#and has some mad awesome mechanics
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Attention Everyone
I love Linked Universe Sky. That is all.
#he's so cool#he's warm and soft and cuddly and kind#and he's also the mightiest warrior#and he's seen the horrors and survived#and he's deeply loved and personally taken care of by the goddess herself#he's got the coolest sword--no--he MADE the coolest sword#he's got a strong and sassy gf#and a adorable and loyal and epic bird friend#and his game gives the entire Zelda franchise weight and meaning and depth#and his game is super colorful and pretty#and has some mad awesome mechanics#lu sky
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Hi! Do you know any one session ttrpgs? Preferably space/sci-fi themed but that’s not strictly necessary.
What’s important to me is that it’s creative, that it has fun mechanics and that you really have to work together (it’s for a birthday party). Also I should probably mention all participants are beginners but I’d definitely set aside some time to get into understanding the mechanics beforehand.
Thank you for running this blog and thanks in advance for answering! :D
THEME: Collaborative Space One-Shots
Hello friend, I think I have a really neat mix of games here for you to check out. I think most of these will naturally lead to creative, collaborative solutions from your players!
This Ship Is No Mother, by New Madras.
This Ship Is No Mother is a game about people in space, working jobs that are probably going to get them killed. It's 50+ pages, fully illustrated with art by Justin Nichol.
Inspired by movies like Alien and games like Mothership and Dread, this is for fans of tension, creepy-crawlies, and general horror. Mechanically, it's a card-based Forged in the Dark game, first in the series of games currently called the Cardsharp Sonata.
In this game, players start with a full deck of cards and as you play, that deck will run down. When the deck ends, there is a climactic moment of panic as one of the characters is going to do something stupid and get themselves (and maybe everyone else) killed.
A space horror game, this is a great game option for folks who love Alien. It’s designed to play within a very specific time frame, because the game ends when you use the last cards from a 52-card deck. It’s a game meant for horror and suspense, and was designed to run with Mothership game modules, so I’d recommend looking up some Mothership modules on Itch!
24XX Unlikely Heroes - Space Questing, by FutureFriend.
All you wanted was a steady paycheck, a quiet life among the stars, and maybe a comfy closet to nap in. Action and adventure? "Mmm, no thanks. I’m good." The universe, however, isn’t taking "no" for an answer…
Time to grab some tools, buddies, and your brown space pants. Out here heroism may be less “epic deeds and grand destinies” and more “frantically pressing the right button before it all explodes!”
24XX Unlikely Heroes - Space Questing is a rules-lite sci-fi RPG that is distilled into just 4 pages that fit snugly on two sides of a sheet of paper. It is a hack of the awesome 2400 system, by Jason Tocci.
24XX is a pretty light system and is great for dungeon crawls. As with most games in this family, the rules and GM advice fit on one page, so they should be pretty easy to teach. This game is pretty goofy, as you are regular space-folk who find themselves pushed into a dramatic scenario. If you are running a game for the first time, I’d definitely recommend running this game with the help of a dungeon, such as Space Frogdom, a light dungeon with space frogs and a countdown towards the hatching of a dragon egg.
Holdfast Station, by Lampblack & Brimstone.
The rim of the known universe. A place so god-forsaken, so hostile and alien to life itself that only the mad go there—and only the desperate stay.
That’s you.
Holdfast Station is about asteroid miners surviving and holding their community together in the grim desolation of space. Regular folks in a rough spot, who hold to each other and their own. A place where survival means you trust each other, you fight like hell, and you hope for the best. A place where food and water and even air is scarce. Where the crushing emptiness and massive force of the void are only feet away. Where you live so close you know everyone by smell. Where one accident could spell everyone’s destruction.
It’s about the people who step up when disaster strikes. They aren’t heroes, just regular people—people with no choice but to risk it all for their home and those they love.
Holdfast Station is a "pick up and play" RPG—After you gather players, some dice, and the provided record sheets (physical or online), the book guides you through play, one step at a time. One player, called the Navigator, takes on the role of storyteller, narrating events, encouraging players to contribute, and moving the story along. Each of the other players takes on the role of a worker on the station, striving to survive at the edge of known space.
This game advertises itself as a “no prep” game, although if you are a first-time GM, it might still be good to read through the entire thing first, just to familiarize yourself with all of the pieces of the game. Holdfast Station is all about a terrible event threatening the station, so it naturally encourages the players to work together to try and solve the problem before time runs out. The game might run a bit long if the players need a bit of help putting characters together, but I enjoy the guidance and tools present in the game that help you stay on task.
Survivors, by Alexander Schneider.
Survivors is a science-fiction role-playing game designed as a one-shot cosmic horror scenario where players are faced with survival questions while also encountering an unknown alien force which threatens their very lives. Together they may find ways to survive (or at least hope to) but they will hardly escape the psychic horror they pose themselves. Is it the desperate situation or something else which drives them mad to a point of no return to their former selves?
If you want a horror one-shot, you might be interested in Survivors. It has a very specific opening premise, and each event that the players encounter gives them roleplaying prompts that encourage them to replicate paranoia, fear, and a deterioration of emotional stability.
This is definitely a game you have to clear with the group beforehand, as the way the game has a lot of representations of different forms of mental illness, most of them inflicted upon the players the further they delve into the adventure.
Koboldly Go!, by CoffeeSnake Studios.
Calling all Kobolds!
Gather your crew, assemble your ship, and take to the depths of space on a mission to discover strange new worlds. To seek out life and new civilizations.
To Koboldly Go where no lizard has gone before!
This game is exceptionally humorous and lighthearted, and works really well for groups who have some appreciation for the inherent goofiness of early Star Trek. You create your kobolds by rolling for your job, colour, and your stats. You also spend time designing your ship by drawing from a regular pack of playing cards. The biggest downside for this game is that it doesn’t come with an adventure - you’ll have to create one yourself. I’d recommend drawing from Star Trek to create a planet or star system that has an anomaly that directly affects the ship, since you spend a lot of time creating it.
Greenhorns Quickstart, by Spicy Tuna RPG.
In Greenhorns your crew will create planets and fill the cosmos with new incredible life. Survive anomalies that spawn from these worlds and stabilize the planets for long term life. Define the planets’ histories and futures through the loot you retrieve and return home to a heroes welcome. You are Kruxian. You are chosen.
The full game of Greenhorns is good for a multi-session experience, but the Quickstart is suited to one-shots and is also free! Player abilities are mostly focused on combat, with each character class contains skills that guarantee success - but can only be used so many times. This is a game that depends on players coming up with creative solutions to problems, so I think collaboration will come pretty naturally.
The setting is kind of gonzo, with a mix of space fiction and fantasy tropes. If you want a unique setting that might inspire more games in the future, I recommend Greenhorns.
ATMA, by Meromorph Games.
Welcome to a world near our own. The volcanic mineral atma empowers the living and entwines the dying, while artificial intelligence and alien titans join humanity in this daunting new century. Yet in the Restless Zones, beyond society and law, trouble lurks. Gather your fellow adventurers and prepare to test yourself against the world’s most dangerous frontiers. The sky’s getting darker…
ATMA is a complete roleplaying game system in a tiny package. It's portable, quick to set up and teach, and plays in just 2 hours — perfect for game nights or pop-up sessions! A Game Master and 1-4 players use illustrated tarot cards to fuel RPG gameplay focused on creativity and quick thinking. ATMA excels as a tutorial for first-time GMs who've always wanted to run an RPG, while allowing limitless creativity for roleplaying pros.
This is probably the closest to what you’re looking for, I heavily recommend that you check ATMA out. It’s self-contained and super-fun to pull out and show off the the group. I don’t know if you have enough time to order the physical version, but there is an online version of the game and free print-and-play downloads if you just want a quick test of the game! I love the art and abilities presented in ATMA, and I think it’s definitely very beginner-friendly. It feels part-way between a boardgame and a roleplaying game, so if your friends are familiar with board games, this is a good bridge.
I’d also recommend…
Mothership has really quick and easy-to-understand character creation, and the game is designed to run small adventures that work as space dungeon crawls. This content is great for GMs because it gives them a location with a bunch of information to present to your players, which means that you have a lot to work with if you haven’t done something like this before. I’d recommend checking out There is A Goblin on Icarus Station if you want a Mothership adventure that has something for horror fans and comedy lovers.
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sick heart, sick body, s. spiegel
syn. you both got some healing to do.
gen. romance, sick fic.
warnings. canon typical spike banter.
word count. 2.1k.
note. this was posted on ao3 forever ago and i said it was cross-posted here, but i ... clearly never actually did that... until now... oops (?)
spike has known you for most of his bounty hunting career. you came on the team a year after he himself joined jet, proving yourself to be not some wayward hitchhiker they'd have to take care of on their own dime, but a genuine asset: budgeting skills like no other (which the bebop crew really needed help with, though they would object to if questioned), ways of drawing out bounty heads into false senses of security (without causing a fire fight, something spike could really learn from, according to jet), disciplined in all the ways that matter. you're a quick learner; given the time and patience, you'd been able to pick up on his fighting style and you'd learned enough about mechanical engineering to help him and jet in repairing things on the bebop and the other spaceships on board.
all that to say: you're strong and spike has never known you to be anything else. you're smart, quickwitted, a powerhouse bounty hunter with all the skills that matter. you may be a little quiet, a little meek at points, but you're strong, almost untouchable.
so it surprises him when you come down especially hard with a severe case of the flu. it sounds so... primitive, he thinks, just some stupid earth sickness that honestly can't compete with some of the (quite frankly) awesomely-titled sicknesses that have come to be since the colonization of other planets; really, he justifies to himself, venus sickness sucks, but it is a cool name.
he cringes when he hears you cough for what might seriously be the hundreth time tonight and then mentally punches himself for taking the piss out of what you're going through right now. jet had said you'd contracted it while you guys were hanging around in tijuana and spike had been off tracking bounties; it was just coughing and congestion at first, but apparently, it eventually morphed into something way more severe. you'd quarantined yourself immediately to keep them safe, which spike has respected since he got back earlier in the day, but he shares a bedroom wall with you and damn him if you think he's going to allow you to keep suffering like this without him interfering.
your next coughing fit sends him up and out of the comforting warmth of his bed. it's not like he's angry with you or anything - sure, the coughing is getting on his nerves, but he knows you can't help it and he's not that much of a heartless asshole to be mad at you for keeping him from sleeping specifically because you're ill. really, he finds himself wanting (needing, maybe) to check on you, to make sure you have everything you need so you can rest easy and recover faster.
he realized a long time ago that he'd become jaded about the world. with everything that happened in the before the bebop era, it was clear why he'd become so disillusioned and nonchalant about things. with his past, things just didn't matter as much; he still had life to live, but he'd decided to be a little more reckless about things. he didn't want to waste time worrying about things that didn't concern him, now or ever: whatever happens, happens.
your being sick isn't really any of his business because outside of him having to listen to you cough all night for as long as you're ill, it doesn't concern him in the slightest. he means, it shouldn't concern him because it really shouldn't, but there's a part of him that's... open to the idea of being concerned for you and your wellbeing, which is strange to him because he shut himself off from ideas like that decades ago, it seems like. it's not that he's incapable of it, of caring for another person, but rather that he feels it's more of a betrayal. he'd given his heart to another and he'd never truly gotten it back.
though, in the five long strides it takes him to cross from his door to your own, he thinks that maybe he had gotten it back, years ago even, and he was too afraid to admit it to himself. so many things he'd held himself back from for years, all in the name of a woman who had disappeared into the ether without so much as a trace. she was gone; dead or alive, julia was gone and she had been for a long time. it's been time for him to douse that torch for a while now.
and when he comes to this conclusion in those five strides, he thinks that you getting sick might be a blessing in disguise, at least for him, because he's realizing now that he's been taken with you for quite some time. he's not sure when it first started, this infatuation with you, but it certainly isn't recent. he supposes it doesn't matter, however, because he's realizing it now, on his way to rescue you from an earth virus that definitely had a way lamer name than other sicknesses, which is a comment he's sure you'll laugh at and agree with him about if he brings it up.
once he finally raps his knuckles on the sliding metal door leading to your bedroom, he hears the beginning syllable of "come" before it's interrupted by a ragged cough. your voice, rough and almost whispered, struggles to say "come in," but you finally manage it and he opens the door just enough to slide in, ducking under the door frame.
