the best pics don’t they? It’s perfect for how he looks in the modern era. Fingerless gloves?? The choker?? How bisexual of you king.

[anonniemousefics]

Can we please get scenes from tfota in cardan's pov? Or an update on nine terrifying moons 🥺

Oh, you sweet thing - you’re killing me with the puppy dog eyes emoji! The next chapter of The Nine Terrifying Moons isn’t quite ready yet (I’m sloooow I’m sorry!), but I’ll give you a Cardan POV scene. :) Here’s THAT ONE SEXY SCENE from The Wicked King (hastily written and not really edited because I am too tired.)

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

“Give her what she wants, and get the information we need to avoid a war.”

There is fury, hot and unbridled, stewing in Cardan’s veins when Jude says it. The knowledge that this is what she is thinking of when she thinks of him. Not of the kiss they shared. Not of the heat of their skin together, or of the tremor of dangerous desire that had gone unmatched, no matter how Cardan had tried to put it out of his head.

No, Jude Duarte thinks only of using it to her advantage. It’s all she’s done with him – all anyone’s ever done with him, and he can barely see straight. He’s one of her many weapons, just like the blade she’d pressed to his throat.

He looms over her there in the dark room behind the throne, breathing hard – why? He hasn’t exerted himself. But when he’s this close to her, and she’s speaking of seduction, he feels overworked. Enraged and – and something else.

“Is that a command?” he growls. There are soft waves of hair framing her face that flutter in his breath, brushing her freckled cheekbones. He wants to brush them back, and what a disgusting reflex that is, this pull to caress his manipulator. He waits for her to invoke the magic that binds them.

But she doesn’t.

“No,” she says. Her gaze flutters, unable to meet his eyes. “Of course not.”

This surprises him. And was that a flush on her cheeks? Her soft, round cheeks… She isn’t pulling away from him – he can feel the heat off of her body, the quickening of her breath.

Perhaps he is not without his own weapons after all. He remembers what it was to be held at the point of her crossbow, and it is out of a desire to turn the tide in his own favor that he lifts her chin with his fingers so that he’s looking at her wide brown eyes.

It is a miscalculation. His heart thuds traitorously in his chest. He tries to ignore it. He just wants the upper hand, for once.

“You just think I ought to. That I can. That I’d be good at it. Very well, Jude. Tell me how it’s done. Do you think she’d like it if I came to her like this, if I looked deeply into her eyes?”

The soft pink color in Jude’s beautiful cheeks is rising even more now. He thinks about caressing them, about kissing them, about licking them – and he resists the urge to shake the insanity out of his head. He needs to keep it together.

“Probably,” Jude says, and he’s not completely sure, but it looks like she’s cracking. And he’s not giving up now at, well, whatever it is he’s hoping to gain here. (He’s really not thought this through.)

“Oh, come on now.” He hopes she won’t notice how he’s fairly coming right out of his skin with this sick desire. “If you want me to play the bawd, at least give me the benefit of your advice.”

What is he saying? Does he actually care what she wants?

He does. Damn it all, he really does. And right now, it really looks as if she wants him, and his twisted intentions are starting to evaporate. He can’t help himself – he lifts a bejeweled finger to her rosy cheek. It’s warm – her eyelashes flutter at his touch. Desire curls low in his belly.

“Should I touch her like this?” Cardan breathes. Tell me how you want to be touched.

“I don’t know,” Jude croaks, oh, but she does. He knows she does. And he’s going to find out.

Jude sucks in a breath when Cardan brushes his lips to the curve of her ear. He wants to feel the shape of it against his mouth. When she shivers in his hands, he thinks he might just be able to.

“And then like this? Is this how I ought to seduce her?” He can’t tell who’s doing the melting – it really shouldn’t be him. “Do you think it would work?”

Is it working? Do you want this?

Could you want me?

Please Jude.

“Yes.” Jude’s voice is a rasp, and she trembles against him when she says it. This, he thinks, is his moment. The moment she can finally know what it is to be kissed with a blade to your throat.

But when he takes her in his arms, when her lips part beneath his, he cannot find it in himself to kiss her fiercely, to make her pay. He kisses her as he has not stopped wanting to kiss her since that first night. He kisses her like he can finally breathe again. Jude Duarte is melting into his arms, desperately pulling him in for more, and more, and, with every kiss, he is resurfacing from the dark.

And it is crazy and terrifying and absolute madness, because this is Jude Duarte, who exists only to use him and break him, and if he loves her, then she will ruin him.

But that’s not enough to keep him from stumbling back to the low couch with her, drinking down her kisses like wine. This is becoming so wildly out of control – he really did not think this through. He needs – he needs – a reminder, some piece of silver to keep him grounded in this netherworld currently pulling him under.

“Tell me again what you said at the revel,” he says, climbing on top of her. She’s pulling at his shirt like she needs him, and he cannot fall in love with her.

“That you hate me. Tell me that you hate me.”

“I hate you,” Jude whispers, and, oh, that is perfect. He’s not in love, and neither is she, and this is totally fine. He kisses her out of gratitude at first. At then in desire. Then in sheer madness—

“I hate you,” she keeps whispering. “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you.”

I don’t love you. I can’t love you. I won’t love you.

But his hands tell a different story, sliding over the curves of her body, relishing how she responds. His mouth can’t form the words back, because they are lies. It is better, then, to say nothing at all, and gorge himself on this poison he’s now so hopelessly addicted to. After all, he may never get this chance again. Eventually, this spell will break, and eventually, she will despise him anew. In this moment, he can’t bring himself to care. She’s sliding off her hose, and he’s making quick work of his shirt, and he doesn’t want to think anymore about which one’s the weapon and who’s wielding what.

