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sluttywoozi · 2 years

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Let Me Part One | kmg x reader

Summary: You've been the student athletic trainer for your uni's basketball team all year, and you're pretty sure Mingyu has had a crush on you the whole time. You're not sure how much longer you can resist him.

Rating: T (this part) | Word Count: ~4.8k

Warnings: my lack of knowledge about basketball, overprotective gyu, pet names, swearing, food/eating, allusion to lack of safety on college campuses, size difference (reader thinks mingyu is large), making out

Reader Notes: no gendered pronouns or petnames used, wears a dress and bra at one point, one of their shirts is small on gyu, gets picked up briefly by gyu

They’ve already been practicing for an hour on the outdoor court when you finally let your gaze find Mingyu. Keeping your eyes off of his jumpshots and layovers was difficult, but worth it, when he looks like he does.

Fuck, he’s so hot, you think, frantically looking elsewhere when Mingyu glances over at you.

He’s cocky enough, you don’t need him knowing you can’t seem to take your eyes off of him now that you’ve finally allowed yourself to look.

He’s just so buff, and large, and now he’s glistening with sweat, and his hair is so pretty. That little bang of his drives you crazy, and you truly have no explanation as to why you’re desperate to reach over and tuck it behind his ear, but you think you just might sell your soul for the chance.

You probably wouldn’t have to though, if the way Mingyu looks at you says anything.

He’s always had a little crush on you, even before you started having feelings for him, and that’s why you stay away. It’s unfair to him, probably, to think this way, but he’s just too hot to be so kind and smart and funny too, there has to be a catch.

You know it’s not that he’s a playboy, because you’ve seen him at a million post game parties and he’s never been with anyone but the guys, never left with anyone but the designated driver.

You know he’s not a bad person, evidenced by him constantly topping the team’s volunteer hours list, and the ‘little brother’ he brings to half the games.

You know he’s respectful, waiting to see if you want to answer a question in class before he raises his hand, making sure you have a ride home after every game and won’t have to walk across campus in the dark.

And fuck, the time Mingyu found out you did walk home alone after a game…

He pulled you aside after class, his hand warm in the crook of your elbow, tighter than you were used to. The look on his face made your blood run cold; you’d never seen him like that before, fuming, disappointed, but frightened too.

You didn’t think it was that big a deal, your apartment is just off campus, and the walk home from the stadium is only about fifteen minutes, but it’s not always safe to walk alone in the dark, especially after a big game.

Mingyu told you that, and more, before grabbing your hand in his massive grip and tucking your fingers down, leaving your pinky out, linking it with his, and making you promise never to do it again. He said that no afterparty was worth you getting hurt, and that if you didn’t have a ride he’d walk you home himself.

You made sure you had a way home every game after, knowing you couldn’t risk that kind of one on one time with him.

It doesn’t help though, doesn’t stop Mingyu from narrowing his eyes at you to determine if you’re telling the truth, doesn’t keep him from reminding you of the pinky promise, doesn’t release you from the text he also made you vow to send him once you get home safely.

He’s stuck closer to you ever since then too, finding you at parties, and sitting next to you in class, and looking for you on the sidelines after making the winning basket.

You don’t really know what to do with it, just give him a wave with the red solo cup in your hand, and shift your pens over so he has more space on the desk, and shoot him a smile and a high five, which he always returns with the cutest grin on his face.

Your focus abruptly returns to practice when shouts erupt, the sound of cheers and ass smacks echoing through the court. Mingyu’s eyes swivel, like he’s looking for something, and he beams when he finds you already looking at him.

His hand reaches up, palm facing towards you, and you instinctively smile and reach your hand up too, returning his high five. He bounces on his feet, shaking hands with Wonwoo, who you assume he successfully faked out and dunked on.

You don’t mean to encourage him, but you rebuffed him once, just shot him a thumbs up, and the way his smile fell near cleaved your heart in two. After that, you simply couldn’t ignore him.

And it looks like you won’t be able to ignore him tonight either, you think, as he jogs toward you, smug at having caught you looking.

“Hey babe,” Mingyu pants excitedly, reaching down to squeeze your hand, “Can you believe that? I never score over Wonwoo!”

That’s another thing. He always calls you babe, or baby, or sweetheart, or darling, and you always try ridiculously hard not to let him see that it makes your heart skip.

You’re getting better at it, you think, grinning at Mingyu and responding, “Must be your lucky night.”

Oh shit, that was flirtier than you meant it to be.

Mingyu latches onto it though, stepping closer and asking, “If it’s my lucky night, how about we grab some ice cream after this?“

How can you tell him no this time? There’s gotta be a-

“Sure!”

Okay well. Your mouth worked before your brain did. But you can’t take it back now, Mingyu just looks too happy.

His eyes squint gleefully at you, canines pushing against his bottom lip with the force of his smile, and he reaches down to grab your other hand, swinging them from side to side.

“Mingyu, back to work!” Coach shouts from across the court, and Mingyu yells an apology from over his shoulder, giving your hands one last squeeze before letting go and jogging backward, keeping his eyes on you until he needs to turn around.

Fuck, your heart is racing.

Practice goes smoothly, Mingyu making it his mission to score over Wonwoo as much as possible, and subsequently failing that mission. He’s a bit pouty as you walk to his car, swinging the keys around his finger and letting his footsteps land a bit heavier than normal. He always does his best to make himself seem small around you, and you’re not sure why.

You love how big he is, love how he towers over everyone, how other people disappear behind him, how one of his steps is the equivalent of 2 of someone else’s. You think he does too, but not around you for some reason.

You’re still thinking about it as he opens the passenger seat door, and you thank him absentmindedly, managing somehow to climb into his SUV even with your focus miles away.

The slamming of his car door brings you out of it, and you look over to find him staring at you intently.

“Did you hear me, baby?” Mingyu asks with concern.

“Oh, um no, sorry, Gyu. What did you say?” You turn to him, feeling a bit bad for spacing out like that and giving him your full attention.

“It’s okay, darlin’, I asked if you wanted Ben and Jerry’s or Cold Stone, they’re both just off campus.”

“Ooooh, um,” you take a second to think, weighing your options and what you had last and what each one has over the other. You take ice cream very seriously.

“Cold Stone tonight, I think. I like how they smush it all together,” you respond finally, appreciating that Mingyu’s gaze never left you and he didn’t seem to get annoyed at your thinking time.

He nods seriously and with approval, shifting gears and placing his big hand on your headrest to reverse out of the parking spot. He smells so good, fresh out of the shower, and his hair is still damp, drops of water trailing down his neck to dampen the collar of his t-shirt.

You’re not used to being so close to him; he’s affectionate but you’re usually able to keep some distance. There’s nowhere for you to go now.

You chat easily, Mingyu asking how your project for your shared class is going, you asking him if he thinks they’ll make it to the championships this year, him confidently saying they will but if they don’t, you’ll have to go out with him to make him feel better. You respond that of course you will, it’s your duty as their student athletic trainer to heal his wounds, and it’s too late to backtrack when you realize you’ve just agreed to a date.

Hell, you’re already on the way to one, what’s one more?

Your possible second date turns into your possible third date when you agree to let Mingyu take you out to dinner tomorrow night.

He ate his ice cream so voraciously, yet thoughtfully, spooning out huge bites but taking his time to work through them, enjoying every add in and sprinkle. You’re not sure why it made such an impact on you, but it only got worse when he gathered up both of your empty cups and took them to the trash, returning with napkins coated in hand sanitizer to clean up any melted ice cream on the table.

You realized how careful Mingyu is with everything he does, how considerate, and you wonder if maybe you’ve been protecting yourself for nothing this whole time.

He’s always been just as careful and considerate with you, and you thought there must be something bad to balance out all the good, but now you’re not so sure.

You’re even less sure when he pulls up outside of your apartment, parking and promising to pick you up tomorrow morning and take you to class, then to get your car after.

“I just don’t want you driving and parking alone so late at night, do you mind?” he asked, and you know he would take you to your car right now if you wanted, but oddly enough, you don’t.

“No, Gyu, I don’t mind,” you smile softly at him, and let him jog around the SUV to open your door and help you step down.

He walks you all the way up to your apartment, pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead and thanking you for letting him take you out. You make him promise to text you when he gets home, and he beams, biting his lips to try to hide the smile at first before letting it light up his face, and you know you’re in trouble.

By the shadow under the door, you can tell he waits until you’re fully locked up to return to his car, and you’re still trying to pretend you’re not singing love songs in your head when your phone buzzes.

made it home xoxo gyu

Mingyu’s early to pick you up, so you let him hang out in your apartment while you finish getting ready.

He wanders around for a bit, checking out the knick knacks in your bookshelf, investigating your appliance situation, asking if you’ll let him cook for you tonight instead. You say yes without thinking about what exactly that entails - having Mingyu in your flat, at night, with candles probably, and wine because you know how to entertain a guest, and he’ll be cooking, in your kitchen, and he’ll likely want to wear an apron because he’s adorable and thorough like that, and you’ll be fucked.

The careful distance you’ve kept from him is narrowing, the walls you built brick by cynical brick crumbling, and you really want to say you hate it, but you don’t.

It’s easy, letting him get close to you.

It’s easy letting him buy you your favorite iced coffee before class, because of course he knows your order. It’s easy letting him carry your books, just because he wants to. It’s easy kicking him under the table when he makes under the breath jokes that threaten to disturb class.

It’s easy letting him kiss you on the cheek when he drops you off at your car, easy letting him open your door and pull you into a hug before seeing you off. Easy letting him pick the meal and do the grocery shopping for tonight, setting the date for 6 PM.

Even worse, it’s easy to let yourself be excited, to let yourself do your hair and just a little makeup, to wear a better bra than usual, to maybe try on a cute little flouncy dress that you know will break his brain, considering he’s only ever seen you in day clothes and the athletic trainer uniform.

What’s not easy is sitting there, at 5:35 PM, anxiously waiting for him to arrive. It’s funny how you used to feel better being further away from him, and now you fear you’ll never want to be away from him again.

Mingyu arrives at 5:50 on the dot, like he got here early and waited as long as he could, until it was a socially acceptable amount of early. He bounces on his toes as he bursts through the door, dropping a kiss to your forehead even with his arms full of groceries. It looks like he bought enough to feed the whole team, and you’re tempted to tease but he just looks so excited.

He explains his idea for the meal as he unloads the bags, lining everything up, telling you how much he loves cooking mise en place, and managing to not sound pretentious at all. He stutters a bit when he realizes what you’re wearing, eyes traveling up and down your legs, catching just barely on your breasts, and you smile serenely at him as he shifts behind the counter and asks where you keep your spices.

He’s adorable, in his black polo and jeans, massive form moving through your small kitchen like he’s cooked you dinner a million times, and it’s hard not to imagine him here, to want him here, every week. Or every night, your subconscious whispers.

Dinner is delicious, Mingyu is gifted in the kitchen in a way you didn’t expect, and as you wash dishes side by side, bumping hips and singing to the radio, you think maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to let him love you.

You watch a movie together, nothing scary because Mingyu doesn’t like horror, and snuggle up on the couch. He’s so warm, and so large, and the perfect cuddling companion. He falls asleep halfway through, massive body tipping over, and you’d let him lay on you, you would, but he’s too fucking heavy, so you get up and gently guide him down to rest on the cushions. Tugging a blanket over him, you settle at the end of the couch, just enough space left free with Mingyu’s knees tucked to his chest as they are, and settle in.

It’s dark when you wake up, Mingyu and your TV still asleep, and you know he’ll ache tomorrow if he stays on your couch. You rub your hand up and down his arm, whispering his name, and he smiles as he blinks awake, his arms opening in a stretch and then wrapping around you. He shifts to his back, tugging you on top of him and sighing at the weight of you on his chest, “Do you think I could sleep here tonight?”

“Yeah, Gyu, I was gonna ask,” you respond softly, and he hums, his arms relaxing around you but resting heavier on your back.

“Wait, don’t fall asleep again.”

He shakes his head, blearily opening his eyes and staring at you with a confused pout.

“Come on, you can sleep with me,” you whisper, trying to crawl off of him, but he smirks, biting his lip with those canines, and you roll your eyes, “Sleep in my bed, with me.”

He giggles, “I knew what you meant, I was just teasing.”

He gets up, holding you to him and walking with your feet on top of his in the direction of your bedroom, stalling when he’s unsure of which door to open. You point, and he shuffles into your room, depositing you at the end of your bed before climbing in.

You’re still in the dress, which feels a bit uncomfy now, and your bra, which is ridiculously uncomfy now, so you grab some pajamas and head to the bathroom.

You change and wash up quickly, returning to find Mingyu standing next to the bed.

“Why’d you get up? What’s wrong?” you ask, hanging up your dress and putting your bra away, biting back a smile at how he averts his eyes from your underwear drawer.

“I just was wondering if you would mind if I slept in my boxers, these jeans aren’t really for sleeping,” he asks sheepishly, sighing in relief at your nod and unbuttoning his pants as soon as you turn your back.

“I think I have an old team shirt too, if you don’t want to sleep in the polo,” you offer, digging through your drawers and finding a shirt you think will fit him. You toss it over your shoulder, knowing he’ll catch it, and that you’re not ready to see him shirtless yet.

You turn just as he’s tugging it over his torso, and your mouth dries at the way it stretches across his chest, wrinkling over his pecs, falling slightly loose on his waist, giving just a hint of his abs.

You are not God’s strongest soldier, you know this, but you didn’t think you’d be tested in this way so soon.

Adamantly avoiding looking at his evil, luscious body, you walk around the bed and climb into your side, waiting for him to join you before turning off the lamp on your nightstand.

He scoots closer, inch by inch, until he can stretch his hand across the sheets and tuck his pinky beneath yours, and what are you supposed to do with that, except close the distance, wrap his hand up in yours, and snuggle into his arms, shoving your face in his chest.

Mingyu sighs immediately, relaxing and tugging you closer, whispering a goodnight into your hair, and promptly knocking out.

It takes you a bit longer, his body heat making you warmer than you usually like, but you wouldn’t pull away for anything, and eventually you fall asleep, cocooned in his arms.

Mingyu’s snoring when you wake up, still in the position you fell asleep in. You have to pee, and your stomach is growling, so you wiggle out of his arms, replacing your body with your pillow and sneaking to the bathroom.

You shuffle into the kitchen, quietly pulling out the waffle mix and iron, plus some bacon and eggs. You know he normally eats a lot, and with the game tonight, he needs to fill up, so you scramble eight of the eggs and fry up half the bacon.

The waffle iron is steaming when Mingyu stumbles in, rubbing his eyes and tugging the shirt down every time it rides up. He beams sleepily at you, leaning over the counter to press a kiss to your lips, and you freeze. He putters around the kitchen, putting dishes away and starting the coffee maker, and you wonder when everything got so fucking domestic.

It’d be a lie to say you mind. This is what you were scared Mingyu wouldn’t want, the type of relationship where you cook together and fall asleep early, and crawl into bed late, and wake up to cook for whoever’s still asleep.

You were scared he was just like all the other college guys you’ve tried to be with - lying about wanting the relationship part when they were only interested in sex, leaving you alone every night unless you wanted to netflix and chill.

Yet here Mingyu is, expertly navigating your kitchen, pecking you on the lips then turning to make you coffee.

He hasn’t put his hands on you without you making the first move, hasn’t tried to feel you up or anything, but you think you’d let him if he wanted to, hell, if he doesn’t ask soon you think you will.

You eat breakfast quietly, Mingyu playing with your fingers and shoveling food into his mouth. He grins at you through a mouthful of waffle, laughing at the way you cringe, and kicks your feet with his.

He has to leave soon, for a run and then practice with the team, and you dread how empty your apartment will feel without him.

“So, what changed?” Mingyu asks, startling you.

“What do you mean, Gyu?” you ask, fearing you already know, stabbing scrambled eggs with your fork and chewing slowly so you can stall.

“You’ve been pushing me away for months. But you didn’t last night, or the night before. I just was wondering… what changed?” he inquires softly, nervously, not sure he wants to know the answer.

You realize you haven’t been giving him enough credit, that he’s much more perceptive than you expected, or maybe you haven’t been as subtle as you thought.

“I was,” you take in a deep breath, preparing to be honest with him, and yourself, for once. “I was scared.”

“Of me?” he looks concerned, and you rush to reassure him.

“No, Gyu, I wasn’t scared of you, I was scared for me. I knew you liked me, and I knew I liked you, but I thought… fuck, I’m sorry, I thought there had to be something wrong with you, you’re just too hot and good and smart and kind and perfect,” you breathe out, pulling away to hide your face in your hands.

Mingyu stays quiet, tapping his fingers on the table before reaching up and gently tugging your hands away from your face. You peek your eyes open to find him smiling fondly at you, sweet eyes half lidded and nose scrunched.

“You’re so silly, baby, you’ve been scared for nothing,” he teases, squeezing your hands until you giggle sheepishly, looking away from him and then looking back when he starts to speak.

“The only thing wrong with me, that I know of at least, is how embarrassingly into you I am. I had to beg the other guys not to flirt with you, not because I thought you’d go for them but because I didn’t want to see anyone else making you laugh like I do. You know the kid who used to sit next to you in class?”

He waits for your nod, continuing, “I got him club seats for the Homecoming game in exchange for him sitting somewhere else so I could sit next to you. Fuck, is that creepy?” Mingyu panics, pulling a hand from yours to run it through his hair as his gaze shifts around the room.

It’s your turn to soothe him, as you take his hand again and press it to your cheek, smiling softly and saying, “It’s not creepy, it’s cute. And embarrassing, like you said.”

Mingyu breathes a sigh of relief, brushing his thumb over your cheekbone and gazing at you thoughtfully, “You didn’t answer my question, though.”

Shit, you’d hoped he missed that.

“What changed is… I acted on impulse and said yes before I could even think of why I could say no,” you don’t want to tell him you didn’t mean to, and this feels close enough to the truth for it to not be called a lie.

He accepts it, nodding and saying with an easy grin, “Well, I suppose I can only hope you’ll act on impulse more often then.”

“I don’t think you’ll have to hope, it’s like my brain stops working when you’re around,” you admit to his great delight.

You chat more over the rest of breakfast, cleaning up together again, and you let yourself dance closer to him now, knowing he already knows he’s got you.

It’s not clear enough, apparently, because he nervously asks, “So, can I be your boyfriend?” just after you’ve walked him to the door. Your impulses have led you well thus far, so you reply on instinct, “Yes, Mingyu. You can be my boyfriend.”

The beam that splits his face is almost blinding, the arms snaking around you crushing, the heat of him against you searing, and you know suddenly that you were right to be scared, because you just might already be in love with him.

You can afford to be a little fearful though, as long as it means Mingyu’s around to hold you like this.

The arena feels like a live wire.

The game is down to the last quarter, and your team is behind by four points. This is the qualifying match for the state championships, and you’re terrified they won’t be able to make up the difference.

This other team has matched your boys point for point, but in a much less sportsmanlike manner, riling Mingyu up all night, poking at the whole team, enough so that Cheol got into a shouting match with the other captain, nearly getting ejected from the game.

The clock is ticking, time steadily running out, and you can tell Mingyu’s starting to get a bit anxious, his mouth drawn tight and his brow furrowed, his feet hitting the polished floor hard after every leap and fakeout.

You wish you could soothe him, but there’s no time, especially not when he’s lining up a three-pointer, clenching his jaw and launching the ball, watching with bated breath as it soars through the air and swishes through the net.

You barely have time to cheer, just three minutes left on the clock, and your eyes widen when he’s passed the ball again, going immediately for a two-pointer.

It’s like time freezes, the cheer team sounding like they’re in slow motion, the crowd silent, Mingyu gracefully bounding across the court, heaving the ball and standing still as he watches it sail and slip through the net just as the buzzer goes off.

