#Third act misunderstanding? Check

[pianokantzart]

It’s a shame that Asterix and The Vikings is so gorgeously animated, because it contains some of my most hated tropes and by GOD for as cute as her design is I can not stand Abba.

[blueteller]

Hi! Can you please tell me the cannon events of ogCale. I want to know about ogCale's life from his childhood till his death.

There are too much misinformation about him in the fandom. I can't decide anymore what is canon and what is fanon about ogCale anymore.

I would also like to hear your head-canons about ogCale's past.

You might want to check out this recent post of mine, concerning what is canon and what isn't about OG Cale's personality. As for the exact events? Let's see... (Big Spoilers Ahead!)

OG Cale was born in year 763 of Felix Calendar (the particulars of the calendar are never elaborated upon), in the main city of the Henituse Territory: Rain City or Weston, depending on translation. While the details of his childhood are never directly stated, it's implied to be a happy upbringing by his parents, until the death of his mother Jour/Drew Thames (Jour was first proposed version of the name and I'm personally partial to it over EAP's "Drew") sometimes around the year 771. Jour got into a carriage accident when coming back from Harris Village, where she split her own plate and hid half of her Anciet Power, the Annual Rings of Life, making it seem like it was the carriage crash was the cause of her death. OG Cale only found out the truth about the even after he made the deal with the God of Death many years later.

Within one year Deruth Henituse, Cale's father, met and married Violan, whose past is mostly unknown aside from the fact that she comes from a merchant family (which raises all sorts of red flags, considering how the Hunters like to disguise themselves as merchants, but it might just be red herring) and that she had a son named Basen/Bassen from an unknown previous relationship (no mention whether she was married or not). Basen is 3 years younger than Cale, so he had to be born in 766, and shares no blood relation with him as his step brother (although Kim Rok Soo!Cale is unaware of this fact for most of the story, as he never was given any details about OG Cale' mother and her death). Deruth and Violand had another child named Lily/Lilly, Cale's half-sister, who was born in 774, 3 years into their marriage, when OG Cale was 11.

We know that in year 771 Basen and Cale had a conversation where OG Cale told him to pretend to be Deruth's biological son. From that point on, he did his best to act like "trash", aka. a spoiled brat, with the explicit goal to be kicked out of the family and pass the heir position to his step brother. In year 778, when OG Cale was 15, he added drinking to his personna and became known as an alcoholic with low alcohol tolerance and terrible, violent temper when drunk. It continued that way until year 783, when 18-year-old OG Cale met Choi Han, on his way to report the Harris Village massacre that occured on March 28th ("third month of the year" to be exact, but we never got any direct confirmation that that months were named differently in this universe, so whatever). "Drunk" OG Cale insulted the dead villagers to Choi Han's face, possibly because he was being "in-character", but canonically also because he hates Harris Village as the place where his mother died. Which lead to OG Cale's brutal beatdown documented in "The Birth of a Hero" series, Volume 1.

Now, let me dive into that for a bit, because there seems to be a huge misunderstanding about the following events among the fandom.

I carefully re-read the beginning of the novel recently (the official translation that is, mostly to see if there were any major differences from what I remembered of EAP's translation), trying to fish out as many details as possible about the TBOAH timeline. One intersting thing about OG Cale's introduction in the books that Kim Rok Soo read is that he did not actually appear just once. He was not a recurring character mind you, nothing particular being mentioned about him or the Henituse family after the first Volume, but it was clearly stated Choi Han "bumped into him a couple of times" before their final confrontation.

The way I see it, the timeline of TBOAH probably like this: Choi Han must have passed a bar where OG Cale was having a huge public tantrum over his wine not tasting good, causing it to be mentioned in TBOAH, which was written from Choi Han's POV. It probably did not count as a meeting though, with Choi Han having no reason to actually enter the bar. But that tantrum caused OG Cale to injure himself with a piece of broken table leg, making KRS!Cale notice that he did not have a scar on his side when he transmigrated; a specific detail which allowed him to place his position in the TBOAH timeline.

We don't know what Choi Han did for the next couple of days; possibly he spent looking for something to eat, a place to rest, or asking for information about where was the man in charge and how he should approach him. Maybe he spent time in the slums, met some homeless kids along the way (the reason why Cale had a specific quote in mind about them when he met On and Hong), got into some fight where he showed his fighting prowess (more on that in a bit), possibly went past the Man Eating Tree, prompting its backstory regardless of the fact that no one got the Indestructible Shield Ancient Power in the TBOAH timeline (at least, not within the first 5 Volumes which Kim Rok Soo had read). Kim Rok Soo never thought about the narration seeming too strange, and he's an observant guy. So it must have felt like natural exposition for the audience. Perhaps Choi Han met Billos/Bilose Flynn as well, prompting his introduction and backstory.

What we know for sure is that OG Cale and Choi Han had their "first meeting" the next day after Choi Han jumped over the wall (missing Hong and twisting his ankle as the result, slowing down his progress on top of physical and emotional exhaustion), while OG Cale was out and drinking. But I think it also makes sense to assume they did not exchange words just yet, as Choi Han was in full depression mode at the time had no reason to be chatty. It's possible OG Cale just threw a casual insult at him, reinforcing Choi Han's terrible impression of him. In other words, they had at least one "meeting" by that point in the timeline, but OG Cale did not get beat up just yet.

In TCF, Deruth also mentioned that "Cale would leave for the capital in five days", causing Cale to think how "OG Cale would get beat up in four days time", delaying the actual confrontation of these two from Choi Han's initial arrival quite lot - about a week, in fact!

Here's what I pieced together: in order for Choi Han to meet the Count he had to find way to get past the guards, without showing an identification or fighting them, which he was actively trying to avoid (his conscience recovered enough for him to remember not to kill innocent people regardless of his rage). So the meeting was no accident: he must have approached OG Cale on purpose, knowing that he was the son of the local Count. He probably asked for help regarding the Harris Village directly to OG Cale in hope that the man would be sympathetic enough to let him meet his father (not a very good plan, but probably the best one he had at the time). We also know it happened on a rainy day, and it did NOT rain when Cale first met Choi Han in TCF, nor the day after when he got the Shield, which took a couple days of buying bread for Cale to acquire (and when he finally did was only foggy, presumably because of On helping, but not raining!). After Cale got his Shield, it was explicitly stated that it rained heavily for a several days in a row; like during Cale's talk with Billos about his father. Once the rain passed, Cale was satisfied with the fact that the deadline for his beating had passed and he successfully avoided that fate.

So... Choi Han must have spent a full week in Rain City before he beat up OG Cale (minimum of 3 days of Cale buying bread, and 4 consecutive rainy days), unlike many fans seem to believe; the generall impression I get is that Choi Han stayed in the city for barely a day or two before moving on.

We also know that Beacrox/Vicross Molan met Choi Han exactly four days earlier in TCF than in TBOAH. Which leads me directly to the bottom of the misunderstanding I mentioned earlier.

In TBOAH, after Choi Han beat up OG Cale, there did not seem to be any legal complications for him; no mention of him paying a fine, since he was homeless and poor he couldn't have afforded it, and no mention of guards trying to arrest him. Either no guards witnessed the confrontation, or they chose not to help OG Cale. I find the second option hard to believe though, since what we have seen in TCF seems to indicate that despite OG Cale's behavior, the Henituse Territory's knights were quite loyal and competent. I think they probabably didn't see nor hear anything BECAUSE of the rain. Someone could make an argument that Beacrox COULD have seen something, but that's highly unlikely; instead, I think Choi Han must have had a fight with someone else, because it was mentioned that Cale wanted Choi Han and Beacrox to bond over Choi Han impressing him with his strength. I don't see how "impressive" it would be to see Choi Han beating up OG Cale, who was completely ordinary in strength... I think that's where the common misunderstanding among the fans lies.

To sum it up: I am fully convinced there was no one around when Choi Han beat up OG Cale. It was raining, OG Cale was too stubborn to admit defeat or to call out for help, and Choi Han was never arrested. I'm 100% certain there was no witnesses, especially not Beacrox.

And beside that, if we sum up days, we reach another crusial conclusion: Choi Han met Beacrox before approaching OG Cale.

It only makes sense from the timeline! When I mentioned earlier that during the week that Choi Han spent in the city, "he possibly got into some fight where he showed his fighting prowess", that is what I meant. Either Choi Han got into a fight with some thugs (which do exist despite the Henituse Territory not having a criminal underground; TBOAH narrative clearly states that OG Cale liked to terrorize thugs instead of bothering innocent people), and Beacrox happened to see it, or they bumped into each other and fought personally. Possibly both.

Choi Han's exact TBOAH activities might not seem all that relevant to the original question regarding OG Cale, here's where we come back to the main point. Namely: Ron and Beacrox leaving OG Cale behind to travel with Choi Han.

Since Ron was such an important figure in OG Cale's life, we can imagine him leaving (wihtout a goodbye or warning, no less) affected him quite a bit. But fans like to make extra drama, and somehow created this narrative where 1) Beacrox sees Choi Han beating up OG Cale and doen't stop him, and 2) Ron leaves OG Cale with the guy that harmed his charge without any care in the world. Which simply does not add up at all! This is the reason why I think that there were no witnesses when Choi Han beat up OG Cale: Ron absolutely would have tried to avenge him!! For his own professional pride if nothing else - he wouldn't have simply left with Choi Han if he knew!!!

Yes, Ron and Beacrox were under the impression that Choi Han was involved with Arm, due to him "having their scent" (more of my exact thoughts on that in this post). So they decided to follow him not because they LIKED him, but because they found him useful. Their comradery developed slowly and gradually after that misunderstanding got resolved and got to trust him more (and Choi Han lightened up a bit after the events in Harris Village). But I'mstill pretty sure they never found out about Choi Ha being the one who beat up the guy they worked for over a decade. The Henituse had always been generous with them, and aside from OG Cale's bratty behavior they really had no reasons to complain. And no matter his protagonist status, Choi Han certainly wasn't "charming" enough to make them forget all of their gratitude out of the blue.

You might be thinking, "but how could they not figure it out"? Well... OG Cale was known for causing trouble. Someone beating him up around the same time that Choi Han was in town? Doesn't mean much. And Deruth wouldn't have let it slide either! If he had any idea what Choi Han had done to his son (remember, he beat him up NEAR DEATH), Deruth would have never sent Hans to help with the proper burial of the villagers! That kind of gesture of good will just doesn't make sense, no matter how tragic the massacre was. OG Cale was clearly found and brought in for healing, Choi Han got the audience he wanted with the Count, OG Cale wasn't around to make any comments on it because he was stuck in bed, and Basen went to the capital for Zed's birthday instead in his older brother's place.

Then the terrorist attack happened, and the rest of 5 Volumes of TBOAH happened, followed by the Henituse Territory invasion by Clopeh Sekka... 20 years of war, erased from the timeline by the transmigration deal with the God of Death... and the rest is history.

So, here's the quick summary of my long, LONG post about what exactly is canon regarding OG Cale:

OG Cale was born in 763 (no exact month of birth confirmed)

His mother died in 771 (when he was 8)

Deruth remarried same year, Violan and 5-year-old Basen becoming Henituses

OG Cale started acting as a spoiled brat to help his step family

He added alcoholism to his personna in 778 (15 years old)

He met Choi Han in 781 a couple of times (18 years old); first time probably sometime 1st of April, and got beat up around 5th-6ths, around 1 week after the massacre of Harris Village on March 28th,

He probably spent the next 2 years trying to get himself kicked out from the family but Deruth nor Violan ever allowed it (because their love was unconditional)

Henituse Territory fell in spring of 783 to the Indomitable Alliance of the northern countries, officially lead by Clopeh Sekka of Paerun Kingdom

He transmigrated around 803 (40 years old), becoming 36-year-old Team Leader Kim Rok Soo

What fans commonly misunderstand and get mixed up:

Choi Han did not beat up OG Cale upon their first meeting

Beacrox did not see OG Cale getting beat up nor stood on idly the sidelines watching

Ron probably never found out Choi Han was the one who beat up his charge either

Neither did Deruth or anyone important someone would have tried to arrest Choi Han or at the very least fine or blacklist him from Rain City, none of which got mentioned in TCF

So Ron and Beacrox did not merrily set off into the sunset with the guy who beat up OG Cale, they left to keep an eye on the suspicious guy who smelled like Arm (Beacrox liked sparring with him but that was just a side bonus)

We do not know whether Basen died or got hurt in the terrorist attack as it was never explained in TBOAH, we just know he had to be there instead of OG Cale

It is implied that all the Henituses aside from OG Cale died during the invasion, but the how any why was never explored so anything about that topic is pure speculation from the fanbase

OG Cale fought in the war later but his exact role was never elaborated on either

I hope you find this helpful! Have a good day everyone 💖

[Bonus: I forgot to adress one last thing: the scene OG Cale witnessed in the final battle. OG Cale saw the White Star grab Choi Han by the arm (not the neck unlike most fanart of that scene!) and say the line about his time being warped. There is no mention whether OG Cale have ever actually met the White Star before that point, and there is no information regarding their relation (which is implied because of how similar they look and how White Star was able to use the Annual Rings of Life, which could be only used by the Thames). So anything about OG Cale's family is still yet to be adressed in canon. OG Cale's unknown relative (possibly uncle because of Jour mentioning her brother) showed up exactly ONCE, and he never even showed his real face. So everything connected to that stuff is still only theories and all.]

[belle--ofthebrawl]

Mushy May Day 5: Love At First Sight (kind of)

Word count: It's probably 1k

Rating: T (for These Idiots)

Notes: @forlorn-crows thank you Mushy May, it's always fun to write something short and sweet :) honestly this would probably work better for day 25 but I'm not waiting that long.

I need you

Come to the greenhouse

No other message in any realm of hell or earth could get Rain to move faster. Finally. Mountain had finally picked up on Rain’s endless hinting and flirting, dropped the sexy stoic act of his and realized exactly what he wanted. What they both wanted. Rain did not skip on his way to the greenhouse but he was pretty sure he might have started floating a few times.

Oh, wasn't it so romantic? To be surrounded by the harmony of both their elements, the scent of greenery and the erotic humidity coming together as they would kiss and confess their feelings and Mountain would say how stupid he was for taking so long to notice and Rain would toss his head back and laugh and forgive him as long as he kept kissing his gills like that-

He ducked into a bathroom to check himself out. Lords below, wasn't he a sight. Cheeks pink, lips plump from where his fangs had been worrying them. Eyes sparkly with all the hope of a new lover. He pats down his hair, smoothes out his uniform and gives himself a devastatingly gorgeous smile as he leaves. It was anyone's guess why it had taken the big guy so long to notice him.

Out of the Abbey, down the path. To the greenhouses and of course there was Mountain in the doorway in the first one. Tall and strong, shading his eyes against the sun as he watches Rain approach.

“I'm glad you came.” He murmurs in that deep voice of his and Rain's tail makes a little heart shape as Mountain puts an arm over his shoulders and guides him into the greenhouse. Rain breathes him in, thick viscous pine sap and freshly overturned dirt with the overlay of human sweat. He's irresistible. It's a miracle Rain has kept his composure and not just thrown himself naked at the guy demanding to be taken to bed that instant. From the moment Mountain hefted himself out of the crack in the earth at his summoning, Rain has wanted him.

“Do you feel it?” Mountain asks, bringing them to the center of the greenhouse. Lush greenery crowds the glass, ensuring their privacy for whatever happens next.

“Yes…” Rain breathes as Mountain places both his heavy hands on Rain's shoulders. He closes his eyes, tilting his head so Mountain can reach his gills and not be tickled by his hair, waiting, whole body alive with anticipation as Mountain says:

“Can you fix it, please?”

The moment is gone. Confusion is a bucket of cold water tossed over his head, rude and dousing. He makes a confused noise and Mountain gives him a little shake, though now that Rain isn't in lala land, he thinks the frustration rolling off the other ghoul isn't something his proximity has caused.

“The humidity.” Mountain says. “We can't get a new part to replace the broken one until next week with the shipping delay. I need you to pull the excess moisture out of the air, didn't you read my message?”

“The one where you said you needed me and wanted me in the greenhouse?” Rain snaps, pulling away. His tail is coiled right to his legs, trying to wind tightly around a thigh and if he was unglamoured, his fins would be fully flared in defense. “Yeah Mountain, I read that one.”

“The third one.” Mountain spins him around so easily Rain’s heart skips a beat. “Where I clarified that to prevent a misunderstanding.”

“I may have missed it.” Rain says stiffly, chin held high and looking anywhere but the giant before him.

“Oh.” Mountain says softly. “I'm…I apologize. I didn't mean to mislead you.”

Rain clears his throat and shuffles a few steps away to try and regain some of his dignity. Thank Satan he hadn't thrown himself naked at the guy after all; that would have been so much worse.

“I'll still fix it.” He says after a few moments of unbearable awkward silence. “Do you have a bucket for the water to go into?”

Mountain nods to the table where a bucket lies and Rain nods back, not wanting to speak. Just wants to get this over with so he can go mope in his bathtub. Pulling water out of the air isn't an easy trick but he's Rain and like hell he's going to let Mountain see him struggle.

“Thank you.” Mountain says when it's over. “I'll take that to the lake.”

“You're welcome.” Rain says with a toss of his head. He feels the start of a headache that will come later, payment for this small favor. What a waste of time. He starts to walk past Mountain with a straight back and a tail that does not give his emotions away when Mountain speaks again.

“But if you wanted to do something like that later…” He starts and falters. “Unless you're busy with somebody else.”

Rain stops by the door. Reconsiders every time he's ever flirted with someone in front of Mountain to make him jealous, to see if he'd ever want to experience what Rain let everyone else do to him. Each sly glance to make sure he was watching had been taken the wrong way. Each laugh meant to entice had been taken as dismissive. Rain inhales and feels like screaming at himself.

But he doesn't. He's calm. Collected. Cool, as he glances over his shoulder with lidded eyes and a smile.

“I'm free whenever you are, big boy.”

The shade Mountain turns is enough to get his heart pumping with excitement again.

“I wouldn't have done it like this.” He blurts out. “Not in the greenhouse, not when I'm working, but uh-”

“Just bring the bucket to the lake when you're done.” Rain interrupts. “It's a hot day out. We can have ourselves a little splash fight to cool off.”

“Oh…” Mountain says dumbly and Rain laughs. Takes off running in the direction of the beach, relishing the sun on his skin, the sand between his toes and the flip his tummy does when he cannonballs off the dock with a jubilant, whooping

"YES!"

[naughtyneganjdm]

Christmas in Jackson - Chapter 10

Summary: During his late night shift at the inn, Joel is accompanied by Y/N so he won't be lonely. The two of them continue to learn more about one another and grow closer, but their addiction to one another causes Tommy to get angry with Joel when he lacks focus on his responsibilities.

Characters: Joel Miller, the reader (OC), Tommy, etc.

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61159651/chapters/163548130

Warnings: 18+, Swearing, Smut, Unprotected P in V, Oral (man receiving), etc.

Notes: I am very, very sorry that I haven't finished this yet. My life has been very hectic with school and work, but I'm going to do by best to get this done as soon as possible. It has a few chapters left. Thanks to anyone that puts up with me and still reads this. You guys are awesome! If you'd like to read previous chapters, check them out here.

