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moonlinos · 1 year ago

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I can hear the siren (Siren part I)

♡ Pairing: Hwang Hyunjin × fem!reader

♡ Genre: Camboy!Hyunjin, neighbors AU, strangers to “lovers”

♡ CW: Explicit sexual content (minors dni!), sex work, voyeurism if you squint, hate sex kind of?, masturbation, thigh riding, oral sex (male receiving), unprotected sex, Hyunjin’s a bit of an asshole but I love him

♡ Word count: 7.9k

♡ Synopsis: To say your new next-door neighbor is loud would be an understatement. Three times a week, at the same time every night, he will laugh and talk loudly for an hour. After that, like clockwork, a cacophony of his groans and moans will fill your room through your shared wall. He’s most certainly entertaining some hookup, or maybe a girlfriend. You frankly don’t care — all you know is you want your peace and quiet back. But you never would’ve guessed what you would find out upon confronting him.

♡ A/N: Once again, I cannot shut up and this ended up being much longer than I had originally wanted. One day, I will write a one-shot that’s less than 5k words, but today is not that day. I listened to Taeyeon’s Siren while writing this, hence the title. Also think the song’s a little fitting to the story.

part II →

Yet another night, yet another two hours of hearing your next-door neighbor moaning like a porn star for anyone to hear. The thin walls of your apartment, coupled with the fact that your room shared a wall with his own bedroom, make it impossible for you not to hear everything that happens inside his bedroom. Earphones have proven futile in muffling his voice, and you can only distract yourself with mindless YouTube videos for so long before you give up and simply wait for him to finish. Quite literally.

You noticed it was his routine: Fridays and weekends — the nights when he would graciously give the entire building a free show.

But that wasn’t all he did. And that’s what stirs up curiosity inside of you.

An hour before the unholy sounds begin, he spends a significant amount of time simply speaking, laughing loudly, and throwing the occasional suggestive comment here and there. But only his voice can be heard, and considering how damn thin the walls are, you can’t help but wonder why that is. Maybe his hookups aren’t into his long, drawn-out conversations, only there to get fucked and dip as fast as possible. Or perhaps it’s a girlfriend, and he enjoys gagging her. Your mind has had plenty of time to run wild with theories, seeing as he moved about a month ago, starting your own personal version of hell on his very first day.

You complained to your landlord three times now. On the first time, you were dismissed as being too sensitive to noise. Maybe invest in some earplugs, she suggested. The second time, after explaining through gritted teeth that perhaps the entire building could also hear him and it would be wise to give him a warning, she assured you that only your apartment had such complaints — after all, it was only the two of you on that floor. And, on your last attempt before you ultimately gave up, your landlord all but berated you for meddling in your neighbor’s business. She argued he was inside his apartment and could do whatever he desired.

And so, you accepted your fate.

As you walk out of the shower, your bliss at the realization that tonight is a Friday dissipates as soon as it dawns on you that you are in for three days in a row of your neighbor and his antics. You groan, reluctantly making your way toward your bedroom, your body aching after sitting at your desk at work all day. So sleeping on the couch was not an option; your limbs only ached even more the day after you did that to try and escape the raucous noise.

Like clockwork, at exactly ten p.m., his loud voice fills the small space of your bedroom.

“I’m actually going out tonight again, so we have to be quick,” he explains. “But you like it when I’m quick, don’t you? Like when I make you cum so fast you barely have time to understand what’s happening.”

You grimace at his words, burying yourself under your blankets. God.

“I’m going clubbing with a couple of friends,” He continues. “Hopefully, I’ll find a nice girl to take home, hm?”

Crossing out the word Girlfriend on your mental notes, you scoff. What a gentleman he is, letting his hook-up know he’ll have to fuck her fast so he can leave to meet another woman to take home.

“Maybe I’ll record a video for you if she lets me. Would you like that, seeing me fuck another woman? I bet you would.”

What the fuck. The word Girlfriend is added back to your list. Maybe the girl is into that shit, and you’re not one to kink shame so long as everything’s consensual. But you surely didn’t consent to knowing that information.

Soon enough, his voice drops to a sultry tone, and incessant hums spill from his lips. And the worst part of your night begins.

You hate to admit it — seeing as the guy makes you lose sleep and disturbs your peace since he’s graced the building with his presence — but his dirty talk, when coupled with his groans, becomes far less unpleasant and much more enticing. Every night, you struggle for an hour with the uncomfortable feeling of arousal between your legs, the way he alternates between praises and vulgar words causing a twinge inside of you. But you never dare to masturbate to the sound of his voice — that would be going too far. Or, at least, that’s what you tell yourself as you follow your rule of waiting for him to finish whatever it is that he’s doing to then finally touch yourself. As you tightly shut your eyes, you focus on your upcoming work assignments, desperately trying to drown out the sound of his voice. Maybe boring yourself to sleep is your only escape.

“Oh, I know how wet you are just watching me — fuck,” he groans, a breathy scoff leaving his lips. “Don’t even gotta tell me. Just touch yourself, it’s okay.”

Your eyes shoot open as it feels as if he’s fucking talking to you. You shake your head, the awful feeling of embarrassment engulfing you in the privacy of your own bedroom.

“I know you want to,” His voice is unrelenting, reverberating through your dark room, punctuated by heavy sighs. “Do it for me, will you? Touch your pretty cunt for me.”

You feel your clit begin to pulse, and a loud groan escapes from your lips. So loud, in fact, you wonder if he heard you through the thin walls as well.

Fuck it, you tell yourself inwardly, it’s not like the guy will ever know what you’re doing.

The sound of his voice was as silky and dark as velvet, covering you wholly and clouding your judgment with each word. You allow your hand to slip underneath your sleep shorts, gasping as you find the fabric of your panties already soaking simply from hearing his words — almost begging, guiding you to let go of your reservations and touch yourself.

“Just like that. D’you like the sound of my voice?” He asked, voice breathless, a deep groan echoing through the walls. “Like hearing me moan for you? Bet you’d like it even more if I was fucking you.”

Your fingers delicately flick back and forth, teasing your clit, your mind now shamelessly imagining his fingertips, his tongue, his cock, anything he was willing to give you. You’re quick to lose yourself in this imagination, despite not knowing what the man looked like — you soon realize that wasn’t at all important, a dark shadowy figure hovering over you proving to be more than enough for you as you felt a rush of wetness pooling between your thighs when your neighbor let out a louder, guttural noise.

“Fuck, I’d love to be stretching that pussy out,” He chokes out, and you bite your bottom lip to keep from making any noise. You’re now hyper-aware that if you can hear him this loudly, he’d be able to hear you with the same amount of clarity.

Your embarrassment only goes so far, though, as you slip a finger into your cunt, your breath hitching and your eyes fluttering closed to better conjure up the fantasy your mind had been creating. You imagine his long fingers inside you in place of your own, the words he spilled almost nonchalantly being whispered directly into your ears. One finger soon turned into two, then three, the heel of your palm rubbing against your clit as you tilt your hips up. You throw away your last drop of inhibition as you indulge in vivid thoughts, imagining the shape and size of his cock and, most importantly, how it would feel as it filled you up. Your neighbor’s words almost faded into white noise, his grunting the only coherent sound in your ears.

Would he take his time with you, like he always did whenever you heard him? Teasing you for hours as he candidly talked about nothing in particular, rendering you unable to do anything but beg for him? Or would he be hasty, like tonight, his cock abruptly stretching you to the brim, making you feel every inch of his thick length? Would he rather finish on your breasts, your stomach, or maybe your face, taking a picture to keep as a souvenir he could show off to whoever he was with during these nights?

“Come with me,” His voice suddenly became clear once more, deep and hoarse as you imagine his lips pressed against the shell of your ear. “Think about how good it’d feel to have me come inside you, stuffing that little cunt while you milk me dry.”

You purse your lips as you feel your release approaching, coaxed purely by his words. The mental image of this stranger painting your insides with his release, all the while his intoxicating voice told you how good you were, how warm and tight you felt enough to have waves of pleasure wash over you, body tensing up as your orgasm surges through you.

As you slowly come down from your high, you feel your consciousness come back to you. Your fingers leave your core as if you were just burned by fire, which is fitting as a feeling of burning embarrassment wraps around you tightly like a vice.

But the worst part is that the shame quickly ebbs away as you hear your neighbor’s chuckle, the laugh of a stranger you had come to almost memorize.

“You know I’m always glad to make you come. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

And with that, everything around you falls into a quiet stillness. You faintly hear as he shuts his front door, presumably leaving for that club he had mentioned, and you’re left to lie with your regrets.

This has just crossed a line, and although you couldn’t bring yourself to feel all that guilty, you still knew it was wrong. You had no choice but to confront the cause of your troubles yourself.

Unfortunately, that cause was a person you had just shamelessly fantasized about as you fingered yourself.

The next afternoon, you stand at your neighbor’s door, hesitant to knock. Since he mentioned going clubbing last night, you knew coming by in the morning would be futile, but you also know — sadly, all too well — that Saturday nights are when he’s the loudest, and he only stops well past midnight. You settled for the afternoon, preparing lunch as you rehearsed your words in your head instead of enjoying your weekend.

You knock twice, and that familiar voice soon rings through the door, asking for a moment. A minute later, your neighbor is standing in front of you, holding the door open with sleepy eyes that focus on you. You’re not sure what you were expecting, but surely not a tired-looking tall man with messy black hair wearing a pout on his lips, as if you just rudely disturbed him from his sleep (how ironic). From what you heard during the last month, you were ready to have to face a shirtless fuckboy, a permanent smirk etched onto his lips as he eyed you indifferently. Instead, you’re greeted by soft cheeks and half-closed eyes.

“Yeah?” Your neighbor croaks out, face still heavy with sleep.

You clear your throat, returning to the matter at hand. “I’m your next-door neighbor, I—”

“Nice to meet you, neighbor,” he says before you can even finish your rehearsed opening sentence, his lips curling into a small smile. You fight back the urge to roll your eyes. Somehow, him being so soft is making you hate him even more.

“I wish I could say the same,” you mutter, “Y’know, you’ve been making my life a living hell since you moved in.”

