#wonder if any of my current mutuals/friends are surprised by this

[nabhx]

WE MAKING IT OUT THE BOX WITH THIS ONE 🗣🗣

I saw like a singular LJ drawing on Instagram and?? He used to be my absolute favourite back in the day, it's so weird to be back here fhfgh weirdly healing as well though! Child me would explode (affectionate)

[shockercoco]

Chasing Feelings

Tyler Owens x reader

warnings - mutual pining, jealous!reader, some swear words, fluff

word count - 2838

a/n - this was literally supposed to come out within a week of the release of twisters, but I’ve been gone for a month lol. I took so many breaks while writing this, so I'm not completely sure everything goes together, but it should. thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy :)

You’ve had a crush on Tyler ever since the day you met him, and to you, he was way out of your league. You also weren’t the only one who felt this way; the amount of girls who showed up at empty fields just to meet Tyler was insane, but could you really blame them?

Tyler has so much charisma to the point where it seems like he’s attracted to everyone he meets. 

When he stares directly into everyone’s eyes, giving them his undivided attention, and flashes that charming smile of his, it’s kind of hard to tell who he actually is or isn’t flirting with. 

You, of course, were no different, so how the hell were you supposed to know that he liked you back?

Tyler was from Arkansas and he and his team decided to move to Oklahoma to storm chase several seasons ago. When he first showed up that day at the gas station with Boone filming his every move, you thought that he was just another adrenaline junky wanting to see a tornado  up close for views. At the time you were a part of another group of chasers from Oklahoma, and since you had already made up your mind about him, you decided it was best to ignore him.

But, he made it hard.

You were surprised to see him walk over to your group and start chatting it up with a couple of your teammates. Turns out, they knew him from his youtube channel and were fans. Having him so close to you made it easier to check him out, which Tyler had noticed, but never called you out for it.

He came up to introduce himself to you, giving you a smile and taking off his sunglasses as he walked towards you. 

“You’re a long way from home,” you had told him – you had overheard him talking about his hometown in Arkansas.

“This is my home now,” he had said.

He had pointed out that he was familiar with some of your work and began joking around with you so casually like he had known you his whole life. Unfortunately, you became immediately hooked.

You spent that night binging all of his videos and past live streams because you were oh so wrong about him.

That day led you to where you are now, a part of Tyler’s crew and regularly going out on chases for the fun of it.

“How are you doin’ today, Bambi?” you hear Tyler walk up and come stand next to you as you adjust the lens on your camera. You, and all the other crews, were currently at a gas station preparing for the coming storm.

When he had first given you that nickname, you had told him it was basic, which resulted in him smirking and saying, “Ain’t nothing basic about you.”

You still think about that moment to this day.

“Just fine, Tyler, is there something I can help you with?” you answer, not taking your eyes off your camera.

“What, I can’t talk to my favorite person?” he asks. 

You can hear the smile in his voice, and when you finally turn around to look at him, you aren’t surprised to see it spread across his face. “I thought Boone was your favorite person?” you tilt your head at him.

“I can have more than one favorite,” he says, nudging you with his soldier.

You raise your eyebrows and glance over at Boone, who was already looking in your direction with a knowing smile, and say, “I wonder how Boone would feel about that.”

Boone was Tyler’s best friend and had known you had a crush on Tyler the day you joined the team, and since then has repeatedly told you to confess to Tyler. Every time you tell him no, he just tells you yes because according to him Tyler feels the same way about you. It didn’t take long for Dani and Lily to catch on either, but unlike Boone, they don’t pressure you.

“No need to start any trouble,” Tyler jokes, and you laugh at that. He opens his mouth to say something else, but stops when he hears the sound of more vehicles pull up. 

The two of you turn around in time for you to see the crew exit their vehicles, including Javi and what you know to be Kate. You’ve never met Kate given the fact that she rarely decides to come back home to Oklahoma, but from what you’ve heard she’s really good with tornadoes.

You watch as the pair head towards you – Javi coming up to hug you while Kate goes to hug Tyler. Javi shoots you a look as he glances over at the two, and you quickly give his shoulder a shove, causing him to let out a laugh.

Javi is also amongst those who know you like Tyler. This crush is honestly starting to become a little pathetic.

Kate pulls away from Tyler and looks over at you with a kind smile, holding her hand out for you to shake. “Hi, I’m Kate. I’ve heard a lot about you from Javi, so it’s nice to finally meet you.”

According to Boone, Tyler couldn’t keep his eyes off of Kate the last time she was here. At the time your migraines had started to come back so you had decided to sit the chase out, and good thing you did because there was no way you could handle watching that scene unfold.

You offer Kate a smile back as you shake her hand. “Same here, it’s nice to meet you.”

“What brings you city folks out here?” Tyler jokes.

Kate rolls her eyes at the nickname. “I’m doing the same thing the two of you are doing – storm chasing,” she replies as she looks out at the horizon at the clouds forming, her hair moving with the breeze.

“I thought you left Storm Par,” you say to Javi as you motion your head towards the white trucks

“We did, but that doesn’t mean we can’t use their equipment. They have some really high tech stuff – we might as well put it to good use,” Javi explains. He then looks over at Kate and gives her a nudge. “Not like we need it since Kate’s here.”

Kate gives him a small smile at the compliment.

“Well, city girl, which direction are we going in today?” Tyler asks as Kate bends down to take a dandelion into her hand. Tyler takes his sunglasses off in order to get a better look at the sky. 

It’s a question Tyler usually asks you when it’s just the two of you in his truck with the rest of the crew following behind in their vehicles. You have no right to be jealous, but that doesn’t stop the feeling of jealousy from growing in your chest. Choosing to ignore it, you take a deep breath and watch Kate, waiting for her answer.

You watch as a gust of wind blows the specks of dandelion out of her hand, causing Kate to look up into the sky at a dark funnel beginning to take form.

“That one,” Kate points.

“Are you sure?” Tyler questions in a teasing manner, one of his eyebrows raising.

“I’ll tell you later,” Kate replies, and then follows it with a question, “ do ya mind if I ride with you?”

“Not at all,” Tyller answers, but then turns to look at you,” as long as my trusty navigator doesn’t mind.”

What the hell are you supposed to say? No? 

You don’t even notice your tense jaw until you open your mouth to answer. “Of course not, you two go ahead,” you tell Tyler, looking between him and Kate as you offer up a smile.

“Well then it’s settled, let’s ride. Just make sure you don’t get me lost,” Tyler smirks as he turns to walk towards his truck. Kate rolls her eyes as she follows him, a small smile on her lips.

Javi turns to you once the pair are out of earshot. “You don’t mind?” he repeats your words, not believing you for a second.

“I don’t,” you give him a shrug as you begin walking towards his Storm Par truck. Javi follows right behind you, his hands stuffed into his pockets.

“Mhm. You look like you were about to pop a blood vessel,” Javi lets out a laugh.

You stop in your tracks and turn to face him. “Was it that obvious?” you ask, your eyes wide.

“Relax, I’m kidding,” his smile drops once he sees the look on your face. You release a breath and continue walking. Once the two of you are in the safety of his truck, Javi asks, “you really like him, huh?”

“Unfortunately,” you huff out. “I’m slowly trying to get over it, though.”

“Why?”

“Because it's a useless little schoolgirl crush, and it’s not like he’s actually going to like me back, so there’s no point in continuing to suffer.”

Javi just hums in response, starting the vehicle and placing his hands on the steering wheel. Then he glances over at you, “I say you should hold out, what’s the worst that can happen?”

Before you can answer, Tyler’s truck pulls up beside you guys on Javi’s side of the car. Tyler leans forward to look over at the two of you before moving his finger in a swirling motion and driving off.

“That’s your man, huh?” Javi gives you a questioning look, his tone light.

You let out a small laugh, “Just drive the damn truck, Javi.”

The chase was eventful as always. Kate’s instincts were right and led the group right into the tornado’s path, where Tyler stopped to anchor his truck. The rest of you hung back as you watched Tyler shoot fireworks into the eye of the storm. 

Even though you had some distance on them, you could still hear the hoots and hollers coming from their spot in the field. The group of tornado watchers that had decided to join the chase got out of their vehicles to join the celebration.

Javi looks over at you and shakes his head in fake disappointment, resulting in you rolling your eyes.

After the chase everyone decides to go out for drinks before heading to the motel. From your spot at the bar next to Javi, you can see Tyler in the back of the bar throwing darts with Kate.

“You know, you should blink every once in a while,” you hear a voice say in your ear. You jump and turn around to see Boone standing there with a grin and a beer in one of his hands.

“I don’t think she cares at this point, she has been ignoring me all night for that redneck,” Javi jokes.

You scoff, “No, I haven’t.”

“Oh really? What was I just talking about then?” Javi looks at you with his eyebrows raised. Boone joins him and turns his attention back to you.

Your mouth opens, but you quickly close it when you realize you don’t have an answer. You let out a sigh as you drop your head into your hands. “I’m sorry,” you say in defeat.

“Don’t worry about it,” Javi says, “I just can’t wait for the two of you to finally get together so this can end.”

“You and me both, brother,” Boone says, clinking his beer bottle against Javi’s.

As the night starts to come to an end, you say your goodbyes to the group before heading back to the motel. It was just across the street, and the majority of the people in the area were tornado chasers, so you had no problem walking back by yourself.

After making your way up the stairs and into your room, you decide on taking a quick shower before heading off to bed.

When you get out, you’re about to turn the lights and the tv off so you can go to sleep when you hear a knock on your door. Assuming it was Boone, Dani, or even Lily, you open the door without hesitation, only to reveal Tyler on the other side.

He stands in front of you, his hands in his pockets as he looks down at you with a gentle smile and his clothes still on from the day. “Hey, there. You left without sayin’ goodbye.”

“Well I told Boone, Javi, Dani, and Lily goodbye, so technically I did,” you tell him. A gust of wind from the night breeze blows through the doorway, causing you to cross your arms over your chest.

“Ouch, I see I’m not important anymore,” Tyler says.

You let out a small laugh. “I’m pretty sure you don’t need me to tell you you’re important.”

“You know I do,” he says.

You let out a small hum in response before asking, “So where’s Kate?”

“I’m actually not sure, last time I saw her, I think she was talking with Javi,” he answers, his eyebrows furrowing as he glances back at the parking lot. Then he shrugs and says, “I had to leave her since she was kicking my ass in darts so who cares.”

“Didn’t enjoy having your ego bruised, huh?” you joke, and Tyler rolls his eyes.

“Hey, I don’t have a problem with gettin’ beat by a woman,” he chuckles.

“Whatever you say,” you smile at him. “Was there something else you wanted? I was just about to go to bed.”

Tyler clears his throat. “Uh yeah, there is actually,” he tells you as he stands up straight. You raise your eyebrows as you wait for him to continue. “I was wonderin’, well hopin’, you would want to do somethin’. You know, just the two of us,” he says.

Is he - No, let’s not jump to conclusions.

“Don’t we always?” you question.

“Well, yeah, but I meant…you know,” Tyler begins to scratch the back of his neck, and glances down at the ground, “Like a date.”

You blink. And blink again. And again.

Then when Tyler notices your silence, he adds, “But I totally understand if you don’t want to.”

You blink again. “Like seriously?” you finally ask. Your eyebrows are furrowed, still not completely believing him.

“Yes,” he says.

“Okay,” you nod, a small smile starting to form on your lips.

Okay? That’s all you have to say?

“Yeah?” Tyler perks up, and you nod again.

“Yeah,” you confirm.

Tyler chuckles. “You know, I don’t know why I was nervous. I already knew you had a crush on me.”

You choke on your spit as you give him an incredulous look. “You what?”

“Yeah, and you know I figured you would catch on to me by now, but I wasn’t sure if you were and just ignoring me or what,” he smirks.

“And how exactly was I supposed to catch on?” you ask, adding air quotes at the end.

“I’ve been flirting with you this whole time,” he tells you like it’s obvious.

“Tyler, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you flirt with anyone,” you tell him.

“No, I don’t,” Tyler’s face twists up, and you give him a look. He thinks for a second before saying, “Well, yeah, I guess I do. Kind of.”

“What the hell do you mean ‘kind of��?”

“I feel like my serious flirting is different from my usual charming self,” he shoots you a wink.

“No. No it’s not Tyler. Your usual charming self made me think you like Kate,” you tell him, causing his eyebrows to raise in amusement.

Well…maybe you should’ve kept that last part to yourself.

“You thought I liked Kate?” he smiles, leaning in a little bit more.

You roll your eyes and decide not to answer. Tyler takes your silence as a greenlight to keep talking shit.

“Were you jealous?”

You scoff as your eyes widen, “how dare you!”

“You were!” he exclaims, your reaction giving you away.

Feeling your face begin to heat up and wanting to hide from the embarrassment you back up to be able to close the door in his face. “Goodnight Tyler,” you mumble, fully ready to be alone once again, but of course Tyler puts his hand up to stop you.

“Oh come on, Bambi, don’t shy up on me now,” he smirks, going back to leaning on the door with his palm still on the door.

“Says the one who got nervous to ask me out,” you point out, causing Tyler to laugh. “Goodnight,” you repeat, and once again you try to close the door, but you’re met with resistance.

Tyler’s laughter dies down. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” he tells you. “Can I come in?”

“I don’t know,” you reply, giving him a stern look.

“Come on, I promise I won’t tease you anymore.”

You sigh. “Fine.”

Tyler thanks you as you step aside to make room for him to enter the room, but as he walks past you, he says, “But Kate? Really?” 

Yeah, he isn’t going to let this go anytime soon.

like what you see? check out my masterlist :)

[enwrites]

Cloud Nine (p.sh)

parings: brother’s bff!sunghoon x afab!reader

warning: 18+ MDNI !! not proofread (sorry for mistakes)

genre/cw: smut, e2l, mutual masturbation, voyeurism, sunghoon is a creep kinda, brother’s best friend trope, spit play, oral (male receiving), pillow riding, degradation, size kink, strength play, choking, breeding, spanking, sunghoon is pretty mean to reader, one year age gap, jay is your brother (lmk if anything was missed!)

synopsis: You and Sunghoon have never gotten along. Ever. Constant bickering and fights to the point your brother is fed up as well. What no one knew was how badly you wanted Sunghoon spewing those same words to your face in your bed. What happens when he sees something he shouldn’t have seen?

wc: 3.6k words

a/n: hi hi !! this is my first ever fic on here !! pls let me know how this was and im happy to receive any feedback <3 a hee fic is currently in the works, i just had sunghoon brain rot so i needed to let this one out LOL (update: part two coming soon ;))

[ masterlist ] [ part 2 ]

From as long as you remember, you have always hated your brother’s best friend— Park Sunghoon. Nothing about him amused you and you especially hated the way he always seems to be at your house every weekend. You couldn’t escape him. From his annoying laugh to his stupid ego, you hated everything.

But you couldn’t help but be so attracted to him. Yes, he was annoying but man was he just everything in a package. Tall and gorgeous… not to mention his insanely fit body. You couldn’t help but wonder how big he’d be, hovering over your small frame. But everything disappears in an instant the moment you hear loud knocks on your door. 

