#like we're just told at some point that shes super powerful and then she is

[neanderthyall]

Finished rereading the lost hero and it was certainly a book. Its weird because it follows the riordan formula pretty well and yet i was so underwhelmed for the most part. Like Jason is afraid of letting people down but it doesnt really amount to anything. Leo is... like that. Piper cant stop being Not Like Other Girls and also dragging out the keeping the truth from her friends plot until the last possible second like... girl pls just tell them about ur dad

[nyxire]

jflkjdsf

[bitchimasnake-sss]

YOUR YUJI FIC WAS SO YUMMY 😳 I would love a part 2 if you’re ever up for writing it! 🥹

GUESS WHO'S BACK FROM THE FUCKING DEAD. ME. ME. I AM BACK AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH (im sorry i just missed writing). well, anyways, with me comes the power of horny <3

ps: this took me fucking four days to write and i don't even think it's good 😭😭 writers block is a bitch

🧸learning some lessons ft. yuuji itadori!

continuation of my previous fic "teaching some lessons", so, i suggest read that first to ensure you're fully immersed into the horny storyline. set-up: yuuji itadori. the quarterback, the guy you're giving "sex ed" lessons, and ofcourse, the brother of your childhood best friend sukuna. what could ever go wrong with this combination? nothing, i hope? warnings: contains nsfw concepts such as yuuji's first time, overstimulation, penetration, a bit of porn logic. and as always, sukuna, nobara and megumi are fucking menaces. stay blessed y'all, and minors DO NOT INTERACT I WILL FIND YOU AND HUNT YOUR ASSES. [ALSO A LITTLE BIT OF TOJI AND GOJO SLANDER IM SORRY] wc: 6.4k porn with A LOT of plot [like 70% plot im sorry]

"dude." megumi's usual nonchalant demeanor had faded in a matter of seconds. now, each of his drawled out words had a certain twinge of dread, "this is actually fucking insane."

"hm?" the pink-haired quarterback didn't even bother to dignify his best friend's statement with a proper answer. he was too busy rapidly pressing the controls, trying to get the shots right.

but megumi's hand had gone slack, the controller barely held limply in his palm. he turned to stare down the forementioned pink-headed idiot. he repeated himself, "yuuji."

"gumi—" yuuji hissed back, "we're losing, fucking focus."

"you just told me that you're fucking sukuna's best friend. her." megumi deadpanned, "the only thing i need to focus on is arranging your funeral."

yuuji hissed through his teeth as his player got shot right in the head and a definitive 'GAME OVER' flashed all across the tv screen. he sunk backwards into the comfortable couch at the fushiguro household. megumi shifted backwards too, slumping next to his best friend with a resigned sigh.

the house was eerily quiet, save for the sounds of the background score of the game playing in the background. yuuji knew tsumiki was out shopping with her friends, and gojo was out annoying the hell out of someone or the other (possibly, coach nanamin). who else was to be considered in the fushiguro household? toji fushiguro? he was an enigma. he came when he felt like and left just as soon. a model poster boy for giving people daddy issues, yuuji presumed.

"have i told you your couch is super nice?" yuuji asked as he stared at the overhead lighting before sweeping his gaze over the modern living room.

"multiple times."

the quarterback snorted, "you remember the time i got drunk—"

"—and tried to take the couch home. yes, i do. i also remember the time sukuna chased you with a knife cause you took his last pack of cheetos. imagine what he would do when you take his best friend."

yuuji pouted, giving megumi a side-eye he couldn't miss, "you're no fun."

"be for fucking real." the raved head sat up, turning towards yuuji at lightning speed. his eyes squinted in scrutiny, "you're the one making idle chit-chat as if sukuna isn't gonna kill you the moment he finds out what you and her have been up to."

"yeah but—" yuuji sighed, rubbing his palms against his face slowly, "is it really that big of a deal? i mean, it's just a few lessons here and there. it's not like she likes me or something—"

"—yeah, she probably won't. ever. considering she called you her little brother."

"oh, fuck off, gumi. that was when we were five."

"just pointing down the obvious."

"i knew i should have told nobara about the situation. she would have given much better advice."

"kugisaki would have laughed at you so hard, she would have cried." megumi got up, probably to get some more chips. as he left, he quipped over his shoulder, "you're catching feelings for someone who doesn't have that kind of interest in you, itadori. you will end up looking like an idiot at the end. and possibly dead."

well, maybe megumi fushiguro had a point. but that point was so goddamn hard to see with your thighs pressed on either sides of his face.

🧸lesson 04: maybe making girls cry is okay sometimes

"mhm- ngh oh my god. yuu." yuuji placed his tongue flat against your pulsating clit. you bucked into his face, pressing his mouth messily to your hot core as you showered him in breathless praises.

nobody was home. kuna was probably gonna be home later at night and so, you both had decided his room as the venue for your next 'lesson'.

you weren't even sure which numbered orgasm it was at this point. and you weren't sure if you even existed anymore outside of yuuji and his face and his tongue and yuuji.

red, hot need ran it's course through your body as the jock manhandled you. his calloused palms pulled your jerking hips downwards to steady them and then, pulled you hastily towards himself. yur jaw fell open, going slack at the torturous stimulation yuuji had the audacity to hum in approval when you momentarily went slack under him.

"yuuji, yuuji. yuu. pl-please please- stop. st-" tears pricked at your eyes as you called out his name in a futile attempt to get him to stop. your hands bunched at his sweaty locks, pushing and pulling to get his wicked tongue on your sensitive cunt to ease up.

but the jock was unforgiving.

his tongue dipped within you, your muscles contracting and spasming against his pretty face as his nose dug deeper against your clit. his tongue was fast, delving in and out of you methodically as you bucked and keened under his touches. the salty tears fell down your cheeks.

"yuu—" you mumbled in a weak voice and he finally looked up so as to assess the damage.

"hm?" his mouth finally parted from yours, messy and sticky.

and when yuuji looked up at you, he was sure this is the last sight he would see before he was condemned to hell for the rest of eternity. your eyes were watery, lips swollen and quivering. you could barely keep your vision straight before you clenched your eyes shut and tried to pry him off of yourself.

so fucking pretty that it made him ache. and that only pushed him to kiss inner thigh and lick a soft stripe up your gushing cunt, getting back to what he was previously doing.

"fuck fuck fuc— yuu, no. no more. p-plea— fuck." you stomach was full of something hot and molten, something jittery and unstable. something that sounded and tasted a lot like yuuji itadori.

the quarterback stayed on his knees, bringing his forefinger and thumb to pinch and rub your wet clit as your thighs shook, your eyes rolled backwards and your back arched. he grinned — a feral sight — as you finally came undone on his tongue again.

he finally pulled himself upwards, using his discarded tshirt to clean off his face. as he stood before you, all he could do was watch you awestruck.

you were heavenly.

your spent figure was slumped on his bed; t-shirt pushed up to expose your bruised tits and your legs pressed together as you tried to come back on mother earth. your eyes were still closed, cheeks wet from tears and yuuji had to stop himself from begging you to let him fuck you tonight.

but he abstained. of course not. that was insane. you would never let him go that far, would you? so, instead he chose to lie down next to you and pull you into his chest.

you nudged your cheek against his pecs, finding refuge in his warmth and he gladly let you, allowing a small smile on his face. his fingers came up to push back strands of hair from your sweaty forehead and then wipe away the salty tears that had made home against the plane of you cheeks. once he was sure you had caught your breath, he pressed a sweet kiss to your skin. finally, he mumbled, "sorry, did i go too far?"

you shook your head no, curling further into him with ease. and he let you. he shifted his position so as to allow your skin on his, so as to press his nose to your hair and smell that strawberry shampoo, so as to almost pretend for a second that you were his.

but you didn't let the show run for long. a few minutes later, as you felt the energy returning to your body, you attempted to get up.

the jock's eyebrows furrowed, he sat up with you, "something wrong? do you want something? water or—"

"—no, no." you turned to give him a weak smile, "i think i'm just gonna go shower before kuna is home and he finds me like this."

oh. ofcourse. how could he forget the ever-looming threat that was sukuna?

"can you walk?" he asked earnestly, offering you his tshirt so you could put it on, "i can walk you to the shower, if you want."

"i'll be okay, yuu." you poked your head through his shirt, trying to stand up. but your legs immediately wobbled and you lost balance, "—fuck. okay. i guess not."

yuuji offered you a smile, picking you up bridal style as you squealed at his action. a blush crept up your neck and face, "what are you doing?!"

"what? i think i should be responsible for the mess i create, shouldn't i?" he gave you a cheeky smile, the kind where the cut under his eye came alive and he grinned ear to ear. a boyish grin, perhaps. and you were fortunate enough to be on the recipient end of it.

you weren't sure what it was that you felt for yuuji, or what you didn't. all you knew that right now — as he carried you out of his room clad in a t-shirt that smelt like him — it was as if he was aware of the sudden jump your heart and wanted nothing more than to be the cause of your untimely death.

"you don't have to do this." you mumbled.

what did 'this' refer to, exactly? you weren't quite sure. was it the fact that he had entertained your drunken idea for such a long amount of time? or was if the fact that in the moments even when you weren't offering him something physical, he still looked at you as if you hung up stars in the night sky for him? maybe it was as simple as the fact that he was carrying you to run you a bath.

he stayed quiet and you repeated yourself louder, "really, yuuji, you don't have to."

"i want to." and that was all he said.

you felt his biceps tense under you as he shifted your weight on one arm and attempted to open the door with the other. he gave you a reassuring smile, and you nudged your face against his chest to hide your embarrassment at his simple answer.

once he finally was through, he walked into the lliving room, attempting to make his way to the bathroom down the hallway whe—

"YUUJI?!" a voice boomed from the door and both of you whipped your head to look at the man that stood there.

ever heard of divine intervention? yeah, this was whatever the fuck is the opposite to that. satanic intervention. cursed intervention, perhaps.

"ON—ONICHAN?!"

"CHOSO?!" you scrambled off of yuuji, hitting the ground with a muffled thud.

choso immediately looked away from his half-naked brother and the girl in his brother's t-shirt*.

(*yeah, okay, just try to understand the family dynamics for a second. choso [24] is the oldest and he has graduated uni and has a job now. sukuna and (yn) [21] are in their third year, and yuuji [20] is in his second. choso knows who (yn) is since you and kuna are childhood besties or whatever. so... yeah okay, back to the shitshow 👍🏻)

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" choso asked loudly, his eyes still averted from you both so as to not accidentally see your exposed form.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" yuuji retorted as you hid behind his broad figure instinctively, trying to recover whatever ounce of modesty you had.

"I OBVIOUSLY HAD THE KEY TO MY OWN HOME?!"

"WELL, DON'T WALK IN UNANNOUNCED? DO YOU HAVE NO MANNERS?"

"yuuji."

"IM SORRY 'NICHAN!!"

and that is how choso found out about your little arrangement. and that is how you both decided to never have another rendezvous session at the itadori's.

🧸lesson 05: you got this, itadori!

"what the fuck?" megumi asked slowly, eyeing yuuji as the jock shoved some french fries down his mouth.

"YEAH, WHAT THE FUCK?!" nobara repeated, louder. to which, megumi gave her a side-eye, "we're in public, kugisaki."

yuuji took his time, sipping his coke before shrugging, "yeah, so, 'nichan found out."

nobara shook her head, "no. no. turn around 360—"

"—180. 360 makes a circle."

"die, megs. anyways, turn around and tell me that part of the story where you started—" the red-head shuddered, "—doing stuff with senpai. why?! how?! why?! how??"

yuuji took a bite from his burger before saying, "well, she offered."

"fuck that all. it's old news."

"for you. cause, apparently, i was left out of the loop—"

"—much sad. anyways, is choso okay with you and her? or is he gonna snitch you out to sukuna?"

"i mean, no. i don't think so, no." yuuji tried to steal a fry off of nobara's plate and she smacked his hand off, "ow kugisaki! whatever. he gave me a long lecture about how i should actually pursue her and officially ask her out if we wanna keep doing this. after that, for whatever unrelated reason, he cried about how quickly we grew up."

"virgin behavior." nobara stuck out a tongue, quickly reeling out of her disbelief over the fact that yuuji was getting some, "i mean, that's old-fashioned. you don't have to date her, you know?"

"but your brother's not wrong, is he?" megumi offered. "don't keep doing this just cause you want a way to get your dick wet."

"megs, it's not 1920. they are consensual adults and they can just fool around if they're on the same page."

"yeah but about that—" yuuji tried to sneak in a fry from megumi's plate now, "—i think i'm in love with her. and i am pretty sure the feelings are one-sided."

"huH?!"

"what?" the jock looked at the two dumbfounded, "i like her. she's pretty and smart and i think— i like her."

he didn't think he liked you. he knew that he was whole-heartedly, as stupidly as humanly possible, in love with you.

but he didn't bother mentioning the fact.

he didn't bother mentioning a plethora of things, in fact. first, that his heart had been offered to you at the ripe age of four when he first realized that sunlight got caught against your hair strands somewhat magically, and when you smiled, he smiled; and that when he cried, you kissed his imaginary wounds better even when sukuna made fun of him.

he didn't bother mentioning that when he asked you to marry him, there was only such a small part of him that was 'joking', the larger chunk of him would have exchanged his soul for some sort of forbidden alchemy to be with you.

he didn't bother mentioning that when he was thirteen, a slew of girls had asked to be his girlfriend, and he had turned down each one of them to sneak in his first kiss with you.

but all those years of pining just turned into a small ball of anxiety, ever-growing in his stomach. he knew you didn't feel the same. so, he didn't bother saying any of that. because, well, frankly, his situation seems just a tiny-teensy bit pathetic.

"i guess i just like her... just a bit." he repeated, more to himself than others.

"we heard the first time. and the second."

"DUDE" nobara's eyes widened, "she's sukuna's best friend."

"hey, what happened to the fact that we are consensual adults fooling around?"

"oh no, fuck that. i was humoring you." nobara shook her head, "sukuna's gonna murder you."

"yeah, i know." yuuji sighed, his playfulness replaced by something more mature, "i am not gonna ask her out. i think i'm gonna call this— whatever this is— off. i don't want her to lose her friendship with 'kuna, and she... well, she probably doesn't like me anyways."

megumi and nobara exchanged a sorry expression among themselves before looking back to yuuji. but the jock put on a smile, "ah it's fine, it was fun while it lasted." he leaned back in his seat, "wanna catch a movie after this? human earthworm is out."

so the quarterback had gone back home that day with a certain resolve. he would call this off.

he put on his lucky red sweatshirt, put on the cologne you had complimented once when he had gone for one of his lessons, and he put on his best fake smile. as he passed by sukuna in the living room, he guiltily looked away from him and walked out of the door as soon as possible.

"where ya going?" the tatted man asked, not looking up from his phone.

"nowhe—" he sighed, running a hand through his hair before he bent downwards to put on his shoes, "with gumi and nobara. we're going to the arcade."

"you've been hanging out with the fushiguro kid quite a lot nowadays. a lot of sleepovers."

yuuji's fingers halted, slowly fidgeting with the shoelaces before he threw sukuna a casual look, "he's my friend. and his dad is out of town so i go over. got an issue?"

"nah, do whatever." kuna met his eyes but then went back to his phone without saying much. a beat later, he continued, "well, let me know if you'd be home in time for dinner."

yuuji stood up, dusting off his clothes, "you're cooking today?"

"yeah, thought i'd invite her over. she likes that pasta i make."

at the mention of you, yuuji looked over sukuna once. a sharp sting suddenly erupted in his chest like someone had hit him. hard. and, so, without saying anything more, the younger itadori immediately left through the main door.

things must end.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

his fingers skimmed over the ringing bell in front of your apartment as his feet nervously shuffled around at the door. he knew you were on the other side, waiting for him. as the door swung open, he was face to face with your housemate.

"hey?" maki raised an eyebrow, a smug smile on her lips. she was dressed as if she was leaving to go somewhere, "she's in her room."

yuuji simply pursed his lips, nodded and moved past his senior. before walking into your room, he stalled in front of the door, threw his head back to catch maki about to leave, "kugisaki says hi, by the way."

and if yuuji didn't know any better, he would have assumed the glare maki gave was one well-intended to kill him.

he wasn't sure if the room was chilly or if the reason for goosebumps was something else, but nonetheless, he shut the door behind him and stepped into the room. as he came in view with the bed, he found you casually on your back, scrolling your phone.

"yuuji!" you smiled as you sat up, a familiar warmth spreading over your face at his presence. but he merely nodded, his lips drawn into a thin line.

"um," you fidgeted, standing up hastily and laughing to ease the awkwardness, "so, uh— did maki let you in?"

"yeah, she did."