"you feeling alright?" he asks, closing the door behind him. "you've been hacking up a lung all night."
you do your best to laugh, but it's a sad attempt, barely there and hoarse. a piece of him wilts at the sound, sad to hear you in such a bad condition. "better than i was yesterday."
"sure doesn't sound like it," he answers, turning towards you. he withers a little more.
you look so small in your bed, under what he can only guess to be every single available blanket on the bebop. you have dark circles under your eyes, your cheeks sunken and your skin pallid in accordance. you look like you have one foot in the grave.
"jesus," spike says, crossing the small room to your bedside and sitting on the edge. "you look awful. have you been eating?"
somehow, he's able to recognize your shrug under fifteen different blankets. "we're almost out of food. didn't wanna bother jet about it or throw the budget out of sorts."
"are you being serious right now? fuck the budget. you have to eat when you're sick like this." he genuinely frowns and presses the back of his hand to your forehead and then cheeks. "and you're burning up. did you just decide to forgo medicine in the name of the budget too?"
you shrug again.
"you're the worst."
but you can tell he's joking because if he really thought that, he wouldn't be here at all. he stands and when he turns to look at you, you've got a questioning expression on your face.
"oh, don't look at me like that. i'm not just going to come in here, berate you for being stupid about being sick, and then leave. i'm going to go see if i can track down some medicine."
"it's not gonna be any of that weird shit you keep in the first aid kit, is it?" you ask, a grimace clear on your face.
"okay, first off, that weird shit is home remedies and they work just fine. second, no, i'm not stupid. that stuff isn't going to cure what you have, so don't worry your pretty little head, alright? the newt stays in the kit another day."
the last comment makes you laugh and this time, it's not as hoarse as it was a few minutes ago, which makes him smile to himself. with you being in the state you are, it's nice to hear a few seconds of your cool, clear laugh. something about it anchors him to this moment in time, reminds him that he's not as cold and as standoffish as he's always presented himself to be in this new life of his; no, he's capable of caring for people like this, of loving someone like this. he's got something good here with you and he's always had it, he's just never let himself think that it was his to actually indulge in.
"i'll see what i can find. in the meantime, start deconstructing that 'money is more important than my pressing health needs' mindset you apparently have going on, okay? i mean, really, you were worried about the budget? you know jet would agree with me here, as much as he complains about not having money. plus, shit that you can't account for happens."
"okay, okay, i get it." you accompany your words with an eye roll, but the smile is clear on your lips, which are cracked from dehydration. "can we save the lecture for when you get back? or just save it for jet altogether since i know you'll end up snitching to him about this eventually anyway?"
spike scowls, but it's obviously playful. "don't go catching an attitude with me. i'm generously playing nurse for you right now when i could very well just let you suffer here alone."
"oh, this is you playing nurse? then you really oughta work on your bedside manner, spiegel. it's atrocious."
he shakes his head and begins backing away from you, arms crossed over his chest. "keep acting like that and maybe i'll feed you that newt after all."
"yeah, yeah, yeah. i think jet's been hiding chamomile tea somewhere in the living room. make some for me, please?"
"you're real lucky i'm in the mood to be compassionate," he jokes, finally turning to open the door. "you want honey with it?"
"if we have any."
"you got it. don't fall asleep before i get back or i'm ratting you out to jet about this tea too."
he hears your hum of affirmation as he steps into the hallway and when he closes the door behind him, he allows himself to assess the whole interaction. if this had occurred at any point before now, he would have felt entirely disgusted with himself, but at present, he realizes he doesn't really mind. you've taken care of him an innumerable amount of times since joining him and jet, serving as the defacto nurse on the bebop, and this could easily be just him returning the favor, but it feels like so much more than that.
because it is. if it was anyone else, if was any other time, he wouldn't be feeling this way: soft and warm on the inside like heat without his trusty cigarette. when he'd left the syndicate and faked his death, he'd sworn off love and adoration and affection. they had been his downfall once, they would not ruin him a second time. sure, he'd come to trust jet more than he'd trusted anyone before, but he kept even him at arm's length, afraid of what might happen if he let him come too close to orbit.
and while it worked for the most part, spike has been learning (for what he assumes is quite a long time) that cutting those kinds of human connections of out of one's life isn't the way to go about healing, especially when the person one wants to love has proven time and time again that they're worthy of being trusted. there is no life without love because life without love and companionship is a sickness of the heart and he's let it fester for far too long.
so when he comes back to your room with a hot mug of chamomile tea with honey, a few pieces of hard tack he scrounged up, and some generic medicine, and he finds you asleep? he doesn't find himself all too annoyed with you like he threatened he'd be. no, instead, he feels a little bad when he has to wake you up to drink and eat and take the medicine he had to go digging through too many drawers for. and when you apologize for keeping him up with your coughing, he tells you you're the worst next door neighbor for it (a joke), but he's glad he can help you (not a joke).
and when you ask him if he'll stay for a while (just to make sure i'm not going to die in my sleep, you reason), he agrees and lays under your fifteen blankets with you until your breathing evens out and you're fast asleep, and even then, he stays just a little bit longer than he needs to, relishing in the feeling of sharing a bed with another person again.
he figures you've both got some healing to do, so you won't mind if he falls asleep with you.
© keigologies 2023. do not translate, copy, or repost my work on any site.
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The new limbus canto has me foaming at the mouth. Thoughts?
Just finished my 9 hour session. Project Moon writers are playing toys and expecting us to keep up and it's kind of awesome
- Using the arc mechanics of sanity for a nonstop boss gauntlet is CRAZY. 4 seperate bosses took me an hour each. I was learning Limbus mechanics I hadn't even realized existed fighting all these fucking bosses. Jesus does the first one ever set the tone
- VERGILIUUUUUUUS
- Disappointment Cathy wasn't a villain VS loving the humanity of the fact she's so self-centred that losing her position in someone's heart is terrifying to the point she can be gaslit by her own deranged self-centred compulsions
- Meursault
- So much stupid shit in this one I love it. Mirror Heathcliff looks like something that the power rangers should be fighting. Laughed every time he showed up
- THE FUCKING PUUUUUN THE FINAL SCENE PUN WHWIFJJFODK
- the mechanics of mirror world technology is so unnecessarily complex with so many interpretations that it doesn't really make sense however it ended up being the least asspull thing in this Canto
- Every asspull in this Canto was the coolest asspull. Childish glee
-I was wrong about the arc sin being pride it was Gloom. The Heartbreaking is so obviously about being driven to madness by torrential emotion. Holy fuck. I my be stupid
- I really wanted to see some more Dante characterization crumbs so I was blindsided by it being 150% Dante lore stuff instead. Like they were fretting about not being appreciated in the last Canto but now they're so professional. It reminds me of how calm they were in the whale too. Business gap moe or proximity to the branch....??
- Similarly I'm disappointed Ishmael wasn't utilized at all but I get it because their situations are more different than expected and it would distract from the story it ended with 😑 good writing choice
- Based on Verg skills it's possible his eyes aren't even his. Am I crazy for obsessing over Ryoshu's reaction to his statement about his Gladius
- What else. God I don't even know. That shit was crazy. This game loves to top itself
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REVERSE ENGINEERING THE PURPOSE OF THE CROWN OF ILLUSIONS
just hear me out. then you can tell me if im insane.
in bloodborne, there is a unique piece of head wear called "the crown of illusions". it serves a single purpose: to open an illusory wall revealing the location of an otherwise entirely hidden NPC, annalise, queen of the vilebloods.
the crown is dropped after a boss battle and you are intended to put it on immediately after the fight so that the fake wall can be revealed in a cut scene. they did NOT want you to miss this mechanic. otherwise, why not simply have the throne room blocked by a fog gate? its fine for other bosses, right?
this mechanic is never used again. this is insanely weird because 1. there are other illusory walls in the game specifically in the chalice dungeons (twice, i believe, in the lowest possible levels). however, they function like standard fromsoft illusory walls and are revealed by hitting them with a weapon. the crown does nothing. and 2. there is otherwise no satisfactory explanation for this mechanic at all.
i have often expressed my frustration that when things dont "line up" in fromsoft games its chalked up to dev error or some flavor of "its all dreams/made up" which i refuse to entertain unless its the last possible explanation barring literally all others. this stupid crown has been bothering me for years because of how seemingly inexplicable it is. this has been doubled by the fact that the crown is not unique; alfred leaves a crown of his own (and must have had it to enter the queen's chambers) at the end of his quest and the titular sages of the "sage's hair" item are depicted as wearing crowns.
visually, the sage items are based off the real life concept of catacomb saints (and, in fact, i think "saint" would have been a better translation over "sage" considering this, but thats neither here nor there), hence the gems and jewels and crowns and shit. that part makes sense to me just fine. but where else would this illusion mechanic have been used?
ill tell you where: in the secret 4th layers of the "canon" (non-root) chalice dungeons!
canonically, there is only one chalice dungeon with a 4th layer, otherwise they all end at layer 3. this also intrigued me bc of its irregularity in a system of "dungeons" that are almost entirely copy-pasted rooms; why choose a completely random chalice in the middle of the sequence have an extra layer?
i came up with my own explanation for this that works a treat: the chalice in question, lower pthumeru, has rom the vacuous spider as its THIRD LAYER boss. rom is a boss you would have first encountered outside of the dungeons who has a unique ability: to block rituals and secrets from sight. the rom you fight in the main story is hiding a secret ritual and killing her reveals the ritual to the world. the rom you fight in the dungeons is hiding a secret layer of the labyrinth wherein the hunter will find a truly terrible secret: the source of the beast blood.
we now know this fourth layer IS narratively intended to be a secret layer...because EVERY story-related chalice dungeon had a secret 4th layer! they are "fully functional" if not a bit odd/broken (but not NEARLY not to the point of other hacked dungeons) but with bosses that either fucking suck or are placeholders (...or im coping lol). but look at this: ive timestamped this video at the point where the 4th layer elevator "reveals" itself!
youtube
other boss room exits are simply blocked by a fog wall (or, if you're on the last layer, it dead ends and you use the lamp to warp out). this "fade in" effect is the illusory reveal effect! as the linked post from the eternally fascinating hard work from r/tombprospectors reveals, there is some weird ass shit in these layers. enough that i started a red string wall of madness to try to keep track of it all. its not even weird stuff in a game dev way, i mean weird in a plot and lore way. its awesome lol.
the 4th layers were only discovered within the last 2 years. i am confident now about the mechanics of how this was intended to work, but still shaky on the ~lore implications~. what were kings and saints only permitted to see and access? what were they privy to that the rest of the populace of the dead civilization was not?
LORE THEORY: THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE AND USE OF THE CROWN OF ILLUSIONS WAS TO REVEAL SECRET 4TH LAYERS OF THE CHALICE DUNGEONS, AS EVIDENCED BY THEIR EXISTENCE IN THE GAME CODE AND MEANS OF ACCESS. THEY CHOPPED IT OUT DUE TO THE USUAL FROMSOFT DEV CYCLE INCLUDING A PART WHERE THEY SPILL EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR MINUTES BEFORE LAUNCH AND HAVE TO PUT EVERYTHING BACK TOGETHER QUICKLY
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Lions Ain't the Kind - Part Two
Summary: You and Frankie can't get each other off your minds'. He asks you on a third date. It's a success.
Word Count: 5,741
Pairing: Frankie Morales x NB/Gender-fluid! AFAB! Reader
Rating: 18+ Explicit
Warnings: 18+ mdni, subby!Frankie, soft dom!reader, a few brief mentions of alcohol, talks about gender non-conformity, talks about gender dysphoria as it relates to sex, amab terminology for afab genitalia, kissing, making out, oral (afab receiving), dirty talk, premature ejaculation, Frankie has a praise kink, no use of y/n, no physical descriptions of reader
A/N: Special shoutout to @for-a-longlongtime and @perotovar for letting me bother them about this part while I was writing, love you both dearly <3
Frankie calls you later that night.
