#back in the vm grind

[skrimblo]

warmups

#back in the vm grind #bagsak ako sa 1st quarter ksi mastrip ko pinanood critical role kaysa magreview haha shet #“ok lang yan may next quarter naman eh” mali. walang next quarter next quarter dyan lord kunin mo na ako #critical role #critical role fanart #vox machina #pike #keyleth #scanlan #vexahlia #percy de rolo #my art #doodle

[rightpastnowhere]

MORE. FOR U

Ok ok ok we all collectively will not shut up about how Percy is endeared by Vex's ears, right? well UNO REVERSE CARD! His lil round human ears are so fucking cute to Vex. It's also very funny for her to parse out how sensitive they are vs half-elven or elven ears.

In modern AUs their taste in music seems very different at a glance but meshes SUPER well. Percy is rocking to MCR and anime intros and Fallout Boy and old rock'n'roll (that his dad and Julius loved), Vex is grinding to pop and country, and everyone is like 'surely not' until they pull up to give Pike a ride and are just blasting a Taylor Swift song together (she joins in obviously). Or on a train sharing earbuds and the poor folks the next seats over can hear Monster by Skillet from there and these two are mouthing along and sharing Dramatic Looks.

Trinket keeps bringing cubs home. He's a male bear, bears don't raise cubs in pairs (males don't participate at ALL), but he's a Ranger companion and lives as long as Vex does. And given he's a fit specimen he's probably the sire of a lot of cubs in the area (Vex and the Grey Hunt have got to watch out for inbreeding effects KJTRNHRKN). So every now and then he'll find a hurt or abandoned or sick cub and bring it back, and Vex nurses it back to health (and Dan too), and suddenly they Have Another Bear. Oh Dear. Sometimes Vex and Trinket make a conscious effort to train the cubs to live in the wild and release them a ways away once they're old enough, but the three bears we see in C3 is Only The Beginning.

The first time Percy tried really growing a beard, Vesper made Unhappy Faces when he'd give her kisses and in a fit he shaved it all off. He needed some talking-tos about it. His baby girl was SO upset and it make HIM upset OKAY -

It's advised that guests do not wander the halls of Castle Whitestone alone at night. They assume, naturally, that this is due to Ghosts or Restless Spirits - no the de Rolos are just. like that. Cass would rather everyone avoid the trauma of hearing them having a good time. Also the kids' darkvision means they have shining pupils if light hits them in the dark and someone fell down the stairs once so there's that too.

Percy fucking agonizes over blue now. Getting a gift to match Vex's feather takes up at least 3-12 hours of a given project. At this point he has custom paints mixed for it and will scour stalls and shops for gems of the right turquoise.

He also owns way more fur than he'd expect, because Vex is a ranger and can at least make a decent muffler or trim for mittens or ruff for his winter coat out of some of her more impressive catches. His favorite, though, is a tiny fur thing that's badly worn. Vex insists it's a bird. *it does not look like a bird,* it looks like a pointed rock with two bead eyes. It was the first thing she tried making him and it, well, it didn't come out as she'd expected. He still stims with it often, it practically lives in his pocket - like she was in Pandemonium, when VM were transformed into birds. She says she hates it, but his earnest adoration for this little silly thing she made really makes Vex so damn happy.

OH MY GOD SHE WOULD LOVE HIS EARS,,, HIS LIL ROUNDED EARS,,, SO SOFT N ROUND,,,,,,,, OMG

YOUR MUSIC TASTES FOR THEM ARE SO IN LINE WITH WHAT'S IN MY HEAD NGKJRNGK. vex imo has the most chaotic playlists because there's just one for all of her music. it switches from lizzo to mumford & sons without rhyme nor reason. and they WOULD be taylor swift stans with pike i LOVE THIS. AND GOD,, THE MENTAL IMAGE OF HER AND PERCY DRAMATICALLY LIP-SYNCING LIKE HUGE NERDS..... MY CROPS ARE WATERED. MY SKIN IS CLEAR

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING NGKJRNKJGNR i simply think vex deserves an entire legion of bears who love her, and many of them on the castle grounds. only the best for the grand mistress of bears. (trinket mimicking vex's adopting behavior is SO CUTE I'M GONNA CRY)

percy upsets his baby One Time and suddenly he must change everything about himself. i love him so much i cannot stand it

NKGJNKJENG the de rolos fuck nasty and it is a burden upon those who think themselves to be fearless... my heart goes out to the unlucky few who dare. ALSO THE FUCKING. QUARTER ELVES. JUST LIKE A BUNCH OF CATS IN THE KITCHEN AT 2AM WHEN YOU WANT A SNACK. IS PERFECTION.

GERKGNERJN percy will do anything to maintain his wife's aesthetic

VEX CRAFTING HIM THINGS...... PERCY KEEPING HER FIRST LIL BAUBLE BECAUSE HE LOVES HER................ STIMMING WITH IT CAUSE IT'S SOFT................................ picturing vex finding out and endeavoring to acquire so many soft things, making him a bunch more knick-knacks once she's better at it, wearing soft clothes, just, oh my GOD she loves him SO MUCH

thank you again for this absolute unfathomable joy, i squeaked out loud at least 3 times, i am full of serotonin once more

#THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT AS BURR WOULD SAY #oh my god you make me want to write so many little things for them #i'm crying. i LOVE THEM VERY MUCH #vex’ahlia #percival de rolo #perc’ahlia #fave #critical role #vox machina #blorbologist

[blackwidowmarshal123]

Attack on Titan Fanfic: Survey Corps (Bizzarre morning routine) - South Asian Reader

Every morning I wouldn’t hear a horn or anything to get up, instead everyone gets up knowing what time they supposed to get up. I was a new cadet in that Corps so I was busy trying to know my way around. One time I woke up last minute and had to rush myself running around a chicken just to get to the hallway. A horn would have been best.

Hange is usually in charge of taking role and keeping people in check in case anyone is missing. I noticed Sasha taking care of breakfast in the kitchen with the staff.

On some mornings, I would get up earlier than usual at like 5:30 AM. The first time I woke caused me to witness one of the most bizarre things in my lifetime. It had nothing to with titans. Neither was it something that I saw. I heard by ear. I heard music. Coming from instruments. Couldn’t at first explain what it was, but the sound seemed hella familiar. The long, hard strum of heavy grinding tones coming from a sitar. Another one sounded like a violin at first, but hearing the longer strokes of what sounded like a large bow hitting double octave keys, along with taps of drums or tablas. The violinlike sound was actually an instrument I was so familiar and so deeply in love with, but unfortunately I feel like kicking myself for not knowing the name. I heard a harmonium. I fell into a curious state of mind knowing where it came from and was anyone else aware of it. Seemed like everyone in the room was fast asleep. I also heard a male vocal singing multiple ranges, or ragas. His voice sounded deep and vibrating, kind of sultry. The voice was paired with a slightly higher and sweeter male pitch. The two voices with rotating with turns and also performing accapella. The both voices sounded so heavenly. Were they both Indian men? From what I know, there were hardly any Asians left in this world other Mikasa and myself, particularly South Asian folks. So maybe I’m dreaming.

Within 30 minutes or hearing this, we had to get up.

By the time, we stood in line outside by the horse stables, I finally remembered the word. Sarangi. Perhaps I thought too loud when the person next to me, Armin heard me speak. “What?!” He looked shocked. I was frozen in place. I ended up telling and the others about it later on, while we were all cleaning the building. Eren and Mikasa were curious in finding out about it, even though they’ve never seen or heard any sounds. Connie and Sasha were confused at my explanation of my experience. Reiner thought I was going cuckoo.

That’s it! I thought it better not to say anything more. I have been one to lap my tongue at little too long with nonsense. I kept hearing this every morning, and it drove me crazy to a point where I called it quits on waiting.

I went to investigate myself, by sneaking out with my VM equipment. If I feel like an island, so be it. I followed the sound wherever it resided, having to pass through a patch of forest along the way, now too dark before dawn broke. I came to a stop to find two figures perched on top of a tall boulder next to a cliff. I could not make out the identity of the figure, but from a close view, I could see a green cape with the survey corps symbol. I definitely saw long wooden instruments. But where was the other person? Suddenly I saw the figure turn and and I was in full view and I had to make a dash shooting the wires just in case he was chasing.

As I snuck back into my quarters, I quietly put my equipment away, careful not to wake the others. When I was walking to my bedroom, I saw Jean walk out down the hall only to catch my glance. That’s it! I’m toast. He was about to follow me, until I rushed to my bed room. I was too terrified to think. I don’t Jean well enough to know whether he’ll tell on me to Captain Levi or the Commander. I managed to keep calm throughout the day. But what scared me was how Jean’s eyes were on me occasionally. Even worse, I witnessed Hange and Levi’s eyes were on me. Now what should I do? You know what? Why don’t I give a shot at Jean to explain to him what’s up, even though not gonna lie, he’s not that type of person who likes to listen to people. But maybe I’m overthinking and assuming things. Once again, I don’t understand people too well. I’ve only been here a month. I decided to talk to him during lunch. Get over your paranoia, girl. You need to speak up. That one day of embarrassment is not gonna hurt you.

During lunch break, I looked around for Jean until I found him lingering by himself near a tree, eating alone. Where were Connie and Sasha?“Hey there, Jean. What’s up?”

“Hey (F/N)”.

“Mind if I get a few minutes?” I asked.

“Yeah. Sure… Well I was gonna ask the same question.”

Delighted I sat down on the spot next to him and spoke. “I’m aware you taking notice of my awkward moment in the hallway.”

“Huh?” Or course he’ll say that like he has no clue. But he said, “Yeah I did. So what happened?”

“I have been some strange sounds of music outside of these quarters, somewhere far near the forest.”

He grew a bit pale when I told him. “Are you talking about what happened since last week?”

“Wait…so you know about it. I’m not the only one going crazy.”

“Yeah. I heard the weird sounds, every morning at like literally 5 AM out of all hours. And you’re calling it music?” He scoffed.

“Yeah. But let me tell you. This music sounds so familiar. Immediately when I heard it. I was like… this is not just ordinary music. This is Indian music. Carnatic Indian. Or classic, you may call it.”

Jean called me out on ‘classic’. “But classic is supposed to be European musicians, like Mozart, Bethoven, Vivaldi’s…”

I felt kinda flustered about his judgment. “Listen Jean. You c-can’t Euro-centralize the term “classic”. Believe me, I’ve had another debate with someone who said Indian music is not classic. More like folk. Classic is an older higher class form of music from any country.”

He shrugged. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to come off as rude.”

“Anyways, you wouldn’t believe what I just did. I snuck out just to find out.” I lowered my voice.

Jean raised a brow at me. “Wait, youuu….”

“I went into the forest to find out.” I saw Jean looking around.

“Jeez, wouldn’t you get caught by Levi or something?”

“I know I would but I tried to keep on the down-low. But I came into a clearing and found a large boulder. On top of that boulder, I saw someone sitting up there with instruments. Are you familiar with the sitar?”

“Yeah, I do. I see that long wooden instrument at an international festival at Trost, that my mother used to take me nearly every year.” Jean seems to be on my level now.

“I couldn’t identify the person, but that person most definitely is a member of Survey Corps. I saw the cape and symbol.”

At this ungodly hour. Jean scratched his head. “You know I think I know who it could be.”

I turned my face towards him. “My guess that it could be the Commander.”

My jaw dropped. “I was kinda wondering where Commander Erwin was anyway.” But this is Indian music. How on earth would Erwin have a clue with that stuff. No non-South Asian person outside walls know anything about my music. I’m pretty sure there were no other South Asian scouts. There were tan skinned people like Bertolt and Marco, but there is no trace of South Asianness in them. I can’t go on assuming that no one knows anything outside their own culture. Mikasa has been using her Japanese, and Armin picked up on it pretty well, they both argue in it. “But seriously, a white person like Erwin knows nothing about Indian culture.���

Now it was Jean’s turn to drop his jaw. “You’re saying I know nothing about Indian culture. I know (Indian artist/N) and (Indian artist/N). What about the movie (Ind.movie/N)? Your statement is very overgeneralized.”

I reconsidered my statement.

“What I’m saying is Erwin knowing how to sing Indian ragas is a possibility.”

“Or you could be wrong and it could be Levi.” But Levi being so stern and dour could never pick up on that type of art. Besides he spends most of his day cleaning and ordering around.

Lunch period was almost over and we were all heading back to the kitchen to put away our dishes. “Also another fact, there is a second person.” Jean glanced at me smiling.

“Now you got me talking.” He then scratched his head. “Actually I was thinking, maybe we should both sneak out and check it out? What do you say? You should get up at 5 AM and I’ll be out as soon as you are.”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah, I’m down.”

At around 16:00, I was called into the main office. Without fear, I stepped through the doors to see Levi, Hange, and Erwin standing there. I stood frozen in place. I was staring at them until Hange was the first to speak. “Oh, we were just worried about you.”

“Huh?”

