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#my love my dear my blonde himbo the love of my life
whos-hotter-jjba · 5 months
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Hottest JoJo Character Bracket - Match 3-15
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dungeonsandblorbos · 2 years
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Campaign Intros: The Orphic Uprising
the Orphic Uprising is another short and sweet campaign from my college years. another 10 session wonder, this time using the Cypher system! it's set in the same universe as the Percy Jackson stories, post-canon, and was my first time playing a campaign with my then boyfriend (now husband!)
my notes are . . . still not the best but they are definitely getting better and more useful to someone who is not currently embroiled in the story! less emphasis on the funny out of context quotes, more on actual notetaking--which is to say, a whole bunch of notes are still just funny quotes, they just make up a lower proportion of my notes overall
so story times from the Orphic Uprising will be actual full stories with real context! yay!
~anyway~
the setting
the Percy Jackson universe, post-canon! that's it. nothing fancy.
if you're not familiar, the basic conceit of the world is that the ancient Greek gods are real, actually (as are most/all other pantheons--yes it does get very confusing), and still having demi-god kids with mortals. otherwise it's just like the real world! there's a camp in New York, USA, called Camp Half-Blood, which is a safe haven for demi-god youth, who are often targeted by monsters. the gate to the Underworld is in LA, the minotaur's labyrinth is under the streets of NYC, you get it
the party
Nina "Larry" Grayson: my PC! you know her, you met her here. a Chinese-American daughter of Nike, goddess of Victory and companion of Athena. headstrong himbo who isn't afraid to fight dirty in order to win. kind of a loner until Beatrice and Chuck show up in her life and forcibly befriend her. eats impossible for breakfast
Chuck Hickey: my husband's PC! an Italian-American son of Dionysus, god of wine and revelry. raised by his Italian grandparents on their vineyard in Napa Valley, California (wine country). funny and not very responsible, but good people nonetheless. wields a thyrsus, which is a fancy word for a staff with a pinecone on top of it. has some magical powers, which enable him to, among other things, light pinecones on fire and put enemies in a trance by singing meme songs at them. yes, he did rickroll a chimera once. throughout this campaign and its sequel, he collects an ever-growing list of epithets; highlights include He Who Barks at Skeletons, He Who Drives the Sun, and Death Itself
Beatrice Starveling: an African-American daughter of Apollo, god of the sun and music and poetry and so many other things it's ridiculous. raised by her two gay dads who are very worried about her. a gifted musical theatre kid. creative and kind but also very tired, at least in part because she's lowkey the smart one of the party. wields a magic lyre given to her by Hermes, and also the Sun Chariot. she also has some magic powers, which allow her to, among other things, empower her friends to hit harder and put enemies in a trance by reciting Shakespeare at them. yes, she did use the "alas, poor Yorick" monologue for this at least once. she also pulled an Orpheus but actually succeeded, saving her dear friend Oliver from the Underworld with music from Hadestown
Ryder: a white British son of Aphrodite and a bit of a gary stu if i'm being honest; his player also had a lot of hangups about a lot of random things. supposedly a model whose dad "looks like Hugh Jackman." wealthy. an archer. a killthief
important NPCs
Oliver: Beatrice's sweet blond best friend. a son of Hermes. he was in the Underworld for most of this campaign, actually, after getting killed by some skeletons in our second session. oof
Hops: a grain demon Chuck found in a hotel dumpster and then immediately adopted. he looks like an ugly baby made of dirt and roots, and is about a foot tall. he's our mascot and we love him. Nina gave him her swiss army knife so he can open his own beers and Chuck sometimes carries him around in a papoose. other times, Chuck throws him like a football at an enemy and with their combined powers, they make Hops's roots grow really long and wrap around the enemy like a cage
~various gods and goddesses and PJO characters~
the plot . . . hook
after an exciting game of capture the flag, Camp Half-Blood is attacked by a small army of skeletons. during the fight, Oliver is killed. as the battle is dying down, camp oracle Rachel Dare wanders over and delivers a prophecy:
Children of Night and lords of the deep Conspire together in the midnight keep When the twice born God is lured and bound beneath The impossible is tasked to daughter of the laurel wreath The islander shall face the Cypran boar And the beauty's blood shall open the door The forgotten son of Spring shall be returned And through faith and song can life be earned
it is quickly determined that the prophecy refers to Dionysus, who has recently gone missing. and so a questing party is assembled: Nina, daughter of the laurel wreath, and Ryder, beauty's blood, are obvious choices and fast to volunteer. Beatrice, hyperfocusing on the last line, also volunteers, hopeful she'll be able to bring Oliver back from the dead. Chuck, having been informed that his mom is also missing and trapped in the Underworld alongside his father, also volunteers
Apollo stops by to give Beatrice the keys to an old model of the Sun Chariot, and with that, the party is off on their way to California and the Underworld!
(the whole arc of this campaign is a lot of fun but these posts are long enough as is, so instead y'all will have to wait for story times to learn more about what happens!)
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ego-meliorem-esse · 3 years
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At this point the only art I'm making is for this cursed fandom... Guess I'll never truly get out of the Hetalia circle lol
Anyway, here are my headcanons for the absolute himbo that is Alfred F. Jones.
Appearance, fashion and demeanour:
Alfred has short dirty blonde hair styled in a side part.
He has wide, deep blue eyes filled with curiosity and intrigue. Immediately when you meet Alfred, there is a warmth to him. He makes you feel like you really should be talking to him. You feel as if he could fix all your problems with his signature Hollywood smile.
He has a delicate nose with a slight bump that is absolutely perfect for his face.
Those features, along with fuller lips, give him the trademark Hollywood poster boy look. This masculine and rugged cowboy looks good, and unfortunately for everyone, knows it.
Alfred works out almost every day to keep himself in the best possible shape. He is tall (still not as tall as Matthew) and, along with his muscular frame, will use his height to his advantage whenever he can.
His fashion sense varies from hypebeast to the latest and most fashionable suits he can get. When it comes to fashion (along with anything in his life), Alfred likes to show off. He likes to give of the aura that he isn't worried much about what other think, yet deep down, wants people to regard him as this ideal person/country. He is very much aware of how other perceive him and what they think of him though.
Alfred is way more intelligent than what he is perceived as. In his own twisted way, he likes for the others to believe he hasn't touched a real book in centuries. This, of course, is very far from the truth. Alfred loves reading and generally acquiring informations through any means possible. He is very dedicated to understanding as much as he can in as little time as he can. He is an absolute perfectionist.
Alfred is loud and assertive. I wouldn't say he is selfish but he is very self-centered. Sometimes it's hard for him to see a point from another's perspective due to his idealism.
One of his passions is astronomy. It has been for centuries, since he was a child. During his childhood, Arthur would buy him any astronomy book that he could get his hands on. He would bring the boy the latest books on space that were not even translated into English yet. This hobby of his precedes even his love for enlightenment literature.
Family and friends:
Alfred is Arthurs first son as well as England's first overseas colony. He received that special treatment only firstborns get. Especially firstborns whose father is Arthur Kirkland. As a child Alfred was spoiled. He got to read whatever he wanted, even if that literature went against what dear old dad stood for (I.e. enlightenment books). Alfred had the freedom (*cough cough*) to ask for
whatever from the English Empire and his dear papi would probably get it for him.
Most of his childhood was spent in London with Arthur, but he also spent a lot of his time in the colonies. Alfred hated rain so one could say he was thrilled when he got to leave the boring and rainy London and go to his home in Virginia.
He considers Matthews arrival into the Kirkland household as one of the best times in his childhood. As a lonely only child, he was very excited when he got a brother to play and spend time with. While he was a lot for Matt to handle at once (due to Alfred's loud and extroverted nature), he eventually started to appreciated Alfred. They were inseparable from 1763 to about 1775 when Alfred left to pursue his revolution. This of course left
a big hole in Matthew's heart and Alfred knows this, yet doesn't know how to show his brother that he understands his pain. The person he doesn't know how much he hurt is Arthur. After disowning Alfred, Arthur wasn't as affectionate with the rest of his children later on. The emotions and feelings he showed Alfred were thrown back in his face and he wouldn't let that happen again.
Alfred found a mentor in Francis, Arthur's Long time rival (occasional lover) and enemy. Francis was intelligent and a good tactician. They got along very well. Francis showed Alfred the wonders of Versailles, and even though that was a bit much for Alfred's liking, the boy still found it all to be very inspiring. Even today Alfred still regards Francis as his mentor in certain ways.
Along with Francis, Gilbert was an influence as well as a first crush for Alfred. Though if Gil was even aware of Alfred's affections was questionable, or if he was he certainly didn't reciprocate those affections. To Francis it was all a bit to obvious but he never made any comments. Later on Alfred's crush on Gilbert luckily died down.
There are many countries that simply dislike Alfred. During the cold War it was Russia/The Soviet Union and other communist nations. Even today there is China who certainly doesn't like the over-ambitious young boy. Every one of those countries has the same mindset when it comes to the young idealist: he got his powers wayyy too soon. He didn't suffer enough for the position he is in. Alfred was lucky and had been born to a start-up superpower who was not hesitant to teach him the rules of the game their kind played.
Nevertheless, there is a small bit of respect given to Alfred by most of his rivals.
Again, my headcanons are getting too long so this is where I shall stop myself lol
Today I present to you two drawings for the price of one (and the price of my mental sanity after my wacom overheated and went into panic mode but I digress...)
edit: Thank you @draw-a-circle-thats-the-foxhole for your help with the headcanons. I don't think I could have come up with better descriptions of this star-spangled bastard boy myself. I bow to your competence with words!
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alinastracker · 3 years
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Infuriating: Part Two (ao3)
Part One was Mal and Alina’s camp love story. Now it’s Zoya and Nikolai’s turn.
For Zoya Nazyalensky, it was hate at first sight when she met Nikolai Lantsov at Kamp Keramzin. But as she learns who the spoiled blond really is through the years, Zoya has to sort out feelings she never expected having. 
Before
Zoya Nazyalensky hated Nikolai Lantsov.
She hated him before she had even known his name. Perhaps hate was a strong word for someone she had only one, brief interaction with. But Zoya had always been more inclined to feel more intensely than most children, and so she found it a perfectly fitting description.
Zoya was bouncing in the back of her aunt’s beat up SUV the entire way to Kamp Keramzin. Up until two weeks ago, she had been preparing to spend another miserable summer with her mother and her alcoholic boyfriend, hoping that her father would visit her in between business trips. Then one afternoon, Aunt Liliyana had stopped in for an unexpected visit. Zoya had hoped she would take her back to the tiny coastal town Liliyana called home, at least until school started up in the fall, but she had come with something even better: a registration pamphlet for Keramzin.
Her mother had scoffed. “You know I can’t afford that shit.”
But you can afford the drugs, Zoya thought but didn’t say. Despite everything, she loved her mother. She wanted to make her proud. But it seemed like nothing Zoya did was ever good enough for Sabina to turn away from the allure of the drugs and the liquor, or worse, the abusive men she brought home.
“I’m paying for it,” Liliyana said. “That is, if you want to go?”
Zoya had absolutely wanted to go.
Though now that she was here, hugging her aunt for dear life, she found herself filled with nerves. She knew Liliyana had scraped together nickels and dimes to send Zoya to camp. Looking around, she could already see, just from the state of their clothes, that the other children here had more than she did. Could she even survive a whole summer away from her family? Maybe she had been naive, hoping to escape.
“My little storm,” Liliyana sighed. “This is going to be so good for you. Free that troubled mind of yours.” She tipped the young girl's chin up, locking eyes with her. “Remember, you are Zoya Nazyalensky, and you are worthy.”
