#it's just. it's superb. it's that good. there's Some problems with it (I don't always jive with the humour) but the actual like emotional

[cescalr]

high guardian spice is to me what sword art online is also to me. better in the abridged version. though for wildly different reasons

[inej-ruination-ghafa]

TIME, CURIOUS TIME - L.C

Summary: the one where you first meet Luke and your entire world view changes.

Warnings: adoption, blood, character death

Wordcount: 3.6k

Masterlist: Time, passing

If there was one thing that people needed to know about you, it's that you don't like bullies. You hated them in fact.

There was an anger inside of you. A primal anger that oozes from your pores at every instance. You were angry at everything in life, your mother for giving you up for adoption, your father for ignoring you. You were angry at the world for every single bad thing that happened.

You had only been at camp for four months and you had gotten into eight separate fights. Just like normal. Just like in the Foster homes.

Now you were sitting in Chiron's office with a black eye. You had gotten into a fight with one of the kids again and was being punished for it. Even though you thought that the punching he had received had been deserved.

Your eyes were trained at your hands as they rested in your lap. You did not want to look up and see the disappointment in his eyes.

"You are one of the most interesting campers I've ever had," he said, breaking the silence.

You looked up at him. That was not what you had expected him to say after what you had done. You were expecting more of a lecture.

"Why?" you questioned.

"You've been here 4 months and already proved that you are a superb archer and swordsman, a brilliant medic. Yet you fail to stop yourself engaging in this tomfoolery," he explained.

You thought about all that he had listed to you. You were a child of Apollo after all, you should be good at all of those things and you weren’t surprised that he thought it was an accomplishment. You didn't want to be anything like your family.

There was silence and you looked at the centaur, “Am I expelled?”

He chuckled to himself almost incredulously, "No. We don't kick students out when they are troublesome,"

Troublesome. That was one word to describe you.

You had always been seen as the problem and the solution was always to send you away. You were a problem of the highest degree and everyone agreed. Even Chiron.

Chiron looked at you, arms folded across your chest as you rolled your eyes, "You know. If we didn't already know your godly parent, I would assume you were an Ares kid,"

you scoffed, looking up at him. You hated where he was coming from but it made sense. That anger in your bones was reminiscent of an Ares kid.

"That felt like an insult," you spat out, bitter. You didn't want to be compared to any of them monsters.

He tilted his head to the side, not understanding why you saw your anger as some sort of problem, "It's not. It's a compliment,"

You wanted to scoff at the idea. Anger was not a positive trait and nobody had ever noticed a single positive trait inside of you.

Silence fell over the room and you looked away from him, feeling shame bubble up in your chest at the way you were acting; you didn't mean to act like a spoiled brat.

"Anyway. I still have to punish you. So you will be sentenced to a week's worth of night shifts at the infirmary," he said.

Your head whipped up, "A week? I only broke his nose!" You could have done worse and you would have if your siblings hadn’t pulled you off of the teenage boy.

Chiron nodded, remembering the way that the sixteen year old boy cradled his face, blood dripping down his chin as he looked at the thirteen year old girl. He had never seen an Ares kid look so defeated by such a little camper.

"You still broke a fellow capers nose. And your dessert privileges will be taken away for that duration," He said.

He smiled at you and you stood up, mumbling a thank you under your breath before you walked outside. This was going to be hell.

If there was one thing that you hated more than anything, it was night duty. You looked around the medical bay and watched as the boy in there slept. He had a concussion and if it were up to you, he would be sent away but Chiron was a stickler to the rules - he needed 24 hour observation.

You walked around aimlessly, a cup of coffee in your hand.

Your life was a mess. You hated yourself. You hated the world. There was nothing here that made you want to stay and every day you looked out of that window in the Apollo Cabin, wondering if you would just leave. Its not like anyone would miss you.

That self loathing bubbled in your chest and you could feel it heavy on your chest.

This camp was supposed to be somewhere that all demigods are safe but in all truth, you had never been more lonely than you had been at Camp Half Blood. You felt abandoned by the Gods and the feeling was getting worse daily.

You were taken out of your thoughts by the sound of someone yelling. You brushed it off, everyone was always having nightmares at camp.

Then you heard them yelling for help and you realised something was wrong. Everyone would be asleep by now and you knew you would have to help.

You didn't want to play the hero. Everyone here acted like some sort of Greek hero and you hated it. But you knew you had to help so you looked around for something and spotted a sword at the side of the bed. You ignored the concussed teenager asleep in the bed as you picked the sword up, jotting down a note.

It was heavy in your hands and you didn't know how you would use it but knew you had to leave quickly. It was unbalanced, unnatural and you were not the best swordsman so you also picked up your bow and arrow, strapping that to your back before you ran off.

You rushed to the Big House for backup but as you got closer, you could hear the yells getting more desperate and knew there was no time. You had to help them and soon.

Muscle memory and adrenaline took you through the woods, trying to find where the voices were coming from.

You called out at the top of the hill, asking if there was anyone there but you heard nothing.

For a second, the noise had completely stopped and you felt your cheeks warm up. This had to be some sort of prank to get back at you for fighting the head of the Ares cabin.

You scoffed, turning around and preparing to leave. You could not believe that you fell for it and you could feel the embarrassment in your cheeks.

That's when you heard the little girls voice again, "Help! Somebody!"

You could see a figure by the camp sign now, illuminated by the fire. "Shit! Shit!"

There was no hesitation as you ran down the hill, not even stopping when you saw the fury hovering over the group of teenagers. There were four people there, one that you recognised as a satyr.

"Run annabeth! Take her Luke!" The main girl said, a large stick in her hands as she tried to bat the fury away.

You froze.

Fight or flight.

You could stay here and help the little girl as she held onto the boy's jacket or you could turn back and pretend that you haven't seen any of this. You knew the latter wasn't even an option.

"You don't have a real weapon!” The boy called out, eyes wide.

That's when you remembered you was there. You ran into the clearing and the kids turned to look at her in shock. They had not expected some hero to come out of the shadows but you were no hero, just someone who had stumbled into the situation.

You stepped into the clearing, "Here," you yelled out, throwing the girl the sword and she caught it quickly.

They all watched as you pulled your bow and arrow out, drawing it and taking a deep breath before shooting at the fury without any care for your own safety. At the same time, the punk looking girl stabbed the fury before being knocked to the floor.

The boy tucked the little girl into his chest as he watched the other girl get hit by the fury, falling over. He let out a yell.

You could only stand there and watch it all unfold. you didn't even know this girl's name and yet she was dying in front of you.

The little girl was sobbing now, the sounds muted as she tucked her head into the boys chest. He was trying to hide it but his chest was heaving up and down.

There was a second when the fury looked at you and you knew you were next. The fury was clutching its arm from where you had hit her. She looked at the camper, sneering before flying off. Her job was done.

In a matter of seconds, lightning struck the teenage girl and she began to turn into a tree, branches springing from her arms and greenery growing around her head.

There was silence. Nobody knew what to say, especially not you who was confused out of your mind.

You looked at the satyr and then you recognised him. He was the same one that saved you from that police station, "Grover, what's going on?” you asked, looking at the satyr.

His hands were shaking as he gestured towards them, "Meet our new residents of camp,"

"What the fu-" you pointed at the tree, yelling out in confusion, "What in the God's name is going on? She's a tree!"

The boy looked at you angrily and you recognised that look in his eye all too well, "The better question is who the hell are you?" The boy said defensively.

You threw your bow on the floor, adrenaline still coursing rapidly through your veins, "I saved your life," you spat the words out.

He walked over to you, towering over you and you wondered how old he was, "She still died," he spat out.

This close, you could see the cut on his jaw, the bruise growing on his shoulder and the tears that were drying on his cheeks. He looked almost ethereal in the fire light.

There was anger in both of your eyes and as you looked at him, you realised that nobody had ever looked at you like that. It was like looking at your reflection in the mirror.

You scoffed, ignoring the feeling in your chest, "I tried my best,"

Grover walked over, interrupting the two of them before they could get into a physical fight, "This is our Healer,"

There was silence as the two teenagers looked at one another, neither of them standing down. He seemed angry and it was understood but there was no need to take it out on you.

It was you who turned away first, "Come on in. You both need to be checked on and I'm working the night shift. Grover, go get Chiron,"

He nodded and when they reached the camp, Grover split off from the group to go to the Big House.

You could feel the tension in the air as you walked towards the medical hut. There was silence and you could remember how nerve wracking it was for you when you had arrived here. You felt a little bit rude for yelling at him now.

“This way,” you lead them to the medical bay and the boy with the concussion was out cold so you just turned the lights on, ushering the two inside.

You turned to the boy and decided not to make this too awkward, "How old is she?" You asked.

He narrowed his eyes at you before caving, "Seven," he said begrudgingly. He clearly didn't like you.

You turned to where the little girl was sitting on the bed and knelt down in front of her. You could remember how scared you were when you had arrived and you wanted to make it as comfortable for her as you could.

"What's your name, gorgeous?" You asked, trying to not scare her.

The little girl looked over your shoulder at the boy behind you and he nodded, arms folded across his chest. You was just making sure he thought that she was safe to talk

"Annabeth," she replied.

"That's such a pretty name. Now, tell me, does anything really hurt?" You asked with a smile.

She nodded and gestured down at her leg, "I twisted my ankle," she stated.

"Your ankle? Let me have a look," you sat down on the floor and looked up at the girl and she nodded. you then rolled up her trouser leg a little bit to look at it.

You examined it for a second, "It's a little swollen, do you want me to wrap it up?” Annabeth must have been so freaked out by all of this, you didn't want to scare her at all.

Annabeth nodded and you reached over to the side for some bandage and wrapped it around her ankle, tying it together before standing up.

You grabbed the Ambrosia, handing it to her, "Now. This is magic okay, you eat a little bit of this and it will male you feel better instantly,"

She was hesitant at first and then when she took a bite, she ate the whole bit. She smiled and looked at you, muttering a thank you.

You helped her up and then turned to look at the boy behind her, "I'll help your big brother now,"

Luke had been standing there the whole time, arms folded across his chest as he judged what you were doing. He didn't trust anything related to the Gods, especially not some weird medic.

"I don't need to be examined by a child," he said with a scoff

You looked at him again, narrowing your eyes, "I'm thirteen. I doubt you're much older than me,"

There was tension between the two young teenagers. Anyone worth a pulse could see it and they could tell that there was a shared anger between the two.

"Thirteen," he scoffed at the idea of you looking after him, "who taught you medical practices?"

You were starting to get mad. You couldn't understand why this kid wasn't going to just let you look after him when he needed it.

There was an anger at the gods on him that you recognised but there was no need to take it out on you.

"I'm a child of Apollo, i was born with it in my blood," You poked him in the chest before stepping back, "Now sit your ass down,"

He looked at Annabeth and she gave him a smile like she wanted him to get looked after. He sighed, he couldn’t let her down so he sat down on the bed.

You folded your arms across your chest, "Same question I asked Annabeth. Does anything really hurt?" You asked. You were mean to him, ignoring all of your bedside manners.

He shook his head, lips pursed together, "You didn't ask me what my name was,"

You sighed, folding your arms across your chest, "What's your name?" You asked, tone dripping in sarcasm.

"Luke," he looked over at Annabeth and the girl was smiling now and he smiled too. It was the first time he’d seen her smile in weeks, "And I'm fourteen,"

You looked down at the injury for a second, "This needs stitches," you said when you saw a wound in his shoulder, it had cut through his shirt and was starting to bleed a lot more.

You could tell that he knew that he needed to get helped but that he was so stubborn that he wasn't going to get it done. It was a pretty bad wound.

"I'll be fine," he turned his head away, stubborn, "I don't need your magic, i don't need any help for the Gods,"

You were starting to get mad at him now. He was stubborn, too stubborn, "I don't work for them," you said, scoffing, "Now do you want it stitched up or not?"

There was silence for a second and then he nodded his head. He knew that he needed help even if he was a little bit reluctant to it. You smiled with the knowledge that you had convinced him.

"Annabeth, can you go and get changed into these nice new clothes? You can go into that little room there," you picked up some spare clothes from a pile and handed them to her.

The girl smiled before walking away, "Thank you,"

"You’re welcome sweetheart," you watched as she walked away, closing the door.

You could feel your heart sink in your chest. You couldnt imagine having to come here at such a young age, it broke your heart.

You turned around and looked at Luke, a smirk growing on your face, "You're gonna have to take your shirt off,"

There was a second where you could see the blush riding to hours bells at the idea but he decided to just be annoying about it.

He was cocky about it, pulling his shirt off slowly before handing it to you. You had to hide the blush on your cheeks as you pulled up a stool, sitting in front of him.

The cut wasn't just on his shoulder, it spanned down a couple of centimetres through his chest. You placed the stool in front of him, sitting down.

"This is gonna sting," you said as you brushed the area with a disinfectant. He winced at the feeling of it on his cut, hand clutching onto the bed underneath him.

You muttered a sorry as you pulled the wipe away, placing it down before putting your gloves on and getting ready to stitch him back up.

You gave him a look, “You know, I could just give you ambrosia, then it would heal quicker,” you suggested.

He shook his head, “I dont want help from the Gods. We do this like mortals or not at all,”

You could tell something had really happened to him in his life to make him hate the gods so much and whatever it was it must have been bad.

“You’re decision,” you muttered as you started to sew him up, starting on the easier part on his chest and then moving up to the deep section on his shoulder.

He was tense and you didn't know what to do to try and calm him down, he just had to sit there and get on with it. You didn't want to hurt him.

As you reached the last stitch on his shoulder, pulling it tight and then tying it, he winced and then muttered a curse word under his breath. you looked up at him, feeling guilty.

"Sorry," you muttered under your breath, “But i'm done now,”

"No, I'm sorry. I was a jerk to you," he muttered your name quietly after that, almost like he felt embarrassed that he had remembered and you looked up at him. You didn't know that he had remembered your name.

You could feel your cheeks warmed up at the idea and you gave him a half hearted smile, "Thanks," you said, brushing another wipe over his chest and shoulder.

"I am sorry. My friend just died," he explained, tears burning in the back of his eyes at the thought.

"She had a Heroes death," you said before scoffing and then looking around to make sure that nobody could hear, "Not that that's worth anything. The Gods still let her die, they let them all die,"

Luke's face lit up as you said that. Nobody had ever shared his hatred towards the Gods before and all of the anger that he had towards you vanished in as second as he looked into your eyes.

His smile was infectious and you could feel one growing on your face just at the sight of him, "You're right! They're awful,”

There was another lightning strike and you could hear the thunder rumbling outside of the camp. Zeus did not like that criticism of his role as a father.

"Might not want to say that here," you said with a laugh.

