#the best works are those which exist not the ones abandoned

[nozomijoestar]

you reblogging so much of shin megami tensei got me back on playing the game i had for a while (smt5) but i'm really curious what the one ur reblogging is about

I want to play four (the one with the samurai) if that's the one you mean but if you mean three then that's Nocturne and I'm playing it now. You play a guy who with his two friends is spared the apocalypse but are left to all fend for themselves in the world after, infested with demons because the people that ended the world wanted to bring about the process of creating a new one. Instead of dying immediately in what's effectively now a waiting room with everyone from Heaven, Hell, and myth, the player is saved because some kid (won't spoil his identity) who's part of these forces likes you and makes you swallow a parasite. You become half human half demon. Because you're now half demon you get excluded from being able to make a Reason ie. come up with an idea for a world to replace the old one, then get sponsored by a demon to fight in the struggle to make your Reason the new world. But being excluded from making your own allows you to choose what Reason you'll sponsor and champion into existence, or you can reject all of them, or you can leave the world to be solely for demons. Among other routes.

It's demonic pokemon just like other mainline SMT in a philosophical thought experiment, because the only way to gain party members is by fighting then talking to demons to collect them. I just really like the different Reason philosophies and how they interact and what happens when you reject them all; I like what the game is trying to say about what defines a human being, even if they get made demonic, really what's the difference between a human being and a demon at all and so on. It's not very character driven, characters are more a representation of the themes, commentary the game is making etc. and implications of where those intersect or what's implied but in this case I think that's fine. The music is bangin and the atmosphere is fantastic. I know it has a reputation for being hard but so far I don't care when it'll get hard for me, the combat is fun; getting absorbed in everything else is the real reward. And I love Demi-Fiend's tattoos that are more like his demonic veins. Really that was the first thing that always made me wanna play, his design.

How do you not find this cool

#Yosuga Reason and Freedom Reason make the most sense to me because either humanity should either take responsibility for our free will #or be exterminated to make room again for all other life on the planet if we can't and devolve into cleaning each other out #all the others are either temporary short sighted parts of humanity's problems or abandon it to death entirely which ig is also ok #there's also the one where you do choose to be a pawn but in the long run what's being a pawn getting you tbh #and by just ok on the others is i mean i think the coin toss between favoring Yosuga or Freedom is more interesting here #'but why like Yosuga at all-' listen if something's not working it's not working that means you do the practical thing & eliminate it #i am not wishy washy kiddie gloves when it comes to humanity as a whole if we can't fix our shit w free will we have earned our destruction #extremely selfish to make everyone suffer living on the off chance something 'good' happens while we cause destruction & horror to ALL life #what is that really in clinging on to good things if not chasing pleasure for your fleeting gain and evil persists around or because of it #all truly is vanity #also I see zero difference between Yosuga social darwinism until we die out from reality as it is- minus the suppression of free will #we're already suffering Yosuga in a sense #if you can't use your free will for good and betterment for others esp those who can't use free will themselves and yourself then you die #sums up how i see getting to try Freedom vs / alongside Yosuga #might makes right is already exactly how the world works and how it always has worked #the entirety of human history to right now is who can kill and surpress the best to take from others- Yosuga just makes it obvious #and the sole principle to exist but it's already existed even in a world with free will and Freedom

[fantastic-nonsense]

I think people who genuinely wanted Percy to rebel against the gods and overthrow the system kind of...miss the whole point of the series

The question is not whether or not the gods deserve to rule; the books are kind of unambiguous that they don't! That the gods are generally undeserving of their children's loyalty is the one thing that Percy and Luke both agree on! But PJO is less about divine right to rule vs. ruling via consent of the governed and more about improving dysfunctional family systems. It's not about whether unfair rulers deserve to continue ruling; it's about forcing the gods to be better, fairer rulers and a better, fairer family given limited alternatives.

Because what are the alternatives, as presented to us within the scope of the original PJO series?

Option 1: allow Kronos to topple Olympus and take over. Clearly not a viable alternative for all of the reasons the books show us.

Option 2: the demigods overthrow the Olympians and rule the world themselves. Okay. How's that going to work out long-term, given demigods are mortal and cannot control or protect their parents' domains? Demigods will die out within a generation or two, so that's potentially a one-generation short-term solution, and then everyone's right back where they started. Except worse, because now the world has been out of divine balance for a century and the gods have a completely legitimate bone to pick with all demigods. Materially worse outcome.

Option 3: demigods ignore the gods and their will entirely. They integrate into the mortal world, refuse to participate in quests or talk to their parents, and pretend prophecies don't exist. Except that's clearly not a viable option, since we see that demigods usually can't safely exist in the mortal world without monsters coming after them, the gods are cruel enough to use blackmail and engage in hostage situations to get demigods to act as heroes, and prophecies have a way of coming true regardless of everyone's best attempts to circumvent them. Again: materially worse outcome.

And for Percy, for the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, for Luke and for everyone else who defected....for the most part, they don't actually have an inherent problem with the gods ruling them. They just want to be acknowledged, valued, and loved by their families, to be treated as more than a tool for their parents to wield whenever their services are needed. That was the core thesis of the demigod rebellion, which was wholly separate from Kronos' specific motivations for overthrowing the Olympians, and it's why Percy's asks at the end of TLO were what they were.

The point was always that had Percy grown up in a slightly more dysfunctional family environment...had he grown up with Frederick Chase's seemingly conditional love or May Castellan's madness instead of Sally Jackson's steady, quiet, unconditional love...he could have turned out like Luke. Like Ethan. Like the dozens of demigods who defected from camp to join Luke's cause. Percy could have turned out just as a bitter and angry and vengeful. Just as ready to tear down the system. Just as willing to betray and kill his own family for the sake of making a point.

But instead, Percy openly reprimands the gods for abandoning their families and using them as cannon fodder in their own petty disagreements. He forces them to acknowledge and claim their children. He demands that everyone who is part of the godly family be recognized and accepted, not just those related to the Twelve Olympians. He asks for those unjustly punished (like Calypso) to be set free and accepted back into the family. Because that's the point at the end of the day: not forcing bad rulers to step down, but changing an insanely dysfunctional family system that the gods and demigods are all members of into a better, safer, and more accepting environment for demigods to grow up and live in.

Overthrowing the gods wouldn't solve the problem at the heart of the series, which is the gods' shitty parenting and family management skills. It would only exacerbate the massive familial fault-lines that Kronos exploited and leave the demigods open to more godly manipulation. Which is why the series ends as it does, with Percy using his wish to tangibly improve the lives of his family instead of selfishly improving his own life (via accepting immortality/godhood) or overthrowing the gods. Because the conflict isn't about the gods as rulers. It's about the gods as parents.

PJO's core thesis is Percy, who grew up knowing unconditional familial love, looking at this whole world of children who didn't and saying "that's not fair. Gods should be better than this!" But instead of destroying them the way Luke wants to, instead of overthrowing them and putting himself on the throne, he instead challenges them to be better parents and family members. To be part of the solution instead of the problem. And Percy's demands don't solve everything, but they were necessary first steps! Without forcing the gods to acknowledge a bare minimum floor of inclusion, the cycle would simply begin all over again the next time a major conflict popped up.

So that's the problem Percy solves and how he successfully fulfills the prophecy: by believing that the gods had the capacity to change and forcing them to break the cycle of familial abandonment, he preserves Olympus and takes the first steps towards a new status quo, one that is objectively better for demigods than the one he grew up in. That's why he succeeds, and it's why Percy overthrowing the gods would have made for a much less satisfying ending than what actually happened.

#pjo #pjo meta #percy jackson #luke castellan #ethan nakamura #annabeth chase #long post #pjo tv #wow it's been awhile since I've written proper pjo meta lmfao

[strawbeelemonade]

PLATONIC HEADCANNONS: being miles morales best friend but your also a bit insane (Part 2!)

i'm gonna try to remember to start specifying when something is intended to be platonic or romantic.

🕷- I was literally unable to cram everything I wanted to say in the first one.

🕷- Miles is really only comfortable showing you his drawings.

🕷- He's an incredibly awkward guy, but the words come so easily when he hangs out with you. he doesn't choke up like he does with other people at school.

🕷- When he gets his powers his first instinct is to call you. He’s literally halfway through punching your number into the keypad until he stops and decides against it. He knows your number off by heart now.

🕷- You appear and disappear like a ghost its so random.

🕷- Honest to god, he lowkey thought you were homeless until you invited him over to watch Barbie Mermaidia.

🕷- “Bibble is so me.”

🕷- He’s the only person you let over at your place. its small and in the basement of an old apartment complex. the landlord couldn’t get anyone to pay to live there. you live alone.

🕷- You struck a deal, and they let you crash there as long as rent was on time and you fixed their washing machine for free.

🕷- Miles asked how you got to live there for so cheap. You tell him it’s because someone died on the couch he was sitting on.

🕷- He sits on the floor.

🕷- Miles is so eager to share his new powers with someone.

🕷- No seriously, between all the stress and lying and anxiety its nice to let himself get excited about it. To let himself have fun and see what he can do.

🕷- You guys TOTALLY video tape him trying out his new powers for the first time.

🕷- I can imagine you finding an abandoned alleyway on some random ass street after school and filming Miles Trying to do a backflip LMAO.

🕷- You gotta fish him out of a trashcan after he tries to spider climb up the wall.

🕷- You know that thing where a group of friends duck tapes one of their friends to a wall for fun? You get miles to do that to you.

🕷- You guys can’t stop laughing, The best memories of your lives are in those videos.

🕷- He’ll take you up to the top of buildings to show you the graffiti art he painted!! he’ll let you sign it off with a dick and balls or a heart if you want. You guys do homework up there together as well.

🕷- ’M & (Y/I) were here’ has been painted on every available surface of New York.

🕷- You both have the bright idea to hop on his back and go web slinging around the neighbourhood. He can carry you easily.

🕷- Miles decides If you don’t tell him to slow down, then he’s not going fast enough.

🕷- You NEVER tell him to slow down.

🕷- “Faster!!!“

🕷- Now that he’s got super strength he can put you in an inescapable headlock, he doesn’t do it too tight but he holds you there until you tap out.

🕷- He takes you to the coolest spots with the best views.

🕷- You regularly cover for him.

🕷- “We were at Jamba Juice the whole time officer I swear.”

🕷- Miles side eyes you knowing damn well he was no where NEAR a Jamba Juice.

🕷- ’Thanks’ he’d mouth.

🕷- You and Petter B will get along like a house on fire.

🕷- While Miles is extremely unimpressed by him, you don’t seem to care about any pre-existing expectations one might have when you think of the guy behind the mask of Spider-Man, your cracking jokes and feeding your pet rat a couple of French fries while the three of you sit in the diner, planning your next moves carefully.

🕷- Peter B can tell you’re a good kid. He’s at an age where a lot of your batshit tendencies don’t really faze him as long as your not hurting yourself.

🕷- Speaking of which.

🕷- When him and Miles get the chance to talk alone he warns him that he needs to be careful.

🕷- He tells him that normal relationships aren’t possible anymore. And stresses to him what a life like this can mean for your loved ones. especially since you found out his secret. This line of work isn’t just dangerous for Miles, but for you as well.

🕷- Miles is a little shaken after the conversation, no matter how gently Peter tries to put it. But what he’s implying is clear. He tries to shake it off and enjoy the time you both spend together. He won’t admit to himself that Peter is right just yet.

🕷- It’s just so easy to tell you everything and rely on you.

🕷- There will be a moment sometime in the future when reality sets in, but for now Miles makes the same mistake every Spider-Man does.

🕷- He has a best friend. :(

🕷- On the other hand, Peter comes to the staggering realisation that your actually extremely prone to accidents and danger all on your own. And he appropriately does a complete 180 from ‘casually distant bum-uncle' to ‘I am your dad now’.

🕷- It’s Nothing personal, kid. now stop trying to get in the middle of fights with dangerous criminals and let the adult— or at least the guys with super strength, stamina, speed and resilience— handle it.

🕷- He demands you stay out of the crossfire, but, to no one’s surprise you don’t listen.

🕷- You’re willing to throw yourself in front of Miles to shield him from anything, much to your best friends terror.

🕷- You hold your own surprisingly well against opponents that would be considered reasonable threats otherwise. You’re resourceful, grabbing anything and everything you can get your hands on. you get a terrifying look in your eye.

🕷- No matter how impressed Peter is, He will slingshot you around with his web-shooters to propel you out of the way of oncoming attacks. He will do this for both of you, but feels the need to do it less for Miles. He knows he can take what’s on the other end of the punch. But No matter how untouchable you make yourself out to be, you can’t.

🕷- “Do I want kids?”

🕷- He takes you on as his responsibility just as much as he does Miles.

🕷- Spider-Gwen also looks out for you in battle.

🕷- She’s more laid back, and even a little suave about it too.

🕷- She secretly wishes she had someone like you in her universe. What she wouldn’t give to decompress with you after a long day of patrolling New York.

🕷- She’s actually the most normal about you having a pet rat. You know, the one you grabbed out of a garbage can in a subway station. Yeah, That rat.

🕷- Miles watches you both get along like a house on fire and just quietly falls behind you both since he’s not sure what to do or say.

🕷- He’s so awkward, poor guy.

🕷- Your tendency to go off for days at a time ignites everyone’s curiosity. it’s a concerning habit, and Gwen even endeavours to follow you to see where you disappear to so often.

🕷- She’s unsuccessful.

🕷- It's never said out loud, but when she’s facing the one-way ticket home she finds herself wanting to stay just a bit longer. Not just for Miles, but for you to… She wonders what you’ll get up to while she’s gone.

🕷- …

🕷- Peter Porker vibes with you so hard.

🕷- no wait don’t scroll away wait

🕷- he WILL gift you the freakishly large cartoon mallet. Sorry, but miles didn’t appreciate it for what it was.

🕷- He would be cracking jokes and doing bits with you through out the whole goddamn movie.

🕷- Miles can usually let you do your own thing without sparing a second glance, but the looney tunes laws of physics that Porker exhibits WILL rub off on you at least a little.

🕷- It’s contagious. And when you start flattening eachother into to perfect discs it freaks everyone out a little.

🕷- He’s got enough to worry about in the plot,,, Damn,,

🕷- Spider Noir teaches you how to throw a good punch

🕷- in exchange you let him mess with your phone as much as he wants

🕷- "how the hell do you work this thing?"

🕷- He likes you, he thinks you got a lot of guts.

🕷- You were actually the one to design Miles’ suit. He took inspiration from one of your drawings in your school notebook.

🕷- You've always believed in him, and that made him believe in himself too.

#spider man #across the spiderverse #spiderverse x reader #miles morales #miles morales x reader #into the spiderverse #you guys are cutie patooties #spider noir #spiderman into the spiderverse #peter porker #gwen stacy #spider gwen

[autolenaphilia]

The understanding of feminism on this site is absolutely terrible. To the point where people have no idea of what feminism even is. It’s especially annoying when people on here claim to be feminists, but contradict basic tenets of feminist thought.

And to be fair, feminism is a complicated and not united ideology at all. But let’s try to explain anyway. A basic tenet of any feminism is that society is a patriarchy. Women are oppressed and exploited, and men are the oppressor class. Men gain advantages for being men, which is what male privilege is. And feminism is about destroying this system of gendered oppression, the patriarchy.

This is as basic as it gets. And that we live in a patriarchy is easily proven. Patriarchy theory is a theory, but it’s a very well-supported one. Basic statistics and other evidence prove women are disadvantaged and discriminated against, and that men prosper in comparison. Misogyny is real, it’s an oppression that definitely exists.

Yet this basic understanding consistently eludes people on tumblr, even as they claim to be feminists and say “fuck the patriarchy.” People are at best reluctant to acknowledge misogyny as being real and lack understanding of it.

Talking about misogyny will get you accusations of being “terfy” when it’s just basic feminism. Even transfems get these accusations. I’ve already lamented that many people who are anti-terf (which you should be) don’t know what a terf is. What is actually “terfy” is having biological determinist and cisnormative explanations of who women are and what causes misogyny. In reality, trans women are very much women, and have to navigate the world as such. We constitute an especially oppressed subset of women, due to suffering from an intersection of both misogyny and transphobia: transmisogyny. The recognition of misogyny as an oppression we experience is needed to explain our experiences and suffering. We are not men, and are exiled from manhood and it’s privileges due to rejecting it and not performing masculinity.

Particularly disturbing are people who claim to be feminists and yet argue that “misandry” is a real thing. It’s often not said to be “misandry”, I’ve read words like “antimasculism” (more or less explicitly) used as substitutes for the term “misandry”. It is often phrased in terms of “the patriarchy hurts men too.” That the patriarchy is just harmful gender norms that oppress all genders more or less equally.

