#like Ah this is what it feels like to be the narratives favorite... i see
Text
outfit swap 😈😈
#svsss#bingqui#moshang#THE STRUMPET DUMPLINGS ON DISPLAY! THE KNIVES ARE OUT!!#lbh SHIVERINGGGGG#i do not think red complements mr mobei juns coloring... but here we are#meanwhile sqh swanning around with his arms out trying to catch the wind in his big sleeves like a sailing ship#like Ah this is what it feels like to be the narratives favorite... i see
532 notes
·
View notes
Note
I love your Stephanie Brown post. It verbalized this feeling I've had about her character for awhile but didn't quite know how to phrase.
Just wanted to thank you for that!
ah thank you <3
yea to me, the super frustrating thing is that dixon's sexism gives her flaws that i find super narratively compelling and interesting and 3-dimensional and overall strong in a way that other writers somewhat miss the mark for me (i actually have a lot of criticisms about bg2009 and how bqm wrote her--overall i find it a very surface level girl power story veneered over pretty standard 2009 era sexism wrt the dynamics between women that has not aged super well and doesn't do much for actually giving steph interesting depth as a character & i find it's weakened by the fact that it is a doylist apology for the absolutely horrific way editorial treated steph prior to her death (which. she does deserve an apology and to be treated better), but also by doing that it makes almost every other character such as babs seem unreasonable and bad for their very understandable watsonian response to being wary of steph for many valid reasons and also makes it hard to actually give steph any flaws that aren't just quirky or clumsy--she's not perfect because she's adorkable). dixon steph has so many problems, being written by dixon, but she's truly my favorite flavor of steph because despite how horrid dixon is, you can absolutely tell how much he truly cared about her as a character. like. i bet if you asked him, he would have nothing but positive things to say about her personality and other characteristics. in fact, i believe a lot of the letters to the editor that talked about her back in the early robin issues had a lot of super positive things to say about her! like he created her! she's his blorbo! he wants to put her through the struggles!
like so many of her struggles when he's writing her is so much due to his sexism (she's never quite as competent as tim, and shouldn't be because she's The Girlfriend--compare to characters like babs and dinah and helena that were women but also written as extremely competent and good at what they do) and also because he wanted to put her through the wars, give her adversity to overcome! like steph is treated horribly a lot. by everyone. but it's partially because he wants her to perservere through it because he likes her and wants her to succeed. like a couple of very common threads through dixon's storytelling for her are the following:
tim is condescending (because that's how boys and girls are. see also: every 90s tv show that had a beleaguered sensible man with a nagging, over the top, ridiculous woman who does silly things that the man Puts Up With) -> steph gets mad -> tim thinks to himself that he shouldn't be so hard on her and usually apologizes -> well, actually tim was probably right because steph did get into trouble but steph making constant mistakes isn't actually narratively seen as "hey, maybe she should stop if she's making mistakes" because dixon wants her to continue.
or
more experienced vigilante (male or female--tim gets a lot of flack, but honestly, almost every single vigilante in batbooks at the time seemed to think steph wasn't quite good enough--batman, dick had his reservations about her, barbara didn't really necessarily want to train her, *cass* straight up told her she shouldn't be doing this, dinah didn't want to be her mentor, etc) tells steph not to screw up -> steph screws up -> steph has to get bailed out by more experienced vigilante -> steph keeps trying despite this
like so many of her diary entries that steph writes involve some flavor of "i've been told not to do this, but i have to, it's something i need to do despite all the naysayers". and it's sexist! because chuck wouldn't necessarily write the 'screw up and overconfident which usually leads to needing to be bailed out but keeps trying anyways' kind of a narrative for a male lead character (male characters get the 'i'm super competent but insecure/humble about it and when i make mistakes i'm able to figure out how to fix them by myself' narrative). but at the same time, it's what he truly believed for her--that she deserved to keep going despite any naysayers. if he truly believed that steph shouldn't be a vigilante or thought poorly of her, she would have been written out and/or he would have written her as making a mistake so bad she wouldn't have continued her activities as spoiler and finally agreed with everyone that she's not cut out for this. but he didn't. dixon writes her as not as competent as her peers because he has a worldview where girls are lesser and not capable of being as good as the boys. but he writes her with dogged determination to keep trying despite this because dixon truly thinks she deserves to keep going despite any mistakes he writes her making and that her perseverance should be rewarded.
like consider the arc where steph finds out tim's identity. dixon makes steph seem unreasonable for daring to change her mind and realize that yea, she does want to know the boy under the mask she's dating after all (because dixon thinks that girls are fickle and change their minds and boys shouldn't have to put up with that kind of nonsense behavior, not because this is a super valid thing to want) -> he has her go beat up an innocent boy named tito and stalk him in the hospital (because dixon is a sexist who things girls are just like this) -> tim does rightfully get mad about this and leaves in a huff -> batman tells steph tim's identity and she gets what she wanted?? -> tim is mad at her and batman until JLL when this is all swept under the rug and they go back to happily dating again + at this point everyone is open to training her/finally giving her a chance (until murderer/fugitive when she gets locked out again--which also leads into the era where dixon is no longer writing her--and after this is when we really get a lot of the really iconic unfair treatment towards her because at this point didio wanted her gone). and it creates this absolute interesting dissonance where you can see the overt sexism in dixon's writing and it's infuriating. and at the same time dixon also rewards her for the sexist way he writes her and she does generally get what she wants because dixon wants to give her the reward for her perseverance.
hell, consider the pregnancy storyline which is beyond overtly sexist and conservative but is probably the part where steph is most treated the best/in the right. tim and her mom are shown as in the wrong compared to her "correct" decision to keep the baby and they have to come around to support her. not just that, but for her to be given a teen pregnancy storyline in the 90s and not be shown as a Bad Girl for getting pregnant as a teen? dixon hates women and yet to him steph is a good girl who makes a mistake (something something he'll judge others, but when it comes to his daughter that's a different case. exceptions apply.) and she gets an ultimately supportive good boy boyfriend who helps her go to birthing class despite the fact that i'm sure dixon looks down on unwed teen mothers a lot.
it's just. i want to study it under a microscope. there's so much to unpack there.
#anyways apologies for the super long answer#i am just fascinated by dixon's treatment of her#it's sexism! but he does it because he wants to give her something to overcome! but it's definitely sexist!#scintilly ask tag#annah-kitathryne
165 notes
·
View notes
Text
This Week in BL - lots, just LOTS
I thought I would be pretty lean reporting for Oct 2023 but then (for reasons relayed here) the weeklies got saved by a drunk avenging hacker in a hotel room.
Oct 2023 Wk 1
Except I still can't watch IFYLITA, because I use my other computer for it.
Gotta say though, watching tese mostly all in one day (for travel reasons) is beyond even my BL superpowers. I did my best tho.
Ongoing Series - Thai
Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 8 of 12 - Sailom, sweetie, Kang is never sleeping alone again. It wasn't really translated, but Kang's way of speaking in that opening stinger was VERY cutsie. Also the gay sheets have made another appearance. I do have to say that "rich kid problems" is not my favorite story arc, but I still think this is a great Thai BL.
Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 6 of 8 - I love that they are finally talking to each other but Yi’s whole personality is shifting. Honestly, this pair is great at kissing and casual touches, but the friendships are the best thing about this franchise. Also Mr Chenne remains my fav character. But where did Diao's baby superhero team come from? And why? This show is very confusing... It’s also not very good.
My Universe (Sun iQIYI) You Are My Soulmate ep 7 - This was the one of the series I was looking forward to the most, because silly, pretty, and v BL. It is, in fact all those things and nothing more. So I'm enjoying it, of course.
Absolute Zero (Thai Weds iQIYI) ep 2 of 12 - I like it, but it feels like it's gonna be so sad. I'm having Promise and Dew the movie flashbacks. Plus 12 eps seems too long for this narrative thread. I am worried.
Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 6 of 10 eps - This show is so slow it's hardly worth the bandwidth, but we attained "baby is a floppy drunk" and thus a finger bite frustration scene, which was nice.
Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 9 of 10 (not a BL but I'm watching it anyway) - Ray is so mean to Sand. The not-a-thing with Sand & Nick was cute. I’ve had several experiences like that. All my queer friendship groups tend to be incestuous, but sometimes they're just too much of a sibling and trying to sleep with them is the most unsexy thing in the universe. To be fair, I’ve also been in Ton’s position (this ep). Jojo sure makes queer shizz. But also, Ton must have a magic rod with everyone wanting a repeat. (I'm so glad they put Neo in this role, no one else at GMMTV could play him as complex or sympathetic.)
Ongoing Series - Not Thai
You Are Mine (Taiwan Fri Viki) eps 5 of 10 - now officially known by me as "I'm too sunshine for this seme" where our boss is being hella obvious but our cinnamon roll is just too ooey-gooey to notice. Al.though, baby boy, he takes you home, sleeps on top of you, feeds you cookies (IN HIS BED) and keeps you in his space? Surely even this sunshine is catching a few rays of truth?
Gaga's *unintelligible gay murmuring* is my favorite caption EVER.
Also the name of my new ASMR YT channel.
Bon Appetit (Korea Weds iQIYI) 3-4 of 8 - ah gay panic, also what is Korea's obsession with 7 year separations? Is it only true love if you wait 7 years? Dohoon is SUCH a flirt, it's kinda great! Also, since it's Korea, we got us a bit of a love triangle with 2 hyung romances, so I (of course) am torn. Either way Dohoon is going down. I do love how much time we are spending with the food in this drama, finally one that lives up to its name. On an entirely different note, Korean camping is the most bizare thing to me. It's SO damn civilized. There will be NO DIRT. They pack blow torches. And full dinner sets. Every time I see it in a drama, I'm amused.
My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - OMG these 2 are so in love with each other, and so ridiculous about it. They're tiny idiots but I love them.
If It’s With You AKA Even If I Fall In Love With You AKA Kimi to nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo’ (Japan Gaga) ep 1 of 5 - from MBS a live action adaptation of Kubota Maru’s manga ‘君となら恋をしてみても. Amane has stopped loving people due to trauma until he meets Ryuji. At first Amane just wants to play with Ryuji but… feelings.
I like the odd Japanese mature-childishness in this one. Plus a broken sunshine who is out in a kind of aggresive way and an instinctive caring seme. What's not to love? Well, it's Japan I'm sure it will surprise me one way or another.
Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 3 of ? - the cray cray step brother quazi incest is a bit much for me. Why does VBL just suddenly get so unhinged like this?
Kiseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 9 of 13(?) - resumes next week
It's Airing But...
I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 8 of 12 - I will try to watch 8-12 and do a series review when I get back in November but... not sure I will be able to. Fingers crossed.
Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 8fin - I will complete and drop a review in Nov.
What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - 4th installment in this series (1st series, 1 special, 1 movie prior) about a lawyer who lives with his boyfriend, a hairdresser, and cooks for him. I find thie series more fun to binge, som I'm waiting until it completes its run.
I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan Tues Netflix-Japan & ????) - in classic JBL fashion, I Cannot Reach You could not be reached.
Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine? AKA Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasu ka? (Japan cinema release in-country only) - This one is a movie from Japan so in customary fashion who tf knows when (or if) it will get international distribution. Salaryman Ayumu Koiwai just can't tear his eyes away from the strong, muscular man as he checks on the stocks of the vending machine in his office.
In case you missed it?
Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) Apparently ended its run I DNFed this at ep 3. So no review from me.
My Beautiful Man: Eternal AKA Utsukushii Kare Eternal (Japan movie Viki & Gaga) - Play it again Sam, only I'm kinda tired of this song. I was v dramatic tho. And it's always nice to be reminded JBL can kiss when it puts its mind to it. 8/10
Next Week Looks Like This
Upcoming October BL
10/31 SHADOW (Thai VIU ????) - this is a horror BL featuring ghosts and other paranormal elements in a high school setting. I'm not wild about Thai horror (or horror at all, but if it must be done in BL let Japan do it). It features Singto (who did paranormal BL He's Coming to Me) opposite Fluke N (who's done a couple horror's before). Also Fiat. Dan suffers from sleep paralysis, and in his dreams he sees a shadow that suffocates him. It gets worse when he transfers schools.
10/? Bump Up Project AKA Bump Up Business (Korea ????) - BL staring OnlyOneOf that released(??) as a movie in July but is now being recut and reissued as a series. Stars NineMill and from Idol Romance bulled as a love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency (based on a webtoon). OnlyOneOf have been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV work in this post. Idol Romance will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You) but I don't think we will get any in this. After that OmegaX Shoulder bullshizz buisness I am very wary of this show.
2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).
THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS
I've seen this Chinese drama like... no wait... okay it's like EVERY Chinese drama ever.
(both Mr Cinderella 2)
I only got to watch this scene and the bath, but bot were pretty darn good! I Feel You Linger in the Air
There's only one bed but they slept together on the floor anyway. One of BL's oddest tropes.
I do love a finger bite. (both Venus in the Sky)
Good advice
(Naughty Babe)
(Last week)
#this week in bl#bl updates#bl reviews#My Beautiful Man Eternal Review#currently airing bl#new bl#utsukushii kare#bl 2023#Thai BL#Taiwanese BL#Korean BL#Japanese BL#live action yaoi#I Feel You Linger in the Air#Mr Cinderella 2
136 notes
·
View notes
Note
I… oh my god. So much. Has happened. Bear… bear with me. This time i KNow its gonna be a long one. First of all, oh my GOD. THERE WAS NO BAD NEWS IN UR LAST ANSWER. HOLY SHIT. I see how i read into ur previous answer, that val is the only dumper, but yes what you described is EXACTLY the same flavor as what I was describing. It also works SO MUCH BETTER, OH MY GOD! “Vox managing to be the one to break things off at any given point in time hinges on him being able to frame his rationale as "anger" rather than "upset," the latter of which just gets brushed under the carpet of Emotions That Are Not Taken Seriously. [...] anything that makes him feel vulnerable or, ah, let's deliberately and pointedly use the word hysterical, is a pre-existing internal struggle that Valentino knows how to manipulate to his advantage. [and vox does not break up with val when he feels as such]” PRINCE IM RIPPING MY FUCKING HAIR OUT!!!!!!!!!!!! THTAS. THATS EXACTLY WHAT TF IM TALKING ABOUT. You just clarified that extra layer of “oh my god this is fucking perfect.’ also. ALSO. them getting back together being sappy makeup sex…. Oh my god. Oh my dear god. If it wasnt clear, i am a Heathen for voxval, too. If you ever feel inspired to write a voxval fic i promise you my firstborn.
OHHHHHH MY GOD IM SO HAPPY MY RAMBLINGS HELPED YOU WITH THE FIC!!!!!! TBH IVE RARELY BEEN THIS OVERJOYED. LIKE I COULDNT STOP GRINNING AND GIGGLING WHEN I SAW IT. FUCKKKKK. Also im fucking cackling that my actual impact was bringing vox to severe distress instead of a more angry and annoyed disposition. Like yeah,,.. Im here to make you suffer, baby. LOVE YOU VOX!
