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tsuki-sennin · 4 years ago

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Mina-san, bonne lecture~! (Tsuki recaps his feelings about Kamen Rider Saber, a personal essay.)

So, Saber... what a wild ride it's been, huh? Just a quick heads up, this is very long and rambling, and also contains spoilers for everything in Saber. It's fine if you don't wanna read all this, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

TL:DR, Kamen Rider Saber's an undercooked hot mess I absolutely adore, warts and all.

Speaking as objectively as possible, it's a 6/10. Probably closer to a 5 than a 7... it's not great: All the different plot elements are cluttered and weirdly paced; character focus is disjointed and clearly biased toward certain characters, leaving great ones like Kento and Ogami, interesting ones like Kamijo and Hayato, and underdeveloped ones like Sophia and especially the Shindais in the dust; not to mention its balance of comedy and drama is off, and while both are very effective, there's a lot of mood whiplash that can take you out of the story. I also feel like a lot of the easily avoidable character conflict could've been easily resolved, even in universe, by simple conversations. Be careful Fukuda, I think Inoue might sue you if he finds out you've been biting his style and doing it worse.

Rider shows have a very frustrating tendency to drop cool form ideas and not do anything with them, and I don't think it's ever been more the case than with Saber. There's a similar argument to be made with the majority of Heisei Phase 2 after Gaim, but wow. The suits are expensive to make without just straight up recycling everything, I get that, but man, I really wanted to see more Wonder Rider forms. How come Touma got all the fun, eh? Of note are the Blades King of Arthur forms (which look amazing by the way), Espada's Jaaku Dragon forms (one of which I even drew last night), even the non-elemental random Wonder Ride Books all have awesome design elements that go tragically unused. Even if the other Swordsmen just kinda have the ones they do get to use slapped onto them, that's at least something. Touma also just straight up only uses Diago Speedy twice and never again. You have cool props guys, don't waste them like that!

Speaking of waste, Espada, goddamn. Since most of the Wonder Ride Books are Story Type and he needs one very specific Story Book to transform, he doesn't get much of... anything, really! No Wonder Rider forms like Blades, Lamp Do Cerberus being exclusive to Ganbarizing, only getting to use the Ride Gatriker like once, he even spends the second and third arcs as a completely different Rider, then once he comes back he doesn't get a King of Arthur-granted upgrade or even a Necrom Espada form. ...at least, not yet anyway. I'm holding out hope for Espada x Necrom and the eventual Saber V-Cinemas. Extra Rider stans, we will be well respected someday.

The Unreal Engine CGI used for fights in early Chapters was pretty good but wow it feels disconnected and they really drop it quick. I feel like if the animators had more freedom to use as many forms as they want, we'd have gotten a lot more mileage out of the books beyond... decoration basically. I actually really liked the CGI sequences, they felt creative and were fun to follow along with.

The soundtrack is pretty great on its own and conveys what it needs to, but they seriously overplay the orchestral themes. It honestly feels kind of... stock at times. I think my favorite parts of the score are when it winds down, since it feels a lot more natural and lets the cinematographers and actors speak for themselves.

As awesome as I think Falchion's design and the Mumeiken Kyomu are, The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin comes up short as its own standalone thing. You'd think 30 or so minutes of non-stop action would be awesome, and it almost is? It's as good as a typical episode of the series with a higher action budget, but it kinda drags on a bit too long; and although I think Emotional Dragon looks cool, it feels a bit tacked on. Coming off of the incredible Zero-One REAL×TIME, it doesn't give you much room to breathe, which Rider films are typically great at handling. I also thought the resolution for the kid's subplot was kinda forced. He does an okay job at acting considering his age and doesn't overstay his welcome, but I really don't see how 20 minutes of violence and action is enough to convince him to be brave enough to go play with the other kids. 5/10, it's closer to a 4 than a 6 and I think that maybe Zero-One should've stood on its own if they really had to push back Kiramager Bee-Bop Dream because of the pandemic.

Alright, with all that said... As imperfect and undercooked Saber was, like Ghost I can consider it a personal favorite, 10/10. Call it a guilty pleasure if you want, but holy hell it's just the show I needed. Takuro Fukuda has a talent for creating fun, wonderful characters and utterly fascinating worldbuilding and concepts. It's a shame he doesn't utilize them fully, but hey!

The action and fight choreography are pretty top notch as usual. Lots of beautiful shot composition and set pieces, and plenty of great angles to help keep up with the extra busy action. I love watching the suit actors perform and they deserve all the respect in the world for their hard work in those hot, sweaty, and heavy costumes. Their visual design is also top notch, with lots of unique and fascinating forms and cool weapons I desperately want to play with despite being broke, all with spectacular finishers and hype jingles with the voice of Akio motherfucking Ohtsuka calling them out. A real feast for the eyes. Not a single bad suit among them, yeah I said it, fight me.

The crossover specials are soooo good too.

-I went over my feelings on the Zenkaiger crossover episodes in a separate post (good luck finding that btw), but to sum it up, they were great character moments for Zox and the Shindai siblings with lots of great screwball comedy and some good old fashioned meta humor.

-The Ghost crossovers are great little side stories all about how Daitenku Temple somehow had the Ghost Ijunroku Wonder Ride Book? I genuinely have no idea why it was there, or how Makoto had the Specter Gekikou Senki, and as far as I remember neither of their origins are explained. Did Luna or Tassel hand them off to them and told them to wait for a sword guy? And why do these generic French Revolution Gamma villains working for Danton get their asses handed to them so easily by Kanon, who literally just became a Rider? I thought that Makoto deciding to adopt all the Kanon clones into his family was both hilarious and adorable though; considering all the crap they went through, I think it was a good ending to this plot. Gimme Espada x Necrom already Toei/Bandai/Fukuda/whoever I need to yell at, give Kento things to do, I beg you.

-I haven't actually seen Super Hero Senki since it's not available for subbing yet, but apparently there's a Journey to the West plot starring the Taros and Ohma Zi-O and I want to see that so badly.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra? Yoohei Kawakami? A match made in heaven, that's what they are. All of their themes are absolute bangers. All of them. Almighty, Kamen Rider Saber, Sparks, Taju Rokou, all excellent and empowering pieces. Rewrite the Story, Will Save Us, and The Story Never Ends are all amazing inserts done by the cast, and it makes me wish we had even more of them to help break up the monotony of the score.

The characters are what easily make this show such a great watch though. For the most part, they have great personalities and chemistry, consistently fun and interesting scenes, well acted and... sometimes well-written development, and deeply investing personal stakes.

Narrating it all is the delightfully eccentric Tassel/Viktor, portrayed by Romanesque Ishitobi "TOBI" of the Paris-based Les Romanesques. I was utterly confused by his presence at first, wondering why there needed to be a narrator when the story would've been perfectly fine without it. He even got a special spot in the opening despite having no stake in the plot despite seeming to live in Wonderworld, who the hell is this guy? But then I thought "OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD". I thought it'd be some subversion of expectations, true form, "That Was His Mistake!" shit. Trust me, it made a lot more sense in my head. I'm very happy that they didn't do that, as I grew to love having male Yuuka Kazami as my narrator, and when he was shown to be actually important by being friends with Yuri my mind was blown. And doubly so when I realized just how deeply necessary to the plot he really is.

Rintaro/Blades is up there as one of my all time favorite secondary Riders, since his curiosity is always consistently funny and adorable, his forms are all gorgeous and impressively designed, his relationships with Mei and Touma are absolutely sweet and compelling to see unfold, and his arcs about becoming willing to call out those he views as family and coming to terms with his feelings of inadequacy and both moving past and using them to strengthen himself are always great lessons to pass on to kids. ...even if they took like 10 goddamn episodes to be conveyed in what could've been 5, but hey, Takaya Yamaguchi does a stand-up job all throughout. Rider veteran Eitoku's refined, almost logical movements with the Suiseiken Nagare absolutely beautiful to see in action, and his final form having the same white and blue color scheme as Zooous's base form is an amazing touch I don't see appreciated enough.

Mei Sudo's also absolutely wonderful, serving as the perfect emotional core of the story, responsible for most of the funniest lines, sweetest character moments, and some of the most deceptively compelling drama. Asuka Kawazu brings the perfect energy for such a dynamic and well rounded character, and absolutely nails her scenes of quiet turmoil. As much as I would've loved her to become a Rider, I don't think she really needed to. She's already done so much to help, and as cool as it would've been to see her pick up a sword and fight alongside them as Espada, Calibur, or Falchion she's already endeared herself to me as one of my favorite supporting characters in the whole franchise.

I can't get enough of my homeboy Kento Fukamiya/Espada. Like Rintaro and everyone else for that matter, he also suffers from Saber's pacing issues; and like his predecessor Valkyrie from Zero-One, he doesn't get a proper upgrade aside from his Wonder Combo, instead becoming an anti-villain using a completely different powerset and shifting the Raimeiken Ikazuchi out of focus for the Ankokuken Kurayami, and I feel there's a serious missed opportunity to see him use Jaaku Dragon with Alangina. However, Ryo Aoki's performance is probably among the most easily praiseworthy in the whole cast, managing to convey both Kento's kind and knightly stoicism as Espada and his emotionally unstable despair as Calibur perfectly, in conjunction with Yuji Nakata's experienced and expressive stuntwork.

Ren Akamichi/Kenzan's a dark horse favorite for sure. I remember back when Saber was first picking up, people hated this breezy mad lad for being such a simple character at first. Overly concerned with strength? Black and white world view? Annoyingly energetic? Agh, real-feeling character flaws, I hate them, get him away from me! But then y'all came crawling back. Eiji Togashi's apparently a bit of a rookie actor, and it really shows with some stilted delivery and the way he sometimes bobs his head when giving his lines, but man he improves dramatically as the series goes on. His inexperience ironically ends up really selling his character development, and his unexpectedly beautiful relationship with Desast is special evidence of that. The Fuusouken Hayate's three modes and Satoshi Fujita putting them to excellent use through his stellar acrobatic movements are also really cool.

Why did Luna have to be a child for so long? Does Wonderworld not age whoever inherits its power? Well since Luna randomly becomes an adult in Super Hero Senki and some of the final episodes, I guess so? Miku Okamoto does a fine job for a kid actor, but she's basically done all the heavy lifting for the whole series and doesn't give Mayuu Yokota enough time to get a feel for her character as an adult. How did she choose Touma to inherit the power anyway? Does she just subconsciously decide to trust him with it upon seeing how kind and passionate about storytelling he is? Well if that's the case, why didn't Kento get at least some of that power too? He's just as important to the merchan- I mean Luna-chan, isn't he? Why did Tassel pick her over someone who isn't a literal child who'd be understandably terrified about basically becoming an embodiment of storytelling?

Sophia also kinda suffers from the same problems. Rina Chinen's voice is very pleasant to listen to, but she doesn't really do much beyond serving as a source of exposition and support. I think her dynamic with Mei's adorable, and given her kindness I can certainly understand the respect Northern Base has for her, but she doesn't really contribute a whole lot. If she could use the Kurayami and become Calibur all this time, then why didn't she take it from Kento and Yuri and do so earlier when Kento decided to go back to being Espada? I know she's not much of a fighter and as the closet thing the Sword of Logos has to a leader after Isaac's death I'd understand not wanting to put her at risk, but considering Storious is destroying the world, and she's very evidently kicking a lot of ass in the first part of the final battle even in the basic Jaaku Dragon form, I think it would've helped a lot, just sayin'. Tassel at least has the excuse of being unable to interact with the real world, but Sophia obviously didn't just be put in charge of Northern Base just because she's a pawn in Isaac's plans right?

Ryou Ogami/Buster is also a victim of the disjointed character focus. I have no problem believing he's an excellent father and fighter thanks to Yuki Ikushima and Jiro Okamoto, respectively, but he feels a bit flat and simple in comparison. His rivalry with Desast is randomly dropped, his wife doesn't even show up until the final episodes, he's kinda sidelined in terms of action a whole lot. I imagine that must've sucked for the Rider Dads out there. He does get to star in his own manga, and that was pretty good, so I guess I can't be too mad.

Tetsuo Daishinji/Slash fares better though. Hiroaki Oka, being a Kamen Rider fanboy himself, manages to make him among the most relatable characters in the series. Not only are his hyperfixation on swordsmithing and anxiety played surprisingly believably, Hirotsugu Mori letting him cut loose is extremely cathartic and hilarious, and you really feel for him when the Onjuuken Suzune becomes the first victim of Calibur!Kento's sword sealing.

Yuri/Saikou's another dark horse favorite, for me at least. "Oh great, Avalon guy's got even more merchandise to sell, I wonder what his Sword of Light is- it's himself. Well... that's different." I admit, I didn't like him at first. He felt like he was there to fill out character dynamics in the absence of both Rintaro and Kento, I thought his gimmick was too silly even if his design and jingles were bangers, I didn't particularly care for his power set. But then XSwordman came around I totally got it. He's an endearing, hard-working man trying his best to catch up on all the cool shit he missed, unafraid of experimentation, ready to throw down at a moment's notice, serving as a wonderful bit of consistent support for our heroes, a truly knightly individual, an absolute Chad. and goddamn does he make me worry. Tomohiro Ichikawa, I salute you good sir.

Even if they fall short compared to the rest of the cast, the Shindai siblings are at least cool enough to not wanna write out entirely. They kinda devolve into comic relief after they become allies, something that villainous Riders from Chase onwards are very prone to doing, and it's especially awkward in their case because I think that they kinda get off scot-free for obeying the obviously sinister and crazy Isaac for so long, as well as driving a wedge between a lot of people and threatening children in Reika's case. I think their sibling dynamic is nice though, even if Fukuda recycled it from Makoto and Kanon and has some... questionable possessive undertones as a result. It's cool how they're basically foils to Touma and Rintaro though. The dispassionate and methodical Reika/Sabela is beautifully played by Angela Mei and her moments of emotional depth are fascinating to watch. Her Rider form is a thing of beauty, and its use of literal the Eneiken Noroshi's smokescreens and Yuki Miyazawa's precise and deadly stinging strikes are a joy to watch. And while Ken Shonozaki's not given the best direction as the undercooked plate of 7-Eleven fried fish that is Ryoga/Durendal, he manages to sell him as an experienced and hardened warrior with an awkward side that's especially evident in the Zenkaiger specials. His goddamn RWBY weapon that is the Jikokuken Kaiji is absolutely sick, I'm a sucker for transforming weapons and its combination of time and water powers is really cool, especially with Yasuhiko Amai's deliberate and forceful acting in the suit.