And those who adopted this have abandoned feminism, often without acknowledging it. They have abandoned the most basic feminist tenets, such as we live in a patriarchy, a society that benefits men. The idea that men do not gain privilege from being men and are in fact hurt by it is an anti-feminist idea.

It’s an incoherent way of analyzing gender. The question of who is the oppressor class in this analysis is eluded entirely. Who benefits from oppressing men via gender norms? Feminist theory is clear about men being the oppressor class who benefit as a class from the oppression of women. It’s a basic question, yet studiously avoided, sometimes in terms of blaming it on the system, understood as some impersonal monster, not as a system that exists to benefit certain people.

It also misunderstands how masculinity works. Sure, being forced to adhere to masculine gender norms hurts, I’ve been badly bullied myself for breaking them. But even if the patriarchy hurts men, it more importantly benefits them. It privileges men, because that’s the literal definition of patriarchy.

Masculinity benefits men, that’s why they perform it. The proper performance of masculinity is needed for being recognized as a man and thus given male privilege. It gives them power over women (cis or trans), even other men (like gay men) and degendered others, the ability to commit violence against them with impunity. Men who perform it are not the primary victims of masculinity, the victims of the violence done to prove masculinity are. And privilege is what men are afraid of losing if they appear non-masculine. It’s the fear of losing their status, of experiencing just a smidgen of the horrors trans women are given everyday. Men will do violence to avoid that. I don’t wish to downplay the horrors of being an openly gnc man (especially if they are also gay or queer in some other way). but they still have a privileged position compared to women in general, and especially transfems.

Of course, men are oppressed too, but it’s not for being men. Working class men are oppressed under capitalism. A long list of oppressive systems like racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and so on do oppress the men who are affected by them. Men thus often find their male privilege curtailed by these oppressions, especially if they are affected by several at once. And because of this there are indeed situations where women can hold power over men (white women do often hold power over black men in white supremacist societies for example). This does however just curtail their male privilege, not negate it entirely. You just need a more complicated analysis, that takes those factors into account. Still, all else being equal, men hold power over women. It’s when comparing gay men and lesbians, comparing disabled men and women, and so on, that you can truly see the privilege these disadvantaged men still hold despite the real oppression they experience. Women are also affected by these oppressive forces, and their effect is made worse by intersecting with misogyny. Men in oppressed communities still have power and privilege over the women in that community. Their experience of oppression looks different, but that’s due to the absence of misogyny, rather than the addition of any misandry (as another tumblr post put it, and which I can’t find now, so I can’t give credit. Would love to be given a link if you can find it).

And we have to be careful when talking about oppressed men, because their experiences are often exploited to justify anti-feminism. The fact that the oppression is real is exactly why it’s useful, because it can be decontextualized to argue that men are oppressed for being men. Propaganda often lies by omission, than by outright making things up. Warren Farrell, “the father of the men’s rights movement”, used the experiences of working class men dying in dangerous jobs and as soldiers in war to argue that male power was a myth, and in fact “men are the disposable sex” or “the expendable gender.” Those deaths are real, but the context that it’s due to capitalism exploiting the working class is removed, and instead attributed to their gender. The facts that working class women also suffer and die from exploitation and that capitalist men benefit from the exploitation of the entire working class are ignored. It also eludes why women don’t die as these men do. Women are kept out of many “dangerous” jobs and the military in order to justify their subjugation as “the weaker sex.”

It’s a terrible argument, and Farrell and the men’s rights movement he helped create are openly anti-feminist and deeply misogynistic, denying women’s oppression. Yet I’ve seen variations on Farrell’s argument posted by supposedly “pro-feminist” blogs. Queer bloggers here will hold up the sufferings of gay and trans men as proof misandry is real, that men are oppressed for being men, ignoring that their oppression is due to homophobia and transphobia. And still against all reason still use the word “patriarchy” and being feminists, despite denying the analysis of society as a patriarchy where men are privileged for being men.

At least Farrell and his fellow proud MRAs are honest about rejecting feminism and believing patriarchy is a myth. I’m glad at this point that I was and am a fan of David Futrelle’s blog criticizing and mocking the men’s movement, because that has enabled me to recognize and criticize the arguments they use, a thing some people here clearly need some help with.

Often these bloggers bring up the ancient anti-feminist accusation of feminists not being a movement for equality at all, but about hating men and their masculinity. Anything critical of men as a class who holds power over women is understood as “misandry” or “terfy”, and so is any criticism of masculinity as a gender role. Criticism of masculinity are only made in the context of “toxic” masculine norms hurting men, never in terms of how it confers men power and privilege and how the misogyny of hegemonic masculinity hurts women and other people. I suppose in this kind of thinking my earlier criticism of masculinity as a tool for gendered violence is enough for them to call me a misandrist. And like I’m not. All men benefit from patriarchy, but if you are a man and don’t abuse women or are a misogynist, you are okay as a human being in my book. What else can I say?

These criticisms are not just taken as misandry, but as some kind of widespread norm, despite really only being made in feminist and queer spaces. So making a tumblr post saying “it’s okay to be a man, it’s okay to be masculine.” is seen as reasonable, despite that being literally what the vast majority of society already believes (including the feminist spaces that can reasonably be targeted by this statement). It’s a bizarre statement to make in a patriarchal society that favours men and expects them to be masculine. It again echoes MRA complaints about how society has been captured by a feminist conspiracy (with anti-semitic undertones, as any conspiracy theory has, that’s how MRAs answer the question of “who is oppressor class for misandry?” btw).

It illustrates how a bad understanding of feminist theory leads people into some rather right-wing positions, all while clinging to the banner of being a feminist or progressive. Our society is a deeply misogynist one, yet in response to feminist gains it likes to cloak its misogyny in a kind of superficial feminism. And acknowledging misogyny is a real oppression is hard when you grow up and live in a society that justifies it. It’s especially uncomfortable to do so if you benefit from it. It’s more comfortable to deny misogyny. But it’s work that needs to be done. Or else you can turn into basically an MRA while still believing yourself to be a feminist, which seems to be the trajectory of some people on this site.

#my writings #feminism #misogyny #transmisogyny

[thefiresofpompeii]

death and the queen is the one of best series 4 episodes that never was. well, it does exist in audio form, but it’s so well made that i could practically see david tennant’s sad wet eyes in my mind’s eye. peak doctordonna comedy, peak doctor loneliness and vulnerability moments, peak strange aliens and cool pseudo-historical pseudo-mythical setting… although i believe it may have worked even better with eleven and amy (s5 roryless, obviously — she wouldn’t marry a random prince if rory was around) considering the sacrificial bride theme, the emphasis on marriage equaling death, and the fairytale atmosphere in the kingdom-that-shouldn’t-be which is a major theme during amy’s arc… eh, we can’t have everything we want. on the plus side, it definitely wouldn’t have been as funny.

and the drama!! that goodbye donna was heart(s)shattering. ten making the same mistake that he did in the sontaran stratagem; believing that no matter how close he gets to his companions, he will always be their second choice and they’ll abandon him whenever they happen to inevitably fall in love with another human. he doesn’t even let her finish talking, just assumes it’s a goodbye. grumbling in a jokey tone about the universe never giving him a break, “a chance to lick his wounds, maybe a spa day but no, giant cloud of alien death… just one more thing, so many more things”. god.

also, despite being an audio (so-called inessential material) it slots really nicely into fourteen’s character development and later conclusion — the chance to wind down finally came, after all those years, in the form of a home with donna noble. married to a man she truly loves, no ulterior motives or murderous plots. living with her best friend and beautiful, talented daughter. she got to be 1700s royalty for a few months, crown and all, but the only real kingdom worth reigning over consists of people who care about you.

^ listen to this ^

#jamie catches up #dw #doctor who #doctor donna #donna noble #ten #tenth doctor #catherine tate #david tennant #death and the queen #big finish #audio drama #doctor who audios #jamie.txt

[thetempleofthemasaigoddess]

Marriage of convenience and public sex with Roronoa Zoro

Reader can't join the crew unless she gets married; Zoro decides to help... but they have no idea what such a commitment actually entails.

Roronoa Zoro x reader. NSFW!!!

*****

💚 Having previously been invaded by various foreign armies, your island has voted itself to complete seclusion, in order to protect its people and avoid being attacked again. Even friendly relations with nearby lands have all but been abandoned, and while foreigners have been prohibited from entering, another law dictates that the natives are prohibited from leaving, even for commerce or asking for help in case of famine or natural disasters. In short, your island is a little self-contained world: no one comes in, no one goes out, and in time, knowledge of its very existence has almost been lost.  

💚 You are a young warrior, tasked with patrolling the village and keeping peace among the population; you are dedicated to your duties, having sworn to protect your people and your island with your life if need be, but in the privacy of your heart you can’t help wanting more… to explore the world beyond your shores, meet people and lands different from your own, leave the quiet and predictability of the village where you have been born and are probably destined to die, know adventure and even danger. You know your ancestors had the best intentions in choosing a policy of isolation, since foreign armies had brought death and destruction, but you can’t help wishing they had at least allowed the natives to travel freely; while you are generally satisfied with your life, and feel accomplished in your role as a warrior and with the friendships and interests that fill your existence, sometimes you feel suffocating, not unlike a prisoner kept in a tiny cell. By the time you were fifteen, you had already met every person on the island, and seen every little corner of it; you always found a way to keep yourself occupied, training and working and making yourself useful in some way, but at the same time you felt so bored.

💚 Luffy and his crew are the first foreigners who arrive on the island in three centuries, having reached the island in the course of their travels, completely unaware of the deadly fate reserved to trespassers. You meet them when your team is tasked with finding and apprehending them; a battle ensues, in the course of which you and Zoro fight each other, and in the end the Straw Hats are captured and brought to the village. They spend a few days as prisoners, and while most of your people keep away from them, mistrust and tradition making them fear those few, clearly well-intentioned young people could bring about the Gods only know what catastrophe or devastation, you find them fascinating, aware that they mean no harm and found the island completely by accident, after the tide had pushed them to your shores. 

💚 You offer yourself to keep an eye on them, patrolling the village’s tiny jail to make sure the prisoners don’t escape and bringing them food, which allows you to become familiar and even friendly with them; Luffy and the others in turn take a liking to you, and gladly tell you about their travels and adventures, which you listen to intently, both awed and envious, and wishing you could do the same, no matter how dangerous it could be - wishing you could be free, as you have always wanted. You find yourself confiding your desire, and your frustration, in Luffy, who is sympathetic, and urges you to follow your heart, instead of allowing a centuries-old law to dictate how to live your life. You explain that, as a warrior part of the village’s guard, you can’t very well defy the rules you have sworn to uphold, even in the remote case you did find a way to leave; but the straw hat-wearing captain simply smiles in return, undeterred by the fact he and the other might be sentenced to death in a matter of days. “If you want you can join my crew; you are a good fighter, and you’re doing your best to take care of us. Instead of just listening to our adventures, why don’t you come living one of your own?”

💚 That night, sleeping proves impossible; you toss and turn in your bed and stare at the ceiling, imagining a future in which you accept Luffy’s offer, and join his crew in taking to the sea, seeing a different dawn every day, meeting people you haven’t known since the day you were born, escaping that mortally boring routine that makes your life feel unworthy to be lived. You can’t, of course; the law is very clear, and no matter how much you wish you could run away, you won’t become a criminal in the eyes of your own people, defying the law you were tasked with enforcing.

💚 While you like listening to Luffy’s stories, and find his enthusiasm and determination in the pursuit of his dreams very endearing, Zoro is the one you feel at ease with the most; you are both trained warriors, and have developed a mutual respect for each other’s strength in the course of the battle. He looks nothing like the men of the island, but you do find him attractive, even though you had never cared much about that sort of thing. Once you are done with your duties, instead of going back home to rest, you sit out of his cell, hand him a drink you have purchased with your own coin (just like you have bought better food for them all, and clothes for Nami, since hers had been torn in the course of the battle and yours don’t fit her; you’d be in serious trouble, or at least accused of a suspicious confidentiality with the prisoners, if you were found out, but that doesn’t stop you) and spend long hours discussing your best fights, the training you received, and the differences in fighting with his swords and your own weapon. Perhaps, you think, you could convince the village’s council to let the others go, if Zoro remains and joins your team: he’d be a great addition to the troops, and you’d be happy to fight by his side. But you doubt he would ever leave his friends, especially Luffy, to whom he has sworn allegiance; that is a thing you can respect, even admire, and in your heart, you pray your Gods to spare them, so that they can return to their ship (the largest you have ever seen, a giant compared to the small dinghies used by the island’s fishermen; after all what use could large ships be, if you are forbidden from sailing more than a few yards from the shore?) and to their wandering, exciting life, while you remain at home. 

💚 In the end, the day before the village’s council is meant to gather to decide what to do with Zoro and the others, an enemy army invades the island, its general aiming to conquer the treasure they believe your village is guarding. The councilmen insist the treasure has been stolen already, by the last enemy that invaded you centuries ago, but the army wreaks havoc in the village, destroying your houses and taking the people prisoners. You and the other warriors oppose them valiantly, but everything would be lost if not for Luffy and the others, who you have taken the initiative of freeing, begging them to help you; thank all the Gods, Luffy, Zoro and Sanji weren’t lying when they told you about their fighting abilities, and Usopp and Nami find a way to destroy many of the enemy’s weapons. You and Zoro fight side by side as you had hoped you would, defending each other and joining forces to face a large number of enemies. In the end, the enemy army is forced to flee and the island is saved, largely thanks to the Straw Hat Pirates’ intervention.

💚 Grateful, the councilmen decide to allow Luffy and the others to go, but when the captain asks them to allow you to leave with them, they refuse; the recent invasion has demonstrated their ancestors were right in believing the outside world could bring nothing but trouble and danger, and they are reticent to let one of their own leave the safety of the island; what’s more, you are one of their best warriors, and they need you to stay and protect their people. Helpless angers fills your eyes with tears, frustration and disappointment heavy on your heart, when suddenly one of the council members (the only woman, a sort-of friend of yours) tells you in confidence that there is a way for you to be allowed to leave, using a different law to oppose the island’s isolationist policy. According to your rules, when a couple marries a woman has to move in with her husband, either in his family’s home or in a new one he has built for them; until a few centuries ago, when your homeland still enjoyed close relations with other islands, many women moved to it to live with their spouses. “Now, a ship is not properly a house, but your pirate friends do live in it, and among them there are four men; do you think one of them would be willing to marry you, (name)? In that case, you would be free, even required, to move in with your husband, and depart since the council has ruled to let them go!”

💚 It’s a good idea; a very ingenious one, and while you have always found it unfair that your law puts a woman under her husband’s (or her father’s, her brother’s, or even her son’s) authority, strongly limiting her autonomy and rights, it feels appropriate to use those very customs and traditions to realise your dreams of freedom. On the other hand, marriage is no small matter: even if the union were in name only, and your husband left you free to live your life as you liked, pledging yourself to a man you have only known for a few days feels… weird. Wrong, even; you are usually not the romantic type, and have never given much thought to the possibility of marrying and raising a family, but what if one day you do want to do it, after meeting the right person? And what if one day your husband falls in love with someone else, and is unable to marry them? He would probably come to resent you, and regret his decision to help you, and for that you could never forgive yourself. Also, even if you asked them, you’re not sure your new friends could help you; none of them has ever mentioned a spouse, and in that case why aren’t they living together?, but perhaps either Luffy or one of the others have their eyes set on someone… 

💚 You’re sitting on a large rock on the outskirts of the village, mulling over your problem and feeling too embarrassed to even just ask your new friends for help, when suddenly you’re no longer alone. “Scoot over.” Zoro tells you, his attitude not brusque but direct, just like you like it, as he approaches, and you obey, making space for him and his swords on the rock. “How is your arm?” you ask, referring to a superficial, but still dangerous for a swordsman, wound he had received during the battle; Zoro shrugs and explains that one of the village’s doctors has already seen him, and that the wound will heal perfectly in a matter of weeks. “The lady from the council came to talk to us.” he adds after a moment, which you should have expected; you and Zoro may have become friendly, but he doesn’t seem the sort of man who simply looks for another’s company without having something important to discuss “What are you planning to do?”

