#he's one of those incredible actors who have such control over their FACE that they can convey ANYTHING with just the raise of an eyebrow

[londonspirit]

*

#just a quick ramble in the tags #yes of course I watched it #took me an hour because of lagging wifi and a huge file #didn't dl tho/will wait for proper thing #anyhow: god he's beautiful!!! #so soft and yet so GRRRR #still not convinced with the whole concept tho #EH seemed a tad stiff (NO pun intended) #PP = perfection as always #those EYES #guh #he's one of those incredible actors who have such control over their FACE that they can convey ANYTHING with just the raise of an eyebrow #still: rather disappointed #the whole thing was praised queer as hell #and here I am thinking it could've been queerer #but then again the pirates have ruined me/set the bar soooo high #that when I hear queer I expect at LEAST a kiss #not just longing glances only #so yeah #call me shallow but with these two ONE damn kiss wouldn't have been too much to ask no?! #aaaanways: can't wait for the fics #and all the gifs once it's out officially #there are a few gorgeous scenes #*sighs* #just wished we could've had that flashback with their older selves as well #(also: in a very meh mood here so maybe its just that!)

[wellofdean]

I started watching supernatural again from the first season, partly because of your blog, and you are so right about Jensen’s acting. The control that man has as a performer. The way his face will go through an entire journey in a pause in the dialogue. I feel so many things for Dean and a lot is in those shifts in expression.

I'm so glad you're giving it another go, and I'm proud my blog has anything to do with it! And yeah, Supernatural has some real flaws, but it's also just...so good? Two things can be true?

And, Jensen is incredible? It's like you can see the emotions drifting through his pretty face like clouds or something. He manages to make Dean feel like a whole-ass human being, and it's because his performance makes you truly believe that Dean's got a rich, emotional inner life that no one but him is privy to, and he feels and thinks things he never, ever says. He makes you feel curious about what's going on in there! He just so makes so much space for the audience to imagine him and care about him. I feel like the genius of it lies somewhere between the culturally determined tough guy script Dean's running and the way you know that despite all that, he's just full to the brim with soft, private, real ass FEELINGS.

I think people sleep on how legitimately fucking great Jensen is at his job because he's got a mathematically perfect face, that lush mouth and the biggest, wettest, greenest eyes in all the land, but he truly is a remarkably gifted actor, and it's straight up amazing that his performance of Dean never flagged over 15 years, and that despite what seems to have been EPIC tomfoolery on that set, and all the vagaries of production, he just kept getting better and better, and Dean just got deeper and richer and more devastating. The Dean I love most is the one in season 15 who is in the grip of a snowballing existential crisis, and is always visibly choking down and swallowing everything he doesn't say while letting emotion just well up like a flood in his face. He's very, very talented and the ability he has to communicate legible emotion in a way that feels like there is no artifice at all involved is extremely impressive.

There are a lot of VERY good actors who can't do what he does, and like...KUDOS. And, THANK YOU, because I love Dean. Please do more Dean, Jensen. Never stop.

#Jensen Ackles #can act his patooties off #spn #anyway anon #hit me up sometime #I want to hear about your rewatch journey #and thanks for writing in!

[bradshawsbaby]

Hellooooo you can totally ignore this!!! But having Al brain rot and imagining getting it on with him somewhere semi-private on one of his movie sets when Bettye comes across you guys mid... ahem

Bettye would not even bat an eye 🤣

18+ content below the cut.

There was something truly magical about France.

The sights. The food. The wine.

The fact that you and Al hadn’t been able to keep your hands off each other—even more than usual.

His latest project was currently filming on location in the South of France, and he had managed to secure a spot for you so that you could travel with him.

“Can’t go a whole month without you, baby doll,” he’d told you when he’d surprised you with your ticket.

While you were thoroughly enjoying the breathtaking scenery of the Mediterranean, you had to admit that you were even more enthralled by the opportunity to watch your boyfriend at work.

He was so focused. So dominant. So in control.

It was incredibly sexy.

And you never failed to let him know it.

Though he was often extremely busy during the day, putting out one fire after another, he always managed to make time for little secret rendezvous on set, away from the prying eyes of everyone else on the production team.

Today, the two of you had managed to sneak away to a small, deserted stable on the grounds of the villa where filming had been taking place all week.

“Oh, Al,” you whimpered, biting down sharply on your lower lip as he thrust into you, his hips rolling in a way that had you clinging to him in desperation. Your heels had long since fallen into the dust, and your pretty yellow sundress was bunched up around your waist, your ankles locked behind your lover’s back as he ground into you, the plush head of his cock kissing that spot deep inside you that made you see stars.

“Sh, baby doll,” Al groaned, his fingertips pressing into your spine as he continued to rut inside you, his mouth devouring yours in a hungry kiss that swallowed up your desperate moans. He could feel your thighs trembling and knew that you were close.

Burying your fingers in his curls, you tugged harshly to indicate that you were about to fall over the edge, your breathing ragged as the two of you finally broke apart. Al was panting as he pressed hot kisses to your collarbone, nipping at your skin and pulling you even more tightly against him.

“Come on, baby doll. You’re so close, I can feel it,” he grunted, one hand sliding down to your thigh and squeezing as he felt you clenching around him.

“Al!” you cried out, not even caring how loud you were now. “Fuck, Al! Al!”

“Oh, shit. I should have known.”

Your eyes flew open and you gasped in horror at the sound of Bettye’s amused voice, scrambling to tug your dress down and burying your face in Al’s neck.

Al seemed only slightly less embarrassed, huffing in frustration as he glanced across the stable at his friend, who was representing several actors in the film.

“Bettye, I’ll be right there, alright?” he called out, cradling the back of your head comfortingly.

“Don’t worry, I’m covering my eyes,” she called back, in that blunt way that was just so classic Bettye. “You’re lucky it was me who found you and not one of the production assistants! Those kids would have pissed themselves,” she laughed. “I figured I’d find you like this when I couldn’t find either of you on set.”

“Um, Bettye, would you mind?” you mumbled sheepishly, utterly mortified.

“Oh yeah! Sure thing! How long should I tell them you’ll be? Five minutes? Ten minutes?” Bettye asked, her voice sounding slightly farther away.

“I’ll be there in five minutes,” Al ground out through gritted teeth.

“Oh, shit. Alright. Carry on then,” she said, her footsteps fading as she hurried out of the stable.

“Oh my God,” you keened in humiliation, looking up into your boyfriend’s eyes.

“It’s alright, baby doll,” he assured you, kissing your forehead. “It’s Bettye. She knows everybody’s shit and she doesn’t care. You know that.”

“I know, but—”

“Our secret is safe with her, trust me,” he promised, stroking your cheek as he slowly started to move once more. At the sound of your soft moan, he grinned. “There you go. Gotta hurry now, baby. We’ve only got five minutes.”

#miles teller #al ruddy #the offer #al ruddy x reader #x reader #x female reader #al x baby doll

[thegameartist03]

@cryptidcaper I'd love to talk about them! This is gonna be a pretty long post, so I put in a couple tl;dr's for those who just want to get the gist of it.

I have no idea what to call this, so I'll keep running with it being a Phantom of the Paradise au. There are some changes to the themes and content of the original story based on what I felt comfortable writing about and discussing, but everything else is pretty much intact. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, feel free to throw them my way! I'll be happy to talk more about it.

(overall tl;dr: the au is set in the 2020s, the supernatural is part of everyday life, Swan is the head of media conglomerate Death Studios and working for an Entity known as Sparrow to collect souls, zombies and ghosts make for cheap labor, Winslow is trying to get his stage production of Faust seen, Phoenix has a YouTube channel for explaining the paranormal and wants her own show, Beef is a writer, actor, and director who gets an arguably worse fate than the movie, Swan took the band name Undeads too literally and now the Juicy Fruits are trapped working for him forever, Philbin is a stone construct disguised as a human)

A little context about the world to start. (tl;dr, it's the 2020s, paranormal beings like zombies exist and are well known but not talked about, Swan made a deal with a powerful Entity called Sparrow to stay young forever and collects souls for Sparrow in exchange, now Swan is head of the Death Studios media conglomerate, he's incredibly influential and successful, meanwhile he's using contracts to exploit and control his workforce which benefits both him and Sparrow, most workers are Undead or constructs because their labor is cheaper.)

This version of the story is set in the 2020s (partly because I didn't want to do a ton of research on the 70s, partly because I thought it'd be funny if Winslow started dissing Swan on twitter). The supernatural is very present and well known by people but not often acknowledged. Ghosts and zombies exist, spirits can decide to help your houseplants grow or give you bad luck, hand-carved constructs are used for jobs that would be too dangerous for humans, and fae-like beings known as Entities walk the lines between worlds and lure people into contracts to increase their power. Talking about these paranormal parts of the world is taboo for most so there's a lot of fear and misunderstanding surrounding them. It's also kept hush-hush by certain people who rely on the supernatural to profit.

Swan is one of these people. In the 50s, an Entity known as Sparrow approached him at his lowest and convinced him to sign a contract. In exchange for eternal youth and power, Swan would collect more souls for Sparrow. Swan has been largely successful with this through his company Death Studios (upgraded from Death Records) and has expanded from the music industry into general entertainment. He now directs a media conglomerate and makes use of social media to promote his definitely not stolen or exploited productions. Think Mr. Beast meets Disney meets Netflix. He's wildly popular, and partly due to the influence and power granted by Sparrow, almost no one questions how he's still so young and successful and those who do ask questions are quickly silenced. Every artist, writer, actor, singer, musician, producer, etc dreams of one day working for Swan.

Behind the scenes, Swan uses his sweeping control of the entertainment industry to hire fresh faces, sign them onto exploitative contracts, and then drain them of all they're worth. This benefits both him and Sparrow. And, if someone tries to leave or raise the alarm, they simply have a little 'accident' and are brought back as an Undead who can be exploited even more and paid even less. The majority of Swan's employees are actually Undead who have been trapped by their contracts and unable to move on as long as Swan finds them useful.

With that lengthy explanation over, onto the characters!

Winslow Leach is about the same, he's a composer and writer who's been working on a musical stage production of Faust for most of his life. He's not well known and dreams that his work will one day be seen by the world. He has a knack for getting into places he shouldn't be, he's bad with computers and writes most things out by hand, and at this point he's naive and almost blindly optimistic. I'm also giving him The Tism and reclaiming those vibes from the movie because Projection and Yes.

Phoenix never got into singing, though her voice is still terrific. Instead, she's a paranormal investigator and has her own small YouTube channel talking about the supernatural and its presence in their world. She's not as afraid of the unnatural as most people are, and she hopes that exposing these things that people try to sweep under the rug will help them understand the paranormal better and be less afraid of it. She dreams of having her own show one day with the budget to do proper explorations of lesser-known paranormal sites and beings. She's determined to reach this goal to the point of recklessness and risking her own safety, especially since some of these beings can be incredibly dangerous. She's waiting for her shot to get out of her dead end job and chase her goals, and she's not letting anything get in the way.

Swan is Swan, the only big difference is he has a bit more obvious supernatural-ness to him. His Entity-given power relies on perception, making people perceive him however he wants them to. He can extend this power to others and disguise his more inhuman staff so they blend in with the natural world. He plans to open a new major studio location/online streaming service called Paradise+ and is looking for the right content to do it. He's also on TikTok, which is horrifying enough.

Beef! He's a professional actor and writer who's directed and taken part in plenty of stage productions and films in his time. He's also a guitarist, which doesn't come into play in his work as often as he'd like. He suffers the same fate as he does in the movie, but that's far from the end of his story.

The Juicy Fruits are Swan's swiss army knife of an entertainment group, and of course they've all signed contracts with him. Whatever the trends are, the Juicy Fruits will adapt to them. They've gone from songs to gaming to children's entertainment. At one point, the group decided they wanted to move on from Death Studios and tried to exit their contract. Unfortunately, there was an 'accident' during one of the rehearsals, and now they're permanently trapped under Swan's thumb unable to escape or reenter society. The 'accident' also affected their looks, so when they perform they're either animated with motion capture or disguised by Swan or heavy makeup and prosthetics to hide the fact they are no longer alive.

Sometime in the 60s, Swan purchased an older property that included a number of stone gargoyles. In need of some body guards that wouldn't ask questions and weren't as fragile as the usual human grunts, he had them removed from the building and then brought them to life. Thus, Philbin was created. He's Swan's right hand man and does all the dirty work. He doesn't have much to complain about; Swan gave him a disguise so he can appear as human, he gets paid enough and treated better than most of the other employees, and he's got relative freedom in his job. Most contracts are signed through Philbin on behalf of Swan.

This is already really long, so I'll go in depth about the plot in a separate post. But, to give a short summary, the plot of the movie still happens (with a few twists and a different ending), and then the characters go through a few arcs trying to figure themselves out and how to escape Swan's influence. Winslow in particular struggles with his identity and who and what he is after getting Phantom'd. There's laughs to be had, horrors to be witnessed, and not everyone is going to be making it out alive (or un-alive). As a final note, if anyone has any ideas for what this should be called, lmk!

#gamma thoughts #phantom of the paradise #potp #potp au #gamma’s writing #faentom of the paradise

[archivalofsins]

Fuuta 15, Mikoto 19, Amane 20

milgram character ask game ! send the character + the questions

Thanks for the ask!

Kajiyama, Fuuta/ Futa Kajiyama

15. What do you think of their voice?

I love Futa's voice. His first voice drama was my favorite in all of trial one. The cadence in which he talks is incredibly interesting. Despite not knowing Japanese his voice actor really gave off the tone of speaking customary of someone trying to sound more threatening then they actually are.

The equivalent of this-

X X

It was very entertaining to hear. Like Futa's voice is very fun and full of character. It's just great to analyze. Especially how he tries to cover up his fear. It's very remniscent to people who grow up in suburbs around cities but not really deep in them. Which just gives this really nice impression of a scaredy cat trying to act touch in an intimidating environment.

His tone in his songs are even better. Just overall great voice acting and vharacterization through tone.

Kayano, Mikoto/ Mikoto Kayano

19. what do you think their childhood/teenage years were like?

I believe Mikoto had an average upbringing. Since he was raised by a single parent with a younger sibling I imagine he more than likely dotted on and watched his younger sibling a lot. Probably had to be responsible from a young age. Given his focus on acting the proper way in social interactions I think he may have been bullied often in his younger years and possibly ostracized frequently. He says he played baseball in high school but wasn't really good at it.

Giving his parental situation I believe he probably picked up baseball with the idea of possibly getting an athletic scholarship but it didn't panout. His experience with baseball in high school could very well be why he's so focused on being accomodating now. Since if you're not a good enough or active team player in baseball coaches may be less likely to give you athletic recommendations regardless of how good one is at the sport and they will note poor communication skills and teamwork as a sign of bad sportsmanship to scouts.

He also says he picked up giving people nicknames in college. This was possibly an attempt at being more personable on his part. The fact that he consistently extends patience but focuses on people behaving properly for their age specifically to make sure they don't have problems with others not for self-improvement makes me think he was picked on a lot for being too difficult to approach.

Along with his statements on Milgram more than likely mistaking him for someone which implies he's used to being accussed falsely or fully blamed for things he did not do. Just because others view him poorly already. Also people with those kinds of experiences growing up tend to have more difficulty saying no and setting boundaries which leads to them getting taken advantage of not only in their personal relationships but work ones as well.

Something Mikoto has shown to have an issue with as well doing what people who grew up in that way tend to do when faced with adversity-

“No, I need to do more…”

Blame themselves for it occurring regardless of if they have control over the situation or not. So I thought his upbringing was something along those lines.