The crowd roars, the whole team gathering around Mingyu and attempting to throw him in the air before they decide he’s just too fucking large and let him down. You can see his head swiveling, his eyes flicking wildly around the arena, and when he glances your way, you shoot your hand up, grin splitting your lips when he throws his palm up, returning your smile and high five.

You can see Mingyu mouth fuck it, see the courage growing in his eyes, as he sprints over to you and hefts you into his arms, swinging you around and ignoring the way the guys all heckle him.

He just laughs, holding you tighter and getting you damp with his sweat, but you don’t care because he won, they won, and he came to you, wanted to see you first.

And now he’s setting you back on your feet, leaning in slowly, his palms hot on your face, and you meet him halfway, pressing your lips to his, breathing in the sigh he lets out.

His arms wrap around you again, hauling you closer, deepening the kiss, tracing your bottom lip with the tip of his tongue, and whining when you pull away.

“Why’d you stop?” Mingyu asks breathlessly, not noticing the student reporter right next to the two of you, hoping for an interview. You tilt your head over, and Mingyu hiccups an embarrassed, oh!, finally seeing the person next to you.

“Are you… free to talk about those last two shots?” they ask tentatively, their eyes shifting from him to you and back to him. Mingyu looks at you, as if for approval, and at your nod, goes off with them to answer some questions.

You help the staff clean up from the game, stretch some of the guys out when they complain of strained muscles, and wait for Mingyu to finish up. You don’t have any set plans, but it feels wrong to leave without at least saying goodbye.

You’re picking up empty beer cups in the stands when you hear Mingyu call your name from the court.

“Wanna go home?” he asks, waving excitedly and waiting for you as you make your way down the bleachers, wet hair dripping down his neck.

Depositing the cups in the recycling bin, you walk over to him. You take too long, apparently, because he jogs over and sweeps you into another kiss, leaning closer and closer until you’re bent over his arm and clutching his hair out of fear.

You know he wouldn’t drop you, but it would hurt if he did, and you can’t stop yourself from trying to hold on. He likes it though, you think, your hands in his hair, because he moans against your lips and brings you back up so he can cup your face in his big hands and dip his tongue into your mouth.

You let your head grow fuzzy until your lungs start to burn, and you pull away to take in deep breaths as he trails kisses down your jaw. He nips at your neck, startling you into remembering you’re still in public.

“Let’s go home?” you ask breathlessly, grinning at his nod, and let him lead you from the stadium.

AN: okayyyyy so i had this almost fully written when i decided to release it in two parts, just so that part one could be smut free and both could be a bit more digestible.

Part two will come today, probably in a couple hours so you shouldn't have to wait long, and it will be fully smut! like... 4000 words of it... anyway

Part Two!

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goldenhickeysandramen · 2 months

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Evolution of their narrative

I admit it. I also get confused as to what kind of couple Tae& Koo is supposed to be to their shippers.

When I first joined the fandom they were the “hidden couple”, and jikook was “fan service”, cause is what the masses demanded from BH/Bang PD.

It didn't take me long to realise that the "masses" in this fandom are actually the taek00kers (humaluvre is bigger than the majority of the most famous JK's focus accs) … So I've never really understood who the masses-asking-massively-for-"jikook"-content were 🤷‍♀️

Then, I read them that the big proof that taek00k was real was, precisely, that they couldn’t do all the things that jikook could do so well (you know, travel together only the two of them, stare at each other in rapt attention, sucking ears and necks, treat each other as a married couple, support each other to the fullest, holding hands whenever they have the opportunity…). The reason of them not doing all of these things was South Korea, since it is an homophobic country.

That’s why the company edited the content and didn't let them interact. It was all cuts and so on. Everything they did was private, and that's why there was no evidence, other than some witnesses of people with telescopic sight and facial recognition (maybe they were androids?)

I had more or less understood the narrative, until the LOVEGRAM era started, and that's when it all blew over!

Their insta accounts were no longer professional accounts (like twitter or weverse), but personal… and from then on, their selfies were some short of engagement pics or couple confirmation and their funny comments about boxing hooks were actually whipped messages of love.

Btw it seems South Korea was no longer homophobic at that time.

INSTAGRAM WAS THE LAW

When JK closed his Instagram account (forced by the company 😌) we were already in chapter 2. The lovegram didn't matter anymore…because Jungkook hanging out sometimes with Tae and wooga became the confirmation of what Instagram -in reality- failed to confirm. Never mind that their hanging out concentrated during some months when they both had more free time or that they actually just did what good friends do: having fun at the movies, bowling or skiing together with other friends… but hey, those tiny details don't matter in the great love story that is told.

And from there we move on to the part where the CHAOS really started, when the COMPANION SYSTEM news dropped

And guess what? Korea became homophobic again

Some said that they were forced to part ways (the company, the government, themselves because they wouldn't last a second without f?….). Gays dont enlist together they said.

Another line of argument was that Jimin had asked JK to enlist with him… I guess because he was going to be terrible at the military. LOL

But we all can sense that the most extended opinion was "I can't understand this plot twist for shit".

(Maybe the problem is they never understood their favs but that’s for another post)

And in the midst of CHAOS it was no longer possible to think of a new narrative...that's why the strategy became "attack". If they can't prove that their favourites are a couple, they'll go and debunk the rest.

At this point they don’t seem to care if ta3k00k is real or not… they simply choose not to surrender and ignore some facts. If they freaking ignored Jennie during a year, they will do the same with jikook being glued for 18 months.

So in the next months, we'll probably see part of fandom (solos and tkkers) attacking jikookers, and another part trying to ignore us. I fear the chaos will continue… pretty sure some toxic ones will watch the travel show just to diss jikook..

But we shouldn’t care too much because as we have seen, Jimin and Jungkook will never stop taking their decisions and behaving with authenticity

The boys have chosen their own path this year, not to please the majority of their fandom (jikookers are not the mass), but because they wanted to.

At the end of the day, they care about their fans, but we don’t own their lifes and they have shown us. And I applaud 👏 them

And yes, maybe their country and the careers they have chosen dont allow them to be fully free…. but they dont prevent them to stay one next to the other. They know how to choose the battles worth fighting for.

Don't you think it's beautiful and says a lot about the quality of love and respect that Jimin and Jungkook have for each other?

I think so

"standing in the fire next to you"

💜💛

#kookmin #jikook #jikook kookmin #mingguk #jimin and jungkook #jikook kookmin jinkook jiminshiii jk #minkook #mingukkie

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whenlilyfallsinlove · 27 days

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the three times you and georgie cooper were jealous of each other and the one time you acted on it

a/n: ahh first post!! i was actually watching young sheldon while writing this :) sad it's the last season but excited for georgie and mandy spin off!! anyway felt like there was a lack of georgie x readers so wrote this with my fav trope! enjoy!

i - the time when veronica duncan punched georgie in the face

"and then... she punched me in the face!" your best friend georgie recounted to you, as you sat on the front porch of his house, a can of beer in both your hands.

"she punched you in the face, in front of everyone?!" you chuckle, raising an eyebrow.

"yeah.." he replied.

"no way! what did you even do?!" you take a sip of your beer, looking at him. your best friend georgie was one of your favourite people in the whole world and very good looking, hey! you were allowed to say that!

"i kinda.. told her i loved her. in front of the whole church." georgie muttered, slightly flustered.

"you what?!" you spluttered, hardly believing a word he was saying.

georgie saw the look on your face.

"hey i'm not lying!" he says, chuckling.

"what did you expect?!?! poor girl. you barely know her georgie!" you laugh teasingly, this boy really was something else. you had grown up alongside the boy and everything he did even to this day still surprised you.

"i know but i'm bummed by it.. i really like her y/n." he looks at you with wide eyes. he sounded... serious?

this stopped you laughing.

"you really like her huh?" you look at him, encouraging him to say more.

"yeah.. look" georgie sighs, taking a swig of his beer. "i've never felt this way about any girl before. ever."

oh. why did this feel like a massive kick in the stomach? your insides had gone all funny.

"oh.." you mutter, looking down. "didn't realise you were that serious."

"yeah.. i need to make it up to her, i care about her.. even if she don't about me" georgie sighs.

woah he really seemed to care about her. why did this aggravate you so much? veronica was a nice girl, pretty and kind.. even if she did (rightfully) punch him in the face. she was good to your best friend. so why didn't you feel supportive?

"don't worry georgie.." you reach out and comfortingly pat his arm "she's a nice girl, she'll forgive you."

he smiles and wraps his arm round you "thanks y/n, you're the best friend ever, ya know that?"

"yep.. what would you do without me." you chuckle, nervously.

friend. why did him referring to you as that make you feel queasy? that's what you were, right? best friends? this felt weird though.. different.

you suddenly felt sick.

"look i gotta get home.. got a lot of homework" you stand, trying to ignore the feelings you were currently having.

"going so soon l/n?" georgie grins.

"yeah sorry.." you chuckle "good luck with the veronica thing anyway.. i'll see you tomorrow."

"see ya" he smiles and waves you off.

you wave back and walk down the street to your house, thinking about what had just happened.

the sickness feeling, the disgust, the small bit of sadness you felt when georgie said he'd never felt that way before

then it sunk in. you were jealous. fuck!

ii - the time that guy from your spanish class asked you out

spanish was somehow both your favourite and least favourite class. i mean you hated the class - you were awful at it but you got to sit next to georgie in it.. so maybe it wasn't too bad.

today started like any other spanish lesson. you listened to the teacher drone on about grammar, you and georgie had a footsie war under the table etc. everything was normal. that was until the end of the lesson.

you were packing away your notebooks, listening to georgie babble on about football when adam, the boy who sat in front of you, approached you.

"hey y/n" adam smiled shyly at you,

"oh uh hey adam" you said friendly enough, but very confused on why he was speaking to you.

you weren't the only one confused. next to you, georgie had been interrupted by this exchange and had stopped talking, now listening, his eyebrow raised.

"uh i was wondering.. if you'd like to see the new ghostbusters movie with me tomorrow night.. its okay if not, i understand." adam chuckled nervously.

georgie frowned at this. who did this adam guy think he was, asking you out to the movies? he didn't even know you! who asks someone out that they don't even know.. this guy was a total weirdo. there was no way you were gonna say yes.

"um.. okay" you interrupted his train of thought. adam was quite handsome, and seemed nice. and although it was bad to admit, you needed a distraction from the unknown feelings you were having for your best friend.

your answer shocked georgie. why on earth did you say yes? did you feel bad for him or something.. or maybe you just wanted to see the new ghostbusters? he would've taken you if that was the case! not this idiot.

"oh good. i'll pick you up at 7 tomorrow then?" adam smiles at you, and god georgie wanted to punch him.

"yeah okay." you smile back, and watched as he waved at you then left class.

"well that was.." you turn to georgie, who is not looking at you but is looking straight ahead.

"let's go to lunch." georgie ignores you and starts walking off.

"oh okay" you mutter, then follow him.

georgie was mad. this guy didn't deserve you, he was definitely punching! you were beautiful and deserved someone way better. someone like.. him! but no you were best friends.. he couldn't ruin that. but the more he thought about it the more he realised he was jealous.

you were his, not that adams! that was the day georgie cooper realised he liked you, his best friend.

iii- the time georgie ditched you to hang out with jana boggs

every summer, you tagged along with the coopers (well more so georgie but you had long since been accepted as a member of the familt) to the carnival set up by pastor jeff and the church.

every year, you and georgie usually went off together and did your own thing but this year was different. georgie had been dating jana for a while now and of course it was only normal for him to not hang with you as much and you shouldn't get mad at him for wanting to spend time with her.. right?

"oh look.. jana's over there." georgie chuckles, awkwardly looking to where his girlfriend was stood.

"yep." you reply.

"and she looks.. pretty lonely" georgie states, again awkwardly.

"uh huh" you nod.

"maybe she needs someone to talk to?" he says.

"hey i get the hint, you go hang with her.. she's your girlfriend after all, i'll stay here with missy" you try and say encouragingly, but your voice wobbles slightly.

"really?!" george smiles.

"yeah!" you reply.

"you're the best" he gives you a tight hug. "i owe you one!"

"don't worry" you say, watching him walk off to jana " that's what friends are for" you mutter.

you look to the ground. it felt like it was time to finally accept that you liked georgie a lot. and not just as a friend.

"that was pretty sad to watch" missy speaks up, looking at you half sympathetically, half in enjoyment.

"well i'm glad my sad life gives you joy." you let out a weak laugh.

"look i've always liked you y/n, you're cool, and i've always thought you can do wayyy better than my dumb brother" she tries to comfort you.

"well thanks." you smile.

"and just so you know... i think georgie likes you back. he's just stupid.. and scared." missy smiles.

"i hope that's the case." you smile back.

as you watch georgie laugh along with jana, you couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy.

you really liked your best friend.

iv - the time where missy matchmakes.

"georgie.. please please please can you take me and marcus to the movies tonight" missy begged, standing in georgie's doorway.

"missy.. i'm supposed to be hanging with y/n tonight." georgie frowned, secretly he had hoped tonight would be the night he might finally confess to you.

"bring her with you! she loves me." missy smiles smugly.

"we'll see." georgie sighs.

four hours later, georgie, y/n and missy were in the car, going to pick marcus up. georgie didn't take much convincing after learning it would entail missy and her boyfriend being alone, and you were quick to accept to come with.

"so missy.. how serious are you and marcus?" you ask, turning round and smiling at her.

"we're kinda serious.. we've held hands a bunch and hugged. we haven't kissed.. but we've shared a straw" she replies, subtly bragging.

"oh wow pretty serious then." you chuckle. georgie smiles at you. he loved that you got on so well with his family, it was something he'd always liked about you.

there was silence for a while.

"can i ask you guys a personal question?" missy breaks the silence.

"umm sure" georgie responds as you nod.

"so you're both single..."

"thanks for the reminder" you smile playfully.

"and i know jana broke up with georgie because of you y/n.."

"how do you know that" georgie exclaims, confused.

"i know everything." missy deadpans. "and i also heard you on the phone to each other."

"anyway.." she continues "why don't you just date each other? it's very clear that you like each other, everyone can see it. it's simple." she says, proudly.

both your eyes widen. you were not expecting that. you start uncomfortably laughing and turn to look at georgie.

georgie was looking straight forward , avoiding eye contact.

"well.." you start "i don't think i'm georgie's type.."

"you kidding?" georgie exclaims. "not my type? of course you are! i compare every girl i ever meet to you!"

you sat shocked. what. the. hell.

"you do?" you look at him.

"of course i do. i like you a lot y/n." georgie blushes, avoiding eye contact.

your heart stopped. finally!!

"oh really? georgie i also like you a lot!" you smile, brightly.

"you do?" georgie grins.

"yeah of course i do! i have for ages.. i was jealous of jana.. and damn this was ages ago but i was jealous of veronica as well!" you chuckle.

"no way!! i was jealous of that adam guy! and pretty much any other guy who talked to you as well!" georgie replies, smirking.

you smile.

"i was just too nervous to say anything." you say.

"holy shit, me too!" georgie agrees.

you reach over and touch his shoulder. he smiles back. and at that moment although it sounded cheesy, it did really feel like a moment from a romcom.

"aww that was real cute guys." missy smiles.

"but don't you dare say any of that cheesy stuff when marcus is in the car!"

#georgie cooper #georgie cooper x reader #x reader #georgie cooper x you #young sheldon #young sheldon x reader #georgie cooper x y/n #missy cooper #childhood best friends to lovers #mary cooper #sheldon cooper #george cooper

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toriangeli · 1 month

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I was writing a longer post with my takes on all the 18th century costumes in the trailer, but this section about what we see in the theatre with Armand watching Lestat perform got long, so I'm posting it separately.

If you thought you remembered Lestat mentioning in TVL how Lelio doesn’t wear a mask, you’re not imagining things. He doesn’t. Moreover, there’s something very distinctive about the pattern on his costume. Those triangles on his sleeves?

What’s more, the mask he’s wearing is a straight-up replica of this:

The mask itself will change between eras and theatres, but for this character, it always has that boil on the forehead. That triangle pattern and the mask together are for the character of Arlecchino/Harlequin. Below is one traditional (VERY pre-18th century) look for Lelio:

Arlecchino is one of the goofier Commedia characters, being an aged, ugly, and supposedly stupid valet with a kind of trickster persona. The triangle pattern is meant to mimic patchwork, and is also seen on Arlecchino’s lover, the lady’s maid Columbina.

But we know Lestat played Lelio in Paris, not Arlecchino. It would be extremely weird for him to switch. I don’t even think the guy who usually plays Arlecchino would want to give him up for the night if he could help it, since that’s like…the classic Commedia character, and kind of the opposite of Lestat's usual.

I think what we’re seeing could be Lestat’s particular genius with Commedia, where he could play this relatively unfunny young lover but still be very funny with it. I think Lelio is disguising himself as Arlecchino for some kind of lover’s shenanigans. Disguise hijinks are all over the place in the fiction of this era, a comedy trope that was really made popular by Commedia. If you’ll note, Arlecchino in the picture wears a mask fixed to his face, not on a wand, leaving both his hands free because the mask is worn constantly. I think Lestat may be using this style of mask so he can bring the mask away from his face when he’s speaking as Lelio and not Arlecchino.

Why is that interesting?

Because this isn’t how it goes the one time Lestat is onstage in Paris as a vampire, at all. In that particular mental breakdown, Lestat doesn’t bother with any character at all, even if he's dressed for Lelio. He just starts doing wild shit. But Armand is at this performance. I could see Armand stalking him at the meltdown performance, as someone from the Children of Satan was there to witness it, but nobody from the CoS indulges in these human frivolities and they wouldn't just happen to be there and notice Lestat. It was their entire beef with Lestat in the first place, that he was acting like a human and not like a demon. The CoS did stalk Lestat, but only after he became a vampire—that we know of.

My theory: the CoS noticed Magnus noticing Lestat and Armand wondered what was up. We know they were keeping close tabs on Magnus. Moreover, Armand…his costume is hard to see because of the Where’s Waldo nature of the pic below, but he’s dressed simply and in black, in what does not look anything like 18th century Western European clothing. His hair is disheveled, too. He doesn’t blend in at all, but he wouldn’t blend in anyway when every single other face in that crowd is lily-white. I think, then, that he’s wearing something non-Western that I’m not familiar with. Judging by what looks to be a split, flowing sleeve, it could be Russian or Arab or from any number of countries Armand would believably be a native of. He may have grabbed clothing that would let him blend in simply as a brown man in the 18th century who isn’t trying to look French. Any actual fashion historians who know non-Western clothing would need to be on this one.

I may not be able to identify what Armand is wearing here, but everyone else is looking 1780’s French to me. Reenactors I’ve known have joked about how in every century, the 80’s has massive hair. We’ve also just begun the transition away from the conical torso/bell-shaped skirts in 1770’s women’s fashion and toward the empire waist that will dominate until roughly 1820. 1780’s gowns have a wonderful freeness to them.

Anyway, either Armand was stalking Lestat before he was turned, or Lestat did more than one performance as a vampire. I think the former is more believable, personally, since we know they were keeping an eye on Magnus.

#amc iwtv #iwtv #armand #the vampire armand #the vampire lestat #lestat de lioncourt #interview with the vampire #costume stuff ig #can't wait till the show airs and i can see how much i was wrong about

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aviivix · 10 months

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Soooo... I’ve been dead for a while and that’s because I’ve been fixated entirely on Splatoon 3 basically since it launched and all this time I’ve been working on an AU/HC/Fanfic/Something Like That called Culture Shock.

Given this has been something I’ve been working on for a LONG time, and given it’s entirely tied to Octarians, I figure I might as well make a big post about it before Side Order totally invalidates it! (Though I’ll keep working on this as an AU even if I don’t like how it interacts with Side Order.)

Details and more art under the break! (Though the quality will vary greatly as, again, I’ve been doing stuff with this since Splatoon 3 came out.) This is an extremely long story concept and if you read the whole thing I officially owe you my soul

There's a LOT to this (as there is with any hyperfixation concept like this) but I'll try to keep it somewhat light on details. Of course, it’s subject to change, and the exact plot progression is still kind of in the air. A big part is whether the climax of Act II should actually happen at the end of Act I... But here’s what I’ve developed so far.

