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eideticmemory · 4 years

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EVER SINCE NEW YORK III | MATTHEW GRAY GUBLER

Description: Description: I was messaged saying: “If you don’t write a young Matthew enemies to lovers fic featuring an obsession with sucking on boobs then what’s the point 😔.” So, here it is, folks! The ultimate College!Matthew fic.

PART 3! Read Part 2 here.

Soundtrack:

Hate U Btw - Rence.

Phases - Chase Atlantic.

Break From Toronto - PartyNextDoor.

Word Count: 4,647.

Rating: M.

Warning/Includes: Sexual intercourse, drinking, substance use, a bit of angst.

Spring, Sophomore Year.

South Beach,

New York.

“C’mon,” Claire said, putting her hands on your shoulders. “Give me a smile.”

You frowned.

“Let me see that pretty, pretty smile, [y/n].”

You sighed, rolled your eyes and gave her a toothless grin.

“Okay, that’s about as fake as it gets, but it’ll do,” she shrugged. She began to load up her car, “Just keep it on when Matthew gets here.”

You groaned, “I just don’t understand why he’s coming. Or why he has to ride with us. I’m gonna kill him.”

“Whoa, black mamba, it’s a 30 minute drive — barely. You’ll survive.”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t appreciate the Kill Bill reference, and second of all, 30 minutes is the perfect amount of time for me to not only kill your little boyfriend, but bury the body too.”

“Matthew is not my boyfriend,” Claire shook her head. “He is, however, coming on this trip with us. And you’re gonna be nice.”

“Why grandma, what big teeth you have,” you mocked.

“Shut up,” she laughed, closing the trunk.

Matthew strode up to the car, smiling and announcing his presence, “Hey, hot mamas,” he said, putting his arm around Claire. “Ready to go?”

She leaned her head on his shoulder, smiling ear to ear. “Yep, [y/n] and I were just discussing cinema.”

“Oh! My favorite topic,” he beamed. “We can continue it on the way there.”

Matthew broke away to take his place in the car, sitting in the backseat. You glared at Claire, your arms crossed.

“What big nose and ears you have!” She exclaimed, laughing before she could get out the words.

“Oh, God, shut up!” You giggled. “Get in the car, let’s go.”

The way there, you spoke two words to Matthew: “yeah” and “okay.” Despite his best efforts to strike up a conversation, you dodged him at every turn. Just like he had been doing for the past 3 months. Since returning from Christmas break, there’s been no sex, no conversations, not even a dm. If your friends noticed, they weren’t saying anything, probably just grateful the two of you weren’t arguing. But you could feel his eyes on you, watching you from the backseat. All the way to South Beach.

The entire group — all 9 of you — arrived at the same time, admiring the beach house as you pulled up. Claire parked in the driveway, two cars pulling in behind you. You led everyone up to the entrance and used the designated key to unlock the door. Everyone oohed and ahhed at the place. It was spacious, large, decorated to perfection. Not that you expected anything less from your aunt.

“[y/n]! This place is amazing!” Claire beamed. “Holy shit.”

“And it’s all ours for the week,” you chuckled. “There’s 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, the kitchen’s through there, and the pool’s out back.”

“Pool?”

“Pool,” you nodded. “Rooms are upstairs, if you guys wanna get settled.”

Claire and you set up your room together, packing your clothes into the dressers and heading down to the living room. Everyone gathered, sitting on the couches. Claire sat beside Matthew, laying her head on his shoulder. John opened all the windows in the space, claiming that he was letting in some fresh air.

“So,” John sighed. “What to do? What to do?”

“It’s a mystery to me,” Matthew shrugged.

“Yeah, well,” One of your friends said, pulling a bag of weed out of her purse. “It’s not a mystery to me.”

You laughed, “Huh, I knew I had this lighter in my pocket for a reason.”

A joint was quickly packed and passed around the room. When it got to you, you flicked at your lighter, but the flame wouldn’t ignite. “What the fuck?” You grumbled.

“Here,” Matthew said, reaching over to you. You held the rolled item between your lips and allowed him to use his lighter, setting flame to the end of the joint. You held each other’s gaze as it happened, probably for a bit longer than needed.

“Thanks,” you whispered, breathlessly.

He leaned back and gave you a smirk. Combine that with the weed entering your system, and you could feel your heartbeat between your legs.

It was a long week.

Lots of alcohol, lots of weed, and lots of sexual tension. Most nights Claire went to bed at 3 in the morning, stumbling in happy and sighing as she fell asleep. She always kissed your cheek first. Everyday was a beach day, or if you all were too lazy to go down to the beach or into town, you hung out by the pool.

Claire thought it was ridiculous that you had bought and packed seven different bikinis, but she had to admit, every single one was cute. You found different hairstyles to wear each day, dolled yourself up in bikinis all different colors of the rainbow, swam until you were walking around soaked. And it was killing Matthew. It was so much fun!

Two days before you were meant to leave, you had on your floral bikini, and you were prepared to bake in the sun at the pool.

“Ow!” John exclaimed, raising his shades from his face. Him and the other guys sat poolside, playing a game of cards. “Damn, [y/n], you trying to give me a heart attack?”

“Is that your subtle way of telling me you like my bikini, John?” You giggled.

“The bikini...the body...” he whispered. “Come over here!”

You rolled your eyes and walked over to the group, allowing John to pull you into his lap, “Be my good luck charm.” He smiled. Your crossed your legs over his and watched the game in front of you.

“What are you guys playing?” You asked. You accidentally made eye contact with Matthew, who was watching you and John like a hawk. His eyes flickered back and forth between his cards and you two endlessly.

“Gin!” John replied.

“What? I thought we were playing go fish?”

“Go fish? What the fuck are you? 12?” John laughed. You shook your head and kissed John’s cheek, “Be nice, dude. Go fish is fun.” You chuckled. You got up from his lap and went to join the girls in the pool, stepping into the water.

“Nice of you to finally join us,” Claire said.

The group of you mainly stayed by the edge, holding shot glasses and knocking back liquor. By your third glass, the vodka had run right through you and you had to pee. So, you excused yourself and went inside to use the bathroom. Approaching the door, you went to place your hand on the knob, but were stopped by a muffled sound coming from inside.

“What the hell?” You whispered, and stepped in. There you found a very red Matthew, panting, his eyes closed, his hand around his cock and jerking himself off quickly. He halted when you entered, and stared at you, his mouth open in shock.

“I-I-“ you stuttered, trying not to look at his dick. You left, and quickly closed the door behind you.

You went upstairs to your room, locked the door, leaned against the wall and reached down to touch yourself. It was completely unexpected, and so unlike you. But all these memories of Matthew touching you and fucking you came rushing back, and you had to get this nut off before you exploded. You applied pressure to your clit through your bikini, until you were squirming and whimpering, and you came. You swear you almost said Matthew’s name.

The next day, you wore your royal blue bikini. The top tied in the front in a loose bow, and the bottom was lined with gold trim. After a day out shopping, everyone wound up hanging out at the pool once again. You did back strokes in the water, letting the sun shine on your face.

“Oof,” you huffed, bumping into someone behind you. You opened your eyes and turned around, facing them.

“Watch where you’re going. You’re not the little mermaid,” Matthew scoffed.

“Shut up, Matthew,” you spit. “Could you be more of a jackass?”

“Actually yeah,” he nodded. “I could be.” He reached out, quickly undoing your bikini top and watching as your chest was exposed.

You yelped and held your boobs in your hands, “Ah! Matthew!”

“Nice,” he grinned, his gaze focused on your breasts. “Very nice.”

You glared at him as he swam away.

Later that night, Claire was putting on a pair of dangling earrings, and her hair was down over her shoulders, curled to perfection. “You sure you can’t come out, [y/n]?” She asked.

“I’m positive,” you murmured, sadly. “My ballet instructor deciding now was the perfect time to make an online quiz due. It’s gonna take me a while, I’m sorry.”

Claire frowned and sat across from you. Both of you were perched in the kitchen, sitting around the island counter. While everyone was dolled up and ready to go out, you sat in your wet bikini and an oversized shirt. “No, don’t apologize. But after spring break, we’re going to your instructor’s house and leaving a bag of crap on her porch.” Claire said.

You chuckled, “Real mature, Claire.”

“I’m gonna miss you,” she sighed. “And if you do finish in time, give me a call and I’ll run back to pick you up.”

You gave her a smile, “You got it. Now, go, go! Don’t worry about me. You guys have fun.”

Claire blew a kiss to you and rose to her feet, exiting the kitchen and joining the others in the living room. You continued to work on your laptop as they filed out of the house and closed the door behind them. You took a carton of ice cream from the fridge and ate from the pint, mindlessly clicking buttons to complete the quiz.

“Come for a swim with me.”

“Ah!” You jumped, hand clutching your chest. “What the fuck?”

“Come for a swim with me,” Matthew repeated, storming into the kitchen and over to you.

“What?”

“Come for a swim with me,” he grabbed your arm. “C’mon, c’mon.”

“Matthew, no!” But you let him drag you away, watching as he grabbed a bottle of rum off the counter. “I have work to do!”

“It’s due at 11:59,” he told you, leading you out to the pool. “So you have...” he checked his phone. “Well over two hours.”

“And I don’t want to spend any of that time with you.” You enunciated, yanking your arm from his grasp.

“Aw, man,” he sighed. “That sucks. I thought you would’ve wanted this.” He held up a metal object, and when you focused your eyes on it, you noticed it was your ballerina. The one he’d given you.

“Hey!” You exclaimed, lunging towards him and attempting to grab the item. “What are you doing with that? Give it here!” You jumped on him, reaching high and using all your might. But Matthew was tall, and holding it way above his head. He laughed at you, keeping the prize far from you.

“Tell me, why do you keep this with you? Must be important.” He teased. He stepped backwards, holding the ballerina up in the air.

“What the hell are you doing going through my stuff?” You shouted, following him.

“Needed leverage,” he shrugged. “You want it?” He removed his shirt. “Come get it.” He stepped into the pool, a loud splash erupting around his figure. But he kept your figurine above the surface.

“This is childish! Give it back, and leave me alone!” You marched up to the edge of the pool, hands balled up in fists at your side.

“Okay,” he shrugged. He walked up to you, the ballerina extended out for you to grasp. You reached out for it, and just before you could take it away from him, you were being pulled forward. Into the pool.

You fell in with a yelp, holding your gift against your chest. You squirmed around underwater until you forced your way to the surface, your jaw dropped and your hands quickly wiping at your eyes.

“What the fuck?” You shouted. You blindly placed your ballerina on land, taking care to make sure she didn’t get lost.

When you turned around, Matthew was right behind you. His eyes were focused in on your lips. His hands were steadily snaking around your waist. And before you could back away, he kissed you. Softly, slowly, holding you close.

“Stop,” you muttered. Another kiss.

“Stop what?” Another kiss. “I’m not doing anything.” You held his face in yours hands and let your lips work together in unison.

“Wait,” you pulled away. “We can’t do this.”

“Why not?” Matthew mumbled, kissing your neck. “We’re so good at it.”

“Claire...”

“Is not my girlfriend,” he stopped, and looked you in the eye. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“But she likes you.”

“I like...you.”

You gulped, “You don’t like me.”

“Says who?”

“Says me! You just like...my...my...goodies.”

He cackled, “You’re goodies? Well...they are good.”

“Shut up!” You rolled your eyes.

“They’re great actually,” Matthew gave you another kiss. “In fact...” A kiss. “I’d like to see some of those goodies right now if you don’t mind.” His hands slid under your shirt and pushed it up your hips, up your waist, until he was pulling it over your head. You were left in your blue bikini, and Matthew nearly drooled at the sight.

He leaned in and kissed your jaw. His lips trailed down to your collarbone, and then to your chest. He gropped your boobs in his hands and placed kisses on your sternum. He caught the string to your bikini top between his teeth, and took long strides away from you. All you could do was watch him, feel the fabric looseing on your body. When he took one finally step, the whole bow came undone and your boobs were exposed.

“Come here,” he whispered, looking intently at your chest. His voice drew you into him, and you let him pull you close and wrap his lips around your nipple.

“Oh, fuck,” you moaned. He was so, so good at this. He used the right amount of pressure and suction. His tongue twirled around the bud and his saliva dripped onto your skin. Soft hums vibrated against your chest, and his hand made it’s way between your legs.

“Your tits are so nice,” he whispered.

You looked down at him, then at your boobs. “They’re tiny.”

“They’re perfect,” he transitioned to sucking on the other nipple, and his fingertips rubbed your clit lightly.

When he kissed your lips, you wrapped your arms around his shoulders and held his body against yours. Your legs latched onto his torso, and he took this as an invitation to push you against the pool wall. On instinct — horny, horny instinct — the both of you reached down and touched each other. You freed his cock from his swim trunks and he pulled your bikini bottoms to the side.

Staring into your eyes, Matthew pushed into you. Slowly at first, and then slamming the rest of the way in. You gasped, and your head rolled back, along with your eyes.

“Fuck,” he cupped your hand in his hands. “You’re so hot.”

He kissed your neck as he fucked you, rhythmically and roughly. The water splashed against your skin, the sound overlapping with your quiet moans. You gripped onto Matthew’s hair, and reveled in the sound of his groans in your ear.

You bit down on your lip, muffling your whines. Matthew took your jaw in his hand and tilted your head down to kiss you. You panted against his lips, whimpering as he your back tapped the wall behind you.

“How long you think we got until they get back?” He mumbled.

You chuckled under your breath, “If my memory is correct, you’re not gonna last that long anyways.”

“Oooooouch!” He exclaimed, suddenly cut off by a breathy moan. He buried his face in your neck, “Not this time, princess. Not this time.”

While you guys were preoccupied outside, the front door to the house opened up. “[y/n]!” Claire sang. “I know you said to leave you alone, but I passed that ice cream place you like and I brought you some. Gube too.” She giggled, walking through the house. “I also — maybe, definitely — wanted to see if you two were ready to come out. Come on, we’re eating at this cute little Mexican place down the street, you should —“

“Oh, fuck,” you moaned, Matthew’s fingers pressed against your clit and rubbing in gentle circles.

“Mm, you gonna come?” Matthew purred. “Wow, I’m good.”

“S-shut up,” you stuttered. “Fuck. Fuck, keep going.”

Claire stood in shock, watching from inside and peering through the glass door. She stumbled back into the kitchen, placing the bag of ice cream on the counter. She blinked away the tears in her eyes, and gulped. And she left.

Clueless, you let your orgasm wash over you. Your body trembled, and Matthew pushed his cock all the way into you as you rode it out. The sensation sent ripples of pleasure throughout your body and you fell weakly against him. “Matthew,” you whimpered.

His eyes went wide, and he pushed your hair back. “You said my name.”

“Hm?”

“You said my name,” he repeated. “Say it again.”

His hips bucked into yours and he picked up his pace, his jaw dropping as he watched your face. His nails dug into your thighs, “C’mon please?” He begged.

You looked at him in a daze, tracing his collarbone with your finger and hooking it in his chain. “Matthew,” you whispered. And it was like you were saying it to yourself, convincing yourself this was real. “Matthew.”

The sound of your voice nearly sent him over the edge and he pulled out of you, huffing and puffing. “Wait,” you panted. “Wait, I want you to come.”

He chuckled, “We’ve got some time.”

And you guys made the most of it.

You fished your shirt out of the pool, grabbed your ballerina and headed inside. Once changed into new clothes, Matthew sat beside you as you finished your quiz. He didn’t quite understand how you could be quizzed on matters of ballet, and you didn’t quite feel like explaining so you kissed him to shut him up. Which subsequently led to you closing the laptop and letting him carry you upstairs. Not forgetting the rum.

You wound up on your bed, face down, ass up. Matthew held onto your hips, and pounded into you mercilessly until you were nothing but a puddle of moans. You could smell the alcohol on his breath, feel his body tensing up with each thrust, and you gripped onto the bed sheets tightly. Matthew upheld his promise to make the experience long and pleasure, making you come twice before he even came close. He reached down and slid his fingers into your mouth, which you sucked on willingly. He released himself onto your back, following it with a swift slap on your ass. He used his shirt to clean you off.

With a few more hits of alcohol, Matthew asked you to show him some ballet moves. So, you started with the basics. But when he attempted the movement, he nearly broke his ankle and fell to the floor. You broke out into hysterics.

“You’re druuuuuunk,” you sang, sinking down to the floor to join him.

“So are you!”

“But I can do ballet drunk,” you shrugged. “It’s a gift.”

“Hm,” he hummed, pulling you into his lap. “Wanna see what I can do drunk?”

Turns out, he couldn’t really do it that well, so you had to ride him. It was still good, and you let him come in your mouth. He was ecstatic.

Laying on the floor at 1 in the morning, you finished off the last of the rum and snuggled into Matthew’s side. “Got any gas?” He asked.

“No, I don’t have to burp.” You replied.

He laughed, “I meant weed, dumbass.”

“Weed? What the hell do you need weed for? Aren’t you drunk?”

“I’m...semi-drunk. You knocked most of that back yourself, Jack Daniels.”

“Okay, look, if you’re gonna call me nicknames, can you atleast pick one and stick with it?”

He sighed and shrugged, “Yeah. Which one’s your favorite?”

“None of them!”

“Well, pick one, princess!”

You thought for a moment, silent. “Princess,” you whispered.

“What?”

“Princess is my favorite.”

He smiled at you, but you weren’t looking. “Okay. You got it.”

“Hey, Matthew?” you called, sitting up and looking down at him. He was shirtless, laid out with his necklace glimmering against his skin.

“What’s up?” He replied.

You picked at the carpet as you spoke, “Why...why did you stay tonight?”

“Huh?” He tilted his head.

“Why did you stay tonight?” You repeated. “Why didn’t you go out with everyone else?”

He looked at you, and licked his lips, like he was thinking up a response. “I—“ He was cut off by the sound of a car pulling up outside, doors being shut, loud chatter.

The two of you hopped up at lightning speed, fixing your clothes. You kicked the rum bottle under your bed and Matthew balled up his stained shirt. He rushed out of your bedroom and you stood there out of breath. As soon as you turned around, you heard running coming your way. You turned back to face the door, and there was Matthew, marching up to you. He grabbed your face in his hands and kissed you. It was a long kiss, a nice kiss.

He left without a word, and you crawled into bed with a smile on your face. Matthew made it into his bed before everyone came upstairs. You faced the wall, pretending to be asleep.

“Awwwwwwwwwwww!” Claire exclaimed as she barged into the room. “Look at little [y/n]!”

“Claire,” your friend whispered. “Shh, you’re gonna wake her up.”

“[y/n]’s my best friend, y’know?”

��I know, honey.”

“I love her and...I just hope she loves me.”

“C’mon, let’s get you in bed.” Your friend helped the very drunk Claire into bed, removing Claire’s shoes then laying her down on the mattress and covering her up.

“Goodnight, [y/n]!” Claire shouted.

You stayed silent, clutching your ballerina figurine in your hand.

Sunday morning, it was time for all of you to leave and head back to school. You woke up early and applied makeup to cover the hickies on your neck. By the time everyone was up and packing, your stuff was already squared away in bags. You sat in the kitchen, eating pop tarts, and leaving everything the way your aunt asked. Everyone said hi to you as they passed the kitchen, and they eventually landed in the living room.

“Morning,” A voice called to you.

You turned to see Matthew standing there, smiling at you. “Good morning,” you pipped. “How’d you sleep?”

“Like a baby. You?”

“Also like an infant,” you nodded. “Ready to head to school?”

“Almost,” he whispered. He walked up to you and kissed you softly, his hand holding your jaw.

You sighed happily and pulled away. “Are you ready now?” You asked.

“Hm, not quite,” he shook his head.

He kissed you again, and put his hand on your thighs, dangerously close to your core. “Okay, dude,” you slapped his hand away. “Don’t get crazy. Everyone’s in the living room.”

“So?”

“So...we can’t do anything here.”

“Oh, yes,” he whispered against your lips. “We can. You’ve just gotta be quiet.”

You tried. Tried to be quiet. But Matthew had you sat on the island, shorts and panties pushed the side and his cock buried inside you. He had to cover your mouth with his hand as he thrusted into you. His teeth sunk into his lip, to the point blood was drawn. You could taste it. You tightened your legs around his waist, eyelid lowered in lust. He gave you a questioning nod, and you replied with a slight motion of your head to let him know you were good.

“[y/n]!” Claire called.

You and Matthew quickly broke apart. You hopped off the island, Matthew fixed his pants. You sat in the chair like nothing happened and Matthew left the room through the second exit. Claire came around the separate entrance.

“Hey,” she said. “Ready to go?”

You smiled, “I am now.”

The ride back to school was much shorter. Nothing but music filled the car, Claire being too hung over to talk. Upon arriving at school, Matthew walked the two of you up to your dorm room.

