#twofold knowledge

[llitchilitchi]

with every comic and illustration I draw, Hephaistion comes a step closer to being the shoujo manga love interest he was always meant to be

[tunaculosis]

I think it's very fascinating that, back to back, we have had a pair of what I want to call system shocks on tumblr.

The first wave was the beef between Kendrick and Drake. The beef reached truly titanic levels in order to breach containment and reach our shores in any real way. What was then immediately revealed is that a very loud (if not actually numerous) portion of the tumblr userbase is not simply ignorant of rap music, but proudly so, and not just proudly so, but ignorant of it in ways that have become stereotypes of rap critics. Accusations of violence, misogyny, and difficulty of understanding it were particularly visible to me. With a side helping of racism. The response to this was twofold: tumblr users either got into some damn funny fights when idiots doubled down on their ignorance, or they were curious and we got some damn good recommendations.

The second event was this week: The AO3 Ship Bracket finals: Destiel vs Suletta. The strongest yaoi of the past vs the strongest yuri of today. As Sulemio tore through the polls, again this trend emerged! Deeply incurious, proudly ignorant people parroting criticisms of anime that have become stereotypes anime fans repeat to make fun of critics! Accusations of sexualization, misogyny, and obscurity were particularly visible to me. With a side helping of racism. And then, just like last time, people split off into two camps. The first was idiots without any actual knowledge of Gundam showing up to crow about Destiel like the franchise isn't older than some of their parents. The second was some really good recommendation threads with people willing to learn (just start on Witch From Mercury, it's fine, then maybe watch The Origin or something, other people have better recs than me).

I think it's really interesting that tumblr's userbase has been exposed for being really inflexible and driven into a rut in its fandom spaces. And defensively so. I think that expanding your horizons is good for you for a lot of reasons, but avoiding looking like a jackass on tumblr is a really good incentive, I think.

[mamawasatesttube]

pondering an au where the superfam are a lot more close-knit and closed off from the rest of the hero world... where editorial isn't real and can't hurt kon and therefore where clark scoops him up and takes him home right after the events of rots...

the reason i say the superfam are more closed-off here is twofold. one, it makes clark go "that's a kryptonian kid. Mine Now" extra hard, because he feels even more isolated than in canon and having a baby brother/son/cousin/Little Guy around gives him feelings instantly. but also, two: no other heroes actually know about superman having a secret identity. the secret is that much more ironclad this time around. everyone thinks the same thing as the general public: superman, and now superboy, are aliens who live at the fortress of solitude when they're not busy saving metropolis or the rest of the world.

but kon is still kon, made by cadmus, with all sorts of pop culture knowledge embedded into his brain. his reputation now is just much more of "An Alien Child On Earth", and clark advises him to lean into that when he can, because it'll keep conner kent safe. conner kent can nerd out over liz phair and nirvana and star wars trivia all he likes! and kon-el can still be silly; he just should make sure he keeps his two identities at least kind of separate. for himself, and for his family.

so. two things of note here: a) no one, not even batman, knows that superman is just some guy in his down time. everyone thinks he's an alien and he's raising superboy with alien traditions as best as he can. and b) kon still loves star trek tho.

why is this relevant?

because the first time this superboy meets robin, robin, dorklord extraordinaire, is expecting an alien teenager, and does this:

and superboy fucking does it back.

[communist-ojou-sama]

I saw how you said that describing the PRC as capitalist betrays a lack of understanding of capitalism and I actually really liked how well you explained that being against capitalism isn't proper Marxism/communism so I was wondering if you could open that post on understanding capitalism a bit more! Only if you're okay with it, of course!

Eventually I should do a real proper Effortpost on this with all the graphs and figures to really drive home the point that I'm making, but very briefly since it's getting late here:

In Marx's time, capitalism was an emergent societal mode of production that was closely entertwined with the enclosure movement and the industrial revolution. On the level of labor, it saw the decline of peasant and artisan labor and the rise of proletarianization, and with it the tendencies of mechanization and rationalization of production (e.g. de-skilling of manufacturing and measurement of efficiency by the labor-hour)

On a consistent historical level, from Marx's time to ours, capitalism has been characterized by the role of liquidity holders (e.g. banks, joint stock companies, investment funds &c) in investigating growth industries and investing in them for the purpose of greater profit. Notably: the demand from financial actors for returns on their balance-sheets is constant, regardless of the state of the development in any given productive market. Meanwhile the nature of industrial development is that it happens in fits and starts, in great surging advances followed by relatively stagnant plateaus. The results of this mismatch are twofold:

First, as Lenin chronicled, it leads for a demand to engage in imperialist expansion to open new markets and seek new profits that way. The other, arguably larger and more important frontier however is that of speculation. Because the inflation of the value of an asset creates purchasing power in and of itself in the short term, which is maintained on balance sheets so long as the arrears on credit derived on it keeps getting paid on a notional path to amortizaiton.

The tendency in capitalism since Marx's time has been the ever-growing importance of these two dynamics and the gradual receding of the importance of low-elasticity economic activity like manufacturing goods.

The tendency of imperialist expansion within capitalism has created a networked global bourgeoisie throughout the financial capitals of the world who extract rentier profits from the various rural peripheries of the global south, and the speculative nature of investment capital in the late 20th and early 21st century defines the quality of the "capitalist develpment" we see in bourgeois states in the contemporary global south: namely, extremely uneven development between rural and urban, trapping of the labor force in a holding-pattern of low-pay low-skill work such as textile production or low-end manufacturing (e.g. Bangladesh and Malaysia) while their capitals enjoy wealth near that of the imperial core, with relatively very high-paying jobs in the knowledge industries (this should ring a bell with India lol). Any country that is actually ruled by its bourgeoisie will follow this pattern, because financialized paper profits are larger (in nominal terms) than the highly investment-intensive industrial development that has gone on in the PRC under the stewardship of the Party. However the result is that the PRC has relatively low inequality among middle-income countries and the technological benefits of the industrialization led by cities is beginning to flow to rural China, which is what allowed them to lift 800 million people out of extreme poverty, something that has yet to happen in actually capitalist bourgeis states like India.

[popart-vvv]

A Message for the Trans Man Jax HC-ers

Disclaimer: This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but please do not pick a fight with me over it! I'm just analyzing a disconnect between the show/creators and the fandom here.

So I've subscribed to the idea of Jax being transgender in some way, either masc or femme; I couldn't decide on either. (I'm no expert on the subject) Lately, however, I've been seeing discourse over the maid outfit business in the latest episode. Let me start by replaying the moment for you all:

The point of this whole thing is that Gangle, Jax's favorite bullying victim, initiated a vote to put him in the maid fit. Zooble and Ragatha, also having an adversarial relationship with him, vote yes, and the vote passes 3:2. It's a moment of karma for Jax. I love him, but he deserved it. As well, this is also a hilarious payoff for the maid thing being a fandom joke for about a year and a half.

However... I'm seeing people feel bad for Jax instead of acknowledging the karmic tone of the scene. His embarrassed and pained reaction to being forced into the maid outfit reminded them of an episode of dysphoria for trans men. Like, no hate if you headcanon Jax as transmasc, but there's a lot of stuff wrong with linking the maid scene to the trans man Jax hc's.

For starters, by doing that, you're indirectly accusing Gangle, Zooble, and Ragatha--all three of whom fight a lot with Jax and do not like him--of being huge hypocrites, not to mention bigger bullies than Jax just based off this one moment. Especially Ragatha--I already know that there are idiots who hate Ragatha more than Jax and say that she tops him in unlikability! Stop piling on to the irrational hate-train! Especially Zooble! They're canonically they/them genderqueer and are all but stated to have dysphoria/dysmorphia of their own, so why would they help instill an episode of dysphoria on someone and laugh about it?

I also think that people are indirectly accusing Glitch of transphobia by way of making merch of Jax in the maid outfit, thus capitalizing off of his misery in this one moment. Riffing from a line in the episode, they and the wider fandom are just having fun with the unexpected popularity of this joke! Also, consider this: Gooseworx, the creator of the show, the one responsible for the whole Maid Jax thing in the first place, is a trans woman. Why would she make a character have an episode of dysphoria and play it for hilarious karma?

Now let's go in the opposite direction in terms of trans speculation.

What if Jax is upset because she thinks Gangle and/or Zooble discovered her own kinks/fantasies/repressed thoughts? Kind of like how she knows about Gangle's figurine incident. The karma turns twofold--Gangle uncovering Jax's kinks after she comes dangerously close to uncovering her own. Twice! And Zooble's line "I figured you would be into this" is really whoa. Maybe they discovered Jax's secret of wanting to be feminine and wanted to give her a little push while not directly letting their knowledge of the secret slip.

As for the repression stuff, Jax already has a history with repressing her own feelings and thoughts, so it's only natural for her to get angry and defensive when they become public with the other players. Plus, we get one internal monologue from her in the commercial featuring the maid merch.

So the subtext of the maid thing then becomes "Jax is upset because (he thinks) Gangle and Zooble figured out her repressions".

...Or maybe Jax is cis after all and the maid outfit thing is the tipping point of the voting system within the episode always being at his expense. That's plausible too.

Anyway, I'm starting to lean more towards trans woman Jax because using the maid outfit thing to fuel trans man Jax has two major side effects: 1. Making him more sympathetic than necessary and what the show/creator/writer's intent is. 2. Demonizing everyone else for saying that it's a karmic joke, when it truly is. One that has been in the making for a year and a half when Untitled came out.

