#top/bottom discourse for ts

[actualsoyboy]

people will really see an age gap pairing where the top

is taller than the bottom

is stronger and more muscular than the bottom

has more money and/or power than the bottom

is more assertive than the bottom

is more masculine than the bottom

and still with a straight face be like "it's subverting stereotypical top/bottom dynamics!" just because the top is younger

[virgilsfreak]

if you remember the ts top/bottom discourse you may be entitled to financial compensation . btw

[accessibilitea]

[PT: “ Care to take a Dive? ” —(bubbles & lotus emoji)/end PT]

[ID: a rectangular flag of 2 uneven diagonal stripes on light blue colored background. The two diagonal stripes make a V-cut on the right side of the flag where they meet each other. The top stripe is colored light pink and the bottom stripe is colored as muted pink./end ID]

[ID: a rectangular flag of 2 uneven diagonal stripes on light blue colored background. The two diagonal stripes make a V-cut on the right side of the flag where they meet each other. The top stripe is colored light pink and the bottom stripe is colored as muted pink. There is a symbol of two interlinked hearts with 7 amounts of stripes inside it colored from top to bottom as blue to violet slide color on the center of the flag./end ID]

PT: Regressor and Caregiver flags/end PT]

[ID: a rectangular flag of 2 uneven diagonal stripes on light blue colored background. The two diagonal stripes make a V-cut on the right side of the flag where they meet each other. The top stripe is colored orange and the bottom stripe is colored as brown./end ID]

[ID: a rectangular flag of 2 uneven diagonal stripes on light blue colored background. The two diagonal stripes makes a V-cut on the right side of the flag where they meet each other. The top stripe is colored orange and the bottom stripe is colored as brown. two interlinked hearts with 7 amount of stripes inside it colored from top to bottom as blue to violet slide comor on the center of the flag./end ID]

PT: LAPSED ATTRACTION;

“a fictional other, selfship, objectum/POSIC, etc term where one's attraction comes from when they are being taken care of or taking care of their f/o. this may mean one only has an f/o for regression/caregiver related related reasons. this attraction is not inherently romantic nor means one is dating said f/o; but means whatever the user wishes”

example; an f/o may only be recognized when one is regressed or when one is the caregiver for their f/o

ageplay / kink this post is not for you/end PT]

[DNI TS: Although we allow everyone to use our terms. Please DNI with this blog if: trans/sysmeds, discourse of any kind, proship/comship, ageup/down characters/yourself, radqueer/transID, harmful DSMP antis, cc!dream/Wilbur supporters./end DNI transcript]

[Protection TS: This blog is protected by friend. Hate will be blocked./end Transcript.]

“ Care to take a Dive? ” —🫧🪷

Regressor and Caregiver flags

LAPSED ATTRACTION ;;

“ a fictional other, selfship, objectum/POSIC, etc term where one's attraction comes from when they are being taken care of or taking care of their f/o. this may mean one only has an f/o for regression/caregiver related related reasons. this attraction is not inherently romantic nor means one is dating said f/o; but means whatever the user wishes ”

example ;; an f/o may only be recognized when one is regressed or when one is the caregiver for their f/o

ageplay / kink this post is not for you

[astudyinfreewill]

hey real quick what the hap is fuckening

[saawek]

It seems someone on ao3 thinks it’s alright to copy/paste fic by other people and change things to their taste, and then to repost them as a self indulgence.

If you’re the kind of person thinking it’s alright… get the fuck away for real.