Momose, Amane/ Amane Momose

20. what do you think their social life was like before milgram?

I think Amane was a rather unsocalized child. She seems to have been more used to communicating with adults than peers her own age. It's also stated that she was not allowed to amusement parks where she would have the opportunity to interact with children her own age. In Purge March we see here off on her own with a cat at an underpass used for dumping stuff.

Chances are she didn't have many friends her own age and that cat was the closest thing she had to one. We don't see much of her school life even though she's implied to be going to it. Just her walking to and back home from school. Considering she went to school bruised up like that and home with no issue it doesn't seem like most people were paying attention to her.

She also seems used to being ignored and sitting in silence reading on her own and perfectly fine with keeping it that way if in a particularly bad mood. She also only actively reaches out to other prisoners when she has a pretense to. Most of her timeline interactions with others being prompted by her need for help with studying.

Or even in the minigrams interacting with Mahiru and Yuno when she had bad bedhead. Beyond that she only discusses certain topics in depth. Such as her father who she talks about with great enthusiasm on multiple occassions. She seems to be a father's girl and used to keeping to herself. So, I imagine she only really opens up or shows her more childish side around people she trusts and have shown that it's okay to act that way around.

She's a very emotionally guarded person so she probably doesn't really let herself relax until she has reason to believe it's safe to. At least that's the impression she's given me. Once she does though she can be rather social and opinionated. She's definitely not one to back down just because someone older than her tells her she's wrong.

Like with Futa bringing up she hadn't ate her meat that one time or the birthday interaction she had with Yuno. She can be a very helpful and hopeful person for others to communicate with in Milgram because she reminds the other prisoners that they don't need to back down or bend to the circumstances they're in and I think a lot of the prisoners in Milgram appreciate that about her.

Something best illustrated through these timeline interactions,

22/04/19 (Futa’s Birthday) Futa: Ahh…… I’m not wrong…… I wasn’t doing anything wrong…… Shut up, why are you going on an on about something so minor…… It has nothing to do with you…… Aaahhh…… Amane: Oh, were you talking to yourself, Futa-san? Or maybe there’s something there you’re able to see? Futa: ……! O-oh, it’s just you. It’s nothing. ……but well, on that note. Hey. Don’t you have anything happening too? Since being in here, just suddenly getting anxious. Feeling as though loads of people are all there condemning you, telling you you were wrong. Amane: ……I’m fine. I don’t know what you’ve done or what it is you’re worried about, but I think if there’s something you believe in, you should stay true to it. It’s not something that should waver just because other people said something. I personally don’t plan on changing my own beliefs even if I’m told I’m wrong either…… ……today is your birthday, correct? I’ll pray for God to keep you under his care

23/06/27 (Amane’s Birthday) Amane: What is it…… Kashiki Yuno. Don’t sit so close to me. Go away. Yuno: Sorry for barging in when you’re getting into your worldview thing. But Mahiru-san’s finally managed to get to sleep. Humour me with some small talk while I take a break. By the way, Amane. Have you ever wished you were never born? I’ve thankfully lived a pretty fun life so far, so haven’t really. But you seem to be struggling with something. So, I kinda wondered if you thought like that. Amane: ……I don’t think that. Being born into this world is the first miracle any person experiences, and is something to celebrate. Even if after birth I was put through trial after trial, the value of that will never disappear. Yuno: Hmm. Ok. ……happy birthday, then. It’s good that you were brought into the world, I guess.

Amane constantly reminds the people she knows that they are not their circumstances. That they are in fact still themselves regardless of what anyone says about them or the choices they make and that if they still believe in and have faith in those choices they should stick to them. So even though I don't think she communicates often when she does I'm pretty sure it helps a lot of the people she communicates with.

So, before in within Milgram i think her social life was limited but very fulfilling regardless.

#milgram #gunsli rambles #mikoto kayano #fuuta kajiyama #amane momose

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Looooong post incoming...

THE INCREDIBLES and INCREDIBLES 2 have been on my mind, lately.

Writer-director Brad Bird’s 2004 superhero movie, done up at Pixar in the days they weren’t owned by The Walt Disney Company, was like a formative film for me. Like STAR WARS was for many kids growing up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, THE INCREDIBLES was probably that for 12-year-old me, among a couple other movies. (That same year, I was also blown away by SPIDER-MAN 2 and… Umm… I, ROBOT?)

And I’m one of the few weirdos that really, really dug the contested sequel. Well, contested by people online. It did get good critical reception and got an Oscar nom, made a truck ton at the box office, but it’s one of those weird “big” movies that came out, made tons and tons of money, but I hear few talk about it to this day. I feel some other recent Pixar sequels fit that bill as well, like FINDING DORY and TOY STORY 4. These absolutely massive movies that people raced to see, because they love the originals and the characters in them so much, but then seemingly… Forgot about? I think it has a lot to do with just how much stuff comes out now, that it kinda all gets lost in the shuffle. They don’t stick the way TOY STORY 3 did back in 2010, before we got so inundated with lots and lots of stuff oozing out of every pore: TV, streaming, other movies, podcasts, more streaming, etc. etc. Plus, there's that special sauce with the originals that tends to make them hit different than the sequels, no matter how good the sequels may be...

But no matter, I loved INCREDIBLES 2 and still do, even if I think it falls a little bit short of the original. That was a hard act to follow, after all. I did go over some of the few things about the sequel that I thought could’ve been expanded a bit, a few months back… And I’m thinking about them again.

I think the main point of contention with INCREDIBLES 2 was the Screenslaver, and the whole twist being that he was a fictional character, a face that was created by a disgruntled telecommunications company exec who wanted to keep superheroes illegal.

I get it, in a way. Screenslaver looks cool, and that one action sequence with him in the strobe light cage with Elastigirl? I fuckin’ LOVE it. Such a dynamic, well-done action sequence. I guess it made people wish that both Bob and Helen, and the kids and Frozone and maybe those weirdo superheroes like Screech and Reflux, took this guy on. A slender, creepy mask-wearing mind control villain… It's what you expect in a superhero movie, the heroes fighting a rather weird bad guy!

And yet, in a way, I feel like Screenslaver being a mere face. A distraction. Makes INCREDIBLES 2 every bit as subversive as the original. Especially since INCREDIBLES 2 came out in 2018, which was literally a superhero/comic book movie-heavy year. Maybe the heaviest? You had AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, DEADPOOL 2, ANT-MAN AND THE WASP, TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES, VENOM, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (!), am I missing anything? That year was S-T-A-C-K-E-D.

By contrast, in 2004, THE INCREDIBLES debuted opposite of SPIDER-MAN 2 and HELLBOY… And also BLADE: TRINITY, THE PUNISHER, and CATWOMAN… Much different times. Especially when it was greenlit by Pixar in the year 2000… What was happening in superhero movies that year? X-MEN had come out, and that was after a fairly successful BLADE movie… And years after BATMAN & ROBIN was lambasted and put the Batman movie format to rest for a good while. (Now it’s inescapable. Every few years, a new actor portrays Batman in live-action.)

THE INCREDIBLES stood out in 2004, I feel, not just because of the freedom animation allowed for the superhero concept (which put it above many of the live-action spectacles being made at the time), but also because it rung closer to a ‘60s spy movie than a typical beat-em-up extravaganza. It’s clearly set in a midcentury modern world, a stylized retro futuristic early ‘60s that is informed by the presence of superpowered beings. Or “Supers”, as this franchise has always called them. While there isn’t a wealth of material explaining how world events played out, it’s all implied and hinted at in both films.

By the mid-1960s, American animation had kinda been pigeonholed as an outlet for cheap, reliable kids’ entertainment on Saturday mornings. The closest thing to an American “spy” movie in the animated medium back then was, of all things, a FLINTSTONES movie: 1966’s THE MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE. THE INCREDIBLES almost feels like a lost animated movie made for a slightly older audience circa 1965, but dusted off decades later and done in CGI. That’s a Brad Bird staple. Born in 1957, he loves midcentury modern retrofutures, and just that setting in general. THE IRON GIANT is set in the late 1950s, he had a cancelled take on Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT that was set around the time it was introduced, his long-gestating RAY GUNN has been described as a 1930s sci-fi noir retrofuture, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE is of course a ‘60s spy show and a series of feature films (Brad’s feels the most ‘60s out of the movies), TOMORROWLAND… Need I say more? Even RATATOUILLE, which doesn’t involve super heroics or gadgets or futuristic technology… It’s literally a movie about cooking! Even that movie has a retro vibe to it. It’s set in the then-present, but it’s timeless in its look and feel.

Anyways, THE INCREDIBLES plays as much James Bond as it does, say, Batman. You have the whole Nomanisan Island lair, close-quarters fights with armed men, Michael Giacchino’s score, it’s a just-right mix. The first INCREDIBLES has a rather conventional bad guy in Syndrome. An evil guy in an eye-catching suit, with all these various man-made powers, as opposed to other Supers’ natural-born powers. INCREDIBLES 2’s villain is merely an average woman, roughly in her 30s? 40s? She has no powers, she’s just a master manipulator, almost a filmmaker in that regard. I mean she’s an artist and a designer, that’s made perfectly clear the minute you see her, so it makes sense that she could pull off this elaborate show. Mysterio in SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME - which was released a year after INCREDIBLES 2 - needed drones and such to do that. That the Screenslaver is merely a brainwashed pizza delivery guy is part of her brilliance.

So, that’s what makes INCREDIBLES 2 stick out from the other superhero movies circa 2018. A year where the majority of the villains were clear-cut, like a big purple alien guy who wipes out half the universe… and here’s INCREDIBLES 2 with a very crafty woman who essentially puts on a big show. And that in the second half, it’s her and her use of mind control technology that are the big obstacle for the Supers. Not a creature or a conventional superhero bad guy. I think it works, honestly. Like, what’s a different kind of challenge? What if all the good guys got brainwashed, leaving a few… Namely the KIDS, to fend for themselves? That’s a very cool idea, honestly. But again, I get why detractors wanted the shadowy mind control guy instead. Part of me would love to see that version of INCREDIBLES 2, too, if it ever existed. According to interviews w/ the filmmakers, Screenslaver was a late addition to the plot. INCREDIBLES 2 was supposed to come out in summer 2019, but Disney had pushed it up a year, which apparently affected a lot of the decision-making. For some, it shows.

Maybe if INCREDIBLES 2 came out in 2008 instead of 2018, and had the same exact villain twist… In a world where other Disney Animation and Pixar movies with twist villains didn’t yet exist (i.e. Hans, Callaghan, Bellwether, Ernesto), it’d be received differently? I do not know. But that’s why it all works for me. I can tune out the succession of “twist villain” movies, and take INCREDIBLES 2 on its own merits.

In my previous piece on INCREDIBLES 2, I did kind of find fault with its rather rushed third act and how the film doesn’t really bite into the meatier political aspect it kind of teases. The whole idea of a society being dependent on superheroes, rather than getting up and helping pitch in to make the world a better place. (Not dissimilar to TOMORROWLAND’s message.) It’s really all just there to serve Evelyn’s character, which I’m totally fine with… It works in that context. But on the other hand, I feel like this could’ve gone further and explored the whole idea of superheroes being - to quote Jenny Nicholson in her review of JOKER - a “band-aid solution” to crime. And it being a PG-rated mass-market Disney release is no reason to keep me from speculating about this version of INCREDIBLES 2.

I get that Brad Bird probably just wanted to keep it simple and streamlined, and that the “who needs Supers anyways” idea is just a device for Evelyn, not there to make a larger statement. I do believe all art is political, even these movies, but how far the creators want to go with the politics is another story. Ultimately, Evelyn’s methods of getting her way are wrong, but she has points… What if a better society could be created that didn’t depend on superpowered beings having to clobber criminals or threats to save the day?

Clearly the world of THE INCREDIBLES needs superheroes, though, because you have things like mole men with massive drill-mobiles cutting through cities like they’re nothing. But I feel that in a world where we are hyperaware of the system’s flaws and how it’s mostly a failure by design and pretty much creates crime (I’m getting political here, heads up), INCREDIBLES 2 could’ve possibly said something about that. Instead of having superheroes, a stand in for the police when the police themselves or the military can’t handle the threat, what’s causing all the crime in New Urbem and Municiberg in the first place? What systemic inequalities are happening? How progressive is this world because of the presence of superheroes/cool tech? Why are there are robberies? What’s the poverty rate? Etc. etc.

And you may be thinking, this is just an animated family movie, it doesn’t have to be that deep… But I disagree. Plenty of family films, and good stories in general, don’t shy away from this kind of stuff. Art is not made in a vacuum. A lot of actual real-life kids LIVE these sorts of things, too.

But even PG-13 Marvel movies, probably because they’re released by Disney - and Disney tries to play moderate when it comes to political stuff (though they are still too far left for dinguses who yell “WOKE” at everything), don’t really go that far either.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR chips at whether there should be government regulation of superheroes or not, until it settles for being a story about two friends turning against each other over a family death… and then a few MCU movies later, none of that matters - the superheroes are ultimately needed to stop the big purple guy in space… THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER asks why, in a post-Blip world, a universe where half of all the living beings just ceased to be… Why are there still such inequalities on Earth, after Thanos’ snap and subsequent revival of everyone who was unalived? It’s all the catalyst for the Flagsmashers, and leader Karli herself. She was so nuanced as an antagonist, and you also had this ersatz Captain America guy who straight up murdered a person in cold blood. I was loving where it was all going, until a few episodes in, they just made Karli a straight-up murderer. All that nuance is flattened, and the final episode is just another big fight scene. Outside of Sam Wilson’s speech at the end, what really changed on MCU’s Earth? What did this Disney+ series have to say, really? Other than bringing up those very real problems we face in the U.S. and around the world?

I think INCREDIBLES 2 is just more interested in being about its characters first, which, again. Is fine. I don’t think less of the movie because of that. The first INCREDIBLES was about the family dynamic first and foremost, too, and not the spectacle. I don’t require Brad Bird to share all of his political views with me. I appreciate that the movie even posits the question to begin with, it’s ultimately why I’ve been thinking about it! Maybe Bird sees that world as simpler because it’s one where superheroes have been around since at least the turn of the 20th century, and things are different because of that.

This is probably why some people get a very Ayn Randian reading out of THE INCREDIBLES, when I think Bird’s conceit was merely “the villain is someone who uses technology to be a pretend-superhero”. It’s all there to inform Syndrome’s character, not necessarily to declare to the audience that people without powers CAN’T be superheroes. Syndrome kills several Supers so he can enact his plan and make everyone into Supers, because he’s big mad at Mr. Incredible, and that’s why he fails. He could’ve just grown up to make super technology to make other people super, not kill a bunch of them. Heck, if he had turned out better, he could’ve singlehandedly ended the outlawing of Supers… And not natural-born Supers… Imagine THAT movie…

The original movie, I feel, just doesn’t necessarily make a case for whether people born without superpowers can be Super. This dichotomy is just there to make the villain what he is, and hint at what he could’ve been instead of a villain. Sure, the Parr family and Frozone saving the day at the end upholds this apparent status quo, but I don’t think Bird was thinking about it like that. He had denied the Ayn Rand comparisons as far back as the release of the first movie.

