#there are a plethora of other examples that i could list but these are just a few

[hunny-bean]

Sugar & Spice

Pairing: Frank Castle x F!Reader

Summary: Frank likes you best in blue. Happy Anniversary!

Word Count: 6.3k

Warnings: 18+ (Minors DNI), Explicit Sexual Content, Oral Sex (M & F Recieving), Fingering, Unprotected P in V, Obnoxiously Fluffy at Times, Lingerie, Teasing, Light Bondage, Kinda Mean Frank, Sub Reader. Ok, I think that's it! Let me know if I missed one.

A/N: Needless to say, I'm expanding my comfort zone. I added a splash of mechanic!frank because he's a guilty pleasure of mine. Sorry if he's a little OOC, it's hard to imagine Frank untraumatized and in a happy relationship. Anyway, I hope this turned out alright. Enjoy! Let me know what you think! XOXO.

P.S. I'm open to requests, if you've got any cool ideas! I love writing, but I have experienced writer's block many times before, so I may need a little assistance at some point. I'll write for any Jon Bernthal character as well as a plethora of others that I don't have time to list. If you want to ask for another character, just take a gamble and I'll let you know if I can do it! Also, nothing immoral or illegal, please. Sorry for the insanely long author's note.

You may proceed :)

Read on AO3

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'Curse this stupid lighting,' you thought, examining your makeup in the floor-length mirror. The dim yellow light bulb in Frank's walk-in closet was seriously throwing off your perception of colors. For example, you were pretty sure your blush was looking natural and sweet, but there was always that slim chance you would look like a clown in a different room.

You were tragically forced into the closet by the sound of Frank's keys rattling in the lock. Before that, you had been enjoying the luxury of a bathroom counter. Unfortunately, Frank only had one toilet and you figured he might need it, so you grabbed your bag and sprinted to the closet the second he opened the door. Under no circumstances would you let Frank catch even the slightest glimpse of you. At least, not until you were finished getting ready. You were planning a surprise, after all.

When Frank finally got home, he instantly knew something was off. Usually, when you spent the night with him (which was most nights), you'd come meet him at the door whenever he finished up at the garage. You'd slide through the kitchen in your fuzzy socks to give him a hug and a kiss and ask how his day was. It had become such a routine for the two of you, that when it didn't happen, his first thought was that you weren't there at all.

Frank pulled his boots off and hung up his jacket before wandering into the kitchen to see if you had left a note. Maybe your roommate had another "crisis," he thought, or you had to make a quick run to the grocery store. Finding nothing, he grew slightly concerned. It was very unlike you to just take off without so much as a text explaining why.

Then, Frank heard a faint rustling noise coming from the bedroom. He smiled softly, all of his previous worries evaporating as he went down the hall to see what you were up to. You were probably just taking a nap, he thought, but when he got to the bedroom, you were still nowhere to be found. Frank was just about to try calling you when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the light on under the closet door.

"Hey, baby. You in there?" he asked, knocking gently.

"Be out in a minute!" you called back, fluffing your curls that you barely got done before he showed up.

"Whatcha doin' in the closet?" Frank asked, and even through the door you could hear the amusement in his voice.

"It's a surprise," you replied deviously.

"Come on, darlin', you know I hate surprises," Frank griped.

"You'll like this one, I promise," you proclaimed. "Just be patient."

Frank sighed dramatically. "I wanna see you," he grumbled. Smiling, you meticulously straightened the bow you added to pin two small sections of your hair behind your head.

"Oh, trust me," you muttered. "You will."

Taking a step back, you admired your full body in the mirror. You had bought this underwear set a while ago, and were just waiting for the right occasion to use it. It was a beautiful baby blue color, and it hugged your body perfectly. The bra was a short, sheer corset top that showcased your cleavage without being too obnoxious. The panties were soft and lacy, pulled up high in the sides to accentuate your hips. They weren't quite a thong, but they certainly came close. Decorating both pieces were small embroidered cornflowers that made you feel pretty and delicate. On top of it all was an elegant lace robe that you somehow managed to find in the exact same color. It was almost completely see-through and it barely brushed your mid thigh, so you weren't worried about it obscuring any of your best assets.

You looked good. There was no denying that. In fact, you couldn't think of a time you'd ever looked better. You just hoped Frank's heart was strong enough to withstand the sight of you.

Quickly, you added your finishing touches, brushing on your favorite lip gloss and putting in a pair of dainty diamond earrings that Frank got you for Valentine's Day that year. You gave yourself one more once-over in the mirror. Everything was perfect. At long last, you were ready to execute your master plan.

You were a little nervous, but what you were about to pull off wouldn't work if you let it show, even just a little bit. With that in mind, you took a few deep breaths and rolled your shoulders back. Holding your head up high, you slowly opened the closet door.

When you stepped out into the bedroom, you found Frank laying on top of the covers with his arms positioned behind his head and one leg propped up. He was barely doing anything, and still he was the picture of dominance. Even while wearing a plain black t-shirt and jeans, he looked incredible. In fact, just seeing him was enough to have you fantasizing about crawling on top of him and hiding your face in his chest. But alas, you could not. You had to stay strong.

As soon as Frank saw you, his eyes lit up like a little kid's on Christmas morning. He immediately sat up straight, looking utterly dazzled. It seemed you were right. This was one surprise he could get behind.

"Do you like it?" you asked beguilingly. You gave him a small spin, showing off all the intricate details.

"That's the stupidest question you've ever asked, sweetheart," Frank replied, rising to meet you across the room. "You're a fuckin' angel."

He pulled you in by your waist to leave a soft peck on your lips. Seeing his mouth shine with your lip gloss when he pulled away made your heart skip a beat. You weren't always a possessive person, but that changed when you discovered what it felt like to leave your mark on someone. Especially someone as desirable as Frank Castle.

"Happy anniversary, baby," Frank drawled sweetly.

"Happy anniversary." You were sure you were smiling like an idiot, but you couldn't help it. You and Frank had been together for four years now, and it felt like the shortest lifetime you'd ever experienced. The love you felt for the man in front of you was stronger than anything you had ever felt before, and you knew in your heart that would never change.

Frank wrapped his arms around you and pulled you back in for another kiss, this one considerably longer than the last. The two of you stood there for a while, making out while your hands explored the familiar planes of each other's bodies. Frank was fucking your mouth slowly with his tongue, kissing you like a promise in the way he knew made your knees weak. You almost gave up on the plan right then and there, but your excitement for what was to come later that night saved you from falling into the trap.

You reached a hand down between you to palm at Frank's growing erection. You heard him let out a low hum, and you felt the vibrations travel from his chest through yours, relaxing you from the inside out. It didn't take long for him to start pushing back against your warm hand, seeking some relief, but he didn't find any. . .

because that was when you stopped moving. You pulled away from the kiss, keeping your hand perfectly still and looking up at him sweetly through your eyelashes.

"What time is it?" you inquired, focusing all your energy into keeping a straight, innocent face.

"Uh. . . 'bout 6:30?" Frank was obviously not thrilled that you had stopped kissing him to ask that of all things. 'Perfect,' you thought maliciously. Unable to fight it any longer, a sly, excited smile slowly overtook your face.

"It's dinner time," you whispered.

Before he could react, you slipped out of Frank's grasp and sauntered away to the kitchen. You went straight to the pantry to gather everything you would need to make spaghetti and garlic bread, and set it on the counter next to the stove.

When Frank was finished staring blankly at the wall, mystified, he joined you in the kitchen to find you filling up a pot with water at the sink. He crept up behind you, wrapping you up in a hug and leaving a soft kiss on your cheek.

"What'd you do that for, hmm?" He was using a voice that you were all too familiar with. It was the voice he used when he wanted something from you, and most days it had you folding instantly. He sounded so condescending, and it was playing right into your more submissive side. He was being an asshole, but he was just such a hot asshole, and somehow it always. freaking. worked.

Except it wouldn't work today. You would make sure of it.

"Go sit down, Frankie," you requested, gesturing to the bar behind the sink.

"Dinner can wait a little while. Your tomatoes aren't gonna go bad in an hour, sweetheart." You shut off the faucet and tried to move over to the stove, but Frank tightened his hold on you, refusing to let you go.

"I'm hungry," you complained.

"So am I," Frank teased, making sure you could feel the proof of his statement pressed up against you. You rolled your eyes at how audible his stupid smirk was.

"I'm trying to make us a special anniversary dinner. Now go sit down, Frank."

Frank knew you weren't actually upset with him, and he wasn't stupid so he knew what you were doing. You weren't stupid either, so you knew he secretly liked it. You were having a competition, and you couldn't wait to finally beat your insufferably headstrong boyfriend at a game of wills. All you had to do to win was hold out until you were finished eating, and this time around you had some tricks up your sleeve.

Frank groaned defeatedly. No matter how much he wanted you, his chivalrous upbringing prevented him from denying his lady what she wanted. So, he gave in and trudged around the counter to sit on the barstool across from the sink. You could feel his eyes following you as you went about making your dinner. His gaze was burning holes all over your body, heating up your core and exhilarating your mind. Every movement you made was intentional, perfectly executed in a way that kept Frank on edge and his jeans too tight.

When you needed something from the lower cabinets, you would bend over to show off your panties, and the fabric would stretch tighter around the swell of your ass. When you needed something from the top cabinets, you would stand on your tiptoes and stretch to reach it, revealing more of your tummy and causing the underwire to push your chest out a little further. While you were reading from the recipe book, you would "absent-mindedly" twirl your hair around your fingers or lean forward on the counter, subtly arching your back.

Once, when you were finished blending your home-made spaghetti sauce and it was heating up on the stove, you dipped a finger in the pot and delicately licked it clean. You didn't look at Frank while you did it because you're sure you would have laughed at how ridiculous it was, but you knew he saw it (and liked it) from his small frustrated sigh.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked, semi-sarcastically.

"Nope!" you replied happily, dropping your handful of dry spaghetti in the boiling water.

"You sure?"

"Pretty sure, yeah." You smiled at him, walking past the bar to put your leftover garlic in the pantry on the other side.

As you were walking back, you failed to notice Frank had hopped to the barstool closest to you until he had already sprung his attack. Lightning fast, he snatched you up and pulled you towards him, slipping a hand under your robe to grab at your ass and wrapping the other around your waist to hold you still. He buried his face in your neck, and you felt him shudder and tighten his grip as he inhaled deeply. The special occasion perfume you wore never failed to drive him wild.

"It's just that I feel so useless sitting over here, doing nothing," he purred, his lips tracing patterns across your collarbone.

"You're definitely not doing nothing," you mumbled.

"That right? What am I doin' then, hmm?"

When you didn't respond, Frank slid his hand away from your ass and dragged two of his fingers gently over the lace covering your arousal. When he drew his hand back and held it up, you saw his fingers were significantly shinier than they were before. That was the biggest downside to fancy underwear. Sure, they look nice, but they do nothing to absorb moisture.

"Is that what I'm doing?" You nodded. "Yeah? But I've just been sitting here," Frank teased.

'Goddammit,' you thought. 'How did I ever think I could make it past dinner with this asshole?'

"Know what I think? I think you just like attention. You put on a show for whoever's watching and you get soaked right through, is that it?" He moved his hand back down to start rubbing gentle circles on your clit through the fabric.

"No, I don't," you fussed, pushing at Frank's bicep to try and dislodge his hand. He just pressed down harder, making you desperately wish you could squeeze your thighs together and grind on his fingers until you were dripping on the floor.

"No? Then what is it, sweetheart? What's got you so wet, huh?"

"Just you," you mumbled. "Just your attention."

"Yeah? That's sweet, baby. Well if this is all my fault, then I should do somethin' about it, shouldn't I?"

Unable to fight back any longer, you nodded. The ache in your core was running too deep, and the relief Frank promised seemed more satisfying than any victory possibly could. Grinning dangerously, Frank released you and stood up before pulling you back into a feverish kiss. You got so lost in the contact that you didn't realize Frank was pushing you until your back hit the counter.

Suddenly, Frank's hands traveled down to settle on your upper thighs. This was a signal you were all too familiar with. Barely a second after you felt it, you jumped, wrapping your legs around him as he set you down on the counter.

As soon as he had you where he wanted you, Frank latched onto your neck, kissing and biting wherever he could reach, leaving faint red marks in all your most sensitive places. You squeezed your eyes shut tight and bit your lip hard as voltaic sensations zipped up and down your spine. Frank slipped your robe gently off your shoulders, leaving light kisses along the newly exposed skin.