“Y/n can you get that! It’s Sunghoon!” your brother Jay yells at you from the kitchen. The knocks persist as you stay put, pretending to ignore your older brother as it was his friend anyways. Why should you open the door for a monster? “Y/n please, I’ll make you something to eat too,” your brother begs you. With a loud groan you mutter a “fine” and drag yourself off the couch, heading to the door to open it. Before he could loudly bang on the door once more, you pull the door open. He looks at you with a disgusted face. 

“Ugh, did not wanna see your face at the door,” he spits, walking past you making sure to bump your shoulder with his. You slam the door shut giving an annoyed smile back at him.

“If you had forgotten, this has been my house forever, you’re lucky I even open the door for heathens like you,” you spit back, your voice laced with venom. He squints his eyes at you, sticking his tongue out as he makes his way towards the kitchen. “Jay, can you tell your annoying little sister to shut the hell up for once oh my god,” Sunghoon complained to Jay as he walked into the Kitchen.

“How about you both shut the hell up,” Jay annoyedly said rolling his eyes as he put the pizza he’s been working on in the oven. He was never fond of the both of you constantly barking at one another. He thought maybe he was insane for thinking he felt some sort of tension between the two of you. He loved you both but seriously wished he could sew both of your mouths together whenever he felt like it. 

“HE STARTED IT!” You yelled in protest. You crossed your arms as you stood at the kitchen doorway, Sunghoon sticking his tongue out at you once again before turning to Jay. 

“I don’t care who started it, can you both just give me a single day of peace!” Jay exclaims letting out a sigh. A migraine was surely going to form sooner or later for him. Before you both can protest, he ushers the both of you out so that he can finish making the pizzas with some sanity left. You both grumpily make your way to the couch and sit on opposite ends. To your surprise, at least your favorite show was playing when you got back to your seat on the couch. 

“This show is so stupid, I’m changing it,” Sunghoon says as he reaches for the remote on the coffee table. Before he could get it, you immediately jumped up and grabbed the remote first.

“NO. This is my favorite show and my house, I’m not letting you change anything,” you loudly said to him. But he wasn’t going to let you go easily. 

“I don’t give a flying fuck if this is your favorite show or not, I wanna watch something else,” He spits back. With that, he lunges at you towards the remote. You hurriedly crawl back to where you were, making sure he couldn’t take the remote away from you. 

“Sunghoon stop it,” You struggled to let out as he was enclosing you on the couch. Your breath starts to hitch the closer he gets to you. You could feel him breathing on you. He pins you beneath him, his arms longer than yours as he reaches for the remote you try to hold behind your head. Sunghoon didn’t realize how compromising of a position you both were in until he finally reached for the remote in your hands and looked down at you.

There you were, under him, staring back at him with your doe eyes, crop top hiked up just a bit to where your bra was showing. He didn’t realize how short your shorts really were until now. Eying you up and down, he licks his lips. His thoughts were interrupted with you trying to get him off of you. You have come to your senses and realized how turned on he had just made you, immediately trying to push him off. He just pins your arms down more, inching closer to your ear.

“Stupid girls like you don’t deserve to do things they wanna do,” he whispers. His hot breath sends tingles down your body and you swear you get a little wetter. You try to push him off once more but he doesn’t budge. “Are you going to apologize to me for being so annoying now?” he asks. He looks at you, finding it amusing the way you’re struggling under him right now. He can’t help but think how you’d look naked under him. Sunghoon has always had a thing for you.

“Apologize for what? For your mother raising a dickface, that's you?” you bite back, rolling your eyes at him. Before he could say anything, Jay yells from

in the kitchen the pizzas are done. Sunghoon loosens his grip which gives you the perfect opportunity to push him down and onto the floor, scurrying your way towards your brother. Sunghoon gets up shaking his head… this wasn’t over for him.

Hours passed since your little altercation with Sunghoon earlier in the living room. You couldn’t get him out of your head. Your mind was racing and it didn’t help that he wore his stupid gray sweatpants once again. Thinking about the way he pinned you down and whispered in your ear was enough to get you excited again. With that, you take your shorts and crop top off, leaving you in just your lace undergarments underneath. You just so happened to put on a white matching set— Sunghoon’s favorite color.

To the thought of Sunghoon, you lean back down onto your bed and start to rub small circles on your panty covered clit. It’s embarrassing how wet you already were just thinking about him. You rub just a bit more, sliding your fingers up and down your pussy, feeling the wetness that pooled down there. But this wasn’t enough. You were so desperate and in need of something to satisfy you. You sit up, grabbing the second pillow beside you, putting it beneath you. 

Folding it just a bit, you straddle it. Slowly grinding down onto the pillow under you, imagining yourself riding Sunghoon. You hump the pillow in desperation, trying to get off. You grind and grind, wishing Sunghoon’s cock filled you up instead. 

Unbeknownst to you, Jay had fallen asleep to the movie he and Sunghoon were watching. Realizing that his friend was asleep, he decided to make his way to find you, just to mess with you again. He always found it so cute how annoyed you’d get to his teasing. But today was different, he wanted more. If it weren’t for Jay, he swears he would’ve taken you on the couch right there and then. Making his way down the long hall towards your room, he notices a faint light coming from the small crack of your door. He carefully steps closer and to his surprise, the sight before him was nothing he ever expected to see in a million years.

There you were, on your bed, wearing nothing but a skimpy lace lingerie set, grinding down on a pillow so desperately. He watches you, making sure he stays as quiet as possible to not get caught. There you were, humping a pillow, your hips grinding over and over, letting out the cutest sounds he has ever heard. Did you know your door was a bit cracked? Who cares, he was enjoying the view. 

Sunghoon palms himself as he watches you, not wanting to even blink in fear of missing the show. He just couldn’t believe this was happening. Before the realization of him being a creep watching you pleasure yourself through the crack of your door, that’s when he hears it. You had moaned his name. His dick twitched in his pants, painfully hard and needing to be released.

“S-Sunghoon, you feel so good,” you moaned, increasing your speed on the pillow. He swore he was gonna explode right then and there. He had to have you. But he knew he had to punish you as well. He pushes the door open even more and to his surprise you hadn’t noticed yet. Hell, you haven’t even noticed the fact that he closed the door before him as well.

Loss in your trance, Sunghoon watched you just for a bit before making his move. He clears his throat to get your attention. Startled, you urgently grabbed your blanket to cover yourself, shocked to see Sunghoon in your room. There he looked at you with a smug smile painted on his face.

You swore you saw evil behind those eyes.

“Oh don’t stop now, I was enjoying my show,” he pouts, walking closer to you, standing in front of your bed. “Go on, I’m here now, isn’t that what you wanted?” he asked in a cheeky tone. Your face was red and embarrassment washed over you. You wanted to run away. You felt like a deer caught in the headlights. 

“I’m not gonna tell you again, go on, continue what you were doing,” he demanded, pulling your blanket off of you. You were at a loss for words. But something in you gave into him. You start to straddle the pillow again, grinding your pussy against it. Embarrassed, you tilt your head down, trying to avoid any eye contact. You can’t help but get so turned on as he watches you. You hump your pillow desperately letting out whines and moans, trying your best to not be too loud.

“Hoonie~,” You moaned loudly, humping your pillow as you grew wetter. You felt so dirty. You couldn’t believe this was happening right now. You felt like you were on cloud nine and he hasn’t even touched you yet.

Sunghoon smirks, he takes in the scene in front of him, he couldn’t take it anymore and slips his pants down, freeing his hard on. He starts to slowly stroke, watching you as you pleasure yourself. His tip was red and angry, leaking a bit of precum already. He wanted to see more of you. 

“Take your bra off,” he demands. You look up at him, shocked to see him pleasuring himself. The sight of his cock making your mouth water. He was huge. No way you can fit that in you, you don’t even think it’ll fit in your mouth. Nevertheless, you obliged and took your bra off, your boobs slowly falling out of the cups. Embarrassed, you try to cover yourself again. He takes his pants and boxers off right away, signaling for you to get closer to him. He needed to feel your mouth on him. 

“As much as I love to see you getting yourself off, I need your pretty little mouth on my cock right now,” he said, sitting down on the bed beside you. He pushes you off the bed and onto your knees right in front of him. Watching you carefully, he grabs a fistful of your hair and pushes your face against his cock. 

“Open wide,” he instructs, hand still in your hair. You reach your hand up to his shaft, opening your mouth to finally get a taste of him. His tip was already leaking. You put his tip in your mouth. He lets out low groans, guiding you as he grips onto your hair even more. As you expected, he definitely could not fit into your mouth. So using your hand that was on his shaft, you start to stroke him as you suck him off. Getting lost in the pleaser, he needed to be down your throat and that he was gonna do. 

“Hands behind your back now,” he firmly said, the tone of his voice catching you off guard but you obliged, your panties getting stickier as the seconds passed. You put your hands behind your back and he starts to buck his hips, his tip reaching further and further down your throat. The sound of him groaning fills the room immediately. You just prayed to the lord your brother was sound asleep. 

With his dick down your throat, you can’t help but feel so turned on. This was dirty, you’ve never deepthroat a dick in your life. Well dicks as big as Sunghoon’s. He watches you, making sure to keep eye contact.

“I’ve always known you were a little whore, but letting me fuck your little mouth while your brother’s asleep down the hall?” he grunts out, slamming his cock in and out of your mouth. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, taking in the pleasure. He felt as if he was in a dream. Your eyes teary as all you can let out are moans against his dick. Being too turned on, you snaked your hand from behind your back and into your panties. You attempt to rub your clit as he fucks into your mouth. Now it was your turn to close your eyes from the intense pleasure. Your moans intensify, catching Sunghoon’s attention.

There he saw you, touching yourself. As much as he enjoyed watching you get off, never did he allow you to pleasure yourself as you were pleasuring him. He forcefully tugs you by your hair and off his cock, shaking his head at you as if he was disappointed. You take this time to catch your breath, puzzled at why he suddenly stopped. He then pulls you up by your hair, making sure you were eye level with him. He takes his other hand and grabs your face, squishing your cheeks to make sure you were looking right into his eyes. Chills ran through your body.

“Did I say you can touch yourself?” he quietly asks, you can feel his breath on your face. You shake your head, looking pitiful in his eyes. “Did I say you can touch yourself?” he repeats, that venomous tone coming back to his voice. You were nervous. 

“N-No…,” you shakily said. Your breathing intensifies. Sunghoon lets out an almost evil laugh. “I guess this little slut needs a punishment.” 

With that, he tosses you onto the bed. With your backside up, he drags your body to the edge. Standing right behind you, your legs hanging off, he starts to caress your cheeks. Taking in the beauty of your backside, it took everything in him to not take you right there and then. 

“Take your panties off,” he demands. You angle your butt up just a bit and reach behind you, slowly pulling them down, making sure he sees everything. He was watching you as if you were his prey and he was about to get ready to feast on a meal. The glistening sheen of your arousal stares back at him as you fully remove your panties. He couldn’t wait to have you. He makes his way closer to you, one hand on your ass and the other sliding up and down your folds. You were soaking, practically dripping down your legs.

“Please… touch me Hoonie…,” you softly spoke, the lack of physical action killing you on the inside. Still painfully hard and turned on, he swore he was going to explode right there, hearing your soft voice begging for him to touch you. Before you could speak up again, he spanks you. Caught off guard, you let out a yelp, the action turning you on even more. And then again, a spank lands onto your cheeks. His other hand’s still feeling your wetness, teasing you in an agonizing way. “I wanna hear you beg.”

You shiver a bit as his voice drops even lower than before. You couldn’t believe you were letting him do this to you in the first place. Feeling a sense of pride wash over, you were getting a bit fed up and were about to protest until yet another slap landed onto your cheek. This time harder than the previous two. 

“I said– beg,” he leaned down and whispered in your ear. You gulp, feeling trapped beneath him. 

“Hoonie please… need you so bad,” every sense of pride and dignity was thrown out the window as you let those words out of your mouth. “Sorry I can’t hear you. What did you say?” he snickers back, egging you on. With one hand now on your waist and the other rubbing his tip up and down your slick folds, he needed to hear you say it one more time. Too horny to even fight back, you crumbled beneath him, just wanting his cock in you as soon as possible. 

“Sunghoon please fuck me already, I need your cock in me right now!” you loudly said, he leans back down and into your ear he whispers a “good girl.” He pushes his tip into you, already feeling like your pussy was sucking him in. You both let out a moan. He felt so big in you and it was just the tip. 

“S-So… big …,” you muttered. He chuckles. “It’s just the tip baby, can’t handle my cock already?” he presses. You shake your head letting out a tiny squeal and he enters you even more. Fully into you, you felt as if you were being stretched out to the max, no way could you handle this. Yet your pussy was craving more.

Sunghoon couldn't handle it, without giving you any proper time to adjust, he starts stroking into you. Grabbing onto your waist with both of his hands, he fucks you hard on the edge of the bed. Seeing your small frame beneath him and the way your body was just engulfed by his hands, he gets even more turned on.

“So fucking tight Y/n, so fucking wet and all for me– is that right doll?” he grunts out as he slams his cock into you, trying his hardest not to cum. But your cute little moans were making it so hard for him, he felt so lost in the pleasure. 

“Y-Yes all y-yours Hoonie~,” you moan loudly, not a single worry in your body. Just you and Sunghoon. He couldn’t take it anymore, he had to see your face. In a swift second, Sunghoon flips you over, still standing at the edge of the bed, he puts your legs over his shoulders as he pumps deeper into you. Fucking you into your bed, he leans down, grabbing your face he pulls you into a heated kiss. Your lips mesh together like they’ve been dying for this moment all their lives. He reaches down to your neck, giving it a small squeeze, startled, you open your mouth which gives him access to stick his tongue. Your tongues dance with one other, Sunghoon starting to feel drunk off of you. After what felt like forever, he pulls back, hand on your jaw, holding your mouth open. He spits in it. You let out a loud whiny moan, feeling more aroused than ever before in your life. You instantly swallow, making him lose his mind. 

“You’re such a filthy little slut, swallowing my spit, letting me fuck you like this, is this what you wanted– huh?” He speaks to you, all you could get out were little yelps of “yes.” With your arms snaked around his neck, he pushes your legs off from his shoulders, shocking you he lifts you up off the bed and starts to pound into you harder and harder. You knew Sunghoon was fit but you didn’t know he was that fit. Taking you by surprise with this new angle, he holds you up as he fucks you hard, his pace increasing. You start to feel a knot in your stomach form, getting so close to your climax. Your pussy clenching around him, so tight and pulsating, he knew he was getting close as well. Room filled entirely of moans, skin slapping, and the smell of sex, you needed him to fill you up.

Before you knew it, with one hard pump, you screamed, cumming all over his cock. Overstimulated, he sets you back down onto the bed, helping you ride out your orgasm as he was soon to reach his. The feeling of your wetness and your cum all mixed into one was enough for him to unload right into you. With a few more strokes, he releases, holding onto your body as he rides out his own climax, pumping his seed into you. You felt so full and exhausted. He carefully pulls out, watching as his cum spills out from your pussy. It was a sight he never wanted to forget. He quickly grabs his phone to capture the moment, fingering his load that was spilling out of you back into your hole. You couldn’t help but blush, feeling a bit embarrassed. Sunghoon lays beside you, as he trails kisses along your neck. 