The likelier reading of this film, and some of Bird’s other films such as RATATOUILLE and TOMORROWLAND, is informed by Bird’s career trajectory. He was mentored by Milt Kahl, of all people! One of the greatest animators, one of Walt’s Nine Old Men… He was mentored by him as a teenager! But most of Bird’s career, as noted by Mark Mayerson, was a long series of denied opportunities. His aforementioned SPIRIT movie didn’t take off in the ‘80s because who during that period - a time when SECRET OF NIMH came and went, and when features like TWICE UPON A TIME couldn’t get an audience - wanted to sink money into an animated action movie of that caliber? RAY GUNN didn’t go through in the 1990s at Turner Animation, and Warner Bros. dumped THE IRON GIANT in the late summer of 1999 with an ineffective marketing campaign that caused it to flop at the box office.

Because IRON GIANT did so badly, Bird took his toys and left Warner Bros. He headed to Pixar with his superhero movie concept, and he got in despite those who didn’t quite want him around. John Lasseter was not fond of an outsider coming in with this very different pitch for a movie. Up until that point, Pixar was literally what I like to call “Team TOY STORY”. John Lasseter, TOY STORY’s director, also directed A BUG’S LIFE and TOY STORY 2. Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton, where instrumental in TOY STORY 1 & 2, directed MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO respectively. Lee Unkrich, an editor on TOY STORY, co-directed on TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC. and FINDING NEMO. Lasseter fired Jorgen Klubien off of his CARS, which was in the works at the time, and took it over. Tight-knit building. Bird was an outsider, and Lasseter wasn’t thrilled about that. But luckily, Steve Jobs staved him off and also kept Michael Eisner’s doubts about THE INCREDIBLES at bay. Bird got to make his rather outre superhero movie at Pixar in spite of Lasseter, Eisner, etc…. And it was a big hit and an Oscar winner. Lasseter was singing a different tune after that.

Future directors didn’t have Jobs’ protection, though, which meant that Lasseter could fire them more easily… And he did… Brenda Chapman, Bob Peterson, etc.

So then after THE INCREDIBLES, Brad Bird really wanted to get a live-action adaptation of the novel 1906 off the ground, but that didn’t go anywhere. He took over RATATOUILLE at Pixar, made a big hit out of that, and then tried to pursue other endeavors. His MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie (GHOST PROTOCOL in 2011) did very well, but then after that, he made TOMORROWLAND and it bombed… And then took on an INCREDIBLES sequel. He is just now starting to get his cooler ideas off the ground, as his RAY GUNN is finally in production at Lasseter’s Skydance Animation. Funny how that works, right? The guy is over 60 years old and is just getting started.

If anything, his movies are more about that. He’s a guy with really cool, game-changing ideas for animated movies in an industry that isn’t interested in that… So… The INCREDIBLES movies being about superheroes who want to help people but not being allowed to by the system, RATATOUILLE being about an animal that doesn’t belong in a kitchen wanting to cook for people, GHOST PROTOCOL being about spies still trying to do the right thing and save the world after their unit has been shut down by the system, TOMORROWLAND being about people not subverting the system by pitching in to make the world a better place and also being barred from the utopia - by, again, the system - where they can make that happen… Yeah, it’s very clear that Bird’s movies are just him venting about his own hangups via fantastical concepts, not trying to espouse some sort of Ayn Randian ideology. How the hell do you get “if you’re naturally talented, you should hoard those gifts from the rest of society” out of THAT?

I think that’s what it is, and that’s what informs the world of THE INCREDIBLES. It’s simply an Earth where superheroes exist, and the system makes them illegal instead of finding other ways to correct accidents that have happened whenever they are around. Just outright ban them from doing what they do, instead. I mean, governments in real life ban all kinds of people for various reasons, strip away their rights, dehumanize them, criminalize them, etc… Sometimes mere circumstances, such as poverty, are viewed as personal failure and inherently criminal. There’s a level of relatability with superheroes for some people because of that. The late Kevin Conroy, for example, used his role as Batman in the 1992 animated series an outlet for his struggles as a gay man. X-Men stories, and the early 2000s X-MEN movies, are either interpreted as that or ARE largely about that.

But even then, Bird’s world still posits some interesting questions that it doesn’t fully answer. It’s busier focusing on the characters. This is more an observation, as I’m not trying to dock the original or the second movie any points… I just wonder why, in the sequel, the world the movies are set in was so quick to legalize Supers after everything that has happened. All it took was saving a boat and that was it? Not the defeat of Syndrome’s final Omnidroid? Not the other good deeds before that? I feel like that portion in the final third of the movie was strangely very rushed.

The thing is, before I wrap this up (phew), we only have two canonical movies in this series, and a handful of comedic/gag-based shorts. The world of the INCREDIBLES is wide and ripe for exploring, I’d argue, but Brad Bird’s not getting any younger and he should pursue the projects he really wants to make. Again, RAY GUNN, his Western, his horror movie, his musical, etc. Pixar honored him by not having someone else throw together a second INCREDIBLES sometime in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Like, Disney could’ve forced Pixar to make one without him anyways, but no. They waited. And if there’s a third one to be made, or a prequel set during the “Golden Age”, they’ll likely wait for him to be available and willing to do it. Or if he gives it his blessing and leaves it to another director… Like Pixar did with TOY STORY 4 and INSIDE OUT 2, and almost did with FINDING DORY. I wonder if he was gonna do the same with INCREDIBLES 2, had TOMORROWLAND done great and he went straight for a sequel to that.

I’d like to see more of that universe, but it needn’t be forced out of the filmmakers at Pixar. Maybe the little we know of it is what kind of stokes our imaginations when it comes to this series? Look at something like STAR WARS now… There’s a ton of movies and shows and expanded universe stuff, which arguably dilutes the magic of its universe... THE INCREDIBLES isn’t that big wide despite the original movie almost being 20 years old. THE INCREDIBLES doesn’t need to be that huge, but I would like to see a little bit more of that world. Maybe another movie - be it INCREDIBLES 3 or a prequel called SUPERS or something - or a Disney+ series, but not the behemoth something like STAR WARS or the MCU have become.

I feel it’s worth playing around in a little bit more. I’m also biased, because I love the movies, particularly the first one.

[crazydoughnutlady]

Superhero AU

Rae Morningstar is your average bookstore owner with two lovely boyfriends-or at least that’s what most believe.

Master list

In a world of heroes and villains in a world where gifted rise over those who are less fortunate, their lives, a simple bookstore owner, Rae Morningstar. At least that’s what he claims in reality he’s actually the son of the most famous feared villain in the world. The Starless Whisper a.k.a. Enderian Mind.

He never wanted to be like his mom. In fact, he was quite content with his simple life as a civilian he definitely was not a pushover and could deal with any threat that came this way.

There were only three people who knew of his mother's actual identity. His brother, cousin, and his childhood best friend, whose parents used to work for his mother. Before she cut them off, they died in a fire set by the heroes.

His cousins are Sherbet Quake Morningstar. Child of Fable Morningstar. A famous actor, singer, and acrobat. Fable is the number one hero, the best of the best in the world, and sworn enemies with his Enderian. He does not blame Rae for anything his sister is done. nor does he blame his wife who was under mind control when Rae was conceived. He, despite not actually being Rae’s real father has always been there for him.

His other cousin Athena Destruction is the child of the CEO of Nether Inc. owned by Soul and Netherum Destruction. Who has been nothing but loving and supportive of his mom. Soul and orchid were in fact, best friends, and growing up Ray would often share the same babysitter with Athena. Lennarius originally was a small-time worker in the hero corporation but transferred to Nether Inc. with a good recommendation letter. He was spotted out by Soul and after finding that he was definitely looking to make extra money and didn’t often go out on weeknights, he was happy to watch over his boss's kids for a little extra cash. along with his brother and his brother's girlfriend he became like another uncle.

But other than those three people and their parents, no one else knew Rae’s true heritage. He was more than happy to keep it that way. In fact, he’d like to go to the rest of his life without ever having to mention his mother once.

***

The first time Caspian met Rae. Caspian was on the run from the cops, after breaking out of holding before they had unmasked him. He had run into the bookstore, thinking it would be a good place to hide.

After switching into his civilian clothes, and entering the store as clammily as he could, he was starstruck as he looked at the man behind the counter.

“Hi welcome to the archive. How can I help you?” The tall, black-haired, man asked politely.

Caspian choked on his words able to reconcile the fact that he was standing in front of the most handsome man in the world, “Oh, I was just browsing, saw the new shop, and thought I’d see it for myself. Maybe you have any good recommendations?” he has nervously scratching on his neck.

The raven hair men seem to ponder it for a moment, “well what are you into? We have a selection of fantasy nonfiction-”

“Oh, fantasy, I like to get lost in the sudden fancy language.”

“Might I suggest Lady of The World it’s currently one of my top picks for fantasy?” Caspian felt his face heat up.

“Oh, it’s funny you say that… umm… I wrote that!”

“Wait you’re Caspian Soulcrest? I love your work your nonfiction and fiction are absolutely thrilling to read! Always incredibly informing!” Caspian’s face beat red, and from that moment on, he continued to go to the bookstore more often. Eventually, he and Rae started dating.

Caspian never ever planned to tell Ray that he was actually the supervillain Ghosty was not very popular but he had his purpose. Some even claimed he was a vigilante as he often fights with some of the bigger worst supervillains. As for himself, he prefers the term antihero.

***

Aax was in an alleyway when Ray found them luckily they switched out of their supervillain clothes.

“Oh, are you OK? you’re bleeding really bad! should I call someone?” a voice pierced Aax’s thoughts as their brain began to fog.

“No hospitals, I don’t have enough money.” They said, looking up as they laid eyes on an angel, a black-haired, blue-eyed angel.

Ray took him home and nursed him back to health with the help of Caspian before they knew it had moved in, and the three of them eventually started dating.

Aax also found out that Caspian was the villain in Ghosty and revealed that he himself was a villain as well Olm. the two would watch each other’s back when they go out and swore to keep Rae in the dark so that he would always be safe.

***

Of course, the heroes and authority began to notice the consistent team-ups between Ghosty and Olm. And on a few occasions, the heroes had heard them talk about a third member, the Black-haired angel. whoever this Black-haired angel was they were either very sneaky or didn’t go out and do villainy themself. Of course, the public was kept in the dark about the third member and mainly focused on how these two antiheroes had continued to cause problems.

Next

#fable smp #rae morningstar #ghaae #caspian solcrest #aax fable smp #fanfic #au #fable smp au #superhero au

[gaypiratebrainrot]

Man. I have SO many thoughts about the secret fic. I am utterly fascinated. I read it all last night and want to reread to get my head around it. But just initial thoughts here:

I've seen in some of your responses to questions that it is partially an exploration of your own discomfort with RPF and that the backlash is part of the art and like - bravo. Yes. I can't help but see all of the outrage on Twitter and remember that these are the same people who:

•Harass and bully Rosie Darby constantly and screenshot/post her tweets to be mocked for the people in the fandom she has blocked

•Create and pass around nasty memes of Rita Ora

•Speculate about Rita and Taika's sex lives/assume he just uses her for sex

•Openly talk about the sex acts they'd like to do to these two actors

•Incorporate details about real actors into their fictional versions constantly

•Ship Anton/Viago because they're played by the same actors as Stede/Ed

•Draw graphic porn of these actors using references of their real bodies with their real faces

•The list goes on

And I don't bring this all up to play the blame game or justify RPF (although I think the shit with Rosie and Rita is insane and so embarrassing) because in my old age - I think I deep down am not comfortable with RPF even though I have not shaken the temptation yet. I bring this all up to say that the righteous outrage seems to be coming from a lack of self-awareness and just a lot of folks who are really clinging to the idea that their version of fandom is Right and Good. I guess my point is that I think all fanfiction/fanart/fandom is somewhere on the spectrum of invasiveness and most people refuse to accept that about their own art because we're all convinced we're the good guys in the story. And it doesn't help that this fandom seems particularly hellbent on finding bad guys.

ANYWAYS

Amazing job. Totally original and fascinating. Truly. Really proud you published it and are weathering the storm. If you need to talk about anything or are having a tough time w/ the backlash, feel free to message me <3

hi!! thank you so so much for this amazing message!! i'm so delighted that people besides me are able to appreciate the bonus meta built into the backlash, it's giving me insane brain vibes lol.

i did about fifty million meta levels of analysis on my own discomfort while writing this fic and am full of thoughts. i have no desire to say that fiction about real people is good or bad because i honestly just don't think about the world that way anymore. what i can say is that fiction about real people exists, has existed probably as long as language/storytelling, and will very likely always exist.

human beings talk about each other. we tell stories about each other. gossip is probably as essential to humanity as dance or music. it is an incredibly uncomfortable reality that every single person who knows you has a version of you in their head that you have no control over. that we all exist as our own embodied experience AND as all of the ways we are perceived. one of the more challenging aspects of being a human, i'd say.

to be a celebrity, or have any kind of audience, is to increase the number of heads you exist in, and as i am presently experiencing for the first time on a small scale between the last fic and this one, this comes with all sorts of uncomfortable, messy problems.

however, the other function of this fic is as a free speech tool. let's say we decide the uncomfortable mess of real person fiction is harmful enough to ban it from being published, either on Ao3, or within our legal system. would you ban this fic and why? and if you would ban this fic, how much of what parts would i have to change before it would be allowed? who would get to choose the "correct" answer to those questions, and who would be reading the fic and deciding whether or not it fits the "correct" guidelines? do you want to give someone else the ability to make that choice for you?

people would have been more pissed off if i'd used taika's kids actual names. but what if i'd named his kids sasha and malia obama? what if i'd used the trump kids? cause if you're banning real person fiction, all three gotta go.

ultimately, i think the parts of me that are really uncomfortable with what i've written feel like i've been horribly rude and disrespectful to the people i love, and honestly, i feel like there's some truth to that. it's just one truth among many, many, many other simultaneous truths, including my belief that the wrestling i did in writing this is important and worthwhile wrestling, and i'm absolutely ecstatic to see i was able to inflict that wrestling upon so many of you <3

#asks #water flowing underground #thank you so so much!!

[guardian-angle22]

Do you think Carlos’ apprehension about the wedding/marriage is gonna be addressed at some point? I would’ve expected MAYBE a little apprehension from him? But with at least SOME anticipation/excitement! But I feel like every time The Wedding is brought up the boy looks like he’s about to be dragged to the guillotine! I know most of the wedding talk has been on the comedic side so it could just be Rafa hamming it up a little for comedic value but idk I just feel like he would’ve found a way to convey that Carlos is still excited even if nervous about it. He’s an incredible actor and one of the things I love most about him (and Ronen’s) acting is how they’re able to convey multifaceted emotions through their subtle acting choices and I just feel like Rafa wouldn’t have Carlos acting so noticeably apprehensive about the impending nuptials unless he was being explicitly told to? But also this season feels like all the writers shot 10 Jäger bombs and a 5 hour energy and wrote the entire season in 1 night in a delirious frenzy so who knows!

I’ve seen a few people have similar thoughts about Carlos seeming apprehensive in certain scenes, so you aren't alone in those opinions, but personally?... I don’t really see it.

I mean any apprehension in the first few episodes was clearly about the secret he was keeping from TK. Outside of the Marriage That Must Not Be Spoken Of, he only ever came across as genuinely excited to me.

I mean look at his adorable smile when TK asks about the divorce timeline:

and look how happy he is to talk about TK and how unflinchingly he says that TK is The One:

then this is immediately after "so you're getting married" is said... I see nothing but love and adoration in this look:

as for the later wedding talk, I feel like what you said "most of the wedding talk has been on the comedic side so it could just be Rafa hamming it up a little for comedic value" is what I personally see when watching.