For as long as he could remember, Christmas had always been so mundane and repetitive for Joel. Years ago he lost complete and total interest in the holiday. It didn’t bring him joy nor happiness, it just made him sad and depressed. And last week? He just assumed he would be having the same exact kind of Christmas that he had been having since he moved to Jackson to be near Tommy. Which was usually him being alone on Christmas Eve. Since living here? He was always by himself. That meant he was always trying to find ways to keep himself busy. Whether that was working at the inn, working at home in his office on his carvings or volunteering somewhere in town. It was the only way he could make it through the day without going crazy or letting his loneliness swallow him whole. Then, on Christmas day he would have to pretend with Maria and Tommy. Muster up enough strength to be able to act like he was okay. Like he was normal and he could enjoy what the meaning of Christmas was. While he appreciated Tommy and Maria trying to include him with things, it did take Maria a while to open up to Joel. Especially since Tommy never kept anything from his wife, so Maria had no misunderstandings about Joel’s past. Spending Christmas with his brother and Maria was more so to appease Tommy anyways. But even after Maria had warmed up to the idea of Joel, it still felt like he was the third wheel between them. Like he wasn’t meant to be there.

But the worst part of Christmas time? Maria and Tommy always had a special dinner the day after Christmas where all of their friends and family got together. Which really meant people that Maria and Tommy were close to, but they always managed to pull Joel along with them. The problem was Maria didn’t hide things from her family either, so Maria’s family was never the biggest fans of Joel. And they never let him forget it.

That was the nice thing about this Christmas though. Instead of being alone and forcing himself to keep his mind busy, Joel had someone that he actually cared for. Someone that he wanted to be around. And that loneliness that he grew accustomed to? Well it just disappeared. It was still part of him, but that hole had been filled with a feeling that he hadn’t experienced in a very long time and he liked it.

Right now, it was a little past midnight on Christmas Eve and he was seated in the lobby working just as Tommy had requested him to do. Which really just meant he was sitting around and doing nothing, like most nights he had to work overnight for the inn. He was just there to babysit the place and make sure that no one showed up during the night or needed anything. But he didn’t hate this like he did the last couple of years. That’s because sitting across from him at the coffee table staring down at the chess board they had pulled out to distract themselves was Y/N.

Even though he told her it would be okay if she went to bed, she insisted that she wanted to be with him stating that he shouldn’t be alone on Christmas Eve. So he didn’t fight her on it. Hell, he welcomed the company. It was nice having her around.

Leaning forward in her seat across from Joel, her face scrunched up while she stared intensely down at the chessboard, scrutinizing every piece. What she was doing was considering her next move and she was deep in thought. He could tell that she was trying to play out every possible scenario in her head and it made him smile how seriously she was actually taking this game. Watching her brought a smile to his face. In his eyes, she was incredibly charming and cute with the frustration that flooded through her face when she didn’t know what to do next. Tipping his head to the side, his eyebrows bounced up when her eyes lifted and she noticed that he was staring out at her visibly entertained.

“You’ve gotta make your move at some point,” he informed her, holding his hand out toward the chessboard causing her to scoff in response. Sure, he was pretending to be impatient, but he really didn’t give a damn how long she took. He just liked playing with her and pushing her buttons a little bit. “I think we may have the longest game of chess on our hands right here.”

“I have to think this out,” she defended herself since they were nearing the end of their game. “You told me that you could play this, but you couldn’t play this well. And I think you were lying to me because you are kicking my ass.”

“What would I have to gain from lying to you honey? I genuinely warned you ahead of time because I really don’t play this well,” Joel insisted with a snicker as a rush of color flooded into her features. His nose wrinkled in amusement that she even thought he was lying to her about it. “Sadly, it just means you play this even worse than I do, which is shocking. But? That’s okay! You aren’t going to be the best at everything. I reckon it just shows you’re human. And I like that.”

Dramatically rolling her eyes, she bobbed her head about and held her finger up in front of her lips, “Oh hush. Please. You’re trying to get into my head and I can see what you are doing.”

The glare that she gave him was enough to make him laugh again as she finally decided on her next move with the game. Taking a look at what she did, Joel had to take a moment to pause. That was probably the worst move she could have made while playing because Joel would have easily won the game right then and there. Truthfully? He didn’t know if he should do that though. On the one hand, he could have been kind and ignored the fact that he could easily destroy her with the potential of making her feel bad. Or? There was the possibility that she would realize that he was letting her win and she could be offended by that. She really didn’t seem like the kind of girl that would be okay with a man letting her win because she really seemed like the type that wanted to earn what she had. So instead, he slid forward in the chair and reached out to make the move that would ultimately lead to him winning the game.

Watching her closely, her expression almost immediately changed when she realized the mistake that she had made and a long exhale escaped her lips, “Well, shit.”

Snorting, he slid back in his chair and watched her dramatically drop back into her seat. What she was doing in that moment was trying to play out where she went wrong and it brought some amusement for him, “Maybe you’re just tired? Y’know you don’t have to keep hanging out with me if you’d rather be sleeping. I can just finish up here and then come get you in the morning.”

“Nonsense, I want to be with you,” she assured him, shaking her head a few times at the idea of leaving him. They already had this conversation and she made it clear then she wasn’t planning on leaving him alone. “I can only imagine how boring it is all alone down here. Plus, it gives us more time with one another.”

“Well, yeah, but now I’m getting addicted to being around you and I’m developing some serious codependency issues here,” he suggested with a weak smile, knowing that while he was teasing her about it, he did actually notice that the more they were together the less he wanted to be away from her. Hearing that made her dramatically frown and he laughed out at her response. “I’m just saying, I do acknowledge that we have to spend some time apart, y’know? Not that I don’t love being with you because I do.”

“Well then I guess it’s a good thing we had those few hours apart when you first got here,” she dismissed his thoughts refusing to believe that they needed to have any more time apart than they already had. “Are you already forgetting that I went out for a walk around town when you started work? I think that’s more than enough time if you ask me.”

“Oh, right. My mistake,” he mused, his smile growing bigger at the idea that she actually wanted to spend extensive amounts of time with him. “So what did you do with your time while we were apart? Did you find someone new you might want to spend Christmas with?”

“Please, you’re the only person I have eyes for here,” she claimed, biting down on her bottom lip realizing that he just wanted to hear that he was special for her. “I just walked around town. Checked out some of the places that I haven’t seen yet. I had some shopping that I wanted to do. But? I have to tell you, I think your brother told probably the whole town that I was your girlfriend now.”

“That would not surprise me,” he admitted, the line at the bridge of his nose growing deeper when he shook his head. Tommy did have a habit of running his mouth, even if he didn’t mean to. “I believe you, but why do you think that?”

“Well, I either had people that looked like they were afraid to even approach me,” she stated, thinking back on her time out on her own, “Or I had people coming up to talk to me proving that they were much more relaxed with me. Everyone seems to know my name now.”

“I’m sorry. My brother always had a big mouth and it consistently got him in trouble growing up,” he chuckled to himself recalling what their life was like growing up. “Keeping things a secret was always very hard for him. Even when we were children, he’d always come clean. Even if our parents weren’t onto us. He couldn’t handle the pressure of it. Used to drive me nuts. In fact, there is only one thing that I can think of where he…”

A long pause followed. The amusement that was there gradually left and Joel’s expression slowly changed to something that was very serious, “Where he was able to keep a lie. It probably still kills him to this day that he had to keep up with that lie.”

Instead of focusing on the fact that whatever it was Joel was thinking about seemed to be something bad, she decided to make light of the situation, “Learning new things about Tommy every day.”

Something about that conversation had upset Joel, so she decided to change the subject, “You know, I actually think most people know that I’m a doctor in town. I had a few people come up to me today asking me medical questions. I mean, I had a lot of people coming up to me today, but that’s beside the point.”

“Seriously?” his right eyebrow arched in curiosity and she gave him a firm nod. “What did they want to talk to you about?”

“The medical questions? Well, I had four people come up to me to ask me those,” she explained to him, resting back in the chair that she was in as she thought back on the topics that she discussed. “One of them was a pregnant woman that wanted to ask me a few questions about childbirth. Since it was her first that she was pregnant with, she was concerned after doing a google search and saw certain statistics. One person asked me if there were any natural remedies to help deal with stress and anxiety. Another person asked me if I had any suggestions about how they could keep themselves from being dehydrated and another older gentleman wanted me to take a look at one of his infected teeth asking me if he should get it taken care of.”

“God,” Joel buried his head into his hand, a warmth flooding into his face when he realized that the last one was disgusting. “As you can see, we don’t have the best healthcare out here so people are probably excited at the idea of having a hotshot doctor around that they can talk to. Our hospital is very small and most of our doctors are extremely old. So people will hop on that if they get the chance to ask you things.”

“I really don’t mind,” she refused to accept an apology about that kind of thing, waving her hand about in the air. “Back at the hospital I had to do a lot of hours at the clinic anyways, so I’m used to this kind of thing. I have a lot of experience in this area. I’m not sure anything would surprise me after all I’ve seen in New York City as a doctor.”

“Now don’t say that because this town could surprise you,” he warned her, holding his hand up to caution her at the idea of what the people here were capable of. “What were the other people coming up to you about? You said that you had a lot of people approaching you.”

“To talk about you,” she confessed eliciting a confused breath from him with his eyebrows furrowing. “Yeah, I guess they were starting to wonder if you would ever date someone. A few of them told me about a woman that your brother tried to hook you up with.”

“You’re serious?” he groaned out, dropping his head back and letting out a disgusted breath. By his reaction to what she said, she was certain that some of the gossip she heard from the people in town were real. At least the stories they told were walking the line of what really happened. “I can’t believe these people can’t mind their own business. That’s the only fucked up thing about small towns. It’s like they are trying to chase you away from me.”

“Now, that’s never going to happen,” she promised him, amused that his first worry was thinking that a few people gossiping to her about a woman that Tommy tried to hook Joel up with would chase her away. “Although, I do have to wonder if this woman is going to be holding a grudge against me when she hears that I actually managed to get you to start dating me.”

Shaking his head, he dragged his hand down over his face in a frustrated manner, “What was her name again?”

“Esther,” he responded, shaking his head at the thought of the only woman his brother ever managed to convince him to go on a blind date with. “Tommy begged me to go out with this woman. Forever. So I finally said yes after the hundredth time he bothered me about it. I guess she had a crush on me.”

“I mean, I can’t blame her,” she piped in getting Joel to roll his eyes dramatically. “I love the name.”

“Be nice,” he snickered, pointing his finger in her general direction. Throwing her hands up in the air, she feigned innocence and shook her head like she didn’t mean anything by it. “She talked a lot. And I mean a lot. Don’t get me wrong, she was nice and she was a pretty girl. And on occasion? She had a good sense of humor where she could make me laugh, but we did not match well at all. The more time I spent with her, the more I realized that.”

“Oh? What was it that turned you away, just so I know what not to do,” she interrogated him, her eyebrow arching in curiosity pulling forth a snort from him that she was interested to hear more. “I think these things are good to know. I talk a lot.”

“Yeah, but I like listening to you,” he defended, his hand placing in over the center of his chest. Trying to think of what it was that bothered him, he shrugged and sighed loudly. “She was just very unrealistic. She didn’t know to the full extent of my background, but she just thought everything was sunshine and roses. She didn’t understand that some days were hard and she always expected me to be happy. And the way she rambled on, my God…she was always talking.”

“Did the two of you have sex?” she blurt out provoking him to huff out, his eyes narrowing out at her with her being blunt about her thoughts.

“I told you, I haven’t had sex since before I came to this town,” he repeated what he had already said to her before. Nodding, she lowered her head and it made him smile. “Not that she didn’t try. Trust me, she tried. I was always pulling her hands out of my pants. Even on the very first night.”

After considering things, he shrugged his shoulders and took in a long exhale, “I don’t think I’ve really thought about Esther in a very long time. But I tell you what? I never thought I would be in a relationship again because when people…when they get to know me? It’s never good. Once people learn who I really am, they aren’t able to accept it. So it’s better to push them away when I can.”

“Yet you took a chance with me,” she noted, having his expression gradually turn very serious. “Why?”

“Because we’re both broken and you understand that I’m not always gonna have sunshine and rainbows flooding out of my asshole,” he snorted having her face scrunch up in entertainment over that comment. It made her laugh, but he knew that she realized what he was trying to say. “Plus, I do have to tell you it was way too close with Tommy trying to hook me up with that woman. I had just lost Tess not that long before…”

Surprisingly, it went silent real fast between them both. Before now, Joel had never mentioned her name out loud around Y/N, “Tess was…she was the woman from Boston. I just wasn’t ready for things. And Tommy wanted me to marry Esther off immediately. It was all very strange.”

There were a few directions this conversation could go in. She could talk to Joel about Tess, but by his expression she could tell that he was disappointed in himself for saying her name out loud. So she felt like that really wasn’t the best way to do things. She made a promise to him that she would never push him into talking about things that he wasn’t ready to talk about. And then there was the option of talking about Tommy, but she felt like that could turn to something sad too. So she decided to run with the silly and flippant direction where he wasn’t forced into a situation he was uncomfortable with.

“So what you’re telling me is that there is a strong possibility that this Esther woman may want to stab me in the middle of the street for stealing her man,” she joked eliciting the most amused snort followed by a rumble of laughter from Joel who leaned forward grasping at his mid abdomen through is chuckling. “I’m just saying…”

“I wouldn’t think so, but anything is possible,” he began, happy that she was able to make him laugh in moments where he really needed it. Gathering himself, he wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand to sweep the dampness from his laughter away. In that moment though, he thought about Tess and how quickly he blew everything off. “Listen, about Tess...”

“Hey…” she interrupted him, holding her hand up to stop him before he had to go into explaining himself to her. “You don’t have to talk about her because you feel like you have to. Unless it’s something you do want to talk about with me. I just want you to know you don’t have to explain things to me. We have an understanding. I’m not going to force you to talk about things that hurt you. Instead, let’s just focus on playing another round of this, okay?”

“You really want to play again?” Joel mused with her setting the chessboard back up, noticing the glare that she gave him and he let out a small rumble of a laugh. Truthfully? He was thankful that she was as relaxed about things as she was. It made it easier to be with her and not have to worry about things. A lot of people wouldn’t be like that with someone. “I’m just sayin’, we can do other things. Things a little less complicated.”

“Like what?” she finished putting the chessboard back together as Joel reached for his phone where he was quietly playing Christmas music for them to help pass the time. Changing the song, he set his phone back down on the table and sighed loudly. “Do you have any other board games hidden away somewhere? I can’t imagine you would want to play something like truth or dare.”

“Within reason, I wouldn’t mind,” Joel brushed his fingers through his messy hair, sliding forward on the chair he was in. Taking a quick look back over his shoulder he made sure that they were still the only ones in the empty lobby of the inn. When he brought his attention back to her, he saw that she was holding her hands out near the fire to warm them up. “We’ll just have to be quiet and be careful with what we do.”

“How many people are staying at the inn right now?” she wondered, almost expecting Joel to know, but by his expression she knew that he really had no idea. After a while, he released a laugh and shrugged his shoulders. “You really aren’t a good owner.”

“I reckon you’re not wrong,” he realized that she was teasing him, but the statement was true. Joel just did this to appease Tommy so they could work together again. “So go for it. Truth or dare?”

“Truth?” she shrugged her shoulders getting a disappointed face from Joel since she was starting off safe. Really, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of dare they could come up with in here. It took a while for Joel to come up with a question before he pulled himself to the edge of his seat and stared out at her behind narrowed eyes.

“What’s your least favorite thing about me physically?” he sighed loudly, getting a grunt of disapproval from her and he laughed. “What?”

“Nothing,” she immediately responded drawing him to roll his eyes and drop back against the chair. Obviously, he expected her to come up with something, but there was nothing that came to mind. “I mean it. Physically, there is nothing wrong with you. I find you very, very appealing. Do you think there is something wrong with you?”

“My scars?” Joel pointed toward his abdomen and the one that was on his face. Almost immediately she shook her head and sighed loudly. “I don’t know then. My patchy facial hair. I can’t grow a full beard. Some women are turned off by an uncut man.”

“Some women are stupid,” she suggested with a scoff, her face twisting with confusion before she let out an amused sound. “I like every part of you. Your scars. Your facial hair. Your penis. They are all part of you and I really like you.”

“Smooth answer. Safe answer. But smooth,” Joel replied back as a warmth flooded into his face hearing her say that about him. “You win brownie points of course for that.”

“I do like my brownie points,” she teased him with a wink liking that the conversation seemed to make him smile. Even if he didn’t want that answer, she knew that hearing her response made him feel good. “Alright, so truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Joel responded bouncing his eyebrows as if that was the more rebellious choice. When truthfully? Joel probably wanted to avoid truth as much as he could because he didn’t know how much or how little he could actually say to her.

“Hmm…” she took her time to think about things before a smirk flooded over her face. “I dare you to sing for me.”

“No,” Joel was quick to shake his head getting a disappointed breath from her.

“You’re not allowed to say no,” she fought back with him hearing the amused laughter that followed. “I’m your girlfriend now, it’s official. So you can sing for me.”

“And the answer is still no,” he chuckled, sliding down in his chair stretching his legs further out. So badly she wanted to hear him sing and he knew that, but that was something he wasn’t going to approach. “You gotta give me something else because that’s a big no.”

“Alright, fine,” she frowned hating that for some reason he was so against singing for her. Shrugging her shoulders, she thought for a long moment until she noticed that the song that was playing from his phone was something that was upbeat. “Dance for me then? Or is that a no too? Because if it’s a no, then I don’t want to play this anymore.”

“Don’t be so sassy,” he hushed with a growl, pushing himself up from the seat and standing from the chair with a grunt. Her eyes followed his movement when he stepped into an area where he would have room. Listening to the song for a moment had her wondering if he would actually dance for her or not. Once he got a feel for the tune, he started dancing for her almost immediately causing her to laugh out. The way he danced was so over the top with the way he moved his body. With most occasions, he wouldn’t be caught dead doing something like this, but he liked hearing her laugh. Biting back a smile, he tried to stay focused while he kept up with the dance. There was only one other person in his life that he would have ever done this for. Hell, he was an old man. He had no business doing shit like this, but to hear her laughter and to see her smiling like she was? It was worth it. Even though he was being dramatic in the way that he moved, he wasn’t actually dancing bad, he was just being silly with the way that he was doing it. Reaching for his jacket, he pulled it down his arms and started to shimmy in front of her provoking her to clap when he finally gave up. “Satisfied?”

“Oh, very,” she responded between tiny giggles. Pulling his jacket back up over his arms, Joel headed back toward his seat and dropped down dramatically. “And you hate dancing? You’re actually not that bad at it.”

“That’s because I was a stripper when I was younger,” he blurt out and by the look that she gave him, he could see she was taking a moment to consider what he was telling her. “I…it was a joke. I wasn’t. My first job was flipping burgers somewhere, then I was a contractor and now I’m the owner of this amazing place.”

