#(the dynamics at play in familial/friend relationships feel equally important and in some ways are HARDER to escape.

[inkskinned]

in internet posts it is easy to cut them out of your life. they are hurting you! they aren't listening to you!

they held your hair back. they lent you lipstick. they held your hand at the train station and got you home safe. they rounded on your bully, got loud, said get fucked, spitting-mad in your defense.

they also cut the hair off again. told you that you should really think twice before wearing something like that. took you for granted. took your insecurities and threw them in your face again.

you know logically it should be easy. all the internet advice comments always read it will feel better. like an equation - if a person is rotten, you just remove them. you pull the tooth that's hurting.

but it was never a big flare-up moment. you don't live in a sitcom. they never tried to take your boyfriend or steal from your apartment. they showed up to birthdays and they wrote songs about you and bring you water without you asking. once you found out they carry an emergency inhaler for you, even though you haven't had an asthma attack in years - just in case.

where is the line? people fuck up. sometimes they fuck up badly. sometimes people have raw personalities, like a powerline, and being around them is dangerous. addicting. sometimes they can't help themselves, but you know they're trying. sometimes they are just rough-around-the-edges. sometimes they don't even realize how they sounded when they said that. sometimes it's just - you've both loved each other for so long now, the way this thing hurts goes back to the root.

and that's the fucked up part. you have pushed your fingers against the sweetheart of memory. things these days are electric, tense, harrowing. they didn't used to be. there were a lot of good days in there. sometimes you want to just close your eyes and say can this be over yet? do we still need to be fighting?

doing that would give up any chance you get of getting an apology, but you don't always know that you need an apology, you love them. once they flaked on your birthday party. once they told you to get over it, people are always dying. they also let you crash on their couch for a week after the breakup, handfeeding you when you were so sad you couldn't eat. they are also judgmental about everything, occasionally react to banal statements with an attitude that is weird and fiery. they also love you like a lighthouse sometimes, so strong they cut the storm like lightning.

but the problem is that you might be storm. you might be the thing that needs breaking. what if you are two forces who are desperately, horribly drawn to each other, shaped by the other person's passions, and both good for each other and bad in equal measure.

what if you're both just people, and you're no saint neither.

just cut them off! swallowing the saltwater, you catch yourself in the mirror. you've been shaking more than usual. there's an ache in you that is oblique, loud, impossible to soothe. is this what it looks like? when life is "easier"?

your mouth will always have a hole, is the thing, if you remove the tooth.

#spilled ink #warm up #writeblr #this is about someone specific but feel free to blorbo on main. #tbh this is familial for me so that is an element but it's also about childhood best friends #and probably about ur enemies to lovers blorbo #(but i want to specifically say if ur partner is like this. not necessarily a good partnership lol.) #(the dynamics at play in familial/friend relationships feel equally important and in some ways are HARDER to escape. #bc we can see that this is a potentially toxic romantic foundation. #but in family ? ...... it's toxic and it doesn't stop u from loving them. bc u always have. #and i think that makes it harder. by a lot. which is what this is referencing). #but genuinely and really truly forever feel free to tag ur potentially toxic enemies to lovers on this and all my poetry #here i'll do one for u - adora & catra :x

[steveharrington]

What is your secret good stranger things that lives in your head? I love the show but even I feel like they have struggled the last few seasons with what to do with some of the characters

honestly the secret good version is just....the characters caring about each other consistently. i think the reason i was so disappointed with s4 is because when i initially saw the groupings of characters, esp the hawkins group, i was like oh my god we are gonna get SUCH good interactions! like the potential was THERE!! notoriously protective older brother jonathan with his brand new sibling el......robin and max, two girls who most definitely write on their shoes in sharpie and roll their eyes at steve.......max post-billy's death with steve who always acted more like a brother to her.....nancy with dustin and lucas who she used to play DND with when they were younger and who she views as extensions of her family......and while yes there were brief moments between all of these duos/trios, most of them were so insanely bare bones that i feel like no matter which characters you like, you were probably left disappointed. i just want ST to acknowledge that this group of people is bound together forever now, all of them, and the way they act when they're in a group should reflect that. they did a great job with the graveyard/running up that hill scene because lucas (max's boyfriend) dustin (max's friend) and steve (max's kinda sorta older brother figure when shit starts to go downhill) were all equally distressed and worried about her. we need that energy throughout the show!!!

steve and dustin's dynamic was such a resounding success because it's very sweet at its core and it makes sense. s2 steve previously helped out in battling the demogorgon, showed up at the hospital and presumably received an explanation about the UD and its various creatures, and saw dustin henderson there. so when he's accosted by this kid and called upon to contribute his strength and weaponry once again, it makes total sense that steve goes along with it because he's like oh shit this kid was involved in the same mess that i was, we are 2 of only like 10 people who know about the creatures, i gotta help him and make sure he's safe. it's like a brilliant way to show that the older characters are forever going to feel responsible for the younger ones, and that the younger ones are forever going to feel safe around the older ones. THATS WHAT THE SHOW SHOULD ALL BE ABOUT BABY!!! MISMATCHED GROUP OF ADULTS TEENS AND KIDS BOUND FOREVER BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THEIR FIRST UNFORTUNATE MEETING WHO WILL NOW PROTECT AND CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER UNTIL DEATH!!!!

but the duffers think the most important relationships are romantic so. we're doomed.

#anon #answered

[mejomonster]

Mysterious lotus casebook, just fun things~

Li Lianhua calling his old rival A Fei which is just such a familiar name (I'm only used to Zhao Yunlan asking a crush to call him A Lan so). Like what a choice. Can't figure out an alias for ur super famous rival? Call him an intimate nickname. Sure.

Fang duobing being the MOST territorial man to ever live. Grabs hold of li lianhua and won't let go and moves himself in. Doesn't like li lianhuas other friends. Actively tries to Beat the shit out of them and give them bad food. On a mission to drive them OUT. Absolutely enraged over said nickname A Fei. Ready to throw hands nonstop

Fang duobing being That Bitch who says "you're my partner" nonstop within like a week of meeting. He could shake hands with Wei Wuxian calling Zhou Zishu his soulmate by ep 8 of Word of Honor lmao. But like genuinely, while partner im gonna interpret only as meant to be "detective partner/work partner" I still think it's Mighty Clingy of him to force li lianhua to be his partner lmao.

Fang duobing being such a fucking little liar who lies. "Fine I'm going my separate way" proceeds to move into the guest bedroom and eat all meals together. "Fine I'm not going to ask you to solve a crime with me" except I'm absolutely going to drag you into my shit until I get you mixed up in the case anyway uvu then insist you MUST help (and you won't want me to die so you will... and eventually fang duobings strategy DOES work... because eventually li lianhua goes back for him, like in the tomb, instead of leaving him behind anymore).

Fang duobing being like "You're ordinary, I'll protect you!" And like while in a way he's right, it's hilarious he's saying that to the Once Upon a Time second best fighter in the world. I also love how he immediately took the job of guard dog to heart: he is ride or die ready to do anything to protect his new coerced partner li lianhua.

I also like that him being ADAMANTLY ready to save li lianhua and protect him at all times, means we get plenty of rescues that aren't even a big deal. I think it's funny to compare the rescues to Ultimate Note and wu xie for two reasons. 1. Because Joseph zeng is playing the rescuer this time, and fang duobing is way more vocal about wanting to save li lianhua than xiaoge ever is, so it's cute to hear how intently up for Heroics the rescuer is. 2. Ultimate Note, like pretty much all dmbj for some reason, goes Really Shippy whenever it would do rescue scenes (you know what I mean... romantic music, long gazes into each other's eyes, romantic framing). It's interesting to see this show NOT do that, despite possibly even more frequent rescue scenes. I think it's a good idea but like... for a few reasons? First, li lianhua is experienced in fighting so he's not naive damsel in the way wu xie is, and he assumes he'll die so he doesn't really have major fear when he's in danger. Second, the whole tone of the show is more practical. I think the positive of this is we get really nice emotional scenes between the main trio that don't feel like jokes, and feel important as major relationships (which would also I guess be good for ships), and while it therefore doesn't really hit romance tropes (making bl potential scenes thankfully not get overt attention but also making it more vague, doing the same with women love interests so their scenes likewise feel less overtly intense as well) it does mean the weight of all scenes feels more balanced. I would compare it to how The Untamed handled all scenes romantic, platonic, familial in extremely similar ways in terms of feel. It made the romance stand out less, but it also meant the familial ties and friendship scenes felt Equally weighted. Which is a positive trait for this kind of show, I think, to weight all relationship types equally. While yeah it means ships of any kind become more subtle, I think it also makes all dynamics feel like they're closer to equal importance.

Fang duobing being a rich boy hypocrite is just The funniest fucking. It's so clear he's used to getting his way and it's part of why he grabbed li lianhua and didn't let go. He's got a mix of "genuinely wants to help people" that drives him to do good things like try to stop murderers and protect people until proven guilty and pursue evidence and the truth. Then he's also got that inherent quality of he's always gotten what he wants, he doesn't think he should ever Stop getting it. He's broke and starving, but only Very Nice tasting food he particularly craves is worth saying yes to. He's arrested? Use his family name and status and Baichuan courts sway to get himself free and bully the suspects into cooperating more. Li lianhua doesn't want him? Insist he's a Generous Hero for offering to protect/help li lianhua and no one should refuse such a Gift (so fang duobing simply won't be refused). A fei shows up and clearly has an existing (closer) relationship to li lianhua? Be a complete bitch to him to the point where it's leaning into harassment, try to chase him away, because if li lianhua is HIS then obviously he should be HIS more than he should be close to anyone else. Like an extremely territorial pet, he wants the most attention the most given to him from li lianhua and he does NOT want anyone to get as close to li lianhua as he is. Or at least as close as he Wishes he was (which is partners in solving cases and Life that travel the jianghu together... which... its fascinating he's really locked onto an "ordinary" person for this desire, you would think he'd want a martial arts master for that... but I think fang duobing enjoys feeling like the powerful one who can show off, impress, protect, and teach his partner... especially because his ego takes a hit with struggling to get into baichuan and being a subpar investigator compared to doctor li lianhua. It's clear fang duobing is used to being The Best, and while he wants to learn from li lianhua to fix his own shortcomings in investigating, he also probably appreciates he's BETTER at this ordinary man at things like fighting and it helps keep his ego from tanking. He could go find a jianghu martial arts master... but then they'd be better than him in All areas potentially. And then he'd just feel like shit. Hed rather have a teacher to learn from, who he can also feel NEEDS him. Fang duobing wants to be a hero, a damsel who repeatedly finds himself in danger is a great person for him to have around as it gives fang duobing repeated opportunities to show off how he's Valuable and Talented and Impressive and Needed by others. And oh boy... there's probably a LOT to say about how fang duobing grew up sick, weak, struggled to make progress and put in intense effort to be the best fighter of his age and best baichuan candidate, and how that pursuit means he really wants to Prove he's valuable outside of his family name. Because family name was all he started with, and he wanted to be like his uncle who proved himself Outside of the political system. He wanted to be like li xianyi who was a hero among those people, who even wanted to bring laws and justice to the jianghu, who treated fang duobing fairly and equally even as an ordinary weak young boy. Fang duobing INTENSELY desires to prove he's useful, needed, and has proven himself as capable in his own right. Li lianhua Feeds into those emotional needs a lot, and that alone would be enough for fang duobing to want to cling SO hard to him.)

Yeah more of just. How much I love fang duobing the lying liar who lies. He will be against tomb raiding but want a treasure to heal li lianhua. He will say he's fucking off and not going to bug former suspect li lianhua anymore then turn around and stalk him. He'll get told to leave and barge in and eat the man's fucking food. He is very set in getting what he wants, and he's not beyond doing whatever he wants to Get those things. Sure, he wouldn't kill someone or steal from a living person (at least not yet... he does have a lot of upstanding morals). But he's not above bullying an ordinary person who can't push back except intellectual, or trying to strong arm said intellectuals close friends to back the fuck off Fang Duobings PARTNER, or strong arm anyone who starts refusing him with whatever tools he's got (from his sword to his family's power to baichuan connections).

#mysterious lotus casebook #lb

[whatthefuckisasweep]

okay i’ll ask you, when did you first get into It? was it the novel or another adaption? what do you think it is about the story that you love so much?

omgg!!! thanks for the ask joeover!!!!!!!! this is very cool i feel like im being interrogated in a good way

this is actually a really interesting story. so it was october and me and my roommate and my friend were doing a study session, but we also wanted to watch something for the season. watch some spooky movies, as you do. and my roomie was like, "oh have you seen IT (2017)?" and i was like, 'no". and so she was like, "it's pretty good. the second one is weird though"... and put it on.

now, dear asker, i'm not one to be into horror movies at all. im also not one to like a media like IT that much - most of the stuff I'm really in love with is mostly meant to be a comedy. i wasn't even paying that much attention to it at first while it played (i even made a really mean joke about not knowing who stan was cause he had such little lines). but when im exposed to a new media, i can't NOT put my attention on it if it catches my eye and consume it and have thoughts about it. so i started paying attention and i really liked the movie.

more than that though, i could already feel the potential of a fixation coming on. it was at the tail end of my asssassins creed fixation, so it was almost perfectly timed. when i get these sensations, i can never predict like what it's going to be, and i can almost NEVER go into something knowing im going to fixate on it. it just happens at random. and i guess i can choose to indulge or not, and my brain was like - "you heard about richie tozier being gay. watch the second one". and i did. and that's when i launched into the full fixation.

after that, i bought the novel (and read the whole thing jesus christ) and got involved with the community. i joined a reddie server and met Angel and Sunny who are honestly some of my best friends and the most talented people ever... I mean, you guys probably know Angel's comic Out of the Blue - and Sunny writes for their ORIGINAL comic. and i also met River, Reb, Bear, and Moony - we formed our fake little "losers club". everything i talked about, they matched my energy. we were always on the same wavelength and they were always incredibly kind people, and we STILL talk everyday as part of our routines. i know so much about them now. i 've even seen their mug collections and know all their pets by name haha. I EVEN GOT TO GET A BEAR HUG FROM IRL BEAR!!! seriously got besties for life from this stupid movie.

to answer that last part of the question - i think what intrigues me about IT is simply the Losers dynamic. Usually a story is about dynamics where one relationship is more important than the others. Typically it's the romance. but in IT, you get 7 people deeply in love with each other with all different but ALL VERY INTEGRAL dynamics. bill and eddie, bev and richie, stan and bev, mike and bill, ben and eddie - like every dynamic is SO juicy and also EQUALLY as valued. that type of found family where nobody in the canon plays favorites is incredibly rare. I think that's why my love for reddie started to fade, honestly, because i felt like a lot of people valued their romance higher than all the other dynamics. and that's my FAVORITE part of the series and what generally fuels my art. : )

hope this was interesting to you! : D thanks for the ask and letting me talk about myself for a little bit. was very nice of you. <3

#ask #my asks #my thoughts #long post #it #it movie

[opalsiren]

some ttpd speculation/predictions/hypotheses under the cut. don't take this too seriously it's just Vibes

fortnight: it's gotta be like 'it's been two weeks since we broke up' or 'it's been two weeks since we last spoke' type of vibes right??? i'm thinking something in the same vein of 'now that we don't talk,' reckoning with the weirdness of not having your person in your life anymore. the post malone verse is making me feel like this is gonna be less angsty than some of the others

the tortured poets department: i think this is gonna be a reflection on the speaker's relationship, the 'how long could we be a sad song' of it all, discussing being stuck in a sad loop with someone where you're both depressy all the time but staying because you love one another, 'don't want no other shade of blue but you' and things and such

my boy only breaks his favourite toys: no major thoughts on this one. maybe a commentary on the tendency to hurt those we love the most??? or feeling objectified or disposable in a relationship, not unlike a toy. perhaps both

down bad: this has to be a play on words right. like being 'down bad' for someone, but emphasis on the bad? or maybe just general depression vibes because down = sad. if this is a literal generic 'falling in love with someone new' song i might be disappointed

so long, london: i'm guessing that feeling of leaving somewhere you love behind, seeing it in a different light for the first time, london used as a metaphor for a relationship where the speaker felt trapped or otherwise 'caged in'

but daddy i love him: i think it's gonna be about the feeling of like. being in a toxic relationship, and everyone around you can tell that something is up, but you're so deeply entrenched in the dynamic that you can't take an objective view of it. hence friends/family/others seeing it in a negative light

fresh out the slammer: i feel like this is pretty self-explanatory, that sense of escaping from a dynamic that felt more like a punishment isolating you from others than a true equal relationship. i can see it not unlike cowboy like me with extended crime-related metaphors and similes

florida!!! ft. florence + the machine: the exclamation marks are making me nervous. lol i think this will be almost a continuation of fresh out the slammer, escaping a relationship that was on its last legs for some time and tasting true freedom. it's still painful but slightly more optimistic than the above tracks. idk all bets are off with this one

guilty as sin?: once more the question mark is throwing me off here. perhaps a reflection on the part of the speaker on their own behaviour, how they could have done things differently throughout the relationship, to help themselves if not their partner. idkidkidk

who's afraid of little old me?: again with the punctuation!!! mayhaps this is more of a self-deprecating take on the prev song, the speaker truly taking accountability for their actions but in a tongue-in-cheek way. think anti-hero 2.0

i can fix him (no really i can): i think this will be about returning to the aforementioned toxic relationship time and again under the misapprehension that, this time, things will be different, that your partner will be different and you'll be different with them, ending with the realisation that you can't make someone change or what have you

loml: i think this is gonna be another twist on the expected, like 'you were the love of my life but you're not anymore' type of vibes. or maybe 'you will always be important to me but i will have many great loves in my life, not just you'

i can do it with a broken heart: something something the pressure to perform while heartbroken??? we all go through Struggles and heartbreaks but we can't necessarily see that in someone at first glance, we just need to keep it pushing or whatever

the smallest man who ever lived: the diss track to end all diss tracks. need i say more

the alchemy: i'm thinking ariana grande supernatural vibes, meeting someone new and having it feel like this unexpected cosmic collision, the magic that comes with being able to move forward

clara bow: it's giving the lucky one/tlgad where the speaker is singing about someone else's journey with fame, acclaim, and notoriety, but really singing about themselves

anyway again this is all just for fun and if ANY of this comes true i will be shocked. mwah

#.txt #taylor swift #ttpd

[unovasrose]

This post is meant to serve as a starting point for potential interactions and is not all-inclusive! If you have any thoughts or want to suggest something that’s not on here, please feel free to bring it up! I’m certainly open for things not on this list.

Dynamics That I’d Like To Explore*

Professional Friendships / Acquaintances - with other Champions, League Trainers, Frontier Brains, etc. (It’s worth nothing that she does her research so she’s usually up to date on who the League-affiliated trainers are in each region). It would be neat to figure out what the different regions can learn from each other. If our muses are both part of the Unova League, I’d love to explore their dynamic (which will be based on Rosa’s view of them before she became champion, and which can definitely change based on present interactions). Also, any muses that are in the show business, as she is a famous actress (and I don’t get to do enough with that). Maybe our muses are playing parts in the same movie or play? Or maybe your muse is into contests (of which Rosa knows next to NOTHING about) and they want to show Rosa the ropes?

Recognition - Rosa has plenty of star power in Unova due to her work with Pokéstar Studios and her status as Champion. Her movies are broadcast in other regions as well, so it’s entirely possible for a non-Unovan muse to recognize her just from seeing her on the silver screen. I’m open to her meeting both fans and critics alike. Additionally, she has recently become a Pasio Ambassador (more on that soon), so her face might be recognizable that way.

Rivalries - with other trainers of equal caliber. The other muse doesn’t need to be a Champion-level trainer for this dynamic to exist. There are plenty of powerful trainers out there that just don’t bother with League challenges and Rosa would be excited to come across them.

Former Plasma ties - whether that be former grunts that have had a change of heart like her or grunts that stuck to it and followed Ghetsis to Neo Plasma, relationships of this nature can be either friendly or antagonistic. Additionally, she holds great respect for some former Plasma members (such as sage Rood, Anthea, Concordia, and N) and disdain for others (like Zinzolin), as well as fear of the Shadow Triad and Ghetsis himself.