Again, no hate if you subscribe to trans man Jax, but you should rethink the link the maid outfit and trans Jax hc's together.

[red-riding-wood]

PSA - Community Predator

Over a series of months, myself and other Tumblr users -- fic writers, gif makers, fans of created content -- have been victimised by @mrkdvidal1989, who has extensively lied about who he is, preyed on multiple women and denied involvement -- therefore ruining friendships, reputations and feelings, and promised me life-saving medical treatment that he never followed through on.

More information including mine and their stories under the cut.

The reason I am going public with this is twofold:

A) To protect others from being hurt. He is known to reach out to many tumblr users, especially young women in the Cillian Murphy fandom -- but he may have a wider reach beyond this circle. B) Since his "disappearance" three weeks ago and the unravelling of his lies, this man has ruined my life and the only hope I had of obtaining treatment for a condition that has been plaguing me for four years.

Killian Vidal is the name he has chosen to give us, and has claimed to be both a officer commander and general in the mobility troop in the SAS (the general rank does not even exist), has beaten cancer a while ago (but said to another mutual that his "time was running out" and he is currently struggling with it), and a plethora of other life experiences and general knowledge about him that varies in consistency when talking to different people and is questionable in its validity. He has also shared pictures of "himself" that when reverse image searched, belong to different people.

I got to know Kill when he reblogged one of my fanfics (as the story seems to start with a lot of his victims) and he reached out via DMs. We quickly became close friends who called nearly every day on Discord and when I told him about my health issues, he immediately offered to pay for my medical treatment wherever I could find willing doctors.

I was hesitant to believe this at first since all of this seemed too good to be true (and was). He claimed to be very wealthy, enough to afford private jets like it was nothing and to rent me an apartment in the UK in the same building as him. Over time, I grew to trust him because he felt like such a genuine person and friend, which was made all the more believable by the fact that he has such a huge following on Tumblr and was, at the time, part of a vast social network of fans and friends (one of which he even claimed to know IRL -- who will remain anonymous unless they decide to speak out). I decided to ignore the little red flags because I was so desperate to receive this treatment that for me would be life-saving.

For four years, I have been plagued by an array of (mostly) undiagnosed digestive issues that have made my life almost unbearable and have on numerous occasions nearly killed me due to malnutrition. I've spent months in hospital, endured years of malpractice and misdiagnoses, undergone heart surgery, and have tried absolutely everything I can to get better. In the winter of 2023, I was told by my doctor that I was refused in the TPN program (a treatment that may have slowed or stopped my weight loss) and that with or without it, I was looking at mortality. Refusing to stop fighting but having exhausted the public health care system in Canada, I went into 2024 not really having much hope of anything anymore.

So, when Kill came along, that changed. He promised -- and I mean, from the bottom of his heart, promised -- that he would help me get treatment, that he would get me out of my abusive home and fly me to the UK, that he would be there for me as my friend, etc. I was beyond grateful, and as my trust with him built, so did my hope.

The travel plans kept getting put off; originally, he would fly me out as soon as the apartment became available, which was the 11th of Feb, 2024. He kept finding excuses to not book the jet. Finally, it seemed as if around the 15th/16th I would be flying. My health had been declining rapidly and the situation was becoming all the more urgent, and he said he was in contact with a pilot and would send the ticket soon and call me.

That was the last I heard from him. The 16th.

Initially thinking he had ended his life (he had discussed thoughts of suicide with me prior to this), I was beside myself with worry not only thinking one of my closest friends was gone but also that my chance at life was. I reached out to his other friends, and I made several calls to the UK authorities and emergency services and ended up requesting a welfare check be made to see if he was even alive.

They reported that no one under the name Killian Vidal was in the records of the building name he gave me -- the same building that I was meant to live in within that week.

After reaching out to my now beloved friend @kittenonpluto (A.K.A., Cas) on Tumblr, I learned that Kill was in fact alive, and had told her that he was in hospital for digestive issues in Indianopolis, United States (though again, no record of his name in their medical system). He still wouldn't talk to me, but told her to tell me that he would reach out when he was out of hospital.

Cas and I compared information he'd told us (her story will be attached to this post) and looked into the mystery more. He constantly dodged confrontation and questions about the fake photos and information he'd sent her, and seemed to use his completely fabricated hospitalisation as an excuse to not fulfil his promises to myself and her, as well as a means to garner sympathy.

It was quite obvious that he didn't know how the American medical system worked, and he even incorporated elements of my actual story and used them in his. When asked about his treatments, he responded with medically false information. He reported digestive issues, reflux, and having both an NG tube and TPN -- both of which I have experience with -- and let me say, I am beyond disgusted and infuriated that my real life trauma was used as a ploy in all this.

How do we know for a fact this is false? I checked the police case for his welfare check again, and they said that they confirmed him being in the UK at the same time he had told Cas he was in hospital in the States.

After a final confrontation from both Cas and myself (and a desperate final plea for the medical aid he promised me), he was never heard from again from either of us or our friend circles.

I'm now having to pick up the pieces he's left me in and to be honest, I have little to no idea of what the hell to do or how to save myself. The fact that he strung me along for a month and built up my hope that I was going to live only to abandon me without even a word is deplorable to me.

And mine isn't the only story. I've heard from four women on Tumblr (who, again, will remain anonymous unless they choose to speak out) who he has been romantic or sexually involved with (and lied about his involvement, made them out to seem insane or toxic, created rifts in our friendships, toyed with their emotions, and made false promises to of relationships, marriage, and finances).

And that's not including the ex-wife who came back to Tumblr to claim that her and Kill had never met nor married. She was promptly silenced by a "lawyer threat" that we have strong reason to believe was a bluff.

At the end of the day, there are so many lies, half-truths, inconsistencies, etc. this man has wrapped himself in and we don't know for the life of us what his motives are, but from the information that we do know is false, he isn't genuine. He toys with people. He hurts them. Myself and the others that have been affected by this want that to stop.

And at any point, he has the ability to make a new account, and take on a new persona, pretend to be someone else. Tumblr is a wonderful place and I have met so many cool people on here, but please be careful about who you interact with and what you share, because aside from making this post, it is beyond my power to stop him from doing what he does. But after what he did to me, I could not remain silent.

Other Stories

If you have an experience or story with Killian that you would like heard, please reblog it on this thread or make a post. With your consent, I can include a link to it below.

kittenonpluto's story

aurorag98's story

everyoneisawhore's story

your-nanas-house's story

hllywdwhre's story

Final Note

Lastly, if you have read this far, thank you.

If you want to reach out to me about this issue -- whether it's to anonymously share your experience, ask questions, ask for evidence (of which I can back up these statements with), or anything at all --, please do not hesitate to do so. <3

For those who may be worried about the potential legality of this post, everything that I have stated as fact is fact and it is not my intention to slander or spread false information.

[cjrae]

So, I've been waiting for the Apothecary Diaries BG manga to get to The Frog scene in the official English translation. Since I don't have a subscription to MangaUp! I've been waiting patiently for the volumes to be released on Kindle.

Here's a tiny detail that I've noticed between the official translation and the fan translations that I think is interesting, because the official translation really shifts the tone of the scene. Let's take a look at the two panels side by side. Fan translation is on the left, official translation is on the right.

So, the fan translation is leaning into the comedy of the scene, rendering the sound graphics above their heads as "grrt." Which, when I read it, pushed the frog imagery inter played with Jinshi's shock. The sexual subtext of the scene is left to the visual of her sitting on top of him, which makes her consent much more ambiguous because he has pulled her into that position.

The official translation leans much more into the unresolved sexual tension, taking the "grrt" sound and turning it into "griiiind" as Maomao thinks "I will not be beaten!"

Suddenly Jinshi's shock is twofold. What Maomao is saying, denying the evidence RIGHT UNDER HER HAND, is contrasted with her deliberate provocation of grinding her body on top of his lap. She is demonstrating to him that her words and her actions are at odds.

This is a blatant, sexual challenge that Maomao takes further than she is ready to go as Jinshi shifts the whole dynamic of their relationship by refusing to allow her to deny knowledge of his manhood- and a new push/pull element to their relationship is established.

I'm now much more interested to see how they will render LN 5's epilogue. While a lot of the push/pull is there in the text, I'm wondering if the 'sexy power struggle' dynamic present here will be more easily rendered to an audience that might not be as familiar with Japanese romance tropes if there are visual cues to show us the conflict between Maomao's thoughts and her actions.

[short-honey-badger]

Kelp? No, Hello!

This has come from a little brainstorming session with my darling @goth-mami-writer. Enjoy a little JJK soul mate fic. We've decided to do our own takes on this, so I hope you enjoy! I'll have her works tagged below!

Pairings: Inumaki Toge x Female Reader

Warnings: Smut! Fast burn. Cunnilingus. The movie spoiled me. Fluff and sweet things.

Masterlist

Toge doesn't expect to meet his soul mate while out for a snack run for the other second years in his class. You'd bumped into him coming out of the convenience store, and both of you had felt that instant connection when he'd grabbed your hand to prevent you from falling. Your face, red and adorable, stared up at him.

"Hi."

Toge wished more than anything that he could say anything to you that wasn't a rich ball ingredient, brows furrowing, as he slowly offers you a soft.

"Kelp."

Embarrassment welled up in his chest when you gave him an odd look, but then you shrugged like it was no big deal, giving Toge a winning smile and suggested that the two of you go somewhere less crowded.