“Need me to help with your bags?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” Claire shrugged. “Talk to you later, Gube.”

“You alright?” He questioned her.

“Yeah. Hangover.” Claire sadly walked into the room, head hung low.

“She’s a lightweight,” you told Matthew. “She’ll be back to normal soon.”

“Right,” he nodded. “So. See ya.”

“See ya.”

Around midnight, he requested to add you on snapchat again. You accepted. His first snap to you was a selfie with one caption:

show me ur tits 🥴🥴

no 😠

please 🥺

You sighed, looked over at Claire who was fast asleep, and lifted your shirt over your chest. Took you five tries, but you took the perfect one. He opened it within 10 seconds. Then he was video chatting you.

“Hello?” you whispered.

“Where’s your face?”

“I took it off for the night. What do you want?”

“I wanna see you.”

“What? No! Go to bed.”

“You can come over. Please. Please. I’m begging.”

“I hear you begging,” you scoffed. “It’s almost one in the morning.”

“Yeah.”

“We have class tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

“And I’m tired.”

“Just come let me suck on your tits. Five minutes, no sex, I promise.”

Yeah, right.

You came back to your room — your panties stuffed in your pocket, your hair wild, your lips swollen, throat sore, walking a little funny. You got a good night’s sleep.

Life got easier when you started listening to your body. A lot better, a lot more orgasmic. For the next month, Matthew and you got it in, whenever. Wherever. If you crossed paths on the way to class, you often didn’t make it to the lecture. When out with friends, you’d end up in the bathroom, with you bent over the sink and Matthew holding onto your hips. When you looked up in the mirror, you could see his necklace bouncing against his chest, his head thrown back.

There was something about Matthew that made you unbelievably horny and weak and impulsive. A very dangerous combination. Add that to the fact that he was admittedly not as annoying as you originally believed, and you were having a blast. However, you knew it was a means to an end. That summer would once again separate you two and there was a good chance he’d forget all about you.

When he came to say goodbye to Claire for summer break, you answered the door and had to tell him she left already.

“What?” He replied. “She didn’t tell me she was leaving.”

“Oh,” you hummed. “Um, do you want me to call her?”

“No, no. That’s alright,” he shook his head. “So...you leaving yet?”

“Nope. I leave tomorrow.”

“Cool,” he looked side to side, checking that no one was in the hallway. Then, he focused back on you and pressed his lips to yours. He pushed his way into the room and you let him, closing the door behind him.

Afterwards, he let you lay with his head on his chest, his arm around your waist. You knew it may not be forever. But it was now. And it was nice.

[PART 4.]

#mine #college!matthew #matthew gray gubler #matthew gray gubler smut #matthew gray gubler imagine #mgg #mgg smut #mgg imagine

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happys-crazy-queen22 · 4 years

Text

Title: Killer In Disguise

Gif credit @jasonstodds.

Requested on wattpad.

Hope you all enjoy.

Happy Reading Dollies.

"Scott, idiot this is my sister Y/N". Derek introduced you to Stiles and Scott.

"Nice to meet you guys. Heard alot about you". You eyed Stiles who was awkwardly trying not to stare at you.

"So you're going to be going to our school"?

"Right".

"Um, do you know what classes you'll be taking"? Scott nervously rubbed the back on his neck.

"I dont know for sure yet. Derek hasnt went and got my schedule yet". You nudged your big brothers arm playfully.

"I'll get them. It's the weekend, I have other matters to attend". Derek sighed rolling his eyes. He maybe your big brother but you sometimes acted like your mom. Staying on him about things. He needed someone watching his back.

"You're right, I have to get ready for school anyways. Make sure I have everything so I'm going to go". You waved bye and left.

Derek crossed his arms growling at Scott and Stiles. "Dont even think about it".

"What'd we do"? Stiles asked innocently.

"I will rip you to shreads and bury pieces of you around town. Don't even think about". Derek warned them. Derek walked away and Scott shrugged his shoulders.

"Over protective". Stiles wrapped his arm around Scott and headed home.

Monday came, you were excited but also really nervous. Before living with Derek you were homeschooled so being in highschool was scary. Were you going to fit in or make a fool of yourself the first day? It was swimming in your head not to screw up or say something stupid.

As you walked in you saw Scott and Stokes at their locker, you went over to say hello.

"Y/N, hey". Stiles spotted you before you could say anything.

"Hey".

"So how's your first day going"? Scott asked as he slipped on his back pack.

"Good I guess. I aciddently bumped into a girl with red hair and she yelled at me but other than that its okay".

"You..you bumped into Lydia Martin? Did she smell nice? I bet she smelled nice". Stiles leaned against the locker with heart eyes coming out.

"He has a major crush on her. But she won't give him the time of day and plus shes dating Jackson".

"I didn't smell her. Sorry". You chuckled as Stiles started falling from the lockers.

"What class you got next"?

"Math".

"Hey, me too". Scott grinned.

"Great, you can show me where its at".

"See ya Stiles". You and Scott both said as Stiles jumped up acting like nothing happened and walked off.

During math class you were actually paying attention and surprisingly knowing what the teacher was talking about until you looked out of the corner of your eye and saw Lydias head tilted your way and her filing her nails as she watched you.

Yeah, she hated you. First day and already made a enemy. Great.

You tried to ignore her but she threw something at you. You didnt turn around but you could hear giggling and chuckling.

She kept doing it when the teachers back was turned. You were starting to get angry. Your knuckles started growing white as you gripped the desk. The wood started to split. Pulling your hand back you saw your nails had grown at least two inches, your hands started growing hair. Oh god, this was not happening in the middle of class.

Scott looked up from his book and saw you were freaking out trying to hide your hands in your jacket. But he noticed your teeth and your eyes. They were a amber color.

"Sppt. Y/N". Scott tried to get your attention.

You couldn't control it. You had to get out before you exploded.

Not even bothering to get the teachers permission you bolted out the door. The teacher protested. "Where is she going"?

"I think she had to take her medicine". Scott tried to cover.

"Was she okay"?

"I'll go check". Scott rushed out the door, looking down the hall he saw you stagger into a bathroom.

He carefully walked into the bathroom. "Y/N? You okay"?

Scott heard growling coming from the last stall. "I know what you're going through. Come out and we can sort this out".

Gulping you opened the door. There you stood, all wolf like. You couldnt believe it. Derek and you thought the werewolf gene skipped you. You showed no signs of werewolf.

"What the hell is happening"?

"You've unleashed the werewolf". Scott chuckled.

"Not funny. How do I make it go away"?

"What made you mad"?

"Lydia. She was throwing paper balls at me. I just want to rip her head off". You growled loudly.

"Okay. Calm down. You cant be this in school".

"I can't. I dont know how". You started to panic.

Scott thought of what Stiles did when he went all wolfie. He sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. But he didn't want to do that to you.

"I'm going to try something just dont kill me". Scott stepped closer to you until you were between him and the wall. He leaned in and kissed your lips. At first it wasnt working then something in you relaxed. Soon your arms were around his neck and not hairy anymore.

You pulled back. "It works. Holy crap it worked". You squealed kissing him again. Scott stood there happy with himself.

"Thanks Scott. You saved Lydia".

Scott laughed.

"Okay, you saved me too".

"No problem. If this happens again I'm here".

"I'll keep that in mind". You giggle. "What did you tell the teacher"?

"That you had to get your medicine".

"What? Now everyone's going to think I'm crazy". You huffed with a shake of your head.

"Well. I think Lyida has already told everyone that".

"I'm going to kill her". You growled. Scott stepped in front of you.

"Kidding. Gee, I cant joke around"?

"Not when you're a freshly new werewolf that can't control your anger you can't".

"Okay. We better get back to class". You walked out before Scott and made sure it clear for him to come out.

After school and your little episode all you wanted to do was go home and forget the day. But apparently your wolf self had other ideas. The woods were right in your sight and you had to go in. You strapped on your back pack and sprinted off inside. Leaving the human world and going into something that you had no control over.

"Scott, theres a body". Stiles poked his head threw Scotts window.

"Yeah, I know. It was a werewolf".

"Wait, how do you know that"?

"Y/N. She turned today in class. She was going to attack Lydia".

Stiles fell on the bed. "What? Y/Ns a werewolf? I thought the gene skipped her? She was the normal one".

"Sorry Stiles but you're back in that role". Scott chuckled when Stiles started pouting.

"What are we going to do? She cant go around killing people. Especially not Lydia".

"We need to find her". Scott hopped out his window. Stiles went to the window panting.

"I'll take the stairs".

While Scott and Stiles creeped through the woods, Scott got a wiff of a scent near. He put up his guard and pushed Stiles behind him.

"She's here".

"Where? It's literally pitch black. Oh right wolf senses".

"Scott"? You came into the little moon light that was peaking through the trees.

"What are you doing"?

"I don't know. I remember going home from school and the woods but after that there's nothing".

"You killed someone".

"I did? No I didnt". You shook your head with disbelief.

"Why are you covered in blood"?

You looked down at your clothes, blood and hair covered them. Your mouth had blood and your hands.

"Who was it"?

"A local criminal". Stiles spoke up from behind Scott.

"So it wasn't Lydia"?

"No why"?

"I dreamt that I killed her".

"You were blinded by the wolf rage. I'll call Derek to come get you". Scott pulled out his phone and called Derek. Stiles walked over to you, picking off hairs.

"Scott"?

"What"? He asked looking from his phone.

"Um deer hairs. Not human".

"What"? Scott walked over and examed you.

"You're not the scent that was on the body. How"?

"So I didn't kill anyone"?

"It seems to be your lucky day". Stiles patted your back making you growl. He quickly took his hands off you.

"You really need to work on the anger". Derek said coming out of the dark.

"Yeah, I know. Only Scott can calm me down".

"Really now? What do you do to calm my little sister there Scott"? Derek crossed his leather covered arms.

"Um..um..nothing". Scott stuttered.

"He kissed her". Stiles squealed on his friend.

"Stiles". Scott scoffed.

"What did I tell you"?

"Now is not the time for that. I'm either a killer or not". You talked over them.

"You're not". Scott and Derek both said.

"She could be". Stiles pulled off a chunk of hair and looked like skin.

"Alright. This is whats happening. No one talks about this again. My sister is not a killer". Derek grabbed your wrist and started walking off.

"Then she needs to control her anger. We cant have her killing people". Scott walked forward.

"I can control her". Derek growled.

"Not your way. I can do it with out hurting her".

"Kissing is not going to keep working".

"It may".

Derek looked at you then at Scott. "Alright we'll try it your way. If she kills anyone you're taking the fall for it".

"Okay. I'll take care of her".

"Fine. We'll see you tomorrow". Derek pulled you along with him disappearing in the night.

"You just said you'll babysit a werewolf that cant control her anger? Are you crazy"?

"Maybe. But I have you and you've been there for me. So I need to be there for her". Stiles smiled as he hugged Scott.

"I love you man".

"Get off".

Scott and Stiles went home planning out on how they'll keep you calm. Well Scott has his plan, that he'll enjoy alot. Stiles was still worried. You were more angrier than Scott was.

#scott mccall #scott mccall imagine #teen wolf imagines #teen wolf fanfiction #teen wolf #scott mccall teen wolf #scott mccall fanfiction #scott mccall x reader #scott mccall x werewolf reader #werewolf #werewolf x reader #derek hale #derek hale x sister #stiles stilinski

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myeverythingisyourstruly · 4 years

Text

Willy x female reader

Warnings: language

The sun was scorching hot, the nectar-rich flowers were in full bloom, scattered with colorful butterflies, and school was out, which only meant one thing - summertime had officially begun.

You were on break from college and at home with your family. Although you liked being back home with your loved ones, you didn’t necessarily want to be around them all day, so you decided to get a summer job.

Your mom had informed you the community pool near your house was always looking for “helpers” so you went over to check it out.

The pool area was surprisingly deserted except for one person, a man, who was laying on one of the fold out chairs, scrolling through his phone.

He had black ray-bans on and didn’t seem to notice you approaching.

“Excuse me,” you said. “Are you hiring for the summer?”

“Oh shit,” he jumped in his seat and pulled off his sunglasses. “I didn’t see you there. Uhh, yeah, we are. What kind of experience do you have?”

“Um, well I’ve worked on campus before and-”

He laughed. “I’m just fucking with you, the job is yours if you want it.”

“Oh cool,” you smiled. “So what exactly would I be, like your assistant? I mean you are the manager right?”

“Yeah,” he sat up and stuck his hand out. “Willy.”

“Y/N” you accepted the handshake.

“By the way,” he stood up at his full height, and wow was he much taller than you realized. “You’re not an assistant, there’s no assistants around here, you’re just an employee of mine. Okay?”

“Got it.” you nodded. “So where is everyone?”

“The pool doesn’t open until 12.”

You checked your phone -- 11:32 AM

“Okay, well, I’ll just hang around until it’s time to work I guess.”

“Actually, I have something you can do.” Willy walked over to his small office space and you followed.

The place was a mess to say the least. There were papers scattered everywhere, blankets and a pillow thrown in the corner, and evident coffee stains plagued the desk.

Yuck.

“You can organize these papers for me and put them in the filing cabinet.” Willy picked up one of the papers and wiped the stickiness from the coffee on his shorts. “So this is for people who want to rent out lockers, you get their name and number and blah blah blah, you get it right?”

You nodded silently, stunned that he wasn’t phased by the filthiness you two were standing in. “So I’m supposed to do all of this by myself?”

“Yeah!” he exclaimed, a little too happily. “You seem like the over-achiever, perfectionist type so I’m sure you’ll do fine. Good luck.” he patted your shoulder and walked away.

“Jerk,” you muttered.

“What was that?” he turned around with a smirk.

“N-nothing.”

* * * *

After working at the pool for a few weeks, you were starting to wonder if the extra money was even worth it. You weren’t the only one who worked there but somehow you always ended up doing the majority of the work while everyone else sat back and chilled.

It was partially your own fault for putting up with it and you had an idea of how this job was going to be considering your first day. You had walked up and down the pool aisles, keeping an eye on all the children and their activities, while Willy, who was supposed to be the manager, was chatting with friends. He called you over and embarrassed you by saying, “You don’t need to monitor the kids so hard. Take the stick out of your ass and relax.” You turned away, trying to cover your blush as his friends cackled.

On the bright side of things, the children were well behaved for the most part and you didn’t have any problems with them. Although, there was that one kid that was caught humping the pool noodle.

You were pretty close to quitting until you started noticing a really hot guy appearing at the pool every other day with his little brother. He had beautiful blonde hair that shimmered in the sun and his body was the type of picture you’d hang up in your room as a poster to drool over. Truthfully, you felt he was way out of your league, but that didn’t stop you from flaunting around in your bathing suit, showing a little extra skin at times.

When you finally got the courage to speak with him, you found out his name was Jason and he was in college too. There were times when you even felt like he was flirting right back at you, which was a total surprise but you played it cool.

Today for example, you were talking to Jason about a band the two of you loved and he was hinting at taking you to one of their next concerts.

“They’re actually going on tour next month and I bet they’ll come here. Have you seen them live?”

“Oh my god, no, but I’d love to. Are you going?” you batted your eyelashes.

“Definitely, but there’s one problem though. I don’t have a date.” his eyes flicked down to your chest.

“You know, I’ll be here the rest of the summer and I would love to-”

Splat!

You gasped at the impact of a huge water balloon hitting the side of your face, drenching your entire chest, and the water was dripping down into your shorts.

Someone was attempting but completely failing to cover up their snickering. You looked up to see Willy covering his mouth as his shoulders bounced up and down.

“Holy shit,” he gasped, eliciting another breathy laugh. “I didn’t mean to hit your face like that, I swear.”

“That’s it.” You marched over to the bucket of water balloons and picked up a few before throwing them at Willy, who was running away to the other side.

You missed the first two times but on the third try you got him right in the crotch, which made it look like he pissed himself. Everyone laughed, including Willy, and soon some of the other kids joined in to completely soak their friends in water.

By the end of it, almost everyone was a mess. You looked around to see destroyed balloons all around the pool, some floating in the water as well, which was a funny sight. They looked like tattered colorful condoms.

Once the pool closed down for the day, It was time to start cleaning up but thankfully Willy stayed behind to help. You reflected on the water balloon fight and how it had all started, which made you walk over to Willy with a question in mind.

“Why did you throw that water balloon at me when I was talking to Jason?” You stood over him while he squatted to pick up pool toys, his back facing you.

“Cus’ I’m a jerk, remember?”

“Yeah, I know, but you could’ve struck at any time and yet you chose to do it when I was with Jason. Why?”

He sighed, stood up, and turned around to face you.

“Look, y/n, I know you like Jason but he’s a player. He does the same thing to a bunch of other girls.”

“And how would you know?” You asked with an attitude, crossing your arms.

Willy huffed out a laugh but there was no humor behind it. “Because I’ve seen him do it the past couple of summers. Trust me, he only wants to get in your pants.”

Willy walked away but you followed. It was petty, but you didn’t want him to have the last word.

“Why should I trust you?”

He stopped once again to look at you. “As much as I piss you off sometimes, I still don’t wanna see you get hurt. You don’t deserve that.”

You slowly uncrossed your arms, letting your defenses down. For some reason you did actually trust what Willy was saying but you didn’t exactly want him to know that.

“Well,” you sighed. “Thanks for telling me.”

“No problem,” he said with a sort of apologetic smile.

From that day on you avoided talking to Jason. You still remained cordial and would greet him if you two made eye contact but you kept it strictly platonic and didn’t make any moves to approach him. The sad part about it was Jason didn’t even seem to notice, and if he did, he just didn’t care enough to confront you about it.

It was your day to be on lifeguard duty. All the kids were screaming and laughing, having themselves a great time, until a loud cry broke through. You sprung off your chair to see a little boy had fallen on the concrete, scraping his knee in the process. Willy had made it to the kid before you did and was helping him to calm down.

“Hey, could you get the first aid kit out of my office?”

“Sure thing,” you rushed over to grab the kit and brought it back to Willy. You noticed the kid wasn’t crying anymore, but in fact was smiling.

You watched as Willy cleaned up the blood, disinfected the scrape, and patched him up with a cool Iron Man band-aid. Quite frankly, It was the cutest thing you’d ever seen him do.

Wait, since when do I find Willy cute?

The way he handled the situation was so sweet. You had never seen Willy be so attentive, calm, and confident. When he was done, he stood up and stretched, his shirt lifting just enough to see exposed skin. Your eyes glanced down, trailing the line of hair that led to his-

No. No. No. I’m not doing this.

You looked up to see Willy was already looking at you.

Crap.

“You okay?” He seemed to be genuinely concerned, which made you feel even more embarrassed.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

He shrugged. “Just asking.”

You didn’t really know how else to respond so you just awkwardly walked away, hoping he wasn’t watching you.

I do not like Willy. I definitely don’t have a crush on him. Nope, not this girl.

Your mind betrayed you that night when you dreamt of Willy going down on you.

You couldn’t make direct eye contact with him for the next two days.

The rest of the month was torture. It seemed like every little thing he did now was sexy and the worst part about it was he didn’t even realize the effect he had on you. It got so bad that your stomach would flip flop whenever he would grace you with a smile, which most times wasn’t even because of anything you said, but just seeing him smile over dumb shit was doing it for you.

It all came to a boil when the two of you were the last ones at the pool. It was evening time so the pool had long been closed, but you stuck around to clean up and Willy had mentioned a schedule change he wanted to go over with you.

“So since Summer is coming to an end we’re gonna open up the pool an hour earlier and I was thinking you could hmph-”

You connected your lips to his, fast and hard, as if there was an immediate need to release all of the pent up energy you had inside. The kiss was cut short when he gently pulled away from you.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m...kissing you?” You hated the way it came out sounding like a question instead of a statement.

“Yeah, no shit,” he laughed. “But why? I mean, what about Jason?”

“Jason is a player like you said,” you sighed. “And I don’t want to be with someone like that.”

Willy smirked. “So you admit I was right.”

You rolled your eyes. “Yeah, I guess so.

“And now that Jason is out of the picture you think you like me?” he teased.

“Yes, I mean no! Ugh,” he was making this way harder for you and you didn’t know whether to be pissed or turned on. “I’ve liked you for a while now,” you admitted as a blush crept upon your cheeks. “You just didn’t notice.”

There was a gleam in his eyes. “I notice a lot more than you think I do.”

You blushed even harder.

“Listen,” you stepped a little closer to him. “I don’t want you to think you’re second to Jason, I really do like you. I mean I even had a sex dream about you!”

His eyebrows raised.

“I like you because even though you annoy the shit out of me, I still find myself laughing when I’m around you and you’re so great with the kids and you’re so cu-”

He leaned down to silence you, cupping your face with both hands.

“You talk too much,” he stated quietly.