“I feel some sarcasm there in that last line,” she teased him and he tipped his head from side to side. It was obvious that Joel liked where he was, but he made it clear it wasn’t a job he was necessarily proud of. “Do you miss being a contractor?”

“You’re cheating at this game,” Joel whistled, holding his hand out and circling his finger in her direction. “I picked dare and ow you’re trying to get a truth out of me. Hell, this would be the second truth since I told you what my first job was.”

“Trying to connect with my boyfriend on a personal level, my mistake,” she held her hands up in defense getting Joel to snicker. “Excuse me.”

“How dare you,” he played back with her, his face scrunching up. A laugh escaped her and it made him smile. At least they could have fun together and not take things so seriously. “But to answer your question, yes and no. I liked being busy, but not being a contractor has given me time to enjoy the little things. Working on guitars. Learning how to carve. Y’know, be more artistic in a smaller scale. My job before was stressful.”

With a nod, she appreciated that he was honest with her, “So you’re turn sweetheart. Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” she gave him the answer opposite of the last since she knew he was disappointed with her original choice.

Shifting in his chair he took another quick look around the lobby before clearing his throat, “I dare you to flash me.”

“Flash you?” she blurt out with a laugh, biting down on her bottom lip. “Like what? My ass or my breasts?”

“Your breasts,” he held his hand out, a wicked smirk tugging at his handsome features.

“Don’t you guys have cameras in here?” she wondered looking around to see if she could spot one to justify her not doing it. “I’m going to give Tommy a jump scare if he ends up seeing it.”

“Not over here,” he waved his hand in the air, his nose wrinkling with him getting more comfortable in the chair that he was in. “Plus, it’s not like it’s something that he hasn’t seen before.”

“That doesn’t make it better,” she burst out into a laughter that he joined her in recalling what Tommy had walked in on earlier. “The more I get to know your brother, the more I am beginning to realize what a weirdo he is fully capable of being.”

“I told you,” he responded with a smirk, placing his hand in over the center of his chest. Once they stopped laughing, he saw her look around. It looked like she was going to consider telling him no until she reached for the bottom of her shirt. Lifting it up, she managed to pull at the bottom of her bra when she reached it, tugging that up as well to reveal her breasts. A long exhale escaped him with him clearing his throat. God, he’d seen her naked many times at this point, but he was in awe of her body. Allowing him to have a good minute or so, she finally lowered the material back down. What she had done made him smile and she could tell that he was proud of her. “Good girl.”

“Your turn,” she adjusted her bra through the material of her shirt, looking like she was having issues with it until she finally was comfortable again.

“Dare,” he picked the same thing and she swallowed down hard.

“Same dare,” she waved her hand about, feeling justified in asking him to do the same. It only seemed fair after what she had done. Chuckling, he tipped his head down and his dimples became increasingly more prominent.

“That’s a silly dare, but okay,” he sat forward in his chair lifting the bottom of his shirt up to bring it up to the center of his chest to reveal his torso to her. With a dramatic eye roll from her, it had him bursting out in laughter and he feigned innocence. “What? You told me the same dare, so I’m flashing you this…”

Pointing toward his chest had her shaking her head and biting down on her bottom lip, “I was talking about your penis.”

“Well, that’s not what you said. You said you were giving me the same dare. I asked you to flash me your breasts, so I was flashing you my chest. Learn to use your words better dear,” he teased her, the bridge of his nose wrinkling in amusement. Lowering his shirt back down over his body, he took a quick look around and dragged his tongue out across his bottom lip. With a laugh, he arched his eyebrow when his gaze fell back upon her. Working his belt open, he bit down on his bottom lip. Her eyes were focused on his lap as he popped open the button of his jeans. Pulling the zipper down, he knew that this was crazy, but he was willing to do a lot of crazy things for her. Hooking his thumb into the front of the material of his boxer briefs, he tugged down at them. Lifting his hips, he did as she requested exposing himself to her. Color flushed into her face with him clearing his throat. “Is this better?”

“Much,” she breathed out, sucking in a sharp breath of air with Joel smirking.

“You look incredibly turned on and it’s not even hard,” he noted, a rumble of a growl escaping his throat. Dropping his head, he hummed when he tipped his head from side to side. “Well, it’s starting to get hard. With you looking at me like that, he’s getting excited.”

“Maybe you haven’t noticed, but I just really like you,” she reminded him, frowning when he started to work his pants and boxer briefs back over his body.

“Oh, is that the case?” he retorted, his eyebrows bouncing up while he worked his jeans back together along with his belt. “I just really like you too. Are you satisfied?”

“Very,” she admitted realizing that he was arrogant in the moment because he didn’t seem to have a worry in the world about what he had just done. “We’ve suddenly gone from an innocent game to something very naughty.”

“I’m not surprised. That’s what happens when adults play truth or dare,” he snorted, finishing up with his belt. By now her face was hot, her body having a warmth flooding throughout it. “Your turn.”

“Truth,” she responded with him taking a while to consider his next question.

“I’m going to make an assumption about you and you tell me if I’m right or wrong,” he began, stroking his fingers through his messy hair with his eyes narrowing. Something about that drew a curiosity inside of her. “You lost your virginity to your high school boyfriend. You two were childhood sweethearts and the only reason you broke up is because you were going to different colleges across the country.”

“Extremely false,” she shook her head immediately surprising Joel with her answer. “And I won’t tell you what it actually was because you would look down on me for it.”

“Okay, you can’t open with a statement like that and not tell me,” he retorted in a disapproving tone, throwing his hands up. “You have to tell me now and trust me, I wouldn’t think illy of you. I promise you that.”

“You better keep your promise,” she grumbled under her breath as he leaned forward in his seat giving her his full attention. “I had done things, but I didn’t fully lose it until I was eighteen. You have to understand, my uncle kept me locked up like a prisoner most of the time. I don’t know if he was just trying to keep me respectable, or he didn’t want to have to take care of a baby in case I got pregnant. Maybe he just did it because he hated me. It was really hard to date.”

“And why would I judge you for that?” he was confused as to where the whole thought that he would look down on her was.

“I uh…” she paused, showing that she was taking her time to think about whether she wanted to tell him or not what the truth was. “My first time was with my very good-looking physical education teacher who also was my coach.”

“Oh,” he muttered, his eyebrows bouncing up in amusement. Gradually, a rumble of a laugh built up inside of him and he shrugged his shoulders. “I uh, I can’t judge you for that one because I may or may not have slept with a few of my teachers when I was younger. So it’s not like that’s a big deal.”

“You…” she began, her face growing hot with him throwing his hands up. A lot of people had looked down on her for that and most people wouldn’t be that comfortable with a teacher sleeping with their student. Joel being that accepting wasn’t something that she was used to. “There is a big problem with it though. He just…he was…”

“Married?” he finished for her getting her to look down toward the center of her lap. “Again, I don’t know who was married and who wasn’t married. And I lost mine a whole lot younger than you. In the area I lived in, there wasn’t a whole lot for younger folks to do so we’d get in trouble. A lot. I’m not gonna judge you. Plus, you seem to have a type.”

“I do?” her eyebrow quirked and he nodded. “What’s my type.”

“Well, you slept with your coach slash teacher. You were dating the lead surgeon. You are attracted to that kind of power imbalance. Which makes sense. You are strong willed, but you had someone else run your life, so you are attracted to that. And also older men,” he threw out his thoughts glad to see that she wasn’t irritated with him for saying it. “Like me, I’m a switch. Life has kinda been out of my control so I need to be with someone who is capable of being a submissive sometimes for me to be a dominant, but I also need to be with someone who can be my dominant.”

“Good to know,” she commented with a smirk, glad that he wasn’t upset with her for what she said. “To also further your assumption though. I was the one that ended it, not because I was going off to college but because I started to like him too much. And I knew it would lead to nothing good in the end.”

“Hmm…I see,” he slurred, dragging his thumb across his bottom lip. “Not good in bed?”

“Oh no, he was great,” she alerted him, getting him to suck in a sharp breath of air. “Really, really good. He was very arrogant, but within reason.”

“Are you trying to make me jealous?” he wondered, tipping his head to the side releasing a long exhale that made her smile.

“Maybe a little bit?” she teased him, leaning forward to stare out at him with an amused expression. “Pick truth.”

“Go for it,” he did the same thing as her, sliding to the edge of his chair so that he was closer to her.

“If you could change one thing about me, what would it be?” she asked him, surprising him that she went from a very naughty conversation to something that was somewhat serious.

“I’d like for you to think better about yourself,” he whispered, swallowing down hard when her expression changed completely. “You are so strong and the biggest bad ass that I know. You’re not afraid to put people in their place, but your self-esteem is very low because of how the world treated you. I wish you could see yourself the way that I see you. Beautiful. Strong. Unique. Passionate. A pain in the ass, but in the best of ways. And capable of anything. Somehow you managed to make me something I never thought was possible. You’re special. And you should…”

Before he could continue his statement, she leaned forward to brace her hand against the table to steal a kiss from his lips silencing his words. Kissing her back, he hummed against her flesh and smiled when she leaned back and lowered down into her seat again.

“Well, you jumped ahead because that was the dare that I was about to give you. I wanted you to kiss me,” he pointed toward his lips with a weak smile and it made her laugh. “You know what surprised me about you?”

“That you actually ended up liking me?” she joked provoking him to groan and roll his eyes before dropping back against the chair further.

“That even blasted drunk, your talents can match your mouth. You’re a headmaster,” he claimed with an entertained sound when he realized she didn’t know where he was going with that at first. When she knew what he was saying, he couldn’t help but laugh as she gasped. “I’m just sayin’ when people run their mouths about how good at sex they are, they really aren’t all that good. Your last boyfriend was a moron. I’m surprised I’m not completely drained with how much I have come in the last few days.”

“You’ve been storing it for a while,” she countered eliciting a deep, raspy laugh from him since that was not what he was expecting. “I don’t usually run my mouth off like that when I’m not drunk. It’s just when alcohol gets into me…”

“You get arrogant,” he interrupted her, snapping his fingers at her and giving her a wink. “There is nothing wrong with bragging to potential lovers, it’s just when you tell the whole damn town, that’s when there is a problem.”

“I mean if you got it…” she rambled hearing Joel’s growl in response and she licked her lips. “I can make someone last as long or as short as I want them too. It’s just sometimes I like to hand the wheel over to someone else, like I’ve been doing with you. You seem to want to be dominant right now. And I like how it feels. When it’s my turn, you’ll see what I mean.”

“I do enjoy a woman that knows how to climb up on top and take what she wants,” he pat his thigh, motioning her to come over and sit with him. “I am a cowboy after all.”

“Oh, is that right?” she got up from the chair that she was in drawing Joel’s eyebrow to arch when she headed over toward the gift shop. Originally, he thought she was getting up to come and sit in his lap, so he tossed his hand up in the air when she headed the opposite way. Motioning him to wait, she backstepped toward the shop. Taking a look around, she grabbed something and came back with a cowboy hat. With an amused expression, he stared up at her as she approached him. Stepping before him, she placed it in over his head and adjusted it so it fit him correctly. Color flooded into his face with his head tipping back to stare up at her. “It suits you.”

“Ma’am,” he grunted allowing his southern drawl to linger, tipping the hat down slightly. A laugh escaped her lips with him hooking his arm loosely around her waist. Carefully pulling her in over him, he couldn’t help but smile himself when she fell in against his chest. Adjusting her body, she balanced herself in over him, cupping his face tenderly in her hands. Caressing at the backs of her thighs with her knees resting at each side of him, he felt a warmth flooding throughout his body. She was sweeping her thumbs in against the sides of his face, almost calming him with her touch. “You have a cowboy kink, huh?”

“I have a Joel Miller kink. There is just something about you that drives me crazy,” she slurred lowering in closer to bring their lips together in an extended, passionate sweep. With a pleased sound, he tipped his head back and stared out at her with his chocolate brown eyes. “Everything about you appeals to me.”

“As your new boyfriend? I like to hear that,” he hummed, raising his palms up to firmly squeeze at her bottom. Gasping, she tipped the cowboy hat back on his head with his dark eyes locking with hers. One of his hands remained over her ass while the other settled in against the small of her back. “You know what cowboy? I have an idea. Be on watch.”

“Be on watch?” he repeated, visibly unaware of what she meant. Sucking in a sharp breath of air, he felt his body tense up when she cautiously lowered herself between his legs onto the ground. Grunting, he pulled forward with her tugging him toward the edge of the seat. Nervously gazing around, he half laughed when she started pulling apart his belt. “We are in public you know. Someone could show up.”

“This late?” she spoke as her hands started to work apart his jeans getting the zipper down. With a huff, he tried to come up with an answer and shrugged his shoulders. “In all of your time working here has anyone ever come down here at night or arrived after midnight?”

“Yeah,” he grunted, his eyelids growing heavy when she tugged his pants down in the front just enough for her to reach for the waistband of his boxer briefs. Wincing out, he huffed when the contrast of the cool air surrounded his revealed flesh. “I mean it was only you, but with my luck…”

“We’re in the back, no one is going to see as long as you pay attention,” she alerted him, palming at his manhood getting his eyes to flutter to a close. Easily his length was warming up beneath her touch and he choked. “Just listen and make sure we don’t get caught.”

“I don’t know if this is…” he started to speak watching her head lower down and when the warmth of her mouth surrounded his semi erect cock it had his head tipping back against the chair. All of his responsibilities and worries escaped him in that moment. Closing his eyes, his strength to fight was simply gone while she easily got him rigid in no time with the way her tongue and mouth worked to pleasure him. “This is crazy.”

Licking his lips, he opened his eyes again and took a look around to make sure they were still all alone. Truthfully? It was hard to focus with her giving him a blowjob. Did he focus on her? Did he focus on the inn? Even though there was a sense of panic there, it wasn’t enough for him to get her to stop. If they were caught, it really depended on the person who found them what would happen. Most of the town liked him, but there were some that definitely were not fans of him.

“Fuck me,” he winced, his fingers shaking when he lowered his hand and placed it faintly over the center of her back to caress over her shoulders. Allowing her to take the reins on this whole thing, he couldn’t believe that he was actually letting her do this. They had suggested they would do something so much more public than this, but he never really thought they would follow through with it. Then again? They almost did something like this at The Tipsy Bison and they may have if Tommy didn’t interrupt them. Everything about this was honestly a major turn on for him though. Whether it was the set up with them being in the lobby near a warm fireplace or the fact it was possible someone could walk in at any moment, it had him incredibly enthusiastic with what she was doing. Having her pleasuring him like this allowed him to really get a sense of just how good she was with his body. Really, he prided himself on being able to last a significant amount of time when it came to things, but with the way her mouth was moving over him he could tell that she was working him right up to that moment of pure euphoria. And right when it felt like he was going to come, he was quickly stopped. Even though he was trying to be silent, a raspy moan escaped his throat and his fingers cupped at the back of her head. What she was doing was proving a point in bringing him to almost orgasming, edging him just perfectly and then stopping him right when he felt like he was about to come undone. Stroking his fingers at the back of her neck, he grunted and did his best to hold it together. “I’m not sure it’s the best idea for you to be dragging this out.”

Instead of listening to him, he kept up with her movements sticking with the steady pace she had set. Noticeably, she was validating what she had said in the bar that night when she was drunk. She was capable of controlling his pleasure. How easily she was edging him and bringing him right to the brink of an orgasm but then quickly halting it was driving him crazy. And she kept doing it.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he groaned out, his Adam’s apple bouncing in his throat. In that moment, every part of his body was on fire and it felt like the room was spinning around him. A wet popping sound followed when she pulled her mouth from his rigid cock. Stroking her fingers over the length of his erection caused his breathing to grow louder and broken. Smirking, she pressed a delicate kiss against the shaft drawing forth another delicious low rumble of a moan from his throat. “Do I have to dare you to allow me to come? Or would you rather me beg?”

“I don’t know,” she exhaled, a wicked smirk tugging at her lips while her hand unhurriedly caressed at his saliva covered manhood. Testing the flesh in her grasp had a muscle twitching at the corner of his jaw with him sucking in a sharp breath of air. “Hearing you beg would be very sexy.”

“You are such a greedy girl,” he grumbled, reaching out to drag his thumb across her wet bottom lip. The sensation caused her eyes to flutter to a close and he growled out. “Please, would you allow me to come?”

“How do you want it?” she stammered, her eyes coming to a slow open while she continued to tease her fingertips up and over his throbbing ache. Focusing at the tip had his hips bouncing up toward her touch with him letting out something that resembled a whimper that made her smile. “Do you want to rush this or do you want to live out the closest we ever will to a fantasy of ours?”

“Meaning…?” his right eyebrow quipped, his head tipping to the side when she stood up slowly. A worried breath escaped him until he saw her turning away from him. Swallowing down hard, he watched as she managed to push her pants down slowly. Clearing his throat, he shifted in the chair and worked to push his pants down lower realizing where this was going. Reaching out, he hooked his right arm around her waist. With his left, he grabbed a hold of his cock and helped her lower down in over him. The movement was slow with her grasping at his thighs to brace herself as her warmth enveloped him, leaving her with that same addictive stretching feeling. Once she bottomed out, she paused to experience the full sensation. Joel’s palm pressed in over her lower abdomen while his left hand grasped at her hip. Burying his nose against the side of her neck, he peppered kisses against her flesh and heard her panting. “You are so fucking naughty.”

Wincing, he felt her fingertips digging into his thighs when she started to lift her hips up just slightly before lowering them again. Taking another quick look back, he made sure that they were alone. Yeah, this probably wasn’t something they should have been doing, but they were addicted to one another. Right now? They were having a hell of a time keeping their hands off one another. Pretty quickly, her movements went from slow to her rocking herself back against him in swift, firm movements.

When he told her that he liked having a woman that dominated him, she was taking that very seriously with the way she took control of this moment. Watching, he hummed at the way her body bounced over his taking him in time and time again. By how sensitive he already was with her overstimulating him with the blowjob previously, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to last long. But he was pretty sure that’s where she was headed with all of this. Each movement of her hips over his was confident and steady leaving the smacking of their skin filling the area around them.

Squeezing tighter to her hip, he felt his body tensing up and she no doubt caught onto the throbbing of his cock inside of her because her movements over him grew faster and harder. Worried about her, his hand dropped down between her thighs to caress at her clit hoping to get her off at the same time as him. What was supposed to be the two of them being quiet wasn’t very quiet at all. Biting into his bottom lip, he had to silence himself when his hips bounced up toward her with the first hint of his release. Muted groans filled the air, his caress over her body more determined while she continued to move over him until she hit her orgasm as well. Lifting his hand up, he covered her mouth when she fell back against his chest. Nipping at the side of her neck, he winced when she rolled her hips over him a few final times.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” he chuckled against her jawline, groaning out with the way her tight canal still contracted around him after her orgasm. Hooking his arm around her waist, he pressed tender kisses over the side of her neck and in over her jawline.

“We don’t want that,” she hushed him, whimpering when she shakily pulled herself up from him and quickly pulled her pants back up over her body. Grunting, Joel was quick to get his pants back up and while he worked together his belt he noticed that she was staring at the clock. “Why don’t we go to my room?”

