Tumgik
#this is what happens when you don’t use references folks
neverfearforiamhere · 6 months
Text
It’s the girls!!! Augh I love them so much, they deserve the world
Tumblr media
17 notes · View notes
carriesthewind · 1 year
Text
Oh dear.
So as some of you may know, I love to point and laugh at bad legal arguments. And as fun as legal dumpster fires are when they are made by people who aren’t lawyers but think this whole “law” thing seems pretty simple, it’s even funnier when an actual, barred attorney is the person dumping gallons of kerosene into the dumpster.
And oh boy folks, do I have a fun ride for y’all today. Come with me on this journey, as we watch a lawyer climb into the dumpster and deliberately pour kerosene all over himself, while a judge holds a match over his head.
The court listener link is here, for those who want to grab a few bowls of popcorn and read along.
For those of you who don’t enjoy reading legal briefs for cases you aren’t involved with on your day off (I can’t relate), I will go through the highlights here. I will screenshot and/or paraphrase the relevant portion of the briefs, and include a brief explainer of what’s going on (and why it’s very bad, but also extremely funny). (Also, I’m not going to repeat this throughout the whole write-up, so for the record: any statements I make about how the law or legal system works is referring exclusively to the U.S. (And since this is a federal case, we are even more specifically looking at U.S. federal law.) Also, I don’t know how you could construe any of this to be legal advice, but just in case: none of this is, is intended to be, or should be taken as, legal advice.)
First, let’s get just a quick background on the case, to help us follow along. In brief, this is a civil tort suit for personal injury based on defendant’s (alleged) negligence. The plaintiff is suing the defendant (an airline), because he says that he was injured when a flight attendant struck his knee with a metal cart, and the airline was negligent in letting this happen. The airline filed a motion to dismiss on the grounds that there is an international treaty that imposes a time bar for when these kind of cases can be brought against an airline, and the plaintiff filed this case too many years after the incident.
The fun begins when the plaintiff’s attorney filed an opposition to the motion to dismiss. (So far, a good and normal thing to do.) The opposition argues that the claim is not time-barred because 1) the time bar was tolled by the defendant’s bankruptcy proceedings (that is, the timer for the time limitation was paused when the defendant was in bankruptcy, and started again afterwords), and 2) the treaty’s time limit doesn’t apply to this case because the case was filed in state court before the state statute of limitations expired, and the state court has concurrent jurisdiction over this kind of case.
I’m struggling a bit to succinctly explain the second reason, and there’s a reason for that.
You see, the whole opposition reads a bit…oddly.
Tumblr media
This is how the opposition begins its argument, and it’s…weird. The basic principle is...mostly correct here, but the actual standard is that when reviewing a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim (which is what the defendant filed) the court must draw all reasonable factual inferences in the plaintiff’s favor. But even then, you don’t just put that standard in your opposition. You cite to a case that lays out the standard.
Because that’s how courts and the law work. The courts don’t operate just based on vibes. They follow statutory law (laws made by legislature) and case law (the decisions made by courts interpreting what those laws mean). You don't just submit a filing saying, "here's what the law is," without citing some authority to demonstrate that the law is what you say (or are arguing) it is.
Tumblr media
Again, this isn’t wrong (although I'm not sure what it means by new arguments?), but it’s weird! And part of the reason it’s weird is that it is irrelevant to the defendant’s motion to dismiss. The defendant filed a motion stating that based on the facts in the complaint, the plaintiff has not stated a claim based on which relief can be granted, because the complaint is time barred by a treaty. There is no reason for this language to be in the opposition. It’s almost like they just asked a chatbot what the legal standards are for a motion to dismiss for a failure to state a claim, and just copied the answer into their brief without bother to double-check it.
The opposition then cites a bunch of cases which it claims support its position. We will skip them for now, as the defendant will respond to those citations in its reply brief.
The last thing in the brief is the signature of the lawyer who submitted the brief affirming that everything in the brief is true and correct. An extremely normal - required, even! - thing to do. This will surely not cause any problems for him later.
Tumblr media
The next relevant filing is the defendant’s reply brief. Again, the existence of a reply brief in response to an opposition is extremely normal. The contents of this brief are…less so.
Tumblr media
Beg pardon?
Just to be clear, this is not normal. It is normal to argue that the plaintiff’s cases are not relevant, or they aren’t applicable to this case, or you disagree with the interpretations, or whatever. It is not normal for the cases to appear to not exist.
Some highlights from the brief:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Quick lesson in how to read U.S. case citations! The italicized (or underlined) part at the beginning is the name of the case. If it is a trial court case, the plaintiff is listed first and the defendant second; if the case has been appealed, the person who lost at the lower court level (the petitioner/appellant) will be listed first, and the person who won at the lower level (the respondent/appellee) will be listed second. There are extremely specific rules about which words in these names are abbreviated, and how they are abbreviated. Next, you list the volume number and name of the reporter (the place where the case is published), again abbreviated according to very specific rules, then the page number that the case starts on. If you are citing a case for a specific quote or proposition, you then put a comma after the beginning page number, and list the page number(s) on which the quote or language you are relying on is located (this is called a “pincite”). Finally, you put in parenthesis the name of the court (if needed)(and again, abbreviated according to extremely specific rules) and the year the case was decided.
So the plaintiff’s response cited to Zicherman, which they said was a case from 2008 that was decided by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the defendant was not able to find such a case. They were able to find a case with the same name (the same petitioner and respondent), but that case was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1996, and the lower court cases associated with that case weren’t in the 11th circuit either. (The United States Reports is the only official reporter for the U.S. Supreme Court, and only includes SCOTUS decisions, so it’s not necessary to include the name of the court before the year it was decided.)
Tumblr media
Just to be clear. The defendant’s brief is saying: the plaintiff cited and extensively quoted from these cases, and neither the cases nor the quotations appear to exist. These “cases” were not ancillary citations in the plaintiff’s brief. They were the authority it relied upon to make its arguments.
This is as close a lawyer can come, at this point in the proceedings, to saying, “opposing counsel made up a bunch of fake cases to lie to the court and pretend the law is something different than it is.”
Tumblr media Tumblr media
That, “Putting aside that here is no page 598 in Kaiser Steel,” is delightfully petty lawyer speak for, “you are wrong on every possible thing there is to be wrong about.”
By page 5, the defendant has resorted to just listing all of the (apparently) made up cases in a footnote:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
(skipping the citations to support this proposition)
Tumblr media
This is where I return to my struggle to explain the opposition’s second reason why the motion to dismiss should not be granted. I struggled to explain the argument, because they failed to explain why the argument they were making (that plaintiffs can bring lawsuits against airlines in state court, and the state court have specific statutes of limitations for general negligence claims) was relevant to the question of whether the plaintiff’s specific claim against the airline was time barred by the treaty. Because 1) this case is in federal court, not state court, and 2) federal law - including treaties - preempts state law. Again, it’s almost like plaintiff’s attorney just typed a question about the time bar into a chatbot or something, and the machine, which wasn’t able to reason or actually analyze the issues, saw a question about the time to bring a lawsuit and just wrote up an answer about the statute of limitations.
We also end with a nice little lawyerly version of “you fucked up and we are going to destroy you.” The relief requested in the defendant’s original motion to dismiss was:
Tumblr media
In their reply to the opposition, however:
Tumblr media
“The circumstances” in this case, being the apparent fabrication of entire cases. Because courts tend to take that pretty seriously.
And the court took it seriously indeed. The defendant’s reply was docketed on March 15th of this year. On April 11th:
Tumblr media
AKA: you have one week (an extremely prompt time frame for federal court) to prove to me that you didn’t just make up these cases.
On April 12th, the plaintiff’s attorney requests more time because he’s on vacation:
Tumblr media
The judge grants the motion, but adds in another case that he forgot to include in his first order.
On April 25th, the plaintiff’s attorney files the following:
Tumblr media
(And he lists the cases, with one exception, which he says is an unpublished decision.)
But he says of all of the cases except two, that the opinions…
Tumblr media
Which is…nonsense?
First of all: if you cited a case, you had to get it from somewhere. Even unpublished opinions, if you are citing them in a brief, you are citing them because you pulled them off of westlaw or whatever. Which means you have access to the case and can annex it for the court. (There are even formal rules for how you cite unpublished opinions! And those rules include citing to where you pulled the damn case from!)
Secondly: remember that long digression I went into about how to read case citations? Remember that bit about how you include the name of the reporter (the place the case was published)? Yes, cases are published. They are printed in physical books, and they are published online in databases (e.g. lexis or westlaw). If the specific online database you are looking in does not have the case, you look somewhere else. If you have a judge telling you to get them a copy of the case Or Else, you track down a physical copy of the reporter if you need to and scan the damn thing yourself. You - literally - can’t just not have a copy of the case! (Especially published federal circuit court opinions, which multiple of these cases are! Those aren’t hard to find!)
And what kind of “online database” doesn’t include the entire opinion anyway? I’ve literally never heard of a case research database that only included partial opinions, because that wouldn’t be useful.
Maybe if we look at the attached annexed copies of the cases, that might give us some answers.
...
My friends, these things are just bizarre. With two exceptions, they aren’t submitted in any sort of conventional format. Even if you’ve never seen a legal opinion before, I think you can see the difference if you just glance through the filings. They are located at Docket entry #29 on Court Listener (April 25, 2023). Compare Attachments 6 and 8 (the real cases submitted in conventional format) to the other cases. Turning to the contents of the cases:
In the first one, the factual background is that a passenger sued an airline, then the airline filed a motion to dismiss (on grounds unrelated to the treaty's time bar), then the airline went into bankruptcy, then the airline won the motion to dismiss, then the passenger appealed. And the court is now considering that appeal. But then the opinion starts talking about how the passenger was in arbitration, and it seems to be treating the passenger like he is the one who filed for bankruptcy? It’s hallucinatory, even before you get to the legal arguments. The “Court of Appeals” is making a ruling overruling the district court’s dismissal based on the time bar, but according to the factual background, the case wasn’t dismissed based on the time bar, but on entirely other grounds? Was there some other proceeding where the claim was dismissed as time barred, and it’s just not mentioned in the factual background? How? Why? What is happening? Also it says Congress enacted the treaty? But, no? That’s…that’s not how treaties work? I mean, Congress did ratify the treaty? But they didn’t unilaterally make it!
In the second case, there’s an extended discussion of which treaty applies to the appellants claims, which is bizarre because there are two relevant treaties, and one replaced the other before the conduct at issue, so only the new treaty applies? There isn’t any discussion of the issue beyond that basic principle, so there is no reason there should be multiple paragraphs in the opinion explaining it over and over? Also, it keeps referring to the appellant as the plaintiff, for some reason? And it includes this absolutely hallucinatory sentence:
Tumblr media
…the only part this that makes sense is that the argument is without merit. I’m not going to discuss the actual merits of the legal arguments in the opinion, because they are so bizarre and disjointed that even trying to describe them would require a Pepe Silvia-sized conspiracy board. Like the previous case, both the facts and the legal posture of the case change constantly, with seemingly no rhyme or reason.
The third one…oh boy. First, large portions of the “opinion” are individual paragraphs with quotations around the whole paragraph. What’s happening there? As far as the content of the opinion itself - I can’t. I mean that, I literally can’t. What is being discussed seems to change from paragraph to paragraph, much of it contradicting. It makes the first case seem linear and rational by comparison. The court finds it doesn’t have personal jurisdiction over the defendant so dismisses the case based on a lack of subject matter jurisdiction? But also the defendant hasn’t contested jurisdiction? And also the court does hold that it has both subject matter and personal jurisdiction over the defendant? And then it denies the motion to dismiss the case? Also, at one point it cites itself?
…also, even if this was a real case, it doesn’t stand for the propositions the plaintiff cited it for in their opposition? I’m not going to go into the weeds (honestly it’s so hallucinatory I’m not sure I could if I tried), but, for example, the plaintiff’s reply brief states that the court held “that the plaintiff was not required to bring their claim in federal court.” The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is a federal court, and there is no discussion of any filings in state courts. The closest the “opinion” comes is with the statement, “Therefore, Petersen’s argument that the state courts of Washington have concurrent jurisdiction is unavailing.” (This statement appears to be completely disconnected from anything before or after it, so I am unsure what it is supposed to mean.)
Moving on, case number four is allegedly a decision by the Court of Appeals of Texas. It includes the following line:
Tumblr media
Honestly, the plaintiff’s attorney best defense at this point is that he wasn’t intentionally trying to mislead the court, because if he was doing this on purpose, he would have edited the cases to make them slightly more believable. (Context in case you’ve lost track: these documents are supposed to be copies of the opinions he is citing. The screenshoted line makes it clear that what he is actually citing is, at best, someone else’s summary of an "opinion". It would be like if a teacher asked a student to photocopy a chapter of a book and bring it into class, and instead the student brought in a copy of the cliffs notes summary of that chapter. Except that the book doesn’t even exist.)
The actual contents of the “opinion” are, as is now standard, absolutely bonkers. First, the court decides that it doesn’t have personal jurisdiction over Delta because “Delta did not purposefully avail itself of the benefits of conducting business in Texas.” This was despite the fact that the factual background already included that the appellant (sorry, the plaintiff, according to the “opinion”) flew on a Delta flight originating in Texas. Like, this is just wrong? It’s not even hallucinatory nonsense, it’s just facially incorrect legal analysis. Then the court starts discussing the treaty’s time bar, for some reason? Then it goes back to talking about personal jurisdiction, but now the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the appellate court agrees with the trial court that it does have personal jurisdiction, even though this is the plaintiff’s appeal from the dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction and the court already ruled it didn’t have personal jurisdiction? And even though on page 1, the plaintiff was injured during a flight from Texas to California, now on page 7 she was injured on a flight from Shanghai to Texas? Also the trial court has gone back in time (again) to grant the motion to dismiss that it previously denied?
Also, I’ve been trying to avoid pointing out the wonky text of these submissions, but:
Tumblr media
Everything ok there?
Case number five is similar enough to number four that it’s not worth repeating myself.
Thank god, cases six and eight, as noted above, are real cases, so I’m going to skip them. The defendant alleges that the cases do not stand for the propositions the plaintiff cited them for, and I’m going to assume that is true, given the rest of this nonsense.
Case number seven looks legitimate on the surface. But neither the defendant nor I could find the case through any legitimate search mechanisms. The defendant looked up the purported docket numbers on PACER and found completely different cases; I was able to find a case with the name “Miller v. United Airlines, Inc.,” but it was for a different Ms. Miller, it was a California state case (not a Second Circuit federal case), it was decided on a different year, and the substance of the case was entirely different from the alleged opinion filed with the court.
On top of that, this might be the most morally reprehensible fake citation of them all? Because it is about the crash of United Airlines Flight 585, a real plane crash. Everyone on board - 25 people in total - was killed. 
The individual cited in this fake court case was not one of them.
I cannot imagine conducting myself in such a way where I would have to explain to a judge that I made up a fake case exploiting a real tragedy because I couldn’t be bothered to do actual legal research.
Now, I know you all have figured out what’s going on by now. And I want you to know that if your instincts are saying, “it seems like the lawyer should have just fallen on his sword and confessed that he relied on ChatGPT to write his original brief, rather than digging himself further into this hole”? Your instincts are absolutely correct.
Because obviously, the court was having none of this b.s. On May 4th, the court issued an order, beginning with the following sentence:
Tumblr media
That is one of the worst possible opening sentences you can see in an order by the court in a situation like this. The only thing worse is when judges start quoting classic literature. If I was Mr. Peter LoDuca, counsel for the plaintiff, I would already be shitting my pants.
Tumblr media
“I gave you an opportunity to either clear things up or come clean. Now I’m going to give you an opportunity to show why I should only come down on you like a pile of brinks, instead of a whole building.”
Tumblr media
We are getting dangerously close to “quoting classic lit” territory here.
Tumblr media
If I learned that the judge in my case called up the clerk of a circuit court just to confirm how full of shit I was, I would leave the legal profession forever. Also, the judge is now also putting quotes around “opinion.” When judges start getting openly sarcastic in their briefs, that means very very bad things are about to happen to someone.
Tumblr media
So I’m guessing the delay between this filing and the court order was because the judge’s clerk was tasked with running down every single one of the additional fake citations included in the "opinions", just to make this sure this order (and the upcoming pile of bricks) are as thorough as possible.
Tumblr media
If you are following along with Dracula Daily, the vibe here is roughly the same as the May 19th entry where Dracula demands Jonathan Harker write and pre-date letters stating he has left the castle and is on the way home.
Also, hey, what’s that footnote?
Tumblr media
Wait, what?
Tumblr media
Folks, it appears we may have notary fraud, on top of everything else! Anybody have bingo?
So on May 25, one day before the deadline, Mr. LoDuca filed his response. And oh boy, I hope ya’ll are ready for this.
Tumblr media
Hey, what’s the name of that other attorney, “Steven Schwartz”? Where have I seen that name before…
...I ran out of room for images on this post. So I'm going to have to leave this as an accidental cliffhanger. Part 2 to follow once I refresh my tea.
9K notes · View notes
Text
Pickup Truck
Tumblr media
summary: frankie hates your boyfriend. in fact, everybody does. but he’s willing to give him a chance. you’re his best friend, after all.
until frankie discovers something he can never forgive.
pairing: frankie morales x f!reader
ratings/warnings: 18+. MDNI. this fic contains allusions to, but no descriptions of, domestic abuse. please do not proceed if you know this will upset you.
frankie's pov. no lady and no baby for our boy. drinking, violence (against pos bf), angst, lots of hurt, allusions to dv. comfort, fluff. frankie to the rescue. unprotected p in v (wrap it irl!). oral, f receiving. creampie. bad spanish (again). kings of leon references. happy ending, of course.
wc: 9.8k
an: whew, this was an emotional one to write. but i hope a good love comes to all of you in time, no matter where you are at the moment. and if you already have it, may it always keep you safe. lovely divider from @saradika.
Frankie really doesn’t like your boyfriend.
Scratch that. Nobody does.
Nobody really knows where you found him, either. A sweet, smart girl like you, moved back to your small town from your big city life, and it looks like you picked up the very first guy who sidled up to you in a grimy bar.
Which, if you’re really honest, is exactly what happened. Because he was nice at first. Real nice. He was charming and sweet and interested - he bought you drinks all night and didn’t push to come in when he walked you home. You went for dinner a few times, and sure, he could be a little rude to the waitstaff, but it was only because he was so focused on you. He bought you flowers and took you for rides, and sure, sometimes he’d come home far too drunk after seeing his friends and get a little too close, a little too loud, but he always apologised.
And sure, he sometimes made you cry, but he always made it up to you. Sweet promises, small gifts. And he'd never laid a finger on you.
Not until last week, anyway.
You don’t know what to do. You don’t know who to turn to. The thought of it makes you so sick you have to lock yourself in the bathroom at work. How did this happen? How did it turn so sour?
And how do you get out?
Tumblr media
Walk you home to see
Where you're livin' around
And I know this place
Frankie walks you home from the bonfire. He always does.
It’s his favourite moment of the night.
He gets to have you all to himself. Gets to watch your cheeks cool in the night air, watch as the blush from the heat of the fire subsides. Your giddy, wide eyes, your tipsy babbling about stories which had been swapped over the flames, picking out particularly scandalous details for you two to giggle about before doubling over into breathless laughter over something Benny had said. 
He likes to hold your elbow, your hand, as you catch him in your amusement, gripping onto his bicep. He loves to lose himself in this little pocket of time with you.
He loves the sparkle of the stars, the glow of the streetlights as they light your features.
Frankie loves you.
And he’s so glad you’ve moved back from your life in the big city to come and be around your real friends again. So glad that you’ve all found your way back to each other. Tonight has left him with such a mellow tingle in his bones that he finds he can’t stop smiling at you, looking at you, on your walk home.
Bonfire nights have always been your monthly hangout, a time when you can be sure you’ll get the whole gang together. There used to be more of you through highschool, and still a fair few during college. It dipped when the boys joined the forces, when people moved further east and further north. But eventually Frankie, Benny, Santi, and Will had come back. Jessa, your other best friend, had returned too. A few others coming and going - Lily, Marcus, Maggie - also back and forth from their new homes to their old ones. And then eventually folk had just… settled. 
Frankie felt like he was one of the last, like he was maybe the one finding it the hardest, retired to a life of civvy duties. Unable to hold down a girlfriend, struggling to stick at a job, sofa surfing around friends’ places. He was still flying whenever he could, but then this coke allegation happened, and it was like the world was finally swept from under him. 
You were the first person he had called, the first person to talk him down from his panic, that debilitating squeeze around his heart when he thought about the future. The first person who made him feel like it would be okay.
So of course his joy when you had come back had been immeasurable. Maybe this time, he’d thought.
And then you’d met Tanner.
He’s pulled from his thoughts as you drag your hand out of his, skipping a little further up the dark street until you reach a corner. Frankie watches as you spin on the spot in the quiet neighbourhood, gesturing down the pathway before you. 
‘This is me.’ You say.
But you don’t turn to keep walking. You watch him, a small, excited smile on your lips. Like you’re waiting for him to work it out. 
Frankie drags his eyes from you, away from thoughts of your new boyfriend, to look up and down the street you’ve led him to, and for a second he is pulled beneath the ebbing flow of memory, towed with the riptide of things forgotten. 