Im gonna leave my thoughts for actual fic for another ask bc… yeah. I will spare you. - 🌓
Do NOT spare me, I enjoy these immensely. >:) Proof:
Very genuinely, I had kinda been squinting at the actual scene in question with dissatisfaction for a hot minute, so I was very pleased when your ask made it click to me what the fuck felt so wrong about it. So thank you!
Staticmoth is definitely percolating in my brain and I want to write something for them because, like you, I am also indeed deeply invested in them (they are my favorite ship very much alongside radiostatic, which is probably not obvious given I haven't written anything actively centered around them - but they're like the fucked up, evil version of MHA erasermic for me in this fandom because they Must be present in the narrative and also I love them). I haven't had any specific ideas good enough to turn into a fic yet, but I might just mash them all together at some point or, y'know. Go the Good Olde [insert wanking hand motion here] route!
#ask#personal#half moon anon#666 live on air#my writing#love this ask loved receiving it greatly enjoyed reading ittttt#fun fact it took me until I took this screenshot made the post and happened to scroll past it on my dash#to notice that I wrote “waiting FOR bated breath” in that message#thanks brain what the fuck was that about
30 notes
·
View notes
Text
Basic Training Ch 2
This is a new Elvis Fan Fic set during his basic training at Fort Hood WIP I am playing around with for the summer. Comment, reblog , tag and let me know what you think or if you would like to be added to the taglist.
Thanks to my ever alpha @whositmcwhatsit who read the rough draft and made it so much better. Thanks Jader Gator. I love you and I think you know that I go between being so in awe of your writing that it is paralyzing to being inspired to write just to get close to what you create.
There are so many good writers in our fandom, and I am lucky to be friends with a little group of horny elvis witches who put up with me, answer my random questions and help me figure out narrative roadblocks, so thanks, as ever, to my sister wives @be-my-ally @vintageshanny @missmaywemeetagain @ellie-24 @from-memphis-with-love @powerofelvis for helping me write. You guys are so talented I feel lucky to breathe your air, you teach me everything.
Summary: Elvis surprises Bess at her office to thank her and gets to know some of the other women on post.
Word Count: 4.9 K
Warnings: None. Swear words? Handsy charming naughty Elvis?
I have formulas, tropes, motifs that I always go back to consciously or unconsciously.... whatever... as I was naming this chapter I realized how chapter two is always about the nicknames..... Here we go...
If you need to catch up, read Chapter 1: I Don't Date Soldiers here
Basic Training Chapter 2: Lil Moo Moo & Tupelo
Wednesday, April 2, 1958
1715 Hours (5:15 p.m.)
Fort Hood Front Office
“Oh, give me Burt Lancaster any day over Elvis Presley.”
Mabel’s eyes didn’t leave her work as she said this, not even when she placed her cigarette in the ashtray on her desk, the keys on her typewriter plunking up and down in her glasses’ reflection as she typed. Unflappable and wry, Mabel was a career civil servant with the commemorative lapel pins to match each milestone from her twenty six years and counting career at Fort Hood. Her light green metal desk was set in the center of the large outer room in the base’s front office, right in front of the CO’s door. Bess’s desk was to the right, across from the XO’s secretary Rose, who left everyday right at five o’clock on the dot.
The other two women Bess shared an office with were almost polar opposites. Rose worked punctually from eight to five every day, while Mabel was always the first to arrive between 6:45 and 7, and often the last to leave, determined to stay on post until the CO left.
Bess fell somewhere in-between, arriving most days with her father at 8 a.m. and then pushing him to leave as early as possible. But with her father out of town, Bess was mistress of her own destiny; a mistress who apparently couldn’t bear to leave until the final details for an awards ceremony tomorrow afternoon were hammered out.
Which is why she was perched on the corner of Mabel’s desk at 5:15, or at least it had been before Dori arrived. Waiting for her father, the CO, to return from inspections, Dori had turned the conversation to her favorite topic of late: her quest to meet Elvis Presley. Tonight she was specifically wondering if he would come to the MWR dance that weekend. This had prompted Mabel's unsolicited preference for the tall, athletic physique of Burt Lancaster.
Dori giggled. “How many times did you see From Here to Eternity when it was in theaters, huh Mabel?”
“More than I’d care to admit, Ms. Crenshaw.” Mabel lowered her bifocals as she hit her typewriter keys slowly, looking down every few seconds at some hand written notes. “And every time they play it on TV or show it here.”
“And how many times did you see Jailhouse Rock, huh, Bess?” Dori teased.
Bess blushed. “Only once.”
Mabel paused her typing and picked up her cigarette again. “I have the feeling Bess has turned sour on those Presley pictures. You should have seen her last week, damn near punched a dent in her desk after a reporter ran her off the road.”
“Ah, no, Bess loves Elvis.” Dori checked her lipstick before putting her compact back into her purse. “She’s lying too. I remember seeing Jailhouse Rock with you and the soldier on duty said you’d been to our sweet 'lil ol base theater every night that week.”
Bess fixed Dori with a grimace, mumbling defensively. “That was Loving You, and I only saw it three times. People were talking through it the first two times.” She shifted, rolling her thigh over Mabel’s desk as she balanced herself. “I didn’t care for Jailhouse Rock, though, kinda thought the main character was a jerk.“
“Oh honey, that’s what made it so good.” Dori’s high voice vaulted up the ceiling “Don’t you just find him scrum-diddly-umptious actin’ all tough and mean, but then being hung up on his lil ole manager the whole time?”
Bess straightened the stack of files on her lap.
“No, Dori, I don’t care for quiet, mean, brooding types who can’t just be a man and tell me how they feel, playin' mind games instead. And, as for Elvis, honestly I can take him or leave him. There are twenty thousand men on this base.” Bess straightened her ponytail, balancing her files on her lap as she spoke. “Why, I could find you ten Mississippi tall boys who can play gee- tar and yodel at you before mail call is done…”
Bess’ voice trailed off when she noticed Dori gasp and cover her mouth with her hand, eyes wide with shock as she smacked Bess’ knee. Mabel whistled low, her eyes quickly fixing on her typewriter as Bess shifted around on the big desk.
“What? What is it….” Bess’ jaw fell open and dropped her files to the ground. She felt them slip over her skirt on their way, unable to stop them, it was as if she had forgotten how to use her hands. No, all she could do was cringe with embarrassment at Elvis’ downward smirk as his eyes flitted up to look at her.
“Oh cluck a fuck, I mean fuck a duck - I mean, oh cluck!” Bess heard herself cry out reflexively, then remembering how to move, she scrambled to pick up her papers. She was grateful for Dori’s unflappable poise as the blonde hopped over Bess’ hunched body on the ground and introduced herself to Elvis, adding:
“Please excuse my friend there, she flunked outta finishin’ school.”
Bess watched Elvis kiss Dori’s extended hand with mild amusement as she squealed and smiled and unleashed her excitement onto him, her hand already on his chest.
“I been prayin’ every day to run into you, Elvis - Oh, may I call you Elvis?”
“Yessum, I -”
“Oh good! See, I knew we’d be great friends, I just knew we would! I have been all over this base hopin’ to run into you. Why, we’re all just pleased as punch ta have ya round here, aren’t we?”
She turned to see Bess still on all fours, curly brown hair half loose from her ponytail, while behind her Mabel looked up and grunted softly in salutation before continuing to type.
Mabel’s cranky glare and Bess’ antics on the floor did not create the mood Dori had envisioned for her first meeting with Elvis Presley. She looked down and her broad smile wavered for a moment as she realized the top button of Bess’ shirt was undone, revealing her bra completely. Dori’s painted pink lips popped as she nudged Bess with the tip of her heel and whispered through her teeth.
“Stand up, Bess honey, fo-ar gawd’s sake, ya shirt!”
Bess jumped up, fixing herself as a big red blush grew over her face, made worse as Elvis caught her eye with a wink. Mabel stopped typing for a moment and motioned for Bess to come and look at something while Dori kept right on talking to Elvis with her hand now firmly around his bicep.
“Now, don’t pay no mind to Bessie’s talk about you and your pictures, why, we’re all big Elvis fans round here, the biggest fans ya ever met.”
Elvis cocked his eyebrows up at Bess’ simmering glare from where she now stood behind Mabel’s chair.
“Huh, yeah, that’s sweet of ya, ma’am -”
Dori put her finger to Elvis' lip. “Dori, honey, puhleeze!”
“ - Uh, Dori.” Elvis’ spoke carefully, as if forming every word in the back of his throat before speaking out, his voice was soft and shy. “I don't s’pect everyone to like all my pictures. After all, I didn’t write them, it’s just a job to me.” He winked again at Bess. “S’pose I mind even less if they like some of my other movies. Like ‘em enough to see ‘em every night a tha week.”
Bess felt her cheeks redden even more, but before she could think of a clever reply, Mabel elbowed her and pointed at the XO’s handwriting.
“Can you read that? It looks like repercussion, but it could be reprimand as well.”
Bess picked up the legal pad for closer inspection and turned to the others, motioning for Dori to come take a look. She hadn’t expected Elvis to follow, but he did, making himself right at home and angling his tall body behind the women.
He snuck his hand around Bess’ waist as he looked at the writing Dori held up for him, eyes forward and completely detached from the movements of his fingers rubbing along the waistband of Bess’ skirt until she pulled them off. This made her stumble to the side and gave Elvis an excuse to openly grab her waist and steady her, She frowned, flustered by the way his long fingers navigated the crease right where her waist met her ribs, his thumbs squeezing tightly and then rubbing gently over her as he asked if she was ok.
Pushing Elvis’ hands away, Bess whispered that she was fine, trying to slow her pulse and still the shivers that ran up her spine. Her whole body trembled, aware of his proximity to her, and she refused to meet Dori’s now extremely curious eyes over Elvis’ shoulder. Nodding, he turned back to the others and helped himself to the paper, declaring that it was repercussion as he introduced himself to Mabel, kissing her hand, and asking her about the tiny, porcelain figurines on her desk as she giggled.
“That’s Lady and Lola, my brother brought them back to me from Japan. Are you a dog person, Private?”
Bess made her way back to her desk, taking in the youthful bloom of Mabel’s beaming face and girlish laughter. She had never seen her co-worker this cheerful and open before. Dori’s face was aghast as Elvis ignored her and made himself comfortable on Mabel’s desk, asking her for a cigarette and then turning with a conspiratorial whisper as he asked them not to tell anyone.
Dori began tapping her fingers along her crossed arms harder as she watched Elvis put his hand on Mabel’s shoulder, while the older woman batted his thigh and chuckled at his jokes about dogs. Bess smiled to herself at the way Dori tried to wrest the conversation back by talking about how she used to have the sweetest lil ol’ poodle in the world when she was a girl. But it was an uphill battle, because now Mabel was pulling out her secret tin of homemade shortbread and asking Elvis what he thought. He had to try five pieces before he could adequately decide his verdict, and he moaned as if he had never had shortbread before. His voice was low as he stuttered “Mmm hmmm mmm hmm mmm” in a hum, and Bess dropped her pen when he caught her eye and licked his lips, proclaiming through crumbly mouthfuls that it was “the best doggone cookie he’d had in a long while.”
Bess shook her head at Elvis’ transformation from the shy soldier who had walked into the office to the confident, cocky rascal he was now, only minutes later. Elvis was masterful, she mused, and it was down to the attentive way he looked at each person he spoke with, talking to you as if you were the most important person in the world and responding to everything you said and did with his eyes. No, with his whole body really, she thought. He had a magnetic energy that had drawn her in the moment they met Friday. Now that same magnetic energy was doing its work on Dori and Mabel before her very eyes, as he engaged with them in a way that was humble, considerate and disarming. Some soldiers were stiff and uncomfortable here in the front office where there were often three to five women bustling about. Elvis on the other hand, seemed to be in his element amidst a group of women vying for his attention.
Bess found, to her own chagrin, that this included herself and was disappointed by her own desire to get his attention. She held out until she could no longer help it and interrupted their conversation with a loud, authoritative cough.
“I’m sure you didn’t come to our building to talk about puppy dogs and shortbread, Private, we don’t want to keep you from your tasks or the mess hall.”
Elvis turned to look at her from where he sat on Mabel’s desk and began throwing his olive patrol cap from hand to hand as he gulped.
“Uh, well ma’am, actually, I came up here hoping to get a word with you, Bessie. Uh, I mean Miss Schwartz.”
Now it was Bess’ turn to swallow and once again avoid Dori’s questioning eyes. Mabel’s eyes snapped down to her typing, her face back to being an expressionless stone wall.
“Sure thing, um, walk me to my car? I just, I was just about to leave, I just, uh, need to put these in the Commander’s office.”
As she walked back to her father’s desk, she heard Dori’s voice ring out behind her.
“I didn’t know you were acquaintances with Bessie. That busy bee, she really gets around this base, huh? I reckon she knows more soldiers than the rest of us combined.” Bess smiled to herself at Dori’s insinuation. “ Are you here to ask her to the dance?”
“Uh, no ma’am, Dori, Miss. I, uh, reckon it's better for me to keep a low profile this weekend, let the boys enjoy their night.”
“Well, you know, that attitude might give our boys the wrong impression, like. Make the guys think you fancy yourself too good for our simple, lil ole MWR dance.”
“Uh - well- “ Elvis’ face lit up when Bess rejoined them and they shared a lingering smile that Dori vowed to interrogate Bess about later.
“Oh let him be, Doreen,” Bess murmured, her voice breathy as her heart fluttered once more at the depth of Elvis’ knowing, penetrative gaze. “Uh, he, uh, the boy, man, the man clearly doesn’t want to go. And he already knows that I don’t go on dates with soldiers.”
Mabel had stopped working again and was now chewing the edge of her glasses, leaning forward on her chin as if she was watching a soap opera unfold in front of her desk.
Dori pursed her lips and placed her right hand on her hip energetically. “Oh he does now?” She said playfully, flouncing up the bottom of her blonde bob. ”Well, Private, you’re in luck, because I do date soldiers. I’ll pick you up at 8.”
Elvis looked to Dori, then back at Bess, his confused expression transforming into a smirking wide smile as he registered Bess’ frown. Bess looked down, picking at a chipped piece of her thumb nail until it came off, as if it was the most important thing in the world and needed her attention immediately.
“Huh, well, whoo boy.” Elvis eyed Bess again, then his lips screwed up into a wider grin as he chuckled mischievously. “I don’t hardly know ya, but I can’t say as that’s ever stopped me before.”
Bess’ heart did a series of flip flops as she watched Elvis laugh with Dori. She wasn’t sure what she disliked more, the fact that her friend had just maneuvered herself into a date with Elvis, or that she was jealous. Bess decided it was the later and that she would will herself not to care.