Frank left a darker bruise on the base of your neck before tenderly grabbing your jaw to trace his tongue along your bottom lip. With one hand (and a little cooperation on your part), he pulled your robe the rest of the way off and tossed it to the side. Then, he began moving slowly down your torso, stopping to nip lightly at your rigid buds through the flowers hiding them and lick a few gentle stripes up your stomach. When he got too far down to bend over comfortably, he pulled his barstool up behind him and tugged you to the edge of the counter before sitting back down.

At first you didn't know what he was planning, but you figured it out pretty quick when he grabbed your legs and tossed them over his shoulders. Your tailbone was aching and the faucet was digging into your back, but you couldn't bring yourself to care when Frank began leaving hot kisses up your thigh. His stubble was rough against your skin and you were secretly hoping you would still be feeling it in the morning.

You felt Franks nose bump against your clit as he swiped his tongue over your obvious wet spot. The sudden feeling surprised you, and you didn't have time to prevent a small whine from slipping out. Smirking, Frank drew his tongue tortuously slowly from the very back of your cunt to your sensitive nub. When he reached it, he sucked gently at it, feeling your thighs tremble around his head.

"Frank, please," you gasped, throwing your head back when he sucked harder.

Frank finally started slipping his fingers in your waistband, and tapped your hip to get you to lift up. He tugged your panties down to your knees and-

*hisssssssssss*

"Oh, shit!" you cried, pushing Frank away from you. Your spaghetti was bubbling over! You hopped off the counter and pulled your underwear back up, running to stir the pasta with your wooden spoon. As soon as you got the water to settle, your timer went off, signaling that it was done.

You grabbed Frank's strainer (which was actually one of yours that you brought over to encourage Frank to eat better) and drained your spaghetti over the sink. While you were shaking out all the water droplets, you looked up to find Frank moping with his head resting in his hand.

"Oh, come on," you said, noticing his pouty face. "What did you want me to do, let your kitchen burn down?"

"You can't start a fire with spaghetti."

"You'd be surprised."

"I just needed five more minutes, baby. That's it," Frank complained.

"Five more minutes and we'd be eating spaghetti-flavored mush," you retorted. "Besides, dinner's just about ready now. You've only gotta wait another half hour, and then you can have whatever you want."

Frank brightened slightly at the prospect, though he tried to hide it. Turns out, after four years of dating, you learn to spot the little emotions flickering behind your partner's eyes.

"Why are you doing this to me, sweetheart?" he asked.

"Don't pretend like you're not enjoying it."

"I just wanna touch you. Why won't you let me touch you, hmm? I know you want me to," Frank grumbled.

"I did let you touch me," you argued back lightheartedly.

"Yeah, but that wasn't part of the plan, was it baby? You're still trying to stay away from me."

"Why does it matter what I'm trying to do if you got what you wanted anyway?" you reasoned.

"I didn't get what I wanted."

"Tough luck. You will."

"You would've lost if it weren't for those fuckin' noodles," Frank jeered.

"Why do you think I set so many timers?"

*ding*

You switched off the oven and grabbed some potholders to extract your garlic bread.

"Go sit at the table. I'll bring you a plate," you ordered.

Frank sighed, but he did as he was told. As the two of you ate together, you actually had a very nice conversation, laughing and talking about your days as if nothing had even happened. Frank told you about a guy that was trying to save the ugliest, most broken car that had ever entered the shop. You told Frank about the return of one of your nightmare customers. For the entire time you were seated at the table, there was no torture whatsoever on either part. You were both content to celebrate your anniversary with good food and the best company you could ask for.

When you were finally done eating and talking, it had been well over half an hour, but it didn't feel like it. Your time spent with Frank never dragged on endlessly like it seemed to elsewhere. His presence was like a multipurpose drug to you, and it worked better than any stimulant or depressant you could find in even the sketchiest of back-alleys in Hell's Kitchen. There was no doubt in your mind that you had found the person you would be spending the rest of your life with.

You stood up to begin clearing your dishes, but Frank caught your wrist before you could touch a single utensil.

"Oh, no you don't," Frank said, pushing you back down into your chair. "You did the hard part, let me handle all the easy stuff."

"Yes, sir," you giggled, watching him work. When everything was cleared, you joined Frank in the kitchen, where you found him rinsing the dishes with warm water and loading them into the dishwasher.

Copying what he had done to you earlier, you wrapped your arms around his midsection, hugging him tightly and pressing your face against his back. He patted your arm with his wet hands, and you smiled into his shoulder before wiping it off on his shirt. Closing your eyes, you relaxed into him, enjoying his warmth and his familiar scent.

"You can just leave them in the sink for now," you suggested sleepily.

"Now who's impatient?" Frank teased.

Groaning softly, you gave him one more big squeeze before letting go and walking away down the hall.

"When you're ready, you can come meet me in the bedroom," you called behind you. Frank finished up pretty quickly after that.

He entered the bedroom to find you laying down with your eyes closed. Smiling at how peaceful you looked, he carefully laid down on the bed next to you. Almost immediately, you rolled over on top of him, enjoying the feeling of his warm chest against your face. He was like your own personal space heater, which made him very useful to have around in the colder months.

You shivered at the feeling of his hand running through your hair. 'How did I ever relax before I met him?' you wondered. You felt dangerously close to falling asleep, and as good as that sounded, there was something you had been looking forward to for a while that sounded significantly better.

Forcing yourself to sit up, you sat straddling Frank's stomach, staring into his eyes and waiting for him to make the first move. You had been having fun all evening; the night belonged to him now.

"I know what you were after earlier, sweetheart. You look a little tired now, is that still what you want?" he asked. He was always so gentle with you. Even when he really wasn't.

"Yeah," you confirmed, "But I want you to do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want, huh? That's a dangerous thing to say, baby."

"I trust you," you whispered. "And I already know I'm gonna like it, whatever you decide."

Frank hummed, running his hands up and down your thighs as he thought about what to do first. You knew he had reached a decision when he grabbed you and tossed you onto the bed beside him. You yelped at the sudden motion, looking over at him to see exactly what it was he was trying to do.

Frank was taking his belt off. He slid over to sit in front of you, belt in hand, and pulled you back onto his lap.

"You know I can't let you get away with all that bullshit you pulled back there, right?" he asked patronizingly.

"I mean. . . you could," you responded.

Frank scoffed. "You should shut your mouth before you make this worse for yourself. You wanna get to the fun part, don't you?"

"This is the fun part," you confessed.

Frank grabbed your jaw roughly with one hand, forcing you to maintain eye contact with him.

"You're gonna take that back in a minute, baby," Frank growled. He released your jaw to catch both your wrists in his hands, pinning them behind your back.

"All I wanted when I got home was to make my pretty girl feel good, but you decided to be a fuckin' brat." There was a darkness in his eyes that you knew was just for show, but it thrilled you all the same. "I'm gonna show you exactly what that feels like."

Holding both your wrists in one hand, he took his belt and wrapped it tightly around them, latching the buckle and securing them together. When he was sure it would hold and wasn't too uncomfortable, he pushed you off his lap so you were laying on your back on the bed.

"Now," he said, "I'm gonna finish what we started."

He immediately sprung into action, forcibly spreading your legs and slipping your panties all the way down. He tossed them aside and fit himself between your legs, leaning in to kiss you. At first you weren't sure how this was supposed to be a punishment, but you figured it out pretty quickly.

Frank kissed you so deeply, tugging at your hair and tracing your curves with his fingertips. He gripped your waist and your thighs, his dull fingernails leaving behind little indents when he'd get carried away. He could put his hands all over you, wherever and whenever he wanted, but you couldn't do the same. You wanted to pull him closer and squish his biceps teasingly to make him laugh. You wanted to feel his stubble in your hands and rub his shoulders as he bit your neck. You never realized how important your hands were when kissing someone until they were taken from you.

As Frank took to reinforcing the fading red marks he left earlier, he slipped a hand between your thighs to cup your dripping pussy in his palm. You gasped as he used the heel of his hand to rub it a few times, the pressure creating an addictive friction that had you grinding down against him.

Without warning, he slid two fingers inside you, finding your g-spot with practiced ease and stroking it gently. You cried out softly at the sudden stretch. Frank's fingers filled you up so much better than yours ever could. Sometimes you swore he knew more about what made you feel good than you knew about yourself.

Your thighs shook as he began pumping his fingers slowly in and out, stopping every so often to grind his palm against your clit. Your arms were falling asleep underneath you, but that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the feeling of Frank's hair tickling your stomach as he moved down to replace his fingers with his tongue.

You whined at the loss when he pulled his hand away, but your disappointment didn't last long as he truly began to finish what he'd started. Your thighs clamped down around his head when you felt the first swipe of his tongue, but he forced them back open, his wet fingers marking your thigh with your slick.

You moaned as he gave your cunt several long licks, cleaning up the moisture that had pooled between your folds. The need to reach out and push his head down or grab onto his hair was overwhelming, but you couldn't move. All you could do was take what he gave you. When he decided you'd had enough teasing, he dove in fully, eating you out like it was his favorite thing in the world. He tongued at your clit, sucking it at random intervals to see what noises he could coax out of you. Sometimes, he would lap gently at your entrance, just barely dipping inside so you could feel how empty you really were. He gave you one more rough lick before plunging his fingers back inside you and sucking hard at your clit. You almost sobbed as you came over his hand, trembling through your release. Frank groaned softly against you, enjoying the feeling of your walls fluttering and pulsing around any part of him.

He patted your thighs lovingly, coming up from between your legs to kiss you. You were still slightly out of it and breathing heavily, but tasting yourself on Frank's tongue brought you back to the present.

"See what you did to me now?" he asked when he pulled away.

"Yeah," you breathed.

"Think we're even, then?"

"Uh-huh," you answered, struggling to sit up with your hands tied.

"I don't."

"What?"

"I didn't let you touch me, but I still made you feel good, didn't I? All you ever did was tease me. Do you still think we're even, baby?" Frank questioned, stroking your lip with his thumb.

"No," you mumbled.

"So what are you gonna do about it?"

Instead of responding verbally, you parted your lips and sucked his thumb gently into your mouth. After a few seconds, Frank pulled it out and replaced it with the two fingers that had previously been inside you, encouraging you to clean them off.

"That's a good start." Frank pulled his fingers back, satisfied with your work. "But you're gonna need to do more than that, sweetheart."

You hesitated, trying to figure out how you were supposed to lean forward without falling flat on your face.

"You know what I want, baby," he encouraged. "What are you waiting for?" Frank knew very well what you were waiting for, but his sadistic side wanted to watch you figure it out.

Rising up onto your knees, you spread your thighs apart for better balance, and slowly began to lower your head towards Frank's zipper. You made it all the way down without crashing, but you refused to make a fool out of yourself by trying to unbutton his pants with your teeth. Instead, you gazed up at him desperately, pleading for assistance with just your eyes.

Unfortunately, Frank wasn't budging. He raised his eyebrows at you expectantly, letting you know you were gonna have to work for it. Huffing, you lowered your gaze back to the zipper, bracing yourself for your impending embarrassment. You were just about to attack his button with your tongue when you were struck by an idea. There was more than one way you could work for it.

Leaning in closer, you started mouthing at his bulge, kissing it wetly through the fabric. You could tell it was affecting him by the way he twitched under your tongue when you licked lovingly at (what you hoped was) the tip. Using your nose, you nudged at the hem of Frank's t-shirt, and he pulled it up for you so you could leave little red marks and sweet kisses across his abs. Frank grunted quietly when you sucked at a sensitive spot, petting your head softly so you'd do it again. He was really enjoying the sight of you bent over, begging for his cock with your mouth. So much so, that he almost didn't want to give it to you.

He held out for a while, only giving in when the warmth of your mouth soaked fully through his jeans, wetting his dick and making him want more.

"Shit, alright," he groaned, reaching down to unzip his jeans. He tugged them down just enough to get to his boxers, reaching inside to pull out his hard, leaking cock.

"There," he murmured, tapping it sweetly against your cheek. "Have at it, pretty girl."

You were concerned about catching it in your mouth without your hands, but Frank generously decided you didn't have to everything on your own. When you turned your head towards it, he held it still and fed it to you slowly, stroking your hair as you went at your own pace.

