madwomanwithawarehouse · 1 year ago
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so where's the leverage team when i need it???
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tarotoftheendless · 3 months ago
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Hey... So, yeah, my Waiting for Forever fanfic has been on hiatus... I do plan on continuing to write it, just life stuff has come up, same with just crippling depression.
I have plans for my Waiting for Forever fanfic, so it will come, just slowly, sadly... I love Willie too much to abandon him.
I also have had some other great ideas for fanfics that I both would either like to write myself or allow someone else to write with some input from me on the idea. Most of the ideas for fanfics I have are things I would love to read myself, so...
Of course all my ideas are Tom Sturridge related... Here are some of my ideas for fanfics... If you want to write it yourself, just please reach out to me and ask me what my full idea was and maybe give me a bit of credit for helping to come up with it, that's all I ask if you are gonna write before I have the chance to.
Tom Sturridge fanfic Ideas:
Nathan from 'Skin'. It's an 11 minute short film that showcases how amazing Tom is as an actor. He gives so much to this performance, I was floored.
What we were able to get from the story is that he is grieving the death of his husband. Well, I am assuming Daniel, that's the man's name that Nathan was with, was his husband considering it seemed like it was more than just boyfriends.
The AI voice never states what Company that Nathan works for, so I have been calling it The Company... Which started to sound ominous in my head. It could be a tech company, but it could also be a company with illuminati levels of influence...
My idea, vaguely, was that after the stunt that Nathan pulls to manipulate the AI into playing a recording of his husband's voice, The Company makes him agree to a Live-In Companion, much like a Companion from Firefly but less just a one and done. And in my mind Nathan is bisexual. He agrees, but chooses a female companion.
She is to stay with him for three months, helping him with whatever he needs, like whatever he needs, to help him heal from his grief of losing his husband... So he is work ready again for The Company. If he fails to become work ready in that time or if he does not sign the documentation to start the process, The Company will terminate him and take him to court over the stunt he pulled.
I have so many ideas for this, all of them very thriller sci-fi conspiracy and action, with smut of course thrown in there. Like what if The Company gave Nathan's husband the cancer he ultimately died of? Why? For what reason? Juicy shit my guys, juicy shit.
I wish I could write this myself... And maybe I will... Unless someone else likes it so much to collab with me on it?
Anyway, next idea....
Jake. Jakey. Baby Jakey. Sweetbitter.
So, I had a thought awhile ago that Jake would be great with a roller derby chick... But then I thought maybe he would be great with a professional dancer... Like all styles of dance. She has spent her life training in dance. And she moves into the apartment next door to Jake's place. No new hire at the restaurant bullshit. She is removed from it because that is what Jake needs in a relationship. Something separate from the restaurant.
I had the thought that she was hired to be the choreography coordinator at Broadway, so, she is a career driven woman, something I think Jake needs. Vision. And I think this dancer OC would help him see that he is a good enough photographer to actually pursue that as a career.
Like what if she shows her boss at Broadway his work and her boss wants to hire him for a fuck ton of money to shoot dress rehearsal and opening night, where his photos will be chosen for an article on the play in The New York Times, who is looking for a new journalist photographer. Like it could be life changing.
I had the thought that the play would be the musical Moulin Rouge...
And yeah, Jake will be Jake about it, self-doubt, the Simone of it all. But I think it could work. Giving Jake a partner that believes in him and wants him to choose something for himself and himself alone just this once.
Anyway... Another idea I have is a parody idea... Of a cross-over of The Great British Baking Show and The Sandman. Like it's a promotional episode of TGBBS for The Sandman.
The actors playing The Endless would do the Signature and Technical as themselves, the actors, but for the Show-Stopper, they are their characters.
It was a funny idea. And I don't know all the actors and characters enough to write it believably, so, someone who does, please write this. I think it would be so fucking funny.
And who would win? Is it just one episode or are they doing multiple to actually get the The Endless that is the star of The Great British Baking Show?
Anyway, those are my ideas for fanfics... And yeah, I still am gonna write my Waiting for Forever fanfic, it's just slow going...
Here's a cute Willie for now 😘
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sleepless-writes · 2 years ago
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Kitty Gang (Part 1)
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Pairing: Agust D x Reader, Baby J x Reader
Genre: Cyber Punk Au, Unrequited love, f2l
Warnings: Swear Words
Words: 1.505
Note: Hi, this is the first part of my first fic. I really apologize for any spelling errors, but English is not my first language. If you find some mistakes please let me know. Thanks for reading! :)
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It's been a while since I became a part of the (not really well-known) Kitty Gang. Baby J told me the gang had six members and their boss Hope. He was an influential businessman who makes his money with shady gangs just like the Kitty Gang. We don’t know a lot about his business but Baby J is sure that some of the greatest gangs work for him and that’s an honor to be a part of his „company“. I moved in with Baby J about a month ago because I had no safe place to stay after the dude I worked for was pissed at me and wanted me to pay for almost getting caught at a job I did for him. It didn’t sit well with him and he wanted a shit ton of money or my head for losing his cash. He said it’s my decision what to give him but, to be honest, I’m not too sure about that.
Baby J took me under his wing and introduced me to his roommate Agust D. He was a part of the Kitty Gang as well and he sells drugs that RM a pharmacist and also a Kitty Gang member cooks for him as a side job. Agust doesn’t talk much but he looks annoyed most of the time. Baby J said, that is just the way he is and I am fine with that. He is really quiet and I know his real name is Yoongi because Baby J called him like that a few times before. Some nights when he comes back home from his work we chill on the couch together. I’m awake most of the nights. I can’t sleep well. I never could. And as I said, he doesn’t talk much but the silence is never awkward. Actually, it’s really calming and I can fall asleep better while watching tv with him next to me. He is quiet.
Baby J isn’t. Sure he is charming but boy he has too much energy. He could talk about all the plans he has the whole day. But I wonder sometimes if he actually believes what he says about making the big money and living carelessly or if it's just comforting to him. I personally think that we’ll be dead in the next five years. Nobody’s life is long in Nightlife City. One big difference between the two boys is, that Agust brings no people to have sex with home. Baby J shares his bed frequently. I couldn’t stand the noise anymore and I also spent too much time wondering how it would feel to be underneath him, so I had to spend my last money on noise-canceling headphones. Agust already has a well-working pair and he recommended me some as well.
That brings us to this rainy day in early spring but seasons don’t really matter in Nightlife City. The tall buildings swallow the colors and it always feels like there is not enough air for all the people living here. Sometimes I can’t even tell if it’s night or day because the sky is so far away and down here the darkness never seems to fade. I can’t remember if it always felt like that but especially today my head felt like the foggy weather outside and the grey sky. I was awake the whole night to gather information for our next job for Hope. It was something about a nightclub he put a lot of money into but he never got it back. It’s always about the money, how exhausting. Dawn wasn’t far but I couldn’t stop. I was too afraid of making a mistake again and the Kitty Gang feels like my last straw before drowning. The work consumed me whole at this point but I knew I needed some rest. Couldn’t look at this stupid screen anymore. When I rested my eyes for a little I looked out of the window and the night wasn’t that dark anymore. More voices could be heard on the streets down below and I wondered where Agust was. He normally is at home around that time and I really need some of his calming aura to fall asleep. It was almost a habit at this point. He sitting on the right end of the couch, looking for something to watch while I curl myself into a ball on the left side and fall asleep slowly. Is it selfish or am I worried? I only know for a fact that I am fucking sleepy. I thought about Agust for a while and decided that it was concerning so I called JK, the bouncer he takes with him sometimes. I swear this boy has a face like an angel but he is fucking strong. I heard he does some underground boxing too. That's kind of cool. I secretly hope to watch him someday. His abs are hot and his smile is unbeatable. Focus Y/N.
The phone rang a few times then JK picked up. „Hi JK it’s me, is Agust with you?“ „Y/N! Sorry I’m still at work. I didn’t see him today. You could ask V.“ „Sure…thanks.“ „Hey, how are you?“ „Sleepy. I'm preparing the information for our next job. That’s why I need Agust. I want to sleep.“ „Okay…well…I let him know if he comes around but I have to go now.“ „Bye Jk.“
I threw my phone on my desk and felt even more frustrated than before. He was probably out drinking whit V or Jin but what should I do. Maybe going for a walk could help, but I hate people and I’m sure everyone is drunk on a Saturday night. Too dangerous. Maybe I could do some workouts or meditation. I almost laughed, almost. Maybe I could…
A few moments later I stood in front of Baby Js room. It was a stupid idea. There was no way that he was awake, he came home at 4 in the morning. He was a little drunk and a little high and the only time he isn’t Prince Charming is if he gets woken up. Still, I need sleep to continue my work later. He would understand, I tried to convince myself. I knocked. „Baby J, are you awake?“ I asked into the darkness of the room after not getting a reaction I just opened the door. I must be crazy. I heard a muffled sound and some ruffling where his bed was located. He had his heavy curtains closed and no city lights nor the upcoming daylight could shine through. „What is it, princess? Is the apartment on fire?“ „No, but…“ „You know this is the only reason to wake me up after my Saturday shift.“ „I know, but listen, please. I can’t sleep and I’m feeling frustrated and normally Agust helps me with that but he isn’t here and I can’t work anymore and…“ „Okay okay, stop it. How is he helping you?“ „He just… he is just next to me I guess.“ „Fine. I knew his boring personality was good for one thing.“ Baby J switched his night lamp on and I saw him putting his blankets up for me to get underneath it. I was a little taken aback cause I never thought he would do that. For me. He didn’t bother to open his eyes but he was drowsy from sleep. His puffy lips formed a pout and I really wanted to press my… „Let's go, Love.“ He now looked at me with a waiting look, so I got myself moving. And as fast as I was under the cover as fast I fell asleep and I could smell him, it was a sweet flowery scent mixed with strong alcohol. After a second of adjusting he put his arm around my body and suddenly I was not cold anymore. I prayed to all the gods and spirits that he couldn’t hear my heart beating faster than it should. I wasn’t used to physical contact and I tried to tell myself that I don’t like it at all. What a lie, our bodies were fitting perfectly together and I loved the comforting feeling of his nose brushing against my neck. I tried to get even closer and accidentally pressed my butt against his length. He chuckled quietly. „Sleep now, princess. I need you well rested.“ That was all I needed and I was gone.
Agust D came home about 50 minutes later. He was covered in blood and he had a piece of fabric pressed against his right eye. He slammed a knife and his freshly earned money on the table in front of the couch but struggled with keeping himself on his feet. He put the fabric away from his eye but it was still bleeding. „Fuck that.“ Was all he could say before he sat on the couch. A sharp pain shoot through his body but he knew he couldn’t even afford to think about going to the hospital. „Y/N…“ he mumbled. Then he passed out.
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sleepysnk · 4 years ago
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*cracks knuckles* alright... it's time, so i kind of got this idea from a friend on discord. all i can see is Zeke this way, so i hope you guys like this 👀. I WILL FEED YOU ALL AGAIN. i hope you enjoy 😏✨.
Sugar Daddy Headcanons
Characters: Zeke Jaeger
Warnings: NSFW
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Zeke Jaeger:
- i'm gonna start with some SFW then head into the dirty stuff a bit later 👀.
- honestly this man is fit to be a sugar daddy, he is a CEO of a big company. he makes tons of money and he's single, he needed something or someone to spend it on.
- he went on one of those sugar baby apps and that's when he saw you, the air was knocked out of his lungs seeing how attractive you were. you were gorgeous and he was surprised seeing someone as young as you were on one of these apps.
- you both clicked instantly when you met.
- Zeke isn't the type to force anything out of you, he explained the agreement, how much he'd give you, and so on. which totally surprised you considering how handsome he was.
- you were in college and you were in debt. it shocked you when Zeke pretty much gave you all the money pay it off, he just handed it off to you.
- Zeke spoiled you like there was no tomorrow. he bought you expensive clothing, moved you out of that shitty apartment, and even bought you a fucking car. the car was probably the biggest surprise, you never expected him to go that overboard.
- Zeke lowkey loves jewelry on you, seeing a pretty necklace or pretty earrings is something he admires. expect lots of jewelry from him, especially as gifts. to him, you look like a shiny diamond.
- he took you on the most luxurious dates, whether it be at a restaurant, or it was an expensive island trip.
- HE TOOK YOU ON HIS PRIVATE JET AND YOU WERE ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED.
- many of your friends questioned where you got all that money from.
- whenever you needed that $$$ he was quick to send you about $3000. that was probably the lowest amount he's ever spent on you, this man will tend to your needs whenever you need them.
- you both spent so much time together and that's when a flame was sparked between you both. you weren't very young, he was about 6 years older than you, but you felt like it would be odd having feelings in the mix. Zeke never mentioned once anything about feelings, and you sure as hell didn't want to admit it.
- one day you just broke and told him everything and how you didn't want to be considered just his "sugar baby" anymore.
- he just chuckled and smiled at you.
- "finally you said something, i thought i had to be the one to break the ice. i don't want to be just considered your "sugar daddy" anymore, i rather have you be mine."
- could you really ask for anything better than him?
- NOW LET'S GET DOWN AND DIRTY SHALL WE? it's time for the NSFW.
- sex wasn't exactly a necessity to Zeke, he didn't want to come off as forcing you into sleeping with him, but after multiple conversations you agreed sex would be fine.
- this man will ruin you.
- Zeke is much older and more experienced, so one night after one of your usual dates he went down on you, and you never felt more pleasure than you did in those moments. he made you cum about four times that night. 2/4 were from his tongue and fingers.
- dirty talks the fuck out of you, it is so hot you don't even know.
- "you take my cock so fucking well... fuuckk you're such a good girl,"
- he loves to eat you out 🥵, like it is his favorite thing to do to you. his tongue is absolutely wonderful and skilled, you'll never be disappointed when he gives you head. he'll hold your thighs apart and just bury his mouth deep into you.
- Zeke has fingered you in public before, one time you wore a really nice skirt and he fingered you while his co-workers were in front of you. he definitely does shit like that all the time 😭.
- daddy kink. he loves to hear you call him daddy whenever he fucks you, it drives him to just pound into you harder.
- if you've been a brat or were extra moody towards him.. i pray for your fucking soul. you got pissed at him for coming back a little later than an anticipated, and you gave him an attitude, he grabbed you by your throat and pressed you against the wall. he literally fucked your brains out until 3 a.m. don't ever be a brat around him. you couldn't walk properly after that.
- Zeke will buy you expensive lingerie to wear for him, he loves seeing you in white or baby pink. it makes him think of you as an angel, which is what you are to him 🥰.
- dominate pretty much most of the time, though sometimes he likes when you take control.
- slight degradation? he wouldn't have a huge degrading kink, but he'd call you a slut or say you're a slut for his cock. it's hot tho pls.
- he groans a lot 🥵 he loves when you suck him off or when you ride him, he just loves to feel you around him.
- sometimes he'll have a quickie with you in his office at work, especially when he's had a rough and busy day. he'll lock the door and fuck you against his desk, or he'll have you suck him off. one time someone walked in and you had to hide under the desk, Zeke couldn't even form proper sentences since you were doing it so well.
- he would love to cum inside of you, but he fears pregnancy, there have been a few occasions tho where you asked him to cum in you and he did 👀.
- shower sex happens pretty often between you two, he'll have you pressed against the wall as the water runs down both of your bodies. plus it's an easy clean up.
- dear god i need to read the bible.
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warmblanketwhump · 3 years ago
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safe enough to fall
a little university-themed thing I wrote using @sicktember prompts: comfort item, sneaky temperature check, medicine, unlikely caregiver, and lightly inspired by these prompts
the grip of the winter’s cold was their constant, unrelenting companion - but sometimes, B just wished it would be a little less faithful.
It doesn’t ease in the morning, when B wakes up coughing with a cold nose and stiff limbs. It stays as B shivers through the lukewarm shower and the hurried layering of clothes over damp, goosebumped skin. It sticks to them like cling wrap on the bus, in the lecture hall, the windy walk to their next class, makes them tense their rattling jaw, and leaves them hunched over and huddled up, desperate to conserve any scrap of heat.
This was a fact of their university existence - that after the pleasant crispness of fall, their poor, scholarship-funded body was plunged into four months of frozen hell. They didn’t like to complain - after all, they were getting a free education. But no one told them how brutal their university’s winters would be, nor that dorm heating was little more than a few puffs of warm air every hour, or that regardless of how many layers they pulled on, they’d be chilled to the bone until late March.
Their final class of the week is in a drafty science lab, and they hold back a groan. The cold's not the only source of their dread - it was the thought of spending 90 minutes with their perky, overly friendly lab partner, A.
A, whose parents were well-off, well-known benefactors of their university. A, who lived in a nice house with proper heating and had the money for a warm winter coat. A, who obliviously chattered on about anything and everything. Besides that, they were just so...happy. All the time.
The can afford to be, B thought miserably. There was no way all that sunshine could be real.
B really tried to tamp down their bitterness, but it was hard to listen to someone gush on about their amazing weekend their family spent on some tropical island when B spent the same weekend wrapped up in blankets, trying to stay warm enough to study their nomenclature notes.
Two minutes before class, A bounds into the lab like a freed golden retriever and begins their usual volley of caffeinated questions, which B responds to in short, clipped answers. Suddenly, the questions stop and A’s brows furrow.
“You look cold. Are you okay?”
B shifts on their stool and tucks their fingers into the sleeves of their worn secondhand coat, pulling it tighter with a shudder. “I am cold. It’s winter.” They cough weakly into their elbow - the nagging cough has gripped them for weeks now.
“Are you sick?”
Direct, then. That was new. “No. At least, I don’t think so. I don’t have a fever or anything.” In truth, they had been feeling a little lower than usual the past couple of days, the chill a little deeper, the aches more pronounced, the cough a bit more painful. But in their book, that was hardly enough call themselves sick. B sniffles and A opens their mouth to comment further, but the professor calls the class to attention, and the moment is gone.