Elvis' eyes flickered over her for a second and Bess suddenly had a sense that he could tell exactly what she was thinking and feeling in that moment, and she returned to picking at her thumb nail. She was vaguely paying attention as she heard Dori tell Elvis that she’d meet him up at his barracks Saturday night, but she thought Elvis smirked wider as he took in the smile that she forced her lips into.
“You’ll be there, won’t you, Bess. Even though you don’t date soldiers?” Dori looked at her, adding another few fluffs to her hair for absolutely no good reason.
“Hmmmm. Well, I usually do, since the CO encourages all the single female employees to go, but I did have some research st—”
“Don’t be silly, of course you’ll come, it’s gonna be so much fun. I can already tell. There’s gonna be a live rhythm and blues band we hired in from Houston. They are just the bee’s knees, and I’m on the MWR committee. My theme for this dance is Spring Fling, cuz it’s spring! The decorations we got are so adorable, floral Chinese lanterns y’all. I cannot wait.” Dori squeezed her hands into fists and did a little dance in place.
Elvis turned back to Mabel. “You comin’ Saturday night, Miss Maybelline?”
Mabel giggled like a school girl instead of the fifty year old woman she was.
“Every one I can make it to, CO’s memo encourages all single women on base to attend.”
Elvis took Mabel’s hand in his, softly trailing over the top as he kissed her knuckles and smiled devilishly as she giggled again.
“Well, be sure ta save a few dances for me, mmkay, honey?”
Mabel nodded with a giggle and a wink.
Elvis’ cocky smiled followed Bess' curt nod out of the office and into the back stairs of the building where her voice echoed down the concrete stairwell.
“You know Private, I really wish you wouldn’t come to my office unannounced.” She paused two steps below him and turned around so he had to stop himself from slamming into her finger as it pointed back at him.
“Hold on a minute there, baby, now, what’s wrong with being friendly?” He grabbed her finger. “Careful where you point that thing, woman. First lesson of basic training is safety. Thought you’d a know by now.” He grasped her hand and softened it into his fist. She seemed to lose her train of thought looking up into his eyes. “What’s got your panties in a twist, Bessie Boo, you ain’t jealous, are you?”
Elvis was decidedly less polite when they were alone, Bess realized. She wasn’t sure she liked it, or the way it made her feel as she pulled her finger away and kept descending down the stairs in front of him, her voice a little shaky.
“Of Dori? No, no, not at all. In fact, that all seems to have worked out the way it should.” She shoved the door at the bottom open and headed toward her car as Elvis’ long legs made easy work of striding next to her.
“Why’s that?”
Bess turned as she got to her car.
“Cuz, well, you seem like a good match.” She smiled, trying to really mean it, trying to keep her voice cool and nonchalant. “Dori, is, well, she seems to have the sort of, um. Well, that is, she’s very glamorous. And popular. And attractive. She’s a lot like the girls you’re always with in the fan magazines. I think you’ll have a lot of fun.”
Elvis stepped closer, fixing his work cap back on his head. “So you read the fan magazines, huh? Thought you could take or leave Elvis Presley.”
Bess didn’t know if her cheeks could take the constant flushing she was experiencing. She leaned into the hood of her car, changing the topic as she spoke to the blue paint.
“Look, why did you come by my office?”
Bess leaned her back into the car, and he reached out for her waist, rubbing his hands along the sides for a moment, before taking the handle next to it and pulling it open, tilting his head to get in.
“I uh, I came by because I wanted to thank you. Think we could just talk for a spell?"
Bess swallowed and nodded. After a few moments searching, she discovered her tongue where she had left it on the roof of her mouth and did her best to eke out intelligible words. They scooted along the white vinyl car bench until Elvis got to the other side and leaned back, stretching out his arms and looking at her.
“I know'd it was you that talked to Sergeant Norwood.”
Bess looked down. “I, ugh, actually. That would be highly inappropriate of me to talk to a senior instructor in your company and ask for any special treatment.” She looked back up at him. “But, um, how’s it going?”
Elvis grinned wide. “He’s, uh, well, he’s instruction’ alright, instructed me to come over to his house here on post after dinner most nights. He, uh, well, I uh, he lets me use his phone to call home and get a few hours of shut eye at their place. Though I preferred the bed at your house, Bessie bug. Cushioning there was better.”
Bess let out a snort as Elvis slid down to put his head in her lap, just as it had been that first night in her guest room. He pulled her right hand in his over her chest, threading his fingers through hers as he looked up into her face with apt admiration.
“Ya are the first real friend I’ve made here.”
“Hmmm. Seemed like you were doing all right making new friends upstairs.”
Elvis smirked, his squeezed his fingers between hers.
“You are jealous a Dori. Jus say tha word and I’ll take you to the dance too, baby. I could take both of you as my dates, ya know, nuff a me ta go ‘round.”
Bess tried to take her fingers back, but it was a half-hearted attempt and his hand was so much bigger than hers. Resigned, she squeezed back and sighed, looking out the window.
“Ha, I’m sure. But, no, I’m not jealous, I’m just giving you a hard time, Presley. You sure seem like a fast operator.” Bess felt an aching warmth blossom in her belly as his thumb rubbed the inside of her palm.
“Honey, I didn’t operate nothing, I’m just an innocent bystander caught in the eye of Hurricane Dori. If anyone is operatin’ fast, it’s your friend back there.”
“Yeah, well, you have to forgive her, she had a lot more going on in Savannah than she does here. We are sorely lacking in ladies’ charities and fancy galas for her to host. So Dori gets all pent up, all that energy and nothing to do with it. Maybe you can help wear her out. " Bess arched her eyebrows suggestively, her voice was light and teasing. "By dancing, I mean, of course.”
“Huh, sure. How ‘bout you? Will you have any pent up energy ya wanna dance off with an ol’ friend?”
“Ha, I’m about as old a friend to you as Dori is.”
“Nah, honey, you’re different, we go way back now. I don’t know anyone who’d risk their job to take a po’ boy like me home an feed me an’ take care a me so good.”
Elvis' eyes welled up and Bess softened, thinking he might cry. She found herself soothing the top of his forehead with her left knuckles.
“Hey, ssshhh, hey. You would have done the same for me, right? If our roles were reversed and I was a new recruit being trained for combat?”
The left side of Elvis’ face lifted into a crooked grin. Bess was transfixed watching the way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.
“Course, course I would. You know, I’ve spent the last two years running from women chasing me, I reckon the Army’d be in better shape if they’d put ya girls into combat. Ain’t nothing more terrifying than a hoard of twenty thousand screaming girls coming for ya.”
“Ha, yeah, probably makes basic training seem like a breeze.”
Bess smiled down at Elvis, and made her fist into a fake microphone, affecting a serious, transatlantic accent like the reporters at his press conference last week.
“So, Private Presley, what do you think, is basic training harder or easier than running from women for a living?”
Elvis chuckled. His right hand let go of Bess’ fingers and snaked around her waist. “Well, ain’t nothing like getting clobbered by a swarm of women. I s’pose the main difference between those girls and the Russians is, they don’t mean to hurtcha. They’re just tryin’ to get themselves a piece of ya for a souvenir.”
Bess’ raised one eyebrow, her reporter microphone hand still at attention.
“Oh? Please tell us, the American people want to know, which piece of you are these girls trying to get their hands on?”
Elvis burst out laughing. “Uh, no comment, though I could show you later if you want.”
Bess blushed at the glint in his eyes, and kept talking. “Hmm, fresh. Next question, how devastating was it to get your haircut?”
“Well, now, that didn’t bother me none at all. You know what they say, hair today, gone tomarra."
He paused, grinning at her tepid "Ha. ha. ha."
"But no, I ain't sore. Now, if it weren’t never gonna grow back, yeah, sure, maybe I’d be sore, but I don’t mind following the rules and cutting my hair like all the other boys here. I’m actually starting to like it.”
Bess combed her fingers through his crew cut.
“MMhmmm. I liked it better long, but you know me, I hate soldiers.”
“Picked a weird place to work then, Bessie, ain’t nothing but soldiers here.”
“This is just temporary, till I figure out what’s next for me.”
Elvis looked down towards his knees, speaking softly. “Yeah, jus temporary. That’s what my manager keeps sayin’, but man oh man, I think it’s all over for me. Ain’t no one gonna remember me in two years.”
“That’s not true. Trust me, it just feels that way. How many records you sold?”
Elvis leaned his face into her fingers as they cupped his cheek, he could feel Bess’ thighs tremble slightly underneath her skirt and it made him smile. He looked up at her big brown eyes sheepishly.
“Oh, I don’t know, ‘bout 25 million I s’pose.” His voice was casual and aloof til he cried out at the smack of Bess’ hand hitting his shoulder.
“Ha, I would have guessed 4 or 5 million. 25? I can’t even picture a stack that high. It would go all the way to the moon, probably. You’re thick, you know that? Like we could forget you with all those records out there, spinning 'round in people’s homes, on the radio. No, I think the Russians would have to bomb us to kingdom come before we forget about you, what with 25 million records playing all over. ”
“You’re sweet, Bess, you know that? My uncle used to have a cow named Bess.” He grinned up at her and made a moo sound. “Lil' Bessie Moo Moo, she was sweet, just like you… Moo Moo.” His voice tapered off as Elvis' hand began to trail up the side of Bess’ body. His voice became low and earnest. “She had the sweetest milk.”
Bess shivered at the touch of his fingers before pulling her head toward him. Just as she was an inch away from his lips, she stopped him, and tilted back up, fake microphone fist in her hand again between their faces.
“And, I know our listeners will want to know this important detail, where exactly was this cow, Private, Memphis?” She was the reporter again, and her heart thumped with a beat of regret as she took in the split second of disparagement that played across his face as she lifted her lips away from his. But then it was gone and he was back to playing cool with a grin.
“Nah, back in Tupelo where I was borned and raised.”
“Tupelo, huh? Well, tell us Presley, why does all the good rock and roll music come from that part of the country, places like Mississippi, Tennessee?”
Elvis nestled his head back into Bess’ thighs, scrunching up his lips as he thought.
“Don’t know, I guess we jus have a history of it, it's a place where ya got Black rhythm and blues and country and western, spiritual music. It's in the air we breathe down there, I guess, gets all jumbled up and out comes rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Well, Private, is rock n’ roll the secret weapon we’ve all been waiting for to take down communism and restore civilization to Eastern Europe and Russia? And if so, when are you being sent over enemy lines?”
“Now, maybe you’re on ta something there, pretty sure it’s already destroyed civilization state side.”
“Oh, definitely, the very fabric of our society is crumbling, just ask any parent and they’ll tell you that their teenager hates school and wants to have sex, all because of rock ’n’ roll. No teenager ever felt that way before they heard your music.”
“Huh, you’re a smart ass, you know that?”
“I’ve been a smart ass since you met me. Try to keep up, Tupelo.”
“Huh, yeah, ya a piece of work, lil' Moo Moo. And ya asking for it talkin’ to a man like that.”
Elvis pinched her soft, springy sides as he chuckled. Anyone walking by the blue Ford would have only seen Bess’ silhouette sitting up, head tilted back in a deep, guttural laugh for the first time in almost a year, as Elvis lay back in her lap, tickling and pinching her. They sat in her car for another hour, as Bess fussed over a cluster of razor burn below his ear, and he asked her about her life, getting to know as much about her as she was willing to reveal until she had to push him off her lap to go meet Sargeant Norwood, dismissing his offer to come back to her house and show her that souvenir all the gals were chasing after
************************************************************************
Read Chapter Three Here
@eliseinmemphis @moonchild-daniella @tacozebra051 @ab4eva @kingdomforapony @everythingelvispresley @richardslady121 @dkayfixates @artlover8992 @peskybedtime @freudianslumber @amydarcimarie @toreigh @notstefaniepresley @18lkpeters @yynneessmons @lookingforrainbows @prompted-wordsmith @roadtogracelandx45 @ashtag2887 @literally-just-elvis-fics @waiting4brucewayne2adoptme @returntopresley @girlblogger2002 @rjmartin11
#elvis presley#elvis fanfiction#elvis#elvis fic#elvis presley fic#army elvis#1958 elvis#basic training#banditqueenwrites#wheeeee#because apparently i need another wip.....#xoxoxo#elvis x oc
101 notes
·
View notes
Text
After a long day of work Your boyfriend draws you a nice warm bath
Warnings: minors be gone, Mild smut, fluff
You are outrageous, Austin thinks while watching your interview after not being at the met gala. “Why weren't you at the Met Gala, Y/N?” the interviewer asks.
Your response is simple, “Wasn't invited.”
The interviewer continues to egg you on. “ Why do you think that is” trying to get a reaction out of you
“You tell me?” your voice is flat.
“Why didn’t you go with your boyfriend, Austin Butler?”
Austin remembers what you said when he invited you as his plus one, like it was yesterday “I don’t wanna seem desperate.” you pause, dramatically throwing yourself onto his lap, causing a laugh to escape his lips. “I don’t go where I’m not welcome.” Austin was quite shocked by your maturity, an event like this was practically made for you, it was an excuse for you to “show up and show out.” as you would say.
But your response to the interviewer is different, more arrogant and less mature, one that he initially had expected from you. “Didn’t wanna outdress the invitees.” he watches his tv screen in awe of your boldness. Despite your bold claim you looked bored.
“After seeing everyone’s looks do you still think you would've outdressed them.” Austin could see the narrative the interviewer was trying to create from a mile away, he prayed for you to not take the bait. You remained silent, a playful smirk playing at your lips as you look down at your hands. He could tell you were getting bored of the conversation. You laughed a little to make it seem like a joke, but Austin wouldn’t put it past you, aside from making music, extravagant fashion is what you’re known for, you didn’t believe in overdressing.
“Oh wow.” the interviewer says.
“Please forgive me if this offends you.” you begin and Austin swears, he feels his blood pressure rise. “But, if I wanted to talk about the Met Gala, I would’ve gone to it, why don’t we talk about my album instead.” proud of you, Austin releases a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.
“Ah yes, your album.” Austin continues to watch the interview on the tv screen as you return to your usual sweet, bubbly self, ecstatic to talk about your new body of work.
Realizing you would be home soon, Austin decided to prepare you a small snack of cherries and dark chocolate, your favorite. He lays out a satin babydoll for you to sleep in, and starts to run a bubble bath for you. You used to do stuff like this for Austin before he made it abundantly clear that after a long day of work he’d rather skip the aesthetics, and settle for a quick shower and a good blowie.
“Aus.” your voice fills the apartment. He quickly dims the lights in the bathroom, and goes to greet you in the living room.
“Hey Angel.” he says, bringing you into his chest.
“Hi daddy.” your voice is velvet as you bury your head into the crook of his neck. Austin swiftly picks you up and carries you to the bathroom. Austin places you on the counter, and begins to slip your shoes off. “What did you do?” you question your boyfriend, as he begins to unzip your dress.
“Nothing.” he defends, lifting you up, allowing your dress to fall to the floor. You grab your cleansing balm off the counter only for it to be plucked out of your hand. Austin gently places you in your large bathtub, and kisses your lips softly.
