#which is then all confounded by the fact

[sarcasticassian]

one day in Family Video Robin and Eddie are talking about films, some gay, some not and Steve is half listening but he eventually decides to join in because hey he’s watched a film with a gay couple in it before so that counts right? He tells the others this, feeling quite proud of himself and they both look kinda incredulous and so Steve, feeling helpful, is like I’ll go find them hang on, we should have copies

and Robin is dumbfounded because the only gay movie Family Video, because it’s right there in the name this place is mainly for families, have is The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Robin is pretty sure that’s because Keith didn’t know what he was ordering in because he admitted he’d never seen it but her and Eddie watch Steve trot off to the sci fi section, sharing confounded looks and waiting for him to return in silence

Steve comes back clutching three tapes to his chest and proceeds to drop the Star Wars trilogy onto the counter in between Eddie and Robin, he looks so proud of himself as he leans into Eddie for a moment blinking his big cow eyes at him, like he’s waiting for approval, Eddie decides for once in his life to keep his mouth shut until he’s figured out just what he’s supposed to say

Robin has no such qualms though and just states a fact for them all ‘this is Star Wars, Steve’, ‘yeah! kinda crazy, right?’, ‘sorry, where is there a gay couple in Star Wars? I know you and Dustin watch them a lot but I feel like I’d have noticed’, Steve’s expression drops slightly and Eddie feels so bad because Steve looks like a sad sad puppy and Eddie wants to wrap him up in a giant cuddle

‘are the robots not gay?’ is what softly breaks the momentary silence that has settled between the three of them

‘they sure are’ Eddie blurts out, determined to keep Steve happy and it works because a smile blooms across Steve’s face again and he nods to himself, leaning against Eddie again instead of on the counter like he normally would, Robin stares and Eddie narrows his eyes and then she’s nodding along too, ‘oh yeah, yeah, how could I forget about those funky little guys? they’re definitely married’

and the conversation moves on, Robin recalling Steve and Dustin’s nerdy handshake which makes Steve press his face into Eddie’s shoulder to hide his burning cheeks when Eddie crows in delight and they only send each other a little smirk the next time the Party is watching Star Wars with them and 40 years down the line Eddie sends Steve a tweet about R2D2 and C3PO having gay vibes and Steve starts cackling in the middle of his 9th graders history test and they all demand an extra five minutes because he distracted them all

#steddie #stobin #platonic stobin #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #steveddie #stranger things #stranger things 4 #blah blah blah lets not gender robots #but I don't think steve was thinking of that #and r2d2 and c3po are married lets not lie #he'd think it was cute #wait till steve sees Finn and Poe in the sequels #*insert b99 holt 'VINDICATION!* #Steve in the cinema seeing that star wars is still gay as hell

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

sure "nuns with guns" is a fun trope but can we have more "nuns with no romantic interest in men who turn to life in a nunnery to escape patriarchal expectations in favor of a woman-centric society, and in the process meet brilliant-but-headstrong Sister Virtue, who took vows to confound her father's plans to marry her off to local gentry, and having successfully escaped marriage now plots to escape the convent, but after living a youth defined by defiance is overwhelmed by the fact she doesn't know what life she wants only what life she rejects, and she can't imagine the shape of the future, so she just continues on with her work in the cheese shed experimenting with fungi until one day she meets the new novice (you) tasked with tending to the dairy cows, and she finds your milkmaid naivety off-putting (reminding her of a younger, more hopeful version of herself) but actually you aren't naive, you've survived countless hardship by choosing to believe in hope, choosing to believe in the goodness and kindness that all people are capable of (even as you accept the presence of violence and selfishness), and your optimism is both the sword and shield with which you ride every morning into the day's battle, and as Sister Virtue discovers this about you, she feels a spark in her belly that she has hardly felt since girlhood (when she would dream distressing dreams of the lips and bosom of the local barmaid, a childhood companion from whom she drifted slowly apart in the cusp of maidenhood), and she spurns your company as a result, but only briefly because all asudden you come down with a fierce sweating sickness, and Sister Virtue sits up all night by your sickbed, stroking your brow with a cloth and whispering hoarse prayers she isn't certain she believes in, and when you are recovered she surprises you with a picnic (only a simple meal of cheese and bread while you both bring the cows out to graze, but she has sneaked in a jug of mead and you feel like a schoolchild again, playing truant, and for a moment you ache for the life you might have had if you had been brave enough to keep fighting the world instead of hiding away in the monotonous safety of the abbey),,, and then suddenly the sky opens, and you and Sister Virtue are caught in a rainstorm, and there are raindrops dripping down your bodice, and your wimple is slipping from your forehead, and she leans in to pull the veil from your eyes, and you lean forward and

[galedekarios]

gale as a professor at blackstaff academy

i have to say that at first i wasn't too sold on the (then still fanon) idea of a professor ending because of gale's own prior anecdote about being irked by his previous students and their inadequacies.

i thought it might not be a good fit for him as far as professions go.

but reading the epilogue files, i have come around on it.

i think it's just one more way in which he's really grown into himself, become content with who he was in the past, the mistakes he made and what he has learned from them, and the person he wants to be in the future:

Player: You? A teacher? I'd hardly say you set the best example for impressionable young wizards... Gale: I think it makes perfect sense. devnote: Surprised you wouldn't recognise this, a tiny bit offended you don't trust him to do this Gale: Who better to warn of the perils of misusing magic than someone who was once only a wayward sneeze away from destroying a mid-sized settlement? devnote: playing up to his past a bit, you can imagine this is how he acts with his students Tara the Tressym: Don't remind me of those terrible times, Mr Dekarios. My blood pressure has only just recovered.

a few more cute banters & things we learn about gale and his new teaching position:

tara swipes at students who fall asleep in gale's classes, which he himself doesn't mind. he, too, slept through some of them (like his calishite lessons):

Player: Perhaps that's a good thing. I'm sure they're far better students than I was... Gale: Ah, so you still remember our little lesson? devnote: A little bit bashful, it was a vulnerable moment for him Gale: 'Teaching' you was hardly an effort at all. Not like my present cohort of apprentices. devnote: Complimentary, pulling the thought back to the teaching element after getting lost in the memory of the moment Gale: They try their best, of course - when they can manage to stay awake. devnote: Not upset by this - he slept through his fair share of classes as a student Tara the Tressym: The cheek of them! Nothing a well-placed swipe from Tara can't fix, though.

2. gale offered to teach more subjects than illusion via simulacra:

Player: Only a professor? With your expertise, I'd have thought you could teach every kind of magic going... Gale: I did offer, as a matter of fact. devnote: Secretly glad the player thinks so highly of him Gale: However, the Blackstaff insisted I couldn't teach every subject, nor could the simulacra of myself I offered to create for that purpose. devnote: Reluctantly accepts that this was the right decision Gale: So, I've settled for teaching the art of illusion. Magic to confound the senses, to render the impossible into reality, and to allow expression of that most magical attribute of all - imagination. devnote: Selling it a bit - he wants to make sure you appreciate how cool this is

3. gale has told his students about the player's adventures and will invite a player to be a guest lecturer:

Player: I found the love of my life. I'd say I'm pretty happy. Gale: And I couldn't be happier for you. A fitting reward for the sacrifices you made in getting here. Gale: I've told my students plenty of tales about our escapades. You're something of a hero to them, you know. Gale: I'd be delighted to introduce you to my current cohort - as a guest lecturer, perhaps? I'm sure they'd have plenty of questions for you. Player: It would be my pleasure. Gale: Excellent. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the allure of sharing your expertise. Gale: Of course you'll be most welcome to stay with me in my tower- Tara the Tressym: Ahem. Gale: My apologies, Tara. That would be our tower.

4. his students find him somewhat intimidating due to his backstory with mystra and the orb:

Gale: Well, that was quite lovely. I'm glad you're as pleased to see me as I am you. Gale: I have to say, I'm quite grateful to just be 'Gale' for the evening. Gale: I fear my students find me somewhat intimidating, due to my erm, explosive former reputation. I seem to put the fear of the gods into them. devnote: He plays up to his reputations a bit, so he isn't overly surprised Gale: Or the fear of Mystra, to be more specific. Gale: I surrendered the Crown of Karsus to her, as I told you I would. And in return, she cured me of the orb at last. Gale: Even now, I struggle to put the feeling into words. It was like exhaling for the first time, after holding my breath for so very long. Gale: Of course, I haven't clarified with my students that the orb is no longer a threat. The legend of my explosive capabilities is an excellent means of controlling a classroom. Too good, if anything.

5. he wants to teach his students that there is fun in studying magic:

Gale: I spend most of my time trying to convince them how much fun the study of magic can be, but it'd be easier to crack a smile on an intellect devourer than some of my pupils... devnote: Despairing a little, doesn't understand why they aren't all as passionate as he was Player: Or on a mind flayer, perhaps... Gale: Smiling may no longer come easy to you, but I've seen how your tentacles twitch at my jokes. Even the ones I'm not entirely certain I was trying to make... devnote: Last sentence a tiny bit self-conscious, aware that people sometimes find him ridiculous. Gale: Still, I hoped my students might be a little more open to the playful side of such magic.

anyhow, i hope this was insightful to someone! 🖤

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #bg3 patch 5 spoilers #bg3 meta #ch: gale dekarios #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #meta: mybg3

[angel-of-the-moons]

can you do some bratty reader x johnny cage :33 need him so bad 😭

HELLS YEA I CAN

(Also because it wasn't specified which Johnny, I'm gonna go with MK1 because the things I would do to with this man--)

Bad Kitten

Johnny Cage x Bratty!Fem!Reader

TW/CW: NSFW, SMUT, bratty!reader, bit of a dom!Johnny (but not much), pool sex, teasing, fingering, edging, orgasm denial, dirty talk

MINORS DNI I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTENT YOU CONSUME

💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵

Being Johnny Cage's girlfriend had its perks.

Living in Malibu in his gorgeous mansion was one of them. As well as having a bomb ass pool that went all the way inside the house, too.

It was no biggie to pop in for a swim whenever you wanted to engage in your "fish instinct brain" that Johnny called it. In fact, when Johnny couldn't get a hold of you while he was on set, or you weren't answering he knew he could find you floating in the pool, one of your favorite shows playing on the TV nearby as you lazily kicked your feet about in the water.

You were a bombshell, a true prize, Johnny would tell everyone.

But the one thing that confounded him the most, was your bratty and playful personality. You were a smartass, a bit of a prankster, and a maddening tease.

An intoxicating cocktail that he couldn't resist (and found stupidly sexy).

But sometimes... You needed some reminding as to who you were playing with. And right now was one of those times.

He crossed his arms as he looked down at you, his shoes just inches from the edge of the pool, his expensive silk shirt wet and damp from where you splashed him, soles squeaking on the expensive tile.

"C'mon, Kitten..." He said, crossing his arms over his chest, frowning down at you, a bite to his tone.

"Because of you, I have to go change now. We're gonna miss our reservations."

"So?" You grin up at him, doing a lazy backstroke, thrusting your chest up out of the water so your breasts were on display, your bikini top leaving little to the imagination.

You could see his Adams apple bob in his throat as he licked his lips. You couldn't see his glasses behind his shades, but you knew damn well what he was looking at.

"Baby, c'mon..." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Nah. Fish brain demands water." You laugh, kicking your foot out and splashing water onto his shoes, causing him to step back with a sputter.

Somewhere along that time, Johnny slipped on the water you'd splashed earlier, landing flat on his ass and sending his glasses skittering across the floor.

"All right, that's it!" Johnny growled, moving to get back on his feet.

"You are in for--" He was cut off when your bikini top came flying at him and hit him square in the face.

His mouth dropped open when he looked at you, the setting sun casting fiery colors on the water, reflecting up onto the walls in a mystical array of patterns, the light of the sunset illuminating around you as you spun in the water, a cheeky grin on your face as your breasts freely bobbed in the water.

"In for what, baby?" You purr, sticking your tongue out at him. "Gotta catch me if you wanna get your point across..."

Johnny gave you a grin that sent a thrill down your spine, and he started pulling his clothes off.

💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵💵

"I'm soo-oo-rrr-rrryyy!" You whimpered, squirming to get free from his relentless grasp.

"Nope. Nuh-uh." Johnny said casually, as he rolled and pinched your clit between his thumb and forefinger. Your bikini bottoms had long since been untied, floating somewhere in the pool.

He had been at it for nearly an hour and a half. Your bodies were already pruning, but that didn't stop him.

"You got my floor wet, Kitten." Johnny sighed in your ear as he gave you another pinch, his other arm wrapped firmly around your waist, keeping your back pinned to his front.

"Got my clothes wet, made us miss our dinner reservation..." He rolled your clit beneath his water-wrinkled thumb.

"Made me drop my glasses, too. If those lenses are scratched... Well." He grinned into the skin of your shoulder.

"This is what happens to bad pussies, you know. You gotta learn your actions have consequences, babe."

You groaned at his crude metaphor, and made a shaky moan. Your throat was dry and scratchy, your tongue feeling like sandpaper from your whining, squealing, and moaning you'd done since he started this torture.

You felt the flames of your orgasm, so close to completely engulfing you, and you felt your heart speed up again at the promise of release.

But Johnny? Oh, he knew your body like that back of his hand, by now.

He knew how to read you the way a blind man reads a book written in braille; and he was always eager to study when it came to you.

And that, is precisely why he stopped, merely tapping his finger on your engorged clit, sighing as you thrashed, a needy sob coming from you as water splashed around you, your legs kicking weakly in protest.

"Johnny!" You cried, tears burning in the corners of your eyes.

"Mmm?" He hummed innocently, still tapping your clit in a way that was just pure torture, each point of contact sending lightning bolts striking up through you.

You could feel the hardness of his cock was pressed firmly against your ass, yet Johnny seemed perfectly content to ignore it in favor of driving you to the brink of insanity with just his fingers.

"God--just--fucking--" You cry, throwing your head back.

"Hey, now, keep talking like that and I'm gonna make sure you never get off." Johnny grinned at you, kissing your cheek.

"Johnny, I'm sorry--" You hiccuped pathetically. "Just please!"

"Please what, baby?" He cooed.

"Fu--please. Please please pleasepleaseplease let me cum."

"Aaaaaand?" He chuckled, swiping at your clit again.

"I'm sorry I got you wet!" You sobbed. "Ah-and--and made us miss d-dinner!"

"That's my girl! Knew you could do it!" He encouraged with a kiss to your shoulder.

When he pulled his hand away from your, you whined, thinking that he was messing with you and wouldn't give you the relief he had been teasing you with and yanking out of your fingers.

But when he spun you around and started to grind his cock against your folds in the water? You felt your mind get foggy with the promise of having his cock fuck you into oblivion.

"Been wanting to fuck you in the pool for a while." He grunted as you blindly reached down to line him up, sinking down so the tip of his cock popped into your aching hole.

Johnny tipped his head back with a deep groan that rumbled in his chest as you speared yourself down, nails biting into the wet skin of his shoulders, sliding down to leave deep red grooves in the skin.

"Goddamn, Kitten. You're so tight."

"Ah, god--fuck." You whine, desperately trying to get into a rhythm that you could settle into.

But it was hard. The slickness of the water made it difficult; awkward and hard to find purchase. You were getting frustrated now, and made an angry whine.

Johnny chuckled tightly and took pity on you, his feet planting on the tiles of the pool below (thankfully you were on the shallow end, right now) as he grabbed your hips.

He used the water to help him move you as he arched his back, thrusting up into you with vigor.

You squealed and doubled over as he rammed himself in mercilessly.

When he tipped his hips up in a certain way, your mind went blank with the white-hot pleasure that sparked in your blood. The flames of your orgasm that Johnny had been edging from you finally combusted, engulfing you in the choking flames with a frayed wail; your muscles clamping down on his cock as you wrapped your arms around his neck, sniffling from the overstimulation as he continued to slam up into you, his arms caging you against his chest.

"Fuck, so good for me, baby." He hissed through clenched teeth.

"Doing so. Fucking. Good." He grunted, punctuating each word with a harsh snap of his hips.

"Johhhnnnnyyyyy..." You mewled as his dick dragged in and out of your gummy walls.

"Fuck!" He rolled his eyes back with a deep moan, swallowing hard.

He knew he was going to cum soon, he never lasted long when you were this worked up and tight.

But damn, was it fun to work you up.

Johnny made a whimper in your ear before taking the lobe between his teeth, biting down as his orgasm started to crest.

He had the mental acuity enough to pull out before he started to cum, milky white ropes spurting out of his swollen and achy tip, lazily wafting about in the waves that splashed around the two of you.

You both almost collapsed, letting the push and pull of the water ease your muscles.

"...Im thinking we should order out tonight." Johnny grinned at you.

"Up for some Chinese?"

#answered #mortal kombat x reader #mortal kombat smut #mortal kombat #mortal kombat 1 #johnny cage x reader #johnny cage x you #johnny cage smut #johnny cage mk #johnny cage #johnny cage mk1

[heavenlyvision]

After hell freezes over

Word count: 16k

Pairing: Bi-Han x F!Reader

This part four to my 'When hell freezes over' series, read the other parts first, linked below :3

part one, part two, part three

A/N: This got way out of hand guys, I am so sorry. Thank you so much for your patience and kindness while waiting for this update !!! I love and appreciate you all so much!!! Also: LONGEST FIC!!!!

Summary:  The cat’s out the bag, everyone knows, and now you have to have a very awkward conversation and Bi-Han isn’t around to help. When he gets back, you try to offer him space to open up to you, but you have to do the same in return. Bi-Han makes you keep your word.

Warnings: 18+ only, smut, angst (iddy bit), soft!Bi-Han (like so soft almost ooc), mean!Bi-Han, return of Jealous!Bi-Han, (minor) handjob, face sitting, face riding, man handling, p in v sex, squirting, clit slapping, titty play, no use of y/n, I think that’s all <33

Sore doesn’t even begin to describe how your body feels today, if you thought your muscles were achy the day before then you don’t know how to explain what this feeling is. Everything is heavy, but a satisfactory kind of heaviness. The kind where you’re so sore that just laying completely still feels like you’re about to ascend into heaven.

When you wake in the morning and reach out beside you, you find the bed empty, Bi-Han’s absence making the room feel so much larger. Your heart pangs a bit at the realisation, he didn’t even wake you. That, and he still hasn’t changed your bed sheets.

Rubbing at your eyes, you try to sit upright, body aching in protest. He certainly succeeded in his goal, there is no way you can train today, not in this condition. You rest your back against the beds headboard, considering if you really need to get out of bed yet or not.

The fact that you’re still naked is one of your biggest motivations for possibly moving. Just as you decide you should get out of bed, Bi-Han slides the door of your room open and slips inside, he’s making an effort to be quiet. But as he turns around to look at you, he notices your sitting form.

“You’re up,” he states.

“Very observant of you.” You have a bothered expression on your face.

Waking up alone after expecting him to still be here has upset you, which is even more annoying, because he is not obligated to stay. The sway he has over your feelings confounds you, he is one man, and yet, so much more.

“Are you… annoyed with me?” He asks cautiously.

“No.”

He raises a brow at you, “It seems like you are.”

You huff out a sigh, “I’m trying really hard to not be, because the reason is ridiculous.”

“And what is the reason?”

“When I woke up, you were gone.” You feel pitiful but you can’t help how you feel, and he makes you feel vulnerable.

His lips turn up into an amused smile, “That’s really cute.”

You frown at him, you aren’t trying to be cute, “I don’t like it.”

“Don’t like what?” He asks.

“How much I want to wake up to you in the mornings.”

His mouth twists, like he’s trying not to laugh, “Sweet girl,” he moves around the foot of the bed to stand beside you, “I went to get you some coffee.”

He lifts one of the two cups towards you, the cups you didn’t realise he was holding.

You pout a bit, feeling bad about being upset now, “That’s really thoughtful… thank you.”

Reaching for the cup, you hold it in two hands, enjoying the warmth it’s giving you. Bi-Han sits on the edge of the bed facing you. He’s watching you drink your coffee with kind eyes.

“I’m sorry,” you mumble into the lip of the mug.

He smiles into his own mug, “Don’t apologise for that,” he considers his words while he sips at his own drink, when he’s pulled away, he places the mug on the table beside your bed.

He continues to speak, “It is nice to know that you want me here with you.”

You tell him, “I always want you.”

He’s silent as he looks into your eyes, searching. You aren’t sure what he’s looking for but you’re starting to regret your words, maybe you shouldn’t have said that. Maybe he doesn’t feel the same. Your propensity for being honest possibly biting you in the ass. It isn’t the first time you’ve regretted your words as soon as you’ve spoken them.

But even though you sometimes regret your words, you always mean them. Which is why Bi-Han sitting stoically in front of you and not replying is making you feel… exposed, emotionally.

Bi-Han’s hand moves to pluck your mug from your hands, and then he places it next to his own on the side table. His action confuses you, are you being punished in a really specific and odd way? You look up at him, bewilderment clear on your face.

And then he’s suddenly grabbing you and pulling you into his lap, wrapping you up in his arms. His lips pressing soft and quick kisses to your face, on your cheeks, lips, anywhere he can get to. His unexpected display of affection drags joyful giggles from you.

“Stop, stop,” you’re still laughing as you protest against him.

He does eventually pull back from you and when he does you ask, “What was that for?”

“Felt like it.” Is all he says in return.

His feelings for you run deep but his actions speak louder than words. Last night showed you that he is not eloquent in speaking his feelings, it frustrates him how he can’t seem to find the right words, but he tries and when he can’t verbalise them, he shows you. And that’s enough for you right now.

You shake your head in disbelief, “Can you put me back down, my muscles are not agreeing with movement today.”

A large, arrogant smile grows on his face at this information, “No training today?”

“Try not to gloat so much,” you bop him on the nose with one of your fingers.

“Not gonna make that promise,” he replies as he moves you back onto the bed.

His eyes trail over your bare skin, looking at all the hickeys he left behind last night. You cover yourself with the bed sheets, he is not allowed to be horny again, he might break you.

You shoot him with a pointed look, “Stop it.”

His eyes look back into yours, “I am not doing anything.”

“Mhmm,” you hum back at him.

Moving from the bed, he gets up and pulls out a shirt and some underwear for you. He places them down on the bed in front of you.

“Thank you,” you say.

He grunts in response, he’s about to turn away but your hand shoots out and tugs at his, pulling him down. When he’s close enough, you lean up to him, taking his lips in a sweet kiss. One he happily accepts, his hand coming up to gently hold the side of your face. You go to end the kiss, but he pulls your face forward, reconnecting your lips for just a moment longer.

When the kiss does end, it’s on his terms. Standing to his full height again, he moves across your room and shuffles through your belongings.

“What are you looking for?”

He continues looking inside drawers, “Sheets, I said I would change yours.”