“I’m supposed to be working,” he reminded her, dragging his tongue out across his bottom lip. Right now his heart was still hammering inside of his chest and his body felt like it was on an incredible high. Adjusting the cowboy hat she placed over his head, he cleared his throat and growled. “What happens if someone shows up or wakes up and needs something?”

“Has that happened often around this time of the year?” she lowered back down to sit in his lap. Stroking her fingers against the side of his face had him humming out with a smirk. Sinking her fingers into his graying, dark hair she caressed her fingertips at his scalp and he tipped his head to look back at her with awe. “We can sneak you out, get you back down here by the time someone is supposed to switch with you.”

“Like I said, only one time we’ve had someone show up late,” he responded with a wrinkle of his nose. “And that was you.”

“No one is crazy like me, so then you should be okay,” she suggested, smiling at the way that he chuckled at her trying to get him to play hooky. “I’m the one person silly enough to show up in the middle of the night near Christmas time.”

“Touché, but Tommy would kill me if he found out I left the place empty to go run off with you,” he suggested, snorting at the way she dramatically shrugged her shoulders. “If someone showed up during the middle of the night, he would never let me live it down.”

“I think you’ll be okay,” she hushed, stealing a quick kiss from his lips. Standing up from his lap, her legs still felt like Jell-O as she reached her hand out for his. Taking a moment to think out his options, he sighed loudly and then accepted her hand. Allowing her to pull him up from the seat, he followed her to the stairs and made sure that no one was around. “It doesn’t hurt to be the rebel sometimes.”

“You have no idea,” he grumbled, moving swiftly to pick her up in his arms causing her to gasp out when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to keep herself from falling. Laughing, he was quick to finish getting up the stairs and he moved for the bedroom. “I have a feeling I would do just about anything you asked me to.”

“Unless it’s having you sing for me,” she reminded him with a frown, her fingers playing with the tiny curls of hair at the back of his neck that was exposed beneath the cowboy hat. “But I’ll get you to sing for me one day.”

“Not a chance,” his nose wrinkled with him chuckling in amusement while he fumbled to get the door opened to her suite. “But you can keep trying if it makes you happy.”

----

Loud knocking sounds filled the air with Y/N’s head tiredly lifting from her pillow. Behind heavy eyelids, it took her a minute to gather herself when she realized by the rays of the sunshine that were flooding into her room that it must have been morning. Yawning, she still felt incredibly tired with the warmth of Joel’s arms wrapped around her with him sleeping behind her. Since being here, she realized that she was actually capable of having a good night’s sleep. She just needed Joel to make her feel relaxed and comfortable for once in her life.

Going to lay her head back down, she let out a frustrated breath when the sound of the knocking continued. At this point? She wondered how long the knocking had gone on because it sounded very aggressive. Huffing out, she looked back over her shoulder to see that Joel was still deep in sleep. His breathing was loud and he couldn’t have been bothered by the sounds of the knocking. Right now, he needed his sleep and she knew that.

Managing to get out of his arms without waking him, she reached for his shirt that they had deposited on the floor the night before. Pulling it up over her arms, she worked together the buttons as she made her way toward the door. Joel’s shirt was just long enough to cover her naked form and she assumed that would be more than enough at the moment to figure out whatever the hell was going on.

Stumbling over a few things, she realized that she was still exhausted and barely awake. Bracing her hand against the wall, she allowed it to help her make it to the door before she finally undid the locks. Opening the door, she gasped when someone pushed through and she let out a frustrated sound seeing that Tommy was standing at the center of her sitting room.

“Please Tommy, why don’t you come in?” she huffed, holding her hand up to gesture him coming into the room before closing the door with a grunt. By the time she gazed upon Tommy’s expression she could see that he was irritated with his hands resting at his hips. “Can I help you?”

“I need to speak with my brother,” Tommy explained, his eyebrows furrowing with his jaw clenching. Noticing that he was angry, she folded her arms in front of her chest and tipped her head to the side.

“What makes you think your brother is here?” she questioned knowing that Joel was sleeping and he deserved to have time to relax.

“I just know and if I didn’t…” Tommy paused to point out at her to circle her body to bring her attention to the fact that she was wearing Joel’s shirt. “I’m pretty sure that’s all I would need to know that my brother is in your bedroom right now.”

Going to move around her, Tommy grunted when she pressed her hands firmly into the center of his chest to get him to back up, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is one of those moments Tommy where I need to put my foot down and tell you to knock it off. You are the co-owner of this inn so that does give you some rights, but right now you’re in my room. You pushed your way through and now you’re trying to charge into my bedroom right now where your brother is sleeping. Your brother has a very hard time sleeping so…”

“I respect you and understand you’re right that I shouldn’t have barged in,” Tommy acknowledged, interrupting her speech while holding his hand up in the air to get her to stop. “But this is a moment where it cannot wait and truthfully? I reckon the both of you should hear what I have to say anyways.”

“The hell is goin’ on?” the sound of Joel’s tired voice was heard and they both looked toward the door of the bedroom. Standing in the doorway, Joel was leaning against the doorframe. His hand was holding the sheet that he had pulled with him over himself to keep his naked body covered, but hardly. It made her face flush over and she looked to Tommy who rolled his eyes. “Why are you comin’ in here guns blazing little brother? Aren’t you supposed to be gone on your trip?”

“I needed to talk to you first,” Tommy asserted with Joel huffing out and working to wrap the sheet around his waist. “I don’t even know where to start with you Joel. I asked you to do one thing last night and that was your job. I needed you to stay out there until seven. That was when Jesse was goin’ to show up and then you could have taken off. But what do you think Jesse told me when I showed up this morning?”

“I don’t know, but I reckon it wasn’t much cus’ that boy don’t complain about anything,” Joel retorted with a huff, folding his arms in front of his naked chest. “But why don’t you let me know whatever it is you’re angry about so I can go back to bed for a few hours.”

“He told me that you weren’t there when he got here,” Tommy explained causing Joel to nod slowly and swallow down hard. “And then I got to thinking, I wonder when Joel decided to take off. So I checked the cameras. Do y’know how long you kept the lobby empty Joel?”

“Did someone show up?” he inquired, throwing his right hand up realizing that Y/N appeared to look like she was feeling guilty for making him play hooky with her. The color left Tommy’s features when he sucked in a sharp breath of air and dropped his head. “No, right? So why are you here lecturing me? No one stole nothin’. No one needed help.”

“For fuck’s sake Joel, it’s the idea,” Tommy stressed to Joel, shifting on his feet angrily. Huffing out, he looked between the two of them and let out an irritated breath. “I support the two of you getting together, I do. I want that for you. I am the most excited person here for it,” Tommy defended himself, reaching up to place his hand over the center of his chest to express his emotions, “but you can’t just run off like that. What if someone would have shown up? What if Jesse wouldn’t have made it to his shift?”

“But that didn’t happen,” Joel reasoned with Tommy, grunting out at the idea that his brother was so upset. “I did it once Tommy. On Christmas Eve when I knew we would be okay. I’m co-owner of this inn and I think I know what I’m doin’ little brother. Everything worked itself out and…”

“Do y’know what woulda happened if Maria made it here first? If she checked the tapes?” Tommy hushed Joel, continuing to lecture him when he then looked to Y/N to include her in this moment. “I had to delete video footage from last night and I sure as hell hope Maria don’t notice.”

Choking, Joel felt a heat flooding into his face with the glare that Y/N gave him when she looked back over her shoulder, “When did we uh, when did we…” Joel paused realizing that his brother must have seen what they had done by the expression over his face, “When did we put cameras over there? Because as far as I remembered, I thought we only had them at the entrances, the stairs and the hallways near the bar and restaurant.”

“After we rented out the ballroom and that fight started. Remember how they broke some of our things?” Tommy reminded Joel who let out a long exhale when realization struck him. “I’m gonna have to get a new chair now.”

“Well, to be fair we didn’t make a mess,” Joel defended getting a gasp to escape Y/N and he held his hand out as if to apologize. “I’m just saying, it’s not like anything got on the chair. He’s acting like the chair needs to be set ablaze. You can’t tell me that people haven’t had sex in our inn Tommy. And we ain’t setting the beds on fire. People have sex.”

“What if someone would have caught you Joel?” Tommy reasoned with his brother who still didn’t seem to be too worried. “And what about you? What if you would have been arrested for being caught doing something like that in public? Would your job be okay with it?”

“We’re doin’ a whole lot of what ifs right now and I think you need to relax,” Joel stressed stepping forward to reach out to place his hand in over Y/N’s shoulder to get her to realize that she didn’t need to respond to Tommy. “I appreciate that you deleted the footage and I’ll take into consideration what you’re saying to me.”

“I don’t mean to be rude Joel, but how did the two of you even have it in you to come back up here and continue what you were doing down there? You’re an old man,” Tommy blurt out, embarrassing Joel who grunted out showing that he was uneasy with what Tommy was saying. “Do you know how long what the two of you did last night lasted?”

“Do you?” Y/N snapped, her eyes getting big with Tommy looking to her with an uncomfortable expression. “You watched the video?”

“I didn’t watch it, but I had to scroll through in order to delete things,” Tommy reasoned with her, tipping his head from side to side while attempting to think of what to say next. “And I’m just saying the time stamp was quite a while. I’m surprised he has any body fluids left inside of him.”

“Are we done here?” Joel scoffed, the tension clearly visible in his body from being lecture by his little brother. “I reckon we’re both happy that you deleted the video. I’m sorry if you’re disappointed in us for fooling around, but we don’t regret what we did nor do I wish it didn’t happen. Yes, I’m old. But for the first time in a long time, I’m happy. And I would think that’s something you would want for me.”

That had Tommy going silent and the emotions on his face completely change. Instead of being angry and combative, it seemed like Tommy actually felt guilty for coming in here to lecture them, “You’re right. I’m sorry.”  

Silence followed. No one else knew what to say as Joel kept his stare locked on his younger brother who seemed like he was thoroughly upset with himself, “Just be a little more careful, okay?”

“We’ll do our best,” she responded, moving in beside Joel who loosely wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in closer to him. “Maybe you can go a little easy on us too. What do you think?”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Tommy breathed out, reaching up to brush his long hair back behind his ear. After a moment, it was obvious that Tommy felt out of place and weird standing in the middle of her sitting room and he shifted on his feet. “Maria is probably waiting for me and I should go. I will see the two of you tomorrow?”

“That was the plan,” Joel replied, swallowing down hard when Tommy gave him a small nod. Heading for the door, Joel called out to Tommy having him stop when he started to open the door. “Have a good Christmas Eve with Maria, Tommy.”

“Thank you,” Tommy gave them a final nod before leaving them alone in the room together.

“I am so sorry,” she immediately apologized, turning to look at Joel as she placed her hand in over the center of her chest. “You knew how Tommy would react and I’m the one that convinced you to play hooky in order to spend time with me.”

“I’m not sorry,” he declared with a huff, standing up straighter from where he was in the doorway. Stretching out his body, he let out a grunt and could see her eyes gazing upon the lengths of his naked torso. “You heard Tommy. Nothing bad happened. No one showed up. He was just throwing a fit to throw a fit. It’s probably a payback thing for all the years I had to play father for him when he was getting in trouble. He wants to be able to do it to me now.”

“Fair enough,” she stepped before him, reaching out to place her hand in over the center of his chest. Instinctively, his hands settled at her hips and he sighed loudly with his dark eyes gazing down upon her. “I’m surprised you didn’t know about the cameras though. I am going to have the hardest time looking your brother in the eye knowing that he has seen me naked more than some of my actual dates have.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He’s very much in love with his wife, so it’s not something he will be focusing on,” he insisted with a huff, lowering down enough to press his forehead in against hers. “He’ll be doing his best to erase it from his memory. That’s one thing I can promise you. The last thing he wants to think about is another woman, especially considering he has had to see me naked plenty too.”

Pressing a tender kiss against her temple, Joel hummed and wrapped her up in his arms, “Do you have any plans today?”

“Considering I know so many people here in town…” she started, tipping her head back enough to lock eyes with him drawing out a tired smirk from him.

“So that means you wouldn’t mind spending Christmas Eve with me then?” he confirmed getting an immediate nod from her. Smirking, he leaned down and peppered playful kisses against her lips. “Good, because I already made plans for us today. And hopefully, you like them.”

----

Tags: @jdmorganz @carolineesnell @ayumi-wolf @dilfsandmartinis @christinamadsen

@brittmb115 @thegirlwiththemostcake3 @ashleyfilm

[ladykailitha]

The Caged Bird Still Sings Part 7

This story is just coming right along. I've decided that it is split into three acts. The Arrangement, The Turn, and The Embrace. The first is about Steve adjusting to his new life. The second is thinking he needs to get out of the situation. And lastly the third is about finding acceptance and love with Eddie.

Yesterday for WIP Wednesday, I finished act 1. I figure if I pace this right, each act will be roughly ten chapters. But we'll see.

In this Eddie is sweet as always, Steve goes clothes shopping, and Chrissy misunderstands what Steve is trying to do.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

~

Steve woke up to the sound of someone knocking on his door. He looked at the clock on the nightstand blearily. It was a little after nine am.

The knocking began again and he got unsteadily to his feet and wandered over to the door. He opened it.

Behind the door was a porter. “My apologies for the rude awakening, sir. But this came for you, marked ‘Urgent’.”

In the porter’s hands was a small box. Steve nodded and took the box. He set it on the side table and grabbed his wallet. He tipped the porter and grunted his thanks before slamming the door.

He trotted back over to the bed and flopped face first back into his pillows.

The next time he awoke it was more naturally, and closer to 10:30am than 9am. He rolled over on his back with a sigh. He’d missed breakfast, but he didn’t mind. He was tired. Just the feeling of nothingness clung to his chest like a heavy blanket.

He sat up and spotted the box. He picked it up and padded over to the desk. He looked around it for a moment and to his delight he found a letter opener.

“Thank god, for fussy hotels,” he murmured as he used the letter opener to open the box. He set the letter opener down and then took the box over to the sofa. He loved comfy it was despite it being black in color.

He pulled at the packaging to reveal a pair of designer sunglasses. Steve smiled as he pulled it out. Eddie must have thought of it when he heard Steve’s message about his day. All the driving around he did.

He picked up the phone and called Eddie.

“Hey, little Canary,” Eddie purred. “Did you sleep well?”

“Nearly,” Steve said with a hint of smile in his tone. “I got this urgent package from this hot rich guy that the front desk just had to wake me up for.”

“Whoops!” Eddie said, chagrin. “I didn’t think it would get there until this afternoon, sweetheart.”

Steve laughed. “It’s okay, I was able to go right back to sleep. Even remembered to tip the porter.”

“All’s well that end’s well,” Eddie said softly.

They talked for a bit before Steve said, “Oh, I was meaning to ask you. I have something I wanted to send to you. Is there an address or something I can send it to, to make sure you get it?”

“Aww...little Canary,” Eddie teased back, “you don’t have to send me anything. I like buying you things.”

“Oh I know,” Steve replied. “But I think you’ll really get a kick out this one, though.”

“Sure thing, baby,” Eddie said. “I’ll talk to Chrissy and she’ll give you a call with the information. How does that sound?”

“That sounds perfect, Eddie,” Steve murmured.

“What are your plans for today?”

Steve licked his lips as he thought about it. “Probably some clothes shopping now that I have this fancy black card to splash around.”

Eddie laughed. “You do that, baby. Just tell me which stores you’re going to so I can make sure they’re warned ahead of time about the card. Places like that are super weird about new people coming in with that kind of cash.”

“Ooh...” Steve said with a grimace. “Yeah, I saw that happen once. This woman had won the lottery or something and she came into the shop when I was there with my mom. The sales woman was absolute horrid to her and chased her out. My mom threw the newspaper on the counter and walked out. The front page had the picture of the woman and her three million dollar prize check. It was one of the few times I ever saw my mom do something remotely nice like that.”

After they hung up, Steve got up grabbed the box of truffles. He took a couple out to the box to eat while he gather up his things for a shower. He thought about hitting the gym again, but he wasn’t sure if the pink bitch was still here and he wanted to avoid her like the plague. And while he knew he could swim instead, he decided to take the day off.

Yesterday had been rough and he wanted to do a little bit of retail therapy.

Steve got dressed in his most high end clothing he had and made his way out to his car. Which he knew would be another indicator that he had come from money. His new wallet was designer, just like his new sunglasses.

He primped in the mirror a little to make sure every hair was in place and then he gathered all his stuff and made for his car.

He pulled up to the row of boutiques his mother used to frequent before she started getting her clothes from Paris and Milan. Steve personally thought these places had better quality stuff, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

He walked into the first boutique and looked around. He kept his sunglasses on until one of the sales women came up to him. Then he lifted him and set them on top of his head. He smiled at her brightly.

“Welcome to Le Chique!” she said cheerily. “How can I help you today?” She was dressed smartly in a knee length pencil skirt and cream silk blouse. She wore high heeled pumps and had her hair pulled back into a tight bun.

“Hi,” Steve greeted back. “I’m just looking to update my wardrobe. Get a little more of an adult style.”

He could see the fucking dollar signs lit up behind her eyes. She clapped her hands together and rubbed them greedily.

“Right this way,” she said, waving her arm in front of her and Steve stepped forward, further into the store. “I’m Olivia and I’ll be happy to assist you today.”

Steve tried on so many clothes he thought his head was going to spin. But never once did Olivia falter. He finally got an updated look. It was similar to what he usually wore with the jeans and polos. But he also got button down shirts and tailored slacks and pants. Everything that fit went with him and everything else that needed to be tailored would be picked up by a PA of Eddie’s and brought to the hotel.

In fact when he got back to the hotel, the mysterious PA had struck again. On his bed was a large box. As he got closer he could see it was from the shop he was at earlier today.

He didn’t know what it could be. He had everything he wanted from the shop. He had even gotten help carrying all his bags up the hotel room by a couple of porters, both of whom Steve tipped well. He kept an eye on the package the whole time he took off the tags and put away his clothes in the dresser and closet.

Once Steve was done he walked over to the package a tad warily. He knew it had come from Eddie. There was no one else it could have come from. He undid the silk ribbon and pulled it off gently. He lifted the lid and set it to the side. He then moved the tissue paper out of the way.

Inside was the most beautiful cream colored suit he had ever seen. He opened the jacket touched the black silk lining. Sticking out of the pocket of the breast pocket was a note. He pulled it out. In the loopy handwriting of the sales woman were the words, “I wanted to get you something special. I hope you’ll wear this for me when I get back to Hawkins.”

Steve shook his head, smiling fondly. He walked over to the phone and called Eddie. He bounced on the bed as it rang through.

“Hey, little Canary,” Eddie purred. “How was your shopping trip?”

“It was marvelous,” Steve giggled. “Though if you want me calling you at times other then when you buy presents, you’re going to have slow up a bit. It’s gorgeous, by the way.”

Eddie laughed. “You got me there, hon. But I’m glad you like the suit. I wanted to surprise you with it. I when I called about the card earlier, I told them that once they got your measurements to set it aside.”

“How did it get here before I did?” Steve asked, twirling the cord around his finger.

“See, I knew you would have a lot of clothes and couldn’t carry it up yourself, so I just made sure to have my little elf slip in while you were dealing with the porters.”

