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#I mean I'd definitely change up the dynamics for sure
wasawattpadkid · 1 year
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Housewife
Part - 6
Summery: Billy and Stu have been planning these murders for quite some time. Everything is going to plan until you show up. What happens when they meet someone who is just as mentally deluded as they are?
Pairing: poly!ghostface x fem!reader
Warnings for this series: ⚠️ explicit 18+ ⚠️ murder, blood, smut (will be more in depth on smut chapters), power dynamics, a dash of sexism, knives, stalking, perverse behavior, cheating, oral fem!receiving, borderline degradation, orgasm dinial, bondage (hands being bound), blatant Billy x Stu stuff
Part 1
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Stu pressed his face into Billy's shoulder running from the sunlight. "It's too early." He whined pulling his friend closer to him. Billy held him for a moment forgetting where they were. "Shit, where is she?" He pushed Stu away pulling the covers off himself. Stu dragged a pillow over his head hoping to drown out the light. Billy got out of bed heading down the stairs to the kitchen. The smell of food filled the air hitting him the moment he left your room.
"Morning sleepy head. How do you like your eggs?" You smiled at his current state. His hair was messy and his eyes were dark with sleep. "Uh over medium?" 'This couldn't be real' he thought to himself. It was all adding up now the house, the absent parents, you, it wasn't real. Some really realistic and very long dream. Maybe he was in a coma? If you were real you'd be almost as fucked up as him.
"Did you know you snore just a tiny bit?" You asked as you flipped his eggs. "I don't snore. Must've been Stu." He took a drink of the prefilled glass of orange juice in front of him. "It was definitely you. I kept waking up with your face in my neck and your snores were really loud next to my ear." Was that embarrassment he was feeling? "Sorry about that." He paused thinking of his next words. "So you're not mad that we slept in bed with you?" Bacon, eggs, and a perfect pancake laid next to each other on the plate. You nodded thinking that would be enough.
"I told you if it got too cold you could climb in bed with me." You sat his plate down making sure to leave him syrup. "Can I have a second plate? I don't like my eggs to touch my other food." You raised your eyebrows with a nod. "Sure thing." You handed him a saucer plate that came with the set. "How much do you remember last night?" You remembered all of it. The little tired act you pulled was a sham. A test is what you'd call it. Luckily they passed. "Listen Billy, I don't care about whatever's going on between you and Stu. This doesn't change anything." Billy could laugh. "You think I'm a homo?" His face was plastered with a sort of dumbfounded expression. "No, I just think you're Billy."
"I'm not like that. Stu's always been the one to bat for both teams." You pursed your lips with a nod. "All I'm saying is, you don't have to lie or hide. We've all got secrets and I'm not going to judge you in the slightest." You were wrong. But Billy focused on the underlining meaning of all you said. "What if I told you I was psychotic?" Billy asked no sign of a joke. "I'd tell you I was too." He bit off a piece of bacon. "And what if I said I was a stalker?" You laughed. "Me too. When I walk by a classroom I know you or Stu's in I look for you both just to watch you for a second, that's stalker behavior."
Billy almost choked on his food. God you really were innocent. "What's so funny?" You said laughing along side him. "Okay... What if... I said I've murdered people." You frowned. Does he really think he's that bad? "You're not a murderer." You said as you poured syrup on your pancake. "I know, but if I was what would you say?" You actually thought about it. Four days you've known him now, that's not enough to constitute a prison sentence for harboring a fugitive. "There's a reason for everything. I'd ask you why you did it."
"There's not always a reason, a "motive." I mean did Norman Bates have a motive? Did they ever really decide why Hannibal Lector liked to eat people?" The food in your mouth didn't seem as good as before. "Your logic is flawed Billy. Norman killed his mother because she was abusive and neglectful when was a child. That's motive. He murdered every woman he found attractive because his Mother's personality would be jealous and she needed Norman all to herself. Motive. And he murdered that cop because he didn't want to be caught. Once again motive." Billy sat wide eyes staring at you.
"Oh and Hannibal Lector was also abused as a child. In the book it says his sister was killed by some men who had taken Hannibal and his sister captive. They murdered his sister in front of him and then cooked her eventually serving pieces of her to Hannibal. You could look at it like a revenge plot that's motive or later on he shows obvious signs of narcissism. He thinks he is above everyone so eating them really isn't a problem. We eat animals because we think our lives mean more right?" Billy just nodded.
"Okay so if Hannibal thinks he is better and his life means more than everyone around him then is it really even cannibalism to him? He's completely detached so that's also motive. He's simply hunting his next meal like we would a pig or a cow." You took a drink of your orange juice waiting for a response. Billy was speechless. "You're not the only one who knows stuff Billy." You spoke finishing off your food. "I'm beginning to realize that."
Stu finally came downstairs and he finished up everything that was left over from your talk with Billy. "Do you always cook like this?" Stu asked wiping his mouth with a napkin. You washed dishes as the boys sat at the table. "When my dad is home I do. I don't really need to fix a whole meal if I'm the only one here." That made Stu think of what it was like for you here all alone. He hated being home alone it was like he was 10 years old and scared of the dark. Every little noise would make him paranoid. It wasn't until Billy moved in that he felt safe. Maybe you just needed someone to make you feel safe?
Stu had pulled out the deck of cards begging you and Stu to play rummy with him. That was an hour ago. "She is kicking our asses." Stu said as you shuffled the cards again. "Ooh okay I've got a question. Do guys try to create fake scenarios before they go to bed?" Both boys looked confused as you dealt the cards. "Like girls, before we go to bed we'll think of our crush or an actor and we'll plan out our own little movie in our head." You grew uncomfortable with the fear you sounded insane. "I've fantasized about things before bed." Stu said and Billy nodded in agreement.
"No that's not the same thing. Like you and Tatum. Do you plan little dates and stuff like that in your head?" Stu made a "pfft" noise looking at Billy who was smiling. "He's never taken her on a date. They just run around together." Your jaw dropped. "I have got to tell her to raise her standards." Stu sat down his cards interested in the conversation. "Okay Ms. Crocker what are you standards? I'm guessing you're very Catholic." He laughed and you made a face at him.
"First of all the guy I'm with has to take me out every once in awhile. Bring me flowers, write me notes, anything really to show he still cares." Billy didn't believe that. You might want that in some romanticized version of them but you knew that it wasn't realistic. "I've known you for almost a week and I can already tell you fall in love with anyone who gives you 5 seconds of attention."
You acted shocked at the incredibly correct description of you. "Whatever. Can't a girl want someone to take her out and show her off? I'm a prize and I will be treated as such." Billy finished of his drink sitting the glass down with a click. "Until the first guy that comes along says he liked your outfit and then you're ready for marriage." You really couldn't argue with that. "Yeah pretty much."
"I'm bored. Winning time after time does get a little old." You said putting down your cards. "We could play truth or dare." Billy looked between you and Stu deciding to do whatever you wanted to do. Truth or dare was a kids game. One you were skilled at playing. "I'm game unless Billy's chicken." You elbowed him playfully. "I never say no to a game."
You and the boys moved to the living room floor. Stu laid on his stomach, his chin resting on his palms. Billy however was sat criss cross his posture straight and on edge. "You go first since it's your house." Stu suggested. "Um okay. Stu, truth or dare?" He kicked his feet in thought. "Dare." You hated thinking of dares it was the hardest part of the game.
"I dare you to put on lipstick." Billy breathed out a laugh. "Do I get to pick the color?" Stu asked not at all phased by the dare. "Sure let me go grab my makeup bag. You jumped up running to your bathroom. Just as fast you ran back to the living room. "I've got pink, red, maroon, black, and orange."
