#and honestly the system part was too funny not to give him | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yoongiseesawmp3 · 1 year

Text

get you, pt2 - seungcheol (m)

summary: neighbor!seungcheol. after your first date with cheol, you just keep falling harder. you start sharing more and more of your life with him, opening up your heart and home to the prince charming from across the hall.

word count: 12.2k (part two/?) part one

warnings: afab reader (some gendered terms), nsfr (not safe for ramadan), cussing, smut!!!! fingering, oral (f receiving), protected sappy lovey dovey sex

of course your first date with cheol was perfect. he was a complete gentleman, buying your dinner and waiting patiently at the record store after while you searched through all the new and old releases. he even carried all of your picks just for you to give up half of them because you decided “i don’t need all these albums” right before you checked out.

even though that was your first date with cheol, it didn’t seem like a first date at all. usually you’re on edge trying to make a good impression while deciding whether you like the guy or not, but this was the easiest date you’ve ever been on. the hard part was ending it. cheol came back to your apartment after, helping you organize your vinyls and cds by your meticulous standards. after teasing you endlessly for your filing system that makes no sense (it’s based on vibes) cheol asked if you had anything to drink, and once again you find yourselves sitting entirely too close and sharing a glass. you put on one of the vinyls you just bought before you sat down, and you sit together in comfortable silence as it plays softly. when it’s time to flip, cheol gets up and does it for you, coming back to sit even closer than he was before with his arm around your shoulders. you’re snug in the corner of your couch, but you shift to try and give cheol more room. instead he just lifts your legs in one arm and drapes them over his lap, comfortably resting his hand on your thigh after.

“this ok?” he asks, looking at you to confirm.

“it’s nice,” you tell him, and he squeezes your thigh in agreement. “what do you think of the album?”

“it’s good,” he nods. “now i understand why you wanted this on your chill shelf and not the funk shelf.”

“it’s chill funk,” you joke, “and that’s too niche for it’s own shelf. but it’s more chill than anything else so it makes sense.”

“or you could just do it by, i don’t know, the alphabet?” cheol asks, holding back a smile.

“that’s boring,” you pout.

“oh, baby thinks being logical is boring?” cheol pouts back, and you admire his lips for a moment before it clicks: you could just kiss him. you’ve done it before, and you did just go on a date with the man. instead of daydreaming about a kiss, you could just...lean forward and press your lips to his. you sigh into his mouth when your lips connect, and he holds you by the thighs tighter. your hands drape over his broad shoulders, angling him more towards you so it’s easier for you to run your lips over his. you pull back slightly to catch your breath, but cheol’s lips chase yours, still perfectly pouted and an even brighter shade of cherry red than before. you knock your forehead into his, giggling, and he laughs too, asking, “what’s wrong with you? that wasn’t funny.”

“no,” you say, calming your laughs. “i just..can’t really believe i did that. can’t believe we went on a date.”

“neither can i, honestly,” cheol says, and you pull back completely to look at him fully. “well, i mean, i knew it would happen eventually,” he continues. “because i knew i wanted to ask you out. i just didn’t expect you to make the first move.”

“hey!”

“sorry babe,” he shrugs. “but really, next time you wanna go out, just ask me, no need for an elaborate story-”

“that’s it, i’m calling vernon,” you say as you reach for your phone, “i need him to clear my name.”

“did you tell him we went out anyway?” cheol asks casually, and you stop. “you didn’t, did you?”

“no,” you shake your head sheepishly, and cheol smiles at you. “honestly i didn’t want to be distracted by him teasing me while we were on our date.”

“understandable,” cheol nods. “when i told mingyu we were finally going out i actually had to put my phone on dnd. otherwise gyu would’ve blown it up.”

“god, he’s gonna feel like he made this happen,” you groan, head falling into the crook of cheol’s neck. he smiles at the ticklish feeling of your breath hitting his skin, but he doesn’t ask you to move. “you know, now that i think about it, we have really annoying friends.”

“yeah,” cheol sighs. “but they mean well.”

“whatever,” you reply, closing your eyes to enjoy this moment. the warmth of cheol around you, his scent encasing you with every breath, and the music...it had turned off. when did that happen? you pick your head up and look at your record player and, yep, totally still.

seungcheol watches your eyes and picks up on your train of thought, saying, “it turned off a while ago. guess we didn’t really notice.”

“oh.”

“yeah.”

the unspoken issue between you now is: who’s going to make the first move to get up? and what happens then? usually cheol just goes home once it’s too late, but you’re dating now, right? so, should you ask him to stay? as always, it’s like he was reading your mind, and he says, “i guess i should go.”

“really?” you ask, your head back on his shoulder looking at him with pleading eyes. “but i’m comfy.”

“yeah, but i’m about to fall asleep,” he laughs, “and you don’t want to be stuck under me when that happens.”

“or do i?” you counter, and a flicker of something crosses his eyes that you can’t read. “i wouldn’t make you sleep on the couch though.”

“noted,” he says quietly, holding your gaze for a moment longer. he squeezes your thigh again, but this time moves you off his lap carefully. “but i should really go back.”

“o-ok,” you say, holding back a yawn as you watch cheol grab his things. “want me to walk you so you don’t get lost?”

“no,” he laughs, “but cmere.”

“what?” you ask, a small smile on your face as you get up and meet him at the door. he wraps an arm around your waist, bringing you close to him as he dips down to kiss you one more time. your eyes flutter closed, and you stay like that long after he pulls away.

“night darling,” he whispers, placing a kiss on your cheek. you open the door for him and watch him cross the hall, leaning on your door with a hand on your cheek where he kissed you. cheol looks back and gives a small wave before he disappears behind his door, and you close your own and smile happily to yourself, realizing that warm feeling in your chest might be here to stay.

everything about cheol is easy. going on a date with him was easy. kissing him was easy. finding little things that make you realize you’re falling in love with him, that was easy too.

while your feelings for cheol have been brewing since you met him, the first time you thought this might be love was a couple days after your first date. you were coming home from work, tired and stressed, and you had the scare of your life when you opened the door to your apartment. laid out on your couch, asleep with a book held tightly to his chest, was seungcheol. you yelped a little when you saw the surprise waiting for you, and fred stirs first from his spot by cheol’s feet. his movement wakes your visitor, and he sits up slowly to find you staring at him with confusion and a little fear in your eyes.

“what’s wrong?” he asks, still out of it.

“um? what are you doing here? how’d you get inside?” you ask nervously. “your couch isn’t doing it for you, had to come in here and use mine?”

“oh,” he yawns, sitting up slowly and messing with his mussed hair. if you weren’t so startled you’d be cooing over how cute he looks, but your heart is still slowing from the fright he gave you. “sorry, i should’ve texted you but i didn’t want to worry you at work.”

“what happened?” you ask as you join him on the couch, and his arm wraps around you out of habit. “did someone break in?”

“no, but they could have,” cheol eyes you with a hint of annoyance. “i came back from my run right after you left for work, and i guess fred heard me thinking you were back home so he was whining pretty loud. i almost texted you then, asking if i could come get your keys so i could check on him, but i tried your door and somebody-” a light flick to your forehead “-forgot to lock up before they left.”

“oops?” you try, and when cheol continues looking at you with a hint of disappointment you try rubbing the spot he flicked. “also ouch.”

“oh you’re fine,” he says quickly, kissing the spot on your forehead he flicked. “anyway, i opened the door and fred had gotten sick in the kitchen. i took him out and he was sick again, so i just stayed over here to keep an eye on him. he’s been fine since. did he eat anything weird last night?”

“not that i know of,” you reply, watching cheol closely. “i can’t believe you risked breaking and entering charges for me.”

“it was for fred.”

“well he’s basically my son, so,” you say, trying to hide your smile. “thank you baby, i’m glad he’s got you looking out for him.”

“baby?” cheol smiles. “i don’t think you’ve called me that before.”

“thought i’d give it a try,” you explain. “figure i’ll have to work my way up to calling you sweetcheeks.”

“you can call me sweetcheeks now,” he says with a smirk, pushing his cheeks up as he continues, “i mean i am pretty sweet.”

“those aren’t the cheeks i’m talkin about,” you joke, pulling his hands from his face as you wiggle your eyebrows at him. cheol falls back into the couch with a loud laugh, and you kick your feet up onto the couch so you can lean back with him and rest your head on his shoulder.

“never mind, never call me that please.”

“too bad sweetcheeks, already changed your contact in my phone to it.”

even though that wasn’t the first time cheol had shown you he cared for you deeply, it was the first time it made you feel safe with him. protected. looked after. knowing you had cheol, and he had you, that meant the world. so seeing first hand what lengths he was willing to go for you planted that seed telling you this might just be love. for cheol, it was a different story.

a few days after cheol’s breaking and entering, he had told you he might be a little busier than usual because of school, so you agreed to have a week to yourselves. mostly. just because you didn’t have time for each other doesn’t mean you won’t find ways to sneak over to his to have coffee with him in the morning, or he won’t stop by once he hears you get home from work just for a quick kiss and to hear how your day was. this week was hard though, cheol had his own school stuff to handle with assignments and ta work, but he also had a bunch of music lessons to prepare for because of end of year concerts. he was out of his apartment from sun up to sun down it seemed, and you knew he wouldn’t have time to take care of himself.

all week you tried to figure out the pattern of when cheol would get back home so that you could surprise him on friday. once it got close, you kept the noise in your apartment to a minimum so you could hear cheol as soon as he got to his door. you had spent the night cooking for him, making sure he’d have a nice meal to help him refresh and get ready for what was probably going to be a stressful weekend too. the minute you heard his keys, you threw your door open, making him jump slightly.

“y/n, hi,” he says, confused. “what are you doing up so late?”

“i’m a night owl, you should know this by now, baby,” you tell him. you almost get distracted by the way he’s dressed, obviously coming back from his ta job since’s in one of his nice button ups and another pair of slacks that highlight his juicy thighs. cheol watches as you practically drool over him, and he clears his throat to get your attention.

“i feel like this is deja vu from the last time you saw me dressed like this,” he teases, bringing a blush to your cheeks. “what’s up my love?”

not missing his new nickname for you, you tell him to wait there as you disappear to your kitchen to grab the food you’d made for him. while you were gone, fred sauntered up to the door and cheol crosses the hall to baby talk with him and scratch his ears, further endearing him for you when you return.

“here,” you say, forcing the two dishes in your arms upon him. “the purple dish can go in the microwave, but heat the green one up in the oven for a few minutes.” you put your hand on his shoulder, using it as leverage to stand on your toes and kiss his cheek. “see you later, sweetcheeks. get some rest.”

“what?” cheol laughs slightly, looking down at the delicious food in his hands. “what is this?”

“your dinner,” you respond. “i figured you haven’t eaten a healthy meal this week, so i made you one. there should be enough for you to have leftovers, unless you’re hungrier than i expected. anyway, it should take care of you for tonight at least.”

“but,” he sputters, “you? did you eat?”

“yes,” you nod, “those of us who finish work at a normal time tend to eat soon after.”

“smart ass,” he smiles, cocking his head toward his door. “come over and watch me eat then. i’ll give you a play by play of how amazing it is.” cheol crosses back to his door, looking back at you still standing at yours. “oh, unless you’re tired?”

“no,” you hesitate. “i just don’t want to bother you, you must be exhausted.”

“baby, come over,” cheol whines, his signature pout coming out. “i miss you, and we’re both gonna be up for a while anyway.”

“well if you insist,” you say, about to close your door and join him.

“lock your door or so help me,” he laughs, pointing an accusing finger at you from underneath one of your dishes. you groan and say you’ll be over in a second, diving back into your apartment to find your god forsaken keys.

“so you’re not tired?” you ask as you enter seungcheol’s apartment, closing (and locking) his door behind you.

“hm, i was,” he starts from the kitchen, and when you walk in your find him with a spoon already stuffed in his mouth. “but i don’t know, some crazy person forced me to take food from them and now i feel fine.”

“i can go back home-”

“no!” cheol shouts, grabbing you by the waist before you can make a move. “stay. for just a little bit. i’m making you a plate whether you like it or not.”

“i already ate,” you assure him.

“then i’ll just take what you don’t want,” he solves the problem easily, and you wrap your arms around him and lean into his chest as you wait for the food to finish.

“i missed you,” you mumble into his shirt, appreciating how it still smells like him even after a long day. “you shouldn’t work so much, because it wears you out, obviously, but i don’t think it’s fair for us to spend so much time apart all in the same week.” then, looking up at him with your chin still on his chest, “what if i forget what you look like?”

“then take a picture, darling,” he teases, booping your nose just before the microwave beeps. he pulls you off of him so he can take the food out, putting a healthy amount on both plates he’s got on the counter. you peek into the oven and check on the rest of the food, and you feel a hand graze your ass as seungcheol moves quietly behind you.

“hey!” you shout, “you touched my butt!”

“huh?” he plays innocent. “wasn’t me, promise. i must have a ghost.”

“tell your ghost i’m taken,” you reply, looking for oven mitts. cheol reads your mind and hands you one from the drawer behind him, and you remove the second dish from the oven.

“about that,” cheol starts off, watching you give his plate more food than you put on yours. you turn around, handing him his plate, while you wait for him to go on. “can i start calling you my girlfriend?”

“yeah, i’ve been calling you my boyfriend,” you say simply, walking past him to hop up into one of the chairs at the bar on the other side of the kitchen. you watch him as you take a couple bites, hiding a smile as he opens his mouth in shock.

“who have you told?!”

“mostly vernon,” you reply. “but tahi and jen have asked, so i assume some of the guys have heard it too. wonwoo at least, not sure about gyu.”

“so am i the last one to know about this?” he asks as he takes the empty seat next to you.

“guess so, boyfriend,” you tell him, nudging his arm before you say, “now eat.”

in between bites, and telling you how great the food is, cheol tells you about his week. school was hard, being a ta was harder, but the highlights were his music lessons. he mostly does piano, which is easy for him he claims, but there’s a couple violin lessons he looks forward to more. there’s one kid though, a family friend he tells you, who wants to learn how to rap and produce. cheol lights up as he talks about him, and you watch fondly as he gets so excited over his little prodigy learning how to layer tracks or discovering what an 808 is. you’re interested in what he’s saying, really, but the late hour and your own hard work catches up to you and makes you yawn.

“you should go to sleep,” cheol says, finishing the last bite of food off your plate. “thank you for the food, my love. this made my week.”

“you’re welcome,” you reply with another yawn. “are you gonna head to bed too?”

“honestly, i’m not tired anymore,” cheol laughs, and you groan as you lean into his side. he uses his leg to bring your chair closer to his, finding your hands so he can play with your fingers. “guess all i needed was some time with my baby and i feel back to 100 percent.”

“while i think that’s very precious,” you start, “i’m upset i did this now because i know you probably won’t go to sleep for a while.”

“eh, it’s fine,” cheol shrugs. “it was worth it. i can always take a sleeping pill too, that’ll knock me out.”

“you stay stocked up?” you joke, surprised that’s such a casual option for him but he nods before he explains.

“i’ve got insomnia, so i use them every once in a while. i can’t go straight to sleep unless my body and mind are exhausted.”

“so you haven’t used them this week i assume?”

“no, i haven’t,” he laughs. “but it’s not a big deal if i use one tonight. i don’t feel like wearing myself out before bed so this is fine.”

“what do you usually do?” you ask. “if you don’t wanna take a pill, i mean. how do you get yourself tired enough to go to sleep?”

“i’ll do a workout, or if it’s not too late i’ll go for a run,” he explains. “but mostly i work out. or uh, exhaust myself another way.” he clears his throat at that, grabbing your empty plates to take them to the sink. you watch as he washes them diligently, and you say something that gets drowned out by the water. “what was that babe?”

“if you ever need help, uh, wearing yourself out,” you say delicately, cheol smirking at you trying to be subtle about it. “if you ever need help i’m probably up. you could just, um, you could just call me. next time.”

“next time,” cheol says, almost like a question, and you nod.

“yeah, next time.”

“alright baby,” he smiles at you softly, his heart thudding in his chest as it hits him: he’s in love with you. he realizes he’s just been staring at you this whole time, and he clears his head by wiping the newly clean dishes off. “um, do you want your dishes back? i can-”

“keep em,” you shrug. “it’s not like i won’t be back over here soon.”