"oh, well, she's going out, so we don't need to worry about her." you paused for a second before your expression fell and you tried again, "hey?"

but a same monotone expression fell across his face, "hey."

"um... is something wrong? in a bad mood or something?"

"not quite." yuuji rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at the cold, wooden floors, "i wanted to talk. to you, i mean."

you nodded, although he didn't look up at you to register your expression. he continued softly, "we should stop this."

"what?"

"i—" he looked up at you, quickly sneaking in a steadying breath, "i wanted to thank you for the 'lessons'. it's been fun and i learnt so much, really. but you don't have to do it anymo—"

"why?" you interrupted, "did someone find out?"

"what? no."

"then?" you stepped towards him, your unyielding gaze trained on his face, "do you not... want to do it with me anymore?"

"no, ofcourse not." his eyes widened and he stepped forward in a desperate attempt to comfort you. his palms found purchase against your cheek, "no. that's not what i meant."

"what do you mean then?" you looked up at him, confused.

"i-" he looked at you softly, "i really can't ruin your friendship with sukuna anymore. we need to stop. it has gone for... for way too long, now, hasn't it?"

"—it's just been a few months."

"come on. we both know we need to stop." he confessed, and as his words left you hollow, so did his touch. he pulled away from you and stepped back a teensy bit to allow you some space. "it will be for the best."

you looked at him for a beat. and then one more. finally, "kiss me."

and the jock obliged without any hesitation. his lips were familiar against yours, his hands on your cheek, and his body weight pressing onto you and pushing you backwards into the bed.

the back of your knees hit the wooden frame and you stumbled backwards, falling onto the bed with a muffled thud. but yuuji didn't bother following you and caging you underneath him. instead, he stood at the edge, waiting.

"yuu?" you asked softly.

"are you sure about this?"

and you weren't sure if he was asking that question to you or himself. you weren't sure if his fingers were shaking from the betrayal or the need to hold you against him. but you nodded your head anyways, "yeah. if this is it. if this is the last time then indulge in my stupid ideas one last time." you paused, "please?"

he nodded before swiftly throwing off his hoodie off of his torso an onto the floor. bruises from a few days before laid tattered across his tan skin and his biceps flexed and moved as he slowly caged you under him.

"fuck," he breathed in slowly, taking in your low-lidded gaze, "you're so fuckin' pretty."

your fingers found solace in his pinkish locks and you pulled him closer — till your skin smelt like his perfume and his stuttered breath hit your lips, "yuuji."

"hm?" his eyes ran over your face, and the adoration in his eyes made you feel like he would set the world aflame if you so as even asked him to.

"fuck me."

his pupils widened, cheeks flushed and a breathless gasp got stuck in his throat. at his reaction, you pulled him downwards, kissing him softly before the tendrils of passing seemed to nip down on both of you. soon after, you were nothing more than messy kisses, clashing teeth and wrong decisions.

"fuuck— ha-harder." he moaned as your fingernails sunk into his scalp, pulling him harder against yourself.

your hands travelled downwards to his chest and you pushed him away only to turn him around and straddle his hips. your pelvis rolled over his, the delicious friction driving you delirious as you peered down at the man under you — kiss-bitten lips, tousled hair, flushed cheeks.

yuuji itadori looked at you as if you were his god.

and you played along. rolling your hips, tracing a finger from his jaw down to his pecs as your lips traced the path with soft kisses soon after.

his hips stuttered, trying to meet your shallow teases before he mumbled out a soft, "take off your clothes."

you smiled, putting on a show for him as you slipped out of your tshirt. leaving yourself exposed to his preying eyes, you slowly took off the bra.

"shit, look at you." he raised himself on his elbows, coming upwards to softly kiss your warm skin before slowly licking over your nipple as another hand fondled the other. your head was thrown back at the feeling of his warm mouth on you while his fingers softly tugged at the other.

soon after that, you found yourself rocking yourself on his long fingers as he sunk his teeth in your neck, getting off on the pretty sounds you made as you rut against him almost as desperately as he was. when he caught you sinking your teeth into your bottom lip, trying to stay quiet, he pulled your face towards his and kissed you senseless. when he pulled away, his hot breath fanned over your lips, "don't. let me hear, please."

and so senseless moans tumbled down your lips as you you came, still rutting against his hand.

when your breath stilled and you finally met his gaze, all you could was breath out an airy, "fuck me, please."

flushed face, hazy eyes, your mouth parted so prettily at the end of the sentence. who was itadori yuuji to deny you of anything?

"say that again."

🧸lesson 06: fuck it up, itadori!

"n-no protection? are you... sure?"

god, he was adorable.

you held back a laugh as you re-assured him a millionth time, "i'm on birth control, so, no. trust me."

"hm. hm." his breath was caught in his throat as if it were a jagged rock. your hands on his torso felt warm — too warm — as if they would char him and you blinked up at him so prettily as you laid atop those pillows.

"i- one second. i-" his voice was thick, hands slightly shaking as he tried to guide his erection into your slick cunt.

"yuu," you cooed and he looked at you in part hope, part confusion. a laugh escaped you at his expression, "you look like a kicked puppy."

"so-sorry, imjustnervous—" he mumbled, his eyes avoiding yours.

"yuu," you repeated, "this is your first time, right?"

he nodded so softly that it was entirely too easy to miss it. you held back an amused grin, "let me help, okay?"

shockwaves ran through his body as your soft hand slowly took ahold of his dick and ran the tip over your clit, gathering your wetness on the mushroom tip. you both held back a choked sigh as your hand continued the same up and down, up and down, up and down motion till you felt as if yuuji was going to cry just from the teasing.

"h-hey—"

"sorry, sorry. no more teasin', i promise." you replied cheekily, fingers finally guiding him to your sloppy hole. and as the tip finally pushed past the first ring of feeble resistance, a shuddering gasp left the man above you.

pushing in inch by inch, you gasped at the sinful stretch of him filling you. your walls spasmed slightly against him, hugging him so sinfully tight that he wondered if he would pass out just right now. but he couldn't. so he commanded himself to keep moving forward till he was all but buried within you.

"s-shit." his breath was heavy against the dip of your neck and you ran a soft hand through his hair, "you okay, yuu?"

"ye-yeah." he shook his head slowly, descending down on you to sink his teeth into your skin again as he started moving slowly.

"jus like that— yeah."

at first his thrusts were slow and shallow, as if he was just testing the waters. but as you found you keening into his touches and moaning as his tip rubbed against a certain spot, he grew sure of his actions.

his thrusts were now harder, a bit more precise and his tempo increased as you dug your heels on his back and tugged on his hair to keep him going.

"jesus" you gasped, back arching off slowly as his lower abs caught friction against your clit and his dick started ramming into your with a periodic rhythm. "fu-fuck is it your fuckin first time? for fucks sake, yuuji ngh—"

his breath was laboured, a thin layer of sweat adorning his forehead and nose, "im a quick learner, fuck— you're shi-shit, you're so fucking perfect."

lifting himself up slightly, his hand snaked in between your bodies and he found himself thumbing at your clit with ease.

"yuuji—" your voice pitched up as his circles grew in pressure. already overstimulated from his administrations on your poor cunt, you felt the pressure building inch by inch till it grabbed ahold of your body and shook you to your very core.

under him, you grabbed hastily at the sheets, at the pillow, at his hair, at anything to keep yourself on this plane of consciousness as he kept drawing messy figures on your clit and fucked into your cervix with reckless abandon.

and that unsteady, familiar feeling grew and grew and grew till it turned your body to jello and burst inwards, "f-fuck shit, ohmygod im cummin im cummin im cumm— FUCK YUUJI—"

his fingers pressed hastily against your lips but the cockiness in his voice practically dripped off of him and onto you, "shh, someone might hear, pretty."

his thrusts grew erratic, nudging him more and more towards a certain, familiar kind of high. his face found solace against your shuddering body as he cursed and spilled inside you.

"fuck." he cursed one last time as he breathed you in, just laying atop you having spent himself.

he slowly pulled himself upwards, pressing a chaste kiss to your nose, and you gave him a spent smile, the kind that had quickly became his favorite. he slowly pulled himself out, and caught the milky white gushing out of your cunt.

and with that, itadori yuuji lost all sanity.

next you knew, your face was being pressed into the mattress, your cunt being ravaged by his unforgiving dick ramming in and out easily.

"fuc-fuck, sogood so fuckin' good—"

his chest was against your back, his weight pressing down on your so deliciously and trapping you under him. you pressed your face harder into the mattress, screaming out muffled renditions of his name as he softly pinched your clit.

"i'm sorry, baby, im so fuckin' sorry" but he sounded anything but sorry as he whispered hotly in your ear, both his fingers and his dick doing everything in their power to turn you into nothing more than a woman maddened with his touch.

your fingers sunk into the sheets underneath, your death-grip growing even more deadlier as he fucked into you as a man depraved.

"this 'sthe last time," his words slurred as he left sloppy kisses down your neck, "promise, i promise."

but those promises were nothing more than candied words on his pretty lips, because now he had you on top of him, your back against his chest, his heels digging into your mattress dangerously as he fucked up into you.

"yuu— yuuJI pleaseplease ple— fucking fuc—" your voice grew in pitch, unresolved tears falling down your face as his hands fondled your tits, tugging and tweaking the nipples to his liking, and your own familiar fingers toyed with your clit.

how could he go on for so fucking long? jesus fucking christ.

"i play varsi- fuck varsity," he answered softly, "this is nothin' for me."

he pressed a soft kiss to your neck as his cock split you apart for the nth time and you fell apart on top of the man who claimed to love you more than he loved life and reason itself.

"don't." his voice grew desperate, a hand coming to hold yours over your overstimulated, abused clit, "i didn- say you could stop, did i? keep going. please. one more. fuck. please."

"yuuji stop—"

"—give me one more, please."

"pleasepleaseplease—" you sobbed, your body arching off of him as he brought you to another one orgasm. you eyes rolled back into your skull, a bit of drool dangerously on your bottom lip, and your body went slack so as to let him do as he pleased.

your cunt gushed on his dick, spraying you both in your juices he thrusted into one last time, spilling into your overfilled pussy all over again with a breathless string of pants and moans.

the quarterback collapsed backwards onto your bed with you on top of him. he reluctantly pushed the weight of your sweaty body off of him, and instinctively pressed another kiss to your head.

his hand came up to push back the sweaty hair strands that stuck to you like second skin, and to thumb at the furious blush on your cheeks. your eyes fluttered upwards at him, you barely managing a smile, "thankyou."

"for what?" he turned to his side, taking every feature of you in with a small smile. a beat passed him by in the serene room before he found his heart weighing heavily and lodging itself between his lungs.

"you're so pretty" he found himself mumbling, "i wish i- i wish i could..." but he caught himself before he could make a fool of himself and confess to a passed out girl. he bit the inside of his cheek. maybe it was better if he just left wordlessly. "nothing."

you were asleep. he knew that. but then why did you snuggle closer and whispered a soft, "i love you."

"—huH?!" any and all sanity left the jock at this point. his eyes as wide as saucers as he stared down your softly snoring form, "what did you just say?"

but you said nothing, still softly snoring in your goddamn sleep and yuuji felt like he was going insane. did you say it??? did he imagine it??? is this a punishment from the devil (sukuna) itself??? what was real anymore? was he real???

and hey what does a panicked twenty year old does when faced with the possible conundrum of his crush of fifteen years having feelings for him?? he runs.

yuuji itadori never had put on his clothes faster than he did right this moment. hastily putting one leg into the sweats and then another, he dashed to make his way to the door. before stepping out, he looked back at you one last time.

fuck itadori, are you dumb?! she doesn't love you like that. it's the post-sex hormones. his consciousness begged in the voice of megumi fushiguro, which was a bit concerning cause was the voice of reason in his head megumi fushiguro?!

but that was not the issue at hand right now. his voice of reason could be questioned another time. right now? running. yes, that was the plan.

the lock softly clicked and he stepped out into the living room before closing the door ever so slowly behind him.

"done fucking?"

and yuuji's blood ran cold.

he whipped around to peer at a certain, tatted delinquent who was sat on the couch in the living room, "brother?"

"brother? huh?" sukuna laughed, the sound so chilling that yuuji felt his blood freeze ad turn into cement, "bringing out the formalities?"

yuuji's tongue got stuck in his throat and sukuna stood up slowly, holding up his hands in mock surrender, "she wouldn't pick up my calls, and i had a spare key. sorry if i'm fuckin imposing."

"'kuna," yuuji's voice was quiet, "it's not what he looks like."

"hm, it is not?" he flashed the younger itadori an amused smile, "ofcourse it is not. what do you think i think you both did?"

"fu-fucked?" the jock swallowed hard.

"bingo."

"i didn't." yuuji didn't know if he was begging for forgiveness, and if yes, then what for? for betraying sukuna's trust or for feeling satisfied that his brother knew of his conquests?

"you didn't? from what i heard, she seemed a little too happy in there." and now sukuna stood mere inches apart, his hand balled into a neat fist.

"kun—" but yuuji's right cheek bore the fate of getting punched by sukuna.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? MY BEST FUCKING FRIEND, YUUJI?"

the jock nursed his cheek, still reeling from the attack. but a certain flame came alive. he wasn't a fucking child. "YEAH, YOUR FUCKING BEST FRIEND."

sukuna looked at him in disbelief, "how fucking could you? she meaNS SHIT TO ME, YOU FUCKFACE."

"—SO DOES SHE TO ME."

the man stepped insanely closer, grabbing ahold of yuuji's hoodie's collar, "THEN WHY THE FUCK WERE YOU RUNNING AWAY FROM HER RIGHT NOW? HUH?"

the two boys heaved heavily, anger boiling hot through their veins. finally yuuji spat up, "she told me she loved me."

sukuna's grasp loosened, "what?"

"she fucking told me she loved me."

"and you're running?" sukuna looked at his brother with a strange look. disappointment, perhaps?

"i- it's a mistake. she doesn't." yuuji looked downwards, trying not to show his pain in his soft words, "and... i didn't want to fucking hurt you, asshole."

"so you're a coward?" the tatted man scoffed.

and yuuji pushed his brother back, "fuck you."

"no." sukuna's gaze hardened, "you fuck off, you stupid fucking dipshit. she told you she loves you, and you ran?"

"for fucks sake, sukuna" yuuji breathed in slowly, "i thought you'd be elated she probably doesn't."

"you fucked around with her for god knows how long, pretending i didn't know." sukuna stepped back, his words quieter.

"you knew?"

"i'm not dumb, of course i fucking knew." he paused, "and 'nichan told me."

"jesus fucking christ, 'nichan." yuuji looked down at the floors, "what now?"

"grow a pair, and actually ask her out."

"what?" the jock looked up, confused, "you- wait, you are saying i should ask her out?"

sukuna shrugged, "you've compromised her. you must follow through with the consequences."

"did you watch too much bridgerton? what the fuck is compromised??"

"i did, 'nichan made me watch it. pleasantly surprising, actually." and yuuji was immediately mentally slapped with the image of sukuna enjoying bridgerton.

"huh?" yuuji softly shook his head, "so... what? i like have your blessing or whatever to ask her out?"

the delinquent made a face of disgust, "i'm not a priest, what the fuck do you mean by blessing? yeah, just fucking ask her out."

"and what if she says no?"

"then i will remind you of your failure everyday in life."

yuuji looked at his brother awestruck, "thanks, kuna."

"don't. when you come back home, im gonna beat you to a pulp for fucking my best friend."

"i deserve it."

"fuck yeah, you do." the older itadori made his way to the main entrance, "go fix shit."

and as sukuna left through the door, itadori yuuji slipped back into your room, crawled back into bed with you, and held you close to his chest. softly, as a giddy smile overtook his features, he mumbled, "i love you too."

next morning you woke up next to a fully-clothed yuuji with a swollen right cheek.

"yuu?! why are you dressed?! and what the fuck happened to your cheek?!"

"i fell off your bed."

"what the actual fuck?!"

a/n: IM GENUINELY SO SORRY IF THIS SUCKS ASS, I GOT TOO MUCH INTO CHARACTER WRITING HELPPP!! i really hope it was atleast a fun read, and as i said it took me 4 days just to make it a bit coherent since i'm writing after so long. please forgive me and enjoy the meal. [sorry for any typos and such babes] tagging: @9rvm @jellibean2018 @peekawoocc @kingofthe-egirls @hugmevz [thankyou sm for sending in the request, i was already writing it here so i tagged you <3] misc.: divider by @plutism and header format by @si-eunnis plagiarism not authorized bitch.

