#ellie being a massive sub

[tragedyslut]

🩷 summary — soft!dom abby that hates seeing you cry during sex, y'all establish a safeword <33

you and Abby were in bed together. her strap was deep inside of you and she was grinding into you quite hard. you were so overstimulated. you were moaning and whimpering, squirming around. it felt so good, but it was too much. you wanted to tell her to stop. but you couldn't, eventually you just whimpered then started sobbing.

Abby panicked at first. she immediately tried to pull out, but then she heard you whimper. not in a good way, in a pained way. she kept on getting more panicked.

" baby.. baby are you okay? " she whispered, wiping your tears as you kept sobbing. you could only manage to shake your head. Abby pulled out the strap as carefully as she could. after that, she cleaned you up, still panicky.

she gave you a soft hug, and you melted into her grasp.

" 'm sorry. just got overstimulated. " you mumbled. she just hugged you tighter.

" hun you gotta tell me to stop. I don't wanna hurt you. " she muttered, stroking your hair.

" .. can I get dressed please.. "

she immediately nodded, letting you get up. you got dressed, and then layed back down with her. " we should probably have a safeword. " you mumbled, now half asleep. Abby nodded. " how about uhm.. pigeon? " she said, giggling as soon as she said it. you also started laughing.

" that's fuckin' stupid. how about like.. mango? " you giggled, rolling over onto your back.

" okay and thats not stupid?! but fine, mango it is. " she said sarcastically, softly pulling you closer.

" its cause your heads the size of a mango. " you muttered teasingly, falling asleep basically immediately after you said it. Abby only giggled, gasping in an 'oh-so-offended' way. she then pulled you closer, falling asleep herself.

#Spotify #ellie tlou #joel tlou #the last of us #tlou #tlou2 #ellie tlou smut #ellie williams smut #abby the last of us #abby tlou #abby anderson #abby is scary as fuck #abby being the dom bitch that she is #abby smut #ellie being a massive sub #sub ellie williams

[elliesstrapon]

Filthy Pleasures

"This t'much? Take me like a good girl."

♡ Summary: In which Ellie fucked you so hard, you couldn't coherently muster up a proper thought, or remember your name, and your voice going silent at the near 'hundred times you screamed her name.

♡ Warnings: sub r, dom Ellie, fingering, over stimulation, hickeys, swearing, body worship, use of petnames; Princess, good girl, baby, babe, etc. Not proofread, dirty talk

♡ Pairings: Ellie Williams x Reader

♡ a/n: Just a small break from False Accusations, not even 5 parts in and I'm exhausted, I needed some excitement, that last part was not it, anyways Enjoy!!!

"Fuck"

Her heavy and desperate footsteps dragging across the wooden floor boards, every shuffle louder than the last that you'd heard just before she knocked on the door.

Every night she did this, needily knocking on your door, yearning to relieve herself with your warm bodily fluids dripping down her slender fingers.

You lazily untangled yourself from the mixed up sheets, shivering at the cold atmosphere. You tip-toad to the door, the floor creaking like an alarm, in which you hoped the people sleeping just under you wouldn't hear.

The palace was old, every door and tile sounded at the mere touch of a toe, finger, breath, you had to pause whenever you heard a slight movement from the floor below.

You opened the door to Ellie, her eyes pleading for your body, your curves and moles gifted to you, woven at the finger tips of a goddess, your plush skin a land of wonders and bliss to the auburnette haired woman.

She was such a massive slut for you.

Your cunt throbbing at her nasty, smutty remarks. "'m needed m'good girl~ so horny" she slurred, moving her arm to open the door further, holding it just above your head, a dark tainted lustful look in her eyes, eyeing your already pointed buds. She bit her bottom lip, the sight of your body already sending her over the edge. Her hands reached for your hips in desperation, closing the door behind her as she forced you onto the mattress, the erotic sounds of your heaves filling the room, muffling between your obscene wet kisses. Her nails dug into your plush hips, your stretch marks being left with half moons in them, her tongue exploring every inch of your hot mouth like a new discovery, swallowing you whole. "Mmh~" you whined, your legs quivering into the sheets that shifted about under your supple skin. "Ellie..." Her kisses trailed down your neck in perfect ecstasy, every last one rougher than the last, you shuddering against her touch. You massaged the nape of her neck, her groans vibrating into your shoulder blades when you thrusted your hips up at her, your back arching in pain and anticipation, "steady'" her voice was low, ordering you as she devilishly pinned her knee between your legs, kneeing your clit teasingly, "shit— Ellie.. God~" you cried, your panties damp in your own produced liquids.

Your mind was hazey, her hands roaming your body, lifting your night gown. The fabric tickling your skin, leaving it naked, her tongue flicking at your nipples eagerly, sucking on them like a pacifier, devouring every inch of them, "fuck—"

"Y'like that, don't you' yeah.." she said, a chuckle slipping past her lips, cooing at your squinting eyes, your eye lashes fluttering and your mouth hanging wide, the feeling washing over you so dangerously. "That's m'pretty girl, so fuckin' wet for me, 'could destroy you right'now" she sucked on the sensitive perimeter around your buds, nibbling and biting at your boobs, chanting her name like an oh-so holy church song.

Her knee ruined you completely as she continued to blemish your skin in hickeys, a few shaped like butterflies, in comparison to the ones in the pit of your stomach, picking up and fleeing while your cunt tingled endlessly.

You were unstable, her hands cupping your ass cheeks, groping them to her content, whispering dirty praises into your ear, "y'feel so good baby' your bodys all mine.. mine.." Her voice was low, grinning against your neck, evilly. A philosophy written so effortlessly when she drew blood from your shoulder, flipping you over onto her thigh, holding your waist strongly in place, like a statue, never wanting you to leave her grip. "Like a fuckin' goddess.." she trailed off, her gaze grazing over your body, her look so thirsty for you. Her rings made you shiver, they clashed so coldly over your skin, feeling so vulnerable. You shook your head, disagreeing with her statement. "Say your a goddess" she darted, her nails seeping into your sides, demanding you. A Shakey moan slipping past your lips when she moved your hips, the friction against your pussy making it cry for more attention. "I want y'ta say it" she professed again, guiding your hips, you riding her thigh, your mind forgetting your own goddamn name and your vision clouding in unease, low and short whimpers leaving your mouth, defenselessly crying out her name as she forcefully pushed you to say it, your hands gripping her hair for dear life, "i—mm, I'm a goddess.." you groaned, rocking your hips on her, the sound of your liquids squelching on her naked lower body, "yeah, ur'mine, such a good girl fer'listening t'me" she said, she let go of your waist, watching you play with yourself on your own, her own request while you blissfully rode her, your panting filling the room, like some pornography video, the sound like music to her ears as you begged for an end on her, your climax nearing pitifully. "Please..." You cried, your legs shaking, the knot in your stomach unraveling so fast you almost couldn't see it coming, tears forming at the corner of your eyes. "C'mon you can do it, fer'me" she shushed you, rubbing your back, you painfully riding her through your climax, your cum dripping down her thigh into her own boxers, wet with not just yours but her own orgasm aswell.

You hopelessly fell against her barley managing to register the look on her face before she flipped you back on your back, watching you like a movie star, her words garbled into the delicacy of the warm skin on your neck "'m losing m'mind over you," she professed, her short nails digging into your thighs, spreading them open, your painful resistance failing as she smirked at you. "Fuck, Ellie, Please—" she slipped your panties off, so wet you wouldn't have been able to put them back on after this whole propaganda, she kissed the inside of your thighs, leaving a path of marks up until your throbbing, hurting cunt,

You were almost passed out by now, every inch of you trembling and flinching at her ringed fingers, teasing your entrance so fucking much you cried out her name so needy for her inside you, her pussy throbbing at the sound of her name foaming out your mouth repeatedly,

Your body was motionless, unable to even arch your back when she thrusted her fingers in you, the dirty sounds of your skin slapping corroding the air with the shaking bed, the walls creaking and your breaths heavy. You weakly tried to push her hand away, your legs bleakly trying to close, your bodily functions shutting down when she rasped out, her voice hoarse "don't resist" you palmed the sheets, pursing your lips fearful that your screams would awaken the entirety of the palace. "This t'much? Take me like a good girl." She whispered into your ear, curling her fingers up against your tight walls, "Ellie~" you whined. "So... Mm—" you failed to put words together, your brains and organs scrambled, she continuesly praised you, your body, your responses barley the ending of her name "Els—"

Your second orgasm falling through, the sticky substance staining her long fingers as she only thrusted harder, and faster, "fuu...!!" Your voice falling silent, only picking up paste, your cries and silent pleads straining her ears, "shh, it's okay babe" she assured, brushing through your hair, the beads of sweat rolling down every inch of your body, your cum still falling from your cunt.

"that's m'girl" she smiled, kissing your forehead, every part of your face, passionately.

Dividers not mine!!

#tlou #tlou2 #the last of us #ellie tlou #ellie williams #ellie the last of us #reading #ellie x reader #ellie x fem reader #ellie smut #ellie x y/n #tlou smut #smut #y/n smut

[furious-rogue-stuff]

Heat Chapter 34: Worthy

My dear, patient sweeties~! So sorry for the sizable lull between posting. Life got insane. As a sorry, please enjoy this super-sized, fluff and smut-filled chapter 😁

Pairing: Javier Peña x OFC | Javi x Querida

Disclaimer: Written in 2nd person narrative, you can safely assume our heroine and love/lust interest is a Latina, written by a Latina. Here's my philosophy on my writing, for further context.

Rating: Mature/Explicit 🔞

Word Count: 21,500+

Summary: During the lead up to a happy life event, you are confronted with news that leaves you emotionally vulnerable. Javi supports you and finds himself longing to be your comfort, but will being shown what your life together could be encourage you both to seek it, or inspire other doubts to bubble up between you?

Warnings: Javier Peña being the God-level BAE. Graphic descriptions of sex, including explicit depictions of oral (m+f receiving) and unprotected sex. Mentions of hurt/comfort, emotional trauma, toxic coping mechanisms, and adult situations. Descriptions of raunchy behavior, light dom/sub play, cum play, ass play, size kink, praise kink, and dirty talk. Allusions to triggering events, familial strife, and emotional trauma. Some Protective!Javi, Dom! Javi, Sub!Javi, Sub!Reader, Soft!Javi. In the vein of Narcos being a bilingual show, and Javier Peña being fluent, I felt it was apropos to include Spanglish and Spanish throughout.

Heat Masterlist

Previous chapter - Chapter 33: Amor

Chapter 34: Worthy

The jarring stunt via trigger object left on your desk aside, the rest of your week leading up to the wedding is one you expected to be filled with the silly stresses of errands needing to be run, arrangements requiring your attention, and plans to be made to fit everything within your hectic schedule.

You don't expect it to be the beginning to the series of massive changes that will alter all your current plans.

No. The only thing you were anticipating, that you are reluctant to look forward to – because frankly it breaks your heart – is saying goodbye to Francesca at the end of the week.

After you book tickets to fly to Medellín Friday night with Javi, you and Ellis agree to help her ship some stuff back stateside for her and to meet at the airport to see her off. You tell Javi the plan later that night when he comes home and finds you finishing up with the laundry.

Javi knows how sad it makes you, so he spends the time alone together making you happy. He even surprises you the next night when he comes home while you're making dinner and shows you a collection of apartment listings that the embassy's housing division had available up at the HR office's information desk. He hands them to you with a cool remark about looking at the options so you both can check some of the places out, as he pulls you into his arms and kisses you sweetly.

It helps you fall back into the settled serenity of only yearning to love and live together that you'd both agreed to before the recent tumult.

And by the time the middle of the week rolls around, you've checked off several items on your to-do list for the weekend, except for getting a dress. So, you decide you need to take a trip to the mall on your lunch break, and call Anita to see if she'd like to come with. When the receptionist at the school says she's out sick, you find it odd, so you go into Ellis' office when he comes back from his recent meeting to check in.

"Hey, is everything alright? I was going to check out a dress store at the mall and called Anita to see if she wanted to come, but the school said she's out sick?" you inquire as you loom in the doorway. Ellis looks at you with the same tense, albeit guilty look he'd had a couple of weeks ago, and it reminds you that you had meant to question him back then, but then forgot all about it with everything that had happened since. So, you walk into the office, shut his door, and march up to his desk with your hands on your hips. "Out with it, Rose! What's going on?" is your bossy questioning.

He deflates into his chair before forcing himself up to lumber towards the small couch in his office, gesturing for you to have a seat too as he muses, "Alright, girlie. There are a couple things I gotta tell you…"

Surprised by how serious he's become, you sit on the edge of the cushion and wait for him to join you, but he instead paces, as if trying to decide what to tell you first. Once he seems to make a choice, he sits next to you and stares openly into your expectant expression.

"…So, Anita's been feeling a little queasy on and off, and today was particularly rough, so she's home resting," he begins to parcel out, and when your brows arch up, he scoffs and lightly slaps himself on the cheek in order to gather his courage. "Anita's pregnant."

Your expression blossoms from bemusement to excited joy. "She is?! Oh my god, that's great!" you throw your arms around his shoulders and hug Ellis tight, beamingly exclaiming, "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you, that's the most amazing news, you dork, so why're you acting so squirrelly?!"

He exhales derisively and hugs you back, smiling with genuine affection as you sit back and gesture for him to come out with it. Rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly, he sighs and declares, "Because, well…when we found out, Anita pushed to get things moving on the immigration stuff…in order to be moved out of Colombia before she's in her second trimester. And, I have a job offer back in Tallahassee, but the immigration people," he pauses, and diverts his gaze when your eyes shone with unshed tears. "They're not guaranteeing that they'll be able to process everything for Anita and her parents this year. Florida's seeing an influx of immigrants from Central and South America, so the process is backed up."

Your heart aches with pangs of emotion, but you shove it down and put on a brave, selfless face as you grab his shoulder and give it a shake. "Ellis, did you not tell me sooner because you were worried I'd be upset?" you ask, and when he frowns and looks bashfully down to his knees, you huff and pat his arm. "Hey, I'm happy for you. And I want to help you and Anita, so...let's figure out some alternatives – come up with ways to get things expedited, so you all can be somewhere better before the baby comes."

Ellis looks up into your eyes, and the palpable relief that crests through his expression helps keep your sadness at bay the rest of the conversation. So much so, that by the time you both come up with ideas and agree to pursue them in order to have a plan in place once the ambassador is back, you're able to keep a cool demeanor the entire time you go down to the garage to get in your car, still intending to head to the mall to look for a dress. But the moment you're sitting inside your hatchback, you finally come apart, weeping into the sleeve of your taupe charmeuse blouse.

Your cell phone starts ringing in your purse, and you dazedly reach in and answer it after sniffling to clear your tears and regain your composure. "Hello?"

"Hey. Did I mess up the time?" Javi's voice rumbles affably in your ear. "Was our coffee date a little later than now?"

"Oh! No, I'm sorry – I completely forgot. I actually just got in my car," you answer, sounding harried. "I don't know where my brain is—"

"What's wrong?" Javi asks, picking up on the tension in your voice. And when you hesitate to come up with an excuse, he rumbles, "I'll come down right now—"

"You don't have to, Javi. I'm sorry for being a flake. I don't want you to waste any more time—" you begin to fret.

"It's not a waste. I'm in the elevator. Be there in a couple of minutes."

You scowl at yourself when you lean your head back against the headrest and catch your reflection in the rearview mirror. Hurriedly returning your phone to your purse and retrieving a tissue to dag at your eyes and cheeks, you try to not look like you'd had a little cry session in your car. Your nose is a bit rosy, so you powder it with your little foundation compact and rush to put it back in your purse when you notice Javier's exited the building and is striding across the garage towards the spot your car is parked in.

He looks so dashing – all broad-shouldered and handsome in the dark gray suit and pressed dress shirt, even with that necktie with the silky oblong colored stripe pattern you teased him over this morning. His hair is sleekly combed, ruffling a bit now from his brisk pace, and his moustache is neatly trimmed, but his stubble is starting to shade his cheeks and jaw. Your heart skips a beat as you continue to fawningly stare at him while he looks around whilst he strides over, making sure no one's lingering around before he hustles over to the front passenger door and gets in.

"Hey," he greets as he leans over and gives you a quick peck on the lips before his brown eyes survey you.

Trying for easygoing, you begin to dismiss, "You didn't have to come down, babe—"

"Cariño, c'mon…just talk to me," he presses gently as he wraps his fingers to clasp the nape of your neck. He intended for it to be a tender gesture, so when you almost dissolve in harried relief, his other hand reaches for yours in order to caress his thumb reassuringly along the back of your palm. "Hey, what's wrong? Did something happen?" When your eyes crinkle and you sigh, despite yourself, he gets wound up and asks, "Don't tell me that motherfucker did something—!"

"No! It's nothing like that," you assure him and stare into his tersely etched features as you squeeze his hand reassuringly. "Ellis just dropped a couple of bombs on me, and I got all flustered…" You proceed to tell Javi everything, and while you explain, he visibly relaxes and listens intently. "…I feel so silly for being all emotional about it. It's not like they'd changed plans. They've wanted to leave Colombia since before Escobar got taken out. I guess I just…I just thought since things were different now…" you trail off and turn your face from him when you feel another bout of tears tangling in the back of your throat.

Javi's warm hand caresses your trapezius and gives it a fortifying squeeze before he leans close and presses a kiss to the side of your head. "It's not silly. That's all great news, but it's natural for you to be a little sad at the same time," he husks sympathetically and cups your chin when you turn your face back to look at him. "Were you going to the mall alone, then?"

You nod, and lean into his touch when his palm caresses your cheek. With a weary hum, you murmur, "I still need to get that dress, so I was going to just go during my lunch break, but got all flustered and came down here early. I'm sorry I forgot about coffee—"

"That's alright, querida," he assures, quelling your ruffled energy with a soft kiss to your lips. Smiling, you pull away, visibly more relaxed than you'd been. "So…I got an hour to kill. Want some company?" he charismatically rumbles, brushing some rogue strands of hair behind your ear as he husks, "I could help you pick out a sexy little dress."

Your smile is brilliant as you snicker and lightly shove him. "You want to come to the mall and watch me try on dresses, fresco?" is your flirtatious heckle.

"Yeah. I think I'd like that," he drawls with feigned coyness, but his smirk gives him away. "Let's ride together in my car, though. That way you don't have to stop at the security gate and expose our relationship," is his sarcastic musing, to which you snicker and agree.

A few minutes later, you're both driving to one of the malls closest to the embassy while you're filling Javi in on some of the ideas you have for helping Ellis and Anita get things with the immigration office fast-tracked. After he enters the plaza and finds a spot, he parks and escorts you across the lot and into the main promenade. You take his hand and lead the way through the mall to the dress store you'd walked by plenty of times on previous outings with Anita.

It's a chic boutique, with the old-fashioned fitting rooms where you can walk out and look at the dress you've tried on in front of a 3-sided mirror. It even has a little divan for guests to sit at while someone is behind the curtained-off stall. Javi can't remember the last time he'd even been in a women's clothing store, let alone sitting out by the fitting room area.

He wracked his recollections, and only vaguely remembered being bored senseless while his mother and aunts had perused the giant dress shop on Main Street for what felt like hours. How he'd been the only boy kid for a while, and would hide in the circular clothes racks, and play with his army men while his cousins looked for him around the store. The scolding he'd get when he'd whine to his mother about being bored and how he'd rather do chores than watch them shop all day rang in his head and made him smile a little.

But this? You were the most expert shopper he'd ever seen. You weren't toddling around from rack to rack. Nope. You were on a mission, and since the store was empty, you'd gone direct to one of the boutique's salesladies and given her exactly what you were looking for in a dress. Even went as far as to convivially take the end of his tie and hold it up to point at the kind of shades of blue you were looking to try on.

The woman had chuckled and ushered you over to the area of the shop housing the dresses with the specifications you'd outlined. Three options selected and a few minutes later, Javi's sitting on a velvet cream divan while you're behind the curtain of a fitting room.

"Gave me so much grief over this tie, and look how much it came in handy," Javi quips as he rests his elbows over his knees. He's much too tall for the low-seated settee, but he doesn't mind it, especially when you snicker at his tone and open the curtain to reveal the first of the dress options. His brown eyes flare with intrigue as you come out and check yourself out in the mirrors. "That…I like that," he gravels hoarsely while his gaze fixates on the swell of your ass in the snug-fitting mint lace dress with the off-the-shoulder ruffle.

You smile at him in the mirror. "It's a little tight. And while pretty, I don't think it'll work for all the dancing we're gonna do. And it might be too casual for the church," is your objective review before turning to face him and winking. "And yes, your ugly tie was super helpful, considering it has the entire pantone variations of blue in it," you tease before hustling by him and into the fitting stall, maneuvering out of reach of a possible pinch to the bottom when Javi squints and grunts at your sassy tone.

"It's not an ugly tie," he laconically drawls as you shut the curtain and hurry to put on the next option. "You just love being a criticona," he accuses, smirking when you scoff in outrage on the other side of the dense, opaque cream curtain.

"Fine. It's only not ugly when you wear it," you razz, smiling when you hear him chuckle. Dutifully zipping the next dress shut, you emerge once again from the stall and pose coquettishly for him before doing a slow spin. "Well? What about this one?"

The glittery aqua tulle dress has thin shoulder straps and a pleated bodice, with a skirt that flounces about with your movement.

Javi realizes you're going to look drop-dead gorgeous in everything you try on, so he's absolutely going to be no fucking help. "That looks really good on you, hermosa," is his rumble, and the way his eyes rake up your body and stare hungrily at you? It makes your core tingle. And him grunting a velvety hum as he rubs his fingers idly over his mouth now before he husks, "It'll probably look even better on the floor after I take it off of you…" only sets that tingle into a thrumming pulse down into your pussy.

With a cunning smirk, you snootily lilt, "You're not going to be any help, are you," before turning to the mirror and examining your appearance.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I never see any fault in what you put on, bravita," he chuckles and crosses his arms before checking his watch. "But you still have to get shoes, right?"

"Yeah," you answer and lope back to try on the remaining option. "This one's a little too frilly. Need something a little less busy and fussy-looking," is your assessment as you shut the curtain.

Javier hums at that and idly digs in his blazer pocket for his packet of nicotine gum. Unfortunately the packet is empty, so he huffs and digs into his opposite pocket in the hopes he has a spare. He produces a wrapped breath mint instead, so he grunts and unravels it, popping it into his mouth and toying his tongue along it. "Then third time's gonna have to be the charm, no?" is his quip before crunching down on the mint to help curb his desire for a cigarette. The cool spearmint soothes his mouth and dances on his tongue, flavoring his mouth pleasantly.

"Yep! And I expect you to be more help when I pick out shoes, chavón," is your deriding jibe as you emerge from the curtain in the lovely teal V-neck and beaded bodice, knee-length chiffon dress with a flared waistline. The beading of the top gives it a chic shimmer while still remaining elegant. As you preen across from the reflections, you chime, "Ah, I really like the fit of this one! How do I look?"

Javi's jaw is dropped, coffee-brewed eyes roving your form while you admire yourself in the mirrors. "Fuck. That's it. Get that," he blurts, tone canela-brined as he stands and comes up behind you. Your giggle is charmed, smile sultry when he encircles your waist and whispers in your ear, "It looks fucking stunning on you. So much so, you're gonna have to wear it for me later. That way, I can condition myself to seeing you in it so I don't have a hard-on the entire fucking time on Sunday."