You paused for a little while in the beginning to pay attention to his dripping head, laving at the sensitive bottom and sucking softly at the tip. You left a dainty lick on his slit before you took more of him in your mouth, hollowing your cheeks around his length. You stared up at him as you dragged your tongue teasingly along the underside, tracing a prominent vein that you were very familiar with.

Frank's breathing was getting heavier, letting you know you were doing a good job. Feeling emboldened, you carefully took him all the way to the base, choking softly as he hit the back of your throat.

"Attagirl, fuck," Frank breathed, pushing your head down farther. He held you there for a moment, subtly grinding his cock against the roof of your mouth. Jolting at the feeling, he pushed a little too hard by accident, triggering your gag reflex. You pulled back to catch your breath before continuing to bob your head up and down along his length, taking him as deep as you could without coughing. Before long, your jaw was aching and tears were streaming down your cheeks from choking a few too many times.

Finally, after nearly fifteen minutes of working Frank over with nothing but your mouth, he groaned deeply, signaling his impending release.

"Fuck, baby, I'm gonna-" he warned, sighing as he came in hot ribbons down your throat. You closed your eyes and relaxed into the feeling of his cock pulsing on your tongue, waiting for it to soften slightly before letting it fall from your mouth.

You sat back up and watched Frank pull his pants the rest of the way off before tucking himself back into his underwear.

"Are we even now?" you asked.

"Yeah, I'd say so," Frank smiled. "Come here, I'll get you untied real quick."

You turned away from him so he could take the belt off you, wiggling your fingers and rolling your wrists to regain the feeling you had lost in your hands. Twisting back around, you pounced, knocking him flat on his back and pushing his shirt up as far as it would go. Making up for lost time, you began rubbing at his chest and his shoulders, and tracing his abs with your fingertips. He chuckled at your neediness, pulling his shirt off to give you better access, which you happily took advantage of. Cradling his face in your hands, you left dozens of little kisses all over his mouth and his neck. It felt so good to be able to touch him again, you didn't think you would ever let go.

Still holding you close to him, Frank turned so his back was against the headboard and he could cuddle you in a more comfortable position. For a while, you laid in silence, syncing your breathing with his and seeing if you could find a way to match your heartbeats. So far, not much luck, but you were sure you'd figure it out someday.

Checking the clock on the nightstand, you saw that you'd been laying there for about ten minutes. "That should be enough time," you thought. You looked up to find Frank's eyes closed, but you knew he was awake.

"Frankie?" you called, almost inaudibly.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think it's time for the 'fun part' now?"

Frank smiled. "Do you want it to be?"

He opened his eyes, watching you closely as you unfastened your bra in the back, and slipped it off slowly. You dropped it on the bed beside you, leaving you completely exposed for Frank to admire you.

"Yeah, I do," you whispered.

Frank surged up to kiss you again, this time much gentler than before. He ran his hands up your sides to tenderly massage your bare chest. You whimpered into the kiss as he rubbed at your nipples, the little buds sensitive from being previously neglected.

Feeling impatient, you tugged his boxers down and quickly began stroking his growing length. Frank hissed at the shock, but he was thrusting up into your hand before too long. As soon as he was half hard, you lifted up and positioned his cock at your entrance before sinking down all the way. You cried out at the intrusion, feeling him curve perfectly inside you to brush your sweet spot on every thrust.

You sat there for a minute, just barely circling your hips as you focused on the feeling of him hardening fully inside you. When he was finished growing, you began to ride him, slowly pushing your body up and down on his cock as he raised his hips to meet you half-way.

Frank punched little noises out of your chest with every bounce, leaning in to hide his face in your neck. He breathed in the wonderful scent of sweat, sex, and expensive perfume, groaning desperately into your skin.

After a while of thrusting and grinding and bouncing, your thighs began to ache, and you weren't able to maintain the same speed anymore. Picking up on your sudden change, Frank took charge almost on autopilot, and flipped you over so you were underneath him.

You moaned at the relief and the change in tempo as he fucked into you faster and harder and deeper, but still with so much love and care behind every movement. When you caught his eyes, it felt like you were staring into your future, and you saw nothing but inevitable happiness.

Your gasps and whines got louder and louder as you chased your release. Your soaked cunt was pulling Frank back in harder, squeezing tight around him to try and keep him from pulling out. Every sensation you were feeling kept building and building until finally, the tension snapped. You almost screamed as your climax washed over you like a rising tide, whiting out your vision and sending waves of pleasure washing over you.

Frank was right behind you, as the feeling of your walls constricting and fluttering around him pushed him over the edge. He came deep inside you, filling you up perfectly before pulling out carefully and collapsing beside you.

The two of you laid next to each other, holding each other tightly and soaking up the afterglow permeating the air all around you. You couldn't have asked for a better anniversary, or a better special someone to share it with. In that moment, as you got ready to drift off to sleep, everything was perfect.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Personally, I think that the main characters don't "appreciate" Yuu comes from the "TWST is a dating sim" angle. Like, sure, there are some flirty voicelines, but I feel like the boys don't express any interest in Yuu as a person besides Ace and Deuce since they've been friends since day one? I'm not saying people can't ship Yuu with the main cast or anything, but I feel like there's a real misunderstanding from the fanbase (the western one in particular) about what TWST is to begin with. (Sorry for the random rant, it's been on my mind!)

[Referencing this post!]

I understand where this sentiment may be coming from, but I don’t think wanting Yuu (the audience’s proxy) to be appreciated by the NRC boys necessarily comes from a place of seeing TWST as a dating sim. (Though with the plethora of misinformation being spread by gaming news outlets in the West, I’m not shocked some people still think TWST is one 💀 I literally saw a 2023 Crunchyroll article still claiming TWST has “dateable” Disney villains…)

I think a lot of fans are just so emotionally attached and invested in these characters that they wish they could be friends with them or to be more intimate with them in some other manner. (I, for example, see Kalim and Ortho as my metaphorical little brothers.) The players projecting onto Yuu probably also see themselves in Yuu, so the players, of course, want to be loved and appreciated by the characters they like. It’s part of the reason why I believe the characters are not ever allowed to be “too” mean to Yuu and instead direct most of the vitriol to the other boys; it would potentially offend the players that insert as Yuu and make the characters TWST is trying to market to less appealing.

Because the game itself limits Yuu to predominantly hanging out with Ace, Deuce, and Grim, all those other relationships have to be expanded on in personal interpretations and fan works. The clashing expectations arise when the fans begin mixing their fanon with canon and expecting that the canon reflect their own interpretations. This same problem has occurred before, such as the outcry over Yuuken Enma as the Episode of Heartslabyul manga protagonist (as some interpreted this as “female Yuus aren’t valid”, until the release of Hirasaka Yuuka as the Episode of Savanaclaw protagonist). Another example is the friendship with Malleus; players get value out of the friendship depending on how much they enjoy Malleus, rather than Yuu actually being a super close friend with him in canon. (I could list off more examples, but I don’t want to bog this post down too much.)

As the asker has said, that’s not to say that I’m discouraging self-shipping or shipping OCs with canon characters! I only caution you to be aware of how to differentiate fanon from canon and how to delineate the expectations and the realities of both from one another.

[nofomogirl]

One of many roots of ineffable husbands' misunderstandings

There are many reasons why the S2 finale took us by surprise so much, and one of them is that we gaslighted ourselves into believing that Aziraphale and Crowley understand each other on the deepest possible level.

They don't.

Because they never talk. Not openly. Not about things that really matter.

I'm sure they've made a plethora of accurate observations about each other over the millennia, yes, but at the same time missed just as many things and formed just as many wrong assumptions.

We know that now.

For the last five months, we've been collectively shattering the illusion (most of us, anyway), and today I wanted to add to that noble effort. Something occurred to me while I was working on another post and I think it deserves to be its own thing rather than a sidenote in another lengthy meta.

It's probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but here I go.

Crowley doesn't actually understand how Aziraphale makes decisions.

I was rewatching season 1 to confirm some things for my next analysis, as one normally does, and I had a minor epiphany about the scene where Aziraphale agrees to get involved in stopping Armageddon.

Let's recall how it went.

Crowley started listing things Aziraphale would lose along with Earth, and things he would have to endure in Heaven.

Aziraphale rejected his idea and tried to leave.

Crowley hooked Aziraphale back in by inviting him for lunch.

Crowley let Aziraphale enjoy his meal and relax.

Crowley bought himself more time by inviting himself over for drinks.

Crowley started giving more examples of things Aziraphale could enjoy on Earth that he wouldn't have in Heaven.

Crowley went on a rant on how nasty Armageddon would be.

Once more Crowley described just how miserable Aziraphale's life would be after Armageddon, for eternity.

Aziraphale cracked and admitted he didn't want Armageddon to happen. However, he insisted he could not disobey God's will.

Crowley pointed out that it might be God's plan for Armageddon to be prevented, that Aziraphale's duty as an angel was to stop whatever the demons were planning to do, and since right now they were planning to bring about Armageddon, he should stop that.

Aziraphale finally agreed and shook on it.

Until now I never questioned that it was a masterful temptation by temptation master Crowley and every stage was purposeful and absolutely necessary to achieve the final goal.

First Crowley made Aziraphale really want to prevent Armageddon and then helped him reframe the situation in a way that would allow the angel to do what he wanted. He gave him an excuse. A plausible deniability.

But what if that wasn't it?

What if what Crowley was actually doing was taking one approach after another until something finally worked? What if Aziraphale didn't really need any softening or priming, and Crowley had just wasted a whole day on ineffective tactics because he didn't know what would do the trick until he finally chanced upon it?

The more I thought about it the more convinced I was that that was the case, and right now I can't believe I was clinging so tightly to the idea that Crowley knew what he was doing with Aziraphale.

Because if he really did understand his angel as well as I used to believe, why would he be so unsuccessful at reaching him when it mattered the most?

A popular interpretation is that in those crucial moments, Crowley simply lacked time, and convincing Aziraphale always required time. When time was lacking Crowley's finesse was useless against the angel's stubbornness, so he failed.

I can see how that makes sense, but as I've said, personally, I changed my mind.

The interpretation I'm suggesting is that Aziraphale never needed all that much time to be convinced of something. It only took Crowley so much time because he was pushing his buttons blindly until something worked. Because he didn't know what the right one was, and when he had only one chance he would always push the wrong one.

So, how does Aziraphale make decisions?

He chooses what he thinks is right.

Yes, it can get rather complicated. On the one hand, he is heavily indoctrinated, and it impacts his judgment. He can just embrace the most ridiculous piece of celestial propaganda on occasion and stick to it stubbornly. On the other hand, we know that his sense of right and wrong isn't really tied to Heaven or even God. We know because we've seen choices he'd made in the Job minisode.

But while it may not be easy to predict what Aziraphale will deem right in any given situation, the fact remains that this is what it comes down to. This is what ultimately informs his choices, especially the big ones, and the most effective way to persuade Aziraphale to do something is by proving to him that it would be the right thing to do. Or that the other option wouldn't.

I don't think Crowley realizes it. And there's a good reason why.

A great many choices aren't about right and wrong. They're just choices between two equally neutral options. Sometimes two equally ambivalent options. Either way, not really moral choices.

The problem with Aziraphale is that while he's managing perfectly fine small morally neutral choices, he's not very good with big ones. I believe that he expects all big choices to be moral choices and he has trouble making them when they're not. I've seen quite a few posts here arguing that Aziraphale is incapable of choosing his own happiness for its own sake, and I wholeheartedly agree.

And Crowley doesn't understand it.

He's not that far off the mark when the choice really is a moral one. When he was trying to convince Aziraphale to the Arrangement his arguments were about how the end result would be the same, ie. how it wouldn't be wrong. When he was trying to convince Aziraphale to kill Adam, he was pointing out how it would save everybody.

But when the choice isn't inherently a moral one, he doesn't understand why it's difficult for Aziraphale.

And in the most dire situations, he doesn't understand he could maybe try and go this route.

