#and had two and a half pages in a google doc

[ladyofrosefire]

I’m trying to figure out what the hell the deal is with Bg3 and kink, and I think that, while it is much less precious about sex and sexuality than a lot of things are, it does fall into some of the same traps in a way that… well, it irks me. Disclaimer that while I did do some poking around, there are some romance scenes I have not seen. I’ll run through the ones I know about for those of you who haven’t picked up a brain bug about this. 

Wyll gets nothing. This is a separate post that other people have made better than I have. 

Shadowheart’s romance scene in Act 3 runs one of two ways— either you go for a swim with her, she gets poked by a rock, and you pause while she gets rid of the offending object, or you do the Nightfall Feast, where you get pushed to the ground, she tells you to stop being so gentle, and the whole thing is framed as an “act of wickedness” in parallel to you having just dumped the Nightsong’s blood on a statue of Selune. You have literal blood on your hands during this scene. 

Karlach pegs you in Act 3. I, personally, do not count this as being particularly kinky. The whole concept of measuring kink is a little silly, in my humble opinion, but it seems strange to say penetration gets kinkier when it’s not a flesh-and-blood penis. (If you have sex with her in Act 2, it is kinkless.)

Gale’s got his whole astral projection thing going, which brings us solidly into kink territory. Tav mostly hangs out. We’ll circle back to this. There is also a non-illusory version, but it is exclusively fade-to-black. 

Astarion does a whole seduction act in Act 1, which leads to a short and honestly quite tame (although fun!) scene. Act 3, you either get the spawn ending where you have sex on his grave (he pushes you down, and it is later flagged as ‘had sex as equals’), or you get the ascension and the whole “on your knees” bit. 

Lae’zel very explicitly talks in terms of obedience and dominance and submission, and you can tell her to submit to you. We will also circle back to this scene. In act 2, you beat the crap out of each other, and either you get the option to say, “you are mine,” or you lose, and you get, “I am yours” after she also says she doesn’t want to hurt you.

Halsin has the bear scene. Or he tries very hard not to turn into a bear. Tav is once again mostly hanging out. There was a dev note at one point saying Tav was meant to hold onto his head while he went down on them, but that does not happen in this scene. 

Minthara shows Tav exactly where to put their hands and mouth. Repeatedly. At length. There is no option to take control of the scene. 

A pattern emerges from these scenes fairly quickly: if Tav is active, they are either actively submitting (i.e., the Minthara scene) or engaging without power exchange (Shadowheart, Karlach, Astarion’s act 1 and spawn scenes). Gale’s scene is a special case since he’s controlling the illusion, but Larian could have decided Tav was allowed to imagine themself with a few extra limbs. They probably chose not to do this to spare the poor animators. However, with the rest of the pattern, it still makes me raise an eyebrow. The Halsin scene, to me, is especially egregious as you do precisely fuck-all. At multiple times, you get very clear camera angles of Tav’s completely relaxed hands that give the distinct impression that Tav is in full pillow princess mode. 

You will also note kink and morality seem to have an… interesting relationship. Explicit powerplay occurs with Lae’zel in Act 1 (she is still solidly in the mindset inspired by Vlaakith and is arguably evil-aligned at this point), Minthara (you get this scene by slaughtering the grove), and Ascended Astarion (you just killed 7,000 people and he thinks you’re, and I quote, “degrading yourself”). You also get a hint of this in the contrast between Shadowheart’s Selunite Swim and the Nightfall Feast. This feels related to why when you try to flip the script on Lae’zel, you use an intimidation check rather than persuasion or performance. This could be explained by saying that Larian has decided that orders are best represented by intimidation, even in a romantic context, but most of the intimidation checks we get are open threats, often of physical violence. I’m not entirely sure how much Lae’zel drops her powerplay as she becomes a kinder person. I’d love to hear from people who have done more of her romance than I have. 

Abdirak is a torturer serving an evil goddess. He gets the player’s consent and is reasonably sweet to them if they obtain his goddess’s blessing. There are even two seconds of aftercare! His actual purpose, however, is to torture the man next door, and the two companions who cheer him on are Astarion and Shadowheart, both of whom are having some struggles with morality at this point in the game. 

And then there’s the Drow twins— and specifically Sorn. If someone other than Tav approaches him, he says you need a “rear of cast-iron” to take what he dishes out. His ambient dialogue talks about scaring off clients who were paying him to apply a clamping device to something delicate. But if you see him alone, your options are roleplay, sensation play, or size kink. I did say I wouldn’t try to measure kink, but it feels like false advertising. (You can wrestle him in the Drizzt Do’urden roleplay scenario. It is an ability check. This raises questions for me about how this was negotiated, but it’s not a deal breaker.) Where’s the sadism promised in his ambient dialogue? Some characters just aren’t subs, that’s fine, but this is about patterns, not individual characters. 

I should pause here to say that the only thing in the above with which I have an actual issue on an individual level is Tav being so limp in the Halsin scene. It would be nice if Tav touched back in a way more significant than holding onto his arms a bit and laying a limp hand on his thigh if he stays elf shaped. This is not a moral complaint— it’s aesthetic. Frankly, none of this is saying Larian has done anything immoral.

However. I’m a little frustrated, as someone who does not have a submissive bone in my body, that all but one romance scene in this game is designed for a submissive Tav or a Tav who does not want powerplay. It’s not uncommon to find people who are okay with impact play if you don’t want to hit, CNC if you don’t want to be the faux-aggressor, ageplay or petplay if you don’t want to be the adult/owner. This is not a kink-positive stance or even kink-neutral. I should also note here that I do not judge any of the characters mentioned, not even Abdirak, for their interest in consensual kink. If I judge them, it’s for unrelated reasons. Or reasons that should be unrelated but often don’t feel like it, as it seems like Larian has set them up to be interested in powerplay and sadism because of their less-than-decent moral leanings. Abdirak wants to whip Tav because he’s a follower of the Lady of Pain. Ascended Astarion isn’t playing when he tells Tav he wants to own them, body, mind, and soul, and there’s no safewording out of every other interaction after that. Shadowheart tells you to stop being gentle because she has become a Dark Justiciar. Lae’zel stops wanting to hurt Tav— and you consent to the fight— because she’s learning about care and softness. I don’t think she stops being kinky, but there are patterns, and patterns that extend beyond the boundaries of the game. 

Frankly, I’m not sure what sort of conclusion I’m aiming for here. There are patterns in Larian’s approach to sex, power, and pain that indicate some very familiar hangups. It would be nice if there were more room for a dominant Tav, not even with every character, but with a few of them. Some people don’t sub. Some characters don’t sub. It makes sense. But I’ll be rotating this further. And writing fic. To anyone else who likes writing a dominant Tav: hi! Keep doing what you’re doing!

I wouldn’t be posting this if I didn’t want to hear other people’s thoughts, but quick disclaimer: I will block anyone who comes onto this post to talk about how great the vampire ascendant is. It’s not personal. I simply would blacklist anything to do with that if I could, and the way the tag’s been going, I can’t. You saw the tags on this, and you clicked anyway. Similarly, if you’re going to throw a shitfit about how no one should like whipping a consenting partner, don’t waste your breath. You get the picture. 

[rose-n-gunses]

Okay, so. I've got a LOT of thoughts about the Catholic Munsons post that's going around and I really wanna talk about it because I think it's SO interesting so I'm going to post about it here so I'm not clogging up the tags on that post (and I'm probably going to end up turning it into a little bit of a hellcheer thing because it plays a bit of a role in one of my upcoming wips).

Fair warning, this post is really fucking long and really fucking rambly. I had Thoughts and they. Refused to stop, so just,, bear with me!!

My Catholic father grew up around this same time near Cleveland, Ohio in a little town that's maybe half the size of what Hawkins is projected to be according to the fandom wiki page. He attended a parochial school for elementary and I think middle school, and the majority of his friends growing up were either Jewish or Catholic. When I asked him today about the distribution/ratio of Jewish to Catholic to Presbyterian in that area (since my research wasn't quite answering my questions), he told me that he was probably in middle school before he actually realized that there were other religions besides Jewish, Catholic, and whatever denominations the African American churches in the area were.

Because of this and the general notion that Catholicism is/has been somewhat more prominent in the northern/northeastern and, like, some of the more northern midwestern United States (if that makes sense), I've always imagined that Hawkins, being a decently sized (10-15K according to the wiki page) town pretty close to Indianapolis (around 80 miles, again according to the wiki page), would have a pretty solid Catholic community, so it's always kind of surprised me to see so many people write the Cunningham family, for example, as attending a Presbyterian church (although it is entirely possible, but more on that later).

Okay so now my actual thoughts on the Catholic!Munsons:

Since the pictures from the Munson trailer (and I love that it's been a year and we're still finding new stuff in there) show that calendar, we know that if Wayne did purchase it intentionally, then he's most likely gotta be actively Christian. However, I don’t see Wayne as the attending-mass-every-week type of Catholic -- he strikes me as Too Tired For That Shit. My personal headcanon is that he’s Christian, and was probably raised Catholic, but he only really attends mass for Christmas and Easter (not even for other Holy Days of Obligation). I guess to put it in shorter words, I see it as Wayne is definitely Christian, but he’s Catholic for convenience, meaning he believes in god but would prefer to do it privately and on his own terms (like, idk, praying on his own and displaying his faith through his actions) rather than having to deal with the church and its members, and he just continues to go to mass occasionally because it’s what he grew up with so he’s used to it and there’s no point in fixing something if it ain’t broke.

But Eddie. Oh, Eddie. If Wayne grew up Catholic, then so did Eddie’s dad. Since Eddie's dad is, like, y’know, an asshole, I think he’d be the sort of Catholic that’s a total hypocrite and gives the entire Catholic Church a bad name. Eddie’s mom could be Catholic, she could be Presbyterian, she could be Jewish, it really doesn’t matter (though I do see a lot of people headcanoning her as Jewish and I do kinda really like that headcanon).

If Eddie’s dad is Catholic, then it’s possible that Eddie could have attended a parochial school, but it could go either way. One: maybe he didn’t because his mom is Jewish/non-Catholic or just because his parents didn’t feel the need to send him to one, or two: he did attend a parochial school, at least for a little bit. However, since we know that Eddie and Chrissy attended the same school for middle school, there are also two ways that this can go. One is that Chrissy also attended the same parochial school and the talent show they talk about in the forest scene in 4.01 occurred at said parochial middle school. The other is that Eddie did attend a parochial school for a while but got kicked out and sent to Hawkins Middle School, where he then participates in the talent show. (I also think the concept of Eddie getting kicked out of a Catholic school and sent to a public school -- whatever the reason may be -- would add to his reputation and image as A Freak or Mean And Scary because did you hear that the weird new kid got kicked out of his other school? will always spawn rumors.)

In regards to Eddie’s personal beliefs, I think he’s kind of similar to Wayne, but also not. Whereas I see Wayne as “Catholic for convenience”, I see Eddie as more of just “Christian for convenience”, which to me just means that he’s not really sure what he believes, but when it comes down to it, he’ll say sure, I guess I believe that there is A God because it’s a little easier and a little less terrifying to believe in Something than it is to believe in Nothing. I don’t personally see Eddie as an atheist, because to me, he seems like he would be the kind of person that wants to believe in something, but he doesn’t like to spend too long thinking about what exactly it is that he believes in (in regard to there being a higher power) because it’ll send him spiraling into some sort of existential crisis. Which, same.

I do think that Eddie would become disenchanted with and disconnected from the Catholic church as an entity/community, because I definitely think he disagrees with a LOT of the stuff that the church preaches/believes. Also, since Eddie’s a big fat nerd and I headcanon him as a major literature buff, I think he’s definitely read the Bible (and probably the Catholic Catechism as well) so that he can 1) call out aforementioned hypocritical Catholics/Christians and 2) get inspiration for writing campaigns and/or songs.

Somewhat unrelated, but in the one (upcoming) fic I have right now that bothers to explore the religious sides of the characters, I have Eddie attending mass with Wayne for Christmas, but it's an anomaly for him and he grumbles about it the whole time. (It's for plot purposes and he doesn't like it.)

And then of course, Eddie's probably really interested in the stories of some of the saints and martyrs because some of them are pretty fuckin' metal. I also think he's super interested in religious iconography and metaphors for some reason, and loves finding those references and metaphors in songs and books.

Side note: I don't necessarily think that being Catholic is something that would have Othered Eddie (and Wayne) in Hawkins, especially if there is a strong Catholic population, but I do think that because of Eddie's non-conformist attitude and apparent general disdain for authority, he would have been Othered by the church (or rather its parishioners) and probably therefore deemed Freak, Satanist, etc.

I also think there’s something to be said about Eddie being put in an almost Christ-like shepherd position with his freshman sheepies. Also, the sentiment expressed in Mark 2:17 feels vaguely Eddie-like. (For those not familiar, this occurs when Jesus is asked by the pharisees and officials why he associates and eats with tax collectors and sinners, to which he replies “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.”) However, I think that Eddie’s thing is less redeeming the sinners and more giving the excluded and ostracized a place to be included and treated well. But I digress.

Now, Chrissy. Dearest, loveliest Chrissy. While it is totally plausible that the Cunninghams are Presbyterian or Evangelical Christian or something else, miss girl has mega Repressed Catholic Girl Energy, so I’ve been headcanoning her family as Catholic. I definitely think Laura would use Catholicism (or Christianity in general) as a large tool in her attempts to control Chrissy and dictate her life. So like, because Catholicism is more strict/regimented/structured compared to other denominations like Baptist or Presbyterian, I think Laura would try to use it to make Chrissy’s life more strict/regimented/structured. (And also there’s the Guilt™️. Chrissy seems like the type of gal to be crippled by Catholic guilt.)

I’ve got this image in my head that I hope to be able to express in that upcoming wip I mentioned where Chrissy, once her mother (and Jason) starts trying to control her and obsess over her body, somehow equates the general “be Christ-like” thing with “Take this and eat of it; for this is my body, which has been given up for you” (which, again, for those unfamiliar with the proceedings of a Catholic mass, this is something that the priest says in regards to the Eucharist/communion wafers; it’s a reference to the last supper when Jesus broke bread and shared it with his disciples.) so she ends up letting her mother control her because that’s what she thinks is the right thing to do in order to “be Christ-like” and gain approval.

And then I know a lot of people headcanon Jason as the pastor’s son. In a story where they aren’t written as explicitly Catholic, I do like this headcanon because I think it would explain a lot about his character. However, in a setting where they are written as Catholic, I think Jason would be of the hypocritical sort. (He’ll preach the Bible at anyone he disagrees with, but then will turn around and completely disregard anything said about premarital sex, love thy neighbor, love thy enemy, etc. Essentially the sort of Christian that twists what’s said in the Bible to suit their needs and ignores the parts that they disagree with -- which is exactly the kind of person I think Eddie would read the entire Bible to be able to argue with.)

[netherworldpost]

With the various rumors and releases of Tumblr possibly changing how they do things... (gestures to the vague rumor mill)...

Zines.

I really think we as Folks Who Make Things and Folks Who Like Art Writing Poetry Music Comics Other Things need to explore zines. And I mean ZINES. Nothing glossy. Nothing fancy.

Very. Cheap. Zines.

I've been threatening mentioning I was going to create a guide on how I'm going to approach this -- and I'm going to -- but I am also realizing in the writing I Do Things Highfalutin because I am who I am + had a career in graphic design.

Let's talk about how you can make a zine very cheaply and very pretty.

STEP ONE: SUPPLIES

Very bright paper. I like "Astrobrights" because they are absurdly bright. Here is a link in a store I like. I buy a lot of paper and envelopes from them. You can generally find Astrobrights in big box office stores. It prints on laser printers and ink jet and photocopiers.

Very bright envelopes. What's that? Astrobrights has envelopes?! AM I SOLVING PROBLEMS let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Letter paper is 8.5" x 11" and is the most common size in the united states (overseas folk will have to use this advice with a grain o'sea salt and search yer own waters).

A9 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half.

A2 envelopes are a letter sheet folded in half, then folded in half.

#10 envelopes are your common long envelopes, letter paper folded in thirds.

Pick the size you like.

If you want to get big and fancy, Tabloid is 17" x 11" -- so double a letter sheet. This gets tricky to work with but is neat in sizing.

STEP TWO: ZINE CONTENT

Do you know how to use InDesign or similar program? Use that.

No? Use Google Docs or Word or whatever other program and ramble.

Want something special? Write out some or part with a sharpee or pen.