Daichi Kamijo/the Second Calibur, for as brief as his story was, was a pretty cool starter villain. Hiroyuki Hirayama brings this poor bastard to life in a genuinely touching way. I love how as Calibur he goes full force on his creative use of Wonder Ride Books for attacks, and his debut as Jaou Dragon got my blood pumping. His end is also deeply tragic, and I really felt for him when he realized just how badly he fucked up. Hayato Fukamiya also does wonders for the backstory, and while he also doesn't get much to work with, Mitsuru Karahashi makes his regrets and love for Kento feel genuine.

Legeiel and Zooous are both very intimidating and entertaining villains. On top of being just the right balance of goofy and threatening, Kairu Takano and Koji Saikawa's stage presences are both very strong, and their mixture of camaraderie and in-fighting is extremely believable. Zooous's rivalry with Rintaro feels incredible to see through to the end, and although Legeiel doesn't get quite the same treatment, Elemental Dragon had such a cool debut that it more than makes up for it. Their final fights are also absolute spectacles. I don't think their sympathetic angle works even close to as well as it does with MetsubouJinrai or even the Gamma, but I get it, power corrupts, and you probably feel a lot of sadness and regret for things you've done when you die unless you're a right bastard.

Isaac/Master Logos/Solomon is kinda generic. As wonderful as Keisuke Soma is, he doesn't get much dimension to work with. The result of that is while he nails being as smug and punchable as possible, he feels almost... comically generic. Genta Umemori from Shinkenger was full of personality! He was also basically some guy, but he was fun, he felt connected to the rest of the cast! Meanwhile the only real time we get to see Isaac's depth is when we see him crying over his failures. I almost appreciate him being unapologetically evil though, since I've seen way too many shows where redeemed villains get off scot free for way worse things, and some where they outright demand you to sympathize with them despite them doing nothing to warrant it.

Bahato/Falchion surprises me by not just being a movie villain whose actions affect the main plot, but also being a movie villain who actually gets to appear in series as a recurring threat! ...and it's not a particularly great showing on his part, sadly. Masashi Taniguchi does a wonderful job with what he's given, but his character feels like a retread of Eternal without any of what made Katsumi Daido a compelling and frightening villain. I'd like to believe Yuri when he says that he used to be a good person and a hero to the people, but I can only hear so many anime villain monologues about the pointlessness of life and the beauty of destruction before I can never take them seriously again. ...I think that's his biggest problem, actually. I thought he was an overall uninteresting and generic villain in the movie, and the cartoon nihilist he's shown to be in series is only a small step up. He still feels like filler. If only there were a far better written and much cooler villain who takes on the Mumeiken Kyomu after his de--

Desast is probably one of the finest anti-villains I've ever seen in recent years. On top of an absolutely badass character design and the excellent combination of Kazuya Okada/Danki Sakae's suit work and Koki Uchiyama's stellar voice acting, his story being so thoroughly intertwined with Ren's makes their shared journey and bromance a borderline Shakespearean tragedy. His struggle for identity despite Storious treating him as nothing more than a failed experiment and the Sword of Logos treating him as a mere monster really gripped me, and the way he uses what little time he has left to encourage Ren into blossoming on his own is absolutely beautiful. I think his enmity with Ogami is criminally underexplored in series, considering he killed several of the previous Riders and how Ogami's in desperate need of screentime.

Then there's our main villain, Kamen Rider Storious. Robin Furuya brings an incredible amount of charisma to this character, expertly portrayed as both a sinister, manipulative bastard , and as a lonely, tragic figure that arguably makes him feel even more villainous. Speaking as a struggling writer myself, it's easy to feel stuck in the idea of "fuck it, who cares, maybe everything is predestined", but I can't imagine what it's like to know that as the truth and carry it with you for all that time. All of your grand ideas have roots from your experiences, and you're not the only one who even could have those experiences. It's easy to just fall into despair and give up trying, but would that make you happy? Sure, Storious is sadistic, he may be fulfilling his goals, he may be ungodly powerful... but it's not enough for him, is it? All of his friends are gone, one of them even at his own hand, he probably doesn't have any idea what to do after he destroys all the world's stories, Touma even reached his full power before he did, and his downfall is so predictable that even a blind person could see it. He even seems to welcome it, what's up with that? But then I realized... OH MY GOD, HE'S THE MAIN VILLAIN USING TOUMA AS THE HERO IN HIS OWN TWISTED STORY, THE BASTARD. He's so far gone, he's so desperate to stick it to the Almighty Book, he's willing to twist the archetype of the Hero's Journey so hard, it snaps in two. What I think is interesting is that he's ironically trying to chase the trend of "edgy superhero story" that became super popular in the 21st century. The Boys, Brightburn, Kamen Rider Amazons, The Sentry, No More Heroes, Magical Girl Site, even mainstream comics from DC and Marvel... Surely Storious must've seen the cruelty and tragedy these stories are filled with, but he chooses to go through with trying to force the world into this direction anyway. Did they, along with seeing the ever-popular tragedies of legendary playwrights and bleak satire of the twentieth century fuel his despair?

And yet... there's one who stands in determination against his ideals.

Our hero, Touma Kamiyama, the titular Kamen Rider portrayed by Syuichiro Naito and Kousuke Asai, he speaks to me on a personal level. There're plenty of jokes to be made about his procrastination in early chapters, his godless fashion sense, and him doing the funny run up the slope, that's all fine and dandy, but I rarely feel so connected to a character the way I did Touma. The struggle to create, find companionship, live your life, reach out to others... these're things a lot of people struggle with, and of course you see them depicted a lot in media about creators, but Saber gets to the root of what the greatest thing about storytelling really is. Giving people hope, while using the pain of the past as fuel for the future. Sure, Storious may be right about how every story has been done as far back as human civilization gets, he may even be right about how any spin or creativity humanity has is outright predestined. It should be pointless to even try, right? That's where Touma Kamiyama disagrees. He didn't spend all that time fighting and creating just to give up at the idea of predestination. His novel writing-fueled creativity in his early training, his devotion to his friends that let him surpass Kamijo as Dragonic Knight, his compassion for the Primitive Dragon that let him combine their powers to destroy Legeiel as Elemental Dragon, his resolve that let Xross Saber dethrone Solomon, and his passion for the craft of storytelling that let our heroes channel their wishes into Wonder Almighty... all stemming from the belief imparted onto him by his predecessor that "Hope lies beyond your resolution." And that you decide how your story ends. He may not be the greatest Rider to some, he may be as lame as others think he is, he may not even be my favorite, but I have no issue calling Touma Kamiyama... Kamen Rider Saber, one of the all time greatest carriers of the Kamen Rider name.

The final chapter's definitely not as great as some other Rider finales, but goddamn. Primitive Dragon consciously choosing to save Touma is so sweet and such a great emotional payoff, I loved jamming out to the opening theme while our boys lay the smackdown on Storious. Wonder Almighty's a fitting final bit to close the main series out with, if not exactly a great one. I think the cover is great, and the book's body is a lovely shade of candy apple red, but I really don't like how its pages are just the covers of the other books copy-pasted onto onto the pages, that feels lazy. Maybe if it were a panorama of all the books' characters, I'd like it a lot more as a symbol of how unified the Swordsmen are, but eh, what can you do? On a related note, does this mean all the "last episode extra final forms" of the Reiwa Era are gonna be named after their series's opening? That's a neat idea.

I felt a lot of feelings seeing all those video messages of Rider fans all across Japan talking about their favorite stories, and how their passion and fond memories help reshape the world. Mei's monologue at the ceremony about is also really touching and- IS THAT A HUMAGEAR!? :O

Y-yeah dude, it is! Wow, where have you guys been for the past 48 episodes?! Are you guys doing okay? How come you're like... the only one here? Is the technology of Hiden Intelligence only really that prevalent in that very specific metropolitan part of Japan and they're just not coming around much over here? Is it like Dragon Ball where anthropomorphic animals are just vibin' with humans while the heroes are off kicking ass? Apparently he's played by Hasegawa Keiichi, who wrote this episode and had the award ceremony named after him. ...is Hasegawa Keiichi a HumaGear in this universe then? Did he set up this award ceremony in Touma's honor? If so, why is it named after him? Did reading one of Touma's books lead to his Singularity? I know this is just a cameo, but... god, I have so many questions that probably will never be satisfactorily answered.

Overall, if I had to compare Saber to anything, it'd probably be Sam Reimi's Spider-Man trilogy. It's awkward, stupid, overwrought, undercooked, illogically written, scattershot, cheesy as fuck, and has a tendency to squander its otherwise fine execution; but the sheer passion for storytelling, sense of spectacle, deeply fascinating characters, and belief in the ideals set forth by the cast, crew, and fans are absolutely admirable. Improvements would certainly make it an overall better experience, to be sure, but there's something deeply captivating about how wonky this series is. Seeing everybody get their happy ending after all they've been through felt extremely gratifying though, and I may have to wait another for the epilogue to and then wait for Revice, but... man. I'm hella proud of our awkwardly-emoting, fashion disaster novelist and all of his heavily flawed friends for carrying the Kamen Rider name on to the future. Here's hoping Revice will keep it going.

Alright, that's everything I wanted to talk about. Sorry this was so long and ramble-y, I had a lot to say. I'll probably be liveblogging Revice as episodes of that come out, so... look forward to that, I guess. See ya.

#kamen rider saber #long post #tsuki talks #personal #kamen rider #whew #ok bye have a nice day

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hrh-selene-r · 5 years ago

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Celebrity/Character Crush Tag game!!

• tag; post below ten characters, musicians, or celebrities you are attracted to/love and have people assume your type.

Tagged by the Marvelous @ellelaconiwrites 😘 love ya hun!! And yes Michelle Yeoh is AMAZING. Be warned, this list comes in no particular order...so please don’t make me choose

1. Tom Hiddleston (he’s fun, cultured, smart, talented, has a great sense of humor and is good looking; not to mention that he has a boyish charm. If you think he’s a goody goody, you haven’t seen him nasty😏....plus he has a dog named Bobby 🐶)

2. Adam Driver (OF COURSE he’s on my list...I’m not an idiot.. What can I say, he’s a tall and handsome/cute drink of water, he’s also funny and goofy, but thoughtful, talented, hard working, and smart. Not to mention that he has a doggie named Moose 🐕. Of course I Stan! )

3. Cody Fern (While I’m not usually a fan of blonde men, Cody is hmm. This beautiful Aussi falls under my list of men that play with gender. There’s nothing sexier than a man that’s confident enough to play with gender. 🤤 AND!! He’s a great dresser and when he wears make up, ufff. He can be sweet, snarky and Daddy all in one. Plus he’s never boring and is talented, thoughtful.)

4. Adam Sackler & Phillip Altman (They’re both mischievous little boys trapped in men’s bodies. They’re both endearing and obnoxious, but very sweet and emotional. I also like that Adam likes to the role of a caregiver, he likes to feel needed and responsable for someone, and that makes him a good potential to be a father.)

5. Alexander Vlahos (Actor, writer, director, and cat lover. He does it all. Alex is super funny, goofy, smart, witty, handsome and beautiful. He looks good in drag or just hanging out. We have to Stan.)

6. Alexander Ludwig (He’s a gorgeous Canadian Maple, and I can’t help but make heart eyes at him.)

7. Clyde Logan (They grow them big at West Virginia! I just wanna lie on the couch with him and read a book or cook dinner. Like with Paterson -another military vet- Clyde makes you appreciate the simple life.)

8. Toby Regbo (Actor, activist and amateur drag queen. We Stan Stella Lagoon, but I like Toby more ;). He’s so intelligent and thoughtful, he reads a lot of philosophy books and also donates his time doing charity. Plus those eyes are entrancing and I just wanna have a laugh with him while staring at them all night.)

9. Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, D.O., AKA Dr. Mike. (He has to be on this list. He’s a Russian doctor, he’s handsome AF, funny, goofy and is a doggy daddy to Roxy and Bear. He also has a YouTube channel and honestly his best moments are when he’s not perfect.)

10. Jake Gyllenhaal (this is a long time coming. I don’t know if it’s his face, his eyes, his smile or his laugh, but 😍.)

Honorable mentions

Toby Grisoni (He’s a bit of a cynical asshole, but he’s a sexy AF cynical asshole. He needs someone to whip him into shape and show him a bit of humility)

Alexander Dreymon (I have no words for this beautiful German man.)

Paul Rudd (he’s been a crush of mine since the 90’s and I still adore him)

Chris Evans (That’s America’s ass ;)

Jared Leto (He’s a bit of a fuckboi but he’s an immortal one. Plus he’s fun and really smart. He contemplates things a lot and is a nature lover, he has fun with his appearance and is very creative. Plus he’s hung...I mean, there’s a reason they call it Satan...plus he’s into some sado masochist stuff. I’d try it.)

Darren Criss (I cant put my finger on it.)

Michael Langdon (He’s the son of Satan and he’s kinda sexy. He’s not always sure, and he had some help along the way, but when he finally came into his own...daaaamn.)

Nico Tortorella (I just a sucker for them. Nico is just 🤤 but they’re fun and has an adventurous soul. I am so team Josh in younger. To be clear they’re non binary.

Kylo Ren ( Complex character...need I say more. Kylo is a scholar of the force turned commander, turned Supreme Leader. He’s not evil, but also not all good -like any real person. I didn’t see enough of him to get a good grip of his personality, but that’s where we can fill the blanks -cause I can guarantee it’ll be better than whatever Disney would’ve come up with.)

Zuko (Bad guy turned good in the best way possible. Story/character wise: he’s what Kylo isn’t; a well redeemed antagonist. He fails, gets frustrated, tries to be funny but tends to be moody and humorless. But he has a soft cookie dough core underneath it all.)

James ‘Pale’ from Burn This (Jersey boy be Jersey. He’s tall, a hard worker an artist and has a motormouth. Yeah he’s obnoxious, is traumatized by his brothers death and has a cocaine habit, not to mention that he’s in a failed marriage and has issues expressing emotion, but god damn it if you can’t see the emotional vulnerability underneath.

Charlie Barber (I low key love his controlling energy. He’s probably a sub, if I’m honest. But he needs an assertive woman, the man is a controlling narcissist, so his partner can’t take his shit, has to bring him down a peg once in a while and support him, but also demand that he support them.

Sam Geggie: (Sam is a total creative power house as Gigi Goode. They’re funny and witty. I’ll be bad for them if they want. 😏. ❤️ In case you’re wondering Sam is gender fluid.)

L (So he’s basically a law breaking Sherlock Holmes. He’s actually a very engaging and intriguing character. And to be real, there’s an ego thing to being recognized by someone with his intelligence and influence.)

Bill Skarsgard (He’s beautiful.)

