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gaiathemexicanbeauty · 11 months

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it only takes a taste | mike schmidt x reader

word count: 1.6k

warnings: none! this is just pure fluff and maybe kind of slowburnish lol

this was loosely based off of it only takes a taste from the waitress musical! :3

idk i just really like the idea of late nights with mike even if he's too tired to even think straight lmao

also don't ask what time period this takes place in, i was born in 2004 and know like 2 things about the 70s-90s or whenever the movie takes place bc its never explicitly mentioned

i also do not regularly bake or cook so do not be afraid to go to my comment section and tell me if something sounds off

i love this man ok, i have said it 1000 times already but i've been in love with him ever since i first saw him when i was like 12 or 13 and was even more so obsessed with rebornica's mike design for YEARS. 12 year old me would have an aneurism if she knew about the fnaf movie

you let out a long yawn, one hand reaching up cover your mouth so as not to potentially ruin the mood of any customers around; granted, there was only two and they were graveyard shifters from somewhere outside of town but customers are customers. you'd been working at sparky's for a couple of months now, figuring it was an easy way to make some cash and keep food on the table. of course, you hadn't accounted for the very long hours that passed where you half debated trying to sneak away since no was around from 2-4:00 am: your boss would kill you, though, and you wanted to stay employed.

soft oldies music plays in the background as you glance over at the clock ticking away on the wall. just as you move to grab a rag to clean the counters for the 5th time during your shift, you hear the bell above the entrance jingle and don't even have to look up to know who it is.

mike wasn't a regular at first, just someone who popped in at random and very quietly asked for a coffee. after a while of starting a new job, he started coming in at almost 11:00 pm everyday and always asking for the same thing: just a plain, black coffee. "seriously?" you had said with a smirk the first time he said his order to you, your eyes widening at the attitude you had just given a customer. fortunately, mike was quick to respond with a tired but good natured laugh, his hands folded in front of him. "i'm all ears if you have other recommendations." he mumbled with a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, giving you instant relief.

now, it was just clockwork. "hey." mike sighs with a soft sigh, rubbing a hand over his eyes as he takes a seat at a chair by the counter you were standing behind. "coffee machine is kind of acting up tonight, you're gonna have to give it a minute. want anything else while you wait?" you say as you approach the counter, giving him a quick smile. mike is about to decline your offer, his lips parting to say something before his eyes land on something on the farther end of the counter. "what about that? still good?" "you're just in time. i was going to take the rest of it home." you say with a smile, walking over to the cake stand holding an apple pie with only 3 slices left of it. you take the lid off to plate it, handing it over to mike with a hum before bringing him utensils. you don't even get the chance to bring up to him that the slices have been sitting there for a couple of hours, blinking in shock at the way he's quick to start eating.

you turn your back to start taking down the chalkboard advertising the special from the day before, giving mike his one moment of quiet you were sure he needed. you start to think about what your day will consist of once you're done with your shift, dreading having to clean your room before you can actually sleep. "did you make this?" "yeah. why, is it bad?" you say with a chuckle, turning to look at mike again; your eyes widen a bit at the way mike is looking at you, his own eyes looking at you like he can't believe what he just put it in his mouth. "no, no, it's..it's really good, like. really good." your cheeks redden a bit at the sudden compliment, pushing a piece of hair behind your ear as you occasionally glance at him enjoying the pie you'd made; you wouldn't say you were amazing at cooking but you definitely knew enough to make a meal that would do more than just feed you.

it also didn't help that you'd been harboring a crush on mike for the past month. that you were aware of, he didn't have a partner of any kind but that might have been more to do with the fact he didn't have time for one than anything else. you at first brushed it off as just not having contact with anyone your age that late at night, just enjoying his company when nights got lonely. but you couldn't deny the way you would style your hair a bit differently or try a new perfume in the hopes of getting a compliment from mike; to your absolute pleasure, he almost always pointed it out. now to hear this sudden praise for your cooking took you out of your element.

"thanks, really, but i make it all the time. i can make thousands like it and they'll all be the same." you say with a light chuckle, crossing your arms against your chest as you look over at the cake stand sheepishly. "then maybe you should consider getting a day job making these instead." mike says between bites, giving you a playful smile. you can't help but scoff despite the smile on your face, looking over at mike again. "well, if it's that easy, maybe YOU should quit your job and come and join me. keep me company." the two of you have a quiet laugh, your cheeks reddening at the indirect compliment you had paid him. once his plate is empty, you take it away from him just to have an excuse to do something with your hands (also to get away from the almost fond look that mike was giving you right now, definitely not on par for him). there's a tense silence between the two of you before mike speaks up, clearing his throat when he speaks. "uh, i tried making that at home. the pie, i mean. i don't remember what kind it was right now, but it definitely didn't end as well as that." he says with a nervous laugh, hands folded in front of him again as you hear the coffee machine start to pour out his drink.

"well, what exactly did you do wrong?" with surprisingly no hesitance, mike goes on to tell the story of how sure he was about this recipe he'd seen in a catalogue, going above and beyond to make sure this "stupid thing" (his words) came out right. little did he know leaving his creation unattended for even a second would result in smoke pouring out of the oven and having to throw out a charred-black pastry; "and then abby went and acted like we could just go and do it all over again and.." mike starts, hands waving around uncharacteristically as he finished off his story. he caught the way you were trying to hold back a laugh, fingers pressed to your lips that were etched into a small smile. "it's ok, you can laugh all you want. i never tried doing it again." you can't help the laugh that leaves you once he gives you his full permission, still trying to keep your voice down. "i-i'm sorry, really.." you giggle once you've calmed down, rubbing your hands over your face before you start to walk around the counter to where mike is sitting. "but that's not how making a pie works. you can't just leave it like that or give up on the process that easily."

mike makes a face that says 'i'm listening', shrugging his shoulders when you sit on the stool next to him. "making a pie is like.." you start with a sigh, hands propping up your chin in thought as you look up at the clock. "you just know when some things feel right. if something is too much or too little, whether you need to start again or not. lord knows i've had to redo entire pies because the crust wasn't flaky enough or the filling didn't taste like apples enough." you say, chuckling a bit as you remember all the times you'd slaved away for almost entire days trying to nail down the perfect home recipe. you take a minute to think again, sitting back a bit as you smooth down your apron tied around your waist. "and it also doesn't help if you make something just to make something. when you bake or just cook a plain old steak, you have to make it like you're crafting a story or making a song. all of my best meals were made with someone or something in mind."

your cheeks go red again when you realize the very unprompted ramble you went on, a nervous laugh leaving you as you look down at your lap. "sorry, you totally don't have to-" "no, no, i-" the two of you jump a bit at the way you both try to speak first, sheepish smiles tugging at your lips before you go quiet again. the bell above the door jingles and you don't have to look up to know the two of you are alone now. "i like hearing about that sort of stuff. i really only hear about it when i'm here with you and it's..nice. different." your heart soars and you can only hope that mike can't somehow feel or hear it, trying to give him a warm smile without saying something you'll regret. you get up from your seat with a when he checks his watch, knowing that's code for 'i need to go' even before he stands. you're almost sure he'll leave without saying anything which you are simultaneously grateful for and hoped he wouldn't do, already busying yourself with some other menial task. "hey."

you look up almost as soon as he speaks, seeing the smile tugging at his lips and not able to contain your own. "save those leftovers for me. i hope it still tastes like you were trying to make it for me when i get back." he says, a smug look in his eyes as your lips part a bit in shock. you try to call out to him before he jogs out to his car, taking off accordingly.

-> ta da its done! :D <-

this was honestly less romantic than i wanted it to be but i promise that my brain is racked with thoughts of him literally EVERY DAY so mayhaps i can write something else that's more up to par one of these days

but thank yall for reading! :D i haven't been able to pump out a oneshot like this for a while and it felt good to write something longer than a couple of paragraphs, i have missed this account sm 🐺💗 love yall and i hope that you all are having a fantastic day!

#mike schmidt #mike schmidt fanfic #mike schmidt x reader #mike schmidt x you #fnaf #oneshot #x reader #fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #josh hutcherson #michael schmidt x reader #fnaf x reader #fnaf x you

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punkitt-is-here · 5 months

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i thought you were already like a professional artist !!!!

In a sense I am! I am self employed off of my art, which I am very fortunate for. I'm not really an employee for any company but I don't really want to be, I enjoy doing my own thing on my own time even if it can get a little stressful.

#wispisntokay #my posts #asks

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yuri-is-online · 9 months

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Back with some more thought experiments! This time, let’s talk about the actual worldbuilding of Twisted Wonderland. I mean, this is a completely separate world where fairytales and fantastical things actually exist. It’s functionally impossible for Twisted Wonderland to just be Earth plus some Disney sprinkled on top.

The biggest point that really gets me is that fact that methods to foresee the future exist. Astrology is a valid class in NRC and Yuu suffers from plot convenient prophetic visions. The mere idea that the future can be foreseen should have huge ramifications on how businesses and governments operate. Imagine knowing the effect of a deal or policy before it even happens. Or minimizing crisis by knowing about it before it strikes.

Magic should also affect technological development. We know that there was an age before magic was widespread among humans, thanks to Trein in GloMas. In that sense, I can see how up to a point technological development may be similar… but post-magic the technology should be different due to a different set of limitations.