“One of my many talents,” you joked, earning a smile in response.

“And fuck, I like you too. A lot.”

He dove back in to give you the kiss you had imagined the first time around, the kind that makes you feel a little dizzy, as if you’re floating in the air. Warmth spread through your belly like lava slowly seeping out of a volcano.

You sighed when he pulled back for room to breathe.

“What are we going to do when I go back to school?”

Smiling softly, he placed some of your hair behind your ear. “Don’t even worry about that, kid. We’ll figure it out.”

He leaned in, as if he were going to kiss you again, but dodged your lips to whisper in your ear. “So tell me more about that dream you had.”

@mediocre-megs @3tothe1 @fightingevilbymoonlight13 @damien-kaspbrak

#bill hader #willy mclean #the to do list #bill hader x reader #bill hader x you #fanfic

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smarmaladey · 4 years

Text

The Bad Touch - (1/3)

Chapter 1 - “you and me”

Rating: 🇪

Fandom: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Relationship(s): 🐞♡🚺

Words: 4032

Ao3 Link

(For content warnings and additional notes, click read more.)

The recessive vampire genes in Giorno's blood haven't been sitting too well with him lately. AKA, your boss is in heat. Oh god. Oh fuck.

content warnings: rape/non-con elements, ooc (probably), AU (probably)

Enjoy!

♡🐞♡

Sunday.

4:00 PM.

The first incident.

♡🐞♡

Christ.

Seriously? In your three years working in espionage, this was the most tedious assignment you’d ever gone with? Retrieving a couple godforsaken papers from some insignificant rival group?

Whatever. It was done.

The fruits of your labor were safely tucked in the inside of your coat, ready to be delivered to the big man himself.

You could never fully understand why your boss always made you deliver crap straight to him. Maybe it was a trust thing?

During the span of your near two-year “career” under Passione, you’d managed to be slung up the ranks by the combination of your competence, ability, and tendency to work alone. This meant getting strangely close with the head of the whole shebang, normally taking your assignments straight from the man.

You never really made a big deal out of this. Giovanna was far from a super-secretive man, nor was he cold like one might expect from a goddamn mob boss. Hell , If the lowest, newest, meekest member of a scummy group did one thing that pleased him, he’d probably invite them to dinner at the most prestigious establishment in Rome. Or at least that’s what he came across as to you.

It was kind of sketchy.

But you didn’t really care, nor did you have any right to criticize the guy.

Dwelling on those thoughts wasn’t your style. All you had to do today was: Deliver the file, leave the office, get home, and finally, watch your shows. Simple.

After somehow making your way through his large estate to his office all by yourself, something was a little off.

The door was closed all the way.

You cracked it open a little bit, the too-loud creaking making you uneasy.

“Sir…?”

“Ah,” his voice was much too quiet, and almost...frantic. “Who’s this?”

How the hell am I supposed to respond to that? “Uhm, me?” You took the liberty of letting yourself in, slightly put off by how dim the room was. Facing you was the back of a leather chair.

Giovanna was looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of his office, curtains pulled half-open, casting soft afternoon light into the room. “...I’m guessing you have the documents?”

“Wouldn’t be here if I didn’t…” Muttering under your breath, you took the black folder from your coat.

He turned around when he heard your footsteps (because of course he could), being illuminated by the yellow-er light from the ceiling lamp.

The files were gently set down on his desk, and you caught him looking up at your face.

Something you’d been noticing for the past few months, (actually, you were pretty sure it began around his eighteenth birthday) he’d been... adorning himself more than usual…? As if he wasn’t already grandiose enough, he’d been wearing makeup quite a lot more than you were used to.

Giovanna smiled up at you, and successfully got you to avert your gaze. His lips were glossed with a very lovely fuchsia, but what really caught your eye were his cloud-white, glittering teeth. And you had no clue why. Something was off about his teeth, besides the fact that, like the rest of him, they were grossly perfect.

He was clad in a classic; magenta suit with numerous full-golden brooches. (Those ones were new, given to him by a “friend of the organization” apparently, and you had no idea why you knew this) Glancing at his hands on the folder, his nails, manicured into rounded points and painted white, contrasted with the signature black leather of your favorite binder.

Strange. His door was completely shut, as if nobody had seen him for the entire day. Why was he still dressed up…?

Swallowing nothing, you took a step back.

“Let’s see…” Your boss’s voice was still quiet, as he carefully tugged the manila files out and placed them on his desk. “Ah, bravo! These are exactly what we’ve been looking for!”

Before you knew it, he had snatched your hand and was shaking it with both of his. The nails digging into your wrist made you cringe.

”Thank you, Sir...thank you…” You tried with all your being not to sound confused or ungrateful, especially with those...intense turquoise eyes glaring up into your soul.

“I expected nothing less of this, perfect job!” His hands lingered for too long before he dropped to start reading the documents again.

You mumbled something, turned around, and began to leave. Yet, just as your hand was on the tacky flower-themed doorknob, he stopped you.

“Wait,” the jump from his chair was audible. “I, ahem, I never dismissed you.” There was a small giggle in his voice, and you weren’t buying it.

Ugh.

“Awh, but Don Giovanna~~! ♡ I’ve had such a long, looong day, and my poor body’s so, sooo tired! Please let me go home, haven’t I done such a good job already~? ♡ There’s a new X-Files episode premiering tonight, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world~!”

That’s what you could’ve said in an ideal world.

“Right.” In that world, he’d let you leave right away, “am I needed for anything else, Giovanna?” And then you’d go to your quiet, expensive beach house and get an amazing night’s sleep.

He shuffled in his seat a bit. “Yes, why don’t you hang up your coat?” He spoke without looking at you, scanning the files in front of him. “You must be hot in this room, I know I’ve been all day…”

You nodded once. “I think the air conditioning here might be broken…” your boss’s words mostly flew over your head. “I’ve just been feeling so overheated lately. I even keep the door shut now just so the cool air doesn’t leave this room…” You nodded again. “Do you think I should get a fan?” Again.

When you fully took off your heavy coat, you flinched.

Holy shit, it’s freezing.

With your bare arms exposed, you finally processed how cold it was in the room. No sooner did the temperature register with the rest of your body.

The coat rack, like a lot in the room, was floral themed. The decoration of the entire office was pretty on point, but when you walked back across the room again, something new grabbed your attention.

On the ceiling, the round lamp that hung down had a new look. The paper lampshade had a sort of “Classical Asian Art” look to it, like Japanese “Ukiyo-e” or whatever it was called. Neat.

“Nice lamp.” You said, breaking the silence. Giovanna glanced at you, and you pointed up at the ceiling. “It looks nice.”

“Oh, thank you.”

Sitting across from him, you felt somewhat trapped. Just a little, though. It was just...quiet, with him reading papers and you...not.

This guy…

Your heart jumped when he shut the folder in front of your face. “Could you do me a favor, please?” Giovanna pointed somewhere behind you, at one of the many bookshelves lining the walls. “There should be a…” He cleared his throat, something he had been doing a lot during this meeting. “...a sort of history book on the Holy Roman Empire over there...”

Not bothering to say anything else, you got up. He gave you clarification and you were happy to get a little farther from him.

The books were all similar-looking with hard-to-read spines. It honestly felt like they were all sorted by color rather than title, and perfectly lined up with one another. How can one man manage to be so perfectly organized?

“Sir, which shelf is it?” You weren’t answered, as Giovanna had to clear his throat again. “...are you alright? Have you been ill these past few days?”

He waved at you not to worry. “I should be fine, I’ve just been so thirsty lately…”

“Ah.”

“It’s so strange, my throat is constantly dry…”

“That so? Would you like me to get some water?” You offered, still facing the bookshelf.

Once more, he cleared his throat. “No, that’s not necessary. Don’t worry about me too much…”

Everything seemed to stop awkwardly.

“It’s probably on the fourth shelf down, the title should be obvious…”

And like that, you found it.

“Grazie, grazie!” Giovanna almost cooed to you when you handed him the leatherback book. When he took it from you, his nails hit your fingertips, but you were distracted by seeing his teeth again. Still, you couldn’t tell what was up.

“Yeah, right…” You sat back down across from him, as he almost immediately started looking through the pages. “So why do you need the history book again…?”

He slid a document to you and pointed at some random word. “Well, it seems like in these records, they refer to--” Out. Everything else he said went through one ear, out the other.

“...right.”

“--and in this, this is a--”

“...yeah.”

“--which leads me to this one, which I have…”

When he trailed off, it went quiet again.

“This. I’ve seen this quote before!” He was pointing at the bottom of one of the first documents you snatched.

You were about to respond with another “oh really?” before he pointed out at another bookshelf, this time much closer to the desk.

“It’s smaller, but it’s right over there, I’m pretty sure.” Again, the books were all sorted by size and color, so you couldn’t tell anything from each other. He must’ve taken off the sleeves, too, because some didn’t even have a title on the spine.

You really wanted to snarl something at him. “Where am I looking again?”

Giovanna tried to clarify the location again, but it wasn’t working with you. Just get up yourself, asshole.

And he did! For the first time you’d seen that day, he rose from his chair and stared at the same row of books you were. Maybe the same exact book you were looking at. He must’ve, why else would he be standing so close?

“I could’ve sworn I put it around here…” You could hear his breathing. Stepping away, you watched him stand stiff and stare at all the books.

Your eyes were beginning to hurt. It’d been so long since you’d slept, all you needed was to go. “Enough, what’s the title of the book?” You were careful not to groan or scoff before or after you spoke.

Giovanna touched his chin with his index, looking, frankly, gorgeous from a profile shot. “It was called...ah, Invitation to a Beheading? Something like that?”

Something clicked in your head so fast you could’ve sworn you heard a ring.

“Ohhh! I’m pretty sure I remember my mom reading that book!” A quick memory of the book’s appearance flashed in your head, that matched something you had seen on another shelf earlier perfectly. “It’d be over here-”

Now, what happened next needs to be analyzed, because you were 99.9% sure this single moment was the straw on the camel’s back. The action that began the downfall. The great whore to your Babylon.

All you did was turn around, turn around right next to him, so you could head to another bookshelf.

The thing was, you weren’t paying attention to how you were moving your arms, only focused on the stupid goddamn book. Innocently, your arm swung and, as a result, your hand just brushed against his --Giovanna’s, your boss’s-- upper thigh...area. The back of it. You know, that area, the one between the tailbone and the leg, that one.

To put it bluntly, you touched his ass.

Both you two froze in that moment, you could tell. Maybe time stopped.

"...civetta."

You looked back around, to make sure you had heard that right.

"I'm sorry…?"

"Ah...you're such a little tease, aren't you…?"

Huh?

Blood in your veins went cold when you saw the pure, unadulterated salacity in his eyes.

Your fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, and you tried to look to the side, or even turn around, but it was much too late. Giovanna had promptly moved to you, caged your face with his hands and turned you up to look at him.

The eye contact was brief, his gaze drilling into yours, before he forced you into a kiss.

A shock went down your spine and made you stiffen. Almost instantly, you tasted the strange (and revoltingly pleasant) flavor of his lip gloss, and grew hyper-aware of not only the shape of his mouth, but the contrast of his body heat against yours.

Eyes widened, you uttered out a shocked, muffled noise that only seemed to make his ever-growing body temperature even warmer.

You tried to push against him, but he just grunted and tugged your body against his. Squishing your eyes shut, you tried pushing and palming at his chest, which only made him hold on tighter.

Eventually he detached for air, a thin string of saliva connecting the two of you appearing only briefly. Giovanna's green eyes were absolutely hazed over, a vibrant pink dyeing his usually white face.

A million words were dashing through your head --why? what? who? how? me? you?-- but your brain was incapable of stringing together anything coherent.

It wouldn't have mattered if it had been, though, because almost as soon as the golden boy had pulled away, he pulled in once more.

This time, he took advantage of your pried open mouth to invade you near completely. In the midst, your tongue ended up brushing against one of his teeth--one of his canines.

Sharp. Too sharp.

With that, it was cut short by you successfully jerking away. While he didn't let you go, Giovanna withdrew again, wiping off his smeared lip gloss with the back of his hand.

"Sir! I--" Idiotically, you had assumed it was over, but surely enough, your wrists had gotten snatched.

Next thing you knew, the side of your face had been pushed up against the nearest vertical surface, with Giovanna mewing your body with his own.

"Gh…no..." Your voice had gotten higher, weaker too, "Sir...ah, Don Giovanna, please...I don't understand...why, what is this…?"

"You 'don't understand'? Really now?"

You trembled at how close his voice had become, now so close to your ear that you could hear his tongue detaching from the roof of his mouth. “Sir, I--”

“Ah,” he breathed out a small laugh, “don’t try and play coy with me, cara, you knew exactly what you were doing…”

Giovanna had noticed how you reacted to his voice, so he decided to drag his tongue along the shell of your ear, before kissing it directly. Again, you let out a weak noise as warmth shocked your body.

Trying to get away from his voice, you turned forward and pressed your forehead against the shelf, perhaps in an attempt to squeeze yourself between the books and escape.

"Oh, when you tried to leave me earlier," he was beginning to sound almost whiney with how breathy his voice was becoming, clutching your shoulder and hand with an iron grip. "I swear, if you left, I would've…"

He never finished that statement, too distracted by trailing his hand from your shoulder, down your torso, all the way to the bottom of your high-waisted shorts.

"These...ah, did you really expect to come in here, wearing these, and be able to get away~?"

Even with your panic-blinded brain, you knew you had worn these (admittedly, skimpy) pants around him plenty of times before. He never had any problems until now…

"Giovanna, this is- ah!"

Your words were choked back when he had slipped his hand beneath the waistband of your pants. Underwear too, as he wasted little time trying to force his hand between your closed thighs.

His hand had no trouble finding that little rift in your flesh, middle finger delving between and pressing against the sensitive little nub inside.

In a near instant, your legs went from straight to bent, beginning to tremble. You cursed yourself for near literally becoming putty in his hands, but your brain was still fried and unable to think straight.

With a charming, pleased hum, he swirled his finger around, generating more embarrassing sounds from you. He kept his chest firm on your back, making sure you couldn't wriggle away from his grasp.

Giovanna slid his finger lower and curled it, his digit entering your body with a very slight pinch. You yelped again, hyper-aware of the quiet, very muffled squelching sound made.

"Oh, it's so wet here…" he tittered, sending even more polarizing feelings coursing through your veins.

"N-no...not there, you can't…" The softness of his hand, the smoothness of his nail, invading your warm insides made you feel extremely weak, like your body could cave in at any second. Your feet began to slide back on the hardwood floor, so Giovanna took extra care securing his lower body against yours as well.

Tragically, you tried rocking against his hand, begging for relief. That stopped when you realized you could feel his hard-on through the material of his satin clothing.

He decided he'd had enough of whatever this was, extracting his hand from your clothing and backing up a tad. After lapping his finger clean, he took a second to "compose" himself.

"I apologize, I know this isn't the most comfortable place for us, at the moment…" you were gently hugged from behind, him nuzzling into the top of your head a bit.

You wanted to take the opportunity to break away from him, but before you could even realize he had hastily lifted you up. The bright light made you reflexively shut your eyes, but it didn't stop you from trying to wiggle out of his hold.

Giovanna brought you to his large, cushioned chair, sitting himself down and maneuvering your limbs just so you were straddling him. He tried to hug you again, but you pushed yourself away, hands at his chest.

"Sir…please, we have to stop." A tiny, nagging part of your brain knew this wouldn't reason with him, so you added on, "...not now. Not here, at least…"

His engaged expression turned into a soft, content smile.

Holy fuck, did I actually get him to listen? Will I actually get away with my dignity after all?

You nearly smiled at the seemingly good sign.

But instead of letting you go, he spun the chair around, grabbing your wrists.

Actually, it wasn't him grabbing you. Not exactly.

Ghostly white-gold hands faded in, pulling your arms away from each other, as he pushed your torso away, tugged your shins so they dropped from the chair and onto the floor, and secured your pelvis against his.

In the end, the position you had been forced into was both uncomfortable and humiliating, with G • E restraining your arms, the edge of the desk pressing into the small or your back, and to top it all off, your boss firmly holding your groins together.

It made you want to cry, so you did. Just a little bit, though.

"Ah, please don't worry! I don't plan on having briefings with anybody else, so let's not worry about…"

He completely trailed off, losing his train of thought as he looked over your body in silence. It stayed like this for a couple seconds, with him not exactly sure what to do next, and you refusing to look at anything.

Eventually, he leaned forward a bit, reached to the bottom of your top. You glared at his hand as it grabbed onto the hem, and in a single motion, yanked it over your chest. The cold air enveloped your now exposed breasts made your muscles jerk inward, giving the desk a little shake.

In the tense moment, he kind of just stared for a few seconds, eyes round and doe-ish, face very flushed.

He doesn't know what he's doing. And he doesn't even care.

Wetness dotting his yellow lashes, he suddenly wrapped his arms around your torso, nudging up into the crook of your neck and drawing in your scent. You would've wondered why he looked like he was crying, but your mind was occupied with the embarrassment that came with knowing how sweaty you were. Not like he cared.

Giovanna pressed a couple pecks to the bottom of your jaw, before lowering and quickly licking up the side of your neck. He pulled back about a centimeter, and you watched in suspense as his eyes trailed down to your chest.

He traced a very faint vein with the tip of his nail, one embedded in your breast, until he reached your nipple, erected by the cold air. He took it between the tips of his fingers, rolling it gently.

The muscles in your chest tensed as he cupped your tit with one hand, and slid the other down your body again.

While groping you, he had his lips ghosting the area around your collarbone, wanting to feel every small detail of your skin. His breath felt like it was getting hotter every second, and you were sure that the stuttering little snivels coming out of your mouth were only making things worse.

With a little roll of his chair, Giovanna pushed his groin up against yours, the slight friction made on your vital spot just enough to make you squirm.

His hands really had no right to feel as wonderful as they did, smooth and supple, incredibly warm, and glazed with a sheer bit of sweat. It felt like they were made for your body, as it accepted his touch completely, whether he was groping you or continuing to explore your insides with his digits.

You continued to try and fight back, be it very weakly, by wiggling your lower body best you could. What made you completely give up the quarrel was Giovanna leaning down and taking one of your stiff teats in his mouth. The sudden feeling made you reflexively cave in your chest, as your elbows finally touched the cool wood of his desk. In the back of your hazed mind, you took note of how G • E loosened his hold.

He put more pressure on your body, eyebrows knit, like he was savoring the taste of your skin. As he grew rougher, you felt his sharp canines poke at your supple flesh, and you jerked again.

Giovanna responded by slipping another digit inside, pushing you back a tad more while staying latched on your chest.

Too much. It's all too much.

With seemingly nothing else to do, you let your head drop back. Then, you saw an opportunity.

The lamp.

See, while you had been tangled up in getting restrained by your Boss's Stand, you somehow forgot one critical fact; that you had one too.

The key to escaping this Freudian Nightmare was, quite literally, glaring you in the face.

And all you needed was just another little push…

As if on cue, your arms slid back about a half-centimeter more, and you grabbed the opportunity with an iron grip.

Now.

In an actual blink, Giovanna's ceiling lamp imploded, causing the room to go dark. The minor vacuum caused was enough to make the desk shake, and you slide across and onto the floor ahead.

Despite landing awkwardly on your shoulders, you hastily got on your ass, tugged down your shirt, and rose to your feet.

The relief you felt when you finally reached the door was indescribable, yet you still found yourself glancing back.

Pulverized glass was still falling through the air, what once remained of the most interesting part of the room now glittering with sunset light. Giovanna, on the other hand, had rolled his chair back a bit, adorably rubbing his eyes.

Hit one!

The beat of your heart was racing, yet…

"Giorno, I'm sorry!"

Hit two!

You had no time to dwell on your apology, though, as you rushed out the door.

Hit three! Triple fuckup combo!

You leapt off the mezzanine to the ground floor, and made a dash to the exit.

The cool air of the night came to rightfully claim you. That night, while running across the Italian countryside, you felt rather different.

Needless to say, you missed that night's episode of X-Files.

♡🐞♡

n: thanks to aaron for making the title cards for me, he’s a great skunk man! I said i was gonna do it, and here i am. Hopefully this means i’ll be able to start using tumblr a bit more frequently... Or maybe it won’t, who knows? I’ll post the second chapter here tomorrow, and as for the last one...it’s coming, don’t fret :D

#my works #n/s/f/w #jjba #jojo #vento aureo #giorno giovanna #cw noncon #yumee works #two ladybugs havin sex #my muscles my muscles #involuntarily flex

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reallyginnyf · 4 years

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Tag Game: Ship Version

tagged by @stackcats: (waves and calls across the void of Tumblr) helloooooo! thaaaank yooooou!

top 3 ships: I’m not in any fandom at the moment and I have suddenly forgotten every ship I ever shipped in my entire life…

Mulder and Scully, The X-Files: My OG ship, resulted in my first fanfic, my first fandom convention and my discovery of the hurt/comfort genre. (I helped organize that first convention in St. Louis and the hotel staff were very, VERY concerned over the “Mulder Torture” session we had scheduled but we were just a bunch of nerds sitting around a hotel room reading H/C fanfic aloud.)