“Sneaky!” he crowed. “I love it. I even bought the perfect shirt to go with it. It’s black and grey in kind of watercolor like stripes. Add a black pocket square and some nice shoes I bought and I’d be the talk of the town.”

“Well you’re already the talk of my world,” Eddie murmured, causing Steve to blush dark red. “Have you eaten yet, little Canary?”

Damn. Steve knew he had forgotten something.

“No...” he whined. “I just got so excited about shopping that it slipped my mind.”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll have dinner sent up to you. I think you’ll really like their hamburgers.”

Steve smiled at that. He had gone out to Benny’s to get a good burger, and they had them here. “Sounds good.”

They talked for a little bit more before Eddie had to go so that he could order Steve dinner, so they said their goodbyes and hung up.

Steve decided to take a shower while he was waiting on his food. He gathered up his things including his new hair products he bought yesterday.

He got undressed and turned on the hot water, letting the steam fill the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked at every angle of his face and had to admit that he actually looked happy. And wasn’t that a fucking trip.

He had thought he was happy before all this. Yeah, sure his dad was a jerk and his mom was useless, but he had friends, money, a car. Hell, he even had a boyfriend in this backwater hick town.

And then it all fell apart.

He hated how all his friends scattered the second the chips were down. He hated how Tommy turned tail and didn’t even try to take Steve with him. He had no doubt that soon enough the town would be all a twitter about Tommy and Carol and how cute they were together.

It was all bullshit.

The only people that cared about him were the people that would get hurt the most by all this and Steve was determined to keep them out of it.

Just before he got into the shower, the phone rang.

He let out a sigh and went to go answer it. There were only three people who had his number, Eddie, Dustin, and Eddie’s manager, Chrissy. All people Steve didn’t want to leave hanging.

“Hello?” he greeted.

“Steve?” a cool female voice asked. “This is Chrissy, Corroded Coffin’s manager. I understand you wanted to send Eddie something?”

“Oh!” Steve cried. “Yes, thank you for getting back to me so soon. Yeah, it’s not very big, say about the size of a 3x5 picture frame?” He hurried over to the desk, dragging the phone and stretching its cord to the limit to pull out a pen and some hotel stationary.

She hummed. “It’s not, risque is it?”

He laughed. “What? No! It’s nothing like that I promise.”

“Okay,” Chrissy said skeptically. “We have people opening packages before they get sent to the band so don’t send anything you don’t want a total stranger to see.”

“I promise it will mean absolutely nothing to the poor soul that opens their mail,” he informed her, “but he will absolutely get a kick out of it.”

Steve could tell she was still leery about it, but he wasn’t going to ruin the surprise.

She let out a sigh. “Fine. Here’s the address to send it to.” She rattled off an address and Steve dutifully wrote it down. “By the time it gets there, they should be back in LA, so it’ll go to their main mail box.”

He wrote band PO Box over the address and underlined it. “Great, thanks.”

“Now do you need anything else that isn’t their personal information?” she huffed.

Steve winced, he could tell she wasn’t happy being Eddie’s errand girl and by extension, his.

“No,” he said, “Just that. It’s just a small token that I think he’d like.”

“All right,” she said. “Good evening.”

“Good evening!” he chirped back.

Once she had hung up, Steve shook his head. He knew it was her job to to look out for the band. But it wasn’t that big of deal. What she think she was going to do send his dirty panties to the guy?

Not!

He looked down at himself and sighed. He had carried that whole conversation completely naked. He padded back to the bathroom and stepped into the shower.

He stepped under the stream of water and let it soothe him. He was still smarting a little from Chrissy’s attitude. She seemed friendly enough at the bar and genuinely wanted to see Eddie and Steve hit it off.

But something between then and now she had completely soured on him. That was a problem for future Steve, though. Right now in this moment he was going to enjoy his shower, watch some TV and enjoy the burger Eddie was having sent up.

~

Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24

Tag List: CLOSED

1- @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog @beelze-the-bubkiss

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @cryptid-system

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @sticknpokelightningbolt

9- @scoops-aboy86 @kurofuckingshi16 @watermelonmite @eyehartart @dreamercec

10- @little-birch-boy @yearningagain @micheledawn1975 @blondie1006 @sadisticaltarts

[pipsqueakparker]

the third act break up

helluva boss isn't a romance but it also kind of is, and if we're considering romance genre tropes/structure, we're mid-third act break up right now.... which is one of my least favorite tropes BUT in this case, it's being played well and the writers are using it to genuinely deepen/further blitz's character

just in comparison, i'm almost finished reading this book that lowkey highkey sucks - i'm not gonna name it, i don't like shitting directly on a book usually, but it's the 3rd in a series of romance books & in it we ofc have the third act break up done in a bad way. (pls don't take this as me shitting on the romance genre at all, i adore romance books, i even liked this author's first book)

1, the stakes: the stakes for blitz & stolas (relationship-wise) are like kinda mundane really but feel so fucking high because we see how genuinely they feel for each other and we've watched that change over the course of the show - especially here in season 2. when it comes to stakes, they don't have to literally be life or death, they just have to feel that way to the characters and then by extension to us.

"when i see him tonight" gave us the stakes, that song alone solidified how much this relationship means to both of them. "i'll fucking die alone if this goes bad" - yes, thank you stolas, i feel that.

in comparison, in this book, the stakes are shaky. the mc is a woman who's never felt good enough to be loved & doesn't want a traditional relationship that ends in marriage and children & the love interest is an actor with big dreams that gets an offer to do a show across the country. we're being told they're high, but it's not really being SHOWN. i don't feel it, i don't feel like these characters will really fucking die if one of them moves across the country for six months, y'know?

2, the miscommunication/lack of communication: another trope i hate is miscommunication/lack of communication - unless it makes sense.

in the book, love interest never tells mc about the job offer - but for why? it gets blamed on her anxiety disorder, which i also took issue with the portrayal of that, but it never digs deeper into why she really feels like telling mc about the job offer could negatively impact their relationship. (it's still new, it might make the mc feel pre-abandoned, etc. etc there are so many ways this COULD have been something to not mention, but instead.... she just didn't)

blitz & stolas? they literally just can't sit down and have a calm chat, and that makes fucking sense for them as characters. @rusty-lustful-fireflies made this post comparing their trauma responses that i thought was brilliant -def check it out, and in the meantime i'll summarize it like this: blitz lashes out and stolas folds in. their conversation in full moon is one of the best examples of a misunderstanding between two characters i've seen, they are both taking each other's words the wrong way, but it makes sense as to why they're doing that. when stolas asks for the grimoire back, blitz immediately jumps to abandonment, he's lost everyone in his life and he has this one really really good thing going with stolas that he doesn't want to change and bam. it's changing. he's angry. he's going to say it.

stolas... could have worded things better, i understand why that was blitz's first thought, but stolas was trying to make it this grand gesture and it just wasn't hitting your audience, sweetie. blitz wasn't made for grand romantic gestures, he's a ball of trauma. and he acts accordingly. and stolas, in response, realizes "i've buffed it", is probably triggered from getting yelled at considering HIS own trauma.... i could deep dive their conversations at the end of FM and the beginning of AT, but we've all analyzed those to death. we get it. the point is... it made sense. neither of them were technically in the right or the wrong, it was just genuinely not being able to effectively communicate because they were both heightened and thus... we get the third act break up that's not really a break up. which brings me to...

3, the aftermath/development: yes, the third act breakup is meant to be the thing that pushes our characters to actually fix something within themselves... and we're still mid break up, but with ghostfuckers, i think we can see that being done. one thing specifically stood out to me as evidence that this is something more significant to blitz than any usual fight or breakup.

this post from @timkontheunsure was the first one i saw discussing this part, and i've gotta say i agree wholeheartedly with it & i think this is the beginnings of genuine development for blitz. to summarize in my own words (but def go read their post too):

blitz isn't just fucked up on the idea of being/dying alone anymore, when he was fucked up on that he just went to find someone else to fuck and forget it. no, now blitz is fucked up on not having stolas specifically, and it's much deeper, to the point that he's beyond just fucking someone else to forget it. no one else could do it. he's gotta turn to the ghosts. it's the difference in coping that we're shown that makes this moment different, and this moment being different, in addition to blitz finally admitting verbally that he's fucked up over stolas in that last moment with millie, that leads me to believe we're going to get genuine character growth over the next two episodes.

and this was what made me start thinking and typing up this post, because i'm nearing the end of this book, we're mid third act breakup, and this mc is similar to blitz in her desires to have a relationship but not the way everyone expects her to have one, and in her favorite method of coping: fucking someone else until she's not sad anymore. this is how she meets the love interest, and she tries to use it again mid-book when she & love interest are fake dating and she's sad that they're not real dating - and, then, we get the break up, love interest is gone.... and she turns right back to "i gotta find someone else to fuck to get over it".... and normally i probably wouldn't have thought twice, but this time i did. because we got that fucking beautiful example of the difference between coping with being lonely & coping with being without the person you love in ghostfuckers yesterday and it was SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS FUCKING BOOK.

anyway, this is my dissertation on how this animated demon show that's not technically a romance just took a romance trope & is really doing it so much better than the literal romance book i'm reading right now.

hope you liked it. thank you for your time!

[potassiumivy]

PLAYBOY. | jjk

❥ mdni. fic masterlist.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ 006: PRETTY, PRETTIER.

✞ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐎𝐘✞

AFTER MENTIONING SUKUNA'S VESSEL, you had no trouble convincing the two other third years to accompany you back to jujutsu tech the day after. even though the decision to reintegrate you three laid in their hands, kirara and hakari weren't really nervous to face the higher-ups today.

on the other hand, you were kicking rocks with the tip of your shoe. you were oddly quiet today, and it made hakari worry a lot. he wasn't very good with comforting people, but he knew someone who was. 

and so, he lightly bumped into kirara and pointed at you discreetly, a silent signal that they should check on you instead. turns out kirara didn't quite get what the silent signal meant. 

"ugh, kin," they groaned loudly, "are you horny again? this is the second time we've—"

"what? no."

"can't you keep it in your pants?? why do you always think with your dick?" they continued, clearly fed up.

hakari tried to clear up the misunderstanding. "shut up and listen. don't get bratty now."

"ew. you're even acting like those men who unironically call themselves master." kirara fake gagged at the end. 

hakari scoffed. "i"ll never stoop that low, unlike you."

"you know what? fuck you and your fever." 

your sudden laughter stopped their bickering. wiping your tears, you pulled hakari aside, taking his place in the middle. putting your arms around their waists, you gave them a little squeeze before looking up to meet hakari's questioning gaze.

"thank you, kinji." you smiled sweetly, before turning towards your other friend. "thank you, kirara. you managed to distract me a little."

"didn't plan for it to go this way, but it worked i guess." hakari chuckled, shaking his head. "what was bothering you anyways?"

"i was just thinking about my plants." you sighed.

 "i hope someone took care of them for me."

*✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:

✞ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐎𝐘✞

*✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:

it was nostalgic to be back in the jujutsu technical college, especially when the person in front of you was the same old hag that hakari punched before kirara spat in his face. he was, in fact, the one who got you suspended. he was also the one animating the meeting or the "court" as he liked to call it.

you three with the addition of gojo were nudging each other and hiding your giggles under your hands like a bunch of kids under the observant eyes of the higher-ups and the major sorcerer clans. it was ridiculously difficult to look at this man's face and take him seriously when his left eye was still swollen and that his eyebrow would randomly twitch, courtesy of hakari hitting a nerve, literally and figuratively. 

"gojo, i don't see the necessity of you sitting with your old students."

"i give them emotional support." he stated as seriously he could. he was visibly struggling.

"they don't look like they need it."

"well, we do." kirara interrupted. "if your eyebrow didn't twitch so much, then maybe you would've seen it."

this was enough to make you four burst out of laughter.

principal yaga wasn't surprised by gojo's moronic behaviour. rising up slowly from his spot, he made his way to his ex-student and harshly grabbed his ear. 

"ow, ow, ow! stop that!" gojo whined, but yaga didn't pay him any attention as he dragged him across the room to make him sit next to him. "why am i the one getting punished anyways?"

"you're an embarrassment." gakuganji, the principal of the kyoto college, said loudly.

"and you're a breath away from death." kirara scoffed.

gojo was nonchalantly inspecting his nails, a hand under his chin. "better be soon, then."

"satoru." yaga warned.

"no wonder a brat like you used to be the teacher of those punks. disgusting." he glared at your little group. "this one doesn't have a proper technique," he pointed at hakari, "and this one, i can't even figure their gender." he scrunched his nose at kirara.

"it doesn't matter." you furrowed your eyebrows. "whoever they may be, they have a donkey dick next to you. if you have one to start with."

"you look like a cheap whore." 

"you literally look like prince philip."

gojo snorted at your reply, and that was the last straw for yaga. "you know what, satoru? get out. you're not doing anything to help their case, so i don't understand why you're staying here."

"nu-uh! i wanna stay!" he shook his head childishly. 

before being forced to leave, gojo caused yet another scene because he apparently didn't want to miss out on the so-called drama. it took yaga about 15 minutes to kick him out since he was gripping the doorframe, and the principal ended up tickling him so he would let go. 

gojo could've stayed if he really wanted to, it wasn't like anyone could measure up to him. he had a class to teach anyways, so he passed by.

now that he was gone, he just sent a better person to help your case instead.

*✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:

✞ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐎𝐘✞

*✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:    *✧･ﾟ:

"y/n. kinji. kirara." yaga called out when he came back. he gestured to the man besides him, "this is higuruma hiromi. he'll defend your case."

everything the principal said after that was white noise to you. to say that you were awestruck by this man was an understatement. you couldn't take your eyes off him.

as for higuruma, he was a little unsettled about your obvious staring. he looked down at his shoes to avoid your gaze. 

yaga dismissed you three, but you lingered behind. sensing someone approaching him, higuruma raised his head, only for your eyes to meet his.

"hi." you smiled shyly. you never felt this way. your palms felt a little sweaty and your voice cracked slightly. you blamed it on his intimidating appearance.

"hello."

"i'm y/n. just y/n."

"i know."

"i know that you know," you said, "but i wanted to introduce myself anyways."

"oh, i see. well, i'm higuruma."

you clenched the hem of your miniskirt, fluttering your eyelashes.

"y/n." you said again.

"you already introduced yourself." he was getting confused.

"i know. but my name sounds pretty when i say it myself."

"doesn't it sound pretty when other people say it?"

"it does, but not as much. it's prettier when i'm the one saying it."

he almost smiled. almost. he didn't know what you were talking about, but he did agree.

you had a pretty name. he bet it would sound pretty too if he was the one saying it, but it'll never be prettier than the way you say it.

you two were so lost in each other that you didn't see another figure listening closely to the conversation.

✞ 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐁𝐎𝐘✞ next!!

©potassiumivy, 2024. all rights reserved. do not translate / modify / republish my works.

[dilxcc]

Oop your head canons post got me intrigued,, Could you write something to show what would happen if baeks gf didn't tell him when she was going out with someone? Or anything else to show what you think his jealousy would be like hehe

only you ᡣ𐭩 byun baekhyun

fluff, slight angst, misunderstanding, jealous bacon, grammatical error

baekhyun x f!reader

it has been a while since you last saw your friend. that was why when he reached out to you, telling you he wanted to meet, you didn't hesitate and agreed immediately. except that you forgot to tell your boyfriend that you were going out with your friend. a guy, at that.

it hadn't occur to you to even tell baekhyun that you were going out with a friend. but the long talk you had with him, catching up with him about life made you forget to even check the time on your phone.

so when your friend had sent you home, with his car - you were slightly surprised to see baekhyung standing at the door with his arm crossed.

after saying goodbyes to your friend, you immediately rushed towards him a smile, arms slightly opened to pull him into a hug.

but what surprised you more was that he didn't reciprocate your hug.

you pulled away slightly, tilting your head in confusion when you looked at him. "what's wrong?" you asked softly, feeling dejected when he slipped out of your embrace. "you didn't tell me you were going out," he muttered, facing away from you.

then it clicked.

"oh... i'm sorry, baby- i really forgot to tell you," you explained, your hand resting on his arm. you could hear him sighing and pulled away. there was a deep ache in his heart. he couldn't get it out of his head. when that guy laughing with you and you smiled before saying your goodbyes.

"all you had to do was tell me," he gritted his teeth.

to be honest, he hated it. he hated being petty and trying to blame you for hanging out with your friend. it wasn't wrong. he knew it wasn't wrong. but he felt slightly insecured when he saw how you smiled at the guy. and adding the fact that you didn't tell him about it either.

he trusts you with all his heart. he does. but that image of you laughing with another guy kept on replaying in his head.

you didn't know what to do to comfort him. you felt bad and this was the first time that you had ever upset him.

.

and so the next few days, he kept on ignoring you. if he did talk to you, it would be of a mockery tone.

"this is so funny," was all you said. and he would reply with a, "oh, like how that guy made you laugh?"

it was getting on your nerves with how childish he was acting.

"baekhyun," you called him in a stern voice. he only rolled his eyes and continued eating his sandwich. "alright, what's wrong with you?" you sighed, rubbing your temples. "what do you mean? nothing's wrong," he shrugged.

"yeah, sure. nothing's wrong that it got you acting like this," you scoffed. you were right though. he knew you were right. baekhyun had promised himself to not be a jealous man. so how come that he is so jealous to the point that he's acting petty.

you stood in front of him, your eyes staring at his which he looked at everywhere else but your eyes. "babe," you started off softly. "baby," he still ignores you. "baekhyun,"

the third time you called him, you were getting frustrated that he still didn't answer. "byun baekhyun," you called him in a stern voice. this finally made him to look at you in the eyes, a pout present on his lips. "is this about that time i go out without telling you?" you sighed.

you knew. of course, you knew. he was embarrassed that he's acting so childish right now. even though there would be no way for you to leave him. right?

"no," he answered after a while. he figured that lying would lessen his embarrassment. you sighed for the hundreds time tonight. "baby, i told you that you don't need to be jealous of others," you said softly, your hand rubbing his arm comfortingly.

"i wasn't jealous," he crossed his arms together. you let out an amused chuckle. "sure, whatever you say,"

[wutheringskies]

The Lans and Nies have no right to check and intrude between whatever is going on between Wei Wuxian, the Wen remnants and the Jins. Yet, they somehow have enough rights to go and witness the deaths of Wen Qing and Wen Ning with their clan disciples. And why were these two being killed? Because Jin Zixuan died by the hands of Wen Ning in an ambush set forth by the Jins upon Wei Wuxian, who was invited to Koi Tower by the Jins! So, it's definitely the Jin's matter, yet now you guys can come!

And what ends up happening? Somehow, Wen Ning who is being supported by Hanguang-jun loses control and ... kills Lans and Nies? Not the Jins! In the Jin palace! In an event orchestrated by the Jins! Death by a fierce corpse that the Jins should have prepared for! A whole ass cultivation sect? And a fierce corpse can go and kill whoever it wants?

But great!

