#Real talk for future con stuff

[ijbolz]

some nsfw headcanons about theo & jiung's tattoos _ mdni

a/n: all this talk abt theo's tattoos got me thinking😮‍💨 so here's a little something. + jiung too.

the hottest thing about TAEYANG having tattoos, aside from the ones on his arm... is the hidden one he has on his back

ever since he found out you really like his back tattoo, so obsessed about it even, he goes shirtless more often when he's hanging out with you alone.

he's giving excuses under the guise of a complaint, saying it's too hot inside the apartment or whatever.

"but babe... the AC is literally on..."

taeyang makes some lame follow up about how you're not picking up the way he's flirting with you. did he really have to tell you straight up that you're making him hot and bothered?

if you're gonna ask about the cute, innocent stuff though... you do love tracing his back tattoo through his shirt while cuddling :(

...oh but when he does fuck you good, he'll have you out of your mind to the point you can't form coherent sentences. mind embarrassingly clouded in pleasure, so obvious from the way you're sprawled out beneath him. can't even remember how many orgasms you've had at his mercy. your hands are tight around his biceps while your legs lay open numbly, fucked so dumb. he thinks you're so adorable though.

your breath is caught in your throat when taeyang suddenly lifts you off the bed, his fingers digging into your waist. and he gently embraces you close to him, your breasts flush against his skin. just wanna pull you impossibly close. you felt a soft kiss press on your forehead, still weakly clinging to him. "how does it feel now baby? i know i can get another one out of you... mmhm— when i'm in so deep like this—" his voice hitches in a second, feeling your plush walls squeeze around his length. almost like you really did want more.

and through your tears, you watch as he begins to lift you up and down his cock like he's just using you, slamming you back down so good you can't stop clenching around him. he's close, from the way his length is starting to throb inside your sopping cunt. but unlike you, swear like you'd cum the second he thrusts up into you. the heat inside of your stomach amplifies as your vision clears—your nails raking right on his back tattoo, reflected on the mirror by the side of the bed.

it was a fleeting thought on how come you've never noticed the mirror before, tracing back memories of taeyang running his mouth about how all he's gonna do in this hotel is you. well, he's a man of his word. and he does fuck you good, hips unfaltering in a rapid pace. god, it's like you're not gonna last far longer when he keeps this up.

i got different sources saying it's real, some saying it's not. but JIUNG with a tattoo sounds hot, so i'm gonna talk about it😮‍💨

apparently he has some butterfly tattoos on his hip, or around somewhere over his stomach. whatever, you just remember clearly that the time you really got a good look on it was when he'd undress in front of you the first time.

the sight had you salivating for him, your cunt... wet. it's really not something you can resist when your boyfriend's hovering over you without anything on, his cock standing hard against his stomach. twitching, like it needs your help.

felt like you were in heat from the way your mind has got nothing in it but the thought of sucking him off at that moment.

you'll like having your lips pressed onto those tattoos as well, especially with the way it makes jiung pant. cutely sensitive. you're not even touching his cock yet.

you know that thing guys do when they sit down and just stretch, making their shirt rise up a bit. little things like that, enough so you get a glimpse of his tattoo.

you know your boyfriend too well, sometimes he doesn't know his limits. often pushing himself into frustration whenever he locks himself in the studio preparing for future albums or whatever. he needs to cool off from time to time too, as you tell him. and after a long time of convincing, he's had you underneath him, trembling like you almost regret asking him to use you as relief for tonight.

oh, jiung can get rough and he doesn't even realize it. his moans all breathy and everything, leaning towards whines. yet he always tries to clear his throat everytime it starts leading of to that, despite your protests on how adorable you'd like to see him whine. be a bit careful on teasing him though, when he begins to feel you cunt sucking him in a little bit more than usual... he'd take it as a chance to slow down on his thrusts and watch you teeter over the edge.

...who's whining now then? "i told you baby, keep your eyes on me." the rasp in his voice shot straight to your core, pussy squeezing around his cock impossibly more. jiung's so mean but his tone is so gentle. undeniably making your heart skip a beat at times.

and you do a pathetic ten seconds of keeping your eyes locked on his until your gaze flickers down... at his tattoos. you're close, so fucking close especially when you'd watch the way those butterflies glisten on his skin everytime he slams his cock back into you, your hips trying to meet his halfway. never failing to make you feel like you've got butterflies in your stomach too, just for a different reason. all until you couldn't take it anymore.

[lonelyleliel]

Venus and/or Mars in the 8th House Astro Observation

Mars in the 8th House

I recently learned that I have three people in my life who have their Mars in the 8th house and they all have a habit of asking others to use their resources (money, time, energy, possessions, etc.) to get what they want. Whether you want to call it manipulative or resourceful is up to you, but there is a persistence with this placement that is just...kind of insane. Depending on how developed the person is with this placement, they either won't take the hint that no means no or will start creating a power point presentation as to why you should give in to what they want from you. I'm not implying that these people always have malicious intents, but I am definitely saying that these people need to learn to respect boundaries. They'll plant an idea as to why you should do what they want you to do with your resources and will figure out what it takes to convince you even if it takes years.

Mars in the 8th house people have great leadership potential (or con man potential--I respect both lmao) if they remember to be real about what they want and why. The 8th house isn't just about material things and bonds with others, but also major transformations that reflect your inner truth. People with placements who become familiar with your sway over other people (likely those who have hard aspects with Mars, Mercury, and/or Saturn) are going to call you out on your shit and might give you an existential crisis. If you're using everyone else to get what you want, what exactly do you have to claim as your own? What can you claim as something you earned overtime? Do you care about your own achievements? Why or why not? Look in your 2nd house for a hint about that.

Venus in the 8th house

Venus in the 8th house people like myself and a few other people I know seem to just get stuff. Where Mars in the 8th takes action to get what they want, Venus in the 8th people seem to be offered what they want and it can sometimes be from people they rarely even talk to. Is it manifestation? Is it charm? Hell if I know. I do know that Venusian energy has a strong aesthetic sway over whatever house it's in, so if you do express what you like and don't like to others, they may want to show (or tease/ridicule) your aesthetics by giving you things that remind them of you. Since the 8th house reflects your bonds/contracts/inheritance with others, someone who cares about you may give you things that represent how they see their relationship with you or what they trust you to take care of.

The trap I think we Venus in 8th house people fall into is expecting people to keep on giving or we may overthink how we need to act so we get more stuff. We won't directly ask for it or imply that we want it like Mars in 8th people, but we can get bratty and bitter if we receive something we didn't want and we may not even be honest about disliking that thing because we don't want to jeopardize the next opportunity of getting more stuff from that person in the future. If this is how people are communicating to us about how they see and value us, which can be either a beautiful or a hurtful gesture, our lesson here is to remember that our desires/aesthetics/identity need to be protected with firm boundaries and expressed with honesty. We must be honest with ourselves. Don't accept everything given to you and don't let what's given to you define you. Is the thrill of watching people try to figure you out more important than you understanding yourself? How do these exchanges reflect your character? Your 2nd house will prompt you to consider your personal values and how your view on materialism reflects your inner truth.

Thanks for reading.

This astro observation was brought to you by someone who has a Mars (Cancer, 11th house, in Rx) square with Venus (Aries, 8th house) and is OVER this shit omfg lmao.

I'm on to you bitches!! I'm on to me too!!

I don't do many astro obs really, but I've been studying astrology for years (I don't read charts professionally. I study for divination and academic purposes) and the realization that I have quite a few people in my life with Mars in the 8th house who have been driving me crazy asking me for shit or taking my shit or shitting on my shit has blown my mind. Like, they won't take the fucking hint lol. Also had to call out my own sugar baby vibes. Flattery doesn't sway me anymore, but I like shit...and some of the Mars in the 8th house people KNOW I like shit. Shit is weird.

[esperastra]

It’s been three weeks and I still have not sorted my feelings about Legends Con. So have this random, unorganized list of things that happened that I still remember (more under the cut):

Nick tried to flash (stood on a chair and pulled up his shirt) Tala and Maisie during their panel but no one noticed him in the back

On the other hand when Arthur showed up during Caity and Jes’ panel they immediately saw him and greeted him

Caity was asked what Sara’s safe word is at the Meet&Greet and her answer was “Chiquita Banana”

When asked who they would eat first on a deserted island, pretty much everyone immediately said “Dom”

Caity and Jes kept talking about doing a podcast and asking people for stuff to talk about. Jes suggested they should just do Stabcast but Caity said she doesn’t like True Crime (which fair, I don’t either lol)

Adam said Avalance’s kid is named Rose and that Gary would be a great babysitter but he definitely would lose her at some point

At the opening ceremony Caity was like “I think the last time I said I was getting married. And I did it. *shows her ring* And Jes had our baby!”

When talking about the hardest goodbyes, Caity being Caity forgot Dom left and wasn’t even in the final season. Her answer was Franz btw.

A kid asked Amy, Caity and Jes if they would rather jump in lava or drown in water if they had to die and Jes was like “How old are you? Where is your mother?!” lmao

Jes recited the condolence card from Meet The Legends to the best of her recollection and kept laughing

Arthur kept mentioning how weird it is that all these fans and the cast are in his hometown

I could listen to Maisie talk for hours, just wanted to throw that in here

Jes was talking about how beautiful the gold dress from 502 was and Caity replied with “Anything you wear is beautiful 🥰” before Amy chimed in that she is still looking for the video of Liv and Jes laughing at Matt falling off his chair that was mentioned earlier lol

When asked about a crack ship (Rishop = Rip/Bishop) Arthur went on to talk about how he loves fanfiction lol

When asked if Nick or Matt is the better kisser Tala said “Maisie”

Adam started singing I Will Always Love You (forgot why) and Maisie left him hanging by not joining in and just smiling/laughing

Poor Matt didn’t know about the Human Centipede but now he does

Jes came up with the pick up line “I can be your legend until tomorrow” and then was like “someone try this tonight at the bar!”

On the second day Adam brought a water pistol to the panel and used it on everyone who got up to ask a question

Adam was THE hype man all weekend. He kept starting “When I say DC you say Legends of Tomorrow” chants

The fandom organized a group gift to give each cast member a trophy of the Waverider. We were allowed to present it to them at the closing ceremony.

Nick was called “Brad Pitt” during the trophy ceremony and Adam being Adam stood up instead

Amy sang Future Favorite with one of the kids at the closing ceremony

Adam said something about how he doesn’t like being emotional in front of people and everyone started chanting “SHOW EMOTIONS”

By the end of the closing ceremony everyone was super emotional. Caity was too emotional to speak when it was her turn and started crying and Jes hugged her. She said “I miss you guys” to the cast and went back for another hug. Jes was like “stop the emotions. stop the emotions” in reference to the earlier chant

A small list of some of the things that happened to me personally. I won’t share it all in detail here though, for reasons:

When I got my solo photo op with Caity, she saw my Real Housewives Sara shirt and was like “That’s funny. Can I take a picture?” and then she posted it on her IG Story

Amy spoke German to me out of nowhere when she noticed my accent. She also called me back during our photo op to ask me how I was and if I slept alright.

Jes gave me this 🥺 look when I talked to her at the autograph table

Nick held my hand for like a minute which was super overwhelming especially cause I struggle with eye contact lol. He also kept lovingly teasing me the whole weekend.

Me and a bunch of people did the 709 costumes as cosplay and won ‘Best Group’. It was a lot of fun.

[ckret2]

Here’s a thought experiment that could probably never reasonably happen for you. Let’s say the rest of the pines family was put in a similar position to ford: They have something they are attempting to do but cannot figure out on their own no matter how hard they try (For ford it was figuring out the weirdness magnetism). For the others, we could say that Dipper’s is functionally the same, Stan’s is trying to make a fortune so his family will take him back, and Mabel…I don’t really know what mabel would want.

For whatever reason, bill thinks that he can use this to get the portal made. Perhaps he thinks that if he basically holds their hand the whole time he can get them to do this.

Now my question is: Without knowledge of who he is beforehand, how easily could he manipulate them like he manipulated Ford? And for Stan specifically, would what Ford said about “seeing him for the scam artist he is” hold up when what is probably his biggest regret and fuck up prior to pushing Ford out to interdimensional sea is being dangled over his head?

Pretty damn easily.

He did manipulate Dipper and he did manipulate Mabel and they do know who he is. How much more easily could he have manipulated them if they'd only known him as a "muse" or as an "advanced alien life form, presenting as a triangle because his true form is incomprehensible to human eyes, because he's impressed by your potential" or as a "magical dream fairy, traveling through sleeping minds to help young girls' dreams come true!"

If they talked to each other, Dipper would probably be able to figure out Mabel's being conned ("if he's gonna make your dreams come true why do you have to do all this stuff for HIM? Has he SAID what he'll do to help you and why he can't just do it NOW?") and Mabel would probably be able to figure out Dipper's being conned ("bro, he's DROWNING you in flattery. If he really means it, why's he acting like you have to PROVE your smartness by doing this big dumb thing for him?"), but I don't think either would figure it out alone until it was too late. There's a reason Bill only targets them when they're isolated from each other.

Stan got suckered by a spider girl flirting with him after he knew she was a spider girl. We see him thinking that a lot of truly terrible ideas are gonna make him a fortune—searching for gold with a metal detector, becoming a door-to-door salesman, whatever terrible ideas he got roped into that landed him in prison... I think Stan would have the best odds of figuring Bill out, but I don't think he's immune to getting conned.

Stan's able to punch out Bill while Bill is trying to offer him power and fame and fortune because he already knows who Bill is and hates him for messing with his family. But if Bill had come to Stan at age 25, presented himself as something just sleazy enough to be believable—maybe not "divine muse" but something like "greed demon who helps promising but unlucky young entrepreneurs turn their luck around" ("Sure I'm the real deal, pal, why do you think my face is on every buck in your wallet?!"), and made the same fame and fortune offers, I think Stan's only hesitation would be "What's the catch? What's in it for YOU?" If Bill comes up with anything even SLIGHTLY plausible—"I feed on greed, kid, the more money you make the more power I get, and you don't even have to give me a cut of the profits"—then Stan's sold.

Even easier if he somehow identifies Stan's REAL priorities. "Your brother only turned his back on you because dear old ma and pa made him feel like the family's financial future rests on his shoulders. He's out there trying to make 'em millionaires and miserable about it. He hates it as much as you do. Come home with a fortune and he'd drop everything to go sailing with you in an instant. It'd be a relief, even. Don't you wanna be your brother's hero?"

While Ford put absolute blind faith in Bill up until the portal incident, I think Stan would start getting uneasy and suspicious before anything's wrong; even if Bill isn't waving any red flags yet, if everything is TOO easy it might worry Stan. But isn't easy GOOD? Didn't he always want a get-rich-quick scheme? He'd be worried, but he'd keep going—sunk cost fallacy—and tell himself it'll work out in the end. It has to.

[bruh-anator3000]

CAT-astrophic

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A/n: *pushes rock I live under over and peeks out of the black abyss* Hey, have you guys seen a Car Wash Miguel fic anywhere? I don't know what happened to it but it's no longer here. Might've escaped... anyways, watch this cat for me while I look? Thanks. And don't mind the hot homeless dude who talks to him, they're bonding. *returns into the depths of the void*

Summary: A hot dude won't stop talking to your cat, it's kind of freaking you out.