You watch your boyfriend open your expensive jar of product and scoop a more than decent amount. “That is way too much.” He brings his finger to your lips and makes a ‘shhh’ sound as he smears the product on your face, massaging it. You close your eyes and try not think about how much product he wasted as he rinses it off.
Your eyes snap open at the sudden absence of your boyfriend's warm hands on your face. He comes back minutes later with a tray of cherries and chocolate and his camera, you pucker your lips and lean over the tub, Austin sets the tray of snacks down and snaps a picture of you . It might be his new favorite, you looked cherubic, blowing kisses in your cloud of bubbles, like an angel.
“Stop, I look bad,” you pout
“You couldn’t look bad if you tried.” Austin says, finally reciprocating your kiss.
“You ate some of my chocolate.” you giggle, tasting the bittersweetness on his lips, successfully melting his heart in the process.
“I would never” He feigns, bringing the tray of food to me. Snapping photos of you here and there, maybe asking for a pose two.
“Stop taking pictures, and get in with me.” He doesn't need to be told twice, he’s already got his shirt off and is working on his sweatpants.
After stealing your last piece of chocolate and removing the tray from the tub, Austin slides in the tub behind you, kissing your wet skin. “I watched your interview today.” He breathes into your skin.
“Did I do good, daddy?” you ask, tilting your head to give the man easier access to your skin.
“Yes you did,” He nips at my neck. “I’m so proud of you.”
“Really?” you turn to look up at him.
“Really.” Austin reassures you. “Even though you had me scared for a moment.”
“How?” you cock your head to the side.
“Well, I know how sharp that tongue of yours can get, but you keep your cool, even when I could see how antsy you were getting.” He praises snaking an arm around your waist. He began to rub circles into your clit. You bite your lip, throwing your head back.
You feel a familiar knot form in your abdomen, but you're quickly pulled from your bliss when you feel Austin pull his hand from you. “The waters getting cold” he says and you can hear the smirk playing at his lips as he climbs out the tub and drains the water before picking you up and placing you back on the counter to dry you off. It’s not long before he carries you to the bedroom to finish what he started.
#shes nott me#elvis#austin!elvis x reader#elvis presley x reader#austin butler#austin butler smut#austin butler x reader#elvis the pelvis#elvis smut#austin butler fic#sugar daddy elvis#she writes
672 notes
·
View notes
Text
#tristampparty day 6, episode 6: once upon a time in hopeland
THE HALFWAY POINT OF @tristampparty BABY!!! this is another episode i've watched multiple times on its own so... LET'S GOOOOO
and we start right out the gate with
wolfwood vial count: 2
i don't think i need to keep saying that masaya onosaka is the radio dj... he's been a constant...
LOL, LMAO, EVEN
"disposal," though... we know all about the last run, but what else does disposal entail. like what do they do with the. um. the corpse? and the word "disposal"... yeesh...
so they say, even though it's obvious bullshit. but i do wonder. conrad is in charge of july, EoM's base is in july, etc etc... but how many people actually know what's going on? who does "the july government" consist of besides conrad? what about the civilians living in the city? EoM's cover is flimsy at best, they're suspicious as hell, so how deep and how far does the propaganda machine reach that this can just... keep going on?
all this planet has is radio and newspapers, no TV, no internet, and everyone is struggling just to survive... we saw just last ep how EoM had a grip on one village to the point where it was normalized to sacrifice children... just how good are they at controlling information? jeez. roberto and meryl's job as reporters is more important than ever.
we see that part of wolfwood's designated role is to go after deserters and traitors, so that's another way of controlling information, but. he's just one guy. so they probably have more assassins than just him. maybe the rest of the ghg that we haven't seen yet? there's livio, too, but... how long has he been with EoM at this point? the timeline's so unclear on this, i don't know... we know it took "months" between wolfwood being taken by them and his escape attempt + livio(/razlo) joining, but we don't know how long ago that was either... presumably it would also take "months" for the experiments to be done on livio, or maybe even less time? uhhhhh (steam comes out of my ears from thinking too hard)
......i'm less than 3 minutes into the episode. let's continue.
it's cute that they shrug simultaneously. mad at each other but still in sync... :')
no idea why the orphanage would be highlighted on the map except for foreshadowing purposes, but it looks like the steamer stops at... uh... *squints* taradiddlescoast... deucedump?!... orange bazoo... who tf is naming these places?!
:') aha. ahahahahaha. ahahhahahahaha. ah. uah. ue. ueeeeeeaaahhh
we already know that the sandsteamer route passes by the orphanage. so i like that there's a sandsteamer visible in the distance. very nice subtle attention to detail here
i feel like people are always quick to point out that livio and wolfwood being siblings is specific to stampede only but i DON'T care, this is my FAVORITE interpretation of their relationship, i really love it so much and think it enhances the narrative and nicely contrasts the relationship between vash and knives. orange was SO big brained for this and i'm not kidding. they're brothers in the manga too, to me.
the dub line here is "stop, livio! he's not who hurt you!" which just tears me into a million pieces, thanks!
...if i remember correctly... the "great sand ocean" is called as such because things just sink into it, right? (hmm... wonder how many crashed ships sank into the sand ocean...) hence the boat-like vehicles that are used to cross it. as we can see, the bad lads gang uses what look like windsurfers. and yet wheeled vehicles seem to fare just fine...?!
we never see what the test is. huh... i'm reminded of the promised neverland all of a sudden
nicholas gets selected and the bell rings... can i point something out? the bell's presence in scenes... what the bell represents... it has the EoM logo on it. well, so does the building. but notably, we see the bell in the scene with livio and wolfwood on the roof at night and also in the scene of them cuddling which i posted above. they're bonding and they love each other but the eye of michael is quite literally looming over them... and over the orphanage as a whole...
i've already talked about this in my bookclub posts but i want to talk about the orphanage's relationship with EoM again. it's literally run by them... there's NO cover story here, they're CLEARLY suspicious as hell. in the manga, chapel came by himself to pick wolfwood up and the cover story was that they would be repairing churches, right? and everyone genuinely believed he was going off to live a better life. here it's just. a bunch of guys in suits and masks. obviously suspicious. they run the place, so i guess there's no need for a cover story...? but iirc in the manga EoM was also using the orphanage as a "source" for soldiers, right? like i think chapel says something like that, doesn't he? am i misremembering?
i have so many questions. there's no confetti. what does that mean. this is a lot more lowkey than wolfwood's departure in the manga. no cheering, no invitation to come back/saying this is always his home, just... polite waves. and melanie looks... unhappy. how much does she know? how much of a choice does she have here? ...huh. i'm reminded of the promised neverland again.
what does this mean for... y'know. The Scene. like. the confetti is important. the kids loving nicholas so much and cheering while saying goodbye is important. why did orange take those out what are they planning what does it MEAN!!!!
wolfwood is "test subject HL1-06" and i have no idea what that means and we can't determine from this how many kids came before him either.
wolfwood vial count: 3
hi sweetieeeee i love youuuuuu i love youuuuuu
see this gets the gears turning in my head regarding the timeline again. legato says this, and we see some flashforwards (i guess in this context that's what they are) to wolfwood killing people, including the guy from the beginning of this episode and monev from the last episode... (over which legato calls him a loser, lol?! even though that's very much not the reason why wolfwood killed him, and we know it) so how long was wolfwood working for EoM before he was given the job to "babysit" vash?
i already talked about this in one of my bookclub posts but there's the change in livio's motivations, too... he's chasing after wolfwood... as opposed to (razlo) wanting to be needed... what does it mean. man, i really hope orange doesn't do razlo dirty whenever he shows up for real.
THIS CLEARLY ISN'T STRINGS. WHY IS LEGATO'S POWER DIFFERENT IN EVERY VERSION OF TRIGUN I SWEAR TO GOD like it's telekinesis, right?! what does this mean for legato?! and his backstory?! strings are so fitting for him thematically, so i don't know what they could be planning here!!
kouki uchiyama will see a guy with blue hair covering one eye and say "is anyone gonna voice him" and not wait for an answer (and then fight akira ishida over it)
CONRAD I'M GOING TO THROTTLE YOU. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR EXPERIMENTS ARE DOING HUH. HUH!!!!
HGORHGHGHG.GHG. AHGHGGG.HGH.
thinking about the previous episode and eating rocks
livio hears wolfwood's name and that's when he opens his eyes and kicks vash off him... i initially thought maybe he just took the opportunity because vash was distracted, but he was distracted by the military guys right before this, so...?!
say that to knives and see what happens. also hello pretty boy you are so pretty i love you i'm blowing you kisses mwah mwah mwah mwah mwah
whenever legato talks about his confusion over fraternal love i can't help but remember nightow's comment about him maybe having a younger sister. which is interesting to think about but has never been relevant for any version of legato ever... buuuut... with orange's attention to detail, hmmm, who knows...
also i'm obsessed with legato driving hands-free and I AM ONCE AGAIN ASKING HOW HIS POWERS WORK IN THIS VERSION.
*wipes brow* let's end it there i wrote too much. i know i'll have a lot to say about the next episode too. they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming
23 notes
·
View notes
Note
If you're still interested in taking asks for the games you reblogged how about 4, 21, 22 and 🔥 for Percy?
4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?
Book. Book. Give me a book. I want to know Percy's internal monologue if possible, or at least how he was with his family prior to the Briarwoods, and I think a book would be a great way of showing the fun nuances of that given we won't get anything like that on stream.
21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?
I mean I think the obvious choice is that I love to poke at his trauma but also like...
I like to provide a small change and try to figure out how it'd affect him? Partly because small points of divergence are fun for me, but also partly because Percy is an overthinker and also someone who comes to conclusions and then rationalises them to himself, not always realising the inconsistency between his emotional conclusion and the actual facts. Percy loves to portray himself as rational and reasonable and he almost never is! He has reasons for what he does and what he thinks is best, but he's also a lot more emotional than he wants to think he is, and I think that's interesting. Percy's brain is a big old thorny mess and I like to really get into the weeds with that, to pick apart how he thinks and why he thinks it, where his logical errors are and where he remains consistent.
I don't think there's anything in particularly I dislike? I mean, I don't tend to write crack, but that's more because crack isn't where my skills lie, it's not to do with Percy. When it's to do with Percy... I mean my goal is to write a good story and sometimes that means geode method-ing it - to find out what a character is made of, first you must break them. Which I think leads on to the next question-
22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?
Because something I don't like is stories which deny Percy's capacity for awful. I dislike the fandom propensity for woobiefication and how many fics just have him simp for Vex and ignore the ways he can be kind of awful, and neglectful of his sister and just generally kind of a mess. I also hate just...
Okay this is layered but, there's this habit in fandom, largely by people who I think are either inexperienced writers or just inexperienced with trauma to... flatten it. To make the ability to relay a narrative easy, to make triggers simple and obvious and the reactions similarly clear cut.
But the thing is... it isn't? It's way more fucked up and messy? We see Percy in canon try to relay events and it's choppy and erratic and disordered - trauma messes with your memory! And yet I see fics which have Percy just blandly exposit his trauma to Vex, no ums or ahs, no pauses, no hesitation, no chewing over his words or trailing off to silence as the memories overtake the present. There's ones where they have Percy perform anxiety and trauma when encountering people a part of things, and yet it's nothing like what we see in canon - his seething anger with Stonefell, his razor's edge calm at Ripley (that's barely concealing screaming terror within). There's none of his capacity for total irrationality (again, Ripley) and it's...
I don't think it's intentional on the part of these authors. I don't think they realise just how much of a shit job they're doing. But at least to me, with my own trauma - it doesn't feel remotely reflective of 1. My own experiences with trauma and that kind of shit and 2. With what we see in canon.
Instead it feels like someone playacting something they don't remotely understand - like a child. And that's fine for the people learning about it, but for people who've got their own experiences and who like to read about similar experiences for the catharsis of seeing a character overcome it or the relatability factor or anything else - it can feel weirdly mocking? Dismissive? Like the author doesn't care enough to actually think about how those kinds of events affect someone. It's like they think our stories make good stories - but they don't care enough to portray it accurately.
And, again, I don't think most authors do this with malice, I think it's pure ignorance, but that doesn't stop me hating it.
On the flipside, I really love stories which actually tackle Percy's trauma and bullshit well.
I also... and this is much more petty, but I dislike the portions of fandom that like to make Percy some kind of sex god, or even overtly horny. Percy is very restrained and very internal that we see, and he's easily flustered. When Scanlan makes a joke about him having syphilis when he has his cough early in the Briarwood Arc Percy's flustered response is along the lines of once! Vex makes a point that Percy has improved because he's good at learning and knows when to listen. He was a nerd who explicitly had nothing to do with court - he's not the kind of person who was likely to go fucking around before the Briarwoods and after the Briarwoods he had awful, personal, visceral trauma and violation from being tortured, as well as dissociating to shit! I highly doubt he fucked around after! It seems likely to me that he has very limited sexual experience and also was someone who was deeply flustered by a lot of sexuality for some time - he notably relaxes once he's getting some on a regular basis which very much suggests to me that if he had more experience, he'd be less flustered!
There's also that Percy is very much someone who overthinks. Who hates himself for his own terrible thoughts and ideas. I'm sorry, but I can't see him easily fantasising about someone he knows - Percy strikes me as the kind of person who'd think even a wet dream about someone to be terribly rude and an imposition. He hates his reflexive awful bad ideas, the Ripley of his brain, he was raised posh and noble with rigid etiquette expectations - I think Percy's sense of propriety probably extends even that far. Repression is a hell of a thing.
Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.
Percy's a dick, no not a dick like that, no, not a misunderstood woobie, Percy's kind of an arrogant rich wanker and that's half the fun of his character. As I say above, there's a lot of people in fandom who just want Percy to be cool and kind of ignore his capacity for awfulness or petty bullshit, and also who ignore his capacity to be a dork or a fucked up uni kid! He's a traumatised man in his early 20s, he's basically a fucked up uni student! Percy wants people to think he's cool, but this man is a nerd! He invented guns! Don't make him cool! Make him a dork!
A huge swath of fandom is wrong about Percy and I remain narky about it.
Character Ask Game | Send “🔥“ for an unpopular opinion | Ask Box
14 notes
·
View notes
Note
youtu(dot)be(slash)g-7cLXyMp8E?si=OQ_6WDtl_dnMj9DP
Thoughts on this video on the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone and also the article that it cures which claims the Yellowstone narrative is factually inaccurate?
BAHAHAHA I am fucking CACKLING.
Okay so this video:
youtube
was posted in late 2020 and BOY HOWDY is it a wild ride. Because I need a distraction and am feeling particularly petty right now I'll see if I can break down the video and it's... um... "facts".
Before I start though the dudes YouTube is chock full of extreme vegan takes so I wouldn't say he's the top tier candidate for good sources lol.