Antagonistic - this goes hand in hand with the second half of the above, but it can obviously extend to other villain muses (though she would only know that villain muses outside of Unova are villains if it’s something that the mun agrees would have been all over the news at the point in time that interactions occur). Her views of Interpol are also swayed toward the negative, based on her past experiences with Agent Hale Foster and her mother being placed under house arrest briefly during the events of B2W2. Additionally, she has pissed off many a pokémon poacher in Unova due to her efforts to eradicate them from her region (which is actually important to an upcoming plot I have planned out for her).

Found family - her own blood family isn’t very big (reserved mostly to her mother and some family in Lentimas Town; her father is back in Paldea) so I love the idea of her coming to love her friends like family

Mentor/Mentee - with Rosa filling either of the roles at the corresponding points in her timeline. If she meets trainers from newer generations, she’s bound to take them under her wing. Likewise, if she meets more experienced elites and champions, she will welcome the idea of learning from their experience.

Simple friendships - maybe both our muses are into some sort of common hobby or enjoy the same type of music / movies or maybe they just like to get together to gossip or enjoy dessert together, lots of slice of life stuff.

Romantic relationships are not completely off the table but they require an extra layer of development and comfort between Rosa and other muses (and good/regular communication between myself and other muns).

Places Where Rosa Can Be Found*

Hoenn - she has to travel to Hoenn occasionally for the hot springs to ease the lingering pain from Kyurem’s unmelting ice-induced wounds. She loves to explore the Hoenn wilderness, though… and Meteor Falls is one of her favorite places ever.

Anywhere around Unova - she doesn’t spend all her time in the League. She constantly bounces between the preserves she established (White Forest and Icirrus), the Bring Us Together Foundation she established to help return Plasma-stolen pokémon to their previous owners (Driftveil), and Pokéstar Studios (Virbank). Her primary (but not public-known) residence is in Village Bridge and her secondary (but officially known) residence is in Nimbasa. Sometimes she goes as far as the Trainer’s School (Aspertia) to talk to younger would-be trainers and tends to take some of Cheren’s classes to capture their first pokémon in Floccessy.

Kalos - she spent some time training in Kalos prior to challenging the Unova E4 and Iris. She also occasionally travels for film-related business or gets dragged along to Lumiose by Blue ( @evoblue​ ) on shopping trips.

Galar - after a few years of championship (and an unwanted encounter with an obsessed fan that COULD have been bad), she takes a sabbatical and decides to disappear from the grid. She travels to Galar to train and explore the area, and also to spectate on the gym challenge.

Paldea - after learning from her mother that her father is of Paldean origins, she embarks on a trip to learn more about her father’s country of origin in an attempt to understand the man whose absence has always been a painful void in her life. Her mom claims he was a good man, though, so that counts for something.

*While Rosa has never officially been to Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, or Alola, she is open to visiting any of these regions. Johto in particular calls her interest due to the rich history and lore behind all the legendaries (as history and mythology were part of her studies while growing up).

Timelines

For the most part, Rosa’s threads will happen in the post B2W2 timeline / during her time as Champion. If you have a Unovan muse and are interested in writing something taking place during the plot of B2W2, I am open to discussion!

#🌹 plotting guide. #🌹 ooc. #under the cut for length! #again this is not all-inclusive #but here are some ideas

[saint--claire]

@monkiedude tagged me in this - thank you Monkie!  I like getting to do these.

3 ships

My favourite three ships at any one time depend on the phase of the moon and how intense the hyperfixations have been lately.  Current three favourite ships?

1 - Hangman/Rooster - a dearly beloved dynamic: I have a strong emotion so I’m going to call it rage; I fucking hate you but you’re important to me, you piece of shit.  How dare you put yourself in danger!  Come back home to me.

You can explore basically any trope with them and it works, the whole universe is an outstanding sandpit.  The TG:M movie snapped me out of a years long writing de-motivation funk; and I was actually having fun writing and drafting out fic plots for the first time in ages, which was really special.  It also led me to Discord, and I got to make some new friends, which was equally if not more exciting.

2 - Gideon/Harrow - Look.  Writing it down is forcing me to observe some trends here.  These two have the world’s most dysfunctional relationship with horrifically beautiful level of co-dependency and I love that for them.  Also, not a ship but I adore all of the platonic/familiar/antagonist relationships in the whole of the locked tomb - I really like the way Tamsyn writes characters in relation to each other.  Nona?  J’adore elle.

3 - Nie Huisang/Jiang Cheng - Softly sweet and incompetent shell hiding a no-fuck’s given fully-fledged mastermind who’s playing grandmaster’s level chess on 12 boards in three different realms.  Paired with Jiang outwardly-rage-and-lightning while an utter marshmallow loves-his-nephew-and-all-dogs on the inside Cheng.

First ship

Oh god it will have been something from Harry Potter.

Actually, it might have been Faro and Sapphire from the Ingo Series, if I’m getting specific.

Last movie

Fast 9!  I like the Fast and Furious movies, and I enjoy them getting more and more absurd the more time goes on.  And the very final scene of F9 where they’re sitting around the table and Brian’s car zips up to the drive makes me tear up.

Last song

Bummerland by AJR - blasted music all the way home in the car from the beach and I like singing to it.  I am WAITING IMPATIENTLY for AJR’s new album to come out.  We went to one of their shows where they let the crowd do a call and response they recorded live to be part of the new album and it was really exciting.

Currently reading

What aren’t I reading.  There’s an insane number of tabs open atm.  Most of them Top Gun.

In the middle of The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake - love it.  Everyone in this book has a royally fucked up relationship with everyone else and I love it.  Found family except the whole family either hates each other or are having philosophical discussions while they fuck.  Slowly - (glacially slowly) moving towards friendlier connections with each other, couldn’t and wouldn’t disband if they wanted to.

Currently watching

Just started Kaleidoscope, that’s cool.  I’m being boring and watching in the order they’re on Netflix, so if anyone has better suggestions hit me up.

Currently consuming

I have just eaten dumplings with a mound of shredded carrot on top + a small dish of grated cheese because I can.

Currently craving

Ice cream.

Nobody feel obligated, I am going to tag @blackidyll @tikaaninightshade @ishipallthings @thaffyreblogseverything and literally anyone else who wants to do it - open invite.

#Heidi not this #SaintClaire speaks #thank you Monkie! #Everyone out here building sandcastles in the TG universe #and I love them all #I'm not kidding there's a ridiculous number of Ao3 tabs up

[miss-m-calling]

Candy Hearts Exchange 2024 letter

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me! My requests are Justified, The Cleaning Lady, and Starred Up. I am requesting fic, and treats are enabled. :-)

General likes:

-pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories

-character-driven as well as plot-driven stories

-fics which mix humor and angst/serious business (when this fits the canon)

-characters at work and play

-group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too

-irony, snark, humor, angst – all arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in

-linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories

-hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, “everything is awful but you’re here and maybe I don’t entirely hate that” endings

-worldbuilding

-spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, tough characters with (maybe not so well) hidden vulnerabilities, characters who are their own worst enemies, characters who manage to get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other, characters who may not be exactly friends and may well irritate one another but manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise/reluctance/discomfort), characters who just cannot get along with each other or find common ground

-workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters get to be competent

Shippy and smutty likes:

-(where it fits the characters) banter

-competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved)

-”oh god why did it have to be you what did I do to deserve this“

-”come here and say it to my face/do that again/kiss me, you motherfucker”

-bickering yet loving couples

-characters who are serious about their romantic interests

-characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are

-characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed

-fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping

-characters who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, or there has been betrayal!!!), and while they love and/or want each other, they’re not willing to change sides or abandon/compromise their identity/beliefs for the other’s benefit

-I don’t know how better to phrase this than: smut which fits the characters; how does their canon dynamics spill over into hubba hubba stuff?

-sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves

-sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition or antagonism

-“this is a bad idea but we’re going for it hammer and tongs”

-not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not

-characters getting way more into the sex or being more affected by it than they thought they would

-quick and intense sex, slow and intense sex, rough yet willing sex (when it fits the characters), unexpectedly emotional and/or tender sex

-masturbation while thinking of the other half of the ship (or not wanting to think about them only oops there they are in the fantasy!)

-first time sex

-established relationship, we-know-each-other-so-well sex

-”we’ve both wanted this and now we both know it so here we go diving in headfirst” sex

-you can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

Ship/smut DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting D/s, formalized BDSM, painful sex, hard kinks (holding someone down playfully, hair pulling and such like, the odd spank are a-OK) scat, watersports knife/gun/blood play incest deaging/infantilization, mommy/daddy kink under-16yos in sexual situations humiliation body distortion/horror (feeding/weight kink, come inflation, vore, etc.) unrequested ships/pairings soulmates and soul marks pregnancy and children (can be mentioned if canon, just don’t make the whole fic about them) wedding setting/theme secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job xeno, tentacles, bestiality noncon/dubcon

Other DNWs:

torture and abuse (this and noncon/dubcon can be mentioned, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it) descriptions of vomit, shit, and piss (”He pissed up against a tree” and the like is fine), toilet humor lots of gore/blood (mention it, yes; lovingly describe it, no), cannibalism, serious illness or injury character bashing genderswap/genderbent characters, characters as kids/young teens issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons death of requested characters hopeless, unrelenting gloom/angst/horror RL holiday setting/theme, RL religions as a major theme (invented fictional holidays and rituals are fine) reference to RL current events 1st and 2nd person POV unrequested crossovers or fusions AUs which have nothing to do with canon fic written in lapslock, poetry as my main gift

FANDOMS:

Justified

Rachel Brooks/Boyd Crowder

I adore this show (the plots! the dialogues and rich language! the local color! the insane tribal loyalties clashing with centralized authority, and the people caught in the middle!) and two characters who are so fascinating in their own right and who should have interacted more in canon! I love how Rachel is so non-nonsense, dedicated, and capable, and never passes up the opportunity to point out racial and gender nonsense when she sees it happening and affecting her in her work. And Boyd is just the poetically-spoken, ruthless, manipulative yet sincere, forever outlaw of my heart. I ship them, yes, but don’t worry too much whether your fic is “shippy enough” – I am good with innuendo, subtext, a mutual attraction which ambushes them and is so inconvenient, something implied but maybe the characters themselves aren’t ready to deal with what it would mean for them, or full-on shippiness! Feel free to include any other canon character, I love them all. As for Boyd/Ava and Rachel/her husband, you can work those relationships into the story, handwave them, break them up off-screen, whatever works for what you’re writing.

Canon-specific DNW: anything more intense, sex- and violence-wise, than an M rating; basically keep it to canon levels of violence/gore/sex.

Prompts:

-Boyd has to work with the Marshals (again, or divergence from one of the canon occasions), and this time Rachel rather than Raylan is his contact/minder. Plots and schemes and double-crosses, oh my!

-As in those too-few, too-brief scenes where Boyd tries to sweet-talk Rachel when he’s in a jam, and she blows him off or spells out exactly how she’ll fuck up his life if he doesn’t cooperate, give me more of Rachel laying down the law and Boyd cooperating… up to a point… when it also serves his agenda.

-Rachel once acknowledged Boyd’s silver tongue. Let it get them both out of a bad situation. How does it hold up against Rachel’s unimpeachable stake on the moral high ground?

-Rachel is on Boyd’s prisoner transport once he’s in federal custody. Does she help him escape (shades of Elmore Leonard’s Out of Sight)? What would it take to get straight-shooting Rachel to make that choice? Or does he try to get her to break all the rules, but fails for reasons I leave up to you?

-Spoilers for Justified: City Primeval: once Boyd busts out of Tramble, the Kentucky Marshals’ office calls Rachel rather than Raylan to deal with it. She’s been promoted and moved to a different office, ten years later she might even be working at Marshals’ HQ in the DC area, so how happy is she about having to return to Kentucky to deal with goddamn Crowders? And why did Boyd bust out? And how much trouble can they cause each other, since middle age hasn’t slowed either of them down one bit?

-Boyd trying to pull the wool over Rachel’s eyes and her not having it. Having to work together or Rachel needing to use Boyd as a informant, and how that might shade into flirting, and how Rachel might feel about that, given Boyd’s past (even if, as Raylan said, Boyd’s too smart to really believe in white supremacy, there’s still his lifelong criminality). The beginnings of a good working relationship or friendship or affection, and how frustrating and difficult that would be, because they are who they are. Or the later stages of a relationship, when somehow they make it work, however tense it gets at times.

-For something more explicitly shippy, give me a strong hate/love (Rachel would be horrified to fall for a con, let alone this con!), “I know this is a terrible idea” dynamic. Give me their having to work together and/or antagonistic flirting/confessions of feelings. Give me UST, thwarted desire, angry longing. This may be a tall order, but I’d be super into non-issue-y ship fic which somehow deals with or touches on the fact that while Boyd’s white-supremacy period was almost wholly bull, he’s still the guy with a swastika tattooed on his arm, and Rachel is African-American.

-There be somethin’ spooky lurkin’ in them there hills! Maybe it’s just the usual bunch of hillbillies with more firepower than brains, maybe it’s something genuinely eldritch. Marshals and local crime lords walk right into it, and then these strange bedfellows (ha ha) need to get each other out.

The Cleaning Lady

Thony De La Rosa/Arman Morales

Edit: the news of Adan Canto's death just broke and I have no words. But I still want fic for this canon, so no worries if you're thinking of writing me that. I enjoy the heck out of this trashy show -- it's basically a fanfic of itself, with the plot just there to prop up the glory which is the central ship. (This is why I think S1 was much stronger than S2 -- I don't watch this for the plot twists, I watch it for Thony and Arman's nuclear-grade UST and occasional lapses into near-RST and those fantasy sequences, did you see those, they were wild!) I love how Thony is always very intense, on-task, doesn't flirt, doesn't go out of her way to make herself appealing -- and she doesn't need to because Arman Morales, big time gangster and all-around smooth operator, would happily take a bullet for her any day. And I love Arman's suaveness as well as his moments of, hm, let's call it near-menace rather than real menace. He's still the guy who'll kill when he needs to or do a little light torture to get what he wants, because that's the life he chose, but he's not a sadist, and through his connection with Thony, he starts to see both the roads not taken and the roads he might yet take. And when knocked down a few pegs by the events of S2, Thony weirdly becomes a reliable presence in his life -- just as she's relied on him even before she fully trusted him.

Not a must, but if you want to throw in some untranslated Spanish and/or Tagalog, or some more details about the characters' backgrounds as immigrants, I'd be down for that. Generally I'd enjoy something closer in spirit to S1 than S2 (see prompts). Also, if you want to bring in any of the side-characters, that's fine: I especially enjoy Nadia (who is awesome and she gets the short end of the stick, she held up her end of the bargain and now her husband is running around with a woman who is so very different from Nadia, really she should dump Arman and stop relying on men to define her and build her own criminal empire) and Fiona (especially the moments when she has to deal head-on with Thony's other life, like her anger after she discovers how deep in Thony is and that Thony never even told her, or everything about Fiona reacting to meeting Arman and watching Arman and Thony interact).

Canon-specific DNWs: demonizing Nadia (handle her marriage to Arman any way you want - they break up, cheating, perhaps-reluctantly open marriage, Nadia being justifiably angry, whatever, just don't make Nadia the bad guy); having the whole fic revolve around the kids (they can appear, just don't make them central to the story); plot focused only on Luca's illness; Marco appearing in-story (you can mention him).

Prompts:

-Road trips! On the run together! Sneaking in and out of the country, by land, air, or sea! You and me against the world!

-Your version of how S3 kicks off: Thony and Arman are now smuggling prescription meds from the Philippines, Thony has seemingly embraced the criminal life (I love the moments when Thony gets her gangster on and Arman's like "attagirl"), and she wants to bring Fiona back to the USA. What happens next? Is Fiona grateful or angry? What complications arise in this new business venture? How does working together as equals affect Thony and Arman's dynamic?

-Arman spends more time in prison, which of course means more insanely UST-ish visits from Thony, more clandestine phone calls, maybe a prison break?

-Ignore S2 entirely and write your own continuation of S1. What comes after the hand holding and "I'm staying here for you" and passing of the secret messages, and Arman trusting Thony rather than Nadia with the crypto, and Thony's new legal business, and the Feds still breathing down everyone's necks?

-More like the nearly-a-bottle-episode when they kidnap the sleazy motel manager. Throw the characters together into a confined space and a pressure-cooker situation, and let it rip.

-More of Thony actually using her cleaning and/or medical skills in her role as part of Arman's criminal operation.

-More quiet moments of getting to know each other and how similar (and how different) they are, like the bar scene in S1 when Thony (shows she trusts Arman the most when she) admits that she's spying on Arman for the Feds.

-One of them has to put the other one in danger for reasons. How do they get them(selves) out, and how does this affect their dynamic?

-S2 sets up and then basically drops the idea of Thony, Nadia, and Arman being equal partners in drug/med smuggling. How would that work in the long run?

-While Arman's heart-eyes have been obvious from the jump, Thony plays her cards closer to her chest and has been more reluctant about giving in to the attraction. What would need to happen for her to just dive in, come what may?

Starred Up (2013)

Oliver Baumer/Eric Love

Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!

Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development – but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot. But. I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and Oliver the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence (what was he on about with “I need to be here”?), slightly older counselor. They had me at Oliver’s “I want him” and Eric later telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Love Sr. Also the not-flirting and the push-pull in the scene when Oliver picks up Eric from his cell - yowza!

Exception to blanket DNW: dubcon is a-okay! If you decide to go there, my preferred flavors of dubcon for this canon are: power differential makes it a bad idea but they do it anyway; “I know you want this”; “if the answer’s no/you’re only doing this for a dare or to prove a point, then why are you enjoying this so much [as am I]?”; no no yes a.k.a. starts as dubcon (or one of them thinks they’re dubconning the other), becomes enthusiastic consent.  

Also, if this is relevant or makes you nervous about writing for me, Eric would be 18-19, and Oliver is maybe 10-12 years older – and I like it!!! (The actors were 22 and 31 when the movie was made, FWIW.)

Prompts:

-I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line, as it’s implied that Eric will be serving a long sentence. Give me more scenes from anger management or the ribald, honest, free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (I liked Hassan and Tyrone especially, among the group members) or a one-on-one session.

-An oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Or, one or both of them knows exactly what to do with it, and the push-pull that would result from that.

-Dirty talk: used for arousal, as a defense mechanism, as a form of flirtation. Eric using slurs to assert dominance, and Oliver not letting him hide behind profanity, when he can use colorful language to express emotion and/or sexual interest. There could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity.

-An emergency in the prison requires a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Things get porny and/or emotional.

-Eric is eventually released (you can handwave this so it happens soon after the movie or have it happen years later) and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts to the outside world. You guessed it: things get porny and/or emotional.

-Oliver is sentenced to prison (maybe he gets done for GBH after attacking Deputy Governor Haynes), and now Eric is the more knowledgeable and "well-adjusted" one, the one with skills Oliver desperately needs. The balance between them shifts, so how does that affect this burgeoning something between them?

-How do they get to the point where both can cross that line from friends/whatever the hell they are and become, to lovers? (There’s Eric’s personal history and general discomfort with vulnerability, plus all the ways prison sex can be or make things complicated, and if it helps, I headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi and at least somewhat closeted, at work especially.) Who initiates and “directs traffic”? How does their always-contentious dynamic shift during and after sex? Is the sex an isolated (series of) occasion(s), or a progression/escalation over multiple encounters (how would I love especially an escalating series of encounters, let me count the ways)? Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner as well as using the possibility of sex to manipulate and exert control, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself as well as aware of his custodial duty toward the men in the group.

-At some point in their intimate relationship (probably not right at the start, and probably not in prison, though if you can make it happen in prison, more power to you!), Oliver decides he’s going to take his sweet time and make Eric fall absolutely apart with pleasure, while using dirty talk to both arouse and empower Eric to own his desires – by that point, Eric is in a place where he can let that happen and enjoy it, even if he still talks tough.

-Or how about this: Eric gets out, relationship happens or is in the process of being negotiated, and while physical intimacy is a whooooole neeeeeew woooorld, you know what else would be cool? Phone sex. Yep. Or even, Eric gets himself one of those secret prison burner phones (preferably hidden somewhere that’s not someone’s arse), and… phone sex after lights-out and lock-down. Maybe nothing (much) has happened physically (yet), so phone sex can be a building block to that or one facet of that deepening intimacy.

-For smut: any top/bottom (or switching) combo is good. Hand jobs incl. mutual, masturbation, blowjobs, 69, intercrural, frottage, anal fingering, finger sucking, rimming, anal – all good.