“You see we saw you looked kinda terrified. Like you saw a ghost or something. Even Levi was worried when he saw you.”

“Ghost? What ghost?” Then I decided now’s the time to talk about the music situation. “I’ve actually been hearing music every morning at 5:00. Call me crazy but I’ve been hearing these sounds outside of these quarters.”

Levi grew pale. Erwin didn’t move but he kept his eyes on me. Levi asked “What kind of music?”

“Indian music.”

“Indian?”

Hange chuckled. Levi glared at her. “I could offer a decent explanation.”

“Captain, I swear. It’s true. If you may ask….”

Levi raised a hand. He walked towards me and crossed his arms.

“But promise us all that you will keep this a secret among others. You are forbidden to speak about it with another soul. After what I’ve seen you doing that one day.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure whether I was going crazy.”

Hange explained, “But if you asked someone, you may cause others to want to figure it out.”

“With all due respect, the music was loud enough for anyone other than me to discover it.”

With a smirk Erwin finally spoke. “(Y/N). Perhaps I can tell you about my recent project. Knowing that you are waking a bit too early.”

“I’ve been practicing (IG/N)’s volumes. Have you heard of him?”

“I have not.”

“Let’s all sit together and talk.” This gonna get interesting about Erwin opening up about his Indian maestrom side. He’s not just Mr. Eyebrows or Captain American. As the conversation went on and on, Levi and Hange were just sitting there listening in. Levi sipped his tea in his unusual way. Turns out Erwin wanted to organize an event for the Survey Corps to honor cultures going to extinction. “I wanted to keep the last bit of it alive, before next thing you know, the last person alive of your kind is you.”

“You know who else is in this game?” He nudged his head towards Levi.

Levi nearly choked on his tea. He smirked.

“Perhaps tomorrrow, I’ll show you what I’m up to. If our Captain here can also show up like he didn’t yesterday.”

I was delighted. “Why thank you.”

“Just show up to our office, we’ll take you from there.”

I was pretty happy about our meeting. But Jean, I have to remind him not to show up. I found him this evening, and explained to him the situation hoping the he’d not say a single word to anyone, and not show up with me. Otherwise, I’d be in big trouble.

#atttack on titan #commander erwin #levi attack on titan #levi ackerman #hange zoe #jean kirstein

[the-big-nope]

Some random post-episode thoughts

Molly/Lucien was resurrected somewhere, let’s say, between the 11th and 15th of Thunsheer. Around that time, the Mighty Nein would have been just emerging from their second excursion in the Happy Fun Ball, defeating Obann and his followers in Rexxentrum, and beginning the process of arranging the peace talks.

Also, given that timeframe and discounting any weird changes resulting from the resurrection, I’ll be generous in guessing he’s sitting somewhere around level 7 right now in terms of power. Still uncomfortably squishy in comparison to the kind of shit the Mighty Nein have been up against lately, but we won’t know anything for sure until we see him in person.

I know a lot of people were anticipating angst and big emotions for that reveal, but to be honest I love how the reaction we got really put the whole situation into perspective. They clearly love and miss Molly, and they’ve never forgotten him or the impact he left, but they still only knew him a month, and it’s been almost a year since he died. So much has happened since, and they’ve changed so drastically as people and in their aims as a group. More and more the Mighty Nein have been growing used to not just serving their own interests, but looking to the world around them and applying their power to fixing what they see is wrong or crooked. They’ve learned and evolved, and they’re punching at a much higher weight class than they did before. If this had been level 5 or 6 or 7 Mighty Nein, they probably would have rung him up right away, but there’s so much more at stake here now. The Cerberus Assembly and the Eyes of Nine are all wrapped up in this, and that requires care and caution no matter how much they might want to find out the truth immediately.

Yasha’s reaction to the Molly thing especially took me by surprise. Out of everyone I was most expecting her to be stricken by the news, and the Yasha of a few months ago probably would have been, but the fact that she wasn’t really showed how much healing she’s done since being freed from Obann. I’m sure she still misses him and wants to find out what’s going on, but she’s not the same gun-shy woman with only one friend in the world that she used to be. She’s free, she’s healing, and she has a family to back her up no matter what happens. (She also seems fairly certain that it isn’t really Molly in that body, since he left the coat behind, and I’m sure that’s contributing as well.)

Small note, but I’m really glad that this campaign the party are much nicer to service workers. The discount haggling of the VM days was definitely iconic and funny at times, but it still tended to grind my gears a little. Yay for M9 properly compensating and apologizing to workers for their labor and overtime!

AVANTIKA RETURNS! Honestly, she seemed a much more likely comeback than even Molly was, but I wasn’t expecting to see her this soon or this far north; we’re really winning lately!

For some reason the idea of Captain Avantika and Vess DeRogna being within close proximity to each other is really funny. I guess it’s the clash between prim, cold, scholarly evil vs. wild, spooky, piratey evil. I hope they take at least one swipe at each other.

#critical role #cr spoilers #can't wait for next week!

[xllxxrbxg]

so ayon nga hehe

so ayon nga mga marecakes hehe narrate ko na lang nangyari today.

so i was like chilling today right im all set for school because i did my homeworks naman days before it was needed so i was like, "aight lets get this shit today". tapos karlo message me he wanted cuddles eh i was like hMMM... we just made out the other day eh and its like tuesday palang today !! i told him nalang na make it happen, not rlly thinking he would make it happen. but this mf took it as a challenge and actually made it happen.

before all that tho i was badtrip because ha made a very uncalled for rape joke and it fucked me up in the head, plus the fact na im being taken to someplace unfamiliar. i was very tensed the whole ride there. anw he didnt get the hint na it was THAT awful to me, but its aight we resolvedt it already. i'll keep a tab on this tho. for me that was a red flag.

anyways we made out in this tambayan place their family owns. basically it has a large parking lot and across that space was this little studio type housie house. the place had a large ass gate, wasnt really paying attention to what he was saying about the place because i was still tensed with the bad joke he made. anyways we went in and it was a very nice place. outside the house, it wasnt that obvious, but when you go in, it legit looked like one of those sala sets in malls with the note "thank you for not sitting" typa shit. so yeah it was nice it had same vibes with vista mall maybe because of the ceiling yellow scattered lights and of the fresh ass furniture and the whole place itself. it was a pretty decent size, not too big not too small for at least two people to share in the long run. it also had this aircon i always wanted the expensive ones u see in 5 stars. anyways it was quickly cold. there was also the bathroom that had a shower, then theres this chair where you pull a button and a foot rest will pop up lmfao. there were also two other sofa charis by the window. the window was the type then you push back up, not much windows tbh. but thats aight and reasonable since it has an aircon. i was tensed at first when the room was opened. it was obviously recently used idk maybe by his relative. WAS TENSED BRO same feeling when you enter an empty room newly unlocked by your teacher. THAT. that typa anxiety. anyways eventually joined him to sit by the small bed. was pretty much good for one big ass person to comfortably lie on, but fitted both of us nicely. didn't really bottom at that sesh so i don't really remember if the bed was uratex when weight is applied on me but it probably is AHSHDHASHDHSAHDSAHAH ok mej funny yun goiz liek- HAHA ok serious na nga hmpz. we cuddled first before doing nasty stuff. it was nice. i'd exchange all those laplapan just to wholesomely cuddle in peace and probably have a great nap together. i like the feeling the warm feeling. it was nice. yes. anyways,, yeah it was nice. cant stop talking about how nice it was because it was nice. heck... it was so nice. it was so heart heart. idc about my coochie getting rubbed, CUDDLE ME BITCH. anyways we started kissing and the rest is historyYYYYYY. jk. basically the make out routine starts with cuddling then kissing then he touches me until it reacher the forbidden softie softie, main bec he likes hearing my sexy ass moan. even before in tinder when i vm my boytoys for the first time the first thing they say my voice is smexy. cant blame them i agree. even when im alone and i randomly fake moan gat dam bro i get turned on too LMFAO. so yeah i moaned bec it was music to his ears and turned him on big time. was ngl kinda steamy when we breathe in each others mouth thats one of my favorite parts of it and also when i suck on his tongue. or also when i moan into his mouth. yep. also when he cusses it means im doing a great job. hehe. nice stuff ryt there. we pause sometimes to rest, then go aead again. i got many rounds that day. we did same stuff on the bed several times. then he pulled me so i'd be on top. im such a great top bro he aint know hoe to topppp. then was cuddling on top of him and then accidentally (wink wink) grinded on his rock solid stuff. he was turned on sabi nya shit anuyon sabi ka ah ayaw mo ok BUT THEN he was like gusto ko. tnagina pabebe yarn. anw i started kissing then grinding and he was cussing bec im so good at it. later my pants were off and later his shorts too. so we were underwear-away from grinding on directly. was nice got me tiredt. THEN HAHAH i saw this 5 peso coin by the bed and i was like eto yung token sa rides AHSDHASHDASHDHA WOF YAN TEH? tangina tawang tawa sya gago ang funny ko tlg san ka makakakuha ng kallapan na funny. tas nilagay ko sa gilid nya singko started grinding again. bet u he was grinding too. AND IT WAS SO HARD IT LOWKEY HURT TO GRIND ON. GEEZAS. so basically the whole bed was shaking. and i did my deed as a good girl to keep the music on (aka moaning) because there was no music. felt like

asmr. boring af. unlike when we make out sa car, theres always music. i like making out on the white chev instead of the fortuner BECAUSE THE FORTUNERS WINDOWS AIN TINTED what in the world was i thinking making out inside an untinted car INSIDE A PARK WHERE THERE ARE LOTSA PPL PASSING BY. anyways back to the bed, we paused, cuddled. then i was badtrip again for some reason so i got up to get dressed but we eventually made out again on the sofa hehe. legs spread again bec he liked touching there so i let him. then eventually was begging me to allow him to eat me out but i was like BROOOO NOOOO you gon taste it and it be not groomed yet in anyway but he was alr there begging looool he looked so adorbs but NOOO. i asked wala ka man benefit jan, sabi nya ikaw meron. tas sabi ko why do u wanna do it, he said he wasnted to satify me liek HNGGGGGG ok i would let you but it really not be groomed oakay NEXT TIME for sure. AND HECK the lights were on. it was daylight and the lights were on like hasdhahsdhashdas it feels liek im being eaten out at the home decor station at vista mall U GUYZ. anyways ayon. after non i think he tried carrying me for some reason. and i knew he found me heavy lols. but yeah i was a cute little moment he carried me around the room pretending its a mall and he's touring me and shit, "to your left, is the sala set, to your right is the flat screen tv..." things like that HAHAHA funny cute moment. anw later on we found ourselves sitting on the little bed again i was on top of him. he didnt want to lay down bec he alrady made the bed lol so we started grinding again sitting, me on top doing my best !! giving my all !! bec he also had a finger down there as i grinded on his stuff so it basically felt like a direct grind lols. anyways was nice. then later on we made out standing up. was kinda hard because he was 7 inches taller. OH AKALA NYO TITE SIZE YUNG 7 INCHES NOH. hinde. so ayon we were making out and he was shy to ask for a deep throat HAHSDHAHDHAS HECK NAW BITCH U TOLD ME A RAPE JOKE. so this is the part where i get revenge. he was standing there, and i was teasing him. was acting clueless, but he hinted he wanted his belt off so i took it off. was honestly confused with the belt. lol. anw i got to remove it and said, so ano next? playfully hhehhehehe. anyways ayon nga eventually me teased him everrr soooo slowly his dick went from solid-jelly-solid-jelly. LMFAO omfg will i cause him illness? omg. anwwww ayon. later on i removed his shorts as he asked. then i stepped aaway from him across the room because he was doing the shy type hands while hsis shorts was by his foot. and i LOL'd at him for a good few minutes just clapping my hands out of entertainment HAHSDHAHSDAS. then he asked me to put my hands inside, did it slowly and i told him to smile ka nga muna. AND HA THE MF WAS SHAKING. LOL. my fucking powerrrrrrr. anyways later on i was teasing out the underwear, then later i got my hands in again and then touchedt the dick *YAY* finally we got there!! anw it was only for a few secs and i told him its over HAHAHA. then i put his shorts back up again, but subtly teasing that i would suck. bec the shorts were by his ankles so i had to kneel. did i suck? no. did i make sure he thought i was? YES BITCH. and then he lay down fretting because i didnt suck his dick and then while was laying down i opened his shorts again to pretend that his dick was a computer mouse and told him "lets play solitaire, o kaya counterstrike or maybe purble place. gawa ng cake hehe" lmfao mfer be cry laughing because he dont know what to do bec he was teased. so ayon we ended that way and i thought he was bad trip bec of what i did. but he assured me na di naman like dapat lang duh. anyways ayon hehe.

uwi na kami after nakauwi ako 1. andon kami 10. hehe. hinatid nya man me pauwi. tho yung byahe pauwi di pa kami nakakalayo sa place he pulled over so i was confused bec there were no big vehicles incoming but to my surpris he started kissimg me again lol bro deins ka ba nasasawa. anw yon. was nice naman. making out with a guy from a rich fam is nice bec yall dont need to pay to rent in motels lol but still has pressure, bec if we end on a bad note, i swear most of the blgs here are engineered by his relatives. thats how prominent they are. the place we went to is owned by his uncle, who works at legazpi rn thats why the place was vacant. theyre making a mall i think idk. so thats why his uncle is making another like that na place dun. so he has somewhere to stay. like what in the wealth... its crazy how people have money. and for sure even if the place we stayed in was small, it costs millions fr. anyways ayun yung promised detailed chika ko. hehe ciao. mej pokpok nga me pero look at me suffering the consequences, may sipon na ako aside sa ubo because he had mild sipon. now my sipon is malala compared to his, and he alr is recoveredt tangina unfair. but yesterday he insisted to see me to drop off some meds and he hugeed me and cried. because i asked for a time out the night before. bec i was having a hard time. he allowed it but over thinkedt it so yeah he cried while hugging me tight in the car. and kept on saying sorry mainly bec of the sipon thing. but it was, i felt, directed to the other stuff he had disappointed me with. anyways before that sabi nya ok lang ba sayo mag punta munang emall may bibilhin lang, sabi ko naur im sick. it was bec he wanted to buy me gummy worms lol. cute. u shoulda bought them before going to me, mofo. jk. loveee u penggg.