You gasp at his brazenness and whirl to playfully swat his chest, but end up staring into his expression with delight before leaning in and kissing him. His fingertips brush covetously along the back of your exposed nape and pull you in against him while his other hand cups the small of your back. You hum and wrap your arms around him, slinking up against his broad frame and getting lost in the moment with him.

Just when he deepens the passionate kiss and things begin to get sumptuously torrid, the boutique attendant clears her throat and startles you both to break apart.

"I take it we have a winner?" she quips, and Javi coughs bashfully into his fist while you beamingly smile and declare you'll be taking the teal one. The saleslady immediately beams and pulls you over to look at their selection of clutch purses that could be a match, and you select one with a detachable chain shoulder strap and pretty sequins that shine in a myriad of blues when they catch the light.

Ten minutes later, and you're emerging from the boutique with the dress and purse secure in the garment bag and shopping tote, with Javi at your side, handsome features still pink in the cheeks from getting caught. He behaves himself at the shoe store, and when you decide on the nude sling-back heels you try on, he just nods when you say you'll take them to the salesperson. He's too busy picturing you in them and nothing else – stretched out on his bed, to contribute an intelligent retort.

With the shopping pilgrimage successfully completed, you both head out across the promenade. Before you exit, though, you grab a pamphlet that contains a map of the entire metropolitan area of Bogotá from an informational kiosk's gondola as you walk by it. You tap Javi's arm impishly with it as you return to his car.

"This'll be helpful for when I map out those listing options," you remark jauntily as you get in the car.

Javi smiles, feeling a wave of pride crest up in him as he drives out of the mall.

Deciding to take advantage of the time still left to stop for a quick lunch at a quiet café, you both enjoy the meal and converse more about what will need to happen now that Ellis will be leaving. When your gaze gets a bit sad, he changes subjects to plans for this weekend. You're still discussing it when you exit the café and head back to the car. It's a lovely, balmy day in the capital, so there's a lot of foot traffic in the plaza as you walk together. The quaint tranquility of it makes you feel content, so you take his hand again and give it an affectionate squeeze as you stroll.

Once he's driving you both back to the embassy, your conversation switches to what his wardrobe options are, and the kind of outfit you think would work best.

"—So, you were serious about the 'no plaid or jeans' thing, huh," he can't help goadingly drawl and shoot you a mischievous look.

You laugh and snap tauntingly, "Well, if that's how you want to dress? Fine. Just don't expect me to let you pick out what lingerie I wear under my dress. As a matter of fact, I might end up never being in the mood to wear a single nighty for you ever again—"

"Shit, alright. I get the point. Scratch everything I said. I'll wear a three-piece tuxedo with penguin tails and white gloves if that's what you command, malvadita," Javi cuts in brashly as we turns into the embassy's security entrance and breezes through.

The mental image of such a ridiculous outfit on him has you giggling effervescently all the way down to the garage, and Javier feels content as he fondly steals glances, loving how you laugh until that discordant little sigh flits out of you.

After he parks, you lean over and kiss him, not even caring to spare a scanning glance around your surroundings before doing so.

"So, would you be opposed to going over to Ellis and Anita's tonight for a little while? I want to congratulate her properly on the news," you ask him as you collect your purchases and hop out of his car in order to drop them off in yours.

"I wish I could, but I have a call with stateside end of day," Javi laments as he exits and follows you to your hatchback so he can open the backdoor for you.

"Ah, no worries. I'll pick up something for us to eat for dinner after, then," you remark as you shut the door and lock up before snagging Javi's blazer lapel and towing him closer so you can steal a tender kiss from his lips.

Your boldness has him smitten, but he quickly recovers in order to nuzzle you sweetly and husk, "You're getting quite daring, director. Breaking your own rules?"

Pursing your plush lips, you adjust the strap of your purse higher onto your shoulder and wink at him as you muse, "I guess someone's shamelessness has been rubbing off on me."

"I'd prefer to say 'rubbing up on you,' but sure," he raunchily jokes and smirks when you snicker and swat his shoulder. "I'll call you if I'm going to leave later than I expected," is his remark as he slips his hand to the small of your back when you both start walking from your car towards the building.

You nod, and internally frown after Javier drops his hand from your lower back when the sound of an approaching car hums closer up from the garage's entrance ramp. It stuns you how much you long to be publically amorous with him at work. The mere thought of it prior would've unnerved you, so the desire being suddenly so strong left you incredulous as you entered the elevator and parted ways once it stopped at your floor.

"Have a nice afternoon, director," he mutters in farewell, and you can't help shoot him a sublime look, catching how his shoulders broaden out while he puts his hands in his trouser pockets as the elevator doors slide shut.

Your heartthrob of a lover has you girlishly swooning the rest of the day, even while you're making a covert phone call, and arranging for something top-secret to be mailed to your contact helping you on the matter. After the task is done, you reach out to some contacts at the DOS office in D.C. to put out feelers for Ellis. You end up catching up with the director there and learn about the general turnover in certain field offices, and he asks if you'd be interested in moving back.

"—There's a position in the New York office they're looking to fill. And oh! With the new administration in Puerto Rico, DOS is going to expand down there and bring on lots of staff—"

"I really appreciate it, but I'm very happy where I am currently. Can you let me know if there's movement on openings in Florida? Or if you can think of anyone I could reach out to and put in a good word for my deputy?" you politely intercede; keen on keeping the attention on your friend.

"I'll see who I can put you in contact with, but I think Florida's going to be a slim shot. And with the immigration needs you mentioned? Not just the wife, but her parents as well? There's definitely a huge backlog. Anyway, I'll be in touch!"

It's not what you were hoping for.

Once you've wrapped up the day in the office, you follow Ellis home and spend some time gushing happily with him and Anita about the baby news. Even though she's a bit queasy still, her heart-shaped face is glowing, and she excitedly tells you about how happy her parents and Ellis' family are from the news, and how eager everyone is for them to move out of Colombia.

"—The hassle is, the company that made me the offer said they need me there before the end of the fiscal year, but the immigration agent helping me with everything doesn't think that's likely," Ellis is sighing now, and Anita frowns from her cozy spot cuddled up next to him on the couch. "I'm just worried that if they don't want to wait, having no job lined up will end up with them dropping us back to the bottom of the pile…"

You pout and cross your arms as you lean forward in your seat. "Well…you might have better luck applying for a job in the government—"

"There aren't any openings in Florida right now. The closest would be Virginia, and well…that ain't a very diverse area. At least not for her parents to acclimate to," Ellis sighs before rubbing at his eyes. "Sorry. I sound like such a damn brat—"

Anita pulls the throw blanket more snugly around herself self-consciously as she laments, "No, you aren't. You're just trying to appease me. If we just have to wait, that's what it will need to be, sweetheart."

You feel sad, but then the tactical part of you perks up and has you blurting, "Would it need to be somewhere in the states? What about a U.S. territory?"

Ellis and Anita exchange looks of curiosity, so you go on to explain that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, and as such, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. That there's a U.S. federal government presence, which means several agencies and federal departments have field offices there. You also mention what the director had shared about how DOS is adding staff and expanding their presence there. "—Maybe you can apply for a job at the department there! It's basically Florida, just without rednecks," you lobby and joke, to which Anita giggles and Ellis contemplates it seriously. "I mean, your parents wouldn't have to deal with a language barrier," you pause to look over at Ellis as you add, "And the majority of people are bilingual, so you won't be as lost as you are here. And, I'm sure the immigration threshold will be way more lenient for someone getting a federal government job on the island. If you want, I could get in touch with my contacts there to see if there are any openings?"

"Would you be ok with that?" Ellis asks Anita. "It wouldn't be Tallahassee, but I doubt any of my family will complain about visiting a tropical island over trudging up towards the Mason-Dixon line," is his quip.

"I think that would be amazing! It wouldn't be so different to here, but still be like living in the states," Anita beams, excited by the prospect, so you happily agree to put some feelers out and see how quickly the process would be for them to migrate to Puerto Rico.

You're in such a great mood when you get home to Javi's place, that you juggle everything in and place takeout on the counter before hurriedly draping the purchases onto the bed so you can shed your shoes and purse to retrieve your phone and call your grandmother. You gush about getting the dress and shoes, tell her the good news about Ellis and Anita, and listen as she celebrates the happy news and fills you in on the latest on her end.

"—Oh, by the way. I spoke to your father. He's not going to be able to make it to the wedding—"

"Hmph, what a surprise," you deadpan, tone laconic as you snipe, "It was a wasted invitation to begin with."

"Well, your tía and prima wanted to be polite. He'll be traveling overseas," your grandmother muses, before adding gently, "He asked how you were—"

"I meant to tell you not to mention everything that happened to him. Ever," you cut in now as you sit on the couch and pinch the bridge of your nose. "Please tell me you didn't—"

"Of course not! There would've been no point, other than to upset him," she scoffs, and you sigh in relief. "…I did mention you were seeing someone…"

"'Buela!" you hiss in appalled haughtiness. "That's none of his business! I don't want him digging up information about Javier or trying to recriminate me—"

"You don't even speak to him, lindita! I hardly think he'll be able to recriminate you, unless he becomes a telepath," your grandmother scathes with a snarky huff. "Anyway, he took it well. I didn't give him any details. He's likely learned his lesson on keeping his opinions to himself—"

"Yeah, right," you grumble before tucking your legs under yourself and leaning into the armrest of the sofa grumpily. "So, want to hear how cute Javi was today when he came with me to help me shop for the dress?" is your goading purr, to which you get a delighted chuckle and eager cajoling from your grandmother.

By the time Javi gets home about an hour later, he's wiped after his call with leadership in Washington, and begrudgingly finishes his cigarette before stubbing it out in the receptacle by the elevator in the garage. He pulls the knot of his tie loose as he rides up to his floor, rubbing absently at the back of his neck to ease the tension there. With a tired huff, he exits the elevator and strides down the hallway to his door, and unlocks it, expecting to find you reading or typing away on your laptop while sat on the couch.

He instead walks in and finds you in mid waltz around the living room, wearing the blue dress and nude heels you'd purchased earlier in the day, as you hum a Blondie song under your breath to yourself.

His jaw drops at how lovely you look, and when you pause in mid spin at being caught, he feels his heart skip a beat at how cute you look when you bashfully sober in your silly prance.

"No, don't stop on my account. Keep going, gatita," Javi purrs as he locks the door unseeingly behind himself before unloading his belongings onto the credenza and shedding his blazer. You exhale a goofy huff and lope over to him, and he pulls you close, admiring how slight and elegant you look in his arms. "Fuck…you look gorgeous, baby," he murmurs puckishly and leans down to kiss you.

Your toes curl at the compliment, womb tingling from the flutter of arousal his warm, smoky scent and embrace stir in you. When you brush against his hard-on, though, you snicker and pull away. "Oh no, you have to behave when I'm in this dress!" you admonish sultrily as you scamper backwards out of his reach when he grunts and tries to possessively loop his arms around you. "Nope! You said you have to learn to control yourself while I wear it? Treat this as a training exercise, agente," is your flirty lilt as you smoothen out the wrinkles at your hips primly and smile at him.

"You're a relentless tease," he grumbles ruggedly and yanks his tie undone, shedding it from around his shirt's collar as he bounds past you for the bedroom. You daringly pinch his ass once he passes you, and chuckle when he yelps. "Bien chingona y malvadita," he complains mirthfully over his shoulder while he removes his shoes and belt, rolling his shirtsleeves up to his elbows as he saunters back to glibly stare you down with his hands haughtily perched at his hips.

You innocently stand to lean against the lip of the kitchen counter as you hold up the containers of food from the tapas place he likes – having just heated them up before he came home, eyes angelic as you bat your lashes at him. "Come eat, gruñón. I want to show you something," you chime silkily and gesture for him to go sit at the dining table.

Intrigued, he does so, and finds that you've unfolded the map contained in the pamphlet you grabbed at the mall and have used sticky notes to denote the areas certain apartment listings are located. Each note includes a descriptor of how many rooms, baths, and amenities were referenced in the listing, and you've drawn little stars next to the addresses you think sound the best.

Javier's impressed and leans over to look at the ones closest to the embassy but in that sweet spot you'd mentioned wanting to be in where you could still go to your favorite coffee shop and restaurants. His smile is rugged and gloating as he sits and pats his thigh for you to come sit on his lap.

You place the plates of food on the table and sit sidelong on his lap when he drawls in a honeyed tone, "Which do you think we should check out first?"

You point out two you think sound promising, and caveat that they don't mention whether the units are pet-friendly. "—If it's a really great place that checks off everything else, though, I'll definitely reconsider having a pet—"

"Nope. You want an annoying cat, so wherever we consider has to allow for it," Javi quips in a chivalrous tone before nuzzling into the back of your neck. "Let's make appointments to check them out next week?"

Your heart does a summersault in your chest as you nod and turn to shower him with affectionate kisses before shifting to stand and grab the cutlery, napkins and pouring drinks for each of you. "Rumor is Crosby should be back two weeks from now. You think things with Cali will get fast and furious once he's able to sign off on things?" you find yourself asking as you set the map aside and sit next to him to eat.

"It's going to have to. With the leak, I've told my guys to just observe comings and goings of the place we think Miguel Rodríguez is holed up in. I don't want to risk disclosing any info to the government that could make it to the cartel and compromise our informant. Things have been really quiet, though, so no one's wanted to rock the boat, which has been an advantage of sorts," Javi tells you as he eats, undoing the next top two buttons of his collar before he reaches for the whiskey you served him. "If we can catch the fucker, that'll put some pressure on keeping both brothers in jail. We just have to not fuck up this time…" he mutters before taking a long pull from the glass of amber liquid.

"So then, disclosing things at the embassy is going to take a backburner until you're done with that," you state rather than ask as you finish your dinner serving and take a sip of your drink.

Javi's brow quirks – the rest of his expression is hidden behind his glass. He drains it and sets it down before eyeing you as you dab at your lips with a napkin.

"I'd tell Crosby the minute I'm in his office," Javier remarks aloofly as he sits back in his chair casually. "I've wanted to make it public—"

You sigh and stand, collecting your dish and glass to head to the kitchen. "I know, Javi. But it's never been the right time to do that, and I don't think it's a smart move for you to do that while you're literally going to need him to back you up on the Cali stuff," is your mild musing as you place everything in the sink and run the water, preparing to do the dishes. You hear his chair slide back and his footfalls under the clatter of his plate and glass before he presses in behind you, places everything in the sink and shuts the faucet. "Javier—" you begin to protest.

"You're gonna get the dress dirty," he murmurs as he gently nudges you away from the sink. "I'll do this."

Drying your hands on the dishtowel, you turn and see he's avoiding your gaze. You frown, knowing he's taken your point of view to heart, and it upsets you, so you sidle up to him and loop your arms around his torso for a hug. He stills, hand hovering over the knob to the faucet.

"We're going to look at apartments next week, you dork. Obviously if we find something we like, we'll have to move quick on it, which means we'll have to put in with the housing division to move into the same location, requiring disclosing to HR and Crosby," you tell him wryly, smiling when he turns in your arms and gives you a dopey look, so you snicker and kiss his cheek before you add wittily, "It'll be all over the embassy before we've even finished telling him – thanks to Dotty being a gossip." When he snorts amusedly, you add with gusto, "I'm kind of looking forward to the look on his face when we tell him we're together."

Javi exhales derisively and shakes his head at you. "He's going to throw something at me," is his snarky joke, and you laugh as if scandalized by the suggestion. "I'll put money on it. He's going to look at you like you've gone insane, and then he'll throw something at me if he's behind his desk. If not? He'll strangle me—"

"Christ on the Cross, Javi! That's not going to happen," you exclaim irreverently between your peels of laughter.

He affectionately cups your face with his damp digits and tows you close to meet his kiss, making a silly grunt against your lips before he pulls back and drawls, "At the very least, he's going to hate it."

"I'm sure, but if he starts bullying you, I'll straighten him out," you chide deviously and pinch his sides before slinking back to avoid his retaliation as you nimbly strut on your sling back heels out of the kitchen en route for the hall whilst you call out coquettishly, "I'm going to strip out of this dress now, stud, and come help with the dishes."

He watches you go and feels that heated delight coil in his chest. Looking at the dishes in the sink, he abandons them, packs up the rest of the takeout, and stores it all in the fridge before pushing the chairs back into the dining room table and retrieving the map so he can glance over it one more time before he shuts the lights off and goes to the bedroom.

You've just finished placing the dress in the garment bag and hanging it up in the closet when he walks in and finds you still wearing the nude heels and only your white lace bra and panties as you turn while your hands gather your hair up to be fastened into a messy bun.

Javier's hungry stare as he stands in the doorway makes your heart skip. You're internally amused at him clearly having had different plans to yours. In particular, you'd intended to strut back into the kitchen in your revealing state of semi undress and used 'needing to break in the new heels' as an excuse for still having them on, but now that your plan of sensual instigation has been thwarted, you feign demureness as you cross your arms and lean your weight onto one hip.

"What happened to doing the dishes?"

"I decided to do you instead."

You snicker and go to reach down in order to yank your left heel off when Javi grunts at you to pause before he lopes forward to gather you against him. "Keep 'em on," he huskily purrs as he caresses a luscious trail of kisses down your neck to your shoulder. "But everything else is coming off."

Breathily, you lean into Javi and let him kiss you passionately, almost like he's resuming what you'd both started in the fitting room before you'd been interrupted. He picks you up and allows you to loop your arms and legs to cling to him while he multitasks unhooking your bra as he carries you to bed.

The lacy bra goes flying to the floor while he suckles greedy kisses along the valley between your breasts as his fingers peel your panties off and pull them down your thighs. You fidget to shift your hips up so you can help him remove the skimpy garment without getting them tangled in the heels. The moment they're discarded, Javi bows his head between your legs and licks the gathered arousal from your folds before nuzzling with unabashed want into your cunt.

Your back arches off the bed and you moan a reedy whimper as you grip the comforter and try to keep your legs from clinging too hard over his shoulders, for fear you'll accidentally dig the points of your heels into his back. But when he suddenly twirls his tongue up over your clit and purses his mouth over it, you cry out in pleasure as you writhe with desperate need, begging, "Oh, oh my god—Ja-Javi!" and bury a hand in the crown of his dark hair as your pelvis pivots up and seeks more.

Javier loves it when you get desperate for it like this, so he flicks the tip of his tongue into a rhythmic pattern that has your belly tensing and thighs quaking before he swirls it possessively over your pleasure point. It sets velvet fire over your senses and makes you keen breathily, body needy as his mouth claims your center.

He shifts his hands to fondle up your curves and cup your tits in order to tease your nipples in time with his greedy oral havoc thrumming molten pleasure over your pulsing bud – making your toes curl from his husky moan he presses against your flesh.

You whimper and clamp your thighs impulsively around him as you come with a silky cry of his name. The flood of pleasure heats your countenance and wrings the clutch of your pussy to honey over, dripping warm slick to coat Javi's mouth and chin as he prolongs your ecstasy with his lapping tongue before he shamelessly rubs his nose against your still tingling clit with a primal hum of accomplishment. You let out a fluttery exhalation and melt into the bed, completely turned to putty, to the point he keeps your legs from butterflying off of his shoulders as he shifts back to stand. He surveys how glorious you look stretched out naked and sated like this, and drunkenly decides the real thing trumps the filthy fantasy he'd conjured earlier.

"Mmm, you look so fucking sexy, querida," he rumbles hoarsely as he shifts your legs down to bend over the edge of the bed so you can relax while he hurriedly unbuttons his shirt and yanks it loose from his trousers. "Be a good girl and get on your hands and knees for me, baby," is his rough grouse as he sheds his shirt, then unfastens his gray slacks.

You're trembling when you scamper to roll and tuck your knees onto the bed while being mindful of your heels not catching or digging into the bedding as you prop yourself up on all fours for him. You mewl when he leans over to brush teasing, damp kisses down your spine before you sense him kick the rest of his clothes off and out of the way just before he licks you from the back.

The sweep of his warm, wet tongue from your still rippling cunt up through the cleft of your ass to lick over your tight ring of muscle has you keening and bowing your face into the bed with delirious pleasure. And when he slaps his palm down over your right buttock and gives the plump flesh a squeeze, you gasp and mewl, "Ja-Javi. Mmph!"

While he watches you writhe and your pussy clench around nothing, Javi scrubs his other hand over his mouth, gathering the dewy slick of your climax that clings to his moustache and chin in order to fist it around his cock and give a few lubricating tugs.

"Spread your knees more for me," he orders huskily before dipping his fingers to rub between your thighs over your warm cunt. You gasp and obey, planting your knees further apart. An excited little mewl fizzles out of you when Javi presses his palm on the small of your back and nudges you to arch down into the bed while still keeping your ass high and right for him.

He groans and fondles his hand from your lower back to knead the globe of your ass cheek before he hitches up against you and guides his cock to rut against your drenched folds from behind. "Wish you could see how hot you look in just these heels. Pussy drenched, pink little hole of this fine ass all cute and tight," is Javi's filthy growl as he curls over you and nips at the side of your neck when you whimper and buck back against him, features burning with how your arousal floods your pussy. Gravelly hum purring enticingly in his chest, Javi croons, "You like that, corazón? You just got my cock all wet—"

You blush and stretch yourself forward to rock your pussy against him. "Yes, Javi. Please, mi amor. N-Need you," you breathily plead, groaning when Javi grabs your hips and yanks them so that you're pinned from rutting over him, allowing for only he to set the pace of how his cock drags along your yearning cunt.

"Tell me what you need, preciosa," he husks in a low register that has the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end and thrill swirling in your core. And when he dampens his thumb in his mouth to then swirl it teasingly around the rim of your ass, you keen a breathless sound and writhe in pleasure at the filthy combination of stimuli. "Mmm, c'mon, guapita. Tell me." Javi revels in how you whimper frustrated mewls and wring your hands in the bedding while you squirm under him – looking ready to pounce if you don't get what you want soon.

"Need you inside me, Javi. Want to feel you deep inside—need to be yours," is your smoky petition, control fizzling under the strain of your desire bubbling up in you. "Please, Javi."

He can't deny either of you when you beg like that, and really, he's been pent up with need since you flounced out of that fitting room. So, with a show of dominance, he nudges a kiss to the back of your ear before adjusting his stance and gathering you up to rock back against him as he notches the head of his cock to your entrance and starts shoving into you.

Crying out at the delicious stretch of your walls giving way to him, you relish the carnal burn of your muscles pulling taut as the thick of his cock matched by the pressure of bowing deep against the bed settles a pulsing ache in your core. But it's when Javi plants a hand to the bed and angles his next thrust to slam into your g-spot that you feel aflame with incandescent need.

You moan and instinctively reach a hand backwards to cling to his wrist as he thrusts home into you with a gruff groan before grabbing fast at the back of your shoulder to steady himself on his next stroke out and slam back into you. "Fuck," he growls when your tight sheath clamps around him possessively. "Goddamn, querida—"

The embarrassment you should feel at being already so close after being worked up and edged by him in such a short time doesn't come, but the huffy whine you let out is quickly followed by a pressing, needy whimper of, "Need it, Javi. Please! N-Need to come."

Knowing he's had such an effect on you floods him with savage pride and spurs him to completely dominate you now, imposingly crowding over you to fuck into you with wanton abandon as he loops his arm around your torso while the other jams between your thighs and teases your clit.