He wants only this. Jude’s lips on his skin. Jude’s fingers in his hair. Jude’s legs around his waist.

Jude Jude Jude Jude Jude Jude

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

@yellowavocadopit, @dagypsygirl, @ireallyshouldsleeprn, @booklover-sleeplover, @mwejh, @courtofjurdan, @faeriequeenofwest, @sugawsites, @loveyourselfsolid, @owl0y0s, @feelinglikecleopatra, @akaloto, @fantasyfox101, @persephxnecoven, @raging-bisexual-alert, @rteme, @nahthanks, @emmabookworm08, @elorcanislife, @snusbandxknifewife, @poeticbrownmermaid, @duarteegreenbriar, @thefolkofthefic, @alittledribbledrabble, @carmensworld17, @annejulianneh111, @amandlas, @elriel4life, @idk-what-name-to-use, @thewickedkings, @juliazato,

[gldnlitskies]

EMMETT DAVIES ( HE/THEM ) is a DEMIBOY, TWENTY-SIX year old ELEMENTARY ART SCHOOL TEACHER/ACTOR AT ROECLIFFE THEATRE who has been living in Moorbrooke for HIS ENTIRE LIFE. They were born on APRIL 1ST and right now, they are currently residing in MAPLE COURT. It has been said that they look suspiciously like JORDAN FISHER and if they had to choose a song to describe themselves, they would choose SATELLITE by HARRY STYLES. 

FULL NAME: emmett davies

NICKNAMES: em, boogaboo (his younger sibling)

SEXUALITY & PRONOUNS: bisexual (he&them)

ROMANTIC STATUS: single

BIRTHDAY: april 1st, 1996

ZODIAC: aries, virgo moon

HOGWARTS HOUSE: hufflepuff with gryffindor tendencies

PETS: pomeranian puppy named ‘chewy’

HOMETOWN: moorbrooke, maine

CURRENT LOCATION: moorbrooke, maine

OCCUPATION: elementry school art teacher, theatre actor

ROOMMATES:  just chewy.

PARENTS: tbd

TATTOOS & PIERCINGS: tattoo of a small moon on his right wrist, the upper part of his right arm has a pair of harry potter glasses and lighting bolt tattooed (usually hidden beneath a shirt), a sleeve of different horror tattoos on his left arm, and his right ear has two piercings.

MUSE INSPO: nick miller + winston + ferguson (new girl), dale denton (pineapple express, seth rogan), wallace + scott (scott pilgrim vs the world, that gossipy bitch),fred wesley (harry potter) , j.d (scrubs), ross (friends), gambit (x-men), a little bit of everyone (the office)

MUSIC INSPO: welcome to the party - pop smoke, dopamine -borns, lost in the citadel - lil nas x, one more night- maroon 5, wicked games - the weekend, cherry -harry styles, lovefool -two colors (cover), myself - bazzi, burn the night away - there for tomorrow, kelsey -metro station, here comes the sun -the beatles

background:

emmett davies was born to stand out from those around him. he was born to destroy the norms of society while serving people a piece of reality with a smile. from the moment they were born, there were whispers that emmett laughed and giggled instead of crying. they never did get to know their birth parents as the moment emmett was born, they were adopted by a loving couple named TBD.

growing up, there were a lot of lessons emmett learned. the most important one was that their gender was not defined by what society wanted to shove down their throat. the moment emmett got the courage to step up and speak about what was going with them, their parents were there to support them every step of the way. and that was all em needed to get them through the negative comments he would sometimes come across.

college was a blast for emmett.  they fell in love with everything about it, especially the late night with friends. he started off trying to major in criminal justice, having always had an interest in that field, but by the time they were in their second year the guy knew his path was somewhere in the arts. a famous actor? nah. live theatre? perhaps. but the inspiration to become an art teacher happened one day when emmett was helping one of their nephews create a macaroni art project during winter break. soon after, em began to volunteer at local children's hospital to help bring a little bit of color to their world while and they also just really loved the idea of being like an older sibling figure to them.

after graduation, it didn't take long for em to land a job at the moorbrooke elementary school as one of its art teachers. they couldn't imagine life as anything else, though em sometimes still wondered what life would've been like had they gone down the path of criminal justice. he does everything in his power to bring as much laughter, brightness, and creativity to his classroom. from the moment the kids step through his classroom doors they are encouraged to be whoever they want to be. if they want to be an apple that day, then an apple they will be. and em loves to do mini art shows with them in which he displays their art throughout the room, brings some snacks for them, and lets them all walk around to admire each other's paintings. there's not a single day that he doesn't end his lessons with a round of 'positive thoughts' which means every student must say something positive about one classmate and no repeats, so it's fair for everyone.

personality:

he is the type of person who greets everyone with a smile and always tries to make someone laugh. if you need someone at 3am just because you want to talk, emmett would be there in a heartbeat. he’ll always be a shoulder for anyone to cry on if needed. but, he’s also not afraid to fight for what he believes in and for those dear to him.

connections:

exes: andrej vårvik

close friend: ravi mudrik

childhood bestie(s): james reynolds

roommate(s): tony fortier

work friends: (0/?)

theatre friends: (0/?)

more connections tbd because i am horrible with making up connection ideas sladkfal but i am so ready for brainstorming and plotting if you’re interested <3

[ace-trainer-risu]

oh here! i’ll come ask you for book recs lol. do you have any spooky and/or autumn-y book recs? or just your fave books :)

First of all, I'm sorry this took me SO long to answer. I want to say I've been busy but it's just been general [waves hand vaguely] life.

