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#i always though they were a popular ship
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precious idiots
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cough hannibal cough
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crossbackpoke-check · 8 months
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what are ur thoughts on the winners room trope?
ooooo okay surface level analysis: i like winner’s room fics :)
etwas tieferes: i think it’s cool that it’s (afaik) unique to hockey fandom and i enjoy the way it integrates a lot of unspoken rules in hockey with desire/makes them a physical/tangible reality… also the narrative potentials/world-building it opens up can be fun because there’s not really a set of rules for the “winner’s room” trope. are there in-universe rules? who gets chosen? who’s exempt? who gets to pick? where’s it going down? is it the entire room or one guy? what if your (ex)boyfriend is on another team? does somebody need to be taught a lesson or do you need to remind someone who got traded you still love them? also, most important, winner’s room gives you the chance to put two random-ass guys you saw interact for 0.002 seconds and went “hmmm. interesting” about into a Situation and i love that
#yeah buddy!! i love answering questions!!! unironically i have so many opinions!!!!#refraining from putting this in the main text but had to go: yeah who doesn’t love a good g*ngb*ng#it also doesn’t just have to be a bunch of dudes fucking though per always: i think winner’s room fics can bring up interesting dialogues#about the idea of bodily autonomy and self-sacrifice or sacrifice in sports#every fic can utilize a trope their own way so you might have lighter versions or heavier versions and#tw: sa#dub-con/CNC elements which. given the truth of SA and abuse in hockey it’s valuable to have tools to explore and i feel like i need to#address that when i talk about this? obvi dead dove do not eat for some fics re:winner’s room but i think a lot of them do talk about#control and power to some extent if you were to do a deep literary analysis. which we don’t need to. sometimes it’s enough to read a fic one#time because you liked the main pairing and didn’t know SHIT about the flyers and then come back to it years later and absolutely lose your#goddamn mind about the fact that actually you DID know about travis konecny before you thought you did and at one point there were all these#guys that you now know and love who were just like. random fuckers in the sides of the fic. i tend to do that a lot bc i will read for#nearly everything (if i love u. i will read your works even if i don’t know anything about the fandom and also i am always willing to jump#on new ships) so also tangentially i think winner’s room fics are a lot of fun because you can see a lot of different interactions between a#lot of guys like not only is it this guy and this guy but also this guy and that guy and these two interacting around the sacrifice etc etc#tangled web many layers und so weiter. not sure if any of that makes sense but also i’m gonna tag for mentions of sa/wjc/hockey canada stuff#i don’t even really know if winner’s room functions as well even in other sports bc of the Team Identity in hockey & cultural context#liv in the replies#winner’s room can be layered with SO many other kinks and tropes and aus and also just like. i like it & that’s probably all i needed to say#also obvi re: rules for trope there aren’t ever any there’s just some popular variations and we can kinda see some of those forming#but i’m not even sure if winner’s room has its own tag on the archive? i’d have to check i know i have a few saved in my bookmarks at least#OH also if you made it this far. wasn’t sure if this was like a ‘do u got recs’ or a ‘what’s your moral stance’ or ‘hey is this something ur#into’ so. good faith good vibes y’all and if this wasn’t what u meant please elaborate the question i do love answering things#ty for the ask!!!!#for the record i do watch hockey like the leonardo dicaprio pointing meme finding milliseconds of interaction to go HAHA GAY NARRATIVE about
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alargehunkofdebris · 9 months
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Why There’ll Never Be Another Good Omens 2 Experience
The strangest thing happened after a few days post my watching of S2. I got a wave of real, bittersweet sadness.
Not due to the obvious – I was dealing with that too, but with more excitement than anything – but because I realized something, as a writer and consumer of media. I realized that it’s unlikely I’ll ever get a media experience close to what I experienced at the end of Good Omens 2. Because really, its setup was absolutely unparalleled – in general, and for myself personally.
I am currently writing my third romance, and what I’ve learned primarily about the genre, the way for it to really work, is that there needs to be something keeping the couple apart initially. The more things keeping the couple apart, the stronger the romance hits. The more the couple clashes with each other, the better it is. Societal norms, class issues, initial dislike, literal danger—all these aspects are what make a romance a story. It’s that conflict that creates the compelling narrative. No romance was ever popular because things worked out well from the beginning – it’s that “look at what we were, and look at us now” aspect that gives readers/watchers that satisfaction. It’s the “I can’t believe this happened” effect. The “I would never have foreseen this” effect. The “they’ll never be together” effect. It’s why forbidden romances are so incredibly popular.
Another aspect that makes a romance story really work well is the amount of time it takes for the romance to develop. A couple that gets together after a few days? Eh, it’s tricky. You better make it really dramatic somehow. A great example is Titanic – class differences, betrothal, and a huge amount of danger threatens this couple, so them being in love after only a few days works. But what really sells this one is because we can see how this romance has survived beyond those few days. We see it 80 years in the future, still there, in the memory of Rose. That is why it hits so hard. Romances that span over long periods of time (especially ones that are bittersweet/tragic) hit so much more than ones spanning a short period.
But wait! There’s more!
You can up this effect by not only having the romance take time in story…but having it take time in real life, for the viewer/reader.
This is why romances in TV shows that take years to finally work out are so compelling. It’s that “Pam and Jim” effect, that will-they-won’t-they deal. We are waiting right along with them, and we’re feeling that same relief when all those things keeping them apart finally fall away. This is harder to pull off, because there’s never that guarantee that the story will make it that far. TV shows get cancelled, creators lose interest or die, etc. So it’s not just “Will They, Won’t They,” it’s “Will They, Won’t They, Can They Even Try?”
This is also compounded by that fear that it won’t happen in-story after all, and while in romances you’re pretty positive that things work out (they kinda have to, for it to be labeled a “romance”) in other media, there’s always that possibility. Look at Community – there’s a forbidden/conflict-ridden romance that didn’t end up working out, even though it was “Will They, Won’t They”d for six entire seasons. You also then have shows and ships where fans are almost sure it won’t happen, but still hold out hope. (See: Supernatural, Sherlock, etc.)
Now. Now look at Good Omens. Look at that absolutely unparalleled, unbelievable set up. It’s unbelievable because it takes almost every single thing that makes a romance compelling, and not only uses all of them, but dials them up to 11.
Why are they at odds? Why are they forbidden from being together?
Because they are literally the most opposing forces you can imagine in Western Canon. They are the Angel Guarding The Gate and The Serpent of Eden. The literal only way you could’ve made this a bigger deal would’ve been to make it God and Satan, and even that would’ve not hit as hard, because it’d be like two CEOs getting together – there’s no fear of a higher power adding that delicious conflict. And to add to all this, in real life, the couple is portrayed as two men, which adds that second meta level of conflict.
And what fear/danger is keeping this couple apart?
Not just familial disappointment—but disappointment from God and Heaven and Hell. Not just moral guilt, but the guilt of potentially dooming the entire Earth. And finally, on top of that, the very real danger of being killed. Not only that, but making it as though you never even existed.
And in real life, they face all those roadblocks that queer couples in media have been battling for years and years, but I'll talk about that more in a second.
Okay, then Time. How long have they been kept apart?
For…all of it.
All of the time that ever existed.
They, quite literally, could not have been kept apart longer.
And this leads into those final two points, the ones that actually really sell it. Because I can sit down right now and write a story about an angel and a demon falling for each other at the beginning of time against all odds…but what I can’t do is to have already written it thirty-three years ago.
That’s how long this story has existed. Thirty. Three. Years.
I’m not even counting how this is using characters that have existed as opposing forces for thousands of years. I’m not even saying that, even though that’s also a part of it. But besides that, this story, this exact story started thirty-three years ago, and is still being continued by the author to this day.
Do you know how uncommon that is?
Yes, we have canon that has lasted for many, many years. Hundreds. We get new versions of beloved older stories ever year. But it’s so very rare that they are by the same creator. We get new Sherlock Holmes content, but it is not written by Arthur Conan Doyle. This, on the other hand, is actual canon content, written by the author of the original. That is unbelievably rare.
That means we’ve got a fandom where some people have grown up with these characters. People who read it at twenty are fifty-three. People who read it at fifty are eighty-three. Kids who saw their parents reading the book now have children of their own. It is a cult classic that has been in the hearts of so many people for generations. Me, personally, I fell in love with it ten years ago, at age twenty, at the very beginning of my own writing journey. This story means so much to people, because it’s stood that test of time.
And yet, this story was never explicitly romantic. So many saw it that way, but it was never something confirmed. Because this was a book from the 90s, at a time where this kind of romance just wasn’t in popular media if it wasn’t played as a joke. It was, back then, the same kind of “forbidden” as a romance between angel and demon. So people imagined, but they never expected anything more. And they’ve continued not expecting more, because even in the 2019 first season, there was never any true confirmation of anything, and people accepted it. You have a 33-year-old story here – it’s possible that this major change/confirmation could happen, but all things considered, it was unlikely. You would never blame the creator for not making major developments to a story they wrote with their late friend a lifetime ago. And no one in production was saying a word to confirm or deny, but we’ve seen all this before. It was a Will-They-Won’t-They…Probably-Not situation.
And then you have the end of S2.
And that's where that bittersweet sadness comes in for me, personally. Not at a huge level, not to the point where I'd have it any other way, but it's there regardless. Because I realized that this was a unique situation that could never be replicated, for me, and likely for many, especially readers of the book pre-show. In all likelihood, I would never again experience a romantic payoff like this one. Because it was the most forbidden of forbidden romances, the couple of which have been kept apart by the worst of all dangers and highest level of guilt for the longest amount of time literally possible, written over a real-life span of time where this kind of romance went from “completely taboo even in real life” to “finally acceptable in popular media,” written by the same creator, and not confirmed as canon until the story reached the age of Jesus Christ himself.
And the real kicker is, even after everything these two literally star-crossed lovers have gone through…they’re still being kept apart. They’ve still not taken down those final, seemingly insurmountable barriers between them. It wasn’t a “here you go 😊” move to make long-time fans happy – it’s being used as a perfect, painful plot point. After 33 years, we’re still having to wait longer.
Chef's kiss. Couldn’t have been a better set up if it was mathematically calculated. And yet, the best part is that it happened organically.
It just works.
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canthelpit0 · 12 days
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Fake?
Pairing: Matt sturniolo x Reader
Word count : 3.2k +
Summary: matt and reader have known each other since forever. And they’ve been attached at the hip since forever. But what happens when they start to just let everyone think they’re dating, since it’s too hard to convince them otherwise anyway..
Warnings: friends to lovers, fluff, (sort of) fake dating, use of y/n, sweet talk, praise kink, pet names (sweetheart, baby, etc.), gentle sex, oral fem!Reciving, unprotected, creampie, 2nd person.
(A/N: sorry this is actually so short. But I wanted to write something more fluffy for Matt.)
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Being childhood friends with the triplets there was always something going on in your life.
You and Matt have been tied at the hip since you were just babies. And sometimes it felt like he was more dependent on you than his own triplet brothers.
You were always together, hanging out. Good thing you were neighbors.
Back when you were younger it was even worse. You’d always sleep in the same bed. Whether at his or your house, you were always snuggling into each other.
You’d hold hands whenever you went anywhere. You made his anxiety better.
You were always there for him. And always being there for him, you were there for his first panic attack. You didn’t know what to do, but just your presence made him calm down faster.
How close you were was questionable, It was cute when you were kids, but you were both seniors in high school now.
Obviously, you were best friends with Nick and Chris too. Yet with Matt, it was different.
He was popular around school. Well not really him. But he was known because he is a triplet. Matt out of the three of them was the most introverted so naturally, he seemed the most mysterious.
Most people also thought you two were dating. And you did nothing to stop them from thinking that. After all, why would you care about what they say?
Matt was currently pacing around in front of you though. You were sitting on your bed, propped against your headboard, as you just watched him move around.
Contrary to popular belief, The most you and Matt had ever done is kiss. And that was only because you got dared to in middle school. And it was only one time.
“C’mon y/n/n please” he whines dramatically. Matt comes over to your bed draping his upper body across your legs, his hands are clasped together dramatically.
“It’s like we’re already dating anyway.”
Matt and his brothers have a shared YouTube that they started recently, about being triplets. You have featured in it plenty of times.
People were shipping you and Matt. And people in real life also thought you were dating.
So Matt being scared to be shipped with other content creators, or any girl he was around, wanted you to pretend to be his girlfriend.
You wouldn’t even have to change anything about the way you act, really. You two already act like a couple.
“Matt” you sigh your hands finding their way to his hair. You card through it gently rubbing his scalp.
“Y/n/n please” he begs again. His upper body is draped on your legs. His lower body is kneeling on the floor next to the bed.
Matt didn’t like being shipped. But he’d been shipped with you all his life. And if he had a ‘girlfriend’ people would stop getting into his business.
“Okay” you give in. Because of course, you do. This is your long-time best friend. You can never say no to him.
He perks up. “Really??” He sits up on his knees on the floor. His arms are still draped across your lap.
“Yeah, but what does it In tail ?” You ask slowly with a slight smile creeping up your face at the way he reacted.
“Nothing, we just say we’re dating” he shrugs. You already acted like it.
“Y’know and maybe kiss sometimes” he shrugs with a slight smile. He wasn’t going to kiss you every time you were on camera, that’d feel forced. He was just gonna kiss you whenever he felt like it, and use that as a way to show affection.
“Nothing we haven’t done before” he adds jokingly.
In a rush of boldness, you pull him up by his shirt and pull him towards yourself. He gets on top of you with a teasing smile, and your lips crash together.
It’s a sweet normal kiss, there are no sparks. It’s just a simple press of lips.