Language is also an interesting topic. Setting aside things that humans probably can’t event speak like the Fae languages seen in game, what of the languages used in Twisted Wonderland? Would they be similar to Earth as a result of the Disney movies used to create its history? Does that explain why Rook speaks French?

This isn’t accounting for religion either. The Age of the Gods is a thing, drawing from the Hercules movie. That would mean that the Greek gods actually exist in Twisted Wonderland. So how did they fall out of worship? I mean, only Hades seems to be recognized anymore due to the Great Seven, and not even in a religious way.

Look, I’m going to hit the character count if I keep trying to list all of my questions. This is just all so fascinating! And true to my fixation on Yuu, this is all great content for exploring just how alien Twisted Wonderland must feel. Like, Yuu should honestly ask more questions. I don’t buy how easily they adapted in the game.

- 🦐

*cracks knuckles* Shrimp you have brought up stuff I've been thinking about for a hot second, I'm so glad you have come into my inbox ( ๑ ˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ♡

I agree that I don't think Yuu would have adjusted as easily as they are depicted to in game, but this is a mobile app gacha game licensed by Disney so it's not going to focus as much on stuff like that. Luckily that's what we're here to do anyway~ I am going to go through these points one by one.

Point One: Astrology

The most we learn about how fortune telling works in game is from the Scalding Sands hometown event. There is an exchange between Cater, Trey, and Jamil about using coffee grinds to tell fortunes, and Trey specifically says something I think is interesting: we get two really interesting lines:

From what's said here we can tell two things: A) there is a distinct difference between types of fortunes and B) a distinct difference in the quality of fortune tellers. Someone like Cater is correct most of the time with his divination, but not everyone will be making actively relying on it for major decisions. I could absolutely see older kingdoms having a seer employed who a ruler could call on for supernatural advice, but I don't think that would be common practice in modern day Wonderland outside of maybe Briar Valley. Besides, just because you know something bad will happen doesn't mean you will be able to efficiently mobilize your forces in time to make a meaningful difference.

Speaking of which, not to touch on spoilers too much but Leven seems to be implied to posses the ability to actually clearly see the future, and as for Yuu's visions...

Well Lilia says he thought they might have a curse like Silver's (not that he knew why they were dizzy)... and the ability to see the future IS often handed out in Greek Myths as a curse, but well. Make of that what you will.

Point Two: Magi-Tech

The way technology works in Twisted Wonderland is a bit vague. From how Idia talks, I think there is a distinct difference between technology and magitechnology, with Idia specifically specializes in the latter. I actually went a really long time thinking that since Yuu hadn't a single trace of magic on them they wouldn't be able to ride a magi-wheel because of how Deuce talks about it syncing with your own magic and what not. Even magicless people in Twisted Wonderland don't seem to be completely magicless, they just don't have enough of a mana pool to actually cast a spell.

I think it would make sense to suggest magic and magitechnology probably affected Twisted Wonderland's development in the same way the silicone chip did ours, but the key difference would be that if you put too much magic into a device most humans can't use it. That would bring up a completely separate set of setbacks and issues... while there might not be a difference in the type of things built their internal construction would definitely be wildly different.

Part Three: Language

I think the easiest answer to this is yes. We know there is a "common" language that most places now use... I like to headcannon that language as being unique to Twisted Wonderland but I have seen some people think it is probably English. Which brings out my scrunchy face because the prevalence of English in our world is because of the British Empire... which never existed in Twisted Wonderland.

Rook speaks French because one of his favorite plays is set in Fleur City/the Shaftlands... which as a side note. In his Vampire card vignette he names the play that made him like Neige so much: Kingsroad~ The Sword to Become King!~ which is literally the Sword in the Stone based off of the little song he sings from it. I have been going crazy since GloMas thinking about if this suggests that King Arthur is french in Twisted Wonderland or if Rook is referring to another play... personally I think he's from Sage's Island but that's a crack for another post

Part Four: Greek Myths and Religion

There doesn't really seem to be any religious presence in Twisted Wonderland at all. It's unclear if Hades was ever worshiped or if he was just referred to as a god due to his perceived immortality and power. Given that there is something called the Jupiter group... and the Shrouds are a branch of the Jupiter family... AND that the Titans you fight in Chapter 6 are yelling about getting to and killing Jupiter... I think that it's highly likely there are events in Twisted Wonderland's history that correlate to the stories of the Great Seven, but didn't necessarily involve the Great Seven themselves. It's just that those events are remembered as having been done by them... for some unknown reason. Not to be conspiratorial... but do we have any proof they ever actually lived in Twisted Wonderland at all? (━＿━)ゝSure there are relics and things, and there are apparently paintings in the Land of Dawning Meusuem, but where did they come from? How old are they? I don't need sleep I need answers, is this a primary or a secondary source about the Queen of Hearts Riddle?

The End

I also wish Yuu would ask more questions, but I get why they don't :/ this is a gacha game blah blah blah but also. I don't think Yuu knows what questions to ask, there's a lot of stuff about life you don't think about as being abnormal until someone looks at you funny and I think Yuu realistically does a lot of that, but if you put every single instance of that into a game it would get very exposition heavy very fast. Luckily you, I, and everyone reading this have massive brains and can talk to each other about it!!!

#<3 asks #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst yuu #twst theories

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rebeccathenaturalist · 6 months

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It's been. That's about all I can say. In the two weeks since I turned in the completed manuscript of The Everyday Naturalist to the publisher, I have been to Portland both weekends for teaching and tours, written a bunch of shorter-form pieces, AND compiled all the numbers and paperwork for my taxes, which is a very complicated process given that I'm self-employed and doing a bunch of different things for a living. And my to-do list is still super full for the next couple of weeks as I try to get everything done that needs to be done before I head out on the road for Missouri again.

But, like this stream violet (Viola glabella), I am emerging from under all of the detritus into a new spring day. I'm incredibly fortunate that the bulk of what I am busy with is made of all things that I love doing, and that there's enough of it to keep me afloat. And I have some great plans as the year continues to unfold, so keep your spring peepers on this space!

#violet #flowers #wildflowers #plants #botany #native plants #nature #naturalist #The Everyday Naturalist

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sex-storytime · 1 year

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Builders

*** this story is a reader's request ***

My wife Terri is absolutely gorgeous. She could have made a fortune modeling, but always said it was a waste of her brain. She's 31, brunette - 5'5" tall and has a pair of breasts to die for. They are 34C and perfectly proportioned.

You might wonder why I am waxing lyrical about her in such detail. The reason is that: I still can't believe that I managed to get her for myself. To cut to the chase, we met when she was an innocent 21 year old student and I was an experienced 28 year old successful guy who could jet her off to exotic places and bedeck her with expensive clothes and gifts. She used to be so coy and shy about her good looks and would come running to me at parties when she was being hit upon by just about every red-blooded guy in the place.

The thing is, as she has become more confident over the last few years, she has realised that she is extremely desirable in comparison with her friends. Men always start chatting to her friends and then ask what her name is and ask if she's single etc. Which you can imagine doesn't go down too well.

Good. Because I haven't even begun to start telling you what I witnessed in my back garden last summer. My wife has great tits and she knows it. She spent days wearing men's-cut string-vests and minuscule cheese-cloth 'things' which occasionally covered her breasts just when our neighbours employed a team of hunky young tradesmen to set up scaffolding and repoint and re-paint their house. Terri was playing out her own and my fantasy.

So, we've established that my wife has outstanding breasts. It's not surprising that when we suddenly found ourselves invaded by a band of builders and painters working on our neighbour's house last summer, Terri really came into her own and saw our garden as a stage. They were mainly young, fit guys in their twenties who would invariably have their shirts off for most of the day showing huge amounts of tanned firm pecs and six-pack stomachs -- Sadly, something that I don't have anymore. Of course, I had noticed their behaviour, but I feel Terri had noticed it even more. When I would mention anything concerning these men, she would act ignorant as if she hadn't been aware of them. (I've realised over the years that she is not a very convincing liar).

Now for the record, Terri has never been a keen gardener. So it was odd that she was suddenly out in the garden at every opportunity and if she wasn't sunbathing in a tight-fitting bikini, but she was wandering about and bending over flower-beds in cropped and very flimsy gaping tops. Most of the time she would couple these little revealing tops with an extremely short denim mini skirt. Suffice it to say, there wasn't much concentrated work happening on the neighbour's house. In fact, the only pointing that was going on, was in the direction of my wife's body.

On two occasions I came home from work at around 6.30pm to find her sitting around our garden table in the warm evening sunlight with two or three of these guys. They were all drinking bottles of cold beers which I later found out were supplied by her.

On the second occasion she was wearing her short denim mini skirt, but moreover, she was also wearing a ludicrously revealing top. It was something I'd created with a pair of scissors for her out of a string vest (men's style) and was strictly 'For our Bedroom use only'. I had deliberately made it halter-neck; cutting the sides to gape open -- therefore allowing her breasts to naturally spill out... yet not quite showing her nipples completely. So, I couldn't believe that she had pulled this top out of the drawer and had made a conscious decision to wear it today. She could have worn one of her little bikini tops with it? But no! To add extra insult and excitement, she was reclining back and forth on her chair wearing this special top which allowed unrestricted views of her gorgeous breasts. Okay! She wasn't topless, but... because it was a men's string vest, you could blatantly see her nipples poking through the holes in the fabric.

