#fuller house spoilers

[cathchicken]

Be nice!! He is going through puberty!!! /lh

[misguidedasgardian]

The Hour of the Wolf (4)

IV. It is you

MASTERLIST

Summary: Pressures makes wind, earthquakes, and marriages

Pairing: Cregan Stark x Targaryen!Reader

Warnings: Cursing, war, death, mentions of killings, genocide and war, threats,arranged marriage, SPOILERS for ASOIAF, and Fire & Blood, also, might spoil House of the Dragon, 

+18, MINORS DNI

Wordcount: 3.8 k 

Notes: I don;t think this is going to be a love story, this is about politics, and a truly arranged marriage, their relationship will develop of course, but I just wanted to get that out there

“You have done a great job with her”, Cregan raised his eyes to encounter the mythical Jeyne Arryn, cousin to the late Queen Aemma, keeper of the East, Lady of the Eyrie, they both contemplated you as you sat the Iron Throne and gave audiences

“I have done nothing, it’s all her”, he said severely

“You are good with her, for her”, she said then, looking at him with her piercing blue eyes

“I know what you are implying…”

“She needs a husband”, she said

“You should stay here in court, as her hand when I leave”, he said almost at the same time

“You can’t leave her”

“I have to, I have a child…”

“She needs you, the realm needs you”

“The North needs me, she will be fine”

“You know that is not true, she is still too young to differ allies from foes”

“She will learn”

“At the cost of the realms”, Cregan Stark looked at her severely, but he had met her equal, this woman was not going to back down

“What about my son? What about my people? How is that going to work?”, he asked then

“You can come and go”

“A year at a time”

“Maybe”, she said. The small council had been relentless, just as Jeyne was being 

His name was in that alliance

He pledged to take you to wife, you, in name, regardless of who you had become… you were his betrothed. And it’s not like he gave his word lightly, only, like he said, he need a wife and a lady of Winterfell, he did not want to become the King consort of the Seven Kingdoms, he did not want to take care of you… forever…

But he had taken the capital for you

Yes he promised your mother…

But he had done it for you, an unknown princess, on his mind

He found himself looking straight at you

Like the first time he saw you, he thought, again, you were the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Since he took the capital, color had returned to your face, you no longer had darkness under your eyes, your cheeks were fuller, you also filled your dresses more, meaning you were eating more, sleeping longer…

You were better

His eyes then trailed over all the faces of the Lords gathered there in the throne room, lickspittles, asskissers, many of them, without honor, just hunger for power and gold

Did he really care for what happens to the people of the other six Kingdoms? Were you really in danger? Kings had been surrounded by traitors all their lives and nothing major had happened…

Well… until Otto fucking Hightower

No, he couldn’t let that happen again

He thought he only wanted to bring justice to the traitors, but it wasn’t true, he cared about what happened

He cared about what happens to you…

The realization made him shift on his feet

He cared about you 

He did not want you to get married to someone who was going to please the small council and take your place eventually, who was going to manipulate you or worse

He didn’t want you married to someone who…

No… he just didn’t want you married to anyone else… that’s it

The bare thought made him shiver

You felt yourself being watched intensely, and found Cregan Stark’s eyes

You felt your cheeks heated, as you looked away like a little girl who had been caught doing something silly 

You were only a young woman, barely turned eight and ten name days

And Cregan was only a young man who had the power of the biggest country in the seven kingdoms and wanted to use it to avenge his Queen

He was himself impulsive, reckless even, maybe the rest saw him like the greatest choice, but he knew the truth

He wasn’t

What if he tipped you off a ledge? What if he sets you off resulting in the destruction of cities and the annihilation of thousands?

And yet…. He was the only one you trusted

Months on the road, maybe years away from you, years away from his home, his child… There must always be a Stark in Winterfell

But when he leaves you to be in Winterfell, he was going to wish he was in King’s Landing, and when he is here, he wishes he could be in Winterfell, he was already missing it, he wanted to see his son, his five year old son, he had left him in good hands, with his loving half sister, and trusted friends and servants… but still

He was so small, he had it when he was so young, the only thing he had left of his dear friend Arra

If he married you… if…

He was going to give you children, his child, second child, was going to sit the Iron Throne one day… and his oldest was going to be Lord of Winterfell

That was… enticing, to say the least

Too good to be true….

Having children with you, a thought that enticed and scared him in equal measure

A child of Ice and Fire, a child who was going to be a Northerner by blood and a dragon rider as well…

He shifted on his feet again

He wanted it

And he could pretend he had a choice all he wanted, but he didn’t… he had signed the pact… the woman… the Queen seated in the Iron Throne…

Was his betrothed

It didn’t have to be two months, a week long boat ride to White harbor and another week on the road and he could be home quickly…

It had to work

Did you want this?

He gave you the service of ending the courts early, and then you abandoned the throne room.

But before he could reach you, he was intercepted by Celtigar

“I need to talk to you”, he said, Cregan only nodded as they walked together to a hallway of the Keep which seemed to be empty

“What is it?” He asked, his patience long gone

“I can marry her”, he said quickly

Cregan stopped in his tracks, and frowned

“You trust me, don’t you?”, he asked when he saw his face

“yes, but…”

“I can get you out of the pact… if she is the one to accept”

He should be relieved, he should have said yes immediately, but the thought of you marrying someone else… he didn’t like it.

Not that he didn’t trust his friend, he did, he was the best choice according to him, the day before he had offered himself, the thing is… he had changed in the last 24 hours… 

He wanted it, you, the seat at your side, the children you were going to give him…

But he wouldn’t even accept it himself, this was deep inside of him, he wanted to protect you, none of those southerners had what it took, only him, he didn’t trust anyone else, not really 

Only him…

“My name is in those papers”, he growled

“But perhaps if I speak to her, began to court her…”

“I’ll talk to her”, he cut him 

“I really think I should be the one…”, with only one look Cregan makes his friend stop speaking. He had just realized what he truly wanted to do, and he did not need to be contradicted now. “You are marrying her, aren’t you?”, he said, a smile sneaking on his friend’s face

“I don’t know yet, I don’t want to pressure her”, Celtigar only hummed

“I want to marry her too”, he said then. Cregan looked at his friend and he understood him, he was challenging him…

“May the best man win her affections then”, Cregan said.

He was not going to lose

And as he walked away Celtigar only smiled, having pushed his friend in the right direction by only pretending to want your hand in marriage

Cregan had asked Lord Redwyne for help and together they had set you up with young ladies, that shared your age, your ladies in waiting as it were. But instead he found you alone in the Red Keep garden, walking and escorted by one of your white cloaks

“What happened with your ladies in waiting?”, he asked point blank as he approached you, the lack of property, referring to you not as “your grace”, and it made your guard almost wince  

“I send them on their way”, you said simply, leaning in to smell a beautiful flower, barely acknowledging him

“I don’t want you to be lonely”, he said gently, you raised your eyes to look at him 

“yes, I know but they are so… vain… “this lord looked at me”, or “have you seen the dress she was wearing…”, Cregan only smiled condescendingly at you, “and I…”

“You are thinking about the wellness of millions”, he said, “concerned about the future of the entire realm, I understand”

“I understand the need to be distracted for a while, but…”, he only nodded

“I understand”, he said shortly

“Why are you here?”, you asked, nervous, he didn’t understand the change in your dynamic, you had felt confident and calm enough to cry in front of him, but now you were evading his gaze, and shifting in your feet in nerves

In your mind was a bit more clearer

You realized you liked him, you found yourself feeling butterflies in your belly when you saw his handsome face, and you wanted to punch yourself, for being so childish, you were not a young girl in front of her knight in shining armor, you were a Queen now, he was your hand, your advisor, and the head of one of the most important houses on the entire realm.

But you felt your legs shake, and your breath caught in your throat every time you saw him approach you

And every time he was near, you wanted him to stay near you, you felt your chest strangle your heart each time he walked away from you.

Gods this was strange even for you

“I want to ask you something”, he said slowly, you looked at him then, concerned 

“You are leaving”, you said.

You were not an idiot, you knew he had a son, he was the Lord of Winterfell, he needed to rule his home. You couldn’t expect of him to stay here forever 

That took him by surprise

“No”, he said softly

“But you have to go one day, don’t you?”

“That is what I wanted to talk about”, he said softly, your attention was on him then, you tried to pull on those dark feelings that would make you mad at him when he did decided to leave, he could not see that wide-eyed little girl who had a crush on him, not now, and you will not beg when he tells you it was going to be time for him to return home…

“... the marriage offers”, you were lost for a second but that certainly brought you back to attention

“Uh?”, you asked

“You had been offered several hands of many lords over these past few days”

“Did the small council put you up to this?”, you asked, bored

“You need to get married”, he said severely, “we need to make your family strong again, you need to settle your line…”

“I understand”, you said, looking down. You knew he had signed a pact to marry you, but you also did not want to hold him to it, there were different times, it was naive for you to think he was going to hold up his part, he had done enough already 

“A marriage is also an alliance”, he continued, “you need someone who will help you and guide you, but not manipulate you…”

You only nodded

“A strong person, with a powerful family name…”

“If you say Tyland Lannister I swear…”, he chuckled, and shook his head

“No…”, he said. He then stopped all his movements, you felt his gaze on you, so you stopped as well and raised your head and eyes to look at him, “who do you want?”, he asked then

“I’m not sure”, you said, but you did… you wanted him

For the doubt in your mind made him question his own decision. He thought you were going to name him, but you were truly doubtful

You didn’t think he was an option

“I don’t know any of those men”, you said then in a whisper 

“You know some…”, he tried, you looked at him

He felt even guilty for wanting it

He gave in to his deepest desire, of power and lust.

“Yes you are right”, you whispered, looking away from him again, “I just…. need to think this through”, you said with a low voice, you wanted to end this chat

But he didn’t, he needed you to say it

He had heard the small council ask him to, he had heard Lady Jayne Arryn… but he needed to hear it from you.

“There must be someone in your mind”, he said softly, with a gentle, soothing voice

“There was”, you admitted

“Talk to me, I’m your hand”, he continued, “I am here to advice you���

“Until you leave me”, you say then, without thinking, it was barely a whisper

So that’s it, he thought, you resented him for even the mere thought of him abandoning you

“I can come back”, he said then, with a hint of amusement on his voice 

You only hummed, you didn’t believe him, and you were going to feel terribly lost without him, again, alone, like you had been before he saved you…. before he took the city in your name and put you on the throne

He did all of that

There was nobody else you wanted by your side but him

You shared a longing look, a long gaze

What did he want? you asked yourself. He looked like he wanted to listen to you but also to speak, at the same time. You didn’t know what else to say

“What does that mean?”, you asked then. He sighed, loudly

“I signed a pact…”, he said

“Yes, my brother offered my hand in marriage in exchange for your allegiance and your swords”, you said lowly

“No”, he answered back, you looked at him intently, “he asked for my loyalty, he had it already, but he negotiated our union for the simple fact he was scared of something befalling you, he wanted to send you North under my protection to keep you safe from harm, from the war, and from the Greens”

Ah yes, safe from Aemond and Aegon

“That sounds like my brother”, you said, melancholy tainting your voice 

“He wanted to keep you safe”

“In more than one way you had kept your promise”, you assured him, “you took the city, took control…”

“I did”, he said softly, “for you”

“You are going to put a crown in my head”, you said

“In three days”, he said then, “and then you should announced your betrothal”

“I don’t have one”

“You do”, he said finally, his eyes, piercing eyes bore into yours, he dwarfed you in size, and even though he had left his fur cloak behind… he still look big and imposing

“Cregan…”, you called

“Say it”, he encouraged 

“You signed the pact…”, you said.

As you looked at him, you grew angry

What did he want from you? to beg? you didn’t even know. He had signed that past, to marry you one day, and yet, he dodged that part at every turn, he needed to return home, you understood that he had a son, a little boy who needed his father, so why was he here? talking to you in this way? 