#dear author letter #candy hearts exchange

[livelectures2]

What Are The 10 Importance of Sociology

Sociology is all about understanding people and the societies they live in. It might sound like a big, fancy word, but it's actually quite simple. Sociology is like putting on your detective hat and asking questions about how people interact, why societies work the way they do, and how they change over time. In this blog, we're going to explore what Are The 10 Importance of Sociology.

What Are The 10 Importance of Sociology

Understanding Society

Sociology helps us understand how our society works. It's like looking at the big puzzle of people's lives and figuring out how all the pieces fit together. Sociologists study things like family, education, religion, and how they shape our lives. By understanding these pieces, we can make sense of our world.

Imagine you're trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle. You look at each piece, and as you connect them, you start to see the whole picture. Sociology is like that - it helps us connect the pieces of our society. When we study how families, schools, and religions work, we can see how they affect our lives. It's like having a roadmap to understand our society better.

Making Informed Choices

Sociology helps us make informed choices. When we know how society works, we can make better decisions. For example, knowing about different cultures can help us respect and appreciate diversity. Understanding how the economy works can help us make wise financial decisions.

Think about it this way: if you're going on a trip to a new place, it's helpful to have a map or GPS to guide you. Sociology is like that map for life. It guides us in making choices that respect and value the differences among people. When we understand how money and jobs work, we can make choices that benefit our future.

Solving Social Problems

Sociology helps us tackle big social problems. Think of problems like poverty, discrimination, and crime. Sociologists study the root causes of these issues and suggest ways to make things better. Without sociology, we might not know how to address these challenges effectively.

Let's say you have a garden full of weeds. To get rid of them, you need to understand their roots and how they spread. Sociology helps us dig into the roots of social problems. It's like being a detective and finding out why these issues exist. Once we understand the causes, we can work on solutions, just like weeding the garden.

Improving Relationships

Sociology can also improve our relationships with others. It teaches us about communication, power, and how people interact. When we know more about these things, we can build healthier and more positive connections with the people around us.

Imagine two friends who often argue because they don't understand each other's feelings. Sociology acts like a guidebook on effective communication. It helps us understand how power dynamics can affect our relationships. With this knowledge, we can resolve conflicts, communicate better, and have more harmonious relationships with our friends, family, and colleagues.

Promoting Equality

Equality is a big deal in sociology. It's all about making sure that everyone gets a fair chance in life, no matter their race, gender, or background. Sociologists work to identify and reduce inequalities. Thanks to their efforts, we're closer to achieving a more just and fair society.

Think of equality as everyone starting a race at the same point. Unfortunately, not everyone starts from the same place in life. Some people face obstacles that others don't. Sociology is like the referee that ensures everyone gets a fair start. Sociologists study how inequalities happen and propose ways to level the playing field, so everyone has a chance to succeed.

Exploring Change

Sociology helps us understand how societies change over time. Think about how our world has transformed over the years. We've gone from no smartphones to a world full of them! 

Sociologists study these changes, helping us adapt to new ways of life and understand what the future might hold.

Imagine you have a photo album showing how you've grown over the years. Sociology is like a giant album for society. It captures all the changes and transformations. Sociologists study how technology, culture, and habits evolve. This knowledge helps us adapt and prepare for the future, just like looking back at old photos helps us appreciate how we've changed over time.

Shaping Public Policy

Public policies are like rules that the government creates to help society run smoothly. Sociology plays a big role in shaping these policies. By studying social issues and gathering data, sociologists can recommend changes in the law to make society better for everyone.

Think of public policies as the rules of a game. Just like in a game, rules should be fair for everyone. Sociology provides the data and insights needed to create these fair rules. Sociologists work with policymakers to make sure the rules are just and helpful for everyone in society.

A Better World for Everyone

Sociology is like a superhero, fighting for a better world. It helps us make improvements in education, healthcare, and many other areas. When we work together to solve social problems, we create a world where everyone has a shot at a good life.

Picture sociology as a team of superheroes working to make the world a better place. They focus on improving things like schools, hospitals, and public services. These improvements help create a world where everyone has the opportunity to have a good life, no matter who they are or where they come from.

Personal Growth

Sociology isn't just about studying society; it's also about understanding yourself better. It can help you discover your own values, beliefs, and how they fit into the larger picture of society. You can learn more about your own identity and how it connects with others.

Think of sociology as a mirror that reflects who you are. When you look into it, you might learn more about your values and beliefs. You'll understand how your personal experiences fit into the bigger picture of society. This self-awareness can lead to personal growth and a better understanding of yourself and others.

Finding Your Path

Sociology can help you find your path in life. By learning about different careers and opportunities, you can choose a job that makes you happy and helps others. You might become a social worker, a teacher, a counselor, or even a sociologist yourself! The possibilities are endless.

Consider sociology as a treasure map. It leads you to discover a wide range of career options that allow you to make a positive impact on the world. Whether you want to help people directly or study society to find solutions, sociology can guide you toward a fulfilling and meaningful career.

In conclusion, sociology isn't just a fancy word – it's a vital tool for understanding our world. It helps us connect the pieces of society, make informed choices, tackle social problems, build better relationships, promote equality, understand change, shape public policies, work toward a better world, experience personal growth, and find our own path in life. So, the next time you hear the word "sociology," remember that it's all about making our world a better place for everyone.

#sociology

[marvellouslymade]

On Harry and losing a parent in adolescence

I was twelve when my father died. It was an event which changed my life in ways I have seen and, no doubt, some I have not. Perhaps I don’t need to.

This is perhaps an even more personal blog than usual, and it is important to say that I am not writing it as a form of therapy. These events have long since been gently woven into the tapestry of my life, in which I trust there is much colour even if there may still be the occasional ragged end hidden underneath. However, as we all take stock after the furore over Prince Harry’s book, and the interviews, I wanted to look at an aspect which I think has not, perhaps, been given sufficient attention in all the media coverage. Perhaps that should not, sadly, surprise us. That facet is the effect of catastrophic loss.

 Losing a parent in adolescence is known to have major and complex repercussions. The death of a parents is, of course, traumatic at any age, with different ramifications at each, but when it occurs during those multi-faceted, stormy and vital adolescent years, there are specific challenges with, sadly, a lot less research to inform us than there is into the death of a parent in childhood.

 What research there is highlights that the loss of a parent at this age increases our risk of various complications in both mental health and functioning in general, in both the short and long term. It is equally clear that school, peers, the family and wider environment all play a part in determining how well we recover from the loss, if recover is the right word. Bereavement is, I think, like losing a part of your body. You can climb Everest with a missing limb, but life is never the same. In adolescence we already have challenges of life adjustments and developing our sense of identity: when we lose a parent at this stage, we are trying to navigate two very difficult and different psychological paths at the same time.

 We know both from general research and from often underestimated common sense that the funeral is a key moment in the journey of grief. It is the last loving thing we can do for someone and although desperately painful, it is important both in its recognition of the finality of the change of relationship we have with that person and also as an opportunity to receive support from others. This later aspect is one of many factors which made grieving in the pandemic even more difficult.

 My experience and Harry’s of the respective funerals could not have been more different. Those of us watching at the time will remember the desperate poignancy of him walking (with others, but as the youngest) behind his mother’s coffin, and the indescribable ordeal for both boys of the funeral being held in the glare of the media amid an outpouring of grief by thousands. Those others, most of whom had never met her, were in reality often mourning their own losses triggered again, or even for the first time, by her death. They wept too perhaps what she represented to them, together with the unfairness of the apparently capricious unpredictability of death. By contrast, I was not allowed to my father’s funeral, lest I found it too upsetting. Kindly meant, and I suspect such ‘protection’ is less frequent now, but it was ultimately unhelpful to isolate me from everyone at that time. It was not until my twenties that a friend gave me space to talk about the complexity of my feelings, and to take flowers to place by a tree at a local park as a farewell. To a much lesser extent though, I can dimly sense, in the tiniest fraction, the additional dynamic of losing a parent who others feel as if they know. Cornwall in the 60s and 70s was a small world. For years after my father died, at anything where my name was given people would ask ‘Are you Dr. Harrison’s daughter by any chance?’, followed by an anecdote of some kind by people who knew him, but didn’t really know him, not in the way I did.

 It is well-documented that friends and peers are often the most helpful for adolescents who are grieving, not least as the family can be too caught in their own grieving. My mother was faced with massive changes as we lost our tied accommodation, so she had to quickly find housing and also to return to full time nursing after a break of nearly twenty years. Not surprisingly, she was caught up with managing our lives practically, and perhaps her own upbringing in an orphanage had not equipped her well to deal with a daughter whose grief was both very inward and, for various reasons, highly complicated. The school did, I think, inform the staff and pupils before I arrived  - my brother and I were both sent to school the same morning we were told our father had died, just slightly later than usual. I was not seen by any of the staff other than in lesson time, and never individually – again, pastoral support was more patchy then than I hope it is now. The imploded nature of my grieving was also a confusion to my friends, my best friend on one occasion calling me a ‘hard-nosed b****’ because I had not cried. I realised she could not see the maelstrom which was happening inside and I could not explain my lack of expressed emotion to her. We remained friends. I was too busy coping with the other losses - a house move, a grandmother who lived with us dying just after my father died, and my dog being put down because it was thought necessary due to our change in circumstances. I had no room either to explain or hold any judgements of others. Harry recounts that he barely cried after Diana died, which was hardly surprising given the shocking nature of her death and the public nature of subsequent events I mentioned earlier. I may be doing Eton a disservice, but wonder what help he was offered, both there and in the wider family. He may recount it in his book – I have not yet read it, though I will. Sometimes I like to read or watch things later where there is a media storm, to have mental space to form my own uncluttered opinions. You don’t need to have read it to see, in every interview, a man who is still bleeding from the most severe of wounds.

 What the research does show is that some people who lost a parent in adolescence believe that although they were forced to grow up and assume responsibility too soon, it has left them, as a positive, more empathic to others. I hope that has been the case for me, and certainly Harry has shown genuine concern to improve awareness about mental health. As a Christian, I believe in a God of redemption, who can take the darkest of experiences and work something of them that can be beautiful. That is the work, after all, of the cross. My prayer for Harry, as indeed it has been for myself, is that there is still a beautiful stained glass window to be formed even from the brokenness.

[anotherlightcounselling]

Why is Queer Affirmative Counselling important?

The world has come a long way in discussing and accepting LGBTQIA+ people in the past few years. From living under a cloak of invisibility where the pain, grief, concerns, and voices of queer people were not only brushed off, but more often than not silenced by force, to the present day where we have made strides in conducting open discussions regarding issues of gender sexual minority (GSM) community and have some positive media representation. To some extent, we have managed to achieve small victories in the matter. But the distance between equality for LGBTQIA+ people and their present-day realities still remains a huge gaping hole.

LGBTQIA+ individuals are often subjected to bullying, discrimination, hostility, and physical and verbal abuse based on their sexual orientation and gender expression. Queer people either live in constant fear of dealing with the hostility and discrimination based on their gender and sexual identity, or shun their authenticity and stay in the closet to feel a sense of safety. Both of these options are equally detrimental to a queer person’s mental health. Even as kids, growing up in a world where heteronormative and cis-gendered identities have been the norm, many queer children have understandably internalized the idea that their way of loving and expressing themselves is different or outside the (hetero) norm. This creates a sense of shame or ‘otherness’ in queer children, which in turn can lead to toxic shame regarding their own gender expression and sexual identity. The constant barrage of abuse, hostility, discrimination, a lack of support from friends, peers, and families, and incessant reminders that something is ‘wrong’ with them can leave queer people with a deep sense of loneliness and hopelessness. As a consequence of this, they may develop many psychological issues such as but not limited to fear of violence, feelings of abandonment by loved ones, substance abuse, experiences of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and in some extreme cases self-harm.

To help LGBTQIA+ people deal with the multitude of problems they face in their everyday lives, they need to be able to access and receive the mental health care that they need and deserve. This can only be done through queer affirmative counselling. By definition, queer affirmative therapy is a psychotherapeutic practice that takes on a positive view of LGBTQIA+ individuals, their identities, and their relationships. LGBTQ counselling not only addresses the impact of homophobia, transphobia, and heteronormativity on LGBTQIA+ clients, but also takes into account the needs of marginalized people by adopting an intersectional approach. Queer-affirmative counselors work to validate and advocate for those with minority identities surrounding gender and sexual expression and understand how socio-political contexts play a huge role in the diminishing mental health of queer people.

The root of queer affirmative therapy lies in affirmative psychotherapy. The term ‘affirmative’ signifies how this practice affirms and honors the experiences of people, especially in the Indian and South Asian context, where queer people are still marginalized socially and medically. Affirmation forms a very important part of queer affirmative therapy, as the role of the therapist is to affirm the experiences of their clients without prescribing them a cure or pushing them in a certain direction. LGBTQIA+ counselling considers the psycho-social reality of a client as a part of their affirmation process. Even if the therapists don't understand their lived realities and contexts, they still strive to affirm the experiences of marginalization faced by LGBTQIA+ individuals. Queer-affirmative space is detached from the power dynamics that exist between a practitioner and a client, which is the standard norm in western modes of practice. In queer-affirmative counselling, the idea of neutrality of a therapist is questioned as issues of discrimination and marginalization are inherently political. Hence, queer-affirmative therapists are trained to immerse themselves in the self-work of identifying transphobia and homophobia in their thought processes. LGBTQ counselors have a deep understanding of issues pertaining to LGBTQIA+ individuals and are therefore able to recognize that all spaces, including the therapy room, are political spaces.

In a world where the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals are constantly surrounded by turmoil and challenges at every step of the way, Queer-affirmative counselling offers a space of trust and safety where queer people can be their true selves and express themselves authentically without any fear of judgment or backlash. It is imperative that counselors are able to create a safe space for queer individuals where they can tackle their mental-health struggles and feel understood and supported.

#psychological health #psychologist #affirmative therapy #queer affirmative therapy

[secondhand-trash]

Family Matters

Kinktober 2020 — stepcest

A/N: This idea had been sitting in my brain for months and getting to write it out AND be on time for the last day of kinktober is the perfect wrap up for this crazy month.

Description: You would do anything to get yourself a place in this family.

Pairing: Todoroki siblings (Touya, Fuyumi, Natsuo, Shouto)x reader

Warning: stepcest/pseudo-incest (absolutely do not proceed if this isn’t something you’re comfortable reading), no relationships portrayed in this fic is healthy, toxic family dynamics, reader is bit of a manipulative bitch, consensual but not exactly the traditional sense of consent, Rei died, brief mention of cheating, nee san/nii san kink, vaginal penetration, oral (giving), choking, face fucking, creampie, marking, voyeurism, threesome, spitting, degradation, thigh riding, fingering

Word count: 16025 (wtfwtfwtf-)

**please read the warnings through before clicking the read more, very important**

-

You attended your mother’s wedding with the sweetest smile you could manage and a painful ring in your ear the moment she said: “I do”.

It was a small ceremony with only close friends and family, which also meant that there was little to no one in the audience as your mother walked down the aisle to meet the man at the other end. 

You would think that marrying the reigning no 1 pro-hero would finally bring your mother the fantasy of being part of a fortunate family she never got to have, but we couldn’t always get what we want, could we?

You and your mother were the family underdog, the number of your relatives you had met up with the last several years since your birth father passed away and left a huge loan on your back waiting to be cleared up could be counted with less than the fingers on one hand. The first time someone showed up at your doorsteps screaming murder was a blur to you. You were around 17 at the time, not young enough to forge ignorance to what was going on but not mature enough to push the foul words seeping into your ears away, all you could remember was the way your mother clutching you close to her chest like it wasn’t her that was sobbing until the banging at the door finally ceased. 

You switched schools, having no way to afford the tuition of the one you were attending when your family was struggling to stay under a proper roof, essentially disappearing from the circle you used to exist within in a matter of days. Sometimes, you would feel the impulse to cackle at the thought that there was a time when you thought you were so brilliant and you had a whole life ahead. You got into the hero course of one of the best schools in the country, you were not the best but you did think there was something in you that people must not be willing to let go of this easily. You truly did think the world wouldn’t just let you sunk down like that, but it turned out that dropping out of the spotlight was enough for people to forget about you when there were hundreds and thousands of other equally brilliant people stepping under the public eye each day. 

You realised at the point in your life that some days you were simply alone, and no one would help you without a good enough reason for them to do so, something that your mother seemed to have either genuinely or deliberately chose to ignore. She went from person to person, hoping that one of them would be the answer but it was a fruitless journey. When you needed someone, people would pick it up, and it was a dangerous thing to be the one that was in need and couldn’t get away. You had witnessed countless of arguments, a scary amount of things crashing and frantic sobbing late at night when the crying echoed in the darkness you tried to surround yourself with by burying your face deeper and deeper into your pillow like it blacking out could make things go away.

This went on for years, and at some point you chose to turn your head away from it like not going home meant you could run away from the broken family you were bound to. Until one day, your mother crashed into you with a suffocating hug the moment you stepped into those doors you had so dreaded returning to every day, her voice barely coherent as she choked her words out through broken sobs and hiccups.

“We’re free... we’re finally free!”

She said it with such relief that you couldn’t even process the emptiness in your heart when she held your face in her hands before pulling you close to her again.

You figured out from bits and pieces that she let slip through her giddy words that someone had paid up the rest of the loan and interests that was left, and from the way her voice got just a little louder when she talked about that someone and the flush on her face, you knew it wasn’t just some chivalrous stranger that stepped in during a time of need like she had wanted to mask it up to be.

You had never met Todoroki Enji until your mother announced at the dining table one night with an expression so sheepish and girly that she was to marry this man you had only ever heard the name of. But even with the lack of exchanges before you sat down opposite to him the first time when you accompanied her to discuss the details of the wedding, you would expect that someone of his status and respect would at least have someone other than his own kids at his wedding.

His kids. You knew things wouldn’t go as easily as your mother had made it out to be. She had acted like you were finally out of the hot waters and secured comfort for the rest of your life just because she married a wealthy man but you knew the moment you met the eyes of the four Todoroki children, sitting side by side in one straight row opposite to you, that it wasn’t just the man of the house that had a say in what would become of you. 

Touya was the eldest and the least bothered to pretend like he was pleased about this arrangement. He was leaning back against the chair with one leg propped up when you walked in, his eyes scanning you from top to bottom in a scruntinising stare until he was given a hiss in warning from his sister, to which he replied with a snort and a very showing eye roll as you sat down. There was no hiding the sneer in his voice whenever he spoke up, each word lacing with an evidential edge and the clear distaste he was showing towards his new stepfamily. The way he looked down at you when he bumped against your shoulder before walking out the door was nearly uncomfortable, but he seemed to be somewhat pleased when you didn’t shy away from his gaze, walking out with his hands in his pockets and a smirk toying against his features as his father sighed.

The sister, Fuyumi, had apologised when Touya offhandedly pointed out that his father didn’t even wait until his mother’s corpse was cold before finding another woman. Her smile was empathetic and the way she carefully picked up your hand when she greeted you should have been enough to make up for the hostility her brother had showcased but if you had paid attention enough, you would pick up that despite the apology, she didn’t exactly disagree with the statement either. She was always friendly, her eyes curling into two thin strands behind her glasses as she walked you through each step of the ceremony without a chance for you to interrupt. She was nice enough, but also just enough and the distance she kept from you was something that you picked up on in your initial encounter. It was also through her that you found out what happened to Enji’s last wife, and the practiced look on Fuyumi’s face when she recalled how her mother died after a long battle against her illness sent chills creeping up your back far more than any mean remarks could.

Which explained why the wedding venue looked eerily empty as the march played. After all, what would the world say about how little it took for the man to step out of mourning for his dead wife and found himself another one?

Todoroki Natsuo gave you nothing but a hasty nod when you sat down opposite to him, staying quiet for the most parts of the meeting except for a short word of reply here and there when Fuyumi cued him. He had his arms crossed in front of his broad chest all during the process, his eyes looking down at the document but clearly not focused on any of the things that his sister was explaining. There were a few times when you caught him glancing at you for the brief moment when you looked up, flicking his gaze away from you almost immediately with your eyes barely meeting. Of the four siblings, he seemed the most... normal, if you would. The way he acted almost a bit awkward around the new sister that he suddenly had around when he was well into his twenties and gave nothing but bare minimal answers whenever you even tried to initiate a conversation was what you thought would happen.