Once he pulls away you chuckle. “What’re we gonna tell Nick and Chris?” You question. “Are they gonna know?”
“Just let them think we’re dating too, I'm pretty sure they’re already convinced” Matt chuckles looking down at you fondly.
He gets off of you, rolling to the side of your bed. He pulls the covers up and gets underneath. Matt pulls you down too, so that you’re lying snuggled up in his arms.
★ ★ ★
So that is how you two started dating. And that was two years ago now.
At that time they’d only had around 20k YouTube followers and way more on TikTok. And now they were at 6 million.
You were also a YouTuber and TikToker now. Except you post whenever you want to.
You’d moved out from Boston to LA with them because, oh you’re still Matt’s girlfriend.
You have your own bedroom. Though you don’t use it very much. You’ve always loved sleeping in the same bed as Matt, cuddling all night, and that never changed.
People believe you’re dating. Which was the whole point. Even your families do, with no suspicion at all.
Except what nobody knows, is that you and Matt have never done anything further than make out. Even with two years of dating. You just never cared to really.
But you did everything else, cuddle, share sweet kisses, go on dates, hang out, and be close to each other.
It was almost like you were actually dating.
And the reason why it lasted so long with barely any problems, was because you and Matt never had an eye for anyone else. It was always you two against the world.
You and Matt were sitting on the couch watching some Netflix show. Nick and Chris were not home, they were at some influencer party.
Suddenly you turn your body and get on top of Matt. You leave a long kiss on his lips, catching him off guard.
“Matt.”
He looks back at you as you sit there straddling his lap. His hands snake to your waist to hold you. Your hands resting on his shoulders.
“Mhm?” He hums in response.
“You know how we’ve done almost everything a couple would?” You ask slowly.
He raises an eyebrow at the statement but nods.
“How about we-“ you cut yourself off for a moment. You click your tongue thinking of how to word it. “Can we fuck?”
That catches Matt off guard. Since it’s once again not what he expected. He pauses looking at you with a raised eyebrow.
“You want me to fuck you?” He asks again seeing if he heard that correctly.
“Yes please?” You say slowly. But before you can question if it was a smart idea to ask that or not, he’s already lifting you and carrying you to your shared bedroom.
He throws you onto the bed gently. You tell at the impact but before you know it Matt’s lips are on yours again.
He pulls away for a moment to swiftly pull his shirt over his head and throws it away. You’ve seen him shirtless countless times, but this was different. This felt… sensual, almost.
He gets on top of you, as you lay in the middle of the king-sized bed. He showers you with kisses, slowly trailing his kisses to your jawline and neck.
You can feel him suck on your collarbone leaving a Purple bruise. Your breath hitches as you start to feel his hand start to run over your side.
You keep looking up at him through lust heavy eyes. You watch his every move anticipating what he’ll do next.
“Want me to make you feel good sweetheart?” He teases, his tone ever so soft.
Ever since you’ve known Matt was a romantic. Almost even a hopeless romantic. But maybe it was you all along.
“Please” you breathe out. Matt pulls away slightly his eyes looking over your face. He looks fond. Like you’re the best thing to ever have happened to him.
He starts to tug on your shirt. “Can I?” He whispers. This entire thing feels so incredibly romantic and loving.
You nod, shifting slightly to let him take your shirt off.
Once his eyes fall on your bra he smiles. He smiled fondly like this was all he had been waiting for all his life.
“You’re so gorgeous.“
He mumbles under his breath. His kisses go back to your collarbone, leaving even more love bites on it.
“I’ll make you feel good sweetheart, I promise.” He smiles. He places a sweet peck on your cheek before he starts to trail them down your body.
Once he reaches your pants he tugs on them lightly before you whine out an agreement.
As soon as it’s off he starts to admire your half naked body in front of him. Matt perches between your thighs leaving a teasing peck on your clothed clit.
“Please” you sighs. You push yourself back on him. Matt chuckles at the movements. He pushes you down by your hips.
“Patience honey” he chuckles teasing you by kissing up your inner thighs. He was purposefully not stimulating the part you needed him the most.
“Matt please” you whine throwing your head back on the bed as you wait for Matt to do something, anything.
“Look at me baby.” He hums softly kissing up your inner thigh. He rubs your thighs slightly while you pick up your head to look back down at him.
You groan dramatically. “Matt”
The way Matt looks between your things like that only serves to make you even wetter.
He chuckles finally starting to pull your panties off gently. He slides them off and throws them across the room. Be careful not to put any pressure on you.
He smiles down at you. Matt sits up between your legs. “How about we take this off yeah?” He hums. His hands trails over your bra. You eagerly lean up to give him access to take your bra off.
He also threw that across the room.
You sigh, laying back down dramatically. Your chest moves at the impact of you laying back down.
Matt eyes lock on your chest
He smiles fondly. He takes one of your tits in his hand starting to fondle it gently.
“You’re so gorgeous, baby” he smiles leaning down for a moment to kiss you, and then trailing his kisses down your throat and between the valley of your breasts.
You let out a soft breath feeling his lips press against all these sensual places.
“Matt please. Come on” you whine dramatically laying flat on your back waiting for him to do something. Anything.
He chuckles, deciding to speed up the teasing. He places himself back between your thighs. Matt then pulls your leg over his shoulders.
“I wanna make this memorable for you.” He says. But before you can respond he licks a bold stripe up your pussy.
You gasp at the feeling. You close your eyes briefly and then look at him.
Before you can complain about the lack of contact, he leaves a kiss on your clit before starting to suck on it.
His groans were sending vibrations through you. he was sucking and swirling his tongue, lapping up your juices. He was eating you out like you were his last meal.
You were chanting his name like a prayer while he just kept vigorously eating you out. Your hands stay tangled in the messy waves, you gently tug on it.
Until without warning you felt his fingers plunge into your tight aching cunt. You feel him start to move them as you feel yourself get closer to the edge.
“Matt- im-“ you get cut off by a moan when Matt curls his fingers at just the right spot.
His eyes stay focused on you. He watches you with a sharp gaze. Watching the way you react.
His movements speed up even more. And before you can warn him you feel the knot in your stomach snap.
He continues to eat you out, lapping up your juices, until you calm down. He licks a final stripe up your pussy watching you shudder at the slight overstimulation.
You tug at his hair and he finally comes back up with his chin coated in your juices. He wipes his chin off with the back of his hand, grinning.
“You’re doing so well for me princess.” Matt smiles leaning down and pressing another sweet kiss to your forehead.
“Matt, please fuck me.” You breathe out. You’re tone begging.
You’ve known Matt all your life. He was your childhood best friend. The guy who you’ve been fake dating for years now. The guy who treated you like a princess, despite your relationship only being for show.
And yet all you wanted to do right now is be with him. Be as close to him as possible.
In hindsight. All of this was inevitable. You’ve always been a little too close, a little too touchy. You’ve always known too much about each other.
That was the reason why most of your, and his other relationships didn’t work out.
“ ‘Corse sweetheart.” He smiles, unbuckling his belt and swiftly removing his jeans.
His dick is big. And that’s not even exaggerated. it was bigger than you expected. But it somehow made sense for him.
The tip was the same rosy color he had on his blushing cheeks. It wasn’t too vainy just the perfect amount. You knew from the size that it’d mildly hurt.
You whine at the feeling of him sliding his cock through your soaked folds.
You feel Matt gently push in. You throw your head back at the feeling making sure to keep your eyes on him.
“Fuck you’re so big” you breathe out. Only his tip was in, but the girth was enough to have you drooling.
“I’ll take it slow, honey” he looks down at you fondly.
And all that fake dating, fake love thing you guys have been doing for years was starting to feel just a little too real.
Once he fully bottoms out he sighs. He doesn’t move for a little, letting you get used to the feeling.
“You can move” you mumble under your breath.
“Your wish is my command princess” he jokes slightly. Matt starts to thrust in and out of you. His pace is gentle and slow.
And with the way he is leaning over your body, keeping the eye contact, it seems so loving and sensual.
“Oh my god Matt-“ you throw your head back, your eyes closing.
Matt was just looking down at you all fond and loving. He looks at you like you’re the only woman in the world. The only woman whom he cares for.
“Fuck- I love you” you breathe out. Without even realizing what you were saying. You’ve said I love you to each other so many times. Yet all those times it was for show or meant platonically.
But this. This was not. You were in love with your best friend. The guy who you’ve been sort of fake dating for two years.
“Oh? do you?” Matt replies teasingly.
He leans down starting to kiss down your neck once again. And the feeling of that only makes you even more aroused. Your breath hitches when you realize what you’d just admitted.
Before you can panic though, Matt starts talking.
“I love you too”
He wasn’t slowing down. He didn’t seem phased by the confession. Like he knew, or was expecting it.
“Do you?” You breathe out.
Matt pulls back slightly. He looks down at you as you timidly open your eyes again. Your eyes lock on his once more. He stares at you with all the love and lust in his body.
“I should’ve told you earlier.” He admits. He lets out a slight laugh at the idea.
His eyes trail your body. Admiring every curve and feature you have.
“It’s okay.” Your eyes are half-lidded, watching him watch you. “Are you mine now? For real?”
“I’m all yours, princess”
And that sentence alone had you rolling your eyes into the back of your head. the way he was talking mixed with the sensual thrusts he was giving. It all felt so good.
It just felt so intimate and loving.
He leans down again his lips capturing yours.
You sloppily kiss back. His thrusts remain deep and sensual.
One of his hands moves to your breast again starting to fiddle with it, occasionally flicking the nipple.
He pulls away from the kiss. He changes hands giving just as much attention to your other breast.
“You wanna come for me baby?” His tone is light and teasing, but laced with so much lust and affection.
“Please”
He smiles pulling himself up. He yanks your legs over his shoulders, readjusting. He starts to harshly thrust into you.
The new angle making him hit deeper. He was hitting every spot in you, making you weak in your knees.
You whine and moan loudly, not bothering to keep quiet since no one is home. You chant his name like it’s the only thing you can think of- which it is.
His breath is sharp too, he lets out occasional groans which send tingles to your core.
He sounds so good.
Matt’s thumb finds its way to your clit starting to rub in it harshly.
“You’re squeezing me so tight honey.” He lets out a harsh breath.
You can only whine in response. The feeling of him drilling into your cunt is overwhelming. You feel like you couldn’t talk, even if you tried.
“You gonna come?” He huffs starting to pick up the pace, both with rubbing on your clit and fucking your cunt.
You feel the intense pressure of the knot, ready to snap in your stomach.
“Let go for me.”
As soon as the words leave his lips you feel yourself clench against him. your eyes close as you feel your orgasm wash over you.
He keeps thrusting into you, fucking you through your orgasm.
“Can I come in you?” Matt breaths out. And all you think to do is nod. You were on the pill, but Matt was gonna take the safe route and ask before he did it anyway.
As soon as you nod you hear his sharp breaths. His hips speed up. The sound of your lewd wetness and the sound of skin slapping is echoing loudly.
His hips start to stutter until he finally slows down.
He collapses on top of you, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck.
Matt keeps himself inside of you. You feel the way your combined juices leak out of you. You feel the warmth and closure of his body.
He pulls back again. He looks down at you. “So does this count as our new actual anniversary or are we gonna use the fake one?” He says his tone is half joking.
He had that goofy, almost giddy smile on his face. And his smile was making you smile.
“I don’t know we can have both?” You suggest.
After a moment of just staring, admiring each other he pulls out slowly so as to not hurt you.
He stares down at your pussy for a second. Looking at the way it looks all filled with his seed.
“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.” He smiles. He bites his lip when his eyes finally meet yours again.
“Can’t leave your pussy like this.” He teases, stealing another quick peck from your lips, making you smile.
Masterlist
(A/N: again sorry this is kinda ass, but I rlly like the concept 🫶🏼)
‼️please don’t copy my work/idea‼️
Taglist: @muwapsturniolo , @sturnad , @iluvm4ttsturni0l0 , @evie-sturns , @me09love , @fratbrochrisgf , @spideylovin , @chrissgirlsstuff , @stunza , @whicked-hazlatwhore , @sturniooolols
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ultrasharpy12345stuff · 2 months
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SUCCESS STORY (manifesting)
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OMFG you guys! I did it! I made it to my desired reality! I'm living my desired life!
All I did was decide it's done. More specifically, I just did Angel's fulfillment challenge (which you don't have to do). Everyday I just decided to live like I was in my desired reality right now as often as I could and whenever I wanted to.
If I vented, I vented. If I ranted I ranted. If I sabotaged my manifestation I just decided it wouldn't matter and that nothing would ruin my manifestation and everything was ok and fine.
And this is totally optional but I affirmed sometimes. I just did to remind myself that it was done.
My affirmations were:
-I'm living my desired life
-Nothing can ruin my manifestation
-I'm in my desired reality
-I'm in my desired reality in my penthouse in Tokyo
-I have all my desires
-The 3D conforms instantly
And it worked! And now I'm happy! I woke up today IN my penthouse in Tokyo! The view of the city is amazing. I checked my bank account and it turns out I'm super rich! Like I literally have BILLIONS of dollars. And it's like I always get millions of dollars out of nowhere! So it's like I get paid just to exist!
Also life in this reality is soooooooo different than on Earth. Like the people in the city are nice... but they aren't just humans beings. I'm seeing Japanese monsters walking around wearing uggs! I can also see Godzilla walking around in a place in the city it's so cool! (don't worry, they made a place in the city specifically for her)
I can also enter the void anytime I fall asleep. Like everytime I go to sleep I wake up IN the void state completely aware. I know this because I just decided I would go to sleep and I did! (one of the things I also manifested, to fall asleep instantly)
And guess what? I also revised my ENTIRE life. Like all the shitty, terrible things that happened to me and all the awful things I've done are GONE! They never happened. All the arguments I had with people on Youtube are gone, they never happened. I never met those people. All the people who I argued with on Discord, well I never argued with them. All the problems with my family are gone.