“Linen cupboard, next to the bathroom door.”

He grunts in acknowledgement; you take the hint and move off the bed. Grabbing the clothes and heading into the bathroom, while in there you decide to shower quickly, rinsing off the prior nights activities.

When you exit the bathroom, you notice that Bi-Han has changed the sheets for you, “Thank you for changing them.”

“I don’t know why you bothered, probably gonna ruin them again soon anyways,” he shrugs at you from his position on the bed.

You shake your head at him vehemently, “Nah ah, I need to heal, or you will break me.”

He rolls his eyes at you, like you’re being so dramatic, but you’re genuinely concerned for your physical wellbeing.

Bi-Han is sitting with his back against the headboard, legs spread out length wise on the mattress. As you approach the bed you climb over to him, straddling him and hugging his upper half. His arms come around behind you, holding you close.

“This is just cruel you know,” he huffs into the top of your head.

“I don’t know what you mean, I just want a hug.”

“Mm but I can feel the warmth of your cu–”

Cutting him off you say, “–You are insatiable, truly.”

“Your fault, truly.” He retorts.

You press your face into his chest, resting your forehead against it. Your body is fully relaxed against him, savouring the closeness and enjoying the intimate moment. You think Bi-Han gives the best hugs, his embrace holds you perfectly, always making you feel so secure.

Moving your head to the side so your cheek rests on his chest, you say, “How am I going to get out of training?”

“Tell the truth,” he shrugs.

“That is an awful idea, and you know it.”

“Well, whatever you decide, it will have to be soon.”

“Not helpful,” you complain.

You can’t see it, but you just know he’s rolled his eyes at you again, “Tell them you wanna meditate or some shit, whatever it is you spend hours doing at that rock.”

“That is helpful, albeit rude,” his idea isn’t a bad one though, you could just sit at the rock, Liu Kang doesn’t mind when you train like that.

His chest rumbles with an amused sound at your complaint of his rudeness.

“Before I forget, I have a mission to go on with Kuai Liang and Tomas, I will be gone for a few days,” he mentions it flippantly.

His attitude towards telling you irks you a bit, you look him in the eyes, chin resting on his chest again, “If you ever manage to forget to tell me something like that, I will hunt you down just to give you the silent treatment.”

He has an entertained smile on his face, “Then, I will always tell you when I have to leave.”

“Good,” you state, pressing a kiss to his chest before laying back down.

You end up falling back to sleep, laying against his body. You don’t get much more sleep, unfortunately having to start the day but you appreciate the extra half an hour you do manage to get. Especially since when you do wake up, Bi-Han is still holding you.

❆˖°

You’ve not run into anyone today; you sought out Liu Kang to inform him of your decision to meditate today and then came straight to the rock. Despite actively avoiding everyone, the turtleneck you wore yesterday has made a secondary appearance today, hiding the additional hickeys bestowed upon your skin. It’s hot when Bi-Han gives you them but people seeing them is so insanely embarrassing. One wouldn’t be that bad, but you have like 20 on you right now.

The pure volume of them is what has you hiding your body, it wouldn’t even matter if everyone knew you were with Bi-Han. The idea of them seeing visual evidence of how you practically let him do to you as he pleases in the bedroom would have you dying on the spot from mortification. But, you digress, hopefully they will heal while Bi-Han is gone, and you’ll be able to stop dressing in long necked shirts. Which seems feasible until you remember that he’s probably just going to mark you up even more when he comes back. Whatever, this is a problem for future you.

Right now, you should be focusing on your breathing, which is easy enough, you didn’t realise how much you’ve missed your enlightenment rock. It gives you the space to breathe and reconnect with nature, feeling the energy move through you. Time always manages to slip away from you when you come here, too engrossed in the way you feel, the things you can sense. The Earth speaking to you, it’s soothing.

Footsteps can be felt on the Earth behind you, and then you feel Bi-Han’s eyes on you. His presence has you smiling to yourself, but you don’t move, waiting for him to come to you. Which, he does, walking around you and standing directly in front of the rock.

Your lack of a response has him huffing out, “I know you know I am here. You always know.”

“And don’t you forget it,” you retort, smiling up at him now.

His face is stoic, but his tone is gentle, “I have to leave now, we should be back in a few days, maybe less.”

“Be safe,” you tell him.

The thought of not seeing him for a few days dampens your mood, you’ve been growing accustomed to his presence. You feel like he just left on a mission for Liu Kang, but you understand he is an important man with commitments he has to attend to. You’re just some girl he likes.

“Mmm, I’ll try,” he shrugs in response to your request.

You frown in disapproval at him, “Not funny.”

His attitude is dismissive, “I’ll be fine.”

“When you come back, I have something I want to show you.”

“And what’s that?” His expression turns suggestive.

Your roll your eyes at him, “Nothing like that.”

You go to lightly smack him on the chest, but he catches your hand in the air. Stopping it from making contact. His hand drops yours, both of his coming up to hold your face in his hands. His eyes look intently into your own, his really pretty eyes. You practically melt for him in his hands.

Your expression makes him smile fondly at you, “So sweet on me.” He observes.

“I’ll stop.” You threaten, you don’t need the attentive commentary on your feelings, it makes you feel open.

It makes you feel seen, the horrible ordeal of being known and all that. It’s attention you are not accustomed to.

“Don’t you dare.” He hums, looking at you, eyes sparkling as they flit over your face, your neck; he won’t say it but he’s sweet on you too. Maybe more than you are on him.

You want to retort back again, keep the back and forth going. Hoping to prolong this conversation, prolong being in his presence but he’s leaning down to you. His hands still holding your face between them, he immediately deepens the kiss. Tongue in your mouth, he’s insistent but not forceful. He kisses you with the force of all his feelings, telling you everything you need to know without him having to speak a word.

Your own hands grab onto his forearms, you’re letting him kiss you how he needs. He’s taking what he needs, and it has you sighing into his mouth. His lips always, always overwhelming you. One of his hands goes from your face and pulls at your sitting waist, trying to move you closer to him.

Arms looping around his neck and holding on, your body stretching up. Both Bi-Han’s hands hold onto your hips, as he pulls you into him. Lips never pulling apart for more than a second, he’s holding you to him now. You’re no longer sitting and instead pressed to him, arms wrapped around his neck, his own arms holding you up. Your feet are not even touching the ground, he’s holding you up effortlessly, keeping your mouth level to his.

His kisses are fatal, and full, and when he pulls his lips away, he rests his forehead against yours. You’re breathless, both of you are. And you’re trying to savour the moment, you rest your head on his shoulder, hugging him to you. He accepts the embrace and holds you tightly.

He speaks softly, “I’ll go anywhere you want, when I am back.”

You hum against him, “thank you.”

And then he’s leaving, taking Kuai and Tomas with him. You were his one and only stop before going.

You’ll miss him.

❆˖°

That evening at dinner isn’t the same, Bi-Han never offered much in the way of conversation, but it feels significantly quieter without him. He may not have spoken much, but his presence always said plenty.

Usually something like, “shut up, don’t talk to me.” or “don’t look at me, I don’t like any of you.”

It’s funny how much he puts up with you, when you think if anyone else mildly annoyed him, his instinctual response would be to punch them. Though, he isn’t sleeping with anyone else here.

Dinner is also quieter without Tomas and Kuai, at least verbally. They offered more words than Bi-Han, you find their differences interesting, they’re brothers and were raised together but something was different for each of them. There is so much that you want to know about Bi-Han, but he has a sad way about him, not obviously. Outwardly he comes across as angry, but underneath you feel a sadness and you wonder why. It’s something you want to ask him about but isn’t something you should ask about, some things can only be offered, not taken.

You’re deep in thought when your eyes catch on Raiden’s, he notices you coming back from your thoughts and offers a polite smile, one you return.

“You okay?” He asks.

“Yup,” you nod at him.

This group makes you happy, you’ve never had much in the way of friends, so suddenly having a group of them is nice. Though, having people who care about you is an odd feeling, that’s not to say you haven’t had people care about you before, it’s just that in the past it’s been conditional or surface level. This isn’t that, everyone here is so genuine to you and sometimes it stuns you.

You’re pulled from your thoughts again, “What’s that, sugar?” Johnny asks from beside you.

You don’t know what he’s referring to, you turn to look at him, expression confused, “I don’t know?”

His smile is evil, his finger comes up and presses into a point on your skin, where your jaw meets your neck, just below your ear. Your blood runs cold and one of your hands comes up to cover it.

“It’s nothing,” your eyes are wide as you shake your head at him, silently begging him for discretion.

Johnny either doesn’t catch on or doesn’t care, “I know a hickey when I see one!”

Noises erupt from everyone at the table, Raiden chokes on his food across from you.

“What the hell, Johnny!” you huff at him.

You take it back; Johnny is the exception to the group and no longer a friend. His grin is large and mimics the Cheshire cat.

“Who gave you a hickey?!” Kung Lao yells out from next to Raiden.

You sigh deeply, of course this happens when Bi-Han is gone.

“Wait… is that why you weren’t at training today?” Kenshi asks from the other side of you.

He caught on quick, how annoying of him.

You’re holding your head in your hands, shaking it in exasperation. What did this night turn into.

When you look up again, you’re very obviously embarrassed, red in the face. The guys don’t notice, they’re all looking around the table, trying to find out who you’ve been sleeping with.

“This is none of our business,” Liu Kang interrupts, trying to be the voice of reason, but by the look he gives you, you can tell he wants you to tell him who you’re sleeping with. Such a gossip.

They ignore Liu Kang, and once they’ve determined it’s none of them, “OH MY GOD, it’s one of the brothers!” Johnny exclaims.

“Oh, well then obviously, it’s the scary one,” Kung Lao says.

You’ve still not said anything, you wouldn’t even know what to say. Bi-Han literally just left a few hours ago and now everything is out, because of him. You didn’t even know there was a hickey there, he would’ve seen it before he left too and just kept it to himself bastard.

“He does stare at her a lot,” Raiden notes, joining in.

“Et tu, Brute?” You complain.

He looks at you sheepishly, feeling bad.

Johnny’s hand comes out and shakes your shoulder, swaying you, “Is that why he looked like he wanted to kill me yesterday?”

There isn’t any point in denying… but you’re going to try anyways, “I don’t know what you guys are on about, you’ve all come to your own conclusions.”

You have a horrible poker face right now, being put on blast has you so embarrassed that any lie that you try to tell falls flat. Your attempt falls on deaf hears, they all shoot you a dubious look, even Liu Kang looks like he doesn’t believe you.

“I mean, he was especially murderous yesterday, he stares at you a lot, he went to say goodbye to you earlier.” Kenshi points out.

“How did you know he came to see me?” You ask, you wouldn’t think Bi-Han would tell anyone about that.

“I didn’t,” Kenshi has a supressed smile on lips, if he had fully smiled, it’d probably look as evil as Johnny’s. He’s proud of himself for catching you.

“Oh sugar, I am so sorry, you’ve just told on yourself,” Johnny’s hand is still on your shoulder, and he rocks you again.

You sigh and roll your eyes before smacking Johnny’s hand off you, “Not nice, Kenshi.”

“I am sorry,” he certainly does not look sorry, he acts better than Johnny but he’s just as bad.

Kung Lao interjects, “Okay, wait, for how long have you guys been,” he makes weird motions with his hands trying to finish what he means without saying it.

Lucky for him Johnny says it, “How long have you guys been fucking?”

“Johnny! Have some decorum,” Liu Kang chastises him.

Everyone else looks to you, all eyes on you, waiting for an answer to Johnny’s very invasive question.

You look up to the ceiling, hoping it might fall in on you and you can avoid all of this.

Raiden speaks to you gently, “You do not have to tell us anything if you are uncomfortable–”

“–Screw that! You have to tell us, he’s so… mean and you’re so… not!” Johnny interrupts.

“It’s been over a week, not long.” You say honestly, answering them will move this along quicker.

“Over a whole week, and no one noticed?” Kenshi says.

You clear your throat, “Well, Kuai knows.”

“You told him and not us!” Johnny is offended, “You aren’t closer to him than me, what the hell?”

“It wasn’t about choosing to tell him.” You shuffle in your seat, uncomfortable.

Kung Lao catches onto what you mean first, his eyes wide, “OH MY GOD,” he exclaims.

Raiden taps him, “what, what?” Kung Lao leans into him and whispers his suspicions to him, Raiden’s eyes also grow wide.

Liu Kang is shaking his head side to side from the head of the table, he knew immediately what you meant, he just doesn’t want to make this experience worse for you.

Kenshi and Johnny share a look around you for a few moments before their facial expressions also grow shocked when they catch on.

Johnny looks back at you, a hand over his mouth and one pointing at you, he’s being way more dramatic than necessary. But it’s what makes it so fun for him, the dramatics of an actor.

“You didn’t tell Kuai… he heard!”

“Yes, thank you for verbalising that, Johnny,” you sigh out.

Everyone is silent before he starts to let out stifled laughter, it’s apparently contagious because they all start laughing together. Everyone but Liu Kang but you know he’s enjoying this, his eyes bright and amused.

What a bunch of schoolboys, “Oh my god! Grow up!”

The laughter dies out slowly, “I can’t believe you guys, we are not friends anymore,” you pout out, “Especially you,” you target Johnny.

His hands raise up, “Hey! Why me specifically?”

“For not keeping your mouth shut.” You cross your arms over your chest.

Johnny’s smile grows even larger, if that’s possible, “Why are you wearing that turtleneck, sugar?”

You snarl at him, “I think you know why, sugar.”

Gasps comes from Raiden and Kung Lao.

Kenshi speaks next, “Jesus, did he maul you?”

Your head falls to your shoulder in a show of your own dramatics, “He might as well have.” You pick your head back up quickly, “It was Johnny’s fault!”

“How is it my fault?” His voice is offended, a hand falls on his chest.

“You flirted with me, it made him jealous,” you shrug.

Johnny pleads his case, “That wasn’t my fault! You’re hot and had your thighs either side of my head!”

“Don’t say that in front of him,” you tell Johnny sincerely, if Bi-han was here you’d genuinely be concerned for Johnny’s safety, “He already wants you dead.”

Johnny is flabbergasted, “HUUUH?”

“He actually isn’t happy with… any of you, not that he ever is,” you say.

“He tells you how he feels?” Liu Kang asks.

“He tries,” you nod.

Kenshi adds, “and he gets jealous?”

“Very,” you nod again.

“Dude, he LIKES you,” Johnny concludes, proud of himself.

“I know,” okay, you find this really funny, they think they’ve discovered something that you didn’t know, “He told me.”

“And?” Kung Lao probes.

“And, I like him too, which he also already knows,” you raise an eyebrow. You think they’re having a hard time grasping the fact that he talks to you and has told you how he feels.

“Woah, you guys have like… a full secret relationship,” Johnny remarks.

You confirm, it isn’t labelled but, “I guess so, pretty much.”

“I am stuck on him liking someone,” Kung Lao jests.

The comment pulls a smile from you because it is funny that of all people, he likes you.

“I mean at all, not just romantically,” He adds.

A chuckle comes from you at his addition.

“Well, I mean… if he was going to like someone it’s no wonder it’s her,” Kenshi says.

“That’s true,” Johnny replies.

They’re all nodding their heads in agreement; it’s making you feel bashful, “Okay, we can still be friends, since you all like me so much,” you say in a joking manner.

“Nice!” Johnny rejoices, to which they all join in the celebration. Their stupidity makes you laugh, you’re very fond of them all.

“He didn’t want anyone to know,” you tell them.

“Maybe he shouldn’t have assaulted your skin then,” Kenshi shrugs.

You decide to be a little bit mean; you turn to Kenshi and look him dead in the eyes, “You have no idea how bad it is,” you’re mostly joking but also yes, it is that bad.

Kenshi’s eyes get wide, and he tints pink as he understands the weight behind your words. It’s an amusing sight.

Johnny also catches your implication, “Holy shit–”

“–Are you going to tell him we know about the two of you, when he gets back?” Raiden cuts off Johnny, changing the subject, which you’re thankful for.

You shrug at him, “I’ll have to, I can’t lie to him, he always knows.”

“How cute,” Johnny has a sickening sweet lilt to his voice, mocking you.

You roll your eyes at him and push his shoulder, jostling him, “watch it Hollywood, you’re on thin ice right now.”

Tonight, has been, a lot, you couldn’t foresee this coming, but at least it wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be.

“Is he freaky in bed?” Johnny leans closer to you to ask, trying to be discrete; everyone hears him anyhow.

You take back your earlier statement; Johnny is making this about as bad as you thought he would.

Raiden rolls his eyes at Johnny, having saved the conversation from this direction only for Johnny to swivel right back around and hit you with this question.

You ask him, “Do you want me to answer honestly? Or are you just ribbing me?” You genuinely can’t tell.

“Of course, I want the truth,” he scoffs.

You pause, you don’t know what to say, “he’s hot.” You decide to be dismissive.

“Oh c’mon, that’s boring, I want something juicy!” Johnny whinges.

“It’s hot, he’s good…” You trail off, remembering how verbal Bi-Han is in bed, how much he talks to you, how much you enjoy it, you miss him.

Johnny boos at your non-descript detailing of your sex life.

“Johnny, go get laid,” you tell him.

A chorus of ‘oooooh’ erupts from the guys, rubbing your teasing comment in Johnny’s face.

“You all know far too much now anyways, any more information you want, you can risk your lives asking Bi-Han for.” You shut down all further questioning for the night.

You’re putting up a brave front but them asking Bi-Han directly will result in one of two ways, one: he kills them on the spot, or two: he gives far too much detail, happy to explain how well he fucks you, hoping to deter them from wanting you. It’s like the marks he left behind, they’re a sign of ownership, and you’re sure his words would reflect the same kind of intent. Especially after he got so jealous the other day. You’re just hoping Bi-Han’s aura is too threatening for them to even attempt at asking him something like that.

You aren’t sure if you should be concerned about everyone finding out or not, Bi-Han wasn’t exactly trying his hardest to keep your relationship on the downlow, but you also know he probably doesn’t want people to know.

Cause like he said, ‘two things can be true at once’.

❆˖°

The past couple days have been gruelling, the nonstop teasing from mostly Johnny but also all of them has been, exhausting. It isn’t particularly upsetting but it is almost constant, this is why you wanted to keep it secret. Not because of any grander reason, but because these guys are unbearable sometimes and you spend almost every day, all day with them.

Right now, you’re all having a break from training, standing in the open courtyard, you were all having a nice conversation but of course the subject of you and Bi-Han always comes back up. It’s like the go to topic when conversation dies down now.

Johnny is whinging again, “Come on, give us something! Or does he just lay there silently?”

He is pressing you about your sex life again, weirdly invested in the dynamics.

You shake your head at him, “Johnny I don’t know what makes you think I would give you explicit details about my sex life, it’s not any of your business.”

You really wish Bi-Han were here, dealing with this on your own is very difficult, you imagine it would be easier to cope if he were beside you. They should all be back later today, possibly the evening, you just have to field the questions until then.

“It’s a weird dynamic and I can’t picture it!” He is still pushing it.

“Why would you want to?” You ask him.

He’s being very dramatic, “Because it’s odd! Like a car crash you can’t look away from”

“Not comparable Johnny!” What the hell, your sex life with Bi-Han is not like a car crash.

“No but it’s like…” He’s clicking his fingers together trying to remember the term he is searching for, “morbid curiosity!” He snaps in finality, pointing at you.

You shake your head and groan, “Most people who experience that are also polite enough to not ask, be more like Raiden,” you point at Raiden, he’s standing across from you, he’s been very polite and not bombarded you with inappropriate questions.

You add, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Ah yes, but satisfaction brought it back,” Johnny concludes, his smile smug.

You stand there silently; you’ve decided to just ignore him now. Which of course, does not work, he is now poking at your side, repeating your name over and over.

“Come on, just a crumb of detail!” He huffs out at you before suddenly going quiet.

They’re all quiet and you know why, Bi-Han is behind you. You can feel his presence, looming over you from behind, he’s not looking at you. You assume he is shooting the others a killer glare.

“She is a sweet little thing in bed,” Bi-Han adds, his tone humourless, he’s pissed.

You gasp at his statement and turn around to him, you slap him on the chest lightly, “What the hell Bi-Han?!”

You look up at him with an angry expression, he’s still looking at the group behind you. His face as stoic as usual, his tone was angry, but his expression is blasé. He’s daring them to ask him more, he will answer and that’s a threat.

You look back at everyone, none of them want to talk, all a bit red in the face. They’re uncomfortable and shooting dirty looks at Johnny, who is looking away to the sky with an innocent expression on his face.

Spinning back round you look up at Bi-Han again and this time he looks down to you, his gaze immediately softening at the sight of you. He leans down and hugs you, one you accept because you missed him, even though he just made it difficult for your friends to look you in the eyes.

When he pulls back you go to turn around and apologise to the guys, but Bi-Han has other plans, he picks you up and throws you over his shoulder, walking away with you.

You go to protest, “Hey! Wait–”

“–No,” he says, simply.

You can see the guys as you’re carried away, Johnny holds two thumbs up and has a huge smile on his face. You point at him, your gaze burning as you look directly into his eyes. Making a promise to get back at him for being so annoying and nosy.

As you walk through the grounds, you walk past Kuai, Tomas and Liu Kang, Bi-Han doesn’t stop walking, completely ignoring them.

“Hey guys, glad you’re back safe,” you say waving at them as you’re carried past.

Tomas has a confused look on his face as he waves back at you. Kuai’s expression a disapproving one, his brother continues to exasperate him, and Liu Kang just looks, exhausted.

You’re carried back to Bi-Han’s room, and once you’re inside he places you on the floor gently. Gaining your footing and stretching once you’re standing again.

You tell Bi-Han, “That wasn’t necessary, I would’ve come with you willingly.”

He changes the topic, “So they all know.”

You look as guilty as you feel, “Yes…” You say, Bi-Han gives you a stern look, but you continue, “…but actually, it’s your fault because they saw one of the hickeys you left!” You point an accusatory finger at him.

His face morphs into an expression of pride, wolfish smile present on his lips, “Good.”

“No, no, not good, and you know, it occurs to me that you would have seen it before you left and said nothing!” You point out to him.

“And if I did?” He shrugs at you, face dropping into a serious expression.

“No… mmm, no…,” you’re struggling to think of a punishment, there is only really one thing you can punish him with, “No sex!”

He’s quick to answer, “Okay, then I did not see it.”

His expression is definite, you know he’s pleased with himself, but he’s keeping his poker face on.

Your hands land on your hips, disapproving of his attitude, “Is this what you wanted?”

He looks upwards and to the side, pretending to think, “I can’t say I am particularly torn up about it.”

“You have no idea the torment I’ve had to put up with,” you sigh out.