“You promised to marry me”, you said softly, he barely nodded, his eyes looking intently at you, “but I understand…”, he frowned then, and you started walking away from him. Letting him standing in the garden

You called in a small council meeting, on your own accord

They were right, you needed to make your family bigger and stronger…

“I called in this meeting because I have to make a demand”, you said firmly, your small council looking amongst each other, Cregan was silent, playing with the dragon eye in front of him

“Tomorrow the Barahteon will present themselves to me, and I want to tell you my intentions so you’ll be prepared”, you said firmly, “It is to my understanding that princess Jahaera, daughter of Aegon the Usurper, is still in Storm’s End…”

“As a guest”, said lord Lannister

“As a hostage”, you said then, “It is to my understanding that she was on her way here, when Aegon was poisoned”, you said softly, “I know because it was discussed at the dinner table in front of me, yet, she is not here, I understand they are trying to keep her safe as some sort of leverage, but…”, you continued, and then you soften your gaze, “I want her here, she is a little girl, a Targaryen, daughter to my lovely aunt Helaena, and she should be with me and Aegon, with family”, you said softly

“Your grace is most graceful”, muttered the Maester, the others murmured their affirmations

“Tomorrow I will demand of the Baratheons to bring little Jahaera back to me, when she is here, we will betrothed her to Aegon, to finally solidify the family and end this madness”, yous aid with a soft smile

Aemond, Aegon, Alicent and Otto are and will burn in hell

But not Helaena and her children

She was an angel, so were the little boys that lost her lives

Jahaera was the only one left, you owe it to Helaena to keep her safe

After the affirmation and support of your small council, you walked towards your little brother’s chambers

He had become so quiet and sad, which was expected, but still, you tried to keep his mind busy, you would put Septas and maesters to teach him and accompany him, at all ours, soon, one of your King’s guards will teach him the art of the sword.

Now you make sure to sit and dine with him

Even though he barely spoke

“Jahaera will come to court soon”, you whispered to him as you served yourself a cup of wine

“Who was Jahaera?”, he asked innocently, of course he didn’t remember 

“Helaena’s child”, you said, “she is your age, you can have fun together”

“Oh”, it's the only thing he said, while continue to have little pieces of bread and meat 

“Maybe one day you can get married”, you said lightly

“When are you getting married?”, he asked then and made you laugh

“Soon, but I don’t know with whom!”, you said as it was a joke, it was sad that it was true

“Marry Cregan”, he said simply

“WHy?”, you asked him, amazed

“I see the way he looks at you”, he said simply

“How does he look at me?”, you asked him

“As papa looked at mama”, he said, and you got quiet

“He has to go back North”, yous aid lightly

“You can command him to stay, you are the Queen”, he said, still not looking at you

“If I only command without listening to reason I’m a Tyrant”, you said softly, “not a queen”

“He wants to stay”, he said

“I don’t know if he does, you know Northerners don’t fare well here in the south”, you joked 

“Command him”, he insisted

“Aren’t you a little tyrant?”, you teased, reaching over the table and tickling his side until he squealed in a laugh

But gods if that made you think…

“He looks at you they way papa looked at mama”

Daemon Targaryen wasn’t much of a communicative man, he didn’t need to speak, it was all in his eyes…

He could make men tremble with just his gaze, he could make his children giggle with a wink, and he could make your mother swoon with that sparkle in his eyes.

Even little Aegon could tell 

Even if the nannies took control over your little brother, you were by his side until he fell asleep, and then you went to your own room

You served yourself a cup of wine, another cup of wine.

“Call in Lord Stark please”, you asked Eryk, and he nodded and went to fulfill your requirement 

It was inappropriate, to say the least, to summon a man to your chambers at this late… but you needn't to worry about such matters… Or you did

Your brother was right, you were a Queen, you had to begin to act like one 

Cregan foud you seated by the fire, in a relaxed stance, with a goblet of wine in your hand

“Your grace”, he greeted, he seemed serious, but you believed you found a glint in his eye… you were started to get to know him and his facial expressions, as cold as they may seem

“My Lord Hand”

“You will summon me and believe me, I will attend to your calling, but I must say, if someone sees me coming into your chambers at the hour of the owl, where we are going to be alone…”

“I’m aware”, you said, smiling at him

“What do you need?”, he asked gently, with a smirk on his lips

“Today in the garden…”, you started, “you mentioned the pact you sign”

“Yes I did”, he said

“Why?”, you asked him

“Why?”, he asked back

“Why would you bring it up?”, you asked again, “it seems that you do not intent to honor it”, he got quiet then, analyzing you

“I meant…”

“There is no one else…”, you said, “it is you”, you looked up at him, your eyes sparkling. He softened his gaze

“Is that a command?”, he asked, amusement in his voice, it was like he was playing a game.

“Marry me”, you said, “honor the pact of Ice and Fire… you can come back home, on the condition of course that you come back…”

“To you”, he said

“To me”, you agreed. “Everyone will be at ease, well, except for the Hightowers, when you sit at my side in the throne…”, you said, he barely nodded, still smiling 

“I don’t think so…”, he said finally, you stopped all your movements, was he rejecting you? he was not going to marry you? you had to command him, if he refused, you could fall through, you couldn’t make a man marry you… you started feeling ashamed of even summoning him here… you were starting to feel like an idiot

He turned his back to you and went to the small table in the corner and served himself a goblet of wine.

“I think they will feel threatened..”, he continued, you smiled then, taking a breath you didn’t know you were holding, “you and me together…”, he continued, taking a sip, “soon they’ll realize… the dragon and the wolf sat together… and they are all sheep”

You both smiled widely at each other 

this is the vibe I was going for jajaja

Cregan is... complex... everyone wanted a tougher Cregan, i'm giving a gray one. He has ambitions, and wants power, and he is not indiferent to us, the beautiful young Queen... of what I read about Cregan, it is what I perceive... anyways... hope you like... maybe I moved it a bit too quickly but I want to get to the good part

taglist! ❤️

@lyannesworld @tremendouswolfsaladranch @unlesshouse @mimsie95 @ostricx @amelia262006 @marihoneywk @ahristata @happinessinthebeing @dd122004dd

@lyannesworld @aestmilky @lightdragonrayne @delaynew @mxtokko @stargaryenx @lightdragonrayne @delaynew @mxtokko @good-night-starlight @yentroucnagol @beebeechaos 

[queers-gambit]

Bloodhounds

prompt: you and your husband have a different kind of foreplay that include disguises, sneaking out of the castle, and sometimes, fucking in an alleyway... Or two.

pairing: Aemond Targaryen x highborn!female!reader no specified House

fandom masterlist: House of the Dragon

word count: 5.7k+

note: also NO physical description of skin, hair, but height IS mentioned inna way and weight IS insinuated because - let's face it - fucking against a wall ain't easy!! this is a STAND ALONE.

warnings: poor excuse for smut, explicit / descriptive language, i guess this is porn with a plot?? (surprise!) there's cursing, Cherry needs to get laid ASAP, stop giving her internet access!! half-edited, author mildly gave up. ✅ spoiler free

"My Lady, how go your studies? Aemond says you're making grand progress," Alicent smiled, leaning back in her high-back chair with a goblet of wine in her always-tight manicured grip.

"Oh," you quickly swallowed the bit of food in your mouth, perfectly trained to take small bites for moments such as these - but also, because it was 'unladylike' to eat with fuller cheeks. With a quick dab of the cloth napkin left on your lap, you nodded at her, "My Lord husband likes to exaggerate. Studies are going well enough, My Queen, but surely, I've much farther to go."

She hummed in contemplation, "From what I've heard, you're planning a trip to Pentos?"

Ah, so this is the reason she wanted you alone.

"I am wrestling with the idea, Lady," you assured softly, "yet, there has been no decision made, nor am I swaying any which way more heavily." You watched her carefully, "You have an opinion on the matter, do you not?"

"How can I not, sweet child," she sighed, setting her goblet down as you did the same to the utensils in hand, "when there is a possibility my son is leaving?"

You couldn't help it, truly. But the laugh was genuine, "My Queen! There is not a world in which I would dare take your son from you. If I decided to venture to Pentos, it will not be with my white-haired husband and his 180-year-old dragon. That warrants attention I do not wish for."

"You are a Targaryen now - "

"I do not look it," you nodded. "I have a no-name face and can still travel undetected. Your son cannot afford the same luxury."

"And yet, I cannot shake this feeling..."

"That feeling you feel is natural for every mother," you nodded, taking a sip of water to clear your mouth and throat of residue. "It is the dread that your children are growing up and will leave, like you were forced to as a girl." Her face was painted in earnest shock. "Do not think so little of me, Your Grace, I've done my fair share of familial research - but also, the maids like to gossip." Alicent chuckled some. "I am truly sorry for your mother, and that you had to leave home to live with your father here... But there will come a time your kids are going to spread their leathery wings and fly. If it's something I've learned in the few, short years of marriage? You cannot hold dragons back. Believe me when I say, I do not want to take your son from you, but should he make his decision, that's only his to make. For now, I am simply weighing pro's and con's. The idea of adventure is a little too tantalizing."

Alicent regarded you for a long moment before slowly nodding, "Then it shall be his decision."

"If you'd like, if I go and end up in Braavos or other, I'll send a barrel of spiced wine."

"Oh, you," she chuckled, waving you off some.

"How fairs the King?"

Alicent paused to smile softly at the woman she married her son to, and for a moment, let her heart beat with pride at such a fine young woman joining her family. Y/N L/N was a woman of great beauty and even greater brains, a woman her son could engage with; a woman she was pleased to see fit in effortlessly. There wasn't a single soul in the entire castle who did not like her - and it came in handy at times.

Y/N was also the only one who ever bothered to ask about Viserys anymore, too. So, Alicent smiled and nodded, "He has his good days and bad."

You nodded slowly. "I remember when my grandfather started to lose his mind... It was gradual, then one day, it was like a switch flipped. For the last few years of his life, he didn't know who I was, but with Mum and Da' out, workin', doin' whatever they needed to, I was with him day in and out... It wasn't easy."

"You've never spoke of your family before," Alicent sat up in intrigue. "Three years being married, six months of courting before that - and you've never spoke of them," Alicent looked at you with a sense of wonder.

"Some family's aren't worth the effort to discuss," you shrugged a bit. "The moment you sent word for the courting season, away I was swept, and my father was adamant on making a match. Can you imagine how happy he was to learn I was courting the Prince?"

"Was he?" Alicent asked softly, giving a knowing look.

"He kept asking if it were true, and asked if his dragon took his eye," you snickered to her. "Kept asking what rumors were true."

"Gods," she chuckled.

"I told him outlandish things," you admitted with a snicker. "He caught on eventually, cursed me to all Seven Hells... Stopped writing, and then word reaches me of his passing. Hm," you shrugged a bit.

"Well, you're better off without, yes?"

"Indeed, I'd say... Look, Your Grace, I have not made any decision about my travels. As of right now, I'm okay reading my books and letting my mind go on adventures - I will tell you when I have made a decision."

"All right..."

"You will be the second to know, after Aemond, of course."

She smiled, "Yes, yes. Of course."

You glanced out the window to the sun's position, finding it nearly completely gone, and turned to your mother-by-law. "Speaking of, I'm sure he's expecting me soon. I'll be going now," you stood slowly, waiting for her to stop you.

"Of course, yes, yes, go on," she smiled. "Thank you for tonight."

"Always my pleasure," you promised with a curtesy, turning after, and exiting the room. "Have a good evening, Ser Cole."

"And you, Princess," he nodded with a soft smile. "Good supper?"

"Oh, you know I have a love-affair with Chef Hayford's cooking," you chuckled, watching him return it with a nod of agreement.

Turning forward, you only had to travel a short way; mostly turning down three different stone corners to reach a more secluded hallway. Aemond preferred solitude, so, when you married, you snagged up the suite in the Western Wing that was newly renovated - but it was "sadly" away from most of the castle's traffic. So, of course it was perfect for the pair of you.

When you slipped in the door, Aemond was standing at the basin of water, shirtless, leaning heavily on the stone and wiping the back of his neck while lost in thoughtful contemplation.

"Aemond?" You questioned softly, shutting the door, and rushing for him. "Are you all right?" When in the light, you saw the discoloration of his skin, whispering, "Oh, my love..."

"It's not so bad," he answered in the same lowered tone.

"Liar."

"No, truly, it's not the worst I've had," Aemond straightened up, looking down at you with a soft smirk. "Hi, poppet."

"Hi," you smiled, letting him lean down some as you rocked to your toes to kiss him in greeting. "How was your day?"

"Cole was brutal in training, but it was good," he nodded, dropping the washcloth after wringing it out. "And yours, my love?"

"Well... Your mother's caught rumor of our plans..."

"What's that mean?"

"She directly asked if I mean to go to Pentos and if I mean to take you with me, as if to take you away from her."

"Gods," his eyes rolled, "swear, the walls have ears in this place."