Luke laughed too and you smiled at the sound, it was nice to hear someone laugh. He liked it as well, he couldn't remember the last time he laughed.

You smiled to yourself. You couldn't remember the last time that you had laughed with someone. It was nice to feel connected to someone, even if you’d only just met.

You handed him a camp shirt, assuming his size. He thanked you before pulling it over his head and then fixing his hair.

Annabeth walked out wearing one of your old shirts. You smiled, reaching your hand out and feeling the girl take it. She instantly cuddled up to you, not fully understanding what had happened that night.

You held close, eyes meeting Lukes. He reached forward, brushing a hand over Annabeth’s hair.

"You look great, I’m just gonna show you guys to the cabin a-" you started to explain before Chiron walked into the room.

They all went silent and as he looked at the group, Grover standing by his side, her knew this was it. There was a bad feeling in his chest and he knew that the prophecy that he had been fearing was going to come true soon. How did he know? Just a feeling.

A/N: Parts of this fic come from my other fic The Outsiders (linked here) so don't worry if it looks familiar or if you think it's plagiarised, I wrote both versions. If you want to read that you can.

This is the first part of a three chapter fic and this will be nothing like my book. This is a seperate fic, the start is just familiar.

Also. They are thirteen and fourteen in this chapter but by the time there is any romance, they will be 18. Please don't be weird about them.

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️ Ranking Richonne

#11: I See Things (S3E12)

Something I appreciate so much is that Richonne's journey is a love story, not a fairytale. Their story feels grown and grounded, healthy, and realistic, while also feeling perfect and aspirational between two flawed people doing their best in a broken world. And through each season of their slow burn, we got to organically watch the many building blocks of what makes their love so genuinely strong and special. So I cherish these early moments that laid Rick and Michonne's foundation, especially here in my favorite scene from the masterpiece OG Richonne ep that is Clear...

Rick, Michonne, and Carl pack up to leave King County after a stellar episode with both Rick and Morgan’s storyline and Carl and Michonne’s storyline. The acting was superb all across the board in this ep. 👏🏽

The three really do look like a family as they pack up and head out. And in their own ways, this scene has Carl and Rick both telling Michonne...

I love that it just took one trip for Carl to be completely warmed up to Michonne. And he admits this in the best possible way to his dad. Because Rick, in such a dad way, asks if everything went okay with her, and again, I always feel like Rick really really wants the answer to be yes because deep down he knows he wants Michonne around.

And to me, it isn’t just Rick asking if everything went okay on their trip but if everything is okay with Michonne as a whole. This episode was about Rick and Carl beginning to truly accept Michonne and learn that not only does she not have a problem, but in fact she is the beautiful solution to so much in their life. 

It’s also just great to watch this scene back knowing Rick is asking Carl about the woman who will become his wife and mother to all three of his children. 🥰

And then I will forever love Carl saying, “I think she might be one of us.” Just the absolute best. 😭 That statement is the gospel truth too. And it’s so meaningful because of how much Michonne will end up being not just a vital member of tf but a true blue member and matriarch of the Grimes family.

Michonne truly belongs in this group and this Grimes family, and I love that intuitive little Carl picked up on that so quickly. That seal of approval from him is huge because it allows Rick to feel like he can slowly but surely stop fighting the clear undeniable connection between himself and Michonne. 

I also absolutely love Rick’s dramatic reaction to Carl saying Michonne is one of them. He can’t hide that this is great news to him, and you know Rick's extra side is so loved by me. 😋

Rick acts taken aback and asks, "What?" and I think part of it is actually being surprised that Carl made such a big statement because he could have just said 'yeah she was cool' but instead Carl lets him know she’s truly meant to be with them. And also part of the reaction is because our man Rick has for sure been catching some sorta feelings, even if just the earliest stages of attraction.

I know Rick's happy to hear his son likes her as much as he deep down wants to like her too. Also I really don't think Rick would be having a low-key tickled reaction like this over just any newcomer getting a good report.

Then Carl is just the cutest when he gives a little laugh and tells Rick "Everything went okay." This is all just so precious, especially after Michonne helped Carl retrieve a photo of his family all while planting the seed of Grimes 2.0 at the very same time.

And think about it - this moment is occurring so freshly after losing his mom. Carl probably hasn’t had many smiling moments since then, so I know it means the world to Rick to see that Carl and Michonne bonded and that she brought some joy back into his son's life. She's the best. 🥰

Then, because our lovely leading man is always expressive when it comes to his kids and Michonne, Rick has the biggest smile hearing this.

And again, we gotta be so for real for a second because this smile from him is not just cuz it in-general worked out with a newcomer. I feel this is specific to Michonne. Because like I said, Rick really wanted Michonne to check out (partly so he could keep checking her out🤭) and so he’s really glad to hear that she more than did.

I love that even this early, Michonne is putting smiles on Rick and Carl’s faces. After everything they’ve been through leading up to this ep, it’s refreshing to see.

So Rick is happy, but then he pauses as tho he’s seeing something - likely Ghost Lori. And my theory has long been that Ghost Lori stayed showing up in moments like these to let Rick know his soulmate had now arrived and he should get with Michonne, just like Lori got with her soulmate while Rick was in a coma.💁🏽‍♀️ 😋

Like I just know in this moment Lori's ghost was looking at Rick like...

It’s interesting how we the audience don’t see what he’s hallucinating like we have in other episodes. I like this choice tho because in just seeing Rick staring off it shows how much Michonne was able to read and understand him.

Like all Rick was doing was standing there, and from the outside looking in, it could easily be missed that he was having another hallucination - but Michonne knew Rick was having a moment of seeing things cuz she gets him. Always has. 😌

So Michonne notices it right away and her look of care and concern is really sweet. Throughout the series, Michonne so often looks at Rick like her heart is tugged by this honorable man in all his humanness.

I also love that she brings it up. She could’ve just noticed him seeing things and not said anything, especially because it’s personal and they're still mostly strangers. But this choice to bring it up immediately established that she and him can talk on a deeper level, even this early in the relationship.

And it shows Rick that he doesn’t have to feel misunderstood or ashamed for these episodes he's been having. Someone else sees it, and not only that - relates to it too.

So she gently asks if he saw something and Rick silently looks surprised that she could tell exactly what was happening.

Michonne says, "I know you see things - people." And then in one of the first examples of Richonne doing their signature thing of leveling with each other through being vulnerable, she tells Rick she used to talk to her dead boyfriend. Saying reassuringly, “It happens.” I repeat, Michonne is the best. 👑

It is lovely to see Michonne open up about this, and I love how innately she knew she could share this with Rick. We saw in a s3 scene by a fire with Michonne and Andrea that Michonne was not the type to fully open up about her past family, and yet here with Rick she's willing to share something personal and offer up this part of herself. It just further suggests that Rick and Michonne have a different and uniquely intrinsic connection. And I repeat - they trusted each other before they knew they trusted each other.

It’s also sweet that Michonne is willing to be vulnerable to help Rick feel less alone. This is such a big reason why their union is so special. With each other, they're never in it alone.

They are cut from the same cloth and understand each other deeply. And despite living in a world that would suggest you should always have your guard up, I love that Michonne and Rick instead allowed themselves to open up to each other, slowly but surely. 🥰

Also, more and more, I realize that the making of Richonne was actually so obvious from season 3 forward, and especially here in Clear.

Like this episode really plants the seed of Rick, Michonne, and Carl becoming a whole family because that family theme runs all throughout.

I mean even just the fact that the episode takes place in Rick and Carl's old hometown, bringing only Michonne on this run where she gets to gain insight into the past of her future husband and son, R&M essentially co-parenting together when Michonne offers to go with Carl to get the crib, and then Carl wanting the family photo and needing Michonne's help to retrieve it, and then Michonne finally opening up a bit about her family.

Richonne was looking like Morgan's apartment in this ep because, honey...

So then Rick is quiet for a sec after Michonne addresses him seeing things and letting him know it happens, and I know deep down he appreciates this moment from her. It's a rare moment of someone looking at him not to lead or provide an answer but simply to know he's not crazy or on his own.

And then Rick definitely gets flirty as he asks her if she wants to drive. (and again, letting Michonne drive is another establishment of trust) Also, I just love that throughout their pre-canon era, Michonne is the one Rick most wanted to be sociable with from team family.

I adore this scene for being the first moment of flirting between them as he asks if she wants to drive and she smiles and says "yeah." Rick then says "good" and takes the scene to new levels of adorable with his playful flirty energy when he adds, “Cuz I see things”  and hands her the keys to his heart and the car. 😊

It’s a nice way for him to admit Michonne was right that he sees things but still keep things light. And it's adorable how quickly Rick would go into flirtation mode with Michonne, even this early on.

(Side note: Y'all sometimes I used to want a body language expert who has never seen TWD to analyze these pre-canon Richonne scenes because I just know they'd confirm that Rick and Michonne's pre-canon moments read as more than platonic. But truly there is no body language expert needed for it to be known that Rick's energy is flirtatious here.)

And same for Michonne's energy afterward because I love how she smiles as she holds the keys and watches him go. #SmittenKitten 😋

They’re both real fond of each other, y’all. Even in season 3. Like this moment lets you know Rick and Michonne really do have “common interests” lol.

And while of course Rick and Michonne are still on their own individual healing journeys atp so they aren't yet aware that they're meant to be, it's still nice that in this scene they at least now know they like each other as people.

I love that Michonne who can read people so well, knew Rick was a good man doing his best in this world as a leader and father, and as she closes the trunk she looks like she knows she might have found her new home with these people, which I love that for her. 🙌🏽

This beautiful scene is just such a great and foundational moment in Rick and Michonne's love story and gives an excellent peek into how their dynamic will be going forward as they evolve into a husband and wife. 👏🏽

And how spoiled are we that Gimple was planting the Richonne seeds back when he was writing for Season 3 (before Richonne's journey had even aired for us to see), and now here we are 11 years later with Scott, Danai, and Andy having created a whole miniseries dedicated to Richonne and constantly confirmed to be an epic love story. 🤩🥳🤗

Like this is me and every Richonners' energy for a reason lol...

I'm forever thankful to Danai, Andy, and Scott for loving Richonne like we do and returning to give Rick and Michonne Grimes closure. And I'm grateful that we stan a married ship that always flourishes within the actual franchise. #WinningSinceTheBeginning 🥰

There's also just something so poetic about the fact that way back during the season 3 Clear days, Scott said Danai was able to pick up on the Richonne trajectory because she was a writer - and now we'll have the privilege to watch a whole TOWL episode written by the illustrious talent Danai, herself, as she gets to help shape the final chapter of Richonne's years-long love story. What. A. Journey. 😭🙌🏽

So as the classic and fitting 'Home' song concludes this phenomenal 3.12 ep and the three drive away, it shows how these three entered that town as strangers and left as a family more than they could ever imagine. They didn't know it entirely yet, but after Clear, Rick, Michonne, and Carl were on pace to become home to each other.

Imo, Richonne was written in the stars from the moment they laid eyes on each other at at that prison fence. But after Clear, it was set in stone, with no going back, that Richonne was bound to happen. They were too perfect together, too much passion and attraction emitting from them in these early stages for it to not eventually blossom into more.

Rick and Michonne were destined to be Mr. and Mrs. Grimes. And heartwarming scenes like this just made that so, well, clear. 😌🤍

[joesalw]

Ok, that's gonna be long one.

One jet is around $50 million. She has two. And now she had the ig tracking account taken down claiming that's an invasion of privacy. Very interesting considering the account existed for a few years and she didn't have any problems with it and now suddenly she gets called out for abusing the environment it's become invasive. The lady is shady. And the fact that her answer about not going to therapy is 'i feel very sane'. Oof. She's republican raised for sure. Those people think that any mental health issue equals clinical insanity and if you're seeing a therapist there must be something wrong with you.

She's jumping from one relationship to another and doesn't even know who she is. She just molds into whatever her man wants or what looks best for the image. She doesn't know how to exist on her own. For someone who presents herself as a 'girlboss' she sure doesn't have a sense of self-worth and always has to have a man next to her. No matter how bigoted he may be. She's not getting any younger so she's getting desperate and that's probably why she's unleashing on Joe. If she wants a kid, she doesn't have much time left so she latches on to every man throwing themselves at her in hopes of a happily ever after. It doesn't work like that. Fix yourself first then move on to look for someone to build a life and future with. There's no way any sane grown man would want a self-sabotaging, fight-picking, obsessive overgrown teenager with no sense of boundaries to even marry let alone have a child with. She doesn't know where her public life ends and private one begins.

I'm sure Joe saw all of that and dipped. It's not good to bring a child in that environment. And if they'd ever had one, she'd go on with her life and he'd be a house husband. I've never seen TS as maternal, nurturing or even mature enough to have a child because she seems not to have the capacity to take care of herself. In 2016 Joe was the one who took care of her and 'saved her'. It wasn't her own doing. And when he left, she started spiraling again. She portrayed herself as a mature grown woman in her 2020 albums and that turned out to be a farce. She's still that same insecure 16 year-old but richer, more influential and famous. Her recent interviews are a solid proof of that.

Her music is also nothing special. Some generic pop with repetitive and recycled melodies. She's not a vocalist, not a dancer, doesn't have a superb instrument skill, there's barely any emotion in every song she sings. Her lyrical topics are the same and don't hold any though provoking themes. She uses nonsensical metaphors and uncommonly used words to make her lyrics look better and herself seem smarter. It doesn't change the point of the song though. Argumentative antithetical dream girl is just a glamorous way of saying manic. Machiavellian is a way of saying manipulative, being morally indifferent and self-serving, lacking empathy. Sure does sound nice, huh? "I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian (manipulative, selfish, deceptive, cunning. call it whatever you want) 'cause I care". Machiavellianism in psychology is described as one of the traits in the Dark triad model. Right along narcissism and psychopathy. Mastermind is masterminding out in the open and no one bats an eye. The psychologists that named the trait after Niccolo Machiavelli said that one of the core features is lack of concern for conventional morality (they aren't concerned about the morality of lying and cheating). If you're into psychology Richard Christie and Florence L. Geis (the ones that named the trait) have a book "Studies in Machiavellianism" which is a pretty good and insightful read.

(just my assumption) I'm sure Joe dropped that word on her and she was like 'ooh, sounds nice and Machiavelli was like very political, a bit controversial and cool and people refer to him a lot, I'll definitely be using that in a song'. lmao. little did she know. I think she thought he meant it in a political sense and not a psychological one. Which are totally different things. And I'm sure he was like 'lol, she thought'.