The Story

Prologue

Culture Shock is designed as a DLC story mode set a year after the end of Splatoon 3's main story. The Squid Sisters have disappeared at some point in that time (a familiar situation), and ol' Cuttlefish has called in all of the agents-- plus Pearl and Marina-- to join forces against the Octarians that are undoubtedly behind it. Rather than going into stages alone, the levels are designed for you to do them with CPU teammates.

It's pretty quickly made certain that Octarians were involved, and thus the group is airlifted by Off the Hook into Octo Valley to find Callie and Marie. Upon landing, the player is ambushed by a group of Octolings -- that is, until one member in the backline pulls down her mask and excitedly calls out. It’s Callie? And though she doesn’t immediately unmask, Marie is definitely next to her.

After some confusion and accusations from both sides, the Squid Sisters assure the Squidbeak Splatoon that they’re not brainwashed, and offer to explain everything. Though Marie warns that it’s a long story, so the group settle down by ol’ Cuttlefish’s shack for a massive flashback played from the perspective of the Squid Sisters.

(Gameplay-wise, this whole setup is to allow the player to interrupt the Squid Sisters’ sequence at any time, and then pick up where they left off. It being a flashback also means it’s easy to replay missions or go for 100% by just asking Callie to repeat something.)

Funny title card, and the real story officially starts. I’m gonna skip through things a lot more, since at this pace it would take WAY too long to summarize every little scene and there are a lot of things not really settled on. I’ll be keeping detail for the introduction, as well as some key scenes, but for any less important/in-between type stuff, I’ll be summarizing what happens. Even doing this it will be extremely long, though Act I is far bigger than Acts II and III because it’s primarily setting up the world and motivations.

Act I

Introductory cutscene, in which the Squid Sisters find themselves stuck in purple ink, locked in an Octarian vault. The Octarians who squidnapped them keep their distance, though one particular Octoling does try to chat (to the annoyance of the others).

She claims that the Octarians will let them go in time, and that they won’t be hurt - though the Squid Sisters are suspicious at best. And, after noticing their discomfort in the Octarian ink, she offers them her Octoshot to paint the ground their own color. As the Octoling goes back to standing guard, Callie inks the floor and the two slump over, one of them idly singing the Calamari Inkantation under her breath.

Fade to when the Octoling swaps guard duty with another Octoling, who leans up against the wall and, after the first Octoling leaves, promptly falls asleep. Callie realizes she still has the Octoshot from before, and suggests slipping through the keyhole in squid form. With help from Marie, she’s able to get out on her own, and sets out to find the key to the vault. (This serves as a tutorial for stealth missions - though the guard will not wake up even if you fail.)

After freeing Marie, the two of them head towards the door, whispering about how crazy it was that the guard slept through all of that. The guard then dully tells them that he wasn’t asleep. The Squid Sisters prepare for a fight, but the guard barely has his eyes open and has not moved. After some back and forth with Callie, this Wendy’s employee of an Octoling just assures them that if he could beat them, it wouldn’t have even gotten to this point, and tells them to do whatever they want - just warning them that the other Octarians wouldn’t be so lenient.

An Octoling watches them come out, but just looks around frantically before running up to meet them. Marie declares that they’re breaking out, and prepares for a fight... but the Octoling starts freaking out instead, first worrying that they’ll get hurt trying to escape, and then worrying about what the rest of the Octarians are going to do with the Squid Sisters gone.

Before either Inkling can interject, a much more stern Octoling calls out while angrily marching up to the group. Through this conversation the Squid Sisters learn that the worried Octoling is named Aris, the tired Octoling is named Oregil, and this new more angry Octoling is named Cy. What originally seemed to be a jailbreak quickly turns into some (rather silly) negotiations with Cy, the Squid Sisters trying to convince her that Aris didn’t do anything wrong, and that Oregil totally did all he could to stop them.

Though Cy clearly doesn’t buy it, she lets it go, returning Aris’s Octoshot but also warning the Squid Sisters that their squadron’s mission is of utmost importance, and if the rest of them won’t do their jobs properly, she will. That said, the two of them just broke out of the only vault they had. So now, the Squid Sisters have to just stay in camp under Cy’s supervision.

With no more weapon to brandish and a clearly blown cover, the two of them kind of have no choice but to agree. Though Marie alludes to how dysfunctional this squad appears to be, and how easy it will probably be to escape.

Though before the conversation ends, Aris asks if “Tetra” will be okay with this. There’s a sort of tension in the air immediately upon mention of the name, immediately pierced by an intimidating voice asking what was going on. This was an Elite Octoling, apparently Tetra. After a recap from Cy, Tetra turns to the surrounded Squid Sisters, and tells them in no uncertain terms to always remember that they are prisoners - they are not one of them.

From here on out, the rest of Act I is a sort of slow burn. At the start, it’s purely the Squid Sisters looking for ways to escape. But as time goes on, they learn more about these Octarians by sort of living their life, and through learning about the octo squad themselves.

Aris is kind, possibly to a fault. While she’s committed to the squadron and their goals, she’s also the most both-sides-ist of the bunch. She wants to think that everyone is trying their best, and does everything she can to avoid conflict, but as a result she doesn’t speak up as much when the Squid Sisters make faulty assumptions about them, and she uninentionally hinders their growth at the start by letting them hide behind her leniency. Over the course of Act I, she eventually has to realize she can’t just hold everyone’s opinion equally - the Squid Sisters are making judgements off of bad information, and she realizes that her enabling that is making it harder for everyone.

Cy is the opposite. Cy is deeply passionate about their situation, and takes any opportunity to show the Squid Sisters what they get wrong. She especially butts heads with Marie, having little patience for the various non-solutions to their problems, or for the ignorance about Octarian culture. She’s extremely well connected among Octarians, even having worked with Octavio himself, although she doesn’t seem thrilled about it. Thus, despite coming across as very headstrong and aggressive, she also is the source of a lot of information about Octarian life.

Oregil is a self-proclaimed realist - in actuality, a doomer. He doesn’t say much, but what he does say is not particularly hopeful. When put in charge of something, he doesn’t tend to have a lot of energy behind it, as he’s become convinced that, in the end, Octarians cannot be saved. That said, it would be wrong to call him fully complacent. He still sticks with the team, even if he doesn’t have much energy to contribute, and would rather go down with his sinking ship than abandon his friends and family. Though he always seems to be napping on the job, he never actually does, though not for lack of trying. He has insomnia, and it’s rare to find him asleep at all even when laying in bed.

The Elite Octoling Tetra rarely shows herself. The only things the Squid Sisters have seen of her is that she’s intimidating, and not to be reckoned with. But the way the others talk about her and interact with her betray a different story. Oregil is flippant about her commands and doesn’t actually give anything his all. Cy goes along with Tetra’s commands, but seemingly only due to her own reasons aligning with Tetra’s rather than out of any respect for her authority. Aris obeys, but the way she acts and talks about it makes it almost feel like she’s obeying out of pity.

Lastly, there is also a fifth mysterious Octoling that the Squid Sisters will occasionally grab a passing glimpse of. They don’t know who this Octoling is, and whenever she’s mentioned, the others assure them that “she’s nobody”.

As the act goes on, Callie especially pries deeply into the hows and whys of a lot of Octo stuff. She had been in Octarian territory before in Splatoon 2, sure, but she was being brainwashed by DJ Octavio himself and held up as a superstar. This time, she was fully aware of herself, and living the life of the average Octoling soldier in the time between Octavio’s Zapfish heists.

The two of them wonder why the sun hasn’t come up, and learn that without the Great Zapfish, the kettle’s “sun” cannot shine. It’s a land of eternal night. The Octolings seem to live on a diet of mostly power eggs and salmon, which they learn is because without light, most crops don’t grow. Many little things like this illustrating just how resource-starved this nation is.

There are a lot of assumptions made and corrected. A lot of complaints put into perspective when the things they find uncomfortable or annoying are things these Octarians have had to deal with every day. But one of the biggest things is their ideas of resolution. An early question being, “Why don’t you just leave? Inkopolis is a stone’s throw away.”

There are a lot of answers that are given to this, but to some effect, they all boil down to “culture”. Inkopolis isn’t the same as Octaria. It has different people, different history, different fashion, different food, different expectations... it’s just a totally different place.

Oregil’s lived in Octarian society his whole life - it’s his home. Cy is an artist, she makes distinctly Octarian music and sees firsthand how it connects those in Octarian communities. Aris knows Octolings are “accepted”, but only insofaras they appeal to Inkling expectations. It’s hard to express their culture without being seen as weird or other. Even little things like how they look - Octolings in Inkopolis tending to make their hair slimmer, straighter, adding patterns and minimizing the amount of visible suckers. Plus, how many non-Octoling Octarians do you see in Inkopolis and beyond? Maybe an Octoling can fit in, but what about an Octotrooper?

The most impactful realization for the Squid Sisters as well, is just how few Octarians are even there anymore. Between the exodus in Octo Valley, the bigger exodus in Octo Canyon, the horrors of Octo Expansion, and just recently the similar horrors of Alterna... all stacked on top of the nation itself being less and less hospitable year by year? Since the events of Splatoon 1, so many Octarians have been lost. Within the squad they’re in, pictures and murmurings from the rest of them tell the stories of at least four other Octolings that were previously in their squadron.

So then the other aspect of the Squid Sisters’ arc is... if they don’t think Octarians should be stealing the Great Zapfish or dealing with Salmonids or anything like that... what should they be doing?

Because so far, nothing has worked for them. Negotiations fail, because Inklings don’t know enough about Octarian society to understand why they need so much support. They don’t know enough about the history of Inklings and Octolings to realize that Inkadia is largely the reason they’re suffering. The average Inkling doesn’t know enough to realize there’s a problem, and the average Octarian doesn’t have a loud enough voice.

All this compounded onto the fact that now, the only Octolings Inkadia sees are the ones who decided that Octarians were oppressing themselves, to the point where they abandoned everything they knew to live in the nation that started this in the first place.

Though, it’s hard to blame them when life in Octaria is practically nonexistent. Losing so many people, living in such horrible conditions, led by an egomaniac whose awareness of his people is performative at best... but most Octolings can’t let that take away from who they are as a people. They don’t let it tear their communities apart, or sever the bonds they have with people. Their lived experiences show them that it’s worth fighting for. Well... except in one scenario we’ll get into later.

The final important thing that comes to light over this period... This whole time Octavio has barely come up, because he doesn’t even know the Squid Sisters are there. The squadron are a real squadron in the Octarian army, but this whole mysterious operation involving the Squid Sisters is entirely outside Octavio’s control. In fact, it becomes apparent that the Octarians at least in this squadron or associated with this squadron, hate Octavio and everything he’s been doing to their society as a whole.

They’ve always seen the Zapfish heists as a horrible, horrible ego trip. An extremely hollow, expensive move that only plants targets on the backs of Octarians. But even in feeling that way, Aris and Oregil both admit that there isn’t much else offering them hope. If not for Octavio stealing the Zapfish for those couple days of “sun”light, what would they be doing? Though Cy has a much more strong opinion there, asserting that doing nothing would have put those resources into survival rather than gambling it all on a fool’s errand.

Needless to say, the Squid Sisters get a bit wrapped up in this stuff. Talking to these Octolings, learning about their life, living it, offering to help (gameplay sections), and all around having a lot of beliefs challenged. It’s a lot of stuff that they are only able to wrap their mind around from actually knowing what it’s like to live through it, without the option to just leave when it gets too rough.

While at the beginning they were just looking for an opening to escape, by the halfway point they aren’t even really being watched anymore, let alone trying to break out. Tetra may call them prisoners, but by that point they’ve had so many opportunities to just walk away. The only thing keeping them there is the fact that if they leave, what will happen? And can they confidently say that it’s the Octarians’ fault for it happening?

By the end, their primary objective is to find something they can do to actually give them a shot. And for that... they’ll need more than just the two of them. The idea of bringing in the Squidbeak Splatoon is immediately dismissed as insane by Cy - especially the idea of bringing in THE Agent 3. But after a little while, with Oregil indifferent as always and Aris on board, she comes around, though warning that Tetra will not like it, and they could be accidentally luring Agent 3 into a death trap. But it’s a risk they decide to let the Captain decide for themself.

Act II

Acts II and III are far less elaborate, because this is after all the characters have been established, and the world has been largely explored.

Act II kicks off with there being a lot of reactions. (As a note, the Octolings with the Squid Sisters at the present time are Oregil, Aris, and Cy. In their own ways, they’re uncomfortable in the presence of Captain 3. Cy and Oregil also seem to have an attitude with how they look at Marina.) A lot of disbelief, but also, to some degree, understanding. Naturally, Captain 3 is skeptical, taking a moment to contemplate what they’re being asked to do.

But around this time, Marina cuts in, asserting that regardless of the cause, Octarian society is inherently a problem. That’s why she left. She accuses the squadron of perpetuating DJ Octavio’s oppressive rule, and that they could have their cake and eat it too just by moving to Inkopolis.

The group go back and forth, with escalating emotions and accusations, until Pearl declares that, whatever they’re plotting, Off the Hook and the Squidbeak Splatoon will put a stop to it. Silence falls over the group, until Marie retaliates saying that she doesn’t think she can in good conscience fight against people who are only trying to exist.

The other agents start taking the Octarians’ side, even Agent 8 who, despite hesitating given their trust in Off the Hook, still resonates too strongly with the plight of the Octarians to turn their back on them fully. Pearl is taken aback, but after a glance at a very betrayed Marina, declares the Squidbeak Splatoon their enemy too, Marina locking eyes with Agent 8 before Off the Hook take their leave.

Cy remarks that it’s a shame, but she understands exactly why Marina is acting this way. Callie asks why, but Cy just assures her that Marina isn’t stupid, so if everything goes right, she’ll come around. Aris tells the player where the kettle’s entrance is, and at their leisure, they can join the Octarians there.

Upon entering the kettle as the player Cy assumes you know how things work, and there are a few filler travel stages to break the story up a little, before eventually the group return to see Tetra emerge for the first time, locking eyes with Captain 3, removing her goggles for the first time, and immediately going on the attack. Captain 3 drops their weapon and holds up their hands, but Tetra still rushes them down, holding both Dark Tetra Dualies up to their face.

After a long moment of them staring each other down, Tetra narrows her eyes, throws her arms down in a burst of anger, and leaves without saying anything else. After a few sighs of relief across the group, the tone lightens up, and Cy guesses that Tetra won’t be bothering them - which is a relief.

The bulk of Act II itself is actually fairly underdeveloped story-wise and is a lot more gameplay focused. It reinforces a lot of the character stuff from Act I, but a big ongoing theme is repeatedly clashing with Off the Hook in various places, and getting more glimpses of the strange fifth Octoling and getting more hints as to what it really is that the squadron is planning, and why they’ve kept it hidden.

While their convictions are still the same, there is a growing level of uncertainty among the group as they feel less okay with being kept in the dark. Eventually, the Squid Sisters, Cap 3, and Agent 8 catch a glimpse of the mystery Octoling leaving, and watch them enter a building off the edge of the camp alongside the other Octolings. The Squid Sisters take the opportunity to snoop around the building, which appears to be a laboratory of some sort.

As the group search deeper within for answers, strange, distorted music can be heard - with oddly familiar vocals. It turns into a full stealth mission, until eventually towards the end you’re spotted and confronted by all four of the squadron members. Tetra warns that they were not supposed to come here, Cy is quiet for once, Aris is quiet as usual, and Oregil... actually looks motivated to stop you.

Of course this is a video game and you win that horrible 4v4, breaking through into the room ahead to find that fifth Octoling in a room full of synthesizers, speakers and computers. She calls for Cy, before turning around and realizing who it actually is.

Marie asks the obvious question, of what the hell this is, and the fifth Octoling who introduces herself as Sock, answers that this is a studio, actually. Well, a lab and a studio. Maybe it should be called a studyo. Weirdly lighthearted for what the group was expecting.

Cy, having respawned and entered behind them, is audibly defeated as she guesses an explanation can’t be avoided.

The studio was used over this entire period to study the effects of a song whose influence is as potent as it is destructive... the Calamari Inkantation. It’s the song that spawned not one, but two mass exoduses. It has an undeniable impact on the cephaling psyche. And, as they know, it’s one of the most important songs to not only the Squid Sisters, but Inkadia as a whole.

The fact that the Inkantation can grab the mind so easily when it isn’t being actively fought, and cause such extremely psychological changes... it was, and still is, one of the biggest problems Octaria has had to deal with. And up until recently, there was little you could do about the Inkantation besides actively study its influence.

What they found, was that it was able to simply cloud out your own lived experience. It would walk you down mental shortcuts, take advantage of the simplicity of certain ideas, and corrupt experiences that contradicted it. Causing Octolings to simply leave their struggling communities, their memories twisted with the idea that they’ve somehow invented their own struggle, corrupted only to enable the Octoling to gravitate towards assimilation without dissonance.

The only Octolings welcome in Inkadia are those who have listened to and internalized the Inkantation... those who, consciously or not, allow it to twist their memories and reshape who they are as people.

It’s a lot. Some Octolings are more resistant than others, and some, like Sock here, have managed to reverse engineer it and escape that way. Sock, an Octoling raised in Inkopolis, raised with the Inkantation, and only later exposed to its flaws - without memories of Octaria to have been twisted by it, she was only able to create new ones, to learn from those who live Octaria every day, rather than being stuck behind a layer of cognitive dissonance.

Of course, other Octolings simply could not leave. The new experiences formed after the Inkantation constantly falsify the old, corrupted memories, and reinforce the reality. But many Octolings, upon being swayed by the Inkantation, simply left and assimilated into Inkling societies.

The idea that the Inkantation is not only not good, but actively a corrupting force, was not something Cy nor any of the squadron were confident the Squid Sisters or anyone else exposed to the Inkantation would be able to process. And without that, how else would they understand the importance of their mission - to reverse the effects of the Inkantation using the strange, distorted song the group have been hearing.

Taking a lot of voice samples from the Squid Sisters was the only way they would be able to relpicate the sound that originally entranced those under the Inkantation’s effects. That’s why they needed to go for broke and resort to squidnapping. The Inkantation being a strong corrupting force meant that it was unpredictable how they would react to learning the truth behind the song, while still at least partially under the effects of it.

And that’s also why Cy said of Marina that she understands why she’s so hostile - Marina is one of the most deeply Inkantationed Octolings.

A lot of the breakdowns of how the Inkantation affects Octolings also resonates extremely strongly with Agent 8 - who, despite how prominent and overpowering the Inkantation was, was still able to hold onto friendly feelings around Octarians, and frustrations around their place in Inkling society. So many weird, dissonant feelings, are starting to make sense. But also, a lot of really awful feelings are starting to surface as well - traumatic feelings, now that they’re starting to think back on their life, and counterbalancing that to the horrors they witnessed in the Deepsea Metro. Horrifying, but... real. So, so, horribly real.

This is their last shot. If they can reverse the Inkantation across Inkopolis... who knows what it would achieve. But the plan, at the very least, is unity and community. Cy admits that in all likelihood, most Octolings will stay in Inkopolis even after the Inkantation is cleared. That’s their home now - they have new friends, new commitments, a new life... and there’s not much of a home to return to in Octaria.

But, maybe, some Octolings come to visit. Maybe some Octolings come back. Maybe those that don’t, can at least use their new life in Inkopolis to raise the voices of those suffering back home, and create a real partnership - no egotistical DJ required. And not just turning Octolings into Inklings with funny hair.

Act III

Well, once this whole reveal happens, there is a lot of internal conflict, but on the face of it, there’s really nothing to argue. There’s the disgust and to a degree personal insult felt at the idea that this song that was so important to them, that became a cornerstone of Inkadia, was harmful. That they the Squid Sisters enacted that harm onto tens of thousands of Octolings.

