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Real Estate Agent & Broker, Specialist in 55+ Communities, Faber Realty, INC.

Houses and apartments designed with seniors in mind: Homes in 55 and over communities are built keeping in mind the physical needs and concerns common to seniors. You do not have to modify anything if the home is already built according to your needs, you can expect to stay there securely and comfortably for years to come.

🛸Venus in Houses/Signs🛸

~ Venus represents our love language, fashion, beauty, dancing, attraction, lovers, self love, luxury items, music, etc.

Venus in Aries/1h:

| You could be attracted to people who are very fiery, bold, athletic, dominant, masculine, etc. Your love language could be acts of service like doing adventurous activities and more. You could be seen as very beautiful, talented, someone with self love. Your fashion could be very bold, very out there, you could wear athletic clothes, bold colors, and more. You could practice self love by building your confidence, upgrading your looks, working out, and more. You could listen to rock music, rap music, music that is energetic and upbeat, etc.

Ex: Rihanna has Aries Venus conjunct ASC

Venus in 2H/Taurus:

| You could be attracted to partners/people who are very patient, stand on their values, have self-love, determined, and more. When it comes to your fashion, you could wear tones of green, tones of earth colors, you could wear designer items, your fashion could be very laid back, etc. When it comes to your beauty, people could value your beauty, see you as high maintenance, very pretty, you might have soft features, you could really keep up with yourself, and more. Your dancing style could be very smooth, effortless, you could really take the time to learn the choreography, and more. You could practice self love by taking yourself shopping, buying high quality material things, singing, upgrading your self worth, creating stability for yourself, and more. Your music type could be very laid back, something that makes you feel valuable or good, you could listen to songs about material things, self worth, patience, love songs, etc.

Ex: Rich Girl ~ Gwen Stefani

Venus in 3H/Gemini:

| You could be attracted to partners/people who are talkative, know how to communicate, intelligent, playful, share interests with you, younger than you, you could meet your love interests in your neighborhood, school, social media, through your siblings, at a train station, bus, and more. Your love language could be words of affirmation and physical touch, because Gemini is Mercury ruled and Mercury represents communication and rules the hands. When it comes to your fashion, you could switch up your aesthetic a lot, have several aesthetics, versatile, tones of yellow, youthfulness, and more. When it comes to your beauty, you could be seen as younger than your age, youthful, baby face, and more. When it comes to learning choreography, you could have fun with it, you could play too much which could hinder you from learning the choreography😂, you could learn choreography very quickly, learn serval choreographies at the same time, and more. You could practice self love by having fun with yourself, upgrading your intelligence/knowledge, reading books, probably validation from social media which is dangerous, clearing your mind of negative thoughts that hinder your self worth, etc. You could listen to music that is playful, not serious, songs that stimulate your mind, songs about being strong minded, being playful, neighbors, traveling, etc.

Ex: Jennifer Lopez has her Venus in Gemini

Venus in 4h/cancer:

| You could be attracted to partners/people that remind you of home, your family, comforting, emotionally intelligent, sensitive, aware of their emotions, probably on the feminine side, you could meet your person through your family, hometown, during your self care procedure or journey, real estate industry, looking for homes, and more. Your fashion could be very feminine, soft, you could wear tones of blue, tones of white, long flowy dresses, and more. When it comes to your beauty, you could have very feminine features, your mom’s twin, soft features, and more. When it comes to choreography, you could put a lot of emotion into the moves, you could dance with emotion, your mood could affect the way you dance, you could do a lot of feminine choreography, dance with your family, etc. You could practice self love by being around your family, nurturing yourself, taking beauty advice from the women in your family, addressing your emotions, and more. You could listen to sad music, slow paced, music that brings out your emotions, brings out your inner child, remind you of your childhood, you could listen to songs about the mother, childhood, self care, and more. The luxury items you have could’ve been passed down through your family, from your mother, your father, etc.

Ex: Blue can be associated with Cancer

Venus in 5h/leo:

| You could be attracted to partners/people who are entertainers, pursuing music, pursuing acting, loyal, have a passion for acting, entertaining, creative, dramatic, romantic, and more. Your language could be gift receiving and acts of service, because you want your partner to prove themselves to you, show you that they want you instead of words, and more. When it comes to fashion, you could wear pieces that make you stand out, flashy outfits, glittery outfits, dramatic pieces, tones of oranges, and more. When it comes to your beauty, you could have big hair, stand out a lot, you shine from your beauty, cat like features, cat eyes, and more. You could receive luxury items that are well known, famous, make you stand out, and more. You could practice self love by indulging in your creative passions, having fun with your friends, indulging in things that bring out a child like spirit, learning to be in love with yourself, and more. You could listen to songs that are upbeat, extremely popular, songs that are about being loyal, prideful, relate to your pleasures, drama, romance, etc.

Ex: Someone could gift you a Chanel bag because it’s a well known brand

Venus in 6h/virgo:

| You could be attracted to partners/ people that are athletic, into fitness, consistent, get to be with everyday, analytical, humble, perfect, innocent, you could find love in the work place, gym, through your step family, and more. Your love language could be acts of service, because the 6h also represents services. When it comes to your fashion, you could wear neutral colors, girl next door aesthetic, earthy tones, earth aesthetic, and more. When it comes to beauty, you could look very youthful, soft features, smaller features, delicate features, and more. You could practice self love by investing a lot of time into yourself, fitness, health, and more. When it comes to music, you could listen to earthy type of music, indie, soft rock, music about fitness, health, things that relate to your everyday life, and more, Etc.

Ex: You could work out at the gym to build confidence in your body

Venus in 7H/Libra:

| You could be attracted to partners/people who very romantic, husband material, you could build a partnership with you, good looking, into fashion, beauty, and more. Your love language could be physical touch and gift giving. When it comes to fashion, you could wear tones of pink, Barbie aesthetic, baddie aesthetic, and more. You could be considered very beautiful or good looking because Venus represents beauty. When it comes to self love, you could invest into your makeup, clothes, nails, beauty, and more. You could listen to tons of love songs, artist collabs, songs about partnerships, when it comes to your music taste there could be a balance, and more. You could be gifted luxury items from your partner, husband, makeup, beauty products, etc.

Ex: Beyonce has a Libra Venus

Venus in 8H/Scorpio:

| You could attract partners/people who are extremely seductive, magnetic, into the occult, magic, investors, and more. When it comes to fashion, you could wear tones of black, dark clothing, gothic, alt, and more. When it comes to your beauty, you could have darker features, sharp features, seductive, magnetic, and more. When it comes to dancing, you could do sexy choreography, your dancing could be sharp, you could dance to songs about Scorpio themes, and more. You could listen to songs about sex, seductiveness, dark themes, occult, brave, power, obsession, metal music, rock music, etc.

Ex: Obsessed ~ Mariah Carey

Venus in 9H/Sagittarius:

| You could be attracted to partners/people who are adventurous, funny, wealthy, wise, photogenic, photographers, lawyers, different culture from you, and more. When it comes to fashion, you could explore a lot with your fashion choices, wear oversized clothings, and more. When it comes to your beauty, you could have larger features like bigger eyes, bigger forehead, lips, nose, and more. When it comes to dancing, you could explore different dancing styles. You could practice self love by traveling, increasing your knowledge, going on adventures, and more. You could receive luxury items that are from different countries, over the top expansive, receive more luxury items than usual, and more. You could listen to foreign music, popular/well known songs, songs about traveling, being adventurous, relate to your beliefs, etc.

Ex: Kpop aka Korean Pop

Venus in 10h/Capricorn:

| You could attract partners/people who are authority figures, CEOs, your bosses, seen as a higher status, and more. When it comes to fashion, you could wear business attire a lot, professional clothings, tones of brown, tones of gray, basic, and more. When it comes to beauty, you could be on the smaller side, strong bone structure, bare face beauty, and more. When it comes to learning choreography, you could take longer to learn choreography, have issues with learning it, work hard to get it on lock down, and more. When it comes to self love, you could invest into your career, legacy, status, and more. You could listen to rnb, alternative, old school class music, songs about being a boss, authority figure, legacy, and more. You get receive luxury items that are hard for people to get their hands on, etc.