Zoya tried to hold the thought in her mind as she walked past the line of other cars and parents dropping their children off for the summer, her duffle bag of belongings slung over her shoulder. A bored driver waited in a car near the front of the line as a blond woman who reeked of money patted the head of an equally blond boy who looked to be around Zoya’s age. The expression on his face was as sour as spoiled milk.
“It’s not fair,” the boy huffed. “Vasily doesn’t have to—”
“Your brother has his horses, and you will have this.”
“I was fine at home! I wanted to spend the summer on—”
“Yes, on your little gadgets.” The woman sighed. “And how well did that work out last summer? Mrs. Ivanov’s dog needs anxiety medication now.”
“The thing with Feliks was an accident!”
“Regardless, you are here because of your own actions, Nikolai. This is your last chance, or next year it’s boarding school. No more hijinks, do you understand me?”
The boy — Nikolai — pouted, but grumbled out a semi-respectful, “Yes, ma’am.”
“Good, now run along.”
Zoya, realizing she had stopped to listen, picked up her pace as naturally as possible. Mentally, she scoffed. How privileged this boy was, huffing and puffing. Didn’t he know how much her aunt had sacrificed just to send her here? How thankful Zoya was, and she hadn’t even stepped foot in the place yet?
She decided then and there that she would stay far away from the spoiled brat.
So naturally, he was put into her group for orientation. There were six of them in total, and as they went around introducing themselves, Zoya wasn’t sure she liked any of them. One girl, Marie, seemed tolerable enough, she supposed.
“Nikolai Lantsov,” the blond boy said when his turn came. A couple of the others exchanged glances that Zoya couldn’t interpret. If Nikolai was surprised by their reaction, he didn’t show it.
Her turn came, and she tried to remember what her aunt had told her as she said, “Zoya Nazyalensky.”
One of the boys frowned. “Nazyalensky? That’s a mouthful.”
She was half-ready to show him what a mouthful really was when Nikolai said with a casual shrug, “I like it.”
Maybe the boy wouldn’t be so bad after all—
Nikolai had turned to her then, a frown tugging at his lips. “You have something on your shirt, Nazyalensky.”
Zoya looked down at herself and sure enough, there was a stain, likely from one of her grandmother’s meals that were almost always served with a rich sauce. Most of her clothes had some kind of stain or little holes from the sheer number of years she’d owned them.
She was back to hating him.
Their first summer had been more of the same. Nikolai would say something almost nice, only to follow it up with something that made her want to punch him. Zoya ignored him as much as humanly possible, but like any invasive species, he kept popping up.
Regardless of the ever annoying Nikolai Lantsov, Zoya loved every second at Keramzin. She wrote multiple postcards to her aunt with updates, and even a couple to her mother. Despite not being as well off as most of the other kids, Zoya always kept her aunt’s parting message close to her chest.
You are Zoya Nazyalensky, and you are worthy.
And she quickly learned that half of being popular was believing that you should be. She walked through camp with her head held high, and if that made her a little intimidating to the others, so be it. At least when it came to her age group, Zoya found herself holding court. The girls wanted to be her, the boys (and some of the girls, too) wanted to kiss her — all the more so during her second year at Keramzin as she further grew into her looks. She was naturally gifted at most of the camp activities. Everyone wanted her on their team for games like kickball and tug of war. She could swim laps around everyone in the lake. Finally given the opportunity, Zoya simply thrived.
As the years went on, the only one who matched Zoya’s popularity at Keramzin was Nikolai, much to her dismay. But unlike Zoya, Nikolai hadn’t had to work for his level of adoration from the other campers. He wasn’t good at most of the activities, but everyone still wanted him on their team. He didn’t need to be good. Rather, Nikolai capitalized off of his good looks, his money, and his natural charm — though Zoya would dispute him having any of the latter. But she couldn’t deny his money. His father was some big shot in the business world, the Lantsov name apparently rather well known. And, as much as she wanted to deny it, he was attractive. Golden blond hair, hazel eyes that always held a wink of something mischievous. He was annoyingly smart and worldly, though she would never tell him that. She would never tell him most of her deeper feelings regarding him. For him.
Because despite her best effort, Zoya found herself by Nikolai’s side again and again every summer, like clockwork. Despite being well loved, neither of them had really bonded strongly with the campers in their year. It didn’t help that he was the only one who could handle her jabs and withering glares, laughing them off as if she couldn’t possibly mean anything she said. But she definitely meant every word.
Mostly every word.
Instead, they had found themselves entangled with a group that had formed in the year below them. Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev, the two most oblivious people to ever live. Genya Safin, so naturally gorgeous and put together that Zoya had let her jealousy convince her she hated the girl at first. But then Genya had shown her how to do her hair in more ways than Zoya's usual ponytail, and helped her make something out of her meager clothing selections, even going as far to stitch up holes in some of her more worn tee shirts. Why she looked at David Kostyk of all people with puppy eyes she would never understand, though Nikolai was rather obsessed with the genius boy, too. Nadia Zhabin, one of the funniest people she had ever met with an incredible amount of wit. Mikhael and Dubrov, two textbook definitions of himbos.
And if the group had looked up to Zoya and Nikolai as their cool older friends, at least for a couple years, they pretended like it didn’t go to their heads.
Zoya tried to explain to the girls why she hated Nikolai during one of the camp’s Sleep Under the Stars nights, ditching her group to pull her sleeping bag over to where Alina, Genya, and Nadia were camped out.
“He’s arrogant, spoiled rotten, and downright infuriating,” she’d said.
Genya had been the one to bravely raise a brow and ask, “Are you sure you don’t just have a crush on him?”
“Absolutely not! I can't stand him.”
Zoya had kept up the same attitude, even as her traitorous hormones had begun to notice the strong line of his jaw, the hard muscles of his back when they were swimming at the lake. He was still an asshole — even if it was mostly accidentally. He was still spoiled. Cocky. Often deserving of a good punch to his pretty face.
Until her fourth year of camp, when everything in Zoya’s life changed.
When Zoya was called to the camp’s main office one day halfway through the summer, she assumed someone had ratted about her sneaking off into Maxim’s cabin last night. He was a year older and quite the kisser. But as soon as she had seen the look on Mr. Botkin’s face, she knew something was terribly wrong.
“Miss Nazyalensky, I’m so sorry to have to share this news with you,” he said in his thick accent, his face softer than she had ever seen it. “Your mother called. There was an accident involving your aunt.”
Zoya barely heard the next words out of his mouth. Drunk driver. It happened fast. Funeral in a couple days. Can’t afford the bus ticket for home and Novokribirsk, so—
She ran out of the office after that, all the way back to her cabin, ignoring other camper’s worried glances and calls for her. Of course, her stingy, selfish mother would only pay for one ticket. Zoya knew the woman expected her to stay at camp and use that one ticket to get home at the end of the summer. But screw that. Zoya would use it to go to her aunt’s funeral, even if she had no way home afterwards.
Zoya was in the middle of stuffing her bag, too frantic to care about folding her clothes or being gentle with fragile items, when the cabin door opened. She barely noticed. Zoya couldn’t stay here another second, the place she had come to love more than her own home, the place she had only been able to attend because her aunt had paid for her stay the past four summers.
Her thoughts were as panicked as her packing. Had Aunt Liliyana been driving home from an extra shift when she had been hit? Or from her first job to the second she had taken on? Would she have needed to do either of those if she hadn’t paid for Keramzin? Was her aunt gone because of her?
Zoya ignored the footsteps, assuming one of the girls was coming to grab a hair tie or change into a swimsuit. Or maybe one of them had seen her run from the office and had come to ask about her. She had no time for that.
But the hand that gently — albeit firmly — closed around her wrist, halting her movement, definitely didn’t belong to Alina, Genya, or Nadia.
“Zoya?” Nikolai said, his voice taking on a gentle tone she’d never heard from him before. “What’s going on?”
Zoya pulled away from him. “I don’t have time to pander to your needs, Lantsov,” she snarled.
Never deterred by her icy demeanor, he perched on the edge of her bed. “You’re quite capable of working and speaking at the same time, if all those insults you’ve thrown at me over crafts serve as proof.”
“Fuck off, Nikolai.”
He sighed. “Zoya, please,” Nikolai said, bringing her to a momentary pause. Please was not often found in his vocabulary, not in such a genuine manner. “The others are worried, too.”
The words came out in a tumble as she stuffed the last few items into her bag. “My aunt was in a car accident and now she’s dead and the funeral is in a couple days and I have to go but my mother will only buy me one bus ticket so I have to decide between going home or going to the funeral and of course I’m going to the funeral, I’ll fucking walk the miles home if I have to but I just have to go—”
Nikolai took hold of both of her wrists now, and only then did Zoya realize the zipper she was hopelessly trying to close was stuck. “Breathe, Zoya.”
She shook her head. Tears had been building behind her eyes since Botkin had said the words your aunt was in a car accident and at any moment they were going to spill over. She couldn’t cry in front of Nikolai Lantsov. “I can’t,” she whispered, and cried anyway.
Nikolai let go of her hands, taking a moment to carefully zip up her bag, before he pulled her into his chest. Later, Zoya would curse herself, but all she could do in that moment was let Nikolai hold her as her body shook with sobs.
“I’ll call my driver,” he murmured eventually. “He’ll take you to Novokribirsk and home to Pachina and anywhere else you want to go.”
“No—”
“Yes. I’m stupidly rich, Zoya. Let me at least do something good with it.”
The next morning, a friendly older man named Igor waited for her in a brand new Rolls Royce outside the gates of Keramzin. Botkin took her bag to the trunk while she said goodbye to the friends that had walked out with her. It was the most vulnerable she had been with them, and were the situation not so heartbreaking, she knew they would have teased her about it. Instead she only got hugs and promises of texts and pictures. To everyone’s surprise, she saved Nikolai for last.
“Thank you, Lantsov,” she murmured into the crook of his shoulder. Were she not so miserable, she might’ve noticed how good he smelled for a sixteen year old boy in ninety degree weather.
“Don’t be a stranger, Nazyalensky.”
To Zoya’s surprise, she wasn’t.
  Now
Zoya Nazyalensky still hated Nikolai Lantsov.
At least, she pretended to, because admitting the truth was much more terrifying.
“Are you even paying attention, Zoya?” Genya sighed.
No, she wasn’t, because she was watching Nikolai bend over to tie his shoe, marveling at his ass. How he had only managed to get hotter through the years was a sin, and nineteen was already looking to be his best year yet.
Genya shifted, purposely blocking her view of Nikolai’s tight behind. “Focus! This is only going to work if we’re all on board.”
Zoya waved her off. “Yes, yes, I’ve got it. I’ll send Oretsev into the shed for you when the time arises. I still don’t think this is going to work. Both of them are too stubborn for their own good.”
“I don’t know,” Nadia countered. “They’ll never get over their problems if they keep avoiding each other. Never underestimate the power of forced bonding.”
“Exactly!” Genya said. Out of all of them, Zoya knew Genya wanted this plan to work most of all, convinced that Mal and Alina were destined lovers. And sure, the feelings between those two had been obvious — until last summer when they’d shown up hating each other. Personally, Zoya thought love and fate and all that sappy nonsense was utter bullshit. But she cared for Alina, too, so fine, she would help with this silly plan, even if she didn’t believe in it.
When they finally pulled it off a week later, however, Zoya couldn’t regret it more.
“Find somewhere else to sleep, I want the room to myself tonight!” Alina had barked as she stomped away from the activities shed, Mal grumbling off in the other direction.
“Wonderful,” Zoya deadpanned. “How long until she cools off?”
Genya bit her lip, shrugging. “I don’t know. I think we should give her the room tonight.”
“We should what?”
Nadia nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we can sneak into the boys cabin. I can probably con Mikhael out of his bed.”