💚 You have no idea; but you know what you are doing right now, that is, blushing furiously. No matter how grateful you are for her help, you wish the councilwoman had let you deal with the matter, embarrassed and even humiliated of having to ask for the help of the pirates your people are already so much indebted to. “I am so sorry, this is… this is a nightmare.” you admit with a sigh “The truth is… getting married to one of you is my only chance of leaving this island, and living the life I have always wanted; but it would change the life of one of you as well as mine, and ever since you came here, we have been giving you nothing but troubles, I can’t…”

💚 “It’s all right, (name).” “No, it’s not. You don’t understand, I don’t even want to get married, I can’t ask a person I have only known for a few days to…” “It’s all right, I tell you; I… I can do it. I can marry you.”

💚 Zoro, sure of his decision and still slightly tense, looks at you, waiting for your reaction, but for a whole minute you simply stare at him, too flabbergasted to utter a single word. “... are you serious?” you whisper in the end, and Zoro shrugs. “Yeah. I mean, I don’t really care for marriage either, I don’t think I’ll ever want a wife or children, and this would be… only a formality, right? We wouldn’t have to… live like a couple, sleep together and all that. So in the end it doesn’t really matter, right?” he points out; you nod, because strictly speaking he is right, and whatever the two of you will do once the Straw Hat Pirates’s ship has left the island’s shores won’t matter, but at the same time, even though Zoro is old enough to decide for himself, you feel guilty for all the trouble you’re about to cause him. “And you would do this for me? A week ago you didn’t even know me…” “We fought together; where I’m from, that counts for something. I have left my village as well, in order to improve as a swordsman and become the best; I can’t imagine what I would have done, if I had been forced to remain. So in a sense… I’m doing it because I wish someone had done the same for me, were I in your place. I know that… sounds weird…”

💚 It does, perhaps, but not for you, it makes perfect sense and it’s a decision worthy of the man you had already perceived Zoro to be; neither of you is used, or inclined, to physical contact, but you can’t help it, and a moment later you have thrown yourself in his arms, holding him with a sudden, fierce affection you had never experienced before. Give me just a year in the world, you ask the Gods in your heart, just a month, even; and then I’ll give my life to save this man’s, if he needs it. “Thank you.” you whisper, aware of how small those words sound compared to what you feel, the gratitude so deep and encompassing it hurts “I… I can’t begin to tell you how much this matters to me; you are literally saving my life. Whatever happens, I will be in your debt forever; I’ll never forget this, Zoro. I promise.” Zoro is not used to being hugged, by a woman even less, but after a moment of embarrassment he rests his hand on your shoulder; it’s almost as if you were hugging each other. “It’s all right; after all, it’s just a ceremony. Can we get this over with quickly, so we can depart?”

💚 You’re so excited, and anxious to depart before some other obstacle prevents you from fulfilling your dream, that you wish the two of you could call Zoro’s friends to act as witnesses and get married right now; in the end, the wedding is scheduled for the next morning, and while aware he’s only doing you a favour and the marriage will be all but forgotten once you leave the island, Luffy and the others are enthusiastic about it, and insist on doing things as is appropriate in a situation like this; the boys bring Zoro to a tavern to get him drunk, while Nami accompanies you to the island’s hot springs, to pamper yourselves and make you look your best. That night you couldn’t sleep even if your life depended on it; you spend it preparing a bag with the few things you intend to take with you, and taking a night walk to say goodbye in your heart to the places that have seen you be born and grow, and that despite everything you will always carry with you.

💚 And then, almost sneaking up on you, the sun rises, and it’s your wedding day. You meet Zoro at the council house; knowing the potency of the island’s alcohol you were afraid he would feel sick after a drunken night, but he seems in excellent health, and extremely handsome in the black wedding attire prepared by the island’s men, his three swords by his side as usual. “You… look very good.” you murmur, suddenly shy like you have never felt in your life, and “You too. I mean, not to say that… you usually don’t, just… ah, you know what I mean.” he whispers back, which makes you smile; you’re wearing your mother old wedding dress, and while you’re not the famed beauty she was known to be, you do feel unusually pretty and you’re glad your groom approves. After all, even though you’ll have left the island behind you in a few hours, you don’t want to make Zoro look bad, having the men of the island say his bride is not attractive.

💚 Your fellow warriors and Zoro’s crew surround you as witnesses as the councilwoman leads the rite; you and Zoro use a ceremonial weapon to cut the palm of both your hands and then press them against each other, mixing your blood with his. Your heart is pounding, and even though you keep reminding yourself this is not a real wedding, not a real marriage, that Zoro is only doing you a favour and the moment you depart from the island you will be free to forget the whole ordeal and even begin a new relationship if you so desire, it doesn’t feel like it; after all, you’re calling your Gods as witnesses of your union, promising in front of them to love, protect and support Zoro for the rest of your days - which you do plan to do, you’ll be happy to, just in a completely platonic way. You know in your heart you will be forgiven for the sort-of deception you are carrying out, exploiting what should be a ceremony focused on love to fulfil your wish to get away from the island and explore the world, but then why do you feel like this? Why is your heart full of… trepidation, in a sense, excitement and a sliver of fear, as if you were committing yourself to something you don’t know the full consequences of, destined to change your life much more than you expect…?

💚 Looking at Zoro doesn’t reassure you, since he looks even more shaken than you feel; he is pale, almost struggling to breathe and apparently unable to meet your eyes while you formally pledge yourselves to each other, but his voice is confident as he speaks the words, and when he takes your hand to mix your blood his grasp is firm, not so much it hurts you but determined, and that is enough to make your hesitation disappear, and an happy smile blossom on your lips… until a moment later, when the councilwoman invites you to share a kiss to seal your union. You and your groom share a look, and for a moment you are sure he’s about to dash, leaving you and your broken dreams behind him… and then his eyes fill with determination. “May I?” he murmurs, and you nod silently, and then his cool, chapped lips press against yours, and that is not your first kiss (even though the list is embarrassingly short) but it’s your first with him, and it’s your wedding kiss, and that makes it special beyond any possibility of trivialisation. Your friends are clapping, the councilwoman is binding your hands together with a cord, but you have become blind, and deaf, to all of it; the only thing you perceive in this moment is Zoro, and your heart racing in your chest. 

💚 “The claiming ceremony will take place in the square in an hour.” the councilwoman announces, and the other warriors rejoice once more, while Zoro’s friends look perplexed - just like him. “What is the claiming ceremony?” he asks in a whisper as you depart from the council house, the short procession of your friends following you “Isn’t the wedding over?” “Of course; now it’s time for the second part, where we demonstrate our commitment to each other.” you explain to a more and more perplexed Zoro. “You mean it’s… some kind of test? Do I have to face your father in a fight to the death to prove I am worthy of being your husband or something like that?” “Of course not; we have to sleep together in front of the whole village.” you explain, equally surprised you need to; this is how weddings are conducted on the island since time immemorial, unless the spouses are advanced in age or in the case of a physical impediment, and the possibility that other places in a vast, diverse world might do things differently hadn’t even crossed your mind. (It does now, for what it’s worth.) “In this way our bodies will be one as well as our minds and hearts, our flesh married just like our spirits.” “And… we really can’t do without it, can we?” “Of course not; the vows and the blood mixing are little more than a formality, it is the claiming ceremony that makes a marriage valid; you… you didn’t know? Isn’t this how weddings are conducted where you lived?”

💚 You are now standing outside the council house, your friends having left you to enjoy a moment of privacy before the ceremony. Zoro looks appalled, shocked, and while he didn’t betray, and feel, an ounce of fear while, during your recent battle, he found himself surrounded by eight enemies thirsty for his blood, now… now he’s terrified. Making a huge effort to remain calm, he explains to you that no, this is nothing like the weddings he was used to in his village, and any marriage ceremony he has ever heard of; usually the physical part of the affair is conducted privately, and is technically not necessary for the validity of the union. He had no idea this would happen, you realise with horror; how could you not think about it? Your island, its traditions and way of life, are everything you have ever known, and Zoro hails from a very far away land. How could you not realise that what is ordinary and common for you might not be the norm in other places, and that your idea of marriage, and of wedding, could not perfectly match his? This poor man simply expected to have to utter a few words, a chaste kiss at most, and now finds out he has to… to perform in front of dozens of people, virtual strangers and his friends both! No wonder he looks horrified!

💚 “Listen, if you want to… reconsider, I’ll accept it.” you tell him; knowing that the prospect of having sex with you outweighs Zoro’s evident strength of character and determination would be more than a little embarrassing, but still, you will not force this man to have sex with you against his will. No dream is worth that; not even your freedom “It must be… traumatising for someone who wasn’t expecting it, not to mention you barely know me; if you feel uncomfortable with it, Zoro, I understand…” He looks at you. “Won’t it be uncomfortable for you? I mean, maybe for your people this is normal, or even pleasant…?” he asks, curious, and you admit that no matter how in love with their partner, and proud of their body and sexual prowess, they are, most married people do not think back fondly to the claiming ceremony, which is usually an uncomfortable, embarrassing obligation, to carry out simply because it can’t be helped, as quickly and simply as they can, reserving the rest for a more intimate setting. Most couples sleep together before the ceremony, because no one wants their first time with their spouse to be witnessed by the whole community, and while it is normal and even appreciated for friends and family to be present at the claiming ceremony of a loved one, most spectators feel no pleasure in it. “Listen, let’s… let’s forget the whole matter, alright? This is absurd, I don’t know why I accepted… you don’t deserve this, Zoro, this will be unpleasant in the best of cases and traumatic in the worst, I can’t ask you…” 

💚 “I’ll do it.” “... what?” “Yeah, it doesn’t matter; I mean, it’s weird and I’d rather not to, but I don’t want to let you down, and we’re already halfway there.” Zoro points out; he’s not looking at you, again “After all, like the whole wedding, it doesn’t really matter, does it? It’s not like doing it with… with your partner, or a person you care for.” You nod in response, overwhelmed, and then the two of you part, Zoro to talk to his friends (who have just been briefed by yours about what the claiming ceremony entails, and who wear matching expressions of shock and horror) and you to the closest solitary place you can find, to fight a sudden panic attack. 

💚 An hour later, you and Zoro are face to face once more, on a slightly raised altar that has been quickly prepared in the village’s main square; your friends, and relatives, and literally anyone who you have ever known since birth surround you, and while it is true that no one present will take advantage of the occasion to look at your intimate parts and you will all feel happier and relieved once the whole ordeal is over, you feel… how? Upset? Excited? Simply anxious to get over it? Perhaps all three things together, a peculiar, nameless sensation you had already felt, years ago, before your first battle, when the fear for your life mingled with the joy for the moment you had trained for since childhood. This is a battle as well; and you will bleed, but your comrade in arms will be by your side, and the two of you will protect each other like you have done already. Drawing strength from that thought, you walk to the centre of the altar, where Zoro meets you; complete silence has fallen on the square, your people respecting the moment’s importance and sacrality. You look at each other for a moment, and then Zoro takes off his robe, that falls on the floor around his feet, and you hurry to do the same, and then you are both naked like the day you were born, and all you can do is look at each other. Many of your fellow warriors are strong, athletic men, but you have never seen any of them like this, and you feel yourself blush as you admire Zoro’s strong, deliciously masculine body, a shiver running through you as you see it reacting to your nudity, his dark eyes set on the area between your thighs. 

💚 “I… I am not sure what we should do.” you confess in a whisper, and a smile brushes against Zoro’s lips. “Me neither.” he admits, and those words, the admission that this is the first time for both, fills your heart with an unexpected, fierce feeling of tenderness, a protective instinct you didn’t expect to experience towards a man who can clearly hold his own against the most dangerous opponents “Maybe… maybe we should simply go with the flow, you know? Let our instincts guide us.” You agree, and when in a whisper Zoro asks permission to kiss you again, you nod, eager and even relieved, and a moment later your bodies are pressed against each other, your mouths made one once again; you can feel Zoro’s erection pressed against your thigh, and this is already miles beyond what you had ever done before with a man, beyond what you had ever wanted to do, but knowing that that very part of his body will be inside you in a matter of minutes makes you feel… well, desirous, almost hungry, for things you don’t even have a name for. You moan out loud when you feel Zoro’s lips descend to your throat, sucking and gently biting, and instinctively wanting to return the courtesy you slip a hand between your bodies, quickly finding his erection; perhaps you should have asked permission, just like he did, but you don’t have the time to consider your own inappropriateness because Zoro is whimpering against you, rutting his hips against your hand in a wordless invite not to stop, please, keep going, this is so good…

💚 You feel the crowd murmuring around you, approvingly or with some other sentiment you don’t care; long forgotten are the embarrassment and self-consciousness you had feared you would feel now, you don’t care about them, you don’t even care if your friends and compatriots were to spend days discussing the attractiveness of your body and your skills as a lover. All you care for, all you can focus on, is Zoro, who you were already grateful for the way out he is offering you from the restrictive prison of the island, but who you never thought would also give you something so special and precious. You want it to be good for him as well, you decide as you palm his heavy, hard erection, suddenly feeling yourself burning for it, for him; you want to be good for him, you want to give him pleasure and joy and make the whole matter worth it. “Fuck, (name)...” Zoro whispers, and then he moans again when he sees you kneel, meet his eyes for a moment to make sure he is alright with it (it is) and then awkwardly but hungrily take him in your mouth. He tastes acrid, vaguely pungent, and delicious; you feel his hands in your hair, and while he utters no more words, his groaning and moaning reassure you you are doing a good job. 

💚 The altar has been furnished with a bedding made of soft blankets and pillows; it is on that that Zoro gently lays you down, his agile but strong body quickly covering yours, a hand on the back of your head to protect it. Your hands move on his body, Zoro’s skin hot and taut, as if he were straining to control his impulses and not simply devour you and fuck you to the ground, his chest and shoulders and hips, and he is so handsome and sensual and masculine, you can’t wait to be one with him; you want him, you realize, the feeling both terrifying and inebriating, you want Zoro to take you and share his pleasure with him. You want him to scream your name, to make him harder than he has ever been… and to make him come so hard he will never forget this moment. Yours is not a love match, not a proper wedding; but this is real, genuine and a source of joy, and you want it to matter.

💚 Emboldened, you open your legs, letting Zoro observe what exactly his generosity is earning him. “Take me.” you whisper; you can see his hard cock standing proudly against his belly, and you feel a sort of exciting, until-now-unknown sense of pride knowing that it is you, your body and the way you were able to stimulate him, that is responsible for that transformation “Zoro, please… I want you. I want you so much.”

💚 Zoro roars. 

💚 He’s kissing you again, hungry and lascivious, while he clumsily tries to find the right position to enter you. You instinctively find a way, lifting one of your legs around his hips, and Zoro is murmuring your name as he finally takes his hard cock in his hand; a moment later you can feel his head pressing against the opening between your legs. You would have imagined both of you were beyond words at this time, instinct and passion having overcome the capacity for intelligible speech, but he meets your eyes and “If I hurt you…” he whispers; he’s already struggling to control himself “Just tell me… I can stop…” He’s clearly sincere, even worried his impetuosity and ardour could end up harming you, and tenderness fills your heart. You kiss him once more and “I don’t want you to stop.” you whisper; you are soaking wet, much more than on the few occasions you have touched yourself in the privacy of your home, and you feel happy, even proud, that he can feel it - feel the effect he has on you, like you have seen and tasted the one you have on him “Zoro, please, I’m yours… make love to me, I want to feel you...”

💚 He does, and you do, so much and so hard in the end you are screaming, and Zoro screams with you, he screams your name, as he pounds into you, his messy and hungry kisses leaving a trail of fire on your mouth and skin as you cling to his biceps (he has well-muscled arms, as was to be expected from a swordsman) and circle his hips with your legs, your embrace so tight you can barely perceive where one ends and the other begins, and still you’re not satisfied, because you want more, you want to be one with him, not for a few, magical minutes, a joyful, pleasurable experience you already know won’t happen again, but forever, viscerally, so that neither of you will ever forget this, the intoxicating, intimate feeling of giving oneself completely and uncompromisingly, a complete exchange from which you are both made richer. Zoro is more than well-endowed, and this being your first time it does hurt, no matter how wet you were for him, but that pain is only a drop in the sea, even pleasurable in its own right, and you barely notice it, too engrossed as you are in the intense sensations Zoro is gifting you. Push after push he gets closer, to what you could not describe but you feel it, you feel you are approaching your climax, your body already singing, and you both can’t wait for it and wish this would last longer, just a minute more, because you’re not satisfied, not yet full, and you want him more, you want all of him and you want him to have all of you…

💚 All around, the whole village is witnessing your union, with Luffy and the others in the front row. The Straw Hat Pirates are among the very few aware of the true nature of your and Zoro’s pact, while most of the others are convinced you and the swordsman have fallen madly in love with each other after fighting side by side and he asked for your hand to have you follow him in his travels with the crew; but even they, aware (or perhaps just convinced?) that he’s just doing a person he has fought with a favour, can’t deny what they are witnessing is completely different… awkwardness and fervour mixed in one, two people grappling with feelings they did not expect to experiment but that they can’t help to follow, passion born of an instinctive empathy and the raw desire for a person offering themselves completely to them. Would you feel the same if, say, Luffy were in Zoro’s place, or he with another of the village’s women? You don’t know, you have no way of knowing; what you know is that he is with you, and you with him, and you have never felt so happy and blessed in all your years. 

