#THIS WAS SO FUN and also finally an opportunity to get my designs for a lot of these people down hehe

[wifflum]

Video games that suck and why they suck

Dark Souls spawned a wonderful genre with an excellent, new (besides Demon's Souls), combat system that has been improved to have everything you could think of asking for, by games like Stellar Blade. Dark Souls, even though it was first, however, sucks. Here's why it sucks.

Dark Souls was made by a self-proclaimed masochist who said, about the game, "these are ways I would like to die," and then set the entire game design team to the objective of killing the player at every opportunity. It's like hostile architecture as a video game. The game is trying to kill you at almost every step, but it had this amazing new combat system, so that was tolerated. Now the blind sheep that are the masses worship it.

Elden Ring and Sekiro, on the other hand, did not have this incredibly sadistic touch to them, and are far more fun to actually play. And these trainwrecks who love Dark Souls would say it's a skill issue, to not enjoy crawling your way to the next death spot like it's progression in Final Fantasy XIV raids only through a fu**ing level, let alone the boss fights, and would blame the victim of literal and admitted game design sadism.

Red Dead Redemption, Spiderman, God of War, and also Grand Theft Auto (at least the campaign) and Uncharted-- all of these games also suck. This is because they are not made with gameplay in mind, because the target audience hardly gives a sh** about gameplay and just wants an interactive movie. They are, as a popular and often contrarian video game critic put it, "ghost train rides". They are theme park attractions that are purely there to entertain from a distance, and not really to be interacted with like you would expect from a video game. Gameplay is secondary, and it's often almost tertiary it's so far from being considered important. That is why these games suck.

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Another somewhat extensive area for video games to suck in, is the Fallout and Elder Scrolls type of games. These games, instead of making story so fu**ing primary that gameplay, the whole point of video games existing at all, is ignored, do the exact same thing with their open-worlds and RPG mechanics. Just imagine a turn-based game like Final Fantasy 7, only the gameplay that can actually kind of stand on its own is actually gameplay that sucks co** and could never stand on its own.

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I play video games for combat. To have fun and display skill. Everything else is set dressing for that one primary thing, and games that suck either intentionally obstruct fun combat, like Dark Souls does, or might as well not even include it it's so bad.

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Some other games that suck are fighting games, because in order to get your ration of 3 seconds of neutral game per match, which might be pretty good but in my experience isn't anything to write to my girlfriend in jail about, you have to spend 8 million hours mastering filler moves that waste both players time and just drop the health bars to what they might as well be at the start, which is 3 hits until death.

Tactical RPGs are not that bad, I don't think, but dear God are they stressful sometimes. It's also slow and can get tiresome unless you personally are slow and tired and prefer that pace over action games.

First Person Shooters need defense options other than fu**ing sprint or better offense (throwing a flashbang is an offense action, as is laying a mine) for every situation, which Remnant: From the Ashes really put in sharp relief.

MOBAs, like League of Legends, need to be done differently rather than copying a game that had a barely passing grade on its combat system (DOTA 1 on Warcraft 3) because it took it from an strategy game where you're supposed to be spending 3/4 of your time managing your base and resources and only fighting a small portion of the time. Battleborn actually showed what MOBAs are capable of to some degree, although it didn't have dodges or anything, but got overshadowed by Overwatch which everyone either immediately regretted or regrets now since Overwatch is agony to play.

One game that largely sucked but did not entirely suck, contrary to what everyone and their goldfish will tell you, was Anthem. At one point it had a triple jump, triple dodge, comboing melee character that could frontflip into sniping something in the head or spraying it with submachine gun fire. Yes, that was motherfu**ing Anthem that had that, in the Interceptor Javelin, though the people in the other Javelins did not look to be having much fun.

The last games that suck, which I think everyone largely knows they suck, are Ubisoft games. Now Far Cry isn't that bad, because it still has a reasonable focus on gameplay, but Assassin's Creed games have combat that is almost as ass as Rockstar games' gameplay.

Just, all you have to do, lol, is take some reasonable approximation of soulslike combat, with an actual functional deflect if you include one, unlike Rise of the Ronin, and do whatever your little gimmick is on top of that. People will fall over themselves saying how amazing it is. Just make ACCEPTABLE gameplay with whatever your horsesh** is that your audience of nitwits loves, and it will be something as if from an advanced society in the future.

Although, I personally think the window for that is closing and it wouldn't be jaw-dropping anymore, with soulslikes branching out so much. All we really need now is a soulslike MMO and that'll be the kitchen sink, and I think it's rapidly approaching. All I would ask of someone doing that is that you model the PvP after Guild Wars 1 Random Arenas, and you'd have to study that pretty extensively because there's a lot of nuance that made it so good, but it was namely an extreme difficulty to combat, like you'd get from a PvE game set to Insanity difficulty, somehow enveloping the PvP experience.

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Anyway, that's how video games of today almost all suck. And it's because they're not really video games; they're either like a simulation of something, traveling or getting stronger, or just straight-up a movie, with video gameyness slapped onto the side like a sticker, with about as much effort put into the application. The games that are good, as video games and not interactive media, which is what a lot of these things should be distinguished as, ask the user to display skill and they make that display enjoyable and varied. There's a million ways to screw up the execution of that design or to excel at it, but only a few games even set that objective of good combat as an actual goal.

But, if it makes makes money it's fine how it is, fu** foresight and artistic integrity, and we must all keep churning out pig slop to the pigs.

[rottingraisins]

Immensely tiny foundation staff... wanted to try my hand at these 2014 era deviantart chibi sticker type things & then blacked out and came to like 12 characters in

in order: kondraki, clef, rights, bright, light, iceberg, gears, crow, moose, gerald, glass, king, mann, lament, diogenes aaand zyn kiryu ✌️

[yuugami-tan]

extremely productive night tonight fellas 😌

[wyvernest]

imagine >

moving into a new city with no friends and family around. having to find your place in an entirely new space and into new people's lives.

neighbour!miguel being so sweet and caring, but also flirtatious and serious when time is best. offering to help you with just anything; driving you to work because you just moved in & are getting acquainted with the city, getting groceries for you when you're sick and/or tired, occasionally even bringing you flowers in the mornings.

neighbour!miguel smiling so sweetly when he sees you at his door at 11 p.m. on a friday night, asking for his help with your new furniture instead of being out and having fun.

neighbour!miguel walking through your apartment door, so happy to help you and spend even as much as a few more minutes around you. and it all feels so domestic and serene; seeing him in his home clothes, just a navy blue t-shirt and sweatpants, in your own private, intimate space.

neighbour!miguel not even asking for your help because he doesn't want you to lift a finger, or worse, get splinters stuck in your delicate fingers. frankly, he wants and likes to show off to you. he relishes in the opportunity to show you how strong he is, how he can effortlessly put everything in place. and sincerely, you do enjoy the show.

you enjoy seeing his arms flex when he lifts the entire underside of the ikea sofa so he could turn it around and continue with the instructions; yet his face shows zero struggle. no holding his breath, no pants of exhaustion. he knows exactly what he's doing, and he only needs to look over the pages a few times before he arranges the whole thing like he designed it.

neighbour!miguel secretly even taking longer than necessary to set the screws just to have you look at him with such admiration. maybe you might even begin to like him the way he likes you. he has no idea the only thing you wish you could do was to kiss him and let him put his arms around you, to reward him for how good he's been to you.

neighbour!miguel whose heart races as you gently kiss his cheek as he's working, gazing into his eyes with that look he knows all too well. but eventually you grow bolder, seeing no resistance from him; only satisfaction and a hint of sugar sweet surprise.

neighbour!miguel who can't help it but drop the screws and keys to grab you as you keep teasingly kissing him all over his face; one arm secured around your back, one around your middle, finally returning the kisses he had long coveted to give you.

divider by @cafekitsune

a/n: should i continue???? will miguel break the bed he just made???? poor miguel

also im posting that back massage fic soon too i just gotta make up my mind ab a couple things💀

[reiderwriter]

🍷 Alcohol Free 🍷

Week 1 of my Playlist series! Inspired by Alcohol Free by TWICE.

Summary: You're the designated driver for half of your friends, and Spencer is the designated driver for the other half, so why do you feel so buzzed when you're around him? OR; taking every opportunity when you finally meet Spencer Reid for the first time ♡

Warnings: fluff, mentions of alcohol consumption, but reader and Spencer are both sober. A/N: Welcome to week 1 of the Playlist! I think we started with an absolute banger, and for such a fun, upbeat song with this, I had to make this a fluff (sorry to all my smut and angst enjoyed, please be patient 🫡). I hope you enjoy it! Don't forget to send me more song recs, as I'll be writing one follower chosen song fic per month 🥳

Check out my masterlist here~

“How much have you had to drink exactly, Pen?” You laugh as you watch her wobble back and forth, at her table.

“We started with champagne and wine. And then there was the cocktail round, so, a few margaritas here and there. And a mojito. Maybe a mimosa. I think a guy bought me a pint colada at the bar earlier,” her words were so sharp you almost couldn't believe she'd drank anything at all, but the fact that she said all this while swaying gently from side to side had you giggling at her antics.

“Don't forget the tequila!” Penelope's friend Emily groaned from the other side of the table then were gathered at, face already flat on the surface as if her hangover had already hit.

You'd been friends with Penelope for over a year now, so you were acquainted with all of the girls there, and had agreed to come and meet them on one of their girls nights out. You were never a big drinker though, so you offered to be the designated driver for the half of the gang that were committed to Uber-ing home.

They'd been drinking since the mid afternoon, and by the time you'd gotten off work and cleaned up for the bar, it was obvious that they were going to be a handful.

“Y/N, YOU'RE REALLY PRETTY, YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT?” JJ shouted from her seat beside you.

“Thank you, JJ, you already said that three times tonight. Maybe we should get you some water?”

“And so kind too, my princess in shining armour,” Penelope giggled.

For most people, being the only sober person on a night out was hell, but you found yourself enjoying it more and more as the years went by. Drunk women were so much like kindergarteners when they reaches a certain blood alcohol level, and you loved seeing what your usually serious and cool girlfriends would come up with.

You also wanted to make sure they stayed safe, and with the impressive list of multiple alcohols they'd just ingested, you wondered if you should be carting them off to the emergency room then and there.

“I THINK YOU'D LIKE MY FRIEND SPENCER. HE'S NERDY. YOU'D MAKE CUTE BABIES.” JJ was still shouting all of her words, despite the bar being relatively quiet and you almost did a spit take with your water as she kept on.

“Stop trying to marry Spence off, Jennifer.” Penelope giggled, over pronouncing JJ's name as if it were her first time ever using the word.

You'd heard a lot about this Spencer Reid since you'd become close with the girls at the table, and honestly, you were happy that JJ deemed you good enough for their Spencer.

From the sounds of it, all three of them nagged at him like elder sisters who found him endearingly annoying, and were fiercely protective of him. It made you curious.

“Are you seeing anyone, Y/N?” Emily asked, finally lifting her head up slightly, but in a way that made it look like it weighed 500 lbs more than usual.

“I'm not.”

“Why? You're smoking. Half the men in here have been circling your like sharks for the hour you've been here.” You laughed at that and pushed a bottle of water in Emily's direction again, encouraging her to take small sips of water.

“I'm being serious! I may be drunk beyond belief but this is a sober thought.”

“Emily, I love you, but none of these men are interested in me. I'm practically a spinster. I'm 27, I have no money and no prospects, yada yada, already a burden to my parents.”

“That was something nerdy, I know that was something nerdy, my Spencie Senses are tingling,” she quipped.

And as if right on cue, a quiet voice popped up from behind you and all the hairs on your neck stood on edge as it happened.

“It's a quote from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie, so it's not really all that nerdy, Emily.” You turned, slightly startled in your seat as you finally met the elusive Doctor Spencer Reid.

“SPENCE!” JJ cheered, and the other girls similarly whooped at his entrance. They were overjoyed, but you were slightly overwhelmed, because not once in their descriptions of Spencer Reid had they ever told you that he was quite possibly one of the hottest men to ever grace this good Earth.

His hair was slightly curly, a mess of waves flopping into his eyes, but shorter on the sides, highlighting his sculpted jaw. He was tall, on the lean side and craning your neck to look up at him was a happy experience to say the least.

He greeted his friends and looked down to you, and you felt all the blood suddenly rush to your brain when your eyes locked. Dear God.

“Spencer, this is Y/N, my wonderful, gorgeous, single and attractive friend. Say hello, Spencer.”

“Hello,” he gladly followed the instructions Penelope gave him, and you practically giggled at the sound of his voice. Giggled.

“Hello. I'm the wonderful, gorgeous, attractive Y/N,” you waved at him slightly, but your brain wouldn't stop thumping around as you enjoyed the sight of the man.

“Penelope actually told me about you before. You're working at the indie bookstore near Café Density, right? Castle Books? I got a first edition of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats there a few months ago.”

“You!” You gasped the word, as a garage of words fell from your mouth in a stream. “You bastard, I was saving for months to buy that thing, and three days before my paycheck I turn up and it was gone! Oh my god, how does it smell? Are the pages mustard yellow or still A little white? They never let me touch it because I almost burst into tears every time I got close.”

To your astonishment, he didn't recoil from your spitfire speech, but laughed happily.

“It's great, the illustrations are amazing. I didn't know someone else had their eye on it when I went in, I'm sorry.”

“Don't apologise for finding treasure. You'd be a horrible pirate if you did that.” You brain really wasn't connected with your mouth anymore and you resisted the urge to turn and bolt away from the discussion.

“Thank you? I'm not a pirate, but I think that was a compliment.”

“See, nerds made in heaven, JJ was right.” The panic built up again slightly and you were sure your brain was going to explode with all the heat that was flooding to your face.

“What's JJ right about?” Reid inquired, and you almost grasped your chest to stop your heart from beating out of it when he cocked his head to the side.

You hadn't had a lick of alcohol the entire night, and yet you're entire body was reacting like it was drunk on Spencer Reid.

“Oh just that you and Y/N here would make beautiful-”

“BEAUTIFUL CONVERSATIONS HAPPEN.” You quickly cut Penelope off, sending her a warning look that was less subtle than just straight up telling her to shut her mouth.

“Can we go now?” Emily dropped her head to the table again as she threw out the words, looking suddenly three shades greener than she was a moment before. “I think that last shot was the drink that broke the camel's liver, and I'm the camel.”

You passed her the water again and slowly started to help your friends gently gather their things, noticing that Spencer was doing the same.

No wonder these girls were so protective of him if this is how well he treats them. He was their coworker, but he would have absolutely been confused for a filial son for any of the three women as he helped them each.

“Where do you live, Y/N?” He asked casually as you both helped the women out of the bar and into the fresh air. “My car is a bit small, but we can throw these three in the back together and they'll mostly sleep until they get back to their homes.”

“Oh no, you don't have to do that, I can go by myself-”

“I can't let a drunk woman go home by herself, Penelope would give me hell in the morning.” This earned a few giggles from the women beside you. You thought you heard Emily mumbling “some profiler he is,” under her breath as well.

You hesitated. You should've been explaining that you hadn't had anything to drink yet, that you actually drove here yourself and that your car was likely parked right by his. You should've offered to take at least one woman off his hands for the night to share the burden of making sure your friends didn't die.

But it was true that each of the women was likely to completely pass out when they got into the car, like newborns being rocked to sleep by their mothers. And that left Spencer Reid free for conversation.

“Thank you, that would be really nice, actually,” you smiled and followed the man to his car, lugging your wonderfully buzzed friends behind you.