[ghostofskywalker]

i ran clone xreader bingo this year, and it was SO much fun!! here's a list of all the fics i created! i may try to finish my last two squares before december 31st, but i'm posting this now as an example for other participants who may be stuck on formatting their own masterlists.

if you want to peruse the plethora of amazing fanfiction that was created for this event, check out @clonexreaderbingo on tumblr and the event's AO3 collection!

a 💐 next to a fic's title means it's a personal favorite of mine (i picked two)

coruscant guard's (unconventional) dating service: free for clones named fox || commander fox

square: "this is awkward" summary: this celebration only came once a year, and this time, the coruscant guard enlisted some help from other battalions to make sure that fox would finally admit his feelings for you.

a show of trust || commander wolffe

square: "do you trust me?" summary: sometimes the best solutions come from the minds of those who aren't soldiers, and wolffe has to get used to trusting others that are not his general or his vode.

filed under: incident reports || no romantic relationship 💐

square: 79’s summary: managing a bar was never easy, but you tried your best to keep things running smoothly, even if sometimes you had to make hard decisions or alternatively: a collection of 79’s most hilariously infamous incident reports, some which made you ponder a career change.

don't wait for the sky to clear || hunter

square: "you're an idiot" summary: When you wake up to hear a storm outside where the ship is parked, you recruit Omega to have some fun in the pouring rain with you. The only downside is the tired admonishment you'll inevitably receive from your boyfriend when he sees the two of you.

in the heat of battle || crosshair

square: bounty hunter summary: When Crosshair disobeys your direct orders in battle, you come to confront him about it. Things get a little heated from there.

dreaming of this || echo

square: "you're lucky you're cute" summary: You and Echo share a quiet moment and a dance before Cid's bar opens for the day.

weep not for what you've done, but rather who you've lost along the way || commander cody 💐

square: heartache summary: it wasn't supposed to happen like this, the man you loved wasn't supposed to be the one to end your life. and to make matters worse, you had to keep reliving it, over, and over, with no end in sight and no clear reason why you were subjected to a torture worse than your darkest nightmare.

you would have thought this heist would have been slightly more thought out, given the circumstances || platonic bad batch & reader

square: "let me do the talking" summary: Hunter has to sit out on an assignment because of an injury, and it becomes remarkably clear to everyone else that the position of "voice of reason" is not something that can be replaced, especially not when you're there.

no flirting in the jedi archives || fives

square: archive summary: When on shore leave, one could usually find Fives in the basement of the Jedi Temple, flirting with the primary caretaker of the Archives (even though he denies it when his brothers ask). Finally, he decides to just ask her out.

a little brotherly teasing || thorn

square: "your flirting skills need work" summary: He’s a high ranking commander, an expert in weaponry, and the Coruscant Guard’s man on the inside for this Senate gala, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to get a pass from the teasing. And it’s all because he’s a little too obvious about his giant crush on you.

ally, rival, friend? || rex

square: "you owe me" summary:  It’s not that he hates his general’s bounty hunter friend, but Rex is a little more prone to headaches whenever you’re on the flagship. This time though, he sees the chance to start over with you.

almost disasters || tech

square: cooking summary: Your beloved attempts to put together a surprise for you. Nothing about it really goes to plan. 

the strength to keep going || jesse

square: haunted summary: the more time you spent in the GAR, the more you came to know grief, especially when the casualties of the war were people you had grown close to. Jesse notices that you're struggling, and reaches out to help.

deep space delicacies || echo

square: stuck summary: In the midst of the war, you manage to find the time to bring about a different, more welcome kind of chaos: teaching the clones how to bake. The 501st take the opportunity to force you and Echo to admit how you feel about each other.

[waitmyturtles]

Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: A Tale of Thousand Stars Loving Rewatch Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I write about my LOVING rewatch of one of the best BLs out there, ever, in A Tale of Thousand Stars.]

While I’ve been in the midst of a plethora of awesome new shows (Only Friends, Dangerous Romance), I’ve also been treating myself with some oldies. I just wrapped up a rewatch of Until We Meet Again, to prep for New Siwaj’s Absolute Zero that’s coming out this fall. And one of the joys that I set for myself in the course of structuring the Old GMMTV Challenge was to allow myself some loving rewatches of shows that I originally first consumed out of any chronological order, and/or out of total curiosity for the amount of space they generally take up on a daily basis on Tumblr, and/or for the amount of times that I had seen these particular shows listed as top examples of genre-defining or genre-transcending BLs. Those shows include Bad Buddy (of course), and A Tale of Thousand Stars.

Way, WAY back in the day -- November 2022, to be exact -- just a couple months into my joining Tumblr and actively blogging, I realized that this show called Moonlight Chicken was being bandied about excitedly, mostly in part because EarthMix and FirstKhao were going to be in it. I was intrigued, excited to participate in my first active Tumblr fandom from beginning to end, and I asked the Tumblr gods -- oh hey, should I watch A Tale of Thousand Stars first, to get to know Earth Pirapat and Mix Sahaphap first? And the answer was YES, so I did, and I totally loved it.

And of course, I look back at that review from almost a year ago, and I giggle, because while I picked up on a lot of the raw elements that make ATOTS great, I didn't have ANY context for why the show was transcendent vis à vis pre-existing BL tropes in the Thai BL genre, what it meant to be watching a classic Backaof Noppharnach show, what it meant for the show to be set in Northern Thailand, etc. I even wrote -- oh wow, I see why some of the elders on Tumblr are saying that there are shows way better than KinnPorsche out there (LOL, oh, hindsight). I didn't have any of that context.

Now, I do. And during my recent ATOTS rewatch, I just ATE, ATE, ATE, oh my god, I just sat and fucking ENJOYED this FABULOUS drama. I was yelling and gesturing to the screen -- oh god, WHY are you SO GOOD, YOU SHOW, YOU?! Man, oh man. It was a shit-ton of fun to start rewatching dramas that I already have nostalgia for, even if I only saw them for the first time last year.

Besides rewatching some of these important dramas back in chronological order through the OGMMTVC, I also have a mission in mind: to properly rewatch ATOTS and Bad Buddy before rewatching Our Skyy 2, which I've been wanting to do for a while. That rewatch will take place after I rewatch Bad Buddy in a couple of weeks. And I'm glad I waited until I could consume Aof's entire oeuvre, because I think his whole slate of shows -- not just ATOTS and BBS -- give us clues as to what was happening by way of Pat and Pran's relationship in OS2 before their physical separation in BBS that further explain the ATOTS and BBS universes. But more on this in a few weeks, when I get to my BBS and OS2 reviews.

Back to ATOTS. As I rewatched it -- in the context of the OGMMTVC, and what I've learned about the Thai television BL genre NOW, what were the elements of this show that stood out the most for me?

1) The striking use of flashbacks to tell a story. I know NOW shows that haven't used flashbacks as well to tell a compelling narrative -- for me, most recently, the biggest example is Double Savage (and maybe even KinnPorsche goes up there, too). Before ATOTS premiered, I think the BL that used flashbacks the BEST in its narrative was Until We Meet Again, which *needed* flashbacks to tell the entire scope of its intricate story, from past to present.

Something that I forgot about ATOTS until my rewatch was how very PACED the show was. I think I had it in my head that it was a slow-ish story, because -- again, it bucked a lot of BL trends and tropes, just like He's Coming To Me also did. No side couples. No university setting. No warring faculties and uniforms. When I first wrote about ATOTS in December 2022 -- after having watched The Eclipse as my first GMMTV BL -- I marveled at the singular storyline of Tian's life change and journey. There was a LOT we needed to know about Tian to GET where he was going, and where he wanted to go. What I didn't appreciate back then was how Aof TOLD the story.

Sure -- it could have frustrated some folks that we didn't get the truth of who was driving the car until much later in the series. But that would be missing the point of that piece of truth. Tian had blamed himself for Torfun's death the second he learned about it. It didn't *quite* matter who was driving the car -- what mattered was the self-blame he assigned himself to, and the journey he thought he needed to take to absolve himself of the guilt that he carried.

The structure was beyond sharp, and just INCREDIBLY compelling. Between UWMA and ATOTS, we have two tremendous dramas that flirted with VERY risky past-to-future infrastructures, and both succeeded exceedingly well.

2) Phupha and Tian's TERRIBLE communication. I'm serious! Oh my god, y'all. Did we appreciate back then how AWFUL they are at communicating? HA! Our Skyy 2 obviously emphasized this even more -- Tian himself accuses Phupha of not being open enough to tell Tian why Phupha won't meet Tian's parents.

But, holy shit, these two guys are such drama bastards. By episode 9, I had to write in my notes, in all caps: THESE ASSHOLES ARE SUCH AWFUL COMMUNICATORS. If one person wasn't angry at the other, and avoiding the other person, then something was off in their world. Tian's titchyness, Phupha's avoidance, played against each other like opposing magnets.

And yet: of course, we know WHY they are bad communicators. We know that Phupha grew up in a traditional, rural household -- one that likely wasn't welcoming to his inner truth as a queer man.

Tian grew up in a privileged and patriarchal household that disguised itself as a matriarchal household. Now THAT shit's confusing. What Tian was to do with his life, as assigned by his parents, supposedly came from his mom -- but it was his dad that enforced those rules. Who could Tian go to to talk about his own growing inner truth as well? Not to either of his parents, who both had designs on who *exactly* Tian should be by way of their own demands and outward-facing lives.

So these two men -- both of whom barely had any practice in expressing their inner truths, their raw feelings about themselves, their life situations, and each other -- are figuring out their emotional shit vis à vis each other, for the first time in their lives. And what we get, gloriously, is a whole bunch of damn hilarious drama that left me shaking my head and laughing a bunch. They were SO passive-aggressive with each other, I had to applaud EarthMix.

And through their bad communication came so many resolutions to each storyline -- the illegal merchants, the revelation of Torfun's death and the story behind it -- that what we ultimately got to see were life-defining moments for both Tian and Phupha of utter growth. The trade-off between those dramatic anguishes and the TRUE drama of the show itself -- was well worth it, and brilliantly done.

3) The metaphor of freedom. We know, now, that Bad Buddy was existing in the same world as ATOTS.

God, I LOVE what Aof pulled in Our Skyy 2 by way of the Nong Nao eye mask (Tian even wears the Nong Nao eye mask!) -- because in rewatching ATOTS, I would have NEVER clocked that Tian was talking about his own freedom through his OWN eye mask.

We know now that Tian and Pran, in their respective shows, were on their own paths to freedom -- both from demanding families that demanded that each of them comport to absolute idealistic images of what perfect sons DID in those family structures. Both Tian and Pran have overbearing mothers with complicit fathers who demand exacting obedience. And both Tian and Pran ultimately sought freedom from that pressure.

In episode 9, I clocked a message on Tian's tote bag -- I can't get a clear-enough screenshot of it (it's in the 3/4 segment), but the tote bag says, "what is the meaning of free?" All of ATOTS is based on Tian's journey to emotional freedom -- freedom from his parents' expectations, freedom from the guilt he carries from Torfun's death.

An interesting comparison to UWMA happens in episode 5, when Tian asks about his growing feelings towards Phupha: "I don't know if these feelings are mine or Torfun's." And, of course -- combine that with what Tian needs to reckon with at the cliff in episode 9, when Tian is struggling with figuring how who's life he's truly living. As Tian separates himself from his parents -- as Tian understands his needs vs. Torfun's needs -- what Tian's struggle ultimately comes down to is, who is he really living his life for? Torfun saved him, his parents bought him the transplant -- but what does that actually mean for the meaning that Tian brings to his own life, and to the lives of others, including Phupha?

What Tian ultimately realizes is that needs freedom from the influence of everyone and everything around him to gain clarity as to who HE truly is. That, to me, is the ultimate core message of ATOTS -- it is Tian's defining journey towards the freedom that only he himself can find, vis à vis Torfun, Phupha, and Pha Pun Dao.

But because Aof is so good at wrenching our hearts with every last bit of energy he’s got: he showed us that Tian was able to come to this conclusion, ultimately, through Phupha, and Phupha's love for Tian.

ATOTS is a wonderful coming-of-age story, but without the typical cheesiness that that structure can often bring. It's a story of individual and internal change that we know gets echoed, expanded, and transformed in Bad Buddy through Pran. I see now that ATOTS and Bad Buddy are Aof's deep studies of internal maturing, both told through queer revelations, through empathic love with a rock-solid partner, and through fights against oppressive societal and familial resistances to living one's full truth.

Way, way back when -- and thank goodness for the OGMMTVC for allowing me to dive into this -- Aof depicted queer men living their very robust truths in Gay OK Bangkok. As I wrote in my GOKB review, what happened after the premiere of GOKB is that Aof went to the BL genre to begin slowly changing it, to make the genre a true home for real queer revelation and introspection. Did he ever nail it in ATOTS. Did he ever expand it in BBS. Watching ATOTS felt like coming home, because once again (as in HCTM) -- Aof defied typical expectations of the genre to get honest about what an internal reality of being queer could really be like. And to do that in Thai television BL, with all the tropes and expectations the genre had created by the time of ATOTS's airing in 2021, was remarkable.