[saucylittlesmile]

I really liked that question to Coach S and his answer. Because as much as you love a thing, much as you may love a routine, it's also a job and the physical and mental grind and slog on Oly athletes is a very real thing. Just see the reactions of Oly athletes to the delay of Tokyo 2020. And it applies to everyone in what we do, how do we stay motivated? The other big challenge is how to avoid blame in any partnership, and I think avoiding that pitfall really helped VM's success.

I think that VM have been particularly aware of reminding people, this time around, of the work and sacrifices that went into their careers/lives/partnership.  I mean, obviously, our perspective is skewed; we see them at competitions doing run-throughs of already near-perfect routines and then the glamour of the competition itself and the glitz of the medals.  We see a handful of days; or perhaps an occasional glimpse into a training day.  But we don’t see that daily, unrelenting, repetitive life of an elite athlete just training, training, training, all aiming for a few specific events, to shine.  It’s one thing to go in an do an inspiring talk to kids; another thing to let them think that any of it was achieved through luck and happenstance.  It was work, and dedication, and yeah - a struggle at times to stay motivated, to do all that, even if you know that in the end it will be worth it, or that you’ll look back on those times with fondness with the fuzzy haze of memory.  It’s one thing to do an interview where you sing each other’s praises; another thing to let people think that your partnership is all rainbows and magic, and that it just ‘fairytale happens’ even though no other person manages to have that with any of their own relationships. But it was learning how to communicate (not just using your own words, but understanding what the other person needs from you  or how they will react to various circumstances).  They (and we) owe a lot to Suzanne for those early lessons in that.  

"Theirs is a special relationship," said Lauzon, who argues Virtue and Moir have found some kind of magical common ground. "They're in the middle between being a couple and work colleagues.

"They are like soulmates. They never criticize or coach each other, which is the toughest thing to do when you compete together for that long."

#ask #and a little quoting because why not

[c-is-for-circinate]

---okay wait, no, nevermind, this is what I want to say about Vex and Percy, I found it after all.  I love them because they’re a love story about choosing what you want to build after the world falls down around you, and finding somebody else who will look to the future and build next to you, even though you’re both working with shattered landscapes and cracked tools.  I love them because the way both of their worlds broke is so fucking different, but they understand each other enough to recognize it, and neither one of them can keep from moving instinctively, unstoppably forward anyway.

Once upon a time, they both had lives with plans, and then those lives fell apart.  And both of those lives, those sets of plans included love in their own way, but neither of them looked anything like the love Percy and Vex found with each other.  They didn’t expect that at all.

I have a lot of feelings about teenaged Percival de Rolo, who is probably going to be a clockmaker.  He has so many siblings in his vast noble family that he can do that, he can be semi-useless and artful.  He expects to get married someday, a respectable arranged match to someone he’ll presumably like well enough, and live a quiet, clever life.  I picture him as fond enough of his family, assuming that he’ll be fond enough of his hypothetical maybe-someday wife and his hypothetical maybe-someday children, happy enough in that partnership, with the time and space to be passionate about his cleverness and his books and his inventions.  There’s such a specific kind of fulfilment in that life I think Percy once envisioned for himself, with people who are reliably there, loved but taken a little bit for granted, all of the focus and elation and ‘this is the point of me’ devotion towards intellectual pursuits.  I think he would have been happy with that life, and that he would have been kind of a vaguely-inoffensive asshole because he never really paid enough attention to other people to bother really hurting them, or to learn that he could really hurt them and stop.

Of course we know how all of that fell apart.  What I’m fascinated by is Percy himself, though, Percy who survived to join Vox Machina, because the Percy we know from canon never actually stopped falling apart.  We know he hasn’t rebuilt himself a new life, he doesn’t have a future, he’s got a revenge quest and then he has a dragon distraction, sure, yes, we see that, but it’s not just the facts of what Percy does, it’s the feelings and the headspace he’s in the whole time.  Taliesin’s said a few times, and I am so interested in the implications, that Percy spends 95% of the campaign mostly staying coherent through the middle of a constant, years-long nervous breakdown.  He is constantly slipping back and forth along the edges of dissociating, present enough to react to things but not exactly here, not really processing the full weight of everything that happens, not quite.  He can’t tell his Orthax-visions apart from nightmares cooked up by his own brain, and he talks more than once about how much the past few years with VM feel more like a dream than reality.  His judgment is a mess, diving headfirst into deals with anyone who’ll have him, making whatever bad decision seems like a good idea at the time.

So Percy’s life was smashed to smithereens and the Percy we know has absolutely not recovered, has not even really begun to recover--but one of the really epic things about Percy is the way he just keeps moving forward anyway.  Dazed, dissociated, acting on instinct, whatever Percy may be, it is baked into his very nature to keep on going.  When Percy is surprised or threatened, he always seems to be shocked into action, not stillness.  We see it when he goes full Determinator in Whitestone during the Briarwoods arc, and again chasing Ripley to Glintshore.  We see it directly after the Chroma Conclave attack, looking for a plan, for a next step, when he tugs Vex to evacuate the keep; we see it in the ruins of Draconia when he’s the only one to notice Tiberius, and he is so careful about asking questions that won’t derail the thing they have in motion, so careful not to alert any of the others who might grind everything to a halt, because grief or no grief this has to keep going anyway.  Even when he’s awash with useless emotions and there’s nowhere to go to, Percy broods at work, down by a forge or setting pen to paper, making and planning and doing.  It’s so telling that even at his absolute worst, in that pit of nothing when Orthax first whispered in his ear, Percy’s reaction was to make something.

.

Which brings us to Vex, who isn’t quite a maker like Percy, but is still a builder in her own way.  Vex who had her own life that fell apart, and I don’t really mean Byroden, and I certainly don’t mean Syngorn.

Vex’s life, Vex’s plans, weren’t handed to her.  The life Vex expected to live was the one she was still living when we first met her: the traveling adventurer’s life she’d built with Vax.  (And maybe that’s our first demonstration of exactly how much Vex is maker and a builder, that after her life fell to pieces the first time--after Byroden, after Syngorn--she’d already managed to put together a new one once.)  She has her brother and she has her bear, and by the time we meet her she has Vox Machina, and it’s not much for convention but it’s a life.  All of her expectations are locked into that life and that future.  VM at level 9, with a keep under construction and the respect of Tal’dorei, was obviously already pretty different than the twins at level 1 living in the woods, but it’s also so easy to see how it’s just a continuation of the same thing.  Vex and her twin live in each others’ pockets, and she shoots things and makes sure that there is always enough to eat and always money for a rainy day, and there’s stability in unconditional love and self-sufficiency right there.  Laura’s mentioned on Talks that, if the Conclave hadn’t attacked and Vax had left the group, Vex would have tried as hard as possible to convince him to stay, and then would’ve gone with him for sure.  Of course she would have. Vox Machina was the life Vex was trying to build, but Vax and Trinket were the life she already had, cornerstone and truth.

You can see how hard Vex works to create and maintain and secure that life with every coin she squirrels away so zealously against a rainy day.  There is no doubt in my mind that, pre-Vox Machina, Vex and her bow and her hoarded pennies was the one who made sure there was always something to eat over the campfire every night.  There is no doubt in my mind that when they found Byroden in ashes, Vex was the one who got her brother moving, who kept them moving, who kept them pointed forwards no matter what.  And you can see how much Vex put into the bigger, richer, theoretically more-stable life Vox Machina was starting to build together when it all came crashing down.

Percy’s life fell apart pre-stream, and we all know exactly how.  The super fascinating thing about Vex’s arc is that we get to see her life fall apart, right there in the middle of the story, maybe more than anybody else.  The Chroma Conclave was hard on everyone for all sorts of reasons, but in terms of what Vex tried to build for herself and tried to keep, it’s easy to see how fast and how utterly she loses very nearly everything.  Greyskull Keep is first, of course, with the heartbreak of watching Vex hesitating there at the edge of the tree with tears in her eyes, because this was their home.  It’s such a big thing for her, more than for anyone else--and of course it is, because Vex more than anyone in the group saw Greyskull as her future.  Keyleth always had the Ashari to go back to, and Pike had Sarenrae, Grog lives in the motion and Scanlan avoids plans, Percy could barely conceive of a future existing and Vax was lost and floundering for any next step he could find, but Vex had this castle and Vex called this castle home.  

Of course it doesn’t end with the castle, though, because this love story is the story of how everything breaks, and the next thing of Vex’s to break was Vax.  Before the dragons came, Vax was already falling apart and falling away from her in two different directions, half of him tugged away by depression and uncertainty, the other half pulled after Keyleth.  The seeds of distance were sprouting there even before Vex died in the Queen’s champion’s tomb.  And maybe that feels even more symbolic now than I ever realized it did before--Vex died and came back, but the deal her brother made, that vow he swore, wiped away any chance Vex still had for ever getting back that wandering rogue-and-ranger life that once was hers.

The Chroma Conclave arc takes nearly half of Campaign 1, and Vex spends it watching bits of her old life crumble while she’s much, much too busy to process or mourn.  There are dragons in the world, and there’s no time to worry about what the world will look like once they’re dead.  She doesn’t have plans.  Vax has raven wings and a goddess and a girlfriend, and Emon is on fire, is turning to lava beneath Thordak’s feet, and Keyleth is a wreck and Grog dies for five minutes and god only knows what’s going on in Scanlan’s head ever--and Vex, like Percy, just keeps going.  She reads the Raven Queen book cover to cover seventeen times.  She takes things, and she hoards things, and she scrounges for loot, and she gets called greedy for it but the thing is that for Vex, acquiring things is very much a fundamental kind of building for the future, maybe even more than making and tinkering is for Percy.  Stocking up now will save them later, it’s baked into the firmament of Vex’s soul, take whatever you can because you will NEED IT someday.  She steals a broom because she wants it, yes, and then it saves all of their lives.  She sets the group after Fenthras because she wants it.  She bargains and she haggles, even when there’s no reason at all to believe that tomorrow will come, even when Vex has no idea what tomorrow could be, because whatever doubts she may have on the surface, her instincts can’t give up that last breath of faith: I will need this money later, because there will be a later.  Just like Percy, scribbling plans in his journals late in the night for inventions he has no time or supplies to make.  Neither of them have any fucking clue what the future could possibly be, but they can’t stop working towards it anyway.

.

This is the environment where they fall into each other, Vex and Percy, in the middle of the mess of the Chroma Conclave, in this violent limbo world where any day could be the last and next month might as well not exist.  This is where they plant the seeds and start to grow the future they don’t even believe in yet.

The attraction and the flirting start before the dragons even come, of course.  Percy builds things for Vex to have and keep and use or squirrel away, and it’s such a perfect expression of both of their attitudes towards the world.  Vex keeps his coin with hers, and makes sure to shepherd it just as carefully, makes sure that Percy will have enough in whatever future comes.  And there are hints of what they’ll be.  There’s a reason that ‘Darling, take the mask off’ is SO MUCH, and it’s because ever-moving determinator Percy is stuck.  He’s driving himself right into a corner, working himself off a cliff.  He’s just killed someone horribly and he’s on the edge of blue-screening right now, of stopping, or maybe of smashing everything until there’s nowhere left to go.   And Vex, who’s got a good life for herself right now but has already lost one and knows what it’s like, says, come on.  Let’s back you away from this wall you’ve thrown yourself up against.  Take the mask off.  Let’s keep moving forward. 