"Tell me of it," your eyes rolled. "I think she's off the scent for now, but we should be more diligent and a little more careful..."

"Hmm," he considered, nodding after. "Yes, love. Right, then."

"Are you hungry?"

"I could eat."

"How about at Kavvin's?"

"In the city?"

You nodded with a grin, "Feelin' up for a game, love?"

Aemond turned to you fully, hands on your hips and a grin on his lips. "Yeah... Yeah, yeah, I could go for something to eat."

"Start there, then," you whispered.

"You've the time it takes me to clean up and change to get out of here," he smirked, forehead on yours.

You dashed around the room to change into a tunic, trousers, boots, and a thick muted-color cloak. Aemond chuckled to himself as you blew him an air kiss before sneaking through secret passage door... And away you went.

Once out of the Keep's grounds, it was easy enough to lose yourself in the city's streets; but kept to the plan and made for Kavvin's tavern. You slipped in and made quick work of finding the young lad, working on sopping up a puddle of ale, and dashing over to him.

"Princess," he chuckled some, eyeing you up and down. "What's it for you tonight, then?"

"Send him down the Street, I wanna see how far he'll go," you smirked some, squeezing his elbow as you slipped him a Gold Dragon as a tip.

"All right," he shrugged. "Want a drink while you wait?"

"Oh, please, you and I both know that man takes the longest fucking strides in the bloody Realm," you laughed a bit, Kavvin nodding in agreement. "If I want to win, I've gotta go."

"Back door's open," he smirked, pointing you off.

In fact, he had to restrain a laugh when not a full five minutes later, Aemond was stalking into the tavern - eye sweeping the area. He decided that for tonight, he was on your side, and made himself busy with other customers to stave off telling Aemond anything.

However, nobody flagged Kavvin down when they noted the hooded man with one eye stalk up to him.

"My Prince," Kavvin greeted softly, tossing the cloth he was using over his shoulder. "You're out late, aren't you?"

"Hardly," Aemond sighed some.

"Well, you will be," the lad smirked.

"Where's she off to?"

Kavvin shrugged, and Aemond slapped a Gold Dragon to his hand. "Uh, think she made mention of... Well, now that I think on it, 's a bit fuzzy, yeah?"

"Where, Kavvin?" Aemond growled, another coin dropped to his hand.

"Hm, yes," he examined the coin, "think she said something about goin' off down the Street, yes?"

"No, she didn't."

"Swear it, honest," Kavvin nodded. "Said she wanted to see how far you'd go tonight. You do somethin' to piss her off, mate?"

"Not that I'm aware of - though, she might think 'twas I who told the Queen of our plans."

"Well, that makes little sense," Kavvin chuckled, "for even I know, the idea to leave this wretched city was your own..."

"She's an easier scape goat for the courts and help to gossip about," Aemond frowned a bit. "The Street, you said?"

"Street of Silk," Kavvin agreed softly, offering a coin back, "honest, that's where she said she was headin'."

Aemond nodded and turned, leaving the bartender with his hand extended; but it quickly recoiled with a smirk as Aemond took leave. After a chuckle, Kavvin thumbed the coin to flip in the air; catching it in a swipe, then turning as he pocketed his extra coins as a few men grew louder and sloshed ale around - leaving Kavvin in for a long night tending his bar.

The Street of Silk was alive tonight, as it was all other nights. Lowly lit torches hung on the walls lined your way; most wearing hoods and darkened colors to hide themselves. Whores and Mistresses hung out of doorways and windows; hollering, snarling, laughing at any passing customer.

You didn't often dare to venture down this way, but tonight was special; you were in it to win. So, you ducked down a darkened alley and knocked three times, in a specific pattern, at the wooden door.

A moment later, it pulled open.

"What're you doin' here?" Tiyana smirked to you, leaning on the doorway. "My brithday or sum'thin'? Here ta treat me, is it?"

"Not tonight, my sweet," you smirked. "Carry a message for me?"

"To who?"

"My husband."

"Ain't no way," she shrugged. "He don't come down this way, no, ma'am. Ain't nobody seen the One-Eyed Prince 'round these parts since - well..."

"Yeah, yes, yes, I know. But he'll come this way, and I need you to catch his eye. Tell him to go by the markets."

"Oh - I get it," she laughed. "You two playin' that game, innit? Yeah? You two li'l freaks, is it?"

"A bit," you mused softly. "Will you do as I've asked?"

"Gonna come back and entertain me a bit?"

Your head cocked, eyeing her up and down, "Perhaps - though, my husband is often insatiable."

"Say that like I haven't eaten his cum out your cunt before, hey?" She smirked. "All right, yeah, fine, I'll tell 'im if he comes ta see me, yeah?"

"You're my favorite for a reason," you smirked, holding your hand out.

"Lady," Tiyana gasped, weighing the gold in her hand. "Th-This is more than I make inna month, it is! What'chu givin' it ta me for?"

"You've always been loyal and discreet," you eased. "Don't fail me tonight, love."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she grinned. "You're a right Gods-sent Lady, you is. I'll tell yah husband what you want - markets, you said?"

"Yeah, the market stalls," you nodded. "Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, 'course," she smirked, nodding as you pushed off again into the city's streets.

This time, Aemond was slower to arrive on scene. He stood at the mouth of the rambunctious street, eyeing it with malcontent, but something in his stomach solidified and moved him forward. Bad thoughts and haunting memories swarmed Aemond's guts and mind, but still, he let his feet glide down the natural decline.

His eye surveyed the promiscuous activities around him, finding it would be the perfect place to catch you - but then, someone else was catching his eye.

She leaned in a low-bearing window, tits nearly fully popping out of her shirt; eyes rimmed in coal, and hair pulled off her neck. Her eyes ran over his hood and then noted the lack of an eye, motioning him forward. He didn't want to; there had been many who gestured to him all night, but for some reason, this was different... He glanced around, then moved forward.

"She's been to see you, Tiyana?"

"Not without you, Lord," the whore smirked, sitting herself on the window sill. "She's very loyal, that one."

"Being why you're helping her?"

"I'm helpin' yah both!" She laughed. "I want you both ta get laid, hey? So, listen, right? She went down that way," she pointed, "but said meet her in the markets?"

Aemond paused, lifting his gaze slowly. "Down that way?" He asked, pointing down the alley.

"Mhm - took a left, down there," Tiyana pointed, leaning out of the window a bit. "Can I ask something?"

Aemond sighed, glancing around them to the bustle of the drunken crowd. "Sure, what is it?"

"Why's it you two do this? Hey? Just wonderin' - life so bloody boring, you two need sex games?"

Aemond smirked a bit, "More like... We prefer to keep things interesting. You find new ways to get the blood pumping."

"I know a few ways," she smirked.

"I know," he whispered in agreement. "But you know the agreement - not without my wife."

"Wasn't tryna persuade yah, Princey, just wonderin' why yah's do this," she smirked.

"Keeps things... Fresh."

"Hmm," she nodded.

"Think a hunter and prey, yes?"

Tiyana grinned, "Ah, yes, there it is - yeah. All right, fair enough, my Prince. She went that way, but said markets."

"You're a hidden gem," Aemond smirked some, dropping more coins in her hand.

"And you two are me favorite customers," she winked. "Go on, get goin', she's waitin' on yah out there! Fuck 'er good for me, lad! Hey-hey!" She laughed loudly as Aemond pushed off, heading down the alley he was pointed towards.

Slowly, the sounds of the city fell behind him and Aemond noted the way this path took him closer to the water-ways. With a small smirk, he made a judgement call and ducked down a different alley; peering around to slink in the darkness.

Like a bloodhound on the scent after a weakening deer, the pair of you danced around one another; where one ducked into an alley, the other was tip-toeing away. He grew tired of waiting and decided to look around the market like you had said.

It was there in the maze of market stalls that you saw him, smirking as you quickly exchanged your cloak for a different colored one. From there, you picked up an abandoned basket and slunk around the outskirts of the stalls. You kept an eye on Aemond, moving when he did; keeping distance between you but feeling a little frisky.

So, you took a risk, and casually strolled by him as if intent on picking from the plum cart.

He didn't notice you; your eyes watching from under the hood as his tall figure allowed him to peer over heads. Again, you ducked around the few carts and stalls, just watching him for another moment.

Then, you ventured close to the apples... And again, Aemond was too busy glaring at a man who bumped into his shoulder to notice. You took another risk, and dared asking the vendor a question - voice clear on the air. Still, he did not notice.

After another few minutes of watching him turn in confusion, wondering where you could've gone, Aemond started towards the closest tavern - thinking maybe you were hidden in plain sight.

How right he was, but unknowing.

You crept around, exchanging your cloak again before jogging after your husband. However, when you peaked around the doorway of the tavern, you noticed how the white-haired man you loved and adored had effortlessly melted into the crowd, and now, you were back at a disadvantage.

Learning from past mistakes, you quickly turned and let your legs pump with effort to rush away from the markets.

Around a few corners and down two alleyways, you were arriving at the bay port - but only had a moment to recognize your surroundings before a hand clamped over your mouth as another quickly coiled around your middle to pin your arms.

You gasped into the calloused hand, feeling the strong chest slam into your back before forcing you back a few steps. With gritted teeth, you were slammed into the stone wall of one of the darkened alleyways. However, your eyes settled on your 'attacker' and quickly slitted. "Husband," you identified.

"Wife," Aemond smirked. "You're getting predictable, love."

"How'd you know?"

He shrugged, "I felt your eyes on me in the markets and figured I could blend in at the tavern. From there, I knew you'd follow to keep an eye on me, so, I waited, and when I saw you rush away, I took a shortcut."

"Mhm," you hummed, lifting your chin as he leered over you. "I did learn something tonight."

"What's that, my darling?"

"You blend in rather effortlessly when your hair's covered," you muttered as he slowly stepped closer so you were nearly cowering into the brick behind you. "Might do us well, after all... Should we choose to leave..."

Aemond's one hand rose to hold your jaw as the other planted against the wall to corral you to him. "You say that as if my mind's changed."

"Has it?"

"Not in the slightest," he promised, petting his thumb over your lips to catch the bottom one. "Where you go, I go, and away from this wretched fucking city is where I want us to be."

"You'd leave them?" You asked with a smirk. "Leave your family? For me?"

"For my own family?" He corrected, nodding, "Yes, I would've left yesterday if I knew."

"How fucked everything has become?" You whispered sadly, lifting a hand to pet down his collarbone and rest against his pectoral.

"Something like that," he nodded, lifting a knee to separate your legs. "You'd go with me? When the time comes, you'd go with me?"

With a sigh, you nodded, trying not to grind down on his thigh. "Anywhere, my Prince - anywhere you want, we'll go."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," you all but whimpered as the hand that once caressed your skin then moved to a bruising grip around your neck.

"Hold still," he nodded, "I won, yes?"

"Mhm."

"Then hold still while I claim my prize," he smirked, yanking his dagger from under his cloak and slowly dragging the pointed tip down your stomach. He didn't press hard, instead, dragging it between your skin and the cloth of your trousers. "Good girl," he crooned as he let the dagger's blade slit the seam of your pants.

"Aemond," you glanced up the alley nervously, body nearly trembling from anticipation.

"Shhh," he nodded, leaning in to breath in your scent. One arm wrapped around your waist, the other working to literally cut a slit in your trousers; letting his tongue flatten against your pulse point.

"Aemond," you whimpered, holding onto him tightly.

"Good girl," he purred again, sheathing his dagger and letting his hand drop again to then pet up your dampening slit from outside the cloth of clothing. "Easier, yeah?" He smirked against your ear, breathing deeply as he let his pointer finger push into your heat, praising, "So warm for me. But I need you wetter than this to take you - don't wanna hurt you, pet."

You groaned a little, holding onto him while keeping a leg up his hip. "What if someone sees?" You whispered against his mouth, practically mewling like a bitch in heat.

"Let them," he nodded, "all they'd see is a man, pleasuring his wife." Your breathing subtly changed as his mouth hung over your ear, promising, "Splitting her in two, watching as she takes his cock so fucking well. That's all they'd see, pet."

"Fuck."

"Hmm, fuck you how?" He smirked, letting a second finger join his first. "Want me to bend you over? Fuck you on the floor? Find those barrels back there?"

"Against the wall, want you t'take me against the wall," you nodded, a sheen of sweat slowly forming over your skin. "Wanna feel you in my fuckin' lungs, yeah?"

