#but the main focus is our good cowboy <3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ruinedbylanadelrey · 6 months

Text

King of Your Heart

Chapter 13 "Let Me Suck Your D*ck in the Bathroom"

HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

summary: All that Frankie has ever wanted to be was your everything. After years of being best friends one phone call changes everything between the two of you.

inspired by The King by Sarah Kinsley

warnings: 18+, MINORS DNI, age gap (reader is 28-29, Frankie 38-39), friends with benefits -> situationship, Frankie isn't a dad, jealously, best friends with benefits, reader is toxic, reader wears makeup, reader has long hair, this chapter is literally just porn but make it halloween, dress code- SLUT IT OUT, smut, drinking, smut, benny's halloween bash!!, smut, frankie is fucking horny for a woman in thigh highs, smut, blowjobs, licking, oh yeah did I mention smut!, princess and frankie are like rabbits, frankie gets drunk, angst with a happy ending finally, no y/n, pet names, possessiveness, triple frontier boys, Tom is dead, reader is a flirt

an: WELCOME TO BENNY'S HALLOWEEN BASH, get ready for a lot of smut, Princess is slut for Frankie as a smooth-dressing cowboy (a little nod to our beloved Whiskey<3).

inside the world of king of your heart

playlist

series mainlist | main masterlist

taglist: @hiroikegawa

"Just sit down and I'm gonna do your hair," You patted the cushiony vanity seat, Frankie never did his hair ever. He liked his messy curls and finishing it off with his hat but tonight was the one night he would ever do this. You smiled and pushed Frankie down into the seat, your fingers combing through his damp curls, his eyes fluttering shut when you lightly scratched his scalp with your new acrylics. You looked at Frankie through the mirror admiring how he shaved his beard and trimmed up his mustache.

"I like it that I can see your face," You hum, grabbing the comb and gel into your hands. "I get to see my handsome Frankie," your words made Frankie blush, and he rolled his eyes trying to act like he didn't care. He loves it when you tell him he's handsome. He feels like he could do anything all because his lady thinks he's beautiful.

You smiled at Frankie and combed the gel through his hair, taming the deep chocolate curls. "Do I have to dress up?" Frankie mumbled, and you rolled your eyes at him. This is 3rd time around having the conversation. It's Halloween, Frankie. It's my favorite holiday. Please for me. You've been saying since you and Frankie got back together. It's time to debut as a couple officially. "Yes you are dressing up and you are going to look so sexy," You say in a sultry tone and smile sweetly at Frankie.

The torture was over when you finished off his hair when a good amount of hairspray. Clean-cut Frankie was something you didn't get to see often and well it was a sight to see. His jawline, his face more chiseled out, and his hair out of his face letting his features be the star of the show. Frankie is beautiful, you always thought he was crafted by a higher power. Frankie is standing in the mirror buttoning up the white dress shirt, you turn him around and take over the last couple of buttons then grab the tie to go around his neck. You take a deep breath as you loop the fabric and pull it up to his neck- fuck.

You set the hat on top of his head and step back looking at your work. Frankie loosened the ties just a bit and your stare was burning into his skin, that's what he always liked about you, never afraid to admire what you like. "Everything you hoped for?" Frankie tilts his head and smirks, jaw dropped and lust blowing your pupils.

"Everything and more...okay I-I need to finish off my makeup, then we are leaving." You shake yourself out of the lustful haze and step around Frankie. Focus. You dip the end of a brush into the red bottle of fake blood. Focus. Frankie watches you drip the red thick liquid from the corners of your mouth, smearing it across your face for an effortless look. Focus. Dipping again but letting the tear of blood run down your chest and leak down your cleavage. Your costume was just an excuse to wear the black Body Con mini dress that you bought months ago, so you threw on the fake blood and glued fangs to your teeth. Just an excuse to slut it out. Frankie certainly appreciates the way your best features were on display.

Frankie comes up behind you moves your hair out of your face and gently kisses your soft neck. You sigh, holding back from the intrusive thoughts of pushing Frankie on the bed and fucking him in costume. "I need to put on my tights then we are leaving," you unwrap yourself from his arms and pull out the black thigh highs, very sheer black mesh with a lace strap at the cuff. Frankie watched you sit on the edge of the bed lifting one leg in the air, he noticed the French tip pedicure that you got done.

The way your body was just on display for him to stare at, Frankie wanted to not leave the house at all tonight. But you and Frankie are not having sex yet, because you think it would be a good idea to date properly, not having sex until 2 months which ends Halloween, that means he can and will make a move tonight. "Princess, you just look so good to eat," Frankie purrs, when he slides between your legs, helping you secure the thigh-high, you were rolling your eyes with a smile on your face.

"Fish, we are not having sex, now let's get to the party it's already 10!" You push Frankie away from you, grabbing your purse, beer, and vodka. Frankie took his sweet time by grabbing the keys and his beer then locking the door, settling the beer in place, and strapping himself in, checking his mirrors. You grew tired of him being childish, your hands wrapping his tie and pulling him close. Your lips melted into his, the feeling of his mustache grazing your sweet soft skin. Frankie slid his tongue to meet yours, his hands caressing your waist and thighs, his fingers snapping the top of the thigh highs making you yelp and moan into his hot wet mouth. His touch was a white flash of heat inching toward your aching core. Desperate to be touched by his calloused strong strategic fingers.

"Let me suck your dick in the bathroom...so drive," You pull away from Frankie, buckling your seatbelt. Frankie grins pulls out of the park and throws it into drive, you laugh holding on to the door. You love seeing Frankie be playful and just a boy. Knowing that you bring that out in him brought such warmth in your heart oozing it through your veins. The streetlights guide you to the front of Benny's house, with people piling in through the one door. You quickly get out of the truck and make your way through people, just a quick hello then you are dragging Frankie to the bathroom.

Frankie was trying to catch up with you but people held him back, it felt like he was in his 20s again trying to get into parties. Once he pushes his way through, he finds you sitting on the kitchen counter serving yourself shots while talking to Benny's girlfriend Mari. You were smiling and making faces every time you took a shot. He thought you looked so pretty in the kitchen light, "There's my cowboy," You call out to him, Mari turns around and laughs at how Frankie looked in his get-up. "Don't laugh at him, he is the most good-looking cowboy ever," You reach out for Frankie, and he takes the bottle from your hands and pours himself a shot, knocking it back. Frankie taking shots was a big deal, he was just always about getting beer drunk.

You don't know what it was but Frankie taking a shot had to be the hottest thing ever. You watched how his adams' apple bobbed when he downed the alcohol. "C'mon baby, let's go dance," Frankie leans into you and whispers into your ear, your face burns from how forward he was being. You want Frankie to like this more. He helps you off the counter takes you to the living room and slips you guys down the hall to Benny's room. Frankie slams the door closed and locks it. You could feel the shots starting to settle in. Frankie backs you into the bathroom and shoves you facing the mirror, your hands bracing yourself from falling forward. Your core started to ache when Frankie started to manhandle you.

You drop down to your knees and your hands quickly undo his belt and unzip his jeans, without any hesitation, you giggled when you saw the tattoo on his plump ass. You turn his hips to show you the tattoo better, you lean toward his tattoo and lick his skin. Frankie hisses fisting your hair. "Be a good girl and suck my dick," Frankie's stern tone captures your attention, and drool falls from your swollen lips. You smile up at Frankie opening your mouth, and kissing the tip of his hard cock, "Sweet girl, you like kissing my cock?" Frankie smugly coos, fists your hair, and thrusts down your throat. You gag just a bit then moaned with a mouth full of cock of the man who makes you forget all common sense. Your eyes were stinging from the salt of your tears, your hands caressing his thick thighs, just letting Frankie take control of your body.

Frankie couldn't stop himself from fucking your throat, loving the sounds that spilled out when he pulled his wet hot cock from your whiny mouth. "F-fuck baby...If I'm gonna cum then it's gonna be in your tight pussy," Frankie growls, forcing you back to your feet, you automatically bend over the sink, spreading your legs, on your tiptoes to level with Frankie. He pushes your dress up, giving a breathtaking view of your ass with a black g-string and the thigh highs gripping deliciously on your plump thighs. His thumb brushes over the tattooed skin then slaps your cheek, watching it jiggle.

"Princess, I need you to your rub your cute little clit for me while I fuck you," Frankie feels guilty for getting you off at least one time by his mouth. His finger slid inside you collecting your wetness and using it to coat his hard cock. His cock notches at your entrance and pushes in without warning.

You reach between your legs, and first, just lightly rub your clit on the palm of your hand, just tease yourself a little bit. "I said touch yourself, little princess," Frankie grunts, pulling himself all the way out and then slamming back into your slicked hole, you let a girlish moan loving how the tip of his throbbing length hits your cervix. Your legs trembled with each thrust, the sweet spot only Frankie can reach being hit and added pressure from the counter right on your pelvis. "Ooh-YES, yes, yes, Frankie baby right there!" You let out the most pornographic scream. Frankie smiling at how fucked out you look in the mirror, eyes crossing, a smile, and tits threatening to spill over the top of your dress.

Frankie wraps your leg around his waist, forcing you to face him. He presses his hand down on your pelvis whilst fucking deeper into you. The white-hot waves crash through your veins, your juices splash on Frankie's button-up and slacks.

"You're so fucking hot," You slurred, letting your body go limp as Frankie chases his high. "You're so sexy, Frankie...only man for me-" You gasp for a breath as Frankie spills his seed into you, feeling his cock throb and spurt out a lot of pent-up cum. He looks down and takes in the view of your cum and his mix together leaking out around his still-hard cock and down your thighs and ass. He looks up at you, glistening in sweat and smelling of sex, the vanilla base in your perfume, and the way his cologne smells on you.

"I love you, Princesa." Frankie kisses your forehead gently as he removes his cock from you. This is the first time he ever used, Princesa. You smile and look at him with such love and happiness. Your eyes twinkled, giving Frankie a look into the galaxy. "I love you, Francisco"

#frankie morales #frankie morales x you #frankie morales x reader #frankie morales fluff #triple frontier #triple frontier fic #frankie morales smut #frankie morales x f!reader #pedro pascal #frankie morales angst

45 notes · View notes

loopy777 · 1 month

Note

What's your favorite, and least favorite episodes from each of atla and LOK 3 respective seasons?

I think I've answered an Ask like this before, although perhaps not broken down by seasons like this. I'm purposefully not looking at that post because I'm sure my answers are going to shift a little. Even AtLA's worst stuff isn't so bad that I won't watch it, and it has so much good stuff that it's hard to be certain of favorites.

AtLA: Book 1 - Water

Favorite: Jet I make this choice under duress. I grimaced as I glanced over the list and saw "The Storm," "The Blue Spirit," and "The Waterbending Master." And I don't even think "Jet" is flawless. But the work it did for Sokka's character, solidifying him as a favorite in the cast for me, as well as the greatness of that final act, make it currently my personal favorite.

Least Favorite: The Great Divide I know- big surprise, right? I even think this episode has some good lines, and I love how Aang solves the main conflict with a blatant lie. But it's just so weak, and unlike the weak early episodes in the season (looking at you especially, "The King of Omashu"), it doesn't introduce a fun character.

AtLA: Book 2 - Earth

Favorite: Zuko Alone Honorable mentions to "The Chase" (it's paced perfectly and gives every character in the main cast a solid moment, capped by a great final fight), "Appa's Lost Days" (the entire fandom agreeing this episode is heart-wrenching perfection might be the one thing we're all united on), and "The Crossroads of Destiny" (which I shouldn't have to explain). But I have to go with "Zuko Alone" for being my favorite kind of cowboy story, making its points in a minimalist style that doesn't need dialogue, and perfectly setting up the backgrounds of our antagonists to show how they've been harmed by Fire Nation society and why they do what they do. This episode is a master-class in character exploration, and it looms over the entire franchise with the quality and grace of its writing.

Least Favorite: The Swamp Ask again in a few months and it will be "Avatar Day." Both of these episodes are pointless for the gAang, both contain just enough progress for Zuko's subplot that you can't skip them, and both do something critical for the wider themes of the show that really make the stupidity of the main plots stand out. But today I'm more annoyed at the completely unnecessary prophecy about Toph than I am at Avatar Day's silliness. And the scene with Kyoshi is really cool, even if it's not as profound as the lesson about connections and the tree.

AtLA: Book 3 - Fire

Favorite: Avatar Aang The ending is just so good. Aang finishing the fight by taking away Ozai's bending is perfect. Katara's defeat of Azula by turning her aggression against her is perfect. The drama and music and animation is great. It's almost unfair that material like this has to go against the other hits in this season.

Least Favorite: The Beach I'm sorry, I know it does good stuff with the Fire Teens, but it's done in a ham-handed way that it should be ashamed to be in the same series as "Zuko Alone" and "The Southern Raiders." It's so bad that there are major fans here on Tumblr who claim that Mai and Ty Lee are lying through their teeth with every word they say during the big 'confession' scene. (Honestly, the fandom talk about Ty Lee these days has nearly killed my drive to do that 'Mai and Ty Lee in Samurai Champloo' road trip adventure idea.) And I just. Don't. Find. It. Funny.

LoK: Book 1 - Air

Favorite: The Voice in the Night This might be my favorite Korra-centric story in all of LoK. Later attempts to focus on her character were damaged by the terrible writing and plots, and the earlier stuff lacked some weight due to just getting to know the cast. This episode is at the sweet spot where we're familiar with the cast and the story can make the most of the potential, before the later burden of the terrible story can drag things down. This episode is focused on Korra dealing with her fear while having to be a hero to the city, relying more on character dynamics than plot, and all the stronger for it.

Least Favorite: The Spirit of Competition What if 'The Beach' starred less interesting characters, focused more on immature romance, and tried to squeeze drama out of tired old cliches of character dynamics? And the sense of humor was equally flat? This episode.

LoK: Book 2 - Spirit

Favorite: Beginnings, Part 1 Despite the problems with the whole 'Good Light Spirit vs Evil Light Spirit' thing, I like most of the setup and depiction. I just wish it had been treated as a legend, and the events and visuals hadn't been confirmed. Imagine if we could have had multiple versions of the story of Wan and Raava, each one slightly different depending on the point of revisiting the story!

Least Favorite: Civil Wars, Part 1 This might be the most grating episode of LoK, ever. Between the childishness of the whole Water Tribe troubles and the extra-childishness of Tenzin and his siblings screaming at each other, I think it's possible for a viewer to have a headache by the end from clenching their teeth so much.

LoK: Book 3 - Change

Favorite: The Stakeout This is the only good season of LoK, and I think my favorite scene in the whole thing is Korra's conversation with Zaheer. I love a villain who can convincingly argue his point, even if you know he's willfully blind to the failures of his perspective. The staging, the delivery, the dialogue- it's all the very peak of LoK.

Least Favorite: Old Wounds This episode wanted to be "Zuko Alone" and failed so, so hard. The framing story -- Lin being subjected to literally painful memories by acupuncture -- is awkwardly and pointlessly implemented. The finale is just Lin and Suyin screaming their feelings at each other and then feeling better, something even more dumb than "The Beach" by not even being an homage to a beloved 80s movie. And even aside from the quality, I cannot abide anything that doesn't acknowledge Suyin as a terrible person as both a child and adult. The whole thing makes everyone involved less compelling, and it's a chore to sit through when the rest of the season is so good.

LoK: Book 4 - Balance

Favorite: Beyond the Wilds I'll admit that I've only ever watched most of LoK once, so I don't remember much of this book. But this episode has the scene with Zaheer in it, so that's why I picked it. Despite the fandom reputation, I think this season is back to being terrible, and while I don't have any real complaints about "Korra Alone," by that point I was so tired of Korra as a character that I bounced off it pretty hard. I still overall like Korra as a character, but I can only care so much about her pain and suffering after being forced to watch "The Spirit of Competition." There's a reason horror movies go with immature teenagers as their victims of choice- it's not like they're real people we can feel empathy for.

Least Favorite: The Calling Again, I'm not familiar with how most of this season breaks down, and I was very tempted to ding the finale for that stupid giant mecha and the emptiness of everything with Mako in it. And if I remembered better which episodes have the most Prince Wu in them, they would have been major contenders. So, in the end, I picked the one with the most Meelo in it. I hate that kid.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #lok #legend of korra #legend of aang

1 note · View note

deangenchallenge · 2 years

Photo

Time for Round 12 of Dean Gen Challenge! This time the theme is WILD WEST

It's a sarape.

Dean really likes cowboys; he can nerd out about them all day and recite every Clint Eastwood movie. Looks good in a cowboy hat, too.

Watching westerns in motel rooms and singing old country songs, playing cowboys, Dodge City, traveling back in time to 1800s and full-on cowboy aus. Colt's gun and railroad, gold rush, ranchers, hunter slash sherrif; duels at high noon, peacemaking in the saloon, cowboy boots, horses and rodeo, gambling, gunslinging, bull-riding, wanted dead or alive.

You can interpret the theme of Wild West any way you want. These are just a few extra ideas to help start you off, but you don't have to use any of them.

How it works

On the first day of each month, we’ll provide a theme that you’ll explore in your works in relation to Dean

You can sign up at any point throughout the month, simply by reblogging this post and tagging it with #entered

You have until the last day of the month to publish your work. Tag it with #deangenchallenge and mention @deangenchallenge to make sure we find it

We’ll be reblogging all works to this blog; if you don’t see your work reblogged after five days, send us an ask with a link to it

There is no penalty for dropping out. This is a no pressure challenge; if you can’t finish the work, you can post it in the following month or try with the new theme

You can also create works for our past themes! You will find all of them in our deangenchallenge tag

You might combine this challenge with other events and bingos, as long as their rules allow it

The last day to publish your work for this round is May 31

When posting your work to ao3, add it to our collection deangenchallenge

Feel free to reblog to signal boost even if you’re not entering! :)

Work requirements below the cut

Work content

Dean Winchester must be the focus of the work, no putting him in the supporting role

No ships as this is a gen challenge

Platonic and familial relationships are fine

Passing hook-ups, similar to those Dean would engage in during case on the show, are also okay — they can’t however be the main focus of the works

All works must match the given theme but you’re free to interpret it however you want it, both literally or metaphorically

Mature/explicit content and dark themes are allowed, but must be properly warned for; visual explicit works must be hosted elsewhere and linked to on tumblr, not to violate tumblr’s content guidelines

No sexual content involving minors

No RPF or reader-insert works — the focus of this challenge is Dean

Works using quotes about Dean coming from Jensen, other actors, or the show’s creators are fine

You can submit more than one work for each theme

Work types

Various types of works are welcome, such as fanfic, fanart, graphics, gifsets, fanvids, fanmixes, fic rec lists

Minimum requirements (there is no maximum)

Fanfic: at least 500 words (remember to use read more when posting the whole fic to tumblr)

Fanart/graphics: at least 1 art piece, width 540px

Gifsets: at least 3 gifs

Fanmix: at least 8 songs + description of how they relate to Dean and the theme

Fanvid: min 30 sec

Podfic: read, not tts, fic of min 500 words

Fic rec list: at least 4 fics written by others + commentary on how they fit the theme

all podfic’d and rec’d fics must also fit the content rules of the challenge

Questions? Feel free to send us an ask

#dean challenge #dean winchester #spn challenge #supernatural #writing challenge #deangenchallenge #dgc post #round 12 #theme: wild west

8 notes · View notes

prettywordsyouleft · 3 years

Text

The Cowboy - Part 4

Summary: Leaving the city for a rural area called Blayne seemed simple enough. Your task was to convince the people to agree with selling their land for a resort redevelopment. But once there, you soon realise that your city ways are entirely different to theirs. Winning their trust was going to take some effort, and when you start to fall for a local cowboy, you wonder if you really needed Blayne more than the city life after all.