This is his grandmother’s street. Was his grandmother’s street.
The cracked concrete, the peeling paint of the porches. The weeds, the flowers, the smell.
He breathes your name like you’re the only thing tethering him to the now.
Breathes your name through the bright, sunny flashes of his childhood. His mama bringing him here with his brother, his papa swinging him by his legs in the flower-riddled front garden. Cartoons in the ripe heat of the afternoons, him and his cousins stuffing their faces with Guagitas and Frugele until they’d made themselves sick while the younger siblings napped in the sunbeams of the bedroom next door. Cycling over on his bike after school to sit at her kitchen table to do his homework, letting her fuss over him - his height, his friends, his grades, girls -
A skinnier, younger Frankie stopping by his abuela’s house with you to pick up her up for his nineteenth birthday party, along with her homemade tamales, her chiles rellenos, and specially made pumpkin sopaipillas for later on. The way you had chatted to her, natural, easy going, how you had made her laugh, her eyes sparkle. How, when you had taken some of the plates to the car, his abuela had pinched his cheek. I like her, she’d said, Será tuya algún día, mm, mijo? And Frankie had flushed bright red, batting her arms away as she chuckled at him. He had hidden in the back bedroom when you came in from outside, and listened a little longer to your conversation as he waited for the heat of his face to die down. When he reemerged, you had helped his grandmother into her shoes, her cardigan, and kept ahold of her arm until she got into Frankie’s beat up old car. At the end of the night, his abuela had kissed both your cheeks several times, rocked you back and forth in a hug, and clapped her hands as she said how she looked forward to seeing you again.
When you came home from college every summer, you’d have tea with her in her garden. She always asked Frankie about you, about how you are doing. When he told her you were coming home, she’d been so excited. Quizás este sea el momento? She’d said to him, squeezing his hand. He’d smiled, his heart quietly full of hope. Tal vez, abuela, he’d said.
When he called you two weeks later, his voice weak from crying, to tell you that she’d passed, you had been heartbroken. And it seemed like her wish, the red thread she’d seen between the two of you, had been snipped, too.
Pour yourself on me
And you know I'm the one
That you won't forget
Frankie likes to listen to you talk, because he’s never much been one for talking. 
He supposes you just bring it out of him, though. Because here on this street, in the moonlight, he tells you more about his grandmother. You spend hours walking up and down the pavement as he recounts every story he can remember; him and his brother, his parents, aunts and uncles, cousins. Birthdays, weddings, funerals. The street comes alive with the ghosts of people, the spectres of feelings. You and Frankie talk of growing up. Of falling in love. Of each other. 
Your small, well-loved house is half way down the street, four up from his abuela’s. It does something strange to his heart to have two of his favourite people, who loved each other in their own ways, so close but so far away. 
Your fingers hold his wrist as he shows you a scar on his palm from eating shit on his bike when he was eight, and when he looks up, your eyes are shining under the streetlights. There is a glint of moon in your teeth, and a shocking want so clear on your face, but when he meets your eye there is suddenly hesitation, a realisation, a shuttering. Frankie stops his story. There is a moment, and then it slips away like sand.
You shiver, chilled all of a sudden, and wrap your arms around yourself. Frankie tries not to look too hard at the goose bumps blossoming on your bare skin, tries to fight off the urge to kiss the little raises until you’re warm again under his touch.
‘Cold?’ he asks, and you smile back up at him. God, his heart.
‘As a hole,’ you giggle, and he feels himself smile goofily back at you. ‘We gotta warm up.’ You say, and then freeze.
It takes Frankie a little while longer to hear the inadvertent invitation in your words.
Boyfriend. Boyfriend.
You both stand on the porch, frozen, like some great frost has swept over the land. If Frankie squints, he can imagine the glitter of your eyeshadow, now fallen, dusted on your cheeks, is a collective of tiny constellations of ice. 
Your body is wracked with a shiver again, but when Frankie looks you in the eye, you’re burning up from the inside. He swallows.
If he could only make the steps towards you. If he could only will his heavy feet to move, if he could summon his nerves to do exactly what his brain says, he would already be in front of you. He would have your face in his hands, be able to look into your eyes to see that deep, hidden want again, and kiss you. Again and again and again, and he wouldn’t stop, because things like that shitty boyfriend of yours wouldn’t matter anymore.
No. The whole world would be glitter and stars and constellations of ice crystals.
And then you blink, smile softly, and wish him a goodnight.
When he can finally lift his foot to move, your door is already closed.
And in your denim eyes
I see that something's awry
And I see you’re weak
You don’t see Frankie for a while after that, always finding a way to brush off his attempts to hang out. 
At first he doesn’t worry too much about it. You’ve just moved back - you have a new job, a new place, new friends to get to know. Tanner. 
Frankie finds other things to do. He gets business cards made up for the flying school he’ll be setting up next month. He pilots people across the state, sometimes across the country. He sees the boys for drinks, even sees Jessa for a coffee. He starts to worry when they say their texts have gone mostly unanswered, and they haven’t seen you either.
It must be why he turns up on your front step one day, a six pack in hand. 
You open the door on the second ring of the doorbell, and Frankie finds himself rendered speechless. You look… different.
Tired and wary, a little thinner. And when he gets you chatting, you say you haven’t really been anywhere, done anything. You’ve been settling in, getting used to it. You have two beers each, but you seem on edge, like you’re waiting for a knock on the door. And then Frankie asks about Tanner, and your eyes linger on the entryway a little longer.
‘Yeah,’ you say, ‘He’s okay.’
Frankie’s jaw twitches, his stomach clenching uncomfortably.
‘Just okay?’ He asks. 
Because you should be excited. You should be gushing and giddy and falling in love. But you’re not.
‘Yeah,’ you shrug. ‘He’s good.’
There’s something in your eyes. Something which shrinks away, skitters back. Something drained, something sapped of life, of energy. Hurt, maybe. Fear, perhaps.
When Frankie thinks back now, he knows he should have pressed you harder. Maybe should have taken you to his, made you talk a little more for a little longer. Away from Tanner, the threat of his presence. But he didn’t. He didn’t.
And he hates himself for it.
When he comes around
I see you're fixin' to shine
And my face won't speak
When Frankie next sees you, you’ve had a hair cut, and there are deep, dark bags under your eyes. Both of these things worry him equally. 
Your beautiful hair that you’d been growing out since you were young, hair that you swore you’d never cut shorter than it was in seventh grade, when your mum had to chop it into a bob after you got gum caught in it. And here it is now, much shorter. 
Jessa says she likes it, and you give her a watery smile, a weak thank you. She asks where you had it done, when. She asks if you like it, and you shrug. You say you’re trying something new. You say Tanner likes it.
Over your shoulder, Frankie exchanges a look with Santi.
You’re quiet the whole time you're at the bar. Far too quiet, so far from the bubbly conversation you usually hold, your loud cackle, your bent-double amusement. Your affection for your friends - the hands on knees, arms around shoulders, kisses pressed to cheeks. It’s hardly there. 
Frankie offers to walk you home, but you wave him off kindly. Tanner’s picking me up, you say, he’s probably outside. Jessa frowns at you.
‘Are you sure, babe?’ She says. ‘It’s not even late yet.’
You smile and nod at her, gather your stuff to go. Jessa catches your arm.
‘We’re still on to go shopping Saturday, though - right?’ 
You smile at her, the first warm one you’ve mustered all night.
‘Of course,’ you say, ‘I’m looking forward to it.’ 
When you stand to leave, you hug everybody goodbye. Tightly, for longer than usual. Frankie doesn’t give you an option when he walks you out to Tanner’s car. The smug prick is hanging out the driver’s seat window. He watches Frankie as you walk up, hostile, threatening, arrogant, and somehow still ridiculous. And, Frankie thinks cruelly - ugly.
Frankie pulls you into his arms a few steps away from your boyfriend. He kisses your hair, and you sigh.
‘Have a good time on Saturday,’ he says softly. You twitch a smile at him. 
‘Thank you, Frankie.’ You say before stepping back and walking to open the passenger door. As you climb in, Tanner winks at him. 
‘Gettin’ a new one tomorrow,’ he says, stupid fucking grin on his face. ‘New car. Exciting stuff. Anyway, better get this one back,’ he says, squeezing your knee a little too hard. You don’t look at Frankie, something like humiliation colouring your cheeks. ‘See you around, Frank.’ Tanner says.
Frankie steps back from the car as it glides forwards, and he watches it disappear up the street. 
Deep anger burns in him. And a kind of fear. It crawls over his skin, cooling the sides of his neck. His heart churns uncomfortably in his chest.
He tells your friends about it when he returns to the table. And they form a plan. Jessa texts you a time she’ll pick you up on Saturday. You say you’re excited again, you need some new clothes.
But Frankie knows Jessa won’t take you shopping. 
No, she brings you here, to the beach, to the bonfire. To him, to Santi and Benny and Will. Because they’re worried.
So worried, they tell you.
They sit you down in one of the chairs around the fire, and they explain why they’re worried. They tell you they love you - so much - and they just need to know if you’re okay. Because they can help. They want to help, want you out of this, because he’s not good for you. The silence, the hair, the clothes you were going to buy. They tell you they hate the way he doesn’t let you speak, how he speaks to you. And you are so quiet through all of it, Frankie begins to get more worried. He speaks to you gently over the fire, but you can’t meet his eye. He tells you his worries, their love for you again. He swallows down his own confession, anything to make you see. How they don’t want you pushed closer to him, want you to be pulled closer to them instead.
But your eyes are so vacant, so far away, that Jessa leaves her deckchair next to you to sit on the burned up log closer to you on your other side. She takes your hands, and you finally, finally look at her. You open your mouth, and you say so quietly -
‘You’re right. You’re right.’ 
It feels like the biggest gulp of oxygen Frankie has ever taken. He feels lightheaded from the relief, from the knowledge. They were right, they were right, which is a terrible, terrible thing.
Will clears his throat, and Frankie looks at him to see similar thoughts flicking over his face like film reel. He licks his lips, opens his mouth, and -
Hate to be so emotional
I didn't aim to get physical
But when he pulled in and revved it up
I said, ‘You call that a pickup truck?’
And in the moonlight I throwed him down
Kickin', screamin' and rollin' around
A little piece of a bloody tooth
Just so you know I was thinking of you
Whatever Will is about to say is cut short by the sweep of headlights over the brush near the dunes. 
A beat up old pickup truck bumps up the track and pulls up alongside Will’s Ranger. The driver’s side window slides down, and Tanner’s face emerges from the gloom. He revs the engine loudly, making you and Jessa jump. A sick feeling curls in Frankie’s stomach as he watches him, this piece of shit who’s been so busy crushing you down. 
Tanner leaps out of the truck, and slams the door. Frankie looks over at you, visibly panicked on the other side of the fire. How the fuck did he find you?
‘Hey baby,’ Tanner says, sickly sweet as he strolls towards you, ducking to press a kiss to your unresponsive mouth. He turns to the rest of the group, eyes skating over Will and Ben until they land on Frankie. Tanner steps towards him, offers his hand.
‘Good to see you again, Frank,’ he says, ‘Told you I’d be getting a new ride.’ 
Frankie stares at his hand. He takes a deep swig of his beer, breathing deeply before looking Tanner in the eye, refusing to shake it.
‘I’m surprised to see you.’ He says to the dirty-haired man.
Tanner tries his best to appear unfazed, but there’s a glimmer of something hot behind his eyes.
‘’Course man, wanted to show off the new pickup.’ He says, grinning broadly. He looks around again, eyes falling hungrily on Jessa. She shifts uncomfortably on the log, rearranging her body so there’s less for him to look at. A deep heat begins to rise in Frankie’s chest.
He glances again at the ancient car that Tanner’s driven up in. The front bumper almost hanging off, the red paint aged and scratched, bumps caved in all up the sides, the roof sagging. 
‘You call that a pickup truck?’ Frankie says lightly. Tanner narrows his eyes at him, angry, before he catches the sound of Santi’s laugh.
He whirls around to the other man and spits -
‘Who the fuck are you?’
Frankie almost laughs, too. Almost.
Pope spreads his hands. He looks up at him through his brows, a glint in his eyes that Frankie is violently familiar with. You must notice it, too, because you clear your throat and say -
‘Santi’s one of my friends.’
Tanner doesn’t even look at you. Just keeps staring at Pope. 
The moment seems to last an eternity. Frankie feels like he’s watching everything through sludge, like he’s in someone else’s dream. His whole body is on edge, vibrating, ready to lunge - he’s just not sure at who. He looks between the two men before he catches your eye through the flames. The adrenaline in Frankie’s heart gutters at the look of panic in your eyes.
Please don’t let them do this. Please help me stop it.
Frankie glances back to Pope, and says, so softly only he can hear it -
‘Pope.’ 
And Santi immediately looks away, taking a swig of his beer.
Tanner stands there still, clearly baffled at Santi’s sudden lack of interest. Then he turns to the rest of the group like a petulant child, a toddler who has been ostensibly robbed of its favourite toy.
‘It’s a good truck,’ he says, before turning to you. ‘Ain’t it, baby?’
You hum your agreement as Tanner scoops a beer from the pile by Will’s chair, shucking off the top with his teeth. Jessa looks away, disgusted. He settles himself in the deckchair at your side.
‘Y’aint allowed to touch it, of course, sugar,’ he says to you, before laughing into his bottle. ‘Ruin everything you come into, anyway. Root of all my problems, ain’t ya?’ Tanner takes a pull of his beer. The group is silent around him. Around you. Tanner notices.
‘Boy, fun bunch you are.’ 
You look at him through your eyelashes.
‘Baby, that’s enough.’ You say as softly as possible, and Frankie cringes at the pet name. 
Tanner looks at you sharply. Dark, furious. It’s in the pinch of his jaw, the anger at what you’ve said so obviously rolling around in his skull.
Frankie hates him for it. And he hates that he hates him for it. There are already so many things he hates him for, but he’s so fucking stupid it’s almost funny. Not your equal in any way. In kindness, in conversation or in intellect. And not even willing to try. To learn. For you. Just trying to dumb you down instead, squash you into smaller, more digestible bites to chew on. 
When it comes down to it, Tanner has nothing smart to say back. He just pushes a short breath from his nostrils and mutters out a little -
‘Well, well, well.’
Then he flexes his fingers against the chair, and you flinch. 
You flinch hard, your brows coming together, chin scrunching, waiting for the blow to land. And when it doesn’t, your eyes flicker open slowly. Hollow, bereft, drained and dim. 
Tanner hasn’t noticed, but everyone else has.
The awful unveiling of your last secret.
Frankie forces the bile down his throat. His head swings forward to the ground of its own accord, a faint, resonant ringing in his ears. When he looks at his hands, they aren’t his own. In fact, he recognises no part of his body as the ringing gets louder, as he gently places his beer bottle on the floor. When his eyes leave the dirt, the mix of faces around the fire are all mirror reflections of each other. Horror, disgust, grief. Grief that this is what you hid from them, this is what they have taken too long to pull you from. The burning building splintering around you, your shell of a body immovable in the middle. 
You won’t meet his eye. You won’t meet anyone’s eye as your hand shakes around your bottle. Jessa notices. She stares at your trembling fingers for too long, but she can hardly say anything. None of them can. Her eyes shine like beacons from her seat, wet with tears. Frankie sees her bottom lip quiver, her chin dimple. And then she swallows, swallows again, and reaches for your hand.
You flinch again, softer this time, and Frankie is sure everyone around the fire - everyone in the town, the world, must hear his heart crack. Because he feels it so keenly, so deeply, that it takes the air from his lungs. His breath is caught in his throat, and no matter how hard he tries to draw it, it seems impossible to claw it down. He’s drowning. He’s drowning right here in front of everybody, and it makes it all the worse to know that this is how you must feel. Every damn day.
Come on, he hears Jessa say, Let’s go and get another drink. And through the dark swirling of his mind he watches the two of you stand slowly and disappear towards the back of Frankie’s truck. He waits until Jessa has you hidden from view, her arms around your hunched back as you bring your hands to your face - crying - and that’s when the thread snaps.
Frankie gets to his feet, slowly.
Pope and Will watch him. Benny is still staring at Tanner.
Tanner looks up at him, chin jutted out, smirking as Frankie approaches. 
He’s challenging him. He’s waiting for a war of words, for the shouting to begin, for the insults, the observations to fly.
He expected the wrong war from a soldier.
The first punch sprawls him out of his seat. It makes a satisfying cracking sound, and the first trickle of blood starts to bleed from behind his lip.
Then Frankie kicks him. He kicks him hard in the ribs, making sure he doesn’t have enough time to recover from the punch to deflect Frankie’s boot. 
Tanner clutches at his abdomen, wheezing, gazing up at Frankie with bewildered eyes. Fucking coward.
Frankie grabs him by the front of his shirt, pulls him upwards. He has nothing to say to him, but the fury he feels, this deep, endless, swirling pit of rage, he lets him see. He lets it fill him from the soles of his feet all the way up through his eyes, and he lets it bleed out. He lets the blackness flood the ground. He lets Tanner watch it, lets it petrify him, and then Frankie swings again. Tanner takes it on his chin this time, his jaw snapping closed, and when it goes lax, a couple jagged bits of tooth fall out. Frankie grunts in satisfaction and swings again, again, until blood spouts from Tanner’s eyebrow and his cheek begins to bruise and swell. Frankie breathes deeply, in rhythm, doesn’t even feel it when Tanner manages to land a lucky punch to his eye socket. He plants a knee into the other man’s crotch, lands him an elbow to the back of his head when he keels over, and then shoves him to the ground. Frankie gets on the floor with him, raining blows down on Tanner’s body, his face. He’s methodical about it, a punch to each eye, the crack of the cunt’s nose, one to either side of his mouth, then bloodying up his jaw. He’s aware, somewhere, that Tanner is screaming. Strangled, gargling sounds trying to claw up his throat. And then he’s aware of two pairs of hands around each armpit, dragging him away, pulling him up. Will is saying something in his ear, that’s enough, Frankie, alright now, and Benny is speaking, too, panicked - you’ll kill him, Fish, come on man.
Frankie blinks, really looks at Tanner where he lays bleeding on the dirt. His eyes already swelling, a couple more teeth scattered on the ground next to him. His face different shades of red and purple, a mess of a man, and Frankie is pleased. He could keep going. He wants to see him bleed much, much more. Will and Benny keep their grip on him.
‘Leave,’ Frankie growls, low, without a quiver in his voice. ‘And don’t you ever come back. You ever look at her again, I’ll gouge out your fuckin’ eyes. You ever touch her again, I’ll break every bone in your body. I’ll make sure they don’t find anything left of you.’
Tanner doesn’t say anything, which must be the only smart thing he’s ever done in his life. But he still doesn’t move.
The four men watch him for a moment, the silence heavy, broken only by the crackle of wood and Tanner’s heavy, wet breaths.
Then Benny lets Frankie go, steps forward and picks the man up by his collar, swinging him around to the direction of his truck. He throws him down on the dirt.
‘Move,’ he spits. ‘Get out of here. And if you have the courage on the way, wrap your fucking truck around a telephone pole.’
Tanner finally has the good sense to crawl over to the vehicle. He hauls himself up the scarred body work before creaking open the driver’s door and slipping inside. The truck sputters to life, yellow bulbs flooding the bonfire site again before it quickly backs away, turns, and drives off. Frankie watches its blinking red brake lights until he’s sure the cunt is gone, and then he turns around.
You’re stood with Santi’s arms wrapped around you, back from the fire where Tanner’s blood is drying. Pope strokes your hair, squeezes you tightly as your body shudders. And Frankie can only stare. 
Minutes might have passed. Hours. And Frankie is terrified. Terrified that he’s scared you, broken you, pushed you away. And then you turn your face on Pope’s chest, moving your head from shoulder to shoulder, and you’re looking at him. Eyes red-rimmed and raw, face flushed and damp, and it’s like Frankie’s trance breaks.
Frightened, he takes a step forward. He breathes your name.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says, and you shake your head. Fuck. What has he done? What has he allowed himself to do? ‘I’m sorry, querida, please - I know, I know -’ but what does he know? He looks to Santi, pleading for help, and the man offers him a small smile as you step out of his arms. 
Through a fog, you come towards him. Your chin wobbles. Your eyes swim. You’re a little wide-eyed, a little shocked. And something else, something beyond his reach. 
You get to him, and your arms make their silken way around his middle as you begin to cry. Hot tears stain the front of his shirt, and he cradles you to him, holding your skull gently, enveloping your abdomen. A loud sob looses from your ribs.
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers, ‘I didn’t mean to scare you.’ You wrap your arms around him tighter, press your nose into his sternum.
‘I’m not scared of you, Frankie,’ you sob into his chest. He clutches at the back of your head, holds you even closer, strokes your hair. When you speak again your voice is higher, strained with your tears. ‘I could never be scared of you.’
The sting in Frankie’s throat becomes hot, burning. He doesn’t know whether to pull you impossibly closer or to push you away, to run as far as he can from your broken, heaving body in his arms. Because what he’s done should scare you. It should. He’d lost all control. The only thing he’d been able to see, to feel was his all-consuming, depthless fury. And Tanner’s face as it splintered, bloodied, swelled. And he’d wanted to keep going, until there was just pulp. No nerve endings, no teeth, no eyes, no mouth, no body that he could ever hurt you with again. He doesn’t want you to hurt any more.
‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers into your hair.
Trembling misery
And as cold as a hole
I hug your bones and skin
Frankie holds your hand the whole way home, the drive passing in a dazed silence.
You still don’t talk when you get to his place, when he unlocks the door, lets you in, and locks it behind him. You take his hand in the quiet cool of the house, lead him upstairs. He follows, slowly, sore, exhausted. Trying to process it all.
When you reach the landing, you turn on the bathroom light, and he trails behind you. He stands propped against the sink as you dig around in his medicine cabinet, finding wipes and bandages and anything else you think might be useful. You take Frankie’s hand again, examine his bruised, bleeding and swollen knuckles with solemn eyes. You are so gentle, twisting his hand in the light, inspecting. You look over it for a while, and Frankie watches you. When you reach for an antiseptic wipe, your hand is shaking.
Frankie winces silently when you start to dab at the blood on his knuckles, cleaning it away with minute swipes. You chase the dried rivulets of blood down his fingers, over his palm. The scar there from when he ate shit riding his bike.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says. You ignore him, breathing shallowly as you inspect his hand, holding his wrist, cleaning blood which is no longer there.
‘Might be a hairline fracture or two,’ you say, distant. ‘I won’t bandage it, gonna let it dry out first. But you’ll need to rest it. And we’ll need to ice your eye.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he says again, into your hair. You shake your head, and the light catches the different colours in every strand. Frankie’s throat tightens.
‘Please stop apologising.’ You whisper.
A shaky breath pushes itself from between Frankie’s lips.
‘No, querida,’ he says softly, ‘It wasn’t right. Shouldn’t have done it. And I shouldn’t have let you see -’ he swallows thickly, throat bobbing. He looks over your head at the white tiles behind you as your grip on his wrist tightens. You still don't look up at him. ‘But it’s not how you treat someone you love. Not how it should be. Should be protecting them, treating them right, loving them the way you love -’ him. He cuts himself off, because he realises as he says it he’s wrong. So wrong.
Right to be like you in your gentleness. In your care, your touch, your tenderness, your loving. But Tanner deserved none of those things. He didn’t deserve your faith, didn’t deserve your protection or your silence either. None of it. 
He closes his eyes.
An image of you flickers through Frankie’s mind. Your fingers on his wrist as they are now, your eyes shining under the streetlights. The glint of your teeth, and the want so clear on your face, then the hesitation, the fear, the shuttering - 
And if only he had kissed you then. If only you had taken him inside. He could have shown you what it was supposed to feel like. He could have saved you from the hurt, the fear which lay ahead.
There’s a splash of warmth on the pale skin of the underside of his forearm, and he opens his eyes again. You’re still hunched over his hand, but your movements have stilled. Frankie waits, confused, before another warm drop lands on his arm and you hiccup a sob out. He whispers out your name, and you turn your face up to him, devastated.
Frankie’s face crumples, and your grip on his wrist loosens enough for him to lift his hands to your face and cup your cheeks.
‘I’m sorry,’ he says, ‘I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. I wasn’t thinking -’
‘You think I love him?’ You croak.
Frankie’s jaw works around his next sentence, his next thoughts. He tries to process what this means. That look in your eyes, your tears, your implication. His lips move, but no sound comes out.
‘I don’t love him, Frankie,’ you choke, ‘I don’t. Christ - I don’t think I ever did, I never could -’ you suck in a deep, stuttered breath. ‘I’ve never - never hated anyone more. I couldn’t stand him, couldn’t have him near me, couldn’t have him touch me -’ Frankie flinches at your words. ‘But I was so scared. And embarrassed. I didn’t know how to leave - I didn’t know how to tell anybody about what was going on. I was terrified of what he’d do. To me, to you guys, if he found out I’d spoken about it. And he made it so hard for me to see you, so hard for me to get away.’ You sob now, panic and relief forcing out your words. ‘I thought - wherever I go, he’ll find me. He’ll track me down, and he’ll bring me back - and somehow - somehow that was worse than if he tracked me down and - and - I don’t know, killed me or something -’
Frankie’s eyes shutter. He can’t even follow your thought, so awful is the image, the gaping emptiness. He pulls you close, he lets you cry. Curled into his chest, your body wracking with tears, shaking, tense and uncontrollable, the sounds you make rooting in his brain. They file themselves away in a box where very few things go. Deployment. Tom. The darkness after his investigation. You break and break in his arms, and it’s all he can do to hold the pieces of you together. To press kisses to your head, breathe in the smell of your hair, rub his hands over your back, cradle you like a child. 
He doesn’t know how long the two of you stand there for. He waits until you stop sobbing, stop crying softly, stop hiccuping, stop sniffing. He waits for a few more minutes in the silence, too. And when he pulls away, he presses a long, sweet kiss to your forehead. 
You blink up at him through red, swollen eyes.
‘You’re safe here.’ He says, and you nod.
‘I know. Thank you. For - everything.’ You say thickly. Frankie swallows, nods. You know it all anyway. Any time, for however long you need.
He pads downstairs to get you a glass of water, and while he’s pouring it, he can hear you blow your nose, wash your face. Somehow, they are the most perfect sounds in the world.
Crackling wood’s gone white
And my eye swole up now
I can see the light
Frankie gives you one of his sleep-stretched t-shirts and an old pair of shorts for you to wear to bed. 
The clothes dwarf you a little, and he can’t wipe the small, thrilled smile from his face, even when he looks away. You look fucking adorable. 
You giggle at him every time you see it, your little what? only making him smile harder. It stretches his mouth until it hurts and his cheeks start to cramp up, squishing his swollen eye. Stop he tries to say, but it comes out as an equally breathless huff of laughter - and that only makes you giggle more. So much so that he sweeps you up into his arms to stash you under the covers, and you laugh even harder as he tucks the sheets in tight around you, just like his mama used to do when she wanted him to stay put. 
He looks down at you from the side of the bed, hands on his hips, and you laugh back at him - eyes shining, mouth open in wide hoots of delight, your hands coming up in a desperate attempt to contain yourself. He points a finger at you.
‘You need to calm down,’ he says, voice tight with bridled amusement. ‘It’s bedtime.’
But you cackle back at him, this glorious puddle of sunshine in his bed, only howls of laughter for a response. Unable to help himself, he returns your joy, turning off the bedside lamps to slip in beside you.
In the darkness, your snorts subside into ragged breaths, and you turn on your side to look at him. You study him as though you never want to forget a single line on his face; such warmth, such affection in your eyes that Frankie’s whole body swells and lifts.
You take his hand beneath the sheets and hold it between your faces, smiling softly at him.
The first and only girl he’s really ever loved. This brilliant, fierce, bright, intelligent woman damped down by the waste of fucking space who had bled by the fire. At the thought of it, Frankie feels his heart fall out of his chest, down through the floorboards, and plummet towards the middle of the earth.
And finally, he begins to cry.
He tries to stop it, he really does. It’s selfish, he thinks, so awful and selfish to cry in front of you when it’s you who should be wrapped in his arms, swept away by emotion again if you needed to be, safe and warm and unworried, never having to fret about anything again.
But he can’t stop it. It comes out in great shuddering breaths - pained, wracked sounds slipping past his lips, and he can’t help it. He tries to gather them in his hands to shove them back in his mouth, tries to scoop them in his arms and press them back into the caving ache of his chest, but he can’t.
When Frankie was a child, he saw his dad cry once. Only once, and exactly like this, after his father’s brother was killed in a car accident. He had seen it through a crack in his parents’ bedroom door, and it had hurt him. It had wounded him, as a child, to see his father break with such grief, such pain, such emptiness, and to know there was nothing he could do about it. And now, he is split into those two people - younger self, older self - as he thinks of you lying next to him on the bed. This person who he loves so much, who is now so full of the knowledge of the worst parts of living, wound up so tight within you that you let it settle, let it unfurl around your bones. He sees your hurt, your grief, your pain refracted around him tenfold, and he hurts with you. He sees you as the boy he once was, this poor creature looking in at a heart breaking, as he has unknowingly watched yours break for months.
And he’s so sorry, he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to stop saying it.
But here you are, still, performing the ultimate act of kindness. Comfort.
He feels the mattress move as you slide closer to him, and then your hand is on his back, swooping in gentle movements. He feels the scrabble of your fingers under the ribs he has pressed into the bed, the pressure of your arm moving under him so you can hold him properly. Frankie sobs harder, but he opens his body to you. You press closer to him, burying your face in his neck, and he breathes you in as he cries. Your scent is here, you are here. And like you heard him, you whisper -
‘It’s okay, Frankie. It’s okay. ’M here. I’m safe.’ And this realisation allows a little more air, but it doesn’t make Frankie’s guilt, his shame any better. But you’re right, he knows it. And somewhere in his crying, this turns his gasps to tears of relief. Softly, you retract your arms from around him.
You take his hands away from his face, and kiss the palms. You kiss each fingertip, each bruised and cracked knuckle. You lean forward and press a kiss to each tear, each trail of saltwater on his face. And you are so beautiful in the moonlight. Soft and wide eyed. Safe. Kind, always kind, and full of understanding. Frankie sees now that you have been crying against him, too, your eyelashes cloyed with tears. Sees his thoughts in your eyes as though you have had each of them zip to you through the air. When you were a child, you saw your dad cry once. Only once, and exactly like this, after…
A smile breaks through your eyes, chasing away the remnants of tears, glazing down, softening your lips. 
And Frankie doesn’t think this time. His feet don’t fail him. He doesn’t think of stars or glitter or constellations of ice crystals. He just kisses you. And kisses you and kisses you and kisses you. And he doesn’t stop, because nothing else matters anymore.
You’re safe. You’re warm. You’re in his bed. 
You’re here.
You tip your head back, deepening the kiss, licking into Frankie’s mouth. He gives in so easily to you he’s almost ashamed. But then your fingers clutch at him, ball at the bottom of his shirt, tangle in the thick of his hair, and all his thoughts are forgotten. He feels you slip a soft, strong leg over his, pulling him forward. You groan against him, and Frankie’s cock twitches. You feel it, you must do, as you pull your body closer to him, tight against him. Frankie is so lightheaded he doesn’t know where his hands are, what they’re doing - and when he concentrates, he finds them skating over your back, squeezing the tension out of the back of your neck, gripping your hip.
He moans against you as you rock your hips over his thigh, as he feels the heat of your sex against his skin. He feels like he’s on fire.
You slip a hand under his sleep shorts and palm him, brushing his silken length with two fingers, feeling him grow harder, thicker against you. You take him in your hand, pump him once, twice with the perfect grip, the perfect speed, like you were made for him. He’s gasping against you, panting as you suck his lower lip into your mouth.
‘Baby,’ he groans, breathless, ‘We don’t have to. We really don’t -’
You look up at him through gorgeous, glazed eyes.
‘I want to,’ you say, ‘Do you?’
Dangerous, dangerous question. 
Frankie tries to shake his head, look away, think of anything but the tight fist of your fingers around his cock.
‘I do,’ he says, ‘I do. But I don’t think - this is the right thing -’
You loosen your grip, draw away from him. His body aches with a shudder.
His eyes flick back to yours again - confused, hurt - fuck, he can’t do that to you, ever -
‘I - I don’t want to take advantage of it - of you,’ he says. Your eyelashes flutter against your cheeks as you look down the sheets towards your toes. His jaw tightens. ‘And - and I don’t want this to mean - different things for us. I don’t want it to ruin what we have.’ Frankie breathes out heavily through his nose. He has to tell you now. He has to. ‘I don’t want it to mean different things, because I love you. I always have. And if we do this, if I have you even just for a night, I - I’ll never recover from it.’ Tears spike in his eyes again. He tries to smile. ‘You’d ruin me. And I don’t think I’d ever forgive you for it.’
Your breath hitches in your throat, and Frankie watches as your eyes flit back up to his. They search his face, the dribble of his barely-shed tears, the slope of his sad smile. You bring a hand up to cup his cheek, running your thumb over his scraps of beard. He closes his eyes.
‘What you said earlier,’ you begin. Frankie swallows. He waits for the blow of rejection. ‘About me - about me loving him.’ He opens his eyes slowly to find yours, bright and clear. Something begs to bubble over in them. Something golden and warm. ‘You were wrong - obviously. And I couldn’t tell you truly why, because I was afraid. So afraid of pushing you away, even though I think that’s all I’ve ever done. I’ve never thought I was worth it, Frankie. I don’t deserve you. And I am terrified of how much I love you.’ You beam at him, eyes bubbling over with that thing - love - ‘I love you,’ you say simply, like it’s not the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard. 
A stunned little laugh ripples up his throat, and you copy it. He grips your face in his hands, and kisses you again, again, again.
‘I love you,’ he says.
‘I love you, too,’ you giggle.
‘And you are,’ he presses to your lips, ‘You are absolutely worth it.’
He rolls over on top of you, and begins to kiss your jaw, nipping at the skin there, before moving down your throat. He kisses you with a hot, open mouth, sucking marks into the sensitive skin at your pulse point. Mine, he groans, and you whimper against him, rubbing your thighs together.
Frankie pushes your shirt up - his shirt - so he can bite at your chest, press kisses to every bit of exposed skin. Every single part of you that deserves to be loved, every single place which has so far been unknown to him. He sucks each nipple into his mouth, delighted when you keen beneath him, panting, please, please Frankie, before he sinks lower down, peeling his shorts away from you to expose your glistening cunt. 
He groans, unable to take his eyes away from it as he leans forward, pressing his body into the mattress to lick a stripe from your asshole to your clit.
‘Frankie -’ you groan down at him as he begins to work at you, sucking and licking, nipping at your thigh before slipping his tongue into your hole, swiping and tasting everything you’re giving to him. He grinds himself into the mattress, hissing at the relief, the uncomfortable weight of his cock dragging below him.
‘Taste so good, baby,’ he tells you, and he doesn’t think he ever wants to taste, wants to smell anything else ever again. All he can do is eat at you, breathe you in, until you’re begging him -
‘Frankie, your fingers - please -’ And he flexes his hand at your hip before brushing a fingertip against your entrance and gasping at the pain. 
You try to bear down towards him, but he rips his hand away, lifting his head towards you.
‘Can’t,’ he gasps, and you mewl, bucking your hips up to his face, desperate. ‘Hand’s fucked,’ he says, and you still your movements before beginning to laugh again. It’s loud and from your belly, and it's bizarre. But Frankie gets it. He gets it, and he giggles too. He doesn’t try to fuck his broken knuckles into you, but he does try to continue lathing you with his tongue. You’re making it pretty fucking difficult, though.
‘Stop laughing,’ he huffs against your clit, ‘I’m trying to make you come.’
‘Okay,’ you say, gasping for air, ‘Okay. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. You’re doing really well, by the way.’ But this only makes him laugh. He groans, leaning his forehead against your inner thigh. ‘This is impossible.’ He pouts.
‘Nooo,’ you cry, leaning up on your elbows to pout down at him. ‘Please, baby. I’ll be good. I’ll be so good. I won’t laugh anymore.’
‘Promise?’ He says. You hold out your pinky to him.
‘Pinky promise.’ You say.
Frankie stretches his hand out to you and tries to extend his pinky. He winces at the sharp pain which shoots from the movement, and grunts at you, your eyes sparkling with mischief.
‘You bastard,’ he says, trying and failing to hold his smile, ‘You knew I wouldn’t be able to do that.’
‘Just keeping you on your toes,’ you grin, and then before you can make any more smart remarks, Frankie resumes his ministrations, lapping and tonguing at your clit, your hole, mouthing hot, wet kisses to your pussy. He shakes his head from side to side, running your bud in tight, hard little circles until you’re a moaning, whimpering mess beneath him. Your hips buck unconsciously, and Frankie hooks both his arms around your thighs to hold you down, flattening his hands against your belly to keep you firmly in place. He reaches up to twist at your nipples and you gasp. 
‘God, Frankie, tongue feels so fucking good -’ 
He can feel you begin to pulse against his chin as your whines get higher in pitch, and he groans as you twist handfuls of his hair.
‘Come on, baby,’ he says, ‘Give it to me. Wanna see you come, querida. Wanna taste it. Come on my face.’
And you do, the sensation of it arching your back tight like a bow, a strangled moan cutting off into the ceiling.
‘Fuck, Frankie, fuck -’ as he drives you through it, nodding and murmuring against you as you try to wriggle free, squealing in protest until you manage to twist a leg and set a foot against his chest, pushing him off. 
‘Fucking - hell -’ You pant, and Frankie grins down at you, smug.
‘Good?’ He asks, quirking an eyebrow.
‘Oh, fuck you, Morales.’ You laugh, pulling him in for a sloppy kiss, moaning when you taste yourself on him. Your tongue explores every part of his mouth, every crevice behind every tooth, like you can’t get enough of him. Like there'll never be enough of him. ‘Now fuck me.’ You whisper.
And Frankie does not need to be told twice.
He rips his shirt up and off his back, shucks his shorts down his legs, and squeezes himself tight as he can in his left hand. He ruts into his palm, thumb swiping to slick his heavy beads of precum down his length.
‘Ready?’ he asks, looking down to find you staring wide-eyed at his cock. It twitches under your gaze.
‘What?’ He says, and you shake your head in quiet disbelief and amusement. You lift your eyes back to his face, and they are so dark with arousal he almost melts into the mattress.
‘Nothing,’ you shrug. ‘I just somehow never believed Pope and the boys when they said it was like two coke cans put together.’ 
‘Jesus Christ.’ Frankie laughs, his face pulling tight with a grin as he lines himself up at your entrance, swilling the head in your arousal.
‘I mean, what if it doesn’t fit?’ You babble, and he shakes his head.
‘It’ll fit, baby,’ he says. ‘We’ll make it fit.’ Then he sinks the first inch in, and just waits. He waits and watches you, watches as your mouth falls slack, all the smart things coming out your mouth grinding to a halt. He throbs at how tight you are around him, at how you clench already, trying to suck him in further. And fuck, you are so wet.
‘You okay, querida?’ He asks through gritted teeth.
You manage a nod, a broken whine escaping you.
‘Move Frankie, please baby -’ you beg, and he groans as he pushes further inside you, watching the obscene stretch of your pussy around him, the way it pulses, the way it gets wetter and warmer and tighter around him. When he bottoms out, he feels the hot rush of his orgasm leap towards him a little too quickly.
‘Fuck, baby,’ he breathes, closing his eyes just to make sure he doesn’t come right away. You squirm beneath him, canting your hips up, trying to fuck yourself. Frankie grips you, gritting his teeth. ‘Stay still,’ he hisses, flushing a little. ‘God, fuck, please - just for a minute.’ He opens his eyes to find you watching him, your bottom lip caught in your teeth. His eyes glaze down your body - his t-shirt bunched up around your chest, perfect tits, perfect belly, and your sweet, sopping cunt split open on his cock. 
He groans again, slipping out, watching as he retreats, soaked by you, before pushing back in. A high pitched whine leaves your lips, and you twitch your hands up to play with your tits. Frankie doesn’t think he’s ever seen something more sexy in his life.
‘That’s right,’ he says, ‘Keep playing with yourself like that, gorgeous. Look at you.’
So you do, looking up at him with doe-eyes as he fucks into you, soft at first, letting you adjust before quickening his pace, readjusting his angle, feeling you leak around him. His balls slap against your ass loudly, and you keen up at him, eyes wide, begging for something as you tighten like a coil around him, something you can’t quite voice. But Frankie knows.
He swipes his thumb against your clit, and your eyes roll into the back of your head, your back arching again. He groans at the sight, and works the bundle of nerve endings in tight circles, faster and harder, harder and faster, until you’re gripping him so tight he thinks you might push him out.
‘Come baby, come,’ he pants, ‘Please, querida, need to feel you - need to feel you soak me. Need you to come for me, come on this cock, baby, please -’
And he groans, long and loud as you clench and pulse around him, milking him, pulling him impossible deeper - fuck, Frankie, oh my god, feels so fucking good - the delicious pressure at the base of his spine at breaking point as he fucks you through it, as he pants and gasps -
‘Come, Frankie,’ you plead, ‘Please - want you, need you -’ and he spills himself deep inside you, hips stuttering, eyes clamping shut, overwhelmed and short circuited. He’s never known it could feel like this - good to the end of every synapse - and he’s fucking it in with three long thrusts, pulling out slowly just to watch it dribble out of you as he twitches against his thigh. He thumbs your clit just to watch you seize and sigh against him, then sits back on his knees to look at you.
‘You are something else,’ he says in disbelief.
You smile lazily at him.
‘Ain’t so bad yourself, Morales,’ and he laughs, throwing himself down next to you, kissing anywhere he can. I love you, I love you, I love you. Safe.
You lay there for a while afterwards, just feeling each other, calming your ragged breathing. Eventually, Frankie rises from the bed to grab a washcloth, coming back and swiping between your legs tenderly, gently, before collapsing back into bed and pulling you into his chest.
He feels like he’s in space, and he tells you as much. He spills secrets like a child at a sleepover. He tells you about the glitter and the stars and the constellations of ice crystals. You match him with a galaxy of feeling spanning the time he’s known you. And he feels that this is a dream, this love which floats like a nebula within the bed. He tries to keep his eyes open for as long as possible, even as you sleep. And even when he does drift off, he dreams of you. He dreams of you sparkling with stardust, waiting for him with your arms open.