"Whatever my pretty girl wants, she gets," Aemond growled, slapping your hands off him and readjusting you two. "C'mon, love, earn it - up, jump up, c'mon." When you did, he caught you easily, grunting, "Atta girl. Hang on," he panted then, pressing you against the wall as he adjusted to hold you against the wall while freeing his cock.

"Aemond, please, please," you begged softly, holding his jaw with both hands, "Gods, I need you to fuck me so bad."

"C'mere," he seethed, hoisting you a little higher to adjust his cock at your (cloth-cut) entrance. You both gave guttural moans as he let you sink onto him, grinding your hips into his to better adjust. "Fuckin' grippin' me too tight, love," he growled, hands squeezing your hips as you kept hold of his neck and shoulders.

"Gonna last f'me?"

"Might just have to pump you full, hmm?" He smirked, using his chest to slam into yours and righten your spine. His hand shot up to constrict around your neck, the other used to hold you on his hips; making your legs work overtime to stay atop him.

"Oh, Gods, fuck," you whimpered, hood still over both your heads as Aemond rammed into you.

"Told you - wasn't wet enough," he cursed in your ear.

"Feels fuckin' amazing, please, don't stop," you begged him, hearing his small grunts and growls start up as both hands moved to hold either thigh and keep you spread against the wall. "Oh, my Gods," you sobbed, truly unsure if you were feeling pleasured or not from the feeling of Aemond fucking through you.

"Ah, fuck, fuck," he hissed, hips stuttering as he met his first orgasm.

"Wow... That was record time," you teased quietly when he paused to keep you full to the hilt of his emptying cock.

"I warned yah," he smirked some, readjusting his hold as sweat coated his skin. "My cum just makes you wetter, hey? Yeah, look at that," he hissed, eye cutting down to watch his cock slowly pull back; revealing webs of cum between you and him.

Your hands pawed at his neck, tugging him forward; whining against his mouth, "I need more, please."

He smirked, "Gonna be a good girl and hold it all in until we get back to the Keep?"

You whispered, "What if I can't?"

"I'll just have to fill you again..." His cock twitched, making his throat bob. "Want your belly swollen with our kid, 's 'bout time, isn't it? For the Gods to bless us?"

"Yet you talk of leaving the city - "

"All the more reason," he promised, still holding you spread as he let his hips start up again; rutting into you slowly. "Protect you, protect our kid," he muttered into your neck, "get away from this fucking place - be safe. Be together - oh shit," he moaned.

"Yeah," you grinned, holding him to your neck; clenching your muscles to make him whine, "that's right, emotional intimacy turns you on, doesn't it? Hey?"

"Fuck - yes, yes, it does," he promised, starting to pick up his pace. "Just want you pregnant already, fuck's sake."

"Then fill me," you purred, clenching your teeth when his fully-swollen cock once more stabbed through you. "I wanna make you a Daddy."

"Shit," he breathed, turning his head when he heard noises; but did not stop. Three men and two women stumbled down the alley, drunk, cooing when they saw the couple against the wall.

"Ye-ahhh!" One leered.

"Give it to 'er!" Another hollered.

"Fucking fill me," you followed right after in his ear. "Oh, fuck, yes, please, right there," you hissed as he pinned you harder to the cold stone behind you, the group of five passing with their eyes glued to the pair of you. It was oddly erotic, spurring Aemond on as your mouth hung open in a silent scream.

His balls jackhammered into the wet apex of your cunt as his arms all but braced against you to keep you in place. You were moldable, you were limp, you were taunt with pleasure at the same time; you were a twitching, moaning mess when feeling returned to your limbs as his thumb found your clit.

"Take it, I know my girl can take it," Aemond growled, humping up into you to create friction at that special, gummy spot on your inner walls. "Oh, so fuckin' good, just take it, my precious girl," he praised, hearing the group still stumbling about at the other end of the alley.

"Why don't you fuck me like that?" One of the girls growled in annoyance.

"I can't hold yah like tha', by the Gods," her partner laughed.

Your hand slapped outward against the stone when your husband rubbed your clit in time with his thrusts; letting his mouth open slightly to bite at your shoulder and encourage you to do the same.

You came with a cry, mouth full of his shoulder's flesh; rolling your hips into his with your booted heels pressing into the meat of his arse as waves of pleasure rippled across your beings. Aemond wasn't far behind and when his cock was almost strangled by the clenching of your walls, he came for a second time.

It was enough for you both, panting in effort as your legs were numb. Aemond slowly pulled out of you, hearing you stutter to breath as his cum instantly pumped out to drip onto the pavement beneath you.

"Gods," Aemond breathed in shock, watching the puddle slowly grow.

"Ah!" You yelped when he lowered you, and your legs gave way; his arms darting out to instantly cling onto you as the back of your head thumped into the wall.

"Shit, love, all right?" His hand pressed to the tender spot as you pouted some. The group that watched had since passed, leaving you alone again with split trousers that grew wetter from the ooze of cum. Aemond was trying to catch his breath and support you at the same time, readjusting your clothes for you best he could. "Got it, love?"

"Can't feel my bloody legs," you complained lightly.

"C'mere, I've got you," he promised, arms tight around your waist. "Did good tonight, pet."

"But I lost?"

"'S not about winning or losing, in the end, we both reap benefits, yes?" You nodded. "And as you said, tonight gave you reassurance we could blend in across the Narrow Sea, did it not?"

"It did," you agreed. "But I want to wait until next month, I want to know if it's stuck."

"I'll fuck you everyday until then, yes? Breed you, like I know you want me to," he smirked, one arm holding you up to walk in front of him as the other fingered down the crack of your arse. "Keep walking, don't make a scene," he whispered in your ear, pushing his fingers into your cunt as you lead the way through King's Landing. It wasn't the most comfortable, but Aemond made it doable; pausing in another alleyway to push your chest to the stone wall.

"Aemond," you cursed his name into the wall brushing your cheek.

"Easy," he chuckled, nudging your feet apart. "Take me once more and I'll carry you home."

"Aemond?" You reared back a little when his hardened cock pushed into you again.

"What do you need?"

Your hand raised to pet over his cheek, back bowed to hold yourself up and keep him inside you. "Make me a Mommy, please," you whispered, earning a sharp slap to your arse cheek before his hands seized control of your hips.

"Hold it in this time, then," he teased, starting to thrust into you like a wild horse; bucking his hips into yours to create ripples across your flesh. It seemed as if your frantic motions in the middle of the alley deterred anyone from turning down it, leaving a brief moment of privacy in the sweltering city night.

One of his hands slithered up your front to fondle your breast, tweaking a nipple until you were nearly collapsing into the wall. Aemond had to hold you slightly as you bent lower, almost desperate to take him to the hilt as you fucked back against him - and he took full advantage of your new position.

Aemond kept his feet with your own, hands on your hips; thrusting harder into you as sweat beaded on his skin to roll down his pearly flesh. "Fuck, Gods be fucking good," he cursed, "how's it you're this tight, still? Hey?"

You whimpered wordlessly, gasping when one of Aemond's thumbs came to gently rim around your puckered hole. He didn't often let himself explore your arse, but sometimes, to catch you off guard, he liked testing your limits. After making him venture down the Street of Silk by himself, he figured a little payback was in order.

A stranger started down the alley and actually paused to watch the pair of you, Aemond's spit being spat from his mouth onto your holes; winking in the distant moonlight.

"Take it," Aemond growled when your legs gave way, and sent you both careening into the dirty floor. It only spurred him on further.

"Don't stop," the stranger recommended, loosening his breeches to take his cock out and pump himself to life.

Aemond, fully enraptured with the feel of your cunt, let his hand latch onto the back of your neck to hold you in place as he thrust harder, harder, harder into you. Your hips bruised from the way he pounded you into the cobblestone, growling as he glanced at the stranger.

"Oh, shit," the man nodded, pumping faster. "Yeah - look me in the eyes, mate, that's it."

"The fuck?" You whispered, glancing up to watch.

"Eyes on him, Princess," Aemond demanded, fully hunched over you as he felt his stomach's coil tighten; informing you, "almost there, precious girl, keep bein' a good fuckin' girl - oh, ah fuckin' Hell!"

"Oh, yeah," the stranger nodded. "Can I cum on her, mate?"

"You wanna die?" Aemond snapped.

"Lemme use her mouth," the stranger complained, head tossed back and eyes screwed shut. "Betta yet, lemme a turn!"

Aemond gasped behind you, stalling his hips into the meat of your bum while letting his cock pump you full of his seed. He recovered much quicker than you, kissing your temple as he unsheathed himself from your velvet warmth to stand, tuck himself away, and stride up to the man still masturbating to the sight of your swollen, dripping cunt.

"Woah - hang on - wait, wait, wait!" The man gasped as Aemond stabbed him non-fatally in the ribs.

"Go - before I decide I need your life for even looking at her," he sneered, shoving the man away while yanking his dagger free. A splatter of blood echoed in-between your heaving breaths.

When he turned back, he smirked at the sight of you; fucked-out and unable to find your feet, limp on the dirt-riddled cobblestone. "You didn't have to do that," you told him softly when he neared you to adjust what was left of the tatters of your clothes.

"I did," he smirked. "C'mere, up yah get. Think my wife's earned a hot bath, don't you?"

"Will you join me?" You asked, letting him lift you bridal style. The cloak was long enough that when he picked you up, it covered your cum-soaked hole in his arms.

"I can't resist you, pet," he frowned, "we wouldn't be doin' much cleaning, hey?"

"So?" You smirked, arms tight around his neck. "I want to make you a Daddy, Aemond, best we... Do our due diligence, yes?"

"You make a fair point, Princess," he smirked. "If you can handle it, I'll fuck you the rest of the night, yes?"

"I'm an orgasm behind," you reminded softly as he chose a lesser-used secret entrance into the Red Keep.

"Hm, yes, I seem to owe you one," he smirked in agreement. "Better stay awake, then."

requesting rules and masterlist

HOTD masterlist

[virgo-dream]

Some Mornings 🌙

dreamling / fluff / all comfort / gen / 1.1k+ words

A little gift for my friend @softest-punk!!! set in the universe of their amazing a/b/o regency au fic, A Man Of Good Fortune. This has spoilers for that fic!!!! Wrote this really quickly before bed. I hope it’s okay!! No beta but we don’t die we ball 🙏 edit: now also available to read on ao3

Some mornings are easier than others, when one finds themselves in the state Dream is currently in. He remembers how mornings were when he was pregnant with Orpheus; the bedroom always felt colder in the morning than it did at night, partly due to his bed chambers facing away from the afternoon sun, and partly due to the lack of his mate’s presence next to him in bed. The first few months were filled with a sort of dread, creeping up quicker every day that went by. Would all mornings be like this? The fear of knowing the answer was almost as bad as the realisation that he would not be proven wrong.

Things were definitely different now. Dream would usually wake up to the darling shape of Hob silhouetted by the gentle morning sun filtered through the curtains. He’d be kissed, gently, sweetly, every morning. Hob made sure to always wake up before Dream, to be the one to bring him breakfast, to help him through the nausea that would take over his stomach almost every morning. The bigger Dream’s belly got, the more admiration and awe he could see in Hob’s eyes. He found himself worshipped for the same reason he’d been previously discarded, and wasn’t that a blessing?

Some mornings were easier than others, for him. As winter slowly approached their home by the sea, some mornings became harder than most for Hob.

Dream could see it in the way Hob seemed to be hiding a slightly more intense limp than on a usual day. He noticed the tension on his husband’s jaw, the tautness of his shoulders, and how, by Hob’s standards, he seemed less cheerful than what Dream had grown accustomed to. Still, Hob insisted in waking up earlier than Dream, in bringing him breakfast in bed, in holding Dream’s belly to give his back a break; no matter that it would be on the expense of Hob’s poor knee and bad shoulder. Dream noticed the effort, as he noticed every new lovely grey hair and every beautiful line on the corner of his mate’s eyes when he smiled. He’d winced more times than Dream would have liked to, though.

———

That morning, Hob Gadling woke up to the silhouette of his very pregnant husband blocking the sunlight coming in from the window. He blinked his eyes slowly, being made aware, also, of the pain on his knee the moment his body decided to stir.

The sight of Dream’s belly was still a wonder to him. Hob remembered the moment he’d first laid eyes on Dream; he remembered how ethereal and otherworldly he looked. Hob also remembered the hollowness of Dream’s cheeks, his slightly chapped lips and the fragility in his gaze. Now, Dream housed a whole other being inside him, with fuller cheeks tinted rosy pink and eyes filled with newfound confidence. It was magical. It made Hob proud.