Mix and match both.

If you are feeling fancy, design it like a booklet -- mock up a sheet of blank paper as if it were a brochure. If not, just design it straight up and down like a letter. There are no zine laws.

STEP THREE: ZINE PRINTING

Print at home on your home printer.

Don't have a printer at home? Print it at work (don't get fired)

Can't? Your local library may be able to help.

You need 1 copy on white paper.

FedEx Office has photocopiers. Your local library may too. Or your job.

Print 1 copy of your zine on white paper and then photocopy the rest onto colorful paper (or white paper, it be yer zine seadog).

Or print everything on the color paper if you have access to free printing, that's fine too.

The photocopy setup is purely "printing tends to cost more than photocopying."

If you want to slash prices, print 2 per sheet and have FedEx office cut them for you, this will cost $1 - $5 depending on how many sheets you are dealing with. This is for when you're doing a LOT of zines at once.

Or use their manual paper cutter yourself for free.

STEP FOUR: ZINE STAPLING

"Long reach stapler" is what I recommend. There are a few varieties. They tend to be $20 - $30.

Or just use 1 sheet!

STEP FOUR: ZINE POSTAGE

A single first class stamp for 1-2 pages. If you get up to 3+, go to the post office and ask them to weigh a comp you have assembled.

This is a guideline.

It's a really good idea to check at least once how much your zine weighs just in general. Post offices have scales. And are pretty. And have stamps.

OKAY ENOUGH LUSTING FOR THE POST OFFICE FROM THE GHOTS POST OFFICE BLOG BACK TO WORK

STEP FIVE: ZINE MAILING

This is actually the most difficult part. Label printers exist with various costs -- if you're starting out? Go with printable labels.

Your office supply shop will have them and they'll have templates you can drop in the customer addresses.

Save yourself time by using this label as the thing that seals the envelope -- don't lick envelopes.

A key tenet to staying in business is constantly reviewing physical (and mental) labor and stressors and reducing them as much as possible.

Return address labels are intensely cheap in literally every online printer, google "return address labels." Make sure you have this because at least a few of your shipments will come back to you.

STEP SIX: ZINE PRICING

Okay here is where we get uncomfortable because we're talkin' coins.

Prices are based on above links. You can get whatever paper you want, so this is guidelines. All numbers rounded up.

Payment processing ($0.30) + $0.05 sheet + $0.15 envelope + $0.66 first class postage = $1.16 base cost

$1.16 + 2.9% of $1.16 payment processing = $1.20

Plus taxes. I'm not getting into tax figures YOU DO THAT (just say 30% for easy math, this is not saying "your taxes are 30% or that mine are" I am saying "I am going to factor 30% for this equation to complete this guide".)

I did not include the mailing label (it will be $0.01 - $0.05 depending on how fancy and how many you buy) because you have the option to just write things and also it fits into the rounding of the above.

If you use Patreon, include your fees. Probably replace the above processing fees with your patreon processing... fees? I don't use patreon I don't know how it works.

Retail option 01: $1.50 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.09 / net / zine.

Retail option 02: $2 - 1.20 = $0.80 gross - 30% = $0.56 / net / zine.

Retail option 03: $3 - 1.20 = $1.80 gross - 30% = $1.26 / net / zine.

Should it be $1.50? Should it be $3.00? MORE? LESS?! That is for you to decide. Base it on what your zine contains, how long it takes you to write/draw/etc. it and how you want your flow to be.

STEP SEVEN: ZINE FREQUENCY

When my shop launches, it'll have a zine once a month. We are going to offer a subscription option + a "I just want 1" option.

You can do a zine monthly, or every few months, or whatever.

Keep in mind that the purpose of doing this is to break the dependency on social media marketing.

KEEP IN MIND AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER TO A CREATOR YOU LIKE THAT THEY ARE DOING THIS TO BREAK THEIR DEPENDENCY ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING.

If you have a lot of energy and an audience that comes to your shop a lot? Consider doing a zine monthly.

If you do not have a lot of energy and/or your audience is tapped for cash frequently? Considering doing 1 zine per season.

Consider 2 zines a year if that works better for you!

NO RULES ONLY JOY

Not sure? Experiment! Be upfront! "This is new. I'm figuring this out. Billionaires are tinkering with these things and we gotta figure something else out."

BONUS STEP: NETHERWORLDPOST.COM

so hi I'm atty and I'm your loud long rambler today

Netherworld Post Office used to be @evilsupplyco and now we are rebranding in prep of relaunching. Same person behind the rambles and comics, new name with a more focus (mail instead of mail + seemingly everything else in experiment)

if you enjoyed this ramble and/or like ghosts, monsters, witches, mermaids, and fun stories and projects focused on cozy Halloween, you may like us when we finish the rebranding and relaunching in autumn 2023.

email sign up (the zine will come when we are open)

WHETHER YOU JOIN MY LIST OR NOT

I really, really, really hope you consider doing a regular, or irregular, zine. Something outside of email, something outside of social media, something that connects I MADE A WEIRD THING and the people who say I LOVE THIS WEIRD THING YOU MADE.

The walls are closing in on free social media as a platform for people who make weird things to build audiences for free or very cheap.

And with that...

netherworldpost.com as one final hat pass

good luck folks

thanks for listenin' to the ol' ghost

[cankersoregirl]

I did something silly….. I made QL guess who!

About a year and a half ago I had the idea for a custom ql guess who game but I had no one to play it with so I just put it to the side until I (hopefully) would. Fortunately that day came this weekend when @pondphuwin and I got to play a few rounds (they beat me 4:5 actually lmao)!

Some of the questions we asked were stuff like “is it from gmmtv,” “does your show have a branded pair,” “is there a love triangle,” “is there a debate over whether your show is a bl or not,” and more personal ones like “am I crazy over one of the main actors,” “do we have beef with the way this bl went,” “did we watch this live together,” and so on. Rlly fun stuff!

Since this is a custom guess who I had to make all the pieces manually. At first it seems fine and easy bc there’s already official posters right? But the difficulty is that almost every poster is a different size. So I figured out how to get the proper guess who face piece measurements and manually resized each poster to fit, with a slight gradient in the background where the remaining space isn’t covered by the poster. You can see those gradient bars on the top and bottom in the closeup of the last twilight piece, for example. Also it’s just really funny to hold mini posters of qls lmao (using my hand as a reference)

There’s 190 ql poster pieces in total (based on approx. how many I’d seen as of the time of printing) (yes I will add more as time goes on) and they were all put on one big google doc that covered about 10 pages and looked like this!

After I had them all set I printed them out on cardstock so they were thicker & more sturdy and then I did a lot of cutting. And since both players need the same posters I had to cut it all twice

Are there easier ways to do this? Maybe. I’m not sure. Honestly I just did whatever like this is my own gay little art project lol

Once I had them all cut and held them in my hand I felt quite proud of my work and now that I’ve actually played it I really do

Here’s just like a pic I took when we were playing a round. Since there were so many, after every round we took out the two qls we just selected and replaced them with new ones and we never ran out lmao. It took quite a bit of effort but it was totally worth it hehe

[roseghoul26]

Chapter 8: ...Your Ivy Grows...

Synopsis: A fic based off the song “ivy” by Taylor Swift. After a startling introduction to the man, Arthur Morgan became the most important part of your life. Married at a young age to an older, wealthy man to help your family, you were trapped in a loveless marriage, your only sense of escape with the rugged cowboy. Will you be able to keep your affair hidden, or will your husband find out, and destroy the last thing that made you happy? Tags: Fluff, Angst, Smut, Strangers To Lovers, Infidelity, Fem!Reader, She/Her Pronouns Used For Reader, Period Typical Misogyny, Emotional Manipulative Relationship (not with Arthur), Mostly Follows Timeline of Game, High Honor Arthur Morgan, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, First Kiss, Arthur Is Bad At Emotions, Confessions, First Time Together, Cunnilingus, Missionary, Doggy Style, Tags Updated Per Chapter Author's Note: this chapter is just smut. hope you all enjoy! also, this chapter marks the over half-way point of the series! thank you so much for the continued support! <3 aslo idk if anyone else has had this issue but when you reach 100 pages on a google doc grammar correct stops working? i literally have to break this story up into two docs lmao Taglist: @lokiofasgard12 @ultraporcelainpig @that-one-beannnn @morethantheycansay @nn-hh192 Chapter List

Even though Arthur pledged to take his time with you, you could tell that he was using every bit of restraint in him to keep from taking you right there. His fingers were tight on your thigh, tight enough to leave marks, yet you found that you couldn’t complain. How could you, when all you could say was his name as soft pants and moans?

His lips were unrelenting in their exploration of your neck and shoulders, like he was trying to memorize the shape of your body by just kissing it. One of your hands carded into his dusty brown hair, and if your mind wasn’t so overwhelmed with just the feeling of him, you would’ve marveled at how soft it still was. Yet all that came to your mind was how wonderful his lips felt, and how wonderful they would feel elsewhere. It made your head fall back again, barely noticing the impact of it against the wall, his hand no longer there to protect it. 

No, the hand that had once been so reverently holding you had shifted south, lightly brushing over the side of your body. He just skirted the outline of your breasts through your nightgown, where you wanted, needed him to touch you. You must’ve made some noise of complaint when he continued down, because you felt his smirk again, lips pulling against the delicate skin of your neck. That damn smirk, you could picture it now, and that mischievous glint in his cerulean eyes.

You thought you had gotten your wish when you felt him grab a thin strap of your nightgown with his teeth, slowly dragging it down your shoulder. Goosebumps erupted across the skin when you felt the drag of his beard, the dainty strap tickling your skin where it hung loosely. You expected him to slide the other one off, but when his kisses lingered on the newly exposed skin and his hands remained planted on the lower part of your body, you decided to do it instead, your patience from a few moments prior no longer existing.

With one hand still in his hair, you began to try to bring it down, but you were stopped before it could even budge an inch. Arthur had somehow been able to tell what you were doing, despite being fully enraptured with caressing your body, and had pinned your hand to the wall above you. His hand no longer held your thigh, but you still kept a leg hooked around his body, keeping him as close as you could. A started noise had left you, which turned into a light moan, his actions making you crave more. 

But even though he had stopped you, you weren’t going to give up that easily. “Arthur,” you whined out, giving him the best pleading eyes you could, hoping that he would take pity on you. “Undress me,” you uttered, for what you now realized to be the first time in your life; you’d never had the desire to do so before. 

Arthur paused for a moment before raising his head enough so that his lips were just hovering over yours. Yet no matter how much you strained, no matter how much you reached, you couldn’t connect them. “I did say I was takin’ my time with ya, did I not?”

Damn him and his unwavering resolve to torture you. “You did, but-”

His lips finally connecting with yours silenced you, your words trailing off into a mumble. He pulled away much too quickly for your liking, and you tried to voice your displeasure, but another short kiss stopped you. “I ain’t goin’ back on my word. I’ve waited so damn long to have you like this; I’m savorin’ ya for as long as I can.” 

If only he knew that you felt the exact opposite. He ghosted over your lips before landing at your jaw, right below his ear. His voice was low and husky right in your ear, and it was both the feeling and the words he spoke that left you shuddering. “Trust me when I say this ain’t endin’ without that beautiful body of yours completely uncovered.”

You felt your cheeks warm at his compliment. “You ain’t ever seen my body,” you tried to deflect his words. 

“I ain’t gotta see it to know.” He bit at your earlobe. “Now, you gonna be patient?” His fingers gently squeezed the wrist he held above your body. 

Wordlessly, you nodded. As much as you would’ve loved to have him keep you restrained, the angle was starting to get uncomfortable. When he let go, you chose to rest it on his shoulder, and you could feel the way his muscles flexed as he moved again. Lips returned to your bare right shoulder, and they began to trail down your arm, all the way down to your fingers. It was a strange feeling, but you were loving it. Never before had someone treated your body so carefully, like you were the most precious thing they’ve ever held. 

But here Arthur was, kissing your skin like it was made of gold, like you were a gift sent down from the Gods. As much as you longed to hear those three words from his mouth, you certainly felt like he was showing you that he did indeed love you, just like you requested, and you felt your heart soar. 

After reaching your fingers, you felt him caress the kiss-adorned skin with a calloused hand, something like awe across his features. When you grew bashful under his gaze, your head turning away, you saw him look up out of the corner of your eye. “What?” He asked, coming out almost like a breathy laugh. “Look at me, darlin’.”

Swallowing, you forced your gaze back onto him, your face burning when he still had that same awestruck expression. “I won’t be able to if you keep lookin’ at me like that.”

Intrigued, he dragged his hand back up your arm, resting against the side of your neck. As much as you wanted to look away, you forced yourself to keep your attention on him. “Like what?” He didn’t give you a chance to answer. “Like you’re the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen? Like I’m the luckiest bastard, who damn well doesn’t deserve ya, someone as kind and breathtaking and good as you? Like I want to spend every moment with you, holdin’ you, touchin’ you, purely and utterly devoted to you?” 

Arthur shook his head, a small laugh leaving him. “Nah, I can’t stop lookin’ at you like that, darlin’. I refuse to stop lookin’ at you like that. So, you,” his hand was now cupping the side of your face, thumb brushing over your lips, “are just gonna have to accept it.”

You had no response to his words, drawing up a blank in your mind, and his touches certainly weren’t helping. God, you fucking loved him so much. 

When his mouth crashed into yours, you realized that you had said that out loud, but you didn’t care. Relief coursed through your body when you felt him finally tug the other strap down, a little more forceful than necessary. It was subtle, but the strings of his restraint had begun to fray. 

When he pulled away, you felt him begin a similar trail down your left arm, and you let yourself just get lost in the sensations. It differed when he got to your hand, your fingers more specifically. You heard his breath hitch, and you glanced down at him, confused. 

“You haven’t put it back on,” he muttered, and it took a few moments for you to realize that he was talking about your ring. You knew it was risky, keeping it off when Hans could be home at literally any time, but you couldn’t bring yourself to put it back on during the past couple of weeks.

“No,” you whispered, “because there’s only one person my heart belongs to, and it certainly ain’t the man who gave me that ring.”

An almost pained noise left Arthur, and you thought something was truly wrong until his eyes bore into yours. The once awestruck, loving look was now replaced with some more primal, more hungry, and you sucked in a gasp. His body was almost instantly pressed into yours, crowding you up against the wall. His mouth was attacking your neck, sucking and biting, leaving marks that would darken by morning. If you had any rational thought left in you, you would’ve made sure he kept his marks somewhere you could easily hide them, but you had none left.

“Say it again,” he groaned into your skin. 

“My heart is yours, Arthur.” You don’t think you’ve ever uttered truer words before. 

“Mine…” he breathed out, like he was trying to convince himself that it was true.

“I’m yours.”

 He moaned at that, his breath fanning across your skin. “Mine,” he repeated with more certainty, unyielding still with his ministrations. 

You never thought that you would ever like anyone having a claim to you, even more so when you got married to Hans. But you realized that you didn’t mind because unlike the marriage it was mutual. Arthur was yours as much as you were his. 

“Yours.”

It seemed like that was the last thing you needed to say before his restraint snapped. 

You were startled when you felt the ground no longer beneath your foot that was still against the ground, Arthur picking you up with ease with two hands beneath your thighs. Your other leg joined in wrapping around his body, your hands grappling for purchase across the broad expanse of his shoulders. He wasted no time, heading straight up the staircase to where he knew your room to be. His footsteps were surprisingly quiet, and you realized that he still remembered your rule of no shoes in the house, and you somehow fell even more in love with him for heeding what you said, no matter how small or insignificant it was. 

It was hard to kiss him because of all the jostling of climbing upstairs, but you tried anyway. You almost immediately tore away when you accidentally bit down hard on his bottom lip from all the movement, but it quickly died in your throat at the somehow even hungrier look Arthur shot you. “Darlin’ we ain’t gonna make it to the bed if ya do things like that,” he spoke after his grip on you faltered slightly, but you were clinging on to him too tightly to really tell. 

“Is that a promise?” You teased.

Arthur barked out a small laugh at that, his eyes crinkling. “The stairs ain’t gonna be the most comfortable place, but if you insist…” He made a show of bending over slowly, trying to deposit you onto the wooden stairs. You immediately made a noise of protest, and Arthur straightened back up, laughing yet again. “Is that a no, then?”

“It’s a no. But maybe next time,” you giggled.

“Next time,” he echoed, and you could barely detect the small amount of disbelief in his voice. 

