#2022 mock questions and answers

[dwonfilm]

Teaching tech. | Soldier Boy x Reader

Summary: Butcher tasked you with the job of teaching a freshly thawed Ben, aka Soldier Boy, how to use technology. First off you started with teaching him about the iPhone.

Warnings: bit of Solider Boy being Soldier Boy but otherwise, mostly fluff.

“Dammit!” [Y/N] heard Ben’s voice from the other room and she sighed. Next was a smash and that made her rush back into the bedroom. Immediately Ben’s eyes lifted up to see her coming in and he scoffed. “I didn’t break the cocksucking thing this time.” He stated plainly. “Good,” she answered. “I don’t have the money to buy you a fourth phone.” She moved to sit on the bed next to where he was currently sitting. “This shit ain’t a phone, it’s a thin ass rock with futuristic shit inside. Phones have a base and a receiver or they were these massive bricks with buttons—not whatever the fuck a touch screen is-“ Ben ranted, but [Y/N] just laughed. “Yeah, they were those things once but this is 2022. Life’s changed a lot and eventually you’re gonna need to learn all these things.” She spoke, picking up the phone that was on the bed between them, swiping up to unlock it. Bits of her [Y/H/C] hair covered her face while her attention focused on the screen. Ben just watched, a grumpy expression on his facial features. “How’d you get stuck doing this anyway? Where’s the Cum Guzzler or the Cheerio?” She laughed, Ben’s nicknames for people were always pretty humorous. “Hughie is scared of you and Butcher can barely explain anything in the entire history of life’s existence.” Ben gently laughed at her answer. Fingers moved across the screen, making selections that she didn’t think were necessary to explain to him at the moment. “So, the bean pole’s afraid of me huh?” He asked, not really expecting an answer. However it did bring up another question. “Why aren’t you scared of me?” His tone seemed indifferent but there was a hint of something more inside his eyes. Something she was oblivious to since her own were focused on the screen of the phone in her hands. Though, she slowly gazed up from it for a moment. “Honestly,” she began with a pause directly after. It was as if she was attempting to think about how to answer him. “I was at first, a little bit, but I just try to sympathize.” He scoffed almost immediately. “You sympathize with a piece of shit like me? No wonder it’s so easy to get you women in the sack. Jesus Chris-“ She turned her head and shot a glare at him. “You can sympathize with people without wanting to fuck them, for starters.” She rolled her eyes, moving her gaze back to the phone in her hands. “No one’s perfect, not that it’s excusing.. well everything. Despite all that, no one here has any real room to judge too harshly.” Ben quirked a brow at that. “That so? Don’t tell me a pretty lil’ thing like you has baggage!” Part of him was sort of mocking her, though he was getting curious. “Moving on, I made the email for you and set up an account for you to use the phone.” She began to explain, looking over to him but finding a confused expression on his face. “E-what?” He asked plainly, green eyes gazing into her own. “Right, I forgot you have no grasp on the basics.” She turned towards him now.

“Email is pretty easy, it’s like sending letters to people—only digitally and in a much faster time period. It used to take y’know, days, weeks for those to be delivered. Now it just takes seconds—also instead of a home address you just need their email address. Does that make sense at least somewhat?” Her voice was gentle, not sarcastic or cruel. [Y/E/C] eyes meeting his green ones as he was silent for a moment. “Yeah, I guess.. I mean it seems straightforward enough—though doing that stupid shit is gonna be harder than understanding what the fuck it is.” He answered. “Well, yeah, but we’ll get there.” [Y/N] offered a half smile at him. “No one’s asking you to be Steve Jobs after a day,” she tried to encourage him but his face was blank yet again. “Who the fuck is that?” He asked, to which she sighed gently. “…never mind, it’s not important. What I meant is that none of us are expecting you to know how to use it all within the blink of an eye.” She replied before moving her gaze back to the phone. He peered over at the phone while knitting his brows together. None of it made any sense to him. Now the screen was black again, before the stupid symbol popped up. “..the fuck is it doing now?” He asked, moving his glance to her face. “It’s updating the software,” she spoke before shifting it to an analogy he’d understand. “..which is like maintenance on a car kind of—it makes sure everything’s working and also is.. replacing the parts in a sense. Fixing things that weren’t working and replacing them with things that will work and hopefully work better.” It took a second, but the analogy did help. “Makes sense I guess.” He spoke, arms crossed over his chest. His eyes watched for a moment before he became bored, so, he did what he usually did and turned his attention to whoever was occupying the space with him. “So tell me, how’d a gorgeous gal like you get tangled up with a fucker like Butcher anyhow?” She laughed softly but she didn’t look up at him this time. Mostly to hide the fact that she was blushing just a little. [Y/N] knew that she shouldn’t be feeling this way, by all accounts this man was still Soldier Boy. He wasn’t a good person, but the more she spent time with him the more she realized he was letting her see the man behind the persona and maybe.. maybe there was more than what he’s done in the past. After all she was preaching sympathy just moments prior. “Flattery will not get you out of the tech lesson, but since it’s updating you’ve got a little wiggle room.” She took a gentle breath before beginning to tell a very condensed version of events. “Becca, Butcher’s wife, she was my mom’s best friend. When my mom got killed in a car wreck, Becca sort of.. became my maternal figure.” Ben nodded, feeling some of the strings attached to his heart pulling. “I’m sorry about that, doll.” It was the least he could say. “Where the hell was your dad?” He asked, not knowing subtly if it were to bite him on the ass. She sighed gently. “Couldn’t tell you, never met him.” Ben could sympathize with that in a way, his own father being a piece of shit and all. “Sorry ‘bout that too.” He spoke, keeping his gaze on her own. She simply nodded before the phone’s screen lit up in the bright colors again, signifying that the software update had been completed. Picking the phone up, [Y/N] swiped up to begin the process of actually setting things up. “Okay, back to this-“ she spoke but was immediately cut off by Ben’s loud groaning. “Fuck sakes, is this really necessary?” He grumbled, which caused the woman next to him to roll her eyes. “You already know the answer to that.” Again he grumbled, acting like a mix between a grumpy old man and a stubborn child. “If this was forty years ago and some fine piece of ass was trying to tell me I had to do somethin’..” She turned and her [Y/E/C] eyes met his face with a pointed glare. There was a momentary pause as Ben contemplated whether or not to continue.

However, he was mischievous by nature and so he opted to continue on with his train of thought. “..I’d have grabbed her by her pretty little chin and talked her into getting on her knees so I could show her a better way to use that mouth.” [Y/N] again rolled her eyes. “Anyway,” she brushed it off and moved on immediately though Ben was wearing a little smirk. “Picturing it, aren’t ya’?” He asked, clearly attempting to make the woman flustered. She turned her gaze back towards him with a blank expression upon her face. “Picturing me, punching you in the face? Absolutely I am.” She answered, which had Ben’s smirk fall completely. “You new age women, chicks in my day would’ve been creaming their panties at the chance to get with Soldier Boy.” Ben grumbled, irritation showing on his face. It was amusing to [Y/N] that he thought he’d get her to crumble so easily. Pushing herself up into a better position she’d lean the phone towards the Supe. “Alright, so I made two emails—one has the Soldier Boy name on it, just in case there’s.. I don’t know people that have business offers or something. Granted, that’s if we all live and you don’t get thrown into jail or whatever they do to other Supes and the other is for, well, more personal shit. That’s the one I was telling you about when I mentioned it initially, the one that’s tied into everything on the phone. I downloaded some stuff but now you need to try it.” She handed the phone over to Ben, praying he wasn’t gonna break this one. It was clear that he was trying to hold it gently, which would’ve made her giggle out loud—however the man was in an overly sensitive state and she wasn’t going to push that. “Alright, so tap the icon that says ‘App Store’ and wait for it to open.” [Y/N]’s voice was gentle and Ben nodded, putting his finger over the square with that name underneath it. However he left it there and so the apps began to all shake. “What the fuck is happening?!” He exclaimed, to which she gently moved her hand and pressed the button labeled ‘done’. Now the apps went back to being still and she sighed. Gently she grabbed his index finger and lightly pulled it towards the screen again, Ben wanted to grumble but he was too distracted by how her fingers felt against his own. Where his skin was rough, battle tested and calloused.. hers was soft, maybe a scar here and there but nothing compared to his and the contrast? It was more enjoyable than he’d ever admit out loud. [Y/N] pulled his finger down toward the screen and gently tapped it against the screen to open the app. “You just gotta tap, see.” She spoke, letting go of his finger. “Huh.” He replied, but it wasn’t very loud. “Now typing on these things is probably gonna annoy you, it annoys us all and we’re used to the technology. Just.. try to not freak out and break it yeah? Shit is easy for you to snap, given y’know..” After she said that, she couldn’t help but to chuckle. When she did Ben felt himself smirking just a little. There was a split second where their eyes met and lingered, before she spoke up again. “Alright, so if you just click on this one it’ll take you to the place where you can download them. I think most things that are necessary for now are already there but I wanted you to know how to do it, so.. you like sports right?” She asked, tone kept gentle. “Uh, yeah, obviously little less on the up and up these days.” He replied, to which she nodded. “Alright well type in ‘MLB’ right there in that search bar, click it first though.” [Y/N] explained and for a moment Ben just stared at her, as if she had three heads. Eventually though he moved his gaze to the phone and tapped the screen over the search bar, which brought up the keyboard. “So.. these fucking things are called apps?” He asked, typing the three letters slowly into the bar and then she pointed to the blue button labeled ‘search’, which he tapped before looking up at her again.

“Yeah, they have one for just about everything these days.” She replied, pointing to the button that said ‘get’. Ben tapped it and the symbol to signify it was downloading appeared. Once it had finished, she smiled slightly before reaching underneath his arm for a second. “So, to close an app, you just swipe up like this.” Gently she placed her thumb on the screen and swiped upward to bring the phone back to the Home Screen. “Now, that closes it for the moment. Swiping up in a short motion brings up all the open ones like this-“ she explained, demonstrating. “Once they’re up like this you can swipe up again and fully close them.” She closed all of the currently open apps to demonstrate to him how to do it. “You really think I’m gonna remember all this shit?” He asked, almost glaring when he looked in her direction. It was a lot of information to take in, so she took a gentle breath and locked the phone. “Okay, fair, let’s take a break then.” [Y/N] placed Ben’s phone on the bed between them and slowly pulled out her own. He couldn’t help it, curiosity took hold and he glanced over. “You can put pictures on that thing?” He asked, noticing her Lock Screen photo of a drawing of the moon. Quirking a brow for a moment, she then figured out what he meant. “Oh, yeah! You can. Did you wanna do that on your phone?” Her voice was sweet as their eyes met yet again, bringing back the slight tension that continued to linger between them. “Fuck it, shit looks better than whatever the fuck it comes with.” He replied after a moment or so of silence. “Do you have anything specific you want?” She reached up with her free hand and tucked some of her [Y/H/C] hair behind her ear. Ben’s expression was pensive for a moment or so as he tried to think of anything he’d like to have as a background on the phone. “I dunno, just find something badass—none o’ that girly shit.” She shook her head before thinking herself, trying to figure out something she could use. “I’m gonna go take a leak.” He spoke up, pushing his frame up and off of the bed before grumbling about something and making his way over to the bathroom door. Once he’d closed it, she thought for another second before smiling to herself. Lifting the phone up at a decent angle, she quickly opened the camera app and primped herself slightly—snapping a couple of pictures of herself right after. Flicking through the few she found the one she liked the most and made it his Lock Screen wallpaper. Thumbs darted across the screen and within another two minutes or so, spent entirely on Google, she’d found a nice photo of Ben’s shield. It worked well for a Home Screen.