Ex: You could be with a CEO of a banking company

Venus in 11h/Aquarius:

| You could be attracted to partners/people who are in your friend group, associates, social group, engineer, politicians, dream man, humanitarian, rebellious, unique, and more. When it comes to fashion, you could wear unique pieces, you could wear pieces that go against fashion norms, your friend group could influence your style, and more. When it comes to your beauty, your beauty could be very unique, out the word, and more. You could practice self love with your friends, be in a self love group, being nice to yourself, and more. You could receive luxury items that are unique and innovative. When it comes to your dancing, you could have a unique dancing style, sometimes you could switch the choreography up, and do your own thing. You could like EDM music, electronic music, futuristic music, songs about helping others, being rebellious, friend ships, etc.

Ex: You could indulge in futuristic fashion and trends

Venus in 12h/Pisces:

| You could attract partners/people who are glamorous, ethereal, spiritual, self sacrifice a lot, creative, could be delusional about your partners, and more. When it comes to fashion, you could do mermaid core, tones of people, y2k, old school trends, and more. Your beauty could be seen as unreal, ethereal, glamorous, siren like beauty, and more. You could practice self love by indulging in spirituality, isolating yourself, taking care of your mental health, reflecting on your past, cutting off people or things that don’t serve you, and more. You could receive luxury items that people do not know about or that are hidden. You could listen to indie, electronic, rnb, alternative music, songs that make you forget about your reality, mental health, hidden things, isolation, etc.

Ex: Y2K/MC Bling

AITA for trying to forcibly remove someone from their house?

I know it sounds bad, but please bear with me. I work for a fairly large company within the sales department. Our company deals with a lot of business, including construction and real estate. There's this one home in a prime location near one of our Headquarters that I have had my eyes on to try and aquire, but it is owned by an individual who is a hassle to deal with. Every time I attempt to bring it up and offer a sale, she refuses and threatens to call the police station across from her house, who she is fairly close with many of the people working there.

I have reason to believe she is a member of a socialist militia. I've heard horror stories from coworkers of the damage people like these can do, and I'm at my wits end with having to deal with these types. However, I have a job to do.

Anyway, on my last attempt I tried to escalate and forcibly enter her home and take it for myself, which is a risky move I admit but coworkers within my department have had success doing this in the past. Anyway, upon noticing me, she retaliated by dropping a grand piano on my head, confirming my suspicions that she is a member of that violent socialist gang.

Thankfully, a grand piano only does 170 damage and I am a Level 12 Mr. Hollywood, so I walked away injured but not dead. I'm prepared to take this incident all the way to the top. The Chairman won't be happy about this...

*Distant sound of frantic running growing closer*

*I throw open the door with manic eyes, breathing heavily*

Hatsume Mei! The Fenton's! Oh DEAR LORD. The Couple, the Doctors Fenton... would think she's A Lovely Young Lady ™! Normal even! Charming! I bet the Hatsume Adults would find to be a Charming And Upstanding Young Lad!

JAPAN ISNT READY.

If the GIW got out of hand? And Amity, as a town? Said "fuck ya'll we taken our ball and going home"? All they'd NEED to do? Is shut down the portal, get the skilled portal makers stationed at side A of town to open it up, rip the whole thing up, have the mover ghosts push it IN, aaaaaand? Everyone in? Good! We close it from the inside!

Fuck those guys.

Okay, so, I'm Jerry. You're real estate officer, we got some GREAT options for you this season! How do feel about ninjas? No? Pirates? Not feeling it? Superheroes? Seeing some interest! We got a- *continues their pitch as Amity is moved*

Amity get phased into the Japanese countryside.

What do you MEAN "there wasn't a town here?" Of course there way! We have roads and everything! Why are we all Americans? What're you a cop? Mind your business, spandex man.

.....yeah, they're gonna call this one a "Quirk accident".

Pay your taxes, folks, and we promise not to care!

Fenton's? Back in business, baby! Well, never STOPPED being in business. But details! They're now a "support company"! And yes! The quotation marks ARE on all their documents AND signs! They think it's stupid!

But you want lazers?

Oh ho hoooo~ DO WE HAVE LAZERS!!!

Maddie n Jack start hitting the scene. Conventions. Conferences. Fancy parties. Weirdly? They "unnerve" people. Cowards.

Until? Gasp? They meet just the LOVELIEST couple! Who are so FUN! Who ALSO has a daughter? Danny's age no less! Oh she is just PRECIOUS? Is that her first bomb? Aaaaaw~♡.

Danny feels a disturbance in the force.

Like... like his folks are... are about to try and introduce him to a Nice Young Girl again. The last time this happened was at mom's fighting competitions. She ended up being some sort of assassin royalty. Thankfully, she accepted he could commit to a life of murder, since he wanted to be an astronaut, but it was like this whole THING and- you know what? Not important!

Where are his parents!?

(Planning his wedding! Gotta incorporate BOTH the family's completely batshit Family Traditions!)

Honestly find it a little frustrating that so much of mass transit conversations focus exclusively on trains. Trains are great don't get me wrong, but buses are relatively extremely cheap and require very little in the way of city infrastructure planning and construction. You can establish or reroute a bus route basically in the span of time it takes to make that decision and communicate it (both to riders and in terms of training drivers). More buses, staff, and signage may need to be acquired, but are also fairly straightforward and attainable with modest investment even by smaller or poorer municipalities.

Establishing a train line, though, or even a streetcar, requires acquisition of real estate, public comment, environmental impact studies (among other types of research), construction of tracks, stations, and other infrastructure, and so on. It's a long expensive process with many steps that can be delayed for very long spans of time and the result is fairly permanent and for the most part can't be changed.

When there's a problem with the train cars or infrastructure it is very expensive and takes a long time to repair, and whole stretches of the system might be out of commission in the meantime. Buses, on the other hand, are very adaptable. If a road becomes unavailable due to construction, road damage, or other issues, the route can simply change to drive around it. If a bus breaks down it can be towed away and replaced without the same technical issues of, for example, making sure the car is compatible with the rails and other infrastructure.

Here in Seattle the light rail system has been in development for decades and still doesn't reach most neighborhoods, let alone nearby cities. It has not and fundamentally cannot keep up with the pace of population growth in the area. As much as I would love to be able to catch a quick train to visit friends in Olympia or Everett (there is Amtrak but it only runs a few times a day and is pretty expensive), I kind of wish that money had instead been put towards a good central bus station and a large fleet of buses to run frequent trips to all corners of the city and beyond (one bus every 30 minutes is not frequent, sorry).

The cost really can't be brushed off, too. That relatively low minimum investment in time and money makes it possible for buses to serve poor communities, even when people get pushed out of central neighborhoods. Which is important to consider when, well, if homes or businesses need to be demolished for new infrastructure, who do you think they tend to belong to? And who gets pushed out when the area around those new stations suddenly becomes very desirable? Whose voices are prioritized and listened to when this much money is on the line, the white single family homeowner with and HOA and a job that accommodates going to public listening sessions that might not even be accessible by bus, or the renters, the people who work graveyard shift, the single parents who can't afford an extra day of babysitting, the people who might speak English as a second language or not at all?

On my knees for mafia!marauders x reader who dose archery but they don’t know about it and she’s practicing in the backyard and there mad and impressed that she was able to sneak off 🫢🫢🫢🫢mabey it could be a bit longer then normal nw if not <33

bullseye

pairing | poly!mafia!marauders x fem!reader

warning | fluff, mentions of violence, archery,

word count | 525

Remus, James and Sirius prided themselves for teaching you how to protect yourself if they gone, Sirius had taught you how to shoot a gun (something you were terrible at), James and Remus taught you hand to hand combat (which you’d probably do bad at if a real situation had came up). 

You knew that they were trying their best to keep you safe, and you couldn’t help but feel for them. Their line of work was dangerous and it was their intention to keep you out of it as much as possible. 

Even your own father had his own mafia, and from a young age, he made sure you could protect yourself, not needing your husband for you. 

The estate the four of you live on was humongous, probably half the house land not even being explored. The backyard had always been your favorite, and though you were still at home, it felt like you were away and you needed that sometimes. 

Archery has been one of your favorite activities not because your father made you do it, but because you excelled at it, winning competitions when you were an adolescent and teenager. And the boys hadn’t caught onto it yet.

There were targets placed at different lengths away from your archery station, your bow and arrows. 

You came out when you needed a break, something to calm you down. 

