#eh i don’t really feel like tagging stuff. the right people will find it anyway if they care

[goldensunset]

it’s a great time to be a brain enjoyer am i right

[aclowntiny]

Carnival Dates With Seventeen!

Gender neutral reader! Bro at the slightest provocation I will write one shots for this because going to the carnival??? Way too cute 🥲

S.Coups

♡ ‘So, what do you want to do first?’ A simple question, yet the care with which he asks it & the fondness of his expression as he does have your heart beating a bit faster.

♡ He’s willing to follow your lead all day, but you guys get a good alternation of activities going, following the bustle of your atmosphere well.

♡ Seungcheol tries the test your strength game where you hit the target with the hammer, trying to ring the bell, & of course he does 😌 & looks over at you immediately with a big eager smile like ‘was that cool?’ PLEASE HYPE HIM UP

♡ Your date gets a little interrupted as you guys find a lost little girl wandering tearfully between the cotton candy & churro stands, Seungcheol kneeling down to ask her if she can remember what her mom was wearing. ‘P-purple,’ the little girl, who couldn’t have been more than three or four, sobs. ‘Well that’s easy! I’ll find her soon, I promise.’ You guys tag team, you buying her a small plushie to return her smile & Seungcheol finding a woman in a purple dress who happily runs to her daughter, thanking you profusely. Afterward, your boyfriend begins to apologize for the interruption, but quickly stops when he sees your shining eyes. ‘Don’t be.’ ‘We make a pretty good team, don’t we?’

♡ The whole encounter leaves him feeling extra soft & affectionate, wanting to spend some time just strolling under the lights holding your arm & pulling you closer until his head is practically resting over yours. You feel him place a kiss to the crown of your head, smiling & turning upward for a second one ☺️

Jeonghan

♡ All the games the carnival has to offer turn immediately into a betting ground for Jeonghan, who leans up close to you, batting his eyelashes & saying if you beat him he’ll give you a kiss 👀

♡ You lose, naturally, but he gives you a kiss anyway for your good efforts. Pinches your cheeks as he gives you the prizes he’s won 😊

♡ 'We have to go on the bumper cars, (y/n)!' You take him up on the challenge, leaving a bunch of other patrons confused as they casually putter through the rink why there's two people driving as fast as humanly possible, very aggressively turning & bumping only into each other. Eh, they're laughing though, everyone thinks, so they just let you have your fun.

♡ Oh, boy, do NOT say anything at the accessory & knickknack stalls is cute unless you want Jeonghan to try buying it for you. You have a generous boyfriend ok???

♡ All the running around makes him tired though...if only there was a ride that you could sit on for a long time & relax.... Jeonghan keeps trying to get you to slow down, selling the idea more & more until you realize... he's trying to get you to suggest going on the Tunnel of Love ride because he wants to hear you say it. Finally you relent, rolling your eyes as he immediately teases you about how you must really be in love with him then. You may agree or tease him back, but either way it's too late, you've got a giddy Jeonghan on your hands. Plus he's right, like who doesn't want to sit & smooch in some air conditioning after a long crowded day??? 👀

Joshua

♡ Before the two of y’all go anyyyyywheeeerrrrree, Joshua is making sure you have sunscreen on. Nothing is happening to you on his watch, not even a little sunburn!

♡ Anything you might need gets thrown in his bag in fact; it’s so adorable you can’t even bring yourself to tease him for bringing a bag just to a carnival day.

♡ Once you’re situated, though, that’s when Josh can let his crazy side out a little 😌 he’s taking you on a roller coaster just so you guys can yell funny stuff at the top of the hill & practically giving you a heart attack sneaking up behind you in the hall of mirrors. But he makes up for it by falling into you & turning the scare into a back hug!

♡ Joshua is the type to want to experience it all with you, not a single stone unturned. You guys will manage to cram in every ride, but it won’t feel overwhelming because he’s efficient about it 😌

♡ You guys end the night in the Tunnel of Love where he takes your hand & asks if he can kiss you 🥰

Jun

♡ He gets so excited, taking your hand & interlocking your fingers before running through all the stands & rides 🥺

♡ ‘Let’s get ice cream!’ ‘Maybe we should get the tilt-a-whirl out of the way first?’ ‘Good point. Let’s go on the tilt-a-whirl.’ *Jun proceeds to slightly regret going on the tilt-a-whirl*

♡ You jokingly put an ear headband from one of the accessory stalls on his head, but he wears it proudly, doing a matching pose that you think is so cute you end up taking a ton of selfies together. Jun ends up buying them & wearing them with you for the rest of the day! Every time he looks over at you on a ride with a big wide sunshiney grin on your face, he can't help but boop your nose!

♡ Ok, rides over, ice cream time! The person making the sundaes can't help but laugh as Jun excitedly adds more & more to your shared treat with wide, childlike eyes.

♡ Any excuse to be corny, Jun takes it. 'You've got some chocolate syrup there.' 'Where?' *smooch* right there 😏

Hoshi

♡ Fair warning: he is going to want to drag you onto every huge roller coaster, so hope you like those rides or are willing to wait for him on them 🎢

♡ He also becomes DEAD SET on winning you a plushie, but not just any plushie, a tiger one of course 😌 before he gives it to you, he holds it up to face him & gives it a stern talking to about how it should protect you…but also not steal all your cuddles because those are his 😤🥺

♡ There’s a live band going by the food area, so once you’re done with your meal he takes your hand, leading you onto a patch of open grass to dance. He spins you so fast, you joke that you don’t need to go on the teacups anymore!

♡ Y’all two goofballs joke about doing the Lady & the Tramp scene with a churro, but then of course you actually try it. You can’t even get halfway through because you’re laughing too hard, just splitting the churro like normal people.

♡ Besides, he wanted to save the kiss for the top of the roller coaster anyway >:( that way it’s nice & dramatic at that highest-hill pause, you guys feeling up with the clouds & a bunch of tension you need to release. It’s so worth your priceless expression of shock & the way your smile widens into a shout of laughter, your hand reaching to squeeze Soonyoung’s as you make the next tight turn.

Wonwoo

♡ Wonwoo manages to put a unique twist on such a timeless classic of an experience, spreading out a blanket in between some of the grody plastic tables in the eating area so you guys can sit on the grass instead, all your little dishes of street food suddenly becoming a picnic.

♡ There’s a stall where you can paint a little keepsake sign, so you guys stop there to have something you made together as a memento for the day ☺️

♡ You did a combo of both of your favorite colors, unaware but pleasantly surprised how complimentary they are. ‘One last thing, don’t forget,’ Wonwoo tells you. ‘What’s that?��� ‘The date, so we’ll never forget when this was.’ Simple words, but they tug in your heart nonetheless.

♡ I hope you weren’t expecting Wonwoo to let you win any carnival games…he does not 😔 he can’t help himself being good at games & watching you pout when you lose is just too cute. Somehow, you can’t stay mad at his mischievous little smile. Maybe you aren’t the only adorable one in the relationship!

♡ The only time you get to win a game is when you distract him with a kiss & Wonwoo.exe stops working 😌😌😌

Woozi

♡ There's just something magical about Jihoon that makes even the noise, lights, & bustle of a busy carnival draped in every color of the rainbow feel intimate.

♡ Maybe it's the way he tries to ignore the crowds, looking almost pointedly at you & only you. Maybe it's the way he prepares your funnel cake for you exactly how you like it, pouring your drink for you as if it were wine at a fancy restaurant.

♡ He even lets you bring him onto the merry-go-round, just shaking his head with exasperation at the things he gets into because of you. Besides, he gets to take some cute pictures of you smiling back at him & reaching for his hand 🥰

♡ Y’all have tons of fun on the teacups, your boyfriend receiving relentless teasing about how strong he is when he turns the wheel so fast. He gets so flustered your spinning slows down & you have to pick up some slack 🥺

♡ At the end of the night, you guys take a series of selfies under a light up sign shaped like a heart, one where Jihoon has his arm around you, one where your hands are making a heart, & one where you pull him in for a surprise kiss, pleased smile just starting to form on his face 😉

DK

♡ He will go on ANY ride you really want to, but warning: may squeeze your hand super duper tight & scream a lot.

♡ 'Should we get our faces painted?' 'Do you want to risk what would happen with a stage if you can't rinse it off?' 'Alright, that's actually a great point. You're so smart 🥺'

♡ Suddenly Seokmin gasps, all but startling you as he yanks you forward towards some stall or another. '(y/n), look!' WIN A GOLDFISH, the big sign reads. 'You want one?' You giggle. 'Yes, look at the little black one, he's so cute!' What can you say, your boyfriend's joy is infectious.

♡ He makes the most hilarious overly serious expression before a simple ring toss that that alone has you in stitches, but he's actually a great shot; his second throw is perfect, winning him the fish of his dreams. 'What should we name him?' 'Lee Seokmin The Second.' 'Do we look alike?' *holds up bag to his head & does fish lips*

♡ Logistics of a goldfish joining your date were not considered, thus Seokmin Junior requires a bit of juggling, getting set down on tables numerous times when your boyfriend decides it's time for an impromptu carnival music dance or to gently place a headband he found on you to see how cute it looks. He actually apologizes out loud to the fish before setting him down to cup your face & kiss you, leaving you smiling into it.

Mingyu

♡ Insists on trying the test your strength game part 2. Slams the hammer so quickly you have to jump back, chuckling at your giant puppy of a boyfriend's eagerness.

♡ The bell rings, of course, earning Mingyu his pick of a whole slew of plushies. He chooses the one that's your favorite color with a grin.

♡ After that the pair of you try an assortment of the finger foods from a few different stalls, Mingyu feeding you from his own dish. As he watches your eyes turn upward in pleasure at the amazing taste, he vows to find the recipe for all your favorite things & make them for you at home!

♡ Please don't try to make him go on all the scary rides :(((( just no loop-de-loops or drop towers ok? In fact, just enjoy the comedy of all his reactions to simply watching other people get sent down the drop tower.

♡ But it's ok, he decides to try out the swing ride, which is a little nerve-wracking with the heights, but not too bad when he gets to reach across & hold your hand. Benefits of being tall 😌 the moment you get off the ride he pretends like he thought he wasn't going to see you again so he can put on a whole dramatic act & kiss you like a movie hero hehe

The8

♡ You guys beeline for the caricature stand because what better way to remember the day by? 😌 the artist is really nice & respectful too, not one of the ones that makes an insulting ‘joke’ picture, just a cute cartoon of you & Minghao!

♡ Passing by some of the games, you see one of those semi-creepy mannequin fortune teller guys seated in his little glass prison. ‘He’s kind of scary, isn’t he?’ Minghao comments. ‘Yeah,’ you agree, shudder melting into a grin, ‘let’s try it!’ ‘I don’t believe it’s accurate or anything.’ ‘Neither do I, but just for fun!’

♡ 'True love eternal will find its way to you soon.'

The paper spat out by the box reads. 'You know what?' The corners of your mouth turn upward as Minghao takes the paper from your hand, fingers brushing yours with every bit of electricity as the first time. 'I think I do believe it.'

♡ Next stop: the hall of mirrors! You go in fully expecting to just laugh at how silly & distorted you & Minghao look, but your boyfriend utilizes the blur to take some actually legitimately cool pictures, too, like the artist he is 🤩

♡ The picture he takes in a spot that casts endless repeated reflections is his favorite, the frame filled with the image of him & the person he loves most joined in a kiss reminding him of the way you occupy his mind.

Seungkwan

♡ He makes friends with a baby the lady in front of you in line is holding, playing with him the entire time you two are waiting for the spinning cups. He’s actually lowkey sad when they get separated 🥺

♡ You guys laugh your heads off on the teacup ride though, you insisting on spinning it as fast as humanly possible as he tries to keep up, totally contrasting the way he shouts warnings to stop.

♡ As you stroll through the show of lights & colors, Seungkwan glances down shyly; you notice, the smile you give him encouraging enough for him to muster his courage & take your hand, fingers intertwining perfectly with yours.

♡ He keeps putting off going in the ferris wheel until suddenly the stars are out & it’s all he wants to do. He was saving it for one special moment, something he’s always dreamed of doing.

♡ You lean closer into him, for though the night’s not so cold, as you reach the top the breeze chills slightly. Stealing a glance reveals a look of soft, joyous admiration on Seungkwan’s face, & you matching it is all it takes for him to close the gap between you two, his lips meeting yours as you reach the highest point, closest to the stars.

Vernon

♡ ‘How’d they manage to deep-fry those?’ ‘I don’t know, but I dare you to try one.’ ‘Only if you do!’ ‘You’re on.’

♡ You guys load up on way too much carnival food to do any roller coasters right away, so instead you decide to chill for a while in the petting zoo. Sure, you & Vernon are the only adults beside one dad, but you don't care. All that matters is petting an alpaca, which you get to do 😌

♡ Spending time there also grants you the opportunity to get the most adorable pictures of your boyfriend ranging from him surrounded & almost getting knocked over by a slew of baby goats that realized he had food or one of him holding a sweet fluffy little white lamb 🥺

♡ Y’all also go in the haunted house, AKA the perfect place to see Vernon’s hilarious reactions to the jumpscares. Beyond that, he’s actually pretty calm, so you guys sort of just end up admiring what they’ve done with the place DHCGXVSGXDHSRDVY

♡ Once you finally do go on a roller coaster, his hair gets all messed up from the wind & you tease him about it, but reach your hands up to fix it. He just looks at you with heart eyes until you’re done, your hands slowly dropping until he catches them. When you look up, that’s when he leans in to connect your lips.

Dino

♡ Wants to play allllll of the games! So of course you guys have some loving competition 😌 the bet is that whoever wins more games gets to direct the rest of the evening, so if there's anything that seems scary, well there's some incentive!

♡ Oh? What's that? Scary you say??? That's right, Chan challenges you to a walkthrough of the haunted house too. No bets, just to see who gets more scared. At least that's what he claims, but what he really wants is to 'protect' you & have an excuse to hold you.

♡ So even if you don't seem all that scared, he's draping an arm around your shoulders going 'You're so frightened, aren't you? Don't worry 😏' shhhh just let him have this.

♡ He didn't let you win any of the games anyway, nope, so he gets to control what you do! This advantage is used to force you to let him spoil you 😈 for example, when your feet start hurting he insists on carrying you. 'Nope, no buts, I'm the winner remember 😌'

♡ As you guys leave, you still clinging onto Chan, hands around his neck, he stops, pulling you into a nice little corner where the lights still barely reach, illuminating the lines of your boyfriend's face as he turns you around in his hold. Fireworks go off- literally- as you kiss, the carnival launching off bursts of color into the sky right as your lips meet.

[carinavet]

trope rating game

tagged by @suspiciouspopsicle (It's funny how some of our answers were almost exactly the same and others exact opposites.)

rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic? -10 -> very dissuaded  0 - don’t care either way  +10 -> very enticed  nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged.  Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

Age gap: -5

Not for me. Kind of icky.

Codependency: Either -10 or 10. There's no in-between.

Look man, fucked up relationships can be really fun -- if they're done right. But it's the way they're done/the vibes that determine if it's amusing or annoying.

Obsession/Possessiveness, jealousy: okay in my head those are two different things. So for obsession/possessiveness it's a good 8 but jealousy is -5.

It can be really fun to take emotions into extremes. That whole "You are mine" mindset where "you" are all the person can think about, all the person wants to think about, is great.

But the "You know other men?!" mindset is just annoying.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): 10

It's about completion, it's about being complimentary, it's about watching how they play off each other and interact, it's about filling in the other's gaps, it's about--

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: 10

@suspiciouspopsicle said: "Enemies to lovers is fine, but I have a lot of trouble wrapping my head around enemies that also fuck. like...are you using protection? is your weapon in reach at all times? can you really trust them???"

Yeah that's the POINT! That fear is what makes it fun! The inevitable point when that tentative trust is tested (and fails?) is what makes it interesting! The "I trust you with my life but not with my most basic goals" is fantastic! That decision to be vulnerable with that person anyway is what makes it so emotional when you realize "Oh shit, I CAN trust you!"

Friends with benefits: -8

Eh, I just don't find it interesting story-wise.

Sex to feelings: 0

Just depends on how it's done.

Fake dating/relationship: -9

Mostly because there's fucking ALWAYS a scene where somebody says "I don't believe you're dating so you have to KISS to pRoVe It!!!" or at the very least an annoying emphasis on obnoxious, obviously put-upon pet names. Bruh maybe I just don't like pet names and fuck you if I think I'm going to put my affection on display for your benefit. Some people's relationships are chill and that's none of your goddamn business.

Friends to lovers: 0

Again, just depends on how it's done.

Found Family: 0

If I go looking for fanfic it's usually because I want someone to bang but found family can be fun too.

Hurt/Comfort: 8

Aaaaaaaaangst!

Love Triangle: -9

Laaaaaaaaame.

Poly, open relationships: Again, two different things. Poly 8, open -10.

Honestly OT3s are something I used to hate but then I played When the Night Comes and didn't have to choose between the two most attractive guys and went "oh shit this is kind of hot actually?" and now lately I've been super into MMF triads.

Open relationships, on the other hand, are lame. My fictional romance needs at least a little bit of obsession.

Mistaken/hidden identity: 5

Mostly depends on how it's done, but it can be really fun to see how someone acts when they have no expectations to live up to.

Monsterfucking: 10

Seriously, I'm looking for recs, people. REAL monsterfucking, none of that soft shit. I want to be scared.

Pregnancy: 0

Again, I'm more interested in how you GOT pregnant, but the soft relationship stuff can be fun too.

Second Chance: -5

Mostly not interested in why you need a second chance to begin with. Especially if there was cheating involved it's a hard no.

Slowburn: -8

These CAN be fun but I'm impatient, haha.

Soulmates: 0

Again, I like the "love of my life" level obsession, but does that need to be actual soulmates? Meh. Not really necessary.

Not tagging. Do it or don't.

[transmascwillbyers]

uh um trying to think of fanfic prompts on the fly

trans!will and enby!mike go shopping? will's looking for a binder and mike wants to buy a skirt? fluff no angst ehe

(sorry i'm not good at this lol. hope it helps <3)

I DID IT! I FINALLY WROTE THIS! Yup, procrastination is a bitch, but I actually really enjoyed this, so maybe I'll be a little quicker at clearing out my inbox next time. I still have one more fic to write after this, but remember, you can always send in prompts if you want! I'm open to anything, as long as it's a one-shot and not smut. Anyway, here's your fic, featuring eyeliner!Mike and trans ally!Robin.

“So? What do you think?” Mike said as they walked out of the changing room, taking the deepest breath they could through their beaming smile. They were wearing a black and blue plaid skirt that meticulously matched their eyeliner, and that spun around their knees perfectly as they did a quick twirl of joy. Mike’s boyfriend, Will, smiled back at them, arms crossed over his chest to hide the fact that his shopping trip hadn’t been fully successful yet.

“It looks great!” Will said, walking over towards them so he could take a closer look at the fabric. “You think this is the one?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely,” Mike said, nervously running their hands through their long black hair. “You… did you find it?” Will sighed and un-crossed his arms, revealing his chest with a groan of disapproval. How dare you still be attached to my body after all these years?

“No,” he mumbled, just loud enough for Mike to hear. “I swear to god, you’d think the largest department store in Hawkins would have at least one binder, but no!” Mike took a deep breath, mulling over the situation in their head. They’d always felt protective of Will, even before he transitioned, and now that both of them knew what dealing with dysphoria was like, it only added an extra layer to their bond. No. There has to be another option here. We’ve gotta do something.

“Hey, I have an idea!” Mike said after a few moments. “I talked to this really nice lady at the desk, and she was great at helping me find a skirt I liked. Why don’t I ask her? She might have something for you!”

“...Sure,” Will said cautiously, striking the balance between not getting his hopes up and, well, trying to get his hopes up.

“Let’s go!” Mike took his hand and the two of them walked towards the front of the store, their new skirt practically floating behind them as they walked. Will seemed happy for them, but still uncomfortable, nervously looking at the people around them to gauge if the two of them were getting any sideways glances.

“Hey, you’re doing fine,” Mike said, picking up on how nervous their boyfriend was and giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. “No one’s looking at you, I promise. Besides, see? There’s the desk, right over there.” Will looked up, seeming a little more cheerful now, and the two of them waved to the woman behind the desk. She looked around eighteen or nineteen, and had short, choppy golden hair covered by a pair of headphones.

“Hey, um…” Will said with an awkward wave, glancing down at the woman’s name tag. “Robin, I was wondering if, um…”

“We were wondering if we could buy a binder,” Mike said, helping Will out. “For my boyfriend here.” Robin took off her headphones, and, to Will’s surprise, gave the two of them a surprisingly comforting smile.

