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neptuneiris · 1 year

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brooklyn baby (03/?)

look at us, you and i, back at it again

pairing: rockstar!aemond × fem!reader

summary: another party, a group of friends and the spin the bottle game takes you back to aemond.

word count: 9.3k

previous part • next part • series masterlist

here another chapter, long but necessary, I'm really enjoying writing this story and I hope you also like it a lot. I look forward to your comments, thanks for all the support my loves, enjoy!

warnings: alcohol, language, mention of weed.

You let out a huge sigh of frustration and instantly stop typing, close your eyes and bring your hands to the back of your neck, not understanding what the fuck is wrong with you.

Oh but you do know.

Your funny mind tells you, only making you more frustrated and angry with yourself, as it is right because you do know what exactly is wrong with you. And what's wrong with you has a name: Aemond Targaryen.

It's going to be a whole week since that kiss and what a kiss... happened. You haven't seen him again but it's all constantly replaying in your mind, unable to avoid it and unable to stop.

All this week you have been trying to distract yourself with all your college homework, this important project is an example, but you always come back to think about him.

And you don't understand why, rather why that kiss and that moment with him is affecting you so much when it was just a kiss, yes, with a handsome guy who plays in a band, but nothing more than just a kiss happened.

However... you remember perfectly the feeling of his lips against yours, his hands caressing your face and body, also the way he pressed himself against you and sent waves of pleasure to your core.

Stop it!

You scold yourself, not being able to think about it here, in the school library, not when the simple memory of how he felt against you... right now makes you feel things you shouldn't feel in this place, at all.

You grimace, giving yourself a moment, because yes, it all felt great, the kiss was amazing, the feeling, everything... but a deep part of you tells you that you shouldn't have allowed it.

Maybe you didn't fuck with him but still, you've become just another girl who like all of them, fell easily at his feet. Even after seeing him like that with one of his fans, which tells you it's not the first time he's done it and after feeling disappointed, ignoring him and so on, you still reciprocated his kiss.

You get frustrated again, telling yourself that enough is enough and go back to work, no longer wanting to think about him and that kiss, focusing and getting serious about your project.

It takes you all afternoon and a small part of the evening to finally finish and you head back to your apartment, ending another stressful week and having no more worries, so you can rest now.

You let out a long sigh of relief as the warmth of your home envelops you, feeling so good to be back here and have no more worries, as you head to the kitchen and drop your backpack on the small island, thinking about what you can prepare to eat and then go to your room and watch a TV show or movie.

"Hi," says someone suddenly behind you.

You move as fast as your body allows you and completely scared you look at your living room behind you, where very comfortably on one of your sofas sits Baela, with her phone in hand and innocently eating some strawberries, which are in fact yours because you bought them two days ago when you went to the supermarket.

"W-what..." you stare at her blankly, your heart rate being faster than normal, "What are you doing here?"

"I texted you," she says still unconcerned, raising her phone, "I told you I'd be waiting for you here."

"But..." you look at her completely confused, "How did you get in? In fact, how come you and Rhaena can come in here? I have my keys, I-I don't....

"I made them a copy about a month ago," she interrupts you to answer, still unconcerned.

"What?" you snap, confused, "How?"

She shrugs.

"I know someone. And you didn't even notice."

You continue to stare at her completely confused, then let out a long breath and continue to try to control your heart rate, the feeling of being scared still not completely gone.

"God, you almost scared me to death," you look at her serious.

"Oh how dramatic," she rolls her eyes at you, "Anyway, come here."

You continue to watch her seriously, as you reluctantly make your way over to her to take a seat on your single couch, only to have your gaze fall on your bowl of strawberries that she is eating so placidly

"And those strawberries are mine," you snap at her.

She frowns at you.

"I'll buy you more, selfish."

You continue to stare at her for a few more seconds.

"Well? What's going on?" you watch her expectantly.

"There's a frat party tomorrow, the leader is a friend of mine, his name is William."

She starts to tell you and you instantly look away from her, understanding where she's going with this, as you let out a long breath and drop your head back against the back of the couch, closing your eyes.

"I invited Jace, I told him if he wanted he could invite his cousins and he said yes, they'll be there. So go prepare another one of your sexy outfit's."

"I'm not going," you tell her instantly, with resignation.

"What?" she also says instantly with surprise and confusion, "What are you talking about? And now why not?"

"I don't want to go."

She looks at you with her mouth wide open.

"B-but... are you crazy? Your sexy guitarist will be there," she says indignantly, "This is another great opportunity for you to see him again."

"It doesn't matter, I don't want to."

"What do you mean you don't want to!?"

She exclaims to you totally confused and without understanding anything, leaving the bowl with strawberries aside to give you all her attention, while you continue firm with your words and with the decision more than taken, from now on thinking that whatever she tells you, she won't make you change your mind.

What happened with Aemond... you don't want to say it was a mistake but it shouldn't have happened either. You've already become just another one of the crowd and if you see him again, you're afraid you won't be able to stop again and you really don't want that.

You don't want to take things any further... you don't want to 'officially' become another one of the crowd if he and you... get involved in that way.

"I'm not understanding anything," Baela says frustrated, "You don't want to see him again?"

"Baela, I don't want to see him again because I don't want to become another girl in his pile," you say seriously.

"W-what?" she says more confused than before, "Wait, what do you mean? Why do you say that? Did something happen with him that you haven't told me? Because I swear I don't understand anything."

"We kissed at Jason's party," you tell her suddenly, surprising her, "And I let it happen just when earlier at the after party I saw him going into the bathroom with one of his fans."

Baela, still surprised, softens her whole face now in understanding, but still surprised, while you affirm to her with your gaze that it is true, with your disappointed and serious face.

"It just happened. I couldn't help it," you tell her frustrated, bringing your hands back to your face, "But I felt so disappointed and so... stupid," you let out a long breath, "When I saw him like that, I understood that it's not the first time he's done it and I also understood why he gave me so much attention that time in Brooklyn. And I gave him exactly what he wanted at the party and he didn't even make any effort," you place a sour look, "And who could tell him no? Of course no one."

Baela lets out a long breath, watching you sadly.

"Y/N...

"I was so naive. I should have known," you interrupt her, "He's very handsome and plays in a band, it was clear he had thousands of girls after him and now... he only wants me as a one-night stand, then he'll ignore me and I'm really not interested to go back to being just another one of the crowd."

"But..." Baela watches you intently and hopefully, "Are you sure about what you saw? Maybe you misunderstood."

"They went into the men's room together, Baela, just him and that girl," you tell her obviously, "And they didn't go in together to play cards, did they?"

Baela doesn't say anything more, she just lowers her gaze and seems to think, trying to find an explanation, when there is no clear explanation other than that. And just like you... she feels disappointed.

Aegon looks like that kind of guy, in fact he is that kind of guy, but Aemond? Even she didn't expect it, though she knows you're right, both and Rhaena as well should have known since he's absolutely handsome and can easily afford that.

And she has no idea how to defend him, so she totally understands your disappointment and that you now want to keep your distance, being the best thing, because that's what she would do too if she were in your place.

"So your love novel with the sexy guitarist is over?" she asks you sad and disappointed.

"Yeah," you mumble, "As handsome as he is, I'm not interested if things are going to be like this."

She lets out another long breath again, resigned.

"Fine, then we won't mention the sexy guitarist anymore."

You place a sad little smile.

"But at least you and Rhaena got lucky and the thing with Jace and Luke is serious."

"I wouldn't call it serious," she says thoughtfully, with a grimace, "I mean, we're not seeing anyone else but... yeah," she shrugs, "Things are getting there."

You feel happy for them, they know it, so you don't say anything else, neither does Baela and the two of you sink into a comfortable silence that is all over your apartment, while you stare at a specific spot in your living room, thinking about everything and yet nothing, while Baela continues to eat from your strawberries, also thoughtful and still feeling disappointed.

Then you start to think again about what you are going to prepare to eat and also what movies you will decide to watch, whether suspense, science fiction, love or massacre.

"Don't you want grapes?"

Baela asks you suddenly, pulling you out of your thoughts, as you see how the bowl in her lap is already empty.

"I have some in my fridge. I can pay you with them for the strawberries."

You watch her slightly amused for a moment, then let out a small laugh and nod.

Unfortunately for you, your Friday night goes by fast, where all you did was stay in bed watching a movie marathon with Baela of love being the final decision, whether it was Me Before You, Love Rosie, Midnight Sun, Two Feet Apart, also Nerve and the first Maze Runner movie.

Until you wake up, it's Saturday, Baela is gone and you actually read her message telling you that she has returned to her apartment.

You stay in bed all morning, not really doing anything important, until you get up, take a shower, make yourself a meal and go back to bed with a bowl of chips, ready to continue with the next episode of Gossip Girl.

It's the third time you're re-watching the show but you don't care.

Then you fall asleep and when the sound of your phone wakes you up, you see through your windows all the dark sky, while everything inside your room is reflected by the light of the TV and also by the New York buildings that surround you with their light windows and give that so well known nocturnal characteristic of the city.

You let out a yawn, realizing that your nap has gone on too long when you turn on your phone screen and see that it is almost nine o'clock at night

You strain your eyes and watch more closely as Baela has texted you, as have some of your classmates, but it's the weekend and you don't want to worry about anything at school right now, so you read Baela's message.

baela🐬: are you sure you don't want to come?

You frown.

You: where are you?

And she replies back instantly.

baela🐬: at will's party

And she sends you a picture of her with Rhaena and Luke, while you distinguish Jace's figure a bit off in the background, preparing a drink, while there are colored lights and a bunch of other people, so you remember him and you also remember that he must be there too.

You: have fun

But as soon as you send the message, Baela reads it and quickly responds.

baela🐬: he's not here👀

And this immediately catches your attention, frowning again and then answering and waiting for an attentive response.

You: why not?

baela🐬: everyone came except him and daeron. jace said they both decided to stay home.

You watch with your narrowed eyes the message, questioning Baela's words and not quite believing her.

You: are you lying and this is one of your plans to get him and I to see each other?

baela🐬: 🙄

baela🐬: after what you told me do you think I would do that to you?

You press your lips together, as you let out a long breath, since she is right. Baela can be very insistent but when you finally make her understand that no is no, she stops.

You: send me the address

You say finally, having made up your mind, needing to go out and have fun after such a stressful week, as if all your weeks are not the same, and then you leave your phone on the bed and get up to get ready.

You take advantage of the fact that he's not there, because then you won't have to be worrying about being in the same place as him after what happened between the two of you and you can actually have fun.

From your closet you choose an all-black dress that fits your body perfectly, with straps and comes to mid-thigh. You decide to wear it with a pair of boots without a platform since you will get tired if you wear the high platform ones. (click here)

You discard one of your jackets as you know it won't be necessary in a crowd of people so you go on to do your make-up, this time putting on a matte flesh colored lipstick and leaving your hair straight with two strands together in the middle of your head.

Once you're ready, you call for an Uber, since Baela has taken the car and not long after, you find yourself entering the party.

You spot a few of your classmates as you enter the huge house, greeting them, greeting Baela's friends that she introduced you to and even crossing paths with Jason who is with Cregan and Alysanne.

You ask for your cousins and find them near the kitchen, each one talking to their respective boy, while on your way to them you meet Aegon, although he doesn't see you, as he is sticking his tongue down the throat of a blonde girl.

You watch him slightly surprised and amused by such a scene, until you finally reach your cousins.

Rhaena pulls you into a huge hug, instantly telling you that you look amazing with a smile, to which you also say the same, also to Baela, then greeting Jace and Luke, Jace quickly offering to make you a drink.

"Have you guys been here long?" you ask them over the music.

"Not long. About an hour ago," Rhaena answers you.

"So? What's the news?"

"Nothing new, you know," Baela tells you smiling, "We were actually thinking of playing beer pong."

"Oh, great. I want to play the first round," you say instantly, ready to start enjoying the party.

Just then Jace returns with your drink, you thank him and the five of you start setting up for the game, beginning first by playing one-on-one and then two-on-two.

Laughter and excitement invades the five of you every time the ball goes in or out of the red cups, having a good time, forgetting about the outside world for a while and enjoying these moments.

Other people at the party also join in to play, making it all even more fun, Rhaena already starting to get a little drunk, as are you, though not too much.

Then the five of you decide to go dancing along with all the other people, shouting, singing and enjoying all the songs while Rhaena records and takes some pictures, while you already start to feel the alcohol taking effect a bit more, letting you get more into the moment, really enjoying it.

Until you start to get a bit left over among the four of you as Baela starts to dance very close with Jace, both in their own world, also Rhaena with Luke, both still shy but getting more and more confident.

Still it doesn't bother you, you dance alone and even join in with another group of girls dancing nearby, singing with them.

You then accompany Rhaena along with Luke back to the kitchen to hydrate a bit, you also deciding to drink water this time because of how hot the house already feels, and then Baela and Jace join in as well, the five of them taking a break.

They both offer to prepare more drinks, while you go for your fourth beer, staying a moment alone with your cousins.

"So? Has anything happened between you and Luke yet?" you ask her interested, with a small smile.

And of course, Rhaena blushes and smiles shyly.

"We kissed."

"At Jason's party?"

"Yes and also a while ago," she tells you clearly controlling her excitement, "I don't know, I feel like we're going slow but sure."

"Better that than going fast," Baela tells her, nodding in her direction.

"You go fast with Jace," you tell her amused, laughing.

"That's not true," she gets indignant, "We've only kissed."

"Oh so you didn't take him to your apartment when Jason's party was over?" you inquire, expectantly.

Immediately she looks at Rhaena completely serious and more indignant than before.

"You were the gossip?"

"I didn't say anything!" she tells her instantly, "Besides it was obvious. I slept with Y/N because there was no way I was going to sleep on your couch to listen to your sounds."

You let out a huge laugh, as Baela reluctantly takes a sip from her beer bottle.

"Well, it's true, we're going fast but we've both been clear and know what we want."

"Thank God," you nod to her then let out a long breath, putting on your thoughtful face, excited and sad at the same time, "I admired you guys," you mumble, looking out into the beyond, "I would have wanted to have the same luck."

"Oh come on, don't say that," Rhaena tells you instantly with a soft look.

"Yeah, it wasn't like….

Start to say Baela too, but she stops mid-sentence, drawing her sister's attention and yours too, while you see how she stands watching behind you completely static, surprised and a bit fearful.

You exchange confused glances with Rhaena, who stares at her sister as if she is completely mad.

"What? What's wrong?"

She tells her but Baela doesn't react, so Rhaena also looks to where she's watching and her reaction is also the same, instantly looking surprised at who knows what, annoying you because they don't say anything.

"But what the hell is wrong with you guys?"

You inquire them without understanding, confused, to follow the same gaze as both of them, watching behind you and then… now you understand.

You part your lips and watch with your eyes wide open as Daeron and Aemond make their way through the entire party, instantly drawing everyone's attention, but more so the girls specifically, beginning to feel your heart start to beat fast as you watch them.

Incredulous and confused you don't understand anything, seeing how he is here, when he wasn't supposed to come, all the memories of that almost kiss and then the kiss invading your mind instantly, also the memory of his hips pressing against you.

Fuck.

That's all you can think of as you watch him, standing there, walking among all the people in that alluring way of his, as if he owned the whole place, yet with his unconcerned look and deliberately ignoring all the girls watching him interested.

Then you look again at your cousins, who look back at you still surprised.

"What is he doing here?"

You inquire, at that moment realizing the panic that begins to invade your whole body, since you were supposed to come here because he wouldn't be here.

"How should I know?" Baela tells you instantly, looking just as worried as you, "Jace said they weren't coming, that's why I texted you."

Still panicking, you go back to watching him, still being the center of attention along with Daeron, who smiles at everyone and looks more than willing to start having a good time, while you couldn't say the same for Aemond, but still he's here.

You look away, let out a huge sigh and take a huge gulp from your beer bottle, resigned.

Aemond.

Aemond has never felt more tired in his life.

Constantly moving from one side to the other for the tour, having five-hour rehearsals during the week and on weekends attending concerts along with the after party and finishing very late to be the same routine the next day, he doesn't find time to rest properly.

He sees how his brothers and his cousins, actually nephews, do everything, they look happy, like new and he... doesn't. Rather, he feels exhausted.

It's not that he doesn't like what he does, on the contrary, he loves playing guitar and giving a good show, but he wishes that's all it would be.

Criston, his manager, insists that he must spend time with the fans, since after all they are the reason why they are successful and can play their concerts, but he, not that he is ungrateful, in fact he does spend time with them… but to a certain point.

He can take pictures and sign his autograph in a pleased and calm way, also receive gifts like necklaces or bracelets from them, he really appreciates those gestures. But when the girls get too intense and start touching him, also invading his personal space too much… that's when the discomfort begins.

He understands that they feel very excited, but there are limits and many of them do not respect them by wanting to act as if they have known him all their lives and believe they have a certain right over him.

Also social media, if it were up to him, he wouldn't have it, he really doesn't like it and prefers the real world. But Criston insisted that he do it for the band, agreeing to at least have Instagram account.

He got used to it soon after by posting promotional photos, whether it was of a new single, a new music video or a new album, also from the tour. Then he only started posting behind-the-scenes photos of his brothers and nephews, also of the cities he was traveling to, but nothing else.

Also the invasion of his privacy by fans was something he didn't like at all, however, like his brothers and nephews, he had to learn to deal with it.