“right,” he smiles, his heart pitter pattering softly. “want me to walk you home?”

“oh, so you can walk me home but i can’t walk you?” you scoff, and he just glides around the counter to grab your wrist and pull you toward the door anyway. he takes you back across the hall, tucking some hair behind your ear before he cups your face and kisses you goodnight.

“night darling,” he says, sugar dripping from his voice. “and thank you, i loved this little surprise.”

“i’ll do it more often then,” you smile back at him, unlocking your door and waving before it closes behind you.

that weekend, tahi and jen come over for a girls night, insisting you need it knowing how much you’ve worked lately. you neglect to tell seungcheol though, so when he finishes with his music lessons for the day he crosses the hall and knocks on your door as usual just to be met with screams to go away.

laughing, you answer the door, clad in what cheol notices is a brand new keroppi pajama set. as his eyes rake up your body, he smiles and you can see the beginnings of a joke forming on his lips when he notices the curlers in your hair.

“hey sexy,” he smiles wider, hand reaching up to play with a poor strand of neglected hair hanging by itself. “you missed a spot.”

“do not mock me,” you warn him, finger not so threateningly pressed into his chest. “i can never reach the back of my head so the girls are helping me.”

“you know i could help you?” cheol laughs. “i’m your boyfriend, i think that’s within my official capacity.”

“yeah, but if i let you see me getting ready like this then it ruins the movie magic.”

“baby if you were a movie i’d be watching the extended cut and all the behind the scenes,” cheol jokes, and he hears boos from your living room. that’s when he peeks inside and notices jen on the couch, also wearing a pajama set of her government assigned sanrio character (cinnamoroll). “hey jen.”

“tahi’s here too,” you tell him, and he looks around but you say, “in the kitchen. i think she’s making tea.”

“ooo, tea sounds great,” cheol says as he tries to walk into your apartment, and you do your best to use your smaller frame to stop him. “baby, what are you doing?”

“girls night,” you say sternly. “no boys allowed.”

“no boys?” he pouts, and you can hear tahi telling you to be strong.

“no boys,” you confirm with a nod, and cheol pinches your cheek.

“fine. where’s fred then?”

“what?”

“if you’re having girls night then me and fred are gonna have boys night,” cheol says. “gimme his toys, he’s sleeping at my house.”

“NO,” jen shouts, “you can’t take him, he’s the only reason i came over!”

“hey!” you and tahi whine, and with the distraction cheol is able to grab fred’s leash from the wall and call for his partner in crime. fred happily gets up from beneath jen’s feet to meet cheol at the door, going along with whatever happens. you sigh as you notice how excited fred looks, so you trudge through your apartment grabbing whatever fred may need to spend the night with your annoying boyfriend.

“here,” you grumble, shoving a bag into cheol’s eager hands. he looks just as excited as fred, so that softens the blow a little bit. “you two have fun. don’t stay up too late, don’t talk to strangers, and please don’t lose my dog.”

“i would never,” cheol scoffs, leaning in to give you a kiss. “i know you’d break up with me if anything happened to him and i won’t allow that.”

“hm, whatever you say. just come back in one piece tomorrow morning,” you tell him and he nods.

“that i can do,” and then to fred, “let’s go buddy! boys night boys night!” chanting all the way across the hall to his door. you watch them with an idiotic grin on your face, and when you close your door you hear someone clearing their throat. you turn around to see tahi and jen both staring at you expectantly, and confused you simply ask, “what?”

“you know you’re in love with him, right?” jen asks, and you balk.

“i am not,” you reply quickly, and then you backtrack, “i mean, i like him, obviously, he’s my boyfriend. i should like him. i do. a lot. but love? i don’t love him. yet. maybe. do i?”

“yeah, you’re definitely in love with him,” tahi says as she hands you your mug of tea before she kicks off her my melody slippers and takes what’s usually cheol’s spot on the couch. “anyone can see it.”

“do you think cheol knows?” you ask, nervous.

“maybe,” jen shrugs. “if you were oblivious about it then maybe he is too.”

“nah, he’s been in love with her since day one,” tahi says. “you know that saying, if he wanted to he would? cheol has been the embodiment of that for y/n. i don’t know any other man that would move furniture for me after not even knowing me for five minutes.”

“cheol’s just really nice,” you mumble, and your friends nod.

“i think he’s a jerk,” jen says, and you turn to look at her just for her to say, “i can’t believe he stole fred from me.”

“oh just go over there if you miss him so much,” you groan. jen thinks about it for a second, you can see the gears turning in her head. “oh my god you’re not really gonna ditch us for my dog are you?”

“no,” she says finally. “but i’m staying for lunch tomorrow. i need to get my fred time in.”

“fine, weirdo. what movie are we gonna watch?”

after your night of being annoying with your friends, you wake up the next day shockingly early and a feeling hits you deep in the chest: you miss cheol. or fred. or both. you lay in your bed for a moment trying to decipher which one it is when you remember that you can just go over there and see them. cheol isn’t usually an early riser, but you know fred has probably needed to go out already, so you slide into your robe and slippers hoping that cheol will let you in when you knock.

you quietly make it through the living room, hopefully not disturbing your friends (because they would ridicule you for what you’re about to do). once you’re at cheol’s door, subconsciously you just reach out to open it, still a little sleep clouding your brain. but it opens. his door was unlocked, and for a second your heart drops to your ass thinking something is wrong. you step into cheol’s apartment worried, searching for your boys and any missing valuables. nothing looks wrong in the living room, so you keep going until you find his bedroom door ajar. you push it open, and let out a quiet “awww” at the sight before you.

fred is laying on cheol’s chest, a situation you’re familiar with, because he obviously wants to get up and play but cheol is to tired for that. both their heads turn at the sound of your voice, and fred’s tail starts wagging as cheol tries his best to sit up and look at you better.

“baby?” he asks, reaching out for you. “what’s wrong?”

“oh nothing,” you say nonchalantly, shuffling over to his bed to join them. “i just missed you.” cheol’s heart jumps into his throat at your words, but then you try to recover. “i mean fred. i missed fred.”

“sure,” he smiles, grabbing your hands once you’re close enough and pulling you down into his bed. “cmere. we missed you too.”

“that’s sweet,” you coo, letting him pull you against him, his arms wrapping around you as fred situates himself at your feet. “but you wanna hear something shocking?”

“what?” cheol asks, confused. “you missed me so much it hurt?”

blushing, because that was totally true, you reply, “no?”

“what then?”

“how do you think i got in here, sweetcheeks?” you ask, and the realization dawns on his face. “mister why-don’t-you-ever-lock-your-door forgot his own number one rule.”

“guess i’ve been spending too much time with you, your bad habits are rubbing off on me,” cheol mumbles into your hair, placing a kiss at the top of your head when he’s done.

“too much time?” you ask, sitting up, “i can leave then-”

“don’t you dare,” cheol growls, basically koala-grabbing you with his arms and legs so you have to lay back down. “can’t leave. ‘m comfy.”

“i have to though,” you grumble, struggling to get out of his strong hold. “i left my friends alone in my apartment. they could be stealing.”

“they’re probably still asleep.”

“but i promised i would make waffles-”

“waffles?” cheol asks, suddenly interested. “i like waffles.”

“hm.”

“let me come with you and i’ll let you go.”

“they’re gonna make fun of us.”

“whatever, we can just make out to make them uncomfortable,” cheol jokes, a shit eating grin on his face that you know is at least half serious.

“promise you won’t be weird around my friends and you can come,” you warn him, and he gives you his best puppy dog eyes, pout and all. “fine, let’s go.”

back at your apartment, you and cheol do your best to get into the kitchen without waking your guests but fred ruins it by booping noses with them just to say hey. jen is thrilled that he’s back so she stays in the living room, but tahi wanders into the kitchen and watches with a smile on her face as you and cheol work on the waffles together.

“what happened to girls night?” tahi teases, and you glare at her while cheol responds.

“this one just missed me too much,” he sighs, earning a slap to the arm. “but it’s not night anymore. it’s-” checking the oven clock “-ten in the morning, so girls night is over. do you want chocolate chips in your waffles?”

“please,” tahi nods, and cheol reaches around you, hand on your waist, to grab the bag of sweets. cheol adds some chocolate to the bowl he’s working on as tahi goes back out to join jen, and while cheol waits for the waffle iron to heat up he comes back to your side.

he dips his finger into the batter you’re working on and almost moans at the taste, asking, “what did you put in here to make it so good??”

“cinnamon? i don’t know really, i just started adding stuff,” you reply. “is it that good?”

“mhm, taste it,” he says, dipping his finger back in and presenting it to you. nervously, you lean forward and wrap your lips around his finger, licking the batter off as you hold eye contact with him. there’s electricity in the air around you as you pull back, and with a new deepness to his voice, cheol asks, “what do you think?”

“i think it needs more vanilla,” you squeak out, and cheol holds your gaze for a second longer before he nods.

“i think you’re right,” he says, finding the bottle of extract and taking over the work for you. you just watch on, heart beating quickly in your chest, as you try to calm down from whatever that was.

cheol’s bold move in the kitchen changed things. obviously you’ve thought about the physical side of your relationship, but so far it hasn’t naturally gone further than making out a little bit or grabbing each other’s butts. now though? you can’t stop thinking about what could’ve happened if you and cheol had gone further. you catch yourself daydreaming about his hands and what they could do, and that leads you down a deep dark hole. you’re not sure how to bring it up to cheol though.

but you really should bring it up, because he’s thinking the same things. the way your lips wrapped around his finger has been bouncing around in his mind ever since. his brain reminds him of it at the worst times, and if he lets his mind wander he starts thinking about what else you could wrap your lips around. he wants so badly to say something, but doesn’t want to rush you into anything. so in silence you both wait for the other person to make a move.

that is, until the following friday when you get invited to a party at mingyu’s house. he’s known to find the most random reasons to throw parties, so you’re not even sure what the occasion is this time. you do know that cheol is excited about going as a couple, so you can’t say no. since you don’t totally understand the theme, you need reinforcements, so you stalk across the hall and bang on your boyfriend’s door.

“how exactly am i supposed to dress for a ‘spring equinox’ party?” you ask cheol as soon as he opens his door.

“um, warmly?” he guesses, toweling off his wet hair. that’s when you notice he’s just wearing his boxers, his broad chest still glistening with the remains of his shower. your mind starts to wander again, and you physically shake your head to help you focus. “at least that’s what mingyu’s text said.”

“but it’s still cold outside,” you counter, then pause. “do you answer the door for strangers in your boxers?”

“no?” he laughs. “you’re the only person who knocks on my door, so i knew it was you. in case you were jealous of the world getting to see this,” he explains, doing a little shimmy at the end.

“you’re not helping,” you groan. “what are you wearing?”

“shorts and a t shirt?” he guesses. “maybe a jacket just on the way there. but mingyu is very serious about his themes, babe, so i don’t think you can get out of this one.”

“fine,” you sigh, turning back to your door. “i’ll wear something hot.”

that you did! when cheol finishes up at his, he grabs his things and tries your door, shocked that it’s locked for once. he texts you that he’s outside, let him in pretty please, and when you open the door it takes his breath away. he’s never seen you so scantily clad before, and he finds himself staring with his mouth open. trying his best not to have the same reaction as a high school boy, he just checks you out calmly and jokes, “when you said you were dressing hot i didn’t think you meant sexy.”

“please,” you roll your eyes, “this is not sexy.”

“beg to differ,” cheol replies, looking you up and down once again. you’re wearing shorts, which he realizes now he’s never seen you in before, and he’s admiring your thighs and your ass, but the tight tank top you paired with the shorts accentuates your chest just the right way. he’s trying not to imagine what it would be like to bury his face in between-

“i’m ready,” you say finally, and cheol whines when he turns to look at you.

“why’d you put more clothes on?” he complains, openly hating the large button up you’ve added on top.

“it’s cold outside!” you whine, and he tsks. “you’re so weird. most guys would want their girlfriend to hide the goods.”

“not me,” he shakes his head. “i want everyone to be jealous of what they can’t have, so i vote no shirt.”

“i’ll take it off at the party, deal?” you ask. “i don’t wanna be cold on the way.”

“i could keep you warm,” cheol offers, and there’s that tension again. he holds your gaze, challenging you to take up on his offer. you’re about to cave when your phone buzzes with a text from tahi, asking when you’d be there.

“um, we should go,” you say as you clear your throat. “sounds like we might be late.”

“hm, shame,” cheol sighs, opening your door for you. “go ahead. i’ll lock up.”

“you just wanna stare at my ass while i walk, don’t you?”

“you know me well, darling.”

at the party, you’re greeted by a shirtless mingyu at the door. he pulls you in quickly, dragging you to the kitchen to meet his new “friend” ali. she smiles politely, happy to meet more of the posse mingyu talks about so much.

“she makes the best drinks, what’s that weird donkey drink you like y/n?” mingyu asks, and you laugh.

“a mule?” you reply, and he nods.

“yeah, she can make you one!” you look to mingyu’s special lady and she nods, getting to work.

“are you a bartender?” you ask, finding cheol over by wonwoo. he smiles at you sweetly, and you smile back.

“no,” ali replies, “i just got really into making cocktails after the pandemic. got a whole mixology kit and thought i’d try it out. now it’s my party trick, i guess.” as she finishes, she hands you your “donkey drink” and you take a sip.

“oh, this is perfect,” you say happily. “i’ll be seeing you again later, my friend.”

“sure thing,” ali smiles, and you leave her with mingyu, who literally has puppy dog eyes as he looks at her in amazement. you laugh to yourself, happy that your friends will have someone new to tease for being in love. you walk over to join cheol and wonwoo in the living room, linking your arm with cheol’s as you listen to their conversation.

“i’m just saying, he’s weird, man,” cheol starts. “who throws a party practically in the middle of winter and makes us wear summer clothes?”

“i think he just wanted an excuse to be shirtless in front of that girl,” you point out, and the guys nod.

“or, crazy thought, there’s a whole season in between winter and summer,” wonwoo says, looking back at cheol. “and it’s about to start. maybe that’s why he’s having a spring equinox party.”

“that’s my point,” cheol whines, lips forming his signature pout. “who does that! what does equinox even mean!”

“it happens when the sun crosses-” wonwoo starts, and cheol whines again, head falling to your shoulder.

“baby make him stop, i don’t want a science lesson,” he says, arms wrapping around your waist as he turns into your neck. you and wonwoo share a look, yours trying to apologize for cheol’s behavior and wonwoo’s just amused by the sight before him. he says something about going to find tahi, and you’re left alone with your clingy boyfriend.

“what is your problem,” you laugh, trying and failing to push cheol off of you.

“you are,” he pouts again. “you look too good and there’s too many people here for me to make out with you without being self conscious.”

“outside?” you suggest, and cheol looks at you mischievously.

“thought you said it was cold out.”

“i thought you said you could keep me warm?”

while it’s not the balcony that you and cheol shared your first kiss on, you find yourself in a similar situation a few seconds later. you easily snuck out without anyone noticing, cheol even managing to grab a bottle of soju for you to share as you passed by the kitchen. it’s neglected at first, because the second you slide the door closed, cheol’s hands are gripping your cheeks and pulling your lips to his. you sigh into the kiss, instantly warming at the contact. you kiss him until you need a breather, and you pull back with a dopey smile on your face as you admire the man before you.

“hey, you’re cute,” you whisper, laughing when he blushes.

“you’re cuter,” he counters, leaning down to grab the soju he placed by the door before he takes a swig and hands it to you. “i didn’t bring cups, hope that’s okay.”

“we just swapped spit, we can share a bottle,” you reply, taking it from him and having a healthy drink yourself. you keep passing it back and forth between you, cheol asking for a kiss every once in a while in exchange for the bottle. when it’s finally empty, he moves like he’s going back into the party, but you stop him. “wait, let’s stay out here for a minute.”

“okay,” cheol nods. “you’re not cold?”

“a little,” you shrug, placing your hands on the cool railing. “but i’m a little drunk so that’s helping.” cheol is quiet for a second and you’re comfortable just admiring the night sky like this, but his strong arms wrap around you and pull you into his chest.