When he wakes the next morning, you’re still there. Safe, soft and warm against him, furled into his ribcage, heart beating against the hand that’s pressed against your chest.
Everything’s okay. That red thread still intact, after all.
When the sun rises, bloody and mild, it’s never been so sweet.
A little piece of a bloody tooth
Just so you know I was thinking of you
2K notes · View notes
buhok-ng-bruha · 2 years
Text
Uh oh! A Jehovah’s Witness is at my door!
A guide on what the fuck is happening and what to do about it as a never JW, from an exJW.
JW congregations have just been told to start doing door-to-door preaching (aka ‘service’/‘service work’/‘witnessing’) again this September. They stopped for the past few years due to…well. The whole state of things. But it’s starting again! Fuck!
So, to get you folks in on the Secret Inner-workings of a Cult:
JWs do service work mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, but any day of the week is fair game, just less of them will be out on other days. Generally it’ll be in the mornings (anywhere between 9AM to 1PM being common, my family did 10AM to noon Saturdays), but any time of day is also fair game. Evening witnessing is encouraged, to catch parts of the service area who didn’t answer during morning service, like people who were at work or asleep.
JWs are given ‘territories’: entire neighborhoods if they’re a majority language and can generally bet on most of the people in a given area speaking that language; SPECIFIC ADDRESSES if they belong to a smaller language demographic. These are on ‘territory cards’, which include areas to fill out once they’ve called on houses. They often pull addresses from the phone book or other such directory, pulling based on name, or get referred new addresses from neighborhood sweeps in other congregations and were told x language was being spoken, so if you get called on by someone speaking your language and wonder how they got your address, it’s because they’ve collected data already! On You!
On that note: JWs collect data on you! A lot of it!! Those territory cards they fill out? They can include any information they gleaned from conversation (age? gender? personal details like if you’re married, if you live with your parents, etc? what religion do you belong to? any problems in your life they can ‘help’ with? any ‘problematic’ details, like if you’re queer? all of it.); if someone was home or not (yes we can see you peeking out from behind your curtains! we looked in windows!); if the person answering the door was uninterested; if they were aggressive; if they have dogs; if we were able to leave any publications with them; the details of any conversations we had, like which topics we discussed and which seemed to interest you the most; when to call on you again. The areas to fill this in on these cards are rather small so they usually only write down the most important information, but it is the most important information for trying to indoctrinate you into a cult. DO NOT give them any personal information. It will be used against you.
So that’s the gist of it. Now, you don’t want them at your door, probably.
Please do not harass them.
I know they’re annoying. We always knew we were being annoying. They do it anyways because they think they’re helping you. They often have children with them - not only because it’s often families going preaching together, but also because it’s a well known tactic to get a softer response from people they call on, to have a child with you. Even if there are no children, please do not harass JWs - they are cult victims, and doing so will only enforce their ‘us vs them’ mentality, and discourages members from leaving. The outside world hates you so much, so how can you leave?
“But what if—“ Nope! Beyond the whole ‘don’t be fucking cruel to abuse victims’ thing, it doesn’t even work! I’ve been threatened with dogs; my mother has been threatened with machetes; others have been flashed, or physically assaulted - we still went back eventually. Usually someone else would get the assignment, and usually we’d wait a bit, but we still went back.
“Okay, but what the fuck do I do, then?”
You open the door (yes, open the door; if you ignore them they’ll return again, assuming they just missed you or you were busy), let them tell you what they’re there for, and before the conversation goes further, you simply say:
“I’m not interested. Please put me on your do not call list.”
And then you tell them goodbye. Nothing more. Don’t say you have your own religion. Don’t say you’re queer. Don’t try to use the ‘magic word’ apostate - actual former members can get harassed.
Unfortunately, despite this being the most successful and least harmful strategy, it isn’t 100% foolproof. They’re supposed to write ‘do not call’ on the territory card next to your address, but they’re human and forget sometimes (or might not mark it intentionally, though I haven’t seen that personally); the next person who gets that card might not see the mark, as well. On top of everything else, even if not forgotten, they will eventually come back. It’s policy to come by after some time to check on you, ‘just in case’: just in case you changed your mind, just in case you moved and there’s someone else there now, just in case, oh, you recently had a loved one pass away and suddenly find yourself in an emotionally vulnerable position in need of support and sympathy.
If you have the knowledge and mental/emotional energy and stability to, you can go about trying to debate them, maybe help some of them doubt, but it is no easy task and there is no guarantee of any success. It takes a lot of patience. They are undergoing some extreme brainwashing and ‘waking up’ is incredibly traumatizing, and you will face a lot of resistance in trying to deconvert any of them. Again, only attempt this if you have the energy, stability, and knowledge required - the delicacy required, too. Otherwise, remember, it’s
“I’m not interested. Please put me on your do not call list.”
Nothing more.
21K notes · View notes
eddies-ashtray · 1 year
Text
You Get Me Closer To God // Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader
Tumblr media
Masterlist
Synopsis: Your best friend sleeps over.
WC: 2.3k
Category: Smut (18+).
Content: Friends to lovers, mean, pervy Eddie, dom/sub dynamics (?), virgin!reader, name calling (of the ‘whore’ & ‘slut’ variety), nice nicknames (of the ‘sweetheart’ & ‘baby’ variety), 1 dacryphilia mention, mocking, dumbification if you squint, humiliation kink ig, teasing, vaginal penetration without the use of a condom (don’t try this at home, folks), some hand-on-neck action + a squeeze but no actual choking, multiple orgasms, and Eddie referring to himself as ‘master’ a grand total of one (1) time! 
♡*♡*♡
You weren’t sure how it had happened, but your best friend was on top of you. His cock was hard against your thigh. His gentle breath was fanning across your face.
It was supposed to be a regular sleepover at your house. But then there had been this energy in the air. This tension. It wasn’t new, you’d felt it before. You’d felt it every night he’d slept in bed with you and hadn’t touched you. Every morning you woke up and felt his hardness against your ass, but pretended like it wasn’t there. But now, here he was, above you, his hand stuffed up your shirt, rolling your nipple between his fingers. You whimper weakly below him.
With only the low light of your nightlight in the corner of your bedroom, all you can see is his face. Those deep brown eyes staring intently into yours. Measuring your every movement, your every breath.
“Fuck, look at you,” Eddie says, pain lacing his tone. You shiver involuntarily at his words and gasp sharply when he tweaks your nipple meanly between his fingers. Wetness drips from your slick hole like it’s weeping, crying out for him. “I knew you were a virgin, but Christ, sweetheart, no one’s ever even groped your pretty tits before, have they?” Eddie asks rhetorically, squeezing your breast to emphasize his point.
Your resulting squeak is answer enough for him. You feel like you could cry, it’s all so overwhelming; his body weight on top of you–somehow menacing, but comforting all at once–, his rough hands groping you, his proximity, his scent, his words.
Tilting his head at you, Eddie coos at your pout, at the glassy quality of your eyes.
“You’re just a pathetic little virgin, huh? Too shy to tell me what you want. Bet you’d let me do anything I wanted to you. Isn’t that right, angel?”
Your face warms and you feel hot all over as your cunt throbs desperately. You would let him do anything he wanted to you. So you nod ever so slightly and Eddie’s brows knit together.
“Of course you would. Cause even though no one’s stuffed you full of cock yet, you’re just a desperate whore.”
Whining at his words, your back arches into his body, trying to get impossibly closer, trying to fuse as one.
“Yes,” You agree.
Eddie rolls his hips into yours and groans at the friction. He’s only in his boxers, that’s how he sleeps. Even when he’s in bed with you. He’s thick and long and you need him inside of you right now. You think you might die or explode or scream if he doesn’t stuff you full at this very moment. But you know he won’t. Because he wants to torture you. Wants to rile you up, make you cry. He’d told you so, confessed it to you in the darkness just before this all began.
“And because you’re a desperate whore, I bet your panties are soaked. I bet you’re drenched and leaking onto the sheets…Why don’t I check?”
Nodding vigorously, you beg, “Please, please.”
With that, his hand begins its slow descent down your body, his rough palm running down the length of your torso until he reaches the hem of your sleep shorts. Instead of sliding underneath them however, Eddie keeps his hand moving. You gasp as it passes over your mound, and then choke out a moan when his large hand cups your hot cunt, pressing into the soft material of your shorts and rubbing harshly.
“Oh, look at that. You soaked right through your shorts, baby. How pathetic,” Eddie teases, then leans down as he continues rubbing you harshly over your shorts. His mouth envelopes your nipple, sucking it into his mouth, nipping at it.
You whine underneath him, kicking your legs out in frustration.
“Eddie, please! I want-” But you can’t bring yourself to finish the sentence. Not even now when he has you shaking beneath him from a simple hand over your sex.
His movements cease and his mouth releases your breast with a pop. Eddie stares up at you darkly, his eyes simmering in the low light.
“What was that?”
“I-I-” You stutter, unable to just say it.
Eddie removes his hand from you completely and you whine again, pout returning to your lips.
“Tell me or I leave you here, wet, and hot, and needing, while I go tug my cock in the bathroom,” He threatens, and you know he’s serious. Know that he would leave you here. Know that he would go straight to your bathroom, pull his cock free from his boxers, and you would be cursed to listen to the slick sound of his hand tugging at his cock until he came over his fist.
You huff like a petulant child, not wanting to have to say it. Not wanting to admit it aloud.
“Fine,” Eddie says, pushing himself off of you.
“Wait!” You whisper-shout in a panic. Eddie stops, but doesn’t lower himself back over you quite yet.
His brow quirks.
When you don’t say anything for a moment, Eddie says, “I’m waiting.”
Sighing and squeezing your eyes shut in complete humiliation, you will the words to leave your mouth.
“I need your–your cock,” You say, whispering the final word far quieter than the first three.
Eyes still squeezed shut, you can’t tell what Eddie’s reaction had been. But he doesn’t move. Doesn’t say anything. So, you open one of your eyes slowly, trying to sneak a peak at him.
“Say it again,” Eddie demands when your one eye finds his. “Louder. Eyes open.”
You open your other eye. Eddie holds eye contact, tilts his head at you expectantly.
Drawing in a breath, you muster all the courage in your body to try and say it again.
“I need your cock.”
Eddie’s lips quirk up in a smirk as he lowers himself back onto you and leans in closely, down by your ear; so close his lips graze the sensitive skin of your lobe.
“Good girl.”
You huff, frustrated by his teasing, but your belly burns with lust, betraying the air of annoyance you’re trying to give off.
“But first… I wanna play with this sweet, little cunt.”
You barely have time to register his words, to allow them to sink in and affect you before Eddie is tearing your shorts down your legs in one quick motion and literally tearing your panties in two. Just as quickly, his nimble fingers are drawing slick up from the leaking well of your hole, all the way up to your throbbing clit.
Your arms fly to his shoulders, longing for something to hold onto. “Fuck!”
“There you go, sweetheart. I know it feels good, let it out,” Eddie encourages as his index finger rubs a harsh pattern against the hard little button.
“Mmph!” You squeak, slamming your eyes shut and shoving your face into your shoulder. It feels so much better than your own fingers, so much better than when you shamefully rub the little nub to thoughts of your long-haired, ring-wearing, metal-obsessed best friend until you soak your panties with your cum.
“Nuh-uh, give me your eyes, baby. Give me your eyes, or I stop.”
Reluctantly, you open your eyes, but can’t bring yourself to tilt your head so you’re face-to-face with the man who’s touching you. When you don’t do as you’re told, Eddie’s free hand comes up from its place on your hip where he was holding you down to grip your face meanly, squashing your cheeks together and forcing you to look him in the eyes.
Your mouth falls open in a wanton moan, brows knitted together at the pleasure-pain, at his meanness. Eddie mocks you, his mouth dropping open with an embarrassing imitation of the sound that just left you. It just makes you wetter, makes you gush over his fingers as they speed up over your clit.
“G-gonna cum!”
“Aw, how cute,” Eddie coos. “Can’t even last a full five minutes with my fingers on this sweet little button.”
And you can’t. His mean teasing is what shoves you over the edge. What has you pushing your head back into the pillow below your head while little pops of light explode behind your eyelids. While tension uncoils in your belly and your hole clenches pathetically around nothing.
Heaving in great breaths as you come down, Eddie continues his assault on your clit. You whine, shrinking away from his touch. But Eddie doesn’t stop.
“Too sensitive,” You whine, pouting up at him.
“Don’t care. Wanna see you cum again,” Eddie demands, leaning down to kiss and suck marks into your neck. You gasp at the sting of pain before Eddie soothes over the mark with his tongue. The sensation makes you shiver.
“Can I-can I at least have your cock?” You ask, still trembling, and you have no idea where the confidence to say this came from, but it halts his movements, and Eddie pulls back to look you in the face. He eyes you with curiosity.
His free hand comes up from your hip once again, rising goosebumps over your belly and your chest, before stopping at the base of your throat. Ever so slowly, his hand wraps around your neck, and he squeezes gently once. Your eyes are pleading, but confused. Curious.
“Okay,” Eddie replies simply.
His answer surprises you. You were expecting him to mock you or outright say no and continue rubbing your sensitive clit.
“But you owe me two more orgasms now,” Eddie conditions, and you swallow harshly. Of course his answer had come with a price.
You’ve never cum more than once, how are you supposed to give him two more? But you can’t resist; your hole clenching around nothing when you’d cum had made you want to cry. You’ve never felt so empty in your life. So, you agree. And the second you do, Eddie is shoving his boxers down and pushing your legs apart, lining himself up with your slick entrance.
He doesn’t push in right away though. He paints his pink tip up your messy cunt and rubs it harshly into your clit, causing you to whimper in pleasure-pain.
Sniffling, you beg, “Please, Eddie. Want it inside.”
“You just look so cute like this, though. Clenching around nothing, a sticky mess of your own cum. You’re too sweet for your own good.”
“But-” Before you can finish the rest of your complaint, Eddie grips himself at the base and guides his cock down to your weeping hole, pushing just the leaking tip inside. You gasp in shock.
Then, he pushes in all the way, stuffs you so full you can’t remember where you end and he begins. And it hurts. But not as much as you thought it might. Just a little pressure, a slight pinch. But you’re wet enough that he just slides in easily, and the sound. Oh, God, the sound! It’s slick and dirty and so delicious.
Eddie groans at the perfect slide, at the velvety feeling of your walls around him, so tight, little stars appear in his vision. His arms are braced by your head, causing his hair to become a curtain around you, unable to see anything else but him. Unable to feel anything else but him.
His thrusts are slow and so, so deep. He reaches a place inside of you you hadn’t known existed before tonight.
Your hands come up around his neck and tangle in his hair at the base of his neck.
“You like being full, sweetheart?” Eddie asks, bringing his hand up to brush the sweat off your brow.
“Y-yes…Oh, God,” You moan when his thrusts become harder. Not any faster, just harder, slamming right into a glorious spot inside of you. “There! Right there!”
“Oh, that’s it, huh? There you go…I know, baby, I got you,” He says, repeatedly thrusting in at the same rhythm and angle, hitting that wonderful spot every single time. Then, he brings one of his hands down and starts to toy with your clit again. Most of the sensitivity you had felt earlier is gone now. It only intensifies your pleasure.
“Fuck! Feels good.”
“Yeah? Gonna cum again?”
“Mhm, please!”
“Okay, sweet thing, okay,” Eddie consoles, far sweeter than before as he continues rubbing your clit. And it feels good, but something is missing. And you’re so far gone by now that you feel no shame when you say: “Want you to be mean again. Please.”
Chucking darkly, Eddie applies more pressure into your clit and you nearly scream.
“Now that’s pathetic. You’re just a dumb slut who needs to be bullied in order to cum, is that it?”
“Yes!” You admit.
Eddie’s thrusts become quicker now as his thumb flies over your clit. He moans, head falling into the crook of your neck, trying his hardest not to cum just yet.
“Cum for me then. Cum for your master like the good, stupid slut you are,” Eddie demands in a strained voice, his hips crashing into yours with a force that shoves you further up the bed.
It’s that which pushes you over. His meanness and his dirty pace and rhythm. Cumming for the second time tonight, your ears ring and you can’t even hear yourself whining as you gush all over his cock, clenching around him, feeling deliciously full of him.
Vaguely, after a moment, you hear Eddie’s voice. Something like, such a good girl, did so well. Slowly, you come back to the world, and you can feel him inside of you still. Still hard.
Eddie is stroking your cheek softly with his clean thumb.
“There she is,” He says when your eyes finally focus on him. You smile lazily up at him, drunk on his cock. “Feelin’ good?”
“Mhm,” You hum, totally blissed out, ready to pass out right this second.
“Good. Cause we’re gonna do it again. Because you, my sweet thing, owe me one more.”
6K notes · View notes
vivianacht · 29 days
Text
making an important announcement about some things i’ve noticed in the gwendoline christie fandom that really bug me.
disclaimer: read this at your own convenience and discretion. i am not responsible for any sort of hurt feelings and frankly… i don’t care. if you’re mad about this, you are probably the problem. /lh
to start with id like to begin on a positive note so that i’m not diving into negativity, i don’t want to be completely negative about my experiences because i’ve actually met some of the kindest people in the world through this fan base.
the gwen fandom, the gwandom, the gwendoline christie fandom , the lesbian cesspool, has been an incredible experience that i’m grateful i’ve had the pleasure of being apart of.
i went through a rough patch during november, and if i hadn’t found out about gwen, or met such wonderful people during my time here , i honestly wouldn’t be here right now. i owe my life to these people, gwen included. i will forever adore miss christie and what she stands for alongside the friends i’ve made along the way.
and while i know someday this hyperfix will end, it’s really disheartening to me when a fandom is what makes me grow distant from things i enjoy. it happened before, i feel as though it is happening all over again.
and no, i’m not taking issue with anything like the catrissa stuff or the brienne and larissa ship going around or anything like that. i like that we can all be weird together and enjoy aus like catrissa and crackships like bririssa (not sure the official name that was decided lol). my issue is the amount of content i’ve seen that either focuses on gwen herself, or the strange relationship with minors, or the odd artwork of gwen, and the absolute disgusting behaviour towards giles.
gwen would be absolutely appalled seeing fanfictions of herself that involve nsfw or just her in general, anyone would, it’s disgusting to make works of real people in that setting. it’s like you’re treating them as an original character you can mould and manipulate as you see fit and using someone who is real with thought and feeling and consciousness for smut fics is not okay, or any fic in general. i totally get the hype around her characters, i literally have “brienne’s princess” in my bio and i’ve had “jane murdstone’s bloodbag” (in reference to my vamp au) as a name in a discord server.
but i think the fandom has begun to blur the lines between fictional characters and reality settings when it comes to gwen and the personalities she portrays on the television screen. it’s not fair to her. it’s disgusting. i’ve seen a minor do it, i’ve seen a grown adult do it. it’s something i don’t see shamed and frowned upon often enough and it’s really not okay.
on that note i’d like to quickly mention the photos, we alllll know what photos i’m talking about. the bunny one, the nudes, the ones gwen has expressed regret towards and wishes to not have them spread. was there not a “fan” who brought her a book of her nudes and wanted her to sign it? that person who was blocked on instagram by gwen because they reposted her nudes on their story and tagged her???? how can you refer to yourself as a fan after behaving so abhorrently? absolutely disgusting behaviour. as a collective fandom we need to stop touching those photos (metaphorically speaking) and leave them in the past.
i’ve been told of numerous circumstances in which adults have shown their nsfw works to minors in this fandom and it has to fucking stop. it’s disgusting!! how can you do that knowingly? i constantly ponder terminating my account after a minor got ahold of my nsfw work, and upon realising they WERE a minor it was as simple as blocking and moving on. it’s truly not that hard, folks. and the minors on tiktok who fight with others saying silly things like “that’s my wife” or worse. i’ve seen it all, i feel like, and the more i see it the more sick i become. i cannot stand it.
i have seen and heard of fans who have fat shamed gwen for that one pink dress she wore to the met gala. she looked so happy in that dress, and the audacity one must have to fatshame that poor woman on twitter then turn around and continue to proclaim your ‘love for her’ as if you’d done no wrong? are you fucking serious? are you mental?
and the sexualisation over the porcelain doll look, gods some of you are sick. those were not real breasts, people. considering the fact she wholeheartedly regrets her nude photoshoots , what possesses you to believe she would actually flaunt her chest in that outfit?
the blatant mistreatment of poor giles is not fucking okay either. just because you’re jealous of someone who makes her immensely happy does not give you the right to post something so vile and cruel about him. shame on you. why do you believe this is okay to post:
Tumblr media
????????
are you serious? have any of you stopped to consider how HAPPY giles makes her? or is her happiness the last thing you ponder when you look at her? have you even noticed how unhappy she looks lately? have you truly paused to consider how she would feel about seeing this on your page, random twitter user, or the rest of you who think this is okay? bless your hearts.
and some of the absolutely horrific things i’ve seen about her online and the hurtful behaviour towards giles makes me question the difference between a fan and just the general paparazzi. because if you truly loved her and you truly loved giles then i would not be ranting into the fucking void about it for no reason.
i avoid interacting with pages i find problematic on here to keep from stirring the pot but tonight i chose violence and got reeeeeal pissy about how i felt about this place. it’s not okay what i see on here and it’s getting exhausting seeing the same cycle of content on a daily.
that’s everything i have to say, i think. i probably missed a lot that should be discussed in the comments but i’m done for now because i know if i go on i’ll probably cry.
before you post things about real people with real feelings , stop to consider how they will feel those real feelings towards the content you put out. chances are you’ll become less problematic and obnoxious that way. 💘
309 notes · View notes
uplatterme · 1 year
Note
aether and kaveh look like disney princesses i wanna fuck the shit out of
there is no need for elaboration
-🪸
—okay. you’ve got me hooked. rapunzel!aether in part 2! (tba)
—cinderella!kaveh/royalty!reader, sub!bottom!kaveh/top!dom!reader, amab!reader (referred with they/them pronouns) | cinderella au, semi-public sex, quickie, clothed sex, cum as lube, porn with actual plot (don’t let the tags fool u, this is so fucking soft)
Tumblr media
You completely regret hosting this party.
