#had to go back and tweak my timeline ever so slightly to match up with where dany was

[velcryons]

@khalesci

She had never liked being this far inland. The sea was in her blood, and even now it called to her. On horseback, she could close her eyes and pretend the rolling waves of grass were an ocean. When the khalasar made camp, she was afforded no such comfort. Still, it was not the first sacrifice Shaera had made for her cause, and she doubted it would be the last.

Weaving through tents and campfires, it didn't take her long to reach her destination.

"Might I request an audience , Khaleesi?"

[planetaryupscaled]

Disenchanted 2: Love Affair

Male Reader x Karina

Tags: 8k, anal, cheating, creampie, oral

The story is not ours, we alternate the original story to match our desired settings.

The next couple of days were a bit of a blur as the final tweaks were done to our presentation preventing me from having a proper talk with Karina about what transpired in my office the other night. The Friday of the big presentation, dressed in a fitted cream dress, Karina strode into the board room with an air of sophistication about her.

The team had already laid out printout packs on all of the senior leader’s seats prior to today as they waited patiently outside. Karina and I were to lead the proceedings with myself giving the grittier details of our proposed launch with timelines all mapped out in the slides. Sitting at the head of the table, I was situated quite close to the right of her, driving the slides with my laptop. Karina greeted me good morning, shaking my hand and wishing me luck. Her smile was not as fully fledged as usual, maybe it was her nerves, but most likely it was due to our chance encounter the other night. I could feel the slight awkwardness in the air between us, The senior directors started entering the board room. Filled with a bunch of seasoned veterans, it was quite an intimidating environment. Nevertheless, it is what I had worked so hard for all these years, a chance to sit with the big boys as I took a deep breath and kicked things off.

“Good morning All, I am pleased to announce our plans to successfully launch our great new products into the market. In front of you all are the details regarding our target demographic, how we are going to capture their attention and hopefully break into new sectors.” I said, my voice steady as a rock, but heart beat rising fast as I took my seat, letting Karina takeover for the bigger picture view.

Karina could sense this, lightly squeezing my hand under the table giving me a nod of encouragement before standing up and powerfully delivering her piece. The remainder of the meeting went according to plan as we both gradually eased up, due to the positivity in the room regarding our pitch. At the half time break the senior directors sat around by themselves drinking coffee while Karina and I prepped the short fifteen-minute video that we planned with the team going over the different products.

“Hey, is everything cool?” I asked, in hushed tones as Karina enlarged the window on screen.

She smiled ever so slightly nodding her head.

“Off course we are, why do you ask?” She replied.

“No reason, I think it’s going well though.” I said.

“Totally, we are nailing it so hard.” Karina replied.

Hearing her say that got me all riled up, thinking about our steamy exchange the other night as she gave the thumbs up to the rest of the room, dimming the lights as the clip began to play. We both had our backs to the room as everybody went quiet watching the products presented on screen with interest. It was then I noticed Karina’s hand laying idle by her leg, her fingers nervously tapping away. I could hear the faint strikes of her fingers on the plastic seat, probably nervous about the uptake by the senior bosses as they had not seen any of the new products in this much detail before.

Grabbing her hand, I gently settled her fingers down to avoid causing a distraction for the rest of the room. Karina continued watching the video, smiling ever so slightly by the side of her mouth. This was more like it, the tension in the morning was now a distant memory as I played with her soft hands. She never pulled away, instead accepting my hand in hers as I gently stroked her wrist. Looking sideways I could see her swallow hard as my hand continued to dance on her wrist. This sudden sexual electricity between us spurred me to be bolder, even though both our integrities was on the line, I pushed forward.

“Open your legs.” I said, whispering in her ear.

There was a slight pause in her reaction as if to inwardly think if this was the right thing to do. Never the less, Karina complied lust taking over, parting her thighs just enough for me to slip my hands between her legs. Just like when she was on the phone to her husband, I started off slow, gliding my digits across her silky lingerie cupping her sex. A few gentle squeezes later had Karina creaming in my palms, her mouth parted slightly as she began to stifle her groans by sipping some water. Easing her underwear a side I could feel the warmth emanating from her cunt as I pierced her folds in one fluid motion, filling her pussy with two fingers as I began to stroke her from the inside with deep curls of my fingers. From this angle, her g-spot was not attainable, settling for clitoral stimulation instead, rubbing circles around her sensitive parts as I felt her buck slightly in her seat.

“Tell me when you’re close.” I whispered, as she nodded in agreement, gripping my hand between her legs as I finger fucked her cunt in a room full of senior directors.

The contractions from her walls were now so intense, it hurt my fingers at times as I fed her cunt more of my digits, filling her cunt with my hand as she leaked copious amounts of sex juice on to the seat. The video was coming to an end as the room began to clap, Karina now nodding, giving me the signal as I doubled my efforts fingering her tight married slit as hard and deep as I could, pinching her clit sharply as Karina climaxed in my grasp, biting down into her forearm to hide her pleasurable excitement. Slipping out from between her legs I wiped my face in her juices before dabbing myself dry with a tissue. Her scent was delectable as we both turned around slightly flushed.

“I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did.” She said beaming, her cheeks slightly red.

They all applauded with gusto, as we gave our closing speech and wrapped up the proceedings collapsing in our chairs as they left the room.

“Phew...that was intense.” I said with a smile.

“Really…was it? was it intense?” Karina said sarcastically punching me in the arm.

“I cannot believe you did that.” She said.

“Did you like it?” I asked smiling.

“That’s not the point...” She started.

“Yes, yes, you are married and such...” I chimed in.

“It’s NOT funny.” she said, holding back a smirk.

“Seriously.” She followed up, regaining some sort of composure.

“I have a favor to ask.” Karina said grinning.

“You have a favor to ask me?” I replied mockingly.

“Yes, Jaewook wants me to invite you over for dinner tomorrow night to celebrate the successful launch of our products.” She said.

“Sounds ominous.” I replied, scratching my head.

“Yeah, I don’t buy it either, he has always felt a little threatened with other guys.” Karina replied.

“Do you blame him?” I said raising my eyes and smelling my hand, still fresh from between her legs.

“That’s not fair...” Karina replied not finding my quip funny.

“Just behave...ok?” She said, her eyes pleading.

I nodded, taking down her address and walking out to tell the team of our success. Treating them to a lunch out, the three nattered endlessly about how it was the hardest they had ever worked and how proud they were. It was good team bonding, yet all I could think about was Karina and my up-and-coming visit to the residence.

—

That night of the dinner came around soon enough, fixing myself up last minute style in the office toilet.

“Hey man, heard you are off to the Boss’s house today?” Yeonjun said from behind me.

“Ehem.” I replied.

He had a major thing for Karina, but then again so did most red-blooded males. If only he knew what we had been up to, it would have blown his mind. I liked Yeonjun, very comical, a bit like Nayoung but with less sting in his tail. Smiling I nodded, running my fingers through my hair as I pondered tonight’s events.

“Hey boss...don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Yeonjun called out as I left.

“I’m a Saint.” I called back, walking down the stairs and into the carpark.

Karina was already there, as she popped the passenger lock open and welcomed me with her trademark smile.

“You good?” She said, backing the car up and exiting onto the main road.

“I’m great, you?” I said with a slight chuckle.

“Don’t laugh...this is a big deal, we rarely have guests over.” Karina said.

“God, does he plan to kill me and get rid of the body?” I said sarcastically.

“It’s not him you should be worried about.” Karina hit back in jest.

“Ohh kinky.” I replied.

“Seriously Minho, you said you would behave.” Karina said pleading with me.

“Ok ok...best behavior...promise.” I said smiling.

To be honest, I had no idea what she was so worried about. Jaewook and I got on like a house on fire the moment I stepped in. It almost made me feel bad about my relationship with Karina...almost. After getting introduced to the kids during dinner we played a family friendly boardgames before the adults retired to the study and talked all things...well, adult.

Part of me wanted to carry on with the boardgames, teasing Karina under the table with my hands was a delight as I watched her hold her nerve in front of the family. It did not go without consequence however as after the games her warm demeanor was slightly icy towards me, breaking my promise so early into the evening. The couple sat on the couch all snuggled up with a bottle of wine while I sat in the armchair perusing the family album. Jaewook gave me the lowdown of how the two met and even showed me a few pictures form their recent family holiday. I tried my best to stay engage, nodding and smiling when required as we necked down yet another bottle of wine.

“Hey man, why don’t you stay the night?” Jaewook said, his words slightly slurred at this point.

I looked at Karina slightly taken aback, almost waiting for the green light.

“Why are you looking at her, I am the boss here.” He said laughing.

Karina punched his arm clearly not liking his derogatory statement.

“You guys do what you want, I’m going to put the kids to bed.” She said, without making eye contact with either of us.

“Ok...” I said chuckling.

“Eh she gets like that sometimes, I think work is stressing her out a bit.” Jaewook said.

“Yeah, it has been busy, she is really thorough.” I replied.

I could not help slipping in innuendos here and there as Jaewook showed me to the guest bedroom. It was bigger than my flat, literally.

“Hey, tomorrow, we can shoot some hoops out back, have a good evening.” He said closing the door behind him.

I did not see Karina again till around 12 midnight. I had just finished up in the bathroom when I heard light whisperings from the hallway. Feeling a little curious I turned off my bedroom light sneaking a peak outside. It was coming from the couple’s bedroom which was tantalizingly ajar. I felt a sudden jolt of jealousy as my over active imagination pictured what was going on in there.

“Jaewook...seriously not tonight.” I heard Karina say.

“Seriously you’re drunk.” She followed up.

“Babe c’mon, just a quickie, you promised.” Jaewook replied, his words barely coherent.

“C’mon Karina...” He said.

I peeked in seeing Karina reluctantly take off her nightgown to reveal a matching brown set of underwear. Part of me wanted to step in there and stop the whole thing as she clearly wasn’t interested.

“Bend over for me...” Jaewook slurred.

Karina scrunched her face up slightly, giving up in defeat as she bent over on all fours on the side of the bed. Despite my jealousy, the view from her was exquisite. I could perfectly make out the lips of her pussy surrounded by her tight tanned rear as she jutted it out and stared forward. At this angle I could see the expressionless look on Karina’s face as Jaewook unzipped his trousers and eased himself forward.

“Jaewook...be gentle.” Karina said.

Her face screwed up the moment Jaewook penetrated her folds, grunting awkwardly as he thrust himself deep inside her cunt. Jaewook gripped her by hips gently rocking back and forth as he impaled his wife on his length, gritting his teeth as he bottomed out. I could see Karina close her eyes, a slight groan escaping her lips as I felt my own cock grow in my trousers. Watching the elicit scene pan out in front of me gave me a wicked idea. My pangs of envy were over turned by how aroused I was in the moment watching Jaewook raise one of Karina’s legs up in his arms and fuck her long and deep with steady strokes, his balls slapping hard against her rear as she yelped in muffled moans. Sweat was now forming on my brow as I went for my phone, flipping the camera on and filming the whole ordeal. Karina’s breast now exposed as I stared at her tight frame in the mirror, swaying with each pump of her husband’s cock.

“Babe...I’m gonna cum...” Jaewook moaned, his voice now ragged and slurred as he slipped out of her entrance.

She was moist, her slit now glimmering in the moonlight as her husband motioned for her to suck his straining cock. Karina shook her head, instead pushing back on his length taking his cock back inside her slick womb.

“Jaewook we spoke about this...I don’t like that.” Karina frowned looking back.

It was at this point she saw me standing in the doorway, her mouth ready to say something before Jaewook moaned in protest at not getting what he wanted, shoving his spurting length deep inside her once more.

“Babe...ohh...” Jaewook moaned, releasing his pent up load inside his wife.

Karina stared at me in utter shock as I stayed a few moments more, watching Jaewook twitch his hips while releasing his load deep inside her cunt. I had seen enough, my arousal now turning back to jealousy as I walked back to my room. I could slight mumblings coming from the couple’s bedroom as I settled into bed, my mind racing at what I had just seen and done. It took a couple of moments to realize that someone was opening the door. The creak of the hinges giving it away as I sat up in the bed. It was Karina, a look of fury on her face.

“Did you have a good look?” She asked, clearly displeased with my actions.

“Looked like you were enjoying yourself.” I replied curtly.

“Are you actually mad at me?” Karina hit back, picking up on my tone.