He doesn’t answer, instead running a hand through his hair, the strands falling into place and away from his face. After a small nod, he opens the door all the way.

“Come on in,” he says, promptly walking inside and leaving you standing in the hallway all alone. You have no choice but to follow after him.

He snatches his cup of coffee from the counter, letting out a tired sigh as he collapses onto the couch and takes a big sip. You sit next to him and watch as he swallows slowly, humming contently, and only then speaking again.

“Why is that?”

You hold back another eye roll. “Well, you’re quite noisy at night,” you hesitantly begin, only now grasping just how awkward explaining this situation will be. “On Fridays and on the weekends, you’re… loud.”

And in an instant, you witness a complete shift in his entire demeanor right before your eyes. Like he’s possessed by something, his once sleepy eyes now bore into you with an intense gaze, and his lips curl into the smug grin you were expecting from the start.

“So you can hear me?” He asks as if you hadn’t just told him exactly that. You feel small under the weight of his darkened eyes, but you shrug, doing your best at feigning confidence.

“It’s pretty hard not to hear you,” you answer simply. “We share a wall, in case you didn’t know. I can hear everything you do in your bedroom.”

He raises a brow at your words as if they piqued his interest. But he doesn’t verbalize it; instead, he speaks in that same nonchalant tone you’re used to hearing through your bedroom wall, “You never told me your name. A bit rude, don’t you think?” He offers you his hand. “I’m Hyunjin.”

You scoff but shake his hand regardless, telling him your name with a sigh.

“You know what I think is rude?” You offer him a forced smile. “Keeping your next-door neighbor up all night with how fucking loud you are.”

Hyunjin doesn’t answer. His gaze traces a path from your eyes to your lips before lingering on your thighs. You instinctively cross your legs, fingers smoothing down the fabric of your shorts. Locking his gaze with yours once more after a few seconds, he cocks his head to the side.

“So I’ve been keeping you up all night?” He muses, and you feel a warmth spread across your cheeks at the rough rasp in his voice.

It’s almost as if he knows what you did last night and is teasing you.

Although you know that’s impossible, your words still get choked up. Hyunjin was undeniably attractive — whether it was looking as soft as he did while answering the door or as if he could devour you with his gaze alone as he does now. You couldn’t be blamed for feeling flustered, especially after everything you heard this man saying and doing.

“Well,” you clear your throat, crossing your arms over your chest. Showing your outrage at this entire situation is your best bet, so you allow for the anger you felt during all those sleepless nights to seep through your veins. “It’s kinda hard to sleep when you’re moaning like a porn star.”

But Hyunjin fully chuckles at that. “So I sound like a porn star?” He nods with an amused hum. “I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you.”

You let out a heavy sigh. Never mind anything you had thought upon seeing him open that door; Hyunjin is everything you thought he would be.

“Look, I didn’t come here to stroke your ego. You’re clearly doing just fine in that regard,” you grumble, and he scoffs beside you, leaning back on the couch with a smug expression you want to slap away from his pretty face. “I came here to ask if you could move whatever it is that you do to the living room, or maybe keep it down. I’m sure that’s not too much to ask.”

Hyunjin clicks his tongue almost mockingly. “Oh, but it is too much to ask. I can’t really do any of those things. Sorry,” he shrugs, “The building has thin walls. You’re just gonna have to get used to it, I’m afraid.”

You stagger at his words, his lack of common sense seemingly higher than you initially gave him credit for. You’re unsure whether to laugh in sheer disbelief or cuss him out as anger slowly bubbles up inside your chest. How unfairly attractive he looks at the moment isn’t helping your case — he spreads his legs further as he shifts on the couch, bringing his mug up to his full lips and watching you almost uninterestedly with half-lidded eyes.

Fuck this guy.

“What is it you do that’s so important that you can’t at least keep it down? Can’t your girlfriend get off without your obnoxious dirty talk? Is that it?”

Hyunjin shakes his head dismissively. “Don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Your dates, then. I honestly don’t care.” You roll your eyes, which elicits a small laugh from him. You have never wanted to punch someone so badly, all while also wanting them to rearrange your guts. “Whoever it is, whatever it is that you do, can’t we compromise and you be quiet, at least on Fridays? I get home from work exhausted and have to put up with your shit when all I wanna do is sleep.”

“Ah, but Fridays are the most important nights for me,” Hyunjin tells you with a condescending lilt in his voice. “That’s also not possible, I’m so sorry.”

“I see.” You suck in a deep breath, your eyes narrowing and hands curling into fists on your lap. “Then would it be possible for you to move your… activities to the living room?”

Hyunjin contorts his face, shaking his head while that grin is still etched onto his lips. “Yeah, no, that’s also not possible.”

“You’re extremely inflexible, do you know that?” You blurt out, “I’m not asking that you move out, I’m simply asking that you fuck whoever it is that you fuck every weekend somewhere else.”

His piercing gaze lingers on you briefly, as if he’s carefully considering his next words. Sighing, he sets his mug on the end table and sits up straight.

“Let’s make a deal,” he proposes, carelessly ripping a piece of paper from the open sketchbook that lay on the coffee table and jotting something down. “Tonight, you wait for me to start my activities,” he says with a poorly concealed chuckle. “And then you go on this website. Maybe it’ll clear up some things inside your pretty little head. Can you do that for me?”

He hands you the note, eyes darting down to your lips once more before meeting your gaze. The tone of his voice is the same that echoes through your bedroom during those nights — exactly like the one that coaxed an orgasm out of you just last night, and you absentmindedly squeeze your thighs together.

You need to get out of here.

With a small nod, you swiftly stand back on your feet and walk toward the door of his apartment that was left wide open. You quietly mutter a goodbye as Hyunjin says something about it being a pleasure meeting you, all while amusedly staring at you.

It’s only as you close your front door behind you that you look down at the piece of paper that you subconsciously crumpled up. Scrawled in a messy handwriting is simply a website address:

fivestarcam.com

You furrow your brows, walking toward your bedroom as you rack your brain for how a website could possibly give you answers. It dawns on you, then — all the trouble you went through, and yet, no solution to your problem.

Ultimately, you decide you’ve already wasted too much of your patience on this man today, throwing the piece of paper on your bedside table and going about your day, enjoying the tranquility of your apartment while you can.

Night comes too fast, the sun setting outside unbeknownst to you as you lie on the couch for nearly three hours, your focus solely on the plot of the movie playing on your phone. Soon enough, ten p.m. rolls around, and you drag your tired body toward your bathroom. You take a shower with no rush, knowing full well that by the time you walk into your bedroom, Hyunjin’s activities will already have started.

Sure enough, you’re greeted by a drawled-out groan as soon as you enter your room. With a heavy sigh, you throw yourself onto your bed. Your bedroom had always been comforting, your bed almost like a safe haven from all the stress life threw your way. Yet now it’s simply the place where you lie awake for hours, simultaneously vexed and uncomfortably turned on.

You lie still for a while, Hyunjin’s vulgar chatter like the background music to your spacing out, until you remember the piece of paper he gave you earlier. How would a website clear up any of your confusion? And, more importantly, why should you even care enough to find out? From the little interaction you had with the man, you know for a fact Hyunjin will remain unchanging in his obnoxious ways.

However, you’ve always been too curious for your own good, and the mere prospect of understanding this annoyingly enigmatic man even a tiny bit has you hurriedly picking your laptop off the floor and typing out the website address on your browser. Curiosity killed the cat.

The first thing that greets you is a message asking that you verify being over the age of eighteen. All you have to do is click a button, which seems counterintuitive, but you have little time to worry about that when your screen is filled with preview thumbnails of several live broadcasts.

You’ve heard of camming websites before, of course, but you didn’t know they were still a thing nowadays, what with the rise of Only Fans and other more independent ways to go about making money like this.

Your eyes scan the page with agape lips. Men and women — some in their underwear and some already naked, some showing their faces and some wearing masks. And then, your eyes land on a particular thumbnail. At the Top Cammers of The Month section, on the number one spot, is a fully clothed man with familiar long black hair. Only the bottom of his face can be seen due to his camera angle, but that is more than enough as your gaze fixes on his full lips.

That’s undeniably Hyunjin. Your neighbor, Hyunjin.

Before you can make sense of your actions, your fingers are already hovering above the touchpad as you watch the thumbnail image change into a new one. Curiosity is eating away at you, and you can’t deny that your nosy mind is eager to finally see Hyunjin rather than only hear him.

Ultimately, you decide this is ridiculous.

But your twitching fingers brush against the touchpad just as you move to close your laptop, promptly clicking the live video, your screen now filled with the image of Hyunjin in his bedroom. He’s shirtless now, palming himself through his sweatpants — the same ones he wore this afternoon.

“You wanna know how clubbing went last night?” He says with a grin, and you now understand his incessant talking is merely him answering comments from his viewers. Various different names fly through the right side of your screen, some with tips attached to their comments and some simply drooling over Hyunjin as he essentially sits in front of the camera doing nothing.

A cocky smile is spread on his lips once you shift your attention back to him.

“I guess you’re good at following orders,” he chuckles. You then realize your laptop’s volume is on high, and the speaker’s noise permeates through your wall and into Hyunjin’s bedroom. Your eyes shoot open, and you scramble to find your earphones in your bed.

You’re gnawing on your bottom lip as you plug them in, suddenly too aware of the fact that he can hear you just as well as you can hear him. Hyunjin’s smile shifts into a small laugh, his hand wrapping around his length through his sweatpants, the firm outline of his cock straining against the fabric. You feel a tingling sensation spread through your body, your inner muscles clenching as you watch the way his hand squeezes along the thick outline, the muscles of his stomach contracting as he lets out a broken sigh.

This feels wrong, as if you’re nothing more than a pervert watching Hyunjin for your own pleasure. But then again, it was he who gave you the website address in the first place. Why else would he have done that if not for you to watch him?

“I have a special someone watching tonight,” he murmurs, and you can just imagine his gaze right now — his eyes hooded and piercing, locked onto the camera with the same intensity as when he looked at you earlier today.

Hyunjin’s hand reaches inside his sweatpants, withdrawing his cock from the constraints of the dark fabric before you can make sense of what’s happening. Your gaze remains fixed, unable to look away from the red, swollen head that stands out against his pale skin. With lazy movements, he begins stroking himself, the precum dripping from the tip easing the glide of his hand. You bite the inside of your cheek as more arousal leaks from you, gathering in your panties.