There're a ton of celebrities bringing her up on talk-shows as well. At least once a week there's a bit on some show about a certain celeb's interaction with her. As someone who enjoys learning english trough media that's quite disturbing. I see her everywhere, TV shows, news articles, social media outlets. She's becoming inescapable. And that makes me wonder about the proportion of celebrities and journalists who genuinely like her and the ones who bring her up to get more attention. God forbid you say anything negative about her. Her Karen army will immediately send death threats your way, make fun of every aspect of your life or even dox you. And with her silence she's enabling this behaviour because she's a self-proclaimed Machiavellian (whether she chose a psychological meaning for the song or not) and doesn't care what her minions do as long as she doesn't get called out for it.

She only allows non-critical journalists to interview her. I mean, what kind of self-suck is that? An interview should be a form of discussion and not an ass kissing session. Any negative article about her will have your whole outlet blacklisted from interacting with her and her team. She needs to be in full control of the narrative all the damn time because she knows that once she lets go of the rein all of the skeletons in her closet will fall out on their own.

She's digging her own grave and I'm here for it. Last time she could make Kim and Kanye the villains and this time she'll have no one to blame but herself. Her narcissistic flat ass would make Tree the scapegoat if there's no one else she could point her finger to. It's always someone else's fault but hers. A chronic victim of this cruel patriarchal world.

I have studied psychology briefly and have learned about the dark triad and machiavellianism. What's surprising to me is that high mach people can gain advantage in the short run but ultimately lose their power in the long run because people start seeing through their surface level acting, which is what we're seeing through her behaviour right now. She acts to be an activist only when it benefits her. But swifties have so much obsession with her that even if they find it disturbing, they will try to justify it. Also idk how Taylor flexes about her machiavellianism, like to me that's not something to be proud of, the ends do not justify the means when you hurt so many people in the process. The fact that she's accepting she's cunning, manipulative, deceptive and lies to get things according to her own interest tells a lot about who she is as a person! no wonder why Joe didn’t want to marry her. Her machiavellianism trait only benefitted her in the short run

[mcufan72]

Sugar and Cinnamon

Loki x female reader (AU)/ 18+

Chapter 11

Chapter 10

Warnings: contains fluff, smut, angst, unprotected sex, alcohol and cigarette consumption, soft!dom/sub vibes, toxic relationship, morally grey stuff, blackmailing, abusive and insulting behaviour

Note: I hadn't much time to write lately and I don't know when it's going to change... my job is killing me these days. This chapter took 10 days to get written and it became a very long chapter (~11k words), so get some snacks and something to drink. I hope you enjoy.

You looked at him, swallowed, took a deep breath and then you began to tell him how it all started…

…nearly six months ago:

“Can we talk?” You asked Ralph after entering his office.

“Don't you see that I don't have any time to talk to you right now,” he answered harshly and stressed while reading the contract documents concerning the new advertising contract his marketing agency was ready to sign. The big deal that would catapult him and his company to the top of the marketing agencies in North America. He ran his fingers nervously through his dark brown hair, keeping his brown eyes fixed on the documents. “ We can talk later!”

“No, we need to talk now,” you told him strictly.

It had been a long day at work today like every day lately and you two had barely time to talk. And you two not talking properly to each other had been for months now. You and Ralph and the team around you were stuck deeply in negotiations with a production company for luxury wristwatches and thanks to your superb knowledge of marketing strategies and your excellent conversation tactics you finally got the deal for the new marketing campaign and the assignment from the wristwatch manufacturer. No, Ralph got the deal, the agency was his company, not yours. You were just his account manager in a leading position and his girlfriend for five years.

What you had to tell him was urgent and you had to tell him now. You didn't want to postpone this important conversation for the umpteenth time just because he always pretended to not have time for you. But you were his girlfriend and fiancée-to-be on hold and he had to have time for you, for heaven's sake. He didn't even raise his head to look at you when you approached his curved glass desk.

“I leave!”

“Yeah, good. Go home and get some rest. I don't know when I'll be back home. Might be late. Take a bath, shave and get pretty for me. I don't want to see you in a worn-out t-shirt and that ugly butterfly-patterned pyjama bottoms when I come home. Wear something nice … wear the red negligee, you know I like it. We can ‘celebrate’ my deal then.” He still didn't look at you and you grinned annoyed, shaking your head lightly.

“That's not what I meant, Ralph.”

“Then explain.”

“I leave. I leave the company… and you!” You thought it would be harder to tell him that but I wasn't. It felt more of a relief. Your relationship with him was in a crisis for months at this point and when you got aware of it you recognised that you didn't love him anymore. The love you once had felt for him had already faded away some time ago. So you decided to leave him, with all the consequences. You didn't want to hold on to a relationship that didn't make sense anymore even if that meant you had to find a new job. But you didn't worry about that. You were good at what you were doing and finding a new job in the marketing business wouldn't be a problem for you. Also, you wanted to pick up your studies again so you would be perfectly qualified to run your own business one day.

“Yeah, okay… wait, you what?” Ralph finally looked at you, frowning and astonished.

“I leave the agency and you. Look, I'll stay until the contract is signed. It takes approximately four weeks for our lawyers to verify the conditions before the signing so I'll stay until then. That's enough time for you to look for a new assistant and account manager. And if you're being honest our relationship is at a dead end and I know you can feel it too. I'm sorry if my announcement takes you a bit off guard but we hardly spend time with each other for months now. You're barely at home. I have a feeling that you keep avoiding me. And when you are at home you never really want to talk to me, we just have quick sex and maybe we have dinner together and…Ralph, I don't want to beat around the bush but… I don't love you anymore. The feeling isn't there anymore. It's gone, possibly on both sides. You became so loveless with time. But okay, it happens, that's life and there's nothing wrong with that. We both have changed and we both should move on. A relationship without love… it simply doesn't make sense and I like things to make sense. Let us look at this fantastic deal as our final big success on the long haul and then we both can start new things. Everyone for themselves. I think that's just fair,” you explained in a strict but friendly tone.

Ralph was a good-looking man, tall with broad shoulders, short dark hair, and hazelnut brown eyes, charming and good with words. That was why you fell for him five years ago. Now you knew that wasn't enough, there was so much more a healthy relationship needed and he couldn't give it to you or he didn't want to give it to you. And now after five years, you knew him well enough to be sure that he wasn't the right man for you so you decided to end it without causing further complications.

“What a silly girl you are, darling,” and he stood up from his leather executive chair, grinning at you dismissively. “Who do you think you are, hm?”

“I'm a strong woman who knows what she wants and what she doesn't want. And I don't want to be together with you anymore because you don't see me. You don't even have much time for me anymore just when you want to have sex and need to get some steam off. And that's not enough, Ralph. I want more and I deserve more. Please, accept my decision and that I don't have any feelings for you anymore and that there's nothing left that would be enough for a relationship or a marriage. I'm also sure it's more than difficult to continue working together after ending our relationship. Please, don't make it more awkward than necessary.” A scornful laugh escaped his throat.

“You're so ridiculous and such a stupid girl. I'll tell you what you want… this!” and he made a presenting gesture with his arms to underline his statement. “You want this job, you want me, the money and the luxury life it allows us. The penthouse, the luxury cars, designer clothes, the exclusive holidays in the world's best hotels. Do you really want to give all that up, darling? Do you really want to tell me you never appreciated all that?” You didn't like the contemptuous tone in his voice as if he were looking down on you.

“I never said that. I do appreciate our privileged life and all the amenities we have and I always worked hard for it so that we can have this kind of lifestyle. But it has nothing to do with love, it's just material and I want more than that and there's no love anymore between us, and you know it as well as I do.”

“We, darling, we worked hard for it. It's my agency, and in the end, it's my money but in my generosity, I always shared with you,” he insisted.

You swallowed down the words you wanted to throw at him because you knew who in this agency was doing the real work. It was you and Ralph's other highly qualified employees. He only harvested the fruits of your hard work and celebrated successes as his merits. He never cared about the fact that success is rather a team result than an individual achievement. A fact that bothered you more and more and added to the fact that you were losing the love you once had felt for him.

“And I know you want me. You can't live without me, can you? I'm the only one who knows what you need and what's good for you, hm? Because I can feel it whenever we have sex,” he tried to convince you, rounding his desk and walking towards you.

There must be something wrong with his feelings because it seemed he never had recognised how often you had faked your orgasms. He always did it his way. Hard, fast, and always dominant and he hated soft lovemaking. At some point, you began faking your climax to get finished soon with the bedroom activities which became more and more unsatisfying for you because Ralph just satisfied his own needs. And when you did it you better do it without questioning his masculinity. After some time you became very good at it. You better because otherwise he would've been in a foul mood for days and everyone around him including you would've felt the consequences. He stood close to you and with his sweaty palm, he cupped your cheek and ran his thumb firmly over your lips as if he wanted to wipe away the things you just said from your mouth like spilt food. Once his touches made you feel good but these days were truly gone and you didn't want him to touch you ever again.

“We had such a wonderful time together and always had good sex, didn't we?” He asked you smugly. He already needed to get his ego pampered again. A shiver ran down your spine and it wasn't because of lust.

“You always had good sex, not me,” you stated dryly.

“Ts ts ts…Darling, it's not my fault, it's you who's a little frigid sometimes but when you're in the right mood you can be such a horny slut and you know how much I like that,” he snickered. He wasn't completely wrong, you indeed liked some kinky stuff.

“I'm not frigid, you never listened to me when I asked you for some… sexy stuff to try or what I wanted to do in bed. Don't blame it on me alone, okay!” You said angrily.

“Darling, did your mother teach you to lie, hm?” His hand still cupped your cheek and you tried to escape from his touch.

“Don't put my mother into this,” you spat and pushed his hand away. “Our sex was never that good, not for me at least. You often left me high and dry and you didn't even care about that or ask or listen to me when I wanted to talk with you about it and what I needed to be satisfied too. You never cared. You never truly cared about me, did you? Gosh, I was so blind. Did you even love me, Ralph?” The thought struck you like a blow. How could you haven't seen this much earlier? How money could change someone so much and how much could someone be so blinded by love?

“Love, love… who needs love or romance? Money and success, that's what counts. Love is overrated, love is for kids and dogs,” he lamented, bored by what you were talking about.

“So you never loved me,” you stated disappointedly.

“Oh, I do, darling. At the beginning of our relationship, I definitely did. You were hot and eye candy and arm candy as well. You were pretty much of a head-turner, and you still are and I enjoy others looking at my beautiful girlfriend, especially our customers and business partners. It led to many successful deals that you're that pretty and smart. C’mon, doll, we both know that feelings can change and become different in a relationship and yes, maybe you're not my dream girl and I'm not your dream boy anymore, but that's why we don't have to split up right now, darling. We're such a successful team. C’mon it's just a phase, you're overworked and stressed out. Take a few days off. Drive to our house in the Hamptons and then everything will be fine again, okay? We'll fix our disagreements later when you're back,” he tried to appease you. “Don't be a drama queen! You don't want to leave me, I know it.” Ralph told you arrogantly and went back to his executive chair to sit down and pay attention to the contract documents again.

“You really don't get it, do you? It's not a phase, Ralph. It's a fact and I will leave,” you replied firmly. Ralph stayed silent, obviously getting pissed off more with every second your conversation continued. A look of scorn filled his eyes before he spoke again, his eyes fixed on yours.

“I think you're forgetting one tiny little detail,” He told you sneakily.

“What little detail? What do you mean?” you asked puzzled and frowning.

“Well, don't you remember our…little secret?” He winked at you and smirked. You suddenly remembered what he meant. You felt nauseous and a lump building in your throat made it heavy for you to breathe.

“What are you implying?” A further wave of nausea washed over you. He would never do that, would he?

“What about publishing it, darling?” He grinned devilishly. “For everyone to see.”

“No! No Ralph you can't do that! Ralph, please! No!” You begged him quietly and desperately. You panicked and swallowed thickly.

“It's all up to you, darling!” He stood up from his chair again and walked over to where you still stood, shoving his hands into the pockets of his dress trousers. He leaned toward you, rage and injured vanity in his eyes. And there was something else in his eyes. Fear?

“No one, absolutely no one leaves Ralph Belmont. So how dare you? No one screws things up with me! Not even you! Do you understand me, darling?” His voice sounded threatening and his face was so dangerously close to yours that you could feel his breath fanning over your face, his nose nudging almost against yours.

“I give you two options,” and he turned away from you and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Option one: You stay with me and in my agency, everything we just talked about will be forgotten and our little secret stays our secret. Option two…,” he turned around to face you “...you can leave the agency and me but you'll pay for it. A redemption sum so to say. In exchange, I won't publish our secret. Your decision, darling.” He smiled arrogantly.

“I can't and I won't stay with you, Ralph. Sooner or later you'll have to accept that,” you answered. Did he just try to blackmail you?

“It's option two then. Okay, if that's what you want, no problem. 250000 dollars and you're free. You have six months to transfer the money to my bank account with the note ‘Loan Repayment’. I think that's enough time for you to get the money together. Your working contract is dissolved with immediate effect, also you no longer have access to our bank account. Any questions, darling? I just want to make sure that things make sense for you.” The self-satisfied smile that curved his mouth disgusted you.

“What kind of cruel game are you playing here, Ralph? Are you doing this just because it hurts your pride when I leave you? You don't love me, you never really did. You just confirmed it. Let me go. You've got enough competent employees in the agency and there are more than enough women in this city who are waiting for a man like you and who'll throw themselves on you as soon as you're free. Do you think I never noticed that? So many women want a good-looking, filthy-rich man like you to fulfil their every wet and material dream. Now they can have you, I'm not interested anymore. You're not that man anymore I fell in love with. The more money we made the more you changed, and not for the best. You're not the same anymore, I guess the money did go to your head and you still crave for more.”

“What are you implying, hm? That I cheated on you, darling? Why should I, I have you to warm my bed. You should appreciate that,” he said, self-satisfied. “What about you?" He knew that you weren't that kind of girl. You'd never do that.

“Wow, where do I send flowers? Screw you, Ralph. You're such an asshole,” you answered sarcastically and repulsed.

“Ts, ts, ts, this is getting annoying. Be very careful, darling you're skating on thin ice. We both know that you're a little slut, hm?” He said sweetly, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “250000 bucks in six months! Save the date!” He said harshly and quite emphatically.

“Where shall I take the money from? I don't have that much and you know that!” your desperation grew. Why did he treat you like that?

“Not my problem. You decided to leave me. Now you know the consequences it has.” He sat down again, leaned back against the leather chair's backrest and crossed his arms behind his head, his eyes fixed on your shocked face.