It wasn’t long after that [Y/N] heard the toilet flush and the sink turn on, seconds passing before the door was pulled open and Ben re-entered the bedroom. Lifting her gaze up to meet him, his green eyes held something she couldn’t quite pinpoint. She gently laid his phone onto the mattress and kept her attention on him while he sat back down onto the bed. “Are we doing more of this shit? ‘Cause I think my fuckin’ brain might implode.” His voice was deep, housing a distinct rasp to it. [Y/N] couldn’t help but to chuckle at the old man antics he was displaying before answering the question. “No, I think we’ll save some lessons for another day. After all, there’s much more than just the phone you’re gonna need to learn.” After she’d spoken, he groaned for what felt like the millionth time. “It’s amazing how you bounce between acting like a senior citizen and acting like a teenage boy.” Her voice held a humorous tone as she again chuckled, it was Ben’s turn to now offer her a pointed glare but there was definitely a layer of amusement behind it. Just as he was about to offer up a retort, the bedroom door was pushed open and Butcher popped his head in. “Oi [Y/N], need ya’ to come help Frenchie with a little project.” His accent was thick and his eyes held a wild expression that was pretty standard for the man. [Y/N] sighed and slowly pushed herself up from the mattress, but turned towards Ben with a gentle smile. “If you have any questions just.. come find me.” He nodded, because his brain wasn’t sure how to react to the little smile on her lips. Sure there was a lot of unholy and downright vulgar thoughts swimming around in his noggin about her, there had been since he laid eyes on her—however there was something more that lingered and that was causing a short circuit in his mind. She turned back to the Brit and groaned. “This better not be anything messy because the last time-“ she was cut off by Butcher’s laugh. “It ain’t, I swear.” [Y/N] rolled her eyes as the two left the room, closing the door behind them. After a couple of minutes Ben remembered [Y/N] lecturing him about locking the goddamned phone, but she had left it unlocked. Pushing the button he heard the clicking noise, but tapped onto the screen to make sure he hadn’t accidentally turned it off somehow—and that’s when he saw it. There underneath the time and the other bullshit, was a picture of her and her smiling face. Since he was by himself, he didn’t have his guard up and his lips curled upward into a smile. “Pretty lil’ lady.” He spoke out loud, his heart feeling something he’d not felt in quite some time.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hi guys! I am soooooo sorry about how long this took. Between writer’s block and my fear of it sucking, I was just struggling for a while. This is my first attempt at writing for Ben so if it’s bad, I’m sorry! He’s a more complex character to nail in writing and hopefully I’ll get better at it over time. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!

• —– ٠ tag list: @roseblue373 @mrsjenniferwinchester @stillhere197 @xx-spooky-little-vampire-xx @aylacavebear @ladysparkles78 @globetrotter28 @jc-winchester ✤ ٠ —– • ·

[impala-dreamer]

The Devil On Stage

A Short Story

~Lonely during his solo panel, Jensen calls Y/N out to join him on stage. Having nothing much to say, she lets her mind wander a little too far while watching him regaled the audience with stories from the old days on set.~

Jensen Ackles x Fem!Reader

1,432 Words

Warnings: NSFW. Oral. A little Dom!Jensen. Lovely. Just lovely... | Originally published to Patreon December 2022

Impala-Dreamer’s Masterlist  ~  Patreon  ~ Published Works

The devil was on stage, sitting just a few feet away.

God, he looked delicious. Truly better than any man had the right to, especially clad in double denim. Y/N narrowed her eyes on him, her mouth watering as he gestured to the audience, animatedly recalling some stunt he’d pulled on set.

The crowd ate it up and he looked back at Y/N over his shoulder, giving her a wink.

She had no clue what he was saying, no idea what the question had been. There was only one thing on her mind, only one thing she could focus on.

Jensen.

Jensen, Jensen, Jensen… The devil in her mind, the monster in her sheets, the rocket between her thighs.

A flood of warmth washed down her body and Y/N shut her legs, squeezing them together tightly. She bit her lip as Jensen laughed, his voice booming through the speakers and her head.

“That’s a great question,” he said, licking his lips slowly and turning to look at Y/N. He smiled, all perfect teeth beneath a clipped, sexy beard. “You wanna take this one?”

She startled, nearly dropping the microphone in her hand. “Uh…” Sitting up quickly, she struggled to remember the question, but nothing was coming to her. She laughed lightly and shrugged. “Nah, you’re better at this than I am. Go on.”

He grinned at the crowd. “She’s right. I am.”

Y/N rolled her eyes in mock annoyance and the audience laughed.

Jensen turned away and all Y/N could see was his plump little ass, stretching the denim tight. She had warned him not to wear those jeans, nearly pulling him back into bed that morning as he got dressed.

He never listened to her.

And now she was in trouble.

The crowd clapped at some answer Jensen had given and he spun on his heel, turning towards the next fan in line.

“How are ya? What’s your name? What do you want from me?”

Y/N laughed. “How do you know she’s not here for me?” she asked, perking up so the world couldn’t see just how lost in lust she truly was.

Jensen shook his head and puffed out his chest. The thin black tee struggled beneath his jacket and her eyes shot right to his pert nipples, standing up and begging to be licked.

“No way,” he countered, nodding at the fan. “She’s all mine.”

The young woman nearly fainted and Y/N hid her face in her hands, pretending to be embarrassed for everyone in the room.

“Come on now… I’m waiting.”

Jensen cocked a brow and a hush fell over the crowd as many an erotically minded fan began tweeting the dominant exposition.

Y/N was right there with them, melting into herself as arousal spread. She felt her pulse quicken, her nipples harden. Her clit throbbed as Jensen cleared his throat and it took everything inside of her not to moan right there on stage.

Absently, she rubbed the microphone, her thumb and index finger circled tight around the black plastic.

Jensen leaned in, listening with a stern expression as the flustered fan asked her question.

Y/N heard none of it, staring at the thick rope of muscle on the side of his freckled throat and remembering what it felt like to feel his heartbeat throb against her lips. She shivered and bit down hard on her bottom lip, hopelessly distracted.

“Interesting…” Jensen straightened up and ran a hand through his hair, thinking up a safe answer. “Well…”

Y/N could feel the wetness pooling in her panties and she locked her knees together, sure that everyone could see the dampness seeping through her jeans.

Green eyes flickered over her face and plump lips lifted in a half grin.

He was the devil.

He knew exactly what was on her mind.

The lights warmed her cheeks but Jensen was warming everything else. With his eyes slyly on her, he fisted the hem of his tee and lifted it high, flashing his stomach to a needy world and a desperate Y/N. It was a tiny bit of skin, just a quick flap of dark fabric against smooth, creamy skin, but it was the last straw.

The microphone fell from her hand with a deafening thud.

Mindlessly aroused, Y/N slid off of her stool and moved towards him. Like a zombie, she dropped to her knees at his feet and looked up with wide, hazy eyes.

Stunned, Jensen’s jaw dropped an inch and his brow lifted again as he tugged his bottom lip between his teeth.

“What are you doing?” he whispered, cheeks reddening as her hands lifted to frame his hips.

“I think you know,” she answered softly, running her fingers along the edge of his jeans, caressing the soft patch of skin.

His breath quickened and she could see the outline of his cock as it lengthened in his shorts. She smirked and chewed her lip, moving her fingers down to the buckle of his belt.

With a gasp, he grabbed her wrists. His eyes flickered from hers to the crowd, unsure of what to do.

“We… Y/N… what the hell?”

She chanced a peek at the audience and then shrugged. Not a soul was moving, every fan shocked into silence and staring.

Y/N licked her lips slowly and tugged leather from metal. “Just relax,” she whispered.

His grip loosened. “But…”

The zipper fell slowly, the cool metal tight between her fingers. Y/N held his gaze, teasing with her ruby painted lips and pink tongue. “Let them watch…”

She tugged the denim from his hips, shoved his shorts down to his knees, and kissed her way up his inner thigh. Jensen hissed as her lips grazed the tip of his cock and the audience buzzed in a low voice, stunned.

Y/N dug her nails into his thighs and used her tongue to massage his cock, humming as it grew against her mouth. The taste of him drove her insane and she wiggled on her knees, stuck her ass out, moaned desperate and loud.

Jensen dropped his microphone and the thud echoed through the sound system. Y/N couldn’t hear a thing but his groans, her mind too clouded with lust and purpose.

“Fuck, baby…” He rocked against her face, nudging his cock against her lips. “Please…”

She obliged, fitting the soft circle of her mouth around him and sucking him deep inside. He stumbled on his feet, unsteady as he hit the back of her throat.

“Jesus!”

His hand found the back of her head and he pushed down, forcing her to take him deeper. Drool spilled from the corners of her mouth, dripping down her chin and onto the stage floor.

Giving in, Jensen thrust his hips, fucking her face with abandon. She swallowed what she could, caressed his shaft with her tongue, dug her fingers into his skin. Her eyes rolled back, lids fluttering as he used her mouth like a fuck toy. His thick fingers tugged through her hair, moving her, sliding her back and forth over himself. He moaned loudly, his edging growl filling the auditorium.

“This what you wanted?” Jensen grunted. “Wanted me to use you while everyone watched?”

Y/N whimpered in reply as tears sprang to her pretty eyes.

Camera flashes lit her face and Jensen stared down at her, locking his gaze into hers.

“That’s it,” he sneered, “let me see it in your eyes…”

She struggled to keep her eyes wide even as her vision blurred with tears.

“Good girl.”

He exhaled heavily and quickened his pace. His upper lip twitched with effort and his shoulders curled inwards.

The rumble of the crowd grew louder as he pulled his cock from her mouth and wrapped his fist around it, jerking quickly.

“Open up.”

He grit his command and Y/N’s jaw dropped. Her tongue fell out and she tipped her head back, waiting for her reward.

Jensen growled deeply as he came, spurting his seed onto her tongue and across her flushed cheeks. He sprayed her face and she trembled with happiness, her cunt pulsing and dripping.

The fans erupted into thunderous applause and Y/N startled, gasping as the daydream faded away. She shook herself and shifted on her chair, still seated and clean.

Jensen waved a hand in front of her face, looking quite concerned. “You OK over there?”

Y/N swallowed hard and nodded. Her voice was high and tight with lust when she answered.

“Yeah… just a little… distracted…”

2025 Tag List:

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[correlance]

Say what you will about the Charlie/Alastor (Charlastor) ship, but my God, the fanfiction "Similing Man" by MuseValentine, which was completed on 3 January 2022, so thoroughly called the following:

Alastor feeling insecure and threatened by Lucifer's power.

Alastor and Lucifer having a Texas stand-off over Charlie.

Alastor being a cocky little shit about it towards Lucifer.

The "oh shit" moment of panic where Alastor realizes that Charlie is the daughter of Lucifer Morningstar, and then Lucifer going "have a seat" in order to intimidate Alastor, is also so hilariously well-written.

Art by SpicyUnicornPowder on Twitter.

Excerpt from Chapters 24-25:

The party was really turning up and he was trying his best to be mindful of the drinks so that not even a drop spilled. Thankfully, Charlie wasn’t too far away, and it looked like her mother had found her once again. Keeping a careful eye on the refreshments in hand, Alastor beelined his way back to her, where she smiled at him once more when he returned to her side.

“Oh, you’re back!” he heard her say, and finally safe and still, he looked up to once more greet Charlie’s lovely mother and engage in a polite conversation with the two ladies.

And that’s when Alastor realised then that there was somebody else with them.

And he froze.

“Alastor, I’d like to introduce you to my father….”

This was impossible.

A cruel twist of fate.

There was no way this could be so.

Alastor wasn’t sure what was going on now, but what he did know was that in the short amount of time since he looked at him, his heart started racing and his tongue went dry, as did a familiar but unsavouring tinge of anxiety hit his guts, causing his nerves to start going off the edge, making him feel like the smile he had on was starting to crack.

Oh, how he must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

No. He probably looked more like the night they’d first met when all bloodied and crazed from the high of two kills on that corner in Lafayette.

“…Lucifer Magne.”

Standing before him, short and blonde and dressed from head-to-toe in white in a showman-like fashion, was the Big Apple.

“Have we met before?”

Unfortunately for Alastor, it had to be thrown right at his face.

“No, I don’t believe we have.”

But life was funny like that, wasn’t it?

“Strange,” the man – Lucifer – remarked with a tilt of his head, eyes studying him curiously. “You’re an awful lot familiar. Swear I would have remembered you anywhere.”