Sometimes he thinks about what would have happened if he had decided to go to college, definitely another story of his life would be, but honestly… he can't imagine himself not being this, a musician.

However, he didn't think that following Aegon's idea about forming a band would be so heavy and bring so much questioning about his life and what he does.

At least the tour ends in New York after having traveled half the country, where his mother and family live, also where he has his own apartment, just like Aegon.

And the first two concerts are in Queens, then they will play in three different clubs in Brooklyn and finally they will play two more concerts in Manhattan.

There is nothing new, only the public reacts differently when the dates of the last concerts start, Queens actually being very quiet and more pleasant for him, but not for Aegon, who complained about the lack of excitement from the fans and that the girls practically didn't jump on him.

And of course, Jace and Daeron had to agree with him.

Then Brooklyn, the first concert being exactly what Aegon expected, all the girls screaming, lots of energy in the audience and on stage, lots of noise and a whole scandal.

And the second concert is the same, until finally something interesting happens at the after party when he almost makes that fan lose her balance and doesn't jump the second she sees him walk out of that room, being you.

Aemond was so used to any girl practically jumping on him and doing everything to get his attention, but not you. And he knew because you're not really a fan.

But still, you surprised him by the way you are.

He was surprised that you were somehow understandable to him to be hiding from the fans for a while and that you didn't judge him, also that you weren't playing dumb to get his attention, that you didn't instantly react to him after he decided to push you a little, you just were honest at all times and gave him his space.

And you got his attention a lot in just a matter of moments. And Aemond in that instant knew… he wanted, no, he needed to see you again.

He had never given free tickets to anyone before, you just happened to be an exception, in fact he didn't have permission to do that, but he didn't care and luckily no one noticed, least of all Criston.

He really wanted you to take something from the concert back home, so he genuinely didn't make you both go into that room to take advantage of the fact that you were both alone and get something more from you, no, he really did it out of kindness.

But as the seconds passed and the conversation extended, he couldn't help but think what it would feel like to kiss you, to feel you, to touch you. And when he saw that you also began to respond in the same way, that's when he decided to make the move.

It would have happened, had it not been for Aegon, of course.

After you thanked him and left embarrassed, Aegon gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder, telling him that had he known, he wouldn't have interrupted him, but that Criston was going to go mad if he didn't go out and talk to the fans.

In the days that followed he never stopped thinking about you, much less when he found out that Jace and Luke were texting your cousins, so he was looking forward, even if he didn't realize it, to the concert in Manhattan.

But what a great disappointment he felt when he saw your cousins, but not you.

Originally he didn't plan to find out what had happened to you, but when he was at the bar with your cousins, he couldn't contain himself any longer and asked them both where you were.

After that, the stress came back.

With the last concert coming up, the whole band had to rehearse longer hours than usual every day until the day of the concert, Aegon insisting that he wanted everything to be perfect, following Criston's idea, as it had to be unforgettable.

They were going to take a break for a month, then they would play more concerts in New York and in the closest surrounding areas of the state such as Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Aemond tried not to think about you anymore, because after you didn't go to the concert, he began to understand that he would probably never see you again.

Then the last concert started and all the pressure he had on him he felt more at that moment, knowing perfectly well that he couldn't make a mistake, focusing all the time on his notes and especially on his solos.

He couldn't relax, not even with the cigarette, keeping in mind that after this he would have to focus on the fans, when all he wanted was to finally rest and not worry about more concerts, feeling very tired.

That's why he did what he did.

After spending only a few minutes with the fans, returning to the room, he had to leave almost immediately on Criston's orders, but on his way out he saw a very excited fan already at the door asking him for a picture.

It was enough to observe her from head to toe and then tell her to follow him, going directly to the men's room where the girl did not even ask a question since it was quite clear the intention and she did not say no either.

When was the last time he had done this? At the last concert in Portland, Oregon.

He knew Aegon did it too, but he wasn't more frequent than he was, since he only did it when he felt the need too much due to stress and frustration, as in those moments.

He fucked her from behind, fast and hard, not needing foreplay as she was completely wet. He didn't touch her except from the waist and nothing else, she wanted to kiss him and touch him but he didn't let her. He just needed to release.

Neither of them needed to take off their clothes either, she had a skirt on and that made everything faster, just like he wanted. Then he came out of the bathroom first after cleaning up, telling the girl to get out of here without anyone seeing her, to go back to the center of the pub, where he met Aegon.

When then he saw you.

Surprise came over him completely, definitely not expecting to see you, barely realizing that you had seen the concert and that you had been here the whole time.

And after you made no move to approach him, completely ignoring his gaze on you and also as if he wasn't in the same place as you, he understood that you knew what he had done.

You had seen him and he couldn't help but get more frustrated about it.

The boys had mentioned a party, Jace most of all, saying that Baela, your cousin, had invited them. He had from the beginning thought about not going and in fact wasn't going to, but after seeing you… he decided to join in as well.

Throughout the party it became clearer to him that you had definitely seen him and so you continued to ignore him, which made him frustrated but he also understood you.

However, had he known you were there, the first thing he would have done was to try to get close to you and what he did with that girl he would never have considered.

Until finally things turn out in his favor on that balcony.

From the beginning he told himself that he wasn't going to ruin this opportunity to talk to you by being left alone and that he wasn't going to bring up the subject so as not to make you feel uncomfortable by his actions… unless you decided to talk about it.

And he thought the two of you would just talk and nothing more, but the moment he started testing the waters just out of curiosity and also because he wanted to, of course, you started responding in the same way, just like in Brooklyn and he felt very lucky to finally feel your lips against his.

What came next was not intentional, but his emotions began to make him let himself go and you were very responsive at all times to his touch, only driving him crazier.

He enjoyed the moment and very much, loving every second of it, of feeling your lips, your body, your hands on his face and neck, everything, only leaving him wanting more when the moment was interrupted.

But you looked absolutely beautiful with that look of desire, your red, swollen lips, watching him with that slight glow in your eyes, the lights of the huge buildings illuminating both of them, you.

And Aemond at that moment only felt more the need to see you again.

Unfortunately nothing more happened between you and him that night, both of you couldn't be together anymore because afterwards Luke and Daeron started feeling sick from all the drinking, Daeron especially started throwing up in the bathroom and could barely stand up by himself.

Aemond had to take care of him and they left the party.

Afterwards neither he nor you tried to communicate after what happened, he mostly didn't do it so as not to overwhelm you and not to make you feel pressured, so he preferred to give you your space until you had processed what happened and that you wouldn't consider him an intense for wanting to see you again.

But how he wanted to see you again and he understood that he wouldn't until his nephews and your cousins planned something. However, when Jace told them about a frat party, he told you that Baela didn't mention you when he asked her with whom she was going.

So he decided not to go and went to visit his mother, who has her own apartment also on the Upper East Side and Daeron lives with her, however, because his little brother was grounded after his mother saw him in that state last time, he managed to convince her to lift his grounding.

And now they're both there, in the living room, as their mother prepares to go to a dinner party for her work and Daeron insists that he take him to that party.

"We won't say anything to Mom, she says I'm still too young to go to frat parties."

"And she's right," he replies, disinterested.

"Oh come on, the party last time was a frat party."

"It was in an apartment, not a house," he clarifies.

"But it was still a college party!"

"Then you must not have had too much to drink and that's why I don't want to go to this party if I'm going to have to babysit you afterwards," he tells him seriously.

"Oh, what a bullshit," he tells him indignantly, "We both know and in fact everyone knows that you don't want to go to that party because your girl from the other night won't go."

"Keep messing with me and I'm not taking you to any more parties," he warns him.

"But you don't want to take me to this one!" he tells him again indignantly, "Come on dude, I really want to go."

"Then go," he says confused, "I don't understand why you want me to go with you."

"And how am I supposed to go by myself? Flying?"

He lets out a long breath, starting to get irritated.

"I already told you no, Daeron."

"Please."

"No."

"Please!"

"No."

"But…

"No."

"Dude…

"No."

"Let's go to the party and I won't tell Criston that you gave free tickets to that girl and Jace and Luke's girls."

Then Aemond's gaze immediately refocuses on Daeron, who crosses his arms and watches him expectantly, completely serious and more than willing with his threat.

"The others didn't notice but I did," he lets him know, smiling with superiority, "Those tickets were for some friends of Criston's and he asked me to take them to him. And what a coincidence that they were gone right after you and Aegon left the room."

"It could have been Aegon," he tells her serious.

"Aegon loses his own things because he doesn't remember where he put them and you think he's going to know where those tickets were kept?" he asks her confused.

Aemond lets out a long sigh, as he looks away from him, looking clearly annoyed.

"You fucking little demon."

Reader.

The bottle game and seven minutes in paradise.

That's what everyone wants to play, being Baela's idea mainly, while she insists you to join, telling you it will be fun, while all the participants, Cregan, Jason, Alysanne, Rhaena, Luke and Jace of course, also the leader of the fraternity and Baela's friend William, wait in his room.

But you really don't like that game, the last time you played that, already many months ago also at a party, it wasn't very nice.

"Come on," Baela insists you pleadingly for what you think is the eleventh time.

"I told you, I'll be there with you but I'm not going to play," you tell her tired.

"That's not the point. You have to play, come on," she insists again.

"Baela," you look at her irritated.

"And I promise I won't sneak back into your apartment. Let alone steal food from you again," she says instantly, hopefully.

And at this you raise one of your eyebrows in her direction, expectantly.

"And will you give me the copy you clandestinely took from my key?"

She rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever. It's at my house, I'll give it to you later."

"Are you sure about that?" you inquire with an obvious look.

At this she doesn't say or do anything to you, as you point to her bag with your gaze and then extend your hand, gesturing to her with your fingers, clearly waiting, while Baela is left with no other choice.

She lets out a resigned and irritated sigh, then reluctantly from her purse she pulls out the key to your apartment, handing it to you in the same manner.

"There. Happy?"

You smile pleased, putting it in your purse.

"Yes, very," you tease.

"Okay, now come on," she insists, taking you by the arm.

"Wait, the brownie."

You head over to the island in the huge kitchen, grabbing a brownie from a clear box right there.

"You're really going to eat that?" she asks you curiously, with a small smile, as she crosses her arms.

"It's not for me, it's…

"Hello ladies!"

Three platinum heads approach you, this immediately catching your attention, feeling incredibly nervous the second you see it's Aemond, already watching you.

You bite your lips and avert your gaze instantly, trying not to look nervous and not letting those thoughts from before invade you, focusing on Aegon and Daeron, but Aegon more so since he pretty much always speaks for everyone.

"Y/N!" he exclaims in surprise, with a huge grin, "I hadn't seen you. I thought you hadn't come."

"You were busy when I arrived," you tell him with a nervous little smile.

"I was?" he says confused and you nod, "I don't remember. Anyway, what are you two doing? My little cousins weren't with you?"

"They're upstairs, we're going to play spin the bottle and seven minutes in paradise, do you want to join?"

Baela asks them instantly, turning to the three of them with a smile, while you quickly look at her almost wanting to murder her at that moment, but you stay neutral and wait for him to say no.

"Yeah, sure," Daeron says instantly.

"I'm in," Aegon assures you as well, sliding over to you, pointing his index finger at the brownie in your hand, "Are you going to eat that? Because it's calling me."

"They're of weed," you clarify to him.

"Weed?" he repeats in surprise, "Wow Y/N, I didn't think you were that kind of girl," he tells you as he crosses his arms and watches you with a half smile.

"It's not for me, it's for Cregan, he asked for it," you tell him amused.

"Cregan?" he instantly inquires, "Cregan Stark, my man? He's here too?"

"I thought you saw him when you arrived," Baela tells her confused, "He's up there too, he's going to play with us."

"And why didn't you say that before? Then let's go!" he says instantly, grabbing Daeron by the shoulder and starting to hurry out of the kitchen towards the stairs, when he stops to turn back to you, "Give it to me, I'll give it to him," he takes the brownie from your hand and resumes his walk, "Hurry up," he urges you all, then asks Baela which room exactly everyone is in.

You watch as Aemond nonchalantly follows them, for which you curse internally, since you thought he wouldn't participate in this, he doesn't seem like the type of guy who chooses to play those kinds of games, but you have no choice.

Once you reach William's room, which is gigantic, Baela announces that she has found more players and everyone starts to take a seat on the couches, while you watch as Aegon greets Cregan very happily and he greets him as well, as if the two haven't seen each other in years, handing him the brownie.

Then Rhaena stands in the center, empty bottle in hand, setting it down on top of a small table that is also in the center.

"Well, I think we all know how this is played by now."

"Are there any rules?" asks Jace.

"Of course there are, without them this wouldn't be fun."

You let out a long sigh, looking away, already wanting to get out of here.

"We made a deal," Baela suddenly says to you, instantly, quietly and as if she had read your thoughts.

"I know," you mutter back, watching her irritated.

But she smiles happily and you all turn your attention to Rhaena.

"This will be truth or dare, if you choose dare it will be to go in with someone in the bathroom who will also choose the bottle for seven minutes. If you want to do your dirty things, we will play loud music and turn it off when the seven minutes are up," she makes it clear, "The thing is, you have three lives, so to speak. If you choose true every time the bottle points at you, by the fourth time it will be dare."

"Understood."

"And no one can cheat or refuse," your cousin makes clear.

"This is like the mafia, once you're in, you don't get out," Aegon says.

You stir uncomfortably, avoiding looking at a certain person in front of you, because you perfectly feel his stare on you, making you feel nervous but not only because of that, also because you're both here, playing games.

What are the chances that you will have to fulfill the dare with Aemond?

You probably would have wanted it before, but now that you've made your decision, you continue to stand firm with it, really not wanting such a thing to happen or you won't have the slightest idea what to do.

The circle starts at one corner with Aegon, then Cregan, Alysanne, Rhaena, Aemond, Daeron, Luke, then Jace, Baela, you, Jason, William and then two of William's friends that you don't know.

Then Rhaena spins the bottle and the game begins.

First everyone chooses truth, starting cool, so it's their turn to answer questions such as; "the craziest place you've ever had sex," "your favorite position," "at what age did you lose your virginity," "do you have a fetish or any sexual preference," "have you ever been or had a friend with benefits," "have you ever faked an orgasm, "have you ever participated in a threesome?"

Those and more sexual and uncomfortable questions are asked.

So far, the bottle has not pointed to you, nor to Baela, nor to Aemond nor to Luke.

Until Cregan is the first to dare to say dare, then the bottle points at Alysanne, to the surprise of many who know that there is something more between them than just a friendship, as they always say.

As Rhaena said, William plays music on his Alexa at full volume or at least loud enough for no one to hear anything. And you again try to ignore Aemond's gaze on you as you talk to Jason next to you.

Then the seven minutes are up and when they both come out of the bathroom, they look presentable, but everyone instantly mocks and Alysanne embarrasses herself, giving herself away.

The game goes on and Aegon also dares in saying dare and the bottle is pointed at one of William's friends. And when the seven minutes are up, Aegon doesn't even bother to dissimulate that something definitely happened between them.

When then the bottle points at you, making everyone in the circle watch you and luckily you still have your three lives.

And who will ask you? Unfortunately Aegon.

"Have you ever kissed any of us here?"

Fuck.

You curse internally again, while everyone watches you attentively and more than interested, except Baela, Rhaena and of course him, because they already know.

You sense that Aegon knows too, though maybe Daeron, Jace and Luke don't, but who knows. So there's no point in lying, much less when that person is here.

Inevitably you watch him for a few short seconds, seeing how he watches you intently, bringing the beer bottle to his lips without taking his gaze away from you, looking so sexy.

No, don't think that!

"Yes," you say casually, lowering your gaze.

"Who?" asks Cregan, interested and with a smile.

"Just a question," Baela jumps to your rescue.

"Oh come on, you're just leaving us with the intrigue," he complains indignantly.

The bottle spins again, feeling more of Aemond's gaze on you, but you don't return it, when it's Daeron's turn to do the dare and he enters the bathroom with the same girl who entered with Aegon earlier, only when they both come out, you notice nothing happened.

Then the bottle points at Jace, having to do the dare as well, but the bottle points at Jason and everyone laughs, so with no choice, they both go into the bathroom together and when the seven minutes are up, they both pretend to wipe the saliva off their lips.

It's not until later that it's Baela's turn to meet the challenge and Jace finally gets his wish to go into the bathroom with her. Then it's William's other friend's turn to do the dare and the bottle points at Luke.

It is clear that when they both leave the bathroom, nothing happened and so the game continues, until luck has its way and it is Daeron's turn to go into the bathroom with the same girl Luke went in with, then Luke goes in with Rhaena and then it is William's turn to go in with you.

Nothing happens, they both just talk, not being at all awkward, as he is actually very nice, but still when they both come out, most of them make teasing and he clarifies that nothing happened, while all the time you feel the burning gaze of him.

Then Rhaena spins the bottle again and it finally lands on Aemond, with Alysanne being the one to ask him.

"Which of us here would you kiss?"

You lower your gaze instantly, biting your lips, not daring to look at him, not having the slightest idea why but you don't understand why the questions are precisely about kissing just when he and you have already kissed.

Aemond's answer is not immediately heard and you continue to stare at your lap, while everyone else around you watches him attentively and expectantly, wanting to hear his answer, when you feel his penetrating gaze on you.