But it’s all there. Their minds want to deny it, but there’s nothing to stand on.

At the very least, they have a rare opportunity to set things almost entirely right. And so, they take it.

The plan is simple: Do what the Inkantation did. Blast the song out to as many Octolings as possible, and then... maybe overthrow Octavio for fun just as a bonus lol

The Squid Sisters are already popstars - they can just take the song into the Inkopolis News Station, perform it live, and get it playing all over, such is how Inkopolis is with its new music. Or well, that’s how it COULD work... if there wasn’t a sudden “NEVER GONNA HAPPEN” and muffled “Pearl--!!” coming from Agent 8′s earpiece, that they forgot to take out.

So... the easy walk-in walk-out strategy just turned into a big climactic final battle for the station. The specifics of which........ are still being ironed out, sORRY!

But generally, Pearl and Marina get backup in on the situation, and it’s a lot of small missions in one building, split across multiple teams, some stealth, some just battle, some objectives, and the final battle being a survival section over the Squid Sisters performing the song (playing as the squid sisters is cool but its not quite a Splatoon Final Boss if the Squid Sisters aren’t singing some variant of the Calamari Inkantation over it except that one time) including Pearl and Marina themselves getting in on the battle.

I’m not musical enough to think of how this would work, but it would be kinda crazy for it to sort of be objective-based by whether the Squid Sisters’ reverse-Inkantation or perhaps even Off the Hook singing the normal Inkantation is playing for more time - like a dueling song of some sort

After it’s over and you win, there’s this sort of both relief and confusion since it feels like not much happened - but it affects Marina. Like, god, does it affect Marina after everything that happened to her after the Inkantation. A lot of what she knew, the people she was close to, her life in general, all just flooding back. Suddenly realizing that these were not shadowy monsters that were out to get her, they weren’t evil clones trying to destroy the world. They were people she knew, old friends, family even, that were just trying to get by as best they could without leaving their friends and family in the dust. And then she let herself be swayed by a song, and then suddenly... how could she have just left them like that? What did she do to them? What did she do to herself?

But cutting through it all is Pearl’s voice, asking if she’s okay. Despite what she was worried about... it’s still Pearl. It didn’t make her hate Pearl or not recognize Pearl or change anything about how she felt about Pearl. It just, cleared the fog around the other people she cared about, that she had been convinced she didn’t.

So.... yeah!! Once all is said and done, Marina assures Pearl that she’s still her, that all these fears she had, didn’t happen. Plus, some minor panic over how close she got to keeping these thoughts down forever. But she didn’t, and now that it’s all over, she can let it out to Pearl and the rest of them.

Epologue

Other Octolings throughout Inkopolis start feeling similar things, though minus the Deepsea Metro trauma, and as anticipated, some of them do return. Some come back temporarily, some just have a lot to think about. Many who come back in some form or another will also sadly realize how close Octaria is to just crumbling to the ground. But over the following days, weeks, months, and years, both Octolings and Inklings work together to both raise awareness and to help reconstruction efforts.

It’s the start of a much, much, much larger social shift - that kind of also passively involves removing Octavio from power, but that’s easy enough at this point. And of course, Pearl and Marina come up with some shenanigans to get the squadron and the Squid Sisters... off the hook.

And that’s Culture Shock, the entire story exists for that one throwaway pun at the end thank you for listening you’ve been a great audience and even if this FINDS its target audience NOBODY will be able to read this before the direct that will inevitably have Side Order content which means NOBODY except ME will have the knowledge of this before their expectations are shfited by the existence of Side Order

Okay but seriously if you somehow finished all of this like, DM me on Discord @aviivix or something because we will become best friends

Also... if you can believe it... this is like maybe HALF of like all the story stuff I’ve got in Culture Shock - each member of the Octo Squad has an arc (especially Tetra she has the biggest arc but I barely mention Tetra here) and there’s big ass history with the dead Octos and a lot of specifics I didn’t touch... if you ask me about any of it I will be your best friend no questions asked.

TYSM!!!!!!!!!

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #squid sisters #octoling #agent 3 #culture shock au

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morganbritton132 · 1 year

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I like to imagine Eddie as kind of a Justin Hawkins or Jack White type. Absolute genius and was MASSIVE for a somewhat brief period, and certain people still go wild when they see him, but his fame has simmered down to a comfortable ‘can still walk into a starbucks’ level. I love the tik too saga, it’s so immersive!

Oh, absolutely! When Corroded Coffin was at their peak, Eddie was the guy – he was the guy in the band that you knew. He was the Jello of the Dead Kennedys, if you will. It is an unspoken thing that people came to see Corroded Coffin to see Eddie. Eddie is Corroded Coffin. Everybody else was happy enough to make money and play music without being mobbed.

There was a time when Eddie was wearing hoodies and sunglasses so no one would recognize him. But once the band’s popularity started to drop off and he got more into the behind the scenes aspect of making music, he no longer needed that.

It does lead to some pretty funny internet moments.

Some mom will post to a Moms Against Bullying Facebook page about how her son is really into interactive roleplaying games and was being bullied for it. One day when they’re out shopping, they go into this café to get a snack and sit down next to this man painting a miniature. Her son got really excited about it and just talked this man’s ear off for an hour and the man was just as nice as can be. He was really responsive and enthusiastic, and made her son really happy.

Then she posts a picture of her son with famous rockstar Eddie Munson.

There’s a YouTube video of a girl documenting her journey to buying a guitar. She has been saving up all summer and was finally going to buy the guitar she wanted. She gets to the shop and the guitar that she originally wants is marked up so she doesn’t have enough money for the guitar and lessons.

While she’s debating what to do, an employee tells her that this random man buying strings paid for the guitar and a year’s worth of lessons. She sees this head of curly dark hair and a leather jacket leaving the store and runs to catch up to him.

She thanks him and he’s just like *devil horns* rock on. The comment section of the video is just like, EdDiE mUnSoN????

Someone has a story about their tire blowing out on the freeway and the person that pulls over to help them change it is the guitarist and the drummer from a nineties metal band. There’s another story about how someone’s kid was struggling with their homework at the library and a man renting VHS tapes called his husband to help figure out the problems.

Then because of Eddie’s TikTok account, all these stories are brought back up when people realize that they met him and didn’t know. Some people are like, “if I hang out in the downtown Chicago area will I also meet Eddie Munson?”

Occasionally, he’ll get filmed when he’s out in public or someone will come up asking for a picture and he’s fine with that. He thinks that’s cool. He’s less okay with people who blatantly put down his TikTok fans because they knew him first or people who mess with Steve.

#Eddie being a random cryptid do-gooder is something that is so personal #eddie munson #eddie munson tiktok saga

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comradekatara · 3 months

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sry if u already answered this, but like thoughts on gaang + the girls trying weed for the first time + how they would do it 🙈

the first time suki tries weed she is ten years old. a bunch of the older girls are getting high together, and when none of them are looking she steals their bong. they find her on the bathroom floor hacking up a lung. but once she finally stops coughing she’s like woah this rules…

you may be wondering why i’m listing suki first when i don’t usually do that for these kinds of posts, but since suki is of course the one who introduces every other member of the gaang to weed, it feels only appropriate.

suki gets high with sokka like a week into the start of their relationship. sokka is pretty disappointed tbh. he thought maybe weed would solve all his problems and unlock the secrets to the universe, but in actuality it just made his head hurt. alas

suki then tries to get high with zuko, who flat out refuses. he doesn't like suki, and he's afraid that she can tell (she can) and is in fact trying to poison him. so sokka has to suffer the intolerable Weed Headache all over again so that he can get high with zuko, because he wouldn't feel safe otherwise. "why doesn't he just not get zuko high in the first place?" you may be asking. well it's because suki begged sokka to get zuko high upon her insistence that it would be really funny. and it is.

katara also wants to try weed but suki is like "not until you're older" (she may sound like a massive hypocrite here, but she knows that sokka would kill her if he ever found out that she gave DRUGS to his BABY SISTER!!!!) and even when katara is like "but you're barely older than i am and you've clearly been doing this forever???" suki refuses to budge. eventually, after one million years, katara finally gets to try a hit from suki's special stash, and she's like "yeah, wow, this is good weed. wayyy better than iroh's tbh." to which sokka and suki are both like "excuse me WHAT???!?!?!?!?!"

aang wants in on suki hotboxing the bathroom and is just like "why does it smell like gyatso in here?" to which suki's like "your mentor, the air nomad legend, monk gyatso, was a pothead?" and aang's like "well i don't know about that, but your room smells exactly like the stuff he'd give us to calm us down whenever we got too hyper." at which point suki just shrugs and passes her joint.

iroh is actually the first person to give toph weed. like with that unpleasant katara revelation, suki feels immensely betrayed. so does sokka, for some reason, even though he doesn't even smoke weed. toph thinks it's just fine tbh, but then she discovers that getting azula high is actually the funniest thing ever, and she starts smoking way more, specifically with azula.

azula and toph get high together pretty frequently. sometimes (whenever he catches wind that this is happening) sokka joins them just to chaperone (he's scared of all the damage they might cause with any sort of common sense filter turned all the way off) and also to witness it (it's truly a sight to behold). they mostly just bitch about their terrible families, but their insults are really funny, and they make each other crack up. they have fun together.

suki is really proud of the fact that she's the first person to ever give mai weed. she's like, "wait..... did iroh never...." and mai's just like, "you really think i'd let that old creep push drugs around me?" weed does for mai exactly what sokka had hoped it would. for once in her life she's not hyper vigilant while also being bored out of her mind, but actually kind of chill and happy. sokka is so fucking jealous.

ty lee refuses to try weed, or any kind of mind-altering substances whatsoever. she won't even drink a single glass of wine at dinner. she's convinced that the moment she lets her guard down someone will finally find one of her weaknesses (a real one, not just the ones she advertises on purpose to deflect from her true vulnerabilities) and exploit it. suki, on the other hand, doesn't understand how someone so hot and cool could also be so straightedge. she's constantly trying to get mai to convince ty lee to try weed, but mai is just like, "sorry but this is just how she is, there's no changing her." eventually, years down the line, ty lee is finally sufficiently worn down and agrees to try weed once with suki and mai, but that they must first shut all the doors and close the blinds and promise to never let her out of their sight. it goes...fine? she's never tempted to try it again, but at least now she knows, and that's that.

bonus: no one knows this, but it wasn't actually gyatso who gave aang his first joint. it was bumi.

#la-jura #asks #the gaang and #suki #im pretty sure i have actually talked about this before tbh #multiple times in fact #but whatever. always a good topic to revisit #also fyi. jet was probably PLANNING on giving katara weed but never got around to it #alas

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bucky-bucky-bucky-bucky · 1 year

Text

You Drew Stars Around My Scars | Bucky Barnes x Reader

Hi. This is some heavy shit, so please proceed with caution. Do not read this fic if you are made uncomfortable by any of the warnings.

Thanks <3

❌Warnings❌ Scars, blood, depression, anxiety, self-harm, suicidal ideation / attempt

“And what about this one?” Bucky asked, dragging his lips across one of your scars. It rested along your ribcage, drawing a sharp line into your skin. It wasn’t sensitive anymore, didn’t hurt like it used to. But Bucky’s lips assuaged any lingering discomfort.

You ran a finger over the raised tissue and let out a laugh. “Oh, that was a huge misunderstanding, actually. Have you ever met that guy in the red suit? With the katanas?”

Bucky’s gaze left your scar and drifted up to your face. “Katanas? As in more than one katana?”

“Yeah! His name’s Wade… something,” you paused, struggling for the eccentric stranger’s name. “Wade Williams… or something like that. Anyway, yeah, he got me with one of his multiple katanas. But it was really just a communication issue- Hill sent me after him. SHIELD had basically no intel on the guy and it was assumed that he was a threat- but he’s on our side.”

Over the course of his life, Bucky had seen some strange things. Red Skull. Infinity Stones. A talking raccoon. But never a guy running around with a couple of katanas and bright red suit. “So, katana guy is a friend of ours?”

“Yeah! And he’s actually pretty cool. A little weird. Very funny. Kind of a sarcastic asshole,” you laughed. “I think you’d like him.”

Bucky rolled his eyes and brushed his lips over your scar once more. “I don’t know about that- he stabbed my best girl-”

“He didn’t stab me, per se…”

Bucky made a mental note to look into this Wade guy, see if he could be trusted.

“Okay," you said, "it's your turn…” Another round of the game began.

For almost an hour, the two of you had laid in bed, asking about the other’s scars. You never dared ask Bucky about his scars or how he got them; their origins were too terrible to describe. If he decided to open up about them one day, that was his business. And you were more than happy to give him all the time and space he needed.

But it was Bucky who started the game. After you both came down from your post-sex euphoria, you decided to stay in bed. Kissing. Touching. Talking. Bucky ran his hand along a scar near your shoulder, the one he always noticed but knew nothing about. And though he didn’t want to hear tales of you getting hurt, he still held a curiosity about your life before him. He wanted every detail, every story. And so, he’d asked about the scar. And to his relief, it didn’t come from a knife or a gun- just a childhood game of tag that got out of hand.

But his question opened the door. He promised he didn’t mind speaking about his scars- not to you. He argued that it was only fair. He asked you about yours- why shouldn’t you be allowed to ask about his? He wanted to share every detail of his life with you. The details he could remember, anyway. And so, the two of you went back and forth, asking the other for the stories behind your scars.

Bucky learned more about you, and you him. But you didn’t bring up the massive ridge of twisted tissue on Bucky’s left side- you knew that story. And hearing it again would’ve gutted you.

“Hmm…" your eyes drifted over Bucky's body, "how about…”

There were too many to choose from. You hated how many options lay scattered across Bucky’s skin; each reminder of his past life spelled trauma, pain, abuse. But a new light seemed to flash in Bucky’s eyes each time he told you a story. He’d never let anyone tour his body like this. Had never opened up about all the vile things Hydra did to him. Each story unburdened him a bit more, helped him release the pain he’d been holding on to for so long. And you were more than happy to help shoulder the weight.

Your fingers ghosted along a jagged scar near his hip, “Okay, how about this one?”

“That one- that one is…” Bucky thought for a long, quiet moment. The holes in his memory acted like a sieve, draining most of his past life from his mind. You watched as he struggled, fought to remember this exact wound. His brow furrowed as he searched through the catalogue of his trauma. He flipped through page after mental page, reliving every instant of pain. And then, the light returned to his eyes.

“Oh- I remember now. I got shot- and one of my handlers cut the bullet out while I was still in the field. Sewed it up- albeit, poorly.” He ran a finger along the uneven line of scar tissue, “And then they sent me after my target again. If I remember right, which I probably don’t…” He gave a sad laugh, “I’m pretty sure the stitches ripped almost instantly. I mean, maybe sixty seconds after he finished. So I just kinda bled until I took down my mark.”

“Jesus, baby…” Every story he told pulled you closer to his side. You wanted to cover him, to protect him from things that already happened. Things you couldn’t help or prevent. Every mention of his misery, every recollection of the abuse made you wish you’d met him sooner. Maybe you could’ve helped. Maybe you could’ve saved him.

You rested your head against his chest, willing the thoughts of Bucky’s pain to dissipate. But they refused to comply. And Bucky, always more concerned about your pain than his, took notice.

“Hey, I’m okay now,” Bucky curled a finger under your chin and tilted your face up toward his. “Don’t get sad on me, alright?” He shot you his biggest smile, ‘I’m just fine. And I’m here- with you.”

You gave him a solemn nod. “No, I know. I’m just… you didn’t deserve it, Buck. You didn’t deserve any of it.”

He took your face in his hands and gazed into your big, sad eyes. He never thought he’d find someone like you- never thought he’d find someone, period. But you had a big heart, and you loved him with everything you had. You showed him how much you cared. Made him feel like he mattered.

“I know that now. You helped me with that.”

A small smile pricked at the corners of your lips. You wanted to fix everything for him. Take away his pain, remedy his problems, shoulder the weight of his nightmarish past. But you couldn’t. And the helplessness it planted in you made your chest ache. But knowing you’d at least helped Bucky see himself differently eased a fraction of the pain.

“Alright, my turn!” Before you had a chance to think, Bucky was on top of you. He tickled and poked at your sides, shunning the sadness from your eyes. And when he was satisfied with your improved mood, he rested a hand on your thigh. The scar he selected rested above your knee, its border faded. “This one?”

“That’s from a burn,” you told him. “Explosion at a Hydra base- I got a lot of burns that day, actually.” As the memory of that day resurfaced, you ran a hand over where the searing pain used smolder under your skin, “All the others healed, this is the only one that scarred.”

Bucky swept his thumb over it a few times, as though trying to ease your past pain.

You sat up, coming face to face with Bucky. The scar you had your eye on was something you wondered about often. And now that you had permission to ask, you ran you lips over the mark. “What about this one?” The long scar ran along the side of his neck, beginning a few inches above his clavicle. It traveled horizontally, nearly reaching the back of his neck. “And this one?” And identical scar rested just on the other side, the two marks mirror images of one another.

After so many rounds of this game, Bucky didn’t seem to mind telling these stories. But when your attention landed on these particular scars, he didn’t want to play anymore. He wanted you to know everything about him- just not this. But what choice did he have? He could lie to you. He could make up a story. He could refuse to tell you the truth. But whatever he decided, he knew he’d regret it.

It wasn’t fair to keep things from you. Bucky swore from day one to always be honest with you- and you did the same. But this truth only served to hurt you. The pain in your eyes when he told you about his gunshot wound and the resulting torn stitches cut him deep. But that story was nothing compared to the source of the scars on his neck. He knew how crushed you’d be when he gave you the real story. And though he never wanted to lie to you, he found himself pulling an explanation out of thin air.

“They’re from, um…” he cleared his throat, already regretting his lie. “They’re from restraints. They put me in this, I don’t know what you’d call it- I guess a… collar-type thing. Made of metal. Really tight. It dug into my skin. They used it to, uh, to chain me to a wall.” Part of Bucky believed his own lie. He thought for a silent moment- did this really happen? Was his attempt at a fabricated story actually a buried memory? For Hydra, such a punishment sounded plausible. But after several seconds, he determined it false.

Your mind went blank, only to suddenly overflow with images of Bucky in chains. Sharp metal cutting into his skin. His blood pouring down his body and pooling on the floor. The sound of rattling chains mixed with his screams and echoed inside your skull.

“I don’t wanna play this game anymore…” was all you could manage to say through the sudden tears and tightness in your chest. You hid your face in the crook of Bucky’s neck, your breath fanning the very scar about which you regretted inquiring.

Bucky’s arms wrapped around you in an instant, pulling you as close as he could. Your shallow, shaky breaths rattled against his hand as he smoothed it along the length of your back. He saw the effect his lie had on you, the way it ripped chunks out of your heart. But the real story was worse- far worse- and as he held your shaking form against his chest, he swore to never tell you the truth.

“Just breathe for me, doll. Big deep breaths, okay?” He soothed you, helped free you from the crushing sadness. But when it cleared, a wave of guilt took you out at the knees. This wasn’t right.

“Wait, no-” you pulled your face from his neck. “This is so fucked up, oh my god. I’m so sorry, Buck. You shouldn’t be comforting me- it should be the other way around. I didn’t mean to-”

How did Bucky ever find someone like you? Someone who cared for him so deeply, loved him more than he ever thought possible? He hated that he’d upset you, that he’d started this stupid game. But part of him liked knowing how much you cared.

“Sweetheart, please don’t apologize. You’re just... you're reacting to new information. That memory is something I’ve gotten used to, it’s part of my past, so… it doesn’t bother me anymore.” Bucky knew damn well it didn’t bother him because it simply wasn’t true. The real source of his scar bit at him every day. But you didn’t have to know that. “Hey, you love me- which is unbelievable, by the way- and so hearing stories like that upsets you. Being sad about it is totally normal.”

You wiped at your eyes with the backs of your hands, “feels selfish.”