I also have new memories of me being in Highschool. It went great! I made some friends, they never got angry at me, I got to play my videogames, and I never had to deal with any kind of stress. And I also have my college degree even though I never went to college.
Also let me show you what I look like:
This body:
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This is my hairstyle (except it's white colored):
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This is my face (trigger warning: AI art, also dw I'm black):
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And I'm like popular on Twitter. I'm as popular as @rariatoo. People follow my art and they love drawing my OCs and characters, it's so much fun. Plus I have a patreon and a redbubble. I get to make my OCs as plushies and stickers and ship them off.
And the best part is that there's no wars! No covid, no genocide in the Congo or Palestine, no racism, no problems. And there never will be, everything is fine! Its literally a Utopia.
Summary of what I manifested:
-Desired life & reality
-Freezing Time
-Revising entire life
-Different family (same soul but different looks (slightly) and better personality)
-Entering the void whenever I fall asleep and at will
-A butler friend who I can summon and make disappear at will (he's super nice and never have any problems, perfect personality, kinda shy, and we just had some woopie 🥵🤪)
-Magic (I can do LOTS of crazy stuff)
-Being able to shift realities at will
-Visiting my family through a magic door (my family lives in what I call, "Reality # 3 and I can visit them anytime I want)
-Spawning groceries and food whenever I want (I still go out, dw)
-Friends on discord and some IRL
-Money money monayyyyyyyyyyy
-Perfect health and mental health, no problems with my body
-Never getting yelled at ever again or abused/nobody gets abused/abuse doesn't exist. Yellers don't exist.
& a lot of other personal things
You guys got this! You can get your dream life! Go for it! *I didn't get my dream life yet, that's why the title reads:
"SUCCESS STORY (𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴)" When you put "manifesting in the title it means you haven't gotten your desires yet but you're doing it to help you live in the end. SO please don't be angry or offended.*
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thankskenpenders · 5 months
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Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?
Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.
But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.
A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.
Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.
Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.
There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.
(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)
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The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.
As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.
Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:
You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.
You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.
You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)
You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.
You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.
You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao
You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.
All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.
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In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.
Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.
Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!
It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.
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It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.
All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.
I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.
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psuedosugu · 3 months
Text
just thinking about vox w/ a famous singer! reader…
cw: themes of stalking and heavy manipulation
gender neutral
⋅───⊱༺ ♰ ༻⊰───⋅
✮₊ ⊹ || you guys probably met through velvette, she started helping you shoot music videos and things of the sort once your popularity started skyrocketing.
✮₊ ⊹ || and your popularity really did skyrocket, think ice spice.
✮₊ ⊹ || it started with him sponsoring you, asking you to include some voxtech products in one of your music videos.
✮₊ ⊹ || then, he had you on his talk show.
✮₊ ⊹ || after a while, vox started having an interest in you far past business relations.
✮₊ ⊹ || he started stalking you, not just your public socials but even pictures on your camera roll.
✮₊ ⊹ || we see in ep 2 that he can look through tvs and control what they show so im js assuming its the same for all electronic devices.
✮₊ ⊹ || he would watch you through your phone and tv, “just to keep them safe,” he said to himself.
✮₊ ⊹ || you two had more and more partnerships, more and more collaborations, perhaps even your own ‘keeping up with the kardashians’ type tv show.
✮₊ ⊹ || the pubic started speculating on you two’s relations and vox felt a strange sense of happiness and pride in his chest when he saw a post online shipping you two together.
✮₊ ⊹ || val definitely knew what was going on, subtly teasing vox about it every chance he got.
“if you put nearly as much effort as you do ogling at [name] into what we’re trying to do here, imagine the things we could accomplish.”
“wh- i don’t- shut the FUCK up.”
✮₊ ⊹ || vox made subtle moves at you, occasionally flirting with you, it didn’t matter if you flirted back or not, he kept going.
✮₊ ⊹ || flirting escalated to small touches to ur thighs and waist.
✮₊ ⊹ || he slowly coaxed you into a relationship, pretty much lovebombing you, buying you expensive things that you didn’t even need since you were rich already, writing you poems, taking you out on “dates”, ect.
✮₊ ⊹ || he could switch up fast, though, get angry and lash out at you verbally and maybe even slightly physically.
✮₊ ⊹ || he always made sure to apologize after, though, to put the bandaid on the broken bone.
✮₊ ⊹ || you went along with it at first because 1. being seen with him did improve your reputation, 2. he was a strong overlord, it would be hard to escape him, and 3. you genuinely did like him to an extent.
✮₊ ⊹ || he was pushing you into a box, leaving you no options.
✮₊ ⊹ || if you did attempt to leave or even show any sign of wanting to leave him, that would be when the hypnotization began.
✮₊ ⊹ || he didn’t want to do this, he wanted you guys’ relationship to come naturally, but you had practically forced the dude!
✮₊ ⊹ || you weren’t fully under his control, just enough so you wouldn’t leave. you wouldn’t want to leave.
✮₊ ⊹ || you were his trophy, his prize, his, his, his, he almost didn’t even see you as a person.
✮₊ ⊹ || eventually he started presenting you to the public as his too, and its not like you could refuse.
✮₊ ⊹ || you loved him, despite that doubtful feeling in the back of your mind, you loved him.
⋅───⊱༺ ♰ ༻⊰───⋅
i do requests!
check out my masterlist!
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jiwon1es · 4 months
Text
` wedding : jang wonyoung
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summary: your girlfriend was never good at keeping secrets, this time not only she catch attention to both of you but she reveals your plans to future.
pairing: jang wonyoung x ive!reader
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ive's live was being protagonized by 04 line, already having too much clips since the beginning of it. starship was pretty much careful about them, something about their chemistry and their popular personalities was a thing they needed to take care of, not because the four of you would start some kind of scandal but because you were too much. loud, chaotic, funny, sometimes even forgetting that you were literally idols and you had an image to protect. you were almost fans favorite. on top of that, you were the two popular ships within the group. lizrei and wonyyn quickly became a hot trend the moment you started the live.
wonyoung, who was sitting on your left, was having quite a hard time trying not to look at you with literally her natural heart eyes, whenever you were talking about something you remembered or telling something to dive, even when you just giggle at their comments, wonyoung was mesmerized. her hands found the way to touch you underneath the table, leaving a hand on top of your leg, a habit of hers.
wonyoung gets anxious when she's right next to you and can't touch you. she needs to place her hand on any part of your body to feel safe, whether is your waist, your leg, softly gripping on your clothes, holding hands and stuff like that. some curious dive had notice her hand on your leg and were talking about it but nothing really caught attention. not until miss jang wonyoung screwed it up again.
while talking about christmas and how it was such a holiday filled with love, liz read a comment.
diveinttoive: did you ever plan to get married?
"oh, i think i never really thought about it like that." liz answered.
"yeah me too but yn does for sure. that's even her new year's wish." rei spilled, smiling at you.
"i mean, a ring would look very cute on my finger." you said as you were showing your hand to the camera, having a ring already that wonyoung gave you the day you became girlfriends.
"but you have one." liz pointed out.
"yes, it was a gift from wony. a promise ring." the girl named smiled proudly at the fact. "but i want the engagement ring. that would be so cute." you pouted, caressing the finger where you would place it.
"i think i would look cute as your bridesmaid."
"i think that the five of us would look cute as the bridesmaid." liz added to rei's comment.
"four." wonyoung corrected.
"huh?"
"four of you. i'm not the bridesmaid, i am the bride."
"but i though yn was the one getting married?" liz was confused.
there were almost 5 seconds of pure silence that felt like hell when they both realized what they said.
"so... you're marrying me?" you leaned in the table, head resting in your arm, teasing wonyoung with the most beautiful eyes.
"no—" you raised your eyebrows. "i mean! yes... no!"
rei and liz couldn't hold their laughter at their usually calm friend now getting the blush of her life.
ggaeulsunbbae: wow wonyoung never beating the gay allegations huh
kurakurannie: did this really just happen?
yujinniesbae: they're cute UGH.
"dive are getting wild." liz said while reading the screen.
"wonyoungie are you okay?" rei laughed.
yes, wonyoung couldn't stop the blushing or her heart almost escaping from her chest from beating that fast. you caressed her back, drawing circles trying to calm her down.
"alright, what about you two getting married?" you said, redirecting the target to both liz and rei so that you two could breath.
"wait— what?" liz got nervous.
. . .
"you might got us in trouble, did you know that?" you asked your girlfriend.
now that cameras were off, you were laying down in bed, cuddling wonyoung as she was in top of you like she always do when she needs your kisses and caresses.
"i know!" she sighed. "i just— i just wanted to let them know."
"know what, baby?"
"that we are getting married." she pouts, looking up right in your eyes.
you bite your lip to fight the urge to kiss her, but then you remember. no cameras. so you do, you give her a small kiss and you feel how wonyoung is melting under your hold.
"they're gonna see it someday, i know."
she smiles and it makes your heart feel so warm and safe. you were totally looking forward for the day you could see wonyoung in a long pretty white dress and finally getting to call her your wife.
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s1m0nth3swag · 1 month
Text
Francis Mosses Headcannons <3
AUTHORS NOTE; Your honor I love him. Just some silly Headcannons because the brainrot is too real (also my last post about him did really well and I was shocked about it oops)
WARNINGS/ CONTENT INFO; SFW and NSFW Headcannons, no shipping headcannons, some relationship headcannons but mostly just general things about Francis (NSFW is really big on relationship headcannons tho), MY headcannons for him, not particularly fitting into the time of That's not my neighbor but I couldn't be bothered
SFW;
Ever since starting his job as Milkman, he has started to somewhat dislike milk. Rarely ever has any at home unless he needs it to cook or bake something.
REALLY good at cooking/ baking, he lives alone so obviously he has to take care of it himself and he dislikes ordering food since he'll have to talk to someone so he just taught himself to cook/ bake.
I feel like he has some hobbies but rarely ever has the time to work on them, I feel like he's into miniature or something like that. Definitely likes hobbies that include being calm and concentrated over others.
Almost never lets anyone into his home, only if it's his partner or a very close friend (or family).
Contrary to popular belief, Francis has quite a few friends - mostly because they share his hobbies (I feel like he's the type to yap about his hobbies if someone is interested in them).
He doesn't particularly like his job, but also doesn't hate it. I think he liked it at the beginning, but now it's just tiring and boring (like honestly, being a milkman doesn't sound really thrilling, can't blame him for being tired of it).
Francis most definetly has at some point bought a plushie with the thought of gifting it to someone but ended up liking it so much that he kept it (when having someone over he definitely hides it in a corner of his bedroom to not get embarrassed).
He's the type to rarely listen to music, because when he comes home from work he's too tired and probably just passes out on his bed and on his free days he likes to just do his things in silence since it's more calming to him than listening to music while doing them.
When he does listen to music, he prefers calmer tones, maybe even music without any lyrics (or soft spoken ones).
He definetly falls asleep on the couch while watching TV. The type to pass out the second he put on some random show. Try waking him up, you won't be able to. Give him his two hour power nap.
NSFW;
BIIIIG Whiner and whimperer. Even when jerking off or the likes, he's super vocal about it. I think he's not the type to jerk off often, when he does it's because he has too much pressure built up. He's 100% loud about it though. Full on groaning and moaning if his partner were to jerk or suck him off.
He's big on praising. Always tells you you're doing good and that you're so wonderful etc.
I think he doesn't have a particularly high sex drive, but when he does get frisky (by himself or with his partner) I think he can go for multiple rounds with little to no rest. He makes up for the lack of sex drive with the amount of rounds he can go 100%.
Isn't really shy in bed unless it's a more dom/sub relationship with him being sub. I think if you told him he came too fast or that he wasn't being good for you he'd be so so embarrassed and apologise for HOURS unless you shut him up.
Loves marking. Give him hickeys, bitemarks, anything, he'll love it. Especially if you get that little spot on his neck that is just barely hid by his work uniform.
All for now because I need to keep some for the next posts :)
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whispereons · 9 months
Text
Oracle!Reader Part 8
Masterlist - Part 1, Part 7, Part 9
Gonna be honest, Y/N is not nice in this chapter. Not like abusive but just wanted to warn ya'll. My au is supposed to be dark and cruel in a way. This is yandere imposter sagau after all.
A storm brewed above the ship as the two hydra heads roared toward the sky. Shielding your face with your arms you tried to gaze up at the towering dark blue bodies. The teal markings on its armor-like heads let you know who exactly was attacking you.
Beisht, Avenger of the Vortex. AKA Osial's wife who not only has a grudge against Liyue but Beidou specifically due to her warning Ningguang about Beisht's attack.
The Crux has probably gone hundreds of times to Inazuma peacefully but the one time you go is when they get attacked by a sea monster.
Just
Your
Fucking
Luck
Beidou's laugh rings out as the ship sways from the currents and the crewmembers start running to their weapons and positions. Not missing a beat Xinyan ends her song as she uses her vision to blast fire at Beisht.
Holy fuck, this wasn't an accident. This was planned. Beidou planned this shit and went through with it even though you, a guest, are on this crazy ship.
Anger swells up in you like a tornado and you ignore the blasts of water that try to hit the jumping form of Beidou. You look around in blind anger for one of the ballistae on the ship.
The thought of shooting either Beidou or Beisht with it was making your blood pump faster. And even if you did hit Beidou, you could always lie that you were aiming at Beisht.
You spot the closest one and start running towards it. Firm hands wrap around your waist and lift you off the ground.
"I apologize for the urgency, but this isn't a safe spot for you."