“What's this game you're playing? Are you really blackmailing me? And what do you mean by ‘redemption sum’? For what? I always worked for my money. I worked my ass off for it and only for your profit! You never paid your employees properly or gave them any praise for their good work and I agreed to get paid better pocket money, especially in the beginning when we were building up our existence here. I did it for the company, for you and us. I even dropped my studies in London for you so that we could both move here, to New York and start a life because you didn't want to go without me and didn't want to wait a few months more until I finished my degree too. I did it for us because I always thought there was an ‘us’. We were in a relationship, I thought you loved me and I thought it would be forever.”

“Aww, look at you, so desperate now. Darling, not my problem. It was your decision to leave me and don't complain now, you'll have enough time now to study again and finish your exams,” he stated with utter sarcasm. “I invested a lot of money in you, haven't I? You had enough pocket money to spend on expensive, meaningless things and you also spent the money from our bank account. It seems you don't appreciate it enough and the things I did for you. I could've bought so many other nice things with all that money if I hadn't have spent it on you and your fancy clothes, cars, and other stuff. You want to leave me? Then you have to pay for it. Everything in life has its price, darling. And never forget about the dirty little secrets in my safe. One wrong step, one wrong action and I'll publish them all over the city and beyond. I'll ruin you, darling, if I have to. You'll never be able to work in our industry again when I'm done with you and you don't even have to try to hire for a job with our competitors. I'll find out and let them know what kind of woman you are. No one will employ you, I'll make sure of that. Never forget that, darling,” he grinned at you, smugly and viciously.

“You're such a disappointment in every hindsight. I'm glad to get rid of you. Pick up your stuff from your office and the penthouse. I expect you to be gone when I get back home. And don't forget to turn off the lights when you go and leave the keys with the receptionist. And now get out of my office. I've work to do,” and he busied himself with the contract documents again.

"You're such a devilish prick, Ralph Belmont. I can't believe how much I loved you once and that I did everything for you. You were never worth it. Unfortunately, it took me too long to see it. You're less than the dirt under my stilettos which I only ever wore for you because I wanted to look pretty for the man I loved. And it was you who wanted all those meaningless and material things, you dolled me up with all these clothes and shoes… you don't even know what my favourite colour is,” you answered, your voice trembling with disgust and disappointment. Disappointment about him and even more about yourself for not looking through him much earlier.

“Watch your mouth, darling. If I were a slut like you I'd be very careful about provoking me. You don't have any chance against me. Don't forget, you have six months! And now get out of my eyes!”

“Screw you, you bastard,” you spat with quivering lips, turned around and left his office.

***

Loki didn't know what to say after you had finished telling him what had happened to you the day you decided to leave your boyfriend. Tears welled up in his eyes when he saw how deeply hurt you were and how desperate. He kept holding your hands and tried to comfort you as best as he could.

“After that, I cleared my office, drove to our penthouse, packed my bags and left. I slept for some days in my best friend’s house until I found this apartment to rent. An apartment I can't afford much longer.” Tears began to run down your cheeks.

“So you became an escort lady to earn money for a living because you can't work in your business anymore,” Loki said and wiped your tears away.

“Yes, I contemplated a lot about what job I could do outside the marketing business and shortly after I stumbled over Rhea's escort agency. I found out that working as an escort was the fastest way to earn a lot of money in a short time… and it's still not fast enough or enough money at all. I changed my looks for the evenings when I was escorting gentlemen to functions and named myself Candy. Ralph's former arm candy, perfect in wearing high heels and fancy clothes and already a slut according to Ralph's opinion about me, had found her new job as an escort lady. Unfortunately, I was rapidly forced into getting a call girl because not only has my rent increased, the rent I pay for my mother's nursery home has increased as well.”

“Your mother lives in a nursery home? What happened to her, sweets?” Loki wanted to know, seemingly full of concern and compassion. “It's the woman in the pictures, right?”

“Yes, it's her, my beloved mum. She had a stroke some time ago and has been in a wheelchair since then. She needs professional help and care and so I looked for the best nursery home for her. My father died years ago and I'm an only child, I'm all she has. Ralph always thought I'd spent my money for whatever unnecessary things but I didn't. I paid for my mother's health care and I also spared a part of my money and now this saved money saves my life. But it's getting less and it has never been that much to buy my freedom from Ralph.

It wasn't easy for me to tell Rhea that circumstances are forcing me to work as a callgirl now too. The sheer thought of sleeping with strangers for money scared me. I don't know if you believe me but there was only ever you who I could imagine having sex with. I could never have done it with anyone else. And I still regret faking my orgasm when we fucked for the first time. It wasn't because I wanted to fool you, it was because I didn't want to feel that good. You felt so good, Loki and you were so tender and caring and I wasn't used to being treated like that and being treated so lovingly, especially not from a stranger. I was afraid of catching feelings for you and I couldn't allow it. It would've broken my rules to never develop feelings for a client or to ever fall in love again. But I failed, I began to feel more for you than I should and I broke my rules but I don't regret it,” you smiled at him but you couldn't stop your tears from falling. Loki looked lovingly at you and squeezed your hands to reassure you that he believed you and that he was there for you no matter what.

“What did he mean by the ‘dirty little secret’ in his safe? With what is he blackmailing you, sweets?” Loki asked his voice calm and soothingly. You hesitated to tell him. You were so ashamed of what you had agreed to do with and for Ralph and you were afraid that Loki wouldn't want you anymore when he finally got to know the truth. He felt your insecurity and anxiety to tell him everything and it broke his heart how much your hands were trembling in his. He just wished you would finally open up to him completely so he could finally help you in the way you needed him to help you. You just feared he would never talk to you again or find you disgusting.

“He's blackmailing me with…,” you felt like you had to puke and you took a deep breath before you continued. “He's blackmailing me with nude pics and… a sex tape.” Your tear-filled eyes looked into Loki's, trying to find out what he was thinking about you, now that he knew what whorish things you had done. But Loki said nothing so you continued telling him the details while tears kept running down your cheeks.

“He took the pictures of me and filmed us during sex some time ago when we were madly in love… or that was what I thought we were. On my part, I definitely was in love with him. I was so naive… but I trusted him and so I agreed to it. I was so dumb, I should never have allowed him to take these pictures or make this private porn.”

“You're not dumb, sweets. You were in love and what is love when you can't trust your partner? Unfortunately, he didn't love you enough but you couldn't know that,” he tried to comfort you despite knowing there was no real consolation right now. “So he filmed you. What about him in this tape?”

“Yes, he did, you can see how I get fucked by him in several ways but… his face is never visible and I'm not sure anymore if he did it on purpose back then for whatever reason or really just for himself or ourselves. He got me on the dangle and I'm at his mercy.” A desperate sob escaped your throat and your gaze wandered through your small apartment. “I don't know what to do, Loki. I don't have that money and time is slipping through my hands. In a few days, it's payday and if I don't pay he'll publish it.”

The panic in your gut grew immediately. Loki felt bad for you. He had no problems with any form of sex or kinks but he couldn't handle that this asshole took advantage of you, your abilities and your body in every way possible all over those years and now turned your trust and the love you once had for Ralph against you. You loosened your hands from Loki's, shifted on the sofa and sat back against the sofa's backrest. You pulled your knees close to your chest, wrapped your arms around them and stared into the void. You didn't want to be afraid, you wanted to be happy and free again. You wanted to live without so much fear.

Loki felt the rage in his gut rising and getting stronger. The sight of you curled up on the couch and your knees drawn to your chest, your face pale and your eyes teary, didn't help to get rid of this feeling. You, his precious girl, didn't deserve to be treated like this.

“Maybe I should sell one of my kidneys or rob a bank to be able to pay him,” you said, laughing and irony scurrying over your face.

There was it again, your never dying, beautiful laughter, your untamed will to feel alive and be happy no matter how big the pain is. Loki adored you for this and he couldn't help but join you in your laughter and sarcasm for a moment.

“I got everything you told me so far, sweets but what did he mean with ‘redemption sum’? I still don't get this part,” Loki questioned curiously and frowned.

“He wants to make me pay back for everything he ever invested in me, I guess. Everything belongs to him, Loki. The money, the cars, the penthouse, the house in the Hamptons, he bought my designer clothes and evening gowns and dolled me up to his liking to parade me around. He paid for everything we did together like luxury holidays for example. He always said it's our common wealth and we both should enjoy it. I helped him to get this rich and I also helped him to reach all the goals he wanted to reach. But everything happened in his name for his company. I think, at some point, I wasn't my own person anymore. I did most of the work together with his other employees, and the more money he earned the less I mattered to him… and my love for him slowly faded away. He didn't even recognise that. Tells a lot about his character, I guess. That he now behaves how he behaves is most likely because I crushed his pride by leaving him and that he's blackmailing me is possibly the only way for him to hold power over me and to keep me in his company. I'm sure he knows very well how much he owes me. It's a cruel game he's playing with me and it doesn't make any sense to me. Most of all I despise my own stupidity in not refusing that damn photoshoot…and allowing him to film us having sex was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I don't understand why I agreed to make a private porn video. I'm so disgusted by myself.”

The embarrassment made your eyes welling up with tears again and you angrily wiped them away with your palms. You couldn't turn back the time or the decisions you made and there was just one way now: grin and bear it and get everything sorted out. Self-pitying wasn't helpful at this point.

“I never wanted all this mass of luxury, you know. Of course, I like nice things and going shopping for fancy stuff. But I don't crave it, I don't need all those fancy clothes and shoes or jewellery, holidays in expensive hotels and their overpriced presidential suites, or fancy six-course menus. He wanted all of this and put me in those clothes and pretty places. A small cosy cottage at a beach, a glass of wine on the porch, casual food at a beach bar, swimming in the ocean and my bare feet in the sand, dancing in the moonlight and having sex on the beach… that was what I wanted to do but he never listened to me or fulfilled these little dreams of mine. He always wanted it his way and I agreed because I loved him and was afraid to lose him. All I ever wanted was to live and to love someone and I wanna be loved by a man whose feelings for me are sincere and genuine. I wanna feel safe…and I want to give all of those feelings to someone who deserves all of this as much as I do. A normal, healthy life and a normal, healthy relationship. To always say yes to everything and to sacrifice myself and my wishes for someone else's success wasn't healthy, always playing the supportive role instead of the main role…that was far away from having an equal and healthy relationship. When there's one thing I've learned then it's that I have to love myself too and that I have a right to get my dreams fulfilled as well and that was the reason why I finally broke up with Ralph and the break-up brought me in this fucked up situation. I still don't know what is hurting me more. The fact that Ralph is blackmailing me or that he never truly loved me. I was just a means to an end. Maybe I should laugh about him. He's a weakling, a douchebag, unable to put something on his own, humanly a total loser and in general a loser in life too. He never cared about me or was overly interested in my life or cared about my mum. He only ever cared about money. I thought I'd spend the rest of my life with him, Loki, I thought it would be forever until I found out how he really is, how evil and devilish. He's a failure, a failure in a pinstripe suit. And now he wants to punish me for leaving him and spending ‘his’ money. He wants to ruin me and make me believe that I was the one who took advantage of him and lived at his expense.”

“But you worked for it, sweets. You worked harder for it than him. He has no right to demand and reclaim anything from you.”

“Yeah, you're right but there's nothing I can do about that. And it still feels like there's more about it, that I only know half of the truth about him. I'm sure there's more about it that he demands so much money from me.”

“Why didn't you report him, sweets?”

“He has connections everywhere, Loki. From the Police department to the best lawyers, he knows a lot of people with a lot of influence and he has all the money to pay them all well and buy himself free from criminal offenses. I wouldn't have a hint of a chance.”

“Why did you stay with him that long?”

“I don't know. Maybe because I didn't want to give up on my hopes that we could still have a future together. Maybe because we were too used to each other and clinging too much to old habits. Maybe it was the refusal to accept that our love had died at some point in time. Maybe I was afraid of being alone. I don't know. The only thing I know is that I didn't stay with him because of the money and the privileged lifestyle. The things I wanted weren't material. What I always missed over the years was the love and the adoration for each other. The richer he got the more heartless he became. The lack of love and care was the worst. And it took me too long to see it.” You began quietly sobbing and crying, every dam inside of you broke.

“Now you know my truth and I hope you understand now why I wanted to keep you out of this and left you that night. I told you that the real me has nothing to do with the pretty, carefree and sexy Sugar, my alter ego, the fake personality you fell in love with. I never intended to hurt you, Loki. I know I did and I'm so sorry for that. I totally understand if you want to go now because you deserve a better woman than me whose life is fucked up and whose sex life might be published all over the country in a few days.”

“You should know that I won't leave you alone, no matter what happens. Do you still not believe me that I'm in love with you? I don't care about what you did and why, you had no other choice and who am I to judge you? You still wanted me to stay despite what I did in the past. And you definitely didn't do anything wrong. I'll stay, I won't go.” Loki could deal with a lot of things. Hate, rejection, wrath, rudeness but not with you, his precious girl, sitting on your sofa blaming everything that had happened on you and crying a river because of that damn prick Ralph.

“Come here, sweets,” and he pulled you into his lap cradling you tight. He rubbed your back gently and you leaned against him, your head resting in the crook of his neck.

“I always knew that there's a wonderful, lovable and sweet person behind the mask named Sugar. I saw so many hints of it whenever we met and I'm glad that I have found this amazing woman. Have you any idea how strong you are? I promise you we'll figure out how to bring him down and we'll figure it out together.”

“Can you please hold me for a while? I need to be held by you, Loki,” and you began to cry again.

“Of course, as long as you want me to, sweets,” Loki kissed you softly on the forehead, rocked you slowly back and forth and just held you tightly until you felt better and had no more tears inside of you to shed.

“Please, sweets take my money and pay him and then…” he began to talk again.

“No, Loki, I won't do that,” you interrupted him quietly.

“Y/n please don't let us have this discussion again…” He begged you nicely.

“No, please don't get me wrong, Loki. It's not that I wouldn't take your money to pay him, which is extremely nice and generous of you. No, it's because I think he won't stop blackmailing me if I give him the money he demands from me. I'm pretty sure he won't stop blackmailing me because if he gets the money from me he might think I'm capable of paying more and that I can do it again and again. Believe me, he is that type of guy. He never gets enough, he's insatiable. I need to find another way. I'm afraid I need to talk to him again. Maybe… maybe I should… offer him to… to sleep with me one more time, maybe then he lets me go.” The thought made you shiver in disgust.

“This will never happen! He will never ever touch you again, y/n!” Loki said firmly and sternly. He carefully grabbed you by your shoulders and looked deeply into your teary eyes. “You're under my protection and I will never allow or accept this! Please, don't do this to me,” he told you desperately.

“I'm sorry, Loki, I'm so sorry, I won't do it, I promise but I really don't know what else to do…,” and you hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around your middle and pulled you closer to him.

“I'll find a way to stop him. I promise with all of my heart and soul, I'll stop him,” he cooed and buried his face in your hair. You were his, only his and he would protect you at all costs, always.