And they’re something, there, in the way Vex not only keeps going but tries to keep Percy going right through it all.  So much of Vex’s constant planning and motion is wrapped around and embedded with keeping other people going too.  We know she took care of Vax when it was just the two of them, because they took care of each other, and you cannot tell me Vex wasn’t the long-term planner of the pair.  She gathers Trinket up out of horror and sadness and makes sure he has a future.  She collects strays, angel slave-boys, the fruitless quest for the Gray Render baby.  She pulls Percy out of a jail cell and keeps him in the first place.  And there’s a selfless generosity to it, of course, or it’s easy to see one anyway, Vex who mothers, Vex who checks in on everybody else after her own death, but that’s not the whole story.  The other half of it is Vex-who’s-never-been-alone.  Vex who hoards people as tightly and as carefully as she hoards coin.  She can keep going through nearly anything, so long as her people are there with her, so she is going to make sure that everyone she loves stays okay because she needs them to be.

The thing about Percy is that--because he’s a builder, a maker, a fixer, a determinator in his own right--he can return that favor.  He can make sure that Vex keeps going, not by stopping and sitting in her feelings with her until she’s ready to move (which is very much the Vax and Keyleth energy), but by tugging her along in the direction she was already going.  In Syngorn he gives her Whitestone, and oh, it’s a way to shut her father up, but more than anything it’s a someday.  There in the city that helped destroy Vex’s first good life, while the dragon that burned the rest of it to ashes sits over the ruins of her last, Percy makes a promise that someday Vex can have a home and a future again.  It’s far away and shrouded in mist.   Percy can’t even really picture his own someday right now.  They might both die before they get there.  But there’s a someday ahead, and it’s enough to get Vex moving again, proud and hopeful and ready to go and collect that bow that’ll help get her there.

And Vex turns right back around again on Glintshore and in its aftermath, demanding that Percy have that future too, because she doesn’t want this one without him.  If he’s going to promise her a someday to move towards again, then he damn well has to get there too.  It’s because she wants him to be alive and happy, and it’s because Vex just wants him, needs him in her life, this human she collected and is so determined to keep.

So the promise of someday, in Whitestone is glittering on the horizon for them when they kiss in the woods after the Vorugal fight, and it’s just barely around the corner past the next couple of hells when Percy comes to her room before Thordak, but I think it also still feels like a far-away mirage, and I think that matters.  They are both still lost in a world full of carnage and dragons and constant threat.  Percy is stabbing Raishan in a council meeting because why the fuck not, this seems like a good idea at this time.  Vex is still so unsure, trying to teach herself to forgive, trying to see a path forward to that someday-horizon, trying to deal with the fact that even if they kill all the dragons and even if they all survive she’s lost her brother to Keyleth and fate.  The world is a wreck and they are a wreck in it, and the only thing they can do is not stop.  The only thing they can be sure of is right here, right now.

So that’s where they fall into bed.  On the eve of the Thordak fight, knowing they both could die tomorrow, knowing they most likely will.  They’re about to go take on the monster that destroyed the only two homes Vex ever loved, a decade and a half apart, and there is no kind of promise that either of them will see the other side of the war, and that’s where they grab each other and hold on.  They’re here in this impossible place together.  They’ll take it as it comes, they’ll take whatever comes, and for this one night they have each other in it.

.

And then they survive.

So much of the episodes directly after the end of the Conclave--the next week or two in Vox Machina’s life, where they save Scanlan and try to bury some ashes and rip themselves apart, and then fight a kraken and die trying, and then go to Hell, and then come back--is just this string of, okay, nobody here knows how to stop.  The dragons are dead, but the fugue state of violence and getting-the-next-thing-done, nose to the grindstone and figure this next step out and don’t worry about long-term plans because we might not survive to see them anyway, that’s still here.  Percy’s been living there for years (and certainly didn’t have time, post-Briarwoods arc, to start thinking about pulling himself out of it).  Vex’s specific life plans got trashed by the dragons more than anyone else’s.  But really, the whole group is living there in one way or another.  It’s just that Scanlan shattered under it and ran, and Grog’s never really suffered from it or lived differently anyway, and Pike keeps taking breaks to fix temples and tend to refugees and work towards rebuilding right through it all.  Keyleth and Vax both found a sort of peace in fatalism and destiny, in knowing that they have set paths there in front of them and all they have to do is choose to follow them.

Percy and Vex, very fundamentally, don’t have those set paths.  Nothing for them is a given.  There’s Whitestone, yes, but there is a reason Percy isn’t Lord of Whitestone, king in his castle, leading his city through the dragons and beyond.  When Percy’s life broke it shattered, and even when Whitestone was freed, he didn’t claim it as his.  He only came back after the dragon attack because Emon was gone and it was the only safe place they knew.  Whitestone is in Percy’s bones, part of how he defines himself and his life, but living there, running it, tying himself to the city--it isn’t a given.  Percy could die fighting dragons or die to a kraken or spend eternity trapped in the Nine Hells, and Whitestone would be fine.  He could leave and never come back, and Whitestone would be fine.

So coming back to Whitestone--sending Vex on the Gray Hunt--fucking in the castle treasury and setting up plans for whatever’s next--it’s a choice.  Nothing about the people Percy and Vex become during peacetime is about destiny.  They had lives and plans and destinies, the rich asshole clockmaker, the ranger on the road.  Those are gone.  Everything they keep from those old lives is a little broken, a little twisted from what they once expected it to be.  Everything they do now is what they decide to build.

And this is the glory of Percy and Vex, the love that’s so big it makes my heart ache: the thing they decide to keep in this new world is each other.  In the fugue of war with no future, they found each other and built things together, spent an entire evening tinkering on Vex’s stolen broom in Percy’s workshop, flirted and fucked and kept each other going even when nobody knew where.  Neither of them had real, passionate romantic love written into their plans, back when they had plans.  Neither of them needed it, not for the lives they wanted.  But those lives are dead and gone, and they found this thing together in the weird wilderness between there and here, and they’re keeping it.  They get to do that.  They get to build their new lives in whatever shape they want, and that means they get to set each other as cornerstones and build everything else around them.

It’s so fundamental to this relationship and this new future that all the building blocks they’re working with, on both sides, are a little bit broken.  Whitestone itself is still a struggling, recovering city sitting on a decimated continent.  Percy is still so caught up in his own anger, still waiting for another shoe to drop, still not quite ready to believe any of this is real.  Vex is pouring through libraries researching Orcus, researching Vecna, waiting for old debts to be called in.  They are neither of them fixed.  They are neither of them safe.

But we get to see, in one-year timeskip, how tentatively and tenaciously they keep working together towards something anyway.  Vex builds a house and a Gray Hunt corps and a tentative detente with her father, starting to pick up those old pieces, starting to try.  Percy builds civic works projects and an international early warning system, still ready for the next disaster, starting to entertain the idea that it doesn’t have to destroy everything.  They get new glasses and open a bakery and invest in armor and ammo and art.  They host a ball.

They get married, in secret, and tell almost nobody they know.  It’s such an asshole thing to do!  They are both still assholes, both still broken enough to be wary of the consequences of inviting their own loved ones to a simple wedding.  They do it because the point isn’t the moment, it’s the marriage, all the future days to come in this new life they’ve agreed they are going to create together.  They want it to be theirs, just theirs, this relationship they never expected to have and now intend to base the rest of their lives on.  It’s kind of a messy, slightly dickish way to go about things, and that’s perfect, because Vex and Percy are kind of messy, slightly dickish people, and they own that together.  They own a lot of things together now.

.

The epilogue of Campaign 1 walks the line between open-ended and closed story in a way I find so deeply satisfying, and so much of that is because of Percy and Vex.

So many stories end at a point where--the day is saved, or it appears to be, and the horizon is wide open for the heroes and the sunset, and everything is triumphant and victorious and anything could happen next.  It’s perfectly satisfying and ripe for sequels, and nothing is quite guaranteed but everybody is happy for now and that’s a good place to tie things up anyway.  It’s the ending of Return of the Jedi, or the first Pacific Rim--something has to happen next, somebody has to figure out what that is, but that’s not the heroes’ problem and that’s not the worry for today.

Sometimes, stories end with everything so tightly wrapped up that there’s no room to breathe.  It’s the ending that says, what you’ve just read or watched or gone through is the entire story.  It is everything that matters.  It is full, and it is complete, and nothing that ever happens in the rest of these characters’ lives will ever be as important as what they’ve just done.  Lord of the Rings does this a bit, and it actually works; Harry Potter does it badly, and I’d submit that The Adventure Zone: Balance does too.  It’s the implication behind every Disney or fairytale happily ever after, although those at least tend to skip the epilogue describing exactly what that happily-ever-after means.

Vex and Percy do neither of these things at the end of their story, or they do both of them, and that’s so great.  They do get the epilogue, with the closed ending and the happily-ever-after.  The Lord and Lady de Rolo settle down, have at least five children, and live in peace for decades until Percy eventually dies of old age and Vex far-more-eventually follows.  Their friends outlive them by decades or centuries.  It’s tidy and nice and final...except.  Whitestone could outlive even Keyleth, and Percy--and by extension now Vex, too--lives as long as Whitestone lives.

Somehow Percy and Vex manage to have an epilogue with every one of the trappings of a perfect picture-book ending, without feeling static.  They’re going to have the house and the kids and the castle and the tiny little kingdom, and it’s going to be full every single day, because inherent in the very makeup of these two people is the inability to ever stop growing.  With the dragons dead, with Vecna gone, they can keep doing exactly what they’ve been doing this entire time.  They can move forward.  They can build.  And they can build something massive that outlasts both of them, lay foundations and groundwork for centuries and generations to come.

Fighting with Vox Machina will always have been the biggest, hardest, most glorious and dangerous, most epic thing that Vex and Percy have ever done, and it’s absolutely over.  The book is done, tied off with a bow.  But they’re not stuck and they’re not empty without it.  They’re going to make clock towers and festivals and change the whole culture of Whitestone.  They’re going to have half a dozen children and raise them towards their future.  The Whitestone of fifty, sixty, seventy years from the end of the campaign when Percy eventually dies will be fundamentally different from the Whitestone they came home to when their adventures ended, and it will be the pair of them who made it so, together.  Which means that even without him Vex will still have him, in civil infrastructure and all the things that let people keep living their lives, in this thing they created as a team, this thing she’ll continue to shepherd and grow without him for the rest of her own life.

And maybe that’s the key to Vex and Percy, to why their ending feels so satisfying, so inevitable and perfect and good.  So many stories end before their characters can change and split away from each other.  So many epilogues decree that their characters will never change, ever, so they can never grow apart.  But Percy and Vex are built of growth and motion, and when they found a match for themselves in each other they decided to point that forward momentum in the same direction and change together for the rest of their lives.  It’s what a real relationship looks like, a real happily-ever-after.  They will pick each other up and help each other on along the way, because we’ve seen it happen.  They’ll hold on to each other, and they’ll build.

#critical role #perc'ahlia #LOOK I JUST HAVE ALL THE VEX AND PERCY FEELINGS OKAY #THIS ISN'T EVEN ALL OF THEM #it's just a whole bunch #sometimes I just ship things #and then this happens

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E50 (Feb. 5, 2019)

Are any of us ever, really, on the internet?

This week’s guests are Taliesin Jaffe and Matt Mercer!

Brian shames Taliesin and Matt for (to be fair, accidentally) pouring coke in with their 22-year-old scotch. I am also physically pained by this. I may need a minute to compose myself. (@loquaciousquark: “I like how you’re Brian in this and I’m Matt.”)

Announcements: MAME drop airs three hours before Talks every week! Next week’s Between the Sheets will feature Will Friedle, and last night’s episode featured Quyen Tran! Critical Role will be taking this coming Thursday off, and Talks Machina will be taking next Tuesday off, but the show returns on Valentine’s Day!

But for now, let’s jump into Episode 50: The Endless Burrows

Stats for this week’s ep: Fjord got the 50th HDYWTDT in the 50th episode! The Roper’s crit on Caleb would have one-shotted him had Caduceus not reduced it by negating the crit. Spurt is the first on-screen guest player character death in the history of the show. Chris Perkins was at the table for 22 minutes and 15 seconds. Taliesin: “That’s an episode of network television right there.”

Chris was in town unexpectedly, and asked if he could come watch the show. Matt had written Spurt as an NPC character, just to see how the M9 would react to him. As he was driving to the studio, he realized it could be a lot of fun to let Chris play the character instead. Chris was on board, and Matt told him “You’ll know when to jump in,” and that was that. Nobody else had any idea he was going to be playing.

Caduceus is “in his element but out of his element” underground. “He’s looking for things to be excited about. Not a lot of things to be excited about here. It’s kind of awful.” Taliesin is trying to let him be a little more tactical, to just take care of things and do what needs to be done. “He’s on edge, but it’s a healthy edge.”

Matt clarifies that the party haven’t really emerged into the Underdark---they’re just skimming the edges of it. After spending a lot of time there in the last campaign, Matt didn’t necessarily want to bring it back there again.