To say that you fall apart with pleasure and dissolve into sobbing moans would be an understatement for how searing and visceral your orgasm is, cunt becoming a silken vise around Javi's throbbing cock as wave after wave of your climax zings through him and propels his own desire. It burns through him before he erupts with a guttural moan into the back of your neck. His hips rock mindlessly against you as he fills you with the swell of his spend, leaving him light-headed when your sheath greedily clutches him as you murmur his name over and over again in your delirium.

Left writhing, tangled heaps, you both recover your senses and bask in the afterglow together. His sweet kisses to your overheated skin and your content sighs anchor each of you to come down from the high before Javi shifts so that you both can spoon and decompress. The cool chill in the air-conditioned room lulls you to dreamily turn your head to seek his warm, sweaty skin, nose pressing into the spot under his jaw that always makes him weak as you curl a hand to bury into the back of his hair.

"Can I take these heels off now?"

He cracks up, baritone laugh endeared and velvety as he nuzzles you and nods before sitting up so he can reach your feet and remove the slings from your heels and slip the shoes off for you. Enchantingly sated, you let out a delicately relieved little noise and roll to curl into his chest.

He noses into the top of your hairline before cooing, "You up for a quick shower, tiernita?"

You nod and kiss the hollow of his throat. "Five more minutes though," is your honeyed whisper as you hook your leg around his hip and press flush against him, not looking to part with his heady, salty scent or the post-sex musk that clings to him and makes you buzz elatedly.

Javi cuddles you, more than content to agree to that.

Once you do manage to get a hot shower in, you go through the rest of your night routines, sharing the vanity mirror over the sink to brush your teeth before you take up some time doing skincare. You even impishly rub the excess moisturizer over Javi's brow and cheeks before he scoffs and hastily hangs up his towel to make his retreat to the bedroom.

He's just tossed the comforter back and sat to lounge back into the pillows in his loose dark blue pajama bottoms when you scamper in naked and grab for your fluffy robe, slipping it on and bundling yourself in it before humming at being enveloped by the soft warmth.

"I'll turn the thermostat down," Javi chuckles and goes to get up from the bed, but you tut and shove him back down.

"Nope, it's alright. I much rather have you parked where you are while I do some crucial work here," you deride as you prance towards the closet, enjoying the dull ache of your muscles after the hot shower loosened the coital-induced soreness out of them. "After all, I need to assess your entire wardrobe and see what will work for Sunday, chulito."

Javier scoffs glibly and sits with his weight balanced sidelong on a propped arm. "I have plenty of good options," he states cockily, and grins when you comically snatch a shirt out of the closet and hold it up for scrutiny. "Yep. That's a spiffy choice—"

You shake the 70's-inspired white and yellow patterned vertical striped guayabera and give him a drawn out, aghast huff. "This…is atrocious," you heckle and hold it up in front of you. "When was the last time you even wore this viejera?!"

"Such a criticona," he huffs amusedly and sits with a leg tucked under himself so he can cross his arms and squint at you. "But fine, I can't recall when I last wore it," he says around a yawn before musing in a taunting drone, "Can you skip the fashion dress down and just see what you think is most worthy?"

You grunt impishly and return the guayabera to the closet before sifting through his suits. Picking out a light gray one, you peruse his dress shirts and find a nice light blue and white dash stripe one that'll stand out with a bit more style than the typical work dress shirt. You turn and hold the suit and shirt up.

"Well, Mr. Centerfold? Will these work for you?" is your teasing lilt as you arch a brow sassily at him. Javi showily rubs his fingers along his jaw before humming and tapping them over his mouth. "If not, I have an idea of maybe mixing light slacks with a darker blazer—"

"Nope. I like it," he declares with an easygoing drawl and leans back on his splayed arms. "No tie?"

You smile and arrange the shirt and suit to hang next to your garment bag as you shake your head and retort, "Doesn't need it. The shirt is nice enough to go without a tie. Just keep the top two buttons undone, and," you pause as you spot a brown belt and matching leather loafers before holding them out as you continue, "Voila! You'll look quite dapper."

Javi has to admit you have an amazing sense of fashion. He doesn't think he'll look half-bad. "Now, commando under?" is his rambunctious drawl as he bounces his brows and tries to suppress his goading smirk when you whirl around after setting the belt and shoes aside to be packed.

"You would go sin pantaletas? In church?!" you faux-chastise, hands going to your hips as you sneer goofily, "For shame, Javier."

"I'm only asking because you haven't shown me what underwear you've picked out for me," he razzes cockily and stretches out on his side across the bed and gestures with the point of his chin to the dresser. "Hurry up and pick so it can be my turn to peruse your lingerie," is his purring order.

Snickering, you go to the dresser and look through the drawers, picking out a nice blue and white dash-patterned pair of socks and the navy boxer-briefs you love seeing on him. You even fold them into a cute square and place them daintily on the dresser top before climbing the bed to slink over and peck him on the lips.

"Alright. Go ahead and pick something. But please, be kind and select something halfway comfortable, hermoso?" is your flirty petition.

Smirking, Javi gets up and fishes through the drawer with your undergarments and nightgowns, and plucks up a pair of red lace thong panties, hooking them to his forefinger and presenting them with triumph to you.

"Javi," you scoff sardonically. "Harlot red? Really?"

"Why not?! C'mon, it's not like your dress is sheer enough for people to see the color—"

"But a thong? It's going to be so uncomfortable and give me a wedgy all day—!"

"Yeah, and they'll taste great when I put my mouth on them at the end of the night," Javier raunchily lobbies and spins the panties around with his finger, but you shake your head bossily, so he pouts and tosses them back into the drawer. "Fine. How about…hmmm, these?" he rumbles as he pulls out a French pink lace hip-hugging panty and holds it up while he gives you his puppy-eyed look.

You begrudgingly deflate and huff, "I have a matching bra to go with that one, so, yes."

He gives you a smug smirk and places them aside so he can locate the bra and hold it up. "Mmm, yeah, these will look real nice after I get you out of that dress—"

"Alright, beyako. Quit plotting and come to bed," you jeer humorously and slink up to the pillows before tucking your legs under the covers and removing your robe.

Javi snorts and places the garments down on the dresser before going to his side of the bed, switching the lamp off, and crawling under the comforter with you.

You sidle up against his warm frame and kiss him tenderly before cuddling up and sighing, "I love you, even though you're a shameless fresco."

He chuckles and caresses your warm, nude curves as he murmurs, "And I love you, even though you're an exacting little criticona."

Your laugh is like sweet wine, making him feel heat pool in his chest and zing to his belly as he tucks you into him and makes sure to keep the chill away.

The next day goes by in a whirlwind.

You spend it running around at work, helping Ellis pick up Francesca's things and ship them to her parents' home in California, then do an impromptu conference call at the end of the day with the director of operations overseeing the staffing effort for the expansion down in San Juan. He likes what he hears so much that he requests for Ellis to fly down and interview for one of the top positions on the technology implementation division. It's all going so quick, and while you're excited for your friend's prospects, you feel a little sad that you'll end up without him a lot quicker than you'd anticipated.

You've been so caught up with the arrangements, errands, work, and now possibly losing Ellis that you completely missed that you're on the week you get your period, so you huff when you use the restroom and rationalize that hormones have been the cause for why you've been so emotionally sensitive. It's days like these that you wish Javi's place had a nice soaking tub, but you settle for a hot shower and some ibuprofen before slipping into a house dress and the fluffy robe as you make dinner and crave chocolate.

Javier comes home and finds you napping on the couch with the TV on the early evening news. Quietly locking the door and divesting of his things, he goes to strip his blazer, tie, watch, shoes, and belt. He can't help notice that the ceramic holder with your tampons is set out on the back of the commode when he passes the bathroom, and instantly understands why you're tuckered out on the couch.

You stir when you hear clattering coming from the kitchen, so you sit up and look over to see Javi with his sleeves rolled up as he serves dinner into a plate and turns at your yawn.

Sweetly, he brings dinner to the couch and you both eat and watch TV while you chat idly about your days. And once you're done and head into the bedroom after cleaning the kitchen, you both pack your bags for the weekend and set everything aside before Javi takes you to bed and loves on you.

He massages your lower back, kisses on your neck and makes you feel so good that you decide to take a quick trip to the bathroom, and emerge naked with a towel you toss next to him on the bed before shoving him onto his back and working to strip him of the rest of his clothes. All the while his dark chocolate eyes smolder with want and his sexy smile softens his full, delectable lips.

Finally getting to 'try that side saddle business,' you and Javi share a shower and end up spooning in bed after, content and both excited for the weekend.

By the end of the Friday workday – which had included the news that Ellis is flying out next week for a couple of days to interview in Puerto Rico, you and Javi are driving to the airport together, and once parked, you take your things and wait at the check-in counter for Ellis to arrive with Francesca. It's bittersweet, and it takes all your effort to keep a stiff upper lip as she comes in and you watch her say goodbye to Ellis before you hug him.

The three of you enter the terminal together and sit at the bar chatting for the time before her flight starts boarding, and once you walk down to the gate with her, you hug her tight and make her promise to stay in touch.

"—Thanks for everything, boss lady. I'm sorry for all the hassle at the end there," she's telling you as she sniffles and gives you a crooked smile before she turns to Javi and shakes his hand firmly as she beams, "And thanks for the chocolates! I'm glad you weren't a blockhead for long and fixed things."

Javi snorts and pulls her in for a friendly hug to conspiratorially mumble, "Thanks for the assist with the intel."

You get misty-eyed when you watch her bound with her carry-on to queue up for boarding and she turns to wave enthusiastically at you both before heading through the door and onto the plane.

You're sure your heart would feel heavy and melancholy would've dragged you down, if not for Javi being by your side and ushering you to the end of the terminal to wait for your Medellín flight to board. After settling into seats to wait at the gate, Javi produces the bag of coffee candies he'd pocketed from his cluttered desk. He opens it and offers you the snack, and you smile ruefully before taking a few and savoring the chocolate-coated coffee beans with gusto before he tosses a few into his mouth. After they start to board, Javi chivalrously takes your things and keeps his comforting touch always near; an arm is around your shoulders, or a hand is on your waist, the small of your back – always seeking to comfort you and hold you close, even when you're in your seats and you end up falling asleep with your head on his shoulder.

By the time you arrive at the hotel in the rent-a-car, you are eager to just curl up and sleep in Javi's embrace. So you're a bit disarmed into silly surprise when he incredulously stares at the front entrance of Hotel Las Margaritas and swears, "Fuck me, I didn't expect to ever be back here," and at your curious look, explains that this is where he'd once done surveillance while the early members of the Medellín cartel threw a party on the rooftop terrace.

You defensively quip, "I mean – it's one of the nicest hotels in the city! And my wedding gift is going to be the honeymoon suite. I also reserved a room for the bridal party to get ready in before the church, so I figured it'd be good to stay in the same hotel to make sure I made the right pick." Javi's expression gets flinty, and you immediately read it as unease, so you pause in getting out of the car and assure, "If you don't feel right about being here, we can spend the night somewhere else—"

He shakes his head and leans over to kiss you before dismissing chivalrously, "No way! It's fine, querida—"

"Javier," you cup his cheek and gaze into his eyes, showing him your open, understanding tenderness as you murmur, "We can go somewhere else. I'm sorry—I should've mentioned the name of the hotel and made sure it was ok—"

Javi exhales and takes your hand from his cheek to clasp it in both of his. "The hotel is fine. It's just…the last time I was here, Steve, Carrillo and I were staking out the entrance from that window over there," he explains and points to the front entrance at a window on the second floor over the carport's awning. "Steve took photos of all the narco fucks who pulled in. I…I had an informant who went up to the party that night. She got in too deep, and…" he trails off, and diverts his gaze.

You can feel how heavy his retroactive guilt is as he lets it fill the space. So, with selfless grace, you lean forward and rest your forehead to his. "Come back to me, mi amor. I'm here. I am not going anywhere, and you do not have to be burdened by it," you whisper gently, and when Javi exhales a gruff, terse snarl of frustration with himself, you wrap your arm around his shoulders and squeeze your hand in his. "I'm not going to let you beat yourself up, Javier."

With a shuddering breath, he shifts to rest his head on your shoulder, and you wrap him up in a protective hug, nuzzling him and rubbing soothingly at his back.

That's when he tells you what happened. How Helena hadn't checked in. The panic and guilt he felt. How he'd made Carrillo go with him to go looking for answers. The way he'd found her. How fucking horrible he'd felt for a long time after. That eventually, he'd gotten her and her daughter a visa out, but stressed how it'd done nothing to scrub the shame and guilt from feeling responsible for her being put in danger.

He'd never told you about Helena before. You knew about that Gabby, and of course you'd never forget that bitch Vanessa, not to mention that wannabe guerillera Elisa, but this one had clearly rattled something in him. He carried it like a knot that was wrapped up in the tangle of his self-loathing, and you needed to find a way to excise it.

So, with a deep breath, you just say it.

"I love you, Javier. You're an amazing, kind, and good-hearted man. But if you don't stop beating yourself up for the decisions and choices of others, I'm going to lose my damned temper with you."

He leans back and stares with stunned awe at you. Your tone was loving but resolute, and the way your eyes bore into him has something unfurling in his chest.

"You didn't tell her to do what she did. And as far as I'm concerned, you avenged her and everyone else those fucking assholes ever hurt, with interest," you declare exactingly, and cup his face in your hands as you emphasize, "Le diste plomo al asesino cabrón ese. Acabaste con ellos. Ahora, te toca estar bien, mi amor."

Javi has never had someone tell him so concisely where things stand for him with such depth and clearheaded factualness. You telling him, 'You took out that fucking murderous asshole. You finished them off. Now, it's your time to be all right,' – and to mean it with such conviction? It's like you're the beacon of light in the darkness of his lonesome self-degradation. It makes it easy for him to see his way back – to shed the angst and acrimony and let himself have some peace.

You feel it when he leans forward and kisses you with a passion that rivals the sun, searing and all consuming until you're breathless and have to break apart to catch yourself from the burn.

"Thank you for not losing your damned temper on me, bravita," he husks coyly, and you snicker and pull him close for another hug. Then, he kisses a hungry trail from your jaw to your ear, and purrs hoarsely, "I'm going to properly thank you once we're in the room…"

Needless to say, you both check in and get to your hotel room in no time, tossing things on the dresser before getting tangled up in a heated make-out session against the wall by the bathroom. You break the kiss in order to instruct him to put the 'Do not disturb' sign out on the handle while you go freshen up and run the bath, convincing him that you need a nice long soak together.

Said soak together turns into you straddling him and having amazing sex while enveloped by the warm, soapy water as Javi clutches you against him and groans devoted praise into your ear.

You are both positively tuckered out by the time you get in bed, sleeping soundlessly through to the early morning.

With a busy itinerary, you each get ready and drive to your grandmother's, where you settle in and help with the women while Javi and Miguel talk about the plan for getting around, what the fellas will be doing while the women are at the hotel getting ready, and going to get the liquor for the bar that'll be at the reception. The day flies by thanks to spending it making the preparations, putting the table arrangements together, going to the reception hall behind the church's chapel to set things up for the party. And once it's all set, you dish a bit more with your cousin about everything you have reserved for the morning while Javi and Miguel tuck the last of the liquor stash under the bar his parents had rented for the occasion.

You both are wiped out by the time you get back to the hotel, and are full from your grandmother spoiling everyone with her cooking, so sleep is all you two are looking forward to after you shower and slide into bed together.

When you and Javi meet everyone in the lobby the next morning and the girls part ways from the boys, you can't help feeling that pining delight from how he kisses you goodbye and laconically purrs, "Don't go bragging about how whipped you got me, now," before pinching your ass and striding off like the fucking stud that melts you down to the core he is, wedding outfit packed and in his duffle he's got in his grip and tossed casually over his shoulder as he heads out to the rental so he can follow Miguel. Once you see his cute jean-clad ass and broad red-collared-shirt drape shoulders turn out of sight towards the parking lot facing the hotel's outside fountain at the entrance, you practically float along to show your cousin and her bridesmaids up to the spacious suite her beautician friends are already set up at.

While Javier goes to hang out with Miguel and his buddies, who're getting ready at the groom's apartment, you and the girls change into your dresses and take turns getting hair and makeup done until you're all properly dolled up and enjoy a couple of sips of champagne to toast your cousin.

A few hours later and Javi's picking you up in front of the hotel once you've seen the bridal party into the town car you'd surprised your cousin with to drive them to the church. He stares at how gorgeous you look with your hair done in elegant finger waves, with the dazzle of your emerald and diamond earrings twinkling in the sun as you turn to smile, bounding over towards him. The lovely makeup accentuating the alluring smolder of your eyes and plush pillows of your lips has him punch-drunk, so much so that when you slip into the passenger seat and smile at him, he wars with pouncing or just worshiping you before the honk of the car behind yours snaps his dumbstruck gawking away.

"Oh, don't you look bien guapísimo," you lilt, as you give him a peck on the cheek and then swipe your thumb to remove the rosy lipstick print you left.

"You look stunning," is his rumble before he huffs and tears his gaze away with such exasperation that you giggle as he grumbles with a surly edge to his baritone, "Fucking hell, I'm gonna be in trouble…" and starts driving en route for the next destination.

"Mmm, we're going to pick up my aunt and grandmother now, babe, so pórtate bien," you chide playfully as you buckle your seatbelt and pat his leg affectionately. He grunts at that, so with a flirty sweep of your palm to squeeze his thigh, you lilt provocatively, "And my 'visitor' is officially gone, so tonight? I'm going to fuck your brains out and not have an ounce of shame while I do so."

Javier's eyes flare with awestruck wonder, his desire searing into his loins and making his cheeks flush. He licks his lips and presses them together in surly frustration as he exhales out of his nose and grips the steering wheel. "Cristo amado, woman. You can't say that to me while we're on the way to church—"

"Technically we're making a pit stop to 'Buela's, so you have until then to calm your libido," is your brazen retort as you place your hands primly in your lap over your little chic clutch purse, batting your lashes angelically at him when he scoffs and shoots you a smoldering look.

"Such a wicked little tease," he grouses to himself as he drives, having to think of all the things that turn him off to stave off his semi.

Once you pick up your tía and abuela, you behave the rest of the ride, and are nothing but an enchanting dear as you all enter the church and find seats on your cousin's side behind your aunt's placement in the first pew. Javier escorts you on one arm and your abuela on the other, and is nothing but a genuine sweetheart once sat together, as he chats away with her while his hand affectionately interlaces his fingers in yours. She's telling him the significance of the church. About how it was a small chapel, but so many in the neighborhood had gotten married before the rich shimmer of the stain glass window at this very time of day so the light from the sun could catch the colored glass just right and shone brilliantly in the space.

Javi is impressed when the ceremony begins and your cousin walks in just as the sun comes through that window, bathing the room in colors and giving her pearly-white dress a resplendent sheen. He puts his arm around you when you lean your head fondly against his shoulder, lost in the whimsy of how love-struck Miguel looks as he watches your prima walk down the aisle towards him and the priest.

It's simply romantic.

You smile when they take their vows, and look over at Javi when they part from their first kiss as husband and wife, surprised to see his brown eyes already looking at you.

Unbeknownst to you both, your grandmother is watching the way you're looking at each other, and the delight she feels is enough to bring a tear to her eye as she hides it by smiling while dabbing her kerchief when her sister-in-law turns in her pew to gush happily as everyone claps for the now-married couple when they stride hand in hand out to the front of the chapel. After hugging the newlyweds and posing for some pictures – which you grab Javi and drag him into in order to stand next to you when the photographer sets up a big group shot for in front of the iglesia's flower bed-rimmed fountain – you all file down the side arch towards the cobblestone courtyard that leads to the reception hall at the back of the chapel.

The reception is an exuberantly fantastic party. The hall is filled with white and pink flowers accented by vibrant hibiscus that give it the tropical vibe carried over into the table settings of seaglass-and-seashell-filled-terrariums that act as the centerpiece for all the tables. The bride and groom have a little table next to the pretty wedding cake adorned with the miniature wax figures to match them, and they're situated in front of the dance floor. The catering buffet takes up an entire wall across from the bar, and is the first stop for many as they serve themselves and find a seat.

Javi can't get over how much food there is, and how jovial everyone is as they shake his hand or kiss his cheek in warm greeting, as if they've known him for years.

You're just as overawed, since your side of the family is quite small. But it endears you to see the big family your cousin has inherited now. Miguel has so many relatives, and his siblings have kids, and his cousins are funny and boisterous as they set up the DJ table and play music that has everyone in great spirits. On top of that are all the friends, acquaintances – it felt like a throng of people just milling convivially around the happy couple.

Once you've found a table to sit at with your meals, you get to people-watch as the newlyweds work the room for a bit. You and Javi sit at a table with your grandmother, aunt, and Miguel's sisters and their husbands as they field their kids to go eat, to stop fighting, to quit messing around and stay where they can be seen – the whole nine yards of rowdy family dynamics you hadn't had the joy to grow up with.

Javi and your grandmother are thick as thieves – joking and telling stories while they eat. She ends up telling him practically the entire family's life story – how she'd met your grandfather when her heel had broken and she'd toppled into him on a street in Medellín, had instantly fallen in love, settled in Bogotá and owned one of the last cobbler and apparel stores that catered to the businessmen and elite of the capital. Javi listens, riveted, and when you leave the table to chat with the bride and her friends, your grandmother tells him more – confiding some of the more delicate aspects of the family history. The ones she discerned you'd not told him, out of concern for keeping those matters private. He hears about your uncle – your mother's younger brother – who'd died in a car accident, on how it'd broken all their hearts, until your mother had married your father, and had you soon after. She tells Javier because she trusts him, and after observing him with you? Not to mention his selfless devotion to getting you back from having been snatched up? She believes he loves you with profound conviction. As far as she's concerned, he's family now, so, he should know.

Javier is touched by her candor and grace – both things you've clearly inherited from her – and tells her about his family.

You're none the wiser as you look over and see them chatting. And by the way your grandmother smiles and affectionately pats his arm, you know they're convo is something meaningful, so you find yourself slipping away from the girl-talk to rejoin them at the table. Just as you do, you overhear Javi telling her about how he was a runaway groom, and you gasp.

"—I actually saw her at my cousin's wedding, and she was gracious, all things considered," he's telling her, and you balk at him, having not been told that part before, but then he leans over and smirks at you when he says, "Even though she totally rubbed in my face how much better off her life had turned out from dodging the bullet in marrying me, so, you've been forewarned, querida."

Scoffing, you nudge him playfully by the shoulder and deride, "You hear this, 'Buela? As if I haven't thrown enough caution to the wind to be with him already—"

Javi snakes his hand around your waist to give you a cheeky pinch that earns a squeak from you before you dissolve into giggles as you rambunctiously slap his hands away. Your grandmother chuckles at the display before playfully grabbing Javi by the ear like you would a precocious child. He laughs and immediately lets go of you to shoot a pleadingly cute puppy-eyed look at her that has her fawningly cooing, "Ay bendito, que carita," before patting his cheek goofily.

Silly display quelled when the rest of the table comes back to sit, you can't help smile as Javi glances at you and winks before he leans over to you and asks, "Want something from the bar?"

Nodding, you chime, "My usual, and she'll have a copita de vino."