“Hope she likes watching just as much as she liked listening to me last night,” Hyunjin rasps out, and you immediately close your laptop, throwing it to the side before burying your face in your pillow.

He knows you got off to his voice. He has to know.

And, unfortunately, your brain is currently too clouded by lust to function properly, and the only logical solution you can come up with is to go knocking at his door tomorrow.

You stand in front of Hyunjin’s door at the same time as yesterday, a strange blend of anger and curiosity making you knock frantically until he answers with that annoyingly alluring smirk on his lips.

“Did you enjoy the show last night?” Hyunjin asks before you can even utter a word, his voice filled with a goading tone.

You push past him, walking into his apartment with a scowl. “Why did you send me that?”

He only shrugs, closing the door behind him before stretching his arms above his head with a sigh. “Needed you to understand why I can’t just stop doing what I do. It’s my job,” he reasons, “I figured showing you was more effective than telling you.”

A scoff involuntarily falls from your lips, and you fight back the urge to roll your eyes. “So you just sent me to a website full of porn without even asking me if that was okay? I don’t care if that’s your fucking job, I never asked you—”

“Did you stay till the end?” He asks, a lazy grin on his lips as his gaze wanders across your face. Clearly, he’d completely ignored every word that came out of your mouth.

“Hyunjin, are you even listening to me?”

“I was thinking about you, y’know?” He continues, taking a step toward you. “Was really easy to come when I knew you were watching me.” He cages your body against the door with his, both hands resting beside your head. His dark gaze locks onto you, causing your breath to hitch. “All I could think about was how you were secretly listening to me all this time. Such a dirty girl.”

Hyunjin clicks his tongue, shaking his head in feigned disappointment. You want to tell him you weren’t secretly listening to him; you were merely thrown into this situation against your will. But his gaze shifts from your eyes to your lips, lingering before roaming over the swell of your breasts, causing your thoughts to blur and your words to die in your throat.

“Kept thinking about how I never heard you,” he says, almost as if he’s wondering aloud. “When was the last time someone fucked you properly?”

His gaze finally travels back up to yours, and the fog of desire clouding his eyes is unmistakable. The moment you knocked on his door, you knew this would happen. You weren’t naïve, and Hyunjin wasn’t stupid; the moment you pushed past him and into his apartment, you both knew where this was going.

“Don’t have time to go on dates,” you murmur as Hyunjin leans down, humming low on his throat.

“Well,” he whispers, the warmth of his breath tickling your face. “You got to listen to me, got to watch me… Don’t you wanna know what it feels like?”

You can only nod, and Hyunjin immediately presses his lips to yours in a searing kiss. He wedges his knee firmly between your thighs, as if he’s silently demanding that you give in to him. Little does he know you’re already way past that point.

Breaking the kiss, Hyunjin studies your features for a beat, the pad of his thumb gliding across your bottom lip as you look up at him with pleading eyes.

“You really want this?” He asks, and you can’t help but feel he does it simply for the pleasure of hearing you beg.

But you happily comply either way.

“Please,” you breathe out, and Hyunjin chuckles, firmly pressing his thumb into your mouth and watching as you wrap your lips around it with a contented hum. A smile tugs at the corner of his lips.

Hyunjin pushes his thigh against your core, the seam of your shorts creating a delicious friction against your clit. You can feel the warmth of his body as he presses up against you, and a sigh falls from your lips, your hands gliding up around his shoulders. You have no reservations left in your body; the only thing replaying inside your mind at the moment is the image of Hyunjin’s cock on your laptop. He was right. You were dying to know what it would feel like.

His strong hands firmly gripped onto your hips, guiding you to move against his thigh, each back-and-forth motion increasing the pressure on your aching clit. It felt too much, yet not enough at the same time. But just as you’re about to plead for more, Hyunjin’s pressing his lips to yours again and swallowing down your voice. His tongue slides against yours, the taste of coffee and smoke lingering in your mouth as he grazes your bottom lip with his teeth, pulling gently before letting go.

You feel your mind go fully hazy as Hyunjin lifts his thigh, bringing you up to your tiptoes, his muscles flexing and prompting you to roll your hips faster, harder.

“Who would’ve thought, huh? Just minutes ago you were acting like I was the worst person alive,” He lets out a low chuckle, amused, and your grip on his neck tightens as you feel the familiar vexation he brings out of you bubble up inside your chest. “Now you’re humping my leg like a bitch in heat.”

“Shut up,” you choke out, your brain too lust-hazed to conjure up a better response. You don’t particularly care what he thinks of you so long as he keeps his bruising grip on your skin, guiding you to roll your hips against him.

Hyunjin trails kisses down the skin of your neck, settling at the dip of your collarbone and sucking on the skin while you eagerly quicken your speed. His teeth nip at the sensitive skin, undoubtedly marking you, while his thigh begins to bounce against your cunt, and you can feel the familiar aching warmth of your orgasm beginning to tighten in your stomach. But just as you’re about to be hit by the release you’re so desperate for, Hyunjin’s hands leave your hips and slide down to your ass, any stimulation you had before coming to a halt as he picks you up and makes his way to the living room.

“What the fuck?” You all but yell, earning you a hearty laugh from Hyunjin. “I was close, you asshole.”

He roughly throws you onto the couch, a condescending pout etched onto his lips.

“But that’s no fun for me, is it, baby?” He hovers over you, spreading your thighs apart and slotting himself between them. In stark contrast to his words, he gently lifts your shirt over your head, feather-light touch sending shivers down your spine. “Greedy girls don’t get to come.”

You feel your insides clenching at his words, and although you despise the effect he has on you, you’re already here, laid out before him, so you might as well indulge him. You gently push Hyunjin back until he sinks into the sofa, legs lazily spread apart and half-lidded eyes fixated on you. As soon as you clutch at his shirt, he promptly tugs it over his head in one fluid motion, and you attach your lips to the bare skin of his stomach, trailing kisses down the expanse of his torso.

You waste no time tugging his sweatpants down and out of your way, his cock now hanging heavily before you, just as pretty as it had seemed on that little screen. Hyunjin’s hand soon wraps around himself, stroking lazily while you watch the precum dribble from his tip. Tentatively, you grab the base of his cock, bringing your tongue to the head and tantalizingly lapping at it. Hyunjin lets out a quiet gasp, his own hand leaving his length and tangling in your hair, guiding you forward toward his cock. You part your lips and suck the head into your waiting mouth, hands now stroking his length at a slow pace while you lick up his slit, the salty taste lingering on your tongue. You hold back a chuckle when you feel him twitch under your touch, a soft whimper falling from his throat.

Hyunjin’s hips buck up into your lips, and you promptly open your jaw wider and slide his whole length down your throat slowly. You weren’t lying when you said you had no time for dates, which is why you find yourself struggling a bit. It truly had been a while since you had a proper fuck, but you would never give Hyunjin the pleasure of hearing you admit it. Breathing through your nose, you’re finally able to move up and down his cock, swallowing all of him. Your eyes well up as his fingers tug harshly at your hair, shoving your mouth back down the entirety of his thick length. A choked-out whimper falls from your throat, and you instinctively move your gaze toward his.

“God,” he rasps out, teeth gnawing at his bottom lip and eyebrows knitting together. “You take me so well.”

You promptly remove your lips from him with a loud pop, precum and saliva dribbling down your chin as you struggle to suppress a laugh at the utter indignation on his face.

“I doubt you could fuck me if I let you come,” you shrug, and Hyunjin’s expression softens, a scoff falling from his lips.

Before you can say anything else, he’s already pushed you back onto the couch, easily flipping you over so your face is pressed into the cushion. He snakes a hand under your stomach and lifts your hips, quickly working to rid you of your shorts before pressing his cock against your clothed ass.

He leans down, lips pressed against your ear — much like it was in your fantasy back in your bedroom — and whispers, “You need me that badly? I can feel how soaked you are, and all you did was hump my leg.”

You grumble under your breath, but it goes ignored by Hyunjin as he grips your hips and slides his cock under the fabric of your panties, stroking himself along your soaking slit with a low groan. You can feel your underwear gradually dampen more as his precum mixes with your own arousal, the sheer cloth clinging to his cock with each thrust.

Hyunjin’s hand splayed across your lower back, causing you to arch your body and press your hips back instinctively. He chuckles, hand coming down onto the supper flesh of your ass with no warning, a sharp whimper falling from your lips.

“I told you greedy girls don’t get to come,” He reiterates, clicking his tongue and grabbing a large handful of your ass before tugging your panties down your legs. You quietly hoped the trees outside obscured enough of his window, otherwise you’d be in for some interesting elevator rides with your other neighbors. With a hiss, Hyunjin’s thumb presses against your clit before gliding along your wet folds. “Soaking wet,” he mutters, eyes glazed over while he watches your slick coat his finger.

You simply hum, not wanting to stroke his ego any more than you already had by begging him earlier. But you’re unable to contain the gasp that leaves your lips as he pushes his hips forward, the swollen tip of his cock gliding against your warm core once, twice, all while Hyunjin’s hands travel across your ass and thighs. You’re sure he’ll tease you until you give in and beg, but it seems his facade is quick to crumble. He impatiently wraps a hand around his length, finally guiding himself toward your entrance, seamlessly gliding into you with a heavy sigh.

He stills for a second, gaze transfixed by the way your cunt stretches around his thick cock. Until he suddenly pulls out of you before snapping his hips forward again, then again, until he sets a rhythm of deep, fast strokes that have you rocking back and forth on the couch. Pulling yourself up to rest on your forearms, you choke out a loud moan, Hyunjin’s cock twitching inside you at the sound.

“Fuck, you’re so tight,” He groans, strong arms encircling your body once more, this time pulling you close to him until your back presses against his chest. Hyunjin’s thrusts grew more forceful, the sound of skin slapping together echoing through his small living room as he relentlessly pumped himself into you. His hand wraps in your hair, yanking your head back and humming against your ear, “Go on, you can moan for me,” he hisses, “I know how good it feels.”