He considers your words for a second, “Want me to kill them?”

“NO!” He knows you do not want that.

He smiles affectionately at you, “I am sorry I wasn’t here with you.”

“You should be,” you pout at him, you’re a little miffed with him right now.

And he knows which is why he hits you where you’re soft for him, “I missed you, sweet girl.”

You want to tell him you missed him too, but you don’t, instead you huff out, “I doubt it.”

He moves to you as he speaks, “Missed you, made sure we finished as quick as possible, just so I could see you again.” When he reaches you, he holds your head in his hands, his eyes soft as he looks into yours, “did you miss me?”

He’s trapped you, “Of course I missed you,” your response is mumbled out, begrudged with yourself for giving in so easily.

He smiles at you warmly, you look up at him, “Still annoyed with you though.”

He rolls his eyes playfully at you, “I am sure I can fix that.”

Leaning down he presses a single kiss to your lips; one you don’t return. He’s still holding your face in his hands, your own hanging limply at your sides. He grunts in disapproval at your lack of response.

“Kiss me back,” he demands.

You shake your head in response.

He huffs out an annoyed breath, “You’re not being very polite, missed you so much and you won’t even kiss me.” Your heart pulls in your chest and you almost give in.

He leans down and kisses you again, and again, and again. He keeps kissing you until you sigh against him, he takes the opportunity to enter his tongue into your mouth, finally able to kiss you properly. Your hands instinctually come up for something to hold onto, grabbing at the material of his shirt.

His own hands moving from your face down to your thighs, he picks you up and you gasp against his lips. Your inner thighs resting on his hips, your arms holding onto each other from behind his neck, the sudden shift shocked you and you’re holding tightly onto Bi-Han for balance.

“Relax, sweet girl, I’ve got you,” he nuzzles at the side of your face, inhaling your scent.

You take his lips back in yours, he turns the kiss dirty immediately. Tongue in your mouth, taking your breath away. He walks you both to the wall, and your back rests against it. His mouth never leaves yours, savouring the way you’re kissing him, enjoying the small sounds he’s pulling from you. His kisses are insistent, showing you just how much he missed you.

When he pulls away, it’s to look at your face, he’s taking in all your features and taking pride at the look in your eyes. It’s the same expression you always have when he kisses you, so soft for him, gooey eyed. His kisses take all thoughts from you, the only thought you have is his lips on your own.

“Ah there she is, my sweet girl, the one who’s so polite to me,” he hums, nosing at the skin of your cheek.

“Don’t be mean, not after kissing me like that,” you reply.

He laughs lightly and goes to place you back on your feet, but you cling to him, wanting a hug. He lets you hang on, but he sighs out in faux annoyance. You tuck your head under his, resting your forehead against him.

You mumble into his chest, “Still annoyed that you left me here to deal with them all.”

“Probably for the best, you are more patient than I.”

“Would’ve been nice to have you here, I was super embarrassed,” you shake your head into his chest.

“My offer to kill them still stands,” he’s joking, mostly.

Pulling your face from his chest, you laugh in response, “No, thank you.” It’s quiet for a moment, and then you remember, “I still have something I want to show you.”

He looks at you with a suggestive look on his face, “and what’s that?”

“Nothing like that,” you frown at him, he knows already, he’s just trying to get a rise out of you.

He chuckles at you and pecks your lips, “Show me later? After lunch?”

“Sounds good,” you smile at him.

His eyes glint with mischief, “There is something I would like to see right now,” he remarks, moving to the bed and laying you down on it. He’s on top of you, straddling your outer thighs, keeping you still underneath him.

“Bi-Han, do we really have time for this?” You ask, not completely upset with where this is heading.

He smirks at you, “I do.”

And then he’s pulling your shirt off, a gasp pulled from you as his head dips to leave more marks on your chest, lips trailing to your breasts. He sucks harshly against your soft skin, nibbling at the tissue on your breasts. He takes a nipple into his mouth and flicks it with his tongue, the stimulation has you whimpering, chest rising towards him in response.

His large hands grip you, holding your ribcage still as he works at your nipple, he parts from you, making a popping noise as he does.

“Got perfect tits, missed them,” he hums, moving to your other breast.

His mouth is cold, you think he’s doing it purposefully. Either way, its enhances the pleasure he’s giving you. One of his hands grabs at your other breast, fondling it, tugging at the nipple. The moans that want to escape are being held back only by sheer will, which is slowly falling away.

Pulling back, he sits up a bit, looking at your rapidly rising and falling chest. His eyes holding anything but pure thoughts, both of his hands grope at your tits, he’s toying with you. Enjoying your growing need for him, you go to say something about it, but his fingers start pulling at both your nipples, it has you sighing a moan and forgetting what you wanted to say in the first place.

He’s proud of himself, rendering you speechless just from the way he plays with your tits, and if he wasn’t touching you in such a divine way, you just might curse him out about it.

“Such a pretty little thing,” he coos at you.

“We have to go to lu–hah–nch,” you gasp out.

“In a moment,” he says.

It’s going to be more than a moment and you know it, just based off the almost feral look on his face, and by the way one of his hands leaves your chest to travel down your body. Cupping your pussy over your pants, he massages you before spreading your pussy lips to rub at your clit through the material of your pants. You squirm at the stimulation, huffing out quiet whimpers as he rubs at you.

He's about to say something, probably something obscene but it’s cut off by a knock on his door. A voice follows it, “Lunch is ready,” it’s Kuai’s voice, he sounds… weary.

Bi-Han rolls his eyes, you know he’s going to say something nasty so you cut in over him, “Thank you, Kuai, we will be there in a moment.” You keep your eyes locked with Bi-Han as you say it.

Kuai hums his acknowledgement and walks away.

You go to sit up, but Bi-Han places a hand on your sternum and pushes you back down, “Hold on, wanna look at you for a moment more.”

His words make your heart jump, but you tell him, “You can look at me plenty, later.”

Groaning, he pulls you up and off the bed, you smile up at him. Standing on your tippy toes, you give him a kiss and he hums into it.

“Watch it, I’ll keep you here.” He warns.

You giggle a little at his threat, it doesn’t feel intimidating at all, it makes you feel hot. Everything he does increases your temperature; it really is ironic considering.

He reaches for your discarded shirt, and you hold your arms up in the air, waiting for him pull it over your head. Instead, he stands there, holding your shirt and staring at your tits. Sighing at him you give him a ‘really?’ look. He does ultimately put your shirt back on you, he’s careful when he does. Not wanting to be too rough as he redresses you. It has you feeling weak for him, he’s always so careful with you, in little ways.

“Alright, let’s get this over with,” he groans out, not looking forward to eating with everyone. He’d much rather stay here and have his way with you.

Taking his hand in yours, you both walk to the eating area together.

❆˖°

Lunch is… awkward. Everyone is side eyeing you and Bi-Han, he sat down beside you today. He doesn’t usually sit next to you, but now that everyone knows, he did. That introduced issues with the seating though, not the first ones to be fair. But Johnny and Kenshi aren’t allowed to sit either next to or in front of each other anymore, on account of their arguments that turn into kicking under the table.

So, Johnny is in his assigned seat next to you and Kenshi usually sits on your other side, but now he is sitting next to Bi-han. You can tell Bi-Han is unhappy with this, on all fronts, but mostly that Johnny is next to you. Though, if Johnny were to sit next to Bi-Han, you’d worry he’d say something to get bodily harmed, so you argued to keep him next to you. Furthering Bi-Han’s hatred for Johnny, but making Johnny feel special, which was not your intention.

But that is how you end up feeling very uncomfortable, the table is tense, and everyone is sharing looks with each other.

“Am I missing something?” Tomas says.

Oh God, no one has told Tomas, Johnny chokes back laughs beside you and you shoot him a look, telling him that he is specifically not allowed to tell him.

“We’re fucking,” Bi-Han says, motioning between the two of you.

Tomas has a shocked expression on his face, tinging pink as makes eye contact with you.

You have to take a deep controlled breath, your eye twitches with annoyance. Maybe it was better that Bi-Han wasn’t here the other night.

Head snapping to the side, you look at him, your expression one of pure anger, why would he say it like that? And why would he say it like that to Tomas???

He doesn’t look at you, doesn’t find anything wrong with what he said, “have been for a couple weeks.” Bi-Han looks up for a second, thinking, “in the courtyard, my room, her room..”

“Shut up, Bi-Han!” You say it in a hushed and urgent tone.

Johnny is trying so hard not to laugh but he finds what Bi-Han said so ridiculous and out of character that he can’t help but crack up.

Doing some more controlled breathing, you sit completely still and calmly say, “Johnny, if you don’t stop laughing, I am going to hit you.”

“Stop warning people, puts you at a disadvantage,” Bi-Han tells you, completely unbothered. You don’t think he realises he’s in trouble.

“I appreciated the warning,” Johnny interjects.

Ignoring the both of them, you attempt to control your blood pressure, how is this worse than the other night?

“Is that a comment from experience, Bi-Han?” Kuai asks.

Bi-Han looks at him, he doesn’t answer but his silence says plenty. Kuai looks amused at this development, finding it funny you tried to punch Bi-Han but gave him a warning first.

Kenshi adds to the conversation, “He’s right, if you actually want to land a hit, no warning.” He tells you.

“But that’s not nice, I don’t actually want to hurt someone,” you huff out. You give warnings for a reason, to give them a chance to correct the behaviour.

Bi-Han smirks beside you and says quietly, “sweet.”

Your lips downturn at Bi-Han, he’s made this much more messy.

“Was I the only one that didn’t know?” Tomas asks.

“Yes,” Bi-Han says, he continues to eat his lunch.

You tell Bi-Han, “You aren’t allowed to talk anymore,” Before addressing everyone, “I will talk, you will all listen.”

Everyone sits quietly, waiting for you, “Bi-Han and I like each other, we have been… together for almost a couple weeks now, I am not going to share intimate details of our sex lives,” you shoot Johnny and Bi-Han incriminating glances, “Tomas you are last to know, Kuai found out first and the others found out while you were gone.”

Tomas looks at Kuai, offended that he didn’t tell him about you and Bi-Han, you’d feel bad, but it wasn’t really any of their businesses anyhow. The only person you felt bad for was Kuai and that’s because he heard the two of you.

“We are adults, so I think we can all accept this and move on, yes?” You ask.

As you look around the table, they all share their agreeance, all except Bi-Han, who is still completely unbothered, eating lunch.

Liu Kang looks like he feels bad for you, “Your relationship is between the two of you, we will not pry any further,” he says very gently, trying to salvage the situation.  

“Yes, we are all sorry for being invasive,” Kung Lao says, very pointedly targeting Johnny with his tone.

“Don’t fault me for being curious! It’s an odd dynamic,” Johnny argues.

“It is not any of our business,” Raiden adds.

Bi-Han looks Johnny dead in the eyes, “She lets me do what I want, and she enjoys it, creams ar–”

“Bi-Han!” You cut him off, your face on fire. He looks at you, you have a very strained smile on your face as you say, “stop. talking.”

His eyes widen slightly, realising he’s upset you; he goes to speak more.

“No,” you say simply, shutting down further conversation. Your lunch has been finished and so you stand up abruptly, “Don’t follow me.” You tell him as you walk away.

Everything is silent as you leave, no one daring to talk.

Your plans for this evening have been ruined, you had something to show Bi-Han and you really aren’t in the head space for it now. In all honesty, you might be overreacting, but it doesn’t change how you feel right now, you need a moment to calm yourself.

❆˖°

Leaving the dining area has you feeling better, your skin felt like it was on fire. From both embarrassment and anger. You don’t know what was wrong with Bi-Han to be so upfront, the first time Kuai asked about your sex life he almost bit his head off and he didn’t even outright ask.

Now he is willing to tell everyone far more details – too many details. You need an hour or so, to process everything and calm down. Bi-Han knows how embarrassed you can get so it was unkind of him to be so blunt in front of everyone. The only thing you can think of is that he seemed a little on edge, maybe that’s why he said it the way he did but then why take it out on you?

The result is the same though, you’re upset with him. It was already uncomfortable for you, and you wanted him to help. It didn’t even seem like he tried to help, jumping straight to the nuclear option.

Going back to your room isn’t an option, you told him not to follow you, but you know he’ll be looking for you anyways. The first place he’ll look will be your room, then enlightenment rock, and probably most of the grounds. You decide to go somewhere he doesn’t know about, it’s a flower field that’s dead, has been all winter, the cold killing them and causing them to wilt.  

It’s where you wanted to bring him, but you decide to go there now, knowing it will take him a while to find you here. Biding your time, because talking to him right now won’t go well… for you. Talking things out directly after they’ve happened never ends well for you because if you haven’t had time to decompress, to get perspective, you might become overly defensive, or mean. And the last thing you want is to be mean to Bi-Han, not if he doesn’t deserve it.  

So, you sit in the middle of this flower field, allowing yourself to breathe in the air. What has happened, has already happened and you can’t undo it. But when you are ready you can talk to Bi-Han and try to understand how he was feeling in that moment. Sometimes you hate this about yourself, but you always think about the why. Why did he feel the need to say that, why did he choose that moment to say that, why doesn’t he seem to care, even though it embarrassed you.

Opening your eyes, you take in the flower field; it must have been so vibrant when it was blooming. It would’ve looked so, so alive. The beauty of nature and how flourishing it can look, how vivacious naturally occurring colours can be.

It never ceases to amaze you, when you think of how – just like people, nature needs the right environment to truly bloom and share its beauty with the world. You think Bi-Han is like a flower field, no one sees how beautiful he is, they don’t give him the right circumstances. But in small moments together, when you compliment him, or look at him with the most softest gaze, he blooms for you, and it is magnificent.

It takes him about an hour, but he does find you. You can’t tell if he’s pissed or relieved when he sees you. He walks right up to you, where you’re sitting in the middle of the flower field.

“I have been looking everywhere for you,” he says, straining himself to stay calm. Not wanting to worsen his situation.

“I know, I have been waiting for you,” you tell him, and then you pat the ground beside you, wanting him to sit.

He sighs but he sits down beside you anyways, “Why are you waiting for me in the middle of a dead field?”

“It’s what I wanted you to see,” you don’t look at him.

He’s looking at you though, intently, “Why would I want to look at a dead flower field?”

You smile to yourself, because yeah, who would want to look at a dead flower field. No one cares when the flowers are already dead, but when the time comes back around, this field will be gorgeous, and people will care then.

You ignore his question, instead asking him your own, “Bi-Han, you were rude tonight, and you embarrassed me, in front of my friends, why?”

“I… don’t really know, I was in a… bad mood and answered thoughtlessly, my intention wasn’t to embarrass you,” he’s struggling to tell you how he felt, this isn’t the type of confrontation he’s used to.

“It wasn’t your intent, but it was a consequence of your actions,” you tell him how it is. Sometimes people don’t mean to hurt you but that doesn’t change the fact that they did.

There is only one thing he offer you right now and he knows it, but you don’t really know if he’s capable of it. You think if this was anyone else, you wouldn’t hold their hand through this, but you don’t think Bi-Han is used to trying to make things better after he messes up. That and you think it could’ve been worse.

So, you ask him, “Why were you in a bad mood, Bi-Han?”

“I was… jealous, again,” he looks to the sky before continuing, “that Cage, he already pissed me off the other day by flirting with you, and then his invasive questioning of our sex life, and then he gets to sit beside you at the table, after being a little–”

“–Okay I can see that this is more of a culminative thing, rather than just earlier,” you gather pretty quickly he still isn’t really over what happened and everything else is just adding fuel to the fire.

You can understand his annoyance with Johnny, because you’ve been annoyed with Johnny, you just haven’t had the chance to properly ask him to stop, but you know if you do, he will. You’re going to have to prioritise talking with Johnny but that’s not to say all the blame is on him, Bi-Han still messed up out of jealousy.

“Tomas didn’t deserve being told like that,” you say, gently. You feel bad for Tomas, stuck in the crosshairs of Bi-Han’s anger.

He grunts at you, not agreeing but not willing to argue with you over it.

You sit beside him silently, giving him time to figure out what to say next. You can understand, kind of, how he is feeling.

He sighs beside you, “Will you look at me… please?” He asks tentatively.

Turning to look at him in the eyes you can see he does seem to feel bad about letting his anger get ahead of him.

“I misspoke and I am sorry,” it’s all he says, but it’s all you really need.

You don’t need him to overexplain himself, it undoes an apology in a way, trying to argue for yourself rather than just coping to your mistake.

“It’s not okay, but I understand,” you reply.

You both sit in silence again, you decide to break it with a joke, “You didn’t kill them, did you?”

He hums, “No, but I considered it.” He’s also joking, you think.

His hand moves slightly closer to you, you think he wants to touch you but is worried you’ll pull away. Shuffling your body closer to him, you take his hand in yours. He relaxes slightly at the contact.

“What did you want to show me?” He’s curious now.

You smile up at him, “If I show you this, you have to tell me something about yourself, it can be anything, but something no one else knows.”

He seems a bit hesitant, “Better be worth it.”

Letting go of his hand you adjust yourself so you’re sitting on your knees, turning to Bi-Han you see he’s watching you, “Don’t watch me, watch the flowers.”

He rolls his eyes, “There aren’t any flowers.”

“Just – watch,” you remark.

He huffs but looks out to the field, you turn forward again and place your hands on the ground. You focus your energy on the field, breathing slowly, you hear nothing – feel nothing. The field is dead, but as you release your feelings into the ground through your hands, you can hear the flowers sing to you as they come back to life.

Colours blooming all around you, the flowers standing tall as you thaw the Earth and allow the flowers to flourish. The sounds and feelings of the Earth coming back to life run through you, the afternoon sun hanging low in the sky falling on your face.

After the whole field is back to its most vibrant form, you sit back and look out at it. It’s not something you’ve attempted to do before, not on a large scale like this. You’ve brought back house plants and listened to the way the Earth hums, but you’ve never tried to bring back a dead field.

Looking over at Bi-Han, you see he’s looking out to the field, stunned at all the flowers you brought back in one go. You’ve not shown or really told anyone about your ability, only Liu Kang knows, and you didn’t exactly tell him. You don’t tend to tell people because it’s not something you feel is especially helpful in combat. Not like fire, or ice, you’re in tune with nature, you feel a deep connection to it, but it doesn’t go much further than that, as far as you can tell anyways.

“It’s beautiful,” Bi-Han says.

You ask, “Is it worth it?”

“Yes,” he has a small smile on his face as he turns to look at you.

Motioning for you to come closer, you move from where you are sitting and crawl over to him, flowers brushing against your skin as you do.

When you’re within reach he pulls you down to him and hugs you to his chest. You fall into his lap sideways, your legs over to one side as you sit on him, you look up at him but he’s looking out to the field. You tuck your head under his chin, ear resting against his chest. His arms are wrapped around you, holding you close as you sit on his lap.

He sighs from above you before speaking, “I trained hardest, out of Kuai Liang and Tomas… I was the eldest and next in line for Grandmaster… and I was pushed harder, given less leeway by my father. And I hold resentment towards them all, because I didn’t get the same experiences as them, I was being forged into the Lin Kuei’s weapon. They were children first and… they had each other.”

That’s the sadness you knew was there, the loss of a childhood, of brotherly connection, of any connection. This isn’t something you can relate to; you don’t know how to help him with this.

“I want to help… how can I help you?” You ask him, pulling back to look him in the eyes.

One of his hands cups your cheek, holding you tenderly, “You have been, you being beside me helps plenty.”

You lean into his hand, enjoying his touch.

He speaks, asking you, “Now you tell me something no one else knows.”

“I already showed you,” a small smile is present on your lips.

He isn’t satisfied with that, and you knew he wouldn’t be, “Doesn’t count.”

You huff out, “Mmm let me think.”

Leaning your head back on his chest, you ponder for a moment on what you could share with him.

“Sometimes, I worry that I am useless… like even when I try to be helpful, whether it be through my actions, insight, advice, anything… that it is not helpful. And I worry that I am only worthy of taking up space if I can be of service…” You pause for a moment before finishing, “I feel undeserving of the space I take up.” You bare your soul to him, because you truly feel that you’re not allowed to exist if you can’t offer anything in return.

His embrace tightens around you a fraction, “You are so useful, sweet girl and even if you weren’t, I’d want you all the same.”

His words effect you deeper than you would have expected them to, you tear up slightly at the affirmation that he wants you, useful or not. You tuck your head into his chest further, rubbing your eyes on his shirt to get rid of your tears before they fall.

Both of his hands pull your head back, looking into your teary eyes. His expression is so soft for you, filled with so much kindness, an expression you wouldn’t have thought him capable of a couple weeks ago.

“Sweet, sweet girl, my sweet girl,” he hums out, before leaning in and kissing you.

It’s a tender thing, he has no ulterior motives behind it, he just wants to gently kiss you. Wants to be connected to you. You accept the kiss, letting him do with you as he pleases, your mind filling with nothing but thoughts of how soft his lips are. How kind he is to you, how much you would be willing to sacrifice for him. Oh yeah, he’s stuck with you now, you think.

When you part from each other, he lays down on his back, taking you with him. You’re both laying on a bed of flowers, you roll off him and instead tuck into his side, he rolls to his side too, so he can look at you.

You tell him, “I think you’re a lot like this flower field, it’s why I wanted to show it to you.”

“And how exactly am I like a flower field,” he raises an eyebrow at you.

“Because, you’re beautiful when you bloom,” you say it with no shame, meaning every word spoken.

He looks a little flush in the face at your words, “kind words will get you into my bed.” He changes the subject.

You laugh at him but complain, “I have more questions.”

His head rolls back in an overdramatic way, he groans as he does, “Fine.”

“Favourite colour?” You ask.

“Blue,” he says.

You look doubtful of his answer, “Really?”

“Yes, what’s yours?” He turns the question on you.

Smiling at him you say, “The brown of your eyes.”

You’re mostly teasing him, but you also can’t think of any colour prettier than the colour of his eyes right now. The way the sun is setting is lighting his eyes up into a beautiful, honeyed brown and you think you could fall into them and die happy.

He rolls his eyes at you, “Flatterer.” He shakes his head at you, “Next question.”

“Mmm, who’s the smartest person you’ve ever met?”

He thinks on it for a moment, his face telling you that he doesn’t think he’s met any smart people, before his expression shifts as he has an answer, “My mother.”

That’s really sweet of him you think, he’s a mama’s boy.

“How about you?” He asks.

“Me,” you say, big smile on your face.

“What a cop out.” He complains but his eyes are alight with an amused look.

“I am asking the next question,” he says.

“Go ahead.”

You’re happy he’s actually getting invested in this little game, this is something you’ve wanted for a while now. Getting to know him is some of the most fun you’ve had in a while.

He considers what to ask, not realising how difficult it is to pick a question to ask off the top of your head, he eventually settles on, “What is your favourite feeling?”