90 minutes later, they’ve got their work cut out for them - a ten-page lab report that’s going to count for nearly a quarter of their final grade. And as luck would have it, it was a partner project, which meant B got to spend more time with the equivalent of human rocket fuel.
“So...do you want to just knock this out tonight?” A's eyes dart around nervously.
B frowns - it’s almost the weekend, and they figured A would have plans with friends this evening. But B sure doesn’t have anything going on., so they don’t protest. “No… I s’pose we should get as much done as possible while it’s still fresh. Want to go to the library?”
“Ugh." A cringes. "Do we have to? That place is like a tomb.”
B huffs indignantly. “It's not that bad," they mumble in a weak defense of their favorite study spot. A shoots them a glare, and B rolls their eyes. "Do you have somewhere better? It's Friday, so most places are closing up.”
“Well, my parents decided to go on some last-minute ski trip to the Alps again, so my place is free," A says as they step out into the biting wind. "Plus, I have a ton of food and it's actually warm in there, unlike these buildings.”
The promise of decent heating and food that wasn't from the dining hall was enough for B. "Fine. Your place." The pair trudge through the bitter wind as the sun begins to set, and soon they arrive at A's parents’ home - a beautiful, winding estate just a couple minutes away from campus. B has to bite their lip to keep their jaw off the ground - in the blustering snow, this place looks straight out of a Christmas card. Another reminder of how they don’t fit in this world.
Will you stop? B chastises themselves. A having money isn't a personal attack on you. Just enjoy the free food, finish the assignment and get over it.
Despite the towering exterior, B's house was quite cozy, colored in warm neutrals and filled with soft, comfortable furniture. Just past the mudroom, they spot a big living room filled with with an enormous overstuffed couch, squashy-looking pillows, and soft throw blankets. Everything about this place screams warm. A rubs their arms, suddenly aware of how cold they are. The heat nearly makes them dizzy, and they can feel the temperature difference as it seeps into their cold skin.
"Want some cocoa?" A tosses their bag into the corner and heads for an electric kettle in the kitchen, and B follows. "It always helps me warm up." B nods. A couple minutes later, A pushes over a steaming mug with the top entirely covered in marshmallows.
B wraps their chilled fingers around the mug and takes a sip, and the warm, rich liquid feels like heaven to their cold body. "That's amazing."
A smiles. "It's the good stuff." They sip in a surprising silence for a few moments, before A sighs in resignation. "As much as I wish this was just a social call, this report isn't gonna write itself." They grab a bag of popcorn and nod their head toward the living room, and B follows dutifully. A flicks on the gas fireplace and tosses B a throw blanket, and the pair gets to work.
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After a couple hours of studying, three instances of indignantly thrown popcorn, and a dramatic reading of the periodic table, B realized that they may have misjudged A. Deep down, under the bubbly exterior, A was a genuinely kind, sweet person. It wasn't an act - they just were human sunshine. And the longer they spent time with them, the more B realized they didn't mind their company at all.
"Alright." A drops their pencil and rubs their eyes. "If I have to balance one more equation, my brain's gonna explode. Study break time." A flips on the TV and puts the volume on low.
B leans their head back on the couch and pulls their throw blanket to their chin, trying to ward off the shivery feeling in their core. Despite the heat of the fire, the mug of hot chocolate, and the thick blanket, they just can’t seem to get warm.
Their face feels hot, but their blood feels chilled and heavy, the weight of it making them ache deep down in their bones. B wraps their arms around their knees, trying to rub away the throbbing pain and get some warmth into their skin. They glance out the picture window at the now-blowing snow. It's gonna be a miserable walk home.
"B, you're shivering." A's turning to look at them now.
B startles. "It's-It's nothing. Just a chill." The concern in A's voice triggers their flight response. "I....I should probably get back to the dorms. It’s late–" They're cut off with a hacking cough that leaves them breathless and they wince at the ache in their chest.
"B, it's snowing, and you haven't even had dinner-"
"Where's my jacket?" They push themselves up and toss the throw blanket off, instantly regretting it as the air invades their pocket of hard fought warmth. They’re trembling and dizzy and desperately freezing, but they cannot stay here. Then, the world tilts and they fall back on to the couch. For a moment, they're just laying in an icy, spinning world, trying to catch their breath, when warmth suddenly envelops them.
A's tucking the same thick grey blanket around their shivering form. As they pull away, their hand lightly brushes over B's neck, then freezes. B twists away from the gentle touch, but it’s too late. Realization floods over A's face. Caught. "You lied. You are sick."
B groans, even as their fingers weave into the chunky knit and pull the warm layer closer. "A, please. Just let me go home. I'm probably contagious. You don't want me here."
"B, you look like death warmed over. I'm not sending you out in a blizzard when you're feverish like this. I won't do it." There's a spark in their eyes and a set to A's jaw that dares B to challenge them.
B leans back, defeated. Even though they want nothing more than to run out of this room, they're too weak to stand and too cold to move. So here they'll stay.
It's okay. Someone's here. You can give in now.
No. I can't. I can't let them see me like this.
What choice do you have? You already look awful. Let them help you.
A covers them with another blanket and places a gentle hand on their back, rubbing slowly. The firelight flickers, casting light and shadow across their solemn face. “B. Tell me what you're feeling, and I'll get you what you need.”
B swallows down the rising panic, the helpless vulnerability they feel, and takes a shallow, shaky breath. “I…I guess I just feel….not right. I’m always cold...but it's...worse.” They sniffle weakly, trying to still and order their swirling thoughts. “Chills, fever, cough, sore throat, kinda stuffed up. And it just hurts everywhere.”
A nods slowly, then leaves the room. They return in a few minutes with a few small bottles, carefully scanning the labels and holding them up for B to see.
“Can you take this? Any problems with this one?” B had to take a moment and match the brand names with their usual knockoff brands, but soon they had a couple over the counter medicines picked out, along with something for their cough.
A glances at the medicine labels once more. "This one says to take with food. I've got some leftover chicken and dumpling soup I can heat up - does that sound okay?"
B nods almost imperceptibly. "Sounds wonderful." A gets up to heat the soup, and B feels the anxiety rising in their stomach when they're not in the room with them. A returns with a mug and manages to gently spoon a few sips of broth into B's mouth before B starts falling asleep, clutching the grey blanket even tighter to their shoulders.
A smiles sadly. “That blanket's my favorite whenever I'm not feeling good. It's the best thing you could have to fight off what you’ve got. Trust me.”
B curls into the soft fabric. It was as if the warm environment of the apartment and the comfort of the blanket had been a signal that it was safe to leave survival mode, rest for a moment, open the floodgates that had been holding back whatever had been ailing them for weeks.
After B takes their medicine, A’s eyes shift awkwardly around the room. “So….when you’re sick, do you like having someone with you? Or do you want to be by yourself?”
A sudden rush of emotion crashes over B. They’d so rarely had the choice. It takes all they’ve got not to throw themselves around A and beg them not to leave. “Stay, please,” they ask in a small, trembling voice. “If it’s not too much trouble.”
A smiles halfway and gently pats B’s leg. “Seeing as how I live here, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” They take their spot at the end of the couch and pull B’s legs over their own, flicking the TV to a familiar movie. B tries to keep up with the plot, but they keep falling in and out of a fitful, restless sleep, tossing, turning, unable to get comfortable enough.
When B’s about ready to cry from exhaustion, A’s there, covering them up with another blanket, bringing them a glass of water, gently stroking the damp hair off their forehead before laying a cold cloth over it. They flinch at first, but the cool dampness eases the fire of their fever, even for just a moment. The last thing B remembers before falling unconscious is a gentle hand squeezing theirs.
It could be minutes or hours later when they jolt awake from a fever dream in a cold sweat, choking and coughing. They’ve kicked off their blankets and the cloth is nowhere to be found, but the chills are back in full force. A appears in B’s blurred vision, hand held to B’s forehead. “Poor thing. Your fever’s worse,” they murmur.
B’s still gasping for breath, curled up in the fetal position, body wracked by the shakes as they try force the words through their chattering teeth. “A...It's so cold. I’m so scared.”
If B was more lucid, they’d see something in A’s eyes crack wide open at their weak, fearful cries. A pulls the trusted grey blanket from the floor and wraps it back around B, rubbing their arms to try and make them feel warmer. There's something in the tenderness of the gesture, and B’s panicked gasps turn into soft, quiet sobs. They try and cover their face with one hand, but A’s hand is there, catching their wrist and wiping the tears away with their thumb.
“Hey. You’re gonna be okay. We just gotta get through tonight, alright?” A’s voice matches their usual cheery demeanor, but B can see the fear in their own eyes. They don’t know what they’re doing either.
“Why are you helping me?” B whispers in a tear-roughened voice.
A shrugs. "You're sick. You need help. Is it that so surprising?"
B's eyes flash a delirious spark. "You don't get it. I'm a broke scholarship student. I'm nothing like you. I'm not fun, or bubbly, or rich, or any of those things you are, and I don't fit in here. So why?"
B can't stop the words now, every single insecurity laid bare. "Why do you try to talk to me when I'm nothing but rude to you? Why'd you invite me here? Am I just a project to you? Why are you helping me? I'm not worth it!" The words spill out before B can stop them, and the raw hurt in A's eyes nearly rips B's heart out of their chest.
B claps their hand over their mouth, tears flooding their eyes. Now they've done it. They've laid it all out there. A's gonna kick them to the curb. And B won't blame them one bit.
But instead, A just looks at them, and pulls B into a hug. Their voice wavers only a bit as they whisper in B's ear: "You're not a project. You are completely worth being cared for. And you’re not the only one who knows what it feels like to not fit somewhere. Trust me.”
Alone. In a big, empty house. Studying on a Friday night. No plans of their own.
A, are you lonely, too?
Their words are so simple.
And yet they're everything B didn't know they needed to hear. A's got one arm around their shoulders, and one hand threaded through their sweaty, fever-damp hair, and they're cradling B so tightly it’s like they're the one who needs to be held.
B can't find the words to apologize or comfort them back. They're too tired for that. But they wrap their other arm around A and let their head rest on their shoulder. They stay like that for ages until their head begins to drop, and A shifts so they’re both laying down, B curled against A, A’s arm wrapped around their shoulders as they tuck a blanket around them both.
And finally, finally, B lets go. It's safe to fall, this time around. Because for the first time, there's someone there to catch them.
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canmom · 3 years ago
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Animation Night 96 - Laika
Hello friends! Happy thursday! This time I write to you from (somewhat) sunny Egham, proud home of the Magna Carta, a power struggle between feudal nobility that would later be mythologised as the first constitution, rule of law etc. etc. - something that would prove a very effective technology for social control in the future.
Tonight, though, our animation studio comes from the States! Actually it was the Americans who built most of the little monuments I saw today, lots of neoclassical architecture in evidence. We’re going to visit... Laika.
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I suspect people know of Laika already. The dog who was put on a rocket and sent to die alone in space, of course - but also the American animation studio who borrowed the dog’s name that became known since 2009′s Coraline for their charming, comfortably dark stop motion films...
So what’s the story here? Like a lot of stories about the American entertainment industry, a lot of the story is about money and the weird foibles of the rich. But we have a winding path to get there, including the very dawn of clay animation.
Our story begins (if we can perhaps arbitrarily pick a beginning) in the early 1970s with the meeting of Will Vinton, who had just finished his architecture degree during which he’d experimented with making documentary films about student protests and the counterculture movement, and Bob Gardiner, a stop motion animator (check out Animation Night 50!!) who was among the first to start using clay models in a really significant way. In Vinton’s basement, they started experimenting with clay animation, with Vinton figuring out a way to use his camera to animate Gardiner’s sculptures.
Together, the two made a short film, Closed Mondays, from 1973-4, which found unexpected great success, winning the Oscar for Best Animated Short and connecting the pair to the wider animation world...
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The film features a drunk man wandering around an art gallery, with the paintings and sculptures transforming into little vignettes elaborating on the artworks. Although the character animation isn’t as subtle as later stop motions would achieve, there are some really cool creative morphing effects and it’s got a ton of charm and creativity, no surprise people liked it!
They parted ways not long after that, with Gardiner focusing on PSA films in local politics, while Vinton founded a company called Will Vinton Animation Studios to further develop the stop motion animation, hiring on a handful of new animators who spent the 70s creating a trilogy of 27-minute animated fairy tales. During this time, he trademarked the term ‘claymation’, although it seems to have soon become genericised as other studios like the UK’s Aardman took up the technique.
And while the rest of our story is gonna follow Vinton, let me quickly show you this cool poster that Gardiner produced in 1979:
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“Political Erotic Petty Sensationalism granished over a fast of carnography and neo-unimpressivism”, what a statement lol. Anyway, let’s continue the Vinton story...
Hitting the 80s, Vinton and his studio moved up to 35mm film, continuing to make short films, music videos and adverts. They are responsible, among other creations, for the character ‘The Noid’ associated with Domino’s Pizza, and uh, read this sentence for me,
The California Raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group as well as advertising and merchandising characters composed of anthropomorphized raisins.
America!
Moving into the 90s, they started switching from clay to moulded foam rubber, which apparently solved various production issues; using this technique, they animated Eddie Murphy’s series The PJs, which I managed to say almost nothing about back on Animation Night 21, as well as adult road trip comedy Gary & Mike. Unfortunately, this period was to be Vinton’s personal downfall...
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Seeking to expand into feature films, Vinton sought outside investment, and found it from Travis Knight, the son of Phil Knight, who founded the Nike sports equipment company and thus must have more money than god. Travis had actually worked at the company as an animator himself, and so he must have seemed like the perfect investor.
Knight gradually became the majority shareholder in the company, and in 2002, as Vinton failed to secure more funding, Knight ousted him and took of the company completely. Vinton sued for use of his own name, and so in 2005 the studio was re-founded as Laika, with renowned stop motion director Henry Sellick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame joining the company a year later. Soon they would become a major stop motion studio...
But what of Vinton? He founded a new, much smaller company to make stop motion animation called Will Vinton's Freewill Entertainment, who made one short film, The Morning After, combining live action and CGI. Tragically, in 2006, he was diagnosed with cancer and retired from filmmaking in 2008. Still, he kept creating stuff in his last decade, including writing a musical The Kiss based on The Frog Prince and a graphic novel, Jack Hightower. Eventually, he died in 2018.
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So, what became of the studio in the new hands? Their first film project saw Henry Sellick adapting a novel, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, a British fantasy author who I find very annoying for entirely petty reasons. It was the perfect fit for Sellick, who likes to play in a sort of very stylised horror aesthetic while remaining ‘appropriate for kids’, and the studio brought an excellent design sense and a lot of compelling creepy images like the button eyes. The story sees a young girl called Coraline who’s drawn into a parallel world by the temptations of her stepford-smiling ‘Other Mother’, actually a child-consuming spider entity, who Coraline figures out how to outwit by exploiting the right fae tricks.
It was a strongly executed, visually striking film right out of the gates, and won Laika a lot of accolades - not to mention helping rebuild Sellick’s own reputation after he had once been under the shadow “hey, did you know Tim Burton wasn’t the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas?”
Unfortunately their planned second was cancelled and, ulp, the studio faced a wave of layoffs. The animation industry is not friendly to its animators!
The next film continued the halloweeny vibe, albeit more comedic, Paranorman - a film I haven’t seen about a boy who can see the dead that landed to another warm reception. Their next entry was a little less successful, in The Boxtrolls, adapting a children’s book; this one provoked a bunch of discourse on here I recall about some dumb man in a dress gag they threw in.
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Then 2016 saw Kubo and the Two Strings, which took things to a Japanese-pastiche setting, and Travis Knight - the son of the Nike guy we mentioned above - stepping in to direct. Isn’t it nice when your dad can just buy out an entire animation studio for you? Still, he took on a very ambitious animation project, an adventure story about a travelling shamisen player, with some truly enormous stop motion models, and a studio whose character animation was refined by years of feature film production. It landed to enormous critical acclaim, and duly reaped its reward nominations.
Kubo, which takes inspiration from ukiyo-e in its visual design, follows in the footsteps of American productions like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Disney’s Mulan and Kung Fu Panda of taking a sort of more or less mythologised Asian setting... and like many of these projects saw only limited involvement of Asian people. This drew a certain amount controversy at the time, particularly in the casting; I’d be very curious how the film ended up being received in Japan itself. I’m not writing this to totally condemn, of course, it would be crazy for me to reject cross-cultural inspiration, it would ludicrous to say only the Japanese have the right to respond to Japanese history... but it definitely adds a contextual layer to know this vision of Japan comes from the son of a hyper-rich American businessman!
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In a way, although Kubo is genuinely a stop-motion film, it’s a different flavour of stop motion due to the extensive amount of 3D printing involved in the production. I don’t know if it’s quite at the level of being ‘a CG film which uses physical models as its rendering engine’ but it’s an interesting evolution of high-budget stop motion. In all sorts of ways, the touch of the individual artist is pushed out - no more literally visible thumbprints, now we have a pipeline of hundreds of people to match the largest VFX house! (Later Aardman can feel the same.)
Presently the most recent film of Laika is Missing Link (2019), a lighter-hearted comedy about cryptids. I vaguely remember seeing marketing for it, but it doesn’t seem to have found a big audience in the way of some of their earlier films.
Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about Laika. Technically, their artists’ animation skills are inarguably fantastic: consistently strong visual direction, subtle and expressive motion, fantastic lighting work. There seems to be a real flair and evident passion to their best entries, rather than just soullessly presenting wildly expensive but meaningless animation. And, I will admit, however much his dad’s money opened the door for him, Travis Knight does seem to have done the work (even if his next film was uh a spinoff of the Transformers franchise sdfsdf? Showbiz, huh...). But there is something that rankles about Will Vinton being frozen out by the power of sporting goods capitalism. I don’t trust this new beast’s motivations!