ANYWAY thank you for asking! I actually don't read scary stuff a lot b/c I'm a wimp, but I have a few spooky/autumnal books up my sleeves! Let's see what we've got!!

1) The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Let me just start by saying that Sarah Waters is one of my absolute favorite authors ever! All her novels are suspenseful, twisty historical novels with great female and queer characters. Although, fair warning, actually The Little Stranger is like her one novel that isn't queer, but it is VERY good. If you read The Little Stranger and like it, please read Fingersmith and/or The Paying Guests.

The Little Stranger is set in the countryside of post-WWII England and follows a mild-mannered doctor as he becomes increasingly involved in the lives of the family living in the local, increasingly decrepit, possibly haunted mansion. Think Downton Abbey but creepy. Strange things keep happening inside the house, from dog bites to mysterious sounds to creepy black spots. Literally just typing that gave me goosebumps. It seems like someone may be out to get the family, but who...or what? Is it simply the ghosts of their own painful memories, or is something more? Sarah Waters is excellent at lush, intricate historical detail, and she leans into that here to create an atmosphere of slowly building dread and horror and mystery.

That being said, as a person who isn't normally a fan of horror, I don't think this book is too scary. It's more of an atmospheric, psychological horror than a jump-scare, bloody horror. It's not a book that will give you nightmares (probably), but you might lie awake thinking about it.

Also. Pro-tip. As a haunted(?) house story, the house is obviously fairly central to the story. Dear fellow Americans, keep in mind that the British refer to the floors of a building differently than us. For Americans, the ground-level floor is called the first floor, the floor above that the second floor, etc. For the British, the ground-level floor is the ground floor, and the floor above that is the first floor, etc. There's all sorts of creepy references to characters hearing noises above them on the first floor, but I was just like, Why are they always in the basement?

2) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno Garcia

This and the above are two very different books, and yet they are both set in the mid-1900s and both are about weird, creepy, maybe-haunted houses. What can I say, I like gothic fiction.

After our heroine, Noemi, receives a bizarre, borderline incoherent letter from her beloved cousin, she sets out to visit her in the literally decaying mansion she resides in with her husband and his new family deep in the countryside of Mexico. All Noemi wants to do is persuade her cousin to come back home with her, but her cousin's new in-laws are very determined not to let that happen...or to let Noemi leave either. Secrets abound in the bizarre house and even creepier nearby cemetery, and soon Noemi finds that she too is suffering from bizarre dreams and visions...although, are they just dreams?

This book is so weird, but in such a good way? I read it for a book club and every week we had increasingly bizarre theories about what was going on, we were googling alchemy and fungi and St George, and some of our theories were even right. Although definitely not all. Another very twisty one that keeps you guessing.

In terms of scariness, interestingly I think there's more overtly creepy and horrifying moments in this novel than The Little Stranger, but I found TLS more overall scary? But that may be because I read it quickly, which I think is the ideal setting for suspenseful stuff, and I read Mexican Gothic over a longer amount of time since it was for a book club. This one does have some more typical horror elements to it, but I don't think it's more creepy than terrifying.

3) The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

I listened to this one as an audiobook and the audiobook is excellent so would recommend that, but have no doubt it would also be great to physically read.

Oh my god this book...it's more thriller than horror, but I think it fits the brief. There were multiple moments listening to this book that I literally gasped or said "OH MY GOD!" out loud, and there are moments which are very creepy and horrifying. There's a particular scene in the backyard... Again, incredibly suspenseful and twisty. And the character development and character psychology is just! really really good! There's also really interesting and knotty feminist stuff which is a lot more complicated and nasty than some of the "girlboss" stuff which is popular right now.

Super minimal summary: All you really need to know is that it is a sci fi novel about a scientific researcher trying to pick up her life after her marriage has imploded, only for everything to go BATSHIT WRONG. Trust me, that's all you need to know, it's better to go into this not knowing what's going to happen or what to expect. I had no clue what this novel was about when I started it, and holy shit. Very good book, absolutely recommend this if you want some super suspenseful, creepy sci fi that will make you say "oh my GOD" repeatedly.

Okay, shifting gears a little now b/c autumn isn't just spooky, it's also cozy and restful and daydreamy!

4) The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic by Emily Croy Barker

This isn't maybe a cozy book per se, but it's a great book to cuddle down with on a dreary day and lose yourself in. If you've ever asked yourself, "What would it be like if you crossed Pride and Prejudice with Howl's Moving Castle except the wizard was way worse but somehow still sexy" - then you should read this book! I actually came across this book b/c I was like, I wanna read a book that's a portal fantasy but for adults, and this book was like OH here's everything you wanted.

It's about a grad student, Nora, who has totally stalled out on her dissertation and is at a shitty wedding when she accidentally wanders through a portal into a beautiful, fantastical fairy world. At first, everything is amazing and literally perfect...but surprise surprise, not all as is it seems, and soon everything goes to, how should I put it, shit. Nora escapes, but rather than returning home, she finds herself trapped in a far more dreary realm. But not one without it's own charms and it's own magic, and Nora finds herself the student-slash-sorta-captive of the crochety, sexy, maybe-killed-his-wife magician Aruendiel* and she begins to learn magic herself.

Unlike the above books, this is not a fast-paced, twisty book, and I think if you go into this expecting high fantasy along the lines of Game of Thrones, you may be disappointed. It's not really a typical high-fantasy novel, it's more of a cross of an 18th/19th century realist novel, a fairy tale, and a fantasy novel. But if you want that, then it's REALLY good! I loved this book! And the magic in it is so cool, something about the way its described feels so visceral and real and like you could really do it if you just tried hard enough. There is a romance and it's totally, intentionally hashtag problematic, but it's very laid back, very slow burn, so I think even if you aren't a person who digs romance you can still enjoy this. If you're looking for a feminist-leaning fantasy novel that you can just sink into and lose yourself in, this is the perfect book. You will long to magically fix broken plates.