The Doctor and their Companions, Doctor Who: I’ve been in the Doctor Who fandom for a long time, since the PBS public access days of the Fourth Doctor in the late 70s/early 80s, and my favorite part of canon/fanon is the relationship between the Doctor and their companions. I can’t choose only one pairing, though I am partial to a great big ol’ TARDIS family. I headcanon the Doctor as asexual so the romantic/sexual ships don’t do it for me, although if they did, it would be Nine/Rose. (Fun fact: the worst fanfic I ever wrote was one in which I tried to write smut and it read exactly like it was written by someone who had never read smut in her entire life. Awkward.)

Akiva Shtisel and Elisheva, no wait, maybe Libbe? IDK, someone, Shtisel: I’m not even going to call this a guilty pleasure because I don’t feel guilty in the least for enjoying Shtisel. All of the characters and storylines are brilliant though I did want to give Giti a good shake here and there. Disclaimer: I am not Haredim so I have no idea if I’m veering out of my lane by watching and loving this series but it’s my comfort show along with Midnight Diner and Samurai Gourmet.

last movie: Uhhh it was “Knives Out,” of which I watched maybe 15 minutes. As soon as I heard the word “regurgitative,” I levitated out of my seat and stayed in the lobby for the remainder of the film. Every once in a while I’d hear a heartfelt “ewwww” from the theater and knew I’d made the right choice. Emetophobia is fun.

lipstick or chapstick: Exfoliating scrub, Chapstick, colored lip balm and lip oil during the week when I have to show my face. Nothing but Chapstick on weekend days and lip masks on weekend nights. My lips are hella cute and it’s the one shred of vanity I am clinging to while the rest of me slides down the lumpy slope into my late 50s. Turkey neck and gray hair? Meh. Crepey lips? THE HORROR

last song: Oh dear, it was Pump Up the Jam because I found my old Wii Just Dance game and I’m having great fun with it. At least it wasn’t Wannabe.

reading: The Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. I’m about three chapters in and holy crap this book is well-written and terrifying.

watching: Nothing scripted. I received a 3-month subscription to The Great Courses for Christmas and I’ve been learning mental math (it is a BLAST), practicing Tai Chi, and appreciating sacred music. I have about six other courses on my watchlist.

totally spies or the powerpuff girls: I’m going to show my age here. I was 30 when the Powerpuff Girls came out and 33 with Totally Spies and I had to look that up because I wasn’t familiar with either show. Zack didn’t come along until I was 34.

Tagging the shippiest people I can think of off the top of my head: @veradune, @resting-meme-face, @this-lioness, @sparksearcher, @leaiorganas

#tag game #long post #sorry I ramble #stackcats #thanks for the tag #i love tag games #not going to tag any of my fandoms #not inviting controversy though these are some pretty tame opinions

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braveskyered · 5 years

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Knights (Part 3)

Part 1 Part 2

The guilt remains, and Arthur knows that even though he's married now, he cannot bring himself to go back to introduce his side of the family. So he hides them, instead. Just what did the Mystery Skulls do...?

Part 3: So Long Since I’ve Wrote About It

The next day came by, and Arthur woke up in his warm soft bed, happy that he didn't have a nightmare this time. He looked to his left, and didn't see Elaine beside him. He isn't surprised, considering the circumstances.

Arthur got off from bed and attached his arm, which received many upgrades compared to the model he had back when he left Tempo. Now, his left arm received a skin covering that left it nearly indistinguishable from a real arm unless one examined it up close, which helped make him feel less self-conscious about it. Ever since Arthur left his old life behind, he never liked being outside that much with his old prosthetic, fearing that someone would stare and eventually recognize him. He even went so far as to avoid wearing orange vests like he used to, instead opting for ones with darker colors such as brown or black. He dressed in a white shirt like he usually does with dark burgundy pants, before donning the vest in question. He stared at the mirror hanging on the wall and nodded to himself.

You are okay, Arthur. You will be fine. You live for them now.

He didn't want to go back. Not now, not ever. Not when he has a wife to be with...

“Arthur, could you tend to Percy real quick? I have my hands full with Gwen. He's already been fed and changed, so I think he just wants to be held by you.”

...and two babies to take care of. He went to the other side of the room and gently lifted the three-month-old baby boy from the crib. He saw Elaine's figure poke out from the bathroom door and take a box of wet wipes from the dresser nearby before going back in. With the tiny babe safe in the crook of his arms, Arthur left the bedroom, went to his work desk down the hall, and sat down on the chair. He then grabbed a small book that held the logo of a horse's head behind a shield with a sword from the stack and opened it, then slowly went through the pages of his diary entries, casually reading through some of them.

I don't know why, but Elaine gave me this diary for my birthday. She said that if I write down the things that trouble me, I can be less stressed about it or something like that? Honestly, if I wrote all my troubles down, I'd probably fill this book twice or more by now.

He flipped a page.

I've had this for a few months now. I guess it's helping. Writing out my thoughts and then processing them has helped me plan out on how to deal with this. It helped sort out the dreams, too.

He skipped past a few pages.

I'm worried they'll find me, I left without them knowing. I don't want to go back. Lewis hates me and I'll just be in the way. Vivi wouldn't give up until she found me. I don't want Mystery to track-

He skipped many pages to avoid that entry, suppressing the fear while trying to stop his hand from shaking.

He looked at an entry that held handwriting that wasn't his.

I love you, my star. ★

What is Elaine doing writing in this? I guess I shouldn't complain, though. It's really sweet of her. I guess she's serious about us being together? I mean, it's most likely that. I DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE WITH HER.

I got separated from Elaine while we were at the show. I could've sworn I saw Lew-

...before quickly skipping all the entries past it until he reached a blank page for his next entry, and started to write the words.

It's hard to believe that Gwen and Percy are over three months old now. Other parents weren't kidding when they say that kids grow up quickly. They still like hearing me hum the chorus of Lewis's song. I wonder if he'll forgive me for using it as a lullaby. I doubt it, but I can't recall any other song that will work for them besides the noise from the dryer. So far, the New Year is off to a good start.

Arthur set the pen down. He first used the diary to write down things that trouble him, but over time, he came to write down things that also made him happy, the events he had with the family he married into that made him slowly fall for his wife, even though there were some bumps and secrets to show between the two of them. Then came the children, and Arthur would write down multiple child care tips he learned from doctors or parents that were already experienced with handling them.

For Arthur, a part of him still has a hard time believing that he is a father to three-month-old twins. If someone were to tell his twenty-two year old self that he would be married with children at twenty-five, he wouldn't have believed it for even a second.

When Arthur first met Elaine, it wasn't love at first sight, but he did have an admiration for her spirit. Recalling the memory from three years ago somewhat fondly, Arthur held his son gently, holding out a finger from his left hand for the baby to wrap his fingers around.

“Holy...! Either the mechanic at that dealership is an idiot or they actually sabotaged the thing! What the hell?!”

Arthur stood back with Elaine beside him as the two watched another of the latter's relatives, an older woman with short black hair, examine the van's engine in more detail. It took less than a minute for Arthur to find the woman intimidating, and it wasn't even directed at him! He stepped back slightly to remain behind Elaine, the woman's niece.

“Look at this!” she gestured at the engine, “It's just as the kid says, there's so much crap in these pipes that it'll take hours to get it all out! I'm surprised the engine didn't overheat and break apart when our regular brought it in! Ugh! The idiots at that used dealership used the wrong kind of silicon sealant...!”

“Still, this is a problem, Aunt Morgan,” Elaine shook her head with her arms crossed with concern, “His son is pretty tall, and they've spent at least three months looking for a vehicle like this after their last one got totaled before then. I mean, we can clean it out, but wouldn't that be somewhere around the thousand dollar range if we did that? We don't have a spare engine to replace it either, and that would cost around the same even if we did. And last I checked, our regular doesn't have that kind of money.”

Morgan sighed irritably, “I'll think of something. I'll go talk to your mother and see if there's anything we can do about it. At the very least I'll have to see if I can convince our regular to file a claim or even a police report against the dealership for attempting to sell a tampered car. I don't trust them to clean it, but I do want them to pay for it since it's their goof up.”

Elaine glanced at Arthur for a moment, then back to her aunt, “Might be a good idea to keep Uncle Miles on speed dial if it somehow goes to court by them.”

“Oh, trust me, I intend to do that from the get go,” Morgan shook her head, wrote down some notes, and turned to Arthur, “As much as I disapprove of having strangers coming in here, I must thank you for finding this issue for me. I would've eventually found it, but you did save us some good time.”

Arthur gripped his left wrist, not trusting himself to say anything, so he nodded. Elaine turned to him in concern, glancing at his arms and then at his face.

“A man of few words, huh? You're an interesting one, I'll give you that,” Morgan let out a sound of her being a little annoyed, then started to leave, “I'm going to go submit the report in my office. Elaine, go talk to Mom and see how we can repay this guy for his help, she wanted to talk to him, anyway.”

“Yes, Aunt Morgan,” Elaine nodded as she and Arthur watched Morgan go to a door leading to another room, “Sorry about her, she can be a bit hot-headed at times. Mama Vivienne should still be in her office, so... why not come with me and we can talk? I'd like to get to know you more, it's not often we get a man who's great with machines around these parts, if you pardon the pun. Well, that, and there's something she wanted to ask you.”

Arthur glanced at Galahad's cage and his bag, considering it. Looking out at the sky, the sun is just about to set, and it will be night time within the hour. If he doesn't find a motel soon, it'll be too dark to safely walk outside.

Elaine seemed to have picked up on this somewhat, “If you need to take your hamster and bag with you, you're welcome to. Or we could leave them in the office for Aunt Morgan to watch over. She won't mind if it's only for a little while. If worse comes to worse, I can also ask my father to drive you home if you like.”

Arthur flinched slightly when Elaine said the last part, causing the latter to furrow her brow. He recognized that kind of reaction, since Vivi was always great at finding minor tells that say otherwise. If she's perceptive like Vivi is...

“I'll be fine,” Arthur shook his head, “You don't need to do anything.”

Elaine's look of concern did not leave as she slowly held out a hand and smiled, “Then at least come talk to Mama Vivienne? It's not good for a king's man to keep a lady knight's time without seeing her.”

Arthur stared at her incredulously. Did... did she just... make a pun out of their names?! It caught him off guard, and he couldn't help but laugh. He took her hand, the smile still on his face.

The motel can wait.

A gurgle interrupted his reminiscence, so he looked down and saw Percy looking up at him with his pale blue eyes, wrapping his small hand around Arthur's finger. Arthur carefully caressed the little boy's blond hair, musing at how much the child resembles him, while having his mother's pale blue eyes and a white lock of hair like she did. In contrast, his daughter Gwen resembled Elaine, having completely black hair with no white locks. Other than inheriting his gold-colored eyes, Gwen didn't resemble her father at all.

Regardless, Arthur loved them both equally and smiled ruefully. He knew that he didn't deserve having his newfound family. He remembered being so scared when he first learned that he was going to be a father, but after Gwen and Percy were born, most of that fear went away as love for his children bloomed.

...Uncle Lance would have loved them.

Arthur shook the thought out from his head. Although he missed Lance, he knew that as soon as Lance caught wind of his location, so would Vivi, Mystery, and... Lewis. Arthur did not want to expose his children to them. Not with them being so young. Or ever if he can help it.

The only form of communication Arthur gave Lance were one sided letters. He would write a letter, saying that he is fine, say that he is sorry for leaving, and request Lance to not look for him, even though he knew very well that his uncle – or anyone for that matter – would ignore that part. He would travel to another city during his occasional trips around the country to investigate or hunt ghosts with Elaine and her family, and drop off the letter with the address to Kingsmen Mechanics in a public mailbox with the appropriate postage and without a return address. Elaine always made Arthur stay at home on the more dangerous jobs, so every now and then, she would drop off the letters he wrote in his place.

Arthur will never get a reply because of this, but he felt it was for the best. He made sure to never send a letter while in Cantabile or in a neighboring city, nor send them from the same place twice in a row. Sometimes he would wait for as long as four weeks before sending another letter during one of the trips. He didn't bother sending letters to the Yukino family or the Peppers, there was no point, even though he's pretty sure they would wonder how he is. He wonders if they missed him at all.

He let out a sound through a wry smile. As if they would want him back. He knew that he is no longer wanted by them, not after what happened.

Arthur thought about telling Lance about his marriage or the birth of the twins, but decided against it. The less chance about anyone from Tempo knowing about them, the better. Granted, it wasn't because he thought they would be endangered by either Mystery or Lewis if the kitsune and wraith did know, far from it. However, he did fear that it could cause a fight that would result in death on either side, and even though he is hated by them now, he did still care about their well being.

Percy started to fuss a little, snapping Arthur out of the gloom. He didn't smell anything, and Percy's clothes felt dry. Elaine said said that he's recently fed, and she never fails to tend to him after to make sure he doesn't have gas. Maybe he's too warm or cold? Arthur got up from his desk to pick up one of the spare blankets he kept nearby and swaddled his son in it in the manner his mother-in-law taught him.

The baby boy quieted down, but not completely, so Arthur held his son to his chest and started to slowly hum the lullaby he used when soothing the twins to sleep. He never actually sang the lyrics he barely recalled in the haunted mansion that Lewis's singing ghosts used when he first encountered them, but the chorus the Deadbeats sang remained deeply ingrained into his mind, into his deeply wounded heart.

This time I might just disappear...

Whoa-o-o-oh

This time I might just dis-

Oh mo mo mo mo

Oh mo mo mo mo (Oh yeah)

Oh mo mo mo mo oh

This time I might just disappear...

Whoa-o-o-oh

This time I might just dis-

Oh mo mo mo mo

Oh mo mo mo mo (Oh yeah)

Oh mo mo mo mo oh

Percy stopped whimpering, much to Arthur's relief.

“I still find it amazing that you can get him and Gwen to calm down with that,” Arthur looked up and saw Elaine with their daughter Gwen in her arms, “Every time I try to sing them a lullaby, it's like a roulette. Sometimes they sleep, most of the time they just cry. Am I so bad,” she chuckled, her last words more being a statement of fact than a question.

“I'm... sure they'll take to it when they're older,” he grinned nervously.

Elaine rolled her eyes playfully, shaking her head, “What say we get the day going? Another day, another car to repair for you, and another monster hunt for me.”

Arthur nodded. While this isn't exactly like the times with the Mystery Skulls years ago, Arthur would be lying if he said that he preferred staying out of the paranormal entirely. He remembered being so afraid of everything around him, and he remembered Vivi and Lewis usually dismissing his fears, while convincing him that everything will be fine... until the cave that is.

For the Knights family, it's their duty to protect their home from any malicious beings that tend to emerge in Cantabile, so unlike the Mystery Skulls, they actually have active experience in dealing with things from monsters to ghosts and from dark creatures to demons. Because of this, during the times some of the family members (primarily Elaine and her aunt and cousin, Morgan and Eleanor respectively, who usually go off on their own) were required to travel and Arthur came along with Elaine to help with maintaining her equipment, Arthur actually felt... safe. The protective wards that Elaine kept in her van worked wonders, and he was never possessed by spirits or kidnapped by crazy cult members since then.

Well, he was kidnapped once when the two went on a date before Elaine was to start another job, but...

That also happened to be the day that he learned the secret the Knights keep to themselves.

Despite the inhuman screech, the knife didn't come down to his heart. He heard people scream in fear and in pain until it suddenly went silent.

Arthur slowly opened his eyes, and saw that he is still alive, still in his body, and still injured. The chains binding his arms, legs, and neck had broken off, allowing him to crawl out of the ritual circle with a bloody pentagram drawn on it alongside many other runes he didn't have time to identify. He tried to examine his surroundings, and through the dim candle light, saw the bodies of the cult members crumpled to the ground. Were they knocked unconscious or–

His heart skipped a beat when he felt something sticky on the ground when he crawled past a downed cult member.

– or dead? He then noticed that something is looming over him, the sound of something rattling and ringing, and went white with fear.

The giant skeleton spirit towered him from behind by several meters, being visible from the floor waist up. A purple light is shining in its left eye, a color that Arthur is all too familiar with. If Lewis truly became a demon, then...!

Was that thing summoned by the circle? Arthur looked down and saw that the monster was outside of it. Thankfully, it seemed to ignore him at first, growling at the cultists. One thing's for sure, Arthur didn't want to find out what exactly that monster is. He needs to find Elaine and get out of the cave while they still can. He wasn't ready to die yet, not when he still has sins to atone for.

Arthur had been dating Elaine for six months now, and had only just started having the confidence to take part in paranormal investigations again. The first few went okay, and when the two went to investigate this, they weren't expecting for there to be a secret cult trying to summon forth a demon made from the spirit of many dead soldiers that never received their last rites. If that giant skeleton monster happens to be the demon in question... Shaking off some of the pain, he struggled to stand up.

“Arthur...”

He looked behind him and saw the giant skeleton hold a hand out to him, looking desperate. It had to be a trick. There's no way this monster is friendly, and Arthur didn't want to risk staying to find out. If he doesn't run now...

“My knight, please!”

Notes: Arthur has become so fearful of the Mystery Skulls that he cannot return home. How does Elaine feel about this?

And the Knights are more than just a family of mechanics, it seems.

To pull off the lullaby yourself, you simply hum the chorus of Ghost, just slower than the usual beat. It's quite soothing, to be honest...?!

Knights Part 4

#msa knights #msa arthur #msa fanfic #arthur kingsmen #mystery skulls animated #fanfic

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gundampilot · 6 years

Photo

Inspired by @dialup2002 to post some more old stuff. :) This is a desktop screenshot I posted on my DevART account January 2005. Kicking it with Windows XP, but I loved/preferred the classic style that I was accustom to (95-98-ME). I made the wallpaper used, but I’m having trouble finding a copy of it. I’ll prob try to remake it in non-1024x768 resolution lmao. Not sure if this is from 2005. It might have been from 2004, but I hadn’t posted it yet. I did that a lot. Some fun notes about some of the software icons pictured (lots of info):

Firefox - THE FIRST BROWSER TO DO TABS OMG. I was a huge advocate for Firefox, especially in its initial releases. They were doing things on the internet nobody had really seen up to that point, and made it popular! Since I had so many issues (as most people do) with Internet Explorer, I was shopping around for a new browser at the time of this shot. Google Chrome didn’t exist yet. (Can you imagine??)

IE - As stated above, I disliked IE. It was kept for various reasons, however. Such as testing website layouts, since the mass-majority of people used it and things looked different in browsers when you were coding.

Opera - While giving Firefox a try, I also managed to snag a very, very early copy of Opera. I’ve always been the type of person that loved to try out new stuff as early as possible, and this was a very special piece of software that I wanted to give a go. The reason that it was special? You had to send away for a CD for it. That’s right, kids. They snail-mail’ed me a CD because it was considered “commercial software.” I paid to get that browser lmfao. I was super super hyped later in 2005, because it became “freeware” and I was able to more-easily push my friends to try it out. The devs were (and still are) seriously awesome. This is why I still use Opera as my main browser today! Ya’ll should try it if you aren’t already! You can even use your most-beloved Chrome extensions on it. :)

Soulseek & WinMX - Holy crap, you guys! lmao Is anyone here old enough to remember these programs?? XD This was basically where most people went after Napster bit the dust. This was when we were all scrambling, trying to find a new P2P sharing program. This was right in-between the eMule/Donkey phase and before the Limewire/KaZaA fiascos where people’s computers were being overloaded with viruses from companies trying to stop pirating. Ahh, the wild, wild west... Days were so exciting when you spent hours downloading something that could potentially ruin your computer lmao

WS_FTP - Still one of my favorite FTP programs for Windows! Works like a charm! These days I use Transmit 5 for Mac, but this was my first program ever for file transfer protocol. It’s basically a tool for uploading files to my website’s server, because back when I first registered it, there was no web uploader for that kinda stuff. Now I stick with that because it’s easier and I’m used to it lol

Veo Digital Studio - Used to use this for my webcam back before webcams were built into laptops, and before they were common enough to have amazing freeware available for them. (Also this is hilarious.) The quality was horrible, but I was hella excited to take pictures and share them with friends and on my blog at the time. From what I remember, there was something I used after this that was some type of South Korean selca software. Haduri? Something like that. It was really cute and even let you do little animations. :)

Animation Shop - Okay. So... from what I remember, this might have been owned by the people that made Paint Shop Pro? I think it was Corel. I honestly don’t remember where I got this from, but this is what I used to use to make animated gifs (because Photoshop just....didn’t for some reason? I had to use PSP at some point, I remember that. I just don’t remember why lmao. It might have been my copy didn’t allow it, or my computer was just too shit to run it good enough, or just stopped working because....Windows).