Honestly you wouldn't be surprised if he didn't say your name, maybe he would want to save you both embarrassment and you would understand perfectly if he says the name of some of William's friends. Besides, the kiss has already happened, you find no reason why he-.

"Y/N."

In an instant you raise your gaze towards him, your breath catching at that moment, causing the little giggles and looks of surprise from everyone in silence, even from your cousins, definitely not expecting that, while you continue to watch him attentively, not having expected that either.

But he continues to stand firm with his answer, which in fact he said it completely nonchalantly, as if it was no big deal to hide, being honest and direct without any problem.

He takes his last sip from his beer bottle, watching you back, just as attentive as you are, only making you feel more surprised and nervous, not having the slightest idea how to react.

You look away from him, when Aegon says to continue, breaking the moment but still feeling the tension.

As the game continues, no one has a chance to avoid the dare anymore, neither do you and Aemond, where fortunately nothing more happened between the two of you. Until the bottle again points to Aemond, but now he must do the dare.

Rhaena spins the bottle and just as it begins to slow down, everyone sees it point at the girl Daeron had entered with earlier.

With a disinterested and even bored look, Aemond without much emotion gets up and heads to the bathroom, with the girl following him instantly, while Baela gives you a look but you continue as usual, when inside you are very attentive.

You don't know exactly how you feel as the seven minutes begin, but you continue to act normal, feeling Aegon's gaze on you as well.

When the time ends and Aemond opens the door the second William stops the music, walking out of there with the girl walking out behind him, looking a bit… disappointed?

And sure enough, nothing happened between the two of them, causing Baela to give you a gentle, sly nudge, while you continue to act nonchalant, when in fact you occasionally watch Aemond intently.

"This is the last round," Rhaena warns, "We all have to point the bottle and do the dare one last time. Whoever you have already pointed at, will go out of the circle so that the bottle will point at those who have not yet."

"Sounds perfect to me," says Aegon, visibly excited, "I want my turn with Cregan."

"Hey!"

Everyone laughs, as Cregan gives you a friendly tap on the shoulder, as you both laugh and look amused, and then Rhaena spins the bottle and officially starts the last round.

You thought you would have a little more time, however, everyone watches perfectly as the bottle slowly points in your direction, while you let out a long breath and Rhaena excitedly spins it again to see who you will get to enter the bathroom with.

What are the chances that you will have to fulfill the dare with Aemond?

You had wondered before and at that moment you realize that the chances were very high, since the bottle is pointing at him.

The others don't even give you time to react, they quickly insist you get up, as well as him, all looking very excited and unable to wait, so very soon, you already find yourself entering the bathroom while Aemond closes the door behind him.

Holy shit.

You think, feeling completely nervous, as you lean back against the hand wash and he leans against the wall in front of you to hear the music out there playing perfectly.

He watches you, but you don't look back at him, feeling very nervous and also very embarrassed after what happened out there and not only because of the questions you both were asked, but also because of the kiss.

How am I supposed to act with him after that happened?

You wonder, nervous and stirring in your place, feeling the bathroom too small and his gaze on you making you feel hot already and the seven minutes have barely started.

This whole not having anything to do with him thing is definitely not working for you. And just like last time, he's the first to break the silence between the two of you.

"Did I do something wrong?"

And this immediately catches your attention, watching him instantly, while he is already watching you between attentive and curious, trying not to let his gaze make you even more nervous.

"What?" you say confused, "No."

"Then why are you acting like I'm not in the same place as you?"

Shit.

You think, definitely feeling more nervous, unable to help yourself.

"No," you shake your head, "No, I-I don't….

"Is it because of the kiss?"

You look at him slightly surprised, parting your lips, also not expecting him to ask you that with such a naturally and casually, realizing how incredibly direct he is, getting straight to the point.

And you don't know if that terrifies you or you like it more.

But you can't answer, you're too nervous, he makes you too nervous and you don't want to tell him yes, that's why and also because you don't want to be another girl of the crowd, but you can't lie to him either, even if you wanted to you can't think of anything.

Being in these circumstances with him does not help you at all.

When he sees that you don't answer him anything, he takes a step towards you, letting out a sigh and you immediately look at him alert, nervous and try to take more distance between you, feeling like your heart will jump out of your chest at any moment.

And he notices all this, confused by your behavior.

"What? What's wrong?" he asks you softly and attentive, "Are you afraid of me?"

You lower your gaze, biting the inside of your cheek, nervous and thoughtful, wanting to end this once and for all, telling yourself that you better be honest and direct with him, too, now, just as he is being honest and direct with you.

And finally you tell him, in a low voice, without looking at him.

"I don't want to be another one of your girls in the crowd, Aemond."

He looks at you slightly surprised, his lips parted, definitely not expecting that, creating again that silence between the two of you, while you continue with your gaze down and he doesn't know what to say to you, for the first time being at a loss for words.

He understands what you're implying, about him and that girl at the after party, but what he didn't expect was to hear those words from you.

And you, plucking up your courage, watch him and decide to explain further.

"I saw you at the after party of your last concert with that girl," you tell him softly and with a certain disappointed tone, "That's why I didn't try to approach you that night after understanding that that's what you're looking for from me."

He opens his mouth instantly to retort, but you continue speaking, wanting to make everything clear to him.

"Until the balcony thing happened at Jason's party and…. I don't regret it," you clarify, "But I feel like it shouldn't have happened," you look at him nervous, "I-I don't want to be another one-night stand girl that you throw away, ignore and forget about, I… I'm not looking for that," you deny, "It feels awful."

Aemond continues to watch you attentively, without you and him saying anything else, that silence returning, when he lets out another sigh and you are alerted when he moves closer to you again, this time completely shortening the distance between the two of you.

And you watch intently and nervously as he places both hands on your waist, pulling you closer to him, closing his eye and resting his forehead with yours, making you melt under his touch but not enough to allow it.

"Aemond," you call him softly, gently trying to pull away from him.

"Listen to me," he says softly, not pulling away and tightening his grip on your waist.

You stop putting up resistance, watching him completely attentively, as he takes a moment before speaking, enjoying your closeness, which is all he's thought about since that kiss happened.

"I'm sorry you saw me that way," he tells you sincerely, "Had I known you were there, I wouldn't have done it."

You can't help but feel absurd.

"Oh come on."

"I mean it," he tells you instantly, insistent, "I know it's not justification but I thought I'd never see you again, it's not like I do it every day either, I promise," he assures you, "But ever since that kiss happened… I haven't stopped thinking about you Y/N, not for a second," he confesses to you, "Even you were the reason I decided to play this shit, just so I could be close to you."

Oh no, you're already falling.

Your mind says to you, as you give him your full attention.

"But I'm not…

"You won't be," he interrupts you, firm, "You won't be just another one of the crowd. Believe me that was never my intention since I met you."

You swallow hard, still watching him not entirely convinced.

"And how am I supposed to believe that?"

"Let me prove it to you," he tells you instantly, willing, "Stop ignoring me, start talking to me and you'll see."

He says to then raise one of his hands, place it on your cheek gently and lean in to kiss you.

taglist fic:

@melsunshine @fan-goddess @toodlesxcuddles @helaenaluvr @at-a-rax-ia @iloveallmyboys @nockerin @manonmccrory @tsujifreya @persephonerinyes @happinessinthebeing @zenka69 @diannnnsss @mariaelizabeth21-blog1 @gloryekaterina @strangersunghoon @ttkttt

#aemond fanfiction #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen fanfic #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x y/n #aemond targaryen x you #aemond x fem!reader #aemond x oc #aemond x reader #hotd aemond

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kerubimcrepin · 3 months

Text

Liveblog: Wakfu Season 1 (episodes 21-26)

Episode 21 - Igol

This is a big episode because this is where we get the "Adamai knows stasis magic" lore drop that is never elaborated on, or mentioned altogether.

Episode 22 - Rubilax

Someday, someone will complete a translation of the Dofus manga in russian or english and I'll finally learn what's the deal with this man and why he died and got better and how crazy his doomed yaoi with his dead dragon husband gets.

Heartbreakingly, this day is not yet here.

[Kerubim and Goultard crying together over a drink, begin talking at the same time] I miss my dead wife, Goulatrd/Kerubim. I miss her/him a lot.

Big lore: Sleep masks exist in this universe.

Episode 23 - The Quest for the Dofus

He'll get it eventually. I did.

Episode 24 - Reunion

I love their family so much, I wish they could be happy. But every time something changes, it's far too late... It is tragically realistic, I suppose.

I don't know why, but this is such a pretty frame... The soft morning light, the dim room, the plants the glowing mushrooms...

Also, rare moment to take in what the guest rooms look like at the Sadida castle!

This episode (and at least one past episode) has quite a bit of ciphered text that I haven't been translating because I'm evil. Sorry. It's not the same script as the texts in Aux Tresors, despite the similarities, so you'll have to resort to google, or to decoding it yourself. You could start with the fact that this presumably says "Arbe de vie"

Episode 25 - I Am A Legend

Stasis mention 🔥🔥🔥

This whole scene always makes me tear up. I am actually insane and crazed every time I rewatch the last two episodes.

Your insane Joris trivia of the day is that this scene was changed between various airings/versions of Wakfu. For some mysterious reason. Here's a comparison:

I prefer the old version because.... [blushes] [kicks legs] [twiddles with my hair] HES SO PRETTY—- But also besides me being insane and in love with him, it just seems to have better composition and flow, imo.

My theories for why he was late:

He was sent to get reinforcements from other countries, or call for help. Though it is unlikely that many other kingdoms responded, given how little people care about Sadida (the most likely, normal, and realistic explanation)

He went together with the army of Sadida and the king to fight the war and ran all the way here using his insane speed (the second most likely, normal, and realistic explanation)

He overslept

He got lost

He was busy, man...

He was writing a letter to Keke and Atch about how he beat the shit out of some sadida guards and two girls clapped and cheered and lost track of time.

This exchange has always been so funny to me for some reason.

"What is the situation" He says,, while a giant mecha is about to kill what likely amounts to one-twelfth of the world's population.

I have talked about it a lot, but I am so deeply unwell about how cold he is. A girl lost her lover and is crying inconsolably, and he's not really paying that attention. One twelfth of the world population is about to die, and he won't show an ounce of discomfort or horror or grief.

Obviously he doesn't like it, but showing any weakness is out of the question.

More people have died from Ogrest, and she's like, the 60th girl on a battlefield on his memory to be crying after losing someone.

There are no unsolvable issues in this world.

I need to study him like a bug.

Episode 26 - Mount Zinit

Standing so prettily...

I think one of Joris's core "insanity and depression prevention" life philosophies is that, if he is not present at a battle, and can not physically be present, then he's not to blame for any horrible thing that happens.

I think this philosophy works almost never to quell his feelings of unease, and right now he is calculating 132924 ways he could have gotten here faster and just how much it would fix things.

(guy who runs a blog about pointing out obvious things Joris does voice) There's a very subtle expression change here. He starts looking intently as Amalia proposes going to help Yugo and Adamai. He was going to do this. However, the second he hears her yell "no", his expression changes once more.

We don't see whether he rushes to aid Eva in any way after she collapses from grief, but I will be honest — he would never do that.

Even if he has a pre-established good relationship with her. He just can't do that. He probably stands there awkwardly, in that same exact place, and feels very bad the entire time — because he can neither comfort Eva (they're practically strangers, he hesitated far too long, he'll make things worse—), nor go help Yugo (he can't just leave Eva and Ruel alone... What if more enemies appear? Or what if they think he abandoned them amidst grief? And would he even be useful?)

I think standing next to inconsolable people is Joris's personal hell.

I am insane.

I think one of the reasons Wakfu season 1 is so memorable, and so effective, is that there is no glorious pay off.

Yugo has a heroic moment of friendship overpowering everything — and then, after a second of being scared, Nox overtakes him. Nox wins. And that win is a mere 20 minutes. And for what? Pinpin is still dead. Everyone he killed is still dead.

Yugo doesn't get a glorious win, or his friend back. There is no epic swell of music. Just something quiet, foreboding, and truly meaningless.

OMG HI.

Your daily reminder that canonically, Eva is an amazing artist.

💀

Once again, Sadida Kingdom and Bonta have a very good relationship. Besties who hoard magical nukes together stay together.

#ro liveblogs dofus #krosmoz #dofus #wakfu #wak1

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theygotbitchesinmedia · 6 months

Note

okay so here is her review: https://arkadymartine.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/the-traitor-baru-cormorant-a-reviewresponse/

admittedly its from 2015- i haven't poked around to see how she may have changed how she feels about it, and i know she did blurb seth's recent scifi novel (Exordia), so there's no bad blood there or anything. it's also a positive review, in general- she ends with this sentence: "I highly, highly recommend this book; I have not thought so much about something I read in a long time."

i am also coming into this as someone who has read all of seth dickinson's work for the game destiny, where he was near-singlehandedly responsible for a good oh… 80% of the interesting women (& overall interesting concepts lol!) in the game, and his writing of one of those characters in particular as a complex and flawed character got him bullied viciously off of all social media. if you've tried to find his social media presence and havent found anything, that's why. so i mayhaps have a little more emotion in the game.

THAT SAID. here are some specific parts from her review i find really fucking annoying! and color the way i feel about Memory & Desolation, despite them being so incredibly targeted at me as a classics person AND someone who fucking loves the specific sub-genre of scifi her novels are.

"[Traitor] asks a question which I find compelling as a student of an empire and as a queer woman. That question is: what do we gain by complicity? What do we – we barbaroi, we women, we queer people, we imperialized – what do we get when we say yes? When we say yes I will hide my true nature? When we say yes I will subsume myself into the beautiful machine? When we say can we speak English? Or the literature I love just happens to be written by straight white men – and mean it, too, mean it with the kind of depthless love that a person can have for a text that speaks to them, which holds up a mirror to them?"

i dont think the use of the greek word for barbarian does anything here (she also keeps coming back to the greek term orthos in her review, which also pisses me off lol), i dont think empire is a "beautiful machine," and i don't think the invocation of identity politics is useful. like. i know she's a byzantine scholar but if your first association with empire is purely a finite Historical Empire instead of, like, modern US imperialism, or British colonialism, you are going into this discussion with a certain set of values and opinions! a set of values and opinions that let you call an empire a "beautiful machine" in all earnestness. this claim probably seems unsubstantiated and nitpicky now just from this excerpt but ill come back to it with more i promise. on the idpol front, she also says immediately after this that she does believe that straight people can and should write queer people, but that they should listen to queer people when they point out those errors. she then continues:

"But then, critique: there are two points on which I think Dickinson’s portrayal of a queer protagonist has faltered, and I think both of these errors arise from the fact that he isn’t part of – as far as I know at the time of writing this review – a queer community. Firstly, I disbelieve Baru’s awareness of her own desires… …For the first portion of the book, her queerness felt more like a character trait assigned to her for reason of plot than a naturally built part of her as a person… Secondly, I wonder where queer people in Falcrest are…"

theres more to these excerpts, but. i personally didnt find the depiction of baru's desire to be unrealistic, and also this was a review of Traitor, specifically, so where on earth would baru have heard about queer people in falcrest? and more importantly, why should we care so much about queer people in the imperial core? moreover i think the way seth does it with svir is very very well done, and illustrates the hypocrisy of empire in a way that does NOT seem like what martine is asking for here!!!

"Why am I invested? I myself am a student of empire. I’m a Byzantinist. My academic work is about empire and its seductions; it is the animating principle of my professional life. And: I am myself someone who loves order over disorder. Who looks for systems in all things. Who is comforted by structures; who is concerned deeply with propriety. But here’s my real criticism of this book: I don’t buy the seduction of the Masquerade. And I think if this book fails, it’s there: in that its empire is too easily read as undesirable. As profane, unethical, fundamentally wrong. It is really overtly evil." … "The Masquerade isn’t civilized. It’s civilization, but I don’t recognize it as civilized, and this is a problem with a constructed empire. An empire relies on itself as the definition of civilization – I would footnote here Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch as a SFnal example of an empire which is built on this principle, and which, for this reader at least, achieves the facsimile. (But then my ancestors were not enslaved, we were exterminated; not annexed, but exiled. Perhaps I like the Radch better than the Masquerade because I can find a place for myself in it, and cannot imagine a place within the Masquerade someone like me would ever be safe –)"

and THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE IS MY BIGGEST PROBLEM. critiquing the masquerade as not "seductive" enough, calling it too evil to have people join it- how does someone miss the point THIS badly??? like. are you FUCKING serious??? how do you read a book about the immense violence of colonialism and your problem is that it is boohoo too violent for people to join willingly. google literally fucking anything the US has done ever!!! and the invocation of the concept of "civilized" as an objective quality, despite the recognition that the empire constructs what counts as "civilization" is so fucking unserious/simplistic/juvenile! why do you need to imagine yourself a place in the empire? in the imperial core specifically!

and i think this particular approach bleeds into her books. i read them at Least 2 years ago, so this is mostly vibes-based, and i will avoid spoilers.

there is such a focus on the allure of the imperial core, on the "beautiful machine" of the empire as she calls it. there is violence done, but it is abstracted away from the wealth of the imperial core. there are no economics there. the empire sees her independent station as a backwater, and there is some cultural tensions there, but there is no realistic violence and exploitation! it is not clear at all what maintains the empire, besides some abstract idea of trade. i also don't know what her Point is with the naming & language conventions, which are very clearly inspired in part by ancient Mayan- e.g. the empire and core planet are called Teixcalaan. and idk this may be reductive of me but i think if you are going to pull features from civilizations that have been colonized and use them to inspire fictional colonizing forces, you ARE saying something there! idk! and like, the ancient Mayan

and on the ~representation~ front, i also don't think she does a better job than seth tbqh!!! i felt like the characters getting together came out of nowhere and felt anticlimactic- there is also not the tension i think there should be with the main character being an ambassador-ish and the love interest being… idr. junior intelligence officer iirc? idk! and for all her critique of baru's desire for women not feeling "real" or present enough, i do not remember the main character in Memory having any real focus on it!

i enjoyed Memory just fine, but i don't think it says anything interesting or novel or even critical about empire, and i found her review of Traitor extremely shallow and useless, if very revealing about her own outlook on empire lol!!!

this has been at best Minorly proofread and edited but im not like, writing an academic essay on the matter and so i apologize for any inconsistencies.

oh man thanks for this this is really interesting. i went and read the whole thing and i agree a ton with your critique. i'm going to stick my thoughts below the cut because i went on for a bit here, in typical fashion.

i personally didnt find the depiction of baru's desire to be unrealistic, and also this was a review of Traitor, specifically, so where on earth would baru have heard about queer people in falcrest? and more importantly, why should we care so much about queer people in the imperial core?