"Introduction"
The beginning is meh. Y'know the usual thing some Youtubers do with the whole "is this really true???" thing with unreasonable amount of suspicion? yeah. He pretty much makes comments on how maybe the reintroduction of wolves into YNP wasn't the "incredible success story that it was made out to be." Which I feel like the, y'know, the many hundreds of research papers on the wolf reintroduction into YNP and the massive benefits it's created kinda contradicts? but I mean what do I know.
"Yellowstone narrative is misleading"
So this part opens up with this video (which I don't feel like watching rn if I were being honest so I'll save that for later) that blew up a bit ago regarding how wolves change rivers, and the claim that it was misleading, untrue, etc. The youtuber (who we shall call Hancock because "Youtuber" will get boring) uses this source to stake the claim that the positive impact wolves have had on rivers in YNP isn't true.
As we would know if we actually did research and didn't talk out of our ass, wolves didn't directly affect the rivers just by hunting elk, but beavers as well. Aspen and willow are, surprise surprise! a favorite food of beavers. Prior to wolf reintroduction riverbeds and waterways in YNP were in terrible shape, mainly due to erosion and lack of support from water loving plants, which are... tada! willow and aspen! Beavers and elk chowed down on these plants in huge amounts due to their numbers being so vastly out of control due to lack of predators. So when wolves came around and started hunting the plentiful beavers and elk, the willow and aspen were basically like "oh shit! we aren't being eaten to the point where we're all dying!! lets grow more!!" and in turn the more willow and aspen = more footing for the soil along waterbeds which means the rivers were saved. Some of this was mentioned in the article that was linked but wasn't mentioned by Hancock so idk what's up with that.
To sum it up, wolves made an impact! And it's silly to just write that off completely!! I think my issue with this part is that Hancock completely writes wolves impact on the environment off, which is frankly ridiculous. The original video may have overstated it a bit, but it's not like it doesn't exist.
"The balance of ecosystems"
Hancock then talks about the complexity of the YNP food chain (kinda), and how some people feel the need to restore the balance in nature if we humans fuck it up which?? like yeah?? we should?? He goes into a schpeel about values or whatever and if we value certain ecosystems over others??? Idk I was NOT tracking.
He mentions his thoughts on "which balance is best for the animals that live there". Goes on slight anthropomorphizing tangent then dives into the next part...:
"Ecology of fear"
Ah, lads, we are back in biology class aren't we. Except this time we are anthropomorphizing the hell out of everything! "The deer are afraid of being eaten alive, so afraid that they sometimes choose to eat less..."
Okay, did anyone tell this guy that the amount of food the herbivores (ungulates namely) before wolves were reintroduced was literally killing everything? Without wolves to balance the prey populations out they overgrazed, populations skyrocketed and so did disease.
The rest of this is a tangent, so I'll skip over it.
"Wolves suffered too"
Hancock cites the outbreaks of canine distemper disease that have occurred in YNP since reintroduction. This is a bit of a mute point, since canine distemper can fuck any canine population up whether it's a brand new reintroduced group of wolves or they've been there for decades.
Also, can we note how he talks about canine distemper then shows a wolf with mange?? hmmmm.
"Numbers of animals vs welfare"
Dude talks about random bullshit regarding animal rights. Loooooots of emotional heartstrings attempting to be pulled. He is 10000% coming from one of those anti-predator perspectives. Biiiig yikes.
"It's too complex (human health analogy)"
This section was basically mansplaining but with vegans lol.
"The choice we have"
He brings in wild animal contraception?????? I???? Girl what. I mean it's a thing yeah but I did not expect that to be where he was going.
Hancock talks about "one of the cruelest, and unfortunately most romanticized and thus most prevalent methods of population control" AKA reintroducing predators. Hmmmm it's almost like he didn't read about the mass amount of ungulates and other prey animals dying off in YNP when winter came (prior to reintroduction) and there wasn't enough food to sustain them all, subjecting them to excruciating deaths and long drawn out starvation and disease.
Hancock then goes onto how animals eat each other alive, which like, yeah, they do. AND THEN he talks about "wild animal suffrage" which, frankly I refuse to google. Blah blah blah he's anti-hunting who would've thought.
"we didn't do it for the animals"
Okay this actually has some value to it. Hancock talks about how wolves weren't reintroduced for their benefit, or anyone else, but only for people and tourism. This is both right and wrong.
I'm sure that all the biologists and hard working members on the reintroduction team would disagree that it wasn't done for the animals, but who knows. Anyway, the point that tourism would rake in a lot of cash for the state was also something that helped wolves get reintroduced, since we know many government officials weren't in it for the animals. So yeah, sort of true, but not really.
Hancock goes on about what animals are concerned about, even adding a little wolf with a thought bubble (which tbh, I'm sure if wolves knew about the technicalities of biodiversity they would love it, since it usually means a better quality of life). More anthropomorphizing and entitled vegan guilt tripping.
At this point I stopped watching, since it's already been roughly an hour, and although I could do this all day, I have to work later.
To answer your question anon, this video is very poorly put together and I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. There is little to no research done prior to creating it, and the creator talks from a animal rights activist point of view, which is never helpful.
22 notes
·
View notes
Note
Ok so weird thing: Puppet Zelda. I mean, it was pretty obvious as a player Imo? But what I don't get: The tears show her ONCE! and it's the scene right before Ganondorf gives Sonia a backbreaking back massage.
It's alluded to that she (he) did some other weird stuff to mess up for Sonia and Rauru, and it's not expanded upon at all. I was so put off by that, because it feels like that would have been a big chance for ACTUAL character development for ALL the characters from the past.
What did P-Z do? Where was Ganondorf? Was he hidden, or was he inside the castle? How did Sonia react to it? How did Rauru react to it? How did Sonia catch on? Why was it only Sonia and Zelda confronting P-Z? Why wasn't Rauru somewhere hidden as well? I doubt Rauru would have dismissed such a serious accusation. Sonia confronts P-Z, Zelda comes out, then Rauru lies in wait to check for extra danger. The time it takes for Rauru to arrive also kinda makes me think he wasn't that far away?
P-Z is a cool concept, but I'm still just so baffled by the absolute "non-story" they built by alluding to her bullshit.
Okay so. Yeah. I completely, 100% agree, and I want to use the opportunity to air out a very particular complaint I have not really seen a lot of people talk about, because I just rewatched that scene and I am shocked all over again.
The teacup scene, after Ganondorf submits, is, in my opinion, horrendous. Like not because of secret Problematisms (though yes also this, we just saw them asking their enemies to kneel and the very next scene they're having a little tea party with cake between royals while armed guards protect them and it's not supposed to be a red flag and it's wild to me), but because the actual writing, at a craft level, reads like a first draft at best. There are three narrative information beats that matter in this entire scene:
The war has stopped
Zelda wants to help her ancestors and not only return to her own era (??? okay, she already did and the problems are technically over already as far as they know??? and it's not a choice she's making since she still can't master her powers and never learn to btw)
Rauru learns Link's name
I'd argue the only real important thing is that Rauru learns Link's name, and it could have been done in a much more interesting and dynamic way.
Instead the scene just goes on and on with lore dumps that never go anywhere, reiterations of the bond between Zelda and Sonia we had already established, dialogue that is... shockingly bad...
Actually, let's examine just one case: "Ah. I can see that you have absolute faith in him."
Like, just, general pro-tip: if you use "I can see that X" in dialogue and it's not ironic or used as de-escalation and just there to reiterate what we have just immediately established, cut that line. It's doing nothing, it's dead weight, it's just grinding the pace of a scene to a halt for no reason (unless you want it to be about stagnation, like I could see a David Lynch dinner scene where every character restate each other's actions by saying "I can see that you really like the gravy." over and over but it's not.... very applicable to more generic situations). This is writing 101, and the scene is full of these nothing sentences that go nowhere and establish nothing about the characters or the world and set up nothing and pay off nothing and it's driving me wild!
(also it does my least favorite thing in game writing aka the game praising the player character for an unreasonable amount of time, but I realize this is a pet peeve and not as important but it always makes me roll my eyes incredibly hard when it's not earned and it wasn't earned or useful here, the fact that the scene ends on everyone being like yaaay link!!! is... completely disconnected from the actual story happening in the past and shouldn't be the focus of the characters at that moment --it would be more powerful if Zelda used Link as an image of strength to inspire Rauru after Sonia's death later, for example)
It's a scene that completely undermines the tension built in the previous memory, makes the timeline of events confusing, and it leaves a ton of questions open, like: where the hell is Ganondorf? What is he doing? What did Rauru mean by "keeping him close", if he isn't actually close? Do they think he returned to the gerudo lands while he actually stayed hidden in their palace to do his Puppet Zelda shenanigans? I don't know! There is no way to know, because we're being told about teacups and how Link is amazing instead of anything relevant to the plot!
So yeah. Would have *gladly* done away with that teacup scene and focused more on a very tense moment of Sonia and Puppet Zelda where she acts very suspiciously and maybe aborts a first attempt at stealing the stone that goes nowhere, and this is when Sonia catches on that something is off? Honestly, I would also have killed for an actual scene of tension between Zelda and Ganondorf where they, like. Talk to each other. Instead of this actual current version of the story where they never do. And maybe this is how he realizes that she has a special connection with Sonia and it's how he tries to get her.
But yeah. Sorry, I kind of hijacked the ask into a "this damn teacup scene!!!" *shakes my first at clouds*, but I think it mirrors the thought that priorities were not given to the actual tension points laid down in the story. Puppet Zelda inherently calls upon ideas of fear of imposture, of abuse of power, of insecurity, of a twisted version of what Hyrule *could* be, which is so interesting and ripe with conflict and counterpoints.
I would have done unruly things for a Zelda arc where she is struggling to be a ruler and she's still very insecure and wrecked by guilt over the Calamity thing and feel disconnected from the land because of the whole "being locked 100 years away fighting a demon" thing and her daddy issues, and this is this insecurity that Ganondorf picks up on and preys on by trying to dismantle Hyrule using her very image as he plans his Big Comeback, and our role is to unite all of Hyrule against this weird nasty caricature of her created by an envious man who was furious to see his rule rejected and his rebellion considered less important than peace, then go to her acknowledging the immense and unjust sacrifice she made becoming a dragon and being like "hey Zelda we all love you and we will all fight for you because we made the choice to believe in the future you want to build" and it would have been soososo powerful and I would have perhaps shed a tear or two or ten. ;_;
#asks#thoughts#totk#totk critical#totk spoilers#when will my brain return from the imprisoning war...#zelda#writing#thanks for the ask!!! sorry my brain went Places with it#but yeah I just.... I'm sorry but I don't understand people who defend the writing of this game#you don't have to buy into the “it falls into pretty nasty imperialist storytelling patterns” to be like “this is just written badly”#that teacup scene is just a prime example of how.... amateur it feels#this is why I don't think Nintendo realized they were doing weird imperialist parallels with this one if THIS is their standard of quality#which it usually isn't! it's usually not that bad!#botw was not high art when it came to its writing but#it was not *that* egregious
41 notes
·
View notes
Note
Hey I started reading Proselitize three days ago and it's so engrossing and amazing I really have to praise it.
Caves of Qud is a game that really rewards thinking and examination of its contents, and it's so wonderful to see a story engage with that.
Also Annaface is such a wonderful character. I relate deeply to her desire to be Monstrous (I just reached the scene with the skin, and WOW). I'm a disabled trans woman, and I find myself pushing my personal style further when head out to public, because if people are gojng to stare they're going to stare on *my* terms. It's not quite the same, bit i feel a kinship in some ways, you know.
Anyway, you've made some wonderful words.
Live and Drink, water-sib.
Ah thank you thank you thank you! On an increasingly depersonalized internet comments like this are a joy to see still out there in the wild
The main reason I started writing Proselytize in the end is because Qud has so much IN it, and the gameplay only lets you engage with it SO far, and it was frustrating not getting to explore the themes it presented in excessive depth. What does it mean to be friends with the goatfolk and neutral to Mechanimists and see them assault a pilgrim in the jungle? Do you have an obligation to help? How can you even help? Are you the bad person for being friends with them? Or does the occasional stranger die nameless in the jungle, and that's how life goes?
What actually happens, narratively, emotionally, socially, personally, when you fucking slaughter an entire Templar war party and proselytize the least of their squires and take her on adventures with you? How completely fucked up is that person's life from now on? What is this actually going to do for your friendship?
What is the end game of Qud with the game still in early access? What happens to an all-powerful player-character who only has to fear getting caught flatfooted by chrome pyramids or surrounded by sludges? How do you settle down into a world built around violence and harsh faction politics? What do you DO with your infinite power to kill and alter the world? What SHOULD you do with it??
What does it mean to be Weird? Everyone in Qud is weird, radical body autonomy is one of the keywords of the game's design philosophy. I can play as a two-headed, four-armed talking fox-thing and Qud goes "hell yeah here's how that works mechanically for you" and everyone in the game looks at me and goes "yeah that's just another person really." What does it take for people in Qud to think of you as a monster? How do you DEAL with your physical appearance being a site of violence for the people around you?
I could have done a lot more with Annaface facing backlash for how she appears, but 1) this is a fanfiction and it's not my main creative focus, so I didn't want to burn myself out emotionally by going too deep in bad vibes town for it; and 2) Annaface has the special privilege of being the companion of one of the Main Characters. Which brings the other theme I wanted to get into, my favorite theme,
How Fucked Up it is for things like Main Characters to exist. How ontologically terrifying it is for a Main Character to enter the narrative, and how fucked up is it getting swept along with their narrative? What about a Qud stuck in a stalemate between several Main Characters?
We're finally at the Brambled Fae section, who is explicitly a collective of Main Characters who knows it is a Main Character. It is a universe-crossing, intentionally-and-textually-literal-self-insert-Mary-Sue-dimension-parasite that dominates even the narrative of other main characters when it's around. What happens to a fanfiction that gets infested by something like this? What happens to a person when they can save and reload and control multiple characters? What does that mean for the people around it, caught in its fiction?
And yeah wrt trans stuff, my reaction to Qud was "this game is fine" until I got to the Bey Lah questline, which introduces the keywords "trans" "deer" "taur" "lesbian" and the social exploration of basically all of those. The absolute shock that we have a game in tyool 2024 that has trans characters and themes and it's real and genuine and coming from a writer who actually knows what they're talking about and is putting it in out of a genuine desire to have that be part of the world in an earnest and organic way that doesn't feel forced or pandering or just putting the trans flag on some character's bedroom?