[princesssmars]

victoria with lab tech reader…nsfw.

when you were approached at your basic post-grad biomedical science research program with the opportunity to "study and develop a potentially groundbreaking medication", you immediately, but politely, called bullshit. but your boss and coworkers encouraged you once they heard the pay, so you accepted.

it was…challenging to say the least.

the lab and the workers were shady as hell, not telling you any details about the company you were working for, if you were even working for a company, what exactly this medication was for, etc etc. but the pay really was good, enough to help you splurge on yourself while also saving and paying off your student loans, so you couldn’t really complain.

after about two months of great work and progress on your tasks, the leads of your team told you that one of the head donors would like to “talk about utilizing your full potential”. you were expecting further praise for your work and maybe a pay boost, not to walk into an office with the super attractive congresswoman you’d seen on tv sitting at the desk.

she has just as much mysterious charisma as she had then, keeping eye contact as she pulls out your chair, waiting for you to sit before she places herself on top of the desk, pantsuit-covered leg only a few inches from yours. she gives you a mini rundown of why she personally picked you out from your university and she's been keeping a close eye on your personal progress to develop a cure for an unknown but deadly disease you had been keeping track of.

"so that's why im here? we're working on a disease?"

"yeah, you could say that."

her smile unnerves you but you don't mention it. nor do you bring up how weird it feels that a congresswoman would be following your manic studies over a disease that only ten thousand people in the world had. you do have to reel in your ego slightly, figuring this meant that your theories were legitimate.

things are weird after that. now that you have some more hints about what you are actually doing your work starts to move along slowly, even impressing your lead with the progress you started to make.

ok, maybe a tiny little part of it was so that when victoria came in on her weekly walk-throughs she'd observe your work and give you that pretty smile of hers, maybe even a 'great job, hun' if you were lucky.

as the weeks went by and the medication came along her affection only grew in intensity, from leaving coffee at your workstation to inviting you to take lunch breaks with her. it was odd and completely unprofessional, but when those slender fingers would move one of your stray hairs back in place while telling a story you couldn't find it in yourself to care.

but then it happens - that dreaded period in any medical science where just one stupid little thing stumps you for a week. you should be used to it at this point, having been through this process since you bought your first microscope in middle school. it doesn't make it any easier to power through though, especially when you know everyone on your team is depending on you to finish up your labs.

so now you've resorted to this, three red bulls and a heap of paperwork around you while you frantically rework the math on some of the work you need to turn in. you're a few minutes away from slumping over when a loud door slam forces you upright, looking to the entryway to make eye contact with victoria.

you dont know how it happens but you go from hunched over in your chair to lying on the comfy couch in her office, a short blanket draped over your body as you drowsily explain your conundrum to the older woman. she nods along the entire time, a soft hand rubbing up and down the bare expanse of your arm while she listens to your rambling.

'what on earth are you doing?' your brain asks yourself when you shift closer to her body that's sitting next to you, head delicately resting in her lap. 'are you really going to jeopardize your career like this?' when your eyes flutter when she runs her hand over your cheek and down your neck. she leans her head down ever so slowly until her lips are just barely pressing into yours, corners pulling up when she sees you arch your back in wait for her neck action.

"but you'll figure it out for me, won't you smart girl?"

you solved the problem the next morning.

i dont even wanna write for her GIVE HER BACK TO ME

[yourheartonfire]

"Hello! If you are receiving this, [medic] has missed their daily deadman switch check in. All client information will be released in 12 hours."

For a second villain stared dumbly at the text on her phone. Then she bolted from her desk towards the door. It was 10:17 - a taxi would be faster than the metro at this hour to get to midtown -

"Hey!" their coworker said, pulling out her airpods. "Where are you going?"

"Medical emergency," the villain snapped and slammed out the office door.

A precious 29 minutes later the villain arrived at the medic's apartment to find a motley gathering of capes and masks shuffling and looking suspiciously at each other in the hall. There was an air of a 2am fire drill - few supers operated on daylight hours, especially not the low to mid-powered supers the medic took on as clients, and the whole event had the awkward feel of meeting your neighbors in their pajamas.

The vigilante wore their normal black of course, but in the daylight the denim was faded and the jacket obviously cheap pleather. On the villainous side there was that grimy little clown themed duo in plain white face paint instead of their full make-up. For the heroes there was that kid goody-two-shoes try-hard - of course she'd rolled up in full uniform, minus the normal tracker camera the Hero Agency mounted on all its people now. And hero, the villain's nemesis, was there too, having jammed on the cowl and gloves over his t-shirt and jeans, just like villain had over her business clothes. He was standing in the doorway, and visibly sighed in relief as villain turned the corner.

"Oh thank God you're here," hero said and wasn't that terrifying that he had nothing flirty or snarky to say about villain's suit.

The goody-two-shoes did a double take. "Her?!" she snapped, even as she rocked her weight nervously from leg to leg. "You were waiting on her?"

"We sure weren't waiting on you to do something useful, cupcake," the female gremlin drawled from where she slouched against her partner on the hall floor, flicking her knife through her fingers.

"Yeah, didn't realize medic was a pediatrician too," the male gremlin giggled.

"Knock it off." The hero stepped aside, opened the door. "I kept them out, kept the scene clean for you."

The goody-two shoes groaned, buried her head in her hands. "This can't be happening."

"Quick, did someone bring a pacifier?" one of the gremlins stage whispered.

The vigilante pointedly stepped over the two clowns, forcing them to jerk backwards or take a combat boot to the face. "We're assuming this is about us," they breathed to the hero and villain. "What if they got hit by a bus? Dropped dead of a heart attack?"

"No reports from the hospitals or morgues of unidentified persons matching medic's description," Villain said curtly. "Checked on the way here. No communication to or amongst medic's friends and family about an emergency."

Goody-two-shoes blinked. "You... know [medic]'s real identity?"

"And that is why we were waiting on her," hero said patiently. "Now everyone shut up."

The villain curtly nodded acknowledgement, stepped into medic's apartment though it would not be necessary. The medic had disappeared from the street, at some point after they'd used their debit card to buy their usual black coffee at 7:04am and at some point before they'd failed to badge in at work by 8:15am. Still, the villain did a quick scan. The little homemade exam/treatment area had been freshly cleaned, the trash emptied. The tablet and laptop were missing from their docking station, but the go-bag was still in place under the desk.

"Y'all are gonna give me a minute with [medic] when we find them," the male gremlin drawled. "This 12 hour deadline is bullshit. They said we'd have 24 hours if they missed a check-in."

"You're not getting shit," the vigilante growled around the toothpick they were chomping.

"And they shortened the deadline because I told them to," villain said, breathing in the smell of antiseptic and bleach. She'd also told the medic to set the deadman switch to every 8 hours, not every 24, but the others didn't need to know that.

"You what?!" said the gremlins and the goody-two-shoes in unison. The vigilante choked. Even hero looked startled.

"I advised them to consider how long they could hold out under torture to reveal the abort protocol," said villain, using a tongue depressor to lift a latex glove from the kitchen trash. "I'd say medic was pretty generous. Speaking of generous, I've seen enough." She pointed to hero. "Last person you referred to medic and when?"

Hero tilted his head, realization blooming. "You," he said to villain. "Nine months ago."

One of the gremlins pointed to vigilante. "We did you! We did you last Arbor Day!"

Vigilante sighed and jabbed a thumb at goody-two-shoes. "The kid," they sighed. "I dunno when. Summer?"

The goody-two shoes swallowed. "Um," she said very quietly.

As one, the group turned to the kid. She froze, eyes going wide behind the mask. "It was - I didn't mean to!" she cried, backing up. "Just - he noticed the scar and realized it wasn't sanctioned medical care and I - and I - !"

"Okay, slow down," said hero gently, shooting a warning look to the gremlins who were both holding knives and on their feet now. "Who did you tell?"

The goody-two shoes' shoulders collapsed. She looked miserably at her toes. "Superhero. Yesterday."

Everyone flinched.

"You idiot," the vigilante breathed.

"We're going to kill you," the female gremlin said to the goody-two shoes. The male cracked his knuckles. The hero took a deep breath and pushed the goody-two-shoes behind him -

"Save that for 12 hours from now," villain said briskly and dropped the glove back in the trash. "We've got just under 11 hours to find where Superhero's got medic stashed and mount a rescue before our identities and medical records are splashed all over the internet. And frankly, I think it's going to take every single one of us to meet that deadline."

The six of them looked at each other in the shadows of the hall. The hero mustered a grin. "That's why we're all here, right?" he said. "Instead of hiding or running. Medic's saved all of us- now we save them."

"They didn't save me, I wasn't dying," one of the gremlins muttered. But no one walked away.

"Right," said villain. "Let's do this."

[evilkitten3]

ok so like i know the reason is just. sexism but one thing that really irks me about how the post-timeskip naruto manga handled which characters became medic nin bc it makes absolutely no sense to me

sakura's decision to train under tsunade makes sense, and i love that she got a super strength power up, so no notes there, but the other teams.... yeesh

so first off, team ten. we're told that ino decided to follow sakura into mednin land to keep being rivals with her... despite that at no point factoring into their rivalry at all beforehand. ino never showed any interest in that, nor was the yamanaka clan ever mentioned to have anything to do with healing as far as i can remember. it's like going to art school to stay with your bestie when your goal is to become a dentist. why are you there. find other ways to spend time together. it also kinda goes against her family's whole thing as. the guys who do the torture stuff. and it's barely ever relevant anyway

for team ten, i think the team medic should've been shikamaru, and i think this not just bc i think it makes more sense skill-wise (something about the way the nara clan's various shadow jutsu work just screams "you need good chakra control for this" to me), but also bc i think it would make asuma's death a thousand times more painful. bc shikamaru is a slacker. he's not learning medical ninjutsu bc he wants to, he's learning it bc someone on the team has to in order to stick together. they're all chuunin now; one of them has to be a medic. them's the rules. but he doesn't really care that much, even when he is trying to learn, and he's so used to being smart enough to not have to pay attention in lessons anyway that he's not prepared for classes that require his full focus. and then asuma dies and shikamaru is doomed to spend the rest of his fucking life wondering if he could've saved him by paying just a little more attention to those medical ninjutsu lessons (he could not have (but he'll never know for sure))

team eight makes some sense, since giving the girl who struggles with fighting the healing job isn't exactly out of nowhere, but i do feel it was the lazy choice. kiba already had a sister involved in the medical business, even if she deals more with animals, so he could've started learning from her and found that he liked it. plus kiba's goal is to be hokage, and the current hokage is a mednin, so it's not like it wouldn't support his goal. or shino could do it; would add another layer to his character. hinata works fine but. it's just not a very interesting development imo

but what really gets me is team gai. good freaking grief. out of every single team, team gai was the one with the most obvious choice. bc there was only one choice. lee can't do any kind of ninjutsu, and tenten's only real backstory is that her chakra control isn't good enough for her to be a medic nin. so it had to be neji. canon establishes that every team has to have a medic; this is a policy tsunade got passed even before she became hokage, so no way in hell is she going back on it now.

moreover, neji becoming a medical ninja - especially if hiashi encouraged it - would show some development for the hyuuga clan maybe starting to suck a bit less. bc as a medic, neji would be bound by oath to stay alive for as long as possible. imagine a world in which hizashi came back and hiashi was able to tell his brother that not only was their family starting to change, but his son had chosen a path that would prevent him from ever following in his father's footsteps. it would be the first step (of many) to show that the hyuuga clan was freeing itself from its own bullshit.

also it would've made sakura catching the zetsu pretending to be neji a thousand times funnier. like that's her coworker. they've shared shifts at the hospital together. she's seen neji drink vodka straight from a bottle and then crash on her couch after they got out of a twelve-hour surgery on the fucking dumbass chuunin who managed to step on his own boobytrap. she knows him.

[gravidwithlore]

Building a Home part 1

word count: 7,500

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

“Tell me again, why do we need a guide to get through the Wandering Woods?” Jiyan drawled as he picked at his nails. Rhiannon sighed in exasperation.

“Because, the woods are scary and dangerous?” She snarked.

“Yeah, but I mean, the three of us could totally handle whatever spooky whats-its and scary whose-its the forest can throw at us! Between your super cool sword skills, my charming smile, and Melian's druid nature powers, we don't need some lame village guide to tell us to keep on the path.”

Rhi snorted. “What was that middle one?”

“Your super cool sword skills.”

“No, the other one.”

“Melian's druid nature powers.”

“Yeah,” She rolled her eyes at Jiyan’s antics. “And if Melian of all people says we need a guide, then we're getting a guide, whether your cocky ass likes it or not.”

“Fine.” He huffed and poutily crossed his arms. “But don't come crying to me when-” Jiyan trailed off as he noticed Melian approaching them with an absolute mountain of a man. “You know what Rhi? You're so right, we absolutely need a guide.”

“Oh? Really? I was actually just starting to think you might have a point Ji! I should probably go let them know their services aren't needed anymore.” Rhiannon smirked at her companion.

“No, no! Rhiannon, you were absolutely so correct, we're in desperate need of this man’s services, we can't make it in the woods alone!” Jiyan hastily objected.

Before Rhiannon could tease him some more, Melian approached them and introduced them to Brone, a giant of a man. His face held the gaunt scarred look of someone who's seen (and caused) their fair share of trouble, with a perpetual looking 5 o'clock shadow to match, but the faint wrinkles and streaks of gray in his long greasy hair told a story of survival throughout all the struggle. Brone towered above them, as he grunted in begrudging acknowledgement to Rhi and Jiyan’s greetings, hand remaining tightly clutched tight on the hilt of his sword instead of meeting Jiyans handshake.

Immediately bored of the talk of the logistics of their temporary partnership and preparations for their journey, Jiyan tried to give Brone a very unsubtle once over. He was a bit dismayed by just how much his cloak managed to cover him, leaving no clues as to exactly what he was, ahem, packing. But from the size of the man's hands, Jiyan had a feeling he would not be disappointed. And oh, how Jiyan loved a challenge.

Rhiannon and Brone took off to inspect their wagon to ensure it was safe for their passage, despite her assurance it was perfectly fine. As Brone had said, in that deep gravelly voice of his, “I've heard that before.” Once they were alone, Jiyan playfully nudged Melian with his elbow.

“So, where did you find this absolute dilf Mel?” He winked.

“The tavern, where the shopkeep said he'd be.” They responded straight-faced. “And how do you know he has any children?”

“Well I don't know!” Jiyan said, a little shocked that Melian even knew what a dilf was. “Being a dilf isn't just about having kids, it's, like, a vibe. Trust me, I know a dilf when I see one!”

“And this sellsword I have found in a dirty village tavern, to take us through the Wandering Woods, gives off the vibes that he has children?” Anyone else would think Melian naive, more accustomed to being surrounded by nature than by other people, but Ji had known them long enough to catch the slight uptick of the corners of their lips and know that in their own unknowable way, Melian was teasing the shit out of him.

“Yeah. In, like, a sad and grungy sort of way, yeah.”

“And you are… attracted? …To the sad grungy dilf?” Jiyan didn't miss the faint tone of judgment in their voice.

“Mark my words Melian, I'm going to climb that man like a tree.”

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

Three days later, Jiyan was exhausted. The Wandering Woods had proved dangerous, not just for the wild peoples and monsters that could attack at any moment, but also for the difficult terrain and half overgrown path. He was definitely grateful Brone was with them, and not just for the grumpy eye candy. His sword, and crossbow, had come in handy more than once, whether it was shooting an attacker going straight for Rhiannon or hacking away vines that had blocked their path.

He was a skilled guide, despite having seen some combat, Brone had managed to steer them away from even more battles by sneaking around on less traveled pathways. It may have made their journey a bit longer, but everyone was grateful for it. One might think that their group would feel a bit closer to each other, but Brone still regarded them with distanced suspicion. Sure, he shared their campfire for dinner, but he slept separately from the group, often insisting on taking watch through most of the night, as if he didn't trust them capable of sharing the duty. Or to not stab him in his sleep. Always wrapped in that giant cloak, as if he didnt even trust them to know he had a body under there, in case they might know where his vital organs would be. Even that day, all day, he was grumpier than normal, eyebrows constantly furrowed in annoyance, snapping at Jiyan (even if he did deserve it most of the time), and terse with Rhiannon and Melian. Considering the man looked like the encyclopedic definition of someone who would lure them out into the woods with the promise of safety and security, then rob them and leave them for dead, the whole act felt a little rich if you asked Jiyan. Who definitely wasn't more than a little bitter that all of attempts at just simply flirting with Brone had gone completely, brutally, rebuffed.