It was something that your advisor had tasked you to do. Host a party, find a suitable partner, get an heir so the kingdom has someone to depend on, blah blah blah.
It’s not like you were even that old. 
You sigh, a cigarette on your lips as you lay your back on the wall of the balcony. So many folks festering you, for that chance that you’ll somehow hand them their crown. 
Your head aches at the number of conversations you have had to endure just to be polite, the amount of times you’ve had to shake off someone from hugging your arm without your consent.
“Oh, fuck!” You hear someone yelp.
And while the owner of this voice sounds overly anxious, you can’t help but want to hear it again, especially with the polite wording that the attendees have used to butter you up. someone swearing right in front of you catches your interest.
Hands reach the bottom of the balcony, and someone lifts their body up to get on the platform.
“Oh god, why is the entrance so crowded?” The person says.
Your ears perk up at that.
“Well, their highness did host it. it’s been a while since such an event has happened.” You answer.
The figure flinches, turning their attention to you. 
Your mouth gapes as you finally see who that voice belonged to. Everything about him is enticing that you can’t help but to drown in his gaze. 
He’s properly dressed as well, although not anything overwhelming to the eyes.
Now, which family had been hiding such a prince from you?
“Ah sorry, I didn’t realize someone was here.” He quickly apologizes. His cheeks flush, not expecting someone to catch him climbing up a balcony.
“You’re more than welcome to stay.” You offer, craving more of him.
He shakes his head, much to your disappointment.
“I’m actually here for something else.” he says.
You hum. “Also aiming for the heart of their highness, then?”
Take it, unknown prince.
“What?! N-No, not at all!” He screams in reply. “I mean, I'd be flattered if their highness even finds me a bit intriguing.”
“Have you met them?” You ask.
“Oh. I haven’t really got the time for that.” He answers, although he seems to be in a melancholy thought when he does.
Still, you breathe at his beauty. You think you can stare at him for your whole life.
You quickly try to change the topic.
“So, what are you here for?”
He points behind you.
You turn your head back but what faces you is nothing but the empty hallway.
“Sorry?” You question.
“The castle.”
His answers just keep surprising you.
He blushes, rubbing his arm as he paces around the small space of the balcony.
“You’re interested in the architecture?”
As soon as you mention that, he brightens up. “Yes! From what I've seen, it’s alright.”
You feel offended. It is your castle, one for which you’ve decided most of the structure. He seems to notice his mistake as he panics.
“But don’t tell anyone that! Especially not their highness…”
You grin.
“Perhaps, the inside can change your mind?” 
“Inside? I don’t think we’re allowed—”
“If we don’t get caught, it’s fine, right?” 
“Yes, but—”
You grab the stranger’s hand and lead him inside, he stumbles in after you, the warmth in your hand startling him.
You bring him into different rooms, hoping that one of them will at least suit his taste.
“This?”
“It’s a bit cramped, the furniture set is going against the wallpaper.”
You roll your eyes, he’s so damn picky. That, or you’re just really bad at interior decorating.
Still, you smile at every single word he says. Being royalty, you have no damn clue what he’s saying. But with that pretty voice of his, you could listen to it for hours.
“Don’t you think you’re being a bit too harsh? What if their highness were merely shown bad choices by their architects?” You say, hoping that wouldn’t risk the random attendee persona that you’re playing at the moment.
“If that’s true, they should’ve fired those architects.” He states confidently.
You laugh. “And what, hire you instead?”
He purses his lips, he didn’t expect you to get that so easily.
He stays silent.
“Do you want to?” You ask.
“Get hired?” The look on his face is so innocent like he can’t even believe that you’re asking such a thing. As if the answer is painfully obvious.
You shake your head. 
“To build a castle.”
He stares at you dumbfounded. His eyes glimmer as he grabs your hands and does so aggressively. You don’t mind even a second of it.
“Are you fucking crazy? T-That’s like my dream!” He admits. He’s smiling widely, his face nothing but only a few centimeters away from you.
He starts babbling about the materials he’ll make it with, the different types of rooms and decorations he’ll add. He’s so damn fascinating, you don’t even care about the speech that you’re supposed to give by midnight.
It’s like he has planned this for a long time. Everything he says is so intricate. His hands move as if he’s drawing it, he’s a bit shaky but it’s obvious that it’s from excitement. To your amazement, the way he describes everything makes it seem as if you’re actually in that castle in your head.
Once he realizes how much he’s talking, he stutters an apology.
“Sorry! It’s just that no one has ever asked me about this, I mean at home I—”
“Okay. I’ll give that to you.” You reply genuinely, your eyes are focused on his soft lips.
His chest heaves and his golden eyelashes flutter with grace…just looking at you.
“You know that’s impossible. I’m not even a professionally licensed architect.” 
“It’s not.”
You’ll make it happen, even if your advisor goes against it. It doesn’t matter if you have to demolish the entire castle you’re in right now.
“It is! You’re just flattering me, I get it. You’ve been nothing but nice to me, but you don’t have to promise and lie to about such things.”
“I mean it.” You say it so sternly that he almost starts believing it.
He sighs deeply. “Going to this party is already a dream come true. There was this little green fairy with white hair, I—”
The words slip out of your mouth, cutting off whatever stupid things he has to say.
“Meeting you is a dream come true.” 
The next few moments are a blur. Your hands are all over the unknown stranger. Fuck, it’s as if you’ve been hit with a love spell. You want to keep kissing his mouth, tell him that he has nothing to worry about when you’re with him. That you’ll do anything he asks.
Your prince whines and the sound has you going insane. 
You want more. 
You’ve gotten so addicted easily that your mind is insatiable. 
It doesn’t matter that the room is left unlocked, no one is going to keep your hands off him. 
“Hah—God!” He breathes enticingly. His mind is so hazy, so weak at how his heart is pounding each second.
You take off his coat, the clothing echoes as it falls down on the floor. His blouse is silk and you swear you can see the way his chest is lined underneath the white cloth.
Your fingers rubbed his hardened nipples and his entire body shivers. He holds onto your shoulders for support, the aroused moan that escapes his throat is just enough for you to keep doing it, and so you do.
“W-Wait! I-I’ll—” He pushes you for a moment, to take a breath as he slowly composes himself.
You watch him impatiently. You can see how his cock twitches from his tight pants, the wet spot in the center, and his dick dripping from precum as the white liquid seeps through it.
You keep your hands inside your pocket. Despite how your pants are perfectly fitted for you, your cock is begging for warmth, specifically from the blonde stranger in front of you.
He then nods.
“I’m okay…we can continue.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have any—”
“I can take it. It’s fine.” He says as if he’s in a hurry. You’re not sure if it's just because he’s needy or if it’s something else.
You still indulge in his wants, however.
You’ll have to make do with his own fluids although you really don’t want to do anything that’ll hurt him.
Your fingers steadily prepare his walls and you’re trying your best to not be greedy. His needs first, more than anything.
He’s so damn tight, not that you need to worry much as the sounds he’s making are signaling everything but pain.
He’s so soft and so perfect that you’re starting to get jealous of even your own fingers.
“Are you..?”
He nods, and desire fills his eyes. It looks like you’re not the only one getting impatient.
When you finally feel his insides with your cock, the expectations you had were completely blown out of the water. Your hands find their way to his waist and it’s perfect.
The first thrust is enough to send you to heaven. 
“Keep going.” He pleads.
You continue to pound into him, enjoying how each one brings out a soft mewl from the blonde.
His cock is dripping white on the floor, and the carpet gets soaked. You know you need to get that replaced but instead, you want to keep the stain there, as if some kind of trophy.
And while you stir up his insides, a familiar noise bothers your ears.
You don’t let it even phase you, enjoying the pleasure that’s eating you up.
However, your prince decides otherwise.
“H-Hold on! What was that—”
“Just the clock. You don’t need to bother yourself with it.”
A groan escapes your throat, feeling how he tenses up all of the sudden.
“Is it twelve?” He asks.
“N-No, but it’s close. Five more minutes.”
“I need to go.” He says.
No way was he leaving you like this.
“What?”
“I’m so sorry, but I—” His words are cut off by his moaning.
The way you fill him up has him salivating. You didn’t even move but god, his walls clenching on you are betraying his choices right now.
“T-Three minutes.” He whimpers out.
“Thank you, love.”
Your fingers feel up his cock, stroking it up and down while still continuing to pound ruthlessly. He continues to scream out, his mind too overwhelmed from getting his ass and cock ravaged at the same time.
His legs quiver and you have to hold him still. You’re both close and you’ll make sure to have him finish in time at least.
“F-Fuck!” He sobs.
And the worries in your head disappear, cumming inside his walls as he splatters more onto the carpet.
You sigh, your chest thumping as you stand there with your clothes a mess.
He quickly slides off you, trembling but still hastily moving as if the adrenaline has gotten into his head.
“I-I’m so sorry, I’ll try to get in contact with you again. I swear!” He stammers out before fixing his clothes, nearing the doorway.
“Don’t go through the balcony! There’s an exit to the right of this room!” You say, helping him out despite your wishes to keep him here.
“Thanks!” He shouts back.
You swipe the sweat on your forehead, zipping your pants back on.
The clock chimes as it signals it’s midnight. What a fucking way to end the night.
You hear rushed steps from the hallway.
Your attention turns to the door. Did he come back?
Your disappointment is immeasurable when you find out it’s just your advisor.
“Your highness! I’ve been looking everywhere, you’re late for your speech—Oh my god, what did you—No, who did you?!” She looks disappointed.
You look down. Ah, right.
Who?
Oh fuck, you never got his name. 
“I didn’t ask. Oh no.” The realization slowly sets in.
“Excuse me?!” Your advisor answers offended by your words. You can tell how stressed she’s been, her teal hair in a mess.
“I’ll be right there. Let me clean up first, Ma’am”
“I’ll get everyone distracted. Jeez, young ones these days!” She says before rushing away.
The urge to punch the wall in front of you right now is high.
You look at the floor and notice the coat on the floor.
It smells just like him.
You lay your head on the cold table, mind filled with everything but your duties. The only thing that’s engraved in there is nothing but the sweet prince you met a while ago.
But no matter how many times you’ve gone through portraits of different royal families, even going through the nobles, you’re not met with a match.
“Your Highness. I see you’ve been distracted again.”
“Madame Faruzan, I cannot do this anymore.” You tell her wholeheartedly.
Your advisor rolls her eyes.
“Right after I caught you and that whole mess, you should be working.”
“He’s a great guy! He’s skilled with his hands.” You argue with her.
“I do not need to hear what he did with you.”
“That’s not what I meant! He’s an architect, he’s good! I’ve heard how he works, I’ll vouch for him.”
“You’re biased. Something that a ruler should not have. I told you this when you were younger.” She warns you.
It seems that she won’t hear you out no matter how hard you try. 
“I really cannot focus.” You say. 
It’s the truth. You’ve been sleeping with that coat for weeks, along with other things. As if it’s actually him to begin with.
“If he’s such a great architect, then why don’t you work with that?”
An idea enters your head.
“Ma’am, you’re a genius.”
“Of course.” She says confidently with a smile.
She shakes the compliment off, lord knows she's the smartest person you’ve ever met.
“So? What’s your verdict?” She asks.
A day after, a letter was sent out to the people of your kingdom.
Needless to say, everyone was freaking out.
“Goodness, that’s a big deal. Isn’t it?”
“Right! That’s a big opportunity.” 
The entire market was in an uproar as Kaveh shops for his family. He couldn’t care any, especially not with the consequences he faced from being caught out late in the night. They never knew that he went to the party, but he’s sure his snarky scholar of a step-sibling knows.
“Oh, Kaveh.” A friendly face greets him.
“Miss Nilou.”
She smiles at him, 
“Are you participating?”
The confused face of Kaveh is enough for Nilou to shake the soul out of him.
“You have to! Their highness is currently looking for an architect to turn the whole castle into something new!” 
Kaveh’s eyes widen. “…Actually?”
“Yes! Oh, you have to hurry! It’s only up till today!” She brings it up, and Kaveh rushes home as fast as he can.
It’s almost like a dream come true.
First, that little green fairy that gave him the opportunity to attend the party in the first place. Then, that person he met at the said party who he flushes at every time he thinks of them. And now, this?
He almost tears the whole place down from searching for his plates. 
Kaveh compiles it in an envelope. He feels rewarded as if everything that he’s gone through has finally led up to something.
“Fuck! Where is it?” He’s missing a folder. 
Technically, what he’s giving is already more of what was asked for. Still, the perfectionist in him cannot stand to not have everything in its place, especially not with the opportunity that he was presented with.
A knock comes from his door and he flinches, his family cannot know about this. They’ll get rid of it again.
“It’s just me.” He relaxes, rolling his eyes before turning back.
“Asshole,” Kaveh says.
“After I saw your folder in the living room and kept it? Alright, I’ll guess I’ll throw it out.” Al-Haitham replies sarcastically.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I kept it for a reason. I wouldn’t throw it out now.” Kaveh forcefully takes out the folder and shoves it into his envelope.
He wants to say thanks, but his pride is too high for that.
“Be home before your curfew, I won’t cover for you.” Al-Haitham says.
Kaveh knows that he will despite the annoying tone that he’s using.
He runs to the front of the castle as fast as he can, his legs were not made out for this kind of journey. Still, he won’t give up.
He reaches the gates luckily, just an hour before the deadline.
Now, all he had to do was wait.
“We got a lot of submissions…and most of them are barely even considered actual pieces. I mean, look at this. Who would turn a castle into a teapot?” Faruzan complains, searching through the different envelopes.
You take a look at the amount and you couldn’t help but agree more. It’s absurd.
“Everyone who’s a licensed architect can be thrown away.” You ordered.
“Did I hear that correctly?” She eyes you as if you’re crazy.
You are.
“It’s fine, I have faith in him.”
After that, the submissions are lessened quite easily. While there were some that had fit up to the standards, they weren’t simply what you were looking for.
You remember every single thing he said, if you could just match that up with an envelope then you’ll be fine.
“We have two left.” Your advisor states.
Two names in front of you. One was named ‘Albedo’ and the other one was named ‘Kaveh’. You hesitate to open, the anxiety that he never heard of this competition or that you have sorted away his piece is eating you.
Your advisor notices this and gives one of her very rare encouragement.
“You said you have faith.”
You sigh, trying to calm down.
“I do.” You say it just loud enough to believe it.
You and Faruzan both take one, opening them at the same time.
Your hands shake as you do. 
This ‘Albedo’ is good. God, it’s gorgeous. Though what he’s sent out are more artistic than they are architectural, you can see the vision that he’s presenting, it’s something you think your mystery man would find great fun studying.
You literally cannot do this.
You only had one chance left.
It’s this or nothing.
Faruzan holds your hand while you go through his envelope. It’s breathtaking, it’s almost as what you imagined that time Kaveh was talking to you were right here, laid out perfectly.
“Kaveh.” The name sounds so sweet on your tongue.
Finally.
You dress up in a nice outfit, sitting on the carriage’s seat, trying your best not to scream. You could have gotten the wrong person, but you’re sure that this Kaveh is him.
You’re not accompanied by anyone except your coachman. You’ve asked him “if you’re there yet” about five times.
You bury your face in your hands. This is fine, you’ll be fine.
You almost smack your head face-first on the seat when the carriage comes to a stop without any warning.
The door opens for you.
You hear the gossiping of the people around you and you give them that perfect smile you’ve been taught to do even if it makes you feel uncomfortable.
There’s a person by the door. One who’s certainly not the one you met at the party.
“Hello.” You greet.
“Your highness.” He replies, bowing his head.
There is an awkward silence between the two of you. It is clear that neither of you likes talking.
“I’m looking for—”
“Kaveh, I presume?”
You nod nervously.
He opens the door and shouts, an annoyed response can be heard from the outside.
Everything’s fine, you rule this kingdom. If it’s another person, you can just bomb the whole place away!
The joking in your head does not make it any better.
“I swear this better be important, I was busy—” He stops talking as soon as he meets with your eyes.
There’s a flushed look on his face that matches yours.
“Oh. It’s you…”
There come the gasps from around you.
“He did not just call them that.”
“How disrespectful!”
“Right?!”
You cough, unsure how to state why you’re here. You just hand him the contract.
He shakes as he reads it. 
“What…?”
“I told you that I’ll build you a castle.” You remind him.
Kaveh remembers and you can see everything click right in his face. He’s very expressive, not that you were a stranger to that.
“Y-Your Highness.” He stutters.
You wonder if it’s appropriate to go down on your knee.
Fuck it. You can have Madame Faruzan reprimand you later.
The people watching scream in shock as you go down on one knee.
“Now that we have that out of the way…Will you do me the honor of ruling by your side?”
Please say yes, please say yes, please say—
“What?!” Kaveh yells at you. 
“G-Get up! Oh my god, your highness!” He tells you.
“I’m not standing up unless you say yes.”
The man you talked to previously whistles before heading inside the house. Kaveh glares at him, he did just not leave him in a situation like this.
“I’m serious, Kaveh.”
“You’re crazy.” He says.
“I know.” You look up to him hopefully.
He’s so red, it’s almost painful to look at. Not that you were any different from his case.
“I—Alright! Yes! So stand up already, your cape is getting dirty and everyone’s looking so—”
You pull Kaveh down by his collar, drowning in his sweet familiar lips.
You pull Kaveh down by his collar, drowning in his sweet familiar lips.
2K notes · View notes
tac-bat · 1 year
Text
You know what I love? I love that the valley twins aren’t carbon copies from each other!!!
and you might be wondering, well how exactly? I’ll show you!!!!! (Because I’ve spent way to much time staring at them, also this post is very long) (and i use old concept art names to refer to them as such, its just what i'm used to, they aren't cannon)
Body types
Tumblr media
different body types! Sah (spike hair) has more wide shoulders than Mekh (flat hair). And because of this, Sah has the most slay snatched waist I’ve ever seen JEBEJVDHE even mekh's waist isint as snatched
Prosthetic's
Tumblr media Tumblr media
If you don’t already know (and I don’t blame you) the twins have prosthetic arms on where their eyes are missing. (They’re practically invisible in their cutscene, and even their pin doesn’t have them, I hate it.) anyways they both have different patterns!
Mekh’s, is more detailed, has a shoulder decoration and generally more to it.
And Sahs’ is more simple, it gets the job done. I feel like from the look on their prosthetic's alone you can get an idea of their tastes :3
Another quick think but it also seems Mekh’s uniform is sleeveless on the side of where their prosthetic is! Sah has both of their sleeves. I wonder why?
Gloves
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Even their gloves are different! Sah’s glove (left) for their prosthetic is thumbless, the other fingerless. When both of Mekh’s (left) gloves are fingerless!
A detail i'm not sure off, but it also seems like the gloves on both twins prosthetic's are bunched up more compare to the gloves on their live arms.
Sticks
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I noticed this on my recent eden trip that the sticks the twins hold when you complete the constellation are different too!! Mekh's stick on the ends have more width, and Sah’s is more consistent with width. Which is just— so fucking cool!! They have their own sticks!!!!! They’re not just copy and paste!!!!!!!!
Stances
Tumblr media
this isint leaked, this was a wip from their orbit gift animation by Ari Flesch from his artstation account (who made the animation) which i've linked.
Anyways different stances!!! Mekh has their feet together when Sah doesn't! You can also see what I mean about the ends of their sticks having different width's much clearer!!!
Sah’s Cracked Mask
Tumblr media
My fav detail is Sah’s mask (also not in the pin and invisible in cutscenes), they have a crack over their eye when Mekh doesn’t! This small detail has gave me so many evil ideas on how they got it and it makes me wonder HOW it even happened. :3
Cutscene Details
OH BOY CUTSCENE TIME, HERE'S THINGS IVE NOTICED!!
Sah seems to hold their paddle backwards when Mekh doesn’t. But Sah still ends up in the same position as Mekh despite that! (maybe to one up, who knows) But that show's that even here, their animations weren't just copy pasted, there's DIFFERENCES!!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Mekh is faster than Sah, and even shows Mekh being the first to leap up and land when approaching the player, when Sah is just starting to land in the 2nd image. This makes the timing of it intentional!!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
okay i think thats it thats all i can remember atm!! Ofc there’s so much more, but this post is more focused on the details that can be missed by normal folks. So I thought I share the ones that might be interesting to see that you might’ve not known about.
but yes, thank you to the folks of tgc in charge of their character design's and animation's for not giving the twins the copy paste treatment. Thank you for making them have their own quirks, their own personalities, and their own differences!!!!