The mocking glint in the man’s eyes, watching the way he was bluffing, it all made Alastor’s nerves go on a frenzy while he remained still and stone-faced. The man was bluffing – Alastor was made and he knew it. He knew the stakes that were at hand here for him, considering the circumstances.

“You might have heard of him, Daddy,” Charlie quipped with a smile. “Alastor’s a radio host. A very good one too!”

But under all sorts of circumstances, did it have to be the one where he turned out to be the father of his goddamn neighbour?!

“Oh! I thought you sounded familiar!” Lilith suddenly exclaimed with a clap of her hands. “You’re the one who interviewed our darling for her hotel! Thank you for helping her out with that, by the way!”

While Lilith was somewhat gushing, her husband only quirked an eyebrow in curiosity, although the look in his eyes gave away the indication that it was something he already knew.

“A radio host? My, how interesting,” he said in a tone that seemed marvelled although it was clearly not, turning more questioning as he inquired, “Is there anything else that you do, Mr. Carlon?”

Hearing the question that, without a doubt, held a double meaning behind it, Alastor finally broke out of his stupor and cleared his throat, not realising until then how dry his mouth was.

“Nope, nothing else at all,” he answered the lie as calmly as he could, ignoring the scratchy feeling of the dryness of his mouth. “I’m quite a boring egg outside of work, I’ll say.”

The Big Apple only hummed, which might seem out of being unimpressed if not for the fact that Alastor knew better to realise that’s the bunk and he was truly unconvinced. And why wouldn’t he be? The man had seen for himself what he did outside of work. There was no point lying to him, and it was disconcerting to be standing in front of him feeling so bare despite being decked out in his best suit.

Looking away from the eyes of the Big Apple, he turned to Charlie and handed her drink, taking a sip of his gin-and-tonic to quench the cottony feeling of his tongue, although the burn from the alcohol made him wince slightly.

Over her drink, Charlie eyed him in concern. “Alastor? Are you alright?”

Hearing her concern made his grin widened instantly as if it was reflex. “Oh, yes!” he lied through his teeth, “Just that this here’s some real strong hooch.”

A laugh was forced out of him to cover up that close slip-up of his demeanour, but one quick look at her and suddenly he found it difficult to look at Charlie in the eyes, throwing him off immensely. How the tables have turned considering usually he was the one making her look away. Unnerved once more, Alastor moved his gaze away from her, and this definitely did not escape her notice.

But then Lilith leaned in to look at him with worry. “Oh, goodness. Are you feeling alright? You seem a little flushed.”

Alastor was about to give a quick response of assurance if it wasn’t for the look on Lucifer’s face that cut him short. The blond man was eyeing him carefully, watching his expressions and his movements, the corner of lips tilted up in a smirk as if he was waiting for a slip-up from him.

“Why yes, you do seem quite flushed, my friend. I wouldn’t think a simple gin-and-tonic would have such a bite on you.”

If Alastor hadn’t known any better, he would have thought that he was just poking fun at what seemed like his incapability to hold down his liquor. But he did know better, enough to quickly catch on to the last bit of the sentence that sent his nerves on end for the umpteenth time.  

Against the sinking feeling of his gut, he forced himself to stretch his grin further as he waved a hand in dimissory. “No, I’m fine,” he exclaimed a tad bit louder than he would like. “And this sure is a hooker! Been a while since I’ve had a good drink!”

The liquor did taste good, probably the most top-notch quality that bootlegged could offer. But the taste was soured by this moment, how it was all a farce on Alastor’s part, as much as it may have been for Lucifer, the both of them eyeing each other intently.

And this definitely was noticed by Charlie, who watched them quietly, sensing the building of tension in the air that came from the both of them.

But that tension was broken immediately by Lilith, who seemed to not have noticed the exchange as she was busy looking elsewhere. “Darling, I see that Stolas has just arrived. Goodness, he seemed to have brought that little toy of his instead of his wife! How scandalous.”

For that moment, Lucifer moved his attention away from Alastor, smiling kindly to his frau. “Now, my love, we shouldn’t stick our noses into his business. Let him have his fun. Shall we say our ‘hello’?”

Seeing that this was the end of their little meeting, he moved to his daughter, giving her a kiss on the cheek as he patted her head affectionately, and Charlie preened at this loving fatherly affection. A sight that would have made Alastor glad to see her so happy if it wasn’t for the fact that it was almost unbearable to look at the both of them together now.

And then a hand came to his shoulder in a friendly pat, immediately irking him from being touched but unable to do anything about it. From the corner of his eye, the Big Apple was looking at him with his lips pulled back into that familiar chilling grin, hidden from his wife’s and daughter’s view and given specially to him.

“Relax, my friend,” Lucifer said cheerily, an undertone clearly noted, “Enjoy the party, yes?”

Alastor could only watch as he linked his arm to Lilith’s and walked away. Despite the noise and activity that was going on around him, he felt like he had hit a standstill in time, his mind racing down a trail of spiralling thoughts, unsure of what to think or feel at this moment, amazed yet disturbed that he didn’t know.

”Alastor?”

Charlie’s voice calling his name in concern broke him out of the almost train wreck of his mind as he turned to look at her with unreadable eyes that did not give way to the turmoil inside him.

“I hope you don’t mind Daddy…” she said reassuringly, looking quite fretful.  “He’s a little intimidating, is all.”

A ‘little’ was clearly such an extreme understatement.

[...]

“Have a seat, Mr. Carlon,” Lucifer gestured to the seat opposite his and his desk, and Alastor accepted the invitation willingly.

An intricate silver cigarette casing was taken out from his jacket’s inner pocket, popped open and held out to Alastor, who took one with a nod of thanks. A stick to his own lips and Lucifer took a lighter to graciously alight both their cigarettes.

Alastor took a second to himself to enjoy a much-needed puff as Lucifer circled around the desk back to his armchair. “Are you feeling better?” he asked politely, making himself comfy in his seat.

Exhaling another puff that seemed like a relief to his lungs, Alastor replied, “What gave you the implication that I wasn’t?”

“The look on your mug when you saw mine.”

And just like that, it seemed the smoke did no use to ease him any longer, watching as Lucifer’s face split into a wide grin, laughing softly with a shake of his head. And yet, this was not all that shocking to him, taking a silent breath to himself as he willed his tense body to move, leaning forward to flick the ashes of his cigarette on a nearby ashtray.

“So, we’re dropping the pretence now, I assume?” Alastor questioned blankly, putting the cigarette back to his lips.

 “You’re not really someone easy to forget, Mr. Carlon,” Lucifer noted casually with the flicker of his own cigarette ash onto the ashtray. “Or should I just call you ‘Alastor’, now that we’re very familiar with each other?”

“Call me anything you want. Either one’s my name anyway.”

Lucifer only hummed in agreement, and quickly after, a silence ensued. Both men did not talk, just sitting across each other, focus on only their own gaspers within the silence of the study. But while Lucifer was reclining on his chair looking elsewhere, Alastor’s eyes were fixed on him – watching, waiting, anticipating, even though he had no clue what to expect at all.

And that bothered him to no end.

“Come now, no need to be so tense,” Lucifer suddenly broke the silence in a reassured tone. “Did you enjoy the cake, Alastor?”

A strange turn of a conversation, but one Alastor kept up with as she politely shook his head. “Didn’t take a slice, sorry. I’m not a fan of sweets.”

Lucifer looked almost disappointed to hear that. “Oh? What a shame. It’s a lovely cake. Pineapple upside-down. Very fashionable. My wife picked it out.”

Taking a drag before exhaling smoke in a puff, he continued almost mellow-like. “Ah, my Lilith. Such a catch, isn’t she? How I do love her so dearly.”

Alastor only nodded along, keeping a polite smile on his face. Any egg would know better than to show much enthusiasm when a man was talking about his wife, so he kept the niceties to a minimum in this strange atmosphere, still simply watching and waiting.

“Do you know who else I love dearly, Alastor?”

And just like that, Alastor immediately felt his smile dropping just the slightest.

“My daughter.”

Lucifer took a last drag, smoothly blowing smoke out in a smooth stream before butting it out on the ashtray, and that’s when his eyes turned to look at him, narrowed into dangerous slits that seemed reminiscent of a snake ready to pounce.

“Which is why I want to know how exactly did she manage to wind up with you.”

If looks could kill, then Lucifer was intent to do so, withdrawing from under his desk a revolver.

The silence in the room could have been quiet enough to hear the way Alastor’s heart dropped right to the floor as he stared at the bean-shooter aimed right at his head.

Even after he felt the last bits of his cigarette turning to ash and falling to the floor, he was too frozen to even move to discard it on the ashtray. In his standstill, his eyes remained on Lucifer, whose glare only seemed more menacing against his grin.

“Well?”

“We’re neighbours.”

It was the truth, so what else could he have said other than that? But judging from the way his eyes widened in slight surprise, the answer clearly wasn’t what Lucifer was expecting. Then again, maybe it’s how he answered so blankly that threw him off. Alastor couldn’t be too sure at which.

“Apologies if it isn’t as exciting as you might think I had more dire intentions,” he apologised for no reason in particular, “but it is as simple as that.”

The revolver unwavering, Lucifer rested his head on his free hand, looking thoughtful. “That’s not really much of an answer.”

“She’s the one who invited me.”

“And there she was, looking so shy and bashful when she wanted me to meet you,” Lucifer said with a hard edge to his voice, as if the words that left his mouth left a disgusting taste on his tongue at the thought of it. “So, is this some sort of sick plan of yours, then?”

Without a doubt, Alastor was taken aback by the blatant accusation that was directed at him.

“To be completely fair, I had no idea that she was your daughter,” he explained. “I think you yourself could understand that from our very inopportune meeting earlier on.”

Lucifer laughed as if the memory of that meeting was humorous to him, and Alastor couldn’t help but feel the slightest bit peeved that he seemed to be laughing at him. He didn’t appreciate really being taken for a joke, even with a revolver pointed at right between his eyes.

“Well, now you do, so what then?”

“What makes you think I’d want to do anything to Charlie?” he countered back, almost challengingly as though to make a point for himself.

Lucifer may have definitely seen the agitation on his face, looking more bemused as he leaned forward, the revolver inching closer to Alastor’s head, but the radio host he remained calm, not even flinching in the slightest as he continued to observe.

“No need to play coy with me, friend. I’ve seen the stunt you’re able to pull. The way your eyes dilate with the thrill of the kill. Almost seems like you think of it as some fun game!”

Alastor couldn’t help but huff in amusement, his face not denying the truth in the man’s presumptions, which only prompted him to continue with, “So, is that what you’re intending to play with Charlie?”

The room fell into a hushed silence again, as Lucifer waited for his answer and Alastor staring blankly at him.

One would not have felt the spark of irritation that was growing within the man in the red suit. The way Lucifer prompted curiously, pressing him to spill, it admittedly agitated Alastor. He didn’t like having to be given the third this way, especially with the revolver pointed right at his face, as though mocking him into submission.

An inkling in him saw this as a sort of cowardice, that he’d have to whip out a heat just to have some show of power to intimidate him in the slightest. How absolutely obnoxious, he’ll say!

And so, vain and cocky in true fashion, Alastor couldn’t help but bite back even in the slightest, confident and without resistance, doing so with a sharp grin.

“If I wanted her dead, she would’ve been long gone before you even met me.”

Now, that definitely seemed like the wrong thing to say.

Alastor watched as the look on Lucifer’s face shifted, turning darker as his eyes narrowed, his grin starting to become a tad bit more tighter, clearly having a chord struck in him, the murderous intent burning more as the seconds passed by quickly.

Well, quite understandable really, considering he just up and dared indirectly said he wanted to have the curse on Charlie.

Yet, the words that followed the expression had no match at all.

 “You know, Alastor, you remind me of a deer.”

His darkening aura started to lighten up as he regained his composure, and the sudden change in the conversation only confused Alastor once more. He was probably getting whiplash from the constant turn of events that he had endured for the just the past hour or so, too stupefied to say anything now. No response came, only silence in waiting for the continuation.

“You don’t seem like so, but such a bravado that exists within you. So poised and elegant, like a buck with impressive antlers – an assertion of power and dominance. How you bring yourself so confidently that it seemed like you rule above all, that nothing could bring you down.”