I mean, Qud is a game where you can go up to it and say "Hey, I actually want to play as a non-binary multiple system with 10 limbs" and Qud goes "sure, here's the mechanics for how that works, and here's other characters in the game who have the same kind of things you have going on"
For a game to take that, to take the "hey i feel weird in the real world, i want to be weird in a game" and go "yeah same buddy! here's a bunch of other weirdos, only they're basically normal in this universe, have fun"
I flirt with other games, but Morrowind has been the dominant focus for 20 years for me because it lets you just go out there and kind of live a fantasy life. But even then, Morrowind is steeped in the late 90s/early 00s cultural consciousness. It is weird, but it is a very specific kind of weird that doesn't leave a lot of room for acknowledging or being types of weird outside the weird the game wants. Vivec is nonbinary, but the game calls him a hermaphrodite (which, to be fair? in 2002? was a word without nearly as much overwhelming stigma as it has now), and he's the only one actually allowed to be enby. You're still a man or a woman in Morrowind. The weirdest you can get is a cat or a lizard, and you face actual prejudice for it and it's explored textually in plenty of ways, and it's, honestly, a very strong, realistic look at a colonized nation that itself commits acts of colonization and racial aggression and it's still very impressive! But it's intentionally a game that leaves very little space for you as a character, and forces you to carve your space out, and as time goes on I'm increasingly tired of having to fight for my space in a hostile world. The themes of Morrowind are becoming exhausting with legislation everywhere turning against transpeople, again. The themes of Morrowind wrt racism, colonization, and slavery are exhausting 20 years later where we're still seeing racial genocides and the world's reaction is "hmm, sure is a thing huh." It's exhausting being in a game that's so weird, but your weird is only accounted for Up To A Point.
Qud's weird is "yeah that's fine too" and that's just fantastic. I was really hoping there'd be more than 2 games in the past 20 years I could form an emotional connection with, but there we are, I guess! Fanfiction was inevitable at this point; Morrowind has had 20 years of modding to expand it out into something massive and make it the animal crossing with adventure game of my dreams. Qud's had less time baking in the oven at full heat? So. Fanfiction!
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
A/N: Last part of the series! This might be my favorite series I've done from a narrative point of view, I love how the story has weaved itself together over all of the parts. I hope you enjoy the ending! (and await to see what project will be coming next... 👀)
TW: SPOILERS FOR EVERY PREVIOUS PART, mind fuckery at its finest, Yooh's villain era, OOC Yoohyeon (ofc)
Summary: You finally unmask the Author, but you realize that she's not the villain you've been looking for. Maybe the villain was the friends we made along the way...
♡ Masterlist ♡ 》 》 》 ♧ AU Masterlist ♧
"Where am I?"
"Back with me." The Author's voice rings through the darkness that has surrounded you.
"Wasn't I just with Siyeon?"
"But you wished to speak with me, no?"
"I-" You pause as your mind scrambles to find something to say. "I can't properly speak with you unless I can see with you."
"Fair enough."
A snap of the fingers pushes you into the light. You shield your eyes from the brightness as you find yourself surrounded by more books.
You melt into the comfort of the armchair as you stare at the women opposite of you.
Blonde hair…
"I know you."
A gentle smile breaks out on her face as she visibly relaxes.
"You do?" The tenderness in her voice, it's welcoming, soft, and… familiar.
"Dami-ya!" You cheerfully say as you hand her the drink she ordered. "You're coming with us, right?"
"Of course I am." She offers you a warm smile before gently brushing her hand against your face. "I wouldn't miss a moment I spent with you…
"And even if we were to part…" You repeat aloud, as you hope that Dami will finish your statement.
"...I'd seek to find you, again and again." She thoughtfully says as you smile in return.
"You remember."
"Why wouldn't I?" You softly ask.
"You didn't remember the other girls… I was worried that I would suffer the same fate." Dami answers as a sad look briefly crosses her face. "Do you remember them?"
"Bits and pieces."
"That's good. It means your memories are returning… which means that I can send you home."
"Home?"
"The world of the Awaken. You still don't remember much about it, do you?"
"Not really, but I have an inkling that there wasn't much to remember."
"It's no matter. When I get you home, you'll be able to pull your life back together." Dami reassures you before grabbing a book from a nearby bookshelf. "Are you ready to go home?"
"What about all of you?"
"We'll figure a way out of here, one way or another. Our predecessors did, and so will we."
"Predecessors?"
You're about to ask another question, but the sound of someone crashing through a wall causes you to jump out of your chair.
"You can't let them go home!" Yoohyeon appears out of the rubble before approaching you. "Don't you like it here? You've met so many great people! Isn't this all you were hoping for?"
"Ah, just the person I wanted to see." Dami mumbles before shutting the book. "Do you want to tell them, or should I?"
"Doesn't the magic bound you from-"
"Yeah, the magic did, but some nitwit broke the rules and nearly collapsed the foundation of the world that we live in!" Dami huffs before folding her arms. "Fine, I'll do it. Alice, Yoohyeon is-"
"No, I can't let you do this, Dami! It's not fair that they get to go home!!" Yoohyeon whines before nearly shoving you out of the way to get to Dami. "We had a deal!"
"You lied to me, Yoohyeon," Dami accuses her before regaining her composure, "so don't get preachy with me unless you want me to do the same with you."
"I didn't mean-"
"I know what you meant to do. You tried to find an unwilling replacement for your role. How does that make you feel?" Dami asks as Yoohyeon bows her head in shame.
"Unwilling of my role… as Alice."
"Alice?" You softly repeat as the gears start to turn in your head. "You… took me away from my life because you were unsatisfied with a choice you made?"
"I know it sounds bad-"
"Yes, it fucking does, Yoohyeon! You could've not only harmed yourself, but six innocent women as well. That's not even including those in the Kingdom of Hearts!" You explode as you vent your frustrations at Yoohyeon. "Is all that you wanted was to go home? I don't think it was because you could've easily gotten a child to come with you, but you chose me. So you might as well start talking."
"I-I… I was jealous." Yoohyeon admits.
"Of what?"
"Of how quickly you moved on from me when we dated in the world of the Awaken!" Yoohyeon yells as you stare at her in disbelief.
"Are you kidding me? This all… is for your petty revenge?"
"Okay, I didn't plan the Wonderland part, but when an opportunity like this falls into your hand-"
"I cannot believe you, Yoohyeon!" You scream at her. "You're vile."
"I know." She mutters in shame as you approach Dami.
"Did you know about this?"
"Handong figured it out before I did. The memories you traded, along with Yoohyeon’s…"
"-helped her put the puzzle pieces together, and then she told me." Dami explains before grabbing the book. "Are you sure you still want to do this?"
You glare at Yoohyeon before nodding at Dami.
"I want to go home."
"Okay, I'll get you home." She says. "Close your eyes, and focus on a memory that you have from the world of the Awaken. It'll anchor you to that world forever, and you'll never be able to come back to this place. Are you sure you-"
"Yes, Dami!" You exasperatedly say. "Let's go."
You close your eyes as your mind scours for a memory. You find yourself reaching for a memory from your youth when you read a book about a blonde haired girl and a magical world. She ended up going to that magical world because she fell through a rabbit hole, and that rabbit hole took her to Wonderland, where-
~
You force your eyes open as you look over at the clock in your bedroom.
I must've overslept.
You check the group chat with your six best friends before getting out of bed.
SuA: Morning sunshines!! How are my favorite people doing today?
Gahyeon: It's too early. I'm going back to bed.
Siyeon: Me too. I need my beauty sleep. 💅
Handong: You can get as much sleep as you need, but you won't be able to stop the acne breakouts that we all get.
JiU: Morning, SuA! I've been trying to bake cookies, but I haven't been able to make a batter that will hold up in the oven.
Dami: Morning, everyone. ☀️
You smile at your phone before typing out a message.
You: Good morning everyone! I have to work today, but maybe we can all go out to eat afterwards? 🥂 Last one to reply buys shots!
You laugh as they all race to answer you the fastest.
I missed you guys, even though I was only asleep for a few hours… I must've had some weird dreams.
You find yourself staring at a book on your shelf. You are drawn to it, and you abandon your phone to take the book in your hands.
It's a copy of Alice in Wonderland, but something's off about it.
Then you notice that the girl on the cover has black hair.
That's weird. I must have a misprint or something.
#kpop x reader#kpop imagines#kpop scenarios#kpop#kpopidol#kpop fanfic#kpop girls#girl group imagines#girl group scenarios#girl group x reader#girl group#girl group fanfic#girlgroup#dreamcatcher x reader#dreamcatcher au#dreamcatcher imagines#dreamcatcher reactions#dreamcatcher scenarios#girl group au#kpop au#kpop gg#dreamcatcher#dami scenarios#dreamcatcher dami#dami x reader#dami au#lee yubin
23 notes
·
View notes
Text
Tag Game for Historical Simblrs! 📖
1. What has been your favorite time period to play in or which one are you most excited for?
As far as actually playing the game? The 1900s. I really did a lot of gameplay and overall it was just a wholesome, pleasant time to play the game. However, it’s definitely my least favorite story wise and I feel like not a lot happened.
So as far as the actual plot goes, I’ve been looking forward to the 20s literally since I began this challenge. While difficult, it has also been so fulfilling to actually see it all come to life. Now, I’ve got my eyes set on the 1940s 👀
2. Do you have a favorite piece of historical cc? (CAS or BB)
Oh this is…impossible 😅
I have gone through so many styles and eras already that I have mainstay pieces for each as well as pieces that just stop my heart. I think the one that I’m fixated on right now is Zelda’s 1920s bob. Of course she’s grown it out a bit now but it’s still iconic in my heart.
3. Who is your favorite sim currently?
Okay another one that is basically impossible. Because like, how do I pick between my pixel babies right now? Antoine and Jo are absolutely my baby angels, and are both my favorites at various points in the narrative.
But it’s so difficult to pick them as my overall favorite over Zelda, just because I’ve been playing and writing as Zelda quite literally since she was born.
4. What is your favorite world?
Currently? Willow Creek hands down. This is more because I’ve transformed it into New Orleans than it is because of any merit it has on its own. I use mods and put in a lot of work to make it look this way, but now, it’s by far my favorite.
5. Are you more gameplay or story focused?
Well….I think we know the answer to this one 😂
Storytelling drives my gameplay without a doubt. I write very far in advance, and that plot is what determines how I tell the story. Often I try and recreate these things as close as possible in gameplay, but let’s be honest, that isn’t always easy in this game.
6. Do you like to play with pets in your historical saves?
Ah, not an awful lot. Because I’m usually in storytelling mode posing sims and trying to get from one scene to another, I can often find them cumbersome. Of course we did have Daisy in the 1900s and she was lovely to have at Darlington Cottage, but I think that’s because I was doing more gameplay in that era so it made more sense.
7. What’s your biggest immersion breaking pet peeve with the game?
Sigh. What always got me was when a family member from another world showed up at my sims doorstep or is just walking in the background. So I’m in downtown “New Orleans” and all of a sudden, oh look! There’s Virginia walking in the background of a scene.
Luckily now I have this mod to get everyone to stay in their world 😉
8. What’s your favorite in-game historical item? (CAS or BB)
Honestly, just to make my life easier, I often filter by Custom Content and call it a day. This is especially true in CAS because I find all the assets overwhelming, I don’t even really use many in-game items there (except for a pair of base game lace up boots I use constantly).
In BB I find there’s a number of small items that I like using, such as the BG coat rack, the flowers from Cottage Living, the round BG dining table, the Tiffany lamp from Cats and Dogs, and a number of others!
I also used quite alot of the Realm of Magic Assets in Zelda and Antoine’s apartment, so I’m really fond of those, especially the Art Nouveau parquet floorboards and wallpaper.
9. What would you like to see as a new pack or asset to the game?
This is a personal one for the story going forward (👀) but absolutely horses. Otherwise, I would love to see more functionality for music and bands in the game, maybe even with some vintage assets to complete that vibe.
10. What pack do you think is invaluable as a historical simmer?
Like I’m sure most people would say, Cottage Living. It just offers so much gameplay for historical simmers as well as a gorgeous world that I’ve gotta select it (see my whole long list of pack recs here).
11. Do you have a favorite mod to enhance historical gameplay?
The mod that is absolutely invaluable to me is Timeless. It is what allows me to get so many scenic screens without pesky objects in the way and also simply makes the worlds so much more immersive to me.
12. What’s your ideal family size for playing?
The 1900s Darlingtons are frankly as large as I can go with the family. So a household of six, max, plus maybe a pet. Even then, I get very overwhelmed. So I usually prefer households of 4-5 although I do also like a household of 3 with an only child 😉
13. Do you use poses?
Goodness gracious, yes. All the poses all the time for everything. Even when I try to use in game animations I get more annoyed that I can’t control the angles as much.
14. Do you use any overrides in your game?
I actually don't! I suppose it would be very useful but its just not really something I've ever delved into.
15. Do you, or did you, play off-the-grid during your game?
Yes, I played off the grid for all of the 1880s and 1890s. I now slightly regret it because this means I was taking all of my photos with candles, and that lead to that heavy yellow tone in all of my early interior photos.
I also played off the grid for most of the 1900s until darlington cottage got that upgrade that included the inside bathrooms. Best moment of the game lol
16. What lifespan do you play on?
I play with custom lifespan settings where 4 in game sim days equal 1 IRL year.
17. What inspired you to start playing a historically?
Whew. Well I was playing my own version of the NSB challenge that I wrote when I hit gen 6. This gen was meant to be a film star, so I kind of had this idea that as her career progressed, her fashion would also go through the eras of old Hollywood. Looking back, I now also realize that this was me getting fed up with the lack of time progression that inevitably comes from playing a “modern” legacy challenge.
Anywho, I was looking for CC for this when I came across the wonderful lookbooks of Pixelnrd. This of course led me to their challenge and I started reading one afternoon. By the next day I had the idea for the Darlingtons already forming in my head 🥹
Thank you so much for the tag my dearest @antiquatedplumbobs I’ll pass the love along to @heartblobs @alainas-sims @taanoir @miraplayssims @lovecidik @someplumberrys @sims-half-crazy @greatbritishsimchallenge and @come-hell-or-high-water
And anyone who feels like answering a whole long list of questions! 🤗
36 notes
·
View notes
Note
This has been said by another anon, but you honestly have the best interpretation of the events in the Silmarillion, especially with Elwing's situation which I super super love (I had to unfollow and block other good blogs because of how borderline misogynistic their takes were on her). I wanna know, what is your reaction to Finwe joining Feanor in exile “because of the love that he bore Feanor” which basically makes Tirion kingless, showing his favoritism and cementing Fingolfin as a 'usurper' to most, especially in the fandom? For me, that was the moment I saw how he made such stupid-ass decisions. Like I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt with being considered a 'good' father and king but no way is my response to my oldest son pulling a knife on my younger son at some kind of meeting and getting exiled with 'ah well I’m siding with your brother who almost stabbed you'. He sucks so bad like y'all chose this dumbass over Thingol????
You're too kind, anon (^///^)
Finwe choosing to join Feanor is one of those things that I think was objectively the wrong choice, but I see how he got there. To me, it was one of Finwe's deeply flawed moments, which makes him a real character and not just an idealized Fantasy Elf King. It's also one of those moments where I would love to have more detail, because we get almost nothing on what Finwe's relationship with his later four children was like. Silm virtually only addresses his relationship with Feanor, so I understand why a lot of fans interpret this to mean Finwe showed favoritism towards Feanor/preferred him to his other kids, and the narrative does tell us Finwe paid particular attention to Feanor (however, given their family history, I don't think this is a huge surprise--he has a lot of reason to be worried about how Feanor will handle the family growing). The result though is that we get basically nothing about how Finwe and Fingolfin addressed the "Feanor pulls weapons on his brother in public" incident between them.