[awfcspencer]

A Step Behind || awfc x reader

awfc x teen!reader

prompt: School is not your cup of tea.

warnings: self-doubt, crying, fluff at the end though

a/n: isn’t it crazy i wrote this while procrastinating my homework, crazy huh. enjoy!

School was never your strong suit, instead of being locked inside a classroom for hours and hours to listen to your teachers ramble on and on, you would rather spend your time outside on the football pitch. It’s not a lack of effort, because you sure tried to excel on your homework and exams, you would stay up late to try to study and focus, but your brain would get jumbled up and you could not retain information to save your life. It just felt you were always behind a step from your peers and it felt like they were all smarter than you, so why try? Always trying to even begin to grasp a concept and the teacher has already moved on to the next lesson. You had completely stopped doing your assignments and on some days, even stopped showing up.

Unfortunately, signing an Arsenal contract at a young age, the club forced to you to complete your studies and graduate. This felt like an impossible accolade, you hated school and apparently, school hated you too. The classroom felt like a prison and you were a felon. Luckily, you were able to transfer to an online school, but your inability to focus mixed with insecurities of stupidness and failure, you still were not doing well in your classes. Even though you spent every waking second that you weren’t on the pitch trying to submit work.

Right after training today, you set up a work station in the lounge, hoping to have some peace and quiet as exam week was coming up and you had to pass to finish school, finally. Headphones on, computer and notes out, you were ready to start knocking out your growing to-do list for the day. Until you heard an irish accent that was all too familiar.

“Y/N!!!” Come out to the pitch, Caitlin and Kyra are going to teach us some Australian rugby” Katie pleaded with you as she came into the lounge. It sounded like she was not going to be taking ‘no’ as an answer. You had yet to make a single dent in your coursework, but how could you pass up the opportunity to escape school?

“Oh I am so in.” you tell her, throwing your headphones out and shutting your computer. Right before you could make it outside the door, you hear your name being called.

“Y/N” you turn to see it is Leah calling your name, using her finger for you to come to her.

“Leah lay off, let her come playyyyy” Katie whined like a two year old that was denied a snack before dinner.

“Yeah listen to Katie!” you said as you tried to convince her to let you have some fun, knowing whatever she was about to say to probably wasn’t about to be fun.

“Katie, run out. Y/N needs to complete her coursework” Leah sternly stated. Once the words left her mouth, the smile that was previously on your face left in an instant. Once again, school coming around to ruin not only your mood but also your day.

Leah pulled your arm back into the lounge where Beth and Viv were standing in. Upon seeing your teammates, you knew they weren’t here to just lounge around. Leah ushered you two sit back at your designated school spot. The girls all took a seat, great now an intervention.

“Y/N, your online professors contacted the club and mentioned how you are behind on every single one of your classes. Some said you haven’t even submitted some of the assignments.” Leah said out, a tone of anger and disappointment in her voice.

They just didn’t get it, not everyone is good at school. You tried, tried, and tried to be someone who was ‘smart’ and did their work on time and always received the best marks, but that wasn’t you. Lessons were far from easy and the work you submitted, that you would spend days groveling over, would receive low marks and your teachers would write comments that shot down your confidence. It seemed like you could never catch up and you hit a point where you were so far behind that it felt physically impossible and overwhelming to catch up. The thoughts forming in your head caused tears to begin to well into your eyes.

“Im trying. I am trying to hard. But I am just stupid I guess.” you choked out to the girls who were now staring wide eyes at you. You were never a crier, usually keeping your emotions at bay, and you were typically always smiling and laughing.

“Liefde, please don’t say that about yourself.” Viv immediately cooed out, meeting you at you chair and holding you in for a hug.

You didn’t want to be in her arms, they all knew you were dumb and they were all disappointed in you, just like your teachers. “No Viv, it’s true. Everything takes me longer to understand. I can’t manage to focus through a 60 minute lesson, I turn my homework in late because it takes me so long. Everyone in the class is so much smarter than me. They deserve to graduate, not me.” you cried out. Your emotions had taken over you, everything you had been feeling in the last few months was coming to the surface.

“Y/N baby, why didn’t you come to us? We could have helped you when you were struggling.” Beth emphasized.

“I didn’t want you guys to know, it’s embarrassing that I can’t even finish secondary school!” you choked out. This is exactly what you didn’t want to happen. You thought they would all look at you differently now, if you were bad at school, maybe they thought you would be bad on the pitch too.

“Y/N it is not embarrassing to ask for help! Never, ever, be embarrassed to ask for help. That is what we are here for as your teammates and as your family.” Leah explained to you. Her voice was now laced with understanding and compassion. A group hug was had after as you had settled down and you started to now try to begin working on your work, the girls close by when you had questions.

Throughout the next few days, there would always be a teammate in the lounge, ready to answer any questions you had and proofread anything you were ready to submit. Alessia and Lotte were particularly helpful as they had graduated from university and always had the proper answers. Beth would always bring you a coffee on particularly hard days when she noticed the work was getting slightly difficult for you. Leah was on the tougher side, wanting you to explain why the answer was the answer rather than just giving you the answer.

After a few short weeks where you were now starting to hit your strides in your coursework, you had completely finished. All of the Arsenal girls gathered around you as you clicked submit on your final essay.

Beth quickly blindfolded you as she basically picked you up and lead you to what you assumed was a different room. When she removed your blindfold, you are met with a massive party. Balloons and streamers spread across the room and a cake that said ‘You did it’. The girls had thrown you a party to celebrate. Tears begin to brim in your eyes. Completing school was not an easy task for you, but alongside your teammates, you finally did it. You were simply the luckiest girl in the world.

“Thank you guys! This really means a lot” you smiled and happily said.

“We knew you could do it!” Leah added, pulling you in for a long, warm hug.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Homebrew Mechanic: Bumpercar Combat

I'm going to keep most of my reasoning behind developing this system below the cut but I think we can all agree that D&D's combat can be painfully static. I love fight scenes but after going down a combined stage combat/ videogame boss design rabbit hole I've realized that one of the primary elements is missing from D&D's combat system, namely: Movement

From a mechanical perspective, D&D combat needs movement to break up the monotony of non-spellcater characters throwing punches at eachother until one of them drops, to introduce increased risk and randomness without damage-spike abilities.

From a narrative perspective, D&D combat needs movement to introduce tension and to help put character into day to day fighting beyond just flavor text. Likewise, fights that give different opportunities for movement will feel different from one another, making them stand out in the party's mind.

So without further ado I present my fun new system, which will have your party and their enemies bouncing around the battlefield like a demolition derby:

Press the attack: If you attack a creature and your initial attack roll is higher than their constitution score, you can force them to shift 5 ft into any of the tree squares opposite from your position. You then move to occupy the space they did.  

Back to a Wall:  Walls and other substantial barriers grant attackers the benefits of flanking as if they were a threatening creature. 

Give Ground: If you are attacked in melee and the initial roll is lower than your dexterity score you may shift into any adjacent square, forcing the opponent to move into the space you previously occupied. If you are attacked at a range, you may still shift, but the attacker loses any cover bonuses they might have till the start of their next turn rather than moving. 

Tripping Hazard: If you force an opponent into a square that could be considered rough terrain ( such as if it was occupied by a chair, or down a slippery slope) the target drops prone. 

First things first I want to say that this system is largely inspired by the dynamic combat movement rules by raventear productions, which I found over on reddit. It's a great system but the more I thought about it the more I realized that introducing extra rolls into combat was adding extra bloat to combat, and so I needed to retool the system to ensure that the party weren't having to roll any more dice than they normally would. My goal with homebrew is always to add more options, not bloat.

Also, go check out@jillbearup over on youtube, her series breaking down cinematic fights was one of the main drivers behind wanting to find a homebrew system like this in the first place.

Finally, long hours spent watching @ohnoitstbskyen 's in depth bloodborne playthough got me thinking about the design of fights, and the right combination of enemies and environment can truly elevate the player(s) experience. I'm also working on my own bloodborne game which gave me a reason to finalize this system.

Now lets get on to why I wanted to build this system in the first place: D&D combat is at risk of being painfully slow and boring, as it's aged the depths to which it can be slow and/or boring have only increased. While part of that is up to the skill of players at the table, I largely chalk it up to the fact that the base system of combat isn't much changed from the days of old tabletop wargaming....characters and monsters control like army units, clashing up against one another till one side drops or some spellcaster drops an AoE ( artillery). That rigidity is fine when one person is controling a whole army of units, but I think every melee character has been in a position where they're slugging away with the same old attack while the wizards get to do cool shit.

The system sort of worked back In the early days when characters and monsters could only take a couple of hits before dropping, but as the editions progressed and everything got more complex what might have first been a quick life or death clash turned into a slugfest. Attacks of opportunity and rigid flanking rules specifically encouraged this slowdown, and 4th edition, the only attempt outside of the battemaster to really play with positioning crashed and burned mainly due to WotC's incompetence.

So how do I use this?

If you're having trouble thinking of why this system might be fun to implement, here's a few ideas:

It makes groupfights more dangerous, encouraging tactical thinking. Getting advantage reliably is the deciding factor in most d&d combats, with the tide turning in favour of whichever side has the most bodies. If combatants are shifting around with every missed hit then that advantage is more up for grabs

It puts increased focus on hazards and terrain features. Ledges, pits, pillars, walls, furniture, dungeon-clutter. Make no mistake that if you use this system and then design your combat arenas with some kind of terrain feature, it's GOING to be used. Where previously players and enemies alike had to chose between engaging with the arena for a potential benefit or doing raw damage reliably, here they'll be able to do both.

It gives non burst-damage melee characters a new way to play. Rolling a barbarian or fighter is supposed to come with a scene of empowerment which can be undercut one folks realize their super-strong orc berserker is being outclassed for damage by the shifty guy with the knife. Telling that player "Yeah, that person gets to roll more dice, but you get to bounce badguys off the walls like pinballs" is more than a consolation, it's what they signed up to do in the first place.

It adds drama to the fight. There's only so many ways a dm can describe enemies taking non-lethal sword hits that only take up a portion of their hp, and they're liable to run out of those long before the campaign is through. Part of what sells the importance of those hits and keeps players engaged between the first and the last is the feeling that they've had SOME kind of effect. Moving folks around is a middle ground between doing nothing and dropping a foe, changing the battlefield in a myriad of small ways that can build up to something meaningful.

Art

[scoobydoowantssancks]

Props Are The Way To The Heart pt1

Renee Rapp x Reader

Author's note: I have never written anything like this before so I’m sorry if it’s bad :/ also this has no connection to my other Renee x Reader character this is a completely new one :)

Summery: The line between coworkers and lovers gets crossed

Work count: 2.5k

You always had a passion for filmmaking from a young age, whether it was in front or behind the camera. Eager to explore the world of cinema, you begged your parents for a camera every year since you could remember. On your 15th birthday, they made your dream come true, gifting you a film camera that felt as though it was perfectly crafted just for you. As you delved into filmmaking – from scheduling to location scouting, lighting, sound, and editing – you began to realize just how much work this was going to be. Despite the headaches, luck, passion, and time led to the creation of your first short film. It wasn't a cinematic masterpiece, but you felt proud and continued producing content, sharing it online and entering film and art competitions.

Determined to escape your small town and make it big, you moved to LA at 18 with your winnings and social media earnings. Your apartment might have been a safety hazard, with the walls stained with water damage and peeling paint, and creaky floorboards threatening to give way at any moment, but you were ready to chase your dreams. Between job hunting and covering bills with odd jobs, you occasionally got calls from production companies for smaller projects. The desire for a significant breakthrough continued until 2019, when a prominent prop master noticed your work and invited you to apprentice on the show 'Pose.' It was the opportunity you'd been waiting for, an experience that would help you in reaching your dreams. Under the guidance of your mentor Matt, you honed your craft and evolved into a sought-after prop designer. This success opened many doors for you to collaborate with larger companies and is what eventually led you to work on the show 'The Sex Lives of College Girls'".

Nervous but determined to excel in the industry and your craft, you approached your job with professionalism and a helpful attitude, with building connections and lasting friendships with crew members became a top priority. Typically focused on your tasks, you rarely engaged with the cast unless at after-shoot parties or when invited to dinners by crew. However, one day, during a regular set day, while diligently managing props, one of the leading ladies, Renée, approached you during lunch.

"Hey, I haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet. I'm Renée," she greeted with the voice of an angel.

"Oh, hi there. I'm y/n," you replied, keeping your focus on the simple white porcelain cup in front of you, unaware that this encounter would be the start of an adventure you could only have dreamed about.

"Nice to finally talk, I see you around a lot. Are you enjoying your time here? No troublemakers bothering you?" Renee inquires.

After perfecting the cup, you turn around to face the stunning woman. Stuttering, you manage, "I... I..."

"Youuuuu," she playfully counters.

"Yeah, um, it's fun. I really like playing with objects," you blurt out, eyes widening as you realize what you said. Panicking, you fear you've ruined your chance with the gorgeous lady. Luckily, she laughs it off, responding with a flirtatious, "Yeah, you look like you're good with your hands. I wouldn't mind seeing what else you like to play with."

You feel your eyes becoming comically large and you begin to sweat profusely, you stammer, "I, uh, I gotta go," and hastily retreat to collect your thoughts.

You might have thought this was the end of your awkward encounters with the goddess in human form, but, of course, strange interactions seem to follow you. In the days following the shoot, you run into Renee again.

"Hey again, what you up to?" Renee greets, with a friendly smile.

Attempting to recover from the previous embarrassment, you nervously respond, "Hi, Renee. Just wrapping up some set details."

As you speak, a small wooden sculpture wobbles precariously on the edge of a shelf, and with the slightest gesture, you accidentally knock it over, creating a minor crash. Finding yourself flustered in front of Renee once again, you apologize and quickly fix the mishap.

Renee chuckles, "Looks like the props are rebelling today."

Embarrassed by the accident, you manage to regain composure. "Sorry about that. Usually, I've got a better handle on things."

Renee reassures you, "No worries. Unexpected things happen all the time." She pauses, then adds, "You know, you have a very interesting vibe to you. How about we grab a coffee between shoots?" She hands you a piece of paper with her phone number on it.

Surprised by the unexpected gesture, you cautiously but hastily accept, "Coffee sounds incredible. I'd actually love to."

Renee smiles and continues on her way, leaving you with a mess of thoughts and feelings about your future coffee date.

In the days leading up to the coffee date, nerves start to get the better of you. The thought of spending one-on-one time with Renee on a more personal level fills you with both excitement and anxiety. As you go about your tasks on set, your mind starts to drift.

Then, the day arrives. Trying to play it cool, you meticulously plan what to wear and rehearse conversation topics to make sure that there is no awkward silence. But as the day progresses, your anxiety builds, and by the time you're back on set, your nerves are uncontrollable.

During a crucial shot, you find yourself fumbling with your set of props, disrupting the entire scene. The director, known for their strict demeanor, explodes at you. The set falls silent as the crew watches too scared to intervene.

The collective eyes on you and embarrassment of messing up begin to get the best of you as you start to tear up.

Just as you think nothing could get any worse, Renee steps forward. Calm and collected, she addresses the director as calmly as she could, "Hey, it happens to the best of us. Let's take a breather and reset, we'll get it right next time."

Her words soothe the tension in the air. The director, though still visibly irritated, nods and everyone takes 5. With Renee's support, you muster the confidence to get through the remainder of the day. As today's events wrap up, Renee shoots you a reassuring smile, silently reassuring you that things will be just fine.

Finally, the anticipated coffee date arrives, and you find yourself nervously waiting for Renee at a charming café.