💚 Zoro moves relentlessly inside you, claiming your body and at the same time offering himself to you; you are both sharing a piece of your very soul with each other, and this is precious and terrifying at the same time. He moans when he feels your hands move on his body (his muscled shoulders and arms, his soft hair, the firm roundness of his backside) and “Yes, touch me.” he whispers between a sloppy, ardent kiss and the other “Touch me, (name)... it’s… it’s so good… so warm… I’m getting close… I-I am gonna… (name)...” 

💚 Maybe it is the undaunted pushing of his hips inside you; maybe it is the simple sensation of his sweet mouth worshipping yours, kissing every inch of your body it can reach; maybe it’s the sound of your own name falling from his lips, because no one has ever pronounced it like this, with so much passion, with awe and jealousy, as if you were something precious he didn’t intend to share with anyone. Whatever the reason, the last ounces of self-control leave you, and your first true orgasm hits you, violent, irresistible, and utterly satisfying. You cry Zoro’s name, holding on to him in the instinctive fear the wave of pleasure might destroy you, and feeling your body tremble around him is enough to push your groom beyond the brink as well; a satisfied, relieved moan, a last look of his awed, sweet eyes, and you feel Zoro spill inside you, his whole body shaking. He falls on you, his cheek pressed on your breast, and remains like that, savouring that sweet sensation of intimacy, your fingers in his hair and the warmth of your body surrounding him, for what seems like hours to both. In the end, he lifts his head to smile at you; no one has seen him smile like that since he was perhaps seven, the childlike wonder that something so amazing could happen to him. “Hello, wife.” he murmurs, and your laugh is pure happiness.

💚 The whole village, not to mention the other Straw Hat Pirates, have witnessed the whole event; no one speaks, most of those present aware it would be inappropriate, almost blasphemous, to disturb what is clearly a magical, intimate moment. In the end, the councilmen approach to inspect the two of you, an essential part of the ceremony but that, on the two of you, has the same effect of a cold shower: you stiffen, suddenly aware of how exposed you are, while Zoro looks away, the intimacy of a moment ago already forgotten. Embarrassment falls on you both while he slowly, carefully pulls back, separating the two of you; someone hands you the robe you gratefully accept, because suddenly you are cold, too cold for a warm summer night, and you felt no pain, so why do you suddenly have to fight back tears?

💚 A minute later you are both standing, and clothed, once more, on either side of the councilwoman as she declares the ceremony complete and valid, to the exultation of the village and the cautious, awkward approval of Luffy and the others, who are wondering how they’ll be able to look Zoro in the face from now on. You are married, you think numbly; you can feel his semen drip down your thigh, still dazed with the intensity of your shared, already distant, passion. You are Zoro’s wife and he is your husband, and whatever happens from now on, whatever path the two of you may take, this is a truth that you will never be able to forget.

💚 The next morning, you and Zoro meet with the council, and you are formally permitted to leave the island together with your husband. Your life dream is finally becoming reality, you should feel happy, and you are, you are delighted and excited, but you cannot ignore the awkwardness between you and Zoro, a perhaps normal situation given the circumstances, but still unpleasant given the quiet harmony that had existed between the two of you until last night, a silence neither felt the need to fill with words or actions. Having left the council house, you take a little walk together, tacitly deciding you need a moment for the two of you. “So… is everything alright?” Zoro asks in the end, unsure, and you nod. “I have met with the islands’ doctors and made sure I did not get pregnant last night.” you explain, which Zoro admits is a good thing; absurd but true, the possibility of getting you pregnant had never even crossed his mind, but a child is obviously something you are both unprepared for. “Actually, I meant to say… I didn’t hurt you, did I? I’m sorry, I… perhaps it’s stupid, but I had never… done it before, so I don’t know…”

💚 You look at him, your heart once more full of tenderness and fierce affection for this brave young man, whose kindness and generosity are carefully kept hidden but you have already perceived. “I am fine, thank you.” you answer; you are about to say you feel more than fine, actually, since you can’t stop thinking about what the two of you shared last night and given the way your husband blushes every time your eyes meet you are pretty sure he won’t be able to forget your wedding ceremony anytime soon either, but a moment later you realise the less you talk about it, the better you will both feel. The fact that you enjoyed what happened on the altar is a good thing, not to mention probably natural given the fact sex is meant to be pleasurable, but your union was a necessary requirement, not something you had chosen willingly, and considering you and your husband (you and Zoro; you need to stop thinking about him like that!) will be travelling together from now on, you need to remember you are comrades in arms and friends, and nothing more, or life on the ship will be unbearable. “Zoro, I… I can’t thank you enough for this; you have made my greatest dream come true, and for that I know I’ll be in your debt forever.” “I haven’t done it because I expected something in return.” “I know; I’m sorry, what I’m trying to say is…” you begin, and then you hesitate, because you don’t fully know either “... that I think we can remain good friends forever; and that whatever happens, I’ll never forget what you have done for me.”

💚 For a moment you could swear you have seen disappointment filling Zoro’s brown eyes; but then he smiles, briefly but genuinely, and answers that being friends sounds good, and having another trained warrior in the crew is even better. 

💚 An hour later the ship is leaving the island’s shores. You wave your hand, saying good-bye to the people and the land that have been your world until now, the wind playing with your hair; Zoro is standing with you on the Merry’s deck, and finds himself unable to look away. “No regrets?” he inquires after a while; you shake your head, because it’s a little early for a change of mind, but even in a month, or a year, or a decade, you know you’ll never doubt you have done the right choice… nor the deep, sudden affection for the man by your side. “None.” you reassure him; you are smiling, and Zoro has never seen something so beautiful in his nineteen years “I can’t wait to see what the future may bring.”

💚 The next weeks are hectic, and often dangerous, as you finally begin your journey into the world. You quickly become fond (well, fonder) of the rest of the crew, who easily welcome you in their midst; the hypothesis of leaving to travel on your own, which is what you had planned on doing if you ever found a way to leave the island, is quickly, tacitly set aside, and soon you consider yourself a Straw Hat Pirate in all respects, utterly devoted to your captain and your new friends. You fight side by side with your crewmates, explore new places, meet new people; you feel happy, hopeful, satisfied, maybe for the first time in your life as an adult. Really, you couldn’t find a reason to be upset or saddened even if you tried, except for a tiny, mostly irrelevant but still hard to ignore detail… that is, your relationship with your - with Zoro. 

💚 Most of the time things are fine between the two of you. You have tacitly decided never to speak of your marriage, and your wedding ceremony specifically, again, and to simply consider each other a comrade and a friend, a sibling in arms you enjoy fighting side by side with; you sleep in different rooms (you with Nami, he with the other guys), help each other with your training and immediately look for each other in times of danger, making sure you are both ready to defend your comrades. At night, when the others are sleeping and darkness envelops the ship, you like to sit on the deck, a drink in your hands and your eyes lost in the immensity of the starry sky above you (different from the one you admired in your village, but equally breathtaking) as you reflect on the events of the day and enjoy the freedom of the sea, that after months you are still unable to take for granted. You like those moments, and you like them even more when Zoro joins you, sitting by your side, and as you pass the bottle sometimes you talk, discussing matters of the present and of the past, but mostly you keep silent, simply enjoying each other’s presence as your shoulder brushes against his.

💚 He tells you about Kuina, and about Mihawk, who he fought shortly before meeting you; in turn, you tell him about the loss of your parents, a painful subject you had been unable to share with anyone until now. Having spent your entire life within the familiar, limited borders of the island, you are sometimes too inexperienced or naive to understand the events or the people around you, and when it happens Zoro intervenes to help, but you never feel belittled or treated with condescension. You trust him, respect him, sincerely enjoy his company, and more importantly you know he feels the same for you; you’re not the sort of people who discuss feelings, but you soon come to consider Zoro your dearest friend. 

💚 Which at one point proves to be a problem, because as far as you know people don’t lust after their friends, do they?

💚 You simply can’t help it. After all you couldn’t forget your wedding ceremony, and the passionate, intense sex it entailed, even if you tried, and while the embarrassment between you is fortunately soon forgotten and your friends are kind enough not to joke about it, you sometimes struggle to ignore the memories that moment brings. A few weeks after you joined the crew, at the beginning of a particularly hot day, leaving the girls’ cabin you find Zoro training on the deck, his shirt discarded on the floor. His torso is already bathed in sweat, a view you never thought you would find enticing; and yet, you suddenly feel unable to look away, your eyes avidly drinking the sight in front of you: his muscles tense with the effort, his flat stomach, his strong arms and shoulders… you had seen that already, and much more, as you lay together on the altar, but nonetheless you find yourself swallowing, caught by a sudden desire to just reach for him and touch, to feel the firmness and warmth of Zoro’s skin under your hands, to caress it, maybe even to…

💚 … and then suddenly Zoro, until now focused on his pushups and who seemed not to have noticed your appearance, turns to look at you, an eyebrow raised as if he were wondering what you are doing, just standing there; a moment later his eyes, and his mouth, open wide, as if he had perceived the lurid, less-than-friendly thoughts you are entertaining. You feel blushing furiously, blabber some kind of excuse, and quickly retreat, opting to remain out of his way for the next two hours. When you meet later, you once again pretend nothing happened, and you desperately try to forget it; unfortunately you can’t, but in the end, should you really be surprised? Zoro is an objectively attractive man, and you have already been intimate; it is normal that you still feel attracted to him, and instinctively wish you could… repeat the experience, preferably in the more private setting of the spare cabin on the ship. Who knows, perhaps… perhaps he feels the same about you…

💚 Determined not to ruin your and Zoro’s friendship, you decide to ignore that uncomfortable-but-sort-of-pleasant urge, which at first simply means keeping away from him when he is even partially unclothed. You still occasionally feel your eyes linger on him, even when he’s fully dressed (on the tight fit of the shirt on his shoulders, on the expressive beauty of his eyes, and how come you never noticed what a lovely, firm little bottom he has…?), but otherwise you are fine, and as your bond deepens, as you get used to his quiet, comforting presence by your side, Zoro’s hand brushing against your arm when he wants to quietly attract your attention on something or that way he has to ask you if you’re alright with a single glance, without the need for words, you feel happy and grateful that he’s part of your life… and think that one day, when he’ll finally give his heart to someone, there won’t be a more blessed person in the world.

💚 Speaking of potential partners, Zoro never seemed interested in relationships, and doesn’t even notice the looks of admiration he regularly receives. “I don’t have time for a partner.” he curtly explains when you ask him “And since we never stop in a place for more than a few days I couldn’t maintain a relationship in any case, right?” His reasoning makes sense, even though, for some reason, you feel suddenly shy… as if you were the one who had been propositioned. A few nights later, Zoro meets another swordmaster at a bar, and the two of them spend hours talking about their weapons, past battles and the like - and flirting, at least on the other person’s part, since they keep touching Zoro’s naked arm and pressing their leg against his under the table. Your friend doesn’t notice, as usual, but you do, and that makes you feel… weird; lonely, abandoned, even, and while you tell yourself it is simply because you and Zoro usually hang out together when your crew goes out for drinks, your hearts tells you otherwise, and you can’t help wishing you were in the swordsman’s position, Zoro’s attention focused on you… and brave enough to be so brazen in expressing your interest. “What’s wrong? You seem upset.” Zoro points out later when you’re all going back to the ship; you simply shrug, both unable and unwilling to share the reason for your bad mood, for the instinctive but petty resentment you feel towards your friend, and that fills you with shame since Zoro has done nothing to earn it. 

💚 The next night, the town is celebrating a festival. To avoid being left alone again, you ask Nami’s help and buy a new dress to wear for the occasion; it is much more daring than what you are used to, and while the others compliment you, Zoro simply looks away, and you’re pretty sure you’ve seen him blushing. At the festival, your dress does have the desired effect, because a few people show interest towards you. A young man seems especially taken, since he asks you to dance, escorts you to a stand to grab something to eat and then invites you on a walk to a nearby pond. He’s good company and his clear interest flatters you, but in the end you gently reject him when he tries to kiss you, aware that your heart is not into it. Nevertheless, you feel happy when you go back to the others… and meet Zoro, who is fuming. “Where is your boyfriend?” he sneers “Gone to get you a drink?” You see regret in his eyes as soon as those hurtful words leave his lips, but the damage is done, and the two of you don’t speak or look at each other for the rest of the night. 

💚 You spend an almost sleepless night (again), grappling with feelings that have never been so clear, and terrifying, in your mind. You do care for Zoro, you feel happier and content when he’s by your side, you can’t help feeling attracted to him and fantasising about repeating the experience of your wedding day, and feel jealous when someone else expresses an interest in him; you like him - really like him, as much more than just a friend and a comrade in arms, and while you’d feel happy with a purely platonic relationship, you can’t help wishing for something else. Does Zoro feel the same? You can’t rule that out, especially given how annoyed he looked after you had spent the evening with another person, but what if you want different things? Maybe he only does consider you a friend, but still hasn’t forgotten what you shared that night on the altar; you couldn’t resent him for that, even though the possibility of being desired, as a sexual partner and nothing more, would paradoxically break your heart. 

💚 When you join the others the next morning, you are not particularly surprised to discover Zoro has left soon after dawn, announcing he’ll be back in a while and wants to be left alone. “What happened? Did you two have a fight?” Luffy asks, and you shrug helplessly in reply, not quite sure of it yourself. You spend the following hours hard at work, helping your crewmates repay the damages the Sunny had sustained during a recent battle, and then preparing a speech for when you’ll face Zoro - which will have to be soon, since you are set to sail in the morning and then avoiding each other will be impossible. Having grown up without a mother or another close female relative, you don’t really know how to approach the subject, but after reflecting on it for a while you admit to yourself that no matter how close the two of you are and how much you trust him, you are not ready to confess your feelings to Zoro, not until you have strong reason to believe they are reciprocated, both because that would ruin things between you, potentially forever… and because you simply lack the courage to, and would rather face a hundred enemies unharmed than risk being turned down. On the other hand, it will probably be impossible to pretend you don’t feel anything for him, both because you have always been a terrible liar and you can’t very well make a fool of yourself any time Zoro takes his shirt off. The only possibility, you decide in the end, is something warriors like you are often unable to do: to compromise… and hope things develop from there.

💚 It is mid-afternoon when Zoro finally returns, reaching the small harbour you are docked at; he ignores Nami, who is chewing his ears off for leaving the others at work while he went who knows where, and waves at you. “Can you come down for a minute?” he asks “I have something to tell you.” You obey, both relieved and nervous, and follow Zoro away from the most crowded area of the harbour; he doesn’t talk, but you notice he’s hiding something behind his back, making sure you cannot see what. In the end, and after you had to retrace your steps twice, you reach a small berth, almost hidden among overgrown bushes. Zoro turns to look at you, more serious than you have ever seen him, and suddenly you are sure this is the day you are going to lose him forever, that he’s going to tell you that while he cares about your friendship he feels too uncomfortable with being reminded of your wedding ceremony, and perhaps, since he was there first and he’s the Straw Hat Pirates’ first officer, you should leave the crew and go your own way, like you had planned to do initially… “Wait!” you stop him when Zoro is about to speak; you have never felt fear in battle, not even when the odds were overwhelmingly against you, but right now you’re shaking, utterly terrified you are going to lose the person you love (yes, love; you couldn’t say when you have fallen for him exactly, when he offered to help you realise your dream no matter the commitment and the embarrassment required of him or in some other moment, but it is true, you would wage your life on it, and while you haven’t given up hope that Zoro will one day return your feelings, you would be ready to do whatever it takes in order to keep him in your life) more than any other you have ever met “I… I have something to tell you as well; something important. Please, may I go first?” 