I shrugged, flicking through my phone.

“You better delete that, delete it right now!” She said in anger, walking over to me and snatching my phone.

She was quick, managing to wrestle it from my grasp as she pressed delete on my phone.

“For god sake.” I said in frustration.

“I am the one who should be pissed...for filming me.” She said.

She was right, but I had too much envy to care, pushing her of me as I walked to the bathroom.

“Are you not going to talk to me now?” She asked.

“No, I just need a pee.” I replied.

“Ha ha...” Karina said sarcastically.

It was hard to be mad at her for too long, I knew she could not really say no in that moment. Shrugging my shoulders I looked at her.

“That was hard to watch.” I said, hanging my head.

“Look- he’s my husband...I can’t...” Karina started.

“No I mean, I got really hard watching all that.” I said smirking.

“Pff...you are such an ass.” Karina replied, a smile appearing before breaking into a laugh.

“I see you were telling the truth about not swallowing.” I said smiling longingly at her.

“I... can be quite selective.” She said, closing the gap.

Karina had changed into a purple nightie, her black lingerie visible underneath, hugging her pert breasts.

“You up for swallowing now?” I asked stroking her face.

She looked at me with the same seductive stare that she had on her face moments before taking me into her mouth in my office that fate full night.

“Is that a yes? I followed up, unclasping her nightie and letting it fall to the ground.

Karina shrugged her shoulders smirking at me as I massaged her soft breasts, rolling her nipples between my fingers as she shut her eyes, resting her head on my chest.

“What if I film it?” I said.

Her eyes shot open, her head about to shake before I cut her off with a kiss.

“You owe me a video.” I said, massaging her pussy through her laced underwear as I set up the camera to oversee the bed.

Karina wore a less then impressed look, staring at me with raised eyebrows as I took a seat on the edge of the bed.

“Dance for me...” I whispered.

Just on cue, her momentary hesitation was over ridden by her inner desires, swaying her hips as she stood in front of my face legs shoulder width apart. I watched in awe as she turned her tight frame around and bent over at the waist, slapping her hands across her pussy and ass for me as I watched in wonder.

“Fuck me Karina.” I said under my breath as she turned around to face me, straddling my lap as the camera continued rolling.

Gripping her hips I clawed at her underwear, ripping a hole in her panties, much to the pleasure of Karina, yelping at the forced intrusion of my fingers into her wanting snatch.

“Ughhh...” Karina moaned under her breath.

She rocked her hips on my hands as I fed her more of my fingers, taking her erect areola between my lips and suckling on her breasts. The smell of her perfume invaded my nostrils again as I threw her on the bed, easing open her smooth pale legs. We locked eyes, knowing full well what each other wanted as she reached forward, freeing my cock. Staring at my tip for a few seconds, Karina speared her pink tongue out, licking up my slit before sucking me deep into her moist mouth. The warmth of her oral cavity was mind blowing, feeling her breath flow across my sensitive cock while she slathered the underside of my shaft with her saliva. My dick glistened in the light as I slipped out from between her perfect lips.

“I’m gonna- fuck you so hard...” I said, whispering in her ear as I eased myself between her legs.

Karina responded by locking her thighs around my waist, pulling my ass into her as I penetrated her cunt in one fluid motion.

“Ughhh...” Karina moaned, her teeth digging into my shoulder as I began to thrust into her moist depths with hard pumps.

Karina was a sight to behold, watching her pert tits bounce up with each push of my hips. My cock spearing her wet folds as I bottomed out in her married cunt, my tip rubbing tantalizingly against her cervix smearing her pink walls with my pre cum. Gripping my back even harder, she pulled me in for a deep kiss, our tongues clashing as she sucked on my bottom lip, eyes rolling back into her head as we mated passionately on the brushed cotton covers. I could feel her pussy closing in on my shaft as I pumped my slick shaft inside her moist pussy, repeatedly slapping my balls against her inner thighs.

“Fuckk- Harder...Harder.” Karina screamed into my shoulder.

“Ughhh...Right...There...” She chanted in my ear.

Her screams now laced in desperation as we rolled over so she was on top, legs spread wide as the once an idol rode my straining cock like her life depended on it.

Sweat was streaming down her face as she gyrated her hips feeding her wanting pussy more of my meat as I gripped her supple hips and thrust myself upwards, stuffing her married cunt with as much meat as possible. Running her hands through her hair, Karina wailed in hushed ecstasy, desperate to get off as I felt her tremble on top of me. She was close, writhing in pleasure as she dipped her slick pussy deeper onto my length, swallowing me whole as her entire body convulsed, squeezing down on my shaft as I began to pulse.

As if perfectly timed, Karina held me tight, her hips still rolling in my lap as I spurt my load inside her marital cunt. Each spurt growing in strength as I painted her insides with my thick, sticky seed, my warmth spreading to every corner of her womb as my sperm dribbled out from the sides of her slit. Her lips tasted like sex as Karina rolled off me, immediately taking my semi spurting cock between her lips and sucking down my excess spunk. I could see her actively swallow down gulps of my seed, as she increased pressure around my crown with her mouth, hoovering me up with her perfectly full lips. We stayed like this for the next ten minutes as Karina continued giving me her expertly executed fellatio, making me grow in her mouth before popping me out and fisting my shaft with her soft hands.

“Have you ever taken it in the ass?” I asked, kissing her, slipping my tongue into her wanting mouth.

Karina smiled seductively, shaking her head as I eased her onto her front, running my hands down her back.

“Face down...ass up...” I said, whispering in her ear.

Karina complied, moaning into the covers as I speared her cunt with one long deep thrust, coating my shaft with enough of her pussy cream to lubricate my cock for her virgin ass hole. Hovering the tip just above her rosebud I pushed forward, my crown breaking through and into her tight ass. She felt sensational, the way her anal walls sucked at my shaft as I penetrated her asshole was almost as good as releasing my seed inside her married pussy. Grabbing a fistful of her hair, I gently pulled her up, fucking into her ass with hard thrusts. My balls were slapping up against her rear, now red raw as I stuffed my cock deep into her anal cavity while frigging her slippery sex. Karina joined my hands, attacking her sex with circular rubs of her clit while I fingered her slit with deep strokes, reaching her g-spot as I pumped her rump full of cock.

“Fuck... nghhh…unhhh...” She wailed.

I had to cover her mouth now smeared with her cream as I fucked her up her tender ass, stretching her anal cavity out with my meat as my sack began to churn. Karina was cumming, writhing and flexing around my shaft as her groans became more pronounced, wild, feral feeling me violate her tightest hole over and over again. It was getting too much for her as she buried her face down into the pillow screaming as her climax hit.

“Ughh...nghhh...Fuckk...” Karina wailed into the sheets.

I could not hold on much longer.

“Karina...I’m- I’m close...” I moaned.

“Ass...cum in my ass...” She replied breathlessly, grinding her rump against my hips as she felt me pulse inside her.

It was the point of no return as the tightness of her ass tipped me over the edge as a torrent of spunk exploded from my tip, peppering her anal cavity in my sticky salty mess. I continued to thrust my cock deep inside her bowls, pumping more of my sperm into her asshole as we collapsed on the bed exhausted. We lay like this for a while, our combined juices leaking out her spent crack, milking the last bits of my pearly seed from my cock as she tensed her anal cavity one last time.

“Fuck… me...” I replied, worn out.

Karina turned around, smiling, kissing me softly on the lips as she sunk back down into the bed and shut her eyes.

“Thats quite the director’s debut.” She said smiling, falling asleep beside me as my camera continued to roll.

—

There was a faint rustling sound the next morning emanating from the far corner of the room. Opening my eyes to adjust to the sunlight piercing through the window a tall man stood up with some fabric in his hands. I rubbed my face to get a clearer view, was it Jaewook coming in to take me out due to railing his wife in his own house. That idea seemed preposterous even by my standards as the figure came into focus.

“Hey man, sorry for barging in like this, I store some of my clothes in here, the missus has a lot if you catch my drift.” Jaewook said with a grin.

“Did you sleep well?” He asked.

“Yeah...it was- very nice, thanks...” I replied smiling.

I could still feel the faint stickiness on my crotch from last night’s events, probably a concoction of Karina’s pussy cream and my pent up load coalesced into one thick mess now smeared all over my inner thighs. Flashes of Karina writhing in my arms were on playback in my mind as Jaewook went on about some charity event of sorts.

“So, are you in?” He asked with a smile.

“Emm...” I replied, before Karina knocked on the door and entered.

“Breakfast is ready, if you guys want to come down.” She said smiling at both of us.

Our gaze knowingly connected for a split second, her eyes sending me subliminal messages of our passionate fuck fest a few hours ago. Hobbling out slightly she shut the door behind her leaving me alone with Jaewook.

“She’s a bit worn out.” He said.

“Got lucky last night if you know what I mean.” He followed up with a laugh.

I don’t know if it was just me, but Jaewook had seemed to take a liking to me, almost as if we were best buds. I mean I thought it was kind of strange, maybe he did not have many male friends, nevertheless it wouldn’t hurt to keep him close, especially with what Karina and I were up to. I feigned a laugh, good enough not to sound fake to appease Jaewook’s lack of comment.

“So, the Charity event today, you in? It would be good to have someone to chat to, these things Karina sponsors can get a little dry.” He said.

“I- well...it’s weekend...I was planning to...” I started.

“C'mon man, do me a favor and I will put in a good word for you with the missus, put you in good stead for work.” He said.

“Ok...ok...fine...just let me get fixed up and I will meet you guys there.” I replied, to a relieved Jaewook.

It boggled my mind as to why he was so desperate for me to come as I finished washing my face and descended the stairs into the kitchen.

“Breakfast?” Karina said, pouring me a cup of coffee as I took a seat.

“Sure, that would be good.” I replied eyeing her up in her flattering summer dress.

Karina caught my stares, shooing me away playfully while the kids were watching TV. Our little moment disrupted the moment Jaewook walked in kissing Karina on the cheek, discretely squeezing her rear as he walked by. I caught the distaste in Karina’s face as she handed me a plate with some toast.

“Sorry.” she mouthed.

There was a distinct smell of freshly baked bread in the air, reminding me of my holiday in France the previous year. At which point I was engaged at the time. Not many people knew about this, in many respects, Karina and I were quite similar like that, guarded when it came to our personal lives. In the end it did not work out due to my work schedule taking more and more of my time away from her, in the end we went our separate ways, just a few months before landing this new job.

“So Jaewook tells me you are joining us today.” Karina said.

“Yeah...is that OK? I replied.

“Sure, the more the merrier, plus it will give Jaewook someone to talk to, he doesn’t really like these things.” Karina said.

It made it seem that Karina would be pretty busy at this event which was in support for a charity that her kids school led. I was assured it was not a big deal as my attempts to get changed at home into something more fitting was rebuffed by Karina, insisting we had no time. She kindly let me borrow an old tee she must have been given from SM Company all those years ago. It was a guy top so fitted fine, quite low key in black with a small insignia in the top left-hand side.

I sat up front with Jaewook as Karina and the kids were in the back. The aroma from Karina’s perfume wafted upstream in the car as I took in a deep hit of her scent. I could see her grinning at me in the back seat on occasion while her husband and I talked about real estate. It was one of those conversations that you have to burn time, a bit like talking about the weather.

“So guys, we will take the kids around the Carnival while you do your charity stuff, OK babe?” Jaewook said as he parked the SUV up front.

“Jaewook I told you I need you for the photo op.” Karina said slightly irritated.

“Can’t you take Minho over there spin it as some company thing?” He said.

“Well no, it’s meant to be a school led thing Jaewook.” Karina said frowning.

“Fine fine.” Jaewook replied getting out the car and walking with the kids to the entrance.

“Are you ok?” I asked, Sensing her irritation.

“Ahh he’s always like this, all he has to do is take a picture and be done with it.” She replied huffing.

“To be fair some people are camera shy.” I replied whipping out my phone and taking a quick selfie with her behind the car.

We kissed momentarily, like a teenage couple hiding their affections from their parents, sneaking in a quick squeeze of her ass under her flowing dress.

“Hey...hands...Mister...we might get caught.” Karina protested meekly.

I smiled kissing her and previewing the photo we just took.

“So... how did the video come out?” Karina asked, her voice laced in curiosity.

“Ahem...it came out well...maybe I can show you later?” I replied with a wink.