Then there was Shouto. Oh, sweet Shouto. You had never expected that this was the way you met your formal underclassmen once again after you dropped off of your road in being a hero completely without so much as a proper announcement. There was no mistaking the way his eyes widened and shoulders tensed up when you walked into the room that he remembered you well which came as quite the surprise to you. You had heard of him even after leaving Yuuei, of course. A real star, so talented and came from such a background, already climbing up near the top even though it had only been a good year since his real debut into the professional world. You simply found the boy one year your junior endearing when you were still his senpai, the way he was so serious about every little tease and remark you made could only be described as adorable.  

But certainly, he had changed so much since you last saw him years ago. His back just a little wider, his jaw stronger, the look in his eyes did not belong to the same boy who did not shy away from staring when you walked past but of a man who had seen his handful of the world to know what you being there meant. You had a strong feeling that he would have acted way more hostile than he did have you been anyone else, his lips pursing tightly together like he was forcing himself to hold back as he stared straight at you.

All in all, sneers or polite chuckles or skittering glances or straightened backs, it did not take much to know that none of them was particularly pleased about their father’s remarriage and if the empty wedding was any sign, you and your mother were still utterly outsiders despite the documents with your changed names claiming otherwise.

The tall wall they had built was all the more apparent when you moved into the Todoroki residence, feeling more like you were mouse scrambling to find a gap you could hide into under this roof that had taken you in than anything else. If the four had gave your mother a cold shoulder or straight up pretend like she wasn’t there, then each and every single little gesture they made towards you reminded you time and time again that you did not belong. 

Touya always bumped against your side just a little bit too hard for it to be an accident when he walked past you into the dining room, the “apology” he threw down sounding almost like a cackle as you were nearly knocked off your feet. Fuyumi always bringing up childhood memories or family traditions that you wouldn’t know of, only to brush it off with a smile and explaining it to you like she was the silly one for assuming that you would know about these things when you “only just moved in”. Natsuo was rarely around due to his job at the hospital as a whole, but when he did he made sure that his interactions with you remained to be limited to standard small talk. Each mundane topic always ending on a dead end and both of you looking away. Shoto was decent to you, but there was still an evidential wariness in his gaze as he walked past you and somehow it was the deliberate distance from him that acted like a stake right through your heart, a constant reminder that you took up a space that was never yours to begin with.

There was hurt, but then it was the unwavering fear of being isolated that sent chills down your spine at the cold stare from your supposed family. 

Your mother was convinced that she unlocked the key to a life of security by marrying Todoroki Enji, but you knew better than to be fooled by the current state of you getting a pass because of the one mountain this shaking wall called family was leaning against.

Once he was out of the picture, it was his four children that would get to have a say on what they were to do with you, and you swore you could already see how that would go for you.

You were not going back to that low point in your life, not ever again, and you would do anything to make sure you secured a place for yourself within the family one way or another.

-

Jerking up awake at night in cold sweat was not fun, especially when it still took your brain a good few moments before registering where you were when your eyes shot open to see the high ceiling that you still hadn’t gotten used to yet.

You wonder if you would ever get used to it.

You groaned inwardly as you rolled to your side, wincing at how tight your throat felt at each swallow of the burning liquid that pooled in your mouth. You dreamt of your old life again, one when you still hadn’t gone to living under someone else’s roof. You had thought that you were over it by now but the hollowness left in your chest somehow irritated you even more than the dream itself. 

Fucking hell, it felt like every muscle in your back was hurting.

Slowly stretching your limbs out, you held your head in your palm as you suffered through the dizziness in your head when you sat upright at the edge of your bed. A string of shivers crept up your spine when your toe touched the cold floor, the tatami rough under the tip as you fumbled to find your room slippers. It took some adjusting for you to find your way out of the pitch black room, trying your hardest to slide the door open as lightly as you could as you clutched your arms closed to your body under the chill on your exposed arms.

The house was in radio silence and you were cautious of the drag of your slippers as you made way down to the kitchen, careful to lower the volume of your steps with your feet arched and holding the slipper tight to the heel.

You let out a shaky breath when you finally got downstairs. Your hand felt around the side of the door to find the switch, pressing your eyes tightly together as the light pained you the moment you flicked the switch and light blazed in the kitchen.

The clink of the ceramic made you feel alive again as the water ran down your throat, the cold soothing the tautness at the back as you gulped down. A content sigh slipped out of your lips as you put the mug down, a droplet threatening to roll down your chin and you brought the tip of your finger up to wipe it away.

“Look what we have here...”

You jumped at the sudden voice, earning you a wolfish chuckle from the man who was leaning against the door frame. Touya looked a lot more at ease than he usually was when he was around his family, the sweatpants that were almost a bit too big for his lean frame hanging loosely around his waist as his back arched, pushing himself off the wooden frame before sauntering to your side.

You straightened your back, feeling tensed as he seemingly ignored your presence as he got his own cup and poured it full of water with his other hand on his waist. You weren’t sure if you were supposed to look as he tilted the cup up, his slender neck arching back as his throat bobbed, the muscles at his stomach flexing with each swallow.

Your fingers clutched tightly around the mug you were holding when he let out a muffled cough, piercing up at you from the back of his hand when he saw that you were not moving away.

You were taken aback when he snorted, throwing his head back a little before fixing his gaze on you again with an amused smirk lingering his pierced lips.

“Oh, relax,” your eyebrows locked together at the dismissive huff from your usually sneering stepbrother, “it’s too early for me to start making your life miserable, save the defense for after 8.”

His stare was almost invasive as he grinned at you but despite the twist in your stomach at being alone with arguably the most unbearable of the siblings, you did not move your own eyes away as you put down the cup in your hand. “So you do it on purpose,” you said, trying to make yourself sound sterner as you crossed your arms in front of your chest. 

You did not think anyone else other than you would be up at this hour, or else you would have grabbed a jacket before slipping out of your room. If his gaze was already uncomfortable to be under, than the fact that your body was covered by nothing but a thin spaghetti strap and cotton shorts did not help how exposed you feel. 

Touya laughed and it took all the will in you to not shrink your form down even more at the cackle. “Why else would I bother?” he said matter-of-factly, "Someone has got to tell the old man that none of us is happy with what he did.” He paused, “It isn’t really about you, if that’s something you want to hear.”

“I’m not interested in your family drama.”

“Well, too bad you’re part of the family now,” he mused, his eyes still following you as he slowly strided towards the door. “Remember to look just as pissed as you are now when I poke fun at you in the morning.”

The swaying of his frame stopped when you opened your mouth.

“What do I have to do for you to leave me alone?”

Your heart was pounding in your chest when he stopped in his tracks before slowly, very slowly turning around to face you again. 

“Leave you alone?” he repeated, accentuating each syllable that rolled off his tongue as he stepped closer and closer to you.

“I’m just trying to get by,” you looked straight at him when he stopped right in front of you, towering over you slightly as he stared down, “if you want to stir shit up then I can help as long as you leave me a piece of what’s left.”

“Hm... a fighter, aren’t you?” his voice came out as a purr, the rumbling in his chest almost transferring to you with how close he was. His eyes raked across your form when he saw that you didn’t back away, the defined dent of your collar bone and the supple skin that was pressing against the elastic of your low collar.

He could allow a change of plans if it meant he could get a piece of a little something for himself.

“Then tell me,” he licked his lips, “what are you willing to do for my help?”

“Anything.”

The glint in his eyes grew at how you didn’t hesitate with your words. 

“Anything?” he asked with a crock of his head to the side, his fingers barely trailing along your bare arms as he drank in the way you were fighting against the shivers rising on your skin, “because I can think of a few ways for cute little sisters to get on their big brother’s good graces..."

His touch on your arm was distracting but your mouth still ran dry at the implication of his offer. You could not deny that when you lie awake on your bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking of how you could possibly slither your way through in this house that you had briefly contemplated if you could get intimate with your siblings in a less morally-accepted way but you brushed it off as a silly thought almost as quick as you came up with it when you felt how hostile they were towards you.

You were convinced that they would not wait until Enji was gone to kick you out if you made a move on them, but the fixed stare and gravel in Touya’s voice was telling you a whole other truth.

The chills on your spine settled into the pit of your stomach as excitement when you made the realisation that he wanted you, and it meant the others could too.

His grin looked like it was spilling his face in half when you pushed yourself against his chest, your thinly clad breast pressed up against his bare skin when the light touch on your arms turned into full blown caresses as his hand got bolder. He could feel the slight pebble of your nipples taunt against the fabric and the thrill sent his blood boiling.

“Anything.”

His palm was burning against your skin as he got rougher and rougher, the press of his fingers turning into gropes when he reached the swell of your waist and down to your hips. The sudden dug of his nails into your flesh took you by surprise when he shoved you away from him, smiling from ear to ear like the chesire cat when he hooked his hand at the elastic of his sweats where a print was starting to strain against the fabric.

“Then get on your knees, baby sister.”

The tiles were not forgiving on your skin when you sunk down, looking up at the man who was palming himself from under his pants with his eyes slanted and fixed on your kneeling form. You winced when he fisted your hair in his hand, pulling your head back a bit too forcefully when he pulled his half-hard cock out of its constraints. The pain on your scalp seeped through your head until it was nothing but a tingle on your skin when his slender fingers wrapped around the base of his length that was right at your eye level, drinking in the way you could only stare at him from behind your lashes as he held you still.

He hummed in approval when you parted your lips, your tongue lolling out almost performatively when he gave a firm tuck to his cock. The silver bud at the crown of his cock left a strange numbness on your lips as he traced his tip along the rim of your mouth, leaving a slight sting on your tongue when he brushed against the muscle.

“Make sure to get all of it...” he whispered, releasing the tension of his pull on your scalp when he pushed his cock in with a languish surge of his hips. You bit back a whine when you felt the many more piercings at the underside as it brushed against your tongue, your hands flying up to grip at his thighs when he gave a slight pat to the back of your head.

He groaned when you took more of him in, hollowing your cheeks out as you set a pace for the bobbing of your head. The piercings were rigid against your tongue and you made sure to give each nub equal attention while your hand fisted around where you could not fit into your mouth. He kept one hand in your hair while the other found support on the kitchen counter, eyeing the way your lips wrapped around his cock as you tried to please him.

His head tilted back with a sigh when you cupped his balls, your palm warm on his sack when you sucked in a deep breath and sunk in all the way. Tears prickled at the corner of your eyes when his hard tip hit the back of your throat, the burn shooting up to your nose as its tip brushed against his pubic hair. Touya felt the pulse at the side of his neck as your throat contracted around him, the tightness making his hand clutch at the back of your head as his length throbbed in your mouth. He snapped down to look at you when you pulled away with a cough, sucking in a deep breath as your chest heaved and your hand pumped his cock sloppily with your spit that was coating him.

You could sense his muscles taut under his skin as you let him go, his thighs flexing under your hands while you jerked him off like he was holding himself back deliberately.

To have someone that was just mocking you earlier today now stiff in your hand, lips parted and biting back a moan felt really, really good.

You were staring up at him, almost in challenge as you run your tongue along his shaft. “Someone’s good at this,” he cooed, sounding a little breathless when he laughed. The sound was replaced by a chocked moan when you took him in again, a soft hum from the back of your throat in reply had him nearly losing control when the vibration sent shocks down his core. 

You gagged when he pulled you off his cock, the string of saliva that connected your lips and his leaking tip sending him into an overdrive as he decided that he could not wait any longer. A yelp was ripped from the back of your throat when he pulled you up, shoving you against the counter with your face facing down.

Your hand fumbled to prop your body up with your palms flat on the marble surface, a silent whimper leaking pass your lips when you felt your shorts and underwear being peeled off of you with a swift pull. He pressed on your back with the tips of his fingers, each knuckle of his digits propping up as he arched your ass up with the help of his hand. Your face heated up at the way you perched up, bare cunt exposed for him to see as you clenched around nothing in reflex with the cold air that fanned against your folds.

Your body shifted with each exhale, the warm breaths spreading over your face as your cheek squished against the marble that was growing hotter and hotter from the heat on your face. Touya gripped onto the side of your hips, fingers digging into the flesh as he pulled the cheeks apart, licking his lips at the sight of the light sheen on your slit.

You whimpered when he ran a finger along your folds and the uncontrollable gush of wetness as the calloused pad pressed down on your hooded clit. His eyes were fixed on your cunt and how you immediately pushed your hips back for more friction when he positioned his tip at your opening, rubbing the bead of pre along the slit as your folds parted around him.

“Who knew our new sister is such a whore...” 

His hand was fast to clasp around your mouth when he sheathed in you without a warning, the stretch leaving a burn in your core and threatening to make the cry slip past your lips when he held himself still. His cock was hot inside your walls, like he was melting in with your guts until all that was left of you was a puddle. 

You moaned into his palm when he started thrusting up. His hand might be able to muffle the lewd noises you made but there was no way to hide the sounds of skin slapping against skin that bounced off the walls. The position you were in made each slam of his pelvis against your ass hilting his cock deep in you until you could feel him leaving a print in your womb, the piercings adorning his length dredging along your insides with each snap of his hips. The nubs rubbing against you made your back arched and your knees weakened, leaving a permanent feeling in you even as he bottomed out.

“To- Touya!” 

His hand ran down your neck at the panting call of his name, fumbling with the elastic of your top before yanking it down and spilling your tits. You turned your head back with a struggle, his hand that was groping your chest pulling you up against his back until he could meet your lips in a sloppy kiss.

“Nu-uh, that’s not how you should call me,” he growled into your mouth, a mean-spirited pinch at your nipple had you squeaking against his hot touch.

“Touya nii-”

The mewl earned you a forceful plow of his length in you, the coil in you tightening when he drilled into you at a much more vicious speed.

“That’s a good little sister...” he mumbled in your ear, his hand now right below your chest while the other held tightly onto your ass. You threw your head back, pushing yourself deeper on his cock as he grunted, pulsing in you as he fug his nails into your skin.

Your lips fell open but nothing came out when he wrapped his free hand around your exposed throat, pressing down just enough for you to feel a rush of adrenaline pumping through your veins into your head when he hilted in you one more time before shooting ropes of his release deep into your core. His breath was shaky and warm at your earlobe as he cum in you, his load filling you up as he squeezed down on your neck to rip a breathless gag from you.

You could feel his cock going limp inside of you while he held you still, his cum threatening to leak out of your fluttering folds but was stopped by his cock still pressing snugly against your sex. You could smell the sweat on his body when he leaned down, heaving chest right at your back as he brought his hands up to cup your tits. His breath tickled against your skin, the piercing at the corner of his lip brushing at the sensitive area as he spoke lowly and slowly.

“Let’s have a lot of fun helping each other.”

-

Touya was always the latest to show up for breakfast each morning and this morning was no exception, but the entire table fell into deadly silence when he looked at you first before he did everyone else as he slammed himself down on his chair.

“Good morning, sis.”

The silence was almost uncomfortable and the sickly sweet tone of his voice echoed in the room before vanishing into thin air. You were facing him directly but your eyes did a brief glance around the room. Your mother and Enji were dumbfounded, Natsuo had his mouth agape, Shouto’s eyes were as big as the moon and Fuyumi’s eyebrows locked together slowly but visibly.

A lot of fun indeed.

You smiled, and the crisp ring of your voice shocked everyone when you parted your lips.

“Good morning, nii san.”

-

The mutually beneficial relationship with Touya continued. Some nights, you would feel a slight brush against your calf under the dining table and you knew he was to pay you a visit. He slipped into your room when everyone else was asleep, jackhammered you onto the mattress and make you scream into your pillow before whispering things about the family that you would otherwise never know of against your lips as his cum spilled out of your abused hole.

He was rough with his hands, especially when he was taking out his frustration on you, but there was no denying that the fucking was good and the information was valuable. He told you about how he had three siblings instead of being an only child because he was a disappointment and why his mother was sent away. The snort he let out was chilling as he told you how his sister was desperately holding the family together through the years and that the second son of the Todoroki family could be worse than him in terms of temper once the right buttons were pushed.

And they knew, they had to know or had made a guess at the very least, because there’s no other way you could explain why there were bruises littering all across your inner thighs when the skin just showing below the edge of your shorts was clean the night before. Occasionally, you would catch the boys staring at the barely visible mark right at your collar at the table, Natsuo a little bit more subtle with his eyes flickering away the moment you looked up and Shoto not hiding the fact that he was looking as he pressed his eyebrows together. Fuyumi was a whole lot more nonchalant about it, either she really didn’t know or she was very good at staying away from things that weren’t her business. Your guess leaned towards the latter. 

You were waiting to see which one of them would finally let their concern snap first and approach you about it, and it seemed like what Touya told you about his siblings was rather accurate when you were left along the house with your second stepbrother one weekday afternoon.

You were rarely left alone at the house with any of your step siblings, much less Natsuo. Doctor Todoroki was always the first one out the door and the last one to come back each day, slipping into his room by the time he got back in the early mornings from the hospital and not appearing until he had to go back again. 

Today was a bit different. Today, Todoroki Natsuo got to sleep past his alarm and sat in the living room as the sun shined through the window while the rest of his family was out doing their own thing. Except you, who coincidentally had nowhere to do during his precious day off and was staring absentmindedly at the tv while he tried to not pay too much attention to the limp in your walk and the hickey that was very much so not hidden by your loose shirt.

Natsuo gulped down the words that were stuck at the back of his throat, feeling his tongue laying flatly against his mouth as he felt the air around him thicken. 

No one had said anything about the clear elephant in the room when the rest of the family was around. His father and your mother were clearly oblivious, but he was sure the same question definitely appeared in his siblings’ heads. It frustrated him that Fuyumi only brushed it off as him being overly suspicious when he tried to hint that something but be going on between the new stepsister and the oldest Todoroki, even more so when Shouto was straight up in denial about how obvious it was. 

If anything, he was more concerned than anything else. He was sure Touya couldn’t be the nicest man to be involved with especially when he recalled all the malicious things his brother had said about how much he loathed the idea of a new stepsibling before his father got married.

“Did he hurt you?”

You froze in place at the abrupt question. Turning your head to the side, you saw Natsuo with his jaw clenched and lips pursed together at the other end of the coffee table. “He?”

“Touya,” he repeated, this time sounding a little firmer than before, “he is taking advantage of you, isn’t he?”

Oh.

Oh.

You glanced to the side, lowering your head a little as you toyed with the hem of your shorts. A slight thrill welled up in your chest when you heard him scooching closer to where you sat at your timid posture. He looked so concerned, like he was truly believing that you were in a compromisable position that you couldn’t tell anyone about.

What a good man he was, Todoroki Natsuo, you almost feel bad for pretending to hesitate before you slowly hook your finger under your shirt and lifted it over your head.

Natsuo’s breath hitched when he saw the bruises that covered your chest in the areas that weren’t covered by your bra. Bite marks darted along your skin, the subtle scars in the shape of finer prints burnt into the side of your waist. Touya got into a particularly fiery argument with Enji last night, and the aftermath was what Natsuo was now seeing as you stripped of your top in front of him. You had winced when you woke up that morning to see how fucked up you looked, fully planning to get Touya back for bruising you up this badly next time he touched you but you didn’t expect that his lost of control would be of use later on.

You looked battered, and you didn’t miss the gasp that left his lips as you folded your arms in front of your chest to make yourself smaller, pressing the marked skin of your chest together and pushing your cleavage out in the process.

“He’s so rough with me, Natsu nii...”

You sounded like you wanted to cry as you shy away from him, and his heart broke when you flinched away from his touch as he gently held onto your forearm. 

You were so delicate and fragile, how could anyone treat you as horribly as this? 

He let out a shaky breath when you latched onto his broad chest the moment he pulled you onto his lap. “Poor baby...” he whispered against your skin as he dipped his head down caging over you as he gingerly pulled your folded arms away. His throat bobbed at the sight of your curves and the many bruises dotting on your supple skin. You whimpered when he planted a soft peck on your neck, tilting your head back to allow him more access as his hand fumbled with the hook of your bra. 

You whimpered when he took it off of you, the strap sliding off your arms until it was thrown to the side. He could see all the marks and scars on your skin much more clearly now and it only fueled his urge to touch you all over and make sure he drowned you in affection even more. 

You whimpered when he rubbed circles against the side of your hips, his lips pressing against a particularly gruesome bruise below your collar bone.