For instance, this moment here (where I've seen talk of him looking apprehensive) just seemed like a ~comedic choice from Rafa, knowing that a later episode would heavily feature Owen's opinions getting out of control:

and also this ^^ is the kind of face a man who supposedly has only less than? eight weeks to plan a wedding would make regardless of how excited he is (is the show seriously going to try to stick to this 8 week thing? honestly hilarious of them).

and in the next frames of this scene you can see his little smile to TK across the table:

Now the entire 4.08 episode was Carlos apprehensive lol, but it only ever came across to me to be a result of their parents taking over. I saw a man stressed out over hearing another Opinion that he didn't want to deal with.

"But also this season feels like all the writers shot 10 Jäger bombs and a 5 hour energy and wrote the entire season in 1 night in a delirious frenzy so who knows!"

^^^ but this? THIS! my god, the writers have been making some... choices this season, that's for sure.

#anon answered #my gifs #I mean if they want to go the route of carlos actually having those kinds of feelings and then talking about them I am all for it #carlos talking about his feelings is rare and I would be here for it in any capacity #and if anyone sees something else within these scenes thats totally cool #911ls discussion & meta

[therealvinelle]

Ciao! I was about to ask a question about who you would cast as Aro, when I read your Asks warning and decided I wanted to know way more why you won't answer questions about the movies? Is it because you don't like the way the story was adapted? Also, I still want to know who you would cast as Aro, and I'm sorry if this has been answered before but I'm new around here! Just started reading Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and I'm looooooving it by the way!!

Who would I cast as Aro?

Many suggestions have been made by yours truly on this blog, as I'm not committed to anyone specific for Aro but have strong opinions nonetheless. I think I'll just bullet point potential fancasts:

A young Cate Blanchett Is she the right gender? No. Do I care? Also no. I'm a blind casting kind of gal. Blanchett has beautiful alien-like features, she's enigmatic, she seems larger than life, she's a great actress. She'd be convincingly three and a half millennia old.

Damiano David (the vocalist from Måneskin) if he were an actor He looks perfect for the part.

A young David Tennant Tennant is great at manic, lunar, and unhinged characters, just as he can do understated characters. He has one of those faces where it wouldn't matter that he didn't quite look like Aro, either, he's handsome and unique enough that you wouldn't mind.

A young Glenn Close Another woman, but again, blind casting. Close is incredible at villainous roles, she has a screen presence that's impossible to look away from. There's this unshakable dignity in her, I would look at her playing the part of Aro and not question for a moment that this is the man(?) who has been the world's clandestine ruler for over a thousand years. Also, she's hot as hell, in Dangerous Liaisons she is in her forties and never so much as kisses another character, yet she has more sexual energy than Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman combined. I can absolutely see her as a petrified gay vampire who's seducing bright-eyed priests all over the place. And like Siân Philips below, Glenn Close would kill the hell out of Didyme.

Margot Robbie Right age, wrong gender, but right manic energy. She just lets loose, goes completely nuts if the director lets her. And she's charismatic, incredibly so. Margot Robbie as Aro, I want to see it.

A young Siân Philips I swear I'm not messing with you people, this is a serious suggestion. Siân Philips played Livia in "I, Claudius", and she was just masterful as the emperor's wife who plots and poisons and controls all the lives around her, always ten steps ahead of everyone else, always the most intelligent person in the room. If we're casting for Aro in a prequel where he's rising to power, Philips would be a blast to watch as Aro destroying his enemies so thoroughly they don't even realize it's happening. I can see her killing Didyme, too, she'd act the hell out of that (in part because I've already seen her as Livia killing her beloved husband.)

Timothee Chalamet He's the right age, right stature, right type of face, and would be great in that this is an Aro who'd be constantly underestimated, as I'm sure Aro was for the longest time. No powerful coven would look at vampire Timothee Chalamet and thinks, "welp, it's over for us". I'm not sure if he has the acting talent required, but I feel I should have one suggestion on this list that is contemporary, an actual actor, and the right gender.

Why won't I answer questions about the movies?

I've answered questions about them in the past (check out the masterpost!), as I'm happy to explain what I think of them. Which, in short, is that they're terrible and form a different canon than the canon of the books.

The problem is that people kept asking me to write movie-verse metas, such as what do I think of Jasper and Bella joking around at the beginning of New Moon, or what do I think of Bella's wedding dress, and it came to annoy me as I'm a fan of the books, not the movies. Plus, I've said so much about those films already, I feel I've got it covered. So, I put a blurb on the askbox asking people to please not ask me about the damn movies anymore. (And then forgot that blurb existed until just now.)

You're loving Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

Thank you, that's great to hear!

#my fic #praise #twilight #twilight meta #twilight renaissance #aro #fancast #twilight movies #twilight fancast

[katie-knightoc]

“Oh man. That guy is so far gone on you, Kate,” Luca teased, busting her eyeing the very pert backside of the man who just kissed her breathless as he walked away. “He’s so, so gone.”

She flushed, ducking her head to hide the burn across her cheeks with her dark hair. “I don’t know,” she said with a self-conscious laugh. In spite of it, her chest filled with warmth because Luca wasn’t far wrong. If Rourke really wasn’t as fond of her as he seemed, then he was one hell of an actor. “Maybe.”

Luca met her gaze, eyebrows up and grinning madly.

“Oh, like you can talk,” she huffed back pointedly, trying to shift the conversation back to Luca’s favourite subject in an effort to hide her own embarassment. “Ryan made goo goo eyes at you all night at dinner.”

“That’s because I was giving him a handie under the table,” Luca quipped back dismissively. They both laughed even as Kate’s cheeks went pinker at the thought. Luca’s lack of shame lately was sometimes surprising. Kate didn’t recall him having such an open attitude to sex, but she supposed the pilot had a lot to do with that.

It seemed there was something in the water here, or maybe it was just the magnetic pull of the O’Riain bloodline that was changing her opinions too. Because lately, she had looked at herself in the mirror and seen a woman she didn’t recognize. Someone who was bruised beautifully with perfectly shaped love bites, swollen lips and a heavy lidded gaze because she had been turned completely boneless by a pair of incredibly talented hands.

Now, she was missing those hands. Already craving his lips. Rourke had slipped between her legs early in the morning - long before the sky turned orange – to claim her. Shifting her legs over his shoulders and huffing warm breath and soft kisses along her core until he had drawn her out of sleep. And then, when she had been fully awake, he’d started on her in earnest- lapping, sucking, fucking her with his tongue until she could barely take anymore and she pulled him up to find his face shiny and wet from her juices.

It was filthy but she loved to grip his hair and kiss the taste of herself from his mouth.

“Katie,” he had groaned and the sound was music to her ears. “My girl...”

“I need you,” she’d whispered back and that was all it took for Rourke to snap and lose all control. He’d fucked her so hard she saw stars, her throat became hoarse from screaming and her body ached from trying to force him as deep as possible. Luca had whispered to her once, eyes alight over cups of Devonshire tea in the local village teahouse during one of their exploratory ventures beyond the estate, of how it felt like he couldn’t ever get enough, couldn’t ever feel close enough. Like he could crack open Ryan’s chest and crawl inside and he would still crave more, that he was restless and unsettled unless they were joined.

She understood that need now. That fierce desire to meld into the other person. She wanted it so badly with Rourke and every step he took away from her felt like physical pain.

She was in love with him. That much was clear. Even not knowing what he did, what he was other than a vague unease when she saw him slip into the dark and return with bruised knuckles and blood on his boots. That alone should terrify her but she knew she was nothing but safe in his arms.

She looked towards the door he had disappeared through and Luca gave her a knowing smirk.

“Go,” he said easily. “If you hurry, you’ll catch him before he makes it out of the gate.”

Kate didn’t need to be told twice.

#idk she was just loud #she wont shut up about rourke

[fantomcomics]

What’s Out This Week? 1/4

Thank you all for an incredible 2022! We hope you had amazing holidays, and we can’t wait to spend 2023 with you!

Children Of The Black Sun #1 -  Dario Sicchio & Letizia Cadonici

"It is not difficult to be happy under a blue sky. But it takes a lot of courage to be strong even under a black sun."

Over the years, a black sun has risen twice. A dark dawn whose rays have done terrible things to people's minds, driving them to all sorts of horror. Twelve years have passed since the last time and the world still fears the return of that inexplicable phenomenon. But fear is not the only legacy of those terrible days. All the women who got pregnant under the influence of the black sun have given birth to babies with some... peculiarities. White hair, ashy skin, abnormal proportions, and eyes as red as fire: the Children of the Black Sun. Brightvale is a small town like many others. 

Here the Children of the Black Sun are treated with particular contempt, especially in the days leading up to the anniversary of the two disasters. The hatred of their fellow villagers, terrified of a possible return of that horror, will push these kids to unite and embark on a hallucinatory journey to discover themselves and their true nature. But is the black sun really about to return?

Gangster Ass Barista #1 -  Pat Shand, Renzo Rodriguez, Conor Hughes, & Fin Cramb

Trinity used to live a life of crime, but now she has left behind her old life and works at a coffee shop. Unfortunately, making ends meet isn't easy to do with a minimum wage job. Not to mention the fact that customers are beginning to get on Trinity's nerves, and it's getting harder and harder to not let her old tendencies take control.

When Trinity's past comes calling, it's like the famous quote: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"  

I’m Kinda Chubby And I’m Your Hero GN Vol 1 -  Nore

Honjiro is a rookie actor trying his best to land a breakout role, but he fears that his weight stands in the way of his dreams. One day, he's surprised by fan mail full of sweets. The package came from Konnosuke, a local pastry chef-Honjiro's first major fan! As Konnosuke supports Honjiro's work and gives him new confidence to face the stage, will their relationship grow beyond just aspiring star and fanboy?

Mosely #1 (of 5) - Rob Guillory & Sam Lotfi

In the hyper-technological world of the later 21st century, Mosely is a bitter old janitor on a mission from a higher power-to unleash holy Hell upon the "too big to fail" Tech Gods. Can one man bring down the corporate powers who've used their vast influence to oppress an all too complacent human race (and hopefully win back the favor of his estranged family while he's at it)? Mosely's taking up the Holy Hammer and you better believe he's gonna smash some $h!t until he sets mankind free!

Potions Inc TP Vol 1 - Erik Burnham, Stelladia & Natasha Alterici

The call of adventure always seems to hang up whenever Randelgast Jones tries to answer it, leaving him facing the dull future of working in his family's successful potion shop. But when a powerful artifact is stolen from his parents and puts them under a terrible curse, Ran finally gets the quest he's been after his whole life. He and his siblings set off to find the missing artifact - and its trail leads them from their homeland of Primaterra to the very strange realm of... Seattle, Washington. 1992.

Spy Superb #1 (of 3) - Matt Kindt

It's John Wick meets Wes Anderson in this mystery-thriller about a secret organization that's developed the perfect spy. Who is the perfect spy? A spy who doesn't even realize they are a spy. AKA the "useful idiot." This particular useful idiot is named Jay. Jay is sent on missions without even realizing he's on a mission. Until he picks up the wrong phone with the wrong secret intel and now Russian hit-squads and elite assassins are after him. But Jay believes he was a sleeper agent-and really is the "spy superb". His complete obliviousness and lack of survival skills may be the only thing that saves him in this globe-trotting espionage tale . . . where nothing is what it seems . . . but also . . . kind of actually is what it seems.

Trojan #1 (of 4) - Daniel Kraus, Marco Lesko, Laci & Jeff Dekal

Once upon a time, we lived alongside Legends. Creatures of myth. Centaurs, fauns, gorgons, kelpies, gnomes, and more. They were spectacular. Majestic. Powerful. Peaceful. Pure. In comparison, we were ugly. Weak. Warmongering. Rotten. Is it any wonder we could not live alongside them any longer? After driving these Legends to the fringes of society, an uglier form of mythos takes shape in the form of rumors of live snuff shows for dark web high rollers. When a mysterious young woman, Nessa, enlists the help of a hacker to take a tour of the grisliest corners of the Dark Web, she sets in motion a war between those who peddle to mankind's darkest fantasies and a world that transcends imagination. Trojan is fantasy thriller full of wonder and horror in equal measure.

The Ward: Welcome To The Madhouse TP -  Cavan Scott & Andres Ponce 

St. Lilith's is a secret hospital for supernatural creatures. The personnel are overworked, the facility is underfunded, and all operations must be kept hidden from the public. A place, and a life, Dr. Nat Reeves thought she left behind. Until a wounded woman (with a tail) appears on her doorstep.

Whatcha scooping up this week to start the new year right, Fantom Fam?

#WOTW #What's Out This Week? #comic #comics #comic book #comic books #manga #The Ward: Welcome To The Madhouse #Trojan #Spy Superb #Potions Inc #Mosely #I’m Kinda Chubby And I’m Your Hero #Gangster Ass Barista #Children Of The Black Sun

[twstrhythm]

“Yawn! I don’t have time for this… Just leave me alone.”

Technical Information:

Name: Aaron Claw Nicknames: Little Sea Lion (Floyd); Monsieur Arbres (Rook); Lazybuns (Matthew); Fluffy Face (Ester); Cowardly Lion (Varian) Voice Actor: Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Ban, Nanatsu no Taizai)

Biological Information:

Gender: Male Pronouns: He/Him Age: 16 Birthday: January 22 Star Sign: Aquarius Height: 178 cm Hair color: Peach Eye color: Magenta Homeland: Sunset Savanna Family: Father †; Mother †; one older brother; three younger sisters

Professional Status:

School: Night Raven College Dorm: Savanaclaw School Year: First Class: 1-A Student Number: 28 Occupation: Student Club: Magical Shift Club Best Subject: Animal Languages

Fun facts:

Dominant hand: Right Favorite Food: Grilled Steak Least Favorite Food: Broccoli Dislikes: Loud Noises; Attention Hobbies: Napping Talents: Can scale a tree in 5 seconds

Appearance:

Aaron is a beastman with lion ears on the top of his head. He also has a lion tail. His hair is peach in color and has a messy cut at the back. He typically doesn’t wear the outer jacket for the school uniform, opting to only wear the inner shirt and vest.

Personality:

Aaron is a daydreamer. He constantly has his head in the clouds when he is not interested in the topic that is being discussed. However, he becomes very competitive if there is something that excites him.

Background:

Aaron comes from a poor family. They live in the more rural areas of Sunset Savana, and do not make very much money. His parents struggled to make enough money to feed them all, but they worked hard everyday. However, one day they hadn’t returned home and were reported to have died in an accident. His older brother had grown tired of living in those conditions, so he had left the family behind and never looked back

As a result, Aaron’s younger sisters turned to him for help. However, he still cared greatly for his family. He would go out on the streets asking if there were simple tasks he could do for neighbors in exchange for a meal. Oftentimes, he could not get enough food to feed everyone, so the food was given to his younger sisters. He never resented them for that, and would only eat when they had enough.

After discovering that he could use magic, he enrolled himself at Night Raven College in hopes of finding a way to help his family have a better life.

His brother had returned when he had been accepted into the school and attempted to make amends, but Aaron left without saying goodbye to him. He refuses to speak to someone who had turned his back on them when they were struggling.

Skills and Abilities

Quick on his feet: He is quick on his feet which has helped him to get away from dangerous situations. He also is quick to run away from unfavorable situations for his own safety.

Flexibility: He is incredibly flexible which has helped him to fit into tight spaces others normally wouldn’t be able to fit into. He is also able to fit into small spaces which is partially due to his cat genes.

Enhanced Strength: He has enhanced strength.

Enhanced Sense of Hearing: He has an enhanced sense of hearing.

Enhanced Sense of smell: He has an enhanced sense of smell.