"I'm about to waste my turn on making you wear the black." Billy said, surprised you owned such a color. "I went through a phase." You laughed as Stu grabbed the red. You gave him the compact you brought in letting him slowly smear on the waxy pigment. "How do I look?" He flipped his imaginary long hair. "Actually you pull it off." You said staring at his lips for a little too long. "Billy, truth or dare?"
Billy looked at Stu not ready for him to pick a dare. "Truth." You once again saw a silent conversation playing across their eyes. "Have you ever made a sex tape?" Stu said looking his friend up and down. "I knew you'd eventually bring up sex." You huffed with a laugh. "I have not. I'm more of a picture man myself." Billy locked eyes with you making your cheeks grow hot. "Truth or dare Y/n?" You didn't feel at ease by picking either of those. Go big or go home was what your grandparents always said.
"Dare." Stu proceeded to make the "ooh" sound as if someone just got into trouble. "I dare you to play the rest of this game with your hands tied." If your face wasn't hot before it was burning now. "Now that's a dare baby!" Stu shouted kicking his feet like a school girl. You looked around the room for something to get the job done. You grabbed a scarf sitting on the end table by the couch. "Which one of you knows how to tie a knot?" Both boys volunteered but Billy was the one to actually do it. "Don't rip it, it's vintage." Billy rolled his eyes roughly tugging your arms towards him. His quickness in wrapping your wrists was making you wonder how many times he's done this before.
"There you are." He marveled at his work for a moment. You pulled back resting your bound hands in your lap. "My turn!" You cheered. "Wait, you're not going to try to get out of it? See if the knot is good?" Billy expected you to pull at the knot with your teeth just to show him you could. Thinking back to the little race you had at the mall you seemed like the type to try to show people up. That was one thing about you he didn't care for. "No? You told me to keep my hands tied for the rest of the game."
You saw his pupils dilate just a little. It was like catching lighting in a bottle to you. Billy liked the fact you mindlessly followed orders. You were a smart girl but you were dumb for him. "Truth or dare?" You asked Stu ready to continue the game. "Um... Hmm... Let me think?" His sarcasm made you bite your lip to stop from smiling. "Dare." You had one in mind already and it was hazardous. If this didn't go as planned it wouldn't be good for anyone in the room. On the flip side of that if this went how you were sure it would you three would be great friends from here on out.
"I dare you to sit on Billy's lap for the next round." Stu snapped his neck turning to Billy but the brooding boy kept his eyes on you. Billy wanted to know your angle. The reason you did things. You said it yourself everyone has a reason for doing something. What was yours? "Is that alright man?" Stu asked and Billy nodded with a huff. "Just get over here." Stu didn't need to be told twice. He mouthed a quick "thank you" making you smile. You saw Billy's eyes shut in what could be perceived as pain as Stu wiggled around trying to get comfortable. "Stop. Moving." Billy placed his hand on Stu's thigh keeping him still.
"It's my turn right?" Billy asked while he leaned back, one arm propping him up off the ground. "Sure is." Stu quipped. "Truth or dare?" At this point you'd look like a chicken if you said truth. "Dare." Billy's tongue swiped over his teeth before he spoke. "I want you and Stu-y here to make out." He smacked his friends back borderline hurting him. You didn't plan for that and by the looks of it neither did Stu. "I can't leave your lap remember?" The boy on his lap spoke. "You don't have to, she can crawl over." He spoke matter of factly. "I don't remember being dared anything." You challenged. "You said you wanted us to make out. That might say something about you but it's not a dare."
"You're a smartass." He spit playfully. "I dare you and Stu to make out. Is that better sweetheart?" Billy spoke the last word with a condescending tone. Which given the context, you'd pay to hear it again. "Perfect." You crawled over to the boys sitting back on the heels of your feet. Stu leaned down whispering an affirmation. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to." You weren't sure if the sudden sweet nature was because of where he was sitting or if it's always been there and you just haven't noticed.
A silent nod was all he needed to press his lips against yours. Stu was scared to move. He had that feeling you only get when you're about to drop off the highest spot on a rollercoaster. He wasn't quite sure where to go from here. You moved your lips against his showing him you were okay. Gently his hand cupped your jaw the same way he did with Tatum the other night. This wasn't commanding however he was simply holding you in the best way he could. Billy grunted as Stu's hips began to move again subconsciously.
The polite kisses became hungry as he pulled on your bottom lip with his teeth. A soft moan could be heard coming from you. Billy had seen enough. He grabbed his friends shoulders pulling him back. You caught your breath as you looked at the ground. Stu's face was bright crimson in embarrassment but Billy couldn't ignore the love drunk expression on his partners face. You were done playing truth or dare. "Can you untie me?" You held out your hands towards Billy trying to ignore the obvious tent in his pants. Slowly he made his way over to you crawling like a predator stalking it's prey.
"No, the dare was you had to keep them tied till the end of the game." You shook your head with an awkward laugh. "Well truth or dare is over." His face was a breath away from yours. "You're right but our game isn't over." Stu watched as Billy pressed his lips onto yours. You picked up right where you left off with Stu. In a way the short haired boy felt cheated on. He felt he went through a whole relationship with you in that one little kiss and now he watched his best friend take what was never his to begin with.
Billy hovered over you as he laid you back against the floor. Pulling his lips away he noticed how every single person here had rid lipstick smeared along thier face. "Stu come here, I need your help." You turned your head watching your friend fumble over towards the both of you. "Keep her busy like you were earlier. Can you do that for me baby?" Billy asked as his hand held Stu's chin. He nodded earning a gentle tap on the cheek from his friend. "Good boy." You watched their whole dynamic change right in front of you. Suddenly all Billy had was pet names and Stu was practically silent.
Stu was waiting for something but he wasn't sure what. "Please..." You whispered pushing him a step further. He leaned his head down kissing your neck. Softly at first leaving a small trail of kisses across your collarbones. Then he began licking and sucking at the skin trying not to leave a mark. Small sounds fought their way up your throat presenting themself like a gift from God to Stu. You really didn't care where Billy went as long as Stu continued what he was doing.
He nibbled at your earlobe forcing you to rub your thighs together. You barley felt your shorts being slipped down your legs. Little kisses began at your ankles slowly trailing up your legs. The higher they got the sloppier they became. "You're not even trying to win the game." Billy shook his head expecting more from you. "What.. are the rules?" You moaned out Stu now marking up your chest. With a laugh Billy said, "You know I hadn't even thought about that." God he was a prick and you were a horrible person for thinking it made him hotter.
Stu lifted your top pulling it above your breasts. "You're so pretty..." He said without thought. Somehow that word meant more than all the other words in that moment. "You're not too bad yourself handsome." He looked at the floor with a big grin on his face. With a quick shake of his head he went back to work. Your tied up hands played with his hair as he swirled his tounge around your hot skin. Billy ran a finger up the middle of your panties, the unexpected feeling making your hips jolt. "Guess foreplay really does work." Your head tossed back with a suffocated moan as Stu tugged gently at your nipples. One being teased by his teeth just to be soothed by his tounge seconds later.
Billy squatted next to Stu just watching your face contort in pleasure. "If you weren't such a prude I could totally see you as one of those Victoria's Secret models." He spoke running his hand along your cheek. Billy grabbed the back of Stu's shirt peeling him off of you to your dissatisfaction. "Why don't you show her your hidden talent hmm?" The sinister smile on Stu face made your stomach twist and pussy throb. Billy stayed next to you watching as Stu pulled off your panties. "Toss em'." Billy spoke catching the underwear after his friend pitched them. He waved the damp fabric above you. "How important are these to you?" Stu began kissing and biting your thighs not leaving much room for you to talk. "You can have them!" You blurted as your hands tugged at Stu's hair. "That's sweet of you. I was going to take them anyways but thanks for the permission."