Fuck. His ego is surely something you would never get used to.

But you let go, freely groaning at the feeling of his cock pistoning into you. You can feel the curve of his grin against your cheek.

“Like that, I know how much you like it,” he rasps out, “Just as much as you liked touching yourself to my voice like a little slut.”

“Fuck off, you—” you huff, your words cut off by a drawn-out mewl as Hyunjin’s fingers firmly pressed down on your clit, flattening the swollen bud. You couldn’t control yourself after that, desperate whimpers and choked-out moans falling from your lips with each harsh thrust of his hips.

Your sounds seem to stir something inside of him, and his movements grow more erratic, his fingers circling your clit hastily. A crescendo of arousal and pleasure envelops you as more curses tumble from Hyunjin’s lips against your ear, his hand gripping your cheek and pulling you into a messy kiss.

You clench around him, body shaking with the force of your climax as you seek Hyunjin’s arm wrapped around your body for purchase. He continues pounding into you, and you feel yourself squirm, your vision going blurry from the stimulation.

“Gonna come,” he hisses against your lips, “Where do you want it?”

And you’re too far gone at this point, whimpering, “Anywhere you want.”

Hyunjin curses under his breath, pulling out while his hand finds your lower back once more, pushing you onto the couch before flipping your pliant body over so you’re facing him. You watch with hazy eyes as he strokes himself feverishly over your body, his cum soon shooting onto your breasts.

His unreadable gaze lingers on you for a beat and a half before he nonchalantly tucks himself back into his sweatpants and heads toward the hallway. You sit up on the couch, limbs aching, and chuckle to yourself. This was not your proudest moment, but you surely didn’t regret it.

You don’t expect aftercare from someone like him, so you resign yourself to searching for your discarded shirt. But Hyunjin’s tall frame appears before you, towel in hand before you can even stand up. His touch is gentle as he cleans your chest, and although the gesture is somewhat sweet, it feels extremely awkward.

“Really liked fucking you,” he tells you with a grin, “But you gotta leave now. I’m going live later, and I also gotta go to the club tonight, so I have to rest. But it was fun.”

And you simply scoff at his words, rising to your feet to dress yourself as quickly as possible. It was a bit baffling how he could fuck you the way he did, then tell you he’s off to pick up more girls at a club immediately after. But what did you expect? Hyunjin’s ego and arrogance were clear to you from day one.

“Why the fuck do you go clubbing so much, anyway?” You question as you head toward the front door, and Hyunjin chuckles behind you. “Is that your hunting ground or something?”

“You could say that,” he simply says.

As you unlock his door and step out into the hallway, Hyunjin’s voice calls out to you. Turning to look at him, you’re met with that familiar smirk adorning his lips.

“We can do this again anytime you want,” he assures, and the mere thought of letting him touch you again makes you roll your eyes in disdain.

“Yeah right.”

If only you knew then just how awfully torturous it would be to listen to him, knowing what he was doing — most importantly, knowing what it felt like to have him.

Lust completely clouds your judgment when it comes to Hyunjin, and you soon find yourself coming back to his apartment until it becomes an annoyingly pleasurable habit.

Every day, when he hears you get home from work, your phone buzzes with a text asking that you come over and help him ‘warm up for his job.’ The nights of suffering in your bedroom have transformed into watching him from the corner of his room, enthralled with the way he can make himself come on camera so eagerly and later fuck you with just as much vigor.

It’s a nice arrangement, but definitely not one you see yourself in for the long run. Hyunjin might kiss you and hold you close as he fucks you, but you’re not foolish enough to anchor your feelings to someone like him. It’s not his job that’s the problem, but mostly his attitude toward life. He belongs to nobody, while you yearn to belong to someone. Routine is the last thing on his mind, while you revel in its comfort. You could never be with someone like him.

But it is a nice arrangement.

So you find yourself back in his bed again today, his heavy cock in your mouth as he tugs harshly on your hair, painting the back of your throat with his cum. Except this time, he doesn’t immediately ask you to leave.

“What?” You ask, “Don’t you have to go clubbing or something?”

“It’s my day off,” he shrugs, his arms wrapping around you as he pulls you close and falls back into bed. You furrow your brows, detangling yourself from him.

“Day off? From what, picking up girls?”

Hyunjin chuckles, eyes sleepy. “I work at the club,” he simply says. “I’m a host, I just act like I go clubbing when I talk about it during my lives ‘cause my viewers can be a bit stalkery.”

“What?”

“Have you heard of The Siren?” He asks, and you hum, recalling a faint memory of some of your co-workers mentioning the club in passing. “That’s where I work.”

You nod slowly, still confused. “What exactly does a host do?”

“Well, basically, I get to make money just by making lonely women feel wanted.”

You can’t help but scoff at his crude description. “And do you fuck them?”

“Well, yeah,” he answers like it’s obvious. “It’s part of the job.”

“Fucking hell,” You let out a hearty laugh, to which Hyunjin shoots you a questioning look. “Your sex drive really should be studied.”

His lips upturn into a smirk, and his arms reach for you again, beckoning you back into his embrace. “No need to be jealous, baby. I only fuck them if they’re willing to pay, and I’m expensive.”

You roll your eyes, allowing him to pull you into his chest. He threads his fingers through your hair, and you can’t help but feel… awkward.

“You’re kind of an asshole, Hyunjin.”

He hums. “Sure, but you still let me fuck you.”

You two stay that way for a while, his fingers massaging your scalp as he presses a kiss to your head now and then. It feels disorienting, like a sudden shift from everything Hyunjin had been until now. He was never caring or sweet, he never kissed you if you weren’t fucking, and he surely never cuddled you. Your face involuntarily contorts into a grimace.

You detach yourself from him, getting up from the bed and telling him you’ll see him later. But Hyunjin is grabbing at your arm with a smile.

“Come on, don’t be sad,” he giggles as you try to free yourself from his grip. “I’m really not the type of guy you should have fallen for, anyway.”

You still at his words, face contorting into pure befuddlement. “Fallen for? Who the fuck says I’ve fallen for you?”

And Hyunjin simply scoffs, letting go of your arm as his smile shifts into his characteristic grin. “Well, there’s a reason I’m number one among the hosts at The Siren.”

“Hyunjin, those girls aren’t exactly after you for your personality,” you deadpan. “You’re really nothing worth falling for.”

His grin slowly fades, and it’s his turn to have confusion take hold in his eyes. “What?”

You can tell he wasn’t expecting this. Almost as if he was expecting you to have truly fallen for him simply because he… is him. And you can’t help but chuckle at the situation.

“Hyunjin,” you call out to him sweetly, and his gaze is back on you immediately. “You’re a nice fuck, but that’s really it. Don’t worry about me falling for you.”

You can swear you see a flicker of hurt in his eyes, but it’s likely only your imagination. He opens his lips to speak but promptly closes them again. He simply stares up at you from where he’s sat on the bed and almost looks sweet. If you didn’t know him, you would undoubtedly be charmed by this convincing facade. You have to give it to him; you do understand why he’s number one at his job.

“But…” He trails off, shaking his head. “But I’ll see you again tomorrow, right?”

“Sure,” you shrug. “We can keep fucking until I find something better.”

You run your fingers through his long hair and make your way to the door, leaving him with an expression frozen in bewilderment.

Hyunjin might kiss you and hold you close as he fucks you, but he’ll never be yours.

But that’s not a problem, as you surely will never be his as well.

♡ taglist: @bloom-ings, @linocz, @farahia, @mirbokk, @jisunglyricist, @jazziwritesthings

#stray kids #hyunjin smut #skz smut #stray kids x reader #hyunjin x reader #hyunjin #hyunjin x you #stray kids smut #skz

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dailyadventureprompts · 4 months ago

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Settlement: Errishaan, where Inspiration Rises with the Tide

Artsource1 Artsource2

Though it boasts no mighty navy or renowned trading port, the harbour town of Errishaan has seen an unexpected surge in prosperity in recent years as it's become something of a hotspot for some of the most brillaint minds in the realm.

Tinkerers and scholars of all kinds have begun flocking to the cliffside settlement in droves, hoping to obtain the attention of its ruler, Countess Milsa Bonharte , who's become a famed patron of the inventive arts over the past decade and a half.

What began as an informal gathering of minds has breathed new life into Errishaan which now boasts numerous workshops, annual innovator's competitions, and a thriving trade in clockworks.

Adventure Hooks:

Of the region's biggest attractions is the Savyswell Rally, an annual competition where various the boatbuilders and artificers of Errishaan race self made vessels to see who can be the first one to cross the notoriously turbulent waters to the town's lighthouse and back, with the caveat that their creations can only use magical forms of propulsion AFTER the half way mark. The party might be seeking the aid of one of these artificers and be drawn into the competition as a means of paying off their services, or they may have a friend/relation/contact who's in need of a hand as the deadline draws near.

Beyond drawing it's livelyhood from the sea, the cliffs surrounding Errishaan do a tidy trade in copper, and the local mines and metalworks are always willing to pay adventurers to help drive off cavedwelling monsters or runaway elementals. Cannonmakers Heldok & Loyid are having a bit of trouble with one of the latter, as the ignis bound to their foundry has become a bit hyperactive after one too many overtime shifts doing important work for the Countess. Now it's slipped its arcane bonds and is going about town manicly smelting things like a blacksmith's forge hopped up on one too many 5 hour energy shots.

Seeing the potential in all the curious minds drawn to Errishaan by the influx of Artifice and Lady Bonharte's patronage, a travelling dedicate of the Archheart named Dijdek has taken it upon himself to found an academy where the magics, crafts, and sciences can be recorded and taught formally. Doing so is easier said than done, as he'll need to convince at least a few of the infamously protective master artificers to consider teaching, and convince the Countess to help provide funding. The first step in this endeavour will be finding a place to establish the academy, an abandoned monastery not far from town might be just the place, but something dangerous is lairing there and most folk have written it off. Perhaps a little divine meddling can bring the priest and the party together for common cause.

Though no one would speak it publicly, it's commonly thought that Countess Milsa's interest in inventions is a distraction from the sorrow she feels at her husband's untimely death, a means to feel close to the famously brilliant man by surrounding herself with the science he loved.