“I’ll just sleep with David,” Genya agreed.
“And what about me?”
The two of them gave her quizzical looks. “You’ve shared Nikolai’s bed before, Zoya. I’m sure he won’t mind,” Nadia said.
They were right, of course.
The dynamic of her relationship had changed with Nikolai after the year her aunt died. She had spent the rest of the summer in bed most days, barely able to get herself dressed. Surprisingly, her texts with Nikolai had been the bright spots of her days.
The service at Keramzin was horrible, so he must have been sneaking into Botkin’s office — the one building with wifi on the grounds — to send her stupid photos and relay all the goings-on of the day. Lost tug of war, again he’d captioned a photo of himself covered in mud. Another day he wrote, Group is discussing Alina and Mal’s “ship name” which is apparently something people do for couples????? (which they still aren’t, btw) Idk, Genya and Nadia are pushing for “malina” which is just so lazy to me. Oretskov is much more sophisticated, and as a woman of taste, I think you’ll agree.
For the rest of that summer — no, for the rest of that year, most of her laughs and smiles had been brought on by Nikolai Lantsov, which was absolutely fucking mind-boggling.
nikolai: nazyalensky you will not BELIEVE
zoya: this better be something actually unbelievable, lantsov
Nikolai proceeded to send a video of his brother, Vasily, getting absolutely yeeted off of one of his prized horses with the caption “MERRY FUCKIN CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEEE.” Zoya only responded with you are going to HELL, but she laughed so hard her stomach hurt, so she supposed she’d be joining him.
Zoya worked her ass off during her junior year to be able to afford Keramzin in the summer. It felt good to be back with her friends after the painful year she'd had since losing her aunt, and she had found herself being excited to see Nikolai most of all. Though nothing on the outside had changed — Nikolai was still a pompous rich boy and Zoya still took jabs at him at every opportunity — there was plenty changing under the surface.
A week before the start of holiday break during her senior year, Zoya's phone lit up with Nikolai’s stupid face. She had made his contact photo one she'd taken over the summer after Dubrov had smashed an egg over his head, yolk dripping down his face. Zoya had a policy of not answering unplanned FaceTime calls. But for whatever reason, she made an exception, answering with a scowl on her face so he at least understood the offense.
“What the hell are you FaceTiming me for, Lantsov?”
“Hello to you too, Nazyalensky.”
Nikolai looked to be in the treehouse in his backyard. When he had first called her from the place, she had laughed, because what eighteen year old still had a treehouse? Then he had showed her around the place. It was more workshop than treehouse, a number of little inventions and other products of his mind scattered around the wooden structure. Couldn’t you have found a room in your mansion for this stuff? she had asked. Nikolai had shrugged. “I like being outside. And away from everyone.”
“Only psychopaths FaceTime with no warning.”
“Noted,” Nikolai said, entirely unbothered. “Anyway, what are your holiday break plans?”
“I’m working and finalizing uni applications.”
“Can you . . . not do that?”
Zoya’s glare would send most people running, even given through a screen, but Nikolai only waited for an answer. “I need the money for Keramzin.”
“What if Keramzin was taken care of?”
“Why are you even asking?”
“Ah, right. I was hoping you would come on holiday with me.”
She laughed, because surely he must be joking. But his face was serious. “What?”
“My family is going to Bora Bora. Sort of a work thing for my father. Anyway, all the families are going, and I got my mother to agree to me taking a friend, so . . .”
“You’re seriously asking me to go to Bora Bora with you?”
“Uh, yes?”
Zoya shook her head. “I have to work. And do my uni shit. Why are you even asking me of all people? You have other friends.”
“None of them are as pretty as you, Nazyalensky.”
“You know flattery doesn’t work on me, Lantsov.”
Nikolai frowned, bringing the phone obnoxiously close to his face. “Please, please, please? I’ll go absolutely mental if I have to spend the whole week on my own with these privileged, white assholes.”
“Nikolai, you’re a privileged, white asshole.”
“Exactly! So you’ll come along then?”
“No.”
Naturally, Zoya went.
At first, she thought it might actually be a good decision, going with Nikolai. They sat next to each other on the plane ride there — in first fucking class — sharing Nikolai’s AirPods as they scrolled through stupid TikTok videos. It was strange, seeing him at this time of year when she had only ever seen him during the summer months. But it was nice, too.
And god, Bora fucking Bora! It was beautiful and warm and somewhere she never would have visited on her own. Certainly not staying at the fancy hotel that they were at, a stretch of the beach rented out for this company thing of his father’s. Privileged white asshole friends had their purposes, it seemed.
But she too quickly realized exactly why Nikolai had chosen her to come along.
She’d come back out from using the restroom on their second day there to find Nikolai standing with his father, another older man, and a girl that had to be around her and Nikolai’s age. Zoya had just decided to wait for him at their beachside table, having no desire to get caught up in whatever rich people things they were surely discussing, when she was waved over.
Had they not all turned to look at her, she might have ignored him. Instead, she put on her best friendly face as she joined the group.
“This is Zoya, my friend from camp.” As casually as if it were normal for them, Nikolai slung an arm around her. “We’ve been close for years now. Zoya, this is Rose, and her father, Ruslan.”
Rose glanced between the two of them, looking slightly disappointed. “Oh, I thought . . . Well, nice to meet you.”
Zoya smiled, seething on the inside. Nikolai’s father didn’t look too happy, either.
As soon as she got Nikolai alone, Zoya turned on him. “What the fuck was that, Lantsov?”
Nikolai sighed, “Look, Zoya—”
“You brought me here to what? Be the pretty thing on your arm?”
“No! I mean, that’s a benefit, yes. My father wants to set me up with that girl and I’m just not interested, so I thought—”
“So you thought, bring your poor camp friend! She’ll have to be grateful to live the rich life for a week!”
“That’s not it!”
Zoya shook her head. “To think I thought you actually wanted me here.”
“I do!” Nikolai stepped toward her, and damn the rocky wall at her back for not allowing her to move away from him. He took both of her wrists in his hands, just as he had that day in her cabin. But this felt different, intimate in a way that sent heat rushing through her. “I want you here, Zoya.”
Was he looking at her lips, or was she looking at his? Was he leaning in, or was she? The heat must be getting to her, because she didn’t let herself think the way she was thinking about him right now. Nikolai was cocky and spoiled and maybe she had allowed herself to begrudgingly become his friend, but this was something else entirely. Zoya couldn’t let him kiss her, so she didn’t, tugging out of his grasp and stalking down the beach. He didn’t follow, and she prided herself on being strong enough to resist his pretty hazel eyes and his stupid kissable looking lips.
Strong enough sober, anyway.
On their last night in Bora Bora, Zoya and Nikolai joined the rest of the kids on the trip, who indeed were privileged white assholes, for a boozy bonfire on the beach.
“So, your name is Zoya Nazzzalienski?” one of the boys slurred, screwing up her last name so badly she knew he wouldn’t have said it right sober, either.
“Nazyalensky,” she corrected sharply, too many drinks in to play nice.
“Mm, it’s a mouthful,” Rose, the girl Nikolai’s father apparently found ideal for him, said.
The other boy nodded. “So foreign.”
“She’s just as foreign as you or I, asshole,” Nikolai snapped.
Zoya was surprised to see actual anger on his face. Part of her wanted to punch him for playing the white savior, but another part was incredibly turned on by the way his eyes had darkened.
Vasily, who was as insufferable as Nikolai had described him throughout the years, laughed, disregarding the look on his brother’s face. “Aw, calm down, Niko. He didn’t mean anything bad about your little girlfriend.” Vasily covered his mouth in a mock whisper, “My brother has always had a thing for charity cases.”
Nikolai seethed beside her. “Watch your tongue before I remove it.”
“It’s okay, Nikolai,” Zoya said coolly, resting her hand on his arm. She needed no one to fight her battles for her. “I know your brother is still learning how to socialize with people, his usual company being those horses of his and all.”
The group cackled as Vasily flushed, but said nothing. Zoya stood, leaving them to their drunken bullshit. Nikolai followed.
Halfway down the beach, he stopped them. “Fuck, Zoya, I’m so sorry. I knew they were assholes but I didn’t think—”
Zoya cut him off with her lips.
“Oh,” he breathed when they pulled apart. It was the first time she had ever seen him speechless.
From there, they found their way to Nikolai’s room, stopping every now and then to continue their fervent kissing. The luxurious four poster bed became a mess as they sprawled onto it, working off their clothes, rattling the headboard well into the night. Zoya left Bora Bora with love bites on her neck and the best orgasm of her life.
After waking up sober with an ache between her legs the next morning, however, the first thing out of her mouth was, “It was just sex. It didn’t mean anything.”
Nikolai paused, then nodded. “It didn’t mean anything.”
So yes, Zoya had shared Nikolai’s bed before. Bora Bora had been the first, but not the last. They had spent last summer, their first as full on counselors — and therefore having the much nicer cabins that came with the position — fooling around whenever the flask came out. Drunken fuck buddies, that’s all they were. That’s all they were supposed to be.
But that was before the voicemail.
Zoya hadn’t told the girls about said voicemail, though, and apparently none of them had caught on to her and Nikolai subtly avoiding each other these past two weeks of their last year at Keramzin.
Before she could think of an excuse, the devil himself came around the corner.
Nikolai smoothly avoided eye contact with her. “Just passed Oretsev. Guessing the plan didn’t go over too well.”
Genya sighed. “Don’t you dare say I told you so,” she grumbled.
He held his hands up in defense. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Perfect timing, Nik,” Nadia said, and panic rose in Zoya’s chest. “Alina’s demanding the room to herself tonight, so we’re castaways.” She sang the last part in the tune of that god-awful song that was plastered all over TikTok. “And Zoya needs a bed. You don’t mind sharing, right?”
Nikolai’s perfect face flashed with his own panic for the briefest second, fast enough that she might have just imagined it, and then he broke into one of his charming smiles. “‘Course not.”
That was how Zoya found herself in Nikolai’s bed a few hours later, the damned thing too small for any real space between them. She knew they were sharing the same thoughts. He could offer to take the floor, but then their friends would know something was off. And when Mal ended up leaving his bed to go camp in the woods for the night, they let Mikhael, who had given up his bed to Nadia, jump into it. Both of them pretending they were fine, that they might get any sleep like this. Neither of them had spoken much tonight, let alone the last two weeks, besides casual greetings and Zoya’s usual snide remarks in group settings to keep up pretenses. Nothing of the suffocating weight that had been crushing their relationship since New Year’s Eve.
While most college freshmen she knew had spent the night getting wasted, Zoya had worked a double and was so exhausted, she hadn’t even made it to midnight before passing out. She had woken up to a missed call and a voicemail from a very drunk Nikolai.
“Hi Zoya, it’s Nikolai!” He paused to laugh. “Guess you know that. Happy New Year! I’m so drunk.” Another pause, the sound of the phone hitting the ground as he dropped it, muffled music somewhere in the distance. “Oops, dropped the phone. Fuck, I had a really shitty night. My father won’t stop getting on me about choosing a major already, but he can piss off, because he wants me to do business and follow in his footsteps, but god I’d rather jump off this mountain. Did I mention I’m on a mountain? Nothing crazy, just snow and skiing and rich people nonsense. Anyway.” Another pause, accompanied with a hiccup. “You’re probably wondering why I called and I don’t know I just — It’s New Years and my family is pissing me off and the people at this party suck and I just want to kiss you. That’s what you do on New Years, right? You kiss someone. But I didn’t kiss anyone, ‘cause you’re not here. And if you were here, it still wouldn’t be right, ‘cause I don’t want to kiss you like in Bora Bora or camp last summer. I want to kiss you and shout about it to the world. I want to kiss you because you’re mine. I want it to mean something. I want—”
Zoya never learned what else he wanted, because the messaging system cut him off. She had listened to that voicemail about a hundred times since then, still not knowing what the fuck to say or feel. Exactly two messages had passed between them the next morning, and not a single one since.
nikolai: sorry, ignore the vm. was rather plastered, haha
zoya: right, ok
Now she had her back pressed to his front as if nothing had happened. When Genya popped up, apparently unable to sleep either, and suggested they go check on Alina, Zoya thanked the damn saints.
