#but basically it should be something that takes at least 2 days of travel back and forth

[starlitmark]

Summary: The moment Mingyu saw you on the beach in that skimpy bikini, it was over for him. Pairing: Mingyu x fem!reader Rating: R18+ Genre: smut Tropes: spring break au Word Count: 1,525 Warnings: language Smut Warnings: public sex, body worship, breast play, unprotected sex, creampie

Chapter 1: Honey Flavored Lips ៚ WITT Masterlist ៚ Chapter 3: Patience is Key

The last thing Mingyu wants to do right now is sit in the bungalow. He slept on the couch last night and will be for the whole week; he’s not the most pleased with the arrangement, but at least it’s a comfy sectional. He weighs his options and ultimately decides another day on the beach couldn’t hurt at all. If anything, that’ll be the most fun option without getting absolutely drunk at 2 pm in a club. The club is a half-hour drive away into the city anyway. It’s not very easy to do without a rental car. He doesn’t even bother to ask the others if they want to join him. Changmin and Hyunguu are off exploring the town and the jungle that lies just behind it. San and Jaehyun went to the nearby city earlier, and Youngkyun is likely still a recluse despite them being in a tropical location.

He leaves the house after preparing, and, of course, he lacks a shirt. Why should he wear one when he is on the beach anyway? His hair is up and out of his face, and he still wears a silver chain despite his lack of clothing on his upper half.

Luckily, the beach isn’t too busy despite the nice day. He sets up his spot and stays sat on the sand for a while. There are a few other people in his surrounding area but not too close that he feels like he’s on top of them. It’s not too hot that he feels the need to be in the water, and the wind isn’t too strong to make him feel the need to bake in the sun, either. It’s just all around a really nice day.

He notices a gorgeous girl walking up the beach and toward the beach blanket set up nearby his. Her bathing suit leaves just enough to the imagination that Mingyu wants to know more. It couldn’t hurt to at least try, right? The moment she’s settled and laying belly down on her place, Mingyu glances over. His glance must’ve been more of a look because she looks over at him and giggled quietly.

“Enjoying the view?” you ask flirtatiously.

“Is it so bad if I am?” he flirts back.

You chuckle, flipping your hair over one shoulder, “You trying to do something about it?”

Mingyu smirks, leaning back on his hands behind him. He looks up in the sky for a second, then drops his gaze back down to you. You’re giving him a rather suggestive look. It conveys very clearly to him. He returns your gaze, and it tells you all you need to know.

“There’s a private bathhouse over by those palms.” you jerk your head in the direction of the trees.

“I do need to learn the beaches a little better. Care to show me where you mean?”

You stand up, brushing a bit of dry sand off your chest and stomach. You can feel his eyes on you, and you absolutely love how easily you can get a reaction out of him. You walk over to him, swinging your hips a little extra, and stop right in front of him. You squat down, resting your butt on your heels. His eyes are transfixed on your chest, which is now basically at his eye level. You reach out a hand in his direction.

“Let me show you around then.” you ask with undertones of flirting.

He takes your hand, “Show me the way, beautiful.”

You’re pinned to the wall of the bathhouse the moment you step inside with the tall man. His lips are immediately on your throat, pulling sweet sounds from you. He has one hand holding your hip while the other is playing with your chest. Your hands find their way around his neck and up into his hair. You gently tug at the locks soliciting a quiet groan from the man. His hand travels around to your back from your chest. He pulls the string that’s holding your bikini top shut, and then you feel the release of the fabric.

“So fucking beautiful.” he sighs, “If we weren’t stuck in this stupid building, I’d spend so much time making you feel good. We don’t have a whole lot of time, though, do we?”

“We could go to yours or-”

Before you can finish your thought, he takes one of your nipples into his mouth a swirls his tongue around it. His hand that had previously been untying your top returns to your chest, playing with the breast not occupying his mouth. Your breath is stolen from your lungs, and you grip his hair just a bit tighter so as to hold onto a bit of sanity. You start to grind against him, hoping that he catches your drift and fucks you soon.

“God damn,” he moans slightly, “you okay if I fuck you raw? I didn’t bring anything with me.”

“If you don’t fuck me in the next thirty seconds, I’ll leave and find someone who will.” you threaten, though there’s no intent behind it.

Mingyu chuckles slightly, knowing there’s no true threat to your words. His lips continue to kiss paths across your body in any way he can. You snake your hands down his muscular form and into the front of his bathing suit. You feel a shot of arousal run through your body and center itself in your core, just thinking about how well he’ll fill you up. He lets out a shaky breath as you start to move your hand around his member. His hand moves away from your chest and glides across your side to tug at the strings holding the lower half of your bathing suit together. The moment one side falls loose, his fingers quickly find your clit and rub circles on it. It takes everything in you not to crumble against his body.

“You’re so wet. Bet this pretty pussy would take me so well.” he muses between a few kisses to your collarbones, “Let’s see if I’m right.”

You can’t think of anything to say. Your brain is practically mush hearing and feeling how he worships your body. You simply shove his bathing suit down as best you can to finally release him from the fabric. Within moments he’s fully inside you, and if you thought you couldn’t think straight before, now is even worse. He waits a few moments to allow you to adjust to his size. Still, he kisses any skin he can reach on your body, whispering praise between each one.

“Y-you can move; please move.” you practically moan.

“So fucking pretty, and you take me so well. Fuck, ‘m gonna start moving now, pretty girl.”

When he starts moving his hips, you swear that you see heaven. He’s hardly started, but you already have a continuous stream of moans and whimpers escaping your lips. Your back is pressed against this wall rather uncomfortably, and your hair is definitely a mess, but right now, all you can think about is how good he’s making you feel. He’s an expert with his hips, rocking them at a pace that isn’t too fast or slow. His fingers never stop drawing circles against your clit. You clench around him slightly, making him groan against the junction of your neck and shoulder.

“If you squeeze me like that, I don’t know how long I’ll last, beautiful.” he warns you.

“Can’t help it,” you breathe out, “you feel so good inside me.”

Soon enough, Mingyu’s pace becomes rougher and slightly uneven. You couldn’t care less since your high was quickly approaching. You feel like you’re on cloud nine, high off of the adrenaline of fucking a stranger in a public place. Just as you’re about to topple over the edge of an orgasm, you hear someone outside the small bathhouse. The man fucking you couldn’t seem to care less, though. You moan loudly but try your best to muffle the sound against his neck.

“Don’t hide those pretty sounds,” he tells you, “those guys out there are just my housemates; they won’t mind one bit.”

Normally, something like that would make panic swell in your belly. This time though, it makes you feel more of a rush of arousal bolt through you. Tossing your head back against the wall of the building, you let your moans fly free. The tall man warns you that he’s about to cum, and you let him know he’s more than welcome to cum inside you. When he does, it triggers your own orgasm, and he carries you through it with the continued stimulation to your clit, now combined with him toying with your nipples again. His hips slow to a stop. Both of you pant, trying to catch your breath. He chuckles slightly and rests his forehead on the wall beside yours.

“I, um, I never caught your name.” you admit.

“Mingyu,” he informs you, “that was one hell of an adventure for being strangers, huh?”

“Mmh,” you hum in agreement, “You gonna be around the rest of the week?”

“Name a time and place, gorgeous. I’ll be there.”

COPYRIGHT STARLITMARK 2023© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED — reposting/modifying any fic, or piece of original writing posted on this blog is not allowed. Translations are not permitted.

Networks: @caratwritersclub​ @kwritersworld​ @k-vanity​ 

Tag List strikethrough = unable to tag: @meowniee​ @cryoculus​ @2nk-3554  @yumekowhore​ @hyunjaespresent-deobi​  @chibby11

#seventeen smut #caratwritersclub #kwritersworldnet #kvanity #seventeen fanfic #seventeen x reader #mingyu fanfic #mingyu x reader #mingyu smut

[allyallyorange]

Round 2 of my Ateez Adventure Time AU is here!

Yunho and Jongho are from “Universe Z”, which has no magic and is basically just our world. They are cousins and have a 10 year age gap, in Jongho’s eyes, Yunho is the coolest person ever. In this world, Yunho had his own Mingi, who was his best friend until they were in their last year of high school and Mingi was a victim in a big car accident (also involving Jongho’s parents). Afterwards Yunho didn’t end up going to school and becomes a mechanic. Yunho has a hard time being around Jongho because the kid is so smart and Yunho's parents Love him. Jongho seems to be doing so well and Yunho knows that his parents think that he should also be moving on. Years later, when Yunho is 22 and taking his 12 year old cousin to the library for him to study and do homework, Yunho is reading through some old looking fantasy type book. Suddenly the book lights up and a portal opens up. A guy with pointy ears appears in the portal and Yunho is pulled through.

Jongho, who was 13 when his cousin disappeared, had a bad time. He became obsessed with trying to find him, and spent the next 10 years studying the book he disappeared through, as well as anything else that came up along the way. Over the years he finds that the relics that are talked about in the book are actually real, and then he works to become an antiquarian in order to further study the artifacts. Eventually, he manages to collect 9 gems needed to power the book Yunho had disappeared through, and he is able to travel to “Universe A”. Jongho is now 22, but only a year has passed within Universe A, making Yunho 23/24. When spawning in Universe A, Jongho is not automatically anywhere near Yunho, but he does eventually find a sketchy looking cave, which upon further inspection is the place where Mingi has been frozen in crystal for the past 600 years. Jongho accidentally frees Mingi from his prison, and they slowly become friends, Hongjoong joining them to become a little team (Seonghwa will also join this team at some point).

Wooyoung is a born wizard, about 900 years post-apocalypse era. He specializes in nature related magic. He grew up in a very safe but slightly boring town, practicing spells and fooling around. On a particularly boring day when he’s about 15 years old, Wooyoung decided to browse the forbidden section of the spell books and found a book on dark magic. Wooyoung, being an admittedly just ok wizard, figured he wouldn’t actually be able to successfully pull off any of the spells in the book, and decided to secretly borrow the book back home. He found an interesting spell on summoning a familiar, thinking maybe he’d at least get a cat or something if he did manage to succeed. Instead- for whatever reason- he summoned a full demon, not in the form of a cat or bird or toad or anything, named San.

(UPDATE: Wooyoung has a hobby of building things out of scrap metal, inventing little robots and such. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing most of the time but he sure does make things!)

San is an ice demon created by The Demon King about 800 years post-apocalypse era, who had been hearing about his younger brother’s little fire friend above, and wanted to make his own element creature. Thus San was born (made already physically aged about 14 years old because why would the king want an actual baby). San was a bit of a disappointment for The Demon King, because for whatever reason San was incapable of being evil, so he ended up being basically scrapped for about 100 years. Being a low ranking demon, and also a rather disposable one, when someone above suddenly summoned for a familiar, the demons pretty randomly chose to send San. This exchange also bound Wooyoung to dark magic, allowing him to cast permanent curses. San and Wooyoung end up getting along great, and decide they want to explore beyond Wooyoung’s home town (both around 15 years old physically). They live outdoors, camping in the wild and going on adventures while stopping to help anybody on their way (getting lots of rewards!). After about a year they find an abandoned treehouse which they decide to move into, and they become the local heroes! (Discovering Wooyoung’s ability to curse things was wild. They accidentally cursed some guy to be a tree for all of eternity. No take backs)

8 years later, San starts having visions full of fire and seeing a man with white hair possibly being able to help (his visions are very confusing so he’s not sure). Woosan begin a new mission to try and understand what San’s visions mean, and eventually Wooyoung will figure out how to build a portal that will allow them access to the cosmic dimension, where they will be able to ask for one wish. San goes, and is asks to find the guy with blonde hair who can help stop the fire in his visions. Because wish making is tricky business and San wasn’t clear on the description of this blonde guy, he is given Yunho, who is not the guy in San’s visions (it’s Seonghwa). Wooyoung and San don’t know how to send Yunho back so he ends up having to stay with them. Luckily they all get along and they become a little team. At some point Yeosang will also join this team after being separated from Seonghwa.

Ok that’s it for now! I’m gonna draw more though still because I have so many ideas man

#doodle doo #ateez #jeong yunho #yunho #choi jongho #jongho #jung wooyoung #wooyoung #choi san #ateez san #kang yeosang #yeosang #Ateez AT AU

[parkkiablah]

Matchmaker - pt. 3 (Rolan x Tav)

part 1 part 2

You were enjoying a quiet day at home, a cup of tea in your hand and wearing your most comfortable outfit. It felt strange to you to have such a peaceful day. The Absolute defeated, the people you grew close with over your travels living their own lifes now, while some of them are nearby, some others are not and it feels foreign to you, being alone again.

It wasn't like you didn't enjoy it, still it had a feeling to it you couldn't really put into words.

A knock on your door pulled you out of your thoughts and you walked over to the door opening it.

Your mind had made up a few people who could be here visiting you, but it never would have guessed for Rolan to stand there. He looked nervous, avoiding your eyes as much as he could.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting you Rolan.", you said surprised.

"I'm sorry to come by unannounced.", he responded, looking down to his feet, visibly uncomforable. "I wanted to ask for your assistance on something."

"Come on in then.", you say and he steps inside your home, awkwardly standing in the middle of the room, taking a look around. "So, what is it you need help with?"

He sighs.

"You probably noticed that Cal and Lia can be very.. persistent, when they have an idea on their mind.", he started explaining, looking at you, waiting for your reaction before continuing.

"I was already sure of that back at the grove, when they were convincing you to stay with the other tieflings.", you said, amused by the thought of it and remembering how annoyed he was for you to side with them. Honestly it was probably the best choice for all of them.

"Oh how I hated you for agreeing with them." He smiled at the thought, his opinion on you obviously had changed a lot. "So, they have set their minds on something and I do need your help getting around that. They keep bothering me with it nearly every day and it's getting in the way with my studies.", he said. His eyes were avoiding yours and you swore his ears and cheeks turned an even darker red.

"I'm always glad to help, count me in.", you said. After all, having a chance to spent more time with Rolan didn't seem like a bad deal.

"You're already agreeing, before you even know what I was going to ask of you?", he said, shaking his head in disbelieve.

"Oh, right. Go ahead then."

"So.. I uh-.. I want you to act like we are dating, so they leave me alone with that topic.", he said and he did seem like he just wished to disappear.

You just stood there for a moment looking at him. He wasn't serious, was he? It kind of made sense to you, the last time you had met Rolan, his siblings basically dragged Gale out of the tower just so you were alone with Rolan.

You did like him, it's not like you were put off by the fact he wanted you to act like you two were dating. The fact that actually put you off was the part where you were just pretending. But would it be so bad to just pretend? At least it might feel like you are one step closer to actually dating him.

"Okay, I'll do it.", you said.

His eyes wide and landing on you now.

"Oh.. I wasn't expecting you to actually say yes.", he admitted.

You couldn't say no. It probably took a lot of courage for him to even ask for your help generally.

"Well, you asked for my help and I am not someone to deny it.", you force yourself to smile at him.

"I mean, we don't have to do that forever, just for a while so they stop getting on my nerves."

You gulped down whatever feeling it was that made you feel like saying you can't do that.

Of course he wouldn't act like he dated you forever, why would you feel so disappointed because of that?

"Of course, that's fine. So, what should I do?", you asked him. After all you agreed, so you need to play your role in this act.

"Uh- I haven't thought about that, but I guess holding my hand and something like that will do?", he said. "Do you want to come visit me at the tower tomorrow?"

He was looking at you, he seemed happy you had agreed to helping him. His gaze on you, waiting for you to agree.