People think too little of Milsa Bonharte, they always have. She was the pretty daughter of a wealthy merchant, courted by an eccentric noble ten years her senior thought mostly unmarrigeable for his habit of splashing about in tidepools and fucking off for weeks at a time to study the migration patterns and mating habits of the local sea birds.

Milsa loved Daedalyn, loved him for being someone who would deny the decorum of his station to chase his passion, loved him for being one of the few to see the clever mind behind her pretty face, loved him with a fierceness that neither death nor the ocean could deny.

So when his ship went down in a storm, she made a vow: The water could have her tears, it would not keep his bones.

Milsa was not a mage, nor was she an engineer, but with her husband's title, her family's connections, and her own business acumen, she could bend the talents of mages and engineers to her purpose: to build a craft that could recover Daedalyn's ship ( the Sandpiper) from the deep and bring his remains to rest in the Bonharte family crypt where she would one day join him.

After fifteen years her vessel, her Vow, is nearly complete, ready to delve into the depths and bring her husband home. All that's needed are some final preparations, some last mechanical and course adjustments, and maybe the addiction of a few worthy heroes to the crew.

Further Adventures:

The Bonhartes had three children before the Daedalyn was lost to the waves, and all three feel the tragedy of his loss in a different way. Madalyn, the youngest was an infant when her father died, and grew up the dutiful daughter of a mother who's attentions were largely elsewhere. Mildryd, eldest, remembers the happy times the best, and has felt their loss most sharply, sinking into sullenness , spending most of her time in the castle library or listlessly watching the sea. The family's servants are worried about her melancholy, having found a diary overfull with vivid and poetic descriptions of death and drowning. In reality the budding little goth is just working through her emotions... partially with the help of her secret merfolk boyfriend named Eddy who's also so done with like, everything. Teenagers, am I right?

Then there's Delsyn, the tempestuous middle child. with a lot of mixed up feelings and no way to channel them, Delsyn has a history of acting out...the latest of which happens to be using a fake name to sign up for the same Savyswell team the party are on, recklessly pushing them forward to the point where he'll likely get himself or others hurt.

The sandpiper was lost on a scholarly expedition, using Daedalyn's newly acquired diving bell to explore the wonders of a not so distant coral reef. With more than one wreck site reported and no confirmations, Milsa and the crew of the Vow will need to check all of them, an exacting process that will have the party encountering all kinds of hostile sea life (big and small and very, very big) as well as negotiating with territorial merfolk (hey, maybe Eddy can help smooth things over).

What Milsa couldn't have known is that the storm that destroyed Daedalyn's ship was a magical one, creating a whirlpool that sucked the vessel and all those aboard it into an aquatic demiplane before smashing it into the ruins of a sunken city. Her husband was in the diving bell at the time, and managed to make a desperate swim for shelter when it was evident that rescue was impossible. Trapped in a series of half flooded ruins, Daedalyn has managed to survive the intervening years in the half flooded ruins, barely staving off madness and the dark influences of the Demiplane. If the party do it right, they might just might be able to give this double tragedy a happy ending after all.

#ocean #seaside #low level #mid level #sailing #artifice #settlement #seaside settlement #ocean settlement #d&d #dungeons and dragons #the abyssal unknown

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xt1me · 9 months ago

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A Dark Spirit in the Hood

This basically a precursor to smut I will never write.

Dan was contemplating life and death.

That is to say he was staring at almost empty drink in a Gotham night club wondering just how he had ended up there.

He had expected to be stuck in that thermos until end of time. Though he certainly had been planning to bust out and make everyone regret it if he ever got the slightest change.

And then the twerp had asked Clockwork if there was anything that he could do to help him. Help him, like he hadn't done everything in his power to destroy his past self and all he held dear.

And that meddling coot decided to do it.

It turned out since Dan was part of a timeline that no longer existed Clockwork had more free rein on him then other ghosts. Especially tapped as he was under his power. And while he was a full ghost, having been a hafa before had given the time ghost more options.

So he did something that Dan had considered the worst possible punishment imaginable.

He re-wound his personal time until his human half was alive again.

Ghosts don't change. Not easily anyway. They can grow some but for the most part they will stay much the same as when they first formed. The living are the complete opposite. They grow and change constantly. The core of a person might stay the same but an adult is much different from a teenager which will be different from a child. It's what made hafas so unusual. Danny pulling out his Ghostly Wail out of nowhere made more sense in hindsight.

Dan had murdered his human half and had never regretted it until it was suddenly slammed back into him. Getting locked into that form to restrict his powers wasn't nearly as bad in comparison.

Still being Clockwork's prisoner at the time he had no idea how long he raged after his new sentence was explained to him but it wasn't nearly as long as it would have been if he was still in ghost form. Somehow he just couldn't keep up the anger anymore. The less said about all the other emotions he went though the better but eventually he agreed to try and live a life in the living world and see if he could grow into a new person.

It was still a punishment however. He wouldn't get access to his ghostly form until he 'redeemed' himself. He wasn't exactly holding out hope for that to happen anytime soon. That wasn't to say he had none of his powers. It seemed that Clockwork (or possibly the twerp) wanted him to be healthy so he still had basic ghost powers if he tried.

He couldn't help but feel a little grateful that the Ghost of Time had at least aged him up though a growth spurt. He didn't want to go back to being a twig while he sorted himself out.

So here he was, going to collage in Gotham.

(Getting his GED had felt like a punishment all on it's own.)

He was in Gotham because he wanted to be far away from Amity and Gotham had enough ambient ectoplasm to be comfortable. Not many ghosts. Gotham's many curses kept the ectoplasm tied up so it mostly just a few shades hanging around looking to fulfill their unfinished business. Easily avoided. Dan was not getting involved in any of that. He was no hero. Not ever again.

But having a living body again came with other challenges.

Unlike what some ghost hunters would tell you, ghosts could feel emotions. You could argue that ghosts were nothing but emotions. But those emotions were very different without a body. You could feel fear as a ghost but not feel you hair stand on end. You could feel anger without you skin heating up. You could laugh without getting short of breath.

You could certainly love as a spirit but lust could be a very bodily feeling.

Dan was now a young man in collage. He had a living body swimming with hormones. He was on his own without any responsibilities.

In short. He wanted to get laid.

Which is how how he ended up in a nightclub staring forlornly at an empty drink having just struck out with a pretty woman. Sure he had a bit of a ghostly aura that came out when he was 'ahem' distracted. But this was Gotham, surly that wasn't deal breaker in a city full of plant people and living clay and man eating crocodiles.

It wasn't like he was looking for a relationship or anything. Was it too much to ask for a one night stand?

He blamed Vlad.

Apparently consuming Vald's ghost half had more consequences then just a power boost. He was not Danny, and he was never going to be Danny again, but it was a bit unsettling to realise part of that was because he was a bit of Vald too.

He had opinions on wine now. He refused to watch football in case he ended up supporting the Packers. It stood to reason that he got that losers luck with women as well. (Not that the brat was any better really.)

Tuning away from his empty drink Dan scanned the nightclub. Absentmindedly checking out his options he contemplated whether it was even worth having another go or if he should go back to his room and brood. Maybe he was better off just admiring beauty from from afar.

Ok no.

That was getting too maudlin even for him. He'd laid waste to whole continents, surely he could find someone for good night out.

That's when he realised he'd been staring at someone. Someone that was making their way over to him.

Dark hair with an interesting shock of white on the front. The lights of the club made it difficult to tell if their eye's were blue or green. Tall and broad, wearing a well worn leather jacket over an obscenely tight t-shirt that showed off an impressively muscled physique. Incredibly thick thighs carried the man to his side like a stalking panther.

The man stopped beside him with a smoldering look and a flirtatious "Hey".

And that's when Dan realised he had been checking out a guy.

Was he gay?! No, he was definitely still attracted to girls. He had some very explicit thought not 10 minutes ago. Was he attracted to guys as well? When did that happen?

"I'm bisexual!?!" he blurted.

"Did you just figure that out now?" The mans smirk faded into unfairly handsome amused smile.

Dan buried his face in his hands with a groan.

He was bisexual. How was he bisexual? Surely he would have figured out he liked guys before now. He'd always been straight hadn't he? He tried to think back. Danny was definitely straight. Was this something from Vlad? The hot guy was built like a tank. He was as wide as Dad. Was that Vlad's type? Was all his business about killing Jack just internalised homophobia?

Oh.

"That explains so much."

"Well congrats I guess."

Dan opened his fingers to look at the man that had just turned his worldview upside-down.

"I'm flattered," the man said still smiling.

Dan closed his eyes again with another groan.

The man even had a nice laugh.

/|\ ^._.^ /|\ ༼ つ ╹ ╹ ༽つ /|\ ^._.^ /|\

It was a quiet night so Jason was just doing some rounds in civvies.

Chatting with people who may or may not know he was tangibly related to Red Hood got very different information then tracking them down in full gear, guns flashing.

He had just finished getting updates from a dealer in the club scene to make sure there weren't any new surprises going around. He'd liked this dealer's work since frankly they were better at checking id's then the bartenders were.

It wasn't looking like there was going to be any action tonight. He was contemplating whether he should suit up for a quick patrol or if he should head in for an early night when he noticed some at the bar staring at him.

Long black hair and a soul patch that just screamed collage student, the man was big in the way looked athletic rather that gym bro. It wasn't often that he came across some who looked as big as he was that weren't working as muscle for someone.

He decided to go over and give a flirtatious "Hey".

Either the guy was looking for a fight and hitting on him would skip all the posturing. Or the guy was checking him out, in which case maybe he'd have something better to do after all.

Which was why he was a bit shocked when the guy just blurted out,

"I'm bisexual?!"

Jason could see the exact moment when the guy relised he had said that out-loud and his smile went from flirty or a bit more natural.

"Did you just figure that out now?"

He watched bemused as the guy hid his face in his hands with a groan.

Jason was really glad he had skipped his guy panic. By the time he had relised his own sexual preferences he had been dead and resurrected and had dealt with ninjas, heroes, villains, monsters and mobsters and all manner of things so it felt dumb to make a big deal about it.

"That explains so much." the guy lamented.

Jason wasn't sure what to do. Did this count as someone coming out to him?

