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theragethatisdesire · 1 year

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dall'inizio - eren x reader, 18+!!!!

welcome back to the ti penso universe everyone!!!! this is a continuation/prequel of the little series we've followed from my first eren x reader fic. i was really interested to see how they met and ....unsurprisingly, it's a one night stand that doesn't turn out as planned. this one is also super fun because we get to hear from both eren AND reader alternatively, plus reader is a confident, bad bitch and we love that for her. this one goes out to @philliam-writes bc ik you love this eren as much as i do!!!!!! here's ur part 3 bestie >:)

if you'd like to catch up and meet our eren x reader, find them here:

(1) ti penso ogni giorno

(2) nel bene e nel male

pairing: eren x afab reader

wc: 6.7k

DISCLAIMER: this post contains MATURE CONTENT that is intended only for those over 18. if you are a minor, please do not read below the cut.

CWs: smut (duh), consensual hook-up, rough sex, biting, dirty talk, oral sex (fem!receiving), alcohol/drug use (just weed nothing crazy), cussing, penetrative vaginal sex, swearing, use of names (baby), crying, multiple orgasms, eren being a lovestruck idiot (and so are you if you're being honest)

title (as always) means "from the beginning" in italian i'm obsessed with them <3

“You look like a whore,” Ymir says bluntly, dragging her eyes over your outfit– or, lack thereof.

“It’s not that bad,” you wave her off, turning back to the mirror to tug at the hem of your little black slip. You do look like a whore, but it’s intentional. You haven’t gotten laid in three months– your friends have been calling you dramatic, but that’s a lot, okay? You’re in college, you’re supposed to sleep around, right?

On top of that, your last few situationships just haven’t quite…well, they weren’t bad, but they didn’t scratch the itch. You desperately need a fuck– not just a fuck, a good fuck, and you have a feeling tonight’s going to be the night. It’s Halloween, the international holiday for running around in basically zero clothes, and you’ve taken great care to adhere to that tradition.

“Are you a mouse?” Historia wrinkles her nose at you from her spot at the vanity in the corner. She’s in a dalmatian costume; cute, spotted ears sticking up from her blonde hair, blue collar tinkling when she cocks her head at you.

“I’m a fucking cat,” you mutter, drawing a black triangle of eyeliner on the tip of your nose, “I didn’t have time for a real costume.”

“She just wants to get laid,” Mikasa announces, pushing through the studio apartment door with a huff, arms laden with plastic bags that are making a tell-tale clinking sound, “it’s been like, two whole weeks.”

“Three months!” You correct her, defensive.

“I understand,” Ymir, appropriately dressed as Cruella de Vil, grins, “it’s been…what, Stor? Two hours?”

“Ymir!” Historia, scandalized, flushes a furious red. Both you and Mikasa are unphased; in the last four months they’ve been together, the three feet they’re sitting from one another now is the farthest apart you’ve seen them.

“I’m not a whore,” you turn around, hands on hips, “I just…it’s been awhile since I had good sex. Floch was–”

“The worst?” Mikasa finishes for you. You hate how well she knows you; even after less than two years of knowing each other, she can practically read your mind.

“Yeah, you may have mentioned that once or twice,” Historia turns back to the mirror, immediately disinterested. “Or a thousand times.”

You throw your hands up, turning back to the mirror to finish your whiskers. “So none of you can blame me.”

“While you two,” Mikasa points between Ymir and Historia accusingly, “have been screwing like rabbits, and you,” her black-painted fingernail finds its way to you, “have been trying to figure out how to sleep with half of Manhattan, I took the liberty of actually making plans for us.”

“Jean’s?” You raise a knowing eyebrow at her, grateful to put someone else in the hot seat for the night. Mikasa’s cheeks tinge pink. Busted.

“He’s throwing a party, yeah,” she answers slowly, trying to talk her way around her obvious attraction to him, “but it’s not those douchebags he usually hangs out with. My best friend from home, Eren, just got into town, and,” she looks at you pointedly, “some of his friends are actually cute.”

You’re unconvinced. “Pictures?”

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Mikasa bites her lip mischievously, “but if you take a few tequila shots with me, I might be persuaded to show you one or two.”

You’re dubious. Mikasa’s definitely shown you a photo of these guys before, and you don’t remember a standout in the lineup. This Eren character, however…Mikasa has a framed picture on her bedside nightstand of them in high school, and you remember him being sort of cute. Dark, short-cropped hair, big green eyes so wide and earnest that he almost reminded you of a movie character. That picture was three or four years old now so…who knows? Maybe he’d grown into his features.

“Eren’s a no-go, though,” Mikasa continues, knowing your exact train of thought of course, pouring out shots of lukewarm, cheap tequila. Your stomach gurgles in protest at the smell as you accept yours. “He’s a nightmare to women, trust me.”

“Who knows,” Ymir pipes up, nodding her head towards you, “she’s a nightmare to men, so.”

“I am not a nightmare,” you narrow your eyes, “I just don’t like to be tied down, that’s all.”

“You’ll have to be at some point,” Historia argues, smiling when Ymir slips a hand into hers. You wrinkle your nose, uninterested.

“It’s 2018, Stor, not very feminist of you,” you tut, throwing back your shot and practically choking it down. Ick.

“I’m a lesbian, how much more feminist can I get?”

“Touché.”

“Just promise me you won’t get wrapped up with him?” Mikasa eyes you, still not trusting the glint of curiosity in your eye.

Ymir crosses her arms over her chest. “Are you positive you like Jean and not this Eren dude?”

Mikasa makes a fake retching sound. “Eren’s practically my brother. I’ve seen his bare ass more times than I can count. Way past the attraction threshold, trust me. I just…I know him. And I know you,” she glares at you, “it’s a toss-up as to who would do more damage to the other.”

“I’ll behave,” you placate her, throwing your arms around her shoulders, “…maybe.”

Eren might puke. No, wait, he’s going to puke– oh, no, just an unbelievably loud burp. Eren smiles contentedly, feeling much better even as it stinks up the entire taxi. Connie leans over Armin, scrunches his nose and squints his eyes.

“That fucking reeks, dude!”

“Sorry,” Eren shrugs, turning his head back to the window and ignoring Armin and Connie’s complaints. They were all a few beers deep- what did they expect?

Eren’s lived a few hours outside of New York City all his life, but he’s never been, except maybe once or twice for field trips as a kid. He never remembered it looking like this, though: each little apartment twinkled like a star, giving the wall of skyscrapers the appearance of the night sky. Even as the cab screeches and jerks in the Lower West Side traffic, Eren feels like he’s in a spaceship, free and flying amongst the stars.

Maybe he could talk to Zeke, convince him to move their little operation out of their garage and into the city. There was money here, right? And plenty of musicians who weren’t quite good enough to get signed by any major labels…

“Mikasa says she and her friends will be over in five,” Armin squints at his phone screen, holding it far away from him like an old man to type a response. Eren nearly rolls his eyes.

“Would you just get some fucking glasses already?”

“Annie said they made me look nerdy,” Armin shrugs. Connie groans.

“You two broke up like, a year ago–”

“Six months,” Armin corrects him, eyes growing sadder by the second.

“Okay, six months, whatever, we’ve got to get you laid tonight, dude.”

Eren lets the two slip into an argument about the “appropriate amount of time” to wait to sleep with someone after a breakup, much preferring his unusually contemplative mood to Connie and Armin’s bickering after their four-hour train ride together. He smiled to himself; God, it would be good to see Mikasa again. He wouldn’t have admitted it at gunpoint, but she was practically his mom growing up, and she’d been gone for over a year, only visiting for Christmas. Rumor had it that she’d been spending a lot of time with Jean as of late, so he needed to see what that was all about, too.

And who had Eren been spending a lot of time with lately? No one but bar rats and slim pickings from the frat parties at Trost University near his hometown. When was the last time he’d even gotten laid? A month? Two? Her name had been Jenna…no, Jenny? Josephina? Fuck, he should remember that. Eren needs to get laid, regardless, but if he dares to step near any of Mikasa’s friends, she’ll kill him, he knows that from experience. Then again, maybe this weird-ass Jean situation would come in handy. If Mikasa ends up distracted…

“Excuse me!” Armin disturbs his thoughts once again; Eren scowls. “Excuse me, sir? I think we’re here.”

Eren pays for the cab. Armin had bought the train tickets and the chain-gang costumes they were all currently sporting, and Connie was always flat broke, insisting his music career would work out soon. That could be Eren’s fault, though: Connie was one of his and Zeke’s first “clients”. None of them even bothered keeping up with the money exchanged between each other anymore; Connie had been in their kindergarten class, Armin’s mom had changed all of their diapers, Mikasa’s parents were the “cool parents” that let them smoke weed in the backyard, Jean’s mom made the best potato salad. They were a little family, separated by life and college at the moment, but a family all the same. Eren felt a little tingle of appreciation in his stomach as they climbed the stairs to Jean’s walk-up.

“Jaeger!” Jean was dapping him up and smacking a fist against his back before Eren could even properly look around the dark apartment.

“Kirstein,” Eren returns his embrace and has to shout over the music, suddenly smacked with a wave of homesickness at the familiar smell of weed and Jean’s tacky Hugo Boss cologne.

“Make yourself at home, dude,” Jean’s nearly inaudible over the thumping house music. He’s got some stupid mummy costume on that exposes his lean stomach, basically just shirtless and wrapped in toilet paper. Eren stifles a laugh, looking around the apartment for any other familiar faces.

Reiner approaches him next, a goofy, drunken grin splitting his face wide open, tackling Eren in a bear hug. Most of the greetings go like that; I miss you! How are you? How’s the business? Are you still in Shiganshina? It makes Eren’s chest tight, makes him miss the closeness of the people he loves. He was just always fucking working, helping Zeke with paperwork, running around town talking to clients, pulling at his face late at night looking over the finances of everything. He feels wound up, ready to burst, but the blunt and beer Bertholdt just handed him should fix that, at least somewhat. He needs…fuck, he needs to get laid.

His eyes search the room, looking for the one person he’s looking most forward to seeing, but he doesn’t find Mikasa where he expects.

She’s perched on Jean’s lap, giggling over her drink as Jean waves his arms wildly, telling her a story. That bizarre sight only holds Eren’s gaze for a moment, though, because there you are beside her, grinning wickedly with one of those stupid vapes between your teeth.

Eren stops dead in his tracks, speechless. Where do they even make women like that? He goes bottom to top, letting himself be impressed with how well you’re balancing on those high heels, ravishing every naked inch of your exposed legs until he reaches the hem of– fuck, is that just lingerie? Whatever little black thing you’re wearing, it makes his heart race, makes his pants tight. It’s low-cut in the chest enough to tease, a little collar around your neck, and your face…even your face makes him hard, so beautiful in the low lighting, eyes glimmering. You look evil and fun and sexy all at once, and Eren’s sold within the first ten seconds of seeing you.

Before he can make a beeline in your direction, he realizes he’s taken his gaze off of Mikasa and Jean long enough for them to approach him, Mikasa throwing her arms around his neck.

“Eren!” She squeals in his ear, clearly already drunk. Eren chuckles, trying to rein himself in enough to hold a stable conversation. The little black dress flashes behind his eyes as he smiles down at Mikasa.

“Hey Mika,” he ruffles her hair, making Mikasa grumble and reach towards her head to right what he’s ruined. His eyes wander back to you; you’re watching him too, sizing him up. He wonders if you like what you see, pulls at the zipper of his orange jumpsuit to inch it down, reveal some of his stomach. Eren’s not conceited per se, but he spends an unhealthy amount of time in the gym, and he knows it shows. As your gaze travels down to where he holds his zipper, Eren can’t look away, knows it must be obvious that he’s distracted.

“Bro,” Jean snaps his fingers in front of Eren’s eyes, looking over his shoulder to see what Eren’s staring at. He turns back with a smirk. “Yeah?”

Fuck, now Mikasa’s looking off in the same direction, returning her eyes to him with a scowl. Drunk or not, she never fails to scare the shit out of him. “No. No fucking way, Eren.”

“What?” Eren sips his beer innocently, shrugging. He was only staring…for now.

“She’s my best friend, Eren, no,” Mikasa says, firmer this time.

“Thought I was your best friend?”

“Didn’t she just break things off with Floch like…” Jean trails off at the withering glare Mikasa shoots him, turning red.

“She’s off-limits.” Eren nods, her words going in one ear and out the other. Mikasa’s scolded him before, and she won’t stop anytime soon, so what’s one more? She can read his mind, evidently, because she reaches up and pinches his cheek, yanking him down to her level.

“Ow!”

“Off. Fucking. Limits.” Mikasa seethes. “Do you hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah I- fuck, let go! I hear you Mika,” Eren rubs his sore cheek, frowning. He can see you laughing at him, eyes barely visible over the edge of your drink. Great, Eren thinks; getting a talking-to from Mikasa like a child was not the first impression he wanted to give you.

Mikasa’s grabbing Jean’s hand and pulling him back towards the crowd, presumably to play guard dog for you, but before she can get him too far, Jean leans back towards Eren, cups a hand around his mouth.

“She’s single, bro,” Jean manages to get out before Mikasa pulls harder, “go for it!”

Eren grins. If Mikasa wanted to bite his head off for this, now he could blame it on Jean. What the hell was he supposed to say to you, though? You’re leagues above the girls he’s been pursuing. If Eren’s honest with himself, he’s intimidated by you, but his only solution is to throw some more of his beer back for liquid courage. He’s always loved a challenge.

When he pulls the cup away from his face, you’ve appeared in front of him, smiling demurely and nearly making him jump out of his skin.

“Hi.”

The second you saw him, you were hooked. He was gorgeous, dark hair pulled into a little half-bun on the back of his head, pretty eyes, and tall and broad to boot. He was almost stern-looking, dark eyebrows shielding his eyes. Dark and mean, just the way you like them.

Mikasa had given him a massive hug, interrupting the clear eye-fucking you were engaged in across the room; so that was Eren? Her long-lost best friend that was always too busy to visit? The happy kid from the picture? You watched her scold him, giggling to yourself at how childlike he became, crumbling under Mikasa’s pinch and pouting when she let him go.

You had no choice, really. Your promise to Mikasa had flown out of your mind the moment you saw those full lips pursed around the blunt, blowing out a puff of smoke, stretching into a wide, dangerous smile. You’re an only child and admittedly, a bit spoiled, so when you want something, you get it.

“Hi,” you can’t manage anything more clever, not face to face with his bare chest. Jean’s apartment is stuffy, and you catch the gleam of sweat on his chest in the LED lighting. You lick your lips.

“Hi,” Eren responds stiffly, looking as surprised as if you’d just punched him in the gut.

“You’re Eren, right? Mikasa’s friend?”

Eren hits his blunt again, nods slowly. “I don’t think we’ve met though, you’re…?”

You give him your name. He smiles and repeats it, rolling it around on his tongue and getting a taste for it. You can already see little hearts in his eyes, it makes you grin to yourself. You had expected him to put up more of a fight; there’s a dozen girls in this room alone that would fall all over themselves to get him in bed, but he’s enraptured by you, eyes never leaving your face. You’ve got him.

“A cat, huh?” Eren addresses the costume, dipping his head in the direction of the little black ears on your head. You’re suddenly embarrassed, feeling a bit silly.

“I, uh, didn’t really have time to shop,” you shrug, pulling at the hem of your dress. Eren’s mouth quirks up. “A prisoner?”

“Yeah, I didn’t get to pick. I like yours, though, it fits you.”

You cock an eyebrow at him. “A cat fits me?”

“Yeah,” Eren says, growing surer by the second, “I don’t know. Just fits. S’cute.”

You’re embarrassed by the giddy flutter in your stomach. God, he’s delicious. “You think I’m cute?”

“I think lots of things about you,” Eren replies, voice low and sultry and hardly audible over the music. His eyes widen like he hadn’t exactly meant to say that out loud, but it’s too late now. You grin, all teeth and bad intentions.

“We just met,” you point out. Eren’s confidence has returned, he boldly brings a hand to the spaghetti strap of your dress. His fingers are hot– why do men always run so hot? His touch almost burns.

“You wore this,” he rubs the fabric between his fingers, “and expect me not to have a few thoughts on it? Wasn’t that the point?”

The breath leaves your lungs. Your confidence fizzles at the same rate as your arousal grows. There are plenty of hot guys here, but you might have jumped into the deep end with this one. Something flickers in his eyes, something hungry.