Maybe I’ll feel differently after experiencing Kubo? We’ll see... As far as shamisen and biwa players go, I’ll definitely be thinking about Heike Monogatari and, whenever we actually get to see it, Masaaki Yuasa’s film Inu-Oh.
Tonight I’ll be travelling back to London by train; when I get back 1.5-2 hours we’ll watch Laika’s two most successful films, Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. I’ll post here once we’re ready to start! See you then~
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lettrespromises · 4 years ago
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#LettresPromises informs you : You have one notification.
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──➤ Roronoa Zoro sent you a love letter to celebrate +400 followers, would you like to read it?
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@newfriendjen sent a letter : ❝Hi Friend! Congrats again on your 400!! You definitely deserve many more! If you still have a spot open for you event (ignore if you filled them!), can I request: Smut Prompt #15 with Zoro 😏 please and thank you so much!❞ the author sent a letter : ❝dear jen, to say i got a bit carried while writing this is a bit of an understatement! but i hope you’ll like it as much as i liked writing it, all while cackling like a villain as i was writing this. thank you tons for the sweet words, you are such a sweetheart and i’m so lucky to know you! sending you lots of love! sealed with a kiss, nikki.❞
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──➤ Prompt used : #15 “Look at what you’re doing to me.” ─➤ Genre : Smut. ➤ Warnings : MINORS DO NOT READ THIS, 18+ ONLY. Sexual intercourse, jealous sex, mild degradation, choking, biting, cunninlingus, penetration, spanking (once), sir kink.
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The weather of the New World was often unforgiving, unpredictable, and at times, untamable. Sometimes, Mother Nature showed she was capable of crossing the limit of Nami’s extended knowledge regarding climate (and God knows her brain was severely infused with every secrets regarding the different kinds of weather, rendering her as a living, walking encyclopedia.) But alas, sometimes the rage of Mother Nature would be thrown upon any poor ship unready to face her wrath in the forms of undying tornados and waves that could reach the sky.
Hence why, every morning, Nami’s prediction on today’s weather was awaited by all, very much like a prophecy which was often set to come true— and if said prophecy announced any kind of weather gravitating around the lexical field of a natural catastrophe, one wouldn’t be surprised to perceive Usopp down on his knees in a praying position, diverse and unintelligible wishes to survive Mother Nature’s anger.
Much to the crew’s collective joy, the navigator had announced the most ideal weather— sunshine, a slight breeze and no cloud in sight, what appeared to be a regular weather in heaven. And, why of course, such a hot weather meant that both Nami and the local archeologist, Nico Robin, would bathe under the sun and relieve any kind of tension which had settled in after several fights (or just the exhaustion of having to deal with Luffy on a daily basis.)
And there you were, standing like a mannequin in the girls’ room in company of Nami and Robin, the latter throwing you an amused look at the way Nami was comparing which bikini would look better on you— the red one, an appeal for passion, or the black one, a statement of boldness? Her brows furrowed in unison at her poor attempt to make a decision, comparing how the colors married the shade of your skin.
« Robin, how are we feeling about the red bikini? It’s so cute, but I have a feeling something is missing… » The navigator wondered, her gaze falling on the taller woman next to her.
Robin couldn’t refrain from allowing a giggle from leaving her lips, surely it meant that she had her idea, an ill-intentioned one, that is. And, oh well, to say she had just a mere idea was an understatement : as she remained still, Robin summoned a couple of limbs to look for a green-colored bikini hidden in the drawers only to bring it to Nami’s attention. The two women shared a teasing glance, as if they communicated intentions filled with mischief through their eyes alone.
« I do believe something was missing, too. » Robin trailed off, bringing an index under her chin. « Something that might appeal to a certain swordsman. »
The evil cackle falling from Nami’s lips announced nothing good, and the sweet tone of her voice only deepened that sentiment. « You know how the saying goes : great minds think alike. »
« Hold on, what are you—… » You began, only to be cut off by the navigator, « Yeah, yeah, whatever you have to say, Y/N. We’re not fools, you know? You’re going to look like a real stunner with this bikini on, and I know that a certain someone won’t be able to resist. » She concluded her sentence with a wink sent your way, boy, sometimes you did understand why Zoro called her a witch at times.
« Join us when you’re ready, Y/N. I’m intrigued to see how this will go. » Concluded Robin, accompanying Nami towards the door to let you some privacy so you could change into the bikini, not that you have never changed in front of them and vice versa, but oh well.
You were now all alone, still haven’t moved an inch. Your thumb was brushing against the green fabric of the bikini over and over again until it had become some kind of obsession. But the more the motions continued, the more you realized that perhaps there was no other way to get out of this trap glamorously set by Robin and Nami. A sigh of despair left your lips, swearing to yourself that you’d have your payback sooner than later.
The door of the girls’ bedrooms slammed open, allowing your figure sculpted by the finest hands of the muses of beauty to be exposed to the kisses of the sun. The first sound to rip apart your thoughts was a squeal which left Nami’s mouth, the latter shaking Robin’s forearm with urgency to bring her attention onto you. « Robin, Robin! Look at her, isn’t she to die for? I’d bet all my money that Zoro is going to throw himself on her. I mean, just look at her! »
The same amused smile graced Robin’s facial traits, lowering her shades just a bit to have a good glance at how the oh so awaited green bikini embraced your body. « I must confess that it’s impossible to resist her. »
The words leaving her lips became clearer and clearer the more you approached them, a palette of rosy tones sitting proudly on top of your cheekbones at their compliments. « We saved you a seat, Miss I’m-too-sexy-for-my-own-good. Come with us! » Nami said, patting the empty spot next to her to which you wordlessly replied with a nod, sitting between her and Robin.
« You’re so evil, I kinda hate you for it. » A smile plastered upon your lips as the words died on your tongue.
« You love us and you know it. » Nami replied, letting her hand lingering on your forearm. « Ooh, would you look at that, Robin? The show is about to begin. » She concluded, taking a sip out of her cocktail with a gleam of mischief shining in her eyes.
And by show, the navigator undoubtedly meant the sudden appearance of the Sunny’s resident lover who had stormed out of the kitchen with a plate of different kinds of treats and cocktails for his ladies, spoiling them rotten on sunny days if it meant he could allow his eyes to linger a bit on your bodies in bikinis.
The first act of the show had begun in a flashy manner, as soon as Sanji closed the door leading to the kitchen behind him, the plate he was holding had fell onto the floor, a loud echo reasoning into the swordsman’s ears who was stuck in a deep state of slumber… Until now.
« I must have saved a country in my previous life to be worthy of such a privilege. » Sanji sobbed, falling onto his knees, « Y/N, you’re a goddess amongst us, we’re not worthy, I’m not worthy of your beauty. I will worship you everyday, I will cover you in love until my very last breath! » The cook continued, more and more praises falling from his lips in a continuous cascade as your cheeks were getting more and more red by the second. Alas, the more the blonde sang your praises, the more the swordsman was stirring awake— and if there was one thing Zoro hated with passion besides Sanji, it was waking up to loud noises.
Sanji had approached you, on one knee, the back of your hand pressed against his lips as the tears falling from his lips mixed with the blood leaking from his nose. « Thank you, my goddess, thank you for blessing my sore eyes. Words can’t describe how—… » And he went on and on again, his lips still traveling from the back of your hand to your forearm under Nami’s disgusted stare who yanked you away from him.
« My goddess—… »
« Oi! Do you ever shut up, stupid cook? » And despite the numerous occasions on which Zoro and Sanji have fought, Zoro’s words seemed intensely more acerbic, as sharp as the swords laying to his side, which even surprised Sanji.
« Were you talking to me, mosshead? » Sanji taunted.
« I don’t see anyone else here acting like a damn fool. » Zoro began, his sole eye conveying so much anger you could feel it. « Know your place. »
Nami elbowed Robin once more, the latter having long forgotten about the book sitting on her lap at this point. Sanji stepped towards the swordsman, dangerously reducing the space between the both of them until their foreheads were touching. There was no frown noticeable on Zoro’s face, but a blank expression which let through a pure anger. « She belongs to me, hands off what’s mine. » The swordsman spat, his shoulder hitting Sanji’s as he walked past him, leaving the cook in a stupor.
« Oi! You. » He said, pointing at your frame with his index. « Follow me. You and I are gonna’ have a word. »
He cursed himself for allowing his gaze to fall on your form, knowing damn well that with each second he spent looking at you in this green bikini (this damn color, he thought), the more he was falling under the spells casted by the muses of lust.
« Go get some! » Nami whispered, her tongue gracing her bottom lip.
« We expect all the details afterwards, my dear Y/N. » Robin giggled.
You had barely enough time to form any kind of response that you felt the foreign presence of Zoro’s digits snaking around your wrists and yanking you towards him. « Hey, I’m sure we can talk about this calmly, right? We can chat about it over a drink, I’ll ask Sanji to—… » Alas, your sentence never found its end, your mind going numb at the death glare Zoro sent your way as you mentioned Sanji’s name. But, paradoxically enough, it only fueled your arousal even more.
Zoro led you to the crow’s nest, trapping you and him both inside the same room. And as the silence grew heavier and heavier, until becoming asphyxiating, Zoro’s snicker broke the silence in the most mischievous way. A look of confusion was painted on your face, and you were quick to point at it. « W-What are you laughing at? »
« Do you think I’m fucking stupid? » Zoro half-asked.
You tilted your head to the side, slowly backing away until your back met the unforgiving surface of the wooden wall. « Answer me. » He demanded, one of his hand grabbing both of your wrists in one hold pinned above your head whilst his other hand cradled your jaw so you had no choice but devote your attention onto him.
« I don’t know what you’re talking about. » You pleaded, cheeks burning under the rosy tone as you felt his uneven breaths crashing against the column of your neck.
Wrong answer, Zoro shoved his knee between your already trembling legs. « You like the attention, hah? You love it when that pervert of a cook was throwing himself on you, is that it? Tch. » He was feeding his lust off of the scared expression on your face, blood rushing in the tightest space possible by the second.
« No answer, huh? ‘Guess I’m gonna have to teach you some manners, because it looks like you forgot who you belong to. » And with that, he dug his teeth into the skin of your neck, alternating between biting and sucking motions to form the most ravishing love bite— a symbol of belonging if you will. You squealed at the sudden sensation of his pearly whites inking his name into your skin, giving him exactly the reaction he was anticipating.
You rocked your hips against the thigh settled between your legs, a desperate attempt at getting some friction for your poor and aching core in need for attention. Zoro clicked his tongue once more at your antics, choosing to hush you by continuing the trail of hickeys adorning your martyr of a neck. « Care to explain what you’re doing? Throwing yourself on my thigh because you couldn’t get the shit cook, hah? You’re so fucking desperate, it makes me want to leave you there all alone. »
« Zoro! Please don’t, don’t leave me! I just need you, I don’t need anyone else but you! I promise I’ll be good but please, please, don’t leave me. » You pleaded, a clear veil of despair covering your eyes under his impassible expression.
The façade worn off soon, letting a smirk throne amongst his facial features instead. « Who do you belong to? » Zoro demanded, gliding the hand that was under your chin to your throat and applied just enough pressure to make sure to earn absolute submissiveness out of you.
« Y-You… » You choked out, the lack of oxygen marrying so well with your growing arousal.
His smirk only grew wider, a real testimony of the sick thoughts implanted in his brain that would make a demon blush. Both of his hand retreated to his side, gaze falling on the unmissable erection showing through his dark pants. His eyes alternated between you and the bulge in his pants, your mouth going dry at the wordless order. « If you want to be a whore, then be a good whore and suck me off, yeah? Don’t give me those eyes, you want it. »
You sunk to your knees, tongue wetting your lips in anticipation for what was bound to come. And whilst your eyes were stuck on his form, your fingers were busy tugging down at his pants to reveal his grey underwear stained with pre-cum. The sight of this alone was enough to send yet another wave of arousal down to your core. And as his cock sprung free from the constriction of his boxers, his girth slapping against his exposed abdomen and the tip rouge from anticipation, you were convinced you could’ve come undone from the sight of this alone.
« Suck. » He ordered, grabbing a fistful of your hair to force your towards his aching cock and the veil of pre-cum coating the tip.
And thus it began. You flattened your tongue, drawing a large lick from the base of his cock all the way to the tip where you finished with a few kitten licks, knowing damn well the head was where all the nerves devoted to pleasure were hidden. « Don’t tease and put your mouth to good use, whore. » Zoro said, almost betrayed by the groan threatening to be released.
Following the rules of performative language, you began to rock your head back and forth around his cock, making sure that your tongue was coating in a lustful love each inch of his girth whilst hums of pleasure were leaving your lips as you went. The hold of your hair in Zoro’s fist grew tighter and so did the metaphorical knots in his stomach as you went along, until the tip of his cock reached the back of your throat— such enticing sensation earned a growl out of him. Fuck.
« F-Fuck. Look at what you’re doing to me… Ah! Shit. Enough! » He ordered, yanking your head away from his cock, and the sight of the corners of your mouth dripping with the sweet marriage of his pre-cum and your drool could have provoked an orgasm out of him at this very moment.
« It’s too soon, and it’d be giving you what you want, huh? Too fucking bad, I’m going to cum in that sweet pussy of yours and you’re gonna love it. Ya’ hear me? » He asked without really asking, and taken by a rush of lust, you could only nod in return. « Y-Yes. » You stuttered. « You’re missing something. » Zoro added. You swallowed thickly before adding « Yes, yes, sir. » Your response caused an ill-intentioned snicker to fall from his lips. « That’s right. Now get on your back, and make sure to be as loud as you can, I want everyone on this damn ship to hear how I can make you scream. »
Zoro’s glorious height forced you to lay back until your spine touched the mattress where all the sins would soon break free. The smirk on his face never left, a pure testimony of what all the sinful deeds he was bound to accomplish. You were now trapped between his forearms, hips circled by his knees— bending under his dominance. « Did you wear that for me? » Zoro asked, slapping the string of the bikini top against your skin.
« I d-did, it’s all for you because I’m all yours. » Your response caused a chuckle to break from his lips, sweet words feeding his ego some more. And in a flash, his fingers had ripped said bikini top in half (you made a mental note that you now owed a serious debt to Nami), and there you were, (almost) in all you bare glory. « Fuck, if only you knew the things you do to me. »
Zoro wasted no time and threw all caution out of the window as his mouth latched onto your breasts, the motions of his tongue around your bud causing your spine to pay homage to the moon from how arched it was. His pink muscle flickered around your nipple before he swallowed your breast whole, his drool covering your flesh in a sinful veil. And because he was such a giver for his pretty girl, he gave the same treatment to the other breast whilst gasps left your lips over and over again at the methodical motions of his tongue, your anatomy held no secret for him.
« Are you going shy on me now? Did you forget what I said? » He trailed off, reducing the space between his lips and your ear, « I said I want you to be fucking loud. »
And with that, he left a trail of open-mouthed kisses down your stomach before tearing apart (once more) your poor martyr of a bikini bottom under your desperate attempts to keep it intact. Were you challenging him? Oh well… Zoro has always been the type to face any challenge thrown his way. « Zoro—… Sir, please! » You pleaded, not knowing really why.
« You’re such a desperate little thing, huh? » He leaned down to face your core, glistening in its lustful glory for him and him only. Zoro pressed a finger against your folds, dragging it vertically to obtain a finger pad covered in your slicks. « So fucking wet for me already? ‘Bet that shit cook can’t make you as wet as me. » He stated, confidence embedded in his every word. « Only you can make me feel this way, sir. » You replied before he crashed his lips onto yours in an uncharacteristically sweet manner to cut you off. « And why’s that? » The swordsman asked, already knowing the answer. « Because… Because I belong to you. » He pressed yet another kiss against your lips for having given the answer that had been lingering on his mind. « Good girl. »
Your reward came in the form of his tongue brushing your folds, flickering motions against your sensitive bud sending you in overdrive as continuous waves of pleasure washed over you ceaselessly, the knots in your stomach tightening each time his tongue touched you. Two of his digits poked your entrance, teasing you to let your torture last before they penetrated you. The sudden sensation caused you to let out a dragged whimper accompanied by his name coated in a sinful tone. « S-Sir please, please just fuck me— I can’t take the teasing, ahh, fuck, fuck! Please, please! » You begged, eyelids shutting close under the pleasure.
But your pleas fell in deaf ears as he kept pumping his fingers in and out of you, sucking onto your sensitive bud to build an orgasm within you that he was bound to deny. He knew you were close by the way you were holding his green hair, tugging him ever closer to your core to amplify the inferno burning within you. But alas, to your greatest displeasure, all the motions ceased in one go under the hint of mischief glowing in his eye.
« You’re gonna cum on my terms, and when I say so. Got it? » He seethed, knowing damn well that his own end was going to arrive soon. He gave his girth a few experimental pumps, allowing the pre-cum to cover his length before shoving the entirety of his cock in one go inside you, barely leaving enough time for your cunt to stretch correctly— and saying that a elongated moan left your lips was an euphemism, the sick grin plastered upon his face grew more and more as the sounds of pleasure drowned in his eardrums. « You’re so fucking tight, shit! » He breathed out, « Look at your pretty cunt swallowing me whole. »
The rhythm of his hips followed the scheme of a crescendo, each slam of his hips against your derrière drew a clearer portrait of both Zoro’s end and your own climax. The nature of the rhythm itself indicated that he was chasing after his own end, and with his head thrown back and his irises dilated under the hunger to satiate the raging fires breaking loose in his abdomen by the second. « S-Sir, it feels— Ah! It feels so good! »
The tip of his cock kissed ever so precisely the roof of your cervix where a panel of nerves designed to draw a lustful reaction out of you every time he thrusted into you. Your vision became more and more blurry until a liquid veil covered your eyes as pearls of tears gathered at the corners of your eyes. Under the pressure of each of Zoro’s thrusts, your body bent to his will and soon you had no longer control over your legs that used to be around his waist, only to be picked up by the swordsman who threw your legs over his shoulder, thus allowing him to reach a deeper part in you and the cries leaving your lips were just the proof of how good he made you feel.