Stu ran his long tongue up your folds making the world stop for a second. His hands pulled your thighs further apart giving him more room to work. "His tongue is by far one of my favorite things about him." Billy's finger traced your throat slowly making his way to your breasts. He pinched your nipple between his fingers making your back arch up off the ground. "Fuck!" You cried and Billy smiled. Your grip on Stu's hair became almost painful but he couldn't care less.
Your thighs wrapped around his face as you crossed your ankles on his back. "Don't kill him, I need him for this next part." Billy laughed. His thumb pulled at your lip debating on where all this should go. "Stu! Babe, please! Don't stop. Seriously don't fucking move just keep doing that." Your fear of that building pleasure disappearing was recognized by everyone in the room. "Stu stop." Billy commanded and you gave him a crazed look. "Please don't I'm begging you." Stu's eyes looked up between the both of you not sure who to obey. "Baby I mean it. Stop." The pressure was gone and so was any sort of happiness. "I'm going to kill you." You spat at the men.
"You're really scary." Billy scoffed waving at Stu to come over to him. Without any sort of warning to either you or Stu, Billy pressed his lips against the boy's. Billy's tongue swirled around tasting you secondhand. Your brain was fried. You were not longer mad but you were sure to explode. A knock came at the front door scaring the shit out of you and Stu. "Oh for fuck's sake." Billy groaned pushing his friend back.
"Y/n?" At that voice Billy's face grew pale. "Stu help her with her clothes now." You wanted to cry. "Why the fuck are they here?" Stu whispered everyone panicking at the same time. "Please open up!" Sydney called out as Tatum continued banging on the door. Once you had your clothes on the two boys ran towards the stairs. "Shit my hands you idiots!" You whisper yelled making Billy run to you quickly untying the knots. "You've got lipstick all over you." Billy said smiling at the markings. "God damnit!" You ran upstairs grabbing a makeup wipe off your desk. You frantically rubbed your neck running back downstairs. "Here." Billy said snatching the wipe from you. He wiped the color from your face making sure to get most of it off your chest. "Better?" You asked. "It's gone." With a smack on your ass, Billy ran up to your room following Stu. You reeked of sex and you looked like it too.
"Coming!" You yelled running around trying to find something to spray the air with. Air freshener filled the room and thankfully covered you. Quickly you fixed your hair and opened the door. "Yeah?" Tatum pushed past you walking into the living room where a horrible display of debauchery had just occurred. "Okay." You said as Sydney followed her friend. "The killer called me last night." Sydney said on the brink of tears. "He's a fucking psychopath. He told her he'd kill her like he killed her mother." Tatum said, quickly apologizing to Sydney for the graphic rehash.
Billy and Stu stood there completely taken aback. "I thought you said you had to plan around this!" Stu snapped. "We did- we do! Why would you call Syd last night? Are you that fucking dumb?" Billy poked Stu understandably pissed about being blindsided by his best friend. "I went to sleep last night unlike you. Don't blame this shit on me because it backfired." They argued back and forth while you talked to the girls downstairs. "Okay so what do we do?" You asked hoping for a good answer. "You could stay at my place till this bastard's caught. My mom doesn't want you staying here by yourself."
You sat your head in your hands ready to cry. You didn't know what to do or who to trust. "I couldn't intrude like that." You said as Sydney sat down next to you on the couch. More so you didn't know what to do with the two men stashed in your bedroom. "That's crazy. We'd rather have you intrude than be murdered." Sydney said resting her hand on your knee. Tatum just nodded. "We're not taking no for an answer." The blonde said.
"I'll meet you all over at your place. I've got some stuff to do before I go." You shouted down the stairs hearing the front door close behind them. "What's going on?" Billy played dumb. "There's a serial killer running around that's what. You two need to get home and stay safe." You grabbed a bag from your closet packing clothes. "Where are you going?" Stu asked a little sad at the outcome of today. "I'm going to Tatum's place for a bit." Billy and Stu just stood there watching you angrily pack away your things. This was their fault. You were scared because of them. It genuinely made them both feel like shit.
"There's a spare key under the rock in the flower pot outside. Get your car and make sure to lock the place up when you leave." You didn't mean to be short with them or make them think you were mad. You enjoyed your time with them but you realized after they ran off and hid that this wasn't real. You had romanticized another situation that would never in a million years be real.
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Part 7
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(If your name has a line through it Tumblr wouldn't let me tag you.)
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holleighgram · 9 months
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Hold onto your keyboards, cause I'm about to get ✨️controversial ✨️
I'd like to preface this by saying all interpretations/ headcanons/ readings/ etc. Are valid and I'm in no way discouraging anyone to change their ways.
I watched (and enjoyed) Baloney's "The Truth About Kingdom Hearts!" And I absolutely adored their take on the series, but one line stuck out to me that I really want to expand on because I don't see it being talked about as often as it should.
Kairi doesn't like Riku.
And I think this is a very RICH and IMPORTANT aspect of the Destiny Trio dynamic. It adds to the complexity of these characters, but especially Kairi.
(Another shout out to @violethowler and their INCREDIBLE Constructing Kingdoms series. The video on"The Girl Who Never Grew Up" made me like and understand Kairi so much more. Highly recommend checking it out.)
Kairi doesn't like Riku, and with some pretty valid reasons, but I'll get to that after I compile all the evidence towards this:
In KH:
Kairi likes her life the way it is. She doesn't desire change, but Riku wants nothing but change. He wants to grow up and move on and see the outside world.
And because Sora looks up to him, Sora has jumped on the bandwagon too. Kairi is going along because Sora is. But it is clear that for Kairi, change =/= good. So what does she say?
"You know, Riku's changed."
Sora asks her how, and she kinda bites her tongue. Clearly she had opinions, but doesn't want to badmouth Soras best friend to him. Later she says, "Sora, don't ever change."
Later, after everything, when Kairi is restored and in Travers Town, she doubts that Riku can be saved, despite the fact that she LITERALLY saved Sora from being a heartless. She almost seems like she's trying to convince Sora not to go, or to at least let her come with-- not to save Riku but because she wants to be there with Sora.
At the end of the game, she obviously return to destiny islands and draws the paopu.
During Chain of Memories, everyone forgets about Sora, but the memories of Riku stay intact. For a year. Kairi is well aware that her "friend" is missing. In fact, last she knew of him, he was still taken by Ansem and presumably dead or at least suffering. She doesn't know.
She knows she's a Princess of Heart and has powers thay can help (as she restored Sora after being a heartless). But the most we get is "he's far away, but I know we'll see him again." Like, do you?
I mean, SELPHIE is the one that says "I sure miss him." That's way more than we EVER get from Kairi.
So for a YEAR, she doesn't spare Riku a single thought. But the SECOND she remembers Sora, she is willing to do anything to see him again.
Here's a little bit of speculation for WHY she doesn't like Riku:
1) Perhaps when she first met them as kids, he reminder her of Xehenort, who kidnapped her and yeeted her into space.
2) Kairi wanted to be best friends with SORA, but not Riku. She's afraid that Sora will follow Riku to the outside worlds (where she doesn't want to go) and leave her behind. If it wasn't for Riku, Sora wouldn't want to leave at all.
3) He (as far as we know) opened the door and damned their home into Darkness. That's probably a point of contention for her. Even though Sora so forgiving.
4) He hurt Sora in KH1, but Sora is still loyal to him. She probably sees that as him taking advantage of Sora-- the person she cares most about.
5) He's the reason Sora never came home. If it wasn't for him, they would have gone home at the end of KH1 together.