Pairing: Jung Jaehyun x female reader

Genre: cowboy au / drama / romance / if you squint there’s some enemies to lovers up in here.

Warnings: Jung Jaehyun is a cowboy, need I say more? (a bit of angst and drama, and it sometimes might feel like you’re reading a Nicolas Sparks book, so I’m told lol) --- there’s a bit of angst in this part

Word count: 2078

This series will be updated every Thursday and Friday.

Preview | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

“That was delicious, thank you!”

“I hope you have room in your stomach for apple crumble,” Mr Jung said, leaning across the table towards you. “June is a mighty fine cook but an even greater baker.”

“The reason he married me, so he says.”

You smiled warmly, enjoying the banter between the pair. Their love for one another was evident. You hadn’t seen such a genuine display of affection in years. The city had jaded your parents and kept them looking for the next big project instead of cosy nights curled up together.

They’re professionals, you reminded yourself when you felt a sense of sadness for your parents. They don’t have time like they do out here.

“Were the heifers put into the bottom field?”

You had almost forgotten Jaehyun was sitting at your side until he cleared his throat then, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Yeah, I moved them this morning.”

“By yourself?”

“You had Caleb up in the high fields with you and Avery was otherwise preoccupied with someone,” he continued, and you felt eyes boring into the side of your head on the latter half of the conversation.

You smiled brightly. “It must take a lot of people to run such a big ranch like yours, Mr Jung.”

“We make do with the help we have.”

“We could do with three more men,” Jaehyun muttered, and you looked at him, pausing in saying anything in response when you noticed the dark look within the elder’s eyes.

Blayne was under-populated. You already knew this from the basic land per capita estimates online and in the business proposal for Blayne’s development. If more jobs were created here, then the farms that were struggling would be able to hire more help.

But Blayne also lacked housing. It would need to supply appropriate accommodation for new workers. You stewed over the thought of how many changes would be needed to not only make Blayne easily accessible but also improve the existing community until a dessert plate was placed in front of you.

Blinking out of your reverie, you beamed up at June. “I cannot wait to try it!”

After dinner, you thanked both your hosts generously. “I’ve not had a home-cooked meal quite as tasty as that before.”

“Your mother?” June enquired.

“She’s a professor at the School of Commerce.”

“Ah, she would have been too busy to make meals a priority.”

“It’s okay! I admire her for her work ethic. She’s taught me a lot. Both my parents have always been busy, but that’s how it is in the city.”

“Busy people don’t often see the bigger picture. I can tell by how eager you were to take up the position out here,” Mr Jung mentioned gruffly and you nodded despite his expression. “A woman of marrying age coming up here all alone is usually unheard of.”

“Perhaps Blayne will leave an impression on Y/N, honey.” June offered, patting her husband’s lower arm fondly. She then smiled at you. “You seem quite confident.”

“I’m hopeful I can make a positive change here,” you stated, your own smile fading when you heard a scoff, and then feet moving across the gravel behind you. Darting your focus to the disappearing man that had been waiting nearby, you looked back at his parents. “Thank you again!”

“We’ll have you over anytime, sugar!”

Turning on your heel, you took the pathway that Jaehyun had just departed down, finding him strapping up the horse that had brought you here earlier in the evening. You stopped near his side, frowning at his efforts. “Should you be asking the horse to work again?”

Jaehyun looked in your direction before returning his gaze back to his efforts, not answering your question.

“Your mother said it was too dark to ride last night. Shouldn’t we take the truck since the moon is now up in the sky?” you prompted, shifting your eyes to the heavens. You gasped in awe. “Wow, I’ve never seen such a clear night sky before!”

“Pollution inhibits that,” Jaehyun explained curtly, yanking on a strap and tightening it into place.

“It’s so beautiful out here, though. It’s a shame not many people have experienced it outside of a postcard.”

“Why don’t you save the speech for someone who is interested?”

“Excuse me?” Staring back at the man beside you, you tilted your head to the side. “You’re awfully moody tonight, Mr Cowboy.”

“Back to that name, huh?”

“Well, since you’re feeling a little cold towards me, I don’t know if it’s my place to call you by your first name,” you explained. Jaehyun didn’t respond again, and you sighed. “What did I do wrong?”

“Are you always this self-centred? Can’t you see the bigger picture than the goal inside your head?” Jaehyun questioned, sliding his hands onto his hips and finally facing you. He looked you over again, much as he had earlier when he first saw you as he jumped down from the wagon. Instead of the kindness you had experienced then, it was laced with scrutiny this time. You lowered your gaze to your outfit and stepped back.

“Hey…” you started, and then squared your jaw.

Just who was this guy to act so blunt with you? You should have stuck with believing he was the rude and full of assumptions jerk just as you had thought of him earlier in the day. Perhaps it was the fresh air and gentleness of the wagon ride that had softened your heart to him somehow. You should have known better to trust in your instincts.

Turning on your heel, you started walking down the drive towards the field you had travelled across from your place to the main homestead on this land. You didn’t get far before a hand reached out and yanked on your forearm roughly. “What are you doing?!”

“Going home!”

“Oh, is that so? Through a darkened field? See, this is why you belong in the city, Y/N. You have no idea about the dangers of a working farm. You’re used to living in tiny apartments and navigating mazes of streets and buildings and-”

“I didn’t come here to have you tell me what you think about me, Jaehyun.”

“No, I’m sure you didn’t. But you did come out here all alone with zero understanding of how the country works. You’re here to change how we are? What a joke. You have no concept of what Blayne is about. You’ve not even stopped to take the time to listen to those around you. Instead, you’re dreaming up something big that none of us wants. Can’t you tell that? We might be showing you some country hospitality right now, but don’t go thinking people want you here.”

“That’s incredibly evident, don’t you worry,” you bit back, shaking his grip off your arm.

Jaehyun ran an agitated hand through his hair before looking at you again. “I’ll take you home. Come on.”

“I’m good with directions. I’ll take myself back.”

“What you see during the day changes at night around here. Hate me all you like, but I’ll take you home so I don’t have to worry about you falling in an open drain pipe.”

You opened your mouth to refute the offer, but the image he had painted was enough for you to silently march back over to the wagon. Jaehyun checked everything over again and jumped up into the seat, his hand reaching down to help you up.

Stubbornly, you ignored it and heaved yourself into the seat.

The ride back home was silent, and you preferred it that way. After the outburst in the field, you had little to say to the man. You were grateful he seemed compliant of such silence and didn’t offer any conversation from his behalf either. All the same, you were somewhat holding out for an apology.

You gained none, however.

Leaping down from the wagon, you merely tipped your head as Jaehyun did in farewell and then headed inside without a single word. You watched as the wagon disappeared thereafter, and finally, let out a string of incoherent cursing and annoyance.

You blew a strand of hair away from your face and glowered out the window. “God, I hate him.”

When the morning rose, you got up with a new plan in place. The night before, you had spent the first part of it packing your belongings and then unpacking several times over. You were done with Blayne. If the people didn’t want you here, then you would take heed of their warning and leave.

However, you had been too confident when your boss assigned you with this project.

“They will resist change, you know.”

You nodded. “Of course, but I’m equipped to handle it.”

“Are you?”

“You wouldn’t have pitched the proposal to me if you didn’t think I was the best to acquire the deal, Pierce.”

That, along with the fact that everyone seemingly had bets on when you’d depart played into your new resolve. You would show them just how capable you truly were.

First, however, you needed more information. “Is there a local library or archives here, May?”

“Library?”

You nodded. “Or a town hall? Surely the public can access the information there?”

“Our town hall was burned down ten years ago,” another person at the diner counter mentioned, despite May’s obvious hand swatting him off. He smiled at you. “You’ll have to go to the town over for anything like that.”

“Thank you, you’ve been a great help. Thanks for the coffee, May!”

Once in your car again, you headed back down the country highway and took the forty-five minute drive to the closet township. You cried with comforting relief when you heard the usual bleeps of your phone notification ring in succession.

“Ah, I’m back in a place of proper civilisation!”

Although this township had most amenities, you still were surprised by how small the town hall was. Having no luck there, you went next door to the equally quaint library and piled up all the documents and texts you could find on Blayne.

With a pen in hand ready to take down notes, you picked up the first journal and began to read.

You weren’t aware of how long you spent perusing the history of the area or familiarising yourself with the generations of family lines that were born and bred in Blayne. Stopping on an interesting line in the Jung family, you let out a low whistle. “June and May aren’t originally from Blayne?”

“Perhaps Blayne will leave an impression on Y/N, honey.”

June’s comment from last night pulled a smile onto your lips. At least there seemed to be one person rooting for your stay in Blayne.

It was then when you saw how late into the afternoon it was and you collected up your belongings, asking a clerk if you could take a couple of the history logs with you. After registering with the library and checking them out, you stepped into the warm air, smiling triumphantly at your discovery.

You then pulled out your phone, browsing through the messages you had received. Natalia had contacted you the most, and you pressed call instead of replying, waiting for the call to connect.

“You didn’t let me know if you got there safely!”

“I couldn’t really, the signal out in that place is something else,” you admitted with a grin as you headed to your car. You climbed inside it and then sighed. “I miss you, Natty.”

“Not enough to assure me that you’re alive!”

“Come on, it’s only been a few days, and I’m talking to you now. Isn’t that enough?” you humoured, watching a family cross the intersection up ahead. The little girl skipping across the road seemed so carefree compared to what you had been at that age.

You wondered if the city environment had made you cynical or if that was just who you naturally were.

Natalia cleared her throat and gained your attention again. “Yeah, yeah. So, any hot cowboys out there?”

The image of Jaehyun immediately appeared in your mind, and it ruined your mood entirely. “No. Not a single one.”

“Aw man, here I had you pegged for having a hot summer romance with some farm boy out there.”

“I’m here to work, Natty,” you reminded, both for hers and your sakes. “Even if there was someone handsome, he’s not going to do anything for me.”

_________________

Part 5

[NCT Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

110 notes · View notes

demoneyesanddamagedsouls · 3 years

Text

Sparring Partners

Chapter 3: Infiltrate The Enemy

A/N: Alright so this is Chapter 3 of this fic, I got a little carried away with this chapter that's why the word count is more than last time. We're starting to get into the thick of it now! I have a feeling that each chapter will probably get longer and longer as I go cause I'm just enjoying writing it so much. Feedback and comments as always are so welcome, I’d love to hear your thoughts, and if you’d like to be tagged for the upcoming chapters just let me know! xxx

Pairing: Agent Whiskey x F! Reader

I have also just created a playlist for ya’ll to listen to while reading. I hope it gets you even more invested! ✨COCKY COWBOY PLAYLIST✨

Summary: You and Agent Whiskey are long time rivals. As Statesman agents you both have been put up for the same promotion and this mission is your final chance to prove yourself. Have you got what it takes?

| Read on Ao3 |

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter

Word Count: 4.7k

Warnings: Slight Language, Canon-typical violence (got heavier on this one, blood, pain, choking, weapon usage)

|| Writing Masterlist ||

Get added to my Taglist!

CHAPTER 3: Infiltrate The Enemy

Driving through city, listening to the soft sounds of the radio, you head towards the hospital. Mentally preparing yourself for the day ahead you run through your fake persona. You were going undercover as a young medical student in training that had been transferred from your university to take up a short placement at the CleanPlanet facilities. With all that you had learnt over the years helping Ginger out with certain tech and patching up different injuries you felt that you had a slight grasp on some basic medical terminology and concepts. You simply needed to blend into the background and focus on the mission at hand.

Continuing along you begin to leave the hustle and bustle of the city life, moving further out into the outskirts of town. The hospital was in a more remote area, another way to keep suspicious, prying eyes away from their experiments you thought, as you continued along the rather empty road. As you approach the multi storeyed hospital complex you notice the large wire fence which circled the perimeter of the area, the gates at the front wide open for visitors. You drive onto the lot and park in the staff area to the right, inside the gate. Taking a deep breath, you collect yourself, brushing the loose strands of hair that had fallen out of your ponytail and tucking them behind your ear. Pulling out the earpiece from the small box that Ginger had given you, you quickly tuck it behind the arm of your glasses at the top of your ear to hide it from view.

Grabbing your bag from the backseat of the car, you take out your lab coat that Ginger had given you and pulled it over your shoulders. Pulling your knees up you pull your small throwing knives out of your duffle, strapping a few to your thighs. You weren’t about to go into this hostile situation without being prepared. Pulling your lab coat around you to cover up your hidden weapons you hop out of your personas rundown car and start walking towards the hospitals main entrance. Curiously, you notice a lot of doctors, other professionals, and a few security guards here and there wandering around the perimeter of the fence.

You counted about 23 people in total from what you could see, some talking together, some having a cigarette break, and so on. But as you look closer, you realise that all these seemingly random people dappled around were wearing communication earpieces. On some of the security guards you even noticed the outline of a handgun tucked into the back of their shirts. It seemed that the hospital was on high alert and extremely well-guarded. Everything was going to be just fine, just blend in and focus. You’ve got this. You murmur to yourself to ease your nerves, focusing on embodying the new persona you needed to become. Out of the corner of your eye you notice a strikingly familiar shiny blue chrome. You turn ever so slightly to see that Whiskey’s car was parked in the visitor’s area around the side of the hospital. I suppose Duke Silver has already arrived…

Heading inside you walk over to the information desk flashing your ID badge to the receptionist. “I’m the new student transfer here for my placement from the University of Texas, where am I heading?” You query, putting a quiver into your voice, you wanted to really sell the part of the first-time med student. The woman behind the desk gestures behind you. “Down the hall and to your left sweetheart…” Looking at you she smiles; she must see the nervousness you were portraying. “You’ll do just fine darlin, Doctor Violet will be mentoring you and she is just downright lovely. You’ve got nothing to be worried about.”

Continuing to fake your anxious energy, you tuck an invisible hair behind your ear activating your earpiece in one swift movement. Thanking the woman profusely you head in the direction she had gestured. The hospital was abuzz with activity all around you patients being moved, doctors and nurses chatting amongst each other, people waiting for their loved ones. It certainly looked and felt like a real hospital, an impressive cover, you thought to yourself. As you continue further down the hallway, the herd of people starting to thin, you realise you were moving towards the staff offices in the back. Looking around quickly to make sure you were out of earshot of anyone you speak quietly to yourself attempting to communicate with Whiskey on the other side of the hospital. “Hey Whiskey, my lines open, just holler if you run into any trouble.”

You hear a sharp crackle coming from your earpiece as Whiskey turns his earpiece on. “Likewise, Vodka,” he says, his voice unusually quiet, “I’m currently in the waiting room outside Howard’s office, there’s a few other wealthy looking gentlemen and women in here with me, who I assume will also be receiving a tour of the facilities… I’ll be right here if you need me, sunshine.” He purposely drew out his nickname he had for you, his voice dragging out every syllable. You could practically hear the smirk in his whispered tone.

Chuckling internally, you click your earpiece off so as not to distract your partner, or vice versa. You continued along towards Dr Violets office, turning around the corner and almost colliding into the other students gathered outside her door. There was about 4 of them in total, 5 including yourself. Shit, you need to be more careful. Anyone could have heard you. You look around to the others but they we’re all completely focused, eyes trained on the blue door which read “Dr. Octavia Violet M.D.”

Suddenly, the door swings open causing the other students to jump in surprise. Out from the office steps a prominent figure, a tall and dashing woman dressed in deep navy suit with a black button up underneath, a black tie wrapped around her neck. Brown hair wrapped into a low bun and round glasses resting on the bridge of her nose she exuded the air of highly intelligent and respected medical practitioner. Adjusting your lab coat and pushing your glasses up your nose, you continue to emulate a feeling of nervousness. This wasn’t too difficult a task as you already felt rather intimidated and yet oddly impressed by this woman. Her presence felt powerful, a quiet strength about her, shown in the way she carried herself.

“Hi there everyone, you all must be my new placement students,” She spoke, a kind smile plastered on her face. “I’m Dr Violet, I’ll be looking after you while you’re here with us over the next few weeks.” After all of you had introduced yourself separately, she began to lead you out towards the main part of the hospital, “It’s lovely to meet you all, now if you’d follow me its time I showed you around our facilities here at CleanPlanet so that you can become familiar with your new place of work.” Her black stilettos clicked as she walked, taking you past the reception desk and deeper into the hospital. Walking behind her with the other students in tow you noticed a small intricate scar poking out from underneath her jacket collar. You rest your index finger on your glasses attempting to use the tech to get a closer look. Managing to take a slightly zoomed in picture before she whips back around to address her small group of attentive pupils, you curse lightly under your breath and move further back.

You’d have to try to get a better look at whatever that was later, you couldn’t afford to draw any suspicion to yourself in such a small group. Dr Violet looks over her new students and begins to speak, “Alright so this first wing is the main hospital ward, we have different stations for certain requirements and specialists scattered around so we can accommodate a good number of inpatients here. Now further along…” Moving again the group walks further into the hospital into a more private area with sectioned off rooms and areas, “This is where we have our specialist medical, surgical and psychiatric wards. The main ward and these areas will be where you spend the majority of your time while on placement as the other side of the hospital is mainly outpatient facilities such as the A&E and the ICU.” She turned back to look at the group as she continued, “One of our main purposes here at CleanPlanet is to run test trials of experimental, but potentially lifesaving new procedures and medications,” You ears perk up at this statement, this might be what you needed to look further into.

The drug tests had seemed to be the source of the fatalities and illnesses that you had discovered in your research. “This is something we are very proud of and something you will be helping assist with. Trial subjects will need to be prepped for these new tests and made comfortable especially for certain surgeries and medications.”

You attempted to jot down some notes in a small note pad you had brought in your bag to appear as studious as some of her other pupils. You needed to keep a low profile. But on the inside your mind was reeling, what did she mean by making the patients comfortable and prepped for these trials and why would it be the student’s task to do this? If anything, it seemed that this would be a potential way to take the blame off CleanPlanet and its employees. If the students administered any medication to an unsuspecting patient, CleanPlanet would get away scot free, getting yet another unsuspecting party to do their dirty work.

As your mind processed this new information you realise that you had zoned Dr Violet out, “… we’ll be running you through what trials we’ll be running and what we’ll be getting you to do further along. Please follow me.” Walking further into these more secluded surgery and prep rooms you began to feel an unsettling ambience fill the space. The hallway had become starker, with fewer staff, the temperature had dropped to reflect the much colder and highly sanitised appearance of your new surroundings. The staff that were around had stern appearances and were adorned in different protective gear. Some wearing masks and protective goggles with some even wearing full hazmat suits. Dr Violet led you into one of the larger rooms off the main hallway and as you walked in provided each of you with a face mask of your own.

