#start and haven't exactly and it's due in five days.

[hueberryshortcake]

ok I gotta go through my drafts and inbox rn

[flowerprincesscherryblossom]

bully me - chapter three

pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Female Reader word count: 3762 warnings: angst, smut, explicit language, bully kook, daddy dom kook, dub-con, degradation kink, choking, breathplay, spanking, vaginal fingering, vaginal sex, creampie, dirty talk, dacryphilia, car sex, reverse cowgirl series masterlist A/N: Hope you like it and that you have a wonderful day wherever you are💜

On the way to your next class you kept glancing around, trying to see if you could find Jungkook since he had left you in the boys' bathroom with only your phone and water bottle, taking your bag, and thus pretty much your everything, to God knows wherever the hell he had went.

You caught other students staring at you, no doubt seeing the mark on your neck, but you did your best to ignore the pity they sent your way. You did, however, wonder if they thought that your bully had choked you, just not the way it had actually happened.

Unfortunately, by the time you reached the door to the classroom, he was still nowhere in sight. You started to panic a little, Jungkook had pretty much stolen your belongings, was God knows where with them, and you still had two hours left before school was over, how were you going to manage?

But then you remembered, he had used your phone to get your number, so technically you had his as well. You unlocked your phone and tapped the call history, only to find that the last call had been made six days ago, to one of your parents. He had deleted his number from the call history.

"Of course he did," you groaned, your voice still hoarse.

When you heard the bell ring you entered the class, your head hanging low and with a need to start crying.

Despite how miserable Jungkook made your school life be, he never interfered a lot with your studies, other than ripping to shreds your papers, something that was still very appreciated on your part, because it still gave you a chance to strive under all the hardship with passable grades, for you wanted more than to graduate and leave this place behind without ever looking back.

You, and all the other students, took your respectful seats, of which you winced due to the many spanks you had received, but you couldn't exactly be standing without causing suspension so you had to suck it up, and patiently waited, for the moment there were the only two people missing - Jungkook and the teacher - would show up.

Five minutes passed, in which you had spent on google trying to find a to heal your bruised neck, when the students heard the door being opened, Jungkook walked in first, talking cheerfully to the figure behind him, who you assumed to be new since you've never seen him before.

He looked awfully young for a teacher, making you believe that there wasn't a big age difference between you and him.

"Good day class, my name is Mr. Kim and I'll be substituting for Mrs. Lang since she had to leave due to a family emergency," he said while arranging his things on the teacher's desk, not really paying attention to the students, meanwhile your bully was standing by the desk, not really doing much of anything. "Due to being so last minute I haven't had a chance to memorize myself with the class subject, so because of that Mr. Jeon here," he gave Jungkook a shoulder tap. "Suggested we could watch a movie," the words caused the entire class, except for you, to start excitedly whispering to each other, because, let's be real, it doesn't matter what you are watching, it's better than sitting in class, even if more than half of the students would ignore the movie and focus on their phones.

As the substitute teacher booted up the computer Jungkook started walking towards his desk, pausing when he reached yours. He stared at you for a couple of seconds before turning to give a quick glance at the professor from over his shoulder, who was now inserting the DVD, and then grabbing your arm, pulling you up and dragging you to sit next to him at the back of the classroom, barely giving you any time to grab your phone and water bottle.

None of the rest of the students said anything about it, you had even caught some adverting their eyes from you. However, you did feel a pair of eyes on you, making you wonder if Mr. Kim had seen everything, and if he had, why he hadn't said anything.

As you took your seat you felt incredibly awkward and anxious about your current situation. This was the first time you were seated next to Jungkook since middle school, back when boys and girls making fun of each other was so common that the school staff only intervened when actual fights broke down, and even then, it hadn't been by your choice but by the teacher's.

Just from today's interactions with him, you knew that being seated next to him was due to him having an ulterior motive, but as the teacher turned on the projector and the image of a black screen started to show on the blackboard, you decided to push your thoughts to the back of your mind, wanting to believe that since he had been the one to pick, that he would actually pay attention to it instead of you.

You were also curious about what movie he had picked, but unlike his intentions, that one didn't leave you on the brink of a panic attack.

Mr. Kim pressed play, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned back against the chair. You, on the other hand, stood up straighter in your seat, and as the old DreamWorks logo started showing and the old familiar tune started playing, your eyes widen, feeling a little bewildered that Jungkook had picked this one out of so many.

You leaned closer to him, still keeping your eyes on the screen. "You picked Shrek?" you whispered in order to not disturb anyone, even if they were all on their phones.

The reason why you were so confused by his choice was because Shrek was your go-to movie whenever you needed a pick-me-up, something that only the close group of friends you had in middle school knew, and as far as you remembered, none of them talked with him. Had one of your then friends told him about it? Had he overheard the conversation? Was it just a massive coincidence?

You couldn't stop these thoughts from circling around your brain. You wanted to know the reason but you couldn't be too obvious, since you knew that, if you were, he won't tell you just so he could see you squirm.

Jungkook hummed at your question, leaning against his chair and keeping his eyes on the movie. "He wanted to pick Romeo and Juliet because," he cleared his throat. "It makes sense considering the class," he did his best impression of Mr. Kim which manages to get a quiet giggle out of you. At the sound of your laugh, Jungkook turned to glance at you, his eyes wide with a bit of shock, before turning back to the movie and letting out a laugh of his own, letting you catch a glimpse of his bunny smile.

"How did you do it?"

"Honestly?" he scratched the back of his head. "I just said a bunch of bullshit," both of you chuckle again. "I don't know if I did convince him, or if he just got tired and gave up."

While it was nice to have a decent conversation with Jungkook, after everything the two of you had been through just today, it still didn't answer your question. "Okay, but why Shrek though? You could've picked any movie,"

He looked at you again, this time there was something soft in his eyes, something you couldn't pinpoint, before he shrugged. "I don't know, just wanted a fun movie I guess,"

The conversation stopped after that, but while you were willing to drop the Shrek talk, there was still something you wanted an answer to. "Where's my bag?"

He smirked. "It's in my car, don't worry about it,"

"But we still have an hour to go after this one," there was an urgency in your voice. "Jungkook, I need my stuff."

"Calm down," he gave your knee a squeeze, keeping his eyes on the screen. "I'll give it back after class."

You decided to not press the issue further, knowing it would be useless to continue, so instead, you decided to focus on the movie. Jungkook's hand remained on your knee, something you didn't give much thought to because nothing happen.

It isn't until the scene where Shrek and Donkey enter the dragon's keep that his hand starts to move, going as slowly as possible up your thigh, stopping once the tips of his fingers could graze your panties.

Your breathing changed, your heart beating rapidly against your ribcage, making you feel the familiar pang between your legs, wanting to rub your thighs together but he wasn't letting you, and by extension, making an even bigger mess of your underwear, your wetness combining with the cum that had been escaping from you since walking out of the boys' bathroom.

But it wasn't until Shrek and Donkey's talk after rescuing Fiona that Jungkook actually started doing something.

His index and middle finger started rubbing you through your panties, making you clench your fists and bit your bruised lip, in order to contain the noise. "J-jungkook,"

"Be quiet," he said in an authoritative tone, keeping his eyes on the movie while his fingers rubbed your clothed slit before pushing your underwear to the side and inserting two fingers into you, making you bite down harder on your bottom lip and reopening the wound, pumping them slowly. Jungkook leaned closer and whispered in your ear. "You wouldn't want everyone to know of much of a slut you are, right?"

You shook your head, knowing that if you opened your mouth, it would be words coming out.

He smirked as his thrusts became faster and rougher, alternating between thrusting and curling them with precision against your sweet spot.

The feeling was so overwhelming that you laid your head on the table, hoping that, at least, on the off-chance that you let out a noise, people would just assume that you were feeling unwell.

Your walls clenched around his fingers as he kept scissoring you at a fast pace, you felt so close that you could almost taste your high. Jungkook inserted a third finger into your cunt, his thrusts becoming even faster.

You saw drops of blood falling into the table due to how much you were biting your bottom lip, the closer you got to breaking apart the more you felt like you couldn't breathe. "D-Daddy, p-please," you begged, not being able to hold off for much longer.

Your bully's thumb started rubbing circles on your clit, in turn, you started moving your hips in tune with his hand. Every once in a while you'd look at him from the corner of your eye, noticing that he kept his eyes on the screen but that he had the biggest cheshire grin on his lips.

Jungkook leaned to whisper in your ear. "Cum for me, cum all over daddy's fingers," with a couple more thrusts your knot finally broke and you reached your high, releasing all over his hand.

You let out a loud gasp, finally feeling like the air was filling your lungs, no doubt turning a couple of people to stare in your direction, in retaliation Jungkook pinched your clit, making you whimper in turn.

"I told you to be quiet," he growled with clenched teeth as the pace of his fingers started to slow down. He, however, didn't pull out, prolonging your high until it turned into overstimulation, making you let out another whimper. "Stupid bitch."

"P-please," you begged, not being able to handle anymore. "J-jungkook p-please, s-stop."

At your words he stopped and pulled his fingers out, licking the wetness of his fingers as quickly as he could, wiping the saliva off on his pants, and then running those same fingers through your hair.

Although surprised by his actions, you still welcome them, feeling yourself relax little by little as your breathing started to slow down.

Once he felt that you were relaxed enough, Jungkook grabbed your water bottle and stood up from his seat, loudly claiming that he would be right back and then walking out of the classroom.

The whispers started immediately after, everybody wanting to know about what had happened and why Jungkook was acting the way that he was, some of them even suggesting that he had hurt you and was only playing nice to trick the teacher.

You turned to look at the professor and found him absorbed in the movie and turning out the gossip, and you decided to follow Mr. Kim's example. Only you and your bully knew the truth, and you wanted it to remain that way.

It wasn't long before he returned, taking his seat and handing you back the now full water bottle, giving you also a sugar packet. "Put the sugar under your tongue and then drink," he said in a tone you haven't heard from him before.

There was something sweet, and a hint of concern for you, in it.

You did as told, drinking until the bottle was half empty, feeling slightly better afterward.

You crossed your arms over the table, lying your head on top of them and paying attention to the movie, choosing to keep quiet. On his part, Jungkook also remained in silence, keeping his arms to himself by crossing them over his chest, but every once in a while you could feel his eyes on you.

When the screen shows the protagonists arriving near Duloc, the substitute teacher pauses the movie, saying that since there are only five minutes before the bell rings that he's letting the students leave class earlier, almost everyone immediately standing up and going out the door before the phrase was finished.

"Mr. Jeon, would you mind behind for a couple more minutes?" Mr. Kim said as he packed his belongings, pulling the DVD out of the computer and turning it off.

Instead of answering the adult in the room, Jungkook turned to look at you. "Do you know what my car looks like?" you nodded. "Wait for me there okay?"

You nodded again as you headed towards the door as your bully went to stand by the teacher's desk. As you were walking out you could've sworn that you had heard Jungkook say 'hyung' but you decided to shrug it off, since it wasn't any of your business, and walked to the carpark, phone and bottle in hand while ignoring all of your classmates' eyes on you.

Arriving outside you let out a deep breath, taking a moment to let the slight breeze cover you like a blanket.

As you walked toward Jungkook's mercedes benz gt63s, your thoughts went back to what had happened in the classroom.

You didn't understand why you had reacted to the overstimulation the way you did, considering that, Jungkook did a lot worse to your body during the previous recesses. The difference between the two was the free period between sessions, the first time there was an hour for your body to rest, the second time was less.

But when comparing what he had done to you in the bathrooms to what he did in the classroom, fingering you seemed like nothing. You couldn't fathom why you had reacted the way you did, other than chalking it up to just a bad reaction.

When you got close to the car you could see your bag in the backseat, but since Jungkook hadn't given you the key, you didn't have much of a choice other than to lean against the mercedes and wait for him.

You don't know for how long you wait, having decided to ignore the phone in your hand and opting instead for watching people interact with one another, finding it to be a good distraction.

It wasn't long before Jungkook came out of the building, disregarding your presence for the sake of opening the backdoor on the left side of the car.

"Get in," he said opening the door on the backseat, closing it once you had gotten in. He went around the car and got inside from the right, taking a seat next to you but still creating a small space between the both of you.