It was a quaint and cozy place, with classic exposed brick walls and rustic looking tables. The soft glow of string lights brought a warm ambiance throughout the store. It reminded you a lot of the coffee shops you worked at to make money here and there, giving you a somewhat sense of familiarity. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee and warm pastries also fills the air, "a smell to die for," you think. The chatter of customers that provided you comfort suddenly fades as she walks in. Your heartbeat quickens, and a mix of excitement and anxiety floods your body.

Thankfully despite your initial worries the conversation flows effortlessly, with both of you swapping stories about your lives. The good vibes come easily, and you relax into your chair, feeling a strong connection with Renee. The chemistry you both shared became more and more apparent with each passing moment.

However, just as the connection deepens, Renee's phone rings, and she glances at the caller ID with a hint of frustration. "I'm so sorry. It's my manager; I have to take this," she says apologetically.

You nod understandingly, though disappointed.

Upon her return, you notice a subtle twinkle in her eye. "Sorry about that. Work sometimes has a tight grip on me," she says, a faint smile playing on her lips.

"No worries, it comes with the job," you reply, attempting to lighten the conversation. Your banter steers towards more personal topics, and the flirty comments resume.

As you exchange playful jabs, a daring enters your mind. Tempting fate, you lean in with a sly smirk, "You know, if your manager calls again, you could tell them you're busy... with other things."

Renee's eyes widen for a moment, registering your attempt at a flirt. Then, a mischievous glint replaces it. "Oh, really?" she teases, playing along. "And what exactly would these 'other things' entail?"

Maintaining as much eye contact and confidence you could muster, you respond, "Well, I was thinking of continuing this conversation somewhere a bit more... private."

Renee bursts into laughter, a genuine and warm sound. "Smooth move, y/n. You just earned yourself a rain check. Let's see where these 'other things' take us in the future."

As she leaves the café, you're left stunned, Renee was truly the most incredible person you had ever met.

Days after the interrupted coffee date, the unexpected occurs. The repercussions of your on-set blunder lead to you finding yourself being let go from the production team.

You fell back into the familiar routine of working under your mentor and juggling odd jobs, the connection with Renee continues through text. She checks in on you, offering support and condolences after hearing what happened. The messages become your lifeline.

However, life is always demanding. The regularity of texts gradually dwindles as responsibilities of work and personal life caught up with both of you. The routine texts fade, and messages dwindle. It's not a deliberate choice, of course if it were up to you, you would talk to her till the end of days, but as a result of fate getting in the way.

As days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, the relationship you and Renee developed becomes a distant memory. The texts that once served as a comforting presence now feel like relics of the past.

Despite the dream of working with Renee slipping through your fingers, the resilience you gained as a result of this heartbreak becomes a defining moment for you. Life moves forward, and you carry the memories of that brief, intense connection.

Continuing alongside your mentor, you immerse yourself in his projects and odd jobs he put you to, embracing this as a learning experience. When one day, out of the blue, your mentor calls you.

"Guess what?" he exclaims, barely containing his enthusiasm. "I've been offered the position of Head Prop Master for the new Mean Girls movie!"

The news takes a moment to sink in, but once it does you can't help but join in with his excitement. "That's incredible! Congratulations!"

"Thank you, thank you," he responds. "Here's the kicker – I want you to join me as part of the team. You've got the skills kid, and plus, I can't imagine doing this without you."

Your heart swells with gratitude, and you accept without hesitation.

Eager to see the Mean Girls retelling a success, you and Matt dive headfirst into the preparations. Countless meetings with the director, production team, and art directors become the norm as you meticulously plan and discuss the vision for the movie.

Together, you both traverse through detailed discussions about every prop – from the infamous Burn Book to the iconic Kälteen Bars . As the meetings progress, you begin to see your hard work unfold into a cohesive vision. The careful consideration given to each set piece reflected your commitment to honoring the essence of the classic Mean Girls while injecting new life into the narrative.

On the first day on set, the excitement and anticipation bubble within you. As you maneuver through the busy set, you catch a glimpse of familiar faces. Renee, looking as stunning as ever.

Unable to contain your enthusiasm, you rush up to her. However, before you can utter a word, a stern-looking production member intercepts, blocking your path.

"Hey, back off. Don't mess with the talent. If you can't act professional and keep yourself together, we'll have you out of here before you know it," they warn, a face full of disdain.

Stunned by the hostility, you attempt to explain, "No, I just wanted to say..."

But before you can finish, Renee steps forward, with a infectious smile. "It's okay! This is y/n, they're part of the prop team," she says, hugging you tightly. "I've missed you! It's been too long."

The staff member, caught off guard by Renee's warm reception, stammers, "I-I didn't realize. Sorry about that."

Renee dismisses the tension with a laugh. "No harm no foul. Don't worry about it". As the incident dissipates, you share a relieved smile with Renee.

"It's really great to see you again," you say, a genuine smile making its way onto your face.

Renee's eyes sparkle with warmth as she replies, "You too! I've missed you so much. I'm sorry we kind of lost touch."

"Yeah, me too," you admit, a hint of playfulness in your tone. "Life got busy, but it's nice to see you again."

Renee chuckles, "Totally get that. We're both wrapped up in our worlds. But hey, we're here now."

As the banter continues, a flirtatious undertone emerges. "You know," you say, teasingly, "if I'd known I would see you today, I would have worn some nicer clothes."

Renee laughs, "I guess we needed a blockbuster to bring us back together."

Your friendly reunion continues, you think of your past connection, hoping to respark that flame. As your banter continue, the background noise finally catches up with Renee, reminding her of her impending call time. "I hate to cut this short, but duty calls," she says apologetically.

You nod understandingly, "No worries, I know you've got a busy schedule."

Renee, not wanting to end the conversation on a rushed note, adds, "We'll catch up for real, okay? How about we grab dinner sometime soon?"

"Absolutely," you reply, a grin playing on your lips. "I'd love that."

With a quick promise to get your new number off of someone, Renee hurries off to set, leaving you with anticipation for the future. You can’t help but to hope that she too feels that despite the hectic schedules you both have, some connections are worth rekindling.

Later that day, as you head back to the prop shed, where you find Matt amidst a massive pile of lunch trays that needed to be organized for the following day's shoot. When you enter a mischievous grin forms on his face.

"Well, well, look who caught the leading lady’s eye," he teases.

You playfully roll your eyes, "Oh, come on. It was just a friendly catch-up. Nothing more."

Matt scoffs , "Friendly, huh? I saw the way she hugged you. Fireworks were practically flying. Don't tell me you didn’t feel it as well."

You laugh, "Alright, maybe there were sparks, but it's just... complicated."

"Complicated, hmmmm?" Matt raises an eyebrow, clearly enjoying teasing you. "Well, just remember, you've got the props to focus on. No getting distracted by Hollywood glamour."

You nod and salute, appreciating the friendly teasing. "Got it, boss. The movie is the priority."

Despite Matt’s advice you find yourself blurring the line between fantasy and reality, and find yourself pulled into a world where the bright lights of Hollywood and genuine connections with someone collide. Your dreams of seeing Renee again and getting your big break became a reality, setting the stage for what may be an impossible decision.

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Kung Fu Panda 4 Review

Ok, I saw the movie yesterday and I have some thoughts. I think the film is good, but no where near the level of the first two. It's more like the third tonally. But tbf, nothing can top the second film in my opinion. KFP 2 really stepped up in its depth both in terms of its villain and message. The fourth film is very much the opposite. It's also very predictable and you can easily figure out what was gonna happen pretty early on.

What I liked: the animation is still gorgeous. Seriously, there were some very visually pleasing shots. The character models all looked great and I thought it was cool how the villain still has scales when she transforms. The music is also really nice and fun to listen to. The voice acting was also good and I thought Awkafina did a good job (major step up from Scuttle).

Po's dads were also really fun when on screen. It's nice to see them bond over Po and they do work well off of each other. They were the best part of the film, animation aside. The villain is also pretty cool with her abilities. We will talk about her more in a bit. And I did like Zhen and I'm looking forward to see what they do with her in the future. She's energetic and I did like her design.

What I didn't like: too. much. comedy. Ok look, I know this is an animated film for kids, but what made the first three films (particularly the second one) so good is that the balanced the jokes with depth. This film does have some messages, but it's intercut with so many jokes during dialogue that it takes away from it. They really needed to let this film breathe and have more serious moments to just talk and let things sink in. The villain brought back the old villains and stole their abilities (this was in trailer so not really spoiler). Why don't they do more with that? There is so much untapped potential here.

And that's my other big issue with the film: so much potential. Some of the ideas in this film are really, really good, but they only scratch the surface with it. I wanted to know more about the villain. I wanted to see our fave villains interact more. I wanted to see the villain use her powers more. But we don't get that; we only get the bare minimum. In simpler terms, there's no big "wow!" moment that the other films had.

Spoilers below (tread carefully)

Why did they bring the villains back if they were going to do almost nothing with them? The climax of the film was the Chameleon stealing the villains' abilities and fighting Po but we pretty much saw that in the trailer. Tai Lung gets to do some stuff, but I wanted more. Half of his lines were jokes anyway and I didn't vibe with it. Why did they bring him back if he was just gonna comment on things? I don't remember our favorite snow leopard being this comical. He did quip, but there was still a hardened edge to him. Idk. Maybe he got therapy in the spirit realm. Shen and Kai get crumbs, but again, they could've done so much more. And wasn't Kai destroyed completely?

With Shen and Tai Lung, I would've wanted to see more. I'm glad Tai Lung did finally come to respect Po and it does make sense. But Shen? The last time we saw him he rejected Po's help. Unless he too got the same spirit realm therapy Tai Lung did, him bowing to Po does feel very OOC. Nitpicking further, why was Shen brought back anyway? The Chameleon presumably doesn't know who Po is and Shen isn't a kung fu master. With the exception of the fanservice route, this choice only makes sense if the Chameleon was aware of Shen's actions in Gongmen and thought his level of evil would fit her vibe.

Nitpicking aside, there was so much opportunity for Po to confront his villains again and have a deep, serious moment with them. Whether either side likes it or not, they're reunited for a short amount of time. Why not capitalize on this great opportunity?

Speaking of the villain, so much untapped potential. Her design is great, her abilities are really cool, and Viola Davis does a good job voicing her. So why doesn't she get to do more? Imagine a really cool fight sequence where Po confronts her, but she shifts so much that it begins to mess with his head. Or she transforms into the older villains and Po is caught off guard? Instead, we get half the climax spoiled for us in the trailer. What was really cool about the other three was that we got multiple fight scenes with them to showcase their abilities. Thus, the final battle dialed it up to an 11 and we got a truly epic finale. Here, it feels like there should've been more, but there wasn't. Even her backstory feels lacking. It's there... but only surface level. Even Shen, arguably the cruelest of them all, had nuance and depth.

Also, why couldn't we get more of the Furious Five outside of a glorified cameo? Tigress and Po friendship is truly amazing.

As much as the jokes miss, there are some good bits. Shifu trying to deal with Po's shenanigans always crack me up. I also like the bit where Po tries to meditate and his thoughts get in the way. Because hey guess what, that's what my head is like and it's really freaking hard to quiet it down. So, there's that. I just wish the writers didn't feel like they had to insert jokes in almost every line of dialogue, you know? Li and Ping dad adventures are great except half the lines are jokes about how worried they are for Po or how not tough they are. Why not have a deeper conversation? I think it would make everything feel more natural.

I also wish Po himself was a tad more mature. I'm not expecting Shifu or Tigress levels of seriousness, but I felt that he kinda was a bit too childish. Po is one of those characters who loves to have fun, but knows when he has to be serious. However, he also likes to lighten things up with comedy. In this movie, it felt like he only really leaned into the comedy side of things. He had his moments, but I'll be honest, I really missed the "the only thing that matters is what you choose to be now" levels of dialogue. The proverb joke got old real fast, ok?

Grace Randolph from Beyond the Trailer described this movie as episodic and I can see it. The story bits are very segmented between the villain, heroes, and Po's dads. The flow and pacing of this film really needed to be upgraded.

Ok, that's all I got for now. I'm sure I'll think of something else to say (aside from encouraging everyone to rewatch KFP 2 because I'll never get enough of that film).

[mirai-e-jump]

TV Guide Dan Vol.51, April 2024 Issue ft. Sakai Taisei x Higuchi Kouhei Interview (translations below)

Publication: April 5, 2024

UNIQUE

"Could you please introduce the role the other plays in the V-Cinext films King-Ohger VS Donbrothers and King-Ohger VS Kyoryuger?"

Higuchi: Gira Husty, played by Taisei, is a character that has the right characteristics of being a so called main character, and I thought he was a completely different Red from the one in Donbrothers. The atmosphere Gira created was one you couldn't find in Donbrothers.

Sakai: Gira and Higuchi-kun's role of Momoi Tarou are the exact opposite in terms of character design. Tarou is an absolute ruler who brings everyone together, which is different from King-Ohger, where everyone has their own individuality but are still able to keep up with each other. In a way, I also feel "jealous."

Higuchi: Still, I think all Super Sentai members feel "jealous." The Producers and Scriptwriters give other Sentai "colors" we don't have, so it's only natural for us to think, "I like those colors."

Sakai: That's why the history of Super Sentai continues, and the fans enjoy it every year. I definitely wanted a "color" I don't have. That's why I'm happy to have the opportunity to be involved with other Super Sentai members like this!

"What were your impressions of each other before you met? Did your impressions change after meeting?"

Sakai: At first, I thought he was a cool guy, but on set, all the two of us would do was talk!

Higuchi: I felt the same way, and thought Taisei was a quiet guy (laughs). Actually, that wasn't the case at all, as I was surprised and happy to find that we were compatible when we talked in the dressing room. During this shoot, even though I had my own dressing room, I would go to Taisei's dressing room instead.

Sakai: I thought Kouhei was cool and manly, and my impression of his manliness is probably the same as it was before we met. We're similar in that we both get carried away.

"How would you describe your relationship?"

Higuchi: This is just my opinion, but in the context of our relationship in Super Sentai, I'm his senior Red, but in terms of our age, I'm his junior. In my case, regardless of age, as long as there's mutual respect, I want our relationship to be that we're like friends. That's why I unconsciously treated Taisei like he was already my friend. I'm sorry!

Sakai: It was also easier to say things like, "Let's go out to eat." I'm the same as Kouhei, I think it's easier that way. It makes me happier if you come to me without hesitation, rather than be cautious because I'm older than you, I think it makes it easier to talk about the performance and acting.

"Have you seen each other's shows, King-Ohger and Donbrothers? Please tell us about any episodes that were most memorable for you."

Higuchi: I remember very well when the first episode of King-Ohger aired while we were performing at Theatre G-Rosso. We saw it on the TV backstage at G-Rosso, and everyone was envious of it, saying, "It's really cool!" (laughs). I still love the first episode.

Sakai: For me it has to be the final episode, I thought it was really great that it ended with the very memorable, "We've formed a bond." I thought it was nice that it started and ended with those words. It's also easy to use at things like events! It's hard to find a place to say, "I'm going to rule the world!" (laughs). I like the fact that the first episode established the bond, and while the ending came, it was also a beginning.

"Were there any challenging or fun parts during filming?"

Higuchi: Speaking of challenges, the filming location was at the King-Ohger's studio, and it was my first time using a green screen that covered all sides. So, on my first day in the studio, I was surprised and thought to myself, "How do we do this?!" Once you get a feel for it though, you get used to it.

Sakai: Donbrothers was shot entirely on location. On the other hand, we had the pleasure of filming on a set. As for difficult scenes, Kouhei seemed to have a hard time in the scene where Gira choked on some mochi. It's because he had to put his hand firmly in my mouth (laughs).

Higuchi: It was harder for Taisei, wasn't it?! Wouldn't it have been easier to simply put it in? If it were the other way around, I think I would've felt awkward afterwards (laughs).