Adobe Photoshop 5.0 - I originally got this rip from a friend of mine, whose dad got a CD from his company that he worked at. It was an official/real license, which was really awesome! I think this was the first version of Photoshop I ever owned (!!), which is pretty amazing to think about about! I had that CD copy for a few years. I initially was gifted a copy of the CD around 2001-2002 or so. I know for a fact I had newer versions (7.0 was legend before CS suite came around), so I’m not sure why I was using this one at this point lmao. My guess is, like mentioned above, something happened with my computer and I didn’t want to format it and reinstall everything lol or because it was the fastest version I had installed to boot up and do a quick photo edit.

Adobe Photoshop 7.0 - I do remember this took a long time to start up. I can only imagine this was like a bad pirated copy or something, or was so bloated with new stuff in it, and that’s why I kept 5.0 for a quick boot. I know I used this majority of the time, though. Most of my backups for brushes and fonts are from backups that include 7.0 as a zip. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My computer wasn’t the most powerful at the time, despite what I pushed it to do, so this is prob why. But hell yeah! Photoshop represent! lol I still use it today, and its still one of the first things I install on a fresh OS install. Enjoying CC 2017 these days.

Nero Start Smart - I was so excited to make mix CDs and share them! Back in the day before you had stuff like playlists that were sharable on YouTube/Spotify, etc, you had this to share music. Or play in your car. Or CD walkman. Nero was a software you could burn your CD-Rs and make your own laser-etched album art! I begged for years to get a CD burner lmao. Back when casette tapes were still around enough that my parents were like “but why???” lmao. They were not common back in the day like they became over time, just, like, included on your computer. Back then you had to buy one and install it into your computer tower yourself! I got mine I believe.....in 2001? It was the year after the Playstation 2 was released. The first one I got was just a very standard burner. Did a very specific type of CD burning at a low (slow af) speed. It was $700 lmfao. Let that sink in for a minute because my parents didn’t let me forget about it for the next four years lmfao. I saved up birthday and Christmas money and went halves on it. Then I upgraded to the one that this one was! c: Which did the laser etching, and DVD burning! (And you better believe I was burning DVDs of stuff I was downloading online lmfao this was the golden age of the internet where everything was just available everywhere as long as you had the patience to download that shit, because it took forever to download)

Volume Control - My dad and I messed with the wires on all of these random computer speakers and stereo speakers that we had collected over the years and hotwired our own version of a 5.0 surround sound in the room, which was mounted to the ceiling corners and above the computer station. It was lit. I needed Volume Control easily accessible because sometimes the speakers needed redirecting, or I needed to turn the beats down because my mother was tired of my fifth time playing the Gundam Wing OSTs and Miyavi. (It was metal, okay???)

Windows Media Player - I did not use this to listen to media. Let me reiterate that. I did not use it to listen to media on. lol this was specifically used to rip tracks from CDs that friends lent me, because it was the easiest software I was able to use to change the KBPs for quality control and the ID3 tags so I could save it and organize it for use in Winamp and know wtf I was listening to lol. Nobody used WMP for listening to music.... xD

Winamp - The best music player. Period. Still. Nothing beats it. Pls, pls, Nullsoft! Come back and make a native version for MacOS. :’(((( I would buy it! Doesn’t even have to have new features or look different. Classic look, pls pls!

Media Player Classic - Do people still use it??? This player was amazing! Paired with k-lite codec pack, it played everything. It was like VLC before VLC. And it looked good. Clean. Small. Could be installed anywhere which was nice. And the codec packs just made everything look and run fantastic!

Recycle Bin - .... Trash XD

Magnifier - This was for my dad because he had bad eyes and couldn’t remember CTRL +/-/0 to increase the text on pages that he wanted to read.

My Documents - Where I saved all the stuff I downloaded. Not the real My Docs. Just a folder that I named as such, with a custom icon. I don’t know why I wanted it there lol. I think to just have a uniform square on my desktop haha

Journal - I renamed this. I forget the original name of the client, but it was the official client of LJ. It was basically a program that let you write up posts for Livejournal and you could format things, draft them, etc, and post without uploading to your journal/blog. I liked it because sometimes I couldn’t post right away, and it made making drafts a lot easier for me to go back and edit. It also let you edit past posts, which was really convenient instead of looking for it on the web version one post at a time.

AIM+ - I loved AOL Instant Messenger, but over time the ads became too much. I invested a lot of time in 3rd party clients. I was constantly switching between AIM+, Adium, DeadAIM, Pigeon, Trillion, etc. Depended on what I wanted to do that day. Want to clone a SN? Want to skin the colors of the chats? Need transparency? Want to customize your lists? Want to log into more than one msg system at once? They all had their strengths. This was my msg service of choice. Back in the day you were either on this, MSN, or Yahoo!. Some people rocked ICQ and there were a few others, but these were the most common from who I knew/hung out with. I miss those days. <3

You can see WinMX running in the taskbar lmfao so I was prob downloading something at the time of snagging this quick shot. I also had DevART open (prob because I was gonna share this on there). I really wish I had more programs open at the time of this! XD It’s wild to look back at some of the software changes over the years!

Anyway, that’s one of my oldest screenshots that I can find that I’m able to share right now. :) I’m going to be posting a remake of that wallpaper that I did later today for those of you that want that, too.

If you read this far, thank you!! Hope you had fun reading about old stuff!

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myaekingheart · 6 years

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All of them for the writing asks 😁😁😁

HOLY CRAP HONESTLY THANK YOU xD

Writer Asks

Was being a writer a dream of yours when you were little? Or did it spring up when your older? Or is it just a hobby? I’ve always been a writer, regardless of whether I necessarily knew it at the time. I’ve shuffled through some other career ideas– when I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian, and then in middle school I liked the idea of modeling– but at the end of the day, writing is what I always came back to. I used to come up with elaborate storylines when I played with my Barbies and hog the computer on Microsoft Word making shitty stories that I’d print out and staple together and draw covers for. I don’t think I really considered it a viable career at the time, but now I know that writing is what I’m meant to with my life above all else and that if I lose every other opportunity that comes my way, I’ll be fine so long as I can still write.

Overall, would you say you are more driven by plot or characters in writing? (What makes you more excited about an idea?) I think, truthfully, a little of both. I love thinking of cool ideas and ways that my characters will fit into them. It’s exciting to think of their lives and the things that can happen to them that will make or break them. I love seeing my characters happy and getting what they want, but I also love when things don’t go their way and when something completely breaks them. The torture is fun to see. I am sadistic.

Give an overview/description of some of your past stories. (Only if you are willing, of course!) Oh god, okay, so I have a couple. There was this one story when I was a little kid that I came up with, I forget the name of it, but the basic premise was that there was this disease and you turned every color of the rainbow ROYGBIV style and then when you reached violet, you died. I had another one I was working on fifth grade called “The War of Sacawragi” that I cannot for the life of me remember what it was about, but I remember rambling about it to my friends one day at lunch and being all hyped about it. Maybe it had to do with a refugee woman fleeing a war-torn country with her baby, or to protect her unborn baby, or something like that? I never finished it, and I lost what I did write when my computer at the time broke, but I don’t know. I don’t think I totally care that it’s gone? Maybe one day I’ll revisit the idea, but for now I don’t really care.

INSPIRATION. What inspires you the most?Images, music, movies. Sometimes history and mythology. A plethora of things.

Do you have an idea for a story you don’t feel you can write at this current time? (Whether it be because life is busy right now, you need to do more research, etc.) I have a couple ideas for stuff I want to write, but I just don’t feel the motivation to quite yet. It’s tough, because I’m deep into writing From Upon the Golden Thrones (my Narnia fanfic) and focusing so much on the following sequels of that that I feel like I don’t want to start anything original until I finish that. Which sucks because I know original work is what’s going to bring home the bacon and shit but I just care so much about this goddamn fucking fanfiction that I cannot get it out of my head. Plus, I feel like I’m at a spot in my life right now where pouring more energy into writing fanfiction is acceptable because I’m in college rather than out in the working world depending on churning out original stories to earn a living. Once I graduate college, I’m terrified I won’t be finished with these Narnia stories and will have to give them up for the sake of focusing on my career, which makes me incredibly sad because as stupid as it may sound, I have never cared about any of the other stories I’ve written (original or otherwise) as much as I care about this fucking fanfic.

Favorite POV to write in? (As in First, Third, or maybe a specific character?)I really like third person omniscient. I used to write almost exclusively in first person but I felt like that was really restrictive to me. I like the way third person omniscient feels like playing God– you know exactly what everyone is doing, where they are, how they are feeling, but the characters don’t know shit and it’s kind of fun to fuck them up like that. It’s fun to know stuff they don’t. Plus, I really like paying attention to everyone’s take on a situation. I like delving into their internal monologues when something happens, good or bad, and how they interpret those situations. I like my readers to know what’s going on in my character’s heads and how they view the world compared to one another.

Favorite writers? Have they influenced you at all? Obviously CS Lewis is a fave. I just love the way he was able to interpolate scripture into fantasy. I’m not a wildly religious person but Narnia is the closest thing I’ve felt I’ve come to religion in my adult life, like Narnia makes me feel a particular way that nothing has ever made me feel before. I think that is also in part to my Irish heritage, and knowing much of Lewis’s inspiration for the landscapes of his book was inspired by his homeland. I actually wrote an entire essay about this for one of my classes last semester. I’ve never really been as big a fanatic of any other writers as I am with CS Lewis, much in the same way as I approach my music tastes-- I more often than not like particular songs rather than whole bands. Much like Nirvana and Beartooth is to my music taste, CS Lewis is the one artist whose work I am a wild fan of (even if the only other work of his that I’ve read outside of Narnia is Out of the Silent Planet).

If one cliche could be eradicated from writing, which one would you pick?The idea that everything has to be romance, and that every romance has to be a certain way. I like the stereotypical chick flicks as much as the next woman but I like complicated love that waxes and wanes. I like love that has a purpose, that at it’s core is hopeful but that rips your insides apart and makes you realize things about your life you never knew before. I like love that is based on more than just the superficial things. Situational love, childish love, war-torn love, all of that good shit. I prefer love that is real and raw and it hurts because it pays no mind to caution in the literary sense. I’m tired of the love we always see in YA lit where everything is meant to be poetic and flowery. Give me blood and sweat and tears. Give me something that’s real. That’s the kind of love I enjoy reading.

Favorite cliche or trope? I like the comedic stuff a lot, like funny misunderstandings. I wrote one into the last posted chapter on my fanfic that I was pretty disgustingly pleased with. I’m really bad at writing comedy but I try. I don’t know if this is necessarily a cliche or a trope, either, but I adore bildungsromans. I live for character development.

Do you have to force yourself to write, or is it something you want to do? Half and half. I feel like my will to write exists on a spectrum. On one end, there is the idealistic mix of motivation and inspiration where I sit down and the words just flow out of my fingertips and when I look back at these chapters, I typically have to do very little editing because I was so deep in the zone and so focused on what I wanted to write and I did that. On the opposite end is the numbness of feeling zero motivation and zero inspiration. It’s like sex-- I’m just not turned on and not thinking about sex whatsoever. And that’s fine. You don’t need to write 24/7. The worst is when I fall somewhere in the middle, which is where I am most often. I either have all the inspiration and no motivation or all the motivation and no inspiration. Most frequently it’s the former. I think about my current story constantly and yet more often than not, I never have the strength to open up the word document and actually work on it. This has been especially true this past month, when I went on a three day writing binge and wrote eight chapters only to find on day four that the file got corrupted and I lost all of my work.

Share a passage from one of your works and tell us why you liked it so much. Oh god, this is dangerous. One of my favorites is a scene in Chapter 12 of From Upon the Golden Thrones, but it’s too long to copy and paste here so instead I’m going to use a passage from Chapter 9 instead: As night swept across Narnia, the bad dreams took hold once again. Eilonwy’s breath hitched, tossing and turning as fearful visions paraded through her head. Peter snapped awake the moment he heard so much as a whimper, climbing onto the edge of her bed to try and soothe her awake. Her eyes fluttered open, brimming with tears, hands trembling wildly. “It’s okay, Ellie, everything’s alright. It was just a bad dream” he whispered, petting her hair. She shook her head and burst into tears. “It never ends…” she whined, burying her face beneath a mountain of pillows. “I want to go home!” “Ellie, shh, you are home” Peter replied but the huntress shook her head in great protest. “This isn’t home, this is hell!” she screamed. With a sudden jolt, she sat upright and began throwing pillows left and right. “Eilonwy, stop! Please!” Peter begged but she refused. She launched pillow after pillow into the wall, toward the window, knocking things off her vanity and even cracking it’s glass. She kept going until the entire room was drenched in a blizzard of feathers. It wasn’t until the window creaked open and a soft breeze blew through that Eilonwy finally began to calm down. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the mattress and wept softly, tears staining her cheeks. Peter swatted at the downy rain, climbing into her bed and wrapping his arms around her tightly. She sighed and fell into him, far too tired to fight him off, and deeply inhaled the sweet smell of his skin. “It’s alright now…everything’s alright” he whispered, gently rocking her back and forth like an infant. “It never ends…” she repeated softly, her hot breath grazing Peter’s collarbone. Not knowing what else to say, he sat there in silence continuing to rock her and hug her tight in hopes that perhaps he could glue all of her broken pieces back together. As she slowly drifted back to sleep, however, a quiet murmur caught his attention and sent his heart soaring. In the softest tone imaginable, she breathed a quiet “I love you…” And finally, Peter received the confirmation he had been searching for. She officially loved him back just like he knew she did. I love this scene so much because it’s finally this breakthrough with the relationship between these two characters. In the entire first installment, they’re getting to know one another and learning about each other and experiencing these scary, foreign feelings and they’ve come so far since then at this point, and Peter wants nothing more than for her to reciprocate his feelings for her, and this is the scene where he finally gets it and he’s over the moon. As for Eilonwy, she really struggles with the whole concept of attachment and affection and so this is a really pivotal scene for her, as well, and one that affects both of them heavily long after it’s happened, both for better and for worse.

What is the worst writing advice in your opinion? I’m not sure this is even really advice but the worst, in my opinion, is the pressure to write literary fiction rather than genre fiction. Stick literary fiction up your ass and smoke it. I don’t give a shit. I’ve noticed more than anything that in my college writing classes thus far, there’s this desperation to drill literary fiction into our heads, to convince us that it is the only fiction of quality and that genre fiction is trash. I completely disagree. Genre fiction is so much more liberating. Shit actually happens in genre fiction. Yeah, some of it is cheesy and commercialized but to say genre fiction, especially genre fiction of today, is worthless is to completely disregard the amazing, accessible commentary it’s providing to people of all ages, socioeconomic statuses, races, genders, etc. Genre fiction is giving us characters we can relate to, characters that we see ourselves in whether they’re transgender or of color or struggle with the same mental illnesses we do. It can give us both an escape from reality and a comfort within it by showing us that we are not alone and that we can fight our demons just like the characters in these books do. So I say fuck your literary fiction. Genre fiction has given me far more than literary ever has.

What is the best writing advice? The best writing advice I can think of is to write what you feel. I’m a firm believer in the idea that our best writing comes from our emotions. We kind of have to keep them reigned in to a certain degree, I think, in order to keep control over the language and the emotion but if your words aren’t fueled with some sort of feeling, then to me it’s like staring at a plain piece of cardboard. There’s no meat in the message.

Character names. How do you come up with them? It depends. Sometimes I see a name or even a word somewhere and a character shows up in my head. Sometimes I just pin random names to people. Sometimes I go onto those baby name websites and look up something meaningful that fits the character both in sound and in definition. And sometimes things just come together, like with my original character in my Narnia fanfiction. Her name is Eilonwy like the character in The Chronicles of Prydain. I’ve never actually read the books, but I like the long-forgotten Disney movie inspired by them. The name was just really interesting and pretty to me, and I really wanted to use it. At first, that was all it was: just a superficial reason. I was fourteen when I first came up with the initial idea for the story, so of course I didn’t have any deeper reasoning behind “It sounds pretty!” Now that I’m older and more thoughtful about my writing and shit, though, I’ve come to find that the name holds much deeper meaning to the story than I ever could’ve imagined which feels great. I love when things just randomly work out like that.

Do you tell friends/family about your writing, or do you keep it a secret?They know I write and some know what I write about but I don’t make too big a fuss about it. If I’m deep in a writing binge, I’ll post my pride on facebook like “I’ve written such-and-such word count so far!” or whatever. For the most part, though, I keep pretty quiet. I’ll share when I have to, like in writing workshops, but in regards to my fanfiction, the only person I really ramble to about it is my best friend. She’s heard all the spoilers and given me feedback on paragraphs I was either proud or unsure of. I’m really grateful for her feedback, and that she lets me fangirl over my own work when I need to!

What are some of your favorite words to use in writing? I don’t know if I have any favorite words. I have overused words, but I don’t know if I have any favorites.

Opinions on smut? Good if done right. I’ve tried my hand at my fair share of smut and when I look back at the stuff I tried to write for my last finished fanfiction, a Jack Frost x Violet Parr American Horror Story AU, I cannot help but cringe. I had the hot and heavy shit down pat but situational appropriateness was not entirely grasped. But then again, I was sixteen and a virgin when I wrote that so of course I didn’t have any realistic handle on it. Looking back, I’m just proud of myself for even writing something of that length because as problematic and cringey as it is to me now, that was the story that really confirmed I had the stamina to write novels. Up until that point, I had never written a full-fleshed, novel-length work. Now I’ve written two more and am working on a fourth. But anyways, about smut, my approach has shifted since then. Nowadays, my guidelines are to do it only when it’s appropriate to and to do it tastefully. Less is more. I care more about the emotion in it now than I do the physical act.

Is there anything you have found that you cannot, under any circumstance, write about?I’m not sure. I can’t think of anything right now off the top of my head, because refusing to write about something and finding difficulty in writing about something are two completely different things. There’s lots of things that are difficult for me to write whether it’s because they’re not my strong points (like humor) or because I feel inexperienced, but that doesn’t mean I won’t try to do as much research as I can to write them. If I care about a situation or idea enough, I will go that distance. I don’t know if there’s anything I would shy away from writing, including triggering material. I’ve already done stuff regarding rape. I write a lot about anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, even some PTSD. I don’t think there’s anything I’d shy away from writing.

Creative nonfiction. Have you dabbled with it? Do you like writing about your own life?I honestly love writing about my own life. That makes me sound really narcissistic but I mean, I’m telling the truth. There’s this one quote from a movie called Stuck in Love that I absolutely adore, it says “A writer is the sum of their experiences.” So much of my writing is inspired by my own experiences, and while I certainly don’t think you have to have experience in something to successfully write about it, having that extra layer of knowledge on a subject really adds realism and meaning to something. I can fake it, sure. I did that a lot in stories I wrote for my community college creative writing class. I wrote one story called Princess about a girl auditioning to be a face character at Disney World. I’ve never done that, though I’ve done a lot of research because I desperately want to. People thought I had actually experienced it. I wrote another about a young woman in the hospital for an eating disorder who desperately wanted a baby. While I’ve never been hospitalized for an eating disorder, I do struggle with one and my greatest fear is losing the ability to have a baby because of it so even though it wasn’t something I directly experienced, I channeled my fears and feelings into it. At the end of the day, I think so long as you’re passionate about something, you can successfully write about it and make it believable. But back to the question, one of the experiences I look to for inspiration most often is my love life and what I’ve been through with that. I’ve never been abused or cheated on or any of that bullshit, but I’ve had a very interesting history with my boyfriend that hinges on not only romance and compatibility like in all relationships but also in self esteem, grief, family, and the past. I’ve written quite a handful of short stories based around it, and some of the not-so-lovely feelings that have come from it. (Disclaimer: This is not to say my boyfriend and I are unhappy or in an unhealthy relationship. We just haven’t always had it easy and early on, I had a really tough time coming to terms with some things that I’m not going to go into detail with right now).

Allusions and references to other works. Thoughts? Do you like to use them?As a fanfiction writer, I feel like I’m obligated to say yes since that writing mainly takes place in other people’s works. At it’s foundation, though, I love allusion. I’m a big fan of fairytales and I have some interest in Greek mythology, as well, so I like taking inspiration from those and alluding to them in my stories. It’s easy to do in my Narnia fanfiction, especially, because it already alludes mythology and also religion which can tie into fairytales. Eilonwy, my OC, is a very heavy reference to the story of Snow White, as well as to Adam and Eve and Joan of Arc. I think it’s fun to tie certain things into shit like that, and I love when everything connects and makes sense.