I can't say for sure how Riku feels about Kairi. He DID drag her corpse around and give into the darkness to save her, but that can be interpreted as solely wanting to "beat " Sora at being the hero. Even still, we get moment in COM where he reflects on missing her. We even see Namine come to his rescue in her form. I definitely feel like there is less animosity there, but who knows.
That's all.
Roast me, Kairi stans, but I love the depth this reading gives to the story and the potential for arcs and character growth for her and she is forced to face who she is without Sora.
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sauntervaguelydown · 4 months
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what's interesting about Zenigata throughout the Lupin iii franchise is that he doesn't really have a core interiority. Everything about Zenigata is exterior.
Part 4 does this insane thing with him where he's locked into his role as judge/jury/executioner to such an extent that it seems pathological--he has to keep Lupin in prison even though it is making him, personally, miserable with grief. He has to make sure Lupin dies rather than let him escape. It will literally destroy the foundation of who he is as a person if he succeeds in the goal he's assigned himself, but he can't possibly do anything else. The law is the law and his job is his job, and he can't let himself be anything else even for a moment. It's fucking intense! It's Greek tragedy!
Compare that to part 5, which was made like? two years? later. And in this one, Zenigata explicitly states that he wants to put Lupin in jail because it's the only way to make Lupin understand his actions have consequences. To force him to turn over a new leaf, make him go straight, and then meet him on the other side. Literally wants to buy him a drink when he gets out of prison.
These could not be more different--I mean it's Antigone vs A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Are either of them more true to the spirit of the character than the other? Well. It's really hard to say, because we just don't know these things about Zenigata in Part One!
What's his relationship to justice? How does he feel about The Law? Is he a corrupt cop, is he noble? Is his chasing Lupin driven by career aspirations or personal passion?
EDIT: I have now read the manga translations, and uhhh well. Apparently they met in college and Zenigata hated his vibe SO bad he spent the rest of his life trying to kill the guy. Not sure that helps us much here.
As it stands, here's a rough list of the stuff I've watched and what its take on Zenigata is
Part One: in the first episode, Zenigata gives a brief explanation of their dynamic (for the sake of the audience) which is already WELL established in-universe. Here he says something like, "Lupin, if you weren't the Grandson of Arsene Lupin, and I wasn't the descendant of the famous Zenigata..." implying that something about this dynamic would change if it wasn't for their Cosmically Assigned Destinies as products of their Two Houses Alike in Dignity etc. What would be different? Would they be friends? I don't know! But Zenigata definitely seems to be beholden to the legacy of his own family here.
there's also an ep where Zenigata has Lupin in jail successfully. Zenigata stays on site guarding the jail the whole 6 months, and eventually one of the other guards says if I didn't know any better I'd think you were looking forward to seeing him escape.
later episodes led by Miyazaki lean more heavily on the context of his career; his relationship to his boss, a conference he wants to attend in his field, the fear of one's job being outmoded by technology etc.
The Mystery of Mamo: Zenigata has so much personal passion! When they tell him to drop the case, he literally quits the force to chase Lupin as a private citizen! This is the one where he swears he'll follow Lupin to the gates of Hell because they are fated rivals. This is also the one where he literally tries to stake Lupin in case he's turned into a vampire. so. I don't know man. He's fucking unhinged in this movie, it's pretty great.
Mamo is known to be closer in tone to the manga than anything else, but Zenigata is not this rabid in the manga. Manga Zenigata is more contemptuous and put-upon.
The Castle of Cagliostro: this is a neutral good Zenigata at his most admirable. When he can't get justice through the law, he teams up with criminals in order to circumvent corrupt government officials. He's also headstrong and fully willing to risk his own career, but not ready to throw it away at the first inconvenience. He is "very fond" of Lupin. He enjoys the chase, but he can put it aside in order to fry bigger fish. You get the impression that he cares about correcting injustice more than the letter of the law.
Part Two: Lupin fakes his death twice that I can remember and BOTH times Zenigata cries about it. On the first occasion, Zenigata shakes the corpse, begs it to wake up, then wonders tearfully what he's going to do with himself now that Lupin is dead. On the second occasion, Zenigata first tries to KILL himself rather than allow Lupin to rescue him (out of a sense of pride) and then cries and calls Lupin a "great man" after Lupin fakes a fatal crash. The resentment IMMEDIATELY gives way to mourning. He's very cavalier with his own life, but precious about Lupin's.
By the way, I love how much this man cries. I ALSO love crying in public and being homoerotically obsessed with my enemies. He's so relatable
the other thing is that this Zenigata is VERY binary about roles; he refuses to jailbreak from extralegal imprisonment because "cops don't escape jail". Doesn't matter that the jail is run by terrorists who are going to kill him, that's Not What Cops Do.
The Fuma Conspiracy: Lupin has faked his death yet again, and Zenigata has--in direct response to this--quit the force and BECOME A MONK, and explicitly says he is busy praying for Lupin's soul so that Lupin can be reincarnated as a law abiding citizen in his next life. What the fuck does this say about Zenigata? Buddy we don't have time to unpack that whole suitcase. In brief: Zenigata is prescriptive about law and legality as equaling goodness/dharma/morality etc. But he also changed his entire life so that he could remain dedicated to THE SOUL OF HIS DEAD NEMESIS. So this is clearly very personal, and has nothing to do with his career.
Part Three: limited familiarity with this one but I HAVE seen the episode where Zenigata gets fired due to his boss's embezzlement scheme and subsequently uncovers the scheme--there's a bit where Lupin pretends to mug him in an alley so they can have a private conversation, and Zenigata IS pretty quick to jump on the trail of this embezzlement scheme instead of chasing Lupin, once he's been tipped off. Perhaps more career driven in this one.
Lupin First Contact: some combination of career-based ambition and, like, Unrequited Rivalry At First Sight. He came here to chase Fujiko and got so distracted by this other idiot that he nearly forgot about her. To be fair, this story is narrated by Lupin so it may not even be an accurate representation of Zenigata within its own canon.
Ten Thousand Movies other from 1990-2005: girl most of these are so bad they are so SO bad. Most of the time Zenigata is not a major player. I can't remember anything he did in these except--oh, in Burning Memories, he uses the jute he keeps in a shinto shrine in his apartment after it survives a major fire. Loved that.
Also, he dresses in drag at the beginning of Farewell Nostradamus. This has nothing to do with anything I just loved it.
The Woman Called Fujiko Mine: corrupt cop. dirtbag. full stop.
okay, no, really. Here he is explicitly concerned with his career; he laments that he had to take grunt work to get by, talks about being busted down the chain after reporting his dirty boss, is extremely defensive of anyone muscling in on his Case even someone he has every reason to trust... this is a man who only cares about his career
he does fuck Fujiko and it IS a corrupt move. He seems to imply he's done this before with other thieves. He KNOWS she faked an orgasm and he doesn't care. He's mean as hell.
He cares about his pride. He seems to think Having Personal Pride is incompatible with participating in corruption. Does not explain why he exploited Fujiko Mine for sex. Maybe corruption doesn't count if you don't respect the person you're violating the rights of.
So, overall, have I got a thesis?
Basically, everyone who writes Zenigata has a different take on what his core motivation is. All the stuff that is core to Zenigata is in his affect, in his actions. He's enthusiastic, emotional, hotheaded, stubborn, prone to cackling, smart but not quite smart enough. What he thinks and what he feels, what he does in his private life, remains surprisingly mysterious.
Several of these takes are mutually exclusive. Mamo and Cagliostro simply do not overlap, just like Part 4 and Part 5 are at odds with each other. You can't put Mamo and Cagliostro and Part 1 in a blender without creating some new third thing inaccurate to all three.