Caduceus doesn’t see the group as being deceitful so much as just people who haven’t had the option of being open before. “He’s trying to make that option available.” Part of his training at the temple involved talking to people, helping them feel better, and helping them open up, so this is nothing new to him. Matt: “The solitary therapist.” Taliesin: “He really, really likes them.”

Spurt was originally intended to be a potential hindrance to keep the group from getting past the fire giants stealthily, if he wound up coming along with them. Turned out he... sort of removed himself from that equation.

On the parade of tragic backstories: “I don’t think Clay fully comprehends how bad this all is. I don’t know if he can comprehend art film horror. ‘That’s rough, man.’“ Matt: “He’s the Fred Tatasciore of the group.” Everyone is delighted by that comparison.

Matt was looking for opportunities to bring tragic backstories together. Taliesin calls it a “car crash” approach.

Why are D&D characters often so tragic? Taliesin: “It’s harder to make an interesting happy person.” Matt: “That’s true, but it’s not impossible.” He talks about how it’s natural to try to build something into a character’s backstory to propel them into the dangers of adventure. It’s also the opportunity for a player to work through something they’re going through out-of-game in a safe, cathartic way.

Caduceus is “still a little lanky”. Taliesin points out that this is to be expected because he’s a “vegan on the road”. There’s a long discussion about how the food he makes is “basically semi-firm tofu”.

Matt freaks out a bit about the unintentional callback... VM also being a mid-level party descending into the Underdark in search of a halfling and almost losing a rogue’s foot to lava. A lot of things had to go a particular way for that to happen, and he definitely wasn’t expecting it, especially since he was consciously trying to avoid familiar territory with the Underdark this time around.

Brian: “Which is funny, because the writers never even saw the first campaign.”

Taliesin points out that a trickster cleric is meant to be more of a toolkit, whereas a grave cleric build is more of a medkit.

Taliesin: “I’ve learned my lesson, and I have like three new character ideas ready to go, for this campaign or the next.”

There’s a lot of debate about where the hell Spurt got a skunk, which leads to the creation of the magical item Skunk Jug, which produces a skunk.

Caduceus enjoyed the romance novel, but it hadn’t “entirely clicked”. “He’s aware that: ‘Ah, they’re doing the hanky-panky stuff.’ It’s not really in his wheelhouse.”

Matt was very proud of the group coming up with their plan to get past the giant, and he felt a bit bad that Nott rolled so low (although he also loves the “magnificent clusterfuck” moments that are the hallmark of D&D). Brian: “That’s just a testament to how bad Sam is as a player.” 

Caduceus took Warcaster as his next feat. “This seems to be in-character and useful.”

Fan art of the week: Nott running across the lava! Taliesin: “I want to play that game. That’s an 8-bit game I want to play.”

Brian asks Matt if the game’s about where he thought it would be at episode 50. Matt: “We’re charging into Xhorhas earlier than I was expecting. We need to get Ashley back soon.” (They’ll get her back in a couple months.) He also points out that some story beats have happened in the world in the group’s absence. He didn’t want to tailor the story’s trajectory to manufacture a big moment in episode 50. The group’s involvement in the Empire has been less than expected, but the direction they’re taking is much more direct than he was expecting. Taliesin points out that if the group had been Vox Machina, they would’ve involved themselves in the politics of the war instantly. Matt reiterates that he loves DMing in a reactionary way when the players push in an unexpected direction.

All Taliesin wants to do right now is fix that sword. He’s expecting it to be, like, a +1 cursed sword that just sings constantly and can’t ever be put down.

Taliesin: “I’m enjoying corralling all the kids.” Matt points out that he’s a much-needed influence on the group. Beau is the one that Cad considers to be his best friend. Dani: “You two can’t not be best friends in this show.” Cad thinks of Fjord as an angsty teen. He thinks Caleb is occasionally up his own butt a bit. He hasn’t figured out that Jester’s an adult yet. “’Oh, she’s happy and fine. Thank goodness someone is.’ And obviously she’s not, but he hasn’t figured that out yet.” He’s disappointed in Nott for the amount of drinking, although he hasn’t said it out loud.

Taliesin: “Cad thinks dangerous things have wisdom. Sometimes just walking up to something and asking is very useful. Sometimes you can avoid getting arrested in front of a coffee shop by offering the officer a hot pocket.”

Matt talks about how getting players to avoid combat is a teaching process that involves incentivizing out-of-the-box approaches. That’s in direct contrast to the more traditional grind-through-fights approach to D&D that was prevalent in the early editions, so it can be a process. He points out that you can talk to players out-of-game, or you can change your own plans to allow players a non-combat win even if it’s a bit of a stretch.

Taliesin and Matt both own a pair of chaps. As you do.

Taliesin’s personal inspiration for Cad’s staff was very Dark Crystal-driven. The crystal comes from the land he lives on. He dug up the crystal and made the staff himself; the beetles crawl into and out of the stick continuously.

Talks Machina: After Dog

Brian: "Are you relaxed right now?” Taliesin: “Yeah, there’s something in this Coke that’s really...”

Taliesin got started with eyeliner in high school with Vampire LARPing. He had a (mumblemumble)”furk idee” that got him into goth clubs early. Matt first learned to apply eyeliner for cosplay, then wore it for the first time outside of cosplay clubbing with Taliesin (they also had an industrial goth karaoke night).

Dumbest way they’ve managed to injure themselves? Matt was editing There Will Be Brawl’s final episode, which was a bit too overambitious and he was the only editor, and he didn’t sleep for 72 hours and threw his back out horribly from sitting too long. Taliesin was doing a student film as a teenager, and was asked to do a stunt that involved holding someone up to a moving train (Matt: “What the fuck, Taliesin?”). He had really long goth nails at the time and managed to break all ten of his nails off entirely doing that stunt. “I didn’t drop him into the moving train!” Matt: “That’s why unions are good.”

Brian: “I lit myself on fire with a molotov cocktail.” Yes, really, but he wasn’t badly burned. Taliesin: “Did you at least hit the man? Did it stick to him?” Brian: “It was not a man. It was a porta-potty.” Matt reiterates how grateful he was not to have grown up with cellphone video.

Matt: “So you’re saying...” Taliesin: “I was Emperor Norton, yeah.” Matt: “Aw. I’m proud of you!”

We all learned... a lot today. See you in two weeks for episode 100 of Talks Machina!

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

[ithinkilikeit-reactions]

Procrastination (Jaehyun/Smut)

Ask:  Hello love can u do a jaehyun dry humping like the full scenario based on ur reaction i loved it thank you vm 💖❤💓

A/N: If you’re curious abotu what the scenario was the anon was talking about  you find it here

tags: Making out, dryhumping, teasing, cursing, idk I only write pure filth at this point so you can guess

He was being such a tease, it was almost painful. You could hardly remember how you got into this situation, being half naked and sat in the doggy position on his bed. Your mind was fuzzy with need but you thought about it anyways. 

You and Jaehyun had an odd relationship. You weren’t exactly in a relationship, but you weren’t exactly just friends either. Flirting happened frequently and it just belonged in your relationship. With the flirting came teasing as well, no not dumb snarky comments but sexual teasing. His hands running up your thigh, you “accidently” rubbing your ass against his crotch when you stand in front of him, you get the idea. 

Today was similar. You and Jaehyun had mutual friends which meant you hung out a lot and today there was alcohol involved. Your friends were aware of your mildly fucked up relationship and loved joking around about it. Smiling to yourself, you ran the tip of your pointer finger over the top of the beer bottle. Jaehyun was sat across from you, an elbow resting on one of his knees and white t-shirt exposing his toned arms. 

It was his turn to host the friend group and you weren’t originally in the mood to be there. If it wasn’t for Johnny, you probably would have been at home in your sweats, watching whatever show you were into. You were still in your sweats, but at least you weren’t stuck at home, alone. 

Next to you sat Mark and on the other side sat Ten. Your eyes met Jaehyun’s and Post Malone played softly in the background, this was normally how you hung out. Sitting around doing nothing, eating and just talking. But today it was kind of quiet. Sexual tension between you and Jaehyun was thick enough to cut with a knife. You took your bottom lip between your teeth before taking a sip of your beer. 

“You two still haven’t fucked have you?” Yukhei said from his spot on the other side of Ten. Mark nearly choked on air and Ten smacked him on the back of the head. “Jesus, Yukhei. Have you no class?” He asked and you shook your head with a small laugh. “It’s alright, Ten. We haven’t.” Jaehyun said and Yukhei rubbed the back of his head. Jaehyun looked at you again, a small smirk on his face. “Then again, I’m down if she is.” He added and you huffed, getting up from your spot on the floor and exiting to his kitchen. 

You put your beer on the counter, your mouth feeling awfully dry all of a sudden. You turned on the tap and cupped your hands and drank, not wanting to waste a glass. Jaehyun frustrated you. Did you like him? Yes. Did he like you? Yes. Was there constant teasing without any follow up? Yes. It incredibly frustrated you. 

You could hear the music get turned up louder and sighed to yourself. You shouldn’t have come today. Both of your hands rested on the counter and you had your back turned to wear you couldn’t see anything but cabinet. A set of hands were placed on either side of yours and you could feel a hot breath on your neck. You turned around in your entrapment and faced him. Jaehyun smiled at you softly and you shook your head in disbelief. 

“If the teasing bothers you so much, tell them. They’ll stop.” He said and you placed a hand on his chest. Leaning back against the counter, Jaehyun pressed himself against you. “Or maybe we should just fuck, it won’t be teasing anymore if it’s true.” He added and you laughed. “It will still be teasing, only with probable cause.” You said and chuckled. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.” He agreed and press against you harder.

“Besides, it’s not like we could fuck right now. Not with them just one room over.” You said, his face getting closer to yours. “Hmm, now you’re just tempting me. I wouldn’t mind being caught.” He whispered. You had only just noticed his hands had moved to your waist. He licked his lips, waiting for you to give a signal that you wanted this too. 

You moved your hand from his chest to the back of his neck, pulling him down to your level. His lips pressed against yours, his arms pulling you more against him. This wasn’t the first time you kissed, no. But it was the first time you felt it was leading up to something else and you had been waiting for it. 

Jaehyun’s hand travelled down to your ass, giving it a good squeeze and making you gasp. He chuckled against your lips and allowed his other hand do the same. He massaged your flesh and you hummed in delight against his mouth. His eyes and yours shut as you made out slowly, tongues fighting eachother for dominance and hands tangling in his hair. 

Mark stumbled into the kitchen and froze, watching you two for a moment before deciding it was time to leave. You two didn’t even notice the younger male and just continued your heavy makeout session. A loud moan escaped your lips and you felt Jaehyun’s hard on press against you. 

He pulled away from your mouth and grabbed your hand, tugging you out of the kitchen, along the hallway and into his bedroom. He shut his bedroom door and turned back to you. You teasingly played with the tie of your sweatpants and licked your lips. Jaehyun’s bulge was very visible in his black skinny jeans and it hit you that this was the furthest that you two had ever gone. 

You reconnected your lips with his, feeling yourself being lifted off of the ground. He placed you on the bed, lifting your shirt in the process. You pulled your shirt off of your body and tossed it to the side. Jaehyun smiled at the sight of new flesh and stroked your skin. 

You felt kind of embarrassed, your bra wasn’t anything special. Just a simple nude one that did nothing for your shape and your panties were a differen’t color entirely and covered in baby pink flowers. But he didn’t care, he was finally having you. The last thing on his mind was the way your bra didn’t match your panties. He tugged your sweatpants down your legs, throwing them in the same direction as your shirt. 

You laughed at the fact that he was only stripping you, leaving his own body to your imagination. Jaehyun stopped and smiled at your laughs. “Don’t worry, I was getting around to it.” He said and pulled his shirt over his head. You had seen him shirtless plenty of times, so this wasn’t new. What was new, was the fact that he was hovering over you and grinding against you. 

He sat between your legs, kissing down your chest before stopping abruptly. “Get on your hands and knees for me.” He said and got off of the bed. You did as told, your ass faicng the side of the bed. Jaehyun groaned at the sight and let his hand collide with your ass. You moaned and pushed your ass out to him, wanting him to get closer. You felt his clothed bulge press against your own own clothed heat. The friction being minimal, yet still satisfying, you moaned. His hands ran down the expanse of your back, stopping at your hips and pulling you against him harshly. A gutteral moan escaped his lips and the friction shocked you. You could only imagine what this was like without fabric inbetween.

Your panties clung to your lips, your wetness becoming quite visible to him. His own cock started leaking precum, staining his Calvin Klein briefs but he was enjoying this. He was enjoying how visibly needy you were for him and how you backed up against him, needing more. He pulled away from you and you mewled at the loss of contact. 

Jaehyun ran his index finger over your clothed slit and you shuddered. “You’re so wet for me. You can probably throw these away after this.” He commented and you sighed. “Shut up.” You muttered and moaned when he pulled your panties to the side. Your pussy on display for him. Jaehyun licked his lips, feeling a sense of joy in seeing you like this, wet and needy. It had definitely been a long time coming. 