“Good morning, dearest.” Dream’s voice sounded like music to Hob’s ears. He watched as Dream leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. Instinctively, Hob’s hand reached for his mate’s belly, almost in an effort to make sure Dream was real.

Hob had been trying to say some nicer things, more poetic, to honour Dream’s taste for endearments. He wasn’t sure if he was succeeding, but he was surely trying. “…do my eyes deceive me, or do I witness a solar eclipse?”

Dream raises a brow, and if it weren’t for the fondness in those blue eyes, Hob would have believed him to take offence. “Do you intend to say I am shaped like the moon now?”

“No! well, yes. But also in the poetic sense. There’s a celestial body shielding my eyes from the morning sun—“

Hob’s would have continued in his attempt to compare Dream to the moon, had it not been for the sharp pain travelling from his knee to his spine in his attempt to sit up in bed. Dream quickly comes to his aid, placing a hand on Hob’s upper back, the other clasping at Hob’s hand to help him sit up. “Dove, you shouldn’t be doing this.”

“I have noticed your discomfort in the past week, beloved. Not only I, but so has Lucienne. So has Orpheus.” Dream is careful not only in his aiding of Hob, but in the tone he chooses to deliver his words. “Do you intend to teach our son to hide his pain? To refuse care? How do you benefit from it? How do I, or our children?”

Our son. Our children.

Hob wasn’t planning to cry so early that day. He thinks of saying something, but Dream seems to have really thought out what he was about to say. There was a fierceness in the kindness of his tone, a gentleness to his fire.

“—I do not wish to chastise you, only to provide you with that which you’ve been so generous in giving me. I’ve not once felt the need to hide my discomfort from you. I would hope you allow yourself the same liberties.”

“Dove, I—“ Hob squeezes Dream’s hand. He’s unsure of how to deal with the emotions quickly bubbling up in his chest. “I’m your alpha. I’m here to take care of you. I’ve said it, I serve—“

“—at my pleasure, yes. And it will be my pleasure to care for you.”

Hob grins, and he can feel his nose getting stuffy from the tears now streaming down his cheeks. Dream is quick to wipe them away, coming closer to press kisses to Hob’s cheeks and to the tip of his nose. “Allow me this, dearest. There’s nothing that will bring me more joy than to see your pain relieved.”

“God, how I love you. Yes, please. I need it.”

———

Some mornings are easier than others. Dream found that taking care of Hob made even his own discomfort easier to bear. He wondered, as he helped his husband to the bathroom to wash his face, if Hob found the same comfort in taking care of him. He already had his answer, and it filled him with joy as big as his belly had gotten.

There was something else entirely new and fulfilling about helping Hob sit back on the bed, fluffing up his pillows and bringing in a warm blanket to keep his knee away from the cold. Lucienne was incredible help with the things that were more physically taxing, and Orpheus was just as excited to spend the day in bed reading with and to his dads than he would have catching frogs outside by the pond. Hob would sometimes reach for Dream’s belly, rubbing it gently and making circles with the tip of his fingers. Dream was glad to be able to offer comfort, no matter how small. He was falling in love again, as he surely would in the next morning, and every morning after.

Some mornings were easier than others. That morning, Dream would cherish forever.

[weclassybouquetfun]

Tonight is the penultimate episode of series two of AMC+'s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.

Well, this isn't ominous at all.

Impressed that months later content from the S2 premiere is still being rolled out.

ALL THE SPOILERS FOR Episode 14 / S2E07

It's fine. It's all fine.

If you've read the books (not me) or have seen the movie (me) or just possess the ability to read between the lines, then you knew this day was coming: The death of Claudia de Pointe du Lac de Lioncourt and her companion Madeleine.

Finally, someone chose Claudia.

They actually made a playbill. The nastiest of nasty work.

There is still a lot to be open to interpretation in regards to motivations and the truthiness of various accounts. Maybe we will get answers in the next episode (how much of a willing participant was Lestat in these deliberations? How accurate was Louis' new recollection of begging Lestat to turn Claudia despite Lestat's warnings?) and maybe we won't (at any time have we seen the real Lestat?)

What I do know is that this cast acts their collective bums off.

What I also know?

They will never make me hate you, maître. You've done nothing wrong, ever.

Even though you leveled your coven with one word, I am sure you could not stop them from putting your lover, his sister-daughter and her companion on trial and subsequent execution.

He was helpless to do anything, you just don't understand!!

Armand was able to control everyone's speech and compel them to say "banishment" and just heaves a sigh of relief for the trouble. Meanwhile, Lestat was wan and bleeding from one ear after mind controlling a room of soldiers.

I still stand by you, Armand. I'm just saying...

-I am inclined to believe Lestat's deviations. You can tell what are Sam's words and what aren't by how Santiago responds and also just how true to form they seem from a character standpoint. I could be very wrong, but I can believe Louis threatened to cut Lestat's head off.

This is Louis who threatened his brother with a knife (which turned Lestat's eye to him in the first place). This is a man who lobbed a veiled threat at Grace during their mother's funeral (and you know it's true because that was from Claudia's diary). Louis was furious in that moment so why would he be expected to hold his tongue and not scrap? As he told Lestat, "You start it, you finish it."

Louis castigated Lestat for choking their daughter. I'm not going to remind him what he did to her when she begged him to let her burn Lestat.

So many people last season were raging because their "Brat Prince" was depicted as a domestic abuser and were sure this season would absolve him. But while we get a fuller picture of the fight, Lestat still did what he did. To me it just adds more clarity on why he stayed away for so long.

The biggest question for me this episode was how long did they workshop Lestat's side? Did the coven plunder his mind or did Lestat readily give them information (they knew about the words "come to me", the killing of the priests, the church kiss, Louis' depression and the house being a shambles. We even see on the projection the raccoon that was roaming their house)?

No matter how they found out the Louis/Lestat details, Lestat is not fully a willing participant in my mind. This man was over it from the jump.

Also, he's stubbled and one thing Lestat de Lioncourt is going to do is be well groomed so those theatre nerds have had him locked away until showtime.

They summoned Lestat while he was drinking his chickory coffee and eating beignets. Classless.

Dreamstat in Dubai feels so wrong.

Spoiler filled interview with Delainey, Roxanne and Jacob after episode 14/7.

Interview with Sam.

[lollytea]

Dont know if you still want ppl to let you know of TOH news but new promo droped

https://twitter.com/owlphibia/status/1578666427187224577?t=PSuQglesYrr-kQcLUHwlyw&s=19

HEAD EVEN FULLER OMG!!!

Oh these fucking bastards. You know EXACTLY what they're doing here. Where's everybody else? At home. Asleep. Completely oblivious to whats happening. Luz and Hunter have gotten a lead that involves Belos and they've decided to exclude the others for their own safety and investigate by themselves. Their friends are gonna be PISSED.

Also idk why in God's name they're wearing King and Hooty masks at a time like this but I'm very excited to find out. They're obviously handmade. Probably for Halloween. Whatever it takes for Luz to cope.

LUZ HAS A FUCKING BAT!!! And Hunter is gonna rake a man to death.

Also...hm...bandage on Hunter's finger. I could buy that he injured himself but it seems like a pointless detail unless it was important to the plot somehow. Oh dear god did Hunter accidentally cut himself, only for Belos to sniff out his blood and target their location. What in God's name is the meaning of this??

They drew a hooty on the door 🥺

Also Willow decorated the porch. I love her.

Also ALSO....Hm. Is Luz returning from school and that's what Amity is looking at or is she just noticing how the door opened by itself? Possible wind buuuuuut...I trust nothing anymore

THIS IS THE THING FLAPJACK WAS PECKING AT UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS!!! FUCKED UP LITTLE BOX OF HORRORS!!!!

Kinda hoping it's a music box type that projects memories when it's opened and that's how the kids learn the story of Philip and Caleb. That'd be sick.

No idea what's going on here and if its something magical or if those are just plastic glow in the dark stars that the kids decorated the house with. That hand is definitely a mirror of the weird grimwalker hand thing. Collector vibes too. Also possible that this is somehow a result of opening the fucked up little box of horrors.

Me gasping that they're starting to learn about grimwalkers like I didn't already know they would. Also hm. Seems to be Amity, Willow and Gus here. This might be what's going on with them while Luz and Hunter are out raking people to death.

"No no no no spoilers!!!" I FUCKING LOVE HIM

Concept art real. Gus and Hunter are gonna wear matching costumes for Halloween. Ones they have clearly made themselves. They've also become Star Trek fanboys which is SO funny and cute. The idea of Gus and Hunter starting a show together and getting completely obsessed with it is golden to me. They're just little guys.

Hunter being extremely paranoid over spoilers because he's just THAT into it. God this is so fucking good. Nerd.

I assume he's talking about Star Trek and not....something else....maybe Hunter watches anime real....

Anyway head exploding

[finluz]

TOTK Rant: How Much Better Than BOTW?

//major totk spoilers ahead

The Good

Ultrahand is amazing, it's a simple idea with few limitations leading to a lot of complexity and flexibility

Ascend is fucking awesome. im not even gonna like, critically analyze this one. i wish i could jump through ceilings in real life

Being able to throw items is extremely useful, meaning you don't have to waste arrows to get certain effects

Zonai devices are all amazing, same principle of Ultrahand where they all have simple uses with few limitations, meaning that you can create really complex machines very easily

The Music™ 🎷🐛

Rauru's sopping wet man vagina

There's a shit-ton of new enemies, including like-likes, gleeoks, evil rigby mfs that crawl on the ceiling, floormasters, phantom ganon, the assorted zonai creatures, froxes, baby froxes, yigas with driver's licenses, battle tali, damn those trees are WALKIN

Depths exploration is fucking amazing

Depths atmosphere

Sky Islands when they have anything on them

Air travel

60 new side adventures, which are waaay fuller in good content than the side quests or even the main quests lmao

build your own house

the boss fights

the final boss fight

shrine puzzles with Ultrahand

Proving Grounds shrines

Master Kohga

the guy that walks around continually failing to demonstrate any degree of professional signage

the side dialogue is really funny and well-written

the isolated vibe of botw has been traded in for a feeling of togetherness as a kingdom

large-scale battles with tons of monsters and friendly npcs

muddle buds

zonai architecture

did i mention the ost yet

skyview towers > the ubisoft towers

link has his hair down

tauro

purah

short-hair zelda

rauru

ganondorf

mineru

been spending most our lives living in a bisexual's paradise

the lightning temple

the construct factory

the quest to obtain the master sword

dragonhead island

the dragonhead island music

fusing items to arrows and shields

the yiga clan expansion

do the earthwaker link come on quake that shit

the all-clucking cucoo

froggy armor

the lucky clover gazette

all of the new outfits

the dragon-themed outfits

horns on enemies

link let his hair down

the plethora of armor effects that are now also cooking effects, like slip resistance, swim speed, weather-based attack, and more

railgrinding

princess monoke themes doubled down on

gloom

robot arm

I think a common theme in this list is that rather than being different from Breath of the Wild, there is just more of Breath of the Wild.

"No shit, it's a sequel."

Yeah I get that, but this is the first time a Zelda sequel specifically has failed to really distinguish itself from the game before it.

Tears of the Kingdom has everything that Breath of the Wild had, including its flaws. The fact that it's just "more of it" and "better" kind of makes the previous game completely obsolete, which is a first in the series.

Majora's Mask, Link Between Worlds, Adventure of Link, the Oracle Games and Link's Awakening are all direct sequels of previous games, and yet their identity is so distinct that they become standalone entries in the series.

Majora's Mask is not Ocarina of Time 2.

Tears of the Kingdom is 100% Breath of the Wild 2.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and considering the series has been almost rebooted entirely I'm not even opposed to the direct serialization of these games,

but if they are going to go this route,

and there's going to be 6 and a half years between the two games,

You need to do better than the last game.

And so we arrive at,

The Bad.

With the exception of the aforementioned Lightning Temple and Construct Factory, the dungeons, and subsequently main areas and story in this game blow ass.

The Dungeons in this game are just Divine Beasts but with somehow even less creativity. Say what you want about the lack of interconnectedness between and the quality of the puzzles, but they provided a feeling of controlling and manipulating a huge, moving being that sets the game apart.