“Natsu nii-

“Shh... it’s ok,” he hushed you with a peck on your pouting lips, pulling at your bottom lip softly when he pulled away, “nii chan will take care of you.”

His hand was cautious as he caressed your skin, soft lips trailing down your neck and darting his tongue out to swipe across each bruise and mark along the way. The brush of the tip tickled, leaving a spark of numbing tingles down your spine as his miniatures took over your head. Natsuo took his time, reducing you into mush with each press of his thumb at the side of your thighs and nibble of his teeth. A breathy moan slipped past your lips when he traced your pebbled nipple with his tongue, the air fanning against your skin making you all the more sensitive as he rolled the perked bud between his fingers. He treaded against the clouds of purple at the underside of your chest lightly, placing open kisses at each bruise like he was trying to erase the trails of what his brother had left on you.

Your hands held onto his shoulders when he buried his face in your chest, cupping the soft mounds in his palm as he licked each swell and dent on your torso. You whimpered as his large hands slipped past the elastic of your shorts, groping your ass as he lifted you off his lap just enough to pull the article off of your limbs. You felt a strange bashfulness when he eyed your naked form, almost looking like he was in awe when he slid his arms around your waist. 

Perhaps you were getting too into the mindset of a sweet baby sister wanting their brother’s attention that your body was starting to adopt the role a little bit too well.

“Lay down.”

His hand supported you at the small of your back, his much larger frame shadowing over you almost immediately at you touched the cold surface of the floor. The textured front of the tatami rubbed against your skin as he planted a firm kiss on your lips and you hissed into his mouth when the scratches down your back from last night by one very impatient Touya burned on your senses. 

Natsuo noticed your discomfort, cooing into your lips as his tongue slipped past your teeth and explored the warm cavity greedily. Your eyes were glassy when he pulled away, looking like a veil had draped over your vision hastily as you stared at him blankly and your lips parted. 

If he thought the marks on your upper body was bad, then seeing your naked form proved that he had severely underestimated what you had gone through before he took notice. You looked dazed as he perched on top of you, his eyes raking all over your body as he took count of the many bite marks and bruises that dipped down the v that led to your sex and your thighs that were pressed together tightly. There were clear marks of fingerprints littered over the plump flesh of your legs, evidential of how exactly did Touya take you last night.

You shuddered underneath Natsuo when he gripped onto your knees and parted your legs, arching your back off the ground and looking to the side to hide your face when he stared straight at your bare cunt. Your folds clenched with each heave of your chest, looking all the more inviting with the sheer shine that coated your core from his earlier touches. But he found himself immediately noticing the faded marks at the back of your thighs where they were connected to your hips, the prints permanent on your skin and whispering to him exactly what you had been doing with his brother when no one was around.

The image of Touya digging his fingers into your thighs as he folded your legs up despite your whines burned into his head, his vision growing redder and redder at the thought of your tight hole being railed so hard you tear up in pleas but to no avail.

He was supposed to be the nice brother, the gentle one who kiss you all over and holds you in the center of his palm before putting you back into one piece after the other had shattered you, but all he could think of was how much he wanted to replace the same tears with his own marks right now when he was looking right at the tiny body that his brother had messed with.

“Natsuo...? Ah-” you squeaked when his previously soft hold was replaced with a sudden squeeze at your inner thigh, your limbs being manhandled into a position that was challenging your flexibility. You could not help but throw your head back when he pushed your legs all the way up until they were hooked over his shoulders, the back of your knees almost touching your chest when he leaned down once again.

His tongue tangling with yours distracted you from the sounds of belt buckles rattling for a second, until the feeling of something prodding at your entrance brought your eyes snapping open. 

“Don’t worry about a thing...” he muttered against your lips as he dragged his leaking tip along your folds, his hand pulling the hood of your clit back and rubbing at the sensitive nub to ease more of your wetness out until his cock threatened to glide past your fluttering folds with the lubrication. His eyes were fixed on your face, but your reflection appearing on his blown out eyes seemed almost empty as he talked but more like to himself than to you.

His length felt heavy as the tip pushed past the muscle of your walls, earning him a breathless sigh from you as you took his hot inch bit by bit until it settled at the pit of your stomach. You could feel every part of his pressing against you in this position, your core flexing to accommodate his girth but still felt a white burn at the back of your head when he rolled his hips before slamming down again.

He was much... thicker than Touya, and the vein that was throbbing at the side of his shaft left a phantoming feeling in your walls with every thrust. His face was buried at the crook of your neck, each grunt and pant warm on your skin and seeping into your core as vibrations from his chest. There was no space between your bodies as he drilled into you, his plows short and rapid like he did not even want to have a second of his body not touching yours. 

Your voice sounded foreign to your ears as you gripped onto his hair for leverage, the broken notes of each mewl and the pathetic cries making you feel possessed as your knees shook with each hilt of his tip in that spongey spot deep inside of you.

“Na- Natsuo nii...”

He groaned at the sweet moans of his name rolling off your tongue, his hand running up and down at the back of your thigh in encouragement when you clamped down strongly around him with each slap of his balls against your ass.

“Fuck-” he gritted in your ear, his thrusts growing sloppy as you tried to lift your hips up to meet him and pushing his cock deeper into you, “you’re so pretty like this... so pretty taking your nii chan’s cock-”

You whined at the compliment, even though the reaction felt so off for the mindset you went into this with. There was something about how differently demanding he was when he was fucking into your tight cunt, the way he wanted to drink in all of your attention and send you into a spiral making thrills boil up in the waves of pleasure that crashed onto you.

He thought he was the one with the power, but we all take what we need from who we want it from.

“Cum around me- that’s it... that’s it...”

He let out a choked moan as your walls spasmed around his aching cock, his hands holding your legs firmly as he held himself still with his hips pressed up snugly against your hips. Your head fell back as your lips parted when you felt the warmth of each spurt of his cum painting your insides, each pulse and throb of his length printing against your walls. A soft whimper was pulled from the back of your throat when he pulled out, the last few drops of his load darting across your lower stomach as he remained his hold on your legs. Natsuo felt breathless at the beads of white that was seeping past your slit, his hands moving before he could think to push the leaking substance back into your hole despite the weak moans you made as you shook under his touch.

Natsuo pressed his palm flat against your sex like he was blocking the mixture of your arousal and his released from slipping out when he brought his hand under your arm. You couldn’t do anything but laid soundly in his arms when he lifted you up, your legs felt like jelly as he held you close to his chest.

“Get some rest, baby, I’ll tuck you in after cleaning you up...”

-

The arrangement continued, but this time with one more man into the mix.

Every night after Touya arrange your guts, Natsuo would put you back together with languish thrusts and not an inch of your skin untouched the next day. Where the eldest burned, the other would soothe over with icy breaths and gentle coos. All Natsu nii asked for return was the loving stare you gave him from behind your fluttering lashes and sheepish nods when he asked you if you feel good from your nii chan’s touch.

What you nearly forgot about, however, was that every night there was another Todoroki you had pushed to the back of your head just a wall next to you while you were getting your brains fucked out.

Todoroki Shouto was probably the most conflicted of the bunch when you walked into the meeting room for the first time. If anyone had asked, he would not deny that back when you were still his upperclassman by a year, before you suddenly dropped off his horizons one day out of nowhere, he was head over heels smitten with you. He was not the only one, if the way you surround yourself with others that gave a sickly sweet grin as they came up to you was any sign, but he liked to believe that he was the only one that really caught your eye. How could you not? If anything, it sufficiently flattered you that someone like Todoroki Shouto would eye you like a dumbfounded puppy when you came down to his year. You made sure to be extra nice to him too, smiling widely and laughing louder than you did for anyone else when he replied to each of your teasing questions with a degree of seriousness that you could not help but found yourself cooing at. 

(You never liked him the way he hoped you had, not that he would know or you would ever hint at it. It was just fun for you to have his attention and you would be the first one to say that you could not be blamed. Anyone else would have said the same thing had they been in your place.) 

By the spring he was about to move into your second year, you were gone. He had tried to ask around about your whereabouts but no one could give an answer. There were rumours, but all of them were so drastically different that it was near impossible to narrow down the possibilities. And so his innocent, bittersweet school crush was shattered into dust without even a proper heartbreak or revelation.

Now imagine how he felt when he saw his dead crush appearing in front of him years after he last saw them, now as his new stepsister that he never asked for.

You seemed to have latched onto him at first, striking up a conversation with him when everyone else made it clear that you were not welcomed. He felt an overbearing weight in his chest every time you flashed him a wide smile that was so nostalgic but also felt oddly different, like it was you had the same shell as before but the contents in it were missing. He told himself again and again that he had been over you for years now, but the pounding in his chest whenever you laughed around him was a brutal reminder that this could be the chance for him to finally get his hands on what was never his.

The thoughts that clouded his head when he thought of how you were just a room away from him at night was terrifying, and he wasn’t sure what to do with the realisation that there was something as ugly as that stirring deep in his mind. So he took the complete opposite approach to what his yearning was whispering at the back of his head and stayed away from you as far as possible, even when the center of his palms felt like they were about to start seeping blood at how deep his nails dug in at the sight of his brothers getting friendlier and friendlier with you.

Then one day, at the unholy hour when he had to lower each step he took striding back to his room after a late patrol, he heard a soft noise coming from the back of your door that could not be anything other than a moan.

He froze, his eyes widening as he questioned his own hearing when the same sweet sound rang again. It was subtle and he would not have caught on unless he was expecting it, but it sounded almost mocking in his ear as his leg moved on their own until his ear was pressing right at the wooden board that blocked him from seeing what you were doing inside that drew those tempting notes out of your lips. 

This was wrong, he swallowed the bitterness in his mouth as the stir in his stomach sunk in, very wrong, but he could not stop himself from wondering how good you must be looking at that moment with your legs parted and fingers pumping in your cunt, your back arching as you tried to bury your face in your pillow as you imagined that it was someone else touching you.

The wire in his head snapped into half when he heard a voice so familiar but yet so strange that mixed into the incoherent string of lewd noises.

“Stay quiet, or do you want people to hear how much of a whore you are?”

His head went blank, and then he turned almost robotically stiff towards his own room when he finally connected the dots of what was going on.

He did not look any bit suspicious when you greeted him the next morning, but he swore he was seeing white when he spotted the way Touya’s hand lingered at your forearm just too long for it to be friendly when he was asking you to pass him the milk.

It got incredibly hard for him to ignore everything that was going on once he found out what happened every night when the house was supposed to be asleep. It was Touya most of the time, but occasionally he would hear the muffled voice of his other brother seeping into his ears through the thin walls too. He should not have listened, especially with how clearly he knew the burn in his chest was a result of anger. How could they just fuck around with you like this when he was there, suffering because you were so close but he could not reach out? 

Yet when his hand ghosted over the bulge in his pants as he listened to the broken cries of someone else’s name from the back of your throat, it was jealousy that made him tug at his length almost violently as the squelching and panting died down until there was nothing left but the stickiness lacing his fingers as an evidence of what happened.

He listened with intent, wondering if you would eventually come onto him too. He heard the way you call his brothers’ “nii san” and found it harder and harder for him to even look at you straight without imagining the way you would look coming undone underneath him when he heard the same words dripping off your tongue in a seemingly innocent manner in the day. 

But you never did, and he was starting to lose patience from waiting.

Why his brothers but not him when he was the one that had wanted you for so long? What was it that his nee san never wanted to fall into his bed when you so gladly let other men crash into yours?

You did not hear the door creaked open as you laid with your stomach on the bed, your legs arching from the knees onwards as you lounge around with a book in hand. You jumped with a gasp when you saw Shoto standing at the side of your bed, putting your book down carefully with the page you stopped at facing down as you looked up.

“Why are you here, Shouto kun?”

You called him “Shouto kun” when it was “nii chan” for Touya and Natsuo. 

He furrowed his eyebrows at how clueless you looked as you stared at him. Your chest were pushed together against the mattress as you rolled to your side, the exposed skin of your legs ticking him off as a reminder of how different you sounded from when he eavesdropped at your little rendezvous every night.

He took your by surprise when he leaped onto the bed, his knees causing a dent at each side of your body when you could not react except allowing your mouth to fall apart at his sudden and strange behaviour.

“Shouto! What are you- mhp-”

You were taken back by the force at which he crashed down on you. You could not process what was going on until the feeling of his burning lips kissing and nibbling at your own settle in as a numbing pain, his tongue forcing it’s way past your teeth as he trapped you underneath his frame.

You took a hasty breath when he pulled away, his eyes staring you down like he was waiting for a reaction as you looked at him with wide eyes.

“Do you not like it when I kiss you, nee san?”

All the words got caught at the back of your throat when his voice rang in your ear, almost eerily calm considering how his teeth were just clashing against yours moments ago. You did not put as much thought into buying your way into Shouto’s side as much as you did the rest of the family, knowing that no matter how small, there had got to be a certain place for you in his heart from the melancholy of an old crush somewhere. 

“Even though you like it when it was Touya nii and Natsu nii touching you?”

But now he was on top of you, his eyes quirking up as his hand gripped onto the sheets at the side of your head, his lips almost like he was pouting as he trapped you there.

Nee san...

Right, how foolish of you to forget. 

He was your brother too.

“Come here,” he leaned into your touch almost immediately when you reached out for him. His breath was shaky as you sat up, your lips ghosting against his before you whispered all while looking into his eyes. “let nee san show you how to do it...”

He did not react at first when you kissed him, your fingers threading into where the white met the red at the back of his head as you deepened the kiss. The little whimper he made when you moved his hand onto the side of your waist did something to you, and suddenly you wondered why you waited so long before doing this. 

You chuckled into his mouth when he clumsily held onto your jaw, his tongue swiping at your bottom lip before slipping past. You made sure to moan almost a bit exaggeratedly when you felt his hand running up your abdomen and stopping at your tits, pressing down encouragingly when he fondled with the soft mound. 

He got bolder and bolder as you replied to each miniature, the years of longing erupting in him as he gripped onto your thigh and hooked it at the side of his hip. You yelped at the sudden shake of your vision when he flipped you so that you were straddling his lap. You whimpered when you felt the hardness that was poking against you, his hand now sliding underneath your shirt to toy with your perked nipples as your hand planted firmly on hid toned stomach.

“I’ve wanted to touch you for so long...”

His breath was feverish on your skin when he peeled your shirt off, his lips latching onto your chest almost immediately once you were bare as his fingers dug deeper into your skin like he wanted to leave a bruise. You moaned when he flicked his tongue against the hard bud, licking and nibbling as he stared at your face while holding onto your ribcage. 

“Wanted to kiss you for so long...”

You mewled when he bit down a little too hard on your collarbone, his tongue swiping across the dents of the mark as his hand continued to knead your soft flesh. 

“Now you’re finally here- with me...”

A roll of his hips had his hard one pressing against your thinly covered pussy, the friction and the heat that was burning against you making you bit down on your lips to stop the moan from slipping past your lips. He gave a dissatisfied pinch to your breast when he saw the action, humming in content when the sudden shock of pain made you hiss.

“No, no, don’t hold it in,” his two toned eyes sent a chilling shiver down your spine as he glared at you in warning, one hand finding grip on the base of your thigh while the other slid into the band of your shorts before pulling it down the curve of your ass, “I want to hear every sound you makes while you get fuck by your little brother...”

His skin heated up when your face contorted together in pleasure when his hands gripped onto the cheeks of your ass and parted them roughly, the flesh jiggling when he released it from his hold with a pull. 

“Hm!” you whimpered when he felt his palm rubbing at your folds, the tip of his fingers pressing down on your clit before he dragged each digit up along your slit to gather the wetness that was starting to form from his stimulation. Your lips fell apart when he slipped the first finger in, then added another, and the third. He watched in amazement at each pull of the muscle of your face as he stretched you out around his slender fingers, feeling your cunt sucking him in as he slowly pumped them in and out of your hole.

It was almost unreal, the person that had lingered in his dreams for years on end now naked in his lap and moaning because of his fingers scissoring inside of her. His cock felt painful straining against his pants when you rolled your hips back, impatient for how he moved agonisingly slow inside of you in order to draw out each reaction you gave him. His chest swelled at the sight of you slamming yourself down on his fingers as you laid on his body, your hands gripping at the cotton of his shirt all while arching your ass up so he could rub every inch of your walls.

“You look so pretty fucking yourself on my fingers, nee san...” Shouto whispered against your lips, his free hand bringing you close to him to kiss your quivering lips as he crocked his fingers inside of you and ripping a sharp mewl from the back of your throat.

“Sho- Shoto-” the syllables of his name chocked out of your tongue that felt heavy in your mouth, your knees that prop you up on his lap feeling weak as you alternated the speed at which you threw yourself back at him to chase the tightening of your core.

The drop yanked you back by the seams when you were greeted with a sudden emptiness as you were close to snapping, a squeak spilled out from the back of your throat when you clenched around nothing. Your instinct was to press your legs together to stop the running arousal from dripping down your thighs from the flex of your walls but Shouto held you still with his hands, the wetness that was coating his fingers smearing over your skin as he brushed against your thighs before bringing them to his face.

Your face was burning when he moved his digits apart, showing you the string of your essence that was sticking to his skin before he brought it to his lips. Your stomach flipped when he darted his tongue out, licking his fingers clean like a kitten as he groaned.

“You taste so sweet...” he pulled you close to him like he wanted to give you a taste of it too, the saltiness of yourself tickling your cavity as his words were muffled by his lips on you, “I would have gotten a taste for myself directly much earlier if I knew this is how you taste, but right now...”

He brought your hand to his bulge, the hardness filling under your palm as you cupped his erection. Your hand wrapped around the base of his girth the moment you pulled it out of the band of his sweats and it pressed against his lower stomach, the vein that climbed up the side pulsing under your touch as you ran your finger along his cock. 

Your breath hitched at the back of your throat when he lifted you up, your cunt hovering above his tip as he muttered against your neck.

“I want to be in you, nee san.”

It took every fiber in your being to stop yourself from screaming out when he let go of you, slamming you down all the way until he was balls deep inside of you. He sighed at how warm you were all wrapped up around him, his arms snaking around your waist as he started bouncing you on his cock.

You scratched down on his chest through his shirt with each hilt of his length in you, your eyes pressing tightly into thin lines as you fought against the shocks that ran down your spine. He bit down on your skin in discontent, glaring at you like he was warning you to keep your focus on him as he railed in you.

It was fear that made your eyes snapped wide open when you heard a click of someone’s tongue from your back.

“Take this as a lesson to lock your door.” 

Shouto’s nails on your skin felt like they could draw blood when he shot up to see the grinning face of his eldest brother, his blood curling when you clamped down around him at a moment of panic. 

“Touya!"

He hated the way your eyes moved away from him onto the man leaning against the door, the name that wasn’t his sounding so breathless as it rolled off your tongue.

Touya had already gotten his fair share of your time, now he wanted to interrupt when it was finally his turn?

“Fuck off,” Shouto sneered but the other Todoroki only let out a dry chuckle at his defensive state as he walked towards where you were. His eyed you up and down, how tense you were as you froze under the intrusion evidential as the muscles of your legs pulled taut against your skin.

“Aw, don’t shut me out so quickly, I’m sure she doesn’t mind,” Touya mused, seeming to be egged on even more when he saw his brother tightening his hold on your hips when he shamelessly gripped himself on the crotch over his sweats. “You’re at it already,” you let out a soundless hiss when he pulled your head back just the way he liked it as he yanked his pants down, eyeing his little brother that was staring daggers at him out of the corner of his eyes as he pulled his cock out, “why not take another one?”

Almost like he was asserting his claim, Shouto snapped you out of your trance with a thrust up into your cunt. The sudden friction made your mouth fell apart as a moan was ripped from the back of your throat but it was quickly muffled into a gag when Touya took the chance to shove his cock in your mouth. He hardened and filled inside of you as he held your head still, pulling you to the side so that you were staring helplessly at the man who was slamming into you as he pushed his cock deep at the back of your throat with each surge of his hips.

This was nowhere near the same time Touya treated your mouth as nothing but another hole to fuck but the hilt of his tip at the back of your cavity still made your eyes tear up immediately as the burn settled into the pit of your stomach. Shouto did not give up easily, determined to make sure that his brother’s cock drilling in your mouth was not enough to divide your attention away from him as he threw you up and down on his length vigorously as the lewd squelches and slapping noises echoed off the walls. 