What do you think characterizes your writing?My style and approach. I command the language a certain way where I try to sound cohesive and intelligent but also pump those big words with emotion and meaning. I don’t really know how else to describe it; my best writing comes when I’m in that zone and the words are just flowing out of me. I like trying to express abstract concepts in ways that feel tangible, too. I think tangibility is a big aspect, too. As an adjective here it probably doesn’t make much sense, but there’s something about my writing that I feel gives it this kind of tangible quality, almost. I like being able to feel the emotions and words in the air around me like oxygen. I also think the fact that I don’t like to shy away from anything helps to characterize my writing, too. I like to pull out all the stops. I don’t like censoring myself for the sake of comfort or digestibility. Maybe that makes my work kind of hard to get through but still. I feel like you have to have a stronger stomach for my work because I will not resist uncomfortable topics or scenes. Rape, gore, anxiety, whatever. I don’t shy away from any of it.

Do you control your characters, or do they control you? For the most part, I have pretty decent control over my characters but sometimes they like to go their own way and screw up the plan. Sometimes it’s for the best, but I’m the kind of person who likes to strictly stay to the path I’ve mapped out so more often than not it’s a nuisance. That resistance can be a real struggle, too, because sometimes where my characters take me flows nicely but it would mean reworking everything so I have to go back and try and channel that flow into the right direction.

Are there any misconceptions people have about your writing? I don’t really know. I try to be as clear as possible about what is happening and what I mean when I say certain things. If anything, they’d probably mistake me for a psychopath.

Best compliment someone has given you about your writing.I think the best compliments are honestly the ones where people are just straight-up fangirling. I love reading people’s reactions to my works, especially when they love it and want more of it and are screaming at their computer screens because of choices the characters have made. I had one person even send me a message telling me that they love my story so much, it’s all they can think about and gives them motivation to live (in a non-suicidal manner) and implored me to keep writing. That’s the kind of feedback that really motivates me to keep doing what I do.

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer? In five years, I hope to be a published author with at least a small repertoire of original work under my belt and out in the open. I know it might take longer than five years to get there but I’ve come so far already and I think if I have the passion and the will to do it, I can get there. The end goal is to just get my stories out there and accessible to the public in hopes that someone may find something in them that they relate to, that helps them feel less alone, or that they just enjoy reading. The day I find my name on a bookstore shelf is the day I will feel as if I’ve truly made it (which brings me to another point about my opinions on paper versus digital publishing but I think that’s a rant for another post-- I’ve already made this one long enough!)

#ugh honestly thank you so much for this hahaha #writing stuff #ask memes #answered asks #magnificent-north #ramblings

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operativehq · 6 years

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after almost twenty four hours after the submit has closed and 11+ hours of reading applications and making painstaking decisions, the long-awaited acceptance post has come. i’d sincerely thank every single applicant for applying because i really don’t lie when i say that i read through every single app and had to make some very tough decisions, some that hurt my heart because almost every app came neck and neck with each other. this entire experience has been surreal -- i never expected for my plot idea to take off so incredibly and for such kind words to be said about it. i definitely did not anticipate 43 apps to end up in my inbox and to have such dedicated and patient applicants. thank you so much to everyone who’s been a part of this experience already, i really, really can’t say it enough or articulate it well.

to people who are not accepted -- i really mean it when i say that i wish i could accept everyone. every single app went beyond my expectations, and if you weren’t accepted it is NOT a testament to your writing abilities or anything personal. having to pick ONE person out of so many apps, or ELEVEN out of FORTY-THREE ?? it’s nearly impossible. it breaks my heart to not be able to accept THIRTY-TWO apps that were so beautiful. i strongly encourage people who weren’t accepted to keep an eye on this rp in case any openings or expansions occur in the future, because i’d really love to have people reapply. i wish i could type with the conviction and passion that i’m feeling right now when i say that every app blew me out of the water, but now i’m repeating myself over and over again. ( if anyone would like feedback on their app or for me to send their app back to them, please let me know over the course of this week. )

with that said, under the cut are the eleven accepted applicants. please send in your accounts within TWENTY-FOUR HOURS and be sure to check out the CHECKLIST as well as the inbox of your character blog once you send in your account so i can send invites to the ooc discord chat !!

CONGRATULATIONS LAURA ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT AURUM, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS MALCOLM WEBB ( REECE KING ).

holy crap, laura !! your writing is amazing !! you really made malcolm come alive, with everything from your edits to your stunning biography and description of his personality. my heart really hurt for malcolm while i was reading about his background and you really provided so much depth behind the surface-level rich kid. you displayed his vulnerabilities and desires incredibly well. also, i love how you even added depth to the way his skills ?? thank you so, so much for applying, love, and welcome !!

CONGRATULATIONS EMILY ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT CRIMSON, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS RAFAEL BOLÍVAR ( TYLER POSEY ).

emily -- can we talk about the way you write for a sec ?? it’s absolutely phenomenal. you took a darker twist to crimson than i could have imagined and i loved every second of it. your backstory for him is incredibly unique to me and i’m so excited to work with his narrative throughout the rp !! beyond that, you really know your character well !! i was blown away by your para samples -- the way you wrote his connection with nikolai and also that drabble about him and tony ?? you have such a knack in your writing to be able to sympathize with your muses, like oh my god. i’m so glad you applied and i can’t wait to see how you develop rafe !!

CONGRATULATIONS CHRISTINA ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT CYGNUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS RHYSAND ATTWOOD ( HARRY STYLES ).

you truly went above and beyond, christina, and i am honestly so glad you came out of retirement from the rpc to apply !! the cygnus competition was so, so tough, but i kept coming back to your application. not only is your writing incredible, every facet of your application was so detailed it was clear that you had an understanding of rhys !! the thing that completely sold me was that you wrote about every connection rhys would have and how rhys would act and that was so great to see !! i also loved your twist on rhys & odessa’s connection ?? i also love his potential development and the way you tied his story into the plot !! i can’t wait to write with you, love, welcome to operative !!

CONGRATULATIONS TERESA ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT HAWTHORN, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS CALLIOPE MAXWELL ( CARTIA MALLAN ).

my goodness, i absolutely loved your app, teresa !! it was so unique and i loved how you showed how much depth callie had and the development that she has gone through and will continue to go through. i just loved the twist on her backstory and how she didn’t start off too kind ?? you made the skeleton of hawthorn three-dimensional and complex !! also, your ideas for her goal and how to extend it into a plot in the future was so creative and intriguing, i can’t wait to explore it more with you, love !! also, the liberties you took with your para sample absolutely paid off !! i loved seeing callie’s perspective on the provided connections. welcome, teresa !!

CONGRATULATIONS JULIE ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT HYALUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS DANAË BAUTISTA ( CLEO LAZULI ).

hyalus was another tough decision, but julie, i absolutely loved your take on hyalus. not only did the memes and vines make me laugh out loud, but you gave such a fresh perspective on our resident hacker. just the aspects ( and perhaps irony ) of her father’s condition made me incredibly sad, but it provided a ton of depth to danaë ?? and i loved the fact that you gave her the label ‘ the icarus ’, the way you explained it made me love danaë even more !! also, your research for the role literally had me with my mouth open while i was going through your app ?? and the fact that you included a family tree / timeline ?? your dedication is unreal. thank you so much for applying and i can’t wait to see danaë on the dash !!

CONGRATULATIONS RHINE ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT MERCURY, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS LYSANDER SEO ( LEE JONG SUK ).

the competition for mercury was probably one of the toughest -- every single app i read for that role was filled with so much effort and talent, that i kept going back and forth between so many. but rhine -- i strongly believe that you have an ability to paint with words. as i kept reading, i was just swept away by your writing ability ?? every single sentence was like a masterpiece !! and the way you wrote lys and his backstory was something i’ve never really seen before, and the amount of research you put into it was amazing !! while i was reading it all, i was internally screaming out of astonishment for your writing and sorrow for lys. he has so much depth and you understand him so well !! i cannot wait to see you play lysander on the dash and in events !!

CONGRATULATIONS EL ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT NOX, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS KINGSLEY LIM ( BANG YONGGUK ).

el, el, el !! your writing is insanely beautiful and by the end of your app, i felt like i understood king extremely well. his backstory had me crying and i loved the way you made nikolai a tether for king. also that pinterest ?? organized from head to toe had me already screaming, but then your explanation for each color and what it meant... it had me on the floor, quite honestly. your understanding of king and the very dark take on nox’s skeleton was stunning to read !! and those last two lines of his bio ?? had me weeping. in any case, i can’t wait to see kingsley develop here and welcome to the rp !!

CONGRATULATIONS GUBSE ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT OPHIDIAN, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS OLIVER KNIGHTLEY ( XAVIER SERRANO ).

goodness, the depth you gave ophidian was astounding -- the anger, the loneliness, the flirtations -- it was all wrapped up into oliver so perfectly ?? and then your development questions... the way you answered them ?? your writing is absolutely amazing !! it's a different vision i had for ophidian, but that’s in no means a bad thing. it's exactly why i loved it so, so much. just the line " he looks in the mirror. ' what are you capable of ? '" gave me shivers. i absolutely cannot wait to see how you play oliver on the dash. congratulations and welcome to operative !!

CONGRATULATIONS MINNIE ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT PHANTOM, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS JIYOON ARIELLA HAN ( PARK SOOYOUNG ).

everything from the biography, to the stats, to the connections, to your character’s goal... all i can say is wow !! i also absolutely loved the pinterest boards that went along with the biography !! every twist and turn that your writing took me on had me love every minute. it was a different take than i expected for phantom, but you captured the skeleton’s essence and really made it your own !! the explanation of her personality just confirmed that you were the one for phantom !! your writing is spectacular and i truly can’t wait to write with ariella !!

CONGRATULATIONS HONEY ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT PHOENIX, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS FRANCIS KANG ( JEON JUNGKOOK ).

holy shit, honey. i was weeping for francis and i really loved your take on phoenix’s connection and the depth you put behind him. i loved how much of a facade he put up & your depiction of him and odessa !! besides all that, your writing is gorgeous !! your in-character paragraph for phoenix really sold it for me !! you really have a good grasp on francis, and your creativity with his background / personality has me so excited to see where he goes and how he’ll develop !! thank you so much for applying and welcome !!

CONGRATULATIONS CLEO ! YOU HAVE BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE FILE OF AGENT SCORPIUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS ANGELINA DELAROSA ( CINDY KIMBERLY ).

the scorpius decision was probably the toughest of the whole acceptance process -- each app was absolutely amazing and i was struggling to pick just one. but i kept coming back to yours. your writing is almost poetic, and the way you wrote angelina was something that really pulled at my heart. the fact that you gave so much depth to the scorpius skeleton, beyond just a seductress, really gave it to me !! also, your paragraph samples, your explanation on her personality ?? my goodness, i could really tell that you understood angelina, from the way you wrote her goal, to her despair following nikolai, to the way you even wrote a drabble about her first mission... and the way you described those aesthetics as well !! your app had me absolutely floored !! you’re such a talented writer, and i can’t wait to see where you go with angelina !! welcome to the roleplay, love !!

#skeleton rp #semi appless rp #oc rp #new rp #appless rp #accepted

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tyuumasterrace-blog · 6 years

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Warmth in the snow

///(((not cannon. Just good smut )))\\\

Jordame bitches.

Damiens pov:

Everyone left the labworks except my loving assistant and I. Lol I call him my assistant but he hates it.

" hey dame its getting pretty dark out i think we should start heading home" he sounded anxious. I sit up from my work area and pull off my goggles " sure , i'll finish this tomorrow" "pfff- " Jordan starts laughing that adorable laugh of his .

" what?" " n-nothing! " his snickering is just too adorable " excuse you Mr woodpecker what is so funny to you?" . he gets up and grabs a rag " dame you have ash all over your face, you look like a reverse raccoon, hold still-".

"Nnnnoooooo!!" I try and resist as he struggles to wipe my face ( somewhat) clean. "Fine then!" he tossed the rag aside and put his fists on his hips. " you can take a shower at home" he promptly collected his things in his bag and head out the door in a puff.

Zoo wee mama what a feisty redhead!

Oh wait- outside crap I can't leave without him!

//time skip \\

Jordan's pov :

When we got home it had already started snowing, and by the time I started dinner we already had 4 inches.

"Hey babe" Damien called out from another room." babe!" ....oh shoot hes talking to me - I forget that im in a relationship half the time and that pet names are apart of it.

" yeah?!" I call back. Just then Damien comes into the kitchen hair soaked, shirtless, and a pair of loose fitting pajama bottoms that hung very low on his hips " have you seen the TV remote?" .

I don't even know what to say ! Holy molly say something you idiot...." I ...uh... Ceiling?"

Oh c'mon is that the best you can do?! This is your boyfriend!. " nah its not there I checked... Ill check the fridge wouldn't be the first time I left something non edible in there~"

God donut Damien....

//another time ski bc im lazy\\

3rd pov:

After dinner the both of them played out in Damiens big soft bed.

The house had become so cold all of the sudden and the snow outside want helping. The two of them cuddled up to one another underneath a heavy blanket as the TV played something about Hitler invading Poland.

Jordan shivered and buried his face in his boyfriends chest " something wrong woodpecker? " Damien asked . " im freezing my butt off!" Jordan exclaimed.

" oh...uh.. I could go get another blanket" Damien sat up but Jordan pulled his back down by the fabric of his shirt. " actually...I've got a better idea of how we could keep warm~".

Jordan's face turned as bright red as his hair " if your not too tired I mean..." he looked away embarrassed.

Damien smirked , a light shade of pink coloring his skin " you know if you wanted to do anything you could gave just asked ".

Jordan snapped back " oh shush! Im not use to these things..." laughing Damien took Jordan's hands and put them above his head " cmere cutie~".

Slowly pulling up his shirt dame b-lined straight for Jordan's beautiful place freaked neck . licking here and there . enough to make the smaller male tremble a bit.

Then came the biting~

He traveled all the way across his collar bone leaving a trail of kisses and licks until the smaller male stiffened up- bingo- dame bit lightly and first and then got harder and harder until he tasted blood . Jordan let out the shrillest of yelps.

Music to his ears. He moved down the red heads body and down to his thighs ,Spread open beautifully Jordan whimpered like a defenseless animal when Damien started to kiss and bite at his inner thighs. In Damiens mind Jordan was the most gorgeous thing in the world to him watching him at his weakest point made him fall in love with him more and more.

Dame noticed a small bulge poking out of Jordan's briefs " so cute ~" . Jordan couldn't help it " damie~ please~ " oh god he' d done it now a nickname said in that kind of tone .

Damien pulled of Jordan's boxers and took the smaller males cock in his hands. Jordan's head fell back . he covered his mouth to resist the urge to moan out his lovers name.

Damien noticed this and went faster jerking himself in the process. " alright " Damien said in a huff. He picked Jordan's legs up and pulled one of them over his shoulder while the poured lube ( don't ask where he got it its Damien ) onto his hands.

Jordan sat up to see at a better angle " brace yourself sweetheart~" Damien said in a deep seductive voice. If Jordan could blush anymore you think had be a tomato.

It felt weirdly relaxing when dame inserted one cold slippery finger in , a little less relaxed when put in the second Making a scissoring motion with his fingers.

"A-ah d-dame I- I think that's enough...." Jordan really was trying hard to keep the best moss for last. "Alright" he lined himself up with the smaller males hole and slicked up his cock enough.

" get ready baby" he slowly pushed himself in . Sinking every inch that he could into Jordan . he was tight - and very hot on the inside.

The smaller male winced, sometimes he forgets how big his boyfriend actually is. Dame starts slow , just to get Jordan use to it. Then he slowly starts to pick up the pace.

Jordan couldn't suppress it any longer. A symphony on moans, yelps , and whimpers came out. Harder and harder faster and faster Damien thrusted again and again .

His mind was blank as he left his body do the talking. The physical and emotional signals his lover was putting out was good but he needed to find that one spot.

Twenty minutes pass and they are still going. Dame has learned enough to where he can go on and on for a few rounds .but Jordan looks like he'd come at any moment. All of the sudden as dame thrust into him Jordan tenses up and moans out his name in a shaky voice- " D-DAMIE~ F-FUCK ...R-RIGHT THERE!~".

And bingo was his namo! Snapping back to reality he adjusted to only hit that certain spot ,Pounding his boyfriend ad hard as he can ( without breaking him o_o").

Jordan pulled him closer . wrapping his arms around his neck , tears of pleasure had started to form from his eyes. every thrust sent Jordan to cloud9.

Dame grunted and held onto Jordan closely. He took this as a sign of dame either being very close to climaxing, or hes just tired

Lets go with the latter. Jordan sunk his teeth into Damiens neck as Damien gave his last final hard thrusts " ah, Jordan ..im...*grunt * gonna cum-".

" go ahead" Jordan wasnt far behind hes been holding back dame wouldn't make fun of him for Cumming early like last time-.

With One final hard thrust they both came came. Filling his redheaded lover to the brim, making him feel quite full.

" ah... C-crap " Jordan's legs where shaking and he himself was jittering. It felt so good to be files up like that.. As much as he hated to think such thoughts...

Damien slowly pulled out and collapsed next to jordan who, was still shaking . the brightest shade of red painted his pale freckled cheeks .

Dame pulled him closer to his chest " warm enough sweetheart?" " oh shush you..." Jordan pecked dame on the lips as he pulled the big heavy blanket over them both.

They both slept soundly ... And warmly.

THE END GO HOME KIDS

(Admin zeke)

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lytahalifax · 7 years

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XI Questions Tag

(I don’t know why I did that in Roman numerals, I’m obviously in a weird mood :)

I was tagged by @byjillianmaria for this. Rules: always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, write 11 questions of your own, tag 11 people. I don’t think I really know 11 people here, or can come up with 11 questions, so I promise NOTHING with regards to following rules. Because I am an iconoclast*, baby! (makes air guitar gestures and noises) *iconoclast (n) = a fancy way to say “lazy”.

Questions:

1.) What’s a line of dialogue that you’re most proud of? Holy cripes, that’s kind of a tough one to answer, having written a bunch, and forgotten even more, in the past four years. I would say it’s easier for me to talk about chapters of things I’m proud of, and in that, I’m particularly proud of a chapter I wrote in my Mass Effect series “Once More Unto The Breach” called “We Who Are About Die”. It’s essentially about the people who initially designed and floated the specs for The Catalyst, and how they came together as one race and expended all their efforts, not in self-preservation, but in giving the galaxy a fighting chance against the Reapers. They knew it might take millions and millions of years for their goal to be achieved, if ever, but they were committed, almost as one, to the notion, choosing to die not screaming and in fear, but as an almost indomitable force that would not be denied, no matter how long it too for their plan to bear fruit. However, there was a line my editor particularly adored that spun off from that whole thread, about “the weight of a billions years of justice, no longer denied”. My Shepard also had some really nice comedic bits throughout that whole series. OMUTB, as my first real “child”, is the series I made absolutely the most mistakes with, but also am the proudest of to this day. “Near Wild Heaven” from “Black Swan” is another personal favorite, a chapter I was having so much fun writing, I had to force myself to stop.

2.) Which of your characters would you most like to hang out with? Camilla Davies from Black Swan. I suspect she would understand me and my life experiences the best out of anyone on the planet, would be able to give me savagely effective life advice, and possibly transfer my brain into a cloned female body. In fact, I think I’d probably really enjoy hanging out with her, Reese and Alanna; I always felt they were kind of the Three Musketteers of SOAP. Bledoc Caitor, a one off OC I wrote for Once More Unto The Breach as a shoutout to a longtime reader, would be a distant second because he would probably make me the galaxy’s best bowl of ramen, and I really, really love ramen. 3.) Do you have any goals for the rest of 2017? Survive the oncoming storm of massive life and career changes coming up in the final quarter of 2017, and essentially prepare for some major life retooling I hope to achieve in 2018. Unfortunately, this probably means taking a sabbatical or otherwise semi-retiring from writing, at least for a while.

4.) What season inspires you the most? It’s a toss up between Spring and Autumn. Probably Spring; March/April is usually about the time I come out of my winter doldrums and do a lot of my writing again. 5.) If you could rewrite one part of an already-published work, what would it be? The first 20 chapters of Once More Unto the Breach. Well..maybe not ALL of them, but holy crap, there are some massive technical errors and embarrassing gaffs and continuity glitches I made there. I very nearly gave up on the entire endeavor were it not for the fact that I started working with a real top notch editor who essentially trained me how to be a better ,more effective writer, and it’s clear the final 20 chapters are SO much better as a result. I might also redo “To Bask In Your Starshine”. But maybe not. 6.) Do any of your characters have pets? What kind? Shepard kept coming back to the Normandy, even when she didn’t command it anymore, to collect Space Hamsters from the lower decks. Her oldest daughter has a pet kakliosaur. I imagine Camilla has a couple of cats, because they were the only animals she could really relate to: one of them is a tortie Maine Coon, which she adopted because she liked the coloration, not realizing how diva-esque torties are in their behavior. Reese probably has a fancy tropical fish tank setup he poured way too much time and money into. Nicole has a dog, like a golden retriever or a bulldog or something. A mutt for sure.