“Oh, easy, earlier when I brought the field back it was silent because the flowers were dead but when I brought them back, it’s like they sing and the singing of life itself is beautiful.” You answer him enthusiastically.

You think about it for a moment more and decide to be very open, “And, when you look at me, it sends a shiver down my spine… that I’ve grown to enjoy.” The confession has you feeling bashful.

“That’s cute,” he pinches your cheek before the hand trails down your body and lands on your hip, gripping you there, “My favourite feeling is your tight little cunt wrapped around–”

“–Oh my god, do you think about anything else?” You exasperate.

His laugh is distracted as he shrugs at you, “Sometimes.”

You change the subject and ask him another question, “Favourite place?”

“Next to you… or inside you,” he changes the subject right back.

You groan at him and push him off his side and flat onto his back. He chuckles as he’s falling back.

The rest of the afternoon is spent together in that flower field, talking with each other and recounting old memories. Talking about anything and everything as the sun goes down. You think that this will always be one of your favourite memories, even if it did start with you being pissed off with him.

❆˖°

When you both return, you part ways, Bi-Han has to speak with Liu Kang and have a proper debrief about the mission. You on the other hand, want to shower and clean off the dirt and pollen on your clothes. Bi-Han promised to come to your room when he was done though.

On the way back to your room you, mercifully, don’t run into anyone and make it back without your mood being ruined.

The shower is such a welcome delight, cleansing yourself of the day and all the difficulties that came with it is a wonderful thing to be able to do. And when you’re done, you get to pamper yourself by moisturising and putting on comfortable pjs. It isn’t often that you get to wear some of your own clothes from before you were here, so it’s always nice when you get the chance to.

It’s also a bonus that you packed a matching set, ironically, it’s blue – you wonder if Bi-Han will notice or care. It’s very cute that his favourite colour is blue, something that you think, yeah is obvious but you didn’t know if he wore blue because of the Lin Kuei, his aesthetic, or if he liked it. Having him answer questions has given you some clarity and insight into him as a person and you feel so giddy about it.

You fiddle around your room, tidying away some of your belongings. Cleaning up the small messes that have been built up over the course of a few days. You’re stuffing around with some trinkets when there’s a knock on the door, it startles you and you fumble with the small jewellery box you’re holding, it falls onto the ground in front of the dresser.

You answer who you assume is Bi-Han first, “Come in,” you call out before ducking down to the ground.

On your hands and knees, picking up some of the jewellery that had scattered on the floor, you notice an earring slipped under the dresser and you arch your back, bending down further to reach under and get it, as your face gets closer to the ground to look, you realise a ring has slipped under further than the earring.

You can hear the door slip open and closed from behind you, “Are you kidding me?” Bi-Han groans out from behind you.

You hum in question at him, grasping the earring and then attempting to get a hold of the ring, it’s just barely out of reach.

Bi-Han comes closer, standing directly behind you, watching you struggle to reach the ring, “Great view,” he comments.

Ignoring him, you arch forward a tiny bit more and he whistles at you from behind, you roll your eyes at him and then your annoyance is replaced with a feeling of victory as you finally get the bloody thing out from under the dresser.

Sitting back up you lean on your knees, holding the two small pieces of jewellery up in triumph, you pack all of the spilt trinkets back into their box and stand up, placing it back on the dresser.

As you turn around, you’re met with the sight of Bi-Han in his night robe, his hair down, he seemingly has also just showered. Not to be overly dramatic but, you might die just from looking at him.

“Hello,” you say sweetly, enamoured by the sight of him.

He shakes his head at you, “Get everything from under there? Or is there more?”

“That was all of it,” you tell him.

He hums in disapproval, “That’s a shame.”

“How was the debriefing?” You ask, curious.

His expression turns annoyed, “Mmm, it was fine, rather not have gone, it was a waste of my time.”

“You think everything is a waste of time,” you jab.

He quips back, “Not true, you aren’t a waste of my time.”

“Flatterer.”

His expression turns mischievous, “And where will flattery get me?”

“Everywhere,” you give him an innocent smile, it doesn’t match the implications of your statement.

Moving closer to you, he grabs your hips, admiring the blue pyjamas you’re wearing, “You look good in blue, should wear it more.”

“I don’t own much blue,” you comment.

He shakes his head, “We’ll have to change that.”

Reaching up your wrap your arms around his neck, you want to kiss him but he’s out of reach and you’re stretched as far as you can go. He’s purposefully not leaning down, staying out of reach. It makes you pout at him.

“What? What’s wrong now?” He asks you, playing dumb.

“Will you kiss me, please?”

His head tips to the side, pretending to have to think about it, “Mmm, okay, since you asked all pretty like.”

He leans down and kisses you, effortlessly picking you up as he does. With his hold on your hips, he carries you over to the bed. When he reaches it, he turns around, so his back is facing it, he leans down and places your feet back on the floor. He continues to kiss you, it’s filthy, his tongue in your mouth, licking at you, his teeth nibbling at your lips. You gasp against his mouth as his hands come around and grope at your ass cheeks, holding handfuls of it.

Pulling back, he whispers against your lips, “I haven’t forgotten, you’re sitting on my face, sweetie.”

Your insides twist at his statement, you’ve never sat on anyone’s face before, you’re a little nervous about it. You want to protest but his hand slips inside your shorts to grip your bare ass, and he realises.

“No panties?” He asks.

You hum, “I didn’t ah, think they would be necessary?”

“Should’ve just been completely naked and waiting for me then,” he remarks.

“Thought you might like the blue.”

He groans in response, “and I do, but I’d like it better on the floor.”

He pulls his hair back into a bun as he speaks. The small act of him tying his hair back makes your desire for him grow.

Once he’s tied his hair back, he’s harshly tugging your shorts down, they slip down your legs effortlessly with the force he pulls them down with. You don’t get time to react properly, because he’s picking you up and chucking you down on the bed. A breath is pulled from your chest as you land on it, Bi-Han is crawling over top of you, he presses a tender kiss to your lips and then he’s manhandling you again. Rolling onto his back and pulling you on top of him as he does.

You’re straddling him in this position and he’s flat on his back. You understand now, he tied his hair back, so your knees don’t pull on it. You’re apprehensive, making no moves forward, much to Bi-Han’s dismay.

He grabs your thighs and tugs you all the way to his face, “Bi-Han – wait!”

A deep groan of protest is pulled from his chest, but he stops moving you, your cunt sitting so close to his face but not close enough for him reach, also to his dismay.

He has to put in a lot of effort to tear his gaze away from your wet pussy, “What’s wrong?” He huffs.

“I’ve never done this before,” you feel timid at your admission.

“Mhmm, thas fine, I’ll take care of you, just sit on my face and let me tongue fuck you. It’ll be good, promise.”

His words serve to set your face on fire rather than any comfort he may have meant them as. But his hands slowly stroke your thighs in a comforting manner, trying to get you to relax for him.

“’Kay, Mm ready,” you mumble out.

“’Atta girl,” He taps your thighs, letting you move this time.

Gently, you travel the rest of the way forward, your cunt right above his mouth, he doesn’t take his eyes off you. Appreciating the view, it makes you bashful, the way his gaze devours you whole, eyes filled with lust.

“Sit down,” he guides.

You lower yourself slightly, not sitting on him, scared to suffocate him. He let out a sound of disapproval, “Sit. All the way down.”

“Don’t wanna hurt you,” you protest.

“Trust me this is gonna do the opposite of that.”

You go to argue with him, “but–”

He lightly slaps your thigh at your objections, “–When I say sit on my face, I mean fucking sit on it.” He growls out at you.

You still have your reservations, but you sit down on him, it still isn’t your full weight, but your pussy is right on his waiting mouth. The feeling has a small sigh coming from your lips.

Bi-Han is growing impatient under you, and he rumbles into your cunt, he’s sick of going at your pace now. His hands wrapped around your thighs grab on and tug you down, a cry of protest is pulled from your lips but he’s stronger than you and he’s pulled you into a full sitting position on his face.

His tongue laps at you, the unfamiliar feeling has you shooting forward, hands grabbing at the headboard. Bi-Han moans out from under you, the taste of you, how wet you are, the smell of you, all adding to his own arousal.

He keeps licking at you, tongue entering your pussy hole, fucking up into you, his nose rubbing against your clit. The pleasure has you seeing stars, moans falling from your lips, ones that you aren’t particularly focused on right now. Too involved in the way Bi-Han is eating your cunt to remember to be quiet.

His hands move you back and forth, encouraging you to ride his face. Your thighs shake but you get the hang of it, starting to slowly grind back and forth on his face. The breaths coming from you are stuttered, catching on the moans and whimpers you’re letting out.

It’s loud and messy, the way Bi-Han eats you out, obscene slurping noises filling the room, your slick all over his face and between your thighs. As your hips gain more confidence, Bi-Han slips his tongue from your hole, flattening it against your cunt, letting you glide across it.

The new feeling has a particularly loud whimper pulling from your chest, he groans at the sounds your making, both your moans and the sound of your very wet cunt. This was all he could think about on the mission, and it was very distracting.

His hands stay on your thighs, helping your rock against his face and tongue. Your own hands grip the headboard tighter, your grinding speeding up, chasing your high that is right there.

Bi-Han groans into your cunt, loving the way you’re desperately humping his face. If you had any thoughts other than how good the pleasure feels, you’d be so embarrassed over how desperately you’re chasing your high. Using this beautiful man’s face to get yourself off.

His hands grab at your ass, spreading you cheeks and playing with the globes of your ass. Your moans increase in pitch and frequency, so fucking close, you just keep rutting against his tongue and nose. And when he hums and groans into your pussy again, you keel over, the force of the orgasm unexpected, a short cry pulled from your lips at the feeling.

Bi-Han encourages your grinding as you come down, licking up everything you gave him, the lewd slurping noises not stopping as he sucks at your cum. Eventually, you pull away, it has to be you that pulls away because Bi-Han would stay between your legs until the Earth imploded.

Shuffling back down his body, you sit on his lap, and he sits up, making sure you stay exactly where you are as he rests his back against the headboard, where you were just gripping. If you weren’t both so consumed by each other, you’d probably notice the light scratches your nails left in the wood.

Bi-Han has the most proud smile on his face, “perfect little cunt, always so sloppy and wet for me, could die between your legs and would die a happy man.”

You’re still a little fucked out from the orgasm he gave you, “Always say the most lewd things, Bi-Han.”

“Sue me for loving my girls pretty cunt.” He shrugs at you.

You crawl closer to him and press your chest to his, laying your head on his shoulder, “Thank you.”

He chortles at your comment, “For what?”

“Mm, good orgasm.”

“The day I don’t give you a good orgasm, kill me.” He says in the most serious tone.

You chuckle at him, he’s so silly, “Could never kill you.” You mumble against his skin, “Like you too much.”

He hums at your words, “Don’t tell me you’re already all fucked out?”

You shake your head, “Gimmie like 3 minutes.”

He huffs out an amused breath, but cradles you to him, hands stroking your back. As his hands move up and down your back, he decides he wants your top off and so he pulls it off. You let him, lifting your arms to make it easier for him.

Before you lay back against his chest, you pull his robe open to expose his chest, craving the skin-to-skin contact. You don’t notice but he’s watching you with so much affection, finding your movements adorable.

His hands hold onto your hips, giving you time to regather your faculties, but he’s growing impatient, as per usual. His hips rise slowly, mostly on their own accord, searching for your cunt. When he grinds up into you, his dick twitches in response, a groan pulling from him.

“Can’t wait any longer,” he declares.

He pulls your hips down to meet his, grinding your naked pussy into his dick, barely covered by his robe. Pulling away slightly, you untie his robe and open it properly, his cock pulsing and waiting for you.

Which you do make a comment about, “So needy, Bi-Han.”

“Don’t be a tease,” he grunts, not enjoying the switch in dynamic.

You hum out to him. Grabbing his cock, you leisurely pump it, giving him stimulation but nowhere near enough for his liking. His hand wraps around your own, tightening your grip under his, and he starts fucking into both your hands. His head tipping back against the headboard, groans and grunts slipping from his lips.

The sight is something to behold, your pussy drooling at the image of him fucking into your hand, head rolling back from the pleasure.

“Mmm, so pretty Bi-Han,” you comment, his cock jumping at the compliment, you smile to yourself at his reaction.

“Need your – ngh – creamy little – cu – nt – hah.” Words broken up by his gasps of pleasure.

You move your pussy right over his cock, his hand pulls away from yours in favour of gripping your hips, trying to hurry you along.

Your grip lets go of his dick, “Bi-Han, lemme do this,” you huff.

“Alright, jus – hurry up,” he groans.

Slipping the head inside is a whole ordeal, not having been fucked by him in a few days, you have to open yourself on his cock all over again. Moving down until you’re just taking the tip, Bi-Han sighs at the minute relief.

Your hole flutters on the tip of his cock, Bi-Han chokes at the feeling, “Ffffucken hell,” he grinds out.

You pull off him completely, before sliding back down and taking more of him. Bi-Han is biting his lip and clenching his hands into fists beside him, trying so hard to just let you do this at your own pace.

And you do take your own pace, pulling off him again but not sliding back down him, instead you lean down and spit onto the head of his dick, Bi-Han’s eyes watching you very intently. Groaning loudly when you grip him with your hand and stroke your spit up and down his length.

His cock wasn’t wet enough for you, but it is now, you reposition yourself and fuck yourself down onto him, nearly halfway. Your cunt spasming around his dick is like a gut punch to him, his self-restraint being tested in a very cruel way tonight.

Pulling up slightly, you keep him inside you, fucking yourself up and down on half of his cock, whimpers being ripped from your mouth at the way he fills you. Bi-Han has to tear his gaze away from where your pretty little cunt is sucking him in, afraid he’ll cum now, before he’s all the way inside. Not a fear he used to have but the way you grip him is so heavenly, he thinks he remembers, but then the next time he’s inside you it’s brand new again.

“Bi-Han, can you help please?” You ask, needing help getting to the hilt of him.

“Gods, fucken finally,” his voice is strained.

His hands hold onto your hips, picking your body up and down, helping you fuck down onto his cock. The way he manhandles you like a doll makes you dizzy. His grunts low in pitch as he fucks up into you, pulling you down at the same time. He’s still holding back, being as gentle as his resolve is allowing, not wanting to hurt you.

With Bi-Han’s help you take him completely, you’re sitting in his lap, taking his big cock, full to the brim of him. You slap his hands off your hips, wanting to do this yourself. He pulls his hands back, looking forward to you attempting to fuck yourself on his massive cock without his help, he knows, just like earlier, you will ask for help. Even if you have a very cute and determined look on your face right now.

Bi-Han’s hips twitch under you involuntarily, he’s needy, needs you to move, “C’mon sweetie, need yo – hah – u to move.”

“’ve never ridden someone before, gimmie a sec.”

A groan is ripped from his chest at your confession, his dick twitches inside you, loving the idea of being the first man you ride, his possessive streak making a return.

“Mm the first man you’ll ride, and I’ll be the – hah – fucken last too,” he says, grabbing your face in one hand, making you look at him.

His face makes your pussy clench around him, his eyes so needy, so possessive. The feel of your cunt makes him groan out. Hesitantly, you lift your hips upwards, leaving just the tip inside you before dropping back down all at once. It rips a moan from both you and Bi-Han, you almost go cross eyed, not expecting it to feel like that. He feels so much deeper than the other times, you feel so much fuller. Your cunt leaks around him an obscene amount, making a mess of his lap.

The absolute filth of the display makes you lightheaded, your eyes wet from pleasure and all you’ve mostly done is sit on it. Bi-Han’s ego grows tenfold at the sight of you, he’s going to make a smart-ass comment, but you lift all the way up again before dropping all at once. His moan is needy, so is yours.

You whimper as you keep that pace, slowly pulling up, leaving just the tip inside before dropping on him all at once, punching a moan out of him every time you do. All you’re really doing is working the both of you up, but you want to see if he’ll break, and he’s waiting for you to ask for his help.

Bi-Han is using every fibre of his being to hold onto his control, loving the way your face contorts as you spear yourself open on his cock. Loving your big wet eyes, you almost look like you’ll cry and it’s driving him feral.

His eye contact is so intense, you go to look away from him, but he tuts, “Ah, keep looking at me sweet girl, wanna see the moment – hah – you start crying from how good my cock fills you.”

You look back into his eyes, overwhelmed by everything. You stop your previous rhythm and instead hold him still inside you, clenching down on him. You can’t keep up that other pace, so you hold him inside you, and grind down into his pelvis, the contact on your clit has you gasping and fluttering around him.

Bi-Han’s head rolls back at the feeling, eyes going with it, his hips grinding up into your cunt. The sight of him alone has you deciding to cave, you don’t care anymore.

“Bi-Han, please… help.”

“Thank the – hah – ffffucken Gods!” He exclaims, gripping your hips tightly.

He plants his feet on the mattress and then he’s simultaneously pulling you up and down his cock and fucking it up into you. You actually do start crying from the pleasure, finally getting a consistent feeling of him moving inside you has you going brain dead. Eyes glazing over, still open but not seeing.

The image of your face switching into a fucked dumb expression and tears falling from your eyes brings Bi-Han immense satisfaction and pleasure, nearly blowing his load at the look on your face alone. The whimpers and whines coming from you not helping either.

Your nails scratch at his bare chest, your pleasured noises coming consistently, you don’t think you could speak even if you tried so you don’t even bother trying. Just let yourself get fucked down onto his big dick.

You’re cumming first, and you’re cumming hard. Pussy squeezing Bi-Han so tightly his pace slows, his need doesn’t though, he keeps fucking you through it.

He encourages you, praising you, “Look so fucken – hah – pretty cumming on my cock, Fffuck look at you – ngh.”

His thrusts neither slow down nor stop, he’s still fucking you like there’s no tomorrow, his cock aching with need, twitching violently inside you, his own thighs spasming slightly.

“Bi-Han you’re so – mmm – beautiful when you’re – hah – close, wanna put you – fffgh – in my mouth,” you tell him, making mindless horny comments as he gets closer to his own high.

“Oh – FFFFUCK!” He cums with a shout, it's sudden and catches him off guard.

Your mention of wanting to suck his dick arousing him to the point of orgasm, he grasps your hips and pulls you down, grinding you into his pelvis as he fills you with all his hot, sticky cum. The feeling of him filling you up making your cunt twitch around him, your thighs shaking.

He looked so good as he came, skin glistening with sweat, abs clenching as he twitched, his own thighs shuddering with his orgasm.

“You look really hot when you cum,” you inform him.

His dick jerks inside you at the compliment, “You look hotter.”

You lightly grind your hips down more, overstimulating him slightly, his response is a needy whine, his hands stop you from moving, “Gonna have to give me a second if you wanna go again.”

Moving forwards, you press your chest to his, skin to skin contact making your heart soar.

Humming you say, “Jus wanna keep you inside me.”

“Fucken – I truly think you’re trying to kill me sometimes.” He complains, though not really, he enjoys the things you say to him.

You press a kiss against his neck before you decide to give him a hickey, sucking into the pulse point on his neck, nipping at it as you pull away. Bi-Han doesn’t say anything and so you add another, to the front of his throat, and then one on his collar bone, and the other side of his neck. You keep sucking marks into his neck, chest, anywhere you can reach, when you’re finished, you lick up the length of his neck and take his lips in your own.

The kiss tastes like his skin and your cunt, he grabs the back of your head and shoves his tongue into your mouth. His kiss is fervent, filled with need and lust, you moan into it and his cock twitches to life inside you.

He grinds his hips up into you, but you refuse to move, keeping him still inside you, keeping yourself busy with his lips. He pulls you away with the grip he has on the back of your head, pulling you by the hair. You huff out at the loss of his lips.

“Now look what you’ve fucken done,” he says, referring to his painfully hard dick pushing up against your cervix.

You feel like you might melt around his cock, pussy creaming around him. You look him in the eyes, giving him an innocent smile but he knows better.

He pulls you off him, ignoring your whines of protest, and lays you on the bed, flat on your stomach. His hands spread your ass cheeks, looking at his own cum spilling out of your pussy hole. He groans at the sight, never not enjoying the image of you filled with his cum.

Grabbing one of your pillows, he lifts your hips and slides it under them, elevating your lower half slightly. He removes his robe completely, chucking it to the floor. Leaning down, he lays over your back, skin to skin, he enters you from behind in this position.

Fucking into you slowly, fucking his cum back into you. Your whines and sighs soft, enjoying the tempo he’s set. It feels intimate, his hands travel to your own, interlocking your fingers as he leisurely fucks into you from behind. Quiet groans and grunts falling from his lips at the feel of your slippery cunt. His cum is leaking back out of you onto the sheets.

His cock drags in and out of you at a slow pace, one that is pleasurable but as you get needier, you crave him harder, deeper.

Your need evident in your drooling cunt, lower halves getting slicker as time slips by, “More, please – hah – Bi-Han.”

“No, take it like this, greedy little thing,” he groans out from above you.

It feels like he fucks you like that forever, so close to the edge but never tipping you over it, his hands eventually travel back to your hips, he pulls your knees up so you’re resting on them and not your stomach. His pace picking up at the change in position, unleashing a punishing pace.

Skin slapping skin filling the room, along with the absolutely lewd, wet squelching sounds of your pussy. Getting fucked so well on him, fucking you back on himself, moving you how he pleases. Your face is pushed into the mattress and you’re dribbling against the linen, tears streaming down your cheeks again, the overstimulation almost too much.

Bi-Han is grunting and groaning above you, the most feral noises coming from him, you realise in this moment what he’s attempting to do right now, and you go to crawl away from him, not wanting to make an even bigger mess.

He growls out at you in disapproval, “You’re going nowhere – hah – sweet girl, gonna have you squirting on me again, ffffuck–”

“Mhmm, too messy,” you shake your head against the bed.

“You’re always messy, sweetie, got the creamiest ffffucken – ngh – cunt.” His words make your cunt spasm around him, “Ah, getting so fucken close aren’t you?” He observes.

You shake your head at him again but one of his hands comes around to your front and he lands controlled slaps to your clit, making your cunt spasm around him even more. One particularly firm slap to your clit has you cumming with a shout, the pleasure too much, making you tingly all over.

Bi-Han is ecstatic at the view of you squirting on his cock, it pulls his own orgasm from him almost as soon as it happens, he fucks you both through it, gritting his teeth against the force of his orgasm. Shouting expletives and your name in the same sentence, his own orgasm overwhelming him. He ends up freezing a portion of the beds sheets with his momentary loss of control.

You’re puffing against the bed, on the verge of passing out from your insane orgasm. Bi-Han pulls out of you slowly, careful with you as he separates from you. His eyes lock onto your cunt and the way it's spasming from your orgasm, pushing his cum out as it does.