"What did you feel after watching each other's performance?"

Higuchi: I thought Taisei always took his acting seriously. Also, his eyes are incredibly pretty and distinct. I think he's got alot of strong points.

Sakai: I thought Kouhei was a stoic person in his performance. He spent alot of time thinking on his own, doing things like sorting out his emotions abit before the cameras started rolling. Even after he was given the OK, he studied things from the side the moment after and thought, "I could've done this better," so I respect that stoicism.

"Please tell us some of the highlights this time."

Sakai: They're both Super Sentai with tons of personality that rival each other for first and second place of this generation, so I think it'll be a highlight to see how they'll unite and how the story will progress. Also, this time, both Reds are characters that laugh out loud. Within the battle scene is a scene where the two of us are laughing loudly, and it was pretty difficult to film, so I want you to see it. It was a long scene, about 30 seconds, and we were laughing the whole time (laughs).

Higuchi: It's as if two Super Sentai were combined to form a new Sentai, and I think this is a movie where each member has their own highlights. Also, the King-Ohger's costumes are really cool, so it's worth seeing. Among us, Jiro, the Noto, and Inuzuka's costumes might be as good as the Kings. The other four are in ordinary clothing (laughs).

"You both have experience playing soccer, and you kicked a ball around during the photoshoot, so what are your thoughts on each other's skills?"

Sakai: I think this is probably common in soccer clubs, but I can tell just from the ball rolling alittle bit if someone is "good."

Higuchi: I get that! The moment someone kicks a ball and stops it with their foot, an experienced player can tell that, "This guy's good." However, I'm sure this is a feeling that baseball and basketball teams also have.

"Did you talk about soccer during filming?"

Higuchi: If I'm remembering right, after filming finished for Donbrothers and King-Ohger was about to start, Taisei said to me, "You used to play soccer, didn't you? Let's play futsal!"

Sakai: Right, I just thought since you had experience playing soccer. Futsal is fun, so I'd love to do it again!

"This issue also features Iuchi Haruhi-kun and Hayama Yuki-kun from the currently airing Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger. As their seniors in the Super Sentai series, please give them a message."

Higuchi: The quality of Super Sentai is really different each generation, but I think the one thing they all have in common is that they're "very challenging." That's why, when it comes to acting, I can never say, "It's better like this." The only thing I can think of to say is, "Please have fun in Oizumigakuen, where the filming studio is located." I enjoyed it tremendously (laughs).

Sakai: Right! Depending on whether or not you have fun in Oizumigakuen and at the filming studio, the story could change. The more favorite places and stores you have, the better, and you can go out to eat with ease. As Kouhei said, it's challenging to film every day, so I think it's good to find a place you can "rely on." It'd be nice if after enjoying Oizumigakuen, you go to a different site for another job and end up thinking, "I want to come back here someday."

"And finally, when speaking of Donbrothers, oden may come to mind, so please tell us what both of your favorite ingredients are."

Higuchi: Chikuwa!

Sakai: I love eggs, and I also love daikon radishes!

Higuchi: In the end, which one's the very best?! (laughs).

[writersblog20]

Three makes the dream

Chris Evans x reader x Henry Cavill

Not my gifs, credits to the makers!

Part 1🔥💜🦋

Summary: When Chris talked to Henry about your little fantasy but ignored the both of them with an attitude since you were working, has a lot of consequents

Warnings: curse words, in the beginning Chris bullies you a little, humiliating, sensations of dread, a lot of intimidation, feelings of embarrassment, manhandling, darkchris, dark Henry, mocking, chocking, crying, powerplay, size kink, overpowering you, being under control, a lot of praising, love bombing?, magic wand, overstimulation, throat fucking, throat bulge, jerking himself off in your throat, multiple creampies, breeding kink,, daddy kink, pet names, feeling very little and submissive, dom/sub dynamic, threesome, No condom use ( Zon’t zo it) , bit of spit and probably more things, mentions of collapsing. Crying during sex from too much pain and pleasure.  

Words: 6K

A/n it's finally here and i'm not even sorry about this. Have fun and please do read the warnings!

MDNI

Three makes the dream

You were currently working at a festival as a photographer. You also did the designs for the festival and that was kind of how you became their photographer in the first place. There were a lot of famous people attending the festival and a lot of famous musicians would walk up the stage. The VIP section for most actors was above the stage where Chris, your boyfriend was talking to the one and only Henry Cavill as you stood opposite and underneath the VIP section, making photo’s.

You and Chris talked about what had happened that night and your little fantasy of getting fucked by Chris AND Henry. What you didn’t know was that Chris already talked to Henry about it and they currently were whispering their ideas to each other as they were looking at you.

You already noticed and felt like you could die on the spot from embarrassment. Your cheeks heated up as you noticed the dangerous looks of Chris and Henry, given to you. At this point you were just trying to do your job and hoped that they wouldn’t be a further distraction to you.

The end was almost in view as the last band stepped on the podium, the Arctic Monkeys, who you were a fan of. You luckily bumped into Alex Turner earlier and quickly took a picture with the famous singer.

Chris spotted everywhere you stood, keeping an eye out for you. As the band played some songs and you photographed further, you also noticed the smirks on the boys. You felt completely flustered and their looks had you locked in a choke hold. You were so flustered that you lost your talent for photographing and to be honest, it pissed you a little off. It was fun and all but not when you were working and you made sure to tell Chris later.

Their glances burned on your skin as you got more and more irritated. You looked up at Chris, visibly noticeable that you were not happy with it at the moment, glancing irritated at him. He raised his eyebrow in surprise and disagreement, just like Henry, both not liking your attitude right now but you couldn’t care less. You were working for god sakes.

That was the last time you took a look at Chris that night and he knew damn well that you were irritated as they tried to get your attention. But you wouldn’t budge and went to do your work, ignoring them completely. At least visibly because the looks were burned in your mind, sending shivers down your spine and a tingling feeling downwards.  

You put all your attention into your work right now and the boss wanted to have a talk with you later but on a positive note, maybe giving you more work opportunities. The band walked off of stage and you agreed earlier with Chris to wait for him but you slipped away backstage quickly, still a little irritated. He knew that you didn’t like distractions on the work floor and definitely not this distraction. Well maybe you did but not underneath work goddamn it!

Chris and Henry walked backstage as well when you were talking with Alex Turner and the boss, making a bit of small talk until your boss would talk to you. Chris stood by your side and squeezed hardly in your ass, making sure that nobody could see it but it pissed you off more at this point and moved away from him as he raised his eyebrow again, letting you know that he didn’t like your attitude right now but then again, you couldn’t care less at this point.

You had a quick talk with the boss of the festival and others from different festival came up to you and offered you to work for every festival, which you definitely did not refuse! This was your dream and took it with both hands, making you happy again. Chris smiled, knowing that this was your dream and you did it all on your own.

You all were all chatting a bit with all the bosses when Chris walked up to you again with Henry this time. You’ve never met Henry in person so you felt intimidated and embarrassed by the  thought of what you told Chris and that Henry might know your sinful thoughts.

“Hey sweetheart, I want you to meet someone.” Chris told you with a smirk, telling you everything that you needed to know. But again, you didn’t want to look unprofessional in front of your bosses. You politely gave Henry a hand and he smiled at you, looking directly and deep in your eyes. You felt your cheeks heat up and felt small. Henry was even bigger in real life than on tv. You knew that he knew. His smirk said enough but you ignored it, or at least tried it and acted unbothered, surprising Chris and Henry who both got even more fed up with your attitude even though they could understand.

If this wasn’t your job, you could easily become an actress because you were giving production values at this point with acting unbothered and uninterested even though you were dripping wet and thoughts were swirling through your mind.

When it was time to end it and go back to the hotel, you said your goodbyes to Henry who looked dangerously at you and very lustful, making you slip in complete submission and he could see it in your eyes even though you tried to act like nothing was going on. Well to the outside but to Chris and Henry it got very obvious at this point as you were unable to hide it.

You got into the van as the driver drove you to the hotel, not knowing that Henry was following you since he stayed in the same hotel. It was a bit of a awkward ride to the hotel. You knew Chris wasn’t happy and the other way around. “Chris, you couldn’t do that. I was working. You know how I feel about that babe.” you tried to reason with him in a mature way. “I know. But there was no need for the attitude.” He told you coldly as his hand rested on your thigh and his grip got stronger, telling you that you were in it for tonight, if only you know how much exactly.

“I would’ve been fine with it every other night but you knew how much this assignment means to me. And you really decided to go at it at that point. You had no right for that.” You told him normally, trying to have a normal conversation and setting boundaries. His grip got even tighter, giving you a lump in your throat as he ignored you like you did to him earlier that night.

You knew he was mad but you wanted to keep your ground and let him know that you wouldn’t accept this kind of behavior and definitely didn’t appreciate it. “You were doing just fine, didn’t you?” his voice turned dark and felt yourself grow even smaller. “That’s not the point Christopher and you know it. Just please don’t do it again when I’m working.” You looked at him and you saw he was clenching his jaw at your use of his full name. His nails digging into your leg at this point. His pupils completely blown at this point.

You arrived at the hotel and there was paparazzi standing ready. Chris took your hand in his and held you tightly in his grip, giving you a dreadful feeling of what was to come. You stepped into the elevator and it was just the two of you know. Your heart was in your throat as the tension was extremely high at this point, making you a bit scared of what was to come. When the doors of the elevator closed, he waited a few seconds before cornering you. His body pressed against yours while his hand squeezed your cheeks roughly. “Don’t you ever give me that attitude ever again. You. Ungrateful. Bitch.!” He spit out the last sentence.

He never cursed you out and it gave you a dreadful yet excited feeling, making you confused. He let go roughly of your face and got you out of the corner, leaving you in shock. It felt like there was concrete in your shoes when the doors opened towards your hotel room. You could tell by Chris’s walk that there was more to come. You were scared to get into that room but yet excitement made your pussy drip.

Chris opened the door for you to walk in first. You hesitantly walked in and stood in the middle of the room, making you feel extremely intimidated, small and scared. The door closed with a bang, making you jump. You looked scared at Chris as you never saw him with this dark look over his eyes.

You swallowed a little. “Chris…. You’re scaring me…” He chuckled darkly. “Don’t tell me this doesn’t make you feel excited.” He strutted towards you while you backed away. He looked at you as prey. When your back met the wall, you held your hand a little in front of you for defense. His body met yours as you almost touched noses with him. “You really want to stand here, and tell me, that your pussy isn’t dripping wet? Mhm? That this doesn’t excite you a bit? The thoughts of getting absolutely ruined by me?” Your eyes went big. You almost thought that you were talking to Ransom and not Chris, your loving, caring boyfriend. “I…” you couldn’t finish your sentence as he wrapped his hand around your throat and pulled you closer to his face so he could whisper in your ear..

“You disappointed me today. Never did I think you could be this bratty. When I almost made your fantasy come true and get ruined by two cocks. But no…. You are an ungrateful bitch. I don’t condone this bratty behavior and you should’ve known better than that.” Goosebumps covered your entire body and you hated that it gave you away this easily. You were frightened yet excited. His hand squeezed your throat a little “What do you have to say about that?” he asked you huskily. “I’m sorry.” Your raspy voice came out soft from the tightening around your throat. “You wanna know what I think?” He mocked you, with a dark grin. Your eyes went big “I think that you need to learn some manners.” He told you and pushed you on the bed.

“From now on, you better listen to my commands otherwise it’s going to be a long painful night for you.” he told you darkly as he ripped your blouse apart, making you jump at the sudden movement. He pulled your pants roughly off. “You looked so good tonight, too bad your bratty and ungrateful behavior had to ruin everything.” He ripped your lingerie off of you and put your underwear in your mouth as you took it submissively in. He got a little towel and wrapped it roughly around your eyes, making it unable to see and you felt that he was tying you to the bed with something. It felt sharp around your wrist but you decided not to say anything.

You heard that Chris was getting undressed, the sound of fabric of the clothes getting off made you so extremely wet to a point, you didn’t even know was possible. All of a sudden you heard nothing but some shuffling and the opening, closing from the door. You tried to hear but it almost felt impossible as the thundering from your heartbeat in your ear was deafening, making you dread every possible moment.

“You know what sweetheart? Today might be your lucky day.” He mockingly said and you felt to the brim of tears but also so excited it was all very confusing. You had your safe word and knew that Chris would immediately stop but you didn’t really want him to. “Look at you…. so beautiful… isn’t she Henry?” he all of a sudden said and you were in complete and utter shock. The feeling of embarrassment getting to you, wanting to get away and cover yourself up but since you were tight up, you had no choice. Only youor legs weren’t tied up and you brought them closer to your body  “Mhm…. She sure is…. You got a nice one on your hands Chris. Too bad she’s going to get completely ruined tonight.” You heard the gravel voice of the other man in the room.

You felt your nipples get hard and more goosebumps covering your body. “I think she likes this, what do you think Henry?” You could almost hear the smirk in his voice and you felt a bit humiliated. “Mhm…. I thinks so too. Mind if I have a go?” your breathing got heavier. “Go right ahead. She needs to learn her lesson.” Chris told Henry casual and you felt the lump in your throat as your tears slipped into the towel.

“Look at that…. She is glistening. She is so wet, so pretty.” Henry told Chris darkly. You felt the bed dip a little besides you, your heart racing faster. All of a sudden you felt feathery kisses on your neck, making you gasp. You could tell it was Henry. You knew every part of Chris too well. A slapping sound was heard followed by a loud sting on your thigh and you whimpered at the feeling, more tears slipping out. “You’re getting completely and utterly ruined tonight” you heard Henry whisper in your ear and warm breath caressing your skin, sending shivers down your spine. Henry found the sweet spot in your neck within seconds, his rough warm hand palming your breast and squeezed your hard nipple.

Not long after you felt a lick over your slit, making you mewl at the multiple sensations and hands on you. Chris had his hands wrapped around your legs tightly while Henry placed a soft kiss on your lips with your lingerie in your mouth, your cheeks squeezed again. After he took a nipple in his mouth and started sucking on it while Chris was busy eating you out roughly. You tried to whimper and moan, bucking your hips up.

The feeling of Henry’s and Chris’s hands on you made you extremely horny. “Mhm, You should taste her… she’s amazing.” Chris commented and you felt Henry move away, his lips disconnecting your nipple, leaving you wanting more. Henry teased you by moving his fingertips slowly and softly over your legs towards where you were throbbing. The bed dipped down besides your head and you felt Chris softly going over your hair in a comforting manner.

Henry held your legs even tighter than Chris did, his muscles flexing around you while he made a long stroke with his tongue over your slit, goosebumps covering you again in reaction. His tongue  made circles around your clit, giving you an unbelievable feeling of pleasure and excitement washing over you. You wanted to move your legs but Henry tightened his grip around you, one of his hands resting on your underbelly, pressing down gently. Bucking your hips was useless right now of the stronghold he had you in, completely in his control.

You heard Henry hum in approval when all of a sudden you felt his finger going over your slit, sending electricity over your body. He put his finger in your pussy and started pumping in and out, making you whimper through the lingerie. You could hear Chris shushing you above you, still stroking your head while his other hand went to your nipple, playing with it. You felt yourself turn into a mess underneath their touches. As Henry kept circling your clit and pumping in and out, you felt the euphoric feeling growing  closer. Chris noticed your body language and Henry knew that you were close too. “Cum for us baby. Cum for your daddies.” Henry husked out, making you even closer than before. Chris squeezed into your cheeks again and that was the point you couldn’t hold it any longer and came on Henry’s fingers and mouth.