“Why don’t you tell me about these thoughts of yours?”

“I will,” Eren nods, sucking his bottom lip between his teeth, “later.”

“Later?”

“We’re at a party,” Eren takes the empty cup from you, replacing it with his own, much larger hand, “shouldn’t we at least dance a little?”

Before you can argue, he’s pulling you out into the center of Jean’s obnoxiously spacious living room, into a jungle of sweaty, gyrating bodies. You’re close enough to the speakers now that the bass pounds through your body to the same rhythm as your heart thudding in your chest. The crowded, makeshift dance floor pushes you into Eren, skin against skin. You have a fleeting moment to be grateful that you’re likely now obscured from Mikasa’s view before a pair of strong hands around your hips prevent any more conscious thoughts from taking shape in your brain.

“One of my thoughts,” Eren’s right beside your ear now, voice echoing in your brain, “is that I like you. Like this body.”

“T-thank you,” you stammer out, wanting to facepalm at not only your stupidly simple response, but the weakness in your voice.

“Move it for me.”

You obey him, letting your body move with the music, trying not to get too caught up in whether or not you look ridiculous with how you’re pressing your body into his, arms thrown around his neck. Eren seems to like the way you move on him, pushing and pulling your hips in the rhythm you’ve set, looking down his nose at you with bloodshot eyes.

Your panties are growing wetter by the second; he’s intoxicating, the feel of him against you, firm and tacky with sweat. His hands are tracing up your sides, dragging slowly as if he’s memorizing the curves of your body. You haven’t known him long enough to want him the way that you do, humiliated by the carnal desire simmering in the pit of your stomach, but you’ve had enough tequila not to care. The whole thing is too similar to what you really want, and you make it through a solid seven or eight songs before you can’t take the stifling tension between the two of you any longer, thick enough to cut with a knife.

You lean up on the tips of your toes, wobbling in your heels, and grab him tight around the neck, pulling him to you. Your lips finally meet; Eren’s slow to respond as you’ve caught him off guard, but he catches on quickly, lips falling open so you can kiss him deeper. His lips are softer than you expect, supple and giving as they move with yours. You trace your tongue through his teeth, hardly suppressing a whine. He tastes good, like cheap beer and weed and lust. You drink him in, a satisfied hum buzzing in your chest.

Without warning, Eren practically rips you off of him. “Not here.”

He’s dragging you through the people around you, knocking them out of the way and not stopping to apologize when he gets offended looks. He pulls you into what you know to be Jean’s room, wastes no time in shoving you up against the door and blocking you in with his wide shoulders.

You swallow hard; you’ve underestimated him.

“Another one of my thoughts,” Eren mouths at the area beneath your ear, makes you groan, “is that you’re pretty. Like, very fucking pretty. Bet you’re twice as pretty under this dress.”

“I think you’re pretty, too,” you manage to say, forcing the words from your mouth. Eren chuckles, smiling against the shell of your ear.

“C’mere,” he tilts your chin up, kissing you again. It’s troublingly gentle, long and languid as your mouths move against one another. He kisses you like he loves you; the thought makes alarm bells ring in your head, and you nip at his bottom lip to break up the emotional momentum, sink your teeth into it. Eren pulls back, chuckling down at you. “You’re mean.”

“Only a little.”

“Is that what you like?” Eren thumbs at your mouth, slipping his finger between your lips. You suck greedily, rubbing your tongue against the roughness of his fingertip. “Like it a little mean? Between you and me, I like ‘em a little mean, too.”

You nod, gently biting on his thumb. Eren groans, a low rumble deep in his chest. “Oh, I’m going to have fun with you.”

He’s pulling your dress over your head before you can stop him, sucking in a sharp breath when he gets an eyeful of your lace-clad breasts, the tiny thong you’ve slipped over your hips. Stronger than you’d expected, Eren pulls you up to wrap your legs around his waist, slamming your back against the door with a loud thud and knocking your stupid cat ears to the floor. You can hear a few sounds of surprise from outside; surely that got a few people’s attention, but you’re lost in him, whimpering at the feel of his jumpsuit costume rubbing against your clothed center.

Eren’s sloppy, placing open-mouthed kisses down your neck, pausing to suck a bruise underneath your ear. You gasp, canting your hips into his stomach, desperate for friction. You’re normally not so uninhibited, but Eren’s doing something to your head, has your mind spinning. He’s carrying you over to the bed, dropping you down onto Jean’s sheets. Eren leans down to pull your heels off, a sweet gesture if you could find the presence of mind to acknowledge it. You feel a flicker of guilt about doing this in Jean’s bed, but when Eren starts sliding a hand up your thigh, it flickers away into nothing, swallowed by your bottomless want.

“Look at that,” Eren smirks, rubbing his fingers over your panties, “soaked. This all for me?”

“Mhm,” you whine, hips jerking up towards his touch. It is for him, it was from the moment you laid eyes on him, and you both know it. His hands are everywhere: unclasping your bra, pulling your panties down, palming at your tits. You arch your back up to him, offering him your chest; he responds by closing down on one of your nipples with his teeth.

“So pretty,” Eren’s murmuring around the mouthful of your flesh he’s got, twisting the neglected nipple of your right breast between his fingers, “so pretty.”

“Eren,” you sigh, running your fingers through his hair, pulling it out of its bun and wrapping the hair band around your wrist. His mouth is hot, scalding, even, but you pull him closer to you anyway, pressing his face into your tits. Eren doesn’t seem to mind, letting you move him this way and that, show him what you like and how to pull those pretty moans out of your mouth. Before long, he’s kissing his way down your stomach, hands gripping your hips like a lifeline.

“Want a taste,” Eren sounds more like he’s talking to himself than to you, “need to taste this pussy.”

“Eren,” you reach for his hair, trying to pull him back up to you. While you’d love to see what the mouth that had just kissed you breathless could do between your legs, the thumping music outside is an annoying but consistent reminder that there’s an entire party outside and you’re in Jean’s bedroom. The clock’s ticking. “Want to feel you, we don’t have time for–”

“Don’t have time?” Something wicked lights Eren’s face up as he shimmies your panties down your legs. “Believe me, it won’t take long.”

“Eren,” your protest is feeble but earnest, and you make another attempt to reach for him when a long, thick lick up your center renders you near-unconscious. You moan, a little louder than you would have liked to.

“See? Gonna make you feel so good, trust me,” Eren’s punctuating each word with a little kiss somewhere on your pussy: your clit, your lips, right over your fluttering entrance. You have no choice but to whimper and nod, canting your hips up towards him. You look down, immediately regretting it: Eren’s wiggled out of his costume, naked and beautiful and staring up at you from between your legs. You’re hardly able to swallow the inhuman sound that threatens to rip from your throat.

Where he’d been cool and calculated pulling you onto the dance floor, you quickly learn that Eren eats pussy like he can’t control himself, like his life depends on it. His massive hands wrap around the tops of your thighs, securing you against his face as you try to squirm away. He licks into you enthusiastically, moaning against you at the taste, sending a succession of vibrations through you that go straight to the fire in your stomach.

When his lips close around your clit and suck hard, you have to slap a hand over your mouth to stop a wail from reaching the ears right outside the door. Eren takes the opportunity to sneak a finger into you, curl it right against that gummy spot in your walls that has you seeing stars. As he works his finger in your cunt, he kisses his way back up to your mouth, greeting you with a sloppy kiss.

“Feels good, right?” Eren’s face is literally dripping with you, a sharp-toothed grin barely visible in the dim light.

“Feels good,” you whimper, daring to look down to where he’s grinding his palm against your clit. You can see the veins of his muscular arm straining as he pumps in and out of you; it’s a lewd sight, one that makes your head spin. “‘S so much Eren, I— fuck.”

“Yeah?” Eren’s smile grows darker, another finger slips into you easily. You’re practically dripping onto the sheets at this point, rolling your hips against his hand with your mouth hanging open. It’s humiliating but too gratifying to stop. “Gonna cum for me? You can do it, give it to me.”

“God– close, so c-close,” you can barely find the words to respond, the pressure in your belly swelling at an alarming speed. You’re going to squirt, you know you are, should move off of Jean’s bed or warn Eren or do something, but it’s too late.

You thrash in Eren’s grip, cumming so hard you think you can taste blood where you bite your lip. You can feel the wetness spraying from you, soaking Eren’s hand and the sheets and your inner thighs, can distantly hear your pitiful cries, but you’re powerless to do anything about it until the mind-numbing orgasm’s run its course. Eventually you do settle, babbling incoherently into Eren’s shoulder about Jean’s ruined sheets, about how you’re sorry for making a mess. Eren shuts you up with his mouth on yours; you can hear the distant rip of a condom wrapper.

“You’re so fucking perfect,” he laughs, rolling on top of you and lining himself up, “gonna have to keep you.”

Before you can even think to offer to return the favor or make a sarcastic remark about how you’d never let anyone keep you, Eren’s pressing into you, and your mind short-circuits. Shit, maybe you’d let him keep you.

You hadn’t gotten a good look at him in the darkness, but he’s big, bigger than you’ve ever had before, and big enough that you realize this when he’s not even halfway in.

“Eren…it’s so– s’big,” you hiccup into his shoulder, fingernails clawing into his biceps.

“Is it too much, baby?” You hate pet names, hate them, but from the greek god splitting you open right now, you love it, want to lick the word right out of his mouth and taste it on your own tongue. The genuine concern glittering in his eyes, the little furrow between his brows as he pauses, frowns down at you, fuck, you might be in love.

“No, not too much– feels good.”

Eren’s grin is feral. “Yeah? Tell me.”

“Feels so fucking good,” a little giggle sneaks out from your clenched jaw, Eren smiles wider and cups your face to kiss you again, far too gently to match the way he’s stretching you, bullying your cunt into the shape of him.

“Feel full?”

“Mhm,” he’s bottomed out now, impossibly deep, and you give him a little roll of your hips to show him just how okay you are, that you’re ready to see what he can really do.

“You’ve got–” Eren rolls his hips experimentally, punches a moan from your chest– “the best fucking pussy. So tight for me.”

Ordinarily, dirty talk makes you cringe, but something about the way he words things, as raw as if his inner monologue is spilling out of him, turns you on, makes your cunt clench down around him. That makes him happy, he sucks in a breath of air and starts pounding into you hard enough to make tears well in your eyes, hard enough to make you squeal in a way no one else ever has.

“Taking me so fucking well, baby,” Eren’s hands are grabbing your face, his lips pressing into your forehead, “never gonna let this pussy go.”

You grant him a long moan of agreement, so cockdrunk that for now, you’re more than happy to sign your freedom away to stay in this bed, pinned underneath him for all of eternity. He’s fucking into you so deep he’s practically in your throat; your breath comes out in short little huffs, choking on the brutal pace of his fucking. And god, he’s so big, but you’re taking him somehow, like you were made for it.

Eren moves one of his hands away from his face to swat your fingers away from where you’re digging into his arms, surely close to drawing blood.

“Fucking hurts,” he hisses, “just as mean as you are pretty, y’know that?”

He easily manhandles your arms above your head, pinning them above you by your wrists. The way he stretches his body to do so changes the angle he’s fucking into you at; now he’s hammering into the spot inside of you he’d found far too quickly with his fingers. Your eyes shoot open at the change, and Eren doesn’t miss it. He smirks.

“Right there?”

“God, yes, please– right there,” you sound pathetic, the few surviving rational brain cells you possess are laughing at you, but there’s no help for it. He’s already got you spiraling towards cumming again, the wetness from your cunt creating a sucking sound where he’s moving in and out of you.

“Fuck, m’close. Think you can cum again for me?”

“Yes,” you breathe, tilting your head up to nip at his neck, a tear or two running down into your hairline. You can do anything he asks, you think, anything in the world just for him, for how he’s making you feel. Eren practically growls, pistoning his hips faster.

“Need you to cum for me, okay beautiful? Cum right now.”

“S-so close– I– Eren, oh my god,” you’re babbling, eyes rolling back into your head. Eren smashes his lips to yours, grinding his hips into your clit and shoving you over the edge for the second time that night. You sob and convulse around him, back arching desperately and pressing your chests together. You’re seeing stars as he fucks you through it, grunting in your ear and growing sloppy as you tighten around him.

“Fuck!” Eren bites into your shoulder, hard enough to bruise, stilling his hips as deep inside you as he can manage. Your fucked-out brain wants the condom off, wants to feel the full warmth of him as he cums inside of you, grinding his hips against yours. Before he’s finished, Eren moves back to your mouth, kissing you deep and slow, a kiss that means a whole lot more than what you’ve just done together as a party rages just past the door.

As you’re panting beneath him, trying to ground yourself and come back to reality, Eren rolls off of you, whips the condom off, and to your surprise, takes you into his arms, pulls your head to his chest.

“You okay?”

You’re so blissed out right now that it’s a laughable question, and you giggle, watery and light into his chest. “More than okay.”

Eren laughs at that, a real laugh from deep in his stomach. The sound of it makes something warm and happy spark in your chest. “That good, huh?”

“You’re alright.” You’re trying to keep your eyes open, more than aware that your teeny tiny thong is on the floor and you’re naked in the arms of a stranger in Jean’s fucking bed, but Eren’s so warm, so comfortable, your eyes are fluttering despite your protests.

“Oh?” Eren’s voice raises in pitch, gets breathy. “Yes, Eren! Right there, Eren! I’m cumming, Eren!”

“Oh my god, shut up!” You smack at his chest, cheeks burning, but you make no move to roll away from him, preferring your snug little hovel against him to the loud, smoky party that awaits you should you leave.

“S’okay,” Eren presses a kiss to your hairline, “I like that you’re loud.”

“Not loud,” you grouch, resolving to let yourself enjoy just a few minutes of keeping your eyes closed before you return to the party. The last thing you remember is Eren humming, tracing circles into your shoulders with his fingers. You think you recognize the tune; it’s a love song.

–

“Jaeger!”

“Oh my god, oh my fucking god, is that Jean? What time is it? Eren!”

Eren’s first peaceful sleep in months is disturbed rather rudely, in his opinion; he shields his eyes from the brightness of the overhead light, peering through his fingers to see you, hair a rat’s nest and smudged makeup in rings around your eyes. He scowls at the warm, empty spot next to him in the bed that you’ve already leapt out of, frantic with energy even through your hangover. You’re alternating between running around the room naked, trying to find your dress, and shaking him urgently. He bites back a grin; so you are real, and just as hot as he remembered.

“Chill the fuck out, Jean!” Eren shouts, using far more energy than he can afford to expend if he’s leaving the bed anytime soon. The alarm clock on the nightstand reads 7:01am. Shit. “We’ll be out in a second!”

“Get your ass out here, Eren!” Shit. Mikasa’s here too? Oh, he’s dead the second he leaves this room. All the better to stay put, then.

“Get up,” you hiss at him, looking every bit of a pissed-off racoon as you scrounge around on the floor.

“Need my hair tie back if you want me to get up.”

“Ugh, here,” you fling it at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead. Eren chuckles, pulling his hair off of his neck and into its usual bun. He feels empty, feels alone, realizes that he wants your touch, the same body-to-body contact that he’d enjoyed last night..

“They’re fine,” Eren grumbles, hoping you can’t see the amusement written on his face, “we’ve got a few more minutes.”

He reaches sleepily for you, pulling you back into the bed with him amidst your whispered protests, pulling your lips back to his where they belong. He kisses you slowly, indulgently, convincingly. Your skin against his does wonders for the soul-crushing anxiety he’s been putting up with over the last few months. You’re like a drug to him; just one hit and he feels worlds better, feels like he can actually get through everything weighing on him for now. Jesus, even your morning breath doesn’t turn him off; his cock twitches in interest beneath the covers. Cute when you’re angry, he thinks to himself. He has a feeling you’d smack him if he said it out loud.

“We can’t,” you breathe into his mouth, pushing weakly at his chest. Eren loves the feel of your palms on his chest, necessarily resistant in the name of a one–night stand, but lacking the force to prove your point. You want him too, he realizes. The thought goes straight to his dick, and he takes a deep breath to keep his composure, to stop himself from jumping all over you with Mikasa and Jean right outside. He’s rather impressed with his efforts, rubbing small circles on your lower back instead of grabbing a handful of your ass and pulling you into his lap like he wants to.

“We can,” Eren murmurs back, already ten times happier than he was a moment ago, “just want to kiss you, that’s all.”