[laminedean]

ok this one gets a 'tw' cos its kinda a controversial opinion

also! been seeing a lotta ppl beefing on whos the top and whos the bottom. i think top vs bottom beef is so funny and a fun convo to have until it’s like. real?? and yall be taking ts seriously and like taking genuine offense to what other ppl r saying abt a fictional dynamic?? like ur telling me u wrote a whole ass essay explaining why ur little guy would be the one giving backshots cos he has the straightest fifa team?? and ur being fr rn?

like its okay to have opinions but genuinely hating on other ppl cos they think a man neither of yall know personally would theoretically bottom to his teammate cos he has a slimmer waist... is it really that deep?

like imo i agree sms theres a top and bottom but like. the idea of the super masculine top and feminine bottom is so antiquated its not even funny. genuinely i feel there isnt even a need for an assigned top/bottom (esp nowadays) anymore; honestly nowadays most couples will js switch depending on the vibe. not always the same guy on top

like yeah when the convo is lighthearted thats great. love that. i have those convos too. but the second sm takes it seriously thats like. yikes. can we not normalize ts pls thanks

anyway this is just me ranting. not saying i’m god’s chosen voice on top/bottom discourse or anything like that LMFAO. yall r free to believe what you want, im just asking that we maybe… dont start blood feuds over fictional men and their imaginary sex positions.

tldr: top bottom beef... is it really that deep? do you really need to slander the other person over rpf?

big rant incoming viewer discretion is indeed advised (im js playing the only tw is that im delusional)

i love being a multishipper cos like wdym i get to enjoy like every flavor of yearning possible. like why commit to one ship when i can look at kai and martin and go "oh yeah their 2yr anniversary was yesterday" then see kai and cala and go "mhm mhm i officiated their marriage"

like i see for example the gadri and fedri anon beef and like. damn idk abt yall but ion have the cognitive bandwidth for that they both live in my head peacefully coexisting. and kissing on occasion

like when i see lamine and dean? gay. lamine and cuba? gay. cuba and hector? gay.

atp when i see the arsenal boys its not even shipping anymore. its js rotating combos of mutual pining, not actually unrequited love, and one bed hotel rooms

maybe its cos i joined ts community (at least in my head) AFTER i started watching football. i didnt rly see the tension until i saw that one post match and nelli was staring at cala like he was his whole world and suddenly oh. am i interrupting sm? like ok thanks for ruining my life actually. please continue doing so cos my eyes have been opened

tldr: im js here for the permutations gng

also my apologies for the amt of tags there are its lowk addicting

[you-cant-spell-subtext-without]

I see we’re gatekeeping creative content again.

please don’t hate on fan fic/drabbles tropes and concepts that you disagree with.  everyone is entitled to their own creative ideas :)

[janiedean]

1) So, lately I've been seeing all these Takes about how most m/m smut is from the bottom's POV bc most writers are female bottoms and they identify with him (which, okay, guess I'll never be free from THAT oversemplification), how most ppl in fandom just pretend to like femdom bc it's the most "progressive" option, if you ship any m/f you're forced to make it a girlboss/malewife deal to be woke, ppl only "like" pegging as a statement and that's going to make men irl feel pressured to try it...