WC: 1.7k, edited by google docs...

Pairing: Miguel x GN!Reader

Warnings: crack fic, Spider-cat's real name is Sir Jeffords bc i said so, clueless reader, pro outdoor cat (i'm not actually, keep ur cats safe pls), future-ish?, accidentally snuck in some world building, in Lyla we trust 🙏, Miguel in tight clothing bc I also said so, and wait wtf are you doing with a dead rat miguel, AND WTF IS THIS WHITE STUFF DUDE?!

Also no Spanish bc I've done some research and those who do speak it have asked non-native speaker to avoid it, to prevent bad google translations and maintain respect!

Okay, enjoy~

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You were about to head in for the night when you were not tripped by your cat for his dinner. After a quick search around your apartment, you sighed upon realizing he was still outside. Shrugging on a coat, mismatched slippers, and grabbing a flashlight, you went out to look for him.

Plenty of people told you to keep your cat inside. That it was vital to their health to keep them safe indoors. There were plenty of articles stating the cons of letting a domesticated cat roam freely outside with no supervision. They were also written 80 years ago. The world has changed since then, drastically.

Sure, it would still be smart to keep Sir Jeffords inside. Less late night searches for him, no more worrying if that scratch on his right paw was from running too fast along pavement or something worse. But he came from the life of an alley cat, and no matter what you tried, he had to be out there for a few hours a day. Last time you tried to stop him, he went under your radar for three days. You had a panic attack, worried he didn't love you anymore, but he did eventually come back. Chipper and eager, and he made sure you left his cat door unlocked.

The streets were cleaner than 80 years ago. The people were kinder. The city more accommodating to everyone, even stray animals. Sir Jeffords was mirco chipped, and even if it didn't work for tracking half the time, the shelter folks could scan his neck and drop him back home.

There were no pounds or pest controls anymore, just volunteers who helped poor animals stay warm. And find whoever left them in the streets. It was a crime to leave them now, resulting in 6 months of detention if caught dumping your animal friend into the alleys.

Jeffords was a smart cat. He knew what he was doing. You trusted him. In the event of something bad happening, you made him swore he would come find you right away. Though he couldn't speak, his tail wrapping around your pinky seemed solid enough.

You called out his name, followed by a few 'pspspsps's to really seal the deal. Your flashlight shining in the darker corners of the streets he may be hiding in. Cats and their dark, unreachable corners, Sir Jeffords fell victim to any cozy spot he could barely tuck himself into.

It wasn't until a few blocks away, a little past the bank, when you heard a meow. Very similar to his, you quietly sped your pace, wanting to grab your kitty and go home. The closer you got, it seemed more like he was responding to someone else more than you.

"-and your service is always appreciated." You heard a deep voice whisper. Their voice a grumble echoing through the alley they hid in. "You're one of our best." Your brows pinching together, you turned the corner of the bank, flashlight illuminating your fluffy orange cat. Who was rubbing up against the shin of a random man.

He looked up at you, eyes darkened as he blocked your flashlight with his large hand. They almost seemed red as he stayed squatted, Sir Jeffords head butting his knee. His face pure sharp angles, with a scowl permanently in place. His black shirt a tight, compressing fit. Clinging to each muscle and vein in his arm, stopping halfway down his bicep. His calves just as impressive. His shorts doing nothing but making him look even hotter.

Wait, no. This was a random man, he wasn't hot.

You lowered the light and gave an awkward smile. Seemingly unimpressed, his hardened gaze turned back to your cat. "He's yours?" He asked, voice rumbling low in his chest. With a nod, he added, "He's... cute."

Okay, maybe he was a little hot.

"Right?" Your smile smoothed into something more natural. "He's the cutest cat to ever exist." You lowered yourself down onto your knees with a soft baby call. Sir Jeffords trotting into your lap happily, orange fur swaying with his steps.

Your hand ran through his silky fur. Tension easing from you as you held him close again. Though his three day disappearance had yet to happen again, you still worried. He was your precious baby, after all. The one you shared everything with, and he never once judged.

Your fingers caught on something sticky, stopping short of his lower back. Pulling your hand away, strings of white followed, sticking to your fingertips. The feeling moist and far too clingy for comfort. A disgusted shiver ran up your spine at the horrible sensory.

The man stood then, tossing a tissue at you as he did. His gaze stayed on your cat, never faltering. He pushed his dark hair away from his face, still scowling.

Glancing between your hand and the man that now towered over you, you almost gagged. This wasn't... his, right?

"It was the rat." Like he read your mind, the mysterious stranger held out his other hand. A dead rat laid in his palm.

"That... doesn't make me feel much better." You suppressed another full body shake, quickly wiping your hand off. This guy may be extremely attractive to look at but the longer you stayed there, the more uncomfortable you got. "How would a mouse... And what is this?" You felt yourself getting sick as you held the tissue out, the white stuff now sticking to the paper instead

"Webs. And, it's a rat." He stated with a straight face. More angry at your confusion than anything. "Chased him through some spider webs."

You let out a soft 'oh.' But that didn't explain why he was holding onto the dead rat.

And he let it stay that way. Instead of reading your mind like he had been this entire time, he just... walked off. With a dead animal in his grasp. Without a word.

Your confused gaze turned to your cat, knees beginning to ache from the pressure of concrete beneath. Sir Jeffords purred into your stomach loudly.

"You're not allowed to hang out with that guy, ever again."

...

"Christ!" Miguel tossed the rat at the wall, hearing him curse. The small animal glitched into a grown adult, body morphing sickly. "That..." The villain panted, rubbing at his neck. Bruises from how tightly he was held already forming there. "... was not what I was expecting."

Miguel squatted back down, balancing on his toes as the hologram of regular clothes shifted back into his suit. "You chose to become a rat, in a world whose Spider-Man is a cat." He slammed down a disk, red netting encasing the fool. "That was your own fault."

"It was the only way I could get into the bank!" The villain squeaked. Miguel tuned out almost immediately, eyes turning to his watch. Setting the portal to his universe, and making sure he wasn't needed elsewhere. He entertained the villain in a tacky grey suit with distant hums and 'oh, yeah, uh-huh's. It was best to just let them get it out of their system then try to shut them up.

"And I would've gotten away with it, too! If it weren't for you and your cat!" The shape shifter writhed in the nets.

"Sound like a damn Scooby-Doo villain." Miguel stood up with a huff. He would never admit it, but Hobie used the term so often, he had to look up what he was referencing. Only to end up watching the first few seasons. He had to stop around the third season, a sick sense of deja vu hitting him with a bat. The cartoons reminded him too much of the daughter he never really had.

With a sigh, "Lyla," He called.

The AI appeared before him, wearing a shit eating smirk. He opened his mouth to command something else when she beat him to it. "You should've asked for their number."

"What?" Miguel's head snapped up, eyes wide.

"They were cute, should've asked them on a date." She glitched to his side with a teasing laugh.

"Lyla, I... no." He grumbled, flicking at his watch.

"Oh, you know?" Miguel tried to smack her away, only for her to reappear on his left shoulder. "You should go back, then."

Miguel glared at her, ignoring how the tips of his ears began to burn. "I can't, its-"

"Not a canon event." They said at the same time. Lyla rolling her eyes behind her heart-shaped glasses, Miguel focusing on creating a portal. "You're such a loser, you know that?" She huffed and puffed, spawning with her back turned to him.

He tried to reach out with a heavy breath, but she moved further away. This time sitting with her arms crossed and pouting.

"They were cute." The villain nodded from his fetal position on the ground. Earning a glare from the two. Shrinking further into himself, the shape-shifter apologized.

Miguel thrust his forearms forward, his mantis blades catching on the fabric of time. Ripping them apart with a grunt. Orange and purple twisted in front of him, and he grabbed a hold of the red netting the anomaly was in.

"Meet me back at HQ," He spoke to his AI with a nod. Foot already in the portal, he turned to cast a menacing glance at Lyla. "And do not try anything."

She held up her hands in defense, watching the portal close behind him. It wasn't like she even had to do anything - not anymore. She already slipped his multiversal number into the collar of Spider-Cat. All that needed to happen was you either found it, or it fell out. Lyla just had to wait to see which option would be canon.

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[tea-with-evan-and-me]

man about town interview | spring/summer 2014

for the tweam! click through for my best attempt at deciphering this (maybe impossible to find?) throwback interview

‘’I don’t think I’m scary at all. It was kind of funny watching myself being scary. Because I’m not scary.’’ Says Evan Peters, the up-and-coming up-for-anything actor best known for his extreme roles on American Horror Story, the prestige television series that treats social taboos as map points. For three seasons, Peters has excelled at playing against his offbeat boyishness by amping up his young Malcolm McDowell intensity, with results that fall somewhere between ‘’teen dream in strangler’s gloves’’ and ‘’terrifying Michael Cera.’’ He most recently appeared in American Horror Story: Coven as Kyle Spencer, the good-natured university student who is decapitated and then reanimated with the body parts of his Kappa Lambda Gamma brothers as a temperamental Rocky Horror who beats his sexually abusive mother to death with a trophy.

Over a bold chai tea with stevia, at a restaurant in Venice, California, Peters is lighthearted and dryly humorous, like a young Michael Shannon, with whom he should costar in a successful disturbing family sitcom. He wears black jeans, a well-worn t-shirt under a plaid flannel, and a necklace with a toy dinosaur pendant. He drives a 2004 Pontiac Vibe that he correctly describes as ‘’vintage’’; says that he just feels like growing his longish blond hair into a ponytail, and has a red thumbs-up permanently inked onto the to pof his right hand, that was traced over a nightclub door stamp. At one point, he raises his forearm to show off a temporary tattoo that he received the night before at the castle park family entertainment center in Sherman oaks. ‘’This is a Belle tattoo. It’s not real,’’ he explains playfully of a small portrait of the beautiful young heroine from the animated Disney film Beauty and the Beast. I tell him it’s very pretty. ‘’Thank you. She’s gorgeous,’’ he responds. I ask if Belle is his favorite Disney princess. ‘’Well, I picked her out. There was also Jasmine, Ariel and Cinderella. My other buddies got those.” ‘’What about Belle appeals to you?’’ ‘’She likes the Beast.’’ Peters says.

This summer, Peters appears as the teenage Mutant speeder Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past, the sequel to 2011’s X-Men: First Class, which has proven to be an eventful ??? movie. In October 2012, director Matthew Vaughn – who relaunched the franchise with much needed style and a new cast of young, indie + credible actors – left the film to be replaced by original trilogy director Bryan Singer. As such, fans were already touched when Singer announced that he would retell ‘’Days of Future Past,’’ the seminal X-Men time-travel storyline from 1980, an ambitious plan turned wild when he revealed that both franchises would merge into one. Cut to the 2012 San diego Comic-Con whereby unthinkable feats of scheduling – the sprawling casts of the modern-day first series and the 60’s era prequel (that include expensive names like Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackmon, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Michael Fassbender, and so on). Convened with ??? new additions like Peters to unhinge popular culture. ‘’You think to yourself, ‘’wow, people really, really love this stuff.” And it makes you appreciate it more. It makes you work harder at it.’’ he says about the experience.

Peters’ role in the films is crucial but concise. ‘’It’s a huge, huge opportunity but I always make sure to tell people it’s just one scene. Easy, it's just one scene.’’ Peters says, as if talking down a rearing horse. Quicksilver has already been the subject of film industry chatter regarding lawful usage of the character, who is both the son of Magneto and a colleague of the Avengers, making him fair game for inclusion in both Days of Future Past and the 20n5 Avengers sequel (in which he will be played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson of Kick-Ass). An Empire magazine Preview of Quicksilver’s costume design was greeted with comparison to Kid Vid, a ‘90’s cartoon form of the Burger King ‘’Kid’s Club,’’ and the news that Peters had been saddled with the Halle Berry “rough wig’’ role. But his fan’s enthusiasm for the project—in which desperate X-Men from a dystopias future try to stave off mutant genocide by altering the present day—is undimmed. ‘’I think it’s the best film of the francise yet,’’ proclaims Peters. ‘’It’s pretty dire. It’s a pretty epic situation. But there’s definitely some humor in there. Its’s just badass, man.’’

Quicksilver is a departure for Peters in some ways if not others. Both X-Men and Horror Story are tight productions that take extensive precautions to protect story lines. Peters says that he did not receive the full script for X-Men until arriving at the Montreal location days before shooting. Horror Story pages are often delivered the night before a scene. The short lead time can demand a ??? almost improvisational acting process. ‘’The minute we get the script, plans are cancelled, dinner is cancelled,’’ he says about working on Horror Story. ‘’Some of it you’re like, ‘Oh shit, I have to do that?’ Screaming and crying, realizing that my whole body is pieced together and I’m not myself? I’ll probably have to work on that.’’

Peters owes his career to television. ‘’I was watching a lot of TV and I kind of wanted to be on the TV and in movies. I love movies and TV,’’ he says, and cites inspirations like Joaquin Phoenix, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, George Clooney, JIM Carrey, Chris Farley, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, and the millennial teen comedies Even Stevens starring Shia Labeuof and So Little Time with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. ‘’That sort of stuff. I just really wanted to be a part of it and loved acting and performing.’’ He moved to Los Angeles with is mother when he was 15 years old, and steadily won work in television, on shows including Phil of the Future (2004) and One Tree Hill (2008), and in movies like the independent films Clipping Adam (2004), his first big break, and later Kick Ass (2010). Being cast as Tate Langdon in the first season of American Horror Story in 2011 was his tipping point, playing a Skull Boy-faced high school shooter in a latex catsuit who rapes his girlfriend’s mother to please a ghost. He has since become one of the five main players to appear in all three season of the series, sterling company that includes Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and Frances Conroy.