NO BUT EXACTLY... for starters this is explicitly a novel about colonized people taking place in a colony where none of the major characters are from the empire. where, when, and how would we take the time to explore what queerness looks like for them and more importantly, like you've asked, why the hell should that be a priority for the narrative in this case.

in terms of 'i found this to be an unrealistic depiction of queer desire' 9/10 times i feel like what that means is 'i found this to be an unrelatable depiction' which is an entirely different critique. i know i'm working with two additional books worth of context that martine isn't working with here. but even taking into account just the characterization we have for baru in traitor i think this is suuuuch an unfair complaint. i'm gonna pull the entire quote she says about baru's sexuality here because i have additional specific gripes with it.

Firstly, I disbelieve Baru’s awareness of her own desires. In the first portion of the book, I do not ever feel the weight of Baru’s own awareness of her sexuality; there is an absence of carnality, a kind of intellectual version of lesbian desire which is, to me, inconsistent with the sort of desire I expect. Not until the introduction of Baru’s eventual lover Tain Hu do I get a sense of Baru as a woman who loves women. Further, considering how very much the Empire of Masks and Increastic philosophy criminalizes the sin of queer desire, I wish Baru had struggled more with the nature of her desire. For the first portion of the book, her queerness felt more like a character trait assigned to her for reason of plot than a naturally built part of her as a person. This markedly improved in the second half, where Baru notices women in a way she does not notice men.

For starters, it is insanely hypocritical to me to complain that her desire both isn't carnal enough and she processes it too intellectually, but that she isn't struggling enough with it. Baru intellectually processes things! That's her entire character from the getgo! She also has a difficult time conceptualizing other people as fully realized beings with their own agency. These character traits paired together don't make for a particularly passionate and carnal relationship to her sexuality. She is also, at her absolute oldest in this book, 21! (Or 22? I can't remember. I know she spends 3 years in aurdwynn) and has spent her entire youth being groomed to be a scholar. Of course detached intellectualism is her primary way of navigating all things. Why wouldn't it be?

Baru primary motivation is to save taranoke, she wants to save the taranoki way of life, and part of that way of life includes an acceptance of nonhetero nonmonogamous relationships. Sure, a different character arc may have involved baru actually internalizing and then having to break free of the trappings of race, gender, and sexuality that the empire tries to impose upon its citizens. but that's not baru and acting like this is a writing flaw rather than a character choice is insane to me.

There's absolutely no reason for Baru to lie awake at night pontificating about how wrong and dirty of her it is to want to have sex with women because we are never lead to believe even for a minute that Baru puts any emotional weight in incrasticism. She doesn't conceptualize it as sinful she conceptualizes it as illegal!

And "Not until the introduction of Baru’s eventual lover Tain Hu do I get a sense of Baru as a woman who loves women. " is killing me in particular because like. Yeah. Tain Hu is baru's first love. thats the point. But beyond that this is just not being able to see anything other than what she's looking for because i think the chapters covering baru's childhood make it pretty clear that her feelings for aminata and cousin lao (im not double checking the name but im pretty sure it was this) are deep and strong. the fact that they're not as explicitly and straightforwardly romantic and sexual as her relationship with tain hu doesn't change that, and in fact, points to baru's struggle with/development of her sexuality that she claims was somehow missing in this book.

like i just simply can't see anything here but someone who is seeing an emotional landscape they can't relate to and assuming that means it's flawed writing. skill issue frankly.

She's also fucking insane for acting like the masquerade is too cartoonishly evil to be appealing. once again im going to post her full quote here because i think its important to see

its empire is too easily read as undesirable. As profane, unethical, fundamentally wrong. It is really overtly evil. It punishes sexual “deviants” with mutilation and death. It murders children callously. It inflicts plague and withholds vaccines. It lobotomizes its own emperors for the sake of convincing its populace that the emperor is just. Most of all, the Masquerade is a eugenicist empire: it is explicitly founded on not purity of bloodline but on purification of bloodline, on making people useful to it. It makes people: it breeds them carefully, it indoctrinates them through schools, it uses drugs and operant conditioning to transform their minds and make them into automata tools. It commits every atrocity that a modern Western reader recognizes as abhorrent. This is a problem. It is a problem because we are asked, as readers, to believe that there are reasons besides blackmail that a person would willingly become an agent of the Masquerade. We are asked to imagine that the Masquerade is a beautiful machine.

for starters. "It commits every atrocity that a modern Western reader recognizes as abhorrent." MODERN WESTERN EMPIRES DID, AND OCCASIONALLY STILL DO, MOST OF THESE THINGS!!! THIS IS US! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!! I FEEL INSANE!!!!

I think the book makes it more than explicitly clear why the empire is appealing??? it has all of the capital???? its building schools and sewage systems and importing food and goods and teaching reading and writing??? baru's own internal narrative often shows her own strife at the fact that the empire has made genuinely incredible scientific advancements that offer significant improvements in quality of life to many, many people. martine actually acknowledges this in the next paragraph of her review, and then brushes it away as not being good enough. why? what about that doesn't convince you?

she is seeming to hugely ignore the fact that in the case of aurdwynn specifically, the bureaucracy of the empire is coming in to unseat feudal aristocracy! what the masquerade offers may not be particularly tempting to most of that ruling class, but its economic opportunities are more then believably appealing to the common people. i think this is made pretty clear when baru's ploy to use the fiat bank to make loans to the aurdwynni people and basically lessen the massive tax burdens from the duchies wins her huge favor with the public.

and frankly even for the ruling class the potential economic benefits are massive too if you're willing to participate in the empire properly. yes the empire doesn't have Moral appeal. it doesn't fucking have to. it owns pretty much every economy outside of the oriati mbo. the fact that that's not enough for her is as you've pointed out really really showing her biases and blind spots. 'no reason besides blackmail' MONEY!!!! MONEY! IT'S MONEY! THIS IS A BOOK ABOUT ACCOUNTING! HOW DID YOU MISS THAT!!!

and the invocation of the concept of "civilized" as an objective quality, despite the recognition that the empire constructs what counts as "civilization" is so fucking unserious/simplistic/juvenile! why do you need to imagine yourself a place in the empire? in the imperial core specifically!

And this is really it for me too, yeah. It's gross. It's absolutely gross. "An empire isn't believably appealing unless I, personally, find it appealing" there are people alive who are eugenicists, who love community policing, who believe in race science. the masquerade is an empire for them. the thing about empires is that they are only actually empowering for an incredibly small subset of people, and the fact that You, Specifically, Arkady Martine can't imagine being one of those people in this instance doesn't make it not believable. This is a shatteringly individualist way of engaging with a work.

As for your points about the way she handles empire in her own book obviously i can't have anything to say there because i haven't read it yet, but i do absolutely agree with you on this bit:

and idk this may be reductive of me but i think if you are going to pull features from civilizations that have been colonized and use them to inspire fictional colonizing forces, you ARE saying something there! idk! and like, the ancient Mayan

1000% i don't think this is reductive of you. whether or not you're consciously saying anything is one question but it's a choice that absolutely doesn't exist in a vacuum. out of curiosity i googled her to see if she was of mayan descent or anything and maybe she chose that due to some personal ties to the subject matter but she doesn't seem to be. which of course i don't think means she can't or shouldn't draw any inspiration from there but i do think all of these sorts of choices are meaningful

i don't really have much to say here to round off a conclusion but. wow. deeply deeply telling review that does not particularly make me want to read anything she has written beyond this.

#long post #lb baru cormorant #ask

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five-rivers · 4 months

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Hunger Chapter 2

“Well, if it's the lone star tick, that only makes you allergic to red meat, right?” said Sam.

“Yeah, I guess,” said Danny, staring hard at the plate of chicken nuggets Tucker had just pulled from the microwave. He was also under the impression that the tick thing got you all at once, not gradually if rapidly over the course of a few weeks, with the effects going from thinking meat tasted off, to just ‘not being in the mood’ for it, to actively throwing up upon taking a bite of a hamburger.

He tried to determine if the faint sense of nausea he felt while looking at the chicken was from his memory or, well, from looking at the chicken.

“Cheese was fine,” observed Tucker. “Eggs were fine.”

They had been. Danny picked up a chicken nuggets and tried to ignore how his skin crawled as he did so. Before he could double-guess himself, he popped it into his mouth and swallowed as quickly as possible, hardly even chewing.

His body immediately rebelled.

Luckily, he had a good mental map of Tucker's house, so he was able to dive through the wall and into the bathroom before he started puking his guts out.

“Not the tick, then,” said Tucker, sounding like he was going to barf himself.

“You know,” said Sam, “I'm all for having more vegetarians in the world, but I think you should maybe… see someone about this.”

Danny finished emptying his digestive system and went to the sink to rinse out his mouth.

“Who?” he asked, tone matching the bitter taste. “It's not like I can go see a doctor. Half ghost and all.”

“I know that,” said Sam. “I meant your ghost friend. The one that helped you with your other changes. The freckles and skin color and ghost puberty stuff.”

“Oh,” said Danny. “I don't really want to bother him too much, though.”

And, when he wasn't actively experiencing the need to be eaten, or the disorienting second childhood that came after, he was rather shy about the whole arrangement. Understandably so, he thought.

Sam crossed her arms and stared at him, unimpressed, through the bathroom mirror.

“What happens when this does spread to eggs and cheese? Or fruit? Or vegetables? Would you go see him then?”

Danny grimaced and went ghost, hoping he could get rid of the foul taste in his mouth that way. If anything, it made it worse.

“Whoa! What's that on your back?” asked Tucker, pointing.

Danny looked back at him, alarmed at the tone of voice, then twisted so he could see his back in the mirror. Pushing up on his suit from below were two bumps, just under his shoulder blades. He quickly unzipped and pulled down the top of his suit. It wasn't something stuck on his back. It was part of his back. Two upwards distortions of skin.

“I don't know,” he said. He touched one of the tiny knobs. It was sensitive, though not in a bad way. On the other hand, it didn't really feel like skin. More like… petals, maybe. Soft and silky.

He swallowed. As strange as it may sound, being eaten had removed some of the sense of wrongness Danny had felt about his body since the Accident. But this… this mutation… he didn't know what to do with this.

But maybe Clockwork would.

Half curled in Clockwork's lap, listening to him rhythmically list off things he thought were appetizing, things that Danny could feel his core taking special note of, he didn't know why he'd been so nervous.

When Clockwork finished his list (which included things like statues, silver, gemstones, the smell of lilacs and lilies, chocolate, vanilla, cream, sugar, and the sound of clocks) Danny looked up. “So my wings will bloom… like a flower?”

“They tend to be similar in appearance, yes.”

“And my body will change to be tasty.”

“As you ripen.”

“And then you'll eat me, and that's it? Things will go back to normal?”

“What do you mean by normal?”

“You know. Like it usually is for me.”

“You will have to grow up again, and when you near ripeness, the wings will grow back, but, to some degree, yes.” He paused for a moment, playing with Danny's hair. “Once your wings bloom, you will find yourself compelled to seek out places with high concentrations of ectoplasm, so you can feed. You may also find yourself losing mobility, either from physical changes or psychological pressure. At least, those are all things experienced by other ghosts with this adaptation. I cannot tell you your future, after all.”

Danny wrinkled his nose at the obvious loophole-ing, but pressed on. “To make it easier for someone to find and eat me.”

“Yes.”

“And this will happen again?”

“It may happen more slowly, if you are not under quite so much pressure to improve, but yes.” Clockwork started to braid some of Danny's longer hairs.

“Can I, um, can I come here, when I start to bloom, then?”

“Of course,” said Clockwork. “I believe the garden will be most suitable, should you feel the need to plant yourself, but your bedroom is also available, and you may choose any space you like.”

Danny hummed. “And you'll still eat me?”

“Of course.”

Danny's stomach rumbled, jolting him out of his half-doze and reminding him that he'd thrown up everything he'd eaten today.

He blushed, then blushed harder when he realized that, without his top on, Clockwork could probably see the blush working its way all down Danny's back to the base of his spine.

Clockwork chuckled. “Speaking of eating, growing wings is hungry work. Come.”

Reluctantly, Danny got up and followed Clockwork to the kitchen he had stocked with human things. Danny hadn't thought about it much, but he must have made it especially for Danny, for when he was growing up again after being eaten.

Clockwork reached into the fridge and removed a large, clay jug of something, then a smaller glass bottle full of something red like wine. He examined the bottle for a while. “I could,” he said, after a moment, “accelerate the growth of your wings. Just this once.”

“Why only once?”

“The cycle of consumption and regrowth would become unbalanced if done too frequently. You may eventually wind up growing wings shortly after hatching.”

“Yikes,” said Danny. “Um. I think I'll pass this time and just go at the normal rate.”

Clockwork nodded and put the glass bottle away. Then, from the jug, he poured Danny a cup of what looked a lot like thick paint but smelled so good Danny's mouth was watering before Clockwork even gave it to him. It tasted a lot like a vanilla milkshake, and as soon as he was done drinking it, he fell asleep.

“He says it's normal,” said Danny.

“Really?” said Sam, with all the sarcastic bite a goth teenager could manage, which was a lot.

“The type of ghost I am doesn't eat other ghosts, and since I'm half human, that crosses over to animals. It's not going to get worse, it's just…” He sighed. “A thing.”

“And the stuff on your back?” asked Tucker.

“Same kind of thing. They're like antlers. They'll fall off eventually.”

“Well,” said Sam, when Danny failed to elaborate, “I can at least give you some vegetarian meal recipes.”

Danny found himself eating more sweets. And more cream. A lot more cream, since usually he didn't eat any. He wasn't sure why, since it wasn't like eating those would make him taste like them. Unless it did? Ghost logic was strange, sometimes.

Whatever. It was food. It wasn't like he was eating flowers.

The process of growing wings was both painful and satisfying. Painful, because the growing buds made his back ache in both forms, despite only existing in one. Satisfying, because the bigger they got the less wrong they felt.

Like he was growing back into himself.

Okay, so he was eating flowers. It wasn't like he was eating anyone's jewelry.

He'd thought he'd have to change his jumpsuit to accommodate the wing buds. He didn't. His jumpsuit changed on its own, not stretching, but weaving itself over the buds as they grew. It was like the suit was part of the buds, too, that way.

Even the seams lined up with the edges of the petals.

He booted Johnny Thirteen from the jewelry store, then froze, looking at the display cases. His stomach rumbled a little.

No. Just, no. He wasn't an animal. He had control over himself. He wasn't doing that.

In the dead of the night, he woke from the kind of deep, heavy sleep he only got when he had truly exhausted himself. His core sang with resonance.

With an automatic response that came from being taught it from early childhood twice, Danny rolled out of bed and followed the pull down the stairs and into the basement. He transformed sluggishly, groaning a little as his wing buds came into being. They were still furled, but they had grown long and heavy and while the weight and tension could feel good in some positions, the same tension could stress every muscle in his body if he moved the wrong way.

He flew through the Zone on autopilot, following the resonance all the way home to Long Now. He snuggled into Clockwork's side, seeking the core that had called him.

“Hi,” he said, tiredly. “What's up?”

“Hello, Daniel. Your wings are about to bloom. I thought it best to call you here.”

“Oh, thanks,” said Danny.

“Here, I've set something up for you in the garden.”

“Hm? Why?” asked Danny, letting Clockwork steer him.

“The garden has the best ectoradiation and flow of ectoplasm.”

Those things did sound good…

When they got to the garden, in all its multi-season glory, Clockwork took Danny down a path he'd never noticed before. At the end of it was a cool, pleasant glade, with a small pond and a wooden bench and table. On one side of the pond was the statue of a veiled angel, holding a mirror. Directly opposite the mirror, on the other side of the pond, was a clear space and a a moss-covered rock that was just the right size for a pillow.

Clockwork guided Danny down to kneel by the rock, then to rest his head on it so he was looking at the mirror.

The first thing that Danny noticed was that Clockwork had arranged him in the classic, semi-fetal “baby angel” pose. The second thing was that it was absurdly comfortable, the position perfectly accounting for the weight of his wings.

“I thought you would like to see,” explained Clockwork.