“Fuck– you’re all mine,” he said against your neck. Before any realization could hit the both of you as to what you guys just did with one another, the distinct sound of buzzing came from both of your phones. Your faces went pale.

*Jay added Y/n and Sunghoon to a group.*

Jay: You guys are fucking disgusting.

© enwrites // tumblr

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for possibly emasculating my husband?

My husband (27 M) and I (32 F) have recently gotten married and bought a house together. For context, we started dating three years ago, and I immediately fell in love with him. We met through a mutual acquaintance and he asked me out after twenty minutes of conversation. He was a perfect gentleman, incredibly intelligent, very handsome, funny, hardworking and kind. On our third date, when we began to get serious, he told me he was transgender – that he had been born female but transitioned to male in his early twenties. This came as a surprise but didn't really change anything. He was the perfect boyfriend and is currently a fantastic husband. He's not out to most people, but a few mutual friends know.

Since we bought a place together, we've both started jobs in the area. He has a very good full-time job at an office about twenty minutes away, and my job is part-time, about ten minutes away from home and five minutes from his office building. His office building has a fast food place next door where most employees get lunch.

Often, my husband forgets his homemade lunch, and I make sure to bring it to him during my lunch break, or after my shift ends. I take a lot of pride in my cooking, and I want to show off to him, so I like to bring him different kinds of meals, in what I've been told is kitchy and cutesy presentation (I write him a love note on the napkin, or make a heart out of vegetables, or fold a rose out of salami slices, etc.)

I take the elevator up to his office, hand him his lunch, give him a kiss, and then I'm off back to work. It's almost like a ritual of ours, and sometimes I find myself looking forward to him having forgotten his lunch. (Does that make me a bad person?)

A mutual friend of ours who works at my husband's office told me in private that I'm emasculating him by bringing him overly cutesy lunches and, her words, not mine, "fawning over him." She also knows about my husband's past, and is very educated and active in LGBT+ rights outside of work. I'm really not as educated, and I grew up in a conservative immigrant household and neighborhood where I hadn't even encountered anyone LGBT+ until I was in college. When she brought this up to me, it made me incredibly self-conscious, and worried that I wasn't validating my husband's masculinity. Recently, I didn't take him his lunch when he forgot it, and he asked me if I was mad at him when he got home. I assured him I wasn't, but now I'm worried.

I'm also worried to ask him what to do, because I don't want it to seem as though I'm treating him any differently because he happens to be transgender. It's never been an issue before, but now I'm thinking more deeply about our relationship and wondering whether I'm unconsciously emasculating him. I love my husband and don't want to hurt him, but I'm wondering whether I have already, by making him seem less masculine in front of his coworkers.

Am I the asshole?

What are these acronyms?

[screemnch]

Heterotopias, Pathologic, and what they have in common.

In the introductions of these I tend to put completely unrelated life anecdotes, because this isn't an academic paper. With that being said - I do hope to put together the next instalment of the bilingual madness project that I've started, but not right now. I'm in the part of my life where I'm majoring in a subject and a few months of study have granted me the delusion that I actually know things, and I'm taking that and running with it. This little unhinged essay will include the following:

A brief recap of who Foucault is (really brief. Just for the context)

A little less brief recap of his concept of the "heterotopia", an explanation of some necessary concepts and essays on the subject

The examination of heterotopias in game - how they exist within the fictional town on Gorkhon and what that means

Finally, a pretentious talk about video games and specifically Pathologic as a heterotopia, where I might go completely off the rails and lose all my trains of thought at once.

So let's get started.

Who is Michel Foucault?

Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French philosopher, critic, activist and damn near everything. There are few topics in my current major where his name doesn't come up. He's had a say in theories of language, gender, sexuality, identity, space, politics, power and so on and so forth. There have also been multitudes of people criticising his ideas, and not without good reason. In this discussion I'm not putting this dude on a pedestal and I don't encourage anyone to base their whole understanding of philosophy on one French guy's opinion. That being said, let's go look at some of his ideas in terms of language and space.

What is a "heterotopia"?

Wikipedia kindly tells me that the word was first used in the preface of an essay called "the Order of Things". In the preface, Foucault compared it directly to the concept of a utopia (which is where the alarm bells go off for any and all pathologic fans). This was preceded by an important discussion of language in terms of relations - the idea that many concepts and things are described and perceived through the lens of comparison and juxtaposition. Think about how one would perceive light by comparing it to darkness. In Foucault's opinion, these relations make up a grid that shapes our perception. These relations are, by definition, also mutually exclusive. That which is a dog cannot also be a cat. That which the language defines as close cannot be far.

Which is why, immediately after that, Foucault says "lol, syke" there ARE things that can encompass these contradictory sites within themselves; a fantastical conceptual instance in which something like that is possible - he calls those things "utopias". In the preface he even calls the road to such a utopia "chimerical". The more common view of a utopia is "a perfect place with no flaws". But in Foucault's writing, utopias are something that rises above our perception of relations and embodies multiple contradictory things at once - which is what makes it perfect. Most importantly, however - utopias have no physical space. They cannot. Our language doesn't allow for something that exists outside of comparisons, especially not when it physically manifests in our world.

This is why, for example, in pathologic, Aglaya Lilich so vehemently insists that the Polyhedron cannot stand. She calls it a utopia, and those things cannot exist, must not exist. They cannot take up physical space. Which is when our good friend Foucault comes back for a surprise round.

See, we were lead to believe that utopias cannot exist, and it's meant to be a comfort - there isn't anything in our perception of the world that shatters our grid of comparisons and juxtapositions and that's wonderful. But we were, all of us, deceived. And we should be scared, because, to quote him directly - "Heterotopias are disturbing, probably because they secretly undermine language, because they make it impossible to name this and that, because they shatter or tangle common names, because they destroy 'syntax' in advance, and not only the syntax with which we construct sentences but also that less apparent syntax which causes words and things (next to and also opposite of one another) to 'hold together'" (this is still from the preface, yeah). In saying this he does not make clear what exactly a heterotopia is, which is why we'll turn to his other works. Namely "Heterotopias" (the introduction to which, written by Anthony Vidler helped me a ton in understanding what the hell this overly verbose dude is talking about) and its later iteration called "Of Other Spaces." I think those were both originally speeches, but I've found them transcribed, and I'm more focused on their meaning anyway. Those two texts are almost the exact same thing, with a few select differences, which aren't exactly relevant.

We get our proper explanation in these essays that I'll sum up to my best ability. A heterotopia is something that takes up physical space, yet has properties similar to a utopia. A physical space that embodies contradictory qualities. One of his early examples of something that is a heterotopia (but also a utopia at the same time, go figure) is the mirror; the false reality in which you are portrayed in a physical space where you are not, because you are quite clearly not standing in front of yourself, makes it a utopia. Yet the fact that by existing it creates a space in which you are technically standing in front of yourself makes it a heterotopia. He also points out a children's playground as a heterotopia. In "Heterotopias" the essay he likens it to children playing on their parents bed, but we could compare it to, say... A sandbox. Children playing in a sandbox is a heterotopia. The sandbox is a physical space, and yet it's also an unreal "other" space that exists in the children's perception. This space, say, a town, is both existent and non-existent. Contradictory.

Foucault goes to say more about the kinds of heterotopias that can exist, and as he mentions them, it becomes clear as to why architects took to the concept so readily. Many of these heterotopias are not just physical spaces, but buildings - theatres, museums, prisons, etc. There are other types of heterotopias - cemeteries, or "heterotopias of festival", but that's beside the point. A prominent example Foucault brings up is the brothel (a place both public and private at the same time) but he states the "perfect" heterotopia to be the boat/ship. Seriously, he calls them the "greatest reservoir for our imaginations" ("Heterotopias") and waxes poetic about how if we didn't have boats we'd be deprived of dreams. But hey, I'm here talking about a video game, who am I to judge.

Architecture, Space, and the Town on Gorkhon

Good old Wikipedia defines heterotopias as spaces that are somehow "other." Which is a good explanation for people who already know what a heterotopia is. As I've explained above, it's a little bit more complicated than that. However when I first heard the definition, my brain went "That's the Polyhedron! That's the stupid tower from that one game I'm obsessed with!" And indeed, it'd be easy to look at Wikipedia's definition of a heterotopia and compare it to the Polyhedron - it's most definitely "other." Even by what we've established here - it's a utopian contradiction that exists in physical space. So is Aglaya Lilich wrong for calling it a "utopia"? Is it actually a "heterotopia"? Would that change anything at all about the events of the game?

Real answer is: I dunno. Out of context of the game's story, it very much would count as a heterotopia (if we treat it as something existing within a real space, not in game space). It would be an architectural wonder, but it would also be a physical space that encompasses multiple things at once. It's made of paper and mirrors at the same time. It's precarious and safe at the same time. You could even bring in a specific type of heterotopia it could be - namely a "crisis heterotopia" (as outlined by Foucault in both "Heterotopias" and "Of other spaces") - a kind that is supposedly phasing out of existence. A place where people go when they are in a state of crisis. This is where debate would no doubt arise, because there are a bunch of types of heterotopias it could be (heterotopia of deviation, for example) and I love that. It's contradictory. It cannot be juxtaposed to other types of heterotopias. It shatters the liguistic definitions we cling to. Meta as fuck and I love that for her.

But also, raining on the parade of "the Polyhedron is totes a heterotopia, y'all" is the existence of context within and without the game. The town on Gorkhon is not a real space, and isn't in a real time. And that is both as a "game space" (a game played by kids in a sandbox) and as a ""game space"" (a game played by us, the players). In this way, concepts can manifest themselves without manifesting, things can exist without existing. The Polyhedron only takes up physical space within the eyes of the dolls, but to the kids it is no more real than the town itself. Within the laws of the game - the Polyhedron never became a heterotopia. It's a concept that the children spoke into existence, a contradictory thing, that also remains within a fantastical "game space". It's only rational that Aglaya would call it a utopia - her meta awareness allows her to see the tower, the whole town, for what it is. And as a utopia, it should not have a physical manifestation within the world that Aglaya can perceive. She is still just a doll, after all, and the world she perceives is physical to her, even if she knows it's just "game space".

I'm not posing either one of these ideas as "the correct one". You can choose to believe that the Polyhedron is a heterotopia, or you can believe that it's a utopia because it's all a game. You can even say that all of this is bs, and all the developers at IPL were trying to say is that perfection is impossible. But I'm gonna keep playing around and talk about another fun thing: the heterotopias are everywhere.

Go back to treating the town on Gorkhon as a physical space again. You may recall in the examples of heterotopias I cited some buildings and spaces that might sounds particularly interesting. A theatre. A cemetery. There's also the idea that heterotopias have a unique relationship with time, in terms of either constantly accumulating time (museums) or emphasising its transience (fairgrounds). This temporal quality may remind you of the Catherdal in marble nest, where it warps time and changes the way it's perceived. In all honesty, when considering heterotopias besides the Polyhedron, my first thought went to the Abbatoir - it's a place where only select few are allowed, where a collective exists both privately and within the eye of society (which is also themselves), that accumulates time from way back in the history of the town. In short, just like the real world, the town on Gorkhon is full of heterotopias. And it's not surprising - Foucault's first principle of heterotopias established in both of the aforementioned essays is that "there is probably not a single culture in the world that fails to constitute heterotopias". Similarly, no longer thinking of the town on Gorkhon as a physical space, the town becomes a heterotopia as well. That is - it's a town within a sandbox during some kids' playtime. Delightfully meta. Let's all get delightfully meta, shall we?

Are video games heterotopias?

I was unable to find if Foucault has ever said anything about video games throughout his life. Technically he has existed at the same as them, but maybe at this point he had lost interest in talking about these spaces. There are multiple articles out there talking about games and Foucault's theories, and the sole reason why I haven't read them for this essay is because I didn't want to go down a goddamn rabbit hole and waste the next 8 hours reading about... Idk, tadpoles or smth. Let's work from the start, shall we?

Foucault clearly states that children playing pretend in a physical space is heterotopic. The place where they play becomes a heterotopia. Jumping off of that we can assume that things such as LARP (which takes place in a select location) is also a heterotopia, with an addition of some rules that the players adhere to. This leads us to considering things such as live dnd sessions heterotopic as well - players are gathered around a table. Their combat map, the physical space the DM uses to create the imagined space - all becomes a heterotopia (yes I made it about dnd, I'm a nerd of many talents). Once we take a step further, towards things like online dnd sessions and eventually video games - an important question emerges: can digital space house heterotopias? I'm sure Foucault would have considered cyberspace itself a heterotopia, if I've understood him correctly so far (and if I haven't... That sucks, cuz we're almost at the end of the essay). Can a heterotopia exist within another heterotopia? Would it be possible to peel away a layer by claiming that the digital screen - our window to the cyberspace, to the "game space" - constitutes as physical space? Is a video game, in that case, a heterotopia as well? And does that mean that by playing Pathologic we are experiencing a heterotopia, within a heterotopia, within a heterotopia? Are you tired of the "h" word yet?

Truth is, once again: I dunno. I like to believe that it is, cuz it allows me to think of Pathologic as something even cooler than I originally thought. Something even more meta. It's interesting thinking about how something that came from linguistics then went into architecture and eventually came to media entertainment. I also really like the implications that come with the significance of this concept in regards to the architect characters present within Pathologic. I wonder if they knew (given how patho is set in a dubious time, so it'd be difficult to establish if them knowing about Foucault's theories would even be possible). In part I just also felt fascinated by many people linking Pathologic to concepts within theatre (like Codex Entry, or that one post on here about Edward Gordon Craig by tumblr user erriga) and got really excited about bringing something similar to the table. I hope it sparks some discussion and brings forth some ideas from other passionate fans. Anyways.

Go read the actual stuff:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/43202545

https://www.jstor.org/stable/464648

(sorry about the links if they don't work. I'm not technologically advanced enough to figure out if smth is wrong before I post it)

[its-short-for-jackalope]

THE SEARCHER IN THE SHADOWS

☆ Thoughts On Part One ☆

I have many thoughts and feelings and I am definitely not gonna be able to wrangle every last one in here, but I can do my darnedest to hit most of the big ones!

Dropped From The Clouds

The contrast of this first song compared to the start of TGOA makes me a little insane. Both songs are full of questions and uncertainty and take place after the characters have been teleported to another time and place, but When Are We? has the comfort and assurance of being with friends while Dropped From The Clouds has Rose isolated and alone without any familiar faces, and the parallel just reminds me of how much has changed and how quickly things are continuing to change. When are we going to slow down? Not now, it seems.

Dakkar's introduction, oh my god — "I'm nobody." [mildly threatening Radiance noises] "Give me the orrery." — and then he immediately goes into science mode. I need to draw him so bad. Also, side note, I already adore Jesse Bhamrah's voice.