Kazuha's calm voice in your ear has a soothing effect on your temperament. Forcibly relaxing your body, you let Kazuha carry you down the stairs and he sets you down quickly in a room.
"Stay here while we take care of the sea monster. I don't want you getting hurt, it will not have mercy on you."
You clench your hands as your body trembles in anger. It's Kazuha's worried and sad eyes that make you unclench your fists.
"I know it's scary so please heed my words."
Burying your head into your knees a muffled sound of confirmation slips out. If he wants to think you're scared, let him. Some time alone might even be good for you.
Kazuha leaves and it's then that you can hear the sound of the fighting as the boat rocks. Xiangling and Xinyan's pyro make the air sticky as Kazuha swirling the water makes it humid too.
The crackling of thunder no doubt from Beidou makes you grind your teeth. You were right to be afraid of going with the Crux, she may be popular but she's far too dangerous.
That was definitely Beisht, you think back to her boss fight and remember her attacks. Shooting water, slamming her head and neck, water missiles, and wait wasn't there a third head?-
A loud bang echoes as the ship starts tilting dangerously. Yelping you shield your head from the items that start falling onto you. Another deafening thud and you're being thrown onto the opposite wall.
As more heavier items crash onto you, the wall makes a cracking sound. You couldn't be sure that it was the boat breaking but you couldn't risk it.
If you stayed here, you'll either be crushed to death or drown if that wall breaks. The Alcor keeps rocking left to right as you struggle to stand and leave the room. Closing the door shut, you know you have a few more bruises than you came in with.
The hallway is even worse than the room. Harpoons and other weapons are dangerously close to falling and you rush up the stairs to avoid that disaster.
The main deck is a chaotic mess of crewmembers running back and forth. Xiangling is continually setting wooden spears and stakes aflame before different crewmembers shoot it.
Xinyan, Kazuha, and Beidou all work together to attack Beisht's heads whenever she gets close to attack. Keeping a death grip on the railing you watch the incredible yet infuriating display of power.
Finally remembering that you'll need to defend yourself too, you go back down the stairs. Swiftly you dodge the dropping objects and get to your room. Shoving your hand into your bag and selecting the sickle, you pull it out.
The fear of dying is remedied by the weight of the weapon. Sprinting with more confidence you get back to the main deck. Both sides of the deck have one of her heads low and close ready to shoot the powerful jet of water.
Something about the way she looks is... off. Your mind wanders back to the game cutscenes and automatically compares it to what you see now.
What were once toothless jaws were now filled with layers of sharp teeth. The underbelly of her bodies looked less watery and sleeker. The fins on her back looked firmer and seemed to be in a more organized row.
Beisht shoots the water from her mouths, and you can feel how hot the water is. Xinyan is quick to dodge by climbing the stairs while Kazuha leaps using the wind. Beidou uses her skill to defend herself and rack up energy.
As the scalding water gets closer you hold the sickle to your chest and try to back away. You may be crazy but not stupid enough to try what Beidou is doing.
Surprisingly she stops only inches away from you, lifting her heads she shoots the brunt of the attack toward the sky. Hot droplets rain down on the ship as the attack dies down.
Her heads regroup and her third one appears behind the first two. All her heads roar and they slam onto the deck. Instead of slamming onto you as you expected, she boxes you in the middle of the deck instead.
As two heads serve as the walls, her third head opens its mouth. The sight of the teal muscles with holes in them makes you shudder. Would dying to a sea monster be better or worse than dying accused as an imposter?
Probably better, at least this way you would be remembered fondly and missed. Even if it's only for a short while.
"Glorious creator, it is my greatest honor to have lived long enough to meet you."
What the fuck.
The sounds of everyone else attacking Beisht's other heads are drowned out as you look up at her in shock.
"Although my husband could not meet you, he was a devoted believer. These puny mortals are having you travel in such conditions with such little glory. Do these pirates not know your greatness?!"
Her tone gets louder as she speaks about the Crux. How could she recognize you as the creator? Were you right in guessing that the creatures of Teyvat could recognize you? But she's more on the god side so how could she realize but not Ei?
"Beisht, how have you heard of me?" If sea monsters gods could smile then that's exactly what Beisht was doing.
"Your blood, your grace. They bleached your gold blood. They hurt you with violent intentions. Just as the scriptures said, the offenders will pay for hurting you. Teyvat is calling upon your true worshippers to deliver justice."
This doesn't make complete sense. Beishts own arrogance and hatred for Liyue is having an impact on her words. What does seem to be true is that Teyvat was alerted when you got hurt and is drawing strong creatures that it can connect with to you.
"Then this is something we should be talking with less distractions." Choosing your words carefully, you note how everyone has been listening to your conversation with Beisht.
It's a good thing they can't understand her. Whether she's intentionally not letting them understand her or not isn't important.
You motion Beisht to back away with a flick of your wrist. Beisht is expecting you to act like the creator, you need to play your part. This whole situation is a golden opportunity.
Beisht obeys your silent command and moves her heads off the boat. Beidou is the first to run up to you with how close she is. The battle comes to a silent pause as everyone watches your seemingly unharmed form with relief.
"Are you okay?!" The urge to scoff and give a snarky response is strong but you push it down. With a solemn expression, you speak clearly.
"I've been granted a rare opportunity to talk with Beisht according to the creator's will. I have messages to relay to her but I cannot do so with everyone here."
A rare confused expression crosses Beidou's face at your words as you step away from her and move closer to Beisht. With a tight grip on your sickle, you speak calmly to Beisht.
"Come closer so we can speak somewhere with more privacy. The matter of the divine isn't one to always be so open about."
Beisht seems to pick up on the identity you have in the eyes of the Crux and lowers her main head onto the boat. With confident strides, you walk to her head and climb on.
Fear and worry rise within you as you grip the middle feeler on her head and look at the Crux with a smile.
"I'll be back soon, so don't stop sailing. I'll catch up before you know it."
Your grip on the feeler becomes tight as Beisht's head suddenly drops into the water. A scream instinctively leaves your throat from the sudden gesture.
The last thing you saw before the ocean engulfed you was the various expressions of horror and fear on everyones faces. A small part of you smirks at the guilt that paints Beidou's face.
You shut your mouth and eyes expecting the salty water to drown you. Yet not even a drop of water touches you and the sight of the vast ocean surrounds you.
In awe you watch the air bubble around you supplying you with oxygen and shielding you from the water. Fish swim past as Beisht continues to descend into the depths.
Soon enough the only light around is the teal markings on her body. It reminds you of just how frightening the ocean can be. That at any moment Beisht could think that you're an imposter too and let you drown here...
Tightening your grip on her, you push those thoughts away. They will only hinder you, being nervous will make everything worse. You've made it this far, haven't you?
As a distraction, you think about how exactly this air bubble is being made. Was it Beisht, Teyvat, or did you unconsciously do it? Considering that you can only control elements that you accessed from the Statue of the Sevens then it can't be you.
Beisht was connected to the vortex and water. This air bubble wasn't just reusing your oxygen, it was supplying fresh oxygen. She can't control oxygen so that only leaves Teyvat. Then how could Teyvat protect you from drowning but let the electro from Ei hurt you?
Beisht finally stops and you can vaguely see the outline of her main body due to the glowing teal marks. It keeps reminding you of a certain god masquerading as a bard.
"Your grace, I see the false identity you hold in front of them. Yet I do not hold the same wisdom you hold, please enlighten me on why you hide yourself."
Her vocabulary is naturally arrogant but the tone she says it all in, sounds like she's imploring. It's good, you can utilize this and her natural dislike for humans.
"Coming back from that other world has left me very weak. I have little memories of when I was the creator and this body is weak. They see my unmasked face and assume I'm an imposter. Ei was the main culprit. Just a mask would solve that but my mere presence shows my divinity. Quite a few of my acolytes barely believe my words as an oracle, I would be a fool to publically reveal myself as the creator."
Your words are spoken with a sense of coldness as if you're completely detached from the situation. The water around you seems to raise a few degrees. Taking a risk you speak lowly with a mix of sadness and condescension.
"Humans and Archons are not that different. They cannot accept the truth if it's different than what they expect or desire. Greed and pride have always been the downfall of humans."
"Your grace, they do not deserve your attention or words. The Electro Archon will pay for harming you. They will all pay for hurting you. Thank you for teaching me, I will do your bidding. I will make sure that you'll never need to worry about me acting as foolish as those Archons."
Perfect, it's exactly what you wanted.
"We will take over and subdue Teyvat for harming you. We'll lay the Archons, humans, and anything else that dares defy you at your feet. We will make them atone for their sins. That pirate crew will be the first to pay! Not only have I lost my husband and child to them, they even harmed you!"
What child? They had a kid??? Wait that can come later, Beisht going out of control would harm the reputation you've built up, this has to stop!
"Silence." Your command is swift and your gaze is cold as you stare down Beisht. The quiet that comes makes you smile inwardly. Playing hot and cold towards someone who idolizes you tends to make them more attached. More desperate to keep your wavering love and affection.
"Now, now don't get too worked up. Going off and doing whatever you wish in my name is contradictory to what you said earlier."
"I beg for your forgiveness, your grace." Beisht lowers her heads in shame. A kind smile crosses your face and you reach through the bubble to pet her heads.
"I forgive you Beisht, mistakes are part of the learning process. You've already done so well in recognizing me. Why don't you start by answering my questions first? What happened to your child?"
Beisht closes her eyes and bubbles float up as her heads sigh in content over your touch.
"My child, born from Osial and I, fought for days against that pirate ship. In the end, they killed my child and his murderer gained a vision from it. Celestia truly mocks the defeated from the Archon War."
Sea monster, 'that' pirate ship, and a vision from his death.
Haishan is her child.
No wonder she hates Beidou so much. She basically killed her whole family!
"Haishan has lived in my name and with his death, he returned to me too. I can tell your anger is as great as your sorrow. Take comfort in my words and let your anger fuel your devotion to me."
Loneliness is a manipulator's best friend. Beisht is terribly lonely and will cling to you and your words as her only lifeline. And in your situation, a dog like this will be needed.
"I will your grace, someday I too will return to your loving embrace through death."
Gently she nuzzles your hands with her heads. Tracing the glowing marks that adorn her head you ask in a soothing voice.
"Tell me how you came to find me."
"After the battle with Liyue and the human-adepti I retreated to the depths of the ocean to heal myself. I was dormant when Teyvat called us. It spoke about harm coming to you, at how your gold blood had been bleached."
"Who is 'us'? You also referred to yourself as 'we' earlier too."
"I was not the only one stirred by Teyvat. The water has become more lively with strong elemental currents. I do not doubt that there are even more beings awakening on land. We are all being called to defend you and pay back your liquid gold blood. After so long without you, we are regaining our reason for living."
So if many other elemental monsters are being 'stirred' then that means you could get more allies. Guoba didn't even know he used to be a god until he was told so was it in character or not that he knew you were the creator? You'll need to find more evidence on land but this was leading to a favorable situation.
But Beisht's fixation on your blood being gold was not good. You'll have to address that now. If you wait too long and it reveals outside of your control she'll believe that you were lying to her. God knows what she would do to you then.
"On the topic of my blood, there is something I must clear up. My blood is not gold, it is red."
An eery stillness takes over the atmosphere and you seemingly look down at the 3-headed hydra. The feeling of her scales seems to heat up a little, gritting your teeth you continue.
"I sincerely hope that you are not doubting me. The scriptures never said that my blood itself was gold. The true meaning of that text is that my blood is as precious as gold."
Your blank expression and sharp eyes don't leave her. In one hand you hold your sickle above and electro-coats it with a dangerous crackle.
The looming threat of death washes over you as the sickle crackles with more ferocity. Teyvat heeds your silent wishes and hydro starts rapidly spinning around you. Swiftly you thrust it into the water and it hits Beisht as she thrashes from the pain.
"Forgive me! Forgive me! Forgive this arrogant and foolish follower!"
She roars and begs, your heart is as tight as your grip on her but the sickle still crackles in the water. She's a sea monster and that's the only reason she hasn't died yet.
It's only the sight of toasted pieces of sleek flesh on her that you pull the sickle out of the water and back into the air bubble. The electro fizzles out and Beisht's sad wails echo around you.
She's whimpering and begging with near-silent pleas for forgiveness. Your hand is gentle and warm on the head that she is carrying you on.
"Hush now Beisht, this punishment was something you brought onto yourself. Never doubt my words, my teaching is law. Do you see how futile suspecting and denying me of my divinity is? Crimson or gold, my blood is not what matters most, it is I that exist above you."
Beisht's body seems to curl around the air bubble you stand in as you continue petting and soothing her. Your pleasant humming is a sharp contrast to your rapid heartbeat.
You were either going to die to Beisht or die to your electro. But this turned out better than you originally thought. Even though it hurt you to cause the one powerful ally you have pain, it was necessary. You can never let her entertain the idea of betraying you.
If you must play the role of oracle in front of the others then you must play the role of creator in front of the rest. Y/N was the oracle, the creator, and most importantly a liar.
"The fact that you could sense my presence on that boat intrigues me. How could you sense me while Ei could not? The same goes for the other Archons, surely they would have felt Teyvat's call too."
"The Archons accepted Celestia's power which drew them away from you. They worship you the mortal or human method more often than the way elemental beings do. Changing their style of worship may have connected them to other mortals better but it also muddled their sense of hearing Teyvat"
Her voice is hoarse and low, humbled after her punishment. Your smile was kind and your touch tender, but the sly part of your heart reveled in it.
"Tell me the difference between the two."
