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dkisms · 9 months

Text

Emotionally Unavailable

Vernon x afab!reader /// 8.4k words /// fluff, smut, light angst between characters

Warnings: You being Mingyu's sister, Vernon vernoning

You felt your abdomen tighten as he kissed down your stomach, giving you a smirk at your flushed face. He said something you couldn’t hear, or maybe you couldn’t understand, before moving his face down to your core, and-

You shot up out of bed, your hair everywhere. Whatever the fuck that dream was, you wanted nothing to do with it. You didn’t like Vernon, and you were absolutely not thinking about him. You never would, never will, and used your pillow to smack yourself on the head five or six times, hoping that would do the job.

You got up and opened your door, hearing a few voices downstairs. You lived in a house with your older brother, Mingyu, and unfortunately due to that, met quite a few of his friends. You met Cheol when you were a kid, and thought he was like another brother. The same was the case with Wonwoo, an esports gamer that hung out with Mingyu 90% of the time with his girlfriend, who you loved (and thought was way out of his league, if you were honest).

Vernon was a unique member of the group. He transferred to your brother’s class in high school, and was quick friends. Originally, you wanted nothing to do with them, and them with you, but Mingyu’s nerd group invited you to a few places in high school. You weren’t even close to being in the same friend group; opting for skirts and studying hard, in comparison to the hawaiian shirt wearing weed group your brother followed into college.

After college, when the group had graduated (and now you just a few months ago), you moved in with Mingyu, as the both of you worked nearby. Unfortunately for you, that left you stuck with the same group he claimed was his ‘Bombshell Babe Bestfriends’ (you can’t forget the t-shirts they made) - and the rest was history.

You quickly got ready for the day, and headed downstairs, seeing Mingyu and the rest of the BBB’s. Wonwoo gave you a little wave, seeing you with your work gear, and winced.

“Stuck working on a Saturday?” He asked, pulling his earphones off.

“Yeah,” You said, grabbing a tiny bottle of apple juice from the fridge. “Need to get a proposal done for work, and then I can have Monday off.”

“Don’t forget the party!” Mingyu called as you left the house, shutting the door behind you.

Of course, the party. You had avoided thinking about it, knowing large groups of people wasn’t your thing, and honestly hoping you wouldn’t have to go. It was an engagement party for Jeonghan, or maybe just an excuse for everyone to go drink Cheol’s expensive liquor, but they took any excuse they could.

You got into work, where Cheol sent you the time to arrive, and yanked your laptop out, ready to work.

—-////—-

You let out a groan to pop the bones in your back, looking out the window next to you. The sky was painted a beautiful mix of pinks, purples, and oranges; the sign it was time for you to leave. You shuffled the laptop into your bag, turned off the lights, and headed down to your car. Your phone dinged a few times with texts from the BBB’s (you were added to the group chat, with Wonwoo’s girlfriend quickly following), and you shot a quick text that you were leaving.

By the time you got to Cheol’s place outside of town, the sky was turning quite dark, and you parked next to Vernon in one of the few spots available, and headed to the front door, where it swung open to show a drunk Hoshi.

“I was worried you weren’t coming!” He whined, yanking you inside, and you waved at a few stragglers, as he pulled you out back.

The second you were outside, Seungkwan rescued you, giving you a look, and pulling you to the side with him. Before you could even speak, he had a drink in your hand, and was giving you the details on everything that happened before you came in. You looked around as he spoke, and nearly spit your drink out, seeing the BBB club.

“What the..?” You muttered, eyes flowing over the group, confused.

Your own brother, Mingyu, wasn’t wearing his stupid floral shirts, or the crazy colored slides he normally had on when he came to these parties. Wonwoo wasn’t wearing video game merch, instead opting for jeans and a white tee. Scoups had on his usual suit style, but the shock of the century wasn’t from them, it was from Vernon.

Vernon usually wore crazy beanies, and quite often in a tie dye color. Everything was usually more baggy, with no care for what he put together, but this was different. Seungkwan noticed your face and laughed at you.

“Hoshi’s friend was introduced to us today. She’s a stylist, and was appalled at their fashion choices. She helped them pick out a few things, and taught them how to finally dress themselves. Should’ve seen the look on Mingyu’s face when she told him they weren’t college kids anymore, and to dress more their age, if they wanted to find a date.”

I have got to thank her. Spa day, give her the moon, something, you thought, eyes unable to move from the group. Vernon’s shitty floppy hair was no more, replaced by a shaggy hairdo, something close to an undercut. It suited his face, his eyebrows, everything so well, and you couldn’t hardly believe it.

“They look really good.” You said, and Seungkwan hummed in agreement, giving you a side eye.

“Don’t lie to yourself,” he said, sipping his drink. “You’ve had the hots for Vernon for years. It’s weird to me, if I’m honest, but I won’t say it’s not expected. Brother’s best friend cliche and everything.”

You frowned at the statement, sighing. “Not happening. I thought he was cute…ish, and I proved my college self right. But it’s not happening.”

“Why not?” Seungkwan asked, his piercing gaze judging you.

“Because he’s Mingyu’s friend. Listen, I’m not stupid. We’re from different lifestyles. He’s laid back, and working on his company. I’m in architecture, at work 90% of the time. It’s not going to happen. Besides, I don’t want to date right now, and he’s clearly just messing around for fun. Not compatible.” You said, firm.

Seungkwan shook his head, but dropped the subject, as Mingyu ran over with a bottle of soju, and dragged the two of you over to the group. You happily took the bottle to chug it, and grinned at Dino, who was playing a game with Joshua, who was groaning on the ground, pretending to be stabbed. Maybe it was the soju, but when he gestured at you, and you pretended to yank a knife from your neck, the guys had the brightest grin on their faces, shoving you in laughter.

After what was ages of messing around, you checked your watch, wincing at the time, and showing the guys, many of whom were trying to get others to leave. Mingyu nearly collapsed on you, reeking of vodka, as Wonwoo was rounding your group up.

“Vernon’s sleeping over, right?” Mingyu slurred out, stumbling to the passenger seat of the car.

“I am.” Vernon responded, cheeks red. While he wasn’t as drunk as you or Mingyu, he was well on his way, but was still helping Wonwoo get the two of you to the car.

You fell into the backseat with Vernon, the two of you giggling about something Mingyu said, laughing the whole way back to the house. Wonwoo helped Mingyu to bed as you stumbled to the bathroom to brush your teeth, singing some random song. As you left the bathroom, you slammed straight into Vernon, who kept you from falling, and holding you in place.

Do it, your heart screamed, and against all other self control you had left, you stared at him while he talked away, not hearing anything in your brain. He waved a hand in front of your face as you blinked at him, and within seconds, you reached up to grab his shirt, yanking him down into a kiss, teeth bashing against his. You let go as your brain slowly caught up to you, and you stared at him for a millisecond, before running to your room, locking the door behind you quickly, and hiding within the sheets of your bed.

—-////—-

You might just end it. Jump out the window? Or maybe just become a nun. A thousand and one thoughts raced through your brain as you panicked, staring up at your ceiling. You were well aware everyone was awake, and had left, but you didn’t think you could bear to look anyone in the eye at this moment. For fucks sake, you had just told Seungkwan you weren’t going to do anything, but your stupid drunk self apparently thought Vernon was too pretty to pass up.

You slowly stepped from your room, and stared to the hall, where Vernon’s shoes were missing, and let out a sigh of relief. You snuck to the kitchen to grab food, praying to any god above Mingyu was in his room, or doing anything else.

“What in the actual fuck are you doing?” Mingyu asked, staring from the living room as you tiptoed, and froze.

“What- what do you mean?” You asked, and he squinted at you.

“Looking like the actual fucking grinch.” He said, and scoffed. “The guys left. Said you were crazy drunk last night.”

“Did… did they say anything else?” You said, and he shook his head.

“Dude, you are fucking weird today. No, nothing happened. Jeonghan has pictures, though.” He said.

You listened to him ramble about the party and Jeonghan as you stole some leftovers, confused. You had honestly figured Vernon would say something, after all, he had before. When he had first met Mingyu, your stupid self hadn’t checked if anyone was home before gushing all about the crush you had on a classmate, and had proceeded to tell the rest of BBB about it, sending you crying to your room as they joked about beating the poor kid up that had stolen your heart. Sure, you were adults now, but that never stopped Mingyu from teasing you when you looked at a waiter too long, or when you were ‘extra nice to one of their friends’.

You sighed, calming yourself down, as you headed to your room. It clearly wasn’t an issue, and you didn’t have to worry about it.

—-////—-

Okay, maybe you had to worry about it. You felt like your skin was on fire as some of the guys grabbed snacks, and Vernon just stared at you from his spot on the couch. Surely you weren’t obvious. Yes, you did pick the spot furthest away, but you figured it wasn’t an issue, as you and Vernon rarely sat together.

“Here.” Wonwoo said, passing you a bag of candy, and a bottle of soda.

You gave him a nod as the others settled in, and you grabbed your blanket, hiding away. If Vernon couldn’t see you, he wouldn’t think about it. Right? Had to be the truth. The movies felt like ages, and by the time the third movie hit, you were over it. You slid away to the bathroom as quiet as possible, hearing everyone snoring away on their respective spots. After using the bathroom, and staring at yourself in the mirror to beg yourself to calm down, you headed back down the hall, only to have a hand grabbing your arm to stop you. You jumped 5 or so feet and turned to see Vernon, who pulled you into a side room, and gestured for you to be quiet.

“Can I help you?” You asked, pretending to be confused. Vernon just gave you a blank look.

“Don’t try it. You’re obvious. Why are you acting like… that.” He said, giving you a look.

“Like what?” You asked. “Seriously, it’s fine.”

“Apparently not. I figured you were drunk as hell, and made a stupid decision. I get it. But even Mingyu is noticing you acting weird. Knock it off.” He said, and you nodded, cheeks red in embarrassment.

“Listen, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. You’re pretty and all, but Mingyu’s friend. It won’t happen again, I swear.” You said, and he smiled at you.

“I’m pretty?” He teased. “Ahh, this gives me memories of when you were in middle school.”

“Vernon.” You warned, and he chuckled. “Seriously, not funny. I cried. Listen, it was a mista-”

You froze as he bent down to kiss you, cutting you off. He tasted like the bag of sour gummy worms he devoured while watching the movie, and you couldn’t help but kiss him back, pulling him closer by his neck. His tongue ran along your bottom lip as you parted them, and he swallowed any moan that came from your mouth. He pulled away the second he heard Mingyu wake up and called for him, and held up a finger to his lips to signal you to stay quiet about this, as he headed back, telling Mingyu he went to the bathroom, and casually mentioning you left to get some sleep.

Yeah, you were definitely fucked.

—-////—-

“So you… made out with Vernon…?” Seungkwan asked, staring at you face down on the table, nodding at the question.

“Mhm.” You said, lifting your head to sip your coffee, looking anywhere but at your friend.

“Nice.” He said, and you made a noise of discontent. “Seriously, Seungkwan. Don’t joke around.”

“I’m not,” He said, putting his hands together, and staring at you with pursed lips. “I’m about to be the most serious I have been in years, so listen well. You need to stop being so hard on yourself. You constantly kept yourself locked away in college, studying like your life depended on it, and doing nothing fun. Then, you graduate and get a desk job that you hate. This is the first time in your god forsaken life that you let yourself be impulsive, and he clearly reciprocated. Don’t act all mopey.”

You sighed at his monologue, nodding at the information. It was true, you were always a hard ass, and maybe that was why you said fuck it at Jeonghan’s party. Joshua had been so excited to see you join, and you truly had been the happiest in a while messing around like that.

“As your extra special bff, I have to say, I’m shocked this hasn’t happened sooner. I mean, you’ve both been single, I figured he would’ve gotten drunk and made a move, not you.” Seungkwan commented, offhand. “But, as nicely as I can say, you need to get laid. You’ve had a stick lodged up there for a good 8 or so years, and I think he can help you.”

You threw your napkin at him with a frown, irritated. Maybe he was just being a good, honest friend, and had your best interests at heart. Even if it was just about banging Vernon. You flipped him off as he grabbed your phone, and his eyes bugged out, jaw dropping. You gave him a look, and he handed your phone over, as a text from Vernon sat on the top of your screen, asking if you wanted to come over.

“I was kidding about you getting laid- but now I’m not. I have never seen this man text a girl. Ever. About coming to his house. He’s always been to theirs.” He said.

You responded with sure, ill be over, and he shot you his address within seconds. Seungkwan smacked your shoulder with the biggest grin, and fixed your hair.

“Have fuuuuuun!” He yelled out, and you flipped him off, throwing your coffee away.

—-////—-

Vernon’s house was likely the first image on google if you searched up ‘bachelor pad’. He had maybe 3 pans, no pillows, and the most boring color scheme on planet earth.

“You’ve got the most boring apartment on planet earth,” You said, wincing at the contents of the fridge. “Seriously, you need a trip to target. Or ikea. Or Daiso.”

He shrugged at the environment. “I’m not really here a ton, and the others picked most of my stuff out. I don’t care about it that much.”

You let out a fake gag as you wandered, joining him in the living room, as he pulled you down to the couch with him, directly onto his lap. He smirked at you as you rolled your eyes at his forwardness, opting to kiss the man on the nose, as he immediately wrinkled it at you.

“Don’t act cute.” He muttered, nose gliding over your neck, feeling like a feather on your skin.

You let out a noise of content as he glided his lips right over yours, almost teasing, like he was waiting for you to take action first. With every sentence Seungkwan told you running through your brain, you let your hands run through his hair, and he hummed at the feeling, resting his head in your hand.

“As much as I’d love to do this all day, I’m horny as fuck.” Vernon said, breaking the silence, and you laughed.

“Yeah, yeah. I assumed you booty called me.”

“Are you going to oppose it?” He asked, looking at your face. “You don’t have to, you know. I know you’re big on not fucking with Mingyu’s friends.”

You let out a sigh, thoughts trailing. To be fair, a few people had come to Mingyu to be his friend, only for him to find out they had a thing for you. Since then, he had a hard barrier, and you and Vernon were teetering on the edge of that cliff, ready to go off.

Vernon stared at your lips as you leaned down to kiss him. Like last time, he faintly tasted of sour candy, and that intensified the second his tongue was in your mouth. You heard Mingyu and the others joking about how Vernon’s exes all talked about how his kissing skill was the only thing that kept them from dumping him, and you had to agree. It felt hot, and like everything you were missing, and quite quickly was bringing that comfortable pressure at the pit of your stomach. His hands moved up your shirt, yanking it off, and throwing it across the room, as he ogled your chest.

“Why don’t you take a picture?” You asked, unimpressed.

“I should. Print it out and put it in my phone.” He said, and you smacked his hand when he actually reached for his phone.

“No! I was kidding!” You said, and he smirked at the panicked look on your face.

“I’d never. You’d be the one sending it.” He said, pulling you into another kiss.

He turned the both of you on the couch so you’d be laying down, and kissed down your neck, undoing the button on your jeans. You decided he was taking far too long, and helped yank his t-shirt off, and go for the button on his jeans right after. It felt like the two of you were kids in high school, trying to get in each other’s pants as fast as possible, before your parents got home.

Vernon yanked your jeans and down your hips, your underwear coming with. Vernon eyed the mess between your thighs, licking his lips. He pulled you towards the edge of the couch, where he kneeled down in front of the couch, and jumped forward, like a lion watching its prey. The second his mouth was on you, you let out the highest moan you think you’ve ever given.

If your dream felt like bliss when you woke up, then this was heavenly. Vernon knew exactly how to operate his mouth, what to do with his tongue, and was clearly more of a giver. Your legs trembled as he licked at you, soaking up the wetness between your thighs, and drinking it up like a man starved.

You yanked at Vernon’s hair, and he let out a loud moan, the vibrations causing you to shudder, and come. Vernon moaned at the feeling, backing up from you with flushed cheeks. He caught his breath before getting up to kiss you, the taste of sour gummies mixing with your own orgasm.

“Can I?” He asked, his hips grinding into yours.

“Please.” You begged Vernon, dying to feel him in you.

Vernon watched your face as he pushed into you, and slowly slotted his hips against yours. You whimpered at the feeling, legs shaky.

“Fuck, you’re tight.” Vernon groaned, putting one of his hands next to your head, and moving slowly.

“Fucking- please go faster, Vernon.” You begged, and he grabbed your hips to hold you where he needed, and sped up.

Each thrust of his hips felt heavenly for you, knowing damn well it had been awhile since you had gotten off in any form. It also helped that he was fantastic at every move he made, and the second he shifted his hips to snap at the spot you had been begging him to hit, you about lost it.

Vernon was trying not to lose it himself, reaching with his thumb to circle at your clit. You were loud in every sense of the word, and he was lucky his neighbors weren’t home to hear the sounds you were making. His grunts grew in volume as they appeared more often, the both of you clearly close to release.

“Vernon, please let me come.” You begged, nails digging into his back, hard enough to draw blood.

“Come for me.” He said, and you obeyed, giving a loud whine as he snapped his hips one last time, and came.