He was/is a Traveler and a Searcher? so it seems the titles aren't mutually exclusive, then. I wonder if his unclear status as a Traveler has anything to do with whatever he's got going on that we heard in Transmission 14.

Fast Friends

CAPTAIN ADDISON ARVAD!!!!!! THE SCREAM I WANTED TO SCRUMPT!!! (also Natalie Masini sounds amazing)

"Lower your weapon, for God's sake." "The gun was your idea." I love them, your honor

So Dakkar and Addison were absolutely taking precautions in case Kal had possessed Rose, right? That's the vibe I get, anyway. Maybe they know he's capable of doing that sort of thing (maybe Sia has seen it happen? or, y'know, ✨️seen✨️ it) and that's why they wanted to check if she knew the GAD's publication date—Kal doesn't seem to automatically gain his host's knowledge, like when he didn't seem to know Morgan had already been sent away, so if he was possessing Rose then he probably wouldn't have known the date.

...Actually wait, you know what? Maybe it was Itzal they were worried about. We don't really know anything about what magic he could have at his disposal—maybe he can also possess people or change his form. and since he's a bigger, badder threat, I think it could make more sense for them to avoid saying his name rather than Kal's. 🤔

ADDISON IS A ROSE FAN???? ROSE IS PRETTY FAMOUS ON THEIR ISLAND??!? THEY HAVE A BRICK FROM TOWNSHIP NUMBER 9??!!?! Rose deserves the hype 100% of course but I have so many questions

okay I didn't expect Rose to meet Addison the very hour she arrived 2 weeks in the past, so I did not consider the fact that she and the crew would be here and they wouldn't have disappeared yet. I am now deeply afraid, because I know something happens to her. I have been so afraid of how the time travel will hurt me irt the twins that I didn't think about how many OTHER ways the time travel could hurt me.....

AND ROSE CAN'T WARN HER!!! So she just has to keep her mouth shut and let it happen and Addison must know that something happens, she and Dakkar didn't seem surprised that Rose didn't know who she was, but she's gonna go in blind anyway... 😭😭😭 okay wait, what if Addison and Sia's plan was for them to leave the Antikythera drifting for the others to find, but instead of returning to Lincoln Island Addison and her crew disappeared??

Destiny Strange and Sublime

...well now I just feel silly for not even considering that Dakkar would be the Searcher in the shadows 😂

I can't quite tell if the people he mentions he'd been unable to save is like... a personal thing, as in he actively failed to save them because of his own mistakes, or if it's more of a shared grief for the Blazing World and all its inhabitants. the first interpretation is definitely more angsty, lol.

I wish I had more coherent thoughts on this one but at this current time it mostly boils down to ohh pretty music, Dakkar is cool, Jesse Bhamrah is awesome, et cetera.

Arrival, part 1

HELLO PART 1 SONG!!!! I am excited to see how parts 2 and 3 may emotionally devastate me in the coming week!

so many people from the Blazing World! pleasantly surprised my island of refugees theory was correct. then again, I've spouted off enough theories that odds are at least some of them gotta be right, lol

Ahlaam my beloved!!! Virginia's voice is gorgeous, omfg.

The different creatures and plants from all over the world.... have the Searchers been looking for things that remind them of the Blazing World and bringing them back to the island to make it feel more like home? Crafting a facsimile of the Blazing World from pieces of Earth? (aough, and I thought "Ipomoea, just like home!" couldn't hurt any more than it already did...)

the phrasing of "OUR planet's biggest ocean" is interesting to me. Is the Blazing World connected to Earth somehow, thereby making it the same planet in some way, or is it just that this island has been home long enough for Ahlaam to feel attached? Or. Or. If the Blazing World is on the moon, then it would make sense for Ahlaam to refer to the Earth as her planet because the moon revolves around it and it's the moon's planet. (yes, hi, hello, it's a new pulp episode, we are once again in the Overthink Everything And Fire Off A Bazillion Theories era <3 )

They've been waiting for Rose for YEARS? ...would that be since 1835, or 1829? and we know they've been waiting for Margaret because, well, duh, but have they been waiting for Samuel and John, too? or are they all just Rose stans?

the crew of the Antikythera....... 😭😭😭

I love that a good portion of this song is basically just Ahlaam going "check out our sweet digs" lmao

The nights have been dark but this is the spark that will set the whole lighthouse ablaze — YELLING RIGHT NOW, oh my god. lighthouses are guides through darkness and stormy weather and they also cut through fog, I want to bite something (/pos)

this has got to be both very nice and very overwhelming for Rose, lol.

Addison & Dakkar and Ahlaam & Dakkar are both very fun dynamics

A Spell Is Just A Rule Made With Magic

THE FOG IS FROM A SPELL!!! ITZAL CAST A SPELL AND CORRUPTED HIS PEOPLE! "It saturates the heart with darkness 'till you forget life before the blight" oh my god, he convinced all of them that the fog is how they always were & were meant to be? No wonder Kal considers Sia and Margaret traitors. So when Kal says "soon the Blazing World will meet its end" he might not be talking about an actual place—in his mind he's probably talking about the traitors' movement & the ridiculous, dangerous ideas they have about replacing Itzal's world with one of light...

"A spell is just a rule made with magic, and any rule can be broken" AOUGH. CHILLS.

ooh they believe Rose is the key? aw man this adds more weight to "I was a hero and the heroes win — don't they?" in Vanishing...

"Capital." oh my god Mr. Dahan you can't do this to me. The similarities between Dakkar and AJ have to be intentional, right?? ...oh god, is Dakkar gonna make a bad deal to save lives? Is he gonna sacrifice himself in some way to save his people?

Two Weeks

I love this montage, it's such a nice way to go through this part. also I just really like how this whole first part is structured, having this entire part dedicated to Rose in this time is a great way to handle the time travel without being confusing by jumping back and forth, AND it gives us time to get to know the new characters a little bit! It's also a bit of a breather after how hectic the end of TGOA was. (I feel like part 2 is going to get super intense super quickly, lol.)

So they start with science and testing her mind, giving Rose access to all their research to see if she figures out anything there. And then they go to the volcano and scan her, starting to test her body for evidence that she might be able to help them in some magical way. (They're probably still going over the research too, ofc. Those were a lot of books, Dakkar.)

Day 9!!! Sia is here!!! I desperately want to know exactly what she and Addison were talking about. I think it might be a plan to abandon the Antikythera for Margaret and the others to find in a few days, but that's mostly speculation.

also Sia seems so much more relaxed and at ease here. maybe it's because she's at home with her people and she can be less secretive than she was on the satellite? (and because she isn't in a literal magic battle, lmao.)

Dakkar mentions phase three and they go to the lake to try doing stuff with illusion magic—do they want to try using magic on Rose to see if they can get her to activate whatever magic she may have? Or maybe how Rose reacts to the illusion magic could reveal something...?

Rose not wanting to go in the water, aoughhh 😭 and Sia helping her when she's scared 😭😭😭

Dakkar's Grotto / Mobilis In Mobili

when I saw this scene during the premiere I said "holy sci fi" and I stand by that. this environment is so cool. I wonder why the rest of the island isn't like this when they're clearly people with a lot of knowledge and technology... it's probably a matter of supplies. They fled to this island from Itzal and his spell, so they wouldn't have had time to pack a lot of stuff. I imagine whatever they did manage to bring and/or build is all dedicated to their efforts to find a cure and protect everyone.

we know they haven't found anything yet because they're still testing Rose's blood. man, that's gotta be stressful for her. (And the Radiance folks, yeah, but c'mon. so much pressure on Rose right now and she's brand new to all this. 🥺)

The Nautilus is here!!! and it's a spaceship!!! AHHHH!!! 🤩

SHIT IS GOING DOWNNNNNNN! Margaret is radiating and I am going to be Thinking about what it means that Sia can sense it—is it a part of her precognitive abilities? is it part of whatever bond they have that allows them to combine their power?

Rose blurting out a warning about the fog and Ahlaam and Sia immediately getting more concerned.... I hope that maybe since she waited until right before Sia left it won't influence anything negatively, if at all—it's only a very small part of the present that will be influenced and it's not like they totally altered their actions across two weeks to accommodate for that information so I'm sure it's fine. hopefully.

Rose is worried about Samuel almost drowning like she did (and is/will be)... she is not going to like hearing about the dangers he's actually facing. well, if anything is gonna wake up potential magic in her, learning that one of the bad guys attacked & has been harassing her baby brother will probably a good contenderrrrroh fuck I had a thought. uh, stay tuned, we'll get there.

oh god the Ellen Austin will be arriving soon and Samuel and Rose will reunite (they BETTER REUNITE ASAP) and Rose is going to be two weeks older and I am going to perish

not the little reprise of The stars appeared... that made me so sad last time.... 😭 I love how this version of it is positive. the parallels,,,,,,

Rose and the Stars

IT'S HERE AT LAST!!!!

The past stays soaked into our skin 😭

we are lit by suns that shatter through the dark.....

WE TRAVEL WITH THE SPIRITS THAT WE KEEP — ough, makes me think of the ghost of all my yesterdays in Behind Me. also the change from "Don't spend a second looking back" in ep 1 to "only looking back to see how much we've grown" has me feeling things idk how to describe rn, lol

THE CONSTELLATIONS TURN INTO A CROWN!!!!!! 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

Rose will shine again 🥺��❤

A Few More Thoughts

Is the day Sia arrives also the day Addison and her crew left the island? we don't hear from her after this, and her disappearance isn't mentioned in the rest of part one but Sia knows that something happened to the crew when she confronts Kal on the Ellen Austin. If they had a plan for the Searcher crew to return to Lincoln Island and leave the ship for the others to find & investigate to kickstart Margaret's memories, but then the crew just didn't show up, I would think it would be mentioned? Unless they didn't want to overwhelm Rose and distract her from her work, or maybe they avoided discussing Addison & the Antikythera with her because of time travel rules...

oh and it is gonna take me a bit to grasp the time travel rules, lol. (sorry Matt, I haven't seen any Back To The Future since I was a kid.) I am going to be pondering the timeline for a while, particularly where Sia is involved. I feel like they probably want to avoid going back into the past as much as possible just based on how they are with Rose and how they put a lot of effort into not altering the present with her information about the future, but I don't think Sia would have gone from 1835 and skipped right ahead 39 years and stayed there? Like she has people to take care of and plans to make, she probably wouldn't just disappear on them for such a long time? maybe the Travelers who are experienced in abiding by Time Travel Rules are able to navigate backwards in time with more freedom because they know what they're doing. idk, like I said it's gonna take me a bit to wrap my head around this. maybe parts 2 & 3 will make it a little clearer.

OKAY, CONTINUING MY SAMUEL THOUGHT FROM EARLIER: Sia and her bunch believe Rose is the key. What if Itzal and Kal think Samuel is the key? What if that is why Kal was interested in Samuel on the Ellen Austin and why he seemed to really delight in antagonizing him? If Kal was hanging around long enough beforehand to see how close Margaret and Samuel are, then that could have convinced him that Samuel is Important™ to the Blazing World and that Margaret knows he is important to them. And maybe both sides are only halfway there, maybe it's both twins, together, who are the key, and that's why they haven't made progress towards the cure with Rose over their 2 weeks.

okay there are probably plenty of things that I'm missing and more that i could come up with and tack on, but I've been working on this post since last night and i want to finish it and get to other things so I am calling it here, lol.

...that is a horribly long sentence but I am not editing it. hope you enjoyed. <3

[obsessedelusional]

key : ♡ ⮕ fluff | ☁️ ⮕ angst | ☆⮕ smut

Your Pretend Boyfriend » 01 02 ♡☆

You back from college, visiting during thanksgiving break. Jason Carver has always liked you the feelings not mutual. So when you catch him harassing Eddie you pretend to be his girlfriend. What happens with your pretend boyfriend?

One Shots

Best Friends? » here ♡

Since birth your entire life revolved around one person, your best friend—Eddie Munson. The two of you always close but never crossing any boundaries that would allow you to be anything more than friends. It wasn’t until college that you were able to experience a life without him. Making other friends and dating, without his presence. Lead you feeling like things would be different when you returned to Hawkins. What happens when you do return, the both of you being a little drunk and in your feelings?

Guilty Pleasure » here ☁️ ☆

A drunken night leads to a hookup with none other than Eddie Munson. Which wouldn’t be such a problem if you weren’t currently in a relationship with Jason Carver. You tell you self it needs to stop but what happens when start to look forward to your secret meet ups with Munson?

Chocolate » here ☁️ ☆

You’ve been with Eddie for over three years, it’s only natural that the two of you would get comfortable? But are you too comfortable? It’s been nearly a month since you two had sex. When you realize that it sends you into a panic, desperate to find that spark again. You purchase enhancing chocolate and a sexy outfit, as a a surprise. What happens when your plans fall through, causing an argument?

The Prettiest Girl in The Room here » here ☁️ ☆

You shared a secret relationship with Eddie, if that’s what you could even consider it. You wished for more but never could bring yourself to tell Eddie this. What happens when your at a party and he gets dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room?

Ruin My Life » here ♡

You’re a new student at Hawkins Highschool. Over the summer you befriend Chrissy Cunningham not knowing she’s the queen of Hawkins. You don’t fit in with her friends at all, start wondering if you made a mistake sitting with them. You take notice of Eddie Munson and he doesn’t notice you, annoying you. What happens when you’re finally fed up?

Camp Counselor Munson » here ☆

You’ve been attending summer camp since forever. This year a new camp counselor joins, it’s Eddie. You’re the cheer captain, he’s the town freak. What could possibly happen between you two?

Drunk Text » here ☁️

You befriend Eddie Munson as an attempt to piss off your toxic on and off again boyfriend, Jason Carver. Only for you start comparing the two, quickly realizing Jason is no longer who you have feelings for. Based of the song Drunk Text by Henry Moodie

What the f*** are you looking at? » here ♡☁️

As a fellow social reject you sat at the same lunch table as the Hell Fire club. You didn’t mind, forming a crush on their leader Munson. What happens when one day he catches you starting?

Trigger Warning » here ☁️☆

A friend ship with Robin leads to a crush on Eddie Munson. One drunken night changes everything, suddenly Munson has a girlfriend. The group can’t help but assume it’s you. It’s not. Contains Smut

Five Star Service » here ♡☆

After a rough day of work you boyfriend Eddie offers you a full body massage.

In Your Dreams » here ☆

Eddie was your childhood best friend. What happens when he was a dirty dream about you? Will it tear you apart or bring you two closer?

Eddie ‘The Munch’ Munson » here ☆

Your best friend, Chrissy, confronts you wanting to know why you’ve been so distant. When you tell her it’s because you’ve been spending all your time under Eddie Munson she’s in shock, wanting to know everything. So you do exactly that, which leads to Chrissy reevaluating her relationship with Jason. Does her big mouth get you in trouble?

Your Own Little Secret » here ♡☆

Chrissy asks a favor of you which somehow leads to you forming a secret relationship with Eddie Munson. When you two make it official, you decide it’s time to make it public.

The New Girl » here ♡

It’s your first day at a new school and your a nervous wreck. Sitting at a random table of boys might just change your life for the better when their leader take a special interest in you.