Magical Skill: He is skilled in magic, particularly Fire magic. He has good control over his magic, and he is able to minimize damage done to his surroundings to some extent. However, he leaves some things partially burned.

Unique Magic:

Aaron’s Unique Magic is All Eyes On Me. It makes everyone in the area focus their attention on him for a short amount of time. The more people it is used on, the more strain it puts on him. It can be used on animals as well as human beings. However, the longer he does it, the more blot will accumulate. If he uses it multiple times in a row, blot accumulation increases. Using it too much can sometimes result in a headache for him.

Chant: "Aren't you bored? Want to see something fun? I have it,  All Eyes On Me!"

Trivia:

Aaron has a strained relationship with his older brother

Despite that, Aaron’s older brother still lives in their home to care for his sisters while he goes to school

He sends money back home for his sisters to use

Aaron’s dislike for broccoli stems from the fact that it was the last meal he had with his parents before they died

Ironically Aaron’s Unique Magic draws attention to himself when he dislikes being the center of attention.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #male twst oc #twst male oc #oc: aaron claw

[denimbex1986]

'Christopher Nolan is an incredibly technical filmmaker. He tends to make sci-fi movies, but often with heady time-travel concepts that take a long time to explain. Even his historical epic "Dunkirk" takes place over three separate time frames, with one plotline covering the span of one week, one covering the span of one day, and one covering the span of one hour. In "Inception," characters use a sci-fi device to insert their disembodied consciousnesses into the dreams of others. Inside dreams, however, time moves differently, and one can travel for hours while asleep before waking up only minutes later. "Interstellar" has multiple time-shifting conceits, and don't get me started on the baffling time-reversed physics of "Tenet."

In order to pull off such towering pieces of conceptual architecture, Nolan must possess a very technical, engineering-forward mind. His sense of structure is impeccable, and some would say to the detriment of his characters. Similarly, some of Nolan's more emotional moments can seem slight or underserved in the face of his ambitious sci-fi concepts. And, in order to keep those technicals in place, Nolan must be the kind of director who keeps responsibilities stringently delegated on his sets. One might imagine him to be professional and focused at all times. 

Nolan's ultra-professional directing style was confirmed by actress Florence Pugh who plays Jean Tatlock, the real-life American Communist advocate, in the new hit biopic "Oppenheimer." In an April interview with Collider, Pugh recalled her days on the "Oppenheimer" set, and just how well-managed everything was. Pugh has already starred in multiple high-profile films since her debut in the 2014 film "The Falling," but she describes Nolan's directing style as professional in a way she had never seen before.

'Everyone's proud of being there.'

It should be noted that "Oppenheimer" is Nolan's least fantastical film. He does tell the story in a flashback/flash-forward fashion, but there's no trickery and there's no sci-fi. The first half of the film is about J. Robert Oppenheimer's quest to build an atomic bomb as he traverses his personal relationships and ambitions. The second half of the film sees Oppenheimer facing his massive moral failing in constructing a device that can murder millions in an instant. Even without the labyrinthine sci-fi conceits, though, Nolan remained in control of his film to a T. Pugh recalled the tone on set, and loved what she saw. Pugh said: 

"Working with Christopher Nolan was quite possibly one of the most thrilling experiences in a different way, partly because he works with professionals. He is a professional. But his dedication to the craft of filmmaking and old filmmaking is just magical to watch. To just watch every single crew member on that set work so hard for him, to get his approval. And not like in a weird way, but like everybody knows who they're working for and everybody's proud of being there." 

The actress asses that everyone is proud of what they were doing, and that Nolan fomented a sense of aspiration on set. "Everybody has so much pride in their own work," Pugh said. "...[E]verybody is constantly trying to be better the next day. And I've never seen that feeling on set before."

In the past 25 years, the 52-year-old Nolan has made 13 feature films. He often re-casts actors he likes working with — Cillian Murphy has appeared in multiple films of his — so there's every reason to believe Pugh will have the opportunity to work with Nolan again.'

#Christopher Nolan #Tenet #Oppenheimer #Jean Tatlock #Florence Pugh #Dunkirk #Inception #The Falling #Cillian Murphy

[no-droids]

Whenever You Want

Part Fourteen of the Rough Day Series

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 11.2K

Warnings: Listen there is some dirty smut in this one yall okay like I was blushing when I wrote it, it has a very stark beginning and theres a pagebreak afterwards if you would prefer to skip over it. Smut includes oral sex (female receiving) rough sex, sensory deprivation, butt stuff (ass to mouth, anal fingering/penetration) so PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR IT PLEASE. Also there is jealous/possessive mando in this, season 1 Karga makes another appearance, and some angst/fluff towards the end

A/N: Nothing much today yoditos just love you all

***

Din said he’d meet you here.

You’re currently sitting across from Greef Karga in a cantina on Nevarro, a closed shield next to you and a blaster tucked into the back of your waistband, hidden underneath your shirt.  You’re barely even looking at him, though—your eyes are attached to the door by an invisible string, forcing your gaze back to it no matter how much it bounces around the room.

You don’t know where Din is, you haven’t seen him in hours.  But you do know that when he left, he was moving slower than you’re used to.  You don’t think anyone else would notice, but you sure did.  Not that he was obvious about it—you only picked up on very subtle hints.  Leaning up against things just a bit more than he usually does.  Taking slightly longer exiting the ramp of the Crest than his normal strides would carry him.

He didn’t say what he was going to do—just that he needed to find someone before meeting with Karga, and you accepted it.  But truthfully, you didn’t want to.  You were worried about him—still are, actually.  But for all intents and purposes, he was speaking and acting like himself, showing no real signs of exhaustion other than the smallest instances you described before, so you didn’t really have a leg to stand on.  He’s been through way worse, and you know it.  You just… find yourself worrying about him so much more than you used to, and you need to learn how to gain some control over that part of you.

The kid was still passed out from healing him and you remember Din carefully setting four pucks down in the sleeping baby’s sphere and giving his ears a gentle rub between leather fingers.  He turned back to you and told you to meet him at the cantina in three hours, but if it ended up taking him too long for any reason, to try your best to see if Karga will let you exchange on his behalf.

Admittedly, he didn’t sound too confident about it—the instructions were delivered with a tone that implied a doubtful, just-in-case scenario he wasn’t foreseeing happening.  Or maybe he just doubted the likelihood of Karga agreeing to do business with you, you’re not entirely sure.  All you know is that when he left, you were almost certain he wouldn’t be late, but you also took the time to grab the smallest blaster from his armory before heading out just in case.

Yet—here you are, three and a half hours later, eyes flicking between the door and Karga as you attempt to keep up polite conversation.  After turning down his offer of alcohol for the fifth time and still not seeing any glimpse of beskar coming to your rescue, you figure this may be as good a time as any to start the exchange.

During an extended break in the small talk, you slowly reach over to the corner of your booth and press a button on the face of the kid’s shield.  It hisses open and you completely miss the way Karga’s hand raises while three of his guards automatically reach for their hips.  The little green monster is still snoozing comfortably while you pull out the four glowing pucks Din left you and set them on the table one by one.

They scrape along the top of it as you slowly push them over to him, before sitting back in the booth and clearing your throat, flicking your eyes between Karga and his guards.  To you, nobody appears to have moved, so you muster a polite smile at him.

Karga smiles back, but makes no move to gather or inspect the offerings in front of him.

“Um…” you say after a moment, suddenly feeling your heart start to beat a little faster.  “Mando… Mando gave me permission to exchange on his behalf.”

“I believe you,” he drawls out in response, but the pucks still sit untouched in front of him as he leans back in the booth and studies you.  “Mando has always had a… let’s say, a frustrating penchant for disregarding the pillars of our code.  My apologies, young lady, but I’m afraid that I cannot accept these from you.”

Your voice comes out quieter than you’d like it to sound.  “Why not?”

“It is… unlawful,” he answers after a moment.  “Our organization operates under strict rules.”

Does it?  You blink.  No, it doesn’t.  You’re nothing to the Guild and you’ve sat next to Din quite a few times while Karga talked, listening to him drunkenly boast about return rates and out members by name.  You’re not sure why he’s barring you like this, but you’re also not self-assured enough to put practically any spine into it whatsoever.  “I’m… afraid I don’t understand.”

“I cannot legally do guild business with individuals not recognized as members in an official capacity,” he sighs, sounding grave and almost apologetic about it, but you don’t know him well enough to know if he’s a good actor or not.  “There’s nothing I can do for you besides provide you with my company, not until Mando decides to show.”

Well now that doesn’t make any sense, and you’re starting to worry that for some reason or another, he isn’t going to show.  Though it was incredibly well concealed, you’re well aware that Din was still lingering in the final recovery stages when he left the Crest earlier and all you have to go on is his word that he’d be here.  Something could’ve happened.  Something could be happening right now, you need to push.

“People pick up bounties for extra credits all the time,” you mumble, still way too fucking quiet about it.  Maker, you’re not even sure if he could hear that over the sound of the cantina.  Speak up, speak up.

“Yes, but those quarry are listed on the New Republic’s most wanted database,” Karga acknowledges diplomatically, educating more than he is arguing, before uncorking the bottle of glowing blue alcohol in front of him and beginning to pour himself another shot.  “They’re fodder.  Up for grabs—names, last known locations, and biometrics published for the entire galaxy to read.”  He tilts his head down at the four metal pucks on the table without removing his gaze from the gradually filling glass.  “Those pucks are different, they’re commissions.  Tied specifically to Guild contracts.”  Karga clunks the bottle back down again and corks it, pinning you with a stare.  “For all I know, you could’ve murdered a member of our ranks and come to collect payment for his bounties.  Can’t have that.”

Your blood suddenly turns to ice at the implication, eyes wide and your heartbeat rocketing as you look from Karga to the three guards casually stationed behind him.  “You—You think I murdered Mando?”

“No,” he says, easily and in the very same breath, before throwing the shot back and wiping his mouth with a grimace.  “Not sure I’d care too much if you did.  It’s not my rule, but I am required to follow it or risk losing my position in the Guild.”

Shit.  Shit.  What do you do?

You’re blank, left quiet and feeling increasingly unsure of how to proceed.  Karga, however, seems completely unbothered and even appears to be enjoying himself and your company.  He gives you another smile, this one a lot friendlier and more genuine than the one earlier, before setting his elbows on the table and leaning forward.

“Look, I want to help you,” he admits, keeping his tone light, “but my hands are tied.  Just relax and share a drink with me until he gets here, it’s not a problem.”

Fuck, you don’t like this, and a quick look around brings another reminder of Din’s continued absence.  Your chest feels tight, the anxiety starting to compound and make you jumpy.  It’s been too long—it’s been at least forty minutes or so of waiting by now and something just feels wrong about this.  Not having him next to you feels wrong enough on its own, but when he specifically told you he’d be here?

You clench your jaw and try to work up your nerve.  Karga is a nice guy, right?  He knows you by name, he knows who you are to Mando.  And while you never really thought about the bounty hunter’s omnipresent protection as being anything other than metaphorical, you suddenly realize that… it might be literal, too.  How much sway do you actually have here, you wonder?  You’re not stupid, you’re not going to try anything stupid, but maybe just another question won’t hurt?

“Well, um… how do you become a member, then?”  You ask him, and you watch as he leans back in the booth, raising both eyebrows at you.

“Excuse me?”  He asks, though there’s a genuine amusement in his voice.  Stunned that you’d even say the words aloud.

“I have four bodies,” you tell him shortly.  You’re still quiet about it, but his thoroughly entertained astonishment is beginning to rub you the wrong way.  You don’t want to be part of the Guild, you don’t want to be here, you’re doing this out of growing necessity.  “One of which I dragged through a blizzard on Hoth by its ankles and put into carbonite myself, so please just tell me what I have to do to get you to take them.”

“I can’t,” he repeats, shaking his head like you’re just not getting it.  “New members are only accepted if they bring in an S-level criminal from the database or if they complete a commission that was granted to them by someone of my station—neither of which apply to you.  If you cannot present me with any sort of reasonable argument for which they could, then I’m afraid this is not a favor I can swing.”

“I was sitting right here,” you return, suddenly finding your voice.  If Karga wants an argument from you to get this to happen, then you’ll do it.  You just need to finish this exchange, go back to the Crest, and scan around for Din’s signal.  “When you first gave the pucks to Mando, I sat right here and you pushed them over to this side of the table—I was present for the commission and now I’m here to complete it.”

He shakes his head.  “But I didn’t give them to you, I gave them to Mando—”

“Yes, but you only wanted to give him three,” you immediately point out.  “The last one, the one I told you I put into carbonite—you said you threw it in because you liked me, it could’ve been for me.”

Karga suddenly stops and blinks at you for a few seconds, and you bite your lip, wondering if the logic will hold.  It’s flimsy as fuck and you know he could very easily rip it apart if he wanted to.  It could’ve been for you but it wasn’t, he gave it to Mando.  You also purposefully leave out the fact that you’re also the reason Mando only gave him three bodies in the first place; your only goal here is to complete this transaction as quickly as possible and leave.  You don’t like the fact that it’s taking Din so long, and you also don’t like the fact that Karga seems so keen on keeping you here with him, no matter how many reassurances he provides.  He said he wants to help you?  This can be his chance to prove it.

After a few extended moments of consideration, Karga finally shrugs like he really couldn’t care less before reaching across the table for the pucks and beginning to stack them in his palm.

“What is your last name?”  He asks, turning behind him to gesture for one of his men with a jerk of his head.  The bodyguard exits the cantina without another word and your eyes flick back to Karga’s.

“Why does it matter?”  You ask uncertainly, watching another guard approach with a holopad as he shrugs once more.

“It doesn’t, but we need something for our records,” Karga explains, grabbing the device as it’s tapped against his shoulder without removing his gaze from yours.  “I can just use Doe if you don’t feel like sharing—most of our members tend to prefer anonymity, including your companion.”

Your eyebrows furrow even as your heart continues to pound, wondering how they can afford to be so lax about some things but take others so seriously.  “You have him down as John Doe?”

“First name Man,” Karga grunts in response, finally breaking eye contact to begin navigating through pages on the holopad.

“Ah,” you say shortly, knowing you’d probably find the joke funny in other circumstances.  You’re not out of the trenches yet, you still feel the worry tugging hard at your chest.

“Very well,” Karga announces with a sigh, pocketing the pucks in his leather overcoat and then handing the holopad back to one of the men flanking him after a moment.  “Someone is collecting the carbonite plaques from your vessel as we speak.”

You give him a nod, taking a deep breath that you hope is slow and subtle enough to not give your anxiety away.  He helped you out, you’re halfway through this.  Now comes the exchange.  Now it’s his turn to give you the credits and four more pucks, that’s how this should go.

Only, Karga leans back in his seat and cocks his head at you.  “Unfortunately, I believe we have found ourselves in the midst of yet another predicament.”

Your heart continues to slam, praying you haven’t somehow majorly fucked things up by getting this far.  Din still isn’t here, why is he so fucking late?  He nearly froze to death and you handled a dead body just to make this meeting on time, where the fuck is he?

You raise an eyebrow at him, willing the building panic not to show on your face.  “Have we?”

“You’re lucky credits are attached to commissions instead of rank within the Guild,” he prefaces, pulling out a large handful of them to begin counting, and your eyes flick around the cantina while you know he isn’t looking, “or else you’d be getting about half of what I’d normally give him.”

Heart galloping when you still don’t see any sign of him, you just decide to keep extra quiet as you watch Karga divvy out a sizable stack of credits, hoping your prolonged silence will protect you somehow.