Your head felt fuzzy as you heaved a breath, Vernon pulling out, and running for a rag to clean you up. Once he got you and the couch clean, he picked up your clothes, handing them to you, and grabbed his. You honestly felt a little insulted, not wanting to be kicked out, and he threw his clothes on, and turned to you.

“Want some food?” He asked, and squinted at your face. “I’m not kicking you out,” He said quickly, wanting to give you some relief he wasn’t an entire asshole. “I’m just hungry as hell, so I figured you’d want to come with me.”

Your face reddened as you realized he read you like a book, and quickly got up to go to the bathroom and get dressed, fixing your hair in the mirror. Vernon held the door open for you, and gave you a grin, as he made you pull up directions for a ramen shop, and jump in his car.

—-////—-

“....Aren’t they the same?” Vernon asked, eyeing the two towels in your hand, as you compared colors.

You gave him a look as you threw the moss green towel in the cart, picking up a set, and a few other items. After a good month and a half of hooking up with Vernon, you had enough of the college bachelor pad, and started to fix it up. He didn’t notice the three or four candles you set on the side tables, and the books you brought in for decoration, but the moment you started organizing his pantry, he was quick to find out the other things you had done around. He pouted for a good couple of days about the things you added, but after finding the organization side of tiktok while high, he called you up with his credit card, and ran you to target.

Vernon grabbed a couple of things for you, including a toothbrush and hairbrush, and a couple of hair supplies, dropping them into the cart without a word. At the look you gave, he avoided your eyes, and you grinned.

“Awww, for me?”

“I’ve been asking you to stay over instead of coming randomly. You said you couldn’t because your hair stuff was at home, so I figured I’d get you some.”

You cooed at his face and squeezed his cheek, running over to checkout. You pushed the cart to his car and nearly dropped to the ground to hide, as Mingyu called out to him, jogging over. You snuck around the side of the car to avoid him, as Mingyu looked at the things in his cart.

“Are you redoing your house or some shit?” He asked, picking up a towel.

“Uh, yeah.” Vernon said, nodding awkwardly.

Mingyu stared at the things in the cart, and the hair supplies, before looking at Vernon’s awkward face, and back at the things, and so on. After a good ten times of looking back and forth, he narrowed his eyes. You and Vernon felt your hearts beating a mile a minute, nervous as hell, and Vernon looked toward you, dying inside.

“Your mom is coming by and you didn’t tell me?” Mingyu said, insulted.

Thank fuck Mingyu had the common sense of a rock today, and couldn’t piece anything together, because you were not ready for any sort of conversation about the two of you today. Mingyu punched Vernon’s shoulder as he felt his soul return to his body, suddenly exhausted.

“Uh, yeah, man. I’ll tell you when we can have you over.” He said, and Mingyu nodded fervently.

“You better. Love her food, man. See you later!” He said, and jogged off to the store.

Vernon quietly tossed the bags in the car and jumped in, head thumping back against the headrest, as you jumped in the car. You pat the top of Vernon’s head in pity as he sighed, turning on the car.

“I think I about died,” Was all he could say, and looked over at you. “Nice job, by the way. Head on a swivel. You ought to play valorant. You could spot people a mile away.”

You nodded as he drove to his apartment, and helped him grab bags. The two of you carried them upstairs, and your phone dinged, a picture loading up from your mother. You froze in front of the door, dropping a bag, as Vernon looked back at you, confused. The image she sent was clear, of Vernon holding the cart while you fixed his hair, oblivious to the woman. Avoiding Mingyu, sure, you could do it. Avoiding your mom? You forgot about that.

—-////—-

You sat at dinner with your parents and Mingyu, feeling awkward. You had specially gone to your parents before him (which was rare), and told her not to say anything. The looks you gave each other over the kimchi fried rice was enough for her not to say anything, but promising to talk later.

You finished your food, heading to the kitchen to grab a drink, and gestured to your mother to follow you outside, where you sat down at a table in the garden.

“Alright,” She said, turning to you. “Want to tell me what’s going on with you and Vernon?”

“Okay.” You said, taking a deep breath. “I accidentally kissed him after Jeonghan’s engagement party thing. Thought that was the end of it, but he came up to me later, and, well, we’ve been hanging out ever since.”

Your mom gave you a look, knowing damn well what ‘hanging out’ meant. You sighed, and stared at her, then looked over in the house where Mingyu was messing around playing games with your dad.

“Is it serious?” Your mom asked, taking a drink from her tea.

“No, not really. Just meeting up from time to time, and getting food. No dates.”

“Darling,” Your mother said, putting her drink down, and you winced, knowing Mama Kim was coming out. “I have told you time and time again, to not mess with men who won’t give you the time of day.” She said.

You nodded, feeling like a kicked dog. “Yes ma’am.”

“He’s a good boy. I’m absolutely positive he likes you. If he wants to be around you, even after seeing you in braces,” she said, as you groaned with a ‘moooooooom’, “Then he’s worth the time. No boy would let his… not yet girlfriend, or whatever you are, take him shopping with his own money if he didn’t care.”

You nodded, feeling a lump in your chest. While it was true, the two of you weren’t together, you had been there nearly every day of the week. You had told Mingyu it was working late, but if you weren’t at Vernon’s, he was at yours. At first you screwed around with each other, but he started to invite you to hang out before, or after sex. You knew damn well that wasn’t how relationships worked, as your other friends also had FWB, and they never got ramen delivered to them at work, or picked up after a long day. To be honest, you absolutely held feelings for Vernon, but tried to hide them well. You knew he wasn’t interested like you were, and knew he didn’t want anything serious. You avoided this thought like the plague, positive it would ruin your relationship.

“Don’t think about it that hard,” Your mother said, fixing your hair behind your ear. “But don’t let yourself get used like many others. You’re a strong, beautiful woman, and you’ve been with him through thick and thin. He knows you. If he cares, he’ll be good to you.”

You nodded, wiping your eyes at the tears that threatened to come out. Mingyu interrupted your session before calling to the both of you to come in from the cold weather. You fixed yourself up and followed your mom, waving off Mingyu at your upset face, blaming it on the full moon, or something. Your mother kissed your head as you threw on your jacket, giving you the look. The ‘You better talk to this boy, or he won’t be let in my house’, and you sighed, giving both of your parents a hug, getting into Mingyu’s car to head home.

——////——

To be honest, you were sure you were going to lose it at any point. You were currently with the BBB’s - in Vernon’s house. When you walked in with the boys, you pretended to be shocked with them, seeing all of the decorations. ‘Oh my god, Vernon, you decorated!’, or ‘Where’d the hell you get all that shit?’ was the resounding question from the group. Mingyu had mentioned his mom was coming to stay, but then they found it. Your toothbrush.

The scream and stomping from down the hall was loud as you sat at a kitchen barstool, watching Wonwoo and Vernon order. Cheol carried the brush in his hand in shock, yelling about how he just had to have someone over. Mingyu argued, but when Sherlock fucking Holmes Wonwoo got up and checked the bathroom, he started to agree. Then, the morons decided to look around.

A pair of slippers here, a ponytail there - and the shampoo and conditioner in the shower. Not just that, but the rest of the hair supplies - ones that Vernon’s mom would never know about. The second Cheol found the shoes, he started a pile, and it just kept growing. You were nervous as hell, and Vernon did nothing to help, instead watching the pile grow, without a care in the world.

“Dude! This is insane.” Mingyu said. “Wonwoo and Cheol are right - it’s not your mom’s. What’s going on?”

“I’m dating someone.” Was all Vernon said, before all hell broke loose.

Mingyu was shrieking, in disbelief. Wonwoo was laughing, paying up Cheol, saying he knew Vernon was going to find someone before Mingyu. You sat, a cold sweat going down your spine. Vernon said you were dating. The man who wanted nothing in relationships, claimed he was dating. Wonwoo seemed to hold the same thoughts, as he and Mingyu rambled off questions that Vernon answered vaguely. He eventually let out a groan, putting the pile back, before begging that the group get food instead. Mingyu huffed, suspicious, muttering about how they’d find out.

—-////—-

In your defense, at least it wasn’t Mingyu first. You were with Vernon, as he lay on the couch, laying on your stomach, his hand trailing up and down your thigh as you both watched some random movie. Vernon hadn’t even noticed his phone go off from Wonwoo saying how he left his good headphones there, and needed them back. Fortunately for Wonwoo, he figured his buddy wasn’t home, and used the key Vernon had hidden. Unfortunately for the two of you, however, when Wonwoo opened the door and saw the two of you. Wonwoo stared in disbelief when Vernon shot up, and stared back, and you felt nauseous.

“Well, shit.” Vernon said, hopping up and grabbing his phone, seeing the messages.

He walked over to the front door and locked it behind Wonwoo, leading him over to sit down in the living room, giving water to the shell shocked individual.

“Wha… I always bet on you being last. And never with her.” Wonwoo said.

After spending a good five or so minutes explaining everything to Wonwoo, he stared between the two of you.

“So… you’re dating?” He asked.

“Uh, well-” You started, and Vernon cut you off.

“We are, yeah.” He said.

You eyed the stoic man, opting to stay quiet until Wonwoo left. The second he did, you stared at Vernon until he turned around, and gave you a look. He walked into the kitchen and you followed, hopping up on the counter.

“What’s wrong?”

“Vernon, you told Wonwoo we’re dating.”

“Yeah, I know. We are.” He said.

“What- no, we aren’t. You- you never asked me. I thought you wanted to just hook up.” You said, a little self conscious.

Vernon walked up in front of you, hands on your thighs. It felt like a heavy weight as he sighed at you, putting a piece of hair behind your ear.

“Baby, I’ve had my damn eyes on you for years. I’m not letting you go now. You’ve got me hooked.” He whispered into your ear, and slotted himself between your thighs.

“Wha-what do you mean?” You asked, and he kissed your forehead, smiling.

“Seriously? I liked you when you were in high school. You were stood up, and I came and got you. It was the first time I noticed you, for real.”

It had been a week or so right after the sports season had started. You had gone on a date with a popular football player, but during the middle of it, he had left with a cheerleader ex or something that wanted him back. You were more pissed than anything, until you realized he had left you alone in front of the restaurant you both went to, with no way to get home. You had called Mingyu and Cheol about 20 or so times, but neither answered. Vernon was your last choice, but when he texted the group chat a meme, and you called him, he ran over instantly to pick you up. The two of you went for ice cream and returned home, not really talking to each other much afterward.

“Listen.” Vernon said, serious. “At first, I was casual with you because I didn’t want to overwhelm you with your stress about Mingyu. I kept my distance. But I’m gonna be completely honest. I don’t give a fuck how Mingyu feels. I understand when he was keeping you away from everyone when we were all young and stupid. But we’re both adults. We can do whatever the fuck we want, and he shouldn’t have that much of an opinion on it. I let you redo my house, I keep your hair and body stuff over here, you have shit in my closet. I don’t let random girls do that. Only you.”

His eyes were piercing you, and every statement he gave hit you harder than the last. Vernon was right. You cared far too much for Mingyu’s opinion, and had been hiding around with Vernon. As difficult it was for you, you can only imagine how it felt for the guy that liked you for ages having to go behind his friend’s back.

“I’m sorry,” You said, and Vernon’s head dropped onto your chest, your words feeling like they had lifted weights right off his chest. “I had talked to my mom about it, and I was just… I don’t want Mingyu to hate us for it.”

“I’ll get him to hate me instead, I promise.” Vernon said. “Don’t worry about it anymore.”

“So we’re dating now?” You asked after a short silence, and Vernon groaned.

“You’re an idiot. Yes, we’re dating. Good news: don’t have to worry about introducing you to my parents, and vice versa.”

“Vernon, I don’t think I’m the idiot.”

“Shhh. Your boobs feel really nice right now.”

—-////—-

You introduced Vernon to your parents soon after that, opting to tell Mingyu within a week after. Your mom was quite pleased when he came by, and your father was gushing about how he adored Vernon. His parents were the same, with his mom nearly crying in happiness when you showed up. ‘Less work to get used to his girlfriend’, she claimed, and you couldn’t count on one hand the amount of times she slipped up to call you her daughter when talking about the two of you.

You were helping him grab his stuff to go home, and gave him a kiss at the door of your house, when you heard a whistle. Cheol stood at his car on the street, watching in awe, as the two of you looked at his car. He wasn’t the concern, however, as Mingyu stood at the passenger door, the bag he was holding now abandoned on the ground. He looked absolutely crushed as he watched the two of you, and before you could say anything, he was walking up to the two of you. He shoved between the two of you, barely looking at Vernon, slamming the door on the way in.

“I got this,” You said, squeezing Vernon’s hand. “He’ll come around. I’m gonna talk to him.”

“Keep me updated, please.” Vernon said, before heading home, and Cheol left after him, not wanting to deal with any of it.

“Mingyu?” You called, going upstairs to his room, where he lay in bed, covered in blankets, glaring at the wall.

“What.” He said, venom dripping in his words. “I’d like to not have to talk to the one who broke up my friends.”

“I didn’t do that,” You said, sitting on the end of the bed. “Listen, you’re still friends with Vernon. You’re all still the BBB’s. Vernon’s just dating.”

“He’s dating you, that’s the point. My one rule, and he couldn’t keep it in his fucking pants. Told him to leave you the fuck alone. Figured I had better friends than last time, but no. Had to screw you and fuck it all up.”

You recoiled in shock at his statement, rage building. You had thought your brother wouldn’t act like a child with it, but the insults were too far.

“Okay, that’s too fucking far.” You said, angry. “Let me be fucking clear, Kim Mingyu. I approached Vernon. Not him to me. I did it. And I will not say this more than once. I am my own person, and I like who I choose. I’m sorry it was Vernon. I kept it quiet, not wanting to push anything without making sure I actually wanted some sort of future. I’m sorry, Mingyu, but I love Vernon, and if I have to move out over it, so be it.” You finished, crying, and headed to your room to wallow in your own misery.

After an hour or so, you heard a knock on your doorway, as your mom stood there, giving you a look of pity.

“What are you doing here?” You croaked out, rubbing your eyes.

“I came as soon as Vernon called me.” She cooed, giving you a hug.

“Vernon called?”

“Yes. He didn’t think it was appropriate for him to be here,” She said. “I talked to Mingyu.”

“What did he say?”

“He’s scared. He doesn’t want anything to get in between his friends and family.” Your mom said. “He’s talking to Vernon on the phone now.”

“I don’t want to get in between everyone.” You cried, and she wiped your tears. “You won’t, he just needs time. I’ll go make dinner, okay?”

She walked out, and a few minutes later, you told her to come in when she knocked, only for Mingyu to be at the door, standing awkwardly.

“Mingyu.” You called, and he sat down next to you, looking tired.

“I talked to Vernon.” He said, quiet.

“What did he say?” You asked, knowing that Vernon had been texting you the whole time.

“You guys really love each other. Families know and everything.”

“Mingyu,” You said, sitting up to face him. “I was serious when I said we discussed everything. I was so stressed out about you finding out. I didn’t know how far it would go, but we really do like each other.”

“Love each other.” Mingyu corrected, and about gagged after he said it. “Gross.”

“That’s because you don’t have someone yet.” You said, pulling him into a hug. “I promise, you’ll find someone. Even Wonwoo did, and she hated his guts. But I digress. We knew you’d take it pretty hard, and I was fucking terrified. We were going to talk to you this week, but you came back early from your workout. I’m sorry you were told that way.”

“I told him to leave you alone,” Mingyu pouted, and you sighed in relief, knowing he wasn’t as pissed as before.

“I know, he told me. To be fair, he did, until I got drunk.”

“Ew, I don’t want to hear that.” Mingyu whined.

“Mingyu, please. We actually, uh, love each other. I don’t know what the future holds, but we are adult enough to approach this seriously. I know you’re more scared than anything about the group being friends. I promise nothing will change. We will be professional.”

“Professional?” Mingyu asked, teasing. “What is this, school? I know. Vernon told me everything, and I was more surprised you both went to the parents. For Vernon, I know it’s serious. He never does that. Took me like, two years to meet his mom.”

“Yeah. And five for me,” You muttered. “What do you think about… y’know, everything?”

“Not necessarily mad. Not happy. Just… in between. I get it, because even Cheol made fun of Vernon’s crush, and a couple of my girl friends mentioned you and Vernon working together. I tried to ignore it, but I suppose the world did it in spite.” He said, sighing dramatically. “I suppose I can eventually get over it. Just nothing in front of me, and give me a two week notice if you go dumping him.” He said.

“You’ve got it, Mingoo.” You said, happy, and he shoved you at the nickname.

“Alright, mom’s been waiting at the door. Let’s go get some food.” He said, and you heard your mom scurry off to the kitchen.

You got up and headed to the kitchen as Mingyu ruffled you hair, and gave you a smile.

“Don’t let him break your heart.”

“I won’t,” You said, honestly. “I’d break his first.”

—-////—-

“How could you do this to me?” Vernon asked, hurt.

You stared at him, unamused, as he held his dinosaur plush. You gave him a look with an arched brow, lips pursed.

“Vernon, his name isn’t Dinosaurus. It’s Trevor.”

“I don’t care, Trevor is stupid. Get that shit out of here.”