Out of nowhere your stomach growled and it made you both chuckle.

“It seems my queen is hungry and needs to get fed,” Loki answered and smiled at you.

“Your queen?” you asked him surprised and you were definitely hungry. No matter how big your problems were, you would never refuse to eat.

“Oh, right I forgot where you come from, I'm sorry Loki,” you continued genuinely and kissed his mouth tenderly.

“Yes, you're my queen, sweet thing and I can't have you starving. I have a suggestion. I'm doing groceries for some food and I cook something for us and you can clean up your apartment a bit. Then we eat and after lunch, you can finish your today's work and we spend the rest of the evening together… and the night if you want. What do you think, sweets? Would you like that?” Loki grinned from ear to ear, very proud of his irresistible proposal.

“You can cook?” you asked astonished. This man was just full of surprises and really cared about your well-being. And of course, you wanted him to stay.

“Yes, I can. I had a lot of time here to learn it,” Loki confirmed.

“Wow, you're really talented. You're amazing and I'm truly blessed with a man like you. Yeah, that's a really good plan. Thank you, Loki,” and you kissed him again. You could do this all day long and stay wrapped around him 24/7.

A knock at your entrance door interrupted your making out and you let go of each other's lips.

“Do you expect someone?" Loki asked and looked quizzically at you.

“No, I don't expect anyone,” and you got off of his lap. You took a sweatpants on and headed for the door to open it.

“Hello y/n, I'm very sorry for disturbing you but…”

“Walker!” and you hugged that rock of a man with genuine thankfulness. Your stormy embrace took him off guard and he shyly reciprocated your hug.

“You're not mad at me?” He asked you insecurely. You let go of him and looked at him.

“How could I be mad at you? You helped my man to find me and brought him back to me. And I'm so grateful for it, Walker. Thank you, thank you for your help, you risked a lot for us,” you told him and gave him an amicable kiss on his cheek. Walker was taken aback by it, he never expected this adorable behaviour of yours and he slightly blushed but he always knew what a wonderful person you were so he wasn't really surprised. You were lovely and that's why he always cared that much about you.

“Will you tell Rhea?” He wanted to know.

“No, Walker, I won't tell her. If she should find it out by herself I won't lie to her, she always has been good to me and so have you. I would explain to her why you did it and I would fight for you. You won't lose your job, I promise,” you reassured him. Loki appeared behind you and wrapped one arm around your waist, placed his hand on your stomach, kissed your cheek and looked at Walker, smiling.

“Thank you, y/n, I appreciate it. You have a heart of gold. Is everything okay so far?” Walker looked smilingly at both of you and Loki pulled you closer to his body, his chin leaning at your temple.

“Yes!” You both answered simultaneously and smiled brightly at Walker and he told you he was glad to hear that. He could see how happy you two were despite knowing that you were still in some kind of danger he didn't know anything about.

“Could you do me a favour, Walker?” Loki asked him.

“Of course, Sir.”

“Could you please drive me to a grocery store, I'd like to buy some foodstuff, this beautiful lady here in my arms is starving and I can't have that. I just get fully dressed and then we can drive off.”

“No problem, Sir, I wait by the car for you,”

“Thanks, Walker. Give me five minutes,” Loki said. Walker nodded once and smiled at you, turned on his heels and left. He could go with a good conscience and to see you so lucky in all your misery and together with the man you visibly loved was worth it to risk his job.

Loki got dressed and kissed you goodbye.

“You come back to me, right?”

“Of course, I will come back to you, sweets.” He held your head in his big hands, his thumb pads gently rubbing over the soft skin of your cheeks, and kissed the tip of your nose.

“Will you open the door for me when I'm back from doing the groceries, my precious girl?” He asked you softly. You took his hands gently from your face and walked over to your dresser to take something out of a small wooden bowl.

“You can let yourself in, handsome. Can't wait to have you back,” you said quietly, kissed him shortly but passionately and gave him your keychain with the key to your apartment. Loki smiled at you, astonished that you gave him your keys without hesitating.

“I'll be back soon, sweets,” he answered, gave you a further quick, loving kiss and left.

When Loki came back you had put things in order in your apartment, your table wasn't a complete disaster anymore and it would be much easier for you to get back to work later. He immediately began to prepare the ingredients he needed for cooking a tasty meal for you. You two decided to eat at the kitchen counter and you prepared two places with cutlery and napkins. Loki forbid you to do more than this. He wanted you to take some rest and he also wanted to spoil you with his cooking skills and his care. You couldn't do anything about it, so you obeyed and just watched him stirring in a pot and frying fish in a pan. It smelled delicious and Loki cooking in your small kitchen was a sight to behold. A literal demi-god, devastatingly beautiful and sexy in his tightfitting t-shirt, was cooking in your kitchen, and he did it for you.

You were on the edge of crying again. His ways to show you his love and affection were adorable and you were still convinced that you didn't deserve it. You rounded the kitchen counter and hugged him from behind, shoving your hands under his t-shirt and letting your fingertips trail over his defined abs in lazy circles up to his pecs to caress his chest hair. You couldn't resist touching him. You needed to reassure yourself that he was real and that you weren't daydreaming.

“Don't you dare distract me, sweet thing,” he groaned jokingly.

“I'm hungry,” you whined and pressed a firm kiss between his clothed shoulder blades.

“I know, sweets and it seems you want the dessert before the main course,” he teased you and turned around to face and hug you. Your hands were still under his shirt and caressed now the firm muscles of his back.

“The best comes last,” you teased him back and bit lightly into your lower lip. You felt the muscles of his thighs and his crotch tightly pressed against your lower parts and you let your hands trailing down to his butt, squeezing it and pressing him even closer to you.

“I think you have to be patient, sweet thing. Before you'll get your special dessert I have a sweet little surprise for you,” he said to increase your anticipation. It was just now that he realized that you had touched his bare skin again without his permission. Why did it feel that good, dangerously good? Your warm hands on his body lit a fire in him again and he wanted it to burn forever. Your hands on him were dangerous but one of the best feelings he ever felt.

“Can't wait for it,” you mumbled, tilted your head, and latched your lips onto his. You would never get enough of this man's soft lips and his delicious taste. If only you knew what it was that made his kisses that tasty.

“We can eat now, sweets. Take a seat, I will serve you the food,” and he let go of your mouth and body and prepared two dishes with the freshly cooked food.

“Et voilà, freshly fried salmon on a bed of spicy spinach leaves and some rice as a side dish with a light herbal sauce. Enjoy your meal, my love,” and Loki placed your dish with an elegant movement in front of you. Did he just call you ‘my love’? Never before had a man called you like this and you never felt so loved by a man. And it felt so normal like you two were in a serious relationship but maybe it went way too fast and way too easy.

“Thank you so much, Loki. It looks gorgeous,” and you dipped your fork into the fish and the spinach and shoved it into your mouth. The wonderful taste of it on your tongue made you moan almost indecently and your reaction made Loki smile. He loved how sensually you enjoyed food.

“It's delicious, I love it. It's the best dish I've eaten in two weeks.”

“I'm happy you like it, sweets,” Loki responded and he also started eating. You didn't talk much during your lunch, you just enjoyed each other's company. Loki's little surprise for you was a chocolate mousse with fresh strawberries and he couldn't resist feeding you this sweet treat, well knowing that you would never deny a good dessert.

In the afternoon you continued writing your thesis and Loki sat on your sofa, reading one of the books he had taken from your bookshelf. He didn't disturb you, he was just there and his sheer presence filled you with calmness and security. It was balm to your soul in all the stress and anxiety you were suffering these days. In the evening you watched a movie together but you didn't follow the plot because you soon ended up heavily making out and Loki carried you to your bedroom, his lips never leaving yours. You two hurriedly took your clothes off and continued kissing and touching each other's bare skin. You did it slowly and gently and you weren't in a hurry anymore as soon as you were cuddling under the sheets. All the touches made Loki's cock twitch and you felt the wetness between your thighs becoming more with every passionate kiss he gave you.

“Mark me, Loki. I want everyone to know that I belong to someone, that I belong to you,” you whispered to his ear and continued kissing him and playing with his curls.

“Are you sure, sweets? I don't want to bruise your perfect skin. You're too precious to me,” he answered softly and brushed your hair tenderly out of your face.

“Yes, I want it, I want you to mark me as yours,” you asked him.

He gave you a soft, passionate kiss first before his lips travelled further down to your throat and the most sensitive spot under your ear. He placed a tender kiss right to your pulse point before he sucked and nibbled that erotic zone of yours until he saw a violet mark appearing on your skin. He licked gently over the bruise and blew some air over it to soothe the sweet pain he had caused. All the moans you made and the way you were writhing underneath him while he was kissing you had already made him harden and you felt him rolling his hips against your thigh. Then he was on top of you, pressing his engorged cock against your thigh and moistening it with pre-cum. Your hard nipples rubbed against his chest with his every movement and it made him moan and tremble because it felt so good on his skin. Your hands were roaming all over his body and caressing him. He never wanted to miss this feeling ever again. He felt you shifting beneath him and opening your legs for him. He rolled his hips against yours and with his shaft he rubbed over your inner labia and your clit. Your soft moans and your tight grip on his back and his nape caused goosebumps on his heated skin. The tip of his cock teased your entrance and when he was about to slide in you tenderly stopped him.

“Don't you want to blindfold me? If you want you can tie up my wrists too,” you trusted him enough to allow him to do it and to surrender to him.

“No, I want you to touch me. Touch me here,” and he gently took your hand and placed it to his sternum where his heart was beating hurriedly. “Make me feel I'm breathing, I'm living, make me feel worthy of your touch, worthy of your love. I want you to look at me and I want to look into your eyes when you cum, sweets.” In his eyes, you saw he was serious and he truly wanted it.

“So whenever you blindfolded me, you did it not just for the kink. You wanted to hide from me. I didn't imagine the blue shimmer under your skin, right? It has something to do with you being a Jotun,” you concluded, tenderly running a thumb over his cheek.

“You didn't imagine it, I'm sorry that I told you otherwise. I was scared and I didn't want to scare you off. When I have strong feelings for the woman I mate with, I may lose control and can't keep up the appearance you're used to. And being touched by your hands just adds to the sensation. And also my skin feels different then. These are the reasons why I didn't want you to touch me.” Loki was afraid you would demand him to stop and get off of you immediately but you didn't.

“You don't scare me off, you never could,” you whispered and pulled him down to kiss him ardently. “Go on, Loki, I need you,” you pleaded him sweetly.

“Sure?”

“Absolutely sure,” and he slid himself inside you until he was completely seated inside of you.

His strokes were deep and slow and he made the sweetest love to you. He was so tender and careful, with utter gentleness he caressed and kissed every part of your body he was able to reach in this position.

“I love you so much, I don't want to live without you anymore. Please, never run away again, sweets,” he asked you between his lingering kisses.

“You're my everything, Loki. I missed you so bad, I'm so glad to have you back, that you haven't given up on me. I will never run away from you again,” you murmured and you scratched lightly with your fingernails over the soft skin of his muscled back. You gave featherlight kisses to his cheeks and his forehead. His skin was glistening with a thin layer of sweat and your touches made him shiver. His strokes got sloppier and his moans more intense. You felt how close he was but he still held back. He could tell you wouldn't cum yet, together with him. He looked at you with asking eyes, unsure if he should go on or take care of your pleasure first. You sensed his hesitation but you gave him a reassuring glance to continue.

“I'm okay, don't worry. It feels good, don't stop. Come for me, Loki. Come undone for me, my precious boy, I have you,” you whispered against his lips and his speed increased. He groaned silently, his hips drawing back and pushed forward again, his throbbing cock thrusting deep into your pulsating cunt. You weren't on the brink of climaxing yet but it didn't matter. You enjoyed the intimacy and how close he was to you, how soft his skin felt under your fingertips, and how passionately he gave himself to you. There wasn't any pressure for you to orgasm and whoever told you to make love in missionary pose is boring was a liar. Nothing felt better or more intimate and intense. You definitely enjoyed it.

“Let go, my love, fill me with your cum, make me happy, let me feel you” and you trailed your fingers gently up from his lower back to his shoulders and his biceps. When you felt his whole body tighten and his moans getting more desperate, you spread your legs wider and grabbed his ass cheeks and squeezed them firmly. You knew he was about to cum. “That's it, you're allowed to cum Loki, give it all to me. Don't hide, you can show me who you are,” you murmured, kissing and caressing his throat and his face with your lips and tightening your grip on his butt.

“Oh fuck…,” and with your name on his lips he came, violently and delightfully moaning, feeling your cunt clenching around his sensitive tip and when you felt him releasing his warm seed into you you came too, silently, calmly, intensely, bathing in the sweet feeling of being loved and craved. You kissed each other passionately, intensifying the orgasmic bliss. You locked your legs around his waist because you knew how much he liked that and also you were not yet willing to let him go. You loved this feeling of his still throbbing cock inside of you. His kiss burned torturously sweet on your lips and you could barely stand the feeling of the weight of his body on top of yours and you really had underestimated how much you needed this, how much you needed him.

Loki broke the kiss and rested his forehead against yours, trying to catch his breath. You both didn't say anything, you just looked at each other and enjoyed this feeling of satisfied lust and love. You caressed Loki's scalp and scratched his nape tenderly, watching the hint of the blue colour under his skin and the red shimmer in his eyes slowly fading away. Loki gently caressed your cheeks and kissed the tip of your nose tenderly.

“Are you alright, sweet thing?” he murmured, softly pressing a further tender kiss to the tip of your nose. Instead of an answer he felt your legs clenching more firmly around his hips and your deep purr of contentment made him feel safe and wanted.

“I really didn't scare you? I…I couldn't show it to you completely yet, I'm still too used to hiding it. I think I need some time to understand that you would accept me nonetheless,” Loki mumbled shyly.

“Take all the time you need. You decide when it feels right for you and then you can show me your ethereal beauty,” Loki kissed you tenderly and thankfully and couldn't believe that you were so understanding in every respect.

“I wished we had met under different circumstances,” you whispered while you gave him several pecks on his lips, some sadness in your voice.

“Honestly, I'm pretty sure we did,” Loki said, convinced and moved his body from yours to lay on his side. You rolled to your side too so you could face him and propped up on one elbow, your head resting on your palm.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember the day when we first met at Vivian's Velvet? Rain was pouring down that day. I had just called Rhea, made an appointment with an escort lady, which was you, and was on my way home when a hooded woman bumped into me.”

“This is nothing unusual in Manhattan.”

“It's not, you're right. I couldn't see her face but I remember the shoes she was wearing…dark-green trainers like yours. It's my favourite colour and that's why the trainers caught my eye,” Loki continued and you frowned and looked quizzically at him.