For my money, here's what I think the core points would be, if I was starting out to write a fresh series or something:
the Shinto angle; his duty to the family legacy, especially with a famous ancestor like the OG Zenigata, looms large over the current inspector. He has a lot to live up to.
although they met through his job, he's very specifically attached to Lupin in a way that has nothing to do with his job; in fact, his desire to be close to Lupin is at odds with his career
he started out being ambitious and career oriented--this is why he started chasing Lupin, hoping to make a name for himself.
his career has fully stalled out and he's in conflict with himself about the joy his gets from chasing Lupin vs the expectations he set for himself ten years ago
ACAB; if he's actually ethical and cares about civil rights, he's got to be Insanely Unpopular with other cops. The only reason he might be able to get away with this and still have a job is that he's A) an accidental celebrity now with a weird amount of public clout B) he's got insane tunnel vision and doesn't notice major violations of human rights unless they are Directly In his Line of Vision. Nonetheless, this is unsustainable in the long term.
*I'm also a proponent of "Zenigata used to be more ruthless and corrupt, but he's actually picked up ethics somehow from being around criminals all the time" simply because. it is funny.
In conclusion: probably the reason we don't have solid answers to these questions is because Zenigata is like a dog chasing cars. He doesn't know what he'd do with one if he caught it. Nonetheless, he's gotta chase that goddamn fiat.
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kijosakka · 22 days
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Thoughts. okay so the total drama drama drama drama island special is interesting mainly bc of team e-scope but im going to take a moment here to ramble about his dynamic with other people here,,
(oh and i didn't have anywhere really to slot it into the other post or segue into it here but dodgebrawl as a Moment demonstrates how [this AU] noah can play the social game, just in a very very different way than how it's normally seen.
he knows what he's doing is going to bother his team and incentivize them to vote, i'd say in this au he even plays up the cockiness and makes veiled personal slights against specific people
(mainly those who would be annoyed enough to vote him off, see: heather, justin, leshawna, cody/trent to some extent if he said smth about gwen? < and gwen herself in that scenario. and to another extent beth, since hes playing up his outright mean traits, which would make lindsay vote with her. i dont think he would do anything specific to/with owen or izzy, since he may see izzy as too volatile and owen too genuine)
in the opposite way of whats expected, sure, but it is a social play. he can pick apart what these people are and what they show and push at it to achieve his own ends (and maybe its even some sort of way for him to regain control in this fundamentally uncontrollable situation he's found himself in; he can be the punishment in foucalt's imagining, to a much smaller degree))
so his teammates,,, do not like him tbh. his flagrant display during dodgeball and everyone being pissed at him after the fact is true in this AU, just coming with different motivations. even after the fact when the frustration of everyone fizzles out, hes still majorly offputting because of his detachedness, and deliberately makes his shown traits very unpalatable to experience in person combined with that.
the only two exceptions are izzy and owen respectively: owens mostly coming from a place of genuineness and im going to say while he wouldnt be able to verbalize it, in some manner owen would clock noahs behavior as a defense mechanism. maybe in the sense of 'hes just scared to open up to people!!' or something similar, but he definitely has a lot more faith that noah really isnt that cold and flat.
[*]izzy feels much the same -- except maybe it comes off more to her as strategic. izzy can act, and might recognize that in noah. if you wanted to you could write this in as to why she was eager to swap teams in the first episode, but it wouldnt change that he does get eliminated and thats all she sees of him until the special -- which, her intrigue in his lacking and the fact that it apparently wasnt strategic to get him further in the game, could help explain why she picks him in the team-up.
[*i have soooo much to say about izzy in this au actually. but ill save it for a diff post]
and speaking of the team-up: team e-scope!!!! :0
my au my rules eva and izzy became really good friends on the playa; izzy isn't afraid of eva (and curbing her anger before it reaches a boiling point) and eva is physically adept enough to restrain izzy from Shenanigans that might be a little Much. but eva doesnt really?? know anything about noah?? but izzy insists on teaming with him for the special (and unbeknownst to her noah wasnt even planning to participate initially) so he must be some level of Not Too Bad if izzy wants anything to do with him that doesnt seem to be related to tormenting the guy
and she thinks hes Fine. apathetic and detached and unpalatable (but then again, everyone in their little trio really is to some degree), but can kind of understand izzys intrigue: hes still A Guy, hes just hidden behind 20 layers of non-substance that are so offputting from the first meeting it makes people steer clear of him.
now with tddddi comes two other pertinent details: the justin line, and the Thing With Duncan.
i personally thing noahs 'he's the anti-me' line is really funny in the context of canon but if you squint it kinda works here? wherein justin is non-speaking yet flaunts himself to be the center of attention and clearly shows intent and capacity to scheme (underdeveloped or no, see: awakeathon), whereas noah speaks a lot yet lets himself fade into the background, showing vague hints of the capacity to scheme but no intention or palpable ambition behind it.
^ am i reaching? maybe. the other option here is noah somehow has seen him in-person before on a modeling or red carpet kind of gig and dislikes him on principle because of it/its a jab at it (smth smth they are both opposite ends of the same industry? justin is the face of it in a manner where noah stays behind the scenes and out of sight)
and the thing with duncan,, hear me out here okay noah does his whole song and dance, goes up to him and patronizes him, and duncan retaliates. however, he curses like a sailor and in noah's head has ruined the footage, therefore instead of further retaliating and potentially invoking actual physical harm he just. doesnt react. at all. duncan looks up at him and hes just dead-eyed staring down at him -- and then he leaves.
^ the scene has been ruined, and everyone else is doing so much that theres no reason to play it up any more. duncan and him arent plot important like how heather and lindsay were, theres no reason for the crew to painstakingly edit his swearing out. they just wont let it reach the final cut. duncan is understandably very confused by this, but at that point noah was already gone to find eva and izzy again (< this is when the cast having a running bet that noahs and android becomes Not a Joke)
but life goes on!!! and in the worlds worst comedy of errors (for noah), izzy ends up dragging him along into the lake, thereby leaving him as a confirmed member of the next season.
^ noah is so angry at this. popping blood vessels. he argues with chris endlessly, straight frothing at the mouth at only having two days of real reprieve before he has to deal with the Same Shit again. and chris gets this, to some degree, but also knows that if theres no explanation for noahs non-appearance to hand the producers, theyll be pissed (since all things considered, noahs pretty damn popular among the fans)
luckily for him, courtney just filed a lawsuit against the show!! and since chris is busy running said show, the producers do not want to deal with it and are willing to hand off the case to anyone else -- hence, chris officially signs noah on as his PA, and noah takes over the court settlements and whatnot.
< though i do imagine the producers would see it as a 'get out of the show' scheme, and thereby push way harder for his involvement in WT as a result
but noah does get a break!!! for now, at least.