Inumaki had easily agreed and shot a quick text off to Maki to let her know that he'd be back later that evening. He'd then followed you to a nearby park, your hand tangled with his own the entire time. The longer he held your hand, the more his mouth and tongue felt tingly, like he'd eaten something sour. It wasn't until he made it to the park that Inumaki recalled something Gojo had mentioned in passing about soul mates before.

"Soul mates, as rare as they are, can be dangerous. With enough skin on skin contact, your "other half" can mute your cursed technique. It's that reason why you hardly see anyone paired up around here."

Toge felt his heart rate pick up twofold, and his hand shook as he grabbed the zipper to his mask and tugged it down. You were looking at him curiously, taking in the old tattoos that he had on either side of his mouth. He licks his lips, voice rough when he speaks up.

"Hello."

You had beamed at him, excited but unsure as to why, other than knowing your soul mate seemed incredibly relieved about something. Toge had quickly introduced himself, speech picking up speed the more he relaxed in the knowledge that he couldn't hurt you with his cursed speech as long as you were touching him.

Things moved quickly after that. Dates and outings when Toge had the time outside of school, taking every bit of his spare time to get to know you. It's a month into his new relationship when things turn heated while he's at your apartment visiting.

You lay played across the bed, eyes only for Inumaki as the white-haired man hovers over you. Your shirt and pants have been cast aside, and he only wears a pair of boxers. You smooth your hands across his pale body, fingers dragging along his lean muscles and then up to pull him down for a kiss. His free hand grips your side, keeping your squirming body still.

You open your legs, and his throbbing erection flush with the heat of your core as your slide your legs up and around his hips. He sighs into the kiss, grinding down and enjoying the way your legs squeeze around him. You have been so kind, so understanding with him, and Inumaki loves you for it.

Toge breaks the kiss, smoothing down to nip at your jaw, and admiring the soft sounds that you make in response to his touch. Down he goes, taking your bra off and wrapping his lips around a peaked nipple. He leaves it swollen and red before he moves to the other one, giving it the same soft attention.

You whine and huff under him, dropping your legs when he scoots down to press loving kisses to your stomach and hip bones. He peeks up at you, purple eyes dark with arousal and want.

"You're so pretty," He murmurs and licks his lips, dipping his head to press a kiss to your covered mound. You shiver, eyes half-lidded as you thread your fingers through his hair.

His hands grasp your panties, sliding them down and past your legs to toss behind him. Inumaki strokes the sensitive skin of your hip bones, trailing them down to gently slide his middle finger through your sticky folds. He hums at how wet you are and explores further, slicking his fingers with your juices and basking in the noises you make for him.

"Toge, please."

Inumaki shifts back down at your quiet pleading, kissing your inner thighs and then up to your quivering lips. You whine at the heat of his tongue against your pussy, legs shifts open to accommodate his shoulders. He lulls his tongue out and groans when when he slides the muscle through your folds, finally tasting you. His mouth is devilish, tongue swirling against your clit and then pressing down with the perfect amount of pressure that it makes you see stars.

Toge slides a hand forward, fingers finding your dripping hole and circling it. Your hips buck, and he can't help the huff of amusement that escapes him at your Impatientness. The sorcerer nudges forward, and you sigh in relief at the feeling of being filled, even if it's only his fingers.

Your slick coats his hand, and Toge pulls all sorta of delicious sounds from you as he laps at your cunt like a man lost in the desert. Your stomach tenses, and you can feel that familiar tug deep in your belly as you get closer and closer. Inumaki grunts when you pull his hair, and he rises from your dripping cunt to stare at you, face covered in your juices.

"Is everything okay?"

When you nod, he drops back between your legs, tongue curling around your clit and sucking the throbbing bud into his mouth. You keen and arch off the bed, forcing Toge to push you back down even as he adds another finger. Electric shocks jump up and down your spine as you come with a cry of his name, muscles clenching down around his fingers and slick gushing from your cunt.

Inumaki slows to a stop when you pat the top of his head, feeling smug when he pulls away to smile down at your flushed body. He massages your hips and whispers sweet nothings as you come back to yourself before he leans down and kisses you. He wasn't done just yet.

[vickyvicarious]

I think you were the one who had listed a series of events that happened in Dracula before May 3rd in Bram Stoker's outline, such as Kate Reed writing to Lucy about Jonathan visiting Mina at her school in London.

While this event, which I think was dated April 19th, did not make it in publication, it seems that Mina is referring to it in October 1st:

I kept thinking over everything that has been ever since Jonathan came to see me in London, and it all seems like a horrible tragedy, with fate pressing on relentlessly to some destined end. Everything that one does seems, no matter how right it may be, to bring on the very thing which is most to be deplored. If I hadn’t gone to Whitby, perhaps poor dear Lucy would be with us now.

So it seems Mina starts dating the beginning of the chain of events from the moment Jonathan came to visit her at school, and presumably to tell her that he's passed his exam (which he says in the book he learned about while in London), and that he's going to Transylvania. And then herself going to Whitby and "dooming" Lucy.

But without the actual entry being in the book like it was planned to, the context is missing.

I kinda did, but my post about it is definitely not the best/most complete and organized version I know of. That would be this post by @victoriantheorist14, methinks.

Regardless, without the (April 16 - you were close!) visit being shown to us directly, it is true that the specific context of this visit is missing from that line of Mina's. However, I think it's fairly easy to figure out what she means from the general situation. We already have seen where the 'fate pressing on relentlessly' to tragedy began with Jonathan's arrival at Castle Dracula, and it's fairly easy to backtrack past that a bit to when he learned he was going there. It's clear from their first diary entries that Mina already knew Jonathan was going, so we can pretty easily guess that the visit she mentions here is when Jonathan told her he was doing so. It has to be, because she says he came to see her in London, and then mentions going to Whitby; we know she was working before going to Whitby, and thus it follows that she was working in London.

Plus, we have this line from Jonathan:

What sort of place had I come to, and among what kind of people? What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked? Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor's clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner? Solicitor's clerk! Mina would not like that. Solicitor—for just before leaving London I got word that my examination was successful; and I am now a full-blown solicitor!

Mina wouldn't like it + he learned just before leaving = Mina knows because he told her, probably just before leaving.

All of this evidence is there if you look for it and try to reason it out, but I think it's the kind of thing that takes a lot longer to explain than to realize when reading. Certainly, there's an inherent timeline to Mina's line which must place Jonathan's visit earlier than her going to Whitby.

Frankly, the more interesting things to me about Mina dating things as starting from there are twofold. But less to do with your ask so I'm sticking them under the cut.

Firstly, the JonMina of it all. I've assumed that Jonathan's visit to Mina involved him proposing to her before he leaves, as he is now able to get a better salary to support them both. But looking at his phrasing above it kinda seems like he was already going to leave before learning he'd passed his exam. That seems weird to me because sending a baby lawyer to an important new client would be iffy enough; sending a clerk who is not certified at all would be way more likely to offend, even if he does have all the necessary knowledge. I guess if the firm is tiny and Hawkins had no one else he could send (and his health was bad enough he absolutely couldn't go) then maybe I can still see it, but it would either change the proposal scene I'm envisioning to something much more spontaneous right after getting the news, or suggest he was counting on just the salary bump from this trip. Either that or they were already engaged officially (but that would contradict the hints of draft gossip from Kate Reed. Or I guess her gossip would only be that the marriage itself could happen sooner than expected, but that's less exciting).

Setting all of that stuff aside though, if the Harker proposal happened during that London visit, it adds extra resonance to Mina saying "Everything that one does seems, no matter how right it may be, to bring on the very thing which is most to be deplored." It almost implies that getting engaged as well as promoted started this whole snowball. I don't actually think that's what's meant here even in the deepest depths of her guilt-spiral, because she specifically talks about visiting Lucy in Whitby instead of saying it's her/their fault because they wanted to get married and thus he went on this trip.

Then again... maybe she can recognize that Jonathan would've become a lawyer and gone on the job regardless of if they were engaged or not. (It just provided extra motivation to want the money but it's not like he would no longer be trying to advance his career if they weren't engaged.) On the other hand, visiting Lucy in Whitby is something she specifically chose to do, something fully under her own control, and thus something that she can feel responsible/blame herself for.

Secondly, the 'oh Mina honey' of it all. I mean I get into this at the end of the above, but like... Mina is blaming herself so much for something she could never have known about. I know she does kind of say it's not anything she herself has done with that line about a fated tragedy, but then again the line about not going to Whitby swivels that blame right back around to her. And it's not like Lucy would be any safer without Mina there! In fact, Mina protected her so much during Whitby that she survived that entire period in August when Dracula was trying to feed on her!

The only thing Mina 'did' to expose her to Dracula was liking the graveyard enough that Lucy went there often with her. And there's of course no guarantee that she wouldn't have gone there on her own when awake, plus it's very unclear whether that first attack was her sleepwalking there on her own out of habit or if she was supernaturally drawn to Dracula somehow. And it just kills me to see Mina latch on to such small and unknowing moments and blame herself for Lucy's eventual death. It's so so sad. By dating things as starting before she went to Whitby at all, she implies that she is the one who brought the tragic fate to Lucy in the first place. And even more, that it wasn't any one particular choice or moment while there or even a cascade of small ones, but just inevitable from her mere presence.