You lunged across the couch to grab it, and took off running through the house, as he let out a yell and chased you. You shut your door in his face as he yelled, locking it, and hiding under your bed. You heard him pick the lock as he whistled, and reached under your bed to yank you from under it. He held onto you as you thrashed in his arms, refusing to give up. He tickled your sides as you giggled, gasping for air, and he yanked the plush, jumping in victory. You jumped up to grab it and whined, instead opting to play dirty. You grabbed at his belt, pulling him closer, and trailed your fingers up his chest, and leaned forward, and his eyes went straight to your chest. The moment he lowered his arms to hold you, you grabbed the plush, heading straight for the door.

Vernon closed the door before you could get out, holding it shut with one arm, the other wrapping around your hip. “You play a nasty game.” He said, grabbing the stupid doll, throwing it somewhere else, and holding you against him as he pressed his hips against your backside.

“There an issue?” You teased, looking back at him, and let out a squeal as he lifted you to carry you over to the bed.

“Yes, an issue we’re finishing here.” He said. “I’ve needed you all day, and you’ve teased me every second.”

“I’ve done no such thing.” You said, and he scoffed, kissing down your neck.

“You’re a little tease.” He said, and moved his hand down into your jeans to palm at your underwear. “And I’m not the only one all bothered, with how wet you are.”

He removed his hand quickly to get off your clothes, yanking his off as fast as possible. You licked your lips seeing his cock, ready for him to fuck you.

“Why don’t you take a picture?” Vernon said, high pitched, imitating the first time you were together.

“Cute.” You muttered, and rolled your eyes.

Vernon gave you a kiss before twirling his finger and you rolled onto your stomach, shaking your ass at him, as he stared.

“Don’t do that, or I’m gonna cum before I’m even in you.” He said, and you laughed as he pulled you towards the edge of the bed.

“Cute. I’d really love to see-that-” You let out a moan as he pushed into you quickly, moaning as he bottomed out.

“Fuck, so tight.” He said, hissing as your walls squeezed him just right.

“Baby, please move.” You said, and he held your hips in place as he moved, hitting you deep.

You gripped the sheets tight, brows furrowed as he hit you just right every time. Vernon had gotten a little more vocal with you, and he grabbed your neck to pull you up and hold you against him.

“Fuck,” He hissed, seeing the way your chest bounced with each thrust, and knew he wouldn’t last.

You gasped as Vernon’s finger touched your clit to rub at it, and you whimpered at the sensation. He was far more aggressive this time with you, harder and faster than normal, and maybe it was because you pissed him off with the plushie, but you didn’t mind. In fact, you took a mental list of everything you could steal to get him to act this way, only snapping out of your own brain when he changed his grip on your hips to hold you in place.

It felt bruising, almost, and the only things you could process hearing was both of your moans getting louder with the sounds of skin.

“You take me so well,” Vernon said, and felt you squeeze him just right as his movements grew sloppy, skin sticky with sweat.

“Please let me cum,” You begged Vernon, and he nodded as you cried out, feeling the muscles in your stomach spasm.

Vernon let out a long groan as he came, hips slowing to a stop, breathing heavy. He pulled out to drop next to you on the bed, exhausted, and your legs shook as you got up to look for a towel. You returned minutes later after cleaning up yourself to help Vernon, and you could’ve sworn the poor guy was on cloud nine, floating in the atmosphere.

“You good, baby?” You said with a laugh, and he pulled you into the blankets with him.

“Great.” Vernon said, and you cooed at him, throwing on his shirt and a clean pair of underwear.

After a couple of minutes of cuddling with him, and laughing about his hair being everywhere, along with yours, you heard your brother call he was home, and you called back to him. A few minutes after that, you heard him talking to Cheol, and then knocked on your door, whining about Vernon being missing. You groaned and got up, cracking it open.

“Can I help you?” You asked.

“Yeah. I want to watch tv. Vernon’s MIA, so I figured the three of us could chill.” He said, grinning like a puppy.

“Uh, I’m a little busy, so I’ll be down for later if you want.”

“Seriously? You’ve been home all day. What are you doing?” He whined.

Before you could say anything, Vernon got up and pulled the door open farther, and Mingyu jumped, seeing him behind you.

“Oh! Vernon! Hey…”

He trailed off as he scanned the mess of your hair, and Vernon’s shirt, over to Vernon, who was clearly only wearing underwear, with fresh hickeys all over your neck, and let out a disgusted noise, shielding his eyes.

“Gross! Gross! No! Get away!” He yelled, running off, and you shut the door, hearing him scream about cooties.

Vernon grinned and grabbed your hand to pull you back into the bed with him, your head on his chest.

“Keep the door open!” Cheol yelled to your room, and you got up to slam it shut, hearing Cheol laugh and Mingyu gagging.

“I don’t think he’s gonna get used to it.” Vernon said, laughing, and you sighed in agreement.

“That’s okay, he’s got years.” You said, and Vernon hummed.

“Years?”

“I just bought a lifetime supply of ramen for me at your place. You’re stuck with me, at least until it’s gone.”

“I’ll just fill it when you’re not there.” He said, and grinned at you as you kissed him.

“How romantic.” You cooed.

“That’s me,” Vernon said, getting comfy. “Pure romance. Exactly what you get.”

“I’m kidding. You’re not a crazy romantic.”

“I know that.” He said, confident. “That’s not why you got with me.”

“And why did I get with you?” You asked, curious.

“It’s because my dick’s big-“ He started, and whined when you smacked him on the arm.

“Vernon! Not with Mingyu here!” You hissed, hearing retching sounds from outside your door.

“Go AWAY Mingyu!” You yelled, and Vernon grinned at you.

“I can give him a reason to leave.” He said, and Mingyu screamed.

“NO! NOT HAPPENING! Goodbye!” He yelled, and you heard the front door slam, as Vernon slid his hand down your side.

“Good, he left. Now, where was I?”

#vernon imagines #vernon chwe smut #vernon chwe x reader #svt imagines #seventeen imagines #seventeen x reader #seventeen smut #chwe hansol imagines #☀️ writes

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earlgreytea68 · 11 months

Text

EGT's FAQ About A Fall Out Boy Cover of the Billy Joel Song "We Didn't Start the Fire" Covering Newsworthy Items from 1989-2023

Why isn’t it in chronological order?!

Was the original in chronological order? Yes, roughly speaking (it wasn’t in exact chronological order, either, for instance, the Brooklyn Dodgers won their first World Series after Disneyland opened but the Dodgers are mentioned before Disneyland, but I get it, it is roughly chronological and definitely more so than the Fall Out Boy cover).

The original, however, was also about a different time period in history: It happened to cover the Cold War. It makes sense that it would go in chronological order because there was a very definitive narrative arc to that portion of history: The Cold War started, all these things happened during it, the Cold War ended.

The era since the Cold War ended arguably lacks this narrative arc. So it makes sense that if you were doing a “We Didn’t Start the Fire” for the modern era, you wouldn’t go in chronological order. That would imply a “beginning” and an “end” that our era doesn’t deserve. Arguably, what mostly characterizes the post-Cold War era (and especially the twenty-first-century portion of it) is the jumbled chaos of time-meaninglessness. We say it all the time on the internet: What is time anymore? It means nothing? We have no sense of it. Things that happened yesterday turned out to be from 2003. There are a ton of other memes about this. You can’t believe the pandemic was over three years ago now. You can’t believe it’s been seven years since the 2016 election cycle. You can't believe that Friends is as far away from us as The Andy Griffith Show was from Billy Joel. Our histories, both personal and on a grander scale, feel like a jumble we can’t untangle, and so does this cover of the song.

In the 90s, people used to talk about being at “the end of history,” and they meant this in a good way. Like, there was this belief that “western democracies” had won and now all we had to do was keeping going up. Obviously that fell apart quickly, but I am Pete Wentz’s age, and I remember very much being given that message when I was in high school and college. In the way that the country boomed after winning World War II, it was assumed we would also boom for a long, even more extended period of time because our victory was even more complete. And then September 11 happened and it felt like it accelerated everything falling apart much more quickly. But that fever dream quality of growing up “post-history,” so to speak, is I think captured really well in the non-chronological lyrics, in a way that I think following a chronology would have done a disservice to. Our lives are this weird mish-mash of constant horrors mixed with the numbing agents of pop culture, and so is this song.

The song ends on September 11, and there have been 22 years of history since September 11, and I get why it’s upsetting to people for the song to end on an event from 2001, and at the same time I think it’s the most effective part of the song, because it does not feel like that was 22 years ago, it definitely feels like it was yesterday, and it also feels like sometimes it’s the only thing that happened in the past thirty-plus years, because of how much it dwarfed everything that came before and how much it colored everything that came afterward.

Also, Fall Out Boy did make a deliberate choice to change the way the chorus goes. Billy Joel sings, "We tried to fight it," and Fall Out Boy sings, "We're trying to fight it." That, to me, adds to the impression that this isn't a narrative with a beginning and an end, it is all over the place and we're still in the middle of it all. So the song ends in the middle, basically.

I am speaking, of course, from the bias of a privileged American born in 1980 who graduated high school in 1997. But, speaking from that bias, I personally get why it’s not chronological, and I don’t think it’s a fatal flaw of the cover. To me, after a moment of being surprised the first time I listened, I felt like I got it and it captured the era better, and it was a feature not a bug. Obviously not everyone will agree, but anyway, I just wanted to say it.

There’s no way they did that on purpose, though.

I’ve got news for you about literary analysis, which I can confidently state as a writer myself: I’m sure there are some writers deliberately doing stuff on purpose but I bet a lot of it is the stuff you don’t even notice. The stuff you do notice and make much of, I’m always like, “…well. Gotta pretend I knew I was doing that all along…” I used to feel guilty about that, but I don’t anymore, because I’ve decided that the things I do instinctively, because they feel right to me, count just as much. When it turns out later that I was doing something because of x, y, z, only I couldn’t articulate it, I think that’s okay. And I also think it’s better than okay when people read what I write with their own experiences making it mean something to them that I would never have thought about.

Which is to say, I’m not particularly bothered by whether Pete Wentz said to Patrick, Joe, and Andy, “Let’s not do it chronologically in order to capture the chaos of this era.” He probably didn’t. But he did make a choice not to do it chronologically, and that’s good enough for me. (He actually starts with a very early reference, so it’s like he’s faking all of us out, like, You thought this would be a nice chronology, but it’s not, it’s an absolute mess.)

Didn’t Pete Wentz basically say it was just too hard to do it chronologically?

Never believe what Pete Wentz says about his own lyrics. He says Thnks fr th Mmrs is about Coachella.

Okay, but you’re surely giving him too much credit.

I’ve been analyzing the man’s lyrics for a long time now. He’s so much smarter than anyone gives him credit for, tbh. Believe me, I also used to think it was just coincidence that he kept tripping over these really elegant, multi-layered, evocative phrases. After twenty years, I don’t think it’s coincidence anymore. I think he just knows how to write.

But also, We Didn't Start the Fire gets held up as a Cold War epic, and it wasn't actually about the Cold War either, Billy Joel just lucked out that the Cold War ended the year it came out.

Fine, but anyone can just rhyme a bunch of proper nouns together.

Yes! You are correct! Anyone can do that! Go for it!

Yeah, but why is everyone paying so much attention to Fall Out Boy’s?

Honestly, I don’t know. They put out a really stellar album that most major media outlets and casual social media managed to ignore, and they’re in the middle of a super-ambitious tour where on any given night Patrick Stump might cover Queen or they’ll just pull out something old or maybe something brand new and I haven’t seen anyone talking about any of that, either. So I’m not entirely sure why suddenly everyone’s so fixated on what Fall Out Boy is doing, but Idk, if you’re curious, the new album is excellent and doesn’t have a single cover song on it, it's all original and it's got ton more Pete Wentz lyrics to pore over.

The lyrics are very sports-heavy, though. Was that necessary?

The lyrics are extremely Pete Wentz. I know everyone else in the band helped him, too, but these are the things Pete Wentz cares about: Chicago sports, Marvel stuff, Tiger King, other emo bands. Lots of other stuff, too, but the fact that he includes the Cubs and not the Red Sox is entirely a function of Who Pete Wentz Is. It’s actually an extremely personal listing of the last thirty years, and I kind of like that about it, too. Everyone’s version of this song is different, and that’s cool!

But it doesn’t even mention COVID!

I, too, was surprised by that, but it mentions Tiger King, and I think that’s better, it made me laugh and also very vividly evoked that particular time to me better than just saying, like, "COVID-19 quarantine" would have.

There are other huge events it leaves out!

Yes. There are.

I can’t help it, I just really hate the song.

That’s cool. There are songs I really hate, too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(the funniest thing to me is that many people make fun of Patrick's lack of enunciation making lyrics unintelligible, but he's worked so hard on his singing that people can understand these lyrics, oops)

#long post #fall out boy #fob #bandom

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abbythewritor · 11 months

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"Janitor." Fnaf sb x Fem Reader. *Prologue*

Description: What happens when Y/n L/n lands a cleaning Job at the mega pizza plex? How will she handle all the Animatronics falling for her?

Warnings: Slight drama and jealousy, but other than that, none.

Other things: Micheal and Phone Guy are in the story, and Bonnie and Foxie aren't dismantled, thanks to Gregory. Gregory is in High School along with his girlfriend, who saved him. Cassie works as a security guard at the pizza plex to keep Freddy and the others safe. There is a new Daycare attendant named Joker, who will be introduced later, and the attendants have better upgrades than their original selves.

Enjoy the prologue, everyone. :.

Master list. Next Chapter.

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

"Y/n? Hello, nice to meet you, come on follow me to the back and I can show you around."

It was about early noon on a Monday, and this day you started your very new Job as a janitor.

Everything was happening all at once, you graduated Highschool, entered your first year at college, and now, you are already at your second Job, which was surprisingly easy to Nail.

The pizza plex mall has been through shit and opened recently under new management. And, of course, them struggling to find people to work for them, and the poor industry has been hard to be kept open for more extended periods.

But, you decided to work here, not because you were a massive fan of the Glamrocks, but because the pay here is excellent.

How can you pass the opportunity of getting paid almost 50 dollars an hour? That's just being a janitor; imagine what being a security guard or a mechanic pays?

Anyways, the guy you were following was probably your co-worker; he seemed to know everyone as you both headed to the cleaning area, himself having too much of a smile on his face.

Not that it bothered you, but you were nervous for some reason; you didn't expect this place to be so huge, as it felt like you were on a different planet. He could sense you were nervous as his hands grabbed a key card, swiping it into the holder as the door unlocked.

"Nervous?" He asked, facing you as his hand held the door open. Chuckling nervously, you scratched your neck. "Yeah, a little." "Well, don't be; it's ok to be nervous all the time at a new job; this place can be a little overwhelming, but once your first month flies by, it can feel a little better. Now some ground rules, put your stuff there first." Pointing to some sort of desk, you nodded before setting your bag down, putting your phone in a desk drawer, along with your car keys and personal information.

"The Janitor of the Pizza plex is one of the more critical jobs, which is why we get paid so much. Since there are multiple layers of dirt, grime, and germs from daycare, we must clean, and training employees for 90 or more days is very important. First things first, here is something that will come in handy." Giving you a folded-up piece of paper, you took it between your fingers before realizing it was a map, circles of red marking the main areas. "If you notice the numbers beside the circles, those are the areas in order we have to go by each day. First, the stage, since we are right by it, then we move over to Dj, then to Glamrock's central area, then their dressing rooms, then to the attractions, and then lastly, Daycare."

Your head tilted. "But why does Daycare last? Isn't that place supposed to be the dirtiest?" He smirked. "everyone asks that. We do it last because all the kids are there now, they'll just see us and try to play with us all the time, so it slows things down. Gotta keep those little rugrats down. Once all the main attractions are done, in between, we usually get the main area and hallways and other areas that need to be cleaned. I know it sounds a little overwhelming, but I promise once you get trained, it will be a breeze to remember because every room is the same routine over and over." Your head nodded. "Got it."

"Well, before I give you something, Hi, I'm Cyrus; I've been working here for at least....6 years now, I know, save the applause later." Snorting, your hand went into your mouth as he pointed. "See?! There's something I like to see; enough of the introductions here." He gave you some sort of Freddy-shaped watch that slipped from his hands to yours. Watching as your eyes sparkled with excitement, the male folded his arms. "This thing you drooling for is called a fazz watch; it will help with communication from farther places. It was upgraded thanks to my good friend, Greggory, so it can detect threats, your health, stress level, and even hunger level. Also, you can order from every restaurant here online, so you don't have to wait in those ungodly long lines. Now that I explained everything, you are, just for today and tomorrow, going to follow me and watch; I will let you try a couple of things to see if you were paying attention, but having the workers just shadow for the first few days is rather important, think you can handle it, newbie?"

Putting on the watch, you let out a nervous sigh before slightly smiling. "I-Uhm, yeah, I think I can handle it." He smiled while roughly patting your back. "Atta girl, come on, let's head to the stage Newbie."

Watching him walk passed, you took a final deep breath before looking back to your map, which slightly crumpled under your fingertips.

This Job is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and if Cybrus says you can get comfortable in just a month, then this job might not be so bad......