More and more cries echoed against the wooden walls of the room, your sounds of pleasure marrying the groans falling from his lips in a cascade. « Ah, fuck, fuck! R-Right there, please! Shit…! » You pleaded to fuel him some more. His nails were digging into the luscious flesh of your thighs, drawing rouge crescents in his wake.
« Who do you belong to? » He groaned out, his eye admiring the lustful look on your face.
« Y-You! I belong to you, fuck, you a-and no one else! » You attempted to reply mid-moan.
But as much as Zoro knew your anatomy, you also happened to be an expert of his— and the way he planted his nails into your skin, the raw groans loosing their chains to be set free and the way his thighs were shaking… Everything announced the beginning of his own end.
« Cum with me… Now! » He ordered, letting his hand crash against your buttcheek in the process. And there it was, the marriage of two lovers under the spell of lust. The rhythm of his thrusts reached their apex, all whilst he painted your walls with the white color of passion. His own cum was mixing with your own elixir of pleasure leaking from your throbbing core as your cunt was clenching around his cock in despair. The sounds of his hips slamming against yours were long gone now, the room was solely filled with heavy breaths and his name falling from your lips over and over again like a forbidden prayer.
Although Zoro’s stamina knew no bounds, he felt like the oxygen had been knocked off of his lungs. But perhaps it was the price to pay if it meant he could observe you in all your post-orgasm glory after holding it inside you for so long. God, he was so proud of you, proud of every mark he had left onto your skin, proud of the way your skin gleamed under the sweat, proud of being your lover.
« ’S alright, ’s alright. I’m going to pull out, breathe. » Zoro demanded, the sweet tone reserved for you only finding its way back around his words. His digits snaked around his girth to pull out of you, only to witness the satisfying marriage of your cum and his own. You were so good to him.
And whilst you remained unable to move, Zoro fell to your side, his arms quick to lock you into an embrace as your head rested on his chest, his frenetics heartbeats echoing in your eardrums. You loved the peace of the aftermath of any sexual activity involving Zoro, you loved how peace seemed to bend his facial features in the most enticing way.
He was the first one to break the silence, pressing his lips against your forehead whilst he tugged you impossibly closer to him like a reminder that you were indeed here, and would always be. « So whose plan was this, hah? » He asked, earning a giggle out of you in response. « It was Nami’s, although Robin helped too. She said I would one hundred percent ‘get laid’ if I wore this. » You answered, head tilting towards the poor green bikini torn in pieces.
« That witch can go to hell. » Zoro groaned, but the raw tone of his voice was betrayed by the sweet caresses of his digits down your forearm.
« I mean, her plan did happen so I think it’s a win for her. It’s not like you regret what happened, mhm? » Alas, nothing but silence in return. « Zoro? » You called him, but an angel passed. « Zoro! » You repeated more sternly, and this time you were met with the sound of his snores— of course, typical Zoro fashion.
Well, you knew who you were going to thank now.
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sphor-art · 4 years ago
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NHO is here! Members including - Etho, Bdubs, Doc, and Beef
This one’s a bit long cause we have nho brainrot 😔 Keep reading below the cut
[hermitcraft borderlands au developed by me, @biinaberry and @that-gay-computer - more can be found at #hermitcraft borderlands au]
The NHO was a vault hunter group working under the SciCraft Research Organization, tasked with exploring Pandora to collect and research Eridian relics. Each member is assigned a ‘role’ based on their area of expertise. 
Doc was the impromptu ‘leader’, and was responsible for the more technical aspects of the mission: collecting data and studying chemical compounds using his Cool Robot Eye.
Beef spent several years studying Eridian language, culture, and music. He worked as a translator for any writing or scripture they come across.
Etho was the resident bodyguard and engineer - tasked with driving, fixing electronics, and keeping the party and relics safe from aggressive encounters with the Pandoran wildlife (and bandits).
Bdubs, with a history in precision excavation and demolition, worked to safely extract and transport any artifacts and relics back to the primary lab orbiting Pandora using Warp Tech. 
One of their travels yielded the discovery of a vault key. After affirming its legitimacy, they sent it up to be catalogued and charged. The SciCraft team on-site determined the location of the closest vault the key was attuned to, and sent the NHO to go study it.
The crew reached the vault, instantly being enamoured by both its size, and the sheer quantity of new material able to study. Weeks pass and Doc progressively descends into obsession. Doc keeps contact with the SciCraft team, insisting that with the vault open, the potential for new knowledge could be endless. Unfortunately Methodz calls him a dummy and says to just move on and wait for the Professionals to handle it.
Wanting to impress and potentially make his friends day, Bdubs suggests that he try to blow up part of the vault in order to potentially unveil more intel. Doc questions this decision at first, with Beef being strongly against the idea. Though Doc’s sheer urge to know more results in him agreeing.
Despite Beef's warnings and several protests, in the end Doc made the executive decision to pull through with opening the vault and ordered Bdubs to try and break it open by all means necessary, which in this case was an absolute shit ton of explosives. Bdubs executes the order, and with a simple press of a button, history was set in scars. 
Though Bdubs’ explosion was contained, the energy the vault released upon being chipped away was enough to send the group flying back into the newly formed crater, scarred not only physically but mentally. Beef, the least affected physically, called in Scicraft to get everyone picked up and taken to a hospital to deal with their wounds. Beef is no SNITCH, so he explained the situation to the medics, chalking it up to an accident with unstable eridium.
After all was settled down, the group decided to split up. While Beef and Etho made amends, Doc and Bdubs continued feuding, each blaming each other and being too stubborn to back down.
Doc would continue to work with SciCraft. The explosion blew off one arm, his already cybernetic eye, and inflicted multitudes of internal injuries. The SciCraft medics patched him up as best they could, but the severity of his injuries resulted in him needing multiple cybernetic implants that pump refined eridium into his system. Alas, Doc is far from a siren, so the eridium is slowly poisoning his body, but it, and Doc’s own stubborn refusal to die, keeps him alive for long enough to do more research.
Beef stopped working with SciCraft shortly after the incident - returning to his home planet to study zoology. After studying the strange behaviours of his planet’s wildlife in regards to elemental damage, he catches wind from Etho that eridium does some funky stuff to one’s body. Taking this as a challenge, and also decided that having a clone would be a great idea, Beef decided to invent a completely safe eridium powered cloning device. 
Etho went off the grid for a few months to find ‘enlightenment’. The conclusion of his journey is “money is quite cool actually - I would like more of it”. Thus, Etho founded Shade-E-E’s, a business run the only way he knows how: through big brains and shady business practices. This was short lived, however, with the company being bought out by ConCorp a year later. Cub, realizing that Etho used to work under SciCraft, decided to utilize that big brain of his to work under Stress on the Elpis Cryo Research Lab where he will be paid fairly. 
Bdubs left Scicraft almost instantly after being bandaged and stable. He would later work under Scar at Concorp Headquarters. Concorp’s employee management proves to be subpar when Bdubs gets sick of their shit and non-fatally shoots Scar during one of their business meetings. He then leaves to eventually find Xisuma and Keralis, becoming one of the founders for IDEA.
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cherriesradio · 4 years ago
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Valentines Day with Class 1-A
Monday
(Very long post, pure, tooth root, fluff)
(Divided by main groups)
Warnings: mentions of alcohol, very much unedited
Dekusquad
Deku
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He gently wakes you up by kissing your cheek and shaking you a bit, giggling.
“Wake up sleepyhead. I already made breakfast, your favorite.” He says, with a gentle smile as you turn over and get up for the day.
He takes you to the park. A place you two would take walks at almost every day, whenever Deku had free time from being the number one hero.
He picks flowers off the ground, pulling gently on your shirt to get your attention. When you turn around to him he puts the colorful flowers into your hair, giggling when you pull some out and put them in his.
Then the local boba shop, the one you two would save up for and get boba every week back in high school.
He laughed when you said you two should both get strawberry ones, “because, ya know, Valentines, pink, pink and valentine????”
You would share silly memories of whenever you two would invite others to go. Like when you invited the whole Bakusquad and Bakugo almost set the whole place on fire.
He would end the day by going to the very roof top he learned All Might’s secret. He knew the view wasn’t great, and that you didn’t have much sentimental value to it even though you knew, but it was similar to you.
How it was a part of changing his life for the better, how every time he walked by it he got a little bit happier, how it reminded him of a time he was weak and how much he has improved. It made him feel powerful and like he could do anything some how, and so did you.
He leans over while holding your hand and kisses you softly, a small satisfyed “hmp” coming form your throat
Asui Tsuyu
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You woke her up. You wanted to make her breakfast, but also knew how much she loved making breakfast along with you.
Once you dragged her out of bed, she woke right up by you splashing down freezing water in her face. You quickly planted millions of kisses on her face, “to warm you back up! All the cold blood, and all!”
She much preferred to stay at home, but wanted to go out some place fancy for the special day.
About two days ago she reserved a spot at a restaurant that had a frog pond and a fountain, that was outside yet felt warm apart from the cold night air.
For most of the day you stayed inside, cuddling and watching movies. Most were romace comdeys that probably no ones else knew existed.
You two face times the rest of the Dekusquad, since everyone was in differing parts of Japan.
Luckily Deku and Ochako lived pretty close by, so you two figured it would be fun to go to the restaurant with them. A double date, which you had loved since the first one back in your UA days.
You two, begrudgingly, changed out of your pj’s and changed into fancy-jet, more appointments clothing.
It made you so happy seeing the large grin on her face and glow in her eyes as she saw you in your dress/ suit/ whatever fancy wear.
You two hopped out of the car, deciding to park a little far since you two hadn’t been out of the house all day, therefore didn’t get any exercise. So, why not get a few calories off from the whole pack of oreos you ate while watching Mean Girls?
Then when you are finally there, at your seats, waited for Deku and Ochako. Saying inside jokes, poking each other’s sides and holding in giggles among with the many other couples.
When they finally arrived, five minutes late because Deku had to remind his agency that he was having the day off, ordered.
You and a great time, sharing laughs and how your life’s have been lately.
When you got home around 10 o’clock, you slept the rest of the night trying to sleep.
But as normal, you made werid noises to make the otehr giggle, keeping them up, both of you being asleep by two in the morning after giving up and looking at YouTube for a hour before falling asleep.
Ochako
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You had decided to spend Valentines with her parents. You hadn’t seen each other in a while and found that it would be nice, especially because of how much Ochako values family.
They are so kind when you two walk in the door with the biggest grins and with a warm, comforting arua seemingly circulating you.
They offer food and little gifts but you deny all of them, knowing they can barely afford giving gifts with how their company is still small.
You two use your hero money and go out and buy them furniture, and clothes, and food, and everything they could ever need for months.
They are so grateful and can’t believe their little Ochako grew up to be as amazing as she is, with a loving, responsible lover by her side at all times.
That night when you get back home, you share stories you and surely already told about your childhoods and how much you love your family’s, biological or not.
Iida
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He wakes you up accidentally, he was doing all the paper work he had for the day in the morning so he could spend the majority of the day with you.
The speedy scratch of the pencil on his paper woke you up, whispering in a low morning voice “Tenya, dear? Your already awake?”
He turned in his office chair, a small smile on his face seeing your droopy eye lids and messy hair.
“Yes, love. I wanted to do all the work I had so I can spend time with you. Like how I did all my school work before you came to my dorm back in UA.” He smiled, you smiling right back.
“Alright, I’ll go make breakfast. Oatmeal or pancakes?” “Eh, it’s Valentine’s. Let’s go with pancakes for once.”
He put his head on your shoulder as he hugged you from behind, you flipping the pancakes messily, most landing folded in half.
When both of you were ready and had gotten out of your sleepy states, you went to walk around the city.
You brought your wallets. You visited a indoor petting zoo first. All the goats were weirdly fluffy and soft, and you brushed at the sheep’s fur in awe. He told you tons of facts that you wouldn’t ever normally learn, like how sheep actually need to have their wool taken off or else their overheat.
Then you went a few more blocks down and found a nice smaller library, with a cottage core aesthetic.
You walked in, quickly grated by the friendly old lady at the check out, and waved.
You two spent hours sitting, researching random things you never knew you needed to know.
You would occasionally tap the otehr shoulder to show them a good piece of writing, or something interesting.
After a few hours you went back how with him carrying you, both of you tired from walking all day.
You went home and spent the rest of the night watching documentaries, some that were funny and dumb but some that were smart and made you want to watch it again and again.
You went to bed, both facing each otehr with your arms wrapped around his neck and his around your chest.
Todoroki
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Both of you accidentally wake up. He was being the big spoon, and in his sleep he accidentally used his quirk (due to his usual nightmares) and made you just a tab (WAY) to hot. You shrieked and woke him up.
You two giggled, finding that the other was awake. He quickly used his quirk and made the hot spot feel colder, but not to cold. And you told him that everything will be alright, that his nightmares aren’t real anymore. They will never be again.
You jokingly said you should do the thing where you cook on his left side like you did most mornings in UA, and he seriously said “sure”
Of course they tasted horrible because of his sweat and you two had to have an emergency trip to the grocery and got chocolate chip muffins
And of course got distracted and got a ton of other sweets as well
You spent pretty much the whole day in, goofing around, having hour long calls with friends, watching movies, cuddling, anything else you would do on a rainy Valentines Day
And of course, you had to go on Amazon and buy way to much with endeavors credit card that you went on a adventure to steal a few weeks ago and having been saving for a special occasion
As you were in the middle of a puzzle together, the rain calmed down a bit
“Hey, hey, love?” He gently grabbed your wrist in the middle of moving a corner piece
“Yes, darling?” You said, slightly surprised
“Can you and I go out for a second? I wanna try something.” You could resist and said yes, the glow in his eyes was to much to not say yes.
He grabbed an umbrella form the garage and pulled you under as you walked out, softly smiling as he wrapped his arm around your waist.
He brought you to the end of your driveway, righ next to the small garden you two had planted mostly out of boredom 
He pulled you close and gently kissed your lips, softly. He let it last longer then his normal mere seconds long pecks, allowing it to last for what was probably half a minute, and pulled away
“Is that all we came out here for?” You titled your head to the side, cocking an eyebrow
“Yes.” He brightly smiled. “I read somewhere that kissing someone in the rain is romantic. And if it’s at night, or as it is right now late afternoon, it’s extra romantic.”
You giggle at his attempt of romance, which did work. How he got to doing it was odd, but that was how he found out about most romantic things.
Bakusquad
Bakugo
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He definitely woke you up. He was ecstatic about the day, having big plans (*insert Kenny face*)
“SUKI WHAT THE HELL ITS FIVE IN THE MORNING WHY DO I NEED TO GET UP” “JUST GET UP I HAVE BIG PLANS OKAY GET UP OR ILL DRAG YOU” “JESUS”
He did drags you out, sadly (he drags real hard)
He then throws you on the couch while putting one of your favorite movies, and goes to make bacon eggs and pancakes
You eat, sitting inbetween his legs leaning onto him and watch the movie, maybe a few more until most normal people would be up
He occasionally title your head back so he can kiss your forehead, hair kisses feel werid on his lips
He gets the whole Bakusquad together, surprising everyone but they good
They all come to your house and Bakugo’s all “okay now we’re gonna go to the mall let’s go”
And he buys you literally everything
You can glance at it with the tinyest bit if interest and he’ll buy it
Then you all go for frozen yogurt and it’s good but you get a Brian freeze
And as probably the only in character thing he did all day, he made fun of you for it
Everyone goes home, thanking you two for the good Valentine’s Day
You two go to UA, right in front of the closed building (it’s a weekend, only the employees would be there)
You two remember how you first meet here, how you bumped into him while talking to a friend, and he was ready to yell at you, but he was to star struck by how beautiful you were to say a word.
He blushed
He asks you to turn around
You think it’s just something he secretly bought you back at the mall while you weren’t looking
It wasn’t
“Y/n, you can turn around now.”
You turn around back to him, and at first see how the sunset is perfectly on him, making him look better then ever
Then you notice his pose, his sweet yet needy expression, his hands… what he’s holding
“Will… will you marry me?”
You cover your mouth, quickly collapsing into a tight hug around his shoulders, kissing his cheek
“Yes, stupid! Of course, Jesus, I’ll gonna beat you up as soon as we get home! I love you so much!”
He laughs at how your words don’t match whatsoever
He kisses you passionately, glad that he asked Kirishima to secretly take a video ;)
Kirishima
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He was so excited. He tried so hard not to wake you up, but the light sizzling woke you.
You woke up and walked into your kitchen. There stood Bakugo and Kirishima, Bakugo teaching Kirishima how to cook something. Bacon, maybe?
“No, shitty hair, you gotta flip it when the sizzlings a “ssss”, not a “zzzzzz” Bakugo stupidly said
“Kiri? Bakugo?” You said, rubbing your tried eyes, still in one of the large collection of stolen shirts, looking like a huge mess
“Hey dumba-“ “Mornin’, Pebble!”
Kirishima made Bakugo help him make you breakfast, like before, eggs bacon and pancakes. He added a large amount of butter to grease the pan, so they were extra good.