5) The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner

Honestly I can't even justify why I think this one is an autumn book. It simply is. It's autumn colored in my head. It is the coziest book I have ever read about necromancy and crime. Also I just want to recommend it. This is another one that I listened to as an audiobook and it's also a good audiobook, for those who are interested. But it also means I will not be able to spell absolutely any of the character's names.

This novel follows Delly, an enterprising young scoundrel of a fire witch with a teeny tiny gin habit as she attempts to support herself and her hot-mess of a mom in the roughest neighborhoods of Fantasy-City-That-I-Can't-Remember-The-Name-Of. Lice...gate? When Delly comes across an advertisement for a bodyguarding job for young women for a hefty fee, it seems like the answer to definitely not all but at least some of her problems. She accepts, along with an interesting assortment of other sorcerous young ladies, including a wonderfully bitchy Absentia (my love), a young woman who can turn into a boar, boar girl's necromancer mother, and the very sexy part-troll Winn, who in my imagination looks like Gwendoline Christie and talks like Miranda Hart. Which. Perfect woman. Winn being a fine, wealthy young lady, Delly can't help but think to herself that it wouldn't be such a bad thing if Winn happened to fall in love with her and carried her off to be rich and spoiled the rest of her life.

Of course, things quickly don't go to plan, and soon Delly and her companions find herself caught up in wicked schemes of murder, drugs, and an undead mouse named Buttons who says BONG. I love Buttons SO MUCH.

This book is just a silly romp of a novel which worms into your heart and your brain. It's fun and cute and gay, and also it made me cry. I haven't stopped thinking, "Not quite regulation hammerball" since I listened to it like half a year ago.

Also, while I'm here, this novel is set in the same world as and features a few of the same characters as Unnatural Magic. Which is also a hell of a book. Literally the best bisexual relationship I have ever fuckin read. It's a winter book tho, so I simply can't go into it here.

Aaaaand...that it's! Happy autumnal reading :)

[solitvdcs]

* kathryn newton, cis female + she/her | you know zoey simon-archer, right? they’re twenty-three, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, eight years? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to a little wicked by valerie broussard like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole black clothes and black coffee, dark under eye circles barely covered with concealer, might put a hex on you thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is august 10, so they’re a leo, which is unsurprising, all things considered.

TRIGGER WARNING: CHILD ABANDONMENT

basic info

full name: zoey tallulah simon-archer

birth date: august 10, 1997

pronouns: she/her

hometown: boston, massachusetts

sexuality: bisexual

height: 5’1”

eye color: blue

hair color: blonde

build: slim

tattoos: one of her younger siblings doodled on her arm and she said ok i see u and made it permanent

piercings: basically every piercing you can get on your ears split between both (no piercing is in the same spot except maybe the earlobes, she thrives on the chaos), septum

style: if it’s black and shapeless then yes

favorite color: black

favorite food: whatever she can find in the house while scavenging at 3am

zodiac: leo sun, scorpio moon, capricorn rising

mbti: istp

hogwarts house: ravenclaw

enneagram: type 4 wing 5

temperament: choleric/sanguine

alignment: chaotic neutral

bio bullet points

CHILD ABANDONEMENT TW it’s unclear how zoey came into this world, but what we do know is that she was dropped off on the doorstep of a fire station before her birth mom disappeared into the night. no note, no keepsakes, just two week old zoey wrapped in a nondescript blanket that was probably the one the hospital wrapped her in. the rest of her childhood was a blur of failed adoptions and shitty foster homes across the country (east coast especially), leaving her with no ability to fully connect with anyone and, okay, maybe a mild anger problem. rage blackouts weren’t uncommon, but in one foster home they had an old nintendo 64 and she learned to channel her anger through video games instead END TW

along came the archers, a lesbian couple that already had twelve other children. zoey was fifteen already and had fully expected to age out of the system and end up another statistic. for a good year after the adoption was finalized, zoey still didn’t trust that they wouldn’t send her back, so she acted out. she wanted to give them an excuse and get it over with, but her tactics went unnoticed in a cheaper by the dozen-esque household. her new moms couldn’t give her the attention she craved with so many bodies, but her older siblings stepped up and tried to make her comfortable. it sort of worked, but being smack dab in the middle of so many kids meant she faded into the background more often than not

at school, she thrived without trying, a natural aptitude for math and science and mechanics landing her a place on the robotics team, but because her many siblings had already made names for themselves, the archer name was almost like a curse for her. she didn’t want to be known as another archer adoptee, so she went by the name she’d carried with her from birth: simon. zoey simon could be her own person, whoever the fuck that was

one day, the robotics coach brought in their old computer for anyone who wanted to tinker around with it, and wanting an excuse to stay out as long as possible, zoey jumped on the opportunity. over the course of the semester (with the coach’s guidance) she took apart and put it back together again, upgrading it with some donated parts from a local electronics store. the best part? coach let her keep the computer after she was done

obligatory at some point she cheated on frankie with both sutter and ziggy ✌️😗

anyway we’re onto college, where she got hella scholarships and grants for being a girlboss and ended up at university of michigan, studying mechanical engineering. money was still tight, though, so she spent her first year trying to balance studies and a part time job at the local superstore, but her mental health and grades started suffering to the point that she almost lost her scholarships for her second semester. Between semesters, over a night of video games with her roommate, she offhandedly suggested zoey start live streaming her playthroughs. it may not make all that much, but a few viewers and subs would be better than nothing