In comparison, TOTK's dungeons are completely devoid of any original ideas, instead opting to be divine beasts without the movement gimmicks, meaning that they're just "go hit the four or fie switches in any order"

Breath of the Wild traded in the unique and distinct atmospheres of the franchises temples to capture a different feeling that sets it apart. Tears of the Kingdom tries to return to the old temples, but without committing all the way and missing the mark completely.

The Water Temple in particular stands out as completely fucking lazy to me, since it is literally just a bunch of blue platforms in the sky with 4 un-themed and not even water-related puzzles and a boss that is treated as a joke. There's almost no buildup in Zora's domain as well, as you just do a couple of short tasks to unlock the path up and then beat the dungeon in 30 minutes.

It's the worst kind of Zelda dungeon, with generic elemental themes but none of the art to tie those into actually unique places. And considering that there's no dungeon items, no double-backing, or any sort of semblance of an idea of you completing an actual dungeon and not just four shrines in a meat grinder, I would say it's ultimately WORSE than the divine beasts from Breath of the Wild.

The rewards for dungeons

In every dungeon, you get an NPC follower that fights with you and has an ability that you press A on to use. These are used pretty well in their respective areas. When you beat the dungeon, your reward is a blue clone of them that does less damage.

I get what they were trying to do, I really do, and on paper, it's a really great concept.

It's the champions from the last game, except they are actually there and fight alongside you, using that togetherness theming i mentioned earlier.

However, having them out is pretty much a straight downgrade since they are annoyances 24/7.

Their abilties range from mildly useful in some contexts at best to "i would only press a on you by accident."

and trust me. you are going to accidentally press a on them a LOT.

Somehow, they manage to both be in your way when you want to do literally anything else and also never there in the rare circumstance that you actually want to use your ability.

Their AI is complete dogshit, and they rarely swing at enemies, and when they do, the damage is pitiful. Tulin flies through the air, and is mostly behind you when you need him, but everyone else paths along the ground and will often get stuck on rocks, river edges, or random patches of grass sometimes because they lack any intelligence whatsoever.

It's such an easy fix too, just have a "sacred stone" rune in the radial menu where the useless map one is and let me manually select which ability I want. Bam. No more blowing big hearty truffles off cliffs or setting them on fire when im just trying to pick them up.

Fuse does not affect the durability of weapons.

Rather than opting to have the interesting choice of being able to repair your weapons at the risk of losing a rare quality of them, rehabilitating them using items from your inventory,

Nintendo instead opted to have the durability not change at all when you fuse something.

Also, every weapon in hyrule has "decayed," which, as well as being extremely contrived, means that fusing is required for weapons to be viable.

So not only does this not improve the weapon system from Breath of the Wild, it actually makes it more tedious, since now you have to collect not just a weapon, but two parts of a weapon and then fuse them into a weapon.

It's taken every weapon in hyrule, broken them in half, and made you go find the pieces.

This also means that fusing funny stuff like minecarts or logs like they suggested in the trailer isn't viable, since it will only add a few damage points and waste a weapon slot.

In Conclusion

Yes, Tears of the Kingdom is the better game. It not only has more content, but the content is also just better, more experimental, and memorable.

And don't let my huge rant about The Bads misconstrue my thoughts on this game.

This is easily a 9/10, and probably my favorite game of all time.

But it certainly isn't a 10/10.

Breath of the Wild's flaws set it apart, it was easy to forgive them because they played into its unique experience.

Six years later, with an almost identically structured game, it's not as easy to set those aside.

Anyways, this has been World's Biggest Zelda Fan Finluz, and I want to raw link

[charlottedabookworm]

Dawntrail Day 1

spoilers up to: first lvl91 quest, after the msq split paths merge back together

original draft date: 28/6/24

scheduled release for: 26/7/24

early access time! planning on unlocking picto and then i'm leaping headfirst into the msq

*

okay the quest accept music

interesting

i like it

*

“You had me at ‘magicked painting’” lolllllll

*

….excuse me i didn’t agree to a job interview

i hate job interviews get back here you bloody moogle i-

*

“I’m uh- between jobs at the moment”

“My stick figure drawings are second to none…?”

pffft best job interview i’ve ever been on

*

furry little shites

*

okay i really do like the quest music

*

picto hotbars step up but subject to change

now msq time

*

Ali, love, that’s called jinxing it

*

shades triangle! we’ve heard about that before :)))

*

lolll poor wuk lamat gets seasick

*

oooo erenville lore

shetona from xak tural, doesn’t know his father and hey-

stupid crash i want to hear the erenville lore!

*

kay that shit is pretty af

*

i love erenville and wuk lamat you really feel the childhood friends who fuck with each other energy every time they interact its fucking great

“she’s technically royalty”

“just ‘technically’ ignoring me, then…”

*

Tuliyollal is huge and it feels so much fuller than previous cities

*

pffft

*

aight so Bakool ja ja is a twat and i don’t even care who wins as long as it isn’t him

his brother seems alright tho. less of a twat or maybe just a quieter twat

*

nevermind the mystic is just as much of a twat as the mighty is

the mighty is just louder about it

*

even all these expansions later it still sends a thrill of fear through me

*

ESTI!

ESTI IS DOING THE SPARRING SCENE WITH GULOOL JA HA FROM THE TRAILER

yessssss

love how we’re just smiling in the background

*

Esti is bigging us up!

love you esti!

*

elene’sh

erenviles name is elene’sh?!?! ir it is it a term of endearment like what gulool ja ja calls wuk lamat

*

erenville: this is the last chance for me to help you back out

us: flashback to raha

fucking hell i love that set would 100% be thinking of his husband in a time like this

*

genuinely appreciate that they gave krile the echo vision instead of us for once

sorry krile but i’m a little bored of it always being us that sees shit

*

holy shit the inn room

fuck it i’m moving to tuliyollal i live in this cabin now it’s mine sorry raha you’ll have to move out here

*

reached the quest split

experience tells me that one of these will be extremely traumatic and the other will be less so but maybe it’ll be a little less here? maybe? hopefully

please pelupelu don’t fuck me over this is my summer holiday adventure

*

so esti is gonna get utterly fleeced by the pelupelu huh

*

love that our first challenge is to approach a terrified alpaca

love rhat for us

poor wuk lamat

*

camping! Chilling out at the fire with all of erenvilles tent and stuff while waiting for wuk lamat!

*

i’m cackling-

*

oh fuck off and get some character development

This guy isn’t at fandanny or zenos level of ‘i hate you on sight’ but i really don’t like him

*

“There’s much less debate when I’m traveling alone” erenville i love you

*

“He lives and works in the House of Waters High, at the top of that large tree nearby”

turns camera

ah yes that tree the tree i climbed five minutes ago in search of a sightseeing spot found nothing and then leapt off to go back and do msq instead

that tree

Cool

*

“We have a two headed problem. Yes please hurry”

Erenville you are legit one of my fav characters i love you dude

*

i’m starting to really really hate bakool ja ja

like he was annoying before but the hatred is growing

i would seriously rather the warmonger first promise take the throne i am legit not lying rn

*

you fucking tell him (? Them? They use borh plural and singular when talking about the two headed mamool ja) ali

*

look i’m not a particularly enthusiastic person but we really should be doing something instead of just walking there

like dance a little alright? bop to the beat? something other than just strolling seriously along while all the hanu dance around us

*

annnd i'mma call it there for today got picto unlocked and to 81, msq is starting the 91 quests, and i've unlocked all the aether currents i can reach in the zones so far

[curiousdamage]

OC Character Introduction

Fandom: Full House/Fuller House

Series link: Enough

Name: Suzanna Tanner Gladstone

Nickname: Suzie, Sue, Suzie Q

Birthdate: September 2, 1960

Face Claim: Lea Thompson

Age: 27

Hair: Red/Brown

Eyes: Brown

Height: 5’1”

Family: Husband: Joey Gladstone

            Older Brother: Danny Tanner

            Younger Sister: Wendy Tanner

            Mother: Claire

            Father: William

            Nieces: DJ, Stephanie, Michelle

            Sister-in-law: Pam Katsopolis Tanner

More but that would be spoilers.

Bio:  

Suzie grew up in a typical suburban home with both her parents and older brother and younger sister. Her dad worked and her mother was a homemaker, then librarian.

A perfect suburban family. At least if you were looking at it from the outside and her mother worked very hard to make sure that it always looked picture perfect. 

She met Joey Gladstone when she was 7 and Danny invited him over to play baseball. 

When she asked him why he wore two watches, he told them that his parents were divorced and one watch was the time in San Francisco and the other was set to the time where his father was stationed in the Army. While Suzie thought that was sweet, it was how her parents found out the Gladstones were divorced and her father would make snide comments about them for years, even though Joey never went to bruises like she and Danny did.

She didn’t think much about him after that.  He was Danny’s friend and he was nice enough, but he was a goofball and could be totally annoying. He was just always around.

It wasn’t until she was in high school that she began to see him as something other than just Danny’s friend.  He was still annoying, but she could also see that he was kind and he had a knack for really seeing people.  

As annoying as he was, he could always make her laugh, and his blue eyes and dimples didn’t hurt his chances at all.  They started dating in the spring of her Freshman year and his Junior year. They dated throughout high school and due to {Spoilers} they were married a few weeks before she graduated.

At the start of the show, and story, Suzie is working as the charge nurse at a local hospital ER. Struggles with infertility have her pulling away from Joey, from their marriage, and from her family. She agreed to move in with Danny after Pam’s death because, well, things couldn’t get worse, could they?

[lifesarchive]

BELOVED by TONI MORRISON (REVIEW)

quickly: a self-emancipated woman is tormented by her past long after she’s made it to freedom (an ex-slave who has slavery living inside of her / children born in the shadow of trauma / a grandmother who can smell the future on the wind / jealous daughters who speak their minds / a house haunted by the dead / stolen milk and blessed berries / blood magic / the deep dark evil of slavery)

what a wild, lush, furious nightmare of a story. this is the story of Sethe, how she escaped slavery, and how she ended up in a house haunted by the ghost of a dead child. this is truly a southern gothic horror tale in every sense. there are psychological and physical traumas, some obtained from slavery and its perpetrators, some obtained from attempts at resisting slavery. there is magic, not the stereotypical “voodoo/hoodoo”, but something older, darker, and less defined. there’s injustice, southern lands, hard times, etc. at first, toni’s writing is like a dense forest, but once you find your footpath, the journey will carry you forward. 

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

more thoughts: SPOILERS!

Some personal context… I’ve been on the hunt for truly thrilling stories that take my breath away and Toni Morrison’s work did more than that. This read was preceded by “The Haunting of Hill House” by Shirley Jackson. I chose it based on it being a classic of gothic horror, a sub-genre I love. I was disappointed by its lack of thrill, passion, or anything, other than Eleanor’s unraveling. 

Enter Toni Morrison. This is my first read by the late and great author, and it couldn’t have been any more perfect of an introduction for me. I’ll never hear “southern gothic” without thinking of BELOVED, which should be the staple of the genre (sorry, not sorry, Shirley J.). Rarely have I heard this work referred to as such. (If I had, I probably would’ve read it earlier.) I almost feel ‘honored’ to have read this book, though I’m not sure why. Maybe something to do with this incredible black writer penning a story so beautifully terrifying that people forget to call it ‘horror’. Maybe because she met and exceeded what I expected, exceeded what popular culture has had me to expect, and embodied that uniqueness that comes with being called Great.

We begin in a mess of spite and timelines. A blurred view of the world, and everyone in it. From 124, the home at the center of the story, we meet Sethe and the rest of her family who are, and are not there. We are given a brief survey of all that has occurred or been endured, from people running away to a haunting being born from the death of a child. Then, Paul D, a man she hasn’t seen in years, has found his way to her.

Time is layered in this story… at times in the present, at times in the past, sometimes glimpsing the future. Morrison moves through lives and their perspectives in a God-like fashion, without warning, but with the knowledge of all things that have occurred or will come. The way she gives details and expounds on storylines can be unsettling, at first, like coming into a dense and thick forest. Without some studying of what lies before you, it can be easy to get lost. She is a writer who gives glimpses of things before unveiling a fuller truth that towers and shadows and swallows. Sometimes these glimpses of the plot can seem like you missed something, but, artfully, the revelations in future pages have a way of connecting past pages, to form a continuous story.

From behind the eyes of Sethe, her daughter Denver, and Paul D (Sethes old friend and new lover), we come to know the history of Sweet Home (the plantation the family is from) and the history of the people who left it. Through their memories and inner reflections, they relay all we need to know about who they are and why. 