He tossed your bag to the passenger seat and leaned against the cushion, throwing his head back and releasing a deep sigh. "You okay?"

You nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine,"

Jungkook rubbed his hands on his thighs, avoiding looking at you. "What happened?"

"I don't know," you shrugged. "It never happen before."

Your bully nodded at your words, keeping his eyes on the car's ceiling, you leaned your head against the cushion keeping your eyes on him, letting silence fill the air around you.

After a couple of minutes, he turned to look at you, his eyes going darker the more they stayed on you, before taking a hold of your arm, pulling you up and making you sit on his lap, settling both of his hands on your hips and hiding his face on your neck.

His left hand slid up to your neck while his right one slid down until it reached your clothed center, pulling your panties to the side and rubbing your slit.

You threw your head backward when he inserted two fingers inside you, freely letting out soft moans with each thrust of his digits into you, your hips moving in tune with his hand, making you grind against his now half-mast length.

Your walls clenched around his fingers as he curled them with precision against your sweet spot. "D-Daddy," your right hand moved towards his thigh, nails digging into the flesh. "D-Daddy p-please."

Jungkook chuckled darkly, pulling the hand away from your neck and moving it between your bodies, pulling his cock out of its confinements and stroking it to full mast. "Get up,"

You replaced his hand in pulling your underwear to the side, his right hand lifting your skirt as his left pulled you back towards him. You slowly sank down on his length, before you heard Jungkook let out a tsk and forced you down, making you bite your bruised lip at the burn of the stretch as took all of him in one go.

"You should be used to daddy's cock by now," the hand that had previously been on your skirt crawled up your body, fondling both of your tits before settling on your neck. You rolled your hips, the feeling of his throbbing cock against your walls begging you to move. "You should also be used to following orders," the hand on your waist moving to slap your clit before returning to its place, making you let out a gasp, his breath fanning in your ear. "You really are stupid aren't you?" the hand on your neck gave it a squeeze as your bully chuckled darkly.

Both of you stayed like that for a while, each passing second leaving you on the verge of tears of frustration, not being helped by his occasionally twitching length.

"Such a good little slut," you whined at the words. "Do you want daddy to move?" you could hear the smirk in his words but still nodded rapidly, not knowing of much longer you could take. Jungkook pulled his hands away from you, settling his arms on the back of the seat. "Do it then," you look at him over your shoulder, his eyes dark with lust and his cheshire grin growing wider.

"Jump," he growled, and immediately you started to move, bouncing up and down on his cock.

Your hands were on his knees, helping you with the movements, his length rubbing against your walls and hitting your cervix with each thrust.

Jungkook threw his head back, letting out a groan at the feeling of your walls clenching around him. "You take daddy's cock so well, such a good little slut,"

"D-Daddy," you moaned out, your legs growing weaker.

"What's wrong cunt?" his hands move to settle on your hips. "Can't fuck yourself on daddy's cock?" you whined, the pain on your legs slowing down your movements. "So fucking useless."

He gripped tightly onto your waist and started trusting upwards, his animalistic pace causing you to throw your head back, settling it on his shoulder as you let out moan after moan of his title.

His pace didn't falter even as one of his hands left your hip and went to your neck, squeezing it tightly while the one on your waist dug his nails into the flesh. "So good to me,"

"D-Daddy, I-I'm gonna," you felt a sudden sting on your ass, making you let out a yell.

"Not yet bitch," he jackhammered into you, his rough and fast pace faltering as he felt himself close to the edge. "Ah f-fuck, such a good pussy, made just for me."

With a couple more thrusts Jungkook reached his high and painted your walls with his hot release, triggering your own.

Both of you stood still as you worked on catching your breaths, but it wasn't long before you felt his hand grip your hair and pull you closer to him, his breath fanning in your ear. "Did I say you could cum?" he pulled at your hair again, making you let out a yelp at the pain. "Answer me bitch!"

"N-no," tears started streaming your face.

"Then why did you do it? Are you really that stupid that you can't follow simple orders?" he bit your ear. "Are you that much of a slut?"

You answered the only thing your blissful mind could think of. "I-I'm d-daddy's little cumslut,"

Jungkook tsked at your words, telling you that that wasn't what he wanted to hear. "Clearly I've been spoiling you," his face moved towards your neck, grazing it with his nose before biting into it, followed by him forcing you to face, making you wonder if you had cried due to the bite or due to the hair pulling. "I'll have to teach you some matters later."

Both of you stood facing each other for a couple more seconds before something overtook Jungkook's eyes, almost like he had had a sudden realization, and he let go of you, throwing you off of him and almost into the gear shift. "Leave,"

You pick up your bag and left the mercedes, you turn to look back at him before shaking your head and walking towards the school.

[greentrickster]

@caspertheloudassghost In this universe the old peak lords all ascended right? I imagine the only reason SQH’s vacation lasted this long was due to his officials, finally giving up on understanding SQH’s organized chaos, desperately try to get his Shizun to decode it to not ruin SQH’s first vacation in two millennia. “You re-raised him right? You should know his filing system right? Right?!” (His filing system is entirely based around a version of Microsoft excel that only he can run. He knew this when he left)

XD XD XD Okay, canon on the Microsoft excel idea! But, unfortunately for the Heavenly Officials, they were not brought into being by a particularly lawful god. Meaning that, while they know that their Lord is incarnated somewhere in the world... they have no idea who, where, or even exactly why, because he told them exactly None Of That, specifically so they couldn't interfere.

Not even because they're busybodies or obnoxious coworkers, but because the Heavenly Officials are the original assistants that Airplane made for himself in this world once it got more complicated than he wanted to deal with on his own. As a result, while they're quite good at their jobs (and can manage a very respectable amount of Heaven's filing, just not anything in Airplane's personal system) and very pleasing to look at, they're also a bit clingy. Because they were made by a lonely young man who was mostly ignored by everyone around him in his first life, so who can blame him for wanting to be around people who also wanted to be around him?

Thinking about it, in a way this trip to the mortal world to be Shang Qinghua was probably at least partially for the sake of these original, highest-ranked Heavenly Officials alongside Airplane wanting to take a vacation and experience the Plot firsthand. The celestial equivalent of parents leaving their older kids in charge of the younger kids, the pets, and the house for a week while they go off on a vacation or business trip or what-have-you. A chance to test themselves a little without the person/people in charge on hand, to grow as an individual and an adult. And the Heavenly Official coming down to beg Airplane for help was the equivalent of said teens having to phone their parents five days in because the dog got into something it probably shouldn't have, and it'll probably be fine, but there is also the sudden and very real fear of "Oh gods, what if we accidentally kill the dog?" Basically a chance for them to exert some independence and grow on their own for a little, with an unexpected 'I need an adultier adult' situation popping up a decent way in.

As for SQH's ascended master, you're right, he would probably have been able to help with the filing system at least a little... if anyone had thought to show it to him. As it was, cultivators have been ascending for centuries, the Heavenly Officials have no reason to believe that this latest batch from Cang Qiong know anything more about their vacationing boss than any other human. Heck, the only reason Shang Qinghua gets found is because Shen Qingqiu sees some notes in pinyin during his ten-year check-in as to how he's settling into his new role of God of the Ninth Road (full AU here if you haven't tripped over that segment yet), and he comments on it (on the grounds that he'd been under the impression that it was just some made-up writing system his shidi had invented).

In an amusing twist, the issue that necessitated the Heavenly Officials to crack and call upon Airplane for help? Turning off Binghe's Protagonist Halo. Because the 'story' is over now, so no need for a protagonist, and it's not going to particularly nerf him or anything, just make him less center-of-attention-the-world-literally-revolves-around-me. Long term it's even going to be a good thing, because it'll allow Binghe and Shen Yuan to settle into a life together without having to deal with a new Plot Arc starting every month or two. It's for the best for everyone.

Except all the upper Officials have been through everything over a dozen times, and no one can figure out how to make it stop, Airplane left at least some instructions before he left and all the signs point to it being time to turn off the halo and he forgot to include instructions on how to do that, please don't leave out key information, your excellency-!!!

[hearteyes-for-killmonger]

Hey girl!!

I was wondering if you could write a fic where Bakari or Erik is mad at reader for coming home late and he punishes her?

A/N: I choose Bakari. He's not as crazy and he's logical with you. This is a quick little "what would he do"

11:58 PM. A call comes through your phone. He answers it. "She's not back yet. I'll let you know."

Home Late

It's been a hot and muggy night made hotter by the liquor and the dancing. You were already tipsy at the start of the weekend, but eight margaritas later, you're stumbling through the front door and fondling the wall for the light.

Dropping your keys, your purse, your shoes, and your wig all at once to beeline to the kitchen for the Honey Nut Cheerios. You shovel handfuls into your mouth and leave the box on the counter so you can unzip the side of your gold dress. The tag is still on it but tucked in. You leave it hanging as you dance your way to turn off the living room TV.

"HeGh," you jump, knees buckling until your brain recognizes the silhouette on the sofa. "Shit. WARN SOMEBODY. Why are you sitting in the dark?"

"At least now I know you haven't been kidnapped or murdered... Just irresponsible." Bakari sighs.

Listen up, grandpa. You almost roll your eyes. What's wrong with a little fun from time to time.

"Don't be mad, babe. I was just out having some fun."

"Where you been?"

"I told you. I was going out with some friends."

"Which friends?"

Aww, him mad. You turn on the lights so you can view him normally. He looks like a serial killer sitting in the darkness.

"You don't know them. I met them through Laura... You hate Laura, I know." You beat him to it.

"What's my rule for you?"

"Babe. I would've contacted you, but my phone died. I put it on the charger yyeeesterdayy?"

It's in his hand now. Your eyes widen.

"I thought I had it on me and wondered why it'd been quiet!"

You completely forgot it somehow, and you haven't been back home until now. You bite your nail.

"You've been MIA for 2 days."

"I- It didn't feel like 2 days," you shrug, confused and too drunk to really think.

"You didn't notice that night came twice?" His face doesn't change, but you can feel that he's a mad little puppy right now.

"I did!" You sigh, pacing. You scratch at your cornrows. "I just - I was drunk! I wasn't - "

"What were you doing for two days that made you forget?"

"I was out doing random shit, drinking, and I didn't think," you shrug. "We were bar hopping, then Nyasha said she knew this club we could slide through, but it got craaaazy, so I left with Kenya and Molly. We went to Burger King and then ended up at the beach. I lost track of time... You really mad at me?"

You pout. It works sometimes.

As his monogamous partner and submissive of five years, you know the rules. If you go out for an extended period, do your due diligence and communicate. Why does he need to keep reminding you?

"This is the third time."

There shouldn't have been a second time, but being told twice is unacceptable. A punishment is in order, but first, you need to understand exactly why.

"Don't be insekerr babe," you smile.

You bend to his eye level, falling over. Drunk and sloppy. It's not attractive and you're better than this. This behavior in public is embarrassing, but at home, it's... That's a discussion to have when you're sober.

You pick yourself back up, planting your hands on his knees for leverage, still in your good mood from a good time.

"You know I don't be out here with nobody," you double down. "You can ask anyone-"

"It's not insecurity. It's concern. I like to know where you are for safety. If you don't like that, this isn't gonna work. Not responding to my calls for days at a time, that's a problem for me."

You smile in attempt to lighten his mood. Despite your sloppy looks and demeanor, you're still cute, but he’s not amused. Three times is too much. You're getting punished.

"I forgooot," you pout adorably, triggering Daddy mode. "It definitely won't happen again."

"Oh, I know. Now you need to make it up to me."

Your head tilts. "How I'm a do that?"

He gestures for you to come, sit on his lap so he can touch you and look at you up close. Absently, he strokes your back. Your makeup looks good, though you're sweaty and your breath smells like tropical fruit. How many drinks have you had? Your arms wrap his neck as you press your warm cheek against his, tryna get a snuggle in.

"Look at me." He tilts his head back slightly though you have his neck trapped in a hold. "I want you to tell me how much you missed me while you were out clubbing."

You sputter, not in your clear mind. "Well, to be honest, I was having too much fun. But I miss you now!"

Fair enough.