"Elemental beings worship by sacrificing parts of themselves to you. Some offer up energy, blood, lifeforce, and others give limbs. Only their own, offering up anyone else's would be sacrilegious. As elemental beings, we will always heal and reform. Celestia has possibly blinded them to the consequences of forsaking our worship to keep them away from you."
Now that was one of the most useful pieces of information you've gained thus far. What would happen if you convinced one of the Archons, not counting Ei, to try this style of worship? Would it enhance your position as the oracle, make you more suspicious, or give them the idea that you might be the creator?
Your thoughtfulness seems to make Beisht anxious, that's understandable seeing as you've proven to be volatile in her eyes. With a nearly patronizing pat on her head, you speak with a happy tone.
"As the creator, I require both elemental and human worship. I have many plans and it includes you Beisht. With each nation I visit and interactions with the Statues of the Seven, I gain more power. I will need you to spread the truth of my arrival to those who Teyvat awoke. Can I trust you with that?"
"It is a privilege to serve you, beloved creator. I will travel through the ocean and fulfill your command." She's clearly enthusiastic and grateful. You have her right where you want her.
"Stay quiet and careful, avoid fighting in general. I have much of the world to explore on my own and see to tell who deserves my forgiveness when everything is revealed. No rushing, I have a long life to live. The other elemental creatures will have the information I need too."
"I understand your grace. At this point and time, your main attention is to investigate the mortal's faith. I will stay unnoticed after this point so that I do not hinder your plan."
You had no plan on revealing your status as the creator. These words were only said to keep Beisht calm and peaceful. Beisht has such a terrible reputation as a villain that if she told the truth, it would only make them all think worse of you.
The little pieces of evidence you have acquired, proving your title might be enough if you were in regular Genshin Impact. But in this world with obsession, death, and violence, you could not claim that so easily. Beisht better be prepared to wait a long time, if not your whole life span which might not be long considering your luck.
"Can I really trust your words Beisht? You think lowly of the mortals for harming me but you have hurt me as well. And it's not when you doubted me, I'm talking about how you hurt me physically."
Your words are like a bucket of cold water. The suspicious gaze she receives from you makes her stutter.
"W-What do you mean your grace? The moment I spotted you, I drew away."
'Pathetic' that's what your expression told her. That's exactly what you thought of her. Her lie specifically.
"Never try to lie to me. This is your only warning. When you rose from the water, you spotted me first but you let yourself be distracted by the sight of Beidou. So caught up in the fight, it wasn't until I got banged up by everything that you finally spotted me and remembered your original task."
The words seem to hit the nail on the head as Beisht lowers herself to you. With an ominous air, you swing the sickle back and forth.
"I will not deny my sins. I lied to you and tried to hide it. Whatever punishment you choose is one I will accept wholeheartedly." Her voice wavers and cracks. She's scared and your smile makes her tremble beneath you.
But it seems to wash away as you rest your upper body on her head closest to you. Ignoring the lingering water droplets you pet her softly.
"It's okay Beisht, I know you were emotional after seeing Beidou. The pain and wrath were hard to fight wasn't it?" The forgiving voice you used was almost like a mask as you traced her scales using the sickle at the same time.
Unnerved, confused, grateful, and scared Beisht sounds like she's near tears.
"Thank y-you, your grace. The mercy you have on your creations is not something we deserve yet you give it anyway."
"I've been hurt so many times Beisht. So you'll prove yourself worthy of my trust right?" The sickle gets stuck at the brightest teal scale on her main head's forehead.
"Take this scale off and give it to me. This will be proof of your devotion to me." You whisper the command disguised as a request.
Without hesitation, Beisht's second head comes closer and you move away just in time to see her tug the scale off with her mouth. It's placed at your feet and it glimmers as you pick it up.
"It's beautiful Beisht. I will accept this as proof of your faith in me. It's time for me to be returned to the ship, do not forget what I have told you."
"Yes, your holiness." The attitude she has is much more subdued than the one she held when you first went down with her. You can now safely trust that in a worst-case scenario, you'll go to the ocean and have her bring you somewhere safe.
Fish and other sea creatures swim past you as Beisht brings you back to the boat. It's a lot further than when you left but that's no problem for the leviathan.
The Alcor is above you and Beisht only raises her head that has you on her above water. The air bubble dissolves and the sun shines down on you. The heat of it is welcomed after staying in the freezing deep for so long.
Yet it's the bright flash of electro that you are greeted with as Beidou jumps toward Beisht.
Thoughts bombard your mind on what to do, what to say. Electro, hydro, claymore, Beidou, Beisht, sickle, and defend!
With adrenaline and fear coursing through your veins, you bring your sickle up as a defense. Electro meets electro as the force of the blow keeps you both locked in place.
Planting your feet steady on Beisht's head, you grit your teeth and push harder against Beidou. In mere seconds your electro overpowers hers and Beidou is struck back to the boat with a pained yell.
The crew, Xinyan, and Xiangling rush to where Beidou was thrown. A sense of deja vu fills you as Kazuha jumps to you and quickly carries you away from Beisht.
After smoothly landing and setting you behind him, Kazuha brandishes his sword in Beisht's direction. The multiple cuts and bruises on his body show just how injured he got in the earlier battle.
A small part of you can't help but feel touched by his protection. Even though it's entirely unnecessary. Why didn't he immediately go check on Beidou? They are very close after all...
Letting that thought fade away, you place your hand on Kazuha's shoulder and smile reassuringly at him. Beidou grunts as she's helped out of the mess of broken wood.
A brief sense of vindication enters you at the sight of the multiple wounds on her, mostly likely from the previous battle. Splinters and new scrapes cover her exposed skin and a particularly big one went through her left palm.
The blood mixes with the wood chips as it drips off her palm. She's grabbing her weapon again and tries to head toward Beisht. Quickly you move to stand in front of her.
"It's alright Beidou, Beisht isn't going to attack anymore." Beidou's eyes widen as she takes in the sight of you. Not a single scrap or drop of blood is on you.
Turning back to Beisht, you motion her to leave with a hand gesture. Obediantly Beisht dives back into the water and disappears.
The waves start to calm and the clouds slowly disperse. You think of the electro you used against Beisht and Beidou. The control you have over it has been growing, despite how dangerous it is, you'll need more power.
Eyes widening in surprise you're spun around by Beidou as she checks your body throughly.
"I was so sure you died, I never meant to hit you with my claymore. I'm beyond grateful that the creator protected you." Your earlier spiteful joy at her injuries melts into guilt at the caring way she was handling you.
Smiling sheepishly you pat her uninjured shoulder.
"If the creator wanted me to die by Beisht then I would accept that wholeheartedly. I'm sorry for worrying you and everyone else."
That small petty part of you wanted to bring up how this all could have been avoided by just not provoking Beisht since they didn't know she was looking for you. But maybe you'll do that when everyone isn't injured.
"I'm not sure whether to applaud you or scold you for doing something so reckless but I think that would be counterproductive at this point."
Beidou shakes her head as she speaks before sighing. Turning back to her crew and friends her voice rises above the murmur of everyone else's conversation.
"Listen up everyone! Beisht has fled this area, but we can always be attacked at a later date. Get inside, rest up, and prepare to arrive at Liyue tomorrow morning!"
Multiple "Yes, Captain!" can be heard directly after her words before they scatter to various activities. You still need to talk to Beidou but she beats you to it.
"Y/N, I need to speak to you about the situation with Beisht. I'll get cleaned up in the medical bay and meet you at the head of the ship."
You nod and head to where she was pointing. Kazuha, Xiangling, and Xinyan follow Beidou to the medical bay. Would they be a part of whatever conversation Beidou wants to have with you?
Swinging your legs as you sit on the edge of the boat, the calm waves draw your gaze. What will Beidou tell you? What lies will you spin to protect yourself?
It's the thumps of footsteps behind you that alert you to Beidou's arrival. With a friendly smile directed at her, you suppress the urge to laugh at the feeling of eyes on you.
Xiangling is most likely in the kitchen as Guoba is nowhere to be seen. Kazuha and Xinyan on the other hand may have been instructed to watch or listen while hiding.
You already knew your stunt may have bad consequences if you aren't careful but you didn't think Beidou would make your job so easy. After all, the more people that hear this conversation, the farther your reputation will spread.
"Hope you didn't wait too long Y/N," Beidou speaks amiably as she strolls over to sit next to you. Her mood is hard to read with the way she smiles but you can still guess accurately.
"I'm all good, I would even say that the break was appreciated with how tired I was."
"Then let's not waste any more time. I'm not here to interrogate you as much as I'm here to explain myself. I put the Crux and you into a life-threatening situation and although everyone else knows exactly what can happen, you did not. I'm sorry about that."
Your feet hit the boat at a slow pace as you think about her words. Now that the anger and chaos of that situation has calmed down, you aren't nearly as annoyed. Not up to talking just yet, you simply nod.
Taking it in stride Beidou starts explaining.
"For the past few days, monsters and leylines have been unusual. The leylines are spawning in new areas with stronger enemies than usual. The behavior of the monsters is strange too. They wander around as if looking for something and the boss monsters have become less violent. It's worrying and on our way to Inazuma, I saw the ocean change. That's why I had Xinyan perform to draw attention."
Seems Beisht was right to guess that other monsters were becoming aware. Hilichurls may respawn but you aren't sure if another monster species that canonically don't regenerate will still be alive. You need to speak with the enemies most likely to recognize you.
"Seeing Beisht listen to you was shocking. I mean she has always been hostile towards people. I don't wanna push you to speak but I would like to know what happened."
"When I was forced onto the main deck to avoid being crushed by the boxes I saw a part of the battle. That's when I realized that I could understand Beisht and the creator ordered me to speak with her privately. Who am I to disobey? The conversation was enlightening, to say the least, and what you just told me has confirmed it."
Your dramatic and cryptic words confuse your listeners. Standing up and balancing on the edge of the boat you continue speaking.
"I have been granted a prophecy! Well more like a revelation of the current and future events. The creatures of Teyvat are exhibiting new behaviors due to the creator's will. Of course that doesn't mean we'll stop defeating them, just don't take it as some grand evil rising."
The nearly childlike joy you speak with only confuses Beidou further. She stands up and tries to hold your shoulder but you twirl away from the edge.
"When was the last time we saw sudden differences in behavior?" Your words are spoken with a carefree smile as you continue dancing away.
"That would be when the traveler arrived on Teyvat and leading to the awakening of acolytes of course!"
You playfully tug the white ahoge that sticks out from Kazuha's hiding spot. He doesn't even seem glum at being found so quickly.
"And why did that all start happening?"
The feeling of eyes watching you faded as Beidou moves closer to the spot you stood with spread arms. Xinyan wasn't here but that's fine, the story you've spun will be spread either way.
"Because the creator's return was starting to approach! It may be worrisome because the creatures may harm people more than they did before but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate that the creator is a step closer to coming back."
In reality, you just wanted more allies. Paraphrasing everything to fit the narrative that you desire was easy in this situation. Very few people could tell if you were lying or not after all. In fact, some would even-
"Agreed. At the same time this all has been happening, the wind had gotten stronger. It's crisp and clear, it has become more active in communication too."
Between your celebratory smile and Kazuha's serene expression, Beidou had nothing to refute with. Instead, a wide grin crosses her face and you stumble as she drags you and Kazuha down to the main deck.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Everyone's eyes are drawn to Beidou as she yells. "The creator is a step closer to coming back to Teyvat and we all witnessed it! So let's celebrate like we mean it!"
It's impressive how nearly all of them already grabbed a glass of beer and raised it at her words. Cheers were heard all around as they raised the glasses and drank cheerfully.
Beidou had already released you and Kazuha to grab her drinks. Your eyes linger on the bloodied bandage wrapped around her palm. It was still bleeding heavily.
A familiar tug on your clothes brings your attention down to Guoba.
"Lala? Lalala!"
You don't fight the caramel-colored panda as he drags you toward the kitchen. It also doesn't let you notice how Kazuha was reaching out to you before being dragged into a conversation.
Xiangling runs around the kitchen with a tired but bright smile as you are pulled in.
"Thank you Guoba for bringing Y/N here! You can have this spicy cornbread as a treat."
She's quick to place a plate of food on the table and return to cooking. The sight of Guoba's food reminds you of your last conversation with Xiangling.
Yeah, you aren't forgetting that for a long time.
"Sorry for calling you here after so much went on, I just had another favor to ask you. I was curious if you can bless food the same way the creator can."
Wasn't she the one who fought a leviathan, is still somewhat injured, and went straight to cooking??
"I've never tried to bless food before but I would be happy to try! What food exactly do you want me to bless?"
Blessing food the same way the creator does sounds a lot like how you would feed the characters in the game. The most likely method would be cooking the food yourself and seeing if it had any effects.
The only other way you could think of blessing food would be by putting some part of your body into it. Which would be disgusting and a pain to do so, so hopefully you just need to cook it.
"I want it for Beidou to heal her hand. It's bleeding pretty heavily and she needs it to use her weapon. I was thinking something easy like sticky honey roast."
"Then just leave it to me Xiangling, do you have the recipe?"
"Yep! Right here." She hands you a slightly charred paper before scurrying over to a pot that's almost boiling over. Would you need to cook this manually or just use a pot like in the game?
The recipe consisted of 3 meat, 2 carrots, and 2 sugar. Nothing else was written on it... How were you supposed to cook with only this?!
Sighing you take the ingrains as the young chef runs around the kitchen. With a lingering sense of unease, you drop the ingredients into the pot and light the fire.
You turn around to grab something to stir it and look back to see it cooked.
Standing there stunned, you look at the perfect sticky honey roast sitting innocently in the pot. Deciding to count your blessings, you serve it on a plate and confidently call it blessed food as you hand it to Beidou.
It works surprisingly well, the bandage is unwrapped to see the skin sewn back together and most likely repaired. Beidou whistles as she examines her hand.