That makes you pull back, fix him with a stern look. “I don’t want to come off as a bitch, but I don’t really do the morning-after thing. Don’t you live, like, five hours from the city anyway?”

Eren’s not the brightest when he’s tired, and he’s even stupider around beautiful women. He cocks his head at you, smiling. “Mikasa didn’t tell you? I’m moving to the city in a few weeks.”

You eye him suspiciously. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Eren’s bullshitting, bullshitting very badly and he knows it, “just have to get some things worked out with my brother and our business. Get the operation moved here, that’s all.”

He knows your type: flighty, heavily anti-commitment, and meaner than a snake when you’re cornered. But Eren hopes, he hopes stupidly and against all reason because even if it was just a night, he meant what he said in the throes of passion. You’re funny, you’re interesting, you’re sexy, and he doesn’t want to let you go. He wants to fuck you stupid, just like he did last night, for the rest of his life.

He can’t say any of this out loud, of course, but what if he’s not bullshitting? What if he can convince Zeke to move their amateur record label into the city, where they can pick up real artists, and he can fuck you stupid whenever he feels like it? Maybe he can even learn how you like your coffee, what your bra size is, where the junk drawer in your apartment lives. Eren doesn’t know you, he knows that, but he inexplicably wants those things, wants the mundane parts of you for himself.

“Get the fuck out here, Jaeger, that’s my fucking bed!” Fists pound against the door, threatening to barge into your little sanctuary. Mikasa’s calling your name from outside too, voice harsh and angry. Eren waits for you to scold him, waits for you to shove him off of you and tell him to fuck off.

To his surprise, you make no move to get up and offer him a sheepish grin, shrugging shyly as if you’re not fully naked in his arms. “I guess I’ll see you around, then.”

Eren’s heart swells. “I’m not chancing that. Give me your number.”“You can earn my number if you buy me breakfast,” you scoff, “and help me find my dress before Mikasa kills us both.”

#eren x reader #eren jaeger x reader #eren jeager x reader #eren yeager x readaer #eren x you #eren jaeger x you #eren smut #eren jaeger smut #aot smut #attack on titan smut #aot x you #aot x reader #ti penso uni #ti penso universe #i love them this makes my heart warm!!!!!!!!!

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 20 days

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Have you heard? Disney is making another Lion king, but this time, it's a prequel, and it's going to be about Mufasa's backstory. Which i think it's very interesting. i'm open to seeing how they're going to show/represent the movie. Even though it's coming out of nowhere? A prequel after all these years?

I've also seen a lot of criticism about the movie, even though it's not even out yet. A lot of fans are disappointed that Mufasa and Scar/Taka (interesting how they're using "Taka" instead of "Scar") are no longer blood related brothers, but instead, both are orphans which doesn't make much sense since in the original Lion king Mufasa comes from a lineage of royalty and gives Simba a speech talking about “great kings” and “let me tell you what my father told me” I'm open to new ideas and stuff but i don't know how to feel about it. Maybe it’s the nostalgia? This honestly feels like a cheap cash grab, and seeing how Disney has had quality control issues lately, it's either going to be a flop or not.

I'm just HOPING that they're NOT going down the "misunderstood villain arc" because I've had enough of it. if they’re going for the "Mufasa was adopted and usurper who took Scar's rightful place at the throne! Showing that Scar was right all along."

What do you think?

Oh, I’ve heard of it! I’m not that interested in watching though. I’ll probably just wait for it to come out while praying that TWST gives us free stuff in a promotional campaign and listen to some commentary or review channels give their takes.

According to Wikipedia, Mufasa: The Lion King is supposed to be a sequel to the 2019 live action adaptation, not the original 1994 animated film. The prequel film was confirmed in September of 2020, which isn’t that long after The Lion King live action movie came out. They’ve been steadily releasing new information about Mufasa, such as voice cast reveals in 2021, 2022, and April 2024. It was officially announced and title dropped in 2022 during the D23 Expo. It’s possible that the film took longer to make due to the pandemic and worker’s strikes that occurred between 2020 and now.

On the Scar/Taka thing, I believe “Taka” (I’ve also seen “Askari” in some sources) is Scar’s given name and “Scar” is a nickname Mufasa gave him following an incident in which Taka was as tricked and attacked by other animals, which was the origin of his scar. This information comes from The Lion Guard (a series I haven’t watched myself; this is what I was told by a friend who has). If Scar is being called “Taka” in Mufasa (and assuming The Lion Guard is canon), then that means Mufasa must take place prior to the brothers’ relationship souring and him getting his signature scar.

I watched the trailer and… the phrasing is quite odd??? Now Mufasa is “a lion born without a drop of nobility in his blood”. That implies he and Scar aren’t blood-related. In real life, that makes sense since it’s usually the strongest lion that leads the pack rather than the eldest. Scar has a line where he says Mufasa got the brawn whereas he got the brains, so it sort of supports this idea. However, making it so that Mufasa and Scar are unrelated orphans within the Lion King universe doesn’t make sense if you hold that up next to the already established lore. They imply multiple times that Scar lost his claim to the throne when Simba, Mufasa’s blood-related son, was born to succeed him. So royal blood of the king is important??? The only way Scar could take over was to eliminate those in Mufasa’s lineage. It’s possible that Mufasa’s speech to Simba about the “great kings” and his own father could be in reverence or to show love for his adopted dad or pack…? But that makes those scenes a lot less impactful. Additionally, part of the reason why Scar’s actions are so evil is because he committed fratricide. He turned against his own blood brother, then manipulated his nephew, whom he also shares blood with, into taking the blame. There’s something very visceral and cold-blooded about that—plus it adds to the Hamlet parallels.

Seeing as Mufasa is the titular character, I don’t think they’ll go down the route of intentionally making him the bad guy to Scar. Disney’s so shy about making its main characters morally grey or just bad people… though like you said, they might do it unintentionally because by writing Mufasa as an orphan, that means he’s an illegitimate ruler… meaning Simba is an illegitimate heir… meaning Scar killed/deceived those with no claim to the throne, so actually Scar was not in the wrong at all 💀 But technically it wouldn’t be Scar’s right to rule anyway because he’s not of royal blood either (since you said he's apparently also an orphan? I did not see this mentioned in the trailer though)??? Unless Scar is the one from a royal lineage and everyone else is just dead???

I think it’s still possible that we get something tragic between the two; blood does not determine everything. Mufasa and Taka could form a genuine brotherly bond that later falls apart. It doesn’t really make up for the retconning of current lore, but who knows 😂 maybe they’ll pull some of their old magic out and actually write a story that makes sense to lead into The Lion King. I’m not going to hold my breath though, the live action movies have never been that good to me 💦 I’m going to let the movie come out and speak for itself before I make any real judgments on its quality, as I don’t believe in jumping the gun (even given previous track records).

I wonder what this new movie’s lore would mean for TWST… Since Tamashina Mina was very inspired by The Lion Guard, that means (depending on how the film goes) Mufasa’s events could be retroactively integrated into TWST history?? It’s not a guarantee, but just something to consider.

#notes from the writing raven #twisted wonderland #twst #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #The Lion King #The Lion Guard #Mufasa: The Lion King #Simba #Scar #Mufasa #question #Hamlet

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dcbbw · 6 months

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Commoner, Part 2--Secret

Part 2 of Commoner! Part 1 can be found here. We’re picking up where we left off (Leo left, Sav is pregnant, and no one knows)

This story was born of a long-standing head canon (Sav would crush on the older brother, not her brother’s best friend), and the song inspiration (original version, but used the sad and acoustic version for this fic); lyrics are also taken from the song inspo.

IF you read this, THANK YOU! Your likes, comments, and/or reblogs are appreciated more than you realize. Please excuse any and all typos, missing/extraneous words, and/or grammatical errors. MS Editor rates this story as 99% error-free.

To all those who read over this story in its various variations and renditions, THANK YOU! Your feedback, ideas, and encouragement was invaluable (as always).

Thanks to @choicesflashfics for their Week 62 prompt #2, which will appear in bold.

Song Inspo: Strangers (sad and acoustic version), Kenya Grace

Pairing(s): Savannah Walker x Leo Rys; Savannah Walker x Bertrand Beaumont

Word Count: 2,201

Rating: M for Mature themes

I sit in the back of the sleek, black Mercedes that is Duchy Ramsford’s official vehicle with the Brothers Beaumont, en route to the Palace. King Constantine has requested a meeting of the Great Houses.

And me.

I vacillate between relief that he will put those awful rumors to rest, and fear that Leo will be there with that woman.

“You appear to be deep in thought,” Bertrand observes. “Are you feeling well?”

I plaster a quick smile onto my lips. “Merely curious why the King would want me to be present at this meeting.”

The Duke gives me a solicitous nod, and I again wonder why he’s been so nice to me since our breakfast encounter. It’s not that Bertrand is a bad guy; he has taught me a lot during my month at House Beaumont. I know more than I ever wanted to about utensils, glassware, table etiquette, and bloodlines and lineage. I now know that the reason I don’t have the title of Lady, the most ubiquitous yet ambiguous title a woman can hold, is because I don’t belong to a House.

I’m commoner.

But he isn’t a nice guy either, so the attention is a bit … odd.

“I wonder if it has anything to do with Leo, and all the news stories?” Max pipes up. “Although I suppose if Bastien is at the Palace and Leo isn’t, that may be all the confirmation we need.”

Bertrand looks out the window. “We’re here,” he announces.

I swear I feel my baby flip inside my stomach, which is stupid. I’m only eight weeks along.

As we walk up the front staircase, I don’t feel a sense of homecoming. I only feel dread. My throat closes when Bastien opens the door and leads us to the formal living room where the other guests are gathered. Groups are huddled close together; there are murmurs of conversations I cannot hear. I hug my brother and struggle through a curtsy meant to encompass the entire room. No one acknowledges me other than Kiara, who gives me a huge grin and enthusiastic hug.

And I wonder why I feel the need to be a part of this world, to be accepted by the very people who never will.

That it'll never change And it will just stay like this

I catch a glimpse of Madeleine, who is stone-faced; only the paleness of her skin and the clenching of her jaw signals anger, embarrassment, and hurt. I look down at her hands; her fingers are bare of jewelry.

Leo has left both of us.

The King clears his throat, and we all turn towards the front of the room. He is flanked by Queen Regina and Liam; all of them are wearing stoic expressions and I know … in my brain, my heart, my very soul … Leo has run off and fulfilled promises he could never make to me to another woman. I’m a single, teenaged mother with absolutely nothing to my name; I can’t even leverage the child growing inside of me.

There is a buzzing in my ears that drowns out the words my monarch is uttering until he states that Liam will ascend to the throne. There is to be a social season, and I will be the House Beaumont sponsee. The Crown will fund my sponsorship as I was still their ward and had no properties of my own. Drake’s face darkens, Bertrand beams proudly, and Max jumps up and down in excitement.

There’s something about Bertrand’s smile … he isn’t surprised to hear this news. Did he already know what to expect? Was Leo the phone call that morning?

I throw up on the priceless carpet and my hand-me-down shoes.

Three weeks pass, weeks where I scour newspapers, magazines, and the internet for news of my baby’s father. There is a plethora of media, mostly photos of him in motocross tournaments: smiling happily in the Mojave Desert, frowning in concentration as he inspects his vehicle in UAE, sunning on a beach in Greece. The woman is not in the pictures, and rarely mentioned in the articles.

Now she can be his dirty little secret.

And when we spoke for months Well, did you ever mean it? How can we say that this is love When it goes like this?

Meanwhile, in Cordonia, my hips are spreading; my breasts are getting fuller, and my belly is only slightly rounded. Bertrand has ramped up my training but takes care to give me breaks throughout the day and we are now spending our meals together without Maxwell. He shares stories of his education, his time as a fashion designer, and memories of his childhood.

He walks me to my room every evening; occasionally he holds my hand.

I am not in love with Bertrand, but I find myself enjoying his company more and more.

But every time I meet somebody new It's like déjà vu I swear they sound the same It's like they know my skin

We’re sitting in Bertrand’s study one night; he is poring over documents related to Liam’s cabinet. Bertrand and Rashad Domvallier are to be financial and legal advisors to the new future King. I watch him nervously. I’ve decided that tonight is the time to tell him I cannot be the House’s sponsee. It isn’t fair to not tell him; he’ll need time to find someone new and school them in the ways of nobility.

My fingernails pluck nervously at my robe. I could very well be homeless in the next 15 minutes. Bertrand takes his duties as Duke seriously and is extremely rigid when it came to appearances and reputation; an unwed, pregnant commoner could not reside under the roof of House Beaumont. However, returning to the Palace would be a disaster between King Constantine and Big Brother Drake.

But it has to be done. This baby is going to make itself known sooner than later.

He drains his third glass of cognac before sighing heavily and pushing himself away from his desk. With an unsteady gait, he crosses the room to join me on the sofa. He looks almost regal in his gold silk robe with black piping, and black pajama bottoms. He sits so closely, I smell his cologne; it’s Hermès.

Leo always wore Armani.

“Savannah, I’d like to have a … conversation of a different sort with you.” His breath smells of liquor and his words are slightly slurred.

“Isn’t that funny?” I reply in a squeaky voice. “I wanted to have one with you also.”

He pulls one of my hands into his as he begins to speak. “You need to know that while you may be participating in the social season, you won’t win the hand of the Crown Prince. The position requires someone of lineage, with a knowledge of world politics and has a pulse on the fluctuating nature of both Court and Crown. However, the Engagement Tour should afford you an opportunity to marry into a minor house.”

I stare at him dumbfounded. Drunk Bertrand pisses me off.

“However, I do find myself being very attracted to you. I propose an offer that should be beneficial to both of us. I’d like you to be my mistress until we both find persons worthy of our status and station. You would become an honorary member of House Beaumont to assure you have a title, and I can be a very generous lover in more ways than one.”

He drops my hand and rises from the couch on his second attempt. He goes to a coat closet, opens the door, and retrieves a package. The box is emblazoned with Hermès’ name and logo. He brings it back to me, carefully placing it in my lap.

“Open it,” he urges.

I do so to find a limited-edition white matte satchel, made of leather and silk. The tag is still attached: $200,000 USD. I look up at him, knowing that he wants me to know how much it costs.

“Your … mistress?” I ask as my body feels as if it’s going numb.

And it will just stay like this Never really dating, breaking up

“This world is cruel. I’m just playing by its rules. It would behoove you to do so as well. You can’t be anything else to me or anyone of stature. You’re a commoner with the most basic of public education. You are ignorant in the ways of Court, the circles you would need to travel in. I am happy to give you the benefit of my knowledge, but at the end of the day, I am a Duke. Dukes don’t marry commoners.”

He says it all as if he is telling me the sun will rise in the east. Bertrand means no harm; nobles never do. Or so they claim.

Every word they say sounds just like him

My eyes fall back to the price tag, realizing I have my way out. I can keep my secret, and everyone’s precious reputation is intact.

“It’s late, Your Grace and you have given me a lot to process. I’ll have an answer for you in due time.”

He gives me a small smile. “May I … may I kiss you?”

A small shake of my head. “No,” I reply in an almost-rueful tone.

I know my place.

His smile falters, and he nods slowly. “My apologies. That was presumptuous of me.”

I mentally shake my head. THAT is what he considered to be the most horrible thing about his proposition? I box the purse again, and stand.

“I’ll see you at breakfast.”

Three months later, I am standing on the balcony of my small pied-a-terre located in a quaint, quiet Parisian neighborhood, watching the day come to an end. The sun is still bright in the sky, but evening is fast approaching. My fingers comb through my dark, thick tresses before pulling a toffee-colored cardigan tighter across my expanding body.

It’s springtime and I think again how leaving Cordonia to settle here was the best move. Paris had always been my dream destination: red lipsticks, rich wines, decadent perfumes, trendy runway fashions.

The baby and I have even learned to enjoy the food.

My eyes take in the Palais Garnier, also known as the Paris Opera House, not that far in the distance before falling to the cobblestoned streets below: restaurant and café doors open, unleashing aromas of grilled meat and sauteed onions as bakeries pull window shades down. Women with chic hats and impossibly high heels exit dress stores, shopping bags bunched in fisted hands. Street vendors begin putting away their wares.

My stomach rumbles, and I head inside. There had been a late breakfast/early lunch a few hours ago, but the fruit, yogurt, and cheese and spinach omelet have all but disappeared now. My child has a healthy appetite. I walk around a black wrought iron table with matching chairs, pausing to fluff oversized chair cushions decorated with huge sunflowers.

