#can't take him anywhere I say

[meownotgood]

taking aki to the sex store and he just stands around with his arms folded behind his back like hm. you walk away briefly to the lingerie section. he’s still standing there. u lead aki to the vibes and it’s the same thing he is thinking too much about it. can’t take this man anywhere. it’s a shame its 1997 because it’d do him good to be able to google everything on his phone. u take him back home and you’re both lying in bed later and he turns over to face you like ‘so. was i supposed to buy something earlier?’

wait thought canceled how do you think he’d react to the slutty devil hunter costumes in the store. like how there’s slutty policemen/firemen outfits. he’s out there like wow. there is nothing remotely sexy about hunting devils. my uniform looks nothing like this. - 🍊

aki's literally such a dork, like ok he gets some of these things. he's not totally oblivious (mostly). he picks up every vibrator on the shelf and looks at the packaging trying to figure out the difference. he stands around all the stuff he doesn't know about and acts super confused in hopes a clerk will come by and ask if he needs help because he's too awkward to approach them. you catch him staring at the wide array of buttplugs reeeaaaally attentively and when you come up behind him and call his name he literally jumps out of his skin because of how focused he was.

he catches sight of the "devil hunter roleplay" costumes and you've just got to laugh at the look on his face. there's pretty normal ones for guys but the girl ones are essentially a croptop with a tie and a skirt. devil hunter cutie the packaging says. "nobody wears that, you'd get a suspension if you did." aki says, totally straight faced, and then he's messing with the fake plastic baseball bats, "and we don't use these either, by the way. it's not even accurate..."

honestly though, aki's pretty level headed when it comes to this sort of thing so if you asked him to buy something for you he wouldn't really have a problem with it. he'll happily buy lube or get you whatever dildo or vibrator you like and he'll even entertain the idea of the little discreet vibes you slip inside your underwear. he gives you a look like really? when you hold up the pink fuzzy handcuffs you want to buy but sighs in defeat when you say pretty please. he's already pulling out his wallet and whoops somehow you set a strap-on on the counter without him noticing and when he sees the cashier bagging it up after he paid for everything he stares at you so hard

[plaidwearinghunters]

[tj-crochets]

Woooo I forgot I'd agreed to cover for a coworker being off this afternoon so I cannot take this afternoon off myself! The poll winning plushie pattern (which at this point is looking like either werewolf in a flannel shirt or burger turtle) might be a bit delayed

[softquietsteadylove]

Can you do another spicy story with this AU but it's him tying her up instead. Like i need this to be SPICY like one of the spiciest, filthiest story you've ever made. I need the teasing, dirty talk, begging, maybe some overstimulation if you feel like it😅 Also I know being rough isn't Gilgamesh whole thing but I feel like for this Thena did something that set him off and brought something out of him maybe? I love you and all your work!

Thena keened as he tugged at the lace, making sure it was secure around her precious little wrists. He gave her backside a gentle pat. "Good, girl."

She whined faintly. Her teeth were dug into the plump of her lower lip, their fullness pushing against them.

"Easy," he growled, giving her a slightly firmer spank before moving around her. He hovered close, letting his eyes take in the exquisite feast that was his wife (to be). "Pink is a good colour on you, Princess."

She trembled before him, the pink he had just left on the round of her bum matching the pink in her cheeks now travelling down to her chest. Her breath heaved, forcing her breasts up and down in a hypnotising rhythm.

"And whose are you?"

"Yours," she gasped out as he rolled up his sleeves. He flexed his right hand, even slipped his engagement ring off. She eyed it as he approached her again.

"Good," he purred, holding up the ring. He toyed with it in his fingers a few times before pressing it to her lips. "Whose princess are you?"

"Yours," she panted, watching as he slipped his ring onto the other hand, freeing his right to be unburdened as he slipped it up her thigh.

"And whose," he paused, pressing his thumb at the right angle to open her just slightly. He ran his tongue over her, making her body tremor again. He held her other thigh steady, "is this?"

"All yours," she moaned as he pressed his tongue to her again. She wiggled against her binds, trying to press her hips to him. But he held her more solidly, commanding how far she was able to move and to what timing. "Please, Gil."

"Hm," he hummed directly against her clit. She made a positively guttural sound and he knew she had thrown her head back with pleasure. He let his tongue trace around the edges of her lips, testing out his territory. "Ask again."

"Please, baby, please," she whined, even trying to hook one of her legs around his shoulder, but he held her firmly. Her hips knocked against him.