[junosmindpalace]

hi! i've been rewatching a few tdliosk eps every once in a while and i kinda missed kusuo 😩 and since it's christmas season i was wondering if u could write a saiki x fem reader one-shot in reference to season 1 ep 16 where saiki dresses up as santa and distributes presents to the kids in their neighborhood? so uhm when he was about to go home, he sees reader walking in the street (she lives nearby) also dressed up as santa for some reason lol. saiki and her are friends to say the least but there's an unspoken mutual pining stuff going on between them. saiki walks her home then she suddenly sees a mistletoe on one of the houses... reader froze and blushes hard and saiki got confused so he read her mind and he was like oh... he's hesitating on whether he'll kiss her or not but much to his surprise reader makes the first move 😆 tysm and pls take ur time! ❤

hi there! Thank you so much for your request! I couldn’t resist writing one of my more recent requests especially with the holiday theme…i hope you enjoy!

ps., dialogue in italics are kusuos inner thoughts/talking via telepathy!

warnings: angst? maybe? if you squint?

wc: 1.4k

The last person Saiki wanted to see today was you. 

It was already a pain going door to door dealing with all the brats in his neighborhood, but suddenly it was a hundred times more embarrassing when you were nervously eyeing his Santa get-up in confusion. 

But something that sort of lessened his dread upon running into you was that you too were also wearing a costume like his.

Saiki had spent his entire evening playing this Santa delivering presents to the children in his neighborhood, courtesy of his parents. He flew around the sky with a sack full of presents, just like the real deal. He’s dealt with all sorts of headaches tonight- a scared child, a non-believer, and a family conflict, to name a few. By the time his sack was empty, Kusuo was exhausted and ready to head home, opting to simply walk with his empty bag instead of teleporting as he didn’t live far. He regrets this decision immediately, however, when he runs into you. Which leads him to the dilemma he’s put himself in right now. 

“Oh no…of course I'd run into Y/N at this very moment. Why didn’t I just teleport home as soon as I finished?”

Just like with the rest of his friends, Saiki found you a nuisance, someone who interfered with his ability to lead a “normal” and peaceful life, but for a different reason than the rest of his peers. The two of you had been friends for a long time, longer than any of his current ones, but your relationship has felt different recently, and it’s been stressing Saiki out. 

As of late, Saiki has taken notice of some new uncomfortable feelings that only arise around you. Tightness in his chest, a weird sensation in his stomach. He doesn’t get sick, so obviously these symptoms alarm Kusuo. What was even more alarming was the fact that they were recurring, and most alarming of all, they were only recurrent around you. 

He’d been trying to avoid the most dreadful conclusion for these feelings ever since he noted that they only arose around you. He’s heard the signs a million times thanks to his love-crazed classmates. Clammy hands, he’s got it. A burning feeling in his chest? A blazing feeling, even. It brought him a sense of horror unlike any other, but after being unable to rid himself of his troublesome feelings, he’d come to the conclusion that yes, he, of all people, has a crush. Even worse, it was a crush on one of the only tolerable people in his life.

Maybe this conclusion wasn’t all that shocking, but it certainly didn’t make Kusuo feel any good. He’d been friends with you for years, spending all that time getting to know you and growing comfortable with you, and now suddenly he feels something more than friendship? Him of all people, the psychic who thought that it was his very nature not to be romantically involved with anyone? It turned his view of himself upside down. 

Saiki reached this conclusion not too long ago, and he’s still trying to figure out what to do with it. What was even worse about the ordeal was that your thoughts, as of late, have also been worrisome, seemingly more eager than usual to be around Saiki and questioning yourself whenever you caught yourself thinking of him in a not-so-just-friends kind of way. He's been trying his best to avoid you until he can figure out how to dispose of these feelings without them growing and without you catching on, as it seemed that they only intensified each time he saw you, and that wasn’t something he wanted.

Yet here you were, and for some reason, you were also in a Santa getup like Kusuo.

And after recovering from your initial moment of shock, you spoke out into the quiet, frigid atomosphere.  “Kusuo? Is that you?”

-

As you lived near Kusuo, the two of you accompanied each other on your walks home. You both removed your beards and hats to see and talk to each other properly, and you anxiously explained to Saiki the reasoning behind your getup after he explained his own, flustered that he caught you at such an embarrassing time. 

“Well, my work required me to wear something festive, and I got stuck with Santa out of all our costumes. I would have preferred an elf or even a snowman over Santa. I’ve been sweating all day.” You laughed nervously as you held your gaze to the ground and your beard up in defeat. But then you let your arm drop to its side and you turned toward him with a small smile. 

“I think it’s nice what you did, even if your parents coaxed you into it. Not many people would step up like you did tonight.”

Saiki stared at you exasperatedly. Usually Saiki doesn’t care for any sort of praise he receives, and he really (and I mean truly), doesn’t mean to brag, but he usually receives a lot. He doesn’t think much of it, but something about it coming from you makes him reflect, which pained him. He hates the effect you have on him, which is why he’s been trying to stay away. But somehow, he always keeps finding his way back to you, and you to him. He has to deal with a lot of irritating people on a daily basis, but you were his ultimate headache. Just how was he about to go about this new development in your relationship? It made him uneasy to think that things would have to change between you two, that things were already changing. Was it because he let you so close to him that he developed these feelings for you? That he’s gotten so vulnerable, so much more anxious and scared? Was he right about relationships in general being nothing but an inconvenience? 

Your house came before his, and out of respect, Kusuo walked you to your doorstep, deep in almost dark thought about his feelings. You didn’t mind Kusuo being quiet, and for the most part, your dynamic has usually consisted of you being the more talkative one. Besides, you were both exhausted from your eventful evenings. What you didn’t expect was for Saiki to follow behind you as you climbed up the steps to your porch. When you turned around behind you, your eyes widened in alarm.

“Oh no, Saiki, it’s okay, you don’t need to-!”

By the time he stopped in his tracks, your warning was futile. Saiki stared in confusion over your panicked face, your eyes carrying a sort of frenzied look in them. “What? What’s with the sudden dismissal? I only-”

And suddenly his own eyes widened in panic as he realized his error, his miscalculation. He’s beating himself up for not being more cautious, especially during this time of year. How could he be so careless?

Kusuo slowly turned his head up, almost in fear, to get a better view of the mistletoe that hung above the two of you. 

“My family thought…it would be sweet…”

Saiki stared in horror with his mouth open at the plant before quickly turning his attention back to you. What was he supposed to do? He wasn’t entitled to kissing you, he could obviously refuse. But his stomach churned. Did he really want to be turned down? The thought, even if it cropped up for a second, made him want to slap himself and hurl. 

The two of you stared at each other nervously in silence for a couple of moments before you suddenly took a deep breath. Saiki’s eyes widened even further. “Are they seriously going to kiss me? I didn’t think they’d have the courage to make a move like that. Their thoughts never indicated-”

Warm lips met his cheek for the swiftest moment before only a tingling sensation lingered. It had happened so quick it left him feeling dazed from being pulled out so suddenly from his thoughts. His surprised gaze still firmly held your nervous one, and silence fell between the two of you for a brief moment. 

“Thank you for walking me home. Merry Christmas, Saiki.” You quickly sputtered out these final words before turning on your heel and quickly heading inside, thankful that the door was left unlocked by one of your family members like you had asked earlier that evening. 

Saiki couldn’t help but linger at the porch for a few seconds, staring at the closed door before slowly turning around and continuing the path toward his house.

There was good reason for him to want to avoid you, especially tonight. When he got home and headed into the kitchen to greet his mother, she commented absentmindedly on the deep rose that settled into his face from the cold, and talked to no one in particular about how wonderful and joyous the Christmas season was.

wishing you all a happy and healthy 2023!! thank you for all the support i’ve received this past year <3

[thebabblingbrookenook]

Amaryllis

Pairings: Benedict Bridgerton x Female Reader

Summary:(Modern AU) Benedict surprises you after the final performance of your debut play. Congratulations are in order and he has some ideas on how you can take your final bow.

Warnings: 18 + Please, Rough Sex, Oral, Praise Kink, Adult Language and Concepts

Word Count: 3.2K

Author’s Note: Thank you to my wonderful mutuals @bridgertontess and @colettebronte for helping me piece this all together. You two are rock stars!

____________________________________

You would never tire of this feeling. The electricity that coursed throughout your body and lit you up from the inside out was more addicting than any drug you’ve gotten your hands on thus far. Public performance was the ultimate exercise in risk and reward. The risk - exposure to ridicule. The reward - praise beyond measure.

As you made your way backstage to your dressing room for the final time, you bathed in the applause still ringing in your ears. The six week run of your debut play had finally come to a close and you planned to absorb every last drop of euphoria. This could be your last chance to experience it, work was never promised.

Opening the door to your private space, you came face to face with the only thing more intoxicating than the current high you were riding - Benedict Bridgerton. He was mouth watering, clad in black from head to toe. The knit material of his sweater clung to his broad shoulders for dear life, perfectly accentuating the strength that lay hidden beneath. His slow, seductive smile sent your pulse thrumming in your ears as he stood to greet you.

“There she is,” he purred. 

“Ben,” your voice was embarrassingly breathy. “You came… I wasn’t expecting to see you here tonight. When did you get back in town?”

Leaning in to brush his lips against your cheek, he whispered, “Of course I came. I wouldn’t miss your final bow. I caught a flight from London this morning.”

You could barely contain the shiver that rolled over your body at his proximity. This man was a unique form of danger. Staggering good looks aside, he had a singular ability to mute your inhibitions. When you were with him, you always found yourself operating on the base instincts of pure desire. His influence was boundaryless. Whether that desire was to indulge a midnight craving for chocolate cake, or to have his head squeezed between your thighs in the bathroom at your friend’s house warming party, he was always your Yes Man, rarely allowing you to deny yourself the things that would bring you pleasure.

Telling yourself yes more often was changing you. You had discovered an exhilarating braveness that could easily be traced back to a handsome stranger at an art gallery three months ago.

Three months! Had it really only been that long? He already felt so familiar, essential even. Yet, you had no real ties to one another. He was nomadic and free, breezing in and out of your life regularly. But somehow, he always seemed to find you in moments that mattered - moments that had you standing on the precipice of something big. He never pushed or manipulated, he simply just observed you with a level of wonder in his eyes that fueled your ego. His expectant gaze seductively stroked your confidence in a way that was only rivaled by how his fingers stroked… other parts of you. He was unapologetically himself, and when in his presence, you seemed to silently grant yourself permission to do the same. Eventually, you learned to do that even when he wasn’t around. That’s how you ended up on the stage tonight. You told yourself yes, believed you could do it, and tried. Imagine that, actually making an attempt at something gets you a lot closer than standing still. Who would have guessed?

Looking up into his gorgeous face, you smiled shamelessly. “Remind me to thank your manager for always scheduling your art shows with impeccable timing. How long will you be in town?”

His eyes scanned over you with a hunger that made your mouth go dry. “Just for tonight…”

Disappointment started to bloom in your chest until the meaning of his words took root. “Wait, you flew all the way from London just for this? Ben, that’s crazy. Why would you do that?”

He shrugged, effectively dismissing your concern. “Because I wanted to. Because I can. And because,” he lifted a fragrant bouquet into your eye line, “I had to bring you these.”

You recognized the deep red petals immediately. You had seen their likeness scattered through many of his paintings. “Thank you, Ben. They’re beautiful. Now I understand why you paint them so often. What are they?”

“They’re called Amaryllis,” he smirked. “For artists, they’re said to stimulate the creative muse and celebrate your hard won success. Since you are now both an artist, and a muse, I thought it only fitting.”

Heat pooled in your stomach at his words. “I’d hardly call myself an artist. It was one play.”

“I strongly disagree,” he protested. “Art affects the viewer, and watching you wield your craft up there tonight… Well, it certainly moved me.”

His thinly veiled innuendo was driven home by the downright wicked smile that spread across his face. You had no choice but to join him in his debauchery.

Placing the flowers on the vanity table, you stepped in closer to him. His chest was broad and tempting, begging to be touched. Your palms splayed out over the defined pectoral muscles in front of you and you sighed with satisfaction. The heat from his skin was radiating through the knit material of his black sweater and soaking into your fingertips. Through batted lashes you asked, “Do you like watching me, Benedict?”

Voice husky, he replied, “Like is a bit of an understatement. You’re very… titillating.”

The giggles escaped before you could stop them. “Titillating - is that so? What was your favorite part?”

The playful way his eyebrow quirked made your legs weak. “Do you want the serious answer or the fun answer?”

You wanted to keep playing but you were curious. “Why not both? I’m feeling greedy.”

His pupils expanded slightly on your last word. “Noted. And I am feeling eager to please.” 

You were definitely going to be in trouble when the talking stopped. “My favorite part is seeing how much you’ve improved over the weeks. You found your stride. You looked comfortable - confident. I got lost in you.”

“You could tell all that by seeing one show? Was it that obvious that I was going to be terrible starting out?”

He smiled sheepishly. “This was actually my third time.”

“You’ve seen this three times and never said anything?” 

Again, he shrugged. “I wanted to watch anonymously. I wanted to see you in your element without the added pressure. Normally, I love the fact that I make you nervous. You get all flushed and twitchy. But for this, I wanted the raw version of you.”

“I’m not sure whether to be flattered that you came or creeped out that I had a stalker.”

“Why not both,” he smirked.

“Speaking of,” you reminded him. “What’s the fun answer?”

He stepped closer, pushing the back of your legs against the vanity table. “I liked watching you seduce that poor bastard that played opposite you. He’ll be thinking about  the way your body moves for months after that performance.”

Pushing your chest into his, you asked, “You liked the way my body pressed against him like this?”

“Mmhmm,” he sighed.

“What else did you like, Ben?”

“I loved the obscene amount of attraction. You could almost smell it. He’s beautiful, you’re beautiful. I wanted to see more. I wanted a better view of your mouth devouring him. I wanted to be close enough to hear the exertion in your breaths. I was jealous of the pleasure on his face when you slid your tongue up his neck. You’re fucking lethal with that thing.”

“You liked seeing me with another man in my mouth?”

“So much,” he whispered against your neck before lightly biting your skin. “What’s it feel like?”

You gasped at the feel of his teeth. It was getting harder to hold a conversation. “What, to have someone watching?”

“No,” he chuckled. With your chests still firmly pressed together you could feel the vibration of his laughter clear to your toes. “I know what that feels like. What does it feel like to kiss a man? Describe it to me.”

Tilting your head back, you searched his face. His expression was how it always was - curious. As if he were thinking of trying it himself but wanted to know your experience first.

“It’s… it’s thrilling. I’m sure it depends on the man, but the best kisses… You feel held, secure. Like you’re leaning against an immovable force. You can feel the power in their bodies humming against your senses. But even though you know that power and strength is there, you can feel them restraining it for you. You can feel them considering you. I don’t know about other women, but that unleashes something in me. It makes me feel like they’re lending me some of that power. Like I’m absorbing it through my lips. Their restraint makes me feel like I don’t have to have any of my own. I don’t have to be soft all the time because I know they can handle it. But I think my favorite part is when they give in a little on that self control. The sounds they make are deep and primal. The force they use mixes pain with pleasure. The way they smell, the way they taste. The way your mouth feels swollen and bruised when it’s over. The scratches on your skin from stubble.”