but oh boy did she do better than a few viewers and subs

using a digital rendering of a random avatar and a voice modulator, psychozomatic was born, and they blew up. popular streamers started inviting her to their servers, and she made enough to cover all of her extra costs and then some — she graduated summa cum laude because of streaming, but she couldn’t stop after graduation; she was doing something she loved and getting paid for it. that’s what people always hoped for in a job, right? so after graduation, she fabricated a job to her friends and family to explain the income, moved into her own apartment with a soundproofed second bedroom (that she kept under lock and key for whenever anyone came over) and kept up the facade. it’s been five years and nobody even knows she’s a girl — female streamers get so much shit, she’s not sure she ever wants to do a face reveal. she’s perfectly content for the time being having everyone think “zo” stands for “lorenzo” or “vincenzo” or whatever, and being a faceless streamer means she gets the weird blend of notoriety and anonymity that she craved her whole life

personality wise, zoey is a mash-up of deadpan humor and snark. she’s never been good at face-to-face communication, which is why streaming works so well for her. she’s never known how to flirt and has been known to tie someone’s shoelaces together in an attempt to get their attention, which has obviously not worked out for her. once showed a person she thought was cute the computer she built and well...they were impressed but nothing came out of it. she’s probably a lost cause, but she can just play a dating simulator if she’s that lonely

is big on first person shooter games — the main reason she keeps her identity hidden, because people get nasty in those lobbies. also absolutely loves horror games, currently doing a playthrough of resident evil village on her stream

wanted connections

fans of her stream !!! obviously they wouldn’t know it’s her but it’ll still give her a lil smile and maybe even a blush if she hears someone talking about “zo”

other gamers she’s played with ???

people she met in the foster system

someone who has a crush on her and she has no idea bc she can’t read people (and vice versa)

friends of her siblings that had no idea she was one of them (i’m mean to her bt i think it wld be funny)

i’ve been working on this intro for like a week this is all i got pls take it and run <3

[transsergio]

Emotions That I Simply Do Not Have (Read on AO3)

Chapter 3 - His And Hers, For Better Or Worse Chapter 2 - I'm Not Gonna Repeat Myself Chapter 1 - More Like A Relapse

Penemily + Hotchreid / Mature / 2011 words in this chapter

Emily and Penelope put their plan into motion; Spencer arrives. (This is the final chapter of this fic! thank you to everyone who kept up with it this week!)

Hotch’s advances stop. Or, become marginally less obvious.

In his third text this week, Hotch asks, “Do you need anything from break room?” It is only Tuesday. Emily knows that if she lifts her head, she will see his beady black eyes through the glass. He’ll be staring at her, hoping to see her fingers working over her tiny keys, telling him that yes, she’d appreciate a bottle of water or any other menial task that will bring him out to the bullpen. She’d rather text Penelope to peek through the security cameras, to see exactly how far their one-night stand has gotten her. Yes, sleeping with the boss comes with great advantages, like your office becoming a cage.

Emily does her paperwork in silence. She’s hellbent on leaving at four forty-five, no matter what Hotch might throw at her to keep her in his line of sight. At four thirty, Emily turns off her cell’s ringer. She is escaping to her salvation, a night of face masks and a season rerun of the Bachelor with her girlfriend. As she closes down her computer and organizes her files, she glances about. Derek is long gone, citing a date with his television, couch, and dog. Reid finished his work hours ago, but plays chess against himself until Emily’s ready to head out together. And JJ is on a phone call, likely with Will, likely about to tell their son she’ll be home a little late again. Emily doesn’t see Rossi, but at his age, you never know how many bathroom breaks he’ll need.

As Emily rises with her back to Hotch’s door, Reid follows. They head to the elevators. She’s excited to dish about her later plans, as Spencer is her only known ally outside of Penelope. In return, Spencer tells her about his last date.

“You’re saying he forced you to make eye contact?” Emily asks as the elevator encapsulates them.

“Yeah. It was the most uncomfortable dinner I’ve had yet. Every time I was looking elsewhere while I spoke, he’d say, ‘Eyes on me.’ I don’t think we’ll be going out again,” Spencer adds with a chuckle.

Emily raises her eyebrows. “No kidding. Maybe we could get him on some kind of watchlist for bad first impressions.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I did block his number before the night was over.”

Emily laughs and bumps Spencer with her elbow. “I don’t blame you.”

The elevator dings and releases them on the parking level. Emily makes for her car and Spencer for the subway, despite Emily’s repeat offer to drop Spencer off herself. A part of her is glad, though. She wants to get home fast and not leave a second empty.

By home, of course, she means Penelope’s apartment in all its purple and glitter. They’re settled in her living room by five-thirty, television hooked up and face masks elegantly adorned, a blanket solidifying them as one happy mass. They plow through three episodes before they remember the masks could’ve come off halfway through the first, and that they haven’t ordered dinner.

“Pizza sound good?” Emily emerges from their cocoon, stretches, and finds Penelope’s stash of takeout menus in the kitchen.

Penelope joins her at the counter. “Hm. Maybe Thai? Wait, what’s with the face?”

“Nothing.” Emily tries to mask her shudder. “Just… Hotch, he mentioned something about Thai in one of his messages.”

“What, did it give him diarrhea?” Penelope teases. She looks for Emily’s little smile and the crease between her eyebrows, the sign that Penelope was funny even if Emily won’t admit it. It doesn’t come. Penelope recalibrates. “No worries. We'll get something else then.”

“I’m sick of it, Pen,” Emily says. She slaps the menus down. “If he’s making my job harder and me less effective, why should I stay in the department? Our communication is horrible, I’m agitated in the field, and I can’t get him to stop. I’m running out of options.”