💚 A moment of uncertainty, and then Zoro nods, tense and… vaguely hopeful? “I… I know we had sort of decided to forget what happened that day on the altar, and that we are married, to simply be crewmates and comrades in arms; believe me, these last months have been the happiest in my life, in no small part because of you, Zoro. I…” I love you, fully and desperately. I want to be important for you, I want to be your partner, as well as your best friend and fellow warrior. Zoro, I want to be your wife.  “... I have never cared about anyone like I care about you, and… while I’d be happy with being your friend forever, I can’t deny I am attracted to you, I think you are very handsome and… I fantasise about us kissing and touching each other and making love. If I have to keep hiding my feelings, and the fact I feel my heart tremble every time you smile at me, I’ll go crazy. So I wanted to propose… well, I don’t know if you feel the same, but we could… be together, you know? Have sex, to relieve tension and simply have some fun; there would be nothing wrong, and since it was so amazing the first time, I trust it would be the same again… and our friendship wouldn’t necessarily be ruined, perhaps it would come out… strengthened, even…”

💚 You hold your breath, waiting for Zoro’s reaction; you force yourself to meet his eyes, because you have opened your heart to him and have no reason to feel ashamed for it, and the emotion you feel reflected on his handsome face is the last you could have imagined. Not excitement, not embarrassment, not relief… but disappointment. “Is this what you want?” he asks after a while, a touch of disbelief in his voice, as he searches your eyes “What would really make you happy? To sleep together… to have sex, and then pretend nothing happened and we are simply friends?” The contempt in his voice is both discouraging and surprising; you never guessed Zoro would be the judging type, but perhaps it is not a matter of morality… “... yes.” you lie in the end; while a sexual relationship with Zoro would probably make you happy, at least for a while, it is not what you want, not even remotely “I mean, I think it would be… convenient for both of us…”

💚 “Convenient…” Zoro repeats, shaking his head, as if he had never heard a more absurd proposition; he laughs softly, but there is no trace of amusement in his tone. You bite your lip, suddenly uncomfortable, and since he doesn’t seem inclined to give your proposal an answer, you dare to ask: “What did you want to talk about?” “It doesn’t matter anymore; you… you sort of answered me already. Listen, I’ll see you later, all right? And these… these are for you, for what it’s worth; you can throw them away.” These are a bunch of colourful, sort of messy but for this even more beautiful flowers, that Zoro must have picked himself in the fields behind the harbour, and even tied with a ribbon found who knows where. 

💚 He brought you flowers. Oh, for all the Gods, Zoro brought you flowers!

💚 Left utterly speechless as you admire the bouquet that has been shoved in your hands, you don’t realise Zoro has left, turning on his heels and walking away. “Zoro, wait!” you call him, starting after him, but it’s useless; your friend, who has never run from a fight and would gladly face ten enemies on his own, pretends he doesn’t hear you, picking up the pace until he’s almost running - running away, from you, because of the catastrophic misunderstanding you have inadvertently created. “I’m so sorry… please, let me explain, you got it wrong!” you beg him, but Zoro is deaf to your protests and, even worse, can run much faster than you, and he can’t obviously avoid you forever, since you are part of the same tiny crew, but you know you have to explain yourself here and now, and you will, if only he would listen… “Zoro, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” and then, finally fed up with running after him like a parent with an unruly child: “Husband! Stop right there and let me talk, dammit!”

💚 He does. 

💚 You both need a moment to catch your breath, and you use your free hand to grab his and stop him from running again. In the end you look at each other, alone in the middle of a tiny meadow, and you just know, without the need to touch his chest with your hand, that your hearts are beating as one. Zoro looks at you, almost scared. “You called me husband.” he points out softly “You… you had never done it before.” “I haven’t.” you agree “And you don’t know how much I regret it. Thanks for the flowers, they are beautiful, but… what have you given them to me?” “Well…” he begins, rubbing a hand on the back of his head “It is tradition in my village that a man offers flowers to the woman who he… he wants to court. I know it doesn’t really make sense between the two of us, but I thought it could be… well, a statement of intentions, if you want. If… if that’s what you want as well…”

💚 You quickly inform him you have no intention of beginning a courtship with him. “Because.” you add still holding him by the hand, as you use the other to leave your bouquet on a nearby rock; you are blushing furiously as you look at him, but at the same time your heart is soaring, higher than the cloudless sky above you “There is no reason; you don’t need to woo me with gifts or compliments, because… because you have already won me over. I love being your friend, but that is not what I really want, not even if we sleep together on the side. I… I just want to be with you, like couples do. I want you to be my husband, and I want to be your wife. In a sense, I have always been, ever since that…”

💚 The rest of the sentence is pushed back in your mouth by Zoro’s lips, his scorching hot kiss making you forget your words; his arm is holding you by the waist, his free hand already lost in your hair, and only a moment passes before you are kissing him back, your open mouth greedily welcoming his tongue, your hands running on any inch of Zoro’s skin they can find, covered by his clothes or, even better, naked. “You know.” you murmur after a while, as Zoro is busy sucking a bruise on the side of your neck, the sensation so sensual and delicious you have closed your eyes to better savour it “There is technically a way for our marriage to be declared void, and for us to divorce. So, if you wanted to… change your mind…”

💚 You can feel Zoro’s grin against your throat. “The only reason I would divorce you is to court you again from the start.” he murmurs “I… I have wanted to ask you to be together since we left your island; I told myself it was only that, only sex, but I knew it wasn’t true, and I never found the courage to tell you how I felt, and when the other day at the festival I saw that guy dancing with you and it made my blood boil…” He takes your head in his hands, smiling at you; a more than throughout repetition of your wedding ceremony awaits you that night, but in that moment the purest, most inebriating joy fills both of you. “I promise I will never dance with anyone but you.” you murmur, locking your arms behind Zoro’s head, and he smiles again.

💚 “You better not forget your promise.” he points out before kissing you again “Wife.”

#One Piece #One Piece Live Action #OPLA #Roronoa Zoro #Roronoa Zoro x reader #Zoro #Zoro x reader #Mackenyu #Mackenyu Arata #Bellona's stuff

[schnuffel-danny]

aka: AU in which Vlad genuinely hates both Jack and Maddie and has attempted to cut them out of his life completely, but then it turns out the only other halfa is their kid, and Vlad becomes convinced God hates him specifically.

Contrary to canon, in this AU it's only Vlad's moral compass that is askew, his marbles remain mostly accounted for, and as such Vlad directs all his villainous urges to robbing banks and exploiting the working class, but he never gets too invested in elaborate revenge-murder plans. After his "best friends" abandoned him, and left him to rot strapped to a hospital bed, Vlad decides it's best to 1) cut off all contact from those two (and pretend they didn't do it first) and 2) use his new-found powers to show the world how much better off he is without those "wannabe scientists" in his (half)life. Point '2' eventually expands to amassing powers in the Ghost Zone.

Well, since Vlad isn't exactly luck's favorite guy, it turns out Jack and Maddie have found a way to reach out to him after all... One day Vlad is startled by a call from an unknown number to his personal phone, that none but a select few even know of, and when he picks up to yell at whoever is on the other side, he's greeted by the worst sound he's heard in years- Jack's voice. Jack informs Vlad that him and Maddie still have a box of his old things from college, and not so subtly begs him to come over and pick it up, so they have an excuse to meet up and chat for "old time's sake". Vlad only accepts so he can maybe, possibly, have a chance to punch him right in the face in front of his wife and kids.

The visit plan is simple: Show up, get the box, unleash years of repressed anger in one short rant, punch Jack in the face, threaten the Fentons with legal action if they ever even think of contacting him again, take a moment of silence for the horrible parenting those poor kids have to live with, leave and never ever look back again.

But life (especially if you're only living half of it) can never be that simple. Shortly after Vlad leaves to go back to his car, his attention is caught by a bright flash- of none other than Daniel Fenton changing out of his ghost form, after getting the daylights beaten out of him by some ghost in a dark alley. Because of course the only other half-ghost in existence would be the son of the two people Vlad wants nothing to do with And of course he would need Vlad to save him on the exact day he finally got to sever the ties with them for good.

So now Vlad has an overly enthusiastic hero-wannabe glued to his side asking him for advice on his ghost powers, and what's even worse- begging him to give Jack and Maddie another chance, because "They may be a little reckless, but they're good people, I swear!!"

Fate is a bitch, and the only reason god let Vlad live after the accident is so he could torment him for a little longer....

#danny phantom #I may not be able to draw much rn but that doesn't mean I cannot be annoying about my ideas online

[from-the-clouds]

moonlight on the river - joel miller x reader

masterlist | song inspo

summary: Joel has been many things to you. A dealer, a mentor, a friend, a lover. Lately, it’s the latter.  Sometimes he’s none of those things, or a handful of them, or all of them at once. And it’s up to the both of you to decide in the moment which things are true. Takes place during episode one of the TV series. pairing: joel miller x f!reader words: 2.4k warnings: angst, fluff, good ol' fashioned hurt/comfort. depressive thoughts, reader sort of has a death wish, references to alcohol/drug abuse, death, loss of family members & loved ones. implied age gap, references to casual sex, heavy petting (no smut). a/n: it's been months since i posted a fic on here! some of my best work comes when it’s 2am, i’m emo and touch-deprived and i have an 8am appointment so i stay up until 5am to write. this was actually supposed to be fully a fluff piece but the angst queen had to strike.

You wish you could drown in the pile of blankets you’ve wrapped yourself in. Wish the couch would swallow you whole, like a whale, then drag you down to the deepest depths of the ocean and leave you there until you can’t hold your breath any longer, until the cold pricks the tips of your fingers and toes, until you succumb completely. 

But in some ways, you’re already existing like that, in the sea-level equivalent of the Marianas Trench. One of those sea creatures that look not of this Earth, features warped – adapting, evolving, surviving, despite your environment’s best efforts to eradicate. Your mother had once shown them to you in her old textbooks and shown you the photos of anglerfish, frilled sharks, phantom jellyfish. The memory of your mother makes you wince, and you try to think of something else.

How anyone else around you managed to put on a brave face and make their way through each day was beyond your comprehension, even though you do it, too. They probably all feel the same way about it as you do, but no one talks about the collective trauma you’re all slogging through. No one has anything new to add, and it’s foolish to believe that anyone’s insight could somehow take the pain away. Even if you have a chance to tell your story, there is always someone who has it worse. 

Get in line. 

Exhausted as you are, you don’t sleep much. Most of your nights are spent at the precipice of unconsciousness, and you can never quite make it over the edge, the helicopters, radios, sporadic gunfire always manages to rouse you first. When you do manage to sleep, you’re plagued with nightmares. You prefer perpetual fatigue. 

A knock at your door comes suddenly, and you start, sitting up quickly – but quietly – to not alert the unexpected guest that someone might be in the tiny studio you call home. It’s well after dark, which makes you doubt that whoever, or whatever is at the door, isn’t there for a friendly drop-in or a cup of tea, not that friendly drop-ins or cups of tea ever happened. 

But before you grow too panicked, your name is muttered, accompanied by another impatient rap of knuckles against the hollow wood. It’s a familiar rasp, even-toned and calm, and your shoulders sag in relief before you abandon your post on the couch. 

“Joel?” you ask softly, squinting in the dim light of the hallway through the crack in the door. He doesn’t look any different, though it’s been about a month since you’d last seen him. You’re not sure what to expect, but he’s the same as always, wearing a worn, tight denim shirt and fraying jeans. He looks tired, but you can’t recall a time when he doesn’t. Everyone looks tired all the time, it just only concerns you because it’s him. 

Not waiting for an invite, he steps through the small opening you allot for him and into your place, wordlessly.

“What the fuck, Joel, it’s past curfew are you trying to get yourself killed?” 

“I’ve done worse,” he says, dismissively, and yanks the door from your hand to close and lock it behind him. 

You don’t argue with him. You rarely do – which you think is partly why he likes you – but especially now, you don’t have the energy. And when you do, he’s too stubborn to listen. 

Joel has been many things to you. A dealer, a mentor, a friend, a lover. Lately, it’s the latter.  Sometimes he’s none of those things, or a handful of them, or all of them at once. And it’s up to the both of you to decide in the moment which things are true.

So when he steps forward, crowding you backwards until your rear hits your kitchen countertop and you have nowhere to go, you don’t ask questions. 

His hand cradles your chin, tilting it back to look into his sad eyes, and he kisses you. For a split second, it’s chaste, and you’re almost confused, until it’s suddenly not, and his grip on your jaw tightens, his lips parting. Joel stakes his claim, his free hand winding into your hair and pulling. You sigh, closing your eyes. 

He moves both his hands to cup your ass through the flimsy athletic shorts you’re wearing, lifting your hips up and against him, making to carry you to the bed, or maybe even take you on the countertop – it could be one of those days. Everything he’s doing would normally light you on fire, and there’s a primal instinct that’s telling you you like it, but for some reason, you hesitate.

Joel senses it right away. You’re not sure how. And you don’t want him to. You’re prepared to submit, even though you feel numb everywhere, because you hope for the chance to feel something, anything other than what you’ve felt the last few days. He pauses, too, pulls back. 

You expect to meet his eyes when you look up at him, but they are fixed on something else. Tugging on the collar of his shirt, you try to kiss him again, but he doesn’t budge, until you follow his eyes. An empty bottle of liquor sits on the bar behind you. Fuck.

“You’re drinking again.” It’s not a question.

“That was actually from yesterday,” you say, like it would make any difference. The remnants of a hangover have been tweaking your temples all day, biting the back of your eyes. It was half empty when I got it. It was just one night. I can have a couple drinks without getting out of control. Your brain cycles through several more excuses before you decide not to waste your breath. 

“What did I tell you about this?” He reached behind you and lifted the bottle, holding it in front of your face like you hadn’t been able to see it clearly enough before. 

“You should talk,” you don’t like being cruel, but you’re already desperate to end the discussion. He’s probably drunk or high right now, but it’s none of your business, and you’d given up trying to save him a long time ago. 

You shift your weight to lower yourself off the counter and move away from him and the once-inviting warmth of his embrace. Joel doesn’t let you make it far, reaching out to grip your upper arm and tugging you back to face him with little-to-no effort on his part. His strength always startled you, even though it shouldn’t, considering his size. It also should’ve scared you, but the manhandling mostly just turned you on. Not enough that you were going to keep letting him lecture you.

“It’s different. You’re still so young.”

“What does that matter?”

He doesn’t have an answer. 

You lift your chin, squaring up to him. “That’s what I thought.”

He puts his hand on hip and studies you carefully. Despite your attitude, you’ve never liked disappointing him. He’s the closest thing you have to a father, which you can recognize is an awfully fucked up way to feel about someone you regularly have sex with, but you lived in an awfully fucked up world.

There’s a wistfulness to Joel’s expression you’ve never seen before. He chooses to change the subject, and you’re thankful until what he says registers. 

“I’m leaving town tomorrow night. You might not see me again.”

It takes a moment to process, but it hits you like a blow to the gut. So hard, you’re surprised you don’t stagger backwards with the force of it. Even when it settles, you know it hasn’t even sunk in all the way.

“Well…” you take a long, thoughtful pause, and offer the only thing that your brain can come up with, “....stay safe out there, then.”

“Yeah,” he runs his tongue over his teeth and squints at you. “You want to tell me what’s going on?” 

Snorting, you know it’s important to remain as blase as possible so you don’t cry. Although, you don’t really cry anymore. Even when you want to, the tears never come. At some point, after watching every person you’ve ever cared for die in uniquely devastating ways, you must’ve reached your lifetime limit. 

“I know you. Something’s up.”

No, you don’t! You want to scream, but that would be a lie. It’s been three years since you met, maybe one since your….arrangement, or whatever you’d call it, had begun. 

How the two of you had become so close was a mystery even to you. It’s not like you were charming or charismatic, or willing to put up the innocent act. You didn’t try to inflate his ego, which most men loved. At first, you didn’t even really like him at all. That changed with time. Somewhere along the way, things just clicked.

“It’s nothing that no one has ever felt before,” you shrug. Joel has his fair….or rather unfair share of demons, and is the last person you want to complain to. Most of the time, he’s unflinchingly guarded, but he’s shared enough – secrets whispered in your ear while tangled in damp sheets, your hand on his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart – to make you wonder if you have it so bad. Focusing on a fixed point, a crack in the tiled floor, you avoid his eyes.

“Hey,” his voice pulls you back. “Don’t do that.” 

“I’ll be okay,” you say. “I’m just having a d-a week.” A month, a year, a life. Reluctantly, you meet his gaze.

His face softens, his hand reaching to clasp with your own, thumb grazing across your palm. “Come here,” he murmurs. He pulls you against him tightly, tucking your head under his chin, his fingers weaving into your hair. 

“You’re going to be alright. You’re a strong girl.” He’s too smart to believe that, you think. But it doesn’t stop you from pressing your lips against his sternum. His broad chest is sturdy, firm, and you close down your eyes. 

Neither of you speak, and one of his hands begins to stroke your back in soothing circles. You stay wrapped in his arms for a long time. Long enough to think about how you might never get to do this again, and you suddenly want him in all the ways you never had him, and all the ways you had. Just one last time. 