Thank you for making them their own person!
553 notes · View notes
Text
He’s Like A Puppy
kai parker x reader
summary: an argument starts up when damon and bonnie return to the boarding house to find you and kai spending time together. it goes south when you start to defend kai against your friends' remarks.
≪ originally publishes on ao3: 2/24/23 ≫
tags: discussion of murder, cupcakes, small biblical references, fluff
word count: 967
“Don’t you see that he’s dangerous? You’re insane to think otherwise,” Bonnie scolds you, pointing at Kai in the corner.
Kai, who, at this very moment, is sitting on a stool with a cupcake, a bit of the frosting on his nose.
“Very dangerous,” you comment, holding back a chuckle. 
She rolls her eyes, “you didn’t see him in the prison world. You don’t know what he’s done.”
“Killed some people? Doesn’t everyone do that around here?”
“So you think it’s okay?”
“I mean, no, it’s not okay, but if we’re gonna declare Kai evil because he killed a couple folks, then everyone else here is, too. I mean, hell. Stefan’s been a ripper, Damon’s… Damon, Elena’s famous for turning off her humanity, Caroline’s temperamental.”
“Y/N, he massacred his family, there’s a difference.”
“Is there? Killing your family, or killing strangers who had lives and families that you know nothing about? And for all we know, maybe it was a Menedez’ brothers situation.”
“Okay, yes, I see your point about the strangers. But are you implying it’s okay to kill your family if they hurt you a teensy bit?”
“May I just say it was more than a teensy bit?” Kai interrupts.
“Shut up-”
“You shut up, Damon, I’m trying to hear all sides of this story.”
“Y/N, you’re talking crazy right now! He’s a liar. A manipulative, sociopathic liar. Besides, his name’s Malachai, for heaven’s sake! He said it himself, ‘it’s like his parents expected him to be evil’.”
You chuckle.
“What’s so funny about that?” Damon’s eyes narrow. 
“You do know that ‘Malachai’ literally means ‘angel’, right? In fact, it’s a Biblical name. Malachai was a prophet of… y’know that actually doesn’t matter. Regardless, you can’t tell that someone’s evil based on their name. Unless that name is literally, like, Lilith. Or Lucifer.”
“Whatever. You can’t trust someone based on their name, either,” she counters.
“Didn’t say I trust him off his name. Just said we should treat him as we do everyone else in this massive fucking house that’s killed a bunch of people. And how do we treat them? Oh yeah - with understanding, and reason.”
“He stabbed me in the gut, Y/N.”
“So has Damon.”
“Yeah, but I have the right to kill her because we’re friends.”
“Do you even hear yourself when you speak, or is it white noise in your head while a little mouse plays scrabble with sentences?”
“Uncalled for.”
“Was it?”
They’re left at a standstill. No one is sure what to say next. 
“Okay,” you carefully start, “whether or not you trust Kai, he’s here. And, for reasons I don’t know but I also don’t care, he’s been staying here, at the boarding house. Now, since I’m your out-of-town friend, I am also staying here, at the boarding house. So what’s wrong with us hanging out since we’re quite often, literally the only two people here?”
They, again, see the point in your statement, but continue to bicker about it anyway.
“He could hurt you.”
“Could, yeah. But we were chilling for two hours before you guys came back. Nothing happened.”
“Except he’s eating the cupcakes that Elena specifically made for the party tonight.”
“Maybe you shoulda labeled them ‘no touching’ or something.”
“Are you defending him over this now?”
“Well now I’m just pointing out the obvious.”
“I just… Elena’s going to be pissed when she finds her cupcakes gone.”
“Only one’s gone, she’ll barely notice.”
“I’ll tell her he stole it.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, what’s she gonna do? Make him throw it back up?”
“One, gross. Two… maybe I’ll just let her finally kill him. That would solve a lot of our problems.”
You can’t help but smirk, “and we’ve come full circle. House of killers.”
Damon’s eyes widen as he realizes, “wait. No, wait. But it’s, ack, you suck. Fine. She won’t kill him. Just get him out of the kitchen.”
You shrug and make your way over to Kai, who’s now licking icing off his fingers. “Wanna go watch a movie?”
“Sure.” The answer is hesitant, but his excitement is given away with a sparkle in his eyes. 
“What? This was the original problem, Damon! They can’t be alone together! What if he snaps again?”
“Bonnie,” you take a deep breath, “he’s not going to hurt me.”
“How do you know that?”
“Look at him - he’s like a puppy. Just needs a friend and he’ll be okay. I’ll be fine. We’re gonna go get out of your hair, get out of your cupcakes, and watch a movie.” You state, taking his hand. 
“Call if you need anything,” Bonnie just rolls her eyes.
“Might need a grocery store run, but I won’t need help.”
“Whatever.”
◇◇◇◇
Halfway up the stairs, Kai looks behind him to face you, “why’d you call me a puppy?”
“Because you are one. Y’know, I mean what I said. I trust you, and you’re safe with me. You just need some company, Kai. It couldn’t have been easy being isolated for eighteen years.”
“So… you’re gonna be my company?”
“Is that okay?”
He smiles, his dimples showing on the sides of his face, “mhm.”
“Good. But two things… one, if you’re ever feeling angry or uneasy, come to me first, okay? I don’t want them to hurt you, so give me a chance to help you through it.”
“Okay.”
“And two, let’s not eat any more of Elena’s cupcakes. I know, pissing her off is fun sometimes, and they’re really good cupcakes. But we can make our own so Damon doesn’t kill us.”
“Fine, I won’t eat hers.”
“Sounds good. Thank you, Kai.”
“Thank you, actually. Um, for defending me earlier, and being a friend.”
“Of course. Now, let’s go watch a movie. I have Oreos in my room.”
847 notes · View notes
morallyinept · 5 months
Text
THE GIFT - A Marcus Pike Christmas One Shot
Tumblr media
Summary: Marcus buys you a naughty Christmas gift that you wear to his parents' Christmas lunch, and you both find it hard to stay composed at the dinner table.
Pairing: Husband!Marcus Pike x Wife!Reader (No name or physical description of reader. It’s you, bub. Images just for aesthetic, no reference to Reader.)
Word Count: 5.1k
Scoville Smut Rating: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ "You tell me I'm doing well, and then, you try to kill me."
Check out my Scoville Smut Ratings here.
Warnings/triggers - Established relationship/unprotected PIV (wrap up, folks!)/fingering/oral both M & F receiving/use of sex toys/slight edging
NSFW. MINORS DNI! OVER 18’s ONLY. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU READ. ☝🏻Don’t come at me; you’ve been plenty warned.
If this story isn't for you, that's fine. Just slip quietly out the back door. No need to make a fuss. It's just a work of fiction.
Author’s Note: I hope you enjoy your Christmas gift from Agent Pike... 😉
Tagging @secretelephanttattoo as Pike is her husband 🖤
12 DAYS OF XXX-MAS MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST
Enjoy & Happy Holidays! 🎄🖤
Tumblr media
She’s been more than accommodating with his indecisive dithering; showing him the full range, even the ones on sale, giving him recommendations. He’ll be sure to leave her a tip. 
“Would you like this gift wrapped, sir?” The assistant behind the counter asks him rather jauntily.
Her thick, fluttery eyelashes bat at him constantly, and he nods in response with a restrained, yet polite, smile fed back to her. 
Marcus fishes his wallet out of his back pocket, looking around the racy store carefully with darting brown eyes. He’s more aware of his surroundings than he’s been in a very long time.  
Watching over his broad shoulders and scoping out whether anyone would recognise him. Any of his colleagues from the FBI who happen to be in the mall Christmas shopping for their significant others too.
He’d skulked along the shelves of various intimidating dildos and vibrators with his leather jacket collar pulled up as far as humanly possible, as though he were incredibly bad at being undercover, despite years of experience behind him.
Although, that probably wasn’t the wisest idea; he imagined he looked more like some questionable miscreant with a penchant for phallic perversion, but he had little choice if he didn’t want to stand out.
He probably should have done this online, as he stood at the shelves looking incredibly out of his depth and sweating somewhat.
Marcus now hands the helpful assistant his credit card with two thick fingers, and she rings him up before handing him the bag containing the gift he’s purchased.
But the shop assistant got him talking - like they always do and you don’t realise you’re spilling intimate, sexy-time secrets about what freaky things you like to do in the bedroom, to a complete stranger as if you’re being subtly interrogated with some crafty questioning techniques - and then, she was handing him different contraptions and gadgets to press buttons on and watch whirl around and pump lewdly in his reddening face, until he found the perfect one. 
She even threw in a free cock ring and some lube. And he didn't really quite know what to say to that generosity, other than a muttered and sheepish thanks.
“Thanks for your help,” Marcus says as he leaves. 
“No problem. Have a Merry Christmas, sir.” She replies with a knowing wink before serving the person waiting patiently behind him.
Marcus keeps the gift covertly hidden in the house in the days leading up to Christmas, and when you aren’t looking, he sneaks it under the tree with the rest of the gifts, grinning like a madman who’s just discovered the Holy Grail of sexual weaponry.
Deapite the heat engulfing his face and neck, he’s excited about how you’ll react when you open it on Christmas morning, and admittedly so is his cock at the thought; it’s been hardening uncomfortably since he stepped in the adult store.
But he keeps himself composed and manages to slink out back to the car undetected. But not before another indulgent purchase from Victoria's Secret for you. The credit card has certainly been flexed.
On the morning of Christmas Day, Marcus rouses you awake in bed with warm, snuggly kisses. Soft and sleepy, his long limbs wrap your body up in a Pike web that you can’t, and don’t want, to untangle yourself from, as he slips his hard length inside you and gives you the first of many gifts today - a slow, intense love making session to start the day off with a bang.
Fucking you into the headboard as you both claw and grasp at one another as the chemistry between you ignites into a heat that suffocates you. You're kissing over his shoulders as he nips at your neck, buried deep inside of you and whimpering in your ear.
Your first Christmas morning together as a newly married couple, months after your memorable honeymoon in Antigua, and you still can’t get enough of one another.  
“Best present ever,” you pant into his hot mouth as he makes you see stars through a bed-head spinning orgasm that pulls you fully from your sleep and launches you face first into the sun.
"Just you wait..." He grins into your face.
After you’ve showered and gotten dressed ready for Christmas lunch that’s planned in the afternoon with Marcus’ parents - after struggling to keep your hands off one another in the process; he just looks so damn good with a towel wrapped low around his waist as he shaves - you walk into the lounge putting in your earrings.
You find Marcus on the floor reaching for the additional gift he’s purchased for you, from under the tree.
Marcus nods his head. “The dresser. In the ceramic bowl.” 
“Have you seen my bracelet?” You ask him as you fasten the earrings, your eyes scanning over the coffee table for it.
Another thoughtful and special gift from Marcus from early on in your relationship when you began dating. You rarely take it off, but when you do you’re always hunting for it.
You smile, remembering. “What would I do without you?” You swoon at him. 
“Crash and burn.” He stands up, holding the neatly wrapped gift out to you. “Here.”
“What’s this?” You ask him, stunned.
“It’s a Christmas present, d’uh.” Marcus smirks, rolling his richly cocoa eyes and chuckling.
“No, I mean this.” You say tugging gently at the hem of his sweater and smiling. The colour palette is reminiscent of the natural tones found in Nordic landscapes - cool blues, forest greens, and snowy whites. It has a slightly chunky knit to the wool, giving it a warm and substantial feel across your fingers, and he looks incredibly snug in it.
“It’s a Christmas sweater.” He says.
“Cute.” Smiling, you take the gift from him. “It even has reindeers.” 
“I like it.” He says, smoothing it down over his torso. “Apparently so did my mom.”
You snicker. “I thought we weren’t going to do gifts until we got to your parents?” You question.
You shake the box and raise your eyebrows at him curiously.
“I don’t think you’ll want to open this one in front of everyone.” Marcus remarks, tucking his hands inside his pants pockets, channelling an innocent, little boy aura about him.
His cheeks are already flushing pink under the crinkles of his eyes. 
“It’s not maracas.”
“Boo.” You mock pout.
“Open it.” Marcus gently instructs with a beaming smile.
You unpeel the gold wrapping paper with a matching curly bow, scrunching it up inside your hand, and a black velvet box is revealed to you. You pull the satin ribbon from around it and lift off the lid.
“Urm-” You start to smirk and then giggle, as you look up at him with wide, sparkly eyes.
His big brown peepers are glittery too; mischievous looking as he stares back at you.
“Well,” you say, astonished, as you pull out the contents; two shiny, egg-shaped balls attached together with nylon string. 
“Oh, you did, did you?” You’re failing to stifle your own devilish grin.
“I thought maybe you could wear them today.” Marcus says, stepping closer to you and running his hands up and down your arms.
A tingling sensation blooms when he does it, that starts at the nape of your neck and travels all the way down your spine to settle in your coccyx; your nipples wake up, stiffening inside your bra.
“Mhm.” His hands fall to your waist.
“How presumptuous.” Your eyes fall to his lips, shiny and pink when he licks over them.
“Very,” he nods, coming closer, “in fact I insist on it.” Marcus kisses your lips gently, but the kiss lingers and stirs up that wanton passion again as it flares through the slats in your rib cage and drips into your panties.
Moaning into his mouth, you wrap your hands around the back of his neck, dizzy by the intoxicating scent of his cologne; the velour box falling to the floor and the love eggs dangling precariously from your fingers.
He slips his tongue in and you groan, feeling how hard he is as he presses you against him, squeezing at your ass with some heated fervour.
“Put them in,” Marcus whispers in a heated gasp.
“Now?”
“Now,” he nods “let me.” He takes them from your hand; his long, thick fingers getting tangled in yours for a moment and stroking them fondly.
You smile, glancing at the platinum wedding band around his finger that matches yours, save for a tiny diamond, and wondering how you got so lucky to have this man keep surprising and tantalising you like this. 
His touch burns, heating the blood in your veins as it flows around your limbs; fanning the sparks between your thighs, and his fingers are soft and nimble around your own.
Marcus crouches down in front of you and pushes your skirt up and is presented with black, lacy panties that makes him salivate. Kissing slowly up your thighs, he runs his nose against your damp seam and inhales deep; the scent of you already beginning to turn him out.
You place your hands on his shoulders as he kisses you again, standing, and he walks you backwards to the sofa.
The tingles persist in flooding your spine, spreading into your core and making it throb and ache. You tussle gently with his tongue and the sound of his groans make you shudder and melt.
“Lean back, gorgeous.” Marcus pushes your shoulder gently until you’re laying back on your elbows.
You put your foot on his shoulder as he kneels down, his face level with your pussy. He plants gentle, delicate kisses inside your thighs again, eyeing you with those deep, rich browns as he smooches, trailing ghostly over your skin and eliciting streams of goosebumps.
His fingers pull the lace of your panties aside to reveal the wet flesh of your lips. He leans in and kisses you there; swiping his tongue up and down slowly, tasting that you’re exceedingly wet for him already.
“Mmm,” you drone, reaching for his head and running your hands through his hair and messing those styled spikes up. 
He tastes that sweet honey of you on the end of his tongue as he dives in a little deeper, teasing your hole before sucking gently on your clit.
“Marcus,” you whine, throwing your head back, your thighs already begging to shake. “God, if you start this now, we’re going to be late…” You groan, unable to contain yourself from fisting through his hair and pulling him closer to you now with a sharp tug. 
He doesn’t let up however, sucking harder as he slips his fingers inside of you, pumping in and out gently. 
“Oh God, baby,” you shudder as he curls upwards, stroking against your spot with precision. 
He can’t help himself but to taste you, tuning into your gasping, heated breaths. Despite your words about being late, you want it, you want him; your husband’s mouth on your pussy licking and sucking all over it. 
“Please, please, please…” you barely whisper, the words getting lost inside your throaty gasps. It feels so good, building and brewing as he licks and fingers you deep.
Marcus reaches up massaging your breast over your sparkly top as he flicks his tongue against your clit faster.
“Fuck, Marcus!” You cry.
“Right there, baby. Right there… Mmm, yeah!" The air above you seems to shimmer with some intangible energy as your eyes roll back; a lightheaded euphoria enveloping you like a gossamer veil.
Your hands grip onto the sofa cushioning beneath you as you squirm and buck into his mouth. 
The tingles are now millions of luminescent butterflies beating their wings against your skin, leaving trails of warmth and vivacious joy in their wake. Your body winds tight, centering in on your core, on the cusp of snapping back. 
“Come for me,” he murmurs to you, glancing up adoringly to watch you as he latches onto your clit again. 
“Yes! Yes!” You pant. Your thighs shake and he can taste you as you flood his mouth.
Marcus loves watching you come; enjoys that breathy giggle that puffs out of you when it gets a little too much as he licks softly around your overstimulated clit.
Loves the way your voice falters on a soft moan when he enters you, sliding deep. Loves the way you press your clammy forehead against his as you ride him, telling him how good he feels inside you.
Loves how his own voice whimpers, like he could just cry, before he comes; his brows furrowing, mouth open as he lets those little weakened pants pelt you face as he fills you up.
Loves how you’ll put on one of his shirts, pulling it out from the laundry hamper because it smells like him and you want to bathe in that scent, as you go about your business around the house doing chores.
He loves how you’ll let him lift the hem up and slip inside you as you do something mundane like wash the dishes up whilst he’s still in his suit from work, finding you sexy as hell in his crumpled shirt as he fucks his beautiful wife against the sink before you even say hello, how was your day to one another.
Marcus pulls his head back, lips shiny and smirks up at you.
“You’re incorrigible,” you say, catching your breath. 
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Marcus grins, wiping his lips with his thumb “but I didn’t hear you complaining just then.”
“Oh, I’ll never complain when you do that.” You giggle. 
“These’ll go in much easier now.” 
“Uh-huh, so that’s why, hmm?”
He simply purses his lips in a coy smirk. You watch keenly as he pushes the first egg against your swollen lips and slips it inside you. You moan out as it fills you, and he then pops the other one inside. 
“How do they feel?”
“Cold.” You say, smiling as he slides your panties back into place.
“They’ll warm up.” He remarks and kisses your cheek affectionately.
Marcus takes your hands and pulls you upright on your feet and you gasp as you feel them move and press against spongy parts deep inside you. 
“This is… new.” You titter as you smooth down your skirt of the creases. You don’t have time to iron it now. 
Marcus watches you go in search of your bracelet, but you suddenly stop and jolt, gasping out like you’ve been electrocuted on the stairs. 
“Oh my God!” You clutch your lower abdomen; pussy tingling on the inside and a deep pulling feeling can be felt as you feel the eggs vibrate wildly.
Marcus chuckles, pulling his phone out of his pants pocket and waving it at you. “They’re wireless too.”
“Oh, you play dirty, Agent.” 
He presses the screen again and a delicious buzzing is felt deep emanating through your core as you groan.
“We’re going to have a great day!” Marcus croons devilishly, through a wide grin.
Inside the car on the way to his parents’ house for Christmas lunch, you’re driving - offering to do it so he can have a few wines if he wants to - when you feel that yummy feeling zap through you once more.
You swerve a little, completely not expecting it at all.
“Are you trying to kill us?” You muse to Marcus who's grinning and laughing like a man who holds all the power. 
“How does it feel?” He asks through a side glance and rubbing your thigh affectionately.
“Frustrating.” You say, biting down on your lip and wanting nothing more than to pull over and straddle him.
Marcus simply smirks as he looks out the windscreen as you both approach his parent’s home, pulling up on the large driveway.
Inside, the house is already bustling with his family crowded in. His father is well on the way to being fully inebriated, and his booming voice greets you both as he bundles you through the door into the hall. 
He leans in to kiss you on the cheeks and you almost jump out of your skin as Marcus does it again, sending your body erratic with jolts from the vibrations inside your pussy.
You narrowly miss headbutting his father. 
You clench your thighs together, trying to greet his father like a normal person and not one who is on the brink of screaming out X-rated curses.
You shoot Marcus a frantic look, but he simply grins back as he follows you into the lounge, but not before giving your butt a quick, naughty slap. You feel the eggs jostle around inside you as he does it.
Holy shit!
Lunch is long. Really long. Never ending and incredibly hair-pulling and frustratingly long.
You’re digging into your plate when you jerk or kick out suddenly like your limbs are being pulled in odd directions. You throw Marcus a heated glance opposite you and he’s smiling as he brings his fork up to eat.
Oh, he thinks he’s so fucking clev-
You knock your wine glass off the table and cringe when it smashes all over the floor when he sets it off again.
It’s met by rowdy, drunken cheers from Marcus’ father, but you shoot an embarrassed and somewhat uneasy look at Marcus, who is simply sat back in his chair, seated next to his mother, in very similar Nordic festive sweaters, sipping from his own glass casually, with his hand in his pocket on that infernal phone.
Even your thoughts are cut short by the continuous zapping and buzzing that makes you jump and flinch further.
He lets it buzz for short bursts and then follows with a drawn out long one, like Morse Code inside your pussy. You’re in the midst of a deep conversation with his mother later, when he leaves it on inside his pocket.