"Sounds good to me, honey.", you said, hiding your emotions behind a smile. You weren't sure what you got yourself into, but there was no turning back now.

"Great, I'll see you tomorrow then.", he had avoided his eyes when he heard you call him that. He would have to get used to it very soon if he wanted this to work out.

#bg3 #bg3 tav #bg3 rolan #rolan x tav #rolan x reader #rolan

[thesapphireprincess]

My Next Boyfriend.

Hey Dolls,

I was doing some thinking and I realized that I really want to go traveling next year but I don’t want to pay for it myself. So I had a thought and I am manifesting my first wealthy boyfriend. Honestly it’s simple, I want my next boyfriend to have a career where he has to travel to other cities and countries around the world and live there for multiple months at a time. He has a job that has to do with international business or something. He’d obviously have to be living here in order for us to meet and since I live in a big city the chances of us meeting are very likely. He’ll see me I’ll be his dream girl and he’ll introduce himself and ask me to lunch or dinner. We’ll connect, he’ll fall madly in love with me ask me on more dates and we’ll date for a couple months and then he’ll ask me to travel the world with him. He has been living in the dfw for work but now it’s time for the next city and it will be in a different country. I’ll look back at when I first thought to manifest this and do a little happy dance. He’ll pay my rent until my lease is up and give me a certain amount of money so that I can have a security if things don’t work out.

I totally believe this will happen and I will meet him this year because I’m not dating or accepting any man who doesn’t have a career like this. It’s that simple. Living in a big city gives you loads of opportunities. I’m gorgeous, Tons of men have careers like this and I won’t accept anyone who doesn’t have a career like this. Simple right? It’s basic probability. I’m not looking for my husband but I am looking for a long term boyfriend and to date a few extraordinary men until then and have some fun, I’m only 23.

The work that I have to do to make this a reality

When it comes to making your dreams come true they won’t happen if you just sit in bed all day every day on your phone. In the mean time I will be taking the next 3 months to extremely focus on myself without distractions. Here are a couple of things I will be working on, to prepare for my new lifestyle as a stay at home girlfriend that gets to travel the world.

I will be whitening my teeth, wearing my retainer, flossing and taking care of them every morning and night.

I will get my passport

I will perfect my morning routine

I will become well read on a variety of different topics

I will work out and go to the gym 3-4 times a week and stretch daily, hopefully be able to do the splits.

I will start saving as much money as I can (I won’t have to use money when I’m with him but this is for myself)

I will keep my nails and feet done at all times

I will have a healthy and balanced diet

I will learn to be a great conversationalist

I will learn to be emotionally intelligent

I will perfect my style, hair and makeup

I will have a solid hygiene routine and a signature sent. I like to smell sweet like strawberries.

I will watch videos and read posts from girls living the hypergamy/stay at home girlfriend or wife lifestyle.

I will be going out at least 2-3 Times a week to the prestigious sides of town for lunch, coffee, shopping, grocery shopping, exploring etc. Basically I’ll be hanging out over there so that I can be seen by more and more people causing me to eventually run into multiple different candidates until I run into the one, the guy I’m manifesting. It’s basic probability.

I think 3 months is more than enough time to complete this, Here’s something you should know. I am not doing this for a man. I am doing this for me so that I can attract a man who will take me around the world, pay for all my expenses and spoil me all because he loves me. Why would I date a regular guy who can’t do anything for me but cause heart break and make me pay my own bills. When there are plenty of men who will give me my dream lifestyle. Men control the world but women control men. Men have the power to change your entire life, and as an intelligent beautiful woman you can get any man you desire.

I’m choosing a man with a lifestyle that fits the one I want and I want a man who has to travel around the world for work who makes at least $500,000 a year or is a multi-millionaire. I want a man who feels like $5,000 is play money. I also want to quit my 9-5. That is what I want and that is what I deserve.

I can’t wait to update you guys when I meet my next boyfriend and he’s exactly what I’m looking for. I have wrote a page in my journal about the personality and characteristics I’m looking for in my next boyfriend as well. He’s going to have to check all the boxes, he doesn’t have to be perfect but he does have to be attractive, have a nice full head of hair, be tall at least 5’8, generous, emotionally intelligent, kind, at least 5-10 years older than me, a provider/protector and most of all he has to be madly in love with me. I don’t chase, I attract.

This 100% sounds like a real person and I feel like there are a lot of guys like this out there. I know I’ll meet him in the next few month or so. I will attract my guy. Catch you in my next post. <3

#hypergamy #spoiled girlfriend #soft life #black girl luxury #black women in femininity #soft black girls #black woman beauty #black women in leisure #black women in luxury #black luxury #stay at home girlfriend

[getlostsquidward]

you need a woman's touch in your place

[Taste Of A Poison Paradise Ch. 1] - Series Overview

Agatha Harkness x Fem!Reader

A/N: Kathryn in this dress has me in a chokehold soooooo this is what Agatha is wearing in this fic. Also, this kinda feels rushed idk i hope u enjoy nonetheless! 

Warnings: 18+, darkfic, soft!dark!milf!agatha, pseudo-incest, infidelity, virginity and first times, masturbation, praising, corruption(?), just filth below the cut. minors dni!!!

ch. 2

You pace back and forth in your hotel room, on your way to get your fifth glass of sparkling water (can’t have you drunk hours before the big day) and you still can’t calm your nerves down. You have read all about it. Pre-wedding jitters, bridal nerves– how you would calm yourself down, all the breathing techniques you’d known, failed. Basically, all of your preparations have gone to waste.

No one could actually blame you for it, right? You were a few steps away from becoming someone’s other half, in sickness and in health, ‘til death do you part… A life-long commitment with the love of your life. It all sounds dreamy, growing up to stories about how the princesses got their happy ending with their princes, living their best lives… But now that you’re about to start yours, you feel frightened.

Frightened of the uncharted waters. Marriage is a whole different thing. Honestly, the thought of this wedding is a mistake, and cancelling it has crossed your mind a lot of time prior to this moment. Though you suppose as long as your soon-to-be husband is there with you, you would be able to make it. Franklin, your fiancée, is your first (and last) boyfriend. Almost all of your firsts are with him, but in spite of many shared experiences, there are still more you didn’t have the chance to explore.

Like sex and everything that revolves around carnal desires.

Growing up with your grandmother, you didn’t really have the chance to have sex ed from her. She’s deeply religious and it had a huge impact on how you viewed sex. According to them, your body is sacred and you must only give it to your partner once you are bound in God’s blessing.

Sure, you make out with your boyfriend, but that’s it. The one time it almost went beyond, the image of your grandma flashed in your mind. She’s not yet dead but she haunts you already. 

Luckily, Frank understands and respects your decision. He didn’t do anything that would make you uncomfortable. He’s worth all of this. You’re definitely not going to cancel your wedding.

Thinking about this now, you wish you could go back in time and at least watched porn and explored so you know what you would be dealing with on your first night as a married couple.

A ring on the door interrupted you from your racing thoughts. Wondering who could it be as your bridesmaid won’t be here for at least three hours, you set the empty glass on the bedside table and walked to the door. Peering at the peephole, you flinched away from the door in surprise.

It’s none other than Agatha, your future mother-in-law.

You feel your heart racing. Why was she here? Is she here to tell you that her son called off your wedding? Did something happen to him? What–

The doorbell rang again, and you heard her call you, muffled by the door in between. You took a shaky breath, bracing yourself for whatever news she comes to break.

Your heart raced even faster, and not because you were scared of her or what she was about to say. Instead of greeting her, your throat dried at the sight of the woman. The neckline of her dress was very inviting, it was taking all of you not to look at them. Your eyes traveled from her face down, lingering on her smooth and long porcelain legs. It should be illegal to look this hot, you think, but a bolder voice in the back of your mind was saying ‘what’s illegal is that you find the mom of your boyfriend hot’, but you don’t pay attention to it.

“My eyes are up here, sugar,” she said with an amused look.

“Sorry, sorry. You just look… very good, Agatha.”

You snapped out of your ogling, immediately initiating a hug. Pulling back, she put her hands on your arms. “I came to check on you, dear. I know how bridal nerves can be a real pain in the ass.”

You sighed in her embrace, relieved that help has come, and more importantly, she isn’t here with bad news. “Oh, thank God. I thought you were here to say that Frank has bailed on me,” you chuckled nervously. “And you’re absolutely right. The nerves are killing me. Why don’t you come in?”

It seemed like your eyes have their own will, once again finding yourself checking her out. You’ve always found her beautiful, clear that she’s only gotten better and wiser with age. When you first met, you got intimidated by her intense and scrutinizing gaze but as soon as she spoke, all of your fear dissipated.

Agatha sat at the edge of the bed while you get her a glass of sparkling water, apologizing that it was the only beverage you had. You sat beside her, suddenly feeling very small (and naked) in your silk sleepshirt.

“So, what’s running inside your pretty mind?”

You opened your mouth but closed it again. Were you supposed to tell her that the main worry you have right now is your inexperience in the bedroom?

“C’mon, honey. You know you can tell me everything, right?”

Agatha’s eyes never left your face, the patient and encouraging look in her expression making you spill the beans. You sigh, looking down on your lap to hide the heat in your face.

“I’ve never had sex before. We’ve never done it, and I… I guess I’m afraid. What if I do it wrong, you know? What if I embarrass myself and look like a complete idiot on our wedding night? I’ve no idea what to do. I mean, we’ve kissed, yeah, but we’ve never gone past that.”

Overwhelmed by your worries, you missed the devilish glint in her steely gaze. She’s quick to go back to her caring façade when you looked back.

“Oh, Y/N, hon, don’t worry. I get where you’re coming from. I know it can be scary dealing with something you know nothing about, and what you’re feeling is totally normal,” her hand traveled to your knee, thumb caressing the soft skin. “I’m guessing you’ve never touched yourself either, don’t you?”

“Uh… I’ve tried. But I just– I can’t go there– that feeling that ‘something washes over my body’, like everyone says. So I didn’t try again.”

The older woman’s nails pressed into your skin. Although short, you were sure that they’d leave marks if she pressed on. “Agatha?”

She was deep in thought, your revelation confirming what she had guessed from the beginning. When she first met you, the sweet innocent thing that you are, sparked an unknown desire in her. Agatha wanted to break your purity and taint you, to see you come undone beneath her and tear you apart all for her own amusement. She relishes in your obliviousness when she visibly undresses and fucks you with her eyes (when Frank isn’t around, of course). The brunette has this burning need to break you, meld you into the perfect plaything in-law.

“I know the fastest way to release anxiety,” Agatha suggested.

“Oh? What is it?”

A beat of silence. You stared at each other for a good while, Agatha contemplating her next words.

“Orgasm.”

“Wait, what?” Your eyes were as wide as saucers, mouth gaping open. Chuckling nervously, you pressed on. “Did I hear you right?”

Of all the things you expected Agatha to say, this is definitely not one of them.

“You heard me just right, honey. It’s great for de-stressing! They even use it to relieve anxiety and pain during labor and delivery, did you know?” she remarked, raising the hand from your knee to wave in the air like she was sharing gossip with you.

“No, it’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”

Yes. You’ve heard about it on a medical show somewhere, but you’re curious about how you’d actually do it.

“I’m serious, Y/N,” she urged. “I want you to be at your best on this special day. You’re about to take a big step in your life, and I know how tensing it could be. At least help me relieve some of that.”

You know what she said was right, and how could you even deny her when you could feel her concern to the bones?

“I just… don’t know what to do. I told you I’ve never done this before. Well, never did it right.”

“Why don’t you let me teach you? You know, the basics of it. I’ll walk you through so you know what happens.”

Oh. “Really? H-how?”

Agatha stood up and moved to lie back at the headboard. You gulped as you watch her while she adjusts her position, her little black dress riding up as she spreads her legs. Before you can even find yourself looking at something you shouldn’t, you looked down, the floor all of a sudden interesting.

“Come here, sweetheart. Lay your back against me.”

You did as you were told, crawling your way between her legs, your gaze falling on everything but her.

“Look at me.”

Cold eyes meet yours as you kneeled, stopping short. You couldn’t decipher that look on her face, but it feels very predatory. Like you’re an insect caught on a web, and Agatha is the spider that’s waiting to devour you.

Agatha’s gaze fell upon the way you're presenting yourself, kneeling in front of her like she always longed for. Seems like you’re very easy to break, after all. She motioned you to continue. Once your body was against hers, she takes a deep breath, summoning all of her willpower not to take you right there and then. The woman was always willing to play the long game, especially now that you’re the prize.

You relaxed against the older woman’s body. You’re not sure if the thrumming heart you could feel is yours or Agatha’s.  “Uhm, so how do I- how do we do this?”

Agatha’s hand gently wrapped around your throat, a gasp passing through your lips from the unexpected gesture. You could feel her fingers twitching.

“I want you to touch yourself first, sweetheart.” She takes your hand that’s resting on your lap and then brings it to your breast. Kinda aware of what she wants you to do, you start fondling your tits, her hand still on top of yours.

You let your free hand on the other one, with Agatha instructing you to stimulate your nipples as well. The action sent electricity to your lower region, but not quite enough. You need more.

Seemingly satisfied with how well you obey her, her hands slowly slide down your stomach, your breath hitching with anticipation.

Agatha hummed as she cupped your pussy, feeling the heat from your awaiting cunt that’s begging to be touched.

“You’re already this wet from that, dear?” Agatha husks, her middle finger pressing against your clothed slit. She smirks at her discovery, feeling her own underwear getting soaked.

However, she provides you no more relief as she retracts her hand, only for it to take your hand once again.

Once your joined hands had reached the hem of your panties, your legs closed, ashamed of how fast Agatha had you all worked up just with her teasing touches.

“Don’t be afraid, baby girl. It’s me. Let mommy help you,” the brunette cooed, her hand temporarily leaving yours to pry your thighs apart. She nudges them softly, her cold fingertips leaving goosebumps on their trail as she caresses your skin. Agatha’s hand has finally reached your inner thighs, and you’re just waiting for her to touch you already, but to your dismay, she puts it back to where it was.

“Let’s get this out of the way, shall we?”

As lust and excitement consume you, you quickly shimmied out of your soaked underwear. Your nervousness never subsided, but this time was a good kind of nervous. The shivers that ran through your spine aren’t caused by the chilly room, but because the woman behind you had bitten your earlobe.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Agatha had told you to stroke your clit. Gently, she specified. The feeling is divine, but it's not enough.

“Now trace circles around them for me, slow and easy.”

“That feels good, right?”

“I bet you’re dripping, yeah? I think you’re ready, baby.”

All these words that were coming out of her mouth were making your head spin. Every last thought in your brain is replaced by Agatha.

“Try pushing in a finger, sweetheart. Slowly.” You nodded, doing exactly what Agatha is telling you to do. There is something that’s so sexy with the way she commands you that makes you aroused even more, and she also finds it so concupiscent about how obedient you are.

You take it easy, thrusting your digit in and out, finding the rhythm that calls out to you the most. A sigh escaped your lips as your head lolled onto Agatha’s shoulder, enjoying the bliss.

“You think you can add another finger, hon?”

At loss for words, you nod, trying to insert a second finger inside. Once you’ve got the feel of it, you continued your ministrations, your digits pounding into your pussy knuckle deep.

Agatha notices your ragged breaths, alerting her that you’re close. She bites her lips as she stares at the evident arousal on your face, finally taking pity on you as she slides her hands to touch you properly.

Your hips bucked as you felt the light touch of her finger on your clit, eagerly chasing the added relief of her glorious hands. Her feather-like touch turned into fervent rubbing, making your eyes wide as you feel that not-so-familiar intensity building up.