“Okay, slow down.” Penelope rubs Emily’s back in light, soothing circles. “You’re hungry and fed up, and you have every right to be, but let’s have some food before making big decisions like leaving the job that lets me call you every hour. I’ll pick. You get comfy. Go, shoo.” And she scoots Emily into the living room with a pat on the ass.

“Fine,” Emily raises her hands in surrender, “fine, I’m going.”

When dinner arrives (gyros from the Mediterranean place a couple blocks over), Emily devours hers. It’s gone before Penelope can pry the foil from her own meal, and Emily’s head is where her plate used to be.

“Oh, Angel,” Penelope sympathizes. “It’s going to be fine.”

Emily nods against the table. “Yeah, I think so. But I don’t want him fired. He’s a good leader, and he needs this job. His wife died, and before that they were in witness protection. That’s got to do something to a person, right? He risked everything and he lost it all.”

Penelope chews thoughtfully. “Maybe we don’t need to get Hotch fired, but we can play it like survival of the fittest – as long as you’re faster than somebody else, he won’t catch you.”

“What?”

“I was watching this thing on the Discovery channel about jungle cats hunting and how they go for the weakest of the pack. It was really sad because you don’t want the lions to starve and at the same time you don’t want the antelope to die, but that’s not the point. If we latch him onto someone else, he’ll forget all about you.” Penelope wipes her hands clean. “Like magic, you’re free!”

For a moment, Emily has hope. Of course they can hook him up with someone else. It’s what every classic sitcom Emily raised herself on has implemented. There’s only one problem. “We don’t know any single straight women.”

A wicked smile flashes across Penelope’s face. “Who said anything about a woman?”

*

“Are you sure you want to do this? A workplace relationship is exactly what I’m running from,” Emily says.

Spencer’s voice crackles over the line. “It’s honestly fine. According to the exit polls of the 2008 elections, about four percent of Americans were gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Roughly one-hundred and thirty-one point three million people voted. If every vote counted also answered that exit poll, that would be approximately five million, two-hundred and fifty-two thousand people identifying as such.”

“Yeah?”

“Hotch could be one of them, is all I’m saying.”

“Right. But I want to be sure you’re comfortable.”

“Emily, I promise. I wouldn’t be going if I couldn’t handle it. Besides, if he’s as straight as he looks, we’ll have awkward small talk and I’ll go home. It won’t kill me.”

“If you say so. Oh, I’ve got to go, Spence. Good luck,” Emily says. She snaps her phone shut and turns.

Penelope stands in her kitchen with two glasses of wine. She wears neon pink lingerie, a 1960’s inspired sheer robe with fur trim, layered over a matching slip.

“You’ve got to go?” Penelope sips her glass and leaves a pink lipstick print around the rim. “You’re going to leave me here all alone?”

Emily bites her lip. “Not a chance.”

*

An hour later, Emily and Penelope are curled around one another in Penelope’s lavender sheets. They’re sweaty, warm, and flushed.

“And you thought I couldn’t take your mind off it,” Penelope smirks. Her bragging is part bravado; she’s honestly glad Emily didn’t rip her robe to pieces.

“Eh,” Emily pants. “All part of my plan. I know how you love to be right.” And wow, did it ever feel so good to be wrong.

Penelope giggles and toys with Emily’s hair. She loves this part especially. When it’s just them, sleepy and well cared for, and Emily seems so defenseless. Her eyes are softer, her muscles lighter, and she lets Penelope put her loose strands into tiny braids. But this time, one of their ringers pops the bubble.

Emily hoists herself up and snatches her cell phone from the nightstand.

She turns to Penelope and mouths, “It’s Spence.”

Penelope hisses back, “Put him on speaker, dummy!”

So she does. The voices on the other end are muffled by fabric. It’s as if the phone is being rolled through a load of laundry. Penelope fumbles for the mute button and silences their side.

“It’s a butt-dial,” she says, her heart beating as rapidly as it was just minutes ago. “Oh my god, we really are secret agents.”

Emily tries not to encourage her. It’s thrilling, obviously, but her stomach twists. They’re invading Spencer’s privacy. “We should hang up.”

“Yeah, we really should,” Penelope agrees. Emily reaches for the red button that will disconnect them when they finally hear clearly.

“Um, is Jack home?” Spencer wonders.

“No, he’s with Jessica. If this is about a case, I don’t need to chance him hearing the details.”

“Actually,” Spencer coughs, “this is more of a… personal matter.”

“Oh? What’s up?” Hotch sounds genuine enough. He probably thinks of Spencer like a son. Emily wants to pull Spencer out and abort the plan. This is too far.

“I noticed you and Prentiss haven’t been cooperating well lately.” Spencer says, so naturally. “Emily’s my friend, and I was wondering if there’s anything I can do to help?”

A beat passes. “No, nothing that I’m aware of.” Hotch answers. “I respect you and your intentions, Spencer, but I don’t know—”

Spencer is curt. “I think you do.”

“I do, what?”

“You know. I think you might be the problem actually, sir.”

When Hotch doesn’t respond, Spencer continues. “I think you and Emily have a sexual history together. I think you’ve been trying to repeat that history, and she doesn’t want to. I think you’re looking for a way to forget Haley while you grieve her, and that you believe Emily is the solution. In reality, you’re looking for someone to dominate and let you feel in control while your life spirals out from under you, and for someone who will reject you so these wishes go unfulfilled and you aren’t at fault – the other party is. I think it stems from the guilt you feel regarding Haley’s death, both in that you blame yourself for making her a target, and that you couldn’t stop Foyet from killing her.”

Emily and Penelope exchange glances. Spencer has said everything the team considered privately, and tied it back to Prentiss in one neat, factual statement. All that was left was the aspect the team couldn’t predict; how Hotch would react.