He catches your wide-eyed, panic stricken face as he puts both his hands back on the table and they’re void of any phone.
Please no!
“Are you alright?” His mother asks you tentatively, putting her wispy hand on your shoulder, and you nod quickly.
“Uh-huh. Too much, uh wine,” you brush off shakily. “I’m driving. Shouldn't have any-m-more.” You stutter, feeling the heat lick at your collarbone.
“I’ll get you some water.” She offers.
“No! No… I’ll go,” you all but squeak, and excuse yourself into the kitchen, biting down on your lip so hard it could burst and bleed.
Running your hands under the cold tap, you pat them around the back of your neck to cool yourself, working through the vibrations inside you that are unrelenting.
You breathe in and out slowly, eyes rolling back into your head at how good it feels.
Oh fuck, fuck...
You feel hands snake their way around your waist; the scent of Marcus’ familiar cologne fucking you further up as he plants a sensuous kiss on the side of your neck.
Lips trailing up towards your lobe before he sucks on it, his breath warming the conch of your ear. 
“Marcus... I... can’t... please,” you beg; your head in a tizz, legs buckling and your pussy on the cusp of a complete meltdown.
“Having fun?” Marcus whispers.
“Ah...” you whine, nuzzling into him as his arm wraps around your waist pulling you tight against him.
“I’m gonna… come,” your hands grip on the sink as your body shudders and your pussy clenches.
You can feel the eggs, all tingly, making your vision become blurry as you tumble and get dizzier in the process. 
“You wanna come?” Marcus husks. You feel his lips nip a little harder on your lobe.
“Yes… Oh God.”
Just as you’re there, about to take that leap off the edge and free fall into sweet, sweet oblivion, he turns it off. 
Your head snaps around to him quickly.
“Are you kidding me?!” You hiss, careful not to let anyone hear.
You can only watch him simply saunter out of the kitchen with a grin, leaving you about ready to murder him with whatever dirty ladle or pan you can reach for in the sink.
Fuck!
“Stop. I feel like my pussy has Tourettes!” You hiss at him covertly, and Marcus simply chuckles darkly at you. 
Marcus does it again a little later, winding your coil tighter until you’re about ready to snap.
He observes you wringing your hands and trying your best to stay composed as you flit around everyone; trying not to stay too long around them because of your constant mad flinching. 
You remove the eggs a little while later as you use the bathroom, staring down at them as they vibrate on the sink. Somewhat pleased with yourself that he’s pressed the app somewhere downstairs and doesn’t know that they’re not inside you at this precise moment.
You wonder whether you should put them back in; feeling wrought and severely wound up from him subjecting you to this all day, but then you rationale that it’s the whole point.
Surely he’s brought them for this reason and they’re a gift, after all. A teasing, edging gift.
Sighing and giggling, you put them back in, one leg up on the toilet seat, and slip them back inside; your fingers grazing against your sensitive and aching clit, and just as you think you’ll give yourself a little touch - relieve yourself of some of the tension - they buzz again and you almost fall backwards onto your ass, clattering against the towel rail.
Shit!
As you open the bathroom door, Marcus is standing on the other side smirking at you.
You push him against the wall and kiss him, trying to distract him whilst you fish inside his pocket for that infernal phone of his.
He laughs and grips a hold of your hands, stopping you from finding it.
“No you don’t.” He teases as he pushes you against the opposite wall. Your back hits it with a gentle thud.
“Marcus!” You gasp, whining and struggling against him as he clamps around your wrists with ease.
You try to latch onto his lips desperately again, but this time he denies you, realising your sly distraction techniques
“Please. I can’t bear it anymore.” You growl, your hands fumbling against his. 
“Look at you, all wound up.” Marcus teases with that pert, pink grin splayed across his mouth.
“Please, baby. Let me come!” You plead, pulling at his festive sweater desperately, and with actual tears threatening to spill as they glisten in your lined eyes.
“Look at you, so needy,” he exclaims with a husky growl, holding onto your arms as you try to rub yourself against him.
He’s inherently proud of his purchase, because it’s reduced you to this - begging - and he decides instantly he likes this. He’s so incredibly aroused by it; his cock is straining out of his slacks to get to you.
“Please, Marcus... I need you.” You mewl again, on the verge of howling. “Fuck me. Please. Please!" You whine with a choked sob.
Marcus looks up and down the hall and then grabs you by the hand pulling you along hurriedly. He opens up a door further down the hall and bundles you inside.
“Beg me to fuck you again,” Marcus hisses, before he grazes his lips against yours. “Tell me you want me. You want my cock.” He gasps against your lips.
“Fuck me, Marcus,” you breathe “please, I need you!” You splutter.
“Beg for my cock, baby.” He licks into your mouth. He thrusts his hips against yours making you feel it. 
“Please, give me your cock,” you say, pelting his lips with yours and gasping. “I want it. I need your cock, baby.”
“Hard?” He suggests to you with a grunt inside his voice.
“Oh, you better fuck me so hard!” You warn, excitedly.
Marcus wrenches up your skirt and takes a handful of your ass inside his hands as he kisses you clumsily. Both your lips mash together in a messy, rabid tussle as you grin and giggle.
You feel him tug down your panties as you unzip his pants frantically with shaky hands. 
You can feel his fingers reaching into your sopping pussy, pulling out the love eggs. He plops them on the bed and circles your clit with his thumb.
He pushes you on the bed; you pull off your top, revealing your bra and he goes for the straps freeing your breasts to topple out and into his mouth. He sucks and bites on your nipple making you yelp.
You run your hands through his hair, messing it up again before you tug on it, making him groan.
“Marcus, please…” you pant as he lines himself up with you. “Please, fuck me.”
Groaning, he pushes his cock up inside of you, hard like you want, in a deep shunt. It takes your breath away. He does it again, settling into a heavy pace as you squeal into the thick wool of his sweater, practically a mouth full of it. 
“God, you’re so wet... soaked, baby,” he moans with glee as his cock is utterly coated with you, lewdly squelching into you. “You like your gift, hmm?”
You cry out in agreement, a little louder than he would like, and he places his swamping hand over your mouth, chuckling.
“Sssh,” he smirks at you as he works his hips.
“I don’t care if they hear us!” You muffle at him. “You’ve been teasing the hell out of me all day.” 
“I have. I’ve enjoyed seeing you squirm.” He shunts upwards again, deliberately; his cock hitting all the right spots. 
“Oh God, you sadist.” You groan, gripping onto him. 
He chuckles as he thrusts faster. "Ah shit... you feel so good."
“Oh, Marcus!” You whine into his face as you release; your legs shaking and your neck straining.
Your cunt is already squeezing around him and it doesn’t take much to bring you to a quick, hard orgasm after keeping you on the cusp of it all damned day.
Drunk on that sweet, heady glow with a gritty dance into exhilaration and rebellion at finally getting what you so desperately want as your fingers twist and gnarl at his sweater.
“So beautiful when you come for me like this,” he grunts. 
Marcus watches in awe as you pant and grapple at him; your head lolling and eyes rolling into the back of your head as you flop further into the mattress beneath you after epically shuddering like you’ve had a seizure; tingling with an ebbing numbness that hints at the untamed energy coursing through your veins.
He places his hands on the bed either side of your head and slows his pace down after he gets you off, enjoying the feeling of you pulsating and ribbing around him during the crackled aftershocks of your big O moment.
“Ride me,” Marcus whispers salaciously to you.
He rolls, taking you with him and still inside you, until you’re on top. He unclips your bra, leaving you fully naked. You push his Christmas sweater up and run your hands over his stomach and toned chest, raking your nails over his tan skin.
His mouth parts, plush and full as he pants and bucks up as you wind your hips around him.
You push onto his chest with your hands and let your ass and hips do all the work as you ride him quicker and faster.
“Yeah baby, like that.” He grits, feeling your pussy pump him.
“You like that?” You grin. “Maybe I should just stop… give you a taste of your own medicine.”
“Don’t you fucking dare.” Marcus leans up into a biting kiss as you bend fully over him, riding his cock deeply as he pushes his hips up, meeting your rhythm.
“M-marcus...” You gasp into his face.
“God, I love you deep inside me like this,” you groan, finding your strength again.
“That feel good?” He asks you, knowing full well it does.
You love the feeling of him like this. After how he’s toyed with you all day so far, he wants to see you enjoy this, enjoy what he’s giving to you right now.
“Yeah?”
“Mhm. So good.” 
“So deep inside my beautiful wife.”
“Oh!” You groan. 
He strokes your face and kisses you before grunting out. “I’m close, baby.”
“I want it in my mouth."
“Yeah.” He agrees with a strain. 
Shuffling off of him quickly, you take his slick, wet cock inside your mouth and suck him hard.
“Shit!” Marcus pants, scooping your hair out of the way so he can watch you take him deep. You can taste yourself all around him, succulent and sweet. 
“Oh, you’re so good at that.” He breathes out with that brewing tremor in his voice. "Oh shit, I'm gonna come, baby."
You suck around him, pumping him with your hand as you feel him inflate and pulse before he shoots inside your mouth in quick, hot bursts.
You swallow it all down, moaning in satisfied delight.
“Jesus...” Marcus sighs out with a breathy chuckle, head flopping down onto the bed. His face is all red and sweaty.
He pulls you into his arms and lays back with you on the bed that you only now realise is a single bed.
You look around the room, listening to his heartbeat slow inside his rib cage as he winds strands of your hair around his fingers.
Inside the room is a small, single bed and shelves with old models and books on. There’s a desk and an old TV set, and various cans of deodorants and aftershaves adorn one of the shelves.
In one corner, there's a corkboard displaying a mix of academic achievements; sports medals highlighting achievements in various competitions at racquetball. 
“Who’s room is this?” You ask curiously.
“It’s mine,” Marcus replies, his hand stroking up and down your back leaving shuddery, cool goose pimples to birth. “Or it was back when I lived here.”
You sit up. “You’ve never shown me your old bedroom before.”
“I stayed here when I was training at the academy too.”
“How many girls did you sneak back in here?” You ask giggling.
Marcus chuckles. “I’m not telling you that.”
“Smooth.” You tease, winking and he laughs again.
He’s so inherently beautiful when he laughs; that dimple on show and an astonishingly natural ease spreads over his face. He looks the most comfortable he’s ever been in his whole life when he laughs. It changes his face; makes him beam brighter than the sun.
You reach up to his face and kiss those soft, pink lips of his with affectionate vigour. He wraps his arms around your back, crushing you into him as he whines softly into the kiss.
“Merry Christmas,” you whisper as you pull away, your mouth still inches from his.
“Merry Christmas, beautiful.” Marcus replies before swallowing you up once more in another lengthy, passionate kiss.
He wants nothing more than to stay right here, hidden away in his old bedroom with you, his stunning wife, naked and spread all over him.
But you’re both probably being missed downstairs and will face some questioning if you don’t re-appear soon.
You nod, smirking at him as you slip your shoes back on and straighten up your skirt, which will be evidence enough with how creased it is now, at what you've both been doing.
“So, did you like your gift?” Marcus enquires with a smirk as you dress a few minutes later.
He refuses to give you your panties back, and you watch as he slips them in his pocket cheekily. 
He scoops up the love eggs from the bed and puts them in his other pocket with his phone.
“I’ll wear them again.” You reply, nodding.
“Absolutely. I can think of a place...” He smooths down your crazy, fucked-out hair; his hands cupping either of your face. 
“Where?” You query with a brewing smirk.
“At the FBI’s New Year's Eve Ball next week.” Marcus states, winking at you.
Tumblr media
12 DAYS OF XXX-MAS MASTERLIST | MAIN MASTERLIST
204 notes · View notes
revenantghost · 1 year
Text
Heyo, let’s talk about my girl Meryl and why she’s so critical to the plot of Trigun Stampede and Vash in particular! (Well, that’s true for any Trigun, but Tristamp theories are rotting my brain atm.) Some spoilers for Tristamp and vague talk/references to the other series ahoy!
Tumblr media
Meryl gets way too many accusations thrown at her for doing nothing/not enough in Tristamp. To the point that I started a rewatch to see if I was misremembering, but absolutely not! Those first three episodes alone, she’s critical to how things develop! She’s a foil to Vash, just like Wolfwood is!! She’s essential to his humanity!!!
But it took until I was watching ‘98 for the first time this weekend for it to crash into me like a freight train exactly what Meryl means, just like it took Trimax for the full weight of Wolfwood to click into place for me. Because she’s set up a lot like her older anime counterpart (though no one gets the same amount of character interaction—Tristamp, I adore you, but please slow down and let these poor folks breathe). She doesn’t understand Vash at first, she even goes so far as to call him a coward in a really low blow for what she easily recognizes as his bravery (and sometimes stupidity) later. And while they both (well, pretty much all the Trigun protags, let’s be honest) share their bullheadedness, I see a lot of people say she’s just like Vash... And I disagree, sorta.
She’s just like Rem. Just look at that last episode.
The two women don’t have the same belief systems, they have wildly different paths, and they come into Vash’s life in incredibly different ways. Meryl may keep Vash in check sometimes, but she’s not a mother figure imo. But they still play a similar role.
After over a century of traveling alone, we see (especially in other versions of Trigun) that Vash is often used and abandoned. Even when he makes genuine friends, they let him drift in and out of their life—and to their credit, he’s good at that! He can’t handle any more pain, so he slips away before the hurt catches up. But not Meryl! She ain’t gonna let that happen!!! At first, yeah, she follows him because of her job, but it never takes her long to go from frustrated and fed up to growing fond of Vash. And I especially love the career shift in Tristamp allowing her a complete out, to walk away and abandon Vash when things get rough, and no one would blame her for it.
But she stays. Because she sees that he’s good and worthy of the love that he denies himself. She sees this vile, hopeless world that they live in through his eyes, and sees the beauty in it too. She’s the first person to have faith in Vash not just as a savior, but as a person—unlike anyone has since Rem.
When all hope is gone, when Vash has lost his way, when he stumbles and falls, Meryl—who starts off doubting him!—is the one there to pick him up and remind him that he’s loved, that his love for humanity isn’t for nothing. Throughout the entire series, she has faith in him. She chooses Vash even when he won’t choose himself. She’s tired and done living in this selfish world of awful people, and she becomes the anchor that ties Vash down to what’s good in humanity. She’s just as critical as Wolfwood in taking a distant, disheartened, and broken Vash and reconnecting him to a world that cast him aside. And we’ve already gotten so much of that in Tristamp. It’s most obvious in the ending, but it’s built up so beautifully imo. She’s not as flashy as our fighters YET, but she’s absolutely essential to Vash, and I will die on this hill. I can’t wait to see her come crashing back into the picture with Milly next season.
569 notes · View notes
therainscene · 5 months
Text
Since The First Shadow has folks talking about Henry’s queerness (or lack thereof), I wanted to share my take on it as someone who tends to interpret him as gay.
I’m not going to be talking about his relationship with Patty, though -- I can’t afford to see the play and don’t want to rely on secondary sources for this, so I simply can’t comment on it. (I’m sure they’re lovely together, though.)
Tumblr media
To me, Henry’s queer-coding isn’t a question of whether he’s literally gay -- it’s a question of what role his villainy plays in the story.
The biggest non-Patty-related criticism against queer interpretations of Henry is that it would carry an uncomfortably homophobic implication: that queers are dangerous predators.
This was a common belief in the 80s, and the show references it by having Troy chuckle at the idea of Will getting "killed by some other queer" -- a prediction that comes symbolically and unpleasantly true when Joyce finds him with one of Vecna’s vines literally shoved down his throat.
Tumblr media
It's tempting to try and solve this problem by interpreting Henry as straight -- the homophobic implications of his child-assaulting villainy will disappear if he's not queer, right?
Well... in my opinion, no.
A key aspect of Henry's character is that he's different. Whether you interpret that difference as queerness, neurodivergence, or simply that he has powers -- the fact remains that he is fundamentally the sort of person whom society looks down upon with fear and suspicion.
If he’s not a predatory queer, then he's a remorseless psychopath. If he's not a remorseless psychopath, then he's a vessel for an evil alien. There's no way to escape the implication that he’s dangerous because he’s different.
Eddie’s character resonates with this principle too. Indeed, our introduction to him is a monologue in which he complains about being treated with suspicion just because he’s different.
Tumblr media
Given their similarities in this regard, I think it’s interesting that the show endears us to Eddie in the same breath it makes us fear Vecna. It almost feels like a test--
We know you’ll sympathize with a weirdo who sells drugs to troubled minors when you get to see things from his perspective, but can you sympathize with a weirdo who hurts troubled minors when you don’t get to see things from his perspective? Will you jump to unfair conclusions about Henry in the same way the town jumps to unfair conclusions about Eddie?
My point here isn’t that Henry did nothing wrong or that his villainy is justified -- I’m pretty sure he did commit the murders Eddie was scapegoated for and I’m pretty sure that’s a bad thing -- but he’s always held at arm’s length from the audience. The show plays the role of Jason, encouraging us to blindly hate him on gut instinct instead of giving him a fair trial.
It’s an easy test to fail, because it does seem like we get to see Henry’s perspective -- he has a whole villain speech, after all.
Tumblr media
But the trouble is, this speech takes place within NINA. What we’re watching is footage that has been curated by his abuser and shown through the eyes of a traumatized girl who barely understands what happened -- secondary sources who are invested in viewing him as a threat.
Tumblr media
Consider that Henry’s hairstyle mysteriously changes during the massacre. It’s one of those subtle costuming choices that isn’t meant to be consciously picked up on, but which registers at the back of our minds and leaves us feeling unsettled -- this Henry isn’t like the Henry we were looking at before.
The obvious way of interpreting this is that the mask has finally slipped -- the “nice” Henry was fake, and now we see him for who he “really” is. But I’m not inclined to interpret it that way, because of all the hairstyles they could have chosen... they just so happened to opt for one that resembles Brenner. (Pun intended.)
Tumblr media
This isn’t Henry with his mask off -- this is Henry as Brenner wants him to be.
Fear-mongering over the existence of queer people has long been a useful tool for those in power -- in the 80s, fear of AIDS did the job nicely -- and so too has Brenner forged Henry into a tool to further his own goals, no regard given to the harm he causes in the process.
Like the “predatory queer”, Henry is defined on his oppressor’s terms, and like Eddie, it makes him a useful scapegoat. He only became what he did because of an unethical institution, and treating him as the problem is just as short-sighted as blaming gay men for the AIDS crisis.
That isn’t to say Vecna hasn’t become a genuine threat, though. Will makes a prediction as to how S5 is going to end--
Tumblr media
--and while I’m not expecting things to end as violently as Will implies here -- that’s not Will’s thing -- I do believe that Vecna is going to be defeated by his hand. As tragic as Vecna’s origin was, he still made his own choices once he was free from Brenner, and he’s likely too far gone at this point to be capable of earning his happy ending.
But that’s what makes it so important that Will gets his happy ending.
Queer characters have been exclusively cast as villains or tragic sadbois for so long that I can completely sympathize with people’s hesitance to embrace Henry as a tragic queer villain.
But villains only exist within the context of the heroes who challenge them... and in a show about a queer-coded villain who personifies the anger and despair of being abused for what you are, a loving gay boy who breaks the cycle of abuse by learning that he has the right to be the hero of his own story is the perfect foil for him.
149 notes · View notes
jackoshadows · 7 months
Text
A tale of two marriages.
The vast difference in how Jon Snow deals with the marriages of Arya and Sansa Stark has already been mentioned. However, I noticed there are also other differences in the overall narrative as well.
First, two Kings - Robb Stark and Stannis Baratheon - refer to and use Sansa’s marriage to Tyrion to affirm that Sansa will never get Winterfell while positing that Jon Snow should be Lord of Winterfell.
“Young, and a king,” he said. “A king must have an heir.  If I should die in my next battle, the kingdom must not die with me. By law Sansa is next in line of succession, so Winterfell and the north  would pass to her.” His mouth tightened. “To her, and her lord husband. Tyrion Lannister. I cannot allow that. I will not allow that. That dwarf must never have the north.” - Robb Stark, ASoS
"By right Winterfell should go to my sister Sansa."
"Lady Lannister, you mean? Are you so eager to see the Imp perched on your father's seat? I promise you, that will not happen whilst I live, Lord Snow." - Stannis Baratheon, ADwD
In contrast, two Kings - Mance Rayder and Stannis Baratheon - are trying to save Arya Stark from her marriage to Ramsay Bolton for Jon Snow.
He glanced at the letter again. I will save your sister if I can. A surprisingly tender sentiment from Stannis - Jon, ADwD
Bring her home, Mance. I saved your son from Melisandre, and now I am about to save four thousand of your free folk. You owe me this one little girl. - Jon, ADwD
It’s interesting that Stannis has this ‘tender sentiment’ while vowing that Sansa will never get Winterfell considering that Arya too is married to his enemy Ramsay Bolton. Maybe he intends for Ramsay Bolton to be dead soon which would free Arya to make other alliances. Or maybe he hates the Lannisters more than the Boltons.
Additionally there is no other mention of the Sansa/Tyrion marriage in the Northern context, no Northern houses or lords who bring it up, no secret plotting that revolves around this marriage. In contrast Arya’s marriage to Ramsay is mentioned in the four corners of the North, from the Wall to Winterfell, from Deepwood Motte to White Harbor and is a driving force for many of the characters’ actions and plotting. It’s more important in terms of ‘The North Remembers’ and Northern uprising against the Lannisters in King’s Landing, the Freys and the Boltons considering it revolves around Lady Arya Stark present in Winterfell.