Oh and by the way, the men had taken their shirts off and were showing their highly toned chest muscles and copious amounts of testosterone. Luckily they were still wearing their jeans.

When I first wandered into this scenario, I was surprised that not one of them seemed at all embarrassed at the delicious state of undress being demonstrated by my wife, and Terri didn't seem to react in any way either. She just casually said, "Hi darling, you're home early."

And carried on soaking up the attention. As the men started to make gestures to leave for the day, I wandered back to the house to start cooking some supper, but I couldn't help over-hearing one of them say to Terri, "Well 'Sexy', we'll see you tomorrow then."

To which she responded with, "You'll probably see a LOT MORE of me tomorrow, as I'm going to have a chill-out day and catch some rays."

I could see their faces light up as they glanced at each other grinning as they walked away.

When Terri joined me in the kitchen I glibly said, "Did they enjoy their drink?"

"I should think they needed it to cool themselves down while they were looking at your breasts?" I replied.

She tried to look puzzled and then eventually looked down at her top and said that I was being boring, stuffy and ridiculous. And that it'd been so hot earlier during the afternoon that, at one stage, she nearly took it off altogether!

I enquired what her plans were for tomorrow. She said that she going shopping in the morning and was going to chill-out in the garden in the afternoon as she had done the bulk of the gardening. "Does chilling-out mean sunbathing?" I said.

She said she might grab some sun before the summer's over.

With a lump in my throat, I then asked her, "And will you be keeping your bikini on or going topless?"

She walked up to me and kissed me by the ear and sexily whispered, "Who knows..? It all depends on how brave I'm feeling and anyway, you know I don't like to have any lines."

I naturally took this to mean that those young guys would be getting a real gorgeous eyeful of her naked breasts tomorrow afternoon.

I couldn't resist saying, "So you're going to get your tits out for the boys, then?"

She walked passed me muttering that "it's her garden, and her body and if they want to look it's their choice!"

With that declaration, I made a point of telling her that I wouldn't be home tomorrow night as I had a strategy meeting in Nottingham which starts at six O'clock, so I planned to stay at the company flat with Frank and John overnight.

My parting comment seemed to go straight over her head, I simply stated, "It's apparently going to be a scorcher tomorrow, so I expect you'll get a bit of a roasting if you're half-naked in the garden?"

She promptly retorted, "It wouldn't bother you if I went over the top would it?"

I shook my head.

"I'll just stop when I've had enough," she said almost purring.

I wasn't sure if she'd got my drift or she was innocently talking about the burn factor of the sun. Anyway, one thing I was sure about was that there was no way I was going to a meeting in Nottingham tomorrow - I was going to secretly find out what her intentions were.

That night in bed while I was caressing her beautiful pussy I asked her whether she fancied any of the guys who were working next door. We would often have 'mind sex' where we would talk each other through different fantasies of her being with another man or other men. We would both get extremely turned on and it would seriously intensify our orgasms. So when she said that she 'had the hots' for at least three of them and wouldn't mind finding out what they had between their legs, I wasn't sure whether it was a bit of sexy talk or if it was for real? There was only one way to find out.

I told her that if she had serious hots for one of them that she should find out, and that it was okay by me. She raised her head and said, "Are you sure?"

This freaked me again because I couldn't tell if it was just another sexy tease. Then again, that's what Terri was - An incredibly sexy tease and the master at it!

I left her in bed the next morning and went to the office. I told my secretary that I would need to leave at 2pm as there was a problem at the house. There wasn't ever a meeting in Nottingham, I just made it up so Terri would feel relaxed to do exactly as she pleased (all part of my plan).

I got to the house at around 2.30pm and parked out of site around the corner. There's an overgrown path which runs along the end of our garden which I decided would be a good starting vantage point. Glancing through the hedge, I could see the men working on the neighbours house, but I couldn't see Terri anywhere. Yet, I did notice the sun-lounger had been set up with one of the small tables alongside.

As I started to check-out and wonder which of the eight to ten guys she thought were rather gorgeous, I noticed one of them nudge another and then nod in the direction of our back door. There she was. My fabulous, majestic wife. Strolling out with a tray of fruit and a chilled bottle of white wine. Thankfully, she WAS wearing a bikini top [albeit a very small white string affair] and she also had a floaty, white lace sarong tied around her hips. With her blonde hair and cool Victoria Beckham style shades, she looked fantastic. She put the fruit in the shade under the sun-lounger and poured herself a large glass of wine, after taking a sip she removed her sarong to reveal the smallest tie-sided bikini thong I'd ever seen. "This must be a new purchase? Ah ha... that's probably what her impromptu shopping trip this morning was all about?" I mused.

She reclined on the lounger and started to apply sun-cream to her legs and shoulders. The guys on the scaffolding had almost stopped working. They were transfixed by my wife's beautiful body, and probably had the words she'd said to them the night before still ringing in their ears.

Terri, at this point, glanced up at the guys and gave them a smile and a little wave. Two of them responded with muted wolf-whistles. (I know that girl's actually like being whistled at), and so with that Terri blushed slightly and sort of blew them a kiss (I think?) and laid back on the lounger. Arching her back to get into a comfortable position - but I would suggest also teasing the guys by allowing a good view of her breasts.

After about ten minutes she rolled over on to her front and started to read her magazine. One of the guys who was in the garden the previous evening shouted down and asked her whether she needed some sun-cream rubbed into her back. She immediately said, "That would be fantastic, are you sure you don't mind?"

He just laughed and said, "Are you crazy Terri? Wild horses and all that."

You can imagine the emotions going through my body as I watch this young, fit guy climb down the ladder and approach my wife. I was shaking with fear and anticipation.

Terri was lying gloriously in-wait. (Like a blonde Cleopatra expecting her man servant.) Suddenly, there was a fit young man touching my, almost naked, wife. He seemed to be enjoying rubbing his hands all over her back and thighs - and she was responding with very complementary sighs. Yet, it was when he started gently rubbing oil into her beautiful bum that I got really aroused. When he'd finished enjoying my wife's bottom, he whispered something in her ear and she nodded. He then untied the string of her bikini top and let the ties slip off to each side. "She's a bit brave," I thought. But, what was strange, was when she then removed the whole top over her head and dropped it onto the patio. I just couldn't believe what a sexy little minx she was being? I then heard her say to her hunky and willing adonis, "I promised my husband that I'd keep my top on as there are so many hunky young men around at the moment, but I hate having white lines, you know what I mean? I generally go topless in the garden, but that's when I can't be over-looked - it's probably best not to today?"

I could just make out that he said back to her, "Terri, just do what feels natural to you, after all, you've got a fantastic body - so why hide it?"

"Thanks for that, and you're not so bad yourself," she sexily answered back.

"I'll tell you, all the guys think you're absolutely gorgeous!"

So with 'Mr Universe' back up on the scaffolding she wrapped her arms around the top of her head and appeared to nod off. Because her bikini thong was so small, from my position [with just a string at the back], it looked as if she was completely naked. And that hadn't gone unnoticed by her adoring audience.

So maybe she was just teasing ME by saying that she'd let them see her breasts. Then I had an idea. I rang the house phone wondering whether she would just leap up to answer it without putting her top on. It'd be her perfect excuse to tease to boys big-time.

The phone started ringing in the dining room - and thankfully she heard it. Her next move pleased me enormously. She grabbed her sarong and held it to her chest and ran into the house to answer it. Of course, I rang off just before she got there, [naturally disguising the call so she wouldn't call me back - which would rather give the game away].

She returned a couple of minutes later with the walk-about phone in her hand and she had side-tied her sarong properly around her like a short strapless dress. Of course, because it was made of white cotton lace, it was extremely see-through. So, as she sexily swaggered back, her glorious unrestrained breasts were gently moving from side-to-side. 'God, she looks amazing!' I thought.

She poured herself another glass of wine and carefully placed both the glass and the phone on the side table. Then to my amazement she casually untied the knot of her sarong at the side and let it slip off her breasts, pausing briefly on her erect nipples, and fall to ground, she then she took quite a few seconds before she gracefully returned her lean, fit body to the sun-lounger in her face-down position. The guys were absolutely goggle-eyed and speechless. And I couldn't believe that ALL of these guys had just seen my wife's perfect breasts, albeit for just a few memorable seconds. All the same, why did she need to be so deliberate and do that? "She really is a proper little minx after all," I muttered to myself.

I heard the gaffer call out that 'tea was up' and saw the troupe of bronzed adonises descend the scaffolding. Terri glanced up to see the vacant builder's structure and promptly turned her body over onto her front. She ran her hands through her hair and rested them above her head leaning her head to the side. She pushed her shades to the top of her head and closed her eyes. "Ah... you clever little babe," I thought. "She's going to pretend to fall asleep, so when all the boys return, they'll get uninterrupted views of her statuesque breasts?"

Surprise, surprise I was correct. Ten minutes later they returned to their working positions [and eight men climbing creaky ladders makes a lot of noise], unsurprisingly, Terri didn't move a muscle. Yet, I'm sure something would've been stirring inside her.

Our young studs were acting like excited schoolkids as if peeping into the girl's changing rooms. One guy even got his glasses out for a clearer view!