“warm now?” he checks, and you nod. you relax in his arms, one of your hands reaching up to hold onto his. cheol places a kiss to the top of your head, and in that moment you feel yourself wanting to say that you love him. you don’t though, afraid to break the silence surrounding you and risk ruining the moment. so instead, you just nod and take a deep breath.

you’re not sure how much time passes with you standing like this, cheol eventually swaying you back and forth to the beat of whatever playlist mingyu has going inside. eventually, the music gets louder, and you realize together that someone must have opened the door to the balcony. looking back you see a smug vernon there, ready to crack a joke, but you beat him to it.

“what’s up, champ?” you ask and he smiles.

“your favorite person is here,” he replies, and you gasp, unraveling yourself from cheol’s grasp. you follow vernon back inside, eyes searching for one of his friends that you always love seeing. when your eyes land on seungkwan you almost scream, rushing forward to pull him into a hug. you both start talking a mile a minute, trying to catch up over the past few months all in a few seconds.

cheol comes in from the balcony, empty bottle in his hand, and he stops next to vernon. he notices cheol’s rigid posture as he watches you and seungkwan, making vernon laugh.

“don’t be jealous, dude,” vernon assures him. “me, y/n and seungkwan were all really close in college, but he’s not interested. it’s just been a while since he’s visited so you can understand why she’s so excited.”

“yeah, i get it,” cheol nods.

he stands for another moment, watching you closely, before turning away and mumbling about finding a recycling bin. in the kitchen he makes you both new drinks, taking yours over so he can meet your friend. he’s not jealous that you’re talking to a guy, really. he’s just jealous that vernon called this dude your favorite person. wasn’t that supposed to be cheol? he makes it back to the couch where you’re listening intently to seungkwan telling a story, and he perches on the arm of the couch behind you as he hands you a drink. you reach back and grab his hand, kissing his palm, and the gesture makes seungkwan stop cold.

“you’re joking,” he says, looking between you and cheol. “don’t tell me this is the boyfriend you mentioned.”

“he is,” you say proudly. “kwan, meet cheol, cheol meet seungkwan.”

“hey,” cheol nods.

“hi,” he says quickly. “can i be blunt?”

“sure?” cheol says, unsure of what’s coming next.

“what does someone like you see in someone like y/n?” he asks in disbelief, and you push him so hard he falls back into a sleeping hoshi. jen left him for a few minutes, hopefully to go grab him some water, so when he notices his girlfriend is gone his bottom lip starts to quiver. you push seungkwan again and say, “look what you did, you made the baby cry.”

“he’ll get over it,” he waves it off. “i’m sorry. but come on. this is a joke right?”

“no,” you whine. “cheol is my boyfriend, get over it.”

“you’ve changed, y/n,” seungkwan shakes his head. “this is the first time i’ve met one of your boyfriends and haven’t immediately wanted to talk shit about him with vernon.”

“i hate you,” you say, trying to stand up, but cheol lightly pushes you back down.

“no, let the man speak,” he smirks, and you groan as you fall back into the couch. you down your drink as seungkwan tells cheol embarrassing stories about your past, and cheol plays with your hair as he listens at full attention.

“i’m getting another drink,” you mumble, standing up and allowing cheol to take your place. he’s listening to seungkwan describe a date that he and vernon had to save you from, because the guy was an hour late to a movie and you didn’t want to watch it by yourself nor waste the ticket that you already paid for. you mentally curse vernon for inadvertently bringing the two together, and when you get back into the kitchen you find mingyu and his friend making out. “oh, sorry.”

“y/n, my bad,” mingyu says, wiping his lips with the back of his hand.

“you’re good, pretend i’m not here,” you reply as you grab things randomly and pour them into your cup. you take a sip, satisfied with the sweet taste, and you walk back out to find cheol in the same place. his face lights up when he sees you, smiling all the way up to his eyes as you get closer. there’s not much room on the couch, so you try to sit on the arm like cheol did earlier, but he’s not having that. he pulls you down by the waist to sit in his lap, and you shriek when your drink spills.

“shit,” cheol grumbles, “i’m sorry baby, here let me help-”

“it’s fine,” you say, holding your drink out to him. he takes it and you slip your button up off, tossing it over the back of the couch. “it was just the sleeve, i’m good now i think.”

“you look great,” cheol says, complete with a sneaky smile. he pulls you closer, his arm wrapping around you easily as he says lowly, “been waitin all night for you to take that off.”

something about his words and the tight hold he has on you all sends a wave of goosebumps over your skin. you shift in his lap, trying to create some space, but the friction of your ass rubbing over his crotch just has the beginnings of a boner poking through cheol’s shorts. you look at him in shock, and he’s staring back at you darkly.

“are you alright?” you ask, and he nods.

“great, you?”

“mhm,” you agree, taking a sip of your drink. cheol watches you like he’s trying to ingrain this moment in his memory, closely staring at the way your lips meet the cup and how your tongue pokes out to lick your lips when you’re done. you offer the cup to him, wanting his attention off of you for a moment, and as he takes a sip you lay your head down on his shoulder, just trying to get a moment to breathe.

the next thing you know, cheol is waking you up, saying that it’s probably time for you to leave. you only dozed off for a little while, he explains, but the party was slowly dying out and cheol wanted to get you home. your shirt is still soaked though, so at the door cheol slides off the tacky hawaiian shirt he’s been wearing all night and wraps it around your shoulders. you say your goodbyes and head back to the car, cheol’s arm wrapped around your shoulders.

“sorry i got tired at the end,” you yawn. “we could’ve stayed longer.”

“no, it’s ok,” cheol assures you. “i think mingyu was ready to kick us all out anyway.”

“yeah, i noticed we’re not the hot new couple anymore,” you joke, and cheol smiles. “are you tired though? you wanna do something-” yawn “-before we go home?”

“no baby,” he says fondly, “you need to go to bed. and wonwoo finally found me and explained what an equinox is so i think my brain is tapped out for the night too.”

“ok, because we could go get food or-”

“no baby,” he repeats, kissing your cheek. “i’m good, really. let’s go home.”

in the car you dozed off again, and cheol quietly admired you as he tried to calm himself down. he had definitely popped a boner with you sitting in his lap, and his skin was still on fire from the feeling of your ass grinding against him, even if the movement was completely innocent. he uses the ride home to get his heartbeat back to normal, and when he opens your door to walk you home you never would’ve known all the nasty thoughts running through his head. he takes you to your door, kissing you goodnight before he disappears into his apartment. you take care of fred and then work on yourself, wanting to sober up a little before you go to bed. so you take a shower and start a load of laundry, hoping your shirt didn’t stain at the party. once you’re done and laying in bed finally, you can’t seem to close your eyes for long. your mind keeps trailing back to cheol, and his big arms wrapped around you, and how it felt being so close to him with his breath fanning over your neck, and-

there’s a knock at your door.

you lay still for a moment, but when the knock comes again you relax, knowing it must be cheol. maybe he forgot something, you think as you trudge to your door. or did he not kiss you goodnight? you thought he did but maybe not. you open the door finally, and he’s standing there in what you assume are his sleep clothes, hair a mess and a darkly inviting look in his eyes.

“i can’t sleep,” he says simply. “can you help me?”

“hm, and how would i do that?” you play coy, leaning against your door frame. smirking, you look up at cheol who’s taken a step closer to you, hands coming up to hold you by the waist.

“take me to your room and i’ll show you?” he smiles back, already walking with you back into your apartment. he kicks the door closed behind him, locking it swiftly while you watch him and let him lead you wherever. “tell me baby, what do you like?”

“cheol,” you blush, bringing your hands up to push him away but he pulls you closer and basically growls into your ear.

“you want this, right?” he confirms. “you want me?”

“of course i do,” you nod, and you can feel him smiling against your neck.

“then tell me what i should do to drive you crazy,” he starts, starting at your collarbone and trailing kisses up your neck. “tell me what you love, tell me what you hate, i wanna know it all.”

“i’ll give you a study guide,” you tease.

“you joke but i would take that seriously.”

“i know.”

“i’d make flashcards,” he smiles, “carry em around. practice when i get bored.”

“i get it,” you laugh, realizing that you’re at the doorway to your room. “you gonna take me to bed or what?”

“kiss me first,” he whispers, looking up at you sweetly. you lean in, your hands cupping his cheeks as your lips meet. as you make out you pull cheol back to your bed until the backs of your knees collide with your mattress. you sit down, pulling cheol with you. he eagerly crawls on top of you, caging you in. he pulls away as he hovers above you, admiring the way you look laying beneath him. “hey.”

“hello,” you wave, and his head falls into your neck as he laughs.

“you’re beautiful, do i tell you that enough?” he mumbles into your skin, and you’re glad he’s not watching you blush the deepest shade of red.

“you tell me plenty, love.”

“i’m gonna start saying it more,” he tells you, sitting up again so he’s hovering above you. “because you are.”

“every time you do i’m just gonna remind you of your dreaminess,” you reply, and he nods.

“deal,” he agrees, dipping back down to capture your lips again. he lowers himself on top of you so he can use one arm to support himself while the other grabs the hem of your shirt. “take this off baby.”

“bossy,” you tease. “i like it.”

“noted,” cheol says, catching your eye again. “i can be bossier.”

“show me.”

“ok,” he says as he sits up completely, thick thighs straddling your legs. “take your shirt off and then keep your hands above your head. don’t move or i’ll stop.”

you do as he says, pulling your sleep shirt off before you toss it somewhere in your room. as you lay back down you notice cheol’s taken his shirt off, and you admire him while he does the same. you’re not wearing a bra so cheol watches intently, tracing every curve of your chest with his eyes.

“can’t believe this is the first time i’ve seen your tits,” he whispers, hands reaching up carefully to caress them. his thumbs rub delicately over your nipples, earning a breathy moan from you. “come on baby, gonna have to be louder for me.”

“then you’re gonna have to work for it,” you tell him, staring at him above you. you watch as his eyes shift, getting darker, and he dives in to kiss you again. this one is hungrier, full teeth nipping at your lips and cheol’s eager hands tweaking your nipples. you’re squirming beneath him, and he moans into your mouth when you brush up against the bulge in his boxers.

“careful baby,” he mumbles, “don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“but,” you gently push him away, “i thought this was for you? you’re the one that needs help, right?”

“yeah, but,” he stops to kiss you again, “i think we’re both enjoying this.”

“duh, but i want to help you,” you say, “wanna make you feel good. let me get on top.”

“no,” he says sternly, grabbing your wrists and placing your hands above your head again. “i’m in charge tonight. that’s how you can help me, yeah? just do as i say. and don’t move your hands again, baby, want you to be good for me.”

“or what, i’ll get punished?” you dramatically pout, and cheol pinches both your nipples in response. you buck up, a low whine coming from deep within your chest.

“wasn’t planning on it, but hey, if you deserve it,” cheol smirks, kissing you one more time before he trails his lips down your jawline and to your neck. he starts marking your neck, and you let out a shaky breath as you feel his hand trail to your panties. he looks up at you, silently asking for permission and you tell him it’s okay. his fingers dip into your panties, gasping when he’s met with the arousal seeping out of you. “you’re so wet darlin, this all for me?”

“mhm,” you whine, wiggling your hips to try and get more friction. “need more cheol.”

he listens, swiping some of your slick on his fingers before finding your clit. he rubs it in light circles, giving you some relief but not enough. you blubber out another whine, and then cheol dips his hand down to your core. he tests the waters, slowly easing one finger into you, and your hands fly down to his head so they can grab onto something. you pull his hair, earning a moan as he bites into your neck harder, and then you feel him slip a second finger between your walls. you moan softly as he works you closer to your high, getting louder as he strokes just the right spot inside you.

“cheol, baby, feels so good,” you moan, lifting your hips to get him deeper.

“stay still,” he growls, grabbing one of your hands from the back of his head and pinning it beside you. he keeps working at your core but he lowers himself further, puckering his plump lips around one of your nipples. he kisses and licks your hardened bud until he gets bored and moves onto the next one, moaning at the taste and feeling of your soft skin on his tongue. you use your free hand to play with your neglected nipple, breathing faster as you get closer to your orgasm. cheol picks up on it quickly, staring up at you like the finest piece of art as he whispers, “are you close baby?” all you can do is nod, already at a loss for words, so he asks, “think you can come for me like this?” you whine and stare down at him, shaking your head, so he lets go of your hand and brings his your lips. he presents you with two fingers, asking you to suck. you welcome them into your mouth, groaning as he picks up speed with his other hand. when cheol’s satisfied with your work, he brings his saliva coated fingers down to your clit to rub tight circles on top of it. the whole time he watches you closely, memorizing the way you breathe, the way your eyes roll into the back of your head, and committing every sound you make to memory. he can feel you clenching around his fingers as you come, and with a toe curling orgasm you reach your high. cheol slowly works you through it, calming his movements until your breathing settles again. you look down at him and smile, hands carding through his hair.

“sorry i couldn’t keep my hands to myself,” you whisper out. “but that was amazing.”

“yeah?” cheol asks, and you nod. “you think you can give me another?”

“cheol, let me do something for you-”

“you are,” he insists, crawling down your body until his face is level with your soaked panties. “let me eat you out and come for me again, that’s what you can do for me. alright princess?”

“princess?” you smile, and cheol hums in agreement. “i guess i can do that.”

cheol pulls your panties down then, groaning at the sight of your puffy pussy lips covered in your release. he can’t wait to devour you, but he needs one more thing before he can get started. he reaches for your hands and plants them in his hair, earning a confused noise from you. he looks up between your legs before he explains, “want you to pull my hair. i don’t know what i was thinking telling you not to touch me. don’t think i can keep going without your hands on me somehow.”

“needy,” you tease, and he hums as he lowers himself back down to your core.

“you’re dripping for me so who’s really the needy one?” he asks, swiping a finger through your folds before he pops it into his mouth, moaning at the taste. “ready baby?”

“please,” you whine, using your hands threaded through his hair to push his face into your core. his nose bumps at your clit and your hips rise farther into his touch. delicately, he swipes his tongue from your clit to your entrance, his own hips trying to find some sort of attention as he grinds into the bed. he goes top to bottom once again, this time dipping his tongue into your entrance. you moan his name breathlessly as you feel his tongue at your core, one of his hands coming up to play with your clit. “cheol...”

“mm?”

“too much,” you warn, loving the way his tongue is devouring you but worried that the extra attention to your clit might make you come too soon. “gonna come.”

“isn’t that the point?” cheol smiles at you evilly, his lips and chin coated in your arousal.

“i mean, yeah,” you squeak out as he dives back in. “b-but i should make you feel g-good. you-ah, you needed the help.”

“baby,” he says seriously, looking up at you once again. “please. i’m enjoying the hell out of myself. you can help me out soon, yeah?” you nod, and he’s satisfied. “alright then. tell me when you’re gonna come.”

he goes back to his original position, thumb carefully stroking your clit and sending electricity straight through you while his tongue teases your entrance, obscenely slurping at your lips as he plays with you like a toy. you’re so caught up in the way he’s making you feel you almost don’t notice the extra attention, cheol’s free hand slipping down to join his tongue at your entrance. he fucks into you with his tongue, a finger slowly joining him, and then he pulls his mouth from you completely as he goes back to stroking that one spot inside you. he backs off of your clit too, and you sigh thinking you’ve gotten a chance to catch your breath. that’s short lived, because you feel his tongue flicking over your clit instead, playing with it just the right way that you feel the coil in your stomach starting to come undone. he puckers his lips around your clit, sucking lightly, and your hands tighten in his hair, encouraging him to suck at your clit again, adding another finger while he’s at it. you’re coming again, cheol making out with your pussy as you come, chanting his name over and over again.

“fuck,” cheol groans, wiping your release from his face with the back of his hand. “you’re so warm baby. and sweet. can’t get enough of you.”

“fuck me then,” you say boldly, opening your legs wider to welcome his hips. cheol leans over you and grabs you by the knees, bringing them up to your chest.

“hold these outta the way for me princess,” he growls, watching the way your pussy clenches, waiting to take him. he pulls his boxers down, stroking himself as he asks, “shit, do you have a condom?” you nod. “where?”

“bedside table, in the drawer,” you answer simply. you watch as cheol hops out of bed and slides his boxers down his legs, biting your lip at the sight of his ass on display. he finds the condoms and chuckles, making you ask, “what’s so funny?”