Karina smiled seductively, nodding her head as we joined the rest at the front. Jaewook had already splashed out on cotton candy waving us over as he fed Karina a hand full of the pink stuff. I milled around, letting the Lee family do their thing as they were descended upon immediately by important looking school officials and the like. Come to think of it I could see what Jaewook was talking about, neither he or the kids looked like they enjoyed the attention, Karina didn’t either but she was well versed by now in how to handle these things.

Watching on as they took their mandatory pictures while shaking important people’s hands in the process, I caught the gaze of Jaewook making his way through the crowd. He had left the kids with the family of one of their close friends to jump on some of the rides while me and him hit the bar for a quick drink.

“You ok to drink with driving us back and all?” I asked.

The previous night did not inspire me with confidence as he necked down a few bottles of wine a few hours ago. Shrugging it off we clinked glasses.

“Just one, it won’t hurt.” He said, taking a long sip from his cup.

“So, tell me about you, you seeing anyone? I have been to a few of Karina’s work do’s and that Nayoung girl is quite something.” Jaewook said.

“Yeah, she is in my team, she is nice.” I replied, making conversation.

“Too right.” Jaewook replied, his mind wondering off in the distance.

Downing the rest of the cup, he ordered another pint and took a sip.

“Mate I think, maybe we should slow down with the drinking.” I said, concerned about getting in the car with an intoxicated driver.

“God you sound like Karina.” He replied.

Something in his voice giving off a little bit of resentment.

“That doesn’t sound well...are you guys ok?” I asked.

It was obvious to me that everything was not great, given the fact that I was balls deep inside Karina the night before, how could they be? It was just interesting for lack of a better word to see his point of view.

“Well, we have hit a rocky patch for the past...I would say year and a half.” Jaewook said glumly.

I just nodded, giving him time to reflect as he continued his monologue.

“I dunno...over the past months or so Karina and I have drifted apart, almost like we are going through the motions. We have talked about it but she keeps saying she is fine, it almost makes me think if there is another guy.” He said.

I sighed, resting my hand on his shoulder, knowing full well I was that other guy. It was a dick move on my part but I had no other option but to try and ease his fears, even if I knew they were well warranted.

“You know, it’s probably the stresses of work, she has a demanding job.” I replied.

“Yeah I know, it’s just- maybe it’s me...maybe I need to spice things up a bit.” He said, looking at me for answers.

I shrugged my shoulders and gave that awkward half smile with mouth closed look.

“Maybe...or maybe you just need to give her more time to get through all these product launches and what not, I am sure it will work out in the end mate.” I said patting him on the back.

“Thanks Minho...for the chat, it means a lot.” Jaewook replied.

I did feel horrible in that moment as he downed the last bit of his pint only to catch the eye of Karina behind us, her expression less than impressed.

“Seriously Jaewook, beer, right now?” Her tone hushed but livid.

I gave the signal to tone it down a bit and drop the issue to no avail as the two argued by the stall ramping up to the point that Karina stormed off.

“For god sake.” She said, brushing past me in a hurry.

“Jaewook...is everything...I mean...” I started.

“Yeah...its fine, I will ask our friends to drop the kids back home later, do you want a lift with them too?” He asked.

“Its fine, I can take a cab...what about you two?” I asked.

“Ahh I will give her some time to cool off then we can drive back later.” He said.

“Listen, can you keep everything I said between us?” Jaewook followed up, his face quite sombre and downbeat.

“Yeah sure...and I mean if there is anything I can do, just give me a shout.” I said.

“I appreciate it, sorry again for this mess you have walked in on.” Jaewook said apologizing.

I waved my arm making no big deal of it before shaking his hand and giving my thanks for having me over. We parted ways a few moments after, me saying my goodbyes as I made my way to the cab ranks. Jaewook stayed at the bar for another pint before saying he was going to look for Karina. I had advised him not to have another but he just shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head, ordering another round.

The situation was a bit messy to be honest and it looked like I was the catalyst for this shit storm as walked past the carrousel. I saw Karina’s kids on it having fun, their faces not showing any care in the world, yet all the while their parents were at war, with me in the middle stoking the fire.

“Hey...” A familiar voice said.

It was Karina, she was watching the kids from one of the quieter stalls as they enjoyed themselves on the ride.

“Is everything...” I started, before she started sobbing in my arms.

“It’s a mess Minho.” She said, tears flowing onto my chest as I inadvertently took in another hit of her sweet perfume.

“Listen- I know...it’s complicated” I replied, taking her around back so her kids would not see their mother crying.

Karina dabbed at her cheeks with a tissue, smiling at me as she hit my arm.

“You have not helped the situation.” She said, half smiling.

“I am so sorry.” I replied, cupping her face.

“Gosh no- you’re not.” She said, her smile turning into a grin.

“Well- I mean...it really, really feels good to be with you.” I replied in jest.

“It has its perks.” Karina replied, coming in for another hug.

I held her in my arms stroking her hair as the kids moved onto another ride being chaperoned by the family friend. It felt great holding Karina in my arms as her breathing returned to normal, tears all dried up, pulling me in for a deep kiss.

“Thank you.” She said, holding my hand.

“No worries, besides tears don’t look good on you.” I said, making light of the matter.

“Is it not selfie material?” Karina said laughing.

“Speaking of which selfie?” I asked, snapping away as we stared at the camera.

I snuck in a few kisses while we took the picture, turning into a fully-fledged kiss.

“Wait- wait...the kids.” Karina said breathlessly.

We checked around the corner, seeing them on the bumper cars.

“Its fine they are having fun.” I said.

“But- we can’t...what if we get caught? Karina said.

It was funny as she said those words because her mouth was saying one thing but her body say another thing entirely as she rested her hands on my crotch.

“Why don’t we check out the video from last night?” I suggested, diverting her attention from our public make out session.

She raised her eyebrows, letting me have my way as she rested in my arms and pressed play. The first few minutes were of her dancing, grinding on my lap before escalating into a heated exchange. I noticed her breathing deepen as the video continued, a bead of sweat trickling down her neck as she began to perspire. The combination of her perfume and natural scent sending me into a primal mode as I drifted my hands down her waist and along the outside of her thighs. Karina, yelped at the intrusion but didn’t move away, instead staring at the screen intently as I penetrated the shit out of her ass on screen. The video Karina looking directly into the camera lens as she came hard on my cock buried deep in her rump.

Watching the sordid affair unfold on screen set something off within her as she leant back on me and guided my hand between her legs, sighing at my touch as my fingers gently rubbed at her sex.

She was wearing a cheeky thong as I eased the silky fabric aside, making a beeline for her now moist slit. She was still watching the video, moaning gently as her eyes stayed glued to my phone, watching herself suckle on my spurting cock as she drank down the last few drops of my essence.

Karina was now over the edge, dropping my phone in the grass as she rubbed her ass on my crotch. My shaft nestled nicely in between her cheeks as she reached back, unzipping my trousers and fishing out my cock. Her hands were cold to the touch, jacking my warm dick in her palms as I pierced her labia with my fingers. It was my go-to, slide as far as I could go inside her cunt to reach her sacred g-spot. I rubbed at it like there was no tomorrow, the sloshing noises Karina made from between her legs was such a turn on as I rubbed at her clit with my other hand.

“Fuck...Minho...” She moaned into my ear, shutting her eyes as I penetrated her sex with my fingers.

I dug my fingers in deeper, making her yelp as I continued to stretch her tight walls out with my hands, adding a third finger as I cupped her sex with long, hard penetrative strokes.

Her eyes were a haze now, gripping my cock with ferocity and pumping me hard behind her back, I wanted to be inside her so bad, but her climax was approaching. I could feel it in the way her body tensed up, her chest heaving, taking in the spring air as she began to hyper ventilate, bucking her hips as I fingered her pussy. It was a mess, her cream was all over my palm as I gave her one last deep fuck with my fingers, making her scream into my neck as her thighs shook, cunt convulsing around my digits her orgasm overwhelming her entire body.

“Ohhh...Shittt...” Karina screamed.

I basically gave her no time to rest as I flipped her around and bent her over at the waist as she assumed position.

“Where do you want me?” I asked her, rubbing my leaking tip along her slit, encircling her rosebud.

Karina looked back, biting her lips, our eyes locking onto each other as she seductively whispered.

“Both...”

It was music to my ears as the mother of three bent forward, grasping a large metal pole in the ground. It was a sign that said, entry here which made me chuckle as I rammed my cock forward, spearing her tight cunt in one fluid motion. Her tightness was unparalleled as Karina flexed her pussy walls to engulf my cock with each thrust of my hips. She was creaming all over my shaft as my balls slapped up against the underside of her thighs, making her jump each time I made contact. Slipping my hands around her tight rear, I inserted my thumb into her delectable ass, feeling her anal cavity hug my finger as I gripped her ass and penetrated her married cunt.

“Ughhh- don’t stop...don’t- stop…give it to me.” Karina wailed, biting her arm to mask her screams.

I could feel her cervix rubbing up against my crown each time I pumped into her wanting pussy, stretching her out as I pounded her with my slick. She was close, clawing at the metal pole as I mercilessly rammed my dick inside her pink walls, her moans now cries as the public walked by unknowingly, the risk of it all making our heated fuck even more of a turn on.

“Cum- i’m...cumming...” Karina moaned, her back tensing as she braced her core, pushing back on me as I felt her spasm on my crotch.

It was like a wave of pleasure hit her, her hips twitching continuously as her pussy juice leaked profusely down her pale thighs. The smell of Karina’s perfume, now replaced with the scent of sex and sweat, hair now stuck to the front of her forehead as I doubled down, not letting her recover. Slipping out of her sopping wet pussy with a pop, I reached under her left leg lifting it up.

She knew what was coming, my cock now suitably lubricated in her natural juices I pressed my tip against her rosebud, pushing forward until all of my cock was buried in her tight ass hole.

“ohh- ughh...fuckk…” Karina moaned as the intrusion.

My cock nestled snugly in her asshole as I began to pump my hips. Each thrust allowing me to get deeper into her anal cavity as I held her leg high, hitting her nice and deep, filling her out. It felt better than last night, watching her rump now red raw as each slap of my pelvis against her rump caused shockwaves to travel across her body, so much so that her right breast popped out of her dress. Taking full advantage of this I reached forward, pinching her pert nipples while massaging her perfect breasts. We were fucking in unison, her rear accepting my cock with ease as I violated her anally. The mother of three rolling her head back to accept my tongue into her mouth, clenching her ass muscles each time I filled her.

“God Karina, you feel amazing... “ I moaned into her mouth.

“Do it- fucking...do…it- shove it in...harder- harder...” Karina chanted.

It was getting hard to keep the force of my thrusts up as I dropped her legs and gripped her hips, fucking my cock deep into her bowels as Karina went onto her tip toes. We were a mess of sweaty limbs as I felt my balls pulse, it was nearly time as I leant forward kissing her nape with my lips before licking the entirety of her nape.

“Where- where do you want it, Babe.” I asked.

“Babe...?” She replied smiling.

“I want it in my mouth- I want you in my mouth.” Karina said, underlining the fact.

I was in the thralls of euphoria, giving her ass one final pump, stuffing her ass with as much meat as she could take before withdrawing with a pop and easing the brunette to her knees. She wasted no time at all, pumping my cock with both hands while her lips encapsulated my tip. Her tongue ran up and down my slit taking in my pre cum before sucking my length down whole with her mouth, deep throating me as I brushed her tonsils. It was a seedy sightseeing Karina, a married woman with three kids, feed on my cock like her life depended on it. Her children must be a mere few feet away from us, but she didn’t stop, extending her tongue as she focused in on my balls, sucking at my sack with her tender lips, my shaft now coated in her sticky saliva. I was close, tipping over the edge the moment Karina sucked on both of my balls at the same time, filling her mouth with my sack as she pumped my cock.

“Karina...” I exclaimed.

The first spurt hit her in the forehead, dribbling down her cheek before she recovered and managed to slip me into her mouth. My cum flowing in full force, giving her what she wanted, what she needed as my seed showered her oral cavity in all its sticky and salty goodness. It was if as could not stop cumming, my cock kept spraying her warm mouth with my sperm as she looked up at me, my seed now covering her left eye as she swallowed everything I could give.

“Mmmm...Uhmm” Karina hummed on my shaft, sucking me bone dry before wiping the excess from her face and slurping that down too.