“Oh, of course,” she said, beginning to rummage around beneath the top of the desk. “We don’t usually have binders in stock here, but I have a cousin who’s non-binary, so I know how important stuff like this can feel. That’s why I always bring my own stash to work, just in case someone walks in here wanting one.” And with that, Robin held up a red binder with a d20 printed in the center- one that looked like it was just Will’s size. “Does this work? I know the design’s a little corny, but-”

“Yes!” Will exclaimed, beaming at Mike. “It’s perfect!”

“Well, then,” Robin said, handing it off to him, “you can take this into the nearest changing room and give it a spin. If it works, that’ll be… twenty dollars. I should probably be charging more, but everything here is overpriced anyway, plus you seem pretty cool. So I’ll cut you a little slack. How does that sound?” Will nodded and rushed off, not caring one bit about the crowds this time. Mike sat down in a nearby chair, drumming their fingers on the armrest as they waited.

“So…” Robin said, smiling slyly. “Are you two… you know…”

“Dating?” Mike said, trying to hide the fact that they were blushing like an idiot. “Yeah. We have been for a while now, actually.”

“That’s great!” Robin responded, fiddling with her cassette tape as she talked. “I’m happy for you. I know being… one of us can be scary sometimes, but you two really seem brave. Like you’re not afraid of what people might say about us. You know?”

“Us? What do you…” Mike looked back at Robin, and suddenly saw something he hadn’t before- a pride pin, placed on the pocket of her uniform below her name tag. It was just obvious enough so you’d notice it if you looked, but just inconspicuous enough so that none of the wrong people would be paying attention. “...Oh.”

“Yeah,” Robin responded, a surprisingly gentle smile blossoming on her face. “That’s what I mean.”

“MIKE!” Mike’s head snapped over in the direction of his boyfriend, who was running over to them and practically gasping for breath.

“Hey, be careful, dude,” Robin said, more nervous than she looked. “You don’t want to run in those things. You might-”

“But look! Look at this!” Will finally came to a stop in front of them and held his arms out, proudly revealing his finally flat chest. “It fits perfectly!” Robin took a deep breath, relaxed, and laughed. 

“You know what? It really does.”

“So? What do you think?” This time, the question was clearly meant for Mike. They glanced up, beaming almost as much as Will was.

“I think it looks perfect, Will. You look… euphoric. You just seem so happy. I-I can’t describe it.” 

“Well, I mean… I’m with you, Mike. Of course I am.” Will walked over to Mike, taking their hand and smiling as he gave them a quick kiss on the cheek. “Now, do you want to go back to your house and play some Dungeons and Dragons? We still have to finish that campaign we started a while ago.”

“You know what? Yeah. Yeah, I think we will,” Mike said as they stood up, so close to their boyfriend they were almost leaning on him. “Thanks, Robin. We really appreciated this.”

“Of course. And if he ever grows out of it, come back any time. I have, like, twenty more in stock, okay?”

“Okay.” Mike took a deep breath, feeling more comfortable than ever, and walked out of the store with Will, hand in hand.

It was the happiest either of them had ever been.

[mechanicalinertia]

Finished Edgerunners last night. Some thoughts:

1. It was… okay, overall. Like, a 7.5/10. It embraced modern genre cliches with aplomb for better and for worse, but the plot was… better than I expected from a Trigger anime. Clearly, having a bunch of Polish guys do that end of the work improved the anime over, say, Promare, or Franxx. Thank fucking christ.

2. On that note, I’ve begun browsing through the AO3 for tag for Edgerunners and it is nothing but fix-fics, I mean it’s incredible how many people want David and Rebecca to live. There are various ways people go about this. Among them: Peggy Sue time travel stories, Lucy telling David to not put on Maine’s arms before the timeskip, a ninja saving Lucy from Faraday. The one I like the most, though, is the one where Smasher spares David and Yorinobu Arasaka - that’s right, the only Arasaka with dignity - gives him a new cyberbody, while Rebecca is rescued by Rogue. So the characters are apart but could come together soon.

3. Am I jealous that these fics all are racking up thousands of views in a little more than a month compared to even Divine Patronage? Hell yes. But I don’t know how to get in on this game for two reasons. One, Edgerunners never really gave me too much emotional attachment — I knew everyone was gonna die based on the trailer where they cite the “it’s not how you live, it’s how you die” line (Classic cyberpunk neoliberal nihilism, see my previous post for why I hate that shit), so watching Rebecca die was just kinda eh, whatever. I think most people like Rebecca just ‘cause they’re horny. If they want more of that, hey, Gunsmith Cats has a horny murder-loli as well, they can go watch the OVA for that or read the manga or whatever. Two, I don’t like Edgerunners’ basic universe enough to not cross it over with my own bullshit Bubblegum Crisis 206X universe, and that inevitably leads to thousands of lost views who have no idea what BGC is and don’t want to find out.

4. What’s funny about the first episode is that its ‘call to adventure’, if you want to get all Campbellian, is a side to cyberpunk universes that I don’t think has really been done too much in anime or visual media I’ve seen. (It probably has been done better I just haven’t seen a whole lot of media.) The whole idea of everything having a price, it being impossible for someone like David or his mom to move up in the world — especially since his bullies can just beat the shit out of him whenever they please — feels at once goofy and plausible, and in those last few minutes you can feel the tension rise as David makes his choice. But then after that it’s off to the races, all cyber-murder and heists and the kind of stuff you expect from what cyberpunk means to people nowadays, a glitzy future aesthetic where life is meaningless so you might as well kill as many corporate / themed-gang goons as possible before going out with a bang. (I guess I need to watch Blade Runner Black Lotus to see if Production IG did anything different for a far more somber franchise, but they sure as hell didn’t for SAC_2045, the bastards.) It might have actually been more interesting for Gloria to not be the Anime Dead Mom, and be in critical care, constantly chastising David for what he’s doing but unable to formulate an alternative. My point is there was potential, and the potential was — squandered isn’t the right word, that implies it wasn’t deliberate. Ignored! Yes. Ignored, that’s the right word.

5. In spite of all my inability to get emotionally attached to pretty much anyone except David and Lucy… well, I like David and Lucy. They’re characters that are developed well enough, and David isn’t really your usual shonen-jump protag but more a depressed wreck only able to actualize himself through ultimately meaningless violence. It’s not as though he really accomplishes his goal of getting Lucy to the moon anyway, ‘cause what good is that if he can’t be with her? So now that I think about it, I understand the sentiment of wanting these characters to live, and that’s what fanfiction is for, and there’s no shame in that. (I’m Rebecca neutral, to be honest. There’s not enough character development there to figure out who she is as a person besides horny for Timeskip David Of Considerable Size.)

6. Well, I guess I’m a hypocrite, because I’m writing a new crossover fanfic that will hopefully follow on from Anatomy of a Lovedoll. It’s called The Witch of Tranquility, and so far it’s only a prologue proposing an alternate timeline where Hanako offs her dad and sells its assets to GENOM, thereby crossing over the two universes. I’ve got a timeline written, too, but I’m holding off on posting it for now. It’s not as though explaining the crossover will make more people read it.

Well, we’ll see how things go, there. Edgerunners could not dethrone Bubblegum Crisis in my heart, but then again I didn’t expect it to. I could compare the two, but there’s no point. Let people enjoy things. I enjoyed Edgerunners. It was good. But it wasn’t great.

[violetlilysunshine]

Plenty of Times

Boyfriend Chris Evans x Female Reader

Requested - Anon: Hey! Is it all right to request for Chris Evans where reader comes in after a girls night and just dotes on him and loves on him and its sickeningly fluffy and he’s like what’s gotten into you? and reader breaks down because one of her friends vented that her husband is abusive and neglectful and she sees how important it is to have a good man in her life 🤍

WC: 1,619

Warnings: Pet names [bubba, babe, honey], talk of a bad relationship [neglectful husband - but not about Chris/reader], mention of phone sex [but it doesn’t happen here]

A/N: I’m so so so so sorry this took so long, I’m working on clearing out my inbox though! 

IF YOUR NAME IS SCRATCHED OUT I CAN’T TAG YOU - I’VE STARTED REMOVING PEOPLE, SO IF IT’S NOT WORKING AND YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED SHOOT ME A MESSAGE AND WE’LL FIGURE IT OUT

MASTERLIST - Join my TAGLIST

You haven't gone out with your friends in so long. You’re all busy with your own stuff - work and relationships, some with kids to care for. So, when the opportunity arises, Chris encourages you to take advantage of it. 

The night was pretty simple, dinner, a couple of glasses of wine, and a few shared desserts before everyone was ready to head home. Most of your friends were not night owls like you by any standard, so when dinner wrapped up early, it was no surprise. At least that meant you got to go home to your man. 

“Bubba?” you called as you walked through the front door.

“In here,” he answered.

You followed his voice to the living room, finding him lounging on the chaise sofa, Dodger soundly asleep next to him. Some movie played on the screen; you hadn’t paid attention to it long enough to know what it was.

You headed to the connected kitchen, dropping your keys and purse on the island, hanging your jacket on the back of one of the barstools, and slipping out of your boots before hurrying back to Chris. 

He paused the movie when he heard you approach him from behind. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, your hands splayed across his chest, as you pressed a long kiss to his temple. 

He hummed at the contact, placing one hand over the top of both of yours, before turning his neck to meet your lips with his. 

The kiss was sweet and simple, you could feel him smile against your lips as you lingered longer and longer into it. 

He chuckled when you finally pulled away, a big smile etched across his face and a glimmer in his eyes. 

You unraveled from his neck and stepped around the sofa. Dodger finally perked up when he heard you walking and you greeted him of course. 

“Hey, bub,” you whispered, scratching Dodger’s head for a second before turning to Chris, “can we cuddle?” you asked quietly. 

“Sure, babe, we can always cuddle,” he answered with a small smile, opening the blanket for you. 

You slipped under, resting between his legs with your back on his chest. He wrapped the blanket and his arms around you, splaying his palms over your upper chest and rubbing gently, just as you had done to him. You ran your nails over his arm as light as a feather with one hand, the other rested on top of his clasped hands, tangling your fingers with one set of his as best you could in this position. 

You tugged on his hand, pulling his arm further over your shoulder so you could place kisses on his bicep. 

“How was girl’s night?” he asked, placing a light kiss to the top of your head.

“Fine,” you whispered, squeezing his hands for a second, “was nice to see everyone. They all seemed to need a good vent,” you ended with a breathy chuckle.

You felt his laugh rumble through your body, “don’t they always?” he asked, another kiss being placed on top of your head as he looped his legs around yours.

“Seems like,” you giggled, stroking his calf with your foot. 

“Well I hope it was nice either way,” he said, “I’m glad you got to see them.” 

“Mm, yeah, me too,” you answered quietly.

He slipped one hand from your grasp to grab the remote, causing a whine to leave your lips, disappearing into his skin as you had your lips placed on his bicep again. 

He chuckled at the noise, “want me to start it over?” he nodded, making reference to the movie.

“No, it’s okay,” you whisper, pressing another lingering kiss to his arm. 

“You sure? I’m not that far into it...” 

“I’m sure, I won’t really be paying attention anyway.” 

“Why’s that?” he asked, you could hear the smirk in his voice.

“Can’t focus with you wrapped around me,” you giggled.

“Mm, yeah, sorry not sorry,” he laughed, playing the movie again.

You giggled, bringing his hand up to your lips to give it a kiss.

He gave his other hand back to you and you entwined your fingers with it as well, giving both of his hands small squeezes every once in a while. 

You placed random kisses on his arms, pulling his hands up every now and again to press kisses to them as well. You didn’t want to do it too often, so you wouldn’t annoy him, but you couldn’t help but give him a few. 

You tilted your head to look up at him, his eyes focused on the movie before he looked down at you. 

“What’s up?” he asked, his voice sounding a little tired. 

“Nothing,” you whispered, passing him a small smile. 

“You’re lying,” he said, placing a kiss on your forehead, “what’s on your mind?” 

You sighed deeply, “have I told you how much I love you?” 

He reached over and paused the movie, quickly tangling his hand with yours again: “all the time,” he smiled. 

“And how great you are?” 

“Plenty of times,” he chuckled. 

“And how thankful I am for you?” 

“More than once,” he answered, a sense of questioning coming into his voice. 

“And how kind and good you are to me?”

“Never in those words, but you deserve it more than anything,” he said, “where’s this coming from?” 

“Jenn was really upset tonight,” you started. 

“And that has to do with me, how?” 

“She was talking about how rough her marriage is. And I know everyone says the first year is the hardest, but he doesn’t prioritize her, and never really has, and if I’m being honest I always thought she could do better; and she feels so disconnected from him and he’s so distant and she’s just not happy,” you rambled, tears pricking at your eyes, “and of course the whole time she was talking I felt so bad for her, but I couldn’t help thinking that I’m so lucky to have a guy like you and that made me feel even worse. Ya know? Like guilty because I was sitting there thinking ‘well at least I’m not in her shoes,’ and, god, you’re so good to me and I appreciate and love you so much. Don’t feel like I tell you that enough, but, you’re the best,” you finished, taking a deep breath. 

“Honey,” Chris soothed, “you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, first off. It’s not your fault he treats her like crap, and all you can do is support her with whatever she chooses to do about it. She can leave, or they could go to therapy, or she might just ignore it all together, but the only thing you can and should do is listen to her vent and offer support, or sometimes advice if she asks for it.”

You smile, “I know, but it’s just a shitty situation. Like I wish she wasn’t going through it, because she’s great, and I wish he was as good to her as you are to me.” 

“Well no one’s as good as me,” Chris joked, trying to lift your spirits.

You laughed lightly in response, turning over a little bit and scooting up so you could lay face to face with him. 

“Second,” he continued, “I’m only giving you what you deserve. Wish I could do a lot more sometimes, if I’m honest,” he said almost under his breath as he wrapped his arms around your back.

“Chris, you do more than enough! I should be doing more for you!” 

“Babe, you give me everything I could ever want,” he smiles, “you’re amazing. Wish I could do more, like I wish I wasn’t away from you so much. Don’t like leaving you, ever.”

“You’re the best,” you lean forward, placing a kiss on the corner of his mouth, “you do plenty for me even when you’re away.”

“Not nearly enough,” he says, “gotta come up with something new for us.” 

“We’ve done plenty of new things while you’re away.” 

“Yeah? You think?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Hey, without you, I never would’ve tried phone sex,” you giggle, “love trying new things as long as it’s with you. Especially that thing...” 

He lets out a breathy laugh at that, “I love you too,” he says, referring back to your ramble but also your willingness to try anything for and with him.

You giggle, this time pecking his lips, “I don’t deserve you,” you whisper against his mouth. 

“No, you don’t,” he says shortly. 

You pull away from him, not expecting that to come out of his mouth. 

“You deserve better,” he smiles, a glimmer in his eye again.

“You’re so corny!” you laugh loudly, causing Dodger to grumble next to Chris. 

“Sorry, bub,” you laugh at Dodge.

“Let’s go to bed, yeah?” Chris suggests.

“What about the movie?” you ask, tipping your head towards the TV.

“Eh, won’t be able to pay attention now anyway, and I’ve lost the flow,” he shrugs. 

“Sorry to interrupt,” you whisper, stroking a few fingers across his cheekbone. 

“‘S alright,” he whispers, “like you better anyway.” 

“Thank you,” you whisper, eyelids heavy as they start to flutter closed for a kiss. 

Chris closes the distance between the two of you, pressing a sweet kiss to your lips, “I love you,” he whispers into your mouth. 

“I love you too,” you whisper back.

Your lips seal in a gentle kiss, and he brings a hand up to rest on your cheek before pulling back: “you can always make it up to me anyway,” he says, a smile giving away his attempt at being serious.

You laugh at him, “alright, bubba, let’s get you to bed.”

TAGLIST: @hogwartsmarvelmommy @tulipholland @cupids-crystals @sunwardsss @mrspeacem1nusone @elishi03 @golden-hoax  @patzammit @serrendiipty @katiew1973 @princess-evans-addict @high-on-darren-criss @gnemgn @amelia-song-pond @scorpiowidow @multixfandomwriter @wildxwidow @na-nou83 @fdl305 @gotbangtan @dumbhead1 @evansxchalamet

[fairyblue-alchemist]

hello hello i was tagged by the ever wonderful @ladislavaa for this tag game!! tysm for the tag i care you so much 💕

-> why did you choose your url?

hoo boy. there’s about... three different references in it, ones i’m not quite willing to explain because i will out myself as a enormous nerd. but it’s subtle enough that most people won’t get it so it’s ok. so i chose it because of the amount of references i could fit in it without it seeming overt.

-> any sideblogs?

i have. a lot. if you look at my bio for my main, there’s a list of sideblogs i have. a dead writing one, some dead ask blogs, an au blog i need to get back to now that school isn’t actively kicking me in the face... and a dimitri one from fire emblem that’s currently thriving now that i’ve revived it. anyways i have a lot of dead ones but i’m fond of them so they’ll stay there.

-> how long have you been on tumblr for?

since july of 2018! the three year mark of my time here on tumblr is coming up and i honestly didn’t expect time to go by so fast. sure i haven’t been here as much as other people, but i’ve enjoyed my time here! for the most part.

-> do you have a queue tag?

nope! not for my main! my ask blogs do, but not this one.

-> why did you start your blog in the first place?

honestly i just wanted to find a place that was fandom-centric so i could meet more people who had similar interests to me. it sounds so cheesy now that i think about it, but i really did just want some friends who had similar interests as me because a lot of the ones i had at the time didn’t.

-> how many followers do you have?

244 as of right now! but i know a good chunk of them are p-rn bots that i’ve reported and blocked over the years, so i’m not sure if that’s an accurate measure of my followers or not. i don’t know why so many people follow me anyways i just spam reblog things lol.

-> how many people do you follow?

336 currently, i kind of have this ‘if i like them, i’ll follow them’ mentality and hope i don’t come off as weird to the people i start following randomly.

-> have you ever made a shitpost?

oh yeah, probably. i’m not very well known for making original posts though, so they kinda just sit in the void that is my blog. i don’t mind, it just means that people won’t see the silly little clown words come directly from my brain.

-> how often do you use tumblr everyday?

probably more than i should. i’ve noticed myself spend a lot less time on it recently, but that’s probably because i’ve been busy. i don’t spend all of my time here though, and that’s good enough for me.

-> did you ever have a fight/argument with a blog before?

ehh, i wouldn’t call it a fight. a little spat here and there, maybe, but that hasn’t happened in some time and at this point i’d prefer not to get involved with people who aren’t worth the effort.

-> how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog’ posts?

i don’t really like the idea of them because of how much guilt tripping they do. sure they’re about important topics, but there’s better ways to raise awareness than to guilt trip people into talking about it. they make me anxious if i’ll be honest, and that’s not great.

-> do you like ask/tag games?

oh i LOVE those, please if anyone wants to tag me in stuff or ask me questions please go for it!! i love talking to people here and interacting in general! i won’t judge you for wanting to ask me stuff or anything, honestly i feel like the weird one for being so enthusiastic about it lol.

-> which one of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

oh for sure i think it’s @/kiiingsnake and @/jamblute. i honestly have no idea why they’re my mutuals and i’m too afraid to tag them in anything (including this). ;-;

-> do you have a crush on a mutual?

eh, no. i love my mutuals, but as friends. also i’m on the aro spectrum so attraction who?? they’re all wonderful people though and i appreciate them.

and that’s it folks! thanks for letting me ramble (somewhat) unprompted. i shall tag @pecha-cake @blackcliff-typewriter @doriduckdoodles @agent--shade and anyone else who wants to do it!!

[daydreaming-in-letters]

Assumptions

10/01/2021

Pairing: Manuel Neuer x fem!reader (3rd person)

Word Count: 6,018

Warnings: rpf, mentions of age gap (not between reader and Manu and nothing illegal) and strong opinions on that, banter, jealousy, infuriation, fluff and cuteness

Summary: The reader finally catches her long time crush Manuel Neuer alone on her uncle's birthday. Things are quickly starting to get heated—sadly it's not the kind of heated she would have liked it to be.

A/N: Most of you probably don't know Manuel Neuer. He is the goalkeeper and captain of Bayern Munich as well as the German National Football Team and every once in a while I find my thoughts drifting towards that adorable and amazingly talented manchild. This story has been sitting in my drafts for far too long and I wasn't sure whether I felt comfortable with publishing it in case it ever got finished. But I found that there is an intolerable lack of Manuel Neuer x reader fics on here, so here it is. I tagged everyone from my general tag list, but I understand if this is not what you signed up for. So sorry in advance and please feel free to ignore this story at your leisure.

Picture found on Pinterest

If you like my story, you are very welcome to like, comment or reblog. Please don’t copy, repost or share my work on other platforms.

It was only a few minutes to midnight and still the dance floor was as filled as ever, an enchanting mixture of young and old people alike. The bass rolled deep in his stomach, making him even queasier than he already was, and the lights, flickering across the mass of moving bodies in sync to the rhythm of the music, didn’t help either.