In short, they belonged to “good” white people, but things changed when their owner died and others came in to rule over them. Going from being treated like dogs, to being treated like less than that, prompted them to head to freedom. Most of the core trauma of this story is sourced in that transitional period between their old master passing away and them becoming their own masters out of desperation and survival.

Throughout this story, poetically, are piercing observations, questions, and philosophical dilemmas about slavery and the white supremacy and capitalism supporting it. Toni illustrates quite sharply how monstrous this process of dehumanization is, and how profoundly evil these acts of violence were. So evil in fact, it seemed to spread throughout the entire white race, able to make itself disappear and become known at any time, even in the most “good” of whites. It is an evil so big it seems impossible to have existed (and still exist). Like its appearance should have ended the world, like some demonic apocalyptic revelation from The Bible. (A Bible that has not served the slaves well, and Toni captures this black theological resentment perfectly.)

One of the most disheartening moments is when Grandma Suggs, renowned backwoods high priestess, forgoes her ‘gift’ of preaching. After living a tormented life and finally making it to a place where she is hers, she was collapsed by the intrusion of white men into her seemingly sanctified space. Their privileged appearance and sudden disruption cause Grandma Suggs to question all of existence, finally realizing, that there is no promised land. There are no sacred spaces for them. Maybe no God for them either. She forgoes preaching and spends the rest of what little time she has, thinking about colors. Something she never had time to do as a slave. When asked if she was “punishing God” by not preaching his word, she responds, “Not like He punish me”. 

Sethe is troubled by the child that she killed, a child that has haunted 124 since she died. Paul D is able to rid the house of the spirit, but that only leads to it manifesting in physical form… a girl named Beloved. She appears out of the river one day, sick and dying, and Sethe nurses her back to life. After gaining strength, Beloved proceeds to wreak havoc on relationships and resources. It takes Denver, Sethe’s daughter, to gather the community to rid the house of Beloved, the beautiful demon born of crimes against the flesh. 

That is the story. And I am reducing it to fumes for the point of this commentary, but it is such a rich reading I’m not really spoiling anything. This brief summarization and my recounting of a fraction of my reflections is pale compared to the full color of Morrison’s masterpiece. 

Also, I must say, the Everyman’s Library binding is BEAUTIFUL and comes with useful chronologies and a short biography of the author—and it is well bound! So much better than the penguin hardcovers I see in the library sometimes, which are often too tightly sewn. Just a random note. 

And again, I am HONORED to have read such a masterful work of horror and to have experienced this world built by Toni Morrison’s words. There’s an Everyman’s Library hardcover Song of Solomon, so maybe I’ll read that soon.

[racefortheironthrone]

I haven't been keeping up with the X-Men comics lately, but I remember when House/Powers of X came out a few years ago that Moira was adamant that no mutants with precognitive abilities should be allowed on Krakoa (ex. Destiny). This is because she didn't want the island to learn that mutants "always lost." However, have there been any storylines showing the ramifications of this decision? Have any precognitive mutants been featured dealing with the fact that they can't get to Krakoa, and

To avoid spoiling anyone, all I’m going to say is that it’s a major topic in the Inferno event and the policy has been mentioned here and there in Legion of X and Marvel’s Voices: Negasonic Teenage Warhead.

A fuller explanation of the policy is below the cut for those who don’t mind spoilers.

So Moira is absolutely lying about why she wants no precognitives on Krakoa: while part of the motive is revenge against Destiny for burning her alive in a past life, the main reason is that Moira has reverted to her Life 3 politics and is secretly creating a “mutant cure” that she intends to secretly administer to all Krakoan children, gradually eliminating mutantkind. The ban on precogs is intended to prevent them from seeing what she’s planning.

In Inferno, Mystique uses her shapeshifting powers to impersonate Magneto and Xavier and thus get her hands on a Cerebro helmet and Destiny’s DNA before Magneto and Xavier can destroy them on Moira’s orders, and then orders Hope to resurrect Destiny. Destiny instantly knows Moira’s plans and Mystique and Destiny shoot Moira with Forge’s mutant depowering gun, so that killing her would no longer reset the timeline. They wee prevented from assassinating Moira by Doug Ramsay, but Moira was forced to flee Krakoa as a hunted fugitive, which eventually led to her uploading her increasingly unhinged mind into an android body and joining Orchis.

In the wake of Moira’s defection, the prohibition on precogs has been effectively lifted.

It’s been a wild ride in X-comics.

[bereft-of-frogs]

friday update!

we are reaching the end of my vacation week which is both good (I miss my routine and my own apartment) and sad (I have to go back to work and no longer have all day just to write)

reading:

(finished) The Great Transition - Nick Fuller Goggins : Not quite as good as Station Eleven but...surprisingly decent for a book doing stuff I normally find annoying.

(in-progress) Kill Show: A True Crime Novel - Daniel Sweren-Becker : Look I LOVE trying to recreate found footage in literature. House of Leaves, S...I'm not sure this one is doing it for me. I wish there was something more than just the interview transcripts, which he has room for. Like at one point there have been quotes from a journalist and a professor, instead of doing the same interview block quote, he could have put in excerpts from articles/dissertations, we could have had more narration and description that way. It's just a little flat with it all being the same and also I'm not sure he has enough distinct character voices to justify it all exclusively being interview quotes. I feel like you need really good, unique character voices to exclusively do transcript quotes. And there are other issues I feel like he didn't think through, like I still don't really know how old the brother is supposed to be in relation to the main missing girl because it's not in the character intro and no one's mentioned it. But I'm not super far in, I'm going to stick with it to see if it gets better.

(in-progress) Jaw Bone - Monica Ojeda: Also only a little ways in, intriguing though, I like this one much better than Kill Show so far.

Lord of the Rings reread: I did fall a little bit behind by a couple chapters this week, but! We're onto the last book of Return of the King.

(phone book) Into the Dark - Claudia Gray: haven't had to read on my phone much this week since I've been on vacation, but the High Republic reread continues!

watching (tv):

*vibrates* Yellowjackets (Paramount+/Showtime): oh my GOD I have been wanting to watch this for years and I finally did, binged all two seasons this week. (Minus two episodes I have left to watch, so no season finale spoilers yet!) Yellowjackets. What is there to say? It's great, you all knew it was great, I was late to this party. There's like a venn diagram you could make between this show, NBC's Hannibal, and Black Spot/Zone Blanche but I can't articulate it yet. It's just got everything to appeal to me specifically: spooky forest settings, plane crashes, cannibalism, antler gods, murder, not one but two cults. It's great, extremely on brand for me, Shauna is my poor little meow meow, Melanie Lynskey should play more cannibals, murderers and warlords, she does it so well.

watching (film):

Pearl / X (2022) (double feature): Is it an unpopular opinion that I like X better? I'm also a bit late to this party but I feel like I remember people being like 'oh X is fine but Pearl is so good!' (Confirmed by looking at their comparative Letterboxd scores.) I just think X had a more interesting time period setting, better ensemble cast, better cinematography...which I think make sense given my understanding was X was the film they were originally making, and then they added on Pearl as an origin story project while they were working on X. It felt like more thought was put into X. Also, the 'Don't Fear the Reaper' scene was great. It seems like most of the reviews just comment on Mia Goth's performance as a highlight but like...it's just a lot of yelling and then a very long monologue and then the end credits. Idk, I think X just worked better as a whole, with the ensemble cast.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2023): This movie was so funny, probably my favorite ending/explanation to a 'wow everyone went from no murder to yes murder really fast' film I've ever seen. I also just love Lee Pace. Lee Pace sabre-ing a bottle of champagne. That is all.

there is no video game update because I have no mobile video game consoles so they are all at my apartment and I am not there, and since I had to leave early Friday instead of my original plan (Sunday) I didn't get to do anything before I left

craft update: slow sweater progress, so close to linking up the armholes and no longer having to purl, so close...

writing to-do list update:

I didn't end up working a ton on oneshots or 'omens' because...

I did it! I got up through chapter 6 on the longfic tentatively titled 'the station'. that's about the halfway point in chapter count, and I've been doing a pretty good job keeping the lengths even and hovering around 5k so far. It's 33k words now so I expect the final word count to be around 65-70k? Thereabouts? Which will be my longest Star Wars fic by quite a lot, even counting adding up the two pieces of the dark ocean duology. But since I'm only at the halfway point, maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself. It's so much. I love it. I'm terrified it's secretly bad. But it's probably fine haha, I'm actually feeling pretty good about the plot I'm using to string together a bunch of self-indulgent angst, which really, what is fanfiction if not finding a suitable plot to tie together self-indulgent scenes, angst or otherwise?

list for the upcoming week:

I still have to extract my dogsitting fee aka do all of my laundry

got a couple social events over the weekend

pack up and head back to the city sunday

I'm considering doing a probably ill-advised chaos rearranging of my room when I get home unless reason and logic kicks back in and stops me

go back to work (boo)

also clean whole apartment throughout the week because I have eclipse guests

eep somehow acquire eclipse glasses yikes I put this one off

keep chipping away chapter-by-chapter on this fic. I'm just getting to the action, which is both fun because a bunch of things are coming to a head and terrible because oh god writing action scenes is so hard

[rquerdo]

I finished Saints Row (2022) and I have some thoughts...

If you guys know, I'm a fan of the Saints Row series ever since I can remember. I remember watching the a few game plays of Saints Row 2 and immediately was intrigued. So intrigued that I remember getting hyped up for the 3rd game and watched any leaks Volition and Deepsilver threw at us. Well, it's hard to say for the games after the 4th and reboot. I just want to discuss the Saints Row (2022) but if I mention the other games, I'll try my best to make sure it pertains to the reboot.

Keep in mind: These are just my opinions and by no means am I a professional reviewer or critic. Also possible spoilers.

First off, let's talk about the name they gave the game....Saints Row. Not to get mixed up with...Saints Row. But I thought that was such a poor move on branding. Little moments where I would stream Saints Row (2022 not the original), Twitch would mix the two up. Not only that, searching for guides and walk throughs were a bit messy as well. My suggestion: Give it a name that has Saints Row, but change it up. Example: Full House (the OG), Fuller House (the series). Maybe name it "The 3rd Street Saints". Just. Something. Else...

Graphics:

.... Yikes :)

Everyone's skin is so gross and THAT HAIR TEXTURE! You can literally see every pore as if it was marked with a highlighter-it was bad. Their skin looked so bumpy and it made the characters look more alien-like than realistic. I get it, we all don't have clear skin, but that skin's not human. As for the hair, it's stiff as a board and every time you wear an accessory, the hair goes right through it so sorry if you wanted to give your character longer hair.

The Outfits:

So my biggest issue with the outfits is this huge glitch. I'll talk about the glitches in a bit (because trust me, there's a lot) but I just want to talk about the overall, outfits that are available for the characters.

Overall, not the worst selection-but not the best. I was a bit annoyed where there are so many smaller stores with few items to choose from around the city compared to having 3 or 4 big stores with a bigger category to choose (like how they did in all the other games). Personally, I thought this was quite cheap of them to do that. Not sure how much they showed off the stores when doing their sneak peek game plays, but if they bragged about a "wide variety of clothing", then there's nothing to brag about, really-probably about the same as 3 and 4.

Story line:

Remember in Middle/high school where you have that one teacher or faculty member that tries too hard to make you or your peers laugh but instead, makes you cringe? Well, that was this game. To me, it felt as if the writers were trying to hard to appeal to the Gen Z audience.

Hear me out:

In the beginning of the game, you and your friends are struggling to make ends due, so each of you guys join separate gangs (Which if that was realistic, all of them would've been killed since they have some sort of affiliation with their gang's enemies; each other). Until, you and friends decide on creating The Saints (they never said 3rd Street Saints), your character would not shut up about how they can't pay rent or how they don't have medical insurance. Regardless or not if you find that funny, after the 3rd or 4th time hearing them on repeat, it makes them sound whiny and annoying.

The ending was alright. But leading to the ending was baffling. Something that I like about the 2nd and 1st game is how you can progress each story line one gang member at a time and when the gang member's story finishes, you move on to the next until you eventually get the prologue and ending. This game's like: We work for other gangs, we made our gang, party!, end of game.

Side story line/ non-main game play:

I actually enjoyed it. I'm happy with the things to do throughout the city and I often catch myself sidetracked with a few hitman missions or being an evil "yelp" reviewer on stores. I found it a bit annoying with the lack of fast travels, but I think that's a personal preference than anything. Overall, I do see myself going back to finish all the side missions and challenges

I will say, I've been working so hard to get the Let's Pretend store available to use, I was quite underwhelmed with the selections but I've already mentioned that complaint.