2) And on the one hand I'm just so... bitter about it. My first experiences with m/f smut were "not explicitly maledom but the guy takes the initiave and the reins and does p much everything and the girl sorts of lies there with a vague sub streak" or actual maledom. And I kept wondering "okay, but can the girl like... do the fun stuff, too? Like pin the guy down and kiss and bite his neck a bit, or play with his nipples, and be kinda the one in charge?" And I was so afraid the answer was no. 3) And that's one of the (many) reasons I read way more m/m than m/f. I wasn't interested in f/f at that point even if I thought that was the only place where women could Do Fun Stuff during sex, and also I wanted my fave guys to have fun stuff done to them (and possibly watch as the fun stuff wrecked them from their own POV, more like an emotional voyeur thing than a "omg they're so lucky I wanna be in their place!" thing) and women weren't allowed to be the ones to do it to, apparently. 4) And know that I'm p sure the actual femdom/woman on top/pegging content in fandom is still the same (tho I get told it's "everywhere" even in ships where it would make more "sense" for the guy to dom/top... then WHY can't I find more of it for my fave fandoms/ships/characters, btw?!) but at least ppl talk and even joke about it like it's normal and even appealing and cool, I get told that ALL of it MUST be performative... and I get to feel like a weird freak outlier all over again. 5) Not just that, but sometimes I get to be told that by ppl who seriously believe the "the only reason to write from a bottom's POV is being a bottom yourself" thing and also in the tangentially related "service tops who get off on giving pleasure are a myth/a fantasy made up by selfish bottoms/unfeminist if they're women" thing. When I like writing from both the top's and the bottom's POV, and I LOVE female service tops and gentle/playful femdom and women topping with only *hints* of femdom... 6) ... and I already had to go through a whole phase when I thought I was the only one interested in writing and reading about all THAT, and that "real" femdom/woman on top stuff had to be about icy goddesses/greedy queens/heavy or not-quite-so-heavy sadism/men caring only about serving women and women not caring about men at all in the past. And that women topping couldn't exist without explicit femdom anyway. So, yeah, double the "what is this, my teenage insecurity all over again?!" effect. 7) ... but on the other hand, all of this is making me think back to how happy I was when I finally found creators, both in fandom and out of it, who wrote and drew femdom and woman on top content that actually fit my specific tastes to a T. How much happier and secure it made me feel, and how it made me understand that I didn't need to write or consume that kind of thing the supposedly "right" way. And that includes YOUR fics, Lavi. Especially the JB ones. Thank you so, so much for those!! 8) I'd tell you off anon bc that's how much it means to me, but... I have a good, solid idea of what I like and how I like it in fiction but as far as rl goes it's all questioning and confusion right now. I haven't even figured if I'm allo or ace tbqh. And I feel this kind of fandom discourse is SO inextricably tied to own's own sexuality and sexual preferences that it feels embarrassing to put my name on a rant like this without even *knowing*, like someone's gonna pop up form nowhere and... 9) ... and be like "well, ofc you don't *get* it and you have all these weird ideas and you don't know how things are SUPPOSED to be like! You're confused on one thing, so you MUST be confused on everything else including your own preferences, too!" And I know that's not going to happen with you, but, y'know. It's not exactly easy. Tbh it's one of the things I hate about tumblr fandom and modern fandom in general. But, huh. Getting back on track: thank you, again. So, so much.

hey anon first of all dw I get why you wouldn't want to say this off anon given the current climate, but other than that and getting into what you're actually saying.. first of all let me tell you the whole 'ah if you write the bottom then you ID with the bottom' thing is top ten of my most dreaded arguments wrt writing fic ever never mind that time I actually discoursed about it with someone who decided that if I could imagine stuff done to me by a guy then WHAT DIFFERENCE IT MADE IF IT WAS A GIRL during the mythical discourse in which half of this hellsite blocked me because I said that straight women would most likely prefer to write/consume porn involving men without it being fetishism because if you're straight you don't care for f/f which apparently made me extremely problematic but *rolls eyes* that's like complete bullshit and I've been sadly laughing about it years later because that's actually way more sexist of them to say bc it implies that women can only want to bottom which is... an... extremely sexist thing to say so *rolls eyes* and honestly I've stayed out of any pegging debate because like I really doubt that it's a thing that translates into rl practice - if a dude irl doesn't want to try pegging he just has to say it and no one forces him to because guess what to have consensual sex both people have to consent, which automatically turns into the usual assuming that a thing that has a traction in fiction/fandom means irl consequences which is completely idiotic either and honestly the fact that people are pearl-clutching over femdom content and deciding it's popular because it's woke just makes me side-eye everything because it's the usual dumb af terfy debate where ppl make sexual preferences political, which... is... stupid af like ppl like what they like in bed, there is no exclusive to roles or positions based on genders, service tops are not a myth and saying that writing X sex is woker or less woke than Y sex is just ridiculous - and someone could be writing a thing they're not into irl just because it fits the character(s) they're writing for that matter (see that time I wrote that damned jon/ygritte mommy kink where it's like so not my thing XDD) - but again... it's again the usual stupid discourse wrt wanting to say what women can find acceptable in bed or not which I would hope we had left behind us with the victorians and it's honestly worrying how many people fall for that dumbass rhetoric just because it sounds vaguely woke? then again fandom is overrun with in disguise terf discourse these days so what can you do except doing your thing, but tldr there's nothing performative in most of that and if some people are into it for that it doesn't mean everyone is? also lmao I mean now there's a fair amount of content also because media became a bit better wrt showing women in charge sexually but like idk how to say it but before what S6-S7 of got and I'm being very generous with the times just if you looked at the jb tag the femdom/pegging content was basically yours truly and four other people and not that much, it exploded later and BELIEVE ME I WAS VERY HAPPY ABOUT IT but ppl saying that it's such a thing everywhere are seeing things because in my experience it's really not (I mean.... guys look at the percentages in r*ylo fandom X°DDD like I don't read fic for that ship because 99% of that is topbensolo which I'm not interested in reading at all so X°DD) X°D also the whole top-bottom debate is idiotic af because personally I just write the sex from whichever pov fits the story better and I can assure that every time I do it from bottom pov that is not the pov I'm relating to most of the time anyway and I'm generally thinking of what the other person's doing anyway (and the one time I had to pull teeth to write m/f porn was where I was doing the bottom female pov X°DDDD like writing the guy would have been way easier but that didn't work for that story and idt that ship has the dynamic where the girl would generally top so X°DDDDD) and like... obv if you're into men in any way and you're