You helped him clean up after, popped some popcorn, and rewound the movie. He snuggled sleepily into your side; the orgasm apparently settled his nerves from before. You both joked about how not-so-great the movie was over a few beers, and then you sent him off with a buttery goodnight kiss.
But your phone rings as you’re settling into bed for the night, and you think maybe something is wrong, like his car broke down, or he left something at your place.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s me. I just made it home.”
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, no, everything’s fine. I just— I wanted to thank you.”
You laugh. Sweet boy, calling to thank you for getting him off.
“Was it that good?” You joke.
“No— I mean yes, yes it was. That’s not what I meant though. I’ve never been… Well, you know, I’m not so good at this stuff. And I’ve never felt like… this. And I like it. And I like you. So… thank you.”
Your face burns at his words, at the thought you could give this man something he needs, this man that you’re quickly developing a habit for.
“That’s sweet, Frankie. I like you too. A lot.”
You hear him huff through your tinny phone speakers and in a moment of pure weakness you wish you would’ve asked him to stay over.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, yes. I really do.”
He laughs, and you can imagine it in your head, what his dimple looks like, the way his curls would look as he shakes his head.
“That’s awesome.”
——
Frankie’s a busy guy, you come to find out. He works fairly long hours at his mechanic shop, and he has custody of his daughter every other week, and he also attends community events, he calls them, every Wednesday.
Your business is relegated to the eight hours a day you spend in your office, and maybe a few hours here or there when you need to take work home with you.
And you’re not blaming Frankie for it, but the distance makes you want him so much more. He texts you all day long, staggered back and forth when you both have the time. He’ll call you some nights, when his daughter goes to bed early, just to talk about your days. But it isn’t enough.
It’s not enough because you can’t stop thinking about how he looks in your lap, and how desperate his sounds are, and how his skin feels under your palms.
It’s driving you mad, replaying that night over and over and craving even more from him.
It really isn’t just about the sex, though, either. You find yourself thinking of him at the grocery store, wondering if he likes the scent of your favorite deodorant or if you should pick something new. You see an old Ford Ranger as you’re driving to work and wonder if Frankie’s inside. You find a new show on Netflix to watch but pause it after the first five minutes because you think Frankie would like to watch it too, with you.
And Frankie’s just as bad, if not worse off than you are.
His days are long and busy but occupied with thoughts of you, even as he’s changing brake pads and tinkering elbow-deep in the hood of another car.
When he picks up his daughter from school and asks how her day was, he sends off a quick text to ask you about your day, too.
And after he gets her to bed, and finishes laundry and the dishes and brushing his teeth, he crawls under the covers only to feel like his queen sized mattress is way too big, way too empty.
That’s when he texts you, Saturday night, heart beating just a bit too fast and feeling a tad heavier than normal.
I miss you. Are you free tomorrow?
I miss you too, sweet boy. I’ve got nothing going on all day.
Can I pick you up for brunch after I drop off the kiddo? Around noon?
Sounds perfect, can’t wait 😘
And he hardly sleeps because of the anticipation, wondering if this whole thing has just been a fluke. One whole week of not seeing you has his insecurities skyrocketing, despite the texts and phone calls.
The clock on his bedside table reads 5:36am and he can’t for the life of him tamper down the feelings to fall back to sleep. So he trims up his facial hair, and showers for longer than he usually likes to. He makes a big breakfast for his daughter, and dresses in his nicest jeans and a collared shirt while she giggles at some Sunday morning cartoon.
It isn’t until he’s halfway to her mom’s house that he realizes he’s a dead giveaway. He winces when she answers the door with her eyebrow raised, greeting cut-off halfway through.
“Are you going to church now?”
He laughs and rolls his eyes as she waves him into the foyer.
“Not quite. I think church usually starts earlier than noon, though.”
“So… court?”
“Oh my god, is it that unbelievable that I have a date?”
“At noon?”
“Brunch date,” he shrugs, shoving his hands deep into his pockets.
“You haven’t dated since we broke up.”
He shrugs again, and can feel the heat beginning to rise to his cheeks.
“Is this new? Where’d you guys meet?”
He huffs at the interrogation, though he knows there’s no malice behind it.
“Um… Tinder… couple weeks ago now.”
An amused look spreads across his ex’s face, and he wants to die.
“Interesting. You’ve met in person, then?”
“Yeah, twice already. Last week.”
“Well, sounds like it’s going good then, yeah?”
He takes a deep breath in, and nods, and then shrugs.
“I hope so. Like… I really hope so.”
Her face softens, and she smiles a sweet smile that lets him know he looks even more vulnerable than he feels, which must be a feat.
“Then I hope so, too.”
——
When Frankie knocks on your door a little past 12, he surprises you. Gone is that apprehensive look you’ve grown so used to seeing on him. Instead, he’s beaming, a precious and pearly smile splitting his face when you open the door.
“Hey,” he says, slightly out of breath, like he may have ran up the stairs at a less than leisurely pace.
“Hey, smiley.”
He huffs when you tease him, but his smile doesn’t falter.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Looks good on you.”
Everything looks good on him, actually. His shirt hugs his chest and his tummy, and his jeans are sucked tight to his thighs, and his hair is that perfect mess of haphazard curls that makes your fingers tingle with the urge to touch.
“You ready to go?”
He shifts in his spot on your doorway, and you bite your lip as you admire the view.
“Not yet.”
His mouth opens to respond, but the words don’t get a chance to leave his lips because you’re pressing your own to them.
Warm, soft, minty.
His hand finds your waist and yours cups his neatly groomed jaw, and the simple touches make the wires in your system short-circuit.
Simmer down, you remind yourself, you have to at least get through brunch.
His smile is still wide when you pull apart, softer now, but no less giddy. He gives you a once-over, taking in one of your favorite outfits you picked out of your closet just for today.
“You’re gorgeous,” he whispers.
“So are you.”
He shrugs, and you let your hand fall from his face to rest on his collar, and then farther down, where his top button lays open to reveal his smooth chest.
“Brunch?”
He squeezes your hip when he asks, and you try and fail to hold back a heaved sigh at the prospect of having to be decent in public with this man.
“Yep. Brunch.”
He chuckles, kisses the corner of your mouth as soft as ever.
“Back here for dessert?”
It shocks you, but it delights you.
“Francisco, you dirty dog.”
He backs away with his hands up as you make your way outside, letting you lock up.
“I’m just trying to ask for what I want,” he mumbles.
He looks sheepish when you turn back to face him, but also proud. You think he should be.
“I know. You’re being a very good boy for me.”
You smirk all the way to his truck at the way he tugs at his collar and clears his throat, and how his hand feels sweaty in yours.
——
He takes you to brunch by the river, a place you’ve heard about but you’ve never been to. He’s really sweet, opening doors for you and asking if the table on the patio is alright and turning his entire attention toward you while you wait for your food to come.
Though you’re both quite handsy, linking your calves together under the table and playing with each others’ fingers on top of it, you really don’t want to go home by the time the check comes.
He pays this time, of course, and when you’re standing up to leave you suggest taking a walk along the river. His enthusiasm for your suggestion makes your insides feel all sticky and hot, that you’re both on the same page, that even something so little can excite him like it does you.
The thing is, you don’t do this often. Okay, maybe you’ve had many dates that end up exactly like this, walking off a meal and chatting. But it’s very very rare that you get to do it with someone you click with, someone who gets you, someone who makes you feel comfortable in your own skin.
Frankie does just that, has since day one when you spent hours talking on that godforsaken dating app. And especially now, as he slinks one arm through the loop of your own and uses the other to caress where your sleeve rides up your bicep. His body is warm where it presses into you, only adding to that fuzzy feeling from the couple of mimosas you drank with brunch.
And when you turn to face him, the happy look on his face is everything. You get tripped up in the sunlight glistening in his brown eyes, the hints of ochre sparkling as his head shifts, before you determine you need to tell him.
“I like the way I feel with you,” you say earnestly, though the champagne has surely given you a bit of a push.
“What way is that?”
His pace slows on the little pebbled pathway, like he really doesn’t want to miss what you say next.
“Like I can just… turn my brain off and be.”
He chuckles, squeezes your arm.
“I feel the same. Like I don’t have to pretend to impress you or anything. Like I don’t need to impress you.”
You hum as you let the words sink in, and lean a little heavier into him as you walk.
“You do impress me though,” you tell him.
His breath hitches, you can feel it where he’s pressing into you from chest to hip.
“You impress me too. I uh— I think you’re probably the most impressive person I’ve ever met.”
“Weren’t you like, in the military?”
He laughs, then, full, you can feel it shaking his tummy against your arm.
“That doesn’t really count. Besides, my military buddies’ skills are limited to the field. I don’t think between the three of them they have more than a handful of civilian brain cells.”
“Harsh,” you laugh, pinching his side between your knuckles.
“I say it with love, of course. They’re good guys, you’d like ‘em. In a way you might like an annoying sibling.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I’d like you to meet them sometime. Maybe soon. If you’d feel comfortable.”
You don’t know much about this infamous group of guys Frankie’s bonded to, just that they’re his only real friends, and that they’ve all been through a lot. Another gooey feeling spreads through your guts at his proposal.
“I’d like that. Sometime soon.”
It does worry you a bit. You don’t know much about the military, but you’re aware of the stereotypes. Surely if Frankie’s friends with them, then they aren’t bad guys.
Frankie must see the fleck of apprehension in you,
Because he stops walking and releases your arm so he can face you squarely.
“I’m out to them. They’re cool with it. Pope— Santiago— he’s queer too. We’ve been to pride together, all of us. No bad vibes.”
You wonder if they’ve ever met someone like you. You wonder if Frankie’s told them about you yet. You wonder a lot of things in such a tiny amount of time that you sway a bit on your feet and Frankie reaches out to steady you.
“Shit— Are you okay??”
“I’m fine,” you’re quick to assure him, “just… I dunno. What if they don’t like me?”
Frankie scoffs.
“There’s no way they won’t like you. You’re you, you’re kind and funny and smart. What’s not to like?”
“Are you purposefully ignoring the elephant in the room?”
It isn’t heated, the way you ask it, but you’re genuinely curious. Is he beating around the bush, or is he naive, or is it really not a big deal to him?
“Cariño, it’s not an elephant. It’s a— I dunno. A neat… plant,” he shrugs.
You squint at him, and tilt your head at his explanation.
“You know what I mean? An elephant in a room is a giant pain in the ass. It’s much more like a cool plant. Maybe one some people aren’t familiar with, but it’s not— you’re not an elephant, is my point.”
You stare at him for a beat longer than you mean to, but once your giggle involuntarily bubbles up out of you, Frankie’s serious face is cracking into a goofy smile.
“You’re cute,” you tell him, “Jesus Christ.”
Your laughter mellows, and Frankie looks sheepish at your compliments, but he grabs you by the elbows anyway, leans in close to you so that you can smell the way the sun warms his curls and his skin.
“I mean it though,” he says, “I like you. Exactly how you are. The guys will too.”
Your eyes dart around to your surroundings as Frankie’s lips find your temple, then your cheek, then the corner of your mouth. Without anyone ogling, you shift your head just that much more to let his lips press against yours.
He hums, leaning harder into you, pulling you closer with his hands at your back. You melt, pliant and lax in his arms, until he huffs and pulls away.
“Frankie,” you whisper.
“Yeah?”
“I want you to take me home.”
His pupils grow comically large at your request, and this time he’s wobbling on weary legs.
“Anything you want, mi planta.”
Your walk back to his truck is… brisk. You’re not sure who’s leading who by the time
Frankie unlocks the doors, both too giggly to really worry about it. He kisses you breathless across the center console before he turns the key in the ignition, and you roll the flavor of him around in your mouth while he pulls out into traffic.
Frankie’s promise of ‘I like you exactly the way you are’ is rattling around in your head like a pinball in a faulty machine. You’re not sure he can even say that. If he even knows you exactly the way you are. It’s been two dates and a handful of weeks texting back and forth.
Granted, one of those dates had him shaking and crumbling on top of you, but still. He told you he’s never met someone like you. He said that, and now you have to pull the ‘Ol Talk out of your dusty little hat and you aren’t sure how he’s going to react. He’s given you no reason to believe it’ll be negative, but still. Sometimes it just makes you uncomfortable, to have to explain things that don’t often need explaining.