Suddenly a figure broke through the outer wall of bodies and made her way over to his table. A small smile crawled over her lips, a little shy but genuine, yet he didn’t feel like returning it. He had hoped that she would change her mind upon the disgruntled look on his face, but much to his dismay, she did nothing of the sort and sat down right next to him, just as a waitress passed the table with a tray of colourful shots. The woman next to him stopped her, before she turned to him.

“Care for a drink?”

Did he care for a drink? He yearned for one.

“No, thanks. I’m not really fond of drinking.”

“Shame,” she shrugged, her smile growing a bit wider when she took two shots from the tray anyway. For a second he thought she might actually force him to drink with her, but then she placed down the two glasses in front of herself. Raising her first glass to him, she gulped it down in one swig, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand afterwards.

“Do you care for a dance then?” She nodded over to the dance floor, her eyes and body inviting him to take the offer.

He found that he somehow couldn’t hold her gaze when he answered, “I’m afraid I’m also not very fond of dancing.”

Her forearms resting on the table, she leaned closer, obviously not taking the hint that he just wanted to be left in peace and quiet.

“Then what are you fond of?”

“I think you know pretty well what I’m fond of.” To his own surprise he sounded even harsher than he had attempted to, but the last thing he needed right now was an eager fan trying to engage him in a conversation.

“I do,” she retorted undeterred, “but that’s not what I wanted to know. See, you might not have noticed through all your sulking, but I was actually interested in you as a person, not as a footballer.”

He huffed, although he wasn’t sure she had heard him above the music.

“And you might have noticed that I am not interested in talking about private stuff to complete strangers.”

Sure, he was being massively impolite, but at least he hoped that this would do the trick now. But instead of finally leaving him alone, she shot him an amused look.

“Ooooh, grumpy, aren’t we?”

Now it was him who leaned in closer, making sure she could hear him properly. “Look, it’s nothing personal, okay? I just...it wasn’t such a great evening for me.”

Unintentionally his eyes wandered over to the dance floor for a split second, where a very young, very blonde girl was dancing happily among his teammates and their wives and girlfriends. Cursing himself, he looked over to the woman by his side carefully, hoping she hadn’t noticed. But of course she had, her eyes still fixed on the girl.

“Ah, I see.” She turned to him and the glint in her eyes made his stomach turn. “Puberty is a bitch, eh?”

“Excuse me?” he spat, equal parts bewildered and stunned.

“You heard me alright.”

Who did she think she was? Impertinent woman.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.” The volume of his voice must have slipped his control a little, as he noticed a group of elderly men standing nearby turn into his direction. Still the woman’s smile never left her face, appeasing the men who turned away again.

“Really? After all I have to sit here with a pissed thirty something man who refuses to acknowledge he let his hormones get the best of him.”

“Whoa! Okay, first of all, it was you who decided to come and sit at this table and second, again, none of your goddamn business.”

Her answer was a simple grin, still not fazed by his anger in the slightest. It almost felt as if she was enjoying to get him riled up.

“You’re right.”

“And?”

“What do you mean ‘and’?”

He rolled his eyes heavily. Why couldn’t she just leave?

“You know, that phrase usually goes with an apology. Like ‘You’re right. Sorry I assumed you’re having a mid-life crisis and bang a chick that is 15 years your junior to boost your fragile ego.’”

“Do you?”

Inhaling deeply, he tried to calm himself a little. After all, he couldn’t afford to yell at her again, not that he didn’t want to, but causing even more unwanted attention was not in his plans for tonight.

“I didn't say that.”

“Well actually,” she looked at him triumphantly, “you kind of did. I never said you were having a midlife crisis or that you need her to boost your ego. Those were your words. And seeing that my assumptions caused a reaction like that, I’m afraid I can’t really say I’m sorry either.”

All right, that was it. Enough was enough.

“Look, I think I have an assumption for you too, lady. I’m starting to assume that you only came over here to rile me up further. And guess what, mission completed. So why don’t you do us both a favour and head off to pester someone else now?”

She was quiet for a moment and for the first time, the cheeky smile left her beautiful, burgundy lips. He had expected her to be a bit shaken at least, maybe even as pissed as himself, and yet the next words were spoken with such dignity that he couldn’t help but admire her a little for it.

“Oh, I would love to say you’re right again, but I’m afraid I can’t this time. And since we seem to have warmed up to each other quite a bit by now, I feel it’s okay to be completely honest with you.” She paused a second, simply for the effect, he guessed and her warm eyes never left his. “I came to sit with you because you looked miserable. Still do, by the way. And I thought you might need an actual grown up to talk to. But it seems I was wrong. You’re just a pouty manchild, like the rest of them.”

She waved her arm, pointing over at the dancing crowd of his friends and their spouses. His eyes followed her gesture and when he laid eyes on the heart of the matter, a hot flush of rage began to swirl through his veins, making his hands clench into fists. Fully set on giving her a piece of his mind, not caring who might hear him at this point, he turned to her again. But the familiar figure that had somehow entered the picture without his notice made him stop in his tracks.

“Here you are, sweetie.” The man cooed, laying his large hand on her shoulder in a protective gesture. “I almost got the feeling you were hiding from me since I made you promise to dance with me tonight.”

She twisted her slender neck to look up at his gentle face, her attention making him smile sweetly at her.

“You know I’d never do that to you, Uncle Hans, especially not on your birthday. I just thought your no. 1 goalkeeper here was in need of some mature company, but clearly he is perfectly happy with the way things are.”

Bewilderment flickered behind the coach’s gaze as he looked between his niece and one of his best players and Manuel was sure that this might not be the last time they would speak about this matter.

“So then, may I have that dance now, sweetheart?”

“With pleasure.” Manuel watched almost transfixed as she gracefully took her uncle’s hand and stood up. It was only now that he noticed how perfectly her dress showed off her voluptuous curves. He was almost certain that she would leave without another word when once again she proved him wrong. Turning on her heels, she grabbed the remaining shot and gulped it down in one large swig before she looked down at him, almost as regal as a queen.

“Have a pleasant evening, Mister Neuer. I’m sorry I can’t say I enjoyed our conversation more. Oh, and just in case you should ever feel in need to talk to a grown up, don’t call.”

⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

She could still feel his piercing look on her back as Hansi led her through the crowd and away from him. They had just begun to dance when the song changed and a much slower tune echoed through the large room. With a smug grin, her uncle pulled her closer, bringing his hand to the small of her back. Cheek to cheek he swayed her to the beat and she could feel that her mind was almost beginning to slow down, when he decided to pick up a conversation.

“Will you tell me what that was all about?”

She bit her lip like a little girl that was about to be scolded. “Do I have to?”

He chuckled deeply, the vibration rumbling against her chest and she could easily imagine the self-satisfied grin on his face.

“I’m certainly not going to force you. It’s just, you know, I always thought you kind of liked him.”

Instantly, she could feel her face heat up. How could he possibly know that?

“True. Liked, as in past tense. And besides, it’s not that I actually know him, personally, I mean. You could perhaps say I admire his talent, at most. And he also may be kind of easy on the eyes.”

She had become more and more quiet while she spoke, merely mumbling the last sentence. But he had heard her nonetheless, her silliness making his lips twitch in amusement.

“Hm. I clearly remember your aunt begging me to invite him over for a barbecue party last summer, telling me that you wouldn’t shut up about his quiet reserve, his amazing performance on the field and his stunning smile. Sadly he didn’t have time.”

She gulped audibly, tensing up a little in his arms, which made him enjoy their little talk even more. “So, what changed your mind?”

“He did,” she said a little too quickly, before she sighed so heavily that her uncle almost regretted bringing this topic up after all. “It’s just, I don’t understand his choice in women. I mean, he could choose literally anyone, so why her? I mean, she clearly doesn’t make him happy.”

“And how do you know that? You have spoken to him for what? Like five minutes?” He turned them around, making her face the gloomy goalie once more, before he went on. “I might be wrong, sweetheart, but I think you’re just jealous.”

Over his shoulder her gaze met Manuel’s for a split second before his eyes shot to his right, where the blonde teenager stepped into the picture, blocking him from view. She sat down on his lap, her arms dragging around his neck possessively, as her lips met his in a feverish kiss. Averting her gaze immediately, her eyes darkened and her heart clenched heavily in her chest.

“If by jealous you mean disenchanted, you’re right.”

Her bitter words made him loosen his grip on her so that he could see her face, and the hurt in her eyes pained him more than he cared for.

“I know you probably won’t believe me, but he really is a good person.”

She scoffed while her incredulous eyes landed on her uncle’s soft, blue orbs. “Well, he certainly hid that pretty well.”

He gave her a tight lipped smile. “I think he’s just lost his way a little at the moment.”

“So you think I’m right then?”

The excited sparkle in her eyes made him regret his honest words a little.

“I didn’t say that.” He protested strongly. In the end it was not for him to judge his players’ private lives. “After all he is a grown man and he can decide for himself.” He could see her face fall again and so he was quick to add, “Nevertheless, I don’t think you’re completely wrong either.”

He was very pleased to see that his words had caused a small smile to crawl back to her pretty lips. He almost felt like a proud father and when she finally leaned back in a bit closer, her forgiving gesture almost made him a bit bold.

“So, uhm, one more question, sweetheart. In the unlikely event that he should after all need a grown woman to talk to, can I give him your number?”

“Certainly not,” she insisted with a steady voice, but when she looked at him, the adorable grin on her face left no doubt that this was the biggest lie she had ever told.

⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

Manuel was furious as he watched her leave towards the dance floor with the coach. How could she dare call him out like that and then leave without giving him the chance to set her straight? His eyes fixed on her, he watched as Flick pulled her closer, his eyes following her uncle’s hand to the small of her back. Being the gentleman he was, his hand had found the only spot on her back that was actually covered by the dark red fabric of her dress. And for a second he imagined what it might actually feel like to let his hand wander upwards until it covered her bare skin. Or maybe he could let it slip down a few inches, until his fingers would grasp the soft flesh of her behind. He had just been able to fully picture the exact feeling of her body pressed up to his when he could feel the man who actually held her in his arms catch his indecent look on his niece’s back. Immediately he sat up straight, averting his gaze, completely missing the amused smile on the other man’s face, and when he turned back to face him, he almost lost it when he found her sparkling eyes instead.

He was still trying to figure out what had happened, when he heard a familiar voice calling him.

“Hey, babe.” The high pitched noise made him flinch and instinctively his eyes shot to his right, just in time to pull his arms away before she slumped down onto his lap clumsily. She laid it on thickly as her arms wrapped around his neck.

“I missed you on the dance floor, honey bun. Why don’t you come dance with me?”

And before he even had the chance to answer, her lips crashed down on his mouth almost painfully, her tongue forcing his lips to open. The stench of alcohol filled his mouth and he pushed her drunken form off of him determinedly. Before she even had the chance to protest, he lifted her up and placed her in his chair.

“I don’t think dancing is a good idea in your condition.” She glared at him, but then she seemed to have forgotten what for and her lips turned up into a sheepish smile.

“Whatever you say, babe.”

“Look, why don’t you just stay here and I get you a nice, big glass of water to sober you up a little?”

She began to nod, but then her eyes lost focus und she stared past him at god knows what.

“All right, I’ll be back in a sec. Don’t go anywhere.”

Quickly he made his way over to the counter and ordered a whole bottle of water, when he felt the slap of a hand on his left shoulder.

“Wow, you look even more frustrated than after our knock out at the World Cup in 2018. What happened?”

“Don’t ask.” He sighed as he turned around to face his friend. Manuel hoped that he would accept his wish, but when he saw the apologetic look on Thomas’ face, he instantly knew that he wouldn’t drop the topic.

“Too late. I just did.”

With a dramatic roll of his eyes, the next words were spoken more to himself than to his teammate.

“Great, just what I need. Another pain in my ass.”

“Another? Who was the first then?” Obviously Thomas had taken no offence and sounded a bit too cheerful for Manuel’s liking.

“She.”

He looked over at the dance floor, where the impertinent woman was just sending her uncle the most beautiful, cheeky grin he had ever seen.

“Who? Y/N?” his friend asked incredulously.

Y/N. So that was her name.

“You know that annoying woman?”

“I do, although I can’t really say she’s annoying. Met her at the coach’s home once. She seemed rather sweet and intelligent to me.”

“She certainly hid that pretty well,” Manuel growled under his breath, earning him a surprised frown from Thomas.

“Are you gonna stand here and stare daggers at her or are you gonna tell me what she did to make you throw a fit?”

“She approached me out of nowhere to tell me that I’m dating a teenager to compensate my inability to commit to a partner on eye level.”

Thomas let his words sink in for a while.

“That doesn’t really sound like her. I mean, what reason would she have to come at you like that? She doesn’t even know you.”

Manuel sighed, thinking about the way she had somehow coaxed the statements from him instead of making them herself.

“Well, she might have phrased it differently,” he admitted meekly. That seemed to spark Thomas’ interest even further and he could feel his expectant look on him, pressing him to finally tell the whole truth.

“Actually she didn’t say it like that. She only made an allusion and made me somehow say those things myself.”

“Mhm. And exactly what allusion did she make?”

Manuel rolled his eyes again, his ego still fighting to repeat her words out loud.

”She said puberty was a bitch, clearly hinting at the fact that she thought my girlfriend was too young for me.”

He hadn’t even finished his sentence when Thomas’ roaring laughter filled the air.

“Now that does sound more like her.”

He needed a bit to contain himself when he suddenly looked up at Manuel with an unusually serious expression on his face.

“And I have to admit, Manu, she kind of has a fair point there.”

“What?”

Manuel could not believe his ears.

“Come on, man. It’s what everyone thinks. She just said it out loud.”

“Fuck you.”

But instead of rising to his expletive, Thomas just looked at him sympathetically. Pushing himself off of the counter, he pat his shoulder in an attempt to encourage him a little, ready to leave him to his self-denial.

But then he stopped. “You know, I personally didn’t have a problem with it. You’re an adult, you can make your own choices. As long as you’re happy, right? But the truth is, Manu, I don’t think you are. Not anymore.”

⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

“See, I told you he wouldn’t be here. No need for all the panic beforehand.”

She narrowed her eyes at her cousin, shooting her a dirty look.

“Yeah, and I hope it’ll stay that way. Oh, and for the record: I wasn’t panicking at all, it was just you and your sister’s sudden eagerness to lure me here that got me suspicious and nervous in the first place.”

“We didn’t lure you here,” her other cousin piped up a little offendedly. “We simply wanted to spend some time with you. Come on, it’s been what, like 4 months now? Since you moved to Munich three years ago, we hardly get to see you anymore.”

“You and our father,” her sister added quickly. “So it seemed the best option to kill two birds with one stone and bring you along. After all it’s called a family day, right?”

Y/N sighed, not fully convinced, but finally ready to let the topic go.

“Right. Let’s just hope for your sakes that there will be no surprises today that might prove your guilt after all.”

“How are my girls doing?” she heard a familiar voice from behind her back, turning towards her favourite uncle with a beaming smile. What she didn’t see, however, was the brief look that was exchanged between her cousins as soon as she had turned her back, proving exactly what she had suspected all along.

“We’re good, dad. Actually, we’re more than good, we’re excellent,” the older cousin chirped.

“Great.” He paused a moment, but it was clear that he had more to say. Rocking back and forth on his feet, he looked from one woman to the other. “So,” he began carefully, before a huge Cheshire grin spread across his face. “I hope you all reserved a dance for me tonight.”

“Oh, no, daddy, not again.”

“Please, don’t make us do this.”

“There will be dancing here? If you had told me that beforehand, I certainly wouldn’t have come.”

“Of course there will be dancing. I thought that was obvious.” He had to try very hard to look a little slighted, while he actually drew a horrendous amount of amusement from their antics. “Remember, girls, we have a tradition to uphold. Whenever there is some dancing at a party, you have to reserve at least one dance for me. That’s the rule.”

And with that he turned and left them on their own again.

“Ugh, why does he always have to do that to us?” her younger cousin whined.

“Oh stop it, silly. You’re the one who likes it the most and everyone knows.”

⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️

She had been the first to pay tribute to the family tradition and after a very exhausting Discofox dance session, luckily one of her cousins had taken over from her. Kicking off her heels, she welcomed the feel of the cool grass underneath the soles of her feet. Walking over to one of the empty tables, she slumped down heavily into one of the comfortable looking chairs. With a contented smile she let herself fall back against the backrest, closing her eyes and breathing in the mild air of the warm summer night.

“Care for a drink?”

His voice made her jump, sitting up straight immediately, eyes shooting wide open. And there he was, two shot glasses in his large hands and grinning down at her, obviously very satisfied with the slight scare he had just given her. He looked amazing, the smug bastard, in his casual jeans and white shirt, two buttons undone, topped with a sporty black jacket. She highly doubted that she had ever seen a finer man in her entire life. Luckily that didn’t make her lose her sharp tongue.

“And here I am thinking that you weren’t fond of alcohol. What happened?”

He smiled sheepishly, only one corner of his mouth tugged up, when he handed her her drink. He took his time, grabbing a chair and positioning it opposite hers, then sitting down carefully, not wanting to spill the shot all over his chest. She had already come to think that he was trying to avoid her question after all, when he locked eyes with her and finally began to speak.

“Hm. It’s been a while since I last saw you. A lot of things happened, you know. Maybe it was finally time for me to grow up.”

“Hear, hear.” With a mischievous smile she raised her glass. “To your coming of age, then.”

He rolled his eyes playfully. “If you insist.”

His magnificent blue eyes never left hers while they chinked glasses, and a second later she could feel the more than welcome liquid moisturising her suddenly very dry mouth.

With a thud, their glasses landed on the table, both of them chuckling like giddy children when their eyes found each other again and then, for a moment, there was nothing but silence. The world seemed to have zoned out, leaving behind nothing but his aquamarine orbs and the wild smile on his face.

Just gradually, the world seemed to set back in again. There was the monotonous clitter of the crickets, overlaid by the muffled sound of the music that was carried over by a soft breeze, and loudest of all she could hear the beating of her own heart against her chest.

“What else has changed now that you are a proper adult?” she heard herself ask, not having the faintest idea where those words came from and how the hell she managed to deliver them so smoothly when her whole body seemed to have gotten out of control.

He took a quick look over his shoulder, his thumb pointing in the same direction.

“If you mean the dancing, I’m still not very fond of that.” Her face must have fallen a little because he was quick to add, “Except...”

“Except what?”

His eyes landed back on hers and she almost choked on her hitching breath.

“Except I think I could make an exception for the right partner.”

From the corner of her eye she registered a movement between their bodies, but she was hesitant to let her view stray from his captivating appearance. At last it was something in his eyes that looked at her expectantly which finally made her snap out of her trance.

Looking down at his hand sheepishly, it took her a while to fathom that he was actually asking her to dance with him.

Slowly her eyes wandered up to his again, asking a silent question, which he answered with an almost imperceptible rise of his eyebrows. And before she knew what she was doing, she laid her hand in his and let him pull her to her feet.

He had just turned towards the source of the music, when she suddenly held him back.

“No, wait.”

With a puzzled look he did what she asked of him and let her twist him back around.

“Why don’t we just stay here? The music is loud enough anyway.”

A gentle smile curved his lips. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”

She nodded softly, her teeth biting down on her lip in excitement.

And before she knew what was happening, she found herself secured against his chest by his firm grip. It felt like being pressed up to a hot furnace which she would usually have appreciated any other time, but on a sweltry night like this and in a place she had wanted to be in for so long, it was pure torture. And as if this wasn’t bad enough already, his strong fingers pressed down on her lower back, threatening to scorch her even through the fabric of her blouse as he pulled her an impossible inch further into him. He was so close now that she could sense the heat radiating off his cheek as well, bringing along a whiff of his enticing scent and she couldn’t help but close her eyes as she inhaled deeply and her head began to spin. It was odd, but her mind was completely blank by now, blank except for one thought and her lips spread into a blissful smile as she repeated it in her head again and again, relishing in the feeling that if either of them moved just the tiniest bit, their cheeks would inevitably touch.

Slowly they moved and despite the unhurried shift of their bodies her heart was beating so violently that she thought it pondered jumping out of her chest to meet his. There was no chance he wouldn’t be able to tell from the way he held her, and when he finally drew away a tad to look at her, she fully expected him to call her out for it.

But he didn’t. Instead his sinfully soft lips curled into a reassuring smile before he spoke.

“You were right.”

“I beg your pardon?”

A cute chuckle escaped his mouth, leaving the corners of his eyes crinkled in the most beautiful display of amusement.

“About what you said at your uncle’s birthday party.”

“Oh.” She had said a lot that evening, words that she had come to regret later and remembering them now set her cheeks on fire. “About what exactly?”

