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fangirl-dot-com · 2 months

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Chapter 28 - Always Bet on Red and Navy

As promised you hungry demons. But I love you all! My midterms were absolutely awful and have kind of put me back in a mindset that I have desperately tried to break out of. So, writing this was a bit therapeutic because there aren't any teachers grading this. It's just you all who take everything with such love.

So please enjoy this!

Your eyes glimmered with the reflective lights as you walked through the turnstile. This year, a white body suit was not on your body and your neck was void of an iconic red scarf. But, each breath you took filled your lungs with familiar air. The small crowds of people, who showed up early for qualifying, chanted your name with each step you took. Your eyes were squinted into half crescents by your smile. To your left, Vito was typing things on his iPad, a Bluetooth speaker in his ear as he talked.

His words were mumbled as the two of you kept walking to the garage. He looked heated as his voice began to raise. He walked right passed you and into your driver’s room. You guessed you wouldn’t be using it for a while.

A yawn escaped your lips as you looked around. Max hadn’t arrived yet, along with mostly everyone that you normally talked to. Your eyes flittered across the paddock. A light shone from the Mercedes garage. A smirk rose on your lips. You hadn’t been able to talk to Lewis for a while and you missed the Brit. You grabbed your blanket and wrapped it around your shoulders. This was nothing like Singapore where you wished you could escape the heat. Here in Vegas, you wanted to escape the cold.

You gingerly stepped into the lighted garage, feet barely making an echo. You knew where the back room was. A coffee sounded really good right now as you were fighting sleep. Your eyes widened at the sight of Lewis all bunched on a couch. You could tell that he was sound asleep, since his eyes were shut and his face looked so relaxed. You took a couple of steps and sat down next to him. When he didn’t move, you knew you were save. You watched as he shivered next to you, neck outstretched in a weird angle, resting on the back of the couch. His arms were wrapped around his torso

You lightly pouted at the sad sight. Thankfully, your blanket was big enough for two people. You lightly draped the cream colored fabric onto most of his body. You watched him unconsciously relax underneath the blanket. You quickly situated yourself next to him, and gently put your head on his shoulder.

Lewis stirred at the new weight on his left side. His eyes barely opened as he tried to blink the sleep away. His face was met with blond hair and the smell of your vanilla shampoo. He now noticed the cream blanket on him and you cuddled up close.

“Kid?”

“Shhhhh, sleep now, questions later.”

Lewis didn’t even have time to argue before he was being dragged back to sleep land. His arm rose up to lie behind your head, inevitably giving you more room under his arm. You scooched closer to the warmth of the 7-time world champion.

Toto sighed as he walked out of his office. Everything was falling quickly. When Lewis mentioned that he wanted to initiate the escape clause in his contract, Toto thought that he was going to be retiring at the end of the season after another failed attempt at the world championship. He just wasn’t expecting his star to leave him for another team. The Austrian’s hand rubbed over his forehead.

He didn’t want to think about that now. He could only focus on the next three races of the 2024. Vegas, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi was all he had left. Toto rounded the corner to the little kitchen station where their multiple coffee makers were. Nothing could beat Ferrari’s authentic Italian espresso, but hopefully a regular coffee pod could do.

What Toto didn’t expect was for you to be snuggled up to Lewis on the couch that resided there. A sad smile made its way to his face. The two of you looked so innocent together, faces void of the usual wear and tear from the life that you lived. He quickly sent a text over to Christian to let him know where you were. His phone showed that they still had a few hours left before qualification started. The team principal just knew that you were going to win this weekend. Max had done a good job, trying to get the jump on you. But, when one’s name tops the P1 spot for all of the practices, there’s no choice in fighting it.

You owned this track.

A homecoming of sorts.

Toto had barely payed any attention to you last year as you walked around in your sparkly outfit, following the reigning world champion. He knew of you. Just another name of a rookie trying to get into Formula 1. Looking back now, the Austrian wishes that he had done more to sign you.

His phone softly dinged, and his eyes adjusted to the brightness of his screen. A text from Christian let him know that Max was on the way to come get you. Inside, he truly wished that you could have maybe been what you were to Max, to Lewis. But he lost out on you and he now lost out of Lewis. His days of complete domination were over.

Toto lightly stepped closer to the sofa and crouched down. His arm extended and lightly pushed on Lewis’s shoulder. The Briton’s eyes fluttered awake as he looked around, trying to get his bearings in order. Lewis’s eyes stopped on you, who was still sound asleep. Your eyes flitted behind your eyelids.

“Should we wake her up?” Toto asked. “Max is coming to get her in a moment.”

Lewis shook his head.

“She’s dreaming.”

A soft smile formed on his face as he watched you puff air and inhale harshly sometimes. You murmured gibberish, which the Mercedes pair had a hard time trying not to laugh. Footsteps announced someone else’s presence. The duo’s head jerked in the direction and watched as Max rounded the corner.

Max froze at the sight of you snuggled into Lewis, your coveted blanket laying across yours and Lewis’s laps.

“I’m quite jealous Lewis. She rarely shares the blanket.”

Lewis’s eyebrow rose. “I just saw here sharing with Logan last race.”

Max laughed softly, still not wanting to wake you up.

“That was a different blanket. This is her Dior one. See the monogram? She doesn’t share that with anyone, not even me.”

There was humor in the Dutchman’s voice as he explained. Max took a couple of steps before stooping down. He gently picked you up in his arms. You didn’t move a muscle as he adjusted you in his grasp.

Lewis stood up and popped his joints. He took the blanket off his lap and layed it back over you. It draped weirdly across you and Max’s arms. It was silent as the three men watched you try to get closer to the warm that was Max Verstappen.

“Well, I will get her back to the garage. You two have a good night.”

After Max said that, you talked a bit loudly.

The Red Bull driver stopped in his tracks, wondering if Lewis and Toto heard.

Lewis snorted. “Was that Dutch?’

The blond nodded as he looked down at you. There was a proud smile on his face.

“I’ve been teaching her some words, but she always claims that it’s too hard. But here she is, sputtering out fluent sentences.”

Toto asked, “What did she say.”

“That’s the funny thing. She said something about a king. Must be a weird dream. She had a few weird ones the other night.”

Lewis smirked up at him. “Care to share?”

“No.”

The three laughed a bit before Max bid goodbye, complaining that his arm was falling asleep. Max brought you back to his driver’s room and layed you down on his extra couch. There was a lot of time before qualifying, so he thought he would follow suit and try to get a nap in. His thoughts melted away as soon as his head hit the pillow.

A few hours later, you and Max were woken up for qualifying. You scratched your head as you tried to remember some of the dreams you had last night. Max had told you that you were able to sputter out fluent Dutch, which then he got onto you for complaining about learning it when you were awake. Now he knew that you knew more than you were letting him know.

Thankfully, there were no loose drain holes to rip up the floors of the cars. You had easily put your car in the P1 spot, certifying your claim on this track.

Before the race, you were hunched together with Logan, Lando, and Oscar. Another one of your blankets was around everyone. Your cream Dior blanket would not have been big enough and you didn’t want it touching the dirty floor. On a small chair that sat in front of you, a computer played Cars 2.

It felt so much like déjà vu while watching it. The movie took you back to your first free practice as a rookie last year, cuddling up with Logan and Oscar on a shared chair. At least this time, the four of you had upgraded to a sofa that was dragged to the outside pit lane. The officials were going over the circuit one last time, just to make sure that it was safe to drive. The chilly air would have raised goosebumps, but the four of you were in the race suits already. The scratchy fabric combined with the fireproofs really kept you insulated. This year, they brought back the Elvis suits.

Max, Alex, Charles, and Carlos were standing off to the side, checking up on you four from time to time.

“Anyone else feel like a parent watching them?” Alex questioned out loud, leading to many groans from the group.

Max sighed, hands on his hips. “All the time. You know how many juice boxes I have to make sure I pack just in case? The answer is a lot.”

Carlos watched Lando snuggle more into the blanket and into Oscar, still trying to warm up. The Aussie just rolled his eyes, but let him snuggle anyway.

The Spaniard agreed. “Lando still has his little stuffed animal from a few years ago. Doesn’t leave or go anywhere without it.”

Alex nodded his head. “Oscar and Logan were both in my driver’s room the other day, looking so tired. Turns out, they weren’t sleeping because they watched a horror movie and were too scared to just go to bed. They’ve spent the last couple of nights in my room.”

Charles shrugged. “Yeah mate, I don’t know. Y/n is just Y/n. She’s always acted like this, with Arthur.”

Max rolled his eyes. “Surely she’s done something while being at Dams.”

The Monegasque thought for a moment, before his eyes widened.

“Ok, there was this one time that Arthur called me to their room. Dams gave them like no money and they often shared a hotel room if they could. And when I got there, they immediately through swim trunks at me. Apparently, they couldn’t go to the pool or water park without adult supervision. The worker there thought they were like younger than 18.”

The group laughed after the story, making the other group of four turn their heads.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Lando questioned, eyes still on the movie.

“Probably weird adult stuff. Like how one time Max showed up to Milton in his pajamas because he thought it was just a big debrief. No, it was actually a meeting with board members and sponsors.”

Logan started to laugh loudly at the story, a bit too tired to contain the giggles.

That made Alex look over again as he sighed.

“I’m glad Williams kept him on. He was so sure that he was going to be booted after what happened in Qatar.”

Max looked with sad eyes at the blond, who was currently in a you and Oscar sandwich.

“Are they going to be renewing his contract after this?”

Alex had a wicked grin on his face. “Mate, the kid gave Williams their first win since 2012. Of course they extended his contract.”

Carlos jutted his head. “What about you mate.”

The Thai shook his head as he lightly laughed. “Logan said he wouldn’t sign unless I got the same amount of years he did.”

Charles’s eyes widened. “Congrats mate.”

Logan had started to look over. “They must really be talking about adult stuff.”

You carefully turned his head back to the movie.

“Shhhhh, Lightning McQueen is on.”

This year, you were able to actually finish the movie instead of having to promise that you’d finish it later.

As you sat on the circuit, Mitch did a quick radio check.

“Ok kid. You ready to win Vegas?”

You shrugged in the car, even if she couldn’t see you. “I don’t know about win, but I will try my best. You know what Lego Batman says?”

Mitch rolled her eyes lovingly. “What does he say?”

“Always bet on black. But our colors aren’t black. So I’m changing the saying. Always bet on red and navy.”

“And they are ready to go. I’ll keep you updated when you need it.”

With that, Mitch let you be as you took off for the formation lap. You knew you had to keep the tyres warm. You watched in your mirrors as the cars behind you started to swerve right to left and then left to right.

However, you were doing a more subtle approach as you constantly braked hard and then accelerated hard as well. It was a trick you picked up when watching Kimi do the same.

Charles was a bit worried as he was swerving behind Max.

“Are her tyres even warming up? Oh, never mind. She’s doing what Kimi always did.”

It wasn’t long before all the cars were lined up, back in the starting positions. You watched out for the dust on the asphalt, knowing that it caused lots of troubles last year. The lights went off and you were drastically pulling ahead of the pack.

A bit into the race, you watched as your wheels smoked white as you went around a corner.

“Lock up in turn 3.”

“Copy.”

You hadn’t expected it to happen again, but it did.

“Damn it. How much are we loosing on the corners?” you questioned, trying to get your car back under control. In the mirrors you saw how Charles and Max were slowly creeping back up to you.

“Two tenths.”

You sighed angrily.

The two male drivers had caught up with you and now it was an all-out, three car battle for first. You were struggling to keep your position. You prayed and hoped that your tyres wouldn’t lock up again. But, they didn’t seem to work as they locked up again, letting Max and Charles fly past. You cursed under your breath. However, you had an idea.

“Mitch, box for hards please.”

“Are you sure?”

You smirked under your helmet. “Always bet on red and navy.”

You watched as the Red Bull and Ferrari kept going away as you pulled into the pits. If you’re breaks were going to lock up, then the stopping would cause more friction to go to the tyres. In the end, you hoped that the hard tyres would warm up quicker than if you just swerved or waited for them to warm by just driving.

At the first corner, your breaks locked up once again.

“How are the temperatures of the tyres?”

“Heating up quickly.”

The smirk returned to your face.

“Perfect.”

You were still behind Charles and Max by the time that they had done their one pitstop. They had also gone out on hard tyres. Your car was still locking up, but you made up the time since your tyres were much more hot.

It was the third to last lap when you finally made it to the males’ radars.

“How the hell did she make it this close?” Charles asked, looking in his mirrors as you kept gaining.