“The question now becomes…” he lifts an eyebrow at you while sliding them across the table to you, “how many pucks do I give you in return, hm?”

Fuck, you don’t like this, you’re trying to make it crystal fucking clear that your intentions do not extend beyond the perimeter of this table.  There’s no you to be found in this deal, you’re just an emergency proxy in Din’s absence and you only inserted yourself in the situation to accomplish that task.  “I told you I’m only here to exchange on Mando’s behalf, that’s it.”

“Be that as it may…”  Karga glances around the cantina like he’s thinking extra hard about it.  This is a made-up problem, you both know there’s no predicament here.  He knows you didn’t kill Mando, he knows there’s no real reason to be giving you such a hard time about this, and you clench your jaw as he still seems to take his time considering it.  “Tell you what, young lady,” he finally turns back to you.  “Do me the honor of sharing one sip of this fine spotchka with me and I’ll give you four pucks to pass along to Mando.”

Okay.  Okay, you can do that, if he really cares that much.  Karga gestures for the closest droid to come by with a glass for you, but you just grab the bottle in front of him and uncork it without thinking too much, balancing the glowing blue liquid with two hands and diligently taking a small sip of it before setting it down again.  Appearing satisfied with your demonstration of upholding your end of the bargain, Karga grins and reaches into another pocket.

“Four for Mando,” he pushes four pucks across the table, “same rate and return as last time, as promised.”  You nearly deflate in relief as you quickly gather them up and begin dropping them into the snoozing baby’s shield along with the credits, but then Karga reaches back and pulls out another puck, pushing it over to you.  “And one for you.”

You blink at him, frozen in place.

“Lowest level, lowest pay.  Not even a criminal by New Republic standards, just a missing person,” he goes on to say, but then quite suddenly… 

Quite suddenly you’re absolutely fucking horrified.

You don’t want it.  Everything inside you surges up to scream that you do not want that puck.  It’s a waste of time, even if it’s an extra job—it’s too much trouble, too much fuel for such a small reward.  You already know good and well that Din won’t want to bother, getting this extra puck would be considered a detriment to him.

“What if I don’t want it?”  You ask, sounding nervous and vaguely out of breath as you look down at it.

Karga scoffs.  “Of course you don’t.  Nobody wants these, why do you think I’m trying so hard to pawn one off on you?”

Shit.  This is not at all how you expected any of this would go.  You know he’s not really asking, even if his tone and continued courtesy implies it’s only a request.  There’s an expectation attached to this, and it appears you take too long pondering an offer that isn’t actually voluntary.  Karga stares at you and your clear apprehension for just a few seconds more, before finally giving you an ultimatum.  “You said you’re here on his behalf.  You either take all five pucks now or Mando only gets three next time, your choice.”

Oh.  Oh, no.  This is a lose-lose; three pucks means more fuel and less credits, five pucks means more fuel and less credits.  It’s not like you have any real bargaining power here—almost everything he’s done for you today has been a favor of some sort and you’re well aware that things can always get worse.

Still, you take a deep breath and try your best to throw around whatever weight you have left in one final agreement.

“Give me your word you’ll go back to giving him four from now on, no more hassling or hard time constraints and we’ll take it just this once,” you tell him, trying to conjure and put power behind your words even though you’re unsure if they’ll stick.

“Deal,” Karga readily agrees with a smile, reaching his hand across the table.  You have no choice but to meet him in the middle and clasp it, unable to feel anywhere close to good about your performance here.  It was clunky and insecure and even though you just barely succeeded in making the exchange overall, you’re massively disappointed in the specifics.

But then Karga’s eyes quickly flick over your shoulder.

“Ah, Mando!”  He suddenly calls out, and your hand nearly snatches away from his while your body goes rigid.

Oh, this isn’t good, this is not good.  Well, it’s good that he’s here but it also really fucking isn’t.  You don’t even turn your head; you sit completely straight and still while the cantina falls to a hush and heavy footsteps begin to approach behind you.  You fucked up—you fucked up, you didn’t wait long enough and you feel the sharp regret instantly twist in your stomach.  He said he’d be here, why didn’t you trust him?  Your anxiety and stress compounded and spurned you to act too quickly, you made the deal a few fucking seconds before he showed up.

And, as Din eventually comes into your peripheral, taking his time leaning his rifle up against the table, you immediately realize that you should not have worried.  Recovery isn’t even a word in his vocabulary right now—he’s more intimidating than he’s ever been, more powerful and certain and dangerous while he lowers himself into the seat next to you than he’s ever felt to you before.  Everything is so quiet now that he’s here; you feel like even just swallowing against the sudden dryness in your throat turns into an audible gulp.  The man sitting across from you may own this cantina and every material good under its roof, but the one sitting by your side feels like he steals the literal air from the room just by walking inside it.

Yet, in spite of the daunting presence of the Mandalorian, Karga beams and tips his glass at him.  “I believe you’ve arrived just in time for your favorite part of the conversation, friend.  The farewells.”

You stare wide-eyed down at the table as Din leans back into the booth and very slowly extends his arm behind your shoulders, saying nothing at all to him.

The testosterone is radiating from him to the point of near suffocation, you can taste the alpha in the air.  Your heart slams in your chest at the unspoken claim he just made with a subtle movement, and though you’ve never been one for masculine displays, this one weirdly feels… good right now.  You know it’s primitive and crude and you’re not a piece of meat to be fought over, but it doesn’t feel like that at all.  It’s the immediate feeling of security that serves to heat your cheeks, the fact that you’ve been a nervous mess trying to be extra brave this whole interaction and then suddenly you have the backup of an entire army contained within one single suit of armor next to you.

If you weren’t internally panicking at how badly you screwed this shit up, you’d probably be going fucking feral for him right now.

Karga says your name and your gaze snaps to his, feeling like you can’t breathe.  “My associate has collected the plaques, nothing keeps you here any longer.  It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

Still, nobody at the table moves.

After a moment, you carefully glance up and to the side at the sharp, metallic profile of his helmet.  Maker, you can’t explain it—it’s like you feel terrified but not really for yourself, if that makes sense.  You’re upset with yourself for not having enough trust in his word, absolutely, but something in Din’s demeanor tells you that he’s going to be considerably less understanding of how Karga handled this situation than the way you did.

The helmet slowly turns down to look at you, and you bite your lip while carefully placing your hand on his thigh brace under the table, letting him feel your fingers brush against the bend of his knee.

He turns back to Karga after a few seconds, still not saying a single word, until eventually Din’s arm is lifted from behind your shoulders and you feel his leather fingers gently clasp your hand, before he starts to rise from the booth and pull you along next to him.  You both stand, and he silently presses a button on his vambrace without dropping your grip, urging the kid’s shield to follow along behind him.

“Um, goodbye,” you just barely remember to tell Karga as Din begins leading you away, apparently not waiting for the polite farewells he arrived in time for.

“Wait!”  A voice calls out just before you can make your exit, and Din pauses just in time for Karga to extend that damned fifth puck out for you to grab.  Right in fucking front of him.  “Can’t forget this!”

Fuck.  Great.  Thanks.

Blood rushes to your face while you go to reach for it, taking the puck and then placing it in the open shield along with four others in a way that you hope is casual but you know isn’t.  You close the lid on it and then squeeze Din’s hand slightly, but he stays rooted to the spot for a few more seconds, having watched the entire exchange play out.  Though you obviously wouldn’t be able to read his facial expressions even if you could lift your head to look up at him, you can’t will yourself to do so right now.  You’re too disappointed in yourself and nervous—you just stand there silently as he looks back at Karga, staring at your feet and praying he doesn’t do anything brash.

After too many moments of uncertainty, you squeeze his hand again and slowly begin to pull on it.  Without needing much pressure at all, he goes where you go, and you end up being the one to lead Din out of the cantina by the hand still tangled with yours.

*** 

The walk back to the Crest lasts an eternity.

Neither one of you say anything at all to each other the entire way there, and you know he’s not mad at you yet, but you’re worried.  You feel incredibly self-critical right now and it’s really not helping that he seems even quieter and more wound up than usual.  You don’t know if it’s because he already figured out that you just handed him extra work or if it’s because whatever made him late to the cantina also altered his mood, hit a reset button and reminded him of the way he used to be, the armor he’s wearing.  Was there a confrontation, you wonder?  Is he okay?  He seems like he’s… extra Mandalorian right now, there’s not really a better way to describe it.

He doesn’t drop your hand, though.  As you pass through the markets and shanty huts lining the streets, Din holds onto you.  Shoulders tense and strides heavy, but his fingers stay tangled in yours.

Regardless, you keep your mouth shut and eventually the Crest comes into view.  The ramp drops to the ground and the three of you make your way up, and you have enough foresight to carefully drop Din’s hand and lead the baby’s shield over to the unused cot built into the hull walls, closing him in a safe quiet place to sleep and continue building up his strength again.

You turn around to see Din press another button on his vambrace.  He stays with his back to you as the ramp slowly closes, but as soon as it latches up against the hull and locks into place, he nearly whips around and suddenly he’s right in front of you, gloves cupping your face.

“What happened?”  He asks sharply, the helmet looking you up and down.  “Are you alright?  Why did you look so scared?”

You reach up to rest your hands on his, blinking up at him and not knowing what to say.  How are you going to tell him?  He’s gotta waste extra fuel and time on a bullshit quarry because of you, what are you going to say?  You don’t even know if it’s last known location is nearby; he might have to fly to some remote, desolate corner of the galaxy just for a handful of credits because you couldn’t wait a fucking hour for him.

“I, uh…  I-I’m sorry, I just…”  But it’s nearly impossible to form a coherent thought when he’s this close to you and sounding fucking sincere, genuinely concerned about you while you’re stuck worrying about how to break the bad news to him.  “Oh, stars, um…”

“Did Karga fuck with you?”  He asks in that same sharp tone when you don’t finish your thought, but you’re so absorbed in your own conflict that you barely even hear him.  “Because I can go back right now, the cantina is just—”

“Okay wait, please—” You suddenly speak up, “before I tell you, just… please keep in mind that I did save your life two days ago, so…”

“Sweet girl,” Din rumbles slowly, a subtle warning for you to hurry up and spit it out.  His fingers tighten just slightly on your cheeks, still so gentle but needing you to communicate with him right now.

Tell him, you just need to tell him.  If he gets mad, then he gets mad, but at least he’ll know at that point and you won’t just be springing it on him out of nowhere.

“I fucked up,” you breathe out, eyebrows pulling up in the middle as you tighten your own grip on his hands.  “I’m so sorry, I fucked up and you were late and I got nervous and I didn’t wait long enough and I tried to make the exchange like you asked me to but then I had to take a fifth puck and I didn’t want to but Karga threatened to short change you next time around unless I agreed to take an extra one for the lowest pay just this once and I didn’t have any bargaining power and you showed up right after I agreed to the deal and I’m so so sorry—”

You cut yourself off with your own ragged gasp, not having paused once to breathe throughout the entire thing while your expression twisted up with regret more and more the longer he allowed you to speak.

Din stands there in front of you and doesn’t move, hands still attached to your face.

“Okay,” he eventually tells you.  Stunted words, like he’s trying extra hard to find them when yours just fell out of your mouth in a complete mess.  “It’s okay.  You did… good.”

The silence is tense and you’re becoming more and more anxious the longer he takes to speak.  He’s lying for your benefit, he must be.  When he drops his hands from your face and takes a full step back, you take the gesture as symbolic and nearly launch into panic.

“Maker, I’m so sorry I didn’t wait for—”  You start to say, but Din cuts you off.

“Did he make you…”  His back suddenly goes a little straighter, voice finding a quiet edge through the modulator as his fingers subtly twitch at his sides, “…Uncomfortable?”

You pull back at the sudden change in subject and furrow your eyebrows.

“Who, Karga?”  You have to think about it.  Did he make you uncomfortable, or were you just uncomfortable already?  You might’ve just been scared because you were making it scarier than it really was, you can admit that’s a valid possibility.  “Um… no?  I don’t know, not… not really, I don’t think.”

“No?”  He asks, taking a small step forward.  “You don’t know?  Or not really… you don’t think?”

You know you can only see the blade of his visor, but something makes you feel like you’re looking right in his eyes.  You even go back and forth between where you’re pretty confident each one is, trying to read his intentions right now.  It’s like he’s purposefully trying to keep space between you even though he looks like he wants to move closer, fisting his hands at his sides when he looks like he wants to touch you.

“No, he just… lowballed me towards the end of it and I got intimidated, but I’m also not…”  Your expression narrows in concentration while you try to find the words to explain yourself, wanting to be as honest as possible with him.  “I don’t know, I’m not like you.  I’m not that strong, but I’m trying to get better.  I think he was probably just being normal.  He did offer me alcohol a bunch, but I’m pretty sure he also did that last time, so—”

“And I didn’t like it the last time he did it,” Din says quietly, taking another small step forward.

You blink up at him, completely dumb.  This is what’s bothering him?  Is he really not upset with you at all for giving him more work?  It’s like the major fuckup on your behalf just went in one side of the helmet and out the other, he barely even acknowledged it other than the role Karga played.  He said it’s okay and you did good, which are like… five of the most common words in Galactic Basic, a Wookiee could probably find a way to say them.  How are you supposed to take that?  Were you just overthinking this whole thing from the very beginning?  You know anxiety tends to be irrational by definition, but has none of your panic from the past hour been justified whatsoever?

“Why were you so late?”  You ask him, but it’s not accusatory in the slightest.  It’s… concerned, worried about his well-being without having a real reason.  He’s clearly more than fine right now, he’s like a hurricane enclosed in metal and holding still in front of you.  Too much potential energy just waiting for a reason to be released, too much tension held tight and ready to snap.

“I’m sorry.”  He quickly reaches out to grab your hand and squeeze it, before dropping it just as quickly.  Fucking lightning quick, you’ll never understand how he can be so damn quick with all that extra weight strapped to him.  “It took longer than I thought it would and she’s not really someone you can rush.”  His response, ironically, feels very rushed, like he’s trying to address the tangent but also keep things on track, but something in the answer he gives catches your direct attention.  “Did he flirt with you?”

“Who is she and what can’t be rushed?”  You blurt at the same time, not even taking a split second to think about it.

Din stops short at the blunt question, staring at you in a silence that feels like it’s vaguely taken aback.

After a few moments of that… strangeness, of the two of you realizing that you’re both feeling slightly possessive over each other for absolutely no reason whatsoever, you start to feel… warm.  In another weirdly stupid, primitive way.  You know that letting those kinds of thoughts have their day in a relationship isn’t a good thing, but you can’t explain it.  Some deep-seated, prehistoric instinct inside you just goes fucking nuts whenever he gets in either provider or protector mode.  Now you understand exactly why he wanted to get you alone after you admitted to being jealous once before.  You totally fucking get it, you’re right there with him right now.  He hasn’t said anything, but you think he feels it, too.

“She makes things,” Din finally answers you, careful with his words and somehow managing to address your question while also sidestepping it, leaving you with only the smallest bit of information to go off of.  “Did he flirt with you?”

“I don’t know,” you tell him honestly.  “Maybe.  He could’ve just been trying to be friendly.  What did she make for you?”

“She made it for you,” he responds, again not really answering the question but continuing to juggle two separate conversations for your benefit.  “Did he scare you?”

“For me?”  You ask, eyebrows shooting upwards.  Provider, that stupid cavewoman DNA whispers to your lower body, making your voice go a little breathless.  “You asked her to make something for me?”

“Did he scare you?”  Din repeats sternly, grabbing your hand and giving it a firm squeeze.  “Because I can go back, I swear—”

Protector, it whispers this time, and your knees nearly buckle.