Touya’s laugh came out like a howl when he felt the vibrations of your moans around his girth, loving the way you had drool leaking from the corner of your lips as he gripped your head with both hands and pivoted in you. He was laughing, but the stare he cast his brother was no less competitive than the younger boy who was clearly not happy about sharing. 

The tension was thick in the air, like they were taking out whatever rivalry that had rooted between them out on you as they treated you like nothing but a toy that they could break if they fight over it hard enough. You had never seen Shouto this visibly angered before, his handsome face twisted together as the scowl tugging at his lips stayed permanent. Your muffled pants and gags as well as the sound of skin against skin was all that could be heard as the two men bared their teeth at each other, Touya in a menacing grin and Shouto like he was ready to tear the other’s smile off his face.

You felt like you were being pulled apart by the threads, with Touya pulling your hair until your scalp felt numb from the pain and Shouto digging his fingers in your ass a little bit too forcefully. The way Touya forced your face away was enough to get under his skin but Shouto could not look away as tears tainted your cheeks as his brother held you still at the base of his cock, your nose brushing against his pubic hair while your nostrails flared in a desperate attempt to breathe. Each thrust of his hips sent both cocks deeper inside you, the burn pulsing all through your body as your toes curled.

“Hnpm-”

“Go on,” Touya gave a tug at your scalp, pulling at the side of your eyes and forcing you to look right at Shouto, “stare into his eyes while you swallow my cum.”

And you did, the bitter and salty mixture pouring down your throat and almost scorching where it touched as you gulped down his load as he held you still, almost choking on your own spit as you stared at the younger boy from behind your glassy eyes. His pupils were blown out as he fixated on the sight of your throat bobbing and white leaking out of the corner of your lips which were wrapped around his brother’s cock, your jaw almost slack as Touya pulled out and pressed your jugulars tight to make sure you drank everything he had to give you.

You did not dare to move as Touya tucked his limp cock back into his pants, still smiling ear to ear before he turned around but not without throwing down another snarky remark.

“Treat her rougher,” his glance darted towards you for a second before looking back at his brother, “she likes it that way.”

The acidity welled up in your mouth as Shouto stayed put, the lack of even a sound or movement somehow stirring in your stomach until it was all tied up as a knot. Your skin felt clammy with your sweat when he shifted under you, his cock very much so still pressing hard against your gut as he moved and sending sparks all the way to the tip of your toes.

“Open your mouth."

His voice was scary calm as he commanded and you reacted before even processing his words. Shouto gripped onto your jaw, his teeth hurting from how hard he was clenching down as he looked at the trails of white along your chin and the residues of cum on your tongue. 

You shivered when something cold landed in your open mouth, a silver string connected his lips and dripping down your tongue.

“Swallow.”

The last bit of cum mixed together with his spit slid down your throat as you felt small under his gaze. It was like a switch was flipped inside of him when he slammed you on the bed, him now taking full control as he perched on top of you much like when he initially came onto you tonight and thrusting up hard, fast, deep into your cunt.

Your mind was too muddled for you to think straight at the shocks of electricity spiking across your skin when the tip of his cock rubbed along your walls furiously, your pants and moans coming out as slurred strings of incomprehensible noises. He sounded animalistic as his teeth graced past your pulse point at the side of his neck, the muscles in his stomach tensing up both from getting close to his edge and the scene from earlier of you getting face fucked by his brother right in front of his eyes replaying in his head again and again.

“When I’m done,” you could barely make out what he said as you slammed your head back, “my cock will be all you can think of- all you need...”

You whined when his cock sheathed against the spongey spot right below your pelvis, a sharp cramp creeping onto your legs that were already close to giving in at the melting pleasure. 

“I’ll fuck you again and again if that’s what it takes,” he grunted. 

Again and again, until all the traces of other people’s hand tainting your skin was wiped off with his mark instead.

“Starting-” his shoulders shook as his hips surged forward, his cock throbbing in you as he dipped his head down, your legs threw weakly around his waist as you felt the heat from his chest blazing against your skin.

“Now.”

You arched yourself off the mattress at the feeling of his cum filling you up, his body stiff on top of you as he pumped his load in you. He gripped onto your knees almost immediately when you wanted to put your legs down, giving a few more thrust before finally pulling out of you but still not letting go. 

He tried to go a few rounds more that night, but you managed to settle him at your side in your bed with a soft whine and your arms latching onto his waist tightly as you buried your face in his chest.

Shouto was the only person who had fallen asleep next to you of all the ones that had gotten into your bed at night, looking almost angelically serene as he drifted into slumber that you didn’t have the heart to wake him up even though the fear of someone catching him sneaking out at daybreak next morning scared you.

No one did, of course, and even if they do, they all did a very good job not saying a word about it.

-

Todoroki Fuyumi did nothing but furrow her eyebrows and sighed when she saw her own brother slipping out from your room at the crack of dawn, before going back to her normal day-to-day routine like she did not just witness the confirmation that she could no longer pretend she did not sense things stirring under the roof she called home as she did ever since you moved into the house.

If anyone asked, Fuyumi would be very honest with the fact that while less obvious about her dismay, she was about as keen on the prospect of a woman no one had met before marrying into the family and bringing an adult child with her as the rest of her siblings. The family was messed up enough as it was, no need to bring an outsider into the mix to further complicate the matter. There was also the convenient fact that the buffer period between her birth mother’s death and the announcement of the engagement was far too short for anyone’s comfort, and the speculation of an overlaps in the timeline where Enji started seeing his new wife while his now deceased wife was hanging onto the last breath of her life by a thread.

But she hid the urge to scrunch her face up the first time she met her new stepsister and stepmother and smiled, knowing full well that the others would take up the role of pushing you away until eventually you would have to break under their scrutinising gaze.

Fuyumi had always been the one trying to hold the family together, even if it meant turning a blind eye on the cracks that were starting to form.

The first siren call was when Touya came downstairs one morning acting like a completely different person around you then he was the night before. She felt her guts twisting together at how sickly sweet his voice was as he passed by you, his arms draping over your shoulder slightly before he slumped down on his own seat. Touya was supposed to be the one that was the least likely to wield out of the four, god knows how much of a tantrum he threw when he learnt of the engagement. Something must have happened over night for him to go from sneering at you to cooing at you in the matter of hours, and what the something might be was not a pleasant thing to guess around on.

Still, Fuyumi didn’t confront her brother on his strange antics. Even after she became rather certain on how accurate her guess was regarding your relationship as the bruises on your thigh and offhanded teases got more and more blatant each day. Touya had always been one to play around, she had sent many pretty young things off in the mornings when she came to the living room to find them sitting there with their clothes very wrinkled and legs very much so wobbling with each step. 

He was probably doing it as a protest like most other things he had done and it would take no time for him to get bored of you. 

But one morning turned into a week, and Todoroki Touya only seemed to grow closer and closer to you as each day passed.

Natsuo was much worse when it came to playing things off compared to his older brother and Fuyumi noticed almost immediately when he started getting involved with you too. It should not have come as a surprised, it certainly was not to her. Sentimentally, the two older Todoroki boys were often similar but expressing it in different ways. Fuyumi was aware of how a yearning for being needed was in place of his head where the desire for chaos was cemented in Touya’s. 

It took her a while to see how tightly you had Natsuo wrapped around your fingers, how he very much so ignored the way you amped up your helplessness and dependence when he was around that seemed almost painfully blatant to her. But it didn’t unsettle her as much as it did when the dynamic between you and the siblings switched the first time. If anything, this was the more logical progression. Natsuo had always been the more passive one with his attitude towards you, and him shifting stances would not do much to the scene.

It got harder and harder to bite on her tongue and stay quiet ever since she caught Shouto walking out of your room. She was the most concerned about the youngest Todoroki and his almost dangerous affection towards you. She had connected the dots herself after some baiting fished out that you two were already acquainted before the untimely marriage. She saw the way Shouto watched you with so much fever in his eyes when the other two even inched close to you, the unhidden teeth marks on your arms and legs almost too deliberate for her to not think too much about it. It was the self-righteousness of finally getting something that was lost, and Fuyumi found this one particular budding flame to burn hotter and more destructive than the rest.

You were playing a very dangerous game here, and she was the only one that was left out of it until right now.

Right now, it was a heavy silence in the room at the far end of the house where no one would go to. Fuyumi was sitting right opposite you, both of your postures looking extremely formal with your feet tucked under your legs, hands planed flat on both thighs as you waited for her to say something.

You had a dreadful feeling you knew what this was about when she asked you to go with her for something important with a face so expressionless it scared you.

She had not said a word after she motioned you to sit down on the tatami, looking blankly at the empty floor in front of you like she was deep in thought. All you could hear was the pounding in your eardrum and the steady breaths the left your own nostrils, your hands wanting to claw at the fabric of your shorts to ease the shaking nerves but your head fighting it back with an unwillingness to look like you did not have the upper hand.

You did not, and you were genuinely horrid by the direct confrontation that you did not have to go through with the rest of the family.

“I know you’re sleeping with my brothers.”

Her voice came out like the notes of a lullaby, ghosting in the air but knocking you right in the lungs. She said it like it was nothing but a trivial fact, not a question but a statement that she knew you could not deny.

Fuyumi looked right at you now, like she could see right through your soul and all the gears running in your head as they spun like mad while thoughts trampled your head. Her eyes were clear, so clear behind the frame of her glasses and at the moment you knew she did not leave room for you to lie or try to get your way out of it.

"I am,” you replied. 

It felt almost cathartic to say out loud. There was no need for you to pretend or lie or appease towards someone who already had your game figured out, and there was something about being on the same page that anchored you on your footing.

“Why?”

Yes, why?

“I need to find my place in this house,” you answered, feeling your mind go blank as you reached to the pit of your core and dragged out the words you were searching for, “and they wanted me.”

They wanted you.

You gave them what they wanted in exchange for what you needed, the simple equation that formed the beauty, the complexity and the rotting of human desires.

Your breathing shifted to go with her rhythm without even knowing as she sighed, long and shaky as she dropped her head.

She went into this with the determination that one way or another, she would get you to stop with whatever you were doing with her brothers so things would go back to normal once and for all without lingering glances and hints that weren’t so subtle and glares at the dining table, but now she wasn’t so determined anymore. Fuyumi now realised that things had never been normal, the cracks gad always been here and you simply found a way to slip through.

They wanted you, but what did she want? 

Todoroki Fuyumi was the one who desperately tried to hold the family together through the years when her siblings were deep in resentment and her father obsessed with making a legacy out of what was left, even if it took filling up the growing cracks bit by bit until she didn’t even know who she was doing it for anymore. 

If the cracks had managed to close because they all wanted the same thing, then so be it.

You did not flinch away when Fuyumi leaned forward, her lips stilled on yours as she held herself up with her palms on the floor. Her lips were cold, like the first rain drop that fell into the calm ocean before the surface started to ripple into many, many silver rings, until it melted into the heat on your skin and seeped right under.

You felt a tingle unlike any you had experienced when you snapped out of your shock and kissed her back, subtle closing and opening of lips turned into gentle nibbling as you gravitated towards her body. Her skin was so soft, and the way she held onto your jaw with the tips of her finger as she made you parted your mouth wider was almost tender in a way. 

You couldn’t stop the whimper from slipping out when she sucked on your tongue, hand placed at the base of your spine to press your body closer to hers. Her chest squished against yours and you whined when she shoved her knee between your legs. Her palm smoothed over your curves and down to the swell of your hips as she cradled your face, gripping on the doughy flesh encouragingly as she guided you to hump against her thigh. 

Her breath was shaky when she pulled away, the one drum in her heart particularly loud when her eyes landed on your misted stare behind hooded lids.

So this was why they were all so crazy about you.

One tilt of her head was enough of a sign as you latched onto her, your lips trailing along her exposed neck and down to the collar of her shirt. She sighed when you rolled it up from the hem, your hands cupping her tits before placing open kisses on the delicate skin. The way her skin flushed under your touch was an intoxicating sight and you found yourself wanting more as you pushed the cup of her bra down to wrap your lips around her nipple. It was the moan she made when you sucked on the bud that set you off, the way it hardened in your mouth as you swirled your tongue around it had you bucking your hips against her legs uncontrollably. 

The saltiness that lingered on her skin provoked your senses as you trailed down, making sure to kiss every soft curve and dent of her body before settling at the waistband of her pants. Her legs were tight around your head when you pulled it down, the muscles of her thighs flexing when your mouth hovered right above her sex. She laid back to allow you better access and you could see her breasts heaving with each heavy exhale above you as she leaned against the tatami. You tested the waters with a kitten lick along her folds, getting a little bolder when her legs clenched around your shoulders and she let her head fell back with a hum. Her cunt clenched around nothing when you pulled away, the silver string of your saliva connecting her folds and your lips was sinful as you took in the clear essence that was starting to form. 

She mewled when you dipped back down, your hand kneading her soft thighs as your tongue parted her folds and savoured the taste of her arousal. Your finger brushed past her pubic hair as you pulled back the hood of her clit, the shudder of her legs hitting you in full force when you flicked your tongue against the engorged bud. Fuyumi brought her hand to the back of your head, her fingers lacing into your hair to shove your face closer against her pussy as she rolled her hips, pressing herself on your face for more friction.

Her lips fell open when you eased a finger into her tight hole, the velvet walls gushing with wetness sucking your digit in as you pumped it in her cunt. Toes curling under the pleasure when you added in another one while your lips focused on her clit.

“Hm- right there!” she panted when you scissored your fingers in her, stretching her out as you slurped up her juices that were trailing down your wrist and seeping with each flick of your wrist. You could feel her tightening around your fingers and you looked up only to feel a rush of heat down your core when you saw her face. 

Her glasses had fallen half way down the bridge of her nose, the lenses were not enough to hide her blown out pupils that were hazy with lust. A furious flush dusted across her cheek and reached the tip of her ear, plump lips parted as her tits bounced with each heave of her chest. Her throat bobbed when you arched your fingers inside of her, strumming along her clenching walls encouragingly as meek moans rolled off her tongue. 

The musky scent overwhelmed you when you sucked down hard on her clit, her legs kicking mid-air as a lewd moan rippled out from her lungs while you held her still. The pad of your fingers dragging along her insides rang tingles on her scalp as she came on your mouth, the squelch from her wet cunt loud in your ear when you pulled your hand away and earning you a whimper. 

Fuyumi’s vision was still clouded over by the aftershocks of her orgasm but she found herself unable to look away when you darted your tongue out to lick your fingers clean between her legs. The grip on your shoulder as she ushered you up was almost painful before it was replaced by the feeling of her fumbling hands trying to stripe you down, her whining into your mouth at the taste of her arousal on your tongue as she cupped your ass.

Your moan as she pulled you to straddle her thigh was muffled when she pushed your head down against her chest, the soft mounds pillowing you as she dug her fingers into your hips and pressed down. Your cunt throbbed when it rubbed against the smooth skin of her leg, the muscle beneath flexing and coaxing out numbing shivers along your spine. Your hands flew to find hold on her arm as she bounced the leg you were riding, your back arching and pushing you closer to her as your eyes shut tight. 

The coil in the pit of your stomach tightened with each drag of your folds along her thigh, feeling her hot skin under your touch as your hands roamed all over her body. Your breath fanned against her skin, each moan and pant rumbling against her in weak vibrations. She kept one arm around your waist as the other slid down her stomach and stopping at her slit. Every hair on her skin stood up at the sight of your shoulders tensing up, slipping her fingers in as the speed at which you rolled your hips against her flesh increased and setting a feverish pace like she was rushing to tip over.

You tried to follow the rhythm of her fingers jamming in her cunt with the thrust of your hips, your legs almost cramping up as your toes curled and uncurled. She thumped her leg up and down more vigorously as muscles pulled taut under her skin, fighting back the urge to roll her eyes back so she wouldn’t miss the miniatures on your expression as you came undone.

“Are you close?” she let out a hasty chuckle when you nodded rapidly, her hand that was on your torso gripping down encouragingly as she aimed her fingers at the spot that had shocks pulsing through her veins, “then cum on me- cum on nee chan-”

The band in you snapped at the coo, your nails leaving white lines on her skin as you scratched down. Your hips dragged sloppily along her skin as you rode out your high, lying weakly on her shoulder as you looked up at her. Fuyumi threw her head back as her arm tensed, the joint of her wrist popping out as a sharp moan spilled from her mouth. 

All that could be heard in the room was the pants that were under your ear as you leaned on her chest, the steady rise and fall under your cheek luring you into a state of serenity. A mellow heat slowly imploded from your core, spreading through your skin and planting at the back of your head. 

Fuyumi’s arm draped over your frame loosely, her breaths slowly calming down as she drummed a soothing rhythm against your skin, the tempo synching with the pounding under your ear.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Your eyelids felt heavier and heavier as the warmth seeped in, your shoulders almost weightless for the first time in a while.

So you closed your eyes, and listened to the steady beats of your sister’s heart, until you could hear nothing at all.

-

“Sometimes I feel bad for always leaving you at the house on your own.”

Your mother’s smile was apologetic as she rummaged her bag for her keys as she shoved her feet in her heels. You leaned against the frame of the door, tilting your head as you tap your feet against the ground.

“It’s alright, I have company around,” you said with a hum, “leave it, I’ll lock the door for you.”

Your mother paused, looking up from her bag with an almost sheepish sounding chuckle as you leaned over for the knob. She had been worried about whether you would get alienated by the Todoroki children when she married into the family, but it seemed like her worries were unneeded after all.

Sometimes she would walk in on you with the rest of Enji’s children and laugh to herself at how silly she was for even thinking that you would have an issue blending in.

You were a strong girl, you could always find a way to manage yourself through anything.

Your throat felt dry when your mother suddenly gripped your hands in her palm, the calloused pad of her fingers rubbing against your wrist as she looked at you, looking almost teary eyed as she shook her head with a laugh.

“I’m so glad that you are happy here,” she said, the wrinkles at the corner of her eye crinkling up as she smiled, “I really am.”

The tug at the corner of your lips felt almost stiff as you squeezed her hand, nodding to the way she shook your clasped hands like words could not do her thoughts justice. Her touch lingered, even after you gave her a light chuckle and reminded her that she would be late if she doesn’t head out soon. 

She gave you one last look before stepping out the door, the beaming grin on her face not once faltering before she was gone from your sight.

She did not need to know. You thought to yourself as you turned around, your hand rubbing at where your mother’s emotionally tight grip had left a warm sting on your skin as you headed back upstairs.

Your family was waiting for you, after all.

#bnha imagines #bnha x reader #bnha smut #todoroki x reader #todoroki smut #kinktober 2020 #tw: stepcest #tw: pseudo-incest

[maddiwrites]

The Hybrid (Prologue)

Pairing: JJ x Reader

Summary: The Pogues rekindle their friendship with their old childhood best friend and JJ’s first crush, Y/N. Old feelings resurface for JJ and Y/N, possibly leading to a summer neither one of them could ever forget. Due to past trauma, Y/N is reluctant to let anyone into her heart, but JJ never backs down from a challenge, even if he knows it will come back to haunt him in the end.

Note: So happy to be back with another series!!! I honestly really missed posting. Unlike Secrets of the Shore, updates will be slower because I don’t have them all written out yet. A couple things I wanted to let you know before you read. I based Y/N’s family off of Gilmore Girls. I thought they were the perfect fit for this story and the show in general and I just love their dynamic. (Including Luke who I renamed Steve for obvious reasons). Chapter 1 will explain more obviously but I wanted to give you guys a little snippet of the characters and relationships. So let me know what y'all think!

Word Count: 3.3k

Outer Banks. Paradise on Earth. It's the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses. Two tribes, one island. As you know, the Outer Banks is essentially divided into two groups. If we want to be blunt - it’s the rich and the poor. Figure Eight is home to the rich. Aka the Kooks. With houses bigger than necessary with extra rooms that go untouched, boats the size of homes on the Cut - the other side of the island. Most people who live on Figure Eight are your naturally raised assholes. People who don’t know the value of a dollar and take advantage of people who do most of their dirty work that lets them prance around the island with perfectly manicured fingernails. These hard workers are the Pogues. They live on the south side of the island where most Kooks wouldn’t be found dead. They serve fancy meals at the country club for shitty tips, mow lawns, and work their asses off at any other job for minimum wage. The drastic difference in lifestyles tend to cause many spats and arguments between the two communities. Especially between the teenagers who still don’t know how to control their raging emotions or know when to bite back their tongue. For the Kooks, every fight is a fight for dominance where as the Pogues fight for equality - to put the Kooks in their place. Many of these fights happen at summer parties where the two groups clash to find a good time with their friends filled with alcohol, drugs, and good music.