He leaned forward, placing a kiss on your slit. You gasped in surprise and backed up against him, wanting more. Jaehyun gripped your thighs and held you in place before licking up your slit. You were warm and wet and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. He groaned against you and continued his assault, moving to suck on your clit. It was amazing how worked up a little grinding made you so his minimal licking was enough to have you tetering on the edge. 

Your mewls got louder and he chuckled before pulling away. You looked back at him with a pout and he slapped your left cheek playfully. He opened his nightstand and pulled out a shiny silver package. Before he pulled his briefs down and placed the condom on, he pulled down your panties and unclipped your bra. 

Shaking your ass playfully, he smiled. You both had been wanting this for so long and no one had been taking action. In reality, this could have happened months ago. 

Jaehyun’s hands refound your hips and he guided himself to your entrance. You took a deep breath as he slipped himself inside of you, going slow at first before bottoming out. He’s breaths turned heavy and your arms went weak. You fell to your elbows and admired the way he stretched you out. Jaehyun gave you a moment to adjust and leaned forward. Wrapping his arm around your waist, he hoisted you up and pressed your back against his chest. The new position made him go deeper and a loud moan came out. 

“You feel nice wrapped around me, we should do this more often.” He whispered in your ear and you laughed slightly. “Let’s make plans after thi-.” He cut you off, thrusting into your roughly. His arm held you up as his hips pistoned into you. You reached behind you, placing your hand on the back of his neck and turning your head so you could kiss him again. The feeling of you moaning against his mouth made him pull away from your lips. Jaehyun pressed his forehead to yours, gritting his teeth as he picked up the pace. 

“Jaehyun~” You whimpered, his hips smacking against your ass. The room was filled with with the sounds of your skin slapping, moans and the faint sound of music coming from the other room. “Harder.” You ordered and he obliged. His grip on your waist tightened and he picked up his pace. He brushed your g-spot and you screamed slightly in surprise. The waiting had definitely made this experience better. 

You could feel yourself getting close, the previous teasing having been enough to have you there. Jaehyun moaned in your ear and felt you clenching around him. His moans were the best thing you had heard and you cursed yourself for not making a move earlier. 

His other hand snaked it’s way down to your clit, rubbing the bundle of nerves harshly. Jaehyun himself felt that he was close, your velvety walls milking him for everything he was worth. A harsh scream left your mouth as your orgasm took over you. Your body was burning with pleasure and Jaehyun wasn’t letting up. He liked the feeling of you shaking against him. Jaehyun wasn’t far behind you, abs tensing as he filled up his condom with a deep groan. 

Riding out your orgasm, he slowed down gradually. Stopping while being inside you. You both panted, chests rising and falling heavily. Jaehyun leaned forward and kissed the nape of your neck while you calmed down. You let yourself fall down onto his mattress with a deep breath. 

“Fuck.” You said and looked up at him as he stood over you, discarding his condom. His laugh filled the room and he quickly crawled over you, embracing you with his arms. “Do you think they heard us?” You asked and he nodded while placing more kisses down your chest and collar bones. “They most definitely did and I don’t mind. They might be able to shut up about sexual tension for once.” He said and ghosted his fingers over your stomach. 

You smiled and locked eyes with him. Jaehyun laced his fingers with yours and pressed his forehead against yours. “This was worth the procrastination.” 

A/N: I wrote this in one shot, without proof reading or anything so I apologize for mistakes. I usually never write a full smut this quickly, but I was inspired. Enjoy!

#nct #nct smut #nct scenario #nct reaction #nct 127 #nct 127 smut #nct 127 scenario #nct 127 reaction #nct u #nct u scenario #nct u smut #nct u reaction #jaehyun #jaehyun scenario #jaehyun reaction #jaehyun smut

[kjaded83]

Quick weekend trip was fun but back to the grind time!! Back to school before and after on one mf my clients daughters visiting before school starts in Wisconsin this week!! First time getting color just did a partial with a few face frame pieces natural and soft!! #backtoschool #lasvegas #lasvegashair #kenizbarbie #beforeandafter #colorvirgin #loosewaves #blendedhighlight #naturalhaircolor #redken #behindthechair #donnietrumpetandthesocialexperiment (at McCarran International Airport) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1o0CfpA-VM/?igshid=qsjkppwvw3o

#backtoschool #lasvegas #lasvegashair #kenizbarbie #beforeandafter #colorvirgin #loosewaves #blendedhighlight #naturalhaircolor #redken #behindthechair #donnietrumpetandthesocialexperiment

[marshmallowatheart]

To All The Boys I've Loved Before (Part 25)

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24)

Of course, Lilly gets her Irish coffee - more Irish than coffee - and Veronica's not sure why she's surprised because Lilly Kane always gets what Lilly Kane wants.

Veronica uses the excuse of getting pictures during the performance to get out of having to watch Lilly be extra touchy, extra flirty and extra mean under the guise of being tipsy.

It's an awkward situation that she's found herself in; a contractually obligating promise to help Logan get back the love of his life that is sure to hurt both Weevil and herself. Or she doesn't help him and he feels the pain of heart break all over again.

"Veronica?" She hears a familiar voice from behind her.

"Duncan?" She blinks in surprised before a smile settles onto her lips. "Came to show your school spirit to the mighty mighty, Tritons?"

"Your pictures in last week's article really did appeal to my musical senses," he jokes and she gives him a smile for the compliment even though she knows his musical senses are next to null.

"Really? I was sure it was the pun filled tag line that caught your eye."

He chuckles, shaking his head and confesses, "Actually, Lilly invited me. Can you believe it?"

For a long time, Duncan's tried his best to win over Lilly's affection to no avail. She's marked lines between them and named him her enemy in a fight for their parents approval for the simple fact that he got it and she didn't.

Veronica wants to believe that Lilly's had a change of heart and decided to bond with her brother but she knows better. She wants to be wrong, she knows she isn't. "Lilly did?"

"Who would have thought that a broken heart would be what fixed my broken relationship with my sister?"

His words sting her more than it should have. She knows he's talking about Meg because Meg is the only one that had his heart but he's looking at her with blue eyes that have longing in them and she's not sure if this is about her letter or the fact that they've grown apart since he's read her letter.

She gives him an awkward smile, trying to hide the uncomfortable feeling that settled over her. "There's that silver lining, huh?"

He lets an uneasy smile fall on his face before it falls of completely. "I kind of told Lilly about the letter you sent me."

She gasps at him, actually gasps because if there's one person besides Meg that she never wanted to find out about the letters, it would be Lilly. "Why would you do that?"

"I didn't know what to do," he confesses. "I was so confused, Veronica and I had no one else to talk to about it. And Lilly helped me, made me see we needed to reconcile before there was too much distance between us before there was no going back."

His words pass through her ears without any processed thought because all she can think of is the possible damage Lilly can now do. "I can't believe you told her, Duncan. I asked you not to tell anyone."

"I know," he lets out, frustrated and apologetic at the same time. "I'm sorry Veronica but I needed to talk to someone, I couldn't talk to you, I tried to and you always just ran away. Who else was there for me to talk to?"

"Duncan -"

"I wasn't gonna tell you but tonight I saw you guys and realized that you look happier with him than I've ever seen you even with Lilly sitting across you," he says with sad eyes and a weak smile. "And as much as I want to believe that Lilly invited me here because of our new found relationship, I think it might have been to break you two up. She's not happy that you're with Logan."

She takes a deep breath and sighs. She wants to be upset at Duncan but she feels the need to get to Logan before Lilly can taunt him about this. Logan knows about the letters but she knows this could hurt the image they want to portray to Lilly.

Her eyes flicker pass Duncan, searching the crowd for Logan, finally spotting him at the corner of the counter and sees him downing a drink.

She swallows and looks for Lilly in the crowd of people because she wants to know exactly what the girl is doing to make Logan look so upset. She sees the green eyed girl grinding along with Weevil on the dance floor and she knows now that Duncan's just here to play a role to distract her from Logan so Lilly can play her own game of torture against the boy.

"Veronica?" Duncan voices, his hand on her arm as he tries to get her attention.

It's then that she meets Logan's eyes and she sucks in a breath. It's this moment that she realizes that she's about to break a rule that she's wanted to for a long while now.

--vm--

When Veronica excuses herself to get snapshots of the band playing, Logan excuses himself to get some coffee; non-Irish because unlike Lilly, he is driving.

It doesn't take long for Lilly to follow him and he knows what's coming next; it's obvious that Lilly isn't happy with his conditioning their relationship status to strictly friendship. He doesn't understand her - how she could want him and want other guys and think that's perfectly okay? She can't share him so why does she constantly expect him to share her?

He's trying his best to get through this date, trying to show Veronica that he's moved on from Lilly and to show Lilly that he's moved on from her too.

"Why did it have to be her?" He hears Lilly from beside him. She's settled down on the bar stole, ordering another drink and at this point foregoing the coffee completely.

He takes in a breath, he doesn't turn to her yet, he doesn't want to see the hurt look in her eye that he can hear in her voice. He doesn't know why she's hurt but he doesn't want her to be, no matter what happens between them.

"She's Veronica, Lil. Once upon a time you loved her too," he reminds her. He still doesn't understand where their animosity came from and he wonders if it's possible for them to ever become friends again.

Lilly scoffs beside him. "That was a long time ago before I saw her for who she really was."

He frowns, the answer making less sense than Veronica's reasoning so he turns to her and questions. "Who do you think she is?"

Lilly's eyes snap to his and he wonders for a moment if he's going to get true answers behind the reason why the bff title had been stripped from Veronica's name.

"Did you know she sent Duncan a love letter?" She asks in favour of answering his question with a arched brow, trying to keep a straight face but losing it to her tight lipped mouth and anger fuelled green eyes.

The question throws him off and he doesn't hide the surprise of her knowledge of the letter well because Lilly's lips turn into a self-satisfied smirk.

"It doesn't matter, Lil. Veronica is with me. Can't you respect that?"

"Duncan likes her too, you know," she continues like she hasn't heard him and he clenches his jaw as he looks pass Lilly at her brother standing too close to Veronica for his liking.

"I don't care about what Duncan feels. Veronica is with me and not him," he emphasizes with certainty that he doesn't have any right to have.

"For how long, lovah?" She taunts, bright green eyes and wicked smile. "From the looks of it, I'm pretty sure Duncan thinks he's got a shot."

He knows without a doubt that even though Veronica might end this thing between them, she'd never leave him for Duncan because Meg Mars was more important than a boy with pretty eyes and a nice personality.

"And it's not like loyalty is something Veronica values," she remarks, as though this is a fact he should know as she downs her drink.

His brows crease, frowning, he asks, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what," she pointedly says.

"I really don't," he snaps because he's really had enough of Lilly making these unwarranted snide remarks of and to Veronica. "Veronica's never been in a relationship before. She couldn't have cheated on anyone," he defends. "You, on the other hand, have vast experience on the matter and I loved you anyway. God, Lil, I'm trying to maintain this friendship because you're still important to me but you're making it really hard."

He wishes he could have a drink.

"Why did you have to choose her? Of all the girls that throw themselves at you why did it have to be her?" Her voice is quieter, the bitterness gone and the vulnerability seeping out her eyes.

He loses the fight in him. He wants to understand. He wants to fix them. He wants Lilly to regain the friendship she had with Veronica because he knows that they could still be great friends. He knows that Lilly desperately needs a Veronica in her life, someone who isn't afraid to be honest with her and someone to keep her grounded.

Because Lilly is Icarus and he's afraid that one day she really will fly too high and find herself burned to ash.

"Why do you hate her so much?"

She closes up at the question, all traces of vulnerability gone as quick as it came. "God, Logan, how can you not know when you're the reason why," she angrily snaps.

She finishes off her drink and he's staring at her trying to figure out which pieces of this puzzle he's missing. He doesn't say anything as she hops of the bar stole and storms away.

He doesn't understand what Lilly means by him being the reason why. What had he ever done to cause the once upon a time best friends to become enemies?

His eyes follow her retreating figure, she's grabbed Weevil and she's pouring all her frustrations into kissing him.

He chugs his coffee, looking away from the couple and he feels frustrated, confused and perplexed.

He doesn't exactly understand the next chain of events that unfold either. He glances at Veronica and sees her still talking with Duncan; he feels irritated beyond compare because why the hell is Duncan freaking Kane touching his girlfriend's arm?

He's so absorbed in his thoughts, in his glare that he's unfocused when he realizes that Veronica is moving away from Duncan and towards him with this look in her eye that makes him feel all sorts of fire stirring within his soul.

His eyes follow hers until she reaches him, she doesn't say a word and his mouth is dry as she grabs his t-shirt and yanks him down towards her, kissing him like their lives depended on it.

He's holding tightly onto her waist, drawing her into him as he kisses her just as hard and deep as she's kissing him - can she feel how badly he wants her? Can she feel how much he loves her? Can she feel that she's the only one that he wants to be kissing?