"Ask nicely," he growled, even biting down on the firmness of her adductor longus (he needed anatomy knowledge for business, but pleasing his fiance was a pleasant bonus). He left reddish teeth marks, furthering the overall rouge of her pale skin sheened with sweat. He ran his palm over it, on his way to pushing two fingers into her, "like a good girl."

"Please, Tyrant King, please fuck me."

He buried his satisfaction in the crook of her thigh, right at the socket of her hip. He dragged his teeth over her soft skin there as he pumped his fingers mercilessly. Without his ring on, he could push up until his fingers met her pelvic bone.

"Gil!" Thena shrieked, but he kept moving. He had never gone so deep, so fast, so hard. He usually warmed her up more gently, even before they were joined. But he was powering on relentlessly. "Gil, Gil, fuck--it's too much!"

She came almost immediately, and he was pleased with the results. But he kept moving. He let his rhythm change slightly, pulling his fingers out just to his first knuckles each time. "Come on, Sweetness."

Her knees buckled but he held her up, still driving her towards her second orgasm in rapid succession.

"Fuck, Gil, I-I can't-!" She screamed again as she came a second time, her senses completely drowning in him. Her hips jerked as she squirted, her legs letting go of all semblance of strength.

He held her, not willing to let her fall to her knees no matter the agenda he had planned for them. Her whole body shook and her knees were twitching in a charming way. He rubbed her back as he helped her lean back against his desk. "Easy."

Thena panted, leaning as heavily as she could against her clasped fists between the desk edge and her bare back. Her lips attempted to form words, but all that happened were a series of kittenish sounds implying satisfaction.

Gil kept his chuckle to himself; he could relish in his ridiculous male pride later. He started at her ankle, pulling it up to rest it on his shoulder. "What a mess."

Thena gasped again, regaining her senses from the bottom up as he licked up the evidence of her bone-deep pleasure. "Gil?"

"It's okay, Princess," he whispered against her skin, trailing his tongue along her the way he would like a million dollar plate. He massaged the inside of her other thigh as he did. "I don't want to waste this."

Thena barely had the mind to breathe as he continued his journey up her thighs. He stopped just short of her core. Her hips quivered as he let himself puff a breath of warm air against her wetness. "M-More?"

"Is that a question?" he grinned against her skin, just below her bellybutton. He trailed his tongue over the scar leftover from when she'd had her procedure. She whined at him--she didn't like him paying it special attention. He gave her another light spank.

She yelped.

"Who's in control here," he rose from kneeling to look into her eyes again. She looked delirious, in a delicious kind of way. "Ice?"

"You are," she breathed, swaying on the spot as he moved closer. She let herself lean against him, her breasts finding refuge against his chest. She even tried to rise up onto her toes to kiss him. "You are."

If only it were always so easy.

He granted her a little kiss, although she tried to follow as he pulled back. "Ah-ah-ah, Ice--wait."

Her spine straightened at the command.

He undid the buttons of his shirt slowly, pulling it off with a sense of luxury he had denied her. She eyed him hungrily, some of his usual lionhearted Ice Queen emerging. He rolled his shoulders, showing off the tattoos covering his arms. She liked them.

She tried to move forward again, pulling faintly at her lace.

He undid his belt with a single hand, pulling it out and tossing it away with one motion. He inhaled as he pulled himself from his trousers. "This what you want?"

She nodded, still battling against remaining still and pulling forward.

He closed the distance, lessening her need to move in. He pressed her back towards the desk, even gripping her thigh to help her just high enough to lean back against it practically and comfortably. He dashed his eyes down between them.

The pink in her chest deepened, overtaking her like a rose blooming.

He kept his eyes focused as she obeyed his commands even without the words. She raised her leg further, showing her readiness to take him in. He held himself in position. "Good girl."

Thena moaned, literally dripping ready for him. "Please."

"Go on," he encouraged under his breath. He all but held still as she aligned them, trying to take in the head of him with only her hips to guide her. She whimpered as he finally slipped into her. "Good girl."

Thena moaned as she finally managed to slide him into her. She truly was wound up, her muscles undulating around him, at a loss after being teased so thoroughly.

"Move."

She met his eyes, although the lids of hers were heavy. Her pupils were blown, her eyes a dark, dark green. She started, as he asked, bouncing on his cock, pinned between him and a hard place.

"Good" he growled, moving back to whisper right in her ears. The closer angle let them move more easily. He kept his participation minimal, just enough for them to continue while she did the bulk of the work. "Just like that."

She whimpered, pulling at her binds again. "Gil, please."

He loved hearing that. He leaned forward. She used the friction of their naked fronts to appease her need to stimulate her breasts. He reached behind her, in a semblance of holding her like she liked, or even of undoing her restraints.