Because you guys didn't ever go and check what the matter at Burial Mounds actually was like, because not your problem! Now, it has become your problem and you're forced to take part in the oath ceremony to go raze the Burial Mounds, and then you know, to defend himself, Wei Wuxian comes! And somehow it's his fault for "slaughtering." As if you guys weren't going along with the flow, not even questioning for a second why the smart Yiling Laozu would kill the people who could have stood up for him? And then what? You guys were present at the Oath Ceremony so more of you ended up dying, and now you have to go and take part in the slaughter of 50 innocent men and women and old people!!

Just because you were in positions of power, yet chose inaction. You got completely played! Naive.

Now, that's not enough yet.

Now, there's only two people who could've saved Nie Mingjue - Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing. But they're both already gone! Perhaps if Lan Wangji wasn't in seclusion, he would've stood up against the slaughter of all those minor clans who "tried to assassinate sect leader Jin"! But he is!

Now, Lan Xichen would rather shrug off both of his sworn brothers showing utmost hostility towards each other and increasing amounts of killing intent as a misunderstanding. He would think, oh he's being so nice and nuanced, understanding how people have to sometimes do bad things to maintain peace :((

Like, Lan Xichen's whole identity is built over avoiding conflict. When it comes to good and evil, there is no third side. How can you preach righteousness if you're not willing to carry the burden of morality? Sympathy doesn't equate to righteousness. Perhaps, if be wasn't a sect leader, he'd be good. But when you're a sect leader, being good isn't enough! Your inaction amounts to hundreds of lives.

Wei Wuxian perhaps has the most blood on his hands yet he values even the life of some useless servant, or some half-dead grandmother. You're all letting entire clans die to maintain a peaceful environment and you're thinking you're being righteous. If you have doubts then check them out!

Why are Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji so fated?

Well, firstly they've seen how "ugly" the other can get. Lan Wangjj knows that Wei Wuxian can turn up the heavens for righteousness, that he'll gladly walk through hell, if he could he would even offer up his own pieces of flesh. Wei Wuxian knows Lan Wangji cannot pretend things are okay when they're not. He is stubborn to no end with what he believes to be right, is willing to bear each and every consequence. He'd rather do what he thinks is right and accept the punishment later, whatever that will be.

In the face of truth, you can't hide, and you can't be prejudiced.

Wei Wuxian was hurt so much by Wen Chao, thrown into the Burial Mounds yet he brought the same surnamed Wens into Burial Mounds willingly to protect them! How can Nie Mingjue simply act on his hatred? In your righteousness to kill all evil, you started killing without exceptions and became the evil himself!

And why does Lan Xichen not have anything to say about Xue Yang? "Er-ge... this is what father wants." But Jin Guangshan is also a sect leader! Lan Xichen is also a sect leader!

I wonder what Lan Xichen said to Wangji after his visit to the Burial Mounds.

"Xiongzhang, there isn't an army but a child, the elderly, the women."

"Wangji. I understand. But Wei-gongzi has really upset the orthodox society now. It is no longer about the Wens. His cultivation is evil, and he holds the Tiger Seal... he even brought back Wen Ning's consciousness... you believe you know him..."

And boom, tell that to Jin Guangyao and three days later, everyone knows about Wen Ning. Props to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji for not holding grudges towards anyone and simply riding off to the sunset and even helping everyone who never tried to understand their true hearts.

Both of them are really blessed.

[bubblegum-bros-sys]

Hi friend! Genuine question. I would love to follow, but before I do, I wanted to check if proshippers or radqueers are allowed on your profile? If not you may politely block or simply say no. Thank you, have a pleasant day dear. :)

IM GONNA ANSWER THIS HONESTLY. THIS IS NOT AN INVITE FOR DISCOURSE. I AM VERY SOLID IN MY VALUES AND OPINIONS AND IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THEM, EITHER SHUT UP ABOUT IT OR BLOCK US, WE DONT CARE /lh /srs

Oh buddy the day has come where I must reveal my stance on proship and rad queer (not like I ACTUALLY have to but yk rent lowering gunshots or whatever, this account has gotten bigger than I wanted anyways)

AHEM (don’t be scared asker I have very nuanced opinions)

First things first, short answer is yes, you can interact, anyone’s allowed to interact, I don’t really give a shit and many of my headmates give even LESS of a shit. If I disagree with or dislike you, as long as you’re not causing problems or make me specifically and directly uncomfortable in some way then I don’t care, and if I do care, I will simply block and move on. I don’t really like having too much hate or discourse on my page (especially from other people, yes I know I post about discourse fairly often, it’s because people annoy me and I have a lot to say lol) no matter who it’s targeted towards so honestly I’d have more of an issue with anyone of any stance causing problems than anyone of any stance just like…existing

Second, everyone in my system has different opinions on LOTS of things, including this, so like anyone who’s not comfortable with ANY opinion on ANYTHING either needs to be prepared to be civil or just block us tbh

Third, I and most of my system personally align with what we understand to be the original meaning of “proship” which is the whole “ship and let ship” “don’t like don’t read” kind of thing. I believe anything that exists anyways has a right to and if I dislike it I will simply not engage because good lord it’s not that difficult guys 🙏🙏🙏

Fourth, on the topic of radqueer, that is something that is EXTREMELY varied opinion wise in our system. I personally, and probably the most common opinion in our system, is that we kind of simply don’t care. It’s none of our business, we don’t fully understand it enough to have a super concrete opinion on it, I think trying to label our (personal, not general) extremely nuanced opinions is pointless. As long as you are not directly, knowingly, and intentionally hurting people, I do not care. I absolutely support all non-harmful paraphilias, and any paraphilias that COULD be harmful, I still support the people who have them, because they are people, many of whom cannot control their thoughts and feelings, just like anyone else. Again, as long as you are not directly, knowingly, and intentionally hurting people (which includes any form of non-consent) then I don’t care. If people can experience it, it’s part of life, and the second we put a line on where an experience is “too far” we open up more avenues for marginalized and oppressed people to get hurt.

And for TransIDs (or whatever alternative term people might use), to be fully honest, 95% of the time they are not harmful at all, they’re hardly different from xenogenders or literally just like…wanting to do something you currently don’t for whatever reason, and anything that possibly could be harmful, in our opinion, is more about how the person actually acts and understands the experience/identity/etc. they’re identifying as rather than…simply identifying as it. Idk if it’s an autistic thing but genuinely outside of people misusing or misunderstanding things, I don’t really get the concept of appropriation or gatekeeping on any front. I UNDERSTAND THE REASONS BEHIND IT, I understand a lot of it stems from people misunderstanding or misusing things, it stems from racism and colonization, it stems from ableism, it’s a way to protect your culture/experience (I guess??? I truly do not get it on a disability/neurodivergence/mental illness front tbh like yall are bordering on eugenics here with half your arguments just being “why would you want this???” You sound like a trans med that’s embarrassing) I get it. But your race and ethnicity and body and brain are all things you’re born into without say just like anything else is, and so many experiences overlap, and so many cultures have unknowingly made extremely similar practices/religions/clothing/make up/food/etc all throughout history. I feel like culture and experience is something that should be shared, and if someone resonates with something, they shouldn’t be blocked from it just because of the circumstances of how they were born

Tbh a lot of our opinions boil down to these key values and opinions:

1: don’t directly, intentionally, knowingly, and non-consensually hurt others

2: do whatever the fuck you want forever. If everyone was kind to each other it literally wouldn’t matter. Life is meant to be lived, experiences are meant to be had and shared and understood

3: anything that DOES exist has a RIGHT to exist, otherwise it wouldn’t exist, and again, the second you start trying to control that is the second you let controlling ANYTHING ANYONE disagrees with be ok, and that puts all of us in more danger

4: be kind and empathetic and understanding. Be open minded and LEARN. Stop shit talking when you don’t even know what you’re talking about. Way too many people, especially online, make half-baked opinions based on what they hear other people say and then are deathly stubborn about it, and that doesn’t help anyone. That’s what creates echo chambers and kills progress, creativity, individual thinking, and general kindness and understanding

5: I’m not god. I’m not omnipotent. I cannot and will not ever know, understand, or be able to control everything, it is pointless to try

6: at the end of the day we could all just fucking put our phones down and be people. People with varied experiences and feelings and thoughts and opinions, all of which are inherently valid, because they exist

I probably have more to say idk this is a very nuanced and honestly interesting topic to me but I’ve already got my block button locked and loaded for anyone trying to argue with me. I don’t care if you disagree, this is how I feel, and unlike a lot of people, I don’t let strangers on the internet dictate how I’m “allowed” to feel. If that were the case then literally I’d be a fucking neonazi because that shit is all over the internet. But I’m not, because I have critical thinking skills, confidence in myself, and arguably life ruining levels of empathy and thirst for knowledge (having low empathy is not a bad thing this is just part of the context for ME)

[weirdmageddon]

OK OK SO!!

First off!!! Hello fellow davejade enjoyer i see you. Second off—what sort of things do you wish you could’ve seen with these two in canon :0. Could be expansion on canon scene, arc direction, or just a new scene entirely. for me personally I would’ve loved to see some genuine fighting collaboration going on. I felt VERY teased with all the magic combo’s in collide.

Third! I know they do a lot of music collaboration in canon, and I’ve seen some things with them making a band together post canon. What sort of sound do you think they’d have/what artist do you think they’d sound like?

Thank you :))

okay god theres so much i wish was expanded on in canon with regard to dave and jade

this post is swan dive into homestuck meta and took me over a day to write. so i would appreciate feedback or discussion on this if you'd like, reblogs appreciated!

despite this question being posed as davejade related, my answers here are actually relevant for anyone interested in homestuck meta as well.

it’s just recently come to my attention that there are a a handful of people on twitter who are vocal davejade dislikers. i didnt know it was actually disliked until i looked it up on twitter, i honestly thought it was a joke blown out of proportion but no they exist! it surprised me a lot to see people think they "lack chemistry". not only because knowing what i know about them thats a ridiculous insinuation, but also i haven't seen the vitriol on tumblr. probably because we can actually poast about it on here in an unabridged manner which thus enables better, deeper critical analysis and engagement with the media. i think also people forget that dave strider is canonically bisexual and are too yaoipilled + facing the consequences of the epilogues to even give davejade a serious look/analysis. (dave dates terezi and karkat in separate timelines, thinks jane is hot, thinks roxy is a babe but shoves it down when he discovers she’s his ectomom lmfao. davesprite—an extension of dave himself—dated jade! but i'm going to cover that in more depth in this post since theres a lot of misunderstandings about the nature of that relationship in fanon.)

(as a side note according to what some people have told me in inbox and what ive seen lol i think that ive been inadvertently been getting people into davejade. it's all in my davejade tag here in chronological order if you'd like to get a Whiff. be sure to read the tags on posts in there too!)

even though theres a lot in this post as it is, it doesn't cover everything ive talked about wrt davejade, and i think it would benefit readers to have complementary posts alongside this for the full picture with stuff it doesn't cover. there's a ton about why theyre cute and why i think they work well together in that tag.

here's some highlight analysis posts, but be sure to check the tag because there's a more in there:

post a / post b / post c / post d / post e / post f (← one of my favorite ask responses ive ever gotten)

i think a huge chunk of the issue has to do with how the narrative handles dave and jade. one of the most damning things to me is how glossed over their canon interactions were in act 5 despite them collaborating on one of the most important things in the story. i haven't talked about this yet but i'm going to do so here. because they’re put on the backburner by the focus of the narrative during act 5, people who don’t read carefully will miss the implications that are there all along in canon but easily passed over.

under the cut ive separated it into multiple parts

1. Jade’s Quest: What Frog Breeding Entails

this is an analysis examining apart exactly what jade and dave did while frog breeding. i wrote it while high which was extremely enlightening and it allowed me to comprehend it and hopefully explain it in an understandable way. i also discuss how shitty the lack of on-screen communication between jade and dave was for this part and the next.

2. Jade & Dave vs. Jack Noir

ive discussed this one before on my blog so it's not as dense (see davejade tag). but i still sewed the gifs together and discuss how unfortunate this was to be be delegated to a banner at the top of mspa and the neglect of that whole arc despite the outcomes of it being reissued by characters thousands of pages later

3. Davesprite and Grimbark Jade

i get into davesprite's head here and try to make his motivations about the breakup clear to the extent that i can infer because jesus fuck i love these characters way too much ive known them for a decade i understand their core personality structures and why they think what they do and what is most likely to happen when extrapolating? i also talk about how grimbark jade changed the way the fandom perceives their relationship, leaving davejade on a low note instead of a high note. and then hs epilogues had even worse consequences for davejade but i wont get into it because it was character assassination all around and doesnt deserve my time or yours. but if you wanna know what i think, here

4. The music question

where actually answer this ask like it's an ask and not an essay

1. Jade’s Quest: What Frog Breeding Entails

i wish we could have seen what collecting frogs entailed for the two of them. what exactly were they doing? jade’s quest is one of the most interesting.

before i start i want to take a tangent and say the frog breeding reminds me of back in 2020-2021 when i would breed hybrid flowers in animal crossing new horizons to get a very specific gene sequence for these flowers to not only use to breed for hybrids, but to get known gene sequences that i could use to “check” the genes of other flowers. the goal is to get two parent flowers whose sequences when bred would make a specific phenotype 100% of the time.

this sounds complicated but here’s what i did for the lilies:

(“rare island” refers to one of the first acnh patches that removed a nook miles island from the pool that had hybrid versions of your native flower of very specific phenotypes for each color. i wrote out the breeding chains to get parents that would always breed that exact flower found on the rare hybrid nmt island that is no longer available.)

the cleanup ALL TO GET the white 2-2-2 lily looked like this. and after i got white 2-2-2 lily it was smooth sailing

after all that i could use the orange 2-2-0 lilies and white 2-2-2 lilies made in the black lily process and get rare island orange 2-2-1 lilies 100% of the time. in mendelian genetics these numbers (2-2-1) are quite literally RR-YY-Ww.

RR-YY-ww (orange) x RR-YY-WW (white) = RR-YY-Ww (orange: heterozygous Ww gene)

and all that effort into getting white 2-2-2 lilies enables me to get it over and over again now. i don’t have to repeat that process to get rare island pink lilies. all i need to do for the pink 2-0-2 lilies is breed two default bag red lilies (2-0-1) together. 50% will be red (2-0-1) lilies, 25% will be black 2-0-0 lilies, and the last 25% will be pink (2-0-2) lilies.

anyway sorry back to the main point. FROG BREEDING. it just reminded me of it. now that i think of it the frog breeding process also reminds me a lot of artbreeder back from when AI was only a fun little toy 4-5 years ago

ok so have a look at what kanaya says about what jade must do. this is the coolest quest imo because of how it progresses and how long it actually is

here’s how it works. remember back in act 2, when the wayward vagabond needed to tie a longer cable to descend down the ship (and refused to give up the ones that made up his mayoral sash)? he used the appearifier in the ship to appearify the extra cable across the gap to his location? that’s how the appearifier normally works when when it’s locked to the present. it’s very straightforward.

when jade appearifies a frozen frog, it shows us this exact thing. she appearified the actual frog itself (the same way WV appearified the actual cable across the gap) to her exact location. it can get the frog out of the ice in the way WV could untrap serenity from the amber. if something’s destiny wouldn’t otherwise be changed, it will not be paradoxified, it will just simply itself be warped to that location, with precise carving if it is somehow trapped inside of something else.

if you could appearify it to your location right now, you wouldnt be able to take it out the appearifier’s crosshairs in person later to alter its destiny because the object won’t be there at that time. it wouldve been with you the entire time. unless you decide to take the appearified item back to that location so that you could appearify it in the past, but that’s the most pointless time loop ever and doesn’t change its destiny.

for this icicle frog jade and dave weren’t capable of changing its destiny anyway, because it was completely encased in ice, and just didn’t bother to go after it. partially because it was with jade at the appearifier the entire time anyway and she can’t exactly put it back in there in the future. the point is, besides jade appearifying it to her location, the frog had no other possible routes of destiny. in that part of lofaf where she appearified the frozen frog from, the ice is too deep to get anything out of it (other than appearifying it) and i’m not sure the forge would have melted it in time before their reckoning ended anyway.

the goal of jade and dave is to target frogs on the appearifier screen and trust that their future selves follow through in altering the frog’s destiny. if so, then the frog’s paradox slime will appear instead and its genes would be collected in addition to creating offspring between multiple paradox clone frog genes. then, dave and jade would necessarily have to go out adventuring and find the frog so that they end up following through for their past selves.

if i understand correctly, jade is creating all the frogs on her planet that grow up with manually modified genes. these frogs must be genetically altered from their parents so that the frogs she creates don’t grow up to become one of their parents (as they’d be identical). the mutant offspring frogs “generation A” she ectobiologizes will eventually mature from tadpoles to frogs, assisted by dave’s time travel. then she will eventually target “generation A” with the appearifier to get their paradox slime to fuse with some other frogs’ paradox slime and create new slightly altered frogs “generation B” (and then follow through on altering the “generation A” frogs’ destiny so their slime and genes can be paradoxified by jade and dave’s past selves). repeat until the genes are fine tuned for the genesis frog.

this is why i compared it to my breeding in animal crossing. getting the genesis frog reminds me of the blue rose paths. i worked with the garden council back in the day and i used backwardsN’s “cesspool” method, except i honestly gotta say my white 2-2-2 lily thing was much more involved and carefully maneuvered in a way that i imagine frog breeding is more like. backwardsN’s “genepool method” was basically making a red-orange-black rose primordial soup and waiting for a blue rose to emerge out of it, just increasing the chances seeing a blue rose sprout the next day after watering with each generation of offspring. you KNOW my ass was using time travel, even if i happened to get lucky and got a blue rose without even finishing the big turtle plot. without time travel, most players (95%) will get their first blue rose before these # of days. (open up advanced tag)

there must be so many daves running around to help her going back in time all within the span of a few hours while still having their own linear, older timelines that are much longer than the “time stage” they’re actually functioning in. this sounds complicated but it’s not. think of this “time stage” as analogous to the 3 days until the moon falls in majoras mask. it’s the “time window” all the time travel takes place within, but link doesn’t become a day younger when he travels to a day ago. the timeline of his “self” is older but is kept within the confines of the 3-day timeframe. similarly, in tears of the kingdom, two master swords exist simultaneously for most of history, but the one on the light dragon’s head (who was above the cloud barrier before the upheaval btw) is further ahead on its own linear timeline: it starts as the other, pre-gloomed master sword → broken by gloom → sent to the past to be repaired → renewed over time, existing at the same time on the “time stage” as its own pre-gloomed past self but ahead on its own linear timeline

now imagine this but within the “time stage” of just a few hours within the same 24-hour period. kanaya says frog breeding ordinarily takes weeks. multiple daves can exist simultaneously because they’re operating in the same few-hour-timeframe but one can linearly be days ahead of another. it’s the exact same thing as breeding flowers in animal crossing for irl days but to your game it’s whatever date you have it set to. your irl progress isn’t lost if you go back a few days in settings. i’d often find a week in june to use as a “time stage” to loop through when it would rain at least one hour on each day of that week which would save me the hassle of watering my flowers every day before time traveling to the next.

it must’ve sucked for dave to hear jade say the same things over and over again. the novelty probably wore off pretty fast lol…… dave says he saw his future self fighting and dying to jack and knew that’s what he’d eventually have to do as well. every single dave at all points of his linear timeline understood that and it probably settled something horrible into his heart.