“Agatha, I-I think I’m going to­–”

“Don’t fight your orgasm. Just relax,” she whispered in your ear, her hot breath adding making you shiver.

You could feel your muscles spasming, your walls wrapping around your digits nicely, while Agatha has not once diverted her attention on the sensitive bundle of nerves. In your haze, you didn’t notice her free hand playing with your erect peak. Agatha’s so good with her hands.

“I’m gonna–oh fuck fuck fuck­–” Is this it? Is this the out-of-this-world experience people are talking and gushing about?

“Yes, that’s it, angel. Cum for me.”

At her confirmation–as if she can read your mind, you finally let go, closing your eyes as you feel the white-hot pleasure flow through you. Unbeknownst to you, Agatha’s name had passed your lips. Although your voice was low, but at the non-existent distance you two had, the woman in question had definitely heard it.

The next time you’ll moan her name, it would not be as low as a whisper, Agatha thought.

Once you had gone down from your high, limp torso resting against hers, Agatha kisses your cheek, mumbling how ravishing you look when you cum. Your head turns to face her, a tired smile gracing your features. You relish the moment to take a good look at her, noticing how you can barely see the blue irises with her dilated pupils, and god, her parted lips… How would it feel against yours?

You and Agatha are on the same wavelength, but before that, the brunette takes the hand between your legs, gently holding your wrist as she admires your pretty fingers glistening with arousal. Agatha brings said fingers into her mouth, her tongue consuming every essence that coated your digits.

“Mmm. You taste like fucking candy.”

Heat is pooling in your belly once again at the sight of her sucking your fingers clean.

“You did so well, Y/N. How do you feel?” Agatha asked as you turned around to face her.

“Fucking good,” you chuckled gingerly. “But I still wonder how I never reached climax before.”

“Maybe you just needed a helping hand, dear. Happy to help,” she winked, making you snort at her answer. 

“So uhm, I guess that’s it, right? I mean I’ll just probably figure out the rest myse-”

“You’re so silly, toots! That was just me helping you masturbate. Now I’m going to show you what he’s gonna do to you.”

She’s going to ruin you for anyone else, even her own son, but you don’t need to know that. Agatha’s just going to wait for you to come back to her for more.

–

tags: @ilovehotactresses @inluvwithfictionalwomen @p-nymph

#agatha harkness #agatha harkness x reader #agatha harkness x you #agatha harkness smut #milf!agatha #agatha harkness x female reader #agatha harkness fic #taste of a poison paradise series

[purble-gaymer]

THESE MOUNTAINS SHOULD NOT EXIST

a rant/essay about dreamland's topography

disclaimer: i am a second year ENVS student and may get some details wrong. i don't really feel like sending this to my advisor (the local geologist) to proofread, so it'll have to do. i think she has more important things to do right now than read my kirby rant

to begin, we have to establish some basic rules about geology:

how do mountains form?

mountains come to be in a few ways: shifting plates and hot spots. hot spots are technically also to do with shifting plates, but we'll get to that later. let's talk about the plates first.

there are two kinds of tectonic plates: continental and oceanic. ocean plates are denser than continental plates, which means when an ocean and continental plate converge, the ocean plate will subduct under the continental plate. when two continental plates converge, because they are of similar density, they will collide. this process creates mountains.

mountains created by converging continental plates can be seen, for example, with the Himalayas. in this case, the mountains were formed by the Indian plate pushing up into the Eurasian plate. this method is off the table for dreamland because it is shown to be a peninsula (or at least a thin strip of land) surrounded by water.

ocean-continental convergence also creates mountains, but in a different fashion. this is the more relevant method because dreamland also has a volcano, an active one at that.

when ocean plates subduct under the land, they are forced down into the earth until they reach a melting point. sometimes this newly formed magma travels back to the surface, creating a hot spot. if this magma breaches the surface, it forms a volcano (that eventually cools into a mountain). this method can be seen in the Cascade mountains and the Andes.

the volcano/mountain's proximity to the coast depends on how steep the ocean plate's descent is. if we take a look at how close dreamland's mountains are to the shore...

...the ocean plate would have to be hitting its melting point almost immediately after subducting. forgive me for thinking this is unrealistic.

however, the inclusion of a volcano in this range is realistic! an O-C convergence would create a volcano like this. its portrayal within the show isn't really correct, but that's a post for a different day.

how this could potentially happen

not all hope is lost for the ocean-bordering mountain range, sort of. there are a few things that could have happened in popstar's history to cause something like this.

firstly, we should look at the Appalachian mountains. how did they get there? the North American plate is bordered on its east side by a mid-ocean ridge, where new crust is being created.

the Appalachians came to be around the time Pangea was coming together--the collision of the North American and African plates created the mountain range, and over time Pangea split apart, forcing the mountains away.

any map of tectonic plates will reveal a large split through the Atlantic ocean--this is a divergent boundary, where plates are being pushed apart in favor of creating new lithosphere (crust/upper mantle).

so, with all this in mind, there are a few things it could mean for our mountain range:

dreamland is actually an island, and we don't know because the overhead view doesn't show it

this would mean hot spots are relevant again: if a plate moves over a hot spot, magma can form into islands, especially volcanic ones. this is how Hawaii was formed, and why it is prone to volcanic activity. given that dreamland is an island, this would explain the presence of mountains. Hawaii's tallest peaks are still inland rather than right on the coast, but it's close enough.

2. a new fault/divergent boundary formed between dreamland's mountains and the opposing plate that created them

new faults aren't uncommon, though they don't always succeed. the New Madrid Seismic Zone, for example, made a small break in the American Midwest, but didn't get much farther than that. a successful fault or new divergent boundary could potentially push dreamland's mountains away from their neighboring plate. this is more like what happened to the Appalachians--though they're pretty far inland, so take that as you will. the new boundary would have to form quite close to the mountain range for them to be right on the shore like this.

3. the water has eroded away the land leading up to the mountains

now this isn't really one i have any backup for, i just wanted to throw it in because it came to mind. while it's possible for the ocean to have greatly eroded the land if it's been here for a long time, the mountains would still have to be very close to the shore to end up where they are. dreamland's proximity to the ocean could imply it has a delta at the end of the peninsula, and maybe one of the routes is along the mountains so the channel eats away at the shore for a while...who knows. but this one doesn't feel too realistic, either.

conclusion

as far as i'm aware, it isn't completely impossible for these mountains to exist, but they aren't exactly realistic, either. their proximity to the shore leaves too many questions that are hard to answer without any information about popstar's history and plate tectonics. most likely, dreamland is on an island, and was created as its plate moved over a hot spot. the existence of an active volcano implies that it is still sitting over this hot spot, and will eventually move away from it.

i must really miss my geology class if this is what i'm doing with my spare time. thank you for reading.

#kirby #kirby right back at ya #rhyn rambles #long post #i'm taking hydrology next term which means i might end up being annoying about something else soon #at the very least the river system looks pretty realistic #rivers are harder to mess up than mountains #i'll complain about the volcano if anyone's interested #i have some things to say that include comparing it to dante's peak

[gilbirda]

This idea has been plaguing my brain for days now and I had to put it somewhere, so here:

Basically Jason was in his apartment watching some silly shows with his girlfriend laying on his side, his evening was doing pretty great for once, that is untill Oracle called saying they needed help, before Jason could decline she said unknown portals showed up in Gotham and one of them opened right in Crime Alley(or the Narrows, both work) and the Bat asked for him to investigate that portal while the rest of the batfam would deal with the other portals, a.k.a Jason had little choice but to go there and see what the fuck was going on in his territory.

So after angrily putting on the helmet and telling Jazz he would be back in a few minutes he got on his motorcycle and whent off to where the portal was, but once he got to the location Oracle provided there was no portal in sight, only a lot of dirt, a really big crater and- is that a person on a floating board!?

Aparentlly there was a random person standing on a floating board and chilling in the middle of a big crater, at this point he's not even surprised anymore. As he approaches the crater he starts seeing more details on the person, they had a green teal shirt with black shoulder pads and white gloves, they also had ginger hair tied in a how ponytail that was eerily similar to his girlfriend's, but it could just be a coincidence.

But as he got closer and the dust started to settle down he could not help the confused-almost-shout that came out of his mouth, and the only question in his mind is what the hell is Jazz doing here???

As it turns out, that was not Jazz, or at least not his Jazz, because aparentlly she was from a alternative universe and ended up in this universe by accident while she was chasing a powerful ghost with dimensional travel powers, in all honesty Jason is already done with this bullshit.

"Is there any other alternative version of my girlfriend I should know abaut?" Jason asked in a very exasperated voice

"Well, I did see a Jazz that had 2 swords and a blue blue hair streak before you showed up" the other Jazz sheepishly replied.

Jason buried his head on his hands.

He just wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend.

(Basically the idea is that Jason ends up meeting Krosan's version of Jazz and is very tired of dealing with multiversonal bullshit and I think him meeting that version of Dan would be kinda funny tbh, and also a little reference for Mortified!Jazz. Idk what this is but i needed to let it out)

YOOOOOO, THIS SOUNDS AMAZING!!!

We've seen a Spiderverse-like AU for Danny, why not for Jazz?? We have halfa!Jazz, Mortified!Jazz (aka warrior princess), Hunter!Jazz (Krossan's design is amazing and the thing with Dan is so cute) and my (is not really mine? I just ran with the idea in my fics) Liminal!Jazz.

I know you meant only Hunter!Jazz and Dan in their universe, but now the Spiderverse-like concept in in my brain now.

OOOOOO

MAYBE ALSO @impyssadobsessions's Evil Queen Jazz????

Also, so many girlfriends... Would they like Jason?

Hunter!Jazz I would think likes him, but in a older brother kind of way (also in Krossan's art she looks young soooo). He is kinda like her Dan but post-redemption, so she is very interested in getting into his head and learn how he did it.

Mortified!Jazz is also young but would have a crush on him, specially when she finds out he can kick ass and drinks respect women juice. And with how he takes care of his girlfriend? Honestly if she weren't so busy with, you know, saving the world and helping her brother become King, she'd want something like that for herself.

Halfa!Jazz is more of a trickster and had a chance to be the younger sibling, from what I could gather the consensus is in the Phandom. Assuming she's close in age to Jason here, she wouldn't mind sharing with that world's Jazz. "He has two hands, other-me!" Also she would want to fix the Lazarus Pits thing ASAP.

Evil!Jazz is into him immediately. His sense of justice and how he is willing to do anything to save people are things she finds attractive. Also it helps that he is cute 😌💖

Anyone that wants to add to this PLEASE do so. This is such a concept!!!!! I will be rotating this in my head for days.

#gil answers #danny phantom #jazz fenton #jason todd #batman dc #anger management ship #jazz x jason #jazz/jason #evil!Jazz #dp x dc

[nostalgebraist]

How should we assess the performance of generative ML models like GPT-3 and DALLE-2?  What baseline should we compare them to?

The two popular baselines are “humans” and “earlier ML models.”

Here’s another one, which I think is potentially useful: search engines.

----

Imagine taking someone from 1980, teleporting them into the present, and showing Google Images to them.  They’d be amazed, wouldn’t they?

Until very recently, no one had that kind of instant access to a world’s worth of pictures.  And not only can it show you a picture of almost anything, you can tell it what you want to see, and a picture of that thing will appear!

(At least sometimes.  Sometimes it doesn’t quite work, but even then, you can usually see what the machine was “thinking” when it chose the images it did.)

Now, imagine showing DALLE-2 or Imagen to this person.  The reaction would be pretty similar.

Indeed, most of the gap here was closed by Google Images, not by the generative models.  In 1980, you couldn’t access pictures of anything by typing descriptions.  If you wanted a picture of something, you had to go out into the physical world and hunt for it.

In 2015, you could type a description of almost any picture (that plausibly exists) into Google Images, and it would show you a picture like that.  From the vantage point of 1980, this is basically an image generator.

Sure, the images have to already exist in the world (and on the web, and in Google’s index of the web).  But that’s a weak criterion.  There are billions of images on the web.  Have a new idea (from your perspective), go looking for that idea on the web, and often you’ll find it already there, waiting for you:

Back before we had global access to the written opinions of morons, this was a rhetorical fallacy: the straw man. Making up a bad argument in order to refute it was generally considered unhelpful, since the purpose of discourse is supposed to be to reach some kind of truth, not to show how good you are at discoursing.

It’s unnecessary to refute an argument nobody believes. But with 316 million monthly active Twitter users and 500 million tweets a day, somebody out there believes whatever. It’s the old saw about monkeys and typewriters. If you want to be right for a few hundred words, just think of an awful argument and search for the Twitter user who expressed it.

When we use DALLE-2 or Imagen, we come to them with eyes already jaded by Google Images.  So we mostly ask them to make really weird stuff, stuff that would probably not already exist somewhere on the web.

A time traveler from 1980 would not have our biases, and might be confused by our narrowness of focus.  Yes, DALLE-2 can generate things that Google Images cannot “generate.”  But Google Images can “generate” so much just by itself.

Much the same goes for text-generating models.  In 1980, you could not find any kind of text you wanted just by typing out a description of it.  In 2015, you could (usually).  From the vantage point of 1980, Google Search itself is already an impressive “conditional text generator,” not really so different from GPT-3.  (Except the text usually makes more sense.)

----

DALLE-2 and Imagen were impossible in 1980 for the same reason that Google Images was impossible in 1980: the modern web did not exist.  These models are trained on massive web scrapes -- the exact same stuff you’re searching over when you use Google Images.

To make it possible to train these models, we had to first make it possible for a single person to access billions of pictures with associated text.  For the models to exist, their training data must exist first.  But if the training data exists, then you have it too, and you can search over it as an alternative to using the model.

The models do two things: they imitate their training data, and they “fill in the gaps” in it.  (Some things really aren’t on Google Images, but sometimes DALLE-2 can still make them for you.)

Using search as a baseline subtracts out the first of these things, concentrating only on the second.  Search is already powerful.  What do the models add on top of that?

As a way to evaluate models, asking “how does this model compare to searching over its training data?” has the interesting property that it automatically gets harder as the training data grows.

It subtracts out the growing “power” of the training data itself.  The model doesn’t just have to improve with more data, it has to squeeze value out of the new data that wasn’t “already there” to be found using search.

#ai tag

[scarthefangirl]

Faith ~ (Insanity Part 3)

Wanda Maximoff x daughter!reader | platonic!america x reader

Description: Y/N is certain her mother isn't dead, its just a matter of finding her. But with the help of America, that should be easy.

Warnings: slight angst, some fluff between America and Y/N,

Story type: series

A/N: Here is my taglist!! I do not do series taglist at the moment, (I guess you could beg and maybe I would do them but its complicated and I woulld rather not) so you have to join the general taglists.

Masterlist

1, 2, 3, 4? (should I do a part 4?)

*GIF not mine, credit to owner*

Y/N had gone back to bed, wanting to sleep at least a little before she left in search of her mother. When she awoke the next morning she was in the middle of eating her pancakes when America came skipping in.

"Morning!" America smiles brightly at Y/N.

"Good morning. Did you sleep alright?"

"Yes! Its easier to sleep when you aren't getting chased." America laughs as she grabs a plate of pancakes for herself. She sits next to Y/N and opens the kid of the syrup with a pop. She then drowns her pancakes in the sticky liquid.

Y/N has been planning it out in her head and she thinks she has a plan. She is going to ask America to join her, even though Wanda tried to murder America.