“About everything,” he admitted without hesitation, yet he couldn’t hide the spark of misery that flitted across his sea blue orbs. “Didn’t take me very long after that night to finally see things clearly.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” It was true. Although she knew that she probably sounded like a madwoman after everything she had confronted him with back then, at least the frown on his forehead seemed to confirm that. “I truly am. I really would have liked to see you happy.” Even if it was with that girl.

She was glad she had managed to keep that last bit to herself. She had no idea why she had said that she was sorry in the first place, but judging by the wild smile on his face it must have been the right words after all.

“Well, I certainly am happier now than I was that night.” He shrugged. “So, thank you, I guess.”

She huffed. “For what? Making absolutely inappropriate remarks on your relationship? I shouldn’t have done that. I know that now. So it should be me who is sorry here, don’t you think?”

She could feel his fingertips press into the soft flesh of her back.

“Don’t be. I guess you were exactly what I needed.” It took him a second before he realised what he had just said. “I mean it. It was exactly what I needed.”

His eyes snapped to the left and she was thankful that he couldn’t see the grin that decorated her lips as she watched the treacherous colour creep into his cheeks, spreading all the way to his ears. For a while he didn’t say another word, probably still trying feverishly to figure out a way to take back his slip of the tongue. And when he finally spoke, she wished he hadn’t.

“There is one thing though that I have gone over and over in my mind. But no matter how long I think about it, it just won’t make sense.”

She already knew that she wouldn’t like where this conversation was heading now, but she found herself asking nonetheless.

“And what is that?”

His head turned without a warning as his eyes searched her gaze and for the blink of an eye his lips came so close that she couldn’t say if they had actually brushed along hers or if her needy heart had just imagined their brief touch. He didn’t answer her question right away, his breath blending with her own in the narrow space between their faces and suddenly she wasn’t so sure anymore if she had really only dreamed up their fleeting foretaste of a kiss.

“Why did you do it?” Panic rose in her chest. She hadn’t done anything. After all it had been him who had turned his head. But as he went on, she realised that he wasn’t referring to that at all and the suffocating distress eased away bit by bit. “I mean, we didn’t even know each other when you decided to come at me like that.”

Now it was her who had to avert her gaze.

“I think I don’t really want to answer that question.”

“Why not?” His voice was so soft and gentle, making it even harder to answer him.

“Because the truth might be kind of ugly.”

“But the outcome wasn’t, so I think I’ll take that risk.”

Her feet stopped their mechanical movements as a violent shiver ran down her spine. So this would be it then. It would be over before it had really begun. Pity. But at least she would have the memory of these few minutes, of his genuine smile and the way he had held her tight against his chest. With a deep sigh she bid their daydream of a dance goodbye.

“I could tell you now that it was for some noble reason, but at the bottom of it all I think it was nothing more than jealousy that drew me to your table that night. I had been unable to ignore you all evening — ignore her. The way she behaved like a spoiled brat, drinking and losing control, not caring in the least that she not only made a fool out of herself but of you as well. God, I hated her in that moment, for having everything I ever wanted and riding roughshod over it. And when I saw you sitting there, looking so utterly crestfallen, somehow I couldn’t help it.”

An undefinable silence settled between them and the only sound that remained was the beat of the music wafting over from the party that went on behind his back. The faint whisper of the melody seemed to push itself up between them and tear them further apart, exactly as she had expected. And just like the bass, her heartbeat slowed until it died away completely.

It was over and everything she wanted to do was let go of his hand so she could do him the favour of leaving, but to her astonishment he refused to set her free. And rather then releasing her from his grip, he squeezed her hand, briefly and just once, but it was enough for her to find the courage and face him. But instead of finding a frown or a scornful pair of eyes, his blinding smile made her forget to breathe for a moment.

“I had hoped you might say that.” And with that he pulled her into his arms again and continued swaying her to the music as if she had not just revealed her repulsive self to him. Her brain still a step behind, she couldn’t do anything but stare up at him stupidly.

“What? Why?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” And when she shook her head like a petrified imbecile, an amused chuckle rumbled through his chest. “Because even though your behaviour was extremely infuriating, I have to admit that I like you. And asking you out on a date will be so much easier now that I know you like me too.”

With a violent jolt, the useless muscle inside her chest started to beat again, its heavy pounding filling her ears with white noise as the world around her started to spin. Unable to stop the motion, she felt herself leaning in, her nails digging into the undoubtedly expensive fabric of his jacket as she desperately tried to gain control over her unruly body.

“So, will you go out with me?”

It seemed like an eternity until she finally mustered the strength for a mechanical nod. Neither had she noticed in her struggle that he had stopped dancing, nor that the priceless look on her face had made his eyes and heart go soft for her.

“Great. That’s settled then. When are you free?”

It was only when he took a step back, taking his warmth with him as his hand slipped out of hers, that she snapped out of her trance.

“Now.”

“Now? Like right now?”

More like now as in before she could screw everything up again.

“Yes, why not? I know you have a busy schedule, so finding a date when we are both free might be tough. And above that, it is a beautiful summer evening.”

Had all those words really fallen from her mouth right now? Embarrassed about her lack of composure, her hand flew up to her mouth, making him smile again.

“I guess you have a fair point there.” And just like that, his hand was there again, fingers entwining slowly with hers like they had never been meant for anyone else. “All right then, let’s get out of here.”

***

Tag List: please let me know if you want to be removed or added by either ask or DM - thank you!

@summersong69 @myloveforhenrycavill @dorothea-hwldr @omgkatinka @ashesofblackroses @amberangel112 @madbaddic7ed @icarusblinders @zealoushound @asuni921 @endofalldays01 @nerra75 @indigosaurus @nowyouseeme098 @cap-just-said-language @miss-rebel-without-applause @wheretheriversrunintothesea @maan24 @mochionly @introvertedmouse @sofiebstar @kebabgirl67 @marytudorbrandon @littleone65

[mp100fanworkstranslation]

Slice of Folklore: An Asian Historical Folklore AU

 by Tamadango

Oh god....Okay so this is an AU based on Chinese Folklore.

Reigen is a Daoshi Priest. This is a real sect of Taoism. But within the context of folklore, these Daoshi are more like Mages. They travel from village to village, doing exorcisms, performing rituals, removing curses, treating illnesses, presiding over ceremonies like funerals and also reanimating the dead so they can be walked to where they need to be buried.

Ekubo is a Jiangshi. More on this later.

That idiot villager…. said this route was a safe and easy hike

This is taking way longer than I expected. The other route would have been much faster

As he’s walking through a cave, the path underneath his feet collapses and he falls into a lower level of the cave.

(In chinese folklore, humans live on the surface and monsters/the dead/ spirits reside underground. Caves are sort of a limbo area inhabited by monsters, that average people avoid. 

The path collapses underneath his feet, and he falls. -Screaming- Holy shit! 

He falls and grunts in pain before looking up.

Directly in front of him, is a Jiangshi.

SAFE MY ASS!!

(Jiangshi are monsters from chinese folklore. They are corpses reanimated by blood spells. Lower level Jiangshi are just straight up zombies. Higher level ones are spirits sealed into dead bodies so they have some kind of will/consciousness like Ekubo here. They are reanimated by Daoshi priests and are obligated to serve them.

By default, Jiangshi are servant monsters, they ALWAYS have a master. Since they are dead/decaying bodies, they feed on the lifeforce of living people, ie blood. They can be powered up with blood, sealed with blood seals, sustained/controlled with blood. etc.  

It’s sort of the mix between a zombie_ (undead, with poisonous bite)_, a vampire (needs blood), and a summoned demon (serves a master.) in western fiction.)

Reigen reaches around for his bag as the Jiangshi hops towards him. “Dammit all my tools are in my bag.” 

(Tools specifically associated with being a Daoshi priest, like exorcism stuff, ritual daggers…spell tags…etc)

WHOA!

The creature is lunges at him, snapping. -teeth snapping sounds-

Reigen: ....? What an odd blood seal. Is it possible that this Jiangshi is acting under the control of this spell?

I have to remove it somehow! 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

bottom panel -murmuring-

Ekubo: Hnnnnnngg

I’m finally free… Thanks to you

(So technically, he serves Reigen now. Jiangshi are servant monsters by their nature.)

Reigen: Ahhh the J…..J…. Jiangshi…. It talks! (Low level Jiangshi can’t talk... only the spirit sealed ones can.)

Ekubo: What kind of terrible outfit is this?

Ekubo: Huh? Don’t put me in the same category as those low class monsters.

Ekubo leans over: ....hmmmm

Sniff Sniff

You’re a Daoshi Priest from the Salt group aren’t you?

Eh?

Ekubo: and you’re a virgin….good! good!

Reigen: What business is that of yours?

Ekubo: Haha…What’s your name?

Reigen: Reigen.... Reigen arataka 

(Daoshi Priesthood requires celibacy, virginity, veganism, no alcohol and vow of poverty, along with a lot of other things like prayer, literacy in religious languages, etc.) 

My name is Ekubo. I am an high level creature of darkness!

(In Chinese folklore, Humans reside on the surface and monsters, demons, spirits, reside underground, and are collectively referred as such.)

You’re going to help me find the asshole who kept me sealed for the past couple hundred years so I can take my revenge. 

Reigen: No, I’ll pass. I need to get to the next town, see ya (he says this very fast while walking away)

Ekubo: What?! Hey Wait! There’s lots of gold and treasure in the crypt below. I was guarding it. It’s yours if you help me out.

Reigen’s ears twitch.

(Daoshi Priests are required to take a vow of poverty so he’s not supposed to be interested in riches or accumulating wealth.

Jiangshi are servant monsters by their nature, and must have a master at all times. Which is why Ekubo tries to convince Reigen to go with him. Because If Reigen just left, he would have no choice but to follow.)

They’re looking at a sarcophagus covered in spell seals in the chamber below.

Reigen: Is that the owner of the crypt buried here? Doesn’t look wealthy to me.

Ekubo: Im sure all the good stuff is in the coffin

(In ancient china, as in most ancient cultures, it’s typical to dress the corpse lavishly and fill the coffin with jewelry, money and valuables, so the dead person can be wealthy in the afterlife)

Reigen: Hey, All these coffins in the back here are empty… that’s really strange

-Click-

Ekubo: No… those aren’t normal coffins… these… they’re sacrifices! 

Reigen! It’s dangerous, Get Back!

Reigen: Wait… why are you running?!? Weren’t you looking for this guy so you can take revenge?

Ekubo: Hey I thought he sealed me here to guard the crypt, I didn’t realize I was intended as a snack for later.

Reigen: What?!? Does that mean those coffins are empty because it already ate them? So there’s no actual treasure?

Ekubo: Is THAT what you’re worried about right now? Can you stop being a greedy bastard for a bit so we can get out of here? 

(Again, as a priest, he would have taken a vow of poverty and isn’t supposed to be interested in riches.)

Ekubo: Reigen what are you doing? You cant beat him! That monster is powered up from eating countless other creatures of darkness.

Reigen: Yeah that’s exactly why he needs to be stopped

Reigen: Ridding the world of monsters and exorcising evil is my calling!

Reigen: And you, since you haven’t been eaten yet, help me out

Ekubo: Tch! I want to, but this body is way too weak to go up against a monster like that.

Get down! 

Ekubo: You don’t look it, but you’re actually pretty powerful. Shame it’s not enough to defeat him. Impressive nonetheless.

Reigen: We don’t have time for small talk! Think of something useful! Get us out of this mess!

Ekubo: Alright alright, calm down. You can leave it to me. 

Ekubo: huh! very nice flavor.

The blood from the tongue of a virgin plus my (some kind of power class that is ancient but also protective) 

(I really tried to translate this part but I don’t get the exact words he’s saying. The gist is that he gets a powerup by combining their powers. That’s it.) 

Ekubo: I should be able to break through the protective barrier that he’s using to shield himself. 

**Ekubo: Bring it! I’ll show you my true strength. **

Reigen: Can’t move… Cant feel my body at all….Looks like the poison is taking effect…. Makes sense… the bite of a Jiangshi

(Jiangshi feed on lifeforce/blood, so their bites can drain a person of their lifeforce temporarily.)

Can’t feel my tongue at all. It’s completely numb

Dont lose you bastard

I’m so tired…… 

Reigen: Ekubo?

Ekubo: Farewell...

Ah!

-tongue hurts - Thinks: so it wasn’t a dream 

**He starts sobbing. **

**Ekubo: You alright? **

Reigen: It’s a talking fart!

Ekubo: Hey! It’s me! Ekubo!

Why are you crying? You miss me? 

(More advanced Jiangshi are spirits sealed into dead bodies so they can be freed if their bodies are destroyed )

Reigen: Idiot! I’m trying to get the taste of corpse out of my mouth! You’ve been dead for hundreds of years!

Ekubo: Why are you so angry? Was that your first kiss?

Reigen: Shut up! Don’t you have some underground crypt to return to? What are you loitering out here for?

Ekubo: Just doing my guard duty.

Reigen: Why are you following me?

Ekubo: Why can’t I follow you? I just saved your ass, you could be a little more grateful you know.

(So earlier, Reigen removes the seal that was controlling Ekubo, and he then serves Reigen by default. After his body is destroyed, he’s free to move on. The implication here is that he’s chosen not to, and has decided to follow Reigen around instead.)

By Tamadango

.

.

.

UGHHHH. I was not going to translate this. But @gemmawritessometimes prodded me into it. There was so much goddamn folklore shit to explain. 

Also this comic has a lot of terms you ONLY see in folklore and rarely anywhere else. Goddammit. 

Yeah, anyway, enjoy this comic.

[jaypsnax]

Alright then, to take it from the top... here’s some things I’ve done here or there for this dang game, from oldest to newest. With a big chunk of months starting with the margin Floofty there. Much is traditional and such, which is not my most practiced medium. Details on each below, just because I like over-explaining and it helps my nerves about posting.

1st: Fairly certain this Gramble is the first thing I did that was OK enough to show. Or, at least close to the first. He was one of my favorites and still is for his kindness(though he also can be really mean and paranoid, also a reason why I like him), so I wanted to get around to em. Also he’s very cute, I love my little malewife. I wanna scoop him up and hold him. Trouble is, Gramble has to have some of the most awkward proportions I’ve yet experienced while trying to draw a grumpus, I swear. That, and the more I looked at it, the more I grew to be unhappy with it. That generally applies to basically all of the drawings from last year, I find them to be “eh” at best. But it is what it is. 2nd: Second up is Flooftyyy, my most favorite. Intelligent, well-spoken, morally ambiguous, NB... and an asshole. But one with a cause they believe in that’s ultimately well intentioned, which they’ll go to self-destructive lengths to fulfill. And it’s clear they struggle to really get a grasp on how to treat people and have learned to cope with their frustration by shutting everyone out and believing them to be ignorant. While still obviously playing favorites between Eggabell and Triffany :p But by the end of the game, they’re learning that in order to really do what they want, they’ve got to really try and understand others. They’re the sort that I’d love to keep following to see their development. The awkwardness, the uncomfortable apologies and attempts at empathizing or opening up, the potential for blossoming relationships and a connection with others that, maybe, they’ve never quite experienced before. Their character is one that’s kind of close to my heart for being interesting and also quite similar to one I made and roleplayed for years. Add in the fact they’re NB and that just sealed the deal, that’s some fucking gender goddamn euphoria right there. So I had to draw them. 3rd: This one also mostly falls under the same explanation as above, except it was an effort as really figuring out grumpus bodies and proportions and stuff. Albeit in the form of solely Floofty, but my mental bandwidth for anything more than a drawing or two at a time is zilch. After that I’m spent. It was the first thing that I felt even marginally satisfied with, however.... I just feel like I’m in danger when looking at it. Like I’m gonna lose my way of things and habits I’ve built now from observing it too closely. Did keep the eyes, however. Kind of. 4th: To be real w you I just felt like drawing a Filbo after seeing a Filbo. He’s cute and I’d put a smooch on his dumb little head. Also more practice w grump stuff, but with some intentional attempts at stylization. I guess it didn’t stick, but who knows, maybe I could pick some of it back up?  5th: THE FIRST NEW DRAWING FROM A FEW DAYS AGO and it’s FLOOFTY, of course. It’s not really the first, there’s a few other things before it, but they suck so... yeah. I’d crawled out of the Bugsnax hole somewhat after a few months and failing to really do anything I actually wanted to do before, but a particular fic conked me right back 6 ft under. Piled the dirt over me and packed it in tight. So here I am again. And not only is it like that, but after binging a whole nearly 60,000 words in a night/morning, I was struck with the inspiration to actually write myself. Or try to, anyway. I have experience in RPing, but not a whole lot in actually... making a story myself. It’s not been going well, but I’ve talked plenty about that already... I’m sure it gets annoying for the whole maybe one person whose seen most of it to witness. And I’m still having fun. I’d mention the fic, but considering it’s NSFW and I’m officially tagging this... I don’t know if they’d want me advertising it as such. But surprise surprise, it’s Floofty related. And don’t get the wrong idea, while it covers explicit subject matter, that’s not entirely the point. Not a bad thing if it were, just that it’s more than that. I just like good character writing over all else, which is something liking this game to begin with heavily reinforced.... 6th: Heeeere’s Gramble, again. I’d been doing some little drawings for character profile stuff in my notebook, but I started to run into some difficulties when I got to him. This here is one of the results of the couple of little draws I did to try and understand. Again, his proportions are so *weird*. He’s just a little guy.... 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th: Here marks the first impulse draw after considering Buddy/Filbo/Beffica poly stuff. As well as the sudden Buddy drawing in general, which came as a big shock to me. These draws are suuuper rough, but I like the concepts. And goodness has this stuff been a whole ‘nother tangent... I did a fair amount of talking about it here. I’d do more, since there were TONS of details I still wanted to mentioned, but... my hands are starting to hurt. So maybe later. I realized that I kinda of messed up their design in my head bc I thought they had more similar teeth to Clumby. Whoops. That’s what I get for not using reference and same with FlooFTY’S TEETH AND THE WATCH NOOOOOOOOOO- .... *Ahem* I reckon the design is subject to change. Gotta make some little adjustment here or there, like maybe different eyes to distinct them from Floofty, but I actually rather... like the look. The hat, tie, and maybe a change to a bag on the side look nice... if totally not canon. But I will have just a little break from canon, as a treat. Otherwise it’s canon or bust. Personally, at least. I don’t really hold others to that standard unless they say they’re trying to follow canon or diverge so badly that a character is unrecognizable.

[gwaean]

The Rescuers  

Part One: “Old acquaintances meet again"

 Summary: You are a mandalorian rebel friends with Captain Rex so you are well aware of the entire "clone situation" going on. And of course you want to help as much as you can. You then go to Ryloth trying to help the Syndulla's and maybe find your old friend Cody. 

 Pairing: None. Yet. But will be a Crosshair x Reader.

 Gender: There'll be no mentions of gender or pronouns on this part yet. Though further in the story it might have she/they pronouns used.

 Word count: 1.6k

 Tags: Injury recover, post-clone wars story, rescuing clones/friends, a bit of melancholy?

 Warning: Brief description of injury.

 Notes: So, I literally dreamed most parts of this story (I know, crazy Star Wars obsession here). I filled up some parts as I was writing of course. And it turned out a bit like a beautiful sad tragic. I might even do a playlist for this fanfic actually. Hope u enjoy it :) 

 The war, the republic, the jedi all have ended. Literally on the same day. And what it seemed like a fresh start, finally a moment of peace in the chaos turned into nightmares. You weren’t there when it happened, you just heard the news of Obi-Wan saying the jedi order and the republic had fallen and you also heard the now Emperor Palpatine telling everyone that the clone wars has ended and the jedi were traitor, they’ve tried to assassinate him according to well… himself. And now he’s forming this new galactic empire, giving people numbers like the ones clones used to have and killing off any resistance against this new order. Everyone seemed to believe him, you gotta give him that he was a pretty damn’ good  liar indeed. But you knew better than that. You are mandalorian after all and were friends with no one less than Duchess Satine and Senator Padmé. You helped them countless times in their diplomatics and you even fought with the jedi and the clones at times. They were good people, yes, the order might have messed up at lot but traitors? Murders? They sure didn’t deserve to die like that and I guess… No one does.

  You quickly then joined the rebellion. There you found many of former politics like Senator Organa and even a clone… Captain Rex (or is it Commander now?). You’ve met him once before and he seemed like a good person and looks like he’s really a great man just like you thought. You soon became friends. But sadly, the other clones you knew before like Cody were still with the empire. Though both you and Rex were very determinate to help others like him. And also, obviously, protect your allies against the empire.

  Well, as expected trouble begins. There’s been rumors about what’s going in Ryloth with the Syndulla’s and the empire occupation. Worried about them and their people, you go there to help as you can. And if there’s need, you’d call more rebels to help too though you didn’t want to envolve more people yet because you’re afraid of the reaction it could cause ( and what that would cost for ryloth and its people). You also have a tiny tiny hope that maybe just maybe Cody could be there.