What on earth was going on here? You turn to look at Dr Violet once more, she was standing in front of a small group of staff who were sitting at multiple different desks with computer monitors in front of them. All of them were facing towards one wall in the room with what appeared to be a large, shadowed frame set into it. Each staff member was also wearing a facemask which covered their nose and mouth, jotting down notes and adjusting certain information on their screens.

It appeared to be a human x ray with different vital sign information down the side, as you peered further forward towards the screen closest to you to try and get a better look, your train of thought is suddenly interrupted by Dr Violets voice. “Alright students, we’re about to run you through a preparation and procedure of one of our focal trials here at CleanPlanet.” A mask now covering the bottom half of her face. She snapped her fingers and suddenly the frame on the wall behind her burst into vivid colour. You could see behind her a patient sitting on a small medical bed, a young male. Pale under the luminescent glow of the white medical lights, he looked almost translucent. You realised that the frame on the wall must be a one-way mirror allowing you a protected view into an adjacent medical suite.

A doctor stood over the boy, who couldn’t be more than your age, with a forced happy demeanour plastered across his face. You saw the doctors mouth moving but heard no sound to accompany it, the boy nodded in agreement and then signed a sheet of paper that the doctor held out for him on a clipboard. As the boy laid down onto the bed the doctor exited the room and you tapped your glasses frame lightly once more to begin to film what you were seeing, you had a feeling this was going to be important.

Dr Violet continued to speak as that same doctor entered the room you were standing in. “This is pivotal new research that we’ve been conducting to find a treatment for some of the big incurable diseases that plague the human race.” As she continued to speak you couldn’t bring yourself to turn in her direction, your eyes locked onto the room through that you could see through the frame. You began to notice the white cushioned padding covering the entirety of the walls within the room, and a large pit of concern began to open in your stomach. Why did it look like a cell in a mental institution in there…? “For this particular experiment we have been testing out an anaesthetic gas which aims to heighten the strong cells within the body to naturally fight off the illnesses and ailments which plague the patient.” Dr Violet explains to the students.

Suddenly you see a cloud of pale-yellow gas erupt from the ceiling above the patient. It starts to fill up the medical suite in front of your eyes as the young man squirms worriedly on the medical bed. The gas slowly engulfs the room, so thick that you can no longer see the patient. Everything is quiet for a few moments as everyone holds their breath in suspense. Suddenly the screens on front of the medical staff begin to flash in a warning red, the computers making load concerning beeps. All of a sudden you see the monitored heart rate on one of the screens plummet to zero and then shoot back up to over 200 beats per minute.

Dr Violet looks over at one of the screens with a concerned expression on her face. She leans closer to the window frame in front of her, trying to see further in when all at once there is load crack. A fist slams into the mirror with a huge amount of brute force only millimetres away from Dr Violets face. She recoils back out of shock from the sudden noise but quickly steadies herself, shaking off any worry in her now drawn expression. You continue to watch in horror as some of the gas begins to dissipate, revealing the maddened face of the patient through the mirrored frame. He was slamming himself repeatedly into the wall trying to break through the glass that separated us from him.

“Unfortunately…” The doctors voice cut through the shock that had paralysed your body, “Not every test is a success.” She trails off looking back at the boy behind the glass. His eyes were red and wild as he frantically ran around the room smacking into every possible surface, desperate to escape. He gripped the sides of his head with his hands, his face contorting in agony as an unheard scream ripped through him. He collapsed to the ground on his knees, his body shuddering in pain. You could see blood begin to drip down his cheeks out of his ears onto the floor, staining the stark white room with a deep and ominous red. Finally he collapses onto the floor, the life drained from his body, blood seeping and creating a halo around the crown of his head.

Dr V begins listing off some of the side effects of this new test such as migraines, nausea, everything up to internal bleeding. “This is a particularly exceptional case, a sharp learning curve for our testing. One of the many exciting trials and tribulations of scientific progress!” A smile lighting up her features, her whole-body tense with excitement. How could she be excited about what had happened here? You thought as your attempted to hide the pure shock and panic that was screaming out on the inside. All at once you see a few medical assistants in hazmat suits pull the lifeless body of the boy out of the suite in front of you. The room then floods with water from the sprinklers embedded in the ceiling, washing the blood down the small drain under the patient bed. “Bring in the next test subject.” Says one of the medical techs into a microphone.

No sooner had the room been cleared it had been filled again, a new patient being sat on the bed, a young woman, her face tired and worn. She had no idea what was about to happen. The view to the suite goes black once more, obscuring it from view and you and the rest of the students are hurriedly being ushered out of the room by Dr V. Everyone pulls their masks off as they leave, it seems everyone was a bit shaken from that experience. Still reeling from what you had just witnessed you keep your gaze fixed to the floor away from the prying eyes of the doctor. She continues walking and talking but you can no longer hear anything she says, your head is pounding. You need to get back there and get all the test information onto a hard drive for Statesman. You need to figure out how far this really goes. Looking up once more you raise your hand. Dr Violet looks directly at you, her gaze piercing you to your very core. “Yes?” She queries.

“May I be excused to go to the restroom Doctor?” You say, a slight quiver in your voice, this was certainly no act.

“Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having a slightly weak constitution.” Looking you up and down she waves her hand, gesturing for you to leave. “Go collect yourself. You can catch up with us further along.”

“Thank you Doctor.” Gripping tightly onto your notebook you dash back down away from the rest of the group as they continue along. You duck into the bathroom that you had passed earlier, quickly checking that there was no one else inside. Walking up to one of the sinks you look at your reflection in the mirror. Your complexion had paled from the shock of what you had witnessed, and your hands trembled as you gripped onto the ceramic of the basin fighting to keep yourself upright. Turning on the faucet you quickly splash some water across your face. You needed to get a grip and focus. You had a job you needed to do.

Tapping your earpiece, you open the communication line, exhaling softly to calm your nerves. “Whiskey, are you there?” Hearing another crackle, you hear his line open.

“I’m here Vodka, whaddya need sugar?” He says voice quiet, speaking only loud enough for you to hear.

“Ok well there have been some developments on my end, I’m about to head back into the lab we just left where my eyes were subjected to some pretty traumatic stuff…” You trail off recalling the horrific scene.

“What happened??” He queries, worry present in his tone of voice. You recount everything you had seen to him so he could get a full picture of what the hell was going on. “That sounds positively concerning…” Whiskey sighs audibly through the comm. “Well, I’m currently getting a wrap up of the facility tour from Howard so keep me on the line while you execute this and holler if you get into to any trouble.”

“Will do, Agent.” Quickly exiting the bathroom, you look down the hallway in the direction of your medical group, seeing no evidence of them and hearing nothing you begin to move in the opposite direction. Heading back towards the medical lab you quicken your pace, making use of the apparent emptiness of the hallway to reach your destination quicker.

“Jeez Vodka, you’re breathing so hard I think I’m going to go deaf in this ear.” Whiskey quips.

“Excuse me for thinking timing is of the essence in this situation cowboy.” You mutter to yourself angrily, as you reach the door to the medical lab you had visited earlier. Wary to keep your voice low, you didn’t know what was on the other side of that door. You hear Whiskey chuckle to himself, laughing at your constant irritation towards him. Ignoring him you turn the handle and hearing a soft click you push the door open.

Stepping inside the dark room you see two lab techs turn from their computers to face you. “I’m so sorry, I think I left something of mine in here earlier…” you glance around the room assessing your options. You need to get these two out of the way quickly so that you can access the information you need before anyone else comes back. Spotting a stapler on the desk closest to you amongst other scattered office supplies you quickly pick it up and open it. Looking back at the lab techs, you throw them a meagre smile.

“Sorry about this…” You mutter quietly, throwing the stapler into the air and in one swift movement you throw yourself into a cartwheel, flipping your leg forward, kicking the stapler directly in the middle, snapping it in half with the edge of your heel. The two ends of the stapler fly as you return to an upright stance, each side hitting the two lab techs square on their forehead, knocking them out cold. You smirk to yourself, proud of your efficient work.

“Everything under control Vodka?” You hear Whiskeys voice in your ear.

“Everything is under control.” You say as you dash over to the closest computer to you, rolling the lab tech who was slumped over in his own office chair out of the way. Pulling a hard drive out of your back pocket you quickly plug it into the port on the side of the computer screen. Tapping a few keys like Ginger taught you, the entire computer log begins to copy over to your hard drive. Files start to flick across the screen showing you all you ever needed to know about the trials they were running. Pictures of patients flit across the screen, hundreds of people with deceased written in bold red letters across their files. “My god…” you say, your voice catching as the number of files continue to rise.

“What’s going on there Vodka?” You hear a mutter in your ear.

“Whiskey I…” You trail off unable to comprehend how many people had been used and tossed aside for this drug trial. “I cannot believe how many patients they’ve gone through for this drug Jack…” You using his real name throws Whiskey for a loop. He knows how serious this must be if all the sarcasm and snipes had left your voice completely. You continue talking, trying to keep your nerves in check as the picture of the boy from earlier flashes onto the screen, the same words across his picture in red. “The drug they’re testing is an anaesthesia type gas which they’re calling Sunflower… It seems that in most of the cases it takes the patients about a week to experience the more intense symptoms and then eventually…” Trailing off again, your silence saying everything you couldn’t seem to articulate.

All of a sudden, the door to the lab opens and you see the frame of Dr Violet step inside. She quirks her eyebrow at you and glances at her two unconscious techs, down to the hard drive and then back up at you. You hear a small beep come from the computer notifying you that the upload had been completed. You quickly snatch the drive out of the computer as Dr V stared you down.

Looking at you with a knowing smile she puts her hand out towards you. “I think I’ll be taking that off your hands sweetheart.” She says with her hand outstretched.

“I don’t think so Violet.” You say as you quickly pocket the drive, bringing your hands to hover over the knives strapped to your thighs, bracing for a fight.

A crackle comes through your earpiece suddenly, “Vodka, is everything alright?”

You have no time to respond because all at once Dr V goes in for a jab directly into your stomach. Catching you off guard, you keel over in shock and from being suddenly winded, gripping your stomach. “That’s Doctor to you.” Dr V quips. Gasping, desperately trying to regain your breath you pull out one of your knives from your thigh holster and lunge at her, aiming a blow for her shoulder.

Expecting the blade to sink into soft flesh you put all your weight and strength behind your throw. The knife collides with her shoulder, but nothing happens. You hear the clang of metal clashing. Instead of sinking in, the blade slashes downwards, cutting through her lab coat and her suit revealing a metal covering underneath. The force that should have impacted the doctor reverberates back into your arm sending a jarring shock through your body. Quickly recovering you kick out directly at her left leg landing a heavy blow which forces her to recoil back.

Both catching your breath you stare the doctor down. “How could you possibly think what you’re doing here is ok?” You pant out getting ready for your next move.

“We’re trying to improve the world, make people stronger… but sometimes you have to crack a few bad eggs before you find the right one.” She says matter-of-factly, as she nurses her leg.

You both resume a fighting stance readying yourselves. “You’re hurting so many people just to achieve that goal, can’t you see that the harm outweighs any potential good you’re trying to accomplish?” You throw back at her, a venomous anger reaching your voice at her absolute callousness to the situation. You throw your other blade attempting to take her by surprise and incapacitate her, aiming for her already injured leg. The knife hits its mark with deadly accuracy, sinking into the flesh of her thigh. Dr Violet cries out in pain, sucking air through her teeth as she controls her reaction. She flicks her gaze away from the knife sticking out of her leg back at you, a new fury in her eyes.

“Sunshine are you handling the situation?” You hear Whiskeys tense voice in your ear.

Dr Violet runs at you throwing her non injured leg out kick you hard in the ribs. You grunt in pain, exhaling sharply. Without giving you a chance to recover she grabs you by the throat and clamps her fingers down, restricting any air flow into your lungs. She lifts you up with one arm by the neck keeping you from being able to breath. You grasp her hand with both your own, trying to tear her fingers away from your throat, trying to let any amount of air reach your lungs. She holds you there like you weigh almost nothing, looking you up and down. You thrash out with your legs trying to somehow escape from her grasp as black spots start to cloud your vision.

“Sweetheart?!” You hear Whiskey in your ear once more, his voice riddled with concern. Trying to choke out a response to your partner as your voice cracks, “P-Please…” is all you can muster. You feel yourself start to slip out of consciousness in the doctor’s vice like grip. You hear her calm voice as your body movements start to slow and weaken, “I think you will make a fine new test subject for our trial.” She says with a large smirk gloating at you, her new prize.

All you hear as you finally succumb to unconsciousness is Whiskey yelling your name through the com as your body collides with the floor…

*******************************************************************************************

Permanent Tags:

@hrk-fic-recs @misslexilouwho

67 notes · View notes

genuineviolence · 3 years

Photo

FOLLOW YOUR OWN PATH !

for the employees of five novelty bars that make up “the long crawl” , the party never stops. only problem is: they’re not the ones partying. banded together by a route established by drunken college students over a decade ago, our bartenders have no choice but to try get along if they want to survive wave after wave of rowdy tourists and hipsters. what is there to do when it feels everyone is moving forward but you ? can these crawlers break the cycle they’re stuck in and find a way to join in the fun, or will they embrace the never ending road that is THE LONG CRAWL ?

THE RULES/OVERVIEW

muses should be 21+. fcs should be 19+. follow the age +5/-5 rule. we can discuss in some cases. please refrain from using problematic face claims. muns should be 18+. there will be adult themes throughout. right now there are spots for roughly 10 muns, but we have plenty of space to expand if there’s demand.

NOTE: you are allowed to apply with two muses. they cannot work at the same bar, just so we can spread stuff out better. people can apply only as bartenders or dancers (only in the case of venom) just to keep everyone on equal ground and discourage power imbalances. managers will be npcs.

this is a very low stakes plot. there will be events and such but be prepared to focus more on character & relationship building ! ic drama is totally encouraged. ooc drama is not. i expect us all to be adults and communicate with each other. do not force shipping. please respect everyone’s boundaries. if you purposefully cause problems, you will be booted.

please try to be active ic OR ooc at least every three days. interest checks will be posted to ensure people keep their roles. no one will be kicked unless 1) there’s severe inactivity (over a week) 2) they don’t react to keep their role within the 24 hour time frame. and even then i’ll speak to you beforehand to make sure.

THE APP

( faceclaim, gender, pronouns ) everybody here knows first last ! they’re a bartender/dancer working at bar name. they’re a age in numbers zodiac originally from location. everyone says they’re one positive trait but also one negative trait. they remind me of 3 aesthetics and you can usually catch them listening to song here. their favorite drink is drink. written by alias, age and pronouns.

please feel free to send in mixes, pinterest boards, mood boards -- whatever you feel might help me understand your character better! please send them through submit.

THE BARS

MURRAY’S (1/4 SPOTS TAKEN) a good old fashioned irish pub. most likely place for a fight to break out. often full of regulars and older customers. didn’t consider themselves “themed” until they were lumped in with the rest of the crawl. inspirations: paddy’s pub from it’s always sunny, cheers. y’know, from cheers, the dive bars we all know and love.

VENOM (1/4 SPOTS TAKEN) a vintage vampire themed strip club/burlesque. high concept, but not unwelcoming. equipped with a main room, where most people on the crawl stop to drink, and an entertainment room, where the dancers and performers work. inspirations: maison derriere (of the simpsons fame), elvira, the titty twister (from dusk til dawn).

COLONEL ANGUS (1/4 SPOTS TAKEN) the local gay bar. tongue and cheek, pastel and candy colored, thriving on comedy and camp. caters to all members of the lgbtq community with sapphic/feminine leanings. inspirations: but i’m a cheerleader’s production design, the works on john waters and david lynch, fans of the criterion collection.

CHEAT CODE (1/4 SPOTS TAKEN) a barcade with everything from vintage selections to brand new vr tech. expect theme nights and big screen super smash brothers games. retro-futuristic and completely neon & led lit. almost another planet. inspirations: the arcade from stranger things, super mario world in japan, scott pilgrim versus the world.

THE DOGHOUSE (1/4 SPOTS TAKEN) a cowboy bar. styled after old saloons and equipped with a trusty mechanical bull. home to square dancing nights and live country music. a welcome relic. inspirations: wherever the fuck beiste took schue in that one episode of glee, coyote ugly, western nostalgia.

THE CAST (5/20 SPOTS TAKEN)

( jacob elordi, cis man, he/him ) everybody here knows rowan quinn ! they’re a bartender working at murray’s. they’re a 22 year old capricorn originally from austin, texas. everyone says they’re protective but also abrasive. they remind me of grease stained muscle tees, a mattress on the floor of a studio apartment, a wave of cool water on a hot summer’s day, and you can usually catch them listening to shady lane by pavement. their favorite drink is craft beer. written by syd, 23, they/them.

( lily james, cis woman, she/her ) everybody here knows marley weston aka ivy! they’re a dancer working at venom. they’re a 28 year old sagittarius originally from queens, new york. everyone says they’re driven but also callous. they remind me of well-loved leather seats in an old car, hair dye stains on a bathroom sink counter, and cinnamon chewing gum, and you can usually catch them listening to red red red by fiona apple. their favorite drink is a rum and coke. written by jace, 23, he/they.

( patti harrison, trans woman, she/her ) everybody here knows audrey do ! they’re a bartender working at colonel angus. they’re a 28 year old taurus originally from knoxville, tennessee. everyone says they’re loving but also erratic. they remind me of an abundance of party city feather boas, conversational buffy speak, the women of beyond the valley of the dolls, and you can usually catch them listening to another girl another planet by the only ones. their favorite drink is a moscow mule. written by syd, 23, they/them.

( olivia o’brien, cis woman, she/her ) everybody here knows veronica ‘ronnie’ grant ! they’re a bartender working at cheat code. they’re a 24 year old gemini originally from austin, texas. everyone says they’re witty but also guileful. they remind me of hands always stained with purple hair dye, a competitive streak that drives your mood and the art of being able to infiltrate any social circle you want and you can usually catch them listening to beast of burden by the rolling stones. their favorite drink is an apple martini. written by jamie, 24 and she/they.

( kit harington, cis man, he/him ) everybody here knows jack deacon! they’re a bartender working at the doghouse. they’re a 31 year old capricorn originally from aberdeen, north carolina. everyone says they’re patient but also aloof. they remind me of a muddy pair of boots by the front door, a threadbare jacket that he refuses to get rid of, and a firm but friendly handshake, and you can usually catch them listening to summertime by janis joplin. their favorite drink is a summer shandy. written by jace, 23, he/they.