"Gotta hand it to you kid, this is pretty impressive. I usually have to wait for the creater to come and heal me up or wait ages for it to get healed properly."
"This was all Xianglings idea, she deserves the praise. I'll be sure to tell her the good news." You leave as Beidou begins drinking faster with her healed hand.
So you basically never need to cook again, what luck! Would giving someone a fried egg, bring someone back to life? Or would it wake someone up from a concussion or coma? That would all depend on whether characters are dead or just passed out when their HP reaches 0.
Walking into the kitchen, Xiangling is busy putting the final touches on the feast she prepared.
"Got good news for you Xiangling. The blessed food worked and Beidou's hand doesn't even have a scar."
"That's great to hear! I was pretty worried she would have permanent damage or something. She always brushes her wounds off if they aren't life-threatening."
Xiangling pouts at the memory of Beidou's recklessness as you take the initiative to help her. The silence is nice but your thoughts keep wandering back to the human remains.
"Hey Xiangling, I've got a question for you but this might be the wrong time to ask." The look she sends you is one full of curiosity.
"What happened to the families of those you killed and made into food? Did they not get a burial, casket, or at least an urn?"
The expression she wears is a mixture of guilt and disgust.
"Blasphemous people like them do not deserve a funeral. They die and everyone will scorn them for betraying the creator. Most families disown that person or act like they were never part of their family."
She stays kneeling by the cart of food and Guoba trods over to her with his usual carefree attitude. She holds him close and speaks sadly.
"They do deserve punishment for what they did but I want to believe the creator would want them to perish with some good blooming from it. At least by cooking them, that person can help another life grow, and my cooking skill improve."
Each time you ask something like this whether it's Inazuma or Liyue, the situations are always so much worse than you thought. To think what you thought Xiangling did from some sick sense of worship, which isn't entirely false, was mostly born from her signature kindness.
Do you condemn her, comfort her, or encourage her?
"We may never know exactly what the creator thinks, all we can do is keep moving forward. For what it's worth, I don't think you're in the wrong. Your intentions are pure and it's not like your actions can make the situation any worse than it already is."
You bend down and place your hands on her shoulders. She looks up at you and smiles happier at your caring expression.
"Enough about that. Let's go bring these dishes out so we and everyone else can enjoy them. We should be celebrating after all!"
The prep she usually has comes back and she's pushing the cart as you follow behind her. Everyone cheers as Xiangling hands out food and people sit down.
Picking a plate of F/F, you sit on a crate next to Xinyan and Kazuha. Beidou seemed to disappear somewhere with Xiangling again.
The taste and texture are like nothing you've tasted before. Whatever she did to make your favorite food taste even better needed to be shared with you.
"Real happy with that dish aren't ya?" Xinyan comments as you basically inhaled everything but the plate.
"If this dish was meant to be savored then she shouldn't have made it taste this good."
Xinyan laughs at your words before continuing to eat the spicy food she has on her plate. By the overload of spices you can smell, it must be one of Xiangling's creations that Xinyan is so happy to try.
"Now that things have calmed down, I wanted to tell you that I loved your music! It was a bit worrisome with all the fire but I understand that you needed it for the battle."
"Aw, that's real nice to hear! Most of my performances tend to burn down the stage but rock 'n' roll is all about that kind of fire."
"Must have taken you a long time to learn how to use your instrument and vision without burning down everything."
Your comment is casual as you start eating one of the desserts Xiangling brought out. Alcohol is starting to be passed around, you aren't sure if you should drink or not.
"I practiced loads with people as the 'audience'. They all died during the test runs but it's fine since they were already known for being sacrilegious. Burning them to death as a sacrifice was the best thing they could hope for."
The dessert gets stuck in your throat at her words. Coughing a little, you keep your head down to avoid showing your face. Kazuha rubs your back trying to help you.
Was it a trend for pyro-vision women to tell you horrible things with complete ease?! First Xiangling with the cannabilism to Xinyan sacrificing people...
"That was legal, right? Do you still sacrifice people like that?" You struggle not to stutter and Kazuha is still watching you with that same worried expression.
"It is legal in Liyue with the right certifications. Not long ago you had that private concert with the burning of a few treasure hoarders if I remember correctly."
Xinyan nods in agreement at Kazuha's words.
Maybe you should stop being surprised and just expect everyone to have committed crimes like this. What's next? Brainwashing?
Kazuha and Xinyan continue to chat about whatever burning they may or may not have participated in as Xiangling comes over with some alcohol.
"Sorry to interrupt but I was wondering if any of you guys wanted some beer, rum, or grog. Grog is the lightest since it's just water and alcohol. I might just drink that since I just became old enough to drink."
"I'll just have a glass of beer, I have another concert tomorrow and the last thing I want is a hangover." Xinyan is quick to take a swing of the beer.
"I'll pass on the alcohol today, I drank enough yesterday." Kazuha glances at you as he speaks with a slightly nervous tone, no doubt remembering his behavior when he first met you.
"Could I have some rum? I wanna celebrate a lot after completing the first major mission from the creator." Discarding your previous thought of avoiding alcohol, you decided to drink to congratulate yourself for surviving this long.
Definitely not because you wanted a distraction from what you just heard from Xinyan. Nor of the idea that Liyue may be even harder to live in due to their dependency on Rex Lapis. That may or may not have also pushed them to be even more fanatic for the 'creator'.
The rum was sweet but it burned as it traveled down your throat. The strong liquor made your head spin for a split second. You're quickly coming to regret it.
"Hey, Kazuha? Can you watch over me as I drink? This rum is stronger than the drinks I'm used to."
You ask Kazuha with a flushed face as you rest on his shoulder. The lights shine down on you as everyone else is up enjoying themselves. As sweet as always, Kazuha smiles down at you and nods.
"I promise to watch over you. No harm will come to you especially as I don't plan on drinking a single drop."
Feeling reassured you thank him and continue drinking. The party is getting louder and messier with each drink given around.
Xinyan is singing and strumming her guitar as a good chunk of the crew sings along with her. Xiangling was passed out on a crate as her tolerance for it was still low. Beidou was the only one you couldn't see from your spot on Kazuha's shoulder.
"You're the work hard, play hard type huh?"
You sway a little as you jump in surprise at the voice so close to your ear. Kazuha peers around you at Beidou who was standing firmly despite the amount of liquor she already drank.
A feeling nags you that Beidou is still as sharp as ever. Someone who drinks as much as she does must have a high tolerance. The smell of alcohol is strong as she speaks.
"You didn't strike me like the type to drink rum, I would have thought you would go for a beer or just a single glass."
You follow her gaze to the multiple glasses next to you. It seems you drank a lot more than you initially planned.
"Don't look so disappointed Y/N! It's normal to want to relax with a good drink after such a long day. This is a celebration too. Let all your worries melt away."
She speaks with a cheer and your hazy mind makes you smile up at her. Your worries, anxiety, and general distrust of everything are the farthest thing in your mind.
The sharp smile Beidou sends Kazuha as he tightens his grip around your waist goes unnoticed. The weird tension that occurs is gone just as fast as it came and the liquor seems to hit you full force.
"I think I need to sleep, it's really hitting me now." Your head keeps falling onto his shoulder as you struggle to keep your eyes open.
"I'll escort you to your room Y/N-" "And I'll join you two with Xiangling, poor girl couldn't even handle the grog."
Kazuha's face is frozen in a smile as you drunkenly nod at Beidou. Xinyan who is still pretty sober waves at you all and you wave enthusiastically back.
Giggling as the room spins you let your body rest on Kazuha as he helps you down the stairs. Xiangling is thrown over Beidous shoulder as she follows you both down the stairs.
"If I ever let myself drink after this, I wanna drink with you next time Kazuha. Wouldn't it be fun?"
"That does sound nice, I'm sure the wind will have us meet again after this trip." Kazuha's voice can be barely heard through the fog in your mind. A crooked smile is on your face as you nod sleepily.
Fears of the future seem far away at this moment. The fear of coming across a statue of the seven and Zhongli appearing is like a distant memory. The mental image of saying the wrong thing, getting caught with the wrong group, and getting a torturous death is comparable to a dream.
As the urge to close your eyes gets stronger and harder to resist, you instinctively adjust your mask.
Your fragile and most important defense against a repeat of the Ei situation. Terror squeezes your heart as you realize just how dangerous this situation is.
All it takes is for Kazuha to remove the mask during your drunkenness. Whether it be out of curiosity of your face or kindness thinking it would be uncomfortable to sleep with it on.
Nothing you think, worry, fear, or do will matter after that. Despite the dismay, your eyes close as the urge to sleep overtakes you. With your consciousness drifting away and your body in the ronin's mercy.
I was really excited to post this chapter. Everyone's reaction to Xiangling's cooking was super funny. (Fixed it up on mobile so forgive the mistakes.) On the topic of Beisht, I have to say that my original plan was to have it be a oc. Haishan's ancestor from the Archon War. But after everyone was guessing Beisht, I started thinking if it could work. And surprisingly it did! All the main points I had with the oc worked with Beisht. Plus Haishan was still able to stay as a kid cause a visionless Beidou defeating a whole sea monster god just doesn't make a lot of sense unless he wasn't full-grown. And I honestly don't want to create an oc if I don't have to. I don't trust myself that much. Xiangling's cannibalism was supposed to be just a one-time thing. But a certain person mentioned Hu Tao and I realized I forgot to incorporate the rest of the world into it. So that's what inspired me to think deeper on it. I'm quite happy with how it turned out! It confirms Xianglings kindness, and the cruelty of the cult, and can help excuse any future plot holes I may accidentally create. So thank you certain person that I will not name in case that's uncomfy. I also wanted to ask ya'll a question. Do you guys expect certain sagau tropes from this series? Like I incorporated popular stuff like healing foods, mentions of gold blood, etc. But the only thing that I've really made set in stone in my sagau is the cult au and imposter au (without a true imposter masquerading as Y/N). I'm asking since I don't want people expecting something like a character to recognize us (like Fatui or acolytes from Khanriah -kaeya for example). Then get disappointed when I don't ever do that. Not saying I won't have interactions with those characters! I just don't want to lead anyone on. If you read this far then thank you <3. I really appreciate ya'll support. Just seeing a notification that I got a heart, comment, reblog or message makes my day. Taglist: @vvyeislazzy, @nikqi, @the-dumber-scaramouche, @etherisy, @yourlocalstranger123, @ra404, @iruiji, @goldenglow149, @haru-tofuu, @lsleepysimpl, @bebobeboben, @yuyuzi-ling, @amidst-the-tempest, @resident-cryptid, @mxd1zzy, @mochicurls21, @nervouseaglelover, @thedevioussmirk, @yumuramma, @kwqsla, @undecidingfate, @ehjane, @game-savvy, @akiramirae, @sielt, @fluffy-koalala, @formacoon, @sxftiebee, @khxii-i, @ursinaw, @chuuya-brainrot, @sweetbills, @kazuchaos, @snowfoxnix, @bluebelony, @conspicuous-mayonnaise, @pencil-of-ashes, @ghostlyintervention, @taiformaifoe, @sielt, @goaudduck, @carminerin, @maddysflowers, @zenith-of-all-zeniths, @crazydreamcat, @leafanonsforest, @grimreapersscythe, @leylanx, @undecidingfate, @sapphireknown, @help-whatdoimakemyusername, @zhonglisfruityass, @fluffy-koalala, @mer0n37, @victoria1676
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french-unknown · 8 months
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𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓
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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒: luffy, zoro, nami, usopp, sanji, robin 𝐂/𝐖: hurt/comfort 𝐖/𝐂: 950 +
| m a s t e r l i s t | - | p t . 2 |
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𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅𝐘
You're insecure because, unlike him who's passionate about his dream of becoming the King of Pirates, you don't have a big dream to fulfill.
You joined the crew because you wanted to leave a family in which you were unhappy and where your destiny was already mapped out until your death. Once you found a new family thanks to the Straw Hat crew, you decided to set sail on their ship to stay with them. You were happy with your daily routine as well as the adventures you were having, and that was enough for you. During the trip, you took the opportunity to start a book on life at sea as well as on the lifestyles of the inhabitants of the islands you had visited. However, it was more of a hobby than a real passion or a dream. So when you see Luffy giving all he got for his dream, you're afraid he'll think you're less interesting for not having a goal you care about so much.
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𝐙𝐎𝐑𝐎
Zoro is a calm and silent man, especially since your reunion on the Sabaody Archipelago, so you're sometimes afraid that he'll get tired of your bubbly and very talkative personality. You were worried that he would wake up one day from one of his many naps and leave you because you required too much attention and time.
You have always been an outgoing person who liked to chat with people and be aware of the latest gossip. It had always been an advantage when you were alone in a new place or in new social groups. Yet when you were with Zoro, you sometimes found yourself wishing you could shut up. Indeed, where you spent hours telling the swordsman whatever goes through your mind under his attentive - though rather neutral - gaze, you found yourself regretting having talked so much afterward. You wondered if you had annoyed him and if he wouldn't prefer a less noisy person.
| he comforts you about your insecurity |
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𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐈
After spending so much time with her on your adventures, if there's one thing you've learned about her, it's that she's very popular. She is beautiful, intelligent and you have no doubt that if she left you, she would have no trouble finding someone new given the list of suitors.
You've never been an extremely rich or extremely important person with rock-solid self-confidence so you didn't really see what made Nami choose you over all the people at her feet. It was a stroke of luck. She is also not very expressive about the reasons for her choice because she never clearly expressed what she liked about you. The dynamic of your relationship is mostly a teasing game on her part to which you gladly answer as long as she continues. But it sometimes makes you wonder when she'll let you down to find a better partner.