That’s where they find themselves tonight. The infamous Pogues. John B, JJ, Kie, Pope, and now Sarah Cameron. Although born a natural Kook, she’s earned her spot next to the adventurous teens and her boyfriend. Unlike her brother Rafe who basically is the leader of his notorious group. Topper and Kelce are his best friends who follow him blindly.

The Pogues watch them from their spot surrounding the keg. Kie purses her lips in distaste as the boys cat call for the ladies around them. Somehow most of them finding it flattering. Sarah sips on her beer to hide her embarrassment, often wondering how she and her brother grew up to be so different. Pope and John B stay mostly disinterested, only worried if they try to make a pass at an unwilling girl or fire a degrading comment at their short tempered friend. JJ Maybank is known around the island for his trouble making behavior. Usually if he gets in trouble for fights, no one ever asks who the other people were in the scuffle. Because if JJ Maybank is in the fight, he’s the one who started it, right? Wrong. In fact, JJ usually is never the one to start it. He’s good at keeping his head down and only speaking when spoken to when it comes to the Kooks - the only form of advice worth taking from his father. But his short temper is something the Kooks his age loved to take advantage of because they liked getting a rise out of him. It was like an adrenaline rush.

Luckily, tonight both groups were keeping their distance, either only talking to each other or random Tourons that have found their way to the party. This is usually JJ’s favorite part of a boneyard party. Finding his one fish in a sea of many that he can reel in just for the night and never have to worry about seeing them again.

He has his eyes set on a beautiful blonde making her way to the bonfire when all of a sudden Kie’s voice pulls him out of his trance.

“What’s she doing here?”

JJ follows her line of vision, spotting you walking down the wooden steps that lead to the beach, pulling your best friend behind you by his wrist. He first notices your smile and how it brightens up your entire face. Then of course his eyes scan down your slim but athletically toned body. You’re wearing a pair of jean shorts and a cropped white T shirt that says UNC across the chest. Who knew someone could look so good without even trying?

Well JJ did. He’s known it for a while.

“Careful. I think you’re drooling,” John B whispers in his best friend’s ear.

JJ pushes him away and mutters, “Shut up. No I’m not.”

But maybe he was.

Y/N Y/L/N is a unique resident of the island. Unlike majority of the island, she doesn’t fall in either Kook or Pogue category. She’s what everyone calls the Hybrid.

People who work hard for what they have but haven’t fallen to be Pogue status. Quite literally living in the middle in a place they call the Crest.

Your story is well versed among the gossipers of the island (which tends to be just about everybody).  And mainly that’s because of who your grandparents are.  Claude and Doris Y/L/N. Two of the riches people on the island, living in a three story house on the beach. Many people fear them, others envy them. Most feel both. Even Ward Cameron walks on egg shells around them, which is quite often, considering he works for Claude. They’re the kind of people who have never heard of Barefoot wine or Walmart. They keep their noses up and turn a blind eye to the suffering communities around them. Thirty four years ago, Doris gave birth to a daughter that couldn’t be more opposite than them. Lorelai Y/L/N was a wild child. A rule breaker. She snuck out at nights, dated boys her parents would never approve of, dabbled in breaking the law here and there. It didn’t matter how many times her parents disciplined her. She always managed to make her parents’ life a living hell. 

No one was surprised when word got passed around that Lorelai had gotten pregnant at eighteen. Although it was with another Kook, she brought shame upon her family name when she refused to get an abortion, even when her mom tried dragging her by her hair. 

Lorelai risked everything by running away from her parents’ home in the middle of a windy night. With only one suitcase, the baby daddy out of the picture, and less than a grand in her pocket, she managed to make a life for herself on the South side of the island. She worked two jobs, found an affordable apartment for cheap rent, and managed to save some money before her babies were born.

Yes, babies. As in more than one. Five months after running away from home, she gave birth to twin girls and they instantly became her entire life. With the help of her best friend Steve, who she met one month after being on her own, meeting him at his automotive shop when she very much literally rolled her junky car into the garage, she raised you and your sister on the Cut. The two of you are her greatest accomplishment. Every now and then, she mentally throws up a middle finger to everybody who doubted her, proud of who the two of you have become. 

Right before you turned ten, your mom took a business risk and opened her own Cafe. The Bikini Beans cafe, very popular amongst both Kooks and Pogues. The business did so well that she was able to move the three of you out of your shitty apartment into a beautiful one story home with three bedrooms in between the Cut and Figure Eight, aka the Crest, the summer going into your freshman year.

You actually used to be best friends with John B Routledge, JJ Maybank, and Pope Heyward. It was easier being friends with them than the girls, finding more joy in sports and rough housing than makeup and gossip. 

Doing the same summer that you moved, your mom pulled you out of Kildare County High and placed you in Outer Banks Private Academy. Aka Kook Academy. Around this time, your grandparents had also become more involved in your life, and you wondered if they had somehow bribed your mom into forcing you to transfer schools. You tried asking her during one of your many fights that started with you begging her to keep you at Kildare County High, but she quickly shut you down and told you to be grateful. That was ironic coming from the woman who ran away from the people giving her an expensive high school career. 

You had no choice but to do what your grandparents wanted and attend Kook Academy. Making friends was a lot harder there than it was in Kildare County High. You managed to make one friend in your freshman year. Andre Cortez. Due to an incident a couple years back, you built thick walls and Andre was the only one able to break them down. You were grateful for your friendship, but hanging out with him was nothing like hanging out with the Pogues. 

When you transferred schools, you lost touch with the Pogues slowly. Your life became busy with school and playing dress up for your grandparents and the boys were starting to work. Eventually all contact was cut and ever since, you’ve felt a void in your heart.

“Look,” You tell Andre. “I told you I would be your wing woman and I’m not backing down from what could possibly be the most important role in my life.”

You didn’t notice the Pogues or any of the stares around you. It’s true you’re not much of a party girl. I mean, you’ll go out here and there, have a drink or two, but you felt more comfortable at places where you weren’t surrounded by drunk and horny teenagers. 

“He’s probably not even here,” Andre says. He’s trying to look nonchalant but you notice the way his eyes dance from face to face of the people around him. 

“He told you he was going to be here, right?” You ask him with one brow raised. Andre nods. “Then, we’ll find him.”

Sarah and Kie never made any effort to talk to you at school, but to be fair, neither have you. You’ve heard mixed reviews, some people call them spoiled brats, ungrateful...some even go as far as calling them ‘The Cut Sluts.’ Of course you never take any of those things to heart. You can’t judge a book but it's cover. Plus, they’re friends with your old best friends. They can’t be that bad for John B and JJ and Pope to be hanging out with them, right?

“You think she'll come over here?” Kie asks. No one’s ever said it out loud, but her friends wonder if deep down, Kie was a little jealous of you. Because you were their first real girl friend. You were the first girl they ever let in and opened their heart too. That was a tough pill for Kie to swallow when she originally thought she was that girl. Of course the boys don’t like you any more than Kie and vice versa. But sometimes Kie wishes she could have grown up with the boys the same way you had. 

“Probably not. Unless she’s drinking,” Pope says and motions towards the keg they’re near. 

“I have an idea,” John B says and fills up a red solo cup. He hands it to JJ. “Why don’t you go offer her a cup.”

JJ snags the cup out of John B’s hand and glares at him. “Fuck off, dude.” 

“Do you guys ever see her around at school?” Pope asks the girls.

Sarah shrugs. “Not really. She doesn’t really get a long with my old group of friends.”

Kie rolls her eyes. “No one gets along with your old group of friends.”

Sarah playfully shoves Kie by the shoulder and they laugh. 

“I heard she turned down Raymond Easterling a couple weeks ago and he didn’t take it very well,” Pope says, remembering the words he heard from the kids in his class roaming the school hallways. 

Raymond goes to Kildcare County High with the Pogues. He’s known to be a trouble maker and a class clown. He works with JJ at the country club. The kid can make JJ laugh sometimes, but he wouldn’t necessarily say he likes him all that much. He can be an arrogant asshole with an ego bigger than it should be.

“She turns down everybody,” Sarah says. “Some people at my school call her ‘The Heart Sucker’ because she can pull people in with the snap of her fingers and break their heart just as quickly.”

Something stirred in the pit of JJ’s stomach.

“Hey! Where you going?” John B calls out to JJ who’s making his way deeper into the sea of people on the beach. 

“Taking advantage of a good boneyard party, my friend,” JJ calls back and slugs the rest of his beer. Looking left and right, he searches for the blonde he had eyes on earlier. Because right now, he needed a distraction. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The party starts to die down a little after midnight. Some people leave to find another party, some are passed out in the back of their cars, and others had already found what they were looking for - someone to leave with. 

The boneyard party wasn’t as bad as you expected it to be. You had found a couple of kids from your school who were nice enough to make small talk with you while Andre left to find a guy named Devon, a Touron he’s been talking to who’s renting for the entire summer. 

Now you’re waiting for Andre to come back so the two of you can walk home. You find comfort under a slanted palm tree towards the back of the beach, scrolling through random apps on your phone to pass the time.

“Y/N?” You look up from you phone and smile when you see your former best friend inching closer to you, squinting in the dark to see if it’s really you. 

“Maybank? What are you still doing here?” You stand up and pat the sand off your hands on you thighs. 

Your heart skips a beat in your chest when you look at him. He’s beautiful. Lucious blonde hair, perfectly tanned skin, piercing blue eyes. You always knew JJ was going to grow up to be gorgeous. He was cute when he was younger. At least you always thought so. 

“I was just leaving, but I thought I saw you sitting here and wanted to make sure you were all right.” He knows it’s not like you to stay this late at a party, especially all by yourself. When he first saw you sitting there, he didn’t know if he should say something. Mostly due to nerves of seeing you again. But the other Pogues had already left and he didn’t trust anyone else at the party to be near you alone late at night. It didn’t matter if you were sober or not. 

“Aw. Was JJ Maybank worried about me?” You tease. Talking to him felt easy. As if you never stopped being friends. A few years ago, you and JJ had the best banter. Despite constantly bickering back and forth, John B always swore the two of you would get married one day. The two of you just always clicked like a natural connection. And even now, when only seeing each other every now and then for a few minutes at a time, it felt normal. You smirk when JJ rolls his eyes. “I’m kidding. Yeah, I’m okay. Just waiting for my friend to come back from his little rendezvous,” You say. 

JJ nods. “Did you have a good time? I feel like I never you see at these things.”

“Yeah. Parties aren’t really my thing. But Andre was nervous to meet this guy he’s been talking to for a little while so I came for moral support.”

“Looks like he didn’t need much of the support.”

You shrug. “It’s better that way, anyway. I don’t mind waiting for him. What about you?”

“What about me?” 

“Did you have a good time tonight? I hear your quite the ladies’ man at these things.”

“Come on, Sparky. You know better than to believe everything you hear.”

Your face lights up at the mention of your old nickname. You use to always be busting out the seams with energy. On days where the boys just wanted to chill and play video games, you would drag them to the park for a game of kick ball. Or when they wanted to sleep in after a long week, you showed up at 8 am to drag them out of bed to catch the morning waves. So one day JJ started calling you Sparky, and it stuck with the rest of your little gang. You always pretended to hate it, but secretly you loved it. 

“Oh I don’t believe everything I hear. I do, however, believe what I see. And your arm around that tall blonde in the little black dress looked quite convincing.”

You first saw JJ at the party when he was making his way to the pretty girl by the water. Your teeth involuntarily clenched and there was a twisted feeling in your stomach you couldn’t shake whenever you looked at them. 

In that instant, JJ felt grateful for the dark sky. He felt the rush of heat rise up his neck to his cheeks before he could stop it. He knew the motivation to see that girl was because of you. He just wished you never saw it. But he didn’t know why. 

“I walked her home. She wasn’t my type,” JJ plays it off. 

“I didn’t realize you had a type,” You giggle, but a small part felt relieved to hear this. “So what is it? Your type?”

Hybrids with a Pogue attitude, bright smile, beautiful eyes, and a mouth that could make any sailor turn around, JJ thought. 

“I don’t know. Haven’t figured it out yet.”

You roll your eyes playfully. “Well, when you figure it out let me know.”

“Why? So you can transform into my ideal girl?” He teases.

Now you’re the one thankful for the dark sky. “In your dreams, Maybank. But so far, I do have the perfect wing-woman track record, so if you needed help -”

“I don’t think I need any help in that department. Thank you very much.”

You throw your hands up in fake surrender. “Ooo. Touchy subject.”

JJ rolls his eyes at the same time your phone pings with a text message. You pull it out of your shorts pocket and open the text from Andre, telling you to leave without him because he’s gonna stay out late with Devon and won’t know what time he’s going to be done.

“Everything all right?” JJ says, watching you read the message.

You lock your phone and stuff it in your back pocket again. “Like I said. Perfect wing-woman track record.”

“That was Andre?” 

“Yeah. He’s most likely not coming home tonight.”

“Lucky bastard.”

“At least one of us is,” You joke. 

JJ’s grin slightly falters but you don’t catch it. You have no idea how much he wishes the two of you could be equally as lucky. Together. 

“Well, I should probably go,” You say and bend down to grab your flip flops.

“Let me walk you home,” JJ offers. 

“Oh no. It’s okay -”

“You’re cute. It’s wasn’t up for debate. I’m not letting you walk back by yourself.”

You scoff lightly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Just humor me.”

You roll your eyes and smirk but choose not to argue. In fact, you’re excited to spend more time with JJ. It’s been so long.

“Fine.”

“And here I thought you might’ve grown out of your stubborn phase by now.”

You shove him playfully by the shoulder. “Shut up!”

And just like that, it felt like old times.

#jj fanfiction #jj maybank #jj maybank imagine #jj mayback x reader #jj maybank imagines #jj maybank x reader #outer banks imagine #outer banks fic #obx imagine #obx fic #jj maybank one shot

[takerfoxx]

What Your Favorite Puella Magi Madoka Magica Ship Says About You

Inspired by DoubleCa5t's series, and since we're probably going to get an official video sooner or later, I'm putting my version out while I can.

Also, this is all in good fun, so don't take any teasing seriously.

...

MadoHomu (Madoka X Homura)

You are a firm believe in the inherent eroticism of this image.

You have episode ten memorized.

You have a very specific emotional reaction to “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper.

You have severe problems with The Rebellion Story, particularly in how it upended the optimistic note that the original series ended on and recontextualized Homura’s devotion to Madoka as something unhealthy and even toxic, but you still can’t bring yourself to reject the movie entirely, because at the end of the day, even you have to admit that damn, that dress.

The phrase, “X character did nothing wrong” pops up a lot in your internet discourse.

You ship CatraDora.

KyouSaya (Kyouko X Sayaka)

You’re always a sucker for how the dynamic of Enemies to Lovers shifts from antagonism to devotion without losing its obsessive intensity.

Your ideal date can best be summed up as Be Gay, Do Crimes…after which you have to call your responsible friend to come bail both of you out.

You know that important stuff happens after episode nine, but to be quite frank, at that point you were too emotionally traumatized to get invested and were only watching out of a feeling of obligation.

You were uncharacteristically smug after watching The Rebellion Story despite what disproportionately little screentime your ship received.

You also ship CatraDora.

MadoSaya (Madoka X Sayaka)

You don’t understand what all the fuss is about when it comes to Enemies to Lovers when there’s a perfectly good Friends to Lovers right there.

This is the same joke as the first part of MadoHomu, but with the Hot Topic switched out for a Footlocker.

You lost your mind on 4chan over Persephone’s Waltz on more than one occasion and for more than one reason (hey, ErinPtah!).

KyouMami (Kyouko X Mami)

You read A Different Story, and probably listened to that one audio drama.

You’re a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of exes that still long for one another.

You feel that a lot of the issues that both these characters struggle with stem from how messy their falling out was, and had Mami been more supportive and Kyouko not abandoned her after the death of Kyouko’s family, a whole lot of grief could have been avoided.

MamiSaya (Mami X Sayaka)

Your ideal date is getting sempai to notice you.

You have gotten into at least one altercation with Anticrack-Kun.

MadoMami (Madoka X Mami)

Your ideal date is getting kouhai to notice you.

You’re just here for some girls being friends, gals being pals.

MamiNagi (Mami X Nagisa)

You were already shipping Mami with the human form of Charlotte before The Rebellion Story came out, and even afterward you’re still unwilling to let go despite how uncomfortable it makes you now, to the point where “Aged Up Characters” is a regular tag in your ao3 searches.

Either that, or…

HomuMami (Homura X Mami)

You’re a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of passive-aggressiveness.

You were tilting your head in a particular manner during that scene where Mami ties up Homura, and feel that how it ended was a real missed opportunity.

You had to pause The Rebellion Story for about five minutes after the gunfight, and after you continued you shouted, “Goddamn it, Sayaka!” out loud.

HomuSaya (Homura X Sayaka)

This is the same joke as the first part of MadoHomu, but with the Sanrio switched out for a Footlocker.

Your favorite ao3 tag is “Hatesex.”

KyouHomu (Kyouko X Homura)

You know what's better than one edgy badass girl with a tragic past? Two edgy badass girls with a tragic past.

You felt that both these characters spent too much energy pursuing someone that just weren't into them as they were, and would better off settling with someone on more equal footing.

You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of game recognizing game.

You really wish that they reached that ramen shop in the movie.

KyouMado (Kyouko X Madoka)

Your favorite highschool relationship dynamic is edgy delinquent/ray of sunshine.

You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of “gap moe.”

HitoSuke (Hitomi X Kyousuke)

You feel that these two characters get way too much hate, and everything that happened wasn’t their fault. Like, come on, guys. How could they have known that their teenaged relationship drama would be exploited by a race of emotionless alien groomers?

Your main priority is keeping things canon…and you don’t have a whole lot else to work with.

HitoSaya (Hitomi X Sayaka)

You feel that the most effective way of resolving a love triangle is eliminating the heterosexual options.

You feel that when Hitomi declared, “Girls can’t love girls!”, Sayaka’s reaction ought to have been, “Challenged accepted.”

SayaSuke (Sayaka X Kyousuke)

You just want good things for Sayaka, but only in a first four episodes kind of way.

You are heterosexual.

SayaHitoSuke (Sayaka X Hitomi X Kyousuke)

You feel that the best way of resolving a love triangle is by connecting the bottom two axis.

You are heterosexual. Or possibly bisexual. Well, regardless, you are really horny.

HomuHito (Homura X Hitomi)

You’ve played the portable game.

MadoHito (Madoka X Hitomi)

You are constantly frustrated at how little attention this ship receives. After all, weren’t they friends too? But instead people seem to be more focused on shipping characters that don’t even like each other or never even interact in the show, and at this point you’re just glad that I acknowledged it in this silly meme post.

MamiHito (Mami X Hitomi)

You want to be a wealthy, unmarried Victorian duchess who is noted by history for your incredibly close relationship with your lovely companion who lives with you, does everything with you, up to and including sharing a bed, and after both of your deaths scholars will make note of what great friends you must have been.

KyouHito (Kyouko X Hitomi)

You were going out of your way to piss off Anticrack-kun. And really, who wouldn’t?

KyouSuke (Kyouko X Kyousuke)

You were going out of your way to piss off everybody, and I salute your courage.

HomuJun (Homura X Junko)

You are really into Pixar moms.

Also, obligatory…

KazuJun (Kazuko X Junko)

This is the same joke as the second part of MadoMami, but you’re also really into Pixar moms.

MadoKyu (Madoka X Kyubey)

I can’t say for certain whether or not you’re a monsterfucker, but you certainly enjoy the chaos that the very implication of this ship creates.

PolyMegucas (Madoka X Sayaka X Homura X Kyouko X Mami)

You don’t understand why there has to be so much drama between all these different pairings. All the girls are wonderful in their own ways, and they would be so much happier if they just stopped fighting, formed a loving and mutually supportive team dynamic as was seen in the first part of the movie, and possibly smooched one another.

Also, you are extremely horny.