“You mean, we could've had a meet-cute, flirting, dating and all that lovely kitschy stuff others have when meeting accidentally somewhere? Because… I remember I was in a hurry to Rhea's agency and I bumped into someone with an umbrella… it was…”

“... me, the man with the umbrella. And I'm sure I saw you a second time, in the hallway of the hotel after our first night, when I lost my scarf. I went back to the hotel suite to look for it and a woman walked past me. I greeted her but she didn't answer. She was busy looking for something in her bag and I couldn't see her face, it was hidden behind her hair. And she was wearing dark-green trainers, the same again as yours.” You swallowed thickly, you clearly remembered that night.

“Yeah, I remember. I was looking for my biscuits in my bag because I was a bit hungry and… I didn't answer because I had my earplugs in and was listening to music, I didn't even recognise walking past someone.

“And there was a third time. In Central Park, one sunny afternoon I was sitting on a bench and reading a book. When I randomly looked up, two women passed by, I just saw them from behind, one of them talking nonstop to the other woman… and this woman…”

“...wore the same dark-green trainers like mine?” You completed his sentence. “I'm sure it was me and my friend Gabby, we met one afternoon in Central Park and on our way home she talked a lot,” you laughed and you couldn't believe how many chances there had been to meet Loki in the streets and he couldn't believe it either.

“Besides I don't know what I would have done, it's amazing how many times we ran into each other, how close we had been to each other without knowing it,” you realized.

“But it wasn't meant to be for us. Our way is a different one, more complicated but we'll go this way together. I'm sure everything should exactly happen the way it happened. At least it doesn't matter. We're together now and that's the only thing important to me. Come here, sweets,” and Loki pulled you into his arms and hugged you tightly.

“You're right, and I'm just happy to have you here. Thank you for being here and holding me.” You enjoyed his proximity for a moment before you continued to speak.

“Loki, I'm not sure if I'm ready for a new relationship yet. It terrifies me. I might need some time to get over my bad experience and I hope you understand that it's not easy for me to love someone again.”

“Your scars need time to heal, sweets and I'll give you all the time you need. I also know it's not easy to love me. I'm an otherworldly creature with a dubious past and how could I expect an angel like you to love a sinner like me that easily.”

“You stop saying that right away, okay? That's not the reason. You're wonderful! A loveable, attentive and sensual man, you're everything a woman can dream of… everything I'm dreaming of. It's me, Loki. My life is so fucked up, and you deserve better, a better woman than me…I really wish we would've met under different circumstances… the girl in the rain…”

“...bumping into the man with the umbrella…Now you stop saying that right away, sweets. You're gorgeous, and you are the one for me and I say it again, I'll give you all the time you need,” and he tightened his grip on you, kissing you softly.

“Loki, I would've slept with you without taking money from you because I never really wanted you to pay for me. I just want to be yours and yours only,” you whispered tiredly and snuggled up closer to him.

“And I would've paid any price for you just to be with you and to make sure that no other man touches and hurts what is mine,” he answered quietly with his wonderful velvety voice.

To the sound of his heartbeat, you fell asleep on his chest, protected by his strong arms which were still firmly wrapped around you as if he were afraid you could be gone when he woke up in the morning.

“I'll do this one thing for you and make sure that this son of a bitch will never hurt you again,” Loki whispered into the darkness of your bedroom and placed a tender kiss on your forehead. But you didn't hear him because you were already sleeping and with you closely snuggled up to him he closed his eyes and fell asleep too.

The next morning when you woke up the place in your bed next to you was cold and empty. For a moment you thought he was gone and you suddenly understand how he must've felt when he woke up that morning without you. It was a horrible feeling. But then you heard some noises from the main room of your apartment. You got off the bed and walked over to where the sounds came from. There was Loki, nearly fully dressed already and about to leave.

“What are you doing?” you asked him surprised.

“Hey, good morning, my sweet thing. You're awake. I didn't want to wake you up. I just need to do something before we have breakfast. I'll be back soon, my love. Take your time and enjoy a hot shower until I'm back. I won't take long, I promise,” he explained to you. Something seemed a bit off but you couldn't explain what it was.

“See you later, my sweet girl and I'll prepare a wonderful breakfast for you when I'm back,” and he kissed you passionately goodbye. There was something very erotic about him being fully dressed and you still being naked. You found it irresistibly indecent and arousing.

“Sounds very promising, handsome. I'll be waiting for you to come back soon,” you told him softly.

You smiled brightly after he had closed the door and you took a mug from the cupboard to make you a coffee. You couldn't wait to have him back soon though he had just left but you already missed him. You thought about yesterday and last night, about how Loki had been there for you and listened to you and about your adoration and blooming love for Loki when it suddenly hit you like a rock.

‘You're a fallen angel, someone has broken your wings and if I ever find this cruel prick who hurt you so much, I'll kill him’

‘Don't make any promises you'll never keep, Luke’

‘I'll find a way to stop him. I promise with all of my heart and soul, I'll stop him ‘

“Oh my god Loki, no… no nono no… Don't do this…no…” you panicked and nearly dropped your coffee mug. You suddenly knew what it was he needed to do before breakfast. He surely was on his way to pay a visit to Ralph. He was willing to risk his freedom for you, willing to help you, no matter what it might mean to him or the consequences it could have for him. Never before have you got showered and dressed that quickly. Hopefully, it wasn't too late to keep him from falling into calamity.

Last night before he fell asleep with you nestled in his arms, sleeping peacefully, he knew what he had to do. He remembered who he was and what he was capable of. He was a prince, a king, a fighter and still the god of mischief and trickery.

He was willing to write a new story for you and hopefully, he would be a part of it too in one way or another. He was on his way to fight for your honour and freeing you from Ralph and nothing could stop him from doing it.

🌹🥂🥃🌃🌹🥂🥃🌃❤️🌹🥂🥃🌃🌹🥂🥃🌃

@faesimps @gruftiela @lokisprettygirl @anukulee @fandxmslxt69 @foxherder @depressedpolishgirl @buttercupcookies-blog @chantsdemarins @fictive-sl0th @justjoanne242 @km-ffluv @stupidthoughtsinwriting @lovingchoices @wheredafandomat @lokixryss @huntress-artemiss @smolvenger

[still-a-morosexual-help]

I just wanna thank you for being one of the few fans for being so comprehensive about the AMA, and for giving an opinion that wasn't just bitching and moaning about being baited.

Like, it's a bloody gacha game. That's basically gambling with some extra fancy steps. Anyone that has agreed to play the game should've known this particular detail. Yes, I know it's a pity that the OG app will be discontinued, but I am at least willing to give Solmare the benefit of the doubt (mind you, the question about being able to transfer your old stuff to NB or not was the most upvoted one, so it's not like they weren't listening).

If you want my honest opinion, I'm glad that they didn't decided to shut the OG app down right off the bat, because that would seriously obstruct any future plan of updates for NB.

The OG app is still up for the same reasons why Webkinz Classic is still up and running even with the existence of Webkinz Next: Because it's the devs' MAIN SOURCE of profit. Sure, they have the anime, the merchandise, the collaborations and what-have-you, but the app is where everything started, so deleting it would be poor strategy on their end and ruin everything in the long run.

Personally, I am willing to wait for an update where you're able to transfer your old stuff to the new app; while that doesn't happen, I'll be sticking with the old app. But if its servers eventually close and I'm not able to transfer, I'll just start off on a clean slate, no stress and no sweat. Obey Me! has made me so happy these 3 years and bloggers like you have been delivering quite the superb content, of course I'm not leaving this fandom so soon.

I'm taking it easy, but I'm also taking it. I'm aware that this situation is out of my control, and that's fine. Life goes on.

Honestly given that they said they're still planning on releasing events and stuff on the og app and that lonely devil is still there and it's continuing to release old events + having s1-4 there I don't see it shutting down anytime soon which the devs themselves confirmed

And yeah at the end of the day solmare is a business. It's main purpose is to make money and og om! was their lightning in a bottle moment. They're not gonna do anything to hurt the og app and piss off the majority of their fanbase

So there really is nothing to be upset about? The og app will continue like it has since the end of s4 and the main story post season 4 will be continued in the new app which also contains a few different features and gameplay from the og

So we get to keep the og and get a new thing! That's....isn't that a good thing?

And even if we don't get to transfer what we have from the og app.....it's not that bad a problem? We've been playing this game for 3 years now right? Don't we know by now how to save up resources and effectively get the cards we want? And even if we don't get the cards in the first round you always get a second or third chance later on. And okay I've played a lot of gacha games and so far om has being comparatively the most generous... like the whole transfer thing still doesn't seem like that big of a problem to me?

Either way the only thing worrying about it will do is make you upset and that defeats the purpose of playing an escapist game

[livefromphilly]

Sony A7CII Thoughts After Two Months

PROS:

The A7C was already one of my favorite cameras of all time and this improves on it a lot more than I thought when just seeing the specs. The added front dial alone makes it many times easier to control than the older model, and lets me use my typical Sony setup that I’ve grown accustomed to (aperture on front dial, shutter speed on rear dial, and ISO on the scroll wheel). 

This is the quickest operating Sony camera I’ve owned. I think they kind of lulled me into forgetting how fast cameras can be going from off to on and taking photos. The A7RII was slow as heck with each subsequent model I’ve owned getting faster and faster (A7III to A7C to A7RIV). This new Sony is at a level of speed that makes it hard to go back to using the A7RIV which I still own (for now). 

The autofocus is superb. I still haven’t really put it through its paces since I got the camera in the winter and the lack of light plus uncooperative weather has made it tricky to go out and shoot, but from what I have shot it’s nearly flawless. It’s way better than any camera I’ve owned before. It also has some really neat autofocusing modes, like the ability to focus on the eyes of birds. I’m not really around birds close up all that often but it worked really well at an exotic bird place in Jersey I went to recently. 

The camera is 33 megapixels, which is a nice compromise between feeling like it’s sometimes too much (61) or too little (24). 

The in-body image stabilization is really good. It’s certainly the best I’ve used in any camera so far…although to be fair I’ve never used a Nikon/Canon/Fuji/Olympus body with IBIS, only Ricoh (GRIII), Panasonic (GX7 and GX85), and Sony. 

It can lower the shutter when switching lenses so dust doesn’t get in there. Not gonna lie it seems kind of dangerous and something that could potentially damage the shutter, but so far it’s kept the dust out. 

CONS:

The viewfinder isn’t great. I’ve never really been an EVF snob since I’ve been shooting on mirrorless EVFs for over a decade now (I had a V1 back in 2013), but going from the A7RIV to this makes it kind of stick out. I also recently handled an A7RV, which really blows it out the water. With autofocus lenses it’s no problem, but using manual focus lenses is more difficult. On the plus side, it automatically goes into peaking mode when you manually focus, even when using adapted lenses or lenses without electrical contacts. 

The camera only has one card slot. Not a huge dealbreaker considering every other camera I own aside from my A7RIV is the same in that regard. A second slot even if it was a micro would have been great though. A nice thing about the A7RIV is that I’ve never left home without a memory card because even if I forget one there’s always another in there. 

No joystick. Again, not completely necessary but it’s nice to have. Most of my subjects aren’t humans (or animals, or other things that the camera can instinctively detect) so there are plenty of times I want to position the focus point myself. 

Slow flash sync and shutter speed. This camera is like the A7C before it in that it only flash syncs up to 1/160. It also only shoots up to 1/4000.

Still don't love the flip screen because it makes quick waist-level shooting a pain in the ass. I wish they went with the A7RV style screen.

Speaking of, all the new perks on this camera make me want to use it a ton more than my A7RIV, but it also makes me want to get an A7RV. Maybe I'll sell my X100V since the prices are nuts right now...

SAMPLE PHOTOS:

Sony 85mm f/1.8 | ISO: 250, f/2.8, 1/125 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/160 sec

Sony 85mm f/1.8 | ISO 5000, f/1.8, 1/50 sec

Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 @ 20mm | ISO 3200, f/2.8, 1/125 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 100, f/2, 1/160 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 12800, f/2, 1/50 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 100, f/2.2, 1/640 sec

Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 @ 32mm | ISO 320, f/2.8, 1/20 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 100, f/1.8, 1/500 sec

Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 @ 37mm | ISO 800, f/2.8, 1/40 sec

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM w/ K&F Concept Black Diffusion 1/4 Filter | ISO 8000, f/1.4, 1/50 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 250, f/1.8, 1/125 sec

Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 | ISO 250, f/2, 1/125 sec

Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8  @ 20mm | ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/40 sec

Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM | ISO 8000, f/1.6, 1/50 sec

Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 @ 20mm | ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/320 sec

[sonosvegliato]

you always rb fic recs but what’s YOUR favorite fic? one that you will reread forever?

*sweats* I know you just said one but I've been meaning to do this for ages, to contribute to the greater good of this fandom, but the problem is I go so far down the bookmark/history rabbit hole I get sucked in all over again. Me and my bookmarks are like a squirrel and its acorns; I save 'em up then forget about them and years later it's like I've been blessed with a flood of good fic food.

been a number and a name by WynterSky and everything else by them. I love this fic. I love this author. I feel lucky just to have stumbled upon any of their work---their 1990s Tim/Kon work lives in my heart and I'll highly suggest it to anyone to give it a shot, even if you're not a fan of ships or TimKon. My bookmark note: CREAMY ORANGE POPSICLE OF FICS TRY TRY TRY

The Power of Family and This Stalker I Found by JackHawksmoor. Bookmark note:

hands in my hair mcfreaking incredible can i learn to write adrenaline scenes like this is there a course where is that course also i need to learn how to bedazzle a sash for this author a sash of wow so everyone knows wow WOW if anyone goes through my bookmarks click this one click this one i promise your circadian will be so messed up but you will like it you will mcfreaking enjoy the blurry word at hour 2 you will drink from the fountain of wow i feel like i'm on a rollercoaster like legit like stomach in my ribcage throw up out of excitement and also fear i've never actually been on a big kid rollercoaster ahHHHHH pacing flipping tables i don't know man I DON'T KNOW this is without words this is beat my fists through the fourth wall fall into the fifth dimension into the white water rapids that's where the fountain of wow comes from

READ THIS FIC

Anything by Vamillepudding. I am not subscribed to many authors, mostly because I'm forgetful, but I did remember to subscribe to them---and whenever I get a little alert my heart goes rahrahrah. Extremely talented writer.

Anything by incogneat_oh. One of the first authors I ever read; I found them over PINTEREST over a screenshotted tumblr post. I had no idea who this Tim character was, but thus my life was changed forever. Story in particular was Just Like You, but I read everything---and they have LOTS. God bless.