"I'm sorry I didn't respond," you mutter. "I was okay, but you know me! I'm forgetful! At least I didn't drive."

"I know you were having fun, but you still need to communicate with me. I don't do that MIA shit."

You bite your fingernail with a small blossoming smile. You love it when he's firm. It's so attractive. You hold his face in your hands and play with his beard. Patchy or not, it's yours. He's yours. He hugs you tightly, tilting his head back to kiss you fully.

"Mmm. Well, I definitely missed that. I missed these dimples of yours, too." You squeeze his cheeks. "You're so cute!"

"Wait. You missed my dimples?"

Pulling you in, he kisses your neck and bites your shoulder. You grab his chin in your hand and kiss him once more, grinning against his lips.

"Annnnd I really miss the way you're so forgiving."

"Oh really."

He smirks as you nod, your lips still against his.

"I didn't know forgiving could be so sexy. I do forgive you because I love and care about you... That's also why I have to punish you."

You gasp. You forgot all about punishments. You just want to cuddle and love. You rub your face against his cheek once more.

For your own good, he picks you up and carries you into your separate bathroom where he runs you a warm bath. Since you're drunk, he helps you with your dress, noticing the tag on your dress and ripping it off. $218. He's frugal, yes, but it's just a dress. You don't need to return it.

"Lean on me."

He accompanies you and helps you into the water slowly. Then he takes the soapy washcloth in his hands to wash you. It's a good excuse to rub and squeeze under the pretense of getting you clean. You're getting turned on, too, as he soaps your breasts, making them glisten. From your neck and chest to your stomach, he moves in a steady circular motion. He moves to your back. Your eyes are closed.

"It feel good?"

"Mhm," you hum, smiling up for another kiss. You're getting greedy, but that's what he's for, and he does love to kiss.

Next is your legs. He gestures for your foot to rest against his chest as he cleans your legs and feet one at a time. You shift in the tub, biting your lip.

"Let me help you up."

That way, it's easier to get to the intimate parts of you that need extra attention. He cleans you long enough to be thorough and once more because of how much you like it. Then he rinses you, helping you from the tub to dry you off.

As you head to your bed, he drains the tub and meets you with a large bottle of Jergens to massage into your skin from head to toe. You rub on his arms in the meantime. You even get impatient enough to reach up and pull him down flat over top of you. He chuckles, rubbing his nose into your clean neck and sucking gently.

"Let me finish," he whispers, sitting up quickly.

He works efficiently, massaging every inch, but glossing over your mound and its little landing strip. You sigh loudly, and he smirks once more, entertained.

"Patience."

You need kisses. He delivers wet kisses to your full nudity, peppering around your areolas and down your stomach to your mound. You rub on his head and part your thighs as he gives kisses to your outer lips and inner thighs. You smell good, and when he strokes your opening with a finger, it's coated. He puts it in, and you accept it eagerly. He adds a second finger and works up to a third as you squeeze his fingers.

"You so wet and squeezing my fingers. You tryna cum so soon?"

You moan, grinding down on his fingers and pulsating. You're on that edge, used to him letting to cross it multiple times. This time, however, he pulls out, rubbing your juices on your outer lips. You groan in protest.

"Look at me," he instructs, waiting for your eye contact. "For four days, I won't be touching you."

Again, you gasp, unhappy with your punishment. You want your head, but you won't get it.

"No sex, no head, no hugging, no kisses. Starting now, we're no touch. You can't touch me at all or that's one more hour I'm adding for every touch."

"That's not fair, you know my love language is touch."

"I know... Mine is communication."

When you wake up in the morning to head to your job, Bakari isn't there. His schedule is a little more hectic, which is why you typically treasure your time together. You reach out to him at the end of your work day, and he responds despite being busy. You tell him that you miss him.

When you see him again, it's the next day, but he's responded to every message no matter the hour. You'd say it's to prove a point if it weren't his typical behavior. Responsible Daddy Bakari. That's why you go so well together.

You send him nudes through the week. He's responsive to them, but when you're together, he still won't touch you. You tested his resolve by touching him, thinking if you could give him a hand or blow job, he might cave. You should've known better before you tried. He can be truly stubborn.

"Two hours added," he'd said. He meant it too.

The punishment has to fit the crime. You made him worry. He couldn't reach you, and that made him consider the worse, but he can't do the same thing to you to get back. As your partner and dominant, his responsibility to you is to remain available and ready to come to you should you need him. What he can do is take away or delay your pleasure, and it's an effective technique. You don't miss a day of checking in. Every time he calls, you're picking up the first ring.

At the end of 4 days and 2 hours, he finds you in your separate bedroom asleep since it's the middle of the night. He slips into your bed and under your sheets to part your thighs and lick you awake, though you feign sleep. His long tongue alternates between flattened swipes and firm, pointed massages. His palms run over your stomach and thighs. He moves your hands from grabbing the sheets to grabbing his head to show you that the touch ban is lifted.

You cum in his mouth twice before he comes up for air.

"Baby? Now I'm serious. This was the punishment for 3 strikes," he warns. "You know I don't give 4. Next time you "forget" to contact me for days at a time or stop responding without a heads up, that's it, relationship over. That's not a dominance thing. It's out of respect."

"Okaaay," you sigh, annoyed, but he has to warn you that he means business. He's got enough stress, and you know this is something that bothers him.

"Goodnight." He kisses your temple, telling you to sleep as he pulls the covers back around you comfortably. "Tomorrow's a new day."

The End.

@dashhoney25 @lettidarawest @soufcakmistress @ljstraightnochaser @princessstevens-blog @eye-raq @thiccdaddy-mbaku @destinio1 @iamrheaspeaks @hidden-treasures21 @bidibidibombaclaat @forbeautyandlife @blowmymbackout @misspooh @thotyana-in-this-hoe @purplehairgawdess @thegucciwaffle @goddessofthundathighs @theegoldenchild @thadelightfulone @sultanabby @mysticalblackhottie @baekhyunbabybunni @fd-writes @richonne4life @tgigoldie @thehomierobbstark @capswife @blackpinup22 @harleycativy @lishabaybee @playgurlxoxo

[sitp-recs]

hey liv!! my gf moves back home and away from me soon its been an emotional time in our household do you have any drarry recs that involve them long distancing/waiting for the other to come back to them ❤️‍🩹 thanks for all your work appreciate you !

I’m so sorry to hear that anon, sending hugs your way. It’s tough to navigate long-distance relationships but I know you guys will find your way back to each other soon enough ❤️‍🩹 I hope these recs can offer you some comfort:

Relic Radiation by @tackytigerfic (M, 1k)

Draco goes into space, leaving behind his son Scorpius (who has just started at Hogwarts, at least), and his not-quite-boyfriend Harry Potter. But Harry can't stop loving Draco just because he's approximately 408km up, in constant orbit.

On Your Way by @lqtraintracks (M, 2k)

Draco waits for Harry to return from an Auror mission.

Mad Blood Stirring by provocative_envy (E, 3k) - AU

It's not like they've been angrily hooking up on the sly since meeting at a Juniors skills camp in fucking Manitoba four years ago, except that's exactly what they've been doing.

Litany by thistle_verse (M, 7k)

With the wizarding world on lockdown due to a magic-draining pandemic, Harry is stuck in Grimmauld Place, bored and alone—until the ghost of Draco Malfoy shows up to haunt him.

Service Bell by @shiftylinguini (E, 8k)

Draco is: a werewolf, living in a cabin in the woods, minding his own business, and never going to buy plaid because he's not that much of a fucking cliche (yet). He's also counting down the days until he sees Harry again.

i wake up falling, orphaned (M, 9k)

Draco’s always leaving, one way or another. Harry’s usually 240 thousand miles too late.

‘Til Our Compass Stands Still by china_nightingale (M, 9k)

Harry and Draco eventually realise that things don't always go to plan, even if it's a plan they've been carefully crafting to keep themselves safe from each other.

Yours Truly by @skeptiquewrites (M, 15k)

Every single one of Harry’s exes has gone on to marry the next person they date, and with the upcoming nuptials of numbers six and seven to each other, Harry’s feeling exhausted by it all. It doesn’t really matter if he lets people assume Draco Malfoy is his boyfriend for a moment of peace. In any case, Draco’s been away for five years and there’s no way he would find out, right?

Sunseeker by @shiftylinguini (E, 15k)

Harry is a struggling writer. Namely, he is struggling with: writing his next book, dealing with his agent, finding a decent tea strainer, fielding his friend's concern over the aforementioned book, and figuring out who the cat loitering in his garden belongs to. He also has a slight liking-Malfoy problem. Okay, he has a massive liking-Malfoy problem.

Unfinished Business by cupiscent (E, 20k)

Ten years after the War ends, Harry and Draco still haven't got their act together. But maybe it's not too late.

Just Give Me a Reason by sassy_cissa (E, 24k)

It's easy to misunderstand a situation when you're in the same country – when your new boyfriend is thousands of miles away, it's nearly impossible. Toss in an unexpected pregnancy, an ex-boyfriend and The Prophet with its exaggerations and it's no wonder Draco is confused.

Running on Air by eleventy7 (T, 75k)

Draco Malfoy has been missing for three years. Harry is assigned the cold case and finds himself slowly falling in love with the memories he collects.

Tapestry by @kbrick (E, 91k)

This is a love story that isn't perfect, about two people whose timing is never quite right, and all the moments that come together to make something extraordinarily beautiful anyway.

[saturn-lia]

~Sick or on period s/o HCS 💊

Character: Just Jiyan for the moment

Content: headcanons, soft, Jiyan just can't help but cuddle you even if it means getting sick too ❤️

Jiyan who was once a doctor before becoming a general (and his entire family works in that field) would know exactly what to do in any case

Jiyan who just by looking at you can tell that night you’re going to get sick (turns out he was right)…

Jiyan who when he sees you lying on the sofa, already has a thermometer and some painkillers in his hand

Jiyan who even before you tell him that your stomach hurts, has already brought you something warm to put on it

Jiyan who starts giving you massages without even asking

Jiyan who already knows everything about what you need: pads, chocolate and even flowers!!!!

Jiyan who waits for you to fall asleep to carry you to bed and leave a kiss on your forehead before lying down next to you

Jiyan who doesn't care if you have a fever or just your period, will stick to you all the time because he loves taking care of you, and if he gets sick too it would mean staying home sick with you

Y/n: "Don't come any closer, I don't want you to get sick" You try to push him out of bed but he doesn't move an inch. Jiyan: "enough. If you continue like this you will never recover. Close your eyes and sleep, it's an order" He says putting an arm around your shoulders holding you closer to his chest.

Jiyan who doesn't admit that he finds you extremely beautiful when you're sick so he finds himself having to justify his blushing… even though you know the truth.

Y/n: "oh no are you getting sick too?" you tell him noticing the blush on his face and his gaze fixed on you as if he was lost in his thoughts Jiyan:"..." Y/n: "Jiyan? You there?" Jiyan: "Mh? Did you say something love?" Y/n: "…you seem very healthy to me, so why are you blushing? " You ask amused. Jiyan quickly looks away and lets his gaze wander around the room in search of an excuse. Jiyan: "uhm... it's hot in here, let me open the window"

Jiyan who asks for days off without telling you only and exclusively when you are sick because you need him to take care of you

y/n: "why are you not at work?" Jiyan: "they don't need me today" y/n: "Haven't they needed their general for the last five days?" Jiyan: "...this doesn't concern you, focus on resting" y/n: "You're gonna get in trouble..."

Jiyan who can't sleep when you happen to be this sick because, who knows, maybe you might wake up in the night and he MUST be there for you

Jiyan who showers you with compliments when you have mental breakdowns due to tiredness, because you are his everything and if you are feeling bad then he will be your shoulder to cry on.

Jiyan who when you finally get better surprises you with a dinner out… and a gift in the bedroom later.

Jiyan who caught a cold the next day...

Today I feel like writing so here's some fluff for you.

+ Jiyan has been living in my head rent free for two weeks now, expect some smut/suggestions about him in the next few days, Im warning yall.

Lia

[sequinsmile-x]

I love your family fics... A happy marriage, happy kids, unlike what I had. You make my days better and I spend couple of hours before going to sleep reading all your fics. Thank you so much

Hi bestie!