Now the world gets to enjoy a lighter side of Peters, like when he appeared on a 2011 episode of the G4 networks Attack of the Show and blithely volunteered that he was working a a rap song called ‘’I’ll Tap That Fucking Ass.’’ He laughs off a request to recite a verse. ‘’I can’t. That never materialized. I tried but it was too much pressure. It was just a concept. I was just trying new ideas,’’ he says, and then volunteers a different musical direction. ‘’It’s called ‘Natch Snatch.’ Like all natural snatch. Big bush. Snatch. Cause it’s nice. You know, ‘girl, you’ve got that natch snatch.’ It’s another nice concept. Probably on the same album.’’ Peters laughs in agreement at the suggestion that he is a kook in the best sense of the word. ‘’I get called a weirdo sometimes,’’ he admits ‘’But it’s like, I don’t feel that weird. I don’t feel that different. I look at everybody else and I’m like, ‘’you’re a fucking weirdo, too. You like all of your shit. I like my shit.’’ Why does one have to be weird and one have to be normal? It doesn’t make any sense to me.’’ Meanwhile, he seems to be successfully negotiating his public and private persona. ‘’I’ll try to be myself as much as I can but you obviously can’t be who you are at home in your skivvies eating donuts. You can’t be that.’’ He explains, before confirming that guy exists, with his tongue sort-of-in-cheek. ‘’You bet he does. Yeah, definitely watching New Girl. Crying.’’ But while Peters seems fairly comfortable in the public eye, fame no longer interests him. The development is not unrelated to his intense, closely-watched relationship with fiancée and two-time costar Emma Roberts (on coven and in the 2013 ?? Adult World) ‘’When I was younger I was like, ‘’That would be awesome!’’ now I don’t particularly love it,’’ he says ‘’Emma gets paparazzi a lot, and because I’m with her we get paparazzi, so it’s kind of a weird thing that I don’t love. But it’s so small in the big picture of all the positives that come with this job that I can’t really complain about it.’’ he may be surprised by the attention he and Roberts receive, but he is hardly self-ptying. ‘’Honestly, it’s not that bad. If you don’t set up a Google alert on yourself and go out searching for it then you’re not going to see it. So I don’t see it.’’ Roberts has already endured the Hollywood learning curve that Peters is now experiencing. ‘’She gives me advice, like cut your hair. She likes my hair to look nice,’’ he says, and laughs. ‘’She’s been around and knows the ropes and how to play the game very well. And she has incredible social skills. She can talk to anyone and everyone loves talking to her. I’m not that good at that stuff so she kind of helps me out with that.’’ I wonder what guidance she offers him. ‘’You’ve just got to be personable and talk to people, even if you don’t want to. Put on a happy face and buck up. Grow a pair of balls. Don’t be a little wuss.’’ Petersa says, and laughs. ‘’I mean, she doesn’t say that, but you know what I mean.’’ 

Next for Peters is Lazarus, opposite Olivia Wilde, Donald Glover and Mark Duplass a 2015 feature from director David Gelb, known for the documentary Giro: Dreams of Sushi. Peters describes the project, about a team of brainiacs working magnanimously to reanimate the dead, as a “contained Sci-Fi horror thriller” as it mostly takes place in one laboratory setting. He plays the party animal scientist. Peters encouraging sidesteps the questions of his involvement in the next season of American Horror Story, to be set in 1950 and the present day, for which Jessica Lange is practicing a German accent. ‘’I don’t know what I’m allowed to say so I’m going to say no comment,’’ he says.

‘’At the end of the day it is acting. You want to go with the biggest, weirdest, boldest shit and see if you can actually do it and go there,’’ Peters concludes, ‘’I’m very curious about everything. I feel like I don’t know that much. I’m trying to learn it all and figure it all out.’’

[hypergamiss]

what’re your thoughts on causal dating? Like dating around for the experience and fun? I’m not interested in anything serious rn bc I’m still young, and I don’t want to sleep around w multiple ppl, but if I like someone and they like me I’m willing to be casual. But my sister says it’s a waste and that I should only date seriously. I’m still going to work on personal development stuff, but I don’t want to be lonely in the process.

Ok, let's unpack this sisterly advice situation. Your sis is Team No Casual Dating, while you're wondering if it might be a worthwhile detour on your self-improvement journey. Let's face it, she does have a point. And as your fellow sister, I'm betting she's looking out for you, not trying to condemn you to a lonely future. She's probably trying to save you from some heartache she's already experienced.

The thing is, a lot of us feel pressured to date just because everyone else seems to be on that carousel. But trust me, there are definitely folks who should steer clear of the dating scene entirely until someone truly worthy comes along. Finding a person you click with is way more fulfilling than dating just for the sake of having a plus one.

And let's talk about that emotional rollercoaster. Energy is a powerful force, and expending it on the wrong person can absolutely derail your self-development goals. Casual dating sounds liberating in theory – fun, flirty, no strings attached. But emotions are sneaky little ninjas! One minute you're enjoying a carefree date, the next you're picking out china patterns in your head and desperately wanting that "define the relationship" conversation.

Men can emotionally compartmentalize better in casual situations. Now, not all guys, but enough to make it a risky game for women who tend to invest emotionally. Cue the vulnerability and the whole "what does this even mean?" spiral.

So, can you avoid ending up with a wounded heart? Sure, if you're an emotional detachment black belt. But let's be real, most of us aren't. There's nothing wrong with giving casual dating a shot (dating, not sleeping with men), but I agree, that the cons tend to highly outweigh the pros.

[depravitycentral]

General Yandere! Aran Ojiro Profile

Yandere! Aran Ojiro x fem! reader

Warnings: stalking, kidnapping, extreme spoiling/forced financial dependence, guilt tripping, desperation, jealousy, mentions of dub-con and masturbation, mentions of forced physical affection, mentions of creeps, fem reader, MDNI

I do not condone any of the actions described in this post - this is fiction and should be treated as such. If you or a loved one is in a similar situation to anything contained in this post or my blog in general, please seek help. You're in charge of your internet consumption; please make responsible choices. With that, enjoy!

DARLING PROFILE:

 

Sweet

Aran himself is naturally quite nice, despite his penchant for not putting up with other peoples’ bullshit. He’s able to stand up for himself, but he’s never been particularly fond of people who are mean just for the sake of it. He can appreciate a funny joke, a biting comment here or there, but someone who’s entire personality is based off of this? Not so much.

And so, a darling who is naturally quite kind is a perfect match for Aran – he thinks of his beloved as innocent, a little lamb he must protect, and whether this visage of innocence is real or not, Aran believes it to be so. All it takes is a few compliments, a few sweet smiles, some kind favors, anything showcasing his darling’s kindness, really, and Aran is smitten.

And how can he not be?

How can he not imagine how wonderful it would be to spoil someone so kind and compassionate, to reward them for rewarding others? He views himself as hid darling’s protector, and it melts his heart to see his beloved caring for other people, even if it causes these same protective tendencies to flare up when others take advantage of them.

He can’t not imagine how wonderful of a partner his darling would be, the compliments slipping past their lips making his cheeks feel hot and his chest lighter than air. He can’t not imagine how wonderful it would be to wake up beside his darling in the early morning, to feel their soft breaths against him, to have their soft, supple body pressed against his own in ways that make him groan, his own body oh so aware of them? How can he not imagine how kind and loving his darling would be towards their children, a few little copies of the two of them running around, laughing and giggling and calling them mama, Aran being daddy…

It’s the stuff of his deepest hopes for the future, and having a kind darling plays into these fantasies – so while Aran could fall for a meaner darling, it’s unlikely. He wants to protect his sweet baby, and give them the protection, love and devotion they deserve – he’s just rewarding them for everything they earn, after all.

Passionate

Aran’s hobby has been volleyball for as long as he can remember. He’s always loved the sport; playing it, watching it, talking about it, even just being in the gym makes him happy.

And so, a darling that has a similar sort of passion would make Aran’s obsession grow tenfold.

It doesn’t have to be volleyball, or even a sport – any sort of activity that makes his darling happy makes Aran happy. (Arguably even more happy, because watching his darling smile and get lost in their own little world as they practice the hobby has him staring like a lovesick fool, his lips parted and brows tilted in, his throat feeling tight because fuck, how can someone be so damn adorable?)

It could be anything at all – writing, cooking, playing the trumpet, watercolors, reviewing movies, fashion, anything at all. Aran just loves the idea of his darling loving something, and he’ll eagerly ask them about anything he can involving the passion. He's asking what got them into it over dinner, asking to see, hear, taste or watch some of their creations as they give him a tour of their modest apartment.

(He’s watching them nervously show off their hobby, but inside he’s cooing at how adorably embarrassed they are, because no one has ever taken such an intense interest in their passion before, and he can tell they’re nervous that they’re boring him, that he’s losing interest and thinking they’re weird, even though the truth couldn’t be further from it.)

He’s asking his darling to teach him the basics, to learn to sketch a circle or knit a few stitches or play a scale on the piano. He just wants to be involved in his darling’s hobby, mostly because he loves watching the way their eyes light up as they indulge themselves in it, their whole body language brightening up, only furthering his love because fuck, he wants them to look like that one day when Aran himself is on their mind.

He wants to be his darling’s passion one day, just as they are his, but for the meantime he doesn’t mind watching – they’re just so damn cute, after all.

Bookworm

This isn’t something that Aran must have in a partner, but it’s certainly a plus for him.

He’s always been attracted to softer, quieter people, and having a darling fits this mold is a dream come true for him. And to further exemplify the stereotype, Aran particularly likes those are deeply interested in literature.

The genre doesn’t matter – it could be hardcore fantasy books, cliché romances, historical non-fiction, or anything in between. He doesn’t care, just as long as they enjoy picking up a book and curling up under a blanket to read.

He himself isn’t too much of a reader, but he loves to imagine his darling snuggled up on a couch or in a comfortable chair, a book inches from their nose as their eyes eagerly take in the words, flipping through the pages so quickly it’s almost impossible they’re absorbing everything the story has to offer.

He likes to think of his beloved as being so enraptured by the book that they’re completely unaware of the real world around them, fully immersed in the story and becoming invested in the characters, the plot, the action, the everything. It’s just so fucking cute, and Aran has no issues asking about said books.

He doesn’t mind listening to his darling rant and rave about the text for hours on end, watching their face as they talk and talk, slowly opening up more and more as they discuss something they truly love. Speaking of watching, one of Aran’s favorite pastimes is to simply watch his darling read – he likes to see the way their eyebrow wrinkles when a character does something unexpected, the shock in their face as they read a cliffhanger, the way they bite their lip as the tension in the scene rises to almost unbearable levels.

It’s too much, really, because while Aran thinks it’s so very adorable, he has a darker, more perverse reason why he enjoys watching his darling’s face – it’s too easy to imagine the way those expressions could be morphed into something dirty, something lewd.

It’s remarkably easy to fantasize about the way they’d look when he presses inside of them, stretching them out as they tell him it’s too big, not gonna fit! He’s plagued by thoughts about his beloved, and having a bookish, almost nerdy darling would be perfect for him – in more ways than one.

Shy

Aran isn’t too picky with this particular trait either, though he openly admits that he tends to find himself attracted to those that are a bit more hesitant around new people.

Perhaps it’s the protector in him; he doesn’t like the idea of his darling constantly talking to new people, interacting with them and potentially developing feelings for them.

He doesn’t like that they could be chatting with any number of people, interacting with creeps and men with bad intentions that they wouldn’t even know about until it’s too late – it makes his skin crawl just thinking about it, anxiety sweltering in his gut.

And so, to have a darling that’s less inclined to speak to strangers is something Aran really, really likes. It means less worrying about his darling’s safety; why would a person with ill intentions go after someone skittish who won’t give them time a day when they could be going after someone who’s talkative, smiling at them and lowering their guard around them?

Aran couldn’t be happier; not only is it safer for his darling and much more convenient for him, but he loves how easily flustered his darling is. It’s oh so easy to compliment them and see them prickle up, their expression turning bashful as they murmur out a thanks or a compliment or their own, their voice getting all high and cute. It’s adorable, and sometimes it’s too much for Aran – he has to bite back a smile or cover his face, because his heart simply can’t take how fucking cute his darling is.

So really, while he could fall for a more talkative darling, a shier beloved is more his type – he wants to be the only one they talk to, the only who flusters them and makes them feel all gooey and warm inside, just as they make him feel.

It’s only fair his feelings are returned, right?

GENERAL YANDERE TRAITS:

 

Selfless

In general, Aran is absolutely whipped for you.

He’s quite literally head over heels for you – obsessed to the point that nearly all of his waking thoughts revolve around you, and a good portion of his sleeping thoughts as well.

He’s dreaming about you nearly every night, imagining your pretty face in his hands as he kisses you, your voice saying his name, how you’d laugh at his jokes and lean into his side as you watch movies together on the couch, the relaxing night slowly turning into something much more exciting as wandering hands and eager mouths begin to explore.

Aran loves the idea of loving you, and he’s surprisingly naturally quite romantic. He’s always been a bit of a sucker for those horrible romance movies; chick flicks, period pieces, anything with a strong romantic story line in it. He’s always idolized the idea of having someone to love, and as a result, once you step into his life, someone with whom he feels so strongly and passionately for, every cute date idea, romantic line he’s ever seen seems possible, real, important.

Once Aran’s feelings for you develop, he becomes more or less your personal servant. He lives to see you happy – your smile is the most beautiful thing he thinks he’s ever seen, and when it’s directed at him?

God, does it feel good to make a tall, buff, nationally known athlete fall to his knees simply because you looked at him?

Aran would do anything for you if you asked him to; he wants you to associate him with happiness and chivalry, and he’s willing to go to any length to get this association. He’s always trying to do things for you – he’s bringing you your favorite pastries from that bakery nearby the practice courts, telling you to not bother paying him back because ‘you’ll cover next time’, even though he’d rather die than let you pay for something of his.

He’ll always show up at your workplace with a somewhat bashful smile, the little cardboard box in his hands as you gasp and hug him, your smile lighting up your face as he gapes and stares at you like some teenage boy. He’s buying you little trinkets that remind him of you; anything you collect, little plushies that are adorable (just like you).

He’ll pick them up and smile down at them, thinking of how your hair looks like this plush’s, how your cheeks are so cute and round like this one’s, how this one looks almost exactly like you – a character from a TV show that he looks up once he gets home, if only because while the two of you are vastly different, he feels like he’s getting to watch you living out your life.

Fantasies cloud of his mind of living out your day to day with you, of getting to wake up with you in his arms, your messy bed head looking adorable as you snore slightly into his chest. He’s swinging by your place with groceries fairly often, things you didn’t know you needed, only to check and find that you’re much lower on than you thought you were, despite having sworn you checked it yesterday.

Aran doesn’t like to admit that he sometimes tampers with your supplies or basic ingredients just to give him an excuse to buy you something you need – he doesn’t like that it sounds invasive, but seeing your relieved smile and being invited in for a snack or dinner is so worth it. He’s always trying to buy you things, and while it initially made you uncomfortable that he spends so much money on you (and you know the items are expensive – the brand names and quality of the products more than speaks for itself), eventually you’ll stop scolding him for spending his salary almost exclusively on you.

It doesn’t deter him, and he always waves off your complaints, telling you that it’s a pleasure, plus I get to see your smile, so it’s more than worth it. That normally gets you to shut up, your ears feeling hot, only serving to make Aran find you even more adorable than before.

He’s willing to shell out serious amounts of money for anything you’d ever want – a new car? The most expensive one on the market? Of course, and he’ll even get all the fancy additional features that no one needs, like extensive stereo systems and cool gel leather seats.

You want a diamond bracelet costing upwards of thousands of dollars? You’ll find a pretty velvet box on your doorstep the next day, a bouquet of roses accompanying it along with a note that simply says you shine brighter than any diamond.

(He spent hours agonizing over what to write, and despite the corniness, he ultimately decided that maybe classically romantic things would win you over – besides, the words are true.)

Even outside of money, Aran is willing to do anything you’d ever need of him.

Your sink is leaking? He knows next to nothing about plumbing, but he’s quick to pour over dozens of online articles on what could be wrong, arriving at your apartment merely two hours after your frantic call, a toolbox in hand and a determination in his shoulders that you can’t argue with.

You’re struggling with a project for work? Well, Aran may not understand what it is you’re doing, but he’s right beside you as you work through the issue, rubbing your back and smiling at you, encouraging you with smile and compliments each time you make a small breakthrough.