She let out another sound of pure pleasure as he yanked her back, exposing her to the open air again.

"Getting greedy, Ice," he chastised her before nipping at the shell of her ear. He left light but visible bite marks all along the delicate but brightly flushed part of her until he could trail down to her neck. He latched on there, pulling her thigh up higher until he could seat her on the desk. Only there could he truly complete his task. "Who's in control, here?"

"You are."

He pulled out of her completely, admiring how visibly she missed him, only to push in again in one clean stroke. They both shuddered. His throat clenched,

Thena hunched all the way forward, desperate to feel some part of him closer aside from just what connected them. "Gil!"

"That's it," he cooed as he started moving. This was a better angle. He let go of her high, locking her knee up around his arm as he gripped the edge of the desk. The heavy, bolted-to-the-floor desk, moaned from the pressure of their bodies writhing together.

Thena's gasps fluttered continually upward and outward. She moaned, higher and louder with every stroke. "Fuck, I'm gonna come again!"

That was certainly his goal. He wanted a mess of her. He wanted a complete feast of the woman he loved, piled on his desk like a cornucopia. He wanted to be able to lick up her melted remains off the varnished oak top.

"Fuck, please," she panted. She had unfurled her fists, angling her hands to hold her up against his pounding. Her buttocks were creating a mass around which their sweat and other fluids could collect in an incriminatingly round formation.

"Who do you come for?" he growled, determined to bring their current mood to its conclusion. He reached behind her again, tugging at the end of the lace around her wrists and pulling her back further. He eyed the enticing bounce of her breasts, offbeat from the slapping of their hips meeting.

"You, only you," she responded oh-so obediently. She was a fast learner, his Ice Queen. If she wanted to come, she would play his game. "It can only be you."

"Damn right," he snarled, pulling up on the edge of the desk until he heard the legs groaning in protest. He could hear - and see - the wetness running from between her legs and now over the edge of the desk. That vision would be with him for the rest of his life.

"Gil, Gil, oh fuck, right there, I-!" Thena stopped mid-sentence, if not mid-word. Her head went all the way back and her legs jerked up and in. Her toes splayed out and then curled in.

He threw himself against her, their hips creating the perfect crater for one another in their release. He could feel the mess they were making, and it was incredible. Only now did he let himself lean his weight down over her, their hearts beating wildly, but somehow alike. The weight of him helped her to stop shaking.

Thena's body was completely slick with sweat, now glowing, and tinged pink all over. Her usual pallor had given way, particularly from her chest upward. Some of her perfect blonde hair was even stuck to her cheeks in their heated tangle of bodies.

Gil grunted as he pulled himself from her. He was tired, and he couldn't imagine how she was feeling. He looked down as the evidence of them trailed after him and flowed freely from Thena. He reached for his suit jacket.

Thena flinched as he ran his handkerchief over her bare lips.

"Sorry," he whispered, being as gentle as he could knowing she was probably still on fire within her own nervous system.

Again, she tried to form words, but nothing came out.

Gil collected her into his arms, undoing her lace just as easily as he had tied it. Her arms hung limply by her sides as he pulled her against his chest. "Easy, Princess."

She mumbled something, but he couldn't make out what it was. He just patted her back, helping her off the desk so he could hold her properly. Her head was limp against his shoulder, as if she were barely conscious.

"Thena?" he cooed, hoping he hadn't taken it too far. He turned, carrying her to his office couch and pulling his shirt over her.

"Hm," she managed, just barely. But her completely dazed expression did feature a sated - and dare he say cute - little smile on her perfect lips.

"Nothing, sweetheart, I'll wake you later," he promised, pressing a gentle kiss to those lips as comfortably and freely as he would speak her name.

Thena seemed aware enough to accept the promise, snuggling against him as she gave in to her exhaustion.

Indeed, he would. He would let her rest, run a cool cloth over her body until she was refreshed, pull her dress back on for her. He would have her favourites delivered, and hand feed her, if that was what she wanted. They had both had their needs more than fulfilled, after all.

Although he had to admit, he liked being the one to tie her up this time. And despite his security in knowing that Thena had no interest in the new business associates all throwing themselves at her feet, begging and drooling like unfixed dogs, he liked asserting that fact. He liked hearing for himself that she was only his, that her body was only his as his was hers. And he liked having her beg for him, just a little bit.

[theloveinc]

Shinsou needs you to look at him so bad but also can't keep eye contact with you at all

Whore. Vying for your attention like a child only not being able to handle it cuz he's really just a baby deep down.