At least that day had been quiet, at least where getting attacked was concerned. As they chose a spot to set up camp for the night, Brone grunted that they had just passed the thick of it, two more days and they would be at the next village. When Rhiannon had mentioned inheriting an old family farm and her desire to leave the adventuring life behind, Jiyan had been skeptical to say the least. But after the past few days, he was starting to see the appeal of settling down into a farm life. Well, maybe not settling, but he was definitely more open to the idea. As he thought about embracing the peace and serenity of life on a farm, Jiyan went to take care of the horses while Melian and Rhiannon started making dinner. He was just about to unhitch the horses, when he heard Brone's voice just on the other side of the wagon.

“-thought I had another week.” Brone muttered. Jiyan ducked down behind the horses and tried to be as quiet as possible. “Look, I just need two more days, alright? Just two more days and-” One of the horses softly whinied and dug their hoof into the dirt, Jiyan fought all of his instincts to shush it so he could listen. “Just one last job, and I'm yours, okay? Please, just two more days, I beg of you.”

Jiyan couldn't hear whoever Brone was talking to, but he sounded scared. He didn't even know Brone could be scared, let alone sound scared. It sounded like he'd made a deal with something, and now he'd gotten in over his head trying to keep his end of the bargain. Eyes wide, Jiyan snuck back to the campfire where his partners sat, blissfully unaware of what had just transpired.

“Guys, I think we're in danger.” He loudly whispered to them.

“What? What is it? Where's Brone?” Rhiannon practically shouted at the top of her gods-damned lungs as she stood, already unsheathing her rapier.

“Shush!” Ji desperately motioned her to sit back down. “I think Brone's who we're in danger from!”

“What, why would you think this?” Melian looked at him wide eyed and startled.

“I heard him talking to somebody behind the wagon, he was saying something about ‘one last job’ and ‘I just need 2 more days.'” Jiyan did a pretty fine impression of Brone's deep gravelly voice if you asked him, but Rhi's subtle eye roll seemed to disagree.

“Did you see who he was talking to?” She asked.

“No, I was safely hidden behind the horses, I didn't even hear them speak. I think he's going to, like, sacrifice us or something!” He whisper-shouted again.

“Look,” Melian put out their hands to motion them both to stay put. “We do not have all the facts, nor do we know exactly what we're up against. For now, just act as normal and stay with each other. Do not react yet.” Rhiannon and Jiyan looked at each other and nodded, ready to heed Melian’s word when they heard a loud slap against the side of the wagon.

“Fuck.” Brone growled, as one of his arms leaned against the side of the wagon facing them, the other clutching his stomach. Jiyan did not waste his first opportunity to catch a fleeting glimpse of what lay under that cloak, as it parted in front of them. Honestly, he was a little surprised, he hadn't expected Brone to be so… round… and… so soft looking under that leather armor. And he was dripping? Jiyan gasped as he realized a small pool had formed by Brone’s feet, his hand clutching at his stomach. Whatever he was talking to must have stabbed him, mortally wounding him, betrayed him for failing to follow their commands, now he’s bleeding out, bemoaning ever making that dark deal in the first place!

“He's in labor!” Melian gasps, as they leap up and rush towards him. Oh. OH. Yeah, that made a lot more sense actually.

Even lost in the throes of a contraction, oh gods a contraction, Brone still instinctively flinched away when Melian tried to put a comforting hand on their back. Jiyan's heart broke a little just watching it. Here he was afraid Brone was about to betray them all while they were asleep and vulnerable, yet the whole time Brone had been the most vulnerable one in the entire forest! Mel respectfully withdrew their hands, hovering in case of a sudden collapse. After a moment it seemed like the contraction ebbed away, as Brone looked up to find them all circled around him, wide eyed and staring.

“Fuck.” He groaned for the second, but probably not the last, time that night.

“You're in labor.” Melian stated, tone more purposefully neutral than usual.

“Yeah, I can bloody fucking tell.” Brone spat, and then he straightened up and sighed. “Look, we're already past the most dangerous bits of the forest, and you lot are already a lot stronger than most folks I take through here. Less than two days out, jus’ leave me here, and finish the journey. You don't even half to pay me the second half of the coin.”

“Let us get you to sit by the fire. Rhiannon, get extra buckets of water, and Jiyan, find some extra blankets. It is going to be a long night.” Melian replied.

“Didn't you just hear what I bloody fucking said?” Brone seethed, like a tomcat trapped in a corner.

“Yes. And I have decided to ignore it.” Mel calmly explained as they began to guide him towards the campfire.

“Why? You don't owe me shit!” He shouted, as if he wasn't the one being ridiculous here.

“I am trained in the arts of healing and midwifery, and it would go against my sacred duties to leave you here to birth your child alone, even if we were not in one of the most dangerous locations in the land.” Even Brone could sense the anger lurking in Melian’s usually unphased disposition, and his shoulders sagged as he relented and accepted his fate. He let Mel and Rhi help him sit as comfortably as he could by the fire, while Jiyan panicked and rushed to find the blankets.

“Here,” They reached for the ladle in the cooking pot and brought a ladle-full of softly steaming stew towards his mouth. “Eat something. You shall need to keep up your strength.” Brone glared at them as he reluctantly took a sip of the stew. Then another. Then another, as Melain watched him, until the ladle was empty.

“How far apart are the contractions?” Mel asked gently.

“I dunno, ‘bout 10 minutes I think.” He growled. They hummed in response.

“And why are you guiding groups through the Wandering Woods so close to your due date? Why are you anywhere near the Wandering Woods at all while carrying such precious cargo?” Mel’s anger returned, a rare display. Rhi decided it might be a good time to go get those buckets of water they'd requested earlier.

“I needed to save up for the kid didn't I?” Brone's jaw tensed, and he couldn't quite seem to meet Melian's eyes. “Not like anyone would hire me fer much else. Safer than staying with the mercenary companies anyway.”

“And what exactly, was your plan here?” Melian narrowed their eyes. Brone sighed.

“I thought I had more time, I thought I could do one last job, get a bit more coin before the kid came, then fuck off to some remote little cottage where I could raise them in fucking peace.”

“And where is this ‘remote little cottage’ located?”

“I, uh,” Brone shifted uncomfortably. “I hadn't quite gotten there yet.” Melian could see the quickly growing tidal wave shame and guilt swelling in his eyes, so they took a deep breath, and chose mercy. If his estimate was correct, his next contraction would be coming soon anyways, and it wouldn't do to add to his stress when he still had such a long way to go. Just then Jiyan came rushing back, arms full of blankets, shirts, pants, just about any and every piece of fabric he could find.

“Alright, I'm ready to catch this baby!” He cried, spreading his arms under all the fabric and squatting down in front of Brone. “You've got this Papa Bear!”

“What the fuck are y- augh!” The contraction hit Brone mid-protest, his eyes squeezing shut in surprise and pain, gritting his teeth while his body held him in a vice grip.

“Go on, push! You're going to meet your little one so soon!” Ji encouraged him, proud tears welling up in his eyes. Usually Rhiannon was the one to roll her eyes at his hijinks, but just this once Melian took the mantle as they put an arm out to stop his dramatics.

“Brone, do not push. Jiyan, do not give advice you are far from qualified to give.”

“What?” He gaped like a fish. “His water broke, isn't it time to push?”

“No, Jiyan.” Melian sighed. “Birth doesn't work like it does in the plays.”

“What are you talking about Mel? They can't all be wrong!”

“Jiyan.” Mel said after staring at Jiyan in disbelief for a moment. “If a play were to accurately depict a full and complete birth experience, the play would be several days long. It is simply shortened to water breaking and the baby being born immediately after to save time and heighten drama.”

“Wait, what do you mean days long? Do you mean he's going to be in labor for several more days?!” His jaw dropped as his eyes went comically wide.

“No, his child will likely be born before the dawn arrives. But, he has been in labor for the past several days, whether he had acknowledged it or not.” Mel gave a pointed look in Brone's direction, who was focused more on the intensity of the contraction without the cushion of his waters, than on educating Jiyan on the reality of childbirth.

“So this whole time Brone’s been in labor? Even through all the attacks, and hacking away at vines, and shit? Holy crap, he's even stronger than I th-”

“Would you please shut the fuck up.” Brone growled as the contraction ebbed away. “Is he going to be this annoying, the whole time?”

“You need to breathe.” Melian ignored his grumpy outburst.

“I need to wot?”

“Breathe. You are holding in your breath too much, and it is making the contraction more painful. Next contraction, try breathing like this.” They demonstrated the proper breathing technique for him.

“That's stupid. I'm not bloody doing that.” He frowned.

“Then you will regret it.” Melian stated plainly.

“Is that a fucking threat?” Anger flashed through Brone’s eyes, thinly veiling the relief of re-entering familiar social territory.

“No, I am simply stating the facts.” They replied, refusing to take Brone’s bait to rise to his anger.

“Don't knock it ‘til you try it, Papa Bear, that's what I always say!” Jiyan interjected in an attempt to be helpful. Brone rolled his eyes.

“Look, if you won't leave,” He pointed a finger at Melian. “can we at least send him on his way?” He jabbed his thumb in Jiyan’s direction.

“No.”

“Ugh, fine.”

“Now, have some more soup. You will need it.”

Eventually Rhiannon returned with the extra water, which Melian then set to boil. When Brone’s contraction returned, his face scrunched up again as he braced himself for the pain. At a simple reminder from Melian to breathe, he reluctantly relented, as Jiyan ‘helpfully’ exaggerated the breathing technique Mel had showed them earlier. When the contraction ended, Jiyans supportive thumbs up and big smile was met with an exasperated eye roll, but Ji would swear he was making progress with breaking down the emotional walls of the laboring man. Even if he did look like he was going to bite Jiyan’s hand off when he tried to help Brone out of his cloak and leather armor so he could be more comfortable. After a few more contractions, and making sure everyone had gotten some dinner, Melian approached Brone again.

“I'm going to have to check you at some point you know.” They said, glancing down.

“Wha-?! Like the bloody fuck you will!” Brone objected, hackles raised again.

“Uh, check what?” Jiyan asked while Rhiannon buried her face in her hands.

“His dilation, to see how far his cervix has opened to allow his child to pass into the birth canal once active labor begins.”

“Absolutely not!” Brone cheeks started to turn a deep shade of pink.

“Look, my guy,” Rhiannon interjected. “Did you plan on just giving birth into your pants?”

“... No.” He eventually muttered, refusing to meet any of their eyes as the pink of his cheeks continued to spread.

“Good. I will try to make it as unobtrusive as possible.” Mel knelt down in front of them. Brone rolled his eyes, but complied and started to take off his boots and pants, only pausing to breath through a contraction in the middle of it.

“How do you want me?” He finally asked, the blush blooming across his cheeks now completely unhideable.

“However you will feel most comfortable.”

Brone snorted but complied, not necessarily by getting comfortable but by just spreading his legs apart and refusing to look in Mel’s direction. True to their word, Melian tried their best to be as unobtrusive as possible, gently narrating what they were about to do as if they were talking to a spooked horse. Even so, Brone flinched when he felt their fingers inside, his body rigid and tense. Jiyan thought it would be the perfect time to step in to ask some questions and sate his curious mind.

“Sooooooooo... do you know who your ‘baby daddy’ is?” He asked, innocently and with no ulterior motives at all. “Asking for a friend.” He winked.

“Why the bloody fucking hell do you wanna know?” Brone glared at him. Ji shrugged.

“Just curious… Does your ‘baby daddy’ know they're your baby daddy?” Brone snorted.

“Bloke was so sozzed he didn't even realize I don't even ‘ave a cock, so I think it's safe to say, no, he don't know he’s my ‘baby daddy.’”

“Cool, cool, cool.” Jiyan nodded, mentally taking notes. “Good to know.”

“5 centimeters.” Mel rose, their diagnostic completed.

“And is that good? Is that bad?” Ji asked.

“It is neither, it simply means that his cervix has opened 5 out of the 10 centimeters it needs to in order to be fully dilated.”

“Oooooh. Way to go! Halfway there Papa Bear!” Jiyan cheered.

“Brone, you should take off your armor. It's already constricting your breathing, and it will continue to be a detriment during the course of your birth.”

“First my bloody pants, then my bloody fucking armor…” Brone grumbled as he complied and started to uncomfortably shift to unbuckle himself from his chest armor. He couldn't resist the sigh of relief that escaped him as the tight pressure on his chest released, then immediately became red in the face again as he realized there were two very large very prominent wet patches that had soaked through his dark gray top underneath the armor.

“Wow, you must've been hot under there too!” Jiyan said, before Brone could cover himself in his embarrassment.

“It is not sweat, Jiyan, it's milk.” Mel explained, before Rhiannon could stop them, as Brone’s face grew even more red. “The tightness of the leather armor likely applied enough pressure on his breasts to force a higher expression of milk than would have occurred naturally so close to giving birth.”

“Oh, so his armor was, like, milking him?” Jiyan asked. Brone ran a hand down his beet red face.

“You lot sure we can't leave him back in the thick of the woods? It's not too late.” He growled. Rhiannon smiled and shook her head.

“No can do. With our luck, he'd end up more powerful than ever, and still end up back here to annoy the hell out of us.” She teased.

“Yes. He is unnaturally canny at stumbling into lucky situations. There's no telling what horrors he would unleash from within those woods.” Mel pondered.

“Aw, you guys! I love you too!” Jiyan drawled, his hands over his chest as if he was overcome with emotion.

“Alright, change of subject before his ego gets too big to handle.” Rhiannon laughed. Melian nodded in earnest agreement.

The night passed on, with Brone’s contractions slowly getting closer and closer together, as he kept refusing Jiyan’s requests to feel the baby kick. Melian encouraged them all to try and get a little shut eye, but no one was very successful at it, least of all Brone himself. At some point Melian had convinced him to walk around a bit, reluctantly letting Rhiannon and Mel support him whenever a contraction hit as they slowly shuffled around the campsite, Jiyan playing some gentle calming melodies on his lyre.

Melian had tried to reassure Brone to move however his body wanted to move, whatever helped to relieve the discomfort, since he still tensed and seemed to be trying to squeeze in on himself, to lock himself in place whenever a contraction grabbed him. At first he had shaken his head, as if Melian's suggestions were absolutely ridiculous, but eventually he started to loosen up, swaying his hips just a little as he began to give into his body's demands. It was while he was leaning against the side of the wagon, groaning and swaying his hips through a particularly rough contraction, that Jiyan and Rhi were helping support him so Mel could have a rest before the ‘big event,’ that he spoke.

“This feels stupid.” He said, panting from the exertion his own body was putting him through. “This probably looks bloody stupid as hell, doesn't it.”

“Stupidly hot, Papa Bear.” Jiyan winked at him before Rhiannon could respond in the way a person with some semblance of common sense and self-preservation would have responded. Brone growled, getting increasingly overstimulated from everything his own body was putting him through already and annoyed with Jiyan's ‘teasing.’

“Why the fuck do you keep calling me that?” He snapped.

“Why do I keep calling you Papa Bear? I mean look at you.” Jiyan ignored Rhi’s warning look. “You're a giant bear of a man, and well, the baby's not born yet, but you're already a papa in my heart!”

Brone's response to his encouragement and complement was underwhelming. He'd expected at least some indignation and confusion, but instead was met with soft cursing and a scrunched face.

“...Something’s… different.” He ground out after a moment.

“Mel!” Rhiannon called out, unable to hide the rising edge of concern in her voice. Melian, who was supposed to be resting, but decidedly was not resting, was at Brone’s side in a heartbeat. A quick check later and they looked into his eyes.

“Do you feel like you need to push?”

The terrified whimper seemed to come from somewhere else, because never in a million gazillion years could that sound have come from Brone of all people. But come from Brone it did, to match the wide eyed look of terror that briefly took over his face.

“See, even your baby knows you're meant to be a Papa Bear!” Jiyan smiled. Brone’s face shifted back towards a comfortable annoyed eyeroll and the sound that escaped his throat sounded less like a terrified whimper and more like his classic disgruntled groan.

“Quit joking Ji, and help get him into the cart.” Rhiannon commanded, her voice terse as if she were shouting out directions during a fight. Together they guided him towards the back of the wagon, which Mel had been preparing to be a makeshift birthing center, lamenting that they wouldn't have the usual soothing pools and hanging ropes that would have, supposedly, helped Brone feel more comfortable. At the back of the cart another contraction squeezed him in its vice grip, harder than it ever had before.

“Push if you feel the urge to push, do not fight your body Brone.” Mel said, softly but sternly.

“But-” Was all he could gasp out, barely more than a grunt.

“Your baby will not be born in one push, I assure you.”

It must have been Melian's tone, or perhaps their apparent expertise in the situation at hand, but by some miracle Brone trusted them, and bore down into a hard squat. Teeth clenched together, brows so furrowed together they almost became one, gripping the top step of the wagon, he pushed, and pushed hard. The contraction released him with a gasp, Mel's hand applying pressure on his lower back keeping him from falling backwards.