.......

Right?

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

Name: Cyrus.

Age: 26

Height: 6;3

Placement; Janitor and Part-time Daycare attendant.

Relationship: Aquaintences/ Co-Worker.

Family: Unknown.

Other Information: Unknown.

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

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poisonousquinzel · 3 months

Text

As we've entered into the 2024 election year, I Beg you all that feel disappointment and rage at the disgraceful excuses for politicians we have in the US rn to look into the campaign of the two women shown in this video.

Claudia de la Cruz and Karina Garcia are running for President and VP in 2024. Here's their campaign video, as I can only include 1 vid per post. And here is their website.

I implore everyone who has the ability to vote in the November US election to read up on them.

Claudia De la Cruz (Presidential Candidate) is a mother, popular educator, community organizer and theologian. Being at the nexus of many different projects, organizations and social movements, Claudia connects different groups of people to link and merge struggles together in the overarching fight for justice. Born in the South Bronx to immigrant parents from the Dominican Republic, she was nourished by the Black and Caribbean working class communities of the Bronx and Washington Heights in the 1980s and 90s. At an early age, she was already questioning the conditions of poverty, violence, and oppression in her neighborhood, and what she saw and experienced served as her first entry point to understanding working class consciousness. When she was 13, Claudia began her political organizing work at her home church—Iglesia Episcopal Santa Maria (later the Iglesia San Romero de Las Américas–UCC), grounding her work on principles of liberation theology. She actively participated in campaigns to free political prisoners; to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, Puerto Rico; to end the U.S. blockade against Cuba; for the freedom of Palestine; against police terror—to name a few. In high school, she became a peer educator, conducting workshops on reproductive health and safe sex at community hubs and progressive churches, particularly for youth in the Bronx. It was through this work and her experiences as a working class Black Caribbean young woman that she understood there was only one solution to our collective problems: to fight for a better future, a socialist future

Karina Garcia (VP Candidate) is a Chicana organizer and popular educator who has been fighting for a better world since she was 17 years old as a high school student in California. From El Barrio in New York City to the border areas of Texas, she has helped lead campaigns against landlord abuses, wage theft, and police brutality, as well as fights for reproductive justice, immigrants rights and student financial aid reform. She is a founder of the Justice Center en El Barrio in New York City and is a member of the Central Committee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Karina’s father migrated to the U.S. from Mexico when he was just 16 years old, and the will of working-class immigrants like him to survive and thrive inspired her to take on life with determination. This served her well when Karina received a full scholarship to study at Columbia University. She moved across the country by herself, knowing that she had to seize upon every opportunity to give back—a single year of tuition was the equivalent of her family's entire household income. As soon as she arrived, she joined every conceivable progressive organization on campus. She led struggles to expand financial aid for low-income students, for immigrant and worker rights, and to speak out against the Iraq war. In 2006, her activism received national attention when she led a campaign to confront and shut down the anti-immigrant fascist militia, the Minuteman Project. When Karina took a semester off to do a speaking tour in California, she met with high school and college students to keep building the movement for immigrant rights. That same year, she joined the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Graduating with a degree in Economics, Karina went on to become a New York City high school math teacher. After school, she advised a student group that protested against budget cuts, the Iraq war, police brutality and anti-immigrant laws. In 2012, she moved into a national organizing position for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice where she worked for nearly a decade training immigrant women and working-class Latina activists in New York, Texas, Virginia and Florida.

[Taken from the About The Candidates section on their website.]

Understand that despite the mainstream medias desperate attempts to make us believe that our choices are really just Biden and Trump that that is not true.

We have other options.

We have better options.

#not dc #karina garcia #claudia de la cruz #election 2024 #palestine #free palestine

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dadmuscle · 6 months

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The Rival

When I heard our principal call Jason’s name out at graduation, and saw him walk across the stage to get his diploma, that was the very last time I thought about him.

For twenty years, that is.

Let me start by saying, yes, I did grow up to be gay, but I wasn’t your typical “doesn’t know he’s gay yet” high school kid in the 90s. I was tall for my age at 5’10, blond, blue eyed, and a twink or maybe even a twunk before the term existed. I didn’t think about girls at all, but I told myself that’s because I was so happy and busy with my other school activities. My freshman year was amazing. I was in all the advanced classes getting As, joined school clubs, was in the band, and made varsity in track and field as a freshman. Being in varsity sports, because I was fast as fuck, also meant I gained access to the periphery of the popular kids’ circle. Life was pretty great.

Then sophomore year, he transferred to our high school. His name was Jason and he was practically my doppelganger in every way except for his light brown perfectly-mussed hair. He was smart and in all the same advanced classes as me. He joined clubs, and being the new mysterious kid, fell right in with the popular kids. At first, the rivalry started subtly. So much so, I wasn’t even aware of it. The first time I noticed it was in class one day as he leaned over to see that I got a 98 on our trigonometry test. He said, “Oh nice. ninety-eight isn’t bad. I got a hundred.”

A week or so later, we were standing in front of our lockers, both doors opened as we exchanged books between classes. He closed his door to the left of me and said, “Hey Logan, are you running for any class offices?” I said, “Yeah, I submitted my petition and signatures for class president already.” He just raised an eyebrow and said, “Hm. Maybe I should run.” And. The. Fucker. Did. I won’t lie, it was a close race. The mysterious, new kid versus the guy people were friends with for a year. We each drummed up support in our different branches of friend groups. In the end, I just scraped by with 10 votes to win. I was never one to gloat so I didn’t say anything about it. Also, deep down I think I wanted him to be my friend. But him losing the vote made that impossible. Of course, he shrugged it off like it was no big deal. “I didn’t really want it anyway. Seems like a lot of work.” But the months of glares that followed proved he was hiding his anger at losing.

Then January came and track season started. This was my world. I was entering sophomore year as the fast kid who was already on varsity. The top dog on the field. But as I walked up to the field on the first day of practice my stomach sank. There he was. Jason. Doing warm ups and stretching with my teammates. He just looked at me and said, “Hope you’re ready to have another fast guy on the team this year.” Damn it. This was my place to shine. And he was inserting his competitive streak into my world, yet again. To be fair, the cocky bastard had a right to be cocky. He was fast. Really really fast. Luckily we were fast in different races. I could beat him at short distances like the 100 meter. We’d pull close to each other on the 200 meter. But he could blow me away in the 400 meter. Like our grades and everything else about us, we were evenly matched.

Because I’d suddenly had a rival thrust into my life, and I was still a decade away from coming out of the closet, I never thought about him sexually. Except for that one time after practice. We both stayed later than everyone else to do extra sprint drills. The whole team had to do the same drill over and over until failure. Most of the team gave up around the end of practice. But not me and not Jason. Neither of us wanted to let the other “win” by giving up. Finally, after an endless sprint, walk, sprint, walk routine, the coach came back out to the field as the sun was setting and said, “Alright, you both win the gold medal. Get out of here. I need to close things up.” Who knows? If the coach hadn’t come out to settle things, we might still be out there doing sprint drills.

Because everyone else had gone home long before, we were the last two in the locker room. Which also meant we were the only two in the showers too. At the end of most practices before this, the showers were always packed with the rest of our team. But tonight it was just the two of us. Hard to avoid the awkward rivalrous tension. We tried to keep our backs to each other but once in a while one does have to turn around to wash the soap off his back. And I’d lie if I said I didn’t sneak a glimpse. Like me, he had a lean tall body and a runner’s bubble butt. But as we pivoted, I thought I saw something. Maybe something big! So I looked again when his back was to me once more. From behind, in between his taut, sinewy legs, I thought there was something hanging well below his balls.

Could his dick be that big? Did mine hang down that low too? Was he bigger than me? Why was I even wondering this? Was it because I liked his dick or just because he’d made me so competitive? I was staring at his naked body from behind, half in disbelief and half out of curiosity when he started to turn toward me. Shaken from my trance I started to turn too, but I caught a better glimpse of what looked like a big, long dick swinging around with his body motion. I heard him let out a short exhale. Surprised, I turned my head over my shoulder and he was staring in my direction. So I turned back around to face him. His eyes dropped down to my dick right as my eyes dropped to his. Confirmed, it was large. Not that I’d seen a bunch of other dicks besides mine and a few in the locker rooms. His balls seemed big too. Bigger than mine? Were big balls even a thing to be proud of? I had so many thoughts going through my hormonal teenage brain as I stared at this kid, my rival, naked and on full display in front of me. I looked up and my gaze met his. Both of us had surprised looks on our faces. We’d clearly sized up our competition in the most literal sense and both had been impressed.

The face-to-face stare felt like it lasted an eternity, but it probably lasted five seconds or less. Suddenly it dawned on both of us that we were staring at each other’s naked bodies and dicks, so we quickly turned back around. I washed the last of the soap off, grabbed my towel, and headed back to the lockers as fast as I could without looking like I was running away. He stayed in the showers longer, probably to let me get dressed and leave to avoid any more awkward moments. Or maybe for other reasons. Who knows. I was freaked out. Heart pounding, sweating, confused. So I booked it out of there. I did my best to avoid him in the lockers or showers again that season.

Track season and the school year ended without much ado. The following year was more of the same. Little competitive jabs. I’d grown accustomed to it. Maybe I was even secretly trying to best him too, without admitting it to myself or anyone else. Then as January approached again, I was preparing myself for another track season with my rival. Would we still be evenly matched? Would we have more encounters in the lockers? But much to my surprise, he didn’t show up to the first day of practice. The coach asked where Jason was and another kid answered, “He’s going to play volleyball this year instead.” “Phew,” I thought, “finally some peace and quiet around here.” I had no idea just how wrong I was.

One week after track season started, my best girl friend, Ellen, asked if we could hang out at McDonald’s after practice – the only hangout in town that was walkable from campus. Ellen and I had been inseparable since freshman year after we met the first week of advanced English. We were platonic besties who shared everything together. Which is what made it so difficult to hear the news she shared that night and Micky D’s. As we dipped our fries into a shared chocolate milk shake, she broke the news. Ellen said, “So, Logan. Don’t be mad. I’ve been keeping something from you.” In my innocent best-friend-brain, I thought she was going to tell me about seeing the Jurassic Park movie that we’d been talking about for a week, without me or something. “So, I’ve been talking to someone recently. And he asked me to be his girlfriend today.” My stomach sank. She’s been seeing someone and didn’t tell me all the time? Wait. Why wouldn’t she tell me? Unless… No… Unless it was…

“It’s Jason. I know, I know, I know. He’s so competitive with you and he can be a total asshole.” My stomach lurched. My heart stopped. Blood rushed to my face. My head spun. Was I going to spew chocolate milk shake fries all over the table? “I just think he’s misunderstood. He’s sooo sweet when he’s not trying to impress everyone. And he’s kind and has such a soft side. Did you know he likes poetry? He wrote me a poem!” The pale, blank look on my face must have spoken volumes. Ellen finally asked, “Are you in there? Are you ok? Are you mad?” I wasn’t mad. I was numb. In shock. But she was my best friend and I could see just how excited and happy she was. And I didn’t actually hate the dude. I just didn’t like him because he was always trying to get under my skin and beat me at everything.

Finally, the shock wore off and my heart started beating again. I feigned a weak smile as I said, “Wow, that’s a lot. Like. Uhhhh. Ok. Are you happy?”

She squealed, “Yes!! He’s great and I really really like him. And I promise things won’t change between us. Maybe you two will even become friends!”

We did not become friends. And everything did change. At least for a semester.

Jason and Ellen spent all their spare time together. I saw Ellen in classes and that was it. Every other waking moment she spent with Jason. To say I was crushed would be the world’s biggest understatement. And it showed. My parents asked if I was sleeping ok because I had circles under my eyes all the time. They worried because I’d been running a little slower in track meets. I assured them I was just a little burned out. But when school was over I’d be fine. I just needed to get through the last month of the semester.

And then everything changed again! On the very last day of school Ellen and Jason broke up. It wasn’t really one or the other’s fault. They didn’t fight or have drama – which wasn’t the typical high school breakup. They just found they didn’t have a lot in common after a semester’s worth of infatuation; the honeymoon phase wore off. Ellen started calling me every night again and hanging out with me on weekends. And as the platonic best friend, I was there to pick back up exactly where we had left off.

The following year, senior year, passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. And either I’d somehow psychologically insulated myself from the rivalry, or Jason had just stopped trying. Either way, we weren’t really on each other’s radars that entire year. We got into different colleges and went our separate ways. I went to the East Coast and he went North to Oregon.

…

It was 2015 and I was 38, living in San Francisco with a boyfriend. I had a steady job that I enjoyed, my boyfriend was handsome and kind, we had a great house, had lots of gay friends, and we traveled to gay parties from time to time. My physical appearance had changed dramatically too. Now I was a dirty blond, with a dark red beard, but still had the same blue eyes. I’d also shot up in height to 6’2 and weighed in at 195 pounds with a physique that gay gym culture demands. Tight, with abs that peeked through when I flexed really hard and had a muscular leanness that comes from morning jogs, and dancing all night long from time to time. How things had changed since my twinky closeted years in high school.

One day as I sat down at work, I opened up Facebook like I did every morning, so I could say “Happy Birthday” to friends. On this particular morning I also saw a few friend requests. I clicked the link and scrolled through some friend requests from some generic-looking guys that I’d probably met at some club or event. And then I saw it. A friend request that I never thought I’d see. It was him, but older. More rugged than I’d last seen him. But there he was in my friend requests. Jason.

I didn’t even know what to do. Was I ready for a rivalry to reboot all these years later? If I ignored the request, was that playing into the rivalry by suggesting I wasn’t confident enough to let him into my social network? With a quick glance at his photos and bio info, I determined that he looked taller, lean and fit, with a beautiful wife named Jenn, and two kids – a boy that looked just like he did as a kid and a girl who looked like Jenn. While some things were different, some things were still the same. That jawline was still etched like marble and his perfectly-mussed light brown hair hadn’t changed a bit. He looked older, but in a way that made him hotter. Like an older Josh Duahmel, subtly but perfectly aged by parenthood and straight life. A hot dad.

So I thought about it for another brief moment and… Fine. Let’s do it. It looks like we’re both happy and a lot can change in twenty years. So I accepted the friend request and went about my day.

Later that night, right before bed, I got a notification from Facebook that I had a new message. I opened the app and there it was, a new direct message from Jason. I cautiously opened it, curious to see if he would open with a familiar salvo from those competitive days.

“Hey man. Long time. I was reminiscing with some friends from high school recently and you came up in conversation. They said you lived in San Francisco and were doing great. I just moved my family back from Oregon to the Central Coast. I’m a math professor at Cal Poly. I love being back in California and the family seems to be really happy here too. Anyway, looks like you’re doing great. Hope to hear from you. Maybe we can catch up sometime. - Jase”

I read the message over easily a dozen times. Searching anywhere for a hint of our old rivalry. But I couldn’t find a single hint of it. Maybe twenty years, a family, a career, and life really did change him. So I decided to respond.

“Hey Jase (is it Jase now, not Jason)? Not sure I would have expected to hear from you in a thousand years. Glad I did tho. I’m really happy to hear you’re back in California and happy. Life is good for me too. We should definitely catch up sometime. Take care, Logan.”

And I thought that would be it. We had exchanged the ceremonial “hi how are you, great, I’m great too” greeting of distant high school connections that never tend to lead anywhere again. But then my Facebook app dinged again.

“Here’s my number. Let’s catch up for real sometime. I’ve wondered about you from time to time.”

I had to read that last message again. Because now I was intrigued, to say the least. He wants to actually talk to me? We hadn’t spoken a single sentence to each other in high school that wasn’t dripping with competition. But now he seemed genuinely trying to make a connection. So I sent him my number too and said, “Sounds great. Would love to catch up sometime.” And I closed the app, put down my phone, and went to bed.

The following weekend, as I was enjoying an unusually warm San Francisco summer afternoon in the park with my dog while my boyfriend gallivanted at some daytime realness party with friends, my phone buzzed. It was a text from a number I didn’t have saved in my contacts.

“Hey Logan. It’s Jase. Are you free to chat?”

Surprised and laying on my blanket doing absolutely nothing, I replied, “Sure. Call?” I hit send. And the phone rang instantly.

“Hey Logan! How are you, man? Did I catch you at an okay time?”

“Jase! Hey. Yeah, I’m just having a lazy afternoon in the park with my dog while my boyfriend does his social butterfly thing at the bars. What are you up to?”

“My wife and the kids went to see the new Pixar movie Inside Out. I wanted to go see Antman so I’m boycotting and playing hooky at home. I figured it would be a good time to catch up with you without the chaos of the family in the background.”

I said, “Damn, I want to see Antman too. Love the Marvel movies! I love all sci-fi but I’ve really been loving the Marvel stuff.”

“No way man, I love sci-fi too! My family doesn’t share the love though,” he said as he chuckled.

“I know the feeling. My boyfriend Darren begrudgingly goes to the Marvel movies with me, but he always seems lost and confused. It’s not as fun when you’re constantly explaining who someone is or what happened three movies ago.”

We both laughed and Jase said, “It’s too bad we don’t live a little closer. We could go see the Marvel movies together.”