Instead of boiling over with nerves the closer you get, though, the anxiety simmers below the surface as you watch Frankie navigate back to your apartment. His side profile is criminal, with his wide eyes and strong nose and stubbly jaw, that dimple that just won’t seem to go away. His curls tickle the nape of his neck and whisp around his temple and you must twirl them between your fingers. So you do, and his answering hum has you squirming in the passenger seat.
The walk up your apartment stairs is when the nerves start to get the best of you. It takes you two tries to get your door unlocked, and you know Frankie is aware by the way he looks at you when you usher him through the door.
“Are you okay?”
It’s funny how just a week before you were asking him the same question, and now you’re the one who’s a bundle of frayed nerves when you’d only ever been so cool and calm and collected.
“I am, I just— Things are different… with me.”
His concerned brows turn back up when he smiles at you, the softness in his eyes working wonders to ease your anxiety.
“I like different. Different’s fun.”
You huff. He’s so sweet. It’s hotter than it should be.
“Really. I wanna learn you. Let me, cariño. Please?”
And god… those are gonna be a big, big problem, his wide, watery puppy eyes framed by long eyelashes that he breaks out like it’s no big deal. Like you wouldn’t murder someone for him if he made those eyes at you and asked nicely.
You sigh, and nod, and that gets him to drop the eyes at least, replace them with a toothy smile instead.
“Let me get us some waters, if you wanna get comfy on the couch.”
It gives you a second to breathe and gather your thoughts as you meander into the kitchen.
“I missed this couch,” he muses, wistful, and you laugh.
“I’m sure you did, Pretty Boy.”
You barely hear his huff over the trickle of your Brita filter, but then he speaks up.
“I love it when you call me that. Drives me crazy.”
Frankie’s full of this energy you didn’t expect from him, so much more forward now. You suppose the walls have been broken down a bit, ever since your last night together.
He’s sprawled out on the couch when you return with two glasses, leaning back against the corner of it, and his cock is straining at his jeans. You don’t pretend not to notice, and he doesn’t pretend that he can’t see your eyes tracing the shape of its outline in his dark denim. You place your waters on the coffee table, even as you feel your mouth go dry.
“Told you, drives me crazy. You drive me crazy.”
The way he looks up at you makes him look so small. Your pulse jumps about it, the way it makes you feel just minutely more comfortable with the conversation you’re about to have.
And it’s one that you want to have, no matter how un-sexy it feels, or annoying. Because in your experience, when you forgo the conversation until after, they always take it personally when you tell them what you didn’t like. And even though you know it’s bullshit, you can’t stand the thought of Frankie feeling defensive toward you, even if it’s unfounded.
So you curl up next to him, let his arm that’s slung over the couch rest across your shoulders. You bring your knees up to your chest and plant one hand high on his thigh. You’re so nervous that you almost miss the way it twitches under your palm.
“What’s on your mind?”
His thumb rubs tiny loops against your shoulder. Yours mirrors it on his jeans, and it soothes you enough to start speaking.
“Sometimes I don’t like… certain things. During sex. And sometimes I do. It just depends on my mood,” you start.
“Yeah, same. I think that’s everyone, right? Normal?”
You roll your eyes at yourself, because you know he has a point. But yours are a little different.
“Yeah but… You know how I said sometimes I’m both, and sometimes I’m neither, and sometimes I’m one or the other?”
“Yeah, ‘course I do.”
“Welll when I’m… y’know. Sometimes certain words just… turn me off. Make me feel weird, and get in my head and stuff, and then it’s not fun anymore.”
Frankie nods.
“And not like… What I mean is sometimes I like one word, and then another time I won’t like the same word. It’s always different. Depending on what I’m feeling.”
“Guapo, look at me.”
It’s then, when Frankie’s deep voice cuts like a searing hot knife, that you realize your eyes have been darting around everywhere but him.
He’s got a serious look on his face when you finally gaze back, but it’s soft, and it’s comforting, and for a second you think might cry.
“I think it’s my turn to make you ask for what you want.”
He smirks when he says it, and it’s so uneasy and so not at the same time.
You take a deep breath. Release it. Feel the squeeze of your heart unclench a bit.
“I want you to suck my cock. Today. And tomorrow maybe I’ll want you to eat my pussy. Okay?”
“Jesus Fuck—“
“I’m sorry—“
“Shut up, you’re so fucking hot.”
His words steal the breath from your lungs and make your face feel like it’s on fire. Even more so when his free hand presses against his erection over his jeans. It spreads, a dangerous flame that curls around your insides, high in your chest and low in your gut, and you tilt your head so you can taste the little whimper that falls from his lips.
Your hand finds his chest again, like it did that night, and something about his racing heartbeat eases you so much. That he’s just as nervous as you are, even if he’s a bit better at hiding it this time.
He cradles you when he kisses you back, one big, warm hand on the back of your head and his other on your back, wrapped around you, safe. And he’s gentle as he leads you to lie back, even as he growls and nips at your bottom lip.
Safe.
His thighs bracket one of yours as he holds himself above you by an elbow on the cushions. You feel his cock, hot and hard, pressed tight against you, throbbing when he shifts his hips for friction.
You let a noise sneak past your vocal chords, a deeper sigh, and instantly you feel even more vulnerable.
But Frankie just returns it, grip tightening on the back of your head. He pulls his mouth from yours and instead finds your pulse with it.
You gasp, and he curses. His hips jerk against you, and you know you’re about to soak through your briefs. His teeth find skin underneath your collar and you egg him on by lifting your thigh to press even tighter against his prick.
His muttered curse feels hot against your skin, but it quickly runs ice cold when Frankie’s hand sneaks under the hem of your shirt. You grab it quickly, separated by the material, and shake your head back and forth quickly.
“Not right now,” you whisper, “sorry.”
He looks up from his toothy assault on your skin to meet your gaze, hand slipping back out from under your shirt, and smiles.
“Don’t apologize,” he says, hand finding the crook of your thigh instead, “never for that. Always tell me what you need.”
Your breath stutters as he shifts back up to kiss your lips again, his thigh pressing just right between yours as his tongue tastes the roof of your mouth. You grind just like that, and he does too, a hot and damp rustling of fabric as he takes your mouth and whines into it at the friction.
Your hands get with the program, reach around to squeeze his ass and encourage his thrusts against your thigh. Sparks of arousal shoot through you every time you feel his cock pulse against you. It becomes not enough extremely quickly, especially with the noises you’re coaxing out of him and the way his tongue is sloppy and greedy inside your mouth.
“I need your mouth,” you gasp, your slick lips moving against his own as you speak.
He groans, licks at your bottom lip one last time.
“Anything you want.”
You’re hot, flustered and aching when he finally works on unfastening your pants. All the while his wide doe eyes peer up at you, waiting for any direction.
He shuffles a bit, settling between your open legs and huffing when he misses the pressure of your thigh against his prick. You thread your fingers through his curls as consolation, and smirk when he shudders and his eyelids droop.
He gets a hand under your pants, and both of your mouths drop open at the contact to the warmth between your thighs.
“Fuck, you feel perfect,” he sighs, “please let me taste you.”
His voice is gravelly, sends a wave of tingles up your spine as you grind down into his hand and tighten your grip on his hair. His fingers twitch against you as he gasps and pulls against your hold on his locks, and it’s fucking wicked.
Your curse and tug him by the hair to bury his face between your legs. You feel his nose squish against you first, then his lips, a hot breath of air released against you. He groans into you, inhales a deep breath, and you see his hips work frantically against the couch cushion underneath him.
“Frankie.”
He opens his eyes, but doesn’t dare pull his face away from your center.
“Take ‘em off,” you order.
He nods, face still pressed against you, like he’s nuzzling your package, and you have to tug his hair to urge him to get a move on.
“Sorry, sorry. Fuck— can’t help it.”
His fingers tremble, just barely, but noticeable nonetheless, as he hooks them under your briefs. One last look up at you, and you nod and tug at his curls, and then he finally pulls the damned things down your legs and off.
At this point, you don’t have enough wits about you to be shy. You spread your legs, one against the back of the couch, the other dangling off at the knee so your foot touches the floor. The air in your apartment is cool where you’re wet and slick, and your hips wiggle in anticipation.
All the while, Frankie stares at your center, just inches above you, so close you can feel his ragged breaths with every heave of his chest. He’s a fucking vision like this, between your legs, needy and ready to do what you tell him.
“Can I—?”
“Suck my cock, Frankie. Wanna see those pretty lips wrapped around it.”
A stilted breath escapes him as he opens his mouth to press against you. Your hips jolt at the first touch of his tongue through your folds, hot and wet and perfect. He wastes no time following your direction, though, tongue flicking over your cock before he gets it into his mouth and suckles.
Fuck.
It’s so fucking good, he’s so fucking good. Your grip on his hair only gets tighter as you watch his hips grind against the couch in a frantic rhythm. He whines and sucks harder, just shy of too much, tongue circling around your dick in between delicious pulses of suction.
You want to close your eyes and succumb to the pleasure, but you don’t want to miss a moment of this. The way his brow is creased in concentration, his silky curls bobbing up and down in your lap, the fucking noises he makes. The slurps and the grunts and the hums, like he’s getting just as much out of it as you are.
You suppose he is, the way he’s humping the sofa like he’s in heat.
His eyes flicker up to you, a silent question.
Is this doing it for you?
“So fucking good, Frankie. Just like that,” you tell him, fingers dragging through his hair, nails scraping at his scalp.
His eyes close as he hums around you, and yours do too, then, overwhelmed by the feeling. Your hips rock up into his face, fucking it, using him. His grip tightens on your thighs, and your body rocks from the from the way he’s grinding against the couch.
His tongue is wicked and precise, circling your cock, flicking it, circling then flicking, again and again and it makes your whole body buzz, has you out of your fucking mind.
And you suppose that’s why the words just fall from your lips; there’s no filter left, just raw, overwhelmed senses and adrenaline.
“Fuck, good boy Frankie. Letting me fuck your face, like the perfect little toy.”
“Hah— shit,” he whines, hips stuttering between your legs just for a moment as his lips lose their grasp on your dick.
“Prettiest mouth, all for me, right?”
You watch him as he looks up at you and nods, mouth hung open, his tongue sliding up and down your slit at the quick motion. He looks a mess, with his mustache glistening and his pupils huge and dark and his hair sticking up every which way. His eyelids droop and his brows draw up tight and he looks so so perfect between your legs.
With another pathetic noise, he sucks your cock between his lips again. You take mercy on his hair, let your hand find the back of his neck and cradle, massage the tense muscles under your fingertips. You feel him shudder against you, watch as his hips speed up in time with the bobbing of his head between your thighs.
And it’s building, blazing through your system, fiery static that has you breathing quicker, arching your back as your muscles tense.
Frankie’s noises only press you closer and closer to the edge, the way they’re muffled around your prick in his mouth, the way he’s clutching onto your hip and fucking your couch cushion as he slurps and suckles. It’s soaking wet and hot and much better than you’ve felt in a very long time.
“So close, don’t stop,” you beg.
Frankie’s answering noise is strung-out and his grip is bruising on your hip. You lift your hips into his mouth and your hand finds his hair again. You tug and encourage him to suck you off faster, just a bit, just enough.
You cry out his name as you shake. You hope the grip you’ve taken on his hair isn’t too tight, but none of your movements are your own until all the tension leaves your body. He works you through it as his breath puffs faster and heavier against your mound, gradually suckling softer, bobbing his head slower and slower while he groans around you.
Slowly, your muscles relax and your tendons unclench and your eyes open just in time to watch Frankie press a kiss to your swollen, twitching bud.
“Jesus,” you manage through a breath.
His grin is shy as he rests his cheek on your thigh. He strokes you through your comedown, quiet and calm, his fingertips soothing your thigh and your hip.
“How was that?”
You laugh at his question, and he hides his own chuckles in the crease of your hip.
“Incredible.”
He hums, and you ruffle his hair when his gaze turns sheepish.
“What do you need, Pretty Boy?”
He’s flushed, and his curls are a little damp at his temples as he shakes his head.
“I don’t need anything, Guapo.”