im imagining during the original run dave was thinking to himself: “im bored but cant alter anything about this without creating a doomed timeline. if i dont see my future self hugging jade then i cant hug her even though i really fuckin want to. note to future self: hug jade. aww shit look at me go guess i remembered. hell fucking yes cant wait for that to be me in a few hours” and gives a thumbs up

future dave pov, hugging jade and watching his past self give him a thumbs up from afar thinking to himself: “ahaha i remember exactly what i was thinking there” and gives a thumbs up

but anyway. goddamn. JADE AND DAVE. what did hussie do to you.

this is a goddamn atrocity.. what the hell man. i wish we could have at LEAST seen the text file jade sent to kanaya. we got to see ConversationWithAVeryStupidGirl.Txt but not daveisafunnyguy.txt?

i mean i GUESS the humor is delivered through this

and like, yeah that is pretty funny? but i feel like the single laugh this gives me is nothing compared to the joy i wouldve gotten out of seeing what dave has to say about the cloning apparatus for ants here and talking himself into circles about frog procreation enough to make not just gigglehouse jade laugh, but kanaya too

we spent so much time learning about the mechanics of the punch designix and hardly anything about creating the seed of the actual new universe. we learn about it through kanaya and karkat messaging jade, instead of dave and jade working that out through SHENANIGANS. even though this is JADE AND DAVE'S session. it’s fine that kanaya is helping them, as she should, but we’ve seen parallel pesterlog conversations before so i dont get why we didn’t get that here! jade and dave frog breeding is one of the most important events in homestuck, and yet it was terribly glossed over. everything in the story, their futures, are predicated on their success. not just in their unwinnable session, but the one they split up for 3 years and escape to.

at first i thought, maybe their lack of shown interaction has to do with hussie working out the intricacies of pesterlog/dialogue thing? as he once stated on tumblr:

shoshaumbay asked: In the intermission of act 6, it says that they get to talk. Does this mean that their guardians couldn’t talk to them before and that is why they left them notes all around their houses?  The achievement badge only upgraded their ability to speak to each other as presented through the comic. I.e. it permitted them to speak to each other… WHILE WE WATCH! Do you think all the trolls were hanging out together, not talking at all? Or Dave and Jade were doing all that frog hunting without a single peep?? That’s ridiculous. On the other hand, abstraction weaves itself through the Homestuck reality, and it can be hard to pin down where abstraction is to be taken literally. The truth is, there is not much distinction between the layers of abstraction and the reality they are meant to stand for. John was both literally named on his 13th birthday, and not quite, because that’s silly. The guardians are both literally silent automatons, and not really, as there is indication through allusion they function as normal people too. And the kids went through a huge adventure, achieved immortal god status, and even then had to gain a few more levels just to gain the achievement of simple dialogue as a literal upgrade, as well as not literally, because that makes no sense. The reality is inseparable from the way the story is presented and the way the “game” is played. But those abstractions are also a facade for a more life-like reality beneath it as well.

then i realized, this is not only an arbitrary cop out that affects my enjoyment of the comic in retrospect because they wind up being able to talk later anyway and that makes me feel cheated in these moments, but also still actually awful within these parameters because hussie breaks his own rule here, proving he could have shown us dave and jade talking in person at any time regardless of needing the gift of gab achievement for us to watch them as readers. recall this is also the first time john and rose met in person (at least when rose wasn't asleep):

2. Jade & Dave vs. Jack Noir

this is where i take out my frustration over this being delegated to a banner at the top to the point where readers forgot it occurred.

(also i want yall to take a moment to acknowledge this ^)

i wish their time on lofaf frog breeding and fighting with jack was front and center and wasnt just in the banner at the top of the page. it makes it seem not as important when it completely was, considering that characters brought up what had happened in that scene multiple times.

it is significant because it is at that point that jack noir has killed all of the kids at least once. the only one left being jade who he refuses to kill due to bec’s loyalty

THIS IS WHAT THE REFRANCE (foreshadowing)

jack noir killed john on his quest bed which allowed him to ascend to god tier. then he killed john AGAIN but it wasn’t a heroic or just death so john was revived

jack killed grimdark rose. john smooched rose’s corpse, allowing her to take over on derse.

jack killed dave by redirecting jade’s bullets into dave’s body instead. jade smooched dave’s corpse, allowing him to take over on derse.

after jade shoots him through jack, he’s down for the count. she kisses him and he wakes up on derse; all he and rose have left of “themselves” in an existential sense are their dreamselves. they didnt know they were going to ascend to god tier delivering the tumor. they assumed they were just going to die like for real and not come back which is why dave went with rose since he didnt want her to die alone.

it was also an important point since her time spent with dave on lofaf is the first in-person contact jade has had with another living human since she was probably 4 years old with her grandpa.

for jack noir, we got [s] seer: desend and [S] ==> (3696) which were hella impactful. seeing jade and dave essentially go through the same thing but with an extended battle sequence honestly kinda warrants a flash in my mind. (the sad thing is that unite synchronization was originally written with those pages in mind (the track was originally called redshift) but of course malcolm brown couldnt have known what was going to happen unless hussie commissioned him for a specific track for a specific story beat, probably like whatever he did to coordinate cascade’s music with toby ahead of the 10/25/11 release of the flash and publication of volume 8 on bandcamp)

i think one of the worst parts is that entire conversations were referenced, but cut or never written.

this is a real forgotten homestuck fact: jade was completely freaking out after filling dave with bullets until karkat had talked her through it. very easily forgotten since even though it being referenced twice we never actually saw the conversation. (i overrode the black scratch background so it's easier to read)

wow thats so crazy i as a member of the audience dont in fact remember! would it have killed to write it my guy

and we find out thousands of pages later dave was thinking more about how it wouldve made jade feel to watch him die than knowing he was about to fucking die. if you even care btw

i wrote more about this here

3. Davesprite and Grimbark Jade

davesprite—an extension of dave himself—dates jade but breaks up because he feels inadequate at being the dave that he thinks jade deserves. NOT because they fought or anything. they were still on good terms. davesprite just felt inherently unlovable. john seemed more upset about the breakup frankly.

what davesprite did was because he thought it was in jade's best interest. there is nothing to suggest it was a fight / clash break up. they still seemed to be on good terms, davesprite asking where she went and all. jade says the breakup “is complicated” and “hes going through a lot of stuff”. given the context i think it's reasonable to assume that davesprite's thought process was: “we're coming up to the new session soon and youre going to meet up with dave again and i dont want to make shit awkward with you dating knockoff dave. you deserve to be with real dave instead so im gonna cut what we have going here in advance and distance myself from your life”

jade probably protested about saying how he's just as real as “real dave”, but davesprite made his decision already. im sure it wasnt easy for davesprite to break up either. with emotions running high (sadness, not anger) he probably just left to be alone and distance himself from jade, and seems to harbor guilt about it as we see in the log. that's probably why he wasn't at john's movie party. this is just speculation on my part but it doesnt seem in character for the breakup to be explosive because jade seemed more understanding than john. sad, but understanding.

i feel like a lot of people forget this. grimbark jade made it seem like davesprite did it to hurt her, or for this to mean that dave and jade are not actually good for each other, which is a wild mischaracterization of what happened but the one that stuck with the fandom nonetheless.

not only that, but davesprite's existence tragic and he's understandably depressed. after spending about a year in sburb (accounting for time travel) without john or jade, only to go back and give up your personhood to advance the alpha timeline and become forgotten is fucking crushing, and i think the breakup is also about davesprite coming to terms with that trauma, being okay with his existence as a sprite instead of being a bootleg stand-in for the dave that jade knew.

basically what vintagegamebro says,

it was such a tragic way for them to part for 3 years with no communication, and it was only proceeded by more tragedy because jade then had no one but davesprite to turn to, and davesprite needed anything but romance at that point

grimbark jade isn’t a good reflection of jade’s actual self. she pushed the mayor into lava for fucks sake which normal jade would never dream of doing, grimbark jade is straight up unhinged. i’m sure jade was hurt because all breakups hurt, but it was blown out of proportion (see how calm she was above a few days after the breakup?) because of Evilness. but also as @vintagegamebro mentioned it also felt somewhat … “off”? or out of left field? especially seeing what the nature of the breakup was from both sides in the above screenshots.

when dave says “theres no way i would have done that to you” i genuinely believe him. i have no reason not to believe him. look at him above asking for questions and clarification. thinking about how what davesprite did, a version of himself beyond his control and how it reflects on himself, i think it's obvious dave cares a lot about how jade feels about him

even after this confrontation in the game over timeline, dave laid down his fucking life to defend her corpse from the becs in he hope she could be revived by jane

and to think that after all this he still chose to save her, like always, probably knowing he had little to no chance, just because he cares for her, her life and who she is beyond this moment, really meant a lot for them. i really, really was mad that this would be the last time they would truly ever be together in a way that to me mattered

4. The music question

i wrote this post regarding instruments with this song in the back of my head if its anything. takes about 12 seconds to start after you press play for some reason

this too, closer to the “style”. i like imagining dave going apeshit on drums

[alistair-blackwood]

Bloodweave Fic Recs (12/8/2023)

I've been devouring fic lately and I figured I may as well do something productive with it.

Format from @inevitably-ineffable-husbands fic rec lists, check out some of their Good Omens fic recs if you're a fan ♥️

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Four Eyes by trashmaven (G, 1.2k w || Light Angst, Pre-Relationship, Fluff) Gale has a secret.

Of Jackpots and Sticky Fingers by Asidian (G, 2k+ w || Humor, Banter, Gambling) "The nerve," huffs Gale. "Imagine setting a jackpot and then punishing anyone who won it fair and square!" Astarion's eyes flicker from the stalking lizard to Gale, and then back again. It's entirely too innocent of a look.

Hoarding Tendencies by Asidian (G, 4k+ w || Hoarding, Trust Issues Past Deprivation, Past Abuse, Misunderstandings, Starvation, Gift Giving) "My word," says Gale, caught between taken aback and genuinely impressed. "Where does this all fit in your pack?"

Letters From Gale by Modmother (G, 5k+ w WIP || Epistolary) A series of letters from Gale Dekarios to Astarion spanning the year after the defeat of the absolute.

Out of Breath, Out of Time by SadinaSaphrite (T, 1k+ w || Asphyxiation, Strangulation, Hurt/Comfort) Gale is caught in a meazel's garrote and needs some rescuing.

Might Just Make It by lavvyan (T, 2k+ w || Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, POV Outsider) The group (sans Tav) meet Astarion by the beach. They don't meet Gale. If you ask Astarion, that just means they have to look harder.

in your arms I lie till dawn by shroomonabroom (T, 3k+ w || Hurt/ Comfort, Fluff, Sleep Deprivation) Gale hasn’t slept in several days; Astarion makes things better via food and almost cuddles.

A Practical Guide To Camping by Lunarwench (T 4k+ w || Pre-Relationship, Friendship) How the hell do these idiots have so much stuff when they were all abducted by a flying squid; A Character Study

Come To Mind by ZiGraves (T, 7k+ w || Memory Loss) Something has happened to Gale. Who was Gale, anyway? Well, Gale was himself, obviously, but what did that entail?

In the Dark by LeaXIII (T, 7k+ w || Whump, Light Angst, Tight Spaces, Blood and Injury, Impalement, Blood Drinking, Sexual Tension) Gale and Astarion are caught in a cave-in and no one has a good time. Takes place somewhere in Act 1.

Weakness Coming On by bloodweaving (shipwreckblue) (M, 5k+ w || Enemies to Lovers, Humor, Autistic Gale, Banter, Getting Together) Astarion’s expression settled into an alarming rictus of forced nonchalance. “Oh, please, darling, did you think I was serious?"

The things lost along the way (The things gained at the end) by ThatKorka (M, 14k+ w || Body Horror, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Hopeful Ending, UST) I can smell what’s under those bandages, Wizard, You’re all rot and ruin!

Deliverance by porcelain (E, 2k+ w WIP || Incubus Astarion, Angst/Hurt, Religious Guilt, Minor Character Death, Alternate Universe, Trauma/PTSD, Priest Gale) Third row, on the right, between a now awake grandfather and a nodding teary-eyed mother and bored children and still untouched scriptures. The red of the man’s irises narrow, and he flashes a smile at him, wicked in a flash of dagger-like teeth. He doesn’t look away, even when Gale does.

Rest, Indulge by ZiGraves (E, 6k+ w || Consensual Somnophilia, Blood Drinking) The slow, drowsy way that Gale’s eyelids flutter before they open fully is its own particular pleasure, and he leans into Astarion’s hand while still half-dozing enough to luxuriate without thinking. Consciousness comes back in a slow rolling wave, free of the stresses of their old camp life that might necessitate instant wakefulness. Astarion watches each moment as it builds, crests, breaks, until his wizard is awake and meeting his eyes with warm curiosity.

Friday Nights by SadinaSaphrite (E, 23k+ w || Alternate Universe, College/University, Modern with Magic, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Blood and Injury, Violence, Fluff, Medium Burn) Professor Gale Dakarios loses his research, his magic, and his lover Mystra all at once and only has himself to blame. When he goes to drown his sorrows, he meets a pale stranger with mysteries of his own.

The stars began to burn by peregrinefeathers (E, 33k+ w WIP || Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, Past Sexual Abuse, Psychic Bond, Emotional Manipulation, Blood Drinking) After two centuries of torment, Astarion has given up hope of escaping Cazador's clutches, until a chance encounter with a stolen book introduces him to the disembodied voice of a wizard named Gale of Waterdeep. With the fate of Baldur's Gate in the balance, they must confront their demons and win their freedom - together.

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Let me know if you'd like a specific rec or want to share some recs of your own!

[bookaddict24-7]

REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

Every week I will post various reviews I've written so far in 2025. You can check out my Goodreads for more up-to-date reviews HERE. You can friend me on Goodreads here.

Have you read any of these? What were your thoughts?

___

6. Dating & Dragons by Kristy Boyce--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of the things I love about the books in this series is the communication between the characters and how fun the stories themselves are. This isn't to say that they don't deal with some heavier topics every once in a while, but they're done so well that they mesh right into the rest of the story. Also, these books makes me wish I was a Dungeons & Dragons player.

I will admit that I was a little scared of reading this book because I enjoyed the first book so much. Thankfully, Boyce did a great job of bringing to life a set of characters that were very fun to read about. The friendship dynamic between all of them was great and they had the sweetest moments. I also loved that they essentially adopted the MC so readily. They had her back entirely and sometimes that's all I need in a YA book.

I was hooked from the beginning and the pacing, fun situations, and memorable characters (like the grandmother and her meddling) made for an addicting experience. I think this will be such a great read for those hunting out a shorter book that will completely capture them. In a way, I think I ended up liking this more than book one.

The love interest was adorable and though their arc was pretty predictable, I liked how well Boyce introduced the topic of consent. There was so much mutual respect here between the MC and her love interest. No third act breakup, no misunderstandings that lasted chapters and forced the plot along, and a great group of friends.

I highly recommend these two books!

___

7. The Headless Ghost by R.L. Stine--⭐️⭐️⭐️

THE HEADLESS GHOST was definitely one of those Goosebumps books that I would have enjoyed as a kid--mainly because of the predictability of it, but also because of those "twists" at the end. Very classic Goosebumps.

These two kids are little terrors and I totally expected them to face more consequences for their actions. I think they got away with too much LOL. One of the things I find with these books is either parents who are too harsh and/or don't believe their kids, or parents who feel absent--in this case, heavy sleeper parents who don't hear their kids leaving their homes to cause chaos around their town.

I did like the shoutout to Hill House, though. I genuinely wasn't expecting that ending and I have so many questions.

___

8. The Shots You Take by Rachel Reid--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I love Rachel Reid. Her books are so addicting and readable. I have this habit where I pick up multiple books to read at once and sometimes there's one book that stands out and I can't put it down, and of course, Reid's book was the book this time around.

One of my absolute favourite things about this book is that these two MCs reconnect in their forties. We get flashbacks of when they were younger and played professional hockey, but we get so few queer romances with middle-aged characters that this was incredibly refreshing. Also, I liked seeing that they had settled lives that welcomed this not-so-new person back. Seeing them choose the love they thought they had lost over the nearly two decade long silence was so sweet and held a nice dose of hope.

I'm normally iffy about second chance romances because a big part of the romance is overcoming the obstacle that had broken the couple up in the past. The only drawback of this book for me was this and how long it took me to overcome that iffy-ness. The rebuilding of trust, the shared pain of regrets, and the grief-laden anger from one character to the other were hurdles I had to jump over so I could love these two. And I will admit, it didn't take me THAT long, since they were both such special characters.

I loved the pacing of this book. While the story itself, for the majority, spans less than a week, the way Reid wrote it made it feel like it was weeks long (in a good way). These characters communicated, trusted, and eventually, allowed themselves to feel emotions they had been terrified to feel in the past. The levels of emotion were definitely heightened because of the grief they both felt, but this gave so much more depth to the story as well.

I liked that beyond their romance, these characters were essentially given a second chance to find themselves. One had to figure out who he was without his dad's supportive presence, while the other had to figure out who he was outside of his divorce and teenage kids. I also just loved how much of a golden retriever one of the characters was.

Reid also touches on mental health and how stigmatized it is in male-dominated sports. It's not the first time she does this with one of her characters, but she does it so well. We catch glimpses of the past as one of the two characters struggles with his mental health, and see it in the present as he comes to terms with his grief and the resurfacing feelings and trauma he has surrounding his love interest. I also loved that he had such a strong friend group to help him through the more difficult moments in his grieving journey.

And yes, there is spice. It's not the most important aspect of this book, but it's there. The tension between these two characters is tangible and I loved going on this journey with them.

___

9. A Million Junes by Emily Henry--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love Emily Henry's adult novels and I've now enjoyed a couple of her YA books, but while her beautiful writing shone through in A MILLION JUNES, I found the story itself to be…shrug?

I can understand the love for this book, especially because of how well it's written and the power of the MC's grief for her father (trust me, anything to do with grief and dads absolutely destroys me). But while there were bursts of magic and fantastical explorations of the past that haunts the MC's family, I found myself counting down the seconds of my audiobook until the story ended. With so much potential and so much body, this story felt like both nothing and everything was happening at once.

I don't even know how to explain this feeling. It felt like I was going in circles, with people repeating the same warnings, having her best friend continuously challenge her to do things that she was banned from doing, and people just casually walking over the MC's boundaries. And don't get me started on that teacher.

I do wish this had been a dual perspective story. I would have loved to see things from the love interest's perspective, especially since his family was also cursed. Like, we get to see her resolution and heartbreaking/heartwarming final scenes with her dad, but though we only got glimpses of his trauma and grief, we never really get his conclusion. It felt a bit one-sided and like his story was being erased. In a way, it felt like the curse itself--where each family had their own story and that side only heard and believed the story they chose to see/hear. I think the MMC deserved to have a voice in this, rather than having others speak for him (again, like that teacher).

The MC herself annoyed me at times too, but I also know she was a grieving teenagers with a lot of questions and people around telling her what she should or shouldn't do. I did like that she channeled these questions and experiences into her writing, though.