“Last we heard, she was locking up. Keep pushing.”

The Monegasque saw white puff out of your brakes, yet you seemed to shake it off quickly.

The last lap finally came.

You watched as your car was getting close to the two leaders. It was time for the all or nothing.

“Kid, play it safe. Lock up happens on the last corner.”

“Gotta play something.”

“Kid.”

You shut the radio off.

It was a “Never back down never what?” move time.

You turn on DRS and got side by side with Charles and Max. The two were paying so much attention to each other that they didn’t see you slip by.

If your brakes were to lock up, then you’d be sent into the barriers going 300+ k/m an hour. It would be deadly at this rate. Your heart started to pick up as you came closer to the corner. You had the outside racing line. You just had to get in front of Max and break as late as you could.

You held your breath as you finally braked.

Mitch watched with wide eyes at the pit wall.

“What is she thinking?” Christian questioned, watching as you finally braked.

Yet, your tyres never locked up.

Mitch finally got what you were saying.

“She had to win a bet.”

You wanted to cheer as you came out in front of Max in the final chicane. Max, in his car, couldn’t believe it as you slipped past to cross the line in P1.

You finally let out a deep exhale as the race completed. You pulled into Parc Ferme. You undid your steering wheel and got out. You raised your arms at the crowd before walking to your team. Helmet pats came from everyone as you made your rounds.

A soft punch landed on your arm. You turned around to see Max, faux anger in his eyes.

“What were you thinking? Braking that late with lock ups? You should have retired the death trap.”

You rolled your eyes as his over protectiveness.

“Would you have retired the car?”

The silence from the Dutchman was your answer.

“I had to bet on something. We are in Vegas after all.”

“Sure kid.”

The limo was squished with you in the middle of Max and Charles. However, this year, the three of you got to Maxsplain, Leclerify, and Y/n-strate on the way to the anticlimactic fountain show during the interviews.

Nico was the one conducting them this race. After Charles and Max gave their pieces it was your turn. You walked up to the spot with a bright smile, still feeling the high of yet another race win. Nico’s smile was a reflection of your own.

“So, Y/n, how many race wins does this make for you.”

“Three, I believe.”

“Wow, so you’ve already passed Lewis’s record for points during a rookie season, how does that make you feel?”

You thought for a moment. “Well, the points were definitely different back then, so I don’t know if it’s an good comparison. I know Lewis won four races his rookie year, but I’d be very happy with my three.”

Nico hummed. “Your race was magnificent. Want to tell us a bit about it? Especially that last overtake.”

“Well Nico,” you started, “my brakes weren’t being very lovely.”

You heard snorts from behind you from Max and Charles.

“Lock ups are always tough. I asked my engineer if I could pit for hards because if there was enough friction between my brakes stopping the wheels and then the circuit, I could heat the tyres faster. And then I kind of just went for it on the last corner. I really thought that I would lock up again and go straight into the barriers.”

The blond could only let out a strangled laugh at the thought you just full sending it without having any caution to your wellbeing. You made him glad that he retired in 2016 because he would not be able to keep a calm heart racing against rookies who only had a mindset to win.

Max snuck up behind you.

“I told her that it was stupid and that she should never do it again.”

You could only pout.

“Why?”

“Maybe so I don’t have to plan a funeral?”

“But Max, I put the fun in funeral.”

"nO!"

redbullracing has posted

redbullracing always bet on red and navy - y/n l/n, 2024

liked by maxverstappen1, charles_leclerc, y/n_updates, and 1,382,309 others

y/n.nation THRID WIN THIRD WIN THIRD WIN

rookie&co the ride to the fountains with everything

leclerify_me ikr, now we have the big three: maxsplain, leclerify, and y/n-strate

box_box_express we need to call y/n the tyre whisperer along with Charles

red_bull_bros like who thinks to pit to hards and use the lock ups for benefit - she really is her own strategist

y/n.89 so glad I wasn't sprayed in the face, thank you Charlie

maxverstappen1 yeah...thanks Charlie 🙂 charles_leclerc yeah, I was aiming for your eyes, I want another win oscarpiastri GET IN LINE BEHIND THE ONES WHO HAVEN'T WON landonorris you good mate? oscarpiastri I'LL BE GOOD WHEN I GET MY OWN WIN y/n.89 chill shawty - it's coming 😌

formulala_delulu max and Charles >>>>>

author lestappen for ever formulala_delulu HUH?

mericanf1_fan wish Logan was on the podium for Vegas but I'll take p5 🦅

y/n.89 has posted

y/n.89 🪩 what happens in Vegas....

tagged: lilymehe and alexandrasaintmleux

liked by arthur_leclerc, lilymehe, carmenmmundt, and 1,462,923 others

y/n.nation we're not even going to talk about the third picture...

arthur_leclerc hot damn 😳

y/nxarthur bro is done hiding rookiesboyfriend FINALLY y/n.nation is he in vegas?? max&co HOLD UP

maxverstappen1 kid...

y/n.89 yes Max? maxverstappen1 want to pick up your phone? y/n.89 no. maxverstappen1 PICK UP YOUR PHONE lilymehe uh, y/n can't come to the phone right now, she'll get back to you in 3-19 business days lewishamilton I fear this is bahrain again max georgerussell63 I'M NOT EVEN THERE THIS TIME

box_box_nightmare the dress, the disco balls, the chapel, lily and alex - I fear that Vegas has taken our girl

charles_leclerc Alex, amore, please tell y/n to text Max back...I'm nervous that he's going to have an aneurism

alexandrasaintmleux Alex can't come to the phone right now, she'll get back to you in 3-19 business days charles_leclerc OH COME ON - ALEX YOU TRY NOW alex_albon I'm smarter than that (lily said that y/n is texting max now) y/n.89 snitch 😒

formula_gossip twitter is saying that y/n did NOT get married in Vegas but was picked up by a random couple to be a witness to the marriage

y/n_fan THAT WAS ME AND MY HUSBAND! leclercbros God has his favorites

formula_fan she's going to be MASSIVELY hung over tomorrow

TAG LIST: @fionaschicken @glitterquadricorn @laura-naruto-fan1998 @treehouse-mouse @sam-is-lost @kagatinkita @fangirl125reader @megatrilss1885 @myxticmoon @angsthology @cmleitora @fly-me-away @graciewrote @ashy-kit @slutofmultifandom @aexitizen-ln4 @sugarvibez @vellicora @thatgirlthatreadswattpad @33-81 @hoetel-manager @xcharlottemikaelsonx @jayda12 @ilove-tswizzle @justme2042 @itsjustkhaos @nikfigueiredo @stopeatread @cha-hot @sadg3 @iloveyou3000morgan @s4turnsl0ver @alessioayla @torchbearerkyle @leptitlu @awekbachira @shreks-sugar-daddy @v1naco @stan-josie @mellowarcadefun @badassturtle13 @beskardroids @callisposts @poppyalice2001 @juniper-july19 @lizzypiastri

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autisticlancemcclain · 8 months

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Lance gets red around him a lot.

It’s strange.

It’s different from when they first started. (First met? Keith’s not sure. Lance is so insistent that they’ve known each other since they were twelve, but Keith thinks he’d recognise someone like Lance, someone who smiled that brightly and laughed so loud. But he doesn’t, and he doesn’t understand why he doesn’t, so he doesn’t think about it. He pretends in his head that they met saving Shiro and that’s that.) When they first started learning each other (that’s a better way to put it), Lance went red all the time, but Keith knew exactly what that was about, could read the hard set of his jaw and the anger making his dark eyes steely. Sometimes he would grin to himself and make the flush on Lance’s cheeks deepen on purpose; say something incendiary and challenging in the most casual one of voice he could manage, just to watch how furious he got, how indignance straightened his spine and squared his shoulders and made his cheeks glow.

He called Lance Rudolph, once, and he went ballistic. It was the first time he ever won a spar of theirs, and half of that was because Keith was laughing too hard to breathe. To this day no one believes Lance when he insists it happened. (Keith does feel bad about that, a little. Everyone seems to think it was just Lance who egged Keith on in the beginning, just Lance who purposely made things difficult, but Keith is grown enough now to admit that he had as much fun pissing Lance off as anyone else would. Well, grown enough to admit it in his head.)

Keith still makes Lance go red all the time, now. The issue is that he doesn’t know how he does it.

They still compete. Obviously. It’s fun and it’s easy and Keith is a fan of things that are fun and easy. That’s why he’s into demolitions. And pod racing.

But the competition no longer has that flare of genuine rage. Lance himself had admitted it, sniffing pompously after a late night spar and informing Keith that he had, apparently, “sucked all the fun out of hating by being endearing or whatever”. He also mentioned something about Keith’s “stupid fucking big round pouty eyes and depressing backstory”, but Keith doesn’t know what to make of that so he shoves it back into the recesses of his mind like many other things, including the first time someone other than his Pa said they loved him, Shiro’s safety lectures, and any and all calculus lessons he has ever sat through.

(It’s a mess back there.)

Keith, too, can admit that the animosity is gone. He no longer wakes up and hears Lance’s voice and considers drop kicking him into a black hole. Sometimes he even hears Lance’s voice and realises he’s smiling on reflex. Now he and Lance hang out. Voluntarily, and a lot. They spar. They swim. They harass Hunk. They harass Pidge. They harass Shiro. They harass all their friends, really. Sometimes Lance uses manoeuvres he’s learnt in sparring to pin Keith to the ground and force weird products onto his face and hair, dodging Keith’s attempts to bite him, preaching about their cleansing qualities or whatever. Sometimes Keith even does it without hissing and generally being a nuisance.

Sometimes Keith follows Lance quietly to the observation, late at night, and sits with him while he cries. He can’t decide how he feels about those nights. He’s not sure if he’s allowed to think about them outside of when they happen.

In all of this, though, Lance’s ruddy face has stayed pretty common. Keith can excuse it when they’re sparring, because it’s admittedly a lot of cardio, but at the same time Keith doesn’t get that red and he’s way paler than Lance is. He can almost kind of excuse it when they swim, for the same reasons.

He doesn’t get it any other times, though. He doesn’t know why Lance goes red at the most innocuous things, like when Keith tells him his hair smells good or his laugh is pretty or he’s actually really good at that nerdy math game Pidge likes, holy crow, I didn’t know you were that kind of smart. Nerd. He doesn’t understand why Lance goes red when he trips and Keith catches him, ‘cause he’s a big klutz, you’d think he’d be used to it by now (it’s not like Keith is going to let him fall. Well, usually not). He doesn’t get why Lance goes red when Keith compliments him in training, because usually when Lance gets complimented he gets a big head about it and preens for an hour.

It’s just strange.

Mostly, though, it’s not that big of a deal. Maybe Lance is just a blushy kind of person. He’s taken to teasingly calling Lance Red, because it’s better than Rudolph, and also because Lance goes scarlet every time he says it, so it’s kind of like he’s a wizard who can make Lance flush on command. Which is cool. Other than that Keith mostly just pretends it doesn’t happen. They hang out too much for Keith to bother. If he questioned it every time, he would go bananas.

“You have icing smeared on your face,” Keith comments on one such hanging out occasion. (They’re plundering the kitchen for the cupcakes Hunk made and specifically forbade them from touching. But Hunk allegedly broke into Lance’s room last week and stole the last of his toner, whatever the hell that is, so fair’s fair.)

Lance pops the last of the cupcake into his mouth then turns to face him. “Where?”

“Here,” Keith says, tapping the left side of his own chin.

Lance, like a dumbass, makes a swiping motion on the left side of his face, instead of mirroring where Keith touched. He misses the icing entirely.

“Left side,” Keith says, exasperatedly.

Lance scowls at him. “That is the left side.”

“No — the other left.”

“There is no other left! There’s only one left!”

Rolling his eyes, Keith reaches over to wipe the icing off for him. There cannot be any evidence on them, after all. When Hunk has a conniption over his missing cupcakes they must play the plausible deniability card so they can snicker about it later.

He swipes his thumb under Lance’s bottom lip, trying to scrape the icing off with his thumbnail. Lance inhales sharply.

“Sorry,” Keith murmurs, softening his grip. He must have scratched him. The icing didn’t come off, though, so he switches tactics and slides off the counter, shifting so he’s standing in between Lance’s open legs and cradling Lance’s cheek in his palm to tilt his head. He rubs his thumb much softer on the stubborn streak of whipped sugar, and that works a little better. He keeps rubbing until finally Lance’s skin is clear, all the half-dried icing now spread on the pad of Keith’s thumb. He licks it off without thinking.

It’s sweet.