“Lush...” Was all she could say, getting up to her feet as she kissed me up my body.

“Feel better?” I asked, putting my dick back into my pants.

“Hundred times...” She replied, pulling me into a deep embrace.

The saltiness of my spunk was still present on her lips as I took in the sodium hit, biting her bottom lip as I grabbed a hand full of her ass.

“Mum...!” One of her kids shouted.

She gave me a knowing look, kissing my cheek as she emerged sneakily from behind the stall.

“Hey honey...Mama’s here, where’s daddy?” Karina said.

Daddy is right here, I thought, as I pictured the ravishing woman bent over on my wanting cock once more. Turning the corner, I made my way to the cab rank, a smile of satisfaction written all over my face. Until I see her again...

[gothic-safari-clown]

The Mind’s Power Over the Body

Part 21: The Mind’s Power Over the Body

Story summary: They only ever had each other. It had been that way since high school, ever since Elianna transferred to dreary Arlen and took Jonathan under her wing. They go separate ways for college, and when they're reunited at Arkham Asylum professionally, Elianna comes to find that they've both changed during their time separated. Can she look past the promise of danger and stay by Jonathan's side as they slide further and further into the darkness while she grapples to come to terms with the truth about herself? Can she accept what needs to be done in order to hold onto the only person who holds any meaning in her life? This is a very self-indulgent AU that draws from several different canons of the DCU and ignoring others, starting in the Batman Begins Nolanverse. This will follow the plot of the movie, although the timeline has been very slightly tweaked.

Word count: 1522

Ooh, the chapter title is the same as the fic title 

Elianna could not have been more proud of her mask. She had spent every second of her free time measuring and adjusting and sewing and sending Jonathan to the store to get what she needed: something he found tedious, she was sure.

Either way, she had gotten it finished with one day to spare, and she was positively giddy. Even Jonathan had seemed impressed, and from what she could tell by what he had said, Scarecrow was thrilled with her dedication to the fear project. When she had finished, Jonathan had surprised her with a fear gas sleeve rig like his, and she was aching for the chance to use both of her new toys.

It was getting dark out when Jonathan came into her office, looking annoyed.

"Rachel Dawes is on her way here," he monotoned, making her frown. She had yet to meet Dawes, but she had been causing trouble for them from the start.

"Why?"

"Apparently," he began with a sigh, removing the doorstopper to let it swing closed, "she disagrees with the fact that Falcone got moved here. She finds his mental break suspicious."

"She's really up on her white horse, huh?" Jonathan scoffed in response.

"Either way, she might back off if she thinks I have a second opinion on this case. Are you up for a little acting?"

"Absolutely. What's the plan for if she doesn't buy it?"

"You have your mask on you?" El nodded, fondly remembering Jonathan talking her through making the false bottom of her briefcase.

"We match now!"

"Yes, we do. Just make sure it closes all the way when you're done with it."

"Good, she'll be here in a little under an hour. And we're the only ones here besides the orderlies, so I just got Falcone's men downstairs to supervise. Hopefully, everything will be able to go smoothly tomorrow."

"I'm sure it will just focus on the task at hand."

El had been surprised when Jonathan told her that he had managed to pay off some of Falcone's thugs to be loyal to them, and more than a little suspicious. But after meeting them and working with them for a few days, she was actually very grateful that she and Jonathan had people to delegate to for the last few days of work.

.xXx.

Dawes ended up arriving much earlier than projected, which only served to irritate Jonathan further. The entire walk to Falcone's cell was spent with him practically fuming and El becoming more and more curious about just how annoying one person could actually be.

"Miss Dawes, this is most irregular," Jonathan spoke as they approached, not giving the woman a chance to get the first word in. El caught on to the energy and jumped in before the other woman could get a word out.

"I'm Doctor Montgomery, I've been consulting on this case, and I speak for both of us when I say that we have nothing further to add to the report we filed with the judge."

"I have some questions about your report."

"Such as?" Jonathan challenged while El arranged her face into what she hoped was something patient and expectant. God, she really is tiresome.

"Isn't it convenient for a fifty-two-year-old man who had no history of mental illness to suddenly have a complete psychotic breakdown just when he's about to be indicted?" She had a fair point, but El made sure to keep her face impassive.

"Well, as you can see for yourself, there's nothing convenient about his symptoms." Oh dear, he's getting pissed. The woman didn't have a response planned for that, so she turned her attention stubbornly back to the man behind the glass, who was muttering to himself.

"What's 'scarecrow?'" The brunette fired off. El took it upon herself to reply so that Jonathan wouldn't snap.

"Patients suffering from delusional episodes often focus their paranoia on an external tormentor," she explained, doing her best to keep her voice pleasant and collegial. "Usually one conforming to Jungian archetypes. In this case," she gestured to the glass, "a scarecrow."

"And he's drugged?" This question seemed to amuse Jonathan.

"Psychopharmacology is my primary field. I'm a strong advocate." The thought of Jonathan being an 'advocate' for anything nearly made El laugh. "Outside, he was a giant. In here, only the mind can grant you power." Dawes shifted her eyes between the pair through narrowed eyes.

"You two enjoy the reversal." Jonathan allowed himself a mildly amused smile if only for a second.

"Doctor Montgomery and I respect the mind's power over the body." El nodded in agreement.

"It's why we do what we do," she smiled, keeping up her friendly persona. She was hoping that if she did her part properly, maybe it would lessen the suspicion on Jonathan, but it didn't seem to work. In fact, Dawes sent a scowl in her direction.

"I do what I do to keep thugs like Falcone behind bars, not in therapy." With that, she breezed past them toward the elevator. Jonathan and El shared a look, knowing what had to happen next. She was still talking as they turned to catch up with her. "I want my own psychiatric consultant to have full access to Falcone, including bloodwork. Find out exactly what you two put him on." El rolled her eyes, thankful that the Dawes's back was still turned to her.

"First thing tomorrow then," Jonathan sighed as they flanked her at the elevator doors, knowing what had to come next.

"Tonight," she charged into the elevator ahead of them, and El suddenly understood very well why Jonathan and Scarecrow seemed to hate the brunette so much. She herself was struggling not to choke her out right there in the elevator. "I've already paged Doctor Lehmann at County General" as if they were supposed to know who that was. Maybe Jonathan did, but judging by his lack of reaction, probably not.

Jonathan inserting his key to take them to the basement didn't go unnoticed by the redhead, but Dawes didn't seem to catch it. "As you wish," he forced out through gritted teeth as the door closed behind them.

Dawes gave Elianna a questioning look when the doors opened to reveal the basement, to which El replied with a reassuring smile.

"This way, please," Jonathan directed, leading them into the hallway. "There's something I think you should see."

The one thing that El didn't understand was how they would get her through the secret panel in the closet. She was going over different scenarios in her head when Jonathan passed the door and instead approached a larger one at the end of the hallway where it turned and pushed the double doors open dramatically.

They all came forward to stand on a balcony overlooking the workroom that El had grown familiar with, one level above where the secret panel led out. She understood now why they took the other way: the stairs going from the level they were standing on to the next level down had been taken out.

The redhead watched the dawning horror on the attorney's face as she took in what was happening as Jonathan spoke again.

"This is where we make the medicine." No, not Jonathan. It was subtle, but once she heard it, it was unmistakable. That was Scarecrow mimicking Jonathan's voice. Dawes was too shocked to notice the slight change in cadence, and her gaze was affixed to an inmate pouring a drum of the toxin directly into a busted open water pipe.

Not just any inmate either. Zsasz. Feeling someone watching him, he looked up in curiosity; when he saw El standing there, he shuddered and quickly turned back to what he was doing, his breath coming in broken gasps as he remembered something he would rather not. Elianna grinned when she saw Rachel make the connection and snap her head to look at her. "You-!" she managed to gasp out.

"Me," El confirmed with a wink. A low chuckle drew their attention back to the bespectacled man beside them.

"Perhaps you should have some, Miss Dawes. Clear your head." The brunette woman bolted for the elevator, and the two leftover partners in crime shared a look. Scarecrow smiled at El, a full smile; something she had never seen from Jonathan. It was sort of nice to see, and she smiled back as Scarecrow produced his face fluidly from their briefcase.

Rachel had reached the elevator. Luckily for the scheming pair, it wouldn't budge without the basement key. All Rachel managed to see when the elevator doors opened again were two masks, one burlap and one that seemed to be lined on the outside with faux leather, fashioned into a long, sleek beak.

Then, a cloud of gas—fired at the same time that she gasped in fear—and she coughed as the gas entered her lungs. When she looked back up, the masks had been distorted and twisted, oozing from the holes and crawling with...god, something. It didn't matter because they each seized an arm and dragged her back out of the elevator before her thoughts dissolved completely.

[thorne93]

Inside the Criminal Mind (Part 8)

Prompt: You’re married to Dr. Spencer Reid of the BAU, and are a distinguished doctor yourself on the team. You’re sent down to Miami, Florida for teaching and as a side request from the FBI, to investigate a string of missing persons. When you think you’ve figured out who the unsub is, your life becomes more complicated than you ever could’ve imagined.

Word Count: 1241

Warnings: (throughout the fic –>) death, blood, gore, killings, language, disturbing mental notions, mentions of rapes/murder/etc (You know, Dexter and Criminal Minds related business)

Notes: Thank you so much to @arrow-guy​​​​, @carryonmyswansong​​​​, and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​ - without each of you, I couldn’t have finished, written, or properly navigated this story. Each of you helped me fish out details that were incredibly important to me. Beta’d by @carryonmyswansong​​​​ and @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​… Aesthetic by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​

This is a crossover of Criminal Minds x Dexter. First time writing Dexter.

Also, the timeline is after Season 1 of Dexter, but during season 14-ish of Criminal minds into Season 15. Enjoy!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A morning before your classes, your phone rang, the screen indicating it was your husband. A warm smile grew on your face and you answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, sweetie,” Spence greeted. “Are you in class?”

“No, not yet. I’ve got about another hour. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I wanted to let you know I got home last night. I got in late though, so I didn’t want to bother you.”

“So you solved the case?” you said, happily.

“Yep. It was actually the first victim’s brother.”

“Interesting, but that makes sense.”

“Hey, I wanted to let you know, I went ahead and called a place to come paint the bathroom and kitchen. I know you’d picked out the colors. I thought I might as well do it while you’re not here and I’m out on cases.”

This gesture reminded you of one of the many reasons you loved Spence to begin with. He was always thinking ahead and doing incredibly nice things for you. And here you were, about to kill behind his back, embarking on a second life he would know nothing about. 

“That’s great. Thank you. I can’t wait to see it when I get back.”

“Speaking of coming back, Rossi’s wedding is next weekend, can you make it?” 

“Yeah, absolutely. I can leave right after class and be up there.” 

Truth be told, you hadn’t seen Spence at all since you’d gotten down here. You never video chatted and making it up on the weekends just wasn’t an option when it came to Dexter’s teachings. 

But Rossi’s wedding wasn’t something you could get out of, not that you wanted to, but you only had so much time to learn absolutely everything for pulling off the perfect crime. 

“It’ll be so good to see you. I know the team’s missed you.” 

“I miss them too, and I really do miss you. It’s just that packing up to head up and come back would be expensive and exhausting and leaves little time for grading papers--”

In a soft voice, he assured, “It’s fine, Y/N. it’s me, remember. I know how hard it is to juggle being a professor and a profiler. We knew finding time together would be hard when you took this job, but it’s okay. We’ll survive it. It’s just a few more months. I’ll see you during Rossi’s wedding, and we have all of spring break.”

A sigh of relief came from you. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll have plenty of time together.” 

“Oh, shoot, Garcia just called in case. Got to go. I love you! Have a good day.”

“You too.”

With that, you hung up and got ready for class.

----------------

“So what do you have for me tonight?” you asked when you entered Dexter’s apartment.

“We’re going on our first stake out,” he said with a raise of his eyebrows.

“Sounds exciting,” you stated. “Do I need to wear anything special?” 

“Nope, what you’re in is fine. I’m just going to show you how I get them.” 

“So is this your hunting outfit?” you asked, gesturing to his olive green shirt and matching pants.

“What? Oh, I guess, yeah.”

“Long sleeves, in Miami… That doesn’t stick out,” you retorted with a snide expression.

“Clearly I’ve caught no one’s attention so far,” he remarked.