For a full 15 minutes Terri allowed them all to ogle her naked breasts before feigning a mild awakening, and then made a contrived gesture of placing her arm across her chest to cover herself up. One of the guys said quite loudly, "Ahhh, sadly the show's over boys!"

Terri looked up at them smiling and quietly said, "Sorry, I must have nodded-off."

Back came the reply, "With a body like that, you can nod-off as many times as you like, Darling."

Another of the men quickly added, "No need to cover up now Terri as we've all been looking at your naked boobs for the last 30 minutes! You’ll get bikini lines!"

Then came her big mistake, she looked up at the boys and said, "It wasn't that long!"

How did she know? She was asleep - wasn't she?

She seemed to overlook her error and smiled back at them again and then slowly and very deliberately slid her arm away from her breasts letting out a little giggle in the process. Then turning towards their view-point, she arched her back, and shouted up to them, "Okay, but as long you don't mind?"

The lads reeled back with astonishment and proceeded to let out a little cheer with a wolf-whistle chorus.

I could tell she was loving all of this. She knows she has a great pair of tits, but has never been brave enough to expose them in this crazy manner until now!

She stood up and wandered back into the house wearing just her white string thong. As she reappeared topless a few minutes later carrying a cool-box they all gave her another soft chorus of whistles. She tried desperately to conceal it, but couldn't help a little smile to herself. Then another comment came from above, "I think you need some oil on those, Terri! If you need a hand, just ask, okay love?"

She seemed to ignore the comment at first, but then retorted with, "Actually, a few of you seem to have very red shoulders... Do you want me to give you some of my suntan oil?"

One of the guys [I'm sure it was 'Mr Gorgeous' - the one she had the hots for], called back with, "You can do us, if one of us can do you?"

Now, this is where her amazingly natural innocence kicks in, because her reply was absolutely mind-blowing! She simply said, "Okay it's a deal, but don't you want me to do all of you?"

Sniggers all round as you can imagine. Again, she hadn't realised her sexy double entendre. Or had she?

You've never seen four guys descend a ladder quicker. Within seconds they were standing in our garden parading their impressive pecs and six-pack stomachs for my Terri. They were told to line up and turn around in Terri's very forceful manner.

Two had faded jeans on their lower bodies, the other two were wearing cropped shorts. From my perspective, it looked like something straight out of a porn-movie. Anyway, Terri stood up, wearing just her minuscule white thong, and proceeded to rub oil into each of their shoulders taking time to feel their firm muscles. I could see on occasions she was allowing her naked breasts to gently brush against their well-oiled backs. In very hot weather, Terri's nipples don't normally get erect, especially when we're on the beach and she's sun-bathing topless... BUT today, they appeared to be pointing out the sun!

The boys naturally turned round all gazing at her perfect swaying breasts and said, "Is it our turn to do you now?"

This is the point that I realised her true intentions her answer was so loaded. "Come round and chill-out with some cold beers when the sun has gone down - And you can do me then."

"Why would she need sun-tan oil when the sun has gone down?" I pondered.

I think the guys were getting the gist as well as they raised their eyebrows almost in unison. And then quickly said, "We're knocking off in about half and hour anyway, so you'd better line 'em up gorgeous!"

"Okay, but wait a mo, I need to call my husband first, um, because he's staying in Nottingham tonight."

I could see them rubbing their hands together with glee. Then suddenly "Shit!" I thought. She's going to ring me!," I ran to the path and ran down it. I had to be as far away as possible from the house so she wouldn't hear my mobile ring.

It rang. It was Terri. I answered immediately. "Hiya!" I said quietly.

"Hi darling, you okay?" she said.

"Yeah, I'm fine, on my way to Nottingham, are you alright? Naked in bed with six hunky men I suppose?" I said jokingly.

"Don't be silly, I'm doing the laundry. The hunky men will come later!" teasingly giggling back.

"Okay, you little minx, have fun. I'll call you later after the meeting has ended, bye!"

She'd done it again! 'The hunky men will come later?' yeah and I wonder where? You horny thing! And you made a point of telling them that I was away in Nottingham for the night. Obvious or what?

I turned my phone off for fear of other calls and quietly walked back to my vantage point. She was still inside the house and on the phone… the way she was giggling I knew she was talking to her sister. Dawn was younger than she was but just as insatiable. Terri put the phone down and I could see her profile in the floor to ceiling bathroom windows. They are frosted, but we normally close the oak Venetian blinds whilst taking a shower. Not today it seems? I don't think the men had noticed her as it was at a pretty obtuse angle from their line of sight.

Anyway, after about ten minutes Dawn appeared…

"Come here, darling." Terri placed her arms around Dawn and drew her close.

Dawn welcomed the warmth and comfort of the embrace. She rested her head on Terri's chest, surprised to hear the other woman's heart beating so quickly. Then when she opened her eyes, she discerned the clear definition of her friend's nipples protruding through the thin material of her tee shirt. Had Terri become turned on by what she had told her?

For her part, Terri had become increasingly horny as the day progressed. The young woman was as tall as Terri, but whereas my wife was all lean and muscular, her sister's body was filled out with a pert, exquisite bust and a rounded firm posterior that was begging to be squeezed. If that wasn't bad enough, Dawn looked even more appealing with just a towel wrapped around her. There was even a moment as they leaned against each other sweating profusely, that Terri would have risked a kiss to drive the builders into a frenzy.

Dragging dawn into view of the garden and raising Dawn's chin with her finger, Terri planted a gentle kiss on her lips. When she met with no resistance, she tenderly sucked upon Dawn's lower lip, drawing it outwards, before releasing it and plunging her tongue deep into the other woman's mouth all for show. The bedroom curtains were wide open and the large picture windows revealed everything and the patio door was open.

As Terri intensified the interrogation of her mouth, Dawn reached out and took hold of her sister’s breast, squeezing and kneading the flesh, feeling the nipple protest against the palm of her hand. She had been just as fascinated with Terri's bigger tits as any of the men who had ogled them in the swimming pool. Pulling the tee shirt free of the denim skirt, Dawn's hand went beneath the flimsy garment and delved into the half-cup bra to extricate the large melon. When she rolled the teat firmly between her thumb and forefinger, it responded by getting even harder and longer.

Terri moaned into her mouth before breaking off their kiss and rolling onto her side. This was there plan! They had hatched this together. This was the moment the builders began nudging each other, still several metres away. They all stopped what they were doing. One by one their hands adjusted themselves in their jeans.

Dawn pushed Terri's tee shirt up out of the way. Taking one of the champagne glasses, she poured some of the sparkling, golden liquid on the exposed breast before clamping her mouth down on it, taking in the nipple and most of the large areola, and began to suck upon it deeply and rhythmically.

In reciprocation, Terri placed her hand under Dawn's dress, running up past the end of her stockings, across the bare flesh of her thighs, until her fingers slipped beneath the panty leg opening and alighted upon a very sodden and shaven pussy.

"Jesus!" exclaimed Terri. "I never get this wet, at least, not this quickly. You really are a horny, little slut, aren't you, Dawn?"

Dawn lifted her head from Terri's breast and said while smiling, "I can be. For the right person." Then rising up to kneel on the bed she lifted her dress up over her head and threw it on the floor, then she unclasped her bra and sent it in the same direction letting her full, firm breasts free. Terri quickly followed suit.

Once naked, Terri wrapped her arms tightly around Dawn, squashing their big breasts together as she pushed the other woman down upon the soft mattress where they kissed passionately, their hands exploring and probing each other's intimate places.

After a few moments, Terri broke off the embrace. She turned 180 degrees, so she could kneel while straddling Dawn's face. Then she leant forward and plunged her hungry mouth into Dawn's pussy, zoning in on her clitoris and darting her tongue across it horizontally. Facing a pussy of her own, Dawn replicated the other woman's actions exactly. Licking then sucking on the clit before using her fingers to expose the inner lips that were already soaked in arousal fluids. Finally, elongating her tongue, she drove it repeatedly deep inside Terri's vaginal opening while her thumb pushed and probed the young woman's engorged clitoris.

It didn't take very long for both to cum, and when they did it was almost simultaneous. Dawn's whole body shuddered in response to the sensations that engulfed her, while Terri moved her hips backwards and forwards, grinding her wet and hairy mound into Dawn's face, greedily extending her own climax.

Dawn might have drifted off into a post-coital sleep, but it appeared Terri was not yet finished. She supposed that was the difference between having sex with a woman rather than a man. A man needed time to recover once he was spent. A woman was ready to go again immediately.

Terri raised herself to her knees on the bed and said. "Come here, you gorgeous creature." Dawn obeyed and both women embraced and began kissing again. Then Terri shifted her position so her pussy, or more precisely, her clitoris, was sitting upon Dawn's upper thigh. She then began to move backwards, then forwards, and Dawn could feel the intense heat being generated by the hot, slippery cunt sliding along her flesh.

Dawn took hold of one of the young woman's impressive breasts and began to manipulate it with the palm of her hand. Then, employing a trick she had learnt from Old Man Hargreaves, she suddenly clamped the nipple between her thumb and forefinger and squeezed on it very tightly, before twisting the nugget sharply to one side. Terri let out a loud moan that Dawn recognised as a mixture of pleasure and pain.

"Oh, you little, fucking slut", Terri exclaimed in delight.