"Lindita! Don't tell him my vice," your grandmother chuckles and grins when Javi bounces his brows conspiratorially at her. "Oh, alright. Charming men are my real vice anyway. Go on, mijo."

He chuckles and goes to the bar, and you move seats to sit next to her so you can confide, "When she said Miguel's family was huge, I was a little wary. But everyone is so nice."

"I know. It just wasn't in God's plan for us to have a big family, so it would seem. But I wouldn't trade any of it for the world," she gushes and pats your hand. "He's a good man, lindita. Your mother would love him. And, I think even your father would come around, too. Albeit mercurially so," is her jibing remark, smiling brilliantly when you snicker and shake your head.

When Javi comes back with the drinks, a jumping salsa song comes on and a lot of the crowd heads for the makeshift dance floor, so he grins and holds his hand to you as he drawls, "May I have this dance?"

You smile and take his hand, heading out into the center of the crowd. Affably, you let him lead you in the dance, smitten and effervescently giggling as he spins you around and tucks you against him with aplomb before stealing a kiss from your lips.

The two of you dance and dance for several songs, and when a merengue up-tempo song comes on, your eyes light up with glee, and Javi tries to cut away, but you grab his hand and spin him, laughing vivaciously as you try to get him to keep step with you, but he quickly breaks a sweat along his brow and looks comically over for the DJ to switch the track before he keels over. Then, a kid that must be no more than fifteen-years-old taps Javi on the shoulder and asks to cut in.

He gives you a 'I tap out!' gesture and let's the kid take a shot, to which you smirk and happily accept your new dance partner. Javier saunters off the dance floor expecting to turn and see the kid struggling to keep pace with you, but when he looks back, the little merenguero is spinning you expertly and leading you like a cocky dance phenom.

Your hair is whipping around you jubilantly as you laugh and dance, smiling at the teen who's barely taller than you as he leads you into a series of spins and tucks before he dips you at the end of the song. The crowd erupts and cheers with claps and exclamations as the kid swings you back and showily points to his cheek in unspoken petition for a kiss.

Javi is grinning – unable to hide how impressed he is by the kid's level of cojones as you peck the teen on his cheek and tell him how good he is. Once he bows goofily and goes to get a soda, you flounce towards Javi with a silly chuckle as you loop your arms around his neck and tow him down to meet your lips.

"You're lucky I've been working on not being so celoso," he mocks as he escorts you back to the table.

"Hah! If that's the case, it should be safe to mention that he asked for my number, then?" is your aside, and when Javi's eyes crinkle and he looks around for the kid, you cackle and elbow him playfully. "I'm kidding!"

"Oh, just for that, I'm going to ask someone else to dance now," Javier sulks in a goofy tone as he pulls your chair out for you to sit in before he turns and offers his hand to your grandmother. "Would you do me the honor and join me for a dance?"

She scoffs and muses coyly, "Ah, you wicked man! You really are a charmer—"

"He's a lambe ojo, is what he is," you mutter daringly and wink at your grandmother. "Let him take you for a spin!"

She laughs, and takes Javi's hand.

Your smile is pure delight as you watch him escort her to the dance floor and lead her in the slow-tempo ranchera ballad, feeling enlivened and settled in the charming moment.

You sip your drink and enjoy the whimsy of watching everyone dance, celebrate, and be overall merry. It keeps you from stressing about the week to come, or fretting about losing Ellis and Anita.

No, you want to live in the moment, and right now, watching Javi laugh at something your grandmother tells him while he waltzes with her is one of the highlights of your day.

And when the DJ transitions the slow song to a Puerto Rican merengue song by Grupo Manía, you grin as she purses her lips and wags her finger in a, 'Oh, not happening' gesture before waving you over to come cut in.

You strut over and relieve her, smiling when Javi encircles your waist and takes your hand in his before he leans in to whisper, "Is this song about you?"

"Oh my god, you're such a dork for using that line!" you haze him derisively as you take the lead and show him how to properly side step and let the rhythm guide him to two-step forward and two-step back in synchronization with you before you sway in for him to spin you.

"This one's not as sped up," he remarks as he swings you back around and pulls you close to playfully dip you. "I don't feel like I'm going to drop dead—"

"Aww, te tengo que entrenar," you tease before caressing a hand to just behind his shoulder while he leads you some more to just dance close. "This is one of their slower singles. They have songs that will make you want to fall over once you're done," is your musing as you stare sultrily up into his handsome face and smile when his brown eyes smolder with something goading. "What?"

"When are we gonna perrear?" he purrs brazenly and brushes his nose against yours in a sexy show of dominance.

"I am not going to dance like that with you in front of everyone here, you beyaquito!" you hiss flirtatiously and segue into the cumbia song with him.

"So I gotta take you to a low-down, grimy club full of strangers to have you grind that sexy ass against me?" he instigates in a drawn out rumble and gets lost in how you giggle and cup his cheek affectionately.

"How 'bout just somewhere they're actually playing reggaetón and where my grandmother isn't watching us from 10 feet away, you fresco," you counter sassily as you brush your fingers over his forehead to comb his rogue curls back for him.

"…Fair point," is his raspy concession before he kisses you.

You both sway for a bit, then Javi ushers you off the dance floor once the song ends and the vallenato beat of the next one starts, deciding to spend a good amount of time recovering over drinks and conversation at your table until they announce it's time to do one of the wedding traditions your cousin and Miguel picked for the occasion.

Since the ceremony got moved up so last minute, they pared it down considerably and chose to have their first dance together to their favorite song while everyone watches. Once the romantic song ends, they bring out a chair to the dance floor for your cousin to sit in while she fluffs her dress' hem out as the DJ announces for all single guys to step forward and pass along one of their shoes to be placed under her dress.

Javier's never heard of this custom, so he looks over at you with big, curious brown eyes.

"Go, mijo! And give your right shoe over," is your grandmother's enthusiastic instruction while you shake your head sardonically.

Wanting to be a good sport, Javi does so and lines up with the other dozen so guys who are removing a shoe and passing it over to the groom, who places each under the bride's dress. Once Javi is stood off to the side while your cousin covers her eyes with her palm, the shoes are piled at random under her dress before Miguel stands back and counts down.

When he reaches 'one,' your prima blindly reaches under her dress and rifles through the shoes until she selects one and pulls it out.

"Who's shoe is this?" she calls out impishly and waves it around her head.

Javi raises his hand, utterly confused, and looks over at you when everyone cheers and whistles boisterously at him to see your reaction.

You're covering your mouth in comical shock and blushing, while your grandmother beams next to you and your aunt claps merrily.

Miguel comes over and claps Javi on the shoulder and returns his shoe. "Looks like you'll be the next one to get hitched, compa!" he exclaims jovially and grins when Javi's cheeks turn pink from flustered surprise.

"Yay! You better make an honest woman out of my prima," your cousin proclaims cleverly as she comes over and pulls him into a hug before the other single guys breathe sighs of relief and pat Javi on the back as they make their exits off of the dance floor.

As they move on to cut the cake, Javi wanders back to the table with his shoe still in his hand, and you feel like this is probably the last thing a guy like him would want to be prompted with. When he sits down and good-naturedly chuckles at your grandmother hugging him and kissing his cheek, you pass him his glass of whiskey and scrunch your face goofily at him.

"You've never heard of that tradition, have you?" is your musing drawl.

He shakes his head and exhales amusedly out of his nose while he puts his shoe back on. "Never. Guess that's like catching the bride's garter belt?" When you nod and hide your lopsided grin behind the back of your palm, he chuckles warmly, then leans over to whisper in your ear, "I guess I'm the marrying kind now."

Your heart trips, catches itself, and then palpitates a frazzled staccato beat at his honeyed timbre, and the way his coffee-brewed eyes hold you in a soulfully, albeit genuine, stare? It makes something stir in you, and before you can place what it is, one of Miguel's little nieces toddles over after her mother set her down to grab her fussy son and sit him to eat, and the few seconds is enough for the curly-haired little girl to stray around the chairs in search for someone to give her attention. And when a piece of cake is placed between you and Javi by one of the bridesmaids, you finally notice the little girl when she ambles over and stares at the frosted dessert before she leans over your lap and points.

Javier watches as your lips twitch into a little half-smile as you ask her, "Want some cake?" The little girl vigorously nods, and you glance over to Javi tentatively, as if unsure what to do.

With a gentle tone, he leans close and tells her, "You'll have to ask your mami if you can have some cake, ok?"

She pouts, as if that's the last thing she wants to do, so you pick up a little spoon and scoop up a flourish of icing dolloped on the slice and hand it to her before winking conspiratorially at her. Triumphant, she smiles and pops the spoon in her mouth before scampering away when she sees her father come back from the bar. You watch him scoop her up and carry her in his arm back to their side of the table. While you watch her enthusiastically prattle to her father about the cake, you're unaware that Javi's fondly gazing at you, admiring how you handled that.

His mind chooses now to recollect your comment weeks back during movie night. Something about watching a movie with rambunctious, wild children 'being free birth control' as far as you'd been concerned? He's about to lean over and teasingly ask you if you intend to spoil your kids like that, when the photographer comes over to your table and asks for everyone to pose for a picture.

You scoot your chair closer and pull your grandmother in as Javi puts his arm around you and leans close before you all smile for the photo.

Shared slice of cake and some jovial conversation around the table later, the time for the newlyweds to depart for their honeymoon arrives, so you all rush out to line up along the cobblestone path that leads to the waiting car. Once they come out arm in arm, you all cheer and toss the handful of rice up in the air as they run through the lane of smiling cheerful folks, and you fondly watch as they get in the backseat of the car and wave in farewell before it pulls out of the driveway and cruises out of the church's compound. Your aunt is tearfully smiling as she says goodbye to all the guests, and after the bulk of the partygoers have departed, the bridesmaids help take everything down while the groomsmen see to helping pack your rental with the gifts.

Saying goodbye to the new in-laws, you all depart, driving your aunt and grandmother to her house and helping to bring in the gifts before she makes you both promise to stop by for breakfast before you leave for the airport the next morning.

By the time you arrive back at the hotel, it's just started to drizzle, so you and Javi run hand-in-hand across the parking lot to the lobby, eager to get up to your room. The ride up to your floor is filled with stolen glances and alluring touches, so once you're both hurrying to the door, it's a seamless entry and putting out of the 'Do not disturb' sign before Javi tosses his duffle aside to literally start undressing you with pent-up haste. You give a sultry chuckle when you pull him towards the bed as you shove his blazer off and help him shimmy your dress down your arms and work the bodice off to shove the garment down your hourglass figure.

Before you let him unfasten your bra, you kiss him hungrily as you unbutton his shirt and unbuckle his belt while sitting momentarily to yank your heels off and toss them. His hands covetously fondle your curves when you stand back up to tug his shirt loose from his waistband, pulling your hips into his when he hums and possessively kisses down your neck to your shoulder.

"Fuck, I've been dying to have you all day," he huskily growls as you peel his dress shirt off of his broad frame and work his trousers undone, shoving them off his hips and groping your hands over his blue-boxer-briefs-clad ass while you suckle kisses along his collarbone.

"Mmm, I should get this makeup removed and shower first to rinse the sweat off," you dazedly remark as you let him pick you up to be taken to bed.

Javi hastily kicks his pants off of his ankles to freely maneuver clambering up onto the bed on his knees while you wrap your legs around his waist and loop your arms at his neck to anchor yourself to him as you kiss along his jaw. Groaning, he lays you over the bedding and unfastens your bra with one hand while the other props him up to loom over you as he husks, "No. Shower later. Love your scent when you're all sweaty—"

"Ewww," you playfully giggle as you stretch out under him and bury your hand into the back of his hair to pull him down to lie on top of you while your other hand trails down his back when he retaliates with cheeky kisses along your neck until he suckles that erogenous spot under your jaw by your ear. "Uumph, Javi," you murmur on a heated sigh when his warm skin and masculine scent have you tingling, and his clothed cock grinds into your aroused center.

He strips your bra off and discards it to the floor before igniting a trail of velvet fire with his mouth worshipfully kissing and suckling down your chest, tongue flicking over your nipple before pursing his lips over it while his hand fondles and toys with the other. You're dripping into your panties by the time Javi kisses his way down to your apex and bows his head between your thighs to breathe in the womanly, heady tang of your wet pussy before he licks you over the damp garment and kisses your mound.

Your needy whimper shoots arousal straight down to his throbbing dick, making it impossible for him to help himself any longer, so he peels your lacy panties off and stares at you while he licks and sucks your slick off of the panty gusset. Enthralled, you blush at the lewd yet erotic sight of him savoring your tangy desire shamelessly, shivering with how it turns you on. Javi watches your eyes lower alluringly as you spread you legs more and show him how much you're yearning for him, so he hums at the sight and settles between your thighs to kiss along the smooth, supple skin before nuzzling into your pussy.

Arching off the bed and angling your pelvis for more, you toss your head back into the pillow and whine his name as you buck against his mouth when he sucks tingling pressure over the hood of your clit.

The pitter-patter of the rain intensifying outside into a deluge that batters the window almost mimics the way your pulse is pounding in your ears from how quickly Javi drives you close to the precipice of an orgasm. You feel it scintillating across your nerve endings and thrumming over your heightened senses as he eats you out like he can only express how much he loves you with the talent of his tongue and the devotion of his lips.

Feeling like you're going to burn apart from how carnally overwhelmed by him and this pleasure he has set loose has you, you start to mewl, "Oh god! Ja-Javi, need you—d-don't wanna, nngth—s-slow down. Let me t-taste you before, 'fore—"

"Shh, it's ok, corazón. Let me make you come first," Javi croons with calm confidence and soothingly caresses your thighs before returning to his oral havoc, burying a throaty groan into your pussy for good measure.

You are flung into rapturous pleasure when he concentrates on flicking his tongue the way you like over your pulsing clit while two thick fingers plunge into your tight sheath and pump deftly before curving up. The ecstasy singes through you and has your toes curling and body arching taut as you climax on a strangle cry of his name, head tossed back while your hands grip the bedding in the throes of your bliss. You flood Javi's mouth and chin with your orgasm, which unleashes savage delight to coil in his belly and flare pride in his chest.

You're reduced to a panting, chest-heaving bolt of melted sinew, so you take a beat to pull yourself together, glossy eyes focusing to watch Javi sit up and ruggedly wipe the back of his hand across his mouth and chin. The sound of the rain registers to you, but you can only care about the handsome man prowling over you to nudge a doting kiss into your neck and caress your cheek.

There's nothing more satisfying than seeing you blitzed out, naked and glowing with sensual euphoria before him like this. Your hair is flung about in luscious rivulets, with those eye-catching emeralds in your earlobes, twinkling in the scant light that catch in the facets while you stare sultrily up into his handsome regard. To him, you resemble a goddess like this, and your dazzling smile and caress of his cheek makes him feel so worthy, so he intends to bask in the moment, but you have other plans.

You manage to roll him onto his back and pin him down, and when he grunts in surprise, you gaze sensuously down at him as you slink over him to strip him of his underwear. Wearing only his socks now, you spare him a sultry once over before stripping those too for him before caressing your hands up the planes of his muscularly lean thighs. His breath catches in his chest as you sprawl out on your tummy so you can stroke his aching, straining cock before pursing your mouth over the tip to lick and suckle the pre-cum coated expanse of it, sweeping your tongue greedily and moaning around him.

"Jesus Christ, mmph!" Javier groans and arches, one hand curling into a fist on the bed while the other buries into the back of your tousled hair. Growling your name, he hoarsely orders, "—Come on up and ride me so I can come in your pussy." When you make a little defiant sound and just keep sucking his cock – hollowing out your cheeks around him for good measure, Javi moans, clutching your shoulder warningly, and resisting bucking up into your mouth for more. You let his length bob free from your mouth on a gasp and stare salaciously up at him as he groans, "C'mon, querida, need you on me. I've had to control myself all fucking day, but I won't be able to last if you keep teasing me."

The way your flushed features soften with your sexy smile is something that has arousal zinging in his apex and throbbing in his loins. Said visceral allure only heightens when you sit up to crawl over to straddle him. "You're the one doing all the teasing today, bebito," you purr as you angle your pelvis and guide his throbbing cock to align with your plunging roll of your hips, burying him inch by exquisite inch into your yearning sheath. Javier moans and grips your waist, and you grab onto his wrists and hold on as you set a molten pace of undulating your core and clenching your floor muscles around him. "You like making me tingle for you? Getting my heart racing while surrounded by people like that, mi cariñito?" are your silky charges as you ride him now.

Javi's thoughts are sluggish with the syrupy pleasure your domination has him sinking into, so it's only when you squeeze his pulse points on his wrists that he realizes you expect him to answer. "I-I, fuck, I don't know, baby," he stammers as you stop undulating your hips and just clutch his cock in the vise of your sheath. He huffily drags his bottom lip between his teeth before grousing, "Y-Yeah, I do—I do like driving you wild. But you do the fucking same thing to me!"

You reward him by planting your palms over his broad pecs and bucking down on his cock with a provocative hum before leaning down to lick his lips. "Oh, yeah? Besides teasing you a little in the car, what else did I do to get you wound up and pulse-racing, hmm?" you goadingly counter and keep riding him, letting out little grunts and mewls of effort as you plunge onto his cock over and over again.

"Jesucristo amado—mmph, d-don't make me think right now, mi vida," Javi whines gruffly and licks his lips as he starts guiding your hips over him. When you snicker an effervescent sound at his answer, he gives you a fierce look of want and defiantly pivots up to roll you both into flipped positions – with you on your back and him looming over you as he starts fucking fast and hard into your rippling heat. You gasp and cling to him, lighting up with pleasure at his assertive, sexy growl of, "You being fucking stunning all damn day—every look, the way you smiled, your kisses—fuck, how sweet you were. Fucking everything about you had me hot."

It's like a divine tether being grounded within you to hear him say such things, because you felt the exact same way about him. His every glance, the way he'd smile at you, his protective presence being never too far, the way he'd got on with everyone, and how gleefully joyful you felt seeing him with your grandmother throughout – it'd all made you hot for him, and left you eager to revel in how in love you are, which also slightly mystified you to find there's no end to how enamored you could be with Javi.

He kisses you now, ravenous and incandescent as you both get lost in the throes of making love while the world around you flints away.

When he thrusts up into that devastatingly amazing pleasure point in you and nuzzles his moan into your neck, you are made electric flesh – a mere phenomenon of ardent passion as you hitch your knees up to clutch at his sides while your nails dig into his back as you cry, "Ah, Ja-Javi! Right there, right there—"

"Yes, mi amor. Come for me – fuck – come for me," Javi rasps in a reedy groan, already on the edge of orgasm, but desperately chasing stealing yours first. When you mewl in response and he can feel you right at the point of falling apart, he husks, "Love you to my very soul. Just want you. Give it to me, baby. Let me have it—"

You cry out and climax on his words, so bowled over and astounded by the fierce bliss that washes over you as you flutter around him and flood over with your orgasm that tears spring up in the corners of your eyes as you gasp and ride out the pleasure.

Seeing you dissolve in ecstasy so ferociously sets Javier's own pent-up orgasm to singe through him, unearthing the fire of his desire and snapping it loose with the pounding of his thrusts into you as he comes. You both moan as his cock erupts the warm bloom of his cum to fill your quivering sheath and seep tingling delight up into your womb as he empties his bliss into you before shuddering and burying his face in your neck on a spent groan.

The exquisite feeling of being filled with his seed and buzzing under his warm, quaking form lulls you into prolonged bliss as you both lie on the bed under the dim stormy night glow coming from the window adjacent your sated bodies.

Javi's nuzzling kisses into your neck and relishing your satiated little sighs, so when you whisper, "I love you hasta mi alma también, if you were wondering," he feels grounded and worthy as pride burns admiringly in his chest.

He huffs a wry chuckle and shifts so he can gaze down at you. Even with your lashes sticking together from the tear-streaked mascara, you look bewitchingly beautiful, so his eyes go from smolderingly dark to that gentle, soulful stare that makes you feel the most seen and deserving. Javi kisses you sweetly then, and you melt, content to bask in the post-coital lethargy of being draped over his chest in sensual repose once he pulls out of your addictive heat and adjusts to lie next to you before tucking you to rest against him.

Once the post-sex high dissipates, you both shower together, and while you're in a snug bathrobe drying your hair in front of the vanity mirror, Javier dutifully packs both your things in your bags in preparation of the early checkout the next morning. When you emerge from the bathroom fresh-faced and glowing, he's just pulled the covers back and turned out the bedside lamp. He's in a black pair of boxer-briefs now, looking relaxed and sexy as ever, so you shut the bathroom light off and scamper over in the chilled room to get in bed with him.

Javier watches you strip the robe and slide in under the sheets in the nude, thanks to the twilight of the rainy night beyond the window providing the scant light for him to admire your supple, nubile form. You smile and slink up against him for a chaste kiss before turning over to stretch out and lie on your stomach to face the window. His eyes longingly stare at the relief of your dimly lit form as you tuck your head on your pillow and let out a sublime little sigh.

Your lips crest softly when his fingertips trace the contour of your shoulder blade after he's shifted to lie sidelong next to you.

"What's on your mind, chulito," you murmur sleepily, but remain in your relaxed pose, enjoying the way he's gliding his gentle caresses along your nude back.

"Just…wondering something," he mumbles, and when you hum for him to elaborate, he exhales and leans down to brush a kiss over your nape. "Do you like kids?" he blurts out curiously.

That's not what you expected, but you resist the urge to turn over and stare at him. Instead, you tuck your legs up and get more comfortable as you gaze across the way at the window. "I like them well enough, I suppose," you retort simply, before querying, "Do you?"

"I-" Javi pauses to give his answer some more thought before he finally replies, "I don't mind them. Just never had the time to really consider thinking much on it – on having kids," he pauses to see if you'll say something, but you don't. So, he inquires, "Have you?"

You're quite surprised by this topic of conversation coming up now. So much so, you're pondering over what could've prompted it from him. Had your abuela said something to him? Did someone at the reception give him the impression it was something you two needed to discuss? Or with all the talk of looking at apartments together, was Javi thinking further ahead? Thinking about long-term plans and what it would mean for your relationship?

With all of that swirling in your mind, you find yourself replying neutrally, "No. Never really given it much thought, other than making sure not to get pregnant, I mean."

Javier hums pensively at that, so you finally adjust to turn your torso to face him, while still remaining on your stomach. He didn't seem to have expected your sudden shift, so he grunts and dismisses, "Forget it, querida—"

You caress your hand up his chest to rest at the side of his neck, surprised to find his pulse racing under your touch. "What're you really asking me, chavón," is your teasing drawl. When he hesitates, you sigh and shift to lie on your side, pillowing your hand under your cheek in order to prop your countenance up more. "Did someone hassle you today about 'making an honest woman' out of me or something? Was it 'Buela?"

Huffing wryly out of his nose, Javi snickers, "No. Your cousin did make a crack about 'making an honest woman' out of you, but no one brought up kids—"

"Ok, so then…what—you just want to know if my biological clock is ticking?" you cut in glibly before laconically musing, "Because it isn't, so nothing to worry about—"

"So you don't want to have kids at all," Javi ruminates out loud in an unreadable tone, eyes crinkling as he stares into your disarmed features. "I only mean, well—we've never talked about it—"

"Did we have to talk about it?" you remark and shift to prop yourself up onto your elbow to match his eye-line. "You were a field agent when I met you. I know they don't like assigning anyone to the DEA down here that has family – no one with kids. Not after what happened to that agent in Guadalajara. So, since you've been here so long, and, well – with your previous extracurriculars, I figured you didn't want kids. Which, was fine," is your analytical answer, completely free of umbrage as you detail the basis of your assumptions. When Javier just raises his brows at you, and seems to need to hear the unspoken part said out loud, you sigh and roll back over to lie on your stomach, facing the window as you add dispassionately, "I'd make a terrible mother."