Obedience by Sohotthateveryonedied. I read lots from them, but Obedience I read very early into my tumble into Batman and it just sort of floats into my head from time to time, the way some fics do.

The Next Life by spqr. Another one that floats around the brain. Bookmark note: STUPENDOUS

contemplate the beauty of the earth by downwithtyranny. I'm a bit biased on this one, but it's short and sweet and pleasantly different. And written by a very smart person who I know for a fact picks up roadkill off the side of the road and fixes them up nice and pretty for study (if you ever meet a real-life-not-a-medical-doctor-biologist, you're in for a treat). Bookmark note:

Human achievement at its finest 👏 👏👏

s c i e n c e r u l e s

And for the holiday season---only you will have stars that can laugh by silverwhittlingknife. Though I did go through all their works---SUPERB Dick characterization.

[rayshippouuchiha]

*rolls up sleeves* buckle in peeps, this is gonna be long. as promised, pics of all the yarn at and related things to it! Also Ray, fellow void, if you want anything in particular, just holler at me. 👍First the wips!

From left to right: pillow cover in checkerboard stitch using bulky super wash merino wool (cause I wanted to try something new) blanket for stepdad in bamboo stitch with acrylic yarn blanket for mom in broken rib stitch ( I wanna have this done by mother's day but I dunno yet), also in acrylic,and place mat for a friend in basic garter stitch, again in acrylic.

Next is completed stuff!

From left to right: scarf in stockinette stitch for my sis, who likes it despite me being a picky bitch about how it got out of control and definitely not what I intended, argh. Also it's hard to see, but there's beads in there as well. 2nd pic is headband (need to seam the ends together actually), and 2 dishcloths (the holes are intentional on the blue one, since I knitted that diagonally). Then dishtowel in woven stitch, potholders in.. I think I did moss stitch on those. And a facecloth in sand stitch. Then dishtowel in 2x2 rib stitch. I don't remember what I did for the dishcloths, but I DO remember kicking myself cause if I'd thought of it earlier I could've put beads in the pink part to make them watermelon-themed! All of the kitchen-type items were made from cotton/cotton blends. I also have another stack of completed kitchen-type stuff for relatives and friends, but I don't have pics of them at the moment.

Last but not least, the yarn hoard! The stack of 5 cakes was the recent order that was on sale and will eventually become a blanket for my sis. The small tubs are super wash merino wool skeins, they will become various things once I figure out exactly what I wanna make. 🤷‍♀️ so many ideas and patterns, and I'm so indecisive, augh. The tub beneath it is acrylic/acrylic blends, then there's the cotton/cotton blends with a needle case full of spare needles. Last tub is regular wool that was a gift from my mom, a sick kit, and yarn that's was a gift from a nurse I work with (she crochets!) who received it from someone and didn't know what to do with it, asked if I wanted it, and said if i couldn't/didn't want to use it, I could always pass it along as well. And then there's the little roller shelf cart that I keep by my chair so I can organize things while I work on them, and a hat kit! Which I will attempt at some point once I finally get the hang of knitting in the round! Which is supposed to be easy but my fingers don't like to cooperate sometimes! 😒 there are some people who may say that all that yarn isn't necessary, that I may have a problem. To which I say lies and slander and I DON'T have a problem I can stop anytime I want, really. <.<; I was always an arts and crafts kid anyway, this is just...a bigger version of that and I get to make useful things! 😀

Babe!!! Babe!!! you've got so many gorgeous projects going on and so much gorgeous yarn in stock!!

Seriously the color choices you're throwing down are superb!! Everything looks so fucking good!!

And the completed stuff!?! Seriously fantastic too. And I agree with the watermelon thing. They turned out great as is but they would have been beyond cute with the beads in !! Hey that's always something you can go for next time.

I love seeing your art like this because you're doing so good!!

[askcharaandfriends]

Chara! i know it may sound rude but is not meant to be could you please rate 1 to 10 your relationship with everyone? 1 being we need to work out some big issues/problems and 10 is we have the most awesome Friends/Family relationship!

Chara: um well... I don't know If I could just rate my relationship with everyone. But I can describe what I feel and how I think about them.

Dad- big warm soft hug factory. Always there for me. Listens and takes my opinions seriously. Not the best chef, but probably the best gardener ever. Protective and sturdy. Home is where the Asgore is. Sometimes very sad, but always tries to keep smiling and find something nice about the day.

Toriel- complex woman with a lot of responsibilities. Stuck halfway in between being a good mom and a good queen. Super kind and loving but with quite a lot of weight in her chest. Baking extraordinaire. Can make even snails appealing. Also quite good at textiles- taught me everything I know. Bit of a grammar police but in a gentle corrective way.

Asriel- more than a friend. My partner. Soft and cute. Kind and thoughtful. I can't imagine not being by his side. We are thick as thieves. Great at video games and has a superb imagination. Also not half bad at video editing. Sometimes a bit of a scardy cat and a pushover, but incredibly brave and cool when it really counts.

Sans- full of energy and puns. Loves his brother to pieces and will do anything for him. Parkour expert. Ninja skills. 9th level black belt in pranks. Secret love of junkfood. And socks. And toriel. A man of many secrets in general. But very fun loving, cool and caring.

Papyrus- well crafted puns finely aged in an Oaken cask. Equal parts silly and serious. Very cool without even trying. If he ever tried- watch out world! Loves his brother more than anything in the world. Depression disguised as laziness- but he's getting better. Mild sugar addiction. Astonishing capacity for forgiveness and giving second chances.

Alphys- anime antagonist turned ally. Gives amazing long-winded speeches. She deserves an Oscar. Highly opinionated and passionate. Hard outer shell like a hermit crab. Surprisingly soft insides. Fond of cute things. Highly skilled and trained warrior. Hero of her own story. A blast to hang out with except- ironically- when watching anime due to her opinions often Clashing with mine. We're like epic rivals.

Undyne- an excellent mad scientist. Brilliant and creative inventor. Very enthusiastic about her work and her girlfriend. Prefers to show rather than tell. Surprisingly Pyro for a fish lady. Almost always exciting. But also has a soft and sad side that she likes to sweep under the rug. She has a good heart though and is loyal to a fault.

Tem- the unreformed Stitch in my life. Little gremlin. Mild chaos. They're a lot of fun at the best of times. At the worst of times... well at least they aren't bent on causing permanent damage anymore. Cranky chihuahua. Grumpy cat. Lonely haunted doll. They say they don't feel anything and literally do not have those emotions, but I don't know. They must be really good at acting because they feel genuine enough sometimes. Even if they don't have a SOUL, they must have some kind of echo of one or else why can they get so mad when I destroy them in smashbros? Out of everyone they seem to tolerate me the most. I think it's because I remind them of their best friend....even though we are nothing alike.

Napstaton- an amazing dj and super cool and chill. Surprisingly shy for a world famous celebrity. Seems like they like to party but in reality big crowds drain their batteries really fast. Greatly prefers to just vibe.

Hapstablook- pretty much the opposite of his cousin but not in a bad way. The undead of the party. A trendsetter and fashionista. Loud and highly opinionated- somehow more than Alphys. Sometimes pushy. Completely glamorous. Kept trying to dress me up until I put my foot down. But He's cool and respects my fashion choices, even if he doesn't always agree.

Dr Hermann- mysterious scientist from the space between spaces, but apparently not originally from there. Apparently Sans and Papyrus' mom. Didn't get to raise her boys as much as she would have liked. Seems loving and caring and glad to be back. Also somehow a Latina even though many generations of monsters were under Canada.... though I suppose it's not that strange. It explains why both Sans and Papyrus occasionally break out in to Spanish.

[xitty]

Hello.... If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them...Thanks if you want to answer....

Ohohoh, I don't mind at all! I've been fujoshi since forever (and I mean it, one of the very first anime I watched was Gravitation), so this is dominated by m/m couples, of various states of canon... Warning: long post.

My OTPs are Wataru/Eichi from Ensemble Stars and Yuki/Momo from IDOLiSH7. I could write essays (and sort of have done) about Wataru and Eichi, I sometimes joke I don't need romance novels because Wataru and Eichi provide all the twists, from graduation rooftop "proposal" to flirting in front of their unitmates to jealous fits to bragging about their relationship to others. There's almost 9 years of lore here so I'll just say here that their story is superb and they are my jam.

Yuki and Momo are just the most married and cute and funny couple. And funnily have some similar beats as Wataru and Eichi, where one (Yuki, Eichi) was devastated by something to point they didn't really see any reason to continue and the other (Momo, Wataru) came to drag them out of their gloom.

I have other Ensemble Stars ships I enjoy too: Tatsumi/Mayoi, Nagisa/Hiyori, Izumi/Leo, Rinne/Niki... I usually go for ships that have fair amount of canon material and these do.

I have one more OTP: Shizuma and Minato from Therapy Game. Aaa, their relationship is great because Minato *knows* all his own faults and tries to be rational but it's so hard, and Shizuma understands that and has patience of a saint. But Shizuma also doesn't always understand how some of his innocent actions towards other people look to Minato. But they are really cute and hot too. And I bow to Meguru Hinohara for her storytelling and art, her other series, The Dragon's Betrothed is good too.

Other manga couples I like are Hirano & Kagiura from Sasaki & Miyano, and their own spin-off series of course. I like Sasamiya a lot too, they are really sweet but I find myself being more invested in Hirano and Kagi's thing.

Ok, what next... I just finished The Case Files of Jeweler Richard novel vol. 7, so Seigi and Richard. If there ever was what's-actually-gonna-happen?? slowburn, it's here. Seigi is damn slow and Richard communicates in riddles but man I'm invested. I also bow to Nanako Tsujimura for these books, love them.

Speaking of slowburns and slow realizations and dumb communication (/affectionate), the danmei royalty of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian and Lang Wangji and Wei Wuxian. Both are very good. I love the trope of love transcending time and all that, so Hua Cheng waiting for 800 years for Xie Lian ticks this box so hard.

I'm also basic, so of course Viktor and Yuuri from Yuri On Ice are on my list. Same also for Ash and Eiji from Banana Fish. Touya and Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura. Oh, I quite like Cherry blossom and Joe from Sk8 too.

I have a bunch of Genshin Impact ships I enjoy. I'm most invested in Alhaitham/Kaveh and Diluc/Kaeya. I like ships that have a past, I'm sure you noticed.

Ok, should I mentioned relationship that nobody probably knows about... But I keep thinking it a lot. There's this BL visual novel called Tokyo Onmyoji, the main character Rei is dealing with all kinds of supernatural problems as onmyoji. One of the routes is with his childhood friend Suguru and that route is beeeest. It's so good, deals with trauma and family trouble and their past and aaa now I'd like to read it again.

Also, Dramatical Murder is my least favourite Nitro+Chiral visual novel but damn, Koujaku and Aoba are so good couple, it ticks again so many boxes for me. (why oh whyyyyy that gorgeous figure of them is so expensive?! I can't justify myself to get pieces of plastic that cost two month's rent...)

Alright, let's pretend for a moment I'm not completely rotten woman... One of my favourite game couples is Eirika and Seth from Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones. It again gives me the "I've always liked you but I have kept my distance for reasons". I'm also in the Cloud/Tifa (minority?) camp for FFVII ships.

Kiyoka and Miyo from My Happy Marriage are het couple I'm really behind. I like how they are in the "so good for each other" category and how they've had to work on their relationship. The anime didn't show Kiyoka's thoughts that much but in the books he's also still learning how to be a good boyfriend/husband.

Shin and Lena from 86. Often I'm just "ok" about obvious couples like these but they are the exception. I think maybe it helped that they were separated soon after they got to know each other and then had to sort of got to know each other again.

Oh btw, I do read yuri too but I'm usually more into the series as a whole or one character's personal growth rather than their relationship. Like Sayaka from Bloom Into You. She's my favourite character from the series and I like her spin-off light novel series but I'm most into her finding peace with herself and love in general, if you understand what I mean. But! Hanako and Alice from Goodbye, My Rose Garden manga are my favourite yuri couple! Escaping relationship/marriage that people expect for you but you don't want, to unite with your true love is a trope I'm really fond of.

But Xitty, do you have any Western media couples you like? Well, murder husbands aka Hannibal and Will Graham I think of fondly and love forever. I was very very big Sherlock and John shipper (BBC ver.) and you can't take that away really. I'm also basic when it comes to Doctor Who, so Tenth Doctor and Rose make my heart flutter and eyes cry for their doomed (kinda) story. I just find myself watching less and less Western shows, so I don't even know what's happening there nowadays.

Umm... maybe that's it for now? Thank you everyone who read till the end. :D

[smultronviol]

Initial thoughts abt the atla liveaction: bit of a mixed bag, rough in some areas but does bring up some interesting aspects and ideas, i think its worth the watch

The first episode is... pretty bad, the acting is rough as hell and there's a fuckton of infodumping

The acting generally gets better in the later episodes, but the gaang can still be kinda clunky sometimes. Most of the actors are pretty young though, so i can kinda forgive it?

Most of the middle episodes don't follow the original plot exactly, instead they combine different plot threads from different episodes and weave their own plot with it. This is def where the live action show is at its STRONGEST imo. I think they did a good job at combining these different threads and stakes into a strong narrative and it made for some fun twists. A series of 8 1hr episodes was always gonna be a lot different than 20 20min episodes, you need to do a lot of structural reworking to manage that, and i think their approach of recombining plot threads was def the best way to do that

Controversial opinion but: now i totally get why they removed sokkas sexism arc. Kyoshi island is episode TWO, thats not enough time to make it feel like an actual character arc, sokka learning feminism wouldve just come off as rushed and forced. I really liked the sokka+suki dynamic they had instead, it was very funny

I also think they did a p good job at establishing sokkas and kataras different viewpoints and the conflict it leads to. I think in general they were p good at establishing stakes and motivations for each character, even though sometimes maybe they were a bit too on the nose with it

Katara seemed a bit underdeveloped though. She didnt have any of her anger, the pakku plotline really fell flat for me? I was a bit disapointed in how they handled her

Zuko is def the best actor out of the gaang, really enjoyed most of his scenes. Big wet cat energy

I was pretty worried they were gonna butcher sokka, but i think they did him pretty well? A lot of focus is put on his insecurities abt not being a warrior, not understanding that his engineering and intelligence is actually worth something, dissapointing his father, etc. In the last few episodes it honestly gets a biit too much, but in the middle episodes i think its pretty interesting. They also kept his personality pretty well

Really enjoyed the spirit shenanigans too, I love Koh

The fight scenes are p mixed, some are pretty bad. They really didnt really incorporate the martial arts elements enough

In most action scenes, characters have a tendency to just... stand around and wait for their turn? This isn't turned based combat?? This is a problem even in some non-action scenes. Some of it might be due to inexperienced actors (its most noticeable with katara, she tends to just stand around and look), but i think the directors shouldve done something about it

Really liked the looks at azula and ozai, and how you really get to see the way he plays azula and zuko against each other. Its not just "ozai is evil for the sake of being a bad father", you get to see how he's very intentionally using them against each other and how he really might be seriously thinking that he's helping them "get stronger".