Danny, still only half awake, was about to ask see what when his whole body was seized with acute, anticipatory tension.

The covering of his jupsuit peeled away first, revealing the silver-freckled purple of the outside of his wings. Then, with a sticky, tearing sound, the petals themselves separated, falling open to the sky. There were three for each wing, their insides a dull, clouded green.

He trembled with the sudden influx of energy. He could taste the sky, the wind, the delicate variations of ectoenergy. But none of that energy was available for him. He could feel it being stored away, packed tight and out of reach, a treat for whoever ate him.

He tried to stay awake, but the exertions of his new functions bore him under swiftly. He didn't even remember closing his eyes.

An advantage of his wings senses was that he knew exactly where he was when he woke up. Directly in front of his face was a ladle with a note that said “stay hydrated!” on it, and a plate full of… clock parts?

He picked one up - a small silver plate with emeralds pressed into it - and popped it in his mouth without thinking about it.

The freak out was immediately followed by the rest of the clock parts disappearing.

Danny's jumpsuit was shredded and didn't seem to be reforming like it usually did, so Danny put on the pair of pajama pants that had been left, folded, on the bench. Then, he went to look for Clockwork.

(Stepping inside made his wings droop ever-so-slightly. The environment outside really was better.)

“Thanks for calling me over,” said Danny, floating closer to Clockwork, “and for the, um. Snack. But should probably go back to Amit–” Danny was hit with a massive wave of disorientation. He very much wanted to go home, but at the same time, he was completely certain that was a bad idea. He would have fallen out of the air if Clockwork hadn't steadied him. His core whined, confused, and a very small part of him was pleased to detect a slightly mechanical, ticking note to the noise.

“Daniel,” said Clockwork, very gently, “Amity Park is back on Earth, outside the Zone. There wouldn't be enough ectoplasm there for you.”

“But,” said Danny, uncertainly.

“Can you turn human right now?” asked Clockwork.

Danny tried. He couldn’t. His wings held him firmly in ghost form, refusing to be banished before their task was done and Danny was being digested in Clockwork’s stomach.

“I intend to keep our arrangement from earlier,” said Clockwork, before Danny could panic. “You will not be missed.”

Danny relaxed. The times Clockwork had eaten him, he'd stopped time until Danny could go home. “Thanks,” he said.

Clockwork nodded graciously, then pulled Danny towards him to kiss his forehead. “I can already tell that you'll taste delicious in no time. Please, relax. There is no hurry.”

“I think I have more freckles than before,” said Danny.

“Indeed,” said Clockwork, setting a bowl of what Danny knew was just cream, sugar, vanilla, and ectoplasm mixed together in front of him.

That didn’t stop his body from craving the mixture like nothing else.

Clockwork stopped him from grabbing it, and emptied a small jar of flower petals into it. Then flakes of silver and diamond dust.

Danny made a hungry noise. One layer of it was human enough, but whirring and ticking and something bell-like were clearly audible.

(Danny could not match any clocks, yet, but he was working on it)

“They’re getting bigger, too,” he observed, after guzzling half the bowl.

“I see,” said Clockwork.

“And they feel different. The skin.” The freckles felt smoother, slicker, and cooler than the skin around them.

Clockwork picked up one of Danny’s hands and ran his thumb over a tight cluster of freckles. “Like icing on a cake.”

Danny took his hand back and finished off the bowl. “Do you think I’ll taste like cake.”

“I think you will taste like yourself,” said Clockwork. “Sweeter than any cake.”

Danny tried to sleep in the room he’d grown up in, the last two times, but the air in there felt so stale when compared to the garden, and he found himself sleeping at the pond, resuming the position Clockwork had put him in the first time.

Well, he supposed Clockwork had foreseen how well it would work.

Clockwork spent a lot of time there, too, sitting at the bench and reading out loud to Danny as he dozed.

The freckles started to merge together into broad silvery-white patches. When those patches were around a joint, the joint became hard to move. Extra force was needed to bend the tough, shiny, skin. And within those silver patches, gems grew, set into his skin like bearings in watches.

Danny’s wings started to pale. Streaks of color - silver, bronze, blue, palest lilac and pink - made appearances, organizing themselves into complex fractal patterns.

“I know I’m sleeping more,” said Danny, “but I don’t know how much more.”

They were still in the garden. Clockwork was rubbing a cream into Danny’s back, near his wings. There were complex structures there, under his skin, woven through his ectoplasmic muscles and around his bones, and they were working hard, all the time. Even in the best position Clockwork could put him in, they often ached.

And even the satisfying ache of a job well done was still an ache.

“How much time you spend here doesn’t matter,” said Clockwork. “You should sleep as much as you need to, and not worry about it.”

When Danny woke up, he couldn’t open his right eye. He looked at the mirror across the pond and saw that a silver patch had completely covered the eyelid.

He groaned and tried to push himself up. Tried. His wrist didn’t bend when he told it to. He glared at it, one-eyed. Silver had circled it, too, and the thumb on that hand. He tried to bend it again, and had some success, but as soon as he stopped actively forcing it, it returned to the position it was in before.

A quick check showed that his eye and wrist weren’t the only body parts affected. His left hip was partially covered, and so was a great deal of his spine.

This would have been a much bigger problem if he couldn’t fly.

“I can bring you breakfast in the garden,” said Clockwork. “You don’t want to be stuck in an uncomfortable position.”

Danny was already itching to go back to the garden. His wings had started to produce a thin, fragrant nectar from their bases the other day, and since then, sitting upright made his back feel bloated and leaky.

He opened his mouth to say as much, but instead of a human voice, a complex series of ticks and chimes rolled out. The ticks sent pleasing vibrations through his bones and flesh, and the chimes hummed in his throat. It was all completely incomprehensible to him, but it felt good.

He glanced up at Clockwork, who was smiling. “Go on,” Clockwork said.

Danny grinned - skin moving strangely around the silver patches - and started to chatter.

The next day, Danny couldn’t open either of his eyes. The air smelled strongly of vanilla and lilac.

“Don’t worry, Daniel,” said Clockwork as he tipped a cup of cream into Danny’s mouth, “I will take pictures of what you look like ripe.”

Having spent so much time at Long Now, Danny hadn’t released the cold energy that naturally built up in his core over time. It spread outwards, now, freezing him from the inside out even as the silvery-white coating his skin did the same from the outside in.

But it did not touch his wings, which stayed soft and flexible and took in energy and ectoplasm at the same steady rate.

“I wonder if you are even aware of all the sounds you are making,” said Clockwork, fondly, as he rubbed Danny’s back in that way that felt so good. “They’re enough to make me want to eat you right away, but I can tell you aren’t quite ripe yet.” He patted Danny’s back. “Just a little longer.”

Danny knew when he was ripe. Not from any external stimulus, but because something like a switch popped up in his brain. Not a literal switch, of course, he wasn’t hallucinating, but he knew that if he flipped it, if he made this one, last, tiny conscious decision, he would send out a signal that said eat me, I’m tasty!

He flipped the switch.

(The next thing he consciously remembered, he was hatching from an egg in Clockwork’s hands.)

#danny phantom #dannymay 2024 day 11: mutation #dannymay #dannymay 2024

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harunayuuka2060 · 2 years

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Riddle: What's going on? Why are you insisting to share a bed with me?

Baby MC: *gives him a big hug*

Riddle: ...

Trey: *knocks on his door and walks in* *once he sees them, lets out a sigh of relief*

Trey: I'm glad they're here.

Riddle: What happened, Trey? I asked you to tuck them in.

Trey: I did. But it's still a little bit early so I read them a book.

Riddle: A book?

Trey: Yes. And um... *troubled smile* I think they didn't like it.

Riddle: What was it about?

Trey: Siblings who became distant after the years passed by.

Riddle: ...

Riddle: *stern* Trey.

Trey: I know. I'm sorry. I thought it was a good story because of the drawings.

Ace: Housewarden Riddle, aren't you a little bit late for class now?

Riddle: Yes. But Professor Trein will understand. *helping Baby MC to change clothes*

Riddle: Nope. These are too tight. Bring me another.

Heartslabyul student: Yes, housewarden! *runs to get another pair of shoes*

Baby MC: Yada?

Riddle: Yes. Those shoes are not a good fit.

Ace: Oh. Maybe because they've grown a little.

Riddle: ...

Riddle: Right.

Baby MC: *staring curiously at their brother*

Lilia: What's wrong, Riddle Rosehearts? You seem a little bit gloomy today.

Riddle: Ah, Lilia-senpai.

Lilia: Oh. And hello too, Baby Rosehearts. You look adorable as usual.

Baby MC: Yeyu~!

Lilia: *chuckles* So, what's bothering us today?

Riddle: ...

Riddle: I just realized... MC is growing too fast. Soon enough, I would've to return them to the Queendom of Roses.

Lilia: Oh? But didn't your mother ask you to take care of them because she was too busy to watch over her baby?

Riddle: She was worried that it would affect my studies so she started hiring some nannies.

Riddle: Anyway, I wouldn't be bothered by something so trivial.

Lilia: *looks at the baby*

Baby MC: *listening intently*

Lilia: I don't think it's trivial at all. You see, you might be worried that you're not creating enough core memories for your baby sibling.

Riddle: Is that so...?

Lilia: Yes. *chuckles* You should cheer up. You wouldn't want the baby to pick up sad emotions.

Riddle: Yes. That's right.

Deuce: Housewarden Rosehearts! I think MC went out again!

Riddle: I see. I'll check where they are. *uses his baby tracker*

Riddle: Hm? It says here they're in the office of the headmage.

Deuce: The headmage's office?

Riddle and Deuce: ...

Riddle: *has arrived to the headmage's office and witnessing the commotion*

Professor Trein and Professor Crewel: *laughing as they find the situation amusing*

Crowley: *in a chipmunk voice* Professor Trein and Professor Crewel! Don't just stand there and help me!

Baby MC: *has used their magic on him to make him tiny* Yabababu? *holding a contract Azul made for them in which it states that MC should be a student of Night Raven College the moment they could read and write*

Crowley: No! I won't be signing that contract!

Baby MC: ...

Baby MC: *turns their head to Professor Trein*

Professor Trein: Headmage, you don't have any choice right now. The baby is the one who can only break their own signature spell.

Crowley: Oh...

Riddle: ...

Professor Crewel: There you are, Mr. Rosehearts. Come in.

Riddle: What happened?

Professor Crewel: Your baby sibling wishes to spend time with you as much as they could. In fact, they've got the approval of your mother.

Professor Crewel: Headmage is the only one being stubborn right now.

Crowley: My dear Night Raven College is not a kindergarten... *sobs*

Riddle: *once they got back to Heartslabyul*

Baby MC: Yayi?

Riddle: Pft— Yes. *kisses their cheek* You really scared the headmage.

Baby MC: *giggles* *kissing his cheek back*

Riddle: *chuckles*

#twisted wonderland #twst riddle #twst baby mc #twst trey #twst ace #twst deuce #twst lilia #twst trein #twst crewel #twst crowley #big bro riddle

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frayazicat · 7 months

Text

what if Triplets Dan, Danny, and Ellie?

like, people like to make at least Dan and Danny twins, but why not all three?? i never see that happen.

here's what i'm thinking. Reveal Gone Good, but Danny now has to tell his parents about the OTHER TWO biggest secrets he's kept from them; Dan and Ellie. he's a little hesitant cause this is not Phantom Planet compliant so they don't know about Vlad.

Dan's still in his thermos timeout thinking about what he's done and Ellie is...somewhere.

so, he tells them about his clone and his future self. this includes what Vlad has done to him. does it include who did this? maybe, i don't know. dealer's choice. anyways, the Fenton parents want to meet their new kids.

Team Phantom gets in touch with Ellie to get to FentonWorks as soon as possible while Danny introduces them to Dan.

it..might not go as planned, might end up fine, that's also dealer's choice. but! in the end, they somehow redeem Dan. Ellie arrives and the duo are welcomed into the family!

but, there are two problems now.

1) how do they explain away their new children?

and 2) Dan is full ghost (and adult-sized, i'm not sure the parents are old enough for a kid his age) and Ellie is an unstable clone - both half Vlad, and really not wanting to be half Vlad.

their solution to the second problem? make new bodies for them! they made two fully stable Halfa clone bodies from Danny, had Ellie and Dan fuse their cores inside these clones near the end of making them, and waited for them to pop out of the tubes at the same age as Danny! this might take some help from Clockwork and Danny to pull off without more melting clones..

anyways! now, they have three Halfa children. all they have to do at this point is find a way to explain the sudden appearance of TWO MORE KIDS!

their solution for THAT problem? hack into the database and change the medical files so it showed that THREE kids were birthed instead of one; Danail Jack, Daniel Jackson, and Dannielle Jacklyn Fenton. Dan, Danny, and Ellie.

but the parents take it SO MUCH FURTHER. they bribe the local schools and hospitals, they make fake receipts of things bought for them and fake records of government child support, and they even photoshop younger versions of Ellie and Dan into the family photos to make it legit. heck, they might have even gone back in time via Clockwork to add the birth certificates! they're THAT committed!

so, we got a new family of six gaslighting, gatekeeping, and girlbossing their way into legitimacy.

"What do you mean we only had two kids this entire time? Look at these records! Look at how similar they are to their triplet brother! The evidence says otherwise!"

"Listen, if you just play along and say nothing contrary to anybody who asks, we'll stop ghost hunting or driving for one month every time you do so. Sound good? We'll even put in some money to sweeten the deal."

"If we never had these children before, then why do we have memories of Dan viciously beating up Danny and Ellie's bullies at school?"

that sort of thing.

they're COMMITTED. it's INSANE. the town is going CRAZY.

where did these kids come from?? did we seriously forget about two teen kids for sixteen years??

(things go off the rails when Sam and Tucker get in on the action.)

now, i'm putting this under DCxDP, cause of just ONE little detail. Ellie's obsession involves moving, right?

well, what if the Fenton family becomes a wandering family of crime-fighters/mad scientists with an interest in the occult?

what if they get on the JL's radar because of one too many supernatural cases being solved by the Fentons in the JL's local cities?

they're at Gotham? suddenly, it feels as if the air is lighter and that it's not as drenched in evil and insanity as before. what did they do? fought the curses in the local Lazurus Pit like someone wrestling a pig in their mudpen.

they're in Metropolis? Lex woke up one day to find his entire stash of Kryptonite was missing with no trace. what did they do? the triplets broke in after sensing the gems and ate them like candy, their natural ghostliness shorting out the security feed as they do so.

they're in D.C.? all of the ghost relics in the local museums have been stolen with only a note saying, "Sorry for the disturbance! These were too dangerous for the living, so we put them somewhere safe! Don't worry! :)" left behind. what did they do? they took them and chucked them into the ghost portal where some allies on that side put them in safe places.

and that's all i got.

TL,DR; Fenton family goes full mad scientist in order to welcome Dan and Ellie into the family before packing up and wandering the states, effectively gaining the JL's attention with their suspicious and crazy appearances.

(i hope i didn't accidentally steal this idea from another. if i did, i'm sorry. feel free to smack me or something if that's the case.)

#dc x dp #long post #Danail is apparently pronounced Dan-a-il?#idk how to but okay #also #yes i'm imagining the FentonWorks building just going around the states like a weird crab-spider thing #so they always have the ghost portal nearby for emergency ghost relic chucking #commit to the bit Fenton family #instead of being normal people and claiming adoption #they made clones of their son so their new kids could have better bodies #and gaslit everyone #they left for Ellie #and also #the townsfolk are divided on the issue #they needed a CLEAN bit #triplets Dan Danny and Ellie Fenton #Fenton Triplets AU #they got the same name because of how funny it would be to confuse everyone #they also wanted similar middle names to show Vlad how little they wanted to do with him #and to piss him off with how similar they are to Jack's name #they like to publicly flaunt their names before Vlad because of how mad he gets #and because he can't do anything about it

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thefirstknife · 2 months

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So, is there a "prevailing" idea/theory/lore fact on why Osiris and Saint have different memories of things? That he really isn't "our" Saint, or that he and Osiris just remember things differently because even IRL people who were there for the same thing can remember it happening in different ways since memory isn't infallible? Something else? (I don't personally think it changes that Saint is Saint--unless he was pulled from a timeline where he had radically different experiences that would shape him into a wildly different person, he's still himself at his core across all those timelines that would lead to him being the same person.)

From what I've seen, most people just assume that the Conductor is correct and Osiris fucked up or something and we saved the wrong Saint.

Personally, I think it's more complicated than that, especially with today's reveal about the Saint that died. Originally, it was never cleared up if us saving Saint completely overwrote his death. Like, we didn't know if his grave would simply be gone after we saved him. It appears not (or at least that's what Ikora believes; Ikora is convinced we'll find his body there)! Which is really interesting because there's several really complex things involved, most notably the time paradox.

This is really difficult to get across but basically, we can pretend that the original Saint that died is Saint 1 and the one we saved is Saint 2. Saint 1 must've met us because we found the remains of the Perfect Paradox on his body. We took that and crafted the gun and then delivered it to Saint 2 in another timeline who is then saved. But that creates a problem of how does Saint 1 have it; we have to give it to him too. And if we gave it to him, that means the Sundial was created and we're there. This is further complicated by the nature of the Infinite Forest as a simulation engine. The Perfect Paradox is a really big point, as is the whole actual time paradox. I think it significantly complicates the situation to go beyond the simple "oh it's just a Saint from some other timeline and we rescued a wrong one." Obviously, it depends on how detailed they want to go with this story right now.