And you already know he can give the most dangerous pair of bedroom eyes if he really wants to, just has never liked someone as much as he likes you to actually want to use them seriously.

I feel like it's funny because, before you start dating, you think the reason he can't look you in the eye is just because he's aloof and doesn't care, but after you start, it's frustrating because it's so intimate and lovely and he still can't bring himself to do it! Despite always needing to be in your vicinity or up in your business, turning away the second you acknowledge him.

Getting-all-flustered-ass when you pay attention to him like he's not staring/glaring down everyone else... Yes, I would be kinda Pissed.

(It's really just because he's shy. Being all sexy and intimidating to keep people from thinking they can get all close to him.

The first time you go to the club together as a couple, you catch him giving sexy eyes to a guy chatting him up, and the second you walk over to confront him about it, he's melting under your gaze and ignoring the other person altogether... embarrassed and squirmy at the thought of you being mad at him but needing you to know it's just because he loves you so.

He just can't help it!!! And now the stranger is mad that you got him so easily... bamboozled.)

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Me, when Sebastian joins my party for the first time: Okay, this time I'm not going to forget about you, Sebastian. I'm going to make an effort to use you a lot this playthrough so I can better understand you.

Also me, immediately forgetting about Sebastian while finishing Act 2 and making it halfway through Act 3 before I finally notice his Faith quest: ......................Oh. Right. My bad.

[redhotarsenic]

god it's like i'm living a constant nightmare. i don't do this shit for my health. this stupid bullshit got so far that my friend is suffering both emotionally and through his income and none of these people are comprehending how massively serious this is.

[pantheon-panic]

continued from x

@helluva-hazbins

Apollo regarded the fallen angel, watching his expressions change in minute details that showed a myriad of emotions, each one as complex as the last. Something bordering on anxiety flitted upon the Morningstar's face, uncertainty perhaps... the signs of an underlying depression, which made itself known in many ways. He dealt with depression himself, he would know the signs as clear as day...even if he weren't a god, he would know. For he had once been mortal...and some part of him would always be.

Depression,anxiety, complex PTSD, Narcissism...and those were just what was going on in the man's mind...never mind the angel's physical form. But it was not his place to comment on such matters. And that wasn't why he was here, anyway. He'd invited the Morningstar out, and by the Fates he would deliver.

At the angel's sudden shift to excitement and joy, a smile brightens Apollo's face. Joy, as they say, is contagious...and given what he was witnessing? He was inclined to agree. Though he had not come with an actual plan, per say...

"Well I didn't come with a plan, unless you count flying by the seat of your pants and going where the winds take us to be a plan? Though I have a gift for you first. Call it a thank you for your willingness to continue correspondence..." from his satchel the deity procured a bottle of a lightly glowing, glittering liquid, golden in color. "Ambrosia." he explained "Among my people such a gift is intended to be a sign of good will and well wishes. From one god to another." the unspoken truth is that Apollo perceives the angel on equal footing to himself.

Perhaps that is why today his signature glow is more subdued, his eyes not having their usual glow, rather appearing a very human looking hazel green with flecks of gold.

[2c75ff]

((My sole contribution to any of the themes invoked over the course of this particular day is the fact that Seventeen is very weird now, for many understandable reasons, about the prospect of being outclassed to the point of helplessness; and that his figurative wires, when it comes to the thought of submission, have found themselves subsequently crossed and fried in some interesting and occasionally rather Cell-shaped ways.))

[earl-grey-crow]

so. coyle.

[tiredassmage]

when the deed was done

Well, ask and ye shall receive @captainderyn xD Relevant to interests, the all of 5 minute goodbye Cipher Nine should have gotten with their best Watcher-turned-Keeper. And yet it still hurts, its still bittersweet, there’s never enough time - let along a good time - for them. </3 I warn for nothing except that they needed more hugs and I might need more tissues. ;_;

And if anyone asks, I hate timelines. Send help. xD

Intelligence dismantled. The Star Cabal crumbling. It’s time to say goodbye.

“Keeper.”

She turned around, a smile already reaching across her lips before her brilliant brown eyes had even landed on him. The familiar brush of eye shadow wasn’t enough to hide the darkness around them from him, but then they’d both looked a hell of a lot better than this.

Whatever greeting she was going to return was lost as Nine quickly covered the few final feet between them and she was enveloped against his chest, carefully cradled in his arms gripping around her as tight as they could without hurting her - as if he was somewhere between cautiously terrified she’d vanish if he didn’t hold her down and worried that any further pressure might break her where she stood.