He's mesmerised by it for a moment, using all of his remaining self control to not lean down and lick you clean with his tongue.

“You okay, sweet girl?” Bi-Han checks in on you when he catches his breath.

You nod your head, eyes closed, “Mhmm, might pass out.” You puff out.

He chuckles at you, enjoying the tear streaks staining your cheeks, and the absolute fucked out look on your face.

He tucks your hair out of your face and leans down, pressing a kiss to your forehead. He leaves and comes back with a wet cloth, wiping up the mess between your legs. You’re mostly out of it but when you come back to, he’s redressed you in your blue pyjama set, he’s also back in his robe.

He’s lying beside you in the bed, carefully watching your face.

“Did I actually pass out?” you ask.

“Yes, was a little worried about you actually.”

You smile at him, “Cute.”

He rolls his eyes and pulls you into him, both of you on your sides facing each other, embracing. He presses a kiss to the crown of your head.

“You’re changing the sheets this time,” he comments.

“Wrong,” you say.

He groans, “What’s in it for me if I change the sheets again?”

“I’ll give you head.”

He’s all too happy with that deal, “Done.”

❆˖°

Part five

A/N: Thank you so much for reading the whole thing! This update for some reason ended up being so long which is funny because I didn’t think myself capable of writing something this long when I first started writing, like 5k was a feat for me and now I’ve just dropped a 16k fic. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it as much as the first three chapters!!! If you have any thoughts, feelings, questions, observations about the chapter, anything, feel free to message me! Requests are open and like usual after an update I will be working through a few of those before the next part <333

#subzero x reader smut #bi han x reader smut #bi han x reader #smut #mk1 smut #mk1 2023 #fanfic #bi han x you #subzero #subzero x you #subzero smut #bi han smut

[froschli96]

As an asexual Good Omens fan

There's something I've noticed in this fandom that makes me really uncomfortable, and that is the way that Crowley and Aziraphale's possible asexuality is constantly being connected to and justified by them being not human.

I just honestly really hate that, because implying that asexuality is something that somehow "logically" follows from characters being nonhuman is ... not great. Like, I hate having to be the one to point this out, but asexuality is, in fact, very much a human attribute.

And unfortunately, most of the time when I come across this take, it doesn't feel like someone seeing themselves in the characters and relating to their experience, but rather an othering, this kind of otherwordly pure non-sexualness, where people put these characters above such trivial things like sexuality.

I am not asexual because I am somehow confounded by this oh so complicated human concept of sexuality, or because I don't ever think or care about sexuality at all (a lot of thinking was unfortunately involved actually before I finally came to a conclusion about my identity) it is just a fact of who I am, as a human being, it’s a part of my human experience.

And let's be honest, attributing asexuality to nonhuman characters is not the hot new take a lot of people seem to think it is — this trope has been around for ages. And it hasn't done a great deal to normalize asexuality. In fact I'd argue it's perpetuated an othering of ace people, but you take what you can get, really. (This is not to say that it is in any way wrong to identify with these kinds of characters, I definitely do, too! It's just sad that the topic of discussion is always about how "human" someone can be considered when they don't feel sexual or romantic attraction)

To be honest, I don't actually see A&C being asexual as canon — as a lot of people seemingly do — just because the author kind of suggested it in a tweet where he basically conflates "asexual" and "sexless" (for the record, this is not a dig at Neil, I just think the implications were kind of unfortunate, even if it might not have been intentional, which makes it all the more frustrating that a lot of fans just ran with it). And yeah, going around calling people aphobic for seeing the Ineffable Husbands as gay rep or any other identity, when they’re oh so obviously canonically ace, is honestly kind of insane.

I get that it might feel nice and tempting to be able to "claim" these characters and this relationship and being able to tell other fans off whose headcanons on their sexuality differ from your own because it is hard to come by any kind of representation when you're ace and there's finally a creator who's not only not contemptuous towards but even supportive of fans reading his characters as queer. And if you feel represented by A&C as it is then all the more power to you. But the thing is, it doesn't matter what kind of justifications there are or what canon might or might not say (bc when has that ever mattered in fandom spaces) or what the creator says, you cannot convert people to your opinion about a character, and you're going to have a bad time if you spend your time in fandom trying to do that.

And really, I am just wondering why we necessarily even need an explanation or justification for them possibly being asexual. Why does it have to be that all angels and demons are asexual by virtue of being nonhuman, and so A&C have to be too? why can't that just be an aspect of them that is completely unrelated to them not being human? Could these characters maybe not simply identify as asexual, not because they're nonhuman, but in spite of it? (btw, in the same vein it is equally stupid to argue that A&C can't be ace because they have "gone native", which is also an argument I've come across)

Honestly, I'm not even asking anyone to fundamentally change how they see these characters here — if you think they must be asexual solely because they're angels and have no concept of human sexuality, then whatever, I can't stop you and I don’t want to police anyone's headcanons bc as I said that's stupid and a waste of time. What I am asking you is that you maybe reflect a little bit on why exactly it is that humanity and sexuality are somehow so intrinsically linked in your mind to the point where you automatically use it as a way to distinguish between human and nonhuman characters.

Anyways.

Tldr: please stop equating asexuality with non-humanness thank you and good day.

#good omens #gomens tv #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #asexual #lgbtqia #This is a long post and I’m probably kicking the hornet’s nest here even if only a few people see this #but I had to put this into words before I explode. #bc this take is so pervasive in this fandom #and its frustrating bc theres never any real discussion about how their relationship might be relatable to ace people #its just taken as a forgone conclusion

[prying-pandora666]

The Real Reason Azula Smirked When Zuko Was Burned is…

A lot of ink has been spilled over why Azula smirked when Ozai burned and scarred Zuko.

Some argue whether Iroh’s flashback was reliable. Let’s assume for the sake of argument—as uncertain as it is in canon—that it happened exactly as Iroh remembers and describes it.

How could an 11 year old child smirk while her brother is burned and brutalized in front of everyone?

There are many conflicting arguments.

Argument 1 - She’s a monster.

Some say she is a sadist or a psychopath and it’s as simple as that. She just enjoys watching her brother suffer.

But this doesn’t track with what we come to learn about her later, and is outright contradicted by materials that actually give us insight into her POV such as the comics and novelizations, as well as writer interviews.

The novelizations which were written contemporaneously (and thus aren’t a retcon) show us an Azula who cares about Zuko, even though she’s competitive with him and jealous that mom favored him. She thinks Zuko is weak and brings misery upon himself and she is willing to turn on him to protect herself. Yet she still wants to help him get stronger and take his place as Prince. She still wants his love. She takes the risk to lie on his behalf at Ba Sing Se for him. She didn’t suspect Aang had survived until later.

The comics take this further, showing that in Azula’s ideal world, Zuko was never banished or burned at all. He is happy and loves her and isn’t abused or scarred.

Even the head writer who designed both Zuko and Azula’s arcs claimed she loved Zuko more than anyone except their father.

So then what is it?

Argument 2 - It’s A Coping Mechanism

Some point to “Identification with the Aggressor”, a well documented psychological coping mechanism in which victims of trauma—especially children who are especially malleable and vulnerable—will mirror their abuser and conform to their ideals in an attempt to stay in their good graces and be spared. This isn’t always a conscious decision either, it’s often done subconsciously, which only confounds this further.

I’ve written more about this and how it pertains to Azula here.

However, outside the the knowledge that this is common in abused children and Azula’s behaviors meet the criteria, we don’t have any direct confirmation that this is the case.

Argument 3 - She Is Brainwashed

Others point out that every adult in the room is complicit in this act if not outright enjoying it in the cases of Ozai and Zhao.

Azula is a small child that’s been brainwashed from birth to believe this is right. After all, Ozai is their unquestionable despotic leader as well as her only remaining parental figure. Why would she question? How would she even know this is wrong if she’s been taught this is right by everyone surrounding her?

Does she even understand the full impact of what is happening here or does she think this is Zuko getting his comeuppance for being “weak and lazy”, with no concept that he’s actually being scarred for life and is soon to be banished? After all, not even jolly Uncle Iroh is objecting or moving a finger to stop this. He only looks away.

This is supported by the fact that Iroh laughed about burning Ba Sing Se to the ground even as he was killing them. Zuko and Azula both laugh at this joke and Ursa doesn’t chastise them. She only smiles. Clearly this kind of violence is normalized in the Fire Nation.

We also know Azula attended the Royal Fire Academy for Girls, which in the Kyoshi novels we are told is quite violent and that it wasn’t uncommon for adults to encourage students to duel on Agni Kais. Students sometimes died. So there is reason to suspect this is a product of her culture.

Argument 4 - She is Faking It

“Azula always lies” they say. She is shown to be an excellent liar, but more importantly that she represses her vulnerabilities and feelings.

This is shown when Toph tries to sense Azula’s lies only for Azula to completely repress any reactions and prove Toph can’t determine when Azula is being truthful.

The Beach gives us a more sympathetic example, showing us an Azula who empathizes with her brother and tries to cheer him up when he’s sitting by their old family beach house in depression. She calls him to join them at the shore, and then proceeds to walk all her friends and Zuko through their traumas with surprising gentility.

When it’s her turn however? She dismisses her own trauma with a flippant joke. Masking the moment she starts to feel emotional about it.

It’s even shown when Zuko makes Ty Lee cry by calling her a circus freak. Initially Azula laughs, but when she realizes it’s upset Ty Lee, Azula’s face changes to one of remorse and sadness. However, the moment Ty Lee turns to look at Azula, Azula quickly hides this expression and masks it with a look of indignant petulance.

Azula does indeed seem to fake negative reactions to hide her vulnerabilities.

Argument 5 - It’s a combination of 2-4

Perhaps there is some truth to all of what we have seen in arguments 2-4. Azula is clearly brainwashed and does identify with her abuser to the point of being inappropriately enmeshed with him and suffering total ego fragmentation when he discards her. She does repress her emotions until she finally unravels. She was also quite young when this show happened and it’s possible she didn’t know just how serious it was all going to be.

But consider this…

Still that isn’t enough for detractors, who claim that even given her environment and the circumstances, it’s still too sadistic and cruel for her to grin here. That she should’ve shown some outward sign of disruption.

If you are or ever were one of these detractors, let me ask you this.

Did you feel any sympathy when Azula fell apart, uncomforted by her newly granted power, arguing against her own conscience in the form of her estranged mother, telling her that her methods are wrong? When Azula replied “what choice do I have?” did you feel any remorse for this child who had been exploited for her skill and groomed into living weapon by her power-hungry father, with no regard for her psychosocial development or emotional wellbeing to the point she cannot even relate to kids her own age normally? Did her desperation to use fear and control to keep others close because she knows no other reliable way, because such skills are taught and she’s only ever learned manipulation and coercing and fear, showing us exactly what Ozai uses to control her just as used violence and estrangement against Zuko, move you?

When she laid broken and sobbing and screaming at the end after Zuko and Katara “put her in her place” as Zuko put it, did you feel any pain in your gut?

Or did you cheer?

Were you glad to for her to get her comeuppance?

Did you feel justice was served and Zuko triumphed that day?

That he was right, he could “take her” by exploiting how “off” she was aka her mental illness and spiral into psychosis?

Because if you did, then you know exactly why a person would smirk while watching someone who needs help get brutalized.

If narrative framing can persuade you to believe that an unloved, mentally ill, abused and exploited child soldier being brought to sobbing, screaming, chained up, broken tears… is the RIGHTEOUS result! Imagine what a lifetime of propaganda from birth and programming from your own father with no one to show you another way would do to you.

Why did Azula smirk while Ozai burned Zuko?

You already know the answer.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #azula #zuko #Youtube

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Evolutionary Adaptability

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)     When Kel had petitioned the human worlds of Jora, New Foundland, Davin VI, and Tesla’s Retreat he had thought he knew what to expect.

Though humans were still relatively young in the grand scale of galactic empires they had the most interesting, if not confounding, habit of setting up shop on any world they could find. Be it a dust ball with no atmosphere and three hundred degree sunrises, or a water world filled with ravenous creatures; humanity had shown their grit and made these worlds into new colonies and homes regardless of the danger.

Acting as a representative of his people Kel had reached out to each of those four worlds to establish trade routes. The possible wealth from each, let alone all four together, would be enough to sustain his world’s economic boon for several dozen generations.

He had been delighted when the transmissions came in one by one and each of the human worlds had agreed to meet on Kel’s homeworld to discuss the arrangements.

The first signs that things were running off the tracks was when the Jora delegation had arrived.

Kel had done his research after gathering many texts and documents regarding the human homeworld and thought himself prepared to handle the humans as they exited the landing ships. To say he was surprised when instead of tall slender bipedals massive mechanical suits ducked between the loading doors and on to the landing field would be an understatement.

These constructs were easily nine feet in height and four feet wide standing on two pairs of sharp metal legs that gave them a more insect appearance. Their hands were likewise far more different as they only had three metal talons that clicked and clacked as the machines approached him and Kel saw his reflection in the polished steel bodywork.

As if that was not enough the bodywork suddenly split open and Kel saw a fluid sack inside of the machine holding a frail looking human with numerous wires and tubes sticking out of them.

The human inside nodded to Kel in greeting and their mechanical suit mimicked the motion as well; to which Kel returned after an embarrassing moment’s hesitation.

Before Kel could inquire about the state of the Joraran’s they spoke through a robotic speaker built into their suits. It was then Kel learned that because the gravity of Jora was nearly ten times lighter compared to their natural homeworld the humans had needed to construct mechanical suits to move and live across the any other planet’s surface. If they had attempted to exit the suits and walk normally the gravity of Kel’s world would crush them like tin cans. Thinking to himself Kel imagined that was why the humans inside the machines looked so frail in comparison to their Terran born brethren.

---------- After the Joraran’s came the New Foundlanders some thirty minutes later.

This time the humans did not need to lower themselves to exit the shuttle craft. In fact, they barely came up half way inside the doorframe forcing Kel to tilt his head down and look upon them.

In contrast to the Joraran’s, the New Foundlanders were short and muscular built; coming up to Kel’s waist in height. They wore normal looking clothes standard to human fashion but the fabrics appeared strange as they New Foundlanders approached. It was as if the fabric was remaining static and unmoving despite the motions their wearers made.

Kel extended his hand in human custom to shake in glorious welcome, but to his shock the humans looked amongst themselves and shook their heads.

When Kel inquired if he had offended them somehow they stated that he had done nothing of the sort, and that their reluctance to shake his hand was more for his own safety.

Something of confusion must have cross his face as the lead New Foundlander motioned for one of Kel’s aides to toss him a pen. With a nod from Kel the aide handed a pen to the leader who promptly snapped it in two with the smallest of motions.

Kel learned that in opposite of Jora, New Foundland had gravity ten times heavier than that of earth forcing the humans who lived there to develop squat like bodies of raw muscle. On a lighter gravity world like Kel’s the mere flick of one of their fingers was enough to violently amputate the arm of anyone.

Kel thanked them for the warning and hurriedly sent the new information on to his waiting staff to ensure no one died from a handshake later that day. ---------------------

Next to arrive were the Davinites.

Kel was thankful that when the shuttle doors opened the Davinites were much like the human material he had researched prior to their meeting. They stood between 5 and 6 feet in height, were slender in body shape, and did not walk with mechanical suits or seemed overly careful what they touched.

The strangeness only began to reveal itself when Kel looked closer and saw that underneath the formal clothing the Davinites were wearing a full body bodysuit made from a strange black material. This covered every inch of what would have been exposed skin with even their eyes shielded behind large black goggles.

They shook Kel’s hand in human custom but then insisted that they leave the landing pad as soon as possible. When he asked why they were in such a hurry it was revealed to Kel that Davin VI was orbiting a red dwarf star that provided little light compared to most worlds. The day and night cycles of their world were a constant shroud of soft light, barely enough to see your hand in front of your face let alone the stars themselves.

As a result the Davinite skin had become increasingly pale in the absence of sunlight and their eyes had adapted to the lower light levels to see. Standing out in the open in natural daylight, even with the reflectors on their face, must have been like standing on the surface of the sun.

With great haste he ushered them inside and had his aides blot out the windows and greatly reduce light levels of their rooms for the duration of their stay. -------------------- The final delegation was by far the most unusual of the group in Kel’s eyes.

Unlike the previous delegations, the Teslins arrived in their own spacecraft specially designed on their homeworld. It was a massive freighter like construct easily five to six times larger than any shuttle that had arrived prior.

When the doors opened Kel was greeted by five Teslins all wearing environmental suits he had previously seen in dated records for human space travel.

They slowly walked towards Kel and shook his hand. Their leader was rather friendly and welcoming in their own right and matched him custom for custom as was befitting a delegate.

Kel had tried to resist asking about the suits they wore but thankfully they must have encountered this problem before and demonstrated the need for their suits.

With a nod from their leader one of the Teslins removed the gauntlet from their suit and exposed their hand to the open air. Nothing happened at first until Kel heard a rustle from behind him.

One of his aides was fiddling with their data pad; swatting it with their hands while they rolled it front and back. They caught Kel looking at him and said that it had suddenly died on him and that he was not sure why. The batteries had listed fully charged just a moment ago and now the device refused to power on.

Kel turned back to the Teslins and saw the previous member return their gauntlet to their suit with a loud click followed by the chime of the data pad powering up again.

The Teslin leader explained that the surface of Tesla’s Retreat was plague with frequent and violent electrical storms. The very air you breathed had a sub layer of constant energy in it regardless of where you were on the planet.

Their bodies had adapted to the electrical currents and were able to absorb and pass on energy in the surrounding area through their own bodies; much like a power relay passing on power from a power station to a waiting city.

The grandeur of their ship was a necessity as it contained multiple power units. In the event of a suit breach the Teslin’s could drain the power from a ship midflight and send everyone plummeting to their deaths; but with their design the backup generators would kick in and ensure a somewhat smooth landing.

Realizing the danger the Teslin’s presented while standing in a busy spaceport Kel ushered them inside while he tried to find transportation for them that would not kill them. -------------------------

Each of the delegations were so vastly different from what Kel had been informed of human genes and species type, and yet each of them still claimed to be just as human as the next of their kin, regardless of the vastly different features they wore.

It was a notion that Kel made scrupulous notes for future dealings with the humans, to which the delegation core all but awarded him a medal from the mounting confusion his notes would resolve in later negotiations.

#humans are insane #humans are space oddities #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #scifi #story #writing #original writing #niqhtlord01

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon Alexa is a graduate of the Darth Vader MBA

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

If you own an Alexa, you might enjoy its integration with IFTTT, an easy scripting environment that lets you create your own little voice-controlled apps, like "start my Roomba" or "close the garage door." If so, tough shit, Amazon just nuked IFTTT for Alexa:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/25/23931463/ifttt-amazon-alexa-applets-ending-support-integration-automation

Amazon can do this because the Alexa's operating system sits behind a cryptographic lock, and any tool that bypasses that lock is a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA, punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine. That means that it's literally a crime to provide a rival OS that lets users retain functionality that Amazon no longer supports.

This is the proverbial gun on the mantelpiece, a moral hazard and invitation to mischief that tempts Amazon executives to run a bait-and-switch con where they sell you a gadget with five features and then remotely kill-switch two of them. This is prime directive of the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

So many companies got their business-plan at the Darth Vader MBA. The ability to revoke features after the fact means that companies can fuck around, but never find out. Apple sold millions of tracks via iTunes with the promise of letting you stream them to any other device you owned. After a couple years of this, the company caught some heat from the record labels, so they just pushed an update that killed the feature:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/10/30/apple-to-ipod-owners-eat-shit-and-die-updated/

That gun on the mantelpiece went off all the way back in 2004 and it turns out it was a starter-pistol. Pretty soon, everyone was getting in on the act. If you find an alert on your printer screen demanding that you install a "security update" there's a damned good chance that the "update" is designed to block you from using third-party ink cartridges in a printer that you (sorta) own:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Selling your Tesla? Have fun being poor. The upgrades you spent thousands of dollars on go up in a puff of smoke the minute you trade the car into the dealer, annihilating the resale value of your car at the speed of light:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/23/how-to-fix-cars-by-breaking-felony-contempt-of-business-model/

Telsa has to detect the ownership transfer first. But once a product is sufficiently cloud-based, they can destroy your property from a distance without any warning or intervention on your part. That's what Adobe did last year, when it literally stole the colors from your Photoshop files, in history's SaaSiest heist caper:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

And yet, when we hear about remote killswitches in the news, it's most often as part of a PR blitz for their virtues. Russia's invasion of Ukraine kicked off a new genre of these PR pieces, celebrating the fact that a John Deere dealership was able to remotely brick looted tractors that had been removed to Chechnya:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

Today, Deere's PR minions are pitching search-and-replace versions of this story about Israeli tractors that Hamas is said to have looted, which were also remotely bricked.

But the main use of this remote killswitch isn't confounding war-looters: it's preventing farmers from fixing their own tractors without paying rent to John Deere. An even bigger omission from this narrative is the fact that John Deere is objectively Very Bad At Security, which means that the world's fleet of critical agricultural equipment is one breach away from being rendered permanently inert:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

There are plenty of good and honorable people working at big companies, from Adobe to Apple to Deere to Tesla to Amazon. But those people have to convince their colleagues that they should do the right thing. Those debates weigh the expected gains from scammy, immoral behavior against the expected costs.

Without DMCA 1201, Amazon would have to worry that their decision to revoke IFTTT functionality would motivate customers to seek out alternative software for their Alexas. This is a big deal: once a customer learns how to de-Amazon their Alexa, Amazon might never recapture that customer. Such a switch wouldn't have to come from a scrappy startup or a hacker's DIY solution, either. Take away DMCA 1201 and Walmart could step up, offering an alternative Alexa software stack that let you switch your purchases away from Amazon.

Money talks, bullshit walks. In any boardroom argument about whether to shift value away from customers to the company, a credible argument about how the company will suffer a net loss as a result has a better chance of prevailing than an argument that's just about the ethics of such a course of action:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

Inevitably, these killswitches are pitched as a paternalistic tool for protecting customers. An HP rep once told me that they push deceptive security updates to brick third-party ink cartridges so that printer owners aren't tricked into printing out cherished family photos with ink that fades over time. Apple insists that its ability to push iOS updates that revoke functionality is about keeping mobile users safe – not monopolizing repair:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

John Deere's killswitches protect you from looters. Adobe's killswitches let them add valuable functionality to their products. Tesla? Well, Tesla at least is refreshingly honest: "We have a killswitch because fuck you, that's why."

These excuses ring hollow because they conspicuously omit the possibility that you could have the benefits without the harms. Like, your tractor could come with a killswitch that you could bypass, meaning you could brick it at a distance, and still fix it yourself. Same with your phone. Software updates that take away functionality you want can be mitigated with the ability to roll back those updates – and by giving users the ability to apply part of a patch, but not the whole patch.