APP COUNT

murray’s - x 3 ( charlie gillespie, joe keery, milena tscharntke ) venom - x 3 ( jessica sula, zoey luna, nathan bouts ) colonel angus - x 3 ( shannon purser, sza, mei pang ) cheat code - x 3 ( ellie bamber, elliott fletcher, archie renaux ) the doghouse -x 3 ( coco jones, josefine frida pettersen, cindy mello )

#discord rp #group rp #rpt #rpc #rph #semi appless

21 notes · View notes

fndmxreader · 3 years

Text

TITLE : hit the pause button, we’re all that matters . PAIRINGS : poly!dean x reader x cas . REQUEST : Cas + dean + reader all doing a self care day (at readers request) and have it involve fluffy stuff like putting mud masks on each other NOTE : with me making this a series, i decided to focus on the mud mask part for now ! the bath part of the request will turn up at some point on the blog though <3 INSPO : and you can tell everybody this is your song, it may be quite simple but now that it's done : i hope you don't mind, i hope you don't mind that i put down in words how wonderful life is while you're in the world.

IT TOOK A GOOD COUPLE OF DAYS OF PESTERING . cas and dean were not only two of the most stubborn people on the planet, but they were also major workaholics that never truly knew when to lay weapons down and call it a day . certainly a deadly and highly frustrating combo, though you weren’t the one to point fingers... couldn’t just blame them for it, you were the same in that regard - but at least you took off the rose tinted glasses every so often, seeing that what you were all doing was utterly exhausting, dragging each of you down in such a way that you felt not only yourself, but your two boyfriends changing . you noticed how cas begins to act like the serious angel that first stepped foot on earth, how his eyes hardened and began to cut jokes short and patience run thin . how dean never seemed to come to bed anymore, how the bags under his eyes got deeper and there isn’t much spare beer in he fridge . you began to feel lonely, the work effecting you in a way that just made you quiet and less responsive . getting involved had to happen sooner or later ( you’ll beat yourself up over this, it should’ve been sooner, you left it too late this time . )

SO IT STARTED BY HINTING AT THEM TO TAKE A BREAK, an attempt to try and get them to admit how exhausted they were, how everything seemed to just ware them down . at first, dean just pressed a barely there kiss to your lips “ we need to get this done, baby “ then, castiel wrapped his arms around your shoulders and burying his face into your hair with a sigh “ dean is right, we must focus on the task at hand, our enemies do not sleep “ you just bit your lip, nodding weakly and allowing them to continue . but you were persistent, a quality that your boys absolutely worshiped in you and at times, hated .

IT’S WHEN YOUR HINTING BECAME POINTLESS DID YOU TAKE ACTION, you knew the cold shoulders weren’t on purpose, that the world should come first ... and while its selfish to ask... why is that ? you’re certainly not against stopping the impending doom, but why should you all work yourselves to death, why should the three of you not stop to breathe and remember that they need to save the world, not for everyone else, but for yourselves ? so you had bought a spa kit, not the cheap kind, the kind where you winced at the receipt and instantly threw it away ( along with tearing price tags off of items ) - it’s not the type of money you had, but you knew the long run would be worth far more than an extra digit .

PULLING IT OFF WAS EASIER THAN YOU PLANNED . you had never seen them so out of it to not notice you up to something, you remember when you were planning on stealing deans plaid shirt for the day and he had noticed how fidgety you were, he had wasted no time calling you out with a big grin on his face - for you to be sneaking around, walking up and down and not really talking to them, and for them to say nothing ? you knew it was bad, and this idea couldn’t have come quick enough . you had everything set up in a few hours, making face masks, cutting cucumbers, setting up a movie marathon, this was going to be the best, most relaxing night ever, you were going to make sure of it .

“ RIGHT BOYS “ hands clapping loudly and entering the main room where cas and dean were, holding some comfortable clothes under your arms for them to get changed into, you yourself was dressed in a old button up of castiels topped of with some fuzzy slippers . dean had just entered the room with a beer in hand, his only form of break he understands, castiel then placed the book down on the table delicately to give you his attention “ WE NEED A BREAK, i’m not giving you an option - i don’t think you both realize how much... this is getting to us all “ you tried your best to remain excited, ignoring how sad you sounded towards the end, dean opened his mouth to speak and you could already predicted the protest “ ah ah ah , mr. i haven’t slept in the same bed as my girlfriend and boyfriend in four weeks, you definitely don’t get a say ! “ you placed the clothes on the table, pushing castiel clothes to him and skipping towards dean to hand them over “ CHANGE, NOW “

“ I LOVE IT when you get all bossy “ dean muttered, you couldn’t hold back the laugh and the eye roll as you walked away .

---

THAT WAS AN HOUR AGO . a western played softly in the background as you finally convinced castiel to put the face mask on, surprisingly enough you had thought dean would protest the idea but he was onboard the minute you brought out the bowl, castiel however was very much wary - it took a while of pestering on both your part and deans, but eventually he caved, allowing you to sit on his lap as dean cuddled against his side .

“ THIS IS A WEIRD SENSATION “ castiel mumbled, one hand reaching over to hold dean and the other under your ( his ) shirt and tracing idle patterns into your hip “ this is mud, i fail to see where the relaxation comes into it “

“ IT’S NOT ACTUALLY MUD “ dean grins, pressing a kiss to his neck, resisting the urge to nuzzle into the skin as to avoid ruining his own face “ plus, you have to actually relax for it to work “

“ HA, like you’d know anything about relaxing ! “ smile is splitting face, for the first time in a while you feel utterly carefree, you’d missed this - missed them “ i can see the knots in your shoulder from here “ there’s some quick fire retaliation, both in scoffing and dean ungracefully shoving his hand in the bowl and swiping more of the pack across your face, at the show castiel couldn’t help but just sit back and watch with a gentle smile on his face, blue hues bright with utter adoration for the two humans . he never thought he’d be here, sure the life they were living was both dangerous and unpredictable, but for the first time in his life he’s never felt more at ease, felt belonging . just like a million times before, he can’t help but inwardly promise himself, he would do anything to protect his two humans . anything . oh, how dangerous was that ?

“ SHUT UP, i’m trying to watch the movie ! “ “ you STARTED it, you cowboy loving - “

CASTIEL SUDDENLY MAKES A PANICKED NOISE, feeling the layer of crap on his face harden the longer he sits there, stopping the ever escalating fight of both of yours and deans “ the mud is hardening, this is not relaxing, is it meant to do this ? “ you and dean instantly tried not to laugh at the angel, dean failing of cause .

“ OKAY, LETS TRY THIS - “ dean grinned, waving you off of castiel as he gently forced cas to lay back further, picking up two slices cucumbers from the plate on the table “ close your eyes, feathers “ castiel squints at him at first, but eventually agrees and body jolting at the cold slices on lids “ EASY, just let yourself, feel it - “ you grin, instantly picking up on deans idea as you slide into the other side of cas, hand gently rubbing his shoulder as dean followed suit - it was an awkward position for the both of you, but the angel soon managed to melt into into the touches, a small sigh passing lips “ are you feeling it ? “

“ I UH ... I THINK I AM, the mask is still uncomfortable for me . but i think i am more feeling the presence of you both, it has been ... a long time it feels since we’ve been like this “ at his words, you visibly melted, a love struck face instantly taking over - dean couldn’t help the gentle smile, no edge, no teasing ... he thinks... no, knows cas is right “ this was a good idea, y/n. we should certainly do this more often “

“ WE COULD DO DATE NIGHTS... again, maybe once a week ? every three if we have to make it more flexible... with everything going on “ your words unsure, almost shy, it had dean raising his free hand to gently cup your face, rubbing your cheek with his thumb .

“ WE CAN DO THAT... i’m sorry i haven’t been around you guys much “ his own heart beats a little faster as you lean into his palm, kissing it with a smile . though the mood is broken the minute dean drops his touch, leaning onto cas’ face and picking up the cucumber slice off of his lids with his teeth, looking oh so accomplished .

“ HM. that’s the first time i’ve seen you eat healthy, dean ... is that truly the only way we can get you to stop killing your insides ? eating greens off of me ? “ deans face flushes bright, stuttering through a come back, the snort of laughter you make is the most embarrassing noise you’ve ever made .

#🛁 anon #a tag for the one whose making this series possible....... i see you <3 #im lowkey worried abt this so i used this as a practice to write a poly ship #im one of those where i write tht stuff in drafts #so any feedback about this is v much appreciated !#im so excited for this series i have. ideas. angst n fluff #ALL THE IDEAS LADS #cas x reader x dean #dean x reader x cas #fic #spnxreaders #spn x reader #supernatural x reader #castiel x reader #dean winchester x reader

63 notes · View notes

puckyeahobx · 4 years

Text

in the middle of the party b*tch get off of me

a/n: here’s some jj for you guys....this is a personal favorite of mine and very much so inspired by the one tik tok he posted where he had handcuffs O.o

summary: y/n and jj go to college together and celebrate halloween at his frat house <3 sexiness ensues

warnings: nsfw duh

It wasn’t that you thought JJ was dumb, but it was moreso that you thought JJ was focused on other things like fixing cars, finding the best weed in a fifty mile radius, and taking care of his friends. His criminal record also didn’t necessarily lend itself to an academic lifestyle either, now that you thought about it...but JJ had never ceased to amaze you as long as you had known him, so I guess you really should not have been shocked when he showed up on your doorstep with an acceptance letter to North Carolina State. He said it had nothing to do with you thinking of going there too, but you knew better.

High school ending had really been freaking him out even if he had tried not to show it. His friends were the one thing that had kept him grounded all of these years and he wasn’t sure what would become of him once you all went your separate ways. Luckily, though, you ended up choosing NC State. They had the best program for your major out of everywhere you applied and had offered you a decent chunk of cash. It had nothing to do with JJ going there...obviously.

Kie was at UNC Chapel Hill, Pope at Duke, and John B was on a gap year, trying to figure out what the hell he wanted to do, which left you and JJ to your own devices your freshman year. It was a big school and you both found groups of people you liked, JJ with his frat brothers (also a huge shock to you, but the guys in his frat were actually really cool and pretty pogue-like, he wouldn't be caught dead in a kook infested frat) and fellow social services majors, you with your roommates and friends from classes, but you two always ended up spending the most time with each other anyway. It didn’t take very long into your freshman year to realize that old habits really do die hard. Whether it was walking to class together, eating in the dining hall, studying in the library, you guys were always together. Sometimes your new friends joined you guys, but more often than not when you weren’t in your dorms you were alone together. This wasn’t an issue for you, of course. Just like the rest of the world, you had been into JJ since you first met him. And lately, through all the alone time and leaning on each other, it became clear that he might maybe feel the same way.

It was the small things like how his hand rested on your back when he walked up behind you or when his arm fell on your shoulders when you sat on your shitty dorm futon together or how anytime one of his friends flirted with you in front of you his jaw clenched and he suddenly was at a loss for his usual sarcastic banter. But you were getting ahead of yourself, right? You two were each other’s rocks at this time. It was probably all platonic like it had always been. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t push the limits of friendship and have a little fun from time to time, did it? No, no it didn’t. So when Halloween came creeping around the corner, you made sure you had your fun.

JJ’s frat was obviously throwing a party in celebration of the holiday, because if there’s one thing frat guys love it’s alcohol and almost-naked girls - the true nature of Halloween. It was a costume party but that was pretty much code for “Show as much skin as possible”, so you went for the classic angel look. A white bra, a white mini skirt you found at the back of your friend’s closet, and Party City wings. It was truly innovative. You tried to make it look like you actually tried by hot gluing some rhinestones on your bra and doing your hair and makeup all ethereal and sexy, but you knew that as soon as you stepped into that disgusting, sweaty frat house you would somehow go from an 11 to a solid 7 and that was just something you were going to have to be ok with. It was always dark anyway.

You didn’t arrive at the party until a little after ten because your friend went a little too hard at the pregame and had already vomited all over her devil lingerie, so you all had to deal with that mess before tucking her into bed and escaping out the door before things could get worse. But after many texts and snaps from JJ harassing you for keeping him waiting, you were finally there and your stomach was flipping with nerves. JJ refused to reveal what he was dressed up as, saying it was a surprise, and you just couldn’t wait to see him as someone else, hoping he’d see you as someone else tonight too. Someone he wanted to be with.

The music was heard from the front lawn as you stepped out of the uber and up the steps, waving to the pledge from your Comp 101 class, thankful that JJ had somehow weaseled out of his pledge duties for the night. Once you stepped inside you and your friends immediately scoped out your surroundings. There was a party going on in the main entrance and living room, but there was also lights and music coming from the basement, meaning JJ could literally be anywhere. Luckily, the ratio of guys to girls was positively halting so being able to single out a 6 foot man amongst a sea of girls shouldn’t be that hard.

And then, you saw him.

You almost fell over at the look of him. You could tell he had already started drinking and was a little sweaty by the sheen covering his face and the way his hair was standing up on its own, like it always did after he ran his hands through it. He was leaning against the wall, PBR in hand, assessing the crowd and laughing with the guy on his left. Your eyes travelled down from his hair and glowing skin to his neck and chest, both completely uncovered. He was in a navy button up that was incredibly tight around his biceps but only buttoned on the bottom two buttons. A gold badge was pinned over his right breast, and then it dawned on you.

“You’re a fucking cop!” You punched his arm as you snuck up on him.

Startled and rubbing his arm, he softened when he saw who had just assaulted him. “Never thought you’d see the day, huh?”

“What happened to ACAB? Looks like someone’s all talk…”

He scoffed and threw his arm around your shoulder, walking with you towards the bar, “It’s called irony sweetheart. I thought a genius like you would understand that?”

You rolled your eyes and shook his arm off you, laughing at his remark (and trying to not focus on the “sweetheart” of it all), “So, what branch of the police force is it that allows their officers to walk around half naked?” You teased as you walked up to the bar, asking the frat brother in nothing but a cowboy hat and too short cut off jean shorts for a cup of whatever the drink was tonight.

“Um the one with all the sexy stripper cops. They even gave me these,” You turn back around with your drink against your lips and you nearly spat it out when you saw what he was talking about. He had a pair of what looked like actual handcuffs dangling off his pointer finger, “Fully functional,” he finished with a wink.

You gulped and hoped he didn’t notice, “Very impressive, does the rest of the force know about the stash of weed in the loose floorboard in your dorm room?”

His face, and the handcuffs, fell. “You’re no fun, Y/N. It’s Halloween! You can be anything you want! And tonight, I’m the only cop that isn’t a bastard.”

You laughed at his mini outburst and put your hand on his cheek sweetly, still laughing. “You’re right I’m sorry. You make a very non-bastard cop. It suits you.”

“I always have looked good in blue.”

Lightly smacking him you rolled your eyes again and brought your hand back to your cup, looking at him as you took a big drink. He was looking directly back at you. You finished off the cup and tossed it at the overflowing trash can, “Let’s dance. I love this song.” This was a lie, you had never heard this song before in your life, but you just wanted an excuse to grab his hand and drag him on the dance floor.

Everyone around you was dancing ass to dick, going absolutely stupid in a true intoxicated fashion, but you weren’t nearly drunk enough for that yet. So, instead, you and JJ did what you always did was just jump and scream at each other, throwing in some limb flailing every now and then. If you were really lucky, he would throw in the sprinkler every now and then. This was all fine and dandy, a couple of songs deep, until you felt your elbow accidentally collide with something rock hard, immediately followed by something wet splashing all over your back.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry-” you said, spinning around, mortified. You were met with the biggest man you had ever seen in your life who did not look very happy to see you looking back at him. But, considering his eyes looked glazed over, you figured that had less to do with you and more to do with the fact that he was probably off something far out of your league.

“Fucking watch where you’re going next time,” He gruffed at you as he jerked the arm you had hit away.

You were stunned by how aggressive he was, “I’m- I’m sor-”

But before you could stutter out an apology, JJ was pushing you behind him, puffing his chest out as he faced the roided-out gentleman giving you a death glare. “What the fuck did you just say to her?”

“She spilled my drink,” The giant said as if you had just murdered his dog.

“Yeah and this is a frat house, go turn on the faucet in the sink and I’m sure Captain Morgan will come out,” spat JJ.

Sasquatch scoffed and shook his head at JJ, “Just keep a better handle on your bitch, pledge. I don’t need some slut wasting all of our alc.”

“You son of a bitch.” You saw JJ’s arm wind back, his fist clenched ready to swing.

“JJ, no!” You grabbed his arm before he could do something seriously idiotic and didn’t let go of it until you had made your way off the dance floor and into the backyard. “What the fuck were you thinking, trying to throw a punch at that guy?! He looked like he eats whole goats for breakfast!”

His hands were running through his hair and he was pacing. You could tell he was trying not to punch the siding of the house - you had seen him worked up like this countless times over your near lifelong friendship. Loyalty was both his greatest strength as well as his greatest curse. “He called you a bitch, Y/N! And a slut! In the same breath!”

Looking at him now, his hair all messed up, his shirt still unbuttoned, and face as emotional as ever, you had never been more attracted to him. You closed the gap between the two of you and grabbed his face between your hands, “Thank you for trying to protect me, but I’d much rather be a bitch and a slut if it meant you weren’t pulverized by Bigfoot.”

At the feeling of your touch, his whole demeanor changed. You saw him swallow and take a breath, “Yeah, uh, well. You know. I’ll always protect you, Y/N. That’s what I’m here for, ya know. I live to serve and protect you know,” chuckling half-heartedly as he tapped the badge on his chest.

You tried to laugh along with him, but you were too busy staring from his lips to his eyes and focusing on the dizzying feeling of being so close to him. He made no effort to move out of your personal space and having him here, his back against the siding of the house, your hands on his strong jaw, you felt like maybe now was the time to bring up what you had been feeling these last couple of months. But before you could open your mouth to spill your guts, something in him snapped and he sprung forward at you.

Suddenly, your hands were in his hair and his hands were on your waist and now you were the one with your back against the giant brick building, the bricks scratching deliciously against your exposed skin. You whined against his lips as he pressed against you, the sound apparently shocking him out of his trance because just as suddenly as it had started, he was pulling away, leaving you completely dazed, lips still half puckered as your eyes fluttered open.

He was back to pacing, not daring to look at you. “God that was fucking stupid, I’m so sorry Y/N. You were just yelled at by some heavyweight douchebag and all I could do was not throw a punch and then I just had to go and kiss you like a fucking jackass,” he paused his pacing and looked at you, his face all screwed up with guilt, “I’m so fucking sorry.”

For a moment you considered the situation and didn’t move a muscle or say a word but then you just laughed. An eruption of manic giggles fell from your lips as you watched him go from guilt to confusion. “You’re a real fucking idiot you know that,” you managed to spit out between laughs.

“I mean, yeah, jackass, idiot...they’re one in the same I guess,” he seemed hurt by your words so you stepped closer to him again.

“No, God, shut up. You’re not a jackass. But you are an idiot. I don’t care that you kissed me,” you paused, “That’s not true. I care a lot, actually, because I loved it and I wish you wouldn’t have stopped because I was really starting to get into it after the, like, 12 longest, most torturous years of build up ever.”

He couldn’t believe the words you were saying, “Wait...so you- you like me?”

“What, you think I come to the frat parties for the mystery booze and trap music?”

Now it was his turn to laugh, his face completely breaking open in elation, “And to think I just assumed you were a party girl...turns out I’m just irresistible.”