You could hear him growl and groan and it was next to Chris, the most beautiful sound you’ve ever heard. “There you go baby. Let go before you get ruined.” Chris told you lovingly in a soft way. You wanted to moan but everything came out muffled. “She is indeed very delicious.” Henry said as he backed away from you. “Get that lingerie out of her mouth. I want to put my cock in that pretty mouth of her.” Henry directed as Chris got the lingerie out of your mouth.

You tried to swallow but your mouth was dry and you were at lost for words. You heard the zipper of Henry’s pants, getting you instantly wet again as you got your legs up again. You felt Chris standing up from the bed and heard him walk towards your pussy. Henry gave you a stroke over your head before his hand grabbed your chin and made you face his way. He pressed his lips against yours, hungrily kissing you as his tongue slipped in, making you moan in the kiss.

You felt Chris eating you out again, as you gasped but Henry held you chin tightly, holding you into place. His whole tongue went in and out of your pussy and your legs already began to shake. Henry got out of the kiss and pushed the tip of his cock into your mouth. He pushed more forward and you instantly noticed how huge his cock was. “Mhm… You like his cock princess? I can feel you clench around me.” Chris remarked as Henry chuckled deeply. You gagged a little “aww sweet baby… try harder. IT’s not even in halfway.” Henry told you and you got a little scared as you knew that it was true.

Henry grabbed the back of your head and pushed it forward, making you gag even more as he growled dangerously above you. “That’s it baby. Take daddy’s cock princess.” He told you while Chris got you closer to the edge. “You’re gonna cum baby? You need to tell me when you’re gonna cum honey…” Henry and Chris chuckled together, knowing you couldn’t talk with Henry’s cock in your mouth. You hummed multiple times, making Henry groan even louder. “I think she’s about to mate.” Henry warned Chris which motivated him to go even faster with his tongue and you were in no time, in an exploding orgasm.

Henry got out of your mouth and grabbed your cheeks, placing a soft kiss on your lips. “Good girl.” He told you before moving away just like Chris. Your skin felt on fire waiting for what would happen next. Chris moved your way and pressed the tip of his cock against your lips, making you opening your mouth. “Let’s see what else you can do pretty princess.” Henry told you lovingly as well now, making you feel smaller. He entered you with two fingers and started moving, making you moan loudly and Chris took that opportunity to push his cock in deeper. Your pussy was making wet sounds and there was that familiar feeling washing over you. You wanted to cum so badly. Henry pushed his third finger in you and moved even harder and with every gasp or moan, Chris pushed his cock even further in, making you gag.

“Come on baby, I know you want to. Cum for me, cum for daddy sweetheart.” Henry said and you felt the tears gathering in the towel, making you cry out of pleasure as you came hard. Henry started laughing a little “That’s it princess. Good job. Such a good girl.” Henry told you happily. “You want to stretch her out? She’s very tight.” Chris warned Henry. “With love.” Henry remarked back. You felt the tip of his cock going over your clit and slit before he slowly entered you and you gasped out. “Ohhh you were right, she is very tight indeed.

Chris got his cock out of your mouth and got the towel from your eyes. Henry kept pushing in slowly with low grunts as you kept moaning. You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to adjust to the lights. When your vision became more clear you saw Henry above you with a grin and Chris next to you.

“Just for tonight he’ll be your daddy too, princess.” Chris whispered in your ear, sending shivers down your spine as his big hand wrapped around your throat and the other cupped your breast, playing with your nipple. You plopped your head back on the pillow from the amount of pleasure and pain while Henry’s big cock stretched you out. You wanted to touch Chris and Henry but got pulled back by the restraints.

Chris chuckled deeply. “You want to touch your daddies princess?” he cooed you. You nodded but Chris shook his head. His upper body laid half over you and you could see Henry above you. “Use your words pretty girl.” His knuckles softly brushed over your cheek, his finger slowly moving over your pillow lips and he seemed in a trance. “Open your mouth baby.” he told you, completely fixated on your lips. You did as he told you and he put his finger slowly into your mouth, pressing softly down on your tongue  before he put another finger in your mouth. Henry and Chris looked at you mesmerized. So much even that Henry stopped and watched as you gently sucked on Chris’s finger, twirling it with your tongue.

Chris groaned a little at the sensitive feeling that you were able to give his fingertips. “Oh baby, I love you so much.” Chris told you completely mesmerized. He got his fingers out of your mouth and looked lovingly into your eyes before kissing you passionately. When you felt Chris’s tongue slip in, Henry slowly started moving again, making you moan. Chris went from your mouth to your neck, softly sucking your sensitive spot. “Please daddy, I want to feel you.” you whimpered out as Henry sped his movement up. Chris looked up at you and untied you.

Your arms were immediately wrapped around Chris while you tucked your fingers in his hair. His hands cupped your breast as he started kissing you again. Henry started pounding you out and you moaned out loudly. Chris softly rubbed your cheek with his thumb for comfort. “You’re doing so well princess. Taking his cock. I’m so proud of you.” he praised you, making you even wetter. Henry’s finger connected to your clit and you arched your back for the euphoric feeling.

Chris still laid half on top of you on his side. “You close baby girl?” you nodded to Chris and he attached his mouth to your nipple for more sensation and you screamed out “I’m gonna cum.” You warned them and Henry sped his movement up, completely ruining you while you clenched around him. He grunted above you loudly.  “I’m not going to last long, I’m gonna cum too.” Henry warned. “Cum for me, please daddy.” You begged, making Chris smile proudly. “Fill her up” Chris told Henry while he kept looking at you with a seductive look. You felt his warm cum shooting into you and Henry collapsed on you while moaning loudly and out of breath but still moved slowly in and out of you, his cock covered with your cum and his own.

“Get out of her. It’s my turn.” Chris told Henry but looked at you darkly again and you knew this was far from done. Henry got out of your and changed positions with Chris. Henry stood next to you. “Lick the cum off of my cock princess.” His big hand was on the back of your head and led you to his cock that was covered in cum. Now you could see how big and thick Henry’s cock really was.

Chris pushed into you without warning and immediately picked up pace. “Take it baby. Take my cock and put his in your mouth.” He commanded. You wrapped your small hand around his cock and licked his shaft before teasing the tip. You tried to take him all in again but you weren’t able.

Chris got out of you and placed you horizontal on the bed, with your head off the bed and walked away to get something.  “You can fuck her pretty mouth now.” he told Henry and Henry smiled lovingly at you, sending butterflies in your stomach. “I got something for you baby girl, even though you don’t deserve it, I need to feel you clench around my cock.” He told you and you looked up to see a magic wand. “Let’s see how many times you can cum tonight hmh?” he told you belittling.

Chris got into you again, his cock covered with Henry’s cum and yours and god it was hot to see. He pushed the magic wand on and put it on your clit. Your legs immediately started to shake and you moaned loudly. “Put daddy’s cock in your mouth princess.” Henry told you sweetly and you got his cock into your hand, leading it to your mouth. Henry let his head fall backward from pleasure. Your eyes immediately filled up with tears. Henry pushed more into your mouth while you gagged around him.

Henry leaned over you and got the magic wand from Chris and held it against your clit while his other hand squeezed your nipple. You wanted to say that you were cumming but you could only murmur around Henry’s cock. “Your gonna cum aren’t you baby? I can feel you.

Henry got his hand away from your nipple and wrapped it around your throat, jerking himself off as there was a visible throat bulge. Henry grunted above you and he got hard in no time in your throat, making you gag. Every time you gagged, he got a little bit out of you and let you take a breath. Your legs started to shake and Chris held them tightly as you came hard onto his cock, making him groan and moan, trying to fuck you through your orgasm.

“There you go baby, there you go.” Chris panted out. Henry got out of your throat and Chris stopped moving, letting you shake around him before getting out of you. Henry got you up from the bed and you were finally face to face with him as Chris laid down on his back, slowly stroking his cock as he watched the interaction between you and Henry.

He smirked smugly at you and started kissing you deeply while your hands wandered over his broad chest. His hand went over your body while the other was on your cheek. His hand went over your sensitive clit and he pushed a finger in, making you moan out. In no time he put the second finger in and pumped in and out of you. His other hand grabbed you by your throat so he held you up, since you were close to collapsing. “You got another one in you, I know you do. You do, don’t you princess.” He cooed as the tears fell over your cheek and Henry kissed them away.

“Come on sweetheart.” His fingers and hand started to move more and violently. Your pussy made that wet sound again as you clenched around his fingers, making you squirt and kept going, ruining you completely and felt like you had no energy left inside of you. “You’re such a good baby.” Henry praised you and let you fall on the bed. “Look at the mess you made. Such a good girl.”

You were panting and flustered, your whole body felt on fire, everything was so extremely sensitive and you knew they weren’t done with you yet. “Climb on his cock princess.” Henry told you. You tried to get up, looking desperately at Chris with tears still flowing over your cheeks. He gave you a loving and almost sympathetic smile as he wiped them away. “Do as you are told and get on my cock.” He told you.

You tried to get up but collapsed. Henry wrapped his hands around your stomach and pulled you easily up on all fours. He smacked your ass, making you whine loudly. “Hurry up.” he told you, making Chris grin. You slowly climbed on Chris cock and put him slowly in, but everything was overstimulated and you clenched around him, falling on his chest drained.

Chris put his hips up and started fucking you, your tears falling on his chest while he started pounding you out again. Henry spit on your ass and rubbed it over your other entrance with his fingers, slowly putting one finger in. You moaned very loud from the pain and Chris covered your mouth as he pounded you out merciless. Your face buried in the crook of his neck and he pushed you down so your mouth was covered by his neck. You whimpered but you were so drained, you couldn’t even move away.

Chris found your g-spot and started pounding it, making you squirt again. His legs were covered with your juice and so was Henry’s chest. “Awww there you go, our pretty dumb baby.” you were unable to talk at this point. “Were going to fill you up baby.” Chris whispered in your ear, making your pussy clench around him. “Ohhhh she likes that idea Henry. I can feel her squeeze around me. I think it’s time.” He told Henry and you felt the your stomach drop from nervousness. “Let’s put two cocks in her.” Chris said and the dreaded feeling came back but your body gave you away with squeezing around his cock again, making Chris laugh mockingly.

“Yeah she likes that idea. Go ahead.” He told Henry. Luckily for you, Henry took a pity on you and started with adding another finger, pumping in and out of you. Once you were just a little stretched out, he decided it was time. His cock teased your other entrance and Chris stopped all his movement so Henry could join. He slowly pushed forward, making you cry out loud. “Aww baby, the pain is over in no time.” Chris told you, giving you a little comfort, petting your hair and wiping away the tears. “You remember the safe word right baby? You use it when it’s too much.” Chris told you, breaking character. You nodded with tears over your cheeks. “Repeat the safe word to me baby.” Henry stopped moving.

“Strawberry.” Chris nodded and softly rubbed your cheek and nodded with a look of love and care in his eyes. “Do you want to continue?” He genuinely asked you with worry laced his voice. You nodded and Chris looked over your shoulder to Henry and nodded. Henry slowly moved in and out of you, not even halfway in but tried to loosen you up as he groaned above you. Chris started moving as well, making you moan out loud, feeling completely stuffed.

“I’m gonna cum again daddy” you moaned out, never stopped crying. “ Ohh again baby? You can’t stop cumming can you? Do your daddies make you feel this good?” you nodded, moaning out and clenched on both cocks. Henry and Chris moaned out loudly. Henry got the magic wand again and passed it on to Chris.

Chris let it rest next to him for a minute. When you collapsed on Chris’s chest again, Henry sped up his movement and fucked you fast, Chris joining him. Henry got you up from Chris’s chest and held you against his own, one hand wrapped around your throat and the other on your breast keeping you up. Chris’s hands were on your hips, holding you up as well while he pounded you out just like Henry.

You moaned so loud, you don’t think you’ve ever been this vocal. Henry placed feathery kisses on the side of your head. Your ears were buzzing and you saw dots in front of you while both cock were glazed with your cum, moving in and out of you.

Chris got the magic wand again and put it directly onto your clit. The boys had to help you up because you would’ve collapsed again otherwise.  Henry bit your earlobe teasingly and you held their cocks into a death grip.

“I can’t hold it longer sweetheart. Hold it so we cum together.” Henry told you. “I’m gonna cum soon too.” Chris panted out, sweat buds collecting on his forehead and his hair damp from sweat. Henry’s sweaty body was pressed to yours as he held you tightly against him.

“We’re gonna stuff you with our cum and make sure, that you’re unable to walk after.” Henry panted in your ear. You cried out as you couldn’t handle it anymore and came hard again, losing count from how many times you had cum that night. You clenched around them and out of reaction they came too, shooting you full with cum.

They let go of you and you fell on top of Chris. Chris’s cum dripped down on his cock and Henry got out of you, making his cum drip down as well. Everyone was exhausted and out of breath. Chris held you tightly while panting in your ear. You could feel the thundering of his heart against your chest.

He collected himself and cupped your cheeks, looking a little worried at you. He’d never been this rough with you before. “Are you okay baby?” looking intently into your eyes. you nodded. “Exhausted” was the only thing you could say. Chris nodded but the worry never leaving his face. He got out of you, making you cry out again and he felt remorse “I’m so sorry baby.” he told you and placed you next to Henry.

Henry pulled you up, letting you rest on his chest while he softly went with his hand over your hair and kissed your head. “You’re okay baby. We’ll take care of you.” he told you softly, worried as well. Chris came back with a washcloth, knowing you weren’t able to get up right now and cleaned you up as far as he could. Henry comforted you and both the boys saw that they needed to be extremely soft with you as you sniffled. They exchanged looks with each other from worry. “Are you really okay sweetheart?” Henry asked you feeling extremely guilty. Chris laid next to you, holding you as well. “No I’m okay. Just really drained. But I liked it.” you told them when you were able to, the last part a little embarrassed.

“In that case, I’m open to doing it again, only a bit softer.” Chris told you chuckling and you smiled tiredly. “Me too, I really liked it.” Henry told you. “I’d like that.” You told them and closed your eyes. “Get some sleep baby. You deserve it. We’ll take care of you now.” Chris told you, placing a piece of hair behind your ear and softly planting a kiss on your shoulder. He let Henry hold you for now, knowing you couldn’t even move at this point. “We’ll be here when you wake up.” Henry kissed your forehead and you softly dozed off in a much needed sleep.

taglist: @patzammit @rogersdrysdalebarber @bookwormchick91 @justile@babyevansblog @hazelqueenland 

[celestial-toys]

A Vivid Imagination

In today's story- you take a nap on the couch, and your favorite pair of pants give Sun an identity crisis. In other, somehow related news, he and Moon get caught up in thoughts of what they'd like to do to you.

Pairing: Sun and Moon + Reader Word Count: 2,673 minors DNI - 18+ content below the cut

Contains: [sex] [threesome] [fingering] [afab!Reader] [sub!bottom!Reader] [implied null!Sun & Moon] [soft dom!top!Sun & Moon] [chubby / plus-size Reader] [Eclipse makes an appearance but not in the traditional sense] [Porn With Plot]

Sun and Moon might be a little bit obsessed with getting you off.

Maybe a little bit.. addicted to how easy it is to make you cum, even with with nothing but their hands to work with. They can’t get enough of it.. it just does something to them. They’ll take any appropriate opportunity they can get to rile you up and bury their hands between your plush thighs, fingers sinking into your wet heat and homing in on the spots that make you whine for them.

You certainly don’t mind it in the slightest, and you’ve made that quite clear to them on multiple occasions. You’ve given them permission to play with you as much as they’d like, as long as they always remember to ask nicely first.