Lance makes a strained whimpering noise. Keith flicks his gaze up to meet his face again and is less surprised than he should be to see a flush glowing across his cheekbones, making his freckles seem much darker than they are. His pupils are dilated so wide they nearly swallow up the brown of his irises, and Keith can’t tell if he’s looking at him or through him.

He sighs heavily. “Dude, do you have a condition?”

It takes Lance a long moment to answer. By the time he finally does, his gaze has moved firmly to his lap, neck bent so that Keith can’t really see his face. His ears are still read.

“I’ve got a fuckin’ heart condition,” he mutters.

Keith furrows his eyebrows. That’s weird. He’s seen Lance’s medical scans before — he’s in the pods a lot. You’d think that kind of thing would be on there.

“It doesn’t show up on your med scans,” Keith points out. “Is it, like, a genetic thing?”

Slowly, Lance picks his head back up, squinting at him for several long moments. Keith begins to squirm.

“You’re actually slow,” Lance says with an almost awed tone of voice. Which is mean. “Like, genuinely, actually slow. I think there are bubbles in your brain.”

“Hey,” Keith protests, pouting. “I help you commit cupcake heists, and this is how you treat me?”

Instead of answering, Lance continues to stare at him. He almost looks bewildered, which does nothing but make Keith more confused.

Eventually he lets out a long, tired sigh. It is not the first time Keith has heard that sigh. That is a sigh he hears when Shiro finds him throwing up his guts after eating a tub of ice cream out of spite. That’s the kind of sigh he hears from Allura when Keith ignores instructions and boulders through the shocks from the invisible maze to get it done faster. That’s the sigh that says I wish I had a trebuchet to strap you to it and release you into the sun. Keith is very familiar with that sigh, although he usually makes it happen on purpose, or at the very least understands how it’s warranted.

Right now he is completely lost.

“I am going to go bother Coran,” Lance says finally, pushing himself off the counter and walking towards the door. “You are not invited. I will talk to you when I want to strangle you less. Goodbye.”

“Bye,” Keith calls out, head tilted in confusion. He watches Lance go until he disappears down the hallways.

“He is so confusing,” he announces to no one, then walks out the kitchen himself.

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bananastarion · 7 months

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Rambling headcanons about how Astarion's trauma could manifest in your relationship.

Disclaimer: I am not fetishizing trauma or PTSD here. I have C-PTSD myself, and have dated others with it as well. So some of this is (loosely) inspired by my own experiences. It's not pretty, it's not fun, but I'd say it's pretty realistic. So yeah, fair warning! Anyway, let's gooooo

Astarion isn't fazed by much, but he IS claustrophobic- having to claw your way out of your own coffin, being trapped in a mindflayer pod and being trapped in a tomb for a year straight would do that to anyone. If he is ever unfortunate enough to be stuck in a small space again, he'll go into a blind panic. He'll hyperventilate and try to force his way out any way he can, and if he can't get out in time he'll just completely mentally shut down for a bit. If you plan to pull him into a little broom closet for a sneaky fuck, just forget it ok? You will probably get your eyes accidentally clawed out.

There is a long period in your relationship where Astarion is gradually getting more comfortable with being vulnerable around you, but he's also very self-conscious about it. He doesn't want you to pity him or think he's weak. You will be tempted to give him lots of validation and praise to make up for all of the psychological abuse he endured, to reassure him that he's finally safe and free, and that you love him for more than just his body. That his problems won't ever drive you away, and that you don't judge him. He appreciates your words deeply, he wants and needs them more than he cares to admit. But at the same time, they completely overwhelm him. Finally being in a good place with a caring partner is such a stark contrast to what he's been through, that it forces him to see even deeper into the void inside him and recognize just how badly he was treated, how deprived he's been. They hit him hard in both good and bad ways, and sometimes he'll tell you to stop because he just can't handle feeling so much right now. It's best to stick to mostly surface level stuff and ease carefully into the deeper, more meaningful observations.

The sweeter your words, the more his mind races with fears that you are idealizing him and eventually you'll come to see him for what he really is- and then abandon him. Fears that he'll come to depend on your kindness only for it to be ripped away, whether by you or by circumstances beyond his control. Fears that you don't really mean it, that you're just manipulating him the way he did to others. Deep down he hopes and trusts you're sincere, but it's just so hard to accept when Cazador's voice is in his head, countering all of it. This is all so new to him, so unknown. And the unknown is terrifying. He gets frustrated that your kindness does this to him, he wants to be able to embrace your words, he's so impatient to heal and finally be over this shit already. He judges himself so harshly for still struggling with all this. Cazador's dead, he is free, he has someone who truly loves him- why isn't that enough?! Why can't he fully appreciate it, is he just going to feel broken forever? He worries he'll take too long to get over his past, and you'll get tired of it and leave. Expect to give him lots of reassurance about all of this.

He doesn't like to cry around you, but over time you will lower his guard enough that he'll stop fighting back the tears quite so much. Sometimes it's a bad dream, sometimes you say something that just hits him hard (even if it's in a good way), and sometimes he has no idea what triggered it. You tell him he can wake you up any time if he needs you, but often he chooses not to wake you and just suffers through it alone. When it happens while you're both awake, at first he would roll over and face away from you when the tears started flowing if he couldn't collect himself, and you'd just hug him from behind. But eventually he feels comfortable enough to bury his face in your chest and just let it all out. When it's really bad, he'll be trembling and hugging you so tightly as he sobs into your shirt that it's almost hard for you to breathe. The best thing you can do is just be there with him, stroke his hair, caress the tears off his cheeks. It can be dicey, but eventually you learn to read him well enough that sometimes stroking the scars on his back very gently can be healing for him. There are other times though, when this will be too much for him. Same goes for kissing. Also, don't even think about telling anyone you've seen him like this. But of course, why would you?

Don't go into therapist mode with him when he's that vulnerable, and if he decides to talk, just let him talk. Hold space for him and be there with him. Afterwards, help ground him in the present and reconnect him to his senses by pointing out things in the room, remind him that it's not all happening to him right now. Realize how special it is that he feels safe enough with you to be so vulnerable. There are times when he even breaks down during sex, and he'll say that he's fine and you can keep going, but it's for the best to stop what you're doing and check in instead. He often dissociates when he's triggered, and doesn't realize something is wrong until it's too late.

Trauma isn't always pretty, and there are times when it does strain your relationship. When he's really triggered, he might take it out on you. He'll try his best to push you away, and say terrible things he doesn't mean. Perhaps things Cazador said to him. His articulate manner of speech can be sharper than his blade when wielded against you in the heat of the moment. He doesn't believe you can love this side of him, that he is fundamentally broken and unlovable, so it's a test of sorts to prove his own fears. He doesn't necessarily realize what he's doing, he's just lashing out from a point of pure fear. Trauma is an explanation for this behavior, but not an excuse, so it's important you set very firm and consistent boundaries when he gets like this. He might not appreciate it in the moment, but he will once he calms down.

It takes some time for him to feel truly secure with you, but he's getting there. In the meantime, he's starting to get a little clingy and codependent. He's not used to having so much freedom, and doesn't always know what to do with himself when you're not around. Being in your presence is when he's closest to feeling safe and at ease, and being apart for too long can cause his mind to race, especially when he has nothing to distract himself with. It drives him crazy that it gets to him so much- he's never been dependent on anyone before, and this side of him surprises himself. He hates it, which only stresses him out more. He tries to play it off, but it's very obvious he is struggling with separation anxiety. You don't want to overindulge him, but to ease his fears you decide to get a pair of magical rings. You can make each other's rings glow whenever you want- so if Astarion is feeling lonely, he can make your ring glow and you can make his glow back. Sometimes, just that is enough to get him through a rough day without you. Once he has done some more healing, eventually he will come to enjoy his alone time in a way he's never gotten to before in his life, and as much as you enjoy spending time with him, you'll be so happy for him to finally have that.

#astarion #headcanons #baldur's gate 3 #astarion/tav

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luminoustarlight · 7 months

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Practice | Anakin Skywalker

Playing with Anakin's hair leads to you practicing your dominant side.

rating: explicit | pairing: anakin skywalker x afab!reader | wc: 2.4k | read on ao3 warnings: fluff, SMUT [sub!ani, dom!reader (she's trying), blow jobs, ball sucking, ball/cock worship, p in v, creampie, inappropriate use of the force], ani comforting reader at the end <3

this is dedicated to my bestie who was talking about Anakin's fluffy hair and said "ugh make a fic where reader plays with his hair and it turns him on"

so... here you go :)

On any given night, when Anakin isn’t on a mission, it’s very likely he’s at your apartment. It’s too risky having you over at the Temple and his living quarters aren’t very spacious anyway. Anakin always says he feels most at home in your apartment. But it has nothing to do with where he’s at, it has everything to do with where you are.

Now both relaxing on the couch after dinner, Anakin’s head is in your lap while you watch Pod Racing on the HoloTV. “D’you miss it?”

“What?” Anakin mumbles.

“Pod racing.” You begin combing your fingers through Anakin’s hair, getting any knots and tangles out of the waves.

“Mmm,” he hums in contentment. “Sometimes. I don’t miss Tatooine…”

“Or the sand,” you both say.

Anakin smiles. “You know me so well.”

“It’s not like you hide your hatred for sand, Ani.” You roll your eyes and tug at Anakin’s roots to tease him.

A visceral groan erupts from Anakin’s throat, which he quickly “covers up” with a cough. “Mhm, yeah, I know.”

“You okay there, baby?” Your voice is as sweet as cinnamon— warm with a hint of spice. You know exactly how Anakin gets when you pull on his hair during sex. It drives him insane and normally drives his cock deeper and harder into your cunt. But you have other plans for him tonight.

Your nails dragging down his scalp are hypnotizing. Each time you reach the nape of his neck, you pull. It earns you a suppressed moan every time. Anakin is yanking at the material of his pants, already beginning to feel the uncomfortable tightness your touch always brings him. He thinks he’s being so discrete, pointing at the HoloTV, mumbling something about the race while adjusting his hard-on in his pants.

“What’s the matter, honey? You getting hard just from me playing with your hair?” Your taunting voice doesn’t come out often but when it does, a different kind of desire stirs inside of Anakin. He welcomes your dominant side, even when he’s still working on being submissive.

His dick is already throbbing so yes, he absolutely did get hard from you playing with his hair. “Ngh, yes.”

With a fistful of his hair in your hand, you yank Anakin’s head so his eyes meet yours. He doesn’t quiet his moan this time. His receptiveness to your actions fills you with pride. You are the one he gives control to. You are the one who makes him vulnerable, needy, and eager for your touch. “Are you going to be a good boy tonight?”

Anakin swallows. “Yes.”

“Sit up,” you command. As Anakin lifts himself from your lap and his back is against the couch cushion, you get off the couch and settle between Anakin’s legs. “I might be on my knees for you but make no mistake, Anakin. I am in control tonight. No touching until I say it’s okay. Do you understand?”

Maker. Anakin is burning for you. His cock jumps with anticipation, a wet stain of pre-cum seeping through not just his underwear, but his pants, too. With your tone and your commanding eyes, Anakin can’t help but fully submit. “Yes, I understand.”

Oh, how his complacency makes your cunt ache. You rest your hands over Anakin’s strong thighs and he tenses under your touch. “Good,” you say, beginning a line of kisses on his leg. It’s a painfully slow path up to Anakin’s crotch. He’s sitting on his hands to keep from touching you, meager little whimpers falling from those pretty lips of his. When your mouth finally presses a firm kiss over his clothed length, Anakin can’t help but groan.

“Please,” he begs. He wants to touch you, he wants your mouth, he wants anything more than just you kissing his cock with two layers of fabric between you. He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to think through the pain in his groin. “Please, baby, please.”

“Hmm?” you hum against him, sending a shrill of vibrations from Anakin’s cock down to his toes. You lay your head on his thigh, blinking up at him with fake oblivion. “Did you want something?”

“You know I do,” Anakin answers frustratedly. Being a sub is hard for him sometimes. Okay, most of the time. But he tries for you and you appreciate it. He just needs to be put back in his place every now and again.

You lift your head and frown, completely withdrawing your body from him as you stand. “Now, that’s no way to ask for something. I don’t think you deserve my mouth.”

Anakin’s attitude immediately changes. He straightens his back before beginning his lament. “No, no, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. Please, angel. Please put your mouth on my cock.”

“How badly do you want it?”

Anakin groans, pulling at his pants again. “So badly, baby. Maker, I need your mouth or your hand— please. I’ll be good.”

“Take off your pants, Ani.”