He had reached the top of the stairs now, passing the first door to Hans’ office. As you passed, a thought filled your mind that got your heart racing even more, biting back a moan. You pictured yourself laying back on the desk, Arthur’s face between your legs, your cries muffled with-

The familiar surroundings of your room tore you from your thoughts, and a shaky breath left you. You missed the look that Arthur gave you, fully aware of the kinds of images that had just flashed through your mind. But he didn’t say anything, merely tucking them away into his mind for a later day. Like you said, there was always a next time.

Arthur set you on the side of the bed, standing in between your legs, You had to strain your neck to look up at him, and you followed him as he sank to his knees before you. If it didn’t look like he was worshiping you earlier, it certainly looked like it now. Awe was back on his features, eye wide, letting out soft, pleased sighs as he took you in. Moonlight spilled in from behind you, casting you in a cool white light, your shadow cast over him. 

Even though there was a rug, you knew that how he was sitting was probably not the most comfortable, and you tried to usher him to the bed. Arthur just shook his head, pressing a grateful kiss to the back of your hand. “In a moment, darlin’,” he reassured.

You shivered when you felt his hands on your thighs, skirting up the sides of your body slowly, methodically. It seemed like the small walk had calmed him some, his interest in slowly driving you insane returning. Warm hands grazed the undersides of your breasts, before grazing against your perked nipples that poked through the thin material of the nightgown. It made you jolt, earning a low chuckle from the man.

You gasped when he did it again, your body pressing into his large hands. “Arthur,” you sighed out, and he hummed in response, engrossed in the way you reacted to him touching you. Every brush of his fingers, every gentle squeeze, shot another jolt through your body, arousal coiling in your lower body. 

Your body was growing incredibly warm, and even though the material of the gown was light, it still felt like you were wearing a winter jacket in the desert. But you didn’t make a move to take it off yourself. “Undress me?” You tried again, this time phrasing it like a question. 

“You sure, darlin’?”

You were touched by his consideration, but you were almost growing desperate at this point. “Please, Arthur.”

Arthur took a second to judge the validity of your response before a soft smile spread on his face. He toyed at the hem of your nightgown, which had ridden up to your upper thighs. “I suppose I can arrange that.” You were barely able to lift your hips before Arthur was tearing your nightgown off over your head, tossing it beside him. 

In just your undergarments, you watched as Arthur slowly took in your exposed body, the same look on his face that he had downstairs. “How did I get so damn lucky?” His hands joined in the exploration of your body, pulling out small noises from you. “My beautiful girl.”

His hands felt so much better when there wasn’t a barrier of fabric between them, you realized when he returned to your breasts. Despite the roughness of his skin, he was still gentle with his touches, and the juxtaposition made your head spin. It was hard to remember the fact that this was a rough, grizzled man, who had seen the worst the world had to offer, yet regarded you so carefully.

Your hand reacquainted itself with his hair when his mouth latched onto one of your nipples, his fingers playing with the other. Teeth grazed against the sensitive bud, making your hips jump from where you sat on the bed, a cry of his name leaving your lips. Fingers tightened in his hair, and Arthur groaned. His mouth was still pulling pleasure from your breasts, and the noise he made just added to the stimulation, the low timbre rolling through your body. 

After a few moments of lavishing your breasts with attention, he was descending even further, lips barely leaving your body, leaving a trail of hickeys in his wake. When he stopped right above the ribbon that held your undergarments, he brought his gaze up to you, a silent question in his eyes, a stifled gasp leaving you when you realized what he was asking for. You’d heard stories, tales of lovers going down on their partners, bringing them pleasure with their mouths. You’d always just shake your head, not believing that someone would want to do that; it was one-sided satisfaction, in your mind.  

But his gaze held nothing but pure want, like he needed to do this, craved it more than any fine liquor. It made you evaluate how one-sided the satisfaction might be. You hadn't realized you’d been silent for an extended period until Arthur’s voice pulled you from your mind. “Please, darlin’.” 

Oh, you liked that. Another gasp left you, this one less stifled than the previous, and you felt something throb between your legs. Arthur picked up on your reaction, realization making him grin, eager to see you squirm. “Please, lemme taste ya,” he pitched his voice even lower. “I wanna feel ya cum on my face, darlin’. I wanna feel you soak-”

He was cut off by a sharp pull on his hair, yanking his head back, your other hand covering his mouth. Your cheeks were blazing, embarrassed beyond belief, but you’d be a liar if you said his words weren’t doing something to you. Any more, though, and you would explode. “You have a dirty mouth, Arthur Morgan.” You prayed that your voice didn’t sound too airy. 

A light nip at your hand made you pull away, shooting a disingenuous glare at him. “You love it, darlin’.” 

How right he was. If his hands inched any further downward, he’d be able to feel the effect he was having on you. You rolled your eyes but didn’t offer any rebuttal. You felt him run his fingers beneath the ribbon, eliciting a shiver through your body. “Can I?” He asked, still waiting for your answer. 

You had just gotten out a quiet yes before a hand pushed you down to the bed, gentle yet commanding. Arthur spread your legs, groaning appreciatively at the sight before him. There wasn’t any shock on his features as he took in the darkened patch on your undergarments; he knew exactly what he did to you. He quickly undid the ribbon, then yanked the garment down your legs, letting it dangle precariously off one of your feet. 

Neither of you cared, Arthur especially, his eyes locked onto your glistening cunt. Holding the insides of your thighs, he kept your legs open, rubbing soothingly into the skin as he made his way closer. Anticipation made you shake, and you could feel your heart pounding in your chest, rising in pace when his breath ghosted over you. 

Both of you let out sighs when his mouth made contact, your body jumping at the foreign contact. Sensations you’d never felt before invaded your body, almost too many for you to keep track of. His beard prickled against the highly sensitive skin, a complete difference from the soft glide of his tongue through you. You barely even saw the way his eyes rolled back, completely taken in by the way you tasted. 

You whined out his name as he did it again, and his eyes glanced up at you between your legs. It was an even better sight than anything you could've ever imagined, and you couldn’t help the slight mortification when you realized you said it aloud. It was the second time that night something had spilled from you that you hadn’t wished to reveal, and you debated just covering your mouth so that it wouldn’t happen again. 

Even though you couldn’t see it, you just knew that he was smirking, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You’ve thought of this before, darlin’?” He asked between passes of his tongue, pleasure building slowly in your core. But you could tell that he was very clearly avoiding your clit, his tongue always stopping or passing it, just to rile you up. And it was working. 

“Arthur,” you whined, but you knew at this point trying to plead with him was an uphill battle. 

“Have you thought of this before?” He asked again, and you realized that he wasn’t going to give what you wanted until you answered him. 

“Yes,” you admitted, and even though your response was hardly louder than a whisper, it felt like you shouted it to the world. Of course, you’d imagined Arthur like this before, and so much more. It wasn’t often, either during the one time Hans had been intimate with you recently or during the lonely weeks by yourself. You’d imagine him as you slip a hand between your legs, softer and smaller than Arthur’s, but you always tried to not dwell on that fact. 

He rewarded your response by finally making contact where you wanted him, a loud cry tumbling from your lips as he lapped at your clit. You fumbled at the bedsheets, trying to find something to grab onto that wasn’t his hair as he wracked your body with pleasure. “What’d ya think ‘bout?” His words were muffled, and it took you a few moments to form a coherent thought.

Apparently, you took too long, and you felt his attention move away from your clit, choosing to just pass around it instead. You loved and hated the way he was toying with you, leaving you a writhing mess beneath him. “I’ve- I’ve thought ‘bout this,” you vaguely gestured to where he was, and you sighed out when his tongue returned to the sensitive nerves. “I’ve thought ‘bout your fingers…” you had to take a moment, pleasure becoming overwhelming. “Imagined how they’d feel on me, in me…”

On cue, you felt his rough fingers brush against your folds, making you shudder. “I’ve thought ‘bout you bendin’ me over, takin’ me roughly, makin’ me scream.” You felt Arthur groan. But… but I also imagined you takin’ me gently, makin’ love to me, and I can’t… I can’t figure out which one I want more…” 

“We’ll just have to try both then, darlin’.”

You opened your mouth, ready to say more, but you stopped. “Anythin’ else?” You heard him ask, and you damned him for having such acute observation skills. 

“I’ve…” You couldn’t believe you were about to admit this to him. “Whenever he…” you didn’t even want to say his name, “you know, had me… I imagined it was you instead.”

You watched blue eyes widen. “You have?”

You couldn’t tell if he was disgusted by the fact, having gone still between your legs, but you were too nervous that you’d just royally fucked this all up to care. “I asked ya a question,” he muttered, pulling his head far enough away so you could see him better. Even still, you couldn’t read the expression on his face, and you ducked your head in shame. 

“I have,” you whispered out. 

“When?”

Of course, he had to ask that. That answer might put him off even more, but as you glanced back down at him, you found that you couldn’t without the truth. “Remember when you came over to the house for the first time? Durin’ the middle of the night?” You laughed bitterly. “I could barely look you in the eye, I felt so guilty.” And you still felt guilty, and it tore at your chest. “I’m sorry, Arthur-”

You tried to close your legs, his grip having gone lax, but as soon as he felt you move it was back. He yanked you closer to him, his mouth meeting you halfway, attacking your clit with precision. Short laps that had created a gradual and steady build of pleasure had been replaced for heavy, intense presses of his tongue, ruthless and unyielding. He was devouring you now, a complete switch up from the casual pace before, and you could do nothing but take it. 

He wasn’t talking now, too concentrated on making you finish to do so. His name spilled from your lips, and you desperately gripped at the bedsheets, hips bucking and writhing. It didn’t take long for your orgasm to approach, having been edged on for so long. “Arthur, I’m… please,” you begged him not to cut you off this time, and you could’ve cried in relief when he didn’t. 

With a loud final cry of his name that made you glad you lived in the middle of the woods, you came, your cunt clenching around nothing as waves of pleasure spasmed your body. The grip on the sheets turned vice-like as every nerve in your body was set alight, white-hot pleasure taking over all your senses. Arthur continued to pleasure you, the noises growing obscene, and you eventually had to pull him away, as it became too much. 

His wish had certainly been fulfilled, his lower face and beard soaked with your release. His eyes were impossibly dark, panting wildly, and he almost looked animalistic. Slowly, you watched as he lowered one last time, eyes never leaving yours as he kissed your clit, a jolt of overstimulation hitting you at the contact. 

Arthur stood now, hands bracing on either side of your hips as he stood. The first thing you noticed, besides his disheveled expression, was the substantial tent in the front of his pants, his cock straining against the denim. On shaky knees, you sat up, your arms bracing for support on his broad chest. Two arms wrapped around your body, hands resting on your back, keeping you pressed close to him. Leaning down, he kissed you, and you groaned when his tongue pressed into your mouth, tasting your release on him. 

But you couldn’t ignore the way he pressed into you, and you managed to sneak a hand between your bodies, fingers running gently over him. He tore away from the kiss then, an airy noise that almost sounded like a chuckle leaving him. Smiling sweetly at him, you retracted your hand, only to start unbuttoning his shirt with thinly veiled desperation. Your hands were still shaking, which just made getting the little buttons undone an almost impossible task.

You felt him wrap his hands around your wrist, halting you. Gentle kisses were pressed against your hands before he set them beside you. His less-shaky hands quickly unbuttoned his shirt, your eyes greedily taking him in as the first bare expanse of his chest was exposed to you. As his shirt hit the ground, the sound it made barely covered up the noise you made when his upper half was exposed to you for the first time. 

You knew he was a large man, but seeing him bare made the fact clear. Another fact that you quickly came to realize was that he was the most stunning man you’ve ever had the privilege to see. It had long been clear that he was a beautiful man, but you were quite literally staring at him with an open mouth, your heart feeling like it was going to burst out of your chest. 

Scars littered his body, the most substantial one being on his shoulder. It looked like a freshly healed gunshot wound, which made your heart lurch. Smaller scars trailed down his body, mostly straight lines and a few jagged edges. A dusting of wiry, brown hair covered his entire body, and you didn’t bother to resist the urge to run your hands through it. It was softer than you expected, and you let your hands roam freely, loving the way that Arthur seemed to purr under your touch. It turned into a groan when you brushed over his nipples, finding pleasure in teasing him the way he had done to you. 

“You’re so gorgeous, Arthur,” you cooed out, nails scratching lightly over his skin. It was his turn to shudder, to be turned to jelly because of your actions. Your name left his lips as a whine, and you couldn’t deny how incredible it made you feel. His abdominal muscles jumped when your fingers ghosted over them, his breath catching when you began to tug at his gunbelt. “Take this off?” You asked, resting your chin against his chest and looking up at him. “Please?”

He had already started taking it off as soon as you asked, but you knew that he’d love hearing the added please. And he did, his eyes rolling back as he groaned. It didn’t take long before he was setting the belt down on the ground, being gentle to not cause a misfire of the weapon. 

He was less considerate with his regular belt, the accessory hitting the ground with a large clattering noise that made you jump. You grinned when you heard the sound of a zipper, and you worked your own hands down to help him ease off his pants, underwear included, down enough to free him. A hiss left his mouth as his cock was exposed to the air, and you dared to look down. 

Even with the lack of light, you could tell that he was quite well-endowed. When you took him in hand, you were almost startled to find that you couldn’t wrap your hand around him, but pure desire blocked out those thoughts. You didn’t care if it hurt, you needed him now. 

You stroked him a few times, pants of air escaping his lips, and his hips jolted when your thumb brushed over his tip. Precum coated the digit, and you brought it to your mouth. You made a show of cleaning it off, tongue running over the length of it before taking it into your mouth. Hollowing your cheeks, you groaned in approval as the salty tang hit your tastebuds. 

Removing it from your mouth with a pop, you sat back on your heels, helping to work his garments down his thighs, before letting it drop and pool at his feet. As he kicked it away, you let your eyes roam unabashedly, finally having a perfect view of his thick legs, also adorned with a light covering of hair. Backing up further on the bed and adjusting so that your head lay against pillows, you raised an amused brow when Arthur just stood there, eyes also roaming your body shamelessly. 

“Are you just gonna stand there all night?” You teased. 

“If you want me to.” There was an honesty to his words that had you melting, but you just rolled your eyes instead. 

“C’mere,” you laughed, holding out a hand. He took it, letting you pull him onto the bed. He was on top of you in seconds, lips attaching to your neck again, a hand running down your body. Your own hands were all over him, every new piece of skin becoming familiar. You could feel his cock brush against your stomach as he leaned above you, leaking onto your skin.

As much as you loved his attention, you were so close to getting what you wanted that you couldn’t wait any longer. “Arthur,” you gasped out, “I need you.”

“You have me, darlin’. It’s just… you sure you’re ready?” You expected to find a hint of arrogance in his voice, but you found none, just genuine concern. 

“I’m ready.”

Arthur brushed his lips over yours, then rested his forehead against yours. That awestruck, almost disbelieving look was back as he situated himself between your legs. Before he could, you snuck a hand down, holding him gently at the base to help him ease into you. He nearly faltered right there, not expecting to feel your hand, and you just smiled as sweetly as you could at him. 

You whined when you felt him begin to press into you, removing your hand so that you didn’t hurt him on accident. Instead, you gripped onto his shoulders, nails biting into the skin, which seemed to just spur Arthur on more. He was slow, almost tortuously slow as he eased into you, strained breaths hitting your face. He was all you could feel, the delicious stretch of him; you’ve never felt such a wonderful pain. 

It felt like hours had passed before you felt Arthur’s hips press flush against yours. Your chest rose and fell rapidly like you’d just run for miles. He felt incredible, and you could tell that he felt similarly by the small groans he tried to stifle. He stayed still inside you for a moment, letting you adjust, which the rational part of your brain was grateful for. But you had long since been ready for him, and you desperately needed him to move. 

Petting back his hair, you brought his attention to you. So many emotions flashed in his eyes as he regarded you, a soft smile gracing his lips. You’d think that right now he’d look the most tense, but you’d never seen him so relaxed. The furrow in his brow was long gone, the crinkles in his eyes from smiling, not from squinting worriedly. 

“I love you, Arthur,” you found yourself saying again that night, and you swore his ears turned red. 

He stammered out something in response, but you just shushed him gently, running a hand back through his hair. “You don’t gotta say it back. I just needed you to know.”

“Oh, I know, darlin’. Don’t you ever think otherwise.”

You just hummed in response, before wiggling your hips slightly. He got the message, slowly pulling himself out of you, leaving only the tip in. His eyes never once left you, gauging your reactions. All you could do was moan, too overwhelmed with the feeling of him to do anything else. 