You took one of his hands in yours and started to play with his fingers. “And sometimes the sheer size of them is exhilarating. The right man can make you feel empowered and overpowered all at once.”

His pupils were blown wide as he hung on your every word. You could hear his breathing getting heavier. The hard, steely length of him pressed into your thigh was enough to flood you.

You dropped your hand between you to cup him. “Is this for the man you’re thinking of, or is it me?”

There was a sharp intake of breath when your fingers curled a little tighter over the fabric of his pants. Without missing a beat, he tucked your hair behind your ear and leaned down for his confession. “Why not both?”

A myriad of images flashed through your brain. What kind of man would he choose? Your daydream must have been written on your face because when you met his gaze again his eyes had darkened to the point of no return. “Does that arouse you, y/n? Does the thought of me with a man get you wet and needy?” His hand reached under the hem of your dress and started to delicately trace up the inside of your thigh. Long, graceful fingers curled into the front of your panties and found you just as he suspected.

“Mmm,” he hummed in appreciation. “That’s a definite yes. I’ll keep that in mind for future fun, but right now it’s just you and me. And that’s more than fucking enough.”

His fingers started to glide through your wetness, collecting your arousal and bringing it up to rub circles around your pulsing clit. You clutched his forearms for purchase, riding his hand to within an inch of climax, but you stopped yourself. Not yet. 

Wrapping your fingers around his wrist, you pulled him from your body and dropped to your knees in front of him. You needed to feel him in your throat, to taste the saltiness of his skin. You needed to feel his hands tangled roughly in your hair, holding you down on himself until you were gasping for air.

He looked down at you with adoring admiration as you began unbuttoning his pants to set him free. He left you to your work, only moving to step out of his pants as they hit the ground. His body was fucking perfect and you were dying to get your hands on him.

He hissed in pleasure when your thumb swept over his tip, collecting the small bead of arousal and bringing it to your mouth to suck it off. God, you missed that taste. It was enough to send a fresh wave of desire dripping between your thighs. 

Standing on your knees a little taller, you hovered over him, letting your saliva drip down to coat him before you took him into your hand. “Fucking hell,” he exclaimed, throwing his head back.

Your lips turned up in triumph. This was always your favorite part. Sure, letting him coax your body into ecstasy was amazing, but this… Watching the effect you had on him. It was a power trip. 

Breaking his gaze, you closed your eyes and took him into your mouth. There really was nothing like the taste of him. You wanted more. Taking him deeper, the smooth skin of his cock glided effortlessly between your lips. You were moaning around him, enjoying every second of contact.

You only stopped your descent when you felt his fingers under your chin directing your focus back to his face. “You look so pretty on your knees for me. And you fucking love it, don’t you?” He growled at your garbled response. “That’s what I thought. Even with your mouth full you’re looking at me like you’re starving.”

Even though you were bowed in front of him, it was you who felt worshiped. His affirmations spurred you on, inciting a desperate need to please him. Relaxing into it, you slid down the rest of his length until he was resting securely at the back of your throat. But this time you never took your eyes off of his. He wanted you to watch him watch you.

You took a deep breath before you started again. Both of your hands grasped the backs of his muscular thighs for balance in an effort to support your enthusiastic movements. Your tongue stroked him mercilessly with each bob of your head leaving both of you a sloppy, wet mess. You willed yourself to hold on as long as possible when he hit the back of your throat again. Gagging around him, you nuzzled your nose into the dark hair surrounding his perfect cock. 

You felt the expanse of his large hand cup the back of your head, pushing himself in even deeper. “Sh-shit,” he stuttered. “How are you so good at that? Don’t stop.”

Your nipples pebbled at the sound of his moans and you were suddenly aware of how cage-like your dress felt. There was too much separating your skin from his.

Letting go of his leg, you brought a hand down to play with yourself beneath your dress. You were almost painfully aroused, and were desperate for even the smallest sense of relief. 

Benedict’s eyes tracked your movements hungrily but your concealment tortured him. Before you knew what was happening, you felt yourself being hoisted from the ground and crushed in a dizzying kiss. Nimble fingers made quick work of the zipper at your back, and in seconds you were standing there in nothing but your black lace panties.

His lips kissed roughly across your throat and down your sternum before capturing one of your nipples in his mouth. The sensation was unreal, and you arched into him needing more. 

With a firm grip on your hips, he spun you around and bent you over the vanity, placing your palms flat against the cool, wood surface for purchase. Your arms shook with anticipation when you caught his gaze in the mirror.

His mouth caressed down your spine, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. You lost sight of him when he dipped below your waist but you could feel him there. The heat from his breath lingered on your skin. A gentle nudge on the inside of your knee hinted at his next request.

“Open your legs a little wider for me, darling.” You obeyed him immediately and he handed out his approval generously. “That’s my good girl. Always does what she’s told.”

The tone of his voice had your pussy clenching with need. His body read yours fluently and he was already moving to satisfy you. His thumbs hooked into the material of your underwear and rolled them down your legs.

You went to step free from them but he tutted his disapproval. “No, no, no baby. Leave those around your ankles.”

Again, you followed orders and waited for his next command.

His lips kissed each rounded cheek before two strong hands spread you open to him. “Fuck, look at you. So gorgeous and ready. You smell like heaven.” With one obscene motion, he licked from your pulsing entrance all the way up between your parted cheeks to place another soft kiss at the base of your spine. “You taste even better.”

Your legs were starting to get weak. “Benedict, please…”

“What do you want, y/n? Do you want my tongue? My fingers?” His thumb pushed slightly past the threshold of your aching heat but then stopped. “Or is there something else you want more?”

Every option presented was enticing but you knew what you needed. “I feel empty, Ben. I need you inside me.”

“Is this what you want?” You felt the tip of his cock align with your drenched opening. You moaned your approval but it wasn’t enough. “Yes or no? Say it.”

“Yes,” you pleaded. 

He pushed into you torturously slowly, groaning when you had taken all of him. “Fuck, I’ve missed you. You feel so good. Nice and wet for me, as always.”

“Benedict,” you whimpered.

You could hear the smile in his voice when he responded. “How do you want it?”

“Fuck me, Ben. Make it hurt.”

He pulled out of you before slamming back in with so much force that it lifted you to the tips of your toes.You screamed out in ecstasy. “You like that? Is that how you need me today?”

“Faster, Ben. Don’t stop.”

Your command unleashed him.One hand braced your shoulder while the other dug into your hip. His thrusts were hard and deep, moving at a pace that made it hard for you to catch your breath.

Your arms finally gave out and you let him ease your face to the vanity. His hand left your shoulder to wind your hair around his wrist. The cup of makeup brushes was knocked to the floor, scattering them at your feet. Your knuckles turned white as you clutched the edge of the table for dear life. 

Something was building inside you. Something bigger than you, and slightly terrifying. There was no stopping it. You were hurtling toward an oblivion that was outside of your control.

You tipped over the edge when his teeth nipped into the skin at your shoulder. You tried to scream but there was no air. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t see. You couldn’t hear. You didn’t exist inside your flesh any longer.

“Oohhhh,” he moaned. “I’m gonna come. Shiiiit!”

You felt the material of his sweater on your bare back when he collapsed on top of you. It hadn’t even occurred to you that he was still wearing it until now. 

He went to lift himself but you stopped him. “Don’t move yet. You feel so good.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he laughed. “If I had it my way, I’d be inside you until I got on the plane tomorrow.”

“I don’t think we’d make it through security like this,” you joked.

“Worst case scenario, we get detained and I have to stay a bit longer.”

“Tempting,” you quipped.

“Yes…” his lips brushed against your neck. “... you are.”

_________________________________________

@faye-tale @queenofmean14 @eleanor-bradstreet @musicismyoxygen84 @heeyyyou @queen-of-the-misfit-toys​

[cybrsan]

Hey cutieeee congrats on ur 100! I hope we can become moots!!

I was wondering if you can do a yunho request :33333

I was thinking of request 125 & 148 fluff

There’s lowkey so many from ur prop I wanna request for but I don’t wanna overwhelm you so I will wait ><

Aw, thank you so much, you're so sweet <3 I am more than happy to write something for Yunho! I've been meaning to for a while, I have been so in his lane recently, omg.

Prompts:  125. “Here, let me help you.” + 148. “I really want to kiss you right now.” “Then do it.” Pairing: Best Friend!Yunho x F!Reader Genre: Fluff Word Count: <1k Tags/warnings: Friends to lovers, mutual pining

Requests are currently closed, but my masterlist can be found here.

“Yunho, I don’t know why you are insisting that we do this. You know I’m awful at games.”

Yunho doesn’t take no for an answer and practically forces the VR headset into your hands. You’re surprised by the weight of it; it’s much lighter than you expected. Somewhat intrigued, your fingers trace the smooth edges, following the curves of the device.

“See, isn’t it cool? It’ll be fun,” he promises, practically bouncing up and down with excitement. “Plus, this is different from a normal video game so maybe you’ll be better at it.” When you make no move to put it on, he adds a sickeningly sweet “Please?” with puppy eyes that make it impossible to resist. 

“Alright, fine. You’re lucky I like you.”

He beams at you, and you practically melt into a puddle. It’s so hard being friends with someone you can never say no to. How are you supposed to when he looks that happy when you agree? He could outshine the sun with the brightness of his smile. You put the headset on; it’s a bit too loose, and you struggle with the straps as you try to adjust it. Yunho chuckles, watching you endearingly for a moment before moving towards you.

“Here, let me help you,” he says, his slender fingers making quick work of the straps. Once he tightens them, he gently shakes the headset to make sure it stays put. “Feel okay?” 

You nod, and after a few bouts of dizziness later, you have managed to adjust to the virtual world and are doing a pretty good job of killing zombies and watching Yunho’s back. You’re in the middle of a particularly chaotic fight, with enemies coming at you from all sides, when you feel a very real pain on the back of your head. You yelp, stumbling over your feet and falling to the ground.

Yunho immediately pauses the game and comes to your aid, kneeling beside you and helping you get your headset off. He inspects the back of your head for any noticeable wound, apologizing non-stop all the while.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing, I didn’t mean—”

You cut him off with a laugh. “Yunho, I’m fine. It hurts a little, but it’s nothing major.” 

He looks at you, a twinkle of embarrassment in his eyes. “I promise I’ll stop forcing you to play games with me now.”

“You don’t force me to do anything—I may pretend I don’t want to, but I always will because it’s something you enjoy, and you mean a lot to me.” He seems to blink away tears at your words, and you gape at him. “Jeong Yunho! Tell me you’re not about to cry right now.”

“No, no, I’m not,” he insists, laughing. A beat passes, something changing in the air between you, and you suddenly feel a lot more conscious of his touch. His hands are still lingering, one mindlessly playing with your hair while the other holds one of your own, his thumb rubbing soothingly over the back of your knuckles.   

You look at him, really look at him, suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to take in his every detail. While he has always been attractive, it is in these past few years that he has truly flourished. He has managed to find his confidence and now carries himself in such a way that demands the attention of those around him.

His soft, chestnut-brown hair has gotten long, a few loose strands falling across his forehead. His eyes are warm and inviting, and he always looks at you as if he hangs on every word that you say. His lips… as much as you try to avert your gaze, not wanting to give into the thought of what they might feel like on yours out of fear of what that might do to your friendship, you find yourself unable. 

“I really want to kiss you right now.” 

The words are out of your mouth before you can give them a second thought. Yunho’s eyes widen, and he freezes, obviously not having expected things to take this turn. You go to backtrack, to pretend like it was just a joke, when suddenly he’s intertwining his fingers with your own and pulling you closer.

“Then do it,” he murmurs.

And so you do. The second your lips touch, it’s like something within you sparks to life, igniting a fire that has long been smoldering beneath the surface. Time seems to stand still as the world around you fades into oblivion, and all you can focus on is him. His hand tangles in your hair, pulling you impossibly closer as if now that he has you, he never plans on letting go. It’s obvious now that this is both something you have been yearning for, something that you have been holding back from. Together, you tumble over the point of no return, willing to deal with whatever the consequences may be. 

When you part, breathless and wide-eyed, neither of you seems to know what to say. The air crackles with anticipation and uncertainty. But Yunho, never one for awkward silences, takes it upon himself to be the first to speak.

“Should I be concerned that this stemmed from me hitting you?”

You immediately laugh, flinging yourself at him as the tension in the room dissolves. “Hey, don’t make me sound like a weirdo!” 

He laughs too, pulling you close and pressing a kiss on the top of your head. “Sorry, sorry, I couldn’t help it. Now,” he stands, holding out his hand and helping you up, “Why don’t we go get something to eat? Seems like we have quite a bit to talk about. It’ll be my treat to make up for hurting you.”

“Sounds good to me. Don’t complain when I order one of everything!”

He just shakes his head, smiling at you fondly as he follows you out of the door.

[errygarcha]

What if he doesn’t want to marry me?

An indulgent, whimsical Quinn Hughes fanfiction, where a drunk bachelorette wonders if her adoring fiancee doesn’t want to marry her.

Erica knew that Quinn loved her. He told her nearly every morning after all, which one would assume it made it hard to forget. Everyone who knew Erica and Quinn knew about the deep, mutual, exclusive admiration they held each other in. Which made it strange, how Erica was currently on the floor of an Orlando pub bathroom, in tears. After all, what type of bachelorette didn't have a mental breakdown over whether or not her fiancee and significant other of five years loved her in the week prior to her wedding?

“But what if he doesn't love me? What if he regrets proposing to me? What if something happens, what if we have to cancel the wedding?” Erica wailed, while kneeling next to the sink. Beside her were two of her bridesmaids, Anna and Gabby. Gabby, being the only one of the trio to maintain her sobriety throughout the night, acted as the voice of reason. “That man loves you so much. If anything, HE should be the one worried that you will cancel the wedding!” Gabby said, grabbing some napkins from the dispenser by the sink

“FOR REAL” Anna all but shouted. “Actually, we should facetime him, so he can know that you're too hot to marry him and YOu are calling off the wedding before he can!” Anna exclaimed triumphantly, proud of her point. Erica sat there blankly, drunkenly processing Anna’s point. While Erica’s reaction was delayed due to her stupor, Gabby’s certainly was not. “Anna, that is not what Erica was saying” Gabby said with a laugh, finding humor in the antics. However, Gabby was now not by the sink, but in a bathroom stall. Gabby did not see Anna pulling Erica��s phone out of her purse, holding it up to her face to unlock it. Before Gabby had any idea what the girls were up to, Quinn had already picked up the call.

Quinn Hughes was never the type to make comments or try to control his girlfriends actions. Maybe that's why Erica and Quinn worked so well together. They both held each other in such a high regard, placing so much trust in the other, that there never was an inkling of insecurity or doubt. However, Quinn was not going to lie. When Erica had told him of her bachelorette party plans in Orlando, he was worried. Not that he was scared she was going to cheat on him or anything, he knew how serious Erica was in their relationship. But he also knew Erica’s friends, and the predicaments they seemed to find themselves in after they dabbled in a bar or too.