Hearing the theme song, seeing Pha Pun Dao and the villagers (AND THE CHILDREN! I LOVE THOSE CHILDREN!), seeing the schoolhouse, seeing Earth in his forest ranger uniform, hearing the original source of the forest ranger t-shirt joke, seeing Rang and Yod again -- man, was it ever nostalgic to rewatch ATOTS, even after having seen the guys in Our Skyy 2. This show is SUCH a classic, SUCH a must-watch of the very highest order, and the fact that it does NOT shy away from a very real and difficult emotional journey is only just a part of what makes it one of the enduring diamonds of Thai BL.

[We'll return to Pha Pun Dao in a couple weeks once I get through my Bad Buddy and Our Skyy 2 rewatches -- stay tuned!

In the meantime, my review of Lovely Writer is on deck for next week. By far this is my favorite Tee Bundit drama. For the sake of my fellow drama clowns, I am giving I Feel You Linger in the Air a shot, but the editing choices are giving me slight Step By Step-PTSD. I'm gonna keep a close eye on this one.

But Lovely Writer is Tee's anomaly, and what a fabulously genius anomaly it is. I can't wait to get into it, and if you loved it, too, and you have NOT watched the Lovely Writer special episode, PLEASE watch the special ep, as I'll be referring to it -- it has a super important conclusion that wraps up the entire series beautifully.

A heads-up that I may need to take a week's break or so in early September.... hopefully I won't, but I am moving, so while I'm ahead on a few dramas, getting pen to paper has proven difficult by way of time. Hopefully this project won't be delayed too much -- but send me your best big ups nonetheless as I move domiciles!

In the meantime, here's the list -- as always, I welcome your feedback! (Tumblr's new web editor is jacking with the list below and not allowing me to strikethrough the shows I've watched. For the very latest updated list, please click here!)

1) The Love of Siam (2007) (movie) (review here) 2) My Bromance (2014) (movie) (review here) 3) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 4) Gay OK Bangkok Season 1 (2016) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 5) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 6) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 7) Gay OK Bangkok Season 2 (2017) (a non-BL queer series directed by Jojo Tichakorn and written by Aof Noppharnach) (review here) 8) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 9) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 10) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 11) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 12) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 13) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 14) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 15) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 16) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (OffGun BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (no review) 17) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 18) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (a non-BL and an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 19) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 20) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) (review here) 21) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (review here) 22) I Told Sunset About You (2020) (review here) 23) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) (review here) 24) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) (review here) 25) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 26) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS  27) Lovely Writer (2021) (review coming) 28) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) (review coming) 29) I Promised You the Moon (2021) (review coming) 30) Not Me (2021-2022) (watching) 31) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 32) 55:15 Never Too Late (2021-2022) (not a BL, but a GMMTV drama that features a macro BL storyline about shipper culture and the BL industry) 33) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 34) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 35) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 36) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 37) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 38) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 39) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 40) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 41) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults) 42) Be My Favorite (2023) (tag here) (I’m including this for BMF’s sophisticated commentary on Krist’s career past as a BL icon) 43) Only Friends (2023)]

[f1shart]

i don't have the sims 2, but do you know anyplace to get references from it? like characters' outfits, houses etc.

there's nothing that i know for sure is akin to a comprehensive list or website but do not fret sweet anon, there's still hope.... here we go.....

for general things like decent-at-best house photos, busts (occasionally full-body photos, especially if you look at those whole household pics), front-facing portraits, storytelling photos, your best bet is the sims fandom wiki, even with it's absolutely fucking insane invasive mobile ads. and if you're on web get an adblocker TRUST ME. still a solid reference i use it all the time

for close-up face shots including ones for different ages, there's this sims 2 canalblog. it has all the bg and ep hood premades but it's sort of hard to navigate ‼️ and it's french ‼️; here's beau as an example. some photos deviate, some have the simmies smiling real hard, whatevs. this is one i use a bunch too

other good references are gameplay blogs on this very site. search the sim's tag, you'll likely find a plethora of in-game screenshots of them in their natural environment especially if we're talking a sim like vidcund, an absolute feast of references.

here's a couple gameplay-oriented blogs i know of that cover a wide spread of premades:

@jacethegaymer and @plumbogs use cc but stay rather faithful to the sims' og designs with some having no changes at all

@nervosims and @beikonsims both use what i'd say is a very large amount of cc, make pretty heavy changes to some sims' og looks, but are still quality refs imo

recommend more or your own blogs in the replies/reblogs if you wish. i don't personally know many but it would help greatly

other things you could use are cc/mod previews (obscure asf. many use premades in them, though they're never tagged i've noticed so good luck actively searching for these lmao); if you simply search on google there are often livejournal or dreamwidth pages with stories or pictures of the premades. going back to the houses part, you could always switch things up and reference rebuilds. @plumbtales has some drop dead gorgeous ones, and has pictures of separate rooms + you can find many others here. i find that these make more interesting backgrounds than the maxis builds

tbh halfway through i just began throwing out things that could be used as refs but ones i don't use myself. obviously the best choices are the game itself and google search -> images, but this was a fun little list to compile. perhaps i've made myself my own comprehensive list of possible premade references for when i'm too lazy to boot up my game that takes less than 2 minutes to fully load from clicking the .exe to entering a household!!

sorry for tagging 5 different people mb mb

[rin-and-jade]

How does someone know the difference between being a system or just having a really fluid/unstable personality/identity? like In bpd or in any way

In the eyes of the inexperienced, this really is a tough job to know wether a person is a system, or just having an unstable foundation of self (bpd) but thankfully for you, I know how. As a system myself who is a bpd holder, with another friend i have with bpd itself,, i will give you this comprehensively detailed (but compacted) answer:

Am i a system?:

There are some highlights that shows someone is one by having a plethora amount of dissociative symptoms, constant shift in identity, unexplainable memory gaps, people seeing them as inconsistent within various aspects (likes and dislikes, etc), places felt unfamiliar, caught yourself having different accents and handwritings and even walking, feels like you are not control in your body, alters as voices that are consistent with it’s own opinions and preferences.

Do i have bpd?:

While it looks similar when compared by a system, there are some different features it represents itself by unable to be consistent due to not having any genuine value in preference and etc, constantly influenced by other people, have episodes of identity crisis, needing comfort from people, constantly unhappy with its current self, devalues itself thinking it is unworthy of any kindness, fear connections, have a high degree of distrust, lives up to the motto: “i am the problem”, highly likely being passive aggressive and isolating due to no healthy social skills, black and white thinking, can have episodes of “im the best”. The similarities that it can have from systems can be seen by some form of dissociation and or anger issues to cope as well as negative voices.

Do i have both?!:

You absolutely can and thats the least wanted option i could wish for yet still unlucky enough to draw this lottery.. anyway, this is a bonus answer. Be it a holder (like me, which means no one else is affected and im jealous af) or in the genes (the collective is affected) i doubt it has any difference so from my perspective, it can look as having dissociative symptoms as well as cognitive dissonance, obviously have alters, more likely to split due to the nature of bpd’s constant distress and questioning (yeah its a thing, thats me right there), also a general sense of distrust especially due to severe trauma, obsessive with Favorite Person, tend to always rely on someone in filling their needs or helped due to 0 independence (it might be different for others, maybe the opposite by trying to be super self sufficient), still have identity confusion, poor memory alongside with gaps. Basically overlaps the two as the general idea but i did some examples, its not the whole list because its way too many..

Nonetheless, this might still be helpful to you as i believe,, this is my own view of what is a system and or bpd so im still reccomending you to do extra research, and goodluck in doing so! (Im sorry for not writing the whole thing)

- j

[maverick-werewolf]

You've made so many posts about werewolves, but can you list any other werewolf like creatures from around the world? (Like for example, kitsune and huli jing.) I'd really like to hear about werewolf folklore that don't originate from Europe.

Thanks for asking! I do have many werewolf posts about werewolves that aren't European in origin, as werewolves are what's called a universal legend. However, that only extends insofar in that all cultures where wolves lived have legends of people shapeshifting into wolves, and vice versa. You can find them throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and more, from the wolves who turn into people in China to the shamans of North America who can assume the shape of a wolf. That is referring to a werewolf as a "wolf shapeshifter," rather than a "cursed being" that we usually think of werewolves as being; those legends are universal.

I have posts discussing all of these things (including one diving into Chinese werewolf legends), as well as other wolf legends in general, as wolves and wolf shapeshifters are my field of expertise (as well as bear shapeshifters and many other shapeshifting figures in European folklore, including vampires).

However, specifically werewolves - as in the concept of the werewolf that we call a "werewolf" and think of as being a werewolf in popular culture, a human who becomes a wolf, often but not exclusively as the result of a curse or gift from a higher power of some form, and referred to as a "werewolf" (an Old English word) - did in fact originate in Europe. While not all are, certainly the most common and well-known popular culture concepts of werewolves are ultimately based upon European legends. If you enter werewolf studies, you will primarily (but not exclusively, despite common belief) be studying a plethora of European and Mediterranean cultures.

Anything else should be called what it is, not a "werewolf-like creature." That is doing the other creature a disservice by conflating it with something else (a werewolf), when it is in fact its own unique entity that has nothing to do with werewolves, which are ultimately European in origin (wolf shapeshifters are not, and while we generally will call all those things "werewolves," they will still not be the European-origin man cursed to become a wolf under specific circumstances [and in popular culture can also spread that curse, etc] figure that we think of as being a "werewolf" when we bust out the Halloween decorations). It's essentially Westernizing worldwide myths by relating all shapeshifters back to the most famous shapeshifters of European lore, when we could only logically do that with wolf shapeshifters rather than so many other beings.

A lot of werewolf scholars disagree with my assessment in that regard and want to conflate tons of things into being "werewolves" when they aren't, but I personally feel strongly about keeping all folkloric, mythological, and religious entities apart and, thus, also keeping werewolves as their own thing. Kitsune have nothing to do with werewolves and have essentially nothing in common with them except that they shapeshift into a canid (but they are the fox, whereas werewolves begin as human, at least in the traditional lore we think of as a "werewolf"). While kitsune are shapeshifters, they are not associated with or related to werewolves in any fashion.

Werewolf studies do indeed have a lot of crossover with study of other shapeshifters, but that shouldn't mean other animal shapeshifters are similar to, related to, or the same thing as a wolf shapeshifter/werewolf.

While I study all folklore/myth/etc and I certainly specialize in shapeshifters - due in no small part to personal studies to create my setting of Wulfgard - my primary academic expertise, the subject I will speak upon with real knowledge and authority, is just that: werewolves (when I say this I am referring to the general wolf shapeshifters worldwide as well as those in Europe, and I also specialize in general wolf legends that are not werewolves).

If you'd like to read about kitsune, I highly recommend picking up some books on Japanese myth and culture instead of looking at werewolf things. They'll have much better information than werewolf books and werewolf scholars. While I know some about kitsune from personal studies, I wouldn't be confident telling you things about them as I am with werewolf legends, because I have not thoroughly researched them across multiple sources for many years, as I have wolf and wolf shapeshifter/werewolf legends.

I do hope I don't sound disrespectful or condescending in this post, as that is not at all my intention. Essentially, my argument in terms of werewolf studies is that specifically werewolf studies should extend only so far as wolf shapeshifters. Anything else is not a werewolf and not related to them in any fashion. General shapeshifters should not be conflated with werewolves. I believe that every legend should stand on its own, and while wolf shapeshifters are associated with werewolves for obvious reasons (and werewolves in folklore are not at all always simple, as seen in all my posts), we should not extend that association to any other kind of animal shapeshifter, or we are doing a massive disservice to the robust and fascinating legends that do not - and should not - be simplified to fit under the banner of "werewolves" or "werewolf-like creatures." Kitsune, for instance, are kitsune, not werewolves or associated with them, as kitsune have many tales entirely of their own that shouldn't be done a disservice or simplified in such a manner.

So, sorry if this isn't the response you wanted/expected! I have more general folklore facts coming in the future - two I will be posting before the end of this year, in fact - but my specialty will always remain werewolves (and wolf shapeshifters and legendary wolves of every other kind) specifically.