Grabbing your bow, pulling an arrow out, placing it, drawing your arm back. Your eyes were trained on the bullseye, taking in a deep breath before pulling the arrow. Standing still for the follow through, you looked down seeing it hitting the center of the target. 

Smirking to yourself, you smiled, grabbing another arrow and going to the next target, a couple yards farther than the other. 

Unknown to you, the three men had come home, not seeing you in the living room nor the bedroom, searching the entire house before coming out to the backyard.

Furrowing his brows, James had seen you a few meters away, not even knowing they had a backyard that big. Seeing your archery kit and targets, they all looked at each other, watching you intently. 

“Did you know she could do that?” Remus looked over at Sirius, seeing you shot the arrow in a perfect bullseye.

“No idea.”

You were brought out of your trance when you heard someone exclaim behind you.

“Holy shit!”

You turned to see the three of them standing by the patio doors, your eyes widened, giving them a small wave, setting your stuff down. 

“Are you keeping secrets from us?” James smirked, the three of them finally coming up to you, 

“You all never asked.” You smiled, kissing his cheek, “This is my own type of protection, someone comes in the house, and boom! Arrow to the chest.”

Sirius just snorted at your logic, shaking his head. “Alright, Merida, let’s get inside.”

Smiling, you tucked yourself under Remus’s arm. Looking up at him, you asked, “You’re not mad?”

“Of course not.” He answered, leaning down to press a kiss to your head. “Seems like you can protect yourself, and that’s all we wanted.”

kacy i wanna know how much of a perv you think daniel is LOL so much fic centers on armand dragging him through an experience *armand* wants. so like what's the ratio of daniel being a freak in his nature (and knowing this about himself) vs armand nurturing this trait into him?

My friend, I’m so glad you asked.

THE THING IS IVE GIVEN THIS A LOT OF THOUGHT and in some ways it’s like, what all of my Devil’s Minion fics are about LOL. And yet! I don’t have a simple answer to this question, the way real questions of nature vs nurture are complicated in the real world in real people!

But let me sketch out a framework of the way I’ve questioned this, and everyone might come to different conclusions and that’s the fun of fandom, because there can exist several thousand versions of Daniel based on the same text! AND I KNOW YOU KNOW THIS STUFF, I HOPE IT DOESN’T COME OFF AS MANSPLAINING LMAO but I’m excited to talk about this topic. 

Here’s what we know unequivocally from the text:

Daniel is 20 years old in IWTV.

That’s it, that’s the whole list.

And here’s some fanon that people often try to extrapolate from the text: 

💦 That he met Louis at a gay bar. UNCONFIRMED, but I think it’s likely? In the short story the bar is named the Pink Baby, I think that might be a gay bar or a dick reference idk lol. 

💦 Whether or not the Pink Baby was a gay bar, he and Louis essentially cruised each other and left the bar together! Daniel has the excuse that he’s hunting for interviews for his job, Louis has the excuse that he’s an apex predator who preys on people, but ? Take this wherever you need to. (Also blah blah Ricean biting=sex symbolisms.)

💦 Was Daniel bisexual outside of the assumption that most of the VC characters are bisexual/omnisexual? The only clue we get is that when he and Armand practice voyeurism, he hooks up with men and women. There’s a lot of interesting information packed into the voyeurism paragraph, like this line: Yet he lay empty afterwards, staring at Armand, resentful, cold. and I’ve seen the “resentful, cold” comment dissected many times in fandom. Is it the general resentment of their whole relationship? Is it because he wants to fuck Armand and not randos? Is it because he only wants the Blood? Does he not consent to being used like a zoo animal? Is he gay and doesn’t want to fuck women? Is he straight (minus the orientation-defying vampire attraction) and doesn’t want to fuck men? I’ve seen all kinds of takes on this LOL. But still, no real definitive answer about his orientation in the text.

💦 What did the “roaming the bars of the world” comment mean? Sometimes I read Anne Rice’s language as being kinda lofty and exaggerated but was he ACTUALLY traveling the WHOLE WORLD or is he hyping up that he trolled bars in the Bay Area? Is he FROM the Bay Area or was it a stop in his travels? He worked for a radio station (not in the book, but mentioned in the short story + The Vampire Companion and The Alphabettery) so did he live here, even if he traveled a lot? Was he wealthy before vampires if he was traveling this much, if you think he was a traveler?

AND AFTER ALL THAT, here’s some extra questions where Daniel is FREE REAL ESTATE that every fan has the freedom to make the fuck up:

💦 How much sexual experience did he have at 20? Do we assume that by default as an Anne Rice character he probably had ample teenage sexual experiences, and if he did, is there a quality over quantity aspect to consider? Is the sex we have as teenagers like, all that to write home about LMAO. Do we really understand kinks yet, or do we need to grow up and gain some perspective first? 

💦 As an Anne Rice character, by default, do we assume he & everything else is sexually charged LOL, are the interviews and cruising and taking people home a code for bringing partners home? What percentage of his interviews were also hookups?  

💦 When we talk about nature vs nurture for kinkiness, how micro and macro is this? As a fellow Off the Cuffs fan I know you understand the “radioactive spider bite into kink” concept, and some kinks are so specific to our experiences. But BEING KINKY in itself IS nature, isn’t it? I’ve read some sex & kink theory that kink is (psychologically) more like an innate orientation. IE: in the way you can be straight or gay, some people are also by default turned on by being smacked or by whatever paraphilia. Whatever that thing is, the way it takes shape, is the nurture half. But like, many people can have the same experience and 99% of them don’t develop a paraphilia right? So I think that capability exists in kinky folks at all times, especially when so many of the radioactive spider bites are things that people discover in childhood. ANYWAY I RANTED but I say that to say; DANIEL MOLLOY IS A MONSTERFUCKER, IWTV IS THE PROOF THAT HE IS A MONSTERFUCKER. IT WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME. 

So I bring up all those questions to encourage everyone to make up their own story with this, but I’ll tell you where I personally landed and how I approach it in my fics!!!

The Daniel in MY OWN fics is 20, single child, estranged from his parents, dropped out of college because he didn’t have ADHD support and was struggling, bisexual and promiscuous! I wonder if he went through that like college freshman thing where he got out of his parents house for the first time and partied a little too hard because he COULD! I like to read “bars of the world” as an exaggeration, I like to think he was a normal guy NOT globe hopping, sticking to the Bay Area, maybe he was out there for college, and guess what! There’s a thriving gay liberation culture there, so he finds some safe spaces to experiment with that! 

However, I think the text leaves space to think he didn’t have a lot of close friends, or wasn’t close with his family, due to the way that he simply ✨fucks off ✨ after IWTV. NOW, that’s just me! Because there’s potential here for a TRAGEDY of people looking for him or grieving him! But idk I just like thinking that he was already on the outs and the interview pushed him over the edge.

So I ask like, does the 20 year old have a ton of kink experience? Is he good at sex? WHAT DOES RESENTFUL, COLD MEAN? Was he celibate during the chase years? Are the voyeurism sessions the first time he’s had sex since his old life? Even if he had random hookups during the chase years, was this qualitatively good sex? Can you truly get into good BDSM on a hookup or do you need a trusted partner? (This is subjective, idk, but!) 

Also, how much kink is theoretical and private (to masturbate to) vs stuff you actually try? Especially if we believe that kink is nature, someone isn’t less kinky if they’re celibate, the way someone isn’t less gay if they’re celibate, or even a virgin. As Daniel becomes more and more obsessed with vampires, and with Armand, does it take over how he jerks off? Does he think about getting bitten? HE LIKES SNUGGLING WITH DEAD THINGS.

So like, there IS an element of Daniel being the unwilling witness of Armand’s rapidly shifting hyperfixations, and it’s natural that fandom pervs would extend that to sex acts and kinks. I LOVE IT, yes! It makes sense. 

But when you say like, which one of them is in charge, I wonder if it’s relevant if we assume Daniel enjoys it. (Does he? Would he? Resentful, cold?)

Here’s some points that come to mind when I imagine it as purely Armand’s doing:

💦 People sometimes misunderstand BDSM dynamics when it comes to power and control, because BDSM is a consensual fantasy between two adults. The sub is just as in control, because they allow it. In that sense: Do we believe Armand respects Daniel’s consent? Would he force Daniel to participate if he wasn’t enjoying himself? 