Sung Kang (He’s just gorgeous, and his attitude kills me.)

John Hamm (He’s masculine and traditionally handsome...plus he’s hung.)

Alexander Skarsgard (He can be my Viking any day)

Vegeta (yes I’m a dragonball fan. He is arguably the most complex character in the franchise. He is a present father and a supportive and loyal-to-fault husband. Sure he had some growing pains, but I Stan.)

Andreja Pejić (I had a crush before she came out as trans and I still have a crush on her)

Gustav Skarsgard (I cant even. There’s something there.)

Clark Gable (I don’t need to say anything, he’s just so suave and debonair.)

Kento Yamazaki (I mean c’mon. He’s cute)

Did I cheat? Maybe.. ;) Do I have a type? I don’t know, if you thinks so then leave a comment to let me know.

Tagging some friends!! @kowalskibro-adamdriverblog @ktellmeastory @adumbdryer @callmehopeless @direnightshade @commanderbensolo @tsarinastorm @jyn-z-solo @ohiobluetip @oh-adam @thomasscresswell @mind-p0llution @klauscarolove

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avengerscompound · 6 years ago

Text

Those Little Words - One

Those Little Word: A Iron Man Fanfic

Series Masterlist

Buy me a coffee with Ko-fi Word Count: 2214

Pairing: Tony Stark x F!Reader

Warnings: Age difference (not used as a kink), Dirty talk, Smut (M|F, oral sex, vaginal sex, public sex), unsupportive parents.

Synopsis: Everyone knows that Tony Stark is the textbook definition of a narcissist. So what happens when he meets someone just like him.

Those Little Words

Tony Stark is the textbook definition of a narcissist. Everyone knows that. He even knows that. He prides himself on it.

The day you met him, you had no doubts. The person this man loved most was himself. You’d just started your post-doctorate. You were an evolutionary biologist studying the sudden random mutations that had started springing up in humanity. Doctor Banner had taken you on for your first postdoctoral position. He was supervising you through Columbia. It was complicated because he didn’t technically work there, but the University had been excited having his name to your papers and he was excited because your Ph.D. thesis had the potential to be adapted to help cure his condition. You weren’t so sure, but he was the best in the field. The fact he took you under his wing was a big win for you.

So three days a week you worked directly with Bruce in his lab. A lab where you had access to blood and tissue samples of a number of different supers. They were more than happy to provide them under the proviso that they never left Bruce’s lab. Which would be fine with you, except that there was something else that wouldn’t leave Bruce’s lab.

That thing was Tony Stark.

He had come in, seemingly mid-sentence, while you were being shown around by Bruce. You were already pretty star struck. You were working with a world leader in your field who just so happened to be an Avenger. In the Avengers Tower. You’re pretty sure in the lobby you saw Captain America and now the Tony Stark just waltzes into your lab like he owns the place.

Which of course he does.

“So I thought if we just recalibrate the system to push back any time polarity is reversed, it should stabilize the core.” He says and tips a handful of raisins into his mouth. The yogurt covered kind.

You turn to look at him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. It’s like your brain just short-circuited. Here you are at work and Iron Man is just strolling around.

“That might fix the problem we’re having with Quantum Flux. You’d need to adjust for the tunneling effect.” Bruce adds.

“Who’re you talking to?” Tony says as he walks straight for you. He pokes you in the ribs with the box of raisins his holding. “Who’s the new meat? And what’s wrong with her?”

Bruce laughs and introduces you. He uses your full name plus the Doctor. You haven’t had the Doctor long and hearing it come from Doctor Bruce Banner’s mouth fills you full of pride.

“Oh yeah. Your new little protege. I heard about you. I read your papers on induced mutations. Really inspired stuff.” He says. “So are you gonna cure our little Bruce here?”

You go to speak and for a second all that comes out is a croak. You clear your throat and try again. “Thank you. That certainly isn’t the aim. I’m just trying to get a better understanding as to why these events that should be resulting in the individual’s death or at least cancers are instead giving them enhancements. If I can find a way to reverse the results the way you might cause cancer to shrink; that’s just a bonus for Doctor Banner really.”

He offers you his hand. “Tony Stark.”

You take it and shake firmly. “Never heard of you.”

He laughs. “I like her. Where are you living?”

“Columbus and West 102nd. Near the University.” You answer.

He shakes his head and gets out his phone. You see your photo for a brief moment and you think even your address. “Not anymore. The rent’s ludicrous. You’ll live here at the tower. Your own apartment of course.”

“But I can't…” You begin to protest.

He cuts you off. “It’s done. Welcome to your new home. Come see me when you’re finished in the lab and I’ll give you the tour.”

He then just strolls out of the lab like he hadn’t just thrown your life into upheaval.

“Sorry about him. He gets ideas.” Bruce says like that explains anything at all.

At the end of the day, you go to find him like he asks. The buildings AI guides you to his engineering lab. There are unfinished projects littering workbenches and suit after suit of Iron Man armor lines the walls. He’s alone and tinkering on something. “New meat.” He says, not turning around.

“Mr. Stank.” You reply.

Tony laughs and spins his chair to face you. “Did Rhodey put you up to that?”

“Rhodey?” You ask genuinely perplexed. “I just figured if you can’t use my name, fair’s fair.”

He laughs again. “What about something more familiar then?”

“What like Toby?” You ask, walking over close to him.

He puts the thing in his hand down on the bench and looks up at you. “I thought you were intimidated when we first met. You’re not at all are you?” He asks, toying with the hem of your jacket.

You feel like that should bother you. It doesn’t though. It makes a pleasant buzz creep through your skin and your scalp prickles. “Why would I be?”

He stands and assesses you. You can’t help feeling like he’s a predator circling his prey. “You can’t sleep with me you know. Since my ex, my therapist told me to take some time for personal growth.”

“Who said I wanted to sleep with you?” You ask, raising your eyebrows at him. “You’re not exactly my type.”

“Handsome, genius, billionaire, playboys aren’t your type?” He asks, getting even closer to you. “So what exactly is?”

“Men who are younger than my Dad.” You answer. Which isn’t exactly a lie. He is way out of your comfort zone for an acceptable age gap.

Only, he’s so close now. You can feel his body heat. Your body is actively betraying you. You’re tingling all over like there’s electricity passing from one of you to the other.

“Ouch. That was a low blow.” He says, his arms sliding around your back. He is so close to you now you can almost taste him.

“I can’t help the fact my dad had children young.” You reply.

He lifts you suddenly, placing you on the workbench. You start kissing. It’s wet, graphic kissing. All tongues and teeth. He bunches your skirt up and pulls your body flush against his so you can feel the press of his cock through his jeans. You drop your bag to the ground and it makes a dull thud sound.

“I thought your therapist said no sex.” You breathe, as he starts sucking a hickey on your neck.

“They’ll just make me do an extra Hail Mary,” Tony says, grinding up against you.

“That doesn’t sound like something a therapist would say.” You retort.

Tony smiles against your skin. “Did I say therapist? I meant priest.”

You laugh and start unfastening his jeans. You kiss his throat, trying to match the mark he just gave you with one of his own.

“What about your dad?” He asks.

You push his jeans and underwear down just enough to free his cock. It springs up and he grinds against you once more. “I just won’t introduce you.” You assure him.

He grabs his wallet from behind you on the bench. He pulls a condom from it and you snatch it from his hand, tearing it open. “Why would you even have this if you’re celibate?” You ask, rolling it on.

Tony kisses you, his tongue plunging into your mouth. As he kisses you he pulls you that little bit closer to you and thrusts inside of you. You gasp at the sudden invasion. Your hands go to his hair, tugging on it.

“I’m like a scout. Always come prepared.” He says. He holds you in place, his hands on your ass as he thrusts into you.

You wrap your legs around his waist. Hooking your ankles around his back. “Nice pun.” You say.

“Totally unintentional but I liked it too.” Tony agrees.

You run your hands up under the well worn Black Sabbath t-shirt he’s wearing. Your fingertips slide up his abs and onto his chest. You feel the scarring from where his Arc Reactor once sat. He flinches and you take your hands away returning them to his hair.

The chatter stops and you become two bodies, sweaty and desperate. Both chasing your release. You can’t seem to stop kissing him. Your lips start going numb from the scratch of his beard. The few times you break your kiss you just start kissing his throat instead.

You both start to pant and Tony pulls back to look at you. “You’re not going to come for me?”

“Not if that’s all you’re bringing to the table.” You pant. “And if this is your A game; people have been faking it with you a lot.”

“You are such a brat.” He scolds, pushing you back so you’re lying over his bench. Something digs into your back. You have no idea what and you don’t care. His fingers are on your clit and expertly work it, sending a jolt right through you.

You arch up suddenly crying out. “Oh fuck yes.”

Tony smirks down at you and holds you tightly by your hip. “What was that? You’re a sex god, Mr. Stark? I thought so.”

You reach up and grab his shirt dragging him down into another kiss to shut him up. You feel your orgasm crest and when it breaks your fingers dig into the muscles of his back and you tighten around him.

He growls into the kiss and bites your lips. His thrusting picks up pace. He braces his hand onto a shelf above you and everything on the bench starts shaking like there’s an earthquake happening. His hips jerk into you suddenly and he comes with a grunt.

For a moment you just stay like that. Looking up at him as he bends over you panting, his cock pulsing still inside of you. He slips out and helps you to your feet with almost no warning. You readjust your clothing as he quickly disposes of the condom and pulls his pants back up.

“Follow me.” He says, putting his sunglasses on.

You grab your bag and follow him out of the lab.

“That can’t happen again. Total one-time thing. I meant it before. I got issues.” Tony says as you both march through the hall to the elevator.

“Are you kidding me right now? I give you my virginity and this is what I get?” You say, faking offense.

Tony falters and looks back at you. You stare at him deadpan not allowing him to tell if you were joking or not. He pushes your shoulder. “Nearly got me then. Nice one.”

He calls the elevator and when you’re inside he turns to face you. “Are we cool?”

You nod. “I meant what I said.”

“Which bit?” He asks.

“That I was a virgin and now you’re honor bound to marry me.”

He starts laughing.

“The you being out of my acceptable age range for dating bit.” You clarify.

He quirks his eyebrow at you. “How old are you? 30?”

You laugh. “Try 27.”

Tony takes his glasses off and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Right. Good.”

“My dad’s 46.” You add.

“What the hell? How old was he when he had you?” Tony yelps.

“19. That’s basic maths. I thought you were a genius. I feel like I didn’t get my money’s worth just now.” You tease.

The elevator pulls up and Stark gets out and leads you down another hall. This one is less industrial and warmer. The walls are cream and the lights are set into them, giving off a soft, yellow glow. “Yeah, we’re definitely not doing that again.”

“Suits me, old man.” You agree.

“Even if it was great.” He adds, opening the door at the end of the hall. He walks in and spreads his arms out. “Here you are. Home sweet home.”

You look around in shock. All your stuff is here, set up like you had it in your old apartment. Only the bits of furniture that had been really old and needed replacing has been. Also, there’s a little more, because this place is huge. It has floor to ceiling windows and you can see the Chrysler building out of them.

“This is… this… I … what?” You babble.

“No need to thank me. FRIDAY knows you. The doors you’re allowed in will open. There’s a common area that all the Avengers hang out in two floors up. We sometimes eat as a group. You’re welcome up there too if you like. But otherwise, this is just yours. Pets are okay.” Tony says. He’s taken his glasses off and is moving around your room and rummaging through your stuff. “My only rule is if you start dating Bucky you need to tell him I was there first.”

“Thanks, old man.” You say.

“I said, don’t thank me.” He starts, heading for the door. “We cool?”

You smile at him. “Yeah, we’re cool.”

He puts his glasses back on and grins. “Welcome to the family, new meat.”

// NEXT

#tony stark #tony stark x reader #iron man #iron man fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #reader insert #smut #genius billionaire playboy philanthropist #those little words

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modernmisterdarcy · 5 years ago

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Trouble on the Horizon

As he sat across from Miss King, and the full implications of her actions began to dawn upon him. The scene had been ugly, and what was worse, there was a witness. Caroline had been quiet and fairly inconspicuous throughout the visit, but Adrian had known the King family long enough to know that the servant girl was a gossip. Though there'd only been four people present in the room during the scene, far, far more than that would know of it before the day was done. And likely the recounting of it would be embellished to sound even worse-- if possible- than it actually had been.

“No, no! Please, do stay. If you’re feeling up to it, that is,” said Miss King.

Adrian considered. While he felt more well than he had in perhaps a week or more, the shame he felt was sickening in its own right. It settled in his stomach, burning hot as any fever, and whatever appetite he might've had, had vanished utterly. He did not touch the scone offered to him, and instead demurred.

“I beg your pardon, Miss King, I have but little appetite these days,” he said stiffly.

The conversation seemed to be taking a turn for more pleasant topics, but Adrian found he was in no mood to continue. In fact, the longer he sat with Miss King, the lower his heart sank, until it resided somewhere around his ankles. As if reading his thoughts, Miss King abandoned her diatribe about agricultural chemistry to address the more pressing topic.

“Please forgive my behavior. I know I shouldn’t have, but I simply couldn’t help myself. It pained me to see the way he regarded you, and I knew you would not mar your reputation while in my presence. Yet, it was not my place; I am sorry if I offended you in any way,” said she.

Adrian forced a tight-lipped smile.

“I am well accustomed to my brother's penchant for bad behavior,” said the Duke. “However, Miss King, I must admit to being shocked at your apparent willingness to sink to his very level.” The forced smile turned a bit sad, and he met her eyes. “Forgive my saying so, but I must confess, though I believe Toby rather deserved some abuse, I am disappointed it was such a fine lady as you whom meted it out to him.”

With that, the Duke took up his walking-stick.

“I believe I have overstayed my welcome today, Miss King. I should be going.” He stood with a little trepidation, and took up his hat, bowing and tipping it to her. “I wish you good day, madam. I shall... show myself out.”

With that, the Duke went out to his carriage, feeling far heavier in his chest than he would have thought possible. During the short ride home, he reviewed the ugly scene in his mind, wondering what had caused Toby to suddenly behave like a commoner in a pub, and why on God's green earth did Miss King respond in kind? And further, why was Adrian so upset about it? He felt near tears when he arrived at his own home, and immediately sat down at his writing-desk to pen a note to the Earl. Rather he hear it from a friend, first, before the gossip reached him.

My dear Alexandros,

I am compelled to write you on a very serious and unfortunate matter. It so happens that, during our visit this afternoon, words transpired between my brother Tobias and your daughter.

My brother was behaving in his usual manner, though something about Miss King's presence inspired in him even greater depths of vulgarity and insolence. Truly I have never witnessed him behave so badly in mixed company before, making remarks of such a base and sexual nature as to shock me to my core. I declare I nearly fainted.