Cloud computing and software as a service are a choice. "Local first" computing is possible, and desirable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/03/there-is-no-cloud/#only-other-peoples-computers

The cheapest rhetorical trick of the tech sector is the "indivisibility gambit" – the idea that these prix-fixe menus could never be served a la carte. Wanna talk to your friends online? Sorry there's just no way to help you do that without spying on you:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/divisibility/#technognosticism

One important argument over smart-speakers was poisoned by this false dichotomy: the debate about accessibility and IoT gadgets. Every IoT privacy or revocation scandal would provoke blanket statements from technically savvy people like, "No one should ever use one of these." The replies would then swiftly follow: "That's an ableist statement: I rely on my automation because I have a disability and I would otherwise be reliant on a caregiver or have to go without."

But the excluded middle here is: "No one should use one of these because they are killswitched. This is especially bad when a smart speaker is an assistive technology, because those applications are too important to leave up to the whims of giant companies that might brick them or revoke their features due to their own commercial imperatives, callousness, or financial straits."

Like the problem with the "bionic eyes" that Second Sight bricked wasn't that they helped visually impaired people see – it was that they couldn't be operated without the company's ongoing support and consent:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

It's perfectly possible to imagine a bionic eye whose software can be maintained by third parties, whose parts and schematics are widely available. The challenge of making this assistive technology fail gracefully isn't technical – it's commercial.

We're meant to believe that no bionic eye company could survive unless they devise their assistive technology such that it fails catastrophically if the business goes under. But it turns out that a bionic eye company can't survive even if they are allowed to do this.

Even if you believe Milton Friedman's Big Lie that a company is legally obligated to "maximize shareholder value," not even Friedman says that you are legally obligated to maximize companies' shareholder value. The fact that a company can make more money by defrauding you by revoking or bricking the things you buy from them doesn't oblige you to stand up for their right to do this.

Indeed, all of this conduct is arguably illegal, under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits "unfair and deceptive business practices":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

"No one should ever use a smart speaker" lacks nuance. "Anyone who uses a smart speaker should be insulated from unilateral revocations by the manufacturer, both through legal restrictions that bind the manufacturer, and legal rights that empower others to modify our devices to help us," is a much better formulation.

It's only in the land of the Darth Vader MBA that the deal is "take it or leave it." In a good world, we should be able to take the parts that work, and throw away the parts that don't.

(Image: Stock Catalog/https://www.quotecatalog.com, Sam Howzit; CC BY 2.0; modified)

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

#pluralistic #alexa #ifttt #criptech #disability #drm #revocation #nothing about us without us #futureproofing #graceful failure #darth vader MBA #enshittification

[watchtowerindistress]

(how) to hunt a hunter - sergei kravinoff x fem!reader

Summary: Kraven the Hunter was a myth equal to the Boogeyman. So the prestigious offer to hunt the legendary hunter sounded insane yet like a blast. Who were you as a Black Widow to say ‘no’ to that?

Word count: 4.5k

Warnings: blood, violence, sexual tension, language, consumption of alcohol

Author’s note: Don’t judge me for inserting another Black Widow character again. 🤣 I thought it’d be fun to not go the typical route of Sergei hunting you, but you hunting him. Seriously, what is up with this trope, guys? I’m getting out of my hiatus which is rough and I want to just create something fun and not like a full-blown series. I apologize, I’m better with witty dialogue than fighting scenes, I’m terribly sorry. 😅

If you followed my we all have our secrets series, there’s a character who gets a slightly more prominent role in this one-shot than the mere mention. You know, I’m getting Morbius vibes from the trailer, but I guess it’s going be fun? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Read me on AO3

You wiped the damp layer off the mirror and winced at what you saw.

Your battered reflection was staring back at you. You shook your head and even that movement of your wet hair stroking the side of your neck irritated the scrapes and bruises even further.

Needing to breathe through the pain, you exhaled through your mouth, leaning forward on your elbows against the edges of the wash basin. 

Wrath was burning in your eyes when you glared at your reflection. The broken blood vessel of your eye was a sore reminder of the absolute failure of a mission.

The blue eyes of Sergei Kravinoff shone on the display of your laptop to reveal your target. You hummed before gazing through the binoculars on the roof of the hotel you to keep track of the infamous Kraven.

Killing him would certainly be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Who could even say that about themselves?

Your phone alerted you to a new call coming in. Almost casually you took it without glancing at the screen. Your eyes were glued to the outside surroundings.

“Kind of in the middle of something,” you said with a bored voice.

“So it was you who took the assignment?”

You sighed. Your wrist almost dropped the field glass at hearing Talia’s voice.

“Did I take it away from you?”

A mirthful chuckle reverberated through the loud speaker. “No, I’m not that desperate to face the Hunter.”

Your eyes glanced sideways at that tidbit of information. “Is that fear? Didn’t know that the infamous White Widow was afraid of anything.”

“Not fear. Just a boring survival instinct.”

A pause lingered in the air.

“What is it for you? The prestige? Something fun?”

“Maybe I like a challenge.” 

Talia’s voice turned severe to warn you of the danger. “Trust me on this. This man is no joke. He’s going to enjoy tearing you apart.”

“You sound like you’re talking from experience.”

Talia exhaled. “I knew his father. That family isn’t something to be trifled with. But no, if I want to rupture my lung, I’d rather do it on my own terms. But I also know I can’t stop you if you set your mind to something. All I can offer you are my contacts on sight, wherever you are.”

“No, thank you.” You chuckled. “And don’t pretend like you don’t even know where I am.”

“What can I say? I can’t reveal all my secrets. Stubborn to a fault,” Talia grumbled under her breath. “But I didn’t tell you the whole truth. About Kraven. He’s more animal than man. An absolute savage, mark my words, dushka.” [darling]

“Warning accepted. And to answer your question. It’s a challenge. That’s why I’m doing it.”

“He’d be more than just a challenge.”

“I’m counting on it.”

The unpredictability of this target revealed itself soon enough when Kravinoff didn’t seem to have a single pattern. It was confounding. People had patterns to orient themselves in their daily lives.

You didn’t understand it.

So, the fact that he entered a hotel bar raised your suspicions even more. It wasn’t your ideal preference with the amount of exit strategies the location offered. With wary eyes, you strolled towards the bar, instantly recognizing the broad shoulders clothed in a white dress shirt.

You sighed. This was truly bad. But it wouldn’t be the first time your cover was blown before the job could even start. A curious glance towards the amount of glasses behind the barkeeper made you smirk though.

Kravinoff slightly turned his head the closer you got before you finally sat on the stool, without any space separating you two. If the target was aware of the oncoming hit, then it didn’t matter keeping up pretences.

He pulled the amber-filled tumbler to his lips. “You want to have a drink before we get started? It’s on me.” If the file didn’t give it away before, the accent certainly revealed his Russian heritage.

“Sure. I love to celebrate.” You pointed a finger in the air and motioned for the barkeeper with a “I’ll have what he’s having, neat. Keep the bottle.”

Kravinoff snorted, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “That’s funny. Already certain of your victory?”

You watched the barkeeper pour two fingers into your glass before he wandered away. “Just enjoying myself during work.” You sipped a bit and instantly hummed from the smoky taste in your mouth.

Kravinoff raised an eyebrow. “You like?”

You shrugged. “You seem to have taste when it comes to certain refreshments.”

The man grunted at your sarcastic dig which satisfied you if you couldn’t use the moment of surprise to your advantage.

Kravinoff twirled his glass between his fingers. “Who sent you?” he inquired throatily.

“What? No foreplay?”

He slowly turned in his seat until his legs were spread and he was facing you head-on. His eyes were burning with intensity. In any other situation you would have deemed him beautiful in a gruff way. Kravinoff remained sullen and quiet, waiting for you to speak.

You rolled your eyes, knocking back your drink. “You’re no fun. Perhaps I intend to play with my prey before I have to kill it.”

His mouth twisted into a sinister smirk. “You think I’m your prey?” The last word sounded like he tasted something nasty on his tongue. 

“Don’t insult me, pet.”

You furrowed your brows at the mention of that so-called term of endearment.

Kravinoff lazily laced his fingers together. “So, what are you? Regular mercenary? HYDRA agent? Talon?”

“Widow.”

Kravinoff tilted his head at that one word in intrigue. “Hmm. It’s an honor-”

Something akin to pride or satisfaction lingered in your stomach.

“-to kill you.”

You clenched your jaw at the self-assurance in his voice. “Well, in that case…” You dared to steal Kravinoff’s drink, just to one-up him for that arrogance of his.

“… give it your best shot, sweetheart.”

Before he could even attack you, you hit his larynx with the side of your hand.

Kravinoff omitted a pained grunt, shielding his throat. He jumped from his chair.

You broke his tumbler on the counter, slashing Kravinoff’s neck.

With an animalistic growl and burning eyes, he seized your neck, smashing your face against the counter. Something like a creak resounded underneath you with the force.

A whimper left your lips. You felt something sharp on your temple.

In one swift move, Kravinoff slid your head along the counter. Something wet trickled down the side of your face. You hissed at the sensation of glass shards against your skin.

You kneed the back of his knee, managing to subdue him and jump him until your legs wound around his neck, making him groan with your choking move.

Your balance shifted as Kravinoff tried to shake you off by grabbing your hips. Trying to take him by surprise and to throw him off his game, you jabbed your fingers into his eyeballs.

With a snarl, he rushed forward against the counter. You groaned in pain at the hardwood.

God, you were starting to hate this assignment.

You were starting to get used to Kravinoff’s burning eyes branding holes into you instead.

“Stop choking me.” There was something horrifying yet fascinating about his ocean blue eyes switching into amber-colored ones. The kind that hypnotized you and rendered you frozen.

“Kinda defeats the purpose of killing you,” you hissed as a retort. Although it certainly delighted you at seeing Kravinoff’s face getting red.

Almost in keeping you at suspense, he slowly yanked out a hunting knife from behind his back and making you grimace in return. There was something about his eyes that revealed what he wasn’t saying.

Seeing no way out of this without getting utterly mutilated by this hunter, you stretched out your arm behind you and grabbed a broken glass. You would learn to fight another day.

Kravinoff winced and eyed his shin darkly.

Without losing any time for him to fight back in retaliation, you pushed against his chest with your feet, making him fall back.

Knowing that the moment he would look up, you had already run.

“I heard you had an eventful day yesterday.”

The humorous statement drew a weary sigh from your lips. Your fingers clenched around the steering wheel at the mere reminder of the mission. Although you didn’t need it since there was nothing that could make you forget with every glance in the mirror or every movement of your muscles.

You inhaled deeply. “You know, it’s funny, when you were dead, the phone remained silent. Now I can’t get rid off you.”

“Allegedly dead. And don’t pretend. You crave our little talks.”

“You here to gloat?”

“Only when it’s warranted. I thought I told you he was dangerous. That’s on you—underestimating a man like him.”

You scoffed in derision. A man like him. “You’re probably right. At least I survived. Who else can say that?”

Your speaker phone remained silent.

You held your breath. “What’s wrong?”

“Kraven has a tendency to kill the people he sets his mind to. So the fact that you’re still alive worries me. He didn’t mention his death list, did he?”

Something moved uncomfortably in your stomach at the concept of an assassin following a list. You licked your lips, remembering how his eyes turned golden. A supernatural hunter trying to kill you wasn’t on your to-do list.

You parked your car in the garage of your safe house before you sped up the stairs.

“No, although there wasn’t a lot of time for talking, if you know what I mean.” You felt the civil conversation at the beginning would make the White Widow only insinuate how you had let your guard down, but you would disagree.

“I’m just saying, Kraven can find anyone, so you better be on your guard.”

A groan left your lips when you inspected the lock on your door, letting your head fall forward. “This isn’t happening,” you muttered in disbelief under your breath. “Got to run,” you called out.

“Don’t die,” Talia sang as a goodbye and half a reminder before hanging up.

You rolled your eyes. “Yes, thanks for the warning,” you grumbled to yourself before you inhaled through your nose in preparation. With your gun placed at the back of your belt and your Widow Bites switched on. Silently, you opened the door and pointed your wrist to the floor. Nothing, so far.

“I’m curious, how would you like to die?” you hollered through the apartment. “Any preferences? I should have asked the last time.” You studiously searched every room, knowing he was in here somewhere.

“How considerate,” Kraven’s sarcastic reply came closer than expected. “Not here to kill you.”

You scoffed loudly. “Yes, right. I’ll believe that when I see it,” you whispered.

Finally, you found him. With his back turned towards you and his arms behind his back, taking in his surroundings. You didn’t trust it one bit that someone like him would be vulnerable like that. Kraven’s figure in the kitchen almost made it seem to small with his dominating presence taking up all of the space. You reluctantly applauded that gall of his for invading your space like that and to make a surprise attack like that.

“You changed your shirt,” you observed quietly, taking in his casual shirt, despite there not being anything casual about him. “The other one too bloody for you?”

Humor was laced in his voice as he slowly turned around, sending you a daring glance. “Observant little spider. Just want to talk.”

The guffawing sound coming out of your throat awkwardly switched to a cough. “Sorry, that—I don’t know where that came from.”

“I’m curious what other sounds I can elicit from those lips.”

You furrowed your eyebrows at the blatant flirting. If that could be considered flirting since it felt more like a hit from a sledgehammer. Very direct and hard to get away from. Typical Russian.

You clenched your hand behind your back. Talia couldn’t fault you for staying on your guard. “And I’m wondering about your noises when I do this-”

You pointed your wrist at him, watching in satisfaction at the electric jolt shooting through his chest. Kraven groaned in pain before sending you a dark glare at your own insolence.

“I was trying to have a normal conversation. You know, trying something new. You make this really hard though.”

You frowned at his ability to talk or even standing upright as you sauntered over to a close cabinet. With calm movements, you attached a silencer to your gun, not needing any more unwanted guests.

“I’m not really interested in talking after our last conversation, you know-”

Your wind was knocked out of you when something pushed into you, making you crash to the floor. You gasped when the back of your head bumped against the wooden floor. Shaking your head, you sent him a thunderous expression. “Now that’s my kind of conversation,” you hissed before you swung your thighs around his neck, squeezing with all your might.

Kraven grunted, closing his eyes. With sudden movements, he stood up and the next thing you knew was that he had pushed you against the wall, making you groan from the sudden impact.

Between your legs, you felt him puff out in breaths, “You know, not that I’m complaining, but I think I’m starting to get used to that.”

His flirty tone of voice made you look down in reluctance to discover him humming contently between your thighs. Spite made you squeeze even tighter and punch against his shoulders with your elbows.

“Stop with your pointy elbows,” Kraven hissed in warning.

“Stop invading my safe house, Kraven svolotsch!” [scumbag]

Your eyes widened when Kraven moved backwards and threw you onto your back as you both fell to the floor. He seemed to have a thing for knocking the wind out of you.

“What did you just call me?” he exhaled next to you.

“You heard me,” you whispered in return, trying to catch your breath.

“You know, I do love our conversations,” Kraven murmured reverently.

“What do you want?” you finally asked in disappointment.

“Now, you want to talk?”

“Now I want you out,” you exhaled tiredly.

“You wound me, pet.”

“Stop calling me that.”

Kraven sighed, slowly sitting up. “Who paid you?”

You opened your eyes, uncertain about his intentions. “Then you’ll kill me?”

Kraven raised his eyebrows, almost like he couldn’t believe you even uttering those words to him. “One less Spider in this world would be a pity. Tell me their name and I’ll reimburse you for your troubles. This, I promise you.”

You inhaled deeply, not knowing if Kraven was the kind to keep his oaths. “Or what?”

“These people are going to kill you if you don't deliver, unless you’re interested in a third run?” Kraven raised his eyebrows in challenge. Probably for some reason sharing the same opinion as you.

“Maybe I haven’t decided yet,” you teased as you leaned on your arm while your hand reached for his thigh which sustained the injury during your last altercation.

Kraven narrowed his eyes with his tilting head in consideration. “Uh, what are you doing?” he whispered hoarsely.

You clenched your jaw. Something wasn’t right, you thought, as you let your fingernails stubbornly search for the cut on his leg.

Kraven swallowed before he cleared his throat. “Why are you stroking my leg? Is this some sort of Soviet seduction technique I didn’t know about?”

There wasn’t an injury. Your heart was racing in your chest at the implication of it.

“What are you?”

Silence enveloped you two. Kraven stared at you in contemplation. “Tit for tat, Spider.”

“Fine.” You rolled your eyes and stood up to stretch your legs. “I don’t know their name. It didn’t matter. He only called himself the Benefactor.”

“Mysterious,” Kraven grumbled behind you.

“Drink?”

“Without poison, if it’s possible.”

You turned your body to reveal the fakest smile you could muster for him. “Only for you, sweetheart.”

“Oh, you treat me too well,” Kraven purred while cocking his head. “So, how does he contact you?”

“Encrypted connection via messaging server.” You offered a shot of vodka for him to take.

“Tell him to meet.” Pushing the brown locks away from his face, he threw back his drink.

“Well,…” You mulled over his offer. “…there’s only one choice to make. How do you feel about dying?” you inquired, putting the glass to your lips.

You tapped your fingers against arm, waiting for the stop of the descent of the cargo elevator. All the while ignoring the stares of two other henchmen standing next to you.

Someone cleared their throat. “Are you like the real deal?”

You pursed your lips at the awkwardness of it all, being in the lair of the so-called Benefactor and being surrounded by fanboys. It was strange. Usually, you were used to people being terrified of your past. Like they couldn’t fathom the possibility of an assassin walking among them. Or that they’d rather didn’t see you being part of society.

“No, I just like dressing up,” you replied dryly, sending them a smirk over your shoulder. “You want me to turn on my batons?”

“Can we take a selfie?”

You considered that for a few seconds before shrugging. “Sure. You want to get the body bag too?”

“Is there really a body in there?”

“What can I say? Needed something large in size to fit the dude.”

Both seemed speechless for a second and made up their minds. “Neat. Come on, huddle together.”

You tilted your head, making a peace sign with your fingers before the camera made the sound of a snapshot. “Nice.”

“Thanks so much.”

You cleared your throat. “My pleasure. Until next time, fellas.” Your fingers made a saluting sign before the doors opened to signal your destination. “Got to deliver something,” you muttered before you wandered down the hallways of the complex.

You had to hand it to those villains. They certainly had the extravagant taste for the finer things in life such as a hidden lair for your base of operations. You turned the corner when the HQ became visible down a set of stairs. Judging by the set of computers and a few people strolling around, tending to their tasks.

In the center of the base a man stood. There was something about him that compelled your vigilance. You trusted your deepest instincts that told you that you were dealing with the Benefactor of all people.

You did a double-take towards the set of stairs, mumbling to yourself, “Huh, that’s a lot of stairs.”

Almost like your voice carried over to him, the man turned around, staring right at you. “Welcome. It’s an honor to be in the presence of a Black Widow.”

Your body tensed before you took a deep breath while carrying the body bag down the stairs, being mindful of every thunk as you descended.

“If you say so.” Your curious gaze met his. There was something about him that felt familiar. The man appeared in his late 60’s and wore an aviator jacket with the lapel lined with fur. “Have we met before?”

The Benefactor cleared his throat. “I don’t think so. Is that the package?”

You narrowed your eyes at the dismissal. “Depends. Are you the Benefactor?”

He smirked when he lowered his head. “Sometimes.”

You placed your hands on your waist, dropping the body bag fully to the floor. “Very cloak and dagger,” you mused. “And to answer to your question: no. I just carry my accessories in there. Really practical if you know what I mean.”

The staring between the Benefactor and you lingered far longer than you expected it would.

Then he smiled widely.

“You’re funny.”

“I haven’t been called that before,” you surmised before you dragged the bag closer to him and pulled down the zipper until it ended around his middle.

The Benefactor hummed curiously and leaned forward until he could really see him. “Hmmm, he looks really fresh,” he replied as an observation.

What?

“I’m sorry?”

“The injuries on his face, I mean. There were stories about him, you know. Is it true that he can regenerate?”

Was he trying to mount him on a wall, or something? Or what was it about this talk of admiration?

Your gaze wandered around in scepticism at this strange diversion. “What kind of supervillain are you?” you asked with a hoarse voice.

The Benefactor chuckled under his breath. “I wouldn’t call myself super, not yet. But I have plans.”

“Hmm, don’t we all.”

He clapped his hands together, like you had just rejuvenated his spirits. “How hard was it to kill him?”

You stared at him calmly, knowing what was about to happen. “I think you know the answer to that,” you whispered ominously.

“Yes, I think I do.” Something glimmered in his eyes which gave you the incentive to turn on your Batons with their red glare.

Kraven’s eyes opened.

Ever so dramatic, you thought, as you inwardly rolled your eyes.

You didn’t gave away any warning before you doused the whole facility into complete darkness. There were gasps around you from the sudden blackout. Instead you turned off your Batons and switched over to your blades.

Something growled in the dark before you saw those golden eyes, like some sort of harbinger.

“You wanted me. Now here I am,” Kraven hissed menacingly.

“There’s no need for violence. I just wanted to see what would happen.”

“Okay,” you exhaled loudly. “Now watch this happen,” you promised sinisterly and threw the first blade.

Someone shrieked in shock when the knife pierced their leg. “Oh my—Goddammit!”

“Finish this, Kraven. I’m starving.”

You heard something powering up. With every second passing, a mechanical sound echoed in the air before something set into place. You turned your head just when night vision goggles jerkily snapped in your direction.

You suppressed a shiver and opted for the (more) silent tactic, swinging the baton around before shooting electricity through it at the last second.

Someone grunted before they fell to the floor.

“We don’t have all day, by the way. What’s taking so long?” you hollered and jerked back when the thrusters of an exo-suit flew past. “What the hell?”

“I know what I’m doing,” Kraven exhaled, hovering in the air, somewhere near the ceiling. “You deal with your henchmen and I’ll take care of this one.”

The alarm deafened your ears before red lights pulsed rhythmically into the dark, giving you the opportunity to watch—wait a second—the Vulture pressing Kraven against the wall.

“Are you sure?”

“Is this concern I’m hearing?” Kraven growled inhumanly before wrestling against like a rabid animal, tearing with all his might against one of the wings.

“If you want to fight the Vulture, be my guest.” You turned your head and watched in suspension as a new group of henchmen ran inside.

“Oh hey, fanboys!” you called out, waving a hand in greeting at the familiar faces.

They looked uncertainly at each other before one whispered to the other, “I don’t want to fight the Black Widow.”

“If it’s any consolation, if Kraven hadn’t taken so long, we would’ve been out of here already, so…” You twirled your batons in the air. “I’m not really giving you a choice, fellas.”