"Well congrats I guess."

He watched the guy peak out from between his fingers and very visibly check him out.

"I'm flattered,"Jason couldn't help but laugh when the guy groaned and hid behind his hands again.

"Listen," Jason decided to try and put the guy put of his misery, "Why don't I buy you a drink and you can either take it as a congratulations on coming out and I'll leave you alone..."

"Or?" the other man asked slowly lowering his hands.

"Or we can go somewhere a little quieter and you can discover just how bi you really are?"

Admittedly as pick-up lines go that was probably pretty lame but the other man looked interested so Jason figured it didn't matter.

"What if," the man said slowly as he looked as Jason more contemplatively, "I had a ... condition that meant my ... vibes where kind of ... eerie?"

Jason tried to puzzle out that careful sentence. "Like some kind of empathy thing?"

"Yeeeess," The guy said uncertainly.

Jason leaned a little closer to lower his voice. "Are you a Meta?"

"Noooo," the man drew out looking even more uncertain.

Meta adjacent then at the very least.

Jason leaned back to look at him more as a vigilante then a potential pick-up.

The man was fit but not in a way that looked like he was used to fighting for his life. No weapons nor any odd things that might be able to become weapons. If he was trained it was in the bear minimum and he didn't carry himself like some who knew how to make his body a weapon. His teeth and ears were a bit pointed but that didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. No obvious effects from external powers and no hints of possible internal powers, though that didn't mean much.

Still, the guy wasn't running around in a costume monologuing so Jason had no problem giving him the benefit of the doubt.

"Ok, hit me."

"What?"

"You vibes or whatever. Can you show me what it's like and I can tell you if it's a deal breaker." He smiled reassuringly, "I promise I wont go screaming even if it is."

The man eyed him warily but never the less relaxed a bit. Jason centered himself, preparing to use all the mental training he had learned just in case, and waited for whatever the man was going to do.

At first it didn't seem like the guy did anything. He was just looking at him. But Jason gradually became aware of a strange feeling.

When the guy had mentioned eerie vibes Jason's first though was it would be something like a mild version of Crane's fear toxin. Some kind of imposed feeling. But it was actually incredibly different.

Scarecrow's gas, for all that it was inflicted from outside, was very internal. It worked by makings a person own fear responses active in the body. It's what made it so hard to combat no matter how many times you came across it. The screaming hallucinations didn't help but even without that it was hard to manage when you own body was telling things were wrong.

This aura was very different, not just because it didn't invoke terror, but because it felt so obviously external.

Honestly it kind of felt like and empty hospital or an abandoned parking lot at 2 am. Odd for sure, and Jason could see how it might creep some people out, but as someone who regularly spent time in places he wasn't supposed to be it practically felt comfortable.

"Is that it?" he asked.

The man glared a little and the feeling increased. Not by much, just enough to give off hint of danger. Like the guy in front of him had wiped out a knife or something, despite not moving in any way. As someone who had been fighting muggers with knives since he was in short pants that hint of danger practically felt like an invitation.

"Yeah, I don't think they'll be any issue on my part," he said with a smile.

The man relaxed and the feel faded back to what it was before.

"Dan," he finally introduced himself.

"Jay," Jason grinned.

It looked like he'd be having an interesting night after all.

And then they went off have loads of sex that I will never write because I can't write smut.

Nether will talk about themselves and they wont ask questions but they'll still pick things up. Like Dan will figure out that Jason is probably a Rouge but he has no idea which one since he is trying to stay wilful ignorant of the whole hero scene. And Jason will learn that Dan's on some sort of mystic parole due to time shenanigans but figure it's not his business. Both of them appreciate that the other doesn't know anything about they respective pasts but they are completely chill with anything they let slip so they don't have to work to hide anything either.

#my stuff #fanfic #dc x dp #dark danny #jason todd #crack ship #i guess

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ao3feed-brucewayne · 1 year ago

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We Could Be Home

by MyNameIsJag Danny has been deaged, he is hungry and very angry. Given his tiny body and fluctuating powers, there's not much he can do about that. He has questions that need answers, why is he here, where is his family, what is going on? Also why is everyone so weird? Danny gets thrown into Omegaverse DC, coming from somewhere were that is a fanfiction category, it's a bit of a culture shock. Poor Danny has so navigate this world with new rules he doesn't know or understand. Find a way home, maybe find out what happen to the him from this universe, and try not to get attached. The Batfam are just excited for the new pup in the family. Words: 2039, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Danny Phantom, Batman - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Danny Fenton, Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Other Character Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: Meddling Clockwork (Danny Phantom), Danny Fenton Is So Done, Bruce Wayne is Good With Kids, Bruce Wayne Loves Children, Jason Todd Has Issues, Batfamily Have Issues (DCU), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics via https://ift.tt/vEqmUwD

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the caped crusader #gotham #dcu #dc #ao3 #ao3feed

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ash-doll · 8 months ago

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*a bit of dusting here, a bit of sweeping there*

*It scurries to and fro throughout the day without rest, the sound of its clockwork and clockwork alone echoing throughout the empty halls, nothing but the next task on its mind*

*The witch smiles a wry smile as she watches, enjoying her loyal doll busying herself*

*She thinks about how her doll came to be, not crafted the traditional way, but moulded and transformed*

*Ever since she was driven out of Thornwood she had been alone, forced to fend for herself, though in her travels she had found a ley line and settled down around it*

*By the first winter she had made a small cabin for herself, just enough to hide from the elements, though it wasn't particularly comfortable, with many shivering, lonely nights*

*By the next, she had created a veritable paradise- multiple rooms, thatch insulation to keep her warm, and most importantly of all, a proper workshop to practice, and all it cost was the remnants of her soul. A minor cost in the end-*

*Her lack of practice is what had gotten her into trouble in the first place after all, and now she could hone her craft- no more escaped dolls. No more improper dolls roaming in the streets late at night while she was sleeping. It took her a while to make the first. She was rather out of practice after all, but it still took nights upon nights of tinkering to get it to function perfectly until finally- a living thing was born.*

*Not in the biological sense, mind you, but in a philosophical sense. It can feel, it can think, it could converse, and it could make tea*

*How it loved tea. They all do*

*The witch laughed to herself, attracting the attention of the doll in front of her*

"Does Miss need anything from this one?"

"Did it do something errant"

Of course not dear

*The witch smiles gently*

Your work is exceptional as always~

I have just been thinking to myself, pay no mind to me

*The little doll makes a noise of delight, almost human-like in quality as she starts to sort through the witch's bookshelf, reordering them from the witch's late night frantic reading session trying to counteract a particularly overactive potion*

*The witch falls back into her thoughts as she sips on her tea*

*The next few dolls came easier than the first, now that her skills were in action again, and soon her halls and rooms were filled with the sounds of clockwork hearts and dolls scurrying to and fro, and for the longest time, she had peace*

*She sighs*

*But of course, as people tend to do, they stick their noses where they don't belong and meddle*

*A young girl stumbled across her manor late one night while the witch was out picking ingredients*

*The witch had errantly left their door open, after all, who would be out at 3am*

*Really anyone out at 3am had it coming*

*Someone who broke into her house would have it coming, especially if that person were to see all the dolls and the witch's face*

*Regrettable things happen when people are cornered*

*The witch frowns and looks down towards to the maid quarters*

*Another doll joined them that night...*

*But the witch didn't know that the girl wasn't alone, and soon enough, rumours spread*

*Naturally the girl was written off as crazy- there's no way that a witch would have an entire manor in the woods. People can't become dolls, what a silly girl*

*People aren't logical creatures however, and soon enough the legend spread throughout Thornwood*

*She eventually had to get used to visitors throughout the summer and fall months, mostly just bored kids, easily scared off with a little magic*

*Having a visitor during the winter months, that was strange, and the visitor was stranger still*

*The visitor, who's name the with has long since forgotten knew exactly what the witch was, and what she did, and she didn't care*

*She begged the witch to take her in, though not as an apprentice, but a doll*

*The witch, naturally, said no, but the visitor didn't leave.*

*She prostrated herself before the witch and begged again with tears in her eyes*

*The witch, though her heartstrings, which she had long since forgot she had, were pulled and compelled to grant her wish, but she denied once more*

*The visitor finally lifted up her shirt and showed off the scars that covered her back and arms, and regaled the witch with the story of her life and travels...and this time the witch agreed and brought her inside*

*The visitor followed her and hugged her close, sobbing into the witch's shoulder like an old friend, obediently following the witch's orders for the spell, assisting her in any way possible until finally…the tea was ready*

*As she raised the cup to her lips the witch grabbed her hand and stopped her, telling her exactly what would happen to her. Her organs would slow down and stop, choking her out as her body turned to porcelain, her blood boiling away in her veins until she was left as an empty hollow shell, forced to obey every word that came out of the witch's mouth, unable to feel properly ever again*

*As the witch finally finished the girl did nothing but smile, gulping down the liquid and taking the witch's hand, speaking a small thanks until she let out a small gasping sound*

*The witch looked at her with a small frown as her body stiffened up, her eyes becoming glazed and distant as the witch's sweet words echoed in her ears, coming up behind her and squeezing her shoulder. As the porcelain started spreading around her body, making her unable to move, the witch picked her up and held her close to her chest, stroking her cheek and giving her forehead a gentle kiss, whispering that she promised to never let any harm come to it again- a promise she intended to keep.*

*Throughout the next months, the doll worked diligently around the manor, working harder than any other doll to please its witch, making sure the halls of the manor were spotless, remembering the witch’s favourite books and meals, leaving them out for her, sometimes following her around like a lost dog*

*The witch doesn't mind however, she enjoyed the companionship, more than she ever imagined. Her heart had grown cold and pragmatic with the years, but the doll reminded her of a life she had long since left behind, a life with friends and family, a time where her work was appreciated by more than just her dolls*

*She began to let the doll into her life more and more, letting her dress her in the morning, make her bed at night, make her meals and tea, until eventually…she wasn't just a doll, but a partner. One day after the witch had a rather large glass of wine she grabbed the doll and brought it to bed with her, much to its flustered protests, snuggling her close and listening to the sound of its heart, falling asleep wrapped around her*

*This became a habit, with the witch falling asleep in her doll's embrace at night, the doll deactivating nestled close to its mistress, wrapped in each other's embrace, the witch falling asleep to the sound of her doll's clockwork heart…until one night it gently shook the witch back awake, speaking in a small, shy voice*

*It asked one simple request: to forget. Forget everything from before it had become a doll*

*The witch was shocked and taken aback, pulling the doll close to her and shaking her head, muttering some half-hearted excuse to why she could never*

*In truth she knew she could, she was just afraid of losing the companionship she had grown to love so dearly, but as she saw her doll look down as the doll's voicebox let out a faint mimicry of human sobs she hugged it close, giving it a gentle kiss and sobbing how she was so sorry as she muttered a small spell*

*The witch wipes away her tears as she turn to her doll, taking another sip of her tea*

*But she hadn't lost her, had she?*

*She still had her loyal, dedicated doll, one that she still cherished with all her heart*

Rose, love, come here

*The doll quickly comes over to her, standing in front of her, fidgeting*

“Did this one do something wrong?”