"Can I ask you a question, Chavez?" Y/N says after gulping down a mouthful of her breakfast. America nods, curious of what her new friend will ask her.

"I am going to go find my mother. I want you to come with me. You don't have to, but I was just wondering. I know my mom tried to kill you but I promise, she is just lost. She has nothing left but me. I want her to see you and know that you forgive her. Unless you don't, which is fine I would understand." Y/N feels a lump in her throat and she swallows down tears.

A long silence overtakes the room and Y/N can only imagine what America will say. She feels her heart throbbing in her chest, it pounds so hard Y/N fears it may fly out of her chest.

"Sure." The girl says. "Maybe we'll have some fun along the way!!" She smiles, wanting to cheer up the Maximoff across the table. Y/N nods, still sad. Y/N can't help worrying that her mother is dead. America can tell that Y/N is on the verge of tears and she decides to lighten the mood. "Hey Y/N, knock knock?"

"who's there?"

"Boo." America says, trying to contain her laughter.

"Boo who?" Y/N cracks a grin.

"Don't cry, its just a joke." America then bursts into a fit of giggles at her awful attempt at humor. Y/N can't help but laugh too, thankful to have made such a good friend.

~

"Okay so all we have to do is find Wanda." America smiles awkwardly. Y/N nods, knowing this will be a difficult task.They had packed and were standing outside the sanctum. Dr Strange hadn't been to keen on the idea of them leaving, but who cares what he thinks?

"Well last we saw, she destroyed the throne thingy. So now that she is presumed dead she probably wants to go somewhere closed off and secluded. She probably didn't travel to far, its only been one night." Y/N states her thoughts out loud. America nods, rummaging through her bag for something. She finally pulls something out, a photograph. It has a picture of her and two females on it. She takes a long look at the photo before looking up at Y/N.

"We have to find Wanda. I don't want you to feel the pain I do."

"America, I'm really sorry about your mothers. Strange told me, and I'm not gonna tell you all the basic 'its not your fault' crap, I just want to say that I hope you fins them and they would be really proud of the wonderful woman you have become." Y/N tries to find the words to say to her new friend, not sure what she needs to hear. Just then, America's eyes swell with tears and she wraps her arms tightly around Y/N.

"I just need a hug." She whimpers.

~

The two girls had been searching the land for 2 days now and it was beginning to feel hopeless.

"America, I don't think we're ever gonna find her." Y/N sighs. They hadn't had a good nights rest or a good meal in what feels like ages, even though its only been a couple days, and Y/N needs to sleep. She doesn't want to give up on her mom but their going to have to figure out some better arrangements.

"Don't say that! We're going to find her, just have faith." America pleads with her friend. They had grown close over just two days.

Two days turned to two weeks, and two to four. After a month of searching they come across a cave. It isn't anything out of the ordinary, just a hole in in a mountain. But Y/N notices little red specks flying in a line, you would have to squint and look really hard to find them but somehow they were just apparent to Y/N.

"Don't go closer, my moms in there." Y/N says, cautiously examining what appears to be a force field. America finally sees the little flickering red magic and takes a step back.

"Wanda! Wanda! Please take down your magic! Wanda!" America shouts, while it is a little pointless it seems like the best option they have right now. Y/N hadn't ever imagined she would be going on searches like this and worrying about the fate of her mother like this. It all seems so surreal. Wanda was always Y/N's protector, she ahs so much love for Y/N and Y/N loved her. Now it seems crazy yo think of all the pain that Wanda caused, but what's more crazy is the pain that Wanda feels. Thanks to having faith and the help of America, they might have finally done it. Finally found Wanda.

"Mom! Its me! Its me mom! Mom! Wanda! Wanda! Mom!" Y/N calls into the lifeless void. After a few minutes of yelling Y/N decides to risk it. She begins to walk through the boundary, having to push herself through with a lot of force. Right before she pulls her head through, she calls out to America. "Stay there I'll come back for you."

And just like that Y/N was off to see her mother.

~

Tags: // @themarvelprince // @misselsbells06 // @american-sataness // @cr0ssoverf4n4tic // @powerfultaylor // @blackwidow-3 // @leighanne03 // @inluvwithfictionalwomen // @natsmcu //

#wanda maximoff #wanda x daughter!reader #wanda mcu #marvel #marvel imagine #marvel x reader #mcu imagine #mcu x reader #wanda #wanda x vision #multiverse of madness #america chavez x reader #america chavez #doctor strange #steven strange #the multiverse of madness #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff imagine

[3pirouette]

Fic: The Captain and The Missus (3/?)

Title: The Captain and The Missus 

By: TriplePirouette/3Pirouette

Spoilers: AU of CA:TFA

Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Distribution: AO3 Anyone else please ask first :) 

Story Summary: Instead of wanting to recreate the serum, Schmidt wants every trace of it wiped from existence so he can be the sole one to benefit from it. This means that Steve’s life is in danger, and Peggy’s new job is to keep him alive as he travels in hiding with the USO tour. 

Story A/N: AU of CA: TFA, based on @roboticonography’s idea of having Peggy go on tour with Steve as “Mrs. America”

(Robot’s post HERE: https://3pirouette.tumblr.com/post/654017864817360896/steggy-24-49)

SO... Yes. yes, it's true. I've somehow managed to only update this once a year during the past three years for Steggy Week. At least I'm consistent.

For 2023, this satisfies Steggy Week Day 2: WIPs and Updates.

Chapter 3: Getting on the Right Track

Summary: Peggy and Steve are off on their adventure, but she’ll need to start relying on him just as much as she wants him to rely on her if this is going to work.

A/N: Yes. I’ve now posted one chapter a year for three years in a row for Steggy Week. It’s become tradition. I think a lot of it has to do with this story really just coming slow. I love it, but it’s not flowing as nicely as I’d like it to, so when I get to Steggy Week, I see the WIP category, and go “oh! I should update that!”

So, yeah. Please be kind about it.

~*~

Peggy huffed as she sat on the bench, sliding over to make room for him, irritated. “I’m already not liking this.”

Steve settled softly, trying to tuck his body into a space that used to seem roomy to his 90-pound self, and now seemed cramped for his new body. “The seat?” He turned and looked up the aisle. “I can ask the conductor if there’s—"

“No, no,” she interrupted him, setting her bag on her lap and playing with the edge. “Playing the nagging wife. ‘Oh, do be gentle! My grandmother’s china is in there! Please keep that on the bottom, men, I don’t want it tipping. Oh, could you do me a favor and make sure all our trunks are labeled? Couldn’t lose one, you know!’” She huffed again, looking over at him, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Those men nearly dropped that entire trunk full of ammunition and finely tuned decoders!”

Steve looked alarmed and dropped his voice, leaning in to her. “Could they have exploded?”

She pressed her lips and turned away for a moment, trying not to be angry for his ignorance. “No,” she mumbled, looking back, “But we won’t get another chance at getting more decoders or half of the other kit in there if something breaks or de-calibrates. It won’t explode, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t delicate.”

Steve nodded, letting the information settle for a moment. “I was a little curious why you were being so specific about them.”

Peggy glanced around the sparsely populated car, still caught up in her anxiety. The car ride to the train station had been quiet, which she had hoped came across as contentment, but it was really more her nerves than anything. “I understand why we couldn’t take a transport, but I’d take a well-trained private over a single one of those brutes tossing around our luggage any day. I felt like I was running basic training all over again out there. Everyone on this train must think you’re horribly hen-pecked.”

For a moment she saw that 90-pound man reemerge as he twiddled his thumbs and his jaw opened and closed as he tried to come up with an answer that would appease her. It was enough to crack the wall of growing anxiety and soften her just a little bit. She took pity on him and set her hand on his to stop the fidgeting. “I’m being ridiculous.” She started another sentence, but had to turn away as she yawned, big and wide, into her elbow.

“Tired?” Steve asked, his fingers almost, but not quite, holding her hand.

She sighed, turning back to him as the train rumbled to life under them. “A bit. Had trouble sleeping last night.”

“Why don’t you take a nap?” He shrugged, half smiling. “We’ve got, what… six hours?”

Peggy clicked her tongue behind her teeth and pulled her hand back, sitting tall. “That’s exactly why I can’t take a nap.” She took a deep breath, looking around the train. “Beginnings and endings of operations are the most dangerous part. Anyone could have followed us here. I can’t let my guard down for a second.”

“Peggy,” he started, almost stern, “there’s barely anyone on this train car. I don’t think that the eighty-year-old woman or the two little kids over there are planning anything nefarious. How could they have figured out our plan and followed us here already?”

She looked at him hard, knowing he was trying to placate her. “How, indeed?” She mused sarcastically, “And how do you think a Hydra Agent managed his way into a top secret SSR bunker to try to kill you and Erskine, hum?” She didn’t mean to be sharp, didn’t mean to open the wound that was still too close to the surface, but the thought still kept her up at night.

That man shouldn’t have been able to get in there. Someone in the SSR was ratting them out to Hydra.

That meant that nothing, nothing they were going to do that anyone else knew about, was safe.

Especially putting Steve in this damn show.

Steve nodded in understanding, shrugging half-heartedly, a shadow passing over his face at the thoughts of what had happened. “I get it, I do.”

“I have to keep you safe.” She replied softly, urgency filling her voice. “I can’t let my guard down, even for a moment.”

“So what?” he didn’t miss a beat, his own eyes accusing now, “You’re not going to ever fall asleep?”

“Well, I—”

He shook his head. “No, Peg. This isn’t one sided.”

She leaned forward, dropping her voice down low, “It’s my job to keep you alive, and I’m damn well not going to—”

He reached over, grabbing her hand. The movement was enough to derail her frustration and turn it to curiosity as he held her left hand up to his. “This, Peg, says we’re partners.” He moved his hands, letting their matching rings shine in the light, smiling a little and letting his own frustration morph to earnestness. “For better or for worse. Like it or not. You and me against the world.”

Peggy didn’t want to admit that the moment, born out of frustration and desperation, was extremely tender, or that she felt a little thrill of excitement at the confident, strong way he took her hand, or that she felt cared for in the soft way that he cradled her hand as he lined up their rings. No, she tried to ignore the fact that his eyes were damn near sparkling as he said those words, filled with all the emotions she was feeling, and maybe even more. She really, really didn’t want to admit that of all the moments in her life, that was the most damn romantic of them all.

“Steve, I…” Her voice drifted away. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, but she knew she needed to protest, needed to change this moment before it got way out of hand.

“We’re a team,” he whispered. “The moment we left that base this morning, it was just us. I don’t like to think about the fact that someone has already tried to kill me, and that it’ll probably happen again, and I don’t like thinking about the fact that you’re in that line of fire with me. But you’re here to protect me, and even though no one’s said it before now, I’m saying it and I mean it: I’m protecting you, too.”

Peggy struggled for composure; she tried to keep a straight face when everything inside her was falling apart. She’d never been one for big declarations or sappy sentiments and coming from anyone else, it might have felt trite or overly sugary, but Peggy knew with every fiber of her being that Steve meant it. He well and truly meant it.

She couldn’t remember if anyone had ever said something so simple in such a profound way to her before. She couldn’t remember if she’d ever believed someone so fervently before.

It was a struggle to pull her focus back out, to keep the world from closing in until there was just the two of them, hands cradled together, train bouncing below them as Steve just happened to outdo her ex-fiance’s proposal of marriage in a few earnest words, but she managed it. “Thank you,” she whispered, knowing the words were not enough for the depth of the sentiment he just expressed. She forced the tension to break with a smile, squeezing his hand. “You don’t need to work so hard, Steve, I’ve already married you.”

He chuckled, the heaviness around them lightening almost instantly. He looked away, ears turning red as he whispered into the aisle, “Maybe I’m trying to get you to fall in love with me.”

“Hum?” The questioning sound was out of her throat before she could stop herself. She knew very well what he’d said, but didn’t quite want to believe it. She managed to keep a straight face as he panicked, letting go of her hand and shaking his head.

“Nothing,” he tried to cover, poorly, and forced a nervous smile at her. “You should take a nap, really.”

Her smile only lifted her lips a little as she ducked her head. “To be honest, I don’t know if I could if I wanted to, I’m still so keyed up.”

This time his smile was genuine as he rooted in his pocket to pull out a small paperback. “Offer stands. I don’t need much sleep these days, anyway.”

She watched him, unabashedly, as he turned to the book and flipped through until he found his page. Without thought she reached out, hand wrapping around his wrist to get his attention. He looked at her, but didn’t say anything.

“That meant a lot,” she managed to choke out, uncomfortable with the way the words made her feel exposed, but knowing she needed to make him understand how she felt, “what you said about us. You and me.”

The corner of his mouth ticked up. “Together against the world.”

“Yes,” she could feel the stress start to drain from her. “A team.” She took a slow, deep breath. It was like the worry, the anxiety of the last two days was getting left behind them with each passing second and each mile they put between the base and themselves, but she’d never been more serious. “I’m going to hold up my end, Steve, I promise.”

“I know you will,” he put down the book, flipping his hand and lacing their fingers together. “And I’ll keep up mine.”

~*~

She remembered holding his hand, contentedly, looking out the window and pretending she was watching the landscape pass them by while he read with one hand, but instead took the time to clock each and every passenger, to look them over in the reflection and try to gauge their threat level.

Somewhere after the pre-teen boy three rows up, she realized she had her head on his shoulder. It didn’t much seem to matter, though, as she could still hear him turning pages and they were supposed to be married, after all.

Just after the man two rows back, she thought that she’d just close her eyes for a minute.

Just one.

And five hours later, she woke up tucked into Steve’s side as the train slowed, chugging into the station.

~*~

They were hustled from the station to the theater by a small man with a pinched face, who seemed both annoyed by and indifferent to their presence. He assured them that their trunks would make it to their hotel room safely before he ushered them off the platform and into a small car.

She was both impressed and somewhat relieved that Steve managed to make his own fuss about the trunks as they were ushered off the train, she didn’t even need to speak a word on the subject.

They were quiet in the car, the trip quite a bit longer than they expected. “I thought we were going to be in DC?” Steve asked as the man navigated the streets.

“The show will open in DC, rehearsals are outside of the city,” the man replied. “Your hotel is close to the theater, don���t worry.” He grumbled, mumbling under his breath, “I know you’re worried about your trunks.”

Peggy tried to hold back her smile, but couldn’t. Steve gave her a gentle tap with his elbow, and she acknowledged his performance on the subject with a grateful bow of her head.

“How are you feeling?” He spoke softly. Even though they were bound to be overheard by their driver, who was under no obligation to keep anything he heard a secret, his soft voice went a long way to making the question feel at least a little private.

“Much better,” she replied just as quietly. “Suppose I was more tired than I thought.”

She expected a smile, or maybe a flirt- something he’d been more confident in over the last day- but instead he sobered and dropped his voice even lower. “I’m glad you felt safe enough. I always want you to feel safe with me.”

She couldn’t help but smile this time. “I do.”

~*~

It occurred to Peggy, as she walked into the theater, that she’d never been in one as something other than a patron. She’d gone for films and for the occasional play, even to hear concerts… but she’d never been in a theater where she wasn’t ushered to her seat and treated to a performance.

She was stunned as she followed Steve through the backstage area, stepping over coils of rope and avoiding scattered set-pieces that were half painted and half built. The bright white backstage lights were nothing compared to the colorful performance lights she was used to. She’d always thought theaters seemed too glamorous, so frivolous, and yet, there was exposed, dirty brick and sawdust everywhere. There wasn’t a luxurious velvet curtain in sight and instead it seemed little more than a warehouse with an audience.