That is, until they barged in only to find Mal standing in nothing but his boxers, constraining an insane erection (wow, he was bigger than she’d guessed) and Alina hiding under the covers, clearly naked. Zoya was going to kill them.
“You little liar!” she spat. “You conned us out of our beds so you could get dicked down?!”
Genya seemed thrilled at the turn of events, and maybe Zoya would be too, if she wasn’t spending her night pressed against the chest of the boy who had confessed to — to something and left her brain endlessly screaming about it since.
Her anger at Alina and anxiety about returning to Nikolai’s bed must have shown on her face as they left their cabin behind, because Genya stopped them before they could reach the boys’.
“All right, what’s going on with you?”
“Yeah, come on Zoya, you should be happy for them,” Nadia said. “I mean, the plan worked.”
“I know it did and I am happy for them!”
Genya raised a brow. “Yes, you sound so very happy.”
Zoya let out a frustrated huff, and right there in the middle of the night, she finally spilled about everything that had happened between her and Nikolai. They knew about the friends with benefits kind of situation they had going on last summer, but in addition to not telling them about the voicemail, she had never mentioned Bora Bora, either.
“What the fuck, Nazyalensky!” Nadia whisper-yelled when she finished.
“You’ve been keeping all of this in for two years?!”
Zoya shrugged. So Alina wasn’t the only one with a secret. She had never shared what had come between her and Oretsev in the first place, after all.
“I can’t believe he took you to Bora Bora,” Nadia moaned. “Missing out on Nikolai is now the only time I’ve regretted being a lesbian.”
Genya patted Nadia’s back in comfort, but said, “And y’all never talked about the voicemail? Seriously?”
Zoya groaned. “Can we please talk about this tomorrow? It’s like, one in the morning.”
They agreed, albeit whining as they did, and when they made it back into the boys’ cabin, Zoya climbed into Mikhael's bed with Nadia.
The next morning, the three of them kicked Mal out of their cabin bright and early.
“Seriously?” he groaned.
“Sorry, dude,” Nadia said. “Girl emergency.”
He and Alina shared a hesitant look before Mal dropped a careful kiss to her lips, as if he hadn’t been railing her a few hours ago, and left.
Alina watched him go, then turned to the three of them with a growl. “Okay, I know I lied, but you had to kick him out so early?”
“Surprisingly, this isn’t about you, though we will get back to that.” Genya sat cautiously on her bed, as if the bodily fluids might have jumped from Alina’s bed over to hers. “Zoya shared some very interesting news with us last night.”
With a sigh, Zoya relayed the story all over again. The next hour was just a lot of screaming about the free trip to Bora Bora and Nikolai’s — in Alina’s words — very obvious love confession, which resulted in the three of them telling her she was the last person allowed to speak on obvious love.
“This all comes down to two things,” Genya said as they got ready, since they still had campers to take care of today. “How do you feel about him, and what are you going to do about it?”
Both were valid questions, but Zoya scowled anyway.
In true Zoya fashion, she spent the next week thinking about her answer. Every time the girls bugged her about it, she glared until they shut up. But it was good that they knew, because they helped her avoid him when she needed to, not that Nikolai was making it hard. She supposed her ditching him for Nadia’s bed hadn’t been very encouraging.
When she finally came to a conclusion, Zoya switched shifts with Dubrov one afternoon so that she was working one on one with Nikolai. Considering the shift in question, Dubrov had been more than happy to trade places.
The spot Zoya and Nikolai had found themselves in was shitty, so there really was no better place to finally have it out with each other than the horse stables on mucking duty.
When she reached the stables, Nikolai was already at work.
“‘Bout time you got here, Dubrov,” he said without looking up. “I was going to bring some horse shit back to the cabin for you if you didn’t — Oh.” He had finally looked up. “You’re not Dubrov.”
“No,” she said. “Not Dubrov. I switched shifts with him.”
Nikolai blinked. “You took mucking duty on purpose.”
“Yes.”
“Zoya would-die-before-letting-a-horse-sniff-her Nazyalensky chose—”
“Yes,” she growled. “And if you don’t shut up, I’m going to push you into the shit you're scooping.”
Nikolai shut up after that, and minutes passed as they worked in silence.
Unsurprisingly, Nikolai was the first to break it. “Why are you here, Zoya?” he asked quietly, as if he was scared of the answer.
Zoya swallowed the lump in her throat. “We can’t keep going on like this. Pretending New Years didn’t happen.”
“No, I suppose we can’t.”
She cleared her throat. “Nikolai—”
But he cut her off. “Must we do this here? Break my heart, Nazyalensky. Just don’t do it while I’m standing in a pile of literal horse shit.”
Break my heart, Nazyalensky. But the problem wasn’t Nikolai’s heart, it was her own. Zoya had always had a problem with feeling too much, the good and the bad. Her complicated relationship with love only made it worse. She thought of her mother, who’s love Zoya had tried so hard to earn only to come up short again and again. Aunt Liliyana, who she had loved more than life itself, taken from her far too soon. The desolation she had felt afterwards, wondering if she could ever dare love someone again. She had no positive examples of romantic love in her life, either. Liliyana had always been single as far as Zoya knew. Her parents had divorced, and Zoya could only ever watch as her mother brought toxic and abusive men into their home again and again. She wasn’t sure she even believed in love, or if she deserved it.
But then she thought of the people here at Keramzin. Of Genya and David, a couple that made no logical sense, but her gorgeous friend looked at the genius boy as if he personally hung the stars in the sky. Nadia, writing her love letters to her girlfriend back home. Even Mal and Alina, as oblivious they had been, were so clearly in love they were sickening to look at. They were all young, so maybe none of them would make it in the end, but wasn’t love still worth something even if it didn’t last a lifetime? Could she have something like what her friends had?
I am Zoya Nazyalensky, and I am worthy.
Zoya stalked across the stables and pulled Nikolai — pompous, entitled, infuriating Nikolai — into a fierce kiss.
Once he got past his shock, Nikolai kissed her back with just as much force. The tension between them finally snapped now that she had made her decision. They didn’t need to talk about it, Nikolai just knew. He always knew. This kiss was the answer to the voicemail she had never given him. Nikolai had wanted to kiss her. He’d wanted it to mean something.
And Zoya wanted it, too.
“Fuck, Nazyalensky,” Nikolai breathed between kisses, taking her bottom lip between his teeth. Zoya hummed her approval. “If we hurry . . .”
She understood, so as hard as it was to pull away, she did. They worked as if their lives depended on cleaning out the stables as fast as humanly possible. Had they not been literally handling shit for the past twenty minutes, Zoya would have gone straight to Nikolai’s cabin. Instead, she went to her own, aware of each passing minute as she changed and washed up.
Zoya had only taken one step into the boys’ cabin five minutes later before Nikolai pounced. Closing the cabin door, he pushed Zoya against it and kissed her like a starving man. She moaned against his lips, the surprise and force of it sending heat straight to her core. Her hands found his golden hair, his hands found her ass, and though they had been here before, it felt different. Besides being completely sober, the difference was in the way they held each other, like they had no plans of letting go. It was the way they kissed, desperate and deep, but knowing there were so many more on the horizon.
Nikolai scooped her into his arms, bringing her to the bed. The lack of space was no issue now. His lips started their descent down her neck, and she knew from experience that her makeup routine would have an extra step for the rest of the summer.
“I don’t know how much time we have before the guys get back,” he murmured. Zoya nodded, ready to tell him he’d better hurry up and fuck her then, when Nikolai continued, “But I’m still going to take my time licking you until you scream.”
Oh.
Clothes were discarded, and Nikolai moved down her body, murmuring about how he couldn’t wait to mark every inch of her. Then he was between her thighs, and quickly made good on his promise. Zoya couldn’t believe his tongue could be this good at something other than talking about himself.
“Fuck me,” she groaned.
Nikolai popped his head up. “All in due time, darling.”
Growling, she pushed his head back down, and before she knew it, she was screaming into his pillow as her orgasm quite literally left her shaking.
Nikolai shifted, but before he could crawl back over her, Zoya used her weight to push him onto his back, taking her place on top. He still had his damned boxers on, so she quickly fixed that problem. His cock sprang free, and god, she could be drooling for all she knew. Never would she let him know that she mentally referred to his member as massive.
Needing to taste him, Zoya dipped her head and dragged her tongue up the length of him. Nikolai swore, then swore some more as she sucked him into her mouth. She would also never admit how much she loved sucking dick. There was something powerful about it that turned her on almost as much as it did the men she took into her mouth.
“Zoya,” Nikolai breathed, and she understood the warning in his tone. With a sigh, she let him fall from between her lips with an audible pop. Their limited time meant she’d have to wait until next time to let him spill inside her mouth. Shame.
Nikolai supplied a condom from his bedside drawer and Zoya rolled it onto him. Before he could get her on her back, she straddled him, making her intentions clear. He raised a brow, surprised, but didn’t object. Zoya braced one hand on the headboard, the other twining with one of Nikolai’s, and lowered herself onto his cock. They moaned in unison as she took in every inch of him.
Her rhythm started slow but quickly gained speed, her hips rolling and her breathing ragged as she brought herself down on him again and again. As she bounced, so did her tits, and Zoya didn’t miss the way Nikolai kept staring greedily at her chest. When looking wasn’t enough, he sat up as much as he needed to get his mouth on her breast, taking her nipple between his teeth and soothing the bite he gave it with his tongue afterwards. That damned tongue again. When Zoya tired, Nikolai was happy to take over even from underneath her, thrusting his hips against hers over and over.
It was perfect. It was glorious. Zoya was an idiot for waiting three weeks to figure out what she wanted. And she knew she wanted this — not just the fucking, but the exasperating boy beneath her, too. All of him. All of it. She had told Nadia that love was for suckers, and she supposed she should have known that included herself, considering how much she loved giving blowjobs.
It was perfect, until the cabin door opened and in walked Malyen Oretsev. He made it halfway inside before he caught sight of them on Nikolai’s bed and froze.
Nikolai groaned. “Malyen, does your timing always suck so much?”
Mal visibly swallowed, and Zoya realized he was making a concentrated effort not to look at her tits. Maybe she should be embarrassed, but she wasn’t. Smirking, she said, “Payback’s a bitch, Oretsev. Now scram and tell everyone else to stay gone for a while, too.”
He nodded, still avoiding even the smallest glance in her direction, and ran out the door faster than she thought him possible.
Nikolai sighed. “Did that ruin the mood for you?”
In answer, Zoya lifted herself until only the very tip of him was inside of her, then took all of him in one swoop. Their moans mingled once more.
Breathing hard, she asked, “What do you think?”
Nikolai moved so suddenly, Zoya didn’t have time to process it until she was flat on her stomach. Behind her, Nikolai slammed his full length into her so hard, so deep that she thought she might come from that one thrust alone. He leaned forward, letting most of his weight settle onto her, pinning her down. It was oddly comforting.
Lips beside her ear, Nikolai whispered, “I think that I’m never going to have enough of this. I’m never going to have enough of you, Zoya Nazyalensky.”
Her twelve year old self never would have believed it, but she didn’t think she’d ever have enough of Nikolai Lantsov, either.