However--and maybe you will feel this is splitting hairs--I don't think Finwe chooses to go into exile because he thinks Feanor was in the right, but because he believed the Valar's punishment was unfair. He only has one quote on it:
"Feanor came indeed, for him alone Manwe had commanded to come; but Finwe came not, nor any of the others of the Noldor of Formenos. For said Finwe: 'While the ban lasts upon Feanor my son, that he may not go to Tirion, I hold myself unkinged, and I will not meet my people.'" (Of the Darkening of Valinor)
It's not much, but it's always suggested to me his issue was with the punishment imposed...and I find it hard to believe Tolkien held Finwe up intending him to be "good" and would then have him approve of one of his sons drawing a weapon on the other.
Furthermore, we know how highly Feanor values loyalty and how much he values Finwe's attention, so Finwe would have to know what a significant gesture this would be to Feanor in the wake of his being publicly exposed as having been manipulated by Melkor, and exiled. There's also the fact that Feanor's behavior is increasingly erratic and extreme, which must be an additional concern.
By the other side of the coin though, he must also know how it will look to Fingolfin.
It's true that at this time, Feanor and Fingolfin are both grown adults with families of their own. They aren't little boys chasing after daddy, but clearly Finwe's attention and affection still means something to him. And given Elves' immortality, I've always found it easy to believe that Elven parents maintain a much stronger presence in their children's esteem, simply because they never undergo the slow degradation of mind and body that mortal children expect to see in their parents as they age. But even setting that aside, it would be hard, I think, for Fingolfin not to be hurt by Finwe's choice, even if he understands why it was made. If Fingolfin harbored no resentment about the choice, I'd say we should nominate him for sainthood.
We see that during Feanor's "trial," Fingolfin is already asserting a willingness to forgive him for what was done. I talked about that here, and why I don't find "Fingolfin the usurper" a convincing take. It may be that Finwe and Fingolfin were not in disagreement that Finwe's going with Feanor was best--it may be that even Fingolfin thought it was better to have Finwe there to try to constrain Feanor and make him see sense (This is what he was talking to Finwe about when Feanor originally bursts in with the sword) rather than leave him to fester in Formenos with only his sons, all of whom support him (In Morgoth's Ring, even Nerdanel is not with him in Formenos, one of the few people he actually listened to; they've separated due to Feanor's troubling recent behavior).
When it comes to fights between kids, parents are often reluctant to take sides. This can be true even where one child is obviously in the wrong, even repeatedly. There are any number of reasons Finwe didn't want to see the rift between Feanor and Fingolfin as being that serious, not least of all because I'm sure he wanted them to get along and be brothers, and he loved both of them. When Melkor's hand in Feanor's unrest comes to light, this must have been deeply upsetting for Finwe. Thinking that his child had been targeted by Melkor and used by him to cause these problems among the Noldor would be alarming, and there would be a sense of violation there, probably especially for Feanor. Very possibly Finwe believes that the Valar are punishing Feanor for Melkor's actions.
"Now the unrest of the Noldor was not indeed hidden from the Valar...Then at last the root was laid bare, and the malice of Melkor revealed; and straightway Tulkas left the council to lay hands upon him and bring him to judgement. But Feanor was not held guiltless, for he it was that had broken the peace of Valinor and drawn his sword upon his kinsman..." (Of the Silmarils)
I've said this a lot about the situation of the House of Finwe, but it was complicated. Do I think Finwe made the right choice in exiling himself with Feanor? No, not really. Do I see how he thought it was necessary or would cause less damage? Yeah, I do. People often don't see clearly when it comes to their kids, and I think Finwe has probably always harbored a lot of concern over Feanor because of what happened with Miriel, and possibly guilt over the fact that Feanor never reconciled himself to Finwe's remarriage or his additional children. He may feel that he needs to show this loyalty to Feanor to make up for the other things, or he may feel that leaving Feanor alone at this time will only make his mental condition worse.
Or he may just love Feanor more than his other kids. But I don't prefer that explanation.
Finwe is a flawed person. I certainly think it's possible to characterized him as a little selfish, and willfully blind to his children's conflict, and the scale of Feanor's dislike for his step-mother and her kids. But he'd hardly be the first parent to do that. I don't think there was ever any malice in it, and I don't generally take to interpretations that he openly and heavily favored Feanor over his other children. I think it may have felt that way to Indis' kids at times (although I don't think Feanor ever saw it that way, since he never seems to have managed to feel secure about anyone's affection), but I don't think Finwe genuinely loved Feanor more or wanted better things for him than the other kids. I think he was trying to balance Feanor's huge and volatile feelings with his own desires, and then with Indis' needs and the needs and desires of their children, and he probably was excessively concerned with Feanor's feelings--but Feanor also has a way of demanding people pay attention to his feelings.
In conclusion: Yeah I think Finwe made a subpar choice there, but I don't hate him or think he was awful (although perhaps something of an oblivious father). I think he wanted very much to believe that everything could be fine and good in Aman, so much so that he downplayed actual conflicts among the Noldor and particularly among his children, on the hope that everything would work itself out eventually (And who's to say? If not for Melkor, maybe it would have.) And in the end, he pays for those choices with his life.
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
Okay Thoughts before bed on the House Of Usher; I just started episode 3 so please don't spoil anything that happens in episodes 3-8; this is just me guessing:
I knew they were gonna get rid of the vampirism but I was kinda happy they at least replaced it with "immortality" and I guess to be fair Usher was never strictly about vampirism; that was just one reading of it
However I thought they'd get rid of the Other theme in Usher which uh. iykyk but some of the foreshadowing here has me a little like. Daisy and Gatsby huh....?
I feel like a Bad Poe Fan but I don't remember where Leo's name comes from. I know his narrative is The Black Cat but the main character in that was unnamed and I don't remember a Napoleon in any other story. I also don't understand how Leo ties with the Black Cat (I know he OWNS one but that seems kinda basic. Where are the Themes) or how that's going to go since the main character in that one also didn't die iirc, but it's one of the Poe stories I'm honestly less familiar with.
I appreciate Camille's dedication to fucking her evil henchmen. Love that for her. I also know what her plotline is so y'know RIP her head off by an adrenaline-jacked monkey
I get Gold-Bug is about greed but it's 1. not a horror story and 2. really not well-known at all? It just doesn't fit with the lineup here. They also aren't foreshadowing it, probably cause it doesn't make any sense to use. The really nixed the Cask of Amontillado in favor of Gold-Bug?
I mean other than the Clown Jumpscare from episode 1 I guess
Inb4 "Murders in the Rue Morgue isn't horror either" okay gristly detective narratives can be horror as a treat. Also that one IS a classic. No one likes Gold-Bug
I think Vic is the mole because her narrative is the Tell-Tale Heart and that would make the most sense. It's right there in the title. I'm willing to be wrong but if she's not I don't know why they bothered using the Tell-Tale Heart at all. Yeah I know genetic heart conditions etc. but I also appreciate their making her the Only Sane Woman of the family too. Dedication to theming A+
I've never read Tamerlane I don't think. I hope it's about having a fetish for watching your husband cheat on you or whatever the hell she was doing in that scene
I know they're not doing William Wilson other than a 1-second reference but lmao can you imagine
Arthur Gordon Pym I get why they used the name and it has nothing to do with the OG story but like Sir Why Are You Not A Cannibal. Eat some people about it sir
Freddy's is the best foreshadowing and kicks ass. Even if I HADN'T been able to guess what his narrative is via the Ghost Cameos in the beginning I could have told you and also that is some killer subtle referencing and Theme Dedication we stan a well-done reference point.
Verna = raven I don't know if that was meant to be subtle but I got it in 3 seconds. It was cute though; it was cute I liked it
Annabelle "oh my husband is so romantic he can quote a poem with my name in it uwu" ask him to quote the whole thing ma'am. Ask him how it ends
RIP Prospero we hardly knew ye. I sort of hoped he'd live longer but that was probably mostly cause The Masque of the Red Death is one of my favorites. Also the climactic ending to that one went HARD
I see why people say this one's not really scary though cause so far this hasn't been scary at all. Ah well
#anyways I'll watch an episode or two tomorrow#they're crazy long unfortunately#I think the others were around 40 minutes each and these are all an hour or more
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Seventy Two Hours of Bliss Ch. 37/41
Chapter 37: Elysium’s End
Chapter Warnings: Explicitly mature content, 18+ only, Cunnilingus, Unprotected PiV, Fellatio, cum kink, sad parting angst
Series Masterlist
Series Summary:
You are neighbors with Austin Butler on the Gold Coast of Australia just prior to shooting Elvis. You become just friends because he is taken. However, after he is single again, you both find out just how attracted you are to one another and things get unrelentingly hot.
SERIES WARNING: Explicitly mature content, 18+ only, here there be lemons.
Authors Notes: I started writing this while remodeling my kitchen, so that informed the slightly quirky narrative. It starts slow, but once it heats up, it is on fire. I have tried to pull facts from RL as much as I could, but obviously there are some assumptions and flat out dreamy wishes involved here.
Chapter 37: Elysium’s End
After your fuck-a thon, you both showered and decided sleep was in order. His naked form curled around yours for hours. You know because sleep never came for you. Nervous, excited, mournful, you were bringing all your therapy tools to bear to keep from losing your mind.
You creep out from under Austin’s harboring arm and slip his robe around your shoulders, it smelled like him, clean, masculine, just a hint of cedar, lavender and myrrh with vanilla undertones, the oil blend he liked to wear sometimes.
Arguments could be made for it being both ridiculously early and stupendously late. Sitting at the kitchen island, chin resting on your stacked fists, flip-flopping thoughts race through your mind. The same what-if queries and worries that have been pestering the edges of your consciousness alongside the excitement for this opportunity.
Now, actually face to face with your choices, you make some important decisions about how you will deal with the next 7 months. Yes, you are gonna miss Austin, and yes it is scary. But if you spend the whole time moping and whining it would be a waste of your experience. Time to hoist up your Big Girl Unicorn panties and remind yourself of the girl that shipped herself and her tools off to freakin’ Hong Kong to start this crazy adventure. Ok, that girl was running away, but maybe, just maybe she was running to herself in the process. She was brave, she was ballsy as hell, and she wasn’t taking anything for granted.
You knew you would stay true to Austin, he was just TOO good to you, too good for you. He would still be there when you left the Ice, and if he wasn’t, then you would at least know… Know what? That this was never real?
‘Of course it’s real, girl!’
Ah, there she is!
’Quit being a whiny, doubting, little bitch.”
‘Hey! don’t call us names!’
“ Well if the shoe fits! You gotta trust him, he fucking loves us. Did you see the way he looked at us last night? Have I ever steered you wrong?”
‘Well there was that time in Buenos Aries…’
“Fuck, I mean about this kinda stuff… we both know I’m a slut that’ll try anything once.”
You laugh softly. “I guess you are right, I’m too deep in at this point anyway.” you say out loud.
‘In for a penny?’
‘In for a pound.’
Feeling better, but not sleepy, your eyes land upon a stack of sticky notes. With a smile you begin to write notes to Austin. You hide them all over the apartment where he will find them. On his favorite foods in the fridge, his favorite coffee mug, in the microwave, under the spoons, in cabinets you know he’ll open. You quietly open the door to his office and go to work. Hiding some under your favorite pictures of Elvis, placing them under his chair, in his laptop, tucked into his books and in his notes.
Lucky for you, he keeps his clothes in this closet. So you make sure every one of his clean clothes has at least one note in the pocket, if not two. You tucked them between his underwear and into his clean socks. Happy faces and quotes in and under his shoes. Notes saying I love you, notes carrying silly comments about whatever they got stuck on. Happy thoughts, ‘remember when’s’, song lyrics, and little stick figures hidden everywhere. You just go on and on, mostly silly things to let him know that you are thinking of him and to make him think of you when you are gone. You started to count them, but lost count after 100, so you figure around 150 purple square sticky notes are scattered throughout the apartment.
Your eyes land on the bedside table drawer, you’ve never had cause to open it. Should you leave a note in there? You doubt that he would look there, since it was never used. On a whim you pull open the drawer. There is a tattered old workout shirt of his balled up in it. Weird, why would that be in there? You pull it out, intent on putting it in his wash, when something clatters to the floor, hitting your toe and rolling under the bed. You stifle a curse and reach under the bed, feeling around. You come up with a small, black box with a hinged lid.
Holy. Mother. Fucker. Is this what you think it is? You look around to make sure he hasn’t woken up and come to find you.
‘Oh no, we are not opening that!’ you tell yourself.
‘Just a peek,’ she is always up to mischief.
‘We shouldn’t, it’s probably one of his Elvis-esque rings he likes to wear,’ you rationalize.
‘Yes, of course, that he keeps wrapped in an old ripped up metallica shirt in the only drawer that you have never looked in before.”
Before you can argue, it’s open. It’s a gorgeous diamond ring in the shape of a heart with teardrop sapphires in infinity swirls with channel set diamonds on either side. They perfectly match your necklace and earrings. You are dumbfounded, staring at it for seconds on end. Then you quickly you close the box, wrap it back up the way you *think* it looked before and shove it back in the drawer. Your heart is beating wildly.
You leave the room and go to the second bathroom and shut the door. You splash cold water on your face and stare in the mirror.
What. The. Fuck. Clearly that is meant for you. Clearly you don’t need to worry about him being serious about this relationship. And clearly he didn’t mean for you to find it. FUCK.
‘Told you,’ she smirks.
“Yeah, thanks,” you say out loud.
Is it even an engagement ring or just part of the set of jewelry? Apart from telling him you were engaged once, you have never, ever, not even once spoken about marriage to Austin. You haven’t let yourself even begin to think about it since you were burned so hard. How the fuck do you even FEEL about marriage now?
‘Better figure that out, sweetheart.’
‘So unhelpful all of a sudden,’ you mentally huff.
Do you tell him you found it? Would it ruin everything? Do you just try to forget about it and let yourself be surprised?
You decide the latter, you don’t want to assume anything or force his hand in anyway. You would hate for either of you to rush into anything, especially at a time already fraught with emotions. You are kinda glad it happened. This way, whether or not it’s an engagement ring, it gives you the impetus to really look at how you feel. Not that you can figure that out right now. As you think more about it, you find that just the idea that he might, maybe, want to actually make you his, seems to quell every worry you’ve been having about going away.
Once you calm down and shove the knowledge of the ring into a mental compartment and TRY to close the lid, it's about 5 o’clock in the morning. Austin is still asleep, and you are still on an adrenaline high from finding the uh... thing you are not thinking about and supposed to be forgetting.