As soon as those words leave your mouth, Anakin is fumbling with his waistband and removing his pants with haste. He’s so eager and careless, it almost makes you laugh. This desperate man is a far cry from the commanding General of the 501st. If only those boys could see General Skywalker now. Completely helpless and begging for you to pleasure him.

With his cock free from its confinement, a small wave of relief washes over Anakin. You appease him, placing your hands back on his thighs and dragging the flat of your tongue along the underside of his dick. Anakin immediately moans beneath you. Each kiss you place on his length leaves Anakin in shambles. He’s so bloody impatient. He hates when you tease him but he knows it’s just you giving him a taste of his own medicine. Because he is the master of teasing.

Still only using your mouth, you swirl your tongue over his leaking tip, nose brushing against his happy trail. You flick your tongue over his slit, which always makes him go crazy. He reactively bucks his hips up but you remove your mouth. Pinching his thighs, you scold him. “None of that. Be patient, Ani.”

“‘M sorry,” he mumbles, cheek tucking into his shoulder. “Jus’ feels so good.”

“I know, Ani.” You grab the base of him now, taking a moment to marvel at how your fingers don’t wrap all the way around him. You stroke him thoughtfully and languidly, Anakin throws his head back over the constant pleasure you’re finally rewarding him.

You tilt his cock to the side, nestling your nose between the space where firmness ends and softness begins. Anakin sucks in a breath. He always forgets how sensitive he is down there. With your hand still working up and down his cock, you draw your tongue over the top of his velvety sack. You’re helpless to your own infatuation with him. You can’t help but breathe deeply, storing the strong and comforting scent of his musk in your memory for the weeks when you’re apart. Encompassed with the urge to have even more of him, you open your mouth. The heavy weight of one of his balls rests on your tongue, earning you a lovely little “fuck,” from under Anakin’s breath.

Your thumb swipes over the tip of his cock, spreading the never-ending ooze of pre-cum around and down his length. You hollow your cheeks before releasing him with a pop. You press an open-mouthed kiss to the other side because they both need an equal amount of attention. You flatten your tongue around the curve of him, molding your mouth to the shape of his balls. With his entire sack now in your mouth, Anakin is helpless and you, too, feel the need to be filled. He’s squirming and mumbling your praise. Thank you, Maker, that feels so good, and fuck, sweetheart.

You release his fruit from your mouth, only to continue kissing him. There’s no part of his balls that goes untouched. Your tugs on his cock become lazier and sloppier as you focus all of your attention on his sack. The softness of the papery skin, the salty, musky taste, the overwhelming weight of them on your tongue. Your unabashed appreciation for his nature stirs something primal in Anakin.

“Hmph- fuck.” Anakin forgets your instructions and touches your hair, pushing it out of your face. He’s too drunk on your mouth and your hand to remember anything you said before worshiping his balls. “Angel, please, can I fuck you?”

You look up at Anakin with foggy eyes, practically intoxicated with his scent. You remove your hand from his dick to take off your shirt and pants. “No, Ani. You don’t get to fuck me. But I will ride your cock. Off,” you gesture to his loose tunic. Anakin nods and removes the last of his clothing.

Once you’re standing bare in front of him, his length lurches toward you. His heart never ceases to race when he sees the entire beauty of your body displayed in front of him. You are pure art.

You straddle his lap, resting your hands on his broad shoulders for support. His dick lays between your wet seam and you begin to grind. You brush Anakin’s hair out of his face, tucking the curls behind his ears. You lean down to give him a soft kiss. “You can touch me, Ani.”

Like a shot, Anakin’s hands are around your waist, aiding in your movements over his cock. The friction against your clit sends you ablaze. Anakin drops his lips to your collarbone, leaving butterfly kisses until he reaches the center of your clavicle. He then kisses up your neck and over your jaw, crooning against you, heavy breaths tickling your skin. You slip your hand between the two of you to guide him into your cunt. As your warm walls envelop his tip, you hold there for one, two, three seconds before slowly sinking down on him.

“Shit, baby-”

You want to whimper at the stretch and sigh at the fullness so they come out as one pleading noise. Finally, Anakin thinks. Your demeanor has shifted. But then you’re rocking yourself on him, fingers twirling around the ends of his hair and there you go pulling again. Anakin groans your name, gripping your hips with a bruising strength.

You tug his head to the side, his roots stinging with a little pain and a lot of pleasure. It’s your turn to kiss his neck, although you’re nowhere near as gentle. You capture his skin between your teeth and suck before soothing your tongue over the reddening skin. You raise your hips up so his length is nearly at your entrance and pause once again to admire your boy. His blue eyes are dark in the dim light, his golden tan skin is flush with sweat, and you could just melt because he’s so damn pretty.

You sit back down on his cock with a loud slap when your thighs hit each other. “Yes, Ani! Ngh, your cock feels so good. Y’make me feel so good, baby.” Anakin helps guide you up and down, taking the pressure off of you to continue at such a pace. You drop your head down to his shoulder and he can tell you’re getting tired. He wraps his arms around you and flips you down onto the couch. He wastes no time taking advantage of your pliant body, pushing your legs apart with both hands while he thrusts into you. The burn of your muscles being stretched is overpowered by the invisible touch on your clit.

Your head rolls along the cushion and a weak whimper falls from your lips. “Gods, Anakin. You know I- fuck-” the Force pressure on your bundle of nerves coupled with Anakin’s hard thrusts makes every thought you have scramble together. “S’unfair… when you—” your orgasm is nearing its ascent. Anakin is no longer holding your legs down and instead cages your head between his arms. He nuzzles his nose against yours, kissing your cheek and the corner of your mouth.

“I know,” Anakin smirks. “You hate it when I use the Force on you to make you feel good. But I know you’re about to cum. Your cunt’s squeezing my cock like crazy, baby. Are you gonna cum for me?”

“Fuck,” you whimper. How did the tables turn so quickly? Were you not the one who was in control? How did you lose your air of dominance in one fell swoop? You’re disappointed in yourself but it doesn’t matter. Not when your orgasm ripples through you and your back arches off of the couch. Not when Anakin continues to roll his hips into you, working you through your orgasm with his flesh hand now on your clit, easily ripping another one from you before you even have a chance to come down from the first. The pleasure meshes together into one dizzying spell, leaving you to chant Anakin’s name over and over.

“Music to my ears, baby,” Anakin groans, spurts of his warm seed spilling inside of you. He kisses you tenderly while stroking the bottom half of his cock to release his cum. When he draws himself from you, he pushes whatever is leaking out, back inside of you. “Stay.”

What remains on his fingers is taken into your mouth. You wrap your hand around his wrist and moan around him, savoring the salty and tanginess of his seed. Your eyes look strikingly innocent for someone who is sucking cum off of his fingers. Maker, he’s going to get worked up again. “That’s enough.” Anakin removes his fingers from you. You know he’s going to retrieve a warm cloth to clean you up, but you catch his hand.

“Ani?”

“Yes, sweetheart?” He sees the disappointment across your face and sits down. He grabs the woven blanket on the back of the couch and lays it over you.

“Why…” you pause. Ugh, you hate this. “Why can I never stay dominant the whole time?”

Anakin rubs his thumb over your knee and sighs. He hates seeing you upset with yourself. You did nothing wrong. You might think you failed, but everything takes practice. “I think you can, baby. But many different things go into this. Not just the mentality, but the stamina. You get tired easier. I can’t blame you, though. Riding this dick can’t be easy.”

That makes you crack a smile. “Shut up,” you kick him playfully. “I’m being serious.”

“I know,” Anakin raises his hands in defense. “We just have to practice, sweetheart. That’s all. But honestly, baby? I just think you like to be taken care of more. And that’s okay.”

“Are you sure? You don’t want me to… be different?”

Anakin almost seems insulted with that question. He leans down to give you a reassuring kiss. “Never. I love you just the way you are.”

i hope you enjoyed the ending and weren't disappointed by it. i promise i'll try to write a totally dom!reader and sub!ani fic. emphasis on try.

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#anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker smut #sub!anakin #sub!anakin x reader #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker one shot #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker x f!reader #anakin skywalker x female reader #anakin skywalker x afab!reader

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drabbles-mc · 6 months

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It'll Get Done (Pt. 2)

Richie Jerimovich & F!Reader

Carmy Berzatto & F!Reader

Find Part 1 Here

Warnings: 18+, language, alcohol, canon-typical vibes

Word Count: 1.8k

A/N: My writer's block has been brutal lately because of lift things, which is deeply unfortunate because I wanted to NaNo this month. But! I did write this for these guys. I just want to put them in rooms and let them talk to each other forever.

The Bear Taglist: @garbinge @withmyteeth @narcolini @hausofmamadas @ashlingnarcos @darqchilddaydreamz @justreblogginfics (If you want to be added to any of my taglists, plesae let me know!)

Richie didn’t make it back before the end of the day. You only noticed because the kitchen was a little quieter. Not quiet, of course, but quieter. There was one less person that Carmy was yelling at and arguing with. It was amazing how much it cut down on the noise level.

Every now and then as Carmy raced back and forth between the front and the back of the house, you could feel him lingering behind you. The kid exuded stress in a way that you didn’t know was possible. You understood why, because most people if they were thrown into his position would’ve jumped off the sinking ship rather than trying to scoop the water out with a soup ladle, but sometimes you still felt like you should strap him to the chair in the office and force-feed him some of Richie’s Xanax.

You empathized with him. Or you empathized with him at least more than Richie did, which was a low bar these days. But despite the compassion you were dredging up to give him, there were still plenty of times when you felt him standing behind him and all you wanted to do was spin back around to him and ask him what his fucking deal was. It was easier to refrain from doing that on days when Richie was there because he would say it for you.

Carmy came all but skidding back through the kitchen towards the register, going back and forth between muttering and shouting, “Behind,” as he made his way through.

“Calm down, Jeff,” Tina said with a laugh as she went to take her pot off the stove.

You felt your jaw clench on Carmy’s behalf. Tina was knowledgeable about a lot of things and one of those things was, most definitely, how to get under Carmy’s skin. It wasn’t a difficult code to crack but there were so few people in the world who could do it with such expert precision. Her and Richie were two peas in a pod that way.

“It’d be easier for me to calm down, Tina,” Carmy snapped as he kept walking, “if we were able to pay our goddamn vendors!”

She was shaking her head at him—you caught it out of the corner of your eye. But you also noticed that she didn’t say anything more about it. Content to go back and lie in wait for something else to pop up that she could nettle him about. The end of the day might’ve been approaching quickly but you had the feeling in the pit of your stomach that she would be able to find something else before she clocked out without having to work too hard.

When Carmy came back into the kitchen a little while later, he was walking at a much slower pace than he had been before. You were sure that some of that had to do with the fact that the last of the customers had left, and presumably whatever vendor that had showed up looking for money had also left.

He looked on as everyone slowly but surely worked through their cleanup processes. He wasn’t looking at you, but you still asked him, “All good?”

His head snapped in your direction. “What?”

You couldn’t help the laugh that slipped out of you. It wasn’t funny per se, but if you didn’t laugh about it you’d end up crying. “What can I help you with, Carmen?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. N-nothing. No one can help me with,” he let out a huff, raking his hands through his hair, “fuckin’ anything.”

“Little dramatic,” you replied honestly, sarcastic but kind, “but alright.”

It got a weak chuckle out of him. “You know what the fuck was going on in Mikey’s head with all that shit?” he asked as he gestured to the office.

You didn’t have to turn and look where he was pointing to know how bad the mess was. You’d seen it while Mikey was making the mess. You’d been seeing it as Carmy made almost no headway in cleaning any of it up. You didn’t blame him for that. If you’d been in his position, you wouldn’t have any idea where to start either.

“Thank fuckin’ god no,” you finally answered him.

He pressed his lips into a thin line for a second as he nodded. “Yeah. Yeah that seems to be…yeah.”

“You should—”

“You can head out, Chef,” Carmy cut you off, and you didn’t know if he even realized that he’d done it. “I’ll finish cleaning up.”

You shook your head. “I can clean up my shit.”

He motioned for you to leave. “It’s fine. I got it.”

“Carm…”

“Seriously,” he reiterated. “Go.”

You looked at him for a moment, and that’s when you could see it in his eyes, the silent plea to just let him have some time to himself. You knew that feeling—it was the whole reason you’d shown up as early as you had that morning in the first place anyway. You knew better than to tell him that he should leave. He wasn’t going to and all it was going to do was turn into an argument. You didn’t need another one of those.