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𝐔𝐒𝐎𝐏𝐏
With Usopp, what scares you the most is your fear of rejection because since he's also someone who is insecure, you are afraid that you will both leave the relationship if something goes wrong because of your insecurities on both sides.
Usopp is a fearful person, and while he's willing to overcome some of his fears for his friends, his inferiority complex has caused him to quit the Strawhat Pirates once. On your side, you are also terrified of being rejected in general, so you often prefer to stay in your comfort zone. The fact that you have that in common means that you often understand each other and it is also what brought you closer to each other in the first place. However, you can't help but tell yourself that, if there is the slightest problem, he will prefer to abandon your relationship because of the fear of not being enough. And you might not be strong enough to get him back either.
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𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐉𝐈
The man is a womanizer who, unfortunately, can't help but rave about every woman who crosses his path. It's stronger than him, he becomes unrecognizable in the presence of a woman.
So even though you know he loves you dearly, you can't help but feel insecure about women. Maybe if, in your own way, you were as beautiful as Nami or as smart as Robin, he wouldn't leave your side to court them. Yet, even though you realize that's not the right way to think about it and that he mostly admires them for their gender qualities as a "gentleman", you still feel that empty feeling when you see him going to swoon over every woman he sees. Each time, the only thought that crosses your mind is that, if you were attractive enough, he wouldn't let you down for strangers.
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𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍
Robin is very intelligent: she reads a lot, she can decrypts the poneglyphs, she is interested in many fields etc... However, you are very far from being the most intelligent person in Grand Line and you often wonder if you don't make her bored.
You love to listen to her speak about what she reads and you could drink her words for hours when she talks to you about subjects that fascinate her like archeology or the mysteries of history. You are captivated every time she says something to you, even if you don't always understand everything she tells you. You also follow her with great happiness each time she asks you to accompany her to discover the city - and its bookstore - as soon as you arrive on a new island. Sadly, the fact that you're not as smart as her often makes you ask yourself if she's bored with you or just missing out on being able to argue with someone rather than just relate.
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𝐉𝐎𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄
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peoplesgraves · 1 year
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I really liked your Yandere thoughts about being a Model surrounded by Obsession. If it is not too much to ask, could you do one about being an Actor that is surrounded by obsession?
Some more yandere thots for y’all. This time you’re an actor who can’t escape obsession.<3
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Other actors all want to do romantic scenes with you. If they ever had to do a sex scene with you they’d be so smug. Already thinking of ways to tease it in interviews and thinking of how many people will be shipping you together after it comes out. Do they watch edits and read fanfic of the two of you? It more likely then you’d think. Everyone wants to be your date on the red carpet or to be in a pr relationship that hopefully into more.
A personal assistant who has so much control over you. Who remembers every little detail, every meeting and every extra actor who looks at you just a little too long. They know exactly how you take your coffee and every single password you’ve ever had. Your beloved assistant will login to your phone and block anyone they don’t like and they’ll cancel shoot days if they think you need a break. Your assistant knows everything about you and they’ll use every little secret against you if they have too. They just want to take care of you. To make sure you know that there’s no way you’d survive without them.
Writers who write shows and movies specifically with you in mind. If you mention in a interview that you’d really like to do a horror movie next then within a few months you’ll be fielding more offers for horror movies then you could ever act in. The bench mark for a successful writer is no longer actually getting a show or movie made, it’s you agreeing to be in it.
Talk show hosts who make sure that every show has at least one segment about you. Maybe just a little update pulled from your social media or them gushing about how cute you looked doing press for your newest venture. They’d bump the creator of the world themselves if you requested to be on their show. They’d probably get so star struck though that you’d end up doing most of the hosting while they just give love sick stares your way.
Fans who sign onto any project as an extra or a grunt no matter how crappy the pay or conditions, Just for a chance to meet you. While extras are pretty harmless and will mostly just flock to you at any time they can and maybe break into your trailer to get a souvenir, it’s the grunts you really need to worry about. If they hear someone else on set talking badly about you then they’re not afraid to drop a light on their head.
A more seasoned actor who takes you under their wing. Steers you away from directors they know will take advantage of you or away from projects that will hurt your career. They’re just so helpful and protective that you can’t help but trust them. All they ask in return is for your time. When they hug you just a little too long you think it’s just because they care but honestly they have paparazzi hiding in the bushes. They’ve already been practicing what they’ll say when the pictures come out. That they were just trying to help your career by being seen with them, they didn’t realize you’d be upset. Of course you’ll forgive them because they’re just looking out for you right?
Award shows that always make sure you never leave empty handed. Who give you a special gift bag that makes all the other ones look like they came from the dollar store. You also never leave without an award. If you were to not make any new content for a year you can bet you’d still be invited to all the big shows and would win the ‘fan voted’ best actor/actress award, an award that definitely wasn’t created just for you.
You have a lot of influence when it comes to trends. If people notice you wearing a brand a lot then it’ll become super popular or if you endorse a product everyone will buy it. Companies and brands are always trying to get you to appear in their products or do ads for them because of how influential you are.
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problematicbyler · 3 months
Text
an incomplete history of byler sexuality discourse
and how widespread fandom purity culture and homophobia created a flourishing nsfw sub-fandom
some may call me chronically online, but i call myself a fandom historian. i've been a member of some fandom or another since i was about thirteen, and i've always been interested in the rise and fall of fandom discourse. though it's annoying in the moment it's happening, i think it's very interesting and telling to look back at the overall arcs and trends.
so, let's talk about the many times the fandom has cancelled people over byler sexuality, and how each level of "hornygate" has contributed to the growth of the proship/byler smut community.
(i use the term proship in its intended definition, which is to say, not "problematic shipping," but rather being pro-fiction, anti-censorship, and anti-harassment; it is a position of believing the fiction one creates or consumes doesn't reflect a person's real life beliefs or morals.)
i have been a stranger things lover since season 1, a byler shipper since season 2, and an active part of the byler community on tumblr since season 4. i'll mostly be focusing on post-season 4 discourse because that's what i've really been most present for and that was the period that really marked a turning point in the fandom.
seasons 1-3
i wasn't as plugged into fandom discourse back in the day, but the broad strokes of early discourse was mostly thinly veiled homophobia. claiming that it was sexualization to assume will or mike could be queer despite blatant queer coding, implying that analysts were no better than will's bullies to assume his sexuality, etc etc. people were criticized for shipping byler at all because they were so young (but these people naturally had no issue with mileven, so, again, homophobia).
season 4 (may-july 2022)
now, season 4. this is where byler was brought to the attention of a lot more fans, and stranger things' viewership reached wider than ever. the byler fandom on tumblr booms from 4k to 100k over the course of season 4's release.
this brought a lot of new people who have never been in fandoms before, people who never learned don't like don't read or your kink is not my kink and that's okay or ship and let ship.
or, a lot of times, people who had only been in fandoms for celebrities and bands, which tend to have different rules when it comes to shipping and sex, because they're real people. hence a lot of young antis' conflation of character with their actors, but that's a different rant.
so with a rapidly growing fandom, a show ripe for analysis, and the art of media literacy bleeding out on the ground in front of us, the hellscape of the fandom post-season 4 in 2022 followed as such:
august 2022
jo/kendra gate where two extremely popular analysts were called out for "sexualizing" byler while being adults (early to mid 20s). they were dogpiled and harassed because one of them said that will was giving mike "bedroom eyes" (he was) and one of them said mike was checking will out (he was):
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pyshiie and moogate. the proship side of byler twitter rose up and started to divide itself. i'll credit my own joining-the-dark-side to pyshiie and moo, formerly barbjeanisms, who were two popular artists called out respectively for sexualizing byler and generally being proship. similarly, people were called out and criticized for even following or interacting with those accounts after this discourse.
september 2022
hosegate is the most famous across the byler fandom, and it's when some users proposed that the scene in the pizzeria uses phallic imagery to imply mike turns will on (or vice versa) and a lot of people thought that was too sexualized, it caused a divide, and more fanpolicing, etc.
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october 2022
the artist noodlesandtea was harassed for having liked arguably nsfw bakudeku art (they were shirtless, it wasn't explicit) on the same account where they draw characters who are minors. they also drew byler kissing, which was a problem for some? anyone who defended them was also called a pedo, naturally. noodles also got called out for having drawn fanart of the popular e-rated fanfiction....
the unmarked mixtape. a massively popular sequel to a massively popular fic, the red envelope. for a long time, those were the most widely recommended byler fics, but it very soon became taboo to even admit to reading them because the sequel has explicit sex and the first has them making out.
sonnet116 gate is another fic that was beloved and then rapidly turned on by byler twitter because it had implied, fade to black sex scenes. it was about them hooking up but had no smut. and even the non explicit idea of that was offensive and pedophilic of anyone who dared read it. around this time, another fic was called out for having will moaning into a kiss, because writing a teenager moaning was also offensive and pedophilic.
i'm told i (jana / troublebyler gate?) may have influenced a lot of people joining twitter for byler smut after writing illicit affairs and some other smutty oneshots in rapid succession, seeing a lot of byler shippers moving to the proship side of the fandom just to discuss and write byler smut. i also hosted a little fandom gossip column on my curiouscat where a lot of folks confessed to reading or writing smut while pretending to be "normal" in the "main" fandom. it basically revealed/implied that a large amount of popular authors, artists, and accounts were secretly pro byler smut, and that many proshippers were "undercover" in the "main" fandom.
the blocklist era. around this time the "main" fandom also created a "st twt safety" account on twitter which was basically targeted harassment and mass reporting of proshippers. the account does warn of some genuine bad actors sending gore images via dms, being racist, etc. but by far, the majority of it was simply calling out proshippers for sexualizing byler, sharing screenshots they thought were "gross," which only resulted in spreading nsfw content to unintended audiences of minors that likely never would have seen the nsfw accounts otherwise.
november 2022
practice kissing gate is where a handful of popular fic writers were criticized for writing practice kissing fics (such as undertow), and in fact, any amount of byler making out, because adults "fantasizing" about teenagers kissing was "gross."
the proship corner of st twitter continued to grow a lot thanks to so many lovely fan creators, all of whom i couldn't possibly list but who have done a lot for the community! but we continued to get bombarded with endless callout posts and block lists and witch hunting. people were unabashedly policing people's following lists and likes on twitter to call people out for engaging with any questionable users or content. (if you search byler twitter now you can still see the wreckage of so many witch hunts.)
onward through 2023
over time things have mostly calmed down, or at least enough of the folks on "opposing sides" of the fandom have mutually blocked each other to survive. this is likely also influenced by the hiatus leaving the fandom to quiet down, the collapse of twitter-turned-x having many users migrate their fandom content elsewhere, and the mass exodus of many people from the fandom for political reasons. if i had to guess, the ramp-up to season 5 will see all new conflict as more "casual" fans return to the fandom. but who's to say.
which brings us to now:
spicybylerpolls gate, wherein the byler tag on tumblr collectively had to reckon with the fact that people want byler to have sex and it doesn't make them creeps to vote in silly polls about it. people criticized the blog for being overly sexualized and pure fantasy versus more "acceptable" analysis, with many making sweeping moralizing statements about anyone who dared interact with the blog.
this has kicked off tumblr's own sort of horny revolution in encouraging folks to be more open on here, whereas previously we were confined to our corner of twitter.
so in summary:
people over and over again put fan creators on a pedestal just to turn on them when they're "betrayed" when a person's views did not one-to-one line up to theirs.
teens in the fandom especially were "betrayed" by adults in the fandom they thought were "safe" (and i would argue that self proclaimed "safe" adults in fandom are far more dangerous to real life minors than the proship fans who sexualize fictional characters but dont interact with real teens)
most everything has been fueled by widespread ageism at any fan over the age of 18, widespread homophobia and puritanism in regards to exploring queer sexuality or discussing sex at all
so much hate has been over what are essentially "thought crimes", with people watering down serious accusations like pedophilia into a petty insult over disagreements on fiction
and the cycle repeats itself endlessly until things devolve back into witch hunting and policing peoples following and likes etc
the best part to me is that every single cancellation just resulted in more people flooding to the horny side of the fandom to post more freely and without shame. every time a person on twitter posted screenshots of my account to say how "gross" it was (while simultaneously exposing my 18+ nsfw content to their audience of minors) i had a surge in followers. the more the fandom squeezes, the more people slip from its hold.
but that doesn't make the harassment campaigns okay, and it doesn't mean the fandom didn't do massive amounts of harm to real people in an attempt to protect fictional characters.
my hope going forward is that the fandom can coexist as a community where people don't have to like or agree with certain content to treat the people who create it with respect and dignity. and i hope that, while this side of the fandom might grow more on tumblr, we don't have to relive the same old discourses and go through the same cycles we went through on twitter.
and remember kids, the block button is both free and fun.
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worstjourney · 5 months
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The Millennials' Polar Expedition
A year ago today (23 Nov 2022), I launched Worst Journey Vol.1 at the Scott Polar Research Institute. This is the text of the speech I gave to the lovely people who turned up to celebrate.
As many of you know, my interest in the Terra Nova Expedition was sparked by Radio 4’s dramatisation of The Worst Journey in the World, now 14 years ago.  The story is an incredible story, and it got its claws into me, but what kept me coming back again and again were the people.  I couldn’t believe anyone so wonderful had ever really existed.  So when I finally succumbed to obsession and started reading all the books, it was the expedition members’ own words which I most cherished.  These were not always easy to come by, though, so plenty of popular histories were consumed as well.  Reading both in tandem, it soon became clear that, while there were some good books out there, there was a lot of sloppy research in the polar echo chamber as well.