Because she wanted to go on vacation. She wanted to take a break and enjoy herself with her best friend. If she hadn't done that, then maybe Lucy would have lived. Which all ties in to her need to feel of use and be doing stuff all the time in an awful way and just- auuuugh,Mina no.

And she's feel so isolated and sad in all this guilt (and never saw Lucy's soul saved at the end, never saw her burial or grave at ALL), unable to act to fix things because she's been sidelined. Oh, Mina.

(And then she gets got by Dracula and it's even more something in her specifically is a danger to those she loves, her presence is dangerous no matter what she wants...)

[melancholyskittle]

CAPTAIN AMERICA BRAVE NEW WORLD SPOILERS BELOW

i haven’t seen anyone talk about it yet and i’m sure someone has but i wanna talk about one of my favorite things in this film because okay. if there’s one thing about the captain america franchise it’s that it LOVESSSS parallels i mean i wrote an entire essay on the way parallels are used in queercoding in the film but that’s another can of worms. it loves setting up the cyclical nature of history and selfhood and all sorts of things via parallels that make you and the characters active participants in constantly remembering and re-remembering which is so crazy insane unfair.

but this parallel was a little different because it drew on our knowledge as viewers but not knowledge sam would have likely had, unlike previous parallels where steve would have definitely had the knowledge…

i’m talking about joaquin’s fall from the sky!!! my brothers in christ— that was a bucky parallel!!!!! it was twofold, too, actually, it drew on his mcu “death” ie the fall from the train as well as his original comic “death” (which was meant to be final forever everyone say thank you ed brubaker for making him cool) where he was holding onto god i can’t remember off the top of my head but it’s either a plane or a missile that explodes and takes him down. guys!!! joaquin serves as a parallel to bucky in that scene!! i love specifically the draw between original super old comics bucky where he’s more of a plucky young pal to steve which i think joaquin inhabits the role of super well. it only becomes all the more obvious when you see that the damage to his arm is his left one (or at least positioned to be the left) which like. fuck awfffffff.

so yeah, almost losing it fully losing one of your best friends is actually a captain america standard issue experience that you have to go through!!! just thought it really added to sam’s induction into the official captain america role

even more special then is when the bucky parallel does happen and he gets to tell sam that it wasn’t his fault, what happened to joaquin, which i read as bucky getting closure for not being able to assure steve of the same regarding his own fall…… guysssss …… my little heart……

[goatskickin]

Hi! I know you have played TS2 for ages. Have you ever had a phase where you've gotten tired of it/felt like you have gotten everything it has to offer out of it? Sorry for my not-so-perfect English but I hope you understand what I mean!

Hi! What a fab question.

Also, your English is perfect! :) While I have been playing TS2 'for ages', there was a large chunk of time where I didn't play TS2 at all. This was from about 2015 - 2019.

The reason why I was not playing is not because I was sick of the game. It was twofold: 1) my outdated student laptop could not handle TS2 at all. And I was graduating college, so I had far less time for a time consuming game like TS2. 2) in this time period, I needed to learn how to Be A Person In the World. My mental and physical health went wildly unmedicated. I went to therapy twice. I got my heart broken. I got fired, made lots friends, I was a reckless self-destructive idiot, and I learned how to fix bicycles. I worked 4 jobs at once in an attempt to Not Feel One Single Thing At All. I was so broke that my card got declined at the grocery store because I didn't even have $50.

But I missed TS2! And I really missed creating! I think every person needs a creative outlet to feel like they are living full life.

So in 2020, when my life was much more stable, I bought myself a nicer computer. And I committed to making this ancient and weird game work for me.

I wanted to learn how to mesh clothes, so I did. I knew how to retexture hair, so I did that a lot! I wanted to experiment with CC free lot building, so I did that too. I wanted to put my knowledge of Sims 2 animations to work, and I wanted be challenged by making a story so I did that. I've wanted to do a real apocalypse challenge since forever ago so I did that too! I’ve always wanted to stream, so I do. If someone asks me a question about CC making, I answer it.