  One Year Later
It was the start of the summer holiday, and for the first time in seven years, Zoya wasn’t making her way to Keramzin. Instead, she was lazing on the sofa in the flat she shared with her arrogant, spoiled (and funny and smart and a bunch of other things she would never admit out loud), always infuriating boyfriend.
Said boyfriend strolled into the living room, handing a piece of mail to her. “Looks like the lovebirds made it to Russia safely.”
Zoya groaned as she read the postcard written in Alina’s neat handwriting, the only evidence of Mal being with her the sloppy signature next to hers. “They just got there and they’re already sending out postcards? Saps.”
“Absolute saps,” Nikolai agreed, lifting her legs to make room for himself beside her, letting her feet settle nicely on his lap.
After a stressful second year of university and having their first summer outside of Keramzin, they planned to do absolutely nothing all break long. Except they both had internships starting next week. Nikolai had settled on an engineering major, though he was still dabbling on what to do for his minor. Zoya was studying climate science and had an internship with the local news station’s weather team, though she had no intention of being the kind of meteorologist that reported the forecast for the masses each night. How dull.
Nikolai had given his father an ultimatum at the end of camp last summer. He would stay at the university his father had chosen for him if and only if he accepted his choice to pursue engineering — and let Zoya move into the flat. Otherwise, he was withdrawing and enrolling into Zoya’s uni, which was not exactly the first, or hundredth, choice of the wealthier class.
Surprisingly, his father had agreed, but the joke was on him. Nikolai was never going to switch universities, because Zoya was transferring to his. Not in the name of something as sappy as romance, but because it had an outstanding climate science program and — most importantly — her excellent grades and extracurricular activities had earned her quite the hefty scholarship.
But at least for this first week of the summer, they were staying in their flat, vegging out as they caught up on Netflix and fucking until their neighbors complained on NextDoor.
“Should we do pizza tonight?” he asked, gently rubbing the soles of her feet.
Before she could answer, her phone rhythmically buzzed on the table. A FaceTime call from Genya. When Zoya went to answer it, Nikolai frowned. “I thought you didn’t do unplanned FaceTime calls.”
“It’s Genya,” Zoya said, as if that explained everything.
The red haired girl’s face filled the screen, albeit a little grainy from the less than stellar reception at Keramzin. She could see David beside her, nose in a book as usual.
“Guess what!” she whisper-yelled, a grin on her pretty face.
“Botkin has finally admitted his past as a secret ninja assassin?” Nikolai piped up from beside her. Zoya scowled in his direction.
“Oh, hi Nikolai. And no. Look!” Genya flipped the camera, and two children came into view, a boy and a girl studying a piece of paper together. From the look of it, they were in the crafts room.
“I haven’t forgotten what twelve year old campers look like, Genya.”
She turned the camera back so Zoya could see her eye roll. “No, smart ass. It’s Alina’s map!” Genya whispered the last part, apparently not wanting the kids to hear her. “She must have left it for a camper to find. And I swear, these two are like Malina incarnate.”
“Oretskov,” Zoya and Nikolai said together.
Genya very casually flipped them off. “Anyway, I wish y’all could see them. Running off into the woods and all that shit they used to do. It’s uncanny.”
Zoya shook her head. “No thanks, living that storyline once was enough for me.”
Nikolai, always thinking of the important things, asked, “Hey, what’s our couple name?”
“Zoyalai,” said Genya and an off-screen Nadia in unison. The latter continued, “And don’t try to give us shit about it, because there’s no way you’re coming up with something better out of Nazyalensky and Lantsov.”
Nikolai frowned. “Nazyalsov? Lantensky?”
Zoya wrinkled her nose. “Okay, fine, you guys win this round.”
She couldn’t deny it. Zoyalai had a nice ring to it.
57 notes · View notes
dexiao · 4 years
Text
Craving (m)
Synopsis: Jeno goes dumb for Jaemin’s cock for a full-scheduled day.
Pairing: Lee Jeno x Na Jaemin
Words: ~2.3k
Genre: boyfriends!au, smut
Warnings: oral sex, himbofication, himbo!Jeno, slightly softdom!Jaemin
 A/N: So, I thought this wouldn’t take SO LONG, but seems like translation isn’t such an exciting activity as I thought. Let me know if you find any mistakes :)
This is a work of fiction. It does not portray the real personality of the members.
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He hadn’t been awake for even half an hour, but Jeno already knew he was screwed. He and his bandmates would have a day packed with comeback-related activities, with no forecast on going back to the dorm in less the sixteen hours.
To increase his misfortune, he wasn’t the only one who chose to wake up earlier and have a greater breakfast than the usual – after all, their others meals would be just snacks, coffee drinks and fast food in waiting rooms or in their van.
Jeno was sitting on the kitchen table still in his pajamas, lazily chewing on a fruit when is boyfriend entered the room, carrying on his face a sleepy expression that matched his own. The younger opened a coy smile as he walked towards Jeno.
By that time, Jaemin was even more attractive than his normal self. His platinum hair blended with the shape of his perfect features, making him look as if he was made of timid rays of sunlight. Just like Jeno, he was still wearing his sleeping clothes – a pair of gray sweatpants hanging onto his hips for dear life, and nothing on his upper body. The imprints of the bedsheets were still visible on his pale skin under the artificial light that engulfed the kitchen.
Jeno returned the sweet smile, shifting his head up to keep gazing at his boyfriend’s face when as he got closer and closer. He closed his eyes waiting for a chaste kiss, inhaling Jaemin’s soft and comfy scent. Besides his expectations, he only felt a warm touch on his right shoulder, making him open his eyes again and release a frustrated whine.
Before his gaze reached his own shoulder, Jeno noticed how Jaemin didn’t even lean in give him a kiss, although his smile was wider and expressed some delight.  His hips pended forward and the blond softly took his boyfriend’s jaw between his long fingers, slightly pressing his face and brushing Jeno’s lower lip with his thumb.
The older’s dark brown eyes screamed in confusion. Did he misunderstand anything between him and Jaemin?
Finally, Jaemin leaned and left a peck on Jeno’s lips, standing still for a few seconds.
“Good morning, my love” he murmured as he got away. The large smile went back to his toothpaste flavored lips.
The brown haired boy whispered a quiet “good morning” as well, the mess in his mind showing through his face and voice. He stared at the kitchen wall, trying to reason. On the background, he could listen to Jaemin searching for something on the fridge and coming back to the table. The silence was usual between them, it was ok to not be talking.
It was just when Jaemin stood right in front of him drinking water, letting a fillet of the cold liquid escape his lips, that Jeno got to understand what was going on. His dark eyes followed the string of water that ran across the pale body, his gaze tracing the same path through Jaemin’s naked torso until his erection – which moments ago was pressed against Jeno’s shoulder.
Realizing the shiver that crossed the younger’s body and the involuntary contraction of his ab muscles, Jeno was struck by a mix of feelings. First of all, he began salivating a lot, his mouth watered at the sight. Second, he shivered; his body unwillingly imitated Jaemin’s. Finally, his face heated up, the warm sensation spreading quickly and flowing in his body – especially to his cock.
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Over the day, there were various moments where Jaemin noticed (curious, to say the least) his boyfriend carrying a blank expression on his face. Jeno stared at nowhere, his eyesight out of focus and mouth hanging open, as if his jaw weighted a thousand pounds. It seemed to Jaemin that a string of saliva was about to drain from his mouth at any moment.
At first, he thought that maybe Jeno only hadn’t got enough sleep the last night. However, older was already used to having packed schedules and usually wasn’t insecure about his body and image. So Jaemin decided it was best to check on him.
Jeno remained distracted while Jaemin got closer, hence he slightly trembled when Jaemin spoke, holding his breath without realizing.
“Jeno, is everything ok?” He stopped in front of his boyfriend just after the photographer announced they were having a short break. Jaemin brushed the older’s cheek with his right hand. Jeno murmured an assent, nodding positively. “Really? You seem to be spacing out a lot today…”
“Really baby, I’m just distracted, that’s all” he reassured, leaving a soft kiss on Jaemin’s hand before taking it in his hand and intertwining fingers.
Far from being convinced, Jaemin kept an eye on the dark haired boy for the rest of the day. He wanted to make sure that Jeno would eat well and take any chance he could to rest. Strangely, the younger realized an atypical pattern in his boyfriend’s behavior.
During the breaks in which they could eat, Jeno went for a pack of instant noodles and tanghulu (basically, a candy that consists on fruits on a stick, covered in hard caramel), besides the popsicles and candies that he devoured as time passed by – it’s pertinent to emphasize that the last ones were eaten in a much superior quantity than his usual. Jeno used to keep his diet under pretty tight limits, aiming to maintain his body in the physical shape the company imposed and that he even liked to sustain. Nevertheless, in this specific occasion, it was like he needed to have something inside his mouth all of the time, with no intervals.
To the other members, the only impression Jeno showed was tiredness; they read the constant brush of hands on his thighs and legs being squeezed against one another simply as attempts to stay awake.
Except, of course, for the moment when Jaemin perceived him dazing off and stole the lollipop Jeno had in his mouth. Imediately, Jeno felt his ears becoming hot. He swallowed dry, incapable of maintaining eye contact with the boy who just took his candy.
By the end of the day, when all schedules were over and the boys could head back home, Renjun suggested that they had dinner in a new restaurant near the dorm they shared. Jaemin instantly refused, claiming that Jeno was too tired to not go straight to their apartment. The very boy was totally out of the discussion, just watching the view through the van window.
What was left of the ride to the apartment went on in silence. Jaemin spared the older from having to be in a conversation.
Closing the door before himself after both boys had entered the apartment, Jaemin watched as his boyfriend jumped onto the red couch that sat on their living room. The blond boy released a nasal laugh, dropping his backpack on the floor and unbuckling his belt at the same time as he walked towards Jeno. The older sat facing Jaemin, his dark eyes gazing his boyfriend with a pleading shadow.
“You’ve been craving for my dick the whole day, haven’t you?” Jaemin teased, pulling his penis out of his pants and starting to make back and forth movements with his closed fist.
Jeno, now more than any other moment of the day, felt as if he was about to explode, to involuntarily burst into flames. His mouth already hung open again, without his permission or acknowledgment. The dark brown eyes wandered through his boyfriend’s body – wobbling especially between Jaemin’s face and the hardening cock in his hand. Jeno could feel the drool pooling under his tongue, the situation in his own pants becoming more bothersome as his cock twitched inside the layers of cloth.
The older nodded and murmured affirmatively, sticking his tongue out and low while he stared at Jaemin in a silent beg for help. The sight of Jeno sitting there so needy brought the younger’s nerves to the skin, to the point he could feel his boner grow harder by the second the brown haired male kept staring at him.
Releasing a sigh, the blond crossed the distance between the two and lightly rubbed the tip of his cock against his boyfriend’s hot and wet tongue.
In a silent agreement that came since the beginning of the relationship of theirs, Jeno waited for the younger’s avail before engulfing the tumescent member inside his mouth. Jaemin took advantage of that, dragging the head of his penis all along Jeno’s lips in a slow circular move that got both of them sighing.
Incapable of fully tasting the blond, Jeno felt the despair grow inside himself and tears suddenly filled his eyes. His hand reached out to touch Jaemin’s thigh, hoping that the younger would have pity on him. There was already a wet spot on the couch because of the drool that drained from Jeno’s mouth.
Pleased at the older’s reaction, Jaemin realized how Jeno could barely think due to how badly he craved to have the other’s cock in his mouth. Jaemin nodded.
“You can suck it, baby.”