I also discovered that no adaptation had attempted to get across the full scope of the expedition.  There has never been a full and fair dramatic retelling, all having been limited by time, budget, or ideology from telling the whole story truthfully.  I was determined that my adaptation would be both complete and accurate, and be as accountable as possible to those precious primary documents and the people who wrote them.
So the years of research began.  I moved to Cambridge to be able to drop in at SPRI and make the most of the archives.  Getting to Antarctica seemed impossible, but I went to New Zealand to get at least that much right, and on the way back stayed with relatives in Alberta, the most Antarctic place I could realistically visit.  I gathered reference for objects wherever I could.  Because Vol.1 takes place mainly on the Terra Nova, which is now a patch of sludge on the seabed off Greenland, I cobbled together a Franken-Nova in my mind, between the Discovery up in Dundee and the Star of India in San Diego.  I spent a week on a Jubilee Sailing Trust ship in order to depict tall-ship sailing correctly.  I’m sure I’ve still got loads of things wrong, but I did all I could, to get as much as I could, right.
But still, everyone I met who had been to Antarctica said, “you can’t understand Antarctica until you’ve been there, and you can’t tell the story without understanding Antarctica; you have to go.”  So I applied to the USAP’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, with faint hope, as they do “Ahrt” and I draw cartoons.  But I must have blagged a good grant proposal, because a year after applying, I was stepping out of a C-17 onto the Ross Ice Shelf.  The whole trip would have been worth it just to stand there, turn in a circle, and see how all the familiar photographs fit together.  But the USAP’s generosity didn’t stop there, and in the next month I saw Hut Point, Arrival Heights, the Beardmore Glacier (including the moraine on which the Polar Party stopped to “geologise”), and Cape Crozier, and made three visits to the Cape Evans hut.  Three!  On top of the visual reference I got priceless qualitative data.  The hardness of the sound.  The surprising warmth of the sun. The sugary texture of the snow.  The keen edge on a slight breeze.  The way your fingertips and toes can start to go when the rest of you is perfectly warm.  The SHEER INSANITY of Cape Crozier.  The veterans were right – I couldn’t have drawn it without having been there, but now I have, and can, and I am more grateful than I can ever adequately express.  With all these resources laid so copiously at my feet, all I had to do was sit down and draw the darn thing.  Luckily I have some very sound training to back me up on that.
Now, this is all very well for the how of making the book, and, I hope, interesting enough. But why?  Why am I putting so much effort into telling this story, and why now?
Well, it means a lot to me personally.  To begin to understand why, you need to know that I grew up in the 80s and 90s, at the height of individualist, goal-oriented, success-driven, dog-eat-dog, devil-take-the-hindmost neoliberalism.  It was just assumed that humans, when you get right down to it, were basically self-interested jerks, and I saw plenty of them around so I had no reason to question this assumption.  The idea was that if you did everything right, and worked really hard, you could retire at 45 to a yacht in the Bahamas, and if you didn’t retire to a yacht, well, you just hadn’t tried hard enough.  Character, in the sense of rigorous personal virtue, was for schmucks.  What mattered was success.  Even as my politics evolved, I still took it as a given that this was how the world worked, and that was how people generally were – after all, there was no lack of corroborating evidence.  So: I worked really hard.  I single-mindedly pursued my self-interest.  I made sacrifices, and put in the time, and fought my way into my dream job and all the success I could have asked for.
And then I met the Terra Nova guys.
What struck me most about them was that even when everything was going wrong, when their expectations were shattered and they had to face the cruellest reality, they were still kind.  Not backbiting, recriminating, blame-throwing, defensive, or mean, as one would expect – they were lovely to each other, patient, supportive, self-sacrificing; in fact the worse things got, the better they were.  They still treated each other as friends even when it wasn’t in their self-interest, was even contrary to their self-interest.  I didn’t know people could be like that.  But there they were, in plain writing, being thoroughly, bafflingly, decent.  Not just the Polar Party – everyone had to face their own brutal realities at some point, and they all did so with a grace I never thought possible.
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It presented a very important question:
When everything goes belly-up, and you’re facing the worst, what sort of person will you be?
Or perhaps more acutely: What sort of person would you rather be with?
It was so contrary to the world I lived in, to the reality I knew – it was a peek into an alternate dimension, populated entirely with lovely, lovely people, who really, genuinely believed that “it’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game,” and behaved accordingly.  It couldn’t be real.  There had to be a deeper, unpleasant truth: that was how the world worked, after all.  I kept digging, expecting to hit bottom at some point, but I only found more gold, all the way down.  How could I not spend my life on this?
Mythology exists to pass on a culture’s values, moral code, and survival information – how to face challenges and prevail.  Scott’s story entered the British mythology, and had staying power, because it exemplified those things so profoundly for the culture that created and received it.  But the culture changed, and there were new values; Scott’s legacy was first inverted and then cast aside.  The new culture needed a new epic hero.  You’d think it would be Amundsen, the epitome of ruthless success, but “Make Plan – Execute Plan – Go Home” has no mythic value, so he didn’t stick.  The hero needed challenges, he needed setbacks, and he needed to win, on our terms.
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Shackleton!  Shackleton was a winner!  Shackleton told us what we knew to be true and wanted to hear at epic volume: that if you want something badly enough, and try really hard, you will succeed!  (Especially if you can control the narrative.)  Scott, on the other hand, tells us that if you want something badly enough, and try really hard . . . you may nevertheless die horribly in the snow.  Nobody wants to hear that!  What a downer!  I think it’s no coincidence that Shackleton exploded into popular culture in the late 90s and has dominated it ever since: he is the mythic hero of the zeitgeist. I am always being asked if I’ll be doing Shackleton next.  He has six graphic novels already!  That is plenty!  But people still want to tell and be told his story, because it’s a heroic myth that validates our worldview.
That’s why I am so determined to tell the Scott story, because Scott is who we don’t realise we need right now – and Wilson, and Bowers, and Cherry, and Atch, and all the rest.  The Terra Nova Expedition is the Millennials’ polar expedition.  We’ve worked really hard, we’ve done everything we were supposed to, we made what appeared to be the right decisions at the time, and we’re still losing.  Nothing in the mythology we’ve been fed has prepared us for this.  No amount of positive attitude is going to change it.  We have all the aphorisms in the world, but what we need is an example of how to behave when the chips are down, when the Boss is not sailing into the tempest to rescue us, when the Yelcho is not on the horizon.  When circumstances are beyond your power to change, how do you make the best of your bad situation?  What does that look like? Even if you can’t fix anything, how do you make it better for the people around you – or at the very least, not worse?  Scott tells us: you can be patient, supportive, and humble; see who needs help and offer it; be realistic but don’t give in to despair; and if you’re up against a wall with no hope of rescue, go out in a blaze of kindness.  We learn by imitation: it’s easy to say these things, but to see them in action, in much harder circumstances than we will ever face, is a far greater help.  And to see them exemplified by real, flawed, complicated people like us is better still; they are not fairy-tale ideals, they are achievable. Real people achieved them.
My upbringing in the 80s milieu of selfishness, which set me up to receive the Scott story so gratefully, is hardly unique.  There are millions of us who are hungry for a counter-narrative.  My generation is desperate for demonstrations of caring, whether it’s activism or social justice or government policies that don’t abandon the vulnerable.  We’ve seen selfishness poison the world, and we want an alternative.  The time for competition is past; we must cooperate or perish, but we don’t know how to do it because our mythology is founded on competition.  The Scott story, if told properly, explodes the Just World Fallacy, and liberates us from the lie that has ruled our lives: that you make your own luck.  What happens, happens: what matters is how you respond to it.  My obsession with accuracy is in part to honour the men, and in part because Cherry was the ultimate stickler and he’d give me a hard time if I didn’t, but also because, if I’m telling the story to a new generation, I’m damn well going to make sure we get that much RIGHT.  It’s been really interesting to see, online, how my generation and the next have glommed onto polar exploration narratives, not as thrilling feats of derring-do, but as emotional explorations of found family and cooperative resilience.  We love them because they love each other, and loving each other helps get them through, and we want – we need – to see how that’s done.  It’s time to give them the Terra Nova story, and to tell it fully, fairly, and honestly, in all its complexity, because that is how their example is most useful to us.  Not as gods, and not as fools, but as real human beings who were excellent to each other in the face of disaster.  I only hope that I, a latecomer to their ways, can do them justice.
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lueurjun · 11 months
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sunghoon as your nerdy bf!
nerdy bf!sunghoon x popular!reader in which his love for ice pales in comparison to his love for you.!! written on 0 hours of sleep because i’m too warm and i’m simping for hoon rn. this may be longer than my other ones i’m not sure.
idiots to lovers type beat
bc you’re an idiot and so is he
little matching stupid heads the both of you <3 i just love it. i love you both. i ship you both
anyways let’s start
mans can’t stand you
or at least that’s what you’ve made yourself believe
you’re everyone’s favourite person, the type of person who just is so nice to everyone and has such radiance that it’s almost intimidating but you would never hurt a fly
everyone loves you as they should because if they don’t they’ll have to deal with me
me and my 5ft ass will protect you bby don’t worry i’m strong get behind me
everyone loves you but him
idiot boy:D
well you assume so anyway
idiot person:D
you’ve been crushing on him since you met him on the first day of high school
he handed you a pen when he realized you didn’t have one
acts of service type beat
boy you were hooked
bc a hot asf boy with the kindest eyes just gave you one of his pens because he noticed you didn’t have one
HE NOTICED YOU
but like who wouldn’t? ur perfect. forget sunghoon let me have you
anyways yeah he let you keep the pen which means he definitely wants to marry you
but no seriously he completely blanked you after that
whenever you were in the same vicinity as him he’d not even glance at you and if he did meet your eye, he’d just be stone faced
he kind of just avoided you which made you think he didn’t like you
which hurt but you weren’t one to push. if someone doesn’t like you, that’s a them issue and you’re not about to let it get to you
bc why should you? iconic if you ask me
but no yeah sunghoon disliking you stings a little
one day you kinda bring it up to jake who is a mutual friend of you both and casually just ask why sunghoon doesn’t like you
mr sim is baffled
“huh? wdym? my sunghoon? ice skating obsessed sunghoon?”
and you’re just like :O you had no idea he was an ice skater and your crush on him expanded tenfold
because that’s hot
that’s really hot
“yeah? why doesn’t he like me? did i do something?”
jake can’t believe what he’s hearing
wanna know why?
BECAUSE SUNGHOON DOESNT DISLIKE YOU
he has a crush on you<3
and he has since he gave you that pen
love of first sight trope fr
he keeps his cards quite close to his chest usually but he never shuts up about you
and he thinks you dislike him
because you make an effort with everyone but him
but that’s only because you think he hates you
idiots i’m telling you sweet little love sick dum dums
cuties though so i’ll let it slide
anyways jake quickly assures you that sunghoon just gets nervous around you
which gives you the confidence to strike up a conversation with him the next time you see him
it’s so awkward at first but he loosens up and the two of you actually learn a lot about each other
then you start texting
and then hanging out
and soon enough you’re pretty much just dating
like it’s just a natural thing? no asking or anything you kind of just establish that you both have mutual feelings and so yeah… you’re dating
LETS GET ONTO THE RELATIONSHIP BC THIS HAS GOTTEN VERY LONG
carrying each others things and no one can convince me otherwise
you carry his jacket for him when he isn’t wearing it and he holds your bag or your water bottle
protective hoon! always sending silent glares whenever anyone stares at you in a way he doesn’t approve of or if they’re mean to you
boy will use the bottom of his skate as a weapon if need be
test him. hurt the love of his life. go on. i dare you
the first time you see him skate you deadass nearly faint
because why does he looks so??? hot??
like he’s in his element and you find that so attractive
if you can’t skate already he definitely teaches you
holding your hands and gently guiding you, refusing to let go until he’s certain you’re 100% comfortable and safe
tying each others laces
he’s not the best with PDA but will most likely have a hand on you in public whether that be your waist, lower back, thigh. he just likes to be touching you
you running your nails down the back of his head and nape, gently tugging at his hair in a way that’s relaxing and not painful
KILLS HIM. HE LOVES IT. DO IT EVERYDAY
jake pouting that you stole sunghoon away from him
“yo i regret assuring them. go back to thinking he hates you pls. i want my best friend back”
“cry about it jake. he’s mine”
no but his friends are relieved that you’re finally together
they could not handle listening to him cry about you any longer
sunoo deadass almost locked you in a room together
“i was gonna do that but jungwon said that might be a grey area for kidnap so…”
biggest baby for you in private
the second he gets you alone, sunghoon is smothering you in love
he likes when you trail your fingers across his face because it relaxes him
definitely sprays his clothes in your scent when you’re not around because it comforts him and he can’t sleep without it
you do the same with his
both of you are terrible for leaving your things in each others rooms
“hoon did i leave my ipad in your bed?”
“y/n i think i left my watch on your bedside table”
he’s extremely shy and prefers to fade into the background
which is kinda hard when his partner is one of the most loved people on the universe
you seem to just know everyone
standing behind you holding onto your hand like a little lost puppy whilst you stop to talk to a friend in the street for the thousandth time
he hates parties but will always attend if you ask him to just to make sure you’re okay
let’s you have your fun but kinda shrinks into the corner and keeps an eye on you from afar
definitely the type to find a pet and just sit with it because he’d rather be in the company of a random dog than drunk sweaty bodies
but he loves you sm so he will never complain about attending
jay once found the two of you curled up with a random cat outside asleep together after a particularly extreme party
it was the oddest but kind of cutest thing he had ever seen
until you woke up and threw up all over his shoes
“i swear i hope he breaks up with you”
“leave me alone jay, i’m fragile”
always holds your hair back and rubs your back gently
sweetest bf to ever exist<3
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