“Oh shut up,” you sighed as you slammed your mouth against his again, pulling him down to your height. Once again his hands found their firm grip on your hips, holding on for dear life.

And then he pulled away again.

“Stop fucking doing that. Kiss now talk later,” you tried to lean back in.

“No, uh, I just,” he cleared his throat, “I was just wondering if you wanted to take this inside maybe?”

You smiled up at him before kissing up his neck and whispering in his ear, “Whatever you want.”

He shivered and groaned, breaking away from you, grabbing your hand and leading you back inside. You weren’t sure where he was taking you because, since he was a freshman, he didn’t live at the frat house or anything so it’s not like he had a bedroom. Not that it mattered. He could take you to a damn broom closet for all you cared. But he didn’t take you to a closet or even a vacant bathroom. You maneuvered around the sweaty crowd of people until you were back at the front of the house but this time going up the staircase where all the upperclassmen lived.

“JJ what are we doing up here…” You asked with a slight edge of concern in your voice.

His face was full of mischief as he looked back at you, smirk plastered across his lips. “Don’t worry about it baby, I’m just trying to find us somewhere a little more comfortable.” And with a wink, he was turning the knob on a door that definitely didn’t belong to him.

As far as frat boys went, you imagined this was a relatively well kept room. There were still some pizza boxes stacked on top of the desk and clothes spilling out of the closet but, all in all, it didn’t look infested or anything.

“JJ, who’s room is this?” You asked as you saw him lock the door behind you.

“Bigfoot’s,” he said with that same smirk on his face, complete and total pride practically bursting his seams.

Your mouth dropped as you looked at him incredulously. JJ was always one for pranks and revenge, but this floored you.

“You’re gonna get yourself killed,” You said in awe as he made his way back over to you.

“Maybe, but damn. What a way to go.”

Then he was kissing you once more, but this time he had guided you back towards the bed and you were laying underneath him, his body hot and hard against yours, making it hard to breathe. His hands ventured from your hips to your hair and back down again, making sure to give your tits a squeeze on the way back down, pushing them back behind you to guide your ass up so he could get as close to you as possible. You were back to your gasping and whining as you felt the effect you had had on him through his pants, grinding against him in desperation.

“Fuck you’re so fucking sexy, Y/N,” he moaned against your neck, leaving the slightest of nips along your jaw between kisses. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this or how many times I’ve thought of you exactly like this.”

“You can have me anyway you want. I’m yours,” You weren’t really thinking about what you were saying before the words left your mouth, but it didn’t make them any less true.

He growled against your neck and grabbed you again, scooting you up towards the top of the mattress. His hands found yours wrapped around his neck and took them in his hands, pushing them above your head.

“Anyway I want, huh?” He was sitting on his heels, looking down at you with hooded eyes. All you could do was nod. “Well, I do have these handcuffs, and it’d be a shame for them to go to waste.” You moaned at the implication and watched him unhook them from his shorts and attached them to your wrists, wrapping them around a bar of the headboard. “Told you they were fully functional,” he ended with a wink.

All you could do was whimper as he bent back down to kiss your lips and then your neck, taking a pit stop at your chest to move the cups of your bra aside enough for him to give plenty of kisses there as well, until he was finally trailing his tongue down your stomach. He looked up at you as he reached the waistband of your skirt. You nodded, “Please,” not even being mentally present enough to care about how desperate you sounded.

“So polite,” he muttered as he pulled your skirt and panties down in one fluid motion, leaving you completely bare to him. “So damn beautiful.”

Then he was on you like a starved man. JJ had always been popular amongst the ladies on the island and while you always assumed his looks and bad boy nature had been enough to seal the deal, you now know why they kept coming back. He was a fucking machine. Between the way his fingers fucked you skillfully, knowing exactly where your g-spot was on the first try, and the masterful way he used his tongue on your clit, it was no wonder he had a body count in the double digits. You felt yourself catapult towards the finish line at an embarrassing speed. All you wanted as to grab onto his hair and grind yourself against his face. You were so close when he took his mouth off you and replaced it with his thumb, his fingers keeping their pace inside of you.

“That’s right baby, scream my fucking name. Maybe he’ll hear you from downstairs. He told me to control my bitch but I’m not quite sure this was what he meant.” He crawled back up your body, one hand bracing himself beside your face and the other inching you closer and closer with every second, “You look so fucking pretty, getting fucked by my fingers, Y/N. You’re so wet for me already and I know you want to cum. So just do it baby, cum for me.” You did not need to be told twice because suddenly your legs were clamped shut, and your body was arching so far off the bed that your wrists felt like they might break against the handcuffs. He kissed your neck as you came down, whispering sweet little praises in your ear. “That was so hot.” You smiled weakly as he looked at you from above.

“Please let me touch you,” You whined as you struggled against the handcuffs, desperate to get your hands on him.

“God, yes, be my guest,” He laughed as he went to undo your handcuffs, kissing your wrists as he pulled them away. “Sorry, I guess I didn’t think about how these might hurt.”

“It was worth it,” You smirked as you grabbed his face, pulling him down to kiss you and then immediately pushing him onto his back.

You mimicked his style from earlier, starting with the lips and moving down the neck before making your way slowly towards the waistband of his shorts. You unzipped his shorts as his hands went to your hair, making a makeshift ponytail. You both worked together to shimmy off his bottoms until you were face to face with him.

Immediately, you took him into your hand and marveled at the size of him and the way he instantly moaned and threw his hand back as you started to pump him. Needing more of those noises, you wasted no time in licking up his length and taking him into your mouth. He helped you set a pace by guiding your head with his hand in your hair, profanities falling out of his mouth. “You take my cock so good, baby. Your pretty fucking lips...driving me fucking crazy…”

He started shallowly pumping into your mouth before pulling out just when you felt like you were starting to get good. “You’re fucking amazing princess, but unless you don’t want me to fuck you we’re gonna have to try that again some other time.”

You moved your way back up his body, this time fully straddling him. “I’m an angel, not a princess.”

Smirking yet again, he grabbed your hips and grinded you against the length of him, “Sorry, but last time I checked angels don’t spend a lot of time taking dick in their mouths.”

“Well in that case I can just head out if you want me too-”

He flipped you over again before you could finish your teasing, “You’re not going anywhere.” And then his lips were back on you and his hands were everywhere all at once, guiding your legs to take their place at the side of his waist. Before long he was lining himself up at your entrance, teasing you against your clit, before he finally plunged into you hard and fast. You were still so worked out from his previous work that you didn’t need time to adjust, instead just able to focus on the feeling of him filling you completely. Before long you had your legs stretched over his shoulders, giving him even better access inside of you, making you scream his name over and over again as you felt yourself start to clench and flutter.

“Your pussy is so fucking amazing, Y/N. So wet and tight for me. God you take it so good,” His eyes were screwed shut as he was trying so hard to focus on making you finish before he lost it. “Such a good girl for me, sucking my dick and fucking me like that. Oh, fuck.”

He leaned back, holding your legs in front of him, and started pounding you even harder. You grabbed a hold of the sheets next to you and screamed so hard your voice cracked in your throat as you came for the second time. You barely noticed him finishing after you, too far gone in your own bliss. When your soul came back to your body he was falling onto the mattress beside you and wrapping you up in his arms, both of you still panting.

His hands found your hair as you rested your cheek against his chest, his heartbeat hard and loud in your ears. He lent down to kiss the crown of your head and he sighed against it. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah, holy shit is right,” You laughed as you rested your chin on his chest so you could look at him, “Well that was fun.”

“I don’t think fun really begins to describe it. I’d go with life changing.”

“Life changing? Wow, I’m honored. I think we should write Bigfoot a thank you letter for making this happen.”

JJ scoffed, “Pssh that guy? No thank you. No one gets to call my girl a slut and get a damn thank you note out of it. I don’t care how good the sex is after.”

You smile slightly and your voice softens, “Your girl?”

He looks down at you with a smile mirroring yours, his one little dimple making your stomach do backflips and his fingers tracing shapes on your back, “I mean yeah, I guess beating around the bush is a lost cause at this point. Is that ok with you?”

You laid your head back on his chest, reveling in the gentle way his fingertips were barely touching you, “That’s more than ok.”

Trying not to seem overeager he cleared his throat, “Cool.”

Laughing to yourself you responded, “Yeah. Cool.”

Unable to help himself he scooped you up in his arms tighter and pulled you even closer, his head resting in your neck trying to hide his smile. Your fingers danced along his scalp and you smiled to yourself. Yeah, you could get used to this.

#jj x reader #jj imagine #jj outer banks #jj fanfiction #jj smut #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank imagine #jj maybank smut #outer banks #obx #rafemaybank wrote this

177 notes · View notes

shyantheswiftfan · 3 years

Text

“evermore” song analysis part 3 (tracks 11-15)

Hello! I’ve decided to write some short analyses for the songs of “evermore”. The way I’m choosing to write these is by listing main themes of each song, giving a short paragraph about how I interpret the story and feeling of each song, then listing other Taylor songs that I think have similar themes. I might do a more in-depth lyrical analysis of some songs later on. Let me know what you think.

- Read Part 1 Here - - Read Part 2 Here -

So, let’s finish this! This is part 3 of 3. (This one is a little longer because I had a lot to say about some of the songs here.)

Track 11: cowboy like me

Main themes: unexpected love, games, soulmates

My thoughts: This is possibly the most cinematic song from the album; I can envision an entire movie from this one. This story of two people not searching for love who find each other and fall. I don’t interpret the lyrics literally for this song. I think the two lovers (being described as swindling bandits) are players or heartbreakers. People who never end up in serious relationships because they don’t like commitment, but instead they go around “stealing” good hearts because their own hearts are broken. The “rich folks” are people who are still full of love and feeling. The two lovers meet and start to fall; their pasts come up, threatening their love, but that doesn’t matter because they’ve both done things they aren’t proud of. (”the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up” … “that was all before I locked it down”) Our two lovers fall in love and end up together, leaving their old ways behind them.

Sister songs: Style, King of My Heart, Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

Track 12: long story short

Main themes: renewal, growth, moving forward

My thoughts: This is such an upbeat and happy song. Showing that Taylor has moved beyond her past and has found happiness right where she landed. The first verse and chorus are talking about where she was back around 2016, fallen from grace, knocked down by all the people trying to take her out. Her bad reputation in the public eye, falling for the wrong guy. Then we move to her reflecting on all the people who left her,(”I always felt I must look better in the rear view”) but moving on from that, dropping her guard, and finding someone to be with without everyone watching for a while. (”we live in peace, but if someone comes at us, this time, I'm ready”) The bridge shows that she’s done with the feuds and trying to win the battles; she just wants to be happy with her lover. In the third verse, she gives a nice sentiment to her past self, telling her not to focus on the ones trying to hurt you because what’s important is right there.

Sister songs: Call It What You Want, Daylight, the lakes

Track 13: marjorie

Main themes: remembrance, loss, life lessons

My thoughts: As someone who has lost both of my grandmothers, this song means a lot to me. Taylor remembering the lessons her grandmother taught her. Taylor always played the part of the “good girl” early in her career, but learned to take a stand for herself and what she believes in; these lessons probably helped her with that. In the chorus, she’s reflecting on how it can feel like her grandmother is still with her. She’s still there in her dreams, the memory of her never goes away. She’s alive in Taylor’s heart. Then later in the song, Taylor sings about the times they spent together swimming and driving, and how she wishes she had asked more questions or saved more little things.(”I should've asked you how to be, asked you to write it down for me. Should've kept every grocery store receipt”) When you lose someone, there’s always that regret when you realize everything from them will be gone now. This song is a beautiful tribute, and the subtlety of putting her grandmother’s vocals in the song is so touching.

Sister songs: Ronan, Soon You’ll Get Better, epiphany

Track 14: closure

Main themes: anger, betrayal, hurt

My thoughts: This song is a direct response to someone who wronged the narrator. Someone from their past (an ex-friend or lover) who clearly hurt them in a major and public way wrote them a letter asking to be friends again and move past what happened, but it seems that it’s only for the ex’s own selfish reasons.(”It wasn't right … Looks like you know that now” and ”I'm just a wrinkle in your new life, staying friends would iron it out so nice”) The narrator is telling this person that they hurt them too badly, and that they aren’t accepting their “closure” because they know it isn’t sincere. (”Don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled” and “it's fake and it's oh so unnecessary”) I’ve been in this situation before, and sometimes you have to say “no” to someone to protect yourself from being hurt again, because you know they will.

Similar songs: You’re Not Sorry, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, my tears ricochet

Track 15: evermore

Main themes: depression, healing, hope

My thoughts: This is a deeply honest song about the feeling of being in such a deep depressive state and it seeming like it will never end, but then coming out of it and finding hope again. It starts with the narrator thinking about how long they’ve been in this place and not knowing what caused it, but they’re trying to figure it all out. (”I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone, trying to find the one where I went wrong”) The first chorus describes the hopeless feeling, just staring out at nothing thinking that this is how you’ll always feel until death. The second verse the narrator is feeling detached and losing hope completely. They are trying to remember when they were happy, yet they can’t remember that feeling anymore. (”I rewind thе tape but all it does is pause on thе very moment all was lost”) The bridge brings us to the reflection stage, thinking of everything the narrator is missing out on and just begging for some hope, and then finding it in “you”, whoever that may be for them. (”the things that will be lost. Oh, can we just get a pause to be certain, we'll be tall again?” and “I dreamed of you. It was real enough to get me through”) Then, in the last moments of the song, they find the hope again to know that they will get through this. “This pain wouldn't be for evermore.”

Sister songs: Tied Together With a Smile, Innocent, Safe & Sound

Thanks for reading! If you haven’t read the first two parts, I would super love if you took the time to check them out as well. They are linked at the beginning of this post. <3

#taylor swift #evermore #cowboy like me #long story short #marjorie #closure #song analysis

8 notes · View notes

tabletopjourneys · 3 years

Text

Session 31 Notes

We continue our journey in the Anesh desert, fight a few worms, find Perfection, and make plans to beat up the matricidal babies in town.

Alt Title: Tremors 8 - The D&D AU

@gher-bear @aradow @telurin @epimetala

On this day we continue our journey across the Anesh desert, have a nice spot of lunch just outside the valley, and then in one fell swoop, discover exactly what Perfection’s problem is along with what those mole hills all over the desert were about. Somehow our camels all survive!

We kill a few giant worms, then sneak off from the remainder to check in on the town asap. There we find the town infested by an equally unrecognizable creature with only 3 remaining townsfolk all up on their roofs.

We get on a roof as well, use message to communicate with the others and hatch a plan.

In our pause we discover these new creatures are parthenogenic, two of them hawking up whole new babies ready to fight. Lovely.

(Read More)

Over the journey across the desert, we note that Rana and Diem have practically swapped roles with Rana energetic and smiley while Diem in their Tarma guise remains quiet and stoic.

Rana tells Edea all about the meteor and the detour she has planned that the rest of us don’t know about.

First morning there are more birds in distance but hard to see in the sun. It’s a quiet morning with meat stick breakfast on the go, good and early to make the most of the last hours of good travel time.

Eventually we see mesas and get close enough to also see that it’s the lip of a large basin.

The little valley below is more green than rest

Edea’s in good mood so she tells us about the surrounding area with Pebbles interjecting.

Mostly the whole area is made up of sandstone and limestone

Natural springs dotting the landscape ahead, no visible people, though Phi spots some buildings and glimmer of water.

Rana notices the road area has been widened for more traffic very recently

Tarma-Diem is too interested in storytime to do much talking (though they aren’t nearly as expressive under the Tarma guise)

We get just over the lip to the main area of the road close enough to the cliffs for shade and stop for real food (lunch).

Tarma-Diem summons the hut for this, much to Edea’s amusement (though she also partakes of the comfort). One of us (Rana? Phi? Lingers outside the hut for a bit because looking through transparent walls at the view just isn’t the same as seeing it unfiltered.

Then...breadsticks!

17 con check, I manage an hour of scribing alarm.

(”Big like hell underground monsters and they’re coming after you guys, they’re comin right now!”)

Up on camels again, we get in the valley and Phi notices a whispered thing as Tarma-Diem’s method acting fails to make them even reasonably perceptive.

Phi calls out and points at poofs of dust moving toward us but it goes away before anyone else sees it.

Phi: You guys didn’t see it?

Phi describes it as foof foof dust lol

Rana gets off the camel to perceive while feeling more connected through direct contact with the ground, but it doesn’t help. She definitely senses nothing in time to avoid getting grappled by two snake like things popping up out of the ground.

Another pair pop out near me and try to hook my camel, but Jadrie dances out of the way.

Edea stoneskins Pebbles

I stay on my camel.

Edea: Everyone stay off the ground!

I cast fly on my camel in response, it hovers about a foot off the ground and I’m able to steer it forward a little toward the rocks and away from the snakes, but not up.

Rana nature checks: These are not purple worms

Rana tries to polymorph one of the snakes into a mouse. It turns into a clinging mouse on her leg.

Rana: I have one, don’t touch it!

She tries to grab it by the tail. She nat 20 animal handles that shit to set the mouse on the ground and climb back on the camel. “One’s a mouse!”

Phi shoots at the furthest snake in front of her - one of the two that tried to snag Jadrie (since Rana said not to touch the one that’s a mouse now lol).

She does 7 dmg.

The one she shot and its nearby buddy both slink back into the ground, leaving loose earth where they were.

Phi runs the camel (east) in the opposite direction from Diem, and up another bit of rocky area but only gets animal handling of 4.

Phi’s camel gets a nat 20 on dex save when 3 pop up at her camel and it freaks out, then belatedly realizes why she was trying to make it a rock climber. Said camel manages to get up on the rock after all. One of the 3 has an arrow sticking out of it still, grasping blindly at the rocks trying to get her.

Pebbles moves himself and Edea up onto the rocks.

Ixayl’anu drives the elk toward the ones after Phi to try and take a stab at one of the worms that are still trying to get to Phi. She misses. 2nd swing hits for crit dmg 20. They all go underground.

Graboid mouse tries to bite the camel for 1 pt of damage.

Camel flings mouse away but it’s light and doesn’t take any damage, is thrown about 10-15 ft away, squeaking angrily.

Edea: “Get to the rocks!”

Edea then casts silence on Rana’s area, just enough for Rana to get on a rock - Rana suddenly goes deaf, Edea motions her forward.

Rana rolls low on animal handling check, Rana slaps its side with spider climb and tries again.

Phi holds her action for next one’s appearance. Ixayl’anu also holds her action to the same end.

Mouse runs after last spot of sound, but freaks out just inside the silence circle and stops moving.

Whole huge graboid head comes out of the ground at Ixayl’anu.

15 to hit from Phi, it skitters off the hard armor plating of its head.

Ixayl’anu misses. Her 2nd attack succeeds - 6dmg

Creature attacks back - 16 dmg on Ixayl’anu directly, she rolls a nat 20 on her dex save. It let her go because she stabbed it. However, it does not completely retreat, withdraws only a tiny bit back.

Edea casts 5th level blight on the graboid next to Ixayl’anu. 48 pts necro dmg

It shudders and rests a little on the ground, too hurt to go under.