“It’s not.” A sudden laugh rumbled out of his chest, “if you weren’t upset, I think we’d have more to worry about.”

His joke was met with an eye roll and a small laugh. He wasn’t wrong. You cared so deeply for him that even imagining his past pain brought you to tears. Never had you loved someone the way you loved him. And though you dealt with your own pain and traumatic memories, you wanted more than anything to take all of Bucky’s. You wanted to steal any ounce of residual pain and every nightmare inducing memory, leaving him only with peace.

“I love you a lot,” you said. “And I’m so- I’m so sorry for everything you went through. You never should’ve suffered like that.”

Bucky’s forehead met yours in a moment of quiet. No one ever acknowledged his pain, his trauma. They talked about his kills, the blood on his hands. They talked about his pardon- the pardon that, according to you, he “never should’ve needed”. Because nothing he did as the Winter Soldier was by choice. He was a victim, a prisoner of war. But everyone conveniently left that part out. They regarded him as either “the winter soldier” or the “pardoned war criminal”, never the hero, the abused, the broken.

“Thank you,” he whispered. And he meant it.

The two of you sat there for a few long moments, reveling in the other’s presence. But Bucky’s growling stomach broke the silence. He locked eyes with you in an apologetic glance that quickly devolved into a storm of laughter.

“I’m guessing you want dinner?”

“You could say that…” Bucky shrugged. “But I made you cry, so I want you to pick.”

“Buuuuck-”

He crossed his arms over his chest and refused to listen to your protests. “From this moment on, the rule in this house is: whoever who caused the other to cry must let the crier choose dinner, and must deal with the cuisine consequences.”

“Cuisine consequences? Did you just make that up?”

Bucky gave a proud nod, “yup”. He pressed a kiss to your forehead and grabbed your laptop from the nightstand, offering it to you. “Pick a place, doll. Whatever you want.”

Nearly an hour later, the two of you sat camped out on the couch. A spread of take-out lay strewn across the coffee table, half demolished. And while it was Bucky whose hunger signaled dinner, he didn’t eat much. You’d decided on take out from your favorite barbecue place, knowing Bucky loved their brisket almost as much as he loved you. But his mood seemed to deflate as he pushed his food around his plate.

He wasn’t devouring his brisket like usual. And his side dishes went almost untouched.

“Hey, is something wrong?” You paused the tv and turned to Bucky, “You’ve been quiet- you barely touched your food. Is everything alright?”

Bucky gave a small nod.

Guilt grabbed you by the throat. He wasn’t okay- and you knew it stemmed from the memory he recalled for you. The restraints, the collar. The thought of it made you shudder.

“Buck, if this is about earlier- about the story you told me- I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, babe. I didn’t know where the scars came from, I never would’ve asked if I…” you took a deep breath, easing the shaky quality in your voice. “I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no-” he set his plate on the table and turned to you, “it’s not like that. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

It was just like Bucky to swear you were perfect, that you never did anything wrong. But you knew better. You knew he’d been forced to dig up some deep, soul-crushing trauma when you asked about the scars on his neck. You knew he was hurting- and it was your fault.

“Buck, if I upset you, you can tell me-”

“You didn’t. I swear.” He took your hands in his and dropped his gaze. “But I lied to you. About the scars on my neck. And I feel really bad about it.”

It certainly wasn’t what you expected. “Oh… okay.”

In a panic, Bucky dragged his eyes back to yours, “I know that we always tell each other everything, but I just didn’t-”

“Buck, that’s not a rule. You aren’t required to tell me every single thing that’s ever happened to you or every thought you’ve ever had. You’re entitled to your privacy." You gave his hand a squeeze, "I just want you to know that you can tell me everything- nothing’s off limits- but you don’t have to. I know you’ve been through a lot of really dark shit. And if you wanna tell me every detail, I’m all ears. But if you’re not ready, that’s more than okay. It’s okay if you’re never ready- you don't ever have to tell me if you don't want to. I just want you to be comfortable.”

“Oh…” Bucky took a moment to think about what you said. He liked the way you phrased it, the way you were open to everything he had to say without demanding he say anything at all. If he wanted to talk, you’d listen. And if he didn’t, you’d be there, regardless.

“Whatever happened- however you got those scars- you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. It’s all your choice.”

He considered skipping out on the entire venture. He could tell you the collar was a lie without giving you the real story, and everything would be fine. You’d respect his boundaries- he knew that. But the source of those scars was such a turning point in his life, such a defining moment. And to skip out on sharing it with you felt wrong. It was a pivotal time in his life that changed his path- and inadvertently led him to you.

“I want to tell you…” he said after a long, quiet moment. “It’s a pretty significant part of my story, and I want you to know everything about me, you know? I just- I don’t want to upset you again.”

“Buck, it’s okay-”

Bucky gave a sad shake of his head. “I made you cry earlier, doll. And that story wasn’t that bad, it wasn't even true-”

You took his face in your hands, silencing him. “If you wanna tell me, I wanna listen. I mean, I obviously hate that these things happened to you- that you suffered so much. But if it’s part of your story, I wanna know.”

Bucky let his eyes fall shut as he thought it over. Memories of the darkest time in his life rushed forward, nearly drowning him. But your touch kept him afloat. It kept him safe, warm. With you by his side, he found the strength to wade back into the depths of his memory.

“It was after I escaped…” he finally said. He took your hands from his face and held them tight, anchoring himself to the present. “I didn’t know what to do, you know? I didn’t know who or where I was. I was lost.” A faraway look left his eyes hollow, lifeless. “I had to figure out how to reclaim my mind and my body. I spent days holed up, hiding, reading about the things I’d done. And it made me sick.” He shifted in his seat. A familiar sense of dread and nausea sat like a rock in his stomach.

“I was disgusted. I hated the serum. I hated the Winter Soldier- I hated myself. I didn’t wanna be this anymore, you know? I was given the same serum as Steve, but I wasn’t good Like Steve. I turned into a monster.” He paused. It took far too much effort to pull air into his lungs. He knew the suffocating sensation well, the feeling of choking on his own agony.

“And for a while I thought it corrupted me, that it changed who I was. I blamed the serum. But then I had this epiphany one day…” He cleared his throat and dropped his gaze to the ground. He couldn’t look at you. “The serum just amplifies who and what you are, you know? They gave it to Steve because he was a good person, because he had a good heart. And he became a hero. But I…”

The shame threatened to eat him alive. He’d worked so hard to change the way he viewed himself. And with your help, he no longer saw a monster in the mirror. But taking a trip down memory lane reminded him of his capacity for evil. “I became a killer. And it made me think- maybe I always had that darkness in me. Maybe my soul wasn’t pure enough.”

You curled a finger under his chin and lifted his head, bringing his eyes to yours. “Baby, you were brainwashed. Tortured. They wiped your mind- all your memories. They took away your sense of self and rebuilt you in their image. The things you did weren’t because of an impure soul or deep-seeded evil. And they had nothing to do with the the serum. If the roles were reversed, Steve just as easily could’ve become the Winter Soldier.”

That sounded almost blasphemous to Bucky.

“You’re a product of circumstance, Buck.”

He wasn’t sure he could digest your words. Only a few hours ago, he would’ve known without a doubt that you were right. He would’ve agreed and easily shrugged himself out of the darkness. But sinking back into the headspace from the days after his escape left him shaken.

He pulled his eyes down to the floor once again, unblinking. Unfocused. And though he felt lost in a different time, he refused to submit to the pain. He traced the same pattern on the back of your hand over and over, searched for peace in the sound of your breathing. Anything to keep him anchored in the present.

A deep need to diffuse the situation rattled inside you. You wanted to tell him that he could stop, that the two of you could return to this conversation after he ate. Or after a good night’s sleep. Or that he could abandon the story all together and never speak about it again. But just as you decided to speak up, words tumbled out of his mouth.

“I wanted the serum out of my body.” He finally met your gaze. Something in his eyes semmed frantic, helpless. “I thought that getting rid of it would turn me back to my old self- I know that’s stupid. But I was desperate. So, I started, um…”

He couldn’t believe he was telling you this story. It was dark, shameful. Revealing his lowest moment to the person he cared about most- the person whose opinion mattered more than anyone else’s- suddenly seemed like terrible idea. It felt like a surefire way to scare you away, to convince you that he was far more damaged than you could ever repair.

But didn’t you deserve the truth? Didn’t you deserve to know who you slept next to at night, who you committed your life to? Bucky respected you more than anyone. And keeping secrets didn’t feel right. He needed to give you his authentic self, offer himself to you without hiding his darkness. Only then could he know that you loved all of him.

He screwed his eyes shut and yanked his shoulders up to his ears as though bracing for impact. And then, he set the truth free. “I started making myself bleed- I thought I could bleed the serum out of my body.” The admission lifted a weight from his chest he didn’t know he was carrying. Air rushed into his lungs and granted him his first deep breath of the evening.

He opened his eyes slowly, fearing your reaction. But you simply nodded and allowed him to continue. You provided him with a safe place to land as he jumped off the proverbial cliff. “I started making cuts into my skin every day, but the serum was…” he sighed, “the serum healed them too quickly- they’d always vanish.”

He eyed you again, waiting for a look of disgust or disapproval. But no such look came. You just stroked your fingers over his knuckles. Gave his hand a squeeze. You gave him the time and the space he needed to breathe. To think.

“And one day- I don’t know, I got fed up. The desperation and the anxiety and the fear- it was too much. It all got to me at once. And I wanted the serum out.” His grip on your hand tightened as the flashbacks pulled him under. “I dug my knife into my neck. I ripped the skin open on both sides- I wanted to sever every blood vessel I could. I figured that the more blood I lost, the faster the serum would leave my body. The sooner I'd return to who I was before.”

You nodded. An almost violent sadness vibrated in your chest, but you wouldn’t dare set it free. Not yet anyway. You kept it caged, allowing it to tear and thrash and bite at your insides. Bucky was sure to clam up if he saw just how gutted you were. How heartbroken. And so, you kept your composure. You remained calm. This was his time.

And when he'd said everything he needed to say and purged every dark memory of those scars, you’d let yourself fall apart. But only then.

“And then things got all fuzzy. Hazy. From the blood loss. And I collapsed. I laid on the floor, watching the red pool around me. And I realized…” He took a deep breath. Why was this so hard to admit? Why did he hesitate? He knew you wouldn’t perceive him as weak or cowardly. Would never see him as pathetic. He knew he could trust you with his heart. But showing just how much he’d struggled ripped off yet another layer of protection. It left him raw. Open. His breathing hitched.

“Realized what, baby?” you spoke as softly as you could manage, easing his words out of hiding.

“I um, I realized it was never about the serum.” He stared at you expectantly, like he wanted you to connect the dots. Wanted you to save him from saying the words. But after a long moment, he forced them out.

“I wanted to die- I just didn’t want to admit it to myself.”

You knew he survived. You knew that he was okay. Still, his words gutted you. A burning sensation tingled inside your nose- but you refused to allow the tears to form. You swallowed every ounce of emotion. Forbade your heartbreak from making an appearance. But Bucky clocked your shaking hand. The slight tremors and twitches vibrated against his vibranium palm.

Sure, you could fight the tears and keep yourself composed- but you couldn’t force your hands to steady.

He let a sad smile pull his lips upward, “Did you know that everyone who’s attempted suicide off the Golden Gate Bridge and survived immediately regretted jumping? The instant they began falling, they realized they didn’t actually want to die…” A deep breath filled his chest, “And that’s exactly what happened to me.”

A strange relief eased through your body, coating your rigid muscles. Somehow, knowing he instantly regretted his attempt made you feel better- made you feel as though the urge didn’t still lurk in the back of his mind.

“I knew my life was fucked. I was lost, alone, confused. I was homeless. Scared.” A particular darkness overshadowed him as he reflected. He remembered the fear. The isolation. The constant, overwhelming sense of impending doom. He lived in a never-ending state of fight or flight back then, his body always prepared for death.

But a sudden light banished the sadness, “And then I realized that I had a second chance at life, you know? I was free- from the military, from Hydra. And I told myself that if I survived, I’d figure my shit out. That I’d try to make something of my life- that I owed it to myself to make this work.”

You nodded. It didn't feel like enough of a response. You wanted to tell him you were proud of him, that you loved him. But your mind was blank, save for the image of Bucky bleeding out by his own hand.

“And I’m so glad I made it through, cause- I never imagined I’d find happiness like this. I look back on that time every now and then, and it’s… I mean, it’s horrible. It’s scary. And it’s sad. And I wish I’d never experienced any of it.” A warm, genuine smile broke out across his face. It lifted his features and cleared the storm clouds from his eyes. He stared at you like you were his salvation, “But then I wish I could go back in time. I wish I could tell myself that it gets better. That I won’t be alone forever. That one day, someone will actually care about me.”

The two of you sat in silence, staring at each other. Bucky couldn’t get the look of adoration off his face. When you entered his life, it was like he swallowed the sun. You warmed him from the inside out, filled his life with light. He looked at you, convinced you were heaven-sent.

The dam holding your tears wouldn’t last much longer- you knew it would collapse any second. But you fought to reinforce it. What if Bucky had more to say? What if he needed more time to purge the details of his darkest days? You weren’t going to let your emotions rob him of that- you couldn’t. So, you remained quiet, waiting.

“Anyway…” Bucky said when he finally spoke again. “That’s um, that's where the scars came from. Thank you for listening- I know that was probably hard to hear. And that it wasn’t what you were expecting. But I appreciate it more than you’ll ever know. Do you-”

With a guttural sob, you scrambled into his lap. You flung your arms around his neck and secured your body to his- desperate to hold him. To assure yourself that he was real. That he was there. Everything you felt over course of his story came flooding forward, destroying your hard-built dam. The heartbreak and the pain and the utter despair drained from your body in streams of tears.

But Bucky expected this. He knew how much you loved him, how deeply you cared- not that he ever expected anyone to feel such things for him. He knew his story ripped your heart out. Hearing something so soul crushing about the love of your life- something so dark and painful and scary- broke you. It cut you open and left you bleeding. He knew he’d react the same way if the situation were reversed.

And so, he simply held you tight and let you cry. He smoothed a hand up and down your back. Left kisses against your cheek. Whispered assurances and soothing words. He whispered your name over and over again to convince you he was alive. He was patient and sweet, giving you the time you needed to process what he’d said. He knew exactly what you needed.

“I love you…” you finally whispered against his neck.

A quiet, contented hum left Bucky’s chest. “And I love you. I just thought you should know… But now that I’m thinking about it, maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe it was too much." The longer you cried, the more regret pooled in Bucky’s chest. It solidified and turned to concrete, sitting heavy on his heart. “I’m sorry for upsetting you-"

You pulled your tear-stained face from the crook of his neck and stared at him with a nearly frightening intensity. “No, don’t apologize. This is your life we’re talking about…” You paused for a moment, only to wipe the tears from your cheeks.

“Everything that’s happened to you- all the good and all the bad- made you who you are. That moment-” Flashes of Bucky, bleeding and alone, swarmed your brain. The images robbed you of air and sent fresh tears trailing down your face. Bucky gave you as much time as you needed to compose yourself, to remember how to breathe.

“That moment is important. It’s part of your story. A big part. And it’s awful- it's really fucking sad. And it wasn’t easy to hear…” You forced a deep inhale and steadied your voice, “but it’s important. You chose to live. To stay. You made yourself a promise, and you’ve kept it. And I’m really- I'm so proud of you.”

Bucky pulled you back into his body. He basked in your love, in your support and your understanding. And he silently thanked the version of himself who fought to survive. He didn’t choose life all those years ago because he hoped one day he’d find love- but it certainly made his decision far more worth while.

Muffled words vibrated against Bucky’s neck, and he let out a soft laugh. “Can you say that again doll?”

With a dramatic groan, you once again pulled your head from Bucky’s neck. “I’m said… I’m glad- for a lot of reasons- that you took advantage of your second chance. The world would be a much shittier place without you in it.” You untangled your arms from around his neck and rested your palms against his stubbled cheeks. “And if I’m being selfish, I’m glad that you stuck around… cause I can’t imagine my life without you. That whole thing- all that dark shit- it brought you to me.”

Bucky’s lips met yours in an instant. He poured every ounce of his love for you into the kiss. All his devotion. He couldn’t find the words to describe how much you meant to him. How special you were. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to express feelings that strong.

The two of you laid on the couch, enveloped in one another. You held Bucky tight enough to ensure he wouldn’t spontaneously disappear. His head rested on your sternum; your hands tangled in his hair. You breathed together like one being, no seams or sutures to be found.

“I’m glad I finally told you,” he said after a while. “I wanted to get it off my chest, but I just didn’t know how. And the longer I waited, the guiltier I felt for keeping it from you.”

“You don’t have to feel guilty, baby. Not with me.”

Things quieted again. It was so peaceful and calm that you thought Bucky might’ve fallen asleep. You couldn’t imagine the emotional toll it took to recount his darkest days- hell, you were exhausted from just listening to his story. If he needed to sleep off the turmoil, then so be it.

But a familiar sound broke the silence. Bucky’s stomach rumbled, once again disrupting a peaceful moment.

“Hungry?” you asked with a laugh.

Bucky nodded emphatically against your chest.

“I bet. You barely touched your food.” You removed your hands from his hair, freeing him, “Go heat up some leftovers, Babe.”

He hesitated. His eyes drifted from the containers of brisket, macaroni and cheese, and cornbread before returning to your face. He feared leaving your side, like he thought maybe you’d fall apart if he left you alone. You had to be fragile, still reeling from the awful things he’d said. And he needed to be there for you- his hunger could wait.

But you read his mind. “Buck, I’m okay,” you laughed, “I swear. You can make a trip to the microwave- I’ll be alright.”

With a deep kiss, Bucky leapt into action he snagged his plate off the table and piled it high with everything in sight. It was such a sharp contrast to the old days, the time he spent lost and alone without even a sliver of hope. Some days, he felt like he still sat in square one. Like he hadn’t made much progress or done enough work on himself. But it was moments like these that proved to him- and to you- just how far he’d come. Never again would he wish for death or seek to end his pain forever. He had to live- he wanted to live. For himself. For you.

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meanbossart · 3 months

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Massive ask compilation time OH LORD

YES, her journals are a fun read. I somewhat wish there was more to her and The Dark Urge's interactions, too - she's wonderfully evil and clearly very attached to you if you're playing as that character, but I had hoped there was more of a reason for her obsession besides just "you were fun to cut up", haha. I remember reading her journal over a couple of times looking for something I might have missed.

His reaction was pretty in line with the Narrator's cues, just immediate rage over what she had done to him - DU Drow may be a masochist but that's reserved for people he cares about! So, her and her posse met a swift end. Also, despite the fact that the whole tadpole thing turned out being for the best, I think he's easily overtaken by resentment over his lost glory-days whenever faced with it so directly (he misses living in obliviousness) - not to mention his profound fear of vulnerability, and of feeling... Small. The way Kressa spoke to and of him would have absolutely shook him to his core, especially by doing so in front of the others.

[MORE UNDER CUT]

THANK YOU so much for your kind words first of all! As for the question, it depends a bit on the timeline; his dislike of female drow, especially at the start of his tadpole'd journey is pretty irrational and faith status wouldn't be of too much relevance, he just thinks It's in their nature to want to put him down and be conniving, and wants nothing to do with them.

Later, and especially post-game, he might at least give them a chance to prove they aren't "like other drow", though it would take him a lot to ever let his guard down entirely - UNLESS you seem like a complete fool LOL he's actually easy to trick into dismissing you as long as you don't mind playing the role of a dumb idiot.

But if not, he'd have an extremely short patience for any attempts to exert authority over him or his actions - or jokes at his expense, or any level of smugness or secrecy. Nymea would definitely feel kept at arms length because of the gender+race combo alone and have to put up with a lot of snideness. Basically, she'd have to treat this 6'4" feet tall freak with kids gloves to ever develop a rapport LOL

But also... The vampirism may "help"? He'd consider her a "lesser drow" for it. In that regard her attitudes toward Astarion would probably come to be relevant. I'm not sure about that aspect of it to be honest!