It didn’t take too long for him to build a slow rhythm, the rocking of his hips gentle. Even his touch was light as it danced over your skin, making you shiver. With each thrust in and out, your breasts moved with the motion, and eventually, Arthur just couldn’t resist the temptation. His lips were all over them as he continued to rock into you. 

Your legs had locked around his waist, keeping his body as close to you as possible. You felt so full, hitting spots inside of you that you hadn’t even reached before. Every slow drag of his hips was magnificent, and you could feel the slow beginnings of another orgasm begin to form. It was long since reaching its completion, but you knew exactly what you needed to reach it faster. 

Carding your fingers into his hair, you pressed your lips against his, this kiss sloppy and uncoordinated, but you did manage to snag his lip between your teeth. It gave you the reaction you wanted, his hips bucking into yours harshly, making you cry out with pleasure. “Arthur…” you tried to speak, but another roll of his hips made you moan, cutting you off. 

“Darlin’, you feel so… God.”

“Arthur,” you tried again. “Faster, please.”

He didn’t have to be told twice. Praises tumbled from you as he picked up the pace, and you felt yourself building faster. Yet it wasn’t enough, and you finally just told him what you needed from him. 

“I need you to fuck me, Arthur.”

If he was shocked by your words, he did a damn good job hiding it. He said your name, low, cautionary, making you shiver again. He continued the pace he was at, though, and your fingers tugged at his hair in mild frustration. “Darlin’, you-”

“Fuck me, Arthur.” You didn’t care that you sounded like you were whining. When he pulled out of you completely, you were confused, but it was quickly replaced by sheer arousal at the look on his face.

Like you weighed nothing, you were flipped over by Arthur, being manhandled by him turning you on a lot more than you thought it would. Now on your hands and knees, you didn’t even get to glance back at him before he was filling you again. His hands dug into the flesh of your hips as he pounded into you relentlessly, and you’re sure your voice would be hoarse later because of how loudly you were crying out. 

With every thrust in, he hit something in you that made you see stars. “Is this what my girl wanted?” You heard him ask, panting lightly from exertion. “Am I fuckin’ you just like ya wanted?”

“God, Arthur, yes!” You could feel your release coming closer, faster than you anticipated. 

“Is this what you imagined?” He leaned down close to your ear. “Is this what you imagined I’d do to you, instead of him?” He said the last word with so much venom, so much hatred. Jeasuly, you realized, looked good on him. But he didn’t need to know that Hans had never had you like this; you were enjoying his anger. 

“Even better.” You admitted. “So much better.”

You groaned when you felt his hand sneak between your legs, rubbing at your clit with hard, short circles. “You feel even better than I imagined, darlin’.” His words hit you like a freight train, and you glanced back at him, shocked. “What, you thought you’re the only one with dirty thoughts?” His lips grazed your shoulderblades. “Oh, darlin’, I’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout this for longer than I care to admit.”

If you weren’t currently about to fall apart beneath him, you would’ve asked him to tell you more. But you couldn’t, and you felt the tension in you begin to shatter. “Arthur, I’m…”

“I’ll be right behind ya,” he groaned into your skin. “C’mon, darlin’, let me feel ya…” With a final thrust of his hips and press of his fingers, you came again, your arms shaking. It only took a few more thrusts for Arthur, especially because of the way your walls fluttered and clenched around him, and he quickly pulled out of you before spilling across your back.

Your arms finally gave out, collapsing face-first into the pillows. Pleasure coursed through your body, making your muscles buzz pleasantly. You felt the bed shift, and you whined at the lack of heart from Arthur. “I’ll be right back, darlin’. I promise,” he chuckled lightly.

True to his word, he was back within moments. You must’ve dozed off for a second, but you were woken up with a start when you felt a damp, warm washrag wipe at your skin. “S’just me,” he reassured, quickly cleaning your skin of his release. 

When you heard him set it on the nightstand, you finally rolled over, glancing up at Arthur. After enhancing soft smiles, he leaned down and kissed you, which quickly turned from light grazing of lips to a heated kiss. When his tongue swiped at your bottom lip, you felt arousal begin to creep back into your system. The things this man did to you.

Still, much to his evident disappointment, you pulled him away. You saw the bags under his eyes, still as evident as they were a while ago. “Arthur,” you sighed, “you’re exhausted.”

He just shrugged, clearly not regarding his well-being. “I made ya a promise, darlin’,” he smirked. “Besides, I don’t think I could sleep if I wanted to.”

“But-”

His lips silenced you, and when he pulled away you glared lightly at him. “We’ll just sleep in late tomorrow, no?”

You sighed, but it was hard to remain adamant in your stance with the way he pleaded at you with his eyes. “I suppose-” His lips collided against yours, climbing on top of you, like he couldn’t bear to be away from you any longer. But what made you gasp was the feeling of his almost hard cock pressing against you, ready for another round. 

The two of you didn’t go to bed until the light from the sunrise streamed into the room, tangled up in a mess of blankets and limbs.

[kaydenverse]

grocery emergency

pairing: simon "ghost" riley x reader x john "soap" mctavish

18+ MINORS DNI

genre: smut with fluff mixed in

word count: 2.6k

a/n: i swear i'm trying to get more works out i've just had a rough start to my year so bare with me for the time being lmao but enjoy this that's been sitting in my google docs for like a month

content warnings: gender neutral reader, phone sex, excessive swearing, teasing, switch reader, switch simon, switch johnny, quickie, price is so done, gaz is a little shit

summary: why the fuck haven’t we as a society figured out how to teleport yet? johnny’s got somewhere he needs to be and it’s not standing in a hallway on the phone on base. 

“how much longer are we gonna be here, cap?” johnny questions as he lightly taps a stack of papers on the coffee table in front of him and straightens them out. he neatly sets them back down on the table before sitting up a little to stretch his back. 

johnny sits cross legged on the floor in front of the polished coffee table. although it would probably be better for his back to sit on the cushioned black leather couch opposite of him where kyle had been sitting before he went to grab a file price had asked for. but still he swears the floor is more comfortable. his tailbone is starting to hurt though, he realizes.

he’s still going to sit on the floor

“i’ve got one more folder and gaz is going to bring another one in a couple minutes,” price sighs, his office chair creaking as he leans back into it. “we should be done after those and you'll be free to go, son.” johnny’s heart swells a bit at the nickname but instead of telling price that, he huffs which makes the captain chuckle.

the five of you had gotten back from a successful mission in moscow, just a simple recon, a few days ago. now you had to do the boring parts of your jobs, the long debriefings and the piles of paperwork.

you and ghost had remained tucked away at the top of an abandoned building with your sniper guns to cover soap, gaz, and price while they had raided the warehouse across the street. because the three of them had been in the main action, naturally, they had more paperwork to cover than the two who kept look-out from a distance. 

but don’t get anyone wrong, of course the two of you still did a phenomenal job of dropping any and all of the strays who tried to escape the wrath of your three teammates. they were sorely mistaken when a bullet from your gun would lodge itself into their necks. 

johnny sighs as he picks another folder up and flips it open. his mind begins to wander before he’s even gotten halfway through the first page.

he’s thinking about this morning.

again. 

-

in all honesty, earlier that morning, johnny had deeply considered turning his car back around and called in sick because of how desperate and clingy his two partners had been while he had gotten ready. he to go in and finish up some leftover paperwork with price. he had swatted both your hands and simon’s away from dripping past the waistband of his pants. 

“stop it.” johnny said sternly as he grabbed your wrist when your fingers began to work their way down his happy trail yet again. “i’ll be gone for barely half a day, maybe less, we’re almost done with everything. you can wait.” he snickers. you groan in defeat and slump forward so your right cheek presses up against his back. simon leans in the doorway of the bathroom with his arms crossed over his chest. 

he would gladly stay and let your hands wander all over him but he knows he’ll be at least an hour late because johnny likes to take his time with you in the mornings. price wouldn’t be too excited about the late arrival. not after the last time that happened.

“i’ll just fuck simon then.” you resort, your voice still laced with drowsiness from having woken up to johnny’s 7 am alarm. you still keep your arms locked around johnny’s waist and one corner of simon’s mouth perks up at the suggestion. the messy blond hair atop Simon’s head that curls around the tops of his ears and the sleepy look in his eyes only makes your sexual frustration grow. 

“no.” johnny says, plain and simple. he combs a hand through his mohawk. “wait until i get back home, both of you.” he locks eyes with simon through the mirror he’s standing in front of. 

simon hums with his head held high as he strides over to the two of you. he kisses the top of johnny’s head, catching a whiff of johnny’s eucalyptus scented shampoo. he then kisses the top of your head that smell like your own shampoo. he makes sure what he murmurs to you is loud enough that johnny can hear too.

“you can fuck me all you’d like once he’s left for work, darling.” simon’s sleepiness adds an extra gruffness to his already deep voice. that alone nearly made johnny call price and ask to do the paperwork tomorrow.

nearly. 

“sure, go ahead.” johnny turns around to face the two of you. “but if you do so and i find out, i won't let either of you cum for a week.” the almost cold tone of his voice as he speaks and the cocking of his head makes you go weak in the knees and simon grins. “and i always find out.” 

“not always.” simon says in a very matter of fact way. the grin that plasters across johnny’s face is devilish. if simon hadn’t grabbed ahold of your hip when he’d kissed your head, you’re almost sure that your knees would’ve completely given out from how wonderfully taunting johnny looked. 

“i pay good attention to detail, lieutenant, i always know.” he gives you a peck on your lips then simon’s before slipping out of the bathroom to finish getting ready for the day. 

-

johnny is pulled out of his thoughts when his phone begins to vibrate on the table. normally he would  let it send whoever had called to voicemail due to his current task but his heart jumps when he sees your contact name and the contact picture of you smiling softly at the camera. in that photo, he can tell you're looking at him and not the camera because of the look of adoration on your face. 

he glances up at price who nods to let him take the call. you don’t often call him when he’s at the office and you’re home. you’d usually just text him and let him respond when he can so he assumes it must be important if you’re calling. 

“hey, what’s up-“ johnny is almost immediately cut off by you speaking. 

“can si and i please fuck? we were going to wait until you got home, i swear to god we were, but i feel like i’m going to fucking explode right fucking now. you can stay on the phone if you want to.” you’re so straight to the point that a cackle from simon can be heard through the phone. 

johnny is ridden speechless for a few seconds at such a forward request. he can hear the desperation in your words, you’re not even trying to be subtle at all. he blinks before he speaks again. 

“sorry cap, grocery emergency.” johnny stands up to excuse himself. price is a tad confused but lets him go to solve the problem. johnny eyes clock above the door before walking out into the hall. 

“you’ve got seven minutes. go.” johnny leans back against the wall with his free hand shoved into his pocket. immediately, johnny can hear the two of you begin to shuffle around. he can also hear the sloppy kisses that are exchanged between the soft thuds of clothing hitting the floor. 

“simon,” you say in a stern manner. “let me ride you.” the bluntness in your voice makes johnny exhale a small laugh. 

you will forever be a stubborn one in bed.

“but-“ simon sounds winded, sounds like you’d refused to let him take his lips off yours to breathe. 

you had. 

“ah,” all shuffling on the other end of the phone ceases at the sound of johnny’s voice. he hums in approval as the scot waits until a new recruit, who’s name slips johnny’s mind at the moment, to quickly shuffle past him and down the hall. they exchange a silent nod of greeting before the recruit disappears around the corner. “listen to them. since you decided to be such a brat this morning.” he then continues in a slightly hushed tone. 

johnny can clearly visualize simon giving the phone a glare that he just knows simon just gave as he allows you to settle in his lap. the phone falls silent again and johnny grins proudly.

you’re both waiting for his next call of instruction. 

always so good for him.

“well? hurry it up, you’re losin’ time.” johnny glances down at his watch to see you’ve both got just over five minutes left. the shuffling resumes followed but a pleased groan from simon. johnny knows that kind of groan from the many times he’s pinched simon’s nipples. 

“no teasing,” simon’s voice has pitched up ever so slightly. johnny shivers delightfully at the small detail. “no time for that.” 

“so needy.” you coo which you then follow up with a low moan. when the wet sounds of you picking your hips up and then quickly dropping back down spills through the speaker of johnny’s phone, he swears his knees almost buckle. he leans his head back against the wall and stares at the ceiling. 

you’d both prepared for him to give in, touched each other before you’d called him.

he makes a mental note to praise the two of you on this silly little scheme later on. 

oh, how he wishes he was there. 

oh, how he wishes to sit himself on the end of the bed and watch his partners desperately pull orgasms out of each other. 

oh, how he wishes he can see simon’s glossed over eyes peak over your shoulder and moan out a whiny ‘please touch us.’ to johnny. 

“stop trying to hold your tongue, let it out si.” your sultry tone makes johnny let out a shaky breath.

oh, how he wishes he were there. 

simon groans as the wet sound over the phone picks up in pace and volume. johnny clicks the volume up on his phone two clicks. any louder and anyone who were to walk by would very clearly hear sounds that one certainly wouldn’t make at in grocery store. 

“three minutes.” johnny glances down at his watch again. he could swear his soul left his body for a second when he hears a faint gag followed by a chuckle from you. 

“so fucking pretty sucking on my fingers like that.” your voice is much closer to the microphone now. you’d picked up your phone and held it as you ground your hips down onto simon’s. johnny can now clearly hear simon’s panting and shaky groans. 

simon always likes to joke that if anyone, and i mean anyone, somehow knew just how pathetic simon could get at the hands of you and johnny, he just might have to kill them.

 he’s obviously kidding.

maybe. 

“johnny,” simon breathes out and johnny thinks he’s about to collapse. the name is muffled, almost slurred really. your fingers pressing down on simon’s tongue force him to sound like that. 

why the fuck haven’t we as a society figured out how to teleport yet? johnny’s got somewhere he needs to be and it’s not standing in a hallway on the phone on base. 

unbelievable. 

“you gonna cum for us, si? come on make it quick, you’re down to two minutes.” johnny hums and both of you make a noise of pleasure at that. the drop in johnny’s tone makes his accent sound thicker in the best way possible. on top of that, the time limit is exciting you far more than either of you had anticipated.

“fucking-“ you’re words fizzle out into a whine when johnny hears the way simon begin to meet your bounces on him. that skin-on-skin noise that johnny loves to hear so much grows louder. “i’m gonna fucking cum.” he then hears you drop the phone. he can picture the way you start shaking atop simon when your incredibly pleased sob fills johnny’s ear. 

“there you go, just like that.” simon sighs as your fingers slip out of his mouth. he wraps an arm around your hips to move you himself. johnny’s hips twitch at the rasp in simon’s voice. he’s starting to wish he didn’t leave you both on edge this morning. 

he should’ve known his two bratty partners would  both do this to him.

“45 seconds or i’ll make you stop and i’m not touching either of you until tomorrow instead of when i get home.” johnny keeps his voice flat to hide how needy he’s starting to get.

that’s a lie.

that’s a lie and all three of you know it. 

he’d have his hands on both of you before the front door is even fully closed and locked regardless of how long you take. 

not even a full two seconds later, you’re squeezing your knees around simon’s waist. “come on pretty boy.” you moan out as you fall apart. and that pet name has him spilling into you seconds later. johnny can feel the tips of his ears burning bright fucking red. 

he’s hard now and there’s nothing he can do about it until he gets home to you two.

“finished with 15 seconds to spare.” johnny’s makes sure you can hear the smile in his voice. “i’m impressed.” 

“well having been on edge from this morning really helped.” you’re panting and feel like mush in simon’s lap. 

“you’re an arse for that by the way.” simon grunts. johnny snickers and shrugs his shoulders. 

“you liked it though, both of ya did.” johnny points out and takes the beat of silence as confirmation.”but seven minutes are up, i gotta go.” he says reluctantly. he feels like he should stick around for aftercare for a bit but he is unfortunately needed elsewhere. 

damn that all of that paperwork, why can’t it fill itself out? 

but he knows you two can take care of each other. he smiles at the thought. 

“you brats both did so well. i’ll decide if that little plan is punishment worthy or not later. that was a genius plan by the way.” johnny chuckles. his heart swells both of your laughs. such wonderful sounds. 

“i love you, johnny.” your voice is back next to the speaker again. his heart somehow manages to swell even bigger when you kiss the phone. 

“i also love you, mctavish.” simon adds. he kisses the phone as well but only because you silently insisted that he did. he pretends to hate doing that. 