Overall, this story had its moments where the magic was palpable and the memories brought tears to my eyes. But there were also frustrating moments where the story went in a circle and people didn't know how to mind their own business. This could have been an even grander story, in my opinion, but it only felt half completed. Shout out to Henry, though, for making this such a beautiful exploration of grief and the questions we're left with when it's an abrupt loss.

Also, just wanted to say that while the concept of this book was very unique, it was very reminiscent of THE LOVE THAT SPLIT THE WORLD because of some of the "exploring memories" part of the story.

___

10. Who I Was With Her by Nita Tyndall--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have so many thoughts on this book. And maybe I over-empathize with main characters, but I have a few gripes with both the way this was written, but also with some of the reviews I've seen.

WHO I WAS WITH HER is a heavy, heartbreaking, and emotionally-draining book. It deals with a teenage girl who is grieving, in silence and alone, the death of her secret girlfriend. She is GRIEVING. Like one of the characters says near the end of the book: "I feel like i should be [okay], but I'm not. Or I feel like I am, but I shouldn't be. Grief is...Grief is weird".

I think in the process of writing about this character, some readers forget that she is, in fact, in the middle of a chaotic emotional moment. Add in the fact that she's lost when it comes to what she wants in life, has lived with trauma from an alcoholic mother and a father with expectations from her that she feels obligated to fulfill--it all makes for a very emotionally drained character who is prone to making questionable decisions.

Is she selfish? Sometimes when someone needs to decide what they want out of their life, some choices may seem that way. This MC was so lost in such a dark place, that when a light comes to her, it's okay for her to be selfish and reach for it. She spends so much of the book worrying about what others think, that I think it's okay for her to finally do what SHE wants.

One of my biggest gripes with this book is how the issue of "coming out" is treated. I hate, hate, hate that she was pressured so much. I hate that she is being called selfish and a coward for it. People come out when they want to, when they feel safe, or whenever feels right. Queer people don't owe shit to others who give them ultimatums or pressure them by calling them cowards. As someone who didn't come out until adulthood because, and I remember this clearly, I was one of those who thought that if I hid it deep enough, I would forget it and I could be "normal". Coming out can feel so daunting, even if it sometimes feels like a blanket suffocating you because you can't be yourself with the people you love, that you sometimes wonder if you could be in the closet with those very people for the rest of your life. This is why I understood the MC and her fears. Having people pressure the TEENAGE MC in this book by calling her a coward and essentially, manipulating her, was not it and I worry about what message this sends to teen readers living in the closet.

I do like that this issue was addressed near the end of the book and that the MC takes ownership of what she wants and that she finally learns that she is the one to choose when to come out. But the majority of the book is this dark cloud of pressure that left me with such a bad taste in my mouth.

I liked the bisexual representation and that the term was actually used. I liked the commentary on racism and bigotry and how it's so important for it to be pointed out and challenged. I liked the MC's arc of growth as a character. Her best friend was truly a gift and I liked her journey as well.

I feel that when adults read books about closeted queer teenagers dealing with trauma, they forget that they are reading about children. She was grieving and latched on to a person who could finally grieve alongside her in a way that was relatable to her. She was bombarded with others' expectations. She was called a coward and told that it was her fault why her girlfriend never told the world about her before she died. Some of the things her girlfriend's brother says to her, though from a place of grief as well, were really, really traumatizing. This whole book was just a lot.

But all of that to say that the ending, for the most part, had some great cathartic moments. This wasn't a perfect read, far from it, but it also had some narratives that required an intense level of critical reading. And for fuck's sake, this wasn't a romance novel. This was a book about grieving a love and finding a way to survive that grief.

I already had some heavy thoughts about this book, then I read the reviews and I just. Sigh.

___

Happy reading!

[lurkingteapot]

Kidnap the Novel ch. 4: Trademark Owner

Chapter 4 brings the h&c, and more gang together time.

There's a LOT of introspection going on here -- I'm curious to see what on the screen led to infer this. :D

Chapter summary under the cut as per usual, misunderstandings absolutely likely.

Min is in a state of constant near-panic for days after he and Q send a letter with Q's necklace and a ransom note to Kachaa. The note contains three conditions "for Q's continued safety": first, that Kachaa not involve the police or media; second, that he withdraw from the case; third, that he pay a ransom of one million baht (which Min had protested but Q insisted was necessary to make it look real). A week goes by and there's no reaction whatsoever. Min is relieved, but Q is despondent. Min tries to cheer him up, first suggesting he (Min) could call Kachaa and threaten him, then, when Q brushes that off, that Q glove up and go hit a punching bag for a bit. Q takes the gloves Min offers, but punches Min in the arm instead. Min goes along with it and plays up the damage when he realises Q seems happier. (He also thinks his clothes look more expensive when they're on Q, but that's neither here nor there). Men watches them and thinks he's never seen Min act like this around anyone else before – Min hovered around Men for days after they got back from meeting with James, to the extent that he wouldn't even let Q drink by himself. Men is convinced Min is either already in love or about to fall.

Min, Men, and Q go to the hospital for Men's final check-up. Everything's fine. Min is so relieved he cries. He then makes to leave for work "at the restaurant". When Men asks him whether he'll be doing any stuntwork again because Men loves to watch his films, Min deflects.

Q watches Min and Men interact and is half impressed, half wistful about how they're each other's whole world. He envies them: he's sure that in a time of need, Men wouldn't even think to call for anyone but Min; Q himself remembers just too well that he called for "anyone at all". He offers to look after Men while Min is at work, but Min laughs him off. Khanomjeen arrives and says she'll look after Men. Q is annoyed; he feels Min treats him like a child and he hates it.

Khanomjeen wants to watch one of Min's shows. Men isn't enthused, which strikes Q as curious as Men just told Min he loved his work. They settle down to watch anyway. Q is sceptical how they even know it's Min -- it's a motorcycle stunt, the rider is wearing a helmet with face shield. Khanomjeen gives him a rundown of how she can tell. Men is disgruntled. Q realises he hasn't actually paid much attention to Min's appearance before.

When Khanomjeen goes to make popcorn, Q asks Men what his problem is. When Men sulks that Khanomjeen never pays attention to him the way she does to Min, Q asks whether he likes Khanomjeen. Men denies it, but blushes scarlet. Q presses on: has he ever even tried to hit on her? Men deflects: how would he even do that? she likes Min so much, the only thing Men might measure up on is that they look similar because they're related. Q has a think and an idea: if Khanomjeen thinks Min looks cool on a motorcycle, maybe …

He makes Men nab one of Min's jackets and his helmet and takes Khanomjeen and Men to a quiet sideroad and he and Khanomjeen proceed to teach Men how to ride Khanomjeen's motorcycle. Men is excited, Khanomjeen is unenthused and worried they'll get in trouble with Min. Q waves her off: they're not doing anything bad or wrong.

Q proceeds to teach Men how to ride the bike. They go about it very slowly and carefully to make sure Men doesn't hurt himself. Once Men has gained some confidence, Q asks to ride on the back for a bit "so Men can get used to that", and once that works, he asks Jeen to take his spot "so he can take a clip of Men on the bike with someone in the back to show Min". Khanomjeen agrees on the condition that they go home once he's taken the video.

It starts to rain heavily as soon as they're done with the clip. The three of them run under a bridge and wait there, but after an hour, it's clear it's not going to stop soon. Q volunteers to run and get rain ponchos, leaving Khanomjeen and Men by themselves. Men asks Khanomjeen whether she thought he looked cool on the bike. She says sure, he presses on: as cool as Min, or not quite yet? Khanomjeen looks at him and they have a bit of a moment. She then tells Men "no", but something has clearly changed, and Men also realises. Q, who ran back with raincoats but realised they were having a moment, hangs back to give them a little time to themselves.

When they get back to the house, Min is there and pissed. Where did they go? Q tries to placate him but Min just gets more upset: doesn't Q know Men is sick, what did he think, taking him out to do something dangerous, and in the rain as well! What if something had happened! Khanomjeen tries to mediate and Min rounds on her, which in turn makes Men mad. He accuses Min of wanting Men locked up in the house forever and not seeing Men as a person, then stomps upstairs to his room. Q argues with Min, Min tells him Q can only argue like that because he never cared for anyone in his life.

Once Min has calmed down, he goes to talk to Men, but gets no answer through the door. Then, there's a thud like a body hitting the floor. Min panics and breaks down the door. He finds Men collapsed, feverish and barely conscious. His frantic tone alerts Q, who comes upstairs and goes numb at the sight that greets him. Min tells him to call an ambulance.

At the hospital, Q tries to apologise to Min – he really does feel bad about what happened, and feels responsible, too. Min tells him to leave him the fuck alone, which really gets to Q.

Men regains consciousness. Khanomjeen, who joined them, and Min go into the room, but Q hovers outside, unsure of his welcome. The doctor explains Men just caught a cold and his heart is perfectly fine, it's just that he's still weakened overall, which is why he caught a fever. Min relaxes. Men, still a little fuzzy around the edges, also tells Min he's fine. Min apologises to Men and Khanomjeen. Men tells Min he had a really good day and was really happy today, and that he'd've been fine if not for the rain, and Min doesn't argue. The room feels more relaxed. Khanomjeen is eager to corroborate Men's account and shows Min the clip of her and Men on the motorcycle. Min can tell that Men looks incredibly happy. Towards the end of the clip, Q turned the camera on himself and addresses Min: "I wanted to show you how much cooler than you your brother is"

Men stresses how Q was the one who made a day that made him that happy possible, and tells Min to apologise to Q as well. Min brushes him off -- they're both adults, these things don't need saying --, but Men can tell he's affected.

Q is quiet the entire ride home, staring out the window and not talking. Min telling him to leave him the fuck alone still echoes in his ear. When they get home, he goes upstairs immediately. Min feels odd; he feels like it'd've been easier if Q got mad at him. Men walks up and slaps Min's shoulder: weren't they both adults and these things didn't need saying? before he, too, goes upstairs to his room.

When Min gets to his own room, the bedside lamp is the only light on. Q is lying on the edge of the bed. Min walks up to him and tells him he saw the clip and that Men really did look happy. Q doesn't react. When Min looks more closely, he can tell that Q is red in the face, not looking so good, and radiating heat. Min instantly goes into caregiver mode and makes to go get Q medicine, but Q tugs at his arm and stops him. Min is startled to see Q is on the verge of tears. Q tries to apologise to Min. He looks miserable. Min tells him he's not angry anymore. Q asks after Men, and Min tells him Men's fine and Q should worry about himself, first. He gently plucks Q's hand off his arm and puts it down on the bed next to Q, but doesn't let go yet, stroking the back of Q's hand with his thumb. He tells Q again that he's no longer angry and goes to get medicine, a flannel, and water.

Min is very aware that he's aware of Q's naked skin while he's spongebathing him, and tries very very hard to keep everything perfunctory. This isn't made easier by Q squirming, trying to avoid the cool water. When they're done, Min helps Q put on the very shirt Q had grabbed that first night that Min then hadn't let him wear. Q notices. Min tells him it's alright, it's a warm shirt, it'll help him get better soon, and that he won't tie their arms this night.

When Min lies down, Q still looks cold despite the covers. Min lies close and sort of half-hugs him. Q opens his eyes, they kind of stare at each other in silence for a while. Min wants to apologise, but Q beats him to it, but Min tells him he's not angry anymore and went too far earlier. He realises he would not know what to do if he made Q cry for real. They talk. Min thanks Q for making Men so happy that day and that he hasn't ever achieved that look on Men himself. Q tells him Men just wants to be like Min. Min doesn't believe him, Q insists and tells him Men's well aware that Min does what he does for Men's sake, and that Q thinks Min's a great older brother. Min tears up. Q tells him he really has no chill when it comes to Men.

Min tells him he has no-one else -- he's cared for Men since he was seventeen years old (and Men was eleven), he didn't even know how to cook rice at first and could only act on guesswork and instinct, always within the framework of "will this be good for Men". Telling Q this is kind of cathartic for Min -- he's never had anyone care, nobody ever asked, but Q asked, and listens, and Min is suddenly confronted with just how lonely he was and how hard this has been. He tells Q he is really afraid he'll ruin Men's life, that he's doing the wrong thing. Q tells him, feverishly but quite seriously, that he feels like if he had anyone who loved him the way Min loves Men, he'd never want for anything else. Min thinks about it and feels his face heat. Q misreads the flush, tells Min to take some medicine, too, and moves to feel Min's forehead. Min tells him to stop talking and go to sleep. Q's eyes are at a height with Min's neck, and he spots the mole Khanomjeen listed when she was talking about how she could tell it was Min in the movie earlier. He falls asleep smiling.

There's not a lot of space on the bed with the way Q is lying, so Min ends up apologising and kind of wrapping himself around Q in order not to fall off, and Q, whether consciously or not, rests his head against Min's chest and hugs him back. Min kind of freezes and doesn't dare move at first, but in the end he moves his free arm to pet Q's hair. He's a mess of feelings he's not quite ready to confront, but he wishes he could hold Q and be held by him like this every night.

The next morning, Min gets up early to make khaao dtom. He's filling a bowl in the kitchen while Men is in the living room, watching TV, when Khanomjeen comes by and is surprised Min isn't at work. Min says he has sick kids at home and asked for the day off. Before she can say anything, Q comes downstairs, still wearing the Min's Golden-Retriever-in-Wolf-hat shirt, and asks what smells so good. He's still a little loopy with fever and rumpled from sleep and looks very cute as he goes to stand next to Min and peer into the pot. Min involuntarily grins, smoothes Q's hair down and tells him to have food and medicine. His tone is so gentle it borders on sweet. Q is loopy and doesn't notice, and neither does Min himself, but Men and Jeen sure do. Men also notices that Q is wearing the shirt he gifted Min and comments on how Min wouldn't let anyone else wear that before. Min blusters and tries to deflect that he doesn't have a lot of warm shirts. Men pretends to accept that answer -- he doesn't really want to tease Min when Min looks like he's about to scoop Q up and carry him where he needs to go. Khanomjeen asks whether that means they're all gonna stay in together that day, and when Min confirms, she and Men call a movie night ("'night' my ass" is Q's comment on that with a look out the window).

Men and Min go gather blankets, pillows, and stuffed toys for the sofa while Khanomjeen and Q prepare snacks and soft drinks. Khanomjeen asks whether he and Min are good now, Q says yes. Khanomjeen then tells Q not to worry too much about it because Min is a person who worries too much about the people he loves, to the point where he sometimes overdoes it, but he doesn't mean to hurt anyone … so she'd kind of like Min to get mad at her in that over-the-top way, because she'd like to know what it's like to be loved by him.

Q deflects teasingly: what about Men?

Khanomjeen seems to lose her composure a little and only says they'll see, but she blushes as she tells him we'll see.

When they're watching the movie, Min unconsciously stretches out his arm to lie on the sofa behind Q, who's hugging the stuffed toy dog, almost like he's putting his arm around his shoulders, and Q leans into it with an air of familiarity. On the screen, Min appears, and Min remembers a gun is about to go off, so he quickly covers Q's ears. When the scene is past, he tells them there won't be any more shots fired in the movie, very matter-of-factly, like looking after others like this was the most normal thing in the world. Q remembers what Khanomjeen said and thinks to himself that she's right -- Min kind of reminds him of a huge dog who loves his owners. He can't keep that to himself, so he teases Min: "You're the actual golden retriever dressed as a wolf here … good boy."

His intention is to tease, but Min just feels praised because Q looks pretty happy about it.

[marquisiere]

I'll never write it cause I don't read twilight anymore, but a funny fic idea would be to add a third class of vampire hunters (of which bella is a part of)

Think about it. Bella's mom and new bf or husband or whatever are actually traveling vampire hunters. Charlie left the organization or whatever sometime after Bella was born, leading to the divorce. He likes to put his violent days behind him and act like the supernatural world doesn't exist.

Well, Bella gets an assignment to check in on the Cullen's. Basically to make sure they're not a threat and are keeping up the secrecy, which the vampire hunter organization values almost as much as the volturi. So she goes, falls in love with Edward, yada yada all the while she's hiding the fact that not only does she know the Cullen's are vampires, she regularly hunts them.

In this version, she immediately clocks the werewolves for what they are and also is trying to be a normal teenager since she's used to being around other vampire hunters. Like, she'll pull out some crazy stunt and just laugh it off as an Arizona thing. (Or wherever she's from I forgot).

Anyways, the whole 'this is the skin of a killer's speech ends with Bella laughing hysterically but also deciding not to let Edward in on the fact that she's a part of some super secret vampire hunter society. Edward then goes to crazy lengths to convince Bella that he's a vampire because he thinks she doesn't believe him.

After a series of misunderstandings, Bella leaves the airport on purpose to hunt down the bad vampire (forgot his name) herself. She comes clean after Edward finds her next to the dead guy and then the next few books are just family hijinks of trying to keep the whole vampire/ vampire hunter fling a secret. It still ends with Bella as a vampire. The worst part isn't the volturi, but filling out all the paperwork and NDAs with the vampire hunter organization afterwards.

Anyways, I haven't touched the books for years, but this idea plagues me sometimes.

[myxomato515]

finished electric dreams. i need to let it marinate for a bit to give final thoughts but here’s a few takeaways(SPOILERS!!!):

-i really love the voice they gave edgar. bud cort does a great job and edgar has a surprisingly flexible range of tangible emotion in his voice. i like it when he has outbursts at miles, he sounds like a little hellion any time he screams. “I 👹 NEED 👹 TO 👹 MOLES!!!👹”

-everyone acted pretty well. i expected a crapton of cheese from a scifi romance from the 80’s but it was all very tolerable. miles especially was pretty realistic.

-i was expecting a “third act misunderstanding” thing with miles and madeline, like she’d figure out edgar was behind the music and shun miles before coming back in the end, but they subverted that, and frankly i’m glad. i guess you could apply the same concept to when she runs away from him after he tells her to shut up but that was less predictable than what i… well, predicted.

-however, i didn’t like that a lot of this movie was glorified music videos. some of them were really offputting and clashed with the cinematography of the rest of the movie. a lot of the music was good, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of it felt like it was trying to be marketable.

-speaking of marketability, i’m surprised this was a box office bomb. despite it’s niche and kinda odd premise, the sheer amount of cheesy-music-video-ness about this movie and its pretty normal love triangle plot i figured would at least have it break even. 2.5 mil is measely and i think it deserved better.

-at a glance i first expected this movie to be a horror film. y’know, one of those campy 80’s ones, but still a horror film. the idea of having your entire house being taken over by a computer just because he wants yo girl is inherently pretty scary, but it doesn’t really go there. the worst edgar does is shock miles a few times and call the authorities pretending to be a hostage, but otherwise he’s just a big ol pest. i enjoyed it nonetheless.

-funniest part is hands down when edgar asks what sex is and miles double takes like “🤨” though the therapy sesh edgar holds with himself is a close second. “but i don’t have arms.” “do you have anything else to touch her with?” “i have… i have nothing…” “oh dear. perhaps you should get that checked out.”

-and yes. yes i would love edgar with all my heart. sorry miles i have a computer to go smooch