Needless to say, when he answered his phone, he was not surprised to see Anna’s face instead of his dear Erica’s. “Hi Quinnnnn!” Anna slurred. “Hello Anna,” Quinn replied. “How are you?” he asked. “I’M perfectly perfect and fine,” Anna happily shared. “Erica doesn’t want you to break up with her ever, so she is going to break up with you first.” Anna shared, before promptly hanging up the call. 

“Done!” She said, with a self gratified smile. Miss girl had no idea what she did, but she was more than happy to simply be involved. 

The silence of the bathroom was short lived as Gabby’s phone began to ring. Now, she was out of the stall and washing her hands. Taking care of her two drunk friends was much like having toddlers to tend to. After a few seconds, when her hands were washed and dried, Gabby answered the phone, unsurprised to hear Quinnn’s voice on the other end. 

“Hey, Gabby’” Quinn leads “Oh my god, Quinn” Gabby breathes out, the two exchange a relieved, awkward chuckle. “Not meaning to steal bachelorette time, but what are you guys up to?” Quinn felt, for lack of a better term, douchey. After all, what kind of guy calls his fiance's bridesmaids on a bachelorette trip? A douchey, clingy one. “More like what are you guys down too, Erica and Anna are on the floor in this bar’s bathroom.” “Can I talk to her” Quinn asked. Truth be told, he did miss his intended. In a few short weeks, they are meant to walk down the aisle, become one, and all that jazz. It is very natural that he had a few questions about any declaration of these plans being altered. 

“Erica, I have Quinn on the phone, he wants to talk to you” Gabby said, while crouching down next to Erica on the floor. The duo became a trio, and all three women were now on the bathroom floor. “Oh no, what if he doesn’t like me, what if he's calling me to say he doesn’t like me anymore…” Erica slurred together, but she did manage to grab Gabby’s phone from her outstretched arm.n

“Baby, are you there?” Quinn asked gently, his words slightly terse, but his tone full of love. “QUINNIE” Erica yelped, “I’m here” she replied, while closing her eyes and leaning against the cool tiled wall of the bathroom. You’re NOT going to throw up, you’re NOT going to throw up. The mantra echoed against the walls of Erica’s head.

“How are you doing, darling?” Quinn inquired. All he wanted was his fiancee with him, so he could make sure she was safe. And the other girls too, lord knows what Erica and her bridesmaids have gotten up to in Florida. “I am good, my love, what are you?” she naturally replied. Of course, she meant how are you, or maybe ‘what are you up to’. But Quinn was grateful to hear her voice. 

“I’ve been good. So I am going out on a limb here and saying that the wedding is still on?” Comedic lilt gilded his words. Quinn wasn’t sure he’d ever master how to talk to drunk girls on bathroom floors. That craft was better left to the masters, the other drunk girls on bathroom floors. God, where they wonder to behold. 

“Only if you want, like I don’t want you to be unhappappappy” Erica rambled, before coming to a slightly percussive end. “My love, why would I not want to marry you?” Quinn asked. He was curious about her response. Erica usually presented herself as confident, and usually was very self assured. “Well I don’t know, I’m very loud I don’t want you to feel like you’re marrying me out of duty or I don’t know” Erica replied. Well that certainly did not bring Quinn any clarity. 

“Babygirl, I have never been more sure of anything in my entire life. You are the only person in the world who I have shared every part of my physical, mental, and emotional being. You are the most beautiful, intelligent, unique and wonderful woman I have ever known. I would do anything for you, I am prepared to lay down my life for you. Erica Marie Connors, you are my life. I can’t wait for you to be Mrs. Hughes. I would do it right now if I could.”

Wow. Even in her drunken state, Erica was dazed with Quinn's profession. So dazed. So dizzyingly, subliminally, twirling dazed. The next sound Quinn heard was retching, a yelp, and a wail. After a few moments, he heard the third voice of the evening on the other end of the phone. “She’ll see you at the altar, Quinnie baby”

And just like Anna did earlier that night, she hung right up on the hockey player, without a second thought. 

Quinn couldn’t wait to stop wishing for his girlfriend. He wanted his wife.

[fortheloveofwonderland]

Current WIPS & Requests

Some of these WIPS will never see the light of day but let me know if they interest you and I might finish them.

FYI - Midnight & Darkness Declares Glory don’t appear on here because I have finished them and therefore don’t class them as WIPS.

WIPS

Invisible Strings - At the wedding of mutual friends, you and Spencer are forced to take a journey down memory lane, traversing the paths down which it all went wrong.

Having to confront over three decades worth of emotions leads you to wonder if maybe you and Spencer’s chance at a happy ending had passed you by. But there’s no denying the two of you are tied together somehow, the invisible strings always drawing you back to one another.

Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end and to piece together yours, you’re going to have to go back to the start if you have any hopes of rewriting the ending. | chaptered

Somewhere to Belong - You and Spencer have only been dating a few months when he drops the bombshell that he wants to start a family and it throws you into turmoil. And that’s only made worse he meets five year old orphan Wren Briar and is determined to do whatever it takes to adopt her. Even if that means destroying your relationship. | two/three parter | family challenge

Unopened Windows - When a charred body is discovered in rural Virginia with evidence tying them to one of the BAU team, Spencer Reid is forced to relive memories he would have rather remained in the past. But not everything is as it seems, as he returns to his hometown to try and piece the mystery together, he finds himself facing the unopened windows of a life he never had. | chaptered

Where Nobody Knows sequel - When you disappeared without a trace three years ago, Spencer never expected to see you again. He certainly didn’t expect to return home from work one day to find you standing in his living room. What’s even more surprising is when he finds you still there in the morning.

But upon discovering you’d turned yourself and with only a matter of minutes before Emily and the team have you surrounded, Spencer makes a rash decision. And suddenly Spencer finds himself throwing his life away to go on the run with you.

But was it all just an elaborate plan? Has he found himself trapped in your web with no escape? | oneshot

REQS

Sleepy morning smut - Luke Alvez x Fem! Reader for Anon

Reader struggling with a decision at work which Luke helps her through - Luke Alvez x Fem! Reader for Anon

Spencer celebrating his first birthday after Gideon’s death - Spencer Reid x Fem! GF! Reader for @lover-of-books-and-tea

Spencer gets roomed with reader and they spend the night making prank calls to Morgan - Spencer Reid x Reader for Anon

Milestone Request - Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye - Spencer Reid x Reader for Anon

Milestone Request - Sunshine by All American Rejects - Spencer Reid x Reader for @c-m-stuff

Milestone Request - Lying is the Most Fun… by Panic at the Disco - Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader for Anon

Reader with a stalker who is jealous of her and Spencer - Spencer Reid x GN! Reader for Anon

Song Fic based on Saving All My Live For You by Whitney Houston - Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader for Anon

Based on the scene where Emily profiles Alvez while he’s behind her - Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader for Anon

Song Fic based on Daylight by David Kusher - Spencer Reid x Fem! BAU Reader for Anon

Song Fic based on Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine - Spencer Reid x BAU Reader for Anon

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Richard Dawkins

Published: Jun 3, 2023

“We must trust to nothing but facts: these are presented to us by nature and cannot deceive. We ought, in every instance, to submit our reasoning to the test of experiment, and never to search for truth but by the natural road of experiment and observation” (Antoine Lavoisier, 1743-94).

“Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature” (Michael Faraday, 1791-1867).

Evidence-based medicine was defined in an influential paper in the British Medical Journal 1996 as “The conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.” It seems surprising that it even needed defining. How could sensible medicine not be evidence-based? The authors consider, and reject, the mutually contradictory arguments that, on the one hand, “All doctors do it anyway” and, on the other hand “It’s a dangerous innovation perpetrated to suppress the freedom of doctors to exercise their clinical judgement.” I want to generalise the arguments and advocate what I am calling Evidence-based Life.

Every moment of our lives we are faced with decisions. What shall I do next? What do I believe? To help us decide what to do next, we can draw upon copious evidence: the evidence of our senses, evidence from books, from conversations, newspapers, the Internet. We have the evidence from past experience (What happened when I previously was in this situation and did so-and-so?). We have evidence from a kind of future, as we simulate possible futures in imagination (I can see myself doing so-and-so and I can imagine the consequences). We can take advice from friends or mentors, books or traditional wisdom – and that can be seen as vicarious borrowing of other people’s past experience and simulated futures.

Much the same can be said of what we believe. I believe the world is round because I’ve flown to Australia via Asia and returned via America. I believe it because I’ve seen photographs from space. I believe it because of books I’ve read, lessons at school from teachers who seemed to know what they were talking about, and so on. I believe it because physics books tell me of a principle whereby large bodies tend to become spherical under the influence of gravity.  A very great deal of what we know, even that which really is based on sound scientific evidence, we have to take on trust, because we haven’t the time or the ability to examine it in detail.

Even expert scientists haven’t the time or the expertise to evaluate sciences other than their own. Most biologists are ill-equipped to understand modern physics. And vice versa although, I have to admit, to a lesser extent. In any case, nobody has the time to do full justice to all the detailed research papers in a journal such as Nature or Science, even if we could understand them. If we read a report that gravitational waves have been reliably detected as emanating from a collision between two distant galaxies, most of us take it on trust. It almost sounds like taking it on faith.  But it’s a faith that’s more securely grounded than, say, religious faith. That’s an understatement. When biologists like me express “faith” in the findings of physics, we know that physicists’ predictions have been verified by experimental measurements to find accuracy. Very different from “faith” in, for example, the doctrine of transubstantiation which makes no predictions at all, let alone testable and tested ones.

Nevertheless, scientific evidence is not always reliable. With the best will in the world, scientists can deceive themselves. Medical science has adopted the Double Blind Control Experiment, an admirable device for eliminating all possibility of subjective bias. Long ago, my then wife Marian (now a Fellow of the Royal Society) and I used it for fun in a trivial demonstration experiment. We wanted to know who made the best razor blades for shaving, Gillette or Wilkinson. Our quality criterion was how long a blade would last before I found it uncomfortable to shave and discarded it. Obviously that was a subjective judgement. It was important that I should not be allowed to know which make of blade I was using to shave. So Marian was solely responsible for putting a new blade into my razor, every time I pronounced the previous one worn out. If she had alternated the blades, Gillette, Wilkinson, Gillette, Wilkinson etc, that could have given me a clue. So she chose the blades according to a previously written-down random sequence, which I was not allowed to see. After a previously written-down number of blade-changes (I can’t remember what that number was but it had to be pre-determined), we looked at the data, consisting of a series of durations measured in days before each blade wore out. We analysed the data statistically and concluded that Wilkinson blades were significantly superior.

This was technically a Single-blind experiment. There remained the possibility that Marian could have inadvertently influenced my decision on when to declare a blade exhausted – the so-called Clever Hans Effect. A German horse called Clever Hans was apparently able to do simple arithmetic, tapping his hoof five times, say, when asked “What is two plus three?” It was eventually revealed that his trainer was unconsciously giving him cues, subtly changing his body language when Hans’s hoof taps reached the right number. Ideally our experiment should have been not Single Blind but Double Blind: the person inserting the blades into the razor should have been ignorant as to which was which – a little harder to arrange, though not impossible. Somebody else, neither Marian nor I, would have prepared a randomised sequence of blades, then Marian should have dispensed them when I pronounced the previous one spent. Clinical trials of new medicines nowadays usually follow the Double Blind design: the patients, the doctors or nurses administering the doses, and the experimenters judging the medicine’s effectiveness, and are kept in strict ignorance as to which patients get the drug, which they control. Without the strictures of the Double Blind design, there is always the danger of subjective judgement creeping in.

Blind control trials constitute only one weapon in science’s armoury against being misled by subjective judgement. Experiments are repeated. Scientific papers are rigorously refereed before publication and exposed to critical scrutiny afterwards. Experiment itself is the only ultimate safeguard against the notorious “correlation doesn’t have to imply causation” truism. Correlation really does imply causation if the putative cause happens when an experimenter makes it happen, rather than waiting for it to happen spontaneously. Of course, the experimenter must make it happen on a large number of independent occasions, and at random rather than in a regular pattern such as might introduce a spurious correlation. Finally, the correlation must be unlikely to have arisen by chance – unlikely according to some agreed criterion such as, “If we repeated the whole experiment a thousand times, we’d expect only one of those repeats to yield a result as extreme as this by chance.” That’s what tests of statistical significance are for.

In advocating evidence-based life, I don’t of course mean we should do double-blind, statistically-analysed experiments before making a decision, or before believing anything. Life’s too short, and there are many other reasons why it would be impractical. But it is worth imbibing the spirit of evidence-based medicine by being deliberately aware of possible sources of bias. Have I looked even-handedly at the available evidence or did I under-value or even ignore evidence that contradicted my prior beliefs? Or evidence that might have contradicted the beliefs of my tribe (religion, political party, favourite opinion-leader etc)? Do I read only the Guardian and ignore the Telegraph? Or vice versa. Do I watch only Fox News and ignore CNN? Do I tune out when exposed to news, or views, that contradict my prior prejudices?  Are my views on climate change (vaccination, Covid-protection masks) based on the best available evidence, or are they coloured by political or religious prejudice, or tribal loyalties of some kind?

Evidence-based Life could justify a whole book, not just a brief essay such as this. So let me just mention some of the more insidious and alluring alternatives which might tempt us away from evidence. I’ll list them in the form of headings to which I might return in future postings. 

It’s how I feel. It may not be true for you but it’s true for me. Alternative “ways of knowing” are just as valid as science, which is just the mythology of a white male tribe. I don’t need science, I’ve got my Holy Book. I don’t need science, commonsense is good enough for me. The evidence of my biology clearly indicates that I am male, but I feel I am a woman therefore I am a woman.

Richard Dawkins

==

Richard Dawkins' new Substack is "The Poetry of Reality with Richard Dawkins."

[skrittkicking]

I'd like to know more about Iovitus and their cousin--I wanna know about their relationship and what exactly it is they do.

What is Iovitus' relationship to the main story of gw2? Has Iovitus had any significant others, or desire for such?

A potential big one, what was Iovitus doing during the Rally, and what are their thoughts both on it, and the subsequent Civil War?