“i love you both too. i’ll be home soon so please be good until then.” johnny says, kissing the phone two times for his two favorite people.

“be good until then” you playfully mock the mohawked man’s accent. simon can’t help but snort at that. 

“very funny.” johnny chuckles. “and please actually go to the store, we need more milk.” he doesn’t notice kyle standing in the doorway of his office a few feet away with a file in his hands until he hangs up and turns to walk to price’s office door again. johnny’s face flushes at the amused look on his teammates face.

“how long you been standin’ there, mate?” johnny shyly slipped his phone into his back pocket. 

“opened the door right when you were telling your brats how well they did.” kyle teases. thankfully, that’s all that kyle says before opening the door to price’s office and walks, leaving the door open for johnny to follow him back in. 

but, kyle will be bringing this back up later over comms next mission. 

and price is going to question his life choices when he has to get the four of you back on task.

he pauses so he can quickly… adjust himself… before opening the door to price’s office again. 

“groceries sorted out?” price raises his eyebrows at the sergeant who once again seats himself in the chair across from his desk. 

“sorted out.” johnny nods, praying that price can’t see how red his ears are.

price sees, he always does. 

johnny flushes even harder at price’s next words while kyle erupts into laughter. 

“now let's get this paperwork sorted and quick so you can get home to help with those so-called “groceries” yeah?”

[maximwtf]

“I’ve got you.”

                          Legolas x injured reader

part 2

words: 2284

google docs pages: 5

warnings: injury, mentions of blood, mentions of a wound, pain.

opening: The fellowship’s journey is distured by an orc attack. You get injured while fighting.

AN// Reader can be any gender! This has two of my ideas smushed together because I thought they wouldn’t make a long enough fanfic by themselves :”D! Also I have no idea how the athelas is used so I’m just guessing here. 

          “I’ve got you.”

The group had stopped moving for the night, and everyone was trying to find a good spot to rest on. A lot more walking would be done tomorrow, and all the rest that was possible to get was important. Though, it wasn’t nighttime yet, so as soon as you had placed down your small bag, your gaze started to follow Merry and Pippin. They had both been complaining about how hungry they were from early on this morning. Now both of them were collecting small sticks and some bigger branches so they could start a small fire. Gimli and Legolas were talking with Aragorn. 

You sat down on the ground, still keeping an eye on everyone. You had booked the first nightwatch turn for yourself, so you could just go to sleep after your time was up. You never really liked to be woken up in the middle of the night, only to be told to get up and take the watch post, so this was why everyone just let you take the first watch. 

Before you even knew it, the two hobbits had been able to start a fire and were trying to start making something the group could eat. You smiled a little at this. Most of the group had begun to gather around the warm fire. You stood up as well and joined the others, and by doing this you also joined Legolas and Gimli’s conversation about how many kills they had managed to get in their last battle. You had heard both of them shout out the kills they had gotten in the last fight, but little did they know, you had been counting your kills as well so you could surprise them.

The evening went on like that for a while. You had all eaten already and the fire was still up. The area had a lot of trees and there were a lot of sticks laying around because of that, so it was easy to keep the fire going. Of course you couldn’t add too much wood to it because it would attract too much attention. Aragorn and Legolas had dragged a couple of old logs near the fireplace to sit on as well, because the ground was a little cold. The upcoming night seemed right now to be very calm as you had hoped. 

Gimli stomped his foot a little on the ground and huffed. “Can the hobbits sing?” He asked, mostly turning to look at Merry and Pippin, since Frodo and Sam weren’t as close by. Merry poked Pippin a little with his elbow. “He can!” Merry then said, not giving his friend much time to answer for himself. “Great. We’ll have something to listen to.” Gimli replied. You turned to look at Pippin, showing him a little thumbs up so he would start. He seemed to have noticed that, because he picked up on the small beat Gimli had started and began to sing. Merry picked up on this as well, and sang some parts with his friend. You watched this happily, but sounds of footsteps got your attention. From the shadows of a tree, Boromir appeared with a few more sticks to keep the fire going for longer. He tilted his head a little at the song Pippin was singing, and laid down the sticks near the fire. “Someone should dance.” He commented in a half serious tone after he had sat down on one of the logs. “You could?” Aragorn suggested it mostly as a joke. “I am a warrior, I do not know any dances.” Boromir quickly replied, his gaze then falling on you. “But Y/n could.” Your eyes widened a little because of his comment. “What makes you think I know any dances?” You replied, tilting your head a little. “In that case, Legolas can assist you. A prince must know a dance or two.” Aragorn spoke up, nudging Legolas towards you while raising a brow. “Shall we try then?” You asked after a moment of thinking. Couldn’t be that hard to follow his steps. “Are you certain?” Legolas asked, a little surprised by your reply. You stood up and nodded. 

Legolas offered his hand to you and you took it. “Follow my lead.” He said and then began to lead you. He managed to move smoothly even with you, showing you how to do every step without making it look like you had no idea what you were doing. He spun you around, making you end up close to his face. You looked at his blue eyes, seeing a glimpse of excitement in them. He was looking at you as well, as he lifted you up by the waist and spun you both around one last time before putting you down. After that he bowed at you and smiled slightly. “Was that decent?” Legolas asked. You got a quiet applause from the group. The hobbits were especially excited about this and clapped their hands. 

It had started to get darker already, but not so that you couldn’t see anything. The group had started to quiet down a little, so it was easier to hear if anything was approaching. You were still sitting by the fire, Legolas sitting on the other log right next to you. “Can your elven ears hear anything?” You asked with a small smirk on your face. Legolas shook his head a little at your question. “I feel as if something is coming this way. I do not know how many.” He said, then turning to look at you. “How far are they?” You asked him. He didn’t have time to answer because you started to hear the steps as well and they weren’t far away. You looked behind Legolas, and saw orcs running straight at the group. “Shield the hobbits!” You shouted to the group as you stood up swiftly. 

You picked up your bow and as the others were gathering the hobbits, you shot a couple of the orcs while moving to shield them as well. You moved around the hobbits a little, shooting some of the orcs while doing so. They began to come so close that you had to ditch the bow and move on to your sword. You didn’t really like closeby combat but you could manage. While fighting off the orcs you could hear Legolas’ arrows go through the air and land a hit. You could also hear the other’s swords clash against the orcs weapons. The group had almost defeated all of the orcs but you had been separated from everyone. You were fighting off two at the same time, and one of them stretched out a bow and pointed it at you. You snarled at this a little, trying to take a step back, but you felt nothing behind you, just a breeze of cold air. The orcs had backed you up to a cliff. 

You pushed your sword through the other orc in front of you, but as that one fell the other one was able to release the bow at you. You tried to dodge it the best you could, but the arrow ended up hitting straight at your leg. You whined at this and stumbled on your feet. Your eyes had widened as you looked at the arrow that was coming out of your leg. 

You heard a familiar noise of an arrow flying through the air. The orc in front of you roared in pain and fell on their knees before another arrow hit them. The cliff under your feet shook a little at the fall, and that made you stumble off the cliff. You screamed out for anyone who might have been close. 

Before you were able to fall too far down, someone grabbed your wrist. “Got you.” A familiar voice said, and started to pull you up. You felt some sand and gravel fall on your face when you let out a deep breath you had been keeping in. After you had realised that Legolas had a good hold of you, you tried to start calming down. You had been sure that you’d fall all the way down but thankfully he had been close enough to hear you. Legolas pulled you up back on the ground, and quickly saw the arrow coming out of your leg. “You’re hurt.” He quickly said, and kneeled in front of you. “Just a little scratch compared to what could have happened, ay?” You tried to laugh a little as you began to stand up. “I’m not sure you’re going to be able to walk like that.” Legolas said and scooped you up in his arms. “You didn’t even let me try?” You huffed, hoping that no one saw you like this.

Legolas carried you to the fireplace that had sadly gone out while the fight. Boromir had thrown a couple of sticks back in, getting Merry and Pippin to try and start the fire again. By now it was quite dark and you couldn't see the forest anymore. Legolas sat you down on the ground and walked off to get Aragorn. You took short breaths as your gaze hit the stick coming from your leg. The sight made you snarl. You heard Aragorn come to you with Legolas. “We need to get that out and the wound shut. Legolas, can you get athelas?” He requested. You frowned at this because you had internally hoped that he would stay as emotional support. Legolas stayed quiet for a moment. “Yes. I’ll be right back.” He said and ran off to get the herb. You turned to look at Aragorn. “Whatever you’re planning on doing, wait until he comes back.” You asked him. He only hummed a little at this as he kneeled in front of you. “We’ll have to cut the arrow in half so it’s easier to pull out. Bite down on your cape.” He replied. “I told you to wait-” You whined before your mouth was blocked by the fabric of your cape. You bit down on it as hard as you could, preparing for the wave of pain that would come soon. Aragorn had taken a hold of the arrow, seemingly planning on cutting it halfway. “Legolas will be here soon.” Aragorn tried to comfort you as he snapped the arrow in half making you close your eyes shut and bite down harder on the piece of clothing. Aragorn threw the piece of wood away and made sure that you didn’t pass out. Before he was able to say anything Legolas had come back. Because of the darkness of the night he had only found a few athelas leaves, but Aragorn seemed to think that they were enough to ease the pain. 

You sighed as the first wave of pain had passed. From what you could see Legolas seemed worried? Seeing the reaction you had caused made you smirk a little even though you were in pain. “Legolas, you better hold my hand.” You asked him, trying to hide the fact that you were scared of the pain. You felt him carefully take a hold of your hand as Aragorn took the rest of the arrow’s stick in his hand. “Try to stay awake.” Was all you heard before he used all the force he could to take the arrow out in one go. The piece of cape in your mouth muffled your scream a little as you squeezed Legolas’ hand with the wave of pain. You arched your back as well because of the pain, but tried your best to keep your leg in place. Throwing your head back, you pressed yourself against the ground. Only good thing was that Aragorn seemed to have been able to take out the whole arrow, but now the place it had been in was pooling with blood. “Make sure they don’t pass out.” Aragorn told Legolas as he took out his knife and cut off a piece of his cape. He started to wrap it around the wound so it would stop the bleeding. 

Legolas held up your head on his lap, every now and then tapping his palm on your cheek to make sure that you were still awake. He took out the cloth from your mouth and brushed some hair out of your face. Your leg felt like it was pounding and you couldn’t make out what anyone was saying from behind the pain. “Legolas, give them the leaves.” Aragorn said while finishing putting on the wrap. Legolas took the leaves and put them near your mouth. “Chew on them, it eases the pain.” He said calmly. Aragorn stood up and looked at you two for a moment. “I’ll take the first watch.” He commented before walking away. Legolas lifted you up a little, leaning you against him. “You gave me a scare.” He commented. “Just a small one.” You tried to laugh after spitting out the leaves. “Indeed. Just a small one.” He replied before going quiet again. You only hummed as a reply before closing your eyes. “Thank you for saving me earlier.” You decided to say before sleep would overtake you. Legolas’ gaze moved to your face, but he didn’t say anything. He was internally very happy that you were alive, but he did worry. Worry of, if the arrow had had poison on it.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Gwen Cooper

she literally did nothing worse than the rest of the team yet so many people hate her guts and there is a literal gwen bashing tag for her on ao3. just cause she's a complicated character and confident and assertive and oh yeah she had sexual tension with jack harkness who ended up w ianto in the end. god forbid.

fans think she "gets in the way" of the canon m/m pairing of the series just because she has straightbait scenes with one of the two guys. when in reality she literally has a husband and has been nothing but supportive of her friends and their relationship 😭 she tends to be written as like super insensitive and spoiled and its unbearable 

An amazing, badass woman who has a complicated relationship with Jack Harkness, 1/2 of “Janto,” the ship she “gets in the way of.” People use this slight complication to decide they HATE HER and turn her into this vile, evil, vindictive person. She often tries killing Ianto (other half of “Janto”) in many poorly-written fics, simply so that everyone can realise how badly they treat poor, poor Ianto. This makes Jack fall harder in love with Ianto xoxo Mwuah Mwuah and Gwen is hated and killed. This occurrence is so common that it has its own tag on AO3: “Gwen Bashing.” The writing, again, is always very bad, and solely created to make people hate Gwen. She’s chill in the actual show though. Very supportive of the two men and their relationship, and is literally happily married. She is not at all like what people make her out to be.

Kairi

kairi is the third protagonist of the kingdom hearts series and the third member of the destiny trio, alongside fan favorites sora and riku. sora/riku shippers HATE kairi, and will go out of their way to discount her at every turn. the hate for her ranges from typical "she's a boring bitch" to fans of soriku making five-hour long video essays reassuring their fellow shippers that the big bad kairi won't show up in the next installment – to quote one video, "she's in a box. she's on the shelf. four walls, no door." kairi is the greatest bogeyman the soriku fandom has ever known, to the point where most of said video essays and fanon meta posts focus not on why sora and riku should get together, but rather on why they don't like kairi.

Literally has a 100+ page Google doc fan theory writing her out of the narrative and putting all of her (few) canonical accomplishments onto half of the popular m/m ship (soriku). Don't even get me started on how her memory was completely written out of the canon plot of re:coded. KH is a nightmare to explain so dude trust me she is THE victim of yaoi

She is so fundamental to the plot and themes and narratives of game and yet it is near impossible to find anything about her thats not ship bashing pre-mlm with the other two characters. I dont even care if she ends up with one of the main characters i just want fans to see her as a cool character to love or like, anything other than “annoying comphet girl.” You can write your mlm but pleaae stop inventing comphet where it doesnt exist. She does not even get to spend time with sora ever?? Why does everyone see her as a threat and a thing to destroy?? Let her have friends so help me

[maplekzh]

one for me

nami x gn!reader

wc: 837

warnings: making out, kinda heavy petting?, some sexual tension, fluffy and sappy!!

had a good half of this just sitting in my google docs for two months and decided to finish it, so hopefully its alright!

nami, you think, is the most beautiful person you’ve ever seen. across all seas, islands, and whatever else there may be, she is the one for you.

it’s well past midnight now, and yet neither of you are able to sleep. the library of the sunny is silent, save for the scratching of pencil against paper and the page of a book turning every once in a while. a lamp lights up the room, the warm light giving off a cozy feel.

nami sits at her desk, working on a map of the island the sunny left earlier today. a pair of reading glasses sit perched on the slope of her nose, the light from the lamp glaring against the lenses softly. her eyebrows pinch together and she rests her chin in palm, staring at the paper in deep thought. the book in your hands is long forgotten as you stare, breathless, at the scene a few feet away from you.

you can’t will yourself to tear your eyes away from her.

a sigh slipping through her lips is what shakes you from your longing, your eyes snapping back down to the book in an attempt to look busy. 

“enjoying that book, aren’t you?” a glint of mirth is evident in her expression as you make eye contact, and you know you’ve been caught. your laugh rings softly throughout the library, a bashful smile stretching across your lips.

“was i really that obvious?” face growing hot, you mark the page of the book and place it to the side before turning to fully face her. a smile graces nami’s lips as she basks in your embarrassment, removing her glasses and rising from her seat at the desk to make her way to you.

a stuttering breath slips past your lips as she seats herself on your lap, soft thighs caging your hips against the fabric of the seat. her arms drape around your neck, looping around to comb through the hair at the base of your neck as she brushes her lips against your earlobe. somewhere in the back of your mind you try to remind yourself to breathe, but the absolute vision sat right on your thighs makes it extremely difficult.

“if i didn’t say anything, you might’ve already burned a hole through me, baby,” a mix of a whimper and a sigh erupts from your throat as she tugs the skin between her teeth for a moment. “what’s on your mind?” nami’s eyes meet yours as she pulls back, caressing your cheek. the hand you have rested on top of her thigh clenches as a reverent sigh escapes your lungs, leaning into her soft touch.

“love you so much, ‘mi. so smart, so beautiful, so funny. could never shut up about you..” your voice trails off as you admire her, so gorgeous seated in your lap. the hand you had rested on the arm of the chair rises to hold her chin, bringing her to your lips. 

soon enough, nami takes charge of the intimate kiss. she moves her lips against yours slowly, hands tugging at the roots of your hair and shifting in your lap to get closer. tongues intertwining, you moan against her mouth and slip your arms around her waist, hands landing on her ass. nami returns your moans with her own noises as you grope her ass and thighs, rolling her hips against yours languidly. 

soon, you find it hard to breathe and pull away slightly. her eyebrows crease and she tries to follow your lips, but a squeeze of your hand stops her. panting fills the room as the two of you catch your breaths, your head falling to rest against her chest as your arms hold nami against yourself. 