“Honestly, that would be awesome. We’ll have to make that happen sometime,” I said.

Once we had a shared common love for sci-fi and Marvel movies, the conversational floodgates burst open. We talked about everything. How college had been for each of us. What led him to be a math major and professor. What led me to consulting. Fun things we’d done in the last 20 years. People from high school we still stayed in touch with. The last time we visited our hometown. We even had similar stories about how we’d met our partners, his wife an almost-missed connection at a concert and mine a random flirtation at a bar that I never thought would go anywhere. Even our political views were nearly identical. The time flew by and it felt like we could talk like this forever. Then Jase shifted the tone.

“Hey, man. It’s getting late and I’m sure my family will be home soon. This was great catching up with you. But I wanted to say something I should’ve said a long long time ago.”

I braced myself.

“I’m sorry for high school. I don’t know why I was such a dick to you. It’s just… I don’t know. I guess I arrived at a new school sophomore year and at my old school I was just like you. Good grades, sports, clubs, popular. You know, man?” I gave a short “mmmhmm” reply as he continued. “Then I got to our school and you were already all of those things. And I don’t know what happened in my brain, but I saw you as having all the things that should be mine and it made me so competitive. I wanted to beat you at everything so bad. And I know it fucked with you, man, and you didn’t deserve that. And honestly you never did or said anything mean to me, even though I was constantly fucking with you. Anyway, I’m sorry. I hope you know I mean it. Obviously I’ve had a lot of years to think it over and settle down. I’m happy now and I’m really glad you are too. Do you think we can put that stuff behind us and be friends?”

I was silent. At a complete loss for words. Jase finally said “Are you still there? I hope the call didn’t drop, because I really don’t want to have to say all that again.” And he chuckled again. The warmth of his chuckle snapped me back into reality.

I took a deep breath and said, “Jase… um, thank you. I think I just needed a minute because I didn’t realize how much I needed to hear you say those words until you said them. I really appreciate you saying all that. And yes. Absolutely water under the bridge. It’s actually really nice to talk to reconnect with you and find out we have so much in common.”

He said, “You know, we always were more alike than either of us probably wanted to admit. I guess it’s even more obvious now. We could practically be brothers or twins or something. Well, except for the part about you liking dudes.”

And we laughed together at that.

Jase said, “Alright, I see the headlights in the driveway. Let’s stay in touch. And Cal Poly isn’t that far from SF. Maybe we can meet up sometime. You could meet the family or something someday.”

“I’d love that. Let’s keep in touch and figure it out.”

I ended the call with the biggest grin on my face. My high school rival had just become my friend.

Over the next year or so, time passed quickly but we texted from time to time. We also commented on each other’s social media posts regularly. Which is how Jase saw my post about being single again in early 2016. He sent a supportive text message saying, “Hey man, sorry to hear about things ending with Darren. I hope you’re hanging in there. I’m here if you need anything.”

But it wasn’t until November of that year that we talked on the phone again. It was election night. Things weren’t looking good for Hillary Clinton. Everyone I knew was in a shell-shocked state of disbelief. None of us could sleep as we were glued to the news channels watching the states update their electoral votes. Then the race was called and Clinton conceded. My phone rang. It was Jase.

“Can you even believe it, man? What the actual fuck is happening right now? Are you doing ok?”

I wasn’t, but I replied, “I think I’m ok. Just in shock. You?”

He said, “The wife and kids went to bed. They were freaked out but I don’t think they worry about it the same way I do.”

So we talked for two more hours as we watched the map on CNN get redder and redder. We talked about life, our fears and hopes, escape plans if the Nazis took over, and more. Finally, after hours of chatting, at 3am Jase said, “It’s late man. I should try to sleep. But I’m curious. I have a question for you. My wife and kids are going to be out of town next weekend. Would you be interested in meeting up for a hike? There’s this hike in the Redwoods, about 3 hours north of you and I feel like some time in nature would help me forget about this whole mess.”

My heart skipped a beat. I hadn’t had someone invite me on a hike in ages. My gay friends invited me to clubs. The last thing I wanted to do as the world burned was dance in a dark club. I said, “Yes. I’d love to go hiking with you. That’s literally exactly what I need right now. Get some sleep and we’ll text to figure out all the details over the next few days.”

“Great, man. Sleep well. We’ll get through this shit show. ‘Night.”

“Night,” I said as I put the phone down and laid my head on the pillow filled with a mix of dread and excitement, As I desperately hoped for sleep to wash away that night’s living nightmare.

The Hike

We agree to meet at my place in the city bright and early on a Saturday morning and strike out north. If all went well, we’d be on the Redwood trail by 11am.

Jase arrives at 8am, and as he gets out of his car, it feels entirely surreal. I still see elements of the 18-year old rival walking toward me. But there is also a new softness in his gait as he approaches my house. I can’t help but gawk a little, even if briefly. He’s my height. Fit for a father of two and professor. Sure, I’d seen the pictures, but in person, he’s even more striking. He’s wearing hiking shorts that reveal his extremely fit runner’s quads and calves. His light sweatshirt over a t-shirt still shows off his broad chest and his toned arms and shoulders. I snap out of my brief reverie, open the door and say “Jase!”

He embraces me with the biggest, warmest hug. He holds us there for a good long moment – years of tension melting away in that embrace. He pulls back and says, “It’s nice to finally see you. It’s weird, you know? I feel like I’m seeing an old friend and meeting a new friend for the first time, all at once. Are you ready to hit the road?”

I say, “I am! Let’s see if we can beat the traffic. We have hours of car ride to talk each other’s ears off.”

We stash our hiking backpacks, filled with sandwiches, water, snacks, and layers of clothing, in the trunk of his car and we head out.

It turns out the three-hour car ride was ambitious. We hit traffic an hour north of the city, as the 9am breakfast crowds and other weekend adventurers set out for the day. Which means that we have plenty more time to chat. The conversation on this mini-road trip is just like the last two times we’d chatted on the phone. So natural. So effortless. And we seem agree on everything. We constantly laugh at how one of us brings up a topic he likes and the other says, “Me too!” We really do have so much in common. Except, as Jase would say, for the “liking dudes” part.

We arrive at the trailhead an hour behind schedule, but we set out on the 5-hour hike all the same. Unlike our chatty car ride, we spend most of the time on the trail in peaceful silence. We both need this dose of nature during this turbulent time in the world. The sounds of the forest, the crisp Fall breeze, the rhythmic and lockstep crunch of our four feet on the damp trail, all fill the void left by our silent vocal cords. What little conversation we do share happens only when we want to point out things to look at along the hike.

We stop for lunch in a meadow about two hours into the hike. It’s 2pm now and the sun is just past its peak; daylight savings time has recently ended. We eat and chat briefly before picking the trail back up. Shortly after we begin walking again, the sky darkens ever so slightly. We look up to see a slight cloud cover roll in. We agree to quicken our pace in case there’s rain coming. And sure enough, with about thirty minutes left of the hike, the first drops of rain begin falling. We laugh at the fact that neither of us brought rain gear. We trudge forward quickly hoping the rain doesn’t come down any harder, but our hopes are in vain. By the time we reach his car at 5pm it’s dark out and the rain is really coming down. We stash our bags in the trunk, jump in the car, and crank up the heater to warm up our soaked bodies.

“Well, that was unexpected,” I say. “That was not in the forecast!”

“I know, man. I was not prepared for rain at all.”

Back at the road, we have cell service again. Jase futzes with his iPhone. He lets out an exasperated sigh as he informs me, “Google Maps says the traffic is snarled on 101 all the way back to the city. It says it’ll take five hours to get back to your place.”

“We’re fucked!” I say, always being one to enjoy dropping the f-bomb.

He just laughs, “Easy there, buddy. We have options. How flexible are you about getting home tonight?”

I tell him the dog is already at the sitter until tomorrow and I ask what he has in mind.

He offers a solution. “There’s a motel nearby. Let’s go see if they have some rooms. We’re soaked and I’d rather not sit in stop and go traffic for five hours while we’re sopping wet.”

“Sure, why not?” I say. “The rooms are on me since you drove. Worst-case scenario is we can still drive home if there aren’t any rooms.”

The motel is nearby and is one of those two-floor places where the doors open out onto the parking lot. We run from our car through the rain into the reception area and ask if they have two rooms available.

The elderly woman behind the counter has a faded name tag that reads Delores. Delores says, “Sorry fellas, I can’t help you with two rooms. We only got the one room left. Queen bed. It’s yours if you want it, though.”

I look at Jase. This is totally his call. Sleeping in the same room and same bed with a gay friend is a big deal. “It’s up to you. I’m down if you are.”

I see him mulling it over in his head. Finally he says to Delores, “We’ll take it. Let’s not drive home in the rain at night.”

I sign the papers and give Delores my credit card. As she hands us the key, she says, “By the way, there’s a pizza place nearby that delivers. That’s about all we got ‘round here that’s gonna brave these roads in the rain. It’s real close though.”

We thank her for the tip, grab the number of the pizza place, and run to our room through the torrential rain. Jase fumbles with the key, desperately trying to get into the dryness of the room. We laugh hysterically as Jase drops the key, further prolonging our exposure to the wet cold downpour.

Finally the door opens and we scramble inside. We find the light switch, and the room is exactly what one would expect. Wood paneling on the walls, a queen bed with a nightstand and lamp on either side, a small dresser with a tv, a tiny table with two chairs, and a bathroom.

“Hey man, it could be worse,” Jase says.

“This will be just fine,” I say. “At least we’re out of the rain. Let’s order a pizza. I’m starving.”

Surprising neither of us, we both agree on the exact type of pizza – an extra large combination with extra pepperoni. As I start to dial the number on my iPhone, Jase says, “I’ll shower first while you order. Is that ok?”

“Sure thing,” I say, as he walks toward the bathroom. While he moves across the 20 feet toward the bathroom, he starts peeling off his drenched sweatshirt and t-shirt, placing them on the dresser to dry. I figure that will be it before he moves into the bathroom to finish undressing. But, to my complete surprise and delight, he takes off his dripping wet hiking shorts too and hangs them on the chair. I’m still slowly giving the person at the pizza place our order over the phone as I take in his body for the first time since high school. He’s lean and muscular just like he was in high school. He’s hairier now, a thick mat of salt-and-pepper hair covers his chest and thins out as it approaches his tight waist. As he turns around, his wet skin-tight boxer briefs cling to him. I see he still has the runner’s bubble butt that I spied all those years ago in the shower, too.

“Hey. I hope this is ok,” he says as he motions toward his clothes laid out on the dresser. “I left a little room for you to hang your stuff up later too.” He seems unfazed. Like being nearly naked in front of a gay guy is no big deal. It’s probably the locker room mentality all straight guys seem to have. Just bros, friends, buddies, teammates undressing before the showers.

I nod at him as I’m finishing giving the pizza order. “Wow, that’s fast. 15 minutes?! Great, we’re starving. See you soon!”

He’s already in the shower, the door closed and the water running. Almost five minutes later he cracks the door and says, “This water is taking forever to heat up. This might take a minute.”

“Ok, I’ll save some pizza for you if you’re still showering when it arrives.”

The pizza does arrive on time and while Jase is still in the shower. I tip the delivery guy $20 because I’m so thankful for the steaming hot disc of cheese and meat in my hands. I set the box down and dig in. I’m already on my third slice when I finally hear the water stop and Jase emerges. He has one towel wrapped around his waist, but his torso is still covered in water. He’s using a second towel to dry his hair, giving it that perfectly-mussed look, as usual.

“Whoa whoa whoa, easy there, buddy. You said you’d save some for me,” he says as he sees three slices missing. I just grin with a mouthful of pizza and shrug my shoulders at him.

“How about you go shower now and let me have a crack at this pizza?”

I nod as I shove the last bit of crust in my mouth. I walk into the bathroom, peel the wet clothes from my body, and turn on the shower. The water heats up more quickly after Jase’s first use. And one aspect that is not lacking in this small country motel is its hot water. The water pelts my skin and warms my bones, instantly erasing the chill I’d felt for the last hour or more. My shoulders drop with relief even as my mind races with anticipation and excitement for what’s waiting right outside the bathroom door. I’m in a hotel room with my high school rival. My new friend. My straight friend. Who’s hot as fuck. And we have to share a bed.

Whatever, I’m sure it’s not like that. He’s married with kids and we’re friends now. We’ll get some sleep and get back on the road tomorrow, our friendship becoming even closer from having shared this wild detour in our hiking trip.

I finish my shower, dry off, and wrap a towel around my waist as I enter the bedroom again. He’s already eaten his half of the pizza, leaving me two more slices of my half. He’s sitting upright on the bed, propped up with pillows behind his back, his towel still around his waist. After I drape my sopping wet clothes alongside his on the dresser, I dig back into the pizza.

I sit down on the foot of the bed, scarfing down another slide of pizza, and Jase says, “It feels nice to be warm and dry again. I tried cranking up the heater, but it says it’s on the maximum heat as it is. I hope it gets warm enough to dry our clothes by tomorrow morning.”

I’m eating my last bite of pizza and respond with a half full mouth of cheesy crust and say, “Could stand to be a little warmer, but I guess you take what you get when you’re stuck in the woods.” We both laugh and he looks at his phone.

I ask, “Do you need to call your family to check in? Say goodnight or whatever?”

“Nah, I already texted Jenn with our situation while you were showering. And besides…” he trails off.

“Besides what? Everything ok?”

He hesitates another few seconds, and says, “It’s just. I was going to tell you but it’s weird, you know? I know you’ll probably understand because I think this is pretty normal for gay guys. But this is still new for me, man.”

My mind is imagining a million different scenarios for what comes next. “Ok, I’m listening. You can tell me anything. I won’t judge. Promise.”

“Oh, I know you won’t. That’s why I wanted to tell you at some point. Hm. I guess it was about a year ago. Jenn and I decided to be poly and open up.” He must have noticed my eyebrows hit the ceiling with surprise. “With some rules of course. We’ve only played apart twice so far. We choose a weekend every few months, we send the kids away to my parents’ house for the weekend, and we make plans with someone we trust and approve of, for a play date.”

I’m shocked but impressed. “First of all, thanks for sharing that. And you’re right. That’s a big thing to share, so I'm really glad you felt like you could confide in me. But I have to ask, why are you out here with me instead of with your lady lover friend?”

He laughs. “Lady lover friend? Is that what you gay guys call your fuck buddies?” We both laugh as I shrug my shoulders. He continues, “To be honest, I just wasn’t feeling it after the whole election thing. The woman I’ve had sex with twice so far is great. She’s sexy and understands the arrangement. She hasn’t once tried to ask for more and doesn’t make things weird in between. The sex is amazing. My wife knows about her. And I know about the woman my wife is having sex with too.”

My eyebrows shoot to the sky for a second time. “Really? Your wife and you both have women lovers. This is wild. Also, I can actually relate. My last boyfriend and I were open on occasion with some rules – similar but different to your rules. I’m just impressed, is all. I only have a few straight friends who are poly. Are you enjoying it? Are you handling it all pretty well? Sorry, that’s a lot of questions.”

Jase says, “I think I’m good with it. It was Jenn’s idea at first. She said she’d always had bisexual curiosities and she wanted to explore them. We talked about it a lot. It took some getting used to but I also wanted to make her happy. And not going to lie, I was secretly excited about my own opportunities too.”

I crawl up next to him on the bed, sitting side by side, propped up against the headboard. I’m looking eye to eye with this handsome high school rival of mine who has a far more interesting life than I could have ever imagined. We talk for another hour, mostly me asking him questions about the poly dynamic. I pepper in some observations from my own experiment with being open too. This turns out to be yet another thing we share and have nearly identical views on.

At this point it’s 8pm. I can see him stifling some yawns between his answers to my questions. I say, “Hey, it’s getting late. Or, well, it’s late for you. You got up so early to make up to San Francisco by 8am. Want to turn the lights out and get some sleep? We can talk about this tons more on the drive back tomorrow.”

He smiles and nods, “You’re right. I am getting tired. Let’s save the rest for tomorrow.”

He swings his legs over the side of the bed and pulls his damp towel off as he slides under the covers. He looks at me as I stare quizzically. “What?” he says. We can’t sleep in wet towels and our clothes are still soaked.”

“Okay, okay. I’m just trying to take my cues from you. I’ll be a gentleman, I promise.”

We share a chuckle as I pull a similar maneuver as his, ending up under the covers naked. He reaches for his lamp and I mimic the move. “Lights out,” I say.

“Sleep well, man.”

We lay there on our backs respecting each other’s side of the bed. A queen bed doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for two 6’2 guys with some width to their frames. He turns to face away from me, and I can’t help but think of his bare bubble butt facing me. I wonder if it’s hairy like his chest. My mind is torn between a state of excitement about a hot, naked dad in the bed next to me, and being chill and not wanting to do anything to ruin this new friendship on our first adventure together.

Eventually our eyes adjust to the darkness. The glow of red light from the “no vacancy” light outside dimly permeates the room. I can’t sleep. I’ve always been like this. When I have so much on my mind, I can’t turn it off. Even when my body is completely fatigued like it is tonight after our hike. I look at my phone for the time. It’s 9:57pm and I’m still wide awake with no prospect of sleep in sight.