Some posts that may interest you:

Prehistoric Werewolves

Werewolves in Ancient Egypt

Good Sources on Werewolves (and other shapeshifter and vampire legends)

On Shaping other Shapeshifters

Werewolf Grandmas (emphasis on Chinese werewolf legends)

Werewolves Are Not British

Loup Garous and Rougarous (includes some Native American discussion)

What Is and Isn't a Werewolf Legend

Creature Confusion: What Is and Isn't a Werewolf

The Arcadians

King Lycaon

The Importance of The Wolf Man (what shaped our concept of a werewolf in popular culture)

Thank you again for sending an ask; hope you have an awesome day! :)

[ectonurites]

My powerpoint topic for presentation night with my friends is the batfam and my tim drake section is woefully under-researched and uninteresting. If there were anything you would want people who don't read comics to know about tim drake, what would it be? So far I cover how he became robin, why it's really tough to be the robin in between the one that came back from the dead and the blood son, and that he's bi.

OOOUGH Okay. So, aside from those basics you've got covered, a few other Tim things I think are noteworthy, mostly approaching this with a playful/fun tone (because I think generally that's how powerpoint presentation nights with friends tend to go?)

His bond with Young Justice — Just like, some mention of him forming the team with Kon & Bart, along with the wacky antics those kids get up to & how they become a very tightly-knit group of friends. To pull a quote from Tim himself, "People always ask, 'Why Young Justice?' I'll tell you why: Because we're so damned glad we found each other, that we hold on to each other like life preservers as the flood waters rise. We don't get more complicated than that. We don't have to." (Young Justice (1998) #55)

His plethora of disguises — I'm gonna link a piece of art I did a while back mainly for what I put under the cut, which is a list (with panels) of several of the fun disguises/personas he's taken on while going undercover! He's just got a lot of 'em.

How far he'll go for a plan — Tim can be quite unhinged sometimes... for example creating an entire fake uncle for himself to avoid going to school/getting adopted (Revealed in Robin #138-139), letting himself get kidnapped to go undercover (Robin #154), staging assassination attempts on himself (Red Robin #15 AND Red Robin #25)

Additionally, some other important Tim Things that could be helpful background are explained in this long post about my ideal Tim characterization I did a while back.

[governmentissuedclone]

Things that make me irrationally angry but not enough to do more than scroll past and make my own little vent post: that one post that's like "wtf is even the theme of A Midsummer Night's Dream is there even a lesson" and has a bunch of replies saying it's like The Twilight Zone and doesn't have one it's just wacky nonsense and having fun. Fucking what.

Okay first of all: Literally every work of fiction has a theme. Every single one. Even if the author didn't intend one, it is an unavoidable byproduct of storytelling. Just because you didn't understand it doesn't mean there isn't one. Not all themes are necessarily black-and-white "lessons" either. It's more of an idea implicit in the work. Media literacy is a skill and one that is developed and improved over time and experience. If you find yourself looking at a work and saying "well there's not theme here" that might be a sign that you need to work on honing that skill set a little bit.

Second of all: You want a theme for A Midsummer Night's Dream? "Lord what fools these mortals be". Jealousy and Love makes fools of us all. There's a theme. Took me 30 seconds to think of one off the top of my head. Like many works, AMND has a lot more than that to it and plays around with several different themes. People have been discussing it for literally hundreds of years. A quick internet search pulls up a plethora of resources and academic writings discussing the themes of that particular work in far more detail than I could ever do justice on this post. I do not know Shakespeare well enough to make my own case here beyond this, but would encourage others who are interested to do some reading on the subject.

What I DO know very well and care about a lot is The Twilight Zone. Saying The Twilight Zone is nothing more than silly spooky stories with no message reflects a total misunderstanding of the work and does a complete disservice to Rod Serling and what he was trying to do with TTZ. Rod Serling was someone who deeply believed in using fiction as a vehicle for social and political commentary and this is reflected throughout his entire body of work, but is reflected particularly prominently in TTZ. TTZ is CONSTANTLY exploring themes and conveying messages about things like the suffocating nature of forced conformity and beauty standards (Number 12 Looks Just Like You), how people adopt predjudice (The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street), the fear and acceptance of death (Nothing In The Dark), the complexities of racial tension and the dangers it poses (The Encounter), the long lasting effects of war and genocide on people's minds (Deaths-Head Revisited) just to list a few examples. I could sit here and endlessly list off TTZ episodes and their themes but I think my point is made.

(Although, I would wager that most of the people making that claim about TTZ haven't really watched the show or maybe only seen a couple of episodes and mostly know it through pop culture osmosis, and might not have much knowledge of it beyond "that silly old scifi show where weird stuff happens".)

[ghoulishbuck]

This post is for those who want to know places to get books or where I personally get mine. If you would like to add places please leave them in the comments.

Ways I acquire books:

•Libby- this is an app that connects with your library card(s). 90% of what I read I loan from my library using this as audiobooks and ebooks at times are easier for me to use.

•Kindle Unlimited- I own an old fire tablet that I just got two months of kindle unlimited for free on but personally I won’t continue it after it ends because I have a hard time with ebooks.

•Amazon- I rarely buy things on here now but they do often have a lot of books on sale. I do also browse for deals on ebooks and have gotten a plethora of ones I’m interested in for free.

•Secondhand stores- most of my collection comes from secondhand/ thrift stores. I very rarely buy a book from chain stores or for full price. This also includes antique stores.

•PangoBooks- 98% of the time if I want to buy a specific book I’ll look for it here before I look elsewhere. They also at times do give out coupons like spend $20 get $5 off.

•NetGalley- every now and then I’ll request digital arcs (ebooks and audiobooks that aren’t released yet). As long as you read the books you request and review them (or state you DNF’ed and why) on the site and keep your ratio at least at 80% of all accepted request reviewed you’re golden. But, having another place where you talk and review books does increase your chances. Personally, I have my Goodreads and Instagram account linked to help even though I haven’t touched my Instagram account in awhile.

•Library- I’ve barely checked out any books in person since I got my library card but that’s purely because I’m really trying to read my physical tbr and stay away from adding more to it.

•Gifts- if people ask me what I want for something for example my 21st birthday which is a few months away I’ll either say a certain book, an author, or a gift card to someplace that sells books. Sometimes I’ll say other things depending on the person. Now that doesn’t mean I’m expecting a bunch of books especially new ones in fact when I gave someone a list of books and author names I only gave them things that I thought they could easily find in a thrift store and always remind them that it’s not a list of things that needs to be completely bought but more of a scavenger hunt that they can end at anytime.

•Audible- for awhile I had a subscription mostly due to multiple free trials and it not cancelling even after I cancelled… Anyways, I prefer using Libby.

•Half Price Books- this is both a secondhand store and not. A good chunk of my books have come from here although these days this is mostly only my go to when I’m near one, when I don’t have time for a thrift store (I will look at nearly the entire place), or when I’m hoping to find certain more popular books.

•Barnes & Nobles- I very rarely went to Barnes even when I lived near one but every now and then I would buy some books from there. I do wish I could be near one when they do their 50% off hardcover sale they usually do on the 26th of December.

•Giveaways- I’ve won quite a few e-book giveaways on Goodreads. Personally, I’ve only won one physical giveaway and never received it. Which is pretty 50/50 when it’s the publisher doing the giveaway from what I understand.

•Dollar Tree- this is pretty hit or miss but whenever I go I make sure to check out their book section because they do sometimes have books I am interested in.

•Target- their price on books especially viz manga always gets me. Along with the deals they do every now and then like buy one get one 50% off or buy two get one free.

•Walmart- they also have about the same pricing for books as Target does but the only extra deal they do is for books they put on clearance which they put in cardboard bins.

•Book Outlet- discounted books that are pretty cheap although condition can vary. Not like extremely bad but like I have gotten a book with a small rip in the cover, the cover smushed on the top and bottom of the spine and a broken spine on a hardcover. I just think it’s better to know what the condition could be be before going into it. As long as your fine with the chance of getting that I highly recommend it. They are currently doing a fiction books sale right now where their only $5.99 and everything else is 20% off. Just dropping my referral link below if you use it you get $5 off of a $25 or higher order.

•Rightstuf (rip now is under Crunchyroll)- they had some great deals on manga, graphic novels, anime figures, and anime. I sadly didn’t take part in the birthday sale even though I really wanted to but I did make one or two purchases from them and had a good experience.

•Book of the Month- I’ve been getting books from them for just about to be a year and one month. I personally have really enjoyed it but I also will read anything that interest me and usually even if I don’t care for the months picks after watching people react to them and talk about them I want to pick up at least one of them. Book of the Month referral below.

•Aardvark- I got this one month with the discount code they always have where you get your first book for $4. There’s been a few books I wanted that they have but it’s been too rare for me.

Other ways that I haven’t yet done:

•Library sales- every now and then libraries will sell the books they no longer plan to keep in circulation and the profits go directly to the library.

•Little Free Libraries- these are strictly take a book leave a book deals. Most of these are run by a book lover who just wants to make books more accessible to people but they have to take the money out of their own pocket to keep it filled.

•Asking Publishers for physical arcs- this is the one I’m most anxious about and know the least about. From what I heard you have better chances of getting accepted for physical arcs if you have a big following. And it’s better to wait until you have had a book blog be somewhat regularly active (every week or two minimum) for six months. After that point you have to send an email to the publisher specifically asking for a certain physical arc(s), link your blog, make it professional sounding and just cross your fingers.

•Independent bookstore- I live in the middle of nowhere so the closest one to me is over two hours away (this is actually the closest bookstore period) and it’s also pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I just have a hard time paying full price so even though I love browsing through a bookstore the drive just for the bookstore that’s full price isn’t worth it.

•ThriftBooks- I like to know the condition I’m buying books in so I’ve never bought something from here as new could actually mean good condition depending on the person.

•SciFier- this is what a lot of people especially in the UK use especially for manga. It’s like a Rightstuff but from what I’ve seen better.

•eBay- I feel more comfortable with Pango’s system of just incase the seller screw’s you over than with eBay’s so I’ve never bought anything from here.

•Facebook Marketplace- I don’t have Facebook so I’ve never used this but I have seen some good deals.

•Garage/Yard/Estate Sales- I haven’t been to any of these in quite some time but when I did go things were quite cheap because they just wanted to get rid of things.

•Illumicrate- special edition book subscription service

•Fairyloot- special edition book subscription service

•Owlcrate- special edition book subscription service

•Broken binding- special edition book subscription service

•Forbidden planet- Manga, books, comics and figures store

•Indigo- Canada’s verison of Barnes & Nobles

[desimoviereviews]

Jawan: One of SRK's Best Movies

Follow me on Instagram: @thatguyanesejournalist

Let’s talk about Atlee’s Jawan

Azad is a jailer at a women’s prison who moonlights as a vigilante with the aim to rectify corruption in Indian society, targeting a specific individual whose actions and status have caused extreme suffering for civilians.

I’ll be honest. The plot could have easily been a two-dimensional hero versus villain story that we’ve all seen too many times. However, adding the stories about Kalki’s father and Dr. Eeram’s “negligence” really brings a depth to the plot that proves this film is not just a story about a protagonist and an antagonist: it’s a story about the people of India.

For example, to avenge thousands of farmers’ suicides, the team holds passengers of a train hostage until they get paid ₹40,000 crore ($4,818,532 USD) so they can repay the loans of the Indian farmers. The viewers finds out through one of the most emotional scenes in the movie that Kalki’s father, who was a farmer, committed suicide so that his family could pay off the loan on their tractor with the money they would receive from his death. In real life, more than 12,000 farmers in India commit suicide every year due to debts. These anecdotes in the film bring a touch of needed reality to the plot; in fact, the reality-based conflicts are something I think Bollywood needs desperately these days.

Personally, I think this is one of SRK’s best movies. I’ve been waiting to see what movies SRK was going to churn out now that he isn’t doing purely romance movies anymore. I think Jawan is a great example of the content SRK is capable of creating without being a romance hero. And you see this with Azad and Vikram Rathore, who aren’t your typical protagonists. You would expect the protagonists to take the main spotlight for most of the movie. However, SRK shares the screen with a plethora of other female characters and doesn’t overshadow their acting or stories. 

One character that I absolutely adored was Narmada. As a female protagonist, she wasn’t the “damsel in distress” that needed saving all the time. In fact, she was a tough character throughout the movie who held her own, even when she found out Azad’s real identity as a vigilante. I really do appreciate Narmada’s character arc and the fact that she could always defend herself as an individual.