First of all, this is a hysterical scenario because he Would just fucking put the ring on without thinking about it LOL so thank you for the laugh that mental image just provided me with.

Oh he wouldn't care though. I mean, he dislikes drow in general, but he is a drow (up for debate, but you know, generally speaking) and he thinks he's pretty great. As long as he's still huge and strong he could wake up a woman tomorrow and not give a damn. And, frankly, his dick could turn into a pussy at any point in time and it wouldn't change anything about his character save for having to add a recurring UTI problem to his character sheet - he'd probably have fun with it.

TOTALLY FAIR, I'm very sorry it went past the point of enjoyment for you, but I'm glad you knew when to put it down!!! We're in our hand-holding and elf-smooching era now with the occasional visceral description of violence LOL SO YOU'RE WELCOME IN IF YOU'D LIKE. Thank you for dropping by!

Just putting this here because - I actually haven't decided yet, so that's pretty funny you asked LOL I'm leaning eyes closed though, nothing like a smooch to calm the big weirdo down.

HAHAHAH WELCOME BACK, I've been around this whole time! But I was hanging out on twitter for the most part. HOPE YOU'RE INTO THE DND STUFF LOL

DROW DURGES RISE UP I'll be honest with you friend, DU drow's lore has been as accidental as something like that can be, so much of it has felt completely organic in the way it came up - I guess that's what good RPG does to your brain. The rest of it has just been a wonderful opportunity to develop my writing that I decided to take full advantage of this year. Thank you so much for the lovely message!

---

Aaaaand I can barely muster something to say that feels like an appropriate response, but again I wanted to acknowledge all the sweet compliments people take the time to leave in my inbox. Some of you guys' comments about the things I create blow me away, I think I'm pretty confident in my art but... Damn, makes me so happy to know the stuff I create can hold a little special place to some folks. Thank you all so, so much for taking time out of your day to spread a little kindness around, and make mine a little better.

Again, thank you all for humoring me, have a lovely day folks!

#ask #DU drow

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etherealspacejelly · 16 days

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do you guys remember that post that was like. "be the friend you want to have. if you want to have themed tea parties with your friends, host a themed tea party for your friends." well. that also works for online relationships

if you want asks, send people asks. if you wish people would reblog your original works, reblog other peoples original works.

i see so many posts going around that are like "reblog if you want more asks", "reblog if its ok to come into your dms and start a friendship", "reblog if you want people to tag you in random stuff they think you would like" and its like. you gotta do those things my guy.

if you want people to do those things for you, reblogging a post probably isnt going to make them more likely to do it, especially not in the long term. they might see that post and do it right then while they are thinking about it, but a few posts down their dash and they're not gonna remember who reblogged that post and who didnt.

what they will remember, is the person who comes into their inbox every day just. telling them what they're up to, or asking how their day was, or rambling about something they've been thinking about recently

they'll remember the person who always reblogs their art and makes a comment about how good it is or how much they like the lighting or the shading or the colours

they'll remember the person who tags them in posts that they found funny or interesting

and they'll be much more likely to do those things in return because they'll begin to associate you with those things, and they'll know they won't be bothering you if they do it in return because you are always doing it to them!

i just. i know this is the autism website and we are all socially awkward, but with the amount of notes those kinds of posts get i think its safe to say that most of the userbase on here wants to interact with their mutuals more. so interact!! push yourself!! it gets easier with practice i promise, and you never know what kinds of friendships you'll end up forming. its worth it!!

and i know im a massive hypocrite because i reblog those posts too, but ive been trying to make more of an effort recently and it has really been paying off. if i can do it, you can do it.

thank you for coming to my TED talk

#ethereal space dad #advice

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stevenbasic · 1 month

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GITJ Post 394: Cat n Mouse, p5

Melissa had been fucking her boss, standing with legs spread by the sliding glass doors of the great room in her mother’s house, holding his limp, 79 pound body by nothing but his cock. Using her internal muscles to keep him suspended up above the ground she’d made him come with her, in spades. Dr J had utterly exhausted himself and was now lying limply in her arms.

The dining room table lay halfway across the room. In its path through the air to where it now rested, it had broken her mom’s favorite Iranian vase. And some hanging lamps, a curio table. And the wall.

She'd thrown the massive, nearly thousand-pound table like it was a child’s toy.

But now, as she held him tenderly, stretched across her strong arms like a babe, the devastation on the other side of the room went unacknowledged. She cradled him. Her muscles still dominated him, cocooning him in her power and post-workout bulk, but, in the pleasant afterglow, they had already begun to soften. Her more womanly curves returning.

Her voice - lovely in its own way - hummed to him, relaxing him as she swayed him back and forth. She watched as his eyes started to flutter, and, without a thought, she released some pheromones to help keep him awake for her, at least for a little while. I wanna snuggle.

Some 0001.55.6677.xc, a dash of 0001.55.6009.xx and, haha why not, a little 0001.55.6344.gf as well.

”y-you’re not getting tired?” he asked, pulled up against her, bare but not shivering, warmed by her likewise naked body. He’d been exhausted, but now he just felt…relaxed. Unsuprisingly, aAfter only a few minutes past his last climax, he was starting to become aroused again, aided by the indulgences of her body and fully exposed to her bare skin and firm nipples against his side. All strength, whatever meager amount there’d been, began to leave him and he slumped entirely in her embrace.

Tired? Me? That doesn’t happen anymore. Melissa giggled. ”No, I could do this all night.” She giggled again, and brought her nose down to nuzzle his. “Oh my god you’re so cute,” she mused, “so cute.”

She had begun to notice - now that their lovemaking was over, and that her mania had mostly faded - a strange tingling inside herself. Familiar, but more intense than she’d felt in the past. It wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, if she closed her eyes and let herself bask in it for a moment…it was delicious. She knew it, she’d known this before. Someone, somewhere was jerking off to her. And not just someone…but lots of someones. She’d gotten this feeling many times, whenever she put up a new Instagram post. It was funny to her. Like clockwork, a new photo could bring about the tingles. She didn’t really know what they meant, but it kind of amused her to feel the devotion of all of her little followers doing whatever it was they were doing to themselves. But now, wow. This was a lot. What was going on? What could be bringing it o-

Oh, wait haha. I think I know. Tonight was the night of-

Melissa was brought back from her reverie by Jay's adorably timid voice. He’d begun stroking her big arm, her right one, her bicep, and he could no longer hold back his praise.

”I…I can’t believe how big you are,” he said dreamily. The awe and wonderment in his words? Poetry to her.

”haha yeah,” she replied. Despite the pride she felt, an uncharacteristic, almost demure modesty warmed her response. “And it’s all for you, sweetie. All for you.”

He flushed. Her attentions were strong, overwhelming at times. He’d never had a woman this into him before. With anyone else, it might have been scary. Well, sometimes it was scary. He’d heard the stories of the crazy girlfriends, and having one that could bench press a car could be understandably troubling. Melissa, though, was just so…beautiful. Maybe too beautiful. It made it hard to let these anxieties scare away his feelings for her, like she was worth ignoring all the red flags in the world. She just kinda made it hard to think straight sometimes. Was he blinded by his feelings? Perhaps, yes - but ignorance is bliss, right? And in moments like these the worries just seemed so unimportant.

A crash, as something toppled in the mess across the room. A plume of plaster dust blossomed into the air. It fazed neither of them. They were lost in this private, tender moment.

Juices, his and hers, still dripped out from between her thighs. Her mighty leg muscles flexed as she lazily walked them both around the room, away from the destruction. She was getting antsy again; he was growing. His member’s tumescence was starting to return and she was having a little trouble ignoring it.

Give the poor boy a minute, Missy!

“So, you train every day?” he asked, recalling her trip to the basement earlier this evening as he continued stroking her hyper developed bicep. He’d never, ever been with someone so…physically incredible. So powerfully strong. Compared to his own body, hers was titanic.

“Pffft me downstairs, tonight?” she scoffed, playfully, “That wasn’t ‘training’. That was me just trying to, I dunno, work off some anxiety. I haven’t really trained in a long time.”

Jay cocked an eyebrow. That was a little confusing to him. “What do you do when you go to the gym? You and the girls are members of that one down the road, right? You don't work out?”

“The gym? Oh, haha, well that’s more like entertainment,” she answered, appreciating his interest in her and her routines, “I don’t go there that often really. I go to Evolution more. They have…bigger weights.”

“You mean the headquarters? Evolution?” he probed. He felt, here in this moment, an openness between them. Maybe he could, like, unearth a little more about her, or at least find out some about her connection to the pharmaceutical company that was bankrolling the study and, well, everything out about the practice. “You train there?”

“Yes. Well, it’s more like a check-up than training, really,” she said. She was being refreshingly a bit more honest with him, but she was still watching her words, “The doctors want to keep track of my abilities. Track how much I can, like, lift. And other things.I don't really do it a lot, but it does help me get stronger, I think.”

His heart skipped a beat, with a feeling he didn’t recognize. What are these…’other things’? “C-can I ask…what exactly is happening to you?”

Oh, god. I want to tell him so bad, she groaned, silently, He deserves it, he really deserves to know. She struggled to control her breathing and heartbeat, knowing he’d be able to feel it all through her chest. She was excited not only at the prospect of telling him everything, but showing him everything. He’d only, really, had a small sampling of what she could do. If she were to tell him what she was, show him her new talents and gifts, and explain to him what she was becoming…well, just the look on his face would be priceless. As she considered it her legs, and the area in-between them, started to warm.

I have to give him a little.

“Well,” she began, “I’m not like other girls…”

“That, I know…” he chuckled, stroking her arm, glancing at the enormous breasts squashed up against his body.

She laughed too, soaking in the appreciation he had for her figure. “Yeah, but I’m, like, really not like other girls,” she started again, looking down on him, feeling the love she had for him unlocking doors, opening windows. She was glad there weren’t any cameras here, in her mother’s house (there weren’t, were there?), because she knew there would be people who wouldn’t appreciate her, uh, candor. “I’m - and this is gonna sound stupid - kinda special. Ever since I was a little girl. I’m made different. They’ve known it, my mom at least always has...”

“S-special?” he blinked, looking up at her.

“Yeah, like…things come easy for me,” she continued, “My body is able to, uh, adapt. Really, really quickly, to things I need it to do. They call it - and, uggh, sorry, I don’t always get this right - ‘Reactive Self Adapt-station’”

“‘Adaptation’?” he spoke, correcting what he thought was-

“Yes! ‘Adaptation’! That’s it, ‘Reactive Self Adaptation’, that’s what I can do.”

The furrow in his brow was sooo cute. He was mulling it over, trying to figure it out. He was so smart, he’d for sure know what it meant.

“So, like, what?” he asked, “If you need to get stronger, you get…”

“Like, really strong. Really fast.” Her response came quickly.

“And if you need to get taller, you get-”

“Yeah, REALLY tall,” she finished, “yeah, that’s why they think I’m growing, now, shooting up.” He’s getting it!

“And, uh, wh-why do you need to be, like, really tall, and…?”

“And strong? Because you like it,” she answered, plain as day, “I started getting tall, I started growing my huge boobs even huger first because it helped me get this job, and then, well…because I liked you. And it was obvious you liked them. You liked big boobs and you liked…tall girls.”

<gulp> Jay felt exposed, not just from being stark naked.

“And if I was going to get your attention, make you my boyfriend, well…”

She pushed her chest into him.

“...these helped. And so does the hair, and the legs and the butt and all…this.”

He flushed with embarrassment, but - she noticed haha - he didn’t deny a single word. When he did finally speak, it was apologetic. “S-s-sorry…” he stammered, with his head down as if he was asking forgiveness for the entire male race.

Good.

“Oh don’t be sorry you can’t help it,” she giggled. The precious little nervousness in his voice, his embarrassed expression was beginning to get to her. She was starting to feel naughty again. More and more tingles, throughout all this, had also been coming. They all like it, they like what they’re seeing apparently, all the little gobs.

Melissa turned her attention back on Jay with new intent. “So, you like when I use my…abilities on you? My…’woman’s charms’?” she asked, her voice once again growing husky as she made sure to push her bust firmly into him.

Jay hesitated, but only for a moment before his honesty took over. ”Y-y-yes,” he answered.

He had no reason, she knew, to deny his attraction to her. She liked that he seemed fascinated, too, with what made her special. She was glad she’d opened up to him a bit, and told him what she could, for now. She was hoping that - with a little time - she could get him to go beyond just a sense of fascination, and he’d come to her with some of the same feelings that her little men down in the basement were growing. Nnnnngghhh oh god, Missssy, stopppp….

That could be for later, later, later. For now…

“What do you like best? My stompy feet? My Big Bossy voice?” she asked playfully, “Besides my boobs, of course. They’re my biggest superpower.”

He flushed..

“Seriously, what do you want me to use on you?” I’m not going to tell him I’m starting to be able to read his mind, she decided, That’ll freak him out haha. “You have an almost full-blown supergirl here…”

This time, he didn’t hesitate for long. ” Will you please…kiss me again?” he asked, his voice and eyes and face tremulous, “Like you did before?”

“When I…sucked all the air out of you” she asked, cocking her head in curiosity. That's a surprise. “Is that what you want me to do again?”

”Yeah, well, more like…” His chest trembled. “wh-when you, uh…when you breathed for me.”

Oh god, that made her shudder. ”omigod okay.”

The feeling of her lips, suddenly on his, was sublime. She’d gathered him up towards herself, brought him in for a kiss as she held him in her arms, and then put her mouth on his. Her lips, so much bigger than his, easily wrapped around his mouth, and her tongue found unchecked access into it. He’d opened for her, he wanted her in there, and his surrender made her groan. And so she kissed him, forcing herself in deep and causing him to tense up and shiver in her arms before immediately melting again in her embrace. Their tongues slid against one another, hers pushing his back and forth, up onto his palate or down into the floor of his jaw. They played, but it was clear in their kiss who wore the pants, who was in charge. She dominated him. She’d pushed herself in hard enough so that the side of her mouth pushed up against his nose, and with just a little adjustment she now had it blocked completely.

He began to tremble, anticipating that feeling again. It wasn’t just his lips or mouth or even his whole face that were made to vibrate but the sensation radiated throughout his whole body, from head-to-toe. He quickly couldn’t breathe, and yet in that sensation, in that terrifying vulnerability, he began to feel pleasure. He felt his limbs losing their strength, and if his hands hadn’t once again found sanctuary on her breasts they might have fallen limply to his side. The pleasure from the kiss was so intense that he didn’t notice himself beginning to sweat as his body sought oxygen. Even the pain and burning from his lungs was muted, overwhelmed by the rapture of the moment until it began to build, and build, and build. He thought to pull away, when his peripheral vision began to flicker with stars, but then he felt something sweet and powerful flow into him.

Oxygen, suddenly, was being pushed into his lungs and surged throughout his body. It revitalized him, freed him from the pain, and filled him with life. His vision began to clear and the pins and needles in his fingers and toes disappeared. His fear abated, and a new fear replaced it: the thought that the kiss might end. But it didn’t.

Melissa waited for his body to start to recover, her mouth still clamped over his. Though she didn’t fully understand how it all worked, she knew his body needed time, a moment. She was letting his blood take in the oxygen she’d given him from her lungs and replace it with carbon dioxide. She could sense when she needed to draw it out, and once again, she drew his breath from him, taking it into her own lungs. She felt the air inside her chest changing. What her body was doing with the carbon she wasn’t certain, but it didn’t worry her. In fact, she fought back a smile as she waited for her partner to be ready, so she could breathe into him once again.

He squirmed. Just the feeling of this new air of hers flowing into him was like taking her inside himself. He was letting her in, letting her become part of him. When he breathed out again, she let him wait, wait, wait, letting him know that it was on her accord, that it was by her mercy that he was able to breathe. She breathed into him again, with air sweeter and richer than anywhere on earth, and she felt his body shudder again in delight. He opened his body for her, and she went in, and out. Air in, and air out. In, and out. Huge lungfuls into him, and then huge lungfuls out.

She was fucking him with her lungs, and it was making her so wet.

How long had they maintained the kiss? He didn’t know but when her lips finally left every part of him tingled, and not for lack of air. Rather, quite the opposite. He didn’t need to draw deep breaths, he felt as if he barely needed to breathe at all. She’d given him what he needed. She’d super-saturated his cells with something better than the earth’s air.

He wasn’t certain what to say; he wasn't certain he could speak.. He looked up at her, to her lips, and found them parted into a warm, brilliant smile.

“See, sweetie? I can breathe better for you than you can for yourself,” she said.

He knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to collapse, submit himself entirely to her control. He wanted to tell her: ‘yes, please, let your lungs breathe for me. Let your heart beat for me. Do everything for me. Take away all my problems, fill me back up with yourself.’

She felt his longings, but knew that him submitting to them would take strength, strength she knew that he didn’t have. He wasn’t strong enough yet to shed everything he’d known, everything he’d been taught, everything he’d become through his however-old-he-was years on this earth. He would, though, allow himself to be taken along for the ride and maybe, along the way, she could help him find that strength.

“Jay, baby, honey,” she began, her own eyes welling up with the love she had, “you’ve taught me a lot, so much. I was always told, always taught that boys, guys, men were…weak. My mother made me see men as, like…less than human, more like objects. She told me that only women had the strength needed to…to…”

He knew what she wanted to say. Her words were failing her but it was the mantra that - unspoken as it may be - was permeating everything, changing society. She wanted to say that it was only women, superior women, who had the strength to rule the world. But, strangely, in that moment it made her feel bad, like she’d be gloating. Hadn’t he been through enough? Didn’t he deserve a little tender ignorance?

But they both knew it was fucking true. No one really needed to say it. Women were in charge.

“But I love you. I love you more than I could ever love a thing, an object, or, like, a pet,” she finally spoke, “You’ve shown me…so much. You’re so much more than my mother ever told me a man could be. And we’re perfect together.” She watched his face, read every twitch and tingle of his thoughts and emotions. “We belong together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Except you’re a small piece and I’m the…” She stopped, paused, giggled. “I’m the really big piece. And you just…fit. Right into me.”

“Oh, my god, Melissa,” he quavered, gathering something.

”Yes, sweetie?” She cocked her head, unsure of what he was going to say. Was he going to lash out?

“I l-love you so much,” he said.

Her heart, she felt, might burst from her chest. “Oh my god honey I love you too.” She was sure he could hear her mighty heart beat, that he could feel it quake his bones. It was a behemoth, bigger she felt than anything else about her and its thunder, now, would shake the earth.

It was time. She needed to ask him. She drew a deep breath.

“Jay, sweetie, you’ve started to see all these things my body can do. But will you…” she began, looking right into his eyes, “let me…do things to you? So I can…protect you better?”

He paused, taken aback. “w-what do you mean - ‘do things to me’?” he asked, tremulously, “Wh-what are you asking?”

She knew she needed to be gentle, careful. She could force it, but it wouldn’t feel right. It would only be right, really right, if he asked for it himself. She continued on.

“Like, you’ve seen it,” she began, “Like I’ve told you. I’ve been working on myself, changing, growing, so I can be a better office manager. So I can be a better girlfriend, a better protector for you. I’ve been doing it all for you.”

She knew he was confused. He didn't know what to think. It all maybe still sounded cryptic, and she maybe sounded crazy, but she needed to ask him this. “I’ve been working on myself, a lot. But…will you let me work on you, too? So I can do what's best for you?”

“Uhhh…”

She could tell he wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of that. “Maybe that sounded a little bossy haha,” she giggled, “But…I am the boss, right?”

“Ummm…”

“C’mon…” she urged playfully, “You know I can make you a better man.”

He paused, not wanting to disappoint her or deny her something she really wanted to do, but he also didn’t want to commit to something when he wasn’t one hundred percent sure what she was asking. “You mean like…self-improvement?”