not interested in reading maledom m/f you'd rather read m/m that's not exactly surprising but ofc according to people that's fetishizing and whatnot, and I don't even want to touch the f/f topic because the discourse there is ridiculous and I'm pretty sure people are assholes about what's legit to write in f/f stuff too and I'll be glad to avoid it because I have one f/f sandbox where no one else plays and I'll stick with it, but like the fact that people want to dictate what you can like or not and decide what's a fetish or not is to me absolutely ridiculous *shrug* and on top of that telling ppl 'ah you're confused so ofc you think this' is ridiculous because if you're questioning it's your right to do that and no one is hurrying you to not do it in your own time and while you do you read/consume whatever tf you want? people should find out in their own time and sometimes it takes a lot to get there and new stuff pops out even when you think you have it figured out, and again there's nothing more antifeminist than telling women that they can't like whatever thing in bed whichever it is and I'm wholly not even caring about this discourse because the last thing anyone needs is making sex political and what people like to read or write political but -__-''

anyway you're very welcome and you're too kind T____T much glad if I could provide you content you liked and made you feel better about it but hey as stated all there's nothing bad or un-woke in liking any of that XD <3333

[we-all-horny-here]

op do you imply that Virgil is a bottom cause u right if so

Maybe I do, who knows. Or maybe there was just 5 places on the list and I'm not into emo boys.

But tbh I'd see him more as a bottom leaning switch, but ykno, that's just my opinion.

[espeoradar]

straight shippers confuse the fuck out of me

i just saw someone say that luffy would never top in an m/m pairing because he wouldnt initiate, but that hes top by default in m/f ships??? what????

if their definition of topping is “initiating” then why would he initiate w women but not w men?????? esp if theyre writing him as being into men anyway????????

straight shippers and fujoshi are so damn confusing in their thinking

[kiruliom]

[Image ID: A flag with eight equally-sized horizontal stripes. From top to bottom, the colors are deep purple, dull pink, cornflower blue, pale blue, pale red-orange, red-orange, denim blue, and medium purple. End ID.]

veldigirl+lesboy+bennetboy+darcygirl flag for dying squirtle anon

discourse will be deleted, reported and blocked!