Moving even higher up on Dawn's thigh, Terri positioned herself so that both their pussies were aligned, and their engorged clitorises met. Then holding each other tightly, their big breasts mashed together, their mouths locked in a wet embrace, they began to push against each other, and the effect on such sensitive organs of the body was electrifying. They moved slowly at first, concentrating on maintaining points of contact, pussy to pussy, clit to clit, moaning involuntarily, then gradually their motion got faster, eventually becoming frantic in response to the heat that was building up inside them both.

Terri climaxed first. She unleashed a string of almost unintelligible obscenities through gritted teeth. As she did so, Dawn felt the hot gush of the other woman's squirting arousal fluids strike her pussy and it pushed her over the edge. The two young women collapsed upon the now soaking bed, their limbs still entwined, their bodies luxuriating in the aftermath of their convulsions.

That's when Mr Gorgeous approached the open bedroom door. Dawn rose from the bed and took him by the hand into the kitchen. As they left the dining area, Dawn looked over at Terri and said something to her. Dawn and the builder spoke at length but completely out of earshot. When she rose from her seat he stayed there.

Dawn wrapped her knuckles on the bedroom door, she was initially disappointed to hear no answer from within. She cursed herself for not first phoning the room and checking that Terri would be there before buying the expensive champagne. She was just about to leave when she thought she discerned a shadow cross the tiny pin-prick of light in the door's peephole.

"Are you in there Terri? It's Dawn," she found herself saying, although it felt somewhat redundant given that the person inside would have already seen her through the peephole. "If I caught you at a bad time, I could come back later, or we could meet up in the restaurant and have some lunch."

"Just give me a minute." It was Terri who spoke, although her voice sounded distant because of the thickness of the door.

After what seemed like an unnecessarily long time, the door finally opened, and Dawn was able to step inside still carrying the Bollinger in one hand and the two champagne flutes in the other. She had expected to find Terri just out of bed, perhaps in pajamas, without makeup and her lovely auburn hair disheveled, but she couldn't have been further from the truth.

Terri was wearing a short and tight fitting chemise. It was made of black satin with lace trimmings and had a sexy slit on one side that showed enough of her thigh to suggest she was not wearing panties. The garment struggled to enclose her large breasts and cover her arse. An application of mascara accentuated her naturally long, dark eyelashes and the lipstick she wore was of a light, pink sheen. The woman was dressed for something, but it certainly wasn't sleep.

"Were you expecting me?" asked Dawn.

Terri's response was a silent smile. She took the bottle and glasses from Dawn and placed them on a small desk by the wall. Dawn stepped up behind her and bent to kiss the other woman's neck. As she did so, she reached forward and began to massage one of Terri's full, firm breasts beneath the soft fabric of her chemise. After a moment or two, Terri turned, and they kissed. Dawn slipped her stocking covered leg between those of Terri's until she felt the intense heat of the other woman's mound grind against her thigh.

"Well, well, ladies. What have we here?"

It was Mr Gorgeous. He looked like he was ready to devour them both and behind him, in full view of the incestuous scene were the rest of the work team.

Terri dismounted with an embarrassed smile and led the object of her carnal desires back into the garden as Dawn made herself presentable. My wife had no shame, she grbbed her sheer night-gown and, virtually naked, she pulled on her panties and lay down on the sun lounger, all in full view.

"Come on boys! It's chill-out time!," she announced. With that, it was tools down and then down the ladder in under two minutes.

Suddenly five bronzed hunks were standing over my wife. Their shirts off; their muscles glistening and their eyes firmly focussed on Terri's fabulous body. She handed the cold beers round and the tops were flipped without waiting for the bottle-opener. "Oooh, you're the original big strong boys, aren't you?" Terri cooed at them.

With no hesitation, one of them stated, "He's the biggest..." pointing at 'Mr Gorgeous'.

Terri's head sunk into her shoulders and she looked up mouthing, "I thought you might be." Looking at the guy who pointed, she said, "Exactly how big is he?"

I could just see that he made a 'fisherman type' of gesture.

"Anyway sexy, how come you've put a dress on?" one of them enquired.

She went on to explain that too much sun makes her a bit sore, and that she would usually rub-in some after-sun at this stage.

'Mr Gorgeous looking' then said, "Allow us to assist you... after all, we'd hate you to feel sore tomorrow morning, wouldn't we guys?"

Terri was in her element as she continued to play the tease with these guys. I could hear her explaining that it would mean she'd need to remove her dress for them if they were going to properly cover her in the After-Sun lotion - and that, she was only wearing a very small g-string underneath. One of them immediately said, "It can't be smaller than your bikini bottoms, so why don't you just stand up and let us get started?"

"Huh!" she chuffed, "You wanna bet?" With that, she stood up holding her empty glass and the bottle of After-Sun and asked one of them to pop the cork on the champagne and pour. She took two very big sips from her glass and put her arms above her head. She must have muttered something at this point because three of them immediately encircled her and started undoing the shoe-string ties of her dress. While one was un-lacing her back another was applying the white cream to any exposed areas.

I couldn't help being extremely aroused at this sight, and kept wondering whether she would actually let them rub the After-Sun cream over her breasts... I know she's always been a huge tease, so I assumed she'd be a real bitch and spoil their fun right at the last moment.

I didn't have to wait for long - I needed to shift my position slightly because one the guys was blocking my view. And Christ! My next sight was awesome, seeing Terri's now un-tied dress slowly glide down her sensational body making a sculpted puddle of white cotton at her feet. 'God, she looks amazing!', I thought. And she wasn't joking about the size of her panties either! Her 'g-string' was no more than a 3" equilateral cotton triangle with similar shoe-string sides to her dress. 'Huh... another new purchase?' I mused.

I really didn't think Terri would ever go this far for real. Here I am watching my wife standing with her hands in her hair allowing a group of men run their hands all over her body. And yes after coating and rubbing it in to her stomach they moved up and then paid special attention to her breasts. They took it in turns to stand behind her and cup her beautiful boobs in their hands. I had never seen her nipples so hard! It was also obvious that her legs were getting wider apart the higher they stroked her inner thighs. She began making quite loud sighs of enjoyment whenever they got close to her pussy. I kept saying to myself, "She won't let them remove her knickers... I know she won't. she just won't"

They took it in turns to stand behind her and cup her beautiful breasts in their hands. I had never seen her nipples so hard! It was also obvious that her legs were getting wider apart the higher they stroked her inner thighs. She began making quite loud sighs of enjoyment whenever they got close to her pussy. I kept saying to myself, "She won't let them remove her knickers I know she won't she just won't!"

Then my heart sank as I heard her respond to one of them with, "Yeah! They're not knotted - they're just bows"

"Are you sure Terri?" one of them asked.

"Oh God yeah, no. Hang-on though! Before I'll let you take mine off, you have to take your's off first!"

What an inspired reply?

Within 20 seconds she had five, very fit, naked young men standing before her. From my angle I could only see two of them from a slight side aspect, the other three were facing away from me. Yet, it didn't take much detective work for me to ascertain that 'Mr Gorgeous-Adonis' was obviously hung like a horse by the fixated look on Terri's face.

She smiled at them and then slowly walked back among the circle of men with a very sexy swagger; raised her arms; spun round like a ballerina and said with a wanton voice "I'm all yours boys!"

"Oh my God!" I whispered. "This was it?" I realised that she'd just given full permission to five muscle-bound men to view her beautiful heart-shaped pussy at close quarters. And, of course, there were three others watching from next door. They were running their hands all over her; I saw a hand in-between her legs and then another slide down the front of her knickers. I wanted to stop them, but I knew that if I did, it would be curtains for Terri and me because she would never forgive me for my sordid, deceitful plan. I would look simply stupid and pathetic in her eyes. I had to endure watching them tight-lipped as they carefully un-tied her panties and oh so slowly exposed her pussy.

As her panties fell away two heads moved in to take their place. They were kissing her thighs and stomach, and all around her pussy. She was in sheer ecstasy, she seemed to be bending her knees to get lower down, just as one of them moved directly underneath her - fell to his knees and started using his tongue on her. I know how much she loves it when I go down on her, so this highly charged situation must have been electric Utopia for her! She also seemed to have an impressive penis in each hand and many men's hands running amok over her breasts.

Obviously it was her ultimate pleasure dome, because the next sweated utterance from her lips was, "I've got have sex with one of you now! I need to feel one of you inside me!!"

I then witnessed my beautiful naked wife turn to her left to face 'Mr Gorgeous' and sink her tongue into his mouth. They were locked together for what seemed like an age. (It's strange, but this affected me so much more than her allowing any of them to have their tongues inside her pussy - I suppose it's because kissing passionately is a 'love thing' as opposed to a 'sex thing'?)

Her hands went onto his shoulders forcing him to his knees, she followed him down moments after and straddled his legs. She was inches away from his very impressive cock, 'He was a big boy!' Then she seemed to pause for a couple of seconds as he said something to her.

I heard Terri say, "No. Don't worry, it's much nicer without one!"

She then lowered herself down on top of him and he slid his penis into her waiting pussy. She licked and kissed his lips again in-between some unusually loud noises of extreme pleasure. Being so familiar with her vocal exclamations during sex, it appeared to me that the little hussy came within a minute of riding up and down on this guy. High-pitched extended sighs; her head arched back and then falling forward to nestle on his chest; while her arms flail and feebly enwrap his body. "Yep... that was Terri having an orgasm and a major one at that!"