“Do you want a drink, Reid?”

What?

“Uh, sure? What- what kind?”

“I have scotch, lemonade, and Juicy Juice.”

“Lemonade sounds good.”

“Good.”

Dishes clatter as Hotch pours for them. Emily and Penelope wait, hanging up completely disregarded.

A cushion wheezes nearby. Hotch’s voice is now much closer. They can feel his vibrato through the tinny speakers. He asks, “Are you confident in your profile?”

Spencer takes a gulp of his drink. “Fairly so, sir, yes.”

“And if I asked you to prove it?”

“Sir?”

“You’re positing that I want to dominate someone and simultaneously, am hoping to be rejected. If you’re right, I’ll make my move and be discouraged when you give me the go-ahead. Maybe I’ll even have a breakdown. Sobbing, psychosis, the works. Do you want to find out?”

“Okay,” Penelope throws up her hands. “This feels icky again. No. Uh-uh. I don’t wanna know.”

Emily shushes her sharply. They’ve just missed a piece of the conversation. “Hold on, hold on.”

“And you’re sure about this?” Hotch questions.

“I’m sick of everyone asking me that.” The other line rustles into white noise. Briefly, it clears. They hear two gasps and what has to be the fumble of bodies.

Hotch rasps, “Come upstairs.”

“And that’s enough!” Penelope slaps the cell phone shut. “I need some air.”

“No kidding.” Emily shakes her head. “Maybe I missed my shot.”

“You take that back.”

Emily leans into her girlfriend, grinning all the while. “Make me.”

[starship-squidlet]

Modern Stargate SG-1 Headcanons:

To go along with this post

Daniel:

Was always a nerd. Definitely had a “Greek mythology” phase growing up and never technically grew out of it, he just shifted a little more towards Egyptian mythology as he got older.

He felt closer to his parents when he was studying Egyptian mythology, and wound up turning it into a whole career by becoming an Egyptologist like they had been.

Guilty pleasure: Ancient Aliens.

Seriously, when he found out about the stargate and aliens and all of that his mind was absolutely blown. Even though he’d posited Ancient Aliens-esque theories himself, there was always a little part of him that went “there’s absolutely no way this is real and I might actually be a little crazy”. He did a little happy cry after going to Abydos and dealing with Ra and everything not just because all of that was over and they had won, but because he really was right and not crazy and all these theories he’d always wanted to believe but couldn’t quite bring himself to 100% believe really were true.

Aromantic/Asexual

But he still married Sha’re—he didn’t really have a choice.

Even after they got everything sorted out with Ra, and he chose to stay on the planet when Jack and the others left, he didn’t leave her. Initially, this was because he didn’t want her to be punished for not “pleasing” him or something like that (he had no idea how Kasuf and the other elders would react if he tried to send her away and didn’t want to risk her getting in trouble), but he did come to genuinely care for her. Once Kasuf and Skaara understood this about him, they were just as accepting of his identity as Sha’re was and became his family.

(Kasuf probably never truly understood what Daniel was trying to tell him about romantic/sexual attraction but he just smiled and nodded and accepted this weird kid anyways. All that mattered to him was that Sha’re was happy.)

When Sha’re was taken by Apophis, Daniel still joined SG-1 to get her back. He became almost immediate friends with Sam, who he always felt understood him on a level almost no-one else ever had, except for possibly Sha’re. Jack and Teal’c were friends on a different level, but they were no less close.

Has a lot of strong opinions on Google translate.

Tutors ESL students online (when he’s on Earth).

The only time his Duolingo streak was broken was when he ascended for a year.

Sam:

Sam Carter grew up a tomboy. While the other girls were all having tea parties and playing with dolls, she was building Lego spaceships with her brother and tying parachutes to plastic army men (and other toys) and throwing off the upstairs back porch of their house to see what would work.

In high school, she entered robotics tournaments and anything else she could get into.

She played softball and field hockey and was good at basketball even though she never joined the team. She took karate and tae kwon do and jui jutsu classes on the weekends. By the end of high school, she was teaching self defense classes at like the local Y or something.

She was also on the chess club in high school.

Got all As in math and science classes, but was more of a B student in any other subject—still above average, but she didn’t excell quite as much in the humanities.

Got into every college she applied to and got good scholarships to most of them, but decided to go to the Air Force Academy instead at the last minute without explanation to anyone.

No-one was more shocked by this move than Jacob, who had never expected her to follow in his footsteps. When pressed for answers by the school counselor, she said she felt it was her best chance to go to the moon someday.

In the academy, she excelled not only in her classes but in every physical test. She beat guys twice her size in hand-to-hand combat, had perfect aim on the gun range, and continued to get near perfect scores in her math and science classes in particular.

When Jacob expressed his pride in her accomplishments, it proved to be a mistake. She got into a slightly questionable relationship with one of the lowest-ranked guys in her year, who was always inches away from a dishonorable discharge. Her grades and performance slipped.

Some people suspected abuse when she would show up to classes with a black eye or split lip, but any suggestion of this to her would earn them the most wicked glare and a possible punch to the gut if no officers were around.

When Sam and her boyfriend got engaged, Jacob came to the school personally to try to talk her out of marrying him. He’d heard enough about the guy from his friends at the academy to feel the need to intervene, but this proved to be the worst possible choice. That weekend, Sam and her fiance ran off to elope. At the last second, she snapped to her senses and broke it off. Afterwards, she always denied that he had been the source of her bruises, but since those stopped after they broke up, not many people believed her.

She was one of the first people pulled for the stargate project and designed the majority of the dialing system herself. Once it was finished, she left the program to work on her doctorate.