I push the terrace door shut behind me before going into the kitchen. I had taken a chicken out earlier, but I no longer have an appetite for it. Instead, I want pistou pasta with grilled duck and extra mushrooms from my favorite bistro.

But money is tight. Despite having a job and being frugal with the savings leftover from the sale of the purse Bertrand gifted me, I need to be mindful of rent, food, doctor’s appointments once the child gets here and I will be on unpaid leave.

I’m having a boy that I will name Barthelemy, Bartie for short. It’s my way of paying homage to Maxwell for being such an incredible and caring friend during all of this. He doesn’t know who the father is and has never pressured me to tell him. He sends money and has offered to make an honest woman of me.

All of this even though I left House Beaumont without a sponsee, and they now either have to find one that they will have to fully sponsor or withdraw.

A knock at the door captures my attention; I stare at it with a frown. I don’t have many friends in Paris; Maxwell is due for his monthly visit next week. He’s bringing Drake and Kiara with him. They were the only two I instructed Maxwell to tell of my whereabouts. Drake and I aren’t close, but we are all we have left as far as family. He deserved to know. Kiara’s my best girlfriend, and she speaks French. Win-win.

I would like to see Liam, but he has much to learn and do before the social season begins in less than 12 weeks.

I slowly and laboriously cross the small distance between the kitchen and the front door; my eye widens as I peer through the peephole.

Leo.

He looks even more handsome if that’s possible. He carries a bouquet of flowers in one hand as he looks around the hallway. I quietly and cautiously back away from the door as tears prick the corners of my eyes.

And then one random night When everything changes You won't reply And we'll go back to strangers

Tagging: @jared2612 @ao719 @marietrinmimi @indiacater @kingliam2019 @bebepac @liamxs-world @mom2000aggie @liamrhysstalker2020 @twinkleallnight @umccall71 @superharriet@busywoman @gabesmommie1130 @tessa-liam @beezm @gardeningourmet @lovingchoices14 @mainstreetreader @angelasscribbles @lady-calypso @emkay512 @princessleac1 @charlotteg234 @alj4890 @motorcitymademadame @queenmiarys @choicesficwriterscreations

#dcbbw writes #part 2/2 #savannah walker #bertrand beaumont #leo rys #writer on tumblr

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mrgaretcarter · 1 year

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Everything I enjoyed about Ted Lasso 3x10

It was so exciting to watch them announce the players that got into their national teams

Laughed at Ted not knowing Bumbercatch is swiss

Appreciated the whole team being there for Sam when he was snubbed

I genuinely laughed out loud at all the jokes to do with Dani's personality change

When it cut from the title sequence to ted sitting down with rebecca for biscuits with the boss i really thought it was for real gonna be an OG one but then they panned to trent and i was disappointed but i couldnt even be mad because it was so funny

Ted is a LIAR we have seen him gossip so many times he is such nosy biddy 🤣

Trent loving getting a good grade in girl talk was so funny and cute!

"So chaps, what do we think?" was such a fun line to me for some reason

All 3 of them going "Nah" and making the same face, so fun!

Ted was saying such nonsense for the rest of that scene and they made sure to show us Rebcca's reactions to every single one and she looked so fond every single time

Of course Rupert is saved on Rebecca’s phone as "The Devil" she is so insane

I loved Keeley's green skirt suit

I laughed at Beard's 17 throwing axes that he brought to the UK with him 🤣

"Sneaking in here today reminded me of the first match I ever saw at Nelson Road." "Ah, when they used to play by candlelight." 🤣🤣

I was SO happy to see Phoebe, then happier still to see her mum! And Jamie is totally right, she is fit

That whole scene was an absolute delight, filled my heart with joy, the England kit! the E for U swap! the tie dye shirt with Roy colors! One thing I can say about this season is that things do tend to go great when Jamie is involved

I laughed at the doomed handshake at Sam's restaurant, he was so resigned to his fate 😅

Nate breaking into his parents house in the middle of the night because he felt lonely and lost reminded me of 13 Going on 30

I was happy to see Rebeccas Amsterdam pants again! Especially with that purple blouse 💜

I love that Higgins knows Keeley, Ted and Sassy are Rebecca's top options in that order and that this is unquestionable

Higgins' comparing Akufu to the Chocolate Factory kids was both very accurate and very funny 😆 "I hate to break it to you Rebecca, but those children are dead."

I really liked Rebecca being insecure about the meeting because she knows she's only been invited as a token. It felt true to life and also reminded me of a favorite moment from a beloved show of my past, The Good Wife, where a character expresses a similar concern and gets much the same advice as Higgins gave

I really thought Rebecca was taller than Higgins' office door and was momentarily scared she was going to bump her head on the way out 😆

I liked Keeley and Mae's conversation, though I, much like Keeley, did not understand the lightning saying 😅 did appreciated the little "Maybe" joke though, it felt like something Ted would do and I always love to perceive them mirroring each other

Everyone noticing Roy's cheerful t-shirt was very funny

I loved that we saw Rebecca studying for the meeting

THE!! TOY!!! SOLDIER!!!!!! She's been carrying it around!!! She is fond of it!!!!! She treats it with such care, and it still brings her strength, gosh!! To think of the moment she picked it up off the ground and stored it away, of whenever it was she decided to keep it with her as an amulet!!! I'm breathless!!!!!!!

Kenneth saying "twins" to Roy lmaooo

The fact that Rebecca has panic attacks is something that can be SO PERSONAL that meant so so SO much to me, I could cry just thinking about it, I've always been sure she did and to have it confirmed was a thrill, and so emotional and satisfying to me to see her self soothe and how it paralleled Ted, truly beautiful gorgeous amazing

Ms Bowen is blonde now! Idk why but that was exciting, I like her! I think Roy should introduce her to Beard, I feel like she could beat up Jane. It was also hilarious to me that they named her Leann for real 🤣 they have no shame!

Barbara's Juicy couture tracksuit and "I like clothes that tell the truth" LMAOOO COMEDY GOLD

Barbara and Keeley's snow globe exchange was delightful. Barbara slowly grew on me throughout the season and was a true highlight in this particular episode, I was very glad that she chose Keeley.

I love that Rebecca went to that meeting in a bbp top and one of her less murderous earrings

I appreciated seeing Rebecca in a professional setting, taking a stand, and going to bat for the club and for football in general, it's something I have always longed to see from her and I'm glad I got it even if it was late in the game

Really liked that Nate plays the violin

I liked the window into Rupert and Rebecca's past and the glimpse into why they were in love once

I liked the contents of Roy's letter to Keeley and thought it was funny that she couldn’t read his handwriting

It was exciting to see Rebecca at Keeley's house! She demanded a hug! She's going to fund Keeley's firm! Their friendship has stayed beautifully consistent throughout the season and I appreciate that.

Keeley writing down the number and saying "This is how they do it in the movies" was another Ted-like moment (down to Rebecca being endeared by it!)

I enjoyed the joke of Roy walking in when he did and I loved loved loved that he and Rebecca saluted each other again! I'd been waiting for that!!

I think Nate's apology to Will - how he did it, the score, the note with the sprig of lavender, how it was filmed - felt like such a season 1 moment that it filled me up with this sense of right-ness and I truly appreciated it. Possibly one of the best moments of the season 🥹

Rebecca looked so at peace hanging that painting and also SO beautiful in that dress

Ted sat down without being invited, and Rebecca scooched a little closer once he did 🥹🥹

She specifically wanted to tell him about this big emotional milestone and Ted looked? I have no idea how to describe it, but it was new, it was a face he's never made before, and it was so?? I don't even know, I don't know what to do with it, or with "I wanna win for us too."

Rebecca is truly insane for spitting on his face on purpose like that lmao

Aaaand that's it! I liked a lot of the bits and pieces of this episode as you can see, and I had a mostly good time while watching it. There were a couple big things that bothered me though, but I'll save those for a different post later in the week once I've gotten a chance to collect my thoughts!

#ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #If you noticed me avoiding mentioning certain things... there's a reason for that #tl ramblings

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shipwreckedwithcaptainmarrow · 9 months

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- Captain Marrow Book Reveal Trailer -

It is with great excitement that I present this trailer for the reveal of my book cover, title, and premise! I’ve been vague these years working on this project behind the scenes of running the Shipwrecked page, but the topic is dear to me and the research behind putting this book together has been immense. I assure you that despite the premise, this is in fact a pirate history book, delving into the topic. I read long ago that should you write a book, do so to fill a void in your own library - something that doesn’t exist, that you wish you had, but cannot get. I’ve aimed to fill this void, and I’m happy to announce that a follow-up Book 2 is not only planned but already over halfway complete.

I would like to preemptively thank any of you who might share the video, and I welcome any and all questions you might have regarding the book in the comments below. That being said, I’ve also already recorded a YouTube interview and a Spotify podcast which will both be going live in the coming days, in which I’m interviewed about the book and its premise. Further, I plan on making a dedicated text post this evening addressing the topic and premise of the book for those unable to watch.

#pirate #pirate history #shipwrecked with captain marrow #captain marrow #author #book reveal #trailer

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satashiiwrites · 6 days

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Snippet Sunday/Summer Fic Preview

Wasn’t tagged but getting some writing done now that my social calendar is more open on this lovely Sunday morning. If you’d liked to be tagged when I post/update this fic, please like, comment or reblog and I’ll take that as permission to add you to the tag list for updates.

Happy Pride!

Title: Welcome to the Jungle

Fandom: 911, Jumanji

Pairings: Evan Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Robbie Nash/Danny Buckley, past Eddie Diaz/Shannon Diaz mentioned

Fic Summary: From the concrete jungle to the actual jungle, five players will be summoned to Jumanji to save it from the wicked Van Pelt.

Rating: Explicit (sex, stereotyped villain, implied/mentioned child neglect)

Tags/warnings: explicit sex, canon-typical violence, Jumanji AU, time travel fix it, slow burn, long fic, pod fic welcome, deviating from canon where it suits the story, canon timeline is a mess and we’re just not going to stress about it, author doesn’t do straight up adaptations, eventual happy ending, mention of divorce and canon character deaths, aged up Robbie and Brook, mentions of child neglect/abuse from the Buckley parents,

Mom is off somewhere, supposedly talking to his doctors, when the play therapist Tiffany stops by, announcing her presence with a happy little series of knocks and a smile. “Danny! How are you doing today?”

Danny likes Tiffany—she always remembers to call him Danny instead of Daniel, like Mom insists everyone call him because she detests nicknames. Tiffany also always has a smile for him when he’s having bad treatment days. She’s the one who snuck him in his favorite stuffed animal, a golden eagle he’d dubbed Aquila after one of his early babysitters had read him a book about constellations. Aquila is currently standing guard over Evan’s crib since Danny can’t be there, which is more important than being with Danny while he’s in the hospital.

“Hey, Tiffany. I’m doing okay.”

Tiffany’s blue eyes narrow as she inspects him playfully before she breaks and winks at him, and the smile returns. “Just okay?”

Danny shrugs. He’s stuck here, and they’d had the first hint of spring weather this week. He can’t wait to make a flower crown for Evan like Maddie had made for him last year.

“Aw, buddy, I get it. Hopefully, the doctors will let you fly the coop soon.”

“Mom’s talking to them.”

“Well, I got a great selection of things to keep you busy while they talk. We even got a donation of a few of the new Game Boys yesterday. How’d you like one of those?”

“What? Really?” Danny perks up. “Which games do you have?”

Tiffany hands him a brand new Game Boy. “We’ve got a few games. Zelda, Mario, Kirby,” she says idly as she sorts through the cartridges. “We’ve got multiples of those but only one of this jungle adventure game, so it’s the only one if you want that one.”

“Jungle game?”

“Ju…man…ji? I’m not sure if I’m saying that right.”

“Let me see it. You said it’s an adventure game?”

“I think so? The label looks adventurous.”

“Give me that one and Zelda.”

“Here ya go. I’ll be back tomorrow to switch you out if you beat both of them by then. Stay out of trouble, kiddo.”

Rolling his eyes at Tiffany’s playful admonition, Danny puts Zelda in first as he’s heard a lot about it. Soon, he’s joyfully adventuring as Link and spends a few hours running around Hyrule. Mom comes back and leaves again, which she’s been doing more and more. She’s spending a lot of time with that one doctor—Dr. Barnes.

Dr. Barnes is young and has been the biggest advocate for Danny getting a stem cell transplant. He also has the same blue eyes as Evan.

Danny’s heard the nurses say that more than once.

Link’s adventures prove to be preoccupying through the dinner hour, and Danny manages to eat a few chicken nuggets before refusing more food (hospital food is generally gross, but even they can’t screw up chicken nuggets). Mom checks in on him briefly before saying something about going to call Dad and then disappears again, leaving him alone.

There aren’t any good cartoons at night, so he picks up the Game Boy again and decides to try the other game—Jumanji. The screen blinks, and drums echo through his room, startling Danny. It sounds like it’s coming from the walls, not the game in his hands, which vibrates synchronously with the increasing tempo as if the drums are coming closer.

“Wow,” he says as the drumbeat climaxes and abruptly cuts off, the room silent around him. “This game is wicked.”

Text scrolls across the screen, and he reads it aloud, faking a British accent as it seems to fit the game’s mood. “For those who seek to find a way to leave their world behind, choose your avatar.”

#buddie #911 #Welcome to the jungle #911/jumanji au #Snippet sunday #coming July 2024 #Buddie #robert Nash jr/daniel buckley #Fix it au #mentions of child neglect

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omegaremix · 4 months

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The Great Vinyl Purge.

I had a funny feeling during my last music-shopping victory spree. When I furiously dug and came across certain titles, I constantly paused on myself wondering if I already had them in my collection. Dollar records make way for hasty decisions and later regretted when you come home to see those same titles you purchased already in your library.

I audited my shelves to see doubles I didn’t realize I once had. Money well spent if only the first time. After that, you’re donating to your local record stores. That’s what’s called charity. With me buying vinyl faster than a cheetah hunting down his prey, I’m running out of space. I’m not realizing I’m spending money on records I already have, so they had to go. There were many impulse purchases made thanks to low price tags, a kick for the classics, and very little care of the artist other than the year they were made.

There were many duplicates from artists I’m familiar with. Components from my Atari and Nintendo youth in Belinda Carlisle (The Go-Go’s) and Phil Collins (Genesis), jazz-fusion artists Tom Scott and Ramsay Lewis, and an extra from Minnie Riperton. The Doors’ Greatest Hits had to go as I mistakenly bought a copy recently before the purge, and one from France Joli that I shouldn’t have had because I tried finding a song that wasn’t on there.

Not only did I take the duplicates out, but I also took records out of my collection I never listened to. Two titles from The Who and Melba Montgomery that I purchased at an Amityville veteran’s hall left the library because I literally never played them. Doobie Brothers, Nicolette Larson, and many children’s records rescued from a sidewalk dump from people who didn’t know better. They had to go. A few days later I woke up one morning and asked myself why I have almost the entire vinyl discography of Seals & Croft and The 5th Dimension?

And then these three: Al Jolson, M.C. Osso, and Justin Wilson …Meets Jean (John) Barleycorn. Those were three records my dad found ages ago from another stack tossed out for the morning pick-up. That was when I was oblivious to vinyl and record collecting. Hell, we didn’t have a turntable back then. How did I somehow keep them and why did I keep a fucking cajun comedy (?) record? I was better than this.

**********

Now that the vinyl purge was over, what did I do? I had no time creating a Discogs and wait for these records to be sold piece by piece. No record-stores would take them as the children’s records are water-damaged with dry mold. The only other option? Take the easy way out and give them to someone who appreciates them. Why? Friends and family had been charitable to me in the past. A no-longer-staffer of WUSB announced a roll-call for a huge vinyl giveaway donated to me, and later on most of those same records went to Syke. That’s the same Syke who ended up donating me some of his records he found in front of someone’s house; a customer of his who took her entire collection and threw them out in front of the curb. Not me. I give my gifts to a good home.

Once my dad found a collection of polka records and took them home. “What the fuck is this?” I asked him. There’s no way I’d be caught dead and Wee-Gee’d with polka records. Good thing this was right before WUSB’s 35th anniversary. I knew our resident polka lady Theresa was attending, so I donated my stacks to her. Problem solved. Caring is sharing and it goes both way, that is…when you’re not throwing your entire library out in the street.