“Everything is scary when I don’t know where you are,” you admit to him, knowing it’s the truth regardless of how self-deprecating it sounds.  The only times you’ve ever truly been brave was because of him or the kid.  Stabbing a Corellian and then immediately flying the Crest out to him afterwards, walking through a pitch black forest believing a dangerous criminal was hiding in it, dragging a dead body through snow and shoving it into carbonite, standing up for yourself and pushing a deal through when odds were stacked against you.  Though it’s nothing to him, it’s nothing, it’s leaps for you.  You’re slowly learning to find a backbone, and he’s the one inspiring it.

Din holds there for a moment, unmoving with his hand still clutching yours.  You can’t get a read on him but you know how you feel right now.  Achy.  Hot.  Needy.  Wanting him to come closer.

“Will you do something for me?”  He asks you after a prolonged silence.  His voice is quiet, but… incredibly restrained.  Controlled chaos—his body is rigid and he’s flexing muscles that aren’t necessary for just standing, feeling like a sprinter holding still on the starting blocks.

“Of course,” you breathe out.

Din lets go of your hand and tilts his helmet over at the corner of the hull behind you.  “Go turn around and face that wall.”

You freeze, immediately recognizing the undertone in his voice.  Heat ladles deep into the pit of your tummy, sends warmth pooling downwards.  He wants to do this here?  Right now?

“We’re—” you look around the enclosed hull, “Mando, we’re not in hyperspace, we haven’t even left the surface yet…”

He looks around too, taking a second to blankly take in his stagnant surroundings like he had absolutely fucking no idea, before turning back to you and not saying a word.  Maker, everything below your waist is already stirring, twisting hot and deep inside, but you’re trying to be the voice of reason for a second.

“What if somebody hears us?”  You whisper, and Din cocks his head to the other side.

“I can help you stay quiet,” he murmurs, and… fuck.  You don’t know what it means, but you immediately imagine his hand held tight over your mouth while he takes some of this stress out on you and you already feel yourself wilting at the thought.  Okay.

“Okay,” you breathe without needing anything else at all, before spinning around and standing exactly where he told you to.  It’s just a corner near the back of the hull, nothing else here to look at besides two metal panels meeting at a right angle, but that’s admittedly what makes your heart start beating quicker.  You can’t see him come up behind you but you can feel it.  Slow, measured, but so restrained.

But then he stops almost immediately, before the back of your shirt is suddenly being yanked upwards and you remember at the very last second.

Din carefully grips his blaster and then eases it out of your waistband, the metal sliding warm along your skin from pressing against it for so long.  You never told him you took it with you, and he’s so fucking quiet behind you.  You have no idea how he’s reacting to that piece of information you originally didn’t think twice about.

“Do you like carrying my gun around?”  Din’s voice murmurs soft through the modulator to you, but then the blaster is tossed uselessly to the side, skittering loudly across the floor of the hull.

“Yes,” you reply, beginning to shyly turn your head back to look at him, hoping to gauge his response.

“Don’t turn around,” he quickly interrupts you, pushing your shoulder back into position and keeping you facing the corner.  You blink at the metal walls in a bit of a daze but follow instructions regardless, feeling your heart pound at the sudden display of dominance from him.  He has a very valid reason for it and you don’t realize what it is until a few seconds later, but even if he didn’t and he was just telling you what to do for the fun of it… you’d still like it.

But then his helmet is carefully being lowered over your head and you shudder as your vision is replaced with a familiar black abyss.  Fuck, his helmet, why does he like it so much when you wear this?  Admittedly, you don’t have much time to contemplate—as soon as it’s fitted and secure, he spins you around and you have to just do your best to maintain your balance, not having any visual to help.

“Can you hear me?”  Din asks, and your clothes start to be ripped off of you.  Your shoulders tip sideways with how quick he is about it, feeling him pull the fabric off and hearing the soft sound it makes landing on the floor.

“Yes,” you tell him, but he doesn’t respond, continuing to strip you completely naked in the hull.  Once your upper body is bare and he’s yanking your pants and underwear down your legs, you try saying it again as you step out of them, louder for him this time.

“I can’t hear you,” his voice grunts after a moment.  You know he’s in front of you but you can’t really tell where, now that he’s not touching you.  “Scream.”

You take a second, not having hard evidence anymore but still very well aware that you’re parked close to a marketplace on Nevarro and multiple people are nearby while you’re wearing his helmet.  This is dangerous for him, and not sure if you should, but then an arm is wrapping around your back and a large leather palm rests directly over your chest.  Din repeats his last word very slowly and clearly for you, waiting to feel it under his hands.

Your sternum lifts while it rises with your deep breath and then collapses as you diligently yell as loud as you can into the helmet, feeling like you might deafen yourself with the trapped sound.

“Good,” he growls, suddenly spinning you around and pushing you back into the metal paneling.  “I can’t hear you, be as loud as you need.  Hit me or something, put up a fight if you want me to stop, alright?”

Arousal rockets through you and you let out a moan already, taking advantage of the noise suppression and beyond turned on at this point.  You feel like you’re buzzing with it, lit up with excitement and wondering with bated breath what he’s planning to do to you.

“Alright?”  Comes his voice from behind you once more, and you quickly jerk the heavy helmet in a nod for him.  You can put up a fight and you know he’ll stop, you don’t have any problem with that and the fact that he specifically made sure to wait until he knew you understood him makes you start to pant inside the hollow beskar.

But then you feel him flick a small switch at the base of the helmet and then everything abruptly cuts out and goes dead silent.

Nothing.  Nothing.  You’re standing in a pitch black room where no other sound exists besides your own labored breathing.  Just like the waterfall on Naboo, but you can’t speak this time.  Temporarily making you blind, deaf, and putting a proverbial gag over your mouth all with one powerful piece of armor.

You shudder and he kicks your legs apart before you can do much else, yanking your hips back while you just try your best to cling to the wall for stability.  You don’t know what he’s going to do, you’re completely isolated in here and the only way you can even tell he dropped to his knees is the hot glide of his tongue through your pussy from behind.

Oh fuck—you arch into position as best you can while hands wrap around your ankles to pull them apart, trying to make the angle better.  His tongue licks softly over your clit and each time is like an electric shock jolting through your body, making you twitch back and up for him, stretching and begging him to do it again.  You can’t see anything right now so your mind readily imagines the visuals instead, providing you with a third party view.  Din, fully clothed and face shielded by your thighs, eating you out from behind while you brace yourself against the wall, completely naked and at his mercy, head tilted down from the weight of his helmet and living for the moments he decides to drag his tongue across your clit.

Without warning, a sudden burst of sensation ripples along your backside and causes you to lift the beskar in surprise, but without being able to hear anything, it takes you a second to figure out that he just smacked your ass.  The realization comes more or less at the exact time he decides to flatten his tongue and follow the curve of you back and up.

You gasp into the pitch black and there’s a moment where you just hold utterly still for him, experiencing and processing the sensation for the very first time.  His mouth is soft and warm as he tastes you here, his fingers digging into the swell of your cheeks to spread you open.  You’re glad your face is hidden so he can’t see the shock in your expression, the way your mouth drops and your eyes close as you let him explore you this way.

His gloved hands leave you for just a moment while he continues gliding his tongue against you, along every single bit of skin he can reach, and then you feel a bare hand reach up between your legs and begin to rub slow circles around your clit.  His other arm pushes against your lower back and you’re forced into the corner even more, your naked breasts pressing hard against cool metal and feeling his hot mouth and strong fingers work you closer to the edge from behind.

You’re panting into the helmet, your hips arching back to feel that stimulation on your clit better, and as his fingers move over it slow and strong, you feel a soft vibration against your skin and you realize he’s moaning into you.  The knowledge sparks a different kind of heat through you and makes you suddenly go still and tense right here.  If he stays just like this for even just a few more seconds, you’re going to cum.

“Din, I’m gonna cum,” your voice warbles inside the enclosed steel—just as his touch decides to abandon your body.  You groan loudly in distress, completely alone without his hands or mouth on you anymore, but all he likely hears is the silence of the hull and the way your palm smacks against the wall with it.  You were so close, everything feels like it’s pulled up so tight and painful and it hurts—

A hand clutches your hip and then a thick cock is suddenly pushing up against your soaking wet entrance, going to alleviate that twisting discomfort.  Your eyes roll back and your whole body goes limp as he slowly eases forward and breaks you open, fitting himself deep inside where you love to feel him most.  Your hands claw down the walls with a swell of bliss as he pulls out and then starts thrusting—and fuck, you love this.  You love the way he’s trapping you up against the corner and making you see stars at the same time, the way he’s supporting your weight but crushing down into you, too.  It makes you go boneless and want to riot simultaneously, groaning loud into the quiet abyss as he gives you what you both desperately needed.

One of his hands sinks down between your legs to play with your clit again, while a slick finger presses up against your ass and you gasp as he slowly penetrates you there, too.  Din’s hips work steady and powerful behind you, pushing you into the wall with every desperate thrust, using the arm shoved between your legs to support you as well as stimulate, and you just feel yourself move into a different place.  You don’t have a name for it but it feels like hyperspace.  Silence so loud it feels suppressing, faster than anything light can touch, nowhere and everywhere, hurtling towards something you can’t see but know lies in the distance.  You can tell he’s still fucking the tension out of his body, you can feel him working another wet finger inside you and stretching the virgin muscles back there, but every sensation begins to slowly blur together in a wicked uprising of ecstasy.

You don’t know where you are anymore, just that his fingers keep rubbing your clit and you think he's trying to ease a third into you when your destination abruptly arrives.

You nearly collapse when you cum, contracting so hard around his cock and fingers that you cry out unexpectedly—and because of the helmet, you think it’s just as unexpected for him.  He stops moving—everything stops moving besides you.  Your hips stutter backwards into his stationary body, dragging your clit back and forth against the tips of his unmoving fingers and fucking him as best you can.  It shatters white hot and goes straight through to your soul, wringing pleasure and wetness between your legs in waves.

Your knees are knocking against each other when Din pulls out, his cock still deliciously hard and now soaking wet with your cum, and then they just suddenly decide to give up without warning.  You don’t fall necessarily, but you do slowly slide down the wall like a slug and Din follows you to the floor instead of holding you up any longer.  His sternum moves quick and heavy against your back as he breathes and then suddenly the same switch at the base of his helmet is flicked, and sound bursts into existence all at once.

He’s panting.  Harsh breaths behind you that match the rapid pace of his chest, and the ambient noise of the rest of the hull.

“Can you hear me?”  He gasps, sounding fucking wrecked, and you nod the helmet against the wall while gravity and exhaustion and his beskar chestplate squishes you into it.  “P-Put up a fight if you want me t-to stop, p-please—” he rasps out, almost the entire thing air and so close to cumming, and then his knees lift just slightly and the blunt head of his cock presses against your other entrance.

And, if you wanted, you absolutely could.  He’s got you boxed into the corner but he’s not constricting your movements, he’s given you every ability to struggle.  You could easily throw an elbow back against his side, push against the wall to shove him away, smack at his arms or even just flail against his body in panic—you could do one or all of those things to signal him to stop and you know he’d do it immediately, he’s asking you to.  You could struggle.  If you wanted.

Instead, you just grab hold of the beskar strapped to his thigh and drop the helmet to your chest, nearly vibrating with the thrill and preparing yourself for it.  You know he’s gotta be inches away from orgasm, you know from the tone of his voice that he’s right there on the edge and it’s not like it’s going to last a long time.  Thanks to him, you also feel like you’re just as slick and wet back there as you are between your legs, stretched open by his fingers while you came all over him.  You want nothing more than to give this to him, to let him be the only person in the universe that knows how you feel this way.

When you pointedly do not put up a fight and even go so far as to arch your lower back for him in presentation, Din curses and his fingers begin jerking back and forth over your sensitive clit once more.  It might normally be too much for you, but your body is sparking with lust and quickly acclimates to the stimulation, learning to burn and ache for it, too.  Fuck, it feels so good, you tense and melt into it at the same time, letting him ease you back up to that peak once more.

He pushes up against the tight ring of skin and you can’t fucking explain it—his fingers keep rubbing your clit and he’s slowly pushing into your ass and—

“I—I think I’m—” you suddenly lift the helmet to gasp out in surprise, forgetting he can’t hear you, “ngh—D-Din, I think I’m gonna c—”

He’s just barely able to breach the tight entrance and fit the head inside before he freezes—and even though everything happens consecutively, it’s all so rapid that it feels simultaneous.

Your hips could go forward, but they don’t.  Your body decides to send you backwards into him, pushing him inside nearly halfway all at once as your muscles lock down and just fucking strangle his cock.  Your piercing scream gets trapped in the silence of his helmet as you cum once more—painfully, madly and with every fucking part of you for him.  There’s maybe one or two mind shattering pulses of ecstasy before the rest of your body catches up and starts convulsing, and by then Din is already gasping and fumbling behind you, suddenly realizing what’s happening without hearing the sound of your ragged warnings and then ripping himself away just in time.

He punches out your name when he cums like you just fucking snapped him in half—his body hunches and the beskar digs hard into your back as warmth starts splattering along your skin.  You crumple while he shoves his hips up against your spine, riding and working the orgasm out of himself while yours just fucking obliterates you.  You think you whine his name—or a curse word or something, but it gets strained and your lungs lose air every time his powerful armored body humps you into the wall of his ship.

Finally he eases up and you just lay there and listen to the ringing in your ears.  Blissfully empty, still pulsing from cumming so hard and feeling like your bones just decided to stop existing and the rest of you was okay with it since you were already on the floor anyways.  You feel him shudder and twitch behind you, letting go of that last bit of tension until he too allows gravity to slouch his heavy torso over onto you.

You both stay like that for a while, until your eyes close and your everything below your waist goes numb.  Eventually you feel him shift and your head bobbles as the helmet is slowly removed, but a large palm cradles your chin to stop your face from slamming into the wall in exhaustion once it’s off.  You just continue to melt into the paneling like you’re nothing more than goo of a human being while he trades it back to its rightful place on his shoulders and tucks his cock back into his pants, before wrapping his arms around you and lifting you both up.  The floor and metal walls, once feeling like you and them were one, suddenly decide to disappear entirely as you’re hauled up into Din’s powerful arms.

He slowly carries your naked, fucked senseless body over to the fresher, and you squint your eyes open over his shoulder to see… he’s still got his rifle slung around his back while his cum is dripping down yours.  Not a single thing on him is out of place and you’re, well… a mess is a word that works.  Limp and doll-like, carried like your weight is practically nothing to him after years of having the densest armor known to the galaxy strapped to his body.

Setting you down is a mess, too.  At some point you think he just gives up and decides to return you to your humble floor abode with a patience and care unexpected from someone who just defiled you so thoroughly.  You hear the fresher door open and the faucet squeak, before he turns back around and crouches to your level.

“Stay here,” Din tells you lowly, his modulated voice coming gentle and warm through the sounds of water raining down against metal.  You don’t feel his touch directly, but your hair moves away from your face.  “I’ll be right back, okay—just stay here.”

Can do.  Easy.  He waits until you murmur a soft mhm to him before he leaves the tiny compartment, and then you soon hear his heavy footsteps ascending the ladder to the cockpit.

***

You don’t think you fall asleep, but the powering up of the Crest’s thrusters make you realize your eyes were closed.  Opening them barely qualifies as a squint though; you look around to see steam slowly filling the fresher, the water already running hot and welcoming in the small room.