“i genuinely don’t know if these will fit, honey,” he replies, shaking the foil packet above you.

“well can you try?” you ask suspiciously, looking down at his cock as he rolls the condom over it and your eyes bulge when you see it fully for the first time. “whoa.”

“whoa?” cheol laughs, sliding the condom down his length. “that’s not reassuring. you still want me to fuck you?”

“even more so,” you nod, opening your legs wider to accommodate cheol’s hips. he slots himself over you, slapping his cock over your pussy as your hips chase his. “stop teasing.”

“stop complaining,” he counters, sliding his cock up to rub your clit, earning a choked moan from you. “you sure i prepped you enough? need me to go back down there and check?”

“cheol,” you whine loudly, bucking your hips up so his tip will bump into your clit again. “fuck me please. wanna feel you.”

“since you said please,” he smiles, taking his cock by the base and guiding it into your core. he thrusts into you slowly, hissing at the feeling of your walls swallowing his cock. you’re left speechless, not used to someone so big. you catch yourself holding you breath and take a deep inhale, core flexing even more around cheol. “fuck, do that again.” you obey, clenching around him a few times before he finally tears his eyes away from where your bodies meet. “can i move?”

“please.”

“good girl,” he hisses, pulling out and thrusting all the way back in deeply. “taking me so good.”

“you feel amazing cheol,” you sigh. “never been fucked so deep.”

“good,” he says, holding onto your hips so he can angle you how he wants. “don’t want you to ever forget this. or me.”

“impossible,” you smile up at him, and he leans down to capture your lips. your kiss is as frantic as the feeling of cheol thrusting into you, lips breaking apart every so often from the force of his hips. you let go of your legs, letting them fall open around cheol so your hands can wrap around his broad shoulders, grabbing onto him so your lips stay locked. he moans into your mouth when he feels your nails grazing his skin, and his hands take up your place on your knees, holding your legs up and apart. he starts thrusting faster, getting you close to your third orgasm of the night. you still feel bad that he hasn’t come at all, so you clench around him to get him closer. his hips sputter and he stops, breath fanning over your face as he takes a second.

“fuck,” he groans, thrusting into you lazily as he speaks. “you have the tightest pussy. feels like you were made for me.”

“and what if i was?” you ask, your hands playing with the hair on the back of his head. cheol’s cheeks warm at your words, but his hips pick up speed again as he tries to convey just how he feels about you into the pleasure he wants you to feel. he wants it to be overwhelming, he wants it to be the only thing you can think about, so he dips his head down to your chest and captures a nipple in his mouth as his hips drill into you relentlessly. you’re back to chanting his name and he knows you’re close, letting go of one leg so he can trace circles over your clit again. your legs start shaking as he fucks you into your final release of the night, and you feel his thrusts falter as he spills into the condom.

you breathe heavily, trying to understand why your body suddenly feels like it’s on fire. in your post-orgasm bliss you missed cheol going to the bathroom to toss the condom and grab a wet washcloth to clean you up, but when he’s back in your bed you roll over to face him and you’re overcome with that fiery feeling again. you both lay there, staring at each other, and it hits you: that fiery feeling is love. you love cheol, you have for a while, but you’re sure of it now. you feel safe with him. you feel loved with him.

as these thoughts run through your head, cheol pulls you into his chest so your head is laying just above his heart. you listen as the rapid beating slows, comforted by his presence and warm all over. you look up, ready to tell him what you just discovered, but you let out a silent laugh when you see his pouty lips parted in the beginnings of a snore. you lean up to peck his perfect lips before settling back in his hold, content to sit with your revelation a little longer.

in the morning, you wake up before seungcheol. you’re usually a late sleeper, but you weren’t used to having someone in your bed and cheol’s vice grip on you all night has made you too hot. you try to unwrap yourself from his hold, but he just pulls you into him even tighter despite his eyes staying closed.

“cheol,” you whisper, and nothing. you brush some of his hair out of his hair out of his eyes and try again. “seungcheol.” still nothing. louder, you try one final time, “choi seungcheol, wake up.”

“don’t call me that,” he mumbles, pulling your head down to his chest so he can nuzzle into your hair. “go back to sleep darling.”

“no, i’m hot.”

“yeah you are.”

“cheol,” you groan, wiggling in his grasp. “let me go. i’m gonna make breakfast.”

“waffles?” he asks, peeking up at you hopefully.

“sure,” you nod, and he hesitantly lets you go. “don’t stick my finger in your mouth this time.”

“killjoy!” he shouts accusingly, watching happily as you get up and start pulling your clothes back on. “no naked breakfast either?”

“i can ask you to leave,” you threaten. “you live across the hall, i could push you there if i really wanted.”

“you wouldn’t dare,” he teases right back. “need my help in the kitchen?”

“eh, no,” you shrug, looking back at him as you pull on a sweater. “you stay here and get your beauty sleep.”

“do you mind if i use your shower?” he asks before you leave your room, and you tell him it’s ok. he slides out of bed and he catches you staring as you explain where the towels are.

“and i should have a new bottle of body wash under the sink,” you explain, “just in case the one in the shower is empty.”

“got it sweetcheeks,” cheol says as he meets you at the door, snaking a hand around your waist before kissing you.

“hey, that’s my name for you,” you pout. “you can’t take it.”

“i’ll come up with my own then,” he says as his hand slides down to squeeze your ass. he’s staring at you intently, making you blush, and you’re tempted to tell him what you were thinking about last night when he interrupts your thoughts. “can i say something?”

“sure,” you nod, and he wraps his arms around you completely.

“it was pretty nice waking up next to you,” he says as he drops his forehead to yours. “think we should do that more often.”

“but you snore,” you complain lightly, and he smiles.

“you’ll get over it.”

when cheol gets out of the shower, he goes back to your room to find the clothes he was wearing last night. he gets dressed quickly, eager to get back to you and this slice of domestic life. it really did something to cheol to have you wake up in his arms, and he can’t shake that feeling from his head. it also has him thinking about how he’s been trying to tell you he loves you for several days now, and he always backs out at the last minute. but today? today he’ll do it. he’ll ask you to dinner, he’ll take you to that fancy place you’ve been dying to try, and he’ll tell you surrounded by candles.

except, all of that goes out the window when he walks into your kitchen. his heart almost beats out of his chest at the sight of you dancing with fred, singing him a song off of that playlist cheol made for you so long ago. you look so happy, and beautiful, and just..perfect. cheol can’t help it, he coos and seemingly ruins the moment, pulling your attention and fred’s. he jumps down and meets cheol at the door for pets, but you invite him over, your arms wrapping around each other as soon as you’re close enough. you sway to the music together, gazing at each other like two idiots in love. because you are.

“baby?” you whisper, afraid that speaking too loud will ruin the moment.

“yeah?” cheol responds, worried by the look on your face. you study him for a second longer and decide to go for it.

“i think i’m in love with you.”

“you do?” cheol asks, a smile threatening to overtake his features.

“i do,” you nod. “i love you, cheol.”

“hm, how interesting,” cheol says, relishing in this moment, letting the words fall out of his mouth like he’s never been so excited to say something before. “because i’m in love with you too.”

“you love me?” you smile, your face lighting up at the relief you feel.

“i love you,” cheol confirms. “do you love me?”

“i love you,” you nod, cupping his face before giving him a kiss. you don’t pull away completely, but you lean back enough to whisper into his lips, “say it again.”

“i love you,” cheol repeats, punctuating his words with a kiss that makes you feel like you’re soaring. “i love you, and i plan on loving you for a very long time.”

#choi seungcheol #choi seungcheol fluff #choi seungcheol imagine #choi seungcheol one shot #choi seungcheol fic #choi seungcheol x reader #scoups x reader #scoups fluff #scoups imagine #scoups fic #scoups one shot #scoups smut #choi seungcheol smut #seventeen x reader #seventeen fic #seventeen fluff #seventeen imagine #seventeen smut #seventeen one shot

1K notes · View notes

16-jarrah · 3 months

Text

only halfway thru the new frieren episode i was almost tearing up because the theme of protecting each other and caring about life more importantly than winning is so poignant. not all the characters are human in species but once again the humanity is blossoming in frieren's story. i was so afraid they'd actually get killed last ep but i mean it's so funny now what was i even thinking. this is frieren. they won't kill unless it was really necessary.

the reveal that richter raised the platform not to make his fight with lawline and kanne easier but actually to protect them from denken's attacks was so good. the "magic is nothing if you cannot imagine it" line is so wonderful because i'm a big fan of magic systems that revolve around that logical "science-y" aspect of like. understanding how it will work in order to do it. (same reason why i love the magic in "world's greatest assassin".) laufen getting caught by frieren even though she knows it's a trap just bc she didn't want denken to get hurt was also so good. the reveal that denken didn't have a grander motive to be a first class mage beyond "i wanna go back to my hometown and visit the cementary there but only first class mages are allowed to enter" was so painfully human and so reflective of real life. it also strikes you because he was introduced as a high-profile, politically influential mage.

i love what denken says about not going out without a fight. i love that the episode ends in a fistfight for him. i love it when media uses fistfights and punching in such an emotionally-charged human way, beyond the violence, instead depicting it as some sort of catharsis really. because sometimes all you need is a good rough n tumble. in denken's case, it's his way of not giving up without a fight. i like that. i also like that this was foreshadowed by denken telling laufen to cut the tree down instead of trying to cut the restraint. "we don't have any mana" "neither do they". sometimes all it takes is to find a differently way to approach your problems and sometimes the solution is simpler than you think.

i'm a big fan of frieren breaking the barrier because she thought it was unfair to cut kanna (and by extension lawline) out of her source of magic, giving her an unfair disadvantage and honestly a handicap. it's a short part of the episode but it's so important, because it shows that if people are given the right tools and the accessibility, they can do for themselves what they want and need to do. i love that frieren is like "can you imagine winning against a water manipulating mage with water around? i can't."

i'm a fan of how the "basic" combat and defensive magic are depicted and treated as in this show. yes, people more on from traditions, but traditions are there in the first place. richter's explanation of magic history in their world provides an insight to how modern magic evolved from the foundations. but the foundations were still foundations for a reason. they made it a point with fern saying "frieren doesn't restrict me from spells" (even tho it was the setup for a small joke) that the point isn't to pick a side between tradition vs modern, but rather to learn from both and decide for yourself what you want to apply to yourself. the depiction of fern and frieren winning with traditional magic and richter and kanne overwhelming each other with modern magic makes it clear that the show isn't trying to preach to either side.

i also like the theme of "pursuing magic out for the sake of magic is enough". it's nice to hear that denken shares this mindset with frieren, because again he was introduced as someone influential and you'd think he thinks like he could use magic as a source of power. and that's the impression i got of him too from previous episodes, but a lot of first impressions of mine were proven wrong later and i'm so happy for that bc these characters have so much depth packed into them in so little time.

what else have i missed...

#sousou no frieren #frieren: beyond journey's end #frieren #frieren 1x21 #meta #analysis #<- i guess #op

137 notes · View notes

datesinredink · 1 month

Note

Yan turtles (rottmnt) with an m/c that’s allergic to reptiles/turtles? Idk I just think it would be funny (not Donnie trying to get m/c into getting injections to help the allergy-)

ANON I AM SO SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG BCIRBIFUNUIEH

Super duper sorry i ended up procrastinating really hard and i guess god took issue with that because he struck me down with multiple QAs and a Feelings crisis but the tests are over and I finally managed to sit down and finish Raph's part- seriously i struggled with him and mikey a lot but i guess it was kinda worth it in the end because Raph has an entire 110 more words to his part than the other three- hopefully it makes up for my lack of knowledge of his character. Enjoy!

Donnie

“My inspiration for this device was simplicity-”

Yeah you’re getting a hazmat suit until your allergies either magically disappear or he figures out some other solution

You’ll probably have to do a lot of tests, including possibly a blood draw but I’m no medical expert- since I headcanon Leo to be the medic he’ll probably end up helping too

After he finally puts the pieces together, he’ll start working with Leo to engineer a medicine to help suppress your allergic reaction, and maybe even be able to get rid of it entirely

Also anon you’re very right, you may be subjected to becoming the human pincushion of allergy shots while he figures it out. It’s safe. No it won’t kill you. Yes he made sure. Just, uh, maybe don’t ask your best friend their opinion on needles for a while….

In the meantime, he completely hates the current situation. He finally meets someone that he’s (mostly) fine with touching him, and they CAN’T TOUCH HIM without a HAZMAT SUIT. Just the worst. Awful times.

Normally, he’d have you around almost always, but, unfortunately, that’s currently not ideal.

Starts trying to keep things extra clean around the lair for you. Also everything that can be sanitized is sanitized. Good luck in the cleanliness prison after you get kidnapped later on.

The best about keeping distance, since he already wasn't super touchy before this whole situation. While he might tap you on the arm or something once or twice, it's nothing serious and you won't have a problem with him on that front.

Going back to the hazmat suit real quick, while it does do its job well, it's definitely not the most comfortable thing to wear, and you'll probably end up getting too hot pretty quick, so chances are you won't willingly be wearing it all too often. Donnie may occasionally force you to wear it, but otherwise you (usually) just... don't have to.

Leo

He’s the one who finds out you’re allergic. It was an accident he SWEARS. He only wanted to give you a pat on the arm when April first introduced you to them! How could he have known you’d get hives where he touched you?

At least he knows how to treat it. He managed to guide April through treating it, after which he sulked while rereading some Jupiter Jim comics.

Has a personal grudge against your immune system for daring to make you allergic to him. How dare your cells get mad about him.

When Donnie tells him that he might have “a fix, bro”, Leo jumps at the opportunity- oh thank god, he can finally hug you!

…Doesn’t mean he’s not super bad at focusing on actually working on it. Don’t worry, he’ll fix it eventually, just have a little patience.

Honestly, this is your chance to BOOK IT away from them, because none of them are as clingy as they will be after your allergies are cured/suppressed, which gives you more time to leave New York before things go from bad to worse.

Anyway, Leo’s about as clingy as he can be without physically clinging onto you for hours on end. Constantly hanging around you, like a ghost haunting their killer, except you’re not the one who kills people.

He might end up using your allergy to try and manipulate you away from his brothers. Mikey keeps forgetting to keep distance, Donnie’s suffocating and makes you wear a hazmat suit, and Raph almost treats you like a sopping wet cat that he has to take care of, so why not just stay with him?

As much as he likes to criticize Mikey for forgetting, sometimes, particularly early on, he gets a little too close, and your allergies flare up, and while he does genuinely feel kinda bad, he will exaggerate his remorse for sympathy from you. He genuinely does try and apologize for it later, and he probably portals you two somewhere nice and gets you a couple of trinkets you like or find useful.

Mikey

Absolutely heartbroken!

His love is allergic to him! This is awful!

2nd most panicked when they first find out. Is their new friend ok? Did they mess up?

If you have a low tolerance for pain/allergic reaction symptoms and cry a little he probably will too. High empathy, man…

He’s really understanding after everything’s resolved and they figure out you’re allergic to them. He tries his best to keep a fair amount of distance between you and him, but he tends to naturally be physically affectionate, so there may be a slight adjustment period. He really doesn’t mean harm though.

He occasionally tries to bring you something from the mystic city that he thinks would be safe- a small figurine, maybe a sketchbook if you also like doing art, if he manages to bargain for/steal a piece of jewelry, he’ll also give that to you.

As I mentioned before, Mikey’s pretty big on physical touch, but since that’s off limits (for now) he’ll try to show you affection in any other way he can think of

Mostly quality time. He likes to take you with him when he explores through the sewers/city to spraypaint a couple of blank walls, and he’ll probably get you to try it too, and regardless of your skill level he’ll tell you it’s great

After Donnie and Leo finish making the cure, Mikey squeezes the LIFE out of you- he doesn’t mean to practically strangle you, but he’s fairly strong and he got excited, so he does feel a little bad afterwards.

Will decorate the hazmat suit Donnie gave you if you let him. He'll put stickers on it that match his and draw fun patterns that may or may not relate to him in some way. Maybe the spots he has, or the face on his knee pads. It's pretty endearing, even if his brothers may occasionally glare at him. In Mikey's opinion, if they're really that jealous, they should add something themselves.

Raph

And the award for most paranoid goes to….