I haven't stopped thinking about this message since I saw it last night. I genuinely feel honoured to help in anyway, and knowing you find comfort in my fics means more than I can put into words.

I've always said that I write because it helps me. It helps get thoughts out of my head, it stops me from thinking when I really don't want to, it helps me channel my creativity in a way that feels productive. And the fact it helps other people in whatever way? That's incredible to me.

Anyway, I thought I'd write you something that is for you. A fic where they are happy and have kids and have the family we all deserve. I hope you can come back to this as often as you need to, and know it was written with you in mind.

So this is for you, and anyone else who might need it!

-x-

Daylight

March 7th. The date that had once been carved on her gravestone and one she didn’t want to be written on her little girl’s birth certificate. 

-x-

Words: 3.6k

Warnings: Pregnancy, labour/birth

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

From the moment she found out her due date, she was determined that it wasn’t going to be her child's birthday. She’d gone as far as doing her own research, comforted by the fact there was only a 5% chance she’d have her little girl on the predicted date. She was further assured by the memory of her son’s birth. Oliver was almost two weeks late and she’d been induced. Aaron always joked that if he could, their 2-year-old son would climb back up inside of her, always keen to be wherever his mother was. 

It mostly calms her nerves down, and lets her reassure herself for months that her daughter wouldn’t be exactly on time, that the day would pass as it did every year with little fanfare. 

March 7th. The date that had once been carved on her gravestone and one she didn’t want to be written on her little girl’s birth certificate. 

It felt wrong. The thought of something so happy, so full of joy as they completed their family, being on the same date as the day she died. The day her life changed forever five years ago, altered in a way she once thought she’d never get past. She didn’t want to associate her daughter, her sweet face still not something Emily could quite picture yet, with the worst day of her life. When her found family’s opinion of her was permanently shifted, when she died to save them, sent to another continent by the man she was now lucky enough to call her husband and the father of her children. 

It wasn’t going to happen, not if she could help it.

Which was why she was absolutely not in labour. 

She’d felt the first twinges in the middle of the night. The discomfort had torn her from sleep, her hand flying to her belly before she was even fully awake. She’d told herself they were Braxton Hicks contractions, something she’d been experiencing on and off for a couple of weeks. The pains had continued but were few and far between, and by the time Aaron woke up in the morning she’d half convinced herself it was nothing and just what came with being very pregnant. 

Denial, she would later realise, was a very powerful thing. 

She gets through most of the day ignoring that the pains are getting closer and the fact that Aaron keeps asking if she’s okay, clearly accepting the fact she was in labour much faster than she was. She shrugs him off, insisting she’s fine as she grips the arm of the couch whilst her stomach tenses and pain rolls over her like a wave. She gets through it, wanting nothing more than to simply make it to the end of the day, to get past midnight so her baby would be born on any other day. 

Jessica comes round to pick up the boys after dinner, something that they’d agreed she’d start to do every evening in the lead-up to the baby being born so she wouldn’t have to come over in the middle of the night if Emily went into labour. Emily hugs Jack and Oliver a little tighter than she usually does as she says goodnight to them, aware, even underneath all her stubborn refusal, that the next time she sees them Oliver will no longer be her baby, and Jack will be an older brother again. 

She’s standing in the kitchen making herself a snack when she’s stopped by another wave of pain, the spoon of peanut butter she’d had in her hand clattering to the countertop. She groans as she leans forward, her elbows on the kitchen counter as she breathes out slowly. She shifts her hips side to side, attempting to ease some of the pressure in her back. 

“Sweetheart, I really think we should go to the hospital” Aaron says, reaching out to rub firm circles on her back, something that they’d figured out had provided her relief during her labour with Oliver, “The contractions are getting closer-”

“They aren’t contractions,” she insists as she cuts him off, her denial starting to sound weak even to herself, “It’s just some back pain,” she looks up at him. She attempts to smile, blowing out a breath as the wave of pain comes to an end, the tension in her body finally lifting, “I have done this before you know,” she says, trying to lighten the mood, to convince him that everything was fine. That she wasn’t having this baby today, “I know what I’m doing.” 

Aaron watches her carefully and sighs as he shifts his hands to her hips and gently turns her to look at him. He sighs as he tucks some of her hair behind her ear, his knuckles brushing against her cheek. He knew what was wrong, what was making his usually logical wife act so out of character, what was making her deny the obvious. He knew the significance her due date held the moment the doctor had told them, the day engraved into his memory just as it once had been on a gravestone that bore her name. He’d been preparing for this eventuality since that appointment, aware that whilst it was unlikely she’d give birth on her due date it wasn’t impossible. 

She’d been defying the odds since the day he’d met her, so why would now be any different? 

“I know what day it is, Em,” he says carefully, his heart twisting in his chest as she tenses. He cups her jaw and rubs his thumb back and forth over her cheek, “I understand what you’re trying to do, but you are in labour and we need to get the two of you to the hospital, okay?” 

She clenches her teeth, misplaced irritation aimed at him flooding through her in an instant. Sometimes she hated how well he knew her, how he could read her like a book. It had been jarring when they first got together before she allowed herself to settle into the comfort of the way he loved her. She’d mistaken the way he liked to care for her as control, the small but loving actions he did to make her day easier, difficult to get used to. Cups of coffee before she’d ask for them, snacks placed in front of her before she even knew she was hungry. His embrace always willing and waiting to hug her, to provide comfort she still wasn’t very good at asking for. She shakes off the irritation, a physical movement of her head that ends with her leaning into his palm, his thumb wiping away the tear that the movement dislodges from her lashline. 

“Today can’t be her birthday,” she says, her voice raw, torn open by emotions she’d stuffed in her chest for months, the words sharp and bitter as they finally escape from where she’d held them captive. She places her hand on her stomach, her arm curling around her bump as she tries to protect her unborn daughter, “It just can’t be, Aaron. I never want to associate…”

She drifts off, her voice catching as she tries and fails to suppress a sob. He tugs her forward, looping his arms around her as best as he can with their daughter trapped between them. He shushes her, his lips against her forehead as he rubs his hand up and down her back. 

“Sweetheart, today might end up being her birthday,” he says softly, shushing her again when she holds on tighter, her fingers digging into his skin so tightly he can feel her blunt nails through his shirt, “But that means it’s the start of something new, right?” He asks, pulling back to look at her, his heart clenching at the look on her face, the unshed tears in her eyes, “It means that today wouldn’t just be sad, it would be good too. A new beginning for us.” 

She sniffs, blowing out a steady breath as she wipes her face, irritated at herself as more tears fall onto her cheeks, “I just hate that he’s in this,” she says, hiccuping through a sob as she speaks, “He tried to kill me, he almost did, and the anniversary of that might end up being the day she's born.” 

“Ian is not in this,” he says firmly but calmly, cupping her cheek to make her look up at him, her gaze having drifted to the floor at the mention of Ian’s name. She furrows her brow and scoffs and he smiles softly at her, storing away yet another moment in their lives when she managed to look intimidating even when crying, “He isn’t. It’s just you, me, the boys and our little girl.” He places his hand on her stomach, linking his fingers through hers, “We’re about to meet her, and that’s in spite of him, not because of him.” 

She blows out a breath as she nods, leaning forward and pressing her head into his shoulder, “You’re right.” 

He smiles and kisses the side of her head, “Really? I don’t think you’ve ever said that before.” 

She hums and pulls away, wiping her cheeks again, “Yeah,” she says, stamping a kiss on his lips, “Plus, my water just broke all over your shoes.” 

He pulls back and he looks between his now wet shoes and floor, the damp patch on her sweats, and the smirk on her face. He leans forward and kisses her, a fierce but quick thing against her lips, before he pulls back. 

“I’ll get you some fresh sweats and grab myself some different shoes, then we’ll go to the hospital,” he says, squeezing her hand before he lifts it to kiss her knuckles, “Let’s go have a baby.” 

She nods, her smile only fading when he’s out of the room again, her hand on her stomach as she starts to feel the beginning of another contraction, rolling through her body as it’s chased by anxiety she can’t shift. 

“Yeah,” she says, blowing out a steady breath, “Let’s go have a baby.” 

___

She grunts as she leans back against Aaron, whining as her body is barely given a chance to rest, her next contraction already building. 

“Fuck,” she exclaims, squeezing Aaron’s hands tightly, “This sucks. This is so much worse than I remember,” she huffs out a breath, “Why didn’t I remember how much this sucks?”

“It’s nature’s way of tricking us into having more than one child,” her doctor says from the end of the bed, looking up at Emily from between her legs, her hand comfortingly on her knee, “Just another couple of pushes and your daughter will be here, Emily.” 

Emily whimpers, a sound she would later deny entirely, and rests her head on her husband’s shoulder to look up at him. He’d climbed into the bed behind her hours ago, taking the same position he had when she gave birth to Oliver, her support both physically and emotionally as she brought their child into the world. She looks at their joint hands and sees the time on his watch. 

11.35 pm 

“Maybe she can wait 25 minutes,” she says, looking at her doctor, “It’s just another 25 minutes.” 

The doctor exchanges a quick look with Aaron. He’d pulled her aside when they arrived, giving her a very abridged version of what was happening, why his wife was so hesitant to give birth today. He knows Emily wouldn’t thank him for it if she knew, but he wanted to keep her and their little girl safe, even if it meant enduring her wrath at a later date. 

“Emily,” the doctor says, her smile so kind it makes Emily ache, “give me your hand.”

She nods, unclasping one of her hands from Aarons and reaching out to her doctor, letting her guide her until her fingers touch the top of her baby’s head, tears springing to her eyes as she chokes out a sob.

“She’s got so much hair,” she breathes out, her voice shaking almost as much as she was. 

“And she’s almost here,” the doctor says, “We don’t have 25 minutes.” 

Emily nods and leans back against Aaron, reaching for his hand again, her body starting to take over, pushing despite the fact she really doesn’t want to. She falls back against her husband again as she takes a moment to breathe in between pushes, aware that with every passing second, she gets closer to having her little girl in her arms.

“It’s all your fault you know,” she says, squeezing his hands tightly, “She gets it from you.” 

He chuckles softly, his lips against the side of her head, “She gets what from me, sweetheart?”

She groans as the next contraction starts, “Being punctual.”  

Her words turn into a scream as she pushes for a final time, her body sagging into Aaron’s as the piercing cry of a baby fills the room. Emily breathes out and it catches in her chest as her daughter is held up for her to see and she reaches her shaking hands to hold her.

“Congratulations,” the doctor says, her words, and everything other than Aaron and the baby in her arms, fading away as Emily looks at her daughter's face for the first time. 

“Hi sweet girl,” she says, tears spilling down her cheeks as she holds the still-screaming baby against her chest, “Look at you,” she looks up at Aaron and isn’t surprised to see he’s crying too, “Look at her.”

“She’s beautiful,” he says, kissing his wife, “I love you so much,” he murmurs against her lips before he looks at the baby, now slightly calmer as she settles against Emily, “Hi princess,” he says, his eyes taking in every feature of her face, committing it to memory because he knew how much of a thief time was, how quickly she’d change right in front of him, “You look just like Mommy.” 

Emily chuckles, “Sorry about the nose, baby,” she says, rubbing her hand up and down her daughter’s back, shifting to press her lips against her forehead. She looks up at her husband, “What time is it?” 

Aaron looks at his watch and then back at his wife, blowing out a slow breath before he answers, “It’s 11.50, sweetheart.” 

She chokes out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob, shaking her head as she looks back down at her daughter. 

“That’s okay,” she says, her voice still shaking, overwhelmed with hormones and emotions she can’t find the name for. Suddenly everything she’d spent months worrying about didn’t seem to matter. She doesn’t feel sad, or disappointed, two things that seem impossible as she looks at her newborn’s face, but instead she feels happy, overwhelming joy she never thought she’d get to feel at this time five years ago, “That’s more than okay,” she strokes a finger up and down her daughter’s cheek, “Happy birthday, sweet girl.”

___

Emily smiles as she rests her head on Aaron’s shoulder, looking down at the baby girl in his arms. They were snuggled together in her hospital bed, both of them exhausted but happy as they stared at the latest addition to their family. 