Your Character:

I would say from the 2nd game to this game, they all have the same generic personality. Granted, from the original Saints Row to the 4th, it's all the same boss. The reboot has no connection to the previous games which honestly lacks character development (or just a personality at all). The character is that same "I'm a bad ass-ready to kill" vibe where if there's a moment the other characters say something statistical, they get all "I don't care-I'm just gonna threaten them with a gun!" Again, no character development. Where's the weakness? Where's...basically anything else. I know nothing about this character and I played them for 20+ hours.

Glitches:

Another yikes...

Keep in mind that not all glitches are consistent with the player. These are the one's that I've received so keep that in mind...

During the end of my game play, I've been more-and-more nervous on my game crashing or finishing a task but the game doesn't register that you finished the task so you're stuck until you restart from checkpoint. I don't know if this is a PC glitch, but I've been getting that a lot with open world games; another notorious game that's prone to do that is Cyberpunk 2077. Only difference with that game and this one, I can actually restart from checkpoint; Saints Row 2022, I can't- I have to restart the game and start over.

Going back to the Character outfits, there's a huge glitch where you would put your character in an outfit, and it doesn't show. This was more towards the Jackets. When you boot up your game, you may also notice that your character may be missing a few accessories as well. Also, when shopping for pants, some stores never show the pants selection on your character; I find that weird.

Other than that, there were some funny, harmless glitches like an npc stretched out and is flying all over the place or when your character is giving a serious dialogue and their mouths are not moving.

Gameplay and Controls:

I'm very iffy on this one. Usually when I play games on the computer, I like to use my PS4 controller (sue me-I come from a Console only, gaming family). But I've noticed that I was not able to do quite a few functions. Granted, I should've changed the controls in the settings, but I can't remember why I got impatient and decided to go keyboard instead. The keyboard controls weren't too bad. Auto aim helps a lot and it's not too "deadlocked" on one enemy; I picked up real fast.

I will say, I don't know what the point of the emotes are in the game, I don't even know how to toggle them. (no hate for that, just a random thought).

Directions were pretty much to the point but the GPS arrow thing tends to throw me off a lot. I often find myself ignoring it since it's too wishy-washy on directions.

I played this game on the Hard Difficulty. I found Normal too easy but to be fair, I have a tendency to jump straight to Hard mode on any game (unless if I know it's a strategic game)

~~~Overall Thoughts~~~

I mean, I think you can tell what I think of this game; I'm disappointed in it. Gameplay wasn't the worst, but graphics, glitches, and the story line killed it for me. If I had to give an overall grade, it would receive a "D" or a 4/10. If you're debating on if you should get it or not, best recommendation is to wait for it to go on sale-this is definitely not worth $60, heck even $40. I'd pay maybe $15 for this game and that's not on sale. Hopefully the game ends up with some cool DLC's and patches (which I would not be surprised if they discontinued Saints Row 2022 because of the bad reviews).

It was a shame too because I was really rooting for this game. I let my love for the other games allow me to have a positive mindset when playing, but the more I played, the more I end up disappointed. I see The Saints Row series one roller coaster. 1st was the rising game, 2nd was the peak, 3rd was a slight fall 4th and Saints Row 2022 was the falling.

Thanks for reading and let me know if you'd be interested in more reviews!

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[skywalker-swift]

please elaborate on so long london re: feyre!

okay friend (also I’m toasted so apologies if this is rambly and incoherent:) ) sorry people, second book spoilers!!! Also I haven’t started the third book (I’m on feyre’s first chapter so pls no spoilers!!) read more cause this got long lol)

I just really think so long London feels like Feyre’s feelings toward tamlin in the middle - almost the end of the second book, just before she finds about him working with the king! Maybe even up until she finds out how deep tamlin was in with that fucker? So much of it hits similar points in the song!

Like the first verse, the fairy lights remind me of Feyre seeing Rhys and secretly liking him despite her better feelings, but she stayed with tamlin, she loved him. Part of her was convinced that they were gonna figure it out but he just didn’t listen, he didn’t understand her. Not anymore, not after under the mountain, and she bares the weight of that, for everything she did to get him back, she can’t give up? She was willing to play the role. They both stopped trying but how much sad did Feyre have? She was so depressed, she was just withered away.

Second verse, She does feel jealous of Ianthe, and I think the ease of her and tamlin’s friendship, the ability to play into their assigned roles. Which Feyre was having such a hard time with, rightfully so!!!!!! She’s not that girl anymore, she could have been but Feyre isn’t human anymore. She feelsso so so guilty!! Also: I left all I knew, YOU LEFT ME AT THE HOUSE BY THE HEATH!!!! He trapped her, left her alone, and she couldn’t be with him anymore because of it.

Two graves one gun is when she swears she gonna kill him because if he had just let her go they would better for it. Also she will find someone!!!!

I think the bridge is her at the end when he still doesn’t get it, he sends Lucien after her, he breaks her heart and her faith in him over and over again. She would have stayed, she was willing to play her role, to be the wife, if it meant being with him but he pushed her too far!! JUST HOW LOW WOULD SHE GO BEFORE SHE’D IMPLODED THEIR LIVES TO BE FREE!!! I can’t remember if she begged Rhys to come get her but she had to run!! To be free of tamlin!

I think these lines really sum up the later half of the book as she’s looking on her relationship with tamlin. She loved him, she would have married him (he pushed her too fast, too hard, she was in none of her own wedding, ianthe 😑 so like she did kinda beg to get out of it lol) but tamlin was too protective too controlling it was hurting her. She realized that now! When she realizes how much she’s come back to like, when her face looks fuller, she laughs for Rhys, she feels so powerful. But she did love the spring court (when she was human) and for a little bit she’s mad that lost that because of tamlin’s fears, his bluest days.

And the outro is just her accepting it all, tamlin will maybe find someone, (remember there’s a time frame for these feelings, after she leaves but before they go to Hybern) but it’s not her, it was a moment of warm sun. They tried, it just wasn’t for them.

Then the moment Feyre finds out how tamlin betrays her and the court of dreamers, he becomes the smallest man who ever lived.

LOL that was long - I’ve been thinking about it this whole book - sorry again if this doesn’t make sense!! I might be projecting a bit !I feel like tamlin plays parts of the muse J (so long london, parts of fortnight, parts of fresh out the slammer, parts of guilty as sin, how did it end) and parts of muse R (the smallest man who ever lived, some of the alchemy, I can fix him, etc.) in the narratives of these songs. Rhys plays some of the other parts of Muse R (parts of the escapism, him helping free her, guilty as sin, fresh out the slammer) and Muse T (the alchemy, so high school)

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

[moonspirit]

Just wanted to say I've enjoyed your aruani fics greatly!!!! They have definitely kept me up late some nights but honestly it was totally worth it (i still have a few chapters to go but im almost there!). Your writing style is really good and super inspirational 😭 i really love how you describe character movements and you seem to understand everyone's motives super well. I wanted to ask, and I apologize if you've already answered this, but do u plan on including Levi/Gabi/Falco at all? Totally understandable if not considering they're separated from the others but I can't help but be curious lol. Thanks again!

Omg hello!

Thank you soooo much for your kind words T_T I really needed them today. I'm very glad you're enjoying the journey of Aruani & Co; the story is a kind of sustenance for me, so to know that you're finding some joy in it like me, means a great deal to me. Thank you so very much T/////T I hope you enjoy the rest of the chapters!

As for Levi + Gabi & Falco. So, once you catch up, you're gonna find out the answer to their whereabouts and current situation yourself haha, but since I don't really consider it a spoiler that will ruin the experience of what's to come - yes! They return!

The boarding house will be fuller than ever :3

Once again, thank you so very much for reading, and for taking the time to share your thoughts T_T I deeply appreciate it! Take care :3

[ulkaralakbarova]

A thief makes a disturbing discovery in the house where he breaks in. Later, when he returns to the same house with his partner in crime, things are no longer how he expected. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Cale Erendreich: David Tennant Sean Falco: Robert Sheehan Katie: Kerry Condon Derek Sandoval: Carlito Olivero Riley Seabrook: Jacqueline Byers FBI Agent Olivia Fuller: Tracey Heggins Don Falco: Rob Nagle Patti Falco: Lorraine Bahr Rowan Falco: Jacob Resnikoff Nino: David Meyers Detective Wayne Banyon: Tony Doupe Helen Leyton: Lisa Brenner Jocelyn: Sofia Hasmik Officer Aguilar: Delpaneaux Wills Sabine: Hannah Barefoot Mitchell: Danny Bruno Young Cale: Austin Leo FBI Agent: Jared Q. Miller FBI Agent Driver: Lydia Reim FBI Supervisor: Brandon Boyce Female Cop: Dana Millican Girlfriend #1: Emily Kimball Horse Trainer: Sam Bangs Newscaster: Brenda Braxton Uniform Cop: David S. Hogan Valet: Alex Donnolo FBI Agent: Tim Bennett Umbrella Ped: Chris Ihlenfeldt Film Crew: Producer: Dean Devlin Original Music Composer: Joseph LoDuca Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Greg P. Russell Second Unit Director: Carsten H.W. Lorenz Property Master: John Pearson-Denning Makeup Artist: Eva Lohse Director of Photography: David Connell Art Direction: Michelle Jones Screenplay: Brandon Boyce Editor: Brian Gonosey Production Design: Nate Jones Extras Casting: Susan Funk Producer: Marc Roskin Costume Design: Critter Pierce Gaffer: Neil Holcomb Steadicam Operator: Gary L. Camp Extras Casting: Bill Marinella Second Unit Director of Photography: Matthew Moriarty Foley Artist: Jörg Klinkenberg Makeup Department Head: Christina Kortum Stunt Double: Tim Bennett Construction Coordinator: Dean G. Roberts Scenic Artist: Ellen Lepinski First Assistant Director: Gregory J. Pawlik Jr. Sound Editor: James Gallivan Dialect Coach: Mary McDonald-Lewis Script Supervisor: Andy Spletzer Co-Producer: Mark Franco Special Effects Coordinator: William Boggs Assistant Editor: Lana Wolverton Focus Puller: Bob Webeck Stunt Double: Daniel Locicero Stunt Double: Kym Stys Still Photographer: James N. Clark Key Grip: Art Bartels Assistant Production Coordinator: Naomi Yospe Casting Associate: Marin Hope Makeup Artist: Stephanie June Johnson Unit Production Manager: Brandon Lambdin First Assistant “C” Camera: Ronnie Dennis Assistant Property Master: Sean Fong Producer: Rachel Olschan Set Decoration: Benjamin Hayden Stunt Coordinator: Kent W. Luttrell Assistant Editor: Rick Chapman Sound Designer: Mark Hailstone Dolly Grip: Todd England Nicodemus Location Manager: Robert Warberg Boom Operator: Heidi DuBose Stunt Driver: Michelle Damis Utility Stunts: Lex Damis First Assistant “A” Camera: Kyril Cvetkov Hair Department Head: Autumn Sanders Production Accountant: Colleen Emry Hairstylist: Dusti Leon Stunt Driver: Ken Clark Second Assistant Director: Devan Linforth Script Coordinator: Kerry Glover Stunt Double: Anthony Oh Makeup Artist: Tammy Brant Second Second Assistant Director: Jesse Bellis Second Second Assistant Director: James McCoy Leadman: Jason Beveridge Construction Foreman: Jarred Decker Greensman: Rick Lepinski Set Designer: Jason Raines Foley Mixer: Jean-Marie Gilles Stunt Driver: Tommy Goodwin Stunt Double: James A. Smith Second Assistant Camera: Michael Crockett Second Assistant Camera: Madison Rowley Best Boy Grip: Brian Shotzbarger Best Boy Electrician: Jeremiah Skender Costume Supervisor: Alison Carlos Set Medic: Michael Fine Set Medic: Taylor Saxon Producer: Tony Malzone Movie Reviews: offscreenbabble: I did not enjoy the movie. The trailer looked really interesting and I really like David Tennant.The movie had some strange editing choices. It’s unintentionally funny but not a movie thats so bad its fun. To give you a quick spoiler free review it’s about a valet who tries to rob David Tennant’s place. When he is about to leave he sees a woman tied up. The rest of the movie is him trying to notify the police but it becomes a “Cat and Mouse” game between the valet and David Tennant. But increasingly gets silly and overall the stuff that is s...