Ok but really, he’s the most overbearing about it. This probably isn’t a surprise, but it’s still something I've gotta mention.

You don’t really have to worry about Donnie making you wear the hazmat suit- he gets it, not a fun sensory experience- other than a couple stand-out occasions, but you will have to convince Raph fairly often that you’ll be fine without it.

To be fair, it’s partially because he also forgets not to touch you sometimes, and while he’s better about it than Mikey and most of the time Leo, he’s also self-aware and protective enough that he’d rather be safe than sorry.

If you’re having an allergic reaction, he’ll either get Leo/Donnie/April to help you, or go find the hazmat suit Donnie made him a while ago when Splinter got sick and then help you himself

There’s a chance he might not do great though, as he’s not always the best under pressure and tends to panic when the people he loves are hurt or in some sort of extreme situation, especially when it comes to you (seriously, he treats you like a porcelain doll), but you can be reassured that he’ll do his absolute best to make you safe and comfortable.

Feels terrible after, pampers you a lot after the ordeal. Every time, not just the first few.

If he wasn’t the one who caused it, then he’s definitely pissed at whichever of his brothers made your allergies flare up. He won’t kill them, and he won’t lose it and drop kick them into tomorrow (yet. If they ever intentionally trigger your allergies he might snap some bones) but there will be a noticeable irritation and tension for at least the next few weeks between him and them.

He’s super excited after Donnie and Leo finish the allergy shots! I personally headcanon him to be the second touchiest of the brothers (Mikey being the most touchy, of course) so there’ll be a lot more casual touch between you two after. Hugs, headpats, you get the idea. If you try to tell him to stop, he’ll be very upset, though doing his best to understand, he will try to respect your wishes.. Before going right back to it after a week tops. Sometimes he genuinely does forget, after all, he does have a fair amount on his plate, but sometimes he does intentionally wait until he thinks he can get away with it again before jumping right back to how things were before. He’ll vehemently deny it, but no matter what happens, you’ll likely never really get him to stop for an extended period of time.

#yandere rottmnt #yandere tmnt #rottmnt x reader #rottmnt leo #rottmnt raph #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #augh im so unhappy with raph and mikey's partsss #i shouldve known getting fixated on leo and donnie and forgetting about raph and mikey wouldve come back to bite me #<---- did not plan on writing fanfic when she started watching the show #sorry mikey and raph enjoyers i hope this was satisfactory #anyway i havent like #proofread this.#also none of my friends have ever watched rottmnt so im stuck with no one to check me on my characterization #pray for me

83 notes · View notes

qqueenofhades · 9 months

Note

bless u for the comprehensive answer to my last question, it is much appreciated! And sincere apologies for coming off as defeatist - you're absolutely right that, at the end of the day, the most important thing is working as hard as we can to make sure trump loses the general election. What this really clarifies for me is that my focus should be on the elections, and that I should file the judicial process under "interesting, could be useful, but will never be a silver bullet". Thank you again!

You're welcome, and I think it's most useful to think of it like this: we need to do our job (defeating Trump in 2024) so Jack Smith's job (indicting the fucker up the wazoo) will stick. We hear endless punditry and hand-wringing about how Trump will just cancel the charges if he wins, and that's often presented as some kind of terrible foregone conclusion that we will only avert by dumb luck, if we do at all. And yet, for some funny reason, we never hear about the flip side: i.e. if Trump loses, he's fucked. He will have no more reason to delay, no last-minute Hail Mary play, nothing to stop him from standing trial, being convicted, and going to jail, and that's exactly why he and the rest of the fascist criminals are throwing everything at the election. It is his last shot.

Honestly, I don't want people complacently thinking that the indictments will do the work for them and get rid of Trump -- because they will, but only if we do our job first and pound that motherfucker into the ground in 2024. I don't want anything to take away from the importance of doing everything we can to help Biden win in 2024 -- voting, volunteering, donating, talking to friends and family, you name it. We NEED to do that work so that Trump is out of miraculous golden parachutes and is left to face the consequences. And if he does (again, please God) lose, at least this time he is not the sitting American president and does not have the full resources of the federal government to attempt a coup. In that sense, if you want to see Trump properly, completely brought to justice, it's so easy:

Support the indictments

Vote for Biden in 2024

Do everything to make sure Trump loses

The end.

It's really that easy. Because as noted, if we do our part and Trump loses the election, he is fucked. That's really all there is to it.

We are in uncharted territory here because the founding fathers were eighteenth-century Enlightenment rationalists, and while they obviously did not trust a king and built in all kinds of checks and balances to prevent the president from BEING a king, they also imagined that whoever held the job would at least make a good-faith effort to follow the rules. Besides, the best-designed political system in the world would still be vulnerable to someone like Trump, who gleefully and sociopathically wrecks all norms and precedents however he pleases. That's why there isn't technically a law on the books preventing someone in prison from running for president, because the founding fathers were operating under the idea that people in American government would at least try, however badly, to perform the functions of American government. Trump doesn't. He doesn't give a shit about that. He's willing to take the whole country down in flames if it saves him personally from consequences, and while our institutional guardrails (barely) held last time, they've already said that a second Trump term would involve wrecking all of those, because he is a tinpot narcissistic psychopath dictator wannabe. And yes, it's terrifying, and yes, too many people didn't learn from 2016, and all the rest, but still:

If you want to see the fucker go to jail and reap the consequences of his actions, make sure he loses the 2024 election. That's what you need to focus on. Do that, and the rest of it will come after. So yeah.

#anthropicmoose #ask #politics for ts #the giant orange monster

146 notes · View notes

ptsdangeldust · 3 months

Text

tw rape / abuse / suicidal ideation / self harm

can i just fucking say that the "poison" scene was just fucking flawless to me. as a survivor of rape and psychological abuse it was so fucking hard to watch and hit on every note i wanted it to. the suicidal ideation, the self destruction, the pain, the torment, the addiction, the hopelessness, everything.

[this got long LOL big analysis of ep4 basically]

also it's a little funny how easily i called it when the pilot came out that angel was gonna have ptsd and cope with it through hypersexuality . like this was obvious from the start to me and they do telegraph / foreshadow it from the first episode pretty well in my opinion. like ALMOST too much. but at the same time i'm kind of glad. like that's what i like about the show is that it *is* so raw and over the top when it talks about this kind of thing. that's why i like campy edgy uncomfortable shit bc where the fuck else am i gonna hear anyone specifically hit the perfect sweet spot of just exploitative-feeling enough to feel palpably uncomfortable in a way that just like. perfectly conveys this message. in my opinion, obviously.

it's like so crazy to me that i had this exact high expectation for the show and adjusted for edginess and got exactly what i wanted and then some. like. god. they hit every note in succession all at once and then tied it off with a beautiful, nuanced but genuinely well paced and well thought out resolution.

"loser, baby" was so fucking perfect as the counterpoint to "poison" in this episode. also charlie coming in and being purehearted but not knowing what she's doing and making it worse. but angel ultimately understanding that she meant to help and it's not her that's the problem obviously. and then husk is ultimately the one to give a shit about angel (with some encouragement, which like i honestly appreciate that he doesn't take angel's bullshit and isn't just the like Token Black Savior who has no character or agency of his own [of course i'm white so don't take me as the authority on this issue but i'm certainly aware of it]) and like not only try to stop him from self destructing but like relate his experience and make him admit he has a fucking problem. sooooo much of abuse is built on making the victim think they're at fault for what they're going through. the way val makes him look in the mirror and say "yes" outloud to himself over and over while literally holding his head and threatening him was such a good way of driving that home. and then we see angel have so much pride poked at so easily when he's called fake because he's SO aware he's putting on an act. he lets himself be exploited because he thinks it gives him a sense of control. can't be called fake if i'm an actor. can't prove i'm ever real. never have to BE real. never have to admit that anything is wrong and come to terms with it.

and so husk comes right the fuck out and says it. you're a loser. you're washed up. you're a has been. you're self destructive. you hurt everyone around you. ..... and you're not alone. THAT'S the important part. that's the real thing that gets you out of abuse. people. not being alone. like not just KNOWING that THEORETICALLY you're not alone but actually having people show up and help you and put in the work and relate to you and listen to you and let you listen to them. that's why abusers chronically work to isolate people. because it's so much easier to exploit someone who has absolutely no support system. who only answers to them. who has no one to turn to if shit goes sour.

ok also the fucking hypersexual self harm? i have NEVER seen that portrayed so accurately and so explicitly before. i feel like basically every single time i see it talked about at ALL in media it's either 1) portrayed as like sexy or ultimately good 2) strays totally the opposite direction and is talking more about cycle of abuse shit (which yes that's also important but not what i'm after) 3) really just hinted at / i have to like extrapolate it from vague hints or 4) exists in shitty media that is not ultimately trying to tell a story about escaping abuse it's just talking about a tragic waif and trying to make you feel sad. which is just another kind of exploitation really. so it was very refreshing to see it made very clear that angel was going around *trying* to get drugraped (which is NOOOOOT the same as consent. but i'm not going to get into that) because he was trying to hurt himself. he knew it wasn't good for him and he sought it out anyway. he could have wound up dead and he did not care. that's how low his self esteem is. that's how little he thinks of himself. that's how absolutely terminal his suicidal ideation is. i like used the word 'passive' at first but no i would not call that passive he is clearly actively suicidal hsuidguhds (ftr passive suicidal ideation is like. 'i wish i could go to sleep and not wake up.' but not actually acting on it. active is when you start purposely not looking both ways when you cross the street. that's basically what angel was doing)

anyway yeah. ep4 was kind of the peak for me i'm ngl HUIDGHIS obviously i'm very excited to see where things are going in general but especially more huskerdust........ i would like live if they didn't actually end up together but it feels clear to me that they genuinely care about each other and at least angel does seem to have... romantic-leaning feelings for him. would be cool if they had some scene where husk is like just cuz i care about you doesn't mean i'm going to be your magic saviour through love or whatever. bc i feel like it would be so easy for angel to immediately want and/or expect that. i did personally coming out of my abuse where i was absolutely desperate for real actual non-abusive love of any kind but i was NOT remotely healthy enough to truly accept it then even if it had actually been handed to me and i wound up in something that was..... better, yes, but ultimately still toxic and not completely ideal. not abusive, no, just not like. healthy. lol. but i do have good healthy happy love now so i'm glad lol <3 but like anyway this is a common thing with abuse survivors and it would *make sense* to see it but like i wouldn't put it past them to just go straight into "and then angel got better immediately and they got together and everyone lived happily ever after the end" HSDUIGSHUID but like idk man. we'll see LOL

also i did want to comment on like...... the fact that the scene was worked on by someone with a legit rape fetish who was like straight up into angel/val as a ship and thought it was like cool and fun or whatever. like. i really don't think the scene itself came off as glorifying rape or abuse. it's blatantly obvious that it's not good and the emphasis is placed entirely on angel's pain. and like it's. it's not porn. it's evocative. it's explicit. but the purpose of the scene is not "look at this hot sexy sex" it's "look at this horrifying abuse". like yes obviously there are gonna be people who get off on it but people can get off on anything if they try hard enough. porn is art explicitly meant for jacking off. not everything about sex is porn. i think if you interpret it as glorifying sex you're honestly out of your goddamn mind. the song ends with angel talking about how he wants to fucking die because of it. is that glorification to you?? really???

ultimately, *I* think it's good. i think, objectively, the team did an extremely good job. give them an award or something. i swear. where's the oscar. my boy angel needs his oscar LOL

... one last note, because this is tumblr: this is very triggering material. probably it should've had a better warning of some kind. but it is telegraphed/foreshadowed like i said and the show is rated 16+ on amazon (i feel like it should be 18+ imo but it's like. it's repeatedly listed as being for adults/"R rated" in promo material at least) and sex and violence are listed right there at the top of each episode where it shows the rating so like. idk man. that's as much warning as is usually given for this kind of thing ngl. i absolutely am not saying it's not triggering. but it is important to portray triggering things. it is important to talk about these things to give people in these situations someone to relate to and to give them the language to understand how to escape abuse, first of all, and like also art in general *should* be challenging. i think they genuinely said important, unique things and said them well. they did wayyyy better than i thought they would. for real. like esp coming from viv knowing her past like. clearly someone in the room actually knew what they were doing lmao (one of the writers for hazbin also worked on the episodes in helluva that covered similar abuse recovery material so. you know)

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel analysis #? ig #my post

56 notes · View notes

froot-batty · 6 months

Note

Can you explain how Eddie, Jon, and Jerv's autism manifests itself? As an Autistic comics fan, I love the idea of the Dork squad all being autistic!!

I sure can!! This one's gonna be long, so I'm gonna post it under a cut

Ed's whole deal can get a little complicated to explain, since he has BPD, ADHD, and OCD along with autism, so a lot of his experiences or behaviors are going to be influenced by all of those

Ed is a very repetition/pattern/organization focused kind of guy. Whether this be repeating routines, having to keep a system that's very specific, or needing things to play out in predetermined ways. If something doesn't happen how he expects it to, he will either repeat it over and over again or have a meltdown, depending on what it is

(He also has a lot of repetitive thoughts about all sorts of things. Some are more unpleasant than others)

They also fixate on things or people HARD. There will be week long stints where they will get fixated on something and be unable to do really anything else until their brain is satisfied. It can be very detrimental to their health (or to the health of the other person)

He also tends to dislike social situations, especially ones that are unfamiliar or crowded. Being unable to predict what will happen in a social situation or location is very nerve-wracking for him, and it's part of the reason why he can be so blunt and rude. Part of that is just how he's built, but it also usually puts people off or at least gives him the ability to analyze who someone is better. He doesn't like meeting new people, and he's found the best way to avoid talking to them is by being annoying (but he's just kind of annoying in general also)

Lastly, Eddie is very touch-averse (for multiple reasons) and moderately sensitive to sensory input. Bright lights and noises don't bother them too much, but the wrong smell or texture makes them want to vibrate out of their skin. They hate being touched, especially if they don't know you very well. Another reason why they wear gloves and a lot of clothing. It isn't as bad if they're very close with you though, so have them willingly touch you, or allow you to touch them for more than a minute or so, is a big sign of trust on their part

Jon

Jon is, as always, repression city, so he masks whenever he can get away with it. He's the type of guy to pretend like he's not bothered by something and then go home and stare at the wall for hours on end. He has a loooot of shutdowns because of this, unhealthy fucker

Jon is very unemotional and (like the other two, but more so) unempathetic. He could be having the best time of his life or the worst and he'd still have a blank "I wish I was dead" expression on his face. The exception is when he's experiencing high emotions, like shock, delight, terror, etc. He also speaks mostly in monotone, with occasional injections of emotion (mostly annoyance or amusement, and even then only barely)

Jon is very sensitive to light and sound. His glasses (or goggles, if he's wearing his mask) are actually tinted like sunglasses to help him deal with some of it. He has tried and failed to tough out being in noisy places, but since he physically can't do it, he's resorted to using earplugs to help deafen some of that sound. It still bugs him, but at least it lets him leave the house

In public, Jon stims in ways that could seem "normal" to other people, in his attempt to mask. Humming/whistling/singing, bouncing his leg, tapping a pencil, etc. He'll also clench his fists when he's not holding something (or tap on that thing if he is). When he's alone he tends to pick at his skin/scars, grind his teeth, pace, whisper to himself, things like that. Honestly a lot of his "not in public" stims unintentionally make him seem kind of scary (which he thinks is funny)

Jon also will have brief periods where he loses speech, particularly when he's overstimulated, but not always. Granted, since he doesn't talk much in the first place, it's not always noticed

Jervis

Jervis is veeerryy talkative when she's able to be! Though she tries to be mindful of it, she isn't the best at social cues (especially conversationally), and can (and will) have entire conversations where the other person isn't needed. Especially if it's about one of her interests, or if she has the chance to explain something to you. You best be ready to settle in for a while if she's decided to talk to you

The only problem is sometimes it's difficult for her to express herself in a way that makes sense, especially to neurotypical people. This is a combination of autism and brain damage. She is really very smart, and the things make sense when they're in her head, but they come out confusing and more like a ramble instead of a weave of interconnected ideas

He also has a bit of trouble recognizing people. He goes by shape, general colors associated with the clothes they wear, and voices, but if those are mixed around or unclear then he can get confused

He's also a very tactile kind of guy. We already know he loves hugging/cuddling/touching people, but a lot of his other stims relate to touch as well. Braiding or running his hands through his own or other people's hair, touching objects that have a texture he likes, scratching things, the feel of certain kinds of clothes, chewing on things, stuff like that

Along with that, she also has a lot of olfactory and visual stims. She has a couple of those stuffed toys that have the scents in them, which both appeal on the smell factor and the touch factor. Some might think it's weird or creepy, but she also likes to smell different people, especially those she's close with! It's just very comforting (even if being sniffed isn't always comfortable for the other person). Visually, she really likes staring at pleasing patterns, or anything moving repetitively, like fans. But she can get real dizzy doing that

Jerv is a biiigggg fan of weight, either being pinned down under someone or under stuff like a weighted blanket. Very very comforting

I think that's just about it!! I hope this satisfies, it was a lot of fun actually writing out how different their autism manifests and throwing in some of my own experiences/behaviors too. My silly beasts

#frootverse #jonathan crane #the scarecrow #edward nygma #the riddler #jervis tetch #the mad hatter #doodles

54 notes · View notes

baohanhanesel · 5 months

Text

Karaoke with TF141 !! + Honorable mentions.