He’ll be there at a moment’s notice, dropping literally everything just to run to your side, like a loyal puppy desperate for its master’s affection and approval.

And of course, Aran doesn’t expect anything in return – he hopes for your love, for you to think of him as your protector and greatest confidant, but he’ll never ask for money or time in return. He’s simply happy to just be of use to you, to feel wanted, needed, like you wouldn’t survive without him.

He’s always slipping into daydreams of ways you’d repay him, how you’d pepper kisses across his cheeks as a thanks for helping change your flat tire. He’s smiling bashfully as he imagines how you’d fuss over him and make him dinner after he’d moved something heavy in your apartment, maybe moving furniture of helping put it all together. He imagines the way you’d sink to your knees and insist on repaying him with pleasure, on making him feel because you make me feel good, too, Aran, and I wanna make you feel so good that all you can remember is my name…

He just wants you to view him as a necessary part of your life, and to see your attention on him and only him for a few moments – anything to get you thinking of him just as much as he thinks of you.

 

Clingy

Tying into his more selfless traits, once Aran’s feelings for you develop, it’ll be extremely difficult to avoid him. He’s never felt this overwhelmingly for someone before, and because you take up so much of his thoughts, he finds it incredibly difficult to not be thinking of you constantly, to be idly wondering what you’re doing, what you’re thinking about, who you’re with, what you’ll be doing next.

He’s obsessive in that he’s almost always got you on his mind, and consequently he finds himself just so ‘happening’ to run into you all the time. He knows the places you frequent – certain cafes or restaurants that you like, learning your orders and preferred drinks. He knows the times you tend to frequent them, suddenly finding that his schedule is – surprise – open during that time too!

He’ll always just be there; his presence isn’t intimidating to you in any way, and as a result it’ll take you quite a while to recognize just how often these ‘coincidences’ seem to happen. It’s nearly daily, with the spiker always feigning surprise that you’re there, because what are the chances?

And once your friendship (relationship, at least to Aran) progresses, slowly he’ll stop trying to make excuses and instead simply reach out to you. You’re getting texts almost every hour from him; questions of whether you’re free, designed to not only get you talking with him, but suggesting activities to do together.

He’ll ask you if you’re free and interested in going to the bookstore with him, because there’s this new series he’s heard about that’s supposed to be so good, and oh, what’s this? It’s the same series you’ve been anxiously waiting to be published? What a coincidence!

He’ll invite you out to get a drink with him and a few of his teammates, but aw what a shame, they can’t make it! They had to cancel at the last minute, but it would be a shame to waste a perfectly good night of drinking, wouldn’t it? So just sit down and let him buy you drink after drink, his face loosening up as time passes, letting some questionable things slip from his lips.

(Slurred words referring to you as his, telling you you’ve been on his mind all day, cheekily complimenting the blue panties he knows you’re wearing under your clothes, all things that seem strange but only make your alcohol infused brain shrug.)

You’re getting texts that are simply asking questions – they’re designed to get a conversation flowing between the two of you, so that your attention is sporadically on him and he can learn more about you. He’s asking you what animal you would be, what superpower you would have, if pineapple belongs on pizza, whether you want children, everything and anything under the sun.

He likes having you speak with him, if only because it makes him feel special, like – if only for a moment – he’s taking up as much of your thoughts as you do his. It’s a thought that makes his cheeks feel hot, his whole body tingling, his muscle tightening up as he stands up to walk and get fresh air because god, why is it so hot in here?

He’s sending you photos of things that reminded him of you throughout the day – a pretty wildflower, an aesthetically pleasing photo of the clouds, gifs of animals with hearts. He likes the way you respond to him so quickly, the three little dots appearing on his screen making his heart pound, nerves eating away at him because what will you say?

He gets simultaneously excited beyond belief and nearly ill every time his phone chimes, your responses making his palms sweat and his heart race because god, you took the time out of your day to respond to him, to give him enough thought to create an answer to his question?

And once you’re actually physically with him, Aran is in seventh heaven – he’s always in your personal space, though it’s difficult to grow mad at him when he’s giving you that shy smile, his words and voice like honey. His hands are always near you as well – he’ll never touch you, because despite how wonderful, euphoric his skin against yours feels, he doesn’t want you to find him creepy or invasive, so he keeps his hands to himself.

His fingers twitch occasionally, the urge to reach out and simply touch your soft skin, squeeze at the fat of your tummy or thighs nearly overwhelming him.

You won’t notice his clinginess much when you’re still unaware of his obsessive feelings towards you – he always seems to be around, but what’s the harm in that? Aran is nice, funny, attractive, a talented volleyball player, and seems to be interested in you, so what could you possibly be upset about?

But once he’s got you in the sanctity of his own apartment, your perspective on his clinginess will change drastically. Now that he’s bitten the bullet and plunged into the process of officially making you his, Aran sees no reason why he should hold back any longer.

Suddenly, he’s always beside you – his hands are on your waist or shoulders, idly playing with your hair or rubbing circles against your skin. You’re always in his lap or within touching distance, his dark eyes fixed on you ninety percent of the time.

He’s always wanting to do things with you; watching TV (often reruns of his games, with him sneaking anxious glances at your reactions each time he spikes a ball, hoping to see you impressed with his strength and skills), cooking together (he does everything involving cutting or heat, so you’re basically resigned to stirring and measuring duty), anything that involves contact between the two of you.

He’s lovesick, truly, and despite being suffocating once he’s got you under his roof, Aran’s not too terrible – he just wants to be with you, and is that such a crime?

Is it a crime to want to touch you, to kiss you and lick you and squeeze you and fuck you and make him your everything, just as you are his?

Protective

In general, Aran views himself as your provider. He likes the idea of being the stereotypical man that protects you from the world, whether that be through financially supporting you, giving you a nice, warm bed to sleep in, or keeping any creeps away from you.

He likes to feel important to you, as if he’s a vital part of your life, and as his obsession develops Aran slowly becomes dependent on this idea of himself being your provider.

He likes to pretend that everything he does affects you in some way – like his every action is for you, designed to keep you safe and make you happy.

When he gets up at the crack of dawn and enters the gym with his teammates for pre-practice working out, he’s fueled by the thought of growing his muscles and stamina so that he can better protect you. With every rep of bench presses, he’s forcing himself to go harder, to push more because in order to intimidate any guy stupid enough to approach you, he needs to look the part of the scary, strong boyfriend. To get any creep to leave you alone when they come wandering too close to you and make you uncomfortable, Aran needs to be able to easily throw them away, to easily pick them up or beat the shit out of them so that they get the fuck away from you, where they belong.

He’s training harder in volleyball practice, slamming the ball with a ferocity that makes the coach and his teammates slightly concerned, but Aran is doing it all for a purpose. The harder he trains, the more impressive his playing, and thus the more impressed you’ll be when you come to the next game he invites you to.

(He almost always invites you to watch his games; he gets you free tickets – they aren’t actually free, he just pays for them and lies saying he got a player discount – and despite how nerve-wracking it is to know you’re in the audience, hopefully watching him, it’s worth it to hear the cheering when he spikes. And if he tries hard enough, he can even pretend to hear your individual cheering out of the masses – chanting his name as loudly as you can, perhaps even your voice yelling I’m so proud of you, good job Aran…)

He’s cleaning himself up more for pre and post match interviews, hoping to look his best in case you’re watching, because he wants you to find him attractive, to think he’s handsome as a thin sheen of sweat lies on his forehead, his biceps nearly bulging out of the volleyball top uniform he’s sporting.

He’s wearing only large hoodies around his home, manifesting the idea that if he keeps wearing them, they’ll retain more of his natural smell, so that when you wear them later it’ll smell like him – you’ll smell like him.

He likes the idea that everything he does affects you in some way, and while it obviously doesn’t, it feeds his view of himself as being your provider, as giving you everything you need in order to be happy in life.

And of course, he takes this mindset into more literal terms with you as well – anytime the two of you are together, he’s employing everything he can think of to keep you safe.

When you’re walking along a sidewalk, he’ll be closer to the traffic, so that if a car happened to swerve off the road, he’d be injured instead of you. He’s holding doors open for you, making sure they don’t slam closed and catch your ankle or elbow.

He’s helping blow on your food to cool it down, because despite what you say it’s still too hot for you to eat, he’s sure.

It’s mildly embarrassing, and while you may think it’s strange how insistent he is on making sure you don’t hurt yourself, you likely won’t fight it too much. After all, if you were to ask him why he seemed to care so much, he’d only blanch and rub the back of his neck awkwardly, telling you that he just wants to help keep you safe. And isn’t that just so romantic and sweet? This big, strong, athletic man caring enough to keep you safe, to use his time and energy to make sure you’re taken care of, that you’re in pristine condition and happy.

It’s only natural to be flattered – who wouldn’t be? Except, once Aran lets his walls down a bit, exposing just how truly obsessed with you he’s become, it suddenly shifts from sweet to creepy very, very quickly.

What started as endearing when he’d walk on the traffic heavy side of the street becomes concerning when you learn he didn’t want anyone in the cars to see you, because what if someone saw you and decided to pursue you, breaking your heart and stringing you along in the process? Besides, wouldn’t it be just so much better if no one else knew you, if Aran was all you had? At least then he’d know you wouldn’t be associating yourself with the wrong sort of people.

What started as a sweet gesture when he’d gotten you the pocket taster to keep in your purse suddenly becomes much more sinister when you discover the tracking device placed into the taser’s side, designed to help him keep tabs on your location discreetly, so that you wouldn’t know.

Once you’re trapped inside his home, every desire, thought, fantasy and urge coming to light, you’ll know that Aran is not nearly the protector he claims to be – at least, in some ways. Of course, he’s largely successful in making sure you don’t get harmed. He won’t let you near anything sharp or hot, always supervising when you’re in the kitchen or supplies that have even the potential to injure you.

He’s always playing guard dog to you, making sure you’re happy and safe, and that nothing and no one can touch you. You’re his, and while it makes him giddy and light headed to think of himself as your protector, don’t think this role is entirely selfless – if you were to be hurt, killed, altered in any way that changed the core of who you are, Aran wouldn’t be able to function.

You just mean too much to him – you’re his life, his love, and he’ll be damned if he’ll let you walk away, scathed or unscathed. You’re just too precious to him, and isn’t that just so damn romantic?

 

DEALING WITH RIVALS:

 

When it comes to dealing with rivals for your affection, Aran is surprisingly good at controlling himself.

He’s not a particularly forceful yandere; in general, he wants you to want him. He wants you to be in a relationship with him because you deem him a worthy partner, because you’re in love with him and want to spend every waking moment by his side.

He doesn’t like the prospect of isolating you – there’s something underhanded and dirty about getting you to be his that way. There’s something cheap about not letting you have any contact with any other men in your life, or women for that matter. He’s not naïve; he understands that you’re gorgeous, that other people are more than likely interested in you too.

And how could they not be? Aran worships the ground you walk on, and is it so strange to assume that other men likely do the same?

He knows that he’s not the only one vying for your attention and heart, but this only furthers his reasoning that he wants you to want him, that he wants you to choose him. And so, while it kills him inside, Aran doesn’t outwardly try to run off his competition. He’s not immediately threatening the men that stare longingly at you, their palms sweaty as they slowly build up the courage to approach you and talk to you. It hurts his heart, yes, and it’s the worst torture he can imagine to watch, but he has to.

It makes every muscle in his body seize up as his dark eyes bore into the back of the man chatting with you, his frame so rigid that passerbys are concerned, even asking him if he’s alright. It makes his lungs feel like they’re being crushed, the breath difficult to suck in, his every bit of attention devoted to simply watching, praying that you don’t fall victim to the man’s charms, that you won’t be wooed by his clearly inadequate attempts at flattering you.

He’ll be mentally chanting that this stranger, this piece of shit, doesn’t deserve someone as lovely as you. They’ll never be able to care for you like he can; no one knows you as well, no one is willing to go to such extreme lengths to make you happy.

He’ll always be watching, if only because he’s always slightly on edge – not even just out of fear that you’ll develop interest in another man, but simply because he’s terrified that you’ll somehow be hurt. He’s scared that you’ll be taken advantage of, that this man will reach out and touch you, that you’ll develop bruises and scream and cry because Aran couldn’t protect you like he’s supposed to.

He’s scared that if he looks away for even one moment, you’ll disappear, gone forever, the love of his life. It’s a horrible feeling, one that claws at his chest and eats at his heart, but Aran almost thinks the torture of watching is worth it. It strengthens his love for you, and with every refusal you give, every awkward smile and lame excuse of why you need to be going, he feels his chest swell with pride.

You want him, he’s sure of it. Why would you be denying so many other men if you weren’t already in love with the spiker himself? It’s obvious, and while it hurts more than anything he’s ever experienced, Aran has to let other men approach you, at least unless they hurt you.

It’s the only way to know for sure that you’re his.

Aran frowns as he notices the way the man behind you in line keeps glancing at you. You’re still waiting to order your sandwich, the line at the deli decidedly long. Aran already had his – you’d claimed you weren’t hungry, and despite Aran’s insistence, you didn’t allow him to buy you any food.

However, as you watched him eat his sandwich, something in your attitude must’ve changed – you should’ve let him wait in line for you, to pay for the sandwich he knows is your favorite, but you didn’t.

He should’ve insisted more, been more forceful, but it’s too late now – most definitely too late as the man behind you puffs up his chest, clearing his throat and telling you something. You jump slightly and turn around to face him, a small smile on your face as you answer whatever question he’d asked you.

Aran’s too far away to hear what you’re saying, but with the way the man laughs, he can’t help tightening his hand into a fist under the table. His blunt nails dig into his palm, surely leaving indents in the calloused skin, but he can’t find it in himself to care. His gaze is fixed on you, his sandwich pathetically forgotten on the deli paper before him. His lips are slightly parted as he watches, murmuring under his breath to ignore him, ignore him please, don’t laugh at his jokes, don’t smile at him, stop touching her…

He doesn’t even realize he’s speaking, but it hardly matters – because despite smiling at his joke, the man doesn’t seem to realize that you aren’t nearly as interested as he thinks, because a moment later he’s reaching out and lightly touching your arm.

You recoil immediately, shrinking back slightly as your smile turns tight, and suddenly the air in the room has returned, Aran heaving a massive, massive sigh because you obviously don’t want him to touch you. You obviously don’t want his filthy hands on you – but you do want Aran’s, if the way you let him touch you is anything. You don’t shy away from his small touches; a hand on your back to guide you, a pat on your head when he calls you short or fun-sized because he knows it annoys you. He bounces his foot against the ground, internally swearing that the line would just hurry the fuck up, so that you can come back and get away from the man who has now fallen quiet, fishing in his wallet for nothing.

You order your sandwich, keeping your back to the stranger, and as you return, the intensity in Aran’s gaze surprises you.

Those dark eyes are fixed directly on you, not wavering even the slightest bit, and a small shiver wracks your spine because fuck, why does his gaze feel so heavy and crushing?

You shrug it off, however, when he smiles at you, the grin so bright that it almost blinds you. There’s something making him indescribably happy, you can tell, but you don’t know what. You make some comment about him not having finished his sandwich yet, but Aran doesn’t pay any attention – he’s too focused on the fact that you didn’t want that man.