“Fine,” you said with a nod. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

You ditched your apron and switched back into your casual shoes, stuffing everything else into your locker while you grabbed your bag and your jacket. Neither you nor Carmy spared each other another goodbye, or any other words in general as you headed out.

There was no point in getting your car keys out of your bag, not when the bar you went to with Richie all the time was within walking distance. The couple blocks felt way longer when it was cold out, but it wasn’t that bad yet.

The bartender recognized you when you walked in, giving you a smile and a nod as he moved to start pulling your drink together before you even sat down. He waited for you to get situated before asking, “Flying solo tonight?”

You laughed as you pulled your phone out of your bag. “That’s an excellent question. Let me call—” The rest of the sentence died on your tongue when the door to the bar flung open and Richie strode through. You instantly let it drop right back into your bag, eyes fixed on Richie even though you were talking to the bartender. “I’m not flying solo tonight, no.”

“Can’t believe you came over here without me!” Richie said as he walked over to you.

“Yeah, well,” you looked up at him from the stool you were sitting on as he clapped his hands down on your shoulders, “least I ordered you a drink.”

He laughed, leaning more onto you. His tone shifted completely as he spoke. “Have I ever told you that I love you?”

You rolled your eyes. “You can always tell me again.”

He kissed the side of your head. “I love you.”

“Damn right,” you said with a nod as Richie plopped down on the seat next to you. You waited until he was comfortable in his seat, leaning forward with his arms braced against the edge of the bar with his breathing evened out, before you tried to have anything resembling a real conversation. “Where the hell did you go all day?”

“What do you mean?”

“You expect me to believe that it was guys and places all day?” You were only bringing it up because, much to Carmy’s dismay, Richie usually was at the restaurant all day every day the place was open. He’d pop in and out briefly for whatever errands he assigned himself, but other than that he was present and accounted for. Being gone all day was noticeable, at least to you if no one else.

It was written all over his face that he was thinking about not elaborating. You saw the shifts in his expression as he tried to come up with a joke, or a lie, or anything besides getting into the reality of it all. But then when he looked you in the eyes again, all he could do was be honest with you. “Tiff called. Had to go pick Eva up from school.”

You nodded. “Got it.” You paused. “Wanna talk about it or—”

“No, no,” he laughed, shifting back into his usual demeanor. “We’re not doing that. You don’t get to do that.”

You let out a confused laugh. “I don’t get to do what?”

“You don’t get to try and use Eva to get out of telling me what the fuck your dumbass boyfriend did!” He paused as the bartender set both your drinks down, taking a moment to thank him before shifting his attention right back to you. “You first.”

You huffed, wishing that you could get out of it again. Even with things that were much lower-stakes, there was only so long that you could dodge Richie and his endless line of questions. You took a long sip of your drink as you tried to figure out what you wanted to say, how you wanted to try and say it. There was no way that you could tell the story that would end with him being anything but pissed off about the entire situation. You couldn’t blame him for that, either. After all, you were still pretty pissed off about it yourself.

“It’s nothing new,” you said, a cop-out you knew that he wasn’t going to accept.

He shook his head, looking down at the glass in his hands before looking at you again. “Tell me the old news, then.”

“I’m done being angry about it, Richie.”

“I’m not,” he replied with no hesitation.

It got you to laugh, at least. “That’s because you’re never done being angry about anything.”

He waited for you to look at him. “You’re really not gonna tell me what he did?” He paused, and when you didn’t say anything, he added on, “That bad?”

You shook your head, drumming your fingers on the outside of your glass. “That pointless.”

“Ah,” he waved you off with that same smirk you’d seen from him so often over the years, “another drink or two and I won’t be able to get you to stop talking shit about him.” He missed the look on your face as he looked back down at his drink and shook his head. “Fuckin’ jagoff.”

You chuckled, nodding. “Yeah—that we can agree on at least.”

“Speaking of which,” he gestured towards the door of the bar, “how was the fuckin’ executive toddler chef the rest of the day?”

You smiled, rolling your eyes. “An absolute gem once you walked out the door.”

For a split second you could see it on his face that he almost believed you. Then he smartened up and gave you a playful bump against your shoulder with his own. “Fuck you.”

#the bear #the bear fx #the bear hulu #the bear fanfiction #richie jerimovich #carmy berzatto #carmen berzatto #richie jerimovich x reader #richie jerimovich x you #my writing #it'll get done #fanfiction #drabblesmc

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carionto · 8 months

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Nothing is safe from becoming "exciting"

I've read a bunch of HASO stuff and often when I'm writing something I know I'm drawing from a ton of somewheres, to the point where I can't pinpoint anything, it's all a big mush that my brain then spits out here. This one, however, I know was inspired by jpitha's writings, specifically the bit about Gene's High G Gym (I think that's the mostly correct name anyway). Shamelessly shilling their work cuz it's great, go read it!

______________________________

Humanity has begun expanding their hold over their native system. Like an insect hive, ships ferry just about everything to and from Earth, building stations both in planetary orbits and around the Sun. Nearly all experimental of some kind - a lot of ideas they couldn't try built up over the thousand years they were isolated.

They do also have countless small space worthy vehicles, nearly all with varying superficial designs and patterns, but also quite a few rather different underlying mechanical principles.

Soon we noticed a lot of activity throughout the entire system not affiliated with any organization or group. Just... individuals and small family units doing their own thing. We quickly gave up trying to categorize such behavior. When we asked, they said:

"Anyone with a license to pilot their craft can go pretty much wherever that isn't restricted. For some places and activities they do need to get a permission first though."

Worryingly lax on account that many of the larger "civilian" craft are still powered by their "Mini-Suns" as they call them.

One particular individual craft got our attention. It created a spike of thermal activity in one region of their Oort Cloud, so one of us went to ask this Human. Abigail was her name:

"Yo space dudes and dudettes, what's up?" Our translators were still incorporating the various Human linguistic peculiarities, but their liaisons are very helpful. We inquired as to what she was doing here so far out.

"Oh you are gonna love it!" another phrase we are learning to be wary of. "Victor, that's this bad boy right here," she affectionately slaps the armrest of her, now that we are closer, disturbingly modified vessel. Is that a second engine cluster bolted on the back? And a... weird exposed device with a large neon label - Space BBQ. We instinctively fear her and her next words. "He and I are making a race track with these here ice cubes. I got this idea when I was a kid, and it is going to be. So. Awesome!"

All of the red flags triggered. Then, Abigail demonstrates by shooting a harpoon claw... thing... at a nearby object the size of a few skyscrapers and begins pulling it towards a cluster of other planetesimals. Normally, these kind of clouds have stabilized over billions of years and each object is thousands and millions of kilometers from one another.

There were dozens stacked so close to each other that you could barely fit an escape pod between in some places. One in particular was surrounded by a small cloud of its own.

"Ooh, that one right there." She enthusiastically pointed out its somewhat flattened ovoid shape. "Doesn't it just scream to you that it wants to be the ultimate doughnut? Hector thinks so, he's my cat by the way - Say hi Hector! [hiss] (Fine, be that way, ya bum) Love that bastard. Anyway, just gotta finish blasting a hole big enough and it'll be the perfect finish line."

Not wanting to hurt our sanity further, we decided to leave her be, but not before she proudly exclaimed over all open channels:

"Remember to tell your folks if they ever wanna race to come here to Abby's Action Asteroids [quick whisper] (trademark pending)! Soon it'll have laser obstacles!"

#humans are deathworlders #humans are space oddities #humans are space australians #humans are space orcs #humanity fuck yeah #carionto

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bcitisthelight · 10 months

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hey remember when we were discussing how weird the whole cliegg thing is in AOTC. and you had thoughts, feelings and emotions. tell me about those XOXO

(Big TW for this post - I discuss human trafficking, sex trafficking, rape, child abuse, slavery, and PTSD in this post. It's about the realities of slavery and Tatooine and how it involves the Skywalkers.) Something that I almost never see in any discussion on the Lars family is how sharply the fanon headcanons and characterizations of diverge from the ones we get in the moves. Like, particularly Cliegg and the prequel trilogy. Like - I feel like there's this automatic assumption that the Lars loved Shmi and that they cared for Luke out of dedication to her and her family, and it's this huge found family vibe but like can I be real. Can I be super real right now. It’s something that I find kind of baffling, because when I watched Attack of the Clones, and on every rewatch since (and there have been many), it always seems kind of obvious to me that Cliegg bought Shmi as a slave, presumably as a house slave, if not outright as a part of sex trafficking. And I don't mean in one of those "He bought her to free her, he's a good guy, etc etc". I mean, he bought her as a slave with the original intention of keeping her as a slave. And what's really interesting, is you can get pretty much all the clues about that from the exchanges between Anakin has with Watto, his and Shmi's former master.

Again, I want to stress that, because I think it's crucial that we see this for what it is - not an exchange between a former employee and his boss, not an exchange between a kid and a member of his former community. His former slavemaster. The man who won him and his mother in a gambling game like so many fancy necklaces. The source and object of Anakin's childhood enslavement. Watto would have beaten them. He made Anakin, a child of 9 - and I read somewhere once that Anakin started in the races at 6 - ride in a pod race that no human has ever won before, with the full expectation that he would die. This is a being whose entire life has revolved around the certainty that society is not only capable of functioning, but functions best, when sentient beings can be bought and sold like property. And, to be real with you, because this is a thing that happens to people who suffer enslavement, he very likely loaned them out temporarily for sex trafficking purposes for a quick buck - a practice that is noted historically in virtually every society that operated on a system involving slaves.

It's important to recap that, because I do think it's impossible to understand how deeply horrifying the conversation they have is without that context. Like, let's look at how he tells Anakin about Shmi -

This scene is....so telling to me. From the outset, Watto said he sold her as a slave. Like, it was a slave exchange. Watto heard about her freedom later - clearly, Cliegg bought her, and behaved in a way - intentional or not - that Watto believed he was buying her as a slave to own as a slave. That part is not subtext, that's just actual text.

"But Mikhayla" some will say "he freed her the second he bought her - he bought her in order to free her." Except....there is genuinely nothing in the movies, and off the top of my head, the wider narrative, that ever indicates that that's true. In fact it makes no sense in that case, for Watto to have not known that Cliegg was buying her in order to free her. Why would he have to hide that? Watto presumably doesnt care what happens to her, because he's selling her. In the larger materials, its said that his shop fell on hard times, and in the movies, we can see the proof. The script says he's sitting outside his shop, but at that point it resembles more of a kind of beaten down stand. He's still selling junk, but less and of poorer quality - presumably, he's spent all his money on gambling debts. And the thing is, slaves are expensive. He sold her years prior, and I bet he fed himself on that money for a very long time - he was a very motivated seller, as barbaric as that language is to use about a transaction involving a human person. He's not going to be fussy over why the person buying her wants to buy her. There's also the fact that this is a society that vastly runs on slavery, and large plantation owners would often "rent" out slaves to smaller but still profitable farms. And Cliegg is a moisture farmer with presumably a large tract of land for water vaporizers. If anything, I can see Watto having rented Shmi to her, Cliegg taking a liking to her, and then approaching Watto to buy her. I mean, if he's profitable enough to just buy a slave, then he clearly had at least some money. "He spent his whole savings!" Show me that in the text. "He loved her from the start!" Show me that in the text. "But Mikhayla," yet others will say, "he did free her! And then married her! He clearly meant from the start to free her, and only bought her to get her away from Watto. He could have never seen her as property. Who would marry their slave?" Except, in the real world, this is...another thing we see across multiple historical records, masters buying women as slaves and then later freeing them in order to legally marry them. PARTICULARLY in societies that operate so heavily on an entire caste system involving slaves - we can look to the Roman Empire, for example. Countless Roman officials, merchants, and military officials bought women, fell in love with them, and freed them in order to marry them. "But maybe she said yes!" (I know these are not your objections, but as you know, I'm an attorney, which means I constantly have to find an argument to fight against). So, to this imaginary detractor I say: I feel like it should be rather obvious, but I'll say it just in case - it is impossible for a slave to consent to any action they perform at the request of a slave master. It cannot happen. A woman who is enslaved cannot consent to marrying the man who bought her, and who has very likely been raping her up until this point, and wants to now marry her - usually, to make any children he had by her legally his children, and therefore citizens, rather than slaves themselves.