Bastard! No other man had ever made her climax before me. Then again, I had always encouraged her to explore her own body and be completely open with me about which places and positions were good for her. And to be relaxed about it in front of me! It took a long time, but eventually she managed to achieve orgasms very readily. "All that mental evaluation and manual stimuli and maybe, just maybe, all she really needed was a man with a huge penis?" Of course, it could've been the combination of another man kneeling behind her caressing and stroking her nipples at the same time?

Anyway, while this notion was curdling in my brain, I saw the man of her dreams ejaculate inside her accompanied by some very exaggerated grunts of hedonistic pleasure.

To my surprise, she just gave him a prolonged kiss him on the lips and then swiftly turned round and straddled the guy behind her. She even took the lead and used her hand to gently guide his penis into her. For ten minutes or so she gracefully moved him in and out of her, until he picked her up and repositioned her on the edge of the sun-lounger. With her ankles over his shoulders he proceeded to pound his penis into her. I couldn't actually tell if Terri came again, but he certainly did! And with great ceremony.

I had to keep reminding myself that these men were the builders who would spend half their day watching my gorgeous wife in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her cleavage, or let alone, one of her nipples? And now she is completely naked, lying on her back with her legs splayed apart and her arms draped above her head. Since the second guy came inside her, she'd made no attempt to cover herself up at all. Was one of the other men going to take her? They seemed to hesitate.

Ten or fifteen seconds went by and her legs were still wide open at 90 degrees!

Thankfully, she raised her head. Closing her legs and grasping her crumpled dress to her chest, "Wow! That was lovely!" She said. "C'mon, I fancy a shower. Any of you sexy hunks want to join me and scrub my back? My shower's very big - I'm sure I'll be able to fit you all in!"

"Oh yeah Terri. Two down and three to go!!" snapped one of them back.

There she goes again, I thought. She's the true Queen of the innocent double entendre. I next saw her beautiful naked bum disappear into the house followed by a group of very overexcited men. For the next two hours I had to listen to squeals and laughter; sounds of intense sexual pleasure and lots of splashing of water. By this time the sun had dipped, so I could just make out the shapes of many naked bodies moving about in our bathroom. I did see Terri's naked bum pushed up against the huge frosted-glass window by two of the men at one point, but it was mostly a sound-only show after that.

Still a little shocked, I returned to my car and contemplated on what to do next. I could hardly waltz through the door as I had already said to her that I was in Nottingham only an hour ago. Then again, I didn't want to sleep in the car and staying in a hotel round the corner from my own house was not only extravagant, but also very suspicious. Most of the hotels' staff knew me and Terri from various parties and local weddings we'd attended together. I decided to return to scene of the 'crime' my crime, that is. I should never have set up such an elaborate trap, because I'm the one who's now trapped.

I walked into our back garden, which was now quiet, and immediately saw the bathroom light being switched off. The bedroom light came on (our bedroom!), but also, a few moments later, the kitchen light came on. I had to duck behind a shrub to avoid being spotted. When I peered through the foliage, I could see Terri rushing in wearing her long black chemise which I'd given her last Christmas. Her hair was wet and she looked sensational (and strangely she didn't appear to be wearing the matching panties which go with it!) She was followed by two of the men who were completely naked and dripping wet. She had grabbed two bottles of Champagne from the fridge and handed them to the men, she then reached up to the cupboard to get some glasses. I was incensed, these two men just couldn't keep their hands off her!

She kissed both men with a peck and promptly swooshed out of the kitchen. I could see her running up the stairs carrying at least six glasses. "Six glasses? That means she's entertaining five men!" I thought.

We'd talked and fantasised about her with two men and me watching, but never with FIVE men and me NOT watching!

#lovers #fucking #Gangland #readers request #his perspective

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yggdraseed · 11 months

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Women in Jujutsu Kaisen

Let’s get this out of the way first: if you’re reading this because you enjoy reading posts by people who hate Jujutsu Kaisen, you’re going to be disappointed. I actually like Jujutsu Kaisen a lot, I have a lot of positive things to say about it, and I’m going to be explaining my reasoning here. You should probably move on if you want trash talk. But if you have a negative view point that you’re nevertheless willing to reevaluate or recontextualize by looking at things from a new perspective, please read on.

A lot has been said about how women are written in Jujutsu Kaisen. A lot of good, and a lot of bad. I think a lot of the bad comes from how Jujutsu Kaisen was praised so early on for how it’s women were written, only for people to either not see it or have their expectations not be met due to events in Shibuya and the Culling Games. However, while I try to respect diversity of opinion, I feel like a lot of people aren’t really grasping why the way GeGe Akutami writes women was lauded. I think a people have lots of different ideas of what makes for a well-written female character, and don’t find what they’re looking for in Jujutsu Kaisen, thus they get angry and they post online about how GeGe Akutamisogyny isn’t going to beat “the allegations.”

I’ve never liked the justifications put forth for that argument. There’s a lot of subtext to how the female cast of Jujutsu Kaisen are written that can’t fit neatly into the simple world of page and panel counts or win-loss ratios. And, fortunately, there are tools for feminist literary analysis that I am going to employ in what will hopefully be a short trilogy of posts, starting here.

When I see people criticizing how women are written in Jujutsu Kaisen, I usually only see them using one point of interest: the outcome of a fight. If a female character doesn’t win a fight, then some people in the audience take that to mean that GeGe Akutami hates that character, hates women, and doesn’t want them to succeed — or some variation of that, perhaps less extreme.

This is a product of Jujutsu Kaisen being a Shonen, and thus being on the radar of Shonen fans who — let’s be honest — are not known widely for consuming anime or manga outside of the Shonen demographic. Shonen is heavily focused on conflict and competition as storytelling, it’s why the term “battle shonen” is used so prevalently. And Jujutsu Kaisen doesn’t try to deny its own Shonen heritage: it uses fights for storytelling all the time, sometimes even more than other Shonen seem to do.

I think this might also be a cultural thing. Anime and manga are written very differently from Western movies or comic books, with very different cultural background and different artistic sensibilities. However, that’s a topic that I’ll unpack another time, maybe not even in Part 2 or 3 of this post.

Point is, we need to step back and get some perspective. People who use the losses or deaths among the female cast as evidence that GeGe hates women, or sees women as inferior, or has some sort of passive, culturally-inherited sexism in their worldview are suffering from tunnel vision. You need to look at the story as a whole sometimes, not just the one subject in question.

Go back to the Goodwill Event, and the fight between Nobara and Momo. Their whole conversation is a huge part of why Jujutsu Kaisen was praised early on for how Akutami writes women, and I think the subtext of it really went over some people’s heads. It did mine, the first time around: to me, it just felt like a competent, if tired “girl power” moment for Nobara. But as I invested more time and thought into reading the series, and as I learned more since first viewing that scene, I started to realize what I wasn’t seeing in that scene.

Momo shares something in common with all of the Kyoto Students, Todo and Miwa being the exception. In addition to seemingly coming from a more-or-less established sorcerer pedigree, Momo shares the general pessimism that hangs over the Kyoto Students like a dark cloud. There’s this very morosely Japanese sense of “woe is me, but there’s nothing to be done” about Momo, Mai, Noritoshi, and Mechamaru, in one sense or another. These four are people who will complain about a problem, then just sit while it washes over them and batters them like a wave. They just accept the unfair hand they’re dealt in life, and while they don’t like it, they treat it as something no one can overcome. Furthermore, on some level, I think these four don’t necessarily want to overcome the misfortunes and injustices they face.

See, Momo pours her heart out at length about how hard it is being a woman and being a sorcerer. And the way she talks about it is a very different critique of society than you’d see in a lot of Shonen. She talks about how women are expected to be perfect: beautiful, graceful, exquisite, the model of femininity, while also keeping up with the macho “might makes right” sensibilities that dominate sorcery. In her words, “men have to be strong, women have to be perfect.”

This isn’t something that’s just being plucked out of thin air, this is a criticism of the girlboss culture that arose through the 2000s and 2010s up to now. Women are expected to battle sexism alone, in their own lives, by being exceptional: rather than reforming cultural structures that put women at a disadvantage to men, girlboss culture says women just need to always wear perfect makeup, always be fashionable, always work 2.5 times harder than men, and find time to raise children and have a side-hustle at the same time. Instead of fixing the problem, it’s telling women, “Just work harder. Just be better.” As if women haven’t been having to work harder for nothing in return for the past 50 years, holding down jobs that they have to go above and beyond to prove themselves in as compared to male coworkers for whom the job might as well be a guarantee by comparison, having a ceiling put on their promotion while men who didn’t put in as much work get to move up the company ladder, and frequently having to juggle having a child and taking care of housework in addition to the expectations of jobs that often don’t afford maternity leave. And then, on top of all of that, the expectation is then foisted on to have the time and energy to perfectly craft your hair, makeup, and outfit for the day, and if you miss a single step of the whole stupid dance, you’re seen as an underachiever. That’s girlboss culture, and that’s what Momo is indirectly criticizing when she laments the contradictory and unfair expectations women in the sorcery world have to uphold. They need to fight just as hard as the men, while wearing skirts and not getting a single scar on that pretty face.