“Touche.” 

“Okay, let’s go.” 

The two of you walked out and went to Dexter’s car before driving off.

“So who’s the target?” 

 “Local chef. People go to his restaurant and about a week later, they die.” 

“He’s poisoning a whole restaurant and no one is noticing?” you balked. 

“He chooses plates randomly and only does about one dish a week.” 

“That’s awful.” 

“Yes, it is. So, we need to stalk him, figure out his pattern, and strike when he’s vulnerable.”

“Sounds… tedious.”

“It is.” 

After a moment passed between you two, Dexter had found the restaurant he was looking for and parked in the back parking lot.

“So now what?”

“Now, we wait. We clock the time he comes out, how long he takes to pull away, and follow him.” 

“Ugh, even as a criminal, I have to deal with stakeouts.”

Dexter turned to look at you briefly. “Hey, the food can be alright.”

“Ah, yes, the lovely diet of fast food burgers and gas station burritos, what fond memories.” 

“Let me get you some real stakeout food before you knock it,” he encouraged.

You threw up your hands in surrender. “Fine, fine.”

The two of you watched the door in silence for five minutes before Dexter asked, “So, who do you want to be your targets?” 

“Hadn’t thought about it much really. If I do criminals that I arrested and that got off, might throw up a red flag.”

“True. What about criminals other teams have caught?” he offered.

“Still too close to home. Actually, if I’m being honest, animal abusers.”

He broke his focus on the back door to turn to you. “Really?”

Your eyes slid to his. “Yep.”

“Out of everyone in the world, you choose--”

“They don’t have anyone that can fight for them. People come by the droves to speak for kids. People rally together for women. Animals literally have no voice, they’re defenseless things that couldn’t have done or harmed anyone and some fucknut out there wanted to hurt them.” 

He seemed shocked, but didn’t argue with you. “Wow. Okay, so… animal abusers it is. And method?”

“Eye for an eye.”

“You realize that will be tedious, risky?” 

“No more risky than you running around Miami in a Henley and leather gloves,” you pointed out with a coy grin. 

“Haha, very funny. I’m serious though. You’ll have to suffocate, stab, shoot, strangle…”

“I have no problem with that,” you assured.

He bobbed his head. “Fair enough.” 

“I can tweak the cause of death if it’s too obvious but I’d really like to do that.”

“Hey, according to you and your area of expertise your MO can’t be changed.”

At this, it was your turn to roll your eyes. “Okay, I get it, you think my job’s a joke.” 

“I think the theories you blindly put your faith into is a joke, not your job.” 

“Thank you for clarifying that.”

A metal door slammed shut and you jumped. Dexter looked up. “That’s him.”

The two of you sat and watched for a short while, then suddenly, the silent chase was on. 

----------------------------------------

The following morning, you called your work to report back to them. 

“Ah, Special Agent Reid,” Director Robertson said into the phone. “So good to hear from you. I was starting to worry you’d become one of the missing persons.”

You laughed slightly at the thinly veiled acknowledgement of your slacking.

“Right, I apologize. School has kept me rather busy. I’ve just got done interviewing the families.”

“And?” she urged.

“And there isn’t a lot to go on, from them at least. I’m not done though. I’ve still got plenty more leads to follow.”

“Make it work. I’d like a suspect before you return from Miami, if at all possible. If any agent can crack the case, it’s you.”

“Thank you,” you said. You sighed when you hung up. This could be a huge career move for you, if you just gave them Dexter’s name.

But he didn’t deserve that. He deserved to be left alone. Right now, you were the only thing standing between Dexter and prison, and you intended to keep it that way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tagging:

Forever Tag:

@essie1876​​​​​

@magpiegirl80​​​​​

@letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked​​​​​

@iamwarrenspeace​

@marvel-imagines-yes-please​

@superwholocked527

@missinstantgratification​​

@thejemersoninferno​​​​​

@rda1989​​​​​

@munlis​​​​​

@thefridgeismybestie​​​​​

@bubblyanarocks3​​​​​

@igiveupicantthinkofausername​​​​​

@kaliforniacoastalteens​​​​​

@feelmyroarrrr​​​​​​

@kaeling

@friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo​​​​​

@damalseer​​​​​

@heyitscam99​​​​​

@yknott81​​​​​

@thelittlebigirl​​​​​

@glitterquadricorn​​​​​

@xxqueenofisolationxx

@little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama

@bittersweetunicorm​​​​​

@alyssaj23​​​​​

@sea040561​​​​​

@princess76179​​​​​

@thisismysecrethappyplace​​​​​

@sarahp879​​​​​

@malfoysqueen14​​​​​

@ellallheart​​​​​

@breezy1415​​​​​

@marvelmayo​​​​​

@paintballkid711​​​​​

Spencer Reid

@camigt1999​​​​​

@ultrarebelheart​​​​​

@lenawiinchester​​​​​

@esoltis280​

[fic-for-fic-sake]

A Harsh Reality

A/N: So this is a historical fanfic, WW2 era Bucky Barnes and biracial black reader. Reader is part of the 6888 troop of the WAC. Timelines are obviously tweaked. Chapter one can be found here. 

Warnings: None

Pairing: Bucky x biracial black reader

“So you wanna tell me what’s in the bag?” Bucky questioned, leading you down the stairs in a somewhat underwhelming building. 

“How about you tell me where we’re going first.” You retorted, hearing your steps echo out in the stairwell. He had to have led you down at least three flights of stairs so far and you weren’t sure how much longer it would take. He stopped and looked up and you and lifted his face in another disarming smile of his. Damn, he was smooth. 

“I’m takin’ you to the most famous war room in Europe.” He responded, eyes twinkling in mirth. But whatever the joke was, you certainly didn’t get it. 

“Unless the Big Three are behind that door, I seriously doubt that.” You responded, relieved to finally be at the bottom of the stairwell. You let out a breath as you unbuttoned your jacket, sweat beginning to trickle down your face despite the cool temperature outside. 

“Oh, sugar you have no idea do you?” Bucky questioned, as he put in a pin on the access panel and waited for the door to unlock before he stepped inside, ushering for you to follow. You looked around the war room and your jaw dropped. Low hanging lights provided the only source of illumination in the otherwise grim bunker atmosphere. Women working at switchboards frantically moved back and forth, wires poised and at the ready. Other’s sat transcribing telegraph messages that were coming through. You saw men standing around a war table and your jaw dropped at who was front and center, none other than Captain America himself. 

The drawings and comics you saw truly didn’t do him justice. He was every bit the strapping golden boy he should be. Broad shoulders that perfectly fit out his army uniform, blond hair swooped with pride, yet his grim expression didn’t match what he represented for the folks back home. You guessed the war was a lot harder when you weren’t punching Adolf Hitler in the face every day. 

You felt a presence on your left side and you turned to find Bucky staring at you, a cocksure grin playing on his face. “You want me to introduce you?” He questioned, voice loud enough only for your ears. 

“What?” You gasped, “No that’s not necessary. I’m only here for the mail, I’m sure he’s a busy man.” 

“Hey Stevie! I’ve got someone I want you to meet.” Bucky yelled over your protests. But how did he know Captain America and why was he talking to him like they were pals? Before you could properly admonish Bucky, Steve looked up and he made his way over to where the two of you stood, all his worries visibly melting away when he laid eyes on Bucky. 

“Steve, this is Private Y/N Y/L/N of the Women’s 6 triple 8, Y/N I’m sure you don’t need me to introduce you to the amazing Captain America.” Bucky boasted, much to Steve’s behest. Steve just rolled his eyes at his friend before he extended his hand for you to shake. You took it, absolutely at a loss for words at the man standing in front of you. 

“Hi  sir, uh Captain, uh Mr. America.” You babbled, face flushing instantly as you continued to pump his hand in yours, it’s a good thing he was strong otherwise you may have taken his arm clean off. 

“Steve’s fine.” He chuckled as he retracted his hand from your assault. “Did Bucky say the 6 triple 8?” 

“Yes sir, uh I mean Steve.” You replied, pulling your satchel from off of your shoulder and opening it so that both men could see the contents. Hundreds of letters of varying size and shape sat inside, waiting to be opened. 

“Amazing, I’m sure Colonel Phillips would love to take a look at these.” Steve explained, guiding you over to the opposite side of the room, away from Bucky. 

“C’mon Stevie, let her have a little fun before you send her off to the old fart.” Bucky complained, calling after Steve as he took you towards the Colonel. Steve just shook his head as he continued to guide you. It was amazing, in a matter of minutes you went from someone confused on the streets of London to now being inside a war bunker with none other than Captain America himself, this day truly couldn’t get any stranger. 

“Colonel, this is Private Y/L/N, with the 6 triple 8.” Steve explained, before giving you and Colonel Phillips his farewell. 

“I’ve been expecting you.” The Colonel began, “follow me.” Colonel Phillips led you to a side room that was equally as overwhelming as the first. The stone walls were lined with hundreds of cubby holes, all marked with the name of an individual soldier. “I know you’ve got a lot of mail to sort through so I won’t take up too much of your time. Just put the envelopes in the corresponding slots, if it’s marked to me put it in a separate pile, if it’s marked ‘urgent’ bring it to me straight away.” He explained, before he closed the door on his way out and left you to your own devices. 

The room was quieter but didn’t work too hard to muffle the sounds from the rest of the bunker. You could still hear the telltale sounds of phone’s ringing, switchboards working, and people typing. The smell of cigar smoke wafted its way through the cracks in the door and you tried your best to see in the low lighting provided. You heaved a sigh as you opened your bag and began to work, filing letters into their assigned cubbies. At first they were just names, just paper, but after awhile it dawned on you that each name was a soldier with a story and each piece of paper was like a lifeline for these men. Their reason for waking up in the morning and surviving this godforsaken war. 

You felt tears prick your eyes as you continued your work, going from cubby to cubby. Some soldiers had a lot of letters, some had few, and some had none. Probably the most shocking soldier with no letters was one Steven Grant Rogers. Did Captain America really have nobody looking out for him? There were thousands of letters in the warehouse, you held out hope that at least one of those was for him, somewhere. Nobody could stand to be in this war alone. You kept moving and after a little bit you found yourself let out a chuckle every time you got an envelope addressed to James Buchanan Barnes. He, apparently, was very popular. 

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” You mused to yourself, putting another letter in his slot. 

“Why doesn’t what surprise you?” Bucky’s voice questioned, carrying across the small room. You jumped, having not expected his intrusion. 

“Sergeant Barnes, you frightened me.” You gasped, placing your hand over your heart in an attempt to calm your rapid breaths. 

“Sorry doll, didn’t mean to, jus’ wanted to check on ya, and call me Bucky.” He replied, leaning against the metal desk in the corner. 

“Well, that’s very sweet of you but I can assure you I’m doin’ just fine.” You replied, giving him a quick look over your shoulder before you went back to sorting and as soon as you looked you wished you hadn’t. He had taken off his jacket and was left in his button down shirt, but he had taken off his tie and rolled up his sleeves to just below his elbows. His hair was slightly out of place, as if he had run his hands through it several times. He truly was the most beautiful person you had ever seen. 

“Like what you see?” He asked cheekily, spreading his arms out wide as if on display. You quickly turned back around and continued to hurriedly place mail in slots, becoming flustered. 

“Why’d you come in here anyway?” You questioned, back turned to him. 

“I told you, to check on you.” He repeated, as you felt the presence of his warm body closely behind yours. You held in your breath, afraid to make any sudden movements, as he brought his arm around you and pulled his letters out of his cubby. “And to ask you somethin’.” He breathed. 

“What?” You asked, turning around ever so gently to face him. His hand was resting against the letter boxes and he had you trapped between him and the wall. Your back pressed into the cubbies as you stared into his blue eyes, wearing an emotion that you couldn’t quite read. 

He smoothed an invisible piece of hair behind your ears before he spoke his next words carefully, almost a whisper so you had to incline further into him to really listen. “See if you wanted to go to the dancehall tonight. A bunch of us are goin.” He explained, and the spell was broken. You weaved your way under his arm and walked to the metal desk and placed the letters you had for Colonel Phillips on the desk with a thud. 

“I can’t.” 

“Why?” 

“We’ve got a curfew.” You began to explain, hoping he would let it go, but he didn’t. 

“So do we, but I’m sure one dance won’t hurt.” He reasoned, stepping around to the other side of the desk to meet your eyes once more. 