TS: do not reupload anywhere public unless I'm informed and credited. pretty please? end TS

[transflorall]

eyestrain edit for the gxnderfluix flag?

xai (i) want the flag with the black on top and bottom (on https://www.lgbtqia.wiki/wiki/Gxnderfluix)

thankss

-⚖︎

no ID yet!

gxnderfluix flag non-eyestrain edit

hope this works? <:D

[TS: anyone can interact and use, OP is pro mogai, hate or discourse will be deleted. end TS]

[accessibilitea]

[PT: Submechanattraction/end PT]

[ID: a rectangular flag of 5 uneven horizontal stripes, the sizes go from top to bottom as thin, thick, regular, semi thick, and thick. The first and last stripes have a deep notch on the left corner of the stripes at the start, while the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stripes have a softer rounded notch on the left corner of the stripe at the start. The colors go from top to bottom as dark brown, brown, sky blue, light blue, and blue./end ID]

[ID: a rectangular flag of 5 uneven horizontal stripes, the sizes go from top to bottom as thin, thick, regular, semi thick, and thick. The first and last stripes have a deep notch on the left corner of the stripes at the start, while the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stripes have a softer rounded notch on the left corner of the stripe at the start. The colors go from top to bottom as dark brown, brown, sky blue, light blue, and blue. There is a symbol consisting of a line wave with bigger rounded waves./end ID]

[PT: “an objectum/POSIC term where one has an attraction to artificial submerged objects or animatronics; can also be viewed as a reclemation of 'odd' interests of attraction in the aspect of the root of this term. derives from submechanophobia.”

self indulgent creation as i have a heavy attraction to things relating to submechanophobia <3/end PT]

[DNI TS: Although we allow everyone to use our terms. Please DNI with this blog if: trans/sysmeds, discourse of any kind, proship/comship, ageup/down characters/yourself, radqueer/transID, harmful DSMP antis, cc!dream/Wilbur supporters./end DNI transcript]

[Protection TS: This blog is protected by friend. Hate will be blocked./end Transcript.]

“ Care to take a Dive? ” —🫧🪷

Submechanattraction

“ an objectum/POSIC term where one has an attraction to artificial submerged objects or animatronics; can also be viewed as a reclemation of 'odd' interests of attraction in the aspect of the root of this term. derives from submechanophobia. ”

self indulgent creation as i have a heavy attraction to things relating to submechanophobia <3

[l1av]

Adding to the latest ask, pre-serum Steve is always the bottom, 'cause he's little and feminine. That is a fetish too

If that’s their reason then yup. Some little guys like bottoming though. So it’s really how it’s addressed, moreso in the written form than in art, because in art you don’t know the reasons and it’s harder to “read.” 

I’ll always wonder if PS I Love You is considered fetishizing skinny Steve as a bottom or not. I can’t remember why we wrote it the way we did. I do know back then I was sick of seeing bottom Bucky only, so I wanted to mix it up. I do think Steve even asks about topping and I believe Bucky eventually lets him? But I honestly can’t friggen remember. But if it’s considered a piece that fetishized someone, then so be it. I’ve learned. I won’t take it down because it’s helped a lot of people with PTSD because the focus of the fic is to bring PTSD awareness and body acceptance (since Steve starts out with hating himself), but I’m not going to argue with someone who thinks it’s on the fetishized side, even if I’m mlm. We can do it too. That’s why it’s important that I tell people I absolutely was a person who got into stupid bottom/top discourses before. Showing growth and admitting wrong is never a weakness. I think it’s more of a strength. 

[huxblush]

You come of as being really anti huxlo tbh and i don't really get it because you made a bottom kylo recs list so like? Idk I don't understand you issue?

I’m so baffled by this question to be honest. I don’t think I’m particularly vocal about it either way on this blog. Let’s just say that I find it pretty strange that a certain subsection of the fandom feel the need to cut themselves off from the rest of us to the extent of having a totally different tag. We have enough discourse in this fandom. Why pick petty fights over who out of kylux is getting dicked down? It’s unnecessary. 

It’s low key pretty heteronormative and homophobic. I take issue with the way that certain people, usually “huxlos” have to try and force Kylo into characterisation that he does not fit into just so he can take a dick up the ass. Why do you have to draw him tiny and twinky or have him be a weepy dependant sub just so he can take a dick? A lot of people completely butcher him. A lot of people tag art of him doing completely innocent things as “bottom kylo” and it’s high key very weird and complete fetishisation. I enjoy bottom Kylo just as much as the next person, but I can’t stand this weird version of Kylo that’s perpetuated by a lot of self proclaimed “huxlo” shippers. 