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thelaurenshippen · 5 months
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Hi there! I started relistening to the bright sessions (as one does) and had a random question come up. When did you know that Mark/Sam wasn't going to be endgame (romantically)? I know in s4 they both fall apart separately and together, but even in Safehouse pt 2 (my absolute beloved) they argue about their coping mechanisms. Did you know then that they weren't going to end up together? How did you come to that conclusion?
hey!! this is a great question - I definitely did start the show thinking they were endgame and that's mostly what I was thinking at the time of safehouse too, despite their issues. I think it was really in writing Season 4 actually, when I realized that I was no longer telling a story about two people in love working through their issues, but was instead telling a story about two people who were in love but realized they shouldn't be together in that way. I started to feel those tension points in Season 3 (I would say the safehouse episodes were a true attempt for them to learn to work through their issues), but it wasn't until planning S4 that I really made the decision.
there are a lot of things that led to this that I'll try to articulate, because the honest, simplest answer as to why the plans changed was "because it felt like they should". but if I were think back and pinpoint a few reasons for that...
there was never supposed to be a love triangle. Mark was always bisexual but he and Damien were never supposed to develop feelings for one another. but the first time we got Andrew and Charlie into a room and read through their first episode together it was like "oh, OH-kay" (which, sidebar: clearly I was writing something between them subtextually because it wasn't like Andrew and Charlie were strangers to each other - I'd watched them act ALL sorts of scenes together in acting class but the romantic chemistry popped OUT with Mark/Damien. pretty much from the second motel episode on, I was writing leaning into that dynamic). that threw a lot of spanners into the works because while I never had plans to put Mark and Damien together, I hadn't anticipated Mark grappling with feelings for someone else.
similarly, I'd underestimated just how flawed Sam was. Sam is not a bad person, but she sometimes doesn't really know how to be a person who cares about other people. when you add that to the dynamics of Damien and Joan kind of, like, hovering over Mark in various unproductive ways (for Damien, it's destructive and invasive; for Joan, she's just a too-involved older sister sometimes), Sam becomes another person who is kind of, like...controlling Mark, or trying to, because she loves him and doesn't know how to (I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm just regurgitating actual lines I wrote lol). this is not to say that her flaws make her unable to be in a relationship (Mark is also deeply flawed!) but just that their flaws clashed against each other in ways I hadn't planned.
finally: Joan and found family. in my mind, there was something grand and romantic about Sam meeting Dr. Bright so that she could be led to Mark - like they were somehow always fated to meet. in actuality, it's not that at all - instead, the bond that Sam and Joan have is just as important as the one she has with Mark, albeit different. I don't believe in soulmates personally, but I've always liked the idea that you have people out there. soulmates in a more general sense - people you click with, have a connection with. it can be romantic, familial, friendship, work or creative partnerships, whatever. I think the Bryant siblings and Sam have that. I think Sam and Mark are meant for each other but in a non-exclusive way and in a...maybe not non-romantic way, but a way that doesn't have romance at the forefront. they love each other deeply and they fit, but a romantic partnership might not be the best way forward for them. and Joan and Sam are the whole heart of the show to me in some senses. as I was writing the finale, I very intentionally ended with the two of them - both because the final appearance of every character is in order of when they first appeared, but in reverse and also because the show starts with both of them in dark, destructive places and while there's broken trust between them throughout, they ultimately help each other get better. I thought Sam's story was about finding love and it was, but that love looked differently than I had planned.
okay, god, this has gotten waaaaaay too long and rambly. I hope this answers your question? one of my favorite things/the thing I miss most about making a show like TBS is being able to shift things based on chemistry/what the actors bring/etc. so often now, I'm writing entire seasons of things and then handing them off to production, in which anything can happen! the flexibility of recording episode by episode in TBS is something I took full advantage of.
thanks for listening and relistening!!
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unpopular opinion that each arc should have changed POV based on who it was centered around (aka escape arc was ray, goldy pond was emma, imperial was norman etc.) cuz it would have balanced out all of their development more than just focusing on emma
ty for carrying this fandom on ur back :D
If we're narrowing it down to a single person carrying the fandom, it's definitely @1000sunnygo for not only compiling the most comprehensive masterlist of materials for the English-speaking fandom, but also translating countless fanworks purely out of love for the series. The thought is very sweet, though! 💖💝
I don't entirely disagree with what I think is the underlying sentiment behind this ask of wanting more insight into the characters because switching the main POV for different arcs of a story can shake things up and be engaging, but assuming we're working under the same chapter/time constraints, I'm not sure what new development could be gained and balanced by this with how much POV swapping we already do between chapters and within single chapters? Other than potentially more insight into the specifics of Norman's time at Lambda and post-Lambda escape, including the Ayshe-Norman conflict branch that Shirai consciously cut to streamline the story.
Would swapping POVs mean we're firmly locked out of any other character's internal monologues? Or would we see monologues like Emma's feelings toward Isabella, Emma saying she wants to be like Norman and Ray, Norman saying he wants to be more like Emma, Norman's incensed vow that he won't lose to Isabella, and Emma's reflection on how Norman's apparent death hurt her retooled later on in their respective POV sections?
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(Chapter 3 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 31)
Granted, the anime cut all of those too, but that's one of the main criticisms I've seen lobbied against it, even with how it reflects some of the essence of them in other ways. Still, I feel like the escape arc is balanced near perfectly in the amount of focus each member of the trio is given and at what point insight into each of their psyche's is explored. That balance is what I would have liked to see replicated in subsequent arcs, specifically during the imperial capital battle arc.
A criticism I've seen toward this portion of the story, and one that I assume is one of the main inspirations for this ask, is how Ray comparatively fades into the background/feels like he's on unequal billing with Emma and Norman despite his prominence in the beginning. The series' Japanese logo even features three parallel lines that represent each member of the trio (minus chapters 30 and 31 when Norman's line was removed to fake out Japanese readers)
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(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 | TPNManga Tweet)
So for a lot of people to see him not be as engaged with his own agenda feels kind of jarring.
I don't mind him aligning with Emma's position at this point despite his personal reservations given the conclusion of the escape arc has his entire worldview being thoroughly reconstructed, but I would have liked more reflection and insight that we see crop up in the bonus pages since we have small moments like Emma taking some time to speculate if a person losing their memories constitutes death in the story proper.
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(Chapter 159 Bonus Scene | Chapter 169 Bonus Scene; I'm very happy both of these scenes are included at all, but they're unfortunately among the casualties of Shirai trimming branches that don't feel as integrated into the narrative in the last few arcs due to the accelerated pacing.)
I also feel the story would lose some cohesion by displacing Emma as the main character given she's the main driving force behind the idealism that permeates the series and thus serves as the strongest unifier to keep that theme front and center. Similarly, I'd hate to lose out on how beautifully foiled she and Isabella are during the escape arc and having such a powerful and heartbreaking mother-daughter dynamic as a focal point of a shounen jump series.
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(Mystic Code Book Chapter 2)
That said, this is another topic where I'm at odds with Sugita as I would have very much been up for more time spent developing the secondary cast.
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schumiatspa · 10 months
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Okay I'm gonna elaborate on my "Charlos as Romeo and Juliet" take, I just couldn't shut up, I'm sorry akansksj
Don't expect anything deep from this long rant because it's just going to be a bunch of personal opinions on f1 ships and friendships, family-like dynamics (i'm a sucker for the family found trope ngl) and such, all badly taped together lol
SO the grid is more or less divided into two sides: the Hamilton-Vettel side and the Alonso side (I'm considering the current only, plus Mick, Seb and Danny).
The Hamilton-Vettel family: grid dads Lewis and Seb are disgustingly in love and happily married and Charles is obviously their child™, alongside Mick and George (I don't see him as their kid as much as the other two, but he's not that far, so). Other people included in this family are definitely Alex (Georgie's boyfriend and Charles's friend), Pierre (Charles's bff and Lewis's friend) and Lance (Seb's former teammate and pseudo grid kid and one of Mick's bffs). I know that Lance being here and not on the other side of the barricade could disappoint some people because of the 'good relationship' he seems to have built with Fernando (I saw your Strollonso propaganda and porn), BUT c'mon!! He's Mick's friend! He was definitely indoctrinated by Seb! He said his idol growing up was Michael (which might have single-handedly got him adopted by Seb lmao)! No way he's leaning towards Nando.
The Alonso family (single dad power!) is basically him and his kids: Max (he has clearly chosen him as his successor in f1), Lando (he loves him and Max and Carlos love him too, so) and obviously Carlos (we know all Spanish athletes are probably in a sort of cult, spanish solidarity is very strong, they have known each other since Carlos was a child thanks to Sainz Senior blablabla).