7.) What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re feeling uninspired? This is the answer - or at least part of it - that will make people gasp in shock and go, “Lyta! You can’t say things like that!” I have two techniques: one I would recommend, and one I would not. It should be obvious which is which. First, I smoke weed. Not often, not all the time, I’m actually on a bit of a six month break from it. I don’t smoke specifically going in to look for inspiration, I just do it to relax, but I would be lying if I said there weren’t times when inspiration didn’t come and come HARD when I was stoned. At least two of my stories, Old Soul and How Can I Sleep?, are the result of me breaking through serious blocks after toking up. Seriously, I could not figure out how to do Old Soul and almost gave up until I got baked and started watching old 1970s tv commercials, and then it came to me. I’m pretty damn sure that good chunks of the final three chapters of Black Swan came to me while I was toked up as well. Second, and much more often, I go for a lot of walks. Like a lot a lot of walks. I try to walk about 12,000 steps a day at a minimum now, which is probably why I’ve lost 20 pounds since April. But for years, I’ve done this when I can, because I find it can get me into a good “zen headspace”, almost like a walking meditation, where ideas flow easier from out of the great miasma of notions inside my brain. Large chunks of Black Swan chapters 5 through 12 were “flashes of inspiration” that came to me when I got “into the zone” during walking, and made sure to write quick emails to myself on my cell phone, so I wouldn’t forget. I’m pretty sure the same goes for Grande Dame, and definitely so for Bearing Witness to Time. If it weren’t for my walks, I wouldn’t have most of my writing ideas. Indeed, it’s gotten so that if I go down a path I haven’t traveled in a long time, my brain starts to play back memories of writing a particular story, as if the brainstorming somehow became encoded in the local metalayer of that location, and walking through it is like replaying a tape in my mind.

8.) Do you have a go-to writing snack/drink? Beef jerky. Usually of the spicy variety It’s high in protein, tasty, and a provides a viscerally satisfying experience in the eating of. Grrr! Chomp! Chew chew chew.

There is an awesome jerky shop at Container Park in Las Vegas that I love to stock up at whenever I’m there...unfortunately my supply never lasts. I should probably find out if they do mail order.

9.) Do you have any self-indulgent stories/characters that you’d never publish (or even write down)? Hah! Oh boy.....yeeeeeah. There was this one crack fic I came up with called “The Yurizoku Formula, or GAYBIES!” It was a weird story, in the vein of “Chloe Price’s Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (which I recently took down for personal reasons) or “Today’s Fish is Trout ala Creme” from OMUTB. If I remember correctly, the long and short of it is Warren accidentally infecting Brooke with a virus that makes her incredibly irresistible to all the women on campus, and she has to deal with their unwanted affections as she tries to get through her day, growing increasingly exasperated and flustered, sorta in the vein of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland. I remember it being much funnier and more clever back then than it obviously is. Sometimes I get ideas and my own personal kinks bleed through a little too much...as an example, the end of “The Domina Effect” in Black Swan was originally written to be a faiiiir bit more “sexy” between Rachel and Victoria, but NQW correctly convinced me to drop it. (As an example of my “kinks”, my first complete work ever written was a lesbian erotica sci-fi mind control story which I called Love is the Drug, which sadly I lost the files to before I could submit it to an appropriate archive. There are actually strong echos of this story in A Power Greater Than My Own...the bit where Victoria, as the domme, finds herself feeling helpless in the face of her so-called submissive at the end, because of how hard she’s fallen in love with her. I) I was also thinking about writing an AU fic in the ME universe called Domination: A Love Story, where the Asari are much more in the mold of Frank Herbert’s “Honored Matres” from the later Dune novels, and a 19 year old Shepard is helpless to watch as her colony ship is essentially taken over by an Asari “diplomatic expedition” who are slowly but inexorably brainwashing everyone over to their way of thinking. Not every Asari agrees with this method of behavior however, prompting a young(er) Liara T’Soni to try and help Shepard get through the horror of that particular situation; in the end, she’s forced to temporarily brainwash Shepard, in order to keep up appearances around the Asari Inquisitors, but eventually “releases” Shepard, so the two of them can run off and join a resistance cell. Huh...I might actually come back to that one someday... Usually, when I get ideas that are terribly self-indulgent, they tend to not hang around, and then get swept out by whatever part of my brain reclaims needed storage space for better things. I’m sure there are whole stories that I’ve completely forgotten about. 10.) What works inspire you to be a better writer? Oh gleesh. Believe it or not, one of the reasons I tend to avoid reading other peoples work in general, with some exceptions, is that I find it very intimidating and daunting. Like “OMG! This person is so good, how could you even think that you are on the same level with them, you absolute hack? What could you possibly have to offer up to the great Singularity of Human Artistic Expression that someone hasn’t already done, and done WAY WAY better than you? For instance, I’ve specifically avoided watching TransParent on Amazon, because I still have an idea for a TV show about a “transhumanist transwoman” which I call “Swing Out Sister”. I probably will never do it, but I’m afraid that if I watch Jeffrey Tambor’s no doubt AMAZING work, I will give it up forever and ever. That said, the things I am watching right now that just blow me away with their style and panache are Rick and Morty and especially BoJack Horseman; I’m most of the way through BoJack season 4 and holy holy holy shit. Obviously, I am a fan of dark, almost cynical takes on the nature of suffering and the human condition. 11.) Say something nice about your writing! (Not a question, don’t care). What?! No! You can’t make me, you’re not my supervisor! Oh, okay. I will say this: people tell me that I am really good at writing dialogue, and this is the only thing I have ever agreed with. I write good dialogue. Sometimes, I even write great dialogue. Once, I wrote superb dialogue - I suspect. Dialogue and snappy patter is my forte, along with weird, high level ideas that I can never properly fill the details in. I’m good at A to C plotting, but figuring out “B” is where I still need a lot of work. Okay, well, I enjoyed this a lot but I am going to be a Naughty Lyta, and not pass it forward. At least, not for now, but I reserve the right to pick it back up and move it forward at a later date.

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randomfanfictiontime · 7 years

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Hello, I am really in love with your prompt list 😍. It was hard to choose at first, but then I decided that I request each one separately. So the first one is #18 with TBS ❤️. Thanks 💕💕💕

Prompt:

#18: I know that it’s three in the morning, but please, I can’t find my cat.

Pairing: Thomas Brodie-Sangster x Reader

Word Count: 1451 (Sorry, got a bit carried away)

Warnings: None

(A/N): I’m glad that you liked the list! And, I hope that you enjoyed this little imagine. I can’t really call it a drabble, so we’ll go with imagine.

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty.” You tried for the umpteenth time, searching high and low for the missing cat.

“Come on, Winston. I’m not messing around. Please come on.” Sighing, you made your way over to the door. He was obviously not in the apartment.

“Winston? Come on buddy, it’s time for bed.” No response. Not even a little ‘meow’ to show you that he was around the perimeter. Rubbing your tired eyes, you knew you had no choice. Asking your neighbors for things were not something that you liked to do. But, you had to find your cat. Checking your phone, you noticed the time. 2:54. In the morning.

“Oh my god.” If anyone asked, yes. Your cat was more important than sleep. Rubbing your tired eyes, you walked over to the nearest door. ‘It’s okay, it’s just my cat. They’ll understand…right?’

Before you could psych yourself out, your hand came in contact with the wooden door. Trying a couple more times, you got no answer, you were about to give up and search for him some more. That was until you heard faint footsteps coming from inside the apartment. The door swung open, revealing a man. Before you said anything, you took in his tired eyes and his blonde disheveled bed head. You had obviously woke him up. Which made you feel even worse.

“Can I help you?” He spoke, seeing that you weren’t going to talk first. His voice sounded groggy, his accent made that more apparent. There was a tiny trace of annoyance but that was understandable. You had literally woke him up in the middle of the night to find your cat. He probably had work in the morning.

“Hi, I’m so sorry. I know that it’s three in morning, but please, I can’t find my cat.” He looked at you in surprise, as if he didn’t anticipate for you to say those words. Which, again, was understandable. Once he didn’t say anything, you continued, uncertainty laced within your voice.

“H-have you seen him? He’s a brown-and-black colored Ragdoll. His tail has a white tip, as does his feet. He has blue eyes, and his meow his super loud.” As you explained your cat’s appearance, you grew hopeful.

“Uh… no. No, I haven’t.” You were about to apologize for waking him up for no reason until he completely shut the door. Letting out a scoff, turning on your heel.

“Excuse me for asking.” You muttered sarcastically. You knew that you had woken him up but geez. He didn’t have to be so rude about it. You made it only a few feet before the door opened behind you, out stepping the man. He had put a coat and shoes on.

“I can help you look, if you want.” A look of surprised crossed your features.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to.” He let out a little chuckle, walking over to you.

“It’s okay, it was boring in there. So boring that I fell asleep. Until you came along, that is.”You laughed a bit, continue your walk down the hall.

“Yeah, sorry about that.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it.” After a moment or two of silence, you began hollering for your cat. Well, it was more like whispering, as you didn’t want to wake your other neighbors up.

“What’s the name?”

“What?”

“Your cat. What’s its name.”

“Oh. His name is Winston.” He nodded, calling for Winston as well.

“Should I ask some more people if they’ve seen him? I mean, they could have found him and kept him.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Most of the people here don’t care about others. Sometimes they file complaints about me because I’m always up making noise in the morning. Does he have a collar?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, if anyone had found him, they should call.” You nodded in agreement, walking to the elevator.

“So, is it okay if we go downstairs and search there first? He could be down there, and if not then we can just make our way up from there.”

“Sounds good.”

Once downstairs in the lobby, you began yelling a bit louder, since no one was sleeping in this part of the building.

“Here, Winston! I swear if you’re not in front of me in five minutes, I’m going to lock you out for the night.” You weren’t really going to. You cared about him too much for that. But, it usually helped when you looked for him.

“You lure your cat by using threats?” The man playfully scoffed, checking under some furniture.

“Heh, yeah. I wouldn’t actually do it but he seems to believe it so… You know, I never got your name.” He stopped what he was doing and looked at you, as if seeing if you were being serious.

“What?” You ask, continuing the search.

“Uhm, nothing. My names Thomas. And yours?”

“(Y/N).”

“Lovely name.” You blush a bit, but you hid it with your hair.

“Thanks.” After a few minutes of searching, you gave up. You checked the second and third floors but still nothing. You were about to freak out by the time that you made it back to your own room. Which was on the top floor.

“Calm down, love. I’m sure that he’ll turn up soon.” You choose to ignore the little nickname he gave you, opting to believe that it was a British thing.

“What if he’s lost. What if he ran away. Or worse… what if someone stole him. He’s all that I have, I need him.”

“Hey, hey. He’s fine, I’m sure of it.” You look around, hopeless. Checking the time, you saw that it was nearing the four o'clock hour mark.

“You should get back and sleep. You must have work later. Sorry for keeping you up. Thanks for the help.”

“Oh, it’s really no problem. I used to have a dog so I know what it’s like to lose your pet.”

“Yeah. I hate to leave him outside for the rest of the night.” He looked behind you, smiling a bit.

“Looks like someone else hates the idea, too.” Just has he said that, you felt something rub against your leg. It meowed loudly.

“Winston! Where the crap have you been. I’ve been searching everywhere for you!” You exclaimed as you scooped him up into your arms.

“Thanks again for helping me even though I’m a complete stranger.” He smiled.

“It’s okay. Beats running lines all night, so.”

“Running lines?”

“Yeah, I’m an actor.” Your eyes widened.

“Really? Name something you’ve been in. Maybe I’ve seen it.” You figured he was just talking about acting in plays or something.

“Well, my most recent movie was The Maze Runner.” As soon as the words left his lips, your eyes widened.

“Holy shit.” Immediately apologizing for your foul language, you managed to get a look at him. He did look familiar, but in all of your hysteria to find your cat, you completely missed it. You had literally spent an hour of your time with Thomas Sangster and you didn’t even realize it. God, you were an idiot.

“I’m so sorry,” you let out disbelieving laugh. “I probably kept you from your work. I feel even worse now. I probably seem like one of those overly crazy fans that create excuses to talk to you. I’m not, I swear.” He chuckled, leaning on the wall.

“It’s okay, I believe you. Seriously, not even the best actor could fake the amount of concern you had for your cat.” After talking for about another minute or so, Winston began squirming in your arms, as if a signal to shut up and leave.

“I should probably go. Winston’s probably hungry and you should probably go back to sleep. Once again, sorry for waking you.” As you made your way to your door, Thomas’ voice made you turn around.

“Hey, uhm,” he brought his hand up to scratch the back of his neck, “I don’t suppose that you would want to have breakfast with me sometime, would you?” You opened your door, letting Winston go inside, before you answered. You crossed your arms, a playful smile on your face.

“What, did this last hour give you the hots for me or something?” He laughed.

“No, I was just wondering if you would be hungry enough in the morning to hang out a bit more. Maybe talk about some other things other than finding a missing cat.”

“Well, I say sure. Give me a date and time and it’ll happen.” After that, you became best friends, eventually letting the public know that the two of you were exclusive. And all because your cat decided to go for a midnight walk.

Forever Tags:

@trustnobodyshootfirst, @16wiishes, @missmalfoy1703

Masterlist

#thomas brodie sangster x reader #thomas sangster x reader #tbs x reader #thomas brodie sangster imagines #thomas sangster imagine

645 notes · View notes

fanficsofmine · 7 years

Text

New Girl - Suho Fluff One Shot

A/N: I’m so close to finishing Fight Club Chapter 4. I promise it’s coming. I wanted to put out something though, so here’s a blurb. (Feel free to check the Masterlist to read Chapters 1, 2, and 3, while you wait though!)

I always figured Junmyeon would be the most open to dating a girl with a kid, so here’s my take on that!

Also, holy crap! Thank you for the jump in followers lately! You all are the best.

“Paxton! C'mon buddy! We’re going to be late!”

I yelled up the stairs to my son, who came barreling down, making much more of a ruckus than any four year old should be able to make. It sounded like multiple bowling balls bouncing boisterously and heading straight for me. He hopped off of the last step, posing proudly for dressing himself.

"How do I look, mommy?“ He was grinning widely as he stood with his hands on his hips. He had put on a pair of jeans and his favorite red t-shirt that had a robot on it. He had put red socks on to match.

"You look awesome, bud, except… your shoes are on the wrong feet.” I chuckled as I knelt down to help him fix his error.

He sat on the steps and huffed, “I was so close!"

I tussled his hair after re-tying his shoes and told him, "you did great. Now let’s go or you’re going to be late for your first day of your new school!"

After I met his teacher and giving him a good-bye kiss on his cheek, much to his dismay, I headed to work.

We had relocated to the Los Angeles area for my new job. I was going to be working for SM Entertainment at their new offices. I would be working with others to find new trainees and handle contracts and files. I was extremely excited to get hands on with some groups who’s music I was into, and to also possibly assist in creating the next sensation.

When I arrived at the office, I was impressed. It was very modern. All of the furniture was crisp and white. The walls were adorned with modern art that contrasted the blinding white of everything else in the room with huge splashes of color and texture. I approached the front desk and gave my name.

I was paged up to my supervisor’s office, who wasted no time on introductions. Instead, she handed me a stack of files with profiles on new talent in them. After guiding me verbally through the halls to where my office would be, she waved me off without a "welcome to the company,” or even a “goodbye,” as I walked out.

The files were much heavier than I anticipated they would be. I used both hands to hold them and leaned back slightly so that they were able to rest against my chest a bit as I walked for better stability. I did my best to dodge rogue objects and other passers by as I repeated the directions to my office to myself with each turn down the hallways that I took. It was a large building, and I was thankful that my office was at least on the same floor as the one that I had retrieved the files from my boss.

Unfortunately, as I turned a corner slowly, someone else on the other side was in much more of a hurry and did not anticipate my being there. I ran directly into another human being, the files falling out of my arms and across the floor.

“Damn,” I quickly knelt down to sweep the files back in my arms. Luckily, there were only a few loose leaf sheets, so the damage was minimal. I did, however, have a large number of folders to scoop up.

"Yogseol!“ I heard the voice speak Korean at the same time. I was too busy picking up my files to look up, but noticed they also began to help pick up my fallen stack.

"Oh, gomabseubnida,” I started, thankful I had taken the time to learn the basics of the language in case a situation like this had ever arisen. I looked up finally once all of the folders had been retrieved and caught my breath when I realized who I was with.

Kim Junmyeon, Suho of EXO, was standing in front of me. He flashed a smile at me and offered me his hand to help me stand. I felt my face flash red as I accepted his offer.

"I am so sorry,“ he apologized in English, "can I help you carry these?"

"Oh,” I was slightly taken aback at the change of language.

He chuckled and said, “I’ve been learning English for my travels."

"You speak it well. And I would love some help, thank you.” He smiled and followed me back to my office where he laid the files on my desk.

"It’s empty in here,“ he noted. "Ah, today is my first day!"

I must have looked too excited because he chuckled and said,

"I hope you do well,” he then looked at the clock on his phone and continued, “aish, I have a meeting. It was nice to meet you."

He bowed slightly, and turned and walked out of the room. I ran my hands through my hair, flustered and giddy from the interaction.

I let out a loud exhale as I looked around my office. It was small and stark white, like the rest of the building, only minus the art to add some color. I pulled a framed picture of Paxton out of my purse and propped it next to my computer the company provided me. I smiled at my sweet son’s photo and then sat behind the stacks of papers I had.

I opened each one and organized them in categories I thought they all may fit in. I had a pile for solo artists, a separate stack for potential groups I thought may work well together, and, unfortunately, a group of a few that I felt did not show the full potential to be idols.

As I was wrapping up my organization and preparing to type up my proposals for the groups and artists, I heard a knock on my door. A woman with a kind face stood at my entry, holding a large bouquet of flowers.

"Hi! Are you (Y/N)?” She looked at me, eyes wide, an overly excited look on her face.

"Oh! Um, yes, I am!“ I stood up and reached out to shake her hand, but instead, she shoved the flowers in my arms.

"How is it your first day, and you’re already receiving gifts from a member of, arguably, the worlds biggest K-Pop group? You are so lucky! How did you even meet him? We aren’t even supposed to interact with the stars that come in!"

She spoke so fast, I was hardly able to fit a single word in. "What?!” was the only word that I was able to get out due to the sheer shock. I glanced at the card and saw it was signed, “For your first day, (Y/N). Dinner tonight?” followed by a phone number and the name “Junmyeon."

My mouth dropped slightly and I was left speechless.

"I’m Katie, by the way,” the girl at the door then reached out to shake my hand. She told me that she was my office neighbor and that she would be working with me on the new groupings as well. It was relieving to know that this project wouldn’t fall solely on my shoulders on my first day. She went to her office and came back with copies of the same profiles on the potential talent that I had. Like me, she had also already grouped them together.

We had spread everything out on my floor and began comparing our notes when she turned to me and asked, “okay! It’s driving me crazy! How in the hell did you manage to get asked out by Junmyeon?! He’s so dreamy. I’ve heard he’s SO nice! How did he even know your name?! How did he know it was your first day!?"

"I can answer one of those questions,” a voice from behind us said, unexpectedly. We both jumped and turned to see our boss standing there, arms crossed.

"I told him your name when he asked who the ‘pretty new girl,“ was before he would even speak to me about negotiating his contract. I would like to know, however, how he knew that it was your first day, or why you even spoke to him at all.” I could tell that she was painfully unhappy and that I was not making a great first impression on my first day.

I explained the situation of how we ran into one another in the hallway, literally, and how he had helped me back to the office. I made sure to reiterate that he did not linger and we did not have extensive conversation. She sighed, satisfied by my story.

"From now on, please attempt to avoid running into the artists. The last thing that I need is one of them hurt and out of a tour because you were clumsy.“

I nodded and said, "yes ma'am. I’ll be more aware from now on. I’m very sorry."

She accepted my apology and turned to leave. Before she walked out of the door, she added, "you are allowed to accept his invitation, by the way. We prefer to keep our idols happy, even if I am less than thrilled by the circumstances.” And with that she was gone.

Katie faced me, mouth agape, “I can NOT believe that she is giving you permission to go out with him! I thought you were a goner."

"Gee, thanks,” I mumbled, “not that it matters. I can’t go out with him tonight…"

I trailed off, disappointed. "ARE YOU INSANE?” She looked at me as though I had just informed her that I had run over her lifelong pet.