You try to muster up as stern a look as you can with your brain still fuzzy and your muscles still lax and gooey. His big brown eyes look up at you, pleading, and his shy look turns embarrassed.
Instead of speaking, he grunts as he sits back on his knees. You take note of the way his teeth scrape his bottom lip before you follow his eyeline, down his still heaving chest and belly.
You try not to let your eyes widen when you see the substantial damp patch soaked through his denim, but you must not have been subtle, because he makes a high, cut-off noise from the back of his throat.
“Sorry,” he says with a grimace.
“Shut up, you’re so fucking hot,” you chirp.
Those little dimples you’ve come to adore rear their heads even as he shakes his.
You sit up to press a kiss to one, then the other, and then his lips. You savor the heady taste of yourself on them, hum happily into his mouth as his trembling fingers stroke your skin.
You both change into comfier clothes. The sight of him wrapped up in your things has a whirlwind of emotions wreaking havoc in your chest. Something primal and something domestic all at the same time, and you have to tug him close in your grasp to tamper it all down to a manageable level.
His body weight tucked half into your side, half on top of you works wonders to calm you, especially as your hand finds his silky curls once more and you feel each strand slip through your fingers.
Frankie sighs, big and heavy, and it tickles your neck.
“What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?”
He chuckles and nuzzles his nose into the sensitive skin behind your ear.
“Thinking it’s kinda crazy, being so into someone I met a month ago.”
Your pulse jumps at his words. You wonder if he can feel it where he’s pressed against you.
“Yeah, kinda crazy,” you agree.
“Feels stupid.”
His curls brush against your face when he shakes his head, huffs again, but you hear the smile in his voice.
“Life’s kinda stupid.”
“It is, isn’t it?”
You chuckle at him as you watch his fingers tap an incoherent rhythm on your stomach.
“Seems fair, doesn’t it? To lean into the stupid when you get the chance?”
He turns to you then, a soft smile crinkling the edges of his wide eyes.
“Sounds fair to me,” he mumbles.
last part / next part
#x reader#sub! frankie morales#frankie morales x reader#nb reader#gender-fluid reader#pedro pascal characters#pedro pascal fanfiction#frankie morales#frankie morales fanfiction#ppcu fanfiction#pedro pascal cinematic universe#frankie morales smut#triple frontier fanfiction
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Mechs Ships Tournament: Resurrection Round Part 2!
Hi! The winner of this poll will proceed into the final poll to face off against the other Resurrection Round poll winner, Polymechs And Lyf, and the HNOC trio. This will only run for one day. Hope you all are ready!
Link to the other poll here
Propaganda under cut:
Tim/Bertie:
The entire “Tim Goes Mad” section of GTVTMK. Tim looses it because his best friend dies and goes on a murderous rampage. Also that one art that Reegis made of the younger version of the two of them.
gay moon bitches fr
Gptvstmk
*blows up the moon for you*
#TimBertie are literally so stuckycoded ngl#ITS ABOUT THE DEVOTION ABOUT CHILDHOOD FRIENDS GONE TO WAR ITS ABOUT THE VIOLENCE OF TRAGIC LOSS#ITS ABOUT GRIEF AND THE WAY IT HURTS YOU SO YOU EXTERNALIZE THAT HURT TO THE ONES WHO TOOK YOUR LOVED ONE#HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT MOON KAISER IM PISSING ON THE MOON YOU IDIOT!!!#im normal about timbertie (tags via @watermelonselfship)
Carmilla/Odin:
Lesbiabs
Because. Unethical lesbians who should be in sickly sweet love is not appreciated enough.
FUCKED UP TOXIC MILF YURI!!!!!!!
kinda bonkers women
TOXIC MILF YURI!!!!
Violinspector:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/37936555/chapters/94742191
violinspector (the stars claim them)
The Stars Claim 'Em
yoyr fanfic idk i thought this was funny [Poll runner's note: I'm the author of The Stars Claim Them.]
it slaps. that’s all
no thoughts. only them.
Ashes/Jonny:
bc like... the vibes. i also like ashes as hades and jonny as cerberus. ashes is so cool, and jonny is so... jonny.
their backstories both end with them murdering their father figure and then literally burning all of their ties to their former homes. its narratively satisfying. of course theyd be together.
#ASHES/JONNY MY EVERYTHING#good lord okay#they're best firneds. they were there for eachother since the beginning#jonny's a freak and ahses has to deal with jonny's bullshit & is also really the only one who knows how to put up with her bullshit#they're so awful but they really truly care so much about eachother#they're smoking buddies#ashes & jonny taking a moment and sitting together for a few minutes without saying a word#smoke break#they just Understand eachother do you feel me. they just Get eachother please (tags via @dropitdoeeyes)
Ivy/Raphaella
them <333 science vibe lesbians. Pedantic archivist and sciency scientist. Must I say more???
science saphics + ivy infodumping while raph does science™ is awesome
https://archiveofourown.org/works/41629023/chapters/104419359 :3
they could be called research paper which is based so vote them
no heart of gold, just flesh and blood - quantumducky - The Mechanisms (Band) [Archive of Our Own](Fic contains gore and some sexual content. It's about a vivisection :3) (via @mothocean)
#ivy raphaella sweep!!!#do it for the nerds! do it for the girls! do it for the nerdy girls!!#aa (tags via @jewishdainix)
Brian/Galahad:
i think they would kissies
Galahad sat on a murder chair because Brian said to. (via @bookworm-girl2002)
#mechs ships tournament#the mechanisms#the mechs#spumblr#tournament poll#shipping round 6#gunpowder tim#raphaella la cognizi#ivy alexandria#bertie the mechanisms#lyfrassir edda#marius von raum#ashes o'reilly#jonny d'ville#dr carmilla#doctor carmilla#odin tbi#drumbot brian#galahad hnoc
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The last anon ask made me curious, will we be able to choose our starting relationship with Ærik (aquaintances, Friends, bbf etc)? Or will be good on default? And more on the game's mechanic side, will there be other characters's POV, and there will be some flashbacks? (I really like your story concept! ❤️)
Hello Anon!
Thank you for liking the concept! I honestly didn’t expect that a lot of people would be into it, so I’m always glad to hear/read that people like it 😊
Yep, as of now, there will be a few scenes from another character’s POV. Haven’t really gotten that far ahead in writing to see if I’ll have some flashbacks, but there may be a few.
As for MC and Ædric’s relationship at the beginning of ATE, it’s set to already be pretty good after spending so much time together.
Long explanation ahead for Ædric and MC’s relationship 😅
(And spoilers? At this point, I think you guys already have a good idea of how Ædric feels about MC 😅 Y'all pretty much already know how Ædric feels at this point because of me being overly excited to talk about ATE, so I guess it's just spoilers for anyone who hasn't witnessed me failing to keep my mouth shut 😅)
To give more context:
They met shortly after MC and Ædan had their first meeting
Since MC and Ædric are closer in age compared to MC and Ædan and the content of Ædric’s classes are mostly similar to that of MC’s classes (just a bit more advanced), it was decided that they would just have their classes together (and nothing brings people together like suffering through a reading 11 pages long or a vague word problem that gives you a lot of info but not the stuff you need to solve it 😂)
However, little MC’s adoration for Ædan, the awesome and handsome crown prince, was like a shadow that hung over them. As soon as they were done working on their assignments, smol MC would wonder out loud about where Ædan was, what he was doing, if there were any flowers in the garden he liked, things like that. Even though it irked little Ædric (especially little Ædric who started to get flustered whenever MC was near), he never got mad at MC because he would rather listen to them ramble about how pretty Ædan’s eyes were than to waste the time that MC was spending with him by having an argument over his brother.
Ædric may have developed feelings for MC, but he never went beyond dropping some smooth lines because he knew about how love-stricken MC was for his brother. He and Ædan may have had their own problems going on, but he always saw Ædan treat MC well, so he decided that he would be content to watch MC smile from afar, as long as MC was smiling. (Of course, this was before the entire mess Ædan and Helene made)
Romantic feelings aside, Ædric considers MC a good friend whose thoughts and opinions he greatly values, though MC doesn’t quite return the same degree of deep friendship since they’ve mostly been focused on Ædan. And most of the time Ædric doesn’t share much about himself; he’d much rather ask MC how their day has been and listen to a full account of every single thing they did all the way down to the little details, like how gently the wind was blowing as they took a walk around the plaza, things like that (Ædric and I are quite similar in this sense 😄).
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I'm so confused as to why people are genuinely mad at Taliesin? Fearne said she didn't want the shard that obviously was meant for her, and Ashton is the only other person in BH with a connection to it, narratively it makes the most sense for him to get it if she doesn't.
I have to say I disagree on the latter point: Fearne did not want it, which was covered repeatedly both in and out of game, and it's certainly possible (even likely!) that Matt had Fearne in mind regarding the spark, but unless it's made explicitly mechanically impossible or at least highly unlikely for anyone else to be able to use an item (eg: Mythcarver, requiring attunement by a bard) a good DM will recognize that someone else might take it. As I said earlier, I think there was a path for someone else to have taken it, and it was made abundantly and repeatedly clear this would be uniquely perilous for Ashton. Or in other words: I don't think it's productive to act like this choice wasn't reckless and kind of stupid. It just happened to also be fucking awesome. It is, quite honestly, basically akin to Keyfish, had Marisha rolled to hit the ocean rather than the rocks: the player was given ample signs that this could end extremely badly, and they went forward with it anyway, and made some questionable decisions, and in the end the dice told the story.
However, I agree it's really pointless as a fan to get mad at Taliesin. It is unfortunately, however, unsurprising it's happening. I think the best way to put it is that there's a valid conversation to be had regarding the fandom response to risky choices taken by the men in the cast vs. the women, and more generally societal expectations and subsequent backlash, but it's difficult to have it because there are a number of people who have decided that it's unfair and potentially oppressive that their blorbo isn't the eternal star of an ensemble show.
Basically: it was kind of a stupid choice, but certainly not manipulative or harmful in any lasting way, and it was entirely in character for Ashton and the result was awesome. It was valid for the cast to be mad in the moment but I don't think anyone's going to be mad in any lasting way, and yelling for a couple seconds because you've been super anxious due to this decision is a healthy way to vent those feelings, as we all should have learned in kindergarten. It is completely valid for the cast or for fans to dislike this decision. It is extremely stupid to be mad at it as a fan, and the fans who have hated every single thing that Ashton or Taliesin has ever done have run into the natural consequences of crying wolf re: loss of any credibility.
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Hello....... what is Borderlands about..............
HI gayle my friend gayle
borderlands is a multi-game series that revolves around "The Borderlands", which are a group of planets on the edge of a galaxy that are kinda Mad Max-y except everything revolves around capitalism.
Every planet is more or less run by corporations that are large enough to have private militaries. there aren't presidents or dictators, there's CEOs. One of which is Handsome Jack, who is the CEO of Hyperion. (see below)
He's an important figure because he sets off the plot for each of the games, serving as the main antagonist for most of them. The whole point of the games is to find something called a "Vault", which are ancient prisons created by an alien race called Eridians to hold giant monsters, advanced technology, and a shit ton of money/loot. People, aptly named Vault Hunters, search these out in order to earn wealth, power or tech.
When it comes to gameplay, you play as a Vault Hunter. Like most FPS games you have the option of different classes you can play as with different abilities. I love the guns in these games, since they're all unique and feel reeeally good to shoot. Each game also has its own strengths when it comes to the gameplay and guns, plus leveling systems and skill trees.
The only exception to this stuff is Tales From the Borderlands, which is a telltale game that is almost 100% story-driven with quicktime events. It's actually the most popular game in the whole series and that's for very good reason. Because it's awesome. Highly recommend if you prefer story over combat, plus it'll give you some context to the world building without needing to jump headfirst into an FPS.
Though, if you're interested in playing through them all, I'd recommend following this order:
- Borderlands 2
- Borderlands: The Pre-sequel
- Tales From the Borderlands
- Borderlands 1
- Borderlands 3
You can theoretically play them in order of their release, but I personally think this way offers a more compelling story. Plus....... borderlands 1 is really old and doesn't have very good game mechanics comparatively LMAO borderlands 3 is the best for that. the pre-sequel is fun too because it has unique anti-gravity mechanics to spice it up.