“think y’re the one for me, nami,” you mumble against her skin, the room quiet save for the sound of breathing and waves hitting the sunny outside. her chest stops moving to the rhythm of her breath for a moment and you look up in concern.

nami’s mouth is slightly ajar as she sits frozen in place, still processing your words silently. though before you have a chance to apologize, her arms pull you forward against her chest in a tight hug. you can feel her smile against your skin as she tucks her head into the crook of your neck.

“i think you’re the one for me, too.” 

a laugh leaves your mouth at her whisper, squeezing her in your arms. you stand from the chair and twirl her around the room, her laughs resonating throughout the space. after setting her on her feet, you bring her close and kiss her once more. 

“next island we stop at, you’re gonna come with me and we’re gonna pick out whatever ring you want. don’t even care if i can’t afford it, hell i’ll go into debt if it means you have a ring you love.” you mumble against her lips, hearts in your eyes as she smiles brightly at you.

[acrisius-ii]

its 1:05 and i made another RPG

have you, a ttrpg player, ever wanted real in-game rules for going out and getting fucking sloshed

have you, a game master, ever wanted a combat system that didn't make you want to throw yourself into a fishtank?

have you, again a ttrpg player, ever wanted to pierce the firmament with an arrow or create many explosive barrels?

do you want the narrow possibility of your character getting nerve damage, or better yet, the worlds most unorthodox lobotomy?

i got something for you. Spear and Spell 2e, ready and waiting for you, completely free! or pwyw, i suppose. link right here!

someone please look at this the pdf was a huge ass and a half to download because google docs doesnt allow you to download docs of a certain size as a pdf which. god. someone help me. I had to upload two seperate docs and then stitch them back together like victor frankenstein if victor frankenstein was asian and deeply stupid. it also meant i couldnt put in page numbers. how do people do this shit man.

[littlemissprettyprincess]

I finally reached my pure consciousness yey ^^

♡The first time I found out about Void State was in November 2021. I had terrible psychology, a bullying family, and a college exam that would determine my life. Every night without rest, I tried to persistently enter with a bad concept.And finally, exactly fifteen months later, I reached that gap.Yes, to return to the very beginning, I am an anxiety and depression patient. That's why bad thoughts are always dancing in my mind. (not anymore hehe ^^) I mixed my own method with the information I learned from you and woke up on February 17 with all my desires <3<3<3

♡I had written my desires in a google docs, and that damn thing was exactly 25 pages. I was constantly worried what if some of them didn't happen and my consciousness ignored some of them. We guess it's complete nonsense, void gives you everything you want ^^

🤍Here are some of my desires;

(i'm sorry I wrote in detail because I like to read in detail -_-)

ღ Name, date of birth, place of birth revision.

ღThe racial diversity in my pedigree. My mother is half French and half Turkish now. My grandmother is half Turkish and half Russian.

ღWhite, smooth, soft, clean, shiny, moist, evenly toned, free from all problems, (blackheads, acne, skin stains, cracks, cellulite, scars and dead layer, dead skin, excess oil, eczema, dandruff, wrinkles, blackout, the capillary blood vessel image, picture, sun spots, wrinkles, hair loss, dry skin, pore), which appears to have Foundation and always flawless, non-porous, permanently I have perfect porcelain skin.

ღI have perfectly sighted, healthy, attractive, bright feline rare green & blue eyes. My eyelashes are long, tight, curled and bushy. Everyone admires my eyes and compliments me. I impress people very well even with my looks. My eyebrows also never come out of excess, they always look symmetrical and perfect in a taken way.

ღI have an extraordinary, aesthetic, attractive, elegant, small, proportional, symmetrical, upturned, S-line nose that looks perfect in every way, looks like a work of art from the side profile, receives compliments and compliments at any time. There is no hair on my nose, there is never any snot on my nose, and this never affects my health badly.

ღI have the most plump, soft, moisturized, symmetrical, attractive, never-cracking pink lips that exist in the entire infinite universe. My lips never crack. I have pearl-lined, healthy, white teeth. My teeth will never turn yellow and will not be damaged. There will never be food residue on my teeth. I have a great smile and laughter. My laughter and smile literally fascinate people. My mouth always smells extremely good.

ღI have a symmetrical, proportioned, masterpiece, flawless, small short skull (angel skull), face, forehead and chin. I have perfect ears, small, proportional to my face. My ears are always clean, there are no hairs, and this never affects my health badly. I have three holes side by side and a helix in my right ear, two holes and an auricle in my left ear. They're all healed up and it never hurts.

ღI have a perfect and attractive hourglass physique. I definitely have an extremely seductive, feminine and sexy body. Upright 90° proportional feminine shoulders, a prominent collar bones, feminine, sexy Ridge, a narrow chest, arms tight slim feminine, upright, rounded, fleshy, erect, the tip is a small, pink tits, Skinny (56 cm), waist, upper and lower tight and tense abdominal, plump,round, and perfectly upright, hips, round hips, a thin medium like the great column proportioned legs looks perfect, attractive, fragrant, plump, tight, tense and white symmetrical labia majora, labia minor short little soft pink, soft pink anus long thin fingers, No. 36 feet clean and looking great at all times, I have white and rasped nails that never break. My toenails never grow, always stay at their ideal height and are always rasped and clean. Hair and feathers never come out on my body except for my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. I got rid of them permanently. No matter how much I eat, I will not gain weight, my physique and image will not deteriorate. There is a small mole on the top of my left breast and on my neck.

ღI have dense, thick wavy auburn hair that looks perfect, perfect, plump, soft, shiny, does not get electrified, never breaks, never smells bad and does not get greasy, healthy, smells good at any time.

ღEverywhere I am, it always smells extremely clean, attractive, sexy and sweet.  I never sweat or smell bad. A sweat stain never happens. My clothes and underwear always smell very clean, beautiful and sexy.  My toilet, big and small, always smells good. My big toilet never makes a sound. I never have a current. I never gas or burp. This will not harm my health. My vagina and anus always smell extremely beautiful and attractive.

ღI have the ability to sing, ballet, ice skating, piano, cello, draw pictures and write books.

ღI am a graduate of Oxford medicine, harvard mathematics. My IQ is 157. English German French Spanish Italian Russian I speak and understand Turkish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian with perfect pronunciation and diction, just like my native language.

ღI have $50,000 in my personal bank account.  I receive a $2,000 scholarship on a monthly basis, one of each month, and I will continue to receive my scholarship until I am 27 years old.

ღi have all the items on the dream wardrobe, dream jewelry & bags, dream shoes & socks, dream tec, dream books and vinyl, dream cosmetic (skin materials match my skin color and each product feels very good on my skin), dream things (gift &cargo section is all shipped and in my room) on my pinterest account.

ღi have a duplex loft house with earthquake resistant, rail system, top floor, attic, bosphorus view. The deed of the house is on me. A large, spacious, modern house with spiral staircase, terrace, American kitchen.  There is both a walk-in shower and a bathtub in my bathroom.The house is designed exactly like my dream. The bills and dues for the house are automatically paid by the company I received a scholarship from. I have a driver's license and I drive perfectly, perfectly. My focus and reflexes are very strong when driving. I have a white range rover. The tax and inspection costs of my car are covered by the company I received a scholarship from. At the same time, I also have a card that I can fill out 10 times every month by the company where I received the scholarship.

ღI look so beautiful and sexy in every way, in every way. When I'm laughing, crying, wet, sleeping, laughing, miming, making love, without makeup, when I've just woken up. I never drool when I sleep, I don't let out gas and I don't get delirious. I always sleep perfectly and beautifully like a baby. 'm Virgin. I give extreme pleasure to the person I'm with, the person I'm kissing. The person in front of me is dependent on my lips and skin. The person who is with me gets more pleasure, excitement and satisfaction than he has ever received before.

ღI'm living the wattpad book life. I always looked the way I wanted and loved the way I wanted. I am the main character of my life. My life is like a novel written in the hand of a perfect writer. Every moment of my life is a book fiction. I have always been rich, successful, lucky and living the perfect life.ღI have a lover who will enter my life on September 9, 2023 and who has been secretly in love with me for 4 years. he's just like in my dreams.. 1.95 bronze skin, amber eye, black hair, scruffy beard, muscular body, long lashes and succulent lips.. He is extremely handsome, sexy and intelligent. It smells masculine and attractive. Both serious and sarcastic.. billionaire, soldier, ceo, underground man. He loves, protects and movies me more than anything in the world. he loves like her baby and makes love like her enemy 🔥 He2s exactly a book guy.

It's been a little long, I'm sorry, but I'm very excited and I'm living my life now. If anyone wants, I can also share how I got in 🤍

@lotusmi @uniquelymeandmyworld2 @voidprincessblog @voidsuccess @littlemissprettyprincess @rosellesworkshop @zen-shu @fleurlx Thank you, babies <3 I'm glad you're here <3 you taught me that I'm in control of my life <3

this is so amazing. thank you so much for sharing this with me ! congratulations ! you deserve it so much. ♡

[lotusmi]

I finally reached my pure consciousness yey ^^

♡The first time I found out about Void State was in November 2021. I had terrible psychology, a bullying family, and a college exam that would determine my life. Every night without rest, I tried to persistently enter with a bad concept.And finally, exactly fifteen months later, I reached that gap.Yes, to return to the very beginning, I am an anxiety and depression patient. That's why bad thoughts are always dancing in my mind. (not anymore hehe ^^) I mixed my own method with the information I learned from you and woke up on February 17 with all my desires <3<3<3

♡I had written my desires in a google docs, and that damn thing was exactly 25 pages. I was constantly worried what if some of them didn't happen and my consciousness ignored some of them. We guess it's complete nonsense, void gives you everything you want ^^

🤍Here are some of my desires;

(i'm sorry I wrote in detail because I like to read in detail -_-)

ღ Name, date of birth, place of birth revision.

ღThe racial diversity in my pedigree. My mother is half French and half Turkish now. My grandmother is half Turkish and half Russian.

ღWhite, smooth, soft, clean, shiny, moist, evenly toned, free from all problems, (blackheads, acne, skin stains, cracks, cellulite, scars and dead layer, dead skin, excess oil, eczema, dandruff, wrinkles, blackout, the capillary blood vessel image, picture, sun spots, wrinkles, hair loss, dry skin, pore), which appears to have Foundation and always flawless, non-porous, permanently I have perfect porcelain skin.

ღI have perfectly sighted, healthy, attractive, bright feline rare green & blue eyes. My eyelashes are long, tight, curled and bushy. Everyone admires my eyes and compliments me. I impress people very well even with my looks. My eyebrows also never come out of excess, they always look symmetrical and perfect in a taken way.

ღI have an extraordinary, aesthetic, attractive, elegant, small, proportional, symmetrical, upturned, S-line nose that looks perfect in every way, looks like a work of art from the side profile, receives compliments and compliments at any time. There is no hair on my nose, there is never any snot on my nose, and this never affects my health badly.

ღI have the most plump, soft, moisturized, symmetrical, attractive, never-cracking pink lips that exist in the entire infinite universe. My lips never crack. I have pearl-lined, healthy, white teeth. My teeth will never turn yellow and will not be damaged. There will never be food residue on my teeth. I have a great smile and laughter. My laughter and smile literally fascinate people. My mouth always smells extremely good.

ღI have a symmetrical, proportioned, masterpiece, flawless, small short skull (angel skull), face, forehead and chin. I have perfect ears, small, proportional to my face. My ears are always clean, there are no hairs, and this never affects my health badly. I have three holes side by side and a helix in my right ear, two holes and an auricle in my left ear. They're all healed up and it never hurts.

ღI have a perfect and attractive hourglass physique. I definitely have an extremely seductive, feminine and sexy body. Upright 90° proportional feminine shoulders, a prominent collar bones, feminine, sexy Ridge, a narrow chest, arms tight slim feminine, upright, rounded, fleshy, erect, the tip is a small, pink tits, Skinny (56 cm), waist, upper and lower tight and tense abdominal, plump,round, and perfectly upright, hips, round hips, a thin medium like the great column proportioned legs looks perfect, attractive, fragrant, plump, tight, tense and white symmetrical labia majora, labia minor short little soft pink, soft pink anus long thin fingers, No. 36 feet clean and looking great at all times, I have white and rasped nails that never break. My toenails never grow, always stay at their ideal height and are always rasped and clean. Hair and feathers never come out on my body except for my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. I got rid of them permanently. No matter how much I eat, I will not gain weight, my physique and image will not deteriorate. There is a small mole on the top of my left breast and on my neck.

ღI have dense, thick wavy auburn hair that looks perfect, perfect, plump, soft, shiny, does not get electrified, never breaks, never smells bad and does not get greasy, healthy, smells good at any time.

ღEverywhere I am, it always smells extremely clean, attractive, sexy and sweet.  I never sweat or smell bad. A sweat stain never happens. My clothes and underwear always smell very clean, beautiful and sexy.  My toilet, big and small, always smells good. My big toilet never makes a sound. I never have a current. I never gas or burp. This will not harm my health. My vagina and anus always smell extremely beautiful and attractive.

ღI have the ability to sing, ballet, ice skating, piano, cello, draw pictures and write books.

ღI am a graduate of Oxford medicine, harvard mathematics. My IQ is 157. English German French Spanish Italian Russian I speak and understand Turkish, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian with perfect pronunciation and diction, just like my native language.

ღI have $50,000 in my personal bank account.  I receive a $2,000 scholarship on a monthly basis, one of each month, and I will continue to receive my scholarship until I am 27 years old.

ღi have all the items on the dream wardrobe, dream jewelry & bags, dream shoes & socks, dream tec, dream books and vinyl, dream cosmetic (skin materials match my skin color and each product feels very good on my skin), dream things (gift &cargo section is all shipped and in my room) on my pinterest account.

ღi have a duplex loft house with earthquake resistant, rail system, top floor, attic, bosphorus view. The deed of the house is on me. A large, spacious, modern house with spiral staircase, terrace, American kitchen.  There is both a walk-in shower and a bathtub in my bathroom.The house is designed exactly like my dream. The bills and dues for the house are automatically paid by the company I received a scholarship from. I have a driver's license and I drive perfectly, perfectly. My focus and reflexes are very strong when driving. I have a white range rover. The tax and inspection costs of my car are covered by the company I received a scholarship from. At the same time, I also have a card that I can fill out 10 times every month by the company where I received the scholarship.

ღI look so beautiful and sexy in every way, in every way. When I'm laughing, crying, wet, sleeping, laughing, miming, making love, without makeup, when I've just woken up. I never drool when I sleep, I don't let out gas and I don't get delirious. I always sleep perfectly and beautifully like a baby. 'm Virgin. I give extreme pleasure to the person I'm with, the person I'm kissing. The person in front of me is dependent on my lips and skin. The person who is with me gets more pleasure, excitement and satisfaction than he has ever received before.

ღI'm living the wattpad book life. I always looked the way I wanted and loved the way I wanted. I am the main character of my life. My life is like a novel written in the hand of a perfect writer. Every moment of my life is a book fiction. I have always been rich, successful, lucky and living the perfect life.ღI have a lover who will enter my life on September 9, 2023 and who has been secretly in love with me for 4 years. he's just like in my dreams.. 1.95 bronze skin, amber eye, black hair, scruffy beard, muscular body, long lashes and succulent lips.. He is extremely handsome, sexy and intelligent. It smells masculine and attractive. Both serious and sarcastic.. billionaire, soldier, ceo, underground man. He loves, protects and movies me more than anything in the world. he loves like her baby and makes love like her enemy 🔥 He2s exactly a book guy.

It's been a little long, I'm sorry, but I'm very excited and I'm living my life now. If anyone wants, I can also share how I got in 🤍

@lotusmi @uniquelymeandmyworld2 @voidprincessblog @voidsuccess @littlemissprettyprincess @rosellesworkshop @zen-shu @fleurlx Thank you, babies <3 I'm glad you're here <3 you taught me that I'm in control of my life <3

SUCCESS STORY!!! omgggg angell

I am so pround that you persisted for this long, like, fifteen months?? wowww!! And you diddd ittt I am so happy for you?? I am so happy you won't gave up because look all you gooot!!! And the way you were super specific HHAHAHA!! No but I love all you manifested for youuu, this is so amazing!! Tysm for sharing this 💗 I am so sure your story will inspire a lot of people!! I am excited for you too hhahah 💗Again, tysm for sharing your success baby, I wish you all the best in your life and more! Have an amazing day!

ps: no the book guy part 😭😭😭💗

ps 2: you soo smart and talented?? like omg all those languages and skillllss ps 3: the way you described even the moles 😭😭

@voidsuccess!