Summary: The reader brings her boys to have some fun... Few are hesitant...

Mentioned: Captain John Price, Simon Ghost Riley, Kyle Gaz Garrick, John Soap Mactavish, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo Parra.

Here comes Captain John Price. He is trying to impress you with his deep demanding voice. It is not fit for karaoke, or the songs he has chosen to sing but he is getting there. Most of all, he is embarrassed but the alcohol in his system just gives him too much courage to feel shame. You applaud him, trying to get him going. He doesn't drag you in the fun at first, wanting to show you how it's done and to not force you into something this humiliating. But after you join him, he is laughing and cracking up. This guy is brave, he has no shame but a tiny glimpse of embarrassment. How were you even able to bring him here in the first place remains unknown...

Simon Ghost Riley did everything in his power to not enter the door. He was skeptical, there was no way you could make him do any sort of karaoke. That was just humiliating for his part. But after seeing that you both were in a private room laughing your asses off and preparing for a song... His mind did wander a bit. You chose the first song, singing it all by yourself while he hums along in the side. Until the end of the night, you could only get him as far as to mutter a line out loud along you. At least he didn't record your embarrassing moments, you thought...

Kyle Gaz Garrick is having fun. He is going to show you exactly how to kill it on the stage! You honestly expected this from him, this man got experience. You were a brave person, but even you were very subtle about the karaoke. But this man right there was living at the moment! Seeing as his energy is through the roof, you were also affected greatly by that. Not long after you found yourself swaying your hips to the side just like him and screaming the lyrics out. Both of you were awful at singing. But none of you cared.

Now John Soap Mactavish is another story. His Scottish accent makes it hard for the lyrics to roll on his tongue and it sounds incredibly funny and attractive at the same time. You find yourself cackling and laughing at his poor attempts. This man's deep voice wasn't made for karaoke. He doesn't seem to care though, that's the least of his concerns. He just wants to beat you to it. But the lyrics accuracy kept giving him low points... Poor fella regretted wanting to do karaoke in the challenge mode. The night did end on a frustrating but equally fun way! Johnny was a confident man and you felt that. His confidence made you feel confident throughout the entire night.

Alejandro Vargas is a monster. He is so good and it is not even funny. At a point he started to get annoying for you. How dare he be this good at this? Guns, combat, cooking and now karaoke? This man was going to haunt your most vivid day dreams. He of course got the first song. He kept flexing, knowing he was good. You joined along, just to not let the situation get awkward or remotely less fun. You figured it would be fun to make fun of your poor attempts as Alejandro absolutely kills it. The night was fun, it was both a sufferable and admirable experience.

Rodolfo Parra was just too gentle with it. He let you have the first song, then joined with the lyrics. This man was a golden mine for you. He never judged the cracks in your voice or the awful tone to it. He didn't have it any better himself... Both of you had your fun, and Rodolfo kept bringing drinks until you were wasted and there wasn't a trace of pride left within you. Rodolfo found himself dancing to the awfully sung songs just to join in the second after.

#cod mwii #cod headcanons #cod modern warfare #simon ghost riley #ghost cod #captain john price #john price #john soap mactavish #soap cod #kyle gaz garrick #gaz cod #rodolfo parra #alejandro vargas #alejandro cod

44 notes · View notes

cloudlessly-light · 15 days

Text

The darkest parts of me (3/5)

Title: The darkest parts of me (3/5) Summary: They find each other in a dark world where they do twisted things. The only way things could have become more dangerous, is if they were together. Funny how life turns out.

Unsub!Hotchniss AU. Word count: 2,2k Rating: Explicit Warnings (for most or all chapters): smut, descriptions of violence, descriptions of murder, gore (nothing too explicit), mentions of weapons

They’ve been traveling through the country together for close to a year now, Aarons system working. It had almost become too easy, him choosing their victim and then a night spent somewhere in between twisted torture and twisted pleasure. Emily had never felt so free, being with him and she knew that he felt the same, telling her how happy he was that they had found each other frequently.

They don’t kill too often, sometimes taking weeks or even months in between each kill, but Aaron notices the restlessness in her easily, she sees the need for it on him. It’s an addiction, they both know it, neither of them wanting to stop even when they probably should. But as he feels the rush of euphoria when a man stops breathing from his hand, or Emily’s need for power and control is soothed as she finishes someone off, neither of them wants to stop.

“Would you ever do it again?” Emily asks out of nowhere one night. They’re eating dinner, having just arrived in Texas and when Aaron looks up at her she clarifies. “Having a kid? A family?”

“No.” He answers bluntly, because there wasn’t any point in lying to her. “Having children while living this life, I don’t know if that would work.”

“Do you think you could give it up?” She takes a bite of her chicken and watches as he thinks about her question.

“Honestly, I don’t think the urge will ever go away. If I stop, I don’t think I’d be completely content, not like right now.” He takes a sip of the overpriced wine that she loves and then takes her hand. “What about you?”

“I never thought I would, considering how life was with Ian, he would have been a horrible dad. But I think I might want a child, someday.” She feels her cheek flush at the admission, she had never told anybody that before.

“So you could give up killing?” His tone of surprise is obvious and he watches as she smiles softly.

“I don’t know. I guess I always thought that I would some day, it’s impossible to live like this forever without getting caught.” She squeezes his hand and smiles softly before continuing to eat her dinner.

Aaron nods, but stays silent because he knew she was right. At some point they’d have to stop. And if there was anyone he could consider giving it up for, it was her.

“I think we have a serial killer travelling the country.” David Rossi says, throwing files onto Jason Gideon’s desk. “A team actually.”

He waits patiently as Jason looks through a few of the files in silence and when he looks back up at him he knows that his friend has caught the same pattern that he has.

“How far does these murders go?” He asks from behind his desk, still holding one of the files in his hand.

“If I’m right about this, they’ve been at it for months.” Dave urges the other man to follow him and he leads him to his office. “But I think before they were a team, one of them killed alone.” The two boxes of files on his desk made Jason pause.

“When did you get all of these?”

“I asked departments all over the country to send what might fit into the unsubs behavior to us last week after getting a call for a consultation. Something about the behavior told me there was more than a single case.

For a few seconds it’s silent, both of them looking at the number of files of unsolved murders that might be related.

“Let’s get to work.” Jason says then, a heavy sigh leaving him as he does.

They had gotten into a sick form of roleplay. Aaron finding their victim and Emily using her charm on him, luring the man back to whatever house they rented for their trip. There he would wait for them, sometimes with a knife in hand, sometimes a gun, tonight he had opted for nothing, needing to feel the life drain out of this man by his own hand. He had raped women, five of them so far, tied them up with piano wire and somehow police had never caught him, but Aaron had tracked him down.

He hears the key turn in the lock, followed by Emily laughing, something sickly sweet and fake, a laugh she’d never use with him. The sound makes him itch, the restlessness that had been growing for hours almost becoming unbearable the closer he was to get to feel his fists breaking skin and bones.

“You’ve got a nice place.” Hamilton says, his voice sending a shiver of disgust through her as his hand grips her hip tight as they enter the dark house.

“Thank you.” She turns and walks backwards, a flirty smile on her face that all but disappears when the lights are turned on and she walks into Aaron’s strong chest. “Meet my boyfriend.” She grins as Aaron’s familiar warmth presses against her back.

Hamilton barely has time to react to the third person in the room before a fist connects to his cheekbone and he falls to the ground. Emily locks the door while Aaron continues to punch the man that’s made her sick to her stomach all night. But now it’s different, satisfaction settling inside of her as she watches the man she loves beat a man that doesn’t deserve to live to death.

“He has a wife.” She tells him while Aaron is taking a break, the other man laying unmoving on the floor, but he’s still breathing.

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll be gone tomorrow morning, I booked us a flight to Florida.” He grabs her jaw and kisses her as she hums into it. “I know you said you wanted a little vacation.”

“You’re perfect.” She smiles into another kiss, this one interrupted by low groaning at their feet and she looks down at Hamilton. “He tried to feel me up all night.” She grabs the gun from the table and shoots his hand without a moment’s hesitation as Aaron laughs beside her.

“Easy sweetheart, don’t kill him too quickly now, I want us to take our time tonight.” He takes the gun from her and then spits on the other man. “However, I do not like knowing he dared to put his hands on you.” With that thought he stepped on his other hand, hard enough for bones to crack and break and he screamed out.

“That’s it baby, make him suffer.” Emily sighed contently and went to grab one of the knives from the kitchen. It was Aaron’s turn to kill, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun first, and ever since the first time using the knife, she had preferred it over her gun. Aaron had been right, if she thought she felt powerful with a gun, it was nothing compared to the knife. The rush of steel slicing through skin makes her laugh, something close to madness as Aaron grabs at her from behind, his hands driving her into a frenzy as he tells her to cut him again.

They fucked right next to him once they knew he would be too weak to get away. There was something about being watched getting them both off.

“He thought he could have you, but you’re mine.” Aaron groaned as Emily straddled him on the couch only a few feet from where Hamilton was laying, eyes half open as every ounce of energy was focused on trying to draw enough breath into his lungs.

“Show him.” She gasped and his hand wrapped around her throat. Sometimes she thought he imagined what it would feel like to kill her this way and the rush that went through her made her whimper. She wasn’t afraid of his darkness, because she had wondered the same, had fantasized about his blood on her hands. That’s what made it fun, the fear of knowing how easily they could kill each other a thrill unlike most.

By the time Hamilton was dead they were blissfully exhausted. It had been a while since they had created this kind of mess and as Aaron got rid of the body, Emily was cleaning up the blood from the floor. It had become a way for her to come down from her high, the mix of blood and bleach comforting and by the time Aaron joined her she was almost done.

“Everything gone?” She asks and he nods. He smells acrid from the lye, as well as blood and she scrunches her nose. “You stink, let me finish this and then we can shower?”

“Oh do I?” He wraps his arms around her with a smirk. “You don’t like the smell of a work well done?”

“I like the smell of you.” She kisses him quickly and then moves from his embrace and grabs the rag she had used. “I still don’t like the cleanup.”

“That’s because you’ve been spoilt, baby.” His tone is teasing and she looks up at him with a huff. “Would you rather have us be caught?” He chuckles when she rolls her eyes.

“Obviously not. All I’m saying is that the lye smells horrible.”

“But it works.” He reminds her as he removes his jeans that he had put on while getting rid of the body and goes to throw them away with the rest of their clothes to be burned and thrown away far away from their rented house tomorrow.

When he comes back, Emily is just about done and he watches her in silence while she cleans the last of the blood up, then they both go through the house to make sure not to leave any evidence, wiping doorknobs and watching out for any missed spots of blood.

By the time they’re in bed it’s late and they’re tired and sated in the way they only were after a night spent like tonight.

“So, Florida huh?” She asks, her words tickling his neck as she lays halfway on top of him.

“Yeah, I thought we needed a break.” He kissed the top of her head.

“You just want to get me into a bikini.” She teases with a grin and looks up at him.

“Well that too. But you can’t blame me for that.” When he slaps her ass with a grin she chuckles.

“I guess you can’t.”

It’s been weeks and they’re still no closer to catching the unsubs who’s been roaming the country. They were careful about not leaving any evidence, but the pattern was all too clear. And then they finally got a break, a young prostitute had come forward while being questioned about a disappearance of a man with a less than stellar record. Dave immediately knew that it was them, the victim fitting into their unsubs pattern flawlessly.

“It seemed like a couple.” The detective on the other line tells him as he holds the phone between his ear and shoulder while waving Jason into his office.

“Did you get a description?” He asks and puts the detective on speaker as Jason closes the door and sits down across from him.

“They’re white, both of them dark hair and dark eyes. Maybe in their mid-thirties. The man was tall, seemingly strong because he knocked out the victim with one punch. The woman carried a gun, had threatened our witness with it and told her to leave.”

“How did you find your witness?” Jason cuts in, this was the biggest lead they’d had since starting their investigation.

“She’s a prostitute, she knew the victim they had a… history.”

“So he was her pimp? Or a client?”

“Seems like it. She didn’t want to talk, had to drag it out of her. “

“That’s usually the case.” Dave agrees as he watches the wheels turning in Jason’s head as he figures out the puzzle pieces.

“How long ago was the murder?” Jason pulls out a notebook and takes the pen Dave is already holding out for him.

“About five months ago. We considered this a cold case until she was brought in on other charges, that’s when one of my men found out her connection to the murdered victim.”

“Okay, thank you. If you get any other information, please call us. And can you send over the sketch of the unsubs?”

“Of course.”

After the call ended, it was silent in their office for a long time. It wasn’t until Jason sighed heavily as he leant back in his chair that Dave looked up from his own notebook where he kept information about the unsubs.

“Who knows how many they’ve killed, but the victims are clearly a type. Are we dealing with vigilantes here?” He asks as Jason stands up.

“I think so. Funny thing is, a team, a team with a woman no less, shouldn’t be this violent and they most certainly shouldn’t be able to stay together without killing each other.”

They looked at each other, wondering how long it would take for this case to completely unravel.

#hotchniss #hotchniss smut #hotchniss fanfiction #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss smut #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss #hotch x emily #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds smut #aaron x emily #aaron hotchner fanfiction #aaron hotchner smut #emily prentiss fanfiction #emily prentiss smut

20 notes · View notes

its-shells · 1 year

Text

“There’s a joke here somewhere, you know,” fWhip says, behind him. “A goblin and a toy walk through a rift…”

Jimmy has heard the footsteps, but he is startled by his voice nonetheless, snapping to attention in that way that would’ve caused his hat to fall all funny and crooked over his eyes if he were still wearing it. He’s sitting on one of the benches by Scar’s flowerbeds, the ones that have shriekers hidden beneath them, he’d learned that one the hard way, and watching the sun as it sets over the main street of an amusement park his deputy had rambled to him about during late nights in Tumble Town. It’s strange, to see it with his own eyes when he’d half-convinced himself that Scar was making it all up, that he had nowhere to go back to and so no reason to leave. But here it is, and it is beautiful. How Jimmy misses having reasons to fault people for things.

“‘M not a toy,” he says after a pause, lazily. FWhip hops over the bench and settles down next to him, blue hoodie and ginger hair and Jellie ears headband and all. Jimmy really wants to say he looks unfamiliar.

“Well, not here you aren’t,” fWhip shrugs, giving him a once-over. “Wonder why. Seriously, this server has dwarfs, and slimes, and everything… wonder what it’s got against my ears.”

“Is it weird?” Jimmy asks, half to carry on the conversation, half because he’s curious. It stopped being weird for him approximately ten minutes in, but that’s because he’d never really gotten used to the whole – cotton in his lungs, a foot or so away from the ground thing. That wasn’t him, not really, just a joke taken too far in a world that doesn’t understand jokes. But fWhip is a goblin, proudly, he collects gold and lives in caves and stuff. FWhip is a goblin, except when he is a human, apparently. Does this server also not understand jokes? Or does it understand them too well?