He presses a kiss to your temple. “I can tell you’re exhausted, baby. Let’s get you to bed.”

There’s no reason to protest, he’s right, so you let him lead you to the bed. You’re already in your pajamas, and he draws back the covers and tucks you underneath them carefully. 

“You’re staying,” you say. It’s meant to be a question, but it comes out like command, and although you can’t stand the idea of pleading for it, would if you had to. You’re that desperate. 

You hear the clunk of his boots landing on the floor, feel the dip of his weight on the opposite side of the bed. 

“Of course,” he says softly, voice barely above a whisper as he slides underneath the covers. 

Joel’s arm snakes around your waist, and you’re being pulled back against his chest. You wriggle to be closer, even though it’s not possible, his nose resting on the crown of your head, stroking your hair softly. He’s being so tender, so sweet, it makes you feel sick.

“What if I don’t want you to leave?” you turn your head slightly, so you can see him out of the corner of your eye. You want to be able to remember his face, in case you never see him again. He was handsome, you’d always thought that, even despite the years between you. 

“It’s my brother. I don’t have much of a choice, baby.”

Joel had told you all about Tommy. You wished you could be resentful at his leaving to find his brother, but you knew you’d risk pretty much anything for the chance to see anyone in your family again. 

You shake your head. “This…sucks.” 

He offers a rare chuckle, one that vibrates through his chest and straight to the ache in your stomach that started when he told you he’d be leaving. “It does. I’m sorry.”

Joel sighs, his breath on the nape of your neck, and you shiver. “I’ll miss you.” It’s a simple truth you can hear in his voice without even needing to look in his eyes.

“I’ll miss you.” You reach for his hand. 

You roll over to face him, his head propped on his opposite hand, looking down at you. 

“You remember everything I taught you?” he asks. “Be smart, keep yourself safe.”

Joel had proven to be a pretty valuable resource when it came to survival skills. He’d taught you how to shoot a gun, to load and reload it, how to take it apart, clean it, and put it back together. You recalled the feeling of him leaning over your shoulder, adjusting your grip to shoot at a target. And even if most of his lessons in hand-to-hand combat resulted in him having his way with you on the kitchen floor – you didn’t mind it at all – you knew enough to defend yourself. 

“I do,” you answer. “And I will.”

You think of all the time you’ve spent with him the past few years. How it has made things bearable. It’s likely the last time you’ll ever see him, and you know what you’re supposed to say. But for the life of you, you just can’t say it.

Instead, you lean in to kiss him, lazy and lingering, both your hands on the side of his face, palms pressed against the scruff of his beard. You pull away after awhile.

“Tell me about what it was like. Before all this.” When the outbreak began, you were just a child. It felt like a dream, your memory so fuzzy it was hard to recall anything except the worst parts.

Joel does, and you listen, captivated, though it’s not the first time you’ve heard it. For such a gruff man, he paints a pretty picture.

It’s easy to imagine what your life might be like if none of this had ever happened. It would have been better, infinitely better, for yourself, for Joel, for everyone. It would be better, but if it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have met him. For some reason, something about that doesn’t feel right.

#joel miller x reader #joel miller #pedro pascal #tlou fanfic #tlou hbo #the last of us #fluff #angst #joel miller fanfic #joel miller x you #hi please read this and say nice things to me i worked really really hard on this #writing #fanfiction #joel miller imagine #joel miller tlou #joel miller the last of us #joel miller fluff #joel miller angst

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

Who would you think would most likely to baby trap their barling in Obey me? Take your top four pick and why?

The tactic of baby-trapping is a hefty one. One that pales in comparison to these devils' powers and connection to you with their pacts. In the devil dom, they already have an advantage over you anyway so this is more of a psychological thing. Whether it's to satisfy his psyche or to control yours these are my top picks…

Mammon

He is the avatar of greed 

who better than he to own you in a way that actually manifests a child

“Better off sticking with me! You’ll need my help to raise the coolest little copy of me!” 

Its honestly probably an accident 

But as long as he gets to keep you by his side so be it

At first, he’s just not fully aware of the responsibilities that come with having a baby

And boy is he winded

He can’t run out because you and Lucifer are willing to chain him down to help

So he’ll suffer the long nights and the wailing as you both just get used to raising an infant

But once he gets past the dread he’s elated

Not only does the love of his life stay by his side forever but he has a cute kid to prove it

He won’t tell you that though

“Hah?! Love ‘em? I tolerate the little booger at best! Hey! Don’t hold him like that, you’ve got to be gentle!”

A doting father to the max 

and even being more attentive if not more obsessive with you

“I bet you thought the great Mammon would leave you to rot! Fear not I only left to get takeout…and diapers.”

“Mammon!”

“...and the heads of those demons that were talkin’ bad about ya…”

“Mammon!”

“What?! It was on the way!”

Asmodeus

Oddly enough he does it because of self-esteem 

Whether it's yours or his it's up to you

If it's yours he’s just tired of you looking down on yourself

And using it as an excuse not to be with him

Well if you're so certain you're not the most gorgeous human in existence then why are you pregnant with the child of the most beautiful devil in devil dom

If it's not your self esteem it's his 

Your divine.

He knows it you know it

And so does everyone else 

He’s not afraid of you beating him

He’s afraid of the crowd that follows

“Wow (Y/n)-chan your so popular…they seem to like you an awful lot...”

He’s never felt so insecure about himself before

How will the world know your his 

…better than with a product of your bond

“Wow! Aren’t they the cutest?! They’ve got my looks!” 

Youtuber kid all the way

Your child is more likely to be on more magazine covers than their father himself

Which makes it harder to escape if that was ever an option in the first place

But that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t feel the need to pick off your most avid fans

Especially the fans and theorists that notice your worried gaze and the possessive hold on your hip

“Oya you really captured their emotions that way! Too bad we can’t have you ruining their Winter debutant. Don’t be too sad! You are having the most beautiful demon be the one to end your worthless ugly life.”

Barbatos

Even with your summoner status, he’s a tough demon to beat

The power of time and teleportation are on his side

Which can make for a maddening punishment if you try to escape him

“Oh, so you insist on running, then? Fine but I’m not privy to keep doing this with you.”

Its also just easier to keep your mind on him this way

Since you're so insistent on trying to run he might as well make it impossible for you to do so 

Emotionally at first

This doubles as his claim to ownership and a way to halt you from running ever again

As a butler to the king, everything he has is to serve his master

Even you are allowed to be in his possession its because his master lets him or doesn’t know

But a child

His and your child 

That's something he can fully own

It works with your mind as well

Leaving you to either make the heartless decision to abandon your child 

or to stay and have no choice but to grapple with this constant piece of him 

That is if he lets it get that bad

Again with time as a tool, he can make it so everything he says and does makes perfect sense

“Let’s have a baby, my love. It’d be death all over again if you won’t indulge me.” 

“Oh Barbs, I was thinking just the same!”

Diavolo

Has to be given the idea

It's not going to be his first thought

“Won’t that be cool! Then we could be together all the time! Just the three of us!”

Whether its Barbatos or you scoffing at his behavior something gives him the bright idea

Like most things, he’ll be upfront

He doesn’t really need to stake his claim 

He’s the prince of devil dom 

The very clothes on your back say you belong irrevocably to him

it's more like he believes it’ll make your relationship better

You’ll be more willing to have fun not run if your child demands it

Right?

“Wow! Good job you managed to get them all in perfect order!” 

“Good job!? They killed half the staff for a demented dominoes game!”

“...”

“That's a bad thing!”

“R-right! That's a bad thing just like your mother says!”

#yandere obey me x reader #yandere obey me #yandere mammon #yandere babytrap #yandere asmodeus #yandere diavolo #yandere barbatos #yandere obey me: one master to rule them all #yandere x reader #lovelyyandereaddictionpoint #yandere mammon x reader #yandere asmo #yandere asmodeus x reader #yandere barbatos x reader #yandere diavolo x reader #yandere x you #yanderexrea #yandere #yanderes #yandere harem

[extremelyblackandwhite]

pairing: dad!bucky barnes x au pair!reader

warnings: age gap (reader is 10 years younger than bucky), female masturbation, mentions of sex, smut (18+, dni if under 18)

summary: there’s something about bucky that she never allowed herself to fully explore. 

Sadie had always been a quiet baby, even the day he first met her. She was just there, on the entry mat of his flat, wrapped in hospital blanket, laid on her back and sleeping peacefully. He could not believe that such peace, such overwhelming purity had somehow came from him. Ever since, that remained. She was well behaved, usually being happy if someone she knew was around. She was the best thing that could’ve possibly come from him and as he laid her down in her bed, surrounded by another pile of plushies which she demanded she had to sleep next to every night, that feeling that his little girl only had him, the most imperfect person he knew, made his heart stop even if for a second. He shook those thoughts from his mind, distracting himself by pulling the comforter over his daughter and kissing her head, turning the lights off as he exited the room. This was not it. Not what he envisioned when he allowed himself the chance to think of a future where he had children. If he had allowed himself the fantasy when he was younger, he would’ve rather had a traditional home somewhere in the suburbs where everyone was sure to somehow get in his nerves but was safer. The home would be homey, walls covered in photos from a single live well lived, a wedding photo at the entry door and three jackets in the same colour but different sizes. He thought if he ever had children, he would be married to someone he loved and loved him back. Yet, he’d only allowed himself the childish notion of love towards himself to ran wild before he got into the army, before the accident. Truth was, after the accident he didn’t want a bride and he certainly didn’t want children. He wasn’t naive enough to believe himself unattractive, he knew he was, he knew he was magnetic. However, he knew the difference between magnetism, passion and love. Love and lust may go together, but they don’t arise together, not at the beginning. 

Parts of him sometimes wished things would’ve worked out with Sadie’s mother. God, he’d tried. He’d been an idiot before, begging on his knees to a woman who couldn’t care less about the child she’d abandoned on his doorstep, to please give him a chance. He had begged her to allow him to show her a nice life, even if she didn’t love him, even if she didn’t like him. Heck, he’d even attempted to pay her, just so Sadie would have a mother. Just so Sadie would know her mother. The sad truth was that Sadie’s mother didn’t want to be her mother. She didn’t even want to be reminded of Sadie’s existence except for when she needed money. For her, Sadie was an accident. Heck, for her she didn’t even know their child was even named Sadie. She didn’t care. Bucky tried to pretend he didn’t care either but he did. He wanted Sadie happy. He couldn’t be the best dad, he knew that, but he could try to give her everything. 

He popped the glass lid off the whiskey bottle on his drink cart, pouring himself a very generous glass. Maybe he should put some photos up on the walls. Yet, he doubted his interior designer would be very happy about it. 

     - Is she off for the night? - Y/N came down the stairs, dressed in her beige loungewear and carrying the single cup of tea she seemed to always have around her. He nodded, taking another sip of his drink while staring into pure nothingness. - I’m taking her to the park tomorrow morning. Playdate with one of the kids from school.

     - Where did you learn to shoot? 

     - How is that relevant to your daughter’s playdate? 

     - No one shoots that well as a first timer. - he turned to look at her. - That’s no beginners luck. That’s good shooting. 

     - My older brother used to have fun shooting cans down with BB guns when we were kids. He taught me.

     - You have a brother? 

     - How is that relevant?

     - We never actually talk, Y/N. You spend days with my kid and I don’t know much about you. I’m curious. - he sat on his couch, patting the seat next to him. - Trust me, doll. It pays off being in my good graces. 

    - Don’t care. You already pay me. - she leaned on the back of the couch, looking at him with a smug grin. - Quite handsomely, actually. 

    - Do you want a drink? 

    - I have a drink. - she rose her cup of tea. 

    - A proper drink. I have the good stuff, doll. Besides, Sadie’s asleep and your boss won’t care if you have a drink or two. - he got up, ready to pour her something. - Come on. When will you be able to drink 50 year old scotch? 

    - You have 50 year old scotch? - she peaked over to the trolley. - Is that even drinkable? Has it not developed a weird taste? Does the scotch know women have rights now? 

     - Don’t get too used to it. They cost a pretty penny. - he handed her a glass. - Worth it. 

    - How much does it cost? 

    - Just enjoy yourself. 

That was good scotch. She probably had no qualification to be deciding what was good and what was bad scotch but she was entirely sure this was good scotch. Good strong scotch and just by the second glass, the two of them were giggling like two school girls, her cup of tea long forgotten. 

   - C’mon, c’mon ... - she playfully slapped his arm. - You slept with at least one of them. They’re hot. 

   - I don’t sleep with my employees. I’m a good boss. 

   - But she’s so hot. - she hammered on. - I would sleep with her if I swung that way. Is that a rule? Only hot secretaries?

   - It’s not my fault hot people attract hot people. 

   - At least one of the mums at Sadie’s school. 

   - Nope. 

   - They’re always throwing themselves at you. Honestly, its your pick at this point. 

   - I can’t. They very respectfully throw themselves at me but they still think there’s a Mrs. Barnes. 

   - Sadie’s mum? - she almost sobered up at the thought. - Sadie’s mum has come by?

   - No, not Sadie’s mum. You. 

   - I’m not Mrs. Barnes. Do they think I’m Mrs. Barnes?

   - Wow. - he chuckled at her horrified face - Would it be such a bad thing to be Mrs. Barnes? There are worse fates.

    - You’re not my type. - she almost snorted a laugh, hiding the sight of her lips behind the hammered glass of the tumbler. 

Bucky leaned against the couch, looking her up and down without moving anything but his eyes. It was a sniper look if she’d ever seen one and although she was covered in oversized loungewear, she felt as if she stood stark naked in front of her boss. Her cheeks heated and she no longer knew if it was from the scotch in her system or from the look she was receiving from him. His motionless state changed as he moved like a feline, standing above her, close enough she could feel his breathe on her. She buried herself deeper into the couch, trying to avoid his eyes. Had his eyes always been this blue? 

     - I’m sure I could change your mind if I wanted. - he chuckled before returning to his seat. - What about you? You’re very curious about my love life, what about yours? 

     - I don’t have time. 

     - That I know. You’re always here, overtime with my daughter. Are there no postgraduate men vying for your attention? - he drank whatever was leftover of the amber liquid in the glass. 

     - I’m not that kind of girl. - she laughed, uncomfortable at the mention of her dating life. She was already ashamed of it, of what her love life looked like. There was no one tripping over themselves to date her. Perhaps it was merely because she didn’t know what it took to put oneselves out there, she didn’t like the superficiality of dating apps, somewhat still wanting a traditional meet cute, and when she wasn’t studying, she was looking after Sadie. Besides, she never was the centre of attention, so why would she be now? - I’m content. 

     - If I were 10 years younger, I’d be all over you. - he winked. - You need more time off. 

     - Who needs a boyfriend when I can be Mrs. Barnes apparently. - she rebutted, getting a laugh from him. - If apparently I am Mrs. Barnes, I think I’m gonna need a raise. 

      - You’re just making me lose out of on the chance to sleep with the school’s MILFs. You may need a pay cut, actually.

      - I think you’ve had too much too drink. Another comment like that and they won’t let you near the school. - she let herself lean against the pillow, taking him in with a very drunken mind. James Barnes was gorgeous, he’d always been gorgeous but perhaps her sober self had never allowed herself to see him like this, see him as a sexual being or have less than appropriate thoughts about her boss.

She knew he was attractive, she knew everybody wanted him even if it was for a single night. She’d heard some of it ... by accident when Sadie was at school and he thought no one was home. She didn’t think much of it but now, as he stood there in dark joggers and a way too tight white t-shirt, those noises were all she could think of. What it would feel like to hear a man like that come undone, to be the reason a man like that came undone. She wondered what his fingers would feel against supple skin, the texture of his lips and tongue. 

      - Are you alright? - his voice luckily took her out of her depraved fantasy world. She shouldn’t be thinking of this, she shouldn’t think of him like that. He’s her boss, he’s Sadie’s dad. - I’m just joking around. I am not a man whore, Y/N. 

      - I know. - she swallowed the lump in her throat. - I, I really need to get to bed or Sadie will miss her playdate tomorrow. 

      - I should be going too. Work tomorrow. 

      - Ah ... - she looked around. - I’ll wait for you to say goodnight to Sadie tomorrow then? Or do you want her to go to sleep before you arrive?

      - I’ll text you if I make it before bedtime.

      - Okay. Hum ... goodnight, Sergeant Barnes.

(...)

It was official. She was depraved. 

The 50 year old scotch made her a depraved individual. That had to be the reason she was twisting and turning around in her bed, her sheets no longer smooth instead tangled between her legs as her mind wandered further into the sexuality that her boss exuded. He was stuck in her mind, from the way his lips grazed the glass to how close he’d been to her. He’d been so close to her, close enough she could’ve kissed him if she wanted to. She was sure he was a good kisser. He looked like he was a good kisser. 