Instantly, Jeno closed his lips around Jaemin’s cock, finally able to taste the blond on his tongue. He felt desperate for this moment since early that morning, so he took everything deep inside his mouth. The head of the blond’s cock hit the back of Jeno’s throat, moaning in an involuntary reaction. He closed his eyes in order to totally concentrate on the cock laying on his tongue, making the tears from moments ago shed down his red flushed cheeks.
Jaemin stared at the scene with full attention, capable to feel his pleasure being built up as Jeno moved his head, mouth and tongue. His fingers automatically rushed to the nape of the older’s neck, intertwining them with the brown hair and using his hand to help with Jeno’s pace.
“Is this what you wanted?” Jaemin asked between moans of complete pleasure and encouragements whispered with his raspy low voice. Jeno muttered around his cock without letting it out his mouth, the sole vibration bringing another moan to Jaemin’s lips.
Now with open eyes, Jeno attentively gazed at his boyfriend’s delighted expression, speeding up the pace of his back and forth motions, sucking the cock vigorously and hollowing his cheeks. Going as deep as he could, Jeno choked against the blond’s groin, so he had to back off in order to regain his breath. A string of salive still connected the brown haired boy’s mouth to Jaemin’s penis.
The blond cupped Jeno’s face in his head, giving him a loving stare.
“You’re so beautiful sucking me off like this, you know that?” he stuck his tongue out and pressed it on his boyfriend’s lips before beginning a wet and slow kiss, tasting himself on the older’s mouth.
He got away with the same look in his eyes – full of care and love –, stroking Jeno’s cheeks as he straightened his body.
“Can I fuck your mouth, baby?”
“Please…” Jeno whispered before swallowing the younger’s cock once again.
Holding the sides of the brown haired’s head, the blond began thrusting his hips quickly against Jeno’s face, moaning at each move. Jeno hollowed his cheeks again and pressed his tongue on the cock, making bubbles of drool collect on the sides of his mouth and go down across his pale chin.
When he felt the taste of Jaemin’s pre-cum on his tongue, Jeno tapped lightly on the younger’s arm, getting him to stop moving. The blond’s expression changed to concern as he moved away and faced Jeno.
“Is everything okay? Did I hurt you?” he soon asked, visibly worried that his actions could have hurt Jeno.
“No, no… It’s just… I want…” he hesitated, timid. “I want you to cum here, not on my mouth” he completed, pointing at his own face. Jaemin grew a dirty smile, happy with his boyfriend’s wish.
“So you want me to make a cum mess on that pretty little face, huh?”
Jeno felt as the floor had been removed from under his feet, opening his mouth for Jaemin to start fucking it again. Fitting the member on the older’s mouth, the blond began moaning even louder with the expectation to the next moments.
“Can you imagine it anyone come back and see us like this… see you like this… swallowing my cock like a popsicle…”
The words had effect on both of them, bringing the younger to his climax. Frenetically, he took his cock out of his boyfriend’s mouth and keep stimulating with his hands. The spontaneous contraction of his glutes made him bend his hips furthermore while he came. The strings of semen fell spread on the older’s beautiful skin.
Jeno watched the other’s climax full of joy and triumph, rubbing his left hand on his own clothed bulge. By the time Jaemin’s orgasm was over, the brown haired boy stuck his tongue to collect the cum near his mouth, feeling the taste even stronger. With his index finger, Jeno gathered some semen that dripped from his chin, taking it into his mouth right away. Jaemin contorted his body with such an erotic scene in front of him, while he himself was still out of breath from climaxing.
The blond bent forward to kiss his boyfriend, purposefully spreading the cum even more on Jeno’s face, but invariably smearing it in his own skin. He made the kiss as dirty and vulgar as possible, rubbing their faces on one another.
When he backed away and stood up again, he pulled Jeno with one hand and grabbed his backpack from the floor with the other. Then he faced the brown haired boy again.
“How about we continue this on the bedroom? I want to help you in another way now.”
Jeno smiled as he followed his boyfriend. Even though he remained rock hard, at least now he could think cleared than at any other moment that day, and he knew exactly what to ask Jaemin in the bedroom.  
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1dclicheficfest · 4 years
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The time has come, my dears! We’ve compiled, organized and sorted your submissions and we’re ready to share them! We’ve had so much fun reading your clichés and we hope it’ll give you a good laugh.
Important disclaimer because it has to be said: we do not endorse any of the clichés submitted and these are not meant to spark Discourse™ . This is all in good fun, to spark your imagination and perhaps inspire some prompts!
Before we get to the fun part, don’t forget that prompt submissions open on February 1st and will run until March 28th. The full schedule can be found here.
And now, without further ado, here are your brilliant clichés.
HARRY
Green eyes
Huge eyes
Dimples
Always smirking
“The flirt”
Jobs: Works in a flower shop/Used to be a baker/Frat boy/LA socialite/Mermaid
“Quirky”
Clumsy/balance issues
Health nut/Workout junkie/Eats a lot of avocado and kale/loves yoga/gross green health smoothies
Very slow speech
Paints his nails
Beautiful long luscious curly hair
Long legs/large hands
Tall/large/big
Nudity/loves walking around starkers
Obsessed with being pregnant/babies
Kind to everyone
Bites his lip a lot
Tells terrible jokes/loves puns
Naive and oblivious
Clothing: Pearl necklace, Chelsea boots/gold boots/boots in general/Gucci everything/Flared, high-waisted trousers/’red and black sheer floral shirt with black skinny jeans’
Always unbuttons his shirt to show off tattoos
Baby seal laugh
Bad at driving
Hipster/takes artsy photos
Acting out for attention/Petty jealousy for no reason or because of a misunderstanding or when anyone comes near Louis
Bad dancer that gives it his all/makes awkward shapes with his limbs when trying to dance
Cat mom/Wine aunt
Resting bitch face
Rides a motorcycle
LIAM
Little clueless
Insecure
Louis is constantly messing with him
Roommates with Louis
Puppy/a lost puppy/puppy in human form/puppy eyes/puppy who doesn’t know how hot and strong he is/loves puppies
Manly muscle man/buff af/loves working out/sweet himbo beefcake
Bullied in the past
Giant heart/incredibly kind/soft/super loyal
Worry-wart/mother hen of the band/gets nervous when things don’t go to plan
Voice of reason/the responsible one/Daddy Direction/level-headed/most serious of the five/keeps the others grounded
Doesn’t know how to let loose and have fun
Lacking in experience/innocent about sex things
Oblivious to his feelings/other people’s feelings for him
Jobs: Firefighter/boxer/athlete
Super soft for Zayn
Protective
“Wants to cry as soon as Louis opens his mouth and doesn’t know if it’s because he’s scared, because it’s too funny, or because he just can’t handle any of it.”
Fear of spoons
Timid/
“being very shy/awkward in the beginning and then getting more confident because of Louis”
Snake habitat turn around!
Can’t spell
His turtle losing a foot
“Smelly pasta house”
Loves batman
Being alpha in ABOs
Unruly curly hair then trimmed to a crisp buzz
LOUIS
Blue eyes: ocean blue/blue as the sky on a sunny winter day/twinkle eyes
Arse and/or tummy as a defining feature
Sassy/sass master/feisty/snarky/cheeky/witty/playful/funny/sarcastic/joker
Flamboyant
Heart of gold/”Louis IS the sun”
“Does not suffer fools gladly (that’s your job you fooking loosah)”/hot-headed to pick fights only in defense of those he loves
Protective/Mama bear/loyal/Daddy of the group
Small/Dainty stature emphasized
Runs fingers through his fringe/hair always styled
Jobs: Footie player, teacher, drama teacher, actor, plays in a band
Loves music and writes songs
Plays footie (even if it’s not his job)
LOUD
Can’t cook/chicken wrapped in parma/”Can’t cook to save his life and if he does the kitchen ends up in flames”
Soft with Harry
School: Studying drama, being the bad boy, pop!punk Louis
Bratty/petty/snappy
Smoking
Zayn’s partner in crime
Rooms with Liam
Calls everyone ‘love’/uses too many terms of endearment
Yorkshire accent emphasized/always talks about Doncaster
Clothing: Vans or Adidas shoes/Toms/trackies/braces/red jeans/dressing in comfortable clothes only/no socks/scarf
Very good with kids/loves kids/family-oriented/looking after siblings/having a huge family
Eats junk food only
“The gay who cannot drive”
NIALL
Drinks a lot/Drinks everyone under the table because he’s Irish/Guinness lover/fun drunk/Will sing Gaelic folk songs when drunk/big social drinker-always making friends via alcohol/will kiss anyone when drunk
Food: Eats all the food/doesn’t season his food/loves Nando’s/”100% will take the last slice of pizza and not feel bad about it”/can and will eat you out of house and home/actually eats and cooks healthy but everyone thinks the opposite
Irish/Irish and proud/Wey Hey lads!/leprechaun Niall
Carefree/nothing bothers him
Romantic: falls fast and hard
Captain Niall!/Captain of the ship(s)
Music: guitar always present/Goes into the zone when he has an instrument in his hands - nothing will distract or get through to him/The Eagles fanboy/Damien Rice fanboy
Funny/always laughing/joking around/head back cackle of a laugh
Single/hooks up with a ton of people but no serious relationships/sleeps around/Serial Ladies man/Friends with benefits with multiple people at once/
Turns up the charm 100% and never half-asses it/”Scrunches his hair in thought and knows he looks cute doing so (like girls that purposefully bite their lip)”
Friends with literally everyone/has a thousand surface-level friends that think they’re close to him but keeps all at arm’s length/the greatest friend but also pickiest about who he becomes friends with
Clothing: Constantly shirtless/shorts over trousers/flip-flops as house shoes/gold chain/coin necklace/hoop earring/”golf dad that tucks in his shirts and unironically wears polos”
Obsessed with golf and football/practices his putt in the hallway with an empty loo roll
A bro
Secretly insightful/Tactless but gives essential advice as a result
Secretive/keeps his shit quiet/Definitely the guy with the most secrets
The blond one
Hairy chest
Worst poker face
Finger guns/peace signs
Blushes when he’s excited
Adores Shawn and Lewis
Cares a lot about what others think
Says no judgment but really judges a lot/judges you based on music taste
Rings in at 0 on the gaydar but could surprise you/the only het one
Tries to avoid conflict by remaining ‘on the fence’ and not picking a side
Always the roommate
Face mask selfies
Emotions rotate between sad, sexy, and fun - combination vary
Never a villain
Close with Harry
“Violent masturbating in the next room”
Constant pet names for everyone/”Even has pet names for his devices (like his vacuum robot”
ZAYN
Super smart/nerd/wise/The Ravenclaw
Smokes a lot
Secretly very soft/gentle/biggest heart/”His confidence and aloofness hide a sensitive heart of gold”/Bad boy secretly soft
Heart-eyes at Liam/Soft with Liam/”Lee-yum”
Mysterious eyes
Best friends with Louis
Jobs: Artist, tattoo artist, English teacher who loves art, works in comic book store,
Shy/withdrawn/mysterious/brooding best friend/quiet/”Seems intimidating until you realize he’s just shy”/bad boy outside, soft boy inside/”not as cool as he seems but way sweeter”
The artistic one/tortured artist/art student/skater/also does graffiti/spray-paint
Marvel fan/comic book fan/superhero fan
Clothing: Wears his clothes like armor/leather jacket/”He’s the only one with good taste and he knows it”
Most ‘devil may care’ about his sexuality
Family-oriented/family man
Involved with his religion
Model figure/carved by gods/vain but not obnoxious about it
Catchprase is ‘sick’
Needs time alone to recharge
Changes his hair a lot/that one strand of hair that falls over his eyes
Thinks Malibu is called Malabami
“Eats candy underwear off of Harry’s crotch”
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epicstuckyficrecs · 4 years
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2020 Half-year fic rec for Steve Rogers’ birthday!