Even more shocking, however, was that Tobias provoked your daughter to respond in kind. Having thought her a charming and genteel young lady, I am perplexed by her behavior this afternoon. She behaved almost as badly as Tobias, in the end. I can only think that her rearing in the country was far coarser than we can imagine.

I implore you, my dear friend, to have a very serious talk with Miss King. I confess I had come to admire her, however, my admiration has been dimmed. I cannot abide by such shocking behavior, even in such an intimate gathering as we had. Your maidservant, Caroline, was witness to the entire affair. I thought it best you have the news from me before it reached you via the usual gossip channels. No doubt the story will be distorted as it travels. One can only imagine what people will hear transpired today.

Be well, my friend,

Sincerely,

Adrian

The Duke had his note to the Earl posted immediately, and retired to the library to rest, and read, and try for a time to forget the whole ugly affair.

Meanwhile, in a pub across town, Tobias was very drunk, and having a very good time recounting the tale to a group of lascivious listeners. For his own part, Toby was deeply upset by the whole situation, and could only cope by making light of it.

For he had, at first, hated Miss King. He thought her a dull and simpering sort of creature who only wanted to impress the Duke because she knew he was a bachelor. Then, he had seen a glimmer of genuine caring for Adrian, a sort of tender response to the Duke's condition, a genuine regard for his personage, which was bad enough, to see a lady beginning to feel something for his brother. But then he had seen Adrian respond to her, with sparkling regard in his eyes, and how the Duke paid her more mind than he had paid any girl in ages, and it inspired in Toby a perverse species of jealousy. How dare she earn his brother's positive regard when Toby, his own brother, never had it in the first place? It wasn't fair, and it was this twisted jealous feeling which had provoked his wretched behavior.

Then, to make matters worse, Eirene had gone and endeared herself to Toby.

It was the most baffling thing. One moment, he had halfway hated the girl and cared not a whit for her; the next moment, after she showed her razor-sharp wit and positively wild disregard for social custom, Tobias felt a glimmer of positive regard for her in his heart. He felt it even more keenly when he saw how shocked and appalled his brother had been. He thought of how angry Eirene had been, how positively incensed, and Toby wanted nothing more than to see her again, and see how quickly again he could bring out that careless, rebellious streak in her.

The pub patrons roared with laughter as Tobias recounted the rather bawdy exchanged between them, embellishing, of course, wherever he could. It kicked off a round of the other patrons telling their favorite stories of vulgar flirtations with their favorite belles, which carried them well into the evening. Around seven o'clock, however, Tobias made a point of going home, for he wished to see Adrian before he went to sleep, anticipating a rousing fight with him.

But Toby returned to find his brother so distracted and depressed that he had but little enthusiasm for fighting with Toby.

“I am but deeply, desperately disappointed in you, boy,” said the Duke, gazing into the fire. “I have never been so ashamed to call you my brother.”

“I'm sorry--” Toby began, but Adrian cut him off with a sharp shake of his head.

“You can say nothing to mollify me. Get out of my sight.”

Get out of my sight, cut Tobias like a knife. More often than not, Adrian was more than willing to fight with him, but to be cast aside like a bit of rubbish was almost more than Toby could bear. He had hoped for a rousing argument, but instead, got nothing. Tobias skulked off to his room, and settled into bed with a nip of brandy, dozing off far earlier than usual.

Over the next week or so, there was a pall over the Wolfe house. Adrian's depression never lifted. In fact, the closer they came to Miss King's party, the less enthusiasm the Duke had for anything.

Truly, Adrian was dreading the party. He hadn't the nerve to call on Miss King in the interim, and he would've preferred not to attend at all. But he must. He and the Earl were close friends, and for Adrian not to be in attendance at his daughter's coming-out party would have raised far too many eyebrows. It would have been presumed there was something amiss between the Duke and his friend, rather than the Duke wanting to avoid the daughter.

Instead, Adrian promised himself he'd only speak to Miss King as much as decorum dictated he must. He would be civil, he would be gentle, and he would not, under any circumstances, allow her to cause certain feelings to be rekindled in his heart.

“Upon my word, Tobias,” said Adrian, in the carriage on the way to Miss King's party, “I can smell the wine on you already.”

“I must take it for my nerves,” said Tobias, joking, but without mirth. “You ought to try it sometime, it'll loosen you up, old boy.”

“What? And risk acting like you? Not hardly,” the Duke sniffed.

“No need to be unkind, Adrian,” said Toby, sipping from a flask he'd stowed in his jacket. “Would you like a nip? You look pale.”

“I always look pale, you great ruddy git,” Adrian snapped, feeling rankled far sooner than he ought to have. It had been a trying week on his nerves, and Toby reminding him that he was ill and pathetic helped him not at all. “Please keep your remarks to yourself if you cannot say anything polite or useful.”

“Oh, but wouldn't that detract from my roguish charm?” said Tobias.

“It'd detract from your reputation of being an utter ass,” parried the Duke. “Do please try tonight, Toby, I beg of you. Be on your good behavior. Do not embarrass me!”

“Would that I could promise you anything of the kind. But I've told you before, old boy, I... I cannot control myself.” Toby gazed out the window at the approaching King house. “When I go out, my tongue runs riot, and it is as if I am watching from outside myself while every wrong word comes out of me. At times, I wish I were dead rather than go on this way.”

“Tobias! You mustn't say such things,” Adrian scolded, discomfited by his brother's sudden vulnerability. “Pull yourself together, we're here.”

With that, the carriage came to a halt. The footman opened the door, and held the Duke's arm to steady him as he disembarked. Toby came behind him, and they were shown up the front steps of the King house. The Duke, for his own part, was determined to recover the lost goodwill between himself and Miss King to whatever extent possible, while Toby, with his blood already warm, sensed that he was about to do or say something disastrous. His hatred for Miss King, his complex and amorphous hatred of her beautiful face, her charming laugh, her vivacious personality, and her love for his brother, was coiled within him, like a snake. He could sense it within him, waiting to strike, and that wretched propensity to say and do the wrong thing in every moment sat beside, the perfect co-conspirator for trouble on this very important night.

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thirstyhscwriter · 7 years ago

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Hotter than Hell Eric/OC II University AU II Part Nine

It’s been a long time since I posted but this has been waiting to be finished for a while, and I finally have time to get around to it. So, here you go, much much too late.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Whole Story.

For anyone who’s found me recently, or never heard of me before, here is a master list of some of my favourite works, feel free to check them out.

As always, I am constantly taking prompts, feedback, or anything else you want to send my way.

Up until now, she had been losing, handing herself over to Eric entirely. In her mind, it had been worth it, to feel his power, his raw strength. She submitted to him because she was so in awe of the way he took control. She was not, however, content to do that anymore. She wanted more. She wanted to see him squirm, see him work for her. Somehow she had become locked in a sick game with Eric, and it was a game she wanted to start to win.

Win she would, he had no idea what he was in for. He saw only a student, attractive, intelligent, but breakable. He had no idea just how much she could make him pay. He had taken for granted that she wanted him, were not in control of herself around him. But now she intended to switch the power. She wanted to see him beg.

Class had started, but she was waiting in the bathrooms. When she entered she wanted to be sure he would be there, would see her. She had dressed in a way she knew he could not ignore, hair curled and up, exposing her neck, which had been his go-to since the first time they had fucked. She had her cleavage out, a dare to him to try and take what she knew he craved, every aspect of what she was wearing had been planned to drive him mad.

One last look in the mirror to calm herself, to strengthen her resolve, she would have to be clever about this, be stronger than she had been with him before. Today she didn’t just want to get his body, she wanted to win his respect.

Finally, she could not leave it any longer. With a steady breath, she moved through the door. Toby had been kicked out of the class, so she had no support, no one she knew to try and hide behind. Instead, she walked with confidence, taking a seat right at the front of the class. She felt his eyes on her the entire time she moved, watching the slow sway of his hips. When she finally looked up she found a look in his eyes she recognised, dark and predatory, it was the promise of a hundred things she was terrified to want but desperate to unlock.

She met his gaze with confidence. Well then, she thought, let the games begin.

She left class quickly, not letting him catch her. This was integral to her plan. The entire lesson she had been engaged, maintaining eye contact, rubbing her neck, leaning over to draw his eye in just the right way. More importantly, she had argued with him at every point, even if she agreed, sparking his anger, which she knew by now was linked so closely to his arousal. Any opinion she knew he would hate she supported, just to see how riled up she could get him.

No doubt he had thought Lee would hang around, wait for his response when she was alone, he had certainly appeared to be taking his time packing up, but she knew better, she was gone before he had a chance to catch her.

Now, however, she was unsure what to expect. Everything had seemed so well thought out up until this point, leaving him wanting more. It had never occurred to her that she had no way to enjoy his suffering, no way to ensure he would come for her again. What if he was already bored of her games? What if he had found someone else to play with? What if he hadn’t actually been affected by her performance before? What had she expected to happen next?

She was interrupted from her train of thought by a knock. The lecturer broke off halfway through his boring rant to stare with shock at the door as an imposing figure moved through it. Even in the face of someone who should have been his superior Eric radiated confidence.

“Sorry Johnson.” He spoke with the utmost confidence, “I need to borrow one of your students. You know I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t important.” He did not wait for the lecturer’s response gesturing for her to follow him. She did, having to fight to keep the smile off his face. This had worked even better than she had hoped.

His hand grabbed her arm as soon as they were out of the sight of the class, fingers digging hard into her skin. He marched so quickly she was not sure she could keep up, pulling her towards his office as if his life depended on it.

He all but threw her through the door, closing and locking it behind them.

“What’s so urgent you couldn’t wait for my class to finish.” She asked him, leaning against his desk, arms crossed, He pushed towards her, hands coming to rest at either side of her, forcing her close to him.

“Don’t play games with me. You’re not good enough at it.” He hissed, dangerous eyes meeting her own.

“Aren’t I?” His annoyance was written all over his face if nothing else she had gotten to him, and that was a start. It wasn’t enough, but it was a start.

“I’ll admit, your little performance this morning was… frustrating, but you know as well as I do, your mine, I can have you whenever I want you.” He lifted his hands to stroke her waist, eyes floating down the breast that was out on display, his touch, his gaze, was possessive, breathing so heavy she could feel it against the sensitive skin on her chest.

She lifted her hand, pushing his own away from her, “Maybe once, but I don’t want that anymore, I’m perfectly happy to turn you down.”

“What is it you want?” His fingers caught her legs, lifting her onto his desk as his lips made their way down her neck “You want it hard?” His kissed his way up to her ear, voice low, filled with the promise of everything he wanted to do to her. “I already give that to you.” His hands pulled her hard, pressing his hips to her own, fabric against fabric, making her wish she could tear the clothes away, “You want to make me work for it? Congratulations you have. But don’t fucking lie to me.” He pulled his lips from her, eyes staring into her own has he caught her face between his hands. She tried to look defiant, disinterested. There was something in his gaze, however, a look of victory that scared her. He had an idea, an idea he was proud of.”

He pressed her down, forcing her to lie against his desk as he slowly kissed his way down her body, lips on her neck, her collar, her breasts. He was hard, and unforgiving, sucking and biting, leaving a trail of heat as he slowly peeled away every layer of her clothes. She should have pushed him away, but she was enjoying it too much and were much too curious to know what he had planned to allow him to escape. She could do little more than wrap her hands in his hair, pulling his lips harder against her.

When his lips finally hit her hips she knew she was in trouble. He bit down hard on the skin there, forcing her to cry out, lifting her hips to him, allowing him to remove the underwear the guarded his prize, and lift her core to his lips.

That had always been the greatest part about Eric, the way he found a rhythm that matched hers so perfectly, sex with him was an argument, a debate, his lips, his tongue and his fingers worked perfectly to pull down her defences, exposing her very core to him.

His hands dug into her ass, lifting her off the desk completely, pushing himself harder against her, her toes curled, and her hips rolled. Her hands pulled at his hair, egging him on, as her lips parted crying with absolute delight at the waves he was sending through her, starting at his lips and moving across her whole body.

It was that feeling, that deep cry from right at her core, that bought her back to her senses. This could not continue. He would not win, not this time.

It took all her strength to pull his head away from her, pulling her hips out of his reach. She used a foot against his chest to push him further away. Heavy breaths made it hard for her to concentrate, desperately fighting the temptation to pull him towards her, to make him continue. She could see the same desire in his eyes, they struggled to focus as they looked at her in confusion. The desire in his eyes, however, had nothing on the very obvious desire that lay at his own hips.

“What do I want?” She asked him, sitting up to pull her skirt back down. “To start with you can get Toby back into class. Then, maybe, we can talk.” Her eyes lowered to his hips, a very obvious hint, before she lifted herself up, trying to appear much more composed than she actually was.

She walked out of his door with her head held high, collapsing as soon as she was around the corner. That had taken all the strength she had. Straightening up she realised with a start that she had left something behind. As her hand drifted between her legs to find bare skin, her underpants abandoned, forgotten, somewhere on the floor of his office.

#eric divergent fic #eric imagines #eric divergent imagine #eric divergent #eric fic #eric imagine #hotter than hell #hotter than hell part 9 #hthp9 #hth #multi

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2by1977brokenme · 4 years ago

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PJE #72 ~ 11.27.2021 ~ Toby Arthur ~

Laying here with ice packs on my ass,

So cold and numbing as I feel it cooling down my legs. Yes weird I know. But damn it feels good. I hurt in my shoulder belittled that just has to wait for now. I have to be able to walk tonight. I can’t get to hurting. So now I’m numbing myself in hopes it’ll be good enough for 4-5 hours. I fucking hate living like this. Fucking icing down and stretching feels like all I do some days. Fucking shoulder is fucked up. 😡Docs are saying surgery is the only fix. That’s not good. It is and has been painful for over a year now. I’ve put that on the back burning and just pushed through the pain. I go to the do for it and tell them I don’t want and fucking pain meds Bc I don’t sign contracts. Fuck those life controlling contracts. I’ve signed enough of those. I’ll never sign another. Fuck that. What I take now gives me withdrawals if I miss a dose and it’s not a opioid/narcotic. I fucking hate that withdrawal feeling. It’s one of the worst feels ever. To say u feel hungover with flu like symptoms tells me you’ve never experienced hard core withdrawal, ever. Bc it’s FUCKING AWFUL. I have notes recorded from when I was going through it. Nursing notes. Sometimes I’ll go back and read them. …. I might post them here. Idk yet. Anyways, that’s it for now I guess. Ya’ll read this give me a like. Smile and have a good day! ~ TobyA29 (2by1977) *ALL WORK MINE*

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rheaitis · 7 years ago

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Writing has been #difficult this week. I was gonna write about my own mental state as part of Mental Health Awareness Month, but apparently I'm not well enough to be able to write that stuff out for strangers yet. Moving on, then.