When Apophis’s soldiers came through the gate and the stargate program was reopened, newly-doctorized Sam leapt at the chance to go to Abydos with Jack and his team. She never expected it to last beyond that one mission, but was certainly not complaining when they found the cartouche with more gate addresses!

She’s a very private person, and only discloses her feelings with those she trusts the most deeply. Daniel is usually the first to find out about stuff though—and not just romantic stuff; she also confides in him about things that she’s stressed or worried about, and he’s always the first or one of the first to hear her good news.

Besides Daniel, her closest friend is Janet Frasier. They went through basic training/the air force academy together, and reunited upon joining the stargate program. They started dating not long after joining the program, although they kept their relationship fairly quiet.

They went on a break after Janet adopted Cassie, and never quite found their way back to each other as partners, although they remained close friends. Never telling Janet how she really felt became Sam’s greatest regret after Janet died, and she devoted herself to Cassie to assuage her guilt over that.

Fierce feminist and a massive supporter of women in STEM and similar movements.

Disaster bisexual.

Jack

Jack and Sarah married fairly young and had Charlie not long after. He wasn’t exactly planned, but they loved him more than anything, and when he died it absolutely tore the two of them apart.

Jack went from a fairly happy-go-lucky, glass-half-full, ray of actual sunshine to a sarcastic, pessimistic, ball of anxiety literally overnight.

He was severely depressed after Charlie’s death, to the point where he actually had to be hospitalized.

When he was released, he moved back in with Sarah, even though they had been separated before his hospitalization. It wasn’t long after his release that he was pulled for the first mission to Abydos with Daniel.

After that mission, his nightmares changed. After Charlie’s death, they had all been about watching his son die, but after Abydos the nightmares now forced him to relive the deaths of his men, Daniel, and the boys who were killed fighting Ra. He and Sarah got divorced, and he went into early retirement.

To everyone’s shock, retirement turned out to be the best possible thing for Jack.

While he was still clearly depressed, he improved in leaps and bounds. He put a lot of energy into himself and his mental state, and, a year later when General Hammond called him back to Cheyenne Mountain, he was almost unrecognizable as a different person.

Going back to Abydos and seeing Daniel, Sha’re, and Skaara and his boys living and thriving was also really good for him. After Skaara and Sha’re were taken, he went into another spiral, but forced himself out of it by telling himself that he had to get them back. Was this healthy? Probably not. Did he care. Definitely not.

He didn’t really want to rejoin the air force and the stargate program, but did it more to watch over Daniel and to rescue Skaara than anything else.

He did come to truly love it, though, and even though the circumstances that brought him back were horrible he was still grateful to be part of SG-1.

Teal’c

Most of the Goa’uld system lords saw their female Jaffa as little more than breeding partners to the males, to create more Jaffa soldiers to serve their “gods”, and incubators for the juvenile symbiotes that all Jaffa carried, and Apophis was no exception.

Teal’c was fairly young when her father died, executed by Cronus for failing him in battle. She had already been in training with her father and Bra’tac—female Jaffa were expected to know how to fight, even if they were never called upon to serve their overlords in this way—determined to break out of the traditional path expected of her as a woman. Her father’s death lit a new fire within her, however, and she attacked her training with a new fierceness that unnerved even Bra’tac a little. She vowed to someday become the first prime of Apophis, Cronus’s greatest enemy, so she would one day have the pleasure of killing the god that ordered her father’s death.

The only woman in Apophis’s ranks, she literally clawed her way to the top of his Jaffa.

The other warriors feared her and whispered horrible stories of her victories in battle behind her back.

These were greatly exaggerated, of course, but Teal’c did nothing to discourage them. She wanted the most fearsome reputation she could get.

She gained a reputation for bloodthirstiness, fierceness in battle, and an almost animalistic nature when she fought. This caught Apophis’s attention, and she earned his favor.

Drey’auc was a childhood friend, and one of the only people Teal’c ever trusted enough to show her softer side to.

When Drey’auc’s husband was killed in battle, Teal’c took her and her newborn son Rya’c under her protection.

Deep down (largely thanks to Bra’tac and her father) Teal’c never truly believed that the Goa’uld were actually gods. She wanted to become Apophis’s first prime more for the power and respect that came with the position, and in hopes of having the chance to kill Cronus, than to actually serve him.

There were a lot of things that happened over her years in service to Apophis, both before and after becoming first prime, that really cemented her belief that the “gods” she had been raised to believe in were false, but she didn’t dare voice this to anyone but Bra’tac—she never even tonld Drey’auc, beyond a few vague hints.

When she met Jack, Sam, and Daniel and heard Jack promise to save the other prisoners, she saw it as her best choice to finally rise up against the oppression of the Goa’uld and jumped at the chance to help the humans.

On Earth, she realized that the humans there would trust her and respect her without the bloodthirstiness she’d been forced to show to the other Jaffa, and slowly began to relax slightly.

Seeing the respect shown to Sam, Janet, and other women on the base was basically revolutionary to her.

Slowly, she began to relax and open up to her new friends.

She sees herself as a protecter to her team in particular, and even to the SGC as a whole. Daniel, Sam, Jack, and Janet specifically are the people she feels the most protective over.

As time goes on, she slowly accepts SG-1 as a newfound family. As far as she’s concerned, the three of them are the siblings she never had, and she would do anything to protect them.

Drey’auc’s death rocked her to the core and led to a lot of questioning.

She almost left the SGC to take care of Rya’c, but it was actually Bra’tac who convinced her to stay, telling her that the Tau’ri were their best chance to defeat the Goa’uld once and for all and promising to take care of Rya’c in her name.