  Arriving in Ryloth, you discover the Syndulla family have indeed oppose agains the empire occupation and they’ve went into a lot of trouble because of that but apparently a group of mercenaries (?) have already rescued them from the prison they were sent to. One less problem for you to fix I guess. You were glad for them but you still want to spy a little on the empire and see what you could find out after all, the trip couldn’t be for nothing.

  You find your way and get to a particular high hill with a great view of one imperial base. You pick up your binoculars and the only person you see in a sort of balcony is a very depressive-looking Crosshair. You remember him from that one time clone force 99 saved your butt from the mess you’ve yourself in. He was… quite unfriendly, let’s say. But he did get the job done and made sure you were okay so you just ignored his behavior. Looking at him now it was looking at a shadow of him. 

   It made you remember what Rex told you once: 

“We clones were all created with this chip thing in our my minds. We were made for the war and the war only but apparently someone thought it would be great if they let us think we've got free will. That we could be anything we wanted to be after the war. So we made friends, some of us found a family with our jedi. They let we hope. Just so we have all of that taken away from us with order 66. The war had ended for everyone except for us. We had our will taken from us, our minds controlled by this chip and we had to follow orders. While we're still there conscious of what we were doing we had to kill the people we fought together the entire war. I remember her face... I'm so glad she didn't see my face. I couldn't bare.” 

 Thinking about what all the clones been through, you can’t just leave him like this. He did save you once and this was your chance to repay that. Rex keeps saying we can’t save everyone (more to himself than to you) but one person is better than nobody, right?  At the time you improvise a plan: neither the empire nor Cross can’t know yet that you’re a rebel. You haven’t done anything yet incriminating (at least not that they were aware of). So you can just jump in there where he was standing and talk to him. Worst case scenario he ignores you. However you sure knew how to annoy him enough that at least he would call you out and when that happens you act. Ok, that you still have to figure out exactly how you would act. Well, half of a plan is better than no plan.

  You just jump in behind his back and of course he points his gun at you as expected. But he apparently recognizes who it’s standing in front of him and put his riffle down. 

   “ Hello there.”  You say.

   “What do you think you’re doing?”  He replies.

   “Oh, please, don’t act like you aren’t happy to see me.” 

     He gives you a faint of a smile. “Don’t flatter yourself.” 

     You smiled back. “But seriously, what you’re doing here all alone? And why- You finally noticed the burn mark on his now bald head. - are you like this? Doesn’t the empire takes care of its soldiers? Nor your squad? The bad batch, right? That’s what you called yourselves?” 

     His face closes again. “You have nothing to do with that. I’m-” 

     “By yourself?” You pause for a moment. “Alright, I get it. You’ve probably been through a lot. We all have. Not sure why you’re like this but it doesn’t matter right now. I just wonder… Don’t you want to get out of all of this?” 

     Cross pauses for a moment. It seems like he's considering the possibility. “I… I can’t.” 

     “But…”  You then think. You remind yourself of how protective he was that one time you were saved by them. Maybe this instinct was still there, you had to try. You saw a pointed rock close to where you were standing and decided that you would accidentally cut yourself. “Ouch!” 

    “What’s up?” 

    “Oh! Nothing! Just might have cut myself here.” You show your hand now with a bit bigger than you expected cut and some blood.

     He almost laughs at it. “What a little clumsy one you are, eh?” 

     His mocking at you, that’s something, right? “Yeah, I guess….” 

     “Well, let’s go?”  He points to the door.

     “Go where?” 

     “Don’t you wanna take care of that, sweetheart?” 

     “Right, medical bay then?” 

     “Obviously.”  Perfect. He would be right where you needed him to be.

  The both of you enter the facility and walk directly to the medical bay. The empire base is pretty much a bland dark and boring military base with some troopers walking around, some commanders (you think) yelling at the soldiers and some droids doing whatever they have to do. You knew only that they were “r - unities” but droids weren’t exactly your area of expertise. However you do notice that the troopers walking around still wear the same clone armor from back the war. And you feel guilty. Because as much as you’d like you won’t be able to help them all. They’ll stay there with their chips on being controlled by the empire…. By the force, that was a hole guilty trip you knew you shouldn’t take. It wasn’t your fault. No, no. They did this. Palpatine and his men were the monsters. Not you. And certainly not these poor clones. One day, yes, one day maybe you could come back and save them?

 “Hmmm…. You wanna me to do this?”  Cross says. You were so distracted in your thoughts you don’t even realized you were already in the medical bay.

 “Oh. You don’t have to.” 

 “It's fine. I’m used to do this anyway.” 

  “Ok. Be my guest then?” 

  “Wow, you’re so funny.” He jokes.

  “Whatever. Just do your thing.” 

  “Give me your hand.”  

 You give him your hand and he takes it. And to your surprise he’s very gentle while taking care of your wound. He applies some alcohol pads to clean the wound. And as he presses the wound to stop the bleeding you reach for your gun and keep looking at his face. His very concentrated. It’s almost like the rest of the galaxy doesn’t matter. He’s only there at the moment focused on helping you. And you’re trying to plan how you’re gonna knock him out to take his chip off.

 “Now I’m gonna get some stuff to make a bandage for ya, ok?” He says and turns his back. Now is you chance. You turn your blaster to stun only and shoots. He falls. 

 “I’m sorry. But there’s no other way.” You whisper as if he’s actually listening. 

 It takes some effort (seriously, Crosshair's heavier than he looks) but you manage to put him on one these surgical stretchers. You also have to learn super quick how to use the pad control to see where the chip’s in and take it off. But it’s done. And you wait and wait… For what it seemed like hours though it was only like 15 minutes.

And he wakes up very confused.

[introverted-sugar]

Ugh 😑

Heads up, this is a minor rant! Proceed with caution.

I feel like such a shit friend for what I’m about to express but I have to get this off of my chest because I have no one else to complain to. Also, I know I’m a great friend but I’m very particular about how I do things and I need to be at peace when I’m somewhere

So, my birthday is in a few days and I’m going to Miami/islamorada/key west for 10 days. I’ll be in Miami for 4 days with my girl best friend, and then “Travel daddy” the remainder of the trip.

So me and my best friend are similar in the sense of us being laid back and chill, we don’t do too much, when we go out we’re not twerking on table tops or fighting or any of that ratchet bullshit (now don’t get me wrong, you put the right song on and I’ll shake these cheeks but i just don’t like that type of attention, I sucked as a stripper 😂) But we are also VERY different. I like to try new things, eat at kind of fancy restaurants (if I’m paying, VERY fancy on a “mans” dime 💁🏽‍♀️) , I don’t like to go to clubs and if I do I’m definitely leaving early, lounge by the beach/pool, swim, snorkel, bike ride etc. So I’ve been trying to plan stuff for us to do but it’s hard because I have to take her into consideration (I’m used to traveling alone or with some man that’s trying to please me so I’m usually able to just do what I want )

Here is a list of grievances & concerns I have thus far:

1: She doesn’t really like sushi. Yes, that’s petty but I have dinner reservations the night of my birthday at a sushi place with a tasting menu. She said she was okay with going but eh idk, and then is she going to be cool with the price tag of the tasting menu? Any tasting I’ve ever done all the people at the table had to do the tasting menu

2: Piggy backing off of the first point, her sister is flying in the same day we are to help her friend that’s getting a BBL down there (😑, I’ll explain why I’m not a fan of her sister later) but we arrive at like 12, she’ll be arriving around 8 pm..the time I made reservations at the sushi spot. So earlier we were on the phone and she said “oh yeah such and such gets there around 8 I told her WE would come pick her up from the airport” Pause! WHO? Not I! I said “that’s the time our reservations are for” she was like “oh well she can just meet us there” 🤦🏽‍♀️ now remember I said I don’t do too much, I’m quiet and reserved. Her sister, not so much. She’s not about to embarrass me and she’s DEF not chilling at the hotel with her loud ass. My thing is, how tf you inviting people to MY birthday dinner. I honestly don’t wanna see her sister at all while we’re there, but I’m willing to meet her somewhere for an hour or so and then leave ✌🏽

(I don’t like her sister because the very first time I met her a couple years ago on NYE she basically got us involved in a literal BRAWL at a HOUSE PARTY in the heart of west philly of all places 😑 long story short the whole party beat her sisters ass for walking in and tAlking shit, and then Her sister stole someones whole car at the party, I guess when they were jumping her someone’s keys fell out of their pocket so she took the keys and figures out which car it belonged to and stole it, like it was just a ghetto ass mess)

3: She keeps asking me the same questions over and over. We have had this trip booked for MONTHS, literally, I like to be organized and plan shit out, but every week or so it’s “so where are we staying again” “how much is it” “do you think my hair will last if I get a frontal” to which I replied BITCH NEVER, just get braids or locs, of course she just got a sewin/frontal earlier…okay but I warned you sis😖. now mind you this will be her first time in Miami so she wasn’t really trying to pay the price (half) for the hotel I booked. I’ve been to Miami plenty of times on top of actually living there and there’s no better deal we’re going to get on south beach, with all the amenities that the hotel offers, I’m very good at planning and booking trips and finding the best deals so I was highly irritated when just a week before our trip shes tryna find cheaper places. I told her she can look but it needs to at least •be in south beach •be on collins/ocean drive and •have a pool (unless she could find an Airbnb). Y’all she sent me all these bullshit ass links to places in HOLLYWOOD (which I actually love but I said south beach…), Miami Gardens 🤮, and ft. Lauderdale and they didn’t have any amenities and were MORE money. In my head I was like “bruh nevermind we’re staying where we’re staying, you don’t need to do ANYMORE looking” 🙅🏽‍♀️

4: she doesn’t like the water or swimming. That’s the main reason I even go to Florida so often for the water, like literally. I’m not a fan of most beaches up north (Giants neck beach In CT Is awesome though, Maine has some nice ones too but it’s just so cold even on a very hot summer day, jersey has a few as well but mainly I like clear waters) So anyway, I wanted to book this snorkel/boat tour/key west tour but she doesn’t want to do it because 1: she doesn’t wanna snorkel but 2: we would have to leave at 6:30 am and she doesn’t get up until like 12 🙄 I feel like I’m limited as to what I can do

5: She still hasn’t sent me her half of the hotel fee and we leave Tuesday…it’s Saturday. She’s been saying “imma send it tomorrow” for like 2 weeks now and telling me about her car troubles

6: As I mentioned she wakes up late, which means she goes to bed late. The latest I go to bed is like 12 but when I’m on “vacation” I tend to drink more than I normally would so I go to sleep early. Shit when me and travel daddy went to all those vineyards I legit took naps mid day to keep up 😂 I’m worried she’s gonna keep me up like she did last month when I spent the night at her house, I was HIGHLY irritated and it was only one night

I’m seriously pondering why tf I thought this was a good idea. Lowkey I didn’t think it was a good idea but we’ve never traveled together and she’s never been to Miami (she’s the reason we’re even going to Miami because I’ve BEEN over Miami, it’s packed and overrated but I thought it would be a cute thing for us to do)

It doesn’t matter how cool you are with someone you have to have the right travel buddy and just because you get along doesn’t mean you should travel together. Sadly, I can already tell you this is our last trip together

The irony is I was sooo hesitant and complaining about going on the WPB trip but ended up having a blast, but we also had a huge villa and everyone had privacy, and I only personally knew one person so at first I didn’t feel super obligated to be all chummy with his friends, but I loved all of them they were so much fun and liked to do the stuff I like to do, it really was such a bomb trip I wish I could show you guys all the cute pics and videos we took, REALLY great vibes

I love my best friend to death but I’m so apprehensive about this trip. We don’t even chill that often on the regular, mainly because we’re both just busy or live kind of far from eachother but I’m that friend that loves you…from afar, every now and then she’ll drag me out to some lounge and I’m always ready to go early it’s just not my scene, I wanna be in bed damnit! 😩

Am I just being a brat? What do you guys think?

[boognish-worshipper]

Midnight City AU

this is an au where the main characters are all young adults!! (or millennials ig? they’re in their 20s basically) i gave a rundown of what’s what on a diff post,, i’m also splitting it up into diff chapters,, so this is gonna take a looooong time to finish. i’m posting this before i nitpick my writing to the max

it’s basically a lot of references to that point in time, artists, pop culture etc. all the chapters are named after songs from that era (including the name of this au bc i love midnight city and what better way to describe LS ‼️), and the lyrics r usually connected to what the chapter’s about, or about a character dynamic :D i hope this isn’t too cheesy, or sounds off ig. any typos in this were probably over looked bc i constantly reread my writing and rearrange stuff and make sure it sounds good 🥳 hope y’all enjoy !!! i’m also including a tag to find the chapters under :)

//Chapter 1: Crimewave

Trevor would never, ever admit it, but he had fallen into the category known as “post-hipster”. This was a strange era that began culminating, taking LS by storm. Whether he liked it or not, he could never avoid it. Even if he swore up and down he wasn’t like them, it was practically a paradox. Saying he wasn’t like them just made him a branched off version of the thing he denounced. Each aesthetic that was churned out as the 2010s rolled in were tied to a style, a sound, and Trevor couldn’t care less. It’s not like people liked what he liked. He didn’t belong to anything in particular, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t like them. If anything, he just became another obscure genre in the mix.

One of his favorite music groups was a Canadian duo called Crystal Castles. He enjoyed a good number of their songs, developing an interest for electropunk and pop punk. There was something unique about the sound, and it made Trevor feel special, like he discovered some sort of hidden treasure. He was into pop punk groups like Paramore too, but it was something about them that was just different. People knew Paramore. He often lingered around Sterling Lake, where other post-irony hipsters and classic hipsters resided, careful not to fully associate with them. After all, he apparently despised them, even though he participated in their strange… “culture”. If you could even call it that. From time to time he would find himself discussing his favorite artists with whatever semi-normal person was there, making a couple friends himself who weren’t the snooty kind he’d grown used to.

They all loved talking about how exceptional their taste in music was, a wide variety of people hanging around with their own cliques. Some liked Fall Out Boy, while others liked Blink-182, and then there were the weirdos who liked groups like Radiohead. Most of those guys were whiny, proclaiming how misunderstood they were. He knew maybe one Radiohead song at most (he definitely, definitely never cried to “Creep” and even if he did, so what) but never found himself willingly getting into their music. Then you had the nosedivr crowd, which consisted of mostly girls, and the occasional hipster guy that defected. Their taste was.. alright. Consisted of artists like Lana Del Ray and Marina and the Diamonds, who were their idols. He found almost everyone there besides the few friends he made kind of edgy, and not in the cool way. But he figured all hipsters and guys like them were kind of uncool. Don’t even get him started on those other indie rock types. God. He still came back as often as he could though, establishing some kind of routine. Most people there avoided him anyway, which he preferred. He had enough troubles with them in the past. There was one day he grew tired of the people gawking at him, and he launched a hipster right into the lake. So yeah, nobody within their right mind so much as looked in his direction. That was just how he rolled.

Today, he sat on a nearby bench in Sterling Lake’s park, watching some ducks float on water. His usual friends had been there too, seeing his clowncore buddy Wade with his cousin Floyd. Wade was extremely different than the pretentious fucks around them. He had a shit ton of piercings, and ICP was his favorite music group. Floyd on the other hand, fit right in. Almost too much, like it was something he was forced to do. But he did genuinely enjoy Weezer, of all things you could enjoy. Wade started waving at Trevor, while Floyd hid behind him. All he did was awkwardly wave back, turning his attention back to the lake. He liked Wade, but the clown stuff he wore sometimes spooked him. He didn’t pay much mind to his relative. Looking back across the water, he saw someone new, observing the area. Some dude a little above the average height, hands in his pockets walking around. He seemed a bit lost, and Trevor figured he should help if he was. After all, what was this guy doing here? New people didn’t show up often.

“Hey bud, you lost or something?”

“Oh uh, nah not really. I’m just looking for this girl I met a while ago, said she hangs out around here?”

“What she look like? I’m here pretty often.”

“Uhh kinda short, dark brownish hair? Wears fishnet stockings, high waisted shorts or whatever those grunge people are into.”

“Let me guess, she into the Neighborhood?”

“How’d you know?”

“Yeah, that’s Amanda, she’s a bit of a regular. Not too fond of me I must say.”

“How come?”

“She’s just petty towards me.” He said with a shrug. He didn’t feel like relaying his encounters with her if the guy was dating her or something.

“Oh… well d’ya think you could help me find her? I don’t really know anybody else here. I could actually use the help, since you know her.”

“Eh sure, why not.”

It’s not like he had anything better to do. The two began to walk around the park, gravel and dirt crunching beneath their feet.

“So.. what’s this place about?” The strange guy asked.

“Hm? Oh, it’s just one of those places the hipster folks meet up I guess. Don’t understand it much myself, nor do I really like them.”

“Then why do you come here?”

“Dunno. It’s relatively peaceful, those freaks keep to themselves.”

The man, who was only a smidge shorter than Trevor, glared up at him.

“Hey man, don’t call my girl a freak.”

“Ehh I don’t really count her in with the generic skinny jean wearing hipsters. More of a.. what is it called.. nosedivr type. Whatever that stupid website’s called. Why do you think she dresses like that?”

“Huh.. Never really thought to ask her.”

As he thought about the stuff Amanda wore, he took note of how the man next to him was dressed. He sported an olive jacket with a black turtle neck, and a plain pair of jeans. He wore beat up black converse to top it off, and a pair of Rimmers sunglasses sat upon his head. He looked simple, yet distinguished with the way he presented himself, hair neatly combed back. He figured the two would look nice standing next to one another. They would’ve made an attractive couple, if they weren’t dating already, the kind that turns heads. Trevor wasn’t like them. He wore a black beanie over his mullet, and his favorite pair of red Dix sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose. The rest of his fit looked disheveled. He had thrown on a wrinkled top, solid black with little surf boards and cars along the bottom- he was a sucker for Hawaiian shirts. His pants were tan colored but had some bleach stains, with old combat boots on his feet.

“Yeah, we may not like each other but I don’t really consider her a freak like those guys.”

He jutted a thumb in the direction of a circle of guys huddled around a phone. The man holding the phone had strawberry blonde hair and a clean outfit on. An expensive looking outfit.

“Who are they?”

“The people here I absolutely cannot fucking stand. The genuine hipsters.”

“Oh.. and you’re..?”

“I’m my own kind. I’m not like these losers, all uppity and shit.”

“Right. Gotcha.”

They walked around a bit more before finding the group Amanda was with. She sat on a bench, chatting with a few girls who dressed similarly to her. All of them had black incorporated into their style. She herself had a black jumper on, tucked neatly into the front of her jean shorts. Just like the guy described, she had fishnets on under them, skater shoes to match. Loose braids fell on her shoulders, and a small black choker was wrapped around her neck.

“Oh, there he is now! Babe! Over here!”

She narrowed her eyes upon seeing Trevor standing next to him.

“Hello, Trevor.” She huffed.

“Relax, I was helping your boyfriend or whatever look for you.”

Her face softened slightly, but still kept a small glare in his direction. She pressed her lips together tight before replying.

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Yup.”

The man turned to face Trevor, sticking out a hand.

“Hey, thanks for showing me around. Trevor, is it?”

“Don’t wear it out.”

He shook his hand, noticing how soft it was. It was in stark contrast to his own, which was rough and calloused.

“Name’s Michael. I’ll see you around most likely? Thanks again.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Amanda huffed again, nudging Michael’s shoulder.

“Let’s go hun, Bean Machine closes soon!”

“I’m comin’ I’m comin’!”

The two sauntered off, hand in hand. Trevor stood dumbly, watching them walk away. He was right. They did look good together. He wondered if he would actually see this Michael again, kicking a rock. He went back to the bench he originally sat at, putting his earbuds in, listening to some Crystal Castles again to pass the time. The beat thumped in his ears, and all he could think was how much better this shit was compared to that club music shit that played on every radio station in a 5 foot radius. He sat there, scrolling through his own secret nosedivr account, reblogging some photo of a lit cigarette. Right before a hand touched his shoulder causing him to jump.

“What the fuck- Oh. Ron.”

Ron was another friend of Trevor’s, a guy he had met outside one of the iFruit stores talking about how “they’re tapping the phones they sell in there!” and all that conspiracy nonsense. He was a paranoid guy, but Trevor kind of liked that about him. Those were the kind of freaks he liked. He was shorter than Trevor, sort of frail in stature. He wore a bright red windbreaker over a faded tourist tee that read “I went to Liberty City and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!”, along with khaki colored cargo shorts. It didn’t help that he wore some goofy looking bucket hat, and socks with sandals. He dressed like someone’s middle aged father.

“Trevor! Have you seen Wade around anywhere?”

“Last I checked, he was with Floyd.”

“Did he say where he was going?”

“Uh no, but my best bet is they went to that vinyl shop Floyd’s girlfriend works at.”

“Will ya come with me to find him?”

“Now why the fuck would I do that? What do you need him for?”