This is why - as GRRM has pointed out in interviews - Arya’s marriage to Ramsay is a necessary and important book plot.
Unintentionally. A little change in a long narrative can have big changes further on. You know, when we remove Jeyne Poole from season one, then you don’t have Jeyne Poole to be the fake Arya, as happens in the book. So what do you do then? The butterfly effect has done that.
It’s not Jeyne Poole’s marriage to Ramsay Bolton that is driving all these mini subplots in the North.Yes, it’s sad that no one would care if Ramsay married Jeyne just like no one cared that Jeyne got send off to the brothels while Sansa was a high value hostage of the Lannisters. Just like no one cared about Jeyne’s story in the books until the show replaced her with Sansa and suddenly there were discussions about rape in the series.
GRRM: I was trying to set up Jeyne for her future role as the false Arya.   The real Arya has escaped and is presumed dead.  But this girl has been in Littlefinger's control for years, and he's been training her.  She knows Winterfell, has the proper northern accent, and can pose as Arya. Who the hell knows what a little girl you met two years ago looks like?  When your a lord visiting Winterfell, are you going to pay attention to the little kids running around?  So she can pull off the impersonation.  Not having Jeyne, they used Sansa for that.  Is that better or worse?  You can make your decision there.  Oddly, I never got pushback for that in the book because nobody cared about Jeyne Poole that much.  They care about Sansa.
In the books, it’s Arya marriage that has two kings trying to save her, the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch breaking sworn oaths, the Mountain clans and Northern houses marching with Stannis for the Ned’s precious little girl. They all think that’s Arya Stark in Winterfell. Arya may not be physically there, but it’s the marriage of Arya Stark in Winterfell in front of the Heart Tree, being given away by kin, Theon Greyjoy, that’s being used to hold the North and lend legitimacy to Ramsay Bolton as Lord of Winterfell.
193 notes · View notes
Text
Camp Crystal Lake: Chapter 3
Tumblr media
Requested by @yellowjacketsbuzzbuzz
Joel Miller x f!reader (romance/horror)
Setting: Camp Crystal Lake
The reader is taking on the position of a camp counselor at the infamous Camp Crystal Lake. While she begins to enjoy her summer, even crushing on the camp director Joel, a killer lurks in the woods unbeknownst to anyone.
“So, do we get a merit badge or something if we survive?” I joked, walking side-by-side with Joel.
“If we survive?” He smirked as he spoke the words and then added, “Oh, you mean Jason and Camp Blood and all that.”
“Camp Blood?” I laughed.
“You haven’t heard that one before?”
I shook my head as we kept walking.
“Maybe you’re too young for that one,” Joel went on, “After the first incidents back in the eighties they started referring to anywhere on the lake as Camp Blood. I was just a little kid then. I think the nickname has died down a bit.”
“How old are you?” When I realized immediately that I’d blurted the question out, I was going to redact my words but Joel answered.
“Forty-two.” He nodded in my direction, “You?”
“Twenty-two.” I shrugged as I stated my age and then eyed the pile of firewood that Joel had chopped when we rounded the cabin.
“At forty-two, my back’s gonna be sore tomorrow from chopping all this wood.” Joel gave a light laugh, “Not when I was twenty-two though.”
I smiled at him. “Well, the least I can do with my youthful muscles is carry a bunch over.”
Joel chuckled again and held my stare for just a second. I was already on cloud-nine around him. I felt like he had a more serious side, though the bit of playfulness he’d shown so far made me feel instantly comfortable around him.
That’s just the infatuation talking, I warned myself.
I tried to max out what I could carry in some feeble attempt to impress him. The two of us wandered back to where everyone was gathered near the dormant fire pit and set the logs down. Joel threw a few into the center and within a few minutes the fire was blazing as we all sat down.
Across the lake I could see the dark silhouettes of the treetops in the distance. There was a stillness to the water that finally allowed me to relax as I reached for a marshmallow and Sandra passed me a can of beer.
“I don’t want to scare anybody,” Joel began, “But I want to give it to you all straight about Jason.”
My eyes snapped up now. The relaxation I had been feeling a second before was splintered by a small hit of adrenaline.
“If you listen to the old timer’s in town, they’ll tell you he’s still out here somewhere, like some sort of demented creature. Feral, living off of wild animals. Some folks claim they’ve even seen him.” Joel’s eyes met mine across the way and he gave a half-smirk that made me smile wide.
“Right in this area,” he went on, not breaking eye contact, “The girl that survived that night at Camp Blood, that Friday the 13th.. she saw him.. and then she disappeared a few months later. No one knows what happened to her. And then there was the massacre not long afterwards on the lake. One survivor. And then another.. and another. The original Camp Blood is just a short walk from here, where it all started.”
“Give me a break,” Vicky said with a half-hearted laugh.
“It’s true,” I intervened with a nod. “I grew up here. My parents showed me an old clipping one time. People still talk about it.”
“You’re from around here?” Teri asked.
I nodded. “The kids I grew up with all talked about Jason. We weren’t allowed near these woods back then.”
The girls’ expressions changed and they both straightened up a bit as they focused back on Joel.
“Legend has it that Jason saw his mother beheaded that night, and then he took his revenge. A revenge he’ll continue to seek if anyone ever enters his wilderness again.”
I felt myself leaning just a bit toward the fire, leaning toward Joel. The others’ postures mirrored mine as they were now engaged in the story he was telling. Scott looked over his shoulder toward the bushes behind where he sat, and I saw his Adam’s apple rise and fall in his throat.
“By now, I guess you all should know, we’re the first to return here since the Jarvis family was attacked across the lake all those years ago.” Joel’s eyes scanned the crowd, “Twenty something years,” his eyes met mine again and he winked subtly, “Twenty-something years he’s been dormant. And he’s stir-crazy.” He lowered his voice just a bit and the flames from the fire casted shadows perfectly over his face, “Jason’s out there.”
I glanced to the side when Sandra cuddled up closer to Jeff and he slung an arm around her.
“He’s out there,” Joel repeated quietly, “Ready to devour. Ready to kill. Thirsty for young blood.”
A shrieking sound from the woods behind everybody sent a chorus of screams into the air as a figure leapt out with a disfigured face and a long spear in one hand.
I jumped from where I was seated and ran around the opposite side of the fire, prepared to sprint in the opposite direction; though then I heard laughter and I realized quickly that the person who’d jumped out of the bushes was sporting a mask. They lowered the spear.
“Hey, guys come back.” Joel waved a hand at the now-scattered group of us and chuckled. He patted the person on the back who wore the mask. 
There were laughs and groans all around.
“You’re going to give me a heart attack,” Ted complained, holding his chest with a smile.
A woman revealed herself to be beneath the mask and gave a wave as she shook her hair out. “I’m sorry to meet all of you like this,” she said, “I’m Annie, I’m Joel’s assistant.” Annie laughed sheepishly, but still appeared amused. “I’m sure we’ll get to know each other over the next few weeks.”
Everyone took their turn saying, “Hi,” or waving, before Joel took back over.
“Okay, now that that’s out of our system,” he concluded, “Jason was killed and Camp Blood is off-limits.” Joel raised his hand and high-fived Annie.
“You all have a good time,” she said, “I’m turning in early, but I couldn’t resist.” Annie put her hand inside the mask and toyed with the fake spear, “If anyone needs me for anything, I have one of the rooms downstairs off the living room.”
“Yeah, I’ll come see you for my second heart attack,” Jeff said, smirking to himself as he pulled Sandra back against him.
“I have baby aspirin for that,” Annie teased and then gave a wave. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
Joel made his way in my direction and reached into the bag of marshmallows nearby. “You know, you might’ve been the fastest counselor here. You got all the way out by that tree over there.”
I looked down and laughed, biting my bottom lip as he handed me a marshmallow. “You definitely got me.” I placed the marshmallow on the tip of a stick. “You don’t think Jason’s really alive, do you?”
Joel’s face grew serious as he stared at me and I felt that familiar sensation of the hairs rising on the back of my neck. “Well..” he held my stare and then a slow smile spread across his face. “No.”
I let out the deep breath I didn’t realize I had been holding and chuckled, shaking my head.
“I shouldn’t have scared you guys,” Joel said.
“No, it was good,” I told him, “I think we needed to address the elephant in the room.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
I nodded and placed the marshmallow over the fire. A few seconds later, it was flaming and I pulled it out, blowing the fire out that clung to the brown and white blob on the end of the stick.
“Here.” Joel reached down and retrieved two graham crackers and then reached behind us into a package of chocolate bars.
I set the marshmallow down on one of the crackers in his hand, watching carefully as he placed the chocolate on top of it and then topped the snack sandwich with the other end. I then removed the stick and lifted my eyes to meet his as Joel handed the ‘smore over to me in its entirety.
“Thank you.” I nodded.
“My pleasure.” Joel kept his eyes on me as I took a bite and then asked, “You’re sure the Jason stunt wasn’t too much?”
I licked some drippy chocolate off my finger and shook my head. “Just right.”
CLICK HERE FOR CHAPTER 4
@gissellec1 @cattt777 @mellymbee @armybts20137@bbiophiliaa @littleblackcatinwonderland @mermaidgirl30 @milaspascal
91 notes · View notes
too-antigonish · 21 days
Text
Morse and drinking in the 70s...
Tumblr media
Long....because I can't write short. And obviously, a lot of you will already know this stuff...
Just want to take a moment to talk about alcohol and alcoholism in the context of the early 1970s and remind folks of how totally and completely different it is from how we see it today.
Drunk driving had not been outlawed in most countries. Not only that, it was widely regarding as funny—funny enough to be used as a regular “gag” in movies. Problem drinking was also seen as funny. There were regular cartoon strips about it. The “drunk” was a funny stock character in all sorts of plays and movies.
Alcohol was ubiquitous. We’re not just talking liquid lunches. We’re talking drinking at work, while you work—just as you see in Endeavour. Think about that for a second.
And politely saying no wasn’t something you did without social consequences. It wasn’t just seen as a personal preference. Unless you had a specific, acceptable reason, turning down a drink was often seen as stand-offish and judgmental or as a social snub. Teetotalism was regarded as rather naive and ridiculous—not something any man or woman of the world would embrace.
In the early 1970s, there was no widespread understanding of alcoholism as a disease. It was still seen very much as the consequence of personal weakness—still a matter of “If you cared enough or tried hard enough, you wouldn’t do this so it must be a character flaw.”
Plus, most people, “normal” people don’t have problems with alcohol, so if you do then there’s something abnormal and defective about you—most likely something you brought upon yourself.
And as a “personal weakness” and a “defect,” the shame around it was profound and the secrecy matched. If someone went away for treatment, it was very much akin to an unwed mother going off to have her baby and then returning without the child. You never spoke of it. You pretended that it had never happened.
If you were a kind person, you also didn’t go out of your way to parade babies in front of her or talk constantly about children when she was with you. But refer to it directly? Never. Ask for help? Never. It was always something to be hidden. Everyone did their best to forget that it had ever happened and saw this as the "kindest" thing to do.
When Morse returns from his “cure,” it would simply be assumed that everyone would pretend that nothing unusual has happened. Why he’s  just been off on a tour of the West Country and nothing else! Hope you had a lovely time! That sort of polite fiction was exactly what he would have expected upon his return. Anything more direct—at least in a public setting—would have been shocking to him and everyone else.
Where things break down, however, is in the more personal interactions. His relationship with Thursday is such that they can at least broach the topic of drinking. When they do, my impression is that Thursday is well-aware that Morse not “cured.” However, in the context of the time, saying this would be akin to saying, "You failed," because there was no disease model of alcholism in widespread use. You went to be cured and it worked or it didn't.
However, I'd also add that Thursday is almost to the breaking point with the cumulative strain he is under. He can’t cope with the “burden” of Morse being in a precarious state and he knows it. He feels desperately guilty about that—as well as about other things like Strange and Joan or about life having moved on so much while Morse was gone—and so he just shuts down. 
Shutting down is Thursday’s go-to strategy when he’s overwhelmed. We’ve seen him do it many times before. And part of that for him, is that he pretends that the people around him are ok—even if they are anything but ok. Not surprisingly, he does it the most with the people he has the closest emotional ties with—Win, Joan, Sam, and Morse.
So the only way that Thursday can cope is by having Morse be perfectly fine. Conveniently, his preferred coping strategy fits exactly with his society's expectations about how alcoholism works. If Morse is "cured," you don’t need to worry about sparing him the constant offers of alcohol in the same way that the young unwed mother might hope to be spared babies. You certainly wouldn’t embarrass him (especially after he’s been through the humiliation of rehab) by drawing attention in any way to a possible to the idea that he still has a problem. 
And finally, a last note on time context. The scene in the pub where Morse has that first drink after finding out that Joan is marrying Jim is utterly heartbreaking for so many reasons. One of those reasons, however, is that we know it’s the first drink—and that the first drink leads to the second, and so on and so forth. Then Morse says to Thursday, “They said the, the odd beer, the odd shot, does no harm…"Everything in moderation," they said,”  and we automatically assume he’s lying.
I’m fairly sure that those scenes were meant to be interpreted through our modern viewpoint. However, it’s worth noting that again, the model of alcoholism in the 1970s was nothing like what we have today. The idea that someone with a drinking problem/addictions needs to abstain entirely was not even close to universal at that point. It’s perfectly possible that the advice Morse is quoting is the advice he received!
71 notes · View notes
randomyuu · 8 months
Text
the way it follows you home, the stories i never told
My guy Vox once again graced us with lovely Goyuu fanfics, and the way it follows you home, the stories i never told, made me go FERAL.
Time travel? Two Gojou Satorus? Double affection for our sunshine Yuuji? Yuuji sandwich? What feels like possible continuation of (you'll whisper, serpent tongue) what you fear you have become???
FUCK.
I need to stop indulging my imagination too much. I should’ve been content with writing long-ass comments but noooooo, my brain goes “you gotta draw it”. DAMMIT VOX, YOU AND YOUR DELICIOUS WRITINGS HHHHHH
So… usually I should’ve picked a favourite scene that is within my drawing capability, but I just… love all three chapters??? So I made a questionable time investment? I can’t stop??? Help???
This is probably the most ambitious fanart project I’ve ever done so far. Fair enough, considering I might combust if I keep these welled-up emotions inside from reading Vox’s Goyuu fics. Fuck.
Fic info:
Title: the way it follows you home, the stories i never told
Author: @voxofthevoid
Pairing: YuuGoGo. Future!Yuuji, Future!Gojou, Teen!Gojou
(idk why I laugh writing YuuGoGo. I’m beyond help)
Currently, it is 3 chapters out of 8. And it’s gonna be NSFW chapter 4 onwards, so don’t forget to read the tags first, folks!
The drawings are under Read More, because I have lots of thoughts surrounding each chapter and drawings. It’ll be hella long if I didn’t hide it here. It was a mess down there. A combination of hours before, during, and after I read said fic. I’d say good luck finding the art among the sea of jumbled words but… you’ll find them easily. Don’t worry about it haha
SPOILERS FOR ALL 3 CHAPTERS! I highly recommend reading those first before diving into these drawings!
Also for the comics, read from right to left please!
From here on, I will be referring to the Future!Gojou as Gojou and the teenage one as Satoru.
Overall, drawing all these is fun! Really fun! This project pushed me quite hard, forcing me to test my limit (because I rarely draw this much back to back). Since this is a combination of drawings and comics, the coloring style will not be consistent. In a way, I want to try some brushes I never get to use, as well as try out my new graphic tablet. Drawing these got me giggling because I was finally able to let loose during line art. It's much easier to do so, and sometimes I just get to reread the fic and giggle to myself for the nth time.
CHAPTER 1:
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Whooo. Whooooooooo—
Ok, ok, the premise is just that good. It intrigued me, fascinated me, and I just… oomph. I cannot refuse a Time Travel Yuuji Sandwich. Sign me up.
Honestly, there are two scenes that are just… a bit too clear in my mind when reading this chapter. That would be the one I drew above, and the other is when Yaga called Gojou to come outside of the class. I love, loooove how Vox wrote Satoru’s POV. And when Yuuji fucking giggles?
I lost it.
Can you imagine, drawing Yuuji grins, with shiny stuff, maybe some sunlight, just purely happy and indulging Gojou?
Help me, for I am drowning in my love and adoration for Yuuji.
Page 2 is an experiment on using harsh black as shading (kind of?). I really enjoyed colouring Yuuji, and drawing those buffalo skulls! I wish I can grasp the concept of contrast a bit better tho :v
CHAPTER 2:
This is probably the only chapter where I picture still images instead of comic panels. A bit like those cool chapter covers in mangas. The one I really, really want to draw is the scene with Satoru on the table. Can’t pass the opportunity to highlight Satoru being a brat, albeit a really cool brat.
Cool idea drawing always proves to be a challenge, because of course my artistic skill just so happens to be below the requirement. Thank you, Sketchfab, for the chair and desk’s perspective otherwise I’m screwed lmao
Tumblr media
The second scene that I want to draw the most is this:
Tumblr media
Gojou is one step away from climbing Yuuji. Also, I have a bit of a problem picturing a man pouting that makes him look crazy instead, so please have Gojou pouting adorably instead. Because, as Yuuji said (with love), Gojou is (also) a brat.
This is possibly my favorite art in this project, after Yuuji's in Chapter 1 page 2. It's clean because I don't have to draw background, and I was having a fun time drawing Yuuji. And Gojou's squishy cheek as well.
Oh, actually, there is a “manga” scene in this chapter. It’s when Yuuji said, “I love Satoru.”
I just—
AAAAAHHHHH YUUJIIIIIII YOU AND VOX ARE GONNA BE THE DEATH OF ME. That secure relationship between Yuuji and Gojou? Satoru’s description of how Yuuji’s smile could blot out the sun??? Not me screaming 💀 I also see bits of hints of possible co-dependency, though I could be reading those wrong, but either way I’m good. Secure and possessive relationships are fun to consume hhhhhh
But yeah. There are too many wholesome Yuuji smiles in this fic, and I… I am not confident enough to draw genuine happiness. It’s too much for me ∠( ᐛ 」∠)_
For this chapter, another reason why I chose these two scenes is just because I want to try and draw cover-worthy pictures of Yuuji and Satoru, and Yuuji and Gojou (cough)
CHAPTER 3:
We start the chapter with Nanamin. Ah, Nanamin. I forgot what his teen self looked like and was surprised to see his design again lmao
I want to draw Yuuji and Nanami scene because… I just want to, I guess. I have never drawn him before (Yaga as well) so that's an interesting challenge. I got two ideas on how I want to draw it. One is a bit painting-esque, and the other one is like another chapter cover. In the end, I chose the cover one because I want to emphasise the difference between teen!Nanami and the Nanami from Yuuji’s original timeline, and how the watch feels like a connection between the same (yet not) person. It’s a bittersweet feeling? In a way?
I’m not really good at explaining my intention ∠( ᐛ 」∠)_
Tumblr media
I love Yuuji’s answer to Nanami's question.
AND FINALLY.
A Yuuji SandwichTM scene.
And oh B O I do I love it. Have I told you I like every chapter? I probably have. But this one? Satoru’s curiosity, Yuuji’s on-brand self-deprecation, and Gojou come strolling down to show more of Yuuji to his mini-self. I want to draw this whole scene, from Gojou finding them, feeding Yuuji snacks, bitch-slapping Satoru into the backroom, to Yuuji growling. Them trying to hide a boner from Yuuji’s growl got me cackling so hard I LOVE IT 😭
I love it all. Please love Yuuji in my stead, Satoru and Satonyan :3
Oh! Also! 40-finger Yuuji sounds really, really cool! I’ll be happy with whatever Vox will give us in future chapters, but 40-finger Yuuji… possible scene with this timeline’s Sukuna… my god. The action! The drama! The bloodshed! One can only hope.
However, as much as I love that whole scene, it’s still too much for me :”) I’m still not yet confident in delivering the humour and action. Also my already-long drawing plan had my brain groaning in protest so I can’t push my luck :'D
Tumblr media Tumblr media
When Gojou said "He looks sweet, but he's a bit of a beast", I kept picturing Yuuji staring innocently, but there was an edge to his look. As if the moment Satoru looks away, he will pounce. But in the end I just stick with innocent-looking Yuuji because I accidentally drew his eyes that way and I want to keep it in lol
Since Satoru points out how soft and cuddly Yuuji is, I also want to draw soft Yuuji :v
And the last one… is the last scene. For some reason, I read that both Gojou and Satoru share Yuuji’s lap and was having a frustrating yet fun time figuring out how it’s… physically possible, without having their butts on the ground because they both are not small at all. As I lined the art, I reread it again and… perhaps I read it wrong? Satoru is beside Yuuji, and not on his lap? So yeah, this one might be the least accurate, but hey, at least you can view it as a crack drawing or something :v
Tumblr media
AAAANNNDDD I HAVE EXCEEDED TODAY’S BRAIN CAPACITY OF FORMING WORDS
Have I told you I love this fic?
…I probably have.
Have an amazing week (❁´▽`❁)*✲゚*
364 notes · View notes