(Just as an aside, I love the way this conversation comes about. Momo and Mai are pretty close to each other, to the point that it sometimes feels like nobody else in the Kyoto school likes or respects Mai like Momo does. And Momo targets Nobara with this whole speech because of the friction between Mai and Nobara, and because she wants to stand up for Mai. I like that element of both solidarity and conflict between women, about being a woman, and I’ve always gotten sapphic vibes from Momo and Mai, so I’m glad that she’s the one giving this whole speech and why she’s doing it. But I digress.)

And the thing is, she’s not wrong. Neither Nobara nor the story as an overall entity refutes anything she says. However, Nobara points out something else about Momo that she shares in common with the other Kyoto Students who were raised to be sorcerers: the way she treats her whole life like a job. Momo has internalized the culture she despises, and instead of trying to rebel, she just accepts all of it as “the way the world works.” She soldiers on, just as Noritoshi soldiers on with his family’s expectations, Mai soldiers on with her pain and feeling of being abanoned, and Mechamaru soldiers on with the isolation, unfairness, and general misery that comes with his Heavenly Pact. Soldiering on, as if soldiering on has inherent value when it leads nowhere and accomplishes nothing. Never addressing the problem, or trying to find a way around it; simply rolling that boulder up the hill, grumbling all the way. She and the other Kyoto Students have this sense of treating their own misfortune as a badge of honor. To them, they’re justified and validated because they have experienced more than their fair share of suffering. They’re always eager to flaunt the crosses they have to bear.

Momo treats being a woman as a curse. Funny how that ties into the rest of the narrative, huh?

For Nobara, being a woman is not some great burden she has to live with. Being a woman in general and being Nobara Kugisaki in particular is something she revels in, and it’s just the fault of everyone else if they think otherwise.

Let’s talk about Nobara, and let’s not reduce her to her death scene. When we meet Nobara, she’s immersing herself in the Tokyo way of life after moving from the countryside to the big city. She encounters a sleazy talent agency recruiter who’s pestering women on the street with his hand-rubbing, obviously nefarious ways… only for Nobara to stop him, turn him around, and say, “What about me?” He gets intimidated, tries to run, and she drags him back. From her perspective, he should be happy to have her, and the fact he isn’t means he’s ignorant of her beauty and wit and needs to be corrected. If he won’t convert to Kugisakism, then her charms are wasted on him, and he’s doomed to the dim world that is Nobaralessness. When she meets Yuji and Megumi, she introduces herself with a line that’s translated into English as, “I’m the only woman in your group.” But from what I’ve been able to gather, her line in Japanese is, “I’m the red mark.” The phrase “red mark” can mean “the one who’s different from the others” — like the one girl in a group of boys — or it can mean “the one who stands out.” So you can also read it as her saying, “I’m the stand-out of the group.” Nobara Kugisaki, everybody.

If you want to talk about how literary circles analyze how women are writing, let’s leave the topics of fight outcomes and feats to one side. One thing you immediately look for is motivation. What’s motivating a character? This is important for how female characters are written, and especially in Shonen, which revolves so much around characters with some goal or belief that the story pursues through fights and other forms of adversity.

Now poorly-written women will tend to be motivated by men. They’ll be attracted to a man, or trying to support or protect a man, or trying to find a man. This by itself isn’t a death sentence for a woman’s characterization, but it is a red flag. It’s also not as if women have to never interact with or think about men to be well-written. It’s not an on-off switch, a bad writing-good writing switch. It’s a meter, like Mahoraga steadily adapting to a technique. Just a little bit is fine, and can be even turned into good writing in capable hands. But if it becomes too prevalent and is never examined, then you get a situation where a story’s women are not permitted lives outside of being in a male character’s orbit.

How do we gauge this? Well, there are lots of ways, but one of the more well-known and simple techniques is the Bechdel test. The name is derived from Alison Bechdel, feminist author who penned such classics as Dykes to Watch Out For. Bechdel proposed a simple litmus test for how to tell an author’s seriousness about writing women, and it goes like this: 1.) Look for scenes where women talk to each other. 2.) In those scenes, check for how often they’re talking about things besides male characters.

This isn’t the only way to tell if women are written well or not, and some will say it isn’t even the best way, but it’s a good foot in the door to get us thinking about what divides well-written female characters from poorly-written female characters. I’m not going to go back and scan through the whole manga just yet, but let’s look at some examples.

— The aforementioned conversation between Nobara and Momo, where the two pit their different view of what it means to be a woman and a sorcerer against one another. — Maki and Nobara talking to each other after the encounter with Mai and Todo. Curious by meeting Maki’s sister, Nobara talks to Maki a bit about their upbringing. Having gained more insights into Maki’s past and personality, Nobara leans on her and tells her how much she respects her. — Miwa and Mai discussing the upcoming Goodwill Event in a flashback. Mai tells Miwa that Maki is weak, which leaves Miwa unprepared for their fight. — Maki and Mai arguing and coming to terms with what drove them apart. Mai just wanted a peaceful life with Maki, but Maki couldn’t be happy and authentic with herself if she just left things the way they were. She was forced to choose between herself and Mai, and Maki chose herself, knowing that Mai would suffer and that she’d shoulder some of the guilt for that.

This indicates that GeGe found it important to divorce the identities of the female characters from male characters. And this holds true in what drives and motivates the female cast.

Nobara is motivated by her own goals. She hates the countryside, and she loves the city; becoming a sorcerer is a way she can make a lot of money, live in the city, and pursue the kind of lifestyle she values. She wants to be a true blue Tokyoite, wearing trendy clothes and eating crepes and taking selfies by the statue of Hachiko outside Shibuya Station. She’s not doing this to avenge her dead brother, she’s not doing this to find her father, she’s not searching for a strong man to sire strong children — yuck. Nobara has aesthetic values and strongly held beliefs, and becoming a sorcerer lets her pursue those values and beliefs.

And if you really want to analyze the action side of Jujutsu Kaisen as an indicator for how GeGe feels about female characters, consider how Nobara takes to sorcery like a fish to water. Both Megumi and Yuji have their own internal dilemmas with being a sorcerer, but not Nobara. In a series where mindset is so important, Nobara has the mindset. Uro describes the model sorcerer as having “no concern for others and an overwhelming sense of self.” There is no one with a more overwhelming sense of self than Nobara. She’s loud, opinionated, loves to argue, flaunts herself, and demands other people give her more than what they think she’s due. She’s narcissistic, but that faith in herself makes her mentally strong.

She lacks experience, but even then, she learns and grows rapidly through the series. Due to running out of nails to fend off cursed spirits during the first stretch of Fearsome Womb chapters, she invents Hairpin as a way to reuse nails she’s already launched and embedded in a surface. She manages to land a Black Flash during the tag team fight with Yuji, and it’s her oppressive use of Resonance on Eso and Kechizu that turns the tides — a tactic which required her to hammer nails into her own arm. She takes it on the chin and gets her brain rattled around in her skull during the fight with Haruta, but even while borderline unconscious and suffering from a concussion, she forces herself to keep him talking in hopes Nitta can escape and manages to get to her feet and keep fighting despite the total disorientation and inability to summon her strength. While she didn’t win the fight, she showed more fighting spirit than half of the male cast tends to, and I find it kind of gross that people will ignore all of that and mock someone who kept fighting against the odds. That’s like laughing at Mumen Rider when he’s hopelessly trying to fight Sea King even as his body is breaking. I don’t exactly see what about either case is so funny or worthy of ridicule.

Even in the showdown with Mahito, people always fixate on how she dies, but never consider what led to it. She crosses paths with Mahito, and even knowing from Yuji what he’s capable of, she goes in — partially because he hurt Yuji, her friend, and she wants to make him suffer for it. And her technique turns out to be a worst case scenario for Mahito. She’s hammering his clone with Resonance and sending the blowback to the original while he’s fighting Yuji, dividing his attention and weakening him. Her only mistake was chasing him down, and even then, this isn’t the story punishing her. It’s the story being consistent with who Nobara is. She’s got a dangerous enemy on the ropes, her pride is bruised after the fight with Haruta, and she has a chance to get vengeance on someone who’s hurt her friend while helping said friend in the process. If she hadn’t followed Mahito into the subway, then she wouldn’t be Nobara Kugisaki.

And in her final moments, Nobara achieves something that’s considered to be out of reach of most sorcerers. She dies content, with a smile on her face. Nobara may not have realized her potential to be a great sorcerer, but she got what she, personally, wanted. Sorcery was a means to an end, and she got to live the Tokyo life and meet interesting people that she considers her friends. She got to fill out that finite number of seats in her life, and even meet a few people who pulled up a chair when she didn’t expect it. In her words, “It wasn’t so bad.” Nobody else but Toji and Gojo have gotten to die this satisfied — Toji because Megumi had grown up free of the Zen’in curse, Gojo because he was authentic to himself right to the end and left it all on the field. Nobara was authentic to herself right to the end, and that’s worthy of high praise. If she is definitely dead and not coming back, then she managed to accomplish what it was she wanted before dying. Not many get that luxury in Jujutsu Kaisen. It hurts because I liked her and admired her and appreciate the way she was written, and her dying doesn’t make the value of her character disappear from the story entirely. It’s the character’s death, it’s everything that led to that death and what that death means to them and to those who are left behind. And if it’s manga that explore death, nobody does it better than GeGe Akutami.