It left her with an odd feeling of awareness, as if it was the first time she realized everything she’d seen on a stage really was just smoke and mirrors, sets and rigs and pulleys that made Peter Pan fly and Hamlet’s father rise from the grave. Seeing the lighting rigs bare overhead and the mess of lights and wires and rope on the stage made her feel a peculiar sensation, as if she was seeing something no one was ever meant to see.

“About six feet to the left!”

The shout pulled her out of her thoughts, and immediately reminded her that this was a place that posed an extreme danger for the both of them. The man who was shouting was a rotund man standing just below the stage, eyes on the two workers hanging a large American Flag from the rigging. He shook his head then caught sight of them, only looking slightly interested.

“You must be my headliners!” He gestured for their pinch-faced chauffeur to bring them down the stairs to him. He watched as Steve helped Peggy down the steep steps at the front of the stage with a hand, the raw wood wobbly. “Don’t worry about that,” he bellowed, “They may be unsteady, but they won’t be there for the show. Just while we’re getting the stage set up.” He shot a careful look over to where the men were hanging the flag, “It’s been busy around here since we got the rewrites.”

He held out his hand to Steve, “I’m Walter Pennington, Producer.”

“Steve Rogers,” He shook his hand, pulling back when he saw the man fight to keep a pleasant face at his strength. “And this is my wife, Peggy.”

Peggy knew right away what kind of man he was by the fact that he barely acknowledged her. No handshake, and barely even a nod. Instead, he kept his attention on Steve. It wasn’t that she wasn’t used to being looked over, but rather that it always stung.

“Well, they weren’t lying that you’re strong,” Walter said, flexing his hand a few times. “That’s good.” He took another short glance at Peggy. “We were surprised you’d want to bring the little lady with you, never mind incorporate her into the show.” He laughed, “I’m even more shocked Brandt went for it.”

Steve glanced over at Peggy. Neither of them had been briefed on what, exactly, Brant had told the people who were making the show, and she realized that her nap today really was lost time. They had no story put together and would be making things up as they went- at least for today.

That was always dangerous territory.

“Well, we’re still newlyweds,” Steve managed the reply fairly quickly, pulling Peggy into his side. “How could I leave a gal like this back home?”

She felt Steve’s hand just barely tighten at her shoulder, and she could tell he was just as uncomfortable with the man’s suggestive gaze as she was. “I guess not,” Pennington finally mumbled, though Peggy was sure there was something else he wanted to say.

Walter cleared his throat and finally looked at her face, addressing her directly. “I suppose we can work you into a few of the singing numbers, though that’s really up to the director.”

“I don’t sing,” she declared, arching an eyebrow at the man. His clothes said high class but the way he leered at her proved he hadn’t had a proper upbringing.

“Well, then,” he looked her up and down again, not hiding it, “At least you’ll look good in the kick line.”

Peggy wished she could punch him, the way he looked at her reminiscent of far too many men who thought they were better than her. She could feel Steve tensing up beside her. “And I don’t dance.”

He cleared his throat, crossing his arms. “Oh, you don’t, huh?” He leaned over to Steve, “What does she do?”

“Well, she…” Steve stuttered only for a second, thinking on his feet and smiling that boyish smile of his, “she’s swell at telling stories, pretty versatile, really, and just look at that smile!”

The producer turned his head back to her and she flashed him her best grin, trying her best to hide the disgust and sarcasm. “’Swell’ at telling stories?” He sighed. “I’m supposed to sell a great American hero who married a Brit?”

“I mean, we are allies,” Steve tried to rationalize.

Walter sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “What did Brandt think, you were going to stand on stage and smile? You might have a nice set of gams there, but that and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee.”

“I think you’ll find,” Peggy started loud, clear, and very American sounding, “that I can blend in quite well when necessary. I’m happy to affect any accent you’ll need for the stage, and do most anything except sing and dance.”

Walter looked up at Steve, obviously not used to being talked to in that manner by a woman, waiting for Steve to say something to her. Instead, he gave her a little squeeze and met the man’s confused gaze with a proud smirk. “That’s my girl!”

He wasn’t pleased, and he didn’t try to hide it. “Rehearsals start tomorrow, you’ll get your script then.”

“How long will we be here in rehearsals?” Steve asked, genuinely interested. Peggy wanted to know, too. They had woefully little information about the process.

“Three weeks of rehearsals then a soft opening run of four shows here. You open in DC for a week, then there’s a cross country schedule.” He tipped his head to their chauffeur who had stayed close. “Dave there will bring you to your hotel.”

Peggy almost smiled. Their pinch-faced man had a name. Dave.

“You need anything while you’re here, you ask Dave. Once you’re on the road, you’re on your own. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve replied, almost reflexively.

Walter looked him up and down once more. “Yeah, I think they’ll believe you belong in the army.” He turned away from them, mumbling as he left, “Damn government contract.”

Peggy had only the barest of moments to share a stunned look with Steve before they were interrupted by Dave, who stepped in front of them and motioned for them to follow him back through the audience.

~*~

Their hotel was not quite homey, but not quite bleak: two high towers full of rooms with a central connecting lobby filled with the dining room and common rooms. It was housing all the staff and performers for the show, most of whom, at least according to Dave, already knew each other from being on the performance circuit.

Steve unlocked their room, pocketing the key and swinging open the door wide. It wasn’t much: pale cream colors on the walls and faded floral bedsheets with matching curtains, a worn loveseat and a tiny table with two unsteady chairs. The bathroom was small, but having their own private one was a luxury.

“Not too bad,” Steve mused, walking around. He patted the tops of their trunks, sitting across from the bed. “How do you think they fared?”

“Well enough, I’m sure.” Peggy smiled just a little, eyes falling on the single bed. “Better than a tent on the front,” she mused.

He chuckled a little, shoving his hands in his pocket. “Very big upgrade,’ he agreed. “Should we unpack?”

Peggy held up her hand, her wife façade falling and the agent taking over, serious and stoic. She pulled a small black box from her purse and flicked a small button, moving it up and down as she slowly side stepped her way through the room. She slid it over the dresser and under the bed, in the small shower stall and behind the toilet. Finally, she sighed happily, clicking the box off and gesturing to the room. “Proceed.”

He didn’t move, but rather pointed to the box in her hand. “What was that?”

“One of Howard’s designs,” she held it up, admiring it with a small smile. She tapped the small, dark bulb on the end. “It lights up in the presence of an electronic listening device.”

Steve looked around the room, crestfallen that he had been so blindly trusting of their accommodations. “So… we’re good?”

“For bugs? Yes. Though the walls seem about as thick as a piece of parchment, so we should get used to keeping our voices down.”

His shoulders fell just a bit more as the whole thing became just a little more real to him. “You… you really think I’m in danger here?”

Her lips pressed tight as she looked up to him, she forced the tiniest of smiles. “I think that Colonel Phillips is one of the smartest men I’ve ever worked with, and despite his misgivings about you, he’s a keen judge of people. I also think that if the goal was to simply guard you or keep you safe, not only are there many other people besides myself who can do that job, it could be easily accomplished by putting you in a cell in Alamogordo. The Colonel has a great distrust of Senator Brandt, and made sure I was the one sent with you. Brandt didn’t make that pick, no matter how he tried to sell it- Phillips did. He told me himself.” She took a deep breath. “He had this show all ready for you to go in to without more than a day’s notice, and is a main suspect in how that Hydra Agent got past our defenses. Whatever’s going on, Phillips wasn’t just trusting anyone with this, and I’m not going to take any of it lightly.”

He was silent for a moment, taking in all he hadn’t known: that Phillips picked Peggy, not Brandt, and that Brandt was a suspect for being in cahoots with Hydra. “Thank you,” he finally whispered out, forcing himself to move on. “I guess… I guess we should get unpacked.”

Peggy shook her head, “Only the littlest bit. If we make it look like we’re living out of the trunks, it’s less suspicious that we’re not unpacking two of them.”

He nodded, undoing the straps on the top one and opened it, moving aside to let Peggy see the artillery had made it safe and sound. “We should put these on the bottom, I think, and ours on top so it’ll be harder for anyone to snoop.”

Peggy smiled up at him, proud. “Thinking like a spy already!” She reached in and pulled out a small handgun and a little filled canvas bag. “That should do for now, make sure those straps are tight.”

Peggy set her bounty on the counter and moved to the second trunk as Steve tightened the straps and moved it deeper in the room, setting it in the back corner, then grabbing another trunk and stacking it on top of it. Peggy pulled out a pair of retractable batons and the boxes of clothes Howard had sent with them, setting those on the counter as well. When she turned back, Steve was at the edge of the bed, holding a small, wrapped package, looking more than a little bashful.

“I, uh…” he laughed nervously, looking down at his toes. “This seemed like a good idea at the time, but uh, seems corny now.”

“What is it?” Peggy asked softly, taking a small step closer and fighting to keep her hands from fidgeting in the folds of her skirt.

Steve turned red, but met her eyes with a big smile that reminded her of the one she’d seen on him at the beginning of basic training. “A wedding present.”

She swallowed, hard. “I… I haven’t gotten you anything.” The retort seemed silly, even to her ears, but it somehow relaxed him.

“I didn’t expect you to. I just…” He shrugged and stepped forward, holding it out. “Here.”

She took it in her hands, soft and light, and let her fingers run over the brown paper wrapping and the little blue ribbon bow around it. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten a properly wrapped present. She realized she was taking her time, and looked up at him, smiling. “Thank you,” she almost whispered, still surprised.

He shoved his hands back in his pockets, shoulders up to his ears. Slowly she pulled at the bow, and separated the paper to reveal a piece of black fabric that looked suspiciously like a garter belt, but with a little more fabric to it. She looked up at him, his cheeks slowly burning red with embarrassment. “A garter?”

“It’s- it’s a holster.” He reached out one hand, almost touching it, then pulling back. “Or it’s supposed to be, anyway.” He cleared his throat and fought for composure. “After you left Howard’s lab yesterday he mentioned that his butler’s wife was a seamstress and had done the majority of the sewing for the… stuff he gave you.” Peggy fought to not laugh at how cute he was, struggling around the topic. “Anyway, he seemed to think there was some left, so I asked if she could make you something nice. Anna seemed to think you’d find this more useful.”

That caught her up short, even as she pulled the holster up to look at it. “She knows?”

Steve shrugged. “I was as surprised as you are, but apparently all she knows is that the fabric Howard gave her is supposed to be a lighter version of armor, and she figured if you’d need armor you’d need this.” One side of his lips turned up. “Sounded like a good idea, to me.”

Peggy smiled. The holster was genius: made out of the same protective fabric that the stockings and slips were made of, it would lay extremely flat against her thigh and the flap at the top would keep the shape from being too conspicuous. She’d been worried how she was going to keep a firearm on her when she needed to be on stage, and this had just made it very, very easy. “This is wonderful, Steve. Thank you.”

“You like it?” He sounded like a hopeful little boy.

Peggy bent over and slid it up her leg, reaching out and settling the small handgun she’d pulled from the trunk in it. “I love it!” She let her skirt fall back over her legs, and noticed that he’d looked away while her bare thigh was on display. She spun, letting the skirt settle. “Can you tell it’s there?”

He looked, swallowing as he stared at her legs. “Uh, no. No, I can’t.”

She smiled brightly. “Then it’s perfect.”

~*~

Peggy felt better with the gun nestled against her thigh as they walked down to the lobby. With the entirety of the show’s cast and crew staying at the hotel, they were providing breakfast and dinner each day. Steve and Peggy stopped at the double doors of the small banquet room, watching the people, most of whom seemed to know one another, hustle around the large buffet and bounce from table to table, chatting.

“Not too much different from the mess, I guess.” Steve mumbled, tugging at his shirt sleeves. The civilian clothes he changed into fit him tight across the shoulders, almost too tight, and the pants were too big by at least two sizes. Most of the clothes he brought with him needed tailoring, badly, but they were all he could piece together on short notice.

He’d only had this physique for less than a week, after all, and none of his old clothes fit. Even the socks were too small.

Peggy slipped her arm through his, setting them forward. “Stay close, please.”

“Not a problem,” he mumbled, trying to force smiles as they moved through the room. It was easy enough, stepping in line and filling plates. No one questioned that they were supposed to be there as everyone was enthralled in their own dinner conversations. Peggy struggled to split her attention, eyeing each performer in the room, looking for someone whose gaze lingered just a little too long or whose eyebrows knit a little too deeply, while trying to decide what to eat. Apparently, rationing wasn’t quite as bad here as it was in London, and nowhere near what it had been on the front lines. Bowls and platters were full of chicken and mashed potatoes and rolls and butter and there were little cakes at the end of the line that made her do a double take.

She hadn’t seen a proper dessert in months.

“Bloody Nora,” she mumbled, trying to keep from letting her eyes pile more than she could eat on her plate.

“Yeah, it’s a good spread,” Steve whispered beside her, not being shy about piling his plate high. “Better than rations, huh?”

She carefully picked out just one of the little finger cakes at the end of the table and looked up at him, astounded. “Does everyone in America eat like this?”

“This?” He laughed a little, taking his own cake and then following her to a corner where there was a free table. “No. This is pretty extravagant.” He set his plate down, noticing she set them in the corner, where they’d both have a good line of vision to keep nearly the whole dining room in view. “I’ll go grab us some drinks. Water? Tea?”

“Water, please” she replied, still a little shell shocked. She watched him take the few steps to another table and fill two tall glasses and she unfurled her napkin and revealed the silverware that had been waiting for them on the table. The room still buzzed, but she could see that it was with a jovial familiarity. People were talking like old friends, making new friends, smiling and laughing.

The mood, and the food, was a far cry from the front she’d grown used to during her time with the SSR. She wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse. It certainly made her anxious.

Steve slid in across from her, setting her glass down. He smiled and pulled out his silverware, taking no time before tucking into his food. He stopped a few bites in when he realized she hadn’t started. He hurriedly wiped his mouth like a little kid and sat up tall. “Did… did you want to say grace or something?”

“No, sorry,” Peggy lifted her fork and tried to smile. “Just… people watching, I suppose.”

He started eating again, this time a little slower, with his eyes on her more often. “Did you… notice anything?”

Peggy swallowed and dabbed at her lips, moving her peas around her plate with the fork. “No, which bothers me.” She sighed quietly, leaning in towards him, “I’m used to knowing more about the situations I’m headed into. We know nothing about these people. I don’t even know who could be lying about who they are because I don’t have any dossiers on them at all.”

“Brandt didn’t give you any of that stuff?” Steve asked, his eyebrow knitting as he speared a piece of chicken.

She shook her head, chewing a forkful of potatoes thoughtfully. “I suppose I could get their bios and headshots somehow, but it still gives us little to go on.”

Steve tapped the fork against his lips, looking around. “What if… what if it’s not anyone here?” He turned back to her. “Wouldn’t it be easier to be an audience member?”

Peggy sipped on her water, nodding. “Could do, yeah.” She looked around, too, picking at her chicken that had seemed so appetizing just a few minutes ago. “Easy in and out. But if it were me? Someone in the show would be invaluable.”

“Like you,” Steve mumbled, looking at his plate and shoving a big forkful in his lips before he could say anymore.

Peggy’s heart skipped a beat, but before she could reply, a shadow slid over them. They both looked up to a bright, smiling face. “So, you must be the guy?”

“Excuse me?” Steve swallowed hard.

“Like, the guy, right? As in Mister Captain America?” She smiled and pulled the chair behind her up to the table. “I’m Angie,” she held out her hand, waiting for Steve to take it.