You know you need to shower but you’re so fucking exhausted, you feel like you can’t even move your body.  You also know you can just do the same exact thing in there as you’re doing in here, you just need to muster up the energy necessary to get inside it and then fall back asleep.  He set you down in the small little space outside the shower door and then got everything set up for you, you can at least stand up and take a few steps.

Unfortunately, you might pick just about the worst time possible to plant your hands on the ground and work to struggle upright on all fours like a newborn animal.  The steady rise through Nevarro’s atmosphere pushes gravity down harder than you’re expecting—is he trying to fly quickly or are you just that dead-limbed?—and then of course, by the time you do manage to fight it and successfully get on two wobbly legs to hold yourself up, the subtle shift of the hyperdrive kicking in nearly knocks you back down again.  You stumble and grab the walls, bracing yourself against them and looking down at your knees in exasperation.  Come on, work.  Move forward.  Come on.

You’re glad he’s not here to witness this monstrosity, honestly.  Just opening the door and taking a few steps into the fresher is a feat—while you’re not in any pain and he didn’t leave any marks on you, you just feel… steamrolled.  Ran over by a truck.  Only having the strength to keep your feet beneath you as you finally move under the water and close the door behind you.

Oh, but this is wonderful.  This was such a good idea, he’s so fucking smart.  The shower falls warm and lovely against your body, wetting your hair and immediately heating you down to your bones.  You don’t move really at all—you kinda just stand there and slouch, closing your eyes against the spray and slowly breathing the mist into your lungs.  It feels so nice—not really restorative even though you like that word, it would imply the water provides you with any energy whatsoever.  It just feels like a comfort, a relief and sedative for your already wildly fatigued body.

You haven’t been in here for more than a minute or two when knuckles tap gently against the metal walls of the fresher, before the natural bass of Din’s unmodulated voice murmurs from somewhere beyond it.  “Hey.  Keep your eyes closed.”

How did he know?  You figured you’d be way ahead of him.  You’re standing but slumped over, wanting nothing more than to just say fuck gravity and pass out right here.  The walls are too cold to lean against now that you’re all toasty from the heat and steam, so you’re just unconsciously swaying on your feet, trying to balance the precedence of sleeping versus not falling over.  You don’t even comprehend the sudden flip of the light switch overhead beyond the fact that it makes it easier to snooze without being so bright behind your eyelids.

The door eventually opens at the very same time you realize you never answered him, but you just commit to the silence at this point.  It’s easy, you like it.  Soon you feel warm hands touch your shoulders, slowly spinning you around while you follow and hang your head, your neck not wanting to support it any longer, and then suddenly a bare chest is pressing up against you and powerful arms are wrapping around your body, and you can just lean all of your weight into him while your head rests right here on his shoulder.

He holds you without moving for a long time, keeping you just like this—your ear pressed against his skin while water rains hot and comfortable down your back.  Knowing you’re facing one of the walls, you crack your heavy lids just the slightest bit and finally notice the tiny compartment is dim and shrouded—the only light source is a single one coming from somewhere in the hull beyond the partially closed doorway.  It’s dark and quiet and you can barely see anything besides the metallic fresher walls and unfocused droplets chasing each other down Din’s naked skin.  Just you and him, flowing water with a sheet metal backdrop.

You think you spend an eternity like that and yet you still find yourself wanting another when he finally shifts, reaching over you to grab a bar of his generic soap but making sure to use the arm whose shoulder you’re not currently resting against.

It glides slow and hypnotic down your back, dragging up over your sides and then back down the curve of your spine.  He’s so sturdy and he doesn’t say a word while he does it, lathering it along your body and rubbing it into your skin.  His bar of soap, not yours.  They started out almost the same since you picked them up at the same vendor, but there’s just a slightly bolder and sharper scent to his that you recognize.  How the bar is far larger than yours because of how often he’s gone away.

Your eyes droop and you feel the water trail over your lips, dripping down your chin and pooling the dip of his collarbone.  The only other time you two shared this fresher was terrifying and he’s rewriting the memories right now, whether consciously or not.  Hot water, not freezing cold.  Standing upright and supporting you.  Heart beating strong under your ear, taking care of you this time until you can care for yourself.

You… you just worry so much more now, it’s becoming an issue.  You didn’t realize how much until you nearly lost him, and you know in your heart that he’s just going to go away again.  Throw himself into more danger, tempt death as always, risk his life for mere credits while all you can provide in return is this.  Skin to skin contact.  Someone to hold.  Someone who knows him, who knows the way he struggles between reaching out for a softness that life has always denied him and clinging to what is rough and familiar.  Someone to remind him that there’s still gentle and forgiving things in this galaxy that won’t disappear when he’s gone, and that he can always come home to them, as long as he can manage to find his way back.

Something sad tugs hard at your chest.  You want to tell him not to leave.  Again, again—you want nothing more than to beg him to stay.  You don’t have anything better to offer instead; if he asked you how it would work, how you imagine your lives would go if he wasn’t hunting quarry on a constant timetable, you’d be hard-pressed.  You don’t know.  But you know what you want to say, because it’s two words you shouldn’t say but always find yourself needing to say regardless.  

Don’t go.

But, instead of two words, you give him three.

Instead of asking him not to leave you again… in the haze and comfort of his arms, you think you just tell him that you love him.

And… you also don’t think the water falling down on the two of you is loud enough to cover it up this time.

It’s not ideal, you know.  You know.  From his point of view, he just got finished releasing all sorts of pent up tension on you, overwhelming your body with the strength and power of his in a way that normal people wouldn’t take as an expression of affection.  But you know him.  You know that he finds it much easier to express the things he feels in a physical way, which is why there’s a bar of soap against your back right now instead of his voice in your ear, telling you all the things you’ve always wanted to hear from him in return.  You know that sex is how this all began and it’s likely just the closest link between roughness and sweetness that he can really put his hands on, something that can fit him equally as well as it fits you.  Love is different, it’s thrilling and scary.  Even to someone like him, who lives everyday of his life surrounded by thrilling and scary things, who’s seen more bloodshed and suffering and pain than you can ever even imagine, you know that it’s scary.

Din doesn’t say anything back to your confession, and truthfully, not a single part of you was expecting him to.  It wasn’t said so he could say it back.  It just is.  Some things don’t need explanations, they just are.  You’re okay with that.

But, you eventually come to realize that he always waits until you’re just on the very edges of sleep, holding out until your blurry vision and fading consciousness can trick you into thinking you only imagined it.  You won’t ever figure out if it’s purposeful or if he just needs that long to find what he wants to say.

Another soft, lilting sentence in a language you wouldn’t be able to translate, even if you could pick out a single word.  It sounds so beautiful though, regardless of how mysterious and far away its meaning feels.  There’s something hidden underneath.  You ache to know what it is.

But you’re so tired.  You just whine softly against his shoulder, not being able to transform the thoughts into sentences anymore but hoping he understands regardless.  He can’t just resort to bearing his soul in Mando’a all the time now, especially when you’re always on the verge of sleep when he chooses to do so.

But at some point, his arms subtly tighten around you and the pressure is one of the only things that’s keeping you awake anymore.

“I won’t ever ask you to,” he says to you, the quietness of his baritone getting lost in the gentle spray and your looming slumber.  “I’m…  not allowed to ask.  I can’t.”

Your expression twitches just the slightest bit against his shoulder in confusion, wondering distantly what word or sentence you must’ve missed from before that would make him make sense.  Was that a translation?  Or a continuation?

But then your wet hair is slowly moved away from your nape and his head tilts down, face pressing into your neck and voice lowering until it’s nothing more than a breath against your skin, nothing more than a confession that he couldn’t ever say out loud with his full chest.  It’s a secret he only ever wants you to know, a truth he’s choosing to admit to even though you could ruin him with it.  You have no idea how much, you won’t know for a long time just how much power he’s giving you by telling you this one very simple thing.

“But whenever you want to look,” Din finally whispers, the only version of I love you too that a Mandalorian knows.  “You can.”

#the mandalorian #the mandalorian x you #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #din djarin #fanfic #reader-insert #rough day #no-droids #smut

[artsyfangirl]

Hello. It is I >:)

I’m gonna expand but with Angst

imagine them already dating y/n but y/n slowly starts becoming unresponsive/vanishing more often. So one day they follow y/n after they wake up and they discover y/n had found The Egg and slowly started becoming corrupted.

:/ I won’t pay for my crimes :/

O MY GOD YOU FRICKING SADIST! Nooo, this is gonna be so sad… unfortunately, I can’t do this in fic format, not comfortable enough with that format yet, so HCs it is! This is going to be weird, because these are all written with the assumption that Y/N is the Ego’s S/O, but it’s also written so that some Egos’ reactions intersect with others, and imply that they’re working together. So… uh, poly relationships for the win, I guess? /pos

Dark is gonna be SO pissed. But he’s also incredibly sad. He thought he wouldn’t ever have to go through loss like this again, not after the party all those years ago… all the death. He’s one of the most determined and most powerful Egos in trying to get you back. He has a lot of resources, so he has a lot to draw from. He was in the middle of the people who followed you, not jumping to it, as he didn’t want to jump the gun or assume, but also not being one of the last, as he became genuinely concerned and knew the others wouldn’t be reporting this if it weren’t true, or at least misinterpreted.

Inside, in the inner world (let’s just say that Celine’s place for broken things didn’t get done in), Damien and Celine mourn.

Damien is determined yes, but he’s also feeling every bit of grief. Celine is furious and torn, she hates seeing you like this, and she’s the one giving the majority of the power Dark is using to try and get you back, while Damien is the emotional side and the one steering Dark’s actions and thoughts.

Damien doesn’t control Dark as much as he used to, as Dark has grown in the almost century that has passed, and has developed as his own being. Now the twins guide him and his goals, and give him his power.

Actor is affronted and mad. He can’t believe this thing possibly has more power than him, and that it took his S/O? Oh, he’s not stopping until that thing’s cracked open and cooked for breakfast. He believes his power is enough to save you. Is it?

He was either one of the first, or one of the last to follow you.

Anti is extremely angry. You know Error Sans, and how his body is affected when he gets to a certain level of anger or wrath? THAT. Anti is so angry it almost looks like he’s being glitched out of existence. This pathetic thing DARED to take what was HIS?He’s going to make that thing regret its centuries of primordial life. He didn’t follow you until later, being one of the very last to do so.

Google is… at first, it doesn’t compute. It just doesn’t make sense to the android Allay/human hybrid. But when it does click, oh, he’s on levels of Dark. He’s one of the scariest, most murderous Egos, and it shows like never before now. He’s not stopping until he has you in his arms, scanning you to make sure you’re okay. (Spoiler alert, he’s going to scan you over and over and over again) He was one of the last, being before Anti, and before Actor in the case that he did follow you after.

Wilford. Is… maniacal. But not at first. At first, he’s in denial, much like at the end of WKM. But then, he’s breaks. He becomes dull, wandering around like a ghost. It takes Dark confronting him, sitting him down and forcing him to face the reality, for him to come back. And once he does, oh boy. He’s off the roof. He’s going to take great pleasure in making sure that thing’s every last bit is pummeled to crumbs. He was among the first to follow you after the Jims reported the issue, his attachment to you, his knowledge of the nature of their world, and his knowledge of things he shouldn’t know made him almost sure something was going on. He was around the third or fourth to follow you.

The Host doesn’t know at first, until he breaks his narration in shock. He… doesn’t know what to do. His narration could potentially take the thing to destruction, but he’s not sure, and he can’t risk it. He’s actually one of the more calm ones. He followed you right before the middle mark, his suspicions grew as the others acted weird and some reported the same as the Jim twins, and his narrations, once he focused on you, told him the undeniable truth.

Marvin and Jackie both followed you together, and they both became absolutely paralyzed with heartbreak and disbelief. They work together to try to get you back, Marvin with his magic, and Jackie with his superpowers. They were among the first to follow you, around fourth or fifth. Marvin is part of the planning team as well as a fighter, and Jackie is mostly a fighter, but gives input on the plan as well.

Yancy is absolutely heartbroken. He helps, but he’s not as vengeful as any of the others. He was one of the first, around second place, his concern for you causing him to throw everything aside to confirm that what he was hearing wasn’t true. He just can’t believe his partner (in crime) is gone. He’s one of the main fighters in the Egos’ plan, alongside Wilford, Marvin, Jackie, Google, Magnum, and a few others.

The Jims honestly don’t know what to do. They want to help, but the others keep them from getting involved with the plan, so they just provide whatever they can for the others, nursing their heartbreak all the while. The Jims followed you first, no one believed them at first until they followed you themselves.

Henrik is stunned. When he sees you serving the Egg, he’s horrified. What can he do? He’s a doctor, not a hero or a war vet, or an android, or a being with unimaginable power. He resolves to offer his services to the others, and help with the plan. If anyone gets hurt scouting or fighting, he’ll fix them up. He was the sixth to follow you, trying not to let the reports of others bias or influence him, but eventually his worry and fear of failing again led him to follow you.

Bim was also among the first, he followed Yancy, being suspicious between the twins’ report and your odd behavior. He’s really upset, and the others are gonna have to stop him from eating the Egg once they’ve defeated it. I HC that he eats those he’s defeated, as a sort of, ‘haha, I won’, ‘haha, fuck you,’ and as a kind of memorial thing. But ingesting primordial eldritch egg cannot be good for you, no matter how much Bim argues the opposite.

JJ didn’t follow you at all, believing the twins from the moment he heard their account, but he was stopped from following you by Eric, Yancy, Bim, The Host, and the other Septics. Dark also forbid him from going. It’s not JJ’s muteness that makes him vulnerable (in fact, it makes him stronger in my opinion), rather, the fact he’s so susceptible to being overtaken and/or influenced/puppeted, as Anti and the other Septics know well. The others have also been informed of this, and a few have even seen it for themselves, including Bim and Dark, which was why Dark put his foot down.

Chase is shook, like, his entire world has been upended and reality doesn’t feel like reality anymore. He beloved the twins too, like JJ, but it took a few more details from the twins to convince him. He was also banned from going by not only Dark, but also Dr. Iplier and Henrik. The others assign JJ, Eric, Yancy, and Jackie to him to make sure he doesn’t drink himself into the Nether.

Eric is also much like Chase, he’s reliving the trauma from the accident and his father though. The others have to intervene before he has a panic attack, mixed with the flashbacks he’s already having. He thinks about going, once, but Chase and Magnum know what he’s thinking before he even says it (dad instincts activate), and give him that look that says, ‘no’, in a gentle manner.

Dr. Iplier had been suspicious for a while of your behavior, since I headcanon him as having a specialty in psychology. Upon hearing the twins’ story, he followed you. He was in the middle, right after Dark. He decided to wait and analyze your behavior a bit more before committing to any theories. He’s one of the main strategists for the plan, alongside Google, The Host, Dark, and oddly enough, the Actor.

Magnum was… well, what’s the word for it? What word can convey his level of sadness and heartbreak? He believed the twins almost instantly, but was in denial for a bit, convincing himself that the twins had misheard, or otherwise misinterpreted what they had seen. It takes a sit down with the Iplier doctor and a few others to make him come to grips with it.

The roles for the plan are:

Tactician/Strategist: Dark, Google, The Host, Dr. Iplier, Marvin, and the Actor. And Jackie as a guest. He gives input here and there.

Fighter: Yancy, Magnum, Dark, Google, Marvin, and Jackie.

Doctor: Henrik. He’s also been training Eric and JJ, before this happened, so they act as essentially doctor’s assistants in this case.

#septic egos x reader #markiplier egos x reader #egos x reader