And I am constantly inspired by our community! There are so many ways to enjoy this dollhouse game.

~~~

So, if you're feeling like you're getting tired of it - take a break and go do some real world stuff.

Start talking to your neighbors and then pick up trash in your neighborhood with them. Learn how to change the oil in your car. Volunteer at your local historical society. Join a gym. Whittle little animals out of wood and give them to your friends, even if they look terrible. Try new food as often as you can. Go see some foreign movies. Go for a walk in the woods with a plant identification book. Learn the name and back story of the cat that lives in your local bookstore. Get yourself together.

The richer your life, the more creative you can allow yourself to be with TS2. 💫

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

Hi! I'm at a loss as to where to find the info I'm looking for, so I'm gonna try with you. Feel free to ignore this. I'm writing a fic in The Pitt & I'm struggling to find data on the Langdon situation. Aka, what is the outcome for his job in the first case figure proposed by Robby? This one : "Here's your second chance. 30-day inpatient treatment program, followed by random urine tests, followed by mandatory NA meetings, three to four times a week for the first 3 years [of a 5 years prog]." Ta!

So, if im understanding your question correctly, the outcome for his job is: he keeps it. I'm not sure if there's some kind of external reporting that would be done to medical licensing organizations, or if that would happen only if Langdon was not compliant with whatever PTMC came up with.

This is one of those situations where ha ha I do have some real world knowledge, albeit limited and not from the provider side. But I DID have a coworker who was suspected of using drugs (in general and also while at work). What happened then is a direct supervisor and the department supervisor pulled this employee to the side at the start of their shift to do a random urine drug screen (which is a normal job expectation thing) and this person said "ok well im not going to pass it". As I understood it (and obviously I was not allowed to have the full details) the choice was either you quit effective immediately or you go inpatient and detox and after you come out you still have your job conditional on staying clean.

Its a twofold thing here--the hospital has invested time and money into their doctors, and the doctors have invested time and money into becoming doctors. Neither party wants you to NOT become a doctor unless you are just killing patients right and left. There's also the fact that healthcare abandoning you over addiction is not going to play well to the public, so helping employees get clean is good PR as well as fiscally good. There's also the fact that, I imagine, Langdon not losing his license is contingent upon him completing the rehab program while at PTMC--hes a fourth year resident? That means that they are guaranteed him staying at PTMC for at least five working years. He's shown to be a good physician, so I imagine they'd put a fair amount of effort into getting and keeping him clean. Not because it's the right thing to do, mind you. Just financially speaking. Also, he's white, so he has that going for him (his comments about the gummy ingestion family are very delicious because he does NOT see the similarities imo)

The hospital may actually have a policy about this that outlines specifics like Robby threw out; I don't know if i believe he looked that up after he kicked Landon out or if he's pulling numbers out of his ass as far as how many meetings a week etc. so there's potentially some wiggle room there--and Robby might get a bit of a say in stuff like that since it's likely he's going to be one of the people keeping tabs on Langdon and he's Langdon's supervisor-- if he says "no I think he needs to go to meetings four times a week" well. He does know Langdon best.

I hope this answers your question?

[seat-safety-switch]

One of my favourite things in life is to find a new use for an old thing. Dirty keyboard keys? Put them in a cup of hot water with some denture tablets, and they'll come out good as new. Dog won't respect your authority as master of the house? Feed him bacon if he agrees to stop eating your azaleas.

The reason why this feels good to us is twofold. One, we like applying our life knowledge to a new domain or problem. For instance, if the top of your stove is dirty, you know that you need some kind of abrasive to clean it off. Baking soda is abrasive, you learned that one weekend making Drano bombs with Uncle Tom, let's mix up some of that with water. Boom, works great, and now when the feds kick down your door you're sure to get your security deposit back for keeping the kitchen clean.

The second, and probably more important, reason, is that we like getting one over on the secret authorities who rule our life imperiously from afar. How dare they force me to buy their sunscreen, when this TikTok video reveals the truth about how to make my own out of expired mayonnaise and house paint. As you can imagine, this second rationalization can often get those of us without critical thinking skills of any kind in trouble.

It is important, and I'm talking to everyone in the back row who is currently trying to push their fingers into the wall-mounted pencil sharpener, to always listen to that little voice inside your head. If it sounds too good to be true, it's probably bullshit made up by malevolent algorithms beaming nightmares directly into our skulls while circling the globe. Only by purchasing my new book, and accompanying nine-part video seminar, can we hope to get back to the world where mixing together random chemicals in your house helps solve problems.

[shylyobscene]

I wonder what would happen if an someone had six rocket raccoon boyfriends?

GREAT question.

First of all, I think this would create the most toxic polycule in the world. I have no idea how you managed to acquire six Rockets and found yourself in a situation where you’re dating all of them at the same time, but expect a lot of infighting.

Rocket really isn’t the type to share. He had to fight tooth and nail for most of the things in this world that he calls his own, and that includes you; it makes him a little possessive of his relationship with you, although he knows he can’t really blame anyone for being drawn to the sweet little thing hanging onto his arm when he’s with you…but now he’s gonna have to compete with flarkin’ five of himself?

Anticipate a lot of jealousy as they all strive for your attention. If Rocket was already prone to monopolizing your time before this, expect that attention to increase twofold now that he senses competition—even if the competition is technically himself. The result is a lot of PDA. There will never not be a possessive hand over the small of your back, or an arm wrapped around your thigh—his way of softly letting the others know you’re his. Even though they’re technically all him.

The Rockets will also likely not get along. It was hard enough to convince himself that he even deserves you in the first place, and now there are five more of him that think they have some sort of right to you? Please.

This is one of the moments where I wish I had more knowledge of the different comics-Rockets and eidos-Rocket, but from what I’ve gleaned they all have varying senses of self-worth and are all insecure about slightly different things—and this will absolutely be a point of tension. I think it would really grate on MCU Rocket to come across a version of himself who is just…happy with how he looks. With what he is. Who is more confident in his affection with you, and isn’t afraid to show you off.

He’s essentially getting a mirror reflected at him that shows him everything he could be, but isn’t. He’s seeing versions of him that, in some ways, are better. Happier. Hell, some of them are nearly a frickin’ foot taller—but he’s not going to let that jeopardize what he’s got going on with you. You’re too good to lose.

(Slight NSFW under the read more)

All of the Rockets would likely get increasingly handsy, and they were already really frickin’ handsy in the first place. But they have to prove a point, you know.

They’d probably play dirty and try to mark you to visually lay claim—if you were okay with it, of course. But if you do say you’re okay with it, well…good luck. Expect to be covered in hickeys and bites and bruises in very visible places. Mostly your neck, and your arms. He’ll still make sure to leave a few in his favorite spots though, like high up on your thigh, or your hip, or your tits—what can he say, he’s a guy who likes to keep things balanced. No one in the Bowie is able to look you in the eye for at least a cycle once they start doing this.

There would also be an unspoken competition over who can get you to scream the loudest, and come the most amount of times in quick succession. Rocket prides himself in being a very consummate lover—this is a trait that is consistent throughout all renditions of him. So…expect to have your hands full. And your mouth full. And your cunt full.

And I know that this is what you really wanted to know: yes, you could absolutely convince them to have sex with you all at the same time. This is one of the few moments where all six Rockets are able to put their differences aside and work together for the greater good. Just don’t expect to be going anywhere for a while.

[mytwokidbrothers]

this is so vamp waycest 2 me.... many thoughts below the cut.

like g hanging over mikeys shoulder, glaring off at someone unseen, the camera catching the red of his pupils and deepening the crimson of his undereyes... the unreality of his pale white skin on film contrasted with mikeys shiny hair under the beanie... who is g seeing over his brothers shoulder ? a threat or dinner? whats he whispering in mikeys ear-- a get back or wait here, mikes, just a moment? and does mikey shake sometimes with the knowledge of the monster his brother is, or does it bother him more that he can see the unreality of what g has become, the gruesome red of his hungry mouth, and still want him anyway? still want to keep him safe from danger, even if that's a useless thought when g precisely is the danger? still want to clean the blood from his face with a warm hand, to lean into his marble shoulder and reap what little comfort still lives beating in his brother's undead body? there's still love that lights g's eyes, some clinging familiarity of that human feeling, love, perverted and reanimated in a monster's face, which mikey lies panting under so often, saying "g, g, give it to me," or, more accurately, "take me, g," as in take me wherever you go, take me for yourself, take me into the famine that swirls in your gut, let me furnish your throat with blood similar enough to your own in life that you're nearly tasting yourself every time you drink-- that clinging familiarity, perverted. mikey goes to his knees for him in an instant and he doesn't know what's more wrong, the fact that it's his brother or that his brother is a monster. but what triumphs above all is that mikey doesn't care, his hunger for g is as insatiable as his brother's supernatural apetite, when g feeds they both are full, when they fuck mikey feels it twofold, being satisfied and knowing he is satisfying his brother, the monster, there is no seperation. the way mikey lives is suspended in death as oil forms fragile untethered islands in water & he is supended in g in much the same way-- how alive can he be to remain so attached to Death, his brother? and maybe the unrepentant monster is more blameless than the living boy who exists with the ability to give this up, to stop himself and this infinate corruption, but chooses again and again not to. he needs g to live and so he ties them together, forms a knot of fault that he carries, and says he is selfish for continuing to feed his brother, because to do so is to feed and kill and fuck and corrupt himself......

[happylittledrabbles]

Kinktober Day 2: Threesome

Fandom: Attack on Titan

Pairing: Levi Ackerman x Erwin Smith x Mike Zacharias

Character Count: 6,700

Rating: Explicit, 18+

AO3

-

Levi can see that Mike is jealous of his and Erwin's relationship. But he's not quite sure who he's jealous of. After enough prodding, one answer is enough to set in motion a number of actions that takes all of their relationships to the next level.

"Do you want a captain to fuck, Mike? Or a commander?" "Both."