“I don’t, I, I don’t think they’ll accept my kind.” You replied, eyes downcast, having to say that out loud. How did this happen? You were just supposed to be sorting mail for crying out loud, and now you’re once again met with the harsh reality that was your life. There was nothing more you wanted than to go to the dancehall with Bucky but you knew it would be separate dancehalls, you wouldn’t be welcome at Bucky’s and he wouldn’t dare go to yours. 

“Doll, is that what you’re worried about?” Bucky questioned, joining your hand with his on the cool table. “They don’t care about that stuff here, it’s different.” He said, earnest eyes meeting yours. 

“What are you talking about?” You questioned, not understanding what he meant. 

“Up in Liverpool, American troops tried to segregate blacks and whites and the Brits were havin’ none of it. We’re not in America, it’s different here.” He said once more, hoping you would understand. Your heart lifted, even if only fractionally. You had heard rumors but you didn’t think it applied to such a cosmopolitan city as London. Bucky saw your resolve breaking, and he pounced on the opportunity. “Dancehall, seven pm, don’t be late.” He said as he walked towards the exit. 

“I didn’t even say I was going!” You tried to argue with him. 

“Didn’t have to.” Bucky replied with another cheeky wink before he was out the door and you were left with your letters once again. 

Tags: @perrythefrickinplatypus 

[edenfalling]

[Fic] “Frog Hunt” -- Homestuck

Summary: SBURB is not turning out anything like you'd hoped, and your game session may be broken. Which is a problem, because you can't go back to Earth -- last you checked, it's busy being an apocalyptic wasteland -- and judging by your most recent dreams, the rest of the Medium beyond your little Incipisphere is an equally apocalyptic wasteland of ghosts and horrorterrors. The only way out is through. You have to win the game.

Winning SBURB requires frogs.

Note: I started this fic way back in 2012, hit Jade's horrorterror dreams, and had no idea where to go from there. Last week it occurred to me that actually the horrorterror dreams made a perfectly reasonable ending, provided I filled in a missing middle scene, established an emotional/thematic through-line, and tweaked stuff until the new parts played nice with the old ones. So I did. :) [2,325 words]

--------------------------------------------- Frog Hunt ---------------------------------------------

SBURB is not turning out anything like you'd hoped. You wanted to see your friends in person, go on cool adventures, and save the world. You guess technically the cool adventure part is happening? But it turns out that being in the middle of an adventure is mostly very upsetting and dangerous.

Also your game session may be broken. Which is a problem, because you can't go back to Earth -- last you checked, it's busy being an apocalyptic wasteland -- and judging by your most recent dreams, the rest of the Medium beyond your little Incipisphere is an equally apocalyptic wasteland of ghosts and horrorterrors. The only way out is through. You have to win the game.

Winning SBURB requires frogs.

You have a lot of pointed questions to ask whoever designed the symbolism behind this process.

You also have no idea what you're doing. Zoology is not your thing! Botany and rocket science are your things!

But you've done crazier things in the name of friendship than breed magic universe-creating frogs. And this time you'll have Dave by your side, even if all he can help you can do is win the Olympic gold medal for synchronized flipping out, which might as well be a thing now since Earth is gone and if anyone ever reestablishes the Olympics it will be you and you can stick in any sports you feel like.

That analogy may have gotten away from you a little. You decide to preemptively consider it Dave's fault, and send him another message asking for an ETA.

"Kanaya says we won't have enough time to collect all the frogs, let alone raise them and do the breeding and mutation stuff. Not even if we yank Rose and John into the project, and especially not with just you and me," you tell him when he shows up in person, popping out of nowhere with two discs floating at his side. They look a little like Grandpa's old vinyl records, but with red gears turning underneath them. "Not that you aren't helpful! But there's only so many seconds until disaster."

Dave arches the backs of his hands, fingertips still ghosting over the ridges of his floating record thingies. "Harley, c'mon, work with me here. What's my aspect?"

You blink. Oh. Time travel, durr. Okay, possibly your flipping out was a little premature. "Whoops, forgot that! Potentially infinite seconds, yay recycling. So how are we doing this?"

Dave shrugs, letting the records vanish back into his sylladex. "We have limited absolute time, basically from when I got your house up to reasonable height to, let's say, an hour before whatever runs us off the rails goes critical. So we have to maximize our use of space -- duplicate this ectobiowhatthefuck setup and run an assload of slime zapper tadpole tanks at once. I'm thinking one on each of the top ten floors of your house. We'll do one floor on each master loop so we don't keep running into each other. Mark the space and time coordinates for each croaker we target, then head out to poke them or whatever literally the second after we zap them, take notes on any other frogs that look useful, and move down a floor and back in time to start again."

"What about breeding?" you ask.

You think Dave frowns. It's hard to read his expression behind his shades, but he doesn't guard his posture as much as his face. "Whoops, forgot that. Uh, let's say every third floor and third loop is for breeding and mutation games. Shouldn't be too hard, especially if we whip up a regular appearifier. They don't have these bullshit temporal lock restrictions."

"Sounds like a plan," you say. "Let's get everything set up and start breeding!"

Dave's discombobulated expression is so faint and brief that if you'd blinked, you would have missed it. Hmmm, you think to yourself. Maybe...? But no, you probably just reminded him of something one of the trolls said. They can be so bizarre sometimes.

"Time to rock and roll," Dave says, and you shake off your daydream and get to work.

---------------

It turns out that ectobiology is actually very simple! You don't need to know genetics or metaphysical zoology, which you were a little worried about. You just need to zap frogs and run their ghost slime through the game-provided machines until you hit a gene combination that pings a little automated reward mechanism. Scanning for useful frogs is a little trickier, since you get the reward ping for any potentially useful gene sequence even if it's one you already have on file -- you have to weed out the duplicates manually, which is time-consuming and a total pain.

Creating hundreds of potential paradoxes to make sure the appearifier grabs slime instead of actual frogs is also time-consuming and a total pain.

It would be simplest to just shoot the frogs, but first of all, that's mean, and second of all, it would probably screw up LOFAF's ecology to storm around wiping out its native fauna less than an hour after thawing them out in the first place. If you had a dart gun you could trust not to mangle the frogs on impact, maybe you could stun them for a few minutes. Unfortunately, all of Grandpa's guns (and by extension, all of your guns) are designed to shoot projectiles straight through solid objects and totally fuck up their day. Which means that instead of perching in a tree like a cool and sexy sniper, you are galumphing around on the ground, hot and sticky and covered in a gross combination of mud and panicked frog secretions. Ugh.

"I look like a swamp zombie, don't I?" you say before you can think better of the words.

"Yeah, but in a cute monster-girl way," Dave says. "I'm just a scarecrow that got left out in the rain and turned into a mold sculpture."

You look over at him just as a clump of mud and moss slides down the left lens of his shades. "Um. No comment." You are determinedly not noticing that he said you're cute. Nope. Completely thought-free zone over here, nothing but genetics and logistics, which everyone knows require no brain power at all.

Dave shakes his head in faux solemnity. "Tragic. Faced with the death and destruction of my awesome good looks and you can't even dredge up a "That's sad"? I am betrayed. I am devastated. I am--"

"--still cute underneath the glop, stop fishing for compliments," you interrupt, and are furiously grateful for the mud hiding your blush. Stupid Dave and his stupid... everything. Why do you even like him? He's such a butt.

Of course, all your friends are kind of jerks. Possibly there's something miscalibrated about your friend-finding radar. Or possibly you're also a jerk? Hmm. That's something to ask Rose about, whenever you finally get to see in her person.

You will get to see her in person. You refuse to acknowledge any other possibility.

"Ouch," Dave says, but the corner of his mouth quirks up just a degree. "Damned by faint praise. I guess I'd better step up my frog-napping skills, can't let my dashing good looks outweigh my knightly swag. Speaking of which, have we been standing still long enough for that little orange fucker to stick his head out?"

You glance around, then down, then up. There's a tiny flash of color just over-- you shift slightly-- yep, right there on the tree by Dave's shoulder. "Um. Yeah. Just... keep standing still. Really still."

"Making like a tree, yes ma'am Sergeant Harley ma'am," Dave says as you inch slowly toward him through the muck between the tree roots. "It's right behind me, isn't it? Getting all ready for a jump scare, gonna leap out and poison me to death with its slimy frog toes, alas, Horatio, here dies a fellow of infinite memes, taken from us too--"

You lunge.

You catch the frog.

You also knock yourself and Dave flat into the muck. His shades knock into your forehead. Your own glasses skew against his nose. Your left knee is jammed between his shins and his belt buckle is digging into your stomach.

Your mouth is right up against his chin. If you moved just an inch or two...

"Ooh, Miz Harley," Dave says, somewhat breathless.

"Oh, shut up," you say, and shove the frog into your sylladex as you scramble back to your feet. "Look who's talking, Mister Swamp Thing."

Then you bend down to yank Dave up, too, because fair is fair.

---------------

By the fourth loop you're ready to drop from exhaustion and the weird, indefinable tension of actually being around one of your friends in person instead of getting to mediate your interactions through computers. "I don't care how tight the schedule is. I'm starting to see double and I'm taking a goddamn nap," you tell Dave as you drop to the floor and lean back against the wall. You lay your rifle across your lap and keep your hands carefully away from the trigger. You know your temper sharpens when you're tired, and Grandpa taught you never to take chances with guns.

Dave frowns, and you know he's tired too because this time you can see his mouth curve downward to match the annoyed set of his shoulders and the fuck-you shove of his hands into his pockets. "The more loops we run, the harder it is to keep shit from falling apart," he says. "You that eager to trip into a doomed timeline? I can go back and hit reset anytime, easy as cake and pie and banana splits, but every screwup costs one dead Dave and one Jade abandoned in a dead-end universe. I don't even know if that you would get erased or keep on living until you go shithive maggots."

He's been talking to the trolls too, you remember, especially the teal one who uses l33tsp34k. He says her name is Terezi. She's been running time loops with him too. He likes her a lot.

You are not jealous. That would be stupid. You are not stupid; therefore you are not jealous. QED.

"The more tired we are, the harder it is to keep from screwing up," you say. "We're creating a whole new universe and we'll have to live there after we win the game. It's kind of important, Dave!"

Dave presses his back against the wall and slides down to join you on the hard tile floor. "We're not gonna win the game, you know. There is literally no way to do that. The game was borked from before the word go was a twinkle in its druggie teen mom's eye."

"Maybe this session's broken," you agree. "But that doesn't mean we can't find a way to cheat, and even if we lose, I'd rather lose trying my hardest instead of half-assing shit because I was so tired I fell asleep while operating complicated machines."

Dave sighs. "Yeah, okay. Naptime. But not here. This is a work floor; we've gotta keep it clear for work loops. We'll go crash further down." He taps your shoe with his own. "Up and at 'em, Harley, let's go hit that transportalizer."

You groan and haul yourself to your feet.

The obvious place for a nap would be your bedroom, but then where would you sleep on the next loop? Anyway, you only have one bed and it'd feel... presumptuous? pushy? maybe just go with awkward. Yeah. It would be awkward to share it with Dave, especially without John and Rose there as well to clarify that it's strictly a friend thing.

So you alchemize an armful of blankets and pillows and make a little nest in one of the hundreds of blank, identical stories Dave copied from the real-world part of your house. It's still a little weird sharing the space -- Dave is so close you can feel him breathe, every exhale stirring stray wisps of hair over your ears -- but you think you could get used to this.

You think maybe you want to get used to this.

"Sweet dreams, Jade," Dave mutters as he flops over onto his side, one hand curled loosely around the hilt of his sword.

"You too," you tell him, before you remember he's just going to wake up on Derse as his dreamself, still stuck in this stupid, lying, Möbius tangle of a game. And you're going back to those weird bubbles in the monster-filled void. Neither of you can get free until you finish Frankensteining your magic frog and beat an unwinnable game.

"Heroes always beat million to one odds in stories," you say to nobody in particular. "Why not us?"

Dave mumbles something unintelligible in response, already mostly asleep.

You wiggle sideways until your shoulder brushes up against his, so the warmth of his body radiates through the thin blanket onto you and your warmth feeds back into him. He's alive. You're both alive. Somewhere else in the Incipisphere, John and Rose are (you hope) also still alive.