His whole being is filled with hope because she's said very clearly and contractually that when she's making out with a guy it's gonna be real. She fought him on it and left no room for arguments about this condition so the only reason she's kissing him right now is because she wants to, right?

She's pulling away, her eyes are heavy with a dazed off look as she tries to catch her breath.

Before she can move or say anything his hand moves up to cup her face and he presses his lips back onto hers. He tugs at her upper lip with his teeth and slipping his tongue into her mouth.

He doesn't want to stop kissing her. He doesn't want to find out whether this really is real or not. He just wants to live in this moment forever.

Her fingers uncurl from his shirt and she lets go of him, sucking in much needed air and he's just staring at her, stunned, mesmerized and hopelessly in love.

Her eyes move from his face to behind him and she lets out a breath with a triumphant remark, "Mission accomplished."

He closes his eyes and it kills him that this was a show for someone - Duncan - he presumes because why else would she do this?

"I'm sorry I broke the rule," she softly says, biting her lip that was just seconds ago being pulled by his own teeth. He wants to do that again and he doesn't want her to be sorry at all. "I just couldn't keep letting her hurt you like this."

He realizes then that Lilly is the reason for this sudden turn of events. The irony would be funny if he wasn't still reeling from the kiss they'd just shared.

He forces a smirk, breaking away from his kiss induced fantasies. "Feel free to kiss me whenever you want, Veronica."

She lets out a breath, letting a little grin form on her mouth as she quips, "Think you can handle that, Echolls?"

He grins and he throws back, "Want me to show you just how much I can handle that?"

"Okay, buddy boy," she laughs, forced and flustered. "How much have you had to drink?"

"Did you taste any alcohol on my breath?" He arches a brow, knowing he hasn't had a drop of it. "Or do you need another go at it just to be sure?" He winks, grinning and focusing on the way her eyes dip to his lips.

His grin widens and he revels in the fact that it looks like Veronica Mars wants to kiss him again, which means that Veronica the-next-time-I-kiss-someone-I-want-it-to-be-real Mars enjoys kissing him. For real.

"Okay, I'm so driving," she lets out a chuckle, choosing to ignore the obvious tension between them.

"Veronica, I haven't had anything other than coffee and it's not of the Irish kind," he says with complete seriousness.

"Mmmhmm," she hums out, unsure of what to do or say or how to not focus on the way her mind is still revolving around the kiss and the way her body is tingling from head to toe, begging her to wrap her arms around him and kiss him again and again and again.

He smiles, feeling satisfied that she's gone this far for him. He truly does know how much it took for Veronica to kiss him this way. It might mean that she really does like him for real or it might mean that she simply didn't want him to further get hurt by Lilly like she'd claimed. He's not entirely sure. But he is sure that either reason means that she cares deeply about him and he appreciates that because there aren't many people that truly do care for him.

"Hey, Veronica?" He lets out, they've been staring at each other and he wants to kiss her and confess his love to her right then and there but he wants to be sure that she'll reciprocate because she wants to and not because of their audience.

She hums out, somewhat lost in a daze for a second before refocusing and saying, "Yeah?"

He gives her a soft smile, touching her arm with sincere brown eyes staring into her deep blue eyes and says, "Thank you for caring about me."

She returns his smile, leaning into his touch and nodding her head. She wants to say something to him but her voice is dry and she feels herself getting lost into his brown eyes all over again.

#veronica mars #logan echolls #duncan kane #lilly kane #logan x veronica #love #vm fic #vm fanfic #inspired by to all the boys i've loved before #to all the boys i've loved before #part 25

[tezsaltblogsrhpc]

A Pot of Chamomile Tea: Finally, FINALLY some main plot

With the Beast God sidequest out of the way, I'm now finally clear of the majority of the terrible Gutral-related content, though now that I've said that the monkey's paw is probably lining up some really bad Forgia-related Nemesia quests. It'd have to work pretty hard to do too much worse than canon, though. And it'd require the Nemesia quests to remember the Beastkind exist. So who knows, maybe I'll escape that.

In the meantime, sewer level.

In vanilla, the wasps in the sewer in SH rarely drop the Deformed Dress, Eruca's only remotely decent-DEF armor. However, there was a Deformed Dress for sale back in Skalla earlier with the same description, so who even knows if they have a drop now.

I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but the "you killed everything on the screen" battle-end voice clips can effectively serve as warnings about the ceiling-dwelling monsters. If you've killed every obviously visible enemy and your party doesn't say anything after the victory screen, you can tell you're going to get jumped at somewhere.

It's been so long since I ran into wasp enemies that I forgot how incredibly annoying the noises they make are.

Annoying Sound Effects: 40

Sips++

Anyway Burst Light still kills everything, what else is new.

"I feel alive again!" Raynie says when I use Area Heal when she has taken no damage.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 92

Back when we first found out the gimmick for the Vault of Grinding, I was wondering if they were going to rebalance the game so that expendable items are more necessary. Well, here I am in AH Ch. 6 sitting on a stack of 99 First Aid Kits when I haven't even been stealing much except from new enemies and critters I know have equipment, and I can safely say that at least on normal difficulty, the answer is "No."

Original: "Are we very far from our destination?" PC: "Are we far from our destination?" Doha dhz aol wvpua vm aopz?

Why was this changed? 365

Sips++

Original: "We'll be discovered by the guards if we go that way." PC: "There are guards over there." Epib eia bpm xwqvb wn bpqa?

Why was this changed? 366

Sips++

...Well, PC is certainly selling me that Raul would be a terrible battlefield commander. That is not exactly an inspiring command voice. :::PPP

Elm's portrait has not stopped being The Worst since last time I saw it.

Heeey, kids, remember my Raul's secretary rant? The one where I wrote a five-page essay about fridging and character resurrection? Remember that whole lengthy discussion about how that stupid, pointless sidequest undermines the reason it even exists at all by implicitly making Raul's angst about his dead secretary insincere and fake?

Yeah, uh, he's at it again, and this dialogue hasn't been changed either.

"She was my secretary. When I escaped from Alistel, she protected me, and…" "I see."

Do you, Elm? Do you really? Are you sure? Somebody please write Elm finding out he misled her for sympathy points and losing most of the respect she’d gained.

"Of course, I understand that the fate of the world rests on this battle. It just holds a deeper meaning to me personally. For her, for the world, for us all, we cannot lose here."

I want to remind you: she SPRAINED HER ANKLE.

That's what's deeper and more meaningful than the fate of the world to him, now: a sprained ankle.

PC in a nutshell right there.

FUCK YOU AND THE HELL SPIDER YOU RODE IN ON: 16

Sips++++++

(Of course, attentive readers will recognize that in fact, what's going on here is that Raul once again panicked and gave his standard excuse to cover up the fact that he's mourning the loss of his favorite drag bar, which Hugo shut down after his takeover. Hugo was bitter because the one time he tried to participate, he got booed off the stage because he only sang patriotic songs and hymns and that was a buzzkill, and people told him he needed to do, like, a sexy nun thing or something if he was going to try to pull that off, and he was incredibly offended. He was even more offended when somebody in drag as Viola came on next and everyone loved her.)

Original: "Get them synchronized with Lt. General Raul's men!" PC: "Coordinate with Lt. General Raul's men!" "Synchronized" was a pretty bizarre word choice, I admit.

Changes I Don’t Hate: 179

Raynie and Marco still cease to exist in this cutscene.

Original: "Let's hurry, then!" PC: "Gotta hurry, then." Fqjc fjb cqn yxrwc xo cqrb?

Why was this changed? 367

Sips++

Gafka's line: "What is that thing!?" Gafka's face: Hilarious >:C Gafka's word balloon: Yelling. Gafka's voice: Mildly curious.

Sips++

Oh thank goodness, they changed the algorithm that determines turn order after an enemy summons allies so it only puts in new turns for the newly summoned enemies. Robbing this thing so I can give Raynie a new spear is going to be much easier if the stupid thaumachine can't keep giving itself extra turns.

...And, of course, once I get it, a magic-boosted Volt Star Trap does 1400 + 1200 damage with no crits and vaporizes the thaumachine in one round. Granorg could have won the war in a week if they'd just made sure to hire some soldiers who could cast Thunder.

Is it even worth mentioning at this point that Stocke sounds way too emotional on unimportant lines about troop deployments? Because he always does. I regularly find myself doubting whether the voice director was even aware the main character was supposed to be stoic.

Original: "And she had absolutely no interest in the ritual or Flux." PC: "On top of that, she took absolutely no interest in things like Flux, or the ritual." Grkd gkc dro zysxd yp drsc?

Why was this changed? 368

Sips++

Original: "All she understood was that because she wasn't royal blood, it had nothing to do with her." PC: "She wasn't royal blood, after all. She knew that such power was beyond her, and ignored it." yeah uh when you phrase it that way I have a lot of trouble that believing Queen "The alpha and omega bend to MY will!" Protea would ignore it. When it's a duty she can't do, whatever, that sounds boring. When it's power she can't have, though, she'd throw a tantrum.

Why was this changed? 369

Sips++

Original: "This will be dangerous, so please stand back, everyone!" PC: "This will be dangerous, so everyone, please stand back!" Hsle hld esp aztye zq estd?

Why was this changed? 370

Sips++

For mysterious reasons of its own, PC decided to change the camera from a low angle in this scene to overhead, cutting out all the interesting bits of the scenery. I assume there's something that would get shown on the bigger screen if they did that that isn't sufficiently textured, or something.

Gafka's :( face still looks silly, but not as silly as his >:C face.

Everyone's talking really pained in this bit, and while this does make sense, it sounds really silly when there's no screen-shaking or magic sparkles or any other indication that there's anything happening.

...Huh. PC totally retextured the entire little area where Eruca shuts down Flux. In PC's version, there's way more vines, and the weird red crystal has been replaced with a much larger blue one. It does look better, but ???

Great budget priorities: 17

They also had to make Stocke kneel on the other side from where he was because Eruca's stupid awkward long PC hair would get in the way, lol.

...Wooow, they did a REEEALLY bad job trying to edit Eruca's kneeling sprite to have long hair. As in, she straight-up doesn't. That just pastede on new bangs, yey.

How Do I Art: 58

Sips++

And they've once again moved the scene away from the parts of the Royal Hall that actually look like anything and into the middle of the big empty floor.

Sips++

There are times PC's "yelling crowd" sound effect is appropriate. This is not one of them.

I will never not be amused by Hugo just. Standing in an empty conference room, alone, shaking his fist. Like. This is just how he chooses to spend his free time, I guess.

Original: "This can't be! It's useless to me if it can't be used in times such as these!" PC: "Unacceptable! It's useless if it isn't ready when I need it!" Yelling at the person who can't fix it seems more in character for Hugo than shock and dismay that it can't be fixed, yeah.

Changes I Don’t Hate: 180

Viola's first line is still labeled as coming from "????" even though she's visible onscreen now.

Oops: 65

Sips++

Incidentally, way to kill the surprise of her entrance. (And, since it's been so long since Viola last showed up onscreen, I once again find myself struck by how bad the moeface looks on her.)

Sips++

Original: "You mean to defy the will of the Prophet Noah, then? You, Field Marshal Viola, once revered as the Valkyrie of the battlefield, have fallen so low!?" PC: "How selfish of you to put personal desire over the good of the nation. Noah would be ashamed to see the revered Valkyrie fall so low!" I'm not sure if one version or the other was taking some serious liberties, or if the Japanese was changed.

...Why does Viola have a sadface on "I ask a favor of you, General Hugo." I mean, besides the fact that very few of Viola's faces are particularly in character.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 93

Sips++

The previously dummied-out gun Death Shell has replaced Freikugel Zamiel as a steal from the cannons here. It's now got a +80 ATK bonus, so I guess if you were really dying for Eruca's Deadline skill to actually be good, here's your chance. (Weird fact: it actually has one of the highest potencies of any phys attack in the game. This is just generally useless because Eruca's ATK is so low.)

...Wow, uh, the cannons in the market here have DEFINITELY been afflicted by the tile glitch in their positioning. And an enemy soldier started out actually clipped through them.

Sips++

Like its little sister the Promised Knife, the Glaux Dagger has been massively nerfed and yet is STILL incredibly overpowered.

...Okay, that enemy soldier definitely just developed a totally different voice in the space of a couple seconds. THIS IS THE DANGER OF PLAYING RANDOMLY SELECTED VOICE CLIPS ON AGGRO, KIDS.

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 94

Sips++

Still no new node, and you still have to run all the way back across multiple screens of enemies to save before the Dias fight.

Original: "...The circumstances won't mean anything if we kill him." PC: "...That won't matter once he's dead."

Changes I Don’t Hate: 181

Original: "It'll throw his unit into disarray. We've got to help Rosch and the rest of the army, so that's what we'll do." PC: "We'll dispose of him and save Rosch." ...?????? For once in his often-short life, Rosch actually does not need "saved." The plan just requires our team to do something so his part can work properly.