-

It was no secret that Levi and Erwin were together. Well, most people didn’t know the exact extent of their relationship, whether they were lovers, friends with benefits, or simply exploring each other’s bodies for the hell of it. Only Levi and Erwin knew the depth of their relationship, the likes of which couldn’t even reach the bottom of the Underground with how they knew each other inside and out. At least one part of their relationship was safe from gossip and tabloids.

Erwin never got called out for his behavior by Dhalis Zachary or anybody else in Mitras, so long as he could perform. He had slashed cadet casualties in half, advanced Titan research twofold, and increased morale so high that people showed up to the procession of Scouts on their way outside the gates to celebrate rather than mourn. It was an unspoken rule between Erwin and the bigwigs: keep doing his job, and they won’t ask if he fucked men. Which he did, and proudly so.

The knowledge of their relationship was so widespread that nobody dared go near Erwin’s office after hours. If anybody needed to get work done in headquarters past quitting time, they took it in the cafeteria since it was the furthest room from the office.

It was doubly perplexing that Levi found himself staring at Mike, who had entered the office without knocking and came across Erwin pressing Levi against the desk, in the middle of a heated kiss.

Thank goodness they had all their clothes on, but the sight of them kissing was enough to leave Erwin stuttering and red. It was one thing to know people knew they were together—it was another to have them see it. Erwin was only confident in battle. When it came to romance, that was another story.

“Mi…Mike, hello,” was all Erwin could get out before his throat closed up on him. He coughed into a closed fist and turned his back to his friend, giving into the situation's awkwardness and completely removing himself.

Levi, on the other hand, was enjoying the situation far too much. Frankly, he thought Mike should have been the first to know and witness their relationship for himself. After all, he was Erwin’s closest friend.

Mike sniffed and pulled a face, no doubt smelling the arousal in the room and the fading scent of sex from last night.

To the untrained eye, Mike would have seemed prejudiced. After all, anybody who scowled the way he did after coming upon two men acting romantically toward each other would seem bigoted.

But Levi knew better. He had spent years by Mike’s side, had been the one to usurp his title as captain. Mike was jealous, but it wasn’t because he lost his title. He had been glad to do so, claiming that being captain was “too much damn work.” No, he was jealous in a more fascinating way—fascinating to Levi, at least. To Erwin, his friend’s recent standoffish behavior had been frustrating. He’d nearly died with Mike a thousand times over, had saved and been saved by Mike throughout their nearly decade-long friendship. And yet, his friend was too cowardly to give voice to whatever concerns he had. Concerns, or jealousy, as Levi theorized.

As he watched Mike’s eyes switch between him and Erwin, he realized the stifling silence between them was becoming too much to bear. The three of them had been beating around the bush for too long. Even Erwin could tell Mike was uncomfortable with their de facto relationship but wasn’t sure why. Levi, always prioritizing bluntness over coded language, decided to go ahead and ask.

“Mike,” Levi began, causing both men to startle. He couldn’t hide the smirk building on his lips as he looked between the two men. He walked to Erwin, who had turned to face him in confusion. Levi took full advantage of Erwin’s body by wrapping his arms around his neck and looking over his shoulder right into Mike’s eyes to ensure he was watching. He ignored the harsh Levi Erwin whispered and kept his eyes on Mike. “Do you have a problem with me being with Erwin? Everybody’s known about us for a while now. Was this a surprise to you?”

Instead of being taken aback, Mike kept his characteristic stoic exterior, something for both Levi and Erwin admired him.

“No, it’s not,” he said and subsequently shut up. The paperwork he had been holding (a lame excuse to enter Erwin’s office after ten at night) was completely wrinkled in his white-knuckled fist, a reaction that had Levi biting back a full mischievous grin.

However, Levi wanted to draw more out of Mike, wanted to see his raw reactions.

“Are you…jealous?” he began, tracing circles into Erwin’s chest and delighting in the soft grunt that drew from the commander. “Of me? Or…Erwin?”

The question hung in the air like a noose. It seemed if either Erwin or Mike said something, they’d hang themselves regardless of what they said. The first to strike was Erwin, ever the commander.

“Levi, you’re being ridiculous,” he said, but when his voice cracked in the middle, it was as if he was swinging from the roof, choking on the noose. That crack showed the lie he was covering and brought everybody’s attention to it, namely Mike’s. His eyes shifted to his friend, and he raised a brow.

“What’s ridiculous is you fucking your captain,” he retorted. But the slight whine in his tone was the sound of a petulant child who didn’t get the same toy as his sibling, not somebody who was morally opposed to the situation.

“Do you want a captain to fuck, Mike?” Levi pushed on, grabbing Erwin’s hand and pulling his reluctant frame closer until he was only a meter apart from his friend who was staring him down. “Or a commander?”

“Levi, I’m getting angry at this line of questioning,” Erwin warned, yanking his hand out of Levi’s grip.

“Both.”

Before Levi could argue back with Erwin, Mike’s voice registered in both commander and captain’s minds a beat too late. Once they realized what he had said, they turned to him with agape mouths and wide eyes. Even Levi was shocked. Yes, he knew Mike was jealous (of whom, still uncertain), but he enjoyed teasing uncomfortable people in his own apathetic way with jarring questions and a monotonous voice. But to hear him admit to wanting…both of them? To fuck? And Levi thought he was taking it too far.

“Very funny, Mike,” Erwin said, although his voice made it clear he knew that answer was far from a joke. “Now, hand over the documents and get some shut-eye.”

“I said both.” Mike’s hard gaze was now on Levi, seemingly expecting him to say something, do something. Anything.

Levi didn’t think he’d get this far. He watched as Mike dragged his eyes back to his friend, his commander, who looked as if his eyes were about to pop out of his skull. He had wondered as he fell in love with Erwin if anything had ever happened between him and Mike. So many sleepless nights in Erwin’s office, brainstorming new battle plans before he came up with the Long-Range Scouting Formation. So many days and nights by each other’s side out in the wild beyond the gates, on the brink of death with nobody but each other to keep warm. Something should have happened, or at least feelings should have developed. It was with that exact process that Levi fell in love with Erwin.

Levi pursed his lips before stepping toward the desk, his back hitting the edge of it. That move left Erwin and Mike opposite each other with nobody else to mess up the flow. “Both, you say,” Levi mused, his eyes switching between the two men. “Start with the commander, then.”

Erwin had never turned so scarlet as he did at that moment. He looked positively absurd, the perfect image of a ripe tomato. “I’m done with this,” he said, throwing his hands up, but he didn’t move. Instead, he glanced back up at Mike, his frown faltering into something softer, something genuinely inquisitive. “You’re…serious, Mike? After…after all these years?”

“Yeah, after all these years,” Mike said, the lump in his throat bobbing as he swallowed thickly. “I didn’t realize it until the rumors of you two went around. Fuck you, Levi, but…I got…jealous. Yeah, I got jealous. Jealous that you got it through his thick skull that you liked him. No matter what I did, even if I didn’t know the full extent of why I was doing it, he never seemed to pay me any mind. It was solely formations, funding, training, blah blah blah. Fuck, Erwin, you’re an infuriating guy.”

“I…I wasn’t aware,” Erwin said before cutting himself off. “I suppose that was the problem. Mike, I apologize, but now I’m with—”

“You really haven’t thought about it, Erwin?” Levi interrupted, motioning toward Mike. “Kissing him? Fucking him? Or, perhaps getting fucked by him?”

Erwin opened his mouth, and Levi knew him so well that he knew his first impulse was to lie. However, he was a known terrible liar in personal matters. If it came to keeping his cadets and civilians calm, he knew how to dispense the right lies. But when it came to feelings...well, he was illiterate in lying.

“I…can’t say I’ve never thought about it.” However, before anybody else could say anything, he wheeled around on Levi, pointing at him accusatorially. “Levi, don’t tell me you’re encouraging this—”

“Oh, I’m not just encouraging it,” Levi said, hopping up on the desk and crossing his legs. “I’m enforcing it. If you want to fuck me again, you have to at least kiss Mike. See if those feelings are real.”

“Kiss—!” Erwin ran a stressed hand through his hair, removing some of the gel and causing small locks of blond to fall onto his forehead. “This is most improper, Levi, seriously. I can’t believe you’re asking me to cheat on you.”

“It’s not cheating if I want you to.” Levi looked at Mike, whose eyes never left Erwin. “Besides, if he wants, Mike can fuck me, too. Right, Mike? You did say you wanted us both.”

A shiver rattled each of Levi’s vertebrae at the heated look of lust Mike shot him. He could feel the desire coursing through Mike’s veins, the warmth radiating from his body, from across the room, and it only made his own body grow feverish with longing.

“Erwin,” Mike said, his voice gravelly. Erwin’s eyes widened conspicuously at how his friend caressed his name, how he said it like a prayer. “Just…just this once. Please. I…”

And down went the paperwork to the floor, scattering across the room like anything resembling a normal relationship between the three of them moving past this. Levi hadn’t considered that their relationships would be fundamentally changed from his prodding, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel guilty about it, especially with the erection straining against his pants.

“Mike…” Erwin trailed off. He watched as Mike got closer but didn’t fall back.

With one last spare glance at Levi, he tipped his chin back to try and look at his friend. However, Mike took that as an invitation and dove down, brushing his lips over Erwin’s chastely for any signs of resistance. When Erwin surprisingly gave none, he solidified the kiss with a hunger he’d never had for anybody else. No, his eyes—or heart—had never moved on from Erwin. He’d slept with other people, sure, but they were only bodies to him, a means to an end. Erwin was his end. Even if he couldn’t date Erwin, he at least wanted to experience his undivided attention once. To hear him say his name embedded in a moan, to taste him carnally.

Levi watched on with flushed cheeks, a hard cock, and twiddling fingers. He wasn’t sure what to do with all the pent-up horniness in his body, so he scraped the paint off the edge of the desk as he rubbed his thighs together to get some sort of tactile pleasure in his groin. When he saw the pinkness of Mike’s tongue slip inside Erwin’s mouth and heard Erwin gasp in response, it took everything in him not to unbutton his pants, whip out his dick, and begin masturbating right then and there.

He knew he’d never fuck Erwin. He didn’t want to—the idea of conquering that giant of a man was daunting. And he enjoyed how well Erwin took care of him. But to see him submissive, to see an even bigger man envelop him into his arms and control him in a way Levi never could…it was enough to get him to finish on the spot.

“You’re hard, Commander,” Mike breathed, his hand palming Erwin’s crotch straining against his trousers. He licked his lips at the sound of Erwin’s delicious moan escaping his lips, his embarrassment evident in the way he quickly covered his mouth with both hands. He wondered if Levi made Erwin moan like that.