I made a poll on Twitter to know if people would be interested in me doing a half-year “best of” fic rec like I did last year , and the response was overwhelmingly positive, so here it is! 😊 These are my favorite fics of the year so far! (in no particular order)
Complete
Two Colors, White and Gold by Carelica (Canon-Divergent | 36K | Explicit): He’s here, he’s alive. His hand is on a tree.
Deep Sea Diving by AidaRonan/ @bisexualstarbucky​ (Shrunkyclunks | 5,4K | Explicit): Steve’s wallowing in heat-related misery under a shade tree in Central Park when a man walks by in bright red booty shorts and a crop top. RIP Steve Rogers. It was nice knowing you.
Some things you do for money by pushdragon (BDSM AU | 72K | Explicit): Steve’s wholesome take on domination has suddenly become the hottest thing in the business. He should be cashing in on his newfound celebrity, but instead he’s distracted by the guy who works odd shifts in the club’s bar, fresh out of prison and damaged in ways that don’t show.
the hand you want to hold is a weapon (and you’re nothing but skin) by voxofthevoid/ @voxofthevoid​ (Post-WS, Sex Pollen | 13K | Explicit): Steve gets sex-pollened. He handles it just fine, and then Bucky shows up.
Dear Mr. Postman by odetteandodile (Modern AU | 52K | Teen): “I’m um—your mailman,” Bucky says, lamely. Or—Steve and Bucky revive an old friendship, get married (but totally just as friends, for reasons), and navigate a few of the many trials of the heart that come with falling in love with your best friend. 
good on my own (needed me) by mcwho (Modern AU | 12K | Explicit): There are some mistakes that could be made by anybody. Anybody. Bucky taught high school pretty much his whole life, and that was fine, those were kids, and he knew all of them anyway, which meant there was very little chance of him accidentally fucking any of his students during an impulsive post-marital-breakdown Grindr hook-up. Which is exactly what he had done with Steve.or: bucky has not let steve rogers fuck him since his sophomore year (Part 1 of himbo-verse)
Latte Art and Slow Dancing in the Dark by deadonarrival (Modern AU with powers, Daddy kink | 89K | Explicit): Bucky is a somewhat well-adjusted former army sniper that got his shoulder blown out. He took his discharge and went home to finish school. His best friends and roommates (Nat & Clint) are CIA agents and tip him off that their local Sbux is hiring. He gets a job there and meets none other than the hottest guy on earth. So how does one get a date in the most top secret government location in the US? What happens when that guy is more than just a hot dorito and wants to give Bucky everything he wants? 
That Boy Is a Problem by 2bestfriends  (Modern AU | 10K | Explicit): In which a twinky little goth punk named Bucky puts a leash around Steve’s dick and he’s really into it. (The leash is a metaphor. For now.)
bullet in a gun (but in the end, my time will come) by voxofthevoid/ @voxofthevoid​ (Post-Endgame, Canon-divergent | 25K | Explicit): Post-Thanos, Bucky Barnes has happily settled into a life of peace and pining. That’s when alternate versions of the best friend he’s secretly in love with start showing up.
Like it’s the Only Thing I’ll Ever Do by howdoyousleep/ @howdoyousleep3​ (ABO AU | 39K | Explicit): When Steve opens the door, Bucky feels like he’s been living in clouds for the past few days, maybe even his entire life. Steve is life, Steve is happiness, Steve is the sun. He has such a visceral reaction to seeing the Alpha that he feels his knees go weak, feels his body draw tight towards the other man, pulled in. Or big Alpha Steve moves into sweet little Omega Bucky’s apartment building and a roller-coaster build of a romance ensues.
A Company Man by mambo/ @whtaft (Modern AU | 75K | Explicit): No matter what it is, the truth is the same: Steve Rogers is in love with Bucky Barnes, a married man.
How to Fuck With (and Feed) Your Soulmate by BlueSimplicity/ @bluesimplicity73​ (Soulmate AU, Shrunkyclunks | 114K | Explicit): It’s called the Grey Space; a patch of skin marking you as blessed and the first sign you have a soulmate. Steve Rogers didn’t have one when he crashed into the ice. But he did when he woke up in the future. The second sign is the Sense, a sharing of one the senses to help soulmates find each other. Steve’s Sense, taste, is rare, but he loves a challenge and a soulmate is a gift from the Fates. Except instead of a blessing, it’s a curse, since his soulmate is a dick. Bucky Barnes loves food and a homecooked meal is something he cherishes. When his Grey Space starts to itch, Bucky can’t help his excitement, since the Sense he and his soulmate share is taste. But not for long. Whoever he’s bound to has the blandest diet in the world, ignoring all Bucky’s messages. After weeks of putting up with tasteless food, Bucky decides to strike back.
Strangers in the Street by crinklefries/ @spacerenegades (Canon divergent | 15K | Teen): Every five years, Bucky meets the same tall, blond stranger.
Departure by Nejinee/ @nejineeee (Arrival AU | 80K | Mature): Captain America is recruited by the U.S. government to assist a linguist and her team of scientists in communicating with aliens after twelve mysterious space ships appear across the globe overnight.
Compatible - A Romantic Science Fiction Thriller in Four Parts by the1918/ @the1918​ (Shrunkyclunks, ABO AU | 33K | Explicit): When young nanotech engineer Bucky Barnes finds himself falling head first in love with none other than Steve Rogers, he ends up getting a lot more of the Alpha than he– or science– could ever have imagined possible.
WIP
four dreams in a row where you were burned by voxofthevoid/ @voxofthevoid (canon divergent, post-Endgame, 1945 alternate timeline | 10/? | 58K | Mature): When Steve uses the last of his Pym Particles to travel to 1944 and save his best friend, he doesn’t have a plan beyond leaving behind the battlefield and living his life alongside the people he loves. But the life that finds him is not the one he expects.
A Matter of Trust by chicklette/ @chicklette​ (Singer Bucky, Fake relationship | 7/13 | 26K | Explicit): At 43, James Barnes is a washed up old man. He’s got a dozen Grammys in the hall closet, an agent that can’t get him a deal, a decade-old case of writer’s block, a moody teen-aged daughter, and the gorgeous actress Natasha Romanova for an ex-wife. Enter Steven Grant Rogers, struggling twenty-something, orphan, and someone who has no idea who Barnes is. The two men meet by accident, doing nothing more than passing the time in a quiet bar. But when a pap gets a shot of the two men embracing, Bucky takes it as a chance to finally come out as bisexual, and his agent makes him a proposition: Ten new songs and one very sweet boyfriend will get him a new record deal that will maybe, just maybe put him back on top. Now all he has to do is write the songs, convince the kid, and not fall in love. Should be easy, right?
Bespoke by the1918/ @the1918​ (Shrunkyclunks, ABO AU | 6/10 | 61K | Explicit): “I love you, too. So fucking much,” Steve answered. His voice sounded cracked and exhausted, an exposed nerve ending in the shape of a man. “Some days I still don’t believe you’re real. Feels— feels like somehow, I’ve always loved you. Even when I didn’t know you.” Bucky smiled softly at that and felt his heart threaten to explode. Still straddling his lap, he reached a hand up to cup Steve’s cheek. “You’ve always known me,” he stated, simply. “I was made for you, remember?” (Part 2 of Compatible)
Series
couldn't get the boy to kill me by voxofthevoid/ @voxofthevoid (Shrunkyclunks, SHIELD Agent Bucky | 12 works, complete | 74K | Explicit): Captain America and the Winter Soldier are a terrifying duo on the field, working together with a well-oiled precision that tears through their enemies. Captain Rogers and Agent Barnes are distant coworkers, all polite nods and mission briefings. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are fire and gasoline; it never ends well.
the hero's shoulders by voxofthevoid/ @voxofthevoid (Shrunkyclunks, Post-CW, canon divergent | 3 works, not complete | 32K | Explicit): Sequel series to couldn't get the boy to kill me
~
Honorable mention for Where The Interstate Ends by paperstorm/ @paper-storm​ because it was posted last year but I only read it recently!
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mikkeneko · 4 years
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10 favorite female characters from 10 different fandoms
Tagged by @drowningbydegrees  :) Like her, going with "first ten that came to mind" over any other, like, universal all-encompassing criteria.
I could swear I've done a list like this before, but when I checked to make sure I wasn’t repeating characters it looked like I’d done 10 favorite overall characters, not female specifically. Always nice to have a more specific search term!
1. Cordelia Naismith from the Vorkosigan series
Cordelia has been a favorite character from a favorite series for years, but having her return in Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen to show us how she’s grown and changed in the thirty-five years since we last had her as a POV character really deepened my appreciation for her. Cordelia mostly held the role of the Progressive Expat in the feudal, militaristic and overwhelmingly male-dominated society of Barrayar that she married into, and she spend her entire life fighting to bring more egalitarian and humanitarian perspectives to her adopted culture. Gentleman Jole showed us some of the changes Barrayar worked on her in return; she’s a lot harder, a lot more bloodthirsty, and a lot more tired  at the end of her career than the beginning, although she never lost hold of her core principles. Above all I really have to admire Gentleman Jole  for saying “You know what? Fuck it. Cordelia gets everything she wanted. She no longer has to put her dreams and wishes on hold to try to help her husband or son’s career along. She gets to retire to the planet she discovered and she gets six baby girls and a hot younger boyfriend and a seat on a scientific research committee. No more sacrifices. Cordelia gets everything she ever wanted.” and I for one think that’s extremely good.
2. Eowyn from the Lord of the Rings
Was just having the discussion with my fiance yesterday about how despite the fact that Tolkein is on record as saying he doesn’t know how to write female characters, he did a pretty great job with Eowyn, giving her a full multifaceted personhood with a lovely character arc of her own (which is not, despite first appearances, centered on being in love with a man) dealing with themes and issues that are still  relevant, and  doing so in a way that was specific to the female experience of the society she was written in. So either he underestimated his capacity to write female characters or he was smart enough to listen to the input of a female editor, either way, good job. It would be nice to have more  characters like Eowyn in LOTR, but no complaints about this one.
3. Vin from the Mistborn trilogy
Sanderson generally writes pretty good female characters, although they don’t always overshadow the male characters in the same books. Going to pick just one from Sanderson’s stuff it was either going to be Vin or Vivenna, and I came down on the side of Vin because she’s just pretty great. I think my favorite thing about Vin is that she became a legend in the world that came after Mistborn,  and that as much as she is admired for her achievements Marasi still points out, correctly, that not all  women should have  to be the Ascended Warrior, there are other valid ways of being a woman (and a hero.)
4. Gideon Nav from the Locked Tomb trilogy
There’s something extremely, extremely refreshing about how pure of a himbo Gideon Nav manages to be, and I adore her for it. Gideon Nav saw a giant skeleton juggernaut with swords for hands and her immediate reaction was “I want to fight that.” Icon.
5. Sophie Hatter from Howl's Moving Castle
There are a lot of really great female characters in Diana Wynne Jones so it’s hard to pick just one, but Sophie is one very dear to my heart. Suddenly finding oneself to be ninety years old and taking that as an excuse to fling off all the ridiculous social restrictions of your age and gender? Mood. Feeling like a failure despite your repeated and provable talents as an organizer and your newly discovered talents as a witch? Big  mood.
6. Kiri from Madness Season
I am always at a loss about what happened  in C.S. Friedman’s other books because she can  write female characters well! Kiri and Hesseth prove she can! She just... doesn’t. Anyway Kiri was the best part of The Madness Season,  being an unimaginably old alien from a race of energy-based shapeshifters who mostly regard the antics of the ‘embodied’ species with tolerant fondness. Her species and society rely very heavily on having symbiote partners of an embodied species and she spends most of the book slapping the protagonist character upside the head and yelling “You! I choose you! Get your head out of your ass, get your immortal shit together, because you’ve got to be my partner now!” And he does, and in the process saves the galaxy, it’s rad.