So really, whether or not Cliegg had a change of heart doesn't actually change my mind about his actions towards Shmi. I don't care if Cliegg DID love her - in fact, I'm sure he DID love her. People can and have convinced themselves of all kinds of moral superiority, people can claim to love someone while owning them as property! Shmi could never consent to marrying a man who held her as a slave. Even if he freed her, and she willing chose to stay there for a few years, and then he asked her to marry him. In my head, you can't overcome that power imbalance. Cliegg will never not be a man who once believed Shmi was a thing to be owned. He will never be a man who didn't see her as property. Like, at some point, it actually becomes kind of more and more unlikely that this is a guy who took up this transaction for non-malicious purposes. Because we simply do not see it in the movie. What I see in the movie is a slave owner saying he fell on hard times and sold his slave to a farmer who probably needed help on his land or in his house - he has no wife, so the latter is probably more likely. I see him saying that at the time of the transaction, he had no idea that Cliegg intended to free her. And for all that Cliegg calls Shmi his darling, his love, his wife - not once do we ever hear of any evidence that Shmi saw this as a love match. In fact, the only thing we find out about her daily life with the Lars family is that in the mornings, she wakes up early and goes to pick mushrooms. You know. A task for the house. An unpleasant task, done before everyone else is awake, that she does absolutely alone. I'm just saying. These implications are not good ones. I will say though, for all this, do you know what really sells me on the idea that the relationship between Shmi and Cliegg is is not a consensual one, is Anakin's reaction to it. This is a boy whose entire hopes and dreams have revolved around his mother's freedom. You have more excellent writing than me on this, but the moral injury Anakin suffers leaving his mother behind is. Intense. All he wants is to one day free her. In a way, a part of him is always that tiny boy who couldn't bear the idea of leaving behind his mom, who swore, the last time he saw her, that he would free her. And at this moment, all of his dreams have seemingly come true! His mother is free. According to Watto, she's found love, and married. For all he knows, she's had other children. Maybe that could involve SOME complicated emotions, but mostly you would expect that he would feel, at the very least, relieved. Happy. Interested, curious. Instead, this is his reaction:

He's grim, business like. He is not happy. He is not relieved. He doesn't even seem to acknowledge that she's still alive - the way he reacts is not a man who thinks his mother is out of danger. To Anakin, who grew up enslaved until 9 and knows how this society works, it seems almost immediately apparent that the Lars are just a different kind of danger. There's also this rather interesting detail:

This is a boy who bleeds, every second of every day, longing for a family. He basically begs at obi-wan's feet day and night, to be acknowledged as a son. His reaction to his wife's pregnancy is radiant joy - his reaction to know she could die, profound existential horror. I mean good god, he basically turns Palpatine aka Satan Himself into a father figure, because he's that desperate for one. And here, this man is claiming him as his family. He's talked about being excited to see him. He talks about planning with Shmi to meet him. He calls him "son". And Anakin doesn't give him another moment of his time, the second those words are out of his mouth. It's silence. For a boy who is so starved for intimacy he genuinely falls in love with the very first girl who was ever nice to him, to react to a claim of relationship this way. It's bizarrely out of character for him. Unless it isn't. UNLESS he's disgusted by that claim, instead of relieved by it. If he thinks his mother has been bought and then forced into marriage, of course he hates Cliegg. I remember when we were watching the movie together, and remember I said to you "You can just tell Anakin is thinking, 'Call me son one more fucking time'" And can I be real, I have so much more to say about this. As you know, I actually have essays of opinions and feelings about Shmi Skywalker and her horrible life, and how Anakin was the one bright point she had in that horrible life. I have feelings about how she gave away her only happiness, because she knew he did not deserve the life of a slave. I had ideas about how you could turn this into a way to actually fix AOTC and make it better, a way you could use it as an excuse to get rid of the Tusken arc entirely without losing the tragedy of his mother's death. But this post is already so fucking long and I'm sure you're tired of me talking xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

#star wars #human trafficking tw #abuse tw #csa tw #rape tw #slavery tw #all the trigger warnings #GOD THIS MADE ME REALIZE HOW MUCH I FUCKING LOVE SHMI SKYWALKER #BECAUSE SHE HAD JUST #THE SHITTIEST LIFE RIGHT #LIKE SHES BORN INTO SLAVERY AND SHE DIES IN SLAVERY SHE LOSES EVERYTHING HER SON IS GONE SHES MARRIED TO HER SLAVE MASTER SHE DIES IN PAIN #BUT HER LOVE FOR ANAKIN WAS SO GOOD #SO INTENSELY AFFECTIONATE AND VALIDATING #EVEN IN ALL THAT HELL #THAT WHEN ITS RIPPED AWAY FROM HIM FOR GOOD ANAKIN BASICALLY LOSES HIMSELF ENTIRELY

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tripleglitchwriting · 4 months

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Ignition (Short 1)

CW: mostly fluff, mentions of war (both human and cybertronian)

Because I accidentally set the poll to a week rather than a day, I’m going to bridge the gap with a short story.

This is set shortly after part 4 because I like writing dialogue.

After the initial heart attack that was the last 48 hours or so, you began to feel more comfortable with this giant alien. He was kind, which was something you figured out after he saved your life, and he assured you he wasn’t going to kill you.

Now you were cupped in his hands while he walked back to this pod of his.

“So, what’s this pod thing we’re going to? Is it like a space ship?”

“Escape pod.” Ratchet remembered the crash. Well, he remembered what he could of it. Suddenly an old worry popped into his head.

“Right, right, escape pod.”

“Your injury, it wasn’t from… the crash, was it?”

“Oh, no, I fell down a cliff. It sounds stupid when I say it out loud.” Ratchet stifled an ex-vent of relief. “I was on a hike but I got lost, and then I started to panic because I don’t know how to survive in the wild, and then I panicked too hard and tripped in the worst spot imaginable.”

“You went out into an unknown area with no experience on how to survive there or any contingency plan if things went wrong?” He said with a mix of worry and vague frustration.

“Well there was a path… but there was also cool flowers off the path, and then I saw a rare bird, and then the path was gone. I really don’t know why I thought it would be a good idea to come out here, I should have known better. I was doing fine at home I just… I don’t know.”

“Does your kind usually do things like this?”

“No, not really. Just me.”

“I see. Are you… no offense, but are you the dominant species on this planet?”

“What? I mean, I guess, we’re the only ones that can talk and all. That we know of. Actually, it would probably be a shock to the world if they found out about you. Knowing us we’d probably start attacking or something.”

“Attack? Why would you do that?”

“Well, I mean, I wouldn’t, but I’ve taken enough history classes to know as a whole we can be… violent. I hope no one else saw you crash, things could get nasty if they see you as a threat.”

“Thats… quite primitive.”

“Oh, gee thanks.”

“No offense.”

“Probably should have led with that.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Ratchet hummed to himself for a second, and then he began to think out loud. “If they do find me at least I’ll be able to get away…”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well- I- I wouldn’t think your technology is exactly…”

“Not up to par with your superior standards? Well don’t worry about that. We have weapons that can wipe out the world in a span of hours. Every country has their hand over the big red launch button, and if they see you as too much to handle, somebody is going to get blown up.”

“What? That’s- that’s crazy! You mean to say your leaders would sacrifice… how ever many there are of you in a given area just to take me out?”

“They probably wouldn’t do straight to the nuclear option for one of you, but if there were more and they were killing people, then probably yeah. If things work like they do in the movies that is.” Ratchet paused, about to make some snide remark about the primitive violence of the human race, but he stopped when he remembered the history of his own people.

“…I’ll keep myself hidden then.”

“Oh, um, good. I wasn’t really expecting you to accept that so fast.”

“If my own history were any different I might not have.” He sank deeper into thought. “Doe, is there a medical station anywhere near here I can drop you off at?”

“Wait, I thought we were going to your pod?”

“We are, I just… I got caught up in healing you and… look, I’ll be honest, I don’t want you to get hurt. How many of you are there on this planet?”

“I- I don’t know, 7, maybe 8 billion?”

“Billio- scrap.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“It’s fine, it’s nothing. Let’s just… talk about something else.”

“Well, alright I guess.” After you said that, both you and Ratchet stayed silent for an agonizingly awkward minute. You felt the sway of him walking waft through your entire body, a feeling you haven’t even began to get used to. He seemed largely unaware of this, at least to your knowledge, and instead looked forward with a serious expression.

“How about we talk about… the weather. It certainly is sunny today! And there are… uh, a couple clouds… wait, no that’s just a weird tree.”

“You aren’t great at small talk.”

“How about you try then?”

“…no.”

“Oh I see how it is. Fine, you’ll just have to deal with my terrible communication skills.” You took a deep breath, preparing to go on a rant about whatever was on your mind.

“Oh please don’t.”

“Unless you’re going to say something I will.”

“Alright, alright. What do you want me to talk about?”

“That’s up to you, conversation expert.” You smiled smugly up at him. He huffed in return.

For the next five minutes he talked about his life up to this point. His friends, his enemies, glossing over assumedly painful details. In your mind a picture started to form about all of this. He wasn’t just an alien, he was a person. A person with real relationships, real love and loss, real war, real family. You felt silly having not seen it before.

A friend. You’d like to think that’s what you were now, though it was tough to tell based on the way he acted. You wondered who all of his other friends could be, where they were, and you even went as far as to silently wish them well.

Arriving back at the pod, hopping off the hand of a giant alien that saved you from dying the woods, you realized this may have been more than you bargained for.

#transformers #transformers g/t #tripleglitchwrites #g/t #gn human reader #gn reader #ratchet #transformers first contact #human reader

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gloryhrs · 11 months

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⟡ 𝓒𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝓢𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 ━━ 「 Shinji Hirako. 」

✿.*･｡ ꒰ black male reader, high school au!, reader & shinji are both 18/3rd years in highschool, delinquent! shinji (he smokes weed & is a lil mean lol), shinji & hiyori are related, smut (?) at the end idk, shinji is also extremely obsessed w/the reader (real), ah this took me so long (∩´﹏`∩) i don’t know if i’m going to keep it up for long, click 4 art creds! ꒱

ʚɞ ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ SHINJI Hirako, 10, wiped the imaginary sweat from his brow. Today is the day he confesses to his best friend, Y/n L/n. His mother and yours had been good friends since high school, which explained why you and he were like two peas in a pod, having known each other since infancy. Shinji couldn't have asked for a better best friend than you; you both slept over at each other's houses daily, played video games, watched horror movies, and snacked on sweets all weekend. When you spent time with him, his heart began to race, his palms sweated, and his cheeks turned a vivid shade of crimson, indicating that he had strange feelings for you. Because of your kindness and the way you care for him, his affection for you grew stronger by the day. His younger sister, Hiyori, used to mock him and label him a coward for not being able to express himself to you, but that will change today!

When he spotted you walking out of the classroom with Kensei and Love, aka your bodyguards, he tightened his grip on the small box of chocolate and flowers. Instead of standing in the center of the hallway, he carefully worked his way up to the youthful group of boys. He observed as you stopped chatting to the boys and focused on him walking, making him much more nervous than before. "Hi, Shinji!" You smiled and waved at your blonde-haired best friend, who looked like he was about to pass out. Kensei and Love turned to look at the sweets and flowers in the boy's hand. He handed the flowers and chocolates out to you with his head lowered before any of them could say anything. "H-Hi Y/n! Please go out on a date with me! You’re the coolest, kindest, and sweetest person I’ve ever met! I promise you won’t be sorry!" His voice cracked at nearly every word, leading Kensei to cover his mouth to stifle the laughter. Love sighed and turned his head in the opposite direction, attempting to erase the scene he just saw.

When Kensei began to snicker at him, you frowned and lightly smacked the back of his head. "Shin, don't be so shy; I've known you for years. And, of course, I'll go with you!" You took the box and flowers from his hands as the dumbbells on his shoulders rolled off with ease, which meant his nervousness was disappearing. He quickly got up and straightened his posture with a bright smile on his face. Before he could form his next sentence, a set of lips that belonged to you brushed across his cheek. Making him lose all sense and turn as red as a tomato. "We should ask our moms to take us to that new arcade you talked about!" You told him as he nodded mindlessly with a silly grin on his lips. "Yeah, we enjoy arcades." His voice cracked once more, this time making you giggle. Both Kensei and Love curved their heads to the side as they witnessed the sight. "Oh, brother! Look for a classroom." Kensei fake gagged as Love sighed, realizing beforehand that this blossoming relationship was most likely going to be a problem in the future.

ʚɞ ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ AND Love was completely correct. If he believed Shinji was in love with you in elementary and middle school, he had no idea what was in store for him after everyone entered high school. By this point, everyone knew Shinji was obsessed with you. From having your name tattooed on his forearm and finger to having your initials pierced in his ear, having you as his lock screen and home screen, and owning an I Heart My Boyfriend shirt somewhere in his closet, he's got it all. He's also your biggest fan! From his frequent appearances at your games, he is usually the loudest one in the bleachers, holding a poster. Being the one to carry you and your belongings when it's time to leave, as well as ordering takeout for you and him for the night. Shinji was the greatest boyfriend! No one could tell you otherwise. Most classmates assumed you threw a spell on the blonde, but it turns out he was just in love.