“I felt- I felt it… move down.” He whispered, both in wonder and in fear. “Fuck, it feels so heavy now.” He groaned and clutched at the low hanging base of his belly.

“Where do you feel most comfortable? Here, in this position, or within the wagon?” Mel prompted, as focused as they ever are when in their role as healer.

“Wagon, definitely inside the wagon.” Brone panted, still out of breath from the contraction and awkwardly climbing the steps into the wagon, slowly, with their legs spread wide, as if ready to squat and push again at a moment's notice. Or perhaps he was simply unable to with his baby’s head already spreading him wide from within his birth canal. The trio helped him get as comfortable as possible, his back resting against a built-in bench near the front of the wagon.

“Why inside the wagon? It's so cramped with all of us in here.” Jiyan complained.

“Safer in the wagon, covered on three sides, can see any threats coming from the fo- augh!” Brone’s head fell back as the contraction hit without warning, Melian reminding him to listen to his body, to push, to breathe. Jiyan and Rhiannon instinctively offered their hands for support, their offer hesitantly taken at the contractions peak.

“Jiyan-” Rhiannon started to warn but was cut off by a melodic voice, Melian’s voice echoing through their heads. Keep distracting him, Jiyan. He looked to his friend, preparing the supplies they needed, and gave them a brief short nod. Then, just for a little bit of fun, as a treat, turned and poked his tongue out at Rhiannon.

“Keep pushing, Papa Bear!” He made it his own little game to try and find all the different ways he could encourage Brone to push. Winning quite a few confused reactions from the rest of the wagon. It didn't take very long until Brone was plastered with sweat, hair sticking to his face, the wet sheen making it more apparent how red his face was getting with the grueling effort of bearing down through the contractions. To everyone's surprise, he even let Rhiannon put his hair into a loose bun, only flinching twice. Having his hair out of his face and off the back of his neck was even more of a relief than he thought it would be, judging from the brief moment his body untensed once she'd finished.

Jiyan continued to hold his hand through the contractions, while Rhiannon clasped his other forearm and dabbed at his forehead with a damp rag. Considering the size of him, and the man’s almost supernatural strength proven over the last few days, Ji thought he was holding his own pretty well, with his thin manicured musician's fingers tightly gripping Brone’s scarred meaty hands in response. Until during a particularly rough contraction, when Jiyan briefly felt a painful twinge run through the back of his hand, he wasn't able to catch the soft hiss of pain before the traitorous air escaped his mouth. He felt Brone’s grip release despite him being caught in the throes of a contraction, and was supposed to be putting his full concentration into pushing his baby out to meet the world. Ji felt a ball of guilt start to form in the pit of his stomach, as he realized Brone was spending his much needed baby-pushing energy on holding his strength back. He knew any encouragement to do otherwise would just be met with grumpy stubbornness, but Jiyan didn't know how to let Brone know it was okay to let go, even if it would hurt him temporarily in the process.

“Brone, you're starting to overheat. Would you feel cooler if you took your tunic off?” Mel asked, to the rescue as usual. Brone looked at them, panting and red in the face from the contraction that had just ended, eyes full of pain and uncertain emotions, but paused only a moment before giving one quick nod. Together, they all got him out of his sweat drenched tunic, quickly, before his next contraction hit. He sighed in relief again, as the cool night air hit his skin, hairy chest and the happy trail from his popped out navel down the swell of his belly now on full display. As he glanced down, Ji could see his breasts already beginning to release droplets of milk on their own, as if they knew they wouldn't have long before his baby would be feeding at his chest.

“Nice tits Papa Bear.” Jiyan leered, just as the contraction hit and quickly ramped up. Without enough time to react with a growl or with an eyeroll, Ji felt the full force of Brone’s strength, taking a note out of Mel’s quick birthing lessons and breathing through the pain searing across his hand as Brone himself screamed from behind clenched teeth, his lips curled into a snarl. He could even see Rhi wince a bit on the other side of him.

“Fuck… off…” Brone growled as the pain began to ebb away.

“Hey, I'm just sayin’, that's one lucky baby.” He winked as the pain of the next contraction quickly flowed back through Brone's body, earning himself more searing pain radiating from his hand, squeezed so tightly he could barely grip back. Brone growled in annoyance at the end of it, but with a couple more well-timed over the top inappropriate comments about how hot he looked pushing out his big beautiful baby, Brone seemed to get the message. That Jiyan, and by extension Rhiannon and even Melian, could handle whatever he could dish out if it meant it would help him. And just in time too.

“F- fuck! Something- something's wrong, it burns.” He groaned, head rolling back as tears pricked at the corner of his eyes.

“It is called the Ring of Fire, painful, but completely natural. It means your child will soon be here.” Melian explained. But Brone shook his head, too overcome by pain and exhaustion to listen.

“I can't- I can't bloody do this!” He sobbed helplessly, his head still lolling side to side.

“Give me your hand.” Mel gently commanded.

“I can't. I can't do it.” Brone whined, too consumed by pain to hear them.

“Brone, please give- … thank you Jiyan.” Melian said, as Jiyan held out the hand still clutched in Brone's to them. They guided the pairs hands down between Brone’s legs. Jiyan hesitated and tried to let go but Brone’s hand was still white knuckled and refusing to unclasp, barely aware of anything besides the pain wracking his body. Mel gently brushed both of their knuckles along something that felt slimy, and a little sticky, and hairy?

“Is that?” Brone’s eyes shot open, wonder and amazement momentarily overcoming the pain and panic.

“That is indeed the top of your child’s head.” They smiled.

“I was just gonna say ew, Mel,” Jiyan momentarily glared at them. “But nevermind, that's your baby’s head! Let's go Papa Bear!” He cheered. A new energy surged through Brone, his jaw tensed in determination as he steeled himself for the next contraction.

“You've got this Brone.” Rhiannon clasped his forearm in preparation and gave him a quick supportive nod. “Just a few more pushes to go.”

“Help hold his thighs back further, it will help him spread further.” Melian commanded, and Rhi and Ji were quick to comply as they watched the stomach muscles across Brone’s belly begin to tighten again. Chin pressed down into his tits, Brone shouted as if charging into battle as he bore down with all his strength into his biggest push so far. It felt like forever before the contraction subsided, Brone, red faced from the effort let his head lay back on the bench for a moment.

“Good, keep pushing! Just like that!” Melian encouraged. Now too focused on putting all his energy into pushing instead of words, they only received a brief nod in response from Brone. But as long as he was responding, that was enough for Mel. It was only a few more big pushes like that before Melian stopped him.

“Brone.” They made sure to get his attention as the most recent contraction ended. “The next contraction do not push. Don't push again until I say so.”

“Wot?!” Brone snapped up and stared at them wide eyed and panicked. “Is the baby-?” He trailed off, as if he couldn't handle finishing the sentence, finishing the thought. Jiyan and Rhiannon’s wide eyed stares mirrored him.

“No, the baby will be perfectly fine. You need to give your vagina a chance to stretch, or you will tear.” Mel said sternly.

“Who gives a shit?” Brone groaned.

“I do.” Melian snapped. Well as much as Melian of all people could snap. “And you should as well. I only have so much healing magic and I do not have the tools or supplies out here to stitch you up if I need to.” Ji shivered, as he thought about how painful it must be, to get stitches in your coochie. Brone rolled his eyes in exhausted annoyance.

“Fine.” He grunted as the next contraction quickly started. It was obvious that without pushing that pain wore down on him more quickly, sobbing whines escaping his throat as he uncomfortably writhed on the wagon floor, still clasping tightly to Jiyan and Rhiannon.

“Fuck, this- this is worse. This is so much worse.” He shakily moaned in the brief break between contractions, each one practically one on top of the other, as if his body was getting just as impatient as he was.

“I know. Just hold on to Rhiannon and Jiyan, let them support you through it. Just two more okay?” Mel laid a cooling hand on Brone’s sweat soaked belly, feeling the muscles twitch and constrict as the next contraction started. Brone huffed out an annoyed groan in response as he gripped both of their hands tighter than ever before, preparing for another tidal wave of pain without the relief of pushing. After what felt like an eternity that one ended, and a microsecond later the next one took over the exhausted man's battered body and overwhelmed mind.

“FUCK!” He screamed to the heavens, as he threw his head back, back arched as if the pain was so great it was forcing his body off of the ground as the most intense contraction yet peaked, and peaked, and kept hitting new peaks of endless pain for the poor man to endure. Jiyan, realizing Brone was too far gone to pay attention to him, briefly whimpered through his own pain, as if Brone was so overwhelmed he was subconsciously transferring some of his own into him. He yelped as he heard a muffled crack! coming from his own hand, and his personal pain increased tenfold. Panicked and his cheeks puffed out, having miraculously, and in a feat on uncharacteristic strength, stopped himself pre-scream, Jiyan looked to Melian for help.

Later. They said sympathetically, telepathically, as Melian could on occasion use their gifts to do. I do not know how much healing magics I will have left once this is over. Jiyan could see concern in their eyes, not just for him and his hand, but for the fate of Brone and his baby. Things have gone smoothly enough so far, but I do not know yet what may go wrong. Jiyan, biting his lip to continue to contain his scream, nodded. A broken hand could be reset, if something went wrong with Brone or his baby then… he didn't want to think about that. He coaxed Brone, in his discombobulated state, to take his other hand. No use causing it further damage. Especially if he might need to get a splint instead of healing magic once this was all said and done.

“Alright Brone, on this next one, push.” Melian commanded.

“Thank fuck. Finally.” He groaned, as Rhiannon reached out again and pulled back his thigh on her side, and Melian leaned forward and pushed back the thigh on Ji’s side. The relief was short lived as the next contraction gripped him, but he grit his teeth and used all his strength to bear down, determined to meet his child before the dawn's light.

“You are doing good, Brone. The baby is making good progress.” Mel encouraged him after a few more contractions. Brone's frustrated growl seemed to disagree. He seemed to get more antsy and frustrated as the contractions wore on, despite everyone's assurances that he was doing a good job.

“Fuck this.” He eventually snarled at them, letting go of his death grip on their hands and kicking away their support on his thighs. He then grabbed his thighs himself and pulled back as far as he physically could, as if trying to curl in on himself, then pushed. Ji could see the veins throbbing in his forehead, as Brone pushed so hard no noise escaped his mouth, his teeth clenched so hard it looked like they might break.

“I see the nose, you are doing well.” Melian encouraged again.

“No offense Mel, I don't think he's listening at the moment.” Jiyan said, now awkwardly sitting there while he watched Brone, so lost in labor that the only thing he was capable of listening to was the overwhelming instinct to bear down and give birth.

“Yes, I know Jiyan, but the soothing tone of encouragement never hurts does it?” They raised an eyebrow at him while they monitored the baby's progress. Ji shrugged.

“Hell yeah, let's fucking go Papa Bear!” He hollered, pumping his fist in the air. Not the one that was broken of course, the other one. Duh. He watched as Brone continued to push and push, following in the time honored tradition, passed down from generation to generation, followed as long as such a thing as creatures and people have existed, by listening solely to the instincts so deeply encoded into his being to spread his legs and give birth. Ignoring everyone and everything else, just solely focused on what his body commanded him to do in order to safely push his baby out. If Melian told Brone to stop just then, Ji didn't think he'd be able to. If he could even hear them in the first place. Suddenly relief flashed across Brone’s body and he momentarily untensed.

“The head is out! Wait one moment, let me check the babe’s neck.” Melian said, as they quickly made sure the baby wouldn't choke on the umbilical cord. “Alright, you're good to push. All that's left is the shoulders and I can safely pull them out.”

It didn't even seem like Brone was paying attention to them at that point, but even so he readjusted and prepared to push again. It only took two more powerful determined teeth gritting pushes, before he suddenly collapsed as relief flooded through his body. Gasping for air as if he'd been sprinting the entire length of the Wandering Woods, Brone closed his eyes for a moment as the sweet sweet high of relief raced through his veins. After a moment of silence, everyone expectantly looked at Melian, still moving down between Brone’s legs. One more beat of increasingly concerned silence, then the loud sharp cry of a newborn infant deafened them in the confines of the wagon.

Brone immediately held his arms out in wide-eyed wonder, eyes already wet, not from the pain anymore, but from joy and pride. Melian smiled fondly at him as they quickly but gently put the baby into a soft towel, then reverently placed them in their father's arms, umbilical cord still attached.

“This one has been born male.” Melian informed them. Brone held his newborn child and smiled. A big smile, one that would have looked so foreign and out of place on his face just hours ago, a smile so pure and full of joy. A smile that made him look 10 years younger, a smile they somehow all knew he hadn't smiled since he was a small child himself.

“So, you're the wee little thing that almost split my cunt open.” Brone sniffled and laughed proudly, in this pure blissful moment, unashamed of letting his tears of joy fall freely down his face. His baby still cried, likely upset over being forcibly ejected from its warm comfy home, but started to settle down in his father's arms, clenched little hands clumsy moving up as if reaching towards his voice.

Jiyan put his non-broken hand over his heart, practically on the verge of tears himself. Even Rhiannon, the usually stoic warrior of their little group, sniffled and wiped a tear from their eye.

“What’s their name?” She whispered, as if she was afraid she'd ruin the sanctity of the moment.

“Wulf. My little boy’s name is Wulf.”

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

“At least it was a clean break.”

Jiyan breathed a sigh of relief as Melian’s healing magic flooded through his hand, mending the fracture, gods, weaving back together the damaged tendons in their hand and fingers.

“Wait a moment before trying to move it, let the magic do its work.” They told him, before they turned to Rhiannon’s less injured, but still extremely bruised arm. After Melian had helped deliver the placenta, then coached Rhi on massaging Brone’s belly to help his uterus contract back towards its normal size, while they cleaned up both baby and father; the trio had left the pair to get some quality one-on-one time alone in the wagon. Back by the campfire, now down to its embers, Melian had finally asked to take a look at Jiyan’s hand.

As the first light of dawn began to peek through the forest, Ji couldn't help but smile as he thought about the events of the night, of the past few days even, of the new happy little family resting in the wagon, grateful that both of them had Melian’s official stamp of good health.

“Hey Mel.” Melian hummed in response, only looking curiously at Jiyan once they were sure their magic had taken hold on Rhiannon’s arm.

“Told you I knew a dilf when I see one.”

Part 2

[tossawary]

A handful of random thoughts about the "Ultraman: Rising", with some vague, marked spoilers here and there:

I like the fact that they didn't explain kaijus or where Ultraman came from. After so many superhero origin stories where we have to be slowly introduced to the existence of the supernatural, it's refreshing to get dropped in the middle of a "second-gen" (unclear how many generations of Ultramen exist in this universe so far) superhero's story. The movie isn't apologizing for its genre or its premise. It just goes, "Yeah, you know what a superhero is and what a kaiju is, so let's go already. No, we're not even really going to explain how Ultraman's powers work. That's not what this is about!!! It it about our protagonist's daddy issues!!! Keep up!!!"

If I think about the world building, I do have some questions, like who built the protagonist's fancy tech house that's also a superhero base, but it's not too important. I assume his dad built it and then moved out to give his kid space? OR: "Why do the kaijus seem to attack this place specifically?" This movie works mostly because it's like "this is classic superhero stuff and we're just not dwelling on the logistical setup too much"! It leaves you to fill in some blanks on your own or just suspend your disbelief, which works.

The pacing was a little weird in places and the movie does get a little ridiculous in parts, I'm never quite sure of what the capabilities of these characters are, but it's a superhero vs. kaiju animated movie and that's to be expected. I still enjoyed myself well enough.

A few of the character designs didn't super work for me, like the big-headed kid characters. The kaiju baby is maybe a little too cutesy, but she was very cute and I've forgiven them because they didn't shy away from babies being gross. (There is... A LOT of baby kaiju vomitting.)

I did really like some of the other character designs. I liked the protagonist's big nose and pierced ears and bangs falling in front of his sharp face; he looks like such a dirtbag pretty boy. I like the lean in the industry right now towards more stylized and geometric 3D character designs in general, because I think that the shapes are fun and they'll age better this way.

Dirtbag guy to single dad is a winning story formula, huh.

They did a lot of 2D-style effects in this movie that I thought looked fun. I dig that trend in the industry right now as well. Some of the scenes were a little clean, almost bare, in terms of environmental design, but the colors generally looked great. Some of the scenes were really bright and vibrant and pretty.

(Mild vague spoiler?) There's no romance in this movie, which was surprising when they definitely set up a female journalist in the position for a love interest. No, it's a "strangers to friendly acquaintances" relationship for them. The female journalist is also a single mother, which was interesting, because you don't get a whole lot of career-minded single mother love interests in animated movies.