So, as Sun slinks his way through the house one evening, he finds you on the couch, apparently having fallen asleep. You’re sprawled cross it with your legs spread apart, eyes closed and head resting on one arm, finally relaxing after another long day in your office spent staring at that goddamned computer screen, and Sun’s mind is already wandering to ways he could help you relax even more.

You're wearing a soft, oversized black cowl neck sweater and a pair of those gaudy split-print clown pants that were supposed to look like a mix of the designs that their fictitious counterparts wore in-game. He feels a strange mix of emotions at the sight of you wearing “his” pants. He can’t tell if it’s possessiveness or jealousy but it’s mixing in with his sexual desire and his fans have to kick up a notch to keep his temperature stable. He wants to take them off of you for two very different reasons.

On one hand, they’re simply a barrier between him and what he desires. One that he’d like your permission to remove. While it was enjoyable sometimes to keep you clothed and have you grind yourself against him, begging, panting, and whining until you soaked them so thoroughly you’d have to take them off anyways.. it wasn’t quite as fun as having direct access to the most sensitive parts of you from the very start.

On the other hand, though.. the clown clothes also serve as a reminder of a number of other, much less exciting things. Sun remembers how he used to take the opportunity to mock them nearly every time you wore them, never really getting much more of a response from you than an eye roll in return, until one day when you’d apparently had enough and decided to tell him why you wore them so much.

-

“Sun, I’ve had these pants since long before I created you. When the two of you were nothing more than pixels on a screen and an insane pipe-dream in my mind, I would collect things that resembled the two of you. Because.. I mean.. who doesn’t collect merch of their favorite characters, right?”

He remembers the way you began to look embarrassed at the confession, but kept explaining nonetheless.

“I had no way of knowing at the time that one day you’d actually be standing here in my living room mocking me for them, but..”

You paused there, giving him a pointed look before continuing.

“..even if I had known that.. I probably would have still bought them anyways.”

At that, you looked down, running your hands down over the tops of your thighs, over the red and yellow stripes and the blue and yellow stars. Sun never forgot the look of fondness that graced your features as you did so. It made him feel something that he couldn’t name at the time.

Before he could come up with one of his signature snarky responses, you spoke again.

“It’s kind of funny, honestly. They also serve as a nice reminder of how far we’ve come. I wore them quite often during all those late nights I’d spend at work, fussing over the two of you, you know.”

Sun’s faceplate shifted a few clicks to the left, curious if you were about to drag him down a trip on Unpleasant Memory Lane. The expression on his screen changed, his default features fading to black and leaving nothing but his signature yellow smoke billowing across the screen. You knew him well enough at that point to know that that meant he wasn’t a fan of where the conversation was going. Sighing, you stopped yourself before you could get too far into all of that.

“Regardless of any of that.. these pants were here first, they’re comfortable as hell, and I happen to love the way your original designs looked. You’re gonna have to come up with a better reason than them being an eye sore for me to stop wearing them.”

You got up from where you’d been seated, walking over to him just to make a big, playful show out of poking him in the chest as you spoke.

“You know, lots of people would be flattered to see their partner wearing their clothes.”

Sun brought his eyes back from the void of his screen just to roll them at you, and his rays took one lazy spin around his faceplate before he responded.

“Those aren’t my clothes though. You know I wouldn’t be caught dead in those things.”

You smiled up at him as you took a step back, and you took in the sight of all seven skinny feet of him before saying,

“Well, I can’t very well fit into your actual pants, now can I?”

You gestured to his impossibly tall, slender frame, and then to your much shorter and wider form before giving a dismissive laugh and returning to your prior spot on the couch. After a moment of standing there taking in your words, Sun finally decided to drop the subject.

-

Ever since then, somewhere, in the back of his mind, he’s wondered if.. underneath your jokes about your size differences.. if it actually bothered you that you couldn’t fit into most of their clothes.

He truly hopes that it doesn’t.

In spite of his relentless mocking of the iconic clown pants, nowadays part of him is actually glad that you have something to wear that feels like it’s theirs. He wants you to have something that reminds you of them.. both the (ridiculous) idea of them from the past, and the real-life version, standing here, zoned out in your living room today.

Before he can get any further carried away in his thoughts and memories, a notification flashes across his HUD.

[ 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚛 𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵𝑫𝑹𝑶𝑷 𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜. ]

[ 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚃𝚁𝚄𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝. ]

[ 𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚌𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜? ]

Sun pulls his attention back into reality and his monitor silently rotates on it's axis, scanning the room. His optics quickly land on Moon, who is currently leaning against the doorframe leading in from the kitchen, arms crossed and looking at him expectantly.

Sun rolls his eyes in exaggerated annoyance and mirrors Moon’s stand-offish position, leaning back against the opposite wall.

[ 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕. ]

Moon smiles.

[ 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆? ]

[ 𝕪𝕖𝕒𝕙. 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕚𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕟𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕝 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕪𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕡𝕠𝕡-𝕦𝕡 𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕦𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕞𝕖. ]

It’s now Moon’s turn to roll his eyes.

[ 𝒐𝒉, 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏, 𝑺𝒖𝒏. 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 6 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 39 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔. 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒕. ]

[ 𝕚’𝕞 𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕜𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕪𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨. ]

[ 𝒊 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘. 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒊'𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 ******* 𝒘𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒑.  ]

[ 𝕒𝕤 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕠𝕟’𝕥 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕕𝕠𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕖𝕩𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥? ]

[ 𝒚𝒆𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒕'𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒊𝒕. ]

Sun lets out a loud, annoyed sigh, the first actual sound to break the silence in the room, and both bots look to your dozing form on the couch to see if it might have woken you. You don’t stir, and the tension slowly drops from Sun’s shoulders.

[ 𝕕𝕠𝕟’𝕥 𝕥𝕒𝕝𝕜 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕓𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕣. 𝕦𝕟𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕣𝕖𝕧𝕠𝕜𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕒𝕘𝕒𝕚𝕟? ]

Moon holds his hands up in mock surrender.

[ 𝒂𝒍𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕.. 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕.. 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆? ]

Sun doesn’t feel like explaining how your stupid clown pants nearly sent him into a spiral revisiting the complex history of his identity issues today, nor does he have the desire to drag Moon into it, so he tells a half-lie.

[ .. 𝕚 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕓𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕓𝕒𝕕𝕝𝕪 𝕚 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕒𝕜𝕖 *******’𝕤 𝕡𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕠𝕗𝕗. ]

Moon’s expression shifts from one of concern into a look of confusion as he tries to make sense of why Sun had been standing there, looking so conflicted, if that’s really all that he’s been thinking about.

[ 𝒐𝒉 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚? 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍? ]

A few tense seconds pass before Sun responds.

[ 𝕞𝕙𝕞. ]

Moon doesn’t buy it for one second.

Still, he lets the lie slide for two reasons. For one, there’s no getting the truth out of Sun unless he actually wants to share it. The second reason, though.. is a bit more of a selfish one.

Sun isn’t the only one that wants to take your clothes off, and if he is willing to elaborate on his supposed thoughts.. then Moon isn’t going to turn down the potential opportunity to join in.

If Sun’s gonna lie to him, he’s gonna have to commit to his story, too.

[ 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏.. 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑺𝒖𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒆? ]

Sun looks almost taken aback for a moment, surprised that Moon let his half-lie slip by so easily, until he suddenly smirks at the realization of what Moon is hinting at.

Well, if Moon is willing to let it go and move on to some far more pleasant thoughts.. who is Sun to deny him?

He thinks it over for a moment, taking in your soft sleeping form, and when he looks over to Moon for confirmation of his request, he finds his lunar counterpart’s gaze already cast over you with that familiar, cautious desire in his eyes.

Sun fiddles with a few internal settings before initiating the process.

A few moments later, an identical alert pops up on both of their HUDs at the same time.

[ 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝙴𝙲𝙻𝙸𝙿𝚂𝙴 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝚃𝙾𝙲𝙾𝙻. ]

[ 𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙸𝙽𝙶: 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚎𝚍, 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚗-𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚞𝚗𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚖𝚘𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚋𝚕𝚎. 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚏𝚞𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚊𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚊𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚍. ]

[ 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚎𝚍? ]

[ 𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵𝑫𝑹𝑶𝑷 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙲𝙴𝙴𝙳. ]

[ 𝕊𝕌ℕ𝔻ℝ𝕆ℙ 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙲𝙴𝙴𝙳. ]

[ 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚜’ 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍. ]

[ 𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.. ]

-

There’s no stopping the next flood of thoughts they get. Their motions now in sync, every sensation, thought, and emotion felt simultaneously between them, their gaze homes in on you. Still sleeping, unaware of the growing desire you spark in your partners when you shift a little and your legs fall even further open. Unaware of the show they’re preparing to put on in their combined headspace.

Thoughts of how you're already on display for them, if you'd just let them pull those damn pants down..

They know you're not wearing underwear. You rarely do.. not in the evenings like this. It gives them easier access. Just one less thing to get in the way with how most nights they approach you begging to touch you, pleading to help you feel good. They just want you to feel so goddamn good for them. They can't help it.

They can already imagine just how wet your cunt’s gonna get for them.. and those fucking sounds, god, the sounds you’ll make when they finally touch you. The way your breath will hitch when they trace a finger gently up between your folds, your slick immediately coating their digits, helping the smooth silicone glide effortlessly up, further and further, agonizingly slow. They won’t give you what you want right away. Where’s the fun in that? Besides, it always feels better when there’s some anticipation involved.

They’ll trace slow, teasing circles around the base of your hard little clit until you can’t take it anymore. When your voice takes on that desperate, pleading edge and one set of their hands has to hold your hips still to prevent you from moving around under their slow, calculated pleasure, they finally show you some mercy. One wet thumb reaches up and runs up along the underside of your clit, so slow, so gentle, over and over again.

Never going any faster, never changing pace, just a rhythmic stroke across your most sensitive bundle of nerves, soft yet relentless until you start whimpering again. They'll pull away for a moment to soothe you like always, reassuring you.

One of them will climb up onto the couch with you, pulling you into their embrace as they cup your cheek, directing you to look at them.

"It's okay, Sunlight.. we know.. it's intense, isn't it?“

You’ll nod your head vehemently, over and over, desperation and want clearly written across your features as you make some sweet, shy noise of agreement.

“Mhm.. but you know we've got you, right?"

Instead of returning their attention to your clit, as they await your response, two long fingers will slip inside of you, meeting little resistance as your hips buck and your walls tighten around them in an effort to bring them further inside.

Your eyes meet theirs and once again you nod your head in acknowledgment, a quiet little whine of “please, please take care of me..” falling from your lips.

You know they’ve got you.

They’ll smile. An identical, love-drunk, hungry grin will spread across the screens of both of their faceplates. They’re so close, bodies caging you in against the too-small couch such that you can feel the hot air escaping from their vents against your skin. They’ll speak again, one of their hands finally returning to give you the attention you desperately need.

“That's right, Starlight.. just let it feel good. We know you can take this for us. Let us see how wet you can get, yeah? How much of a mess you can make.."

They know you’re sensitive. They'll be sure to take good care of you.

-

A pop-up flashes in the center of their vision.

[ 𝙲𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽: 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚌𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚜𝚊𝚏𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕𝚜. 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚐𝚊𝚐𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝙰𝚂𝙰𝙿 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚖 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚜𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚖. ]

[ 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚙𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜. ]

[ 𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙰𝙶𝙴 𝚘𝚛 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙲𝙴𝙴𝙳 ]

Both bots release reluctant groans into the quiet room, the only other sound being that of their fans working overtime trying to keep their temperatures down.

Then, they notice how you begin to stir from your little nest on the couch.

[ 𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵𝑫𝑹𝑶𝑷 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙰𝙶𝙴. ]

[ 𝕊𝕌ℕ𝔻ℝ𝕆ℙ 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙰𝙶𝙴. ]

[ 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚜’ 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍. ]

[ 𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐.. ]

As soon as they finish the short separation process, they’re making their way over to you and dropping down on their knees in front of the couch, asking for your permission in record time.

You blink open your tired eyes and can't help but smile a bit when you see the both of them with their long fingers anxiously hovering over the waistband of your pants. They lock eyes with you and with a quick “Can we? Please?” they don’t even need to specify what they want. You know, and you’re happy to oblige them.

You hate to say no to those puppy dog eyes, anyways. Especially when they’re looking up at you like this, deep beautiful shades of burgundy, desperate and pleading.

You want to give them what they want, after all.

It just so happens that most often, what they want is to see how fast they can have your legs trembling, hands searching for purchase on any part of them you can reach, whining and repeating their names over and over like they’re God and you’re praying.

A/N: FYI, this story takes place in my ‘[Not] Made by Design’ AU, if you’re curious as to why the hell they’re behaving so differently from canon. It’s intentional! Also, I made a slight change to the wording of the sexual part of this, compared to the version of it I posted on AO3. It's inconsequential, really, but I figured I'd mention it. If you'd like to see the original and/or read more on where the original inspiration came from, you can find it here.

[veepbeep]

Meet Jackson & Holt's parents: Dr. Vidya Jekyll/Edna Hyde & Argus Burns!

I'm so excited to finally showcase my own designs for g3 Jackson & Holt's parents, I have so much fun coming up with not only their designs but also their backstories as well.

Didn't give them fun logo names like their kid, but instead wanted to give it a bit of a very vague paperwork like vibe, showing how each would write their names and also gave them signatures for fun.

I'm writing down after the cut their info in more detail, so in case you want to know more about them, go on keep reading 👀

DISCLAIMER: there might be some deviations on the g3 lore of Monster High with what I'm writing on the characters, specially if more lore comes up in new episodes and what, think of it as a sort of semi-AU

Starting with the mother, Vidya is the daughter or the original Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, just like her father, she inherited the Hyde transformation, turning into Edna Hyde. Vidya is the "calm and collected" of the duo, always trying to think first before doing something, Edna meanwhile is the more impulsive one, sometimes not mincing her words when it is necessary.

Argus Burns is a fire elemental and father of the half human-monster teen Jackson/Holt. He is a distant relative of Hades (although nobody is actually sure in what way or IF they're even related, Argus is still treated as family, being referred by others as Cousin or Uncle), Argus also loves cooking, specially for others, which why he'd later have a restaurant of his own, his son also likes to help him whenever he visits Argus on the weekends.

Vidya doesn't really have very good memories of her time studying at Monster High when she was younger, a time where she was still trying to manage her Hyde form, specially in a place where humans weren't welcome. When she wasn't being the "cooler" Edna in front of her classmates, she'd have to run and hide in either the forest surrounding the lot or secret rooms the monstrous boarding school had to avoid Vidya being seen by anyone.

Possibly the only monster who has not only seen Edna's human form, but has also helped her in keeping the secret was Argus, confiding on this secret that later evolved into a relationship of many years which gave birth to Jackson until their break up. Despite their break up, both parents became committed to co-parent Jackson, with him living in the human world with Vidya and visiting Argus on the weekends.

Things would change when a few months ago, Jackson started also transforming on his Hyde form, Holt, for the first time. Vidya/Edna was the most scared of the parents, afraid that her son could get the same fate she did of having to hide a part of themselves from others. Argus tried to convince her that Monster High is starting to change, as he heard that a half human werewolf was already studying there for a while now, that this could be an opportunity for Jackson & Holt to be themselves.

Hesitant at first, Vidya understands how this is the best for their son, letting them to get transferred to Monster High, but she still might be protective with her kid on the first days.

These new changes to their life have made her to slowly also come to terms with being herself with other monsters as Vidya, outside of the comfort and security of her home. Also some feelings for Argus, and viceversa, that seemed to have been buried for almost a decade could seemingly be resurfacing along w these new changes in their lives...

[timepool]

ONESIX HYPERFIX(ED)

A free 2+ player hyperfixating TTRPG I made, and goofed up, now fixed!

You are having a normal, mundane conversation together— which is exactly the problem, it isn’t about your hyperfixation!