Today marks the first day of US Pride Month, so the five media posts this month are all gonna be queer as hell. And, like, happy; no dead queers here, so buckle in that rainbow seatbelt, cause this is gonna be one gay-ass ride.

Today's media is some 38 episodes long, and both diverse and diversely queer. It's got transformative work, it's got early eighteenth-century politics, it's got pirates, it's got treasure, it's got lesbians and bi women and genderqueer historical figures, it's got long-term committed poly folk, it's got blood, it's got gore, it's got amaaaazing black women ruling their own communities with care and compassion, it's got disabled folk being given focus and allowed agency, it's got conspiracies and alliances and mentoring between people of all genders and generations, it's got really lovely cinematography and music, it's got Toby Stephens' fabulous micro-expressions.

That's right, gentlefolk, today's media consumption is Black Sails. This is more of a weekend binge project, or a month-long thing if you're inclined to be sensible about things. It is also aimed at creasedknees, because I want her to watch it so we can squee.

Black Sails is a prequel of sorts to Treasure Island, dealing with the adventure that leads to the discovery and burial of that treasure. It takes up Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) and of course John Silver (Luke Arnold) from the novel, and peoples itself with various fictional and fictionalised historical figures of the time, most significantly Jack Racham, Anne Bonny, and Charles Vane, who function as foils to our heroes throughout the show. I'm going to talk about them in just a bit but first Our Hero Captain James Flint, whom I adore entirely. (I want to like John Silver, but as in the novel Silver is a marvelously done character, without ever being someone it's safe to trust wholeheartedly or really at all.)

Captain Flint kills someone in the very first episode, and he doesn't actually get any nicer. (Even that killing is preceded by the pirate crew taking a ship with due savagery, so if you dislike gore I sadly cannot recommend watching this series.) In fact he escalates considerably, up from individual acts of piracy to cannonades directed at cities, and the show doesn't particularly gloss over this violence or the human cost entailed. Flint is the most consistently Slytherin character I have ever seen (and the fact that he resembles his mother to the last and most infinitesimal degree is often jarring): a man of vaulting ambition and enormous rage, with a capacity to hold onto grudges undiminished over a decade and longer. I love him. I love him absolutely, and not just because he is so wonderfully tender with all the women around him without ever doubting or trivialising their personhoods or capacity for doing what they set hands and minds to, though that is admittedly a very large part of why. Flint is always furious, always hurting, always ruthless with himself and his crew and associates, groaning away from a primal wound.

Primal wounds are maybe a good way to talk about this show without showering people with spoilers, as so many of the main characters have such wounds, inflicted by living in systems characterised by ills ranging from slave trafficking, bonded labour, debt prisons, early marriage, sexual violence, weaponised misogyny and institutionalised homophobia, and too often and deeply realistically by the rutted interstices of such injustice. Again realistically, the show's leads do not emerge from these experiences as noble crusaders, but rather as a den of Slytherins desperate to get ahead in whatsoever manner they can, and find whatever they think of as safe harbour: from Max (one of the characters original to the show and superbly played by Jessica Parker Kennedy) who wants to leave behind her miserable childhood and exploited adulthood by gaining entry into the Big House where life is soft and easy, to Madi who wants to lead her enslaved people into liberty, to Rackham who wants to make his mark on the world through narrative instead of having his story told as one of crushing poverty and debt. Our villains have stories as well, but even the few delineated in any detail are effectively subsumed in the institutional machines of which they are privileged cogs.

But important as all these stories are in motivating and substantiating the show, Flint's is the wound at the core of Black Sails. There are problems with this centering of white queer trauma in a show that, set in West Indies, could and almost certainly ought to have instead centered PoC and enslavement. It does deal with these issues, and inarguably allows Max and Madi Scott together as much space as Flint. Still, one has to accept at the start that this is a show about queer resistance that includes other aspects of marginalisation, rather than being a show of marginalised resistance against the institutions perpetrating and perpetuation said marginalisations. Significantly, Max and Mr. Scott are not initially characterised as being interested in working towards liberation, but the viewer complaints about the slow reveal of Mr. Scott's plans in this regard seem as facile as the screaming about Flint being queer.

I can go on about this show endlessly, as T, poor child, can easily testify, because I love everything about it, from the cinematography, to the gore, to the wlw relationships and just Anne Bonny queen of my heart and every violent impulse. And I do think that if I was a better person I would dwell longer on the gorgeous and deeply complex relationships between Charles Vane, Jack Rackham Anne Bonny and Max, and how I want them all to be alive and married but for Charles and Max to never ever ever touch, OR for Charles to scrub himself raw and bleeding before he's ever allowed to be near Max, and also Max's brilliance and subtlety and compassion and ruthlessness, how she's clung on to kindness in a deeply unkind existence and how that in no way signifies a lack of Nature, red in tooth and claw, and the way her change of clothing reflects and reiterates her change of status and and just. Her faaace, her golden glowing beauty and that heart-stopping smile. But the thing is my interests were set early and I imprinted on exactly one sort of character as a child and I continue to love them more than anything, and much as I adore Max, and much as I worship Madi Scott's regal compassion and strategic mind and her trust in and friendship with Flint and her renewed affection for Eleanor (whom I love also! and who is so sharp and such a merchant-prince and so tramelled by her gender), well. Look. I love Flint. I love his anger, and his sorrow, and his everything. I think it's remarkable how Flint’s story goes from Achillean (my lover is dead I will go to war, my lover is dead I will burn down this town, fight this empire, challenge fate/gods) to Odyssean (I am home from the wars and here is my lover who has longed for me as I for him). But what I love the most is how in a story that is almost entirely about stories and how and when and by whom they are told, Flint gets to say, angry and wounded and betrayed again,

This is how they survive. You must know this. You're too smart not to know this. They paint the world full of shadows... and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn't true. We can prove that it isn't true. In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it.

I love it so much, so intensely, so much more than Rackham's playing around with narratival style and truth, I love my sad bi ginger pirate uncle, and so would you if you gave the show a chance. It's all on directseries.net, at fairly good quality, with subtitles and everything. Please pretty please?

#Black Sails

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artificialqueens · 8 years ago

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Church of the Poison mind Ch. 6 (Trixya) - Dahlia

AN: I’m so sorry I’m trash and keep saying I’m gonna post things and then posting them late!!!!! ANYWAY, I slaved over this chapter, but it literally WOULD NOT have gotten done without Lale helping me navigate the ENTIRE exposition, thank you from the bottom the of my soul, sweet angel. And thank you Matilda for being such a sweet lady, and my BABY BROTHER Dannyohd for being PRECIOUS always.

Words flew around the room like picture frames thrown from her mother’s grasp, shattered images and broken glass. Bright lights, headlights, leaving, pulling out of the driveway and peeling down the dark street. Leaving. One left physically, while the other emotionally, leaving Trixie orphaned among the ruins of her home. And with no one around to tell her to be careful around the sharp edges, she found herself falling, skinning her palms and knees.

“This is your fault, you knew about this. You let him destroy me, like I’m some kind of fool. ”

Trixie could not recount how many times she had covered for him, how many lies had threaded out of her in those two years, stitching new truths down the patchwork of her wrinkled clothing. She’d convinced herself it was better that way, no, maybe he’d convinced her. Either way, she couldn’t tell. Her life had become so dizzied, that most days, she found herself tripping over the words that had been fed to her. Maybe, just maybe, she’d spent so long denying her mother the truth, that she’d begun to deny it herself; but like most lies, too big and too grand to keep track of, the truth was a cruel inevitability.

“How could you be so stupid? What kind of daughter are you?”

All of those years spent as a pawn in her parents marriage had never made her any better at chess, or anything she might’ve liked, like singing, or birdwatching. She did however, become proficient in operating the inner workings of her broken home. She became a duplicitous messenger, choice words echoing through her as she traveled from one parent to the other.

“We have to leave, we have to leave here. He’s letting it foreclose, he’s letting the house foreclose. I’ve got nothing left Trixie, I’ve got nothing left to give you.”

She hadn’t asked for much. And most nights, she felt contented in the hunger, both the emotional and physical. The reaping weight of her mother’s illness crept inside her bones, nestled in between the stuffed bears and plastic dollies; and she grew hollow, barely sustained.

“ Men are pigs. All he cares about is getting laid. He doesn’t care about you Trixie, as long as he has his little slut, he doesn’t care.”

Years flew by as mistress became misses. A marriage proposal, a new step-family, a big shiny house in the suburbs with a yard for the dog. He was still around, for holidays and weekends, summer vacations from grade six, all the way up to grade ten. And despite the toxic sting of her mother’s words, Trixie secretly relaxed into those weekends of peace; without her mother’s near constant lamenting, where Trixie could pretend to be anybody but herself. And while her father progressed, satisfied with his new lodgings, her mother regressed, an empty shell of the mother she once was.

"Trixie please, I didn’t mean that. No one wants me, please Trixie don’t cry, please, don’t leave me, you’re all I have left.”

And Trixie found herself at fifteen years old, unable to abandon her mother, staring foreclosure in the face.

—

Her dreams twisted with the seductive hook of Katya’s stare, a glaring reflection of her own needs and wants. And an aching necessity nestled in between her fingers, the spaces crying out, desperate for fulfillment. It had taken every ounce of Trixie’s willpower not touch her lips again, to taste them. She sat imagining the espresso on her tongue, overwhelmed by those ruby lipped, cardamom fantasies; and the taste of Katya’s morning cigarette still fresh on her full lips, stale by midafternoon. She hoped and prayed reality could carry her there, to that place, in those sparse moments where actuality dwindled.

Trixie bit into a crisp cortland apple, ripe with the season, and it’s juicy fullness issued from the corners of her mouth. She upturned them, pulled them into a grin at the sight of Katya, on the tips of her toes, reaching to scrawl across the top of the board. The skirt of her dress rode up, just above the knees, and Trixie willed it with her eyes, implored it to keep rising.

As her top teeth continued to skim across the skin of the apple, Katya turned to eye her, and shot a disapproving glance. Katya had reminded her time and again that there was to be no eating in class, but Trixie liked to test boundaries lately; being teacher’s favorite had its perks. She winked in response, and sunk her teeth in, the bright red clashing with the pink of her lips. Trixie let her tongue tease down the surface of the fruit, catching tart pearls of juice that trickled down. And Katya, flustered, turned away from her, while a certain, giddy pride rose in Trixie’s chest.

She wondered how long they could keep up this charade before people started to notice; Trixie stopped for a moment to scan the room, but instead of watching eyes, she was met with drooping faces and bowed heads. Typical for an afternoon class, as the caffeine crash was likely to have just settled in. Relieved, she continued her pursuit on the apple, losing herself in Katya’s words.

She lost a lot of herself in those days, she felt different somehow, changed.

1 missed call.

On her way out of class, she tossed it’s core in a nearby bin, and licked the sticky sweetness from her fingers. Katya flagged her down, catching her halfway down the hall, and Trixie turned to face her, pulling her index finger slowly from parted lips. Trixie could see the frenzy in her eyes, could feel the tension rising from the taut pull of Katya’s lean thighs. She let her eyes wander down, and then back up, smirking.

“Is this gonna become habit for you, you stopping me after every class?”

“Probably.”

“I’m okay with that,” Trixie offered, leaning in a bit closer.

“I didn’t ask your permission.”

Katya smirked into her words, her fingers drumming against the binder she’d tucked under her arm. And Trixie, near weak in the knees, tried her best to keep upright, the sheer of her flirtation fading into blushed cheeks.

“I stopped you because I thought you may want your purse back,” Katya continued.

“My purse?”

“Yes, yesterday, my little glamorous trash rat, you leave it in my backseat! You don’t notice?”

She’d been so caught up in fantasy that she’d hardly noticed its absence from her shoulder. Hot nerves prickled beneath her skin as she kept time with Katya’s steps, and she looked down at her shoes, lest she trip and embarrass herself further.

“Right! Right, my purse. Well, lead the way, freak.”

“You know, Tina, you really should treat me with more respect. With that paper due Friday, it would seem as though I have much power over you.”

“Well, lucky for you, I have a thing for submission.”

Trixie regret the words immediately as they left her lips, and suddenly, she could feel Katya’s excited eyes on her cheeks. Attempting to conceal the redness, Trixie’s hands met her own face in embarrassment.

“I’m sorry,” Trixie mouthed, reeling, “I- I don’t know why I said that.”

“Has anyone ever told you, you’re a huge dork, Tracy?”

“Pretty much my whole life, yeah.”

They headed down the hall, passed the third corridor, and hooked a right just before the marble steps. Trixie sped up ahead of her, but instead of catching the door, she stopped, slowed. She paused for a moment before the threshold, allowing Katya to breeze passed her, and as she did, Trixie quietly took in Katya’s perfume; warm notes of tobacco and cinnamon crept into the airspace around her. And Katya, a bit shorter than she, held out the door while Trixie ducked under her arm with a brief nod of thanks.

With home tucked far away, in recesses of her mind, she came to a startling realization. Things really were changing, a revolution had been raging all of this time unnoticed, just beneath the surface of her skin. It had been such a simple thing, but rang magnificent then, in that small space with Katya. She’d spent her entire life opening doors for other people; and as she stepped down the stairs into the sunlight, the thought occurred to her. If the sun could love her skin, why couldn’t she? If she could put others before her, why not herself?

She looked down at her phone, 3 missed calls.

As they approached Katya’s car, under cover of trees at the far end of the professor’s lot, she was reminded of how improper it all was, and conflict echoed through her; but somehow, rounding the passenger’s side and leaning against the warped metal, a sense of comfort washed over her. Leaving class with Katya, perfumed in her surrounding, felt as natural as breathing.

“Oh, shit! Shit, shit, shit!” Katya said, her arms flying up into the air.

“Yeah, your car is a piece of shit. You should do something about that,” Trixie retorted.

“No, not the car, you chicken! Leave Barbara alone, she is real strong dyke and she does not need your sass.”

“What, then?”

“Your purse, I’m very sorry, Toby,” she feigned, the back of her hand to her forehead, “I must’ve… brought it in house and forgotten it! Silly me!”

“Oh right, you,” Trixie pulled her fingers into quotations, grinning from ear to ear, “forgot it. Completely on accident.”

“I am just big dumb girl!”