Aang pretty much only gets to hold monologues/speeches and stuff, i wish they let him have more natural dialogue and be a kid

Really appreciated june. Also sukis mom. In general all middle-aged women were superb

The set design is pretty great, i really liked omashu

In general i think the middle episodes are the best. There are definitely issues with the show, but i really liked the way they reworked the strongest episode threads into a new interesting narrative, i think they have some cool ideas, and i def think its worth watching

[mywingsareonwheels]

I have seen your Endeavour posting for many a year now, and I’ve realized I don’t actually know what it’s about? What’s the premise? (I don’t think I actually have to be convinced to watch it because the fact that Roger Allam is in it has already convinced me.)

Hello! :-)

So, the short answer Endeavour is a wordplay-and-literature-and-classical-music-obsessed police procedural set in Oxford in in the mid-1960s through to the early 1970s, and it's a prequel to the long-running book and tv series Inspector Morse and thus part of the Morseverse (along with Lewis, the sequel show). I think that Endeavour is the best of the three, though this is controversial. ;-) You don't have to have watched Inspector Morse or read any of the books to watch Endeavour. :-) The show carries a mixture of murders-of-the-week with ongoing storylines.

(More behind the cut! Including mild spoilers for themes and ongoing plotlines, and for what Morse is like in Inspector Morse which is of necessity a little spoilerific for Endeavour; as you're just wanting to know the premise and are intending to watch it anyway for Roger reasons you may or may not want to read on, but I thought I'd add for completeness sake. :-) )

If you don't know Morse: in IM he's a grumpy, brilliant, cultured, socially awkward, determined, compassionate-but-very-rude-indeed, rather lonely, opera-obsessed, crossword-obsessed, Quaker-raised atheist, slightly bi-coded police detective in Oxford with a managed(ish) but definite drinking problem and a tendency to fall for murderers and victims and rub a lot of people up the wrong way, and who never quite seems to realise how much the few friends he has (two of whom are also in Endeavour) adore him. He gets a delightfully sunshiney sergeant (Lewis) and their growing friendship is superb. Morse in IM is played by John Thaw; Lewis by Kevin Whately.

Endeavour takes Morse from a smol 20-something idealist to, well, at least somewhere getting on for that. To that extend it's a tragedy, except that the themes of friendship and loyalty and compassion resound throughout.

Shaun Evans stars as the young Morse, and Roger is the second-lead, as DI Fred Thursday, his mentor/friend/arguable father-figure. Both are gloriously complex characters. Roger is magnificent as Thursday, as you'd expect: a Second World War veteran from a very impoverished background, paternal, compassionate, insightful, stubborn, determined, loyal, angry, sometimes brutal (which is always portrayed negatively, however sympathetic a character he generally is), impressively open-minded at times, and passionately anti-fascist. He's larger-than-life - except when he isn't. Young Morse meanwhile is vulnerable, kind, arrogant, petty, desperately awkward, brilliant, passionately nonviolent, honest and loyal to a fault, and possessed of no self-preservation whatsoever. They are both trauma survivors, as indeed are several other regular characters. Their relationship is the soul and centre of the whole thing (though there are plenty of other really awesome relationships within the show), and I adore this.

Like most police procedurals in fiction, Endeavour is set in the AU where there are some cops who are not bastards (though many many are, and indeed police corruption is a regular theme in the series). YMMV in terms of how you feel about this. <3

Things the show is very very good at providing: literary, historical, and opera/other classical music references; consistently and magnificently glorious acting from both regulars and leads; gorgeous cinematography; crossword clues and puns; a consistent and angry (though usually fairly subtle…) centre-left perspective; fury at institutional corruption of all kinds; generally excellent murder-of-the-week plots; devastating emotions; genrefuck (urban fantasy will insist on creeping in from time to time, though never is anything fantastical confirmed as being real :D ); complex and flawed characters who fuck up a lot and are sometimes crappy to each other but who you never stop caring about and rooting for; a compassionate and respectful (at least to my mind) approach to issues of mental illness and addiction and trauma; a hell of a lot of compassion generally; whump (there's a reason why hurt/comfort is about the most popular fanfic tag for the show on AO3…). ;-)

Things it is less good at providing: happy endings (though it does have a few!!); a wide range of regular female characters (though those who are there are pretty damn great); much in the way of POC characters (ditto). It also does fall down from time to time on historical accuracy, though never appallingly.

Content warnings abound, though very rarely does anything feel gratuitous and it's not noirish - there's pretty much always some light and some goodness happening, and a lot of humour. Humans are treated as important, even shitty humans, which is possibly the thing I love most about it. Hit me up if you'd like any specifics. <3

Seasons 1-8 are extant; they vary in quality from flawed-but-excellent to absolutely bloody superb, at least in my view. Season 9 has just finished filming, and will be the last one. :-) The show is made by ITV, and it's on Britbox UK and I think various other places internationally.

[myjunkisyuzuruhanyu]

ISU rule change on PCS

Let's call this an extensive personal comment...

I am too lazy to list exactly what has changed, but as you might have seen the PCS components being 5 before are reduced to 3. Namely IN (interpretation) and TR (transitions) are now gone.

This is what is left now:

I think changing something in PCS is right, because the PCS are a huge joke how they are scored and used. I just think that again the descriptions are too vague and leave so much room for interpretation that in the end the rules won't be followed. But were they ever followed anyway?

And because rules weren't followed with 5 categories anyway I am not optimistic they will follow 3 categories, but I am also not as upset about it as some others, because if rules aren't followed why being upset they have changed? 🙃 Imo they could just put the skaters in real categories because no matter what some do, how I see it a skater is always judged within their corridor based on reputation, federation politics and passport. Some get high PCS for granted, some can work their ass off hard and still not receive any reward. So will it matter if there are 3 or 5? I don't think it will.

In theory it should have been possible to give skaters with mediocre skating skills a 10 in performance, but it never happened to have for example a 5 and a 10 in individual categories. So as long as you will get a 9 in all categories if you get a 9 in one category, what harm is done by reducing them to 3? That PCS are even less understandable valued? I don't think that's possible. It wasn't understandable before. I mean now at least they don't have to pretend to understand what transitions are used when it's muzzled together, so eventually it becomes easier to accept when some things aren't specified anymore 🙃

Some say now they cannot hold judges accountable for not following the rules within those PCS categories that were somewhat objectively countable like how many transitions, 1 foot skating etc. And it's true that now that these kind of "technical" stuff is now all muzzled into skating skills and not exclusively named it can become less of a thing for skaters to include into their programs, but let's be real on this: Skaters like some Russians (I don't do names today) did do many many transitions, but where they good or did most of them make sense for their programs? A spiral held for 1 second surely fits the criteria, but does it fit the program? Nah...and holding judges accountable? I can only laugh...as if judges ever were held accountable for not doing the PCS correctly. It's a dream, not a reality. Telling on SNS that judge A, B, C etc didn't do their job properly is hardly holding someone accountable. The effect is 0 I fear.

I think in the end it does not matter if there are 3 or 5 categories. As long as judges do however they like and give superb PCS to skaters not because of their skills but because of politics and/or high TES and reputation. A rule change is the least of the problems.

As long as judges are not better trained and really held accountable for their judging - not by fans, but by the ISU - any rule change will only be a new way for judges with an old habit attached.

I hope the new rule change at least make some judges read again what is actually in the rules. For the rest...well judging is what it is and it was never meant to be fair no matter what the rules say. Sad but true.

Last shout-out to the ppl claiming #figureskatingisdead...figure skating is never dead as long as ppl watch it. And rule changes within a sport are normal. And lastly just because a sport is not the way you want it, it doesn't make it dead. Surely there will he be fans who leave this sport, but there will be others who will start watching now and will find the old ways bad or less enjoyable. (Look I find most of the 80s and 90s comps quite boring and the rules there not slightly understandable, but it wasn't the time I started watching. I know ppl who would prefer the way 80s and 90s skating was. I don't. Same will happen now.)

[iwrite-sinsandtragedies]

@organized-chaotic-disaster Ahhhh gotcha gotcha!! I didn’t know there were any games with poly options tbh, that’s really nice to know 😭 and yeah, I imagine it must feel really jarring to have everything just take a complete 180 like that, with everyone ignoring the past romantic tension. Some kind of acknowledgment of it would be nice, but yeah, unfortunately I don’t see that ever happening 😭 so we’ve gotta rely on headcanons and fanfic, which sucks And thanks for responding to me!! I wasn’t really expecting a response tbh, but it’s really nice to talk about stuff like this ;v; I really enjoyed reading your thoughts!! Like I said, I didn’t know any games had poly options, so I learned something new o:

[original post]

No problem! I'm usually an absolute mess about talking to people myself - despite always wanting to - but, I've committed to doing what I want on this blog in particular and I want to talk about my favourite things with interesting people! So it was actually a pleasure to swap words with you!😊❤️

And yeah, I'd love for that to happen with OL but, I do understand why it likely won't be a thing.

On the topic of other games with polymance options though!

So, as I formerly mentioned. The game FH, or Fallen Hero is my primary example of a well done poly-capable romance route that's built into a good story driven game. It's a text-base 'build your own story' series that has a word count in the hundreds of thousands per book [steam link here] and is, in fact written by only one person!

It's, of course, the exact opposite type of story of Our Life, mind you😂and deals with a lot of dark subjects regarding mental health, dehuminization, trauma and morality/ethics. So, it's best to keep that in mind before choosing to play it. I would personally rate it at an 11/10 on a quality chart though! It's an absolutely superb game and the creator spends years putting their heart and soul into making sure each path you take is fleshed out and organic and that all your choices matter. They do actually have a tumblr here too, if you want to look into it more [fallenhero-rebirth] just be mindful that it might have spoilers.

As for other games with poly-romances, well... Unfortunately, most of those are purely in the 'R-rated maturity' kind of space. They're either dating sims with a heavy sexual focus or just straight up p*rn. Which is why I don't really include them so much, since it's kind of defeating the point of what I'd want poly-routes to be in, which is genuinely normal and story driven games like OL. Many of these games are simply PWP and so I wouldn't really consider them at all, unless you just wanted something spicy and exciting (which is absolutely cool! I'm such a ho, I have so many of these games honestly lmfao).

Overall, your best bet is really just searching for them😂it's not surprising at all that you didn't know they were an option because, truthfully, there aren't that many out there. I have heard the names 'Creme de la creme' and 'Tally ho!' thrown out there though, so maybe give those a peak and see if there's anything worth playing? I know nothing about them, honestly.

Personally, finding new games only partially scratches that itch for me, tbh. Only because it's not fulfilling my desire to have that polymance in the other games I wanted in the first place lol. I totally agree that it sucks having to live off of headcannons opposed to legitimate official content🥺Man, what I wouldn't give for that OL polymance... Still, at least looking into other games gives us an outlet and allows for some validation😭

[fanmoose12]

wait i wanna know what problems u have w c/sm characters!!!

omg i have so many!!! quick disclaimer though: i like anime and it's not actually hate or criticism of it, just.... problems i have lmao

ok, let's start with denji!!! he's cool? i actually didn't like him in the beginning, his constant talks about boobs kinda annoyed me, but then i found out that he's 16? constant talks about boobs make a lot, lot of sense now. actually, he's my new standard of anime characters, other main characters also should constant talk about boobs, it's perfectly natural for boys of 15-16 years old. also, he's my little cutie pie and must be protected at all costs.

next, next... we have.... makima? big fan of her design! big fan of her clothes and her huge flapping coat! unfortunately, not a big fan of her manipulations and psychosexual relationship with denji🫤

power? i kinda like power (again, HUGE fan of her design, but i love designs of all characters tbh), she's cool, character wise? but ummmm, the way she uses everyone around her and tries to run away from practically every fight? even though she's, u know, a practically immortal demon? i must admit, that's not very cool of her 😐 like, i know she's a demon and her feelings and emotions are different because of that and maybe some great character development moment will happen to her next, but yeah.... as of now, i don't like her very much (although i do enjoy her dynamics with other characters)

aki is..... ok, ig? i don't have any problems with him, he's the most ok guy in the anime, he doesn't annoy me like some do. however..... (this might be a controversial opinion) i find him kinda boring. he's in some ways similar to sasuke or megumi from jjk but he doesn't have an interesting edge like sasuke did and he doesn't have friendly characters he can play off from and show off his softer side. again, maybe he'll get better in future episodes, he's going through a pretty interesting arc so maybe i'll warm up to him just like i did to megumi. i've got to say though, the way other characters treat him? so unfair!!! he agreed to live with power and denji (absolute nuisances), cook and clean the house for them, and what those two offer him in return? a visit to the hospital where they were acting like assholes and then?? stole his apples??? guys why😭 aki is a good dude

oh, now i guess, it's himeno's turn? and i got to admit, i was very VERY excited for this character to show up, her design is superb, but, um...... the way she practically threw herself at denji? denji who is only sixteen years old? i know she was drunk and going through a lot, but girl...... he's sixteen....... idk how old she is, my guess is somewhere between 22 and 25, which might not seem like a big age difference, but.... he's 16.... he's practically baby, why would she, ugh...... also hate to say this but her leadership skills in the ep with hotel kinda sucked ass? i can (sort of) excuse her not wanting for aki to fight because his sword shortens his life span, but those two newbies who were freaking out all the time and aggravating everyone around them? girl..... why didn't you just lock them in some room or tie them up to bed or SOMETHING, they clearly were bringing down everyone's moral and damaging the result of the operation

one of the newbies, the girl, her name is kobeni, if i'm not mistaken? annoyed me to no end in the beginning BUT when she saved danji? that was cool as shit bro, i really hope she did some self-reflection and will become a cool devil hunter in the future😌

the new guy? the crueler, more ruthless version of kakashi, who drinks and actively harms his two pupils? i love him!!! he's not only super cool (the strongest character! i just got to like a character like that), but also he's voiced by kenjiro tsuda and he did phenomenonal work as joker from fire force and nanami from jjk and his voice is really, really sexy, ok?

other new characters - tendo and the guy that is always with her? oh, they're good, no complaints about them (yet), and i hope we'll get to see more of them in the future

so, in conclusion! i like csm, the op kicks ass, the characters are interesting, but not very likable. i can excuse murder, (some) war crimes, amorality and general ruthlessness but i absolutely draw the line at trying to seduce the main underaged character, i'm sorry 😔