11 pts of eldritch blast from Tarma-Diem finishes it off, electrocuting it with prismatic lightning eldritch blast making it stiffen up and scream, shuddering and exploding all over Ixie.

Tarma-Diem to self: Dammit, I’m gonna be the one cleaning that up later…

Rana watches the mouse trying to figure out what to do. She can’t shout anything to anyone, so Rana has her fist raised to get attention while watching her mouse.

Phi is confused why Rana is looking away from the giant worm with her hand raised, but she also sees two more puffs in the distance, and Rana still has the mouse. Phi: Good job Diem! Two more over there (plus words I missed).

Tarma-Diem, nodding toward Edea: Pretty sure that was mostly Edea, but you’re welcome!

Pebbles passes his action.

Ixayl’anu charges up on her mount, Rana waving a frantic no, Ixayl’anu casts nature’s wrath, restraining the mouse in little tiny vines, Ixayl’anu sees it’s mouth opening up but doesn’t hear any of the angry squeaks. No one hear’s the mouse’s deadly anger. It is so hungry. But no one hears. No one cares. Edea has put up a censor blocking out all of its foul language.

Dex sav throw for Ixayl’anu’s elk as 3 new little guys pop up around her - 15: The elk is grappled by one, wrapped around its leg.

More vibrations are part of what Rana was trying to no no no about, to no avail.

Edea drops the silence and attempts to cast polymorph on the one on Ixayl’anu. It turns into a rat, still clinging to the elk’s leg.

I hold a toll the dead for any new emergence that has not been polymorphed: “What do we do now?!”

Edea: I think we found their problem.

Rana: What do we wanna do about the polymorphs?

Tarma-Diem: Well, Phi said there’s more out there.

Phi: Yeah, there’s more out that way (points vaguely at two spots south and east)

Rana holds erupting earth in that case.

Phi holds an arrow and then uses rat speak to say to snake ~hellooooo friend~ all menacing like.

The rat whips its head around to her and just screams at her.

Phi screams back at it.

Rana tries and fails to perceive a dirt cloud

Pebbles passes

Ixayl’anu tries to stab the rat twice since it’s still clinging to her - 8dmg, *whole worm pops up above ground*

All held actions come into play.

Tarma-Diem: Holy shit that’s huge! *toll the dead for 12 dmg*

Rana casts erupting earth at it and does 8 dmg. Area in the 20 ft square becomes difficult terrain until cleared.

Phi shoots it, but it skitters off the head armor.

Ixayl’anu misses her 2nd swipe, the moving earth fucked it up. Ixayl’anu moves up on top a rock with her elk and bonus action casts shield of faith.

The graboid submerges in the freshly turned earth.

Mouse graboid bites at the vines and gets free. It huffs and looks at Ixayl’anu with all the fury of a no-longer-blind rage.

Edea: If ya’ll get over here, I can hit us with pass without a trace so we can get out of here.

Rana: If you can get Diem, I’ll get Ixie and Phi - Phi get closer to Ixie!

Phi: I don’t think my camel can get there.

Rana casts pass without a trace on herself, which pops the mouse at full health above ground (concentration switched).

The submerged one notices her movements, but her camel rolls really well, notices the snake tongue and lifts it hoof up very slow, very gently sets foot back down because Rana and camel’s goals are one now lol. Basically, that gif up at the top happens with camel toes instead of cowboy boots (yes I chose that wording on purpose. You’re welcome)

Rana slaps guidance on her camel with a pat, +4 to next dex roll as she gets in range to stealth up Ixayl’anu and Phi.

Ixayl’anu gets a 17 stealth to move closer to Rana.

Phi gets a whopping 35 stealth. Where did she go? We don’t know!

I got a 14 on my stealth, when my camel touches down it makes enough noise they both worms focus my direction. Tarma-Diem casts toll the dead on the one above ground and does 12 dmg, it dives away from them.

Rana’s head whips around, Tarma-Diem makes a shushing motion (like: I did it, but over there, away from us, keep going). Otherwise Tarma-Diem is actually taking all their cues from Edea and heading south with their camel.

("I don’t care what they’re doin, long as they’re doin it waaaay over there.”)

Edea quietly gestures us farther down the road, and falls back to be last in line. Rana takes point.

We move ahead quietly, keeping an eye out but nobody sees anything, despite Phi’s 26.

New stealth I do the worst at 14 (again). We later decide this was because I was too busy cleaning up smelly monster guck from Ixayl’anu.

We’re all distracted for the walk, except Phi, who notices disappearing cows in the distance and sends it message stone to us.

Rana is ever practical (this is literally ALL I wrote here lol - I think it’s referring to her not at all minding that they’re busy eating the cows instead of us?).

Tarma-Diem cantrip-messages back: I guess that’s why they’re leaving us alone.

Edea motions us to move a little faster as a result, seeing Phi’s motions.

Last stealth check my gentle whispers helped Jadrie get a 27 on her stealth this time around. Rana practically disappeared (nat 20). Phi got 32, Ixaylanu got 24.

Perception rolls coming into town, Rana and Tarma-Diem are too focused on sealthiness (AKA we’re too focused on looking at the ground)

Ixayl’anu notices this town is VERY quiet. (The townsfolk are wabbits?)

Phi: Woah, looks like some shit went down here…

Rana and I look around at those words and see the wreck of Perfection, blood spatters on walls, doors shoved in, buildings caving in, walkways shattered and more.

Human on roof, tries to quietly make hand gestures like what are you doing, get on a roof, off the ground (Later introduced as Lee Beck, a research student).

Edea casts wall of stone for all our mounts to theoretically keep them all safe, letting us know she’ll have to drop pass without a trace after we all get our mounts on the stone corral. 10ft high walls on either side so the mounts can get out. She concentrates for 10 minutes until it’s permanent.

Rana hung hamlet pouch off camels, phi copied that and told them to stay.

We follow rana into nearest building with door ajar and she sees a creature rummaging. Little flaps raise off the top of said creature’s head and it screams

Rana had her arms out to stop us from passing and slams the door shut.

3 thuds hit the door with echoed screams. Rana tries to hold it shut.

Phi tries to parkour up the building across the way. 22 to get up. She looks around a little from her new vantage point and sees 5 more behind her in the courtyard, other side of the building she parkoured up.

Phi lets us know and says that’s probably what that lady was motioning about, getting off the ground.

Meanwhile, one of the others on the other side of the door from Rana manages to break thru like heeeeeere’s Johnny from the shining, but can’t really open it’s mouth.

Edea reaches out and confuses it - it fails and is sitting there dazed and blocking the others.

(”Everybody...get up on your roofs!”)

Ixayl’anu misty steps herself and rana to the roof with Phi.

I cross to that same building and pull out my rope, make it tie off on the roof. Edea and I climb up and I slip it back into my pack as we duck down low.

2 of the original 3 scream again as they all bust through.

Their flaps raise and they scream one more time, spotting us. We got a 28 stealth from the second group on the other side of the building though, so they see nothing and don’t seem to be responding to the screams.

Rana gestures toward Tarma-Diem then the villager who was playing charades earlier.

Tarma-Diem nods and pauses to sort out exactly what to say first about all this.

Tarma-Diem to Charade Lady: Well...what the fuck do we do now? You can respond to this message.

Charade Lady: We don’t know they just showed up they don’t hear but big ones do, so try not to make too much noise.

I relay these messages

Rana: Why are we whispering?

Tarma-Diem: Because she also said the big ones might come back.

Through some back and forth messaging we establish that her name is Lee Beck (I don’t care where, we just do, okay?) and that we are indeed with the druid who’d been sent this way to answer a call for help. That we’ll take care of it and just need caught up to speed on everything that’s happened.

Lee Beck, together with the half orc female and male human on two other roofs (Val and Earl, respectively) drove big ones away with some explosives, staying behind to do so while the rest of the town got to safely up in the mountains, but now they’re out of explosions and these new screaming guys just showed up.

I ask how long ago and how many. The rest of these exchanges are relayed piece meal to the group, but I didn’t record most of our chatter.

Lee: New ones are very recent, used to be only be four and we’ve counted and killed at least twice that many now.

Tarma-Diem: Where do they come from?

Lee: *exasperated* We don’t know they obvs look the same in the face but they’re different.

*We talk amongst ourselves about that, Phi suggests maybe each piece becomes a new one, maybe?*

Tarma-Diem to Lee: You’re sure when you killed them it wasn’t some sort of hydra situation?

Lee: Yeah we’re sure, the one’s we’ve killed have stayed dead.

We talk amongst ourselves again about just going for it vs. coming up with a plan, trying to figure out how many we’re up against, etc.

After much of this back and forth, Tarma-Diem to Lee: We’re gonna start a fight then over here, so if we shouldn’t...you should respond to this message.

Lee: Be careful to keep it quiet, the big ones are still around and they get smarter - learn from their mistakes, plus they’ll just wait us out, go off and eat cattle, come back.

We do a little bit more planning in response to this. We talk about whether or not we should try and lure them out of the town to avoid as much damage as possible to the remaining structures. How we’d even get out there though, whether or not we’d even make it very far or be able to draw out all of them without having to worry about attracting more of the big ones back into town.

Eventually I message Lee again asking about any better places to start the attack, stronger structures, whether or not, in her experience, she thinks luring them away from town would work.

She informs me she is just a researcher and the two guys behind her are just local handymen, but the person who lived there got swallowed whole and there’s not even a floor under our building any more. Overall though, without any more explosives, the three of them wouldn’t be of much help even if we all did gather on the same roof.

About this time, as Edea has been studying the group not occasionally shrieking at us, she gets our attention to tell us they’re parthenogenic. Two of the ones behind us had each hawked up a new baby, now smaller, but apparently just as capable as they forage around.

Tarma-Diem messages this back to Lee, just to keep her up to speed, just in case.

Lee: Lovely *she just sits down, completely done with this day*

Thursday the 28th for next session 6pm est

#Edea #Lee Beck #Val McKee #Earl Bassett #Anesh #Perfection #Tremors D&D #Pebbles #Hey Rana? What'd'you think it's tryin to do now?#One of my favourite movies #Happened on my birthday #By pure coincidence #So excite and happy #If you hadn't figured it out I used relevant movie quotes instead of more useful subheadings for each section of the night #You're welcome #Tarma

4 notes · View notes

messwriting · 3 years

Note

Do you write fanfics to release stress or just for fun or both? I’m always curious what gets people into it, and I love your writing, so I’m wondering what inspired you to start and what continues to inspire you now

hmmmmm, nonnie that’s an interesting question but it doesn’t really have like a single answer for me. This is... HUGE. I’M SAPPY AND TBF IDK IF THIS IS EVEN WHAT U WANTED TO KNOW I JUST GOT TAKEN AWAY. Sorry. Hope you don’t mind! <3

cw: anxiety mention. writing, finding friends. yeah. lee is super sappy under the cut.

I do it for fun and it’s also a mean for me to release stress... but! It’s also an escapism tendency from my anxiety. Which is why I get bigger ideas, and “creative” and “productive” when I’m the busiest with my work and study, which is BAD but well, what can I do?

About getting into it, I don’t know if it’s a good explanation but I have this urge?? To insert either myself, my view, or an OC into a certain fictional word that fascinated me. Sometimes even in fanfics itself.

I start to daydream about it. To talk to myself in scenes I start to see inside my brain. I keep key-dialogue and sometimes a /specific scene/ in mind until I blow up and either write or record me describing it so I can finally move on or focus on my assignments.

Writing is amazing. It both leaves me stressed and relaxed and calm and pissed. But I think this happens in everything that requires you to /create/. It allows me to pour out this criativity that - to be honest - I’d never thought I actually had when growing up. I wasn’t a very crafty person and I suck at art, but writing was the thing I always loved. Even considered I was good at.

I like to tell stories, I used to write alternative myths to my school writing assignments and I even wrote original fic once, but in the long haul I was ostensively discouraged (my mom even accused me of plagiarising an assignment once :/) and growing up I felt like my writing should be something I should hide. Reason why I was always in and off with writing and with fandom. I used to fall into the same hyperfixation bouts I had with music: found a fandom, love it, write it, grow out of it without making myself very known outside of being an avid reader. The lack of feedback helps in making the hyperfixation die, reason why I abandoned a lot of longer fics I’d have when growing up in fandoms like Twilight, HP, MCU...

If I’m still here up to now it’s particularly from the kind, loving return and support I’ve been having from my friends and you guys. Just to have found the people I’ve had in the last year already make me feel like I’m someone else in my relationship with writing tbf. I feel like I’m interacting with fandom for the first time and it’s an amazing experience that only came to me now that I’m 25 years old. Look at that.

At this point I have no idea if I’m still answering your ask or just being super sappy on main JOIJDAODJIAODJ I’d just like to say: what really made me keep writing was finding friends; people who encouraged me and that make you see worth in the things that you do with love. I found Smut Pile and they’re just about the most amazing community I could ever hope to find. They inspire me to be good for them, and idk I think sometimes writing can also just be this social, loving thing you do with your friends because you all love it and it makes you closer.

So... yeah. I’m writing because I love the show? yes. But I’m also writing because of the people I’m close to in the fandom. Because we see something and that makes us become stupid and gush around and before you know it I’m doing a multiverse of about 20k because we craved to see seijoh four as cowboy strippers for this collab in our little server-home. Or writing demon-kuroo because my secret Santa said she liked monsterfucking and edging and kuroo and dr. shirabu because the wheel thingy said I was to write doctor/patient.

Sometimes writing can be just about... participating. And I think that’s awesome. For younger lee this would be /unthinkable/ and for present lee some days it’s the only reason I’m writing at all.

#i made myself cry with this one #wow i didnt knew this would make me unpack so many stuff #jsodjaodjsaoj im...sorry nonnie i hope you find your answer here somehow???#wow this was.........long #lee answers #nonnies with the great questions #fave asks!!!!!

3 notes · View notes

mimzy-writing-online · 4 years

Note

I hope this question isn't too stupid, but you're one of my favorite writing blogs so I'll give it a shot. I want to write a FanFic based on the 1971 version of Willy Wonka. I wanted the story to tell Violet Beauregarde's story, the one that turns into a blueberry. However, I have SOME questions as I'm fairly new to FanFic. 1). Am I better off focusing on each kid's perspective, going back and forth? Or is it good to narrow my focus one one character? 2). Can I give them a character arch, li

(2/3) like Violet's really mean in school but she becomes kind after her experience at the factory. Is that too cliche or predictable? 3). Why does she try waddling away after her blueberry transformation and the Oompa Loompas are singing/dancing around her? They're trying to help her, and I don't really get why she'd do something like that. 4). What are tips to better understand the characters I want to flesh out? I guess it circles back to the last question, understanding their psyche. Yikes

(3/3) Yikes! Super sorry this ask is long. And I'm even more sorry if my questions were lame or you've covered them before. :P. I can overthink at times, ESPECIALLY when it comes to my writing. I'm such a perfectionist storyteller, it's not even funny. I hope my questions aren't bothering you. You're one of my favorite writing blogs, so I figured I could come to you. I apologize in advance for wasting your time. You DO NOT have to reply at all if you don't want to. :P Thanks, have a great week

First and foremost: this is not a stupid question, you are not wasting my time at all. This is actually a rare treat for my blog because I don’t get many asks that don’t involve blindness, though I usually know better how to answer those than I do other questions. So, here we go:

Are you better off focusing on each kid’s perspective, going back and forth? Or is it better to narrow your focus onto one character?

The general rule of writing is to simplify. If two background characters serve a similar purpose, just combine the characters, for example. Slimming down extra scenes that don’t contribute to plot or character development.

However, that advice is meant for people publishing novels, working within an overflowing industry, dependant on sales and royalties. They have to meet whatever industry standards are, like word count or POV types. They have to find someone willing to take them on as a client because they love that book.

Fanfiction is not bound by such nonsense. Fanfiction is a beautifully lawless land where capitalism cannot influence it. What defines what you do with fanfiction is if you enjoy reading it, and if you have the steam to continue a long project.

Some people easily write 200,000k fics within a matter of weeks or months (or in my case, just once, two years). Some people work best with short fics. Both (and everything in between) are wonderful.

So, how much steam do you have for this project? How long do you think you can carry it and still finish it? Because that defines how big you should plan to make this project. If you don’t think you can write a long fic, then maybe just stick to one character.

A compromise between the two is to focus primarily on one character, and examine the other characters more briefly. This could be done in just a single POV chapter, or a handful. This could be done with the characters connecting and seeing the side character through your main character’s eyes, seeing how they’ve changed.

There’s no wrong answer. This fic is for your enjoyment primarily. No matter what you write, it will appeal to at least a few people, if not crowds. But your fun comes first, both literally and figuratively. Write for you, write to explore the story for yourself.

Can you give them a character arc like Violet’s where she becomes kinder after her experiences in the factory? Is that too cliche or predictable?

I wouldn’t call it predictable, because I’d expect everyone to go into completely different directions because they were all such unique and individual people before they entered the factory, and they were foiled by their own quirks.

Violet was mean and fake, she was demanding. I don’t know how much I want to speculate on the plotline you have going for her, how you’ll develop her to make her want to be more kind.

But I would love to speculate on the others.

Agustus Gloop?

I feel like his experience in the chocolate river and almost drowning would make it hard to enjoy chocolate ever again. I think it would be a long time before he had any sweets. Also, because of his weight, I imagine there’s got to be some body-image issues hiding under the surface. I’d also put money on him being bullied, and him acting out against the students who bully him and because of his size he is more intimidating, but that doesn’t stop people from saying things behind his back.

I imagine the chocolate thing is a form of self-comfort. Maybe he turns to other foods to over-eat with to cope. Maybe eventually he figures out that this isn’t helping him. Does he try to replace unhealthy foods with healthier ones? (idk, I have a personal turn off on getting into the concept of dieting, so I’m not going to dig in much there).

I’d like to see him learn to love himself, develop some body neutrality, that his body doesn’t define who he is or what his worth is. That he becomes okay with who he is as he grows up. People who are happy and comfortable with themselves are generally nicer and easier going than people who aren’t. Maybe with some self-love, he’ll be kinder to others.

Veruca Salt?

Okay, I have a confession. My brain thought of her when discussing Violet. I haven’t seen either of the films in years.

Well, let’s thank Wikipedia everyone, the greatest gift of the internet.

Veruca does come across as a spoiled brat. Her parents shower her in material objects, which might mean something. I have a close friend who hates people buying things for him or giving him gifts that cost money. This has to do with a parent buying him things out of guilt after episodes of emotional abuse. I asked him a while back what he wanted for his birthday (I meant baked goods, I bake or cook special meals as birthday gifts for my friends. A has asked for chocolate chip cookies for three birthdays in a row now. Several friends ask for cookies for Christmas). Anyway, my friend had a panic attack and couldn’t respond until an hour later.

Maybe there’s something to that.

What does she think about money as she grows up? Does her love language continue to be gifts? I think it might one day be quality time. Maybe it is now. It’s common for rich parents to be absent and barely spend time with their kids because of work and extravagant social lives that sort of money gives them access to, meaning they barely have time in the day to spend with their kids. Maybe gifts are the only way she can make sure her parents still care, the only way she can get their attention?