She turned around of more, staring at the ceiling, trying to find something remotely interesting in the wide white of the ceiling. Instead, she wondered about what he was doing in his bedroom. She wondered if he was restless too, perhaps finding something more interesting to do with his time and like an annoying radio song, those moans were back in her memory. God, she wondered if he needed a woman with him to make those sounds. Wondered if he laid down at night, fantasising about the perfect woman, tugging at his cock. Oh god ...

     - Stop it. - she mumbled to herself but that image was now stuck in her mind. The idea of his lips parted as he jerked off, moans leaving his mouth like any other fantasy. 

That heat was back to her cheeks as her hand shyly descended, from her side to the hem of her shorts. She shouldn’t, she really shouldn’t and perhaps if she were sober she wouldn’t be doing it but at the mere memory of him, all inhibitions were out the window and her hand went under the shorts and her underwear. She reached between the heat in her legs, finding to no surprise that her colourful imagination made her wet. She let herself imagine what it would be like for him to touch her as she lazily circled her clit with her fingers, her other hand toying with her hardened nipple. 

She could almost hear his voice in that state, whispering dirty words into her ear as she thrust a finger into her wanting heat, her palm rubbing against her bundle of nerves as she slowly fucked herself. She wondered if he’d put his hand around her throat, calling her all sorts of things and moaning against her ear. 

    - Sergeant Barnes ... - she moaned to herself, her head trashing around her pillow as she bit the fabric trying to suppress any noise from coming out. 

She was done for, so done for. 

(...)

     - Oh my god! - she shrieked as she stepped away from the tub, receiving yet another splash of water which instead of ending up on the floor, hit her directly across her front. 

The bathroom was steamed from the heat of the water, most of which now laid on the ground in puddles or soaked into her clothing. This never happened, or at least it didn’t usually happen. That’s what she gets for bathing an overexcited toddler. She looked down on herself, sighing before picking up the only dry towel in the bathroom and pulling Sadie out the bath before she turned the bathroom into her own private pool. She already had one of those, she didn’t need two. 

     - You’re gonna have to help me mop, huh? - she told the 2 year old as she dried her off and helped her into dry, clean pyjamas. - We can’t splash in the bath.

     - Fun! - she merely replied with that smile that almost made her forgive everything. Almost.

She picked Sadie up, leaning her against her hip so she wouldn't trip on the wet tilled floor. That’s just what she needed for tonight, to spend it all moping the floors of the bathroom. Yet right now all she needed was to get Sadie fed and calm before she created any more danger. She would change after. It was just the two of them tonight and Bucky hadn’t shown any signs of showing up before bedtime which gave her plenty of time to get her ducks in a row. 

At least that’s what she had thought until she stepped right into Bucky’s track as she made her way to the kitchen. Bucky stood there, almost made of stone as he took in what stood in front of him. His daughter was happily giggling, speaking about her playdate while Y/N was soaking wet, from head to toe. It was almost as if she wasn't wearing a shirt. The thin white material transparent and clinging to the pebbled nipples and outline of her breasts and if that wasn't enough, the wet white shorts gave him a front view of her red underwear. 

He’d never felt like a perverted old man until now. Until the sight of this woman soaking wet made him wonder what she would look like completely naked. Suddenly, his trousers felt tighter around his crotch and he had to turn his head away. This was his child’s mother ... shit, his child’s babysitter. Whatever. This was inappropriate. 

    - I’m sorry. She splashed the whole bathroom.

What was he supposed to reply? He couldn’t look the woman in the eye without getting hard. Instead, he grabbed his daughter from her, taking a few steps back. A few which looked like a mile away. 

     - You may want to change, Y/N. - he cleared his throat. 

     - Oh ... - she looked down herself. Great. Now she was having inappropriate thoughts about her boss and prancing around in see through clothing. - I’m so sorry.

    - Just go, Y/N. - he motioned towards the stairs, turning around to face the other side as she climbed up the stairs and away from his sight. Great, he was a perverted old man now. 

     - Daddy, you’re red. - Sadie piped up as he sat her down in her chair. - Angry?

    - No, Sadie. I’m not angry. 

    - Sorry. - she apologised. 

    - Just don’t splash Miss Y/N, yeah? Makes things complicated for daddy.

#sebastian stan #sebastian stan/reader #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan/you #sebastian stan x you #sebastian stan/y/n #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan imagine #bucky #bucky barnes #bucky x reader #bucky/reader #bucky/y/n #bucky x y/N #bucky x you #bucky/you #bucky imagine

[apompkwrites]

the freshman kingscholar || leona kingscholar

masterlist characters: nuru, jabali, jabori (OCs), leona (brief/platonic) genre: angst contains: some gore (gouging out eye), implied depression (bc its leona) summary: the members of mwezi miji guard are admitted into one of the two most prestigious schools for mages. notes: guys i promise i don't have a bias in the black sheep </3 ok but srs i am working on the other fics :DD its just lil king (and lil shroud) have a clearer plan than the others do :( parts: [og post] | [previous] | [next]

"it's only been a few days since he's gotten that mark," you sighed, wringing out the rag into the bucket. the water didn't help much, but it was the best you could do in the small village.

"i can't find anything about the substance..." jabori muttered under his breath, flipping through the pages of his book. his hands trembled the more he read, the mere thought of finding nothing in these old books seemingly eating him alive.

before you could offer any words of comfort, a loud thud sounded from nuru's bedroom. and at that moment, it felt like your heart fell alongside whatever it was that made the noise.

jabori was quick to follow you, abandoning both the book and the bucket outside in favor of nuru's room. and when the two of you stepped inside, you saw him.

nuru, despite his large wings behind him, was caught facing the makeshift mirror in his room, a piece of wood clutched in his hand and scooping out the remains of his glazed-over eye. he didn't scream or cry at that moment as if he felt no pain whatsoever.

the thud that had sounded just a minute ago was the chair that used to sit in front of the mirror, now tipped over on its side.

and all that remained on the desk containing the mirror were the chunks and bits of nuru's left eye.

your mind was... hazy, to say the least. it was as if you were floating in between consciousness and unconsciousness, helplessly floating in a state of being in which you both did and did not exist.

you did not have time to linger on those thoughts, however, when your vision was suddenly flooded by light. the container you had been shoved in was now open, revealing to you a dark interior with several people dressed in robes.

and, as if a gate had opened to let your memories flow out, you remembered. you remembered nuru being the first to step onto the carriage and into the coffin, his wings uncomfortably pressed against him as he squeezed inside.

"this is all for ma," he had said before the coffin closed. you and the twins quickly followed him, and that was where your memory ended.

"welcome, one and all, to night raven college!" the man, presumably the one to open the coffin, greeted you and the rest of the attendees, his arms extended outwards as if he were a magician showcasing his biggest trick. "i am your gracious headmaster crowley and i am honored today to admit the newest generation of mages into these distinguished halls."

it wasn't difficult for you to locate nuru, his wings the only things outside of his robe. the twins were a bit harder considering their ears were hidden underneath their hoods, but it was safe to assume they were beside you and nuru.

"one at a time, you will step up to the dark mirror and remove your hoods. allow the mirror to gaze into your soul, as its observations will all add up to your dorm assignment." the headmaster seemed to squirm uncomfortably in his spot, his eyes darting to and from a specific coffin in the room. "n-now then, i have released a number of you from your gates. let's see... we'll start with you." he quickly waved one of the attendees towards the mirror, placing his hands on their shoulders and positioning them in front of it.

"these robes are so stuffy," the figure beside you grumbled, pulling and tugging on the fabric.

"ah, good to know it's you, jabali," you snickered, earning an elbow to the arm from him.

"hush," nuru spoke, his wing extending to wrap around you. he pulled you closer to his side, nearly hiding you behind his mass of feathers. "(name), jabali, jabori."

"yes, sir."

"our goal is to learn as much about magic as we can," he informed the three of you, his voice soft and quiet. "no matter where we end up, that is our prerogative. and no matter who stands in our way, we will accomplish that."

"of course," you nodded, tugging the hood on your head.

"let's see... ah, your turn," the headmaster's voice quickly broke through your conversation as he headed towards nuru and began to gesture towards the mirror.

when nuru stood in front of the mirror and tugged off his hood, you could hear a few whispers around you.

"what happened to him...?"

"that's a nasty scar..."

"he doesn't even have an eye...!"

"nuru," he spoke straight and matter-of-factly, unbothered by the whispers that he had definitely heard. the mirror stared through him, inspecting every part of his being with a careful eye.

"the nature of your soul... ah, how interesting," the mirror hummed in its echoing voice. "i see great conviction in you. you are driven to a single purpose with no regard for any obstacle that may stop you. therefore, the dorm best fit for you... savanaclaw!"

hollars and cheers rang out from a certain section of the robed crowd. nuru stepped off to the side but remained in his spot, eyeing you carefully as he nodded up to the platform. without needing to be ordered twice, you stepped forward in front of the mirror.

"state your name," it instructed. you pulled the hood off your head, your ears flicking briefly at the sudden change in pressure.

"(name)." you heard the familiar sound of nuru's wing move from where he stood. and although you couldn't see him, you could tell he had, for some reason, raised his wing to cover something.

"the nature of your soul... a follower, but not of rules. of desire. of passion. and, i see... despite your hardship," your heart dropped at the sound of those words, "you have fought and pushed, and will continue to do so. therefore, the dorm best fit for you... savanaclaw!"

more cheers sounded from where nuru stood. you were quick to stand at his side, catching a brief glimpse of your new dorm.

so that was why he moved his wing...

even when you stood at his side, he used his wing to cover you, hiding you inside it and pulling you closer to his side.

see, nuru, after the incident, had garnered a strange sense to specifically lion beastmen. you had seen it firsthand when a few stragglers of the dens came close to the mwezi miji border. you had even seen it directed to you, seeing as how he seemed to have some innate ability to discern your location.

the brief glimpse towards the savanaclaw students greeted you with a familiar yet distant figure, his eyes practically burning into your soul like the mirror had just done a few seconds ago.

leona kingscholar stood just a few feet away from you.

leona really did not want to be here. he had seen plenty of orientations already, what was going to make this one any different? ruggie could handle all this on his own, so maybe he could just sneak off to the botanical garden to sleep.

sleep and desperately watch as his mind struggled to form the idea of a perfect family.

he wanted nothing more than to take a nap and pass the day as quickly as possible, but no, he just had to be a part of the orientation process because he was the dorm leader and he was the one responsible for the fresh meat that would be enrolled in savanaclaw. gods, what a pain...

he had gotten a fair share of the new attendees, but the ones that caught his attention were not the students that quickly merged into the crowd of students. no, no, no, it was the ones that were clearly familiar with each other and chose to stick together the moment they were designated to savanaclaw.

and, more specifically, the one that had those eyes that stared back at him in nightmares. the one who he could only remember being a little cub that loved to run out into the streets of the kingdom, who loved to toss bugs in his older brother's hair, the one who had ran away the second he got comfortable in night raven college.

(name) kingscholar stood just a few feet away from him.

taglist: @brokenncrown @help-meplz @destinationdesignation @rainys-personal-garden @kalims @sxftiebee @luxaryllis @auld-a @the-dumber-scaramouche @ayra2452008 @tinywho-man @spadecentral @justeclem44 @bajifairyy @mulandi @sadimon @stormyovent0aster @sn00zl4x @f1fty-f1fty @bloomed-night-flower @madusas-girlfriend @b0nkers-papaya @arandomeroacher @randonamedcl @potabletable @meerpea @luvcalico @chlousp @prettyinblack231 @dindarasuum @elizaboba @ravenlking @reveristmain @lasignoramybeloved @poto-de-michi @sherryuki-callmeyuki @cadit-in-aestus-sidereum @valeriele3

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twisted wonderland headcanons #twisted wonderland imagines #twisted wonderland scenarios #twisted wonderland angst #twst angst #twisted wonderland leona #twisted wonderland leona x reader #twst leona #twst leona x reader #leona x reader #twisted wonderland leona kingscholar #twisted wonderland leona kingscholar x reader #twst leona kingscholar #twst leona kingscholar x reader #leona kingscholar x reader #black sheep

[theobsessedcookiefan]

I HAD THIS DRAFTS AAA 😭😭😭😭 (It's happiness).

Okay some clarifications, y/n in this story will be an apprentice witch, she won't be one of the ones who created the heroes, also I will call Shadow Milk Cookie Blueberry Milk Cookie since I think they had that kinda name before, I don't think for example Silent Salt was called that before that corruption right?

:ﾟ･*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

Part 1. The Tower and the Witch.

"What story do you want me to tell you?" Asked the older cookie to a group of little ones gathered around him. "The one about the hero and the witch!" One of the little ones replied. "Yes! I like that one!" Replied another, finally the old man gave up and smiled. "Okay, but no interrupting me this time."

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

The heroes of Earthbread, the closest thing the cookies had to deities besides their creators the witches; we all know the story, five heroes created and blessed by them, gaining powers beyond the comprehension of any common cookie. For example we have the cookie holder of the virtue of knowledge; Blueberry Milk Cookie, he spent day and night in his research, looking for answers to the strangest questions he could think of, which led him to discover the Witches' Banquet.

At first he thought it was just a legend, something parents told their children to obey them; "If you're good maybe the witches will take you with them and invite you to the Banquet." He heard a lot of parents say already, so it wasn't crazy to think that it was indeed a legend, but as the days passed in his research he found several clues that indicated that it did in fact exist! This did nothing but feed the curiosity of our hero, he wanted to know more about his creators and get answers to several questions; Why the cookies existed and why he and his friends were the ones chosen to carry such power were two of them.

Without wasting any more time he waited until the next date in which the legends said that the Banquet took place, when that awaited moment arrived he immediately went to the place where it was supposed to happen, he found something? Yes, a somewhat high tower that seemed abandoned at first sight, the smoke coming out of the chimney was barely noticeable to the eye. With a little effort and using his skills to climb the tower he managed to get to the window of the tower and take a little look inside, wow indeed it was big, bigger than when he was in his bigger form so it was definitely a witch tower and the best of all was that everything was perfectly taken care of, it looked so tidy and so pretty that he felt kinda bad to enter it uninvited, everything was clear until he heard a sound of something moving slightly, when he looked in the direction where that sound came from he saw a.. a witch? Yes, that was it, even though she was lying on a table, her clothes could be seen, it was just as the books described her, an apron and a pointed hat, besides being quite big.

Carefully he approached, using those shelves full of books to hide himself, he even had to dodge fallen things and jump through the spaces between shelves, adventure was definitely not his thing; he would have liked to stay in his own tower to do his writing, although science and knowledge require sacrifice and hard work! Or well, that's what he thought. As he approached the sleeping (or so he hoped) witch, he noticed a potions book on the table, there came instructions on how to make a love potion, huh- that was weird, witches were supposed to be the creators of their entire species, he never thought that on top of that they also created potions; that made them even stranger to his point of view.

As he got closer and closer he finally got as close as he could, being mere centimeters away from that big figure, it seems that the aroma of blueberries that he gave off did not pass unnoticed though, because little by little she began to wake up, with worry he took a few steps back and hid behind an inkwell.

"Mhh.. What time is it?" He heard that witch say in that tone of someone waking up after a long nap, as he stood up he noticed that she was actually taller than what he had seen from the window and that gave him a little shiver; in the stories they always talked about how witches as well as they could be merciful they were still like goddesses to them, they shouldn't be angered. He considered his options for a few minutes; either he stayed hidden and searched among those millions of books for the answers he was looking for or he made himself present and asked directly, because both options had several ups and downs, for example staying hidden and searching in books was the idea he liked the best since he would stay hidden and safe, but the downside was that he would have to look in millions of books too big even if he increased his size and he would also have to be careful not to be seen, on the other hand if he made himself present there were two possible results: either he was accepted and his doubts were solved or he would be crumbled by the witch.... Umm, difficult decisions indeed.

Finally he decided, he would show himself to the witch and hope for the best outcome. With a sigh, he came out of hiding, eyes closed and waiting for the witch's reaction... Nothing happened-, when he opened one eye he realized that the witch was no longer there; she was now in the other part of the tower, looking for something on a shelf, well that gave him time to think what she would say "Good morning! I'm Blueberry Milk Cookie, the cookie who possesses the virtue of knowledge." Umm no, too formal... "Hi, I came into your house through the window I hope I'm not disturbing you." That would make him sound like a weirdo- "Miss witch I demand answers!" No, just no! It was too much pressure to do something so soon. He seemed to take too long to decide as he heard the witch's voice again. "Can I help you?" She sounded as confused as he was at that strange interaction as it was as if a divine being was talking to you so casually like that. "Oh! I mean... I, umm, can you?" Shit, that was not a good first impression. "I mean.. Yes! You can and I'd appreciate it if you would!"