No, no, of course not

I just wish to inspect my handiwork, that's all

*The doll’s clockwork makes a small sound as doll makes a small flustered noise*

“of course not miss, it is just surprised at the suddenness of the order”

*She shrugs*

I have no control over the matters of my heart

*She reaches up and gently traces her hands down the doll's side, holding its hip for a moment before grabbing its hand and pulling it into her lap, causing it to let out a rapid series of flustered protests*

“This one protests and would like to emphasise the impropriety of this”

Are you questioning your witch?

*Its voicebox audibly skips*

“Of-of-of course not miss”

Good.

Now sit still

*She gives it a gentle kiss on its cheek as she nuzzles it, reaching into her bag and producing a small key*

“Yes miss”

*It continues to let out small noises as it holds still, idly tapping its hand on its thigh as it lets its witch do as she pleases*

*The witch stays nuzzled up to it for a while before gently lifting up the back of its uniform, caressing her hand down its back, eventually reaching the small of it and fingering over a small keyhole, stopping, placing the key inside*

Make sure not to squirm too much, I just have to make sure that you're still operating in peak efficiency

*She lies blatantly, knowing that Rose will squirm and make those adorable little noises. As the witch turns the key around the first rotation the doll twitches slightly and straightens up, though manages to keep itself silent, much to the witch’s surprise*

This one always manages to impress me~

*She giggles and kisses its cheek before quickly turning the key more, causing the doll to make many small noises of surprise and frustration, wriggling in its witches lap*

**But I can always be better~**

*She gives it one last kiss before patting its thigh*

Now run along~

*The doll quickly stands up, clockwork still skipping as it turns to face the witch, giving the witch its best attempt at an austere pout, though she just smiles and takes a sip of her tea, waving it off*

“This one requests that miss doesn't do that, it interferes with this one's thoughts”

Shame.

Now I ordered you to clean, not pout, didn't I?

“Yes miss, apologies miss”

*It hurries back over and grabs its broom, sweeping the floor quickly, though after a moment it stops and turns to the witch, speaking quietly*

“This one loves miss.”

*The witch blushes softly and quickly picks up her tea to cover her face, trying to maintain her image before just putting it down and smiling at Rose*

I love you too dear, always~

#dollposting #empty spaces

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sporksaber · 1 year ago

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This idea has not fully formed in my brain yet, but dpxdc time reversal isekai. This'll be a bit disjointed so bear with me.

Danny phantom and DC are the same universe to start with. Danny goes darkest timeline (not in the dan way. Dan is boring. He does not exist for this purpose) after years of being legally not human and trying to run from the giw while the organizations that should of helped didn't.

In the original timeline he is found out in some horrible way and has to run. He is kidnapped by the giw. He frees himself and finds himself entangled with the batfam. Everything goes wrong, his tenuous relationship with them gets super messed up as none of them are in a good place, and danny is slowly dying. Eventually it all gets broken off.

Danny, completing his journey into insanity, kind of destroyes the universe. And on a little related tangent, when writing these kind of stories all powerful characters are hard to deal with. Characters like clockwork give me the ick because their pulling at the strings robs the characters of their agency and they often fall apart when you look at them critically. So I'm nerfing clockwork. He can see all the timelines, he can watch over them and prevent major fuckery, but he isn't just able to meddle as he pleases.

Like I said, Dan doesn't exist and the whole bit never happened (originally I said that because it's a lame plotline but now it has real reasons) so Danny's never met clockwork. Clockwork takes the burst of power from danny going nuclear and reverses the time stream.

Danny wakes up on the day the event that leads his parents to find out happens. He's unable to avoid it as he's confused and dissriented with a bunch of strange thoughts and images making his head feel fit to burst, but does avoid the giw while running away.

Onto discussions of a main plot point: the romance bc it's always there with time reversal isekais (and with my fics in general tbh). As I'm thinking about it it's hard to decide bc I recently read a bunch that annoyed me into disliking them all and made me step away from the cross over for awhile. But as I was thinking of what to write I came to a decision. I already have one of these for Tim, having it be damian would make all the other characters older than him and it doesn't fit the vibe I'm going for to have danny surrounded by a bunch of adults when he isn't quite one, Jason just isn't fitting in my head rn, so I'm making it Dick. (I did also consider bruce, but I didn't...

The ages I'm going off of: bruce 37 (27), dick 21 (11), Jason 18 (8), Tim 15 (5), Damien 10 (fetus.)

I'm torn. I like the concept of Bruce being the love interest better but i dont know if i like it more than Dick. Like I said, this idea came to me and I immidiently opened a a draft. The idea is not solidified. And as I think more about it, maybe bruce would be better. Because with crossover ships you can slap the timelines together however you want you can change the ages and ship characters as you see fit. My initial reason for not considering bruce was the ages and wanting all the kids to be around for the plot. So I'm going to do the math.

Danny gets his powers at 14. Gets away with only monsters of the week to deal with for the first year. Giw gets new funding and becomes a consistent problem into when he's 16. It's manageable for awhile. I'm going to say he deals with it well enough for them to pull back and regroup around when he turns 17. Six months later and The Incident happens and he's outed. He runs and in his panicked gets captured by the giw.

My initial plan (initial meaning first thought that occurred less than an hour ago) was for him to be kidnapped long enough to be thoroughly traumatized but not super long. Like a few months. And I'd thought his freeing himself might have somthing to do with them kidnapping Jason or somthing. And if I stick to that Dick works really well and I feel like there's some really good content in dick and danny ending up together.

With Bruce I'd have to adjust the timeline more. Both for my batfam agenda and to make it not icky. If bruce is going to be in his mid thirties danny needs to be a minimum of his mid 20s. So I think if I were to go with Bruce I'd extend the kidnapped time to like 2 years (so Danny's like 20) and have him spend some time in the ghost zone before coming back to mess up the giw? I don't know. I'm going to have to write some stuff physically.

This has gotten out of hand and now I'm confused and my head hurts. I think the difference in the decision in unstable young adult danny vs unhinged adult danny in the original time line.

And the other thing I have to consider is not just main timeline but post rewind attempt 2 timeline and how those ages fall.

Dick is easier because it'd be easier to not have to handle that mess. I could have what I want without worrying about an age gap. And I think they could be really compelling. Especially with the idea of Dick seeking out Danny to help Jason, the brother he thinks he failed. Their relationship is originally a will they won't they as Dick has to deal with his family being a mess and desperately not wanting to lose anyone again while danny is in a limbo between who he is and if he's human. And it doesn't work out. It blows up in their faces as circumstances tear them apart and force them to let go of eachother. And you get the forbidden romance trope as batman doesn't trust danny. And then danny loses his shit and everyone dies before the rewind.

I think after the rewind they'd restart quieter. Danny searches out a familiar person after running away. Dick had just become nightwing and set up in bludhaven. Jason is 14 and hasn't died yet. Maybe they'd meet organically. Danny is drawn to Gotham and ends up in bludhaven while skirting around it. He meets the new vigilante who he knows but he also knows he doesn't (his core remembers. The core always remembers). Dick finds himself drawn to this haunted guy he keeps running into, maybe it's his savior complex, maybe it's somthing else entirely. He figures he's some kind of meta, jumpy from escaping someone's experiments.

Eventually Danny will remember Jason. Dick brings him up and Danny's filled with dread. Dick thinks his reaction is wierd. But Jason is eventually saved.

If I were to write it this way I think I'd have a couple of different mystery plot likes that connect thematically but aren't actually connected. (A nightwing vigilante based one of mob bosses or whatever, Danny's whole deal, what the giw is up to, where their money comes from and how that's gotten on the jl radar). But that's all on that for now.

To summarize: they have a very turbulent relationship initially. Dick will eventually be forced to chose the bats over danny. Danny has not properly healed from the giw and slowly spins out of control. After the rewind it's a lot of Dick solving mysteries as Danny tries to heal. The plot would be majorly driven by Dick, Danny's is mostly internal.

Back to the bruce concept (reminder that these two concepts are not connected at all).

The thing with time reversals is that you have to decide in the beginning whether or not the reversal is seperate from the main characters original timeline or if it's continuous. Are they the age they were pre reversal or the age they were reversed to? How much of it do they retain?

With the Bruce option I matched it to bruce being like 6 years older than danny. So pre reversal danny shows up to investigate bruce when his connection to the al ghuls (10yo damien) is established. Danny is 30, jaded, and less human than the other version. He's been warped in a way. The torture was longer and he recovered in the zone. A lot of his friends and family died.

Some relationship stuff happens, some al ghul caused demon stuff happens, the world is destroyed, time is reversed.

I'm fudging the previous timeline a bit. Danny's reveal happens at 19 while he's still in amity taking a gap year to weigh his dreams against his responsibilities. The Incident happens. He's kidnapped for a few years. Escapes durring an expierenment that allows him to slip into the zone. Dedicates himself to destroying the giw.

Danny post reversal retains skills and knowledge but is still his 19 year old self. He returns to the day of the incident, is confused, gets outed, dips but escapes the giw. Goes to Vlad and demands money, resources, and a contract that makes him heir without the downsides of his shady practices. It's important to not at this point, danny is basically bluffing. The kid has no idea what's going on or if it'll work, but he spooks vlad enough for him to agree now, plan how to spin it in his favor later.