[romanarose]

If anyone cares about how my research papers have been going, I’ll tell you!

The Bruce Springsteen paper has exceeded the minimum page count !!

Unfortunately, that Professor wants to send notes for the citation, and Google docs doesn’t provide and notes, and my laptop is too old for word, because I literally had to get the cheapest one I could find because my normal laptop took a crap on me in the middle of the school year , and it won’t even let me install the copy and paste option lol so I have to wait till tomorrow to get on the school computers and transfer the paper over and add the citations.

The Mormonism paper is pretty much done. I just broke into page 14 out of 15 required. The thing is as I was adding citations for the footnotes which is going to add a chunk of space as well. I realized I have a couple of questions so I have to use my professors office hours tomorrow and then add them But I think they’ll give me at least half a page or more and then I just use the rest to wrap it up because I’ve gone through all the points. I wanted to address

So essentially tomorrow I have to do a lot of citations lol and I have one hour of work and two classes and I have to go to the library before one of those classes and print out the stuff for my extra credit

It’s all very doable, and then I turn it in

Also, I present tomorrow

Stressful but I’ll get her done

Then I can relax A tiny bit 😭😭

These are my last big papers of my history degree so I want to do well, I’ve put a lot of effort into the research and thought about these And I’m really hoping my efforts shine through !!



[fordtato]

The Symbol Cipher Theory - A Gravity Falls Mystery: What do the symbols on the portal page mean?

NOTE: Since Rob Renzetti replied to this on Twitter, new/corrected info is being added to this google doc (including everything in this original post) Go there for updates!

-------

There are a lot of things about Journal 3 that I have yet to figure out. What are those dumb little rectangles on the sides of the pages? I’ve tried applying everything I could to them - binary, international telegraph alphabet, morse? I couldn’t crack it. And what of those lines with a bunch of circles in them - you know, the ones that look like crop circles? And what of those numbers? You know the ones - they show up in this order from time to time: 6, 1 345 [or 3 4 5] 12 89 [or 8 9] 10 11. 13. 7. Sometimes they’re rearranged or missing elements, but that’s how they appear at their most complete (on the final page they show up on - across from those alchemical symbols), I hate those numbers. I have no idea what they mean. And boy, have I tried…

Aw well. They probably just mean nothing, right? 

But I would like to propose something: Maybe there is one more mystery in Gravity Falls.

Again: Link to theory google doc here.

The Symbols On The Portal Page

I want to guide you guys through a little exercise. Everyone got their Journal 3s? Alright. Open up to the portal schematics page:

t’s very familiar by now, and truly iconic. But, speaking of icons, look at the symbols. The truth is, these symbols show up a few times throughout the journal, mixed in with the rest of the codes and ciphers. But, similar to the aforementioned alchemical symbols, they probably mean nothing. After all, we’ve pored over them, again and again. 

These 13 symbols.

Huh. 

13.

On a half-circle.

Well, if that circle were complete, there would probably be 26 symbols.

Which means these might be letters.

Which leads us to the first question. Where are the rest of the letters?

My first move was to check the show. 

No dice. Neither of the journals show the other half of the circle - and on the bottom journal, they just flip the symbols upside down - it actually fooled me at first (I was very excited to see these upside down symbols before realizing it wasn’t new at all, simply upside down).

But whatever! We have 13 symbols. Hell, if we had examples of them in certain words, we might even be able to find the other 13 for the full 26. 

So… I went through the pages. And I found 4 instances of the code showing up in Journal 3. 

The Tie Code (on the same page spread as the Tie of Possession

Bill Page Code (On the same page spread as the one that names Cill Cipher)

The Hide Behind page spread

The Boat page spread (On the same page spread as the Island Heads and the scribbled out boat)

Let's analyze these one at a time.

The Tie Code

This is the only instance of a page including both an upside down and right side up version of a symbol directly from the portal page. It’s odd - we have that circle with the 3 dots, and two sideways T, the sideways table with 2 dots, and the sideways upside-down 7 with a dot here. 

I’m not sure we are able to get more meaning from these, but we’ve learned something: these symbols do show up in both right side up and upside down form.

The Bill Page

Of note, we have seen one of these 5 symbols before. The 5th symbol of the Bill code matches the third symbol of the wheel (in its upside down form).

The first symbol on the Bill page also looks suspiciously similar to the second symbol on the portal page - the upside down 7 with a dot. But it’s missing the dot. I’m inclined to think this is a new letter. (I am coming at this from the angle of someone who knows Arabic - where the number of dots on a letter makes a difference in which letter it is. So, you know… maybe it makes a big difference here?)

But at the very least, let’s count this as 4 new symbols: the backwards 4, the N, the 4 lines, and the symbol with a missing dot.

Added to our original 13, that’s 17 symbols so far.

The Hide Behind Page

This code is three rows, in a pattern of 5 symbols, 5 symbols, and 4 symbols (or 5, depending on if you count the first one as 3 vertical lines or 2 vertical lines near 1 vertical line. We also have some more familiar icons. The second, third, and fourth symbols all match a symbol from the portal page in upside-down form! 

We also have a repeat of that upside down 7 symbol! Again, without the dot, both in the second and third row (upside down and right side up). But surely they wouldn’t have a symbol with missing elements, like missing dots, right? 

I’d like to direct your attention back to the Bill Page Code. Notice anything similar to this code? No? How about now?

So we have our second clue: sometimes, a symbol may be drawn that is missing an element. 

So… I am unsure if the upside-down 7 with a dot (portal symbol #2, Bill symbol #1) is being utilized here, just missing the dot. If so, it might be showing up as the 6th AND 12th symbol in this. 

Regardless, because it shows up two times without the dot, and because the symbol is missing the dot in the row of symbols that the second row of the Hide Behind Code is emulating from the Bill Code, I will go ahead and again say I am treating it as a new symbol. But I also understand someone else reasoning that it is not. 

We also have a repeat of the symbol that is just 3 vertical lines (Portal Symbol #1), and a new symbol that is a sideways table with 1 dot in the center and a line next to it (Hide-behind symbol #1). We also have a strange symbol at the end of row 1: the three lines with 2 more layered on top in an asymmetrical pattern. 

The first symbol in row 3, the one that is either 3 vertical lines or 2 vertical lines near 1 vertical line, is bugging me. It can either be one symbol or two. It might also be 4 vertical lines missing the third line (We will see another instance of 4 vertical lines in a bit, so bear with me). Regardless, I’m inclined to treat this as one symbol because of the spacing it lines up with below the symbol above it.

All in all, it looks like there are 3 new symbols, depending on how we treat the first two (or three) symbols in the last line. It’s up to interpretation, but alas. Let’s add in the new ones. 

3 + 17 = 20 symbols so far.

The Boat Code

Last one!

We have some more symbols matching up! #9, 10, 11, and 12 on this page match up with #2,3,4 and 5 from the Hide-Behind page! 

Let’s take a look at the rest. We start with a dot. It is hard to say for sure if this is its own thing, or if it is part of the stylistic ink-splatter dots on the page. It seems just a little too perfect to count as a splatter, so I will go ahead and count it as a symbol for now. Even if the dot is NOT a symbol on its own, a dot+two vertical lines is new.

Next, we have a recurrence of a double-vertical-line symbol multiple times.

Lastly, #3, 5, 6 and 7 are ALSO new. As established previously, the rest are repeats. 

So, we have 6 new symbols. The dot (or the dot with the double line if we’re counting that), the double line (without the dot), the horizontal double line, the triple-horizontal lines with two dots, the upside-down table, the 4 vertical lines

6+20? 26 symbols.

Final notes:

Is this theory perfect? Not at all - there are several letters above that might end up being two, or perhaps symbols that I counted as different, which might be the same one. 

But it definitely seems like there are ~26 symbols, which may or may not correspond to 26 letters of the English alphabet. I know, I know, it’s a stretch. But it’s *my* stretch, one I’ve fixated on for way too long. 

So which symbols mean which letters? I tried assigning letters 1-13 to the symbols on the portal page, but it feels like gibberish (that being said, this is Gravity Falls we’re talking about here. Gibberish could be any number of ciphers). It might also be letters 14-26? Maybe it being upside down is a clue? 

But then I remembered, The Numbers:

This is the last iteration of the numbers. The last version to pop up before the journal switches perspective from Ford to Dipper. It is also the most complete version. 

6, 1 345 [or 3 4 5] 12 89 [or 8 9] 10 11. 13. 7

It’s interesting that they go up to 13, is all. 

A1Z26 makes this string of numbers into: F A C D E L H I J K M G, but it is missing one of the numbers.

Maybe that’s (roughly) the order of the schematics page? I don’t really have this figured out. Frankly, I’ve been at this for a couple years - that’s how long the theory has been polishing up in my head. It’s time to let this go free.

Thanks for reading, and I hope making this post spurs some more theories.

UPDATE: IF YOU CHECK THE REBLOGS, YOU WILL SEE THAT USER DUMBBUTTASS FOUND ANOTHER ONE ON THE PAGE WITH THE MONOCLE - EVERY SYMBOL ON THAT PAGE IS IN THE PORTAL PAGE HALF-CIRCLE. REBLOG THEIR UPDATE IF YOU CAN

[mdemontespan1667]

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18+ ONLY

SOFT DARK WALTER MARSHALL X READER

SUMMARY: YOU'RE JUST DOING YOUR JOB. TOO BAD SOMEONE DOESN'T AGREE.

(I moved the dates of this to the current year instead of 2018 so hopefully my dates match. I used what character information I could find for Walter and either filled it in with the actor's info or just winged it since no explanation was ever given for his accent. I did my best to research the neighborhoods and streets mentioned. If I made a mistake I apologize.)

SERIES WARNING: NON-CON/DUB-CON/GRAPHIC VIOLENCE/TORTURE/DEATH/DESCRIPTIONS OF DEAD BODIES/VAGINAL SEX/ORAL SEX/ANAL SEX/REFERENCES TO SEXUAL ASSAULT/REFERENCES TO MURDER/STALKING/CHOKING/SLAPPING

“Detective Marshall, Is this the 8th victim of the Hennepin Hatchet?” 

“No comment.”

The man bristled at the name, barely concealed disdain in his expression.

You didn’t like the name any better.

Giving murderers cutesy names took the focus off the victims.

But the Press, yourself included, had to call this psycho something.

“Get out of my fucking crime scene”

“I’m not in your fucking crime scene.”

You gestured to the yellow police tape, flapping in the bitter wind, which you were currently behind, barely. 

Detective Marshall grunted, clearly annoyed.

“I’m just trying to do my job. The public has a right to know if a serial killer is operating in Minneapolis.”

Crossing his arms, he fixed you with a bored stare. 

“What makes you think this is serial? Prostitutes get killed all the time. Hazards of the profession.”

“You’re joking right?”

You rolled your eyes.

“All the victims were last seen in the Hennepin area, all petite blondes, all sexually assaulted, stabbed and mutilated. There’s no way in hell this isn’t the same guy.”

“No comment.”

The dark haired Detective walked away, effectively dismissing you.

“Can you confirm Madison Harper was missing her left breast?”

Turning back he lumbered toward you.

Oh shit.

Detective Marshall was a veritable bear of a man, with a rumored temper to match.

And you?

You’d just poked him, big time. 

“Where did you get that information?”

“No comment,” you sassed.

 Apparently you had no sense of self-preservation.

“If you don’t get the fuck out of here,” he growled, “I’m gonna have your ass arrested for interfering with a police investigation.”

“C’mon. Give me something, anything.”

You tried your best to bat your eyes.

“Officer Barton,” he shouted to a uniform, “I need you to..”

“Ok, Ok,” you threw up your hands, “I’m going.”

You stomped to your ancient, beige Subaru. 

“Fucking prick.”

Driving away, you shivered, convinced the killer was just getting started.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I sincerely hope you're hitting submit as we speak.”

“I’m working on it.”

You glowered at your laptop, its blank Google Docs page taunting you.

“Uh, you know deadline’s in 3 hours?”

‘Yeah Brent, I know. I’m..I’m working on it.”

You hit the red dot, ending the call.

Brent was a great colleague, an even better friend.

SInce moving to Minneapolis a year and a half ago he was the only person you had gotten close to.

 Even so, the last thing you needed right now was more pressure.

FUCK FUCK FUCK 

Milton Turnbaldt, the editor of the Digital Division at the StarTribune, had finally moved you from Special Interest to the Crime Beat.

It was the next step in “THE PLAN” you’d mapped out since graduation. 

Imagining yourself a modern day Helen Thomas, visions of Pulitzers had danced in your mind. 

Reality had been a bit different.

Two years writing bar reviews for Bar Fly and one disastrous year at Chicago Suburban Family had been followed by a three year stint at the Chicago Sun Times, where the closest you got to reporting anything was letting Maintenance know a lightbulb was out in the Ladies room.

Getting hired at the  StarTribune had seemed like a dream come true, even if you’d had to move to Minnesota. 

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK 

It was obvious this woman was the 8th victim. 

Problem was every other reporter knew it, even if the cops refused to acknowledge the fact.

Your one advantage was your intuition. 

The women had to have been comfortable with the killer, therefore, he was most likely good looking, charming and came off as harmless. Every victim had voluntarily left their comfort zone, something sex workers usually refused to do. 

The pre- and post-mortem mutilation meant the killer felt confident enough in his surroundings to spend hours with the women, unconcerned about noise or the mess. His secondary location had to be isolated enough for his purpose but close enough to Hennepin Ave that the victims had been willing to take a chance.

Unofficial autopsy reports on each victim listed copious amounts of lube found in the vaginal and anal cavities. It wasn’t unusual for sex workers to use lube but this seemed excessive. The ME had attributed the internal micro-tears and bruising to the sexual assault. That, coupled with the lube, had you leaning in a different direction: The killer was having sex with the dying women. 

Too bad you couldn’t prove any of it.

Neither could you publish the information about the missing body part or lube without totally outing your source at the morgue, although that ship had kinda sailed when you showed your hand to the detective.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK 

Praying for Divine intervention, you started typing.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you think Claude?”

The overweight Tabby cat yawned.

“Thanks for the support. I’ll remember that next time you want a treat.”

Looking at your reflection in the full length bathroom mirror, you critically assessed your outfit: short, pleated black polyester tennis skirt, metallic silver cowl neck top, dingy, thigh high, white spiked boots, and a cropped, pink fake fur bomber jacket.

Heavy eye makeup, red lips and purposely mussed hair completed the disguise.

This classy ensemble, courtesy of the local thrift shop, had cost you a grand total of $53.98, an amount you really couldn’t afford.

But since the police, one surly detective in particular, weren’t talking you were just gonna have to find someone who would. 

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your feet were numb. 

Whether it was from the insanely high heels or the -2 degrees (F) windchill you didn’t know.

Or care.

After walking the Hennepin Ave circuit for 3 hours you had a whole lot of nothing. 

The sex workers definitely knew something.

Clustered in groups of 3 or 4, they murmured to themselves, cell phone cameras flashing, warning potential customers they were being watched, however, no one was willing to talk to a stranger. 

A midnight blue, extended cab pickup pulled up, idling at the curb. 

“Come here.”

“Uh, sorry, I’m..uh.. off the clock.”

He wasn’t the first guy who’d tried to engage you.

Maybe your refusal to leave with a client had given you away.

“Come here or I’ll bring you here.”

Tentatively you stepped closer.

“I said I’m not…Are you fucking kidding me Marshall?”

He sat hunched over the steering wheel, eyes blazing at you.

Beyond annoyed, you hissed, “Go away.”

“Get in the truck.”

“No.” 

“Get in the goddamn truck now.”

Mimicking his earlier behavior, you crossed your arms.

“You can’t tell me what to….”

The cab of the truck flooded with light as he opened the driver side door.

“Fine!”

In a huff, you climbed in, fastening your seatbelt before throwing him a scowl.

He ignored you, smoothly merging with the heavy Friday night traffic.

“Where’d you park that piece of shit car?”

You refused to answer, making a show of sulking.

“Answer me or..”

“Or what?” you interrupted, “You had no right harassing me, asshole.”

“Excuse me?” 

His harsh tone was  a clear indicator you’d pissed him off.

“Your car?”

“It’s at my apartment. I took an Uber.”

The Detective sighed.