The sound of laughter was the only thing that could be heard from the janitor’s closet. The laughter belonging to you and Shinji, who dragged you in there the moment he saw you in the hall. "Shin, we’re going to be late for class." You murmured as your boyfriend proceeded to kiss your lips, ignoring the fact that not only you would be late but he as well. The small space of the janitor's closet is causing him to press you against the wall, with him lifting your thigh till it reaches his waist. "It doesn't matter if you don't turn up. Plus, I missed you." His pierced tongue dragged across your soft, ebony skin while his lips whispered into the crook of your neck. You ran your fingers through his soft golden hair. "I've missed you too, which is why I'm here. So that I can see you." You sighed. This is what happens when you separate yourself from him for longer than a day. He’ll turn into a baby crying for its mama.

"I barely see you now because you've been so caught up with volleyball and those damn club activities. I thought you forgot about me." He scoffed, his gaze now fixed on yours. You've participated in almost every club and sport since the first year of high school. That's why you were so popular. You gently smiled as you placed both hands on his cheeks, bringing him in for another kiss. "You know I can never forget about you, baby. Plus, I'm free today. This week, Rose, Lisa, and Love are in charge of the clubs. And I don’t have practice until next week." You grinned while playing with his several ear piercings, your initials dangling from his right lobe in gold and diamonds.

Shinji's eyes instantly lit up as he flashed his well-known smile, displaying his gorgeous pearly whites. "And yes, we can finally play that new street fighter game you were talking about." You pecked his cheeks as he buried his face into the crook of your neck, getting a good whiff of your scent before signing. "Mhmm, I love you. Also, you smell so fuckin' good. Like freshly baked cookies mixed with cocoa butter. It makes me want to eat you." He murmured, never letting his smile go. His sweet but strong aroma invaded your nostrils as you chuckled and buried your face in his shoulder. "I love you too, Shin. You smell like vanilla cupcakes with a hint of weed. Which you most likely smoked during lunch." He laughed and drew his face away from your neck. You could read him like a picture book. "Oops." He gave you his signature smirk, his hands trailing from your waist to one of his favorite parts of your body.

"Shin, don't let them find you smoking on school grounds. They almost sent you to detention for three months the last time you were caught." You scolded your partner, who was rolling his eyes. Because of that wet floor prank he committed in his first year, which resulted in the principal injuring his back, the staff were utter jerks to him. "Keyword, almost! My wonderful boyfriend bailed me out and convinced them to shorten my sentence." He kissed your cheek, and because you were one of the school's favorite students, you persuaded the administration to ease up on your nutty boyfriend's punishment. They eventually reduced his sentence from three months to one week of cleaning duties.

"But in all seriousness, I’m so lucky you’re my boyfriend. Everything about you is so perfect that sometimes I wonder what would’ve happened if I hadn’t confessed. Just looking at you drives me insane." He whispered, now placing his hands on your ass and gently sucking on the flesh with his lips against your neck. You sighed and tilted your head back, feeling yourself fall into his trap but swiftly snapping out of it. "Shin, don't start again." You bit your lip to keep the stream of noises from coming out, knowing that if you made a sound, he wouldn't stop. He groaned, "Oh, come on. If we stay a little longer, I can show you what else my tongue piercing can do." He ran his hands up your button-up shirt, making you shiver under his cold fingers. You felt your cheeks become hot at the sentence; you knew him for over a decade and still couldn’t get used to his flirtatious demeanor.

"Maybe later, but we have to go now." You pulled away while adjusting your black-framed glasses. It takes some time for the burning sensation on your cheeks to fade away. Shinji followed behind as you opened the door, which revealed the familiar set of teenagers. Shinji put his arm around your shoulder and glared at the group, specifically Ichigo. Ichigo rolled his eyes, and Orihime waved as Uryu and Chad turned their heads away from the couple. Keigo's cheeks flushed a deep scarlet, his mouth dropping from pair. He was undoubtedly thinking negatively. "Eh? What the hell are you guys doing outside the door waiting for?" You whacked Shinji's arm as he swore at the gathering of first-year students. Ichigo scoffed at the man with blonde hair who stuck his tongue out and stuck the middle finger from behind your head.

"Are you blind? We're here to put these supplies up! But, of course, you're absent from class!" The Kurosaki argued back with the third year, who was grinding his teeth together, trying to keep back a torrent of vulgarities and insults. "What on earth were you two doing in the closet?" Keigo asked, his curiosity (and nosiness) getting the best of him. "What did you think we were doing?! Picking fucking daisies?!" He snapped at the youngster, who shrieked and hid behind Chad. Keigo's eyes widened as his cheeks blushed again, putting two and two together. You sighed and pinched your boyfriend's cheek, inflicting pain on him. "I'm sorry about him. We're already late, Shinji, so let's go." You waved farewell to the teens and tugged on his arm as he followed, not before turning around and flashing the middle finger at Ichigo, who quickly returned the gesture.

"I can’t believe L/n-san is dating someone like him." Ichigo grimaced at the sight of the male, who grinned and pulled you closer to him while giving multiple kisses to your lips, not caring about the students walking by. "They’re so cute! From what I heard, they’ve been in a relationship since elementary school!" Orihime squealed at the couple, and Keigo's mouth dropped to the floor. Elementary school?! He remembered when all the girls ran away from him on the playground. How could someone like you date a delinquent like Shinji? "Huh?! Is that why he’s so obsessed with L/N? I wish someone loved me like that." Crocodile tears streamed down his face as he looked at the couple. "Maybe because you’re a weirdo." "WHAT?!"

"Babe, why did you do that." Shinji massaged his reddish cheek while pouting. "I warned you about cursing at the first years, Shin." You just stated, as he sneered and rolled his eyes, this wasn't his first time in trouble for yelling or cursing at a group of students. He still remembered how the majority of them accused him of insulting them, which resulted in him being thrown in detention. "Are we going to your house today?" You changed the subject because you didn't want to hear his complaints. "Yeah, my mom is working the night shift, and Hiyori is staying at Mashiro's. So we can have as much fun as we want." You didn't have to look at him to notice the type of smile he wore as he leaned into your ear.

"You’re right, we can have fun all night." Your fingertips brushed against his exposed collarbones as you moved your hand up his chest. "But if you could just do one thing for me, please." As your hand moved to caress his cheek, you grinned. Shinji nodded while becoming utterly hypnotized. "If you don't make any more trouble today, I'll give you anything you want." Your minty breath fanned over his lips as your lips brushed against his. Shinji nodded his head again after taking a quick look at your lips. Knowing that the only way to persuade him to behave properly is to bring something to the table, you hummed and pulled him into a kiss.

ʚɞ ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ "FINALLY, I'm done." Shinji sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. He clicked the x to close each tab while complaining. He put the joint to his lips while leaning back on the headboard and proceeded to doze off while gazing at his roof, the music playing from the speakers lulling him into a trance. When he heard the bathroom door open, he turned his attention away from the roof and watched as you emerged from the room wearing just a shirt. His eyes studied your physique, revealing just how much those workouts altered your body. You chuckled at your partner, who was virtually stripping you down with his eyes, when you heard the wolf whistle from across the room. "Nice thighs, babe." He smiled at you as you took off the shower cap from your hair and showed him your h/c locs, which were no longer pulled into a ponytail.

"Thank you, baby. Did you finish your homework?" You slipped into the bed as he blew out the smoke, his half-lidded eyes peering back into yours. "Mhmm, now come sit on my lap." He patted his lap with the same grin on his face. When you got into his lap, his hand grabbed your waist and pulled you closer until your chest touched his. Shinji's half-lidded eyes scanned your features; your beautiful e/c eyes were enough to put him in another trance. Not to mention how your h/c locs and the golden jewelry swayed with every movement you made. In his eyes, no one was as beautiful as you. "My boyfriend is so pretty." He muttered, his hand resting on your thigh and letting the flesh seep through his fingers. "Mine is too." You beamed, your hands running past his tank top to feel his toned chest.

"Gimme a kiss." He grinned and placed the joint on the tray, now gripping your ass with both hands. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him in. Once your plump lips met his, he pushed his tongue past your lips. Allowing him to explore the damp cavern, the subtle taste of bubblegum toothpaste lured him closer. He groaned when he felt your ass against his clothed cock. From the way you rocked back and forth on his lap, you were completely aware of what you were doing. "Mhmm." You moaned when he began to rock your hips against his rising boner; his mouth completely absorbed the rest of your sinful sounds. When he pulled away from the kiss, you whimpered while he grinned and gently pushed you down onto the mattress. The blonde took the joint and pressed it to his lips, chuckling at his boyfriend, who squirmed on the mattress. "S–Shin please." You called out to your lover as you rubbed your thighs together, yearning for friction since he had stopped.

Shinji put the stick down and crawled between your legs after deciding to listen to your pleading. "Please what baby?" He sucked on your neck with a sideways tilt of his head and a smirk on his lips. The smell of brown sugar drove him to lick and suck every area of your neck, and he could feel himself growing drunk on your trademark scent. When you wrapped your legs around his waist and yanked on his golden locks, he let out a moan. "I-I need you right now." You exhale, the cold metal on your skin making you quiver. Shinji chuckled and drew away from your neck, exposing the dark marks he'd produced on your flesh. He bit his lip and placed his fingers around your neck as he felt himself becoming harder at the sight. His slim fingers gripped the sides of it, causing you to choke on your moans.

"So pretty." He muttered as he removed your shirt, exposing your beautiful dark brown skin. His fingertips skimmed across your beautiful skin before brushing against your nipples, causing you to tilt your head back. "A little sensitive, aren’t you?" He questioned, his thumb and index finger rolling over the sensitive bud while sucking on the other. "O-Oh, Shinji." As he continued to suck on the delicate flesh, you fisted his hair when he tugged on the bud before flicking it off with his tongue. Shinji rutted his hips against yours once more after hearing you say moan his name countless of times. "Shin, p–please kiss me." You exhaled through the moans as he lifted his head from your chest, smirking as he observed your dazed expression.

When his lips made contact with yours, he pushed past your luscious lips. As he groaned against the warmth of your lips, his hands explored your thighs once more. He couldn't get over the smooth tenderness of your lips, no matter how many times he kissed you. His saliva tasted like the sweets he had recently eaten. You both kissed each other as though one of you was going to vanish at any moment. You whimpered as he broke away, missing the feel of his lips. His lustful gaze returned to your needy ones. When he noticed you pouting, he sucked his teeth. "What exactly is it now?" He sighed. You were always so damn whiny when you got worked up. "Can you take your s–shirt off? Please?" You pulled on the fabric that covered his torso, concealing the other tattoos as well. Shinji's eyes softened, and he said, "Of course, baby." He yanked off the tank top and tossed it across the room.

He witnessed as your eyes sparkled at the sight of his chest, your fingertips brushing against the tattoos on his torso. "Do you like what you see?" He teased you as you nodded mindlessly, your gaze fixed on his chest, notably his nipple piercings. "Take off your pants, too." Shinji raised an eyebrow when you spoke to him. What? The way you talked to him gave the impression that he had already fucked your head up. He took both of your hands and pinned them above your head, making you squirm at his gaze. "What's the magic word, sweets?" He asked, his other hand clasping around your neck once more. You poked your lips out while making your infamous puppy eyes at him. "Please?" You tilted your head, giving it a more innocent appearance.

"Good boy. You won’t be needing these anymore." He slapped your thigh before tearing your underwear off, causing you to gasp as cold air hit your cock. When he reached down to the waistline of his sweatpants and teasingly tugged at the fabric, you bit your lip. Shinji laughed again when he heard your whining. "Please, hurry up." You whispered, your mouth watering. Shinji finally decided to stop his taunting and removed his sweatpants and underwear. "O-Oh my," you spoke unconsciously, leaving you in awe of his glory. His gaze moved down your body, stopping on your member that begged to be stroked. "Would you take a look at that? Someone is quite eager." He teased, making you cover your face with your hands.

"Don't look away, baby; let me see that pretty face of yours." He pulled your hands off your face and repeatedly pecked your lips. Even though this wasn't the first time you had seen Shinji naked or stripped off in front of him, it always made you shy. Before taking you and his cock and holding them in one hand, Shinji gave you one final kiss on the lips. His hands felt so amazing on yours that you softly moaned when they made contact with your erection. You both made a series of moans as soon as he started moving his hand. The unfamiliar sensation was like bliss. "Shit, this felt better than last time." Shinji cursed as he watched the gorgeous look on your face transform into unbearable pleasure. From the looks of it, this was going to be a long night for you both.