I made the rec list because it was requested of me, so I went out of my way to read a bunch of bottom Kylo so I could rec it, and then once I had done that I got bitchy anons telling me it wasn’t good enough because there were switching fics included. Do people realise that real life mlm switch? 

TLDR: I guess you could say I have very little patience for it at times. 

[zhydoesart]

sometimes you have to lie to find the truth

Chapter 4: acting and dances

Ships: platonic(??) (not really) Roceit

Warnings: none

AO3

Notes: I drew some art for the fic, and it’s at the bottom of this post uvu I really liked how the second one turned out (also I’ve been watching TS vines for like two hours now, I just finished watching the fourth compilation)

Damien didn’t usually make it a practice of his to stick himself into others’ business or force himself where he didn’t belong, but Thomas hadn’t needed him for a video in several days and he was getting restless. (Well, okay, and maybe a touch lonely too.) He found himself wondering about what Roman was doing to pass the time, and took it upon himself to find out.

Roman was facing an empty stage, and Damien had appeared behind the curtain. After an indeterminable amount of time (Damien couldn’t tear his eyes away from the solitary, regal figure; it might’ve been only a minute or it might’ve been a minute), Roman took a deep breath and began speaking.

“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”

That line was familiar, and Damien wracked his brain, trying to remember what it was from.

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” Ah–Romeo and Juliet.  “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!” Damien was taken aback by the amount of pure feeling Roman was pouring into his lines. “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she.” Damien wondered why Roman was reciting this scene from this play, as it didn’t seem relevant to anything, and Thomas had taken part in this play in high school.

“Be not her maid, since she is envious. Her vestal livery is but sick and green, and none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.” Now Roman paced the stage, and Damien had to take a step further back behind the curtain so as not to be seen by Roman, since a part of him wanted to continue observing Roman’s performance (and if he was caught, he certainly wouldn’t be allowed to). He had a better view of Roman’s face now.

“It is my lady, oh, it is my love–oh, that she knew she were.” Interesting–Roman was changing up the inflection of the lines, as they were coming out much softer than directed. He stopped speaking and stood, as if listening, in the middle of the stage, before continuing, “She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that? ...her eye discourses, I will answer it.” His expression puzzled, he opened his mouth as if to speak, then closed it, as if he’d thought better of it. “‘Tis not to me she speaks.”

By now, his pacing had become more of an improvised waltz as he pranced across the stage, and even from where he stood, shrouded by the curtain, Damien could see the passion in Roman’s green eyes.

“Two of the fairest stars in all the heavens, having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres ‘til they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head?” Roman’s voice took on a dreamy, thoughtful quality. “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars as daylight doth a lamp, her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night.” Once more, he halted in his constant movement. “See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek.”

Here, Roman paused, as if waiting for another to speak, and here Damien had a split-second of deliberation–he had less than a minute before Roman would move on, and right then, he wanted nothing more than to join in, but if he did, then Roman would know he’d been spying–

But he’d already uttered the line.

“Ay, me.”

Both the side on the stage and side behind the curtains froze, then Damien stepped out of the shadows. It was too late now anyway, Roman had clearly heard him, as was evident by the strawberry-colored blush on his face when he turned around.

“Didst thou spyest on me?” spluttered Roman. “No, really, h-how long have you been there?”

“Long enough.” Curious. Roman seemed so confident, so self-assured around the other sides, to the point of sometimes being narcissistic, but here he was, looking somewhat self-conscious and extremely mortified���but perhaps those words simply weren’t meant for Damien’s ears. “My apologies, it was definitely my intention to spy on you.” He recalled how… alive Roman had seemed while acting. “Leaping about the stage like that, you just looked so… uh… beautiful…” He muttered the last word, too embarrassed to say it aloud and too embarrassed to meet Roman’s eyes (although he did dare to look up long enough to see Roman’s–pleasantly?–surprised expression).