So I gave them to J-Ro, host of WUSB’s Radio Free J-Ro, archivist, and vinyl fanatic. I dropped them off at the station in October and told him to come get it. He took home Carly Simon’s self-titled, Minnie Riperton’s Perfect Angel, Ramsay Lewis’ Tequila Mockingbird, Herb Alpert’s Rise, and whatever 5th Dimension records he didn’t have already. So that’s only 5% of the stack. As of now, most of it is still there. It’s now WUSB’s as far as I’m concerned. We have the space. Let ‘em deal with it.

Here’s all I parted with to make way for more records and books of my liking. Malcomb Forbes did say: “he / she who dies with the most toys wins.” Sometimes, it’s the nicer shinier ones that get you the victory.

France Joli: Now!

Tom Scott: Blow It Out

Paul Simon: Still Crazy After All These Years

Doobie Brothers, The: Minute By Minute

Phil Collins: Face Value

Carly Simon: self-titled

Minnie Riperton: Perfect Angel

Ramsay Lewis: Tequila Mockingbird

Herb Alpert: Rise

Belinda Carlisle: Belinda

Al Jolson & Oscar Levant: Songs And Comedy

M.C. Osso: Umbra Penumbra

Justin Wilson: Justin Wilson Meets Jean (John) Barleycorn

Doors, The: Greatest Hits

Who, The: It’s Hard

Melba Montgomery: Don’t Let The Good Times Fool You.

Seals & Crofts: Unborn Child, The Longest Road, Diamond Girl, Closer, Summer Breeze, Greatest Hits, self-titled.

5th Dimension, The: Greatest Hits On Earth, Greatest Hits, Up Up And Away, Stoned Soul Picnic, The Age Of Aquarius, Portrait

#music #omega #playlists #mixtapes #personal #vinyl #records #ugh #nope #WTF #ummm #oof #*gong*#strike three #no way #no dice

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raccoon-eyed-rebel · 1 year

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Part 19 - Mike

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

Part 18 -- Part 20

Pairing: Mike x ofc

Summary: The guys throw a New Years Eve party at 179th Crescent Street...

Warnings: Drug use (alcohol, weed), minor violence (someone gets punched), a whole lot of ADHD, Mike being Mike, probably some mentions of some inappropriate things.

Word count: 3.5k

A/N: Yeeting some Mikey your way just because! (I love him, your honor...) God. This chapter has a special place in my heart because a) it's Mike and b) I loved writing this. I wrote most of it in a couple of hours, and I just completely let my ADHD take the lead on it. It was awesome! (Also: Sorry for not getting creative with titles here, that would just be confusing at this point 😂)

Let me know what you think! 🥰

@deandoesthingstome @geralts-yenn @summersong69 @peaches1958 @fvckinghenrycavill @keanureevesisbae @livisss @sillyrabbit81 @ellethespaceunicorn @ylva-syverson @poledancingdinos (hope you don't mind the random tag)

I hate waiting. I hate it almost as much as I hate making phone calls to our internet provider, who always refuses to accept that I’ve already figured out what the problem is. Right now, I’m doing both. It’s infuriating. ‘Mike, the internet’s down. Can you take a look at that?’ Of course I fucking can, a two year old could do that! There’s usually not even a lot I can do about it, except call someone to fix it, and anyone else could do that, too. But no. It’s gotta be me. Why does it always have to be me?

That being said; I’d rather do this than help downstairs, and since they’ve got no idea what exactly I’m doing anyway, I can just play a game while I’m on hold. And it’s not as if I don’t profit from a working internet connection. I’m running low on movies to watch and half the shit I wanted to see has disappeared off Netflix again. I can’t help it that sometimes I need to watch every Disney movie I can remember from my childhood before my brain lets me watch anything new. And it doesn’t help that Dani refuses to watch any horror movies I haven’t seen yet, because she needs me to tell when the jumpscares are. I don’t mind - it’s cute. The way she curls up next to me with a blanket, and holds onto me when she gets scared… Makes me want to show her every scary movie I’ve ever watched.

Fuck, I’ve got it bad for this girl. But that’s okay, I like it. Even though it’s only been a few weeks since we first went out. And only two weeks since what she thinks is the first time we went out. She’s soft and nice and she’s not just okay with the fact that sometimes I just need to get stoned to shut my brain up, but she actually got stoned with me? She’s pretty great. It’s the insecurities that sometimes get me. Like when she doesn’t trust that I actually mean what I say. I’m a heart-on-sleeve kind of guy. Oh well.

“Hello?”

“Oh!” The phone, right. “Sorry. Hi…” As suspected; the guy on the phone doesn’t believe that what I say is wrong with my connection, is actually what’s wrong with my connection. Yes, I’ve tried turning it off and on again. Yes, everything’s plugged in where it should be plugged in. Yes, right passwords and whatnot. It’s really not one of those, dude, I ran basic diagnostics. Thanks. Why do I even still do that beforehand? Right, because if it is one of those, I won’t have to call to begin with, and I’ll do anything to avoid that.

“It can take a few min…”

“Dude, I’m so sorry to interrupt.” I really don’t have the patience for this. “I’ve tried all of this before I even picked up the phone…” Although I could have gotten everything done in the time I was on hold. “I’m telling you…” Finally, he agrees to put me through to someone who actually knows anything about the technical side of things. Great.

“Internet is up again,” I announce to the full - and excruciatingly busy - kitchen. I’m just in time to see Leon toss a bag of weed on the table. “Nice.” Wait, I was trying to think that…

“I knew there was a reason we kept him around.” Charles. It hurts when he hits the bone in my shoulder, but I’m fairly sure it hurts him more, even though there’s nothing on his face that reveals that little grain of truth.

“Yeah, it would be so awful if you couldn’t watch porn for one night.” Why is the word ‘porn’ so hot out of the mouth of my girlfriend? Wait. I’ve been saying ‘girlfriend’. Is it too soon to call her my girlfriend? Oh, what gives. She’s hugging me, I like it, and I’m going to be sad when she stops, that’s all that matters. Something Charles says about not needing any porn tonight registers vaguely, but I do catch the way he winks at Dani. What a dick.

“Think you can still get laid with a broken nose and a black eye, Brandon?” It’s entirely unlikely I can take him on my own, but I feel I can count on some support from Geralt - or even better… Sol. She’s fierce - and she’s the only one who’s ever hit Charles in the nuts. We all applaud her for that a little. Dani’s arms tighten around me. I don’t look away from Charles, I just pull her closer to me. When I finally do look down at her. She’s biting her lip, looking adorable. I can’t help but kiss her. Maybe it’s a little much, considering we’re in public. Maybe I’m just shamelessly marking territory here. I can’t say I care much right now.

“Where’s Sherlock?” Lucky bastard is upstairs, not getting mixed up in all of this. I was almost just as lucky, yet here I am.

“In his room,” I say, “he wouldn’t last five minutes tonight if he had to deal with all of this, too.” Neither would I, so I’m glad I skipped most of it. But not enough. Dani puts her hands on the sides of my face. Fuck, I’m clenching my jaw - so hard she noticed, apparently.

“Relax,” she whispers softly. I have no clue how long we’ve been standing there. I’d say it’s gotta be a while, but I’ve been wrong before.

“We’ve got it from here,” Geralt says. He jerks his head in the direction of the door. That means ‘Mikey, get out’, but in the nice way. You can’t grow up as me and not pick up on these things, honestly.

Taking a walk with Dani beats taking a walk without Dani. Facts. There’s one little thing though. She’s slow… -er than me, I should say. I could walk circles around her, I really could.

“I’m not fast enough for you, am I?” How does she always know? I smile apologetically. And I really do feel bad about it! I swear! My eyes flutter over her body - that always wreaks havoc on my brain. It goes: nice, nice, nice, nice, very nice, wish she’d turn around, nice, nice, she’s smiling, cute, mine, what was I thinking about? I was trying to get some form of… Right!

“Come here,” I say, “climb on.”

“Mike, there’s no way you can carry me,” she laughs. I love to see her laugh. It’s fucking amazing, the way she laughs. That’s kinda what made me fall in love with her on pretty much the very first day of the year. And then it took me like fifteen weeks to ask her out. Which, honestly… not a great move. Ange actually had to stop me from deleting the text I wrote to ask her out for the thirteenth time - yes, I counted them. Come to think of it, I should probably thank her for that one of these days. Where was I? Right.

“Yeah, I can, come on!” I’m not gonna be much faster with her on my back, but I’m gonna be able to tire myself out, and that’s kinda the point. And I get to touch her. Definite bonus. You’d think - I know I did - that her touching me would be a bonus, too, but it’s very distracting. Because she’s trying very hard to distract me.

She’s spent enough time in class with me, you’d think, to know that distracting me isn’t exactly an Olympic level sport. Anyone can do that. Squirrels can do that. Leaves can do that. Those little tiny bits of dust that you can see float through the air when it’s spring and there’s sunlight streaming in through a window, and it’s nice and warm and you’re inside, but you really don’t want to be inside, so you look at those little dust-thingies move and you’re really curious how it would feel to just float down, and you spend a little too much time breathing in their direction to make them move, until your teacher notices and asks what the fuck you are doing and you also don’t know the answer to the question they’re asking, so they tell you you’re not paying attention, but is it really your fault, because you’re just not made to sit still on a chair for hours on end, but no, it’s your problem and they tell you to leave the room because you’re disturbing the class when you were really just wondering what it would feel like to be dust and nothing was the matter and you weren’t disturbing anyone until they called you out on not paying attention for a tiny little bit? Mike, focus. Right.

Oh no. Focus just takes me back to her hands. They aren’t the problem, but they kinda make me wish they were. The problem is the fact that she won’t stop kissing my neck, and every last one of those kisses is kinda altering the fit of my jeans, if you catch my drift. Fuck.

“Babe, stop.” Of course she doesn’t. Cue adorable noise of sadness. Fine. She wants to play? I’ll play. There’s a few trees nearby, and I walk her straight across the grass to get to one. She thinks I can’t carry her? She’s gonna have to think again. I pull one of her legs to my other hip.

“Mikey!” she shrieks, but she can’t help but let go of my neck. This is only going to be impressive if I don’t drop her - that would be kinda sad. “What are you doing, you idiot? Oh.” I’m a little proud of myself that I actually managed to do this, and a lot happy to see her pinned against this tree, with her legs wrapped around my waist.

“Kiss?” I ask. I’d tell myself I have to stop grinning like an idiot, except, no I fucking don’t. She pulls me in - hell yeah! - and kisses me. It’s great when she does that. Her lips honestly feel so amazing. But the tip of her nose is cold against my cheek. Oh, fuck, she moves her hips, and they’re kinda directly over mine. Goddamn, feels good. No, no, why does she stop kissing me? That’s not good.

“Aw, baby.” She presses her lips to my neck again, and I feel her tongue on my skin. Every move makes me grind my hips into her, and she’s moaning softly against my skin every time I do. The sound makes my cock twitch, and that’s of no use to me, because I can’t exactly have her right now, which means this was - all things considered - a fairly terrible idea by yours truly. It really doesn’t help that I’m holding her up with two hands firmly on her ass, either. It’s so squeezable. Soft. I’m really not helping this whole pants-situation. Ehh, I’ll sort that out later. That’s what math is for, right? Right now, I just want to keep kissing my girl.

“Mikey,” she moans against my lips. I know she’s trying to speak, but her lips feel good and they’re soft and warm and I don’t want to stop… “Mikey, stop.” Ok. I freeze, and slowly move away.

“Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” she says. Good, she’s still laughing. That makes me happy. “Let’s get back?” I like that idea. But she shouldn’t think I’m done with her, because I’m not.

“Listen.” That’s Marshall. He’s been dealing with something, and I don’t think any of us have bothered to ask what it is. Not that he’d have answered, we know him well enough by now. “You’re not the only people on the planet. Get a fucking room.” Okay. So it’s about a girl, otherwise he wouldn’t care. I’m not going to scream at him, because that would involve taking my mouth off… Hey! I have to glare at him now. A second ago, I was making out with Dani, now I’m not. This is a problem.

“Marshall,” she says, “go find yourself someone to suck your dick, and leave us alone.” Let me try not to laugh at that. Marshall seems plenty ticked off about it, which adds to how funny I find all of this, to be completely honest. I’m not gonna laugh, I’m not gonna laugh… I mean, at least he backs off? My thoughts are still all over the place. I was going to just pretend they aren’t, but Dani points it out. Not in a ‘Mike, stop being so fucking annoying’ kind of way, but in a sweet, caring ‘anything we need to take care of to make it better’ kind of way, and… I know it’s way too soon to say something way too affectionate, but I’m really having trouble keeping my mouth shut.

“Herbal remedy?” she offers with a sly smile. Fucking marry me. Don’t say that out loud! We walk to the living room, looking for a place to sit down for a second. From the corner of my eye, I notice Dani makes some gesture at Marshall, who is talking to some girl - I don’t know her. Judging from the reflection in the window, she’s sticking her tongue in her cheek. I try not to laugh - again. This is a horrible night for me. I can’t laugh at anything, dammit.

I sit down and pull Dani into my lap, but she gets up immediately.

“My roommates are here,” she says. I’ve never met them, but I’ve heard some things about them. For one, I know Sloane is going to be majorly disappointed when she sees she’s already too late to get something going with Sy. I don’t know why she’s after him - possibly because Dani’s review was good. Is it insecure of me to question whether she thinks he’s better in bed than I am? I mean, she isn’t complaining, but we’re a long way from keeping the whole house awake like Geralt and Sol do on occasion. Oh well.

“Mike!” Hand in front of eyes, waving. Hand. Waving. OH! My head snaps up, and I remember just in time the bag of stuff I’m holding isn’t closed.

“Second,” I say, closing it before getting up. “Hi!” Sloane and Ariel don’t seem impressed, and honestly, who can blame them. I didn’t notice they were there for the first few seconds they were standing right in front of me. They introduce themselves, and Dani kinda quickly leads them away again to introduce them to the rest of the guys. It takes a while before she comes back, and she stands next to me while I roll a joint. I just keep working. I hope she knows I’m not ignoring her. When her hand brushes past my cheek, I lean into her touch. After some time, I hear a little bit of a tussle next to me, but if I look up now, this is never getting done. Just a few more seconds and... Done! I put everything back in my pockets and look up just in time to see Charles get real mad.

“I think it’s time to get the fuck out of here,” he says before taking a swing at some guy I don’t recognize. Dani! Don’t ask me how, but I can hear her breathing, it stands out from all the other sounds all the other people are making, even though the room has gone eerily quiet due to this scuffle. I turn my head to her so fast my neck protests, but big fucking deal.

“Hey…” I get up and pull her into my arms. She’s upset, but I didn’t see what happened. Fuck. “Come here.”

“Are you alright, Dani?” Charles asks without looking away from the guy, who seems to decide it’s probably for the best if he just fucks off. I can see Ariel standing across the room; she’s next to Leon, and she’s glaring at me. Fuck, I’m not making a great impression here. Sy calls for everyone to mind their own business, and the fact that everyone stops staring relaxes me a little. But only a little.

“Wanna go outside?” Dani asks. I can tell she’s upset, and it’s fucked up that she’s taking care of me right now instead of the other way around.

“You wanna tell me what happened?” I hope my eyes apologize enough for now, because I can’t bring myself to say ‘sorry I’m a terrible boyfriend’ out loud in a room filled with people I barely know.

“Actually, I could really use some of that joint right now,” she says. Apparently, she doesn’t want to talk in a room full of people, either.

It’s quieter outside, and I feel like I can finally think straight. We’re not the only people there, but the ones who are there - August, Anjelica, Sol and Geralt - are good company. With the same idea I had, apparently. Except no one is smoking.

“Did you guys step outside when you saw me leave the living room?” I ask. It’s not the first time they’ve done this, and they’re not too proud to just admit to it, either. “For fuck’s sake, I’ll roll another one, here.” I hand the joint in my pocket to Dani and sit down at the only slightly wonky table to get to work on the next one.

“Thanks, Mikey.” Dear, sweet Angie. I love her to bits, we all do. Infinite bonus points to her for keeping August’s head level, too, there’s not a lot of people who can do that.

“Are you almost done?” Dani’s voice is shaky - and so is the rest of her. It’s cold, but it’s not that kind of trembling, I can tell. I finish what I’m doing, hand the product of my hard work to Geralt and pull her into my lap.