Lots of people will point to an interview where GeGe said that Nobara was not originally considered part of the cast, and they’ll use that as evidence that secretly, GeGe’s a big stupid misogynist who hates women and likes killing them in stories and blah blah blah blah blah. You know, first of all, I doubt that the editor held a gun to GeGe’s head and said “Put in a female main character or die.” Secondly, if GeGe really didn’t care, Nobara would just be a two-dimensional copy of Sakura who dies in the first arc or two. GeGe would not have put in the effort to set her apart from other female leads, or given her so many stand-out moments, or given her such an interesting motivation and world view. In short, if GeGe didn’t want to write a female character, they’d do what Kishimoto did: write Sakura. But that comparison is a can of worms I’ll need to pry open another time.

To sum up for the time being, no, GeGe Akutami does not hate women. Losing a fight does not make a female character worthless, and does not indicate a disdain for them on the part of the author. I don’t know about you, but I don’t read Shonen just to see who punches harder. I want to see characters be challenged, sometimes fail, learn, grow, and overcome adversity — and it wouldn’t be adversity if all the characters I like win and survive easily. I love Kashimo and will continue to love Kashimo, and Kashimo being super ultra dead doesn’t change that.

Look out for Part 2, in which I’m going to unpack some really contentious stuff when it comes to challenges and female characters in Jujutsu Kaisen. We’re gonna talk about the concept of screen time, we’re gonna talk about subtext, we’re gonna talk about great expectations and the great unexpected in Jujutsu Kaisen, and we’re gonna talk more in-depth about the narrative outside the narrative of Jujutsu Kaisen in a vacuum. If your sense for danger is giving you a bad feeling about this, then it should be: we’re talking about that. Switch on your Anti-Gravity System, it’s going to get messy.

#jujutsu kaisen #literary analysis #analysis #jjk analysis #feminism #feminist literature #feminist literary analysis #nobara kugisaki #maki zenin #akutami gege

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desertleviathan · 18 days

Text

On the Company of Heroes

The Warrior of Light: Yo, I heard the Kobolds have summoned Titan. Or are preparing to summon Titan. Or summoned him briefly, dismissed him, and are about to summon him again after acquiring more crystals. Or summoned him, but he's chilling in an incorporeal state so that he can appear dramatically in a way that looks as though he's being summoned for the first time during the cutscene at the start of his instanced battle. It's... not super clear honestly. But what is clear is that somebody needs to do something about it. And I am recently employed as a Primal Slayer so, hey, I'm here to do the thing. Just point me in the right direction.

Wheiskaet: What?

WoL: Oh sorry, I guess it's been a while for you, hasn't it? I've been informed that you know a secret backdoor to the Kobolds' favorite Titan-Summoning Chamber. If you could just tell me where that is that would be excellent, please and thank you!

Wheiskaet: Now hold up there kid, I can't in good conscience send some novice adventurer off to die in battle with a Primal!

The WoL: I appreciate the concern, but for real, don't even worry about it. My axe is literally still hot from cleaving through Ifrit's torso. I should have mentioned that first, sorry! It was a pretty easy fight actually. Took like ten minutes, and more than half of that was waiting for the queue. So, uh, Titan? Just… show me where…

Wheiskaet: When me and my crew fought Titan back in the day we only pulled off a narrow victory by sacrificing countless fighters, literally grinding him to a halt with a mountain of our dead piled up around his big rocky feet.

The WoL: Really? I slew Ifrit backed up by only three random low-ranking Scions who were among the beaten and malnourished captives taken by the Amalj'aa. And we got it done without any casualties. Coincidentally, they're all three in much better shape now, and still available to help me with this. So. Where's Titan?

Wheiskaet: Oh. Uh. Well. We were simultaneously facing Leviathan on a second front…

The WoL: That sounds like a really raw deal, man! Just an absolute mess! Fortunately for all of us, the Sahagin won't get their shit together until Patch 2.2, and Leviathan is nowhere to be seen. Where. Is. Titan?

Wheiskaet: You don't understand, he emits a magical field that can steal your free will! It's a miracle that you got out of Ifrit's lair with your wits!

The WoL: Funny story! I'm one of a handful of individuals who are immune to that! The phenomenon isn't widely known, but it is thoroughly documented. My colleague here, a scholar of some renown who is apparently already known to you personally, and who carries her credentials as a certified Sharlayan master of Aetherology literally tattooed on her neck, can vouch for all of that.

Y'shtola: Hello! My associate is indeed immune to Tempering, as well as a skilled and accomplished fighter. These being the two primary credentials we sought for our new staff position of full-time Primal Killer. The individual standing before you is the most qualified candidate to be found in all of Eorzea, as I can attest to either from personal observation or from the testimony of my most trusted colleagues, depending on which of the three city states their journey began in. Where is Titan, please?

Wheiskaet: Listen. I believe that you both believe this rookie is some kind of badass. But a threat like Titan ain't for the untested.

The WoL: I appreciate the concern, I really do, but let's look at all the pieces in play here before we decide to label any of them useless. My understanding is that once a Primal is fully manifest, it can stay manifest so long as there's a power source. The big heap of earth crystals the Kobolds probably used to kindle him just catalyzed the process, but after that he can sustain himself by leeching aether directly from the land, corect?

Y'shtola: Oh, bravo! You actually listened to my lecture!

Wheiskaet: I guess that all checks out with what I know.

The WoL: So there are three possibilities. In the first one, Titan sucks up aether until he feels confident enough to just Juggernaut his way southwards, killing or tempering literally everyone he encounters until all of Vylbrand is a graveyard, pretty much unstoppable unless you use the kind of brutal sacrifice play the Company of Heroes had to resort to back in the day. And even that's no guarantee. But maybe, just maybe, the Thalassocracy will be able to leverage enough firepower to stop him before the body count gets too catastrophic.

Wheiskaet: (Nodding) Aye, that's what I expect will happen.

The WoL: The second possibility, and tactically the smartest move in my opinion, is where Titan just lurks in place and bleeds Vylbrand dry, winning a war of attrition while guarded behind the innumerable ranks of tempered fanatic Kobolds who are ready to turn the heavily-fortified maze-like tunnels of O'Ghomoro into a meat grinder that would make your last encounter with their God look like a little light sparring. Eventually he'll run out of juice, but by then he'll be so powerful that he can just Godzilla his way over to the mainland and resume feeding from there, practically invulnerable to any countermeasures that wouldn't be considered an Eighth Umbral Calamity in their own right, and leaving every place he goes a withered husk.

Wheiskaet: Huh. When you lay it out like that, it almost sounds inevitable.

The WoL: And the third possibility is that someone gets in there as soon as possible and puts Titan down before he can get too bloated with aether. This being the only possibility that doesn't lead to a mountain of Limsan corpses at best, or star-wide mass extinction event at worst.

Wheiskaet: Mm-hmm, I hear what you're saying and it does make sense. You've got a good head on your shoulders there. You'll make a fine commander some day.

The WoL: Thank you. So even if the third plan involves considerable risk for whoever pulls it off, if they succeed it avoids a tremendous amount of bloodshed. And if it fails… your top secret back door would still work for a second team, right? Or a third? Your secret door obviously isn't just a door. So it will still potentially be a sacrifice play, but channeling our forces through this specific vulnerability will keep the body count from growing quite as massive as it would be if we met Titan on the open field of battle.

Wheiskaet: So you guessed that the way in is an Aethernet Crystal, huh?

The WoL: If it was a physical passage, the Kobolds would have charted it and sealed it up ages ago, given how tunnels are pretty much their main deal. So now that we're on the same page… how do I get to Titan?

Wheiskaet: You don't.

The WoL: I don't?

Wheiskaet: No.

The WoL: Ok. New approach. What are we doing instead?

Wheiskaet: We?

The WoL: If the Company of Heroes is the only 'proven' anti-Titan force you trust, you're getting the band back together to handle this yourselves, right? Where do I enlist? It'll be… an honor, I guess, to fight alongside you.

Wheiskaet: Haha! Hah! Nah, no, definitely not! We're all super-duper retired from God Slaying. I'm head of security at this rich guy's beach house! I can't just take the day off!

The WoL: Wow. Ok. Congratulations. So will you tell Maelstrom HQ how they can access the secret back door, and send through their elite hand-picked team (that I'll almost certainly wind up leading)?

Wheiskaet: Why in the Hells would we do that?

The WoL: … Why indeed. What, then? Hold open auditions for Bad Enough Dudes until someone comes along who you think is sufficiently impressive? Even though the difficulty of the task will be ramping up the whole time you stall due to Titan gorging himself without pause?

Wheiskaet: Oh, finally an idea I can get behind! In fact, speaking of gorging, here you go…

The WoL: Is this… is this a fucking grocery list???

Wheiskaet: Aye! We're gonna have a picnic!

The WoL: Fine. Final new approach. I'm gonna kill this son of a bitch with my teeth, and hope that the taste of his blood triggers an Echo Vision that reveals how the secret door works.

Y'shtola: I'll hold his arms for you.

#ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #y'shtola rhul #wheiskaet #the company of heroes #titan #ffxiv 2.0 msq spoilers #I hate this arc more than just about anything else that's ever happened in this game #got to talking about it on a Discord today and had to take my rant elsewhere #because of Discord Post text size limits lmao

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