Shara smiled as she buried her face against his chest and allowed her fingers to twist into his jacket. “Well, it’s good to see you, too, Cipher Nine.”

One hand carded carefully through her hair. His breaths were stuttered and measured. Shara nestled against him a bit more and simply waited.

“I couldn’t very well leave without saying goodbye to my Keeper, could I?” Slowly, he extricated himself from the embrace, drawing back to gently frame her face.

“I’m not that fragile, Cipher,” she said, gently brushing her fingers over his knuckles. The marks of Corellia had faded - no doubt Doctor Lokin's insistence paying off. He'd been restless during their final preparations.

Twice in a matter of weeks had she sent him into the fires, then. Time really should have only made it easier.

She didn’t have qualms with mission parameters. It wasn’t a part of her programming - who she was, and surely she had suggested worse than potentially sacrificing a single officer to avert a galaxy consuming war. And there had certainly been enough pressure, given the circumstances. Loathe as she was to admit it, her recovery was taking its toll and was slower than she would have liked.

It’s what she’d tried to tell herself, anyway. But this was Nine. Her Cipher Nine.

Concern deepened the knit of his brow. “Are you alright?” His eyes narrowed. “And don’t give me any of that scripted nonsense. I know you’re capable, Keeper. But I-”

She allowed him to see a tired smile, tapping a finger lightly against his lips to silence him. “I’ll manage, Nine,” she said. “I’ll just need time.”

“Of course.” A faint breath left him that might have been a chuckle, had it been given more space. “I won’t take too much. Minister says I need to get out of here. Back to work, I’m sure.”

“As will we all.” Shara breathed a quiet sigh, letting her gaze drop with his. A free hand toyed lightly with the neck of his jacket, feigning at straightening it. It’d look different for all of them. Even she found herself hard pressed to imagine just how, exactly, the future was going to look without Intelligence. They’d seen their better days.

It was hard to imagine it’d only been some three years ago that the Minister had properly introduced her to her latest agent - even harder to picture her doubts of him at the time, not that they’d ever been personal, exactly.

But here he was, despite it all.

“We’ll see each other again.”

She smiled weakly. “You’ll be fine,” she said. She patted a hand against his chest and looked back up, catching those pale gray eyes one more time. “You’ve always been a resourceful one, Cipher Nine.”

“Shara-”

She shook her head and pressed a finger over his lips again. It was something, wasn’t it? To see him so earnest before her - a strain across his brow over widened crystal eyes she’d seen so swiftly deceive so many times. It’d be easy to say she’d lost count of the hours she’d spent monitoring his work, guarding his every movement, though it’d almost certainly be a lie.

That was okay, though. It was a part of them. Always had been. Probably always would be.

But she could not let him break their one shared silence. Not like this. Not at such an uncertain end.

“You’ve done enough, Tyr. I promise.”

His eyes searched hers for a moment longer before they dropped to the thumb he caressed along her jaw. It was better this way. Whatever happened next, she doubted the Empire was finished with either of them. This way, at least, there wasn’t anything to hold them back.

They’d sold worse lies before.

“You should go,” she said. “But-” She tucked a few fingers under his chin.

And he understood the rest. He ducked to linger in a slow kiss, trailing after her, along her lips like a slow rain on the windows back on Dromund Kaas. For only a minute longer, they chased the few elusive nights that had grounded the last three years.

And all too soon, time was up yet again.

“Take care of yourself, Shara. Please. For me?” He framed her face gently one final time, eyes closed as his forehead rested against hers.

“Stay alive.” She pushed against his chest, coaxing him to step away. “The job’s not finished, Cipher.”

“It never is, is it?” A faint smile flickered across his lips before Cipher Nine gave her a final salute. “I’ll damn well try just about anything for you, Keeper.”

“See that you do. Dismissed, agent.”

[phantastragoria]

Some info on the 3rd issue of the new Guardians ongoing, apparently it'll focus on some things in Quill's life.

[softquietsteadylove]

Hi! Can you please do the eternal/human au but with thena being human and gil as the eternal this time, please? Your stories are so good!

Thena somewhat glanced to her right as someone else also sat down at the museum bench. She was looking up at one of her favourite relics--an old tablet potentially depicting one of the earliest examples of The Epic of Gilgamesh. She sighed. "Is this really about you?"

He sighed, his hands in the pockets of his black bomber jacket. "It's not the real story. Just something Sprite made up to make me sound like a jerk."

Thena looked up at the tablet again. "The Tyrant King in one of humanity's earliest tales, but you go by Gil?"

He shrugged his massive shoulders. "It's easier than Gilgamesh."