FWhip shrugs again. “Not really,” he says, honestly, as far as Jimmy can tell. “I mostly forget when I’m not around mirrors. I mean, I’m a bit taller, and when I raise my arms, they’re not–“ he squints and lifts a hand to cover the setting sun in front of them – “green, but for the most part, it’s alright.” He chuckles. “Maybe that’s weird.”

“Maybe.”

“Is it weird for you?”

“Nope.”

“Figures.” FWhip shifts slightly on the bench. Jimmy isn’t looking at him, but he catches the sidelong glance thrown his way. “You like it?”

“The server? It’s got pretty builds.”

It wasn’t a question about the server, and they both know it, but fWhip doesn’t deign to correct him. Jimmy inclines his head slightly, inspecting the cobblestone pavement beneath his feet. It reaches just up to the edge of the bench and no further, because Scar built it, and Scar is nothing if not detail-oriented. When terraforming, at least.

FWhip is staying in his hotel, just off of main street. Personal invitation, he hears. Jimmy is… well, he might build his own place.

Or go live with Grian, but that’s, like, the last resort. The man is living in a giant rock. Jimmy has standards.

“The rift is open, you know,” fWhip says. “Everyone might just decide to go back soon.”

They might. Though they probably won’t – they’ve never been anything less than a curious bunch, to their own detriment, and Jimmy knows for a fact that at least two of their friends are still carrying a grudge about all that skulk under their bases, even if Pix had offered to clean it out (for them, not for him yet.) It’s prime time to plot in retaliation, or maybe to take part in whatever Christmas plans the hermits are whispering to each other about through chat, Pearl and Grian off to build a sleigh that will undoubtedly look as beautiful as anything they’ve ever touched. Jimmy wonders what Christmas is like on here.

“I doubt it,” he says. “I mean, an eye for an eye, right? We have to get revenge for the inconvenience.”

The inconvenience of him getting an entire villager trading hall, or of fWhip getting an entire minecart system between the segments of his base. The inconvenience of farms, more efficient than anything they’ve ever built themselves, and of sorted inventories, and of a colourful hat, and laughter.

The inconvenience of a killer robot, he reminds himself. Stuff’s fair, actually.

“That we do,” fWhip agrees. “But at least it’s open, so we’re not stuck. Think it’ll put us back to how we ought to be?”

Jimmy watches the sun set over the horizon, and says nothing.

#jimmy solidarity #fwhip #empires smp #empires s2 #hermitcraft #solidaritygaming #fwhimmy #(well barely but at the back of my mind it is)#shells writes #as always theres like 10 ideas and none of them are developed

256 notes · View notes

ghosttownwherenoonegoes · 2 years

Note

Oh my gosh, Erika. I finally thought of an Eddie thing to send you. So, I have adhd and I zone out a lot, y’know like daydreaming etc. And I was wondering, what with the whole bit with Chrissy not responding to Eddie when he tried to snap her out of her trance, how would Eddie feel if you zoned out on him? Maybe mid-conversation? You didn’t mean to, your mind just wandered. And then Eddie snaps his fingers and you look at him, and he’s relieved that you’re ok. (I’m sorry, Eddie😭 I can’t help it)

Hey, Allie!!💖 Thanks for your request hasdfghjkl I hope you enjoy! I wrote something similar to this a few days ago (the knuckle cracker drabble) so I apologise for any overlaps.

Anyone but you // e.m. x gn!reader

Content: ADHD!Eddie, reader totally checks out in a daydream, post-Chrissy but before everything else because in this house we can only stand hurting Eddie just a little, swearing, angst (canon compliant & in line with the ending of ep.1 and the boathouse scenes in ep.2), crying (Eddie), shouting (Eddie). Petnames (sweetheart, baby, honey), mentions of nausea/feeling sick (but no one is actually ill), situational anxiety, established relationship, mentions of the Upside Down. Mentions of reader looking like Chrissy but contextually it's meant specifically as the way Chrissy looks in the trance, and this is explicitly stated within the narrative. IT HAS NO BEARING ON THE READER'S APPEARANCE!!!!

I don't ever write reader to have specific characteristics, skin colour etc., I always keep it as vague as I can so that I can be as inclusive as possible.

Hurt, comfort, fluff.

Word count: 2, 619.

e.m. taglist: @eddiebunson @hersweetrevenge @sweetpeapod @sabbathsworld @hawkinsroyaloutcast @alliecheer007-88

(Send an ask to join! I ONLY write for Eddie!)

Nothing and no one made you daydream harder than Eddie.

His voice, his scent, those casual touches he bestowed upon his friends so often that it told an unspoken truth of just how touch starved he truly was, his laugh, that smile which always tried to split his face into two, those dimples and laugh lines... god, he was so beautiful and you always managed to get yourself so lost in him.

You could usually pull it off like it was nothing, daydreaming in the back of your head while the other part of you listened and interacted with him, but just sometimes, you sank so deep inside yourself that you went into a trance-like state, totally checking out of reality.

It happened at least once a day, honestly, but today was one of those days during which you couldn't pull it off. You went deep into your daydream and zoned out so hard that Eddie feared for your life.

And his heart.

You were stood in the kitchen, eyes looking through the air. They were glazed over, your hands by your sides, loosely clutching some headphones. It looked like you had been about to plug them in to your Walkman, or maybe rolling them around your hand so you could put them away neatly (not that it mattered, they still somehow managed to knot themselves up). You were stood totally still, there but not there all at once.

Eddie didn't notice right away; he was used to you daydreaming but he knew that you were still able to listen to him even when you went off in your own head. He longed to go with you, but watching the small smiles and other expressions cross your face often led his own imagination to go off on a tangent; he, too, had a raging case of ADHD.

It wasn't until you didn't respond to his joke, which he knew you would find funny - not a huff of air through your nose, not that beautiful laugh he'd burn the world down just to hear one more time, nothing - that Eddie stopped talking. He gave you ten seconds to respond to him; it was a system you had come up with in the early days of your friendship, that he would always give you ten seconds to come back into yourself and then respond before repeating himself, to avoid any frustrations or miscommunication for either party.

Ten seconds came and went. Five more, just for courtesy.

Still nothing.

Eddie's eyes shot up from where he had been fiddling with his steel rings, his hands in his lap, and he felt his stomach drop right through his feet and roll across the floor. He had only ever seen someone in a trance like that once and it had been the most traumatising and horrific experience of his life.

Chrissy.

You looked just like Chrissy.

"No." Eddie felt the nausea rising and he choked on a whimper. "N-no, no, no, no - " He was up and out of his seat in an instant, hands trembling fiercely as they fluttered about you like butterflies, never landing somewhere for long before they were off to land somewhere else. "Y/N! Hey, hi, hello!" Eddie waved his hands in front of your face; first his left hand, then his right, and then both at once.

Nothing.

His forehead grew hot, hotter still, burning him, and Eddie whimpered again, the sound thick. "Y/N, please, hello!" Eddie was patting at your shoulders lightly, his fingers spidered over the slopes there as he dragged his hands up your neck, cupped your face so gently. Fingers lightly tapped at the apples of your cheeks. "Y/N, please, please sweetheart, please wake up now. You know I don't like this, please, baby please, wake up now, wake up, Y/N!" He whimpered so loud, so hard, that it was almost a sob, and Eddie felt a tell-tale hot gush down his face on both sides, obscuring his vision.

It contorted your face even more and Eddie cried out as he snapped his fingers as hard as he could, right in front of your face, his fingers grazing across your nose. "Don't do this to me! Any - anyone but you, please, sweetheart, I - " Eddie looked down at the floor; you hadn't moved upwards like Chrissy did, but you still weren't awake. Your name tore itself from his throat. One more time, one more, just one more time. "Y/N!"

His panic woke you up.

You blinked once, twice, thrice, "Hm, what? E-Eddie?"

The reality of the situation knocked into Eddie so hard that he sunk to his knees right there in front of you, his hands covering his face. "Oh, jesus christ, jesus christ!" His whimpers and sobs were muffled, his hands pressed hard against his face. Tears ran in clear rivulets down his hands and dripped off his wrists, falling onto his tight black jeans like rain as you looked down at him, trying to come out of the fog still hanging over your mind quickly so that you could understand what had Eddie so scared, so upset.

All at once, you realised how it must have looked to Eddie, and the gasp from your throat ripped through the air as you practically threw yourself down in front of Eddie, fingers wrapping around his wrists and tugging his hands away from his face. "Hey, hey, Eddie," your voice was panicked, urgent, and it only made Eddie shake his head as he curled tighter and tighter into himself, his breathing picked up and that made yours pick up, and -

You stopped.

One deep inhale. Hold it, two three, exhale. Two, three. Focus on Eddie, he needs you now. Eddie, Eddie, focus on him.

Eddie.

All of the fog in your mind dissipated as your grip on his wrists squeezed lightly; I'm here. Eddie let you pull his hands away from his face this time, his eyes already swollen, his skin red and blotchy, and he whimpered as his chocolate eyes met yours for the first time since he had stood up from the sofa. "Hey, hi," You smiled softly at him, making a concerted effort to keep your voice soft. You were still panicking, your heart pounding in your head, "I'm so sorry I scared you, baby, I didn't - "

Eddie scrunched his face up, the relief and the fear coming off him in waves as he nodded his head, looking down at the floor before he tilted his head up to look at the ceiling, tears dripping down his cheeks as he took several slow measured breaths. His fists were clenched, bunched up in his jeans, and you took one of them in your own, fingers smoothing out his and interlocking them together before you brought your joined hands up to your chest, pressing down firmly. "I'm here, Eddie. With you. I'm so sorry I scared you, honey." Guilt was eating at you, but you brushed it off. Focus on Eddie, focus on Eddie... You couldn't even remember what you had been daydreaming about. It paled in comparison to the reality of a life with Eddie, anyway.

Eddie stared at your joined hands, his expression unreadable. He was trembling all over, cheeks damp and sticky with tears drying and those still shedding, small whimpers still leaving his lips even as he fought to calm down, adrenaline and fear and relief and love all rushing through his veins. "I - I thought - " Eddie whined, turned his face away from you, his hair a curtain shielding him from your view. "I thought you were - I thought I was gonna - "

No one had been there for Eddie the first time he went through this, and you would be damned if he had to experience it, however briefly, for a second time, alone.

"Hey, no," you cooed, catching his chin with your hand so you could look at him, "No, sweetheart. Shit, Eddie, I'm - " his face crumpled and yet another wave of tears came down, his shoulders shaking. "Oh, baby, c'mere." You opened your arms to him, unsure if Eddie wanted to be touched or not; when you and Dustin had found him in the boathouse, he had flinched away from the both of you and wouldn't let anyone near him. He had barely allowed a conversation, but Max and Dustin had coaxed him into it, and you had been so, so grateful to them and the others for helping you to take care of Eddie.

Bonds forged in the Upside Down were bonds made for life.

Eddie made another noise, one which tugged at your heartstrings, and he leaned forward and down; you watched him in confusion until he lowered his head onto your chest, and you understood. Eddie pressed his head down hard over where your heartbeat would be and he nosed at the fabric of your shirt, his hands clutching at your back like if he let go of you, he would simply die right there and then.

You sat there with him, listening to his sniffles and whimpers, which were softening and becoming quieter with each repetition, rubbing his back and pressing kisses down onto the crown of his head, your nose in his dark curls. "I've got you, Eddie, I'm here. I'm so sorry, baby."

Eddie's hands flexed around your shirt and he pulled away from you slowly, sniffling. He exhaled roughly, shook his head, and you reached forward with slow careful hands. You gave Eddie plenty of time to pull away but he didn't. He didn't. He pushed into your hands and your thumbs swiped slowly across his cheeks, wiping his tears away carefully. "All right, honey, it's all right," you were cooing and a part of you was embarrassed by it, but you also knew that what Eddie was most often missing, was the same tenderness he showed to other people. The way he treated others was how he wanted to be treated, and you knew that he would treat you like glass if the shoe was on the other foot, so there you were, cooing at him.

And Eddie was letting you. Soaking it all up like a sponge.

He needed it. He needed you.

One of Eddie's hands, still trembling, came up to cover the one you had on his cheek, and his fingers locked into yours, his dark eyes swimming with so many emotions it was hard to place even one of them. You held his eyes as steadily as you could, pushing down any hesitation or discomfort you felt with prolonged eye contact, and his other hand moved to press down over your heart again. When he couldn't feel it pounding against his hand as hard as he wanted to - so hard it was his own heartbeat - he frowned and pressed his hand against you so firmly that it almost hurt. It was a quiet desperation, panic clawed at him even in that moment, and then he was on you, arms around you tight, knocking you back onto the kitchen floor. His face was in your neck, his hair everywhere, hands clutching at your shoulders, your waist, your hips, your arms, anywhere and everywhere as Eddie touched as much of you as he could, face burrowed in your neck. He was shaking, crying, and all you could do was hold onto him. Eddie was one of those people who was okay until he wasn't and it never failed to take you for six because his emotions were always explosive.

You had seen him kick, scream, shout, yell, cry. You had seen him pace like a lion in a cage, you had seen him punch trees and hit walls, you had seen him sobbing on his knees. You had seen him so stoic and silent that you almost didn't want to be in the room with him just to escape his eyes. But in all the time you had known Eddie, you had never seen him fall apart so completely that he crumbled in your arms twice in the space of just one hour.

You rubbed his back, pressed kisses where you could reach, made yourself as available to him as you possibly could. You gave Eddie his space, granted him the closer-than-closeness he needed to accept that you were safe, alive, there. You watched the clock on the wall tick away five minutes, ten, seventeen... your body was getting sore from lying on the floor, but you still didn't move or try to get Eddie to move. He was calmer as the clock reached twenty minutes, just laying atop you, hands touching, stroking, feeling everywhere he could. Small sniffles escaped periodically but he wasn't crying or whimpering anymore and that meant he was beginning to calm down.

For the second time did Eddie sit up slowly. He ran a hand over his face, smearing tears everywhere, and you sat up with him, immediately did you cup his face as your lips found purchase anywhere and everywhere; his forehead, his eyebrows, his temples, his nose, the apples of his cheeks, his ears, his jaw, his chin... you didn't kiss his lips because it felt almost wrong when he was so torn up. You were barely holding yourself together, the guilt gnawed at you, and your jaw was aching from trying to keep from crying. The second Eddie saw you cry, he would forget all about himself, and you would not have that.

Focus on Eddie.

"Eddie, I'm sor - "

Eddie shook his head, brows creasing as he stood up, swiped another hand across his face and held the other down to you. He pulled you up to stand with him. "No more, baby. It's done, yeah? C'mere." You followed Eddie to his bedroom, the two of you done for the day as he flopped down on the bed, using his grip on you to tug you down atop him. He didn't even grunt when you landed somewhat heavily, clumsily, just wrapped his arms around your shoulders. "Don't cry, sweetheart."

Of course Eddie would notice that you were crying before you did. You smiled and said, "M'not."

"Liar." You could hear Eddie's smile. No matter what happened to him, no matter what he went through, he kept smiling, kept trying, kept making jokes, kept being Eddie, and this time your sob wouldn't let itself be stifled. You shook in Eddie's arms and he let you. He held you through it. All the guilt, the worry, came pouring out of you now that Eddie was, at the very least, no longer crying but exhausted as he came down from what he went through. You had focused on Eddie and now it was time for him to focus on you.

You, the one who never left his side. You, the one who had never given up on him, the one who made food deliveries and snuck in some smokes, not just one but two packs of beer, you, who made flash cards for Eddie decorated with stickers of all his favourite bands so that he had a reason to smile while he worked towards the finish line. You, the one who fell asleep on the phone while he played Master of Puppets for the gazillionth time so you could point out any chords which didn't ring true to you - four ears were always better than two. You, who did everything you could to love Eddie as hard as you could, no matter what mood either of you were in.

You.

The absolute love of Eddie's life.