Javier's shoulders slump hearing you say that, and really, he's not sure completely why. After all, he's never thought about having a family. At least not in the conventional sense of having kids; in becoming a father. But listening to you seem so…apathetic to it? His mind flashes to how sweet you were with the little girl, albeit reserved, and it makes something in his chest twitch with longing.

"That's not true. I think you'd be great at it," he finds himself countering, fingers absently sweeping through the back of your hair to fan it onto the pillow and expose your back to his meandering caresses. "And sure, I haven't given it much thought, in all honesty, but if it happened? We'd figure it out together. You would be an amazing mother—"

You scoff a humored laugh and shake your head before glancing dubiously over your shoulder at him as you deride, "Do you remember how freaked you were when the condom broke that one time?" Javi's brows knit together and his lips part, but an answer doesn't come, so he just presses them together. "C'mon, Javier. That's your worst nightmare, just like it's mine, so, don't worry or feel like you need to assure me—"

"I'm not," he interrupts and rests his hand to your hip. "And to be fair, that was a different time—"

"No, it wasn't. You're not a field agent anymore, and I'm not slogging it in Clerical Operations, but we both still have plans like we did then. Even more so now," you insist as you roll back over to face him before finding yourself blurting, "And if a condom breaking, or being late is enough to settle cold terror in us rather than happiness or excitement at the prospect then we don't have any business talking about having kids."

As soon as the words leave your mouth, you regret them. And when his expression etches in that bewildered way, you know you've messed up.

"You were late?" Javi carefully asks, sharply focusing on your expression with his intensifying gaze.

Reluctantly, you nod before succinctly explaining, "Only once, and it was just a false alarm. I changed birth control and it hasn't happened since—"

"When?" he asks in a hushed murmur, feeling guilty for having been oblivious.

You sigh, and idly caress the hand he has on your hip as you reply, "After the time you came to my door late at night, all upset?" When his eyes shone with recall, you add, "Well, afterwards, we didn't see each other for weeks until you dragged me out of that club, so…figured it wasn't worth mentioning."

You expect him to be mad, but instead, Javier exhales through his nose and rests his head on the pillow next to yours as he gazes over at you and asks haltingly, "And that moment, when you didn't know, you were terrified…by the thought that you could be?"

Meekly, you nod as you clarify, "It was more of a dread—"

"Because that's any better," is his snarky snort as humor quirks his mustachioed lips.

"It is! Regardless of my personal feelings about it, can you blame me for dreading the prospect after how you reacted that time? I mean, c'mon, you were terrified when that condom broke, Javi. I thought you were going to get down on your knees and pray to not have knocked me up," you counter sarcastically back, giving him a lopsided smirk when he scoffs and drags his palm across his face in self-disgust. "I don't know when you were the most relieved: when you found me at the bus station, or when I told you I was on the pill," is your goading jibe as you snicker at his surly grunt when he buries his face in his pillow in mortification.

"…I was a fucking jackass for that," he mumbles gruffly as he cuddles you close and rests his forehead to your cheek. "Be that as it may, though…I need you to know that…it'd be different now. That's all I'm going to say," is his careful murmur.

It's the right thing to say. His husky rasp warmly conveyed his meaning and instantly quelled your unease, making you feel off the hook to continue this tenuous topic.

You loop your arms around him and kiss his brow lovingly. "Good to know, hermoso," you croon and smile when he snickers and encircles your waist to pin you against him after you purr affectionately, "Now, behave and go to sleep."

He exhales a mirthful grunt before settling down with you and feeling lulled into slumber once you've drifted off yourself.

Early the next morning, you get ready, leave a nice note and tip on the little desk in the room, and head down to the lobby to check out. You both head out with your bags across the rain-soaked parking lot to your rental, and are soon parking in front of your grandmother's to have breakfast before heading to the airport.

She's ridiculously giddy, doting on Javi and enjoying how your aunt merrily recaps all the wonderful moments of the day before over coffee. And of course, when you were just feeling nice and content, she has to mention, "—Oh, and so many of the gifts were just thoughtful! Your father had a courier deliver a registry certificate from that big department store in the city, so they can go and get anything they'll need for when they find a house together. Isn't that wonderful?"

Javi watches as your expression cools at the mention of your father, so he clears his throat and replies, "And are they looking for a house, or will they wait until Miguel comes back from his training?"

Your grandmother covertly winks at Javi for changing the subject over the rim of her cup while your aunt blithely retorts, "Ah, they're going to wait. For now, she'll move out of her little apartment and into his—"

"Javi and I are going to look for apartments together," you remark aloofly as you stir your spoon in your coffee. "We're looking at a few this week."

The clattering of your aunt's coffee cup and your grandmother's dish from their surprised reaction to your glib musing weigh their silence, while Javi incredulously glances over at you. He's overawed that you would volunteer that, and just as he coughs tensely and spares a meek look over at your grandmother, your aunt hums before evenly remarking, "It's a shame you would live in sin by moving in together before getting married—"

"Well we've been living in sin since the night I picked him up at an embassy event, so there's not much sinning left to do but to shack up together," you barb cavalierly and smile proudly at her.

Javier's internally jaw-dropped at your answer while your grandmother amusedly shakes her head at you before patting her sister-in-law on the shoulder and musing, "She's only teasing you, dear. And anyway, these are different times and they're quite grown enough to live together," she pauses to look between you and Javi curtly as she pipes, "Just as long as you take care of each other and love one another, I'm glad for it."

Deciding that's the best way to end breakfast, you primly announce you and Javi should be heading out to the airport and say your goodbyes to your aunt before your grandmother sees you and Javi out.

You say your farewells, and when you hug her, she snickers, "You're such a provocadora! Teasing your tía that way, just to be an alborotadora—"

"I was just stating facts! I didn't say anything that wasn't true," you glibly retort, winking deviously before you kiss her cheek. "Love you. I'll call you later!"

Javi shakes his head sardonically at you and hugs your grandmother tight before pecking her cheek sweetly and smiling when she squeezes him and whispers conspiratorially, "Watch out for my little troublemaker, mijo."

"I will," he promises and follows after you. She watches from the porch as you both get in your rental and pull away with a parting wave.

"You technically fibbed back there, querida," Javi rumbles as he drives out of the neighborhood, giving you a sidelong glance when you hum in question. "The one who did the picking up that night was me," is his cocky charge.

"Well, maybe technically. But I did trip on the top step running up that morning because I got distracted checking you out," you admit without an ounce of shame as you comb your hair behind your ear and give him a flirty look before sticking your tongue out at him, snickering, "Not to mention burned my damn hand with the coffee for the trouble. If that hadn't happened, you wouldn't have thought you could pick me up that night. So, that was all me who initiated it."

Javier gapes at your rationale before a slow, pleased smirk crests his handsome features. "Well, shit. How can I argue with that," is his charming drawl as he winks at you.

You both make it to the airport with plenty of time to drop off the rental car, check in and get your boarding passes. Over an hour and a half later, you're both landing in Bogotá, and driving to the office in Javier's SUV, with no one the wiser that you two had absconded out of town together, save for Ellis.

"Can we spend the night at my place? I want to do laundry and water the plants," you ask Javi as he pulls into the embassy's underground garage and backs into a parking spot.

"Sure. Call me when you're ready to leave," he rasps in a smooth gravelly tone and leans over to kiss you chastely on the lips once he's turned the engine off and taken his seatbelt off. "Grab dinner on the way home?"

You nod and affectionately comb your fingers through his wayward wisps of hair that are curling over his forehead, brushing them back for him. "Love you, chulito," is your affectionate purr before you undo your seatbelt and collect your things.

But before you can hop out of the car, Javi pulls you close and murmurs, "Love you too, mi media naranjita." He brushes his lips over yours, and you melt despite how corny you should find the affectionate term.

Javi fondly watches you go as you strut across the parking level towards the building, waiting a few minutes before exiting his SUV to go in. By the time he's getting off the elevator on his floor, you're getting comfy in your desk chair as you boot up your laptop.

You're pleased to see an email from Francesca assuring you she made it home ok, and once you've closed it out, you spot a confirmation email that you quickly skim and get a cool sense of satisfaction over before closing out your personal email account and logging into your work one while you reach into your purse and pull out the apartment listings you wanted to make appointments to tour.

While you call the first listing on your cell phone, an exhilarating sense of hope settles in your chest, leaving you buzzing and eager to move forward on building the life with Javi that you're both on the same page about wanting together.

Little do you know how much of that will fall apart before it ever had a chance to form.

But, for now, you look forward to it, with heart in hand and mind clear of any doubts.

________________

Read Chapter 35: Spoil

Spanish-English Glossary:

Cariño = Darling/sweetheart

Querida = Affectionate term for a female, akin to expressing one's want and desire

Fresco = a guy who's being 'fresh', or naughty/pervy

Criticona = critical woman; hypercritical; nit-picker

Hermosa/hermoso = beautiful (female); beautiful (male)

Bravita= Tough girl; feisty girl

Chavón = a man that's pestering you

Canela = Cinnamon 

Malvadita = Wicked little girl

Prima = Cousin (female)

Tía = Aunt

'Buela = short for 'abuela', aka grandmother

Lindita = little cutie; pretty little girl

Gatita = Little kitten

Bien chingona y malvadita = Real badass and wicked (woman)

Gruñón = Grumpy man

Corazón = Heart; pet name to signify how deeply you love someone

Mi amor = My love

Preciosa = Gorgeous; precious

Guapita = sassy/foxy/daring/testy (female)

Tiernita = Tender little girl

Chulo/Chulito = Cute guy; little cutie

Viejera = Old relic; something very dated

Sin pantaletas = Without skivvies/panties

Beyako = Puerto Rican slang for horny/naughty guy; akin to "horn dog"

Fresco = a guy who's being 'fresh', or naughty/pervy

Guerillera = Guerrilla fighter (woman)

Le diste plomo al asesino cabrón ese. Acabaste con ellos. Ahora, te toca estar bien, mi amor = You took out that fucking murderous asshole. You finished them off. Now, it's your time to be all right, my love

Bravita = Tough girl; feisty girl

Bien guapísimo = Super handsome

Pórtate bien = Be good/Behave

Cristo amado = Christ beloved

Iglesia's = Church

Ay bendito, que carita = Oh, blessed simple soul, what a [cute] face

Copita de vino = A small cup of wine

Lindita = little cutie; pretty little girl

Mijo = short for "mi hijo", a term of endearment akin to "my son/sonny"

Merenguero = Expert at menrengue dancing

Cojones = Balls; guts

Celoso = Jealous (man)

Lambe ojo = Puerto Rican slang for a kiss-up; aka an ass kisser who's charming someone to get their way or be well-liked

Te tengo que entrenar = I gotta train you

Perrear = Doing it doggystyle, aka referring to sex

Beyaquito = Little naughty perv

Compa = Short for 'compadre', which is a term of friendship and mutual attachment, usually through marriage or baptism

Bebito = Little baby (male)

Mi cariñito = My sweet little darling

Jesucristo amado = Beloved Jesus Christ

Mi vida = My life

Hasta mi alma también = To my soul too

Chavón = a man that's pestering you 

Provocadora = Provoker (female)

Alborotadora = Troublemaker (female)

Mi media naranjita = Coloquial term for 'you're my other half', but said in the diminutive with affection

Thanks for reading! Please consider leaving a comment and sharing your feedback. I would be eternally grateful. 

#Heat - Narcos fanfic #Javier Peña #Javi Peña #Javi x Querida #Narcos #Narcos fan fiction #Javi Peña fan fiction #Javier Peña fan fiction #Pedro Pascal #Pedro Pascal characters #Javi Peña x Latina OFC

[quarantineroulette]

10 Things That Somehow Didn’t Suck This Year (with a horror films sub-list).

2022 has been an unbelievably surreal and disparate year for me. On one hand, I achieved three long-running goals, visiting Barcelona, becoming a home-owner, and going on a mini-tour with my band. On the other hand, I was plagued by some of the worst periods of depression of my life and endured at least two solid months of virtually nonstop distress in which things got better for a little bit before going really hard on the mental strife. 

Due to so much weirdness going on, I didn’t listen to much music this year and I feel pretty ashamed about that (if you’re a friend and you released music this year, I intend on listening to it very soon, I swear). I’m also a little put off by critical writing in general right now but I still wanted to do some sort of year-end ranking for tradition’s sake. So here’s 10...entertainments? I appreciated this year - whether TV shows, movies, or going to gigs, even though there were a lot of those I unfortunately missed as well. Also throwing in a sub-list of favorite horror films, as those are one of the few things I can focus on even when things are completely haywire elsewhere.

*Atlanta: I really don’t consider a lot of art truly *perfect* but the Atlanta series finale -- and the entire 41-episode show, really -- absolutely was. Out of anyone in my generation, Donald Glover is far and away the *~creative~* I’m most in awe of, most of all for this singular and very special show. I’ll forever be grateful for the intelligence behind Atlanta (I really can’t think of a show James and I have discussed more), it’s unpredictability and the insane level of talent that could be found in its ridiculously stellar cast and crew. I loved everything about every minute of it, but my secret favorite episode was the one where Van has an identity crisis in Paris and Alexander Skarsgard cameos as a cross between an exaggerated version of himself and Armie Hammer. Utterly surreal, totally hilarious, and unquestionably brilliant. 

*“Punk Rock Loser” by Viagra Boys: I didn’t totally love Viagra Boys’ 2022 release Cave World but it still somehow became the album I listened to most this year, and “Punk Rock Loser” had no contest in terms of being my most listened to song. The band excels at songs about decidedly unsavory dudes, so “Punk Rock Loser” isn’t entirely new territory but it is catchy and weirdly groovy in its own little way. Plus, the music video is an instant classic, right down to the Adidas western shirt and completely silly synchronized dance routine. 

*The Rehearsal: This one is a bit of a cheat because I just watched the whole series in like three days so it’s at the forefront of my mind. But something tells me even if I had watched it three months ago I’d still be fucking reeling from it. Like, my sense of perception has been irrevocably scrambled. I need to sit in a dark room and question every interaction I’ve ever had with another human up to this point. I related to this show more than I’d like to admit and also found myself weirdly moved by it at times. Also, massive respect to Fielder for getting HBO to pay for, well, the entire thing, but especially the replica of the Alligator Lounge (although we all know Nate’s Lizard Lounge is really where it’s at). 

*Playing a show with The Veldt: We started working on new music this year so we didn’t play many shows, but we still had a fair amount of success on that front and played our first-ever gigs in the midwest (including a sold out show in Chicago). But being asked to play with criminally underrated shoegazers The Veldt was truly a high water mark (on what was unfortunately a very watery evening in Brooklyn). Had gone to see The Veldt in Philly a month prior to sharing a bill with them, and was wowed by Daniel Chavis’ stage presence and vocal delivery both times around, a pretty powerful counter to the head down aloofness that genre designation typically suggests. Totally cool and lovely guys to boot.

*Warren Ellis - Nina Simone’s Gum: See my previous post, but in short, this book is mesmerizing. What I assumed would be a fairly straightforward rock memoir instead was a loving tribute to Ellis’ idols, providing a lot of insight into collecting and the power we imbue certain objects with and why. Absolutely solidified my opinion that Ellis is one of the most beautiful souls (I mean, he started a sanctuary for wildlife with special needs for god’s sake!) 

*Aldous Harding at Union Transfer: Pretty much the only new music I listened to this year was the aforementioned Viagra Boys, Fontaines DC and Aldous Harding, and I was fortunate enough to see two out of three of these artists live in 2022 (Viagra Boys, maybe next year). Aldous Harding had been at the top of my gig-going wishlist pre-pandemic, so I feel especially grateful that seeing her became a reality this year. It often feels a bit weak to say “OMG I went to see (x) and they sounded just like the album,” but in Aldous’ case, this is kind of an extraordinary compliment, seeing as she sings as about a dozen different characters on her new record, sometimes flipping back and forth over several different vocal styles in a single song. Add to this Harding’s obscure yet very purposeful stage presence and that equals me being enraptured for 90 minutes straight. Had an excellent time pre-gaming at the awesome go-go cocktail bar The Trestle Inn beforehand as well. 

*Intermission: My 10 (actually 11) Favorite Horror Films of 2022

Yeah yeah yeah. Everyone has said it, it’s been a great year for horror. It’s always been my favorite genre and I’ve embraced it even harder since the pandemic for whatever reason. So, just like everyone else is doing, here are my 10 favorites that I’ve seen this year. I didn’t see everything, but I’ve seen enough to have some authority on what was good, maybe...

1) Pearl - Mia Goth’s unblinking stare over the end credits = haven’t been as frightened by a face since Laura Dern running toward the camera in INLAND EMPIRE. Deserves all its accolades and then some. 

2) The Menu - The cast, the setting, the dialogue, Colin Stetson’s score: everything about this was a horrible delight from start to finish. Watching Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy act together was thoroughly electrifying and I will never get Fiennes lobbing the insult “you donkey” at some rich asshole out of my head. 

3) Smile - I saw the trailer for this a zillion times and thought it honestly looked hilariously stupid. Zero expectations and threw me for a complete loop. Still didn’t find it that scary but it was fun as hell and the sound design was excellent. Also, I’m sorry to say I had no idea who (PA native!) Kyle Gallner was until this year but loved him in both this and Dinner in America. 

4) Men / Resurrection - Resurrection walked so Men could run, I guess. Overall, I preferred the former just because I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes for the last 20 minutes and I appreciated its mash-up of folk horror / home invasion / psychological horror / cosmic horror / body horror to the max. Resurrection had Rebecca Hall giving the most insane monologue of the year and my forever crush Tim Roth being a gaslighting sleaze-hound, and those are two things I will never shrug at. 

5) What Josiah Saw - If you ever longed for a southern gothic version of Fire Walk With Me, then head over to Shudder and take this fucked up baby for a ride immediately. Had a scene, totally free of violence or gore, that made me want to squirm right out of my skin. Robert Patrick FTW and was nice(?) to see Nick Stahl again too.

6) Watcher - Great Hitchcockian throwback with great performances by Maika Monroe and Burn Gorman and some beautiful shots of Bucharest. Tense enough that I was nervous going into the bathroom by myself when it was over. 

7) We’re All Going to the World’s Fair - To be honest, I didn’t love this when I was watching it, but jeez did it stick with me. Months after and I still feel a great sense of discomfort whenever I think about it. Not for everyone, but will thoroughly creep you out and fill you with a sense of crushing loneliness, if you’re down for that kind of thing. 

8) Something in the Dirt - Pretty much will be open to anything Moorhead and Benson do just because I find their grassroots approach to cosmic horror and world-building really inspiring. Their latest threw about a million different interests of mine into a pot so I found Something in the Dirt especially delicious. Some really low-key funny moments and I’m still trying to piece it all together but I’m so so happy these guys are out there challenging us and doing it all in such a home-spun way. 

9) Barbarian - Almost didn’t add this because the hype really got to me, but, I know -- that first half was super tense and Justin Long gave his all as perhaps the douchiest character of the year. 

10) Nope - Really wasn’t a fan of US but this was quite a return to form. Loved the set pieces and the unique take on alien design. The spoken word “Purple People Eater” bit was pretty ridiculous but I laughed all the same. The blood house was marvelous, though.

***

*“Turn Off Your Brain and Yell” by Suede: I often get anxious whenever a long-running band or artist I love releases something new, even when it’s a band I love as much as Suede, and was honestly not expecting much from their 9th release Autofiction, as it was being touted as more stripped down and less high concept and dramatic. The record is just fine but live the songs are phenomenal, particularly the fittingly cathartic “Turn Off Your Brain and Yell.” The Autofiction closer served as the band’s opener at their headlining show at Philadelphia’s The Met and it was like an emotional wildfire had just ignited. I’m certain every single neck hair of every person in that venue was standing on end from this song onward. Simply put, it fucking slammed. Anyway, this Suede / Manics US tour seemed like the ultimate dream to me on paper but unfortunately turned out a little bittersweet, but at least I can say for probably the only time ever that Michelle Obama possibly had a hand in preventing me from going backstage like I was supposed to (long story!). 

*The Bear: Didn’t think this could possibly live up to its hype, but really what a touching, funny, intense and lovingly made show. Jeremy Allen White, he seems a little like a himbo, but was completely captivated and moved by his portrayal of the emotionally complex and overwhelmed Carmy. Loved when Richie did or said pretty much anything and the (I cringe at the term) *~needle drops~* were spectacular. Ready to drink down a second season like Xanax-laced ecto-cooler. 

*Kendrick Lamar performing “Savior” at Glastonbury : I feel a bit of a faker listing this as I haven’t watched Kendrick’s Glastonbury 2022 performance in full yet (doing that over the weekend, hopefully), and I’ve only listened to Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers once. I have, however, been returning to this video over and over for months now and I love everything about it -- the lighting, minimalist stage set up -- in such stark contrast to an event as overblown as the Glastonbury festival -- the dancers, and of course the fake blood and glittery crown of thorns. Most of all, I love that the message takes precedence, as it should be but so rarely is these days. So, thank you Kendrick and all the preceding makers on this list for saying or doing something meaningful in a year that frequently felt meaningless. 

#year in review #horror #atlanta #the rehearsal #warren ellis #aldous harding #suede #the bear #the veldt #viagra boys #kendrick lamar

[tiny-tigers]

Okaaay morning debrief: ☕️✨

Anon is right, I thought Marchant and Ludlam were really good! They have to go to France or we are *buggered*

Sorry to any harlequins fans but that 8, 9, 10 combo are great in the premiership but it just doesn't translate to international level at all

Didn't notice Fordy at all once he was on - think he's much better when starting at 10 and building into the game rather than being brought on as a sub?

England are not England without their dirty gritty players - you need your Farrell/Itoje/Lawes out there. Anon is right, usually when you're trying out debutants, its maybe 1 or 2 at a time surrounded by experience to help that newbie out, that team yesterday had TWO regular starters in it (Genge/Steward)

Ellis Genge is not ready for England captaincy: I love the guy but every time he's captained the national team his play has been affected as a result - he plays so much better with a bit of a chip on his shoulder/ VC position!

Did someone rub that ball in butter yesterday because how did we have 16 handling errors to their 2?!

Porter/Cokanasiga/Blamire/Martin seemed like nervous wrecks - clearly all vying for places and it just backfired on them massively 😭

I don't blame JVP for that try, I don't know anyone who could stop George North in a 1v1 situation

I obviously knew we weren't going to excel at this World Cup but omg I am now properly scared of not even making it out the group stages......💔

Also Wales are confidence players so this is the perfect set up for them going into next week 😭😭😭

P.S I always got bored whenever people would say how good Fred is under the high ball, but seeing how much Cokanasiga struggled to even catch one now I am IMPRESSED, damn boy 🦒

*sorry for negativity report* Enjoy Colby!!! 😀💜✨

Mornin' lovely ☕🌊 ,

Had an extra cinnamon doughnut today for free and compliments on my bag so I might actually stay there with you forever I think I am adopted.