Thena looked at him more properly. She was very familiar with the face of the apparently immortal man next to her. Of course, she had thought he was a very mortal, very human person, just like herself. She had thought he was sweet, if a little shy, and that he just had a special interest in the history of the ancient world.

A very human man who had asked her out, and she had said yes.

"Were you okay?" Gilgamesh asked her more quietly, even given the echously silent exhibit. "Did anything happen close to here?"

"No," she admitted just as secretively. She looked at her hands on her lap over her pencil skirt. "We felt some tremors, but I suppose you took care of things at the epicentre."

Gilgamesh squirmed in his seat.

She had been watching the news, knowing that he was closer to the centre of the city at the farmer's market. The footage was shaky, and the world was acclimating to strange and wild events more and more rapidly. But still, seeing some deviant beast running around London was certainly a shock.

Even more so when the news footage seemed to capture the blurry image of an incredibly strong looking man, literally punching said monster straight through the skull. His face was still a mystery, but he didn't have the average build, certainly. And Thena had known right away that it was Gil.

"Are you a wizard?"

"Pfft, no," he scoffed, waving his hand in the air to dismiss it. "We've seen those guys pop up all over the place, but I wouldn't call what we do 'magic' in any way."

"Then what do you call it?"

Her sharp question landed as intended, and he sighed again. He turned somewhat on the opposite side of the bench from her. She eyed him. "Cosmic Energy."

"So you're an alien?"

"Uh, I guess I don't have a better word for it," he made a face, finally pulling his hands out of his pockets to fidget. He scratched at the hair on his chin. "Eternals is what we're called, uh, officially--I guess. We've been on earth for..."

They both looked up at the tablet again, describing the strength and might of 'Gilgamesh' the tyrant.

He rolled his eyes, "I guess you know, give or take a thousand years."

Thena did look at him more now, as opposed to glaring at him from the corner of her eye. He looked truly contrite, and she knew that he wasn't particularly comfortable with little white lies. Apparently larger ones were more necessary though. "So when you said you could 'really picture yourself' in the battle of Troy, or the siege of Alexandria-"

"I mean we couldn't be everywhere at once," he excused for himself, his smile convincing neither of them. He gave it up rather quickly, sagging again. "But, uh, yeah."

They fell into silence, Gil in particular struggling for what to say next. Thena looked around the museum. She had always been so entrenched in history from all over the globe. The museum felt more like home than her cold and neglected one bedroom flat ever did. And when she had first thought Gil was quite like a walking historic encyclopedia - like a walking piece of history - perhaps she hadn't been so far off.

"So," she started in what she hoped wasn't too bitter a tone of voice, "why talk to me?"

Maybe it didn't work, because Gilgamesh certainly looked like she had screamed and slapped him across the face.

"Or do you make a habit of chatting up humans?" she added, and that part was more acerbic. This wasn't even about their relationship, or the lie of who he was at his core, or even his species.

"Thena," he pleaded, sounding like she had stabbed him through the heart. Would that even kill him?

But she did feel bad. Against her better judgement, she regretted that she had hurt his feelings. She huffed, mostly at herself, "I would think befriending humans would be dangerous for you."

"It can be."

She looked at the honest confession in time to see the sad slouch in his posture.

"We outlive basically everything, and we have to move pretty often, especially with wifi and phones and stuff, now. We don't usually get to really meet or get to know people anymore."

Gil had said Eternals, plural, and she had heard him discuss a few names like 'Sprite' or 'Kingo' before, implying he had some kind of kin or at least some of his own as friends. She didn't know these other Eternals, but knowing what of Gilgamesh she did, she had to imagine that it was hard for him.

Gil was sweet, and charismatic and gentle. And he seemed to genuinely love getting to hold the door open for people, or helping someone elderly with their bags or petting stray cats. He seemed to thrive most when he was surrounded by life, no matter how fragile or temporary it was--how mortal it was.

"I ended up here to keep my sister some company after," Gil slipped his hands back into his pockets, a sign of uncomfortability in both mortals and immortals, evidently. "She and her husband had a split, I guess you could say. I didn't want her to be alone, so I moved here a few years ago. It was just going to be for a decade or so, then maybe we'd go our separate ways again or maybe we'd move on somewhere else together."

Just a decade or so, he said.

"But then," he looked at her with a soft smile, and unfortunately it still made her heart skip. "I met you."

She forced herself to frown at that.

"I didn't mean to," he confessed, and she wasn't sure if that made it better or worse. "Sersi told me all about the museum here, and to see all the stuff people have gotten right or wrong over the years. She met some human, which I told her not to. I guess I can't really say anything about it now, though."