You can get the PDF version on the itch page (and donate if you're so inclined), or download the image version below!

Now the elephant in the room, how did I goof up? So, you'll notice how the above image is kinda split into two halves. That top half was the original game.

I uh...accidentally opened my half letter format in Publisher when I first made ONESIX HYPERFIX. So it wasn't great for printing as a single pager, like at all.

I had also upped my layout game for it, and I couldn't simple scale it up to fit a full letter!

So, I made the layout vertical, and added a second "page" full of optional frame and hyperfixation tables. Not only does this mean you can uh...actually print the thing now, it should also help you enjoy ONESIX HYPERFIX for longer, and enable you to have more fun with it!

I also took the opportunity to clean up some minor design flaws that had been bothering me for a bit, and made all the tables have rounded corners (as I finally figured how to do so)!

The original half letter format is still included as optional files, for those with sharp objects and a dream.

I won't repeat this mistake in the future, and I apologize to my A4-using friends for the close margins here, unfortunately that couldn't be resolved easily. My other single pagers are properly formatted for both letter and A4 paper, as will my future games!

[piplupcola]

Some shameless POS literally used AI to steal my friend's animated film

I usually don't post stuff like this but this shit's insane and downright insulting. I graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2022, a pretty well known animation school in the US, and every animation student on their final year of college has to make an animated film for our final thesis. If you have any idea of the animation making process, you would know that making an entire film by yourself in one year is batshit insane and extremely exhausting, to the point where I'm still feeling the effects of the process on my physical and mental wellbeing 2 years after I graduated. Once more, my friends and I did it during the covid period, which was another level of hell. I was literally watching my grandfather's funeral while working in the labs at 2am because I couldn't fly home to attend it because we had to make this film. This film was our lifeblood, the culmination of 4 years of hell at school which was suppose to be our gateway into the industry. Tldr, it's fucking difficult to do, especially on your own.

So imagine 2 years later and I wake up to a bunch of messages on our alumni chat where a dear friend of mine posted a link to a tiktok video of someone literally stealing her entire film and superimpose it shot by shot and claim it as their own ad for their AI game. As animators, we aren't unaware of people stealing our films and reposting them elsewhere. Heck my own film "The End" was stolen from our school vimeo and posted on tiktok BEFORE IT WAS EVEN OFFICIALLY RELEASED, and that tiktok got hundreds of thousands of views while a year after my own real release my film is still struggling in the thousands.

But this

This is a fucking new low.

Can you imagine? A fresh graduate going through literal blood sweat and tears to make a film on their own that is so important to their future in the industry, to get them a job, with a film that represents a part of themselves to the world, just used as fodder for some stupid tech assholes? It's infuriating. It's insulting. It's literally a big fuck you to the hundreds of students who spent their lives toiling to make these films from the heart who are just desperate to get into the industry.

The animation industry right now is in complete shambles. People are graduating from animation schools with thousands of dollars in dept only to be met with a wasteland of minimum wage and lack of funding and competing for jobs with people who have already been in the industry for years affected by the massive layoffs not only in the movie but also the gaming industries. These films we make for our thesis aren't just films made for fun, they represent our lifeblood, our only opportunity to get a job as a graduate in this sea of hell. If you didn't make a good film, chances are you're never even stepping foot in the industry ever. It's our golden ticket that we would put thousands of hours through, sleepless nights and pushing through no matter the circumstances of sickness and pain it caused us.

And now some dumb fucking AI using dickbags see that and decide it's worth nothing.

Here's a link to my friend's real film. Please go watch it and support her work. I'm not even gonna link the other piece of shit tiktok because I don't want that video to even get a single extra view but here's a recording my friend made so you can see this malarkey side by side.

It's heartbreaking to see my friend's film barely getting any views while the stolen garbage is already in the thousands. I hope the person who stole my friend's work and made that shit dies in a fiery car crash and go straight to hell.

I cannot emphasise how we must not let this shit continue to happen. We're living in a fucking dystopia and unless we do something about it and support those affected by it it's only going to get worse. They're already expanded from stealing people's still art to stealing people's entire films, if we don't stop this nothing we create would ever be safe.

My friend's film:

The shameless fuckheads who stole her film:

[amywritesthings]

about you. (cassian x you)

Pairing: Cassian Andor x F!Reader

Word Count: 5.6K

Summary: You are a rebel spy working as an escort at Canto Bight's cliffside casino. When Luthen cannot meet you for an intel exchange on New Year's Eve, he sends his best asset. Never in your wildest dreams did you think that meant you'd reunite with your former childhood best friend, Cassian Andor.

Warnings: New Year's Eve, Spy Thriller, Escort Service, Romantic Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Childhood Friends, Reunions, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Mentions of Sex Work, Wall Pinning, New Year's Eve Kiss

A/N: Happy New Year, everyone! I had a fun holiday one shot idea and wanted to try my hand at writing Cassian Andor. I am wishing you all a happy & healthy new year, and I can't wait to continue writing in 2023.

( Read on AO3 )

Canto Bight is always bustling at New Year’s Eve.

It’s why Luthen Rael has shown up on your doorstep for the first time in months. In his not-so subtle way, the man requests (see: demands) that you float back to your old haunt, the one within the glittering halls of their monument cliffside casino, and do what you do you best: entertain as a partner experience escort for the rich and powerful. 

The partner experience operation has been your designation from the very beginning of this rebellious calling. Your contribution to the rebellion, as he claims, is valuable — because the whispers in the night by decorated Imperials that feel safe in your company are priceless.

Whispers bring intel, and not even gold is as priceless as Imperial intel.

Luthen claims he knew of your potential the moment he laid eyes on you in a seedy dive bar on an Outer Rim moon. The little lamb far from her home planet Ferrix, looking fearful yet enraged all the same; starved, but most importantly willing to do anything to take down the Empire one domino at a time.

It was the type of spunk the older man needed in a claustrophobic world.

So you struck a deal: under trained supervision, you would run the casino circuits and red districts — never quite getting close enough to sleeping with the enemy (who knew the Empire thrived on humiliation and edging?) but enough to drug them, learn from them, then report back to him for the next move.

Rinse and repeat for six successful years.

And right now, you were supposed to be done. Find a small shack in the middle of nowhere knowing you did your part in the small but mighty agenda. Perhaps, eventually, you would find a way to make peace with your past and your present.

Then Luthen fucking Rael shows up at the stoop of said shack only six months later with a new opportunity.

A new strategy on the chess board.

(The rebellion, as he so candidly puts it, is never final.)

“Did you hear about what’s going on with Life Day this year on Canto Bight?” Luthen grunts, opting to stand by the doorway rather than a seat at your makeshift kitchen table.

You drop down unceremoniously with your arms at your sides. You know — and you know he knows — there is a blaster taped on the belly of the steel table should this be an unpleasant visit.

“You mean the Wookie holiday?”

“Hmm,” Luthen sounds, caught between a yes and a no. “Supposed to be the Wookie holiday, but it seems the Empire has allowed the casino a profitable chance to participate until the new year.”

“I’d expect nothing less,” you muse in return, surveying him. “When you say profitable, you mean—”

“Everyone who is anyone will be visiting.” Luthen never makes any sudden movements; always trapped sounding bored with this life he leads. It’s also a tactic not to play his cards too far from his chest. “They’ll be running the gambit for paid time off.”

Smile bland, you nod once. “Which is code for… you need someone on the inside.”

“For the season,” he agrees, shifting his weight. “A gift to the faces who may have missed you.”

“Missed me?”

“I hear about the Diamond quite a lot.”

Their precious Diamond.

Maker, that nickname always made your skin crawl.

You huff, rubbing your nose with the back of your thumb. “Flattery gets you nowhere with me, Luthen, you know that.”

He takes a pause, small eyes observing everything that you do. Updating a mental database logging your quirks and your discomfort to cipher for a later date — that’s all he’s ever done, study and download people, and he’s done so without error yet.

(It’s why he’s never been caught.)

“It isn’t flattery,” he finally says. “It’s an opportunity.”

To do everything we couldn’t the first time, is what he really implies.

It’s feeding an addiction no amount of dead fascists will be able to quench.

“And how do I tell them why I want the job back after I quit?”

“Your mother was very ill. You needed to help with her expenses,” Luthen fabricates from thin air. “It was easiest to part ways without the low note on your record. But the credits have dried up, and their clientele will be thankful of the casino’s decision to allow you back on the floor.”

It’s your turn to pause — to study. He gives away nothing. You lean forward to rest your elbows on the tops of your thighs.

“You think that’ll work?”

“You’ll sell it,” is all he gives back like you’ve already said yes.

You’re supposed to be out.

(Do you want to be out?)

.

.

.

.

.

No.

No, you don’t.

.

.

.

.

.

Getting the job back at the casino as a specialized escort is easy. The difficulty lies in remembering how to fall into old, subtle habits when all you want to do is cause chaos. Staying engaged while chatting up Imperial scum as they spittle in their expensive liquors and moan about the woes of their occupations and agenda can only go on for so long.

Yet you laugh with the rest of them once they’re kissing your feet and your hands, because everyone in this rebellion has a part to play.

(Our loveliest of diamonds, back to see us once again.)

Luthen, of course, never leaves you to your own devices for long. Gifting a hefty sum of credits and a bag of dissolvable sedatives every time he passes through Canto Bight as his alter ego is about as noble as the illusive man gets.

You fill small briefcases with voice memos and holovideos of nightly conversations, drunken manifestos and slippery plans.

It works.

By some miracle, you have never been caught.

New Year’s Eve is filled to the brim with Imperial guards enjoying time off from their grueling schedules. Some of the higher commanding officers already have their arms draped over people inviting them to a great time. Others chase after the debauchery promised by scantily clad creatures inviting them into the halls and out of their money.

You? Have a booking in advance: a high-ranking officer, but not within the Inner Circle.

According to Luther, he’s a valuable asset double-crossing their superiors.

A plant.

You are to deliver the intel to him under Luthen’s command and trust.

(Ironic. You always believed Luthen trusted no one.)

At the final half hour of the year’s end, you round the corner from the main entertainment room and down the hallway towards the private event spaces. A multitude of sounds are muffled by the doors — some good, some not so. Your focus is set on the twelfth door where your officer awaits, and suddenly you feel nervous all over again.

Meeting one of Luthen’s other operatives feels all too daunting.

After a moment, you place your code into the code box by the door and wait for the durasteel to slide, revealing the plush crimson meeting space. It's staged with a convenient king-sized bed and a vanity for refreshment, inviting comfort and suggesting the obvious.

What greets you as the door opens — a silhouette at the edge of the bed, dressed in Imperial formals — is not what you envisioned.

The man’s hair is what you notice first: disheveled brown locks are combed back neatly, smoothed by gel to keep the unruliness at bay. The jacket’s shoulders are a little too pointed, as if he’s not grown into his uniform quite yet — or like he’d stolen it on his way into the venue. The lines on his faces aren’t new, but aren’t old. He’s tired — so fucking tired, but he sits taller the second the door opens.

The blank expression on his face is purposeful, almost doe-eyed, with a feigned, smug-like innocence only an Imperial officer would wear.

Then his gaze travels from your open-toed shoes, up your bodysuit dress of sequins, and locks onto your face.

Just like that, the façade is broken.

What once was blank now hardens, wholly confused, before the lines on his prominent brow smooth with recognition.

Cassian.

Of all the idiots in all the galaxy, Cassian Andor is dressed as an Imp in your meeting space on the eve of the new year.

And you thought, with this rebellion, that you’d seen everything.

While the officer in disguise is much older than what your memory recalls, you could never forget that face even if the Empire tried. The feeling of dirt under your fingernails, the scent of rubber burning, the spark of an electric charge from a stolen piece of property — it all floods back in a tidal wave, almost knocking you a step back into the hallway.

On Ferrix, Cassian Andor always ran around with different people — sometimes it was Bix when she wasn’t punished for entertaining teen scoundrels; sometimes it was other boys in scrappy brawls and mended machinery; most of the time, however, it was you.

Hand and hand, causing mayhem in the bright suns and the full moons. He'd shown you what it meant to stand up for yourself. To want what you want and not apologize for it. To be bold, even at the expense of disruption.

And then he’d pummel whatever wayward eye looked at you the wrong way.

Trouble. 

Cassian Andor was so much trouble, and you were mad for it.

Your last memory of him is as vivid as the neon lights lining the ceiling: you're both sixteen years old and shoulder-to-shoulder on an inclined metal slab, staring up at the stars. He's wearing that jacket from his father and hasn't combed his hair in days. You're lost in telling him about your dreams of a better tomorrow, of one day leaving Ferrix for good and making a difference in the vastness of the galaxy despite how small you feel. He laughs, a hum more than anything else, and takes your hand in his.

You're too afraid to squeeze back.

Having Cassian poke fun of the idea of doing much of anything in the galaxy never felt like he mocked you for wanting to try. More than anything, his laugh was one of envy: he couldn’t afford dreams, so you dreamt for the both of you. He couldn’t handle intimacy, so you were satisfied with resting your hand in his the entire night.

Nothing was said. Nothing had changed.

He gave what he could, and you understood.

Childhood friendship has a funny way of feeling that simple.

Cassian, however, never truly chose to change with you. He never truly chose anyone, not really, not when he had so much to give — to his mother, to his scrapyard confidantes, to Bix.

You fit somewhere in the chapters of his life, but Cassian Andor could never tell you which ones. He could not, and would not, promise someone tomorrow.

An unfinished book.

You never did tell him where you were going after hitching a ride on that stock transport to get the hell out of Ferrix for good. Not a single holocard or a note.

Just… gone, into the galaxy, to dream.

Now he sits in front of you at the edge of your meeting space bed, threatening to ruin your calculated cover in one-fell swoop.

Before Cassian can implode your operation, you turn on the mask: with a bright smile and squared shoulders, you gesture to the plush furniture of the room. “Is it to your liking, Mr. —?”

You trail off on your question to give him a chance to speak.

Cassian blinks a few times, only to remember himself.

“Raoul,” he blurts without dismissing his accent, eyes widening with an unspoken question: what are you doing here? “Sargeant Murl Raoul.”

Maker, you haven’t heard that voice in so long.

It’s deeper now. Rusty. Scratched.

“Sargeant,” you correct pleasantly, taking a step into the bedroom to toe the perimeter. Cassian pulls the geometric gray hat clear from his head, balling it in his fist, but you raise a palm at the hip when his mouth opens: don’t.

He listens, pressing his lips together with purpose.

“I asked if this room was to your liking," you repeat.

Cassian struggles with an answer, studying you with concern. You hate it. You hated it back on Ferrix when he tried to play protector, and a decade and a half apart doesn’t dilute the emotion.

Your brows rise, and he clears his throat. “I— yes, I am quite comfortable.”

“Good,” you conclude with a small nod. “Now before I join you and get more comfortable, do you have any questions for me?”

“More comfortable?” he asks a little too fast, so you recover with a glide of your hand along your sparkling thigh.

“Can’t do much when I’m in this old thing,” you coo, that stage performer voice now sounding so phony to your ears with a known audience. “Shouldn’t take long.”

Cassian runs the tip of his tongue along the seam off his lips, shifting his seat on the mattress. “I suppose I could ask how… uh, how long have you been doing… this?”

You don’t know if he’s asking about the escort arrangement or the Informant position, which further complicates the game. The odds of Cassian showing up on Canto Bight should be slim. Cassian wearing an Imperial outfit on his own ought to be slim to none. 

But appearing in your private meeting space, fake alias and all?

Your blood runs cold with truth between the lines.

(Luthen never does anything by accident.)