🩸 (How much can we compare this to Venice and how Armand was prepared for vampirism? I’m putting this in parentheses bc I’m putting a pin in this one, I CANNOT ADD A SUB-ESSAY INTO THIS POST ABOUT COMPARING VENICE TO DEVILS MINION but thinking of this too. Returning to the under-negotiated kink in Venice and how much is diegetic to the text, how does experiencing a spectrum of sexuality benefit someone’s last years alive ((sub-parentheses: does Armand flip-flop on turning Daniel as much as Marius did with Armand, does Armand subliminally know he’ll turn Daniel one day, does he go through these experiences as a precursor to turning Daniel eventually?)) are these experiences more for Armand to process the way he was groomed for asexual immortality vs being purely selfless and for Daniel’s benefit?)

💦 Armand uses Daniel as his usher into the modern age, and is it fair to assume he could sense Daniel’s kinkiness and knew that this was the person for him? 

💦 How dubious is Daniel’s consent here? How addicted to Armand’s Blood is he by the time they start fucking around? Is he already within the throes of Ricean Omnisexuality where he’s down for whatever? Does the Blood influence this as well? Is there a secret subliminal violence creeping into your body when you’ve been drinking it again and again? What about less violent kinks, like your feederism fic? Does the Blood encourage all types of excess and consumption??? 

But if DANIEL is the driving force here, I still must consider:

💦 He meets Armand and his life essentially ends when he’s 20 years old. Was he really self-aware of his kinks? Did he know himself very well sexually yet? 

💦 While exploring kinks can be mutually beneficial by sating Armand’s need for WEIRD HUMAN STUFF, maybe it IS something Daniel wants. It’s something he’s missing out on, because he checked out of regular human life when he was 20. Like, everyone’s different, so, I’m not saying that people can’t be sexually articulate at 20, but I know I fucking wasn’t! And I personally never fucked anyone that age who was good at it LMAO. So like how old would Daniel have been before he experimented enough to really know what he liked, and how much of him getting to know his sexuality involved Armand during the next decade?

💦 And this ties into Armand being his sugar daddy! That’s canon! Armand is his sugar daddy! If Daniel, at 28 years old, starts lamenting “I wish I’d gotten the chance to try watersports when I still had a normal life :( “ wouldn’t Armand have arranged that for him? 

🩸 (Again let’s talk about Venice and what did Armand learn there about being the vampire lover, how much does he process and repeat on Daniel, and for whose benefit?)

💦 If Daniel is an innately kinky person, and realizes as he’s approaching 30 that he never really got to explore it properly, wouldn’t Armand usher him through that experience? Even if Armand didn’t plan to turn him, I wonder if he saw the window of Daniel’s mortal experience closing, maybe he worried that this is the type of thing people need to be wild about while they’re still so young. And outside of stigmatizing Daniel's age, it's also about how he was becoming less and less healthy, dying of alcoholism at 32, so there was a small window here for them to have sex adventures.

So basically, I’m saying that the nature half feels very much like Daniel being a monsterfucker, the nurture half is the actual experiences he got to have. And I don’t think he’d be in this situation in the first place if he wasn’t a bit of a monsterfucker, and wasn't a innately into danger and pain. Like, we don’t get a TON of examples but Gretchen and Babette didn’t try to fuck vampires! We know that vampires give humans the heebie jeebies! What kind of sick fuck is into that?!?!?!? 

I don’t really have one single answer here. When it comes to the large library of kinks I think either of them can be blamed, and I also think it 100% makes sense to use Armand as a vehicle to write fic about them as if they’re another collection of human oddities for him to explore. But even using Armand’s weird bullshit to process that doesn’t mean it’s not mutually beneficial, and I think it gets into a fuzzier area that’s up to the writer when it comes to their take on the relationship, how dubious the consent is, how much do they actually like each other and get along? Can it be mutually beneficial in the end even if one person is driving? (see: the conversation about the second whipping scene in TVA and how it works out in the end.) Is it something they have fun agreeing to and negotiating in advance? 

I can totally see how someone might write this as a fun thing that they talk about beforehand as easily as it could be Armand forcing mystery adventure on Daniel and suddenly he’s tied up in some shitty apartment in Hells Kitchen with some man pissing on him, and did he ever even reveal this kink to Armand or did Armand pull it out of his head? 

The ship dynamic is so fucked up and coercive and resentful and toxic, even though there is real love here, so there’s this whole spectrum to use when you build your fanworks and headcanons!!!!!!! AND LIKE

IF IT’S COERCIVE AND FUCKED UP, DOES IT DRIVE THEM FURTHER APART OR BRING THEM CLOSER TOGETHER? IS DANIEL RESENTFUL AND COLD AND DOES THIS CAUSE FIGHTS? IS THIS A WAY FOR THEM TO PROCESS SOME OF THEIR COLDNESS AND RESENTMENT BECAUSE THEY AREN’T GOOD COMMUNICATORS? DO THEY DO BETTER AFTER THESE SESSIONS AND FEEL CLOSER BECAUSE THEY BROKE THROUGH SOMETHING NEITHER OF THEM KNEW HOW TO SAY?

Gosh idk.

Anyway I apologized in the beginning for mansplaining but I also want to apologize for this non answer LMFAO. I hope it doesn’t feel like a cop-out to not have a real answer, it’s just that I think there is such a rich context with a MENAGERIE of possibility !!!!!!! 

what's the wizard tower real estate like in the hallowoods

big tree (starter home there are lots)

treehouse (rare, low to the ground)

phantom station (hard to catch)

scoutpost lookout tower (have to work for the scoutpost though)

stick a hut on back of a wandering night gaunt (absolutely no downsides)

Depending on who you talked to, James Jackson was either a con man, a genius, a degenerate gambler, a reincarnated shaman from ages past, or some combination of all four. “Jim”, as his friends and detractors called him, was a strange man. He was a self-educated thinker who was absolutely convinced that he was possessed of talents that approached the supernatural.     He may have been right: in the history of American enterprise there was no one quite like Jim Jackson. His overall demeanor and presentation to all who interacted with him was that of a self-styled cowboy; he wore ostrich-leather boots, always had a Marlboro cigarette in his mouth, and owned a ten gallon hat in every color in the catalog, and spoke with a drawl so thick that he could easily be mistaken for a man out of time. This man, who came to embody every myth of the western oilman and whose exploits would someday captivate a nation, had not stepped foot in Texas until his twentieth birthday. He never made a dime from oil. Jim was born in Boston on July 16th, 1945 at the exact instant that the first atomic bomb was detonated two thousand miles away in New Mexico. He was the youngest of four children to Walter and Evelyn Jackson; Evelyn was a classically-trained stage actress who came from old money tied up in real estate in the northeast. Walter was a prolific and brilliant chemist who directed a research group for Bell Telephone Laboratories. During the war, Walter’s team was instrumental in developing the membranes necessary for the gas-diffusion method of enriching uranium for the Manhattan Project. Walter moved his family from Boston to San Jose, California in 1949 to partner with one of his former colleagues in founding a new applied science company. This new venture, Allied Micromaterials Corporation, would become one of the pioneering institutions in the development of semiconductors and later transistors. Contacts Walter had maintained in the defense department led to Allied receiving a contract to manufacture guidance systems for a new range of ICBM missiles, and by the middle of the 1950s, Walter was a very wealthy man. As a boy, Jim was bright but had no patience for school. On several occasions he was found cutting class to wander along a creek that ran through the family’s estate. The land had been an apricot orchard before being purchased by his father, and a young Jim spent every spare minute he could find playing cowboy in the pastoral grove of trees. His patient mother indulged his fantasies and sent him to dude ranches and paid for horse riding lessons in the hopes it might instill a sense of discipline. By Jim’s sixteenth birthday he was showing signs of restlessness in the rapidly-urbanizing Californian environment, and entered into frequent arguments with his exasperated father. When he told Walter that he had no interest in attending college, and instead mentioned the then-escalating conflict in Vietnam, his father shouted him down. Angry but determined, a seventeen year old Jim walked to an army recruitment station the very next morning. It was of no use, however; through Walter’s many ties to the U.S. defense industry, it was essentially guaranteed that Jim would never see combat. For the young man who yearned to see the world and longed for an adventure to break the monotony of his sheltered upbringing, this was the final straw. On a spring day in 1962, James Jackson packed a small bag and left home. From San Jose he took a train to Carson City, Nevada with the intent of finding work at one of the horse ranches from his childhood. When he arrived, a new subdivision had taken its place, with any traces of the ranches long gone. For two months he washed dishes in a casino buffet in Reno to pay for accrued gambling debts. From Nevada he hitchhiked to Idaho where he cut onions for 80¢ a day until the winter season forced him to move on. For three years he stumbled from job to job, lumberjacking in Washington state, fitting irrigation pipe in Arizona, welding in Alaska, mining Molybdenum in Colorado, and eventually working as a roughneck in an oilfield outside of Odessa, Texas. These three years had hardened young Jim and for the first time he felt at home among the wildcatters and oilmen in the dust and sun of west Texas. The challenge of the work invigorated him. The harsh conditions of the desert inspired him. The boom-bust cycle of the petroleum industry, however, did little to help secure the human needs of food and shelter. The men who made the real money on the drilling sites, Jim had noticed, were the geologists; those who only found the oil and didn’t stick around to do the hard work of pulling it out of the ground. Jim was charismatic, and it wasn’t long before he found work as an assistant for a local surveying office and began to learn the fine art of finding things underground. (edited) He was almost ready to settle down when he received a call from home: His father had suffered an intracranial aneurysm and had died before emergency medical treatment could be administered. For the first time in years, he went home. In the days after Walters funeral, Jim was forced to confront his future. Jim was twenty, with little occupational prospects, but now had a twenty-five thousand dollar inheritance; enough in 1965 to get into nearly any business he wanted. He knew he still didn’t have the patience for college, and he had already figuratively “gone west.” Out of either a feeling of guilt, or a desire to not cause any further trouble to his family in California, he returned to Texas with the goal of finally striking out on his own. By 1973, James Jackson was a man who, at least on the surface, betrayed no insecurities about his expertise. He exuded confidence and, after a few lucky breaks locating petroleum where none was thought to have existed, was billed as a “guru of the underground”. A small office was leased in Midland, a clerk and eventually a geologist, a few engineers and surveyors were hired. For a short time it was a mundane but generally honest living. What he lacked in experience as the chief of the small firm he more than made up for in the energy and zeal he brought to every job he undertook. He detested office work and would personally show up to every site, rain or shine, with the enthusiasm and showmanship of a circus ringmaster. The job for Dale Whitmer was no exception.