(Unimportant spoiler:) She told the protagonist to his face that she thinks he has daddy issues. Not stated quite like that, of course, but it was pretty funny. She was also right about that.

The emotional focus in this film was instead about the protagonist, Kenji, repairing his relationship with his father and also taking care of the kaiju baby. Kenji's only friend and co-parent for a chunk of the movie is an AI assistant (Mina) his parents made.

(Unimportant spoiler:) Stumped by an issue, Kenji makes a frustrated comment about how maybe he should ask Siri instead. Shortly after, in response to a different statement, the AI assistant Mina makes a passive-aggressive comment about how maybe he should ask Siri instead. I found that pretty funny.

(Mild spoiler:) Ultraman in this universe is a known and popular superhero and has been for decades. At one point, the baby kaiju gets out into the city, and Kenji has to go get her before she gets hurt or hurts someone else, and he publicly tells her to "Come to Daddy." And this is overheard by a bunch of nearby civilians, who gasp loudly. It is quite funny. It doesn't really come up again, but even if that wasn't recorded, you just KNOW that the news and the internet went wild over that revelation. "Ultraman had a baby with Gigantron???!!!"

(Another mild spoiler:) At one point, Kenji asks the female journalist for some parenting advice, and she IMMEDIATELY asks him if he has a secret love child. (No one is quite sure why this baseball star suddenly came back to Japan from the U.S., as they don't know he's Ultraman.) Kenji denies it, but I'm pretty sure that she must still think that he does.

(Continuing:) Kenji's baby kaiju parenting struggles (along with his ego) are fucking up his baseball career, due to stress and lack of sleep and conflicting commitments. We aren't shown a lot of interactions with his team, but I desperately hope that he also asked a couple of his teammates for parenting advice or something, so that his team could also immediately assume that he has a secret love child.

Like, "Yeah, yeah, Kenji Sato's secret love child, we all know about it. The poor kid is really bad at hiding it. We're trying to keep it hidden from journalists for him, but the whole team knows he's a new dad, for sure." (They do not know that Kenji is Ultraman and the baby is a kaiju.)

All in all: this movie was fun! Very silly, but cute! I think that I might try to pick some other "Ultraman" shows or films out of the dozens that exist, and try some of those ones out. The property seems to exist in a similar vein as "Transformers" where Rule of Cool rules world building and canon is whatever the newest iteration wants it to be.

[starberry-cupcake]

I'm back! Thank you kindly for your patience, we're done with Act III! It was probably a terrible idea to wait because this is so long, I'm so sorry.

previously, in harrowhark! a vagrant the ninth:

this happened

also a couple previews that will show up in this but are in the tag

currently, chapters 24-31 (END OF ACT III!!!):

harrow wakes up after sleeping a sensible amount of hours in yandere twin's room

yandere twin, who's into chomping cavaliers, complains about having had some harrow soup

they have a sort of tender moment, I guess

they have a complicated dynamic

harrow falls asleep again

she's in the bed and yandere twin is sleeping on the floor

and harrow is woken by the sound of self inflicted pain and torture

harrow gets tired of this and decides to just rip yandere twin's arm off

@lady-harrowhark reminded me that I called this (!!!) in this recap

I had absolutely 100000% forgot I said that but congrats past me!!!

so, there's this scene in which harrow rips yandere twin's arm off and puts a new bone-y one in there, remade with her own parts

like this

some people have told me in the replies that it's a sessual sort of scene, and I get that, I suppose it was the vibe it was going for

total respect to that

but I'm gonna be honest here

it felt like I was witnessing a birth and harrow was the midwife

so harrow lets yandere twin know that she's been improving her necro powers via studying and practicing to try to make up for her being "lyctor lite"

harrow and alleged gideon aka ortus are the only people here that seem to be getting any work done tbh

so now, with the new arm, inner chad can use the sword again

and yandere twin is happy because she's now a proper lyctor and has senior chad aka augustine's approval

harrow is proud of herself for doing nice necro things like chopping and reconstructing arms

as a thanks, yandere twin agrees to help harrow to kill alleged gideon the first aka ortus

nobody asked you, but ok

I actually have no qualms with alleged gideon aka ortus

because he's at least direct and honest about it

everyone here has an agenda, at least this guy's like directly trying to physically kill harrow

at this point, I respect the direct approach

augustine and emperor reverend professor john can go fu—

WELL, ACTUALLY, WE'LL GET THERE LATER

CHAPTER 28

we're back at gideon-less canaan house

canaan house isn't safe in any universe, all the trails lead to death

everyone who's alive or accounted for is having a sleepover

there's a bunch of people unaccounted for, actually

the kiddos from the fourth are allegedly hidden elsewhere

who knows, at this point

I don't trust anyone

there's a fog and rain and water rising still

which reminds me of the movie identity, in which they all were trapped in that motel because it wasn't actually a motel and they weren't actually alive per-se

magnus and abby say that protozoa should have decked mayonnaise uncle

which is one of the reasons why the gideon universe is superior

aside from the presence of gideon and camilla

I miss them so much I'm gonna start biting cavaliers

anyway, where in the hell is duracell bunny nephew???

he wasn't with mayonnaise uncle when he yeeted himself

his soul, which got detached from his body in the gideon universe, is still flying like a balloon across universes and dimensions, I guess

abby didn't expect regina george twin to die, apparently, and says "if she's gone, then perhaps that means..." but doesn't elaborate

nobody ever elaborates

abby also makes harrowbean read another one of the "harrow texts"

I can't keep adding them all together in recaps because this will end up being super long but here goes the new one

"I will remember the first time you kissed me —you apologized— you said, I am sorry, destroy me as I am, but I want to kiss you before I am killed, and I said to you why, and you said, because I have only once met someone so utterly willing to burn for what they believed in, and I loved him on sight, and the first time I died I asked of him what I now ask of you. I kissed you and later I would kiss him too before I understood what you were, and all three of us lived to regret it—but when I am in heaven I will remember your mouth, and when you roast down in hell I think you will remember mine"

so yeah, we've got a triangular situation, I suppose

I need to put all of them together to continue to draw connections

my though was that this could be ice cube barbie aka annabel lee, because of the long-lost sun, but I'm unsure still

I don't think the timing fits the other side of the 3d model that's the gideon's mom and rebel leader situation

inconclusive still

abby suggests harrowbean she might be haunted

which might also fit with ice cube barbie??? maybe??? idk

CHAPTER 29

harrow says she doesn't remember shit about chad

get perpetually owned, chad

mercygirl asks harrow things about her necro process for the arm reconstructing and the last thing she asks is "what is the name of the saint of duty?" to which harrow says "ortus the first" and mercygirl goes

me and my "alleged gideon" theory are very happy about this

the hill I will die on

mercygirl continues to use onomatopoeias to express herself

I do not want to think about what that would imply in a later situation I don't want to dig into

"you read unholy omens in the way people say good morning" that's what these recaps are, thank you very much harrow

that's our tagline over here, that's our brand

"how you loathed any sentence beginning with augustine says" SAME, BESTIE

I HATE THAT MAN

he can go fu— ANYWAY

harrow and yandere twin are having sleepovers so that harrow isn't murdered in her sleep

apparently the nudes are cyrus and his cavalier and yandere twin likes that energy

they gifted them to others as souvenirs too

it's like if you had a university classmate who sent nudes to the groupchat every birthday

yandere twin says augustine the asshole has agreed to help kill alleged gideon aka ortus the first

I don't trust any of these lyctors if they're willing to kill each other this easily

how do I know they've got my back in combat if they don't have each other's backs—

I CAN'T EVEN ARTICULATE MY THOUGHTS AND NOT SOUND TERRIBLE NOW THAT I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS LATER IN THE PARTY

ANYWAY

yandere twin reminisces about not having been apart from regina george twin much in their lives and hoping she's sleeping well wherever she is

I also don't know where she is

yandere twin tells harrow that she was more farsighted than her

which I'm sure she was, but she doesn't seem to remember shit about it, and the letters remain unopened

harrow thinks it's kinda gross that the cyrus lyctor murdered his cavalier to become a lyctor and then took all of their nudes to the emperor's bolthole

none of these lyctors are operating from a place of common sense, harrow

"you were lucky that the memory of your own cavalier did not hurt you—except sometimes in the form of a sick headache in your temples, or in words stuck on repeat in your head"

so, augustine's plan involves dinner

harrow, hearing that, is like this

they look for clothes in the cavalier's things

yandere twin says "valancy trinit was my height, weighed more than both of us put together, and —judging by her portraits— had a body that did not quit"

I sure hope she's a thick girl, because I've had enough disappointment with the gideon cover not letting her have the arms she deserves

I hope valancy trinit looks kinda like this

ANYWAY, here's the makeover vibes, as previously shared

apparently chad could embroider, which I have to admit is a good quality

hate giving him any props, but I must be fair

harrow painted the less cute skull in her repertoire and we respect that

they went to augustine's room and he's still an asshat

I don't like how he treats yandere twin tbh

I feel like yandere twin has a thing with validation because of how her life has been and he uses that

augustine justifies his betrayal to his fellow lyctor saying that he "caused more pain over these last scant forty years than I dare to admit"

mercygirl is also here for the party, all dressed up

SO HERE'S THE THING

I am so embarrassed I didn't pick it up on the fly and it took me the whole chapter to put it together

augustine tells her "dios apate, minor"

at the time, I didn't remember what it meant, and when I finished reading the thing, I was like "oh, it's exactly like the deception of zeus"

I forgot that's what it was called

I mean, I got the "dios" part, obviously, but forgot the "apate"

my ancient greek professor is going to come back into my life to shoot me at my doorstep

to be fair to myself, it was a long while ago that I took ancient greek

AT LEAST I PICKED THE REFERENCE UP AFTER, OK????

god, I'm so embarrassed

palmolive, I'm so sorry, I promise I figured it out eventually

mercygirl punches augustine in the face, which is great

he insists on it being "minor", which idk where the line is there and I'm not gonna ask

idk which things are or aren't...involved in a minor form of zeus's deception

mercygirl says she's not wearing the right dress, I don't think it matters, it worked just fine

CHAPTER 30

everyone gets drunk except for alleged gideon aka ortus and harrow, because they're the only people in this group project who are doing the work

augustine and mercygirl start fighting about something their cavaliers did back in the day

they start toasting for cavaliers and talking about how "hot pyrrha was"

there is no respect for the dead in the emperor's bolthole

there's about to be something else in the emperor's bolthole in a minute though

I was excited about them drinking, though, because that's when people start spilling some truths

the lost commander of BOE is a "she", her name is/was Commander Wake, she almost killed alleged gideon aka ortus

I'm still spinning with the gideon's mom theory

and the background telenovela I've got going on

BOE found a Herald, killed it and turned it into weapons against these clowns

good for them, tbh, kill these drunk irresponsible bastards

emperor reverend professor doctor john thinks it's narcissistic of him to toast to himself

I want to murder him in cold blood

I hate this man so viscerally I want to rip him apart with my hands

the twist in this book is that I'm gonna reach to his murder and it's gonna be me

it's like bastian reading the neverending story but it's me killing this man

his full name is john gaius but I had been spoiled of his name by people not tagging their posts

he also does a "your mama" joke because he's my villain origin story

"part of your brain temporarily calcified into atheism" I'M GLAD, HARROW

so, they start to make out, all three of them

I finally caught up about zeus's deception and all about here

emperor awful is sandwiched between mercygirl on a table and augustine behind him and they forget there are children in the room

well, not children, but same difference, they're a million years old

harrow and yandere twin get the hell out of that display

CHAPTER 31

yandere twin wants to kiss harrowbean before she leaves to kill alleged gideon aka ortus, but harrow doesn't let her

harrow says "my affections lie buried in the Locked Tomb" to which yandere twin responds "Somebody might even exhume them for you"

when harrow mentioned not wanting to be touched while sleeping beside yandere twin, I remembered the pool hug and all that, that was a nice time

people were being killed left and right but it was a nice time

ANYWAY

harrow has a whole plan and has it all figured out, it's a really good plan, it works very nicely, but alleged gideon aka ortus isn't where they told her he was

sometimes, life works that way

the man you plan to kill isn't in the training room and all

she goes to look for him in not!dulcinea's crypt or whatever

and she sees this

and the spear

she follows the children's hospital trail of blood to the incinerator

alleged gideon aka ortus is inside the fire thingy and not!dulcinea is operating the controls

I wonder who could have predicted that this woman could still be an issue even after death

me, it was me

anyway, no time for I-told-you-so's because harrowbean decides to help him out of there

I'm very happy because I need him alive

he knows things and he's less bad than everyone else around here

because he's upfront about the killing

he tells her some things while he's kind of out of it

like to use blood wards instead of bone ones

that it will make her safe from "us"

"I know you're there. Kill me all you like. I would know you in the blindness of my eyes" he says and, among other things "Just tell me—back then—why you brought along the ba—"

WAS HE GONNA SAY BABY???? WHAT IF HE WANTED TO SAY BABY???

I'm still on my gideon agenda, sorry if it's embarrassing to read

of course emperor dickhead stops him before he can finish it

alleged gideon aka ortus says he doesn't remember shit afterwards and harrow sees her own mental state reflected in his

they can't find not!dulcinea, apparently

she's probably operating heavy machinery elsewhere

harrow is putting up her blood wards when she hears augustine and mercygirl argue about the whole zeus situation

the incinerator alarm apparently interrupted their plan of letting this happen

whether or not they had a hand on the not!dulcinea thing idk

mercygirl says she didn't move her

we end this act with ice cube barbie maybe annabel lee saying "The water is risen. So is the sun. We will endure."

obligatory yearning for camilla moment

That is the end of Act III and of my commentary because this was way too long and I need to make less chapters at a time istg

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep6 Musings - Loumand's Power Imbalance: RANT (Spoilers)

I'm seeing so many trash takes in the tags and it's driving me nuts.

Armand 👏 Made 👏 His 👏 CHOICE! 👏

The show said it TWICE, and yet I still see a plethora of braindead takes about Armand/Arun being "forced" by "Maitre/pimp!Louis" to do things. 🤦

Like, ISTG we're clearly not watching the same show, y'all.

Since when did Louis being a pimp or asserting "dominance" or other delusions of grandeur get him anywhere or give him anything that wasn't immediately taken away again by people with ACTUAL power? Louis NEVER had any real power to begin with!

Lou couldn't even convince some schmuck art dealer to buy his effing photos! He couldn't even convince his own boyfriend/companion to make a dang baby with him! Come on, y'all--what POWER (control, influence, effectiveness, coercion, sway) has Louis ever actually had!?!?

Sure, Lou owned all those businesses--and every single one got shut down by the government's Ordinances (via the city council the Alderman & Tom Anderson were board members on). Sure, Lou had money & paid all the bills at DPDL Estate, but his mother had the power to badmouth him so bad that his own nieces never wanted to be around him, and Levi took his place as Florence's son--"you're not welcome in this home!" Sure, Lou's a big bad vamp w/ super strength "remember what I did to that door, Grace?," but Grace was the one who told him to "get out!;" "mah sistah buried me aliiiiive~!" Sure, he was "Daddy" Lou, but when Claudia ran away he couldn't do eff all to stop her or make her come back till SHE decided to come back. Sure, Lou said he was "equals in the quiet dark," but Lestat always had the final say--he's even testifying to an entire judge & jury in the court case that's gonna get Claudia killed & Louis LITERALLY buried alive--cuz ARMAND MADE A DEAL WITH SANTIAGO & THE COVEN & LESTAT! Everyone's making moves w/out Lou having a EFFING clue.

Y'all really think Armand just stood there & let Santiago kidnap Lou's family cuz LOUIS turned Armand into his slave!; or cuz LOUIS had some unfair advantage over Armand?!

Episode 7 was given its title for a frikkin REASON, y'all.

Armand claimed he "couldn't prevent it." Armand. The 500 year old vampire so powerful that HE was the only one in the coven who could set vampires on frikkin fire, and was the ONLY one who could freeze entire rooms full of people AND VAMPIRES.

Somehow, Armand's suddenly SO powerless, SO helpless, SO DOMINATED, that couldn't stop those SAME vampires from abducting his beloved companion ("I want you more than anything in the world") and his daughters? PLEASE.

Coven Master Armand CHOPPED OFF NICKI'S HANDS when he got TIRED of dealing with a mentally ill guy whom LESTAT left him with! Sound familiar!? Only this time it's not Louis' HANDS--it's his DAUGHTERS!

ARMAND WANTS THOSE TWO WENCHES GONE GIRL! He sold them down the frikkin river; and in return was able to guarantee that Louis wouldn't be killed right alongside them, merely buried alive so Armand could dig him up later; "eternity in a box."