A loud click suddenly resonated in the room, coming from the hammer of the revolver that’s been pushed down and ready for ignition.

And just like that, Alastor was startled, eyes widening as it darted to the tip of the barrel that was still aimed steadfastly in the middle of his forehead, focus only on that instead of the crazed grin on the Big Apple. It probably wasn’t loud, but he could hear the hammering of his heart resonate loudly in his hearing, almost blocking out the next seething words that followed.

“But put a gun right on them and it’s just an act, revealing nothing more than prey.”

[storkmuffin]

Hello! I’m the anon that sent you some questions to pick at your brain a couple weeks ago and wanted to swing by since I’ve seen soo much more discussion and questions since then. Love to see it honestly and see that you’ve deep dived even more to Ateez 🤑

I know that my curiosity and questions stemmed when you went off about how Seonghwa was openly expressing himself and KQ being cool with it, but I want to know a bit more about how Seonghwa comes off to you and presents himself to the public. Basically what are your general thoughts about him? I was intrigued after I read your answer to the question that is in the same vein but for Yunho.

Since I've been maniacally spouting off about Ateez I keep wanting to add disclaimers to my opinions because I'm extremely wary of presenting myself as the Korean expert on Korean fandom or Korean public tastes or in any way representative. I'm not qualified to do this, and particularly not about anything to do with kpop. So I guess I'll do that here. And now, for the fun of writing, I am going to just not disclaim or water down anything I say with, I think or To me or Personally because I just want to basically flip out about Park Seonghwa the Idol.

So! My valued Seonghwa anon, strap in, because WHEEEE!!!

General thesis: Seonghwa is the Ateez member whose Idol Persona is the most deliberately crafted, with the most sophisticated understanding of exactly what male Idols are supposed to provide the female Fandom. He's not just the best at Being An Idol in Ateez - he's better than all of the Stray Kids members too (my only other reference, sorry). He keeps evolving the Park Seonghwa Idol Persona by continually adding and amending elements, many of them contradictory, and then playing them against each other to induce curiosity and obsession.

Seonghwa is handsome (strong nose, strong jaw line, big eyes), but he's also pretty (often long hair, pointy chin, full lips, expressive eyebrows). Seonghwa is physically manly (tall, long limbed, broad shouldered, muscular, big feet) but has intentionally added femininity to his frame (itty bitty waist, fluid hip movement, balletic port de bras). The theatricality of Ateez's style to date makes it more clear than most groups that there's a being that's The Idol / Performer/ Performance and The Person Who Has A Performing Arts Job, and what Seonghwa does so well is to make you wonder which one you're seeing, and to often make you believe you're seeing The Person even during what is clearly the Performance by The Idol.

What's real? What isn't? What's performance and what's genuine? Much of the draw of Idols is that the line between those disparate things is deliberately kept blurry and porous. (In ballet, for example, it's not porous. There's the ballet dancer being a Fairy Prince on stage and then off stage he's himself and you're not supposed to wonder if he has Fairy Prince feelings, you know?)

During the very first Wanteez episode, airtime August of 2022, Seonghwa was 24, and already 4 years into his Idol career. The set up for this 'reality' show was that Ateez went back to high school, which was 5 years in his past. This piece of entertainment is in the fine tradition of casting actors who are 26 to play 16 year olds that exists in all of media all over the planet. The self he's presenting here is that of a very masculine, manly guy. He uses the full of his lower register speaking voice. He shoves the other actors aside, shouts at them, and mocks Yeosang because he doesn't know how to do the 반장 (Class President) role of making the call and response to get students to bow to the teacher. He's advertising the fact that in his now-lost and utterly unknowable pre-Idol 'real life' he was, in fact, the Class President of an All Boys' high school. He was a dominant boy, who was popular, and a leader. He was also a good boy, trusted by adults, and not a class clown or a truant or bad at school. He's not insisting on it or anything, because that's not fun, but he's letting you know that maybe, just maybe, he would be wonderful boyfriend material for a good Confucian values girl like most middle class Korean girls are still raised to be. He's hinting that the "eldest in the group but bottom of the food chain" persona in the Ateez group dynamic may just be for the job, and he's an alpha, actually.

I don't know if it comes through if you don't speak Korean, but when he's shouting 가자! 가자고!! (Let's go! Move now!) at Wooyoung in Wanteez #1 during their race, he doesn't even seem like the same person as the one on whose lap Wooyoung tries to do a headstand to be obnoxious in a different content. In that other moment, Seonghwa gently clasped the upside-down Wooyoung in the middle, even though he was clearly in pain, and murmurs, "You'll get hurt. No, really, be careful. You'll hurt yourself."

Which one is he really? Both personas are being created and performed by Seonghwa the real person, in coordination with script writers, editors, and the other performers, so he's both and he's neither. But they're both so appealing to women - the reliable older brother/ leader boy who can bring order to the class chaos maker, and the kind, gentle, sweet dance crew 'elder' who wants a junior dancer to not get injured while gamboling. We want all of it to be real. [Heart eyes go here]

The alleged "real person" Seonghwa breaking through the mask (even if we really love it) of the "Idol genre performer" Seonghwa exists in behind the scenes moments like this one:

He's saying something to camera, speaking in his very polite, Idol Off Stage Talking To Atiny voice and diction and facial expressions. His voice is soft. He's deliberately pitching it higher. He's using grammar that I would describe as Respectfully Friendly. HongJoong, off camera, is doing some Who Is Real? tug of war of his own. HongJoong is supposed to be the clever, goal oriented leader with a lot on his shoulders. What he's doing is being extremely childish, using HIS higher register, to taunt, "Seonghwa is a moron! He's stupid!" in a tone that's somewhere between an annoying younger brother and a boy with a crush.

Seonghwa reacts by 'laughing' at first, and stoically continues to be 'professional' in doing his job of providing information appropriate to a behind the scenes clip. Then, at some point, he 'can't take it anymore,' so he turns his entire face away from the camera to holler, 그만해! ('That's enough!') in a big, roaring voice, stepping entirely out of Respectfully Friendly diction into I'm A Man About To Kick Your Ass diction. He turns back immediately after that, suddenly putting the polite Idol smile back on, and says, back in the higher pitch, friendly diction, "Yes. And now I am going to go get him. Byee~"

I say once again: The whole thing was almost certainly scripted. They may or may not have done more than one take. It's so expert in making the straight female Korean Fan feel that jolt of feeling like she saw The Real Man behind the Idol Mask, but at the same time, not mar her pride (and this is a real thing that the Korean Fans actually profess pride about) that her fave is so good at being an Idol - always polite, always smiling at the fans, in control of his temper, committed to providing good content.

I've never been to an Ateez concert, and I also don't know if this was a concert or a fan meeting or whatever (The different categories of show you can go to for kpop are still kind of confusing to me), but! There was a very young woman who decorated her Ateez wand with the Seonghwa animal character, and managed to catch his eye when he was walking among the aisle of the concert audience. He accepted it when she handed it to him, smiled at it, and then kissed it before giving it back to her to move on.

She was ecstatic, obviously, and I was shocked. This seems like extraordinary levels of fanservice to engage in, while performing live, and while alone among seated fans, far away from the stage, other members, and I assume, his security detail.

It says something about Korean audience behavior and codes of decency, as well as whatever it is that's the trust that's built up over time between Ateez and the Atinys. But I also wonder if say, Hongjoong or Jongho would be able to think of doing this, on the fly, while singing and having to hit marks. Like, he had to move on from this area and get back on stage and sing and dance the next song, right?

And of course, this is the same person who was doing this in concert:

I still find the above type of performance in a kpop concert to be a shock. It's so outside what I understood, in my distant, casual way, to be the norm for what kind of show Kpop Idols are trying to put on. Just amazing.

And then there's the (to my eye, very blatant) queer signalling that he does, which I've already written about. The dress wearing, the choice of songs to cover, and so on. But while he's doing that, he's also very good at gamely doing all the parasocial for-the-straight-girls play acting of being the fantasy boyfriend. He has multiple personas for that too! The intimidating Gyeongsangdo manly man, who will scowl at you when you say you wanna break up, to demand, "Try saying that again," (to which San screamed Please spare my life in response, making Seonghwa 'the real person' break up into laughter) code switches with the nice, decent, conservatively raised country boy who will give a long sincere speech about how well he'll treat his girl to the presumably disapproving parents of that girl. He has facial expressions, body language, and vocal tone and dialect word choices to optimize his performance of all these personas. He's so good at it and it's a delight.

So, as someone who loves theater, performance, dance, opera, ballet and now, 마라맛 Kpop, I think Seonghwa is really a virtuouso at being an Idol. And this is very self-directed and possibly self-taught. There's a performance intelligence he's using at all times any time he's on camera, and it evinces great creativity and cleverness. I especially like that he chose to base a lot of his persona on kindness as the dominant trait, as well.

The thing is!! Compared to HongJoong and Yunho, who have prototypical Boy Idol faces, Seonghwa actually looks like a character actor. He can look genuinely a bit scary. There isn't anything cutsey about him, on sight. San, whose persona is to be Guileless, once said about himself, Seonghwa and Mingi that they have "forceful" (쏀) faces, to which the other two immediately said, No, I'm cute. So that makes me wonder what he's going to do in the time he has left before mandatory military service, and how he plans to go on after he re-emerges as a 30 year old man. All Kpop Boy Idols have an End of Youth time, that is marked by this mandatory military service.

He's definitely one to watch with interest, and so far, I feel like I can be relaxed rather than anxiously concerned, because as I've said, he just seems so good at figuring out how to do what he's supposed to do.

Oh and I found the below 'character analysis' by another Korean Atiny who also clocked Seonghwa as queer in 2021, but using a very different tone and approach to myself, so I thought I'd share!

Translation:

First Impression: By day, an ordinary Kpop Idol, but by night I am emperor of the gay club!?

Character analysis: Was shocked because the face doesn't go with the way he speaks. Gay club doesn't apply - he's the emperor of the stuttering dummy club. He's really awkward, but he manages to not be the town fool purely on the merits of his bass voice. Rather than stand out in group situations, does his job quietly and unobtrusively. Appears as though other members give him due respect even if he doesn't loudly demand it.

I have no idea what they meant when they said "gay club" (again, in 2021 and this would be year 4 post-debut and year 2 of the pandemic) and if in her mind gay men are all socially super adept or speak really fast or something, but from the context it seems like the Emperor of the Gay Club is supposed to be a smooth operator, and Seonghwa didn't seem that way to her. And assuming this OP's reaction was more or less mainstream about Seonghwa's initial Idol Persona, the changes he's made to that Idol persona since 2021 just go to support my Park Seonghwa Is A Virtuouso of Being An Idol thesis.

[all-pacas]

just finished “maternity” (s1e4) (YES you have successfully peer pressured me into a second rewatch, got through S5 my first go (2010) and S4 my second (2022), one of these days I’ll make it through S6)

I’ve always really liked House’s theory about Cameron’s loss at the end of the episode, and I was disappointed the first time I watched when it wound up being a dead husband and not a dead child, just because I find that an interesting character element that doesn’t come up too often. How do you think it would have changed her character if it had been her child? What thoughts do you have about the writers’ choice to make her a widow rather than a bereaved mother? (not that it was necessarily a choice between the two, but they did make it seem like a possibility for a reason)

LISTEN i get it the show loses 80% of its Shine after s6 and without cameron. totally understand. i am warming more and more to s8 as time goes by tho. but completely understand, no cameron, no show…

As for Cameron, I've thought about this. I have two theories, one a bit more cynical than the other.

The theory — and it's a bit cynical — is that Cameron is, well, she's sort of innocent, right? She's sort of presented as this young romantic ingenue, a bit of an innocent. I do think woman who has gotten divorced and lost a baby has a slightly different feel to it, you know what I mean? Especially because Cameron's perceived 'innocence,' both in terms of her gullibility and something a bit more nebulous/network TV/love interest-y, is a fairly important character trait: she isn't ever presented as cynical, she always holds onto that hope. Her naively marrying a man knowing he was dying still has that naive edge to it, you know what I'm saying? Having gotten married, having a child, and losing that child… I think that version of Cameron would be a lot harder to justify with the character they very clearly want her to be.