You would do anything to make sure your friends make it out of SBURB, to a new world safe from meteors and monsters and predestination. Anything.

You dream of bloody, mangled ghosts, groping desperately toward you for salvation while you stand frozen under the horrorterrors' incomprehensible regard.

In the dream, you imagine yourself reaching for Dave's hand. You imagine him weaving his fingers between yours. You imagine Rose and John standing beside you. You imagine all four of you stepping through a door into a new universe.

If you imagine something with all your heart, that makes it a tiny bit less fake, and being less fake means it's at least a little bit real.

The pressure of the horrorterrors' attention attenuates, just that vital fraction.

You turn away from the ghosts and think of frogs.

---------------------------------------------

End of Fic

---------------------------------------------

If anyone has constructive commentary, I am all ears! Also I am going to bed soon, because being awake is overrated and also I took a Benadryl in order to eat a BLT for dinner, so, you know, probably better to lie down than to slowly drift off in front of my computer. *wry*

[not-poignant]

So, in writing chapters out of order (particularly for Game Theory): what was it like when you got to the point where the chapter matched the current story timeline? Did you ever have to do major edits to get things to match up with previous/current events? Were there ever things that you liked but had to scrap completely? Was it ever hard to add things necessary for continuity? (Like: 'Oh, I love the flow of this chapter, but I have to add this thing, where can I put it, oh no?)

Hiya anon!,

Mostly it was pretty fun and challenging. I mean this could just be me, but if someone doesn’t like the parts where they have to problem solve / resolve / and refine the writing to make it better, writing may not ever be one of those things they really love. So for me, that kind of stuff was actually like, idk, you know when you feel satisfied after problem solving something? It’s that feeling. A good feeling. Worth the frustration that sometimes happens in the interim.

Like, there were definitely things I had to scrap. There were whole swathes of dialogue in particular that didn’t work anymore (back in the day, I actually used to share those moments as extras to people). Integrating new information somewhere is always possible, and sometimes easier than you think. And for continuity, I have to tweak things all the time anyway. The Ice Plague is pretty major for that, which is why I need the 10 chapter buffer, there’s just so many balls in the air that continuity issues are inevitable, so I need to go back and forward all the time shifting things very slightly to make sure it’s all working.

And I often think it should be happening anyway even if you’re writing in order - stories do change and evolve. Especially for longer stories. It happened for The Court of Five Thrones, it’s happened for The Golden Age that Never Was (I have actually gone back and edited and altered things many times, I just don’t say I’m doing that lol because it’s meant to be unobtrusive and make the earlier chapters flow better). Like, even if you’re a ‘clean’ writer (i.e. not someone who needs to gut/hack most drafts to pieces to get something you like), like I am, the characters and the plot shift enough that I need to pay attention to it and change aspects as necessary.

I think it’s less necessary for shorts / oneshots / shorter long-stories etc. I haven’t needed to do it a ton for Blackwood because that’s only 90k.

It’s amazing how many things I really like that I have to scrap though. Sometimes they just don’t end up fitting how the character’s developed, sometimes they’re too gloomy or hopeful for the tone of the chapter (like, ‘don’t start a fight three chapters before a book will end’ lol). I mostly just remove and put them in a document and save them to look over sometimes. And I look over them on occasion, mostly for nostalgia’s sake, to remember where I was thinking of pushing a story or character before I changed my mind. :)

[recentanimenews]

Chiyoko Fujiwara Has Come Unstuck in Time: Reveling in the fractured, nonlinear surrealism of Satoshi Kon’s <cite>Millennium Actress</cite>.

This week I had the pleasure of seeing the late Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress in the theater. It’s not just my favorite anime movie but my favorite film of all time, so I’m ecstatic to see that the anime market in the US has grown so much that we can get widespread screenings of Kon’s films, including this one and Perfect Blue. With Millennium Actress fresh on my mind, it seems to me like a perfect time to once again sing the praises of this sublime, quietly breathtaking film.

Lots of films and TV shows follow multiple timelines. There’s the ping-ponging intrigue of Memento, the flash-back-and-forward structure of True Detective and Lost, and the Guy Ritchie-inspired anime series Baccano! But Millennium Actress’s multiple timelines are a completely different breed. The film isn’t a puzzle box to be deciphered, with all its loose ends linked up with their corresponding pieces. It’s a hall of mirrors to be explored, with images bent and reflected endlessly into the distance. Millennium Actress depicts three timelines of vastly different scale and scope, interleaved into one another: the life of its titular heroine Chiyoko, the history of Japanese filmmaking, and the history of Japan itself.

Chiyoko’s timeline plays back relatively consistently, moving forward in time as we watch her age from a newborn to an elderly woman, always searching for the man who gave her a mysterious key one snowy day. Her journey through the world of Japanese film follows a similarly linear progression. It’s when Kon throws the history of Japan into the mix that time begins to distort. Movies can transport you to any place and time, and Chiyoko’s films, by bouncing back and forth between medieval period pieces, modern dramas, and science fiction set in the far-flung future, do just that. The history isn’t just covered by the movies themselves either, but also by Chiyoko’s lived experience, which covers the turbulent history of 20th century Japan. Chiyoko simultaneously exists in all of these time periods at once, immortalized on screen. It’s in this sense that she is a “millennium” actress — trapped in a thousand years of solitude, cursed to replay her tragic love story for all time.

In short, Chiyoko has come “unstuck in time,” the condition described by Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse Five in which his protagonist Billy Pilgrim experiences moments from the past, present, and future seemingly at random. The allusion wouldn’t have been lost on Satoshi Kon, who repeatedly professed his love for George Roy Hill’s Slaughterhouse Five film adaptation. That single film had an immense influence on all of Kon’s work — Hill’s heavy use of match cuts in particular.

Match cuts, in which one scene transitions to another using one or multiple shared elements, were a favorite of Kon’s across his entire career, and Millennium Actress is a masterclass in the device. Earthquakes, a frequent subject of the cuts, jolt characters out of reverie and back to reality while connecting with Chiyoko’s statement early in the film that her life is tied to earthquakes. Doors also feature heavily, helping to carry the audience between major scene changes, as when the door of a derailed train suddenly leads to a feudal battlefield.

Most important of all, however, is the climactic scene with Chiyoko running to meet the man she’s been chasing after. The entire film is structured around this moment, with seemingly one-off shots — Chiyoko slipping and falling in the snow, her friends laughing about her first love — blending together into a single continuous scene. Though each of these shots is separated by decades of her life, they form a unified whole. We see Chiyoko’s entire life at once, in flattened, non-linear time.

There‘s a temptation, especially among American moviegoers, to explain all of this, to come up with a rational scientific reason for it. “It’s Chiyoko’s memories,” “it’s her mind playing tricks on her,” things like that. This does a disservice to what Kon is trying to achieve. Nearly every scene in Chiyoko’s past is patently impossible, even if you ignore the presence of documentary filmmaker Genya and his cameraman in the flashbacks. She has conversations about her personal life while in character for a film, making specific references to her cherished key and the man she’s after that are obviously not intended to be literal parts of her movie scripts.

In one scene, she’s cleaning her home and finds where her husband hid the key, only for Kon to zoom out and show the entire domestic scene as merely a set, with no camera crew in sight. Are we to believe that the key was hidden inside the set and Chiyoko was cleaning this fake home like a dutiful housewife when she found it? Of course not. What we’re seeing is a bit of reality and a bit of fantasy, placed in a box together and shaken up. Re-separating the parts and labeling them as “fact” or “fiction” is meaningless and detracts from Kon’s message.

That message is one that should connect with anyone who has ever fallen deeply in love with a great story. It’s the conviction that stories are what keep us going, whether they are real or fake or some unknowable mix of the two. And it’s a quintessentially Satoshi Kon insight that when we tell ourselves the stories of our own lives, we are always creating a fiction – inspired by reality but tweaked ever so slightly to grant us that much more clarity and purpose.

Millennium Actress is in theaters in the US for a limited time thanks to Eleven Arts and Fathom Events. Tickets for the Monday, August 19 screening, featuring a brand new English dub, are still available.

Chiyoko Fujiwara Has Come Unstuck in Time originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on August 16, 2019 at 4:51 PM.

By: Evan Minto

[bbcmyhero]

Old Man Riverdance

Episode 5, here we go. 

First up, George’s mistake in ruining the movie shoot gets him the most Southern “Bless Your Heart” I can offer. (For those not in the know, that’s the shadiest thing you can say about a person, but occasionally it can also be a little fond.) Also, in his own ridiculous way, he’s got a point about his height on tv vs his height as a toy.

Did Tyler hallucinate Godzilla, or did he have some sort of memory slip?

I’m loving the world building and normalization of all the alien weirdness with the talk of the retirement home for superheroes. But, if George’s dad was the first Thermoman, and stationed on Earth, why is George so continually clueless? It makes for funny fish-out-of-water moments, but doesn’t always make much sense.

And I have made that same conversational mistake, thinking the person was building off my last sentence when they were asking about something three sentences back.

Three seconds late for visiting, and George is very sternly reprimanded for it. And, as we see, Seamus is prone to criticizing and picking apart every little thing George does until he starts to screw up all his rescues. I know the overly-strict thing is just the Ultron way, but it’s interesting to see that all the parents we know about were terrible, and the different ways everyone turned out because of it.

Mrs Raven had a literally criminally insane mother, who she actually fears, and is clearly an abusive mother in her own right despite mentioning on several occasions that she fears her children. Going by their headstart at a life of crime, and the fact that mother later on is “just released” from somewhere, Mrs Raven may be the only one of the lot to be living anything remotely like an honest life. And that’s not saying a lot considering all her schemes and fond reminiscence about being the school bully.

Janet had a domineering mother and a henpecked father who made each other miserable, but nonetheless turned out a caring mother. Thanks, I’m sure, to having at least one parent who was more prone to doting and spoiling than criticizing. But, interestingly enough, despite the fact that Janet has a very complicated love/hate relationship with her mother, and did fantasize about poisoning her in the pilot episode (which we know her father does constantly, though Janet wasn’t aware of it. Funny how Ella drove two people to that.) you can still see a softer version of the Ella/Stanley dynamic playing out with Janet/George, despite their by and large supportive relationship. And, yet, just the opposite happens in the extremely creepy alternate timeline with Stepford Janet married to Piers. More on that when I get to that episode.

George is from a place so misogynistic they sew women’s mouths shut and even believe men do a better job of having babies, has an incredibly domineering father and the picture painted of his mother makes her seem incredibly subservient. It’s little wonder, then, later. when Piers starts an MRA group that George is so easily swayed into being a complete creep. He may have been on Earth long enough to know better, but what Piers was saying made perfect sense to someone with an Ultronian upbringing.

And Piers, from what we know, had an almost militantly strict father whom he could never please. His mother is a bit more of a blank slate since her only mention is doting on his brother and ignoring Piers, but given his overall attitude of being a sad, misogynistic little muffin, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say emotionally -possibly physically- abused society matron. We already know that Piers was definitely subjected to both. Also, there are mentions of two careers that he gave up to be a doctor: violinist (which was forced out of him at a presumably young age) and professional cricket player (and if he was as good as all that, then it was something he was at least allowed to do, probably because it looked good to their family friends, until he liked it better than what he was supposed to be doing). We also know he had to tweak his A Levels to get into medical school in the first place, a thing that at first glance indicates just one more way he’s slimy and dishonest. Later viewings, it smacks of a last ditch effort to please his parents. His brother, on the other hand, was clearly the favorite. This brother, then, probably fell in line and went along with whatever career pleased father, did and said all the right things without any real thought of what might make himself happy, instead, and mother gravitated to him in the interest of keeping the peace and herself out of trouble. He is also the only character with mentioned parents that we never see even one of. Even if they’re both dead, it’s doubtful his brother is. The only family we see is non-immediate, which means he has absolutely no relationship with the people he grew up with.

Now back to the episode I’m actually on.

“I never use the F word.” Well, Janet, that makes one of us.

Every time Piers says he’s always here, I want to tell him to stop trying to make “fetch” happen.

I like how casually Mrs Raven suckered him in this time. “I’ve got one,” aaaaand hooked.

Yet another mention of Piers not being as great as he thinks he is. He’s in trouble with higher ups in the medical profession, Avril told him her mother, one of his patients, can’t stand him (granted, she didn’t know who she was talking to, but that doesn’t change what was said) and now we see his television career is in danger of flopping. Just a wild guess, but it probably has something to do with the fact that he’s entirely lacking in actual charm and the superficial sort he uses only appeals to a certain kind of -usually unpleasant- person.