You rejected him essentially, and instead chose to come stay with him, with Aran, the only one who really loves you. He’s too lost in his fantasy happy land to return the teases you give him, instead relishing in the the warm, fluttery feeling in his heart, his eyes occasionally darting to the other man to watch him hurriedly walk out of the sandwich shop, sending you a last cursory glance before slamming the door behind him.

Pride swells in Aran’s chest, and once you’ve both finished, he’s quick to place his hand on the small of your back, opening up the door for you. And to his intense happiness, you don’t flinch. You let him touch you, let him guide you, let him care for you and lead you out onto the busy street.

He’s in heaven, and as he smiles like a fool, you won’t suspect a thing. He’s always been so happy, it’s just who he is – his labored breathing and the excited, desperate twitch of his fingers to keep touching you has nothing to do with you, right?

TAKING HIS DARLING AWAY:

 

Because many aspects of Aran’s relationship with you are normal, kidnapping you isn’t something that crosses his mind until very, very late into his obsession with you.

He likes the idea of keeping things somewhat natural between the two of you; organic and warm, with nothing too forced. He wants to woo you, to have that perfect romantic courtship where he brings you flowers, making you flustered, takes you on lavish dates by candlelight at the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in town because he can afford it.

He wants you to feel spoiled and loved, and most of all he wants you to choose to be with him. He wants you to want him out of all the other men you know, for you to decide that he’s the one for you just as he knows you are for him.

And so, while the idea of having you knowingly in his home, kept safe, pristine, and his is extremely appealing, Aran struggles to let go of his desire for your willingness in the arrangement.

He can’t deny that having you stuck at home, spending your days safely under lock and key gets him feeling strangely domestic, butterflies igniting in his stomach as he bites back a smile, his cheeks feeling hot. He’s always daydreaming about how you’d look so pretty chopping up vegetables in the kitchen when he gets home, maybe a cute apron around your waist as you hum and sing to yourself, only stopping when he hugs you from behind, letting yourself melt into his arms.

(Of course, he’d never let you actually chop anything alone – too scared of you cutting yourself with the knife, but the fantasy is still appealing.)

He’s fantasizing about you doing the laundry, him coming home to a house that smells like detergent and new sheets on the bed; soft, warm, and oh so pristine.

(Though, they won’t be by the time the night is through – you’ll have to scrub out the new white stains, but that’s nothing new.)

He’s imagining the way you’d lay your head on his chest while you shovel popcorn into your mouth, the wool blanket strewn over the both of you making him feel all warm and fuzzy as you stare intently at the TV screen, the movie he'd chosen capturing your interest perfectly.

He’s got all kinds of domestic fantasies in his head, and Aran is terrified that by kidnapping you, he’s ruining any chance of any and all of these daydreams from becoming real. He’s too attached to the idea of seeing you with his baby on your hip, your pretty face smiling at him while you coo at the child, nursing it and telling him that you were wondering if you could take Friday off, I’ve been feeling awfully lonely around the house, and the baby’s normally asleep for a few hours during the afternoon – maybe we could break in those new sheets we got last month?

He’s too attached to the idea of having a normal, healthy, perfect life with you to really seriously consider forcibly relocating you.

However, Aran is nothing if not practical – and so, while it pains him immensely to do so, if something serious were to happen to you, he’d be left with no choice but to steal you away. It’d have to be something quite significant, however; perhaps an attempted home invasion, or a robbery, or maybe you were hit by a car or contracted some horrible virus that meant you needed care at all hours of the day.

Whatever the reason may be, he’ll be sighing and wringing his hands, but nonetheless gathering the softest rope he can find, setting up pillows in the back of his car so that you’re comfortable on the ride over, even going so far as to keep his face covered during the event, so that he can perhaps fabricate some story of how he was saving you from another robbery – and isn’t he just such a good guy for doing that?

For being so considerate, kind, being your knight in shining armor?

As a captor, Aran can be described mostly as incredibly giving. In a lot of ways, you’ll be terribly, rottenly spoiled; he’s giving you anything and everything he can think of.

When you initially wake up in his home, terrified and changed into a set of clean, soft pajamas (though thankfully your panties and bra are still on, helping relieve your anxiety just slightly), you’ll notice immediately how lavish the bedroom you’re in is.

The walls are a pretty emerald color, mahogany drawers and dressers sitting along the wall. There’s a window – it’s easily six feet tall and six feet wide, with a window seat and big, billowy white curtains, though there’s something odd about the glass – you get up to examine it, only to find it feels brittle, harder, even flexible. (Bulletproof glass, you later learn, placed there in case you got any ideas about braving the twenty story jump.)

All sizes and shapes of pillows adorn the bed, the best quality sheets and a heavy comforter that traps heat so well you’ll nearly be sweating in December. The closet is full of pretty clothing you don’t recognize; all colors you love, neutral pieces that flatter your form and make you feel more expensive than you’ve ever felt in your life.

Aran’s only buying the best quality food, always making sure you have a healthy balance of vegetables, protein and carbs, even occasionally indulging you with exquisite chocolates and pastries. He’s always got music playing in every room of the apartment; quietly, so as not to distract you, but you’ll notice it’s a playlist of your favorite songs. The ones that relax you, that make you smile, that bring back sentimental memories.

He’s got all the supplies for your hobbies set up in ‘your room’, as he likes to call it. Anything from easels and paint brushes to a baby grand piano will reside in the room, and despite your pleas for him to not spend so much money on you, Aran will just laugh and poke your nose lightly, telling you to not worry, that he’s got more than enough money to buy a pretty lady like you pretty things.

He just wants you to be as happy as humanly possible, and while he knows you’ll always be at least a little bit unhappy, he’s hopeful that he can help make it up to you by being the perfect partner – indulging you in all the romantic cliches and dreams you may have had when you were young.

Besides, he’s a romantic at heart, and while it feels maybe just a tad bit overkill to have the rose petals on the table and candlelight as you share a meal he cooked, Aran doesn’t care. Because when you’re wearing the dress he custom ordered for you, your curves looking magnificent and your face so warm and flustered, how can he care about anything at all except this moment?

He spoils you, yes, but you’ll not forget your kidnapped immediately – no, you can’t, not when he’s insisting you share a bed from the beginning. He’ll never try to touch you or force you into anything, but his insistence on letting him cuddle you, on letting him place a hand to your hip while you drift into sleep with your face pressed against his chest is perhaps not your first choice for how to sleep.

But really, aside from a few small quirks of Aran, you’ll find yourself growing disturbingly comfortable disturbingly fast. After all, he’s a charmer – and though you may try to hate him for kidnapping you, for being so horribly, disgustingly, wonderfully obsessed with you, he’s like a puppy.

One desperate for your affection, always bringing you a new bone or toy, and one who’ll do anything for you at a moment’s command. So really, just let him pamper you, let him spoil you, even if it makes you uncomfortable.

It makes him happy, and he’s sure eventually it’ll make you happy, too – and won’t it? Won’t it, really?

PUNISHMENTS:

 

Aran doesn’t ‘do’ punishments.

They just simply aren’t his thing – he wants you to love him, for your relationship to develop as organically as it possibly can (considering he’s kidnapped you and essentially been stalking you for months, of course), and the concept of disciplining you for misbehaving doesn’t fit his hopes for a normal, healthy relationship.

And so, Aran is really quite lenient when it comes to you – he doesn’t get mad very often, instead preferring to keep a steady, calm disposition, because if he wants the best possible chance of you falling in love with him, doesn’t it make more sense to be calm, happy, warm?

Doesn’t it make more sense for him to approach you with loving arms, gentle touches, soft smiles that make your cheeks heat up, that get your stomach feeling fluttery and light because fuck, has anyone ever looked at you with so much adoration and unfiltered joy?

It’s overwhelming, and for the most part Aran’s method of not punishing you works exactly as he wants it to. It’s not long before you’re moving past your hatred of him for ruining your life by stealing it for himself, and while you hope to never forgive him for what he’s done, you’re looking past it remarkably fast.

Too fast, you could even say, though with every compliment he gives you, it becomes harder to find issue with this development. With every hand picked present that you’re sure is much too expensive being given to you with that flustered, wide grin on his face, you’ll slowly find yourself forgetting about the rage you promised yourself you’d never forget.

It’s scary, really, how he’s able to mold you into what you hoped you’d never become – loving, submissive to him, wanting to please him so that the love and care you’ve come to grow addicted to is never cruelly ripped away from you.

It’s terrifying just how easily Aran is able to mold you into his ideal lover; he’s not trying to change you by any means, but after a few months with him, you’ll discover that you don’t fully recognize yourself anymore. He isn’t trying to break you down and rebuild your personality to be exactly what he wants, if only because he already loves you exactly the way you are – why would he change anything?

And yet, despite him not trying to, it’s impossible to ignore the way you’ve never been this happy before.

When you look in the mirror, you’ll find yourself smiling much more than you used to; there’s laugh lines starting to appear on your cheeks, surely formed from all the horrible jokes and sweet nothing Aran whispers in your ear with that dashing smile and those callused, gentle hands caressing your body against him.

You’ll discover that you look healthier than you ever have before – your body looks to be at a good, manageable weight, your hair shiny and healthy, your skin cleaner than you remember it being when you were on your own.

And really, who do you have to blame but Aran?

He’s so diligent in taking care of you, so loving and overwhelmingly giving when it comes to making you happy and healthy that you really can’t ignore the way your body and mind has changed. You feel happy, loved – by your captor, no less.

And so while you may have initially been so, so enraged and terrified of him for stealing you away from your old life, eventually the rage will subside, your love and devotion to him taking its place. Aran couldn’t be happier; this is exactly what he wanted, and seeing the way you morph into greeting him when he returns home from practice with a big hug and a flurry of kisses against his cheeks and lips couldn’t be more appreciated.

He just really, really loves you, but that isn’t to say the beginning of your relationship was more rocky, your behavior and feelings towards him not even a shadow of what they are now.

Even at the beginning, Aran was never one to actually hurt you. He hates the idea of physically touching you in anything other than love or in teasing, and so he absolutely refuses to harm you, to punch or scratch or slap or bruise you.

(You’ll notice early on into your intimate life with him that bruises are left often, but only because Aran needs you as close as physically possible when he’s fucking you, keeping your warm body next to his without an inch of space because god, how can you feel so damn good?)

And so, even when Aran gets mad (which is already a rare occurrence), you’ll never have to worry about being on the receiving end of a swinging fist, or having blood pooling anywhere on your body.

He would die before he harms you in that way – it would break him, truly, to the point where he may actually consider ending his life, but only if yours is taken alongside his as well, so that the both of you can be together in life and death.

And so, when Aran does get mad, he’s not even trying to punish you.

A few things can set him off – the main one being any sort of an escape attempt by you.

He’s livid the first few times you try this; he understands why, rationally, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. You’re trying to escape him, to run away from him, clearly showing you aren’t happy. And why aren’t you happy? Doesn’t he give you everything he possibly can, everything you could possibly want?

What more is there for him to give you – he’s already given you his heart, body and soul?

Sunlight is streaming through the window when Aran wakes up, his lashes fluttering as his face scrunches up into a grimace, the bright light not welcome. He groans, rolling over onto his side and instinctually reaching for you – he always sleeps with you in his arms, your warm body against his. He finds it helps him sleep, and often he’ll wait until you drift into a slumber before he stares at your face, tracing the lines of your lips and cheeks with his thumb while he marvels at how beautiful you are.

Except his hands don’t feel you. His eyes shoot open, and at the empty space where your body should be in the bed, immediately he’s bolting out of bed, scrambling to open the bedroom door. The boxers he’s wearing are haphazardly on his hips, and normally he’d be embarrassed that you see him in such a messy state, but he doesn’t fucking care.

Where are you? You’re never up before him – it’s five o’clock in the morning for Christ’s sake, you’re surely not making breakfast.

He’s quick to check the living room, seeing no sign of you anywhere. The kitchen is next, and while he’s relieved to not find a lifeless you bleeding out on the floor, it does little to calm his anxiety.

It’s only once he reaches the front door that he sees you – you’re on your knees, hands desperately working the bobby pin at the deadbolt’s lock, your movements frantic yet obviously trying to stay silent.

Aran stares for a moment, before his face hardens, his legs bursting forward as he scoops you up into his arms. You yelp and kick at him, telling him to let you go as you thrash, but with your every move Aran only finds himself getting more and more angry.

Soon he’s setting you down on the couch (not nearly as gently as he normally does, you distantly note), before taking a few steps back, his dark eyes fixed on you. He’s rubbing at his temples, clutching at his jaw, shaking his head and murmuring something under his breath that you don’t hear.

You’re mad, too, and your mouth opens as you prepare to accuse him. Why did you stop me? I was so close Aran, so close to getting out of this goddamn apartment!

And that’s it, really – it’s enough to have the extremely thin control over his rage snapping off. Why the hell are you trying to leave? What’s wrong with you?

He’s yelling, his voice so loud that you physically cower back into the couch, the cushions soft but not enough. You’ve never heard him sound like this before; this angry, this hurt. His fists are clenched at his sides, the muscles in his torso and arms visibly flexing as he continues on.

I do everything for you, do you understand? I give you every fucking thing I own – my heart, my money, my home, my love! And you what? You squander it? Throw it away like it means nothing? How ungrateful can you be?

He’s lost himself, he knows it, and yet he can’t stop. The prospect of you running away from him is just too much – he's tried too damn hard to get you to love him, to woo you for you to even think of leaving him behind. How can he survive without you?

He’s still yelling, but you’re not listening anymore. You can’t, not as a stinging, hot sensation in your nose leads to tears, your sniffles and small hiccups going ignored by Aran as he continues on.

It’s euphoric, in a way, expressing himself, but as his dark gaze moves from the ceiling (which he’d been yelling at) and towards you, the words die in his throat. Your hands are at your eyes, wiping away the tears as you sob, the emotions overflowing you. The yelling, the escape attempt, the months of trying to repress the way your desire to leave was slowly dwindling was all just too damn much –

You didn’t even realize it had gone quiet in the room until Aran’s arms are around you, your smaller body pressed against his broad chest. His face is against your neck, and you see his shoulders shaking slightly.

You wonder if he’s crying, too.

It’s silent for a few moments as your tears continue to flow, but you hug him back slowly, whispering in a dry, hiccupy voice that you’re s-sorry Aran, ‘m so sorry, I don’t – I don’t know why I tried to leave, I’m happy here. I wanna stay with you, please let me stay with you, please d-don’t leave me, please!

Your arms are fully around him now, clutching onto him with as much vigor as he you, and Aran stiffens slightly. He shouldn’t have yelled at you; that was uncalled for, and he’d made you fucking cry, something that was making him feeling physically ill. And yet, you were saying you didn’t want him to leave you, that you want to stay with him, that you’re happy…

And sure, maybe it’s a ploy to calm him down, but Aran doesn’t care. How can he, when you’re separating after a few moments, a small, sad smile on his lips as he wipes away your tears with his thumb, his voice much softer as he tells you I’ll never leave you, I promise. Shh, shh, it’s okay, I love you, I’ll never let you go. Now c’mere, I’m makin’ us a bath.