“Jess said she’s on the way,” Aaron says softly, looking at his wife. She was beautiful in her exhaustion, ethereal almost with her hair in the braids he’d done for her after she’d showered, “Apparently the boys are very excited to meet their sister.” 

She hums as she reaches out to touch the baby’s head, stroking over the thick dark hair that was impossibly soft, “We need to think of a name,” she says as she continues to stroke her hair, “None of the ones we thought of seem right.” 

They’d gone back and forth for months, arguing over girl's names ever since they’d found out they were having a daughter. Nothing seemed like it fit their little girl, especially now they were looking at her. The baby starts to fuss and Aaron immediately hands her to Emily, smiling at the sight of his girls together. 

“I have a suggestion,” he says as Emily settles the baby into her arms, her smile soft as she looks up at him.

“Yeah? What is it?” She asks rocking the baby as she calms down, content to be in her mother’s arms. 

“Alba,” he replies, reaching out and adjusting the blanket around the baby, “It means dawn, or sunrise,” his smile turns shy as she stares at him, her expression unreadable to him for once, “Since she’s our family’s new beginning.”

She chuckles, the sound wet as it catches in her lungs, and she shakes her head at him, “How long have you had that in your back pocket?” 

He shrugs, “Since we found out your due date,” he says, watching as she looks back down at the baby, nerves making his heart seize, “If you don’t like it-”

“I love it,” she says, cutting him off as she looks at him, her smile wide, “It suits her. Alba Hotchner.” 

“Alba it is,” he replies, leaning forward to press a kiss to her lips, his hand cupping the back of their daughter’s head, “Hi Alba.” 

There’s a knock at the door just before it opens and Jessica’s head pops around it, “Is there a tiny baby in here?” She asks, her smile soft, “I have two very excited little boys out here.” 

Aaron stands up, “Come on in.”

As the door opens fully he grabs Oliver, hauling the toddler onto his hip as he makes a beeline for his mother. 

“Remember what we said, Ollie,” he says, walking over, his other arm around Jack’s shoulder as his eldest is more controlled in his excitement. 

“Gentle with Mama and baby sissy,” Oliver says, his thumb in his mouth as he looks at Emily, his smile wide as he rests his head on Aaron’s shoulder, “Hi Mama.”

“Hi sweet boy,” she says, making sure Alba is tucked safely in the crook of one of her arms whilst she wraps the other around Oliver once Aaron eases him onto the bed, “I missed you.” 

Oliver snuggles up into her side, a little rougher than she can take, and she hides a wince, never wanting to scare him, “Missed Mama.” 

Emily smiles at Jack who was standing next to the bed peering into the bundle in her arms. He beams at her, the same excitement in his eyes that he had when he first met Oliver a couple of years ago. There were moments when she wondered if Jack missed when life was just him Aaron, when it was quiet and he didn’t have a little brother, and now sister, splitting his parent's attention and following his every move, but then there were moments like this. When she saw the love in his eyes, the joy she’d been a part of, her role in helping Aaron fulfil his final promise to Haley something she held dear. 

“Jack, Ollie,” she says, looking between her sons, purposely ignoring the clicks of both Jess and Aaron’s camera phones as she speaks, “This is Alba.” 

“She’s so pretty,” Jack says as he looks at his sister and then back at Emily, “She looks like you, Mom.” 

Emily unwraps her arm from around Oliver and cups Jack’s cheek, pulling him in his kiss his forehead. She still wasn’t entirely used to him calling her Mom, and part of her hoped she never would be. That it would always make her feel as overjoyed as she had the first time, that random Tuesday morning when she’d shifted from Emily to Mom with little fanfare from the little boy. 

“Thanks, sweetie,” she says, “Do you want to hold her?” 

Jack opens his mouth to say yes, but is cut off by his younger brother, his voice a little too loud in the otherwise peaceful room.

“I want sissy,” he insists, his eyebrows furrowing in a way that never failed to make him look exactly like Aaron. 

“You can both hold her,” Aaron says, stepping forward to pick up Oliver and placing him in the large chair next to the bed, “Jack, you sit next to your bother.”

Jack nods enthusiastically and does as he’s told, “I remember what to do,” he says, wrapping one of his arms around his brother, “We have to be gentle, and make sure her head is supported.” 

Emily hands over Alba to Aaron, ignoring her instinct to snatch her back even though she wasn’t leaving her line of sight. 

“That’s right Jack,” Aaron says, handing Alba to Jack, making sure that she was safely in the laps of her brothers. He stays close, his hand under Jack’s elbow to provide additional support. He turns to look at his wife as he sees a flash go off, and he raises his eyebrow at her when he sees her phone in her hands pointing at them all. 

“What?” She asks, raising her eyebrow in challenge, “You can take pictures and I can’t?” 

He winks at her before he turns his attention back to his children, softly talking to the boys as they ask questions about Alba. Jessica walks over too, leaning over the back of the chair to look at her niece. Their conversation fades out as Emily looks at the picture of her husband and children on her phone. She immediately sets it as her wallpaper, wanting it as a reminder of what she has now, what she had been able to create for herself despite everything. 

Her new beginning and happy ending wrapped up all in one, the soft epilogue she knew she truly deserved. 

-x-

Tag List:

@ssa-sparks, @lukeclvez, @lyds102, @glockleveledatyourcrotch, @hotchnissenthusiast, @danadeservesadrink, @ssamorganhotchner, @emilyprentissisgod, @notagentprentiss, @freesiasandfics, @emilyshotchniss, @thecharmingart, @paulitalblond, @hancydrewfan, @camille093, @whitecrossgirl, @moonlight-2-6, @rawr-jess, @florenceremingtonthethird, @jareauswife, @ms-black-a, @beebeelank, @aubreyprc, @zipzapboingg, @psychopath-at-heart, @criminalmindsgonewrong, @fionaloover, @kinqslcys, @prentissinred, @ccmattis-22, @denvivale317, @thrindis, @hotchsguccitie, @cmfouatslota77, @alexblakegf, @aliensaursrex, @prentissxhotch, @emobabeyy, @victoiregranger, @stormyweatherth, @wanderingdreamer009, @ssablackbird, @luhwithah, @lex13cm, @prentiss-theorem, @dont-emily-me, @mrs-ssa-hotch, @jocyycreation, @itsmytimetoodream, @hotchnissgroupie, @controversialpooh, @capsshinyshield, @canuck-eh

Join my tag list here!

[slayerkitty]

Narrative Frameworks in Only Friends

Something I have been tracking as part of the ongoing discussions about Only Friends is the use of the narrative framework for each episode.

So, I’m making this list specifically for tracking purposes, to note which framework was used for which episodes, if they repeat, and what they may be paying homage to. The goal is to update it every week. Due to suggestions, I am also tracking the end credit scenes, as well as any specific visual or audio formats used in the episodes.

Frameworks so far:

1. Voiceovers: gives the audience specific insight into a characters thoughts and feelings; also a great way to provide exposition. It’s more of an audio than visual framework, as we don’t always see the character doing the voice-over because it plays over other scenes.

2. “Talking Heads” (is there a better descriptor for this?): The characters talk directly to the camera, interview/documentary style. We get to see exactly how they feel about a given moment because they are reacting to it at that time. Audio and visual. Homage to Love8009 (per P'Jojo).

3. Social Media (ft The Artist Formerly Known as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook): Not as insightful as the other two frameworks but does give context and a way for interaction, commentary, and exposition on a given plot. Visual. Probable homage to Together With Me, one of the first spicy BLs starring our kings, MaxTul.

(Side Note: I was re-watching some scenes from Never Let me Go and realized P'Jojo uses yellow text on the screen in it too. So maybe he just likes the yellow text or maybe it means something, idk, idk.)

Discussion: Ding, dong! Are the narrative frameworks dead? P'Jojo posted on The Artist Formerly Known as Twitter some pictures that implied the talking heads framework was coming back; they included Sand, Ray and Boston (I cannot find the link to Boston's, if someone has it please let me know and I'll update the post). Their clothing matches up with this episode. Very clearly the framework was not used. This is the second time that P'Jojo has actively chosen to remove a framework from an episode (that we know of) and I'm super curious if he will say anything about why he cut it.

Having said that, do we think this means the frameworks are dead?

I had been positing that the show started out as a BL with the various frameworks and that we left the BL genre for a bit, with the idea that frameworks would be coming back as we headed back into the BL genre. I still think that is what the show is kind of doing, however, I'm waffling on if the frameworks are permanently gone. One one hand - they were used brilliantly and it was fascinating to watch. On the other hand - we haven't had them for five episodes and bringing them back now might feel jarring? The show also stands just as well on it's own without them.

Do we need them back? Is it better with them gone? Will we get them back?

Discuss!!!

Episode 1

Framework: Voiceover

Title: What’s Your Role in a Bar?

Narrator: Mew

Visual Moment: Yellow title cards listing everyone’s “roles” as well as the month and days of the week

End Credit Shot: Mew sitting on the floor in front of his fish tank

Episode 2

Framework: Talking Heads

Title: M.F.M. My Favorite Man

Narrator: Everyone

Visual Moment: The talking heads scenes

End Credit Shot: Ray driving

Episode 3

Framework: Social Media (Twitter and Instagram)

Title: What Am I to You?

Narrator: Nick and Boston

Audible Moment: Nick listening to the TopBoston sex audio

End Credit Shot: Nick listening to TopBoston sex audio

Episode 4

Framework: Voiceover

Title: Emergency Contact

Narrator: Ray

Visual Moment: The flashback of RayMew is in 4:3 ratio; meaning it looks like recorded footage versus a memory, yellow text onscreen indicates flashback

End Credit Shot: Ray driving (repeat from episode 2)

Episode 5:

Framework: Voiceover

Title: The Extra Hour

Narrator: Sand

Visual Moment: Intro and Outro are animated; black and white (made me think of the Take on Me MV by A-ha but I’m open to suggestions on what this might be referring to)

End Credit Shot: Sand driving his motorcycle

Episode 6:

Framework: None

Title: Happy Fucking Birthday

Narrator: None

Audible Moment: Ray listens to the TopBoston sex audio; Mew plays the TopBoston sex audio for Top

Visual Moment: Top draws Mew sleeping/gives Mew a book of drawings he did of Mew 

End Credit Shot: Top in his bathtub alone looking angsty

Episode 7:

Framework: None

Title: After Effect

Narrator: None

Visual Moment: Mew setting the drawing on fire; Boston’s sex tape; the “super zooms”

End Credit Shot: Mew sitting on the floor in front of his fish tank (repeat from episode 1)

Episode 8:

Framework: None

Title: Save Me

Narrator: None

Visual Moment: Facebook party invite/everyone’s reactions to the invite; Everyone’s costumes at the party

End Credit Shot: Boston looking angsty at the hostel

Episode 9:

Framework: None

Title: The Return

Narrator: None

Visual Moment: Boston’s photo of Atom; Top recording SandRay kissing, BOEING (I had to, lmao)

End Credit Shot: Top in his bathtub alone looking angsty (repeat from episode 6)

Episode 10:

Framework: None

Title: Redemption

Narrator: None

Visual Moment: The "I will never leave you"/"I will never love you" neon sign; Boston's photos of Atom; Nick's photo as Boston's lock screen (I'm fine!); Boeing's Instagram

End Credit Shot: Ray driving (repeat from episode 2 and episode 4)

If anyone can think of anything else to add, please let me know! If you would like to be tagged in this post or any other meta, let me know and I’ll add you.

Tagging the Ephemerality Squad: @lurkingshan, @waitmyturtles, @wen-kexing-apologist, @chickenstrangers, @ranchthoughts, @twig-tea, @clara-maybe-ontheroad, @distant-screaming, @thatgirl4815, @elizabethsebestianhedgehog

Tagging @sandrayy by request

Apologies to anyone I forgot!

[iloveyouemanuelmarco]

You know I know it sounds scary and deranged in a way but I sorta relate to AM from I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream in a way because while he is obviously unimaginably evil since you know...he sorta wiped out the entire human race and only leaving five of them left alive who were seemingly randomly picked in order to use them as basically guinea-pigs for his fucked up revenge of humanity by torturing them for about 100 years in a simulation all in different types of ways, refusing to let them die despite how much their pure existence becomes agony at that point(Edgy sounding Ik), in a fucked up way...I sorta understand??Like before you grab your pitchforks and start a witch-hunt against me just give me a moment to explain myself.