#puella magi madoka magica #pmmm #homura akemi #kyousaya #kyosaya #mamisaya #kyoumami #kyomami #madomami #madosaya #homumami #homusaya #maminagi #mamilotte #kyoumado #kyomado #hitosuke #sayasuke #hitosaya #sayahitosuke #madohito #mamihito #kyouhito #kyohito #kyousuke #homujun #kazujun #madokyu #polymegucas #madoka kaname

[sketching-shark]

I think it's the ironic fact that JTTW fans already know how DBK and Sun Wukong's friendship broke apart but are more curious on LMK versions of Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque were friends alongside falling out.

HA! Well, while it often does seem that way, I'm going to go ahead and be a complete snob in a Journey to the West purist kind of way by wondering how many Six Eared Macaque fans would consider themselves more JTTW fans or more Monkie Kid fans, or if they feel they're a mix of both...

I've seen a lot of people argue that these two works of fiction are their own thing and that as such Monkie Kid (and associated fanworks) shouldn't be expected to follow the canon of JTTW, and fair enough for some parts. I've also, however, seen people who argue for this complete separation seeming to use it as an excuse to not acknowledge or learn about ANY original aspects of characters such as Sun Wukong and the Demon Bull King, or even very important deities such as Guanyin and the Jade Emperor, and who as such end up making some pretty gross generalizations/assumptions about them even though they are of great religious and cultural importance.

For example (and while I know a lot of the fun people get from fan works is in exaggerating certain traits), Sun Wukong seems to often be presented with an "inherently" evil/thoughtless/chaotic character, while his intelligence, deep love of his family, genuine efforts to become a better person, & many acts of saving lives, as presented in JTTW, aren't even mentioned. I feel like a lot of this is due to the way he acts in Monkie Kid (while I maintain that this version of Sun Wukong seems to be Bad End Monkey King, he does do a lot of deflecting his issues with a show of humor/a carefree attitude & does seem really bad at communicating due to a fear of making things worse). Even so, the popularity of Thoughtless/Evil/Selfish Sun Wukong that doesn’t really allow for any of the nuance or a display of his beneficial traits as shown in JTTW does make me wonder how many people have been exposed to a good translation of og classic Sun Wukong...As I've said before, I've noted that a number of Chinese people on this site have expressed frustration with the fact that a good chunk of the monkey king’s Western audience seems to be getting their impressions about Sun Wukong, the Demon Bull King, the Six Eared Macaque, etc. from some mix of Overly Sarcastic Productions, Monkie Kid, and social media instead of from at least a translation of the original text, and it is true that a LOT of the nuance of these work and these characters can be very easily lost, especially if your drawing your information of them primarily from a cartoony version of the original source. 

That would be an interesting poll though...out of curiosity, how many of you fine folk have read the break-up & fight between Sun Wukong and the Demon Bull King either in the original text or in a translation, or is your exposure to them primarily through Monkie Kid? 

Again, I need to make it clear that I'm not Chinese & didn't grow up with the story, but I will admit for my own part that reading the DBK/SWK break-up in the Yu translation actually made me more curious about how their dynamic is going to play out in Monkie Kid than I am curious about what's going to happen with Mr. Macaque. 

This is primarily because besides SWK’s fight with Princess Iron Fan and DBK being given a LOT of page space in JTTW, there seems to have been some serious stuff that went down between the three of them in the events post-JTTW and pre-the main plot of Monkie Kid...the last we see of DBK in JTTW (if memory serves correctly) was him being hauled off by a host of heavenly warriors to be judged for his crimes of not giving SWK the palm leaf fan & also eating humans. When Monkie Kid starts, however, we are told that DBK had emerged “from the Netherworld” & immediately starts wrecking everything around him. What this suggests--if Monkie Kid is something of a fan continuation of JTTW--is that DBK ended up being executed by the heavenly forces, but managed to fight his way out of the underworld in a manner somewhat similar to SWK, who we are told he is equal in strength to in JTTW. In that beginning fight of Monkie Kid DBK is also shown as so enraged that he won’t stop his path of destruction until SWK buries him under a mountain for 500 years. It’s never said in the show, but--and this is important--this is basically exactly what Buddha did to SWK to start him on the path of atonement. So there seems to be some very intentional parallels between SWK’s havoc in heaven & DBK’s havoc on earth, which may suggest that one of the things Monkie Kid SWK really wants is for his former dear friend, his sworn brother, to find a way like him to be less violent and thus ultimately less vulnerable to destructive and self-destructive behavior, and that the way he tried to start this was by giving DBK the same treatment he got when he was a raging warlord. 

We are furthermore told that it was right after DBK was sealed that SWK disappeared for all those centuries, and while the impulse may be to write it off as him just wanting to enjoy himself (given a lot of his behavior in the show’s timeline), given the indications that this SWK may be deeply depressed, I feel like the answer could be something a lot more tragic...there seem to be a number of clues in Monkie Kid that while the journey of JTTW happened, something made it end disastrously, with SWK either assuming or knowing that Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, Tang Sanzang, and Bai Longma are dead. And per JTTW, this wouldn’t be the first time that he’s experienced a horrific loss, given the war with heaven and the burning of Flower-Fruit Mountain. And then right after THAT, it seems DBK emerged from the underworld, and so Sun Wukong was put into a horrific position: either murder his sworn brother, or let him continue to rampage & harm and/or kill who knows how many humans. SWK ultimately gives up his staff to do the repeat of “500 years under a mountain in solitary confinement route,” which as per JTTW he considers better than the alternative, but he immediately follows that by exiling himself. In JTTW SWK is a really sociable person who makes friends wherever he goes, but man, for this SWK...his life must at that point just feel like one failure after another, that in spite of all his best efforts he wasn’t able to save anyone he really cared about, and now he just trapped someone who was so important to him under a mountain & fated him to suffer the same things he had when he was in that position. How much more does he have to hurt his fellow yaoguai? How many more times does he have to choose between yaoguai and humans, feeling like no matter what he decides it’s just going to result in pain for him and/or his loved ones? I can easily imagine super sociable & easily upset (he cries a LOT in JTTW) SWK feeling like after sealing DBK, he just can’t do this any more. He just...can’t. 

This is all just speculation, but knowing the JTTW backstory between SWK and DBK does, at least for me, make their Monkie Kid relationship a lot more intriguing than it might be otherwise. Especially now that DBK seems to actually be making some small steps to quell his constant rage & lust for power. He even saves SWK and Qi Xiaotian from an explosion/nasty fall in the season 2 special! The Bull family weren’t really present in season 2, but I really hope they make a comeback in season 3 (if/when we get it) precisely because Red Son, Princess Iron Fan, and especially DBK have such an involved history with SWK. Plus it would be really fun to see two old warlords trying to awkwardly make amends with each other & struggle to be good teachers & positive role models to their student & son. 

In any case I feel this potential is more interesting than whatever fanfic The Six Eared “I’mma Plagiarize The Demon Bull King’s Backstory Of Being Best Friends with Sun Wukong” Macaque is creating lol. 

#monkie kid #journey to the west #lego monkie kid #lmk #lmk sun wukong #lmk dbk #lmk six eared macaque #anon answered

[ramblingguy54]

Sonic & Tails R: A Love Letter To Miles Tails Prower’s Characterization

     Warning: This will contain massive spoilers for the short radio play series of Sonic & Tails R. If you haven’t listened to the radio play yet on Youtube, I’d highly recommend any hardcore Sonic fan who hasn’t seen it check it out. It’s one Hell of a treat.

     For as far back as I can remember in my childhood, Tails’ story of trying to step outta Sonic’s shadow has been such a resonating one for myself. Even when I was a much younger kid playing my Dreamcast, during entries like Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, there was some idea lingering about why Tails just stood out more emotionally in his journey to grow beyond depending on Sonic all the time for help. Now here I am a young adult in my late twenties having such a deeper appreciation of this little two tailed genius kiddo because he’s got an important element that’s made him so beloved for good reason.

     In spite of his genius being a rival to that of Eggman’s high IQ and of course proving to surpass it plenty of times when scenarios boil down to being a high stakes battle, Miles Tails Prower beneath it all is still just like any one of us. We’re all trying to find our place in this world about what defines us for who we are as unique people. He wants to be more than just seen as someone who’s alongside Sonic The Hedgehog’s never say die attitude, but prove he’s plenty capable of standing on his own two feet to protect everything the kid holds dear to himself. Underdog stories, when they’re naturally executed very well, can reel me in so easily. They are very much my bread & butter trope I adore seeing.

     To no one’s surprise, the two Sonic Adventure’s iterations portrayal of Tails’ characterization are hands down some of my favorite writing for the two tailed fox, regarding what the 3D era has done toward him, development wise. It gave him more of an existential struggle to endure like, “What happens when Sonic isn’t around to help stop Eggman? What if I’m not strong enough to accomplish what he can?”, making Tails plight to be seen as an equal all the more endearing when stopping Eggman in his climatic battle against the Egg Walker in Station Square. This here is a great use of a timeless lesson you can apply in life that if you set you heart and mind on anything, there isn’t a thing you can’t accomplish on your own, which is why many fell in love with Sonic Adventure 1 & 2′s writing for Miles Tails Prower’s journey of independence.

     As someone who comes from a large family tree of relatives, I feel the weight of my existence on my shoulders at a number of points more than I’d care to count, admittedly. Seeing Tails struggle with his sense of purpose, in contrast to observing how much Sonic has accomplished with his carefree, yet deeply compassionate attitude, means the world to me in watching another trying to comprehend their value as a whole on how much they matter, overall. This is a big part of why my fondness for SA1 & 2′s quality has never wavered over these years, besides still obviously enjoying most of their game play mechanics. People can try to debate to their heart’s content on whether the Adventure games still hold up in their own eyes, but I’ll always respect them for how they tried to develop certain characters, such as Tails, Gamma, and Shadow The Hedgehog notably, to attempt expanding upon their characters, as well as world building.

     I won’t bother going into a rant about how Sonic’s recent 3D games have butchered Tails’ personality & relatable nature, due to the current writers in charge of handling the cast of characters. More or less, I greatly empathize toward the notion many have already stated about Tails being so cowardly and God forbid, looking at Lost World, downright severely mean spirited. Rather, I’m obviously writing this lengthy post to breakdown why Sonic & Tails R succeeds, where these certain 3D games have greatly faltered in exploring Tails’ emotional dilemmas as an insecure, yet still having the courage to prove himself, talented boy full of hidden potential he doesn’t quite realize, until his back is against the wall in life threatening situations.

“That day, I realized I couldn’t depend on you forever. Not that I can’t depend on you, but like, “What happens when Sonic isn’t here?”, you know?”

     Sonic & Tails R further delves into this fundamental rule of what has defined Tails in Sonic Adventure 1 & 2′s stories of events where Sonic wasn’t there to aid his best bud in taking down Eggman’s evil efforts for global domination, most importantly his fear of defending the Earth without his role model. Besides what I already stated in SA1′s events in Station where he stopped the Egg Walker, as well as the missile Eggman launched from detonating before their climatic battle, Tails watched Sonic blow up in ARK’s capsule presuming him to be dead after Sonic imparted how much faith he has in the kid’s abilities to be truly strong in the face of any foe. Sonic & Tails R manages to use fan service in a way that doesn’t feel like “pandering” for the sake of it, using this past canon material to do more of an in-depth study about Miles’ anxieties of existing without Sonic.

     Wouldn’t put it past them if EmuEmi & crew were using SA2′s Sonic death fake out scene in that space capsule to further add trauma to Tails’ psychological attachment to Sonic, as well as his insecurities of depending on him too much, to boot. While it’s never obviously outright stated in their radio play, I definitely believe they were factoring this element into adding dramatic exploration for why Tails is so self-conscious about the worst case scenario of permanently losing Sonic. Watching Sonic supposedly die put Tails into a deeper state of self-reflection, so I very much enjoyed how they went using these past events to create a thorough exploration about him learning just as it’s important to realize you need to stand up for yourself without using someone else as a crutch all the time, it’s doubly important to remember there’s nothing wrong about asking someone for help when you’re about to be down and out with little options left.

     Sonic & Tails R beautifully builds upon the foundation these two games’ stories left behind years ago, creating new damn great material to explore with the most iconic characters of this cast, Sonic & Tails brotherly dynamic. I’ve been praising Sonic & Tails R out the wazoo for how well it captured Tails underdog story of overcoming death defying odds, but it managed to remind me how simply adorable and outright wonderfully endearing their brotherly chemistry is as a whole. This is a big friendly reminder Sonic isn’t all about being cocky wise cracking character making meta jokes left and right, but he can be plenty capable of showing serious compassion to anyone he values as an ally and friend. This is no greater evident, than with him verbally lifting Tails up in his time of need when he’s self-depreciating his own significance. It can be seen in Episodes 2, 4, and 7 giving Tails motivational pieces of advice.

    Episode 2 In Adabat’s Cavern

-Sonic: Wasn’t it your radar that helped us find these Emerald shards in the first place? How could you be slowing us down when you’ve gotten us this far?

-Tails: But, I...

-Sonic: I could never make something like that. You’re the smartest person I know, Tails. One way or another, we’ll figure this out, count on it.

         Episode 4 In Holoska After Helping Silver Save The Chao

-Sonic: So, what was that back there? At the cave, in Adabat? -Tails: What do you mean? -Sonic: Frozen stiff. Confidence shot. It’s not like you. It was more than feeling like you were “slowing us down”, right?

        Episode 7 Inside The Egg Carrier 3

-Sonic: Let’s split up! I’ll distract them and you can go after the energy source. -Tails: You’re gonna take them on all by yourself!? Let me help, Sonic! -Sonic: No time for this, Tails. Stop overthinking and just go! If I can get their attention, I’ll take the heat off of you and that room you’re going to probably won’t have any security. Take this emerald and I’ll take the other one we have. It’ll lead me right to you after I beat these guys. -Tails: O-Okay... -Sonic: Hold on, Tails! Listen to me. Don’t stop moving and be careful. I’ll be fine and so will you!

     Sonic & Tails R remembers the most crucial detail of their important relationship. One isn’t better than the other and needing to always rely upon that notion for helping one outta a jam, but instead showcases how they’re equals as a team/bros. Sonic may be super fast and strong, however Tails has his intelligence to analyze situations in a different angle Sonic wouldn’t necessarily consider, per say. Which isn’t to say Tails couldn’t put up a fight either, as we’ve seen in SA1 & SA2′s stories where he faced Eggman one on one with no outside help to best him at his own game of wits & strength.

     We get see the apex of this idea through Tails facing Eggman in his super improved mecha walker. Although Tails may get thrown for a loop here at first by Eggman, it’s his villainous speech about winners and losers in their world that ironically does the exact opposite of what he intended. Eggman wanted to crush Tails’ sense of self worth before finishing him off, but all it did was reignite the very lesson Sonic told him earlier before running to distract Eggman’s robotic minions. That said lesson of he’s more than capable of facing dangerous threats

-Eggman: Poor boy. We all have to learn this lesson, sooner or later. In every game there’s no one you can depend on. You’re all alone and you’re either a winner, or a loser. And as you know, loser’s lose all of their lives. Say goodbye, fox!

-Tails: You’re wrong! I can depend Sonic! I won’t let him down! I can’t because...Because he’s depending on me! And because of that I won’t lose to you!

     This radio play strikes a good balance in utilizing the grey moral area about depending on someone vs it being an unhealthy display of attachment derived from serious insecurity. Word’s can’t begin to describe how much I loved this moment to pieces because it’s oh so important for writing Tails’ characterization. If you’re going to tackle him being super self conscious about his reliance on Sonic, then you gotta remember why they are so close to one another to begin with. Sonic & Tails have an unbreakable connection, considering they’ve brought out their best qualities in themselves from being together as individuals. For Sonic, it’s his older brother compassion to Tails to bring him outta feeling melancholy. For Tails, the kid finally understands there isn’t anything wrong with depending on Sonic when he needs it most.

     After all, that’s what a real healthy friendship is all about. Whether you’re giving someone a dose of tough love, or simply a piece of motivational advice, it defines how much you truly care about someone, period. Sonic & Tails have this very same power from their bond, which is why new emeralds form from their compassionate friendship that hasn’t been shaken after all the years they’ve been together. Another detail worth noting is it adds to the lore in an impactful manner when Tikal expresses in Episode 8 about positive connections and thoughts from users of the Chaos Emeralds having a strong will & heart. Using the ideas they had for encapsulating Sonic & Tails’ dynamic to create new emeralds from their love for each other as brothers adds an emotional weight.

“So, Sonic’s not the only one who harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds? I can too!?”

“Yes, you have a strong heart! There is a power waiting to be unlocked within you, as well.”

          I’d always daydreamed about in my childhood seeing Super Sonic & Tails take down a threatening villain, whether it was Eggman or different powerful creature such as Chaos or the Biolizard. You can imagine how fucking giddy I was beyond belief to see this artwork of Episode 9′s cover for the radio play. Tails not only got to have another one on one with Eggman, but a team up with Super Sonic in his own respective Super form? Sign me the Hell up! Talk about an all you eat buffet of good writing for Tails’ journey reaching its climax. Getting to hear this play out, alongside the amazing song of Fly With Me, made it authentically feel like something straight outta if there were an installment of Sonic Adventure 3 being brought into reality, which certainly feels like it now.

     Episode 9 has so much awesome stuff with Sonic & Tails working together in their super forms. Particularly, my favorite scene is at the beginning when Sonic teaches Tails how to navigate his newly acquired speed in his respective Super form. My heart melted hearing Sonic help Tails through it all, while he was overjoyed about how fun this new form is for himself. Wholesome Sonic & Tails content is the perfect daily serotonin for me, easily. It’s an awesome fun fact to know they used a scrapped boss from Tails Tornado segment in SA1 for Eggman’s flying dragon three headed robot in their big final battle, once again using old canon material in a very effective manner to boost the quality of their fan made story.

     It’s been a real thrill to hear Mike Pollock play a straight forward serious Eggman making my day in more ways than one, considering that’s another thing I’ve been yearning for desperately besides Tails being a competent character again. His performance in Episode 9 when Eggman gave that speech about how long he’s been at odds with Sonic & Tails stubborn will power was simply excellent. The moment he told his mechanical dragon to crush them I got serious chills. That’s the Eggman I remember and grew up with. He could be a hammy villain sure, but Eggman wasn’t a doormat that could be swiftly beaten. Robotnik can be considered a serious threat in his own right and this radio play nailed it down to the very letter with how much he predicted their actions.

“Sonic, all I ever wanted to do was be like you. You’re not scared of anyone or anything. I could never be like that. At least, so I thought. I grew from that, but then I got so caught up in trying to prove it that thought it wasn’t okay to depend upon anyone, especially you. I just didn’t want to be that scared little kid in Station Square anymore, but now I understand. It’s okay to depend on your friends. It all means is that we’re stronger together, so the next time Eggman comes back and wants to start any trouble with you, or any of my friends. Emeralds or no emeralds, he’s gonna have to get past me and he won’t!”

Sonic By Episode 1′s End: Aww, yeah! Adventure, here we come!

Tails By Episode 10′s End: Aww, yeah! Adventure, here I come!

Turn your thoughts into power. Be all that you can be.

     The ending legit got me choked up because what of they decided to do for wrapping up Tails journey in a poetic fashion. Having Tails go off on his own separate journey to grow more independence pulled on my heart strings perfectly. Very much so, as I’m transitioning slowly, but surely, into gaining more freedom to go out into the outside world in my own life. Concluding the story, by Sonic & Tails holding onto the two Emeralds their bond had formed from positive energy, due to their powerful friendship, was so heartwarming. This is how you write an overview of what makes Sonic & Tails chemistry work so well as it does.

     Sonic & Tails R’s ending represents while some things never change, like Sonic and Tails bond for each other, it also shows there’s very much a necessity for people to grow, hence Tails’ whole solo journey in the epilogue. People can’t stay in the same place forever and will need go about finding their own path, even if it means saying “goodbye” periodically for a notable amount of time.

     It’s for these reasons I’ve listed in great explanation above throughout this detailed post cement Sonic & Tails R high on my list of favorite Sonic fan projects. They captured the magic of what made the Adventure games so beloved. Gonna be looking back on this passion project for many years to come. Everyone involved in this year long effort of a project dating all the way back Summer of 2020 ought to be immensely proud for how much their hard efforts paid off in the long run.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts here! 

Hope you enjoyed. 

#sonic and tails r #emuemi #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #sonic analysis #long post #dr eggman #sonic adventure #sonic adventure 2 #this fan project means so much to me #everyone poured their heart and soul into it