We are gonna be RIDICULOUS at that RWC 😫 I thought we were just outsiders

The goose step of Marcus Smith when it is absolutely not needed makes him looks so ridiculous and It looks like he is waiting some times and occasions more than anything from afar ?

A lot of players were transparent and useless. Apparently when they do close the rooftop the place can be very toasty sweaty and it can be slipery indeed..

In 1v1 he doesn't win over a lot to be clear... paper thin JvP remember.. I am sure I won the 1v1 😭😅😅

Very good girafe ♡ We needed at least some good stuffs...

I need to talk to you about Colby !!

[master-sass-blast]

Winter Stay-cation.

*insert pithy quip here*

Summary: A massive squall hits New York City. The snow, combined with a deep freeze, brings the city that never sleeps to a standstill once the police issue travel bans. Fortunately, you and Piotr know how to keep yourselves entertained during your impromptu stay-cation.

Pairing(s): Piotr Rasputin x Reader, Nathan Summers x Wade Wilson, and Ellie Phimister x Yukio.

Rating: G for fluff.

Word Count: 3.4k.

Set after “It’s Truly Magical.”

A/N: The movie quote from Day Five is from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window.”

Taglist:  @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @super-darkcloudstudent, @dandyqueen, @leo-writer

“—continuing into the middle of next week, if not longer. Expect heavy snowfall and temperatures below freezing, with windchill taking things below zero over the weekend.”

“Good grief.” You shake your head as you watch the weather report on the morning news. “It doesn’t get that cold when I fly full speed.”

Piotr, your husband, hands you a cup of coffee and shrugs. “January is ugly month.”

You smirk into your mug. “Bet this doesn’t compare to Siberian winters.”

“Not really,” he admits with a chuckle.

“The Chief of New York City’s Fire Department has issued a statement reminding residents to be careful when using their fireplaces and to monitor children and pets.”

“Yeah, yeah,” you quip, “Don’t use fireworks as kindling, we got it.”

Piotr snorts.

“In addition, the Police Department has issued a travel advisory in light of the predicted precipitation and sub-zero temperatures. All none-essential travel is restricted until the cold snap passes.”

“Groovy. Tell that to half the city.”

Piotr grins, shakes his head again, then turns the TV off. “Looks like we will have to keep ourselves occupied here this week.”

You cast a disparaging glance outside –where the snow is already up to Piotr’s knees—then say, “Like we were going anywhere else.”

 ***

 Day One

 There’s an upside to when the “deep freeze” hits. It’s already winter break, meaning there’s no coordinating classes, figuring out how to pick up students that don’t live at the mansion, or having to get up at the balls-ugly hours of the early morning in the stupid, frigid cold.

The two of you wake up at your leisure, around nine o’clock. You laze around in bed for a bit, snuggling and chatting and smooching, then head downstairs for breakfast. You wind up setting up shop at the dining room table, catching up on grading and filling out end of the semester report cards.

“Can you check these for me?” Piotr asks, handing you a stack of essays from his art classes. “I already made content-based marks; I am just not sure about English grammar.”

“Fun fact: most native English speakers aren’t sure about their grammar, either,” you joke with a smirk.

Piotr snorts, then checks his computer clock before standing. “Is about lunchtime. I was thinking soup and sandwiches?”

You nod. “Sounds tasty.”

“Would you like anything in particular?”

“Surprise me.” You make a contented hum when Piotr leans over the table to kiss you, then smile as you watch him head to the kitchen.

You really are the world’s luckiest woman (a sentiment you feel even more keenly when he comes back with a fresh cup of hot cider for you).

 ***

 Day Two

 “We should clean.”

The two of you are sitting on the couch. Your laptops sit on the coffee table, displaying the completed efforts of uploading grades to the online gradebook that the school uses. Two mugs that once contained coffee sit next to either laptop.

You look up at Piotr. You’re tucked against his side, head leaning on his shoulder while his fingers trace designs on the sleeve of your sweater (which is technically his sweater, but that’s neither here nor there). “Huh?”

“We should clean,” he repeats as he scrubs at his face with his free hand. “House could use it.”

You crane your neck to look over his shoulder. “We don’t really have that many dirty dishes.”

Piotr snorts, then raises an eyebrow at you. “When was last time we vacuumed? Or deep cleaned bathrooms? Or washed windows?”

“We can see out the windows just fine!”

Piotr grins and shakes his head. He stands, holding his hand out to you. “Come on, myshka. Clean home, clean mind.”

“I’ll have you know that my mind is nothing but dirty, and I’m offended that you would dare insinuate otherwise.”

Piotr laughs and helps you up. “We can start upstairs and work our way down.”

 ***

 Cleaning with Piotr isn’t so bad. He carries his fair share of the workload, does things to their proper doneness, and is a firm supporter of blasting tunes while cleaning.

“Take! Me! On!” You bounce up and down in time with the beat while you clean the sliding glass doors in your bedroom that lead out to the balcony. “I’ll… be… gone! In a day or two!”

Behind you, Piotr laughs. He’s hauling out a trashbag from the bathroom –no doubt filled with the sheer amount of crumpled paper towels it takes to get the place sanitary again. “I see you are enjoying yourself.”

“Absolutely not. I’m suffering endlessly. I’m going to die any minute now.” And then, to prove you point, you flop to the floor dramatically (taking care to use your powers to cushion your landing).

Piotr lets out a choked gasp, then clutches at his chest. “You keep scared me!”

You look up at him and laugh. “You know I can catch myself! You’ve seen me do that before!”

“Changes nothing!” He lets out a ragged breath, hand still pressed over his heart. “I could have heart attack.”

You giggle, then lift yourself off the floor with a swirl of wind. You land nimbly on your toes before him and wrap your arms around his waist. “Aw, now who’s being dramatic?”

“I fail to see how concern for your well-being is dramatic!”

You suppress a grin, opting to pop up on the balls of your feet and kiss him instead. “I’m very sorry I scared you, baby.”

“Is okay.” He kisses you gently, then gazes down at you with a rueful smile on his lips. “What am I going to do with you, myshka?”

“Dance with me?” You flash him an impish smile, then start bouncing in time to the music again.

Piotr chuckles, then takes your hands in his and bops along with you.

The two of you dance around the room –well, as much as what you’re doing can be called dancing. You sing the lyrics of the song to each other, not sticking to any particular key or tempo.

You laugh when Piotr lifts you into his arms, bridal style, then squeal in delight when he spins the two of you around.

It’s perfect.

 ***

 Day Three

 You wake up to the sound of Piotr’s phone chirping –because, even on vacation, he still keeps a daily morning alarm.

He groans as he comes to, then laughs when you roll over him and shut off his alarm for him. “Well, good morning to you, too.”

You set his phone back on his nightstand, then straddle his hips and plant your hands against his brawny chest. “You’re not making me clean today.”

Piotr smirks up at you, bushy eyebrow raising in challenge. “Oh?”

“We’re spending today in this bed,” you continue. “Just you” –you tap his chest—“and me, and as few clothes as possible. Sound good?”

He pretends to mull it over, even has he takes off the shirt he’d been sleeping in. “Are we allowed bathroom and meal breaks?”

“I’ll allow it.”

“Ah, very generous. Thank you, benevolent myshka.”

“You’re very welcome.” You giggle when he grins –then let out a delighted yelp when he rolls suddenly, pinning you between him and the bed. You sigh as he kisses you, eyes fluttering shut. You arms wind around his neck, holding him against you while his hands smooth down your body.

 ***

 Day Four

 Cabin fever starts setting in between the third and fourth day. There’s only so many chores you can do, only so many papers you can grade (and you’re out of papers to grade, which doesn’t help your case), only so much sex you can have before you’re gonna start losing your mind.

Fortunately, Piotr is well-attuned to you and your mental states –meaning he notices that you’re getting twitchy before you dip into pyromania to keep yourself entertained.

“We should do something fun today,” he says during breakfast. He spreads some sour cream over his plate of blinis, then adds cottage cheese and sausage meat. “Perhaps play some video games. Ellie has been pestering me to play some multi-people games with her and Yukio.”

“Could be fun,” you say before stuffing your mouth full with Nutella-covered blini. You swallow, then ask, “What did she want to play?”

“Ah… she had two. I think… Falling Guys and Among Us?”

A slow, wicked grin stretches across your place. Fuck yeah. “Let her know we’re in.”

 ***

 Piotr, unfortunately, turns out to be none too good at Fall Guys.

“No!” He wails, then flops back against the couch when he gets thrown off a platform and into the slime. “I could not run away!”

“You have to anticipate the enemy’s movements,” Ellie says over Discord. She’s already qualified and is spectating you and Yukio. “Predict their strategy, then counter.”

“I think it is less strategy and more ‘giant hands do not play nice with tiny controller,’” Piotr grumbles good-naturedly.

“Or maybe you got your butt kicked like a scrub,” Ellie fires back.

“I never contested that,” Piotr chuckles.

“Alright,” you say, eyes glued on your pink and yellow striped player. “I’m almost there, there’s plenty of slots left –no, you fucking pigeon! Let me go!”

“Language,” Piotr murmurs between bouts of laughter.

“It’s always a pigeon!” Ellie groans. “Fucking skyrats.”

“Language, NTW.”

You qualify for the next round (no thanks to the damn pigeon, who qualifies, too). Egg Scramble is next, and you wind up facing off against Ellie and Yukio for the win.

“Damn it!” There’s the sound of something hitting the floor –most likely Ellie throwing her controller—when she and Yukio get booted out. “Yellow always loses!”

“Is that it?” you ask while the loading screen plays. “Are we at the final round yet?”

“There’ll be one more,” Yukio says. “To finish whittling down the competitors.”

Sure enough, there’s a round of Tip-Toe –which you get through by the skin of your teeth—and then you and eight other players are sent to the finale.

“Okay, Hex-A-Gone. You’ll want to just hop from tile to tile,” Ellie advises you while the level loads. “It makes the tiles last longer.”

“Don’t be afraid to drop a couple levels at first,” Yukio adds. “You can carve out one of the lower levels, meaning anyone that falls above you will have further to go and will be more likely to get out.”

“I appreciate it, but don’t expect any miracles,” you say, laughing self-deprecatingly.

Piotr kisses the top of your head. “You can do this, myshka.”

You follow the girls’ advice; you let yourself drop down two levels, then start hopping from tile to tile to start carving out the platform.

“One guy’s already out!” Ellie announces. “You’ve got this!”

“Shit! I fell!”

“That’s okay,” Yukio reassures you. “Find a decent mass of tiles and hop, don’t run. Make them last.”

“The pigeon grabbed another player,” Piotr marvels, shaking his head.

“Yeah, well, they both died, so fat lot of good it did them,” Ellie mutters.

You keep going, bounce from brightly colored hexagon to brightly colored hexagon.

“Only four left!” Ellie lets out a whoop. “Holy shit, you’re gonna make it!”

“Don’t jinx me!” you laugh as you dodge another player’s attempt to grab you. “Don’t jinx me!”

“Three left –two! It’s just you and one other guy!”

“You’ve got this, Y/N!” Yukio cheers.

You dive for a clump of tiles –and miss. “No!” You groan, then laugh as your character plummets into the pink slime. “Damn. I’m never going to do that good ever again.”

Piotr wraps an arm around your shoulders in a conciliatory hug. “You did wonderful job, myshka.”

“He’s right. That was really good. The winner fell a few seconds after you, so it was basically a coin toss as to who was gonna get the crown,” Ellie says while the winner’s animation plays on screen.

“Yeah! Great job!” Yukio congratulates you.

“Wanna do another round?” Ellie asks as she flicks between skins and accessories for her avatar.

Yukio laughs lightly. “Baby, we were going to get lunch.”

“Oh, right.”

“Perhaps we can try other game after lunch,” Piotr suggests. “‘Fall Guys’ is okay, but makes me too dizzy.”

“Yeah, sure. Text me when you guys are done eating.”

***

 Among Us doesn’t go much better for Piotr, if only because he doesn’t adhere to the strategy of the game. He does his tasks without fail –which usually leaves him alone, and thus a prime target for killing or pinning a murder on. He’s also a terrible liar, which makes it easy to tell when he is the impostor.

You laugh as Piotr’s little red spaceman goes floating into space. “I honestly feel bad.”

“I don’t,” Wade says (he and Nate hopped on the Discord call when Yukio sent them an invite). “Pay for some acting classes, Chrome Dome! Give us a challenge, at least.”

Piotr starts grumbling in Russian, but it gets cut off when the round starts up again.

(You all still wind up losing because Nate’s the other impostor and racks up bodies like nobody’s business.)

“I’m still waiting for when Ellie and Dad get the impostor role together,” you comment as the defeat screen flashes on your laptop screen.

“What, so we all die in five minutes?” Wade grumbles. “So we can suffer the agony of betrayal and not honoring trust again?”

“It’s just a game, Wade,” Nate sighs. “And I apologized already.”

“Is our relationship ‘just a game’ to you, Natey? I gave you an alibi –and then you shanked me in the shower like rejected prison bitch!”

“Language, Wade,” your husband pipes up, voice world-weary. “Please.”

You all start another round once Wade calms down –which, admittedly, takes a while and a great deal of coaxing from Nathan. You grin when you see that you’re an impostor alongside Yukio –then giggle to yourself when a plan pops into your mind.

You start stalking Piotr around the map. You fake doing tasks alongside him, acting as his shadow as he treks around the map. On the corner of your screen, you watch your kill timer wind down, then wait for the right moment once it runs out, and—

Downstairs, in his art studio, your husband lets out an indignant scream when your character murders his.

You fall back onto the bed and cackle.

 ***

 Day Five

 The squall rages on outside. The world is practically buried in snow. It’s a sea of white outside your bedroom windows, blinding and sterile.

You peer at the swaths of snow blanketing every inch of ground, every tree branch, and every shrub, then nestle further under the blankets. “Ugh. I don’t even want to get out of bed today.”

Piotr chuckles, then wraps an arm around your waist. “How come?”

“Have you seen what it’s like outside? It’s disgusting!”

“I thought you liked snow.”

“I do. That’s how you know it’s bad.” You sigh as you eye the fat, fluffy flakes falling from the sky. “I wish I could, like, go outside. Go to a store or something. Leave the house.”

“Is not safe to drive yet.”

“I know, I know.” You sigh. “Is it bad that I miss the color green?”

“Nyet. Is normal.”

You smile, just a little, when Piotr kisses the back of your head. You roll over to face him. “Can we build a blanket fort today?”

He raises an eyebrow. “What… here? In bedroom?”

“Yeah. We can make it look all pretty, and snuggle in bed, and watch movies, and have sex…”

“Bozhe ty moi.” Piotr snorts, then takes a moment to study your face, your eyes. “You really want blanket fort?”

“Kind of, yeah. I just… I want something new to look at.”

The corner of his mouth turns up in a soft smile. He presses his lips against your forehead. “Alright, myshka. Let’s make fort.”

***

 “When a man and a woman see each other and like each other, they ought to come together. Wham. Like a couple of taxis on Broadway.”

You let out a content, relaxed sigh, then wriggle closer to Piotr.

The fort, admittedly, is simple –but you don’t mind. While you were taking a shower, Piotr assembled the whole thing, just to give you a little surprise.

He’d brought up a couple floor lamps from the main floor, then clipped some fairy lights to them before draping the largest quilt in the house over top to make the room. He’d pinned some throw blankets to either side of the quilt to make the sides, then made the bed and assembled the pillows so the two of you could have a nice, cozy, comfy den to watch movies in.

The recurring, delighted thought of ‘he made it for me; he made it for me because he knew I wanted one’ loops around in your brain like a bumblebee drunk on fermented crab apples. You grin, then loop your arms around Piotr’s neck and kiss his cheek.

He grins, cheeks flushing ever so slightly. “What was that for?”

“You made me a blanket fort.”

“You asked for one.”

“Yeah, but you made it for me. You could’ve just waited until we could both work on it.”

He shrugs, lips curving into a soft, pleased smile. “I wanted to see look on face. You were very happy.”

“Correction: I am very happy.” You kiss the tip of his nose, then his lips. “I love you, Piotr.”

“And I love you, Y/N.”

 ***

 Day Six

 You know it’s bad when you wake up before Piotr.

You look over at your husband, who’s still slumbering away next to you –and sawing some logs, no less—then out at the winter hellscape outside, and decide there’s only one thing for it.

You’re channeling your inner Great British Bake Off contestant and demolishing the kitchen.

***

 Piotr comes downstairs around ten in the morning –which is a miraculous amount of sleep in time for him—but by then, the damage has already been done.

There’s a cake cooling on the counter (you’d found a box of cake mix in the back of the pantry and decided to use it as a warm-up. The mixer is working overtime on a double batch of sugar cookies –plus there’s already chocolate chip cookie dough chilling in the fridge.

You look up from the cookbook you’d been perusing –you were thinking pie next—and flash your husband a slightly sheepish grin as he gapes at the kitchen. “Uh… good morning?”

“Myshka…”

“I made cake.”

“I can see that.” Piotr drops his heads into his hands and makes a noise somewhere between a groan and a laugh. “Why?”

“Because being trapped inside is stressing me out and I want to cope by eating my weight in desserts.”

Piotr sighs, then lifts his head. He eyes the mixer, then the increasingly sheepish expression on your face. “How much is that?”

“In the bowl or in the fridge?”

“Bozhe ty moi.”

“Look, the way I see it, we can share—”

“You have that much correct. We do not need five million cookies.”

“Excuse you, I’m only making three million. Also, do you know where the lard is?”

Piotr’s face scrunches up. “Lard? Why—”

“I wanna make pie.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “We already have cake. And goodness knows how many kinds of cookies.”

“But those aren’t pie.” You smile impishly at him. “Plus, like, pie has fruit, so it’s good for you. You like fruit. Think about how good it’ll be to eat something with fruit after all the cake, and the cookies…”

“Or I could just eat fruit.” He sighs, resigned and slightly frustrated, when you bat your eyelashes at him. “I will check pantry.”

***

 Day Seven

 “—as of today, authorities are lifting the ban on nonessential travel—”

“Yes!” You launch yourself into the air, twirling around and pumping your fists before landing lightly on the couch once more. “Finally!”

Piotr laughs and shakes his head. “What, is staying inside with me so terrible?”

“Absolutely not.” You crawl across the couch and into his lap, then give him a loud smooch. “I have enjoyed every single day of your company. However, you’ve got about fifteen minutes before I start repainting the walls out of sheer boredom.”

Piotr bursts into raucous guffaws. He puts a hand over his eyes, shoulders and stomach shaking with each laugh. He sighs, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes as minute giggles slip past his lips. “Well, we do need to restock on food. And flour and butter, since someone decided to open bakery yesterday.”

You pointedly ignore the pies and full cookie jar sitting on the kitchen counter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He snorts, then pats your thigh. “Get dressed, myshka. We will go shopping.”

“Fuck yeah!” You zip up the stairs.

Downstairs, you can hear Piotr start laughing again.

#sass writes #piotr rasputin x reader #colossus x reader #nathan summers x wade wilson #negasonic teenage warhead x yukio #heavy on the fluff #because this year has been a shitload of angst #and quite frankly im done with it #deadpool fanfiction #x men fanfiction

[meanstreetspodcasts]

Wolfe in Sheep's Clothing

“I rarely leave my house. I do like it here. I would be an idiot to leave this chair, made to fit me.” (Rex Stout, Before I Die)

Nero Wolfe made his first appearance in 1934, and his adventures are still being enjoyed nearly eighty years later in books, TV shows, and - beginning on April 10, 1943 - radio dramas.  Not bad for a man who hated leaving his house more than nearly anything in the world.

Wolfe, the eccentric genius who weighs a seventh of a ton, was created by writer Rex Stout.  Stout made a tidy sum inventing a system to track the money school children saved in their accounts, and he used his earnings and royalties to travel the world and embark on a career as a writer.  His first Wolfe novel, Fer-de-Lance, was published in 1934, and Stout would go on to write 33 novels and 39 stories featuring Wolfe until his death in 1975.  Over the course of the novels and stories, Stout fleshed out the character, who enjoyed fine food and good beer, tended to his orchids, and solved mysteries when he had to earn a fee, always with the aid of his assistant (and the narrator of the stories), Archie Goodwin.

Stout’s brilliant stroke was to combine two archetypes of detective fiction into one duo.  Nero Wolfe was a classic refined detective in the mold of Sherlock Holmes, right down to his eccentricities, anti-social personality, and acute agoraphobia.  He could listen to clues as they were presented to him in his drawing room and deduce the solution to a crime without ever leaving the chair especially designed for his massive weight.  At his side was Archie, a more streetwise sleuth in the mold of (though not nearly as hard-boiled) Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.  Archie carried a gun and had an eye for a blonde like his brethren, but he drank milk instead of bourbon and he had a playful demeanor - particularly with his boss and their frequent foil on the police force, Inspector Cramer.

Wolfe came to the screen in 1934 and 1937, but it would take almost ten years for the character to make his radio debut.  From 1943 to 1944, ABC aired The Adventures of Nero Wolfe which starred J.B. Williams, Santos Ortega, and Luis Van Rooten as Wolfe during various points in the run.  A falling out between ABC and Stout’s representatives prevented the series from continuing, but a new version would premier on the Mutual Network in 1946.  Francis X. Bushman starred as Wolfe, with Elliott Lewis, a veteran radio actor who would soon take the director’s chair on Suspense, as Archie.  

But it is the 1950 NBC series The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe that is most fondly remembered and which came the closest to capturing the essence of Stout’s stories.  First and foremost, they found an actor who could fully embody Wolfe’s larger than life persona - Sydney Greenstreet.

A longtime theater actor, Greenstreet’s big break came as Kasper Gutman (“The Fat Man”) opposite Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon in 1941 at age 62. After receiving an Academy Award nomination for the role, Greenstreet appeared in films like Casablanca, The Mask of Demetrios, and Across the Pacific.  At age 71, he was cast as Wolfe, and his trademark characteristics - arched speech, droll laugh, deliberate intonation - perfectly fit Nero Wolfe’s larger than life personality.

Over the course of the series, no fewer than six actors were heard as Archie Goodwin. Each of the first three episodes featured a different Archie: Wally Maher (October 20); Lamont Johnson (October 27); and Herb Ellis (November 10). Beginning on November 24, actor Larry Dobkin assumed the role.  Dobkin had previously been heard as Louie the cab driver on The Saint and as Detective Lt. Matthews on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.  After eight episodes, Dobkin left and his old co-star Gerald Mohr voiced Goodwin for the next four episodes. Mohr was on a radio detective roll; he had just wrapped his two-year run as Marlowe and would return for a Marlowe summer series a few months after his gig as Archie came to a close.  Harry Bartell, a veteran of Escape and Dragnet as well as the Petri Wine announcer for The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, stepped into Archie’s shoes for the final ten episodes of the series.

Why so many Archies to one Nero?  There’s no definite answer.  Some have said it was because Greenstreet was difficult to work with; others speculate the revolving door of co-stars was a sign of retooling to see if the ratings would improve.