❀•°•═════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ═════•°•❀

:ﾟ･*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:

A/N: I personally imagine he looks like this before corruption:

(IF SOMEONE KNOWS THE ARTIST PLS TELL ME)

#cookie run #cookie run x reader #crk x reader #shadow milk cookie #TheWitchAndTheHero

[hamspamandjamsandwich]

Kurama is such a complex character, god love him. The way I see him is: I mean he’s literally actually only Yoko Kurama.

“Oh he’s here. He’s me.”

So we have three personas here: Kurama, Yoko Kurama, and Shuuichi Minamino. While he has these three identities, he doesn’t have three personalities. That is to say, he’s one being, two different pieces that merged.

That’s where shit gets really interesting. My interpretation of this is that the merger came packaged with a human soul and body, and that the human parts are what gives him a conscience and a heart and a moral compass, and things such as. I doubt this is an original idea I just wanted to muse lol.

Shuuichi doesn’t bring a different personality. I think Shuuichi provided the things that make us human and a body. Those things are part of the human soul. Empathy, guilt, love. Yoko was always still himself, it’s how Kurama remembers everything, it’s literally just him. He’s simply changed as a person due to being plagued with humanity.

And that’s such a fun idea to me. Yoko Kurama, the legendary bandit, king of thieves—having personality rehab via the human experience. I think it just changed him the way anyone can change, sorta. He begins to feel pretty shitty about the things he’s done and feels guilty about everything with regards to his mother. All this comes together and makes him…a better version of himself? A better person? And I like that.

there is no Shuuichi outside of an adopted persona/identity for Kurama—like I don’t think he brought anything outside of what comes with nature, genetics, and a human soul (which I personally don’t think is the sum of someone’s personality, just what gives them spiritual life? If that makes sense).

But man, it makes me love Kurama so much more when I don’t think of Yoko as a different self or something that can be abandoned, it’s simply a previous version of himself. The past. So I think his 15 years as semi-human simply gave Yoko some insane character development.

Experiencing being unconditionally loved—the very idea that a relationship need not be transactional—being loved beyond what you can do for them. Being loved for existing, and nothing else. I truly think that his humanity responded well to being loved during the “early childhood development” stage and it gives him a way more stable sense of self than he should have tbh

And much like actual prison (or maybe more accurately rehab or inpatient etc), he has nothing but time and passes it by taking up interests and hobbies. He got to find stuff he enjoys about being human and ningenkai. He already liked plants obviously, but it’s so sweet to imagine him really developing an interest in botany and gardening and keeping houseplants etc. Learning to cook with Shiori and actually really liking it—I mean hey he gets to use some of those plants he’s been growing.

Big reader, obviously. He wants to know everything, and he knows so much already, yet humans keep inventing new shit to learn about, so that works out well. School and education get to be competitive sports that he’s the best at, again obviously. All manner of puzzles, games (tabletop and video of course), mystery books and films; if you can analyze it or crack a code somehow, he’s good with it. A real people-watcher, the disdain for humanity begins to fade over time and observation—they’re not so bad after all.

I like that he grows very comfortable in his human form. He’s pretty and appears to really own that (he lucked out there, huh? Incubated in a human that will be so attractive in the future lol), and I think that being raised by his mother (and perhaps this is some of that aforementioned Shuuichi nature) has him “in touch with his feminine side.” So I imagine he doesn’t miss his Yoko body too much, until he suddenly gets it back for a moment and is reminded of how good it felt to be himself. Good in a sinful, hedonistic way, that is. He clearly doesn’t want to be that way, but 1000+ year old habits die hard, right?

Idk I love Yoko Kurama that’s all folks that’s one of my headcanons or maybe it’s actually canon who knows. I just wanted to muse about my favorite kitsune.

#kurahi #yu yu hakusho #yoko kurama #musings.txt #kurama #I love the spirit fox #he’s just trying to do better and atone for his crimes #yyh #headcanons

[sunflowerdigs]

It's important to remember that no matter what Eddie says about Christopher, Kim is only here for Eddie. He can't introduce her to Christopher and create anything long term with her because that would be sick. So, Eddie's pursuit of Kim is fundamentally about Eddie. It's about Eddie being able to live inside this fantasy where the parts of his relationship with Shannon that didn't work don't exist. But as the flashback showed us, Eddie wasn't capable of being with just Shannon without Christopher being the glue binding them together. So the absence of Christopher in this relationship with Kim is likely what is going to finally open his eyes to the fact that his relationship with Shannon wasn't that great.

I think that Eddie's real and thriving connection to Buck has made it more and more obvious to him (subconsciously) with each passing gf that he can't make connections with these women work. So, he has inserted Christopher into those relationships in order to give them a reason to work (I think Eddie truly believes that he wants Chris to have another mother figure). And the result has been an exacerbation of Christopher's abandonment issues. Eddie encourages him to get close to these women (even after admitting that he himself isn't as close to them as he should be, in Marisol's case, which was progress) and ultimately it's not enough, the relationship ends, and Chris is abandoned. Meanwhile, who is actually playing the part a wife would play in Eddie's life? Yeah, Buck. That's why he's Christopher's other guardian in the will.

Kim may be the cold bucket of water to Eddie's head because Eddie can't insert Christopher into the relationship. It's just going to be the two of them together. And after they fuck - what's going to be there?

It's confusing because this is about grief but it's also about Eddie's sexuality. And it's about Buck, which is why the show has inserted Buck into the center of the conflict, because Buck is the one person that Eddie has managed to integrate into his life with Christopher and also care about deeply himself.

I think the resolution to this story will be Christopher's grandparents taking him to Texas with them so that Eddie can figure out what he wants when Christopher isn't there to use as a buffer. What may happen is his parents may threaten to have Christopher removed because they feel Eddie is unfit, in which case, Buck becomes the legal guardian. And so, if they don't want to take it to court and have it on record that Eddie lost custody, Buck becomes the one who has to make the call about where Christopher ends up. And that could be the thing that rips him and Eddie apart. Or it could bring them closer together if Buck can talk some sense into Eddie and make him realize just how much his issues are hurting Christopher.

(And, honestly, I think they'll go that route because, ultimately, like Ryan said, Eddie knows that he can't introduce Kim to Christopher because the relationship is a delusion. Eddie isn't a bad parent and he loves Christopher very much, he's just all tangled up in his issues).

(Or, Buck will conspire with Eddie's parents behind his back to have his kid taken away and Eddie will, rightfully, be furious with him even once he understands it's the right call).

That would explain Ryan calling next season the "new phase" of Eddie's life. And that would explain why Gavin was promoted to regular, so that they knew they'd have him for this arc.

The cheating is the wildest part, but I think people are getting so caught up in being angry at Eddie over that and wanting to see him punished, that they're forgetting that this arc isn't about punishment, it's about healing and ultimately giving both Christopher and Eddie the tools to live their best lives. So, I don't think Eddie will end the season alone - I think he and Buck will make amends and Buck will spend the hiatus by his side, helping him clean up the mess. Just like Eddie helped Buck clean up his mess back in s3.

#buddie #911 spoilers #911 speculation #eddie diaz #911 abc

[antianakin]

The way ppl try to bend over backwards to convince everyone that 'Anakin is the only jedi to be critical of senate and seeing senate's failing is one of the reasons he did what he did' is so unimaginably stupid. Like, come on we are taking about the guy who is besties with the guy in charge of the senate and thinks he did nothing wrong

He does explicitly tell Padme that he thinks the current system of government isn't working, so those people aren't wrong that Anakin is someone who DOES recognize the Senate is failing and is critical of it, but what gets left out of that analysis is that his solution to it is a DICTATORSHIP. Which Padme rightfully points out in the scene isn't actually BETTER than what they already have. Yes, the Senate is flawed and corrupt, but it is still MILES better than a literal dictatorship.

Anakin has a tendency to place his trust and loyalty in specific PEOPLE rather than larger institutions. He trusts Obi-Wan in the films and we see him being friendly with other members of the Jedi Council in TCW, but he does not ever trust the Council AS A RULING BODY, nor does he seem to feel any real sense of loyalty to them as authority figures. The same is true for Palpatine vs the Senate. He isn't necessarily loyal to the Senate just because he's loyal to Palpatine or because he's married to a Senator. In TCW, when he insists on reporting their movements to the Chancellor, he isn't necessarily doing so because he's loyal to THE CHANCELLOR, but because he's loyal to PALPATINE and this is something Palpatine has asked them for. We also see this in how he responds to the two requests made in ROTS for him to spy on people. Palpatine says "you will be my personal eyes and ears in the Council" and it's very personal between him and Anakin as friends, so Anakin never once balks at it or sees it as any kind of betrayal. Whereas when the Council makes the request (through Obi-Wan) to have Anakin spy on Palpatine, the request comes FROM THE COUNCIL, from this ruling body, and Anakin sees it as a betrayal of a friend. He specifically asks Obi-Wan who is making the request, whether this is something Obi-Wan is asking him to do or the Council and Obi-Wan specifies that it's the Council.

So while both of these things ARE true for Anakin, it's because he makes a distinction between the person he is loyal to and the institution they represent. And Anakin is ALWAYS loyal to people above institutions or ideals.

All of that being said, it's absolute bullshit to claim that Anakin is the only one who notices the Senate is a mess. The Jedi obviously DO know this, but, much like Padme, they recognize that it's far better than any of the alternatives. The only other options out there during the time period of the Prequels Jedi are being ruled by a crime organization like the Hutts or the Black Sun or the Pykes, or the Separatists who are being ruled by the Sith and the Corporate Alliance and are literally committing heinous atrocities everywhere they go and even subjugating the planets of their own core members (without those members seeming to KNOW that it's even happening). The ONE other alternative is to be "neutral" and we see how well that goes for Satine on Mandalore when her planet is completely cut off from all trade. So the Republic Senate, as flawed and corrupt as it is, is STILL BETTER than all of the alternative options and the best way forward is to keep working on the Republic from the inside and trying to make it BETTER rather than abandoning it completely or burning it down. Just because the Jedi choose to stick with the Republic doesn't mean they don't recognize its flaws, they just recognize that it's the best system in existence at the moment and the best they can do is continue to fight for it.

It's even more bullshit to try to claim that Anakin committed a genocide against the Jedi because he's upset that they don't recognize the Senate's corruption given that Mace is literally about to take out the corruption at the heart of the Senate and Anakin chooses to kill him rather than let him do it. He also isn't doing ANY OF IT out of some altruistic belief that the people of the galaxy are truly going to be better off with the Jedi destroyed and the Republic turned into an Empire. He CLAIMS he will bring "peace, freedom, security, and justice" but it is a LIE. It is a lie he is telling himself so he can keep pretending he's a hero and not a villain who just committed a genocide against an innocent culture. It is a LIE he is telling himself so he doesn't have to feel the pain and the guilt of what he's just done. He also never ever makes good on that claim. There is never peace, freedom, security, or justice at any point during the Empire's reign, nor does Anakin ever seem to be fighting for it.

Anakin commits a genocide against the Jedi because he wants power and this is how he's been told he can acquire it. It's that simple. Anyone who tries to argue otherwise is an idiot without media literacy.

#star wars #jedi #pro jedi #anti anakin #anti anakin skywalker #anakin critical #anakin skywalker critical

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  Pricklywhicket/@messessentialist ! Prickleywhicket has four fics published to AO3 -- All in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by pricklywhicket:

so let's sneak in from the cheap seats, honey

it's supposed to be fun (turning twenty-one)

start by pulling him out of the fire

"Sadie is so super talented in the way she describes literally everything. She is so good at writing and it's a shame that she's flown under the radar because she's not the quickest at putting things out there." -- Anonymous

Below the cut, Pricklywhicket answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

Why do any of us write anything? Because we want the story to exist in the world, and it doesn’t yet, so we gotta hike up our pants and do it ourselves!

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Hurt/Comfort. I’m always a sucker for the blorbos taking care of one another, in whatever form that takes. This has always been true, across a truly astronomical number of fandoms I’ve found myself dabbling in over the years.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

…actually, probably hurt/comfort! I just need to get those little dudes some validation and unconditional positive regard, okay?

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

I’m sure I won’t be the first one to say this, but: I HAVE TO PICK ONE????? Okay, alright. I can do this. I’m gonna say…Sanctuary by SpicedSage.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’ve only written canon or canon-adjacent fic so far, so I’m eager to work on something that’s completely AU. I think there’s a unique challenge to keeping characters recognizable as themselves in a world that might not have all the same contexts that made them into that person.

What is your writing process like?

I would love to say it’s super organized and well-planned, but the truth is it’s mostly about routine and responsibility. I set aside time to do it every day, even if I can only tap out a few sentences. I’m not very strict about writing in a straight line - I can stop a scene if it’s giving me trouble, write a note about what I think happens in some [brackets], and move on to something that I have more fully fleshed-out ideas for. Sometimes writing the next scene helps you know more about what needs to happen in the current one. 

Do you have any writing quirks?

I'm sure my betas would say yes 🙃 I tend to write a lot of dialogue - a lot of my revision process is going back through and realizing I have two pages of a conversation with no indication of what’s physically happening in the world around the speakers.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Definitely when I’m finished. Prior to my ‘23 bang fic, I had never written anything chaptered. I knew going in that I could NOT start posting if it wasn’t finished, because I’ve been burned too many times by abandoned works. I didn’t want to do that to people reading my fic, and the best way to avoid it is to finish before you post.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Easily start by pulling him out of the fire. The biggest, most ambitious thing I’ve ever attempted - I still kind of can’t believe I wrote 85k.

How did you get the idea for start by pulling him out of the fire?

Like most terrible ideas, it was spawned in a fandom discord chat. We were discussing the tendency of Steddie fics to centralize the party at Steve’s house, because his parents are never there anyway. And then someone mentioned what if the parents came home and found their house occupied, and someone else mentioned Wayne being there, and it just sort of…spiraled out from there.

When writing start by pulling him out of the fire, what was something you didn’t expect?

I had no idea, going in, that I was going to write a comprehensive history of the Wayne and Eddie Munson relationship. I started writing it where I did to give some background on Wayne’s existing distaste for the elder Harrington, and then I just…kept writing. Over the course of a month or two I wrote 20k of WayneAndEddie that I had no idea was in me - it just kept coming.

What inspired it's supposed to be fun (turning twenty-one)?

@wynnyfryd. It was a gift for her birthday. We were talking about our mutual love of Letterkenny, and she mentioned that the episode was her favorite and wouldn’t it be funny if someone wrote… and the rest is history.

What was your favorite part to write from it's supposed to be fun (turning twenty-one)?

I had an unreasonable amount of fun with that one in general. But I think my favorite part was Eddie polling the party about what Steve means to them all. It was fun to sort of put myself in each character’s shoes and think about how they would answer. Plus y’know, any excuse to unironically love on Steve Harrington.

How do/did you feel writing so let's sneak in from the cheap seats, honey?

I believe my exact words upon deciding to write it were “jingles miserably to a blank google doc.” This was a classic case of saying “god I wish there was a fic where—” and having friends tell me that it was now my responsibility to write it. I’m glad I did, though. I love that story, and it proved to me that I could write sex and publish it and not burst into flames. I also just really, really love summer storms. And Wayne’s use of the singular ‘herpe.’

What was the most difficult part of writing so let's sneak in from the cheap seats honey?

Getting over the fear of publishing something E-rated. It was just something I hadn’t done, and I had a lot of anxiety that people were not going to respond well to it. I made three people individually review the sex scenes before I even asked anyone to beta the full fic. Of course I was worried for nothing, the reception for that fic was super lovely and gave me the confidence boost I needed to attempt start by pulling him out of the fire!

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

This is like asking me to pick a favorite child. I’ll say this: most of my favorite lines in start by pulling him out of the fire were taken directly from conversations @wormdebut and I had about the fic. She’s my number one cheerleader and sounding board, and sometimes she’s so goddamn funny that I just have to include it. You have her to thank, for instance, for Steve quite literally dropping his croissant when he first sees Eddie in glasses.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I have a couple of irons in the fire, but nothing I’m ready to share just yet! I’ve been taking a breather from writing (blame baldur’s gate 3, okay) but my WIPs are still very much IP. Stay tuned!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Not that I can think of!

Thank you to our author, Pricklywhicket, and our anonymous nominator! See more of pricklywhicket's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

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