You smiled and waxed to Bakugo as he walked out, just barely seeing him have a small smile at how happy Kirishima and you, two of his best friends, were together
After breakfast you had one of your normal “concerts” where you scream-sing to recent songs you’ve taken a liking to, recently being more trendy songs like “driver’s license” “snowman” and some more odd ones like “Hadal Ahbek” and “good at loving you”
You then go to every dog cafe and cat cafe you can run/walk to, each of you loving the bright and happy look on the others face seeing all the cute animals
You run alariund town, seeing and talking to other couples who honestly kinda envy how helathy and great your relationship is
At late noon you two went back to your apartment
You took a shower together cause you were both sweaty and smelly from running so much and the dog smell wore off on you
He loves when you help wash his hair, wcshing it from the front and kissing his forehead every once and a while
You two get out and change, wearing a shark and dog onsie because your amazing people
You have the dinners night you could ever have
Having adventure time aka the show that you and rewtcahed a thousand time playing softly in the background, tickling each other, giggling at weither or not the neighbors could hear, prank calling the Bakusquad, trying to make a good looking cake, failing bust at least it tasted good?
Overall the best night in you could have after a dog and running filled day
Mina
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She wakes you up, a happy grin on her face because she knows you planned something; because you always talk about how you want to pay her back for being so good to you
She’s clearly excited and you grin, some how bigger than her, happy to see her so excited already
You lift yourself from bed, quickly covering her face in kisses before getting up and ordering Uber eats for breakfast
You took her to her favorite shop, a small known one right on the corner of a safe street, only having a villain go through every couple of months, if at all
It was a nice shop, being something that. Colorful animal prints, pro hero merch, etc…
It somehow even played her favorite songs, which isn’t as surprising as it should be because she usually listened to normal, trendy songs
You two bought what felt like the whole store, then went back home to have a good old fashioned at home fashion show
You giggle and laugh, at some point falling on the floor because of how she tried to make you laugh.
You stayed inside and goofed around for the rest of the day, which honestly wasn’t to long.
Around eight you gently tugged in her wrist. “Yeah honeybun? What’s up?” She said, still having a large smile plastered on her face
“Come outside with me for a second, okay? And let me cover your eyes!” You grin, her quickly nodding a yes.
You walk outside of the house, stopping right in front of the fence lining your yard.
You take your hands off her eyes, smiling at her loud gasp.
All of class 1-A, together, for the first time since you graduated. Of course there had been many times you tried to get everyone together again. But with how almost all of the class was in the top 50 hero’s, having Todorki Bakugo and Deku being the top three, Mineta being the only one not in the top 100, it was difficult.
“Y/n! I can’t believe you! This is amazing!”
She turns and hugs you, quickly going back and running towards the others, giving them all giant hugs and chanting how much she missed having them all together.
The class played board and video games, tackled each other, and drew faces on whoever fell asleep for the rest of the night.
They all slept at yours, it was a lucky barrels everyone could fit.
Before you two, the last ones awake, went to bed she turned you to her and kissed you.
“Thank you. This is better then I could’ve imagined. I love you so much, and I’m so glad Im going to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Denki
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You both woke on your own pretty much at the same time, Deki accidentally hitting you with his forearm when he moved to sit up.
You laugh, making him make breakaways for punishment. He, knowing you were still in bed and would probably prefer it over his crappy cooking, went out and got donuts
You did like it more then his *unexperienced* cooking
You were still pretty sleepy during and after breakfast, so he gave you the usually little shook to wake you up.
He goes to work because he was unlucky enough to be stuck on duty on VALENTINES DAY
but, he still wanted fro show you how much he loved you even when he was gone, so the night before you left tons of silly love notes around the house.
As you cleaned the house because it had been drover since your last off day to, you found notes around the house
Stupid stuff like “Love, you make my knees weak arms spaghetti” and “Do you believe in love at first sight? If not I need to walk by you again”
It made you laugh and blush, then continue to your normal cleaning
Once he got home, he looked tired and annoyed
“Babe you wouldn’t believe how sucky the boss was today-“ He started, ready for one of his normal rants. You pull his face down, kissing his forehead.
You hugged him tightly, running your hands through his hair. “I’m sorry. ‘Bout this, I missed you all day. Those notes were funny, and sweet. Thank you.”
He instantly melted to you, burying his head in your neck and mumbling a quick “it’s okay, I really like it…”
His breath was hot on your skin, and… oh god he fell asleep
You carried him to the couch, took his shoes off, blanket… the shebang
You made dinner quickly, not wanting to wake him or make him anywhere he could get annoyed again
Once all of dinner was ready and just needed to cool a bit, you tapped his shoulder to wake him up. He’s such a light sleeper.
“Huh? Sparky? What… where am I? Wasn’t I… wasn’t I being all, ya know, in love with you?” He said, face squished up on a throw pillow.
You chuckle. “Yeah, you fell asleep so I put you on the couch. Dinners cooling off, so yeah.”
He smiled up at you and got up, full of energy from the good nap. He sprung up and kissed your cheek as he walk-ran to the counter, wanting to find what you made
“My favorite!” He cheered with a large smile. “You remember everything! You most love me so much.”
“I do. And you love me lots as well.” You said, sitting on the counter.
You ate dinner like that, you sitting on the counter and him standing, probably talking to you even with a mouth full.
You two decided to go out by night, since you spent the whole day at home or work.
You go to bar but everyone is extremely drunk, so figure it’s best not to
You then go to a all-times Walmart, deciding tonight was a time to be crackheads
They take some carts and ride around the parking lot, inviting Kirishima and Sero to come be weirdos
They come in like 2 seconds
“YOOOOO CARTS” “CARTS MAN”
That’s my Ted Talk
Sero
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He wakes you up by hanging off the ceiling, and tapping your back
“Huh? Oh, spidey.” You laugh, hopping off the bed as he sways on his tape.
“Was that a good aka up call, sweetheart?” He said s with a cheeky grin
“Yes, stupid.” You ruffle up his hair and go to brush your teeth, now used to not eating breakfast because neither does Sero
( worry he didn’t make you stop, you just got out of the habit stemming from him)
He kissed your cheek as he went off to water your small flower garden handing on the apartment balcony.
Once he came back, you two watched a few romance comedies and tried to find out what in the world you neared to do that day.
“Maybe… oh, we havnt gonna roller shaking in a while?” (I headcanon that Sero likes roller skating lol)
“That’s sound great. Maybe invite the gang? Or would you rather it just be us?” You tutored your head, away from the characters you didn’t really care for because neither of them were that good. At least the bad people go together.
“No, going with the gang sounds great! I’ll go call them and see if they’re free!” He said, climbing out of the nest you had made around you two.
When you got there most of the group was already there, everyone else coming only minutes after you.
You have a great time exhausting yourselves, Sero pulling you around with his tape, you using your quirk to go faster, and generally goofing around.
Once you get back to your shared apartment, your both tired out and ready to cuddle while on the edge of sleep, watching random shows on Netflix.
And you did just that, Sero just barely staying awake enough to turn the tv off right before he fell asleep.
Extra’s (aka ones that a simp for that are rarer)
Aoyama
He ADORES valentine day
He goes all out, the most cliche thing you could imagine
Chocolate, overly expensive roses, cards, the whole shebang
Ojiro
It’s not the biggest thing for him
Like, he loves you everyday and wants to express that everyday, why reserve one day for doing it but being extra with it?
Kinda just takes the day off and does the normal, but the whole day sorta thing
Like, take a walk, cooking together, cuddle a bit, normal stuff
Kouda
He tries his best
He thinks that the classic “be publicly affect, give lots of gifts” kinda thing
But he doesn’t like (aka has a burning hate) for pda
They say it’s fine that he doenst want to go out, and that they can stay in all day
Fin.

108 notes · View notes
mings · 4 years ago
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Some context...
...in relation to that last post. This is a lo-o-o-o-ong read, so feel free to skip right by if catharsis bores you.
This starts way before I joined tumblr; in fact, long before tumblr was even a thing.
Twenty years ago, we lived in a huge house backing onto the English Channel. We moved there from Scotland, which turned out to be (probably) the biggest mistake of my life. 
Within nine months of buying the place, the company I’d moved to work for nearly folded. I and most of the workforce were made redundant. That set in motion an existential battle with our mortgage insurer, which refused to pay out because I “must have known” when taking out the insurance. (I didn’t, and they eventually caved in after destroying my credit record, but that’s another story.)
Work wasn’t immediately available; none that would at least cover the bills. We got inventive, wrote a business plan, obtained finance & bought a franchise. It went pretty well for the first three years, but we had to bust a gut to make the required income. It wasn’t easy. Eventually, the franchise operator messed up relations with several key players in our insurance market. Within three months, we lost 75% of our revenue. I had to close the workshop & find part time work to make ends meet. Ultimately, we decided to close the business, sell the house and downsize to something more manageable.
What’s the relevance of this? We tried hard to keep our precarious financial state form the kids. Maybe we didn’t do as well as we thought. Our son had already become withdrawn. He’d fallen in with a group of local lads about whom we had grave misgivings. Of course, there was no discussing it. We were “over-reacting” and unreasonable. It was around that time that he decided to jack in his education. I couldn’t criticise; I’d done the same. I pulled some strings and got him a job at our local Royal Mail delivery office.
We moved to our new place. It was a stressful move. Trying to fit into a house that was literally half the size was never going to be an easy task. One afternoon, our son came home from work and soon after announced he was going out. “See you later.” Only we didn’t. He didn’t come home that night. Nor did he turn up for work the next day. Nor the day after. And nor the day after that. Within a week he was written up for unauthorised absence. We had no way of contacting him. His case was heard in the following weeks. I could offer no mitigation. He was sacked for abandonment of duty. That tag that means he’ll never work for them again. 
We still had no idea where he was. We only knew he was alive because we met a couple of his friends who couldn’t believe he’d not been in touch. Still no word. My wife was in shreds; I suspect any of you who are parents can identify with that. I was alternating between trying to prop her up and stay on top of my job, all the while under a constant barrage of barracking (Oh, we don’t mean anything by it, it’s just banter....)
About three months in I’d had enough. Sleep was a scarce resource so I rose at the crack of dawn and started on a trip, rousting one after another of the friends and acquaintances that I knew, following leads until finally I tracked him down to a sordid bedsit several towns and 40 miles away. At least he answered the door and looked sheepish. He offered no explanation or apology, and has never done so to date. He refused to come back home, but promised to keep in touch. 
We know he bounced from one sofa to another in the next few months. He spent time in some of the worst areas in the county for drug abuse. He fell into a relationship with a girl that looked promising initially and subsequently fell apart. Later, he surfaced in another town with another girl whom he subsequently married. She often spoke of his irascible temperament and moods. Ultimately the marriage was doomed; she was younger than him, found a new interest and moved out. One wonders now how much of that was her and how much she’d put up with before voting with her feet.
He’s stumbled from one financial crisis to another. Money just evaporates. It’s as though adulting is a mystery beyond his reach. I’ve lost count of the times that we’ve thrown money at him and I don’t want to even think about how much. It’s literally thousands, always a loan, yet he never, ever pays back.
He left his job. That was inevitable too; he worked for his ex-father-in-law’s company. Heaven only knows how long the writing was on the wall; it was pretty swift once she left. He drifted again. He chose to live in a squalid flat with no heating rather than move back with us. Absolutely his choice, not ours. 
We moved to Scotland. That meant all his stuff had to go into storage. Quick rewind - he moved all his stuff to ours when he gave up the house he & his ex lived in, but refused to move back home. I had to rent a storage unit to make space for all his gear & when we moved I shifted all his gear into the store, gave him the key & told him I’d paid three months up front; after that it was his to deal with. Apparently, he surrendered the store and moved all his gear into the flat...
Fast forward to a couple of months back. He’d run out of options at the flat. His flatmate was “really difficult” to live with. His ex had moved away, taking their son with her. He had nothing left to stay for and, surprise, he’d lost his job again so he couldn’t afford the rent. 
My wife convinced me we should give him one last shot, citing his fragile mental health. I agreed on the strict understanding that we are simply no longer in a position to support him. He assured us he’d be applying for work as soon as he got here. We rarely see him before midday...
We agreed the end of the first week in March. We knew he’d arrive with a ton of stuff so we had (again) to create space. That’s infinitely more difficult now we’re running a B&B, but we set to the task. Suddenly, two weeks sooner than we’d agreed, he rented a van and was on his way. No discussion, no warning. We only found out because he put something on FB. 
Finally, after trying to reach him most of the day, he phoned. Whilst we should have been relieved, instead we were treated to a barrage of abuse because all the petrol stations were shut. Of course they were. It was in a national lockdown and why would they stay open when there was no one on the roads? JFC, who embarks on a journey in sub-zero temperatures across some of the most inhospitable country in the UK without enough fuel? With a six year old child. Yes, not only did he forget to tell us about his change of plans, he forgot to tell us he was bringing his son too.
We drove south through the night for two hours to find him somewhere in the Cairngorms where he’d run out of fuel. No fuel meant no heaters at 1500 feet in deep snow. The ambient temperature was -5ºC/23ºF & with wind chill that was probably around -10ºC/14ºF. We found him & refuelled his van. No thanks, just another barrage of abuse, because he was tired. We took his son into our car & drove the two hours back in near silence. I think we knew then that it was an awful predictor of what was to come.
We’ve had row after row. He accused me of being passive-aggressive in the last. He actually ticks all the boxes for passive-aggressive behaviour. I’ve never been tagged with that before; if anything I’m too forthright, blunt even. That’s a failing to which I will admit. If by that he meant that I don’t talk about the elephant in the room, it’s only because we fear it’ll lead to another explosion.
He never saw the damage that we sustained during our fostering years. He was never there. Yet here we are, experiencing flashbacks to those traumatic incidents; the parallels are exact. We have the benefit of years of training. We recognise manipulative behaviour when we see it - we were trained by some of the nations best exponents - and we know divisive tactics implicitly.  What he doesn’t know is that he will succeed only in pushing us closer together and alienating himself even further.
There are clear and well-documented links between cannabis and mental health issues. He is allowing the drug to determine his life choices. Although I may be wrong, I think he’s cultivating skunk, which is nothing like the weed that circulated in my youth. The smell that pervades our hallway is instantly evocative of high strength Afghan resin. It’s also going to be acutely difficult to eradicate before we’re due to open.
We’ve endured 20 years of this treatment. I know that even if we have a ritual burning, it will only be a matter of time before we’re back here again. We’re old. We’re tired. And we’ve worked our socks off (and still do) to achieve what we have. Maybe somewhere along the way we missed something. But I’m at a stage where I’m so far beyond this I just want it to stop.
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rpmemes-galore · 3 years ago
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a few people wanted to know the story, so enjoy.  fair warning, its a long, rough read, with a buncha triggers possible throughout.   but hey, hey, enjoy, i guess?  will probs end up deleting this later today and gonna work on memes.  hope y’all are doing okay, take care. 
My relationship with my older brother has always been really... rocky. Without going into too much potentially triggering detail, he hurt me a lot when I was younger, so there's a lot of fear surrounding him. Saying that now as the reason for why I could never stand up to him for this.
A few years ago, my family decided that someone should move into our late grandparents home to look after the place, and I immediately volunteered. I loved that home, that farm. There were a ton of good memories there, and I was so excited when my family agreed. But, then my health took a downward turn and it was decided I couldn't live alone due to safety reasons. Enter, my older brother. He was in his late twenties at the time, and parents wanted him to finally move out, so they said he was going to come live with me there to keep an eye on me in case something happened. I wasn't happy about it, but he was the only one who could, and the only way I'd get to live at my late grandparent's place, so I agreed to it.
Right from the start, things were not great. He didn't help unbox anything except for his own belongings... No kitchen stuff, no bathroom stuff, just his clothes and computer. As it was just me doing it, and with my fragile health at the time, it was taking me a long while to get it all done. And that's when my aunt thought it was a great idea to start doing weekly visits, i.e. inspections of the place. She got pissed when she saw things still boxed up after a week of being there, but told me she was willing to look past it if it got put away soon.
I busted my butt getting everything put away, then. But I was contending with other issues at that point. He'd started messing up the house. I would wake up to find garbage and crumbs across the kitchen counters and table, dirty dishes dropped wherever he was closest to, and his dirty laundry dropped on the living room floor. His room started getting bad, as well. From about a month of being there, it started to stink. I went in a few times and there would be dishes with rotting food on his dresser. The floor was covered in a layer of food wrappers and other garbage. Dirty laundry was thrown everywhere. His game discs, which we'll come back to later, would be laying unprotected on the floor.
It just got worse from there. At the start, he'd tidy up a little bit after himself. If I asked politely enough, he'd throw garbage away or bring his dishes out of the room... only if I asked him. Three months in. That changed. He started getting snippy at me, slamming and locking his door if I asked him to do anything around the house. His messes were getting worse, and it was just me trying to play catch-up everyday. It got to the point my morning routine was wake up, head out to the kitchen while picking up any dirty laundry / garbage on the way, gather up dirty dishes from around the room and put them on the counter to wash, wash a few of them just to get a headstart, wipe crumbs off all counters and table, wash the rest of the dishes (I still don't understand how he could use so many in a single night), sweep floors if the crumb situation was bad enough. All this before I'd allow myself to have anything to eat or drink, due to sheer panic of my aunt stopping by unannounced again and seeing the place in this state.
My brother was working a very part time job at the time and, as soon as he left for his shift, I would pounce on his room. I'd haul out armfuls (plural) of dirty dishes which I'd then hurry to wash, I'd carry out at least one full, heavy duty garbage bag of trash. I would try to make his bed after brushing off the crumbs. All this in the few hours I had before he'd get back home. And he would always get incredibly pissed at me for it, which I understand. I know it was an invasion of privacy and, if not for the aunt, I wouldn't have done it... But the state of his room was going to get us both evicted, so I felt justified doing it.