Levi. Right. Mike had said he wanted Levi, too, and it was true. Ever since he had been the one to catch him in the Underground and grip his hair, shoving his face in a puddle and hearing his muted cries of struggle, he hadn’t been able to deny his attraction, either. He was small but powerful, a man who knew how to handle business even if he was on the receiving end. Mike found himself staring at Levi’s body on more than one occasion; the curve of his pert ass, his svelte waist, the way his collarbones framed his chest perfectly.

Levi met Mike’s gaze and took that as permission to intervene. Or rather, join. Yes, they were going to do this all together.

He slowly strolled up to the two men in an embrace, who quickly parted in anticipation of what Levi was about to do. Without wasting another second, Levi dropped to his knees, his hands stroking the bulges at his eye level.

“Fuck, Levi…” Mike groaned. Erwin was so overwhelmed that all he could do was breathe heavily, his arm shooting out to grip Mike’s forearm for support. The contact only made Mike’s cock twitch, which consequently made Levi’s mouth water.

“Let’s get started, hm?” Levi murmured, turning to Erwin and unbuttoning his pants. Tooth by tooth, he undid his zipper, his cock all but falling out of the gap in his undershorts. Every single centimeter of him was on full display. Levi wouldn’t be surprised if every milliliter of blood in his body fed into his erection. “Wow, you’re like this only after a short make-out session with somebody else. Should I be the jealous one, Erwin?”

“Levi, please,” Erwin gasped, his other hand coming up to his mouth so he could bite his knuckles. “Don’t say such things.”

“Well, I’ll have to punish you instead.” Leaving Erwin’s cock unattended, he turned to Mike, whose bulge was equally big. What was with these giant men having cocks to match? He carefully undid Mike’s zipper and nearly got his eye poked out at the giant cock that emerged. The tip was ruby red and slick with pre-come already, leaving Levi’s mouth watering. “So stand there and watch for a bit.”

Tucking a lock of hair behind his ear, Levi shuffled forward until his lips pressed against the tip of Mike’s cock, that simple move enough to draw another salacious groan out of the poor man. After a few moments of merciless teasing—licking only the head with the tip of his tongue, stroking him with only his pointer finger and thumb pressed together—Levi went all-in. His grip solidified on Mike’s shaft and gave him a few good pumps before wrapping his lips entirely around the head, taking him in until the head of his cock touched the back of Levi’s throat.

“Ngh…guh.” Wet, lecherous sounds escaped Levi’s throat, which was suctioned onto Mike’s monster that he called a cock. He pulled off it with a pop, his throat already rubbed raw from only a minute of sucking. “How does anybody let you get near them with this thing? You’re going to give me internal bleeding, motherfucker.”

However, Mike was too lost in his world of pleasure to listen to anything Levi had to say. It wasn’t as if Levi wasn’t feeling anything, either. While one hand was on Mike’s cock, the other was pressing down on his erection, the pressure and small shocks of pain leaving him moaning around Mike.

“Levi,” Erwin said, and he barely gave Levi any time to respond before he gripped Levi’s hair and pulled him to his cock. “My turn.”

Levi sucked on his teeth, but he couldn’t hold back the impish grin on his lips. “Aren’t you also quite the jealous one,” he began before grasping Erwin tightly as punishment for his roughness. “We’re all jealous in our own ways, aren’t we?”

He glanced at Mike, who stared at him dazedly and decided to stroke him off while he was servicing Erwin, too. Just to make his commander that much more jealous.

“S-shit…Levi,” Erwin breathed as he watched Levi take him in all at once.

He coughed about halfway down before drawing back and stroking his cock with all the new saliva gathered on it. Slick sounds echoed off the office walls, and Levi prayed to anything holy that Mike at least checked the entire building before attempting whatever he had wanted to do in the first place by barging into Erwin’s office.

Returning to Erwin’s cock, Levi squeezed his eyes closed and furrowed his brows as he slowly took all of him in, feeling his throat expand and tighten to accommodate his lover’s massive size. He didn’t even think to compare Mike and Erwin’s sizes—all he knew was that both of these cocks were about to be inside him at different points of the night, and he needed to memorize their girths with his throat to mentally prepare his other end.

“Hah, just like that…fuck, Levi, you’ve always been amazing at this,” Erwin moaned, tossing his head back as Levi’s nose nuzzled into his trimmed pubic hair. “Fuck—!”

“You absolute fucker, Erwin Smith,” Mike said with a breathy laugh, looking down at the deft and skilled movements of Levi’s hand on him. He knew exactly when and where to press down on the head of his cock, when to lighten and tighten his grip, how to attend to every centimeter. “I can’t believe you kept him to yourself all these years.”

“No way in hell was I going to share him,” Erwin replied with a soft, low chuckle, a chuckle that had Levi moaning at the sound of it. His mouth vibrated around Erwin’s cock, leaving the commander doubling over in pleasure. His grip on Mike’s forearm tightened, and at Mike’s grunt of pain, Erwin came to and glanced at his friend. His eyes then dropped to Mike’s kiss-red lips. “Except for you, now.”

As if reading his mind, Mike leaned forward, his hand cupping Erwin’s jaw as they met in another heated kiss. They moaned into each other’s mouths every time Levi switched onto their cocks, their teeth bumping against each other’s and accidentally biting their bottom lips. A sudden broiling in Erwin’s stomach hit him all at once, the all-too-familiar feeling of tipping into an orgasm. He accidentally bit down on Mike’s lip, drawing a small bead of blood. Instead of shying away, he gripped the sides of Mike’s face firmly and licked it away. Blood was nothing to a commander of the Survey Corps. His friend’s blood was even less consequential. He licked the taste of iron away and replaced it with more of Mike’s tongue.

However, Erwin could no longer deny his impending orgasm and broke away from the kiss with a shuddering breath, his hips stuttering and his knees liquifying. He kept his arm around Mike’s neck as he rode out his orgasm, grabbing Levi’s hair and pulling him away in time for warm come to splash across his lips and cheeks.

“F-fuck—fuck, Levi! M-Mike…hah…” He stumbled backward, not getting far before Mike caught him and supported him by threading his arm underneath his armpit.

Levi had wanted Erwin to come in his mouth, but ever the considerate man he was, he instead decided to paint his lover’s face white. Levi wasn’t complaining—instead, he waited for Erwin’s eyes to open before gathering the come on his cheeks onto his thumb. He then pushed it between his lips, licking the rest of it away before sucking on his thumb in the way he knew Erwin enjoyed.

“That…that was…” Erwin’s vision was still spotty as he gazed down at Levi with heavy eyelids. His body was on pins and needles as all the blood that went to his cock rushed back into the rest of his limbs, except for his head, which was still in the clouds. Once he was sure he could stand, he gently stepped away from Mike’s hold and staggered back into one of his stuffed office chairs. His head tipped back, all of the gel from his hair gone, which allowed it to fall in his face. “I don’t think this has ever happened before.”

Before Levi could get jealous, Mike tapped Levi’s cheek and pointed to himself. “What about me? I was close.”

Levi’s eyes shifted between Mike’s cock and his face before biting his lip. He’d need to dutifully prep himself to take Mike inside. He had thankfully had sex with Erwin only the day prior, so he was still somewhat stretched. He walked behind Erwin’s desk and pulled open one of the drawers, taking out a bottle of oil and tossing it to Mike, who fumbled it a few times before catching it.

“Prep me first or you’ll have to carry me to the emergency room. And I doubt any of us want that.” He waited until both pairs of eyes were on him before dropping the skirt and trousers part of his uniform, leaving him in only his undershorts. He leaned his back against the desk and cocked his head to the side as he stared at Mike. “Want to take them off me?”

Mike was on him before Levi could inhale, his undershorts off and gone somewhere in the office before he could exhale. His hands caressed Levi’s hips before dropping to his ass, cupping the flesh there and massaging it in a way that had Levi faltering and having to hang onto Mike’s shirt for support.

“Turn around,” he demanded. He grabbed Levi’s arm and turned him around before waiting for Levi to listen, leaning forward and hesitating before licking the nape of his neck.

“Nnh—! Mike, that’s…ngh…” Levi couldn’t finish his sentence before Mike’s oiled-up fingers were at his hole, waiting for permission to come in. “You’re impatient as all hell, you know that?”

“For you and Erwin, yeah,” Mike murmured in a voice that made Levi pull his hips back so the tips of Mike’s two fingers entered him. “Shit, yeah, you’re right…you’re fucking tight, Levi. Didn’t you guys do it yesterday? And you’re already like this?”

The dirty talk wasn’t helping with Levi’s desperation. He worked his hips back until he was essentially fucking himself on Mike’s fingers, his hand trailing between his legs to jerk off. “Mike…do your job and prep me,” Levi tried to demand, but it came out as a pathetic whine, his voice high-pitched and submissive.

But it was all Mike needed to move and curl his fingers inside Levi in search of the spot inside men he knew drove them crazy. When Levi yelped, his head dropping to his chest in bashfulness, he knew he had found it. “How’s a third one?”

“Do it,” Levi said and hissed at the light ache that sparked inside him when Mike followed his orders.

He wanted to get fucked as quickly as possible, as many times as possible, by both of them. His hips followed Mike’s movements, swirling to the point that Mike had to steady them by sinking his fingers into the soft, milk-white flesh of Levi’s waist. Before long, he felt Mike put in a fourth. The sensation awoke something in Levi, and he realized: tearing be damned, he wanted that cock in him now. He wanted to be fucked beautifully, and he knew Mike could deliver.

“…you,” Levi mumbled, his voice dying in his throat. “I want you, Mike. Put it in, now.”

“And I’m impatient,” Mike remarked with a chuckle.

Despite his comment, he wasted no time, just as Levi had predicted. He lined himself up with Levi’s entrance, the head of his cock kissing his hole and leaving Levi breathless. Just the blunt tip of it was bigger than any cock Levi had had before him and Erwin, and he almost regretted not being stretched more. Regardless of his impatience, Mike eased himself in slowly, the tip clearing Levi’s rim and fully submerging itself inside him.

“Nn…fuck, you’re bigger than I thought,” Levi said, which was only a half-truth. He knew intimately that Mike was big from taking him down his throat, but his ass was a different story.

He then had to stifle a gasp when he felt Mike’s hand pressing against his lower stomach, the pressure strangely adding to the pleasure.

“It’s like I can feel myself in you,” Mike said with a dark chuckle, and his voice only got more cocky at the strangled moan in Levi’s throat as he sped up his hand’s movements on his cock. “Me being in your guts get you off, Levi?”

“Just…just fuck me,” Levi gasped, bracing himself on the desk.

He was grateful he did that before Mike thrust forward because he would have certainly slid across the desk with the sheer force Mike used to bury himself to the hilt inside the captain.

“AH—!” Levi yelped, his teeth biting down on his bottom lip to prevent any more embarrassing noises from escaping.

However, he didn’t even get the possibility before Mike’s hand gripped Levi’s jaw and wrenched it open and to the side, leaning over him to meet those bitten-up lips with a sloppy tongue kiss that had Levi’s eyes rolling up into his head. It only got worse when Mike began a rhythm, a disjointed rhythm that was hard for Levi to follow with his hips but managed to hit his prostate almost every single time in cruel succession.

“Ahn—! Fuck, fuck, fuck…like that, just like…yes, yes, yes.”

Levi couldn’t swallow his moans any longer. He wasn’t this loud all the time, nor did he like to be. But Mike was fucking him so beautifully, in just the way that he wanted, that the slut inside of him couldn’t help it.