“What happened, Dani?” Ange again. She’s so sweet. If August ever breaks up with her, I’m fairly sure none of us will look at him for a while.

“Just some guy who couldn’t keep his hands to himself.” Fuck! That’s what I missed? Maybe I’m really not made for this relationship stuff, if I can’t even… Best I can do is hold her right now, I guess.

“Shit, you took care of that?” August asks me, forcing me to tell him it was Charles who ended up kicking him out. No one says anything. No questions, no ‘why not you?’ They understand. But does she? Her friend Ariel clearly didn’t. Everyone stays quiet for a bit, which is kinda nice.

“Anything I can do for you, baby?” No need to get creative in a situation like this one, right? She shakes her head and snuggles up closer. “Hold me,” she says to me, “and get me some of that.” August sees her pointing at him and he hands her the joint. It’s surprising, but he’s a lightweight when it comes to pot. He can drink like no tomorrow, though, and I can see he’s holding a glass of whatever. He hasn’t had enough to be all over Ange yet. Shame, they’re cute when they get all clingy. Geralt and Solveig haven’t had the courage to let go of each other just yet. Seeing Geralt like this sure beats seeing him the week after Sol leaves - or the week after he comes back from seeing her. Not that he gets particularly annoying or anything. Just sighs a lot.

A few minutes go by, and we’re still not talking. Most of us came here for some peace and quiet, anyway. Ange is a chatterbox, but she’s had a bad week. August probably took care of the worst part before they even got here. I wonder if she can even sit comfortably. Alright, I can't make myself laugh right now, they're gonna ask what I'm thinking. Moving on… Sol prefers to be in quieter places, Geralt is going insane with all the chatter inside when he’s standing out here, let alone when he’s in the middle of it, and August just doesn’t like people. I can figure that out about these guys in a heartbeat, but I can’t tell when my own girlfriend is being harassed. Honestly, it feels pretty fucking terrible.

My brain slows down unusually fast. It’s nice, finally some genuine quiet. Dani melts into me, which is awesome. She’s warm, she’s soft, she’s great. Oh, and she smells nice. August and Angie are getting inappropriately touchy, which just makes me laugh. I honestly couldn’t give a damn. They’re great together, and I love seeing people happy and in love. Same goes for Sol and Geralt. Like, who cares if they keep the whole house up all night every once in a while? Why the hell should I be mad that they’re having great sex? Little jealous, maybe… Dani puts her head on my shoulder, and I lean my cheek against her hair. Deep sigh. I used to think it wasn’t for me. I’m still not completely sure I can do it. But fuck, I’m gonna try. I want what they have. Love. Who knows, maybe I’ve already found it?

#henry cavill #henry cavill fanfiction #henrycavill fanfic #hellraiser mike #mike (hellraiser)#mike hellraiser #mike x ofc #mike hellraiser fic #179 crescent street #179CS #179CS19

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ferusaurelius · 1 year

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Spectre Evaluations Quartet

Ya’ll I can’t tell you how glad I am to have finished what started out as a silly one-shot and then decided to transform into a four-part series of developing-relationship ... Kryterius romantic comedy.

AO3 Links:

This will have no bearing on your evaluation.

Above center of mass in all respects.

Preserving joint environment lethality and ingenuity.

Adapt doctrine to circumstance.

... I’ve got a few fun background trivia points to expand on below the cut for anyone who is a fan of the pairing and this overall framework. ;)

Time for some fun character trivia that is alluded to in the stories, but that didn’t quite fit into the fics themselves:

1. This will have no bearing on your evaluation.

Nihlus in this AU is loosely based on the turian mercenary backstory I wrote for him in ‘The husbandry of victory is blood’, though only in the most raw outline. There are a few significant differences that will be apparent to anyone who has read both. It was important to me that Nihlus be both proud of his cultural differences and that Saren eventually take a great deal of care in acknowledging that pride.

I did not INTEND to write the whole quartet in such an experimental flavor of point of view! At least not at first. I tried to write the opening story in Chora’s Den with a more serious tone which just kept failing, no matter how I revised and poked and prodded. At some point, I just got the idea of Nihlus’s characteristic voice and reluctantly leaned into the absolutely ridiculous things it was telling me about what it was like to be a drunk ST&R candidate.

The most shocking moment in writing ‘This will have no bearing on your evaluation.’ (which was always its title!) occurred when wrapping up the ending scenes and realizing that Saren and Nihlus were respectively having two different conversations:

Saren: Realizing that Nihlus was making a genuine attempt to chat him up, since he hadn’t actually known that he was going to be chosen as a Spectre trainee. Saren has no idea what to do about a mentee who is personally interested in him, except put an immediate stop to all those questions so that he can focus on the job at hand. Beyond flustered by the implications, but also doesn’t want to admit to having anything remotely like an emotion, himself.

Nihlus: Confessing his many sins, still (unfortunately) realizing that Saren is actually his type for real and now they’re going to be working together. AWKWARD.

I wanted Nihlus to tell Saren the truth here even though it was going to make him look totally stupid!

The last scene is all about this dynamic and is intended to be the bedrock of their -- unique -- developing relationship:

Saren goes from interested, to blank-faced, to entirely still. Except that now his voice is flat, and his stare looks like it could melt a bulkhead.

“I will say this once,” Saren grates. “I expect you to keep the next two years professional. Your life and mine depend on whether or not you can maintain total focus on what I’m trying to teach you. Are we clear?”

Fuck, he’s hot.

“Aye, sir,” Nihlus answers, as automatic as if he were a fresh Ensign.

Saren accepts this answer, grudging. “While I am disappointed you did not acquire the selection results in advance of the announcement, I can appreciate the sheer audacity of your approach.”

What I intended to do here was illustrate on the one hand that Saren is absolutely laying down some ground rules for training, that Nihlus is still very much attracted to Saren (oops) and still capable of accepting those stated professional boundaries, and that Saren can respect Nihlus’s honesty and is offering a bit of concession or personal disclosure in return.

Even as the author, I didn’t expect Saren to admit that Nihlus had surprised or impressed him in any way. In retrospect (and after having written Saren as the background character in this series), I can see that Saren as a Spectre is used to nothing but lies and obfuscation and has no idea what to make of someone who is willing to confess to the truth of a situation so ridiculous that it beggars belief.

Nihlus doesn’t realize it yet, but Saren finds honesty to be a rare and valuable resource in his line of work. While Nihlus has a habit of constant internal narrative exaggeration, he’s also honest to a fault, especially with people he respects.

2. Above center of mass in all respects.

I wasn’t sure how much time I wanted to let pass between the first fic and this one, or where in the developing relationship I wanted to focus. However! I knew I wanted to stick to my absolutely rancid military jargon titles, and that I wanted to focus in some sense on the ‘evaluation’ implied by the previous story. What situation would create an opportunity for Nihlus to begin to realize that he’d earned Saren’s professional trust faster than anyone else in history?

Enter: the embassy hacking plotline, about six months into Nihlus’s training, after I thought Saren and Nihlus would have had time to get to know each other through regular assignments in the Skyllian Verge. I wanted to imply that they were busy enough outside the confines of the Citadel for something really dumb and standard to get overlooked (Nihlus’s security credentials).

At this point I also decided that I wanted Alleia (still no surname, hah!) to become a recurring character, and that she needed to be a Blackwatch technical expert stationed on the Citadel. I generally imply that Saren’s usual area of operations is in the Skyllian Verge, so I wanted to set up a situation that would prompt him to return to the Citadel to “take care of things personally.”

It’s implied that a suspected ‘rogue’ salarian Special Tactics Group agent is framing the batarian Special Intervention Unit for a hacking incident at the turian embassy on the Citadel. While I don’t cover this in the story, Saren knows for a fact that he’s well-respected enough that such a plot is unlikely to have been conducted by any of the special operations units he’s already cowed into submission. He suspects independent sabotage conducted by a group he’d already been watching in Zakera Ward, so he sends Nihlus to talk to Alleia while he does his own investigating.

Offscreen, Saren seizes a too-good-to-be-true ambush opportunity to catch the suspect and gets himself blown up in the process. Normal. His calculation is that, if he does end up seriously injured and/or overestimates his ability to shield, Nihlus will be inbound fast enough to handle the rest of the situation -- and it’ll be one less threat to galactic stability, since there will no longer be any questions about infighting between STG and SIU. Which he considers a waste of time and resources when he could be handling real problems.

It’s a MUCH bigger explosion and trap than Saren anticipated (who knew?), but he still walks away thanks to his crazy!strong biotic abilities.

What Saren didn’t anticipate is that Nihlus knows him well enough to intuit every step in his decision-making process and is also FURIOUS about it!

Nihlus incorrectly interprets the situation as Saren not waiting for backup on a whim, at least until Saren matter-of-factly states that he chose to take the risk only because he had Nihlus inbound as backup:

Nihlus has had enough.

“What, precisely, was the point of calling for backup if you were going to break down the front door. Alone! And then walk into a trap before we arrived?”

He can’t help the fury in his voice. He wants to snarl, too, but lets six years of Hierarchy discipline confine him to glaring full in Saren’s face, instead.

Alleia says nothing in the silence.

“It was a calculated risk,” Saren answers evenly, meeting him stare for stare. “I knew you weren’t far behind.”

This is the first time Saren has expressed that level of trust to Nihlus in so many words!

Right after this, I got to further reinforce Saren’s level of respect for Nihlus’s abilities and judgment by actually bringing in that first performance evaluation. ;) I had a lot of fun letting Nihlus realize that Saren’s seemingly arbitrary expectations for his assistance were ... very likely ... grounded in a more nuanced view of his abilities than he expected.

Nihlus is still confused and exasperated, but he’s also never gotten a performance review that unambiguously positive in his career -- much less from someone who appears to be the galaxy’s least enthusiastic mentor. Nihlus was prepared to be reprimanded for yelling at Saren, even if he was right about the risks and there being better alternative plans, but he was totally unprepared for positive feedback. XD

The theme/purpose of this chapter is establishing that Saren and Nihlus both exist with a professional rapport that (until now) they have been building together without openly acknowledging.

I had a great time allowing Nihlus to be beyond frustrated with Saren’s (apparent) neglect in the opening scenes, then frantic and worried at getting a request for backup, then furious about Saren’s decision to walk into a trap, and then finally deflated in the face of Saren’s regard.

Hard for Nihlus to stay mad about Saren relying on him for backup, after all! LOL.

3. Preserving joint environment lethality and ingenuity.

These events take place 18 months into Nihlus’s training, approximately a year after the previous fic’s embassy incident.

You can thank my research for my First Contact War AU fic for the whole opening scene with Nihlus as a marksman and armorer -- it decided to wake up and choose violence! Nihlus as a competitive shooter is a bit of a change from my other mercenary background handcanon thoughts, but it fit this AU setting really well and gave me an excuse to elaborate a bit on where Nihlus might have more expertise than Saren.

Alternative options to embarrass Nihlus I’d originally considered instead of Armax Arsenal Arena: damaged power armor and the undressing trope (but with an undersuit, and having to pretend he’s not attracted to the person he’s helping ... lol); something more mission-fic oriented with Alleia and Thanas as deputies/on loan from their regular units; Nihlus doing something a bit ridiculous and a bit brave and then having Saren get him out of trouble.

I’m really glad I went with the Arena plot in the end! Sparring-as-flirting is a favorite trope of mine, and this setup delivered on all counts. I got to turn it into a roundabout double-date thanks to Alleia and Thanas, with Nihlus snarking about Saren’s problems with pistol technique (see, Nihlus cares!) and then ... getting to write Nihlus doing a surprise trust fall with Saren! And Saren catching him!

They’re both surprised about this, by the way:

A barrel presses up beneath his jaw, and all at once he’s not alone.

“Surrender,” Saren says.

At point-blank, getting shot is gonna sting. He only has one chance to escape.

“Never,” he growls, going deadweight and fully expecting to hit the deck. In a real fight? Nope, not happening. But hitting a target on his back from prone isn't the craziest thing he's ever done.

Which is not what happens. A flare of dark energy catches him in the back, and then recedes until it’s just Saren’s hands between him and a hard landing on the floor.

“Really, Nihlus?” Saren asks, somewhere between amused and exasperated, still out of breath from the snap biotics.

Fuck, he may have miscalculated. Nihlus is warm from his neck to his toes. He’d give anything to see Saren’s face, but he doesn’t dare look.

This was so FUN to write! I didn’t even start knowing how or what was going to happen in this scenario, but the minute the whole ‘Saren catches Nihlus’ idea occurred to me, I knew it was the right direction to take.

Nihlus is expecting Saren’s reflex here to be totally different! He’s expecting to be shot, not caught! Everything happens so fast that there’s no hiding from either of them: Nihlus is personally invested enough to do free armory work for Saren on his off-time, and Saren’s actual instinct here is to keep Nihlus from falling.

Honestly, this was also my first real opportunity to hint that Saren is not as indifferent to Nihlus as he might have been at first. Wherever they started in relation to each other, I wanted to hint that the relationship dynamic and grown and changed in the intervening months even though both of them would still be reluctant to try to define or put any labels on each other.

Joke’s on Saren, too -- he thought he wanted things to stay professional, turns out he actually does kinda like Nihlus personally, as well. Oops! Didn’t see that one coming. ;)

While it’s not explicitly stated, Saren doesn’t have the consistent manual dexterity required to be an accurate shot without additional stabilizer mods or other aids. He prefers to rely on his biotics to do damage instead, though he still carries other armaments as options.

It wasn’t easy to keep this one true to the funny/snarky formula of the others while figuring out how to set up the emotional revelation in the end, but with tweaking it eventually fell into place.

4. Adapt doctrine to circumstance.

This was an absolute bear to write. While I knew that I wanted to at least give Alleia some screentime, and I suspected that was going to be at a promotion ceremony that turned into a larger event than Nihlus anticipated -- the intermediate transitions remained a challenge.

While my FCW AU fic has Saren as a Blackwatch recruit, for this scenario I chose to stick with a biotic Cabal background.

I knew I also wanted Nihlus to not expect Saren to commit to attending whatever ceremonies were taking place -- so that he could be pleasantly surprised. ;)

The formality of this occasion also let me take a little creative license with what a dress Cabal uniform might look like, as well as setting up Saren’s complex (implied) relationship with his military honors and infamy. I was NOT expecting any of that background to make it into the story, and there’s plenty that is still missing.

For instance: this is the first time Saren’s worn his Star of Palaven in public, too! He received it shortly before he rejected Anderson for Spectre candidacy in this timeline (the paperwork took a little more than seven years), but also not long before he met Nihlus, and there was no graceful way to get used to the protocols since he was already a Spectre when he was officially decorated.

Nihlus has no idea that Saren has already made a number of complicated choices in attending Fleet promotion ceremonies, while also arranging for Nihlus’s surprise promotion ... in a way that all of his Navy peers will respect:

“Not even a whisper of a warning,” she sighs. “If I’d known, I’d have been ready to take vids. Then I could show you what your face looked like when he decided you merited a rank-pinning honor that dates back to before the Unification, delivered by a Recipient of the Star of Palaven.”

Nihlus puts his head in his hands. “Don’t remind me.”

Saren pinning Nihlus with his own rank insignia is one of the few Navy gestures that still has all the old meanings. In front of a Fleet audience? Not a single turian will have missed the significance of that trust being given to someone merc-born.

If he thinks about it too long it still makes him dizzy.

“It was also romantic, if you believe in that sort of thing,” Alleia teases.

He wishes he didn’t.

Again, I had SO MUCH FUN with figuring out how else Saren might potentially choose to make Nihlus’s promotion an occasion.

I’d read somewhere that military officers who were being promoted themselves occasionally gave their old rank insignia to the officers who were coming up behind them, to fill their old position, as a mark of esteem -- and I chose to alter that symbolism a bit for the Hierarchy Navy.

While I only hint at this in the text: Saren pinning Nihlus with his rank insignia is one of those culturally Hierachy Navy touchstones that mixes the professional and the personal, and it’s also a gesture that, by its nature and by tradition, can only be done once in a career.

Alleia is correct that there are also romantic epics that feature this traditional gesture as a trope! XD

Finally, I knew from the very start that, since Saren was the one to draw the boundaries, he’d also have to be the one to instigate a discussion or an adjustment in the limits he’d set between him and Nihlus.

I considered a number of other scenarios where Saren left a note afterward, or put off that conversation, or did something else other than what happened here: immediately stating his intentions.