“Sure yeah kinda sorta,” she giggled, “I can help make it so we can have more fun? Do more of what you like?”

“Like..?”

“Like, well….kinda like this-”

Suddenly, a huge wave of pheromones exploded from her bare flesh and skin and - just as suddenly, with one breath - he was hard. Beyond hard, he was quivering again. She’d not only taken control of his body and caused him to become piercingly aroused, erect as a pole, but she’d forced her will into his mind and regressed him back to something so much simpler. His thoughts were slowed, and his brain was made deliriously foggy. All within the course of about five seconds she had him immediately swimming in a warm sea of pleasurable feelings and - above all - they’re all totally centered on me.

“You like?” she asked, with a crooked smile. He looked like a blissed-out child, and it made her so happy.

“Oh my god yes Melissa please,” he replied, eyes glazed over in his adoration of her and cock a throbbing, iron monument to her beauty, “Do whatever you want to me.”

She giggled, feeling herself becoming giddy at the thought. Yes, he was drunk on her perfumes but they were only getting him to express what he truly felt. With all that stress and anxiety washed away, and with his mind clear of any big, complicated thoughts, this was who he truly was. So, she didn’t really feel bad, she was just helping him find himself. “Whatever I want?”

“w-w-whatever you want.”

She giggled again. “Okay honey, then get ready to become the perfect boyfriend.” She could do it, she knew she could do it, start reshaping things the way she wanted, and she could start right here. She was gaining more control over how things were changing. Her thoughts, and her manifestations these days, had been becoming powerful. She could make him into the perfect boyfriend, and at the same time make herself into the perfect girlfriend…and maybe much, much more. She could change them both, she could change herself into what she’d truly always wanted to be. And she could make him love it.

So exciting!!!

“Okay okay, sweetie,” she began, taking a moment to tuck a lock of her long, thick hair behind her ear. I love how I can cradle him with one arm. “If we’re going to do this, if you’re going to let me do this for us, you’re going to need to start thinking about me a little differently.”

“W-what do you mean?”

Well, I could tell you a little about the guys in the basement.

“So, for starters, now that you know some of the…special things I can do, I need you to acknowledge them, and acknowledge me. I need you to accept that I can do things that other people can’t. I do them all for you, but you have to accept that I’m becoming something more than, like, human.”

He shivered, there in her arms. Yes, you’re incredible Melissa. His arousal had shot an electric shock throughout his bones. He said nothing, and she pressed on.

“I’m growing, I’m developing, I’m becoming something…greater than human. Something bigger, and stronger, and just…so much more,” she said, golden-green eyes glimmering as she looked down into him, “And you’re going to help me get even better.”

“what do y-you mean?” he asked again, in a voice as small and weak as he looked, but one that was now sparkling, crystallizing with a new understanding of purpose, “m-me? What can I do?”

“Oh honey it’s easy, it’ll be so easy. All I need you to do is wish. I want you to wish, I want you to imagine. I want your dreams to go wild. And I want them all focused on me.”

“okay..yes…o-“

NGGGH!!

Her hand had found his cock.

“Okay?” she asked, giving him a first, long, slow stroke.

“o-okay…” he agreed, eyes fluttering as he endured the pleasure.

“I…” she started again, “…can be so much more than your 'girlfriend'. I can be perfection, and I need your help with that.”

“okay…” he repeated reflexively, already losing himself in the ministrations of her slow, gentle hand. In the crook of her left arm, he luxuriated in pleasure.

She had continued to walk, slowly, around the house. They were now in the grand entry foyer.

“So, those guys? The ones we have living in the basement?”

“yes..?” he moaned, struggling to listen as she stroked his erection.

“They…they 'work' for us, they’re staying with us because they have nowhere else to go,” she explained, her voice soft and gentle as she continued her slow, lazy attentions on his cock, “but they're also learning something. They’re learning a new way to be, and they spend a lot of time, well…thinking. Thinking about me.”

“y-yes…” he repeated, agreeing as if he knew already.

“Thinking about me, writing about me, making up songs and poems about me,” she continued. <stroke…stroke…stroke> “Honey, sweetie, Jay…they’re making up prayers for me. Prayers, honey, prayers. They spend their nights, and days, all their free time praying. To me.”

“oh god Melissa…” he groaned. So lost in pleasure was he it was hard to say if he was responding to her words or to her hand.

“And, honey, these prayers, these poems and songs and all the ‘thinking’ about me…it makes me stronger,” she pushed, feeling the tingles still dancing through her skin. It wasn’t tingles coming just from the basement, though, or her old followers. These were mostly new tingles. Thousands of Channel 5 tingles. “And if I’m going to get really strong I need you to do this most of all.”

“oh god oh god oh Melissa yes.”

“That’s right, that’s good, honey. Say that again.”

“oh god Melissa.”

They had arrived in front of a wall of photos, one he’d been examining earlier. “What were you doing, when I was downstairs? Hmm? Snooping around, looking at my stuff? Looking at old pictures of me? Here let me help…”

With that, she shifted him in her arms so - cock still gripped firmly in her hand - he had a clear view of a framed photo, hanging on the wall. A scene on some exotic, faraway beach, Melissa as a teen.

“Here. Look at this picture of me, this picture of the girl bursting out of the bikini her mom bought for her and think, think, think. Can you do that?” She’d resumed stroking him again. “Can you think about her growing up, growing up taller, growing up big and strong? Growing up and becoming the woman you always wanted? Into the woman she always wanted to be? Making you into the man you always wanted to be?”

He felt as if he was shrinking already.

“Can you do that? Can you keep thinking about me, saying my name? Can you imagine me bigger and stronger and just so much more?”

“Yes, Melissa, god, yes.”

“That’s your new goal, that's your job, that's your passion. Make. Me. Bigger.”

“Melissa…god…Melissa…god…” She was so beautiful, even back then.

“Give it to me. Give it to me now, all you got. Make it your prayer. Make it your first little prayer to me.”

“Melissa, my god, Melissa”

“‘Goddess’ honey, the proper word is ‘goddess’”

“My goddess Melissa,” he finally spoke, his eyes plastered on the photo of the smiling young teen in the bikini on the beach as he came.

“That’s right, good boy…come, come for me,” she chanted, “Look at that picture and come for me. Make that girl into a goddess...”

===============================================

thanks to RiF for help in editing and copy

#growingintothejob

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onlydrawnbad · 5 months

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Do you ever read 570,000+ word, 130+ chapter fanfics that were started nearly 8 years ago and have current year updates, and as you get to the end of certain chapters along the way, you keep going "wow, I would have hated to be here in 201x and have to wait for THAT cliffhanger, those poor readers, those sad, desperate historical souls" and you're just so glad for yourself because you know you don't have to stop until chapter 139, and you arrogantly assume that's probably just extended epilogues or something (because you were previously conditioned by another fic to believe that), so everything will be fine?

Only to get to chapter 139 and SCREAM OUT LOUD because you jinxed yourself right into THE NEWEST WAVE OF CLIMATIC PLOT CHAPTERS WHERE ALL THE SHIT IS GOING DOWN and now you, too, have become the reader you felt such pity for?

Wait, you don't?

THEN GO OVER THERE AND DO WHAT I DID SO I DON'T HAVE TO BE ALONE IN MY HUBRIS. It comes with art. So. Much. Wonderful. Comic. Art.

I would like to stress (as I have done before) that I have never played this game. Not once. I had never even heard of it originally. Yet this is now the second absolutely massive Sans x reader/OC fic I have read in this fandom. Everything I know about Undertale, I learned because one day on a whim I decided to read a 480,000+ word, 170+ chapter fanfic because I liked the way @tricktster used words on some tumblr post (don't ask me which one, I've forgotten). I have re-read that fic at least once a year, if not more, for multiple years in a row because it's like a favorite book to me now.

If anyone needs me, I'll be comfort-reading it, again.

And then probably going back and re-reading JoAT, because oh my god that fic. I'm just so in love with it for a million reasons.

(Yes, it took me this long to see there was another glorious treasure in plain sight under @capnhanbers despite following @mod2amaryllis and it's just really embarrassing to be confronted by that kind of obliviousness, okay? Can I blame it on how, multiple times now over the years, I've gone months and months without looking at this app unless it notified me of something specific?)

I swear, I have never read fic in any other fandom where it was this easy to immerse myself in it with nothing more than some light googling along the way (the first time with CoBC), and the googling was just because I'm me and I like to know all the things. In both cases, you don't have to come to the table with anything other than an interest in supernatural-elements stories (monsters, magic, etc) and a love for snappy dialogue and funny (dad) jokes and HEART-WRENCHING FEELS and watching the author having a life journey in the notes.

(And yes, sure, an open mind about a skeleton monster and a human having magical sex, but if you know you're in a rated fic about monsters and humans, you must know that's going to be a thing.)

#undertale #fanwork #jack of all trades #joat #chill or be chilled #cobc #sans x reader #sans x oc #me: leaving reviews on ao3 gives me anxiety because i don't want to sound stupid #also me: just wrote this long ass post with actual people tagged in it #i'm aware it may seem odd to love things that include dicks made of magic #but i think at this point in my life i'm more than fine with that being my odd #BESIDES YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND #THESE FICS ARE SO FUCKING GOOD OKAY #I LAUGH I CRY I SCREAM I LIVE I DIE I COME BACK OVER AND OVER #i would legit pay actual money for these two fics as bound books #like actual sexy sexy hardbacks to put on display in my home #what? these? these are my magical monsterfucker books and i love them like classics please admire the holographic foil #blue holo foil for cobc #gold holo foil for joat #why am i rambling in the tags like this?

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aclowntiny · 11 months

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May the Flirts Be With You- Seonghwa x Female!Cosplayer!Reader

It adds years to my life as a massive Star Wars nerd that a member of one of my ult groups is one too 🫶🏻 him making a May the 4th post = instant serotonin. It's 3 weeks late, but here's a corny little fun post for SW Day 😁

Word Count: 2394 | Conventions, Nerds to Lovers lmao, that trope I've accidentally created where Yeosang plays cupid | Warnings: the con is really generic because I didn't want to rip anything real off too much & have it be something they couldn't go to lmao, plus that way I could make other popular sci-fi references >:3

“Isn’t the cloak a bit much?”

"Come on," Seonghwa half-jokingly whined, "you said you were going to appreciate everything."

Yeosang had joined him at a sci-fi convention, something Seonghwa had always dreamed of attending. Artists sat at tables showing their amazing creations, groups of friends and family took pictures with signs and props, and of course the place was flooded with cosplayers and merch. They'd even passed by the 501st Legion.

"I do," Yeosang assured him, nodding towards an artist table stocked with hyperrealistic head sketches of the classic Star Trek cast, "like look at those. I don't even watch the show and I kind of want one."

"That's why they say these cons are so expensive, like look over there!" Seonghwa pointed eyes widening. "There's a guy selling discontinued Star Wars lego sets!"

"Oh, boy," Yeosang muttered, but with a smile as his hyung dragged him over to the man's table, where he started eagerly digging in, that childlike wonder Yeosang knew so well starring his eyes.

"This is a fun little ship," Yeosang commented, picking up a small packet, "I like the yellow."

Seonghwa turned, then gave a nod. "The Naboo Starfighter! That is cute, you should get it for your shelf."

"You know what, maybe I will."

"That's the spirit! As for me, I'm between the AT-TE and the TIE Advanced set."

"Go with the cheaper one."

Seonghwa stuck his tongue out at Yeosang, who mirrored the gesture, then giggled in spite of himself. He wasn't the only one who made the sound, though; Seonghwa swiveled around, ready to greet another lego enthusiast, but what he saw had his fingers involuntarily loosening, almost sending the (slightly overpriced, in his opinion) AT-TE set tumbling back onto the red-and-black tablecloth.

It was a girl, a young woman about his age, dressed head-to-toe in a perfect Princess Leia cosplay. And not the classic white outfit, but the Bespin gown and cape.

You made the red outfit look classically beautiful, and whether it was all your hair or some sort of wig or extensions, you'd braided it just right, the loops falling back and at each side of your face, which was focused on Seonghwa with a smile.

"Oh, sorry, you two were just funny. You look like a Jedi and his padawan having a spat."

Seonghwa tore his eyes off of you long enough to regard Yeosang. "I told you I looked like a Jedi!"

"You sure do," you added, tilting your head toward the boxes in his hands, "what are you looking at getting there?"

Seonghwa shakily lowered the AT-TE back to the table. "Oh, well, I think I'm going with the TIE Advanced set."

"Good choice," you loudly whispered, leaning a bit closer, "355 to that one's 794. A little under half the pieces, but a quarter of the price."

"That's what I thought, like the TIE is way more iconic too, sorry Battle of Utapau."

"Yeah, I'm more into the OG movies myself."

He nodded toward your cosplay. "I see that. Did you make that yourself, or buy the pieces?"

"Oh, no, I made this."

Seonghwa feels his jaw drop, warmth pooling in his chest at the way you giggle again, this time at his expression, which rises from shock to a wide, awed grin. "You- you really? How do you do it? How long does it take? One of my roommates just customizes regular clothes and it seems like he can spend hours."

"Oh, yeah, hours is about right," you chuckle, "but it feels like the hardest part is finding the right fabrics sometimes, like these thicker ones aren't at every fabric store."

"Yeah, you really sound like my friend," Seonghwa jokes, "but you look way better."

He flushes the moment the words leave his mouth, immediately stuttering backtracks. "Well, um, that is, I mean, he doesn't do cosplay, more just like paint and cutting stuff up and-"

"Don't worry, you wouldn't believe how many creeps have told me I should have gone with the slave look," your voice cuts into his ramble, "I'm not offended. I actually appreciate it, um...what was your name again?"

"Oh," he lit up, "Seonghwa. This is my first convention."

Introducing yourself, you smiled and waved a hand at the legos he paused the conversation to purchase. "And it looks like you're getting something out of it already."

"More clutter for his room," Yeosang supplied.

You laughed. "You don't want to see mine, then. Besides, I can't help but notice you bought a ship too."

"A tiny one!" Yeosang sheepishly defended himself, quickly laughing at the m-hm sound you made.

"That's how it starts. Get him addicted, Seonghwa."

He nodded. "I'm trying."

"That's the spirit," you said with a mischievous grin.

Seonghwa nodded, then felt his eyes start to lose focus from looking at your own. "Er, well, we'll see you around, (y/n)!" He waved, starting to turn and walk away with Yeosang, who immediately shoved him.

"Whoa, what's that for?"

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Getting back to the convention?"

"Don't you think you should talk to her?"

"What, and follow her around like a weirdo?"

"No," Yeosang fought, "invite her to go check out the voice acting stall or build your legos together or at least just take a picture with her to remember her by if you're too scared to do anything else."

Seonghwa frowned slightly. "I'm not scared."

"Ok," his long-haired friend shrugged, "then prove it."

"I will," he said with a satisfied smile as he turned on his heels, heading back for you.

"Oh, hey, (y/n)?"

You turned around too, white cape billowing around you like angel wings. He swallowed, trying not to stare too hard.

"Can we take a picture? I- I haven't really gotten many pictures with cosplayers, and-"

"Sure!" Smiling brightly, you accepted his proffered phone, taking a couple selfies that left Seonghwa feeling like a boiled lobster, he must be so red. He wasn't expecting you to put your arm around him, but he sure wouldn't complain, either. You also had Yeosang take a few head-to-toe ones so you could see your full outfits and the poses you guys did.

By the time you were done, you both were laughing, especially at one selfie you caught of all three of you where both you and Seonghwa posed and Yeosang just had the most confused expression. In another, you reached behind you to the book stall, each picking one up to pretend to read. Seonghwa made a shocked face at James Luceno's Tarkin, Yeosang mimed intense focus on Timothy Zahn's The Icarus Hunt, and you pretended to laugh at the bowl of petunias in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

"Well, thanks!" Seonghwa exclaimed after your photoshoot, trailing off before Yeosang elbowed him from behind. "Er, well, I was wondering if you are on any social media for your cosplays?"

"Yup," you nodded, closing out your Photos app with a smile at all the new shots of you guys that had been added to your phone and sliding over to instagram, "Here's where I post a lot of my photos, but if you want to see anything more in-depth or show your fashion designing friend, I can give you my youtube."

Wow... "You have a cosplay youtube? That's so cool! I bet it's a lot of fun!"

"Sure, it's where I track progress, share my processes, and do hauls and stuff too. Oh, and these guys," you shook the box of lego you'd bought at the stall that introduced you, "will get built on there, too. Hey, would you wanna be in a video?"

This time, no elbowing was required. "On your channel? Yes, of course! We could build our legos," Seonghwa replied, feeling excitement rush to his face as he strolled past a life-size Dalek, fingers reaching out to gently brush the smooth dome atop the metal structure.

"For one, yes," you said, a hand reaching up to straighten your Leia braids, "but how would you feel about modeling a legit cosplay?"

His eyes flew open. "You'd make me a whole outfit?"

"Well, I need practice doing men's fits too," you giggled, swerving around a couple dressed as Zoë and Wash from Firefly, "and you have, like, perfect proportions."

Seonghwa's mouth opened and closed a few times, but he didn't know what to say to that. You didn't say any more, either, your interest suddenly captured by a stall selling Padme-inspired jewelry, including one thick silver choker that honestly captured Seonghwa's eyes too...

"So, uh, would you be interested?" You glanced back and forth between the stall and Seonghwa, the way your eyes peered up at him involuntarily raising the corners of his lips.

"As long as my outfit is as pretty as yours."

"Everyone's commenting asking if you're a professional model," you giggle at Seonghwa, glancing up at your phone as you hand him the bright orange brick separator.

He pries apart two misplaced lego pieces before meeting your eyes. "Me?"

"Yes, you," you fire back, closing your phone and leaning a bit closer, scanning first Seonghwa's progress, then his face, "have you seen yourself?"

Heat creeps back into his cheeks. "Yes, but I've seen you, too, so I know they should be asking that about you, not me."

"Wow, that was really smooth. No wonder I dressed you up as Lando," you grin, resting your chin on your hand.

Seonghwa just gazed into your eyes with a fond smile. That had been a long, but amazing, process as you got measurements, pinned him still until he was stiff all over, but put hours of work into detailing a masterpiece, complete with a cape of his very own. All the standing around was so worth it to feel the way your hands gently grazed his sides, to hear you laugh at his little comments and even feel it against his neck when you were working on his shoulders, to always make sure you were stopping to take care of yourself, too, and hear how grateful you were when he reminded you you were doing amazing, no need to push yourself. Watching the transformation, your busy hands at work, getting to embody a piece of the universe he loved so much, all of it made for some of the best weeks Seonghwa had had in a long time.

"That was fun," he commented, attaching two more pieces to the wing of the ship he was building.

"Yeah," you agreed, "especially when you almost kissed me."

Seonghwa reddened, stiffening and lowering the wing in his hand slightly.

It had happened one of the last times you'd met up when you were attaching his cape, hands on his shoulders. He'd relaxed too much, falling into watching you work with dazed eyes, dreaming of leaning in, and then you pulled a little too hard, sending him surging forward, his face almost crashing into yours. He'd managed to catch himself just in time and you'd edited that part out of the fitting video of course, but that moment, your awkward but thrilling almost-kiss, had been living rent-free in Seonghwa's mind ever since then. A part of him wished he'd just managed to fall all the way, but that also wasn't how he wanted your first kiss to go. If you liked him back, which Yeosang and Hongjoong insisted you did. Hongjoong had even taken to texting him 'May the flirts be with you' before he went to your studio, which strangely had encouraged him on a couple occasions to just say the compliment or to brush your hands a little when he handed you supplies or made sure you had water.

"I'm so sorry about that, I really was just clumsy and-"

"It's all right," you smirked faintly, putting the constructed cockpit in your hands down, "I was ready for it."

Seonghwa's brows furrowed as he fully set the wing down. "You... you..."

"Wait, I'm sorry, did I read things wrong? I thought we were flirting. But if not, I'm so sorry! I'm not good at this," you confessed, "you know what they say about nerds and all."