And while the series was well done, with even Rex Stout praising Greenstreet’s performance (he was less complimentary of the program itself), it did not fare well enough in the ratings to earn a second year.  The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe wrapped up its run on April 27, 1951.  Fortunately for fans, the entire series run are available in great condition.  One can listen to the full run and hear Greenstreet lend his one-of-a-kind voice to Wolfe, and even with so many actors playing Archie Goodwin, none is sub-par.  Each brings his own style to the character while staying true to Stout’s creation.  And backing up Greenstreet and his Goodwins every week are a great cast, including Bill Johnstone as Inspector Cramer, Howard McNear, Betty Lou Gerson, Peter Leeds, and Barney Phillips.

Since the radio era came to an end, Nero Wolfe has continued to entertain fans outside of the books. Several TV shows have aired, including one single-season program starring radio veteran William Conrad as Wolfe and an absolutely delightful but criminally short-lived production on A&E with Timothy Hutton as Archie and Maury Chaykin as Wolfe. And for fans who want more audio adventures of the pair, the CBC mounted an impressive series of adaptations in 1982.

Check out this episode!

#old time radio #golden age of radio

[tragedyslut]

🩷 summary — loser ellie motorcycle au <33

imagine : Ellies a massive loser. everyone knows it, all of her friends, even her own girlfriend, you. but she wasn't just a loser, she was a loser with a motorcycle. when you two first met, she was so determined to win you over. she'd do a bunch of motorcycle tricks, hoping you'd find one of them 'undeniably sexy' so that youd just ask her out. that didn't work, mainly because every time she tried to do any tricks it would go horribly wrong. she'd fall, or something else would happen. your favourite incident was when she tried to do a trick and flew off the back of the bike. she wasn't severely hurt or anything, it was just hilarious.

she would let you ride on the back of her motorcycle all the time. going on a date? you guys end up going on her bike. doesn't matter the situation.

she treats her bike like like its the most precious thing in the world. she cares so much about it, repairs it etc. you're almost certian that if anything happened to it she'd just implode.

#Spotify #ellie tlou #joel tlou #the last of us #tlou #tlou2 #ellie tlou smut #ellie williams smut #abby the last of us #abby tlou #abby anderson #ellie being a massive sub #sub ellie williams #abby smut #abby is scary as fuck #abby being the dom bitch that she is

[otomechuchu]

Taisho x Alice - coming to Steam

Taisho x Alice is now coming to Steam!

It’s set for release on Nov 29 2019.

First up is Ep. 1 - Cinderella and Red Riding Hood.

Unlike the previous “localization” (let’s be honest, you can’t really call it that), this is legit. It’s being localized by Primula’s parent/sister company: Pencil Production. It’s going to be fully voiced (in JP, original voices), no English dub. There will also be Chinese subs.

The translation looks a lot better, so there’s that. Not sure if it’s good YET.

Chinese translation is good too.

The no marketing worries me though... I mean this is a great game that a lot of us were really excited about a few years ago (and then it crashed & burned by THAT incident), so they should be advertising this!

“ Once upon a time, in a topsy-turvy world... In the beginning, you find yourself lost within a world of utter darkness. Your memories are gone; even your name is a mystery. But just when the bitter loneliness threatens to break your spirit, you meet Alice—a blond-haired, blue-eyed young man who promptly christens you "Arisu." Like you, Alice cannot remember anything beyond his own name. Ignoring his protests, you drag him along with you through the darkness... until you happen upon a massive mirror made of crystal. You stumble through the glass and into the Looking-Glass World, an antiquated fairytale dreamscape that feels oddly familiar... There, amid a colorful cast of gender-swapped fairytale characters, you take on the role of the heroine and join them in their twisted tales. How will the story end? It's up to you! “

Some more pictures of the translation. Too early to tell but the translation looks good...? 

I’m sure most people are familiar with the game and its cast, but just in case: 

Cinderella - Daisuke Hirakawa Red Riding Hood - Tomoaki Maeno Kaguya - Toshiki Masuda Gretel - Takuya Eguchi Snow White - Syouta Aoi Wizard - Wataru Hatano Alice - Yoshitugu Matsuoka Wolf - Natsuki Hanae Huntsman - Tomohisa Hashizume 

Get it here

For those interested about THAT incident: 

My summarized post about concerns before game release

My post after the game was released

Elly’s 3 really really long posts about before, during and after the game

My Twitter moment about this

Taisho Alice BBQ Twitter moment (from several people within the otome community)

Nov 12 2019

#otome #game #news #upcoming #taisho alice #taisho x alice #primula #pencil production #steam

[actuallyrandomperson]

My thoughts on the Sanders Sides Spotify playlists- Patton Edition!

Note: this is Purely me saying whether or not I like the songs, not theorising about any deeper meanings. I’ve done them all, so just click on the names to see my reactions to the others: Virgil, Roman, Logan, Janus

Impressions from looking through the playlist: I think I recognise more of these titles upfront (but not necessarily bands), which isn’t that surprising given that it’s Patton, so I was expecting there’d be some more overlap with my/my mums music taste than there would be with Virgil’s. We shall see if that holds up.

1: ‘Campfire Song Song’, by (from??) Spongebob Squarepants. I knew this one (unsurprisingly) and it was Also on my list of ‘songs I expect to hear in their playlists’ after rewatching the q&a. I’m pretty sure ‘I Am the Walrus’ isn’t on here which is sad because that joke was iconic, but also completely valid. This song did not make it onto my 32 hour playlist, as spongebob does not have enough Nostalgia™ for me that I could put up with listening to it on even just a semi regular basis.

2: ‘Turnaround’, by Hans Zimmer, Camille. This was a bop! It’s on my 32 hour playlist now, and gave me happy vibes as expected from a Patton themed playlist. Made me sway/chair dance while I was listening so that was fun. I feel like it’s gonna be stuck in my head at some stage in the future. Only reason it’s not in the ten hour playlist is because it’s from a movie, but this might end up being one of my Exceptions to that rule for the playlist. We shall have to see.

3: ‘I Got a Name- Stereo Version’, Jim Croce. I liked this, but only in a ‘I wouldn’t skip it’ way not in a ‘Imma add it to the 32 hour playlist’ way. I didn’t vibe with the singing style enough. Still fairly boppy tho.

4: ‘Oranges’, by Lawrence. I haven’t heard this song in ages, and I kinda like it! It made it onto the 32 hour playlist, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to specifically play it again.

5: ‘I Don’t Wanna Pray’, by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. This gave me very old timey-feels, and felt very Patton, but I didn’t love it. Probably wouldn’t skip it if it came up in a future playlist, it just wasn’t the style of music I tend to enjoy. Had a good beat though, I could imagine doing tap dance to it!

6: ‘New Soul’, by Yael Naim. This song made me wanna whistle/hum along to the lalas, and I’m not quite sure what that means in terms of level of enjoyment, but vibed with it! It’s on the 32 hour playlist now.

7: ‘Better Together’, by Jack Johnson. I wasn’t sure I’d like this when it first started, but the singing drew me in and I added it to the 32 hour playlist. I didn’t love it enough for the ten hour one though, but given my initial thoughts it being on the 32 hour one is a Surprising Comeback

8: ‘Vienna’, by Billy Joel. I couldn’t tell u when I last listened to a Billy Joel song (actually thats a lie, it was in a twitch sings stream) but, well. It’s Billy Joel. I was always gonna be reminded I like this song enough to add it to the 32 hour playlist.

9: ‘It’s You I Like’, by Ellie Schmidly. This song??? Made me s o f t. It’s in the 32 hour playlist. I’ll probably listen to it if I get insecure at any point in the future. I’ll also send it to my best friend if she gets insecure at any point in the future. It’s that soft.

10: ‘Little Shadow’, by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Those of you who have read my reaction to Virgil’s playlist will remember that I really liked the acoustic version of soft shock, and in fact went to yeah yeah yeahs album to find the original only to realise my sister used to listen to them. At that point I skipped through a bunch of their songs to see if I thought I liked them from the snippets I heard. This is one that I was mostly eh on initially, b u t after listening to the entire song I like it more! Not anywhere near as much as I liked soft shock though, so it’s only on the 32 hour playlist, and I probably won’t specifically seek it out in the future.

11: ‘Sad’, by Alexander 23. The title of this one made me wanna hug Patton (and the lyrics even more when I realised what it was about), but it fit really well into my music taste by being a Sad Bop™. I really like Sad Bops™. My favourite singer (MIKA) sings a lot of Sad Bops™. This also hit close to home, lyric wise, which is why it’s not on the shorter playlist despite my love of Sad Bops™

12: ‘Oh Heart’, by Tank and The Bangas. I love the artists name, and when it started I immediately was Intrigued. I added it to my 32 hour playlist, but deemed it to be Too Unusual to fit the 10 hour playlist. Otherwise I’d be considering putting it on there, but I didn’t love it enough for it to be an exception.

13: ‘The Flame’, by Andrew Huang. I’ve actually watched a few of Andrews youtube vids, and I’m pretty sure I’m subbed to him, so my enjoyment of this song was not a massive shock. I actually decided,,,, I liked it enough to add it to the 10 hour playlist!! I know!! A song that I really liked that actually fit my additional criteria for that one!! I’d make a third playlist of ‘songs I really like that don’t fit that criteria’ but it’d be almost all of the 32 hour playlist so it’s not worth the effort sjfjdk. There’s a reason that criteria exists.

14: ‘Landslide’, by Fleetwood Mac. This is another I haven’t heard in ages, but wasn’t that surprised I enjoyed enough for it to make it onto the 32 hour playlist.

15: ‘Float On’, by Ben Lee. I didn’t mind this, and immediately realising he was Aussie was cool and also reassured me that I can recognise my own accent (as sometimes I Doubt or worry that they’re actually kiwi), but I didn’t love it. Whether or not I skip it in the future will be entirely determined by what mood I’m in

16: ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, by The Beatles. Let’s be real. Who doesn’t love The Beatles. They’re The Beatles. This immediately got added to the 32 hour playlist. It’s also very fitting for Patton, even if I’m still slightly disappointed there’s no ‘I Am the Walrus’.

17: ‘What Makes The World’, by The New Respects. I really liked this!! I actually added it to the ten hour playlist as well!!! I know!!! It’s almost like Pattons music taste is slightly more ‘conventional’ and also similar to mine than Virgil’s and therefore fits my ‘normal people music’ criteria as well as my ‘must really like’ one!!

18: ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow_What A Wonderful World’, by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. I liked this, but not as much as the originals. It still made it to the 32 hour playlist though!!! I’d add the originals as well but I don’t like the songs enough to be bothered right now. I like how he did the mixing of the songs though, I didn’t even fully realise it was happening at first! Also I really hope I didn’t misspell his last name.

19: ‘So Long’, by Zooey Deschanel, M Ward. I was very glad to see Winnie the Pooh music on here as Patton did say it was his favourite Disney film, and also Nostalgia™. It made its way onto my 32 hour playlist but I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to it unless I wanna indulge in said Nostalgia™ for a while.

Final thoughts: Surprisingly, despite my initial impressions, I think I actually knew less of this playlist going in than Virgil’s, if only because I recognised less of the bands and didn’t have any ‘Surprise, this song is one u heard a lot as a tiny child’ moments. I think I liked it overall more than Virgil’s, but the specific songs I liked I liked less than my favourites from Virgils. Favourite song would be Turnaround, (which I eventually decided was good enough to go against my Rules™, as I did with Be Calm from Virgils playlist), followed by What Makes The World, then either Oh Heart or The Flame. 15/19 got added to the 32 hour playlist and 3 to the 10 hour one!

Note: I just realised that one of the songs, ‘Golden Slumbers’ by Ben Folds, isn’t available for me, probably because of my region, which is why it’s missing from this list in my reactions. I had found it odd that there were only 19 songs, but I think my computer automatically hides songs I can’t play unlike my phone. I found it on YouTube and I do like it, but probably wouldn’t have added it to my 32 hour playlist if I’d had the chance. I just wouldn’t skip it in the future

@thatsthat24

#sanders sides #sanders sides playlist #patton #patton sanders #thomas sanders #pattons playlist #patton’s playlist #pattons playlist reaction #spotify #patton’s playlist reaction #sanders sides spotify #pattons spotify #patton’s spotify

[justlightthefirstspark]

Utd vs City - FA Cup 4th round - Jan 25th 2020

Okay so this game was a little all over the place, I feel like everything just goes out the window on derby day. For real tho my blood pressure went through the roof this afternoon, I HATE derby day. Moving on.

‘10 - Cracking save from Earps. She was on her game today (except for towards the end, but we’ll get to that later on). She did have some great saves though

Today I learned that I’m not a massive fan of Ellen White. She’s very good, yes, so disagree with me if you must, but she seemed pretty intent on literally killing Abbie McManus for a little while there, and she nearly came through Hayley Ladd at one stage, so... yeah. I’m not really a fan. Just don’t think a striker needs to make as many sliding tackles as she did today 🤷🏽‍♀️

‘22 - Jackie meggsed Steph Houghton and I thought I was gonna die of joy. If that’s even a thing. Also, wish we could have made something from that but hey.

‘24 - Was a little choppy for a lot of the first half. Sigsworth had a glorious opportunity to open the scoring but unfortunately couldn’t make anything happen, and then Ross went kinda close, but it ended up creeping over the bar. City were definitely in charge at this point though, most of what United had was coming off the counter

‘30 - Goal, City. Abbie... bro. Personally, I never bought a ticket for the McManus hype train. And that’s why.

‘37 - Nailed on chance for United surely, ball in from Hanson I’m pretty sure, but Sigsworth just couldn’t get there

Half time: First half went pretty much as I expected it to, minus the goal if I’m being honest. McManus’ mistake was pretty stupid, and shortsighted, but what’s done is done. I do think that we need a new CB (at least one) in the summer, cause I haven’t been majorly impressed w McManus tbh. I much prefer the Turner x2 partnership at CB, but even then Amy can have a tendency to make some silly mistakes. (I’m sure Millie does too, I just haven’t seen those yet. They’re human, not robots, we all make mistakes!) I think Abbie, needs to be benched for a little while; move Amy back to CB w Millie, move Smith onto the right and bring Ökvist in on the left, and just let her develop and learn on the job. (Should Amy have to relinquish that RB spot, Smith should have it over Harris imo)

‘45 - No changes at the half, which was annoyingggggg. Also the male commentator (can’t remember his name, soz) kept making reference to the QF loss to Reading last season and I was not appreciative. Like, at all.

‘48 - Like for the majority of the first half, Zelem was sitting very deep in the Utd midfield. Was almost like a back 5 at times, w Zel sat just in front of Abbie and Millie. She was basically invisible during the first half due to this as well, little to no offensive action. I’m pretty sure that Ladd started sitting deeper to push Zelem up at some stage though

‘56 - Goal, City. This was game over for me (lol). I’m not really sure who I blame for this one, seen a lot of blame on Amy, but there was definitely a delayed reaction from Millie in there too, so I’d have to watch it back (which I don’t plan to tbh) to fully make up my mind, so I’m gonna blame them both. Seems only fair. 🤷🏽‍♀️

‘59 - James 🔁 Ross. An hour too late but I’ll take it. I’d have started James, without a doubt, but Casey said they were “managing her for the upcoming games”, also she kinda has a tendency to pick up yellows - through no fault of her own really though. Some other players just can’t deal with her strength on the ball so when they challenge her, they come off the worse and she gets in trouble. Riddle me that one 🧐

I also think we need a new striker in the summer, Ross just isn’t working. We need another game changer, another creative outlet like Lauren cause it’s massively unfair to rest that responsibility solely on the shoulders of an 18 year old.

‘60 - glorious shot from Hanson that just couldn’t make it. She really opened City up down the right side. To be honest it was a great save from Roebuck too

‘69 - GOAL; United. Remember when I said Lauren James should have started? Because Lauren James scored a super goal 10 mins after she came on the pitch. Lovely turn and shot, straight past the keeper. Game on, apparently.

‘69 - Arnot 🔁 Sigsworth. I think this was a good swap, even though it may not have been like for like. Jess was EVERYWHERE today, I genuinely don’t think there was an inch of the pitch she didn’t cover. She had a few decent chances, which any other day she probably would have put away but that’s the way it goes I guess 🤷🏽‍♀️ Honestly if we had any other options, I’d rest her more, but we don’t so... I do think it’s the right decision to sub her off around the hour mark if she’s gonna play this often though. She’s gonna burn out quick cause she’s doing way more than she needs/has to (because we have no bench and a lot of inexperience/players who just aren’t that good, so everyone is doing 47 jobs but shhhh)

‘72 - 👻 - Pure daylight robbery is the only way I can describe this. One of McManus or Arnot has the ball OVER the line, but it’s disallowed 🤦🏽‍♀️ (Before anyone comes for me claiming “salt” or whatever, there is nothing you can say to me that would change my mind. There’s videos from the stand that show the ball over the line, Ellie Roebuck’s body-language and position show her clearly fishing the ball out of the net, the reaction of all the players around the goal show that it went in - Utd players elated, and City’s dejected. Also Miss Ellen “I couldn’t really see. I wasn’t in the line of it” White can swing. She was 2 feet away and staring right at it.)

‘76 - Goal; City. Jill Scott floats it up and in , with a delayed reaction from Earps. She should have seen that one coming a mile off but I reckon it took a deflection (possibly off McManus’ shoulder?) cause her body movements completely changed - albeit just a fraction too late. Also, I have *no idea* what Amy was doing in the box there, I just know that I don’t ever wanna see whatever that was ever again. Flailing around on the ground like a literal fish out of water. Not good.

‘87 - GOAL; United. Well, own goal; Hemp. But I’ll take it. Thought for a second it was Houghton but she was too busy feigning a foul 🤷🏽‍♀️

‘90 - I’ll be honest, I had to stop watching here cause I couldn’t take it. There was like, a year’s worth of added time bc of two injuries to City players but nothing of note happened during this time so I have nothing to say.

All in all, I think our entire back line had an off day today.

Abbie, imo she’s our main defensive weak link. I’d say a solid 70% of City’s chances came down our right side due to this. I’d have to go back and rewatch every game from the start of the season to pick out specific instances, but there can be a bit of hesitancy and airiness to her game sometimes, it doesn’t always seem like she thinks before she does. And she (well, all of them do it really) plays it back way more than is healthy for my stress levels.

Millie gets the benefit of the doubt from me today cause she very rarely has off days, but she was very quiet today.

Amy, has some extent of the benefit of the doubt cause she’s not a RB/FB by nature, she’s had to change her game a bit, but she was not great today (see previous point about the right side of our defence)

I actually think Kirsty Smith was the best of the 4, her service to Hanson on the left was excellent.

We really, really missed Galton down the left though, so I hope she’s back for Wednesday! Lauren needs to start vs Chelsea too, and against Reading tbh but we’ll worry about that one later.

Also, as a little side note, I have to say I really enjoyed Jayne Ludlow’s commentary this afternoon! I know she did the Utd/Spurs reverse fixture in October, and I’m sure she’s done a few more, but I’d like to hear a lot more of her (or really, anyone else who knows the game as well as she does, or in a similar capacity). She, obviously, knows the game really well, and I thought her analysis and opinions were really interesting to listen to.

#i don’t think this is as good as the last one but it’s fine #still tho pls be nice if you read 😇 #manchester united women #muwfc #my writing

[thecomicsnexus]

THE WILD STORM #19-24 MARCH - SEPTEMBER 2019 BY WARREN ELLIS, JON DAVIS-HUNT AND STEVE BUCCELLATO

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE AND COMIC VINE)

In her London flat, Jenny Mei Sparks is telling her three new friends the story of her life over a few bottles of beer. It is a tale of adventure, righteousness, improbable encounters with famous people, and quite a lot of sex. She has been talking for thirteen hours and has still only gotten to 1955. By that year, she had joined Skywatch, a secret organization founded in the 1930s to guard against potential alien invasion. To that end, they needed a forward base on Mars. Their technology was formidable, their mission noble in theory... but Mars was a boring wasteland, and its lack of a magnetosphere meant that most of Jenny's crewmates developed cancer from stellar radiation exposure.

The mission had swiftly built its bases underground, shielded by the red dirt of Mars, but the base was also boring, and when Jenny came home, she left Skywatch, judging it to be "full of maniacs"... and to have only gotten worse since then. Skywatch has a set of agreements with IO, the shadowy intelligence masters, which mean it has to remain hidden, but as time goes on, the current leader of Skywatch, Henry Bendix, becomes more eager to use his technology to reshape Mars and Venus... and Earth. Jenny was sure a tipping-point would come, and it did - when Angie Spica used a jetpack suit made of IO and Skywatch tech to stop an IO assassin, in full view of a crowd, from killing Jacob Marlowe, a billionaire alien. Jack Hawksmoor interrupts, saying she didn't mention that. Jenny grins cryptically, and reaches for another bottle...

Elsewhere, the television news has gotten peculiar. Speculation about the New York Jetpack Incident. A report on a freak meteor strike which seems to be affecting the weather. A segment on the urban legend of the "billboard ghost girl". A segment on a serial killer dubbed the "Highway Ripper". A man speculating about a secret space program. An interview with Voodoo, where she describes her artistic side as a separate entity, her "daemon". And a news report about a township of fifty people, vanished in what the only eyewitness describes as an alien abduction...

In a large bed in a nice house, two men are watching that last segment on a phone screen. They conclude that it might be the work of Skywatch, who they escaped from together, but that if it is, something has made them brazen. One, dour as midnight, insists they must remain hidden, but the other, smiling like a Greek god, lists the actions of the dour one which have forced them to fight in the past. They will fight again this time, armed by preparation and buttressed by their love.

In the IO headquarters in New York, Jackie King is going over the estimates of Angie Spica's implants, wondering how she got it through IO's normal scanners. Ignoring a request that she attend a meeting, she orders an underling to prepare a report on their earlier DDOS on the Skywatch headquarters and whether they could replicate it.

Shen Li-Men is in the Hospital, the bardo realm where her predecessors as the Doctor reside. She says she has spoken to Jenny Mei Sparks and now she needs to know about the aliens. When they answer cagily, she insists that she cannot do her job unless they comply. So they tell her the tale.

Once upon a time, there was an alien planet called Khera. On it, the dominant species formed a society which bound together five sub-species in a caste system. The Kherans search the galaxy for life-bearing worlds with tool-using natives, with the goal of conscripting those natives as "clients", or slaves. Due to the chaotic nature of the universe, tool-using natives are hard to catch before they are wiped out by chance or foolishness. The goal of the Kheran rulers is something called "forward escape" - to take their whole society from this plane of existence to one where life is easier to sustain. A Doctor has never learned how this would work, but it requires living beings, serving in free will. Once, a Doctor seduced John Colt, a Kheran soldier, and while he was sleeping read his mind to view what, mechanically, this would entail - a vision of Earth marked by three massive fire pits.

However, when the Kherans arrived, they discovered that they were not unopposed. They called these rivals "The Other", once. Now they are known as "The Daemon". The goal of the Daemon is gently inspire, shepherding humanity forward with a modicum of balance so they can escape extinction. Aiding them in this vocation is a device of theirs - the Shaper Engine, a machine that Li-Men saw in a metaphor in a vision. One of the things the Shaper Engine does is empower specific humans to serve as a defense mechanism - like Jenny Mei Sparks.