Even if these are two different Saints, they both must've met us which sets the course for Saint's life and shouldn't really change much about it. The divergence possibly happens in regards to whether or not Osiris creates the Sundial in that timeline (but if he doesn't, then the Saint that dies can't have the Perfect Paradox on him). If Osiris' "real" Saint died and we saved another one, there should not actually be any significant difference with their memories. Their memories should NOT differ. And they didn't, until the yoke.

That means that the yoke is what caused this and if it's caused by the yoke, then we can't really fully believe anything that the Conductor put in Saint's head. So far we've seen them having diverging memories on one thing, but just before that, we saw them in complete agreement on their memories. And Saint never experienced this before with anyone else either. My conclusion is that the Conductor scoured the timelines for other Saints and fed him other memories that may exist, which naturally caused an existential crisis.

This week Saint also seems to be doing better. He exhibited other memories that we know are correct, like where and when he met us and how that all went. He also specifically doubts the Conductor's manipulation by saying that he remembers the smells and sounds of the City normally, so how can he possibly be a fake?

I wonder how they'll go about this. How in-depth they'll dig and if there's an easier explanation that I'm not seeing. I do think that a significant part of the solution will just be convincing Saint that no matter what, he is Saint who lives with Osiris right now and that's it. It doesn't matter which version he is. Saint already had some thoughts like this today in the radio!

If anyone else wants to take a crack at the time shenanigans, feel free to add!

#destiny 2 #destiny 2 spoilers #echoes #echoes spoilers #saint-14 #ask #long post

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kfaem · 18 days

Text

Tied || Sylus Qin Love and Deepspace

pairing: Sylus x MC (Luna Do) cw: child experimentation, violence. future established relationship, spoilers for the chapter 9 (obviously) notes: just some headcanons/theories i guess. i started writing this a while back but never really got to it. im sorry that this kinda sucks. i finished writing this when i was a few drinks in and proper grammar kinda skipped my mind lmao tags per request <3 @iwillpissyourpants @lizzetmv

It was hurting again, that familiar ache in her chest that usually made Zayne tense up. She glanced in the mirror of her lover's bedroom, gently pulling down her shirt to look at the scar right over her heart.

The scar had long since faded, hidden from a far away glance but oh so noticeable when she was looking for it. She always wondered why the scar looked so...unprofessional, like her surgeries were all done in some kind of cheap lab. Grandma would never tell her, just brushing her off and repeating the same line she's heard all her life. "That's what it looked like after the attack happened, sweetheart."

When she met Sylus and his team, including a former researcher who was apart of her Grandmother's team all those years ago, it all came together. The lab that remained untouched on the outskirts of the N109 Zone, the weird, dated technology that was ripped from the walls and thrown all over.

After she gained the Aether Core and memories came to her, she could never look at Grandma the same.

"Josephine, they're not as weak as you think they are, if we keep them linked to the same machine for just a bit longer-"

"This is no longer a medical research trial, we're torturing these children and you know it." Josephine, a woman in her late 50's couldn't bare to see the barely moving heart monitors, the scarce beeping giving her nightmares. "Even if they're bound together- what life will they have?"

Sylus was about 13 years old, newly orphaned due to the wanderer attacks that brutalized his home. Luna was 9 years old and the only survivor from her neighbourhood. Sylus clenched his jaw, wanting nothing more than to rip all the stupid wires off of himself, but then she squeezed his hand, turning her head to him. "Sy?"

"Yes Lune?" He whispered, not wanting to attract the scientists outside the door. "Don't talk too loud remember? They get mad whenever we interrupt them."

"...I know." She whimpered in response, her tiny hand holding his even tighter than before. "Sy?" He hummed. "Are we gonna die here?"

"I don't know, maybe." Is what he considered saying, but he knew better than that now. "No Lune, we're gonna be just fine." He was lying to himself.

The lab door opened and both scientists entered the room, one going towards the desk and the other towards their charts. "We should follow through with the implantations tomorrow while the girl is still in good health." The man spoke with certainty, glancing over at Josephine who nodded. "Have we properly decided on...where?"

"Last I recall, we agreed that the boy was to receive the core in his right eye and the girl in her heart." Sylus tensed, realizing that this man was talking about him and the girl beside him. "However, the girl's implant is significantly more likely to go array, we'll have to line up a suitable candidate if she dies during or after the surgery."

Luna began to shake, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. She couldn't speak. Not when Sylus told her not to.

"Tomorrow at noon should be an adequte time to begin the girl's implant, the boy will be much easier and shall require less time."

"Sweetie?" Sylus's deep voice pulled her out of her thoughts, she looked into his crimson eyes, and the scar that she never noticed until after her memories came back to her. "You've been staring in the mirror for a while now, is everything alright?"

Luna let go of her shirt, forcing a smile in her reflection. “Yeah, just… thinking.” Sylus hummed in response, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her head. Luna tightly gripped Sylus’s hands, feeling comfort in his hold. “Can we go back to the lab soon? I just… want to see it again.”

His eyes peered up at their reflection, a sudden glaze coating his usually sly gaze. He moved his hand up her body, slipping it under her shirt and letting his fingers run along the scar over her heart. He sighed, closing his eyes. “It took longer than they anticipated, you weren’t responding well to the Aether Core or any medications they were forcing into you. When they brought you back into the laboratory, you were as good as dead.” His chilly fingers continued to touch the scar, and the skin around it.

“Sylus-“ Luna whispered, feeling the slight trembling at his touch.

“They wouldn’t tell me what was happening, I was sedated and taken back for my own surgery. Once I awoke, you were connected to all sorts of machinery.”

“You were… awake?”

“Barely.” His voice turned hoarse as he recalled the long forgotten memories. “I tried calling for you, the one researcher, Eric, decided to separate us.”

Luna held his hand tighter, watching as his eyebrows furrowed. “What happened then?”

“The Evol linkage appeared, a force so strong that the scientists couldn’t break it- break us, apart.” Sylus ran his free hand down her waist, pressing his lips to her neck. "He was angry and expressed the desire to permanently separate us."

"They...wanted to kill one of us?"

"You, specifically." He hummed, "they said you were weak after your surgery, weak enough that they wanted to reharvest the aether core." Sylus turned her around, his arms pulling her to his chest. "But we don't need to revisit those memories, we're here now, together."

"Right," Luna whispered, pulling him closer. "Thank you for staying alive."

"Only for you, my love."

#sylus love and deepspace #love and deepspace #love and deepspace sylus #sylus l&ds #sylus lads #l&ds sylus #sylus x mc

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hikennosabo · 8 months

Text

#tristampparty day 12, episode 0: high noon at july

LAST DAY OF @tristampparty ALREADY LET'S GOOOOOO

bang, bang!! nai liking movies is such a cute little detail, (it's in the manga too!!) i don't think it gets talked about enough. he went from thinking gunslinging heroes were cool to guns being a coward's weapon...

i still can't really fully wrap my head around the higher dimension... it contains the "core" of the plants and... it's where plants pull matter and energy from...? yeah i CANNOT fathom it actually

also like. how did humans even discover how plants worked and what they could do. assuming the lore is the same as in the manga (for what lore there is in the manga...) and humans created plants. who what when where why how. humans made plants and use plants every day yet they're such a black box... uuaaaaa (steam comes out of my ears from thinking too hard)

zazie's priority lies with the planet itself and whether or not worms will be able to continue to live and thrive on it, but i wish we got to see more of what the worms need to like. actually live and survive. they have a hivemind so they can't truly "die" (i guess unless every single worm is wiped out), but what do they need to live? we see that the giant worms eat humans, but what did they eat before humans crashed on the planet? tomas? other worms? do they photosynthesize? do they need to breathe? humans use worms for food and resources, but what exactly would knives have do to the planet to make it unlivable for the worms?

the song that vash sings is... the song knives plays on his piano. in the original/98, the song that was important to vash was rem's song. here, that... may or may not be the case...? vash says the song "just comes to him," but in this scene he's forgotten rem... then again, the song isn't what helps him remember her.

there was a theory post from a while ago that posited this song is the voice, or... frequency of the plants(?) which could very well be the case. vash and knives taking that frequency and singing or playing it in a way humans can hear... rem was onto something when she called them a bridge.

i wonder how much of this scene is an actual memory. maybe vash did sing that song, and nai heard it, and they played it on the piano together. and that's why knives continues to play it in the present day.

maybe i'll go eat some rocks.

this is reminding me of... in the manga when vash escaped from the ark and knives was begging him not to go. it's... yeah, pretty much the same. different scenario, but the same.

this sequence is so gorgeous... once again i'm asking how people ever thought this anime looked bad. lmao.

BUT MY MAIN QUESTION IS THIS!!! IS THIS REALLY REM SPEAKING TO VASH HERE? we know that in trimax, ghosts kind of exist, right? like tesla appearing to the twins, wolfwood appearing to livio... is this a similar case? what's happening on the "outside" is meryl's voice reaching through to vash, right? so is this more like, meryl's presence reminds vash of rem, so this is what vash wishes he could hear from her? like is this coming from his subconscious? or... is it really the spirit of rem somehow...

i'm overthinking it. i'm overthinking it.

i wonder what rem's ghost would say to knives.

i'm obsessed with the fight that comes after. OBSESSED. screencaps don't do it justice, i love the weightiness, the camerawork, the choreography... IT'S JUST FUN TO WATCH!!!!

THE BITE HAS BEEN POSTED SO MANY TIMES BUT I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT'S SO FUNNY. outside of when they were kids, this is the most they've acted like siblings this whole show and i love it.

why are his boobs so big

and then there's the wings. the wings... and their context. manga readers know. they're a symbol of, hmm... not forgiveness, but... the first step to it, maybe. the love between them. flying to safety. supporting each other. being side-by-side. right?

they're using their wings to fight each other right now, so i'm sure the plan is to hit us with the wings again at the end for maximum emotional impact. the fact that they both have one wing each makes that extremely fucking obvious, i think. (remember in the manga vash sprouted 2 wings at first, which he couldn't sustain)

I JUST LOVE THIS SHOT. IT'S SO COOL.

oh. ohhhhhhh.

it's so interesting that the angel arm comes from vash combining(?) the cube with his gun... does this mean angel arms can't manifest normally? like, do you need the cube? or does the cube just make it easier? and what about knives, can he manifest his?? like this can't be the one and only appearance of the angel arm in tristamp, right, we're gonna need it again for the fifth moon and the ark escape, right??

(assuming those events will even happen in tristamp, but fifth moon AT LEAST is like. a constant in all timelines, i feel. like how time travel stories have "nodes" that can't be changed, right? but this isn't actually that kind of story. so who knows.)

...huuuuhhhh and i just noticed vash's prosthetic arm disappears when he manifests the angel arm. umm... i'm not entire sure what that means. is it because his gate was in his left arm...?

hey where'd she get those binoculars

crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch (i'm chewing on rocks)

CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH

"since when have we been so different"... kills me in so many ways, but... in episode 3 vash says that knives hasn't changed. ("since that time," he says, which i assume is referring to the flashback scene in episode 9.) and knives says right back at you. but here, vash is basically saying, who are you. you're unrecognizable to me now. that's literally what he says in the dub. and again knives says right back at you. "you haven't changed." "i could say the same of you." "who are you?" "who are you?" they're brothers. they haven't changed. they've changed so much. they know each other better than anyone else. they don't recognize each other anymore. they love each other. did they ever really know each other?

crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch crunch.

when i first watched tristamp the significance of this all was lost on me. i didn't know any context.

i didn't know that the original trigun started with july already destroyed. i didn't know vash's original bounty. i didn't catch the insurance department mention, or who eriks was, or chronica, or what it meant that the earth fleet was going to arrive, or this being numbered "episode 0"... nothing. all of it went completely over my head. oh i knew milly though. milly is forever.

but now i'm people who know. and i think orange's decision to adapt the story like this, to make it a prequel... is fucking ballsy and cool and i respect it.

that being said, i still don't understand what zazie is talking about... and how they know this. i don't understand all the scifi technobabble with chronica at the end either... what i'm assuming is that the earth forces are keeping tabs on the higher plane(??) and/or on gate readings(?) and... were alerted to what was going on that way? does "crossing over the wall of light" just mean they're using warp drive? why can't zazie talk normally.

uagh. what a fucking journey, man, and it hasn't even begun yet. glad i got to rewatch and go a little crazy. i think the fixation is beginning to fade a little bit (it's been long enough, this is how my brain cycles through things) but the brainrot never truly goes away. girl with plant twins icon gets emotional about the plant twins once again, more at 11.

ty to @revenantghost for organizing i had fun!! :'D

#tristampparty #june speaks #trigun talk

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mingiswow · 1 year

Text

Grant me the light | Song Mingi

Pairing: Mingi x afab!reader

Words: 9k

Genre: smut, angst, a lil fluff, dystopian

Content Warning: kidnapping (again I know, I'm sorry), mentions of death, alcohol consumption, mentions of eating, reader is a bit jealous, reader uses they/them pronouns, reader has vagina and boobs, implied plus size reader, reader has bouncy boobs, reader wears a dress (clothes are genderless, buddy), Mingi still has his firey hair, not proof read, I lost myself in the middle of it I'm sorry, it was my Mingi feelings

Smut warning: piv, unprotected sex (don't do that omg), cum in vagina, multiple orgasms, soft dom!mingi, big dick!mingi, reader becomes fuck dumb, reader is called baby and kitten, slight pet play not really, dirty talk, again I lost myself in the middle of it and just let it go, Mingi is really sweet with reader all the time, if I forgot anything lmk

⚠ If you’re under the age of 18 and/or don’t feel comfortable reading that type of content, I have a lot of other content here.

⚠ English is not my native language, so pardon me if there are any mistakes. And you can always tell me what’s wrong.

When you were stolen from your family at the age of five by the peaceworkers you thought you were going to die, you were the “extra child” after all. But when they discovered you were some kind of genius beyond your age, they decided to keep you alive and made you work for them. Since then you’ve been one of their most brilliant scientists, the one behind their improvement over the control of the population, the one that discovered how to keep the population at bay and doing what they desired. But your work has been stolen by your superiors, using your discovery under their name to present to the governors from the districts. More than once some of your colleagues stole your work, showed it to your superiors that stole again from them. You were simply a creating machine.

So when you woke up inside a badly lit room smelling like dead fish and tied up to a very uncomfortable chair you had no idea what was happening, but you prepared yourself for your death. And if you just died was an advantage.

You knew that you were probably by the docks, the fishy smell and the sound of crashing waves invading your senses. Your body was sore, but you can’t seem to remember what happened, if you fought or resisted, you have no memories from the hours before, you just remember being at your workstation reviewing some of your latest notes and then you woke up in this room.

“Fighting is useless, this is one of your many creations, the ripless rope” you were caught off guard when a deep voice announced its presence. Your eyes shifted from the rope around your ankles to the owner of the voice. He wasn’t alone. “Sorry this to be our first introduction but we didn’t know how you’d react” he announced and walked closer to you, kneeling in front of you. “Is it safe to untie you? Or will you attack us?” you denied, body too weak to fight. But in all honesty, why fight? He smiled and untied you, rolling the rope around his arm and giving it to one of the men with him. You rubbed your wrist, the place red from the friction and tightness. “My name is Mingi,” he started speaking, handing you a cold bag to put on the hurt wrists, which you gladly accepted “Sorry to kidnap you like this, but it was the only way to affect them” you tilted your head confused.

“Affect who?” you asked, voice a little hoarse from dryness.

“Your superiors? The government?” you laughed at him but stopped when you saw he was being serious.

“I’m sorry, but how would that affect them?”

“You are their most important scientists?” One of the other men spoke. “You have created some of the most incredible inventions this society has seen, and you have helped many pieces of research being conducted in order to control the population. Losing you is like losing their core”.

“I’m sorry but you got the wrong person. Yes, I’ve created and researched a lot of things for them but they don’t give a single fuck about me. Some of them don’t even know it’s my work because my name’s never on it” you gave the man in front of you the ice pack and got on your feet. “Look, I really appreciate the fact that you guys know that it was my work, don’t know how you do, but who cares? But I’m not gonna be an effective bait” Mingi got on his feet as well and you noticed how he towered over you, suddenly feeling small. “I can give you names if you want, my superior has a son that he is absolutely proud of, saying he’s going to be the next governor, he’s a good target”.

The men looked at each other, some of them whispering things you obviously couldn’t hear, but the tall fiery haired man was still looking down at you, almost as if he was analyzing his options. You just smiled at him not sure how to act, the air thick, tension almost palpable.

“Let’s do this, you stay with us until they come looking for you. If they don’t, you give us the information you have and we let you go” he spoke, right hand in front of him for you to hold and seal the deal. You shook his hand and nodded. “Meanwhile you’ll be helping us, we need a bigger brain around here”

“Hey!” One of the men spoke clearly offended. “I’m pretty smart, you know?” Mingi rolled his eyes and went after the man, hugging him by the shoulder and messing with his hair. You smiled involuntarily and followed them.

You walked out of the room and noticed the amount of people around the building, all working seemingly happily. You noticed none of them used the assigned clothes which meant none of them were under the physical control of the government. They all stared at you when you passed by, some of them closing their faces to you. You felt a fish out of water and just lowered your head and kept following the men in front of you, getting a little closer to them.