“Steve.” His handshake was tentative, but that didn’t seem to deter her.

She turned right away and held it out to Peggy, too. “And you must be the Missus!”

“Peggy,” she swallowed the mouthful of food she’d forgotten about, pulling her free hand to cover her mouth as she shook Angie’s hand. “Sorry, you surprised me.”

“Me?” Angie chuckled, eyes wide as she looked Peggy over. “You’re the surprise!” She let her voice drop, telling Peggy a secret she knew Steve could hear. “I mean, I was cast as Betty Carver, so I was a little disappointed when I heard I was getting dropped down to feature.”

Peggy watched Angie’s face fall when neither she nor Steve seemed to react to that. “I’m sorry, am I supposed to know who that is?” Peggy shrugged, trying to play it off as being dim. “We haven’t been given a script yet.”

Angie’s face went from disappointed to outraged. “You haven’t been…” Her mouth worked in disbelief as she looked between the two of them. “Who is your agent? We’ve all had the songs and script for weeks now!”

Peggy felt the sentence hit her like a punch in the gut: whatever Brandt had been planning, it had been going on for weeks, not days. Though they’d both known this couldn’t have been put together in the last few days, the realization that there was already a plan to center around some ultra-strong American hero bothered her deeply. She tried hard not to react to the plain panic in Steve’s eyes while Angie’s face was still on her. She made a snap decision, and decided the more honest they were, the better. “Agent? Why- the US Army, of course!”

Angie laughed, brushing Peggy’s comment away with her hand. “You’re funny! No- come on- tell me so we can help you guys get it all straightened out!” Angie’s smile faded as she watched Peggy’s straight face barely move. “Wait- you’re- you’re serious.”

“Yes.”

“But- this… this is a show. Why would the Army…” She looked between the two of them, truly confused.

Steve cleared his throat and stepped in. “There, uh, was an accident.” He looked down, and kept his eyes averted in a way that Peggy knew meant he was uncomfortable with what he was doing. “I couldn’t serve the way I wanted to, and some of the higher ups thought that this might be the best place for me.”

Peggy watched Angie’s face as she shifted uncomfortably. The young woman clearly hadn’t been prepared for what she thought was an injured veteran before her. Peggy reached out and took Steve’s hand, letting her thumb rub over the knuckle. “We’re very lucky to be here right now,” she nearly whispered, proud of how he’d managed to play his role.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” Angie, for her part, was now mortified, hands covering her mouth as she looked at the two of them. “You’re… wait- are you really married, too? I thought I just got re-cast!”

“What?” Peggy’s head swung around quickly.

“Betty Carver was supposed to be the love interest- the home front girlfriend of Captain America.” She rolled her eyes, talking out loud to herself. “I mean, I was thrown for a loop when I came over here and you were English! Couldn’t figure out why they’d recast the home front girl with an English gal, but…” She softened and turned, smiling genuinely. “Well, I guess it all makes a lot more sense, now.” She looked over at Steve. “You were really a soldier?”

He nodded, and Peggy pushed forward with the charade, skirting the line of reality as close as she could. “It’s how we met.”

Angie’s smile melted even further. “That’s so sweet. I wish I had a guy to write.” She shrugged, and switched gears quickly. “So, wait- you mean you’re really fresh out of the Army, no script or nothin’?”

“Nothin,” Steve confirmed.

“Well, you stick with me. I’ll show you the ropes, introduce you to everyone. Most of us have been taking gigs together for years now. After a while rehearsing and once we’re on the road we’ll be one big family.”

~*~

“I can sleep on the floor,” Steve said warmly, feeling gallant as he took a pillow from the bed even though he was drained from the way Angie had dragged them around the dining room, introducing them to nearly the entire cast.

Peggy pulled it from his hands and tossed it back on the bed. “Absolutely not.” Steve only knitted his brow at her. “The windows face the other side of the hotel. Even with the curtains drawn you can still see shapes. Plus, now that Angie’s introduced us around, I doubt she, or any of them really, will be too shy about stopping by. One overly nosy chorus girl sees you on the floor and starts talking and our cover is blown.”

Steve wasn’t convinced, and looked nervous now. “Still, I didn’t want to—"

“My modesty will survive if yours will.” She set her hands on her hips and looked at him, finding herself tired and frustrated after the afternoon they’d had. “One overly eager bell boy or maid comes in and finds you out of the bed, and we’re in the gossip mill. One wrong word to the wrong person, and this all goes south, you know that.”

He grabbed the pillow back from the bed, just as obstinate. “I don’t sleep that much anyway, it won’t bother me, Peg.”

Peggy shook her head, closing the tiny amount of space between them. “You and me, together against the world, right? But let’s get one thing straight, shall we? My official mission is to make sure you don’t get killed. If you die, I’ve failed,” she paused and smiled proudly, “and I never fail. Even more so than that,” she sighed, her eyes turning softer, “I’m quite fond of you, and I would very much appreciate you not dying.”

“Fond?” Steve nearly squeaked out.

Peggy smiled. Perhaps they’d been dancing about this too much, because his shock, after everything they’d said to each other this afternoon, was not the response she expected to her words. “Yes. Fond. So much so, in fact, that I might even let you take me on a date once this is all over.”

Steve flustered, surprised as he stuttered out, “D-date?” He cleared his throat and composed himself, nodding and looking anywhere but at her. “I mean, yeah. No. I’d love to take you out.” He took a breath and slowed himself down. “I’m… fond, too.”

Peggy smiled, turning her back, ignoring that he turned a deep shade of red. “Affection aside, we need to be comfortable with one another in public for strategic purposes: holding hands, casual touches, even kissing.” He’d very nearly gotten himself under control when she said that and she could see how hard he fought to keep his face from turning red again as she pulled the pillow from his hand, gentler this time. “When people see us, they need to believe we’re a couple, no matter if we love one another or can’t stand each other. Understood?”

He nodded swiftly.

She tossed the pillow down. “Now get in bed.”

He stared blankly at her for a second before sitting on the side of the bed, still fully dressed. “Did you… want to go to bed?” He asked cautiously.

She huffed, sitting heavily next to him. “No,” she admitted. “We need to talk this through. We can’t afford to get the details messed up. We came close a few times today already.”

Steve nodded. “I know. I tried to keep it as close to what really happened as I could, so we couldn’t mess it up, but—”

“No, that was good.” Peggy kicked off her heels and slid back on the bed, tucking her legs under her. “The closer we keep it to reality, the less details we have to remember. But the timeline is off. It’ll be what gets us caught.”

“Because according to the papers we were married before we even met.”

“Exactly.” She nibbled at her thumbnail, turning away to think. “And you were on the European Front. We need to figure out just exactly what your accident was, once these people get comfortable with us—”

“Angie’s already quite comfortable,” Steve mumbled.

Peggy hummed in agreement before continuing, “Once they get more comfortable, they’re not going to hold their questions for long. And it isn’t as if you’ve got anything overtly wrong that would take you off the front lines.”

Steve nodded. “They’re keeping every able-bodied soldier out there. It’s gotta be convincing.”

“Well, we should be able to fend off questions at least for a bit.” Peggy shifted, looking him over seriously.

Steve squirmed under her gaze. “What?”

“Just thinking,” she sighed, forcing her eyes to his. “If you were in your old body, we’d have no trouble passing you off as discharged.”

His laugh was somewhat self-deprecating. “If I were in my old body we wouldn’t be here.”

Peggy looked him over again, her eyes very pointedly popping up from the bed they were both sitting on once her gaze rested there. “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

His jaw fell, more out of surprise than anything, and he was even more surprised to see a bright red tint start to shade in around Peggy’s cheeks. She cleared her throat and looked away. “Goodness only knows how people get places, yes?” she asked quickly, pushing through the heavy seriousness that had fallen over them both. She stood, pacing with newfound energy as she tried to halt the images of just what they could do in a bed together. “What if you were in your old body? What could we say was the reason?”

Steve switched trains of thought with her easily, shrugging and curling over, so reminiscent of the frail boned boy he’d once been. “Gosh, take your pick. I’ll start with the A’s: anemia, asthma, angina, all kinds a’ scrawny… then there’s the scoliosis, high blood pressure, constant sinus infections. I had scarlet fever, then rheumatic fever…. Nothing ever felt the same after that.” He almost jumped when he looked up to see she’d managed to creep so close to him that she was leaning in only inches away from his face, staring, fascinated. “What?”

The amazed look on her face never faltered. “How did you ever manage Basic Training?”

He laughed nervously, the corner of his mouth quirking up as he shrugged. “You were there. You know I barely made it through most of the time.”

Her amazement shifted to pride. “Sheer force of will, I imagine, was the only thing between you and collapsing on that field.”

“Probably more often than you’d know.”

Peggy stood slowly and resumed her pacing. “Asthma would work.”

“They catch that right away. No hiding it. I never would have made it past the recruitment center. In fact, there were five times I didn’t.” She hummed, leaning back on her trunk, still looking him over. Steve tried no to hide from her intense gaze. “You know, that’s getting a little…”

Peggy turned her eyes down, shaking her head. “Sorry. Can’t help it.” She looked back up and smiled. “Seems Erskin’s serum worked a bit too well.”

~*~

Peggy stepped out of the bathroom, pin curls hidden under her kerchief, face scrubbed clean with just a light sheen of moisturizer on, her robe covering the only nightgown she had. She smiled when she saw Steve’s back, his face turned carefully away as he sat on his side of the bed. “You can look, you know.”

“I, uh,” as he cleared his throat she could see the pink creeping up his neck, “I didn’t want to presume.”

“I’m sorry to say that there’s nothing scandalous about me without my make-up or with my hair pinned for the night.” She carefully sat on her side of the bed, smiling as his shoulders tensed when he felt the mattress move. “Though I am in a nightgown, I wasn’t allowed to keep the army-issued pajamas.” He slowly turned, looking over, relaxing a little once he saw her. “What?” She chuckled, “Was that all that bad?”

“I just… I didn’t want to presume…”

“You said that already,” she smiled, unable to see anything else but the stammering 98-pound man across from her in the back of the car.

“I know, but it seemed…” he huffed, shrugging.

“You’re not scandalized?” she teased.

He smiled softly. “You look like my Ma.” Her eyes widened and he threw his hands up, rushing to explain. “No, I just, I thought you’d be- I don’t know, more- but not like- no, and then I turned and you were just- normal.” His hands started flying and his eyes darted back and forth as he panicked, words spilling from his lips that didn’t make any of his stuttering confessions better. “But no, not like that. Not normal. You’re pretty. I just assumed you’d be more since I imagined—not that I want more, you’re enough. But I saw you like that with the kerchief and that was just how my Ma used to do her hair and—” His eyes widened comically large, “No! I do not think of my Ma like that. Not that I did or would, but I thought of you like that—”

“You have?” she interrupted, completely amused and charmed at his stammering.

“I have!” He announced, proud, before he realized what he’d said, his face falling again and the stammering resuming. “No, it’s just that, I respect you. A lot. And you’re gorgeous. And we are married, but not for real so then I shouldn’t—”

“Steve!” Peggy smiled, put a hand on his. “Breathe!” He stopped his disjointed rant, looking at her and finally taking a deep breath in, eyes wild with pleading for understanding. “It’s alright. I understand what you’re trying to say.”

“Good,” he chuckled, turning more completely to her, “because I sure don’t.”

Peggy laughed lightly, taking her hands from his. “I believe I have an unfair advantage here as I’ve already seen you without your shirt, and ladies do tend to have quite a few tricks up their sleeves.”

He looked sheepish, swinging his pajama clad legs on the bed, eyes focused on his threadbare undershirt. “I’ve heard fellas say that they’ve seen their girls without make-up and their hair done and they look completely different. Made them not want to date them.”

Peggy shrugged her robe off, setting it on the chair next to the bed. Her nightgown wasn’t exactly revealing, she had dresses with lower necklines, but it was thinned from use and age and she didn’t have another. His eyes traveled her form, and she pretended not to notice as she pulled down the blanket and slipped into the bed. “And do I?”

“No.” He smiled, turning away to click off the lamp to hide his expression. “You’re…” he looked down, trying to pick his words carefully, “just as beautiful.”

Peggy bit her lip, unsure of how to respond as he slipped in the bed, the pillow between them separating their sides. “That’s a kind assessment,” she finally whispered into the darkness.

“It’s the truth,” he whispered back. “Good night, Peggy,” he added gently, looking over the pillow that separated them, the compromise they’d made to keep him off the floor and somehow save her virtue.

“Good night, Steve,” she whispered back, completely sure she’d have quite the difficult time sleeping now that she knew that unlike Fred, he didn’t seem to mind her as she looked not so done up.

#SteggyWeek23 #Steggy Fic #3P's Fic #@roboticonography #Once a year is a valid update schedule I swear

[quibbs126]

So I’ve been wanting to make this character ever since I saw @ennywashere Choco Cream Cookie and thought “Dark Choco having a dad arc would honestly be really interesting for his character”, so I decided to take my own stab at it and made Hazelnut Cookie, Dark Choco’s recently adopted daughter

I made her hazelnut because I heard hazelnuts go well with chocolate. But also because I remembered Nutella, and hearing back all those years to when I first saw those ads that they were made with hazelnuts, and I remembered it tasting a lot like chocolate, so I thought hazelnuts could be a chocolate substitute. Granted that wasn’t really true, it seems Nutella is made from both hazelnuts and chocolate, but after finding out hazelnuts and chocolate work well together, I decided to just stick with Hazelnut

Also side note, I was double checking whether or not there was already a Hazelnut Cookie, and while there wasn’t, I did find some ocs and one of them was supposed to be a love interest for Dark Choco. If the name has the same reasoning as here, that’s very clever, that

So I’ve been flip flopping about her age while making her. Originally, she was just going to be like a baby—my notes said she was no older than 2–but then later on, I realized that made Hazelnut less of a character and more like just a living prop, as she would have no real character. So I decided to age her up a bit, but she was still supposed to be very young, my top limit being “younger than Custard III”. When designing her here, I think I stayed closer to that upper limit, but I hadn’t really thought about how old she is, because I also want her to be a really little kid, that was kind of the point of her. It’s only now as of writing this that I think I’ve come up with a definitive age range for her, that being ~4 ish. I’m not entirely sure she looks that age here, as I feel like she looks too old, but if I draw her in the future, I’ll keep that in mind

Speaking of her design, I’m not too sure I’m happy with it. I wanted to design her after a hazelnut, since that’s what she’s made of, but did I go too far? And I’m not sure about her hair. Again, I was trying to design it like a hazelnut, specifically the inner cream colored part, but I couldn’t get it to look right. I think my current 2 is probably the one I’m most satisfied with (it’s actually my 3rd, but I didn’t have room for all 3, so I deleted my original 2nd in place of it. I dunno, maybe I’ll work on it. Should I lose the hood? I put it there to reference the shell of a hazelnut, but I’m not sure about it

So anyways, talking about her, so basically her story is that Dark Choco finds her in the forest one day all alone and scared (I haven’t actually worked out why or how she was there. It’s kind of a holdover from when she was a baby, where that didn’t need much explanation. A possible idea I had is that she was just baked in the Witch’s Oven and escaped, ending up there in the forest). After helping her out (maybe she was being attacked by beasts), he tries to help her find someone she knows who would be looking for her, like a family member or something. When he finds out she doesn’t really have anyone, he decides he can’t just leave her all alone out here and decides to take her with him, at least until they can find somewhere good for her to stay; they aren’t father and daughter yet. During their travels, Dark Choco starts teaching her things about the world she doesn’t understand yet, helping her with whatever’s confusing, and just generally being a caring figure towards her, as he can’t help but become emotionally attached to the little girl. And Hazelnut becomes very attached to Dark Choco. One day, when they’re passing through a town, they see a kid and their dad, and Hazelnut later asks Dark Choco what exactly a dad is. He gives what explanation he can: someone who takes care of you and protects you, teaches you about the world and how to live in it, someone who’s always there for you and loves you no matter what (during this explanation I feel like he might reflect on his own father and what his father was trying to do for him or what might have gone wrong, as he does explain to Hazelnut that not every dad is like this, but it’s what they’re supposed to do). After his explanation, Hazelnut thinks on it, and asks if she can call Dark Choco “dad” (or some form of that), since he basically already does all of that for her. He’s shocked by the question, but he says yes, she can call him that if she wants, and so then they (unofficially) become father and daughter

I’m not sure Hazelnut would be a “playable” character, in this hypothetical scenario where she or an adjacent character is somehow canon, but if she was, I’d probably put her in the Healing class, since from what I’ve been able to gather, hazelnuts have quite a few health benefits, and I wanted to incorporate that in some way

I think that’s all about Hazelnut, I hope you like her!