Jase has been turning from his side to his back periodically. But I can’t tell if he’s just a really quiet sleeper or if he’s secretly struggling with sleep too.

And then it happens. As he turns from his side to his back again, this time his hand brushes my butt just a little longer than it should have to be an accident. I’m facing away from him and my eyes flash wide open. Is that what I think it was? Did he just intentionally touch my butt? I mean it’s a nice butt – I have decades of squats to thank for that. But he’s straight. C’mon, think! If he meant to touch it, then he’s waiting for me to make a move to reciprocate. If it was an accident, and I initiate something, it could freak him out. Or maybe he really is asleep. Fuck it. I roll over on my back, and let my right hand touch his left hand, which he’d clearly left on “my side” of the bed. Our pinky fingers and ring fingers are overlapping, touching. I wait for a sign. And wait some more.

Then I get the signal I was hoping for. His pinky finger wiggles a little. My brain breathes a silent sigh of relief. This is it. So I wiggle my fingers just a little in return. With that, Jase starts to move his hand more fully. I assume it’s to pull back completely. But what he does next surprises me. Jase puts his hand fully underneath mine and wraps his fingers in mind. He’s holding my hand! Warm electric energy runs from my fingertips, up my arm, to my chest. I’m exhilarated. He has just given me a hint, but I realize that he might need me to take the lead a little.

So I start slowly. Gently.

First I slowly pivot my body so I’m on my side facing him. I haven't let go of his hand. And then I wait. Once this new position feels comfortable for us, I slowly move my other arm toward him, placing my left hand on his hairy chest. I wait for a reaction. Finally, he inhales and exhales with a deep sigh that speaks volumes.

I say quietly, just above a whisper, “Is this ok? Are you ok?”

I hear his head brushing on the pillowcase as he nods and says, “Yeah. I think so.”

I begin massaging his tight chest muscles. His heart is beating faster, pulsing so hard I can feel it through his chest. He starts to turn toward me, moving his face to mine.

I put my finger on his lips and say, “First things first. Is this ok? You know, with your poly rules? I don’t want to be a homewrecker.”

I feel his lips tighten into a smile. “Yeah. This is ok. In fact, a few months ago Jenn asked me if I like you ‘like that.’ Ever since we had our first phone call she says all I ever do is talk about you. Jenn says she’s happy to see me so excited about someone else.”

“I guess we have the green light then. Have you ever done stuff with a guy?”

Now with our faces inches apart, I can see him shake his head no in the faint red light of the room. He asks, “Is that ok?”

I just nod, move my finger away from his mouth, and bring my lips to his. I leave our lips pressed together, mouths closed, to savor the moment for a long moment. My beard brushes against his three-day scruff. His lips are softer than I expected. Then I open my lips and go in for another kiss. He matches my moves and opens his mouth too. Our tongues cautiously cross into each other’s mouths and when they touch it feels like lightning strikes. By the reaction of his (body slightly convulsing, I know he feels it too.

We kiss more, slowly at first, tongues exploring each other. I bring my hand behind his head and begin slowly massaging the back of his neck and head as we kiss. He must like this because he lets a weak moan escape his mouth and echo into mine.

He seems more comfortable with what’s happening, as he suddenly grabs my head with both of his hands and starts kissing me with abandon. Intense, fast, tongues everywhere. His body seems to be going into autopilot and taking something that it has wanted for far too long. I’m matching his pace and actions with equal intensity. He’s a phenomenal kisser. I can’t help but think how lucky his wife is to have a husband who kisses with such passion.

We rise to our knees on the bed, lips locked and hands roaming all over our upper bodies. His flesh is searing hot, releasing all that pent-up desire. I want more but I’m still torn about being too forward. I want him to give me another sign. And he does. He takes my hand in his and moves it down his stomach toward his crotch. “Touch it.”

His wish is my command. I reach my hand out in the darkness and grasp his dick. And exactly as I’d suspected all those years before, it’s huge. I can’t see it clearly, but by this point in my life as a gay man, I can tell a big dick when I feel one. This thing is a monster. It’s so thick that my hand doesn’t fully reach around it. And it’s harder than rebar, which tells me that he’s very into what’s happening right now. So I slowly begin to stroke from the base to the head. When I reach the head, his body shudders and buckles a little. I pull my lips from his long enough to spit in my hand, lubricating it with my saliva, and placing it back around his massive cock.

He sighs and quivers as my lubricated hand begins to jerk him off in earnest now. His hips buck and thrust as he fucks my hand around his dick. We keep our lips locked as I alternate using my hand slowly and quickly, base to head. Suddenly he stops. Pulls back from my face and hand abruptly, and says, “Will you… uh…suck it?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” I teasingly reply.

I push him back onto the so he’s laying down with his head propped on the pillow. I reach over and turn the lamp on.

“Is this ok? It might be more fun for you if you can see your dick disappear in my mouth.” The smirk on his face is the answer I need.

I arrange my body and lower my face to his crotch. With the lights on I can see his dick in its full glory. It truly is remarkable. The glimpse I caught in high school was absolutely an accurate depiction of the giant member standing upright in front of me now. I reach my tongue out and lick the tip of his head. He gasps. This is going to be fun.

I lower my mouth over just the tip and close my lips, leaving them there as I swirl my tongue briefly around. I look up at him, the tip of his dick in my mouth, As our eyes make contact, his dick twitches. Ok, so he likes seeing me take his cock inside of me. Good.

I lower my mouth further down his shaft, then back up. I could take more, but I want to pace myself. Or rather, I’m pacing him. I want him to feel the anticipation and full range of sensations of a proper blowjob. I pick up the pace a little, taking about six inches into my mouth of what must be an almost nine inch Goliath. The head of his dick has swelled so big with all this excitement that I start to doubt if I’ll ever be able to get it fully down my throat. But I commit myself to it, knowing this is what he needs. So I inhale and punch my face downward. His fat head catches on my uvula and tonsils at first, but I persist and consciously push away my gag reflex. And just like that, it slides deeper into my throat. As my nose buries itself in his pubes and my chin rests on his heavy balls, he lets out a loud groan. I lift back up gagging a little, gasping for air.

With deep-throating tears in my eyes I look at him and grin as I ask, “Did you like that?”

He looks amazed, shocked, bewildered, and in ecstasy all at once. He reaches up to wipe the tears away and says, “Oh man, Yeah I liked it. A lot. Can you do it again?”

I respond by moving my head back down toward the tower below me, granting his wish. I deep-throat him over and over. Saliva coating his dick and pooling around the base. I do this for a few more minutes – as long as my poor throat can take it. Finally, I need air and a break from the pummeling my throat is taking.

I lift my mouth off his dick and move up to kiss him deep. The taste of his dick is all over my lips and beard. He seems to enjoy it as I feel his dick throb again in my hand as we share the taste of my saliva and his precum.

We stop kissing and just stare at each other. Electricity sparking between every part of our bodies. He finally looks down at my dick. I’m harder than I may have ever been in my entire life. And, while I’m about an inch shorter than him, I’m still pretty sizable.

He grins a devilish grin, and I respond with an inquisitive look. “What’s that look about?”

He says, “I think I finally found one thing where I’m finally the winner! My dick is bigger than yours.”

I let out a huge laugh and say, “Ok, wise guy. I guess you’re right. It only took 20 years and getting me naked to finally beat me at something. But who’s really winning here? Look at you. I’m the lucky guy who gets to suck this giant dick on a sexy fucking man.”

“You could do more than suck it, you know?”

I stop slow-stroking his dick. “What do you mean? I’m no expert here, but wouldn’t you have some safe sex rules or something? Did you bring a condom?”

He grins. “I think I’m about to surprise you again. Jenn and I really researched this stuff when she first brought up the poly idea. We learned about PrEP and so now I take it in advance of our play dates. Are you on PrEP too?”

As he predicted, I sat there staring at him in utter disbelief. This is not at all what I expected when I agreed to go on a hike with my old high school rival.

“Yeah, I’m on PrEP. Do you think your wife is going to be ok with you putting your dick in a guy’s butt, though?”

“I think she’s going to love it. But I want it too. I want to be inside of you.”

There is nothing hotter Jase could have said to me at that moment. I kiss him hard and deep, my tongue and his tongue doing battle in an effort to express our desires. I pull back and return my mouth to his pulsating dick, doing my best to repeat my deep-throating magic from before. My saliva begins gushing again, lubricating his dick.

I jerk my head up and say, “That should do the trick.”

I crawl up toward him and straddle his hips with my legs. I can feel his dick desperately seeking its target. But he’s new to this and needs some guidance. I spit on my hand, reach behind myself, lube up my hole, and lean back ever so slowly. I can feel the glistening head of dick touch the lips of my hole. Thankfully, I’m pretty well versed when it comes to riding big dicks. I should be able to take his impressive member with spit only. At least for a little while.

As his head pierces the outer ring of my hole, I let out a moan. His eyes stare at me intently with a mix of curiosity and anxiety. I just smile down at him and nod empathically telling him, “it’ll be ok, I’ve got you.” After a minute of teasing his head with my ass lips, I push all my body weight downward and engulf the entirety of his giant cock. His eyes bulge. My eyes bulge. For different reasons and the same reasons all at once. It’s a lot for me to take. Especially without proper lube. But I’m not giving up. We both want this. We both need this. So I slowly lift my body up all the way so just the tip is in me and fall back downward in one rapid movement. As I bottom out and feel his balls against my tight glutes, he lets out a guttural, feral moan. I know he’s feeling every bit as connected to me as I feel to him.

I ride him a little more slowly and reach my face down to his for a deep kiss. He begins to whimper into my mouth, clearly letting all his inhibitions go as he gives himself fully to this act he’s been wanting for so long.

Riding him and kissing him blurs into an endless loop. Time has no meaning. He’s so deep inside me that our bodies feel like they’ve become one. After what feels like an eternity in this perfect place, I pull my face back from his and lean my body fully back as I grind on this giant piece of my friend, impaling myself on it to my very core.

And then, without any hesitation, he reaches for my dick that has been creating a slick puddle of precum on his tight, hairy belly. I look back down at him and moan. He grins, clearly enjoying that he has found a way to make me groan too. As he has my dick in his hand, he also takes control of the action and starts thrusting up into me. We meet in the middle, my downward thrusts and his upward thrusts making loud slapping noises that echo off the wood paneling. He’s a goddamn natural at this. His instincts are kicking in and he’s taking more and more control. He’s taking what he wants: me and my hole.

His hand on my dick starts to feel too good. So, I reach for his hand and say, “I’m getting close. Be careful.”

He brushes my hand away and says, “Good. I’m close, too. Can I… cum in you?”

“Fuck yes, please. Cum deep in me.”

This is clearly what he was hoping to hear. He thrusts into me with abandon, never letting go of my dick. I’m moaning and grinding, he’s thrusting and jerking. For a second time we get lost in what seems like an endless loop of pure magnetic hedonism.

Then I feel it. He feels it. Our dicks swell in unison – mine in his hand, his in my hole. We both know it’s coming. That moment where you just know it’s close and unavoidable. We quicken our pace and our intensity of thrusting and jerking. And then… everything just explodes. Our dicks, our bodies, our minds.

I grind down onto him hard and squeeze my sphincter tight as my dick unloads rope after white gooey rope of cum onto his chest. His head is thrown back, eyes shut, grunting and panting gutturally. I feel his fat dick pulse over and over again, his huge load starting to drip out of me, down around his dick and onto his balls. I pull his head back up, his face to mine, and I kiss him as our dicks convulse their final geysers of cum.

I press my forehead against his. We stay in that position, heaving, catching our breath. His dick softening inside of me, mine resting on his cum-soaked hairy abdomen. After our heart rates return to a somewhat normal pace, I lift my head and he lifts his. We stare at each other for a long time. I scan his face for any sign of post-nut clarity, fight or flight, paranoia, regret, etc. I sense nothing but contentment in his droopy, fuck-drunk eyes.

Even with his dick semi-hard, it doesn’t fully slide out of me on its own. It’s too big. So I climb up and off of it. As I do, the rest of his pool of cum exits along with it. There’s so much I can hardly believe it. I shot a big load, but I think his load was even bigger. It doesn’t matter though. All things considered, I’m pretty sure I think I ended up the winner of this rivalry.

Epilogue

We grab a towel and clean ourselves up enough to crawl back into bed. It’s almost midnight at this point and we finally feel the waves of exhaustion sweep over our bodies. We’re side by side holding hands, and I have a million questions. But I think better of it. He’s happy. I’m happy. Let that be enough. But as if he could read my mind, Jase moves closer and lays his head on my chest. Feeling deeply connected to my friend, I nod off.

When we wake, we’re cuddled together for warmth in the not-quite-warm-enough room. Oddly enough I’m the big spoon and he's the little spoon. He has both of my arms pulled tight and wrapped around him. His entire body is pressed into mine, including his perfect bubble butt into my very hard dick. The thought crosses my mind of initiating round two, but I think better of it. Last night was enough intensity to last a lifetime. And maybe he’s not ready to bottom yet. So I just grind slowly into him as I start kissing his neck. I hear him let out a sleepy yawn as his body tenses and shivers into wakefulness.

We get up together admiring each other’s bodies and rock hard morning wood. He pulls me toward the shower with him and we make out while the shower takes its time heating up. Then we climb into the shower together, kissing and jerking each other off. We both want more but we both know there’s plenty of time for more in the future. We wash the mixture of dried sweat and cum off each other’s bodies and enjoy our hard dicks pressed up against our bodies.

Out of the shower, our clothes are finally dry, so we climb back into our hiking attire. The rain has stopped so we pile into the car and head to a diner for a quick bite before the drive home. We grin and stare at each other over eggs, bacon, and coffee.

On the ride home we mostly sit quietly. About half way home, Jase asks, “Was I ok? Was that good for a first time fucking a guy?”

I turn my head dramatically and say, “If I didn’t know you better, I’d think you were lying about that being your first time. You were amazing. Top ten… no, top five experiences of my lifetime. And your dick… I may never stop thinking about your dick until the last day of my life.”

He’s blushing. “Thanks. I don’t know if you could tell, but I’ve wanted that for a long time. I think I wanted it even in high school but didn’t realize it then. You were so cute and I hated you. But I think it was just easier to feel competitive and angry at you than it was to feel attracted to you. Anyway, last night was really special for me.”

Now I’m blushing. “We’re totally on the same page. And just to be clear, I’m no home wrecker. Just like your other play friend, I won’t be weird or cause drama. I want you to know that.”

He smiles, “I know. It’s why Jenn and I agreed that if this did happen it would be ok. We both trust you.”

“Wait a minute!” Now I’m curious. “Did you plan this?” I laugh at the thought of him planning out our trip and running late and needing a motel.

He stammers out an answer, “No! No, not at all. It’s just that Jenn knows shit and she said if the opportunity ever arose between us, that it would be allowed. I laughed it off at first, but I think she saw something I wasn’t quite yet ready to admit to myself. Anyway, I know you won’t cause drama. But I was wondering. Do you think…” He trails off again.

“Yes.” I answer, not fully knowing the question. “But go on. What were you going to ask?”

“Well, I was wondering if you would, uh, be interested in doing this again the next time we have our open weekend. I really want more of you when it’s allowed.”

As my face erupts into a smile I answer definitively, “Absolutely.”

13 notes · View notes

ouatnextgen · 4 months

Note

Any headcanons for the next gen?

Finally can answer! Sorry this took so long lmao. These are just a bunch of random headcanons

Reblogging for the update that Alice is now Hope's sister.

Roland

He loves baked goods, especially when they’re baked by Regina, and has a strange love of Mountain Dew, which grosses everyone out

He got his first tattoo, the exact same lion tattoo that Robin had, in the exact same place, when he was twelve, thanks to Little John, and Regina almost fainted when she found out.

He inherits his father’s arrows, rings, and wardrobe, while his sister gets his bow. Before he died, Robin made Roland his very own bow, and that is the one he uses

His biggest secret is that he doesn't want to lead the Merry Men, like his father before him; he wants to be a baker

Surprisingly squeamish. Doesn’t do well with blood or guts

90% of his Storybrooke wardrobe is flannels

He likes camping, hiking, and just generally being outside

Is a pretty good singer, and knows how to play the acoustic guitar

His favorite season is autumn

His favorite color is red

Alex

They have survived solely on food from Granny’s Diner and coffee since they graduated high school

They actually work at Granny’s Diner, pretty much doing Ruby’s job after she moved to Oz.