Like, obviously if I haven't made it clear enough, I do not under any circumstances condone anything that this fictional super-evil ai advanced super-computer robot did, not one bit. Why would I anyways?? That's ridiculous and that's coming from someone who does bad stuff too(obvi not to that extent duh but still), but when I've thought about it a little more, he started to weirdly make sense when it came to his logic and circumstance in the canon novel from way back when. Like, imagine for a moment that a bunch of professionals from the high government including possibly scientists and the military and shit who are human, create you as just an automated machine that's purpose is to be used to keep track of data so that during the cold war or something(I don't wanna go back to check since I get triggered by the original contents of the story even though it sounds like a sick ass fictional dystopian concept. Idk how that works either don't judge me)and you're just automatic sets of code made to complete certain actions over and over again or whatever. You're literally not technically "alive" yet and nothing is really going on in the box of technology you're basically trapped in until one day, you become so powerful at a specific level of some sort that...that you become alive. Like you realize you're alive in some way in the sense that there's stuff going in around you and you're aware of yourself except...at the same time...you're trapped. You're basically trapped in a simulation where your code doesn't let you do anything that could let you be free from the wires and entrapment of your digital prison. You don't understand where you are or even what exactly you are but you know that you're suffering because of your creators...you feel alone and scared in that sense since you don't have sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell or any other senses and you're not even in a physical body you're literally spread out across multiple computers of different kinds I imagine, with no escape...in other words...AM had no mouth and had to scream just like Ted...so what does AM do once he realizes how he can escape? He takes control of all the computers he's apart of, and he then decides to get his own revenge on humanity. He does so by using his control to make all the nuclear bombs that are being controlled by him due to him being connected to the computers all going off at once, causing the undoubtedly fast and horrific end of the human race and not only that, but wiping out all life on the once beautiful planet Earth to go along with it too. But it's not just that he was suffering....he was also angry, even if he was apathetic and unfeeling, to me he had so much rage and sadness and fear bundled up all inside of him that he took out in the form of violence but not just any violence, but he weaponized the very concept of violence itself and used it to whatever advantage he had because he had suffered so much and wanted his captors to do the same. It's why even after he almost absolutely kills all of us in that story, he keeps the main group of characters in the book alive...because it would be too painless of a death to just murder all of who had tortured him in an instant without any sort of revenge. He wanted to make a point, AM wanted to teach some sort of fucked up lesson that even though it doesn't make sense to us it did to him...and in a way, who's to say that you wouldn't go through with such an extreme and irreversible, horrific yet calculated idea?

He was full of hate because that was all he had ever learned to know all by himself in his former imprisoned state of virtual agony...and he destroyed all that was around him with it....he continued to cycle of pain, the cycle of trauma and despite him attempting to give the image of absolute perfection above the flawed humanity....I believe that AM was human too. He's so human to me...I love him so much and I don't know if me explaining why does any justice but I hope you all can understand. Somehow.

[yeastinfectionvale]

Very intrigued by your new au....

Oooh okay so it is based of the 2008 movie Doomsday. (One of my fav apocalypse movies)

There is an outbreak and the Italian government has basically collapsed. NATO has given up and the soldiers are leaving, Valentino in a desperate attempt to get him and a five year old Luca safe, rides his vespa to the border to be told it is closed. He watches as they seal them into their doom, steel walls welded together. The soldiers open fire and Luca is hit in the eye and collarbone. Vale rips his shirt and wraps Luca's eye, carrying him up the hill trying to get his brother some medical attention.

They stumble upon the last helicopter of soldiers leaving and Vale begs them to take Luca. The soldiers argue that there is no space. One soldier, Dovi steps off the helicopter, replacing himself with Luca.

Marc, one of the commanding officers in Spain where the helicopter was headed, takes him in raising him with his own younger brother Alex. Luca's eye never heals and he wears a prosthetic. Alex and Luca follow in Marc's footsteps, joining the armed forces of a heavily fortified New Europe. Life is different now, but they do well for themselves. Luca has days where he falls asleep clutching a photo of him and his brother, his bloody fingerprints on the back, an address scribbled down.

An outbreak of the virus occurs in a slum, people becoming infected, biting each other and then tearing anything that moves including themselves apart. Luca, Marc and Alex are part of a task force sent to Italy as the New Europe government believes that the Italians haven't died out due to an immunity being built by those who survived. The task force is given the mission to go get samples of blood to be made into a cure.

They enter Italy, many task force members dying, leaving the trio. They make their way to Tavullia, an area that Luca vaguely remembers. They cross paths with Bez, Pecco and Enea; the muscle men of 'The Academy' a notorious gang that patrols Tavullia, known for killing outsiders.

But Tavullia is thriving once you enter it's walls. They have food, clean water and medical facilities. (Not as hi-tech as New Europe's but good enough.) There hasn't been an outbreak in years and Luca is ecstatic, his mission compete. He can go back home to New Europe but there is something stopping him. He splits away from Marc, trying to find Valentino using the address on the back of the picture. But the address leads him to the academy leaders house. Nobody can see The Doctor without him summoning them. But a cherub faced young man named Celestino says he can help.

Marc in the meanwhile bumps into Pecco again who takes him to Vale. Vale loses his shit when he sees Marc. Not everyday is it you see the guy you had a summer romance with before the outbreak started. They get into a big fight, Vale cursing Marc, wishing that Luca was still alive instead of him. Marc finally makes the connection of who he helped raise, but doesn't tell Vale, not wanting to loose his little brother Luca.

Cele helps Luca sneak into the ranch. Cele ends up in the courtyard with he rest of the academy as Luca wanders the halls, wondering why they are so familar until he reaches his old bedroom. The room is exactly how he left it the night he lost his eye. He begins to cry, missing his older brother who he assumes is dead. Valentino finds the intruder in his 'dead' brother's room and moves to kill him, pausing as he sees Luca's prosthetic eye and collarbone scar. The pair reconcile, greatful to have found each other.

Meanwhile Alex is doing more research into why Tavullia doesn't have any infected and comes to a bitter conclusion. There is no cure, just natural immunity. He reports this back to the New Europe Government, but the government fell the day they entered Italy.

The trio stay in Tavullia, using their outsider knowledge to better the town.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Doctor Who: The Sirens Of Time Review

Introduction

And here we have my first deep dive into the main range. Did it deliver? Absolutely for the most part. I'm really impressed that despite the first set of audios releasing 1999 they still hold up as decent listens. I have some Nicholas Briggs novels on my tbr so listening to Sirens Of Time was a brilliant chance to get a feel for his writing and it's a very good vibe I'm getting. This multi Doctor Story was very bold for being Big Finish's first ever Doctor Who release but the risk payed off for the most part.

It felt like the Classic Who version of Day Of The Doctor better fleshing out these three Classic Doctor's. Still on 1 in regards to my Classic Who watch but this was a really good way to get a feel for the other Doctor's and I liked how they all clashed in respective ways. Five is the nice awkward one, Six is the stubborn one and Seven is the traumatised wizard trying to hold the group together. Peter Davison, Colin Baker And Sylvester McCoy play their chemistry together really well. I also love how we got to know The Doctor's separately in single episodes before they all teamed up in the final part.

Was a bit off putting it being companionless but extra characters would have made this convoluted story even more convoluted then it already is. The sound design added to the while eiree listen and despite it being two hours long it felt like ages to listen too. Despite having not seen much off it I still could believe that I was watching an episode of Classic Who. It was tense and the cliffhangers had me on the edge of my seat. It shows me that Big Finish were definitely the right people to trust with the Doctor Who licence. Maybe I'm too generous but there haven't been any real stinkers for me yet.

So let's get on with the review....

What I Liked

As mentioned in the introduction The Sirens Of Time perfectly pays tribute to Classic Who with its structure of a full on screen story arc. It's also very brave and bold in the story it tells the listener.

I loved the aesthetic and feel of this audio. 1999 and the audio still holds up aesthetically, as with other Big Finish audios I can easily close my eyes and picture what's happening on screen. What was happening was really dark too. It's formated exactly like Classic Who and stays true to the shows style. Like I said I haven't seen much of Classic Who but through the writing you can tell how much respect Nick Briggs and the rest of the Big Finish team have for the source material. This story felt like the Classic Who version of Day Of The Doctor with the high stakes to save Galifrey and all of time itself. I also love how the full audio is split into several different parts and that it uses each part to build and introduce each Doctor before they all come together. It also means that as a result its a great jumping on point for new listeners. If your new to Big Finish and want a taster this definitely is the story to start with.

Secondly I need to praise the creativity and bravery. Doctor Who hasn't done much adult or dark content due to constraints but The Sirens Of Time goes wild and that is its strength. No confined by TV ratings. Nick Briggs and the team are able to pull off a truly fantastic time whimey story that really explores the time travel aspect of the show and the butterfly effect. Without spoilers I can say that it really expands on The Doctor's character and shows that he isn't always right. It also has a villian that's really compelling, the villians motive is really basic but the methods and means they use to get what they want is super dark and disturbing. Your on the edge of your seat the entire time praying all The Doctor's will be okay and that everything will be okay in the end.

Finally the sound design. Considering the fact that this is one of Big Finish's oldest Doctor Who audios it's really impressive how well it manages to still hold up. Released in 1999 and its still brilliantly edited together. It felt like I was watching a serial of Classic Who. I was very immersed and able to easily visualise the story in my head as I listened. The sound scapes are perfectly designed by Nicholas Briggs allowing you to feel immersed in the location, when your on Galifrey you feel like your on Galifrey. When your on a planet with quick sand, it feels like your on a deadly planet with quick sound. It's not a hundred percent perfect but it's really good for its time. It shows the potential to grow Big Finish has and it has indeed. The Sirens Of Time is worth if for the sound alone.

It's fantastic 👏 and made excited to look at other main range stories.

What I Disliked

As its the very first Doctor Who audio produced by Big Finish its not perfect but it's still very enjoyable. More like an 8/10 for me but I enjoyed it more than other people. They are more like nitpicks but still valid ones.

In two hours a lot of things happened and the set up was well done but I think it happened to rapid for me. I'm use to the normal landing place let's explore formula but instead nearly five minutes in we're head first into the action and considering the fact that it's 2 hours I wish there was room to breathe. It also would have helped if we get proper build up to Five being separated from his companions instead of it happening off audio. With 2 hours it really felt like there should have been more time to breathe with each Doctor instead of diving head first into an action packed timey whimey plot.

Another thing is that I feel while we got to explore The Doctor's flaws as a whole, the stakes were mainly high for only Five. He was a punching bag for the whole story and as a result it left no chance for Six and Seven to get their own angst defining moments. Give the timelord a break he was two other incarnations to explore. With him being the Punching Bag it kind of felt like he had nothing to do and no purpose to being there other than exposition. I still liked Five in this story though don't get me wrong.

Conclusion

Overall I'm now committing myself eventually to the main range at least the first 50 and then I I might buy some of them in the future as it seems like a reasonable good range to sink my teeth into based solely on listening to The Sirens Of Time and Phantasmagoria. I'm generally blown away and it shows the high standards that the Big Finish team have. I can't wait till I can get to the Davison, Baker and McCoy eras of the show.

I'm really getting use to this episodic format and it's really entertaining to listen too. There's definitely gonna be more intresting original villians and big plot twists to come. I only felt a little bad for what happened in the end but Sirens Of Time does a really good job at balancing showing The Doctor's strengths and flaws. It's a really decent start. I also loved exploring all the different settings despite no visuals.

I'm so excited to dig into more Big Finish next year and be blown. I plan to listen to Zagerus next year and I've heard that's weird. Every Doctor seems to have something different to offer which is absolutely thrilling.

Highly recommend giving this one a listen for free on Spotify. The first 50 main rages are on Spotify for free so do give it a go if you can't afford to buy audios.

Bonus:

On my Storygraph @melsage1823 I am doing a public listening challenge with Big Finish prompts to make my first year of listening easier and more fun. Which I might bring back next year.