And he was the love of yours.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x gn!reader #eddie munson fic #eddie munson imagine #stranger things 4 x reader #stranger things x reader #eddie munson

474 notes · View notes

kvetchinglyneurotic · 2 months

Text

ok i just finished season 1 of daredevil and i will have articulate things to say about it at some point but for now here's the stream of consciousness notes i took while i was watching:

-I like Jack Murdock as a portrayal of a loving but flawed parent — like he clearly cares for Matt so much and he’s doing his best but there’s some parts of a “normal” childhood he just doesn’t really have the resources to provide. That being said being stupidly self-sacrificial clearly runs in the family. Just take the dive and collect your money my guy

-“you shouldn’t be sneaking around at night you could get hurt”/ “we need to do this within the legal system” Matthew you fucking hypocrite (affectionate)

-weirdly fascinated by the way Fisk & co. translate for their sketchy group meeting that always seem to take place in abandoned parking garages, especially with how Wesley gives the general idea of what they’re saying instead of a direct translation — ok update i suspected this was because Fisk actually understood what everyone was saying and I was right!

-I like Foggy but I disagree with him about the purpose of a defense attorney — he wants to represent people who aren’t guilty/were justified in what they did but everyone deserves representation even if they 100% did the thing and were 100% wrong in doing so

-Honestly probably worked out better for Matt that Stick was only around for a couple of years at the most. Also symbolic that he left before teaching Matt to use knives — Matt never fully goes down the road of lethal force (I mean some of the things he does definitely would kill people in real life but in real life he’d also be dead so it evens out) or fully cuts off the people he cares about. Also are they implying that the reason Matt doesn’t permanently have broken ribs and/or major blood loss that he meditates? I mean suspension of disbelief obviously but that is. very funny

-Fisk is, on the one hand, very detail-oriented, but he’s also impulsive and emotionally reactive, so he has to come up with plans to cover for it. Also I feel like his and Wesley’s relationship is going to implode at some point. Or one of them (probably Wesley since Fisk is like. the main villain) is going to die

-are they sponsored by Dell

-obviously I know why they do this for cinematic reasons but it’s very funny that in-universe Fisk gives his entire speech in 1x08 without actually saying his name until he dramatically announces at the end. Although maybe that’s just for dramatic effect and in-universe he's just repeating it? Also don’t throw your computer Matt you have no money

-Matt’s smug little smile when Karen says the man in the mask looks badass flipping around :3

-“the whole wounded, handsome duck thing”

-i love how much they dwell on the actual implications of finding out your friend is secretly a vigilante/has had superpowers the entire time you’ve known each other, and that knowing they go out at night to beat people up, even if it’s for the “right” reasons, would still be alarming

-actually not bad on the nighttime colour-grading front! I can see what’s happening which is better than most shows

-I appreciate that there’s an actual plot about/explanation of how Matt gets his body armour

-Wow who could have guessed leaving the gun in the middle of the table was a bad idea. I kind of liked Wesley but honestly what a dumbass way to die. Do admire the bluff though “you don’t really believe I’d put a loaded gun where you could reach it?”

-love the approach to superhero realism here — not necessarily in the abilities or the way the plot is constructed (although that’s good, too) but in the characters’ reactions (Foggy finding out about Matt; Karen when she kills Wesley, Fisk when he finds out Wesley is dead)

-“I thought your days of being relevant were past” ouch

-reasons Wilson Fisk is evil: murder, drug dealing, doesn’t like cat videos

-I do like that Fisk kind of gets the power of friendship thing though? But like it makes him worse

-I’m very much not the most qualified to make this judgement and I’d want to check what people who actually *are* in a position to judge have to say about it, but I feel like this show has a bit of an… orientalism problem, I guess? But orientalism that also includes Russians, and also I know this is partly an extension of her being a very minor character but Doris (Ben Urich’s wife) is the only character who seems like she’s *only* there to like. encourage others through her wise words and doesn’t have much of an internal life of her own (besides the priest I guess but I feel like with priests that’s kind of their job)

-Did Foggy not go to Ben’s funeral?

-Fisk is also going to kill Leland. Maybe stop killing all your allies Fisk

-I think it’s cute that Matt still holds onto Foggy’s arm when they’re walking even when it’s just the two of them and Foggy already knows that he doesn’t need to do it

-Why does Marvel keep naming wise mentor figures who die Ben? Matt and Peter Parker should make a club (is Ben Urich in the comics? I haven't read the comics)

-“while actively being arrested” has got to win some sort of award for worst marriage proposal but I guess I admire that he just went for it?

-Ominously large number of minutes left in this episode after the seeming resolution

-Matt’s dumbass little horns <3

-Fisk: “You think one man in a silly little costume will make a difference?” bro *you* thought one man in a silly little costume would make a difference when you were the one man. Also I hope the silly little costume protects Matt from blunt force trauma

-I’m honestly still not entirely sure how/if Nelson & Murdock actually made any money

-I feel like that bit near the beginning where Karen and Matt both have secrets and Foggy’s like “I wish I had a secret” describes their dynamic basically

#daredevil #instead of liveblogging shows i just do whatever this is #anyway enjoy #kvetch oc

17 notes · View notes

theredengineapologist · 4 months

Note

Now that you finished the classic era, what are your top ten favorite classic era episodes?

Apologies for this ask taking so long, but I wanted to take the time to answer your question in the detail that it deserves.

Before I begin, I just want to clarify that this is a list of my top 10 favorite episodes. This is not an indicative list of which Thomas episodes I think are necessarily written the best. They are ranked purely based on how much I enjoy them.

Anyway, Top 10 Classic Era Thomas Episodes, Let's GO!

10. S6 Ep15: "James and the Red Balloon"

Kicking off the list with a James episode (because favoritism ALWAYS wins in this house)! There's definitely a nostalgia factor to this episode, as it's one of the few episodes that I actually remember from childhood (I have the "James and the Red Balloon and Other Stories" vhs tape). But also I just love the irony of James getting jealous of another vehicle that is also red.

Also I love his sad face after he saves the balloon.

It's like "Congratulations James! You saved the day!" and then James is just like "But I didn't want to. The balloon's gonna take my job :(". I dunno, I just think it's funny. He's so silly.

Also the ending of James dreaming about flying like the red balloon is very cute.

9. S5 Ep13: "Stepney Gets Lost"

I gotta admit, I do have an interest in Thomas's darker episodes. I know that kids' shows aren't happy/pure/hunky-dory all the time, but it still surprises me when they aren't. Purely because even though I know that, I still don't expect it. And so it's always a pleasant surprise when kids' shows like Thomas and Friends are willing to venture into darker territory. Like, they LITERALLY showed an attempted murder on-screen. I gotta give them props for that.

8. S1 Ep9: "Troublesome Trucks" / "Foolish Freight Cars"

I adore James's whole character arc from the first season, but out of all the episodes from that arc, this one definitely takes the cake for being the best one. I feel like we really get to see all the facets of James' character at their best. Allow me to elaborate.

First of all, for as much flack as James gets for being "the vain one", he takes his mistakes harder than everybody. Look at him here! He's literally crying in the shed! Dude has seen the error of his ways and regrets it so hard. And that's honestly one of the things I love about James's character and that I'm glad stays consistent throughout the show. Yes he has his moments of being a jackass and a showboat. But the moment he sees that he's done something wrong, he will atone for it! He's not afraid to take accountability, and that's something very admirable.

Speaking of atoning for one's actions, I feel like being The Determinator (TvTropes lingo, means a character who never gives up in the face of hardship) is a character trait we more commonly associate with Edward or Thomas. But James sure is one too! No matter how many times the trucks make him stop, James keeps going! I love how encouraging his driver and fireman are being towards him during these moments too. Good to know he has that good support system.

Then we get to the part where James is puffing up Gordon's hill! And he's all like "omg this is so hard. how tall is this hill" and then suddenly it gets easier and he's like "Yippee! Yippee!", not knowing he's left his tail of trucks behind. Any time the engines go about their work smiling and happy unknowing that something bad just did or is about to happen is insanely funny to me.

Now we get to my favorite part of the episode, where James has to go back down for the rest of the trucks. Please excuse my 2x5 shipper brain coming out for this, but I love how Edward has always been a supportive figure throughout James's character arc. He offers to help James with his work. But then James just gives a polite "No thank you". And then Edward continues to support and encourage him to keep going. I love that! I love them!

I don't think it's a coincidence that it was Edward who brought Sir Topham Hatt to see James's triumph. Edward has been with James since his first day working after the accident. And so of course it would be Edward to bring Sir Topham Hatt to see James at his best. Like, this is such a satisfying episode and it's nice to see James win (because let's be real, the majority of his focus episodes going forward is just James taking Ls).

7. S7 Ep7: "James and the Queen of Sodor"

Look I'm gonna be honest, this one's just a really fun watch in my opinion. I love to see James try so hard to be important. Gordon really tried to trick him but James was like, "Nah, fuck you guys! I'm gonna stay ✨shiny and clean✨!" And he did! Up until the very end when Percy sneezed on him. But you know what, a win is a win (and that comes rarely for James as the series goes on).

Also I love this face Gordon makes when he asks if collecting the Queen of Sodor is important. Dude knows what he's doing and he's trying SO HARD not to be smug about it it's hilarious. XD

6. S1 Ep15: "Tenders and Turntables"

What can I say? I enjoy watching the Big Engines struggle. It's really funny XD I love how James makes fun of Gordon for getting stuck on the turntable only to immediately get spun round and round. The Island of Sodor really does have laser-guided karma, huh? XD

Also as a continuity thing, I like that we get to see how Thomas getting his branchline effects the other engines around him. It makes the events of each episode feel like they have a greater impact, something that I believe gets lost in later seasons.

5. S5 Ep10: "Toby and the Flood"

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but Toby is one of my top five favorite characters in the entire series. Right up there with James, Edward, and Thomas! Any time Toby gets a highlight episode, I know it's gonna be the highlight of the season. But this one, BY FAR, takes the cake as the BEST classic Toby episode.

For me, "Toby and the Flood" was the first episode that really made me think "Oh my god! The trains are in PERIL!" Like, this is a legit scary situation they put Toby in this time around. Not that past incidents like The Flying Kipper crash or James' multiple derailments weren't scary from the engine's perspectives. But train crashes kinda feel par for the course in the silly talking train show. Something about a natural disaster just hits different.

Like when Toby was floating in the water about to go over the waterfall, I was legitimately worried for him. Going into this blind, I had no clue how Toby was gonna get out of this. Logically, I knew they couldn't just kill Toby off. But at the same time, when Harold dropped the rope, I thought they were just gonna pull the driver up and leave Toby there. I was not sure how they were gonna save him but I'm so glad they did.

The Toby-Harold-Percy dynamic is ✨P E A K✨ here by the way. I loved seeing them work together and it's a shame we don't get to see more of it.

Aside from the story itself, the score is amazing as well. Really does a great job of setting the tone for this story.

Oh, and one more thing.

THE SETS ARE GORGEOUS!

Seriously, I think this is one of the best examples of just how GOOD the model series can look. The sets look so realistic. And when the dam broke and the water came spilling out? That was spectacular! I'd give this episode a 10/10 just for the visuals alone.

4. S3 Ep18: "All At Sea"

"All At Sea", in my opinion, is by far the most thought provoking episode in the entire classic series. After watching it for the first time, I was still thinking about it and contemplating its meaning for weeks afterwards. Even to this day, I still find myself going back to think about it from time to time.

For a while I remember I was going back and forth about whether I actually liked this episode or not. The lesson at the end is "sometimes, the best travels are the ones you can only dream about", and I wasn't sure what that meant. Growing up American, we were always taught to go out and chase our dreams, no matter the risk or the cost. But in Duck's case, not only is he not encouraged to go travel and see what's beyond the horizon. He is, in fact, actively discouraged from doing so. From a logical standpoint, it makes sense. What reason would an engine have to go sailing or travel the world. But it still got me thinking. Was it really so wrong for Duck to dream about greater things?

But after talking about it with my sibling (bless their heart for dealing with my incessant prattling on a daily basis), we came to the conclusion that it's not that it was wrong for Duck to have dreams. But instead, "All at Sea" is a story about why it's important to be content with where you are right now. Every one of us is going to have dreams. But the unfortunate reality is that not everyone is going to be able to achieve those dreams. Many of us, in fact, will not even have the opportunity to chase our dreams. And in such cases, perhaps it's best to simply be content with where we are right now. Understand that we still have a purpose in life at the place we are currently.

Dreaming is all fine and good. But understand that where you are right now is just as important and just as worthwhile.

3. S2 Ep13: "Dirty Work" / "Diesel's Devious Deed"

I love Duck's whole arc against Diesel. I think it's great. But if I'm being honest, the reason why the middle episode is my favorite out of the three-parter is because the Big Engines are absolutely ✨ICONIC✨ in this!

We get our very first utterance of "DISGRACEFUL! DISGUSTING! DESPICABLE!" in this episode. Not to mention this iconic roast:

"Duck called me a Galloping Sausage!" "Rusty Red Scrap Iron!" "I'm Old Square Wheels!" "Well Duck?" "I only wish sir, that I had thought of those names myself. If the dome fits!"

I just LOVE the drama of watching the engines be absolute Mean Girls to each other. You can't tell me that in an AU where Thomas and Friends is a high school show catered to young girls, that Gordon, James, and Henry wouldn't be the equivalent of The Plastics. I nicknamed them "The Railway Heathers" for a reason. XD

2. S1 Ep2: "Edward and Gordon" / "Edward Helps Out"

This was the episode that made me instantly like Edward. He wasn't someone that I really remembered liking or disliking as kid. But after re-watching this episode, he immediately skyrocketed to being my second favorite character.

The story does a great job of establishing exactly who Edward is with only about four minutes and thirty seconds. He's smaller than the others (though surprisingly, I noticed they don't actually mention that he's old until season 2), and is very kind. But he often doesn't get appreciated for all the hard work he does. It makes you really feel for the guy.

Thankfully, Edward gets many more wins later in the series, so it's all good!

1. S2 Ep5: "Old Iron"

Is it really a surprise to literally anyone that this is my favorite classic series episode? Of course not! It's literally the EPITOME Jameward episode.

My shipping preferences aside, I would also like to say that "Old Iron" is a fantastic James episode AND a fantastic Edward episode as well. Both characters are at their best here, and let me tell you why.

Starting with James first (because, say it with me now, favoritism rules in this house!). We all love James being a dumbass. And while he didn't directly cause his own karma this time around, we still get to see him be a little dumb of ass. Like, when he becomes a runaway at first he doesn't even realize there's anything wrong.

He just puffs along, laughing to himself going "What a lark! What a lark!"

Then of course, we gotta have the "Regretti Spaghetti" moment, in which he realizes "Oh shit! I don't have a driver! I can't stop!"

This is James's second time being a runaway. The first time, he was pushed by cars and derailed into a field. Those memories are probably still fresh at this point, except I'd argue this time is even worse because he's completely alone. No driver or fireman to check him over like last time. James is all by himself.

But who comes to save him? It's Edward!

Edward doesn't even hesitates. He's puffing and chuffing as fast as his wheels can carry him because he HAS to save James. He has to!

The chase scene is very intense. Even if you know how it ends, there's still this feeling of tension there that I'd say is palpable.

At last, Edward catches up to James! He's got him! And they're puffing along together.

"So, the Old Iron caught you after all."

Edward isn't even mad about James's insult to him. He just takes it in stride.

Still, we all know that James, for all of his faults, knows when to take accountability. When he knows he's in the wrong, he apologizes for it and makes up for it, no hesitation.

"I'm sorry. Thank you for saving me. You were splendid Edward."

Splendid is a word James usually reserves only for himself. The fact that he's giving it to Edward really means something special.

I love "Old Iron" because it shows James and Edward, my two favorite characters, at their absolute best. All their greatest characteristics are put on display right here. I would say, not only is "Old Iron" my favorite episode in the Classic Era, but it's also one of my favorite episodes of the entire series period. There's only one episode I like in the entire show more than "Old Iron", but we can talk about that another day (though feel free to place your guesses in the Ask Box).

That just about wraps up the countdown! Thank you Anon for this ask! It was so fun getting to go through my favorite episodes and talk about what makes them so great! I hope y'all enjoyed getting to hear my commentary. ❤ Until next time...

CHOO CHOO BITCHES! 🚂💨💨💨

#anon ask #ask answered #ttte #thomas and friends #ttte james #ttte edward #ttte toby #ttte duck #thomas the tank engine #james the red engine #edward the blue engine #toby the tram engine #duck the great western engine #ttte first impressions #ttte episode review #long post #on today's episode of “thinking too hard about trains”...#redengineposts

28 notes · View notes