~Kraven POV~

Kraven was done with this bird man. He didn't mind heights, but this Vulture was messing with his good nature. The thruster’s engine made spluttering noises the longer his fingers viciously tore at it.

“This is all just a big misunderstanding.”

Kraven sneered at the pilot. “Tell that to me a few days ago when you tried to have me killed. Sending a Widow after me? Seems pretty clear to me,” he hissed with venom in his voice.

“Let go of the wing and we’ll talk.”

“The time for conversations is over, ptashka.” Feeling the itching in his fingers, he yanked out his hunting knife, ready to strike and not caring that they would fall several meters to the ground. [birdie]

“Okay, fine.”

Kraven frowned in anger when he was instead pushed, making him land on all fours.

Vulture’s landing was a bit inept, with the wing's engine sputtering. His arms were raised.

“Cease fire for now?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Kraven exhaled unevenly, feeling wrath still bubbling under the surface, sending you an expression of aggravation over his shoulder. Hoping you would understand not to cross Vulture for now without speaking.

“Can’t make any promises for her though,” Kraven mentioned casually while pointing towards you, like he was discussing the weather.

Thankfully, you fastened your batons at your back again.

“It was an invitation,” Vulture explained vaguely. “A test if you will. To join our circle.”

“Recruitment?” Kraven was getting bored already - this wasn’t really tickling his fancy. He raised an eyebrow with a sneer. “Not interested in joining anyone’s club. I have my own agenda to follow. I'm not bending towards anyone’s rules.”

“We respect your … hunts if you will.”

“We?”

“A collection of people who have been wronged. Like-minded people such as yourself. We could use someone like you who loves the thrill of the hunt. Because that’s what you do, right? You absolutely live for it. To hunt your prey until it grows tired.”

Kraven hummed noncommittally. Not sure yet of this secret club. But this bird man certainly could appeal to his baser nature. “I’ve reached a decision.”

Vulture tilted his head in fascination, but didn’t reveal his eyes behind those goggles.

“I won’t kill you … yet. For drawing me out like that. But you have aggravated me with your little games by making me neglect my work.” With every sentence, Kraven took a step forward, needing to drive home that he could kill them for their impertinence. “So, I’m going to take off and then I’ll debate with myself if I should drop by in the future. Be thankful if I don’t.”

He turned away, knowing with absolute clarity that they wouldn’t be stopped.

“Not even curious?” Vulture called from behind him, trying to dangle one last temptation.

“Too busy.”

“Even for a spider?”

Kraven clenched his jaw in agitation as he stopped in his tracks. And there went wrath all over again. His gaze met yours.

And there he thought he wouldn’t have to kill anyone.

Kraven turned his body, unable to stop the clenching of his fists. “Come again?”

“Oh, not this one,” he said, waving a hand at you. “I wouldn’t dare cross a potential asset.”

“Not interested,” you negated with absolute certainty.

Vulture shook his head. “Not interested … too busy.” With careful movements he took off his night vision goggles. “I thought it could interest you to hunt a certain … Spiderman.”

Tagging: @mellowstatesmanhandsempath​ @ravenmoore14​ @blackmagicwoman

#steph writes #watchtowerindistress #kraven the hunter x reader #kraven x reader #sergei kravinoff x reader #sergei kravinoff x you #aaron taylor johnson x reader #kraven x you #kraven the hunter x y/n #sergei kravinoff x y/n #kraven the hunter x you

[alagaesia-headcanons]

I've Had A Thought. I was thinking about the scene where Eragon is reminiscing over Brom's message to him as his father, and how Eragon is confounded and troubled that he in no way mentioned Murtagh. I found it a little sad that, for whatever reason, Brom decided Murtagh didn't bear mentioning. Then it crossed my mind to consider the possibility that Brom didn't know about Murtagh at all.

As it turns out, Eragon actually does think about it in that scene- he says, "He must have known about Murtagh. He couldn't not have." And admittedly I don't think this is the most likely scenario or that it's now my personal interpretation of canon, but the idea really has captivated me. Because it actually does fit within the facts! (the new book notwithstanding)

Brom was a gardener at Morzan's estate for three years, and while it's probably more likely that he learned about Murtagh in that time, I think it's certainly feasible for him to never know. Morzan was very determined to keep him hidden and took a lot of precautions to ensure just that. Oromis said Morzan forced all his servants to swear fealty and Brom found a flaw in his wards to infiltrate, and possibly he was able to do so because a job as a gardener didn't require such strict oaths because it wasn't in proximity to Murtagh.

Again, it may not be the most likely, but I can absolutely believe Selena might not have told him either. She also would have been aware of the serious danger Murtagh was in and would've wanted him to stay hidden. Even after Brom told her who he was and she started working with the Varden, she might have kept it secret. For one, Brom's hatred of Morzan is described as extreme and all consuming, and that it never waned with time. Even if she came to believe that Brom wouldn't harm Murtagh, she might not have trusted he could look at him kindly. And of course, telling him about her child with Morzan also risked damaging their relationship considering that they were lovers. Then there's the possibility that Selena did build all this necessary trust to tell Brom about Murtagh if he wasn't aware of him already, but it was too late for her to discuss it with him before she died. So I think it is conceivable that Brom actually never knew about Murtagh's existence.

Where this concept really shines is in an AU where Brom survives after Murtagh saves them from the Ra'zac. I've always liked these, and I sometimes toy with my own, but there's so many ways Brom could react and I've never been able to settle on one well enough to get invested in it. But I find this SUCH a fascinating take on it (especially if you wave off the detail that Murtagh's voice sounds ~exactly like~ Morzan's, which I tend to do). Brom recovers and meets their rescuer, and he has no idea he's looking at Morzan and Selena's son. Murtagh seems terribly familiar, but Brom has been relentlessly haunted by his past for so long now that he doesn't put much stock in the perceived similarities. Meanwhile, Murtagh realizes that Brom truly does not know that he's the son of the man he murdered, a precarious but welcome relief. Because he doesn't know- up until Murtagh's confession in the valley.

Brom is stunned by disbelief. It can't be true, Morzan had no children, because surely he would know, surely-! But another thought dawns on him, drowning out the memories of Morzan, because who could have been the mother of his child other than his wife: Selena? And Murtagh is looking at him with fear, fear that he'll turn on him because he shares the blood of the man Brom hated most. It's heart wrenching, because even as part of his mind tells him that maybe he should scorn him, Brom is looking at this man who single handedly saved him from the brink of death and saved Eragon and Saphira from far worse at the hands of Galbatorix, and who has given them extraordinary devotion ever since.

In his core, he accepts the truth of Murtagh's claim as he explains his past and recounts the story of his parents exactly how Brom knows it to be. The paradigm shift sends him reeling. Murtagh believes Brom is affected only because of his past with Morzan; he has no way of knowing what he felt for Selena. He still glances at him nervously, especially as he admits that he briefly intended to serve Galbatorix, yet then there's also a spark of trust and gratitude- maybe even hope- in his eyes when Brom doesn't rescind the way he vouched for him when they were stopped inside the gates. How could he? Murtagh has accomplished one thing neither Morzan nor Selena ever did: escape.

Despite everything, his aching heart feels something fiercely like pride. He would not dare ruin that for him.

Then to further prove the truth, like the world is laughing at his years of ignorance, Ajihad recognizes him, because after Murtagh was brought to Uru'baen, the Varden's spies informed him of Morzan's son. But of course, that was after Brom cut himself off and started living in Carvahall, so he never learned of that discovery. "Morzan's son" is said over and over, but in Brom's mind, that idea is far eclipsed by Selena's son. He's hurt and ashamed to realize he never knew something so significant about the woman he loved. And he feels guilty that Murtagh struggled for so long in Uru'baen because no one was there to save him when he was left helplessly alone. Brom must have been so close to him when he arrived right after Selena's death, but he just didn't know.

Brom is utterly at a loss. How can he process Murtagh- the child of Selena and Morzan, Eragon's half brother, and in a certain sense, his own stepson? What can he do now? He was already so terrified of telling Eragon the truth of being his father, and now he has another staggering revelation to inflict on Eragon and Murtagh both. The prospect feels terrifyingly impossible, but keeping his secrets has grown even more painful. Watching how easily and how well Eragon and Murtagh get along is now bitterly ironic. Even without knowing it, Murtagh is a great older brother, waiting vigilantly near his side after the battle. The injury Durza inflicted scared Brom in a way he can't put into words; he simply could not bear to lose Eragon. How could he risk that happening without telling Eragon how much he loves him and values him as his son? But telling him truth could be the quickest way to lose him. And now, with Murtagh, he has more to lose than he ever realized.

-And because Murtagh deserves it, I like all these changes resulting in the Twins never getting the chance to kidnap him, and so Brom has to figure out how to make the three of them into a family <3

#eragon #inheritance cycle #brom #murtagh #selena #morzan #eragon shadeslayer #murtagh acquires dad number 3 #As He Deserves!!! #every few week a new ic au possesses me for a hot sec #broms inner monologue is just constant stressed screaming #my man is so unprepared for everything thats going on #(the one real hitch w the premise is how oromis knew so much if brom never found out about murtagh but no way im gonna let that stop my fun

[it-happened-one-fic]

Hello!! I hope you have a good day... Actually it's my first time here at Tumblr and my first time for asking a request.... So if possible can you write an oneshot about azul x freader..Where Azul is in conflict with his feelings bc he's in deep love with the reader but confounded of that, he thinks that the reader is a boy, But the truth is that the reader is a girl that hides her gender

I hope you are comfortable with this request and if it is full of fluff and heavy against I would be very grateful(Sorry for my bad English)

Hello Anon and welcome to Tumblr! There's no need to apologize for your English and I was both thrilled and flattered to receive your request! I must admit that I hadn't ever written anything quite like it before, but enjoyed myself while working on your request. I apologize for the wait and I hope you enjoy your fic!

Secrets - Azul

Type: (secretly)Female reader/ Fluff with angst/ romantic

Word Count: 2406

Azul was confused, to put it lightly. He had been for quite some time now. In fact, he had been since his overblot. But his confusion had nothing to do with his experience overblotting. Instead, his confusion had everything to do with you. 

Simply put, you had somehow charmed him, which was the last thing he’d ever expected to occur when he’d first come to this school or when he’d first seen you.

For one thing, you were one of the most ridiculously effeminate young men he’d ever seen, and all of the teachers favored you. And, in all his years of going to school, he’d never been overly fond of teachers’ pets. 

Instead, it had always been his experience that teachers’ pets were competition, and unfair competition at that. Because the teachers would and could play favorites when it came to their beloved favorite student.

But perhaps what was worse was how he couldn’t seem to get close to you.

Oh, it wasn’t that you pushed him away or anything like that. In fact, you were quite kind. Frustratingly and endearingly so. Rather, it was that he couldn’t get close to you because of how staunchly protective of you Deuce and Ace were.

No matter what he tried, the two of them seemed to always be popping up and eyeing him suspiciously before asking you if all was well.

It was a stark contrast to how they’d all but cowered before him when he’d had them under employment by contract.

And what was all the more frustrating was how, time and time again, you chose to rely on them instead of him.

Which was utterly ridiculous. He had more connections, more know-how, was a better magician, and had been the one to help you during the entire mess at the Scarabia dorm.

But, without fail, you’d turn to one of them when something came up. Which told Azul everything he had already known and suspected, even if it hurt. 

You preferred them over him and trusted them in ways you didn’t trust him.

And it stung. Especially after you’d seemed to accept him—tentacles and all—after his overblot and didn’t obviously seem to fear or be wary of him or the tweels. It was just that you didn’t want him.

Not to lean on, not to spend time with, and not to whisper about secrets with that would have one of your chosen friends nodding their head before you stepped out of the classroom while they whispered something to the teacher, who would inevitably accept the excuse because you were, for better or worse, all of the teachers’ pet.

Floyd and Jade had, of course, been amused when they’d first discovered his plight. Smiling smugly down at him before exchanging a shared glance.

“What makes you think that our dear little Prefect is a favorite of the teachers? They have to do just as many chores in regards to keeping the classroom clean as everyone else,” Jade didn’t even try to hide his smug amusement.

Azul felt himself scowl up at his vice-housewarden, immediately annoyed by how obviously mocking the words were, “Because. They get to skip out on P.E. classes when no one else does every month. And it can’t have anything to do with not having magic. It’s just them making use of the fact that Vargas favors them over everyone else.”

Floyd outright smirked at Azul’s annoyance, “Maybe it’s something to do with a health issue. Shrimpy is kind of small after all, and Mackerel is always talking about how he’s worried about them on those days and that he’s gonna check up on them.”

Azul felt himself prickle at the sound of Deuce, immediately ignoring the sting of jealousy as he snapped back, “It’s not a health issue. They are as healthy a young man as anyone else is. They’ve probably just fooled Deuce somehow. Though why he has to check up on them is beyond me, they’re hardly helpless.” 

And evidently enough, he surprised them as both of the twins' eyes went wide at his words and they looked towards each other. Something unspoken passed between them before a perfectly evil grin curled across each of their identical faces.

“Why, Azul, you sound jealous of this ‘young man.’” Jade all but cooed the words as Floyd nodded.

At odds with Jade’s more subtle harassment, Floyd held nothing back, “Or maybe he’s jealous of Mackerel~”

Azul regretted it the moment he twitched because the tweels grinned almost at the exact same time. Latching on to that subtle cue as to his true frustrations the second it reared its head.

“Oh, Azul. Don’t tell me you want to be the one taking care of the Prefect?” Jade was outright chuckling now as Azul glowered up at him from his seat behind his desk.

Floyd snickered, “Of course he does. He’s got a crush on lil ol’ Shrimpy. Don’t cha’?”

Azul’s left eye twitched, his voice coming out low and only barely controlled “I don’t have a ‘crush’ on anyone, Floyd. Much less him.”

Jade’s long fingers tapped against his cheek, “Oh yes, certainly not ‘him.’”

Floyd giggled at his brother’s words as Jade looked knowingly over at his twin. Their actions cause Azul’s eyes to narrow.

It was strange how they kept emphasizing words like ‘him’ and ‘young man.’ Almost like they were dangling something over Azul’s head, just a little too far out of reach but low enough to catch his attention.

“You know, they skipped out on class today as well… Why don’t you go and see them yourself. Maybe you’ll be able to find out whatever secret it is that they have that causes the teachers’ to favor them over others,” Jade’s words had Azul’s eyes widening.

Go visit you…?

It was something that he’d considered in the past but had never actually done so. After all, he wasn’t a glutton for punishment. If you had chosen Ace and Deuce over him, then so be it.

But it was true that he’d never been one to turn down finding out another person’s secret. And if, by some strange occurrence, there was something wrong with you, then it couldn’t hurt to see how you were doing.

And so Azul went, wondering all the while if this was some horrid mistake.

It was obvious that the tweels knew something that he didn’t, though what that might be, he didn’t know.

He could only hope that neither of your friends would be around to get in the way when he got to your dorm.

And luck was on his side, because neither of the Heartslabyul freshmen were visible when he arrived at Ramshackle dorm. Plus, he didn’t have to worry about you not being there since he could clearly see a light on through the window.

Azul squared his shoulders as he stepped up on the rickety porch, resolving to get to the bottom of why you were treated as so special by the teachers.

He knew you were special, but something told me the reasons for his fondness for you had very little to do with the teachers’ behavior.

And if he’d been wrong and you did have some form of health issue… Well, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to offer you some help.

At least then, you might realize that he was just as worthy of our trust and time as your friends. Though he wasn’t exactly aiming for the position of friend, per say….

But at least being a little closer to you might not sting as much as his current position.

He knocked on the door, the rapping of his knuckles on the wood sounding just a little bit too loud to his own ears and making him wonder, for what had to be the thousandth time, if he were making a mistake.

What if you didn’t want to see him? Just because Deuce always came to check on you didn’t mean that Azul would be just as welcome…. If that were the case, coming to visit certainly wasn’t going to endear him to you.

Before he could even think about retreating, the door cracked open, and you peered. Your appearance causing Azul to blink in surprise.

You looked exhausted and were hunched over, a hand pressed to your stomach as you blinked up at him with weary eyes.

“I already told you, Deuce. I’m fine. It’s just the usual monthly-” You cut off sharply as your gaze collided with Azul’s startled one, and your eyes went wide.

“A-Azul!” You all but stammered out his name as you pulled backwards, hiding yourself behind the door in a way that made Azul frown as you cringed. Almost as if moving too quickly had caused some sort of pain.

You were in bad shape. Horrible even, if simply moving agitated whatever state you were in.

He reached, putting his hand on the door and lightly trying to open it so he could better see you, as his tone shifted into something far more concerned, “Angelfish, are you-”

“I’m fine!” Your words came out too fast, and your smile looked almost desperate.

They were actions that Azul recognized all too well from his experiences trying to get information. You were hiding something. Something you desperately didn’t want him to find out.

What was strange, though, was that you weren’t scared.

Despite your determination to keep this secret, whatever it was, in no way were you afraid of Azul or even him finding out whatever it was you were hiding.

You let out a weak laugh, adjusting your grip on the door and keeping Azul from opening it any further, “Really, I’m fine, Azul. Thank you for coming by, but you don’t have to worry. Ace and Deuce already stopped by and even made me lunch.”

You couldn’t know that mentioning them was a mistake, but it quite simply was. Because it confirmed what he’d already suspected and chaffed old wounds to both his pride and unspoken feelings.

Just like the tweels, Ace and Deuce knew your secret too.

And it was infuriating. 

Just how many did you trust and tell your secret to outside of him? Was Azul the only one you felt you couldn't trust?

Why? He might hold information over other people, but not you. Especially not when it was something that was obviously compromising your health.

“Angelfish…. Whatever’s wrong, you can tell me. I came here to check in on you and…” Azul paused, all but frowning at his own timidity, which was so at odds with his frustration.

He didn’t know what was wrong, but the longer he looked at you, the more worried and frustrated he got.

He shook his head, making a decision that he didn’t know was for the best, and Azul knew it was unlike him. Because normally he’d err on the side of caution and respect your secret-keeping. But he couldn’t this time. Not if you were in trouble or pain.

He inhaled deeply, letting himself openly frown as he straightened and picked back up where he left off in a more resolute tone, “And I’m sorry, but I’m not leaving until I know you’re fine. Now if you’ll excuse me.”

He pulled open the door, causing you to stumble forward in surprise, your foot catching on the door frame and sending your tumbling forwards with a tiny shriek of surprise.

And Azul caught you easily, despite his surprise, which was when he felt it as you fell against him.

Something that was soft, answered a lot of questions, and completely gave away your secret.

He blinked down at you as you straightened, your arms crossing nervously in front of your chest as you looked away from him.

“Angelfish, you-”

“I’m a girl,” You cut him off quickly, avoiding eye contact and looking most anywhere but him until you winced and your hand went back to your stomach.

Azul felt himself frown, his confusion only growing until you at last met his gaze weakly, “I’m a girl, and all that’s wrong is I’m cramping….. My period just started for this month.”

At first, all he could manage was a soft ‘Ah,’ as he stared at you before all the pieces clicked together in his head.

That was why the tweels had reacted the way they had to his words describing you as a young man. They’d known you were a woman because they could smell the changes in your hormones.

“Then Deuce and Ace-”

“Already know,” You finished lightly, stepping back and letting Azul finish entering the space, even as he frowned at you slightly.

You shifted, sighing slightly, “They found out early on… But I’ve kept it a secret from everyone else.”

Azul blinked down at you quietly before softly voicing his next question, and perhaps the most important one of all, “Why?”

You met his gaze, your expression perfectly exhausted, “Because Crowley said it might be easier for me that way since this is an all-boys school. If I’m not a girl, then there’s no chance of anyone being weird because I’m a girl.”

Azul nodded, still frowning, before shaking his head, “Do you need to sit down? You look exhausted.”

A feeble smile crossed your face as he gestured towards where he knew your living area was, and you nodded.

He cleared his throat lightly as he walked with you, “And you don’t have to worry about me telling anyone. I won’t-”

“I know you won’t, Azul,” He froze at the way you smiled at him, blinking as you laughed lightly at his startled expression. “You might use a lot of people’s secrets against them, but I know you won’t use this against me. Not when you came to check up on me and make sure I was alright.”

Azul had to fight the urge to get defensive, fluster at your soft words, or protest against the implication that he cared.

After all, it was painfully true that he cared. But enough secrets had been revealed for now, and Azul was willing to simply rest in the knowledge that it wasn’t necessarily that you’d ever favored or trusted anyone over him. It was just that they’d already found out about your secret, and he hadn’t.

So for now, he would keep his silence and reveal his secret to you later.

Even if Floyd had already called him out on his crush.

#Twisted wonderland imagines #Azul x reader #Azul Ashengrotto #romantic #fluff with angst #fluff #angst #twst #Twisted wonderland #Twisted wonderland x reader #Twisted wonderland x y/n #twisted wonderland x you #twst x reader #twst x you #twst x y/n #Disney TW #Azul Ashengrotto x reader #Azul xyou #Azul x y/n #twst azul #mywritings #it-happened-one-fic #fanfiction #request #fanfic #fic #Octavinelle

[justburningdaylight]

Operation Love Me

Steve Harrington x Fem Reader

Summary: Reader has been with Steve for almost two years. Recently he’s been pulling away. She believes he’s fallen out of love, so she devises a plan to gain his love back.

Warnings: angst (again, sorry besties), but also lots of fluff, happy ending, mentions of nightmares, i think there’s a curse word somewhere, a few kisses, my inner stevie nicks stan pops out, dustin overstays his welcome a couple times, let me know when you spot the all too well reference, no spoilers !

Word count: 2.2k

a/n: just a lil something i whipped up for you guys <3 i had a looot of fun with this one ! p.s. requests are open, come chat with me !

When Steve Harrington asked you to be his girlfriend, it was a transcendent experience. You were almost certain it was a dream, some empyrean reverie concocted within the confines of your mind.

In the near two years since that metamorphic experience, things had shifted poignantly.

More specifically Steve had shifted. And you knew why.

He wasn’t in love with you anymore.

He never verbalized this, but he didn’t have to. The agonizing truth lingers in the air of his presence. The veracity of the situation persists like a never-ending storm, the tenacious, violent rain showing no signs of halting, leaving no room for the possibility of basking in the warm, ethereal glow of the sun.

He may have fallen out of love with you, but you were still in love with him. Desperately, in fact. Which is what led you to the conception of your ingenious 4-step plan to win back his affections.

Step 1 : Make an effort

Steve was the antithesis of a man who judged you on your appearance. He used to vow repeatedly that a person could never look more beautiful than you did in the morning.

Your face would still be riddled with exhaustion, the evidence of your tranquil slumber tucked comfortably away in the corners of your eyes, and Steve would adamantly insist that you were a veracious vision of grace and divinity.