All of the characters are funny as hell. There's a lot of toilet humor but also more subtle stuff. I'd also HIGHLY. recommend playing with friends (blinks at you) for a better experience overall. it's 1000x better (you can have up to 4 people in a game)
if you have any more questions i would LOVE to answer!!! this franchise is such a huge fixations its got its teeth and claws in me
#borderlands#is he acoustic ?#gayle lmk if you ever wanna play together!!! id be happy to its so fun
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FHJY Spoilers || my live thoughts as I watch episode 2
HIII INTREPID HEROES!!!!!
I'm so excited for this episode guys what if we see ayda finally 🥹🥹🥹
I was watching Candela Obscura Needle And Thread earlier today and it's so beautiful to see Brennan have such a large range. From dirty traumatized soldier to GM is lovely. Miss the accent tho
"Yeah that's cool and casual" ringed mage hand is awesome
it only took 5 1/2 years to learn the game (it would probably take me longer)
THEY HAVE A MINI FOR EVERYTHING?!???! RINGED MAGE HAND MINI!!!!!
CUTTING WORDS 🔥🔥
TWO ONES DIVINATION ROLLS FOR THE WIN
Panicked his way into a rage I love grogug
THE NIGHT YORB IS BLOODIED!!!!
"Would you be interested in healing us?" Asking the cleric that is unbelievably funny
healing the van. did Kristen do repairs inside for the healing ward? I like the idea of mechanic Kristen for funsies
"I can name 10 monsters right now" just like how he can name 10 birds
Adaine going down twice sucks, my girl 😭😭😭
if they don't catch adaine I'll cry
FIG CAUGHT HER THANK GOD
ARMOR OF AYDA??!?!?!?? AYDA MENTION SHES WEARING HER GIRLFRIEND'S ARMOR OH MY GOD FIGAYDA
"My girlfriend says hello" HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AYDA 😭😭😭
thinking about ayda kept her concentration 🔥
Duggan intervention need
bad roll murph back with a 2
The Beans Are Due
Chaos at the table over beans
FOUR ON THE BEANS 🔥🔥🔥🔥
another 2 roll..... murph..........
oh no. Fabian is getting out of the car again... last time this happened he got hurt and ended up under the car
STOP FLIRTING WITH THE MIRROR IN FRONT OF RIZ PLS
"There's nothing I can do it's the rules ¯\_(ツ)_/¯" Brennan my friend you are the rules
HE GOT A NAT ONE AGAIN. HE SHOULD'VE STAYED ONE VAN
absolutely tossed the dice by ally
"I'm always rooting for you" fabians gonna die
5D10?!?!? AND MURPH HAS TO ROLL?!?!??!!! THE MAN WHO GOT 45 OUT OF 50 ON HIS LAST 5D10 ROLL
oh thank god bad roller murph back. 22 damage
2/3 turns under the van is insane. And he just needed a TWO BOTH TIMES
Fabian isn't having a great junior year
My face hurts from giggling
Lou is so low spirits after the second time under the van. Understandable
i need some Fabian fanart where he just has rug burn on both sides of his face
Fabian not getting his kisses in and got ran over twice embarrassing
what if this is a total party wipe after the night yorb attack and Riz is just. alone. in the wheel well
NOOOOOOOOO BOGGGGGYYYYYY
did ally just get a one on concentration
TWO NAT ONES?!? AND FIG GOT THROWN OFF
murph giggling over Ally's saves being empty is so cute
this isn't good
ECAC DEAD AND BOGGY DEAD AND BABY DEAD EVERYONE IS GONE
we might need divine intervention Kristen......
oh no. oh no. Fabian is down. oh no. adaine down oh no fig is down oh no oh no
oh no.
DUGGAN IS SO COOL!!!!
fifteen or higher murph. you got this murph. come on murph come on
6................................
"The car flipping would be very bad" murph....
FLIP THE VAN 🔥🔥
i hope that van survives
KRISTEN IS DOWN?!??! NOOOO
NIGHT YORB IS BLOODIED 🔥🔥🔥
second dice thrown people being sued
Gorgug you've got this I love you
nat 20 come on
oh no. 8
NAT ONE FOR THE NIGHT YORB
"Just don't roll a one" oh no I'm going to throw up
fig you god this
NAT 20 BABYYYYYYYYYY
Gorgug. You are the greatest wizard of this age
I can't stop giggling this is so good
NIGHT YORB DEFEATED
RIP DUGGAN
2 hours left do you guys think we will see ayda I miss her
KRISTEN BACK UP
adaine please don't Perma die
MOGGY ATTACK CRIT
GORGUG CRIT
Holy shit Moggy.... That was brutal...
Push up to get up I like this new Kristen
GET UNDER THAT HOOD A LITTLE BIT. MECHANIC KRISTEN
THE BALL 🔥🔥🔥
"Is Kristen mad at me?" Cassanda.... Honey.....
Photosynthesis is back, baby!!!
"I stab him a few times just to try and feel something" oh fabian....
YAS-MAG
"Riz, we're tired" oh gorgug...
FIRE BALLLL
ripping ass fr
LOVE WINSSSS
DOUBLE CRIT GORGUG 🔥🔥
I think this is the most I've seen Murph laugh and literally cry
I love this season already I think it's my favorite already
"I think it's meaningful in your friendship with Fabian"
So tactical, so late. I really do need that on a shirt
"What do I add to 'crush with motorcycle' "
Fabian is so unlucky with love. No kisses for him
WHO IS THE PATRON FOR FIG?!??!??
SQUEEM
Balthazar is all around us.
Photosynthe-kids
"That little... Handle?"
THE DRY GUYS
"Just because I don't trust you" I wouldn't trust Brennan either after what happened 😭
BACK IN ELMVILLE WILL WE SEE AYDA?!?!!!?!?
cottage cheese a la mode
AN IN AND OUT DEAL
HEY GIRLIE HEYYYY GIRLIE
GILEARRRRRRRR
omg is the fortune cruise thing for Gilear part of the Fig deal omg
OH MY GODDDD GILEAR PROPOSED OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
oh Fabian is absolutely going to have parties. MORE CRAB PARTIES!!!!!!!! CRAB KING
For a couple months or a year 😭😭
GILEAR BECOMING LUCKY
Fabian having to roll to remember where the fridge and glasses are is so goddamn funny
LAWYER SKLONDA
omg I have the same hair cut as sklonda
ohhhhh Riz....... He just wants everyone to stay together.... oh honey....
aguefort academy extracurriculars.... please can we have bowler Riz. Just for me. No other reason. FOR ME.
"You do everything for other people, and I want to make sure you don't get your hear broken." sklonda.....
MAKING A BOARD BABE
THE THISTLESRPINGS!!!!!
ZELDA'S DAD BROUGHT A BOX OF HIS STUFF BY???????? ZELDA AND GORGUG BROKE UP?!??!?!! RIP
CHRONOMANCY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MAGIC
BED BREAKS GORGUG OUT
MORDRED MANOR... WILL WE SEE AYDA?!?!?!??!?!??!!!!!?!?
RAGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
SANDRA LYNNNN
where ayda. where ayda. where ayda aguefort
SQUEEEEEEEEEMMMMM!!!!!!!!!
"You're both dangerously close to being expelled" JAWBONEEEE
"It's a very bard thing" I will use that excuse for everything
I really relate to Kristen because I also had trouble finishing things in school
A sick year 🔥🔥🔥
oh my fucking god Arthur is having daddy daughter bonding time does this mean we won't see ayda oh my god oh my god
NEW AYDA ART OH MY GOD
"with the help of my beloved Paramour, Figueroth Faeth" UGLY CRYING RN
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AYDA IS GONE WHYYYY
"Our fucking romance is so fucking epic" I love them. I want to experience a love like they have
Balthazar (parody of "how bizarre")
tracker wants to get in touch....trackerbees...
OH MY GOD AELWYN BECAME A TEACHER???? AND HER ART HAS SO MANY CATS?????? CAT LADY AELWYN????
aelwyn put a protection around adaine 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 UGLY CRYING
her stomach gurgles painfully????!?!?!?!!?
"Do you if acid reflux can be a curse?" Yes. It is a curse (I am a person who had bad acid reflux and have to take medicine for it daily or else I will hate my existence)
Oh my god. Oh my god. Is Fig changing into Gilear? Oh my god did she and Gilear change lucks? Oh my god
NOOOOO NOT THE FISHNET
"No. It's better this way." "How?" 😭😭
"KRISTEN'S EX" TRACKERBEES IS OFFICIALLY OVER 😭😭😭
Buff Kristen is the after effect of the trackerbees breakup. Baby's first lesbian breakup fr
SOMETHING JUST HURT HER????
I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER WEEK 😭😭😭😭😭😭
wait Porter is kinda hot
thanks for listening. if you read all of this I love you and will give you a nice strong hug
#fantasy high junior year spoilers#d20#dimension 20#fantasy high#d20 fantasy high#dimension 20 fantasy high#fantasy high junior year
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so as someone who is only on chapter one of omori and is obsessed with it here are my thoughts as a new member of the fandom
bear in mind that i haven’t finished the game. i only just got to that one creepy forest place? like the one after the spiders? please don’t spoil!!
but spoilers for everything before that below
1) I HATE BASIL. he’s such a stupid little punk. “uwu im so smol and helpless and i always get bullied and i’m so sweet and innocent” I JUST KNOW THAT FUCKER IS HIDING SOMETHING. everytime i end back in that stupid white room it’s because HES DOING SOME SUSSY SHIT. i also just hate him and everything about him and i know for a damn fact that he’s hiding something horrible behind that sweet little smile and he thinks he’s tricking me but he’s NOT I KNOW HIS GAME.
anyway.
2) i literally cannot decide on a favorite character. i have a least favorite, that’s pretty obvious, but when it comes to a favorite im torn. i LOVE omori, aubrey, kel, and hero all the same! i love mari too but i’m a little salty against her because all her hints for the quests are severely unhelpful 😭 but i still love her tho. i just love the main four so so much and i physically cant choose who i like better. poor little aubrey seems so scared and alone when she has the pink hair and she’s so kind in the little space world thing. hero is a sweetheart and i can’t wait to meet him in the colorful world where i’m moving or whatever. and kel is literally so me 😂 it’s not even funny he just does whatever the fuck he wants and that deserves some respect on his name. and omori is a kickass main character who has a cool thing going for him. but these four characters are sooo well crafted and i love how they work together! it’s a great dynamic balance!
3) i’m either a really bad gamer or the game is super long. i finished the prologue in like seven hours. it took SO LONG. i’m not used to indie games taking that long to play considering that i got through all of undertale in like 10-12 hours my first time. it’s awesome! i love finding all the secrets and talking to all the npcs but DAMNNN.
4) this game has so. much. detail. it’s insane. like the sheer amount of mini games and tiny pockets of lore. it’s like higher than undertale level and i don’t mean to keep going back to undertale but i see a lot of similarities in the game style. i also totally got sucked into playing like 30 rounds of blackjack on omoris computer. it was cool af.
5) the fighting mechanics are super hard. maybe i just suck at strategy but i am so bad at the fights that i just run away whenever i have the opportunity 😭 it’s a problem. i also have no clue how the happy sad angry shit works, i just make omori sad so stab has an attack boost and make aubrey angry so headbutt has an attack boost but other than that i don’t really use it at all and i don’t understand it. maybe that’s why it took me literally 10 tries to get past space ex boyfriend? it’s really fun i just think it’s supposed to be easier than it is and i just missed a memo on strategy.
6) i really love the message so far. the way that mental health is portrayed as something that’s a never ending journey. omori doesn’t just breathe and then everything’s okay, the game highlights realistic coping strategies and makes things like depression, anxiety, and phobias to understandable for any audience through a very creative medium: an indie video game. it’s genius. and i just love how it’s been approached so far, it’s very inspiring!
7) i’m terrified that this fandom is gonna make me mad, i swear to god if i just walk in and see a bunch of basil stan’s i’m turning and walking back out 💀 i mean okay maybe i’ll like basil better later but chances for that seem very low right now. my sister told me that apparently he went through some trauma thing? womp womp don’t care he’s an annoying mf who keeps taking me back to that boring white room where i stab myself, he’s a party pooper and i want a tornado to blow his dumb little flower house down.