That being said, we are all aware of the not-so-simple relationship between Seb and Fernando and Lewis and Fernando and their whole decade-long history. This obviously causes some big trouble when Charlos fall in love and begin dating. Seb and Lewis do approve of their son-in-law (there are a lot of pictures of them interacting and they seem to get along pretty well - an example is the Barcelona gp and the whole chili bucket hat drama lmao), if Fernando wasn't there Carlos could easily slip into their family and be pseudo adopted even without marrying into the family (Carlos as Sewis's kid could make sense) BUT Fernando. is. there. and Sewis don't really approve of him, and viceversa - i'd say that he likes Charles, so the problem is always the same: their respective son's in-laws (I'd add that Carlos Sainz Sr is the one who doesn't like Charles very much, he probably sees him as a threat). Moreover I think that things between Lewis and Max might still be sort of tense, same goes for Georgie and Max, and other similar conflicts, so Christmas dinners with the in-laws won't probably be very pleasant in general (the risk of them easily turning into crime scenes is very high - there are knifes around). SO all of this means that Charles and Carlos are a bit like Romeo and Juliet!! They come from two different families which are more or less in conflict with each other (and the conflict can only increase as the championship goes on, especially with Fernando currently doing well and Ferrari being utterly shit, because the gap is getting increasingly bigger) but their love managed to blossom in the middle ground. Obviously it's not that dramatic, the two sides don't hate each other that much: it's not hate per se, it's more... some dislike? Complicated feelings for sure! I know that some drivers are friends with the enemy family (es. The Twitch Quartet), but it's all for the sake of the narrative lol Anyway the vibes are there!! And they're immaculate!! I haven't imagined how a proper and more elaborate Romeo&Juliet AU could work (yet), but the foundation would be more or less this. Something that would be interesting to reflect on is how the dynamics would change if the championship results were different (es. Ferrari were competitive), between everybody and especially between our Romeo and Juliet, but I'm digressing now
Bonus: what about the rest of the grid? Val obviously prefers the Hamilton-Vettel side, Checo would be on Fernando's side (Spanish speaker solidariety and all that, but his 'allegiance' is not that strong, I suppose he doesn't care that much, he's like a distant uncle), Oscar is actually Mark Webber's kid (and!! that's a story for another day, because!! Mark... and... Seb... and Mark and Fernando!! We all know things happened. But let's not dwell on that rn, it would be too complicated) so he'd better stay out of the conflict and Logan, being useless his friend, would probably follow him, so. I imagine Kmag and Hulk would more or less stay neutral (they've got their personal sUcK mY bAlLs MaTe beef going on so lol) and so would Nyck? Tbh I didn't give them much thought because someone like Yuki is much more interesting in this setting, since he is Pierre's bf but Fernando has taken a liking to him and kinda made him one of his grid kids, so he is in a peculiar position. But let's be real, Yuki doesn't give many fucks, so he is probably going to waltz from on side of the paddock to the other without a care in the world. Estie is interesting too: while he is Mick's other bff, he also has a love-hate relationship with Fernando. I believe that he is on the other side, still I don't trust him and Nando together lmao. I'm actually not sure about Zhou, he would probably be quite neutral, but I know he admires Fernando a lot (I admit I'm fumbling a little bit in the dark here lol but it's okay, I hadn't actually thought about every single driver, some of them I'm making up as I type).
The real wild card is Danny Ric, because he has known Lewis and Seb for years (underrated trio!!) and obviously likes George and Pierre and more or less their whole family BUT. Alonso has Max on his side. And Lando. So Danny's probably like the friendly neighborhood dog: he loves everybody and he gets fed like four times a day because everybody loves him and he doesn't really pick a side.
The end.
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shina913 · 2 years
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Coquet, Part 1 | JJK
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Coquet, Part 1
\ kō-​ˈket Definition: noun. a man who indulges in flirtation.
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✫✫✫Coquet Masterlist✫✫✫
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Pairing: Escort!JJK x Fem-reader
Rating: M (🔞)
Genre: Fake-dating!AU; Strangers to lovers; fluff; angst; smut
Warnings: cussing; explicit sexual conversations; hints of awkward family dynamic; fake-dating; hired escort; some anxiety; alcohol consumption
Word count: 2.3K+ words
Summary: On your brother's wedding, you dread traveling to see your family–whom you have successfully avoided for over a year after moving across the country for work. In an effort to save face, you hire an escort to get them off your back and perhaps even make your ex–who happens to be the best man–a little jealous.
A/N: I've been waiting for the right time and prompt to do another JJK fic so...I'm super excited for this. This is loosely inspired by The Wedding Date (2004) but with a slight twist. If you know the movie, I hope you'll still read along. I have a habit of getting prompts from random movies or shows that I revisit and then find some details that I'd like to switch up for my own personal wish-fulfillment bank so, I hope it does the same for yours as well! 😊
Thank you to @internetjunkdrawer for beta-ing and screaming with me (as if there was any other way of talking about this AU). Also thinking about you, @deepseavibez, my love. 💕
And with that, please enjoy Part 1!
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“Hi, YN–It’s Jeon Jungkook. I apologize for not getting back to you last night but I just wanted to let you know that I got your message. Listen, I can tell that you’re nervous–I completely understand, but this is what I do for a living. And you know what? By the time this is all over, your ex will regret that he ever left you. Trust me,” he says.
“Anyway, I’ve got a couple things that I need to do this morning so I’m afraid we’ll just have to meet at the airport. I received the itinerary and the e-ticket, so I appreciate you sending those.” He sighs. “Well...I can’t wait to see you!”
******
Since taking your seat, you hadn’t been able to stop fidgeting–just unable to settle. You keep glancing back, past the business-class cabin entranceway, keeping an eye out for him.
You scroll through your phone for a couple minutes but even that can’t keep you calm as you couldn't stop your fingers from trembling. You slide your phone into your purse and pick up the in-flight safety instruction pamphlet and examine that instead.
“I’m guessing you’re not much of a frequent flyer?”
You look up to see a lady seated right across the aisle from you in business class. She gave you a kind smile and could sense your restlessness. “Oh…” You immediately tucked the pamphlet away. “No, I actually fly a fair amount. It’s just that–” you felt weird oversharing with this complete stranger but your anxiety just causes you to expel more words out of your mouth than necessary.
“My brother’s getting married and his best man is my ex. I just want to make sure that I know where all of the exits are in case I change my mind and you know…yeet myself out of this plane,” you rambled, finishing with a grimace.
She smiled at you uncomfortably before turning back to her e-reader. You sink into your seat in utter embarrassment. This trip was already off to a great start.
******
// Three months ago…
“Cris…I don’t know,” you said skeptically as you absentmindedly twirled your office chair around.
“What do you mean? I’m telling you, it’s very discreet. Literally, there’s an NDA option, if you really want to go there—“
“But that’s the point,” you protested. “I don’t know if I actually want to go there.” You ran your fingers gently over the calligraphy embossed on the thick, textured cardstock while talking to your friend on the phone.
“Maybe I’m just going to tell them that I’m tied up with a huge campaign and I have to be here to oversee everything.”
You hear Cristina groan angrily through your bluetooth earpiece. “That is the coward’s way out and you know it. Why are you the one left feeling insecure and embarrassed after all this time? You did nothing wrong! If anything, that asshole should back out and retreat into a dark hole if he knew what was good for him,” she spat out.
“Also, do you really think that Taehyung would allow his favorite sister to bow out of his own wedding?” She asked.
Ever since your mother remarried, you and Taehyung have developed an unexpectedly close bond over the years. He was a bonus sibling that you didn’t ask for and he sure as hell felt the same way about you in the beginning. As time went on, you realized that you would be around each other for a while and so your relationship organically grew. You loved and protected each other as if you had shared the same DNA.