It went on this way for a year and half. During that time, he made me bring his game discs in to get them fixed, had me pay for them, and never paid me back. I wound up in the emergency room on three separate occasions, all due to working myself to the point of over-exhaustion and aggravating already pre-existing health problems. Once, when I was away for a few days, he'd turned my room into a storage room. Ie, he threw all his laundry and belongings on my bedroom floor because he didn't want to deal with them. I wound up having to sort through it and pick it all up. He moved the landline phone into his room, essentially cutting off my contact to the outside world behind a locked door as my cellphone barely had any service there. He took food money from me, against my will, to buy his own... Would eat part of it and let the rest rot in the fridge until I cleaned it out. (important note, I have a lot of dietary restrictions. So it's not like I could just snack on it or share it with him. I just had to deal with him basically stealing my food money, then wasting it on food I couldn't even eat.) He would lock himself in his room anytime the aunt came by, making me have to face her wrath on my own, because I had no lock on my door, and I wasn't allowed to put one on. He would barge into my room uninvited, but get pissed if I went into his. He would expect me to play video games with him and throw a fit if I said no, even after I explained that I had too much cleaning to do and, if he really wanted me to play with him, he would have to lend a hand so it would be done quicker and I might have energy to play. He never did. He wouldn't empty out our cat's wet food and would just let it go moldy if I wasn't there for a few days... and would 'forget' to refill her water.
The only jobs he was expected to do around the house were emptying the cat litter for our one cat and vacuuming, both things I physically couldn't do because of severe asthma. And once a week, he was supposed to bring laundry over to our parents place to wash, as we didn't have a washer or dryer. I remember him vacuuming once the whole time we were there. He rarely emptied the cat litter, which meant I would wind up having to do it once in a while and just suffer through a serious asthma attack afterwards. He also rarely brought the laundry over. I wasn't able to drive, so I would wind up having to ask my mom to bring it over with her when she visited. Three jobs. He hardly ever did any of them, but still expected the house to be clean when our aunt stopped by and would be upset if it wasn't. He just didn't want to have a hand in getting it that way.
On the subject of other family, I tried reaching out. My parents would visit on occasion. They both knew how bad it got, they'd seen it at the worst. I'd even called my mom in a full crying panic more than once, when the aunt called in the morning to say she she'd be there in an hour... And the house wasn't clean. Mom had to come over and help me speed clean it, with me working through a full-blown panic attack, scared I wouldn't have it "clean enough" by the time the aunt got there. Mom is also the one who drove me into the ER. She knew how bad it was, but he was her golden child. The "can do no wrong" child, and I was always the problem. She would tell me I was making it out worse than it was, that it wasn't that bad, that it wasn't his fault he was messy, that I should just deal with it and clean up after him. Dad would at least seem sorry for me. He'd tell me he wished my brother would clean up after himself, but that there was nothing he could do. Aunt just didn't want to hear my excuses. She would yell at me for the state of the place, after I'd worked myself half to death cleaning already. She blamed me for it, threatened to kick us out over every tiny thing wrong. Made passive aggressive comments. Took pictures and said she would show them to the rest of our relatives so they'd know how we were destroying the house, ect.
A year and a half of this. I lost a dangerous amount of weight. I hardly slept, hardly ate, anxiety spiked so badly I was having panic attacks at least once a week, especially toward the weekend when I knew the aunt was coming. All of my days were devoted to cleaning up after him. I dropped hobbies just to wash dishes or pick up his garbage. I even pulled an all-nighter just trying to make the house look presentable... After I'd been in the hospital and spent a few days at my parents place recuperating, so you can imagine the state of the house.
Toward the year and a half mark, I met my now husband. When we decided he should come spend the weekend, I was both happy and terrified. I worked myself to the point of passing out to make the place look decent. I asked my brother to help, told him we would be having company, and was met with a slamming door in my face while he went back to his video games. Now husband came up, we had a great time and chose to make it a weekly thing.
It was about a month into that when I went away for the weekend with my then bf. At this point, he kind of knew how bad it could get and just wanted to get me out of there for a few days. He'd even given my brother a piece of his mind for not emptying the cat litter and making me do it, because of my asthma. So brother hated him. Told me to break up with bf for being "rude" to him. Even called my mom to complain about it and it I got chewed out by my mom for "letting" my bf at the time talk to my brother that way. I was beyond sick of brothers bullcrap. I was exhausted. Had been in the ER just recently because of him, again, and needed to get away. Bf took me up to a cabin and we spent the weekend there, had an amazing time. And brought me home. From the second I stepped back into the farmhouse, I wanted to cry. It was an absolute disaster, like the brother had gone out of his way to destroy the place. So much garbage, laundry, dishes, ect. I said goodbye to the bf, who was horrified and reluctant to leave... And I started trying to make a dent in the horror show that was the house. It didn't take long for me to breakdown. When I called the bf that night to make sure he'd gotten home safe, I told him how bad it was. And he invited me to move in with him. I jumped at that chance for more reasons than one.
Brother took immediate issue with this. He threw a fit when I told him. Straight up told me I was being selfish, that I didn't appreciate all he did for me, that how dare I leave, how could I DARE to move in with someone who talked to him that way!! I just packed up a few of my things and went with the bf. Just like that. I was out.
It was three months before I went back to grab a few more of my things. In that time, brother had gotten an eviction notice from our aunt and was having to move back in with the parents. And I don't blame her one bit. Let me paint a picture for you of what I saw when I walked in the house: he'd run out of room for garbage on the counter and table, it was stacked too high, so.. he'd opened the oven, pulled the racks out and was piling garbage up on them, instead. Guess what the only place that didn't have garbage was... The pristine garbage can. The living room floor was covered in his dirty laundry. He had run out of clean dishes and resorted to using Tupperware lids as plates, with the dirty dishes covering the entire counter by the sink or stacked in his room. Speaking of, I caught a glance inside his room. The smell was worst in there. I could tell there was food in there from the time I left... Didn't try to take a step inside, obviously, not that there was a place to step. Keep in mind, this is AFTER the aunt had visited and demanded he cleaned up. She'd seen it this way, blew her top, and he still didn't give a crap. I, on the other hand, panicked. Call it ingrained at this point, but I started frantically cleaning. It was only my bf who stopped me. Had to actually grab my hands and hug me to get me to stop, with me hyperventilating and close to a panic attack. We got my things and got the hell out of there. But not before I noticed my brother seemed upset that I hadn't cleaned up while I was there.
Brother's living back with our parents and has trashed his room there. He's still pissy at me for calling him out on the way he treated me, and thinks I'm still required to be nice to him because mom says I should... and that he did absolutely nothing wrong with the way he behaved. He's also still holding a grudge against my hubby for him having the utter gall to tell him to be an adult and clean up after himself. Mom still denies it was bad (even though she's dealing with it now) or that I have anything residual from that time, despite the fact I told her that I get panicky and shaky when the place I'm living, now, gets even slightly untidy.
For me, I'm happier than I've ever been. I'm essentially no contact with my brother and limited contact with my mom. Just got married. Living with someone who loves me and actually helps with housework, even without being asked! Still dealing with the trauma of living in a place that felt THAT stressful and unsafe, but working on it. Not holding out much hope of brother realizing how entitled he was / is, but eh. He's not worth the time thinking about him.
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yes-i-am-happyaspie · 3 years ago
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We're just over half-way through @sicktember and I'm really enjoying all of the awesome fics that have come out of it! I hope everyone else is enjoying them as well. And with that being said, here's my contribution for the day. Happy reading!
The Motion of the Ocean- happyaspie
No Archive Warnings Apply || Rated G || Word Count 2811 || Tony Stark, Peter Parker
Summary: Peter is invited to go to an educational seminar that was being hosted by Stark Industries and taking place on a cruise ship! Needless to say, he was pretty excited about it. That is until a storm rolled in, causing his stomach to roll along with it.
Sicktember Prompts:
- Ginger Ale and Crackers
- Motion Sickness
- 'Stay'
[Excerpt Below the Cut]
As part of the Stark Industries Environmentally Conscientious Operations Initiative or ECO Initiative, the company had decided to conceptualize what they hoped would be the world’s most eco-friendly cruise ship. They spent several years consulting and collaborating with the nation's top naval engineers, world-renowned ecologists, and highly respected marine experts and had eventually decided to combine their arc reactor technology with wind generators to create a zero-emissions engine design. But of course, that had been just the beginning. They had also condensed and implemented an onboard water treatment facility that was capable of treating the ship's wastewater and reusing it to irrigate the large expansive greenhouse that provided up to forty percent of the fruits and vegetables that would appear on the menu.
The entire design had ended up being quite an accomplishment. Though Stark Industries had no intention of getting into the tourism business. Rather their goal had been to inspire large cruise ship chains to take steps to lessen their carbon footprint. That and, of course, manufacture and sell the parts needed to accomplish that. But in order to do both of those things, it had been suggested that they take the ship they had put together and allow it to sell itself. They hired a crew and invited the top names in the business to come aboard for good food, a good time, and multiple presentations on everything from how the eco-friendly engines worked to cost-effective ways to source environmentally friendly supplies.
And that is how Tony ended up walking down a nautically themed hallway alongside his favorite wide-eyed kid. “This is us, Kiddo,” he said as he used the magnetic key to unlock the door.
“Whoa, Mr. Stark, this is insane!” Peter exclaimed as he and Tony walked into the spacious room they would be sharing for their next four nights at sea. He’d not even seen the space in its entirety, and it had already exceeded his expectations.
“This is actually a fairly standard stateroom for a luxury ship, Kid,”Tony replied while taking a visual inventory of the bags that had been carried up ahead of them. Just to make sure nothing had been misplaced. “I had to downgrade so that we could share a room with two beds. You should see the veranda side suites.”
“Really? But this is already so much bigger than I thought it would be,” Peter replied, as he walked through the small sitting area and past the bathroom that separated the sleeping quarters from the entrance. It was almost like a tiny studio apartment, minus the kitchen. “Like I thought cruise ship cabins were supposed to be tiny and have little fold down bunk beds or something,” he said, flopping backward onto one of the two plush double beds only to pop right back up again. He'd spotted a recycled helm that had been repurposed to create wall art and really wanted to investigate it.
After watching the kid smile with glee when the wheel turned as he touched it, Tony shook his head. “Have you never been on a cruise before?” he asked with amusement.
Peter paused just short of pulling the curtains back and rolled his eyes because of course, he’d never hand the opportunity to go on a cruise. Cruises were expensive and unlike Tony, he’d not been born into a ton of money. He was lucky if they got to spend a night or two at a cheap hotel near the beach during the summer. “The closest thing to a cruise ship that I have ever been on is the Staten Island Ferry,” he deadpanned.
Tony chuckled lightly at the comparison. “Kid- that’s not even close-”
“-exactly,” Peter happily interjected, finally pulling back the heavy drapes to look out over the busy water that surrounded the port. “This is amazing! I mean, holy cow! Look at the view!” he shouted, waving his hand haphazardly towards the open sea and all of the small boats that were moving around them.
Tony looked out the window and smiled because they hadn’t even left the port yet. The best views were yet to come. “Yeah, kiddo,” he said softly. “You just wait until we’re in the middle of the ocean and you can watch the sunrise over the horizon.”
[Continue Reading on AO3]
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elitegymnastics · 3 years ago
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Q: What is this?
A: It’s a flyer for a virtual fundraiser on June 4th that Elite Gymnastics is playing. You can access the show at quietyear.com
Q: Hasn’t Elite Gymnastics been inactive for like, ten years?
A: Yes. This is the first Elite Gymnastics performance of any kind since November 30th 2012, at the Horn Gallery at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. 
Q: Why did Elite Gymnastics stop playing shows?
A: Elite Gymnastics started out as me (Jaime) and a bunch of my friends agreeing to help me play my songs live back in 2009. I made a lot of weird demos in GarageBand and my friend Dominique Davis from the band Dearling Physique got tired of watching me sit on them. So, he booked me to play at a show he was curating as part of a small local music and arts festival called Clapperclaw. For several months that’s mainly what EG was. At some point the focus shifted to making recordings rather than playing shows, to participate in the emergent culture of new music distributed via MP3 file-sharing. The lineup winnowed to just me and Josh Clancy, who began creating digital EPs that we posted on this Tumblr page as ZIP files full of MP3s accompanied by a PDF of artwork. This is the incarnation of the group that most people are familiar with.
This was before Patreon existed. If Bandcamp was around, we’d never heard of it. Though MP3 file-sharing culture and file transfer sites like MediaFire and MegaUpload allowed anyone to distribute music freely across the world via the internet, it was still pretty difficult to get people to pay you for it. I think it was for this reason that a lot of internet music back then featured a lot of sampling. A lot of artists’ first forays into the world of DAWs and production took the form of mash-ups, bootleg remixes, and DJ mixes. Artists like Animal Collective, MIA, Kanye West, and Daft Punk for whom sampling was a pillar of their creative process were extremely influential. Elite Gymnastics was no exception - the first song of ours to gain traction online was “Is This On Me?” which made no attempt to hide the fact that it heavily sampled Faye Wong’s “Eyes On Me.” The fact that it was so difficult to make money off MP3s pushed people to make different creative decisions than they would have otherwise. It was sort of a free-for-all.
Eventually, all of this started to change. The major labels started getting a lot more aggressive about trying to destroy MP3 file-sharing culture. Platforms like MegaUpload were raided and taken offline. The replacements that sprung up to replace them were increasingly infested with ads and malware. Corporate platforms like YouTube and SoundCloud adopted Content ID filters to prevent the proliferation of copyrighted music there. Blogs and private torrent trackers being taken down meant thousands of hours of labor were wiped out in an instant. Some of the best archives of the history of recorded music ever created were destroyed without hesitation. Even the most devoted participants lost the will to keep repairing and re-making the stuff that cops and record companies kept obliterating.
Josh and I both dreamed of being able to make a living as musicians. We still do. Back then, we were willing to accept a lot of changes in order to make that possible, which seemed necessary. A lot of the stuff that we were great at just didn’t make any money. Once, we were asked to do a remix of a song called “Sa Sa Samoa” by the band Korallreven. I did the remix by myself, which was normal for us, and Josh was so inspired by it that he spent a week working non-stop to create a video for it. People loved it - the day the video dropped, Pitchfork designated the song as a “Best New Track” and New York Magazine wrote about it in their “Approval Matrix.” The video led to a ton of exposure, but from a financial perspective, it just did not make sense to put that much effort into promoting a remix of someone else’s song. The stuff we were personally excited by just seemed to have less and less to do with what actually makes money.
A lot of internet bands during this era began to palpably shapeshift in an effort to succeed in music as a career. Artists who’d first attracted notice for sample-based bangers they made on a laptop started posing with vintage hardware in their press photos and trading in their laptops for live bands and recording studios. It became harder to distribute DJ mixes or mash-ups that contained copyrighted music in them. Influential bloggers either closed up shop or were absorbed into the traditional music industry in some way. Feeds that once touted bizarre songs by laptop-toting weirdos with no industry connections started to become populated mostly by artists with labels and publicists. The bottom rungs of festival lineups started to consist mostly of new major label signings who have lots of money to spend on stage production but not much in the way of grassroots fan enthusiasm or media buzz. 
Internet music and what people tend to refer to as “indie music” split off into two separate streams. Today, there’s a pretty intense firewall between internet culture and whatever you want to call the culture of vinyl records, mid-sized indie labels with publicists, and positive reviews from the few remaining websites that still pay people to write about music. I call it “publicist indie,” “lifestyle techno,” or “prestige electronica” depending on whether or not the music features guitars and/or vocals. The recent online kerfuffle about NFTs really emphasized this split. The worlds of digital illustration and game development campaigned aggressively against mass adoption of cryptocurrency - if you saw any Medium posts explaining crypto’s environmental issues, chances are they were written by someone from those fields. Every new announcement by an artist that they had minted an NFT was met with a swift and vocal backlash from fans. Though I’ve never really been much of an Aphex Twin fan, it was still pretty startling to look at the replies under his NFT announcement tweet and see hundreds of furious people announcing that he was now dead to them. That’s an artist who has seemed more or less unimpeachable for most of my life up until this point! All of that seemed to change in an instant.
There is a massive disconnect between the insular world of the industry establishment and the cutting edge of online counterculture. We saw this again a couple of weeks ago with the online response to the crisis in Gaza. We saw passionate advocacy for Palestinians from games journalists and developers much more often than we saw it from musicians. This is a very serious problem for music! I do not believe it is possible to please both sides - that is to say, I do not believe it is possible to be part of internet counterculture and the industry establishment simultaneously. The music industry is too conservative, too compromised, too corrupt. If it weren’t for the ocean of valuable copyrights that labels are sitting on, most of them would be bankrupt within a year. If the industry was forced to live or die based on how they handle what’s happening right now in the present, it would most assuredly die. The only people who don’t realize this are those who are being paid to stay ignorant. 
Josh and I did not know this back then. From where we were standing, it looked like internet culture and established media industries were on track to converge. A career in the arts seemed genuinely, tantalizingly possible, right up until the moment that it no longer did. 
In my case, I had really been struggling up until that point. My life had been this ongoing sequence of evictions and hospitalizations, and it seemed to be getting worse, not better. I donated plasma twice a week to pay for groceries and while I was sitting there with a giant needle stuck in my left arm for an hour I would see my picture in The Fader or my songs being recommended by one of the Kings of Leon on Twitter or whatever. Music seemed like the only thing the world thought I was any good at. It felt like my only chance at a peaceful, happy life was somewhere out there in a world I could only perceive through a laptop screen. 
Gender, for me, was a big factor in all of this. The more invested in the craft of songwriting I became, the harder it was to repress or ignore my gender stuff. At that time I’m not sure I even knew what the word “transgender” meant - I just knew that when I showed up at a venue wearing a skirt, no one would talk to me or look me in the eye, and that reading about people like Anohni or Terre Thaemlitz or on the internet made me feel like if I could get out of Minneapolis maybe I could find a place where people would accept me. The internet was like, a pretty toxic place for someone in my position. When I tried to find people to talk to about what I was feeling, nobody tried to tell me to read Judith Butler or ask me what pronouns I preferred. The internet was just like, overrun with predators who just wanted to fetishize me and exploit me. Music seemed like the only way I’d ever have an actual life as myself. I was desperate for that. I was well and truly desperate.