He’s quick to call out of practice that morning, settling you into the large white tub in front of him, your head leaning on his chest as the scent of lavender surrounds you both.

He holds you, letting you get the last few tears out, all the while reminding you that he loves you, you’re perfect, you’re his everything, and how can a man live without his whole world?

OVERALL DANGER:

Overall rating: 4/10

Aran really isn’t so much dangerous as he is effective. He’s not intentionally manipulative – no, of course not.

He doesn’t want to trick you into anything, to lure you into falling in love with him. No, he wants your heart honestly, to have you falling in love with him on your own terms, in your own time, so that when you do eventually make him your world, you’re doing so willingly.

However, Aran isn’t adverse to helping you along the path; he’s spending time with you, complimenting you as often as he can, buying you expensive gifts and taking you out on dates (though, you’re never quite sure if he means them romantically or platonically, and you’re almost too scared to ask), anything he can think of that’ll have you falling for him. He just wants you to enjoy being around him, to crave him like he craves you, to return the level of sick devotion he holds for you.

You’re perfect; genuinely everything he could want in a woman, and while it’s a bit embarrassing how horribly whipped and desperate he is for your attention and validation, Aran slowly begins finding that he doesn’t care.

After all, how can anything else besides your love matter?

How can he find it in himself to care whether he comes off as pathetic when he sends you a bouquet of roses on your birthday, the pretty card he spent hours writing (both to solidify what he wanted to write, and also to practice his cursive so you’d think it’s pretty and worth keeping) describing how beautiful you are, how he’d love nothing more than to hold you, kiss you, mark you up so that no other man could ever take you?

Aran slowly loses himself to his obsession with you, and while he’s not particularly delusional or violent, Aran is dedicated. So much so that it’s almost futile to run from his love – he will eventually have you falling for him, returning his feelings whether you realize it or not.

And he couldn’t be happier; the day you willingly return his hugs, initiate kisses, grind down on him with that tight fucking pussy is the happiest day of his life.

Because it means you want him, and who doesn’t like being wanted? Especially by the woman they’ve spent years pining for, obsessing over, watching and fantasizing about like some lovesick teenage boy?

Not even an upstanding man like Aran would resist that – so congratulations, because once he’s hooked, he’s never, ever letting you go.

[multiplicity-positivity]

hey, most of our membs are introjects, and im curious, what pros/cons are there to seperating from your source? (being like, finding a new name and changing your looks more than just.. a slight recolor of the og media like ours are xD) like why do other do so, im curious :}

Hiya! I’m an introject! This question is kind of complex and the answer is really going to differ from system to system and from introject to introject! But here are my thoughts (I’m a fictive of Ralsei from Deltarune by the way! :3)

So for me (and I feel like I can safely say this for all my introject parts) a small amount of source separation is not only a good thing, but also healthy and necessary in order to live a happy life! Like, I still strongly identify with my source. I view myself as Ralsei and identify with the character strongly! But I recognize that I am not literally the character. I am a member in a system and not a figment of Toby Fox’s mind which only exists in a video game. I am a real person and I exist in real life! I am capable of growth and change, and there’s nothing keeping me held to the tiny box that my source has to fit in, because even though I identify with my source strongly, I am not him literally! This is source separation! And for the parts in our system, this is a really good thing! >w<

And here’s some reasons why parts in my system have chosen to source separate (whether slightly, like me, or more fully, like Cecil!)

They formed as an introject as a way to cope with trauma! And source separating happens naturally as they process trauma memories and come to understand themselves more as they are, outside of their source and the trauma that caused them to form!

They were uncomfortable with being compared to their source, treated as their source, or others assuming that they were big fans of their source material!

Their source is a different race or is from a different culture than that of our body, so they wanted to change as a sign of respect to BIPOC or those who actually belong to that race/culture!

They wanted to be able to engage with their source’s fandom in positive ways without feeling hurt and offended when people interpreted their source in ways that they don’t identify or agree with!

They just embraced source separation as it was already happening naturally!

And more! Folks can source separate for a huge variety of reasons! And every system is different, so many introjects may have their own personal reasons for source separating! >w<

As for the cons to source separation… the biggest one for us is that it sucks to source separate because others forced or expected you to! If you want to source separate, do it!! But do it for you and no one else. Feeling pressured to do something you don’t want to do can cause feelings of bitterness and resentment >_< So yeah, that for us is definitely the biggest con! And we can’t think of many more besides that, though we’re sure for some introjects there are more!

Ahhhhh sorry this got so long! I love talking about introject life and sources and source separation and all that stuff. The last thing we’ll do here is include Cecil’s post on source separation in case anyone might find it useful! :3

We hope this helps!! Best of luck to y’all with figuring out your sources and whether or not to separate from them in the future!! >w<

[hellofwinnie]

OKAY BUT IT'S LONG

(also spoiler-free for the Downhill fic)

Let's goooo

Childhood

- Jack carries a Siren "gene", so he's not a siren but Angel got it from to him (my older post about it).

- Tantalus was under oppressive rule so he grew up with questionable beliefs, explained below.

- moved to Pandora around 8y.o. with grandma (she worked in the Dahl mines).

- as a kid dreamed of working in the mining business, like his dad.

- has one (1) memory of dad holding him and rocking to sleep (unless it's a fabrication of his mind).

- has pictures and videos of the parents playing with toddler Jack, they look normal and happy. Jack keeps them in a secret place and *very* rarely replays them because VHS/photos tend to wear out.

- Vaughn is his only trusted therapist so they figured he has exactly 9 good childhood memories. He is scared to replay them in his head too and "wear them out" by forgetting.

- he was 6 y.o. when grandma demanded to have shared house responsibilities and the punishments started to get harsher.

- dropped out after middle school bc fuck this boring shit (and bullying).

- started to run away regularly from grandma's house bc of abuse at the age of 10.

- lived with a street gang with other Pandora kids like him.

- was the youngest in the gang so they protected baby-John so it was safer then at home.

- he made toys and other stuff from scraps. He discovered programming.

- by the time he turned 17, the times on Pandora changed and their gang didn't have many new young incomers, so he didn't get a chance to be a big brother.

- there he also met his first love (gay) they didn't kiss or anything so he didn't realize what it was until he was like 35 💀 talk about denial.

- their con/stealing gang shifted to serious shit with a real interplanetary mafia and a drug lord rivelry.

- he had to get out of the gang because he was one of the oldest and his life was in danger as he would be held responsible.

- He comes up with a new plan and starts to con solo. He targets the recent rich families immigrating to expand/develop stuff on Pandora.

- He pretends to be one of them rich kids and then steals something small but it's enough to survive.

- Here he gets the Handsome Jack nickname and gets famous in those circles (for stuff he lied about ofc but everyone was impressed).

- that how she met his future wife, he was stealing from Jacobs' mansion and some gal of his age found it hilarious (it was her house btw).

- she seemed different from all those delusional idiots, so she helped Jack to steal bigger and with less consequences for the sake of drama.

- Jack went through hell to gain a right to marry a Jacobs bc she had an arranged marriage waiting for her.

- married her around 20 y.o. and got rid of his gang problems.

- Angel was born a year later. Among other reasons it was a way to gain independence from his wife's family bc they treated her like shit personally and financially (mostly for sexist reasons).

- went to a culinary school for "prestige" and "education" but dropped out a year later.

- he made his buddy-chef with QuiRKy culinary interests to take his private restaurant on Helios later. He doesn't like his food personally but it's prestigious and educational for the Hyperion management.

- his wife was an influential businesswoman and a big figure in Pandora's development under the second Atlas rule (not affiliated with Atlas).

- for the next 8 years he managed to get into Hyperion and after a big return he got a solid career to build.

- Mortimer punched Jack at the wife's funeral, it was the most brave thing Jack ever seen him to do.

- lived with Angel on Pandora, had to sell their house.

- got a permanent intrusion/kidnapping paranoia.

- married his next girlfriend so the teen daughter has a mother figure among other love reasons.

- Angel did a nasty thing where she framed both of them (hated that dad remarried so soon?).

- they divorced about a year later.

- after dating and breaking up with Moxxi had a massive sexuality crisis (at the age 35, as promised).

- figured he's queer, and went to conversion therapy, because he grew up in antiqueer times on Tantalus and it felt reasonable to him.

- the CT base was mostly filled with teens and young adults who was forced to be there and the "doctors" there couldn't explain him their sconific or even spiritual methods.

- he left a week later and A: rolled out an official ban for CT on Hyperion lands on Pandora.

- B: called his trusty escort company and booked ALL men for months ahead. That's how he figured out he's a switch (*bi anthem starts playing*).

- was on coke most of his life but it didn't cause any problems or so he beliefs.

- after suddenly getting rich (now dating Nisha) spiraled down in codependency with her on opioids. He almost died.

- Angel lived on Helios all this time and knew she was growing up to be the next Hyperion president.

- she met Gaige online™

- at 21 y.o. moved to Bunker and started to work with Jack on the Vaults Key plan.

- At the same time Jack gifted her Buttstalion so she's not so lonely in the chambers.

- Nisha is an abuser in all senses in my books, but no hate to the canon Nisha.

- this relationship made him hesitant to go with BDSM dynamics (he belived it was a dynamic alright 💀).

- the addiction and Nisha destroyed his already strained connection with Angel -- she could spy using Siren powers and know exactly what's happening. Which was: neglecting her and destroying himself (he has issues okay).

- Angel tried to reason and gain independence, refusing to work on the Vault Key research anymore.

- Jack didn't listen bc all he cared about was heroin atm.

- sent Nisha away to rule Lynchwood and got into rehab to stay alive.

- he was too slow to repair relationships with Angel and she already got Crimson Raiders for friends planning to only hurt (for now) Jack.

- when B2 shit rolled down she was already too deep in misery + Eridium altered her physically and mentally in a way she didn't like.

- Nisha dies in Lynchwwod so it's also not good even though it's a relief.

- after Angel's passing, Jack went hard on old addictions.

- in his 48282th rehub he managed went sober for a record amount of time (14 months?), restated smoking tho.

- A couple of years passed and he decided to "OBJECTIVELY" off himself.

- Vaughn managed to help him with making a list of a desired partner's traits (not the best strategy but it helped to postpone the decision).

- massive trust issues and the list left only one option for Jack -- Timothy.

Tim and Jackothy AU.

- in 20 years they build some trust, professional and even platonic.

- Jack was too deep in his own head about the problems that prevent him to be normal but unconsciously gave signs of unusual attention to Tim.

- Tim straight up asked him out and everyone (Jack) panicked.

- eventually, he agreed tho haha

- they didn't date-date at first but for sure became buddies and it was enough to get Jack's mind off grim stuff in his life.

- Tim had an education in business from Hyperion uni and then got his acting MA in a small school.

- He couldn't find a job for either until he mass-applied to Hyperion and got into the double program.

- back then Jack wasn't very nice to anyone, but he had some weird obsession to subtly degrade Tim in particular.

- twenty years later he already was his only body double who not only stayed loyal but did a great job in security.

- they def had a history of hooking up but it was all played down as a mistake/situationship... Not like Tim had a choice to just stop seeing his boss every day.

- over the years of service, Tim got promoted and started working with Jack closely.

- he's from a privileged middle-class family that fell apart when he was 14 (divorce and alcoholism).

- got his red hair from the mom.

- Mother also was a retro pop star with 1-2 popular hits that are still known.

- after Tim "died" she was left alone, so she remarried and now Tim has a half-sister who is also into acting.

- Tim tends to cure stress by drinking but nothing too bad (yet).

- he had a little sister who passed away early, and this triggered a chain of events where his grandma (dad's mom) died, and then his mom cheated on dad, hence the divorce. Tim used to see his father until he moved away to another planet (and then Tim got into Hyperion at the age of 25).

- mother coped with alcohol so Tim was left to himself and tried to study well and get a good education to help his family.

- EXCEPT capitalism lied and he got stuck with a loan of $150 000 yipieee!

Misc.

- had an inside joke calling Angel an angle (sharp or dull)

- has a chronic skin condition where his scars are not healing fully so he can't have most surgeries, including the cosmetic ones.

- hates taking off his shirt. The forearms and neck are pretty much the only places where he doesn't have visible scars.

- has 13 big scars in total + one from that bullet he got shot in TPS.

- all scars tend to inflame and bring pain (medical reasons undefined, I say it's somatic).

- has a scar on the inner thigh, looks like smb wanted to decock him. Hint: she had a buzzaxe.

Irl misc for my writing

- Jack was born in 1966 which makes him an early Gen X, I'm sorry for my boomer jokes.

- Tim is 9 years younger, same gen, different flavor.

- Moxxi is a boomer I'm telling ya. She's slightly older then Jack.

There's probably more but that's all I could remeber for now 👀

[mrzoetuxedo]

OPINION OF ELTINGVILLE CLUB: THE BEST THING I EVER SAW.

Lastly, a lot of people in Latin America is talking about a serie of comics called "Eltingville Club" created by Evan Dorkin.

All the idea was planned to be a critic of that nerds or geeks who has a very obssesive love for sci-fi things or pop culture BUT they think they know everything, make feel other people they are wrong or do literally anything to have something what they want.

In actual times, Eltingville Club is know for be a sort of prediction of the toxic fans you find on a fiction fandom. But what is about Eltingville?

The story is about four guys members of a club called Eltingville Club, each members is expert on one thing that a stereotype nerd likes: Comics, Sci-fi, Horror and Fantasy, but seeing them together is not a good signal because they give problems to anyone, but also they give problems each other and almost all the time have fights for a lot of things.

CHARACTERS (FROM THE MOST TOXIC TO THE LESS)

Bill: The MOTHERFUCKER of the club. He is the leader and the secretary of the comics, he is also more than a punchable nerd, he is manipulative, stubborn, egoist, cruel, unpleasant, delusional, a liar and acts like a man-child. Is the kind of toxic fan you don't want to be near. His obssesion for the geek culture is so big that he sees the reality in a twisted form.

Josh: He the most stereotyped of the group, is almost like Bill, who is the one who has more fights with, but surprisely he is a kind a afraid of him sometimes. He is the secretary of sci-fi (But only cares about the classic sci-fi) and is an obssesive fan of Star Wars.

Pete: Is the typical pervert edgy who you can find on internet, he is the secretary of horror, and the reason voice of the group, despite he doesn't make almost the same things than Bill and Josh do, he is close.

Jerry: Finally we have the secretary of fantasy games, he is most responsable of the group, the only one who can separate his obssesions with the reality and one who I think is THE REAL PROTAGONIST. He is clumsy and sometimes doesn't know what is doing, but as the story progresses, he starts to see that everything he did with the other guys is wrong. He use the catchphrase of BEEDEE BEEDEE BEEDEE from a character called Twinkie.

PILOT AND COMICS (SPOILERS)

On 2002, Adult Swim presented a pilot of a series based on the comics, specifically the first and second comic. Surprisely the pilot was loved by the critics and the public, however the serie never was made by different reasons like the animation budget or the fact the pilot was on air in high hours of the night.

And what I think about the pilot?

I think is the BEST pilot I ever saw, maybe it has a lot of differences and exclusive scenes that weren't in the comics but it told us everything great. It's really sad that the serie never comes out, but I hope that serie can become real in the future.