Katya paused for a moment, her exasperation curling into a smile, and she walked around the side of the car, throwing herself into the driver’s seat. She shoved her key in the ignition and it thundered to life; leaning across the center console, her gleaming smile appeared from behind the sinking window.

“Seeing as we are both here now,” she continued, “I might as well give you ride home. I’m sure my girl Barb missed your ass on her seats.”

“How convenient,” Trixie said, pulling the car door open before her.

She slid in smoothly, kicking garbage out from underneath her feet.

“I will remember to bring purse of yours tomorrow, it is promise!”

“I won’t hold my breath.”

—

The night had been long and riddled with thoughts of Katya as Trixie lie awake, counting the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling. She could still see their ghostly glow behind her eyelids, could still feel the twinge of tainted dreams and ill conceived wishes. Her thoughts were cruel, but wise. If she was to make it through this year, she had stop willing the stars to shoot across her ceiling, because no amount of wishing was going to bring Katya back into her arms. She had her college career to think about, Katya’s career, and with a bold new dawn, she promised herself no more pining.

As the day faded into late afternoon, and her classes came and went, Trixie mentally prepared herself for Chemistry class, not to mention the ever present chemistry that rested between them. The smell of Katya’s car, the leather seats and empty coffee cups, ran vivid through her memories; and she closed her eyes, lived in that imagining, before shaking its warm embrace and leaving that vision in the hallway behind her. She felt brave, sleepy, but renewed, until of course, she walked through the door.

There she was, hellbent and devilish, her hair tied up into a messy french twist. She was bent over the edge of the desk, brilliant eyes narrowed on a stack of papers at the far end, and as her body straightened upright, Trixie lost all sense of awareness. Hips and thighs, wrapped criminally in a tight pencil skirt, red glasses, red shoes,red lips. Katya’s heels clicked across the tiled floor, and Trixie, blocking the doorway, could practically feel Katya walking all over her chest. Katya moved toward the coat rack, and pulled on her lab coat slowly, smoothing the fabric down around her waist. Those hands, those soft, fervent hands, trailed passed the back of her skirt, and followed the contours of her body down the length of the coat. And Katya paused for a moment, her eyes meeting Trixie’s, allowing a fiendish smile to befall her lips.

“You’re here early,” Katya offered, turning away from Trixie to fetch a few beakers from a nearby cabinet. She nibbled lightly at the eraser of a pencil while she worked, arranging and tidying, sifting through papers in search of a spark wheel.

“I- uh, I mean, yeah. Just a few minutes, I think.”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re fifteen minutes early, Tracy.”

“I- yes, that would be correct.”

Trixie couldn’t help the sudden flood of embarrassment over the skin of her arms, as goosebumps rose on the surface, like tiny, silent prayers. She didn’t really know why she had gotten there so early, maybe she’d just been quietly hoping Katya would already be there. They stood in silence for a moment, and Katya peered up at Trixie from under her glasses.

“Well?” Katya questioned, her words hanging in the air, strong and biting, quite like her perfume.

Trixie might as well have been drooling.

“Is there something you need, Talullah?”

You. Bent over that desk. Now.

“Need, I- um, yes! My purse, I thought you might have my purse today. I kind of need my debit card back, the whole ‘I forgot my wallet’ excuse hasn’t worked with Kim in like, a really long time…”

“SHIT. I am very sorry, my sincerest apologies. We’ll have to make quick detour today to my apartment,Talullah. I could give you ride home again today, yes? If… if that is okay with you?”

“Is there a reason you’re holding my personal effects hostage?”

“You mean other than steal your identity and drain bank accounts?”

“Could it be to… lure me into your apartment?” Trixie teased, nerves still latent in the fresh sweat on the back of her neck.

“No, never,” Katya looked over her shoulder suggestively, “that would be inappropriate.”

“Oh, and you driving me home everyday, isn’t?”

“Is it my fault your ass is drawn to Barb’s seat like magnet? The sexual tension between you two transcends my ability to intervene,Tracy. Plus, that would be catastrophic wrongdoing to the heavens, and I cannot have that cosmic blood on my hands!”

“And you say I’m the dork?” Trixie threw, playfully.

“Do you always follow questions with more questions?”

“Do I?”

—

Trixie eyed Katya’s hand resting over the center console, and had to fight with every ounce of her being to avoid it’s imminent pull on her fingers. She could feel herself falling harder and harder into Katya’s temptation by the day, but it was more than just her body that had Trixie on edge. Her laugh, her scent, the silhouette of her face as it flickered into view in the light of the moving car. Katya, catching Trixie’s eyes on her, adjusted her glasses, sneaking a peak in her direction.

Her phone again, 7 missed calls. She turned it off.

“Wait a minute…” Trixie said, turning to look behind her as she slid off her cardigan and threw it in the back seat, “are you, are you getting on the bridge?”

“Yes… why?”

“You mean to tell me that you live across the bridge? You said my house was on your way?”

“Well, it is…”

“Katya, my house is twenty minutes in the other direction!”

“Oh, is it?” Katya’s cheeks lit up, as bright red as her lips, “I had not noticed…”

Trixie and Katya both fell into laughter, their shoulders bouncing up and down with the movement of the car. It was an old car, and quite weathered, but bounced sturdily over the potholes that Katya felt unnecessary to avoid. Trixie traced the ribboned edge of the leather trimmed seat with a shaky index finger, the tip of her nail falling into shallow cuts and cracks. Their laughter faded slowly into soft blushing, and Trixie again fought the urge to let her hand drift over to Katya’s.

Everything had happened so fast, so suddenly, quite like an illness, ravishing parts of her body she had forgotten existed. She couldn’t tell what the pull was, or where it had stemmed from, the feeling was near indescribable; but there was an aching need to be closer, to speak sweeter. Not only to touch, but to listen, to brave the inner workings of what blossomed between them.

Katya pulled her car off of the main highway with a sharp turn of the steering wheel, and slipped down a side street, which wound haphazardly around a large grouping of pine trees. The road crescendoed into a more residential setting, and while they were far apart, small houses began popping up in between the grassy clearings. They slowed a bit then, and Katya indicated a left turn toward a rocky driveway.

“Well, this is me!” Katya said, pulling in sharply.

“It’s beautiful…”

“Please say you’ll come in? Just a… few minutes? Maybe we could have that coffee you suggested other day?”

Trixie bit her lip, swallowing a lump in her throat. She felt suddenly nervous.

“I’d like that.”

Katya’s car puttered to a stop, resting before a big blue house covered in swathes of creeping ivy. Thin, spindly vines of dormant trumpet-creepers clung to the tall wooden fence, overgrown and dangling. And as they hopped out of the car and began down the graveled pathway, Trixie had to duck to escape them tangling in her hair. Katya stopped just before the door, and turned to face Trixie, pulling a few dried leaves from Trixie’s curls. And the two of them laughed as they pictured them like tiny stowaway passengers, just trying to hitch a ride.

It was a large house, but divided down the middle, allowing for two completely separate, but adjoined apartments. The back door opened into a living room, eclectic and lush, sprawling with potted plants and indoor ivy that swirled around the moulding and window fixtures. Many of the plants looked unkempt, untended, as they lay yellowed and dried. Stacks of paper and clutter lined the table tops, while empty test tubes and beakers were strewn about the apartment, reeking of chemicals, crusted over at the tops.

Katya scrambled to clear the kitchen table and pulled out a chair for Trixie, before dashing frantically around the room, picking up laundry and scattered papers from the floor. Sunlight streamed in through the curtains, their patterns bright and clashing. And nothing matched, nothing at all, not even the kitchen chairs; but everything fit. Some kind of balance settled in the room, some mismatched dissonance, steeped in harmony. And Trixie smiled at how intrinsically fitting it all was, how much of Katya shined in through those curtains; how she could hear Katya’s words spoken through the art on the walls.

Katya, looking proud, slammed Trixie’s purse down on the table and sat before her, her elbows resting on her knees with her chin propped up on her hands.

“See! I told you I would find it, there’s a method to this madness!”

Trixie reached for the purse and opened it.

“There was a twenty dollar bill in here…”

Katya looked startled, the blood draining from her face.

“I- I would never… I mean… I didn’t se-”

“Don’t sweat, I’m just fucking with you, this bitch is broke!”

“Well, if there is one thing I am always, it is sweaty,” Katya teased.

Trixie leaned across the table to peer into the bedroom that sat just passed the entryway of the kitchen. No sheets, no pillow cases, just a mattress on the floor, a tangled mess of blankets and laundry. She smiled to herself, her eyelids fluttering closed.

They sipped bitter black coffee, which Katya had poured directly from the pot into two tall beer steins, steam fogging the thick glass. Katya sprinkled heavy spoonfuls of cinnamon over the top of hers, and dropped in two buds of clove, watching as their tiny heads bobbed to the surface.

“Don’t you have any mugs?” Trixie asked.

“Are these not mugs?” Katya replied.

They went on that way for a while, tucked behind Katya’s tiny kitchen table, cup after cup of coffee so sour, Trixie had to choke most of it down; but she’d do anything if it meant she could spend another second in Katya’s thoughts. She’d drink it straight and scorching if it meant she could stay, staring at the bits of cinnamon that clung to Katya’s upper lip. She thought about sucking them off, how sharply they’d play across her tongue, how Katya’s lips would swell from the pressure.

A certain familiarity snuck in between them, heart and laughter weaving through their musings, like a soft braid of intimacy. And Trixie, as closed and guarded as they come, felt herself unraveling, saying things she never thought she’d say to another human, things even Kim didn’t know. Everything threaded out of her with such unexpected ease; and in that moment, alone but together in Katya’s tiny kitchen, the very essence of what they were had grown, strong and tall like the mammoth sunflowers of Trixie’s childhood.

And hours later, well into the night, they were still sitting, but had moved. Their backs were propped against the yellowed wallpaper, while their bottoms pressed into the cool wood of Katya’s kitchen floor. They nibbled on Ritz cracker sandwiches, sticky with strawberry preserves and peanut butter, and fallen crumbs speckled the dark blanket thrown over their legs; the blanket Katya had fetched after Trixie complained about leaving her cardigan in the car. Trixie shifted her weight, and the side of her thigh brushed against Katya’s, but instead of retreating, she left it there; like a despairing sign, scribbled in hope and fear that read, I am here, I am with you, please don’t pull away. And much to Trixie’s surprise, she didn’t.

Warmth radiated from the apex of Katya’s thigh, and as comfort seeped into the pores of her skin, Trixie relaxed against Katya’s frame, allowing her head to rest on Katya’s shoulder. And Katya didn’t resist, but instead, melted into her. An act that without arms, wrapped around Trixie, holding on tight. A measure that without speech, expressed the very meaning of human compassion, and put her weary mind at ease. The tall windows along the kitchen walls were frostbitten at the corners, and a small chill leaked in through the glass; but still, like Dorothy, fading into the field of poppies, they floated away together, lost in that delicious dream space. And sleep slowly took them. First Trixie, and then Katya, their gentle breathing almost inaudible over the whirr of the radiator.

Trixie awoke hours later to Katya’s face close to hers, her clammy hands cupped around Trixie’s cheeks, pulling her in. Katya’s eyes were hazy, softened by sleep, her warm smile breathtaking in the light. And for a moment, as the sun slowly rose through the blue of dawn, it seemed as though Katya might kiss her.

“We have to get you home, Tallulah, roommates must be worried about you.”

Trixie sighed, faltering under the absence of Katya’s touch as she removed her hands, and she tried opening her mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the words

#hi i love this #katya zamolodchikova #trixie mattel #trixya #lesbian au #college au #tw mentions of abuse #tw verbal abuse #angst #fluff #dahlia #dahlias for katya #rpdr fanfiction #church of the poison mind

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fierte-blog1 · 8 years ago

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meta about beast's strength when it comes to the different types of intelligences?

kick my headcanon ass into gear

hi you’re my new favorite person jesus chri s t ok uh HERE is a link to the wiki on the theory of multiple intelligences. i’m only going with the first seven, because naturalistic wasn’t added until later.

now, if we’re just counting adam as the beast, then these things get really fucking weird, but for comparison, i’ll do both.

musical-rhythmic & harmonic — this area has to do with sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones, & music. people with a high musical intelligence normally have good pitch and may even have absolute pitch, and are able to sing, play musical instruments, & compose music. they have sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody or timbre.

as he is nobility, adam likely was trained in at least one musical instrument; likely tutored by maestro cadenza, adam seems the type to learn how to sing, but would quickly become frustrated with musical instruments. playing instruments was not his strong suit, but he was certainly pushed to be ‘perfect’ — that went over well. as the beast, he still retains the ability to sing, although he doesn’t, because can you imagine how loudly that would resonate in the castle that’s a no. he does, however, hum to himself here & there if he needs to keep his mind off of … well, a great deal of everything.

visual-spatial — this area deals with spatial judgment & the ability to visualize with the mind’s eye.

spatial intelligence in psychology also refers to the ability to remember places & ‘landmarks’. he knows where things are, he could navigate the forest & make it back to the castle when others couldn’t ( see maurice, gaston without the mirror, literally everyone tbqh wouldn’t be able to place any proper landmarks ). he maintains this ability at the same level as both adam & as the beast.

verbal-linguistic — people with high verbal-linguistic intelligence display a facility with words & languages. they are typically good at reading, writing, telling stories & memorizing words along with dates.

as this portrayal does go more from the 2017 concept of adam, the shitty young adult, rather than adam a ten year old child who honestly just practiced stranger danger, he’s incredibly well read & displays an exceptional ability to memorise things from books. adam’s first language is french, he likely is conversational in english. as the beast, he jokes about how some of the books are in greek, & thus he hasn’t read them all, but he’s capable of reading latin, mostly due to the fact that he was raised catholic & read the bible… a lot ( that got him nowhere tbqh he didn’t listen to it at all ).

logical-mathematical — this area has to do with logic, abstractions, reasoning, numbers & critical thinking. this also has to do with having the capacity to understand the underlying principles of some kind of causal system.

adam has enough skill in this area to understand maths & be capable of sound reasoning; his issue was that he didn’t care, not that he didn’t know. did he know where the tax-payer’s money was going? absolutely. did he know how much things were going to cost? absolutely. did he know he could basically just leave most of the commoners destitute? absolutely, but he sure didn’t give a fuck, then. as the beast, he had no need to worry about this sort of thing, the people of his kingdom forgot about him, so this was something that he neglected during those years. post-curse, he quickly regains his ability in this area, whether from simply being intelligent, or by necessity of being a prince again, is irrelevant.

bodily-kinesthetic — the core elements of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are control of one’s bodily motions and the capacity to handle objects skilfully. gross motor skills vs. fine motor skills.

aka exactly what went down the shitter when the curse happened. adam, as a normal sized human being ( going with the height of the fc i use [ toby regbo ], ) 5′10″, adam had no issues getting around the castle & manoeuvring. as the beast, he’s at least 7′ tall & larger in general. fine motor skills went to shit, but he retained gross motor skills, allowing him the coordination for dancing or general movement — honestly, it’s just the fine motor skills that went to shit. after he turns back, though, he’s completely thrown off entirely, as he suddenly has less weight to carry & no longer has to account for horns or tails or whatnot, thus he’s really just in need of some serious help in this regard. given a few years post-curse, he would likely have regained gross motor skills & a good portion of his fine motor skills.

interpersonal — in theory, individuals who have high interpersonal intelligence are characterized by their sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments, motivations, & their ability to cooperate in order to work as part of a group.