“Well I- I uh- um..”

“I uh! I uh! Spit it out Ron!”

“It’s about the Merryweather Night Club.”

Merryweather was a big organization that had a wide range of private clubs all over the country, and complimentary body guards to suit. They were all expensive as fuck, and anywhere they settled jacked up the prices of everything else. A lot of neighborhoods became gentrified as a result, and people actually considered it a good thing. What a fucking joke. Trevor of course couldn’t stand it. He hated bullies, and Merryweather was no exception. He’d been wanting to dismantle the club since they settled in LS, seeing as they only amplified the fake feel of the city. Let’s just say he’s gotten into more than a few scuffles with the club. And let’s just say it ended with someone getting stabbed as a result. The guy had it coming to him anyway. Between bouncers and the clubbers, they didn’t like Trevor or his kind loitering around the joint. It didn’t stop him from plotting some sort of revenge though. Ron per usual was on board, his reason being Merryweather’s violent history that had been swept under the rug. They were rather forceful relocating people who had lived in certain neighborhoods for years, Ron being one of their victims. Wade only decided to tag along because he wanted to be included.

“Ah fuck, what’d those bastards do now?”

“They’re throwing some big party!”

“…What fucking for?”

“All I know some guy’s coming to visit, somebody they labeled important and he’s-“

“Woah woah woah wait, Ron. Who?”

“Steve Haines.” He breathed out, careful not to be overheard.

Trevor’s eyes widened, his gaze shooting over to the posse he had poked fun of before. Steve was talking to the group, all of them doing that fake laugh they always did. God, even their humor was pretentious.

“Those fucking hipsters!” He hissed.

“I abhor them, you know that-“

“I know. I know. But, that Weston guy’s gonna be there with him-“

“Weston? Devin Weston?”

If Trevor hated hipsters, then he utterly loathed rich daddy’s money boys like Devin Weston. He had only gotten that stupid fucking night club because his father paid Don Percival enough money to let Devin do whatever he pleased with the Merryweather body guards. It was an elitist club, and they only allowed the best of the best in there.

“What the fuck’s going on there?”

“Something to do with those guys he hangs out with. I think they’re doing something major, expansion maybe-”

“And him and Devin are working together or..?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t hear much after that, that’s why I wanted to grab you and Wade and-”

“Then let’s fucking go get him, Ron!”

The two rushed out of there, heading for the vinyl store to look for Wade. Trevor knew a shit storm was coming, and he absolutely couldn’t wait.

//the next chapter’s gonna be longer i promise lolz

[organabanana]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Supergirl Rating: T Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Alex Danvers/Kelly Olsen  Characters: Alex Danvers, Kelly Olsen (Supergirl TV 2015)  Additional Tags: implied supercorp dumbery, alex's malfunctioning gaydar, strap-on talk, Domestic Fluff Summary: Alex and Kelly discuss sapphic culture, watch a movie, consider strap-ons, and make the most of same-day delivery. I could pretend there's a plot here but honestly it's just domestic fluff for a cute little prompt. Notes: Written for the prompt "Imagine Me & You" for the Pride theme at @femslashexchange. First time writing Dansen so I hope you'll enjoy!

[ao3 link]

“Stop staring at me like that! I thought you people were supposed to be non-judgmental.”

If Kelly takes issue with Alex’s tone when referring to psychologists as ‘you people’, she certainly doesn’t show it. She just keeps staring, body turned to face Alex’s on the couch and palms neatly resting on her knees like she’s trying to keep her composure in the face of an unhinged patient or something.

Which is, if you ask Alex, an overreaction.

“We are. I wouldn’t say I’m judging you per se, it’s just—“ Kelly presses her lips together for a moment, clearly trying to come up with non-judgmental words to convey her very judgmental (Alex can read it all over her face) thoughts. “It’s just— you’ve really never—“

“Never.” Alex shrugs, like it’s no big deal. Actually, you know what? She shrugs because it’s no big deal.

“But you’ve… I mean, at least you must be familiar with it? Word of mouth, if nothing else?”

Alex contemplates for a moment, lips pursed slightly as she looks up like she’s expecting to find some kind of cue card on the ceiling of their apartment.

“Not really?” she finally decides, after a few moments of soul-searching, “I don’t really— I mean I know it’s uh… lesbian adjacent?” Alex illustrates how unsure she is about that particular statement with a swishy hand motion, but it clearly does nothing to impress her girlfriend.

“Lesbian adjac— Alex!” Kelly’s eyes widen as she finally loses all semblance of professional poker face (not that she’d been doing a great job before, mind you) and lets out an incredulous chuckle. “It’s not lesbian adjacent, it’s— it’s a cornerstone of sapphic culture!”

“Oh come on, Kel!” It’s Alex’s turn to laugh now, more than a little bit charmed by just how passionate her otherwise very rational girlfriend seems to be about something as silly as this. “It’s so not a cornerstone of sapphic anything. Strap-ons? Sure, I could see that. Some dumb—“

“Do not finish that sent— wait, did you just say strap-ons?”

Alex shrugs. She said what she said. She’s also acutely aware of the very visible (and oh, so very pretty) glow on her girlfriend’s cheeks, no matter how hard Kelly tries to look unaffected.

“Anyway,” Kelly shakes her head just so, and Alex could not possibly be any more enamored by the way she clears her throat and shifts on her seat, “as I was saying, I’m surprised a lesbian over thirty has never seen Imagine Me & You, that’s all.”

“Eh. I’m not much for rom-coms. Can we go back to strap-ons for a minute, though? I feel like there’s a conversation to be had there.”

Alex can see the struggle right there in Kelly’s eyes. Will Kelly Olsen drop an argument, mild as this particular one may be, before it’s been thoroughly resolved? Will she give in to the heat Alex can nearly feel radiating off her cheeks and talk about sex toys instead?

“Would you wear it, or would I?” Alex asks, choosing to give her girlfriend a small nudge in the (obvious, if you ask her) right direction.

“You don’t like romantic comedies?” Kelly says at exactly the same time, looking at Alex like she’s suddenly sprouted a second head.

Alex groans, throwing her head back against the couch in such despair she nearly doesn’t hear Kelly’s next words.

“You. I think?”

Oh.

Alex is once again fully engaged with the conversation, licking her lips as she straightens her back and turns to focus on her girlfriend. “Yeah?” Alex can feel heat rising to her own cheeks now, oddly flattered by Kelly’s choice. “You think?”

There’s a certain warmth to Kelly’s smile when she looks into Alex’s eyes. The kind of warmth that lets Alex know Kelly has somehow read her thoughts and understood them, likely better than Alex herself. “I think you could pull it off, yes,” she says, long fingers wrapping around Alex’s and tugging lightly to encourage her to get a little closer.

Alex would love to be the kind of woman who can keep this back and forth of flirty banter going for a while. She’d love to be the kind of woman who can tease and flirt and play the part of the cool lesbian who knows she’s hot stuff. But the thing is, Kelly is just so beautiful. She’s soft and warm and she thinks Alex could pull off a strap-on and she’s practically begging for a kiss (which Alex immediately gives her, of course, she’s not a monster), and how could Alex possibly resist?

How could anyone, really?

Those cool lesbians simply have never had Kelly Olsen’s bedroom eyes directed at them.

“Wanna go on-line shopping?” Alex whispers between the second kiss and the third, grinning when Kelly’s fingers slide into her hair, “I bet they have same-day delivery.”

Kelly chuckles, light and sweet against Alex’s lips and fully obliterating whatever crumbs of coolness Alex may have had left. “In a rush, are we?”

“Lil bit, yeah,” Alex freely admits, a bit too taken with the way Kelly smiles at her to care if she’s proving once again she’s not the coolest where her girlfriend is involved. But, again — how could anyone resist? Kelly shifts on the couch, smoothly readjusting their position until she’s on her back with Alex on top of her, and Alex is pretty sure she’s peaked. Life simply doesn’t get any better than this.

(Alex has thought she’s peaked, on average, around twice a day since she started dating Kelly. Don’t you dare judge her.)

Kelly’s neck smells faintly of lavender when Alex trails kisses up warm skin towards the spot right behind Kelly’s ear.

“Soap thief,” she whispers, teeth gently nipping and making Kelly let out a sound that falls somewhere between a laugh and a gasp, “for shame.”

Kelly doesn’t answer right away. She lets Alex bask in the feeling of having the upper hand for a few seconds, slips her own hands under Alex’s shirt to grab at the solid muscles on her back, spreads her legs so Alex’s thigh can slot between them… and then she speaks.

“Will your cock be lavender too?”

Alex makes a sound. Unfortunately, because it’s neither sexy nor dignified. She sputters, really. Nearly chokes on her own breath. In her defense… well, honestly, she doesn’t think she needs a defense. Who wouldn’t be disarmed by her girlfriend, all warm and soft and rocking against her thigh with purpose, suddenly bringing up lavender cocks?

Come on now.

“W— would you like it lavender?” Alex manages to ask, voice slightly higher than normal as she pushes herself up on her hands to look into Kelly’s eyes. And maybe also to shift her weight onto her knee, her thigh pressing a little harder between Kelly’s legs. “Do you want it lavender?”

“Baby,” Kelly sighs and arches her back just slightly — just enough to make the column of her neck impossible to resist, so Alex presses an open-mouthed kiss to Kelly’s throat and feels the words vibrate against her lips as they come out, “I want it yours.”

***

Alex’s brain doesn’t fully recover until nearly two hours later, when she’s sitting at her desk staring at the tracking website for the package they will be receiving at some point within that same day.

Technology, right? What a wonderful thing.

“Are you still watching that?” Kelly’s tone is teasing as she walks out of the bathroom brushing her fingers through her freshly washed, still wet hair. “Are you expecting it to just teleport here by sheer force of will?”

Alex shrugs. She’s familiar enough with Martian tech to hold out hope for that happening. And honestly, considering the requests Kelly made regarding size while choosing the (lavender, yes) toy, Alex is pretty sure not even staring unblinkingly at her screen fully qualifies her as the most eager person in the room.

“You know it won’t be here for at least a couple hours,” Kelly insists, “but I know just how we could fill the time.”

It’s like a switch has been flipped. One second Alex is staring at the screen, and the next she’s pretty much forgotten there’s a package to receive. Alex wouldn’t call the look on Kelly’s eyes flirty, exactly, but it’s certainly something. Playful, maybe. Is playful better than flirty?

Alex is oh-so-ready to find out.

“Yeah?” Alex says, already on her feet and moving towards Kelly.

Kelly nods, eyes practically sparkling as she sits on the couch once again.

And Alex, of course, follows her.

Who wouldn’t?

Kelly kisses her first. Something short and sweet that leaves Alex smiling and hoping for a reprise. But instead, Kelly speaks.

“We can watch Imagine Me & You.”

Alex groans, and she’d be lying if she said there isn’t at least a bit of dramatic flair involved in the intensity of her despair. “Kelly! I told you I don’t like romcoms!”

“But you love romance!” Kelly motions in the general direction of the shelf that’s nearly overflowing with little mementos of their life together. A box full of movie theater tickets, a dried flower from the first time they celebrated Valentine’s day, the cork from the first bottle of wine they drank in their home… and the collection is very much maintained (and steadily grown) by Alex. “How can you not like romantic comedies? They should be right up your alley.”

“I like real romance. Not… fake, decaf romance.”

And it’s not a controversial statement, Alex thinks. It’s pretty much common sense. There’s real life, and then there’s movies. There’s real romance — the kind that makes her laugh and cry and get butterflies in her stomach — and then there’s Hollywood’s version of romance, which feels hollow most of the time. Everyone knows that, right?

So why is Kelly looking at her like she’s just cracked some kind of code?

“What? Stop being creepy. I liked it better when you were judging me earlier.”

“But you like big dramatic romance movies,” Kelly prods, “right?”

“Well, sure, but that’s different.”

“Because…” Kelly nods encouragingly.

“I don’t know, Kel. I guess because rom-coms are just kinda…” Alex sighs, “I don’t know.”

“Insubstantial?” Kelly offers, “hard to engage with beyond mindless entertainment? Alienating, even, in a way?”

“Right!” Freaking finally, Kelly gets it. Alex isn’t weird. This is a universal phenomenon, obviously. “Exactly! Exactly that.”

“Honey,” Kelly pats the back of Alex’s hand affectionately, voice down to just barely above a whisper, “that’s ‘cause you’re gay.”

Alex scoffs, somewhere between amused and outraged. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Kelly’s eyes narrow just slightly. There’s a glint to them that Alex knows very well. It’s the look Kelly gets when she knows she’s right.

“Tell you what,” Kelly says, leaning over to grab the remote from the coffee table and then leaning against Alex’s side as she turns on the tv, “you watch this one movie with me, indulge my scientific curiosity, and if you haven’t changed your mind by the end I’ll drop the subject forever.”

It’s not a bad offer. Alex purses her lips and pretends to think about it very seriously anyway, just because it’s one thing to be thoroughly whipped when it comes to her girlfriend, but it’s a whole different story to not even try to pretend she can put her foot down once in a while.

Besides, she loves the way Kelly’s face lights up when Alex finally (inevitably) says yes.

“Okay, fine,” Alex sighs just to offset the sheer size of her heart eyes when Kelly does, in fact, light up, “one movie.”

Kelly practically flies through their streaming options, clearly more than familiar with the location of Imagine Me & You. And there are so many questions Alex could ask. So many ways she could poke fun at her girlfriend for what’s clearly a bit of a fangirly obsession. But right when Kelly presses play, Alex notices something that pulls her attention in an entirely different direction.

“Piper Perabo! Oh, I love her,” she sighs, wrapping an arm around Kelly’s shoulders as her girlfriend snuggles into her preferred movie-watching position, “I watched Coyote Ugly a million times as a teen. My mom ended up getting me the DVD so I’d stop renting it every single week.”

Kelly chuckles lightly, draping one arm across Alex’s waist. “And that didn’t give you any hints that you might have been a bit gay?”

Alex shrugs. Whether she’d been really oblivious or just in denial, she’s at a point in her life and her journey now where she can make a bit of fun of her teenage self. “What can I say? My gaydar’s never been the most finely tuned.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Just look at the Kara thing.”

“The what now?” Alex looks away from the screen to stare at Kelly instead. As far as she’s aware — and she’s a very observant vigilante, mind you — there’s no such thing as ‘the Kara thing’, whatever that means. And what would that have to do with her (lack of a) gaydar, anyway? “What Kara thing?”

“Nothing,” Kelly points at the screen, “watch the movie.”

“No, what did you me— is that Cersei Lannister?”

“Oh, yeah. She’s so good in this. I may have a bit of a crush.”

“On Cersei freaking Lannister, Kel?” Alex lets out an amused chuckle. “I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that.”

“Will you please just watch the movie?”

“Fine, fine, sheesh,” Alex moves her hand down Kelly’s side just to gently poke at a particularly ticklish spot, “but I can’t promise I won’t be too freaked out about Cersei to fully focus.”

But there’s Piper Perabo in a beautiful wedding dress flashing a beautiful smile, and really, not even Cersei Lannister being on the receiving end of that smile can stop Alex from getting sucked into the movie and what’s happening in it.

She watches a ring fall into a punch bowl and exchanged looks and smiles. She hears, much to her surprise, unspoken lines between Piper Perabo and Cersei Lannister that make her smile at the screen because yeah— yeah, she’s been there. She’s smiled like that. She’s felt like that. She’s so enthralled by the movie that it’s only when she feels herself laugh at Cersei’s friend calling herself ecstatic that she realizes she’s been quiet for a while.

“Ok, that was funny. Most rom-coms aren’t even really coms.”

“You’re enjoying this,” Kelly says, her voice full of teasing glee.

Alex feels color rise to her cheeks. “Will you please just watch the movie?”

Kelly doesn’t argue this time.

There’s a science presentation in the dark, pinky fingers nearly touching, a very questionable choice at the movie rental place — “oh, no, you don’t want to learn from Georgie’s Bush” — and then there’s a date.

Alex feels Kelly hold her a little tighter when Rachel asks Luce — who cares about Cersei Lannister, anyway? — to put both her arms around her, and she feels herself smile like a fool when the lily’s meaning is shared. And then. Then there’s almost a kiss, but not quite, and Rachel barging into the flower shop, and Alex is fully invested now. There’s simply no turning back.

“Oh! Oh, no, Rachel, it can’t be over!” She says out loud, because this poor conflicted woman clearly needs advice. “Don’t leave her— oh, she’s back!”

Alex has seen so many on-screen kisses. So many.

She’s watched hundreds of love stories, from cartoons to dark thrillers and everything in between. She’s been having regular movie nights with Kara since she was a teenager, and most times the chosen movie has at least one romantic storyline, if not several.

But this.

This lands somewhere deep inside her chest. And when the kiss ends because Luce has thorns in her bum, Alex realizes there are tears running down her face.

“You all right, baby?” Kelly shifts to press a kiss to Alex’s cheek, catching a tear with her lips.

“Uh huh,” Alex nods. And then she stops nodding. She even stops holding Kelly, because she needs both hands to cover her eyes. “Oh, God. Oh, not him. I can’t watch this.”

But she does anyway. Through the spaces between her fingers at first, and then fully because one of her hands is covering her mouth now, the other holding Kelly once again.

“Don’t tell her to go!” She says, voice watery and just a little shaky as she struggles to keep herself together. But it lasts only as long as it takes for Luce to ask Rachel to remember her, because, “she won’t—“ Alex hiccups, “she won’t remember anything else, Kel.”

“I know, honey.”

Alex nods. She’s crying now. Really crying. Watching Rachel tell her sleeping husband doesn’t help, and neither does her conversation with her parents — though it does pull a watery chuckle out of Alex — or Luce’s talk to her mom. She’s still crying when people pile into a car and start chasing Luce’s cab, because she knows this is going to have a happy ending. Right? That’s the beauty of romantic comedies.

“Oh, the song!” She stage whispers, pointing at the screen when the cyclist rides past the car, and then gasps when Rachel climbs onto the roof of the car. “She’s gonna do it, isn’t she? She’s gonna call number nine a wanker for her lady?”

“A bit cheesy, huh?”

Alex’s eyes widen in utter disbelief. “Cheesy?” She tears her eyes away from the screen once that last kiss is over just to shoot Kelly an indignant look. “How dare you.”

Kelly chuckles, something soft and quiet as she rearranges herself on the couch to free her hands so she can help wipe tears from Alex’s face. “So? What did you think?”

Alex sniffles. She’s not quite done crying yet, but she can still try and maintain at least a crumb of dignity after spectacularly losing this particular argument. “All right,” she concedes, shrugging one shoulder like she’s not at all still a bit weepy over Piper Perabo getting her girl, “it was okay.”

“Yeah?” Kelly reaches for the tissue box on the coffee table and holds it so Alex can take one (or five).

“It wasn’t awful,” Alex says, blowing her nose, and then contemplates simply leaving it at that. But she can’t help herself. “Can we watch more?”

Kelly grins. “More romantic comedies?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I know what you mean,” Kelly echoes, pressing a lingering kiss to Alex’s lips, “we can start a bit of a sapphic movie night tradition. We can ask Kara and Lena to join in.”

Well, that’s weird. Don’t get her wrong, Alex loves her sister and Lena and watching movies together, but she’s not following Kelly’s leap from sapphic cinema to them. And her confusion must be written all over her face, because Kelly explains even before Alex can ask.

“You know. To expand their film horizons.” There’s something in Kelly’s tone that makes Alex feel like there’s more to it than that, but she’s a bit busy dealing with her post-movie emotions to investigate. “Besides, Lena always brings amazing wine when we have them over.”

Alex is about to agree — Lena does have excellent taste in wine — but the doorbell distracts her before she can.

The doorbell.

Same-day delivery.

“Oh, it’s here!” Kelly practically leaps to her feet, pressing the button to let the delivery person in and standing by the door to wait for them to make their way upstairs.

“Dammit, Kel. Look at me,” Alex sniffles and grabs a handful of tissues to try and fully dry her face, “how am I supposed to — and I quote — ‘fuck you into the mattress’ like this?”

Kelly winks at her just as the doorbell rings. “Trust me, baby. I’ll help you with that.”

And you know what? Alex has no reason to doubt that she will.

[pennylanefics]

Soft Alphabet - Four

a/n: reposting bc it disappeared from tags 🙃 tumblr’s being a bitch again ugh

∙∙∙

A - Affection (how do they show affection)

four gives you looks that mean everything. sure, it may not seem like a lot, but when you two first got together and were sneaking around, the looks and glances he gave you to silently tell you that he cares for you meant everything. he’s not really good with his words, and he can’t really go out and buy you stuff that you want, in the beginning. so looks are the only thing he has. he can say so much with his eyes, you can tell when he’s admiring you deeply and thinking about how much he loves you.