How about the comics? The story has an end?

YES! As I said before the series never came real BUT fortunaly, in the comics we have an end where all start in the lasts comics, there Jerry starts to see that all what Bill was doing wasn't fun and really make him get in trouble, but the real caos being when in the comic "THIS FAN... THIS MONSTER" Bill became mad and burns the comics store where the guys get they geek stuff, thanks to that action Eltingville Club get separate and don't see again after 10 years in a Comic-Con in the FINAL COMIC. In that place Jerry was having the hope to rebuilt their friendship with a new attitude and thinking that the others finally change their begin but... No. At the end Jerry finds out that they will never change and leave them finally, ending his "friendship" with the others.

And that's why I think Jerry is the real protagonist of "Eltingville Club" and the Comic-Con comic gives a perfect end for the story.

CONCLUSIONS

- Both the comics and the pilot are highly recommended

- Seeing the comics in Jerry's perspective really make you feel that he is the protagonist

- NEVER BE A BILL, A JOSH OR A PETE!

- Never burn a comic store

QUALIFICATION: 1000000/10

Thank you for reading :3

[growsagain]

Before you follow or message me (updated Mar ‘24)

💙 Tummy kink blog (no minors) run by a gaining 40-something, bi, demisexual, transmasc feedee belly model who’s played a stomach fetish character called Gurgle Goddess for the past ten years 🍟🍔

💜 👉 Looking for feeders! 👈 Gaining is my serious focus right now!  SW: 6 stone (84lb/38kg) ✨ CW: 17 stone (238lb/107.9kg) ✨ GW: 300lb (21.4 stone/136kg)

🩷 My health limits the amount I can work. Updating Patreon is my priority but I share samples, preview pics and bonus clips on social media as much as I’m able!

🤍 SORRY, I DON’T DM! Especially not if you just send ‘hi’ or ‘hey’. Anything else, I’ll maybe check once in a blue moon and ask you to send me an ask or an email instead!

🩵 My posts are often filtered by tumblr so feel free to check my blog occasionally for the things you may have missed!

Before you message me:

Gurgle Goddess is just a character I play - I’m a real person (hi! 🤗) go here if you want to send asks for me to answer in character: @ggmorereal and here where I’m just being myself: @imthemiddleman

‼️ NO TRIBUTES ‼️ Enjoy my content however you like! I just don’t wanna see or hear about it!

🔸Please Don’t:🔸 Flirt, use familiar, cute or feminine nicknames or terms, or talk about touching/doing things to any part of my body, that makes me really uncomfortable

✨💛 Happily taken 💛✨ very devoted to my lovely partner Luce! 🥰 💍 been together over 10 years 🥰

Please don’t send pics/vids - I really appreciate the thought! It just makes me uncomfortable, I’m sorry! the only tummy I’m into is my lovely partner’s 🥵 and a possible exception of maybe two fictional characters (yeah, you know who one of those is 😑😑😑)

I’d rather be complimented than teased/degraded - I’m proud of my body, belly & gains 🩵 I only like the other stuff from Luce 😈

Sorry, I don’t IM, but I love asks!!! especially anons I can post 🤗

Sorry, I can’t do small talk! I’m autistic, exhausted and extremely socially awkward, I’m always happy to answer questions in asks but that’s about my limit 🤯

🩷 My favourite parts of the kink (in current approx order!):

Weight gain (not into unrealistic or excessive/immobility)

Burping

Stuffing/Bloating/Overeating

Strongfat

Belly noises

Digestion

Upset tummy

Internal Gas

Object vore (marbles etc)

💜 Lesser parts of my kink (often only of interest in specific circumstances):

Hiccups

Hunger noises (I HATE being hungry so growls are way less exciting to me but are more interesting now I’m fatter and they give my greed away so much more than they used to 🤫!)

Stretch marks

Full bladder/desperation

Pregnancy/mpreg

🖤 On Hold: Farting

Please leave farts WELL alone right now. in addition to the severe health issues that make this impossible rn the way some members of the community have bombarded me about this over the years have at this point destroyed the tiny part of it I found enjoyable. If I‘m ever to enjoy this in *any* way again or have any inclination to make fart content in future it’s really important that I find my *own* way into enjoying this again to even a small degree. Time and space are the best way for that to happen - thank you for understanding 💕

🩶 Personally not into:

Being hungry/starving

Inflation

Vore

Farts (right now)

💔 Turn-Offs:

Vomiting (actually phobic, can only tolerate in written form)

Scat

More extreme farting stuff (face sitting etc, big turn off)

Unrealistic weight gain/eating

💚 And if anyone’s interested, here are some of my Non Belly kinks:

Mind control

Intox

False memory

Embarrassment/humiliation

Drag (obviously :P)

Body transformation? I mean, weight gain comes under that umbrella too obvs but things like (not extreme) muscle building, body mods, other body changes

I also have a lot of non-con/survival kinks that serve as trauma processing.

Romance/yearning/jealousy/tragic love (I have issues ok??? :P T has done a number on my emotions!!!) (and yes it is a kink, as i’ve come to resentfully admit, much to my chagrin and Lucy’s amusement!!! 😫😅)

Captain Jack fucking Harkness 😑😑😑 I think he counts 😫

Aside from belly stuff I’m total fandom trash, talk to me about Torchwood and I’m putty in your hands :P

[actualbird]

Hi Zak, would you recommend majoring in something you enjoy doing?

I enjoy writing (and beta reading), and plan to major in something like liberal arts or creative writing, but I'm not sure if I should.

I feel like I might get burnt out if I choose to major in one of that, but also, I'm worried about my future job prospects.

I've heard of people who majored in fine arts and end up having to do a job they dislike cuz no money for the work, and idk if it's worth it. :(

~ 📝 (is this taken?)

hey there notes!anon (will be tagging u as this!!), ty for the ask!!

i'd like to preface everything im going to say with like, this is my Own opinion based on my own experience, and your experiences may differ, so not everything i say may apply to you and your circumstances. im frankly always surprised when i get asks asking for advice on life stuff, because i myself definitely do not have my life together in any way. still, i hope something in my perspective can be useful somehow to you

i personally am not sure/am not knowledgeable about a liberal arts major (because my college didnt have a course like that) but i CAN talk about the effects/benefits/cons of a creative writing major because i myself am a creative writing graduate

and first off, job availability is not as big of a problem for CW graduates as many people think. lots of industries need creative writers. it may not be the industry you expected or originally wanted, but the prospects are definitely there. when i was job hunting, off the top of my head, here were the jobs i applied to (and thus felt somewhat qualified for, with my CW degree): advertising copywriter, SEO writer, english teacher/tutor, writing for print magazines, writing game guides for online websites, writing scripts for games, copyediting, corporate copywriting. and that is very much the tip of the iceberg, because there are a lot of jobs that i overlooked that i couldve qualified for but i wasnt personally interested in.

now on the topic of burnout......i'll be real with you: no matter what you major in in college, burnout will happen if you dont adequately manage yourself.

burnout is not exclusive to creative endeavors, it's an effect of too much work + lack of control (perceived or real) + a whole lot of other factors that are VERY common to experience in college. essentially, college is a CAUTION: BURNOUT PRONE AREA simply due to how it's designed/structured. so no matter what course you choose, it will be a danger. so it's less of picking a course and more of how you protect yourself against burnout that will help you more in the long run

that being said, i got burnt out a TON when i was in college because of my mental illness(TM) and also because i was generally bad at pacing myself and taking care of myself. but what got me through was my sheer dedication to writing.

one thing about college is that i think you should pick something that you like enough that even when you feel like you hate it to the high heavens (because you definitely might, what with how stressful college requirements are), there is still something stronger about your tie to that course that pulls you through

for me, it was personal passion and commitment to writing. writing has always been the one thing i knew i wanted to do since the beginning of time, so no matter how much i hated it on all nighters i was working on my thesis manuscript, i pulled through

essentially, to prevent/survive burnout: manage yourself + pick whatever course you want where the "but" in "oh my god i hate this course, BUT..." is a strong one. if you have no strong ones as of the moment, thats alright. you can build it up as you go along

now on the topic of "working a job they dislike" i will be real with you once more..............this is a more common reality of life than having a job you do like. i am a statistical anomaly in the sense that i generally enjoy my job, but a lot of the time (based on what my irl friends go through with their jobs) you end up with a job you didnt expect you'd get into and dont necessarily enjoy. but....it pays the bills. it pays for you to enjoy the stuff you do when youre not working. and thats a valid way to get through life as well.

life after college, contrary to what people want you to believe, is not 100% taken up by your job. or at least it shouldnt be. or at least you should work to make sure it isnt. this might be, again, because im coming from a privileged perspective of having the time to pursue other things like hobbies and interests in addition to having a job, but if you also have the resources to do so, then definitely do so.

all in all: "would you recommend majoring in something you enjoy doing?" it.....depends. i recommend majoring in something you feel strongly enough about that you will continue to do it even when it's not enjoyable 100% of the time. but dont worry about jobs, because a CW degree is definitely useful in the job market. and dont worry about burnout, because that exists in all courses anyway, not just CW.

that is!!......all i think i have to say about ur q, i think

i hope some part of this can be helpful, notes!anon. and im wishing you the best in your decision!!! :D

[cyber-streak-2]

I need to talk about my new OC. Their name is Bendy. I’m about to go into the backstory/angst, but two minor things before I get to that: They are a monoformer & a Mnemosurgeon. Anyway, backstory/angst time:

There’s the basic stuff of them having originally being a ‘Con, before becoming a neutral, and occasionally deciding to help out either faction, among other things happening in their life. But, oh, here’s the biggest thing ever- it’s definitely a shock to them.

This Bendy isn’t the real one. This one is a clone.

In the past, the real Bendy ended up dying in a fight when the war was nearing halfway. The real Bendy’s friend (who I’ll just dub “Creator” because I don’t have a clue for a real name), felt so much grief over their friends death.

There hadn’t even been a goodbye between them and the real Bendy, and the Creator wished that there was something they could’ve done for their friend, but there was nothing.

No matter how hard the Creator had tried, they just couldn’t move on from their friend’s death. So, since they couldn’t exactly revive the real Bendy, they settled on the next best thing: Making a Clone.

They were able to give Clone Bendy/present/current Bendy all of the original’s memories (except for the death memory, which the creator changed to Bendy just being hurt, and saved by some medics), and tried to bond with the new Bendy.

However, as the time went on, the Creator noticed how different this clone was- and although they weren’t exactly a revived/brought back to life version of the original, the Creator still considered that this Bendy “Came back wrong/came online wrong”.

So, what the Creator did, was that they removed any of the new memories that this Bendy had after the time of being brought online, including the memories of the Creator themselves. (All the original Bendy memories remained+past memories of the Creator, but those did seem a little foggy). And then sent Bendy away.

And, in the present/future, Bendy would eventually stumble across an old abandoned lab, which contained clips and videos of the Creator making them. So, Bendy ultimately learns the truth of the fact that they’re a clone.

They don’t really take it that well, though. Quickly gaining the mindset of “I’m just a clone/I’m not really a real person, whatever happens to me doesn’t matter.”

Tags: @aecholapis @novafire-is-thinking @ivycorp @bramble-b0t @swede-fish @lagoona-blu

[adickaboutspoons]

The Curse of "The Curse of the Seafaring Life"

So now that I've had some time to come down from the euphoria of watching two middle-aged men kissing in the moonlight, I've got to admit episode 5 is... bad. Like the kiss is divine and perfect and I love it with all my heart and soul, but the rest of it doesn't make a lick of sense, within the context of what we've seen this season, or within the themes of the show as a whole. And it's not just a matter of inserting a couple of lines of dialogue to fix it as with episode 4. To me, it requires a full tear-down to the very studs.

I understand that for future plot purposes implied by the trailers, it will become important that Stede knows how to do fighty pirate-y stuff, but the way they get there challenges credulity. Stede states that he "hasn't really felt [that he is the captain]" since they got back on the ship. But... why? He's called and led at least two all-hands meetings in the past two episodes (letting the crew know Ed was not dead after all, and mediating the non-pology sesh), collected votes for the decision to exile Ed (and stayed with the crew rather than going with Ed, even though finding Ed was, like, supposedly his entire motivation, god that still makes me so angry writers I am in your walls!), and convinced the crew to, at least temporarily, let Ed be un-banished. No one is challenging him for his position. No one is questioning his authority. No one is being insubordinate or any less respectful to him than they generally are, considering he encourages open and honest dialogue (which sometimes invites less-than-respectful expressions of ideas with this crew.) No one is even suggesting that his feelings for Ed might negatively impact his objectivity or his ability to perform his captainly duties. For heaven's sake, half of the crew (eventually) followed him in applauding Ed's feeble scrabble at an apology. And quite aside from all that - how many times, exactly, does he need to prove himself? He JUST orchestrated a successful escape plan using fucking TOWELS. He's ALREADY captain material! So why would he have that less-than-captain feeling?

And the only thing that I can think of is that they needed to get him to train with Izzy somehow (why did it have to be Izzy, though? More on that in a moment). So how to get him there? Well, Izzy's mean, right? So maybe Stede needs to think that he needs to get mean, so he'll go to be trained at the foot of the master. But why would Stede suddenly think he needs to be mean? Especially considering how delighted he was when Yi Sao clocked his energy as soft? Well, maybe Ed tells him the way to Feel More Captain-y is to be more assertive.

But as much as Ed-in-a-collar asking Stede to order him around is going to find a forever home in my fanfic plotbunny document, that just... doesn't make any sense. Ed LOVES that Stede is out here doing things completely different from anyone else. One of the main theses of the show is that Stede's people-positive management style is CORRECT, actually, and another is that living life as your authentic self is more important than duty or obligation. Stede needing to "butch up" to be a proper captain runs antithetical to both those ideas AND to the established dynamic between Ed and Stede. Honestly, it reads a lot more like validation of Stede's insecurities about not being enough for Ed, and that whole dream sequence that opened the season. Which would be fine if Stede was going through an arc where he thinks he needs to be more manly and learns in the end that he's fine just the way he is, but that doesn't seem to be the case? As such, it's frankly pure contrivance, and just sloppy writing.