A quick shoutout to Kalee Gaikwad and how effortlessly Vijay Sethupathi acted in his role. This was actually the first movie I’ve ever seen him in, and he conveys the psychotic qualities of his character without it seeming fake or unconvincing. I have a whole bunch of Vijay Sethupathi movies lined up for me to watch for the future!

Also, another shoutout to Aishwarya Rathore and the wonderful Deepika Padukone. Even though her cameo in the movie was short, it was an impactful one and gave me major Om Shanti Om vibes. I love how her character was also strong and independent, refusing to be coerced by Gaikwad and his scheme to frame Vikram.

I loved the movie so much. There was impactful dialogue throughout, even though some parts did sound a bit preachy but still fit the message that the movie was trying to convey. The references to SRK’s iconic movies didn’t go unnoticed by me, and it was done in a way that didn’t make me cringe. I also appreciated the way there were numerous fourth-wall breaks that seemed like SRK was addressing the real-life viewers during the film’s most crucial moments; by staging this scenes as messages to the actual people, it causes viewers to think about their own political landscape in their country and how they can impact their own government (LEGALLY, PLEASE).

All the songs on the soundtrack, composed by Anirudh Ravichander, were pretty catchy to me. Welcome to another episode of me having a hard time to curate my song list. At the end of the day, I included both popular and seemingly underrated songs from the film. Give them a listen! 

Aararaari Raaro

Chaleya

Zinda Banda

The movie is 2 hours and 50 minutes long. Stream the extended cut on Netflix, grab a snack, and enjoy!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

[theredwritingwitch]

The Dunes Home- Part Three

Pairing: Frankie “Catfish” Morales x you, Frankie “Catfish” Morales x Fem!/reader, Frankie x wooden sculpture reader

Summary: A plan is put together and the parts are about to be assembled but a trip to the beach is in order.

Word Count: 2887

Warnings: Tiny angst

Ratings: M

Author’s Note: This is reader insert and I believe the only point where physical characteristic is described is with the eyes. Color of the wood is reader’s choice.

Part Two - Part Four

Frankie had googled many weird things before. His internet history was a plethora of various home improvement projects, how-to guides, and tips for being a better parent. He had a wish list of several woodworking tools, contacts for lumber and parts, and live feeds of his favorite wildlife spots. There were several searches for kids games, fishing boats, and twitter links he would randomly look up after Benny had made him a twitter account he never once tweeted on. Today was a weird one though, never did the words “average woman’s dimensions” show up in Frankie’s search history before now. After talking to you about your preferred age, he looked up the average build of a woman in your desired age range, searching through several links to health related websites and some to definitely unhelpful and absolutely not health related websites.

He measured your shoulders and head to get a rough estimate of what perhaps the rest of your body could be. The two of you discussed height options as well as many other sizes for the rest of your body. Because after knowing you for two days now, Frankie decided to build you a body. A wooden body for his wooden maid, is what you had chimed to him. Frankie snorted and rolled his eyes as you still proclaimed him amazing for his heroic action of saving your shoulder. It wasn’t anywhere near a heroic deed, but he didn’t stop you from thinking that though.

A measuring tape was extended out to give you a physical example of what the various heights looked like after you stated you wanted to compare them to Frankie’s own stature. Exclaiming which height you preferred the most, one where you could fit into Frankie’s arm like a puzzle piece which made him cough up his morning coffee at your boldness, you decided on the rest of the measurements you liked for your body. You've been becoming more and more forward with your pleasantries and affection, starting this morning when Frankie had picked you up out of bed, the guest bed not his, and placed you gently down at a cushioned seat in the kitchen. You watched and commented on the way his muscles in his shoulders worked against his shirt, making him flush as bacon sizzled in the skillet. 

Now you were snuggly placed into the passenger seat of his truck, with a box under you so you were tall enough to see out the window. Your iridescent blue and green eyes glowed bright as you looked all about the world that passed by.

“I’ve always seen just the sea, basically only known the sea and the sand, but I’ve never really seen the greens of the forest,” you awed as Frankie drove down the winding road.

Tall and skinny long leaf pines trees stretched across all directions as scrub palmetto covered the floor. Frankie’s eyes were darting between the road and the surrounding area for dead wood he could potentially use.

“How would you like to have your body made from wood in the forest?”

“Head of the sand and a body of the forest,”  you bit your lip in thought.

Frankie glanced over to you, “Y ojos del mar.”

Your chest swelled as you looked directly at Frankie with a faint smile, “I like that thought, don’t you?”

Frankie nodded, “If you like it, so do I.”

“The seagulls will gossip.”

“Seagulls gossip?”

“Of course they do! If one of the local sea turtles dropped a sea urchin from its shell by accident, the gulls would yap about till the sea turned red! Haven’t you ever stopped and listened to their yapping? They never stop!”

He hadn’t. He never bothered to listen to the birds much ever. Maybe he should.

“Maybe later we can grab some food and sit down on the beach together and see if we can eavesdrop on one of their conversations. What do you say?”

An elated smile paired with dazzling eyes looked back up to Frankie.

“Yes! Absolutely,” you exclaimed. A serious expression struck your face quickly, “No food though, if you have food, the gulls will just snatch it away.”

Frankie agreed quickly with a chuckle, “We’ll eat at home and then take a late night stroll on the beach.” He glanced at you and was satisfied with your enthusiastic nod that, if you hadn’t been buckled in, almost caused you to toppled off the box you were sitting upon.

It didn’t take long for Frankie to find some suitable logs of dead wood. He acquired a variety of wood; from different sizes, shapes, and colors. You would have your choice of the pick, whatever you desired. Frankie was going to try his hardest to make whatever you wanted to the best of his ability. With the wood sorted into the bed of the truck, under your encouraging supervision, you two headed back home; Frankie jumping out of the car here and there to collect pieces of driftwood that he could potentially use as well. Your chipper attitude only brightened when you sat you on the worktable inside the garage, watching him haul out all the wood. 

The world had become a bigger place in the last couple of hours. The woods smelled so different from the beach as well as the grass that grew around the pine trees felt so different compared to the dune grass that had grown around your stump. Frankie had held you to several different things while you two scoured for proper wood. You quickly found out that your favorite feeling was from the soil. You rubbed your cheek against the dirt as Frankie smiled and shook his head. But honestly the best feeling was from the brush of his fingers to your dirty cheek. Even now, after seeing the green beauty of the forest, the best view you’ve had all day was that of your woodcarver’s muscles stretching against his shirt. You watched as his arms bulged from lifting the logs out of the truck and down into a pile. His hair tousled slightly to the sea breeze as he ran his fingers over his mustache while pondering his next move. But it was the soft flicker of his eyes that you liked the most. Through the back and forth of his work, his eyes would land on you, gracing you with an easy and sweet look. You felt this surge of warmth and admiration. For many years, before Frankie, you were so lonesome as a molding and decomposing stump. Quickly pushing the thought from your head, you focused back on Frankie as he sat down in front of you with a sketchbook and pencil in hand.

“So we’ll start out with some sketches and dimensions, then we can go through the wood and see what pieces will work best for what body part. Sound good,” Frankie questioned you as he did a rough sketch of a figure.

“You draw as well?”

Frankie laughed, “I can do a sketch, just don’t expect any real details in the drawing. It’s just for reference.”

“Still that’s more than I can do!”

“Well that’s because you don’t have arms or hands, but we’re about to solve that issue. So let’s talk…um…figure.”

You watched Frankie scratch at his beard as he began talking about different sizes and figures and what logs could be used to create the different parts of your body, letting you decide what you wanted while he nodded and wrote everything down. You smiled and watched him as his hand moved quickly to jot down your suggestions and mumbled under his breath about different woods. You giggled at him as he excitedly told you about the different smells of the woods, pine being his favorite, and telling you how important it is to pick a wood that had a good smell. You would be stuck with that smell forever, or whatever forever was for someone like you. Agreeing with Frankie’s assessment, a question floated into your timber mind.

“What do you smell like, Francisco?”

Frankie’s eyes just about bulged out of his head as his brain rationalized what you had asked. His brains had been questioning what other new experience you would want to explore, his lonely mind leading to places he didn’t want to go. Well, actually he did want to go to those places but tried not to. You were still so new and curious to the world, so joyful to what he took for granted. He had all the respect in the world for you and didn’t want to blemish your beautiful attitude. Sometimes his own bad habits and old wounds would come up and rear their ugly heads. You deserved the best and he was going to give that to you. Which started at letting you smell him. Truly, he didn’t know if this was a good idea or not.

“Well you tell me,” Frankie leaned down as he avoided eye contact with you.

You leaned into him and closed your eyes as you took in his musk. Leather. Oil. Pine. But as well, a hint of the sea. The ocean must have rubbed off on him, just as the woods. But you were so curious about the leather and oil. Intrigued and unable to resist the urge, you softly leaned into Frankie, placing your cheek against his to feel the rough patch of facial hair grind against your sanded skin. Frankie, just like you, couldn't hold back as he took a long whiff of your beachy, woodsy, and earthy smell. He felt all the anxiety of becoming closer to you seep away as he found himself lean into you. Sometime went by as the two of you leaned into each other, sublime in each other's space that neither one of you wanted to break the hold you both had on each other. But as always, your mind was curious, maybe even more so now.

“Francisco? I’m going to really need you to start in on this body of mine. I think I want to run my fingers through your hair as soon as possible,” you commented as you nuzzled a little into his cheek as he raised his head from you.

“Roger, mis ojos brillantes.” Frankie’s smile equaled yours as he got to work.

The rest of the day consisted of Frankie comparing and measuring logs; placing them down on a long makeshift table made out of a spare piece of long, flat board he had in storage from a previous project. Sawing some skinnier logs into pieces, he placed the logs down for the different parts of your arms. Then he placed several pieces of driftwood and pine for your chest and belly, explaining that he would be gluing the wood together to form a solid core for your body. He then placed down more sawed pine for your legs and feet, placing small bits of driftwood for toes that he also decided to use for your fingers. Altogether Frankie had mapped out an array of logs into the shape of a body. You stood proud to the side of the table, watching this ambitious man map out your future body. 

You teased him as he looked on longingly to the rest of the logs that you two had acquired, “You don’t need to use every piece Francisco!”

Frankie looked back at you with a stern look and wagged his finger as you laughed, “Waste not, what not.”

The day had gone by fast with your travels and setup. Your woodcarver would set out to work tomorrow, telling you that to create a whole body would take time. In exchange, you would think up gifts for Antonia while he whittled away. With the day coming to a close, Frankie kept to his promise and with you settled in his hands, the two of you stalled out to a spot on the beach not too far out from some seagulls.

“Are they really saying that?” Frankie asked as he piled a small mound of sand behind and around you to prop you up.

“Of course! The gulls love talking about how they bug and scare humans! They’re huge peeping toms honestly! You have no idea how much the gulls watch you really.”

“Creepy.”

“Oh absolutely! In fact they give each other rewards to whoever has the best story.”

“What? Like catch of the day.”

“No, that’s easy. While out and about, they pillage tiny items from humans. I’ve seen them trade trash, pencils, jewelry, fabrics, anything loose and small enough for their beaks to carry away.”

Frankie eyed the seagulls closest to the two of you, thinking about all the screws and nails he’d lost the last couple of months.

“Bastards.” 

You hummed in agreement as you listened to the gulls talk about stealing a popsicle from a child at the beach, running straight into a window at the ranger station so the spooked ranger spilled coffee on himself, and scaring away the couple that were making out just earlier in the evening. You listened to them squabble about how the couple were all hands on each other and how their legs practically woven together. They cawed about the noises the couple were making and about the loose clothing the seagulls were able to snag before scaring the couple off. One such lacey trophy was hanging from a gull’s mouth.

Leaning in towards Frankie, you felt the sand slowly fall apart from around you. Tiny chunks of packed sand collapsed as you looked on to the clothing item that one seagull held onto. You had seen some pictures of bras online when Frankie had left you alone to conduct your own search with a pen twirling from your mouth so you could type at the keys. He had gone in with vague explanations about the different body parts, instructing you on the difference between his own body and your future body. His explanations left much to be desired…so you went on a hunt and educated yourself on your new body and its functions. And by the soil under your roots, those searches were very fruitful!

Which brought you to your current position, the feeling of Frankie’s hands ghosting over your shoulders as he packed down the sand around your base. You felt the calluses smooth over you causing a shiver to course through your body, breaking some of the sand off of you yet again. 