You decide to channel your energy into something productive and make biscuits for breakfast. About 40 minutes later, you have a plate heaped with hot biscuits, butter and jam as well as two insulated travel mugs of hot coffee on a tray. You intend on just setting it on the dresser and curling back into Austin’s arms as though the biscuit fairy left them for you. As you walk towards the master and just before you nudge the door open, you hear Austin sleepily calling your name.
“Kit’en” he sleepily mumbles again, as you open the door. His hand is haphazardly feeling around for you in the bed, only half awake in the darkened room.
“Right here, love,” you say, setting the tray down, peeling his robe off your shoulders and sliding into his arms.
“Whered’ya go?” he curls around you again.
“I couldn't sleep,” you say.
“Oh, when I couldn’t find you. I thought you’d left me,” he kisses your forehead, more awake now.
“Oh Austin, my sweet, sweet love, just because I’m going, doesn't mean I’m leaving you,” you kiss the hollow of this throat.
“I know, baby, I know. I’m just not… I wasn’t awake enough I guess.” he snuggles you in closer taking a deep breath in, “and why do I smell baking?”
“Oh,” you snicker,” I made biscuits.”
“You are… so silly and so amazing,” he sighs into your eyes in the shadowy room. “When do we have to leave?”
“We need to be driving away by 11, so get ready to leave by 10:30,” you had thought this out several times.
“So in the shower by ten, if I have my dirty way with you,” he smiles, ”What time is it now?”
“Almost 6,” Your hand traces a line down to the curve of his butt and along his outer thigh.
“That might be enough time,” he smiles down at you, and kisses your nose, “I'll be right back.”
He gets up and goes to the bathroom. You snag some mints just to be on the safe side and set your alarm for 9:30 so you don’t have to think about time.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t sleep,” he says, sliding between the sheets, smelling faintly of toothpaste, “do you want to try to get a little rest before we go?”
“I’m gonna have 2 weeks of quarantine in a hotel room, I will catch up on sleep then,” you reach for him, ”right now I only want you.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he rolls on top of you, capturing your lips with his.
His minty kisses are sweet, loving. His lips gently nibbling yours, the tip of his tongue barely peeking out to brush against your lips. He nibbles and kisses along your jawline to under your ear and down your neck. His hands roam gently on your upper body, Your fingertips trail along his back and down his arms.
No matter how many times he has lain on you; kissed you; held you in his arms; you will NEVER get tired of it.
“What else was on your list from last night, Kitten? Oh yeah, your juices dripping down my chin,“ he waggles his eyebrows and ducks down under the covers. You feel him gently push your legs apart.
“Oh no,” you say, flipping the covers back.
“But Kitten …,” his look is almost pouty.
“Oh, you are gonna eat that pussy, I just need to watch you do it,” you push his pillow under yours and lace your hands behind your neck, curving up to watch him work his tongue-in-pussy spells.
“Who’s pussy?” he smirks, lowering down to his stomach, eyes on yours.
“Mmmm, yours baby,” your voice gravelly with thirst, completely mesmerized by his sexy blue gaze.
His velvety tongue barely brushes the arch housing your clit. Your chest expands in an inhale. Slowly, but softy, his tongue ever wider, he moves down, down, licking inch by delicious inch. Your eyes widen, but never leave his, as sparks emanate from everywhere his tongue touches.
“All yours, every inch of me Austin, all yours,” you hear yourself saying breathily.
He chuckles and finally breaks eye contact. He buries his face in your cunt, licking a wide swath up your pussy.
He tilts his head slightly to the left and sucks one of your smooth outer labia into his mouth. As he releases suction, his tongue drags sideways just under your clit, gathering the next inch of your labia into the vacuum of his mouth. He does this over and over, down the entire length of one side of your pussy.
Your inbreath shaky with each suction, an ‘oh’ out with each taste of his tongue. Near the bottom, he pushes your legs wider and his tongue reaches deep into your wet cleft, slowly tongue fucking you.
Your little sounds of pleasure reach his ears and spur him on. He laps up to your clit in short wide licks, then starts down the other side.
You take in the whole of the picture between your legs. His eyes are closed in pure indulgence, his own noises of aroused pleasure flowing into your pussy. His hands: one pressing your right leg wide, the other wrapped under and around the hip crease of your left. You see the inward curve appear and disappear on the sides of his ass as he slowly rutts his cock on the sheets underneath him.
Oh my god it’s beautiful. So good and so fucking beautiful you may melt and fuse into the bedclothes. The tightness winding deep inside you starts to accelerate. Your hands abandon your neck for his unruly shock of blackest black hair.
His tongue starts flicking your clit, sucking it in, both hands now wrapped around your hip bones. Your breathy moans quicken, get deeper, louder. He knows you are close by the way your hips are pressing against his face, by the substance of the sounds you are making, by the tugging of his hair.
He knows you now.
He knows that all you need now to cum are his long, artful fingers slipping inside you; curling, flicking, fucking you. As he slides them in, your back arches in pleasure and “Fuck YES!” gusts from your mouth. His lips suck your clit in and his head shakes fast between your legs as his fingers go deep.
You curl up, yanking his head tight to you, hips vibrating against his face. You are staring down at him, forehead creased, teeth clenched but lips slack, pupils blown with lust. Suddenly his lids raise and his eyes are staring at yours, holding you in his trance, unable to utter a sound. Your pussy clamps down on his fingers, spiraling to your core. Your body revolts from this curled position and throws you down on your back again, breaking the spell of his eyes.
‘Oh! M- “ you try to pant out, but he is immediately on top of you. His cock ramming into you, filling your pussy with his hard dick. It is fucking amazing.
You hadn’t stopped cumming from his mouth and you definitely are not done yet. Not with him kissing you with your own juices dripping off his chin. Not with his hands gripping your hair. Not with the precious weight of his body pinning you to the bed. Not with the pounding he is giving you.
He holds your head tight so your high pitched screams can be muzzled by his demanding mouth. Your fingernails dig into his rear delts, using that as purchase to thrash under him. You are in literal throes of pleasure.
Suddenly his mouth comes off yours and he grits his teeth sucking in a breath. Then he stops, deep in you. Your panting breaths shaking against his chest.
“You wanna... watch me cum?” he says between hard breaths.
He could not have uttered a more scorching question.
“Fuck yes,” is all you can get out.
He pulls out of you and rolls you both over. You sit up, catching your breath, as he squirts some lube into his hand. You back up, straddling one of his thighs, but before he can get his lubed hand to himself, you slide your mouth over his cock. Licking and sucking off your slick.
“Oh my god, Kitten,” he moans.
It occurs to you that both his face and cock are covered in your cum. Just the thought has you burning for more.
You pull off and he goes to work on his cock. His fist is light at first, then quickly tighter as it’s evident that it won’t take long. You watch how fucking hot he is and realize your hips are humping his leg. Wet labia grinding along his flexed quads. Now his leg is covered in you too.
“Fuck baby, ride me. Use me. I fucking love it,” he says with heated breath through clenched teeth.
His eyes bounce between watching you torment his leg to watching his own hand wrapped around his cock.
Fist pumping, forearm straining, pecs flexed, brows furrowed, face and cock red. He’s close and holy fuck he is so far past merely hot.
“Yeah baby, cum for me. I wanna see it, Oh god you are so…” you can’t finish the thought, your mind is too far gone.
"Here it comes baby, all for you," he manages to get out.
Streams of milky white gush from his throbbing cock over his flexed belly and lower chest.
“GAAAAAHHHH FUUUUCK” his voice tearing from his chest, eyes closed. You wrap your hand around his, forcing him to keep stroking himself. Three long jerks of his cock. The last of his semen dripping from him.
“YES! YES! YES!” he screams on each stroke you make him give himself. His eyes fly open, to meet yours, as if to find a hold on reality.
Screw reality.
You have never been this ridiculously turned on. You don’t even stop to consider what you are doing, you just want to be covered in his cum too. You swing your leg over him to mount his cum-covered torso. He instinctively flexes his stomach anticipating your weight on him. You squish down onto his messy stomach, rubbing your frenzied pussy in the milky mess, your hands pressed against his shoulders.
Watching your lips and clit drag over his sternum in up-close Panavision, his face is a mix of surprise and ruttish arousal. He isn't sure what’s happening and honestly, neither are you.
But, as though being whipped by the devil himself, you just can’t stop riding his chest.
“Fucking hot” he grabs your hips to assist your motion. “You like rubbing yourself in my cum? Are you my minxy little cum wench, baby.”
“Yes, fucking yes,” each word underlined with a forward hip thrust, “It’s MY cum, all of it “ your walls clench down hard and you feel a surge swell inside, ”fucking mine.” You rise up off him and flick your fingertips across your clit, pushing with your internal muscles. Sweet clear fluid surges across his chest.
“Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,” you scream, jerking your hips as you squirt all over him.
“Oh my fucking god,” he moans, head back, baptized in your essence.
He pushes your hips back with one hand, angling his still hard cock with the other.
Still at your apex when he sinks you onto his cock, you didn’t even know it was what you were missing. He immediately thrusts hard into your saturated and wanting pussy.
You back arches and your hands come to his bent legs. Bent so he can fuck you harder. He is spurring you on from the inside; deep, solid and fast.
“Oh my- Oh my- oh my-” you keep repeating as he impales you, "GAAAWWWWWHHHH!” you wail high pitched and loud, head jerking on your neck from his motion. Your next peak roaring through you from center to past your extremities. You swear you are glowing.
Shaking, you carreen forward onto his bedraggled chest, all moans and uncontrolled twitches. But his hands hold your hips in place, his jaw clenched and nostrils flared. He is still intent on fucking you, in fact he never misses a beat, driving into you over and over and over.
You practically flounder on top of him. Your hands scrabbling at this shoulders to find a hand hold, to ground yourself as you become overwhelmed by his ardent fucking.
Then you are on your back, Austin’s hands lace into yours, holding them above your head. His eyes are black and wild and determined as he pummels into using gravity to fuck you even harder than before. His ancient and primordial need overrides all other sensibilities.
Under him, anchored by him, you are bellowing nonsense sounds over and over. Together you are fucking, messy glory and the definition of magnificence in raging pursuit of this riotous, cardinal ecstasy.
His mouth opens as his eyes shut, releasing the most primal scream you have ever heard. His muscles go taut, the cords of his neck stand out, his face red and dripping with sweat and your cum. His spine snakes above you as his cock spasms, draining whatever he has left inside you. You clench down on him in what, another orgasm? An aftershock? Hard to say since you aren’t sure you ever stopped cumming. He jolts and shakes, almost headbutting you.
Then, finally spent, you are both just trembling, chests heaving together. Your legs wrap around him, pulling his weight to you. He lets go of your hands and you shroud him in your arms. He nuzzles into your neck, puffing out breath, arms tucked under your shoulders. This is true rapture, you are sure of it, as long as you stay in the right now.
After some time, he rolls you both onto your sides. Legs and arms still intertwined, you doze, wet, sticky and so fucking content to just be in the moment.
Your 9:30 alarm wakes you. Your eyes open to his ocean blue ones. Especially oceanic now as tears fill the inner corner of his one eye and course across the temple of the other. A sad smile tugs at the corner of his lips as your eyes take in his face. You rise to all fours on top of him. Saying nothing, you merely nod. Kissing his forehead, his eyelids, his cheeks, his lips as your own tears mingle with his.
He crushes you to him. Neither of you want to let go. Tears run freely.
After a quietly cathartic few minutes, crying and clinging to one another, you drag him into the shower. You wash the mix of cum, sweat, and tears from his gorgeous body, noticing the little half moons your nails left on his shoulders, you rub them and tell him you are sorry. He just shakes his head and smiles at you. He washes your hair, gives you the best shower kisses, and gently and lovingly scrubs your skin head to toe.
He then seals, with a bevy of loving kisses, each well earned bruise and mark you have from last night’s revelry: bite marks on your neck, finger bruises your wrists, a myriad of bruises on each cheek of your ass, the faint rope marks along your upper thighs and ankles. He finishes on his knees in front of you, pressing kisses onto your mons and outer labia. Water runs down your torso. He laps at the water running down your lips as though it were the water of life.
You feel yourself start to rise again inside. You look at the clock through the steamy shower stall, 10:01. You look back down at him, tongue probing high between your labia, his eyes asking. You nod.
His eyes close and he buries his face in your snatch. You push the shower head to the side, and pull your lips apart for him. His fingers flow inside you. He knows every button you have, every little erotic spot. Every pass of his tongue placed perfectly, every suction the perfect pressure, each drive of his fingers is perfection. In a matter of minutes you are cumming again on his fingers and into his mouth, moaning his name in the heat of the shower.
He stands, kissing you, tasting like you.
“I’m sorry, I just had to give you one last one,” his voice barely above a whisper.
You take his head in your hands, shaking your head and smiling. You plant a deep kiss on his lips. You feel his cock bounce against you, hard yet again. Your eyebrows raise as you pull away from him.
“Do you think you can go again?” you smile at him.
He shrugs with a shy smile, “I don’t think we have time, Kitten.”
You look at the clock, 10:10. “Wanna know a secret? I lied, we don’t have to leave until 11:15,” and you sink to your knees, his cock in your hand.
Just as he knows you, you know him. Engulfing his wet cock in your mouth, your tongue swirling his tip. Taking him deep, deep, making him slick with spit. Your hand wraps his cock, pumping in time with your mouth. His moans echo in the tiled shower. He holds your head and gloriously fucks your mouth. Soon you feel his balls tighten to his body. Your moans urging him on. With a loud groan, his cum spurts down your throat, thick and salty. You swallow him for the last time, at least for a while.
He lifts you to your feet, kissing you hard.
You finish showering quickly. He makes little butter and jelly sandwiches out of the biscuits to take with you in the car as you shove the last few essentials into your carry on. You miraculously leave at 11:00. He had insisted on driving you to the airport in the Range Rover.
He actually handles driving on the other side of the road with no problem.
You feed him bits of biscuit and sip coffee as you watch him drive. Not caring that Australia is slipping by outside, only that your time with him is. It feels like the end of an era. When you say this to him, his only comment is that all endings are just beginnings in disguise.
You silently wonder about the little black box wrapped in a metallica shirt, shoved into the drawer of disuse. Was it really meant for you? When, if ever, will he give it to you? Then you shove that thought aside. You are forgetting about it, right?
You’ll be back here, even if just to get your tools and things. But who knows if Austin will still be here. So much is up in the air. But one thing is for certain, you realized in the shower when he was kissing all your little marks, you are ready and willing to spend the rest of your life with those kisses whether or not he asks you to marry him.
Authors Note: Despite the title, no, this is not the end!
#Austin Butler smut#Austin Butler x reader#Austin Butler fic#Austin butler fanfic#@purejasmine#@slowsweetlove#@richardslady121
17 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
sparklindior-blog
Sparklindior
teranobriss
hatchetblog
navyblueart
a tired nerd's scribblings
awkwardbsd
Awkward Bungou Stray Dogs