Dubai Villa Breaks Record: Sells for $16.7 Million in Al Wasl District

A stunning villa in Dubai's Al Wasl District shatters records, fetching a staggering $16.7 million. This landmark sale highlights Dubai's thriving luxury property market.

Dubai’s luxury property market continues to scale new heights, with a recent villa sale in the prestigious Al Wasl District fetching a record-breaking price. This magnificent estate sold for a staggering AED 61.5 million (USD 16.7 million), setting a new benchmark for premium properties in the area. This landmark sale highlights the unwavering allure of Dubai’s real estate market for both local…

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literally sooo fascinated by logan and caroline's marriage tbh. give us all your thoughts!! (if you want ahah)

Oh, man, I could talk about them all day, haha. I kinda feel like people can sometimes rob both Caroline and Logan of any nuance, because yeah, sure, they’re often the central antagonists of the series, and their abuse and neglect of their children permeates the series, but the show’s always also been careful to show that the cycle of violence never started with Logan, and Harriet Walter’s talked in interviews too about the cycle of neglect not starting with Caroline either. They’re victims and perpetrators in the same way that Kendall, Roman and Shiv are victims and perpetrators, and the fact that neither of them were able to break that cycle is the exact sort of tragedy that's at the broken heart of this series.

It makes it really fascinating to me in that sense that Caroline and Logan found each other at all, and I think really slots into what we know about his three marriages – namely, that he marries women who are in some ways as damaged by life’s cruelties as he is. We understand that explicitly with Marcia, who pretty much says out loud that their connection has been born out of the fact that they’re both survivors, but I think it’s implied in his relationships with both Caroline and Connor’s mother too. At least Marcia and Connor’s mother became somethink like partners for a while too – Marcia was a co-conspirator with Logan for the bulk of season 1, and the RECNY Ball episode I think also showed that Connor’s mother, for at least a while, was the sort of socialite who could lubricate and work politicians alongside Logan.

We don’t really know what role Caroline played in that sense, but she’s obviously intelligent and savvy enough to have worked to secure the kids real power in the divorce, something we see her give back to Logan in 3.09. We also know that her title gave Logan the class elevation that he wanted (even if its one he also seems to bitterly resent), and that his money gave her security, and in a lot of ways, that’s a strategic match that sees them both step forwards in power together.

I was actually listening to an old episode of Vanity Fair’s Succession podcast recently where they interviewed Dame Harriet Walter, and she talks quite a lot about Caroline’s backstory.

She says that Caroline was born into a neglectful aristocratic family, an only daughter who due to the social structures of British aristocracy, wouldn’t have inherited her father’s estate as a result of her gender. Instead, his estate would’ve gone to a distant male cousin, which ties into what Connor says in 1.09 to Willa about the house being the ancestral home Caroline didn't inherit.

She was disregarded by her family but encouraged to marry rich, and she sees Caroline as having gone through a bit of a wild child phase, that she partied, used drugs, tried to escape herself. That she was probably featured frequently in the social columns ‘in disgrace’, and then married young to a rich British man who bored her. She sees Caroline as having escaped to New York on a trip, and met Logan who dazzled her. Who was the opposite of the men she’d grown up with, the men who’d cut her out of her own inheritance, and that he was exciting and creating something and married too, and that they likely left their spouses for each other. That he married for a title, but he also married her because he found her fun and funny and different from the other women of her class and station.

I actually love that backstory a lot, and in particular I think it feeds into the themes of cycles on this show, both with Shiv, but also in Caroline being cut out by her own family, and then cut out by the one she tried to make for herself, and the damage that likely caused her. It also I think really beautifully depicts this idea of legacy and succession which is so crucial to the show – that Logan can spend a childhood brutalised by a man who’d give him just enough to build an empire on and that Caroline can spend a childhood in luxurious neglect with parents who will leave her with nothing.

What that meant for their relationship - - I think they did love each other, as much as they could love anyone, and I think that vulnerability between them was something that probably allowed them as true an intimacy as they’d ever have for a while. I also think that that vulnerability and that intimacy gave them power over one another that they’d use often and likely cruelly, and that the final years of their marriage were probably torturous for both of them.

After all, at the end of the day, Logan had the wealth Caroline could marry but never inherit, and Caroline had the title Logan could marry but never inherit, and what is that if not a reminder of the poisoned soil they sprung from?

Those Small Shared Touches

❤️ Vox Akuma x GN!Reader

✦ — Written by Mod S 👿. Beta Read and Edited by Mod I ✨.

✧ — Contains: Reverse comfort, fluff, & open ended

✦ — Word count: 3k+ | Ao3

Based on these prompts - “Do you need any help? I'll bandage that up for you.” & “It's nothing. Hurts like hell but -- I've dealt with worse.”

Mod S 👿: This is based on 2.0 outfit reveal and the 2.0 Demon Lord ASMR [aka this was written before the movie came out.]

We started the year with posting a Vox fic on ao3 and now we'll be ending the year with a Vox fic. Full circle, baby! Happy holidays to those who celebrate, and we'll see you next year! Stay safe 💙💜 -Mod I ✨ & Mod S 👿

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

Orange and pinks paint the sky as the sun dips below the horizon; welcoming the moon as it takes its throne amidst the evening stars. One lone figure sticks out against the pastel scenery. He trudges down the worn path, almost doubling over as he heads for home; his clan. His breath is a bit ragged, and small specks of blood are smeared across his pristine cheek. Not his own, of course. No, it’s of the fools who dared to endanger his home, who dared to threaten his people.

As he trudges his way up the hill path, Vox attempts to steady his breathing – trying to calm his demon blood enough from the slaughter to heal his wounds. Usually, it would be instantaneous. However, he had a lot on his plate today – what with helping his clans-people and all. Assisting new outcasts, spending time with the assigned family for today, and helping to organize the rations and farms for the future month. This exhaustion wasn’t well timed, as a group of bandits decided that his village would be prime real estate to loot; knowing that only one man protected the lot.

They were stupid, and for their stupidity, their payment was their lives.