“Here I’ll just hold you instead. Is that alright?” Frankie asked as he began to stroke clumps of sand off of you. 

“Please Francisco?”

Frankie smiled and picked you up and placed you in his lap. His hands curled under your base to hold you up as you leaned back into his warm chest.

Unbothered by the cool wind whipping off the ocean, Frankie tucked you into him as his body encircled you. He listened to you mutter about the ins and outs of avoiding seagulls, trying not to think about how your head was right under him where he could easily rest his chin against you. The salty and earthy smell of your hair drifted to Frankie’s nose, daring him to come closer. The poor man kept his hands still, cupped to you as the inside of him stirred with a strong urge to tuck you in closer. He wanted to rest his cheek to your temple, maybe even pass a simple kiss to the smooth swirl of wood that lay there. He felt you shift your head to the side, resting your own cheek to his chest. Frankie knew he ran warm, he knew you would feel the heat radiating off of him, but he wondered if you could feel the instant warmth he felt rush through his body the instant you leaned into him. 

“You know, when I was just a stump here on the beach, I never felt a bit cold. But I never did feel warm either,” you sighed as you closed your eyes and listened to Frankie’s heart beat.

“Just indifferent to it all?”

“I guess. Just never cold nor hot. Never really happy or really sad. I’ve never felt quite as…lively? Or…”

“The opposite, yeah I get that.” Frankie easily read where your thoughts were going.

“Maybe there was once, or maybe it was just a searing pain that I remember. But that passed too.”

“As it does,” a few unsavory memories came to Frankie’s mind, ones he didn’t want to share in the moment but also didn’t want you to share in the pain. He didn’t want you to feel bad or sad, not even depressed. If he could craft you a world, devoid of all that would frighten you or hurt you, he would. That was impossible of course, even as he reminded himself that impossible was a word he no longer understood as he sat here talking to a living wooden bust. But for now he could try his best to help you in other ways “And what do you feel now?”

You hummed as you rubbed your cheek to his soft worn shirt again, “Nice, comfy. I don’t believe I’ve ever felt comfy before, but I do now.”

Frankie leaned his chin down onto your head then.

“Good, cause tomorrow, I’m gonna get started with carving.”

Part Four

“Y ojos del mar” = and eyes of the sea

“mis ojos brillantes” = my bright eyes

[mournfulminds]

╱ starter for ❪ @emeraldhazes​ ❫ .

She had not been to Daegu prior, despite it being on her list of places to visit and seeing how she was in Fukuoka for a meeting ─ about a two-hour plane away Carys decided to make the precise sojourn, the vast city greeting her with a modest summer day. What drew her to such an area was nameless, chalking it up, in part that she had been to almost every major municipal in the world, and was now dwindling down to smaller cities in countries, and also that she could use a few days off work. Sitting in her hotel room, Carys was drying her hair and researching attractions when she gave up with a defeated sigh and resolved to ask the concierge at the front desk. They had suggested she try Dongseong-ro, a street composed of five department stores, and a plethora of markets, since even when she was not working, she was working, a nasty habit she could only try and blame on her parent's example.

There were already throngs of people milling about when she arrived, stopping in a couple perfume boutiques and facial stores before she came across a large crowd in particular that was loitering outside a store that sold sunglasses or purses, blocking Carys' path. She stood on her tiptoes in a fruitless endeavour to see what was happening, before she spotted familiar features, eyebrows creasing as she weaved her way further into the converge. Her original struggle was to make her way through and escape whatever sort of event was going on but it was all lost when she tripped over another, the contents of her bag spilling over the sidewalk. Dark hues swept up as Carys noticed another appear before her; Ivy, looking as perfect as ever. Was this whole event for her? Carys rarely checked social media to keep up with what was going on in people's lives, really only for work, but she plays the shock off as she offers the younger woman a smile. "You know if you just wanted my attention, there were easier ways than to schedule an event or whatever in your hometown," the older woman joked, instantly recalling what the other had said of this place in the past. "As always, you look like an absolute dream Ivy. I presume these gathers of fans are on your behalf."

[hpcrackficfest]

Rules/Guidelines and Schedule of Events

Below you'll find an explanation of our fest's definition of crack!fic and a quick run down of the rules. Please feel free to peruse while we anxiously await the start of prompting on June 8. More info will be posted with each leg of the fest (prompting, claiming, etc.), so look out for more to come as we go!

So what is crack!fic, anyway?

First and foremost, I wanted to give a little explanation as to what I will be defining as crack!fic for the purposes of this fest, and therefore what will be accepted as far as prompts and submissions. Let's just say, I'm a pretty...enthusiastic reader of crack!fic. 😂 And I've seen so many different takes on it.

So, what is crack!fic? Well, Fanlore defines it as "fanworks with a fundamentally ludicrous premise, or otherwise including a plethora of unbelievable, incredible, or just plain silly elements" (for a more in depth look at their definition, you can find the full article here). Of course, there is also the origin of the term: that the author must have been on some kind of substance to write what they wrote. But for my part, I feel we've moved past that idea over the years, and I'm definitely not trying to reference it that way here.

Crack!fic can be humorous. It can be PWP. It can be weird, ridiculous, or far-fetched. It can be an odd pairing. It can be the unusual - or over-the-top - way the characters are behaving, or how they handle the strange scenario they've been written into. You can pair it with other, not necessarily cracky, genres - like angst, darkfic, fluff, and so much more. I especially love the tag "crack taken seriously". It can be a crossover or an AU. You could take it to a horror place, if you wanted! I once wrote Narcissa having a sexual relationship with a demonic entity - I didn't label it as crack!fic (and I still wouldn't even now), but trust me, I'm aware that it kind of was. Some texting or email-based fics could fall under this umbrella. I've even seen meme!fics recently - and yeah, love that!

So long story short: what will be accepted for prompts and submissions? Quite a lot, haha. This fest is all about having fun - as long as you're having fun, everything's good! There are so many different ways you can go with crack!fic, and I encourage us all to take it wherever our muses wish!

If you're ever finding yourself unsure as to what you can prompt for or submit, please, always feel free to reach out and ask! I would be happy to clarify, whenever needed.

Rules/Guidelines

Please see the schedule of events at the top of this post.

Obviously, this fest is all about crack!fic, so every prompt and piece submitted must feature at least a hint of that idea. As you can see above, that idea is pretty broad, haha.

However, I want to be clear: you are in no way required to tag your fic as crack!fic (or any variation), either on AO3 or in your header. Throwing it back to the example of my own questionably cracky work above, I didn't label it that way, but I do know it can be viewed that way. As long as you are capturing the essence of the fun and fancy-freeness of this fest, you are good to go.

All participants must be over the age of 18.

Prompts can be claimed from the list of those which were submitted, or you can opt to use your own prompt.

Prompts may only be claimed once. This fest is fic-only, so no art, unless you want to submit it along with your fic! I'm so, so sorry to all the artists out there - I just wasn't sure how to fit it in with the theme at this time. However, this may change in the future, and I'll let you all know if it does.

There will be space provided on the prompt form for you to list any preferences you may have for the fill you'd like to see, from rating, to plot, likes/dislikes, etc.

Everything must be betaed, proof-read, checked, and/or edited. There are no minimum requirements, so long as the work you submit is in a finished and polished state.

If you don’t have a beta, I always recommend asking in any of the various fanfic writers’ groups out there! You can try the oldies but goodies like and , but also any one of the many Facebook and Discord groups that have popped up in recent years! (If you need invites/recommendations for any of those, please let me know, I’d be happy to help.) In keeping with the stress free style of this fest, your beta is not necessarily required to be someone official in fandom; if you’d be more comfortable having a friend or family member look everything over, you are welcome to have them do so!

Once you have submitted your piece, feel free to select another one! (And I definitely encourage this, as I'd love nothing more than to see a slew of crack!fic goodness in my inbox! ;D)

Posting will be anonymous, so please don't give the game away by posting anywhere else, or replying to comments, or hinting on your socials until after reveals. Also, because this is an anonymous fest, the piece you submit must be a complete, stand-alone work and can't be based on any of your other works, prequels, sequels, etc.

All submissions will be hosted on AO3, at the HP Crack!Fic Fest collection. Feel free to check it out, but please only post your submissions there yourself if you are 100% sure you know how. One mistake can make the difference between your fic being posted before its time, so if you find yourself unsure of how to do this in any way, please feel free to send everything to the mod email, and I will take care of it. More info will be coming on how to submit your work as we get closer to the due date - either to the collection, or to the mod.

In order to properly submit your finished work for this fest, you will be required to add the mod account on AO3 as a co-creator. The mod account is hpcfmod. A more detailed explanation for why this will now be a strict rule going forward in any and all fests I run can be found on my announcement for Ron/Draco Fest 2021. I'm always here to answer questions, so if you're concerned about anything at all, please feel free to reach out to me!

Headers with a link back to AO3 will be posted here on Tumblr.

Last but not least, this is a totally stress free fest! Need an extension? No problem, send me an email, and we'll work something out! Need to drop out? While I'd be sad to see you go, I'm definitely a person who gets that life happens. All I ask is that you let me know as soon as you can. Basically, don't be afraid to reach out to me if you need something! I'm here to help, as best I can. :)

More info to come as we move through the events!

If you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to shoot me an email at hpcfmod@gmail.com!

Your mod, @fangqueen​

[nothwell]

Thank you to Jane for this thoughtful review of Hold Fast!

~

I would have given this book a 3.5 rating because of one of the plot developments, but I actually had to give it 4.0 because . . . Morgan Turner. Actually, I give Morgan Turner 5.0 +++. It's that plot point that keeps this from being a total success for me.

I just finished Oak King Holly King and loved it so much that I picked up the author's back catalog and immediately started on this book. Hell's bells, it turns out I loved this book even more than Oak King Holly King.

I do have serious issues with parts of this story, but those are outweighed by the fact that I have not only found a new favorite author, but also a new favorite character. I've only had a handful of such favorites (all of them in books by K.J. Charles) and now I have added Morgan Turner to the list. This character alone brings this book solidly into the next level for me.

[...] OK, so that's out of the way - now let's talk about the essence of this book. The character of Morgan Turner is just delicious. He is wound tighter than a 10-day clock (and for very good reason) and his intelligence, forebearance, sense of dignity and inner strength make for an incredibly compelling character. There is the hint of "insta-love" about this story (or at least "insta-lust") and yet it's at such a different level than 99% of typical mm books that you can feel the frustration, the pain, the turmoil that Morgan is going through trying to keep his life on track, take care of others, and maintain societal standards. He compartmentalizes in a way that feels so authentic (and incredibly heroic). He is not perfect, he can be haughty, his aspect is often cold - but none of it takes away from how much I love his character. He is utterly fascinating. It is quite compelling to read how he continually beats himself up about his sexuality.

"A better man would resist temptation, but Morgan knew himself to be a mediocre man at best."

Mediocre my hind foot! He is head and shoulders above everyone around him.

As with Oak King Holly King, the author flips the typical (stereotypical?) dynamic between the MC's so that the socially sobordinate character is anything but, including sexually. The initial sexual encounter was portrayed brilliantly from the initial kiss to the climax - it was compelling, provocative, urgent, everything I could possibly want for the first time between these two. If I didn't love Morgan before, I was completely lost after that.

“Slut,” Morgan whispered.

OK, kill me now. Evelyn is one lucky bastard.

Again, as with Oak King Holly King, there is a plethora of really great secondary characters, a strong representation of differing sexualities, superb humor, and vividly evocative scenes (I can literally see Percy looking at his watch multiple times during the surgery scene - brilliant. Percy is a superb example of a secondary character that turns out to be so expertly woven into the overall story that he is actually essential to the arc of the story.)

“If you intend to sway me with hysterics,” Percy added, “I won’t hesitate to dose you. Such a scene would do him no good at all.”

That is just so . . . Percy.

The essence of this book, this story, is the tortured soul that is the utterly exquisite Morgan Turner and the deliciously painful and drawn-out unwinding of that 10-day clock. No matter how I feel about the unrealistic turn of plot towards the end, I would devour this book again in a heartbeat to be able to read and experience the feeling invoked by Morgan's story.

~

Hold Fast is a gay Victorian romance between a whaling harpooner who inherits a baronetcy, and the estate agent tasked with turning him from sailor to gentleman - available now wherever fine books are found!

Amazon • Apple Books • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop.org • Kobo • Overdrive • Scribd • Smashwords