Why was this changed? 371

Sips++

I was actually vaguely hoping there'd be some changes to Dias's rant at Eruca, because it... really doesn't make very much sense in vanilla, in a way that feels like important points were lost in translation somewhere. But it's all word-for-word.

"I shall struggle to my heart's content!" Dias you big dramatic baby.

I find the squeaky teenage-girl voices on Dias's guards exactly as unpleasant as when they were on Protea's.

Sips++

And, as usual, I spend most of this fight trying to steal from the tiger. Earlier, PC's changes to the damage balance was making me actually have to engage with boss mechanics, but I am now so hideously overleveled that every single boss fight basically turns into "hope you don't steal the boss to death before you grab the thing you're looking for."

"So this is how it ends..." Dias says, sounding like we just fought him, even though we did not because it would have cost them actual money to make him battle sprites.

I'm still not sure if I prefer to imagine that Dias getting knifed in the ribs by a dagger he threw and Stocke deflected because that's how physics works took Stocke, like, 28 tries to engineer, or that it happened 100% organically with no time travel involved and Stocke was just like, "...I meant to do that."

Dias's VA does not manage to make the fact that his last words are "Bastard..." any less hilarious.

"You're too naive. As long as men like him live, there will always be seeds of uncertainty." ^Pictured: one of the reasons I am going to be doing a lot of yelling about a lot of things later. Not because I think Stocke is right, but because Stocke believes this. He's someone who will go through hell and high water to help and protect people he barely knows, sure, but he's also someone who will sometimes, very calmly, decide that the world would be a better place without a specific person in it and then set out to remove them. He has a coldly, calculatingly vicious streak; whatever else he is, he's also a secret-police thug and assassin.

I'll leave why I consider this an important thing to highlight a mystery for now.

Original: "...Well, it won't do any good to stand around here. Let's go, Stocke." PC: "...Well, standing around here won't do any good. Let's go, Stocke." Itmf ime ftq bauzf ar ftue?

Why was this changed? 372

Sips++

Next time: Hugo makes bad decisions, Viola makes not-great decisions, and I continue to wait and see if they're going to bother to put in any nodes.

Tally:

Why was this changed? 372

Changes I Don’t Hate: 181

Poor choice of expressions/voice clips/sound effects: 94

Oops: 65

How Do I Art: 58

Nyarlamesia: 41

Annoying Sound Effects: 40

Handy-dandy gameplay changes: 26

Great budget priorities: 17

FUCK YOU AND THE HELL SPIDER YOU RODE IN ON: 16

The monkey's paw is flipping me off: 13

Let Stocke Say Ass: 12

Save Me From Fanservice: 8

#gameblogging

[rockinthebeastmode]

Dirty Little Secret III

A/N: Alright, guys. First, apologies for the lateness (and subsequent shortness) on this one! It’s been a long time coming and honestly, I originally planned for this to be the last part but you know how that always goes. There’s gonna be one final part after this and a prequel so here’s hoping I can finish what I started. As always, special thanks to @arathewallflower @buddyhollyscurls and @lurkernolonger for their support and ass-kicks while I put off finishing this. Hope you and everyone enjoy!

Find Dirty Little Secret and Dirty Little Secret II here.

You can find my other fics here.

@mmfdfanfic @eveerez @i-dream-of-emus @lilaviolet @lau-vm @hey1tskat1e @tinakegg @kneekeyta @likeashootingstarfades @girl-looking-out-window @stinemarine @crystalgiddings1993 @milllott @milymargot @vivammfd

Let me know if you want to be added/removed from the tag list and if I missed anyone :)

*SMUT STRAIGHT AHEAD*

Dirty Little Secret III

Sunlight poured into Finn's bedroom, and he rubbed a hand over his face and yawned. He looked next to him and smirked when he saw Rae, still sleeping soundly.

She'd never stayed the night before. Finn tried not to overthink it. They'd been up most of the night, after all. It wouldn't be because she actually fancied him.

He reckoned she had to like him, at least a little bit, to continue their relationship. But was it even a relationship? They were good mates (now at least) and they fell into the shagging and everything was getting confusing in his head. He just fancied her so much. He didn’t know what it would take to make them official, especially with her wholeheartedly wanting to keep it secret, but he was starting to go mental over it.

Finn just wanted to hold her bloody hand in front of the gang. Fetch her snakebites. Feel her laughter from his arm around her shoulders. Kiss her whenever she banged on too long about Damon Albarn’s fringe.

God, the number of times he’d had to restrain from touching her in public, even just simple things. Tucking an errant hair behind her ear. Running a thumb over her beer moistened lips. Squeezing a hand between her thighs under the table.

His musings were interrupted by her eyes scrunching, then blinking open before falling on him with a sleepy smile. Finn practically melted to her side, bringing his face closer to hers.

“Morning, girl,” he whispered, his lips quirking into a smile as she yawned and murmured back. She sat up, bringing the sheet up and around her chest as she leaned back against the headboard.

“I should get going, I was supposed to meet Izzy to study,” Rae grabbed Finn’s hand from her waist and checked his watch, “10 minutes ago,” she finished, shaking her head wryly.

“Well,” he replaced his hand on her side, tickling her lightly, “If you’re already late…” he trailed off with a suggestive grin. Rae tried to protest but Finn kissed her, practically pinning her to the headboard. She relaxed against him, running a hand through his hair before grasping the nape of his neck. He pulled at the sheet covering her and pressed his chest to hers, gliding his fingers down her hips to her thighs.

This close wasn’t enough. Finn leaned back against the headboard, bringing his hands to her waist. He tugged at her hips and she straddled his legs, rubbing her center against him enticingly. He kissed her harder, twisting her hair between his fingers. He pulled it firmly, exposing the curve of her neck and he mouthed at the flushed skin, biting along the side. She moaned, the sound beautifully loud in his ear, and he felt her pulse speed up against his lips.

He released his grip on her hair, moving his hands to her breasts and squeezing them. He brushed his thumbs across her nipples when Rae met him with a searing kiss and she gasped into his mouth. She nibbled at his bottom lip before running her tongue over it and he groaned, pulling at her nipples hard.

“You’re killing me, Rae,” he grunted against her lips, his eyes squeezing closed when Rae slid along his length slowly. She reached for a condom on the side table and ripped the wrapper quickly, lifting herself to place it on him.

“The feeling’s mutual,” she murmured, positioning herself above him. She pecked his lips, kissing along his jaw and down to his Adam’s apple. Then she brought her lips to the shell of his ear and whispered, “At least we’ll die happy, huh?” before lowering her hips to his, grinding down on his cock sensually.

Finn’s eyes blew open at the sensation, meeting Rae’s fiery gaze. She gripped the headboard behind him and they moved together, their moans mingling together in their closeness. His arms banded around her and held her impossibly close, his pace slowing to long and deep thrusts. Her eyes fluttered shut, her arms wrapping around his shoulders tightly. He lifted a hand to her cheek, rubbing his thumb along her jawline.

“Rae,” he murmured almost unconsciously as he continued to move against her, her stunted whimpers threatening his control. Her eyes opened and met his with a darkened shade of lust and something more. He opened his mouth to say something to convey how much he wanted her, how good she felt, how he thought he’d never feel this way with anyone else.

“Finn, I…” Rae panted, her eyes almost glistening. He struggled to keep his pace, watching her as she slowly came undone against him. He barely managed an affirmative, “Yeah?” when she shook her head, quickening their hips colliding. His head dropped to the headboard, a long drawn out groan erupting from his throat. She kissed him almost desperately in the next moment, shuddering against his body as her release came over her, Finn’s following as she clenched around him.

She remained on his lap as they caught their breath, her face falling to the crook of his neck. He murmured nonsense into her hair, his hands running slowly up and down her back. She pulled away with a blissed out smile and pecked his lips.

“Help me find my clothes?”

***

Archie always took the same route for his daily run but today, he decided to make a slight detour down Finn’s road. He’d left the pub so soon yesterday, Archie hadn’t had a chance to talk to him about their change of football plans later that day. As he turned the corner, he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

There was Finn in his front doorway, looking mussed but beaming, his boxers slung low on his hips. And there was Rae, looking particularly good for someone who was ill mere hours before and still in her clothes from yesterday. They stood close, seeming to be speaking quietly.

Archie felt his jaw drop when Rae pressed her hands to Finn’s chest and kissed him soundly, his hands latching to her hips in the next second. He watched slack-jawed as they continued, heeding nothing but each other. Just as he’d closed his mouth, he saw Rae pull away, dodging Finn’s grabbing hands. She walked backward as she waved goodbye, laughing at his exaggerated frown. As Finn kept his eyes on Rae’s retreating figure, Archie shook himself and went up the street quickly to the house.

“Oi, Archie lad! Fancy seeing you here,” Finn’s voice was tinged with surprise, his eyes darting down the road where Rae had disappeared. Archie crossed his arms.

“Was that Rae I saw?” he asked gamely, raising a brow when Finn reddened and shrugged.

“Yea, she just stopped over to borrow a CD,” he said quickly, his arms crossing over his bare chest, “Woke me up and everything,” Finn chuckled shakily when Archie smirked.

“I bet,” he noted, uncrossing his arms. He stepped up to Finn and put his hands on his shoulders, meeting his best mate’s wary eyes.

“Do I have to snog you before or after I visit?” Archie drawled, blocking Finn’s answering shove. He barked a laugh at Finn’s blushing grimace. Finn grabbed him in a headlock before dragging him into the house. Archie broke free as they crossed the threshold.

“Alright. Tell Uncle Archie everything.”

***

Rae wasn’t known for being on time but that didn’t stop Izzy from calling Rae’s house just to check in. She’d be hopeless on her exam without her expertise after all.

“Hiya, Mrs. Bouchtat! Can I speak to Rae?”

“I’m sorry, pet, she stopped at Chloe’s last night, I’m not sure when--” Linda broke off and Izzy heard a muffled, “Hiya!” over the line.

“She’s just walked in, hold on.”

There was silence for a moment and Izzy sat in confusion, thinking back to Finn and Rae exiting the pub last night, hours before Chloe had gone home alone to sleep off her vodka sodas.

“Soz, Iz, I’m running a bit late,” Rae’s harried tones carried over the line, bringing Izzy out of her thoughts. She shook her head to clear it.

“That’s okay, Rae, are you alright though?” Izzy asked cautiously, not trusting the feeble laugh that answered her.

“I’m fine, it was just a stomach bug. It’s all good now,” Rae said quickly before clearing her throat, “I’ll meet you at the library in 15, yeah?”

“Yeah, cheers,” Izzy squeaked, her eyes narrowing slightly. As they hung up, Izzy’s mouth quirked to the side in thought. Moments later, Finn’s number was half dialed.

***

“So...you’re shagging.”

Finn nodded from his spot next to Archie on the stairs, looking anywhere but at his best mate.

“You want more,” Archie continued, watching Finn in his periphery. Finn nodded again, leaning his head against the wall with a small sigh. Archie hesitated before continuing.

“She doesn’t want more?” Archie coaxed, turning to face Finn fully. HIs brow furrowed as Finn shrugged and sent a helpless look to the ceiling.

“Well, have ya talked to her about it?”

Finn shrugged noncommittally and Archie couldn’t resist an eye roll. Finn shoved his shoulder with a grunt.

“It’s not that simple, Archer, I can’t just ask her something like that,” he blurted out, his hands flailing in frustration.

“It is that simple, mate, open your gob and use your big boy words so the rest of us don’t have to watch you moon over her anymore.”

“I do not moon over her--”

“Bollocks you don’t, Chop had to smack ya twice the other day to get your eyes off her ti--”

The phone rang shrilly, cutting their argument short and Archie reached through the staircase rails to the handset on the table.

“Nelson residence, Archie speaking.” He held up a hand to Finn’s protests, listening intently to Izzy’s rapid theories on Finn and Rae.

“I’m on the phone, sod off.”

“It’s my bloody phone, you don’t even live here,” Finn grumbled, making one more grab for it. Archie slapped his hand away, shooting him a stern look. He covered the mouthpiece and pointed a warning finger at Finn.

“This is for your own good,” Archie muttered, jumping down the few steps to the ground floor. Finn looked at him confusedly before his eyes widened.

“No, Arch, don’t--”

“Finn’s got something to tell us, Izzy, so why don’t you call the rest of the gang and we’ll meet here in a hour,” he quipped in between dodging Finn’s relentless swipes for the phone. He hung up calmly as Finn stood breathing heavily, biting at his thumbnail.

“What the fuck?!”

“We’re settling this, Finny. You can’t have expected to keep us from the truth forever,” Archie huffed, crossing his arms.

“It’s none of your bloody business!”

“You made it our business when you started lying! You fancy her, right?”

Finn rolled his eyes, nodding tersely. Archie clapped his shoulder bracingly.

“Then just tell her how you feel.”

#mmfd fanfic #mmfd fanfiction #mmfdfanfic #my mad fat diary fanfiction #my mad fat diary fanfic #mymadfatdiary