‘work as part of a group’ ? ‘sensitivity to others’ lol no; when has adam ever been good at this? the goddamn hedonist didn’t care what other people felt, clearly & that’s what got him fucked in the first place. as the beast, he makes improvements in leaps & bounds in this category, both out of necessity & experience. post-curse, he knows how to read others’ moods & temperaments, but still seems to lack the ability to sense motivation, something that really is just left over childish naivety. he’s not really great at working in groups, ever, but he at least puts in effort.

intrapersonal — this area has to do with introspective and self-reflective capacities. this refers to having a deep understanding of the self; what one’s strengths or weaknesses are, what makes one unique, being able to predict one’s own reactions or emotions.

u h another shit area, because i mean... adam had enough awareness to know that he would react badly to certain situations, but to avoid this, he simply made sure that everyone else did exactly what he wanted them to do. this lead to a... huge inability to introspect, as things would occur spontaneously, much to his own & his servants’ shock. being the beast was his introspective time, where he similarly made leaps & bounds, coming to terms with the things that had happened in the past & desiring to make amends for them. post-curse, he does try to step back from situations to evaluate them & he knows what ruffles him the wrong way, although he lacks the awareness of when a situation is getting too far out of hand — he gets caught up in other things & needs to be reminded here & there to reflect. at least he can reflect at al; that’s a huge improvement from before the cursel.

#dxdger #♚、⁞ there had to be an answer. ❨asks.❩#♚、⁞ the night sky is beautiful、& like all beauty、it is indifferent. ❨isms.❩

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survivorandalucia · 8 years ago

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“Wokest Bitch of the West”- Petra

I'm fucking quitting why did you have to cast these fucking people

OMG I made it and it's started and I'm soooo ready

RHONE ! Bless.

i love men that means im not a lesbian

Ohhh bitch i am here! I was legit just having a mental brake down and now im here. Ohh boy!!! Im so excited to be here and now im seeing Amanda again! But me geting jenna out and willa ohh boy! Im gonna have to talk to willa and hopefully jenna isn't so harsh this time around! Ah im so excited i just hope im not a pre-juror boot because im going to be so emotional this game and hopefully play a villainous card!

toby marlow is sexy as fuck what the mhell

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!!!! So far, not much has happened which can be good or bad. I'm a bit nervous to be playing with returnees being on the other tribe because they might be better at immunity challenges than us. I'm a bit nervous about Pine Boy being in this game because I heard that he's really good. So far I like Toph (Azores buddy <3), Sultana, Jacob, and Nick. Nick came to me right away and said he liked me and wanted an alliance with me. I was like sure!!! Who would I be to decline an alliance? An idiot, that's what I would be. I'm wondering how we're going to do idol hunting on this season and I hope we find out soon. I want to redeem myself from my Azores mess. That reminds me, Toph being here can be really bad for both of our games. If anyone know what Azores is, they know that I gave Toph my idol. They know that we were close, which can be really bad for our games. If people look at Azores and assume that we're still close (which we are), we're fucked in the long run. I love writing confessionals, I missed that in Azores. Sure, we had Ponderosa confessionals, but I wanted to talk more game shit in there. Another thing that I'm worried about: If Toph read my in-game confessionals during Azores, he knows that I'm reluctant to play by his side again. Or, if he has a brain, he can infer it from that. Hopefully, this wont all blow up in my face. I can't wait for the shit show to start after the immunity challenge.

I really am gonna have to fight the hosts

Not letting me idol search and putting me on this tribe. There is only ONE girl on my tribe. And rhone and the boys. I hate men fuck you all. Also Jake being on my tribe when he has the personality of a dead foot yikes. I hate this tribe i hate this game. Get me my shit i wanna leave now.

Except jordan pines and daniel they cool.

Heyo! The name’s Johnny, from Survivor: India, the guy who went through only two tie votes in his seasons, and I guess I’m ready to swing at the sandbags again. I’m glad to be back and hopefully I don’t fall in the pits that I fell in last time. I’m not settling for premerge this time ‘round. So this tribe is definitely a lot bigger & badder than I expected. Lots of personalities, lots of players, and a shit ton of self-professed “bitches”, “villains”, and whatnot. I just want to survive a while in here so I’m ready to slap on the under-the-radar happy tribe mascot sticker. But of course, the twist is revealed. I tried for the advantage but as always, my luck runs dry and I’m beaten to it. Figured Jordan Pines had it and right I was - dude won immunity. Lucky fella. Oh well, better him than ~some~ people, because at least he probably won’t want me gone first. I’ve also had some decent chats with Issy & Daniel, a bit o’ back-and-forth with Chris, and barely anything with Jake, Isaiah, and LA. And Adrian & Rhone, as far as I know, is a no-show so far. I do know Adrian though, so hopefully that gives me some brownie points! Now we’re gonna go on a tribe call and if there’s anything I know about myself, I’m both awkward and quiet on large calls so… hopefully I leave a decent impression.

So the tribe call just ended with the understanding that a second one would start, and guess what didn’t happen? It does feel a smidgen shady so hopefully there isn’t some chat without me already made because THAT would suck. After the call, though, Jake comes to me all desperate asking “We’re good right? I won’t vote you.” Dang, this guy moves quick. He asks me what I want to do and when I say wait it out for a little bit, he says “Good plan, low key wanna help the tribe.” Mate, simmer down, no need to jump on the gameplay horse so quick. I feel like he has some bad connection with someone, but I’m just not quite sure who that’d be. I know nothing about Tumblr connections, sadly. I trust Jordan right now - not too much, of course, I’ve heard how good he is at this stuff - but I’ll give him a little info and hope he reciprocates. I just wanna live until I reach a point where I can go full India mode and explode onto the scene. We’ll have to see if I can suffer through this tribe, first… I’ll just suffer well.

GUESS WHO WON IMMUNITY PEEPS ANYWAYS so since im at least surviving 1 tribal i have time to build relationships with these people, i've been talking to amanda and she's cool, and atm im on call with jacob/toph/peyton and im waiting for someone to add me to an alliance because im so talented

Everything seems pretty tame but since there is a tribal coming up, that scares me. I like Madison, Taylor, Sultana, Toph, Jacob, and Nick as of now. I'm going to watch the videos right now to see where people's heads are at right now. If I can do that, I'll be able to get a better read on everyone. Hopefully, that will help me with figuring out who to vote out. I'll pray for the best while reading Animal Farm.

youtube

CONFESSIONAL: This is my first time in tumblr survivor history that I will be present at the premiere of the season. Pretty fucking excited. I'm like a survivor noob when it comes to the premiere. I've always been gone during it so this is my first premiere ever! I am hoping my 2nd and 1st place finishes don't put a early target on my back. I just need to make sure the tribe views me as an asset as opposed to a threat CONFESS: i think my status will help me. it says something about depression i think people will like that and that should be a convo starter

so me being the little bean that i am decided to have everyone join the call and now im an alliance called the "core fore" i mean like its me Payton, madison, and Jacob! okay that was just some basic ass info. here's my thoughts on everyone else! Amanda sledge: the only person i will trust in this game. she played an idol on me in Azores and if that isn't trust i don't know what else is. Payton: he seems ok, i mean he kinda seems Plainer then Rasin Bran but i mean her has a goat farm and litty. Madison: she seems woke and i would like to work with her given her immunity win and letting everything happen with this alliance already taylor: i mean he seems ok. But like he just got on call so ill keep you posted on him. Sultana: a woke ass queen! i really wanna work with her she seems super funny and chill and like a queen of everything she dose like harassing her mom for food! i would love to work with her will she wants too as well! the others: they have said nothing so like ima try and get one of them out now or payton. dfjbndofb Ok so currently i'm in about 2 alliances! Amanda, nick and myself are in one alliance. meanwhile i'm in an alliance with Jacob, Payton, and Madison together so like i have no idea if this is good or not because i don't wanna be caught so i feel like i need to tell Amanda so she dose not get mad and i can work with her! I really have no clue on what is going to happen. I don't want to trust anyone yet because tomorrow we will see were the lines will be drawn. I am like 50% that someone inactive will be voted off. but not if i have anything to say about that! I want payton out because i feel like he is dry and kinda basic. after all i will try and be the villain of the season oops! i honestly really like Petra though and think shes very chill and interesting. lets hope she feels the same way. i'm hoping i can just stay calm for now and then go and cry about it latter. i honestly am very hungry right now though like i ugh. Ok that is besides the point. But i feel like i need to bring my paranoid level up to like a ten because i can't trust none of these bitches or i'm gonna be scared as hell. my ears are open to everything and i have a google docs open and im ready to kill some people.

So at the beginning of the game, me and Amanda talked alot and decided to team up. Then Amanda was good friends with Toph. So then we formed a three person alliance. While we were on call, me Amanda, Toph and Suitana formed an alliance. The twist was announced that both tribes will be going to tribal. I really hope I am not first out but I got a solid 4 person alliance called the Wig Snatchers with them.

I feel like I'm the least extra person here and some of them I think don't like that I'm not super extra

ok idk who 2 vot cuz im just a woke ass bitch and like i havent come across anyone that im rly annoyed with xcept payt TBH hes just awkward and like totally denies my humor via not laughing and everyones talking about this person called jenna they had tea drama with or smth so im like O _ O

I love being on tribe calls because late at night is when alliances are made! I'm currently in an alliance with Petra, Nick, and Toph (Seamus too). We don't have the majority yet, but I like Jacob and Madison. I hope they will vote Jenna with us. I heard nothing but bad things about her from Toph and she seemed cool, but I think right now it's our best option to get her out since she has no wifi at the moment.

youtube

Hey everyone, first confessional. I have not played in one of these games in a very long time so I feel very rusty. Anyway, this double tribal twist could really mess up my game but I can't worry about that at the moment. My plan is watch my tribemates videos and try to find common ground. I know Poteet is really embarrassed about going out premerge, and I went premerge too so we can talk about that. I need to take it one step at a time.

I have gained the trust of a good amount of the tribe, and they all are just kinda doing what I say, so i feel like i have some power suddenly. Not saying I'm on the path the a villain but we'll see what happens.

i want to die

Joy, oh joy. I wake up this morning (if 11:30 AM is considered morning) with Jake being the only message to me and I think, THAT can't be a good sign. So he reiterates him wanting to work with me, yadda yadda, badda bing, and says that he values we have history. I'm pretty sure our history is just like one or two Skype minis so unless I'm forgetting something, ripperoni. He also tells me he's "heard a few names floating around" but when I asked him who it was, no response. Go figure. Luckily, Chris Stoner messages me and tells me that as of now Jake is the vote (I'm assuming from the mind of Jordan Pines) so at least I have some solace there. I don't think I'll be going at the end of the day, but there's still the very real fear that my head's on the chopping block, and I don't want to be lynched tonight, nosiree.

So while my video confessional is uploading, it seems like I got Taylor's vote to get Jenna out! I'm really excited to not be the first boot, honestly. I'm sad though because she never got to send me pictures of her kittens. Maybe if I keep her she'll show me! Anyways, how's your day? My mom broke our snapchat streak and it's quite disappointing... like I came out of your vagina and you're going to treat me like this?? Oop my video confessional uploaded here it is in all its (not) glory!

youtube

So Jake said that Rhone had suggested Issy (due to their beef from another game, pretty sure it was a wiki game I viewed lmao) or Chris to go home. I found this a little bit fishy but then again I've found most of what Jake's been doing to be fishy. However Jake seems to think it'll be Issy going which is convenient. I also hopped on a call with Jordan Pines and we traded a bit of info - I'm not going to give him EVERYTHING persay (I've been told many stories about him so best to tread lightly) but luckily he gave me some. Jake had randomly made an alliance chat with Jordan and Rhone last night without informing either of them and both distrusted it. Jordan wants to keep some sorta secret information sharing pact between the two of us and I'm game, but I need to make sure he trusts me so I still have to actually give him credible tales. I've just gotta stay on his good side for now and be the nice, honest fella on the tribe. That'll keep me afloat until the swap (which seems like it'll be an auxillary situation. How fun). I do like Isaiah and Adrian a bit and I wouldn't mind working with those two, it'd be nice to get something rolling along with em. We'll have to see, though, because I'm not sure how social Adrian's been so far. As of now, our first boot should be Jake. Let's just hope we can stay strong and not lose to those meddlesome newbies.

I'm not going to lie... I'm a bit nervous. A tribal shouldn't be going this smoothly unless there's something going on in the background. Dear god, let this work out. I will write more after tribal is over, I'm just too nervous right now.

#breakhershoulder

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hottytoddynews · 8 years ago

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These Dog-Days of summer are a good time to hit the cineplexes. Milk Duds, Goobers, a tub of “buttery” popcorn, and a bottomless iced cold drink, a chaise lounge experience in posh [anti-bedbug] leather seats, and A/C. What more can you ask for? And, unlike most summer Augusts, there’s much to shout about at cineplexes.

The days are long, and some of the best films are short. The studios aren’t waiting for late October roll-out of prestige films. They’re putting them out weekend after weekend – often with three/four openings on a Friday. Some making a big impact at box offices are indies. There’s comedy, drama, romance, murder, Superhero thrills, war-zone chaos, one determined dude on a snowmobile, and a new action goddess. Oscar-nominee Taylor Sheridan (Deputy Chief David Hale, TVs Sons of Anarchy; Danny Boyd, Veronica Mars) of Hell or High Water fame has sneaked in with the season’s sleeper, crime thriller Wind River, which he wrote. Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner is letter perfect as rough and tumble game tracker of mountain lions and coyotes who prey on livestock on a remote Utah Native American reservation. He’s also no slouch on snowmobiles! Already in the stark winter of their discontent, the poor natives are devastated by a second murder of a young woman, found viciously beaten and raped multiple times. This is not savory going — especially when Renner is called upon to assist urban (Las Vegas via Ft. Lauderdale) FBI Agent Elizabeth Olsen (Captain America: Civil War’s Scarlett Witch). We’ve seen directors handle flashbacks many ways, but Sheridan, no slack when it comes to inventiveness, introduces a new and seamless approach. The estimable Oscar nominee Graham Greene is featured as the girl’s father. In a brief but memorable seduction scene, HOHW’s Gil Birmingham – showing different sides of himself, will have a lot of audience members swooning.