(@commanderhorncleaver)

I'd like to know more about Iovitus and their cousin--I wanna know about their relationship and what exactly it is they do.

absolutely! i love talking about the cousins and i could spew about their relationship (iovitus’ side, anyways — gratta is not my character so im not going to speak for her here) for ages. the two of them have known eachother forrrrr roughly a year now? not 100% sure on that timing and i’ll have to look at the story timeline again but i'm pretty sure it’s been that long. gratta moved in with iovitus a few months ago and just sort of decided to stay which iovitus was more than okay with! they’d been living alone (aside from their pets & mounts — which i also need to talk about! i can’t believe i haven’t yet tbh their pets are very important to iovitus as a character) for a few years until then and it was kind of starting to take a toll on them. since then, the two have continued to grow closer and closer, with gratta surprising them with an actual proper house as a wintersday gift. well, proper is probably pushing it — it’s a charr tank that gratta refitted into a house. prior to this they’d just both been staying in a tent — iovitus’ lifestyle required them to travel a lot, so they didn’t really see the need to settle in one spot and lived on the road. they function as a legionless warband in a way, but iovitus doesn’t really want it to be seen like that; they share the ‘rain’ surname, but they’d rather just be.. family. not a warband. recently, they had a mutual friend of theirs move in with them as he was going through a break up and didn’t have anywhere to stay. gratta invited him to move in permanently without consulting iovitus beforehand and the two got into a brief scuttle but it’s mmmmmostly been resolved. as for what they do, gratta is in the process of starting up her own mercenary company and iovitus is acting as her second-in-command. it’s still very much in the early stages and isn’t really open to the public juuust yet. alongside her mercenary work, iovitus helps gratta with… other jobs. she does some side stuff with the astral ward, mostly acting as a hired gun. iovitus aids her with this when possible, and is technically currently in nayos getting their ass kicked by some kryptis. wonderful. iovitus still does their own work when possible, but currently they’re more focused on aiding gratta — not only because they want to, but also because work is a bit hard to come by for them with where they’re currently situated

i could go into more depth about how iovitus views their relationship but hrrmmphhg this post is already long and i might just save it for its own thing. overall, though, iovitus harbors an intense love & admiration for gratta and would do anything she asked them too if it made her happy, even putting themselves in harms way for her sake

What is Iovitus' relationship to the main story of gw2?

there isn’t much of a relationship, if anything! i don’t have any characters that pose as my commander/interact with dragon’s watch/etc. the closest they’d come to interacting with the story is just their legions work during the icebrood saga/civil war, and visiting nayos. they were never aligned with the pact or any of the main orders, though they have worked alongside the priory due to their current occupation(s). whenever i do stuff for the story i usually play as iovitus but that’s just cause they’re my main, both in and out of rp… and i love charr female voicelines so i can’t help it

Has Iovitus had any significant others, or desire for such?

yes oh yes. they’d been with cassia rainsong, their legionnaire, since before either of them graduated the fahrar. the both of them were devoted to one another. iovitus wanted to have cubs with her, but she died before they were able to ask. (even if cassia survived the civil war, however, it’s unlikely that they would have had cubs due to iovitus’ overall poor health. their body probably couldn’t handle a pregnancy and it’d likely just end up in miscarriage or iovitus’ own death) iovitus still mourns cassia to this day and can’t seem to move on from her death, holding themselves back from even considering any sort of new romantic relationship. they really really miss having someone to call their own but feel as though they’re being unfaithful or disrespecting cassia by moving on. grief is a funny thing! i think eventually i do want them to grow and move on and find someone new to love, but for now, they’re stuck in a sort of limbo.

A potential big one, what was Iovitus doing during the Rally, and what are their thoughts both on it, and the subsequent Civil War?

this is something i’d eventually like to make a post of its own about, so i’ll be brief here. their warband was originally planning to attend the rally in grothmar but weren’t able to due to an assigned mission going on a bit longer than they’d anticipated, as well as one of their bandmates being killed in the process. as for the war, well, war sucks! needless to say iovitus doesn’t think too fondly of it for all the people they lost (and other things) but i’ll expand on that at a later date…. :)

[hearthianhatchling]

tagged by @sleebyshiba for the "9 people you'd like to get to know better" tag game! i shan't be tagging people because i barely have any mutuals here except people i already know well BUT your will is my command my friend <3

Last song: i don't actually remember so i put my music on shuffle and it gave me riches and wonders by the mountain goats <3

Favourite colour: yellow!! i love warm colours the most, although all colours are good colours, even the bad ones

Last movie/TV show: fiiiiinally started watching the terror and enjoying it very much

Sweet/spicy/savory: .........id like to request a lawyer

Relationship status: wouldnt u like to know

Last thing I searched: a manatee amigurumi pattern!

Current obsession: you'll be so surprised to hear that the polar expeditions fixation is rearing its head again

Last book: currently rereading two towers and also reading north by seamus heaney! the last one i finished (last year) was madhouse at the end of the earth by julian sancton...unsurprisingly

Looking forward to: hmm...there's not really much going on to look forward to in the near future, but i want to start a next big crochet project (probably a sleepy bunny friend) and i'm always looking forward to my irish dancing classes and can't wait to start on heavy shoes hopefully in the near-ish future! otherwise there's some gigs this year i'm very excited about, some family events i hope i can make it to, and the aotearoa trip with my dad and two of my siblings later this year :)

[driftward]

For the Kissymeme:

🤎 kisses all over - nyx and either the candyman or omega

💕 kisses not on the mouth- karasawa and whichever city leader shes brave enough to motorboat

💘 mutual pining - zoissette and lyse

More kissy memes I sure did get a lot of these for something I didn't reblog

🤎 kisses all over - nyx and either the candyman or omega

“Miss Blackmoon!” called out a voice that Klynt did not recognize.

“Please do not be alarmed,” said Nyx.

“Sure, okay?” said Klynt, as an Elezen man rushed up to Nyx, and began peppering her with kisses, babbling between each kiss.

“My little petal!” he exclaimed. “My beautiful lovely doll,” he extolled. “My precious gem,” he gushed.

Nyx, for their part, just stood there. Klynt might have thought they looked uncomfortable, and had it been anyone else, she would have stepped in and grabbed the guy by the scruff by now to check in and perhaps say a few stern words as needed. However, that was the way Nyx always stood, with the facial expression Nyx always had, that was to say, none, and Klynt was pretty certain Nyx did not do or put up with anything Nyx did not want to.

So instead, she just stood off to one side, feeling a bit awkward.

Nyx eventually reached out and took the man by the chin, and gave him a single kiss in return. This was such a surprising thing that Klynt never could have guessed at in a thousand years that her brain stopped. Until that very moment she would not have guessed Nyx even cared. The man seemed pleased, all smiles, as he stepped back, taking both of Nyx’s hands in his own.

“Oh, I am so pleased to see you, my wonderful muse! I didn’t know you were back in the city!”

“Not for long. I am here on assignment. Speaking of. My companion, Sergeant Klynt Gohtawyn.”

Nyx stepped to one side and gestured at Klynt, and Klynt, still bewildered, gave the man a jaunty two-finger off the brow salute.

“A friend of yours?”

“Indeed. Our ends and means currently coincide.”

Klynt had also not been certain until just that moment that they were friends.

“Ah, if I may introduce myself, then,” said the man, bowing with a flourish and taking Klynt’s hand.

Klynt’s brain still had not began forward or any motion just yet, so she just stood their, dumbfounded and found dumb as he shook her hand. “Good woman Klynt Gohtawyn, I am Candeaux Vidalle, Eorzea’s finest connoisseur of confections, chocolates, candies, and other culinary curios of the sweet persuasion! My sister is a famously fast courier for the Immortal Flames who helps deliver a dramatically dynamic deluge of delicious desirable delights from around the realm to your dining domicile! It is a pleasure to meet you,” he said. He paused halfway through a handshake pump to trace the fingers of his off hand along the tendons of her wrist. “Oooh, such tendons! Strong. And with that slate coloration, and the scent of salt so strong - from Limsa, are you? Maelstrom, then? My, the things you must have seen on the sea!”

“He is the one that provides me with those dried and salted plums you are fond of,” supplied Nyx.

Well. They were friends, weren’t they, and somehow Klynt hadn’t fully allowed herself to notice. Klynt's brain shuddered back into motion. "Pleased to meet you... Candy Vidal?" she attempted. Elezen names and speech still eluded her. "Candeaux," the man corrected, but he winked at her. "Ah, but the utter delight in that all of Eorzea mispronounces it the same way! I could not have picked a finer name, wouldn't you agree? Well well, the pleasure is mine! Any friend of my elegant little lady is a friend of mine! May I show her the art we make sometime, my sweet?” he said the last to Nyx. “If you wish,” said Nyx.

“Oh, very good, very good! Well, I do not wish to keep either of you - I know the look of people about their business. Feel free to stop by my store any time, my salty seaworthy friend! I think we have a matter or two we might discuss. And will you be dropping by later, Miss Blackmoon?”

“Not soon. We are on mission. It is a very high priority.” “I understand, I understand. Well, take care of yourself! Ta ta!” the man said, before giving Nyx another half dozen hurried kisses and waving as he walked away.

Klynt just looked down at Nyx, bewildered, but Nyx was already walking off, and Klynt hurried to keep up. Fortunately, they were explaining as they went.

“We met in his candy store. He introduced me to a number of things when I indicated I was exploring as much flavor as possible. I believe he became enamored with me at that time. Now he gives me candy and dresses me up and makes paintings. He appreciates my ability to hold a pose.”

“…okay,” said Klynt, still feeling off balance and out of sorts by the entire exchange.

It always promised to be a strange sort of day with Nyx around, it seemed.

💕 kisses not on the mouth- karasawa and whichever city leader shes brave enough to motorboat

Karasawa Atraxae was the up and coming woman of the hour, the adventurer whose name was on everyone’s lips, possibly a sign of the rebirth of the heroes who had gone before and the maybe even the symbol of a brighter future for all. She was also, right this moment, interminably bored.

Another state dinner in Ul’dah, another evening spent with various merchants and up-and-comers attempting to get in her good graces, all of them jockeying to see how they could use this adventurer to their advantage.

It was all a bit of a farce, and she had little patience for being pawn or queen. But, she did want to make things easier for her friend. And so she accepted invites to these things from Lady Lilira, and tried to smile at the right times and not look like a glutton at the food trays and not just walk out to a balcony and take a dive for a breath of fresh pavement.

Fortunately, this night, Raubahn was here as well, dressed in his finest Immortal Flames uniform, bare chest flanked by metals and accolades and the fancy ropes and other decorations that declared him to be general, and worthy of that station. Many of the upper class of Ul’dah gave him a wide berth, which was perfect.

Atraxae sidled up to him. “General.” “Karasawa.”

She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall next to him. “Hate this,” she said, quietly enough that only he could hear.

He just snorted before taking another sip of his drink.

“Does nobody around here just say out and out what they want or need, or is it always just weird vague gestures at words I’m supposed to root for meaning out of like a pig in a sty?”

That was a figure of speech she’d picked up during a visit to the Silver Bazaar. It suited her. She liked the shape of it.

Raubahn gave a short laugh. “Aye, lass, that’s the way of things with these men and women. I don’t hardly trust any of them at their word because few of them are willing to give it in any straightforward manner. No, it’s the language of power. Vagaries you can always deny later, and few promises any of them are willing to commit to keeping.”

The two stood there for a bit, each watching the dignitaries walk back and forth, as merchants were making conversation half as much as they were making deals.

The part of her that tried to do right by Karasawa decided to bow out for the evening.

“Ya wanna scandalize every single last one of ‘em and get outta here?” she offered. And maybe also make sure she never got invited to one of these for at least a sennight.

“Don’t tempt me,” muttered Raubahn into his drink.

“No, seriously, this’ll be hilarious. You can pretend to yell at me about it after and ‘escort’ me outta here and we can both be gone just like that.”

He glanced sideways at her, clearly intrigued. “Dare I ask what you have in mind?” “Let me motorboat them tiddies.”

Raubahn blinked at her, lost. “I don’t know half those words, lass.” “Here, just… just lean over a bit, and do that flex thing you do sometimes to make your pecs look all big, I’ll handle the rest.”

Raubahn looked at her with a frown, but then sighed and shrugged, and set his drink down. He rolled his shoulders a bit, then clasped his hands in front of him, and flexed in a popular gladiatorial pose, showing off his impressive chest.

Atraxae winked at him, wrapping a hand around one of his arms. “Don’ forget to yell and be mad at me,” she said.

She then buried her face in the cleavage of his chest, and made the loudest most obnoxious wet noise while rubbing her face vigorusly back and forth, luxuriating in the feel of his muscles.

She felt Raubahn go stiff and his posture go tight, and his chest fair rumbled as he struggled to maintain his composure.

The room was silent, except for Atraxae making a terrible spectacle of herself.

Raubahn finally managed to half yell, half squeak - an impressive feat for a man whose voice was deep enough to drill for bedrock - at her.

“Alright that’s fair enough of that!” he said, before stopping, standing up straight, and then breathing in deep to manage a proper bellow while Atraxae looked up at him with the fakest saddest expression she could manage.

“Out with you!” he roared, and he grabbed her by the arm, and the room exploded into hushed whispered and scandalized gasps as he marched her out. Atraxae made eye contact with a few choice dignitaries on her way out, winking and blowing kisses, managing to save the last one for Lady Lilira herself, who looked halfway between shock and utter joy.

Raubahn continued to drag her, out past the doors, shutting them firmly behind them both and fake dragged her down the hallway and around two corners before he finally let go and turned to see if anyone had followed. Atraxae looked around as well, sweeping her gaze back and forth, and straining her hearing.

They were alone. The two looked at each other.

And then they both exploded into laughter. Boisterous, loud, joyful laughter that echoed off the stones and brought a little life back into her existence.

“By the gods, lass, you don’t do anything by half!” roared Raubahn. “Thal’s -balls- I’m not going to be able to show my face for a moon!”

“That’s the idea!” she said cheerfully, putting her hands on her hips and grinning over at him.

He jabbed a finger at her. “Alright, that one’s my fault, I should’ve known better, but never do that again.”

“You sure? I had fun, anyroad.” Raubahn spluttered, and Atraxae erupted into laughter again.

💘 mutual pining - zoissette and lyse

Their relationship was complicated, Zoissette and Lyse. Yda had been Zoissette’s first true friend amongst the Scions, in many ways. And with Papalymo as her mentor and as Yda’s ever present partner in arms, they had been close.

Papalymo’s death had sent them both spinning, and perhaps defined their relationship for the hard moons to come. Yda onto her new course, as Lyse, and Zoissette, as a woman who felt the world was falling apart faster than she could fight to keep it in one piece, but who had to keep going, keep it all from falling apart.

As Yda, she had always seemed so young to Zoissette. As Lyse, she blossomed into a woman, finally exceeding the limits she had placed on herself for so long, finally growing into the person that she was certain Papalymo had known she could always be all along. Heart and light, even in the dark. Especially in the dark.

And from Lyse's perspective, well. Zoissette was always so neat and organized with such a sharp mind and able to sound smart without also sounding like she was somehow better than you. Zoissette was somehow grounded in a way the other Scions frequently weren’t, and even though she obviously smarted in the wake of the revelation of the deception of identity, she managed to stay close, close enough to confide in. Doubts and fears, Zoissette was always willing to listen to her.

They fought side by side. They spent moons together. Zoissette had fought for her home not so long ago, and now here she was, no less willing to fight for Lyse’s. How could Lyse not admire that? How could Lyse not wish she could hold that feeling in a bottle, in her hand, and keep it with her forever? And how could Zoissette not feel something in return? Maybe it was the various wounds wishing to be filled by care, maybe it was the desire to talk with someone who might understand what it was to stand against and yet also for their home, maybe it was just hurt seeking comfort. It could not be, and so it never was. For both of them, just pain seeking solace.