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run oc #hazelnut cookie #dark choco cookie #my ocs #my art #oh yeah and for the people waiting for fankids I apologize that I haven’t been doing them much this week #I’m on Spring Break and the creative juices aren’t flowing much for them #also I’m supposed to be studying for my 3 exams on Monday/Tuesday (but I haven’t done that) #I’ll get back to it afterwards #but for now let me just draw what I can #it makes me feel somewhat productive #and also random note I feel like the drawing of her with Dark Choco doesn’t look that great #like yeah he looks fine but Hazelnut looks off #I’m still trying to figure out how to draw Cookies from the side

[gold-rhine]

I was rewatching the 4.1 trailer again (I just keep going back to it again and again because it's so good? The music?? The characters??? I WANT TO PLAY THE ARCHON QUEST RN SO BAD guess who'll be counting down days and then hours and then minutes until the update haha....)

So! My observations! (in brackets are what should be the timestamps of what I'm referring to/quoting, fyi):

(0:26) I can’t be mistaken, that voice in the beginning is Neuvillette's, and he says "I will arrange false charges against you so that you may secretly investigate inside the Fortress." What made me confused initially was, The Neuvillette— The Chief Justice— was pretty much doing something against the "laws he holds so dear" (not that I'm saying he's "stone hearted" and all that most assume of him, it's just that it feels wrong, to me at least. Neuvillette as I perceived was someone who would uphold the laws, but never at the cost of an innocent's life and yeah, yeah I get the whole deal with Navia's dad is contradictory, but look at Childe's case Neuvillette apologised to the unconscious Harbinger: "I am sorry. If you have been wronged, we will find the truth, but the rules of the court must be upheld.") Basically, I say he's doing everything in his power to protect the people of Fontaine from the prophecy. I believe Neuvillette is being wronged with the whole "Melusines can't be trusted! The same goes for Neuvillette!" like no, just no... But then the Melusines were 'born' from an Abyssal Monster aka Elynas....

Additionally: (2:55) Lyney asks "where did you take my siblings!?" Siblings, as in plural, perhaps the other orphans from the House of the Hearth who might have been sent to infiltrate the Fortress of Meropide??

(3:00) "Since they have no way to dispose of the leftover remains, they have ways to transform them into other forms and keep them in the Fortress forever" words by Wrio which hints that the "siblings" (if not someone else) Lyney mentioned might have been dissolved which is very scary since it means that this Primordial Sea water is now rather... accessible if I must say. (Like initially, I didn't care... not that I actually didn't, but morelike "meh, it would be taken care of by the traveller" because! that place where Traveller found the Primordial Sea water, it was like a tiny lake thingy, so I was thinking it wouldn't suddenly multiply and flood all of Fontaine... right?)

(3:06) Wrio is running away from a flood of Water of the Primordial Sea in the Fortress (it's kinda blue-purple, beautiful, glowy liquid so it's definitely not just some crack in the wall), whiiiiich kinda pretty much tells us of what was flowing in those pipes someone tells us to stay away from (I mean what else would be in pipes? Some kind of gas? Okay. The Primordial Sea water? Heck, yeah.) Okay, moving on,

(3:06) Neuvillette enters the Fortress and boom—(3:28) Neuvillette using what looks like a great amount of power (or he's just simply impressive in whatever he does... okay jokes aside,) to dispel the Water of the Primordial Sea.

So, Neuvillette is able to dispel the Primordial Water, but (3:55) it also looks surrounded at the same time??? And is that Furnina's voice? (If it is, it makes me wonder if she will be alright because I've been getting anxious from her lines (3:18) "Who are you? What are you trying to do? Please don’t kill me, I'm beggining you..." She's the Hydro Archon, for her to feel threatened, it's worrisome...) and what does it mean: "you will see much in the human world from the delightful, to the depressing... And one day, when you have dwelt among humanity long enough, you will be placed to bring judgement over all, as the spokesperson for Fontaine's past"?

Honestly, the more I listen to it, the more it makes me feel it isn't Furina's voice. But anyways I'll just consider that it could be her and will present to you 3 possible explanations for that dialogue (I could be horribly wrong):

One: it was Furina and she said that to Neuvillette (in the scenario where she must exhaust her powers to somehow prevent the Primordial Sea water from dissolving her people)

Two: it was said to Neuvillette but by the Previous Hydro Archon. It makes sense, him being (speculated, though at this point its basically a fact) the Hydro Dragon and having existed prior to Furina and alongside the previous Hydro Archon. And the part, "placed to bring judgement to all, as the spokesperson for Fontaine's past", could refer to him becoming the Chief Justice, someone who upholds the law as well as have memory of Fontaine's pasts

And lastly, the third possibility: it was said to the Traveller by... someone. The traveller is someone who isn't bound to the laws of Teyvat, and essentially, Irminsul. And tampering with Irminsul would have history changed, but the traveller will know (as we've seen with the whole Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and The Balladeer stuff). The traveller is essentially a witness (if you want to know more about this, I suggest you could watch this video if you had time to spare: the video). But if it was told to the Traveller, the whole judgement thing doesn't work out... unless the traveller of course decided to rebel against Furina because of her "failing to take action as an Archon", unlikely if I must say... (but then again, we did kind of rebel against Ei in Inazuma, but that would be repetitive too).

Sorry for the long rant hehe...

imma be real with you chief, i don't think its useful to make any kind of concrete predictions, esp lore ones, based on trailers. genshin trailers are notoriously cut v misleadingly, just to hook you with shock value. they put together visuals that have nothing to do with audio, like they'll show u boss battle with dramatic music and audio is gonna be like "oh no!! Traveler is DYING, someone help!!!" and then turns out audio is from joke part of the quest where traveler pretends to drown

that said, i think we'll get info on Neuvillette and i personally think its connected to former hydro archon and the fact that like half of oceanids left fontaine bc waters are "corrupted". idk if he existed before furina did tho. bc he's mentioned to appear about around time furina does, by the Narzissenkreuz director frex, who calls him "new Iudex" at the moment of time when furina builds opera house. so he was AT LEAST not a public figure before. and from that trailer audio about like living among humans and making judgement, it might be that he only appeared when furina became archon.

#rhine talks

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (14/04/24)

suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper late post this week, not only cause I started a buncha new stuff but I was also traveling on the weekend which cut off a ton of my free time (imas could've been last week but subs were late for a whole week 😒) also GBC and BA might not be on the corresponding sunday post for the ep that aired that week cause of their sub situation. Should be fine for GBC, but I ain't putting up with terrible subs for BA so I'd rather wait a couple days for better ones (even if I could watch the bad ones and understand it no problem)

but anyway, lots of yappin this time around, next week should be a lot more chill

green - new series/new to me blue - finale/completed

Anime

Girls Band Cry Ep1-2

this one is quite the ride for me. when it first got announced I was gonna watch it cause nari is the character designer and I love their art and it's a cute girls show. then it was revealed it was gonna be cg and I changed my mind. then the ep came out and people were praising it so I was like, "ok maybe I could watch despite it being cg". but then I saw a clip where it looked really bad so I was like "oh ok I was right not to watch it nvm" BUT THEN I saw a different clip that looked super good so after some deliberation I decided to watch it anyway and it turns out it's actually REALLY GOOD? like if every cg show was this level of quality I wouldn't be such a hater the op and ed(s) were really good too but they better be when it's a show about a band lol. the real ed (the one from ep2) has all the art done by nari which is super cool ep 2 was really good too, ep 1 had already convinced me to watch all of it, but still nice to see 2 being good as well

The Idolmaster Shiny Colours Ep1-2

while I was watcing GBC I was thinking "man the cg being this good is gonna make SC look even worse" and sadly I was right. Now, it's not terrible mind you but just like the ML anime, coming in the heels of something like the U149 anime which not only was traditionally animated but also had incredible direction with the quality art to back it up, it feels very bland. Luckily for it, it has the imas spice and, repeat it after me, I Am Not Immune To Idols. It's amazing how they get my ass every damn time... It's a shame that my lantica girls already had their episode so early since they're my favourites of the launch units but I'm sure they'll get at least one more at some point, along with a little more screentime every now and then like the others did on ep2 but anyway Ep1 was basically teasing the different units while introducing mano and getting her together with the other two. While ep2 was mostly about lantica with some small bits with the other groups spliced in. After ep1 I thought they weren't going to follow the usual formula of dedicating 1 episode per girl and/or unit but after 2 I'm not sure anymore. There's only 12 eps so if they do 1 ep per unit, while having little bits for the other ones, that would take us up to ep 5/12. We already know that there's gonna be a s2 with straylight and noctchill so we know they're not gonna show up in this season. I guess they could do a wing episode for each of the units which would put us up to 9/12 leaving the remaining episodes for big group episodes with everyone but we'll see.. Also speaking of s2, there's still 2 more units that weren't confirmed for it and since this s1 has 4 units you think it'd make sense for s2 to have 4 units as well. However the 2 units that haven't been confirmed are related to each other, in a way, so I could totally see them doing a s3 with just those units, since I don't think they'll introduce another unit any time soon. But anyway I'm starting to ramble and talking too much about meta. TL;DR: show shouldn't be cg and bandai can damn well afford a traditional show but they're greedy. other than that it's good ofc. like I said with ML, if you like any of the imas anime you'll like this. if you like the game/girls you'll like it as well

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night Ep1-2

this got announced around the same time as GBC and I posted about it as well. I was going to watch it just because it was a dogakobo original and I like the studio and it seemed like a nice cute girls show. As the season came closer I wasn't sure about watching it anymore but was thinking of giving it the good ol 3 episode rule just out of respect to dogakobo. When it did start, something had happened that caused me to change my mind and decide that I wasn't going to watch it. I don't remember what it was anymore but anyway. However my buddy mega did watch it and said it was really good so I decided to give it a shot like originally planned and... it's really good too. The mains being takarie and mikku is a rare combo but very welcome and the show also has that characteristic dogakobo polish to it and the direction is very good as well. I also appreciate the yuri vibes but I'm me so yknow ep 2 was nice as well, both the op and ed are good, and kimura might be a little freak but she's fun. I guess the next episode will be dedicated to the vtuber girl but we'll see

Kaiju 8 Ep1

that was a solid first ep, there wasn't anything too impressive to show off so I guess we'll see how it goes in the next episode, but it looked good enough that I'm not too worried about it. shame it's only 1 cour but I'm sure they're planning on adapting it all since the manga is almost over too it'll be nice revisiting these early parts of the story, it wasn't that long ago that I caught up but it's been long enough because it's not weekly that I don't remember the early parts with that much clarity but yeah, ep was nice, good voices, good music, good art (for the most part I thought some shots of mina looked off) and the animation wasn't bad either. if they keep up this quality until the end it'll be a respectable adaptation but I hope they at least give us some sakuga crumbs during the big iconic scenes

Manga

Astro Royale Ch1

tokyo revengers' wakui ken as left kodansha to come to shueisha with this new series and you can really tell it's the work of a veteran author I didn't know what to expect since I never read/watched TR, outside of seeing some clips and caps here and there, but this was actually really good. the setting and the characters were all set up very well, along with the main trigger that sets off the story. really great use of spread pages as well I've been saying for ages that wsj needs a new hit with some of their biggest hitters ending soon and they seem to think so too since no recent series have really popped off (except kagurabachi [the power of memes]) so they decided to grab another veteran (there's a bunch more in the mag currently). We'll have to see the next handful of chaps but just from this debut I can see this series having the potential to be a hit for sure. I've been doing this long enough that I got a pretty good intuition for this kinda stuff, tho there's always exceptions like me thinking red hood would last and that nue would get axed but I'm usually right for the most part.. anyway the series seems like it'll be fun so looking forward to it, I know people complain that TR went downhill after a certain point but this isn't TR so no point comparing this to it on chapter 1. just trust that the author learned his lesson from whatever went wrong with TR and enjoy the series for what it is, not like it's a sequel or something

Two on Ice Ch28 (Finale)

well that's over and I don't really got much to say tbh I don't really care about skating so I wasn't interested in this from the beggining and the artist didn't do a great job showing it off either. it was informative but not engaging. there were a few good panels/pages but a lot of big spreads got wasted with tons of expostion instead of showing off the art. I also didn't care about the "villain" at all despite how much the artist loved and pushed him still not one of the worst things I've read on jump that's for sure, just not for me and not interesting enough for me to change my mind and care about. an opposite example of this would be blue box which is a romance series and I thought I wouldn't like it when I started catching up to it and ended up loving it cause it's a lot more engaging

#silver talks animanga

[raayllum]

i feel like people were expecting something as impactful as s3 felt, especially after the 3 year wait and just the hype in general for s4 – which, imo, it was more about the Saga returning and new plot points taking shape + ppl had a lot of personal opinions over the hiatus of how the story should go and which character should do what, so i guess this is making some reactions feel... biased, at least from my standpoint

I think what gets me is that structurally and pacing wise, the season isn't that different from basically any other in the show. A lot (not all of course, but some) of the S4 criticism just feels like people not giving S4 the slack and/or patience they gave every other season of the show. Which is a pet peeve of mine that I've talked about before specifically re: people's complaints at S3 Rayllum back in the day, when it was beat-for-beat very much the same amount of plot focus and importance they'd gotten in the previous seasons. If you're gonna complain about something show wise, I expect that complaint to be consistent (probably bc of my autism) not just when it occurs to someone that it is a Thing that is happening that they Suddenly don't like (as though again, it hadn't happened in every other season)

Eps 1-3 are typically set up (we see this in s1 and s2 first hand). The kiddos have a more specific goal than ever before (going to see someone somewhere specific, i.e. Rex Igneous at Umber Tor) and it's more detailed than just "seeing the Dragon Queen just somewhere in Xadia" and with very little reference in universe as to how close to the border the kids are at any given time up until 2x07, lmao.

Now that Claudia and Soren have been fully bumped up from side characters (S2, S3) to main cast members a lot of their previous screen time is allocated to Janai and Amaya's subplot. Viren's subplots were often disconnected entirely from the main plot (i.e. anything after 1x06 for Viren never affects the main characters in any significant way until approximately 3x04, and even then, only with Ezran) but nobody complained about that, because it was compelling and interesting to watch. And if the Sunfire elf stuff wasn't to someone, okay cool - but again, very subjective. Now Viren's plot line has been merged with Claudia's, so again, it's about the same amount of time allocation.