“Exactly what the hell were you trying to accomplish out there?”

You shrugged your shoulders.

“You’re no help so I…”

“You what? You decided to play fucking dress up? Do you have any idea how dangerous the streets are? Some freak is killing prostitutes and your stupid ass is running around pretending to be one.”

“Are you finished?”

He clenched his jaw, cheek ticking.

“Contrary to your belief I’m not stupid. I can take care of myself.”

You reached in your bag producing a sleek, highly illegal taser.

“Plus I have this. And yes, I know how to use it.”

Taking a sharp left turn he headed South.

“Um, where are we going?”

“I’m taking you home.”

“How do you….”

“Born and raised in the Gold Coast area of Chicago. Only child. Undergrad at University of Chicago, Masters in Communication from Loyola, which your ridiculously rich mother paid for. You worked at two small time local papers then the Chicago Sun where you, what? Got coffee for three years? You took a job at the StarTribune 18 months ago writing online fluff. You live in the East Phillips neighborhood,  don’t drink, smoke or do drugs and generally have no social life. I like to know who I’m dealing with.”

Your mouth dropped open in shock, more than a little angry he’d checked you out.

“Pretty good,” you retorted, “My turn.”

“Born in the Channel Islands. Strict Catholic upbringing, four siblings, three boys, one girl. Attended St Michael’s Prep before transferring to Stowe School your Sophomore year, sorry, you call it Year 11. Joined the London Metropolitan Police Force in 2008, the same year you married Angie Stultz. She was interning for Warrener Stewart right?”

You rambled on, not waiting for an answer.

“Your daughter Faye was born the next year. Four years later you were promoted to the Criminal Investigations Department. You started out in Street Crime, then Organized Crime, until landing in Major Crimes in 2015. January of 2017 you and the little family moved to Minneapolis, where your wife was from but you didn’t start with the police department here for another 5 months so I’m assuming you were a house husband until your emigration papers cleared. Apparently you weren’t a very good husband, house or otherwise, cause your wife filed for divorce under “Irreconcilable DIfferences” a little over a year ago. You live alone, don’t smoke or do drugs and are generally recognized as a bully. I like to know who I’m dealing with.”

You flashed a Chesire grin.

Uh, oh.

If looks could kill, you’d be dead, buried 6 feet down, “Here lies a stupid idiot who wouldn’t keep her mouth shut” carved in the marker. 

“Um, this is me.”

You pointed to a two story brick building, an empty storefront on the first floor, your studio apartment on the second.

“Why do you live in this shithole? With mommy’s money you could be living in the Carlyle or Legacy.”

“I wanted to prove I can make it on my own. And this neighborhood? It’s not as bad as people think. The Pizzeria over there? The old, Italian couple that own it let anyone who needs to use the free wifi. On the weekends they stay open late and offer a free slice and drink so the kids have a safe place to go.”

You became animated, warming to the topic.

“Mrs Freemantle, in the brownstone next door, invites me over three or four times a month. Her oxtail soup and mac and cheese are freaking amazing. She doesn't get around too well so I run errands for her once or twice a week.”

You peered out the windshield.

“Those two guys on the steps, the ones you gave the stink eye to? Andre and Tony? They fixed my car for a six pack and a pizza the last time it crapped out.”

“Probably with stolen parts,” he mumbled.

“I bought the parts, you judgemental ass.” you spat.

Jerking the handle, you exited the vehicle.

Snow swirled in the open door.

“People here care more about each other than anyone ever did in the swanky condo’s I grew up in. Thanks for the ride.”

You flung the door closed with a thud.

Trekking up the sidewalk, you quickly unlocked the outside door, your mind already on a molten hot shower.

“Honey, I’m home,” you announced to the tiny studio, tossing your bag and coat on the fifth-hand orange and green couch. 

You stretched, exhausted, looking forward to…..

It happened so fast.

One second you were contemplating splurging an extra ten minutes in the shower, the next you were slammed against the kitchen wall, Detective Marshall’s forearm across your neck, other hand over your  mouth.

You flailed at him, hitting and kicking. 

It was like fighting a marble statue.

He leaned in, leg slotted between yours. 

“Taser ain’t much help now is it.”

You pushed at his arm.

“How fucking stupid are you? You didn’t even lock your fucking door. Anyone…”

You bit his fingers, drawing blood. 

He let go, surprised by your counterattack. 

“Get the hell out of…..”

His hand closed around your throat.

Your chest heaved from adrenaline, his booming heartbeat matching yours. 

Without warning, his lips crashed to yours.

The kiss was desperate, all consuming, his beard scratching your delicate skin.

His hand slipped under your top and cheap push-up bra, palming your breast, rough fingers pinching the already pebbled nipple.

The kiss deepened to something dark, Marshall taking control.

You rocked your hips against his muscled thigh, your core on fire.

Snaking down your belly, he slid his hand beneath the waistband of you skirt, callused digits gliding through your damp, plumped slit.

He circled your clit, applying light pressure with each pass, thumb randomly sweeping the bundle of nerves. 

Lost in a sea of sensation, you mewled, the sound swallowed by his warm, searching mouth.

“Tell me to stop.”

Afraid he wouldn’t stop, even more afraid he would, you remained silent as you unzipped his jeans, freeing his heavy cock.

Gathering the sticky wetness from the tip, you stroked his length.

“Fuck.”

The whispered obscenity went straight to your cunt, fresh slick coating his hand. 

He tore your black tights in one motion, leaving you bare.

Marshall lifted your leg, curling it around his waist, his cock poised at you sopping entrance.

“Last chance.”

You draped your arms around his shoulders, balancing yourself.

Taking that as a sign, he pressed into you, you channel stretching painfully.

You cried out, the burn almost too much.

His lips latched to yours, tongues sparing until his cock was fully ensheathed in your heat. 

He pulled out, briefly hesitated, before thrusting in again.

Breaking the kiss, you buried your face in his neck, fingers tangling in his dark curls.

He fucked you now, hips pistoning, his fingers digging into your flesh.

Marshall’s feral grunts mingled with your needy moans.

Tendrils of electricity surged along your nerves.

He lifted your leg higher, changing the angle of penetration, his cock hitting the soft, spongy spot repeatedly. 

“Please,..please..” you choked out.

“I’ve got you.”

You came with a sob, hips pumping in time with his, cunt clenching, the sheer intensity of your orgasm frightening, wave after wave threatening to drown you. 

He drove into you faster, chasing his own release. 

All you could do was hold on, tears staining his coarse, coal gray sweater.

You felt him swell, hips stuttering.

His muscles flexed as he came, pushing you against the wall, milky ropes of cum splashing your walls.

Fevered lust dissipating, he rested his cheek on your head.

Untangling limbs, Marshall fastened his jeans.

He didn’t stay, instead turning towards the door.

Hand on the brass knob, he paused.

“I’m sorry. This shouldn’t have happened.”

His words froze the question in your throat.

Door closed, you collapsed to the floor, head bowed, knees to chest.

“What the hell just happened.” 

@xoxabs88xox @imanuglywombat @fanfic-fangirl @caffiend-queen @alexakeyloveloki @americasass81 @lokislastlove @sweater-daddiesdumbdork @sweeterthanthis @ironlady1993 @joannaliceevans-fanficblog @joannaliceevans-fanficblog @jennmurawski13 @starynighty @sapphirescrolls @xsapphirescrollsx @sagechanoafterdark @momc95 @jtargaryen18 @demonsandpieohmy @dangertoozmanykids101 @lizzystuffsthings @nildespirandum @shikin83 @sinceimetyou @buckybarnesandmarvel @imdarkinme @inlovewiththefictionalcharacters @titty-teetee @saiyanprincessswanie @littlefreya

[lucky-clover-gazette]

captive prince book 1 highlights & annotations

chapter 10

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

Laurent was on the reclining couch, his feet tucked up under him in a relaxed, boyish posture. A book of scrollworked pages was open before him. There was a goblet on the small table beside him. At some point during the night, a servant must have spent the requisite half hour unlacing his austere outer garments, for Laurent wore only pants and a white shirt, the material so fine it did not require embroidery to declaim its expense. The room was lamp lit. Laurent’s body was a series of graceful lines under the shirt’s soft folds. Damen’s eyes lifted to the white column of his throat, and above that the golden hair, parting around the shell cup of an unjewelled ear. The image was damascened, as beaten metal. He was reading.

laurent lofi hip hop beats to await assassination to

also, i think this is the first time he’s been really described as vulnerable or relaxed, and it’s right before his uncle tries to have him killed. laurent your life sucks SO BAD

Except that it was perfectly clear from the first moment that he looked up that Laurent was not expecting company. And that Laurent did not recognise the guards either. Laurent carefully closed the book. And rose. ‘Couldn’t sleep?’ said Laurent. As he spoke, he came to stand before the open archway of the loggia. Damen wasn’t sure that a straight two-storey drop into unlit gardens could be counted as an escape route. But certainly otherwise—with the three shallow steps leading up to where he stood, the small finely carved table and decorative objects all providing a series of obstacles—it was, tactically, the best position in the room.

they are both strategic and intelligent, and work naturally together as allies!

‘I don’t think the Prince is in an amorous mood,’ said Damen, neutrally. ‘I take a while to warm up,’ said Laurent.

“let’s partake in some improv comedy while we wait for the assassination attempt to start”

Later, he’d wonder what it was that caused him to react as he did. He had no love for Laurent. Given time to think, he would surely have said, in a hardened voice, that the internal politics of Vere weren’t his business, and that whatever acts of violence Laurent brought down upon himself were thoroughly deserved. Maybe it was bizarre empathy, because he’d lived through something like this, the betrayal of it, violence in a place he’d thought was safe. Maybe it was a way of reliving those moments, of repairing his failure, because he had not reacted as quickly as he should have, then.

this book so far has been an unspoken competition between damen and laurent of who can suffer the most alone. in this pivotal moment, when given the opportunity to potentially end his own suffering and make laurent suffer more, damen decides instead to not let laurent suffer alone—because laurent isn’t alone, if damen is fighting by his side.

this is something essential to damen’s character, and we continue to see it throughout the series. he doesn’t just act good for the sake of appearances. good is something he DOES, wholeheartedly. he doesn’t always know what is good, and sometimes he gets it wrong, but he always does what he believes is honorable. in the heat of the moment, damen will protect the disempowered—even if that means defending his worst enemy.

The knife Laurent held was of the same design. It was bloody up to the hilt, he saw, as Laurent descended the shallow steps. It looked incongruous in his hand, since his fine white shirt had survived the struggle in immaculate condition and the lamplight was just as flattering to him as it had been before. ‘What do you want me to do with him?’ ‘Hold him still,’ said Laurent. He came forward. Damen did as he was told. He felt the man make a renewed attempt to free himself, and simply tightened his grip, aborting the ripple of struggle. Laurent lifted the serrated knife, and, calmly as a butcher, sliced open the man’s bearded throat.

well mark me down as scared and—

Damen’s grip closed on the fine bones of Laurent’s wrist, but instead of having things immediately his own way, he was surprised to encounter a moment of muscled resistance. He applied greater pressure. He felt the resistance in Laurent’s body pushed to its limit, though he was still far from his own. ‘Let go of my arm,’ said Laurent, in a controlled voice. ‘Drop the knife,’ said Damen. ‘If you do not let go of my arm,’ said Laurent, ‘it will not go easily for you.’ Damen pushed just slightly harder, and felt the resistance shudder and give way; the knife clattered to the ground.

DROP IT. >:(

‘I’m not surprised you’ve driven three men to try and kill you, I’m only surprised there weren’t more,’ said Damen, bluntly. ‘There were,’ said Laurent, ‘more.’

context: laurent genuinely believes that damen came to kill him

He disliked the idea that anyone at all believed him capable of cutting down an unarmed man, four on one. Even if that man was Laurent. ‘Like the man you just killed,’ said Damen, looking back at him. ‘In my part of the fight the men were not helpfully killing each other,’ Laurent said.

craft note: great example of how damen’s pov sometimes makes laurent look worse than he is. feels like pacat showing her hand, she wants us to notice this one

He could see—he could feel—that Laurent knew it. He could feel too how badly Laurent wanted it, wanted to see him taken, wanted to trump both Damen and his uncle. He bitterly regretted the impulse that had led him to save Laurent’s life. ‘You’re misinformed,’ said Laurent. He sounded like he was tasting something unpleasant. ‘There has been no attack against me. These three men attacked the slave, claiming some sort of barbarian dispute.’ Damen blinked.

context: laurent has integrity

Damen had never before seen half a dozen soldiers reduced to compliant housekeeping by the sheer force of one man’s personal arrogance. It was almost instructive.

not the first time laurent was instructive in this book

Halfway through proceedings, Laurent stepped backwards to lean his shoulders against the wall.

laurent lean #6. post-assassination attempt edition!

‘You’re wounded.’ ‘No.’ Damen didn’t remove his gaze. Any man but Laurent would have flushed or looked away or given some sign that he was lying. Damen half expected it, even from Laurent. Laurent returned the look, and then some. ‘If you mean excluding your attempt to break my arm.’ ‘I mean excluding my attempt to break your arm,’ said Damen.

they’re so funny

‘I would prefer you to stand further away,’ said Laurent, each word finely chiselled, as though in marble.

context: desperately fighting the chemically-induced horny

He told himself, feeling oddly detached, that it was no more than justice: Damen perfectly recalled the experience of being doused with a drug then thrown into a fight.

but he can’t fully make himself believe that laurent deserves this

This place sickened him. Anywhere else, you simply killed your enemy with a sword. Or poisoned him, if you had the honourless instincts of an assassin. Here, it was layer upon layer of constructed double-dealing, dark, polished and unpleasant. He would have assumed tonight the product of Laurent’s own mind, if Laurent were not so clearly the victim.

in a weird way, this implies empathy for laurent. or at least unrealized understanding

Laurent was hardly abandoned. He was not speaking with his usual ease, and his breathing was shallow, but these were the only signs. Damen realised, suddenly, that what he was witnessing was an exercise in sheer, iron-willed self-control. ‘It wears off,’ said Damen. Adding, because he was not above enjoying the truth as a form of minor sadism, ‘After a few hours.’ He could see in the look Laurent levelled at him that Laurent would rather have cut off his own arm than have anyone know about his condition; and further, that he was the last person that Laurent wished to know, or be left alone with. He was not above enjoying that fact either.

damen has a bitchy moment! and of course it’s related to one of laurent’s biggest vulnerabilities. get it together guys

‘Think I’m going to take advantage of the situation?’ said Damen.

i wonder if laurent thought he meant “take advantage” in relation to his condition, rather than an escape attempt

‘Wait,’ said Laurent, as though he forced the word out, and hated saying it. ‘It’s too dangerous. Leaving now would be seen as an admission of guilt. The Regent’s Guard wouldn’t hesitate to have you killed. I can’t . . . protect you, as I am now.’ ‘Protect me,’ said Damen. Flat incredulity in his voice. ‘I am aware that you saved my life.’ Damen just stared at him.Laurent said: ‘I dislike feeling indebted to you. Trust that, if you don’t trust me.’ ‘Trust you?’ said Damen. ‘You flayed the skin from my back. I have seen you do nothing but cheat and lie to every person you’ve encountered. You use anything and anyone to further your own ends. You are the last person I would ever trust.’ Laurent’s head tipped backwards against the wall. His eyelids had dropped to half mast, so that he regarded Damen through two golden-lashed slits. Damen was half expecting a denial, or an argument. But Laurent’s only reply was a breath of laughter, which strangely showed more than anything else how close to the edge he was. ‘Go, then.’

god, the laugh. damen isn’t wrong. laurent knows he isn’t wrong. but fuck, he is just trying to survive, and pay off his unwanted debt to the guy who literally killed his brother.

this is where laurent realizes that he has lost damen’s moral arbitration. it’s not surprising, and he doesn’t want to care, but it still hurts. and he can’t protect him. he can’t protect anyone. he can hardly protect himself. and he’s all alone.

sometimes you really do just have to laugh.

Laurent would be left alone and vulnerable in the aftermath of an attempt on his life. But the immediate danger was past, and Laurent had lived through it. Others had not. Damen had killed tonight, and witnessed killing. Damen set his jaw. Whatever debt was between them had been paid. He thought, I don’t owe him anything.

this is essentially the novel’s end of act 2, protagonist does the wrong thing moment. which… really speaks to the complicated morals of this series, huh. because the right thing, then, would be to stay with his captor. but has damen really ever been a slave?