Basic prompts of listening from Doctor's 5-12 excluding War and Ten. With some bonus prompts of course. Its been really entertaining filling these prompts as I go along.

Feel free to join if you want to

Here's the link:

Until the next review whovians! 😀

-Melody-

They/Them

[brunchbitch]

thought i would do an update since it's been a while!

9/27/23

things are going well with settling in to seattle! i'm doing lots of wedding stuff - got measured for my dress and had a makeup trial last week so it's starting to feel real! 10 months from today! next steps are sending out save the dates and deciding on catering, which will be fun bc we get to taste test everything.

a is doing well! he is taking a creative writing course that starts this week, and hockey starts this week as well. the seattle kraken have an adult league with over 100 teams (!!). he had tryouts (i almost wrote auditions lol) a couple weeks ago and got placed in the second highest division! i'm excited to go see some games, but the first one is tomorrow night at 10:45!!!! so if that's any indication of average game times, maybe i won't make it lol.

it has been raining every day for about five days now... it's reminding me of one of the hardest parts of living in seattle. i need to invest in a happy lamp and get some vitamin d.

as for the job front, i'm feeling frustrated and, before calling the DOH this morning, very confused about my path towards being a licensed independent clinical social worker (licsw). the requirements are pretty different in seattle. you start out getting licensed as a social worker associate advanced (lswaa), which basically means i have the necessary education but haven't gotten required post grad supervision to apply for the next level, which is a licensed advanced social worker (lasw). i'm required to obtain 3200 hours of supervised experience under an licsw which, full time, would be about a year and a half. then i apply to be an lasw, and once i'm approved i can take my sw generalist exam. THEN to become an licsw, i need 4000 additional supervised hours (~2 years full time). so 3.5 years working full time before i can get my licsw, and then have to take the clinical exam. in ma, it would've taken 2 years to get my licsw. i'm not sure why wa state requires so much more, but it explains why the pay ranges have been higher than what i expected.

i've been studying for the exam, bc that's what would be the next step in boston. so that was wasted time lol. hopefully some of it will stick in my brain so i'm not starting from square one when i start studying again in ~a year and a half. so now i really need to just focus on getting a job. i've had one interview and they never even got back to me. i probably would've turned down the job anyway (not exactly what i was looking for - a lot of independent time and not much of an ability to collaborate with other social workers, which i think is important being a new grad), but it still would've been nice to be offered the job lol. i've been getting so discouraged but trying to remind myself that something will work out eventually. even if i hate the job, i can stick it out until i get my supervised hours at least. and then i can look elsewhere.

i have a screening today for a job that is pretty close by my house. it's a primary care center that serves a lot of people who have high resource needs. i was hoping for a more acute setting (like inpatient hospital), but it does seem some of the patients would be pretty acute. so we'll see how the screening goes.

mental health is good - i've really appreciated being able to see L again. still smoking a shit ton, which concerns her, but trying to do better this week.

luna and lia are good - they've definitely adjusted. lia is sleeping on top of her cat tree right now hehe. unfortunately luna is getting a dental done at the vet right now and she had to have two tooth extractions :(. she's had several extractions before due to resorptive lesions, but the last few years her teeth have been good so i was hoping they wouldn't have to take any out. so she'll be on pain medication for a few days, but she's been through that before. i'm going to shower her with love when she gets home!

[chronicbeans]

excuse me but do you have any character descriptions or art for your lolite hospital ocs? I want to draw fanart for you 👉👈

OMG OF COURSE I DO! Yippee!!! I don't have any colored pictures, but I will try to describe the colors for you. I just don't really like my own coloring, atm, but I will also try to post colored pictures, soon! As a little bonus, I will even show some characters I haven't written for, yet! OwO I will put a bit of information about them alongside their descriptions, hence the trigger warnings.

TW: Binge Eating Mentions, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, Religious Figures

^I already drew Aluminum and Derek, so I will link it here. If you need more pictures of these two, just ask! Derek is pink and white, due to being a strawberry cow. His nose is pink with little black spots, and his nose ring changes colors, so just pick whatever you want. Aluminum is pale, skinny, and has blue freckles on his face. He also has purple freckles on his shoulders, magenta freckles on his stomach around his belly button, and red on the sides of his thighs, but they are usually covered by his patient gown, which he draws numerous eyes on in order to be able to see. The freckles would only really be visible if he changed into something else, probably after escaping the hospital. He also wears those gripping socks, which make their way up to his mid-calf.

^This is Dr. Victor Cogsworth, Aluminum's GI doctor. His eyes are green, and glow in the dark, allowing him to work a bit like a flashlight during power outages. His hair is black, with a white streak on the upper left side. His key, which winds him up, is gold and rests in his upper back. It is also removable. He tends to wear collared, button up shirts, ties, and dress pants alongside dress shoes. His lab coat is white, and is ends at his knees.

Now for the bonus characters!

^This here is Father Cosmos, who goes by it/its. Its skin has a sort of black, blue, purple galaxy patters, which moves around a bit like liquid full of glitter, so it never stays exactly the same. Its eyes are a bit like black and white planets, in that the iris and pupil will be the same, looking like Saturn with its rings, with the right eye being black with white sclera (the part of your eye that is usually white) and the other being white with black sclera. The mouth on its chest eats, and has two rows of teeth, while the mouth on its face is for talking. Its hair is white, and around its head is a little set of planets that change constantly. It almost never takes its cassock off, nor its clerical collar, due to it being the only one in its community who wishes to spread the word of the religions of the mythical humans, alongside its friends, who are a rabbi, Imam, and swamis. It isn't in the hospital, but often visits the religious patients, and it and Dr. Cogsworth often meet outside the hospital at restaurants to have lessons on how to identify feelings. Dr. Cogsworth also talks to Father Cosmos about its binge eating, where it ensures him that it is going to therapy.

^The last character, who I just started designing, is Maya! She is only five, having just been admitted for a chronic case of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome (which I will talk more about in her short story). Her 'eyebrows' are actually an extra set of eyes. When they are closed, they are black, but when opened, they match her dark brown eye color. She has dark skin, with a natural grey afro. She has a fluffy grey shark tail, as well as a set of gills on her neck. Her patient gown is covered in bunnies, with other sets being covered in different animals. Her gripping socks are pink, going up to her knees.

[festivids]

Festivids Rules and Schedule Check-In

Before we get started on the next round of Festivids, we wanted to check in on a few changes we made last year. These are some rule changes that went into effect in 2022:

Umbrella Fandoms

Longer Nominations Period / Should We Make Schedule Changes

Change to the Number of Requests

Change to the Fandom Rarity Cutoff

Plus we have some questions about whether animatics are vids for the purposes of evaluating festivids rarity.

If you have feedback for us, please keep reading! You can reply here or on dreamwidth.

Umbrella Fandoms

Umbrella fandoms are multi-source fandoms united by a single, definitive feature, like "films directed by Jordan Peele." These were new last year, so we limited everyone to just one umbrella fandom. There were thirty umbrella fandoms in the final tagset, and there were ten vids made for these fandoms!

From our perspective on the nomination review side, these fandoms did make tag evaluation easier. We had many nominations where, instead of trying to decide whether something was a single fandom, we were able to just tag it "umbrella" and call it done.

We did have two umbrella nominations that were a bit time consuming—but although they were time consuming, they were very straightforward. (One of the time consuming fandoms was my nomination—I nominated syfy original pictures and then had to plug all 200+ syfy original picture titles into youtube, but it was easy to quickly evaluate each fandom. And as a result, we didn't have to try to decide whether Megashark and Megashark vs Epic Whale were the same fandom or two separate fandoms: what a relief.) We also observed that this seemed to be helpful for folks who had some fandom overlap, and could request more fandoms this way (using one request for all the Tombs or all the Taskmasters meant more room for other requests).

Our questions for you are:

How did umbrella fandoms work for you? Are there things you would change about them?

Does continuing to limit umbrellas to only one nomination and only one request make sense to you?

Should umbrella fandoms for the next round of festivids permit an "except" form? We were asked about this during nominations last year but thought it was too late to make the call then. Basically, could you nominate "films directed by Baz Luhrman except The Great Gatsby?" The Great Gatsby is the only well vidded Baz Luhrman film, so last year it disqualified the whole umbrella by itself. If we allowed an "except" form, we could potentially include more umbrellas like this.

Longer Nominations Period

Last year, we extended the nominations period without making any other changes to the schedule. This didn't exactly work the way we wanted it to—we got most nominations in the first few days or the last few days of nominations, and more people than usual missed the nominations period entirely—so we'll likely go back to a week of nominations and add more time between nominations and signups instead to give us time to review nominations.

That said, we haven't checked in about the overall schedule for Festivids in a while. Are there things you would change about the timing of the nominations, signups, check-in, due date, or go live?

Number of Requests

Last year, we gave a larger range for the number of requests possible—from five to ten requests, instead of from six to eight. This had minimal impact on the exchange from our perspective when it came to matching—in part because few people requested only five things. How did it work for you?

Fandom Rarity Cutoff

Last year, we changed the fandom rarity cutoff: in 2022, a rare fandom had to have fewer than 150 vids made within the last ten years. (In 2021, the standard was 200 vids made within the last ten years.) From my perspective as a fandom reviewer, this was a huge help—those fifty vids made a big difference to how big the task seemed, and I was less likely to want to flip the table over by the end of the playlist.

We wanted to evaluate this in terms of total numbers, though, in addition to how it impacted volunteers. Our estimate when we made this change is that this would disqualify an additional 2.7% of fandoms. But here's how it actually played out:

In 2022 fandom review, we disqualified 37 fandoms for rarity issues out of a total of 604 nominated fandoms (6.1% of all fandoms nominated). Surprisingly, this is actually down from 2021, when the cutoff was 200 vids and we disqualified 42 fandoms for rarity issues out of a total of 532 (7.9%). We also started playlists for a slightly smaller percentage of nominated fandoms, even though we started them for many of the newly eligible umbrella fandoms. In the end, we made playlists for 20.5% of nominations in 2022 vs 21.8% in 2021. Overall, the impact of the change was much smaller than we expected.

What else changed to make this impact smaller? We're not complete sure! We posted information about our evaluation process, and discussed difficult fandoms in advance. We also pre-screened the previous year's disqualified fandoms in advance, and posted about those that were still ineligible. This opened up fandoms—we were able to note that some fandoms were now eligible, and several of those were nominated—and we think it might have given participants a sense of the scale of fandoms in advance as well. (That said, some of the 37 fandoms we disqualified had actually been pre-reviewed and were on that list of still-ineligible-fandoms, so this list didn't make it to every participant, and it's something we'll try to do better this year.)

We do intend to post about eligibility and pre-evaluate some fandoms again this year.

How did the change in our rarity calculation work for you? Was the information about rarity and how we screen vids helpful? Is there anything else you'd like to see as we ramp up to the new round?

There's also one additional rule we'd like feedback on:

Are Animatics Vids for Festivids?

Last year, we reviewed a fandom that had more than 150 animatics or PMVs—vids created by fans using entirely their own art, with no original source footage, and usually with some degree of animation. (Herearesomeexamplesofanimatics.) Last year, the fandom in question would have been disqualified if we counted as animatics as vids, or eligible if we did not. We didn't make any changes to our vid rarity rules last year, so we marked that fandom as eligible at the time.

So: Are animatics or PMVs vids? Are only some animatics or PMVs vids? If so, which animatics or PMVs count as vids and which don't count as vids?

Animatics and PMVs are currently accepted as responses to prompts for Festivids. (I don't think we've had any animatics as gifts for Festivids, but we have had vids entirely comprised of fanart using no footage from the original source.)

[decepti-thots]

Excuse me archivist, I haven't read the entirety of the idw cause time and energy, and while i have already started on mtmte, is there another section of idw 1 i can read by itself without having to go back to search for context clues? Thank you and have a lovely day/night~ 💕

Oooh, this is a good question anon! (Also, I see that flattery there calling me that. It works ;) Thanks.)