It was also hugely fun to work out how Saren might plausibly arrange to make Nihlus’s Spectre promotion as “by-the-book” Navy respectful as possible. I think you’ll agree that he outdid himself. ;)

PHEW. Now that I’m finished with the series, I’m also open to other asks. Either about this AU, different background details, turian headcanons, or other curiosities.

If you’re reading this: I have a tentative plan for a longer fanfic featuring these two characters, though with a more traditional POV structure. I’m not a terribly fast writer, so that’s about as much as I can say at this point...

#mass effect fanfiction #kryterius #my writing #meta #bar!fic link masterpost #ferus chats #I'm open to asks about this variant of these characters #just decided to noodle around a bit with some reflections #now that I've finally put the quartet to bed #saren arterius #nihlus kryik #i should not be allowed anywhere near ao3 #for obvious reasons #im laughing #i have so many wips at this point

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minyare2906 · 2 years

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[RELEASE] HANAKOI TSURANE CH54

Title: Hanakoi Tsurane | Dance of Love | 花恋つらね

Author/Artist: Natsume Isaku Rating: +18

Summary: The self-destructive type, Sougorou is the heir of one of the well-known families in Kabuki world. He has no interests in other actors his age with the exception of Gensuke who he recognizes as his rival and never wants to lose to no matter what. However, fate plays a cruel trick on him and the two of them end up as classmates… How will their relationship develop…?!

Chapter 54 Download/Read online: Here

Note: Hello!! How are you doing my fellow readers? Hope you’re fine and resisting this hellish summer. Seems like the heat is subsiding here, but it still shows its ugly face from time to time.

Volume 9 starts now, yay! Sensei offers us a beautiful coloured cover of the 2 lovebirds, I've cleaned it completely for your enjoyment, hope you like it. I don’t know you, but I think that Sougo looks great with those tattoos, even if they’re fake. I’m dying to see how he does playing Benten, but for now we can only see him being eaten by anxiety, he’s really worried about how this character will turn out. I hope sensei lets us see the result soon, she’s already announced the paper release of chapter 55, so the digital will be out soon ;)

Oh, before I forget, to those of you who read Hanakoi on Mangadex, I’m really sorry! I totally forgot about uploading the chapters, I’ll start today and chapter 54 will be up in a month, as our usual schedule, if I see it up in Mangago sooner, I may upload it sooner as well.

On a side note, I may end up adding a watermark on the Mega release (I’m still mulling over it), because I’m tired of asking not to upload it to Mangago, now they don’t even wait until it’s up on Mangadex, the upload it on the same day or the day after our release. So, if you start seeing huge watermarks, I apologise, but please be understanding. I could talk to the uploaders before to ask them to bring the links down, but I can no longer do it, as now the uploaders’ name is hidden.

For now, I’ll withhold the Mega release for a week, as that’s what I guess they use to upload to aggregator sites. Again, sorry to those of you who are good, respectful readers, but I need to protect my colleagues and myself and aggregator sites are not protective towards the scanlating groups, just think about how many groups have gone private or how many have had to drop projects because the author (with all their right to do so) discovered their pages on those aggregator sites, and the ones who’ll have to do it in the future due to the same thing. I know it’s unfair, but it’s also a way to reward all of you who read it here, you’ll have it available a week before the ones who read it in aggregator sites ;)

I know GDrive is not the most comfortable to read, but it’s the best to not get the pages stolen for now.

After this long testament, I want to thank Adamay for translating so fast and to Toshirodragon for accompanying me into making the texts the best possible, I know you both have little time and you spend it in Hanakoi, I appreciate it so, so much and I know we share our love for those two, thanks so much! A big thank you to @rosesquadscans, you saved this project when I thought it was lost, thank you.

And thanks to all of you! See you in chapter 55!

@cm-scans - @ikahomine

#Hanakoi Tsurane #Natsume Isaku #CM Scans #Download #!Hanakoi Tsurane #Min manga edits

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mrultra100 · 4 months

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Ultra's Ramblings- Pokemon Legends: Necrozma

As of me writing this, we’re only one week away from the recently-announced Pokemon Presents presentation, along with the Nintendo DIrect Partner Showcase airing tomorrow. Given how the Switch is basically nearing the end of its lifespan, part of me has a sneaky suspicion that the next console could be revealed at this Partner Showcase. The reason why any of this has anything to do with Pokemon is because after the way Scarlet and Violet ended with its last wave of DLC, there might be anymore big main series games planned for the Switch… or any major 1st party titles at this point. After 7 years of chugging along, it kinda feels like the Switch’s run is almost over.

Now that we’re possibly seeing the end of the Switch, it might be possible that the next Pokemon game being cooked up by Gamefreak could be the first one for whatever this new console could be. Now, it should be absolutely stated that I feel like TPC and Gamefreak should really slow down on their development. People have already been through this. This is the largest media franchise in the world that we’re talking about, they’re already making loads of money, and they really shouldn’t rush these damn things out without taking some more time in the oven.

If there’s only one (and I do mean one) idea that, despite how both parties have been guilty of rushing the Pokemon games out, I want the Pokemon Company and Gamefreak to make and give more time towards… it’s this

Given how Pokemon Legends: Arceus was one of the more beloved titles in the franchise’s recent memory, it’d make sense for fans to ask for another game like it to evolve on the concepts presented in Hisui. Plus, we haven’t seen either the Ultra Beasts or Ultra Space in a while, so it’d be a great way to bring those two aspects of the greater Pokemon multiverse back.

Now, a Legends game set within Ultra Space isn’t the most common idea for a sequel game, since people have also asked for games set within ancient Johto or Unova, along with how a setting this futuristic and alien wouldn’t fit with the whole gimmick of the last game (I.E. going back into the ancient past to a time where people aren;t used to catching and being around Pokemon). However, using the Ultra games from Gen 7 allows some insight that could help as a work around.

The various dimensions of the Ultra Beasts seen so far are hostile, untamed, and largely unexplored beyond the areas that the player can go in USUM. That sounds just like how the different areas of Hisui were in Arceus

The Ultra Recon Squad have stated that the idea of using Pokeballs is new to them, similar to how the people of Hisui were only starting out with them as well.

With all of that said, I’ve been thinking of ideas and mechanics that this game could not only take from Arceus, but also some improvements from it as well. I’m not sure if a future Legends game could do some of the new ideas presented here (Hell, that extends to future mainline Pokemon games in general), but the thought is nice.

Parts of the Ultra Recon Squad being split into two separate teams (Similar to the Diamond and Pearl Clans from Arceus)

Have the player be an actual character with a story arc and a personality, instead of being a blank slate (Maybe someone like Lillie or some sort of descendent of hers joining the Ultra Recon Squad?). And that could be extended to the story being written better and more involved

Give quite a few UBs their own Ultra Burst forms, just like with Ultra Necrozma. Alongside that, have them be boss battles in the same manner as the Nobles from Arceus, along with the Totem Pokemon from Sun and Moon (And those were already ‘Mons filled with energy from the Ultra Wormholes, so why not?)

Either have the starters be Ultra Variants of already-existing Pokemon, or have them be Poipole and Naganedel (along with two new starter lines to round out the trio)

Have the Pokedex be a mix of Ultra Beasts (The 11 that we already know, alongside a whole bunch of new ones), Ultra Variants of existing Pokemon (Probably “UVs”?), and some regular Pokemon that could be found within the Ultra Wormholes (USUM already made that canon. And maybe a good chunk of returning Pokemon could be Ultra Variants)

Have a level-scaling system present. Any of the area could adjust to the level of a player’s team, from literally just getting their starter, all the way to having a late-game team of fully-evolved ‘Mons

Bring back abilities, along with expanding on them for the Ultra Beasts so they don’t just have Beast Boost as their only ability

Probably make the Z-Crystals like the Plates from Arceus, not only having them play out their original purpose of letting the player do Z-Moves, but also play a much more important role, gameplay-wise. Also have the Z-Moves act faster and more like the Agile and Strong Style moves from Arceus

Have Ultra Wormholes act in the same way as the Time-Space Distortions from Arceus, bringing in Pokemon from other parts of the game that aren’t normally found in the area that the wormhole popped up in

Bring in the Pokemon Storage System from SwSh and SV, mainly to avoid the grind of going to the Pasture from Arceus multiple times

The player is allowed to do anything in any order. Again, level-scaling is a huge element of that

Voice acting… maybe? Seriously, how has that not been added at this point?

Will any of this ever happen? Probably not, but it feels nice to explain my thoughts on the matter. As much as I wish Gamefreak allowed more development time on game-making, I’ve always had a soft spot for Gen 7, especially with the concept of the Ultra Beasts. As unlikely as this entire idea is, it’s the one idea for a Pokemon game that I wish will happen someday. Maybe we’ll see it be announced next week? Until then, I guess.

#pokemon #ultra ramblings #pokemon legends #necrozma #pokemon legends arceus

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howdy-folks-its-showtime · 1 month

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April Update!

Howdy! Cobalt here, as many of your guys know It’s Showtime and its characters/story are gonna be turned into a horror game by the same title. So for both Gamejolt and this blog I am gonna start trying to do monthly updates on development. I think it’ll be a good way to put into perspective how much progress is being made each month and keep you guys in the know about how things are going. These are gonna be formatted with work made that month going first and then afterwards any other small announcements or thoughts we’d like to share on development. That or things that weren’t created that month that I basically keep stored in case we have months where progress is slow or I can’t show much behind the scenes stuff. These logs will likely contain personal stuff too, since with me and my partner being the main heads of the project. Our well-being or IRL goals are relevant to how much work is being done. Also while developing Showtime I intend to create other games similar to it, to sort of learn and test the waters + Since those ones aren’t tied to an IP I can actually make money off of them. Something I can’t [or at least not without Mike n Meatly’s permission I suppose] with Showtime or its characters.

April was sadly, not my month, I found out I was vitamin D deficient and got a slight fever. So I spent a lot of days tired and recovering from that. Progress has still been made though, mostly on learning 3D modeling more, I’m almost done with a model I’m making for someone else actually and while it is not perfect by any means… I think it looks really awesome for being my maybe fourth or third model and it’ll be my first truly finished model as well. I also have made good progress on writing both dialogue and summaries of Showtime’s story. I did particularly get ideas for a good chunk of Showy's campaign however, which involves a character I was on the fence about including in Encore!... Until very recently... Art wise not too much has been done specifically this month besides some concept art for cycle designs and some progress on textures for the studio. But that’s okay cause we’re not really at a spot where major progress can be made art wise yet. There’s so much more I want to share but I’ll be doing my best to space out those things out between updates. So no update is too long or too short with nothing interesting in there. Also sorry this is all so vague and non-specific I’m gonna try and get in the habit of actually documenting what work is being done on Showtime monthly from now on, so I’ll be able to be more specific about what parts are being chipped away at.

So onto something that didn’t happen this month but is important we have decided to switch to Unity instead of Unreal Engine 4. I’d like to take some time to explain why and also make sure nobodies too anxious over the change. For one thing, not a lot of progress was made on Unreal Engine, you could hear footsteps as you walked, use a buggy animation to enter a miracle station and the map was just a room full of lights. This is due to the fact while working in Unreal Engine was interesting and I learned quite a bit, I found myself often feeling it was not a good fit for Showtime and that trying to make it so was fighting against the engine as opposed to working with it. Unreal Engine seems to be built for realistic, open world or multiplayer FPS type games. That’s not to say you can’t make anything else with it, but finding tutorials for things I wanted to do was. Basically a nightmare because youtube was flooded with videos on how to make those games specifically. Another big aspect however was the general style. Unreal Engine is great if you want very realistic lighting and have a computer that can tank the sort of weight of that too. Neither is true for me however, Showtime’s characters are all very stylized, our humans are cartoony have clear shapes and most of all, I just want Showtime’s overall style to pay loving homage to 1930’s and general 2D Animation. I think both are really underappreciated and god do I love them. Also I’m making this on literally a laptop, a new one and not a janky one by any means, but still not a desktop. Unreal Engine works great for those who know how to use it and want to create the games it was optimized for, but it’s not ideal for my purposes, Godot seems promising but Unity is just great at specifically doing what I want to do with Showtime. It’s great for beginners to Game Development, has plenty of tutorials for all kinds of games and is very flexible in style. Sadly nothing is better at being Unity than Unity right now. I’m still mad about what the CEO did, and I’m glad for those who were able to switch engines to those with better management but it’s not really an option for us currently. Of course, this will put things back a bit but I’ve already been learning how to build a basic map in Unity and so far have only run into a few issues. Still I would love any advice on how to do this, esp from those who had made games similar to BATIM and other mascot horrors. [I have been thinking of building the maps inside Blender first and then importing them into Unity, to see if that’s easier or practical, but mostly I would love to hear what others commonly do to build such intricate interior design in Unity.] Either way while this month wasn’t terribly exciting by no means was no work done, just nothing too fun to show off yet.

#it's showtime #not ask #Devlog #bendy and the dark revival #bendy and the ink machine #batim #batdr #Bendy Encore #Bendy fangame #queer horror #indie horror game #indie horror #mascot horror #mod whirly #I dont know yet if Ill be fully putting all the devlogs in the bendy tags #it feels like a good idea for making sure the posts reach more people but once a month might be annoying to those who are not interested?#but also one post every month doesnt sound too disruptive either so? Im not sure yet #anyways thank u guys for being so supportive so far I swear I am taking this project seriously its just I have other things I am working on #too and since were still in early pre production most of this is just planning and actually putting fun ideas to paper to see how theyll #actually work out yknow?#anyways yeah ty for everyones patience hopefully from now on communication will be a lot more consistent from us <3

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mcx7demonbros · 2 years

Text

Obey Me! 8th Brother Series

Ft: You the 8th Brother, Seven Demon Brothers, Side Characters

Warning: Y/N is male and a teenager (both physically and mentally)

Inspiration: The Eighth Brother, by byawji

PART 1

Several centuries had passed since the end of the Great Celestial War, with Lucifer and his brothers losing the battle and fell from grace, expelled from Heaven for eternity, never to come back. Father - Creator of both angel and human, created you - Y/N. You were created from the materials Father had used to create Lucifer and his brothers before, so you are their new youngest brother, without your or their knowledge. And Father loves you dearly, he gave you the love which he had had for the brothers before their Fall to you.

On Celestial Realm, you are like a little brothers to the Archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, etc. You are also very close to two other angels. Simeon - an Archangel whom you also consider your big brother, and Luke, who is technically your nephew, but you treat each other as BFF.

As you grew up, your fascination for human also grew. Multiple times you went to Human Realm to enjoy human things, like watching anime or a movie, playing at the amusement park, reading Tales of Seven Lords by Christopher Peugeot, who is none other than Simeon. Of course, your other big brothers, the Archangels, knew about your adventures, with Father’s permission, they created a human identity for you. Father also made a veil covering your identity, so no human or demon could ever know about you when you are in the Human Realm to cause you harm.

You thought your life would be peaceful like that forever. But fate has many surprises.

…

Where am I? You opened your eyes and found your eyes in a court-like room, and several men were looking at you.

“Welcome to the Devildom, Y/N.” the red-haired man seating on the Chief Judge’s seat spoke. His voice was loud and clear.

“Devildom…demons…get away from me!” you panicked.

“Calm down, Y/N. We wish you no harm.”

“Who are you? And what do you want?” you asked.

“My name’s Diavolo. And I’m the ruler of all demons. One day, I will be crowned king of the Devildom. As for why you are here,…”

“Let me take it from here, Diavolo.”

You were startled to see a black-haired demon appearing next to you.

“Y/N, this is Lucifer, my right-hand-man, and not just in title,…”

All of those demons presented in the room were taken aback. You and Lucifer were looking straight at each other in the eyes,…and you both…cried.

What’s this feeling? I feel like I have been reunited with a family member I have lost from long ago. You couldn’t stop the tears flowing from your eyes.

“This…” even the powerful Diavolo was flabbergasted ”Lucifer, I think you should take Y/N back to the House of Lamentation first. The explaining should be after Y/N has taken his rest.”

“I also think the same.” Lucifer wiped the tear drop on his cheek. ”Let’s go, Y/N.”

👼👼👼

“Wh…what do you mean Y/N has disappeared?” Michael asked the two angel guards.

“Y/N was in his apartment in the Human Realm and we suddenly couldn’t feel his presence anymore.” one of the two guards recounted the story.