He truly did sound like a brother disapproving of his sister's boyfriend. And he truly didn't have any leg to stand on now, either. "Was it because of Sersi-"

"No, no," he shook his head and looked at her all soft eyed again. "It's not because of anything. It was...it was because of your eyes."

"My eyes?" she felt the need to repeat aloud. It sounded like a cheesy pickup line, or something from a tawdry romance novel. But she supposed that if Gilgamesh had heightened senses, perhaps he would be able to discern her eye colour from an unreasonable distance.

"I used to look out over the water all the time," he recounted, even turning to look at a painting on another wall. "My favourites were always really calm and green and sparkly."

Damn this man and his charming words.

He tilted his head back in her direction. "I was just gonna ask you some dumb question to chat a little and then leave. But then you got so passionate when I asked you the wrong thing on purpose."

She pursed her lips faintly. He had - deliberately? - asked her about the 'Minerva' statue they had, and where in Greece it had been made. It had immediately irked her that he had gotten the Roman name for her right, then the location also right, but in direct conflict with the other half of his question. Surely if he knew the name Minerva, he knew that was not what they called her in Greece--Athens, of all places!

Then he had asked her name, and she had to explain that Thena was not some nickname but her actual, legal name. The thought had charmed him and...and they kept talking from there.

He had picked just the right topic to get her to unload her entire master's degree of knowledge upon him, and he had eagerly listened to all of it. Most would flee partway through, but he had happily followed her around basically the whole floor as she recounted the many details and secrets and misinformation about her expertise.

And he had come back the next day for more.

"I loved hearing you talk about it," he whispered, moving a little closer now that he felt he could. "You were so passionate about it. I could really remember some of those times, and what I couldn't remember, I felt like I could imagine with how you described it."

"Thena, I just loved talking with you. I loved asking you silly questions, I loved you correcting me about stuff. I especially loved when we got interrupted that one time for your real job, and you offered me your card in case I had more questions."

He had pretended to have more questions. And they did actually end up texting that way. And then making plans that weren't just him showing up at her workplace. And then those plans became dates. They'd had five dinner dates and two lunches, and two coffees, although one of those had still been under the guise of their shared love of history.

"I wanted to get to know you more."

Even if he knew he would inevitably have to leave her life in a matter of months, if not years. It was a petty and bitter reaction, but maybe that was the truest way she felt about it; that he would have had to abandon her sooner than later. He thought those consequences were worth the risk, and she wasn't sure how to feel about it.

Because she didn't want to lose him, thinking about it now. And the fact that she now knew that she would have to no matter the future was a slap in the face of her own.

"No matter how soon you would have had to leave London for a small lifetime?" she accused, using the adrenaline in her system to drown out the pain she was feeling.

But Gil didn't turn away from her scathing demand. He looked at her with those eyes that she had always seen as holding more than he ever said within. He clasped his hands in front of him, resting on his knees. "After meeting you, I didn't know if I could."

Thena looked down at her lap again as well. It had been a few months since she'd met Gil. And if what he said was true, he hadn't intended on staying in London long, let alone permanently. She wasn't sure how long he had been here before meeting her, either. But Sersi's relationship with Dane was no more than a year old, by now.

"Sersi asked me," he laughed dryly. "She asked if I knew what I was getting myself into, which was rich, coming from her."

He sounded exactly like a protective brother.

"I said I totally had it under control," he laughed at himself, which was something she - foolishly - found so charming about him. "No worries, y'know, so I made a friend, so what? It would be good for me. Next thing I know, I bought my first phone just so I could text you."

She stared. "You didn't have a phone before?"

He waved his hand dismissively again, and maybe she could see why a few of his mannerisms really seemed more like that of an old man than a gentleman in his late forties at most. "Sersi's been trying to convince me. She's so addicted to hers it's ridiculous. She even made an instagram! I told her she would just have to delete it in a few years but-!"

Thena held back a laugh as he cut himself off. "Should I feel honoured, or even more betrayed?"

It had been half joking and half serious, but Gil took on that sad, wounded expression again. "You have every right to feel that way. But Thena, I swear on all the time I have left: I chose to stay, so I could be close to you. I wanted to spend whatever time we could have together...with you."

It was a humbling admission. She didn't quite want to imagine the heavier implications of that. The idea of Gil never aging while she slowly became an old woman beside him. Or did he have some kind of magic, or Cosmic Energy rather, that would help with that? It sounded like Sersi had accepted the consequences of her dalliance with a human.