(You could also absolutely say something here about perceived purity and network TV and Cameron's often-assigned role as Love Interest, particularly in S1. Cynical!)

As for how it would affect Cameron… god, it would affect a lot, wouldn't it? She'd have an ex husband/boyfriend running around, most likely, and while I fully believe Cameron would have cut ties with him after losing the child, it would absolutely inevitably come up. Her commitment issues would only be worse, I think: she hasn't just lost a child but a family, and again, there's something to be said about the degrees in which the trauma would read differently: Cameron is often mocked or accused of not really loving her first husband, by fans and on the show. You don't really make those comments about a dead child. In fact, the show often plays with the idea of how much or how "real" her first marriage was, right? She is as hung up on him as is needed for the plot, while also conveniently available and interested in whichever love interest she has this year. While obviously a dead child wouldn't make her unavailable to love, it's hard to imagine her grief ebbing and flowing like that. (It also raises questions: Cameron's marriage was always short term; her probable husband and child is a very long-term commitment. This would definitely imply she wants that sort of thing, in the abstract at least — the show is surprisingly ambivalent on if she's that interested in marriage/kids, actually. I think it would be a huge turnoff for House, pursuing someone who might want children someday.)

These are all pretty meta answers, but! It's also one of those things I really believe would change so much about Cameron, that it really becomes very hard to talk about. But damn, what an AU that would be.

[elizabethwritesmen]

The Devil Wears Lace

chapter 2 : October 12, 2022

pairing: simon “ghost” riley x reader

summary: after a few months, the masked man still isn’t out of your head. you’ve tried to shake him but can’t, and keep wondering whether or not you’ll ever see him again. that question is answered when he walks into your bar.

warnings: 18+ for eventual smut. no use of y/n at all. reader is the baddest of the bad bitches. she flirts with a guy that isn’t ghost. i think that’s all but let me know if i missed anything!

series masterlist

October 12, 2022

Months passed and life went back to normal. The fracture in my leg healed, and so did my trauma, for the most part. The only thing I couldn’t manage to forget was the masked man. He stuck in my mind like glue, thick and persistent, begging for headspace. He was plaguing me.

I’d asked about him, but nobody would tell me anything. I don’t think they could. He had a pretty thick accent, sounded English, so I assumed he wasn’t from the states. I’d heard talk from the soldiers around the bar about a task force coming from the British army to the base right outside of town to help with the rampant gang violence going on in my area. The same gang that had kidnapped me. Maybe he had been part of that? Oh well, I’d surely never see him again and I didn’t even know what he looked like in the first place. Just that he was large and in charge and I could not let him go.

“Thinking about mystery dude again?” my coworker, Sabrina, asked me, her tone exasperated but her smirk playful. I snapped out of my trance and went back to wiping the bar down.

“No,” I huffed with an eye roll.

“I call bullshit. You had that dreamy look in your eye.”

“Sab,” I warned with a dirty look, but she only laughed, slapping me lightly with her wet rag.

“Oh, please, Mr. Mask Man, save me! I’m desperate!” she exaggeratedly moaned, mocking me, and my eyes widened as I slapped her back.

“Sab, stop! There are customers here!” I hissed.

“So what? They’re adults, they know what sex is.”

“You’re impossible.”

“You love it,” she winked.

I rolled my eyes yet again, picking up a glass to wipe it down. The chime of the door alerted me, but I didn’t look up, too busy cleaning off all the little spots I saw.

“I think it’s clean, love.”

The voice startled me, brought me out of my skin almost, and I jumped, the glass falling from my grip and shattering on the floor, a piece of it cutting my leg.

“Shit!” I gasped before I could stop myself. I grabbed the small broom and dustpan and quickly swept up the mess, throwing it away, before paying him mind. “You.”

“Usually, people I save don’t curse and throw things when they see me,” he deadpanned, taking a seat in front of me with only 12 inches of oak between us. His entourage accompanied in the seats beside him and ordered their drinks with Sabrina while his attention stayed locked on me.

“I didn’t throw it, I dropped it. It was slippery. And I cursed because I cut my leg.”

“You put that poor leg through hell,” he commented, and I fought off my third eyeroll of the night.

Sabrina interrupted by tapping me on the shoulder, “Is this Mr. Mask Man?” Her smirk was wide and my glare was deadly.

“This is the man who saved me a few months ago.”

“Well thank you so much for that. I don’t know what I’d do without my favorite bartender,” she drawled, and he simply grunted in response, turning back to me. She raised an eyebrow but took her leave, getting the hint.

“I gotta get a bandaid, I’ll be right back,” I sighed, glancing at my leg that was now gushing a bit of blood. At least it wasn’t the same one, and at least it didn’t hurt nearly as badly. He nodded and watched me walk into the back room, then watched some more as I emerged with a pack of Paw Patrol bandages and secured one onto the bloody spot.

“Paw Patrol?” his voice turned up in question at the end.

I shrugged, “I like them.”

He let out a small breath of laughter, going quiet.

“I asked about you,” I hummed, “Nobody would tell me anything. You must be pretty covert, huh?”

“You could say that.”

“So I guess there’s no chance of me learning your name?”

“Ghost.”

“Ghost?”

“Ghost,” he repeated, his tone more clipped than the first time. I stared for a moment, still wondering if he was serious.

“Is that, like, a call name?”

“It’s what everyone calls me,” he explained, and I left it at that. He probably couldn’t share his real name. Still though, I wanted so badly to know what it was.

“Why are you back, Ghost? I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

“There’s a lot going on here that needs special attention,” he offered, and the explanation was short but I accepted it anyway.

“Like what?”

“You’re a curious thing, you know?”

I smiled, “I know.”

“You know what that did to the cat?”

“You saying you’re gonna kill me, Ghosty?”

“Don’t call me that.” His voice was stern, but I couldn’t help the giggle that bubbled out.

We were interrupted by a hand tapping the bar beside him, the familiar form of one of my regular customers leaning into view right next to him. The marine looked small compared to the mammoth, and it sent me reeling for a moment because there was a time I thought the marine was a large guy.

“Hey soldier,” I smiled, extra saccharine the way that particular guy liked. The way that made him tip a little more. “What can I get for you?”

“You already know what I want, angel,” he sounded desperate, and it sent a thrill through me. I loved rendering men that way. Always made me feel so powerful, especially when they were supposed to be tough guys.

“Well I can’t pour you a tall glass of me, so pick a liquor,” I rolled my eyes playfully, lips puckering slightly in a pout.

“No liquor, just a beer. Whatever you wanna give me.” I grabbed a heineken and slid it over to him. “You know, baby doll, I would’ve made a pass at you already if I didn’t think you’d kick my ass to hell and back.”

“Awww,” I mocked, “You’ve been through all that military training and you’re scared of little old me?”

“Any man in his right mind would be,” his voice was cold but his eyes weren’t as they slid over me, greedy. “You’re the devil.”

“Go sit down. You’re embarrassing yourself.” He seemed almost thrilled at my meanness towards him.

“And if I don’t?”

“You will.”

“I love when you order me around.”

“I love when you obey,” the words slipped off my lips easily and he took that as his cue to get out of my hair. Ghost had watched the exchange silently, then turned back to me as the marine found his booth in the back.

“Boyfriend of yours?” he grumbled, and I laughed, light and lilting.

“In his dreams.”

“More like in his nightmares. The kid seemed terrified of you.”

“They all are. Nobody knows how to take me.”

“With a grain of salt, I’d say.”

“Bold words, masked man. How about you don’t comment on how I get my tips and I won’t comment on your shady persona?”

“Fine with me. Give me a whiskey, neat.”

I did as told, his voice thrilling me more than ordering any dumb boy around ever could.

I got off an hour later, and Sabrina agreed to take over for me. As I was getting my things together and preparing to leave, one of the men Ghost was with asked me to hang around for a while.

“This is the most the lieutenant has talked since we’ve been here, you gotta stick around,” he’d insisted. And who could say no after learning something like that?

As I walked around the bar to have a seat with them at the small table they’d taken over, Ghost himself grabbed my arm, stopping me in my tracks and growling in my ear, “Don’t ruin any of my men.”

I pulled slightly away from him, that same breathy laugh from earlier breaking through. “Or what?” He stayed quiet, and my smirk grew, “Don’t worry, Ghosty. The only one here who’s captivated my attention is you.”

And what I said wasn’t a lie. I wasn’t interested in any of them, my mind too far away, settled on the large and mysterious figure next to me. A few of the guys made slightly flirty remarks, but they shut up after getting a death glare from behind the mask. They didn’t seem very interested in the first place, anyhow. I found that slightly odd, I’d always had a way of getting military boys wrapped around my pinky finger in minutes. I chose to ignore it, though.

As the night wound down, the men were preparing to go. I got my things together as well, saying goodbye to all of them. I’d been surprised by how well I fit into their dynamic, they’d fallen in love with my presence instantly and the conversation perfectly flowed. I enjoyed them as well, usually the guys who stopped by there were thinly veiled examples of toxic masculinity, but these guys were cool and kind and they liked me for more than what I could give them.

Ghost insisted on walking me to my car, saying he didn’t want a repeat of my kidnapping. I let him, no complaints falling from my lips as we approached the driver’s side door.

“Suppose I really won’t see you again this time, huh?” I mused, afraid of the answer but trying desperately not to show it.

“I don’t know,” he honestly answered me, and a tiny spark of hope flared to life in my chest.

“You know where to find me, Ghost,” I hummed, leaning up to place a kiss on his covered cheek. He was quiet, opening up my car for me and helping me in, then waiting for me to drive off before walking to join his friends.

[ahappydnp]

Everyday I log into Twitter and see multiple people asking “where’s this screenshot from, what’s this clip from?” And it will be content from 2019-2022!!! What has happened to phannie culture. Finding Dan and Phil and not watching every video posted starting from 2009, Reading forum posts from 2013? Do we not care about lore anymore? Where’d the obsession that comes from finding dnp randomly one day and you’re life never being the same. Like if they actually watched phils content they actually know the answers to the questions!!!!!!

i'm not gonna mock people for not knowing something but yeah in the past couple of years there has seemed to be an uptick in people asking others to find the things for them instead of doing any kind of research

not to be an old™️ but i think it's a generational thing and the product of people who are now in their early 20s not having to learn the same online research skills we did? or maybe it's also because social media changed the way they're used to receiving info (as in it's fed to them directly without looking)

but no i agree back in the day if you joined a new fandom or wanted to learn you did your own digging and looked up forums/videos/used basic deductive reasoning. it'll be interesting to see how fandom landscapes progress

[pascaloverx]

DANGEROUS

CHAPTER FOUR (+18)

Summary: You are a retired spy trying to live a normal life. Some time ago, a hired assassin named Tangerine tried to kill you. In response, you sought the help of an old acquaintance who could fake any death, August Walker. However, now your false identity is in jeopardy, along with your life.

Warnings: This chapter will have inappropriate language, explicit content. Readers are warned. The characters August Walker and Tangerine do not belong to me but to their respective creators. Some other characters that belong to both Mission: Impossible (2018) and Bullet Train (2022) may appear in this fanfic. Other characters who are not part of these movies will be of my own creation. I hope you enjoy the reading. Chapter with scenes intended for adults, if you are not an adult, do not read.

chapter three chapter five

August looks uncomfortable. Ever since he agreed to work alongside Tangerine. You know the fact that you had a brief romance with Tangerine doesn't help. As you prepare the bed so that August Walker can sleep, you feel him watching you. Tangerine was too tired to do anything so he just passed out on your bed.

"So after years of partnership, you ditched me for a cheap, less pretty version?" August says while watching you. You tense up, knowing you don't have much to say.You tense up, knowing you don't have much to say.

"I would like to remind you that after our partnership ended, you disappeared from my life. It was as if it didn't matter how many nights we spent together. You can't demand loyalty when you abandon someone." You say arranging the blanket on the bed. August is still standing with his arms crossed in the guest room door.