Mike Teavee?

Apparently in the movie credits his last name is spelled Teevee. But I’m obsessed with tea (and this is the point where I remember my tea and wonder if I’ve let it go cold because I got too focused. Nope, it’s still there). So it’s Teavee here.

Wikipedia describes him as a young boy who only watches TV, nothing but TV. He’s especially interested in cowboys and Western films. He comes across as a know-it-all. He’s easily annoyed but gets along with others.

Anyone have a guess at where I’m going with this?

Mike is neurodivergent. I mean, that’s my new headcanon. I lean towards ADHD because that’s what I project, but like everything else, his interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. Every viewer sees something different in him.

Some common ADHD (and autism) experiences beyond having a specific interest is how others react to your special interest. You get used to people getting bored when you talk about your interest for the thousandth time, but it’s still important to you, but not to someone whose opinion matters to you. RSD is probably common.

Wikipedia says he’s described as lazy in the books? Common ADHD “symptom,” or rather something that outside viewers label as laziness. Really, he just doesn’t have the motivation to do any of those other things.

And Charlie?

Did anyone think I wouldn’t have any thoughts on Charlie, our hero and protagonist?

Oh no, I have thoughts. Charlie goes to great lengths to set his family up comfortably, he becomes generous with his money. He also knows nothing about running a factory. I’m hoping Willy Wonka gives him some help there. But I bet adult Charlie is a stressed-out workaholic who tries to do everything and thinks he has something to prove, that he’s not just some random lucky child, that he can do this. Charlie totally gets a work-related anxiety disorder.

Those are my thoughts. I still think giving them Violet’s arc isn’t cliche or predictable, but rather completely different from what you think would happen to all those kids.

I mean, maybe a few of them are still little jerks in their adult lives. There’s no one road to grow up on, even if you’re four strangers who shared a similar traumatic experience.

Why does she try waddling away after her blueberry transformation and the Oompa Loompas are singing/dancing around her? They're trying to help her, and I don't really get why she'd do something like that.

They strange looking short men she’s literally never talked to, never seen or heard of before today, who’s already taken away two children by this point, all while singing a song about what terrible children they were.

And she’s scared because her body is doing something strange and scary and awful. She’s scared. She doesn’t know what to do. What will happen if these strange men take her away? She doesn’t know what happened to the other kids.

And they’re not really communicating they want to help, just singing cheerfully about how awful children are.

What are tips to better understand the characters I want to flesh out? I guess it circles back to the last question, understanding their psyche.

A lot of it is just watching real-life people and wondering why they are the way they are. Listening to their reasoning and what they tell you about who they are and where they come from.

I know people who grew up like Agustus with using over-eating as a way to self-comfort, and the bullying they experienced. I know that if a kid was physically bigger than his bullies, maybe he’d fight them to make them stop and leave him alone. People who go through that journey of learning that their body doesn’t define who they are, accepting it because it is theirs and it takes care of them.

(Which reminds me of a post I like that pops around here and there, that positive body image should be about more than how “sexy” your curves make you look. A person shouldn’t have to be sexy to be treated like a person. A person shouldn’t have to be sexy at all if they don’t want to, especially not all the time, and especially not a child. And there are a lot of obese children in the world who don’t have any positive body image messages designed for them)

I learned what my friend’s love languages are and why they have them and what they mean. Which is why I have that theory for Veruca.

Mike is just self-projection and listening to other neurodivergent people when they describe their life experiences or listening to their theories when they say a character is neurodivergent too.

I won’t lie, my theory on Charlie is based entirely on the Avatar: the Last Airbender fandom’s common head-canon that Zuko becomes a workaholic after he becomes Firelord. There might be some canon material in the comics that supports that, but I’ve never seen it. I think Zuko and Charlie have a similar vibe and that those three years Zuko struggled, and Charlie’s entire life before the factory make them both feel like they need to be perfect and do everything right to prove they deserve the job they’re given and that their backgrounds don’t define their worth.

Thank you so much for your ask anon!

And again, you are not a bother. I enjoyed digging into this movie I’d never thought in depth about until tonight. And you’re not alone, lots of writers are overthinkers and perfectionists. You are in good company. Our writing and fanfiction community welcomes and loves you <3

And thank you for your kind words! I’m so happy that you love my blog so much <3 It made my day to read that

Take care anon, and good luck in your writing :)

#writing advice #fanfiction #writeblr #anon #charlie and the chocolate factory #Anonymous

8 notes · View notes

prettywordsyouleft · 3 years

Text

The Cowboy - Part 3

Pairing: Jung Jaehyun x female reader

Genre: cowboy au / drama / romance / if you squint there’s some enemies to lovers up in here.

Warnings: Jung Jaehyun is a cowboy, need I say more? (a bit of angst and drama, and it sometimes might feel like you’re reading a Nicolas Sparks book, so I’m told lol)

Word count: 2054

This series will be updated every Thursday and Friday.

Preview | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

“What are you handing me those for?” you asked when the man you had arranged to meet with at eleven shook your hand in greeting and then placed a pair of gumboots up on the hood of your car. You eyed the footwear and then looked back at Avery McConnell with interest.

Avery chuckled. “I know how expensive those boots are.”

“It’s not muddy, though. I’ve come at the end of spring.”

“You’re in for an awakening, Y/N. Trust me, put them on.”

You took Avery’s advice and followed him over to his truck. Climbing inside, you then glanced at your guide. “Thank you for meeting with me today.”

“Hey, it’s my pleasure. Always nice to see a new face once every three or so years,” he teased, and you laughed with him.

“So I’m learning. Not many venture out here.”

“It would be nice if people did.”

“Right?!” you enthused instantly, gesturing to the mountain ranges in the distance. “This place has so much untapped potential.”

“You won’t get to un-tap it, Y/N,” Avery told you upfront as he swung the vehicle out onto the main road. “But I wish there was a happy medium. If we could create more jobs and better housing, it would improve our farming. It’s hard to get help to come out here when services like Amazon don’t.”

“Wait, they don’t?!” you groaned heavily at the concept of not being able to order coffee pods in bulk.

“You’ll have to set up a PO Box in the township over. And if you need to have any internet meetings, it’ll be best to do them there too. The internet reaches out here, but the signal drops so frequently that no one bothers.”

“Why hasn’t anyone asked for services to be improved?” you asked and Avery smiled at you knowingly. “What? You can request cables to be laid, and I’m sure if you pay half the cost-”

“There’s not a huge focus on the internet out here when the sun rises in the morning for outdoor productivity. Most of us just have mobile phones to ring one another when we’re out on our property. And even then, the signal can be dodgy.”

“But there could be improvements,” you insisted, and Avery nodded.

“You’re persistent.”

“Well, it’s not the primitive age. I appreciate there’s a historical factor and a tight-knit community here, but this land is capital, and you could all win from some modern intervention.”

“I’m not your enemy,” Avery admitted, parking the car up on the side of a country lane. “I went to the city to escape how plain Blayne is.”

“You did?”

Avery nodded.

“Then how come you’re back?”

“It’s my home. It’s strange. Not a lot of people get why we live like this, but to us, it makes the most sense. Plus my old man got sick and needed me to help take care of the steer.”

“Okay, I’m going to sound really ignorant for a moment, but is a steer some kind of deer?”

“You came out here without knowing your basic farm animals, Y/N?” he asked with a laugh, and you rolled your eyes. “Come on I’ll show you why we need gumboots around here.”

Holding your nose, you attempted to listen to Avery’s speech about how the pigs of Blayne were some of the best meat pigs in the country. However, you were overstimulated by the smells and the sounds of the barn that you couldn’t quite keep up with the knowledge he was passing on to you.

“Ah, so this is where you were,” a voice mentioned, and you spun around, letting go of your nose and gasped for air. The newcomer smirked, his dimples deepening.

God, you wanted to hate him for being so attractive.

“You know me. I’ve got to help any damsel in distress out.”

“Where is she?” he teased, and you rolled your eyes. “Oh! Miss City, are you getting snippy with me?”

“Thank you for the warning about the owl.”

He grinned. “You’re welcome. So, seen enough pigs and want to go back to the city yet?”

“Not a chance.”

“That’s a pity, should we take her out into the cattle fields, Avery?”

“No need to be that eager to get rid of me,” you bit back and Avery, who had been watching the two of you, started to laugh heartily. You realised then how similar it sounded to May’s laugh. You pointed at him. “Wait, are you two-”

“Sadly, I’m related to him,” Avery admitted dramatically, and you glanced at the scowl on the other man’s face. “Come on Jaehyun, who wants to be your cousin anyway?”

“I never asked to be related to you either but here we are!”

“Jaehyun,” you breathed, and the man in question blinked at you curiously. “Oh, I didn’t get your name last night, you see.”

“I thought you had,” he answered back, grinning again. “Mr Cowboy, isn’t it?”

“Well, you do look like the typical cowboy in the movies when you go around in your boots and hat,” Avery defended, which you couldn’t help but snort a little at.

Jaehyun folded his arms across his chest. “Cattle fields, next. Right?”

You followed them out onto the field, watching where you stepped. Now you knew the reason for the boots. If there hadn’t been enough dung and muck in the pig barn, you certainly had seen more than enough of it out in this field. Climbing up the hill after the two men, you huffed at how easy it was for them.

“I guess there’s no need for a gym membership out here,” you muttered, sucking in a deep breath.

Jaehyun turned and looked at you then. “Come on, Miss City. The cows are over here.”

“I never wanted to see a damn cow, I came to survey the land for suitable resort spots,” you grumbled out of earshot, grateful when the slope evened out, and you reached the top of the field.

Stopping to catch your breath, you blinked at the view. In every direction you looked, the mountain range was so beautiful. All you could see was an expanse of land, which held a lot of possibilities. A golf course, a swimming and spa resort were merely two of the possibilities for Blayne’s development. Being close to nature whilst enjoying leisure pursuits could really put this place on the map.

You turned again, smiling at the wondrous thought of redevelopment until you saw what had come upon you. Backing up from the impossibly large beast, you raised your hands in defence.

“Nice cow.”

“She sure is a beaut, isn’t she?” a voice mentioned at your side, and you yelped in surprise, slipping on a cow patty.

Strong arms reached out to balance you before you hit the ground and you looked up into the face of your saviour, Jaehyun washing his gaze over you momentarily.

And then he started to laugh. “Wow, Miss City, you sure are jumpy! Feeling a little scared, are we?”

“You scared me first!”

“Was it me or the cow?” he questioned with a chuckle, and you yanked yourself free from Jaehyun’s grip, skirting around the curious animal and dashing over to Avery’s side.

He seemed equally amused. “You sure this is a place for you?”

“I’m adaptable,” you muttered, blinking rapidly.

Even you didn’t believe your words now.

“Wow, I’m exhausted,” you mentioned when you arrived back at your residence, falling down onto the couch with a groan.

Jaehyun had joined you for the rest of your exploration with Avery, much to your disdain. Every time you got close to discussing some sort of loose plan with the man, Jaehyun would distract you or shoot down your ideas entirely.

You glared up at the ceiling. “Stupid Cowboy. What would he know?”

The phone rang then, and you whined childishly, hauling yourself up from the couch and going over to answer it. “Oh good, you’re there!”

“Ah, yes. You have a nice home here, June.”

“You think so? It was once the home I raised my children in until we built the one we’re in now. Ah, that’s why I called you. I’ve made extra food and wanted to invite you around for dinner.”

“That’s too generous of you.”

“It’s the least I can do after knowing how long the boys had you out for. I told them to take it slow since you weren’t used to our ways yet. I bet your feet hurt.”

“They do, I’ll admit it,” you confessed and June giggled down the line with you.

“That’s it then! I’ll send Jaehyun around to fetch you!”

“Oh, it’s fine. I can drive myself there if you give me directions.”

“He’ll be there shortly, dearie. I pushed him out the door long before making this call.”

“Well, he should be here then,” you mentioned, glancing outside the house with some unease. “I’ll get ready!”

“See you soon, Y/N.”

After placing down the phone, you dashed upstairs to freshen up your appearance, pulling out a floral boho styled maxi dress that you had bought specifically for your country adventure. Picking up a straw hat and accessorising your middle with a woven belt, you laughed at how carefree you looked out of your usual business attire.

“He should be here by now,” you guessed, looking down the drive for Jaehyun’s truck. Collecting your bag, you stepped out of the house and locked it, slipping the keys into your purse and then jumped when you heard a loud whinny.

Turning to the field adjacent to the drive, you gaped at the sight before you. Jaehyun watched you for a moment before leaping down from the wagon. “It’s a good thing I had to run errands for Dad and didn’t bring a horse for you to ride instead, huh?”

“You didn’t bring the truck?”

“You asked if it was legal yesterday. I doubt you would have gotten in it.”

You eyed the large animal warily. “And you expect me to get up there?”

“Miss City, don’t tell me you’re scared of a mere horse. Back before any car, they were man’s best friend.”

“I thought that was a dog,” you murmured as Jaehyun leapt back up onto the cushioned seat of the wagon, his hand reaching down for yours.

“Ever seen a dog plough a field for crops?” Jaehyun asked with a chuckle, his grip firm around your wrist as he helped you up.

You sat down and looked around yourself hopelessly. “Do I need a seatbelt?”

“You really haven’t experienced much in life, have you, Miss-”

“Y/N,” you interjected, smiling nervously. “Please, call me Y/N.”

Jaehyun stared at you again and then smiled, picking up the reins. “You can hold onto me if you get scared, Y/N. I won’t tell anyone that our city slicker is frightened to ride on a horse wagon.”

“Why did I agree to go out tonight?” you wondered with a groan, shrieking and grabbing onto the front of the wagon when it started to move. Jaehyun laughed at you before eagerly asking the animal to move faster, your hands gripping on more tightly to the bar. “You’re working too hard to get rid of me, Jaehyun.”

“Really? Is it that noticeable?” he wondered and smiled when he watched you loosen your grip. “You’re adapting to this pretty well, though.”

It was your turn to look at him, a smile forming on your lips. “I am, huh.”

He glanced at you and nodded. “Who knows, maybe you’ll last more than a week.”

“Talk to me again when I make it to a month.”

“You’ll be riding a horse by that time,” he suggested, and you scoffed loudly.

“No, thank you. I’m not here to play farm. I’m here to work.”

“Farming is one of the hardest jobs out there. I thought you were here to see how us Blayners tick?”

“Well…”

“I guess you better think about what you’ll wear for a horse riding lesson tomorrow then.”

“I never agreed to it,” you objected and then sat back in your seat when Jaehyun leaned towards you.

“I like your dress by the way. It’s pretty.”

“Still full of yourself,” you mumbled, fanning your cheeks with how hot they grew with his compliment.

Jaehyun grinned. “Still enjoying it, aren’t we?”

_________________

Part 4

[NCT Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

98 notes · View notes

fortunatelylori · 4 years

Text

Sandtion: The Sense and sensibility connection - a meta collab with @and-holly-goes-lightly

As some of you may have gathered, @and-holly-goes-lightly and I are salt mates (this is a tumblr term I have learned only recently and am planning to run into the ground. You have been forwarned. I don’t want any complaints down the line!)

It all started about a year ago, with this:

And progressed steadily until we ended up here:

Occasionally, between ogling pictures of naked men, we discuss serious issues as well. Those end up as metas for your consumption, most of the time.

It’s a colaboration that works well. I write long metas, she writes really good ones. We enjoy. We have fun.

Given that we both obssesively analyze tv content and that we tend to reach about the same conclusions, we have been planning on doing some project together for a while now.

I think if 2 months ago someone had told us that Sanditon would be the tv show that would see us join writing forces, we would have been more than a little shocked.

But here we are … hoplessly obssessed with Austen’s unfinished novel and ITV’s unfinished tv show (get the hint, ITV?!?! I hope you do. Chop, chop! You can’t live on Downton Abbey reruns for the rest of time, you know)

So on this most special of days, @and-holly-goes-lightly and I bring you the motherload of Sandtion metas. Two crazy writers, one tv show, one simple title:

Sandtion: The Sense and Sensibility connection

It’s no surprise to anyone, at this point, that Andrew Davies wears his Austen influences on his sleeve in Sanditon. You can find easter eggs for most of Austen’s work, from the famous Pride and Prejudice to the obscure Lady Susan.

However, Sense and Sensibility seems to be one work that hasn’t insipired much comparison from the fandom. And it’s perhaps for that reason that Sandion’s last two episodes were so hard to digest and why so many question marks were raised in regards to Charlotte’s characterization.

In this project we aim to dispel some of that confusion and attempt to put into prespective the character arcs of both Sidney and Charlotte in:

Sidlotte: A parallel journey between Sense and Sensibility by @fortunatelylori

As well as delve deeper into Charlotte’s POV through out the season finale in:

Charlotte Heywood - From Sensibility to Sense by @and-holly-goes-lightly

We hope you enjoy our take. Please don’t forget to leave us your comments in the reply section. This is a new format for us and we’d love to hear from you on how you like this kind of collaborative work.

Sidlotte: A parallel journey between Sense and Sensibility

As I was reading the now infamous Theo James interview, I was reminded of the “unusual” visual representation of Sanditon. It really does look quite different to most Austen adaptations which are defined by the sunny, sanitized domesticity of the English garden.

Sanditon doesn’t look like that. It’s rough and a little wild. It presents a world in the throes of change, with gales, nudity and darkness lurking around the corners. I think it’s those visual cues that made Theo link it to Wuthering Heights with its Yorkshire gloomy moors and harsh winds.

But that just goes to show you Mr. James has not done his proper Andrew Davies research (Tsk, tsk, me thinks he will need to do a few more nude scenes to atone for it) because the wind swept beaches, the wilderness of the English countryside, the cowboy motif? They all go back to this:

I imagine the visual style of Sense and Sensibility 2008 was in part generated by an attempt to separate it from the very famous 1995 version (the quintessential sunny English countryside film) and in part as a response to the earthier approach Joe Wright took for his now very influential version of Pride and Prejudice (2005).

But I do think Sanditon owes more to S&S 2008 than just its visuals. I’ve talked about this in the past but Sanditon, to me, is really Davies’ homage to Austen’s entire body of work so the more you dig and analyze, the more similarities and parallels you are going to find between Sanditon, its characters and the rest of the Austenverse (I really hope this is just a thing I say in a sarcastic way on tumblr. Not everything needs to be a –verse, people!).

Episode 8 really brought this theory into focus for me. In my review I said that the finale marked the tonal shift of the story from the naïve, hopeful and mostly comedic territory of Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice towards the darker, more reflective tone of Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility.

Of course, comedy and witticisms are a core trait of all of Austen’s work. Her voice is so powerful that she is always an extra character in her own stories. However, Persuasion and S&S are also permeated with a sense of loss and angst that her other works don’t really have.