Another near-scream came from his rubbed-raw throat when Mike bit the nape of his neck. “Mike! That…ngh, shit…”

After licking the circumference of the bite, Mike returned to focusing on fucking Levi so hard his ass rippled and reddened to resemble two apples. Finally, his hands encircled that small waist he’d fantasized holding for so long, he had to constantly reassure himself that this was real, that it wasn’t a dream. It curved perfectly into his ass plump with muscle, and he couldn’t help but give it a firm smack. He waited for any resistance, any genuine cry of pain from Levi, but all he got was a moan that rivaled all the ones before it. He chuckled and asked, “Does Erwin know you like it dirty?”

Levi glanced over at Erwin, who had been so silent he had thought the commander was sleeping. On the contrary—Erwin was sitting up and at attention, in more ways than one. He was hard again, painfully so, by the look of it, and was stroking himself hurriedly as he watched his friend bury himself in his lover. It must’ve been confusing for poor, straight-arrow Erwin, who would have never considered adultery if not for this exact situation. Levi didn’t fault him—watching Mike make out with Erwin was one of the hottest things he’d ever witnessed.

“Erwin,” Levi called out, his voice laced with need.

Erwin was on his feet before Levi even had to say anything, walking behind the desk so that he faced them. Levi was bent over the desk, but he needed to get closer to Erwin, whose cock was ready and crying for attention. He reached behind to grip Mike’s wrist, silently telling to stop. Before he could do anything, however, Mike got the message and lifted Levi completely onto the desk, his thighs and chest flush against it while his ass and feet were bent in the air.

“I feel bad getting all the love,” Mike murmured, beckoning Erwin closer with his finger. “Come on, Levi, do your part.”

With that, he began pounding Levi’s ass again, one hand supporting Levi’s stomach so his hips wouldn’t drop and the other fisting Levi’s hair. Levi gazed up at Erwin, his love, his commander, and opened his mouth obediently. Erwin didn’t take his eyes off Levi for a second, using his peripheral vision to guide his cock into Levi’s warm and welcoming mouth. Levi quickly took him in from the force of Mike’s thrusts, causing Levi to be shoved forward in a now-steady rhythm.

Being fucked from behind and in the mouth was an experience Levi never thought he’d have, but it was a dream he’d conjured up on more than one occasion. It was always a faceless man and Erwin taking turns with him and stretching him open with both their cocks at the same time. The latter certainly wouldn’t be the case with Erwin and Mike, but the fact that he was being spit-roasted was more than enough to have him on the brink of orgasm before he even took all of Erwin down his throat.

“Mike,” Erwin called, keeping one hand on Levi’s head and using the other to bring Mike forward by the chin. Mike paused, causing Levi to groan from frustration as he lost the orgasm building in his stomach, which in turn caused Erwin to moan at the vibrations spreading throughout his groin. “Ngh, damn…did you ever think those…hah…late nights beyond the walls would ever…e-ever turn into this?

“Not a damn bit,” Mike murmured against Erwin’s lips before kissing him deeply. He broke the kiss to thrust into Levi firmly three more times before pausing again, leaving Levi whimpering on Erwin’s cock. “But I did think about throwing you up against one of those giant trees and fucking you for all I’m worth. Many, many times.”

“Oh…if only you had.” With that, they returned to their kiss. Mike started up fucking Levi, Levi returned to massaging Erwin’s cock with his throat, and Erwin sucked on Mike’s tongue with reckless abandon. They were like a well-oiled machine, a cycle of pleasure that only grew exponentially with each passing second.

The cycle ended with Levi first, who found that pleasuring and being pleasured at the same time was far too overwhelming. His orgasm boiled over, and with Mike’s steady rhythm, he was finally able to find relief in spurting come all over the wooden desk, smearing it against his chest from Mike’s continued thrusts. Erwin’s cock slipped out of Levi’s mouth as his head fell to the desk, his body wracked with oversensitivity from the brutal, never-ending thrusts.

“Mike! Mike, fuck—I’m coming, I-I—” Another load spilled onto the desk, leaving him shivering and writhing in Mike’s grip. “Please, I just came, Mike—fuck, I can’t—”

And Mike’s never-ending thrusts subsequently came to an end. How could they not, what with Levi’s walls squeezing his cock as if to milk him, those sweet moans pouring out of his mouth, the sight of Levi’s arched back and quivering body beneath him. He shot his come inside Levi with a drawn-out groan, his fingernails leaving angry red crescents on Levi’s hips. Feeling the come pooling inside Levi was so satisfying it seemed to draw even more semen from inside Mike, leaving Levi even tighter between the pulsing cock and the amount of come gathering inside him that poured out from around Mike’s cock.

“A-ah…mm…” Levi sighed, his eyes fluttering closed. 

To torture Mike slightly, he rocked his hips backward onto him before leaning forward, the small movement enough to elicit groans from both men. With grave reluctance, Mike slowly pulled out, leaving behind a mess of oil and come that dripped down Levi’s trembling thighs. He stepped back, and without his support, Levi’s hips fell to the desk. He managed to catch himself so he didn’t hurt his cock on the way down, but once he felt adjusted, he relaxed fully on the desk to catch his breath.

Mike, like Erwin, stumbled back into one of the chairs, resting his temple against his fist. Erwin, on the other hand, felt it was his turn to be impatient. Levi had started it all—he was going to end it.

He rounded the desk so that he was standing behind Levi, a pang of jealousy striking his heart at the utterly fucked-out state Mike put his lover in. He had come buckets inside him, and Erwin used the excuse that he fucked Levi every day, so his semen supply was running a bit thin. Yes, he fucked Levi every day, because Levi was his, goddamn it. And he was going to show him just how good he can get fucked.

“I’m not done,” he said, gently grasping Levi’s ankle and pulling him until he rolled onto his back.

Levi’s eyes flew open at that, and they scanned the room as if he was lost before settling them on Erwin. He began to groan before it gave way to light laughter, covering his eyes with a hand. “God, just when one finishes, another one is ready. Are you guys ever going to let me rest?”

Yes was the answer. Eventually. Erwin had to fuck the daylights out of his lover first, driving him into the desk with astonishing speed and accuracy. In the last few minutes of their coupling, he managed to strike Levi’s prostate with each thrust and with such force that the sheer level of pleasure surging in Levi’s body was downright painful.

However, pleasure and pain mixed well in Levi’s body, and all he could do was pull Erwin into an embrace and hold onto his shoulders for dear life as he rode out his orgasm. With impressive—and annoying—stamina, Erwin used and abused Levi’s hole for what felt like a thousand more thrusts before spilling inside, coating his walls in another layer of come. He had never felt Levi’s hole so sloppy, even after they had had sex multiple times in succession. Was Mike truly that big? Did he fuck so crazily, so well, that it left every single muscle in Levi’s body relaxed from how thoroughly he was bred?

These thoughts ran through Erwin’s mind as he pulled out of Levi with a low groan. Levi was so exhausted that all he could afford was a small mewl and a whimper before going completely limp across the desk. Erwin made a mental note to replace the soiled documents sprawled on the desk before turning to Mike, who was already staring at him. That seemed to be the story of their friendship. He’d be busy with something, and then he’d turn to Mike, whose attention was always taken by Erwin. How had he not noticed before? He truly was a dunce.

“Did you enjoy the show?” Erwin asked, undoing the buttons of his shirt as Mike waltzed over to him with a saunter of a man who just had mind-blowing sex.

Mike smirked, his eyes dropping to Erwin’s bare chest once all fabric was gone and on the floor. “Yeah, I sure did. But, I’d enjoy it more if I was the one with you.”

Erwin found himself pushed up against the wall of his office with Mike’s cock between his legs. He heard Mike spit into his hand and wipe it on the inside of Erwin’s muscular thighs before giving an experimental thrust.

“Ah…” Erwin breathed, the sensation of a cock between his legs—or anywhere near his ass, for that matter—completely foreign, but it was warm and slick and rubbing right between his balls and against his shaft. So he welcomed it, his hand reaching behind him to scratch Mike’s hip. “Keep…going.”

Mike couldn’t believe that he got to fuck two of the men he’d had an eye on for years in one night, at the same time. Fuck, just the realization was enough to make him finish, but no. He needed to show Erwin a good time. And he did just that.

He took it slow, knowing it was Erwin’s first time experiencing a cock in this manner. He also didn’t want to give Erwin’s balls rug burn, so he spat some more onto his cock before continuing. Erwin thought he was used to these wet sounds that came from sex, but he realized he only got used to them when they were coming from Levi, whether he was sucking him off or from his ass. But now that the sounds were coming from him, from his thighs, he was so bashful he had to cover his eyes with his forearms. Especially when he began to chase after Mike whenever he pulled away with his hips, seeking to close the gap between them.

“Jesus, who knew you’d like a cock near your ass, huh, Commander?” Mike asked, which only made Erwin grunt from embarrassment.

“Be quiet, Mike,” was all he could spare before dissolving into moans when Mike started up a faster cadence as punishment.

Erwin caught himself glancing over at Levi from time to time. One second he was comatose, the next he was watching intently, positioned on the desk like a woman model in one of the porn magazines in the back of bookstores. He propped his chin up on his knuckles as he lay on his side, his small waist making the curve into his hip that much more prominent.

When Mike thrust between Erwin’s legs particularly forcefully, leaving his ass pink and raw, he saw Levi’s abs tighten in response. What was Levi thinking? Did he enjoy seeing his man being submissive? Did he enjoy seeing his commander moan like a slut because of another man’s cock?

Just the thought left Erwin’s body weak, and it only took a few more strokes of Mike’s hot cock against his for the commander to leave a white coating dripping down the wall and everybody’s ears ringing from his low groan. He shivered with each desperate stroke Mike did, his hands coming down to Erwin’s thighs to push them closer together. After enough oversensitive moans spilled from Erwin’s lips, Mike finished with a sigh.

“Uff…shit, Erwin, you felt…” Another spurt of come coated the underside of Erwin’s cock and joined the rest of the semen on the wall. “…fucking amazing.”

“Mmm…” Erwin felt that he was about to pass out. Mike, who had orgasmed more in one day than he had the whole week, also couldn’t find the strength in himself to support another grown man’s weight. They collapsed onto the floor, leaning their shoulders against each other and their heads bumping, but they couldn’t care less from exhaustion.

After a few moments of steadying their breathing with their eyes closed, a shadow blocking out the dull candlelight caused them to open their eyes to see Levi standing in front of them with his arms crossed.

“Let’s go for another round.” He pointed to the floor. “This time, I’ll ride you, Erwin. And I’ll suck Mike off.”

He put his pointer finger and thumb together and hovered in front of his tongue. “And you can finish in my mouth.”

Erwin and Mike shared a glance that said every single one of their thoughts at that moment. Of exhaustion, of never-ending horniness, of true love for one another and Levi. A love that was late, but not too late. A love that took up the entire room and suffocated them in it.

They simultaneously turned to Levi and smiled.

“Absolutely.”