#omori#omori game#omori sunny#omori basil#omori mari#omori hero#omori kel#omori aubrey#omori first time#omori character#omori fandom#omori basil hate
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Moon Knight City of the Dead Issue 1… why…?
So. New MK side run has begun, the hyped up full on debut of Layla/new Scarlet Scarab in the comics, with a premise that most writers would twist into an epic and breathtaking journey.
We don’t get that here.
And I have a lot of thoughts on why and how I feel so frustrated with what we got. There’s pieces of something awesome, potential to go to some really fascinating places, and yet it is held back in almost every aspect, creating something messy and clunky that makes me mad to read.
(This is long btw)
First off though, some things I did enjoy!
I really love the art and coloring of this issue. The anatomy and movement and shadows, the stylization of character’s faces and costumes, the sprawling city with its deep reds and blues that feel saturated and weighty. It’s great. Besides a few moments that it comes out of left field with some bad stuff (Layla’s whole face at the end or the MK mask w teeth during the memory slideshow like whaTtt is that), it’s super solid and made for a very enjoyable looking comic.
It was also really fun to see Badr for a little. I think it would’ve been cool to get more, and the pacing of things as I’ll get to later sapped his importance in the story for me some, making him feel more like a prop or a plot device to get it going, but overall it was lovely to see him again. And it was cool to see him being a doctor as well, as we haven’t seen that as recently in MacKay! Always a joy my dear sir please come back soon.
The story in concept. Going to the underworld, detaching a headmate supernaturally to journey to a different plane of reality to save one life, and meeting a dead ally along the way is fascinating stuff, an idea that inspires me to want to explore it myself.
Because (and now it’s time to get into the stuff I didn’t like) the writing doesn’t do this idea justice at all.
This is not the worst MK comic ever rn, not their worst writing. It’s not as violently ableist or antisemitic as things like Bemis or making a joke out of MK like some others, but it’s just stupid, and what it glosses over or gets wrong is weird and uncomfortable and harmful in its own right.
To start this isn’t my Marc. His guilt is not one of punishment for penance, of believing he’s sinned and needs to be washed clean by pain. He is a man stuck in bad coping mechanisms and trying to pretend he’s not. He’s a man who hates himself and uses violence as what I would describe as a form of self harm. But it is not with the goal of erasing his past.
Yes, he runs from the person of Marc Spector, he runs from the idea and the responsibility, but Marc doesn’t try to forget. He holds onto things with a vice grip and never lets himself drop it. He believes in his own mythos and is grappling with his complicated and traumatized history to remember he can love and care and trust people again, that the work of making his life better is not solely on his shoulders. That’s what MacKay’s been dealing with.
MacKay Marc is guilty and self flagellating but in a way he tries not to think about, that he brushes over. He puts on an air of confident collectedness and has more hate for Marc as a concept then specifically his actions, and he’s still able to move forward and find a type of momentum and bravado in the MK suit.
Or in simpler terms: yes Marc has guilt. He does not have this kind of guilt.
The first few pages read so strangely, just this over dramatic spiel that feels more like daredevil than moon knight, like a rehashed dramatic intro to a moody sad 90s comic. And not in a good way. It’s not deep it’s just annoying and tedious and the prose is clunky and again, extremely off in its vibes and message. I think it could’ve been alright, if some of the talk of his guilt had been shifted and the narration hadn’t continued constantly throughout the rest of the issue (which I’ll get to later), but as is in its full context it’s just… weird.
In addition to the weird guilt vibes, there’s further issues with the Khonshu religiosity in this.
Khonshu isn’t something Marc worships, he’s something he uses for his own means. He’ll call on him or talk about being the priest of the mission, but that’s because Khonshu doesn’t have oversight, he’s a tool and form of direction and theming, and at the story’s core Marc is the priest for his mission, not this god’s.
At points in this issue he genuinely sounds dedicated though, and it shifts the flavor of earlier pieces more in line with his usual monologuing to seeming more like strange spiritual devotion. Especially calling Khonshu the greatest of great gods, or saying that him being in the underworld is Khonshu’s mission. It changes his actions from that of Marc to that of a real Khonshu follower and its…. Just weird. It’s all just weird and very ooc.
On top of that, there’s no mention or interrogation or even presence of discussing Judaism alongside all of this. I’m not Jewish myself but have had multiple convos around the topic w those who are n who have made their own posts discussing it and can add on more nuance n info to this should they like (bc more thoughts for discussion are always awesome), but just on a surface level it’s strange. It’s strange to have a plot revolving around going to another belief system’s afterlife and not at all bringing up how it clashes or relates to Jewish beliefs. Yes Marc isn’t really actively practicing anymore but I’d hazard Jake probably is, and Marc has still talked about his connection to his faith and how it’s impacted his time as moon knight and serving Khonshu.
The text treats the Egyptian pantheon belief system as the True and Accepted default here, with Marc not even discussing anything about going to an afterlife he doesn’t belong in (and shouldn’t even have) as a Jewish man, or even thinking about how Badr discussing Ka conflicts with Jewish beliefs on the soul and how Neshamah differ.
And yes, Marc works regularly with the very real Egyptian pantheon and mystical systems but it’s in a different way, and under a different context and understanding by readers of his acceptance of it.
A whole other layer of depth, conflict, and exploration could’ve been added by really digging into the theological implications of this plot, of a Jewish soul in the Egyptian afterlife, and yet it’s not brought up at all, not referenced or mentioned and it makes it all feel weirdly out of place, or like stuff is being glossed over.
That, on top of Jake and Steven (not to mention the entire rest of the main mission cast) being completely absent in mention, consultation, presence, or anything just feeds into this strange sense of Pepose wanting Marc to be the idea he has of him in his head, this guilty, sad, and violent merc serving a moon god with not a ton else. And yes again those are all aspects of Marc, but there is nuance to each of those aspects and treating him as a singlet with no thoughts on the conflicts in faith of his present is… just weird.
I don’t know if he’ll be treated as a singlet the whole run, but the fact that the body’s soul being sent into the afterlife has not already brought in any system conflict at all is an issue. Is it their collective soul? Is it just Marc’s? How does this comic understand alter soul distinction? Has it thought about it at all? I mean the answer is no but the thing is it should’ve.
That’s where so many of my issues with this come from though: choices just being… not good. Not thought out or in line with the characters and world. The writing is off and out of place and gOD THE CONSTANT NARRATION IS GRATING!!
I don’t know why it was chosen for Marc to novel write his thoughts and observations the whole issue but it’s bad. It goes past introducing plots or observations that can’t be shown in text to either:
1. Filling space that doesn’t need to be filled
2. Restating what has just been said or shown in a panel (“we have the power of the four horsemen” “wow they just got the power of the four horsemen”)
3. At worst, telling us stuff that was not indicated at all by anything else (“oh I know something is wrong here even though I have not been given enough reason to pique that suspicion” “oh I reunite with Layla and hold her and take her in but haha you don’t see that ig”)
It’s annoying and makes reading things difficult because he’s blabbering on the whole time in places he DOESNT NEED TO!! And it makes the action and emotional movement feel awkward and forced. I don’t need to know every second of Marc’s thoughts Pepose I can parse out things with my eyes I promise you that. Also can he stop talking about penance for TWO SECONDS!!!
The worst part is narration works when done well! When it highlights things that can’t be shown in art or gives some bits of exploration into feelings or exposition, but we don’t need it in every panel. It actually confused some parts of where to look for me by telling me what was about to happen before it did. Stop being like “I thought it was over but—“ JUST LET US SEE ITS NOT OVER!!
Another moment (similar ish to the start) where the narration would’ve worked for me (if it was not surrounded by just more constant narrating monologue) is when Marc first arrives in the Duat. The prose is pretty, it’s vibrant, it describes things the audience wouldn’t be able to pick up from static pictures and helps to set the scene. The only issue is that it doesn’t stand on its own, it’s not an interjection of observations and thoughts, it’s another entry in the never ending cycle of Marc just talking. And it loses some of its luster because of that.
There’s also just a handful of pieces of either dialogue or thoughts that (in the context of Steven and Jake being absent at the moment despite not being absent at the point in time this should be taking place) make me feel very uncomfortable with Pepose’s vibes on their mental health. Some lines that rubbed me the wrong way in context include “The rage fills within me—and suddenly I have a plan. That said, it would help if my plan wasn’t dangerously insane.” “You know me Badr, mental discipline is my middle name.” And a few similar ones I don’t want to reread again for.
They’re just unnecessary man. We don’t need vaguely or directly ableist vibes in words with MK anymore. It works if it feels like it’s coming from Marc’s internalized ableism IE when he was talking about being called crazy during the discussion with Steven and Jake and Jake called him out for it, but when it’s obvious it’s just how the author sees things it sucks!
Stop using insane, stop using crazy, stop being like “oh I’m so good at keeping myself in check,” WE DONT NEED IT!! ALSO THEY R AT A GENERAL POINT OF SYSTEM COMMUNICATION N HARMONY RN!!
Which also just… man this feels like it’s trying to introduce MK instead of continuing an already established and well under way arc. Yea, this isn’t MacKay writing it, but it’s still in the continuity and set up for his run and like… sorry not sorry but I think you should take that context into account if you’re going to be working within it???
Instead the story props itself up by trying to introduce everything at once and Marc feels like he’s starting from the bottom of development.
And speaking of introducing everything at once! Oh boy the pacing!
No one besides Badr is consulted before Marc goes into the Duat, Badr just. Sends him there. There’s no real build up for why there’s a need go that far, for what the threat is or why Marc would go to these lengths so suddenly. Like yeah I know he wants to save a kid who’s a traveler of the night, but like… Others have died or almost died on his watch and he’s never gone to this point before, even though it seems like it’s always something they’ve had as an option. Like… ok ig if Soldier hadn’t been vamped he would just be dead lmao (though also hey! Why and how do souls end up in this afterlife? Do they have to believe in the gods? Do they have to be in some way tied to the pantheon? Is it just where souls go if they’re near moon knight lmaO? If you want to have your afterlife plot you have to do the worldbuilding for it)
And while yes, a lot of this is because This Plot Wasnt Thought Up During Earlier Parts Of Mackay, it also isn’t introduced in a way that feels natural or makes sense.
Events just Happen. Mysteries or drives are just Said without a good basis for why they’re there. Again, this cult was talked about as just kinda a sadistic gang but then they’re a big deal? And oh the kid is dying and oh he’s worth going to the afterlife for and OH WERE JUST HERE NOW and “oh there’s a conspiracy I’ve decided with no real evidence” and HEY FOUND THE GUY and—Suddenly a whole lot of what is happening. God heart full on cult horsemen of the apocalypse memory flashback and BOMBS NOW APPARENTLY and LAYLA and MK BIG PAST BADDIES BOSS FIGHT INCOMING!!
Like ohhhh my god stuff is so rushed and happens so inorganically and with no time to really understand what’s happening. It’s a type of story where my suspension of disbelief isn’t there and it fully just feels like seeing the writer trying to get to the end goal of what they want to write about (moon knight fighting old villains) as quickly as possible. And it SUCKS! Like this genuinely should’ve been more than one issue, there should’ve been at least sOme more build up to gEtting to the city of the dead in the first place, no matter additionally uncovering a plot of some sort happening and Layla turning up.
It’s just…. It’s so rushed and strange and forced and it didn’t have to be and IT MAKES ME MAD IT IS and it’s just not enjoyable to read. It all feels so shallow and stilted and weird, all while having this underlying idea with so much weight, some generally gorgeous art, some moments that could’ve been really awesome, and last but not least…. Literally a good reference to doing a Duat plot well.
This whole mini run is for MCU synergy, bringing Layla in, exploring the Duat and it’s lore, and again yes, the run isn’t done, but it just…. Compared to the MCU plot for the Duat this feels so…. GraaggHhggh. Especially when it comes to system interaction and exploring different painful memories that effect headmates in different ways.
It’s just. It was an extremely frustrating read from both a technical writing standpoint and a character exploration standpoint, and it worries me and doesn’t excite me at all for future issues. Like we’ll sEe but goddamn this is not a good start no matter how it plays out and it doesn’t give me confidence if it turns out I have to read several more issues of this kind of stuff.