His smaller wounds had already healed, however, the gash over his side is proving to be more of a nuisance. It’s alright, he could fake being okay until he reached his castle. After all, he wouldn't want to cause concern among his people. He corrected his posture, ignoring the way his body burned as he straightened his messy yukata, brushing the creases out of his haori, and wiping away the blood drying on his cheek. He only hoped he appeared more composed than he felt.

As Vox approached the gates, they automatically opened. The stationed villagers there welcome him back with warm smiles that he returns to them. Passing them after the pleasantries, he sighs in relief. ‘Good, they didn’t notice anything wrong, just need to make it to my bed for a rest. I should be good by the morning…’ Crossing his arms casually in front of himself, he tucks his hands into his sleeves, nodding kindly in greeting to his people as he passes them in the street; refusing to let his mask slip as the wound pulls and burns with every step he takes.

Making his way through the main street ultimately means passing by more small shops and homes of his people, children running past him as they enjoy the last bits of sunlight the day has to offer. Before long, he spots arguably the second most important building in the clan. Since it only had been built earlier this month, it stands out a bit more compared to the buildings surrounding it.

With each step he takes, the small clinic gets closer and closer. For a moment he debates walking in before brushing away the thought as quickly as it came; his eyes downcast in thought. When he returns his gaze ahead of him, he spots the owner of said clinic waving off what he assumes to be a patient. Vox can’t help but pay close attention to your actions, watching as you straighten up the front of your clinic, broom in hand, a soft smile on your face. If anyone was paying close enough attention, they’d notice the faint but warm smile on his face. He’s so distracted by you that he nearly collides with one child still running about, side-stepping out of the way at the last second. The child apologizes profusely, obviously flustered, and Vox can’t help but laugh and reassure them that it was alright; no harm done.

The kid quickly scatters back towards their friends, and when he returns his gaze towards your clinic, he almost stumbles in his steps as his gaze locks with yours.

To save face, Vox walks confidently over, taking a deep breath to calm the slight blush that appeared on his cheeks. His eyes peek at the boxes in front of your shop; likely full of fresh supplies and ingredients for medicine making. As he approaches you, you give a soft welcoming smile, setting your broom aside to give him a respectful bow. Clearing his throat, he greets you first. “Hello there doctor, are you settling in okay? I sure hope it hasn’t been too much of a hassle.”

“I’m settling in just fine, thank you, Milord. I was just tidying up in front of the shop before moving these boxes in. All these supplies you’ve provided me with will be incredibly helpful, so I should get them stored as soon as possible.” You tighten the small rope around your body, keeping your sleeves tucked away as you talk, before attempting to brush the dirt from your clothes; feeling a bit underdressed in front of Vox’s pristine and ornate clothing.

The demon’s eyes scan over the many boxes you have, counting them in his head before his golden eyes land back on you. “That’s an awful lot of boxes. Please allow me to help you. I’m sure the job would get done much quicker with two people working together than by yourself, right?” He smiles, removing his hands from his sleeves; ready to help.

Before he can, though, you quickly raise your hands in protest. “Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that for me, Milord! Plus, didn’t you just return from protecting the village? I’m sure you must want to get back to your home and relax.”

Vox chuckles, taking a step toward you; ready to reassure your worries. Except as he does, his wound pulls in such a way it causes him to stumble for a fraction of a second; flinching to one side. He can’t help but grimace, his mask slipping for a second as he takes a deep breath. Having a moment to speak with you had relaxed him to the point of forgetting about his wound; the tension that had eased from his body returned with a vengeance.

So enraptured with you, he’d forgotten to maintain his composure; body subconsciously untensing. Correcting his posture, he subtly scans the busy street around him to see if anyone has noticed his reaction. ‘Good, no one saw that…’ However, as he returns his attention to you, he notes the concerned look in your eyes.

“Milord, do you need any help? Are you hu–” Vox cut your words off as he frantically steps closer, blocking you from the people on the street. Startled, your head tips back to meet his eyes. Now it’s almost impossible for you to miss the panic and pain clearly mixed in the golden hues.

“Say Doctor, before we move these boxes in, could I see how you’ve set up the clinic? I want to make sure that you have enough space for patients. If not, we could talk about potentially expanding.” There’s a strain to his words, but it’s barely noticeable over the hum of the crowd.

“Umm,” you hesitate before nodding your head. “of course. Allow me to prepare some tea while you inspect Milord…” Swiftly you slide the door open, stepping aside before gesturing him inside. He rushes in, ducking a bit to make sure his horns don’t catch on the frame.

Following him inside, you slide the door shut and pray that no one will need your immediate services. If the last few seconds meant anything, Vox seems to not want to draw attention to himself. As you turn back to face your lord, your eyes dart around your clinic. Your tea set sits on the table set in the middle of the main room. Looking past that is a counter where you prepare your medicine; a few bottles remain there from the patient you’d just seen off. Looking to your left, Vox stands bracing himself against the cabinet, which stores all of your supplies.

Approaching Vox’s hunched form, you can see sweat beading along his forehead. Now out of the public eye, there’s a tremor wracking his body. Sheer willpower likely being the only reason he is still standing. Reaching a hand up, it hovers for a moment before you let it rest on his arm. It takes a second before he looks at you. “Please Lord Akuma, I think you should sit.”

“Yeah…” He responds, before nodding a little firmer. “Yes, that’d probably be for the best, wouldn’t it?” Vox pushes away from the cabinet, straightening his shoulders before turning to walk toward the futons laid out for patients on the right side of the room. He doesn’t sit with ease though, a small wince leaving his lips as he lowers himself onto the nearest bed.

With a furrowed brow, you go to wash your hands before approaching him; ready to start the examination. Before you can, however, he raises a hand, stopping you in your tracks. “Woah there doctor, it’s nothing serious. No need for an examination. I just need a bit of a rest before I continue my way to the castle again.”

You huff, crossing your arms. “With all due respect Milord, as a doctor, it is my job to make sure every member of the clan is in good health. And that includes our leader. You don’t really expect me to sit by when you are showing obvious signs of pain, do you? Especially when it’s in my power to help?”

Vox remains quiet, his lips pursed in a thin line as he averts his gaze from you, seeming to think on your words. After a moment, he closes his eyes and sighs. When he opens them again, he meets your expectant gaze. “Fine, you may look at it…”

The tension melts from your shoulders, and you finish crossing the room before kneeling at his side. You begin the routine check-up, starting with noting his temperature and vitals. When the back of your hand touches his forehead–carefully avoiding his horns–you immediately note that the demon is uncharacteristically cold; usually radiating warmth like a well-kept fire. Likely a trait of being a demon, you ponder to yourself. Once that’s done, you begin to peel back his yukata, carefully sliding the already loose fabric off his shoulders.

Almost immediately, you notice a large gash along his right side. By looks, it doesn’t seem to be deep, and it doesn’t appear to be actively bleeding; which is a good sign. Except… it’s not closing either. You haven’t been with the clan long, however, you’ve been around long enough to know that his body heals fairly quickly.

‘Sure,’ you think, pursing your lips. ‘nothing serious at all. Stubborn man.’

Almost as if he can read your mind, he says, “See? Hardly even bleeding. It’ll be healed by morning. Nothing to concern yourself over.” He waves a dismissive hand, trying to wane your worry over him, but winces mid-motion.

You sigh, “It might not be bleeding, but it’s still an open wound Milord.” Standing up, you make your way toward your medicine cabinet, beginning to rifle through it. As you're getting some ingredients, you stare at him out of the corner of your eye, you say, “I could bandage it up for you.”

It’s not a question, and it causes Vox to let out a warm chuckle. However, the words that followed held melancholy. “It's nothing… hurts like hell but,” He pauses, tone serious and lined with another emotion you can’t pinpoint. “I've dealt with worse.”

Your hands stop shuffling through the shelves for a minute, and for a brief moment, you turn to look at him with concern. It doesn’t last long though, snapping your attention back and grabbing everything you need before moving to the counter where you prepare your medicines. As you pour ingredients into a bowl, you speak up. “I’m preparing you a salve to help with the pain.”

“That’s really not necessary–” You cut his words off with a shake of your head.

“I know when you get some proper rest, your powers will heal it immediately.”

“Then you should save your supplies for someone who will need it more than me. There’s no need to waste it.” Vox tries to argue with you, however you remain firm.

“It’s not a waste. Not when you're in pain, Milord.” He opens his mouth to argue, but you quickly plead, hands stopping in your work as your expression begs him to comply. “Please. Just let me do this. If not for yourself, then do it for me.”