In the U.S., a child goes missing every 40 seconds. You never think it’ll happen to you. Until it does. In Kidnap (Aviron/Di Bonaventura Pictures), when mom, Oscar winner Halle Berry, returning to the big screen after three years, catches a glimpse of the abductors speeding away, she begins a high-speed pursuit across Louisiana highways, byways, and bayous, overcoming obstacle after obstacle. The nappers messed with the wrong mom! TV veteran, 10-year-old Sage Correa delivers a masterful performance during the marathon chase that had to be shot with great care. Pay no attention to the red herons, as they don’t deliver pay dirt. The only delivering is done by indefatigable Halle Berry. The ending is powerful, but, on second thought, it would’ve been interesting to have another motive behind the kidnap other than the crackers out for ransom, that include long-time character actress Chris McGinn – move over (Misery’s) Kathy Bates!

There’s another Man in Black and, alas, he’s not Johnny Cash. The mind of Stephen King has no limits when it comes pulp fiction, but his works have proved to be a mixed bag when brought to the screen. Nikolaj Arcel’s brave attempt to adapt his seven novels and a short story published over 30 years [with homages to Robert Browning, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Sergio Leone] in Dark Tower (Columbia Pictures) falls into that category. It’s a box office champ, but no critics’ darling. However, who needs critics? Idris Elba is the last gunfighter in an alternate land out to keep the world from colliding; and Matthew McConaughey is evil incarnate as the Man in Black, with whom he’s locked in eternal battle.

Oscar winning director/and co-producer Kathryn Bigelow proved her mettle with Best Picture The Hurt Locker, and followed with a Best Picture nomination for Zero Dark Thirty. She and ZDT collaborator Mark Boal know a thing or two about war zones. This one is stateside, 1967 Detroit (Annapurna Pictures/M-G-M), where a police raid and a number of murders set off a literal African-American rebellion that set off a night of turbulence that segued into one of the nation’s largest race riots. The film is docudrama realistic, raw, disturbing, engrossing, brutal. A writer aptly summed it up: “The degree of terror and carnage is so strong that ‘based on a true story’ is too tame to do the film justice.” Not for the faint of heart, and in these Dog-Days of summer, certainly not a date movie. There are lessons that should have been learned and weren’t. John Boyega, John Krasinski, Jacob Latimore, Anthony Mackie, Will Poulter, and Algee Smith headline a huge cast.

Director Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (Warner Bros.), a sweeping 70-mm IMAX epic [with the help of CGI] restaging of the 1940 evacuation of more than 300,000 Allied troops [French, British, Belgian, Dutch] in fast retreat from the Western Front at Dunkerque, France. Penned in by the Germans, they’re stranded due to a lack of transport. Fionn Whitehead, in a near silent role, delivers a shattering performance. There’s also Sir Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hardy, and, in his acting debut, Harry Styles. Except for Branagh, you may find it hard to spot the others. Olivier, BAFTA, Oscar, and Tony winner Mark Rylance gives a solid performance helming his boat, which joins the civilian watercraft armada aiding the rescue. Though you never see blood, the gore as Germans strafe and use their U-boats in unconscionable torpedo attacks is harrowing– but something’s missing. At 1:45, they’re no humanizing back stories to motivate audiences to care instead of just being blown away. The Dunkirk headlines were instrumental in getting FDR to aid the U.K. to avoid a conditional surrender to Germany.

How does a sweet gal with the name Lorraine become a bad-ass spy? In Atomic Blonde (Focus Features), adapted by Kurt Johnstad from Anthony Johnston’s graphic novel series The Coldest City, illustrated by Sam Hart, Charlize Theron is an agent sent to walled Berlin to retrieve a list of spies destined to fall into the hands of Russia for Britain’s MI6 military intelligence group. It seems like a set-up because she’s a marked woman upon arrival; but like Berry in Kidnap, Lorraine isn’t to be messed with. With almost 90% of the 115 minutes so bloated with mortal combat, karate chops, all manner of guns, and objects for body blows, it begins to get monotonous, sometimes ridiculous, and lacks a core. The story gets muddled with the intro of a lesbian [it appears] French spy, played by Sofia Boutella – but it also gets rather steamy. Numerous flashbacks don’t help the film’s coherence. That said, Theron is, indeed atomic as a spy who doesn’t know when to come in from the cold. Kudos to director and veteran stunt coordinator David Leitch (John Wick), fight coordinator Jon Valera, and crew. Without their precision choreography, bloodied, bruised Theron and cast mates wouldn’t have come out of this alive. James McAvoy co-stars. John Goodman and Toby Jones are featured.

There’s nothing sanitized about the raucous, crass R-rated comedy about female friends bonding, nonetheless is non-stop hilarious [and probably would be just as hilarious with less F-bomb raunch and sexual innuendos and more creative expletives], Girls Trip (Universal), made for $20-mill, rolled in out of the blue and has swept up $86-mill. In addition to stellar performances by Regina Hall and tiny dynamo Jada Pinkett Smith, brilliant comic Tiffany “Shake it ��til it brakes” Haddish, better known to TV audiences, has had the big-screen break-out role of the year; and the gals have found a new crush in former Off Broadway actor and now hunk Mike “The Arm” Colter (who’s been gym-pumping since his Good Wife Lemond Bishop days).

It’s been a good summer for superheroes. In Spider-Man: Homecoming (Columbia Pictures/Marvel Studios), director Jon Watts does a high dive, forgets the past, and begins anew. Tom Holland (Lost City of Z) soars to new heights in the third reboot of the webby franchise by not taking himself seriously and being adept at slapstick. He’s superbly abetted by Oscar winner Michael Keaton’s intense menace– some of the film’s best moments are when Fresh-faced kid v Grizzled villain, and guest star Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Peter Parker wasn’t alone waking up to the full potential of power. In Wonder Woman [Warner Bros.] Gal Gadot (a prime asset of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) spectacularly segues with gusto from princess of the Amazons to discover her true destiny as guardian of the world. With global grosses in the multimillions, it’s no wonder sequels are in the pipeline.

Ellis Nassour is an Ole Miss alum and noted arts journalist and author who recently donated an ever-growing exhibition of performing arts history to the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the best-selling Patsy Cline biography, Honky Tonk Angel, as well as the hit musical revue, Always, Patsy Cline. He can be reached at [email protected].

The post Hot Movies for Summer’s Dog-Days appeared first on HottyToddy.com.

#hottytoddy #olemiss #oxfordms #oxford ms #mississippi #university of mississippi #the grove

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chrismaverickdotcom · 8 years ago

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Strong Female Character? Well, she has bullets at least (an Atomic Blonde Review)

So this feels a little weird to review what with all the craziness that’s been going on in politics the last 24 hours… but I had already been planning to see this movie, so here we go. Let’s talk about Atomic Blonde.

When I review any movie based on a comic book, one of the things I try to do is say, “how would I feel about this if I didn’t know the source material?” Well, this is a rare chance for me because I actually haven’t read The Coldest City, the graphic novel that Atomic Blonde is based on. So this is a rare chance for me to go in cold for once. I was actually looking forward to it. I was finally going to get to experience a comic book movie like the common people.

Wow, your lives must suck. That just wasn’t fun at all.

I think what it comes down to is “what are you looking for in a movie?” Do you like bullets? There are totally some bullets in this… so many bullets. If you want see some people getting shot… you’re going to be happy. Do you like the punching? We got the punching in this too… so much punching…

Hey, what about hot naked chicks? Well Charlize Theron is in this, and she’s hot and she is naked from time to time. Maybe less naked than you want her to be… but appear sans clothes a few times in this movie. Unfortunately, if that’s all you’re looking for, you might be upset by the amount of bruises and cuts she has… you know what with all the shooting and punching and shit. But just to make up for it, we’re going to toss you a gratuitous lesbian love scene between Charlize and also very hot Sofia Boutella. You like the lesbian sex don’t you? That’s what you’re looking for right?

Well, if so you’re going to enjoy this. If not, this movie probably isn’t for you.

One common complaint with big budget action films is that there aren’t enough strong female characters in them. I agree with this assessment. That was really part of the appeal for Wonder Woman. This is not that. She is strong…. in that she does very tough things… she is female in that… I dunno… lets say because she has boobs… which I know because they show her naked… and well… that’s pretty much it. What she’s lacking is character because… well, she really isn’t one.

Being a strong female character isn’t… or well *shouldn’t be* about just being able to kick ass. I mean, I’m all for people kicking ass in my movies. But I’m actually looking for more than that. I’m looking for complexity. I’m looking for character strengths and, for that matter, character weaknesses. I’m also looking for motivations. I’m looking for the character to have something to do. Other than just looking good.

This was a movie all about looking good. Just not necessarily about being sexy. It was about spectacle. She had to look sexy in the bedroom and she had to look tough when she was beating people up. And…. nothing else… nothing else mattered in this movie. Nothing at all.

And that’s actually fine, if that’s what you’re looking for. There’s nothing wrong with spectacle. This was directed by David Leitch, previously famous for… well, he’s not really famous. He’s a career stuntman (which I wish stuntmen were more famous) who cut his directing teeth by being given a few scenes to direct in John Wick. This is his first feature flying solo. The thing with cutting your teeth on a movie like John Wick is that it is a movie all about spectacle. It has no character and it barely has a plot: “They killed his dog, now he will kill them.” That’s it. I actually like Keanu Reeves as an actor, but that’s not an acting movie. This movie probably could have been that as well.

Just no one bothered to tell Charlize Theron.

Because she definitely tries to act in this film. In fact, she does a whole lot of acting… SO MUCH ACTING. She plays the character of Lorraine, and she shows emotion and pathos and makes choices that really show you that she’s trying to get her character across. Sometimes she’ll be distraught. Sometimes she’ll be confused. Sometimes defeated. Sometimes a stone cold killer. There are points in this film where you can just see on her face that she’s expressing anguish. Complete and total anguish. It’s quite clear how she won an Oscar for acting. It’s just that the writing isn’t there and so the choices she makes don’t seem to mean much. Remember how I said she’s not a character? That’s because she’s not. You don’t know anything about the character or where she came from. You don’t know why she wants anything. There is absolutely no reason to care about anything she does.

Not only are the subtle emotional choices wildly inconsistent, so is the action. At points, Lorraine has the abilities of John McClain in the first Die Hard. She’s a completely realistic driven, but human action star. Later, she will be John McClain in the fifth Die Hard, an unstoppable tank who can be injured but just keeps coming. And then later still she’ll be John Wick, a perfect killing machine who no one can even lay a finger on. Even though the story only takes place over the course of a week, I could almost accept this if she was simply getting tougher and tougher as the movie went on, leveling up like video game character. But this is not the case. She floats between all three levels of skill depending on the kind of action set piece that Leitch wants to present at that moment. Sometimes she can dodge bullets and moments later is being sucker punched by an entry level thug from Henchmen R Us.

It’s not that there’s no plot… actually there’s a lot of plot. WAY TOO MUCH PLOT. At it’s core, this is a simple McGuffin movie. There’s this thing. Everyone wants it and is willing to kill to get it. But then there’s a plot twist… and another plot twist…I think it’s supposed to be intrigue and suspenseful. But it isn’t really. It’s just a muddy mess of twists for twists sake. In fact there are about as many plot twists as there are action sequences. And the movie basically just goes back forth between twist and action for two straight hours. Every once in a while there’s a pause to remind us how sexy Charlize is.

Other characters have much the same problem. Their motivations are non-existant. Without spoilers, Sofia Boutella’s character makes no sense at all. She is contradictory to herself. James McAvoy‘s character makes more sense, but has no reason to be what he is. Toby Jones and John Goodman‘s characters are simply spy movie stereotypes. Understanding them relies on me having seen other spy movies before and going “oh, ok I get it. They’re those guys.” and then pretending the movie explained it to me. It didn’t.

Because like John Wick, really nothing in this movie matters. It’s just spectacle… it’s just stuff that looks cool. And it does look cool. The cinematography and lighting in particular are very well done. The soundtrack is annoying in way where it wants to be Baby Driver.… but oh it so just isn’t. But costuming is great. Charlize has amazing outfits that really set the 1980s tone the movie is going for. The action scenes and fight choreography are simply amazing.

But unlike John Wick, which knows exactly what it is and embraces it, Atomic Blonde thinks that it is a movie that has something going on. It thinks that by making itself complicated it has become complex. It isn’t. It’s actually just a whole lot of nothing.And the fact that it pretends to be something… that it in fact COULD have been something if more attention were paid to building its story and characters, is both distracting and disheartening. By the time the final twist comes (and there are at least half a dozen in the final ten minutes of the movie) I simply didn’t care anymore. Half of them I’d predicted. Not because of anything clever and intricately hinted at. But because you can literally say “what’s the most ridiculous way we could work a spy trope in here that would make the least amount of sense? Well, that must be what they’re doing next!”

So yes, summer blockbuster popcorn action movies do need more strong female characters. But the way to do this is to actually work on the character aspect rather than just taking the “strong” part so literally. This is not just a problem with female characters. Action movies don’t understand that the ability to kickass is not an interesting character trait. Frankly Lorraine is actually slightly more interesting in this film when she’s getting beat up. And still only negligibly.

And that’s really the problem. I probably could have accepted this film if it was nothing but a fun action romp. The problem is that it thinks it is so much more, and it really could have been… if they had just remembered to actually “write” it. Bullets do not substitute for character building.

★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 stars) or ⁍⁍⁍⦿⦿ (3 out of 5 bullets and maybe a couple boobs if that’s all you’re looking for…)

Atomic Blonde review: Charlize Theron’s ice-cold super-spy makes Bond look arthritic

‘Atomic Blonde’ Featurette: Charlize Theron Fights Like a Girl

‘Atomic Blonde’ proves Charlize Theron can pretty much do it all

Charlize Theron says she ‘loved’ going bisexual for Atomic Blonde film

Review: ‘Atomic Blonde’ loses its punch in second half

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Strong Female Character? Well, she has bullets at least (an Atomic Blonde Review) was originally published on ChrisMaverick dotcom

#Atomic Blonde #Charlize Theron #David Leitch (filmmaker)#James McAvoy #John Goodman #John Wick #Keanu Reeves #movie review #Sofia Boutella #strong female characters #The Coldest City (film)#Toby Jones

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