“Could it be the Devildom?” Gabriel told everyone his suspicion.

“No, that shouldn’t be possible. The exchange program has just begun. Any harm to Y/N or any other angel would damage his reputation and bring another war upon the Three Realms.” this time Uriel raised his voice.

“Plus, no demon could know Y/N’s true identity is an angel, including that time demon Barbatos. No creature could peek through Father’s veil, unless Father or Y/N revealed it themselves.” Selaphiel agreed with Uriel.

“We couldn’t rule out the possibility that Diavolo was behind this, precisely because he doesn’t know Y/N to be an angel.” Metatron raised his hand and voiced his opinion.

“What do you mean by that?” Raphael asked.

“Very simple. There are two human exchange students, one of whom we know for sure to be Solomon, while the other one hasn’t been announced to us yet. So there’s a possibility that Y/N…”

“Lord Archangels!” before Metatron could finish explaining, another angel appeared in the room.

Michael nodded to the newly-arrived angel, indicating he approved for him to speak.

“Diavolo had a demon sent us the files of the second exchange student.”

“Hand it to me.”

The angel handed the files to Uriel, whose face immediately became grim.

“The second exchange student is Y/N. It seems that they think Y/N is a human.” Uriel handed the files to Michael.

“Well, it seems that my theory is proven to be correct.” Metatron chuckled.

“It’s no time to be happy that your theory is right, Metatron.” Gabriel sighed.

“We have to go to Devildom to save Y/N from those filthy, beast-like demons.” Selaphiel slammed his hand on the table.

“Let me go get my spear.” Raphael already stood up from his seat.

“Alright, let’s go. The Devildom will taste the wrath of Celestial Realm if they refuse to give Y/N back.” Michael said after every other Archangels had agreed to go save you.

“Mi-cha-el”

“Father!!!”

“We will keep Y/N from sin. No evil shall befall him.”

“…Father has spoken. Don’t send the angelic troops. Father will take care of Y/N.” Michael sighed in relief.

“But we can’t just stay here and do nothing.”

“I agree with Selaphiel, we don’t want to feel…useless. Y/N is such a good kid. We want to help him in some ways.” Gabriel looked at Michael.

😈😈😈

“How is he, Asmodeus?” Lucifer asked the fifth eldest the moment he saw him walk out of your room.

“…It’s weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“My charm does not work on Y/N. I tried to calm him down but to no avail.”

“But why did you cry?” Satan pointed to the tear on Asmo’s cheek.

“…The moment I saw Y/N, I felt like I had been reunited with an endearing family member.”

Satan did not reply, but nodded, indicating he felt the same.

“Same here.” Levi put his hand on his chest.

“I felt like Y/N is someone I needed to protect.” Beel ignored all the food to join in the conversation.

“Y/N’s like…a younger brother.” Mammon looked at Lucifer, like asking if he felt the same, even though Mammon already had the answer.

“I-“

“Lucifer?”

“No it can’t be.”

“What ’can’t be’?”

“I felt that Father just walked past us…but that’s impossible. This is Devildom.” Lucifer turned into his demon form. His hatred for Father is enormous.

…

You were sitting on the bed of what they had told you to be your room during your stay here.

“*sob*…*sob*…just let me go home, you demons…*sob*…Father, help me.”

“Y/N”

“Father!?”

“Fear not, for I am with you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

And you suddenly felt more confidence, and all fear dissipated, it was like those demons couldn’t do anything to you.

“Father, may I ask you one question?”

“Yes”

“When I met those demons, I mean Lucifer and others. I…I feel like they’re my long-lost family members, a…and my chest hurt. What does that mean?”

“Once, there were six princes and one princess living together happily with their other brothers and sisters and their Father who created them in His Celestial kingdom. One day, their Father called all of them to his garden and told them not to give the fruit in his garden to any mortal, because it would change a human’s lifespan and create many evil consequences.

Misfortune soon befell the princess. She fell in love with a mortal man, who fell ill and was on the verge of death. A serpent appeared and told the princess ”Give your lover the fruit from your Father’s garden and your lover will live.” The princess did as the serpent said, she forgot that if her lover died, they would be reunited in her Father’s kingdom. The consequences for sin is death. The six princes wanted to prevent the death of their sister, so they revolted against their Father, hoping that if their Father was overthrown, the Heavenly Principles set up by Him would collapse, and their sister would live.

The six princes suffered a miserable defeat, their sister perished in the war, and they were expelled by their Father from the Celestial kingdom to the Kingdom of Darkness below. Years later, they emerged victorious over other denizens of darkness, becoming the Kingdom of Darkness’s new rulers, serving only the Prince of Darkness.

Several centuries later, the Father of the princes and the princess created another Prince, who’s the new youngest brother of the fallen heirs of the Celestial Kingdom. He soon became the Celestial kingdom’s most beloved prince. He never knows about the existence of his brothers and sister, nor they know about his.”

Hope you guys like it.

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me 8th brother

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seasurfacefullofclouds1 · 6 months

Note

https://youtu.be/ocwh-UBB0Eg?si=ecZXBDa2vNsth9G4

never seen this before - body language aside, louis saying “you might be the first to know” very pointedly about a reunion kind of gives weight to the idea that DW was being directly fed insider info/dirt etc on louis. like we already knew based on the timing of every interview louis had with him and his friendship with SC but still… yuck.

also very fucked up and weird given the allegations against him… i really and truly hope the ongoing investigation will reveal everything needed to lock that creep up.

Dan Wootton was definitely being fed insider info by the Syco PR team, of which Simon Jones was a prominent part. Wootton and Jones are friends who used to socialize outside of work regularly, and posted to social media about it.

Consider this— even the great Harry Styles had to agree to an interview with Dan Wootton in 2017, although not on video. Imagine the kind of dirt Wootton has on everyone, the power of his tabloid back then.

I watch those 2017 interviews now, with Louis answering questions from Dan Wootton’s staff like, “What was the biggest beef between the 1D boys?” I’m aware how carefully Louis tread that terrain, especially in view of AOTV.

“Do you miss Zayn?”

“I’m still in contact with him, so I don’t miss him much, no.”

“What was the biggest beef between the boys?”

“It would be small things like I was always cold in the car, and someone like Liam would always be hot and want the window down. Just brother things that would escalate.”

youtube

And you’re right, the body language in the 2019 interview is super uncomfortable to see.

I think this was the day that Louis did a marathon of 5-6 long interviews for Two Of Us promo, including the interview from Olivia Jones. The questions about judging X Factor seem jarring now, as they should have been in 2018 too.

Some Larries were preaching what a great marketing decision X Factor judging was. They were so excited he was going to earn £4 million from the gig— as if money was Louis’ focus. It was pretty clear from Louis’ announcement video that it wasn’t his choice to do it. This is reiterated in the interview you linked above, with Louis saying his priority was to release the album Walls— an album that was >70% written and engineered before X Factor 2018.

The fact that Larries explain the layered meaning of Walls (both the title of the album and its contents) to be completely about sexuality and romance tells you everything about their priorities.

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senadimell · 2 years

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Hatchette vs. Internet Archive actual case links

So I decided I should probably hear the publishers out in Hatchette v. Internet Archive and ran into some info. I’ll be talking about US law, libraries, and companies throughout, so assume all reference to “libraries” is to US libraries, etc.

Publishers’ complaint: https://cdn.technadu.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Hachette-Book-Group-Inc-v-Internet-Archive-complaint.pdf

IA amicus briefs: https://www.eff.org/cases/hachette-v-internet-archive

So I started reading the actual case and it got me hopping mad.

8. IA defends its willful mass infringement by asserting an invented theory called “Controlled Digital Lending” (“CDL”)—the rules of which have been concocted from whole cloth and continue to get worse.

guess what all theories are invented and all rules are concocted from whole cloth! hope that helps.

For example, at first, under this theory IA claimed to limit the number of scanned copies of a title available for free download at any one time to the number of print books of that title in its collection [...] Then, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, IA opportunistically seized upon the global health crisis to further enlarge its cause, announcing with great fanfare that it would remove these already deficient limitations that were purportedly in place. Today, IA offers an enormous universe of scanned books to an unlimited number of individuals simultaneously in its “National Emergency Library.” IA’s blatant, willful infringement is all the more egregious for its timing, which comes at the very moment that many authors, publishers, and independent bookstores, not to mention libraries, are both struggling to survive amidst economic uncertainty and planning deliberatively for future, changing markets.

Gee, that’s a funny way of saying that a service that’s been running since 2006 (aka 14 years) temporarily launched an emergency program to lend books since physical libraries across the country were shut down and nobody could access the books. Just...how dare they bring up libraries here? How dare they? Like IA’s threatening libraries? I’m sympathetic to pandemic concerns about livelihood for authors, publishers, and especially bookstores, but they launched the program because libraries were shut.

[...] —though no provision under copyright law offers a colorable defense to the systematic copying and distribution of digital book files simply because the actor collects corresponding physical copies.

actually, guess what? check out this ruling on Google Books! Especially provision 2 of the Second Circuit’s reasoning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc.#Second_Circuit_appeal

On April 11, 2014, the Authors Guild appealed the ruling to the U.S. Second Circuit. It also began lobbying Congress to create a non-profit organization similar to ASCAP that would digitize and license books from participating authors to all libraries, schools, and other organizations choosing to pay a subscription fee.[56] Oral arguments were held on December 3, 2014, before Judges Pierre N. Leval, José A. Cabranes, Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr.[57]On October 16, 2015, the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed the judgment in Google's favor.[58]

The court's summary of its opinion is:

In sum, we conclude that:

1. Google’s unauthorized digitizing of copyright-protected works, creation of a search functionality, and display of snippets from those works are non-infringing fair uses. The purpose of the copying is highly transformative, the public display of text is limited, and the revelations do not provide a significant market substitute for the protected aspects of the originals. Google’s commercial nature and profit motivation do not justify denial of fair use.

2. Google’s provision of digitized copies to the libraries that supplied the books, on the understanding that the libraries will use the copies in a manner consistent with the copyright law, also does not constitute infringement. Nor, on this record, is Google a contributory infringer.[59] (emphasis added)

SCOTUS denied the plaintiffs’ appeal, so the Second Circuit’s ruling holds.

Now I’m not saying that the above ruling means that Open Archive’s activities are a well-traversed legal area, but that’s a far cry from “no colorable defense.” If Google is allowed to digitize books wholesale without prior authorization, and is allowed to supply the copies of books to libraries in a limited manner, aka basically what Open Library did for fourteen years, temporarily stopped in the face of library closure for just under three months, and then resumed for next two years until the present day, then that seems like a “colorable defense” to me.

Returning to the quote

Then, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, IA opportunistically seized upon the global health crisis to further enlarge its cause, announcing with great fanfare that it would remove these already deficient limitations that were purportedly in place.

Huh, you know what that “cause” that publishers are so mad about is?

IA’s infringement is intentional and systematic: it produces mirror- image copies of millions of unaltered in-copyright works for which it has no rights and distributes them in their entirety for reading purposes to the public for free, including voluminous numbers of books that are currently commercially available

I’ll call attention to the word “produces,” because what Hachette et al neatly sweep under the rug is the fact that it’s hard to digitize massive amounts of books, and also? Those books don’t just magically appear at their doorstep. They don’t just steal them. Someone had to buy them first, and then donate the book. They’ve been involved with digitizing archives from the beginning.

And who else do we know that buys a copy of a book and then makes it available to the reading public?

Publishers have long supported public libraries, recognizing the significant benefits to the public of ready access to books and other publications. This partnership turns upon a well-developed and longstanding library market, through which public libraries buy print books and license ebooks (or agree to terms of sale for ebooks) from publishers, usually via book wholesalers or library ebook aggregators. IA’s activities are nothing like those of public libraries, but rather the kind of quintessential infringement that the Copyright Act directly prohibits.

for someone who just loooves libraries, you are awful mad about the distribution of books to the public for free. Specifically, bought copies of books. Because you know where those “truckloads of books” come from? (”On the contrary, it is about IA’s purposeful collection of truckloads of in-copyright books to scan, reproduce, and then distribute digital bootleg versions online”)

Yeah, they come from libraries. And donors. And libraries also get books from donors! I donated five books to my local public library when moving house!

Moreover, while Defendant promotes its non-profit status, it is in fact a highly commercial enterprise with millions of dollars of annual revenues, including financial schemes that provide funding for IA’s infringing activities. By branding itself with the name “Open Library,” it thus badly misleads the public and boldly misappropriates the goodwill that libraries enjoy and have legitimately earned.

Oh, I could seethe. I am seething mad.

“oh no! how dare a ““non-profit”” that hosts close to 100 pentabytes of data recieve money? nonprofits means *~*free*~*!”

How dare someone provide a service to the public without requiring a direct profit in return. How dare a non-profit fundraise? how dare a non-profit invest in “financial schemes” to provide a more reliable source of income to make up for all of the free services they provide?

Guess what! If you provide an expensive service, you’ve got to get the money pay for it even if you don’t charge the users!

Also, for any non-US people who might see this, “scheme” is not a neutral word in US English. We don’t talk about “government schemes” unless we mean “the government is villainously plotting to do Bad Corrupt Things Under The Table.” We would use “program” or “push” or “drive” to indicate “a neutral/positive thing that the government is starting up.” It is not a compliment.

And you know what else? Do you know what else the Open Library does for its print-disabled patrons? It makes those scanned library books accessible through DAISY talking digital book. The Open Library is also an accessibility project.

I’m not print disabled and haven’t done much research on library accessibility, so I’m uninformed and may miss some important points (feel free to chime in if you have more expertise than I), but most libraries that I’ve been to have much smaller accessible collections compared to their ordinary fare. Things like large print, braille, and physical audiobooks are historically much smaller collections than the regular print collections in public libraries. I imagine that public libraries may offer on-demand procurement of accessible books, but I haven’t used those services and my library does not have a readily-accessible page on library accessibility beyond large print, so I’m still unfamiliar with this.

(When it comes to big university libraries, mine had massive stacks that vastly outnumbered large print, braille, or physical audiobook offerings, but most of the books I wanted were available online and I’m assuming that digital books generally have more accessibility options).

When it comes to the ratio of accessible books to inaccessible books, the Open Library is far from perfect, with a ratio of 25 million available books to 3+ million accessible books, but 3 million books is still a sizeable collection, far, far more than you’d be able to easily access at ordinary local public libraries, and you can access it anywhere instantly instead of through mailing programs like those of libraries who participate in The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled’s programs, like the Utah State Library for the Blind and Disabled.

Part of accessibility is removing disabled people’s barriers to equal participation. These include things like additional costs. Generally speaking, most corporations don’t have a vested interest in accessibility unless they specifically cater to a segment of the disabled market. Libraries aren’t perfect, but they do try because they’re subject to ADA.

So yeah. I’m gonna stop reading the compaint for now because I’ve got a massive headache building, but from the beginning, it misrepresents the Internet Archive and the Open Library’s services, uses derogatory and inflammatory language throughout, slights a non-profit that provides expensive services for free for having a large operating budget, and pays lip service to libraries while trashing IA on a line of reasoning that showcases their true hostility to libraries’ core purpose. (and also ignores just how much IA has worked with organizations like the Library of Congress.)

So shame on you, Hachette Book Group, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Penguin Random House LLC. Shame on you.

Miscellaneous things I didn’t fit into the post proper:

If you want to read more about copyright and accessibility, here are two sources:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170625075714/https://www.loc.gov/nls/reference/guides/copyright.html

https://www.ala.org/asgcla/resources/libraryservices (this is just general accessibility)

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/ada-inclusion-in-libraries/ (more on libraries and accessibility, cw for brief mentions of historical discrimination practices)

Accusations about withholding discovery (IA complained twice that Publishers weren’t providing documents, then Publishers accused IA of the same thing and said they were “stonewalling” discovery to “run down the clock.”)

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/87971-in-new-filing-publishers-accuse-internet-archive-of-stonewalling-discovery-in-scanning-lawsuit.html

https://www.publishersweekly.com/binary-data/ARTICLE_ATTACHMENT/file/000/004/4824-1.pdf

An EFF (the same people defending IA in the lawsuit) post about the Google books ruling:

https://www.eff.org/el/deeplinks/2015/10/big-win-fair-use-google-books-lawsuit

#internet archive #hatchette v internet archive #hatchette v. internet archive #it's not just hatchette but they're the first name #fair use

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