This ear-licking thing George’s dad does is pretty disgusting. I could practically feel a hairy, waxy ear on my tongue when they did it. Yuck.

Earth women smell like dead sheep. In retrospect, that makes George saying she smells prettier than a cinnamon and apple pie less cheesy and more incredibly sweet.

“Where I come from, you don’t ever argue with your dad. His word is law.” You and Piers should be friends, dude. You can have a Breakfast Club moment. “Your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling.”

And his brother was imprisoned for five years for not eating his dinner. Does this mean George was the favorite of his overbearing father? They seem pretty close, so I’m gonna go with yes.

Things I now need:

1) To have seen Piers interact with his brother onscreen, or at least have been given more mention of their relationship

2) To meet George’s brother

3) To have both sets of siblings and their fathers all interact for some reason, just to see how it all plays out

Oooh, nice foreshadowing there, with the “if we had kids,” but not a very PC joke about their projected intelligence level.

Why, exactly, does Mrs Raven keep punching her dates? Are they all creeps or does she just overreact to any perceived little offense? We know she’s abusive to Arnie, but he, weirdly, likes it.

And the con begins in earnest. Wish I knew someone I could con into giving me a new tv.

Please go away, Avril.

Tyler recognizes the first Thermoman who sees nothing odd in that and, in fact, doesn’t even blink when he mentions going to Neptune. Did he recognize Tyler, in turn?

Lava is apparently the only thing that can harm an Ultronian because I think, in general, they age slowly and don’t actually die.

George sticking his tongue out behind his dad’s back speaks to me on a very deep level.

We literally get no mention of Arnie’s parents, but a tiny clue that he had a slightly more relaxed upbringing. He calls Seamus a dictator in a way that implies that even by Ultronian standards he was too strict.

(Pink shirt! That is an extremely ugly tie, but the man wears pink well. The wardrobe improves markedly, later.)

Mrs Raven playing fast and loose with the truth. Watched the show, doesn’t actually have a box. Half points for honesty?

George was way more affected by Titanic than I was. I cried over the old couple. I cried over the mother and children. I got teary-eyed at the band. Little Leonardo’s icy blue face just had me rolling my eyes, as did the rest of the “romance.”

I just realized, that very boring white shirt/green tie matches the color scheme of George and Janet’s building. No wonder I hate it, I’ve been subconsciously relating it to an ugly paint job.

So, Ella and Stanley both lived in fear of at least one parent, as did Janet, presumably, and yet she managed to get a little rebellious streak from somewhere. Maybe because Stanley managed to get an overindulgent streak from somewhere?

Also, now I want a gathering of everyone’s parents. It would be interesting to see what they had to say about their children, but also incredibly depressing.

I have an absolute terror of heights, so George’s plane trick gave me pretty bad anxiety up until the reveal. Well-played, though, on not only getting his father off his back but giving Janet a chance to show that she was not keeping him from his work.

Not sure how Janet reminds Seamus in any way of his wife, unless it’s physically, since from everything we’ve heard she was more of the quite, non-rebellious sort.

[gothic-safari-clown]

The Mind’s Power Over the Body

Part 20: Home

Story summary: They only ever had each other. It had been that way since high school, ever since Elianna transferred to dreary Arlen and took Jonathan under her wing. They go separate ways for college, and when they're reunited at Arkham Asylum professionally, Elianna comes to find that they've both changed during their time separated. Can she look past the promise of danger and stay by Jonathan's side as they slide further and further into the darkness while she grapples to come to terms with the truth about herself? Can she accept what needs to be done in order to hold onto the only person who holds any meaning in her life? This is a very self-indulgent AU that draws from several different canons of the DCU and ignoring others, starting in the Batman Begins Nolanverse. This will follow the plot of the movie, although the timeline has been very slightly tweaked.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13 / Part 14 / Part 15 / Part 16 / Part 17 / Part 18 / Part 19

Word count: 1827

El heard the front door unlock from the kitchen, and happily oblivious to the precarious status of her wellbeing, she waited quietly for Jonathan to come in and greet her. She had to make sure that the water didn't boil over anyway.

She only got an inkling that something might be wrong when the door slammed shut, and Jonathan rushed into view, looking slightly disheveled. He hadn't even put down his briefcase at the door.

Before she could inquire as to what was wrong, the briefcase was carelessly tossed onto the dining table, and Jonathan had locked her in a tight embrace, pressing a firm kiss into her hair.

"Woah, hi," she squeaked, hugging him back. "What happened? Is everything okay?" She felt the deep sigh as his body relaxed, and he stepped away again, smoothing down his tie as he regained his composure. Registering a few seconds later that she had asked a question, he nodded and raked his fingers through his hair to push it off of his forehead.

"Yeah, yeah, everything is fine." His heart was only just slowing to a regular rate.

She's safe.

Yeah, I told you. I can't believe how whipped you are, Jonny.

"Why didn't you answer your phone? I've been calling you for hours."

"Oh, I forgot to plug it in last night, so it died at work." She replied casually, still entirely unaware of the panic she had caused. "I had to go grocery shopping before I came home, and it's been charging in the bedroom since I got back; I must not have heard it." She turned back to the stove to give the boiling pasta a quick stir and check on the sauce on the other burner. "Are you sure everything is alright?"

Jonathan moved to stand against the counter next to her, needing to be near her still. "I had to see Falcone today."

"Oh? How was that?"

"Not good. He tried to threaten me into letting him into the operation, and when that didn't work, he...talked about you. I thought maybe he had already given orders, and I had to oversee the shipment as soon as possible to get it finished in time."

"Ah," El frowned, suddenly understanding the trouble. "So when I didn't answer the phone..." Jonathan nodded. Pasta still undercooked, El replaced the pot lid before turning back to the man next to her. "Well, I'm sorry for making you worry, love, but I'm okay." She smiled and stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Besides, nobody is taking me away from you without a fight. Speaking of which," she plucked a stray burlap thread off of his shoulder, "what happened here?"

Jonathan kicked himself mentally. How had his run-in with the Batman already slipped his mind?

"Scarecrow and I have had an eventful day." He said, suddenly exhausted, pinching the bridge of his nose under his glasses.

"I'll tell you what, why don't you go change out of your work clothes while this is finishing up, and you can tell me about it while we eat." He nodded but hesitated to walk away, which made her chuckle. "Nothing is going to happen to me if you leave the room for a few minutes. Go on." She pushed on his arm gently, which finally coaxed his weight off the counter.

He was still hesitant to leave the room, but he knew that she was right and obeyed, ignoring Scarecrow's continued snickering. He redressed as quickly as he could, hell-bent on returning to the kitchen fast. Of course, she was still there at the stove when he came back, switching off the burner.

Unfamiliar with normal relationships, Jonathan didn't fully understand his impulses, but he was so exhausted from the events of the day that he didn't have the energy to fight them. Before El could pick up the pot to drain the water from the pasta, he locked his arms around her from behind and dropped his forehead to rest on her shoulder.

"Jonathan..." her voice was laced with soft concern, and she raised her hand to rest on the back of his head. "You were really worried about me, weren't you, love?" Her tone was actually serious now, upset that Jonathan was upset. He didn't answer, just staying where he was. "I'll leave my ringer on from now on; I remember what this feels like." He nodded slightly in acknowledgment. "Come on, sweet, let me finish this up, and we can go sit on the couch while we eat. Up, come on," she coaxed gently, and Jonathan finally straightened up, allowing El to drain the pasta and serve them each a plate.

"So you and Scarecrow had an eventful day," she recalled as they settled onto the couch. "Tell me about that."

Dinner was soon forgotten as Jonathan began to recount their run-in with Batman.

"You set him on fire?" She asked incredulously. When Jonathan looked at her, he expected to see shock, maybe horror, but no. What he saw instead was a genuine, thrilled amusement that he had tried to burn a man alive. "That's hilarious. You set Batman on fire."

See, she thinks I'm funny.

"Scarecrow thinks so too."

"Mm, that's probably a bad sign for me," she said casually, returning her attention to her food. It seemed she had finally given up on feigning morality. Took her long enough.

"Yeah, probably, but you've made it this far." She hummed in response.

"So," she started slowly, wanting to address the initial problem, "Falcone?" Jonathan frowned, disliking the reminder that he now had something that could be leveraged over him. Not that he would give it up for the world, but if people were going to use Elianna to threaten him, then something would have to be done about that. Perhaps Falcone could serve as a warning.

Then again, maybe that had been the wrong decision. The old man's sudden mental break could draw suspicion. While it was true that they had been dumping the toxin into the water mains for weeks, the job would be cleaner if they didn't draw too much attention to themselves. And in one moment of anger and weakness, Jonathan had thrown away that advantage.

"I may have overreacted to that. We'll have to be careful about the project until it's ready to go. It should only be another few days."

"Overreacted?" El asked quizzically. "What did you do, gas him?" She was answered with silence and knew that she had guessed correctly.

She was sure that she was supposed to be upset, maybe a little annoyed with him for endangering such a delicate operation, but she couldn't help but feel a little flattered instead. He had done all of that for her?

Done eating, she placed her empty bowl on the coffee table and scooted closer. "He must have said something pretty bad about me to set you off like that." Jonathan's brow furrowed, remembering what Falcone had implied.

"It was...gross." For lack of a better word. He looked at her to find her smiling at him. "And no, I'm not going to tell you, so don't ask."

"I wasn't going to. I just think it's sweet that you did that for me," she said matter-of-,factly and kissed Jonathan's cheek. "Mostly, I'm just curious, would that have been your normal reaction, or was that just because the nature of our relationship changed?" She grinned as he blushed lightly.

"Probably the second one." He closed his eyes in embarrassment and pinched the bridge of his nose again. "Either way, it was an overreaction. It's going to draw attention."

"Oh, who cares. There are only a few days left. Hey, that reminds me, I wanted to make a mask."

"We can just get you one from a hardware store; that should be easy-"

"No, I mean like," she sighed as she gathered her thoughts. "Like, you and Scarecrow have yours, and it's like a character almost. When people see it, they'll know who it is. It's your brand. I want something like that."

It was a fair point, Jonathan decided. And why shouldn't she get to have one like that? "Alright, what are you thinking?"

"Why, thank you for asking, love." She sat up straight as she began to present her idea. "When I was thinking about it, I asked myself, 'what are the most memorable silhouettes of all time?' There are so many to choose-"

"El, please, I've had such a long day." Jonathan almost felt bad interrupting. He knew how much she loved doing dramatic speeches, but he wasn't sure he had the patience for it this time.

"Alright, love, sorry." She raised his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles. "Anyway, I was thinking something like a plague doctor. I feel like it would match the scarecrow in energy; it's sort of mysterious and technically meant for good, but it's become a sort of a classic horror icon." Jonathan nodded, agreeing with her line of thinking.

"Yeah. It might be a little tricky to pull off in such a short amount of time, but I think that's a good idea." Her face lit up. "We'll need a gas mask to rig into it, a pattern, and a stiff enough material to keep the shape."

"No problem. You know me, I started making my own Halloween costumes at like, ten, I can take care of it. In fact, I kinda already got all of the materials." Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "I made a pit stop between work and the grocery store. I just need a sewing machine. I was going to ask Harley if-"

"No need, I have one." They sat in silence for a moment.

"What?"

"I mean, Scarecrow does. He insisted on making the mask himself. Apparently, I was making it too neat, so he commandeered it."

"Wow, that actually makes a lot of sense," El nodded. "I don't know where I thought the mask came from, but yeah, that sounds right."

"Why don't I go get it out of storage so you can start?" El nodded excitedly, and in just a few short minutes, they had her set up at the kitchen table to get to work. Jonathan's night quickly went from a prolonged panic attack to something warm and comforting. Watching El work and helping her take measurements, and teasing her theatrics slowly helped him feel normal.

Seeing her power ahead with her ideas and devotion to their future life, unimpeded by the threat against her, brought a sense of security in a way that he had never quite felt before. While she worked, he came up with and solidified a plan to provide them with protection for the next few days at least, but it would have to wait for tomorrow. In the meantime, he contented himself with wiling away the time in the kitchen with his paramour, letting the rest of the world fall away.