The clinic falls into silence. With nothing else to say, and no further protests, you continue preparing the salve. Vox continues to watch you from his place on the futon, tension slowly melting from his body as he watches you work. When he does eventually speak up, his voice is sweet. “Thank you, little one. You didn’t have to do this, but I appreciate it regardless.”

You huff, half out of exasperation and the other half out of embarrassment from the pet-name. ‘Stubborn, stubborn man.’ You shake your head, albeit fondly. Once you're sure everything has been mixed properly, you pick up the bowl and return to his side; eyes fixated on his wound as you kneel down. “Like I said earlier, I can’t just leave someone in pain when I know I can do something about it. Why else would I be a doctor?”

“Heh, you're right.” You feel his fingers on your chin, encouraging you to lock eyes with him. “I knew I was right to put my trust in you.” The smile he wears is filled with pure gratefulness, trust, and pride. Heat creeps up your neck to your face, a lump catching in your throat as your heart feels as though it skips a beat.

Turning your head away causes his hand to fall back into his lap. You take a breath before looking back at him, expression flat. “The medicine is ready. Please stay still as I clean the wound and apply it.” Picking up a clean cloth, you dip it into a nearby basin before whipping away the dried blood and lightly dabbing at the wound. Once ready, you dip your fingers into the salve and lean forward; smearing the thick liquid over the gash. He winces, and you see out of the corner of your eyes his fist clenching tightly. You make quick, practiced work of the wound. It’s easy work for you.

Wiping your hands on another cloth, you reach for the bandages, before scooting closer to wrap them around Vox’s waist. “You know,” you can’t help but speak your thoughts out loud, “in normal circumstances, I would prefer to try closing the wound up. However, there is not much point to that when it should be closed by morning.”

As you're wrapping, you can feel the demon’s intense gaze on you, but he doesn’t speak up the entire time; just watching. By the time you think to question him, you’re done bandaging, making sure they’re secure around his body. Taking your hands away, you look back up at him, seeing his soft eyes following your head's movement; an unknown look in his eyes. You stare at each other for a moment before you blink rapidly and look away. “Umm… The salve should kick in pretty soon, so you should be able to sleep with minimal pain. You can remove the bandages and wash off the salve in the morning.”

Vox adjusts his yukata properly before sitting up straighter. “Thank you, doctor. I’m sorry for inconveniencing you with this. Truly.” He pauses, looking down briefly to search for his words before looking back up again. “I meant what I said earlier, I’m happy that you chose to stay. To help my people. I don’t regret putting my trust in you…” His hand raises, resting on the top of your head, before stroking down to cup the back of it. “I look forward to the day I have entirely dedicated to you. I’d like to learn more about you. It’ll also give me a chance to thank you properly for what you did today.”

You let out a silent chuckle at his words, looking down to hide your embarrassment. “Please, Lord Akuma, there is no need for thanks. It's what I’ve sworn to do.” Your hand finds its way to his on your head, grabbing it and bringing it in front of you before placing it on his own chest and pulling your hands back. “If I might be a bit bold, though. I would like you to make me a promise.”

“Oh, a promise? Do tell.” He crosses his arms, tucking his hands back into his sleeves as he curiously tilts his head at you.

“If you get hurt like this again, do not try to hide it. Come to me immediately and I will heal you, no questions asked. Your people need you, and I will do everything I can to make sure they still have their kind, strong, and gentle leader.” Giving him a soft smile, you watch as his eyes widen a bit with wonder, before closing in content.

Vox chuckles, finally looking at you defeated. “I guess it can’t be helped… I promise that I will come here when I need your aid. I shall trust you, fully, with my health, like you trust me with your protection.”

You nod firmly, hands on hips in satisfaction. “Good, now then go get some rest, Milord. You need it to fully heal that wound.”

“Yes, yes, of course. I will see you later this week then..” He walks to the door, looking back at you one more time. “I hope you rest well too… my dear.” The last word comes out a bit teasingly, and he walks out before you have a chance to rebuttal; leaving you standing there flustered.

The future looks beautiful as the clan grows and prospers under the watchful eyes of this gentle demon. Maybe it’ll grow even better as bonds grow and blossom, love being the water to help them. The demon seems to think so, as he looks up at the sky full of stars, chest filled with a warm feeling. Yes, things look good for the future indeed.

─── ⋆⋅☼⋅⋆ ───

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Driving Home For Christmas

Summary: You’ve been avoiding spending any special occasion with your father ever since Steve became part of the family, but after many years of excuses, you find yourself back at home, and very much the subject of Steve’s affections.

Characters: Stepbrother!Steve x F!Reader.

Words: 2.5K.

Warnings: stepcest, step-sibling relationship, explicit sexual content, female masturbation, hate masturbation :), semi-public sexual acts, unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it kids), 18+. MINORS DNI.

A/N: Formerly a Patreon exclusive. Unbetaed so all errors, spelling mistakes and general bullshit are entirely mine. While likes are gold, feedback is golden. Please support our content creators by sharing our work.

DECEMBER 22ND

“... Make my wish come true. Baby, all I want for Christmas... is—”

You quickly shut off the radio with a heavy sigh. Sick to death of the constant deluge of Christmas songs filling up every station you switch to, you wish you had taken up your father’s offer to replace your banged up old Buick with something newer. You would’ve taken anything that had a Bluetooth connection at this point, just so you don’t have to spend the next four and a half hours sitting in silence as you reluctantly drive home for the holidays. You don’t need to be in a foul mood before you even arrive.

Spending three secluded weeks holed up with your father and stepmom is bad enough. With the usual no-holds barred questioning about your love life that they expected you to respond to with no hesitation, you can deal with their overwhelming interest in your life. The worst thing of all would be having to spend those same three weeks in the presence of your elusive step-brother. 

Steve Rogers is a real piece of work. An asshole right to the root, his cocksure attitude and poor treatment of women poisons him all the way to rotting petals that are on the verge of wilting. He’s half the reason you always make excuses to avoid Brooklyn when your father asks you when you’ll be visiting, not wanting to sour your trip or free time with Steve’s venomous personality. 

Ever since you got accepted as an intern at a subsidiary of Stark Industries based in Ithaca, you did everything you could to get out of making the arduous trip home— birthdays, anniversaries, thanksgivings, even last Christmas became a battle between you, your father and his attempts of wanting to celebrate any special occasion with his only child. Phone calls would often end with him threatening to drive to Ithaca and bring you home himself, but he never did. The stubbornness you inherited came from him, and while it came in handy sometimes, you would often bash heads because of it. 

This year however, you’ve run out of excuses. No more, “working overtime,” or, “my roommate went through a bad break up,” to get them off your case. You had well and truly exhausted every feasible lie, and ever since you agreed to spend the holiday season with them, you’ve ha an overwhelming case of nausea idling in your gut. 

And when you pull up into the grand driveway leading up to your father’s estate, the weight in your stomach feels heavier than lead.

-

CHRISTMAS EVE

“Well, well my little thorn is back for the holidays.” 

There it is. That deep, Brooklyn drawl you’ve spent trying to drown out with all nighters, tequila shots and some incredibly bad decisions. 

“This is certainly gonna be a Christmas to remember.” And again.

You thought your luck had changed when you arrived late on Tuesday night. With no sight of Steve’s flashy Porsche in the driveway, you believed you might’ve escaped having to spend time with your conceited step-brother after all. Yesterday was spent happily reacquainting yourself with your parents without Steve’s scathing remarks and flirty stares across the room.

But when you wake up this morning, a casual glance out of the window reveals Steve’s car parked up next to yours, and it changes your mood instantly. You do your best to avoid him, sneaking around the house while you try to make breakfast as quietly as you can, but clearly his mission was to find you in this unofficial game of Hide and Seek.

You turn away from the sink, leaving your dirty plate to soak, and catch sight of Steve leaning against the kitchen door frame, arms crossed over his broad chest. The black t-shirt he’s wearing is far too tight and his biceps bulge beneath the fabric straining over his muscles. 

Has he been working out? 

“Hello Steven,” you mutter. A sadistic swell of amusement toys with the corners of your lips as you watch him stiffen at the sound of his name rolling off your tongue like bitter lemon. He hates that you always call him Steven, but that’s why you do it. To prove to him that his charms no longer work on you. That ship sailed years ago. 