"I didn't abandon you. We made a deal, Y/N. Feelings were out of the question. And then you put my life ahead of the mission. Damn it, what did you think would happen?" Walker speaks with his authoritative tone, asserting his belief that he's right. But how could putting him above the mission be such a bad thing?

"I should have let you die, Walker. I should have let Ethan kill you on that damn mission, you ungrateful bastard." You say, staring at Walker, growing increasingly irritated. Walker approaches, getting inches away from you. His eyes devouring you as if he's thirsty for something.

"How desperate did you have to be to go from fucking me to fucking Tangerine?" August speaks in a mocking tone. You however laughed blatantly trying to make you feel inferior.

"Honey, you must have a really bruised ego. Tangerine and you are almost the same. And if you're wondering if in every way, yes is the answer." You say looking down, leaving no doubt you are talking about sizes. August seems more excited than angry at this moment, which confuses you a little. You expect a bad reaction, but it doesn't come. On the contrary, he grabs you by the waist and kisses you. At first, his lips touch yours softly. Afterwards it's as if you're missing each other's taste. Slowly exploring each other's mouth.

"You should never have come back into my life, you know that right?" August Walker speaks with his mouth almost glued to yours yet.

"Shut up." You respond, holding the hem of his shirt with both hands and then taking it off his body. He, in turn, lifts you a little off the floor, guiding you to the bed. It was almost as if his body had no weight at all. His hand quickly cupping your ass.

"You're still as hot as I remember." Walker whispers in your ear. You then kiss his neck, as if to say you liked the compliment. In the next second, August Walker is taking off the dress you're wearing and throwing it in some corner of the room. His fingers roam your face, and when his fingers pass your lip, you lick them lightly. Walker's reaction was to hold her face firmly but without hurting her and then devour her mouth with a kiss.

"I want you now." That's all you can say before you completely lose your lucidity as you watch Walker take off the rest of his clothes. You're obviously excited about the fact that you're going touch him again. Your hand passes lightly under Walker's cock, making him moan softly as you kiss his body.

"Lay down." He says dominant as he removes your bra. His fingers press against his breasts, causing a pleasant sensation of pain and pleasure. You let out a grunt when Walker's lips touch yours. He continues pressing the tops of your breasts with his hands while he is on top of you. Already your hands are busy holding his hair tightly. You then remember to grab a condom from the bedside. He watches you and seconds later he already puts the condom that was previously in your hand on his penis. He puts two fingers in your mouth and you suck on them, while looking directly at him. It's been so long since you two have been this close that you feel like you're going to explode. His fingers that were previously in your mouth are now in your pussy, almost causing a pleasant friction. His fingers enter you without delay, and you let out a few noises as you feel the pleasure of having at least a part of him in you. His fingers press into your pussy which is wet enough that he has no problem moving in and out of you.

"You...fuck me. Please." You sputter as you feel your body start to shake a little more. Walker smiles, kissing you next.

"Good girl." He says, taking his fingers out of you and pushing his cock into you. The feeling of having him like this was almost driving you crazy. You increased the pace of his thrusts and into you, as you held his ass to feel him more. His hands held Walker's ass so tightly that you could feel it would leave a mark later. But he didn't seem to care. He just thrust deeper and deeper inside you, as he kissed every detail of you, including your lips and mostly your neck. His kisses got deeper and deeper, as if he really needed you.

"Fuck. I'm going to go crazy with you." Walker says as you become a mixture of sex, moans and sweat. You can only smile, while mumbling disjointed words. You're reconnecting so easily that you don't even notice when you cum. But when he cums right away you smile. A smile of satisfaction.

"I can't lie. You're still one of the few fuckers who know how to fuck well." You speak while Walker is still beneath you. He then kisses you, getting off of you and throwing the condom in the trash. You weakly rest your head on Walker's chest as soon as he returns to bed. And at least at this moment, you allow yourself to sleep with a man who you don't even know if you can fully trust.

[aikoiya]

LoZ - Why The Gerudo Are Unfair

I really don't think that a lot of fans really get just how not okay the Gerudo's practices are.

For one, every Gerudo is treated wholy & completely as a Gerudo & nothing else. Now, while it may make sense based on appearances, it doesn’t when you really think about it. Especially when you take into account the well-known lore about the Gerudo.

Because the Gerudo aren’t reproducing asexually & they only get 1 male a century. Which means that 99% of Gerudo are likely all more than half Hyrulean.

Not even half, more than half, because it isn’t just a Gerudo herself who had a non-Gerudo father, but possibly every Gerudo who came before her going on for most likely myriennia, were non-Gerudo.

Yet, they only focus on the Gerudo part of their heritage. As though their fathers don’t exist. As though their grandfathers, great grandfathers, & great great grandfathers, don’t exist! As though the women they’re related to through their male family members, don’t exist!!

As separatist as they may wish to be, they do so at the expense of others & themselves.

Let me put this into perspective for ya'll. A DNA test can trace your ancestors back 6-10 generations. Which, I know, no DNA tests in Hyrule, but just because they don't have DNA tests, doesn't mean that deductive reasoning stops existing.

1st gen = 1 Gerudo & 1 Non

2nd gen = 1 Gerudo & 3 Non

3rd gen = 1 Gerudo & 7 Non

4th gen = 1 Gerudo & 15 Non

5th gen = 1 Gerudo & 31 Non

6th gen = 1 Gerudo & 63 Non

7th gen = 1 Gerudo & 127 Non

8th gen = 1 Gerudo & 253 Non

9th gen = 1 Gerudo & 507 Non

10th gen = 1 Gerudo & 1015 Non

4 + 22 + 94 + 380 + 1522

26 + 474 + 1522

500 + 1522

2022

10 + 2022

2032

(10/100)×2032

0.49%

0.5%...

Only .5% of a singular Gerudo's ancestors, going back 10 generations, are Gerudo. And yes, I'm leaving out siblings, but that's because I'm only counting direct ancestors.

Yet that is all they’re recognized for.

Doesn't matter who the rest of their lineage consists of. All that matters is their mother. And not even the non-Gerudo mothers on the Gerudo side.

Again, not even a full percentage & that is their entire existence as people.

---

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there's a general consensus among human Hyrulean males that, if a Gerudo starts flirting with him, but they can't tell him their father's name or where he was from, or even her mother's father, it's likely not worth getting into a relationship with her to begin with because it's likely that her answers will reflect the relationship that he'll end up having with any daughter that may come from it.

And unless he's okay with that, he's better off saving them both the trouble.

Though, now that I think of it, wouldn't that be both hilarious & horribly sad if these sorts of questions became considered racist?

Like, I was reading a cool idea for a comic &, in it, the term "redhead" was considered racist against Gerudo & I damn near wanted to punch someone.

Like, okay then, what word should we use to describe your hair?

Ginger? Ging?

Auburn Noggin?

Carrottop?

Ranga Cabeza?

Roux Attic?

Ruddy Dome?

Titian Tresses?

Cinnamon Scalp?

Carmine Cranium?

Scarlet Skull?

Akage?

How about, "Russet Rogue?"

You there, ma'am, the Signora with the Sanguine Cilium!

I'm sorry, it's just... Have you ever heard of a more unoriginal slur? Especially when it's one of the most common words used to describe those with more erubessed filaments.

If someone called me a "whitey" with the intent of it being a slur & I actually gave them the dignity of being insulted by it??

I would be legitimately ashamed of myself. Like, yes, I'm insulted, but not by the "slur." I'm insulted by that lackluster attempt at one!

Because the me right now would be extremely tempted to mock the heck outta them. I may legitimately laugh at them before I could stop myself.

Like, "Come on. I've been called a mayonnaise monster & a snow roach. You think I'm gonna be insulted by freaking 'whitey?' Please, you can do better than that. Come on. Come on. Try again. Try it! I wanna hear your best slur! Please, I'm invested now."

I'm talking full-on patronization. I might just mentally pat them on the head like a silly puppy.

I mean, if that's the best you have, then I'm sorry. That's just pathetic.

Like, personally, don't know about you, but personally? If I was gonna give this racist asshole of a creatively bankrupt jerk the time of day & that time was spent doing anything other than mocking him, even only in my own head, I'd be disappointed in myself.

It's like... have some dang dignity. If I'm gonna get offended by something. The least I can do is only bequeath the gift of my offense upon someone who raised more than a falange in the general direction of the finish line.

LoZ Cultural Masterlist

[justdiptych]

I've played a lot of stealth games over the years, but my white whale remains a stealth game that uses the non-lethal takedown system implemented in Commandos 2: Men of Courage, a tactics game from 2001. A non-lethal takedown asks three basic questions: 1: How do you incapacitate someone? 2: How do you keep them incapacitated for as long as you need? 3: What happens if someone else finds the person you've incapacitated?

(There are actually loads of questions and ever-shifting genre assumptions but I'm lying and saying there's three.) There are a variety of popular answers to 1, of varying plausibility - bonking someone on the head, choking them, administering a sedative, zapping them with electricity, or just non-specifically beating them up.

Common approaches to 2 include 'enemies remain incapacitated indefinitely', 'enemies return to normal after some time', and 'enemies return to normal unless they're placed in an Enemy Storage Container (chest freezer, wardrobe, outhouse, etc.)'. 3 can involve the finder becoming alarmed, waking/freeing the incapacitee, both, or even neither - they might ignore incapacitated characters entirely.

In reality, many of the methods in 1 would not actually render someone unconscious for very long - and/or would carry a high risk of killing them - but this rarely correlates to the treatment of 2 - punching an NPC in the gut might put them out for hours, rather than the expected few seconds.

For instance, by way of a case study, in Thief: The Dark Project (1998):

1: NPCs can be knocked out by a stealthy blow to the head or by sedative gas. 2: NPCs remain unconscious indefinitely. 3: NPCs who find someone unconscious will become alerted, but not try to wake them.

Hitman: World of Assassination (2016-2022) expands but does not greatly complicate 1 and 2 (NPCs can be knocked out by just about anything, from violence to tainted food, and will remain incapacitated until found and woken) but adds its own twists to 3 (an unconscious NPC might be considered the victim of an accident if, for instance, they were knocked out by slipping on a banana peel or stepping on a rake, and so will be woken but not cause an alarm to be sounded).

Some games get really in the weeds about it. Some of the Metal Gear Solids have different layers of incapacitation depending on the method used, with different durations and different triggers to end them. Enemies could be stunned, knocked out, or held at gunpoint. NPCs held at gunpoint could be ordered to lie flat on their faces, and would remain lying there for so long as they thought there was a possibility that they still had a gun pointed at them - until someone came to rescue them, or an alert elsewhere told them the intruder had left their location.

(In practice, what usually happened was that Big Boss would tie a balloon to them, then run over a hill and dive-tackle a sheep.)

So, what does all this have to do with Commandos 2: Men of Courage, you ask? C2:MoC (pronounced see-to-mock) did something I haven't seen elsewhere. Enemies could be briefly stunned by an attack - being a squad-level game, different PCs had different attacks. Big burly ones could just hit people; smaller ones relied on surprise or speed.

Once stunned, enemies could then be bound and gagged to remove them from play. Again, this relied on a sufficiently well-prepared character - a big burly soldier could bind them, pick them up and carry them out of view, while someone smaller could only stun them briefly and run away.

This system very neatly answers all three questions while allowing for verisimilitude. 1 can be anything that briefly incapacitates someone - from a sedative to being tripped over, or even held up a la MGSV - because binding and gagging so neatly answers both 2 and 3 - the obvious solution to finding someone bound and gagged is to free them - or, at least, fetch help who can them free them (like how Hitman's non-combatants will summon police/security when they find a body).

C2:MoC was a squad-level tactics game, rather than a stealth game in the line of your Thiefs, Hitmans, Metal Gears, Alpha Protocols, Dishonoreds, and so on. The series dropped off pretty severely after 2, too, so I'm not surprised it doesn't have much of a cultural footprint these days. Still, I'm surprised few if any games have picked out this system to use for their non-lethal combat. The closest I'm aware of are a handful of police simulators which involve handcuffing suspects - and one or two mods for action-RPGs which allow binding enemies, but not in a stealth context.