Between all the big changes that were happening to us individually and the music industry moving farther and farther away of the anarchic free-for-all of MP3 file-sharing culture, the strain on us just got to be too much. We stopped trusting each other. We became the unstoppable force and the immovable object, crashing haphazardly against one another’s resolve in a dazzling display of youthful futility. Our partnership ended, and after finishing out the remaining live shows on the calendar by myself, I retired the name “Elite Gymnastics” and started making music on my own under other names. That was that.
Q: Why is Elite Gymnastics coming back now, then?
A: Over the years, Josh and I eventually started talking again. Though there was a lot we did agree on, and potential future projects were discussed, nothing truly felt right. We haven’t been in the same room since Summer 2012, and we’ve both changed a lot since then. We both have other projects and we’ve both developed other ways of working since we stopped working together. It’s a pretty big commitment to put all of that aside in order to join your fortunes together with someone you haven’t seen in a decade.
Recently, Josh decided to leave Elite Gymnastics. His reasons are his own, and I was very surprised by his decision, but after having had time to adjust, I’m really grateful to him. I had kept these songs at a distance for many years, because it seemed foolish to allow myself to get too attached to songs I didn’t feel like I was allowed to think of as mine, if that makes any sense. The songs felt like casualties of a conflict that I had to bury in the ground and try to forget about. Being able to embrace them again felt like re-growing a severed limb or having a loved one come back to life, almost. Feeling like it was safe to love these songs again made me feel whole in a way I didn’t expect to. I became really excited by the prospect of revisiting them, so that’s what I decided to do.
Q: Does this mean you’re going to put RUIN back on Spotify?
A: No. Taking the record off Spotify was the right thing to do. That record was only ever intended to exist during the era of MP3 piracy. I never envisioned a world where the music industry would be so aggressive about policing the way that copyrighted music is allowed to exist online. If we hadn’t opted to take the record down when we did, someone would inevitably have forced us to. If you want to hear those specific recordings again, you’re going to have to do it the way we originally intended: by downloading MP3 files from the internet. Try SoulSeek.
Q: What’s next for Elite Gymnastics, then?
A: Here’s the situation currently. There is no Elite Gymnastics music available to stream or purchase in an official capacity anywhere on the internet. It wouldn’t really be possible for me to put the old stuff on Spotify or Bandcamp now because of all the samples. Like I said before, it was a different time. Those records were created to thrive on a past version of the internet that no longer exists. They weren’t designed to be compatible with the 2021 internet.
Technically, Elite Gymnastics didn’t ever release a debut album. We had EPs, a compilation, and a remix collection. We didn’t make an album, a record that existed as the distillation of all that experimentation that contained all of the songs that fans of the EPs would want to hear, all in one place. It’s like we did Good Fridays but stopped before we made My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
So, I am currently working on the first Elite Gymnastics album. If you were following my stuff as Default Genders, you may have noticed me posting demos on my SoundCloud page from 2015-2018 that were all eventually reworked into the album Main Pop Girl 2019. The album I am making is taking that approach to all the old EG songs, including some unreleased stuff. I’m collaborating with others on some songs and I honestly feel like it has resulted in some of the best and most exciting music I have ever been involved with. It is a drastic reinvention, but iteration and reinvention have always been a big part of what I do. I want to make something that feels like the culmination of everything that came before, and so far, I think I’m succeeding.
Q: When will I be able to hear this new music?
At a virtual fundraiser on June 4th, 2021, where there is a suggested donation of $10. You can access it at quietyear.com
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imagine-docx · 4 years ago
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dresses.
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Summary: Bucky is a cute single dad who needs to get a dress for his daughter because his ex wife’s wedding is in a few weeks. Insert you, the cute kids shop owner who has a ton of knowledge in this department. [ChubbyBucky!SingleDad!AU]
Warnings: swearing, and some insecurity mentions and some body shaming, suggestive content right at the end.
A/N: the amount of love i got on sneaky is astronomical! and i love and appreciate each and everyone of you who read it and enjoyed it! also, please remember to sign all the petitons, and donate if you can and attend protests if you can! black lives matter. - amanda
➽───────────────❥
Nope, nope, no, absolutely not, fuck this. Was the exact thought process Bucky went through his mind. The reminder just popped up that in two weeks was his ex wife’s marriage ceremony and reception.
Bucky and Natasha were once married, and had little Layla from the marriage. Layla was caught in the crossfire of a nasty divorce when Bucky and Nat ended things when she was only 3. When Bucky got the invitation for the wedding, he felt the same exact heartbreak when he realized Nat was cheating on him, and felt someone throw his heart into a fire when he realized the man she was currently engaged to was the exact man she cheated with.
He got up and realized that he should check if Layla had any clothes to wear to the wedding. He looked through her closet and realized Layla outgrew almost all of these or weren’t there for the wow factor.
He sighed, closing her closet. He ran his hands through his hair, he turned around and was greeted by the mirror that was there. 
The divorce was hard on Bucky and it was obvious. He put on a few extra pounds around the waist, his shoulders rounded out, and his thighs filled out his pants from all the late shifts at the security firm. Another sighed escaped his lips, he was seeing his ex in laws again and he didn’t look the greatest. 
He walked down the stairs and grabbed his keys, and was going to pick up Layla from Wanda’s house and take Layla dress shopping.
➽───────────────❥
“Wow you look like shit,” Wanda greeted him.
“Glad to know someone like you is caring for my kid,” Bucky sarcastically responded, allowing himself into her house. 
“You already knew what you were signing up for when you knew I was dating Sam,” Wanda said, guiding him to the kitchen.
Bucky met Wanda through Sam. Sam met Wanda through the security firm, when Wanda was working for her old company and they changed the codes without her knowing, she flipped out and somehow Sam and Wanda clicked, and here they were. 
“Where’s my kid?” He said, looking around for the little bundle of joy.
“Upstairs with Sam,” she responded. He eyed Wanda, “Listen, they’re bonding because I need to talk to you.”
“Shoot,” he said, grabbing a banana from the fruit basket.
“Nat’s getting married next week.”
“I know that.”
“You should get a date,” Wanda said bluntly.
“I would, if I could.” He stated, “Oh, I need a dress for the wedding.”
“Even better!” Wanda exclaimed, “That cute shop owner seems like she can help you out.”
“Wanda,” Bucky warned. Wanda was referring to you. You owned this little shop called Sew Lovely and were always helping him out with clothes for Layla. 
He learned about it through Wanda as she was friends with you, and god was he smittened by you. You always helped out with what she wore, and the majority of her closet came from your little shop. 
Everytime he came to see you, he felt like he was falling deeper and deeper, and it didn’t help that Layla would spend any given moment with you, and you were amazing to his kid.
“I’m trying to help,” she said defensively.
“Daddy!” He heard a little voice exclaim from around the corner. 
“Hi pumpkin, did you have fun with uncle Sam and aunty Wanda?”
“Uh-huh, we coloured, watched movies, so much fun.” Layla said.
“Tell me more while we’re in the car,” he said, getting up from his seat and walking to the door. Before leaving he leaned back to Wanda, “I’m going for the dress,” Wanda smirked, “Not for the girl, for the dress.”
Wanda kept that smirk on her face, “Of course Buckaroo.”
➽───────────────❥
He decided to take Layla out for smoothies before shooting you a text asking you if you were free to help find him a dress. He poked the straw into Layla’s drink before he felt the buzz from his phone in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the text message while poking his own straw into his drink. He let out a small smile “Come love,” he said grabbing her hand before making their way back to the car. 
Upon buckling her in, he brushed some hair out of her face, “We have to go shopping baby,” he cooed.
“I love shopping!” she exclaimed. 
“Glad to hear baby,” he said, before navigating to the shop. 
➽───────────────❥
He held Layla’s hand, while navigating to your shop. “Is aunty here?!” she asked, excitedly. 
“Of course,” he chuckled as Layla dragged him into the store.
He heard someone call out Layla’s name and it could have been confused with an angel. “I knew that was my favourite sugar puff!” you exclaimed, crouching to hug her. 
“Aunty! I’ve missed you!” Layla exclaimed, throwing her arms around you. 
“And would you look at that, it's my favourite client,” you said. 
Your hair was tossed into a messy ponytail, you were wearing an oversized white knit sweater, a pair of black jeans and some white sneakers. Even though the outfit was simple, you look like god himself spent ages creating you. “You know I would have no idea what to do with fashion,” he joked. 
“Of course I do,” you joked back. “So how can I help the two of you today?”
“I need a dress for a wedding,” he said, biting back the fact it was his ex wife’s wedding. “Say no more,” you said, before crouching back down to Layla, “Alright love, we need to get you a dress. What are you thinking?” 
“I want poofy! Colours! Flowers!” She exclaimed. 
“Oh she knows off the bat, let’s go sugar puff,” you said, getting up and grabbing her hand and taking her around the shop. 
➽───────────────❥
And that’s how Bucky spent the remainder of his day looking at dresses with you and Layla. He sat while the two of you looked around and tried things on. He admired how well you two bonded, as if you were mother and daughter, “I like this one the most sugar puff. What do you think?” 
“I love it!” She exclaimed, she threw her arms around you for the second time today, “Thank you Aunty!” 
Bucky looked over and saw that Layla was sporting a poofy white dress with red flowers and green leaves around it. “I love this one,” he said in awe at his daughter. 
“No problem baby, I guess we have to get you matching jewelry,” you said, engulfing her into another hug.  
Bucky let out a groan, “You guys have been shopping for so long.”
“Don’t rush a girl,” you joked. 
Another forty five minutes and almost two hundred dollars later. They were done. “Remind me to never go shopping,” he joked. 
“When you have a girl, you can never say no,” you smiled at him, making his heart melt. 
“Thank you so much,” he said, feeling insecure because he knew someone like you would never like him. 
“Not a problem sugar,” You said, and his heart skipped a beat. “See you next week?”
“You can count on it,” he said, giving you a small smile.
“Bye Aunty,” she said, hugging at your legs.
“Bye sugar puff, bye Buck,” you said, as they walked out the shop.
He should probably stop spending so much money at your shop, but seeing you made it all worth it.
➽───────────────❥
At this point, there was a week until Nat’s wedding and he was internally freaking out, he tried on his suit the previous night and it didn’t fit. The pants could barely make it past his midthigh, the dress shirt needed about three more inches before it could fit around his frame, and the jacket couldn’t even fit his arms.
Layla was asleep in her room, and he sat on the bed and tears started brewing in his eyes. Makes sense why Nat left, and why she wouldn’t like me, he thought referring to you.
He shut his eyes to prevent tears from slipping down his face. He steadied his breathing before shooting Wanda a text asking if she could watch Layla for a little longer than he anticipated. He tossed his phone on his bed, before dumping the suit in the trash can and going to shower.
➽───────────────❥
Bucky left work early, having asked Steve to cover for him while he went suit shopping. Once leaving work he somehow found himself on your street. He decided to see what you were up to before going suit shopping. 
He walked up to the shop and saw you were sitting on the bar stool, innocently chewing at the tip of your pen while looking at the notebook that sits in front of you. You were wearing a black romper with sunflowers all over them, an oversized black cardigan that was slipping off of your body, you had your hair tossed into a messy bun, glasses sat on your nose, and a pair of black sandal heels were on your feet. 
He found himself slowly walking up to the shop, opening the door, the bell went off from above him. You looked up and let out a huge smile, which made his heart melt and he returned a goofy grin. 
“Got worried for you Buck, haven’t seen you in a while,” you joked.
“Dad duties call, doll,” he said walking up to the counter, “You alone?”
“Jessica and Natalie are in the back,” you said pointing your pen off to the back, “It’s fairly early, aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
“Don’t want me here doll?” He said, raising an eyebrow at you.
“No, I just need to make sure you have the funds to keep my store running,” you joked.
“Gotta go suit shopping, was on my way, and thought I should stop in and let you know I’m fine,” he joked.
“You going by yourself?” You asked.
“I have no one else doll, Steve and Sam are at work,” he said running his hand through his hair.
“I can come,” you said, quickly adding, “If you want.”
“I don’t want to drag you away from work,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Hush hush, I’ll come.” You closed the notebook, got off the stool, “Let me tell them I’m leaving and grab my bag?” 
“I’ll wait here,” he said smiling at you.
“Don’t move,” you warned, before walking to the back.
He looked around at the new displays, he thought about how much time you probably put into it, “You moved, about an inch. Can’t trust you anymore, Barnes,” he heard you say from behind you.
“My apologies doll, how could I possibly make it up to you?” He asked.
You linked your arm around his, “I’ll come up with something,” you said, as the two of you exited the shop.
➽───────────────❥
The two of you found yourselves at this small suit shop at the edge of Brooklyn. Walking in, the two of you heard someone yell, “James.” And an elderly Italian man came and greeted him with a hug.
“Hi Bruno,” he said, returning the hug.
He pulled away and noticed you, “Who’s this beautiful dame?”
He introduced the two of you, before Bruno brought the two of you deeper into the store, “He’s provided suits since I was young.”
You nodded, “It’s cute.”
“How about have the pretty dame sit and I do the measurements,” Bruno said. You sat on the stool provided and sipped on the smoothie that you bought for the two of you. Bucky felt embarrassed as Bruno took his measurements in front of you, but you flashed him a reassuring smile, and he felt some of the insecurities fade away.
➽───────────────❥
An hour later and Bucky found himself getting frustrated. Nothing looked good on him. He tried navy blue suits, beige suits, grey suits, plaid suits, and to no avail he could find anything. Bruno went to look at other options, while Bucky looked in the mirror. It was obvious he was picking at his own body.
You got up and walked over to him, rubbing his back, “You look gorgeous Buck, don’t deflate yourself.”
“It’s just that,” he started, “It’s my ex wife's wedding, and I don’t look good. I want to impress the family, but I look like-”
You cut him off, “You look amazing, and she’s an idiot for letting you go. If her family doesn’t like it, that sucks, cause you’re no longer their family.”
“Thank you,” he said, pulling you into a hug.
“I got your back Buck,” you said, hugging him back, “But you should have told me we were dressed to kill, I would be on it.”
“Now that you’re in on it, what’s running through that mind of yours?” He said, pulling away.
“Black,” you said, “Can’t go wrong with that.”
He smiled before yelling out, “Bruno? You got a black suit?”
➽───────────────❥
He hated how right you were, but also simultaneously loved that you knew him that well. He smiled at you, “Doll you know me well.”
“Gotta look out for my two favourite Barnes, don’t I?” you asked.
“James, you look amazing, you just need a tie,” Bruno said, before going off to find a tie.
You got up and smoothed out the suit near his shoulders, “I owe you one,” he said, looking down at you.
“You owe me a lot sugar,” you said.
Bruno came back with a red tie, “I think this would look good on you James.” You moved away from him, and let Bruno tie the tie to complete the suit. 
“The colour brings out your eyes,” you commented. 
The tie was rich, vibrant, red, and contrasted nicely against the black suit and his blue eyes. “You look amazing James.”
“Thanks Brun, I’ll take it,” Bucky said, looking at himself in the mirror, smiling at how good he looked.
Bruno walked to the front and rung up the order, “You really know what’s good for me doll.”
“What can I say? I know my Barnes,” you joked.
“How about I go change, then I’ll treat you to dinner?” He asked.
“He’s living up to his word,” you joked.
“I always do doll,” he said, before walking back to the dressing room.
➽───────────────❥
Bucky was a man of his word and took you to the small dinner about three streets away, but still was on the outskirts of town. You finished up dinner and were driving back, “You know your way to a girls heart.”
“I always do,” he joked.
You two sat in comfortable silence the rest of the way back. Pulling up to your house, he walked you to your step. “Thank you for coming with me.”
“Anytime Buck,” you responded.
He scratched the back of his neck, “Are you free this Saturday?” He realized what it sounded like, “I mean, you can be my plus one with Layla,” he rushed out.
“Of course I would come Buck,” you unlocked the door, “Text me the details?”
“Of course. Good night doll,” he said.
You kissed him on the cheek, “Night Buck,” you said before scurrying inside, missing the blush that rose to his cheeks.
➽───────────────❥
Bucky didn’t see you at all that week. He was busy getting his haircut, buying other last minute things he needed before the wedding. He kept in contact with you through texts, telling you he’d pick you up at four.
It was three fifty and he was in his car, with Layla in the backseat singing loudly to the pop that played on the radio. He was nervous, he didn’t know what to expect. He unbuckled Layla, before making his way up the steps. He rang the doorbell and waited for you to answer.
Once you opened the door, he felt the wind get knocked out of his lungs. Before him you wore a red satin dress, with a low cut exposing your cleavage, the black heels accentuated the length of your legs, you had a necklace with your initial as the pendant, a small gold bracelet and some gold earrings. 
“Aunty! You look so good!” Layla said, breaking Bucky’s train of thought.
“Thank you sugar puff, you look beautiful,” you said stroking her hair. You pulled the door in behind you and locked it, and dropped the key into your back. 
“You look gorgeous doll,” he said, still in awe at you.
“You clean up well Barnes,” you said, “Let’s get to that wedding.”
➽───────────────❥
Bucky found himself looking at you with awe whenever you didn’t notice. A lot of the family Bucky once met at his wedding leaned into him saying that his current family was cute and received their blessings. 
He didn’t notice how much the three of you looked like a family until one of Nat’s cousins pointed out that his tie, matched your dress, which matched the flowers on Layla’s dress.