"Katie,“ I walked over to my desk and picked up the frame, "this is my son, Paxton. I’m a single mom! Who just moved to LA and has no babysitter. Do you think Junmyeon is going to consider me his 'type’ when he realizes I have a kid?"

She looked taken aback, but grabbed the picture from me and smiled. "He’s precious! Just tell him! I’m sure he has resources and can find you a good nanny. You can’t miss this! Please! So many of us have only dreamt of this! Let us live vicariously through you!!"

She placed the photo under her arm and then folded her hands together.

"Fine. Watch. I bet he backs out the second I mention it."

Send: Hi! It’s (Y/N). Send: Thank you for the flowers. They’re beautiful. Receive: I was afraid you hadn’t gotten them or that you weren’t going to text me. Send: Um, listen, I need to tell you something… Send: I really would love to go tonight… but… see, I’m a single mom. I have a 4 year old boy. And I just moved here, so I don’t have a babysitter… Receive: Is that the only reason? Send: Yes. I promise. I would go immediately otherwise. Receive: Then leave that to me. All you have to do is say, "yes” to dinner. Send: Okay! Yes. :) Receive: Send me your address and I will be by to pick you up around 7:30.

I sent him my address and then was startled when I remembered I was not alone in the room.

“Oh. My. God,” Katie enunciated each, individual word, making me aware that she had been peering over my shoulder, followed by, “you’re going out with Suho. Holy shit!"

I blushed and quickly tossed my phone on my desk. I felt nerves quickly building up and I attempted to ignore Katie’s giddy giggles.

I spent the remainder of the day focusing specifically on work. I typed my reports on the new potential groups and submitted them toward the end of the day.

As I was packing up to go home, my supervisor knocked on my door.

"I’ve only skimmed your reports, but thus far, I’m impressed. Welcome to the team.” She nodded and turned out of the room.

I picked Paxton up from school and got home to get ready for the night. He sat on my bed telling me about the friends that he had made and how much he enjoyed learning from his new teacher. He said she was very encouraging in helping him become a better reader, and that he felt better about moving to a brand new town.

About half and hour before my scheduled date with Junmyeon, my cell phone buzzed. It was a text from him.

Receive: I hope that you don’t mind. I showed up a bit early.

Immediately after, there was a knock on my door. Paxton jumped off of the bed and followed behind me, hugging my legs as I turned the knob and revealed Junmyeon, a large smile spread across his face. In one hand, he held a single red rose and, in the other, an action figure of The Flash.

He handed me the rose and greeted me with a quick hug before kneeling to Paxton’s eye level.

“The Flash! Cool! He’s my favorite!” Paxton thanked him and shook his hand like a miniature adult.

“My name is Paxton Dean (Y/L/N)."

"And I’m Junmyeon! But you can call me Suho if you’d like,” he smiled and then followed up with, “Paxton. I was hoping to ask your permission on something. See, I think your mom is really pretty. I was wondering if I could take her out for a date.” Paxton looked up at me and smiled, “sure! That’s cool!"

Junmyeon smiled and thanked him. He then caught me off guard when he followed with, "but! For tonight, I was hoping to get to know both of you. If it’s okay with your mom, is it alright with you if I stay and help cook dinner?”

Paxton nodded his head fervently, “YEAH! Then I can show you my other superhero stuff!"

Junmyeon laughed and stood again. I was left completely speechless as I held eye contact with him.

Since Paxton’s father had left the picture, no man had been interested in spending time with both Paxton and myself. They usually parted ways with me after the first date to avoid further commitment to my son. It was understandable, but also stung.

"I brought some groceries, if that’s another selling point,” he pointed to a plastic bag on the ground.

I was unable to hold back a grin from stretching across my face as I welcomed him into our home.

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dorothydelgadillo · 5 years

Text

3 Lessons to Learn from the Slack Rebranding Controversy

“Dude, I ‘Slacked’ that to you earlier.”

Sound familiar? Unless you are still woefully morning the loss of AIM, you’re likely using Slack at work.

Having launched in 2013, Slack is a collaboration hub for work. Allowing people to work together more efficiently by keeping conversations, files, and to-do lists in a single app that operates across desktop and mobile.

We use it here at IMPACT, and quite frankly, our remote culture depends on it.

At the end of January, Slack introduced a major change. Gasp!

They decided to redesign their logo, and users around the globe were less than satisfied with the results.

I mean really, who actually likes change?

But, in most cases, the reactions went beyond not liking a little change.

There were the comparisons:

Clippy how you have changed. #slacklogo #slackbot #clippy pic.twitter.com/ra5vCQ5OOr

— Nate Schloesser (@nateschloesser) January 17, 2019

We all love ducks! 🐣🐥🦆 #slacklogo #slack pic.twitter.com/IhVlkyTg9a

— Dan (@Betraydan) January 17, 2019

wow, love the new slack logo pic.twitter.com/s0pf0AHsju

— Chris Warriner (@King_Darian) March 1, 2019

And then, the really bad comparisons:

... pic.twitter.com/cQAOH37RE7

— Christian Dakota (@codydohertyy) January 16, 2019

Yeah...that’s a little rough. But, as it goes with logo design, once you see it, you often can’t unsee it.

Finally, there were the unoriginal accusations:

Let’s play that fun new game: “Is it the new Slack logo or a random medical group?”#branding #slack #logo #design pic.twitter.com/a4RldEJRO1

— Christopher Grande (@chrisgrande) January 16, 2019

@SlackHQ #slacklogo Updated Again 🎉 But now it looks quite familiar 🙃 😄https://t.co/4SipOqCcLA pic.twitter.com/9GDXr8UBu5

— MiniCreo (@MiniCreo_Apps) March 1, 2019

I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Personally I love Slack’s fresh, unique, never-been-seen-before logo update… pic.twitter.com/tpFc9PuPGk

— Ryan (@thisisryanon) January 17, 2019

But, to their defense, Slack isn’t the only brand to ever find themselves at the wrong end of the Twittersphere.

Airbnb went through a similar social situation in 2014.

I can't get over @Airbnb's logo looking like a clinic for women's health. pic.twitter.com/fAFbrQ0dYx

— Simone Giertz (@SimoneGiertz) September 21, 2016

As did Uber in 2016.

Aww, Uber killed off its iconic butthole logo. RIP in peace little butt https://t.co/qFkFjWwRQD pic.twitter.com/LBdqacSCwR

— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) September 12, 2018

While some of these examples are pretty funny (come on, your 15-year-old self knows they are), others raise serious social and emotional concerns.

It proves the point that everyone can always relate a logo to something.

With that said, there are some key takeaways with Slack’s rebrand that we should all take into consideration next time we find ourselves in the same seat.

1. Have a Reason for the Redesign

This might seem obvious, but trust me when I say it’s not. Sometimes we see clients who are just bored of looking at their logo, and they want someone with creative inclinations to work their magic.

That’s never, ever a good idea.

Slack actually didn't do that. They had practical reasons behind their decision to redesign. In other words, they got this part very, very right.

Excessive Restrictions

Slack knew that their existing logo, though liked, was simply not doing the job they wanted it to.

Their first logo was created before the company launched. It was distinct, fun, and the octothorpe (a fancy name for pound sign or “hashtag”) mirrored the character users saw when creating a channel.

But, they quickly found that they made it too complicated.

The logo was 11 different colors (holy crap! Can you imagine trying to embroider that, or do any kind of offset printing?!?). Plus, if it was placed on any color other than white, it looked horrid, failing to contrast.

The logo also had a very specific 18º rotation.

Talk about a brand standards nightmare. I honestly don’t understand how they dealt with it for so many years.

To compensate for these difficulties, Slack developed multiple versions of the logo that worked for very different purposes.

But, this meant that every single version of their app button was different, and, each one was different from the actual foundational logo. What? Kind of defeats the point of having a logo in the first place.

With any type of brand cohesion out the window subsequent designs for the brand suffered. There wasn’t a single, recognizable style that represented Slack.

A redesign seemed like the only solution.

Having recognized and understood the visual mistakes their brand was making, Slack commissioned help from the team at Pentagram, who helped bring their new visual identity to life.

Now, I’m not saying if I endorse the new visual identity, but given the parameters listed above, Pentagram delivered.

Pentagram describes the process in a case study on their website:

“Derived from the original logo and built on a grid, the new octothorpe is comprised of two basic geometric shapes––a speech bubble and lozenge––that can be extracted and used as graphic elements. The speech bubble evokes communication and connectivity, and will form the basis of a system of customized icons, illustrations and motifs with rounded corners that echo the shapes of the logo. The new octothorpe can scale up or down to optimize legibility at various sizes.”

Visual problem = solved. That makes any designer’s heart happy.

The Brand & Company Is Evolving

Every brand goes through evolutions, sometimes those happen naturally as culture and core values progress with the changing environment. Sometimes, these evolutions happen at a specific crossroads.

For Slack, it’s the latter.

Slack is planning a direct IPO in 2019.

Visually, it’s time to stop messing around with 11 troublesome colors on an 18º rotation. It was time to get serious and step up to the plate with a recognizable logomark that can be taken seriously by investors.

When your company goes public, it enters a new tier. Your name becomes known even outside of your users and your logo has to age well.

Did Slack’s hashtag really have a 10-year shelf-life? Or maybe even longer?

Does the new mark have the potential for a 50-year heritage?

While that question has yet to be answered, it is clear that some sort of change was needed.

2. Consider Your Audience

Now, here’s where things start to get a little fuzzy. Slack’s redesign also teaches us a lot about considering your audience during a rebrand.

Yes, the new logo solves a lot of problems Slack was having with their visual identity and, it certainly helps mature the brand in the eyes of investors, but what about its users and prospects?

Here’s where they missed the mark.

Desktop & Mobile Experience

The response from Slack users was HUGE.

All of a sudden, on February 26, they had new icons across their desktops and mobile devices and it was hard to find.

We went from a very bright, argyle patterned app to one that primarily used aubergine with some small colored icons.

I used to have a desktop app that was clearly legible and distinct in my Mac’s dock. After the redesign, it became one that barely stands out unless I have a notification bubble sitting on top.

Even worse, just a few short weeks after the unveiling of the rebrand, Slack decided to switch up its look on mobile, making it difficult to differentiate from apps like Google Photos and iPhoto.

As an avid Slack mobile app user, it’s incredibly frustrating that a once distinctive app is getting lost in my “messengers” folder along with the likes of Google Hangouts and Facebook Messenger.

As it currently stands, these extremely familiar app colors are almost lost on the aubergine background. It blends into the background of my dock, barely noticeable between my Creative Cloud apps. If it weren’t for the notification bubble, I might not even notice it was there.

The jury is out on whether these changes went through user testing groups, but they absolutely should have. At the very least, the implementation of the desktop app design could have better highlighted the new logo.

Unexpected Connotations

So, some of the tweets above were pretty harsh.

In fact, a number of people were downright offended by the imagery, suggesting that the white space of the new logo resembled a swastika.

Were they wrong? Absolutely not.

Colors and symbols have different meanings in different cultures and contexts and even if you personally do not see it that way, it does not stop others from doing it.

Again, I can’t confirm that Slack didn’t do their due diligence when it came to testing the new logo, but outcomes like this show the importance of doing so.

As a brand, you need to take into account how your symbolism can be perceived by everyone in your audience.

As a Designer & Brand, What Can You Do?

It’s 2019.

As a graphic designer placed in charge of visually representing a brand, you have to consider how every angle of your design is representing that brand, and what this imagery could mean in terms of backlash.

Misinformation and harassment are front and center. Gone are the days of keeping your opinions to yourself, tucked away in forums, or on a small personal website.

Slack’s logo launch endured all of it. The good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

Again, part of the strategy for any public facing brand needs to be considering how the imagery associated with that brand (as unintentional as it may be) could be misinterpreted. No matter how good your intentions, things today can be twisted into something hideous or hateful.

As a designer can you prepare for and control how each individual interprets your work?

Of course not, but you can take some steps to try and prevent it.

Think about submitting your imagery to test panels to essentially rip it apart.

If you want to know what the Twitterverse is going to do with a potentially unsavory mark, test it. At the very least, you can prepare your teams for the potential backlash and plan on how to address these types of opinions.

This test-first mentality can help you stand strong as Slack did, as opposed to a situation like Gap, where they pulled their rebrand in the first week.

3. Pay Attention to Competition & Differentiation

One of the key components of any redesign is the ability to bring originality to a brand.

A logo should be clean, replicable, identifiable, and like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.

At least, that’s the dream.

Unfortunately, reality is a bit more complicated. Hear me out.

One of the biggest areas of backlash Slack endured was their inability to be totally original.

The new logo was compared to medical groups, other tech startups, and some of the most familiar apps on our phones (Google Photos, iPhoto, etc.).

Differentiation is important, but, from a design perspective, the lack of it may have been very intentional.

People are largely attracted to what is familiar. That’s why UX on different websites, for instance, can start to look and feel eerily similar.

But, that’s actually a really good thing.

Users know exactly how to use a familiar site. It lowers friction and makes navigating easier.

Logo design trends in a similar direction.

For example, ever since Apple decided to ditch skeuomorphism for flat design around 2013, the majority of logo and app designs have followed.

In 2019, there is hardly a logo out there that hasn’t been strategically decluttered, simplified, and flattened. Consequently, everyone ends up looking the same, but still different.

I usually sort my app icons by color because it's easier to look at and remember but this is just getting confusing. 🙈🙈 pic.twitter.com/vQatzi9xJA

— Noukka 🐨 (@noukkasigne) February 27, 2019

Is Slack’s logo overly inventive and groundbreaking? You can certainly make the argument that it isn’t and perhaps there should have been more effort to help it be more distinct.

However, it is likely they’ve made the decision to be on trend with their industry.

This conscious decision to blend in might be a good look in terms of a risky investment (and their IPO status), but to users, it’s just as comfortable as the rest of their home screen.

Thinking About A Rebrand?

Do it for the right reasons.

You don’t want to take on a project like this simply because you’re tired of your logo. Make sure you have concrete reasoning for a redesign.

Make sure you are partnering with an agency that understands these reasons and owns them as if they were their own reasons for the project.

That agency should not only be well-versed in design, but aware of the competition and the community that surrounds your brand.

If they have the ability to expect certain backlash or be compared to certain brands, you can own the situation and respond with unflawed reasoning to be able to uphold your decision.

Keep these questions in mind when interviewing an agency for a rebrand:

Why do you want to work with my brand? This company is going to give your brand the biggest makeover it’s ever seen. Do you trust them with scissors and your Rapunzel-length hair? Make them prove it to you.

Can you walk me through your process? Logo design is a highly collaborative process embedded with brand messaging strategy and subjective emotions. Make sure your agency of choice understand how heavily each weighs on the desired outcome and test them on how they get there.

How will you contend for my brand against my competitors? Make sure your agency of choice recognizes your competition’s tactics and understands how to apply them to your goals.

Who will be on my team? For the same reasons as question two, make sure the team pitching you is the same team that will be delivering. You’ll need to be able to trust this team with your brand. Be sure you're comfortable from the start.

What does branding mean to you? This one is tricky. There is no “right” answer here, but instead, one that feels right to you. Hint: There is a wrong answer - a logo.

So, Do You Actually Like the New Slack Logo?

That’s a tough question that’s going to come with a tough answer.

I respect the new Slack logo. As I mentioned above, it solves a very specific set of problems for the brand. In my mind, that’s a really successful redesign.

From a totally subjective, “do I like it” emotional standpoint. Eh, it could have pushed a little further. There was an opportunity to set the trend as opposed to following it. It doesn’t exceed expectations for me -- but it certainly won’t stop me from slackin’.

All images (excluding tweets) via Slack.

from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/lessons-new-slack-logo-rebranding-controversy

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dustydata · 7 years

Text

Chasing the Sun

It’s that time of year again! The first 2017 Iron Viz feeder has been declared and the theme is.....Shape Files! Wait....what the heck is a shape file? If you want a technical definition - “ A shapefile is a simple, nontopological format for storing the geometric location and attribute information of geographic features. Geographic features in a shapefile can be represented by points, lines, or polygons (areas). “

For those non-technical people (like me), it’s an easy way to bring amazing custom geographic shapes into Tableau and with 10.2, it’s as easy as click, drag, map! Like many of my dashboards the first step in my process was finding the right data set to build off of.

1) Find the Data

The was by far the HARDEST iron viz in terms of finding the correct data set. Shape files aren’t too hard to find, but there were two major complications for me when searching. First, most of the shape files out there weren’t super inspiring....just dots on a map or a partial file that didn’t really tell a story. Second, alot of the cool shape files were “multilinestring” which is not compatible with Tableau (yet). So after 50 (YES 50) shape files and 20+ hours of searching I found my shape file and my dashboard topic!

The shape file I found showed a really cool grid map of the US and it’s daily solar energy potential (from data.gov) This ended up being 100,000 marks of data with cuts at the annual and monthly level. Once I had this file, I knew that I would need more data to support my theme (why solar is the future), so I scoured the internet and found 6 other supporting data sets with information ranging from timelines, cost, incentives, fossil fuels, etc! One of the most helpful sites I found was OpenEI. Needless to say, this site was chocked full of super cool green data sets (I will definitely be using it in the future!

2) The Build

The build of this dashboard probably took me about 40 hours in total. A lot of that time was spent on formatting and deciding how to organize everything into a story that could inspire readers. The first chart I made was the map - I mean I’m a sucker for a good map and I knew that the shape file I found would make something pretty interesting. One thing I did do was make the color of my map POP. Typically heatmaps are a green to brown type of spectrum, but I wanted to get the “electric” feel out of my palette so I went with Neon blue to Fuchsia!

I also made a parameter which changed out the main map to look at annual or any month in detail. I thought this would allow for maximum flexibility on the part of the end user. In addition to the main map, I wanted to have a quick “at a glance” view of the whole year. To save performance time I took images of each month, shrunk them down and lined them up directly under the map. This worked as a trend chart that would help you pick which month to look at in detail.

Next, I wanted to give some background to the history of solar cell development. I hoping that like myself, most people would be interested to see how far we’ve come! I learned some really cool stuff making this chart, including the fact that Einstein actually had a hand in solar history! The data was a simple timeline, but I tried to spice it up with bubble images of some of the major events.

Next, I wanted to show the reader where we are now - I mean how many people actually know what % of solar energy is transferred into usable energy? Personally, I wanted to know if my solar panels were any good (I have solar city / Tesla panels on my roof and have a Tesla Model 3 on order - yeah you could say i’m invested in this topic :) ).

The solar cells were split into 3 major types and I was able to find some market share data for 2015. The left portion is a stacked bar and the right is a combination of images, text boxes and lines. I kept everything fairly simple and made the efficiency number a focal point for the viz.

After showing where we came from and where we were with technology, I wanted to dive into what most people discount about solar (without knowing all the facts) --- Cost. Honestly, I have solar panels and I didn’t know how much they cost (I did the “free” solar option, where I pay solar city a fixed cost for energy and get panels for free).

This had to be the biggest “Holy CRAP” moment of all the charts I’ve ever made. Now, its not the most ground-breaking area chart technically speaking, but it definitely told a STORY!

Man, I could not believe the amazing drop in cost paired with the huge increase in production that has taken place over the last 40 years. People have to take notice of this phenomenon - numbers don’t lie!

Related to cost, but even more relevant for most people are Solar incentives. Incentives are local/government backed breaks that enable people to go green for a more comparable cost to traditional energy (I will clearly taking full advantage of the $7,500 federal rebate for my first electric car this year!).

The data I found was a collection of incentive programs by state, complete with links to the actual incentive websites! I decided to go with a simple map, paired with action filter that would show the incentive list when clicked. For more detail you could click on the incentive and be taken directly to the site in question!

The final piece of my dashboard was one of the most telling pieces of information regarding alternative energy. I actually ended up reading / watching several videos from oil industry conferences (yeah I know, fun stuff!) to get perspective from fossil fuel experts (the other side of the aisle as it were). One paper I found was by Richard Nehring, a 40+ year oil industry analyst. To my surprise he said something I wasn’t expecting - Oil and other fossil fuels were running out! WOW, I really didn’t see that coming. Better yet, he had projections for coal, oil, and natural gas which all said the same thing - fossil fuels WILL PEAK and alternatives like SOLAR were necessary to support the world’s energy needs. If a hardline oil industry analyst agrees with solar experts, you can’t help but take notice.

Overall, I tried to convey a few things with this dashboard

First - Solar is a real technology that has the potential to solve our energy needs

Second - The economics line up, it’s getting cheaper and more accessible for all

Third - We can’t wait, fossil fuels aren’t unlimited and we need to act

I hope that people enjoy this dashboard and take the message it portrays to heart. Thank you Tableau for providing an excellent feeder for Iron Viz, I had a blast making this viz!

Dashboard Link

Dustin

#tableau ironviz

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