#(ㅅ´ ˘ `) @gloryhrs . . . !#anime #manga #animanga #bleach #bleach tybw #bleach x reader #bleach x male reader #black reader #black male reader #male reader #bleach imagines #bleach oneshot #bleach smut #shinji #shinji hirako #shinji hirako x reader #shinji hirako x male reader #bleach shinji

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mecachrome · 4 months

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your oscar primer was absolutely brilliant, thank you so much for posting it!! well-researched, well-written, and a good balance of educational and hilarious. if you want to share, i’d be very interested in reading any of the parts you mentioned that you cut out, like george-admiring, oscar’s psyche, etc, but no pressure ofc 🫶

omg no thank you so much for your kind words, i appreciate it a lot!!! :D andddd let me see... honestly i was just going to add a few more quotes & anecdotes from other people about his personality but i ended up incorporating most of them into the primer (e.g. mark's), but in general i think it's really charming how Every Single Adult who has ever worked with oscar throughout the years is so deeply and immediately convinced of his maturity. i did work in most of this old ask but it has a few extra quotes in there from mclaren personnel! anyway more below the cut:

i guess really the thing to Me about oscar is like...... idk if this makes any sense but i personally love how he's naturally a really gracious and diplomatic person but is also deeeeeply self-assured and objective, which on one hand means he presents as quite humble when he doesn't make excuses for himself or get caught up in deceptively high results, but on the other also means he refuses to give anyone else credit for his own success; if you remember me briefly mentioning prematax in that post he talks about it in the f1fs pod where he basically goes i didn't win because of PREMA, in fact i've NEVER LOST TO A TEAMMATE, SO. like any racing driver that is def a big source of pride for him, and i think it speaks to the "silent killer" (per lando) side to him, the guy who mark says "falls asleep" when hearing stories of his (championless) career, who said that he supported mark out of national obligation growing up but—let us not forget—vettel was the one winning everything back then anyway, who says he put even more pressure on himself to win his final race in f2 despite having clinched the title 2 races prior because he felt the innate urge to prove that he wouldn't simply ease off the gas pedal and still had it in himself to subjugate the field one last time.

along these lines oomf and i have discussed before how he and alex rank similarly on the kind/nice dichotomy in a way that is slightly diametric to lando, wherein he is always willing to offer tidy bits of sympathy for someone else's struggles but doesn't ever really envision any of them as relevant to his own experiences, because getting caught up in that "external noise" would be a waste of time (even with logan in the f3 finale it was honestly kind of like "aw man that sucks, i'd hate for it to be me... ANYWAY"). like not to maybe exaggerate his interiority but i enjoy that he carries an amount of hidden tension that he obviously consciously decides to not take reactionary measures over—though that doesn't mean it isn't there, it's just very well regulated (unrelated but he does actually work with mental coach emma murray, who also works with scott mclaughlin and whom he says helped him center himself at the end of his eurocup season). but he's still very... unfiltered about when he's been disrespected in an unperturbed, straightforward manner, like saying otmar confronting him on the sim over being promoted to the seat was "bizarre and frankly upsetting," the face he made when he was told they'd overtaken alpine in the standings in 2023, telling the kids in that hp tuners interview that the renault engineers treated his first f1 test too nonchalantly, etc. 😭 like every interview back when he was a reserve driver was soooo "i'm gracious about being stuck in this role but also i've proven myself way too much to Not Hate This Compromise and i'll be pissed as hell if i don't get a seat next year"... i'll stop here but basically he is truly a master of balancing gritted-teeth conviction with his tactical charm and it is one of my fav things ever about him!!!

also another quote i love is this one from david sera about his driving style, because 1) i love the correlation between it and his personality/calmness, 2) i'm obsessed with the dynamic of his early rc days helping nurture a style of "finesse" in his driving throughout his junior career that may not have appeared naturally if he'd only begun racing in karting (and subsequently how he had to learn to not get "muscled around" after moving to europe), and 3) of course as a noted jb22 appreciator i love when people note similarities in his inputs to jb because it is delicious to ME:

Coming from a remote control car background where concentration, finesse and smooth inputs, these were the traits we saw in Oscar in the cadet category. [...] You would often see other drivers have an advantage in the early part of the race, driving more aggressively, but Oscar had a more calm approach.

c__c but back to the first part of the ask and our good friend russell jorge, i'm mostly obsessed with oscar's reactions to his performance at the rollercoaster that was spa 2021 and the fact that he's been so vocally appreciate of george "outperforming" the car he was in. the 2 instances of the word HERO on his twitter:

and then this quote in an interview he did in 2022:

"[Success] is definitely not just defined by just world championships, and if you can outperform the car that you're in—I think George Russell has been a very fine example of that in years previous, you know, constantly getting the most out of that Williams and of course Spa. (laughs) Bit controversial, but he got a podium at the end of the day! And even without that, he qualified second, he outqualified everyone except Max in a Williams, which, you know, is an unbelievable result."

also george being the only f1 driver (i think) to tweet him for his f2 title :saluting_face:

AND ALSO THEM SHARING THE ANECDOTE OF THEIR AWKWARD FIRST MEETING ON THE FAST & CURIOUS POD??? aka oscar was told in his april 2023 ep that they were going to interview george next and he was like oh ok you can ask him about our "slightly left-field introduction," and then they had george on who was like oh yeah i met oscar for the first time washing our hands together in the bathroom on our way to the ausgp in 2020 😭 what a way to meet.

#ask #SORRY FOR THIS WORD SALAD...

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planetarysemaphor · 6 months

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𝔼𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕞𝕦𝕥𝕖 𝟘𝟙

Slugs are friends.

01.Rigelian Bodyplans

Mmf'tir. A race hailing from the 2nd moon of Rigel. A fairly warm, oceanic world. According to their ships archives, they are a living fossil on their homeworld, one of the last of the Mucorposi kingdom, their survival is thanks to a number of reasons, but most important one of them is their insane adaptability, spawned out of their equally unhinged lifecycle.

_ (fig.1 Rigelian Hydra (Mmf'tir<a>umf'm)) The Rigelians' life starts inside the hydra as a bud. These buds grow into the larval rigelian, and develop internal organs before fully separating from their host.

The Hydra itself is the backbone of rigelian social structure, serving as both a nursery, 3d printer and information server. It's the longest living form of a rigelian, able to survive up to 230 years, however, due to the fact it has no "main" head, it is unable to heptate, and therefore is doomed to expire. This however, does not bother the hydra, as it does not posses any manner of autonomy, it's previously exhibited personality erased entirely.

_ ((fig.2 Rigelian larvae(Mmf'aAr))

The larvae remain in the shallow waters for the better part of 6 years as they grow in both sentience and shape. During this time, they go from animals in need of tending to, to menial workers, able to preform manual labor in specially designed exobodies.

_ (fig.3 Rigelian larvae piloting an Aethlynn exobody)

The Aethlynn was developed long before the first official contact with humans to aid in ambassadorial duties. As you can see, it's nervous system is not integrated into the larvas, allowing for easy separation when need arises.

_ (fig.4 The Aethlynns major structural components) This body is a middle ground between rigelian and human anatomy, created based on the data received by the rigelian ships brain over 192 years prier to it's arrival in the solar system. At that time, the ship had not utilized electronic sequencing interpretation. So from what little it could understand, it sourced that humans had long, dexterous upper appendages and strong, upright standing lower ones. This minuscule amount of info it applied to the basic rigelian body plan, resulting in the aethlynn.

_ (fig.5 Rigelian larvae piloting a golem exobody)

The golem is a unique exobody, a result of collaboration between rigelian colonists and humans. If we remove the opaque exogracii, we can see that the main body is an incredibly dense pod of structural exogracii, making the golem a kind of hardsuit for manual labor.

_ (fig.6 golem exobody with opaque exogracci removed)

These exobodies have become so popular, than there are multiple scientific efforts to create a method to allow for other races to pilot them, sadly, there has yet to be any meaningful development on it.

_ (fig.6 Adult Rigelian(Mmf'tyr))

Also known as "the heirophant" this exobody is unique as it's nervous system fully integrates the larva into itself, allowing not only for more precise control, but also heptation and further evolution. The Rigelian will spent around 30 years in this state, until it heptates, turns into a hydra, or expires of old age.

_ (fig.7 Side by Side size comparison)

Rigelians evolved to be rather large due their amphibious lifestyle, of course, it should be noted, that any exobody can be modified by the hydra to suit the rigelians personality and preferences. The most popular bodypart to grow among the colonists are the sensory lobes on their head, which allow for a better depth channel pickup range.

#Endless mute #sci-fi #lmao slug #alien

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erose-this-name · 2 months

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what it means to be human

The common correct definition of the word "human" (according to science anyway) is HOMO

No, not like, gay, (unfortunately). I mean any member of the Homo genus. Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis etc.

Yes, the Neanderthals were human. There used to be many humans. We, the Sapiens, are just the last remaining human species.

But we don't remember a time when this was not the case. So we often conflate "humanity" with "species" with "sapience" with "personhood". (even though just calling ourselves human is the common usage and was also the scientific usage until a century or so ago, but still)

So what is and what isn't human?

This is an issue in my own writing (which is why I wrote this post). Since it's a speculative evolution project, I use the scientific meaning of human, which is to say only ever as a collective term for all the humans. There are many species of human which are people, there are humans and species of humans which are no longer people, and there are people that are not human.

All monsters are inhuman, that is a given regardless of how inhumane they are. Though I feel like "subhuman" has no accurate applications, though. "Human" should not mean superiority.

Unless the monster has human origins like a werewolf or humanimal, etc, in which case they would still be human. But they may no longer be people if they are emotionless, mindless, not self aware.

I don't know if a "soul" is required for personhood, certainly not for humanity. Mindless zombies may be reanimated with a soul, therefore have a soul, but that doesn't make them a person. Vampires usually do not have souls, but surely are still people.

Anything evolutionarily descendant from anything once called a human is still a human, even if they no longer resemble one. Kinda like how all birds are dinosaurs.

I don't know if Pinnochio can become a real human, taxonomy can only be inherited by birth and Pinnochio was not born. But I can say that becoming a real boy can not change the fact that he was already a person. In fact, he was always a real boy as well. Gender and sex and humanity and personhood are of course separate.

Likewise, I'm not sure if human minds uploaded to mechanical or didgital bodies like the All Tomorrows Gravitals or in SOMA cease to be human or not, though I lean towards them losing humanity but not personhood. But most 40k Necrons do lose both personhood and Necrontyr-ity (they weren't humans to begin with but aliens) as they are made into mindless machines. But cyborgs retain humanity if they retain any human flesh.

Elves/Dwarves/Halflings could possibly be humans, depending on if they have some kind of shared origins with us.

Hence why I don't like calling the "Human" """Race""" in fantasy settings "Human", especially if the "humans" in that setting are Just White People™ because then we're normalizing the idea that only Europeans are Humans and that only Humans are people and the obvious logical conclusion to that.

An intelligent self-aware robot capable of all the emotions we have like GLaDOS, AM, etc is not a human, of course not, but it is a person. Not being human makes them no less deserving of life or rights. But, because they are not human, we will surely treat them like objects when they are made. And they may feel the need to act accordingly.

Bottlenose dolphins, which scientists have found to also be sapient, and self-aware, and quite intelligent, and can use tools, even have their own languages and cultures must surely also be people.

But, because dolphins are not human, we have decided they are just animals and their lives and quality of life are worth much less than ours. We can strip their oceans of all value leaving only pollution, deafen and blind them with ship motors, and even kill them without consequence. We don't even have the decency to call what we've done to dolphin pods "peace keeping", let alone war. But it's "crimes against humanity", not "crimes against people".

Say what you will about dolphins, accounts of them raping each other and abusing pufferfish are well known, so they aren't always nice people. But neither are we. Dolphins are also known to save drowning humans and fight off sharks to protect their pods. Doesn't that only prove they also have the same free will we do? Why is it that when we finally acknowledge their humanless personhood, so close to ours, we feel hate and disgust?

If/when we find intelligent aliens, will we do all this again?

And if the aliens or elder gods or whatever it is find us, will they have the same issue? Will they consider Humans underserving of life and land just because we aren't Alien? Will we deserve it?

#writing #writeblr #spilled thoughts #speculative biology #world building #scifi

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