(And part of the reason I know that is because I once did the math to see literally how much screentime Rayla and Callum - and often including Ezran - get in previous seasons, averaging 50+ minutes in S1 and S3 and under half an hour in S2, due to the flashback episodes and no interaction in the first ep and minimal interaction in 2x08. I would expect S4 to be over half an hour simply because a scene like the end of 4x01 would count and once they're together, they're rarely apart / not talking about each other.)

Like 1x05 and 1x06 are some of my favourite eps in the whole show, and they are effectively filler, particularly 1x05. You could remove Viren and Amaya's plot line and remove very little (particularly because Gren's imprisonment didn't amount to anything in the first arc, and likely won't in the future since we already know Runaan is in the coin). 1x06 is plot relevant for Viren and Claudia but arguably only plot relevant for the trio at the very end. As expressed before, significantly more is established and discussed in 4x01 than almost any premiere except 1x01; very little substantially happens in 2x01 and 3x01 besides either 1) worldbuilding or 2) travelling. 2x04 is another one of my absolute favourite episodes, and it is entirely filler. The Amaya-Janai storyline doesn't come back all season and purely exists to set up their S3 storyline and Callum's struggles with magic. Of course all these filler eps do the work of furthering the trio's and particularly Callum and Rayla's bond, but outside of emotional stuff, they are filler in regards to the plot

But suddenly 4x05 and 4x06 are too filler-y? Episodes in which the kids determine their specific goal is to hunt down Claudia, go to Rex Igneous, stop Aaravos, the immediate fallout of the possession, starting to actually mend Callum and Rayla's relationship (they hadn't gotten a significant scene together since the beginning of 4x03, after all), demonstrate Soren's place in the group, etc etc? The purpose of these episodes and the plot beats are exceedingly similar to 1x05-1x07 smushed together (with 1x07 again being mostly filler, there to set up how Claudia does the tracking spell and how the kids find out about the 'miracle healer'). There is a shit ton going on amid setting the stage for emotional beats, giving room for some to happen, and getting the rest of the season's plot under way.

I've also seen some people saying that that indications we've gotten that Rayla has changed isn't enough bc it's only a couple of scenes, but 1) the girl who was once like "I don't have to explain anything to you" / "time for my least favourite course of action: reason" is now leaping up like "I love talking" because she wants to make things work and 2) her "We can't save everyone" scene in 4x05 hits so hard because it's her most basic core character trait that's been utterly decimated in a major way. Not completely, as we see in 4x09, but like, this is her Core Character Trait. Every season show us this. Forget a needle in a hay stack in terms of big flashing lights of This character has changed!! It's like smashing a sledge hammer into a wall. It does what it needs to because they know where to hit the hardest in the time they have

And once again, we see this pattern in earlier seasons. Rayla has one (1) scene expressing doubts regarding being an assassin in 2x06 before the immediate next episode is building on that to set the stage for the entire conflict of 2x07 and the rest of the season by extension. We get one (1) scene of Callum being interested in magic and Ezran sneaking around the castle before it's being utilized by the plot and Callum being a mage is his main drive for the first three seasons. If anything I like that we're give this sledge hammer moment, its immediate consequences, and a meta-narrative reflection that since the one person Rayla routinely opens up to doesn't want to talk to her, we're not privy to what she's going through either, and that it's given time to stew.

And I'd be more willing to take structural criticism of the season seriously if there was one that acknowledged the structural similarities 1) virtually at all and 2) so much of S4 criticism wasn't couched in very subjective opinions. Like for me, S2 is the season with the slowest pacing in some ways for the first half of bc 1) 2x01 isn't my fave although I have grown to appreciate, 2) Viren and Aaravos' plot line isn't that engaging to me personally up until like 2x08, and 3) 2x04-2x06 is virtually all filler that just reaffirms things we knew or gives more context to events prior, but the flashback eps are absolutely crucial theme wise. And again, S4 is doing some major thematic heavy lifting that I want to explore further, so like - for me it just doesn't compute why that has to be so dissimilar in public opinion?

Like yes, the search for Soren leading to the path to Rex Igneous and N'than's existence is convenient. But so is Ellis' existence (we see the path the kids take on the Caldera and a 9 yr old child carrying a heavy wolf pup in her arms somehow took the same path completely by herself?) and the fact that Claudia and Soren somehow reached the 2x07 town a day behind the trio (who travelled by boat and flight) while not being able to even use their horses because they had Corvus with them, thereby having to travel on foot? Or Opeli and Corvus' one line mention of going to Duren (not even Aanya by name) and relying on people listening for her name when Opeli lists off who's attacked and noticing who's not there leading to the event that allows the heroes to win the Final Battle in the first place? That Janai's forces just happened to go to the Storm Spire at all?

None of this makes the previous seasons bad by any means, but the writing is as consistent as it's always been. But no, season four is the breaking point, Apparently, of suspension of disbelief or a willingness to give slack / time for things to play out

Again, I don't want to dismiss anyone's feelings about season four. People are allowed to feel how they wanna feel! I waited like four years for "Blood of Olympus" to come out and it was the last PJO book I ever read and it was ultimately disappointing to me like, I know it can suck. But the book wasn't bad because I'd waited so long and then it didn't progress enough or anything like that. My experience reading the book would've been completely the same in terms of my enjoyment whether I'd waited four years or four weeks.

One of my big worries going into S4 was that during the hiatus, I'd gotten too attached to what I thought had to happen that I wouldn't be able to enjoy whatever did happen. Things like Callum had to go after Rayla because she'd never come back of her own accord. Aaravos was going to get out by the end of the season. Big stuff like that. I found the Rayllum reunion anti-climatic on my first viewing. Now it's one of my favourite scenes of the season and I love how much it parallels their first meeting (Rayla pursuing) while also inverting (lovers rather than enemies, Callum not wanting to talk vs talking to stall/convince her) and giving so many emotional layers at once

All of this being a very long winded way of saying

4x01 is my favourite premiere after 1x01. I think S4 did the best job at incorporating bouts of flashbacks without bringing the plot to a stand still in order to do so. 4x07 is probably my favourite ep7 after 2x07, and I adore 2x07. S4 does some of the most interesting thematic and character work in the whole show, mostly because we have three seasons of context to draw comparisons and correlations from, and it knows how to draw on those things exceedingly well. The most filler eps of the season is before Rayla even shows up, so how could time before her home coming be even effectively re-allocated to after?

Season Four is not what I expected in almost any way. It surprised me, did some of what I expected, plenty I didn't, and then so much more in a lot of ways.

I love(d) it, and I think my opinion and affection for the season is only going to grow as time goes on, tbh

#tdp #the dragon prince #analysis series #the english major strikes again #bc that is my tag for Structural things #arc 1 #analysis #s4 is my best friend #s4 #arc 2 #parallels #thanks for asking #arcmagecallum #like honesty ezran and janai's season and i loved that for them #feel like i just ran a marathon lmao #i said 'okay brain look at the structural parallels i give you permission' and this came out

[galactic-pirates]

Oh boy. Ok episode 9 where do I start?

Spoiler alert as always.

Ok let’s start with the positive.

Data’s line and delivery of “I hope we die quickly” was hilarious.

I loved how Seven was the first to fight back and get a phaser with an elbow to the head.

Raffi going “not a chance” and striding forward shooting because she wouldn’t leave Seven was totally badass, and warmed my shipper heart.

As for everything else…

Oh boy.

In my theorising I said maybe the changelings wanted Jack to do his mind control whoo whoo, and form a ‘collective’ as a way to bring totalitarian order/control the federation which the changelings want.

But actual Borg? Actual Borg passed down because of Picard? That was a crack theory that I thought we were all laughing about. For once I take no pleasure in having saw this coming a little bit. ESPECIALLY to be honest because there is no explanation just a “the changelings were working with the Borg all along” erm how? Why? What do they get out of it? How did they even find the Borg given that clearly…

This season has a huge problem with time and relative distance. I know space is vast and all but for them to be jetting around to all the various places those places must be within half a light year or less. I mean I looked this up when I was comparing hyperspace travel times for Stargate and warp 9 is like 2 light years a day.

Make it make sense.

So for Jack to get to the Borg in a shuttle which I am guessing was probably not warp 9? In a matter of a couple of hours it seemed, the Borg were basically hiding out for a decade in the heart of federation space? I know Jack said “transwarp portal?” but that sounded more like a question so I guess the Borg could have warped into that nebula. But I don’t know I thought they were supposed to require some proximity. I swear what was a thing re: transmitters on Voyager. I could be mistaken though I guess.

Also what the hell with the “Borg haven’t been seen in 10 years?” I guess the friend Jurati led Borg don’t count? I mean ok separate collective but it would have only been one extra sentence to explain that and then we wouldn’t be going “continuity? I don’t know you”.

At least I guess they explained how Jack could control the younger crew members due to the implanted Borg DNA. But that raises some major questions about the transporters. Pulaski was so right not to trust them because if they can materialise people with different DNA… I mean I know this wasn’t done with Federation approval but for that capacity to even exist within the technology… I watched SNW and that has Number One being arrested for being Illyrian (genetic modifications) and then the StarFleet transporters can alter genetic code. I mean ok yeah it’s a couple of hundred years later but I don’t know feels hinky. Wouldn’t people have got sick or died? I mean tampering with DNA seems super dangerous. I get that it’s all handwaved science because it’s science FICTION but it should still seem plausible.

I just don’t get it. It’s just so weird from start to finish. Like are all XB’s modded like Picard? Have none of them reproduced in the past 30 years? Why mod Picard like that anyway? The Borg don’t reproduce like that. I think I am trying to make sense of something that is just so strange.

Anyway I am momentarily amused that my pet theory that the Borg came from contamination from the killer robots in the season 1 finale, could have further weight as that’s when Picard’s brain exploded. Could it be contact through the open space portal to killer robots was trying to transmit/receive and basically getting an error message which fried his brain?

Aaaand back to episode 9. So Shaw’s probably not dead. I mean he might be but from some of the tweets I read I am doubtful. I would like him to be dead. “Redemption through death” is a time honoured trope. I don’t know if it was invented by Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, or just popularised, but it is a big thing. Shaw was a bastard who I wanted to throw out an airlock. In his final moment finally giving Seven the respect she deserved after his petty bullying abuse of power. That’s Redemption though death.

I am concerned though that if they given Seven and Raffi anything to do in the finale, it might be dragging Shaw to SickBay to revive him. Cortical stimulation etc. forget the fact that the Galaxy is on fire. Shaw probably wouldn’t even be grateful and instead lecture Seven on priorities again. In that case he would be right as risking their lives to bring Shaw back would be insane given the state of things. Especially as I don’t think it’s guaranteed that people can be brought back. Not killing Shaw when there is only a handful of seconds to think, is very different from deliberate choice over and over when he’s technically already dead.

Speaking of that scene though I get they wanted to isolate the TNG crew so they could be heroes, but Raffi stunned the last attacker. They couldn’t wait 2 seconds for Raffi and Seven to join them in the escape shuttle? Instead they left them behind to be killed. I mean that is basically what happened.

Make it make sense.

I dislike that the ‘face’ of the Borg control on the Titan is an alien, and the most obviously an alien. It feels like they didn’t make it one of the LaForges because obviously they will get saved and it’s to keep the impression of victims rather than the enemy. Also let the enemy be alien rather than human as that’s very othering. Humans are good guys right? /sarcasm. I mean it is so rare to see a non-human (unless it’s a Vulcan but that is quite rare too) sit in the Captain’s chair so of course it happens when they are the bad guy.

Fireworks in space. How does that work? I mean there is no oxygen. Technically this means all the glorious explosions of ships probably shouldn’t happen either? Clearly I am willing to overlook it in some cases but those fireworks did look weird. Dodgy CGI or…?

I am sure I am forgetting lots of points.

I think I have said a few times that this season has had a pacing problem. Never more so has that been true than now. As a writer I can tell you that on the story beats list this would be the doorway of no return which separates Act 2 from Act 3. That means there should be 25% of the story left approximately. So paced properly this episode should have been number 7, and possibly given everything they crammed in 6+7 expanded. That’s probably why we got such a glossed over “the changelings have been working with the Borg this whole time” with no explanation or curiousity as to why or how. I really can’t see how they can wrap this up with any degree of satisfaction within one single episode.

You know at the end of this ramble I am still stuck on how the crack “Borg baby” theory turned out to be true. I mean that was like the most “yeeeah it’s not going to be that” level of stupid and then they actually went there. Crack theory = canon and I still can’t believe it. I mean to be fair Trek did have the lizard baby episode on Voyager, so there is precedence for insanity, but that was a single episode, easily ignored and forgotten - not built up to over a 10 episode season establishing lore that anything that comes after will have to live with.

Is that what they call irredeemably jumping the shark?

As for the Enterprise-D I am picturing Geordi as the dad tinkering in his garage repairing his classic car on weekends now. Mostly though I am stunned that they went to the trouble/expense of replicating the bridge set and it will be used for all of one episode.

Oh! Hahahaha. So that’s where the lighting budget went? Finally something that makes sense.

#star trek: picard #picard spoilers #sam rambles (a lot)

[six-of-ravens]

daily update:

for some reason since last night my brain has decided to get Big Mad about something that happened like 6 months ago. just basically trying to Constantly Distract Myself lol. Idk why my brain is this fucked up but I blame it on the weather, the wild swings between sunny and warm spring weather and dark cold winter are brutal on the mental health lol.

also i haven't left the apartment since Monday (except a quick trip down to the mailbox today) so that might be why my brain is acting up. my anxiety gets real bad if I don't leave the house for more than 1 day in a row (lockdown was a FUN time in this brain) and I think for lack of anything real to be anxious about my brain is just going "hey remember that asshole from July? let's be mad at him again!!"

on the plus side, was actually able to be productive at work today! the past 2 days were just a lot of spinning my wheels while the PM for this project works herself into a tizzy, because I don't know what I need to do (if anything) and I can't handle her ranting anymore. Apparently the boss is getting pretty tired of her too tho so I think he had A Talk with her about not skype-spamming with her whole thought process. Also, she always intersperses her updates with "I have other things to work on too!" type comments which are driving everyone insane bc like yeah, we all do too! so just fkn get this last list of revisions sent over so we can finish this!!

so yeah, work is a...joy. right now. at least we got to work from home today too lol, we got waaaaay more snow than they predicted.

i did take a 3 hour nap after work today tho (necessary, bc last night I was up until 2am and my brain would not get off this spiral) and had those good good adventure-quest dreams, so.

oh also I finally checked the mail and my laika pin from pangur-and-grim arrived!! she is baby 🥺 she lives on the pin jacket now:

anyway, plan for tonight is to try and decompress by listening to music and maybe writing. i also *still* haven't really started Fellowship bc I just haven't been in the brainspace for it (though maybe I should try...having to intensely focus on a book with very small print might be what my brain needs)

also, going from reading children's books with like 18pt font to a dense fantasy novel with like 8pt font is quite the change. highly intimidating!

I have made progress on ToTK and FFIII though, in totk I beat Master Kogha and then finally got my purah pad upgraded with the sensor, travel medallions, etc etc. I can't believe i missed all of this stuff at the beginning of the game lol. in FFIII I'm back at the Nepto Temple, which is one of my least favourite levels due to having to use Mini which makes your weapons useless. Ah well, the quests after this are interesting at least.

oh and finally, I got some sprouts in my garden! I'm kind of amazed at how much stuff has already sprouted, most notably the lettuce (but also a half-dozen other random things):