Any and all dissatisfaction about Hongjoong being right dissipated into the great sparkly abyss of joy rising and thudding out of Seonghwa's chest because holy cow, the super cool girl who makes Star Wars outfits and builds lego with him and doesn't laugh at his ASMR is interested in them? Sure, let him and Yeosang rub it in Seonghwa's face. He'd endure anything if it meant getting closer to you.

"I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, either," he chuckled, grin widening by the second, "but yes, I was. My roommate even started texting me to hype me up before I visited you, look!"

He showed you the text, which was followed by a gif of Han Solo and a whole bunch of teasing ㅋㅋㅋㅋ.

"I was worried you were going to see all the youtube comments teasing me about my obvious crush on you or how cute we were together!"

His eyes widened again. "So you have an obvious crush on me?"

"Seonghwa," you folded your arms, "you don't exactly want someone to kiss you because they're like a brother to you."

"Right, right, sorry, it's just so hard to believe a real-life space princess like you is interested in a lowly smuggler like myself."

"Ok," you snorted, "that was corny."

"I was trying to be corny."

"Good," you tease, leaning in closer until your nose is almost brushing his, "I like corny."

"That's why you like Attack of the Clones. It's the dialogue."

"It's the childhood appeal and you know it! I always say they got a little confident in their millions with some of the writing, but something in it really captured a youth vibe. It's like what they did in Twilight, but better because of the rest of the worlds happening around it-" You rambled, distracted by Seonghwa's claim.

Seonghwa, meanwhile, could only stare at your animated gesticulating and think how you're most definitely the girl of his dreams. "Ok, seriously, please kiss me."

“Alright, but we’re definitely doing the cape yank next time,” you comment as you lean in, letting Seonghwa take one of your hands, the other pulling you in softly by your cheek until your lips met.

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez reactions #ateez x reader #ateez scenarios #seonghwa #seonghwa x reader #seonghwa x female reader #female reader #cosplayer reader

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scarlettriot · 1 year

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★ Hello, all you wonderful people. I know it's been a pretty long time since I've posted any kind of story or fic update. The inspiration well has been suffering a terrible drought, and then this idea hit me pretty hard, and I decided just to see where it would take me. Story will get smutty so, no minors or ageless blogs. ★ The world is entirely my own as it is part of another piece of fiction I am writing, however, @twisteddaydreams1135 & @meggsngrits have been helping so much with ideas and plot, it's not even funny. Thank you guys for your continual help. I know I wouldn't even have started this if it wasn't for you two. I also pulled some inspo from the incredible fantasy audio series by Yuzuya. ★ Below I give you a little taste of what is to come. The story will heavily follow the BakuSquad as well as some other beloved characters from the series. I really hope you all enjoy ♡

When you woke up this morning, this wasn't quite how you imagined your day would play out. It started normal, a bit exciting even. You had the opportunity to aid two travelers in locating information regarding some dragon clans, which just so happened to be your area of expertise.

But, you thought when they walked down the library's grand marble staircase and out into the crowded evening streets, it would be the end of the day's excitement. Truth be told, even if you were a senior librarian, nothing too thrilling ever really occurred within the city limits.

All of that changed just a few hours later.

Never in your life had your heart raced quite this fast. Then again, you'd never been running for your life before. Hand in hand with the very loud, and grouchy blonde you'd helped earlier in the day. Footfalls pounding against the cobblestone road in sync with each other, propelling yourselves forward, keeping just ahead of the six hunters that had cornered you not minutes before.

He pulled you through the city you'd always called home, the one you'd never left, making sharp turns down alleyways and cutting across roads without so much as a second thought. Anything he could think of to get them off your trail, he was trying, and yet nothing deterred them.

You were nearing the city limits. And it was only a limit because it was a cliffside. A massive one at that. Standing high above the sea with its unforgiving waves hundreds of feet below.

“When we get to the ledge, don't slow down. Just keep running and jump.”

Just when you thought it would burst, your heart sped up even more. He was insane. He had to be.

“Are you mad? That's a cliff, you know! We'll die!”

“Don't argue! Just do it!”

Before you could blink or hold him back, his free hand flung out behind you both, and magic exploded outward from his palm in a brilliant display of light and sparks that had citizens screaming and debris scattering in every direction. But, it afforded you time. Just precious seconds to create enough space between you and the hunters.

The ledge was a few meters away, there was no going back now. “JUST JUMP!” He screamed, and another blast went off powerful enough to launch the two of you right over the edge, and then you were free-falling through the open air.

Your stomach lurched, and your heart lodged itself in your throat as the wind tore through your hair and stung your skin like a thousand tiny needles. You had a death grip on the blonde's hand and just waited for the icy waters below to swallow you whole, but no chill came.

One moment you were falling, and the next, you were flying. Your body connected with something hard as the man held you in place. “Get up here. Can't have ya fallin' off.” You opened your eyes to see two massive ebony wings, dragon wings, carrying you away from the only home you'd ever known...

#mha #bnha #kirishima #bakugou #mha fantasy au #dragon kirishima #barbarian prince bakugou #dragons and magic galor #bakugou x reader #kirishima x reader #please please please let me know if you want more #I've been having so much fun developing this story

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suffarustuffaru · 2 months

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i need to share my very horrible idea to combine the reinhard/julius/otto/subaru boy drama into one julius-centric fic

ok so a little while ago ive made all kinds of ottojuli and reinjuli posts and while i havent finished all my major julisuba posts Yet i am quite fond of julisuba also and i think itd be incredibly funny if you just dumped all of these ships into one story. just go ALL IN on that boy drama!!!! go big or go home amirite!!!! the worlds WORST love trapezoid youve ever seen!!!!

this post is just me rambling fic ideas bc i sadly dont have time for Every Fic Idea and also i just. i just think itd be funny putting multiple ships with the same person in them into one fic. on a serious level its like mimicking real life relationships where sometimes people come and go and you have different dynamics with each person!! on another level i just think this is also very funny so!! here we go. under the cut:

anyway so my idea for this is that you know, julius of course meets reinhard when hes ten and reinhard is eight and then it alters julius's brain chemistry. at first he's in complete awe of reinhard. and then over time the shame starts setting in. that julius isnt as strong as reinhard. and the jealousy sets in a bit too, so julius's got this chip in his shoulder trying to carry his family's legacy and trying to carry the weight of knighthood to be as perfect as possible. to be as close to reinhard as he can. they meet again in their teens and julius shows reinhard the ropes of like basic knight stuff bc reinhard just joined the knights. and of course reinjuli become friends but julius has spent his whole life quietly watching reinhard from afar and now julius still has that distance with reinhard even as theyre supposedly friends now. reinhard is a God, you know? his powers and his leash from the kingdom and his family keep him distant and the two of them are ignoring that. classic homoerotic "do i want him or want to be him" friendship where both of you are too scared to get any closer for various reasons with a Twist (reinhard's very real monster complex that keeps getting validated bc Everyone Around Him thinks hes a monster).

anyway but then julius remembers that you know, shit between reinhard and him wont work out for many reasons, like reinhards family deciding to torment julius at various points in his life (heinkel, whos julius's boss, and reid, who went from julius's childhood idol to. you know.), and also reinhard needs to have kids because hes the sword saint, and also homophobia exists in rezero. and also even if those werent all obstacles julius still has his Complexes connected to reinhard and they got that distance between them so. no go. (repression gets in the way of relationships :((( )

also quick side note is that ex 4 happens and julius reinhard ferris go to vollachia and julius interrupts a meeting with vincent vollachia himself to go "I UNDERSTOOD THAT LITERARY REFERENCE YOU JUST MADE. THATS A REALLY GOOD REFERENCE I LIKED IT A LOT" bc hes a massive nerd and ig this is slightly-more-of-a-disaster-gay julius au so julius is like ............................. vincent was kinda cool for that.

AND THEN SUBARU CRASHES INTO JULIUS'S LIFE and julius is like seeing this guy who's also got a chip in his shoulder and then he insults the knights and says the knights are all depending on their dads (nepotism) and julius is like .......the chip in my shoulder was bad enough and also youre kinda like me fr. and you are clearly a fucking misguided kid so now i have to save your ass. i cant NOT save your ass. and reinhards like "julius and subaru nooo you dont have to do this :((((" and julius cant admit atm that hes also doing this to save subarus life so julius is just like "he disrespected the knights >:(((("

but yes we all know what happened there. julius saves subarus life. julius has to slice subarus throat in that one failed loop. they become friends across several timelines. they also homoerotically share souls, you know, typical bromance things, rivals to lovers except subarus the one going YOURE MY RIVAL and julius is like he is SUCH an upstart. hes really grown on me like a fungus but thats the appeal. and julius i think sees subaru as like a kindred spirit (or at least thats how i interpret julisuba) except subaru is like way more freer than julius is. same desire to prove yourself but subarus not restraining himself constantly like julius. its sometimes to the point of recklessness and general stupidity and what have you, but his boldness and bravery and determination and heart really is admirable.........................

yeah so anyway julius falls for ANOTHER guy again, you know how it is sometimes. the heart wants what it wants and julius is cursed to always have the worst meetings with his closest friends. and of course julius gets heartbroken bc wtf i have to kill my new friend :((( noo!!!! but in the finished loop its like. oh subaru...... hes really improved himself. hes grown so much already. hes kind of. inspirational really. idk how he does it. except subarus you know got that Mystery to him the same way reinhard does (theyre traumatized and Cant Take About It Normally so they just randomly lore drop what they can) and also subarus SUPER into emilia. and julius is like .................... well. subarus taken. haha. and reinhards. taken. fuck me. fuck. and like somethings going on with subaru and rem and emilia right. fuck. and subarus got his whole toxic masculinity / gender crisis..... and he doesnt know hes Bisexual yet...... man. what a loss for julius amirite haha.

and also subarus busy after arc 3........... and julius has no idea whats happening there but that seems Real serious :(( and julius's got other things to attend to so he hopes subaru reaches out to him eventually..... or that they cross paths again since subarus in the emilia camp and julius is in ana camp (and of course reinhard is in felt camp and like that was a whole debacle bc wtf. reinhard, u do know thatd be a big deal to our mutual friend felix?). so. julius pines from afar ONCE AGAIN HAHA.

(also of course subarus still attracted to reinhard here. its um. well julisuba can bond now over pining over reinhard but thats for later also!!)

anyway of course during arc 3 julius briefly runs into some gray haired merchant twink thats being dragged around by subaru bc ana camp rescued this guy from a cave somewhere??? and this new guy and subaru made a deal or whatever so he was just helping out in the background of the fight against sloth??

and whaddya know................ julius goes to drink at a bar bc you know he probably tastes wine for fun in his free time (hes definitely Fond of wine anyway iirc) and now hes Sad over the Ones That Got Away so. bar it is. and gray haired merchant twink is there!! no way. they start talking a bit casually while drinking you know and julius's taste is Unfortunately either the graceful ones (anastasia, because julius has great taste in women) or the cringe fail ones (all the twinks - except for felix - that julius keeps having the wildest first meetings with, because julius has slightly shit taste in men) so julius is like huh this otto guys kinda funny lol. endearing in a weird way!! and -

oops they both end up being a little. they make a little bit of a move on each other. bc they were drinking and got a Bit tipsy. ottos Also not over the one that got away (subaru) (again) and hey. the finest knight truly is. Fine. objectively fine. totally. so you know. things get a little out of hand, maybe they do a bit of cringe fail flirting hidden underneath five million layers of repression and the Horrors of Being Known but ultimately they both embarrass themselves somehow (read: how far they went with each other while under the influence is up to you) and agree to Never Speak of This Again bc oopsies they were both technically each other's first time being Straightforwardly Not Straight with another man. oops. anyway julius has to go back to his camp and otto fucking bolts but he bolts right into subaru and gets his ass dragged into sanctuary drama.

julius is totally not a little bit envious about that.................... about otto getting to accompany subaru to sanctuary... but dont worry julius!! youll get to make up for it later!! bc eventually arc 5 stuff happens. and julius is Glad to see reinhard and subaru again. even with all the Baggage. and subaru is of course Weird about julius but eventually subaru reassures julius after they both confide in each other about the astrea drama (theyre honorary astreas via being dragged into the astrea family mess). and subarus reassuring to julius in a whole new way okay. subaru, whos unrestrained and incapable of being on the down low about anything, and julius, whos always holding himself back with a gazillion layers of repression, starts learning to let go a bit...

but also juliotto meet again. its terribly awkward and they both agreed to never speak of their awkward encounters again. subaru is going ??? and reinhard is clueless. otto then also goes to save reinhard and felt from heinkel trying to take felt hostage, which was also terribly awkward but reinhard and felt are grateful about it (but lbr if reinhard and otto knew each other deeper reinhard would maybe be a little. Apprehensive. around otto while otto would be sympathetic with reinhard bc hes like male emilia). but then while otto manages not to get erased by gluttony....... julius gets erased. of course. which you know results in being forgotten by reinhard in julius's THIRD first meeting ever with reinhard. and subarus the only one who remembers him of course.

then arc 6 happens :,))))) and julius of course has to confront his ideas of knighthood, his identity, his self esteem, and who he is outside of His Name. and also julius gets his ass beat by reid. his childhood idol. who reinhard KNEW was a shitty person but never ever told julius (whether this is because reinhard wanted to spare julius's hero worship or because reinhard never got the chance to tell julius is hard to say lajdsf). but julius does get to triumphantly win in the end!! grow as a person!!! learn to undo a bit of that repression and not hold himself to impossible standards all the time!! hes growing still!!! hes finally solidified his friendships with people like subaru and emilia!! hes remaking his relationship with anastasia!! hes asserted himself, hes planning on going to meet reinhard again one day and duel him!! things are looking up even if its still bittersweet that he doesnt have his name back yet!! does this mean?? perhaps?? a HAPPY ENDING?? julius can have the two men (reinhard and subaru) he admires the most in his life?????? as friends???? or as boyfriends?????? slowburn mutual pining????????????????????????????????????????

and then comes. arc 8 otto. that piece of shit.

julius is very much someone who has to grapple with the weight of the expectations that people throw at him. and also reinhard is someone who May envy julius a bit, but there's also you know, joshua and subaru with the Explicit Envy and (past) resentment because theyre placing heavy expectations on julius!! theyre pointing blame at julius!! julius is trying to find himself outside of stuff like that, especially after arc 6, but he's still got stuff to work on you know? he still has duties to fulfill!! loyalty that he has to act on bc hes gotta help subaru and co in arc 8!! and then in comes otto.

otto is also someone with expectation placed on him, but its Different. ottos mostly a nobody and when hes Not a nobody, his reputation tends to be Derogatory. hes a menace. hes a bad luck charm. hes grappling with the fact that he has to keep being left behind - post-arc 5 bc he was injured, but also repeatedly during arcs 7 and 8 because hes too physically weak to be on the same playing field as emilia or garfiel or subaru on the battlefield. he feels Useless after placing his identity on the expectation that hes Dependable and Useful.

julius is a bit more on even ground with otto now that julius is. also mostly a nobody bc his name is still gone. and also julius had to deal with having that part of his identity crushed. julius tried to be useful over and over in arc 6 only to get his ass repeatedly curb stomped by reid in the beginning. he was a nobody. he wasnt dependable anymore. and also otto is that one guy he had a Passing Fling with over having The Ones Who Got Away and julius was still vaguely hopeful about maybe being pals at least but ottos brushed him off a bit since arc 5. theyre like each others secrets you know? and now otto doesnt know that shit - julius is the only one who Knows - and otto also hates julius's fucking guts now. over SUBARU. and julius has been through this whole rodeo clown circus with arc 3 subaru so this is an absolutely terrible ride through memory lane.

and this is julius's THIRD twink that hates him for terribly unfair reasons. julius is very tired and a bit heartbroken in this au trying to pretend it doesnt bother him. on one level it doesnt. bc ottos pathetic and clearly Overcompensating for Something. on another level it kinda does bc julius had a Thing going with otto. and otto is the complete opposite of julius. like hes different from the other guys julius has liked.

julisuba is about complimentary opposites - they appear Extremely Different at first glance but theyre very similar. theyre people who try to look and act bigger than they are, people who keep reaching to be The Best, to be Perfect, because theyre overcompensating. theyre worried their entire identity is only built off of trying to be bigger than the shadow that other people in their lives (like their families) cast. but they cant reach perfection. and julius is like subaru but if subaru tried to really make himself "refined" - if he tried to stop putting his heart on his sleeve all the time. reinsuba are very similar too. theyre very refined knights who try to keep themselves in check at all times while the weight of the world is on their shoulders. they cant have a hair out of place. except julius is like the "smaller" version of reinhard. julius is less powerful. its like comparing a human and a "god" - reinhard, whos untouchable. but its a double edged sword, because julius gets to be a normal person, because half the expectation placed on him is also purely from himself, while reinhard isnt. reinhard isnt Free. hes on a leash by the kingdom and his family. julius even gets his kind of "celebrity" status stolen from him via the loss of his name. hes truly kind of Normal now - julius is like if reinhard didnt have his crazy abilities and had a little more of a chance to be free.

otto? yeah otto is. very very far from all of that. hes so obviously imperfect that most of his reputation, when its brought up, is just him being known as a mess who's caused various forms of chaos everywhere he goes. either that or hes just. There. Invisible. very very average. and otto is someone who wants a nice comfortable life, someone who wants to fit in - julius and subaru arent Exactly like that, and while reinhard also wants to be normal, ottos the one who has more of an opportunity. but he doesnt. because otto Dooms Himself by being recklessly cutthroat. otto is like if subaru was just. More of an asshole, so ottojuli would just be a rather Extreme Challenge for julius to have to deal with HAH. and normally otto is someone who repays how people treat him - a very "you treat me like this, i'll treat you the same way in turn" kind of deal, except ottos developed a vendetta against julius and its basically like if subaru never let go of his arc 3 julius vendetta.

yes so anyway. etc etc stuff probably happens but i ran out of ideas lajdlfjasdf i just think combining ALL the boy drama and recontextualizing + adding to canon would be. batshit crazy. and terribly entertaining. im so sorry julius but i want to see you crack a bit under the pressure. reinjuli as a ship is like tragic gay yearning that never goes anywhere past being friends with quiet homoerotic tension, then julisuba is. you know. extreme rivals to lovers, starts out Rough but then ends up being super super sweet and theyre Trying their best underneath the self esteem issues. and then ottojuli is. toxic yaoi at its finest (pun intended). you get Every flavor of mlm possible!!

ok so you may be asking "ok what would you even name this fic then" and to that i say that this would be called To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

anyway i really wanna write this idea someday ill inform you guys (if youre reading this and are Interested) if it ever happens :< so. in conclusion this is just julius the entire time throughout all of these events:

#rezero #re:zero #arc 5-8 spoilers #yes i made this post also so i can dramatically drop the wip title for this fic idea at the end of it and then laugh to myself bc i think #its the most perfect title of all time.#also adding up all of the rezero boy drama is important to me ok. and i was mostly going into the julius side of things in this post aldsjf #it gets messier when you remember reinsuba. and ottosuba. and reinotto. its incredibly funny to me. truly the worlds worst love pentagon.#or love square???? love shape????#on a serious note i would love to see more queer stories exploring like. a person's different relationships over the years. bc sometimes it #does feel like this you know?? having drastically different dynamics with each person and each person knows you in different ways!!#its a fun character study exercise. and it feels true to life imo. you grow and change throughout your life and your relationships at each #time period can kind of reflect who you were as a person at the time. if that makes sense. idk i have many feelings on it HAH #natsuki subaru #reinhard van astrea #otto suwen #julius juukulius #also i do often hc reinhard otto julius as being on the ace spectrum. i dont really write otto being ace in mind for Every wip i do but yes #i do have these hcs and reasoning for them!!! also specifically i hc reinhard as being on the aroace spectrum. these are just hcs of course #hah but yes i quite like my hcs for them.

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