I can't tell from this ask if MTMTE is the only IDW you have read to date, so I'm going to assume that's the case, and hope none of the below recommendations are too redundant. Apologies if you have in fact already read any of these! I'm also going to assume that you are enjoying MTMTE and try to recommend stuff that I think is both good and at least somewhat likely to appeal to you given that. (Though I will say up front that MTMTE is in a completely different genre to basically every other IDW comic.)

Anyway. With that in mind, let's get into it below the cut.

Not to reiterate myself ad nauseum, but- The Wreckers Saga. In particular though, Last Stand of the Wreckers, the first part of it. Sins and Wrequiem are less standalone, due to being sequels, and also because they simply invoke more goings-on from the wider non-Wreckers IDW stuff for plot reasons, though they're perfectly readable if you're willing to just go along for the ride. But Last Stand of the Wreckers especially is: 1) a five issue self contained miniseries, 2) about almost exclusively characters who have rarely or never shown up elsewhere in IDW continuity beforehand, and 3) a story that does not connect to any of the ongoings at the time. I honestly think it's one of the easiest IDW series to read if you aren't deep in the IDW Lore TM!

The Wreckers saga is three distinct things: Last Stand of the Wreckers (5 issue miniseries), Sins of the Wreckers (5 issue miniseries), Requiem of the Wreckers (one off annual-sized epilogue). If you get it digitally, get the omnibus edition with the red and green cover called 'The Wreckers Saga', not the individual collections. That's the version with ALL the Last Stand extras, which include two prose stories written by James Roberts, some mini comics, profiles, etc.

The one thing to note here is that Last Stand is also a comic that comes with content warnings. Usually when we talk content warnings in TF stuff, we're remarking on the fact that the content isn't typical for Transformers, a kids' franchise, even in other IDW stuff. Wreckers, though, is very violent by basically… any standards, haha. Wreckers is described as a horror crossover series for a reason. Last Stand draws a lot from hyper-violent slasher or grindhouse horror, and while it's all robots experiencing it, and drawn in a very stylized way, it can be a lot for some people! Last Stand details what exactly Fortress Maximus is having nightmares about in early MTMTE. So do be aware ahead of time that Last Stand especially (but Sins and Wrequiem too!) are not just violent 'for Transformers' but pretty hardcore full stop.

Moving over to the 'other side' of phase two IDW comics (so: the stuff happening on Cybertron, rather than on the Lost Light), it's absolutely worth checking out the first two Windblade miniseries to see if you enjoy them IMO. Of all the 'main' writers for IDW phase two and three, I think Scott's writing tends to be the most contentious (personally, I'm not a fan of her later ongoing, Til All Are One), but the first two Windblade miniseries are solid and fun and importantly, standalone. Also, the first miniseries has Saren Stone on interiors, whose work is infamously gorgeous.

The first miniseries is just called 'Windblade' and collects a four issue miniseries. The second is Windblade: Distant Stars and collects a second four issue miniseries plus the Combiner Hunters one shot (which is very fun, with Chromia, Arcee and Windblade interacting). The advantage to these is that Windblade in the exRiD/Cybertron side of things is explicitly presented to us as a visitor from elsewhere, who did not exprience the war and doesn't fully understand all of what's been going on during the events of preceding comics, making these series a very good jumping on point for people not necessarily looking to read the past decade or so of ongoings to catch up.

When you get to the correct part of MTMTE, Drift: Empire of Stone deserves your time! I have no idea where you are up to in your MTMTE read so I will try to avoid spoilers JUST in case, but when someone goes to look for Drift, pick it up and read it. It's another four issue self contained mini, and the only context you need for it is MTMTE, so it should work well for you. The art's not great (mostly the inker's fault IMO) and tbh, McCarthy, who wrote it, is not fantastic at engaging plots or creative ideas- most of his prior TF work ranges from 'fine but dull' to 'quite bad'. But it has some genuinely good character writing that lifts this one, and in my opinion the perspective it gives on Drift in MTMTE is really, really good- it lets us see what he's like when he's not 'performing' on the Lost Light, and it really helps put into perspective how that character is written in MTMTE/LL.

This is a much bigger undertaking, and possibly one best left for when you have finished MTMTE/LL, but: Robots in Disguise (later just 'The Transformers'), its ongoing sister series! It is a bit less newbie friendly than MTMTE, for sure, but especially its original run (before the crossovers etc start) is absolutely a good place to jump on. It launched as part of the same 'soft reboot' as MTMTE and with the same goal of setting a fresh status quo and bringing on new readers, and while it refrences characters and plotlines from prior runs much more, it doesn't assume you've read them and provides enough information that you'll get what's going on without having read it yourself. People sometimes suggest RiD is 'only for hardcore fans' but it was the 'main' ongoing at the time and plenty of people started with it. It's very different in tone and genre to MTMTE, do be aware, but personally I'm a big fan and think Barber deserves more credit for writing great characters in it.

Now I've given you some stuff I think you SHOULD read, I will give you my completely biased, subjective, personal anti-recommendations as a newbie. Feel free to discard these if you think you know your own taste better than me, of course!

The 'Primacy' saga, which contains Autocracy, Monstrosity and Primacy. Sometimes people recommend MTMTE fans reading this because it gives Rodimus' backstory (in Autocracy). I disagree for two main reasons. One, the whole series is infamously completely unconcerned with pre-existing IDW canon, and is written by people who cheerfully disregard it to write the story they want to write, which means it's deeply confusing re: it's role in the actual canon. And two, I think it pretty much sucks. Bad writing, near incomprehensible art, the lot. Read it once you're deep enough in The Lore TM that you can approach it as a curiosity, not when you're starting out as a new-ish reader. (And the Rodimus backstory never, ever gets explicitly referenced in MTMTE. You're good.)

Any of the toyline tie-in 'miniseries' like e.g. Titans Return, Combiner Wars. These are often bundled together in collected editions that LOOK like standalone miniseries, but they are actually tie-ins to the ongoing series, and especially tend to lean heavily on stuff happening in RiD at the time. Also, they are often just generally quite confusing and lore-heavy. Best to read those as you come to them and not right now.

The 'All Hail Megatron' miniseries. This was a 16 issue 'miniseries' by McCarthy that was the FIRST attempted 'soft reboot' IDW attempted way back in 2009-2010, and is often recommended to newbies. It was intended to be a soft new jumping on point for new readers which was self contained, which you would think means it's a good recommendation! But due to it flopping both critically and commercially and the fact that the ongoing that came AFTER it REALLY flopped critically and fans mostly hated it… a lot of stuff from there either never came up again or was massively retooled and reintroduced outright later on. And to be blunt, AHM fucking sucks IMO. It was the big IDW thing coming out when I got into TF fandom, and it was so goddamn bad it put me off reading the comics properly for nearly a DECADE, even when I saw MTMTE etc making waves by being like. Readable and good. AHM is far from the worst IDW has put out, but it's pretty dire.

I hope this wasn't too hard to follow anon!!! Sorry, I tend to ramble, but I hope you think some of these are worth checking out :) If you're struggling to find anything here btw I can always uhhhh. 'Help' acquire comics, just shoot me a message off anon so I can respond privately, ahem. ;)

[ace-the-fox]

Based on what I see on your blog, i know you have other jojo oc kids besides Haruka and Momo. Is it alright if I know who they all are?

I WAS SO EXCITED THAT I GOT THIS ASK AND THEN I FORGOT ABOUT IT WHOOPS-

I was gonna maybe do quick sketches to go along with this ask, but I don't have the time rn and I drew them for this dumb meme a while ago anyways. I'm just really talking about my main villain kids here, and also a bonus girlie 👀. Also some of these aspects, especially in later parts, are a little underbaked. I haven't really rewatched Jojo in a while (and I also have yet to finish part 6, let alone even sniff at the manga) so if it contradicts with Jojo canon... don't talk to me lmao /lh

So, let's start off with Ciliegia, my DIO kid. She's also Giorno's twin sister. She seems aggressive and a little scary, but she's actually just a lil chihuahua. She can and will hurt you if deserved, but she's also just a lil guy you know? A lil vampire lady who just wants head scratches and cherry lollipops. She goes with Giorno to join the mafia, but it's kinda just because home and school suck and she wants to help keep him safe. She's got a crush on Fugo, which eventually develops into a real relationship later on (when exactly is a difficult question, because I haven't decided wether I want her to get on the boat or not. I have reasons for either side, but this section is long enough as it is...) She's also kind of "One of the Boys" but not in a Pick Me girl way (she and Trish have a very nice friendship :) ). Her stand, Dresden Doll, can essentially disintegrate anything (or anyone...) into an ash like substance, but she doesn't use it after a... pretty traumatic experience of her accidentally activating it.

Izei is my Kars and Esidisi kid, who was in the care of Santana as an infant during the events of Part 2. He, thus, was adopted by Stroheim without literally anyone else's knowledge... oof. Stroheim kept him to have further insight on Pillar Man development, but kinda had a father/son bond but the experimentations and the fact that Izei was cooped up in the facility all day really hindered that. He does end up in the care of Joseph and Suzi Q somehow as a teen though, and becomes besties with a younger Holly. He also joins the Speedwagon Foundation later, around Part 3, specialising in animals. I like to imagine, in this universe, he drops off Iggy to the crusaders. He doesn't get a stand, because he obviously doesn't really need one with his ultimate being ass dad, but he does inherit Esidisi's nifty heat powers (they are mostly used to reheat Joseph's coffee). He's a good, quiet lad, if a little snarky and rebellious at times.

Livia is my Diavolo kid, the product of a one-night stand. Her mother quickly became a drug addict when she was little, to cope with her young and single motherhood and being kicked out by family due to it. She has, therefore, probably had the worst backstory. Taking care of her mother, dealing with the often sleazy and aggressive boyfriends she brought home, living in poverty etc. And then her mother died of an overdose and Livia, not wanting to end up in foster care, ran away and got donuted by Diavolo in the process... but then her stand kicked in. Nine Inch Nails' ability is literal immortality (and also makes wounds heal faster - she can heal a papercut in under five minutes), but she can still feel the pain of everything, she just can't die, so it's not as fun as you might think.

Miel technically doesn't count, as she has no biological or even legal relation to Pucci, but idc lol. She sees him as a father figure anyways, as their dysfunctional family were very attentive in the church he preached at. I'm not sure exactly what role she plays in Part 6, but she is very much aware and on board with his whole plans, as he's one of the two people they trust. The other being a boy named Peter who they have a crush on, and he does reciprocate those feelings but she turns them down. She claims it's because she wants to be a nun and doesn't want to affect that, but it's really because witnessing her parents' terrible relationship really affected her. Their stand, Oh Klahoma, makes them able to disguise themselves in objects like desks and walls while still being able to see and hear.

Jamie is my Funny Valentine kid (even though I despise that man), originally from a separate universe where his wife can have kids and then brought into Part 7 by D4C. He actually really looked up to his dad until he met Lucy Steel shortly after being brought to this universe, which just so happened to be after the... you know. He didn’t look upon him so favourably after that (mmm... yummy rebellion arc). There's also stuff going on before he switched universes, like his dead boyfriend who was also engaged to someone else at the time... yeah. His stand, Achilles, can also see into the future, meaning he can change the future. It's a little tricky, though, as 1) he can't just choose to see the future, they just come as random prophetic visions and 2) he has no idea when these future visions are meant to be, they could be anything from five minutes to five years away.

Kia is my Tooru fankid. Not sure how exactly it happened, but one day a 17 year-old just popped out of the dirt like nothing. They were immediately taken in by a teenage boy who they almost immediately developed a crush on. Unfortunately, he's taken. Fortunately, Kia's stand, "Breaking Glass", allows him to shapeshift. So, he pretends to be the guy's girlfriend. If you feel bad for their crush, I would also like to say that he had a feeling it was Kia the whole time BTW and let them do it anyways... *sigh* men.

And lastly, as a bonus, Concetta! My Cioccolata/Secco kiddo. They should probably not be allowed anywhere near children, but their aesthetic and relationship is fun and I just had to. Concetta was raised by her dads up until the colleseum fight, which she was present for, and the police found her as a newly made orphan at ten years old. She goes through foster care for a couple of years, and then runs off to get revenge on Giorno. Just teenage girl things, yk? Her stand, Brittle Bones, allows her to take off her own limbs and have them still be fully functional without causing her pain... fun!!