“How’s Mr. Stark treating you?” Hope he’s not working you too hard,” he asks, but there’s a distinct lack of genuine interest in your career.

“I don’t report to h— y’know, never mind,” you sigh. “Since when do you care?” 

“C’mon, I gotta make sure my little sister is taken care of, y’know?” He grins wide. “Make sure someone sees to the stick stuck up your ass.”

Your jaw tightens at his words, muttering “fuck you,” under your breath as you stalk past him, hoping he won’t follow. No such luck. 

Steve’s aftershave catches up to you before he does— the woody, leather scent burrowing into your veins like a parasite. “You know I happily would,” he teases, “again.”

You stop in your tracks, hand already poised on the banister, and turn to face him before you ascend the stairs. His bright blue eyes shine up at you, and you can feel the knot in your lower belly begin to tighten. 

-

The voluptuous redhead dangling off of Steve’s arm looks like she’s been plucked right out of his wet dreams. Her dress clings to every curve her body has to offer, and the plunging neckline leaves nothing to the imagination as she follows him around the room, smiling wide when he introduces her to the slew of guests there at her parents’ behest. 

You spend half the night with your lips wrapped around the rim of a champagne glass, the crisp bubbles numbing your tongue as you follow the servers from person to person, grabbing a fresh glass before you’ve even finished with your previous one. Your father catches you in the act from time to time, giving you a wary glance before flashing you a kind smile, just thankful to have you home for Christmas. 

After an hour spent listening to your step-mom trying to set you up with Bucky, Steve’s equally egotistical best friend, you retreat to the bar in the hopes that being hidden in the corner of the room will keep you away from more potential awkwardness trying to make small talk with someone you have very little interest in. 

But as if on cue, you make eye contact with Steve across the room and you watch your step brother lean towards his date, and whisper something in her ear before leaving the redhead to sip on her wine alone.

You do what you can to keep your gaze fixed elsewhere as Steve heads towards you, his lips quirked permanently into a sly grin. 

Reaching you, he taunts casually, “where’s your date?” as he leans over the bar next to you. 

He’s too close for your liking, the brush of his arm against yours making small bolts of electricity spark in your veins. 

“Whiskey neat,” he mutters quietly to the bartender before turning his attention back to you. You can feel his stare hot on your skin, his eyes no doubt on the sweetheart neckline of your dress, giving him the perfect view of your cleavage.

“Didn’t want one.” You shift on your stool, changing positions. “Unlike you, I don’t need to keep my reputation afloat by fucking my way through Manhattan.” 

Steve scoffs. “It’s more of a lifestyle than a reputation.” 

“Ass,” you grumble into the rim of your glass, the sweetness of the rosé cleansing the back of your throat of champagne bitterness.

“I remember there was a time you loved my ass,” he retorts. “And those scratch marks you left on it.”

You feel your body twitch at the mention of the night you foolishly spent together three years ago. Steve has never let it go. Loves bringing it up at every available opportunity. You thought once you had slept together, he would back off— instantly bored of you once he’d got his dick inside you, but somehow it has just fuelled him even more.

“I wonder,” Steve shifts, using his elbow to prop himself against the bar to face you, “does your pussy still do that amazing fluttering thing when you come?” 

Your face flushes hot at his words, your cunt clenching around nothing as you fight to keep your stare elsewhere, knowing if you look at him you might not be able to control yourself. Wetness gathers between the apex of your thighs and you have to swallow down the increased moisture clinging to the back of your throat. 

Quickly, you slip off your stool, muttering, “I need the bathroom,” without so much as glancing back at him.

-

You have no idea how long you spend in the bathroom, staring at your clammy brow in the mirror while trying to convince yourself to leave the facilities. This is exactly why you don’t want to be here— despising the way Steve constantly and so easily gets under your skin. 

The door clicks gently closed behind you as you exit, the soft sound of orchestral music floating up from the floor below and over the balcony in front of you. You slump against the mahogany, letting out a heavy sigh as you attempt to psych yourself up to make your way back downstairs, and hopefully avoid Steve for the rest of the night. 

A deep, “The appetisers not agree with you?” cuts through your trance. 

Christmas miracles don’t happen, after all. You close your eyes for a brief moment, breathing out deeply through your nose before opening them again. 

“Don’t be so crass,” you eventually rebuke, giving the blue-eyed devil a side glance. Casually leaning against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets, a wide smirk pulls at his lips. 

God, I hate him.

You quickly push yourself off of the expensive wood, and almost run past him to head back towards the stairs, but Steve quickly follows behind.

“You were in there for quite some time,” he observes. 

“Had to powder my cheeks,” you say flippantly over your shoulder.

“Oh, see I figured that after our little chat, you had to excuse yourself for, y’know, personal reasons.” 

You stop dead, whirling around on your heels to face him. “Don’t flatter yourself, Steven.” 

He takes a step towards you as you shuffle backwards and eventually you collide with the pillar behind you, the smooth marble cold against your back. 

“Don’t tell me you never think about that night,” Steve whispers, his icy cerulean stare piercing your soul. His body quickly closes the already narrow gap between you, and slowly swipes his hand down your bare arm, making you shiver. “That you don’t touch yourself thinking about how how good it felt when I was inside you, how hard I made you come—”

“I— I don’t.” 

He moves closer still, so close now that his lips are inches from grazing yours. “Don’t lie to yourself, I think about it all the time,” he admits softly. “The way you called my name, that cute little whine when I kissed that special spot on your neck—”

Steve’s fingers smooth softly over the waist of your dress and down to the slit open across your thigh. Heat begins to blossom in the pit of your stomach, the resulting warmth causing your cunt to dampen.

“Stop,” you plead with a whisper. 

“Don’t make me stop now,” he says. “I know you don’t want me to.” 

He pulls away from you hastily, spinning you around to face the balcony, your eyes on the unassuming crowd below you. From this vantage point, the plush white Christmas garland hanging from the railings conceals you somewhat, knowing that if anyone were to look up, they’d only see as far as your waist for which you’re grateful. 

As you grab hold of the balcony in front of you, you spot the redhead being shamelessly hit on by Bucky, and Steve slips his hand under the fabric of your dress, manipulating its way past the hem of your panties. You suck in a sharp breath when his skin finally skims yours, fingers brushing through your damp folds. 

“Fuck,” he hisses into your ear. Your thighs instinctively tense as Steve starts working you open— just the tips at first, then as you warm to his touch, he manages to inch them in a little further, but there’s still resistance. “C’mon sis, let me in.” 

Shifting your weight, you slowly edge your feet apart, and Steve’s fingers easily slide in right up to the knuckle. The hard pressure of his palm nudging your clit makes you whine under your breath as he places his feet between yours to keep your legs spread.

“There we go,” he praises. “Shit, how’d you always feel so fuckin’ good?”

Steve’s fingers begin to move, your slick soaking his digits each time he drives them back into you. You’re stunned that even though it’s been three years since that drunken mistake— and countless women for him later— he still remembers every dip and ridge inside you that makes your toes curl. It’s almost as if he studied your body with minute precision, determined to pull every strand of ecstasy from you with just his skilled fingertips.

“Oh god, Steve,” you whimper, clutching onto the balcony for stability. Each drive and retreat of his fingers sends you spiralling, and combined with the added pressure against your clit, your core is alight in seconds. 

“You gonna come?” he teases over your shoulder. “All over my fingers, in front of all these people?”

His lips graze along the curve of your neck until he reaches the spot he remembers, placing a firm but delicate kiss to your skin. And with a whine, you do just as he predicts. The levee inside you breaks, and you surrender to your climax in a mass of hushed expletives and trembling limbs.

Steve suddenly shifts behind you, lifting the back of your dress with his spare hand before hooking your panties to one side with such fluidity, it’s almost like he’s practised this. Slipping his fingers from your sopping cunt, you huff at the loss before they’re replaced with something much thicker.

“Told ya this was gonna be a Christmas to remember,” he laughs, one hand splayed across your belly while the other is curled around your hip as he prepares to pull you back onto his cock.

You hold your breath as he enters you, only releasing it when you feel the taut muscles of his lower stomach pressing firm against your ass, and the fullness of his length stretches you to your limits. You hate how good he feels, how he was made to be inside you, but for now you’ll push away your disdain for the man behind you, and let him take whatever the hell he wants. 

***

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