Petty nitpicks speed run because there wasn’t enough enjoyable padding for them to not stand out!
I don’t know if Pepose could’ve specified or not but Marc’s not drinking vodka in the opening scene, it looks more like whiskey or something similar by the bottle, again nailing home how strangely off this Marc is from the Marc he’s meant to be with how Mackay has built him up.
Why do they use Duat and City of the Dead like they’re interchangeable titles it’s just the Duat like I get calling it “the city of the dead” since it is that but like. Let that just b the run title they shouldn’t be calling it that like it’s a final name.
They misspell Dr. Alraune’s name lmao
How did the kid get… hurt..? The only point in the opening fight I can think he maybe got hit was with the gunfire but it didn’t seem like that was aimed towards him and there wasn’t any moment of having a detail in the background showing him get injured. And he wasn’t lethally injured at the start so ???
What… is the continuity between the Hydra vs Karnak Cowboys fight we see in MacKay and the flashback here. They were on an empty road there when they crashed? And now they’re in the heart of the city? AlsO bOMBS???
Anyway all I’ll wrap it up with is when the only thing I genuinely smile at is the cameo and namedrop of Apocalypse you know something is wrong with your story lmaO
#moon knight#moon knight comics#moon knight city of the dead#the fruit is talking again#marc spector#mikes mk meta
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Hi Peach!
I have been trying to spend less time on Tumblr right now but I got some very bad family news and decided to treat myself to your blog and I’m really cheered up!
That teaser you posted and the fact we are getting a super emotional reunion✨second time✨ in TGW as well as a ✨first time✨ before we get to the aftermath of Tengen’s spicy lessons. Thank you for the meal
‘You’ve no idea, while I was gone I thought endlessly of you’ - I’m sorry it’s so emotional I won’t be able to take it I love him so much 😭
This may be spoiler territory (if it is tell me to shooosh) but will we see any of Giyuu’s POV thinking about reader in the infinity castle? 👀👀
AND NETHERWOOD Sanemi j*rking off and you saying we will be mad at him, reader about to leave him to go to a new village my heart is breaking, Peach you are such an awesome write - I’m still having fun trying to decipher your teaser images btw.
I was wondering between Kanae and Reader did Nemi have other girlfriends in between as he is super experienced with women
I know your inbox is sky high and even if you just see this message, I’ve seen that you’re struggling with your depression a lot recently, I hope you’re doing alright and taking time for yourself, doing what makes you happy and what helps clear your mind ❤️
-🫧🫧
(PS died when you mentioned Seelie Kyojuro as I am from Scotland 🏴🏴🏴)
MY BELOVED BUBBLE ANON!!
Hello my love!! I adore seeing you in my inbox, always!
I’m so sorry you’re going through a rough time right now. I really hope you’re able to take some time and get some rest and indulge in a bit of self care. I’m sending you lots of hugs, and since you’re in Scotland, some tea as well. I’m partial to crumpets so if you like them, I how you get to eat them however you like them! (I’m a slather it in butter girl myself)
As for TGW — hehehehehe I’m so glad you enjoyed the teaser!! TGW has been a lot of fun to write (even if I have to stop and research some new historical fact every two seconds). Sam said it reads more like a romance story (a smutty one ofc) and that makes me happy since that’s relatively new territory to me.
As for a Giyuu Infinity Castle POV — as of right now, I don’t have plans for one! There is a brief POV from him in a flashback from the night of his and Reader’s ✨first time✨ that will appear in Part II. The first time scene occurs during the Hashira training arc/right before infinity castle begins, so you will see a certain sun breather trying to get Giyuu to train with him as he makes his way toward the shrine to see his girl and pop her cherry
As for Netherwood…
😈😈😈
I will say, I know I have y’all stressed but many of you all commented on the strength of Sanemi and Reader’s love in Part III — just remember that! And remember how hard they both fought to get back to one another. That matters!
Regarding whether Sanemi had any “girlfriends” between Kanae and Reader — I’m not so sure he did. One, because he was pretty isolated in the Wood at his cabin, guiding strangers. Two, I think his “experience” is probably less than you’re thinking — he might not have been a virgin but he also wasn’t a sex god by any means. Reader has no experience prior to Sanemi, so I imagine she’s a bit biased when it comes to him — it probably seems like he’s much more experienced than she is by comparison. I think he knows enough about the mechanics and then just goes by pure instinct.
I’ve joked with a couple of mutuals that were she to talk to Kotoha she’d probably be like “what do you MEAN it’s not normal for your partner to have a knot?? How else does he keep all that cum insane??”
Thank you for the kind message, my friend!! I love when you all pop in and ask questions about the fics or even share your reactions. It truly makes my day. And thank you for checking in! Depression has been a bitch lately but I’m focusing on trying to make it MY bitch.
Please take care of yourself! I’m sending love and light your way.
PS — my head refers to you as my “Bublé” anon — like Michael Bublé.
🤍🤍🤍
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What's an example of a game that's tightly bound to a particular game system, that you'd like to see conversions to a different game system? Examples (that're probably Terrible Ideas): GURPS Exalted, or Secret of Zir'an in WOIN, or Victoriana in Genysis (or however it's spelled).
How do you think would gaming have developed differently if a different early game came before D&D? Like, what if Traveller came first? Baseless speculation time!
What game has the best rules for improvised weapons? Why don't more games have rules for improvised weapons? What do people have against PCs being Jackie Chan?
Controversial takes! Damage on a miss a la D&D 4E -- yea or nay? What if it's psychic damage? How about class-based damage, yea or nay?
Favorite indie _traditional_ (not narrative/storygamey) RPG?
Thanks, you're awesome!
Lmao holy shit these are some amazing questions!
First one: Apocalypse World of Darkness, specifically using the PbtA engine AND the power imbalance built into Apocalypse World to play in the setting of Vampire: The Masquerade. I want a game that is all about Camarilla politics with one player possibly even playing the Prince (the Hardholder equivalent) and the others playing various individual vampires at different levels of the local scene instead of a united coterie.
If Traveler had come first the surprise cinematic hit of the year 2023 would've been Traveler: Into the Stars, a fun blockbuster romp that would've drawn comparisons to Guardians of the Galaxy in spite of being at least somewhat hard sci-fi and would've been tonally at odds with the actual Traveler RPG. Meanwhile, Paizo's Starblazer RPG's (itself a spinoff of OGL Traveler) fantasy spinoff Trailblazer had become surprisingly popular in spite of not being based on a popular fantasy film franchise. I'm not very good at alternate history so I'm going to leave it at that. But, uh, life paths would definitely be more popular which is extremely cool and amazing.
I'm sadly not aware of a single RPG with good rules for improvised weapons EXCEPT arguably Gamma World 7e and in that one arguably all weapons are improvised weapons because like you could literally say that your character's heavy two-handed melee weapon is a parking meter and it would work exactly like a heavy two-handed melee weapon. Personally it owes to the fact that most RPG designers have what I call "makes sense" brain where they let what makes sense override their thinking instead of letting what would look cool in a film dictate their thinking (see also "I attached a computer mouse to my wrists to simulate weapon chords and decided that gunslinger's shouldn't be fun to play" brain).
Damage on a miss a la D&D 4e is extremely cool and good and having it as a standard feature in your game system is the easiest way to make it so that combat doesn't turn into a slog. Also I don't know why damage on a miss is seen as such a specifically 4e piece of design because it wasn't that prominent in 4e to my knowledge but I guess the Fighter having one attack that did damage on a miss was enough to make people mad? Anyway there should be more of it, plus there should definitely be more "shouting arms back on" and other shit that actually didn't happen in 4e but that grognards imagined was happening in 4e, just to make grognards mad. And yes also with psychic damage.
Anyway class-based damage I think is also cool but I think equipment also needs to be a factor. Like, a Fighter wielding a longsword should deal more damage than a Cleric wielding a longsword, but there should ALSO be a mechanic to distinguish a Fighter wielding a longsword from a Fighter wielding a greatsword.
And for the last one, uh, I think my favorite indie trad RPG at the moment is this fantasy RPG by this small publisher called Iron Crown Enterprises called Rolemaster Unified, maybe you've heard of it? No but seriously besides RMU I do gotta shout out Hard Wired Island again, because while Rolemaster is my special interest RPG Hard Wired Island is an amazing piece of design and just a joy to read and one of the few cyberpunk RPGs I've read that seems to get cyberpunk instead of being just computer crimes with a neon coat of paint (the term neonliberalism is a very apt description for most cyberpunk RPGs, and Hard Wired Island doesn't fall into that trap).
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We return! At long last, the present!
You and me both. At least now I understand the context for why we miss him so badly. Even if it was a very long hike to get to this point.
I hope he's doing well for himself out there. And that he isn't evil.
THE BUSHES
ARE YOU SHITTING ME RIGHT NOW
THE FUCKING BUSHES
HOW LONG. HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN. IN THOSE BUSHES.
Holy fuck the anticlimax is killing me. All this time. All this time building tension surrounding Garl and he was hiding in the bushes giggling and plotting when to reveal himself.
I want to punch him in the face, then hoist him over my shoulders and hurl him off that cliff.
I want to kiss him on the mouth.
ARE YOU SHITTING ME.
I genuinely don't know if I'm hysterical with fury or glee but it's something right now. THE BUSHES.
Ten years later Garl picks up our friendship right where we left off, like none of that time even passed. I'm sobbing.
T_T You're going to join my party and I'm never going to let you go again. I will literally trade Zale for you if I have to. How hard can his skills be to replace? It's sun magic.
My dude left after us but somehow managed to get so far ahead of us that he was able to hide in these bushes and lurk. That's skill. I don't even know when he could have--
Oh, wait. I spent like half a day fishing to get coin together to buy equipment from a merchant.
Yeah. Okay. That was probably it. I am not. Very good. At doing things urgently. I should probably take this as a learning experience and work on improving myself. But I will not.
YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTHS YES HE CAN
If we send Garl away I'm going to be so fucking mad oh my god
Oh, okay, we just had to put up some token resistance so we could pretend like we did our jobs correctly. When Moraine complains we can be like, "Sorry, we did everything we could but it just wasn't meant to be. The forces of destiny wanted too badly for Garl to be with us."
Archivist said that we did something wrong and everyone died the first time around but this time we were going to do something right. I don't know if he was talking about bringing Garl along. Maybe the first time around, we really did make Garl go home and that was a terrible mistake.
But I hope it is. If Garl winds up being the Lynchpin of Destiny that means we win and save the universe or whatever, I will be a very happy person.
Probably mist, if we're being honest.
Yeah, that looks like mist. Got a whole-ass mistfall here. Who wants to bet that the Elder Mist is at the source of mistfall? If I was an Elder Mist, that's where I'd be.
...shit, maybe the mistfall is the Elder Mist.
Okay, this looks even more mystery than that other mystery door. What the hell is this even supposed to be? And why doesn't it respond to our magic when it clearly looks like it should respond to our magic.
You cut that out before I pee in your water source. I have been climbing cliffsides for hours with the sound of running water keeping me company, do not test me.
We're doing something different than other Solstice Warriors do because we're cooler than them.
You know, I was wondering what identified a mist as elder. He has to be controlling that. There's no way that giant mist moustache is anything but a personal choice.
It's working for him. I dig it. You do you, Elder Mist.
I'm going to remember that. I've already been lied to by one ancient immortal. If, later in the quest, I have to do a special something to unlock the ability to illuminate a dark dungeon, I'm going to put you on my shit list too.
Garl's already shattering cultural barriers and proving his awesomeness. There is no separating him from us now. Try it and you'll get the sternest of glares in your life. In stereo.
Okay, so we have another tutorial dungeon for the new mechanic, then? That makes sense. Here, we finally learn how to "use magic without using magic".
You know, after all the talking-up that's been done to this point about "using magic without using magic" including its vague and mysterious name, I'm kinda disappointed that it just amounts to a minor boost to attack power in battle.
Like, it's a cool mechanic, but I don't feel like it's living up to the hype. I'm sure it will be really important when it allows us to damage things that are arbitrarily immune to anything but this one mechanic, but I'm not really feeling the excitement.
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