B - Balance (how do they balance you, work/school/life?)

you two spend everyday together, basically, so there is no balance. you spend every waking minute with one another and the group. but you do try to spend time alone or with other group members, away from one another, just to have a break. but, at the end of the day, you are back with one another, enjoying dinner, chatting about what you did that day.

C - Cuddles (do they enjoy cuddling? what positions?)

cuddles come after very stressful missions. when both of you two are exhausted and just need to relax, you’ll head to his trailer and just fall onto his bed, curling up with one another. the lights usually stay off, if it’s at night. if it’s during the day, he makes sure to shut all the blinds so the least amount of light can get through. you two usually stay quiet, just wanting the comfort of one another after a hard day, but sometimes, he’ll ask you stuff here and there.

D - Date (what was your first date?)

he has five and two help him make a nice dinner for you two in his trailer, after months of just sneaking around and seeing one another in your trailers. he could have just ordered food in, but he wanted it to be special. since two cooks the best and five knows how to set things up so you would like it. she helps with decorating the dingy trailer, making the table look presentable and setting out some wine and roses. it’s a really nice night, honestly. four is pretty nervous and it shows, but he lightens up as the alcohol begins to course through him. overall, you two have a great time, and end up in bed together anyways.

E - Excited (how excited do they get when they see you/are with you?)

he tries to keep the excitement down, but on the inside, he loves seeing you. especially after long periods of time, like if he goes on a mission with one or any of the group members, and you don’t go. he’ll wait till you’re alone and he picks you up, spinning you around and giving you kisses all over your face. he doesn’t want the others knowing how in love he is with you, just yet.

F - Fighting (what happens when you fight)

your fights usually consist of you yelling at him for being stupid during a mission. he makes a single near fatal mistake and you’re going off, telling him how he needs to not be so careless on missions and that he should be more aware of his surroundings. he then goes off, saying that he’s been in the group longer so he knows more than you do, and this of course sparks a lot more anger in both of you.

G - Gorgeous (pet names. what do they like to call you? what do they like to be called?)

he is plain and simple, preferring stuff like ‘babe’ and ‘baby’. sometimes, he finds himself using your real name instead of your code name, eight, after you two had a deep conversation about your lives before the group. it’s only when you’re alone, though, with one being so against using real names around each other. but you two trust one another a lot, so when you’re alone, you call him billy, and he calls you by your real name.

H - Hi (first time meeting)

you are recruited to the group well after four’s already been in it. they have already gone through a couple people after seven joined, but none of them worked out. but when you came along, you stuck. but, the idea didn’t take to four. he was expecting you to be like the others, liking the idea for a few months then hating it. so, he was kind of cold to you, expecting you to take his shit and deal with it. but no. you actually stood up to him and declared yourself as part of the group really quickly. he was taken aback, but nonetheless, got to know you better afterwards.

I - Intimacy (how romantic they are)

eh. i feel like four doesn’t have enough experience to be super romantic. like yeah, he’s had girlfriends in the past, but they’ve never been serious enough to the point where he gets romantic with them. his girlfriends were usually against that sort of thing, but when he met you, he loved getting you things, like flowers, teddy bears, chocolates. he’s also gotten you necklaces and rings, rightfully with his own money, of course.

J - Jealousy (do they get jealous? how do they react to you being jealous)

he’s not jealous of one, three, or seven. he knows you wouldn’t leave him for any of them, so he’s fine when he sees you talking with them. the only thing he really gets jealous about is getting to spend time with you. so if you spend the day with any of the other group members, his mood changes a bit, upset at the fact that he missed an entire day without you. but you make up for that lost time by spending the rest of the afternoon and night in his trailer.

K - Kisses (where do they like to kiss you/how often?)

four’s kisses are mostly quick and short. he’s not one for showing much emotion since it’s not something he’s used to, so he settles for little kisses, which aren’t satisfactory for you. but you get it. when missions start getting more serious, though, his kisses become much more meaningful. the first time you have a near-death experience, he grabs your face and kisses you so deeply and passionately. he apologizes for not being very loving with you and promises to make kisses more meaningful and more frequent.

L - Love (when was the first time they said i love you or realized it?)

he realizes it after he almost dies during a mission. you were crying loudly as he dangled from a building, held by the enemy. the only thing running through his mind was you. he wanted to live the rest of his life with you, he wanted to have kids with you, that’s the only thing he could think of. thankfully, he was able to pull himself to safety and push the other guy over the ledge. when he returned to the group, you jumped right into his arms, crying into his chest. he whispers that he loves you over and over again and just holds you close. the group allows you have your time together before you really have to go. but when you get back to your trailers, four doesn’t leave your side for days. and he continues to repeat that he loves you as much as he can.

M - Moving in (when do you decide to move in together)

you technically already live together, so there’s not really a typical “official” story. you spend every waking moment of every day together anyway, but you still like having separate trailers. most of the time, anyways, you’re with him in his trailer, almost as if it’s yours as well. and it’s the same with yours. you two kind of acted like both trailers are yours, and you just spend time in whichever one you want, whenever you want.

N - Newborn (their reaction to starting a family)

the thought of being a dad worries him. he doesn’t want his son or daughter to turn out like he did, so being in a vigilante group isn’t a good start. you two decide to leave and go back to your regular lives, as the people you were before entering the group. it’s a really hard decision, but four is so much happier with the idea; neither of you were in danger and you didn’t have to worry about you getting hurt on missions and possibly losing the baby. the rest of the group was upset they wouldn’t be able to see the baby, but they were very understanding, even one.

O - Open (how open you are with one another)

in the beginning, he’s not very open with you. and it’s for good reasons. none of you in the group are open with one another. but when you and four start getting to know each other more and become more than friends, he feels obligated to tell you more about his life before. so, after three months of knowing each other, you have a long and deep conversation where you two spill everything. your real names, the reasons you joined the group, anything related to your lives outside of being a vigilante.

P - Photos (what kind of photos you take of them/they take of you)

you don’t really have modern cameras, per one’s request, but he does have a shit load of old polaroid cameras. so four takes advantage of this and takes many photos of you. his favorite thing to picture you doing is having fun in the desert. you two will just walk around, the wind blowing your hair as he takes candids of you. he loves how carefree you look and how beautiful the sunlight makes you.

Q - Quirks (what random habits do you have that they love or hate/vice versa)

four has a problem with being careless. he doesn’t care about safety most of the time, which upsets you and makes you mad sometimes. he has that idea that you all are dead so why does it matter? but he rarely remembers that you aren’t actually dead. not really a quirk, but something he does that pisses you off too much.

R - Recovery (how you help them after an injury/vice versa)

four always lets you help him with his injuries. he knows you hate when he’s injured, just as much as he hates when you are. five usually does it, since she is the doctor, but four will only let you help him, unless it’s a serious injury and he actually needs four to save his life. but if it’s a few cuts and scrapes, he gives into you. and he does the same thing. when you get hurt, he’s right by your side, getting anything you need, being very overprotective.

S - Solution (how they resolve fights)

the group usually has to get you two back together after a fight. you take a break from one another, and it’s awkward for the group. so two takes you and three takes four and they lock you two in two’s trailer until you both can talk things out and get the fight over with. after hours of saying nothing, two and three yell at you both and get you to talk. finally, you start making progress, and in the end, things work out. you two then head back to either yours or four’s trailer to make things up.

T- Touch (when they need/want your touch, what will they do? how often?)

usually after very tough missions, four wants nothing more than to cuddle in his trailer and hold you. this happens after every mission, really, but especially during the more dangerous and risky ones, where he comes to terms with the fact that you could have been killed so easily. you don’t even need to touch him, really, the feel of you in his arms is enough. but, you play with his hair when this happens, sometimes stroking his cheek or playing with his hand, tracing the tattoo on the back of it. he needs the reassurance that you’re still alive and very much with him.

U - Up ( waking up with them)

waking up with four is the best. he has his arms around you every single time, even if he enjoys his space when he falls asleep, he somehow manages to pull you into his arms in his sleep. if you’re still asleep, he just presses kisses to your forehead, trying to wake up a bit more before getting up and starting the day. if you’re up before him, you absolutely love playing with his messy hair and stroking his soft skin. he looks so much more angelic when he’s out, and you love it because he usually has this hard exterior, so him sleeping is the rare chance you get to see him be so calm.

V - Vacation (where they travel with you)

your vacations are your missions. you’ve gone to italy, dubai, france, switzerland, all over the world. since you live a life with no schedules, you go wherever missions take you. and you’re more than okay with it. this life has given you a chance to travel to so many places you would have never been able to go to. if there’s time, you two try to explore the city as much as you can, of course staying low key and all that. even then, it’s much more exciting and fun to be in a place you’re not really supposed to be.

W - Wedding (how they propose/where you get married/honeymoon)

four proposes nonchalantly, really. you two would be relaxing on the beach in italy, and you’ve been dating for a while at that point. he just asks what you would think about getting married, and at first, you have no clue that he’s trying to say that he wants to marry you. but once things fall into place, you are covering his face in kisses and saying yes over and over again. but of course, you don’t have a huge wedding, you kind of just elope and put the title on it without a marriage license, because that’s against the group ‘policy’.

X - X-factor (what about you captivated them?)

your strong-willed behavior. he liked the fact that you were strong enough to leave your entire life behind to fight crimes. sure, it’s the same thing he did, but you seemed like you had a perfect life, and you were okay with leaving it behind. he had nothing going for him, so this life was the best for him. when you told him your story, he was in awe of how strong you are and he loves that you are so selfless to help others.

Y - Yawning (how they act when they’re tired)

four kind of shuts out when he’s tired. he doesn’t want to talk to anyone, he doesn’t want to do anything, he just wants to relax and enjoy some quiet time. including away from you. you know that if you mess with him when he’s tired, he gets mad and angry. he’s much more agitated and sometimes, that ends badly.

Z - Zzzz (how you fall asleep together)

he likes his space. which is hard to do on a small bed in a trailer. this is why you don’t really fall asleep with one another until well into your relationship. but the first time you fall asleep beside four, it’s the only thing he wants. he begs you to sleep in his trailer whenever you can, and from that point, he doesn’t care about space. he wants to be as close to you as possible, breathing in your scent and feeling your warmth.

[tchallasbabymama]

GFG

Hey lovelies, here’s Chapter 9 of Playlist. Don’t forget to check out my masterlist HERE to catch up and read my other stories. Let me know if you want to be tagged!

Also, can someone tell me WHY sometimes when I post from my laptop the words end up all blacked out on mobile? It’s really starting to get on my damn nerves.

Oh, and look forward to a Valentine’s Day surprise!

Word Count: ~7000

CW: Smut

“Usisi!” Shuri threw down her tools and ran to Ashanti, pulling her into the tightest hug she had ever experienced. “What are you doing here?”

It had been a week since that day at the lake, and aside from Zina and Jafari, who had been sworn to secrecy, nobody knew of Ashanti and T’Challa’s rekindled relationship yet. They wanted to take a little time to themselves without having to worry about meddling from other people, but they felt it was finally time to come clean to their loved ones. When they told Ashanti’s people, they all acted as though it was news to them. In fact, Chidi and Bisa had seen them leaving Taj’s that day and since Bisa was a terrible gossip, Binta and Kwame were soon brought into the loop when they stopped by the restaurant later that day. Just like the first time around, the twins noticed her floating around the house with a permanent smile on her face, but they decided to let her come to them despite her obvious infatuation.

Ashanti and T’Challa had yet to tell the royal family, but Ramonda noticed her son’s change in demeanor. He walked taller with his head held higher than usual, and that’s saying something for a king. She already knew what was going on, she could see it in his eyes, but she waited patiently for him to come clean. Shuri had been holed up in her lab every day working on upgrades to their public transportation system so she never even noticed. She was completely caught off guard when Ashanti entered the lab and barely even noticed her brother.

“I can’t just come visit because I miss you?” Ashanti asked the princess in jest. 

“It took you this long to miss me?”

“Honestly? It took me this long to not feel uncomfortable about coming up here.”

“Why would you feel uncomfortable?” Shuri asked, a little bit deflated.

“I didn’t want to run into this guy,” she pointed back at T’Challa as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist before kissing her temple. 

Despite the gross PDA, Shuri’s face lit up when she saw them together. They had been apart for too long and she knew how much her brother had missed Ashanti. She was happy to see him smiling again.

“So you worked things out?” 

“That we did,” T’Challa answered while beaming from ear to ear.

“Awww I’m happy for you both! And Ashanti, I’m so glad to have you back. We have a lot to catch up on! Wait, does mama know yet? Or N’Jadaka? Did you tell Nakia?”

“Just you, so far, but Ashanti will be joining us for dinner tonight.”

“Ok, but you have to tell Nakia, she’s been harassing me about it all week.”

T’Challa chuckled at his friend’s insistence. “I’ll call Nakia after dinner. Mama is already going to have my head for not telling her sooner.”

“Eh, she probably already knows. You know how she is with stuff like this.”

“Yes, she does seem to have a sixth sense sometimes...”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Ashanti shrugged. 

“Where is she anyway?” T’Challa asked.

“Oh she went to the river province to get out of the palace for a little while. She’ll be back for dinner. Hey, any idea what they’re cooking up down there? I’m already starving.”

“Well what do you have a taste for?”

Shuri thought for a second before answering, “Peanut stew chicken, jollof rice, and plantains.”

“Then that’s what I’ll make,” T’Challa smiled at his favorite little sister.

“Wait, you’re cooking dinner?! Bast, I’ll have to change into sweatpants before I get there.”

Ashanti and T’Challa both laughed at her, but Ashanti was definitely thankful she wore her favorite flowy yellow dress for the same reason.

The three of them spent the next hour or so together around the lab. Shuri showed them a bunch of new inventions that went right over Ashanti’s head, but the panther suit on a mannequin caught her eye.

“I thought you always had yours on.”

“Hm?” T’Challa looked up from examining Shuri’s newest upgrades to the vibranium gauntlets. Ashanti pointed at the mannequin and he nodded. “Oh, yeah, that’s the previous version. Here, look.” He called his suit on without his helmet and Ashanti’s jaw dropped. She had never seen him in his suit in person and it left very little to the imagination. She reached out to feel the vibranium weave and the sharpness of his claws.

“Is the helmet a separate p-”

She was cut off by the fibers covering his face, and a huge smile came across hers.

“This is the coolest thing I think I’ve ever seen,” she poked and prodded all over him and noticed a purple glow when she used a little more pressure. “What’s that?”

“The suit absorbs and redistributes kinetic energy.” Shuri chimed in, admiring her work.

“I don’t know what that means…”

“Kick him and find out,” the princess snickered, raising her beads to record. Ashanti’s face twisted in confusion as Shuri mouthed to her, “I’ll show you later.”

“Shuri, hush,” T’Challa playfully admonished his sister before turning back to his love. “Basically it just means that if you hit me, the suit hits back.”

“Yep, coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” she leaned into him and whispered in his ear. “Can you control where it does and doesn't cover?”

He chuckled, knowing exactly where she was going with her line of questioning.  “Not with this one, but I can convince Shuri to make that a feature on the next upgrade.”

“I’d like that,” she said, biting her lip and taking in his still-masked face.

“I don’t know what you two are talking about, but if you could take that lovey dovey shit out of my lab that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.”

“Fine, we know when we are not wanted.”

“No it’s just you, big head.”

“That’s fine. See you at dinner, scrawny arms.”

“Out!”

Ashanti laughed at the siblings’ interaction and hugged Shuri before heading up the ramp with T’Challa. When they got to the Talon, she pulled him into the sleeping quarters.

“Put the suit on again.”

He called it on all the way so that he was covered head to toe and backed her against the wall, grabbing her wrists and holding them over her head. Her chest heaved as she took in his predatorial face and she looked up to see that he was holding her in such a way that he wouldn’t scratch her with his claws. His helmet shrank back into the necklace and he kissed her, making her knees weak. It was a slow and sloppy kiss, the kind that turned her on and he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Are you going to let the Black Panther eat that sweet pussy?”

She nearly melted at his words, and she could feel her pussy throbbing in her panties. She nodded at him before she could speak.

“Yes, please.” she answered as her lip found its way between her teeth.

 “On the bed.”

Ashanti did as she was told and laid back on the pillows, positioning herself so that she could get a good view. He stalked over to her like the predator he was and climbed onto the bed before pushing her dress up to around her waist and taking one of his claws and ripping her new pink satin thong.

“T’Challa! That was n-new,” she fussed as he left a big sloppy tongue kiss on her pussy.

He looked up at her and shrugged. “I’m rich, I’ll get you a thousand pairs just like it.”

She giggled and he went back to work. He carefully used his fingers to pull her pussy lips apart, but she could still feel the cold metal on her skin. One slip-up and he could slice right through her, but that just added to Ashanti’s excitement.

His tongue explored every inch of her pussy, lapping her folds with passion and sucking her juicy clit until she screamed his name and came all on his face. He made sure he lapped up every drop and when he noticed his thumbs had been covered too, he carefully licked her juices from his sharp claws.

Ashanti shivered at the sight, discovering another kink as she watched him. He noticed her squirming and leaned down to kiss her so she could taste herself.

“Whew I can’t wait until the next upgrade!” She said, still catching her breath.  He laughed and fell to the bed next to her and laid on his side, head propped up and staring at her beautiful face. 

“Neither can I. You know, I never thought about fucking in the suit.”

“Oh that’s all I thought about when I would see you on the news.”

He laughed and kissed her forehead, then her nose, then her lips.

“Come on, I’m sure we’re at the palace by now.”

The two of them made their way to the kitchen to get started on dinner, hand in hand. Despite the fact that they hadn’t come clean about their relationship yet, they just couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, even in public. Especially T’Challa who had to always touch her in some way, but Ashanti loved it and would never complain.

“So what do you need me to do, chef?”

-------

“Unyana, you have outdone yourself this time,” Ramonda said after a couple of bites.

“Thank you, but I believe it has something to do with my beautiful sous chef,” he nodded towards Ashanti who was seated to his right. 

“Obviously, but what I want to know is how long you two really thought you could keep this from me.”

T’Challa already knew this conversation was coming, and let out a sigh. Ashanti reached out her hand and grabbed his, intertwining their fingers.

“I just wanted us to have some time to ourselves, and I think it actually worked out pretty well.” she smiled at T’Challa, who brought her hand to his lips.

“You two are disgusting,” Shuri gagged.

“I’m with Lil Bit,” N’Jadaka said under his breath, equally disgusted by their lovey dovey bullshit.

“Oh hush, you two could stand to learn a thing or two from them. So do I hear wedding drums in the future?”

“We have discussed a future together, but no plans as of yet, mama.” 

“I just want to live in the moment with him for now. I know that once we go public we’ll have to deal with the council, and I don’t want to do that just yet.”

“Smart choice, they can be brutal sometimes.”

“So how’d y’all get back together?” N’Jadaka asked, already on his second plate.

“Well I guess it started when I called him a couple months ago…”

Ashanti proceeded to tell T’Challa’s family a PG version of the story of their new relationship while he simply looked on, entranced by her beauty, adding his two cents every now and then.

“Ugh!”

“That’s disgusting.” Shuri and N’Jadaka spoke over each other when Ashanti was finished, but they both had sly smiles on their faces despite their revulsion.

Ramonda shot her daughter and nephew a look across the table while N’Jadaka tried to cover his face as he chuckled into his napkin. 

“I’m happy for you, though. Now we don’t have to see his ugly mug moping around the palace anymore.”

T’Challa waited briefly for Ramonda to look back down at her food before flipping his cousin off.

“Ooooh, Auntie, T-”

“I saw it, you two cut it out.”

Shuri snickered and Ashanti couldn’t help but chuckle at the family. She was an only child and her one uncle never had any children, so it wasn’t until she moved in with the twins that she got to experience that type of bickering that can only come from being siblings or cousins. She was happy to see that even though T’Challa and N’Jadaka had only known each other for a few years, their relationship seemed pretty normal.

Shuri leaned back to loosen her “eating pants” and let out a sigh.

“Somebody carry me to my room.”

“I would, but uh,” N’Jadaka leaned back, too, “I can’t move either. T, help us out?”

Ramonda chuckled as her son gave his cousin what N’Jadaka described as his “nigga, please” look, and Ashanti nearly spit out her water. She loved getting to see another side of him when he interacted with his family members.

The five of them finished and the three who didn’t cook lazily cleaned the kitchen as Ashanti and T’Challa rested on the couch, drinking some ginger tea to help their digestion. 

“I love how you are with your family, I missed seeing you like that.”

“Like what?”

“As someone’s big cousin and big brother and son. I always see my love T’Challa, and I’ve gotten glimpses of King T’Challa and The Black Panther here and there...but I like seeing T’Challa Udaku, family man.” she smiled up at him as she leaned into his side and his arm went around her shoulder, pulling her in close. 

“How much bigger of a family man would you like to see?” 

“Just one, maybe two more family members would be nice.”

He smiled from ear to ear and leaned down to kiss her lightly and whisper to her, “That sounds perfect.”