So taking out that pin about training with Izzy. I'm gonna be real, this feels like pure fanservice to me, and I'm not just talking about Con O'Neil's magnificently sculpted tits. Izzy's "redemption arc" (and, yes, I'm putting it in scare quotes) feels completely unearned to me. What - he's absolved in his suffering? Even though we've seen not one hint of remorse for what he's done to others (only for how the repercussions of his actions actually impacted him)? Not even the barest scrap of a non-pology? Then Why Isn't Ed? Ed who has suffered too. Ed who was so fucked up he made MORE THAN ONE attempts at suicide by proxy in episode 2? Ed who keeps getting kicked when he's already down and NOT extended the same sympathy and understanding from the crew? It's a real bad look, y'all. In fact, it looks a lot more like Izzy is not going through a "redemption arc" so much as an "he's already redeemed, trust us" arc, and training Stede is more about him proving that he's part of the community by offering support and expertise, and resolving his personality crisis ("who am I to you?" and "what even are you?") - roles which, by all rights, would be better filled by Jim (who had JUST given up on their vengeance quest to try and see what being part of a family might be like, only to be caught up in the Kraken's shit and having to fight for survival, and could now have an opportunity to work through their trauma by using their skills to HELP someone rather than hurt, and learning how to be soft - like the flesh of someone becoming human after so recently being someone's puppet) or Ed (who needs to learn to reconcile the various aspects of his personality, and that violence doesn't have to come coupled with the baggage of being unlovable, and who needs to relearn how to trust and be trusted by Stede, and how to earn the crew's forgiveness). Because the fact of the matter is? Stede MUST be lying when he tells Izzy that Ed attributes "everything he knows" to Izzy's teaching. The whole point of the escape from the Spanish relies upon the premise that there is knowledge that Ed possesses that Izzy doesn't and can't. Look at Stede's face when he says "More specifically, he said you taught him everything he knows.":

(corporate needs you to find the difference between these 2 pictures) It's giving very "Stark Revelations" vibes. I'm thinking Stede is getting Izzy to buy in to his training by using a little of that weaponized empathy he picked up studying at the feet of the master: Yi Sao. I don’t love Stede pandering to the ego of a mediocre white dude by conferring upon him the responsibility for Ed’s achievements and brilliance in order to get what Stede wants out of him, but it’s immeasurably better than the suggestion that Ed’s achievements and brilliance actually ARE down to Izzy. Neither way of interpreting the implications of the scene are great, though, which is uncharacteristically sloppy writing from this show. All the more reason why Stede’s training should be in the hands of anyone else EXCEPT Izzy.

The training montage itself is… not a training montage. It’s a cringe compilation. Just scene after scene of Stede being bad at things and no follow-up scenes that show him improving. The line about him just letting his body take over in the field and it working out for him is just bad and wrong. First, it conveys Plot Armor on Stede, and obviates the NEED for training. Second, really, Stede? How about the time you almost stabbed Doug for the crime of *checks notes* putting his hand on your shoulder? Or the time you blacked out and walked barefoot to Bridgetown after Chauncy shot himself? Like, let's please not suggest trauma-induced fugue states are Stede's super-power. Third, that's really not how we have seen Stede earn his victories up until this point, and it really undercuts the fact that Stede is VERY smart, clever, and resourceful, great at improvisation and using his environment to overcome mightier or more skilled opponents (think of the way he bested Izzy at their first encounter, or even, more recently, how he used his habit of putting scent on his towels and how everyone inevitably wanted to breath it in deeply to knock out the prison guards and orchestrate their escape - again, using towels as a zip-line). One of the things about Stede that I think gets under-acknowledged is that he's actually kind of low-key a master of seeing a thing once and figuring out how to do it. In spite of what my Advanced Maneuvers  fic would have you believe, the Unhand Me Or Bleed move actually comes from him observing the bar brawl in ep 2, and then there’s all the stuff with the duel with Izzy and the butt swat and taking it on the left that Ed had shown him only once and only a few nights previously. But what does any of that matter if he’s just going to Dead Zone it and let his body do what it will?

It also bothered me that, when his training is “complete” and he’s going on raids, he's just brute forcing things? Like, his plan was the same every time - run in shouting and waving your blade around. Where’s the clever planning? Where’s the distraction? Where’s the style and finesse? What happened to his rapture over fuckeries?

The resolution of the curse storyline/training montage is bothering me in a way that I feel is emblematic of the bigger problems with the season as a whole so far. The whole point of a training montage is either to payoff with a scene SHOWING the use of all the accumulated skills, or a subversion of that; why they CAN'T use those skills (like in Galavant where he over-trained for the joust and therefore couldn't move when it came time to actually participate). But instead, we get exposition fairies. "Wow - that sure was an epic battle we just did! With us fighting back-to-back and Archie swinging from a rope!" All the interesting and important stuff is happening off-camera, and we're just being asked to accept that it happened. Just like we’re asked to accept that the Swede’s time with Jackie is more fulfilling in some way that his time with the Revenge was not. Just like we’re asked to accept that everyone’s just cool with Izzy now - even the people who last saw him when he was marooning them, even to the point of working together to make him a peg leg and calling him their new unicorn. Just like we’re asked to accept that Black Pete or Olu missed their SOs, even to the point of “crying every night” for the former, but never seeing them actually mention it/crying about it.

And about that - although I was initially overjoyed by it, now that I’ve had some time to reflect, I'm not sure I'm so happy about the Proposal. Like, Lucius is still clearly in a v. vulnerable and traumatized state, and it's maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe not the BEST time to be making big life choices? Juxtapose with Ed finally learning to maybe not charge full-speed-ahead. Maybe handing the U-haul keys to another couple isn’t all that great an idea, actually?

Now on to the Curse. What the dying priest literally says when Stede and Jim enter the room is "We were voyaging to the Vatican to seek an exorcism." My auditory processing is sub-par, especially when more than one person is speaking at the same time, so I can't really make out most of what he says after that because Jim keeps babbling about curses (which? I’m sure Vico had lines they were written for them to be saying, but it to present as a translation something that is v. much NOT what the person is actually saying in the mouth of a native speaker of the language is SO weird to me), and maybe it's me splitting hairs, but exorcism is v. much a casting demons out of a PERSON thing - not a "cursed artifact" thing. But fuck it. Let’s go with the “translation” Jim gives us and stick with cursed items instead of bedeviled people. There’s a real missed opportunity here to have done something extremely clever linking the "curse" and the crew's trauma and, through the process of coming together to formulate a plan for how to free themselves from the curse, managing to take the first steps toward exorcising their own demons. I mean, this is just surface-level metaphor stuff, and it's troubling to me that instead we got Stede the Rational White Dude pandering to the superstitions of his mostly POC crew.

I LOVE that Fang reached out to Ed, and that he brought to Ed’s attention the fact that Ed often defaults to problem-solving mode, trying to FIX problems. Which is great when you need to make an impromptu lighthouse to escape the Spanish, but is not necessarily the best approach for emotional problems, where the better answer is sometimes listening rather than talking, or even just actually sitting and dealing with negative feels (though I am not loving the implication that Ed's a non-stop chatterbox. Sometimes he is, but there are plenty of examples of him being introspective - like literally any time he stims with his silk - and also, sometimes soundboarding is an effective tool for processing complicated or painful concepts, too. And also, we see MULTIPLE scenes of Ed crying alone. He’s clearly sitting with his feels. Admittedly there is a huge difference between wallowing/indulging and PROCESSING, but Ed sitting alone in silence with his feels is v. much NOT the problem). But I HATE the messaging about retributive justice in that scene.

So retributive justice - the idea that a person who has caused damage has to be punished to an appropriately equivalent degree in order for 1) justice to be meted to the wronged party, & 2) the wrong-doer to be redeemed for their wrongdoing - is all kinds of problematic to begin with, but especially when seemingly exclusively applied to a MOC. And we have two examples of that in this episode - we have Ed offering to let Lucius to knock him over the rail so that they're squaresies (v. eye-for-an-eye, that), and we have Fang explaining that he's cool with Ed because he brutalized Ed's unconscious body after Jim knocked him out with a cannonball, so that makes them square for all the shit that Ed did to him.

With Lucius, we see that it DOESN'T actually make things square. Lucius is still traumatized, and just as obsessed with Ed as ever, possibly even moreso. With Fang, we see the exact opposite. He and Ed ARE cool, and Fang doesn't seem to have any lingering issues.

So not only is the scene with Fang kind of gross and reductionist, and reinforces the "broken people do broken things" idea that's been uncritically floated earlier in the season, instead of recognizing that sometimes people have maladaptive behaviors in response to suboptimal circumstances and insufficient support systems, but also, when juxtaposed with the scene with Lucius, the show is refusing to come down one way or another on the topic, and I think that's pretty cowardly on the "toxic masculinity and racism are unequivocally wrong" show.

So how would I fix it?

1) Frame Stede’s practical pirate training urges as Stede self-enriching by re-taking up the reigns of his pirate lessons, not as him needing to learn how to captain

2) Make Ed his teacher, and thereby allow for a gradual rebuilding of trust and strengthening of their relationship (and also some flirtatious banter and UST because they're both trying to hold back and re-figure things out, but also that undeniable chemistry is still there. For me. As a treat)

3) I guess Izzy can help. But HE has to ask. As a "trying to find my place now that so much has changed for me" kind of thing, and also expressing some fucking gratitude to Stede for saving his rat ass

4) My training montage would be an ACTUAL training montage with the comedy failboating at the beginning, and showing actual progress until they're ready to do the Curse raid (which sets up the subversion of payoff for the training montage because they ARE ready, but there's nothing to fight on a ship of the dead). Nix the second raid altogether so I don't have to get cranky about expositing the action sequence. Also that line about blacking out and just letting things happen would be erased from history, too. 

5) Ed's participation in the "exorcizing the demons" plot is what starts to mend bridges with the crew and starts to bring him back into the community. (Also, I want Ed to be able to see Stede feeling himself in his red suit, and it is a CRIME that we were denied that.)

6) It’s my drastic re-write, so in my version, we’re gonna nix the Fang line supporting retributive justice, but we’re KEEPING the Lucius interaction. Maybe in the 'exorcize the demons' brainstorm sesh, Ed proposes that he dress in the devil suit and Lucius be allowed to push him overboard (a 2-for-1 expurgation. Also, there would be a line where Ed goes up to Stede and is all "I really need to get you out of those clothes", and Stede breathlessly replying, "Oh, Ed!" and then Ed awkwardly having to walk it back with hasty explanations, and Stede apologizing for making assumptions, and Ed having to beat a hasty, flustered retreat, because even though he has 100% seen Stede naked before, there’s an unbearable tension to the idea of seeing him like that now). But the overboard plan doesn’t work on EITHER front. Once Ed is back on board, still wearing the devil suit, something goes wrong that convinces the crew the curse is still there (maybe it's Stede doing target practice in the background with Izzy, and THAT'S when the sail falls on everyone's head), and Lucius' can still have his "That didn't actually give me the closure I thought it would have" mini-arc. Ed can start in again, pitching more ideas and talking over people, and Fang can gently suggest that Ed doesn't have to be the one to come up with all the plans. Sometimes it's ok to just sit back and listen, and realize that sometimes your input is doing more harm than good, and it's ok to take a step back.

7) Lucius and Pete aren’t getting engaged. Sorry. Maybe Lucius can propose, but Pete would gently tell him that, while he absolutely wants to and plans to spend the rest of his life with Lucius, he’s concerned that Lucius is moving a little fast, and maybe flailing for something to make him feel better immediately rather than taking the time to work through his trauma, and as much as Pete loves him, he’s not going anywhere; Lucius can take all the time he needs to come to terms with what happened to him, and then, when he asks again, Pete will say yes.

8) After the Curse plot is resolved Ed has been sitting and stewing with the bad feelings that your input can be deletory and unwelcomed. THEN Fang can impart the "sometimes you just have to sit with your feels and let it be uncomfortable" wisdom. Maybe Ed shares what he’s been going through on his own and hiding from the crew. But knowing how to process your emotions instead of just ruminating on them is a learned skill. I don’t know if Fang is the person to teach that to Ed, but honestly I don’t know who IS since Lucius would NORMALLY be the emotional intelligence guy, so I guess Fang can be the one with emotional insight since he is quite the softy under it all.

But also I still want moonlit middle-aged men kisses, so maybe Fang also suggests that just because your input isn't needed in some places doesn't mean it would be unwelcome in all - and sometimes it's a matter of redirecting your energy, and him indicating Stede (in his shirt) brooding over the rail at the loss of his awesome (I am only saying this word for Stede’s sake, because I actually fucking hate the hideous cutaway tailcoat with its tacky, poorly applied appliques) suit. And things are better between them because of training montage, but still awkward, and Ed is now the one taking the initiative to meet Stede where HE'S at and complimenting the shirt, "wear fine things well," etc.

(And, hell, since this is essentially a fix-it fic in essay form, there may or may not be a plotbunny brewing in my head about them agreeing to "take it slow" and then sloooooowly walking together to the captain's cabin and Whoops! they forgot there's only one bed now. Should one of them maybe take the pile of furs on the floor? No! they can totally share a bed platonically. Yup. Just two platonic buds sleeping and nothing else at all in the same bed. Except Stede DESPERATELY has to masturbate about what just transpired between them. He is not as stealth as he thinks he is. And maybe when he wakes in the morning, Ed informs him that he was moaning Ed's name in his sleep all night…)

[2c75ff]

❣!!

🔵 'SEND '❣' FOR 3 PROS & 3 CONS OF DATING MY MUSE' meme . ACCEPTING

PROS

✔️ If you're the insecure type, rejoice -- this pretty little twunk might give off some 'player' vibes at times with the way that he so clearly enjoys fishing for amusing responses, but the fact of the matter is that he really only tends to have interest in one person at a time, even in instances where the interest is fleeting or minor at most. If you're in The Talking Phase with him, so to speak, chances are pretty good that you're the only person he's Talking To, even if there's no expectations at play. He's got other shit to do.

✔️ Seventeen doesn't care about your money or material assets, what kind of job or social standing you might have, how you dress, etc. There's little use in trying to impress him with stuff like that. All he really cares about is whether or not he finds you interesting. Everything else is secondary. It truly is that simple.

✔️ So you're ungainly about this stuff, huh? Afraid you're going to do something wrong, make things weird, come on too strong, be bad at this, or otherwise make yourself look like an idiot? Well you're in luck: Seventeen's into that shit. He'd rather have you hungry than perfect; and while he might (read: absolutely will) torment you about it, he'll also delight in the process of figuring out what's good for you, as well as showing you what's good for him.

CONS

❌ Seventeen doesn't want to meet your folks and learn your family's stupid card games, he doesn't want to play 'domestic bliss' in some ugly little suburb, and he doesn't want to spend his life pretending that he sees any particular value in the rat race of society at large. If your dreams for the future tend to involve the typical 'cute house and passel of kids' stuff, then Seventeen almost certainly isn't the guy who's going to help you achieve it.

❌ Seventeen has never experienced a proper relationship and, frankly, wouldn't know how to deal with the prospect of long-term stability. He assumes that the good times have an expiration date and that, sooner or later (most likely sooner), either he or you will move along, and that will simply be that. Especially in the early days, it may feel like Seventeen already has one foot out the door, ready to cut and run the instant he thinks things are souring instead of attempting to work anything out. Unless you bring this pattern to his attention and really hammer it into his head, likely repeatedly, that you want him to be yours -- (him! the whole stubborn, rough-edged, uncultured wreck of him!) -- he's very likely going to assume that this Thing, whatever it is, is temporary, and act/communicate as such. He doesn't think of himself as the kind of guy that anybody actually keeps.

❌ He wants someone to think he's worth keeping though. This want to be wanted in a way that matters, while simultaneously feeling stupid and privately humiliated for it, can make him run very hot-and-cold, at times pulling people in and winding them up and giving every signal in the world that he's inviting them to give chase, while at other times slamming on the brakes or getting skittish/standoffish the instant things start to get just a little too emotionally real in a way he wasn't prepared to deal with. To the other person, this can feel as though Seventeen is simply toying with them for his own kicks.