Armand passively shut the door and stood by as the coven burned Claudia (after Armand had chopped her HEAD off & sewed it on an adult's body)--and only made his move once all the sentences had been meted out; cuz in classic Armand fashion: HE LET IT HAPPEN.

ARMAND WANTED THAT WHOLE COVEN GONE, GIRL! He's done this crap before! WITH LESTAT!

And Armand was busy wheeling & dealing with Lestat, too!

Lest only complied--COMPLICIT--cuz he'd been starved, delirious & hurt; and Armand tricked him into thinking he could/would help. Les threw Claudia under the bus to protect Lou, but was still horrified that she'd been killed, cuz ARMAND could've prevented it--his fledglings shouldn't've been held to the Great Laws in the first place!

This is a MASSIVE game Armand's playing--the whole point of his gaslighting's that he throws the same thing he does back in ppl's faces to throw them off his scent, "to protect me, from YOU, Mr. Molloy...from my shame...my cowardice." He hides behind illusions--not just with the Mind/Spell Gift, but also through the veneer of innocence: a black-winged devil with the innocent face of a cherub.

People are SO blinded by the mean Black man (whom they don't even like ANYWAY) Dom'ing Armand (FOR SHOW, btw!); and equally distracted by their failure to even parse Armand's birthname Arun (I don't see any of y'all saying Amadeo was book!Armand's "slave name," and I DEFINITELY don't see any of y'all saying ANDREI was his slave name, either!); that they've totally missed how Loumand plotted TOGETHER to concede power to Santiago and "give" him the Theatre--thoroughly ignorant of the fact that Santiago was already being called Maitre by the whole effing coven--he'd already won his coup!

You can't give someone something you never had, Louis!

And their plot was for ARMAND'S BENEFIT; so they could get rid of Santiago, destabilize/dismantle the coven so they'd scatter (just like Lestat caused them to do); and so Armand could decide if he wanted to stay Maitre or not--LETTING ARMAND CHOOSE what HE wanted to do with HIS coven and THEIR lives. Lest we forget: vamps don't just LEAVE covens--in the books, after Les ruined the Paris coven, Armand didn't just LET them leave--he set them on FIRE and KILLED THEM; just like Louis would do--as Armand sat back and LET IT HAPPEN.

He knew Lou'd go ballistic; AMC!Armand even TAUGHT Louis the Fire Gift; literally handing Louis the tools with which to destroy his coven for good!

This show constantly emphasizes the POWER Armand held over Louis & Claudia (& Madeleine)'s lives; and his autonomy, agency & authority over them; despite the roleplay Loumand was up to as they SWITCHED positions; cuz Armand FAILED at running the coven.

All Armand wanted was to be with Louis, but Lou kept dragging Claudia (& Lestat) with him. So Armand was tryna get rid of them--he's Sleeping in Claudia's coffin, cuz he wants to take HER spot; "it's BLISS!"--and he overplayed his hand.

Louis couldn't even kill himself in peace without Armand interfering--cuz at the end of the day, it's not up to Louis what he wants or does. Armand PRETENDS to be Louis servant, "Rashid," his subby bottom boy, cuz Armand WANTS to go along with it all--too shameful for his COMPLICIT culpability; and too scared to live alone.

I saw people saying "the victim became the victimizer; cycles of abuse; etc etc," like omfg--how is THIS man Louis' victim!?

I've said it before though: Armand genuinely loves Louis, and has good intentions. But let's not pretend Armand's some innocent bystander to Louis' schemes, ffs!

[suekeyyyy]

-The Seven-

Serious:Somewhat single moms-Pt 1- Bolivia flage cape and a black suit .☟ _The boys x reader_

-Homelander- John x black! Fem! reader

Summary: Y/n is South America's number one. Hero is in a group called Patina, and she has been sent on a trip to North America. To meet the Seven for a National But her representative wants her to get close with Homelander.

Waning: bad language, Angst, reader being Sexualize.

Set in: it's the plot so don't come after me if I redo it.

@z3r0art

Seva Airlines is the plane that Y/n and her lower Supes know as patina. We're on to make it to North America to meet the Infamous Seven. Y/n didn't really care all that much she had her representative Steve up her ass about this opportunity.

For three months. The persistent Bitch really pushed that it would help with her look as a Hero and get her more Points.

Y/n was somewhat like Homelander, just female. She was just better at pretending to smile waving. But she hated having to smile all the time. It was exhausted. Her smiled and would always fade after the currents fell. Like she had ever smiled ones.

Now her was going to meet the men of America and his side show. She was only somewhat happy to meet Starlight. A new hero So much potential That made fire strom have a little bit more hopeful in the world.

Steve had told Y/n that Vought wanted to have a National Superhero Appreciation. Or Nsh, the plane soon landed on top of the vot building y/n slow stood up and walked out the plane with a small smile. To keep up her illusion of being happy, she could see Ms. Madelyn Stillwell and she big white women smile on her face.

" Patina. The heroes of South America welcome to Vot I'm Madelyn Stillwell." She says,"Were glad to be here." Y/n says as Madelyn walks them into the blinding. She slowly.

and fucking your Secretary kind. " This with be your freedom room. Basically, what im saying is that you can do whatever in here." She smiles she walks out.

Y/n sits down at the head of the table with a smile that makes everyone tense up. " Sit down." She says, and they all slowly sit down.

" So does everyone have something to say. Questions, concerns?" Y/n says," Why the hell are we here? I know that's what we're all thinking." BB says

-BB- Ballon boy. -Jimmy Hall - power: immoral.

" That is a good question. we are here for National super hero day." Y/n says," What the hell does that mean?" BB says," we walk around a bit, help the seven if needed, and just breathe air." Y/n says. Everyone looks at each other, and they agree on how easy it is. " Oh, and hear are your keys." Y/n throws five keys out to her team. " For what?" BB says," Your rooms." Y/n says in a soft tone. " There on the fifth floor." She smiles." Now, all of you go." Y/n says in a cold tone. They all sigh and whisper to themselves about how dumb this was. Y/n slowly turned her head to the side. " BB, what do you want?" She sees him sitting on the table." What ya thinking about, doll?" He says " How to quit." She says.

" You could just retire." He says. With a smile," You and me both know what that means. I go into some cold old room little nowhere to be tested on." He nods." You can start a family. That's what Liya did, and I still see her." He says,

" Maybe. "

•┈┈┈••✦ 🔥 ✦••┈┈┈•

Y/n leaves the room and walks over to the elevators and waits for it where she hears someone walking over to her and the elevators. She looks over to see Homelander walking over to the elevators. " shit." She whispers. Homelander walked up to the elevators, and they opened. "Excuse me." He says y/n looks back." Oh, sorry." She smiles he walks in first.

Homelander slowly looked down at y/n and her outfit. The boob window and her Bolivia flag on her back. Her black suit on her skin was tight and small, mostly around her back side. " Nice ass." He said with a smirk with a look of contempt as he looked at her.

The ends of y/n's hair are set on fire, her hair Indulgeinng in the red flames. " Thanks, I guess. " y/n was creeped out and taken a back. How could he see her ass? He looked at the fire at the end of her hair and then back at her, "No problem." He says."So. Why are you here?" He asks her.

" National super hero's Appreciation Month." She says," So you're a part of Patina?" He asked." Actually, I'm the leader of Patina." She says," Well, it's always nice to have younger heroes as leaders. " y/n chuckles. He was trying to butter her up. He turned his head back to he and then smirke. "So. You can control fire?" " Yes." She says." So. You're like the strongest superhero in South America." He asked her, and he wanted to know everything about her." You could say that." She was trying to keep dry a conversation.

Homelander thought for a second before speaking, "I'm surprised I know of the group Patina. You know most people can't name a single group from South America." He says in a sarcastic manner. As if South America was beneath him, "But I guess you didn't tell me your name?"

Y/n give him a what the fuck look trying to overlook how disrespectful that was. " My real name?" She says,"Yeah, your real name?" He said in an annoyed fashion, waiting for her answer. " y/n no last name. " She says," That's interesting. " he says Try the sound disinterested. "I'm curious. How much is Patina respected in South America?" He said, wanting to see if her pride was big like Homelander's " as much as the seven is in the States." She says.

"Oh, I see. So Patina's just as big down south as we are up here in the States. Is that what you're saying?" He said, trying to gauge y/n to see if she had a big ego" yeah." The elevator stops, and she walks out. Homelander follows y/n and catches up to her. "So. Let me guess, y/n ." He said, walking up next to her."You just happen to have the most beautiful ass in all of South America." He said, wanting to see her reaction to that.

" I thought you dropped that conversation." Y/n says, walking past Madelyn Stillwell's Office.Homelander chuckled and shook his head."Come on, y/n. Who doesn't love talking about a beautiful ass. Especially one like yours. I mean, look at that peach." He said, touching her ass over her suit, smiling while he does it.

She grabs his hand, her eyes turning eye. " Don't touch me." Y/n says her hand, burning his suit arm slightly.

"Aww. Come on, y/n, don't be like that. My hands just so happened to wander over there. Don't be so uptight." He said in a sarcastic manner, keeping his hand on her ass " Oh well, my hand wandered to your face." She slaps him.

He stood in shock as he rubbed his cheek with his free hand. He couldn't believe she had done that. But then he took a deep breath and regained his composure and took his hand off her ass. "What the hell?" He screamed at her."How dare you lay a hand on Homelander. I am the most powerful superhero in the god damn world." He yelled in a scary, intimidating tone at her." Do I really give a shit?" She thinks," Oh, I don't."

Homelander took a second to process what she told him, and then he got angry again. "I am The Homelander. You show some respect. "He yelled at her in anger. He wanted her to beg for his mercy. He wanted to scare her, but she wasn't showing fear. It was pissing Homelander off.

" Oh, stop it, you're just as broken and damaged as everyone else." Earlier that day, y/n Looked at John's File or his life story on a paper.

Homelander grew very angry as he took another step closer to y/n. He was now in her face with the heat of his breath hitting her lips. He looked down at her and took another angry breath. "I am a god compared to everyone else, and you should respect me." He yelled at her with no fear of what she would say in return. He was the most powerful being in existence, and she would not cross him.

Homelander didn't seem to notice the haft Chub he was getting. Was he fucking turned on? " Well, I guess.''god'' has a boner." She pointed out his pants.

That caught Homelander off guard, and as he looked down at his pants, there was indeed a boner starting to show through his pants. "What the..." He began to stammer, looking at y/n. Her face was still, and she didn't give any response."That's normal." He says, trying to change the subject to something less awkward.

" it shouldn't be. You shouldn't get a boner when you yell at me." She was speaking Facts.

He cleared his throat before saying, "Hey, it's common for a man to get a boner when a hot woman is standing in front of him." The words come flying out of his mouth quickly as he realizes he just said what was on his mind."You're hot." He said awkwardly.

That was out of character. " And you got that from yelling at me?" She says. "No, I mean... I just look at you, and it happens." He says with a smirk, he was enjoying talking to y/n, she was the first woman to actually talk back to him. And it made him want to keep talking to her. Something he wasn't used to, he was attracted to y/n, and he knew it.

She rolled her eyes and walked away."Wait! Y/n, where are you going? Don't go, I want to keep talking to you." He yelled after her, not wanting her to leave just yet. She just continued walking.

"Damn it." He said to himself, he was actually enjoying talking to y/n, and she had to ruin the moment for him by walking away."Well, I hope you have a nice night. And by the way. You do have a nice ass." He yelled out to y/n as she walked. "Nice and fat." He whispered to himself as he watched her leave.

A/n: I'm so happy. 😁 thank you for your support. Love you guys.😘😘

Next pt:

[jils-things]

I would never fall in love again until I found her

I said, "I would never fall unless it's you I fall into"

I was lost within the darkness, but then I found her

I found you

[3.25.23]

ouueeehh we're back to my corny love letters like last time 💜 again absolutely NO pressure reading these, because it WILL get lengthy 💜 this also serves as a personal love letter that i can archive!

ahh, steven st.one. a wild card in my f/o list. i never thought i'd find myself to like him... i've always tried my best to avoid the pretty boy design after i've gotten older which is why i was oddly in denial during my early steven days hehe... the earliest memory i have of him is just me battling him in my ruby emulator back in the 4th grade - but i don't think i actually remembered him too well, i only thought he looked like a silly anime version of the classical composer be.ethoven and tbh, i still like to think he does look like him in the rse style lolll 💜

for the whole, actual story - it was just last year - i was reading the r/s arc, of course. it was one of those days in school where i had nothing much to do and snuck my phone to read manga to pass some time. at some point, my classmate joined to read with me - it was at this moment where steven debuts properly and it caught my classmate by Surprise. she thought he looked very handsome! to which i teased her... strangely enough, this exchange impacted me? maybe it's because someone acknowledged what i was doing and even bothered to briefly read along with me - so in a way steven kinda bookmarked that memory.

so after that exchange, i just kept on reading. everytime he had something to say, i couldn't help but just stare at his face? he looked nice, i guess? he's also very gentle and polite... i kept this thought of mine for quite sometime until i was discussing the manga arc with my p.okespe mutual and he mentioned him. i somewhat confessed he looked nice and that was the biggest mistake i've ever done because what my friend did after was absolutely blow me with art after art of the pretty rock collector and i was STRUGGLING. it ultimately came down to this one cute panel in the o.ras chapter where he was blushing and I wasn't the same person since then 🚶🚶🚶and funnily enough, i told myself I wasn't going to fall for anyone because of the manga and whoopedoo p.okespe!steven my beloved the greatest man ever. i mean i love the game counterpart as well, they're nearly identical - it's just the manga that totally swept me... sighhhh

steven is such a nice character to begin with, he's honestly a very humble and nice champion. he's not showy about his identity and would rather be alone by himself to indulge in what he wants. he is willing to give up a very respectable position in the po.kemon league just to pursue his interests and with that i see a man not after power and fame but a man who just wants to find joy in what he does even if it demotes him. on top of that, he's just a sweet gentleman. he was raised well of course, and you can see it clearly in his acts in the story. i love him very much for that and who wouldn't want those traits?

i was really absolutely embarrassed to be all over this guy at first - it took a whole month for me to actually share to my blog about how i liked steven and took awhile to adjust to that fact that i opened up about it 😭 but the community was very kind and supportive about the pairing and if i'm being honest, i think stevaide made a super lasting impact on my blog recently and it's really so comforting to picture them as a young loving married couple with ruby. it made me feel unashamed with what i can do with my silly ships. i'm still very glad for the endless support for steven and jaide.

soo, yes. happy memoryshipping 💜💚 thank you for making my times of struggle more bearable if not perfect and thank you to everyone who enjoys this ship even if it was just a little bit :]

credits to @/cafekitsune <3

[daeneryseastar]

It absolutely gets me that the whole thing about Rhaneyra putting her siblings to the sword was made up by Otto, Rhaenyra did nothing to indicate that she would; Alicent just fixated on it like- how do they forget that they literally pulled that crock of shit out of thin air? 😭

it gets me too, especially show-wise. the only time rhaenyra shows any bit of fire against her siblings is during the driftmark incident, where it is blatantly obvious to anyone with a brain that she was bluffing when asking for aemond to be sharply questioned. granted, should she have done it? no. is she also a mother trying her best to protect her kids? and not being a super uber-perfect person in the process? yes to both. this is yet another change from the book i don't like, considering alicent demands luke's eye in retribution first, and rhaenyra retaliates against that rather than starting it.

i'm also adding some significant points that make no sense in the greater context if alicent truly thought her children's lives were endangered; which is how she actively antagonizes rhaenyra. in both medias. she raises her children to hate rhaenyra, to view their nephews as inferior and subhuman to them due to their blood, she instills fear for their lives as a part of their everyday activities, she tells her children that aegon will be king no matter what (which is treason, so she doesn't seem to care that badly about her children being found out as participants of those efforts). she does not act like someone who believes her children are going to be murdered once rhaenyra ascends the throne. it's why i can't take her stans seriously. none of her actions make sense in the grand scheme of things. she purposefully makes an enemy that is (TO HER) capable of cold-blooded murder. what terrified mother would do that?

there's also this fetish for infantilizing and victimizing alicent and co. otto manipulated her when she was a teen, which is a fair take. otto was also ostracized from court for TEN years. ten years with minimal to no contact with alicent. she is no longer a child during that time, she is a grown woman with four children to raise and a perfectly good brain to use. we're not shown or told once that rhaenyra *ever* showed an ounce of violence towards her siblings, and at most, she was indifferent to them. it is stated, however, that during that time skip alicent bullied and harassed rhaenyra, to the point where she abandoned the capital to have peace of mind and safety for her own children. still not the actions of a terrified mother (she also wasn't manipulated into doing any of that; it was all of her own accord because she hated that rhaenyra was afforded more freedom and leeway than she was).

what's more, there is minimal, if any, precedent that rhaenyra would be forced to kill her siblings to secure the throne. viserys was only the fifth targaryen king, not exactly enough time to really establish any killing family as a basis. maegor is the only one to have done so, and he's reviled for it even up to the current timeline. it is even thought that his death was the consequence of kinslaying. it's not normal. there has technically been some sort of succession crisis for almost all the rulers up to this time: aegon the uncrowned and maegor, rhaena and jaehaerys, baelon and rhaenys, viserys and rhaenys/laenor. there are, once again, many ways for aegon, aemond, and daeron to renounce their claim to the throne (night's watch, kingsguard, maester); but that would take away the power alicent and otto wanted to have, so not an option.

i wouldn't even consider daemon that much of a threat if rhaenyra had ascended peacefully. they've changed his character significantly in the show, but daemon explicitly states in fire and blood that they need to find a peaceful way to end this dispute, and not resort to fighting dragons versus dragons (a line they gave to rhaenys in the show) because it would only end in disaster. he doesn't resort to any brutality until after the first blood is drawn by the green's.

basically, it's just another ploy, a 'red herring' if you will, to distract from the true reason why rhaenyra was usurped (and hook, line, sinker; it's working fantastically for some in the fandom).