“Don’t worry about them, they are not used to peaceworkers around here without being violent” one of the men with Mingi spoke, smiling warmly at you. “I’m Seonghwa by the way” you smiled and slightly bowed to him. “You don’t agree with the government, do you?”

“Oh no, not at all. I honestly did it all to be alive. I was an extra child, they were going to kill me when they found me but somehow they discovered I was a gifted child and decided to keep me captive as their little lab robot” he nodded to you.

“Good, this way we can defend you when they try to kill you”

“They’re going to try to kill me?” You asked a little tad too loud, making some of the people around look at you, including Mingi.

“Seonghwa, don’t scare them” the taller one came to your rescue, hugging you by your shoulder protectively. “They won’t kill you, yn” you nodded. “But do you know how to kill?”

“I’ve learned how to use a gun once but if I know how to shoot properly that’s another story…” you chuckled, a little ashamed that you live in such a dangerous world and don’t even know how to protect yourself. “But I can be helpful in other areas”

“Such as?” He asked and you all walked out of the building, the sudden bright sun blinding you. You didn’t know that it could shine that brightly or that lively. “It’s amazing isn’t it?” You nodded and gradually your eyes adjusted to the brightness, head a little dizzy, but you were in such awe of everything surrounding you. “The capital purposefully covers the sky with dust to dull the sun, vitamin D and daily exposure to the sun keep people happy and less likely to develop mental health issues, and that includes passiveness to mental control” you looked over at the man, still not quite grasping what he was saying and all Mingi could do was chuckle and gently rub your head, the gesture making you blush. “You’ll get to learn a lot with us. Do you know how to swim?” You denied.

“Then you’ll need this” one of the other men, who you learned was called Jongho, showed you an orange vest. “That will keep you safe and breathing under water until we arrive at the tunnel” he came near you and helped you dress the piece. “This is one of my newest inventions, we had a lot of capitals dropouts coming in lately, so I had to create something for them to reach the tunnel without dying” you just nodded.

As soon as you put on the vest, Jongho clicked a button and a big inflatable helmet covered your head. You looked around trying to understand where that came from, but you couldn’t find any signs of change. It was actually an amazing invention.

They all stood by the pier and jumped one by one into the water and, as expected, you started to freak out. How the fuck they expect you to jump out in open water? What if there were monsters down there? What if you died? You started to panic and took little steps back, but your back was met with a broad chest. You turned to find Mingi standing tall with a kind smile on his face. He offered you his hand for you to grab, just like he did minutes before inside the building. You held his hand, a little hesitantly. But instead of just holding yours, he pulled you closer to his chest, hugged your body tight and jumped inside the water with you holding on to him for your life. Your screams got engulfed by the helmet and when you realized you didn’t die and, just as Jongho had told you, you could breathe underwater, you started to slowly open your eyes. If the view up there in the docks was gorgeous, down in the water was breathtaking (pun not intended).

The water was so blue and you could see everything around you, the way the light rays would color the blue slightly yellow and some of the animals would search for these light sources for a sun bath. You've never seen so many colors, so many animals alive in one place. You looked in front of you and saw the other boys swimming to a big gray and old tunnel, it looked like an old abandoned pipe lost in the middle of the ocean, something that fell from a boat.

You realized that you were still hugging Mingi tightly and tried to let him go, but he still held you close to him, making sure you were safe to arrive at the pipe.

He wanted to tell himself that the warmth of your body against his wasn’t soothing or that he didn’t like the contact. Taking care of people and making sure that their little secret world wasn’t found was tough, he barely had time to have a life, to think about building a family or whatever. So having someone - as pretty as you - glued against him was doing something weird to his body.

Mingi managed to snap those thoughts away and swim with you safely to the tunnel, which with a few more swims the water level started to lower until there was no water left but it still felt like you were in the ocean.

“The guerillas before us built this energetic field that allows us to have this city under the ocean but still feels like we are on land” Jongho explained to you, helping you out of the helmet and vest, which you thanked him for. You took a deep breath in and it definitely felt like the clean air of the docks.

“How? How is that possible?”

“I don’t know” he laughed a little, his hands going to his pocket. “I never managed to discover how they did that, what technology that they used, it’s one of the biggest mysteries down here” you nodded and you could sense how that affected his inventor's self-esteem. “But I also don’t like to, you know, investigate too much, I’m afraid that if I mess too much with it I’ll disturb something I shouldn’t and destroy the whole thing” you nodded again, he was right it was a big risk.

“Maybe I can help you out? See what you have noted and maybe look for some new clues. I know that the government uses statics and energy fields for some of their facilities, maybe it’s similar”

“That’ll be great! If we find out maybe we can reproduce in other places and have more safe villages” you smiled and nodded, excited by the idea.

You two walked in front of everyone happily discussing technology and inventions, your eyes sparkling with having someone to finally talk about your passions without being called weird or even being excluded. After all, everyone in the capital knew you were an extra child, they all thought you deserved to be dead. The government never had mercy on anyone before so why would they have with you? You started to think that maybe, just maybe, Mingi was right and you were a valuable piece of their little puzzle and maybe they would try to rescue you. The thought made you a little bit happy, maybe you were important.

As you walked and talked with Jongho, Mingi, Seonghwa and Yunho came from the back, looking at you two.

“Do you think they’ll come to rescue them?” The eldest asked, truly concerned for their operation. Mingi looked at you laughing happily with your new friend and smiled without even realizing it.

“They would be stupid if they didn’t, they’re the brain behind some of their most important inventions” Yunho was the one to answer. “Yn has created the literal suit the people use to be controlled, they created the suit the peacemakers use to make them stronger, they have uncovered some of the best technology from the past and renewed” both men nodded at their friend.

“I’m hoping we got their weak spot, if not at least we got someone that’s not gonna bail on us” the fiery-haired man spoke and the others agreed, you seemed safe but keeping an extra eye was never too much. “I’ll take them to Hongjoong, he’ll be happy to meet her”.

The man took a few bigger steps to reach for you and Jongho, touching your shoulder to announce his presence. He led you through the village, all the time you were in awe with everything around you. It was an actual functioning city under the water. And without water. Mingi could see your eyes sparkle every time you’d see an animal or a kid came running to welcome you or ask to see your suit.

You were truly feeling things you’ve never felt before. You felt a tugging feeling at your chest and your heart stumped like a drum in your chest, you couldn’t quite pinpoint what that feeling was but you liked it. In your entire life, all you felt was fear, boredom, sadness and solitude. All the happiness you have the memory of is from when you were a kid on your parents' farm or when you discovered some new tech or when you saw a live cat for the first time. It was all so new. And you were loving it.

You arrived at the main building right at the center of the city, Jongho excused himself to clean his workspace before you went to visit him. Mingi led you through the building, greeting some people working there and quickly introducing you to them before leading you to one of the rooms in the place.

He knocked on the door three times before he heard a “come in” coming from inside and opened the door, revealing a smiling man looking around the same age as Mingi.

“Oh, yn! Welcome to Halazia!” The man greeted you, shaking your hand. “I hope the boys treated you right” you nodded.

“This is Hongjoong, he’s kind of our leader here” the smaller man scoffed.

“There are no leaders here, yn, all I do is try the best I can to lead us all to freedom” he held your hands in his and smiled, trying to make you feel safe and welcomed. “We hope for you to be useful to us as we can be useful to you. If you need anything in particular or if anyone here is bothering you, especially the kids, let us know. We kidnapped you after all” you laughed a little completely forgetting how you ended up there.

“It was very weird, not gonna lie, but these guys aren’t so tough” you and Hongjoong laughed together while Mingi jokingly sulked.

“Then we need new men to do the dirty work” you nodded, agreeing and already feeling at home with the man’s personality. “Mingi, will you take yn to their room, please?” The taller man nodded and started to leave the room. “Again, yn, if you need anything, let us know” you thanked him and left the room.

You followed Mingi around the citadel, already feeling at home and looking at everything that surrounded you. The idea of living a happy life in a place that didn’t feel like a prison was something you could only dream of. He took you to a part of the place where a bunch of tiny cute cottages stand side by side.

“Here’s where we all live, Hongjoong thought you’d be more comfortable living on your own and near us, at least for now” you nodded while you saw the houses decorated to match the personalities of their owners. “You’ll be living here” he pointed to a tiny house painted in a very light shade of green and a big tree growing by the side. It felt so welcoming, so warm. “I live with Yunho and Seonghwa to your left and Jongho lives in front of us” you looked to the cottage on the other side and immediately noticed it was Jongho’s. You giggled at the amount of trash and destroyed pieces he probably used to study or build something. “Like the boss said, if you need anything let us know, we’ll try our best to help” you nodded, smiling. “I know we kinda kidnapped you, but you know how peace workers are sometimes”

“I know very well, they are even between ourselves” you rolled your eyes, remembering the way they treated you. “Let’s pretend I escaped, ‘Kay? This way you guys don’t feel guilty”

“Okay, that’s our deal. Well, I have things to do, you can go over to Jongho if anything for now” you agreed. He gave you a little key with a keychain with your name handwritten on it. “If you feel more comfortable you can lock your door, especially from the curious kids, they are quite feisty” you giggled at the face he made when talking about the kids. “I’ll be going now” he started to walk away to the main part of the village. “If you need anything…”

“I’ll ask for help” you finished. “I’m fine, Mingi, don’t worry” he nodded and waved at you.

He repeated this a few times, turning to walk then turning around again to wave and smile at you before actually turning around and going away, making you giggle like a stupid teenager at his demeanor. He was such a softie compared to his size and voice.

“You know…” you startled at the voice, but recognized it was Jongho’s. “I’ve never seen Mingi acting like that”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, nothing. Just saying. So, ready to start to research?” You nodded excitedly and followed him to his house.

It had been more than a month since you went to Halazia. You moved to Jongho’s house in less than two weeks since you’d spent most of your days - and nights - there studying and researching. So it was more than expected for you to move in with him, which was the best decision for you. You felt lonely at night in the house, and you barely spent any time there besides when you went to sleep. And living and working with Jongho was amazing. Sometimes Mingi or Hongjoong would appear to see how your work was going. You had the chance to meet your other neighbors as well, that would always bring some delicious food and warm drinks for you and Jongho because you often were so invested that forgot to eat or drink.

Throughout that time, you managed to improve a lot more the technologies he developed, mixing your knowledge. You were really impressed by what he was capable of with just what he had access to. A true genius.

You also learned how to deal with the kids and more importantly, with Hongjoong bursts of rage. He was very short-tempered, especially when something went wrong but somehow you learned how to deal with the small beast like Seonghwa would call him.

But just like how you expected, no one came after you, there wasn’t even gossip about what happened to you. Their informants up in the capital or even outside the town haven’t heard a thing about you. In the beginning, you felt bad, guilty even, because they had all the trouble of catching you and god knows what they did to take you out of that hell hole. All the time they assured you that it wasn’t your fault and that now you were one of them but you still felt a little bad.

“How about we throw a party to officially welcome you and the other newcomers?” Wooyoung, who you learned was a party lover, suggested when he, Mingi and Seonghwa were visiting you and Jongho to get the newest bombs you two created. “You are part of Halazia now, yn, and since we were preparing for a possible attack, we didn’t welcome the newcomers as well” you looked over at Seonghwa, that was the eldest in the room and Hongjoong’s unofficial right-hand man, that just shrugged and nodded.

Wooyoung just clapped his hands happily and pulled the men with him so they could prepare for the night. Jongho and you just giggled at his antics and went back to work.

“So,” he started and you hummed for him to keep talking. “When are you and Mingi going to make a move?” You turned your head to him, almost soldering the wrong cable. “C’mon yn, everyone knows that Mingi is head over heels for you from the start”

“Did you ingest metal? Breathed toxic smoke? Mingi is not into me” you sounded sadder than you expected. “Besides, I saw him talking to Magenta”

“And?”

“She seems very into him” you finished your task and turned the machine on to test if it was working. “Besides, they know each other for years now, I can’t compete with that”

“So you assume that you like him?” Jongho smirked at you, your cheeks heating up.

“What? No! That’s not what I said” you defended yourself, turning off the machine and putting it aside to start the other part. “I have nothing to wear tonight” you changed the subject, trying not to feed the buried feeling you’ve been having for Mingi for the past couple of weeks.

You tried to rationalize what you were feeling. It was probably because you never had anyone and now you have friends. It was because he was extra nice with you. Maybe it was Stockholm syndrome. But to be it you would be admitting that 1) he kidnapped you - which was not a lie, he and the others indeed kidnapped you but you refuse to read it as so because that’s not how you imagined these things would go -, and 2) that you like him. Which you don’t want to. Because you don’t like him. Or how unintentionally funny he is. Or how tall and strong he looks every time he comes from the farm with his tank tee, arms in display, dirt in his body and how you want to just wash every spot clean. Or how his voice is deep and sultry and goes even deeper early in the morning when he comes to bring you breakfast and a hot black coffee because he knows you and Jongho pulled an all-nighter to finish a project. Or how he would be inspecting your projects and making sure you are safe and ends up sleeping on the couch or your bed but always hugging your pillow that when you went to sleep you’d hug and inhale the scent he left and imagine it was him with you. No. You did not like him.

“Earth to yn?” Jongho threw a piece of plastic at you, taking you out of your trance.

“What? Sorry”

“I was talking to myself while you daydreamed about the gentle giant” you shook your head, trying to take him out of your mind and deny to your partner. Jongho just rolled his eyes but decided not to annoy you any further. “I asked if you wanna go to the tailor to see if she has something for you to wear”

“There’s a tailor in here?”

“More than one, darling, where do you think your clothes come from?” You just felt dumb for a few seconds, you even helped Jongho with some. “Want me to get you there?” You nodded, excited with the idea.

You two left all your things behind and left for the woman’s place. Her atelier was in the building next to Hongjoong’s office in the center of the citadel, so it wasn’t so far away from your house.

Her atelier wasn’t big, but the walls were full of clothes and fabrics. Some of them you recognized as the ones Jongho created, others you recognized as the ones from the capital.

“Welcome my sweetpeas, how can I help you today?” A middle-aged woman came from one of the doors, a big smile on her face. “Oh you must be yn, aren’t you?” You nodded and greeted her. “Pleasure to finally meet you. Wooyoung already invited me for the party tonight so I guess this is about an outfit?”

“My friend here has a certain… someone to impress”

"JONGHO!" You slapped his arm, shy with the unknown woman. She just giggled.

“It’s alright, my dear, we already are living in this terrible world, we should have fun, love” she said as she walked through the racks of clothing, taking some items, holding them in your direction and just putting them back in their place. “You need something different. Have you ever worn a dress?”

“A dress?” You looked at her and Jongho confused.

“Yes, you don’t know what a dress is?” You denied, you’ve only worn the same boring uniform every day and even after you started living in Halazia your clothes were just simple pants and shirts and your lab coat. So you barely knew any other clothes. “A dress is exactly what I’m wearing. It’s a one-piece item that looks like a long shirt, it can have many different cuts and fittings” you nodded and walked over to where she was. “I think I have just the right thing for you” she pulled a long green piece.

It looked like a giant cape with black long sleeves in a shiny material that looked like leather but it was softer. She helped you put the dress on, closing the buttons that held it closed. The woman turned you around and squinted her eyes before leaving to grab something from the other part of the atelier. She came back holding some type of harness that looked like a vest. The woman put it on you on top of the dress, the beautiful mixture of the green with the black of the sleeves and the harness looked so pretty on you, on your body, on your skin. You looked at yourself in the mirror and besides feeling a little weird by having your legs exposed, you felt extremely pretty.

“So? How are we looking?” The tailor asked and you smiled at her and nodded.

“It’s a bit weird but a good weird” you confessed.

“It’s the wind down there isn’t it?” She chuckled and you nodded, the freedom down there was definitely something. You liked. “Hongjoong loves it. He just came in to buy a new skirt for the party. A skirt is just the down part of the dress” she explained seeing that you probably didn’t know. She was right. “And what about you Choi?”

“Oh I have an outfit, no worries” he answered. “Shall we go and get ready?” You nodded at your friend and took the dress and harness, handing them to the woman.

“How much that’ll be?”

“Since it’s your first time here and it’s for your welcoming party, it’s a gift” you went to say something but she cut you. “Nah-ah. I insist. Just make sure you come back here for whenever you need new clothes” you nodded and thanked her.

The two of you left the place straight to your house to take a shower and prepare for the party. It was a few minutes past the starting time when you finished getting ready, getting to stop for a while to look over at an experiment you were doing - and honestly forgot about. Jongho was waiting for you downstairs already, his arms out in a tank top making him look very different than what you are used to.

“I see I’m not the only one trying to impress someone tonight” you smirked.

“So you admit you are trying to impress him?” Now it was his turn to smirk.

“Touché. Are we ready?” He nodded. “So let’s go, I never went to a party, I’m excited”

“You’ll love it! Wooyoung knows how to do it” you smiled and nodded, leaving the house to the place where the parties took place.

The room was full with people already, some of them you’ve met before, some of them you remember seeing around and others you had never seen before, which made you wonder how big Halazia really was and how the capital never found out. You were cut out of your daydreaming by some of the villagers greeting you and welcoming you officially. You smiled and thanked them for their hospitality, hugging the ones that insisted on hugging you. This whole living in community thing and being friends with those people still very new to you.