She kissed him again and they settled back into the couch in blissful silence, listening to the clashing dishes and running water in the kitchen behind them. The itis swiftly took them away into a blissful sleep.

-------

Ashanti had been right to want that week of alone time, because shortly after they told the royal family her name was brought up in a council meeting. K’Hari had told his replacement Mala about Ashanti, knowing she would spread the information to other council members, which she did. Before she could even bring it up in their meeting, the Merchant Tribe elder beat her to the punch.

“My king, I have one more item before we dismiss.”

T’Challa nodded for her to continue, curious about where this was going.

“We have all heard rumors going around that we were wondering if you could clear up for us.”

Several other council members nodded around the circle, leaving M’Baku and a few others very confused on who this “all” was referring to.

“What is this about?” the king asked, growing impatient the more she drew it out.

“Well, we have heard...”

“Yes…” he tried to control his growing temper.

“Are you involved with Ashanti Mostafa?”

Everyone turned to look at T’Challa, who was seething in his throne. He knew this had to be K’Hari’s doing. M’Baku knew of their relationship, but was a friend to the king and was a steel trap when it came to secrets. The only other council member who knew was Ramonda, and he knew she wouldn’t have said anything. The other council members knew of Ashanti from the Zenzi incident, and back then it seemed they thought she was a nice girl. Ode, the Merchant Tribe Elder knew her and her parents personally, but that didn’t change how she or some of the other council members felt about the situation. No matter how nice she was, Ashanti was not of royal blood.

“I do not see what that is of any importance here,” he brushed off and continued the meeting.

This happened for several meetings before T’Challa grew tired of the inquiries, and decided to set the record straight. The meeting went about as well as he thought it would: not well at all.

Half of the council was either on his side or apathetic to the argument, but the other half was vehemently against him being involved with and possibly marrying someone who wasn’t of royal blood.

“My king, tradition states-”

“Traditions are a foundation for us to build on. I do not see the issue here,”  M’Baku added to the argument, frustrated that the subject was such a big deal to the elders on the council. T’Challa was thankful to have his friend present that day, feeling less alone but still weighed down by the conversation.

“My king, we are simply concerned that all of our old ways will be forgotten. We already agreed to open the country to outsiders-”

“Watch it, old lady,” N’Jadaka warned Mala and although Queen Mother was also offended by the Mining Tribe elder’s use of words, she shot her nephew a look to remind him to be respectful.

“Excuse me, my prince, to the ‘Lost Tribe’. We are concerned about the royal lineage being tainted as well.”

“Tainted?! And just how would it be ‘tainted’ Mala?” The king raised his voice, a rare occurrence which frightened her into silence. “Answer me.”

“S-she is a peasant-”

The king’s blood pressure rose as did the rest of the royal family’s, but Ramonda always kept a cool head and stepped in before the situation escalated, “That is enough for today. We will reconvene next Wednesday evening.” 

Mala and her faction of the council stood quickly to scurry out of the room, but they were stopped by the king’s commanding voice.

“Not yet. Sit down.”

A chill went down everyone’s spine as they sat back in their chairs. 

“I am your king, do not forget yourself in my presence,” he stared directly at Mala. “I can admit my mistakes, and I can admit that I allowed you to have your opinion on the matter for far too long. I will be continuing my relationship with Ashanti for as long as she allows, and none of you will have anything to say about it from here on out. Make no mistake, you should not speak so ill of your future queen.”

He could see the looks of horror on Mala and Ode’s faces. They would certainly be a problem…

He dismissed them all and they scurried away. M’Baku saluted the king as he lumbered out of the room, needing to get back to the Jabari Tribe for yet another meeting.

“Man, I don't know how you do it. I’d have snapped weeks ago.” N’Jadaka clapped him on his shoulder. 

“Trust me, it took a lot of self-restraint. I do not enjoy ruling in that way, but when she called Ashanti a peasant, I saw red...a peasant? Who even uses that term anymore?” 

“Maybe they would feel better if they got to meet her,” Ramonda offered.

He rubbed his temples, looking forward to getting back to his quarters, but he knew he had a full day ahead of equally frustrating tasks.

-------

Ashanti perked up at the sound of her doorbell and slid across the wooden floor to open the door and greet her man.

“Hey handsome,” she let him in and kissed his lips, immediately sensing something was bothering him. “What’s wrong?”

He smiled fondly, he should have known he couldn’t get anything past her.

“I will tell you later, I promise,” he kissed her again, pulling her in close,” but I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“You look stressed,” she reached for his forehead and smoothed out the frown lines in the middle of his forehead with her thumbs. “Come on.”

She grabbed his hand and led him to her room.

“Before you called me I had set up a whole self-care night. How about you join me?”

“I’d love to,” he grinned at her.

He got comfortable just like he always does in her space and stripped down to his underwear before plopping on her bed and rolling over to face her.

“Ok, what now?”

“Well I was going to watch a comedy that Binta suggested while I put on a face mask and do a mani-pedi. Then I need to do something to my hair, maybe I’ll braid it again...Did you bring the weed?”

“Of course I did,” he smiled mischievously

“Kim, play ‘Girl’s Trip’,” she called out to the AI in her home. “Ok, now go wash your face and come back.”

He followed her instructions and when he returned he rolled a blunt before laying back on the bed with her. He lit it and held it to her lips since both of her hands were busy.

The movie played as Ashanti sat cross-legged with T’Challa’s head in her lap, massaging those frown lines again. Then she took a jade roller to his face and she could have sworn she heard him purr. She dipped her fingers into her homemade clay face mask and carefully slathered a thin layer on his face, avoiding his lush beard.

“When this dries, it’s going to be hard to move your face. That’s usually about when I wash mine off.”

He laid there completely still, enjoying her pampering. After the mask was on all the way, she repeated the process on her face then she moved to the edge of the bed and had him sit on the floor between her legs as she massaged his scalp with some coconut oil. This was always T’Challa’s favorite, and he damn near fell asleep on her, but he was awakened by the sound of her laughing at the movie. 

“Ok, now it’s pedicure time.”

“I had one yesterday, but I can do yours.”

“You’re going to paint my nails?”

“Why not? I am already down here.” He kissed the inside of her calf as he massaged her foot with his gifted hands.

Her feet dangled over the side of her bed as he sat on the floor with her legs draped over his shoulders. He focused on her toes as he carefully painted each one, planting kisses on her legs along the way. 

Ashanti loved these intimate moments with T’Challa. He could be so soft with her and she loved that nobody got to see this side of the powerful man but her. After he finished with the top coat he blew on her toes to dry them and her already-wet pussy jumped a little bit. He knew he was turning her on, so he stopped and turned around, coming face to face with her clothed flower. Her hips involuntarily rolled in his direction and he planted a kiss between her legs, causing her to moan his name. He came up and kissed her lips.

“Not now, kitten. Your toes need to dry.”

“What?! You can't ju-”

She was interrupted by his fingers travelling up and down her center.

“What did I say?” he whispered in her ear.

“N-not now.”

He kissed her forehead then her nose then her lips, “Good girl.”

He removed his hand from between her legs and went to the bathroom to wash his face mask off before she followed him to do the same. She spritzed their faces with rosewater before applying face serum and moisturizer. When she was done T’Challa’s skin glowed even more than its usual perfection and it took all of her willpower to not reach out and touch. 

They went back to the bed and Ashanti grabbed her tools and products to start the process of braiding her hair as he pressed play on the movie again.

“Would you like help?”

“You know how to braid?”

“I used to do Shuri’s hair all the time. She was tender headed and for a while she wouldn’t let anyone else touch her hair.”

“What can’t you do?” she rolled her eyes

They shared a laugh and he mirrored her positioning from earlier, legs thrown over the side of the bed as she sat on the floor between them. He sectioned and lightly oiled her scalp before massaging her just as she did him. She moaned from the feeling of his large fingers manipulating her body in such a way. He then sectioned and braided her hair in no time flat. She got up to check herself out in the mirror and was more than pleasantly surprised by the results, and she felt hardly any pain or pulling.

“I already knew this from other activities, but you have very gifted fingers.”

He laughed and wrapped her hair in a silk scarf before they settled into the bed, meaning to find another movie to watch, but getting lost in each other’s eyes instead.

“Earlier, when I got here, I was upset about this morning’s council meeting.”

“It must have been pretty bad to stick with you all day like that...what was it about?”

“You.”

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she sat up a little.

“Me?”

“Yes, some of the elders don’t like that you are not of royal blood and are concerned about ‘tradition’ being broken.”

“They’re just going to have to get over that,” she laid back down on the bed and snuggled into him, throwing her leg across him. “Is there anything I can do to make it better?”

“I don’t think so. Mother suggested you come to a meeting, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I do not want to involve you in-”

“I’m already involved, baby. It’s about me.”

He considered her words for a moment before caving.

“Alright, the next meeting is Wednesday at 5. They are normally in the mornings, but we rescheduled to accommodate the River Festival” he said before kissing her and pressing play on a new Wakandan movie they had both been meaning to see for a while. 

-------

“You could have said something!” Ashanti yelled after the door to his office closed, despite having argued the entire way from the throne room. 

“I did.”

“Yeah, after they insinuated I was everything but a child of Bast. What would I be after your wealth for? I have enough money to live a good life.”

“I know-”

“And I just want to carry the royal seed to be taken care of for the rest of my life? In-fucking-sane!”

“I told you it wasn’t a good idea.” 

“Oh shut up,” Ashanti spat back, making the king roll his eyes at her attitude. “You’re not the one whose character is being called into question.”

“No, but my discernment is. My ability to rule is.”

“I didn’t realize I would be the downfall of the great T’Challa Udaku,” she said sarcastically. 

“Kitten, that’s not what I meant,” he followed behind her as she attempted to avoid him, and he turned her around to face him. 

“I-” he sighed, “I had hoped they would have been different after I spoke to them last week, but it seems that is not the case-”

“And Ode? Fucking Ode?! How dare she look me in my eye and call me a commoner. That two-faced old bitch-”

“Ashanti-”

“Fuck her and that ugly ass Mala, they can both choke-

“Ashanti-”

“What the fuck do you want?!” 

He looked at her like she’d lost her mind.

“I don’t know who you think you are raising your voice at, but I’ve had enough of your disrespect-”

“Fuck off, T’Challa.”

A deep chuckle erupted from his body and out his mouth while Ashanti stared at him, annoyed by every sound he made.

“I forgot how much of a brat you can be,” he said while backing her up against the door, reaching out and turning the lock.

“I’m not a brat, I’m pissed the fuck off.”

“You’re going to get tired of cursing at me-”

“No I fucking won’t.”

His hand came up and grabbed her jaw, forcing her to look at him while his other hand held her waist against the door. “I don’t raise my voice at you, you don’t raise your voice at me. That’s not how we do things. Understand?”

She refused to meet his gaze and tried to shake her head out of his grasp, only for him to bring her back to his eyes.

“Do you understand me?”

“Fine, I understand you.” she rolled her eyes and he pulled her in for a wet, open mouth kiss. Her frustration fueled her as her tongue came in contact with his and he pushed her further into the door.

“On my desk, now,” he growled into her ear before slapping her ass.

“Make me.”

He growled and lifted her over his shoulder before walking to the desk and placing her on the corner.

She crossed her legs under her long printed skirt, her right thigh peeking out from the slit on the side and giving him a little tease. He walked over to her, opening her legs and stepping between them before leaning down and tilting her chin up towards him.

“You think you’ve been a good girl for your king?”

She bit her lip, anticipating her punishment.

“No, kumkani.”

“That’s right, you haven’t. You think it’s ok to yell and curse at me?” he pushed her wild coils behind her ear. “That’s fine, I can just take away that pretty little voice.” 

Ashanti sharted to speak, but he shushed her.

“Go up to my quarters and strip. Be on my bed, naked and ready for me when I get there,” he said with a slap to her ass. She hopped down from the desk and scurried out of the room.

Ashanti had never stripped so fast, and she was more than ready to splay herself out across his bed, but she decided to position herself on her knees with her legs tucked under her since she knew how much he loved to see her beg. She stayed like that for 20 minutes before T’Challa appeared with a smug look on his face, tickled at her annoyance for having to wait..

“What took you so long?”

“Did I say speak?”

His calm tone sent a shiver down her spine and she bit her lips to keep quiet.

“Your mouth seems to be getting you in a lot  of trouble right now. Good thing I brought this,” he held up a black ball gag with black leather straps and Ashanti let out a faint moan.

He took her jaw in his hand one more time and made direct eye contact with her, “What’s the safeword?”

“Papaya.”

A sinister grin appeared on his face.

“Kim, play ‘Kitten’ playlist,” he called out to the AI.

I know that you made love right here

I won't fall back for you, I want you

Ok say the back seat going up now

High enough to make me never come down

Got that look in her eye like "yeah"

Got her looking for a nigga, wanna cry now

I wanna give it to her now like, right now

Hit the hotel like lights out

Bad as a motherfucker, that's no doubt

Let my name live in your mouth

He pulled her in, licking one long stripe from her collarbone to her earlobe, nibbling on it before running his tongue along the shell of her ear.His hands went down to grab two handfuls of her ass as his mouth travelled back to her neck where he suckled until her hands came up to push him back. He grabbed them and held her wrists behind her as he bit down where her neck and shoulder meet before grabbing her jaw again.

“Good girl. Now,  I don't want to have to use this on you, but I will if you can’t keep your pretty little mouth shut. Nod if you understand me,” he paused to watch her struggle to nod against his grip. “Good fucking girl, kitten. Now come down on the floor and sit just like that, good. Look up at me.”

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Let me hear you say oh oh oh

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Get wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Let me hear you say oh oh oh

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Get wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

Wild for a nigga one time, wild for a nigga one time

Wild for a nigga one time, get wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

Wild for a nigga one time, wild for a nigga one time

Get wild for a nigga one time, wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

He pulled his meaty dick out of his pants and tapped it against Ashanti’s lips, signaling her to open up.

“Vula.” he grumbled out to her. Ashanti opened her mouth as wide as it could go and he slid his way into her mouth and down her well-trained throat. She slobbered up and down his shaft while she swallowed every inch that he could give her. When she stuck out her tongue for him to fuck her face she was almost at her limit, but he sensed her fatigue and finished on her face.

“On the bed,” he helped her up from her knees and laid her back on the bed          

You're such a good fuckin' girl, I like the look of her girl, good fuckin' girl

Love me right here, you can't hold back huh

Love me right here, won't you, won't you, won't you

Ok, say them foreign legs going up now

Let me show you where a nigga from now

“Remember, no talking,” he kissed her feet, then made his way up her legs to her pussy, planting a kiss right there before working his way back up to her lips and kissing her sloppily. He pulled back and covered her mouth with his hand before she felt his fingers plunge deep inside her soaking wet pussy. She tried to scoot back, but he wouldn't let her.

“Why are you running? You can’t take my fingers inside you anymore, kitten?”

She moaned under his hand, unable to speak even if she tried.

“I can't hear you, did you say something?” he teased, laughing in her face as his fingers picked up pace and massaged her g-spot in circles. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she grinded her pussy into his hand. He could feel her muscles beginning to tighten around his fingers and pulled out.

Got that look in her eye like "yeah"

Hit the jackpot, see I wanna come now

I wanna give it to her now like, right now

Make that thing wet like the tide now

Bad as a motherfucker, that's no doubt

Let my name live in your mouth

“That’s one.”

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Oh I must have left that part out. You raised your voice at me five times earlier. Five. Do you know what that means? Just nod, yes or no.”

She shook her head no and another evil smile crept up his face.

“That means I have to bring you to the edge at least five times before I even think about letting you cum.”

She squirmed beneath him.

“If you keep moving I’ll tie you up-”

She grunted and continued to move. He removed his hand and replaced it with the ball gag before rope tying her wrists together.

“You look beautiful like this, kitten. Mm.” he licked his lips and took in her naked, tied and gagged form before climbing back into position on top of her and kissing her forehead. He teased her nipples until he knew she would be ready for more and suddenly moved down her body and latched onto her clit.

You're such a good fuckin' girl, I like the look of her girl, good fuckin' girl

You're such a good fuckin' girl, I like the look of her girl, good fuckin' girl

You're such a good fuckin' girl, I like the look of her girl, good fuckin' girl

You're such a good fuckin' girl, I like the look of her girl, good fuckin' girl

Ashanti moaned around the ball gag and spit dripped down the sides of her mouth, she was already on the verge of cumming when he stopped and looked up at her.

“You know I love you, right?” He asked while his fingers ran up and down her already swollen lower lips. All she could do is nod. “Do you know how much I love you?”

Her answer was unintelligible around the dripping ball gag.

His fingers slowly entered her and he kissed her again. “And do you know what one of my favorite things about you is?”

She shook her head frantically, trying to remain unbothered by his ministrations. 

“The way you look when you cum. You’re always beautiful, but when you cum,” he tongue-kissed his way down to her neck and curled his fingers inside her. “You look divine.”

Ashanti’s body shivered all over and she closed her eyes.  

“So when you defy or disrespect me like you did earlier and I have to punish you, it hurts me too,” he said as his fingers sped up, rubbing against her g-spot with every thrust while the heel of his palm rubbed against her clit. His other hand grabbed her chin, making her open her eyes and look at him. “Then why do you make me do this? Hurt us both like this…” He pulled his fingers out and licked them clean just as he felt her tighter around him again.

“I sohhee kukai,” she struggled to get out, before he leaned in, lightly pressing his forehead to hers.

“Not yet, you’re not.”

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Let me hear you say oh oh oh

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Get wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Let me hear you say oh oh oh

You're a good girl, you're a good fuckin' girl

Get wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

Wild for a nigga one time, wild for a nigga one time

Wild for a nigga one time, get wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

Wild for a nigga one time, wild for a nigga one time

Get wild for a nigga one time, wild for a nigga one time, ah, ah, ah

T’Challa’s teasing tested his own resolve. He would tongue her down then stop to go over documents on his beads, leaving her tied to the bed, heaving and in a puddle of her own wetness. Ashanti hoped that he would cave soon for his own sake, but she hoped in vain. When T’Challa set his mind to something nothing could get in the way, and he was determined to hold out. 

After about an hour of torturing her off and on with his tongue, he switched to tapping the head of his thick, meaty dick on her clit. His precum dripped out onto her, lubricating his tip and making every tap feel like heaven. One time, he almost gave in and fucked her, but instead just rubbed his tip at her entrance, driving them both crazy. When he left the room to center himself and came back, his fingers found their way deep inside her at a maddeningly slow pace, bringing tears to her eyes and making her legs shake. 

Ashanti knew that he was going to break soon so she just had to hold out a little longer, but then he just had to start playing with her nipples again. He knew what that did to her, that jackass. 

She let out a loud moan as she felt him enter her, and she finally felt full for the first time all night. He laid all his weight on her, daring her to move, and stared into her eyes. He stayed like that for five minutes ignoring her whimpering and pleading and placing kisses all over her face and neck while just barely grinding into her.

“Do you think you deserve to cum now?”

She nodded frantically as she looked up at him with her best begging eyes. 

That’s what did it. T’Challa’s hips pulled back and snapped forward, causing Ashanti to cry out to the heavens. His hips rolled his dick deep inside her, grinding so she felt it in every part of her pussy. As they sped up, Ashanti got louder and louder until he could feel her tightening around him.

“You can cum now, kitten.” he whispered in her ear, hips still pistoning into hers.

She came with a splash, but he kept on going. He undid her gag and she let out a relieved sigh.

“Oh my Bast, Kumkani!”

After a few more strokes her mouth fell open in a silent scream and her eyes were unable to focus on anything in front of her.

“Cum with me, my love. Give me one more.”

The two of them climbed towards their orgasms and they both got louder and louder as they approached. Ashanti looped her bound wrists around his neck and pulled T’Challa in closer while he bit down on her neck as he released inside her and she came undone around him. He collapsed on top of her and the two of them came down from their shared high. When he tried to roll off her she protested, gripping him tighter with her legs. He chuckled, giving in and staying in that position for a few more minutes before T’Challa untied her wrists. He massaged the marks left behind and got up to run a bath so Ashanti’s muscles wouldn’t hurt after tensing up so much.

When he returned to the bedroom, she was laying across the bed half asleep and he had to carry her to the bath. When he placed her in and slid in behind her she leaned her head back against his shoulder and relaxed there as he washed her body.

They finished their bath and he dried her off before getting her ready for bed and sliding her under the sheets. When he got in on his side she  immediately weaseled her way up under his warmth and the two of them laid like that for a while before Ashanti finally spoke.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you, baby.”

“I know, kitten,” he kissed the top of her head, “just don’t let it happen again.”

She giggled and tucked herself into his side.

“Yes kumkani.”

Next Chapter

Taglist: 

@maddeningmayhem, @theblulife, 

@ljstraightnochaser, @determinednot2fall