(Honourable mention to GTA4, with its underrated 'hit or shoot someone enough times without killing them and eventually they'll be reduced to lying on the floor, swearing at you in a variety of languages, and you can just walk away' system.)

[sweetmariihs2]

My list of reasons to love Eddie Munson

"Why do you like him?" is the most asked question related to my brainrot since may 27 of 2022. And now i'm here to answer that question, and maybe bring you into our fandom too.

1 - his unconventional beauty

Some people I know were confused as to why I love him, they asked why I feel attracted to him because he was "an ugly man", which I completely disagree with.

He has features that are attractive but are not part of society's beauty standards. Some of them would be his facial marks, his eyebags, messy hair, crooked teeth (yes! you may have never noticed, but he does have crooked teeth, look in that bts picture of him smiling before having his wig fully done), in some moments a double chin, a bigger belly. But it turned out that they look absolutely beautiful on him, and he teached me how to love them just by looking and admiring his features. People say "eww he's ugly", but these features are so cute and even attractive when you look closely, I started loving and admiring each one of them. It turned out that I fell for his personality now I love him completely. These demisexuals nowadays.

2 - his confidence

He doesn't care about what people think of him. I know that in some scenes he's very tough and hard to deal with, that's one of his almost-flaws (he's only like this to people who treat him or his friends badly), but overall he has a confidence to envy. I believe, personally, that he only acts like this because he's scared of showing that he's insecure inside, because of all the bullying he had to deal with. You can see the sad tone in his voice when he says "hunt the freak, right?". But he's not ashamed of himself, he likes to do whatever he wants and to be the way he is, talk about the things he likes, act in his own way. He's very original, and I kinda like that on him. Doesn't care about other people's opinions (but they get to him sometimes, which is kinda sad. That's also another reason of why I love him, I wanna take care of this boy. His kind heart deserves to be loved).

3 - his kind heart

He is so gentle and kind to people he knows that are not bad. Usually he is afraid of getting close to someone, cause everybody judges and hates him, and that's why he has a tough shell, but if you treat him like a normal person he will absolutely consider you as a friend. He may think twice at first, but once you show him your real kind nature, he becomes the guy he really is. He cares so much about making people happy when they're sad, he cares about making outcast people less lonely, he cares about your safety and if you're comfortable with the situation. You can see it in the "Chrissy in the woods" scene.

4 - his funny dork behavior

He is unpredictable. When you least expect he's throwing himself of his chair. All he wanna do is make people laugh, especially when they are having a bad day. He's naturally funny, he makes faces, funny comments, and knows exacly what to do to make a person's day a little better, or to deal with someone who's mocking at him or one of his friends (He actually doesn't. He doesn't know what he's doing, he's very confused actually).

5 - his respect for woman

6 - his badass clothing and style (he's so cool omg)

He knows about the difference between him and a girl, the physical difference, the (unfortunate) social difference. Even maybe not knowing a lot about womanhood in general, he knows that they should be treated with respect, mostly because people forgot about that and probably because his uncle teached him to do it since he was a little kid. He helps them climb difficult places, open doors for them, even hold them during an earthquake so that they won't get hurt, makes sure that they are comfortable and avoid touching their bodies without permission. In that earthquake scene with Robin he hold her so that she wouldn't get hurt, but his hand that was almost touching her chest backed off purposely, closing his fist so that his palm wouldn't accidentaly touch her without permission, and that's such a small detail. And in that scene with Chrissy, when she was being attacked by Vecna, Eddie was afraid of shaking her or hurting her while needing to use a little bit more strenght to wake her up. Unfortunately you know how it ended, but his behavior with her being obviously a female and smaller than him was such a cute action. So admirable.

That hair. That mf fluffy long beaufiful curly hair. I wanna run my fingers through it. I wanna kiss it, wash it, brush it, and make it looks the way it usually does again, but with perfume. I wanna kiss his whole face. That's it that's the post thank you so much for reading

His ringsssss oml his rings. The vest. His tatoos. The guitar pick necklace ⁉️‼️⁉️⁉️ that fckin guitar ‼️‼️⁉️‼️⁉️ he is so cool holy shit this guy played the solo of master of puppets in front of like 300 monster bats in the upside down. His bratty attitude. He has this mean behavior of John Bender but the kind heart of Patrick Verona. He's the combination of these two man. That's why I love him so much.

7 - he needs love

He's a badass dungeon master, and knows when to be tough and hard to deal with, but also knows when to be receptive and kind to people. And the best part is that he would love someone for what they are, for being a truly kind-hearted and non-judgemental person, his demands would be only these.

He deserves to be loved. Not a lot of people like him, even less love him. He needs a girlfriend to kiss him everyday and hug him until he sleeps and tell how much she loves him and admire his hobbies and be at his side everyday and bring so much love into his life

i can do that. yes eddie i would love to be your girlfriend. If you need someone please call me, would make you so happy that you would die out of happiness

i'm starting to think about how bad i want a boyfriend to do all these things to him. i'm so lonely omf

everytime i see eddie's face my mind goes like "he's so pretty kiss kiss kiss kiss it i wanna kiss it omg his hair his hair is so pretty i wanna touch his hair omg his face is so cute i love you so much

[maevstar]

✨, 👻, 👩🏻‍🦯‍➡️,and 🎒:)

✨ - what’s your favorite reality/life?

my fame dr! I love everything abt there, comfort dr fr.

👻 - what’s your fave spooky moment in your dr?

tbh I don’t remember rn any spooky moment😭 but in 2022 me, my bf, and my old brother and his bf went to some of that kind of haunted houses for Halloween, I’m not a person to exactly be scared of supernatural things cause I kinda think rationally most of the time, but I got pretty scared there. I don’t know if this one counts.

I have also a supernatural dr which im always dealing with supernatural things so there I think im always having spooky moments lol.

👩🏽‍🦯‍➡️ - what’s a silly/cringe moment you’d like to share, even if in the moment you hoped no one saw (ex: tripping over ur feet or something lighthearted)

I was in the obx3 premiere when my bf was right in the middle of the room answering some questions, the place was full of ppl and I didn't knew how to get to the other side of the room without appearing on the camera, so I kind of crouched down and "ran" to the other side, hoping I didn’t appeared on camera (I did and was ridiculously funny, ppl were mocking me after this😭).

🎒 - for any school drs, any drama you’d like to share with the class?

School dr I just have gilmore girls and obx. Sometimes appear some drama like cheating or something like that but rn I can’t think of a like big big drama. In my Gilmore girls dr I kinda got into an argument with a girl there cause the guy she likes is hitting on me but honestly I’m not a person to fight over man so she’s kinda just arguing alone.

Thanks for the asks! ;)

[coochiequeens]

Who the hell looks at a WAR ZONE and thinks that's a good place to start a babies life?

Ukraine, amid war-torn chaos, has emerged as the go-to surrogacy haven for Western couples seeking parenthood. But behind the brave smiles of new parents lies a shadow of corruption, abuse, and economic struggles, calling for a deeper look at the nation’s surrogacy tale.

Ukraine has long been known as a surrogacy hotspot, with a quarter of the world’s surrogate babies born there in 2018. Despite the ongoing war, surrogacy clinics in Kyiv are still attracting foreign couples, including those from Italy, Romania, Germany, and Britain, eager to have a child.

That percentage has likely increased since Moscow banned the practice for foreign couples last year, with Russian lawmakers citing the need to “prevent the trafficking of our children.”

Dark Shadows of Corruption and Abuse

In Ukraine over 1,000 children have been born in Ukraine to surrogate mothers since the start of the Russian invasion, with more than 600 born at the BiotexCom clinic in Kyiv, one of Europe’s largest surrogacy clinics. Pechenoha, one of the staff of Biotexcom said “I have not met a single woman with a good economic situation who has decided to go through this process out of kindness.” 

Economic Setbacks and the Call for Women’s Return

However, behind the apparent success of the surrogacy industry, allegations of corruption and abuse have surfaced, raising concerns about the authorities’ protection in both Kiev and Washington. The industry has faced criticism, with some referring to clinics as “children factories” and calling for restrictions on foreign use of Ukrainian surrogate services during periods of martial law. 

For the surrogate mothers, financial reasons often drive their decision to carry a child for others, but the process is significantly less joyous. 

One Ukrainian woman told Al Jazeera in 2018 that the German firm promised her an apartment for the duration, but forced her to share it with four other pregnant women, and to share a bed for seven months of her pregnancy. Another said that women who left their accommodation and failed to return before a curfew would be subjected to fines, as would women who criticized the company or attempted to communicate with the foreign parents. 

“We were treated like cattle and mocked by the doctors,” she said.

Moreover, Ukraine’s economy has faced significant setbacks due to Russia’s invasion, with a staggering 30% contraction in 2022. As a result, Ukraine is pleading to its women to return from abroad to bolster the economy.  Bloomberg reported, Ukraine is planning an incentive scheme to call Ukrainian women back into the war-torn nation from Europe. 

Owing to the war, many intelligent and talented individuals, particularly young women, have left Ukraine. The exodus of skilled individuals from the country is becoming a hindrance to Ukraine’s economic progress, resulting in the loss of valuable human resources. 

However, Ukraine’s focus on encouraging Ukrainian women to return seems surprising, as it appears to be based on misinformation and plain lies. It’s unrealistic to believe that by simply bringing back women, Ukraine wants to generate a revenue of $20 billion. 

Now, let’s not forget Ukraine being labeled as a “European hub of Sex Tourism.” Before the Ukraine war, sex tourism in the country was on the rise, attracting foreign visitors seeking sexual activities. Unfortunately, Ukrainian women gained an infamous reputation for engaging in prostitution for meager earnings. Which clears the air and give answers to our questions. 

Now, despite the complexities of the surrogacy landscape and the ongoing conflict, Ukraine’s surrogacy clinics have emerged as the top choice since Feb 2022. 

It seems like even amid conflict, people are eager to be parents, but with the industry’s reputation for corruption, it’s not just baby bumps that have everyone talking! 

[guzhufuren]

I thought you’d be the most likely person to know this answer, so sorry for the random question! I saw the pilot for The Next Prince, but where I come from, a “pilot” is usually the first episode of the series. I just saw the bts and that they filmed that specifically instead of it being the show itself or scenes they’d already filmed, and they posted the fitting video but it still says it’s coming in 2024. Does that mean that they haven’t actually filmed the show yet? Sorry, I’m new to Thai shows and didn’t know who else would be knowledgeable enough to ask!

hi bun!! nope, first episode as pilot is a western thing, in Thailand a pilot trailer is the mock trailer they make to attract sponsors and fans! it's basically a show pitch that roughly gives the idea of what to expect but reserves the right to change the final show product. The Next Prince had 2 different pilot trailers, one in 2022 and one this year, and the show only started filming on August 19th, they are still filming as far as i know! it's a big show, so i would say it will take them at least another one or two months

i check The Next Prince tag everyday, so if there are any news you will see them here!! also darling @mysterygrl20 posts all updates about the show 💕

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 118: Trust in the Face of Betrayal

As I’ve mentioned, I write the chapter recaps in advance. Although I began posting the Revelation entries in September of 2022, I actually played through the game in June of that year. I played the first 25 chapters, all of the Paralogues, and then put the game down for more than a year. During the recent Labor Day weekend, I finally picked up the game again, so I could play through the final three maps.

Revelation gives you a quite honestly absurd number of units, despite the fact that Chapters 26 and 27 only give you 16 deployment slots, one of which must be Corrin. For these final maps, I decided, rather than going with the game’s best units, to go with the ones I actually cared about. 

Jakob. Felicia. Setsuna. Orochi. Saizo. Takumi. Kagero. Effie. Arthur. Niles. Nyx. Beruka. Benny. Xander. And, of course, Kenshi.

I trained Kenshi in all of the free DLC classes and maxed out all of his stats but magic. Behold, my Level 60 Dread Fighter with Death Blow, Ignis, Aggressor, Galeforce, and Rally Spectrum. I also decided, because Jakob was Corrin’s husband in this run, to see how broken I could make him with reclassing. He ended up with Luna, Lethality, Shurikenfaire, Replicate, and Quick Draw. He’s almost as good as Kenshi or any of the royals.