“Welcome yn!” An excited Wooyoung hugged you, being followed by San and Hongjoong. “Hope you enjoy the party” he smiled and gave you a mug with a cold drink on it.

“It’s our artisanal beer” San answered your question when you smelled the cup. “It’s one of the few things that survived from the past. I managed to get my hands on one of the ancient recipes from the capital” you took a sip of it and the bitter taste of it was quite enjoyable and refreshing. “Just be careful that it can get you drunk. Which means that you may get dizzy and even pass out. Since it’s your first time don’t drink too much and don’t forget to eat as well, empty stomachs get drunk faster”

“Yes, boss” you joked and thanked him for the drink.

You took another sip and started to look around. Paying attention to the people, to the table with an abundance of foods and drinks, and instinctively looking for a certain tall someone in the crowd. You spotted him with Yunho in a corner from your left, the friends were talking to two villagers that seemed more interested in their chest than on what they were saying. You felt a teeny tiny crushing sensation on your chest. So he didn’t like you after all? But how could you blame him? He was a free man.

His eyes averted from the girl playing with the string of his shirt in front of him and he scanned the room, eyes meeting yours and instantly smiling. But for some reason you just turned your gaze away and left to look for Jongho. Or anyone really.

You found your friend talking to a few villagers that were gushing over his arms and decided not to disturb his flirts. You looked for Wooyoung and found him and San in the middle of the room dancing. You took the last sip of your cup and went to them.

“Hey yn! Have you ever danced?” You denied to the man that looked like he had no bones. “Try to copy me or Sannie”

“Or just move however you feel with the sound” you tried to listen to the music but dancing to your feelings was still a little bit too much so you decided to try to copy what other people were doing.

At first, you were a disaster, feet tangled in each other, legs and arms too stiff. You laughed at your own movements but kept trying nonetheless. Wooyoung hopped on to help you, holding your hands and sometimes your waist and guiding you. When you were getting the hang of it he let go of you.

“Wooyoung, why did y-“ you were cut by a pair of strong arms wrapping around you from the back and turning you around to meet a smiling Mingi.

“Hi” he said simply, that sweet smile making you melt.

“Hi”

“Have someone told you you look gorgeous tonight?” He asked, hands still on your lower back, keeping you flushed to his body as he guided you through the rhythm. You nodded to his question and he just chuckled lightly. “Then allow me to compliment you once more”

You two kept dancing in silence for a few minutes. None of you saying a word. The expecting eyes of your friends watching how things would unfold

“I thought you were busy talking to those villagers with Yunho” you broke the silence, the bitterness in your voice a bit stronger than you intended. Mingi smiled and brought your body closer to his and you could feel the warmth of his body irradiating through the thin fabric of your dress. Your eyes leveled with the opening of his shirt, peeking just enough to make your mouth dry.

“Were you jealous?”

“Why would I be?” His left hand slid a little further down, staying in the beginning of your bum curve.

“Then why were you avoiding me?” No answer. You didn’t have one. “If you wanted me you just needed to ask” you gulped at his words. Where did this confidence come from?

“Who says I want you?” You managed to choke out, trying to sound confident and provocative, but the shakiness in your voice gave you away.

“Are you drunk?”

“I don’t think so, I only had one cup and feel normal” you answered, an eyebrow raised at his sudden question. “Why a-“ he suddenly left your body and grabbed you hand pulling you out of the place to one of the doors behind next to where he was with Yunho.

You kept following him, entangling your legs a little on the dress. He guided you through a corridor until you reached a staircase. He went up and entered the first door he found. You looked around you and noticed how that looked like a room. Was that someone else’s room? You missed the way he closed the door and took a deep breath before going back to you. Mingi didn’t want to scare you but he was close to losing it.

He noticed you the moment you entered the place, looking so pretty in the dress, your leg showing a tad too much for his taste when you walked and he could see how some villagers looked at you and whispered with their cocky smirk on their faces. He couldn’t allow them to touch you. To be near you. But when he was about to go after you, two villagers approached him and Yunho, flirting with them and trying to get in their pants. But Mingi was having none of it. He wanted you. And he was determined to have you that night. It was his chance to make a move. But he needed to be quick otherwise he could lose you.

“Listen carefully, yn” he started, eyes locked on yours. “I really want you, I’ve been wanting you for quite a while now and my mind's going crazy and I want to kiss you and have your body for me and worship you and touch you and have sex with you but I won’t do anything unless you give me the green light. So please, tell me anything” you blinked a few times to his confession, still a bit shaken. So Jongho was right all along.

You didn’t said anything, you just jumped onto his arms and kissed him. He was caught a little bit off guard but reacted pretty quickly, kissing you slowly but deep. His tongue just invaded your mouth and started to entangle with yours. His hands were nervous, roaming from your neck to your waist to your face, just trying to find the best way to hold you not to run away. Not that he thought you would, not with the way your body was responding to the kiss. The act started to become more urgent, more needy, increasing speed. You held his shirt tight against your hands, knuckles white. And small whines and moans left your lips being swallowed by his.

You two broke the kiss when the air in your lungs started to sting. Mingi held your face in his hands, making you look at him but your eyes were closed, for some reason feeling shy.

“Open your eyes” you denied with your head the slightest you could move. “I said open your eyes… please” you finally opened your eyes, meeting his expectating ones. “Can I kiss you again?” You nodded. “I need your verbal consent”

“Yes, please” he smiled and kissed you again.

One of his hands stayed on your face while the other grabbed your lower back, bringing you almost impossibly close to his body. Once again you melt on his lips and his touch, allowing your body to feel his strong chest against yours and imagine how it would look under your hands, naked. Your breath suddenly hitched with the thought, a small moan leaving your lips through the kiss. Mingi just smiled, enjoying your reactions.

When your lungs asked for air, after lord knows how long you’ve been kissing, Mingi kisses dipped down to your neck, starting slow, little pecks here and there but when he felt your throat vibrate with more whimpers and small moans he started to plant open-mouthed kisses, tiny bites here, petite sucks and licks over there.

You were in heaven. Hanging for your life on his strong arms, fingers squeezing the muscles. You felt that tingling sensation in between your legs, legs squeezing with anticipation, and the love bites he’d leave on your neck weren’t helping. You needed more.

“Mingi…” you lowly moaned when he gave you a stronger suck on your skin.

“What is it, honey?” His tone was light, almost mockingly. He knew what he was doing to you.

“More, please” he took his face out of your neck and looked at you, this time you didn’t avert his gaze, eyes dilated with need and desire. And the way you looked from under him, those sweet puppy eyes pleading for him to ruin you. He had to hold himself so badly to not fuck you right then against the door.

“More what? I don’t know what you want” you huffed and grabbed his hand that was on your waist and laid on top of your pubis. “Use your words, baby”

“You. I need more of you, Mingi. Please” your voice sounded like a whine and all he wanted was to ruin you and your sweet little being. And all you wanted was for him to fuck you brainless.

“If you keep begging like this you might be the death of me” he grabbed you and pushed you against the bed - that you didn’t even notice you had walked towards to - and took his shirt off. Your eyes gluing to his chest and abs and how it looked so strong and stiff and you just wanted to touch it and to lick it. “You looked absolutely hot tonight” he broke your thoughts, body starting to hover over you, his scent making you drunk on him. “Since the moment you walked in I wanted to take this dress out of you and make you mine” his hand touched your slit-exposed leg, caressing the skin and squeezing it. “I truly can’t wait to taste you” you simply nodded and pulled his face to kiss you again.

Once again you were lost on his lips, the plump and softness of them engulfing yours. His skillful tongue massaging yours, making you taste him on your own. His hand started to fidget with your harness, trying to open it. You decided it was time to act a little and sat on the bed, going out from under him. You started to open the clasps of the leather piece, eyes meeting his hungry ones before they focused on how your boobs bounced when the piece finally opened. All Mingi could do was groan and hold his breath. He wanted to touch you, to squeeze the soft skin of your boobs and body.

You saw how badly he was holding himself to not touch you without your consent. Not only you found it extremely cute but also hot. He was respecting your boundaries and waiting for you to give the coordinates. You grabbed his hand and guided it to your chest, looking up at him and batting your eyelashes, feigning innocence. He sighed and squeezed on top of your dress, feeling the soft flesh kneed under his fingers, nipple going hard under his touch and a moan from being touch deprived and aroused left your mouth.

“Take your dress off” you obeyed and took the piece off, leaving you only in your underwear. Usually, you’d feel self-conscious from having someone staring at you like Mingi was doing but the way his eyes wandered your body from top to bottom and vice-versa made you shiver in anticipation, made you feel wanted, desired. “Lay back again and spread your legs for me” you did what he said, the wet patch in your underwear instantly cooling when the air came in contact with the heat emanating from between your legs. “Fuck! You’re so wet already. Did I do this?” you nodded, mouth slightly agape trying to calm down and breathe properly. Mingi smirked and kissed your lips again, right hand going straight to your core on top of the thin material covering you. Your legs instinctively closed on him. “Nah-ah, baby, keep them open for me, I know it’d been a while but you have to behave, ok?” you nodded and opened again slowly.

The man started kissing your neck, leaving more marks as he moved downwards. He took one of your nipples in his mouth and started sucking and biting it not so gently. The action mixed with the way he was playing with your underwear-covered slit made you start to moan lowly, the sweet sounds being music to Mingi’s ears. He played a little with both of your nipples, and you swore you could cum just by that. The way he moaned with the taste of your skin on his tongue or the lewd sounds that he’d make whenever he left the nipple from his mouth to lick it just with the tip of his tongue, making it tickle in a very delicious way.

He kept moving down until he reached the waistband of your underwear and bit the soft skin on top of it before removing it from your body completely. You were bare in front of him, completely naked and at mercy to him and his touch. And you loved it. He situated himself between your legs before finally having the taste of you he had dreamed of for weeks. When his tongue finally licked a long strip from your hole to your clit a deep satisfied groan left his throat. You tasted even better he imagined. He was drunk on you already and he wasn’t planning on stopping it so soon.

You wanted to look at him, see how good he was making you feel but all you could manage to do was arch your back from the bed and moan his name like a mantra. His lips and tongue were skillful, he knew what he was doing. The way his tongue would make erratic movements on your clit or go down to penetrate you and drink all of your wetness, never really settling on a spot but never being too fast on what he was doing it. With just that you were almost so close to touch the sky, the knot in your belly tightening really fast and almost about to explode.

Mingi must have sensed because he entered without warning two fingers in you, tongue now only focused on the clit. The sudden intrusion making you scream. Fuck people downstairs. Fuck people in the rooms next to yours, all you could focus on was how full his long thick fingers were making you feel. Mind going blank, only Mingi in your head.

He kept his unforgiven ministrations until you finally snapped, body writhing, screams of his name and thank yous leaving your mouth, and legs closing around his head, the fiery locks almost representing the fire you were feeling right then. He left his spot between your legs after he made sure you rode your first orgasm, lapping at all of your juices and drinking you like a vice.

He moved back up, taking the rest of his clothes with rather desperation. It was your turn to drink on his form. Tall, lean but strong, the veins on his neck and arms popping a little from the… exercise he was doing. Thighs painfully thick just like his cock. You felt all your body shudder in anticipation, legs rub together and mouth water when your eyes saw his member. It was big. Thick. Veiny. Precum dripping from the tip as it moved by itself from being hard. You instinctively crawled towards him at the end of the bed, eyes glued to his dick. He noticed right away what you wanted, a smirk playing on his lips as he caressed your hair when you were eye-leveled with his member. Your eyes looked up at him, glossy from the previous orgasm, dilated with desire and wide in plead.

“What do you want, kitten?” You hummed at the nickname, you were indeed looking like a cat, on all fours, leaning into his touch in your hair and asking to play with his toy. “You like the nickname?” You nodded again, eyes dancing from his own and his cock. “So tell me, kitten, what do you want?”

“Can I…” you suddenly felt shy, not finding the right words to say. “Can I give you head?” You said very low, almost a whisper and he chuckled at your behavior. His hands left your hair to go to your neck, gently wrapping around it to lift your head up to look at him again.

“You wanna suck my dick?” You nodded eagerly. “Then open your mouth and put your tongue out”

Mingi’s demeanor felt much more powerful than before and you were loving it. At the same time he was respectful, he was stern and demanding. You were submitting to him without even thinking. It wasn’t your first time having sex, but it was your first time enjoying it and having fun and actually cumming. People at the capital weren’t very good at it. But Mingi… He was showing you a side you didn’t even think you had.

You did what he told you to and expected the next steps. He came closer and put his index and middle finger on top of your tongue and you gladly took, sucking, licking and swirling your tongue around the digits. A faint taste of yourself still lingering in the skin.

“Good kitten. Now I’ll give you what you want” you nodded and put your tongue out again. He pumped his dick a few times before putting it on top of your tongue, which automatically sucked it in. A louder groan left the man’s lips as he felt the warmth of your mouth engulfing his dick. At least what you could fit inside your mouth.

You got confident with the sounds he was making and started to bob your head even faster around it, one of your hands coming to the base of his cock to masturbate what couldn’t fit. You kept sucking on it, hollowing your cheeks and bobbing up and down. Once in a while you’d take it all of your mouth to leave kitten licks on the slit, making Mingi his with sensitivity, hips bucking eventually and fucking your mouth.

“Fuck yn, you're so good for me” he said between thrusts in your mouth, eyes closed with pleasure and hands gripping your hair, making your scalp hurt deliciously. “You have such a good mouth, so delicious. Fuck! I could fuck your mouth everyday, kitten” you moaned around his shaft, arousal dripping down your legs with his words and vibration sending him so close to the edge. “You gotta stop if you don’t want me to cum in your mouth and don’t fuck you” you stopped what you were doing with the mention of not being fucked. “Oh, I see. Kitten wants to be fucked in her sweet little pussy, huh?” You nodded, biting your lower lip. “Such a sweet little thing, aren’t you? Why don’t you lay on your back again and open those juicy legs of yours?” You never moved so quickly in your life, doing exactly what you were told so, earning a chuckle from Mingi.

He positioned himself in between your legs, eyes black with how wet you were again for him. He passed the tip of his shaft on your slit to gather some lubrication and started to enter you slowly. The sting of pain was there but the sensation of having him so intimately with you, to give him yourself entirely to him was even bigger. He whispered sweet nothings and praises in your ear as he entered you. If his fingers made you feel full before, now you were stuffed. Your moans and his grunts matched when he bottomed out on you. Legs completely given, molten.

“So good baby, you were made for me, taking me so well” you nodded, too fucked out to form a word. He waited until he felt the pulsing in your walls decrease to be safe. “I’ll start moving, tell me if it’s uncomfortable or painful, ok?” You nodded.

You hissed when he took just a little out and put back in, going very slow and paying attention to your reactions. When he felt you were becoming more comfortable he started to take off more of him before sliding back in. The sensation was still a bit painful but not even close to the pleasure of being fucked by him. He was holding your hands in his, fingers intertwined, his head on the crook of your neck so he could moan and whisper praises and affirmations to you. You were on cloud nine.

“M- mor” you whispered, voice strangled with pleasure.

“You want more, baby?” You nodded and he kissed the top of your nose. “If you need me to stop, say it at any time, I’ll go faster now” he kissed you and his hips started to move faster like he said. Your mouth opened and no sound came out, moan strangled in your throat. He started to kiss your neck and chest as he started to increase his speed bit by bit.

“Mingi… s’ good” you whined, body almost going limp under him. You were sure he was fucking your brain because you couldn’t think of anything besides his big dick inside of you.

“I know, kitten. I feel good too. Are you close?” You nodded, not really feeling anything anymore, completely given to him. “I want you to cum on my cock. Can you do that?” You nodded again.

He became fucking you even faster and deeper, now on his full piston mode. Going in and out of you in a merciless pace, pussy not being able to recover before he was slamming all of his cock back in. Mingi left your hand and put them between your bodies, playing with your clit while he was fucking you. That was the ending point for you, eyes going black and rolling to the back of your head as you came all of his cock, the creamy orgasm making him even wetter and the lewd sounds become even louder.

He kept fucking you chasing his own orgasm, without playing with your clit and overstimulating you along the way. It was all too much but at the same time so good. At this point you were a screaming mess and you couldn’t care less. Neither did Mingi that was clouded by his own pleasure, chasing his high like a mad man and fucking your abused hole like his life depended on it. He felt his knees buckle a little and before he could register, he came inside you and you came again with him. Both orgasms mixing it up inside you, filling up to the brim and making you almost pass out on the bed, mind blank, only Mingi’s cock.

He stopped his movements and waited for the both of you to be calmer before he moved again. You hissed with the movement and the sudden emptiness. You couldn’t see due to your eyes closed, but Mingi was admiring his work on you. The way his load was dripping down your hole to your ass and the bed, showing to anyone that decided to appear that you were his. The purple and red marks adorning your body like a painting he did with so much love, lust and admiration. Legs wobbly and the muscles shaking from the intensity of the act. You couldn’t be more perfect to Mingi’s eyes.

He went to grab a clean damp cloth so he could clean the mess between your legs, when he arrived back you were sound asleep. He cleaned you gently, trying not to hurt or wake you up. He moved you to lay properly on one side of the bed before cleaning himself and lying to your side, bringing you close to his chest. You hugged his torso and smiled, snuggling into him.

“Sleep tight, kitten. You were the best thing that happened to me” he kissed the top of your head and fell asleep as well, forgetting he was not even in his own house.

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