“Th-thank you.” The creative side had stuttered more in the past two minutes than Damien had ever heard him stutter the whole time he’d known Roman.

There was an awkward silence where Roman played with the edge of his sash.

“You know.” Roman looked up as Damien spoke. “Those times I flirted with you–it was never genuine.” Damien bit his lip, then stopped with a soft “ow” as he remembered he had fangs.

Roman’s eyes were wide. “Your lip is bleeding.” He took an unsure step forward.

“It’s–it’s not fine.” Damien touched his lip and winced. Worrying is absolutely necessary.”

“If you’re sure.”

Damien’s forked tongue totally didn’t dart out of his mouth to lick off the blood, and Roman’s eyes definitely didn’t follow its path as Damien retracted his tongue into his mouth.

“Dance with me,” said Roman suddenly. It was funny, Roman himself almost looked more surprised than Damien felt about what he’d just said.

“What?”

“I, uh… dance with me,” stammered Roman, holding out a hand to Damien while the other hand nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

Damien considered–he’d never really danced with anyone before, but on the other hand, Roman looked so earnest, and right now, he wanted nothing more. He placed his hand on top of the prince’s outstretched palm.

Roman snapped his fingers, and a song began to play out of nowhere. Damien didn’t recognize the tune, but it had a certain beat to it.

What happened next was kind of a blur. Damien’s main focus was on how Roman’s eyes shone with a certain something… he wasn’t sure what. The way Roman moved was powerful yet gentle, intense yet soft, full of energy even with an underlying calm. He was fire, beautiful, and dangerous, and if you got too close…

The next thing he knew, Roman, lost in the movement, had slipped. Roman flung out his arms in an attempt to catch himself, but Damien feared it wasn’t enough. In a near-instantaneous decision, he made a desperate dive to catch Roman.

Damien heaved a sigh–that had been close, he’d had to do the “stretchy arm” thing, as the others insisted on calling it, in order to catch Roman in time. Looking Roman over, he seemed to be unhurt, and was, in fact, sporting a sly grin as he gazed up at Damien.

“Guess I can always count on my knight in shining armor to save the day.”

There were many things wrong with this situation. First, the tone Roman had used was one he used exclusively for flirting, and while Damien knew of Roman’s tendency to flirt excessively, he was not one of the three the creative side was dating. Secondly, Damien was acutely aware of the hand cupping either side of his face, as well as the blush which probably covered the human half. Thirdly, when had the music changed? …he wasn’t sure how to feel about the way Roman’s eyes kept darting back to his lips.

He let go of Roman rather abruptly, who flushed once more as he realized what he’d just been doing, which led to an awkward coughing session as they both examined the cracks between the wooden planks in the floor of the stage.

Something that felt like a hand latched onto Damien’s shoulder, and he stood stock still. Sharp talons dug into his arm, and the look on his face must’ve displayed the terror he was feeling because Roman stopped himself from laughing just in time.

“It’s alright, Damien, that’s my pet phoenix Aodh.” Roman took a step forward, holding out one arm, and in a ruffle of feathers, the phoenix alighted on his arm.

Damien had to admit that the bird was beautiful, bright reds fading into orange, then to yellow, which reminded him of a sunset. Still, the bird was enormous, and that pointed beak and those curved talons weren’t something to take lightly.

“You have a pet phoenix?”

Roman chuckled. “Do you want to touch her feathers?” Damien wasn’t quite so sure that he did, but he took a step closer to appease Roman.

Cautiously, Damien held a hand in front of the bird. He had no clue what the proper etiquette for petting a phoenix was, so he’d resorted to the way one might hold a hand out for a cat or dog. She looked him over shrewdly, but slowly lowered her head as if to give him permission. Roman nodded reassuringly, so Damien started to gently run his hand over the feathers on her head; they were surprisingly soft.

After Damien left, Roman didn’t teleport straight to his room. He didn’t collapse on his bed, and he definitely didn’t scream into his pillow on and off for ten minutes.

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