The interference of the Daemon stymied the Kherans' efforts enough that they fell to internal bickering. A faction of the Kherans tried to influence the culture of the Middle East by appearing as wise but fearsomely-visaged powers, recorded in legend as cherubim. Emp chose a different tactic - he gathered a cabal of underlings, scuttled the alien ship, and vanished in the ensuing explosion. The Kheran homeworld assumed the mission to be a failure, and wrote Earth off. Emp has hidden inside society ever since, pursuing his "Main Project" - to raise human technology to the level where it can petition to join the Kherans as equals.

Today Emp pursues this mission using his resources under the alias 'Jacob Marlowe'. He sees far, but not far enough. He never grasped the reasoning of the Daemon. He did not anticipate that the marooned Kherans would spread competing philosophies and religions across the world, primed to oppose him. He did not anticipate how strong, or how strange, the humans could become. And he knows nothing of the Shaper Engine.

To conclude, the Doctors tell Shen Li-Men that a portentious storm is coming, a storm that may end the world. The Doctor that will have to oppose it will face a burden that no previous Doctor has ever had to bear, and that Doctor is her. And yet, they have an unbiased assessment of her skills and her compassion, which, with fortitude and spite and maybe a few friends, may be enough to see her through.

Skywatch intensifies its preparation for war, increasing its attacks on the planet. For some of these conflict zones, Skywatch’s greatest threat is not IO or conventional forces, but the people who escaped from its own experimentation camps. And the four people in London whom it knows little about, but who are preparing to take steps to alter the balance of the world.

The experimental subjects code-named Apollo and Midnighter have broken cover. Combat-optimized superhumans are now loose on the Earth.

Jenny Mei Sparks has assembled a group of misfits and exiles, to stand against a corruption that covers the world and orbits above it.

The storm of accidents, deaths, mistakes, confusion and anger has led to this. Miles Craven has lost his grip and Henry Bendix has lost his mind.

IO has betrayed the world, and Skywatch wants to burn it. The only people in the middle are Jenny Mei Sparks’ ragtag team of wounded orphans of the secret world.

REVIEW

These last six issues are more action packed (it is a third act after all), and in general it feels like a pilot for The Authority (curiously enough, the next book announced was WildCATS but it was cancelled. May be re-solicited eventually. WildStorm has a very complicated history with runs that get cancelled, with the most obvious one being The Authority by Grant Morrison.

Anyway, the visuals and the story are very tight, and this is an amazing story to read. It just, takes you two years to get the whole thing. I feel like in the last 12 issues, I got more about the properties I knew more, and that may be the reason why I liked the last 12 issues more.

As I said in a previous post, this is a very long prologue, but a high quality one. Think of it as the “Man of Steel” for a new universe (the John Byrne one, not the one that made you stop reading Superman).

I had problems in the past with the way Apollo and Midnighter’s relationship was portrayed. At least, during the New 52/Rebirth era. I felt it pretty real in this run, or at least is more similar to what I experienced in real relationships. Their differences are big, but at the core, they shouldn’t get in the way of their love.

Voodoo was a gratuitous character throughout these 24 issues. She barely did a thing. Same with the way Michael Cray ended up dying in the last issue. He did have his own mini-series that I didn’t follow, but considering that Deathblow had a “healing factor”, I suppose he is probably not dead.

This story felt very sober sometimes, replacing super-heroes with regular people with powers, it’s a nice interpretation when every book around you has spandex and shiny armor.

There is spandex and shiny armor here too... but you know what I mean.

I give these issues a score of 9.

#jon davis-hunt #steve buccellato #wildstorm #the wild storm #dc comics #comics #review #post modern age #2019 #stormwatch #wildcats #the authority #yasmine putri

[murasaki-murasame]

I was planning to make my own post about how I think the wind mana spirals will go, and then Cygames went ahead and laid it out for us way earlier than I expected, lmao.

But anyway there’s some interesting stuff going on here that I have some thoughts on.

Basically all three of these characters went in slightly different directions than I expected. Mostly Hawk and Lin You, but still.

I thought that they’d give Hawk the exact same buff as Nefaria, maybe minus the buff dispel, but even though they still stuck poison on him, his S2 is at least slightly different to hers, since it’s now a skill shift thing where the first round lets him inflict stun and poison via his next two force strikes, and then the second round is a damaging skill with poison punisher. He also gets loses the Full HP condition on his A1, whereas Nefaria still has hers, so that’s interesting.

I’m very curious to see how much this helps him, since Nefaria got a MASSIVE boost to her DPS through her mana spiral upgrade. Though she also got some unique utility with her buff dispel that gives her a meta position in Kai Yan even if you ignore her high damage. Hawk doesn’t really get any sort of unique utility like that, but maybe wind Agito won’t really require anything like that. And tbh I’m glad that it means he probably won’t serve the exact same role in wind Agito as Nefaria does in Kai Yan.

It’s kinda hard to tell if the skill shift on his S2 is going to raise or lower his overall DPS, if you compare him to Nefaria. Her altered force strike is apparently extremely powerful, so Hawk might be held back by having his S2 only change his force strikes half the time. Although Nefaria’s S2 powers up her next single force strike, while Hawk’s powers up his next two force strikes, so that also might influence things.

He might still be very good as a poison enabler in wind Agito when that comes out, but I’m not sure if he’d be good enough to break into the HMC meta. The poison meta has had a very hard time catching on in HMC, and we already have Joachim as a poison-enabling wind bow, and he at least has the appropriate status resistance. It’s possible that there’s cheese strats you can do with Hawk’s stun, though. I feel like that’d only be relevant in mHMC though, not eHMC.

I probably won’t build him up, since that’d take a lot of resources that I don’t have, but I’m glad he’s getting the buff.

I had a feeling Lin You was gonna be the mystery third mana spiral unit, but I’m still kinda salty that Sylas continues to be on the back-burner, lol. He desperately needs any sort of buff. Maybe we’ll get another round of wind mana spirals next month, if they release wind Agito next.

I wasn’t really sure what they would do with her kit, since she’s already a pretty solid unit all around. I honestly thought they might make her S2′s heal effect the entire team to help her sub in for Wedding Elly in HMC, but it looks like they decided to make her more like Ezelith. Which makes a lot of sense, honestly. She has a crit rate passive, her themed wyrmprint gives crit rate, and the dragon that’s basically paired with her gives crit damage. She’s not exactly the same as Ezelith, though, since her buffs are more about her building up to a 50% or so crit rate for most of the fight, compared to Ezelith getting 100% crit rate in short bursts. I think it fits the axe play-style nicely, though.

I was kinda worried at first that it might be really hard for her to keep up her combo count, since axes are kinda slow in general, but then I saw that they’re also giving her a combo time ability like Valerio and Mitsuba, lol. That’s one way to make it more feasible to maintain high combo counts on slower units.

The change in her abilities is probably the biggest deal out of her mana spiral, but I’m curious to see the full details on how her S1 changes her next three force strikes. It’d be nice if the cyclones are multi-hit attacks that help her rack up her combo count quickly.

I’m not entirely sure how much this will help her break back into HMC, since her buffs are purely about her personal DPS, and she still doesn’t have the team utility that Wedding Elly does, but it at least makes her an even better unit for general content. Maybe she’ll suffer a bit from also not having anything related to poison in her kit, but honestly we need more DPS units who aren’t wrapped up in status afflictions to achieve their full potential.

I think she has a lot of potential to be a great DPS unit for wind Agito when that comes out, though, for basically the same reason as why Ezelith is a core DPS unit against Volk.

I don’t think I’m very interested in investing in her mana spiral since I have like no testaments at the moment and I already main Noelle in HMC, but at the very least it looks like she’ll probably benefit most from using Long Long now, which is nice for me since he’s my only strength-based 5-star wind dragon that I have max unbound, lol.

If there’s any unit out of these three that I might actually invest in, it’s probably Su Fang, and that’s mostly just because I really like him as a character. In the long run I should probably save my resources for other 70MC characters, but at least on paper I think his mana spiral might make him a really strong unit.

I was kinda hoping they’d give him more of a crit-based kit, but I can see why they didn’t, since they chose to do that with Lin You instead. It’s still a little bit lame to see him get the poison treatment, but realistically I think he’ll benefit a lot from it.

I had a feeling they’d give him poison punisher on his S1, if they went this route, but I didn’t expect them to basically give him the Delphi treatment by having his S2 give a poison effect to his next force strike. I imagine that unlike Delphi his poison mods are going to be normal, though, since he’s a normal DPS unit outside of that.

In general his S2 got a pretty big buff, which I’m glad to see. They bumped the strength buff from 25% to 30%, while also increasing the duration from 10 seconds to 15 seconds, which I think is a fairly sizeable increase to his damage across the board. Though some of that time will probably be spent by you using a force strike to inflict poison. But it still seems like a pretty big improvement.

I’m curious to see if they’re gonna buff the damage mods on his S1, since they’re pretty low, or if they’ll be kept the same, and the poison punisher damage mods will be the main buff.

Since he’s just a welfare 4-star unit his abilities didn’t get changed much, but there’s a lot to be said for his skill damage passive going from 20% to 35%. I mean, that ended up being one of the core reasons why Xania became a meta flame unit. So I think he might end up being the dark horse of this batch.

I’m not sure if this will help him break into the HMC meta because of the recurring issue of raw DPS units not having the utility that Wedding Elly brings, but he might end up being a really good poison enabler for poison comps. Hopefully.

I think he also has a lot of potential in wind Agito, for basically the same reasons as Lin You. It’s a long shot, but I really hope that the phase 2 form of the wind Agito boss is classified as a Therion, like Volk, so Su Fang can take advantage of his Therion’s Bane ability getting buffed to 35%. That might really swing things in his favour, but even if it ends up being a dead ability, I think he might still be good for that fight. At the very least, his crit rate coability would probably sync nicely with Lin You’s new play-style.

There’s a pretty high chance that I’ll 70MC him as soon as I have the materials for it, but I at least want to wait and see how his mana spiral compares to Hawk and Lin You, in the long run. It might just not be worth the investment. I really want him to be good, though.

Even though I mostly just want Sylas to finally get a buff, it’d also be a shame if they skip over Ku Hai, since he got introduced along with Lin You and Su Fang, and he also has a pretty lopsided kit. If he got more reliable sources of crit rate I think he could be really good. This event also introduced Xiao Lei but she’s from a different element altogether so it’s not a surprise that they’re skipping her for now.

But on a related note, since we’re getting mana spirals for Su Fang and Lin You to go along with this event rerun that’s coming up, I have a feeling that instead of us getting a new wind banner, they might just rerun the Lin You banner and put Hawk on rate-up along with it. It’d be a nice way to showcase their new mana spiral upgrades. And tbh we don’t really need an entirely new wind banner at the moment, since we got the Kirsty and Joachim one really recently. Maybe we’ll get an additional new banner for a different element along with a banner rerun, though.

Also, I think we’re still expecting mana spirals for 3-star shadow units at the end of this month. I’m curious to see how that goes, but I feel like it’s going to be too little too late. They already gave mana spirals to just about every shadow 5-star, and the meta for both HJP and Kai Yan have had time to solidify, so 3-star units aren’t really going to have much of a chance to meaningfully compete against that. I feel like they’re basically all just going to be budget options for existing 5-star units, and they’ll only be worth investing in if you either don’t have those 5-stars, or you really like some of the 3-stars as characters.

I still hope they’re planning to give mana spirals to 4-star shadow units like Norwin, though. At this point he’s probably never gonna be as good as Nefaria, but I just want him to be viable in endgame content, lol.

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost #still waiting for Sylas to hopefully eventually get his own mana spiral :) #ONE OF THESE DAYS

[meanstreetspodcasts]

“I rarely leave my house. I do like it here. I would be an idiot to leave this chair, made to fit me.” (Rex Stout, Before I Die)

Nero Wolfe made his first appearance in 1934, and his adventures are still being enjoyed nearly eighty years later in books, TV shows, and - beginning on April 7, 1943 - radio dramas.  Not bad for a man who hated leaving his house more than nearly anything in the world.

Wolfe, the eccentric genius who weighs a seventh of a ton, was created by writer Rex Stout.  Stout made a tidy sum inventing a system to track the money school children saved in their accounts, and he used his earnings and royalties to travel the world and embark on a career as a writer.  His first Wolfe novel, Fer-de-Lance, was published in 1934, and Stout would go on to write 33 novels and 39 stories featuring Wolfe until his death in 1975.  Over the course of the novels and stories, Stout fleshed out the character, who enjoyed fine food and good beer, tended to his orchids, and solved mysteries when he had to earn a fee, always with the aid of his assistant (and the narrator of the stories), Archie Goodwin.

Stout’s brilliant stroke was to combine two archetypes of detective fiction into one duo.  Nero Wolfe was a classic refined detective in the mold of Sherlock Holmes, right down to his eccentricities, anti-social personality, and acute agoraphobia.  He could listen to clues as they were presented to him in his drawing room and deduce the solution to a crime without ever leaving the chair especially designed for his massive weight.  At his side was Archie, a more streetwise sleuth in the mold of (though not nearly as hard-boiled) Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe.  Archie carried a gun and had an eye for a blonde like his brethren, but he drank milk instead of bourbon and he had a playful demeanor - particularly with his boss and their frequent foil on the police force, Inspector Cramer.

Wolfe came to the screen in 1934 and 1937, but it would take almost ten years for the character to make his radio debut.  From 1943 to 1944, ABC aired The Adventures of Nero Wolfe which starred J.B. Williams, Santos Ortega, and Luis Van Rooten as Wolfe during various points in the run.  A falling out between ABC and Stout’s representatives prevented the series from continuing, but a new version would premier on the Mutual Network in 1946.  Francis X. Bushman starred as Wolfe, with Elliott Lewis, a veteran radio actor who would soon take the director’s chair on Suspense, as Archie.  

But it is the 1950 NBC series The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe that is most fondly remembered and which came the closest to capturing the essence of Stout’s stories.  First and foremost, they found an actor who could fully embody Wolfe’s larger than life persona - Sydney Greenstreet.

A longtime theater actor, Greenstreet’s big break came as Kasper Gutman (“The Fat Man”) opposite Humphrey Bogart’s Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon in 1941 at age 62. After receiving an Academy Award nomination for the role, Greenstreet appeared in films like Casablanca, The Mask of Demetrios, and Across the Pacific.  At age 71, he was cast as Wolfe, and his trademark characteristics - arched speech, droll laugh, deliberate intonation - perfectly fit Nero Wolfe’s larger than life personality.

Over the course of the series, no fewer than six actors were heard as Archie Goodwin. Each of the first three episodes featured a different Archie: Wally Maher (October 20); Lamont Johnson (October 27); and Herb Ellis (November 10). Beginning on November 24, actor Larry Dobkin assumed the role.  Dobkin had previously been heard as Louie the cab driver on The Saint and as Detective Lt. Matthews on The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.  After eight episodes, Dobkin left and his old co-star Gerald Mohr voiced Goodwin for the next four episodes. Mohr was on a radio detective roll; he had just wrapped his two-year run as Marlowe and would return for a Marlowe summer series a few months after his gig as Archie came to a close.  Harry Bartell, a veteran of Escape and Dragnet as well as the Petri Wine announcer for The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, stepped into Archie’s shoes for the final ten episodes of the series.

Why so many Archies to one Nero?  There’s no definite answer.  Some have said it was because Greenstreet was difficult to work with; others speculate the revolving door of co-stars was a sign of retooling to see if the ratings would improve.

And while the series was well done, with even Rex Stout praising Greenstreet’s performance (he was less complimentary of the program itself), it did not fare well enough in the ratings to earn a second year.  The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe wrapped up its run on April 27, 1951.  Fortunately for fans, the entire series run are available in great condition.  One can listen to the full run and hear Greenstreet lend his one-of-a-kind voice to Wolfe, and even with so many actors playing Archie Goodwin, none is sub-par.  Each brings his own style to the character while staying true to Stout’s creation.  And backing up Greenstreet and his Goodwins every week are a great cast, including Bill Johnstone as Inspector Cramer, Howard MacNear, Betty Lou Gerson, Peter Leeds, and Barney Phillips.

#Nero Wolfe #Anniversary #Old Time Radio #Rex Stout #sydney greenstreet #Golden Age of Radio

[galadrieljones]

Ship-a-thon!

tagged by @idrelle-miocovani and @pikapeppa, and I’m finally getting around to it!! Thank you!!

1. First ship you ever wrote fic for:

Technically it was self-insert fic for the Backstreet Boys, *NSync, and Hanson in like, 1997. More realistically, it was Solavellan, summer of 2016. 

2. Ship you write the most now:

Right now, I’m pretty much only writing Arthur Morgan x Mary Beth Gaskill for the Red Dead Redemption 2 fandom (in a fast-growing chapter fic called A Funeral). Ships I meaningfully hope to get back to are Aloy x Nil (Horizon: Zero Dawn) and Sene x Ameridan (I still have a lot up my sleeve for them). I feel Sene and Solas have mostly been retired, at least in their canon divergent fix-it iteration. But of course, with DA4 developments, I am always likely to get back to their more tragic, awful canon circumstances. Lol. 

3. Ship you read the most now:

When I read fanfic, I still mostly read Solavellan and Dragon Age fanfic, especially now that, for the time being, I’ve moved on from writing for the fandom. I try to stick faithful to my friends who are magnificent DA writers. I’m slowly combing my way through fics by @ladylike-foxes @bearly-tolerable @ellstersmash and @buttsonthebeach right now, and of course I always look forward to @thevikingwoman‘s Temporal Arrangements updates <3 Note that I am MASSIVELY slow when it comes to reading, particularly catching up on longfics, so you may not know I’m there at all till I whisper my way into the comments section all at once when I catch up....

4. Newest ship:

Arthur Morgan x Mary Beth Gaskill, Red Dead Redemption 2. This is a very rare pair, and I’m stoked for the readership I’ve accumulated so far at AO3 (and to a MUCH lesser extent, on tumblr). I’m not altogether sure why it’s so rare lol, but Mary Beth IS a low profile character for sure, and most of the fic I see for Arthur seems to be the second person Reader x Arthur, which is a sub-genre I’m not terribly familiar with. I do have theories that Mary Beth might have been the originally planned love interest for Arthur, and I know I’m not alone in that at least. There just aren’t a lot of other content creators for the ship right now, which is fine lol. I’m cool being the captain of this ship.

I also have some newer ships that I love, even if I don’t actively ship them? Like Arthur x Charles and Arthur x Albert Mason. I REALLY like viewing these as complex platonic relationships, particularly Arthur and Charles, who I see as platonic comrades fighting in a losing war (never romantic), but I’ve seen some beautiful art and writing for both of these as romantic ships and really like to see what people come up with.

5. Rare ship you wanna read more of:

I’d love to see some more Ameridan x Lavellan ships out there!! I know they exist. I also am definitely meaning to get into @a-shakespearean-in-paris‘s Arthur x Charlotte fic, another RDR2 rare pair.

6. Your taboo ship:

Most of the time, I give no fucks about what people want to ship. The only thing that legitimately freaks me out is Joel x Ellie from The Last of Us. That, to me, is gnarly af and I’m actually like, morally opposed to the pairing. I’m definitely a little squicked by Arthur x Dutch in RDR2, though I don’t have any moral issues with it. I just don’t like it personally. In the end, 99.9% of the time, I say ship and let ship. 

7. They never met in canon ship:  

I don’t think I have one of these. Unless you count Solas x Ghilan’nain. Though I guess they DID meet in canon? Idk lol.

8. Your unexpected ship:

Lavellan x Ameridan and Lavellan x Abelas. Tbh when I first got here, I never understood these sorts of canon divergent ships. It was bizarre to me. But after hanging out for a year or so and finding new ways to explore the story, I ended up being so fascinated by the prospect of Sene in a post-Trespasser world, attempting to move on from Solas, and her complicated relationships with other ancient and quasi-ancient elves. 

Also, Aloy x Nil for HZD. This ship grew out of my own writing and not really much out of the game. I think Nil’s role in Aloy’s life is supremely unique, and I explored it in a one-shot, which became a yet-unfinished chapter fic that I’d really like to get back to one day.  

9. The ship you always forget to give love to:

Morrigan x Warden Cousland. I feel like I don’t see a ton of other Morrigan x Warden ships (except you @buttsonthebeach!!) and I have always loved the complexities of the ship. 

10. Ship your OC with a canon character (if applicable):

See #8 lol. I’ve shipped Sene Lavellan with every ancient elf there is lol. I’ve also got a Lavellan x Blackwall ship, which I wrote about briefly in my probably-abandoned fic Unsigned.

I’ve also got a very loose concept for an OC x Joel ship in The Last of Us that I never wrote about. Her name is Cynthia. She’s a widow, and she’s got a sixteen-year-old son. The two find their way to Tommy’s compound in Jackson at some point post-TLoU. I had an idea for a canon divergent fic in which Joel and Cynthia get married, and shortly thereafter, during an attack on the compound, Joel and Cynthia’s son end up captured and held hostage by the Fireflies. Cynthia and Ellie then must set out on a journey to rescue them. Cynthia is a skilled trap-maker, a little like Bill, but even more specialized. She teaches Ellie how to make some badass traps. Add this to my long list of fics I would love nothing more to write, but I have no time to write them. 

11. Ship you’re embarrassed to ship:

I’m a grown-ass woman I have no embarrassment lol.

12. Your most romantic ship:

Sene and Solas. But also maybe Arthur x Mary Beth. I’m not sure which is more “romantic.” I don’t really do “sweep me off my feet whirlwind romance” writing. Though, of course, they’re romantic in some sense. 

13. Your sexiest ship:

That would be Sene Lavellan x Ameridan, for sure.

14. Your most tragic ship:

Ugh. Probably Sene Lavellan x Abelas. I have not written as much about them as I should have. Their story is quite complete in my mind and has a few endings. 

My Nume Lavellan x Blackwall ship is also pretty sad.

15. A ship you want more content for:

I always want more Iwyn Lavellan x Solas content by @thevikingwoman. In any and all forms, though my favorite story for them so far is Temporal Arrangements. <3

tagging @bearly-tolerable @wrenbee @a-shakespearean-in-paris @ladylike-foxes @lyrium-lovesong @buttsonthebeach @ellstersmash @ocean-in-my-rebel-soul ^_^

#ship-a-thon

[tragedyslut]

🩷 summary — abby motorcycle au<33

imagine : abby cleaning her motorcycle like its her baby, stroking her hands along it and constantly mumbling about how much she loves it. sometimes you wished you were that damn motorcycle, she loved it so much. she spent so much time riding it and taking care of it. it was all worth it though because she'd let you ride it with her, holding onto her hips as she does. you would occasionally trace your hands over her abs, giggling slightly, which was all fine until you accidentally tickled her and she'd push your hand away. you loved doing that, it was hilarious.

you would watch her repair it in the garage of your shared house, getting all sweaty from it and crouching down so she could get the right part. the way she wiped the sweat off her brow, and got the oil all over her hands was so attractive.

you loved her driving you to dates on the back of her motorcycle, looking back every so often to check you were all good.

you might've been scared at first, because being on the back of a motorcycle doesn't really sound the safest, but with abby you felt safe no matter what. she'd never push you to go on it with her if you didn't want to.

you two would take long drives at night, where she'd eventually stop and you two would just talk. about literally anything.

#Spotify #ellie tlou #joel tlou #the last of us #tlou #tlou2 #ellie tlou smut #ellie williams smut #abby the last of us #abby tlou #abby anderson #abby is scary as fuck #abby being the dom bitch that she is #abby smut #ellie being a massive sub #sub ellie williams