Revelation Chapter 26

Team Corrin arrives in Anankos's throne room, only to find it empty, containing only a giant stone Buddha Head. Random fireballs come out of nowhere to hit all of the royals but Corrin and Azura. Leo, Takumi, and Ryoma immediately begin questioning why Corrin and Azura were spared. Gunter, who also wasn't hit, concludes that they were spared because they're both Vallite royalty.

Gunter then accuses Corrin of being a traitor and Scarlet's murder. Xander is the one person to call this ridiculous. It's unclear if the other characters believe Corrin is sus, but the scene is framed as if they believe Gunter. Because every character in this game is an idiot. Gunter accuses Corrin of leading the royals to Valla so they could all be killed. And, presumably, he is arguing that Corrin saved the lives of the other royals in battle constantly, for some reason. This is the most stupid ridiculous overcomplicated plan possible, so to be fair it does make sense that Corrin could have come up with it.

Corrin says No U, accusing Gunter of being the real traitor, then Columbos proof that Gunter is sus because he knew about the flower on Scarlet's chest, something only the killer would have known about.

Gunter laughs and sits on the throne, surrounded by a purple aura. Gunter monologues that he's always been evil and murdered Scarlet to tear away Corrin's innocence. Corrin says this is unbelievable and that they still believe in Gunter. Gunter asks if Corrin is naive or just stupid. To editorialize, both. The answer is both. Corrin says they need to be able to trust their friends and that Gunter is just being manipulated by Anankos, like Mikoto and Sumeragi. Corrin says they can still save Gunter.

Gunter laughs, saying that he is stronger than the reanimated corpses and that his body belongs to Anankos. He says that he is Anankos and Anaknos is him. Corrin refuses to give up. They fight to get Gunter back and end the war, with the help of their friends.

I mock Corrin a lot on this blog. Corrin is really really stupid and annoying a lot of the time. But, occasionally, the game gives me a scene that makes me really like Corrin.

Corrin is naive. That is their core character trait. And sometimes they act dumb. Sometimes they act frustratingly stupid and commit a bunch of war crimes. But, Corrin works the best, when they are naively hopeful in the face of overwhelming adversary. When they try to save everyone, when they try to end the war through kindness. When they see their father figure controlled by a dark god and decide to save him, even as he insults them. Corrin is a kind person put into a dark world, who brings light through their relentless hope and kindness. That’s why, in the good paths, Corrin is the one who ends the war. Because they stubbornly refuse to give up on their hope of a better world.

This is a defeat the boss chapter set in a throne room full of enemies. The map's gimmick is pools of water that endlessly spawn enemies, which can be plugged with dragon veins. Except, the respawns are slow, and the ice melts after a few turns, so I don't know what the point is. The map is filled with chests and Gunter holds a Bifrost staff, which can be used to revive one dead unit immediately after they died. Because of a blessing from Mikoto, Corrin and Azura heal nearby allies. This battle was actually kinda hard, because I didn’t account for marriages when I chose my endgame team. Still, Gunter went down easily.

Gunter's generic battle quote has him sentence people to death in the name of the King of Valla. If he fights Corrin, he calls Corrin's belief in him impressively foolish and says that they should hold onto their foolishness, as a comfort when they die.

After the battle, Azura sings the song, weakening Anankos's control. Gunter begs for Gunter to fight and remember all the time they've spent together. Gunter raises his sword and Corrin refuses to move. Gunter stabs himself in the stomach, causing a mass of darkness to fly out of his body. Gunter says he will atone for his betrayal with his life. Fortunately, Sakura and Elise can heal.

Gunter explains that years ago, when he declined Garon's gift of Dragon Blood, Garon got so pissed that he ordered the deaths of Gunter's wife, child, and entire village. Gunter says that commoners are pawns in the schemes of royals, weeds to be killed on a whim. Xander is surprised people think that of the royals, because he's an idiot. Ryoma says such an impression would easily breed resentment, and yeah no shit.

Gunter explains he vowed to get revenge on Garon and raised Corrin so they could be used as a pawn in this revenge scheme. Question: why did Garon put the man who obviously wants revenge on him in charge of Corrin? Is it because he's also stupid? Yeah probably.

Corrin says that they understand and that, regardless of Gunter's motivations, he stayed by their side and helped them. Gunter says that he killed Scarlet. Corrin says he was under Anankos's control and that, if he wants to atone, he must live. For Scarlet and for the family that was taken from him. Live to fight Anankos and protect all the people that he could still hurt.

This is a really good scene. Except, there’s something that bothers me about it. Corrin’s dialogue is slightly different depending on gender. If Corrin is Male, he says Gunter is his friend. If Corrin is female, she says that Gunter is important to her, and Gunter stares at her while saying dot dot dot. The only reason I can think of for them to make this change is to imply some sort of romantic feelings between Corrin and Gunter.

Goddamnit game! You were so close! You had a really good scene and then you fucked it up!

Support: Forrest/Ophelia

C: Forrest talks to a spice merchant and starts crying after getting some spice in his eye. Ophelia threatens to kill the merchant. Forrest says she went a little overboard, but Ophelia says it's the least she can do and pledges loyalty to Forrest.

B: Ophelia attacks a merchant for spraying Forrest with perfume. Forrest begs her to stop attacking merchants, but she says that merchants could maybe be assassins.

A: Forrest orders Ophelia to stop following him to the market. He explains that it would be dumb for an assassin to spend years working as a mechant, hoping a prince would randomly stop by. Ophelia says she'll stay back, so Forrest says she is allowed to come with him.

S: Forrest pledges himself to Ophelia because her devotion is overflowing. Ophelia decides to fill a lake with rose petals as a love ritual.

Review: I like the idea of Ophelia being Forrest's retainer. She's a bit too dumb, but her being extra to take care of a friend is better than her being extra just because.

Support: Fana/Nina

C: Kana asks Nina about her Robin Hood noble thief thing. He is confused, because his parents taught him stealing is wrong. Nina explains that stealing is wrong, but the world is complicated, and sometimes doing the wrong thing is the best way to help people.

B: Nina shows Kana letters from those she's helped by stealing from the rich to give to the poor. She says that sometimes doing nothing is worse than doing something wrong. Kana calls Nina amazing. Nina says that, even though Niles is a thief himself, he doesn't want her to steal. She says she doesn't respect him and that they fought over this.

A: Kana points out that Nina became a thief to be like Niles and that she must respect him, deep down, because if not, why would she want his approval?

S: Kana gives Nina a book on noble thieves so she can give it to Niles. Nina wonders if Kana will be as kind and honest when he grows uo. Kana promises he won't, because she's his best friend and he doesn't want to lose her.

Review: Pretty good! Nina is a noble thief instead of incredibly horny for once and the stuff about her relationship with Niles was solid.

Support: Forrest/Siegbert

C: Siegbert asks to accompany Forrest as he goes fabric shopping. Forrest deduces this is because Siegbert wants to protect him.

B: Siegbert saves Forrest from a pack of ruffians. Forrest says he doesn't want Siegbert protecting him again, because he can take care of himself. If Forrest is unpromoted, then no, he objectively cannot. Siegbert respects Forrest's suggestion.

A: Forrest apologizes for being too harsh. Siegbert apologizes for treating Forrest like a child Forrest asks to be treated as an ally, not an explanation.

Review: See, this is one of those Supports that gets messed up by gameplay and story segregation. Siegbert being too protecting of Forrest because Forrest is very feminine would be annoying, except within the context of the game, he's right! Forrest is incapable of protecting himself!

Support: Percy/Soleil

C: Percy asks Soleil to help him get Ace laid.

B: Ace doesn't like other dragons. Soleil offers to teach Ace how the right way to treat a lady.

A: Soleil teaches a wyvern to listen to women. The female dragons don't care and fly away.

S: Percy asks Soleil out. Soleil tells him he should chase other girls instead of limiting himself to the three or four girls he already knows. Percy asks her to go on a practice date with him.

Review: This one is weird and the fact that Soleil somehow trained a dragon to be a polite boyfriend is weirder. Still, this one isn't awful.

[williambutcher008]

Why Students Rate This the Best EEE College in Villupuram – Reviews & Highlights

When it comes to pursuing a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), your choice of college can shape your entire career path. With hundreds of engineering institutions scattered across Tamil Nadu, students and parents often face a difficult question: Which is the best EEE college in Villupuram?

For many students and alumni, the answer is simple — Manakula Vinayagar Institute of Technology (MVIT). With its excellent infrastructure, strong placement record, industry-focused teaching, and vibrant campus life, MVIT continues to earn glowing reviews and top rankings from students year after year.

In this blog, we’ll explore why students consistently rate MVIT as the best EEE college in Villupuram, highlighting key features, student experiences, and what makes this institution truly stand out.

🔗 Explore the Department of EEE: https://mvit.edu.in/departments/eee/

💡 A Legacy of Academic Excellence in EEE

At the heart of MVIT’s reputation is its unwavering commitment to academic quality. The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering is known for delivering a comprehensive, up-to-date curriculum that balances theoretical knowledge with hands-on practice.

From foundational courses in electrical circuits to advanced subjects like embedded systems, control engineering, and renewable energy technologies, students are exposed to a well-rounded education that prepares them for the real world.

“The syllabus here isn’t just about clearing exams. It’s designed to shape problem-solvers who are ready for the industry.” — Arun K, EEE Graduate, 2023

🧑‍🏫 Exceptional Faculty Support

One of the biggest reasons students call MVIT the best EEE college in Villupuram is the faculty. The department boasts a strong team of experienced professors, many of whom hold PhDs and have published research in reputed journals. They not only teach but also mentor students personally, guiding them in projects, research, and career planning.

Classroom teaching is supplemented by:

Interactive tutorials

Live demonstrations

Guest lectures from industry experts

Continuous assessment and personalized feedback

“Our faculty helped me publish my first IEEE paper and encouraged me to present it in a national conference.��� — Sowmya P, Final Year EEE Student

🔬 Industry-Standard Labs & Real-Time Projects

MVIT knows that an engineer is only as good as their practical knowledge. That’s why the EEE department is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratories, allowing students to work with real-time circuits, simulation tools, and modern equipment.

Key Labs include:

Power Electronics & Drives Lab

Electrical Machines Lab

Control Systems Lab

Embedded Systems & IoT Lab

Renewable Energy Systems Lab

Students also participate in industry-collaborated final year projects, which often lead to internships and even pre-placement offers.

“I built a solar-powered irrigation prototype in my third year, which was later funded for a larger demonstration.” — Girish R, EEE Alumni, 2022

🎯 Strong Placement Support

For many students, placements are the ultimate benchmark of a good college. MVIT excels in this area. The EEE department has an excellent placement record, with students getting placed in both core engineering firms and IT companies.

Top recruiters include:

Tata Power

L&T Tech Services

Infosys

Cognizant

Bosch

TVS

Schneider Electric

Ashok Leyland

With dedicated placement training, aptitude sessions, mock interviews, and soft skills workshops, students are well-prepared to crack interviews with confidence.

“I got placed in L&T with a great package. MVIT’s placement training was game-changing.” — Naveena M, EEE Batch 2023

🌍 Research & Innovation Hub

MVIT’s EEE department encourages innovation and research from early semesters. The college supports students who wish to work on:

Funded mini-projects

Research publications

Patent filing

Participation in national and international competitions

The institution also hosts national-level symposiums, seminars, and technical fests to expose students to the latest trends in EEE, such as AI integration, electric vehicles, and smart grids.

“MVIT helped me discover my passion for smart energy systems. I’m now working on a project funded by DST.” — Vasanth S, Research Scholar, EEE Dept.

📜 Value-Added Courses & Certifications

To ensure students stay ahead of the curve, MVIT offers value-added courses that are not part of the university syllabus but are highly sought after in the job market.

Some popular certifications include:

PLC & SCADA Training

IoT for Electrical Engineers

MATLAB & Simulink Applications

Electric Vehicle Technology

Python Programming