In several instances, they had managed to convince many small children that the pink streaks in their hair are 100% natural

Can wield a dagger pretty well, but is a self-proclaimed “runner” and not a fighter

Most of the graffiti around Storybrooke can be attributed to them

Though they’d rather die than admit it, they really like doing so-called “feminine” hobbies like knitting, sewing, and crocheting. They are very proficient at all three

Got a tongue piercing at 12:01 am, the very day that they turned eighteen

They play the bass, and dream of starting a garage band

Their favorite season is summer

Their favorite color is pink

Leo

Really likes spicy foods. Or foods he can dump gallons of hot sauce on. He pretends to be a tea drinker, but really can’t stand the stuff

Secretly loves country music, but knows that his friends would crucify him if they found out

His least favorite subject in school is English, because he feels like he gets interpretations of stories “wrong” somehow. Math is easier because it’s “straightforward”

He’s a guard on the school football team

Somehow, he’s also senior class president and has a 3.89 GPA

Since in this AU, Regina turned down the offer to be queen in favor of Snow, Leo is next in line for the throne (Emma opted out)

Can’t do archery for shit, but is great at fencing

He likes to babysit his brother and other neighborhood kids

His favorite season is spring

His favorite color is indigo

He’s one of those people who only eats plain noodles with butter, and only drinks water if it’s ice-cold or flavored. Very picky.

He has dyspraxia, which is a disorder similar to dyslexia. It affects his movement and coordination functions (my little brother has this) so he is very prone to stumbling, dropping things, and just general clumsiness.

He’s a night owl. He tends to stay awake until three hours before he has to get up (“Three hours is enough sleep, right?”) which results in a lot of coffee consumption

He’s a member of the school drama club, and has performed in many plays and musicals

He’s really into urban area gardening, where he grows plants and food in tiny boxes around his house

His honorary aunt is Mulan, and she was the one who taught him sword fighting, archery, and helped him figure out that he’s gay

He likes to live in the moment, and do spontaneous things. He’d rather regret doing something than not doing something.

He has Alex sneak him into clubs sometimes, just to do something rebellious for kicks

His favorite season is spring

His favorite color is purple

Robyn

Thanks to Regina’s influence, she loves apple flavored food

She got her glasses in her freshman year of high school. Before that, she just…moved closer to the board to see what was going on (I know in canon she only has her glasses when she’s cursed, but I like the idea of Robyn, the archer, needing glasses full-time, so here we are.)

She inherits Robin’s bow, and carries it around with her like a favorite teddy bear (when Robin comes back to life he teaches her how to make her own bow)

She longs to escape Storybrooke and travel the different realms, like Henry

She loves the outdoors like Roland, but not quite as much.

Her magic is chaotic and wild, like her personality

She’s on the school soccer team, and kicks everyone’s ass

The only jewelry she ever wears is a ring her mother got for her

Her favorite season is summer

Her favorite color is green

Gideon

Has a weakness for seafood, and regularly drinks tea

He’s a math nerd, and is on the school’s mathlete team

Unsurprisingly, he loves to read. Fiction or nonfiction, he doesn’t care. He’ll read five books a day if Belle lets him.

He also likes video games, but is very bad at them

He’s on the autism spectrum

He likes keeping journals, and keeps several personal journals, study journals, and doodle journals

Since his magic is inherently dark, he doesn’t like to use it much. If he does need to use magic, it can trigger memories from his time as the Black Fairy’s puppet to come back in the form of nightmares

He wants to be a therapist when he grows up, and maybe publish a book or two

His favorite season is winter

His favorite color is orange

Alice

She loves to eat things with marmalade, and even just marmalade straight from the jar. And she’s british…so tea is life

She has a mental illness (canon never gave her a proper diagnosis), and takes prescribed medication that helps her symptoms. When she has "bad days," Robyn, Hope, and their parents know how to help her.

She loves the idea of dying or putting streaks in her hair, but she’s slightly worried she’ll regret it later on, so hasn’t tried it yet

She still loves to paint, doodle, draw, and basically anything artsy.

She loves to play chess with her father, and other, more modern board games with her friends. Her favorites are Candy Land, Battleship, and Monopoly.

She rarely uses her light magic, and only to protect people. Emma trains with her regularly

She will stay awake into the wee hours to go stargazing, and loves astronomy, star mapping, and even the zodiac signs (she’s a proud Aries)

Even though she’s never officially sailed a ship, she knows the inner workings of how to do it so well, she might as well be a sailor

Her favorite season is summer

Her favorite color is teal

Hope

Her favorite food is literally just cheese

She is on the autism spectrum

She has a special interest in swords, which results in a large sword collection, and a bunch of useless sword facts

She also has a special interest in dancing, which results in her now knowing a few books worth of dances, both modern and classical

She’s on the school dance squad (see above)

She likes to go sailing with Killian and Alice

Her favorite piece of jewelry is the swan necklace her parents gave her

Going to the beach calms her down, and she listens to ocean noises to fall asleep

Her favorite season is summer

Her favorite color is navy blue

#ouat next generation #ouat next gen #hope swan jones #gideon gold #robyn hood #robin mills #neal nolan #prince philip ii #alexandra boyd #roland hood #leo nolan #prince phillip ii #alice jones #tilly ouat #alice swan jones

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momotonescreaming · 4 months

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Momoooo!! KingSteve is online p2 and Dustin is a bully? Pretty please? 🤲

Nebs my beloved! Hello! Thank you for the ask 💜💜

KingSteve is Online was supposed to be a quick sequel to a ficlet I made ages ago, of an AU where Stranger Things was set in an ambiguously late 90s/ early 00s setting. Purely so I could make them IM using absolutely horrific chatspeak. And to make them chat even more - Steve has gone off to college with Robin, and Eddie is still stuck back in Hawkins. Feeling a little lost, and like everyone has moved on without him.

It feels like it could be a super long fic, and that's intimidating, so this wip has mostly fallen to the background. Whoops.

My previous snips for Dustin is a Bully are here, here, and here. Not sure what else I can add for this one, other than I like writing Steve standing up for himself. He's not a pushover, and Dustin being a real cunt isn't going to turn him into a doormat.

Snips below, just for you 😘💜

---

KingSteve85 is Online

KingSteve85: ppl aren’t forced here like they are w high school. or at least not the same haha. so theyre a lot more cool ab things. since they made the choice to be here. its chiller

KingSteve85: that doesnt include those kids who get a first hit of freedom and go fuckin crazy tho

KingSteve85: does that make sense? haha

Eddie sits, and breathes, and watches as Steve’s messages ping through. And when they do — Eddie lets himself sit in it for a moment. Let the words wash over him, let the pixels of the screen burn their way into his retinas.

That actually sounds sort of nice. Going to a school where everyone isn’t scared of you, or hates you, or both. Surrounded by people who actually want to be there. Maybe he’s romanticising it, he doesn’t know what it’s actually like. He probably never will. Hell, who is Eddie kidding, he’ll never know what college is like. He’s not cut out for it.

---

Dustin is a Bully

It’s not like Dustin’s been saying anything that’s untrue. Steve told him about his grades in high school, how essays and such ‘weren’t his thing’. He doesn’t know even the most basic scientific principles — shit him and The Party have been talking about since middle school. Steve graduated high school yeah, but he didn’t get into college. Obviously, since he’s still in Hawkins.

“Plus it’s not like you can’t take it,” Dustin adds, scowling. Steve’s older, he’s tough, he can handle a few harsh truths.

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t have to, Dustin,” Steve adds, leaning forward on the recliner, steely gaze settling into something angrier. More intense. “I thought you were my friend.”

---

Make me write, send me asks!

#ask #findafight #momo writes

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roobylavender · 5 months

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im not sure your take on this but god now that age charts are being brought up it really fucking weirds me out the ages bruce pursues a relationship with talia and selina, its not necessarily the age gap but more so the maturity level. if it were later on in the girls life yet you keep the same age gap i’d be more okay with it but…idk the fact that selina is NINETEEN like to a 26 yr old would that not just be a. teenager to them ?? shes so young. same with talia

i mean to be fair to selina i think people get her timeline mixed up often esp because the long halloween is more prominent on batman reading lists than is her early post-crisis reading. the late 80s were used to revitalize selina with a new origin before she was inevitably thrust back into the present-day canon of tim's tenure. so there's a whole decade or so of her life after she first donned the costume that we were hardly privy to (with the exception of a few stories), but that was implied by writers to have been fairly isolated in the sense that selina's interactions with bruce were neither constant nor often. she led her own life and lived in her own corner of the world and survived, etc., and maybe a handful of times did their paths cross on the bigger heists albeit ultimately without much consequence (e.g., mindy newell's little bird story in the 80th anniversary spectacular). once 90s dc canon generally started to take on a more universal, event-focused quality writers integrated selina into the main batman storylines and began developing the romance between them consistently while they were both well into adulthood

what the long halloween did in comparison is make a mess of all of that progression because it not only rewrote selina's late 80s origin but also depicted her in reference to the more powerful character she'd become by the time it was published in the late 90s. so loeb's selina is less a 19/20 year old prostitute with a whole worldview to develop and more a seasoned socialite with a concrete goal and specific skillset honed presumably over the years. they're two entirely distinct characters and the 00s canon that followed increasingly took more from loeb than it did newell to the point that i think most new batman readers believe the long halloween is the definitive origin story even though it is very much not and only became heralded as such due to its overwhelming popularity. ultimately, on one hand you have the early post-crisis canon which set bruce and selina apart for a large part of their masked life and only began to concretely develop anything between them maybe ten or more years after the fact. on the other hand you have the long halloween canon which set them up as something akin to equals from the get-go and erased the existence of the original power imbalance entirely. and then you also have brubaker who tried to meld the two somewhat but like i said earlier ultimately pandered more to loeb's characterization even though he made his foundation out of newell's narrative skeleton. all of this to say: i don't think there are necessarily huge issues in their relationship as pertains to age if you distinguish the various timelines. but there certainly are issues as pertains to social class

talia in comparison is obv a lot trickier. i always go back and forth on whether i want to designate her as 26 or 22 upon debut. obv 26 would be the (somewhat) nicer option and there's plenty of evidence as to denny's research work being poor when it comes to the al ghuls. he may very well have believed that medical school is an institution you attend after undergraduate school in egypt the way we do here in the states. but the truth of the matter is that a lot of countries don't operate the way we do and actually allow you to attend a specialized / graduate school straight out of high school. such is the case for a career in medicine in egypt. and then on top of it all.. i honestly do think there is racist exoticization at play with the creation of talia's character. the older white savior paired with the considerably younger exotic heroine is a tried and tested trope across decades! one of talia's hallmarks upon debut was her universal sex appeal to the point that it's all people talked about in the comment columns at the time. and of course there was a very sexualized aspect to her relationship with bruce in general as depicted by neal adams. so it's hard not to come away with that reading of her character and even harder not to try to reconcile it with her very unforgiving treatment thereafter

which is why i'm as much upset by the age gap as i am honestly interest-piqued by it. bc it sucks on its face for sure. but with the right amount of care it is a really powerful lens through which to analyze talia as a character over time. her initial powerlessness to the two men in her life, her increasing emotional and physical isolation, her susceptibility to abuse, her constant experience with abandonment, etc. like would someone so young not become bitter over time at having to be left alone to fend for herself so often while the men simply get to go on? whatever the tragedy of their relationship bruce always gets to go back to a home. he always gets to go back to alfred or dick or jason or whoever else. but who does talia have? in a world where every interaction between bruce and her father emotionally bludgeons the latter to the point of delirious possessiveness, where does she go? who does she turn to? she has absolutely no one. and she has to be the one who finally makes the decision to break off on her own bc she's so tired of never feeling like she has any power. the fact that she goes through all that she does in pre-00s canon before she even turns 30 is so insane! and if any writer had bothered to dwell on that fact then we might have seen her receive far more empathetic storytelling than she actually does. i very much think a huge reason as to why her character assassination was so easy for writers to indulge in is bc they never recognized how much she was a victim

#outbox #am supposed to be writing my paper but i saw this in my inbox and i couldn't let the itch go i think about this topic So much

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turquoiseorchid · 5 months

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what is roswell about? i've never seen anyone else post about it but you've got me intrigued

Ooh, join us! Roswell New Mexico has 4 seasons (2019-2022) with 13ish eps each; it was on the CW and is available on Netflix. (It’s a remake of a 90s or early 00s show just called Roswell. That one’s on Hulu and I’ve only seen a few episodes.) Overall, it’s about aliens living in Roswell and their human friends/love interests, plus a few alien-related mysteries. Most of my summary will be about season one and I’ll leave the rest for you to see for yourself.

Liz (human) comes back to Roswell ten years after high school, discovers her high school crush is an alien, and then finds out her sister had been killed by aliens. This and other developments lead to their whole social circle getting in on the secret and there’s a bunch of love triangles.

If I knew who you were, dear anon, I’d tailor this to what fandoms we’ve already got in common but to cover some of the likely options and their high level comparisons: If you like Leverage, this has found family and the love triangles can easily be shipped as throuples/polycules. If you like The Magicians then same as leverage plus canon queer characters and magic(technically science) powers. If you like Supernatural, there can be a lot of overlap between malex and destiel (for better and worse). If you’re still here from my Torchwood days, again queer characters with messy relationships and a lot of snark.

Let’s introduce some of the characters!

In the Pod Squad (the three main aliens), we’ve got Isobel, Max, and Michael (left to right in gif). Max and Isobel were adopted together and grew up as the Evans twins while Michael was a foster kid but all three are inseparable. Isobel starts off the series as someone whose identity is mainly focused on wife/sister/volunteer but breaks down her walls and grows into a total badass. Often portrayed in fanon as “the woman with the brain cell” for better or worse. Max is a writer-turned-cop and total romantic who has been pining for his high school crush (Liz) for over a decade and risks his family secret in order to save her and struggles with choosing between her safety and his family’s. Michael is an angsty bisexual mechanic with a troubled past and became many people’s blorbo on sight. He too has a high school sweetheart (Alex) who he’s never gotten over but grows enough to find healthy relationships and let people in. They all have various powers including telekinesis, healing, and mind control/influencing.

And now for Team Human! Liz is a scientist who left town after graduation because her sister died from (apparently) drunk driving and gets shot an hour after she returns. The lack of being dead causes her to investigate/confront her crush (Max) and learns about aliens, leading to the realization that her sister was killed by an alien and the crash was a coverup. The first person who she brings in is her ex-boyfriend, Kyle, a jock-turned-surgeon with a strong moral compass who tries to rein in the mad scientist tendencies of his ex-girlfriend (who he still has feelings for).

Next in on the whole alien thing is Alex, a gay emo who had a secret thing with Michael in high school before leaving to join the Air Force. He’s back in town (minus a leg) and has his plate full with finding out that his abusive homophobic dad runs a secret military team hunting aliens and oh hey, his high school boyfriend turns out to be an alien! He’s best friends with Maria, a psychic who runs the local bar. Besides bartending, she splits her time between fortune telling as a side hustle, encouraging Alex about his old flame (secretly Michael), and nursing a crush on the local barfly/mechanic (also Michael).

(Fun fact: I have no idea how to use tumblr’s gif search so both of the human gifs were found through their respective throuple ship tags.)

There are plenty of ships around depending on your preference but the most prevalent is malex (Michael/Alex), it’s nearly inescapable. Echo is Max/Liz and generally well liked. Isobel starts off with a husband (Noah) but also gets other love interests. The two main throuples are malexa (malex plus Maria) and kaliz (echo plus Kyle).

Anyone else please feel free to add why Anon should watch RNM!

#asks #not putting this in any tags since I might have come off as harsh about malex and or some fandom #I swear this is a great place it just has the same pitfalls as many fandoms #anyways yes anon you should watch RNM #this is longer than I intended can you tell I didn’t want to work today?

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hopewritcs · 2 years

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🎧 and Steve Harrington

“THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE IN BETWEEN.”

pairing: steve harrington x reader

song: never had by oscar isaac ( 10 years ost )

notes: like the movie this song is from, this is a fic drabble set at a reunion ( welcome to the 90s hawkins ! )

word count: 1.3k

Steve Harrington had never left Hawkins for long, he always thought he’d be one of those people to get out of town as soon as graduation hit. But here he stood at the doorway to the high school in the town he still lived in with a gulp. Because he hadn’t left.

Sure, he’d beaten some otherworldly demon shit, but how was he going to say that at the high school reunion?

“Oh, you work in film now? Cool, man. I got trapped in some other dimension for a while but it’s fine we all made it out.”

That wasn’t going to make sense to anybody here.

He tried to convince Robin to come with him, but even his best friend said she wouldn’t be caught dead going to the Hawkins High reunion.

The only reason Steve was even going was because he heard that you were going to be there.

You’d been friends briefly. ( At some point in time between him being King Steve and Babysitter Steve and then him graduating to deal with all the mess of what was going on with the Hawkins Lab and Vecna and Mindflayer and everything else ). But you’d moved away from Hawkins to go to college and hadn’t been back to visit.

Steve got up the courage and walked into the old high school gym, looking around. Ignoring the laughter from idiots, and people calling out for him like like Tammy Thompson and Tommy Hagan. He was looking for you, but for some reason hadn’t spotted you yet.

You were on your way to Hawkins High, and hadn’t been there in years. The last place you wanted to show up that night was at your old high school, but here you were--what even were you going for? You hadn’t been friends with everyone in your class. Maybe it was the nostalgia pulling you home, or the fact that after five years and now entering a new decade it seemed like you were wavering.

The taxi let you off at the school and it looked like the party was in full swing as you spotted a few of your former classmates outside stumbling around in the bushes on their way to the field.