7. Agatha Heterodyne from Girl Genius
Agatha Heterodyne is an absolute Mary Sue of a character, a busty blonde knockout who one day discovers herself to be the secret genius heir of a continent-spanning mad science empire, and people come from all over to swear either loyalty or lifelong enmity with her. And you know what? She’s valid.
8. Miriam from Spinning Silver
Spinning Silver contains a very excellent trio of great female leads, but Miriam is IMHO the best for the sheer spite-fueled power of “fuck the world that’s done this to my family, fuck the Winter King who thinks he can ride in here and walk all over me, and especially fuck you demon-infested tsar who is at least partially culpable for BOTH of these things!” 
9. Parker from Leverage
I didn’t want to leave one of my favorite TV shows off here, but mostly I admire Parker for how much she learned and grew; she starts off the series with an extremely specific set of skills and very narrow set of priorities and over the seasons that follow, she grows to encompass more wants and obligations and dreams and she grows so much  in skills that by the end of the series she’s the Mastermind, and she deserves it.
10. Wen Qing from The Untamed
Wen Qing deserved better than she got, she was placed in an impossible situation and she did everything she could to protect her family, both immediate and extended, from callous warmongers who wanted to use her. She never lost her pride or her principles even when the world was busy grinding her into the dust, she tried so hard, she got chewed up and spit out by a cruel society and unlike the main character, she never was given a second chance. I cry for Wen Qing.
Tagging in turn @faux-fires, @ushauz, @fairandfatalasfair, @curiosity-killed, @cersee?
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deathsteel · 3 years
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This Ain’t a Scene Its a Goddamn Drag Race
A RuPaul Drag Race AU ft your favorite gay angel and bisexual himbo
~Part One~ 
“It’s starting!” he called, wiggling deeper into his usual spot on the couch as he pulled the afghan his brother had knitted for him tighter over his shoulders. “You’re gonna miss it!” 
The commercial on the screen ended and the familiar logo for the show flashed across the screen. 
“Previously on Drag Race…”
“Goddamnit, we have a DVR,” the other man said, skidding into the room with a gigantic bowl of popcorn in his hands. He flopped down and tugged on the corner of the afghan until the first man relinquished a corner of it to him. “You coulda paused it. Did you start the recording? I told your brother we’d record it.”
“Yes, I’m recording it,” the first man sighed, reaching over to snag some popcorn. “It’s not like we didn’t already see all this happen anyway.”
“It’s all in the editing, gummy bear.” the smaller man snarked right back as the intro segment went through its familiar rigamarole on the screen before them. “Now, shush up.”
The other man grumbled in reply, but smiled around his pilfered popcorn. 
Holly Cummunion didn’t bother to hide her smile when she waggled her fingertips at Maura Less as she was sashaying away. She knew the camera would catch her acting like a shady bitch, which wouldn’t win her the crown for Miss Congeniality, but she couldn’t help celebrating the fall of the two-faced monster  that was ‘Destraura’. The fact that the other contestant leaving would make Tasha happy too was just an unintended consequence. 
“Ladies,” Gabby Reale called, garnering the attention of the five remaining contestants after Maura had finally dragged her saggy ass off of the runway. “I hope you take the judges' critiques to heart going forward. You’re my final five, so if you’re still thinking that less is more, well...”
Gabby ended the subtle dig at the eliminated contestant with a coy twist of her shoulders that made the sequins on her deep red ball gown sparkle. 
Holly swallowed hard as she remembered that she had been critiqued heavily by the guest judge for not wearing enough makeup to cover her five o’clock shadow and nodded along solemnly with the other queens. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t been in the bottom two, at this point even the littlest things could mean you were lip syncing for your life. 
“And remember, if you can’t love yourself then how in the hell are you gonna love anybody else? Can I get an ay-men?!” Gabby recited, raising her hand up like Sister Mary Clarence feeling the holy spirit move her. 
“Ay-men!” Holly recited along with the other girls, waiting for Gabby’s call of “Now let the music play!” before rushing over to gather Kim Chi  close to her in a celebratory hug.
“Girl you slayed it!” Holly whispered in her ear, referring to the lip sync battle that the other queen had just won against Maura Less. They’d sung Britney Spears’ Toxic, which was poetic because Maura had been bragging about her Britney skills the whole damn competition, even done a passable impersonation in the Snatch Game. 
Kim just showed her teeth and pulled Holly out onto the runway to dance with her, filming the scene that would play with the end credits of the episode when it aired on T.V. She didn’t have to force a smile as she danced, despite how tired she was, after all she was one step closer to becoming America’s next drag superstar. 
The quintet made it back to the workroom to find ‘You betta werk, E! #Destraura4Lyfe’  scrawled on the mirror in bright pink lipstick. Holly just rolled her eyes at that because no surprise there, trust Maura to be a fucking troll to the bitter end. 
“Well it’s sweet she left us all personal messages,” Kim said sarcastically, snagging up the spray bottle of glass cleaner that had been left on the workspace for her and spraying it liberally over Maura’s parting words. “Bye, bye bye, bitch.”
The other four queens watched in relative silence as Kim finished her task; Dianne Tawank started fidgeting with the tape that was holding up her strapless dress and Holly couldn’t wait to kick off her heels even if wandering around the workroom in her hose would ruin them. 
“Sorry your incestuous little clique got broken up, Momma,” Tasha Salad drawled in Eva Destruction’s direction as the other queen watched Kim’s cleaning with a despondent look on her face. “Guess you’ll have to groom another kitten to play with.”
“I’m not your ‘Momma’, Potato,” Eva Destruction snapped, using the derivative nickname that she and Maura had been calling Tasha behind her back since the beginning of the competition. 
Holly was pretty sure it was the first time the other queen had heard it used to her face because Tasha’s mouth dropped open in pretty genuine looking shock before her expression morphed into fury. 
“Just being respectful to my elders,” Tasha retorted, glancing over at the now clean mirror before storming towards her area of the work room that held her wigs and gowns and many, many trunks of shoes. “But I guess the opera gloves are coming off, Evil.”
Dianne snorted into her hand and rolled her eyes at the other two queens before she dismissed them both and started gingerly tugging at the tape on her dress so that she could take it off. Though her chest was waxed, the other queen still winced as she rolled her skin tight purple dress down her body; revealing angry red marks from the tape, painted on cleavage, padding attached to the inner lining of her dress, and a toned body that Holly couldn’t help but spare a glance at as she moved towards her own makeup kit that held her cold cream near the mirror. 
She’d been single for almost five years, she was fucking allowed to look. Dianne just winked at her in the reflection of the mirror before she swanned over to her where her wig styling head was and started tugging at the edges of her ginger, lace-front wig. 
“Oh, can’t we all just get along, girls?” Holly asked Kim rhetorically, earning a girlish giggle from her as she bounced around in her platform heels causing the tutu she was wearing to flutter prettily. 
Holly presumed the other queen was running on leftover adrenaline from her near-miss with elimination, but her excess energy could also be due to the fact that Kim was about ten years younger than her. God, she made her feel old. 
“What-ever,” Eva scoffed, kicking her heels off without a care to the fact that one of the size 13s almost caught Kim in her shin. “You can’t even be bothered to scrape off that sandpaper on your chin so excuse me if I don’t think you’re the best person to be leading a kumbaya drum circle.”
“Just cause I live on the west coast,” Holly replied evenly, leaning in close to the mirror so she could start smearing cold cream over her jawline. “Doesn’t mean I’m a hippie, so fuck you. And my jaw may be rough, but at least it doesn’t rub as bad as watching my girlfriend get sent home by a teenager. Does it, Mother-dear?”
“Bitch, what’d I just say?” Eva started, rounding quickly on Holly until the older queen was looming menacingly behind her in the mirror.
“Now, now, ladies,” Dianne chided in her clipped British accent as she shimmied the rest of her way out of her dress; draping it carefully over a dress form before she started scratching her painted nails through her short blonde hair that had gotten flattened to her head with sweat while under her wig. “Can you please save your bickering for tomorrow? When I’m hungover enough from celebrating my win to tune you all out?”
There was a tense silence that Dianne must have taken as agreement because the queen just nodded to herself and started tugging the hip padding out of her tights. Holly focused her own attention on getting off as much of her makeup as she could for now and then started the arduous task of getting her own tight, structured dress off without ripping out the boning in the bodice; that shit was a bitch to fix and her fingers already hurt from helping Kim stitch herself into her own dress for the evening. 
Within half an hour the five glamourous women who had entered the workroom had been defrocked down to the five average, gay men that made up their cores. It wasn’t until one of the show’s production assistants was going around to remove their microphones for the evening and the cameras were shut off that one of them spoke up. 
“Anyone down for pizza tonight?” Kevin asked, scratching at a stray smear of his bright green eyeshadow that had somehow ended up on the back of his hand. “My treat?”
“I’m in,” Castiel replied, earning a quick smile from the short Asian man as the group began to head out of the studio; back to the hotel rooms that were their home away from home for the time that they were filming the show. “Balthazar?”
“As long as I can drink as well,” the British expat replied, twitching with the collar of the leather jacket he was wearing over a tight Henley as they emerged into the brisk evening that was San Francisco in early November. 
Balthazar always seemed to be dressed to impressed even though when off camera the contestants spent most of their time playing cards in their hotel, forbidden to go out for even a nightcap by their contracts and an ever watchful security team. They also couldn’t have cell phones, web access, watch the news, or have any contact whatsoever with their family and friends; which was a whole separate bitch in and of itself. 
One thing that all of the contestants had agreed on though was that their rooms had great mini bars, an even better porn selection, and more than enough take-out menus to suit every possible taste. 
“Well, jailbait can’t drink any of it,” Raphael answered in a bored tone as he picked at his chipping nail polish. The other man looked up when his remark was met with silence and it was then he saw the scathing look that Castiel and Balthazar were giving him as Kevin blushed down at his feet. “Whaaaat? You bitches know I’m joking.”
“It’s fine,” Kevin muttered, flinching when Luc shouldered impatiently past him to climb into the backseat of one of the black town cars that was waiting for them at the curb. “You want pizza, Luc?”
“Fuck your pizza,” Luc growled back, his eyes noticeably red-rimmed. “Can we go now?”
The four men looked meaningfully at each other, but it was Castiel that broke first; letting out a deep sigh before he pulled his old college hoodie tighter around himself and climbed into the empty seat beside Luc. Kevin, Raphael and Balthazar would take the other car, unwilling to ride with the sullen man since his friend had just been sent home. 
Castiel suspected (and apparently others did too) that the pair were more than ‘just friends’, but since romantic relationships between contestants were forbidden they had kept mum about Luc and Michael’s closeness while in front of the producers; allowing them to think it was a harmless clique that had formed as they tended to do on reality shows. But it was obvious by how upset the other man was, sniffling into the cuffs of his long sleeved red shirt, that something more had definitely been going on between the two queens. 
“I put him in drag for the first time,” Luc said, breaking the heavy silence that had settled between them on the short drive from the studio to the hotel. 
“Are you going to be okay?” Castiel questioned, unable to hide his concern for the other man, even though it smacked of an overreaction. Hell, it's not like Michael had died or anything; just gone back to New York for a while. 
“Bite me, cum-stain,” Luc replied and Castiel rolled his eyes at the unimaginative nickname. 
He was willing to bet money that that particular gem had been Michael’s idea of a parting shot; not $100,000 of course, but at least a tenner or something. Castiel was pretty certain either way that he’d win it back. 
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