So Danny takes a bit to decompress from that shitshow.

Flash forward, bruce wayne notices he has a bit of a (new) stalker problem. Some guy he doesn't know (and Brucie Wayne knows everyone) starts showing up at all his galas and the charity events he goes to. 20 year old Danny Fenton, heir to Masters Enterprises.

Cue Romcom.

This would have a drastically different tone from the other version. Very fun and much lower stakes.

Anyway I'm done for now. I hope you enjoyed this 2 hour unedited rant. Might expand on both separately, I like them both.

#fanfiction #dp x dc au #dpxdc #dp x dc crossover #im not going to tag them individually

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pokelolmc · 1 year ago

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The Ultimate Enemy is a Disappointment (and How I'd Fix it) (Part 4)

Clockwork is one of the biggest problems with TUE. Change my mind. (Third biggest, specifically, behind Dan and the CAT).

I feel a little guilty, trash-talking fan-favourite Time Dad, but that’s okay—his character concept is really interesting, and I like him in fanon. But canon Clockwork, on the other hand...the writers fucked him up.

Writing a wise, all-knowing (or extensively foreknowing) character is challenging, and they put none of the thought required into it. They try to portray him as sympathetic in the ending--but everything that came before it accidentally implies he's negligent, morally unsympathetic and/or incompetent. And I don’t see ANYONE talking about it.

I still have some say about the Observants at the end, but there's just not as much on them. They appear less, and seem to be deliberately portrayed as incompetent, so their faults are bit more excusable.

(Like section 2, this'll be the criticisms and the fixes will be their own post. I have some very interesting ideas for Clockwork/Observant lore).

(Part 3), Part 4, (Part 4.5)

Part 4--A Wrench in the (Clock)works--The Ultimate Enemy’s failure at writing foreknowing/near-omniscient characters.

Clockwork behaves inconsistently with an all-knowing character. Rather than actively preventing Dan’s existence, he only pushes the events of Dan’s timeline along. And he makes statements/assertions in the episode that are factually wrong.

Given the quote above, and his ability to see the alternate future as he pleased, it’s openly possible that he had access to everything in both timelines, at any time he wanted in the episode, from the time window. So he could know of all the major events of The Ultimate Enemy itself in advance.

While I won’t say this with absolute certainty, I will criticise the writers for establishing this idea in the first place without putting any limitations on his character (to eliminate the possibility of complete foreknowledge). So assume that as just the upper limit. The actuality might be somewhere in the middle.

And this leaves some MASSIVE holes in the writing.

For an apparently wise/all-knowing “Master of Time”, Clockwork makes some terrible decisions.

He wants to demonstrate to the Observants that Danny “won’t grow up evil because he cheated on a test”. So he decides…to give Danny the answers (by orchestrating an “accident”), and see whether he’d cheat or not. This makes no sense and is entirely pointless (if he's as all-knowing as the episode treats him).

He should should already KNOW how his "test" will turn out. If it he didn't need it for himself, but was just trying to prove a point to the Observants, it’s still redundant. There's no reason to tempt Danny to cheat, when the response he already knows is coming won’t prove his point.

If Danny was going to come to the idea of cheating on his own, all Clockwork had to do was sit back and wait. All he ends up doing is make Danny “cheating” happen faster.

He also indirectly leads everyone at the Nasty Burger to their would-be deaths by enabling/facilitating all of the episode's time travel in the first place. The only reason everyone ends up at the Nasty Burger for the explosion in canon is because of the trio and Dan’s time travel (see part 3). Clockwork is the one who obliged the Observants' request to attack Danny. He sent back Skulktech, which gave the trio access to his tower--and to the alternate future, which prompted Dan to go back to the past to railroad his timeline into happening.

Which is something Clockwork should’ve been able to see coming, and did nothing to prevent—not even when he explicitly saw Dan meddling with the past in front of him.

How was the trio able to get behind the back of someone as knowing and powerful as Clockwork (to get the time medallions and hop into the future)? Why did he get so carelessly distracted by Danny? The only explanation is either Clockwork is actually incompetent enough to get outwitted by three (two and a half) human teenagers, or he allowed them to go.

Perhaps everyone still could’ve gone on their own, without future knowledge (not that the episode gives us any options for how that would happen—again, see part 3) but he still made everything worse.

And there’s no reason Clockwork couldn’t check Dan’s timeline ten years back and see the fusion. But he still spends the entire episode acting as if Danny and Dan are the same person. Which is factually incorrect.

We could assume he secretly knows, but just pretends not to--except his actions otherwise are still highly questionable.

He could’ve been cooperative and transparent—just used the ghosts he sent after Danny to get the trio to his tower to talk (foreseeing them hitching a ride with Skulktech), while still complying with the Observants on paper. There, he could’ve explained, “There’s an alternate future where you and the other halfa fuse into a powerful monster; he’s brought the world to ruin and the Observants put a hit on you because overkill…”

(Yeah, remember this? If he's acting, he's sure as hell getting into it for no good reason...)

But instead he tells Danny “I’ve been tasked with eliminating your future, so [Dan] doesn't happen” and acts like a threat to the trio when it would’ve been much more efficient to talk things out!

Claiming that "Danny's future is sealed" because he chose to keep the answers is just blatantly wrong, and he should know better as a guardian of time himself. And cheating on a test is too petty for someone of his scale to consider so morally significant.

2. The episode doesn’t establish/justify why Clockwork didn’t just deal with Dan himself, and spare everyone else the unnecessary strife/trauma. The entire episode can only be possible because of his negligence.

For all the ominous hype about Dan being “inevitable” and “Danny’s going to turn into him”, he really…really isn’t. He’s more so the opposite, given the circumstances are so hyperspecific. The domino effect that leads to his birth is so causally fragile that one small change could completely wipe him off the map.

(like...literally fucking ANYTHING?! It's your call, dude! I'm not the Master of Time!)

Clockwork didn’t even need to be powerful enough to win against Dan one-on-one. He could’ve interfered in Dan’s past by giving information to other characters to change their decisions (steer Lancer and the Fenton’s away from the Nasty Burger via Jazz, keep Danny away from Vlad, etc). If Dan was really that big a threat to both worlds, then he has all the moral justification (for the sake of efficiency) to do so to prevent harm!

And yet, he doesn’t. There's no explained character reason he doesn't interfere--either why he can't or why he thinks he shouldn't. To use a dominantly time-travel series as an example--Doctor Who created lore on time having special "fixed points" that can't be altered without damaging the fabric of time itself. It also had moral/character conflicts exploring the Doctor choosing not to interfere with historical disasters.

But with Clockwork, we don't even get a line. Whether it's a throwaway line on not having the power to interact with regular time directly, or about how he's already tried to prevent Dan's birth and failed (and now thing are in the last stretch). The closest we get are lines such as "things are how they're supposed be" (implying he has a standard of how events should happen), but that's just window-dressing to make him sound mysterious and impressive. There's never an explanation of what does or doesn't count.

If he really couldn’t stop The Ultimate Enemy from happening in the first place, then see point one: Openly allying with/fully informing the trio from the start is more efficient and helpful than letting them treat you like an adversary and stumble in blind. Why did Danny have to go to Vlad to learn about Dan’s origin when Clockwork was right there?!

Tons of people experience trauma (or even die) because of Clockwork’s allowance or inaction. The trio, Jazz, Danny's parents and Mr Lancer (though technically they never remember), future!Valerie and her dad. Even everyone who died because of Dan in the alternate future (because Clockwork could’ve stopped it from ever reaching that point if he tried. If I can come up with ways to prevent Dan's birth, the all-knowing Master of Time can!).

And if he had the power to undo ALL of the damage to the timeline all along (rewinding time to save Danny’s loved ones) …why does anything that happens in this episode matter, at all (outside of the memories of three people)?!

Why couldn’t he have done that when the alternate timeline went awry in the first place?!

Sure, it could be said that Danny learned something from the experience...but I doubt any lesson he could've been "taught" is morally worth the apocalyptic destruction of another timeline and forcing Danny to fight as powerful a threat as Dan unassisted.

Lessons like moral honesty had already been taught in far lower-stakes ways than TUE. Since he didn’t really “become Dan” or do anything actually evil, there was nothing specific he could’ve only learned from Dan’s existence other than "don't create a fusion with Vlad". Dan's wide-scale harm was unnecessary.

3. After sidling all of this bullshit on a fourteen year old kid, Clockwork doesn’t even make up for it properly.

If he wanted to give Danny fair “second chance”, he could’ve sent him back to before any of the time travel happened—the moment in the kitchen before Boxed Lunch attacked. This would’ve undone all the alterations to the timeline and given Danny time to study—especially since he was responsible for the ghost attacks that robbed Danny of his last study days. The boy just had several massive fights and watched his loved ones blow up!

But no. His idea of a “second chance” is dropping Danny off RIGHT before the CAT! To take the blame for Dan opening the answers! All for the purpose of a little triumphant “Danny’s learned his lesson” moment for a half-assed anti-cheating message, when Danny never even cheated! In canon, he couldn't just tell Lancer “a ghost from another timeline opened the answers”—but that wouldn’t have been necessary if Clockwork just sent him further back in time! He basically ripped Danny off.

4. Why does Clockwork even listen to the Observants? What power do they have over him? Why did he oblige their request to go after Danny in the first place?

Clockwork seems to suggest that they see time in a more limited fashion than he does—perhaps with causality in a stricter order, or one-way with less alternate possibilities (based on his parade analogy)…but we see them observing Clockwork at the time window. He essentially shares access to it, so why couldn’t Clockwork just show the Observants Dan’s origin story? That’d raise the same problem with ill-informed decision-making that I already discussed.

And the episode doesn't make it clear what power the Observants have over Clockwork, and why he has any reason to listen to them. If he was right and had the better way of doing things all along, why not just outright refuse the Observants and prove himself right to them with his results? Why entertain their irrational backseating?

#danny phantom #the ultimate enemy #danny fenton #danny phantom clockwork #tue analysis #dp rewrite #10 dp episodes with missed potential #clockwork was one of the worse characters in this episode change my mind

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