This meeting — reuniting Cassian and yourself — is his test, a judgment call, but you refuse to let Luthen win the game with this surprise hand.

“Years,” you answer honestly, to both.

You continue to face him as you skirt around the left side of the sparkling vanity, not taking any chances with your former friend. Your manicured fingers glide along the mirror’s back, searching for the planted Imperial wire.

(Not only are they cruel, but perverted in their efforts to catch spies.)

“So then you are... experienced?” The question comes out rougher than you believe he intends. Gruff, like he’s embarrassed to even ask.

(The question almost — almost — makes your face burn.)

“If you’re worried that you won’t have a good time, Sergeant, then I promise they sent you to me for a reason. I’m going to take great care of you.”

Cassian’s expression darkens at this as he rises to his feet with purpose.

You rip the microphone from the back of the mirror, holding the device between your index and middle finger for show. 

This stops him from moving ahead, eyes locked on the microphone before flickering back to you. You shake your head.

I said don’t.

He nods once, and you take the microphone between your hands. With two clicks, the wire cover pops open, displaying a multitude of tiny wires. You fidget between two, pulling, until the red eye at the center of the device dissolves into black.

The room is blanketed with silence.

Now it’s just you and a ghost here.

“We’re clear,” you tell him after another beat, dropping the seductive aloofness in your tone.

Cassian’s shoulders drop a fraction of an inch. “That was fast.”

Your brow picks up that fraction, raising high. “You have to dismantle them fast."

“Let me take a look at it,” Cassian replies, tossing the hat twisted in his hands to the mattress. "Are you certain it's off?"

“Positive,” you say, sheltering the item closer to your chest. “You don't need to look at it. Easy to disable and reassemble at a moment’s notice, so I’ll turn it back on when you depart.”

“What about lost footage?”

“Chalk it up as faulty equipment they’re too stubborn to replace in a shithole like this.”

Cassian mulls over your answer, taking a cautious few steps forward to observe the small device in your hand. “Imperial-grade wires are tough to work with. A five-second warning doesn’t give many people time to disable the alarm,” he informs in a whispered afterthought. “Where did you learn to do that?”

In your bones, you know it’s a trick question.

Fifteen-something years of reuniting in a moment like this comes with immense drawbacks. When he asks, it is not out of curiosity — it is out of the desire to see if you are truly you.

(Because he remembers your face, too.)

“On Ferrix,” you reply.

He gives no reaction, continuing to deadpan. “Where on Ferrix?”

“You want me to remember from that long ago?” you laugh, placing the microphone on the vanity’s surface and following up with a thick blue cloth to drape over top of it.

“Humor me,” he reasons, flexing his leather-clad fingers at his sides. Now that he doesn’t have a distraction, Cassian doesn’t stop looking at your face.

(The same intensity as the boy without dreams.)

“The old Slavyard. There was that one incredibly rainy month when those prim and proper freaks—”

“—installed the spyware on the back door in the middle of the night,” he interrupts, finishing the story with a misplaced awe under his breath. “You played lookout while I disabled the devices.”

You don’t answer, not really, as you offer a half-hearted smile. “Say what you want about that place, but you learn a lot of things when you watch restless boys who never know when to stop getting in trouble.”

The return smile is small and fleeting, but the corner of Cassian’s lip upticks. His brows knit together, contemplating before a huff of a laugh exits. “Not a very good lookout, then, if you were so busy watching me.”

“You never got caught, though, did you?” you joke.

You swear he almost laughs.

The silence settles at your ankles and rises with each passing second, encompassing you both in a shroud of possibilities: pleasantries are nice, but the popping of bottles and shouts of celebration passing by your room brings you both back to a reality where you’re playing pretend.

Cassian huffs once more, running a hand down his face and around his neck before dropping it in a gesture towards you. “He cannot be serious.”

He.

You catch that pronoun with intrigue and tilt your chin.

“Serious about what? Who’s ‘he’?”

His voice softens, shrinking in size, as he nears half a step closer and into your bubble. “Don’t tell me it’s you.” You maintain eye contact — maintain dominance of this situation — and stay in place. “When he said to wait…”

“...for the Informer, you didn’t think you’d run into a ghost?” you finish, and he’s polite enough not to nod. “He only told me the person he was sending in his stead was one of his best assets. This reunion isn’t my doing.”

“No,” Cassian agrees, low and certain. “It isn’t.”

Because Luthen knows.

Luthen knows, and that’s dangerous in and of itself: his little lamb on Ferrix knew his most trusted asset long before the mastermind was in the picture, and this sabotage is meant to figure you out.

(To figure you both out for his own gain: to make sure you were both up for the task, history aside.)

Your jaw clenches as you nod with assertion, mindful of the train of your body-tight dress when you shift around Cassian to create some space. He turns his torso, following.

“Did he force you to do this?” When you pause in your steps to quirk a brow, he struggles with verbalizing what this means. “Entertaining these low lives while they piss their credits away.”

“Very strong words for someone dressed as an Imp.”

He completely ignores you, hyper in his budding rage. “Because if anyone has touched you—”

“No one’s forcing me to do anything, Cass,” you reply, hateful that the former nickname leaves your lips so fluidly; as if no time has passed. “We’re all cogs working for the same machine.”

“That doesn’t mean he should be having you do this on your own,” the man argues. “He’s not even on the planet, for fuck’s sake. This is dangerous work.”

“You keep saying this or that, but you’re not really asking the real question.” Your nose scrunches, maliciously playful. “I don’t fuck them. It’s pretend, Cassian. My honor is intact.”

Cassian squints with a scoff. “That isn’t what I meant—”

“It isn’t?” you challenge.

“No,” he responds just as fast and just as intense. A smirk plays on your lips, slow and growing. “Fuck whoever you’d like to fuck. One or a dozen, I don’t care, but not them. They don’t deserve you.”

“And who does?”

“I don’t know, but not Luthen or the pieces of shit out there or anyone on this planet.”

“Not even you, right?”

He stares down at you, hard. You snort in disbelief.

“I never thought I’d see the day where Cassian Andor is jealous of a body count, but I guess stranger things have happened for both of us.”

Cassian’s jaw sets, nostrils flaring with an anger he refuses to bury completely. He searches your face, lost on a response, before sharply inhaling through his nose.

“I need information on your regulars.”

Ah.

No more games. 

You roll your eyes, absently waving him off as you turn to walk towards the crate-like nightstand. “I have the files on a drive.”

No more games, or so you thought — Cassian follows close behind. “Drives are easily corruptible or lost or stolen. You could just tell me.”

Your hand hovers on the drawer when you turn your chin to look at him. “Yeah, sure, let me just… tell you about a mission I’ve spent years finessing so you can get the details wrong when you relay with Luthen.”

“Do you think so little of my memory skills?” he says and it’s a joke, but it teeters on the edge of an argument.

Just like old times.

You don’t need this type of deja vu before the new year.

“Whisper down the lane only goes so far,” you answer, turning back to the drawer in front of you. Your hand lifts the edge of the bottom plate, removing a small box from the center of the hidden compartment.

You only pause when you feel his presence right behind you as soft puffs of air tickle the back of your exposed neck.

He says nothing, not at first, in this proximity. Then a syllable sounds:

“Why?”

The question is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it whisper. His voice flutters along your skin, causing a shiver down your spine. Deep down you know he’s not asking about the drive or your distaste for his preferred method of relay. Why — the one word you hoped to never face.

If you concentrate hard enough, you can smell the scent of his cologne.

It smells nothing like Cassian.

You stay focused on a miniscule dot on the wall, too afraid to turn around.

“We can’t do this here,” you murmur, barely audible in return.

“I paid for the hour,” he replies. “If I were to leave ten minutes into your company, then there would be questions.”

(He’s right. As much as you hate it, your former friend is right.)

You raise your chin to the ceiling, closing your eyes. Contemplating. Seeking anything, everything, to say to avoid what’s to come.

You open your mouth to speak, but Cassian gets there first.

“I looked for you.” A vulnerable statement from an impenetrable man. His chin leans forward, the warmth of him spreading to your aura. “In dozens of quadrants—”

“Cassian.”

“—and about a hundred planets—”

“Stop.”

“—but you left nothing.” The final word emphasizes with raw emotion, causing your throat to swell. His gloved hand rests on your tricep, but you turn to finally face him. The closeness of him is a surprise — piercing brown eyes meet yours with mere centimeters between noses. “No note, no goodbye, no telling where you might have headed. Nothing.”

Frowning, you don’t realize that you’re shaking your head. The lines on his face are too distracting. He is distracting.

“You were never supposed to see me again.”

“And I never understood why.” He steps forward. You step back. When you think he won’t advance, he continues to step once, twice, until the third lands your back to the corner of the room. “So I am asking — now — while I can still have you: why?”

While I can still have you. You know the implication isn’t there, not truly, but your heart aches for it. The tension makes you feel so small, as if you’re eighteen and flying all over again.

You’re supposed to be over this; over him.

“I had to start new,” you answer after a considerable pause, forcing yourself to look him in the eye in what little space is held between you. “I was always going to leave Ferrix.”

“I knew that,” he argues softly. “I was never going to deter you from—”

“No. No, you were never going to,” you agree, nodding. “But you were always off and on the planet, doing what you had to for everyone else. If I didn’t cut Ferrix out of my life, then I wonder if I would have had the same fate as my parents or my friends: getting stuck there. And not just getting stuck, but waiting.”

“Waiting?” Cassian asks with confusion, brows knit.

You relax against the wall with a humorless laugh. “How did you not see it? The way I always waited for you.” Anxious, you turn your cheek to check the main door as you mull over your next few words. “I would have waited my whole life for you.”

The air in the room shifts.

Although he remains in your peripheral vision, the man stays staring at you without a discernible expression. The gravity of what you’re admitting drags lower, lower, until he says something that forces you to look at him head-on:

“I thought you were indifferent to me.”

Your eyes widen. “Indifferent?”

Cassian nods, short and quick. “You had all these big plans. I listened for hours. Not one of them involved me.”

“Because I didn’t think you’d want to be a part of those plans.”

“Maybe I didn’t think I couldn’t make a difference, not in a… rebellion, though the irony is not lost on me now,” he admits with a huff of a laugh, “but I wanted to be a part of you. I didn’t care what it was, so long as I still had you.”

You stare at him as he stares back at you, totally dumbfounded with this brand new information. Cassian swallows thickly, shifting his weight yet again from one leg to another. The loud party continues outside of your room, drowning these confessions in the excitement for a nearing midnight.

You had all these big plans.

Memories warp at a second’s notice as your brain tries to understand what he’s laid at your altar.

Not one of them involved me.

He shouldn’t be saying this.

He shouldn’t be saying any of this.

Closing your eyes to find a pause in your racing thoughts, you try — try to find where perhaps this is fabricated, designed to see if you’re easily swayed by the past that you so desperately let die in this rebellion.

Slowly, your eyelids flutter open. Cassian is watching with something close to concern.

(Something, maybe, closer to fear.)

You gently shake your head. “This is a test.” 

“I know.” 

“Luthen did this—” 

“Fuck Luthen,” he breathes out, eyes dropping to stare at your lips, and your heartbeat quickens. 

His brows meet in the middle, concentrated yet lost — as if he’s back on Ferrix, scrawny and scrappy and calculating the gravity of the risk should he decide to steal or trespass —

Or do something he wasn’t supposed to. 

“Cassian.” 

Your voice is gentle with a warning. His eyes do not raise, but he does answer.

“What?”

“You have that look on your face.” 

“I have a look?”

“When you’re contemplating doing something stupid? Yes.”

He snorts, amused. “You remember what that looks like after fifteen years?”

“It's very hard to forget it.” 

He mulls the moment over, flickering his attention back up to your eyes and nodding.

“You’re right. I am thinking of doing something stupid.”

“How stupid?”

“Incredibly.”

A beat passes.

Finally he blinks up to your eyes, searching for an answer to a question he hasn’t asked yet. You wait, just as you’ve always waited, to hear his voice.

“It’s almost midnight,” he says, flexing the leather gloved hand at his side. “I should go.”

Everything sinks.

The crowd outside grows louder as people depart from their private rooms to celebrate in the middle of the casino. Everyone begins the unison countdown of the final minute until the new year rings out.

The device in your hand grows heavy — a reminder of why he’s here in the first place, what Luthen will be looking for, yet your arm cannot rise to give it over.

(A few more minutes and he’ll be gone.)

To find a reason to keep him here with you would be selfish.

Instead of protesting, you nod. 

“Yeah. You should go.”

He nods, too, and his throat bobs with a swallow.

Outside your door, their laughter and shouts reach a collective ten, nine, eight, seven…

Yet he doesn’t move. 

Neither do you.

Six, five, four, three…

“Cass?”

Two.

Cassian speaks with broken finality, rushed and wanting. “I can't go without—”

You beat him to it.

Canto Bight’s cliffside casino roars with excitement of the new year while you grab the lapel of his Imperial uniform, dragging him in as he simultaneously launches his lips to yours.

The force of him smacks your head into the wall, but the stars behind your eyes aren’t from impact. It’s from the way he presses his mouth to yours, desperate to pour years of frustration and wonder into a long-awaited kiss. You whimper into it, eager to dissolve any space between you.

Cassian Andor cages your head into the palms of his gloved hands, holding you with a tenderness and strength only he can have. He groans into your mouth when he tastes you, tongue dragging along your lower lip — the neediness of it is enough to make your knees give out.

Except he drops his hands to your shoulders and spins you, pressing your chest into the wall. Using your hands to balance yourself, Cassian wastes not a second more to place his hands over yours, pinning you in place.

“We should have — opened with a fight,” he murmurs breathlessly into your ear, kissing your earlobe before bringing it into his mouth. 

You bite back a moan, dropping your forehead to the wall. “If I'd known you wanted to kiss me after all this time, Cass, then I would have — gone straight past a fight and went for it.”

He chuckles behind you, letting go of your earlobe to travel kisses down the side of your neck.

“There is a lot I wanted to do back then, but I was too chickenshit to try it.”

The imagery of a lot burns into the back of your skull.

“And now?” you ask, but it’s wavered.

Cassian slows down, but his lips remain against the crook of your neck. You mourn the loss of speed, pushing your hips back to connect with his.

A hand shoots down to still your waist as his thumb runs soothing strokes into the skintight dress.

“Not here,” he decides, but it isn’t regretful. It’s determined. “When I see you again—”

“When?” you interrupt.

“When,” he enforces, squeezing your waist, “I see you again, I’ll do what I’ve been too chickenshit to do and it won’t be under a watchful eye.”

When I see you again.

You smile small, delirious in the haze of him.

“Is that a promise?”

“As good as I can make one,” he responds in earnest, turning to leave a small kiss on your cheek. “You’re not losing me so easily this time.”

And you believe him.

Misunderstandings, miscommunications — all of that hardship to end up here, of all places.

You have so much to learn.

(He has so much to hear.)

Even if this was Luthen’s doing, even if this was a test of faith, you cannot find a reason to care. Not when your lips still tingle with the kiss you’d only dreamt about your entire life.

Reaching for his arm, you gently bring his free hand to yours and place the small drive in the middle of his palm. Cassian’s chin drops to observe the tiny metal, jaw setting to its unreadable clench.

Because at the end of the night, you both still have jobs to do.

A new year.

(A new horizon.)

“Until next time,” you say, removing your hand from his.

Cassian curls his fingers over the drive, shoving the small device in his coat pocket. He flexes and raises his hand to bring it up to your cheek, cradling your face once more as he leans in for one final kiss. This time it’s softer. Timid.

The closest Cassian Andor can ever get to a promise.

He pulls away, nose to nose, and mirrors in reply.

“Until next time.”