Gil had asked her if she would want to go to dinner with Sersi and Dane as a couple. Although now all she could think of was the two Eternals smiling on as their humans chatted away about trivial human things.

"Thena, please," Gil slid closer again, taking her hand in his. "I know I sound insane, and I don't blame you if you say you want nothing to do with me after this. But I never lied when I told you liked you, or that I wanted to spend the rest of my days listening to you talk about South American architecture, or Grecian olive harvesting, or the Guptan Empire."

Thena squeezed her eyes shut, feeling tears in them. Gil swooped forward pulling her closer to him, always eager to comfort. He pressed his lips to her temple.

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I never meant for you to get hurt."

She believed that. Because Gil would never be capable of wishing harm on her. He probably wasn't capable of really wishing it on anyone, except maybe Sersi's ex-husband. She wouldn't have believed him capable of causing harm either, until the news today.

"If I could trade the rest of my forever for one more day with you, I would."

Maybe that was easy to say for someone who really did have a forever. She looked at him, wild in the eyes.

"Sorry," he whispered, looking away from her. He gave her cheek another kiss before releasing her slowly. "I'll give you time to think. If...if you don't want to talk anymore, I'll understand. But if I don't hear from you in a few days, can I at least come check if you're okay?"

She nodded, completely without the words to ask him to stay. He took it though, nodding back and then walking towards the far exit of the museum floor. She could hear his steps the whole way, although her heart felt like it was pounding at the inside of her skull.

She had a lot to think about. Aliens and monsters and immortal Eternals who had been on Earth for thousands of years. Did this have anything to do with how half of the earth's population vanished in the blink of an eye those years ago? Did they also blip? Could they?

She had so much to think about, so much to worry about. And the only person she wanted to talk to about it all just left.

[milf-harrington]

📓

describing a fic i've daydreamed about but not written (yet)

i have this one idea that rattles around in my head every now and then, which is that Robin gets her period while she's at work so she calls Steve in a panic bc he's not working and he's her best friend so she didn't even stop to think Hey He's A Guy What If He's Weird About It and she asks him to bring her supplies

and the steve of '83 would've probably laughed and said 'ew?? no, that's embarrassing, don't say those words to me' but this is steve of '86 who's only concern is that he doesn't really know what she needs but like fuck he's gonna let her down so he promises to be there in half an hour and he heads to the store and shit Joyce isn't working there anymore

so he's standing in the hygiene aisle, totally lost, when he sees this random lady next to him so he asks her for help and she asks him some questions that he doesn't really have the answer to so another lady comes up to help and they're all giving him advice and shit and he ends up just grabbing a box of generic pads and a box of tampons bc he doesnt know her preference and then he buys her favourite snacks bc he's pretty sure she's not having a great time and he then proceeds to go through the check out like he's daring the cashier to say something bc it's some high schooler that looks he makes 'time of the month' jokes

anyway he gets to robin and they quickly duck around to the arcade toilets and he hands her the bag and she kisses his cheek and then he waits around until she's back in the video store.

after that he just sorta starts keeping menstrual stuff at his house and in his car, and he's able to keep track of robin's cycle bc she's sometimes uncomfortably open about it and yeah he ends up indirectly teaching the boys not to be Weird about it which gives the girls a good support network and a safe space and eventually the whole party start keeping spares in their bags and stuff just in case

[potatoesandsunshine]

the thing about max is... if you put a problem in front of him he will solve it. this means that a lot of work goes into intercepting problems before they can get in front of him. corporal vale got away with a lot in the hinterlands because everything was so chaotic but baron desjardins in emprise du lion got a very polite, very detailed note from the ambassador about the importance of the herald's time after she found out he told him about the three high dragons in the area

[meowmeowmessi]

Honestly, as much as well talk about it, I kinda don't seen City as an option just becauss they've built their team over the last 2 years, including ofc Grealish who also plays as a 10 and is a starter, and it doesn't feel like they'd want to make any big transfers now. But still I guess we will see in the transfer window for sure, both for City's squad and Messi's decision.

appreciate the reality check, anons 🥲 it's all on leo and whether he believes in whatever "sports project" nonsense pissg is feeding him atp. i seriously doubt he's going to stay in the tinpot club for much longer (dear god let this not be a jinx), but considering barça's financial situation rn, not to mention tebas,,, i really don't think it's a feasible option. and i don't want it to be, either :// not at this moment, anyway. so yes, we can only wait and see what happens in the next transfer window. i'm not too worried about his options tbh— it's fucking messi, not just any random player: all it takes is the news "he is wants to leave" to break out just like the burofax in 2020 and he'll have clubs lining up at his doorstep