[merrilark]

Okay, I've only read a few chapters of Young Blood so far, but some of the things I really enjoy (with mild character-related spoilers; I probably won't say anything about the plot itself yet):

That we're given most of the Umbrellas' favorite foods! Klaus likes bubblegum ice cream, Diego likes roast beef with new potatoes and green beans, Luther likes hamburgers, and Allison used to like hotdogs. There's nothing about Viktor or Five's so far, but we can assume Five's has always been fluffernutters.

Diego is implied to be extremely food-motivated and I love that for him. Viktor thinks he could be a star chef if he wanted to ditch superhero work. 11/10, love foodie Diego.

Reginald named his car Hermes (I'm strangely affectionate about this).

Klaus has been hotwiring Reginald's car since 12 and was taught to drive by a dead NASCAR driver. Klaus enjoyed sitting in the garage with the car running, but didn't realize that you could get monoxide poisoning that way. He's apparently died frequently, and thought he was just going to sleep. Pogo would carry him to bed.

This implies Pogo knew that Klaus was immortal, and most likely also knew that Reginald was routinely killing him.

Klaus also has been planning to leave the Academy for a long time, but hasn't gotten up the nerve. We all know that Diego is the first to leave and (at least according to You Look Like Death) Klaus was the last, so I think this is an interesting angle. It doesn't break canon, per se, but it raises a few questions about why Klaus didn't leave like he planned.

Ben asked every day if Klaus had seen Five's ghost. His biggest hope is that they'll one day all be together again. This shatters me.

It's also interesting that Ben is both one of the most obedient and yet most vocal about Reginald's abuse. He seems extremely aware of it, but is far too afraid to defy their father and kills primarily because he knows that he'll be reprimanded if he doesn't.

Ben canonically views himself as a monster. :( I knew this. I suspected this. But still. Seeing it typed out makes me :((( lmao

I'm also really enjoying that it neither shies away from Luther/Allison nor the fact that it's extremely normalized between the Umbrellas to be pretty, unrepentant jerks toward each other. I think that if they removed any of these things, or chose to gloss over them, it'd risk watering down the effects of their abuse too much in a book that already doesn't seem keen on diving too deeply into their trauma. It's also interesting to see how blatantly weird they all are developmentally and socially, straddling a line between considering each other family and treating each other like coworkers. At times, it feels a lot like they just call each other siblings, but there's no real attachment to those terms, even if they do care about each other a lot. They really do not understand how to be a family or normal kids, or hardly even real people outside of the super-powered killing machines that Reginald wanted them to be.

On to some things I'm not totally digging but aren't a deal-breaker:

Mild canon inaccuracies. I've been told that this book is pretty glaring in the department, but so far I haven't seen anything too bad. The only notable ones so far are: - That the Umbrellas, except Klaus, have never sneaked out before. It's been a while since I've seen S1, but I could swear that it's canon that they all regularly sneaked out to Griddy's even before Five left. - Klaus calls himself a telepath. This is common fanon, but there's nothing in canon itself to support that he is capable of telepathy. In fairness, though, Sheinmel, the author, doesn't actually seem to write Klaus as a telepath. It really just reads as if she thinks that telepathy and mediumship are the same thing. - There's a lot of emphasis on Luther being big. He's constantly being described as struggling with his clothes, or fantasizing about how much larger he'll get, and rips the back out of a jacket at one point because... I guess?? he's so large??? He's very much written as if Sheinmel thinks that Luther is a musclebound 17 year old, when teenage Luther has never been big in the same way that post-serum adult Luther has been. He was always tall, yes, but I really don't think he should have been struggling with tearing clothes.

Typos. It's not glaring, but there are some errors here and there with spelling and punctuation. Combined with the telepath thing, I wonder if Sheinmel just didn't have a great editor.

The writing style is really juvenile. I knew that this would be a young adult novel, so I didn't expect beautiful prose, but the writing feels like this book is meant for the younger end of YA. It rambles, restates obvious points, and sometimes the phrasing feels dumbed down to the point of near condescension. Meanwhile, characters still use mild swears, which gives the book this weird feeling that it doesn't quite know what age bracket it was written for.

But I am otherwise really enjoying it so far. It's fun and I appreciate the insight into the Umbrellas' lives as teens and their internal thoughts about each other, regardless of how canon or not-canon this novel is.

[austenwazright]

Yeah we don't know a lot but here's what we do know:

Sarcean and Anharion were into each other for a long time

Sarcean was an important member of the Sun Court

When in the parade he makes a snark commentary about how the Sun Court wins may be celebrated in the light but are all won in the dark (shady

Sarcean and the Lady had a one night stand

Sarcean and Visander also had a one night stand

The first time that Sarcean and the Lady met she's talking about the Dark General in third person but like let's be honest for a second here how many pale hot white guys with long dark heir in dark armour do you think there were walking around the Sun Palace?? Bet you she was playing dumb

When Sarcean was called back to the palace by the Lady there was mentions of a mob, I myself am very pro mob

In that same scene when she accuses him he says something like "is that what you were told?", well if that line doesn't make you believe that there's more to it I don't know what will

He wanted to be trapped and he's loyal to those who help him, but apparently his plan to getting out was being helped, bet he made it thinking anharion would be the one to do it

There's a collar that in theory takes alway anharion/james free will, even tho we were in his mind when it went on and it didn't go completely blank we have to assume it does something, what does it do??

Sarceans power is in theory control and death, and he used it the meanest way possible, or so we're told, but the Light did win and the winner always gets to write hystory so we don't actually know what's true and what isn't

He did kill everyone in the Sun Court but Visander and the Lady, even tho we don't know hes motive (I'm assuming he has one) it's still kinda drastic don't you think?

He can make weapons and use the mark but we never saw him wielding the shadows (he may be able, but also he may not be

Will has no acess to his power but he gets things done cause he's smart and charismatic, even tho they paint the dark king as someone who could only gets things done when controlling people I bet part of his powers came from those qualities as well, we've seen Will using the mark, it drains him, he couldn't possibly control everyone all the time

Sinclair presents the mark as a ceremony, as a reward, when it would be easier to just brand people by force what maybe tells us that it has to be willing

Anharion was the one to say "I will always find you" maybe the obsession goes both ways???? Besides james remember the feel of him and, as far as he let us know, it's not like bad

Now its just an hypothesis but sarcean may only be able to use his powers through objects (and yes I'm putting the reborns and the returners as objects to make a point sue me), that's the reason of the mark, and the cup, and the collar. I mean why make a fucking cup that turns people to shadow if you could just do it yk (here comes in the acceptance again, people have to be willing to drink), and like maybe, just maybe, the collar also allows james/anharion to use his magic (as in sarcean's) in a more weaponized way??? As in he can use it without draining himself, kinda borrowing it

We also know sarcean's fine as fuck, so far that has been very relevant to the plot since he fucked basically anyone of the old world we know by name

Something I keep forgetting is Will is Sarcean but hey Sarcean is also Will, and even tho we don't know a lot about the former we just spent two books in Will's head, that being said maybe Sarcean killed the whole Sun Court as some king of vengeance for someone he loved/was loyal too, that's like a super Will move

I'm gonna put this in bold letters here so no one forgets: SARCEAN IS WILL, WE'RE READING ABOUT THE SAME PERSON

"I cannot come when I'm called to fight so I'll birth a child"- or however that one goes it's been a while and I don't recor the exact words hahaha- why can't she come??? Like she can't or does she just doesn't want to?? I mean she's clearly able to send someone, she can make the returners, why not return herself??? I'm thinking that it's bad, maybe you lose part of yourself? I mean Visander didn't seen to loose anything (besides the obvious mental blow and all) so WHYYY can't she return??? The only reasonable explanation is that there's a bigger catch then we imagine

Sarcean canonicaly did no wrong, yeah, that's a big thing we know now!!!!! I just need context I just need all the context and I need it rn

More will be added

[givehimthemedicine]

El's protectiveness and friendships in the lab

wanted to take a minute to appreciate that El's protectiveness isn't a character trait that only emerges post-lab. she's always been that way [assuming, for this post, that NINA stuff more or less happened]; it just couldn't always present in a way that looks badass on a poster.

El and Eighteen

only crumbs here, but if I have to point out a lab kid that El is friendlier with than the others, it's Eighteen.

El holding Eighteen's hand is the only affectionate act I've ever noticed between any of the lab kids, and offering that comfort to her littlest sister is probably as "protective" as El can afford to be (esp as an eight year old with the least power and social standing of anyone).

when the kids in general laugh at El for failing at the light game, Eighteen is not one of the kids shown doing so.

Eighteen is the first dead child El is shown to be upset about. it's not that she looks more distressed about her than the others, but it's odd that she saw Ten dead on the floor next to Brenner a second before this and didn't really react. (maybe she couldn't tell Ten was dead from the doorway? idk)

maybe an El/Eighteen friendship is cornplating or whatever the youths are calling it, but bearing in mind that we're never actually told that El/Eight had some super close friendship, maybe theirs looked something like this.

side note - are friendships even permitted in the lab?

letting the kids form friendships could be dangerous, as Brenner, couldn't it? risks them forming alliances against you? this is why I was asking the other day if socializing seems discouraged in the RR. like, even the bullies, who were "friends," never chatted openly in there unless the cameras were off. maybe any lab friendships have to be hush hush by nature.

anyway idk there's just something about us going "🤯 same numbers!!!" upon seeing the 001 / 011 tattoos, and then 008 + 018 being the only other kids El is hinted at being friendly with... why are we reusing the same pattern? 001 / 008 / 011 / 018 just happen to be every combination of those three numbers within the number of available children.

especially with El "being 8" (as in, years old) at this time. it's giving Henry, 12 / mother of 5. idk where I'm going with that but I'm squinting. Eighteen, you're not some bizarro Little Eight who has an inverted friendship with Big El, right?

El lashing out in the lab

we're shown repeatedly that El hates seeing people get hurt, but multiple times onscreen (and you know innumerable times off) she witnesses severe abuse to her siblings, and we never see her act in their defense like post-lab El would. of course, that's because she realistically can't. we know trying to help anyone in the lab accomplishes little except getting both people in trouble. but I was thinking about how we DO see El lash out for her own sake in 1983. so what's the takeaway? El cares more about protecting herself than others? nah. let's look at the other guard killing scene (again. assuming this really happened):

when similarly cornered in 1979, El's immediate response is silent surrender.

why is her behavior so different? because she's weak? too scared / well controlled? too nice to kill? all those factors have already been established as non-issues in this moment. (she does have her powers here; the circle game proved that Brenner can't control El and knows it; killing when cornered is canonically within her nature)

you might think having a staff member on her side would make her more defiant, but instead she's more compliant here than in '83 (either time. even in the non-guard-killing flashback, El screams and struggles the whole way.)

El and One

he's the difference. she doesn't know he's her brother or has powers yet, but he has presented himself as a fellow prisoner rather than someone in a position of authority. she's also already seen him get punished because of her.

as far as El knows right here, if she lashes out - whether she then escapes successfully or not - she'd be bringing SEVERE punishment onto a nice guy who can't defend himself or escape.

she has a chance at freedom, the power to kill, and the escape route all planned out, but she doesn't do it. the thing that's not in her nature is abandoning a friend to God-knows-what punishment on her behalf.

so while One killing the guards is an act of protection to El, it's also a massive act of protection to One that El is ready to throw out the whole plan right here. don't miss it just because it's not the classic El-screamy-hand thing.

she's sacrificing her chance at freedom in hopes of slightly mitigating his punishment. (they're both doomed to very bad punishment upon capture right here, but if she escapes I think he'd get punished even worse. so she's choosing to share in pretty bad punishment over him being punished extremely severely and her not at all.)

even aside from punishment, she knows she'll be returning to an even worse home life than the one she believed necessitated her immediate escape (Brenner apparently arranging for her to be killed).

so here, can she afford to act out not only because she's acting alone, but because she's an only child, so to speak? there's no one else who could potentially suffer as a result of her actions. no other siblings to use as leverage. no one to protect.

whatever consequences Brenner carried El off to after killing those orderlies, she bore it alone.

I can sorta read this as protective of the other kids in general - not that she did it, but that she didn't until now.

am I saying Brenner might have randomly punished other kids as a result of something El did?

have you met the guy? definitely would've threatened it, might've actually done it. manipulation by whatever means necessary.

when you work in a building full of superpowered people who hate you, you gotta control them psychologically, because physical control isn't something you can maintain for long. it's imperative that they're more afraid of the consequences of kicking your ass than they are of whatever torture you're putting them through. emotional manipulation using friends and innocents as pawns is a classic move. (another reason the kids might want to keep lab friendships secret even if they're allowed.)

that's not theory - we've seen Brenner use this tactic onscreen, telling El that he'll have Owens killed if she tries to get to him. he knows he can't physically control her, so he exerts psychological control by placing Owens' blood on El's hands to get her to cooperate.

the phrase "blood on one's hands" means being responsible for deaths, not having literally, personally committed murder. this imagery is used onscreen to denote El's sense of guilt about the massacre well before she comes to the conclusion that she actually did it. (this could be symbolism that El's mind organically dreamed up instead of engineered fuckery, but who knows. we have no textual explanation yet for how her hands would be that bloody).

and together with Brenner very textually using the kids against each other in other ways - having them literally duel each other in the circle game, but also the "driving them to do exactly what he wants" stuff - I don't think it's unreasonable to figure that fear of harm to the other kids was a manipulation tactic used in the lab.

that definitely includes One - lines like "I'm not going with you / if he finds me he will find you" "I wanted to help you, but I only made things worse" smack of a guy kept in line by fear of something happening to the kids.

and the Brenner-orchestrating-El's-murder story smells like a psyop. is this just Brenner wanting One to think harm would come to El as a consequence of his actions? (she became "uncontrollable" as a result of his coaching). El is too valuable an asset to actually kill. who would know better than One that the treatment for being uncontrollable is soteria, not death? assuming One is being truthful, why would he not see through that. idek what I think is going on here anymore

anyway. MKUltra is ALL about manipulation but I'll talk more about that in my other post

times El protects her friends the same way she protected One

practically every move El makes is about protecting her friends but I want to point out a few times that are specifically reminiscent of her protection of One, where she's ready to give up her freedom to protect her friends even at risk of the worst case scenario (going back to the lab):

sacrificing herself to protect the party from the demogorgon ("no more") <- is that line in reference to the 6 people the demogorgon has snatched, or is that a massacre reference given how incredibly parallel these scenes are. I'm not sure whether "goodbye Mike" meant she thought she'd die or just get so wiped out that she'd be easily recaptured by the lab

leaving Kali and "freedom" to return to Hawkins and protect her friends, where she volunteers to go back into the lab to close the gate

leaving Cali and "freedom" to return to the lab to get her powers back to protect her friends

final thought: I just had a chuckle with myself at the fact that iirc it's Mike and Nancy whose lives El has individually, directly saved the most times.

[honorable mention for Max because I don't know how to quantify 4x9. is that like one massive save?]

like, Mike, okay, but why the Nancy emphasis when she and El have basically zero onscreen relationship. (actually I have a lot to say about El and Nancy coming up soon that might add context)

idk.. lab sibling guilt smth smth El protecting Nancy "she'll be like your new sister" and Mike "will you be like my brother" Creeler. you gotta love it