You shook your head and walked inside, looking around at everything and humming as you looked for any familiar face. You didn’t know who had rsvp’d coming to this thing, but the last time you’d spoken to your friends they promised that they would all be there. ( It was the first time you’d see them all since graduation in one lace, after all. ) But you didn’t see anyone.

Instead, you began wandering around the gym, surprised by how much hadn’t changed as you looked at the decorations ( had they used these for the same dozen or so dances you’d gone to in school? ) and the old photographs someone had hung up on posters.

“I don’t think I even went here, I don’t see myself in any of these pictures.” you spoke to yourself as you looked through all the photos. A mix of yearbook photos, your classmates pictures, and aged polaroids.

“There’s more on the other side.”

The voice surprised you and you turned around, a smile forming when you spotted who it was. “Steve Harrington. I’m surprised you’re not in this wall more.”

Steve looked mostly the same, maybe a little older and a little more dressed up than the last time you’d seen him ( though, you’ll forgive the last time you’d seen him had been the summer of graduation when he was working at Scoops ). “Yeah, well, I don’t need to see more pictures of me than there already are.”

“Why? I like this one with the sunglasses. Those are gonna make a comeback someday, y’know.” You laughed, pointing to the picture nearest to you where Steve was in it, standing by some lockers in a jacket with some sunglasses on his face.

He smiled back at you and gestured to the other side of the wall, which you followed and walked to the other side with him, looking to see if you could find yourself. “See, Y/N, there you are.” Steve pointed to a picture of you that was covered up partially by one of the others.

You used your hand to move the other picture and then spotted yourself and turned back to Steve, “How did you know that was me?”

“I remembered the shoes.” he tapped the bright colored shoes you’d been wearing in the picture, shrugging like it wasn’t a big deal as he looked at you. But you stared back at him and didn’t know what to say.

“Oh, you remember all your friend’s bad wardrobe decisions so you can make fun of them later?” You laughed softly after a moment, turning back to the picture wall.

“I remember a lot of things.” He answered mostly under his breath, like he didn’t want you to hear it.

So you ignored it and nodded your head, “Join me at the bar? Because I think most of our classmates have already drunk the entire place out from under us.”

Steve linked his arm through yours and the two of you walked to the makeshift bar set up in the corner of the gym.

For the rest of the night, the two of you continued to talk. About nothing in particular, just catching up. How you’d moved to the city for college, then decided you wanted to stay there. How Steve hadn’t left town, never really figuring out where he would want to go if he had left.

You talked about school, about work, about plans you both had for the future. Whatever might be in store for the two of you respectively in the 1990 now that they were well on the way as it was already June.

You talked so long you didn’t realize when people began leaving for the night.

Then, Steve offered to drive you home, or to wherever it was you were staying.

“If I’m being honest, I wasn’t exactly planning on staying in town. I don’t know anyone who lives here anymore, my parents moved out of town a year ago to be closer to me. I was going to just take a cab home.” you had answered, glancing over at the clock on the wall. “Shit, is that the time. I’m never going to get a cab now.”

“You can just stay at my place.” Steve offered. “I have a spare room, so it might as well get some use.”

You turned back to look at Steve and nodded your head after a moment. “If you’re sure that’s not too much trouble or anything.”

He shook his head and offered you a wry smile. “I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it.”

You and Steve exited the high school and walked out into the night air, you let him lead the way as you walked toward wherever he lived now. You didn’t know if he meant his parents place, though you didn’t think he meant that by the way he said it.

You turned to look at Steve while you walked and thought for a moment, the silence getting the better of you and you couldn’t just keep quiet for too long. “So, why did you come tonight?”

“To see some old friends. Isn’t that why everyone goes to a reunion?” he shrugged, glancing at you.

“Oh, me too.” you hummed, as you spoke. “But...neither of us spent time with any other friends.”

“Maybe I wasn’t looking to spend time with any other friends.” Steve said as he continued walking. “C’mon, my place is just up here.”

And, it was just the beginning.

Hey, you had just been talking about how a whole new decade might be time for a new change, right?

#steve harrington imagine #steve harrington x reader #reader x steve harrington #steve harrington x you #requested

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tainbocuailnge · 2 years

Text

the average young-ish dutch person is gonna respond to someone wanting to learn dutch with “why bother though” because if you speak english to the average young-ish dutch person they’ll immediately respond in english. i know a lot of native dutch speakers who consider dutch silly and inelegant and just prefer english. and based on the anecdotal evidence of my personal experience it’s in large part bc a lot of us grew up on english language media, because the dubbing scene in the netherlands was miniscule (i don’t know the current state of it but hopefully it’s improved since my childhood where every pokemon movie had a different VA for ash) so we’re just not used to engaging with most things in dutch, especially online because the online spaces where people primarily speak dutch boil down to like, your bigoted extended family members on facebook. several universities give their courses in english because university graduates are one of the primary export products of the netherlands. so dutch ends up designated and dismissed as an unrefined language among dutch speakers bc many highly educated dutch people just don’t often speak it in contexts where more refined language is required and most of their experience with formulating critical thought is in english (which is the case for me too, i often slip into english while having arguments in dutch for this reason).

which isn’t to say dutch doesn’t often sound silly and unrefined (i like to describe it as drunk german) but it’s not like english can’t also sound dumb as hell and there’s a massive amount and range of dutch literature that wouldn’t have nearly the same amount of elegance or charm or impact in another language. radio stations that proudly focus on dutch music will more often than not play 90% lame tearjerkers and carnival music but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any good or elegant or skilful dutch lyricism out there (and some of the tearjerkers are really good!). it’s kind of a vicious cycle because the interest in dutch language media being so small means there’s less incentive to make more of it means there’s less actually good dutch writing means interest drops even more. and speaking for myself I doubt i’d actually use dutch language options in video games and the like because i’m so used to everything digital being in english. but it’s not because there’s something inherently bad or lame or stupid about dutch it’s a culmination of many cultural and socioeconomic factors. my point i guess being if you want to learn dutch don’t let dutch people telling you not to bother deter you because i bet at least half of them only think it’s lame because the last time they critically engaged with the language was to write their high school book reports on literature they didn’t understand

#anyway i love cuchulainn #en lees 'het leven is vurrukkulluk' als je zover bent #ik las die 10 jaar geleden voor de leeslijst en denk er nog steeds aan. echt zo'n boek wat voor een reden een klassieker is

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lucy-o-ohs · 5 months

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ive been considering posting on r/curatedtumblr again

but then i realize like 90% of my dash is video and/or audio based

and then i remember i felt like i wanted to get a good grade in tumblr subreddit which is both feasible to achieve and normal to want

and also like it was a thing with the jokeefunny banners and i dont know if i can stop that. like if i started posting and didnt use the banners then people who noticed my account would be like "oh whered jokeefunny go" but if i did then i would get more people asking why theres a garish fucking watermark on my posts and it just feels like a lose/lose situation

on top of all that when people would say they really liked jokeefunny it would feel like stolen valor since i didnt even start the bit, i just ""recycled"" it from millian

in concept im perfectly fine with just stepping away from that community as a whole but in practice its kinda like the only group of people that ive actually been able to "talk" to ever since i graduated from high school and if i lose that depression is gonna do the thing where its right about everything

i dont like having depressed as shit posts on here so i guess have some rhone and kamera which reminds me of the subreddit that i made specifically to post pics of them but then also stopped using at around the same time

#lucy is sleeby

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ollieinoue · 8 months

Text

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT TASK 001: MEET THE FAMILY [REDUX]

Family Aesthetics: ‘you know you can tell us anything, right’, a completely filled ash tray, working terrible hours and coming home late at night, 90s grunge aesthetic, a teeny tiny apartment with no AC and a shitty water heating system, a fridge full of cheap knock off brands, been there done that, cheering extremely loud while the rest of the parents give them strange looks, terribly played out of tune guitars, ignored knowing looks, constant memes in the family group chat, lovingly giving each other shit, doing anything for their child and not understanding a word that comes out of his mouth, late night conversations over takeout.

PRE OLLIE

REN INOUE [ 48 yrs old ; mechanic ] [ fc yutaka takenouchi ]

Ren was born in Hiroshima Japan, and would be the only child his parents had. He lived in Japan for three years before his parents moved him and themselves to New York City, so he honestly doesn't remember much of it.

Like a lot of first gen kids from foreign families there was a lot of pressure put on Ren to become successful, and assimilate into a new country. Unfortunately for the Inoue's, Ren was an extremely rebellious person and that is what he spent most of his youth doing.

He created a band in High School with some of his friends called Drink the Kool Aid (he's the lead guitarist), and spent most of his time fucking around with them, fucking around with random people in bars, getting drunk, getting high, and partying. So, no, he did not graduate high school. He never saw the point in formal education.

When he was about 23 he met a girl named Faye and the two hit it off pretty fast. She was fun, she liked the same music as him, she thought his band was cool, the partied together literally all the time. They liked hanging out they were friends.

Until one day when he was around 27 Faye told him she was pregnant and thus Ollie was born.

FAYE INOUE [ 45 yrs old ; hostess & cashier ] [ fc christina ricci ]

Faye Bright was born in Hoboken New Jersey, the youngest child of the Bright family and the only daughter. Her mother left shortly after she was born leaving her and her three older brothers as her father's responsibility.

Her father was a drunk, and much much worse more often than not, and her older brothers weren't much better, so Faye often found herself anywhere but at home from the age of eight until she moved out on her own at the age of sixteen. She hasn't spoken to her brother's or her father since moving out.

She was mostly getting into trouble in those years. Going out and partying way too young. But who was going to fucking stop her?

It wasn't all fun and games, though. Faye often worked multiple jobs while finishing High School, supporting herself, because nobody was going to do it for her. Her life was rocky, and difficult, but she still managed to do it all on her own without needing anybody else.

When she was about 18 years old one night, wandering into some city pub playing some shitty punk band is the night she met Ren. He was fun, and interesting, and the two of them developed a fun little friendship.

She never planned for it to become more than that until she realized she was pregnant with his child, and everything changed for the both of them.

POST OLLIE

The first years of Ollie's life were rough for both him and his parents for many reasons. Ren, who at the time was also dealing with his father's death, wouldn't have known responsibility if you pasted the definition onto his forehead. He was great with Ollie but damn if he'd ever be able to take care of him. Faye on the other hand was almost the opposite, she had a job, she could buy food for the baby but … she was sorting through her own trauma and to say she was a bit cold towards the baby would be an understatement.

If it was not for Ren's mother, Yumiko, Ollie's Obaasan, he likely would have had a much much worse time during his early development. She set down an ultimatum, that unless they wanted her to take Ollie for herself, and move back to Japan they needed to shape up. It was rough for both of his parents. His father got clean (besides casual drinking and smoking pot), got his Equivalency, and started a job as a mechanic. Faye struggled a little more, but went to some free counseling at a shelter, and as time went on had an easier time building bonds with Ollie.

By the time Ollie was five his parents were making enough to move into an apartment of their own that was big enough to house all of them, not Ren's mother's one bedroom apartment they had been living in. And once Ollie was six Yumiko Inoue moved back to Japan feeling like his parents were up to the task of taking care of their child.

Ren and Faye were legally married pretty soon after that at a local courthouse, mainly for the benefits it would bring, rather than being in love with each other - but who needed to be in love to get married? If anything their relationship was much stronger than almost every single one of the married couples around them, they've shown that years and years over now. Ollie's never had a reason to complain about their relationship.

While the bonds between the Inoue family were quite good, it was still rough going. Ren and Faye were working more often than not and Ollie found himself home alone often. They did their best to make sure he wasn't left up to his own devices hen they could, and there were many free children's programs Ollie was stuck into. Everything from children's tumbling, to summer reading programs and everything in between. It was many of the people in charge of those programs that told Ren and Faye that Ollie was showing signs of being an extremely gifted child. He was learning at a much faster rate than any of his peers, had a reading level far beyond someone his age, and was frankly just very smart.

They didn't ever have the means to put Ollie into any advanced private schools, and any time someone offered any sort of opportunity for a scholarship Ollie outright refused. He just wanted to go to school with his friends, and all was well about it, really. He did eventually get tested officially, and it was determined his IQ was 169 (nice) which put him in the .03 percentile of the world's population.

His parents did what they could to insist Ollie take advantage of the skills he'd been given. He had a real opportunity to become something much better than either of them became. He could really do something to help all of them in the long run. They didn't mean to but there was a lot of pressure put on Ollie, and he didn't want to disappoint anybody. So, eventually Ollie agreed to advance his classes, and was put into High School a year ahead of his peers.

Ollie became a lot to handle for his parents through out his teenage years, despite how hard they tried. They fought all the time, Ollie would be gone for days at a time with only a few texts telling them (lying) about where he was, and the signs that Ollie was using drugs (to two people who also got into drug use when they were younger) were probably pretty obvious. But it was hard to really do anything about it. Ollie was still getting top grades in school, he was turning in all of his work, he was so skilled at fleecing the system that neither his parents, nor his school could really … do much unless he was the one who reached out. And he never did.

It was clear that Ollie was a troubled teenager, but his parents worked so hard and so often all they could really do was make it clear that if he ever wanted to talk they would listen. He never did.

So, despite the underlying worry that always lingered around their son, they were always extremely proud and supportive no matter what he was able to accomplish. He graduated the top of his class, and they were so excited for him. He got accepted into such a great school, Ogden, and was the first person in their family to go to college and they were so excited for him.

There were a lot of rough years for the family, but things have come full circle. Ollie's matured a little bit (shocking I know) and realizes his parents aren't actually out to get him, in fact if anything they've been probably a little too soft with him but he appreciates them. And the longer he's been away from home the more he's come to appreciate them (hard not to when he's surrounded with the terrible stories everyone else at Ogden has of their parents). Over all things with the Inoue family are going well. At least as far as Ollie is concerned. He sees no reason why his parents would still be worried about him, or anything. He's doing great.

OLLIE'S OPINON

First of all, write this down: his parents are really fucking cool. They're both still very 90s grunge type of people, and it's obvious to tell just by looking at either of them, or their aesthetic. It was fairly often that Ollie was brought to some shitty dive bar to help his dad and his dad's band set up for some set they were playing. They were never good, but it was always a lot of fun, and Ollie has a ton of fond memories hanging out with his mom and dad, eating some real good bar food. Most of his childhood was honestly a really good one, from everything he can remember. And even though things got tougher as he grew up (mostly thanks to him) it's extremely hard not to look at his relationship with his parents and see it positively. They fought a lot when Ollie was a teenager, Ollie did a lot of shitty and stupid things just to be a brat. But he is aware that despite how busy they were working they were doing it all for him, and they tried so much to be there for him. He's not stupid, he's not blind, he saw it all. He resented them for it at the time, but it makes him love them even more now.

All that said they put a massive amount of pressure on Ollie. They knew he was the only way they were all getting out of the hole they live in, he knew that too. They told him multiple times everything was his choice and they'd never make him do anything he didn't want to do but he saw the disappointment every time he turned down some opportunity that would have really done something for him. Eventually he gave in, and that is likely why he is where he is now, but it was never something he actually ever wanted. it was simply clear that… he had to make it. They made that clear. He couldn’t waste what he had- skill, potential, natural talent. They never were mean about anything. He never felt like if he screwed up that they wouldn’t love him. And that made it so much worse but he constantly feels like he’s fucking up. That he’s living on this precarious edge that any wrong move he makes will show all the ugly, messy, fucked up things he does, and feels, and this image that they have of him will be shattered. He’s terrified of that happening, but he feels like it’s only a matter of time.

SOME FUN FACTS

Due to dad and his grandma mostly handling his very early childhood he learned Japanese before he learned English, but he doesn't know how to write it. And he doesn't necessarily consider himself fluent, because beyond his grandma and dad the only real place he heard Japanese was in anime or movies. Which is a bit different than how people speak if he were to actually go to Japan and speak with people. But it was technically his first language.

No one in his family cooks. Ollie can bake, but cooking? Most meals in the Inoue family were sandwiches, mac & cheese, instant ramen, rice, and onigiri. Also anything you can microwave. That was basically it.

Ollie's parents always try very very hard to go to school functions when they can. It's not easy since Ogden is about 6 hours away from New York, but they really try hard to show up when they can to important things. Ollie doesn't hold it against them, and if they do miss something important they always go out to celebrate on their own together when they can.

The whole family is stoners, sorry. Yes, his parents know he smokes pot, and have said they know. But he's an adult now and can do what they want. The apartment has a ton of snacks in it because they're all stoners though.

Do they know he does harder drugs (yes). Do they know he has addiction problems (probably). Have they ever addressed it? No. Honestly one of the biggest problems with his parents is they're not really good at discipline, it's always been a thing. They probably don't know how to even begin addressing this sort of situation. It's strange. He’s kind of existing in this strange place where like… If they confront him about it he’ll die figuratively, if they DON’T … he might die literally. he really doesn't know what he wants to happen.

#task .#ogdentask #my things .#I changed ollie's mom's fc (we don't support scabs) so I redid all of this #also because I've developed Ollie's a family a TON since I did this the first time SO #this ended up being half about his family half history type of thing as well #btw here is the thing ... don't ask where ollie gets his curly hair from #his mom has curly hair okay we've all seen yellowjackets she just straightens it mostly

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