He looked over and saw you, Wanda, Carol, Nebula and Sharon sitting and sharing a drink. He smiled, before he heard someone call out his name, he turned around and saw Natasha, “Can we talk?” 
“What?”
“I wanted to apologize for everything, and I’m glad you found someone who treats you well and loves Lay,” Nat said, motioning to Layla sitting on your lap.
“Thanks Nat,” he responded, sipping on his soda.
“Truce?” She asked.
“Truce.”
➽───────────────❥
It was well after twelve, and Bucky was dropping you home. Layla was taken to Wanda’s earlier, and Layla was going to spend the night there. You and Bucky had a grand time, you two laughed, shared drinks, shared a few dances, and a few glances here and there. 
You were wrapped up in his suit jacket due to it being colder than you anticipated when you were leaving the hall. “I had fun tonight,” you said, as you walked up the stairs.
“Thank you for coming, I appreciate it,” he said.
“Anything for you,” you said looking at him, you felt the air shift and you didn’t mind.
Both of you leaned in, until your lips were touching and moving in harmony. Your arms found their way behind his neck, and his hands were wrapped around your waist, pulling you closer. You broke away when you needed air. You gave him a sheepish smile, before he pecked your lips again.
“Glad this dress did its job,” you joked.
“You bought this just for me?” He asked, running his fingers along the satin material that was along your waist..
“Of course, I needed to match your tie, for obvious reasons, and I hope it would lead to something like this. Needless to say, it did its job,” you said brushing hair out of his eyes.
“Well, if this dress is for me, I would like to see it on the floor,” he whispered seductively in your ear.
“You better get to work loverboy,” you said, before he picked you up and took you into your house.
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allaboutthebooz · 4 years ago
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Still Learning Pt. Three
Summary: After having everything stolen from her, the reader meets Bucky and they form a relationship, that works for the both of them. She needs money and he needs the company. There are rules that need to be followed. What will happen when the rules are broken?
Pairing: Bucky x Reader
Warnings: Cursing, drinking
A/N: Sorry this has taken so long. Just when I find a groove, it gets knocked off course. But it's finally here and I hope you all enjoy.
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After getting your drinks, Bucky decides to get a little invasive. “So, how come you are here by yourself?”
Y/N lets out a small laugh. “I’m not. My friends decided they would rather dance than sit with me while I wallow.” She juts a thumb behind her, point to the small dance floor. Bucky looks past her to see a few people dancing. Most were couples dancing a little too inappropriately, but there were two women dancing together, and he assumes they’re Y/N’s friends.
Turning his gaze back to his company, he gives her a quick look over. Her jean jacket covering her upper body, but he notices her dress. The soft silk material, covered in a combination of blue, red, and orange, clinging to what curves her can see. Her hair down, but half was pulled back into a braid of some sort.
He looks at her face. Not noticing the look behind her eyes, until now. He should have been able to tell that she wasn’t happy. He’d seen the same look on his face, often when he’d look in the mirror. The mask she wore, similar to his.
“Wallow?” He asks.
She nods. “Yeah, I haven’t had the best luck lately.”
“Want to tell me about it? Maybe talking to a stranger will help.”
She shakes her head and huffs. “I doubt it. I’m in deep shit and have no clue what will happen.”
“Maybe I can help?”
She looks at Bucky, silent. He can see her debating what to say.
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You’re not sure how long you spent staring at the man next to you. The man who wanted to know what kind of trouble you were in, after only knowing his name for thirty minutes. Looking down at the glass in your hand, you bring it to your lips and take a long sip from it.
“Fuck it. Why not tell it to you. Not like you’ll be able to find me again.” Looking back at Bucky, you see his jaw clench just slightly.
“You never know.” Is all he says. His voice gruff.
You open your mouth to start your story, when you feel two bodies press close to you. Looking to your right, you see Lexie and Deanna standing there. Both focused on Bucky.
“You okay?” Dee asks, her mama bear side starting to show.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure?” You feel Lexie grab a strand of your hair at its end. “Sorry we’ve been ignoring you.”
“No, it’s alright. I was actually thinking of heading home. I’m pretty tired.”
Both girls groan. “You’re supposed to be having fun.” Dee pushes.
You look over at Bucky, giving him a quick smile before turning back to your friends. “You know that’s impossible right now. I can’t focus on having fun when I’m about to lose my apartment. I’m gonna get home so I can get some sleep. I have to edit some photos and have them turned in tomorrow.”
Deanna opens her mouth to respond, but Lex puts a hand on her shoulder. “If that’s what you want to do, that’s fine. We know you have a lot going on right now. We just thought getting you out of the house would help.”
“And I appreciate it, but once everything if normal again, then I can start having fun.”
“Well, we can go. Let’s settle our tab.” Lexie says.
“No, you two stay. You’re actually enjoying yourselves. Don’t let me ruin your fun.”
“Are you sure?” Deanna asks. “We don’t mind.”
“Yeah, stay. I’ll get a cab.” You start to stand. Hugging the girls, they head back to the dance floor. You turn back to Bucky. “It was nice to meet you.”
You notice the panic slightly raise in his face. “Wait. I’ll go with you.”
You raise your eyebrows. “Back to my place? I don’t think that’s such a great idea.”
“No, not there. Why don’t we just walk around for a bit. Maybe see if there are any diners open or something.” He suggests.
You find yourself staring at him again. Your eyes rake over him. His dark hair, his blue eyes. His leather jacket and Henley shirt clinging to his chest. His thick thighs clad in dark blue jeans. Were you going to let this man keep you company? Were you going to open up to him? You probably won’t see him again after tonight and he seems like a nice guy. There was something familiar about him and you weren’t sure that you were ready to say goodbye.
“Okay. But just for a little while I really should get home and edit those photos.”
Bucky smiles wide and follows you out of the bar.
“I know a place that’s open all night. They have great food.” You suggest.
“Lead the way.”
You move down the sidewalk, Bucky beside you with his hands shoved in his jean pockets.
“So, you’re a photographer?” He asks.
“I am. Mostly fashion right now.”
“That’s cool. Anything I might have seen?”
You laugh. “Not unless you read Vogue.”
“No, I can’t say that I have. I really haven’t had time to do a ton of reading. My work keeps me busy.”
“Oh yeah? What do you do?” You ask, looking him over.
He stares at you like you should know who he is and what he does. “Uh I guess you could say that I work with the military.”
“Doing what?”
“Linguistics.”
You make an impressed face. “Sounds interesting.
It’s Bucky’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, I guess it can be.”
You both walk in silence for a while. You can feel Bucky’s urge to finish your conversation that was interrupted.
“You’re still wondering why I wasn’t wanting to stay and have fun, aren’t you? I can feel your curiosity growing.” You smirk at him.
He gives you a shy smile. “Yeah, I am. We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I don’t want you to think I’m overstepping.”
You look up at the night sky. The stars barely visible beyond the city lights. Sighing you say, “A month ago, my ex-boyfriend stole every single penny I had to my name. He destroyed my credit. He opened a couple of credit cards in my name and a loan from a bank in my name and never paid them. He disappeared and I haven’t heard from him. The cops haven’t bothered to find him. So I have no money, except what little cash I managed to withdraw before it all happened.”
Bucky stops walking, making you stop too. “Are you shitting me?”
You laugh. “I wish I was.”
“Son of a bitch.” He says, before continuing his stride.”
“Yeah.” You both walk a bit further before you stop in front of a wall full of windows. “This is it.”
He opens the door, allowing you to step inside first as he follows.
After settling into a booth by the windows, you both spend the rest of the night talking. He asked a few more questions and you explained to him that you were pretty much out of a job and would soon lose your home if you didn’t make enough money to pay your rent.
Eventually, you convinced him to move onto a different subject. Before you knew it, the sun was starting to peak from behind the other buildings. When a ray of light blinds you, you squint and look out the window.
“Oh shit. We literally talked all night.”
“I guess we did. I’m sorry. I know you needed to get home.” Bucky apologizes.
“You know what? I’m not even upset. This was way more fun than sitting at my desk in an empty apartment that won’t be mine for long.”
You start to gather your things as Bucky lays a few bills on the table. You both step outside, pulling jackets on. You look at Bucky and wonder what to do next.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye.” You say.
“It doesn’t have to be. I’d like to see you again.”
You bite your bottom lip. “I don’t know. I’d like to see you again, but my life is such a mess right now.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I’d like to help you.”
“How can you do that? You got a ton of money laying around or something?”
“Or something. Why don’t we do this again tonight? I can explain everything then.”
“I don’t know, Bucky.”
“How about this? I’m going to come back here to have more of those delicious pancakes. You can join me and let me help you. I’ll let you decide. I’ll be here at 7. If you show, we’ll talk. If you don’t, I’ll leave you alone.”
He gently leans in and kisses your cheek.
“I hope I see you later.” He hails a cab and opens the door for you, closing it once you’re settled in the backseat and walking the opposite way down the sidewalk.
‘What the hell was that?’ You think.
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The taxi dropped you off in front of your building. You hand the driver some cash, telling him to keep the change. The whole drive home, you kept thinking about what he meant by wanting to help you. Did he have a job for you? Did he want you to take some headshots for him? You didn’t know much about him, except that he worked with the military, and he didn’t seem like he was the model or actor type, so headshots were out of the question.
You walked up the stairs to your apartment still pondering why Bucky wanted to help you and how he planned to do it. You get to your floor and move down the hallway, your apartment at the very end with your door facing towards you. You’re almost in front of it when you notice an envelope taped to your door. You peel it off, curious, and stick your key in the door to unlock it.
Stepping through the entrance, you lay your purse on the counter in the kitchen, peel your jean jacket off, and then your shoes. Once you’re somewhat settled, you peel open the letter and pull the piece of paper out of its snug exterior.
‘Y/N,
I hoped you would be home when I came by. I didn't want to do this how it's been done, but I don't have a choice.
I know how tough things have been for you the last month and I've done everything to try and help. You've been a perfect resident. Always paid your rent on time. You've always been nice to everyone here. However, unless you pay your rent by the end of the week, I'm afraid that you will be forced to move out.
I've tried talking to Tom to get him to understand your situation and though he is sympathetic, he can't pay the mortgage for the building without your portion of the rent.
I'm sorry there's nothing more that I can do for you.
I would hate to see you go, but I do not have a choice.
Let me know as soon as you can, if you are able to pay your rent and we can work something out.
Again, I'm sorry.
David’
Sign you crumble the paper into a ball and let it drop onto the counter.
‘Perfect.’ You think. After having a great night, you should have known the bliss wouldn't last for long.
You wanted to cry, but suddenly felt too exhausted. You decide to get a few hours of sleep, before trying to work or do anything else.
Peeling your silky dress from your body as you move towards your bed, you unhook your bra, tossing it aside, and finally collapse onto your mattress. You barely pull the covers over your mostly naked torso before you fall asleep. Dreaming of the blue-eyed man you had just spend your evening with.
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dourpeep · 3 years ago
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Seeing people complaining about the lack of anniversary rewards is getting so tiring. The game's ratings dropped to like 2 on Google play, all comment sections of official accounts are full of complaints. I know and understand that people are upset but it's just so so tiring to the point where I unfollowed most accounts that aren't related to fanart or fanfiction because of all that negativity
I personally spent (a little) money on the game so I get where p2w players come from but idk. I saw that we didn't get anything and moved on pretty quickly. Maybe that's just me, idk
Maybe you have a different view on this and if so, I'd like to hear it
Sorry for ranting in your inbox
hehe no need to apologize because I have quite a bit to say myself nodnod
Read if you like, don't if you don't--this is just my opinions and stuff based off my experience knowing Eastern gatcha games as well as talking about using a 5* vs 4* of the same build + slot
This got kinda long ehe-
Like really long.
Anyway
My turn for a Hot Take (tm)
Yeah I understand this--I've been feeling so drained and my enjoyment of the game and writing has diminished immensely because all I see everywhere is just that.
I understand that the event rewards suck but at the same time? I realize how gacha aren't really popular here in the West--and I have seen a lot of comparison between Genshin and Cookie Run but they're also two entirely different genres despite both being gacha. Not to mention that Cookie Run is fast at first until you get to around uhh Kingdom lvl 37~~ and you're stuck and can't go forward because things cost too many materials or your cookies aren't strong enough even though you have several stars on your team consisting of epics built as optimally as possible-
So the maintenance rewards for Cookie Run have been the only significant amount of gems I've been getting for a few weeks now compared to when I first started and could do 10 roll after 10 roll.
Also also, Cookie Run is PvP (arena, guilds, etc). Being able to get more rolls is absolutely a gamechanger. If you can't get a good defense cookie or healer cookie, you're fucked.
So!! That's why Cookie Run is more generous with rolls. You're not going to want to keep fighting other people in the Arena or doing Guild stuff if they don't add in those generous rewards.
On the other hand, Genshin Impact is an open world rpg w/ co-op (note, co-op doesn't count as pvp because you're collaborating) where you can build pretty much any of the characters to be viable (dps/vampire Barbara is one major example, Noelle is a guarantee roll character for that beginner's banner and she can easily be built to be a tank/healer/dps to fill whatever slot you desire)
So they're not going to be incredibly generous w/ rewards because the characters you have--meta or not--don't really effect your ability to play the game (unless we're talking spiral abyss which really is considered endgame anyway) when you're able to get at least one character of each element for free I mean, you start out with traveler who can be anemo, geo, or electro once you get to the respective places, Amber, Kaeya, Lisa, Barbara (iirc, you need to get to rank 20?), Xiangling (complete spiral abyss floor 3), and Noelle (reduced cost 10roll w/ guaranteed Noelle).
Which would be one of each element and a variety of one of the 5 weapon types nodnod.
Time to talk about builds and why it's not necessary to have a 5* unlike in other gatcha games like Cookie Run (again, a kingdoms builder) before going back to the anniversary stuff
But continuing, like Eula is considered a fantastic 5* character who features a kit that is based around her being a physical damage character. My sibling, C, has her built and she does some insane damage.
On the other hand, I have Xinyan built as a physical dps and if you were to compare their damage?
With crit, C's Eula deals 9k to 14k with Skyward Pride (5* claymore w/ energy recharge substat). With crit, my Xinyan deals 8k to 13k with Song of Broken Pines (5* claymore w/ phys substat) OR 7k to 10k with Prototype Archaic (4* craftable claymore w/ attack substat).
Both C and I agree that they're pretty evenly-matched in the sense of damage output.
We have similar builds focusing on physical damage, however, C's Eula uses 4pc Pale Flame and my Xinyan uses 2pc Bloodstained, 2pc Pale Flame (both have the 25% phys damage bonus for the 2pc). It's also good to note that both their Eula and my Xinyan have a physical dmg % cup.
So just by stacking up more phys on Xinyan, you get a physical dps (with some elemental support capabilities due to her E and Q) you can easily make her deal consistent, reliable damage that is comparable to a fully built Eula. Ofc, I'm sacrificing Xinyan's shield, but since she's built to be a physical dps, it doesn't matter anyway.
Another thing is Zhongli is an incredible shield support. His shield?? Absolutely insane because it's based off his hps. Guess who else has a hp-based shield and heals??? Diona. Another incredibly good support 4* with a shield and healing would be Noelle!
But with Diona, specifically since I did kinda cover over Noelle already, she can easily be built along with her shield having over 100% uptime (like how Zhongli has over 100% uptime). The fact that Diona is also a healer definitely is a perk too.
Ofc the difference with this is that Zhongli can be built as a burst support/dps while Diona is not. But the point isn't that--the point is that you don't need a 5* shield support to have a good, reliable shield support.
But regardless of 4* or 5*, to get a viable character, you need to build them well. So if your character isn't doing satisfactory damage, you just have to take a quick peek at what artifacts they're running and fix as needed!
Another thing--
Talking about the rewards and stuff for the anniversary-
Generally, gatcha games aren't really that generous with rewards and instead usually have some sort of event. In this case, I'm pretty sure that Moonchase is considered a part of the anniversary which is why it's giving so many rewards- just the primos from the first day alone with the chests and quest was enough for two rolls (40 chests * 5 primos each + 60 from the quest and a few that I forgot where they come from but are from the event) as well as the 4* Luxurious Sea Lord claymore.
Before you say that it's shitty for them to make a festival into the anniversary event, I'm certain that people would complain if the anniversary rewards were just a little more than the 10x fates and stuff and that's it because it'd feel like they're skipping over the anniversary entirely. (keep in mind, festivals don't normally give this much stuff in terms of primogems from what we've experienced so far--they're mainly focused on the free event weapon you can get and build like with Festering Desire, Windborne Ode, Dodoco Tales)
Also companies love taking advantage of festivals to make an event bigger + more fleshed out. It'd be otherwise kinda boring to have to just log in every day for a week (not to mention, not everyone does that) and encourages players to play to get rewards.
yeah, that's supposed to work in their favor because they want to keep interest.
So the fact that there's a lot of backlash on everything going on is tiring and also?? I want to make the point that they'll only listen to so much. Getting heard is important, but there will be a point where Mihoyo will just stop listening to the players entirely because all they're getting is a constant barrage of "this event is the worst" "no one likes that character" "(insert character) when???" "okay but where's (blank) rerun?" pasted over the forums, discord, twitter, facebook, instagram--
You can't keep demanding more while also talking shit constantly about the new stuff added because then they'll just not add those new stuff because we (general) seem to never be satisfied.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they end up just cutting Genshin Impact as a loss entirely if this continues as it has and gets even worse.
But I digress.
Anyway, I agree that it sucks that the daily login rewards for the anniversary are just cut and pasted from the Lantern Rite, but as someone who's played a lot of gatcha games, it's pretty much the standard.
Have a daily sign in for rewards and a big event featuring a ton of stuff you can get instead of having an 'official' anniversary event.
I'm sure there's a lot I'm missing because it's not coming to mind, but yeah. These are my general thoughts on what's happening with the discourse.
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