You can’t remember the last time he’d done that.

You didn’t intend to make any fundamental changes to your appearance; You still feel a twinge of dissatisfaction when you think about Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club, they extracted every physical characteristic that made her unique and tried to sell that she was better off than before. Wild horses couldn’t drag you to that point. You were, however, open to the idea of enhancing some of your own preexisting characteristics.

You styled your hair the same way you did for your first date with Steve, applying a similar ample amount of lipgloss. The new dress you’ve been saving for a deserving occasion clings faultlessly to your body as you wait anxiously for Steve to arrive. It’s almost farcical, you suppose, being nervous to see your boyfriend of nearly two years. Yet you can’t shake your concern for his impending response.

The mollifying sound of your front door opening resonates through the apartment and, while you were expecting Steve’s appearance, you were confounded by the hindering addition of Dustin.

“Hey (y/n)! You look nice. Got a hot date or somethin’?” Dustin’s playful voice sounds as he brushes past you, adolescent hands juggling a variety of VHS tapes.

“Did you have plans? I thought we were supposed to hang out tonight.” Steve asks, his magnetic caramel eyes searching your own in a delicate display of adept obliviousness.

“No. No, nothing special.” You sibilate dejectedly.

“Good ‘cause it’s move night! And Steve cheaped out on snacks, so you’re gonna want to make some popcorn.” 

“Right.” You enshroud your abasement with a counterfeit smile and venture into your kitchen to make Dustin his popcorn, the familiar notes of Eye of the Tiger resounding through your apartment as Rocky IV begins playing on the tv.

So your first attempt was met with an expeditious defeat, but perseverance can be rewarding. Right?

Step 2 : Remind him of the good times

You jolt awake from your slumber, the cold sweat clinging to your body serves as a physical reminder of the macabre scenario you just narrowly escaped in your nightmare.

In an effort to suppress the unsolicited atrocities racing incessantly through your mind, you surreptitiously make your way out of the bed you share with Steve, delicately extracting yourself from the steady grip of your unconscious boyfriend’s gangly arms.

You cautiously venture down the hall to the kitchen, momentarily detouring to the living room to clandestinely place Rumours by Fleetwood Mac on the turntable, ensuring the volume is at a near imperceptible sonority so as not to rouse your boyfriend from his tranquil sleep.

You pour yourself a glass of glacial water, condensation generously gathering along the perimeter of the cup, the dull glow of the open refrigerator acting as your light source.

“D’you have another nightmare?” Steve’s sleep-riddled voice questions gingerly as he wraps his arms tenderly around your midsection from behind.

“I just want to stop seeing it in my head.” You turn in his arms to face him, appreciating how magnificently the light of the refrigerator illuminates his divinely celestial features. 

“I know,” He begins delicately, “I’m sorry for dragging you into it. You should have never been anywhere near those things-”

“Steve, it’s not your fault, okay? I need you to know that.” You interrupt before he can incur being the responsibility of your nightmares’ source. He’s not culpable for anything that came from the Upside Down.

He gazes at you solemnly, nebulous eyes emanating with immense emotion as he hesitantly nods his head.

The gentle melody of Songbird begins, floating through the kitchen, causing a lithe smile to form on your gentle lips as you appreciate the mellifluous opulence of Stevie Nicks’ voice.

“May I have this dance?” Steve asks, donning a heavenly smile.

“I’d be honoured.” You answer as he begins swaying you adeptly in his agile arms, your modest grin blooming into a broad smile.

And so the two of you danced around the kitchen, with nothing to accompany you but the gentle glow of the refrigerator light and the seraphic sounds of Fleetwood Mac on the record player.

That night solidified Songbird as your song. Which is the rationale for why you’re standing alone in the living room at one thirty in the morning listening to Fleetwood Mac.

“(y/n)?” Steve’s fatigued and perplexed voice sounds as he advances down the hallway.

“Hey.” You’re apprehensive now, equal parts regret and hesitance swim through your bloodstream like a resolute fish headed upstream in a particularly vigorous current.

“What are you doin’? It’s like one in the morning. Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, no yeah I’m- I’m fine.”

The look he gives you is filled with concern, but there’s a glimmer of something else hiding in the shadows, regret maybe? You can’t accurately discern it, and it disappears before giving you a chance to unravel its connotation.

“Okay, well, if you’re fine, I um- I work in the morning so I’m gonna go back to bed.”

“Yeah. Go ahead, I’ll turn it down. Sorry.” That wan’t mortifying at all, you introspectively reprimand yourself, feeling a sense of dejection you’re beginning to grow painstakingly familiar with.

That could have gone better.

Step 3 : Spend some quality time together

You’re veritably hoping that there’s some authenticity to the phrase third time’s the charm.

Adorning a particularly whimsical sundress, you sit contentedly on the plush blanket you’ve laid atop the flexible sage grass in the park, ardently awaiting Steve’s arrival.

Your previous attempts to re-obtain his affections have been met with the abrupt emergence of failure, but the outcome of this experience was going to be different. What could go awry at a picnic?

“Hey. You look nice.” Steve’s symphonic voice sounds from above you, as he assuredly makes his presence known.

“Really? Thank you. So do you.”

Steve respires an exiguous chuckle at your response, taking a seat parallel to you on the thin blanket. You can’t contain the smile that accumulates on your face, outwardly displaying your pride at the small victory.

“So, how was your day?” You inquire earnestly, handing him the sandwich you prepared for him.

“Thanks. It was good. Y’know, busy. People really love their movies.” 

“How’s Robin? I know how much she-” “Steve! (y/n)! Hey!” Dustin’s voice reverberates through the air, effectively silencing your queries.

Seriously? There’s no way this is happening. Again.

“Hey! Dustin’s here! Look at that (y/n), what are the odds?” Your boyfriend’s usually endearing rambling holds a discernibly nervous undertone.

“I don’t know Steve, what are the odds?” You question, failing to cultivate eye contact as he’s currently preoccupied with looking anywhere besides your eyes.

“Gotta be one in a million! So weird,” Dustin lightheartedly interjects, “Actually, it’s a good thing that you’re here Steve, ‘cause I really need you to come help me with something.”

“What- Seriously? Now?” 

“Yes, (y/n), now! It’s very important stuff. Could be life or death.” Dustin emphasizes his point with resolute hand gestures.

From the repentant look in his sparkling eyes, you’ve already predetermined Steve’s next words.

“Go.” You preempt, dispiritedly.

Your boyfriend’s saccharine eyes are filled to the brim with a myriad of unidentifiable emotions as he scrambles onto his feet, sandwich still clasped between his lithe fingers, his smooth sorrowful voice mumbling a doubtful vow, “I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.” You nod pessimistically.

“Do you mind if I just grab one of those sandwiches? ‘Cause they look delicious.”

You hand Dustin a sandwich, temporarily suppressing each melancholy thought running around in your mind as you give him your best attempt at a smile.

“Sweet! Thanks.”

Third time was, decidedly, not the charm.

Step 4 : If all else fails, profess your interminable love

Step four was only ever thought of as a contingency. Existing solely for emergency use only. The invocation of this step means that there was a significant lack of reception to the previous three steps. You’re feeling particularly grateful that your antecedent self had included a backup plan.

“Oh hey, I didn’t think you’d still be up.” Steve’s delicate voice holds an air of surprise as he shuts the front door behind him, swiftly removing his jacket and shoes.

“Yeah,” You start, fiddling with your fingers in an effort to calm the anxiety coursing ferociously through your veins, “I thought maybe we should talk.”

“Talk? About- About what?” 

“About um- just us, I guess.”

Steve’s stately features are shrouded in a warm cloak of confusion and uncertainty.

“Are you- Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say.” He pleads after a moment, finally shattering the suffocating silence.

“What do you think I’m going to say?” It’s as though you two have traded emotions, now it’s you who stands perplexed as your boyfriend gently paces the floor in an attempt to reduce his anxiety.

“You wanna break up, right? You don’t want to be with me anymore. Everything’s too complicated now, isn’t it? All the monsters and shit, it’s just too much. I know it is.”

It takes you a few moments to wrap your head around his words. You want to reassure him, as tenderly as possible, that his assumption couldn’t be any further from the truth. Instead you say, “Are you crazy? Did you hit your head or something?”

“Did I-? What?”

“Steve, I’m not breaking up with you! I’d never break up with you. I just spent the last week trying to get you to fall back in love with me!”

You both go still at the nuance of your sudden confession. Steve’s chestnut eyes are filled with salty unshed tears as he takes gentle, purposeful steps toward you.

“Fall back in love with you? (y/n) did you hit your head?” He places a delicate hand on your cheek, nimble thumb grazing your satin skin in a circular motion as he continues, “I love you, okay? I love you so much that I don’t even know how to think straight.”

You place your hand over his own as it traces the curvature of your face. Your heart is pulsating so immensely furiously that you’re shocked it hasn’t beaten entirely out of your chest and fallen onto the floor where you stand. 

“Then- then why have you been avoiding me? Like every time we’re supposed to hang out, Dustin magically appears out of nowhere! It feels like you never want to spend time with me anymore, especially alone.”

“Oh my god. I didn’t- That’s not what it was, okay! I just-” He sighs, moving his gaze earnestly down toward his feet before bringing it back up to your eagerly awaiting eyes, “I got worried. After all this monster stuff. I mean, you’ve been having nightmares! And I know you say it’s fine but it’s not! And I was just- I was worried that you’d realize it was my fault and you wouldn’t want to be with me anymore.” He exhaled deeply, once again dropping his gaze from your own.

“Steve,” You start, benevolently tilting up his chin in order to greet his warm chestnut eyes with your own resolute ones, “I would have a million more nightmares if it weren’t for you. You saved my life, okay? In every single way. And I already told you that none of that monster stuff is your fault! So I guess I’m just going to have to keep telling you as many times as it takes for you to believe it. Because I’m not going anywhere. Ever. Sorry to break it to you but, you’re stuck with me Harrington.”

“Good. ‘Cause that’s exactly where I want to be. Always.” Steve fixes you with an angelic, rapturous smile before bringing you into the solace of his steady, comforting embrace. 

“I love you too, by the way. Just in case it wasn’t obvious by now.” You mumble into his shoulder, intent on remaining in this position as long as possible.

“I know.”

“Take it down a notch, Han Solo.”

Steve chuckles euphoniously before pulling back to give you a lingering, ardent kiss. It was filled with emotion, longing, and passion, and oh boy did it take your breath away.

“You wanna keep doing this, or did you need to go call Dustin?”

“Shut up.” He mumbles reverently, bringing you in for another godly kiss.

Your contingency plan was a resounding success.

Mission accomplished.

#stranger things #steve harrington x reader

[devildom-moss]

Could you write some headcannons of how the brothers would react to MC having absolutely none of their sin in them? I've seen headcannons of if MC being full of their sin, but not the latter.

So i was hoping if you could write something about that, thank you.

Sincerely, 💜

Thank you for the request~ This was kind of fun to think about and I hope you'll enjoy the headcanons. And I'm going to refer to you as "💜anon" in the tags, okay?

MC without the brother’s sins (the reactions are only them reacting to your lack of their personal sin)

(suggestive for Asmo)

Lucifer

It didn’t take long for Lucifer to notice your lack of his sin. The more he took a liking to you, the more desperate he became to crush your humility. It’s frustrating for him. He can’t bring himself to understand why you don’t feel the same pride in yourself that he feels for you. The most painful moment for him was when you failed to brag to Solomon about forming a pact with him; no one had ever made a pact with Lucifer – let alone with all seven of the brothers. He was so proud of you, and it was such an accomplishment, but you deflected the compliments, claiming that you had the help of the other brothers along the way.

“I couldn’t have formed a pact with you without the help of your brothers,” you had admitted to Lucifer once. It broke his heart.

Why can’t you understand that so many of the good things that have happened to him (and the Devildom as a whole) are all because of you? Haven’t you earned a bit of pride? Sometimes, although he hides it well, your lack of his sin makes Lucifer feel guilty. If you of all people can’t be prideful, what right does he have?

Mammon

Your lack of greed confounds Mammon. What isn’t to love about gold and luxury goods? There are so many material things to desire – how could you not want it all?

It took Mammon a while to realize that you had so little of his sin in you. He’s used to his brothers not taking an interest in his money making schemes, but you’re on a different level. You never actively seek out more money or power than you need. Even though he doesn’t understand how or why you’re like that, he accepts it without judgment. The only time it bothers him is when he gets the urge to spoil you with gifts that you don’t need or particularly desire. It’s part of how he shows love, and the fact that you can’t appreciate him sharing his wealth as much you might if you contained just a bit of greed can be hard for him, but as long as he can find some way to express his affection without having to actually say it, it doesn’t matter too much.

Leviathan

Your lack of envy compounds Leviathan’s envy. How could you be so content with yourself? He understands it in a way; you’re so amazing to him. As much as he admires you and doesn’t want you to feel jealousy as deeply as he does, he also wants what you have, and the fact that he can’t get rid of his sin breaks him. It feels so unfair. On occasion, Levi wishes he could bring out your envy somehow – which only makes him feel guilty.

Being around an MC without envy can send Levi into a spiral. You can make him so insecure and guilty that he gets down on himself even more. At the same time, your lack of sin also makes him want you more – as if your lack of jealousy could ease his. After all, if someone like you, who is so good and content, can enjoy being around him, maybe he isn’t so bad. Maybe if he can keep you by his side, he’ll have one less thing to covet.

Satan

Satan feels hurt and misunderstood by your lack of his sin. Even when you feel anger, it doesn’t shift into wrath. How could you be so forgiving? Don’t you ever feel the need for vengeance? The rage that rests in Satan, just waiting to erupt and harm whoever gets in his path, starts to feel irrational and invalid – as if Satan has no right to his innate sin. He didn’t used to feel ashamed of his outburst or acts of vengeance before you. Regardless of how much wrath you have, Satan wants to do better and control his wrath for you, but an MC completely void of his sin furthers that desire.

On the other hand, Satan worries that your lack of wrath might mean that someone can hurt you and get away with it. As such, he quietly dedicates himself to having enough wrath for the both of you. If anyone harms you, he’ll take it into his own hands. He may not want to unleash his wrath around you, but he’s pleased to unleash it for you.

Asmodeus

It hurt Asmo when he realized you weren’t expressing any lust towards him; he took it personally, but when he realized you didn’t feel lust for anyone else, it made him feel better. He still wants to be close to you, and on occasion, he’ll try to seduce you just to see whether you still don’t feel any lust towards him. If you ask him to stop, he will, though. He doesn’t feel any resentment towards you, and he doesn’t feel particularly bad about himself over your lack of his sin. He understands that you’re just different.

The one thing that he does feel guilty about is how much he fantasizes about corrupting you. Even though he understands that will probably never happen, he keeps that wicked thought deep in his chest and just tries to show you love in the ways you accept from him. As much as he tries to control himself, he occasionally touches himself to the thought of you, moaning your name some nights. He would be mortified if you found out – horrified that you would cease to love him if you knew.

Beelzebub

Beel’s gluttony primarily manifests through his obsession with and adoration for food. It’s so central to him, so it makes him sad that you don’t enjoy food the same way he does. He wants to share food with you and allow you to overindulge with him, but the fact that you never indulge in excess disappoints him. However, he’s used to his unsatisfiable hunger being misunderstood by everyone – including his family. Beel isn’t hurt by your inability to be a glutton with him. He still offers you food, hoping deep down that he can tempt you into overindulgence in the way most familiar to him. Sometimes, especially when he has had a rough day, refusing food from him causes the smallest pout to find his lips.

After food, the only other vice Beel would prioritize to a point of gluttony is his love for you. You make him feel so good – better than a good meal on an empty stomach – and when he craves you, he wants to take and take and take. The thought that you may not crave him and need him as deeply as he wants you can hurt him. He knows that part of the depth of his desire is a symptom of his sin, but he can’t understand how something as beautiful as loving you in excess could be sinful.

Belphegor

Belphie worries about you, wondering if your lack of sloth also means you don’t rest when you should. A healthy relationship with rest is difficult for him to fathom – and who could blame him when his siblings aren’t the best at maintaining a good sleep schedule (they’re all guilty of staying up too late, waking up in the middle of the night, or not resting when they’re tired). Furthermore, he doesn’t understand how you could consistently find motivation and stave off the melancholy that plagues him. However, he takes joy in trying to tempt you to indulge in his sin a bit – to just do nothing and have no desire to do anything and just lay in bed, lazing around with him.

More than anything, though, he’s really happy you don’t have much – if any – of his sin in you. The constant exhaustion and the occasional deep pits of immobilizing emptiness are things he would rather you never experience. He’s especially fond of the moments where your lack of sloth means he can fall asleep in your arms or on your lap while you work or read – the moments where you enable him to rest well. He’s also overjoyed when your ability to get up in the morning means you’re the one waking him up for school or whatever plans he has that day. Seeing your face as soon as his eyes open from a good night’s sleep is worth so much more than you two understanding his sin in the same way.

#ask #💜 anon #requests #lucifer #mammon #leviathan #satan #asmodeus #beelzebub #belphegor #obey me demon brothers #anon #gn!mc #obey me headcanons #obey me #obey me luficer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor

[chirpsythismorning]

Surfer Boy number update!

Now when you call, the recording comes instantly saying ‘the phone number you just dialed is available. 2499.’ And then cuts off.

Initially, I thought this meant that Netflix just stopped paying to use the number for promotional purposes and so now it’s available for someone to use, and I’m still partially leaning towards that.

However, there are a few things that intrigue me about this.

For one, all the other numbers ST used up to this point remain active, despite them all arguably being well past their need for use.

Murray’s number is still active, despite it being revealed way back in 2019 when s3 premiered and it appeared on the show, with the message still being him on his answering machine, hinting at the s4 plot. And Yuri’s fish fry is also still active, which is another number used for s4 promo sometime in early 2021.

Then there’s the number that appeared in s4 when the Cali gang called Nina, which currently still has the war games sound effect when you call.

The surfer boy number on the otherhand, was revealed in late 2021, which is when the surfer boy van made its first appearance in the Cali teaser that dropped. And for a very short time after that, the message was a birthday jingle, only for it to switch to Argyle explaining the ingredients of pineapple pizza (using colors of the rainbow). And now this.

So apparently it’s important enough to warrant them changing it several times, which in and of itself is a contrast from the others that were revealed and just stayed how they are. Not to mention, the fact that they used it for a birthdaygate Easter egg potentially, reads to me like this number is very much on their radar and it’s unlikely they would just throw it aside.

What confounds me most though about the surfer boy number presumably being dropped for promo while the others weren’t, is that the surfer boy number actually has a lot more longevity to be acknowledged in the narrative, with the van likely making a return in s5.

And not only do we see it repeatedly in s4 whenever the van appears, but the van is also used heavily in merchandise that is still coming out.

So wouldn’t you think out of all the numbers, this is the one they would want to keep active given that fans are still being reminded of it? Wouldn’t it be weird to distribute surfer boy van merch en masse, knowing the number would be called by people curious there’s an Easter egg waiting on the other end of the line? Because that’s generally been the trend up to this point?

Another thing about the message itself, is that I’ve never heard it before in everyday life? Most of the phone messages out there in the states are instantly recognizable to the average person who has spent time on the phone and they all go somewhere along the lines of disclosing that the number is unavailable, even when it’s not in use. The voice here also doesn’t resemble the usual voice you hear whenever you call a number that’s not in use.

It’s honestly also odd to hear a message say that a number is available, because that’s something I’ve personally never encountered. I even tried to look up on it to see if this message is common and maybe I’m just out of the loop, but every search led me to results saying the most common message is to say that a number is unavailable, again even when it is available for use.

And lastly, the most odd part of this new message is the four numbers at the end unprompted.

2499

The only connection I could find to this number is that it appears to be a slight mix up of the last four digits of the surfer boy number.

Original number: 805-45-PIZZA aka 805-457-4992

So is 2499 some sort of acknowledgement of the number itself? And if so, why wouldn’t it just be 4992? Why would it use those same exact numbers, but pull 2 from the end and put it at the front of the other three numbers? And then just end the message there?

It’s so odd to me.

While it could be nothing, I honestly don’t think it makes sense for Netflix to drop the Surfer Boy number altogether, given that they’re making the choice to not drop all the others. They could easily drop the previous ones and save some money if that’s the issue, but apparently it’s worth keeping them. And so why not keep the one that is still likely to be referenced going forward?

Regardless it’s likely that if Netflix still has access to the number, the message is bound to change again. So we’ll have to stay tuned for if and when that happens…

Edit: I FORGOT! There was another message for the Surfer Boy number, which preceded Argyle’s Pineapple pizza message. I only remembered after googling the number’s digits and coming across someone composing it. Still not sure what to make of it. Still so fucking odd…

#stranger things #surfer boy number #Easter egg #birthdaygate #st5 speculation #st5 theory #Youtube

[seat-safety-switch]

All around you, corporations are snapping up the corpses of expired corporations and wearing their brands like a mask. And the rate of this happening is accelerating. Acquisition firms form, acquire, and collapse faster than ever before. By 2035, every person on Earth will need to run at least four brands and act as two Marvel superheroes, NASA is projecting.

For instance, I was the CEO of Ford two times last week, and they’re blowing up my voicemail again to get me to come in on Sunday. You would think that being the CEO would be a cool job, but it just isn’t. These accelerated corporate-collapse cycles mean that I don’t get to allocate massive R&D funding to a V-16 school bus conversion. All I do is get in, make my morning coffee, and then dash off an all-hands email telling everyone they’re fired. I have to do it from my Hotmail account, because IT can’t even set up an Exchange server that fast.

At first, it sounded impressive, being in upper management of all these amazing car companies. Then, the interviews began to consist of a recruiter literally telling me to show up on Monday and get the front-door keys out from under the welcome mat. Sometimes I don’t even get my void cheques in fast enough to get paid, and I have to line up in an infinitely undulating queue of bankruptcy trustees, ripped off by one of an unlimited number of intellectual-property-holding corporations. It’s not super great for the resume, either. Just my “recent experience” section is sixteen gigabytes and caused LinkedIn to vomit in its own pants, before the servers were decommissioned and sold for spare copper.

In fact, the only businesses that are surviving these days are the ones that have no intellectual property at all. Nowadays, I work at a little noodle bar down in Chinatown. The owner-operator wears a special mask at all times to confound the acquisition bots’ facial-recognition system, and speaks with us only through cryptic handwritten notes that we must then burn. It also helps that the bar has no name, and is technically part of a city bus, which doesn’t stop for long enough to be considered legally resident, and thus susceptible to eminent domain proceedings, which would inevitably result in us being acquired by Burger King and then made redundant. If you see us passing by your neighbourhood, make sure to hop on. Bring money, but not too much money, or the boss will get jumpy.