They’re more mature I suppose one could say. And it’s that maturity that plays a role in the shift that occurred in the season finale of Sanditon. Because Sanditon is really all about Charlotte Heywood. We enter this world with her and we follow her coming of age story throughout the season. And that story is marked by a pretty steep transition from the romantic, hopeful heroine represented by Marianne Dashwood to her restrained, sensible sister, Eleanor.

One of the things I liked the most about S&S 2008 was how much more balanced its view on Marianne and Eleanor was. In the 1995 film, it always felt as if Marianne was presented as a cautionary tale while Eleanor was the heroic nurturing woman who endures everything stoically and is rewarded for her restraint in the end.

But that’s not really, to my mind, the message Jane Austen would like us to get out of S&S. Just like with Pride and Prejudice, Austen is shining a light on the folly of both extreme sense and as well as extreme sensibility. It is not wise to jump head first into situations having only Lord Byron’s poems as your guide but it’s also equally unwise to constrain yourself to the point where you are unable to confide in anyone, to the point where you deny your feelings and end up a passive participant to your own life.

With Charlotte Heywood, we get to explore both those behavioral patterns.

The change from Marianne to Eleanor doesn’t occur in episode 8, by the way. It occurs at the end of episode 6 and carries through to the finale. That’s why people, including myself, were taken aback by Charlotte’s apparent change in demeanor in episode 7, from the girl who always spoke her mind (even when she shouldn’t) and wore her heart on her sleeve to the outwardly detached, apprehensive young woman who was waiting for the other shoe to drop even as the man she loved was about to propose to her.

It would be easy to blame this transition on poor execution and I do believe the shift was too sudden and it was a mistake to have it start off screen (in between episode 6 and episode 7). However, the arc itself is not a mistake and it’s actually very clever.

For one because it allows us to explore this story both from the naïve, romantic perspective as well as the angst filled one.

Secondly, and most importantly, because it works in tandem with Sidney’s arc, who is going through the exact opposite journey from the emotionally repressed outlier to the open hearted tormented hero, representative of the Byronic romantic ideal.

What was supposed to happen is that by the end of episode 8, Sidney and Charlotte would meet in the middle, she as a more controlled romantic, he as a warmhearted stoic. What Davies gave us instead is two ships that passed each other in the night and have, by their last scene in episode 8, completely exchanged places.

So I think it’s important to go back to the beginning and analyze how the meeting between the naïve romantic Charlotte and the world weary Sidney ended up altering them forever and how, while deeply painful for both of them at the moment, their separation and behavior shift will end up benefiting them when their eventual reunion occurs (whether or not ITV decides to renew this series, Charlotte and Sidney WILL get married and have 2 to 3 adorable children because this is an Austen story and I will accept nothing less, damn it!)

One of the most important scenes in the whole season for me was the carriage scene in episode 6. I wrote a whole meta on it that you can find here and I have to go back to it in order to reference this extremely important exchange that sits as the lynchpin of this meta:

Sidney: And what do you know of love? Apart from what you’ve read?

Charlotte: I would sooner be naïve than insensible of feeling.

We’ve spent a great deal of time analyzing this scene and how pivotal it is in the story of Sidney as the motivator behind his lowering of his emotional guard. But I don’t think we’ve spent nearly enough time asking ourselves what this exchange tells us about Charlotte.

Because this doesn’t just announce a change in Sidney, it also foreshadows one for her. Sidney is correct in implying she doesn’t really understand love because she’s never experienced it. She is, however, about to realize that she’s in love with him and thus her assertion that she’d rather be naïve than insensible of feeling is just about to be tested.

And the surprising result is … Charlotte fails at her own paradigm. For the rest of the season, she will never be as emotionally open as she is in episode 6.

Charlotte is unable to remain the open book, expansive girl in the face of first supposed unrequited love and then as she experiences loss. She, instead, withdraws inward and begins building up her walls just as Sidney did after Eliza left him.

I think Davies understands Austen’s ultimate message that you fall into the extreme of sense or sensibility at your own peril, which is why he chooses to have his main two characters traverse opposite journeys so they can be brought closer by the end of the story (in season 2 of course).

That’s because at the core of all of the fights and misunderstandings between Charlotte and Sidney sit two problems:

Sidney Parker does not believe in the good intentions of other people. He is operating from a place of hurt and feeling under attack. He is essentially under the impression that the people he comes into contact with have ulterior motives, and none of them are good. And you can’t really blame him for that distorted image of reality when you consider what the two most meaningful relationships in his life have been up until this point.

On the one hand you have Tom who weaponizes even the most benign of compliments:

Tom: At least I have your prowess on the cricket field to be thankful for.

Sidney: Well in truth you have Lord Babington to thank for that. I am here at his behest to give him support in his time of romantic need. God knows he shall need it.

Tom: You’re a good friend, Sidney … I don’t suppose you could try just one last time… [to go ask for money]

On the other hand, you have Eliza Campion who says stuff like this with a straight face:

Sidney: You didn’t have to wait for me, you know.

Eliza: I’ve waited for 10 years. What’s another quarter of an hour?

While researching this meta and also trying to figure out my Christmas fic, I’ve come to realize that both Tom and Eliza are using a victim narrative to get what they want from the people around them. What Sidney has learned from these relationships is that nothing in life comes for free. Any compliment, any sign of affection comes with a price tag or an eventual let down.

For her part, Charlotte Heywood is suspicious of Sidney because he doesn’t make himself easy to understand.

Charlotte thrives on communication and she tends to empathize and like people who share, or overshare, information with her. Her opinion on Tom shifts the moment he starts including her in his Sanditon projects. She is apprehensive of Otis for quite a bit of episode 4 but ends up completely on his side the moment he talks about his past as a slave and making innuendos about Sidney, despite neither one of those things really resolving her initial reasons for being apprehensive.

This behavior is really down to Charlotte’s upbringing in a very large but very happy family. Or as Eleanor Tilney in Northanger Abbey would put it:

Eleanor: I think you have had a quite dangerous upbringing. You’ve been brought up to believe that everyone is as pure in heart as you are.

Incidentally another Andrew Davies adaptation …

In Charlotte’s mind, people who are open emotionally and speak their mind must be good people. After all, she is this way and she certainly always has the best of intentions. When someone doesn’t do that, or worse they evade and try to manipulate, she distances herself from them, as is the case with Edward and Clara.

And since Charlotte views meaningful communication as the ultimate sign of trust, it’s this withholding of information, this emotional barrier she can sense in Sidney, that makes her mistrustful of him. She can’t understand his emotional withdrawal for what it is – a response to trauma - because she’s never experienced it. And as such she will always fundamentally misunderstand him.

We see these two character hang ups rearing their ugly heads again and again in their conflicts:

Episode 1

Sidney: And what have you observed about me upon our small acquaintance?

Charlotte: I think you must be the sensible brother of the three. I may be mistaken but it seems to me that your younger brother, Arthur, is a very … contrary nature. Alternately over lethargic and over energetic. While your elder brother, Tom, could be called over enthusiastic. I’m afraid that despite his good nature, he neglects his own happiness and his family’s in his passionate devotion to Sanditon. Don’t you agree?

Sidney: Upon my word, Miss Heywood, you are very free with your opinions. And upon what experience of the world do you form your judgments? Where have you been? Nowhere. What have you learnt? Nothing it would seem. And yet you take it upon yourself to criticize. Let me put it to you, Miss Heywood: which is the better way to live? To sit in your father’s home, with your piano and your embroidery, waiting for someone to come and take you off your parents’ hands? Or to expend your energy in trying to make a difference? To leave your mark. To leave the world in a better place than you found it. That is what my brother, Tom, is trying to do. At the expense of a great deal of effort and anxiety, in a good cause in which I do my best to help and support him. And you see fit to … to criticize him … to amuse yourself at his expense.

Fortunatelylori: … I have a theory that the reason why Sidney’s been forced into prostitution by the end of season 1 is because he used the argument of the fucking patriarchy to defend Tom The Worst Parker. Gee, Sidney, us women would love to go out there and change the world but your male friends are forcing us to stay home with our pianos and embroideries to make sure they take full advantage of our ovaries. Please take several seats!

Fortunatelylori: Also … fyi … Tom isn’t protecting England from the French or helping Warren de La Rue develop the freaking light bulb. He is trying to run a dime a dozen seaside resort and failing miserably at it so spare us the change the world one naked ass at a time speeches.

Charlotte is baited by Sidney, the emotional recluse, into oversharing which she can’t help herself from doing because even at this early stage she has a crush on him and wants to impress him with her insight. He takes that rather kind take on his brother Tom and spins it into a narrative of inexperienced superficiality and mockery because that’s what he’s conditioned himself to think about people.

Episode 2

Charlotte: Our conversation at the party … I expressed myself badly and I fear you misunderstood me. I didn’t mean to disparage your brother or to offend you. Indeed I have the greatest admiration for what you and he are doing here in Sanditon. You were right to rebuke me and indeed I am sorry. I hope you won’t think too badly of me.

Sidney: Think too badly of you? I don’t think of you at all, Miss Heywood. I have no interest in your approval or disapproval. Quite simply, I don’t care what you think or how you feel. I’m sorry if that disappoints you but there it is. Have I made myself clear?

Fortunatelylori: Badly done, Sidney! Badly done indeed!

Not much to say about Charlotte in this one as this argument is ALL on Sidney and his trust issues. In his world, this kind of earnest apology and brave taking of responsibility is always a precursor to a guilt trip or a victimization episode. So he has become very adept at shooting down any such attempt forcefully.

It’s only in episode 3, when he sees Charlotte helping Mr. Stringer without any expectations of reward and her accepting his apology without any hint of emotional blackmail that Sidney is able to lower his guard and begin to see Charlotte for the honest, kind and generous human being that she is:

Fortunatelylori: Awwww! This is Sidney essentially seeing his unborn children in Charlotte’s eyes. (that is the most romantic lyric in the English language and no one will convince me otherwise)

However, what ends up happening? Sidney lowers his guard just in time for Charlotte to reactivate her suspicions which leads to their most explosive fight to date:

Episode 4

Sidney: Did we not agree that you would look out for Georgiana? Keep her out of trouble? I should have known you weren’t to be trusted.

Charlotte: And I should have known, despite your professed concern, you care nothing for her happiness.

Sidney: I would ask you to refrain from making judgments about a situation you don’t understand.

Charlotte: I understand perfectly well!

Sidney: Of course you do! Even though you’ve known Georgiana but a handful of weeks and him but a matter of hours.

Charlotte: That was time enough to learn that Mr. Molyneux is as respectable a gentleman as I have ever had cause to meet.

Sidney: You seem to find it impossible to distinguish between the truth and your own opinion!

Charlotte: The truth? You wish to speak of the truth, Mr. Parker? The truth is you are so blinded by prejudice that you would judge a man by the color of his skin alone.

Sidney: You speak out of turn.

Charlotte: Why should I expect any better from a man whose fortune is so tainted with the stain of slavery!

Sidney: That is enough! … I do not need to justify myself to you.

They essentially spiral out of control in this scene. Sidney’s trust issues come back and his lack of feed-back to Charlotte’s accusations make her provide increasingly horrible explanations to fill in the blanks.

Because their fights tend to be very intense (they are both people with very strong personalities), it’s easy to think of the two of them as simply not being compatible.

But their issues aren’t a matter of compatibility but rather an inability to find the right channels on which to communicate with each other, despite both wanting to.

Which brings us to episode 5

I love these little acting choices Theo James makes. This sigh is so evocative because it’s pretty clear it’s not frustration or boredom, but rather Sidney still reeling from her accusations in episode 4.

On the other side, Charlotte looks at him and thinks he is distant and non-affected and because, despite being angry, she still wants to connect with him, she tries so hard to use Sidney’s acerbic wit against him and keeps attempting to poke the big grizzly bear:

Charlotte: I assume you are here for the cricket.

Sidney: Never short of assumptions, Miss Heywood.

Unable to find a chink in his cold shoulder, Charlotte tries again at the cricket match:

Charlotte: Good luck to you too, Mr. Parker. Although I imagine you don’t think you’ll need it.

Sidney: Yes more assumptions, Miss Heywood?

Sidney is so pissed at her in this episode, not even her low key flirting with James Stringer galvanizes him.

But then something quite unexpected happens … Without actually realizing it, Charlotte manages to find the right channel to communicate on:

Stringer: You haven’t got another player to replace him. We win.

Charlotte: I’ll play.

With the wide eyed enthusiasm of a true romantic, Charlotte taps into the core of what Sidney desperately needs in his life. She doesn’t just help and support him when he needs her to but crucially she doesn’t put a price tag on it.

Charlotte: Is that a smile I detected?

Sidney: Oh, I doubt it …

Charlotte doesn’t enter the cricket match because she wants to use that gesture to ask Sidney for money for her pyramid scheme or gaslight him into thinking her betrayal was actually her “waiting” for him. Charlotte does it because she wants to see him smile. And just look at him …

Unfortunately that momentary progress is derailed again when Georgiana is kidnapped which will eventually lead to the carriage scene in episode 6 where Charlotte’s need for feed-back clashes with Sidney’s trust issues in their most revealing conversation.

It’s tempting to look at this argument and think Sidney is the only one who is in the wrong and who needs to change. But that would be missing a few important aspects of the story.

Charlotte: Otis never meant to place Georgiana in harm’s way. Any more than I did.

Sidney: And yet you both did.

I think a lot of people, Charlotte included, fall into the trap of believing that if someone didn’t intend to harm someone else that means they haven’t actually done something wrong. Which is why there are still people in the Sanditon tag that are resisting the idea that Tom Parker is a villain. Surely he never meant to hurt his brother and he didn’t force him to propose to Eliza, so why is everyone so hard on him?

But like Charlotte had to learn with Otis, just because Tom didn’t intend to cause Sidney harm doesn’t change the fact that he very much did.

In this case, Charlotte’s major mistake was not that she helped Georgiana stay in touch with Otis. Charlotte’s mistake was in assuming she had the whole 1000 piece puzzle completed when she only had about 200 pieces in place.

Charlotte: All I ever cared about was Georgiana’s happiness.

Sidney: What did you think I cared about?

Charlotte: That is anyone’s guess!

Sidney: I’ve done the best I can by Georgiana.

Charlotte: No! At every turn you have abdicated responsibility. If you truly cared for her welfare, you would have watched over her yourself.

Sidney: It is a role I neither sought or asked for.

Charlotte: Of course not! Because you are determined to remain an outlier. God forbid you give something of yourself!

Sidney: Please do not presume to know my mind, Miss Heywood.

Charlotte: How could anyone know your mind? You take pains to be unknowable. All I know is that you cannot bear the idea of two people being in love.

Despite admitting she doesn’t know his mind, Charlotte can’t help herself from filling in the blanks with what she assumes is a conscious desire to be uncaring. Because she doesn’t have the life experience to come up with another answer.

For his part, Sidney is hurt by her lack of trust in him but unwilling to trust her enough in return to tell her the whole story. Still her words do affect him enough to make him begin to lower his barrier and give Theo James one of his best acting moments:

Sidney: And what do you know of love? Apart from what you’ve read?

Charlotte: I would sooner be naïve than insensible of feeling.

Sidney: Is that really what you think of me? I’m sorry that you think that. How much easier my life would have been if I were …

Fortunatelylori: I just … he’s very good … that is all

It would be very tempting to assume that since Charlotte admits to being naïve once the whole Otis and Georgiana’s situation is revealed:

Charlotte: It’s all so overwhelming! I hardly know what to think anymore. (beat) About anything! I’ve always felt so certain of my judgment. But now I see that I have been blinded by sentiment and naivety. How could I have gotten it all so wrong? No wonder your brother has such a poor opinion of me …

and Sidney begins to show more outward concern for the people around him and validate Charlotte in ever increasingly romantic ways:

Charlotte: I know … I’m too headstrong. I’m too opinionated. I’m too …

Sidney: No. You are not too anything. Don’t doubt yourself. You’re more than equal to any woman here.

That their clashing world views are now aligned. But the truth is, Sidney isn’t the one to explain to Charlotte how it was that he became “insensible of feeling”. It’s Tom that tells her that story (and then promptly bungles whatever help he might have provided his brother). Sidney’s trust issues remain which is evident even as late as episode 8:

Babbington: I believe she’s tamed me.

Sidney: Yes … I just imagine how that might feel.

And

Sidney: I have never wanted to put myself in someone else’s power before.

Don’t get me wrong, I melt every time I hear that second line but it is indicative of the fact that love still feels like an inherently risky and dangerous thing for Sidney where he is obliged to hand over his power to someone else and pray that person doesn’t abuse it the way Eliza did.

For Charlotte’s part, Sidney beginning to reveal more of himself and show her the true man underneath the armor, makes her fall more and more in love with him. And the more she loves him, the more afraid she is of outwardly showing it. His confusion over his feelings for her and Eliza’s reappearance in his life, cause her to attempt to fill in the blanks again in episode 7. First by proxy, while talking to James Stringer:

Charlotte: You are far too sensible to form such a misguided and futile attachment.

Stringer: Why should it be futile, Miss Heywood? For all you know your feelings are repaid 5 times over.

Charlotte: I allowed myself to believe so for the briefest of moments. But I cannot deny the evidence of my own eyes.

And then directly:

Sidney: I hope you weren’t too offended by Mrs. Campion. It was only meant in jest.

Charlotte: Is that all I am to you? A source of amusement?

Sidney: No. Of course not! You’re … Forgive me.

Charlotte: On the contrary, you’ve done me a great service. I am no longer in any doubt as to how you regard me.

So what happens in episode 8? Well, they essentially trade places, going from this:

Charlotte: I hope you won’t think too badly of me.

Sidney: Think too badly of you? I don’t think of you at all, Miss Heywood.

To this:

Sidney: Tell me you don’t think too badly of me.

Charlotte: I don’t think badly of you.

In one of my metas I made the point that Sidney Parker IS Charlotte Heywood’s coming of age story: he is her first love, the first man she is sexually attracted to, her first kiss and well … unfortunately also her first (and hopefully only) heartbreak.

By being forced to deal with her own sense of loss and the pain of being separated from the person she loves, Charlotte will finally be able to understand the true nature of Sidney’s insensitivity of feeling. Instead of causing her suspicion or apprehension, she will be able to connect with it because she’s lived through it herself.

As for Sidney … I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in the end he is forced to do to Charlotte what Eliza did to him all those years ago. He chooses to marry a wealthy woman he does not love and disappoint a poor woman whom he does love.

I think given that his motives are obviously altruistic while Eliza’s were not (both per Tom’s story as well as her general character as revealed in the show so far), the point of the similarity is not to bring him closer to Eliza. Certainly not when he’s looking at Charlotte like this:

Which means that him being forced to contend with what happened 10 years ago by reliving the incident, this time in the role of the aggressor, is there to increase his level of vulnerability and put him in the place of the earnest person trying to reach out for emotional connection and having to fight to pull down the walls he himself helped put up in Charlotte.

You know what they say … If you really want to know someone, walk a mile in their shoes. No one ever said those shoes would be comfortable.

#sanditon #sanditon meta #sidlotte #sidlotte meta #jane austen adaptations #sidney parker #charlotte heywood #sense and sensibility #sanditonmetacollab

122 notes · View notes