You sighed, tossing your brother’s wedding invitation on your desk, where it lands on a pile of the rest of your interoffice mail. The last time you were around your family was during his engagement party–which was already a stretch for you. You flew out there, intending on staying for the weekend but were so traumatized by nosey friends and relatives that you ended up taking a red-eye that same evening to escape it all.
When you are still silent on the other line, Cristina urges you further.
“Babe, listen. I have it on a very reputable source that this service is 100% satisfaction guaranteed—or your money back.”
You rolled your eyes then chuckled. “I’m not buying a vacuum cleaner!”
“Really? Because by the sound of it, you seem like you need some good suction in certain places,” she cackled.
"Cristina!" you shrieked as her laughs rang on the other line.
You groaned. “Why are we friends again?”
She exclaimed, “Because! You love me and you know I’m not afraid to call you out on your bullshit,” she laughs. “And if there’s a chance that you can get a good dicking-down out of this—“
You immediately stop her right there. “Yah! Okay, I got it!” You sighed heavily, reaching over and picking up the invitation again, tapping it furiously on the surface.
After a long beat, you finally relent. “Fine. I’ll message him on the app. No promises, though. And who knows, he might not have any room on his calendar even with the three-month leeway. What with him being so popular and all,” you muttered.
You open the app on your phone and key in his name to pull up his profile–which turns up in your history because you’ve repeatedly visited and studied it obsessively for the last few days before chickening out and promptly closing it.
His page didn’t contain a photo but he was ranked at the top of your search results based on proximity and reviews alone. And boy, did he have a lot of them! He had hundreds of comments and triple the amount of anonymous ratings. Five stars on all of them. 10 out of 10, would highly recommend.
You shuddered at the thought. 
Before losing your nerve, you finally made up your mind and decide to pull the trigger. You tap on the envelope icon to begin typing a direct message to him.
“Well, either way, tell me how it goes! I want to know every detail!” Cristina says excitedly.
As your thumb hovered over your phone’s keypad, you asked your friend one last question. “Be honest–are you the reputable source claiming 100% satisfaction?”
After a brief pause, she says, “I’m afraid I can’t comment on that. I signed an NDA.”
//END FLASHBACK
******
“Ma’am–ma’am, you can’t be back here,” the flight attendant warns you.
“I’m sorry–I swear, I don’t have a drinking problem,” you breathed out after you helped yourself to a couple of mini bottles of cognac from the in-flight crew’s stock. “And you can charge my seat. I just…I’m just really nervous,” you say anxiously.
“W-we have some dramamine, if you–”
“N-no, it’s not that.“ You blurted out. “I’m nervous because any second now, my date will show up at 2B. I’ve never met him so…if there’s any chance that I’ve made a huge mistake and he looks like a troll, I need to be drunk enough for him to look really good.”
“Oh, honey,” Her brows flick up as she looks past your shoulder. “I think you need to sober up now to appreciate the masterpiece that just walked in,” she says, sounding flustered. 
Your brows furrowed. “What?”
She clears her throat and widens her eyes, tilting her chin up to gesture towards the cabin. “Say hello to 2B.”
You turn around slowly to find a man dressed in a dapper suit–his back facing you. He is welcomed by another flight attendant, who presents him with a tray of glasses filled with complimentary champagne.
You approached him carefully. As he reaches out to take a second flute, you catch a glimpse of his tattooed fingers, making your breath hitch.
“J-Jungkook?” You say with a hint of uncertainty.
Suddenly, time slips into slow-motion. At the sound of his name, he turns so fluidly. You couldn’t stop your jaw from dropping when you finally got a good look at him.
His hair was brushed up, letting a few strands fall loosely onto one side–barely brushing his eyebrow. He had big, dark eyes–eyes filled with youthful curiosity yet glazed with intense masculinity. It was a deadly combination that would unnerve anybody.
Your eyes zero-in on his mouth–pink and plush with a little freckle that sat beneath the fullest part of his lower lip. You watched it disappear as his lips curved into a slow, sexy smile.
“Hi, YN.” The sound of his voice was soft, but it was the underlying tone of it–firm but calm. And it oddly settled your nerves almost instantaneously.
When you finally pick your jaw up off the floor, he hands you the second glass of champagne. After you accept it, he takes your free hand in his and gently squeezes it. “Nice to meet you,” he says, then takes you by surprise when he leans in to plant a soft kiss on your cheek.
And just like that, your stomach is in knots again. He smiled after hearing you gasp softly at how forward he was. You gave him a tight smile in return, figuring that it was all part of the act.
“Let’s sit?” He offers. 
You’d interacted with him for all but 30 seconds but you were all-too-happy to obey. After he settles into his seat, he turns his full attention to you.
“I, uh–hope you didn’t have trouble checking in,” you said meekly.
“Everything went smoothly,” he says. “Thanks for making all the arrangements.”
You took a sip–actually, it was more of a hefty gulp–of your champagne.
“I’m sorry that I couldn’t leave sooner. I know that you wanted some time to get settled before heading to the party but–I ran into some extenuating circumstances,” he says vaguely.
You chuckled. “Must be peak season for you, huh?” You regretted the words the instant they left your mouth. 
His eyebrows quirk at your comment.
“I…I mean–” you stuttered. “I’m so sorry–I didn’t mean to say–”
He chuckled. “It’s okay. Doesn’t phase me,” he says calmly.
You sink into your seat, willing the ground to open up and swallow you whole.
“So…maybe, we can take this opportunity to get to know each other? It’s a 5-and-a-half hour flight. We should maximize our time, don’t you think?”
You nodded at his suggestion. “Uh, yeah,” you sat up straight. “Yeah, for sure. I should tell you, though–right off the bat…You know those families who are totally crazy and chaotic? But at the end of the day, they’re still your family and you love them regardless of all that?”
“Uh huh?”
“Yeah, my family is not like that.” You said immediately.
He stifled a snort. “Noted,” he says with a smile before taking a sip of his drink.
You quickly added, “I love my brother, though. And my dad. Well…stepbrother and stepdad,” you clarified. “We don’t share the same bloodline–so…I consider them more as unwilling participants in the craziness. Kind of like hostages,” you gave him a small smile.
He thinks it’s endearing and he gives you that million-dollar smile once more.
Holy shit…an entire week of this. You cleared your throat in an attempt to stay on track. “Anyway, should we talk about our cover story? Just so we’re on the same page and all,” you say, suddenly all business-like.
“Of course,” he says politely. “Always good to get the basics down.”
You both agree to a rehearsed but realistic and sensible story.
Jungkook is a cardiologist and you were introduced by a mutual friend months ago by going on a blind date. Even though you both had ridiculously busy schedules, you were both just absolutely crazy about each other and couldn't stand the thought of being apart so you found a way to make this relationship work.
“Okay–I've got it down,” he says nonchalantly.
“Are you sure? We can go over the details again?”
“YN–” he says in that quiet but stern tone that stops you in your tracks. You were starting to think that you might actually enjoy being spoken to like this every now and then. Before you could let that sink in, he interrupts your thoughts. “I said, I’ve got it. And don’t worry. I’m a professional,” he says, reassuringly.
You nodded wordlessly, taking another gulp of your champagne.
Seconds later, he changes tact. “When we first spoke, you also mentioned a certain someone..."
Your eyes widen, knowing full well whom he was referring to. “Oh yeah…him." You paused. "Haru.” His name finally came to you as if it was a distant, forgotten memory that you had to pull from within the depths of your brain cells since you had been distracted for the last few hours by the magnificent piece of work sitting next to you.
“How do you want to deal with that? Should we come up with a plan for him?”
You chewed at your bottom lip. The last time you saw Haru, you spent all of your energy trying to dodge him during the engagement party. But you'd be circling each other all week, at which point, he'd be impossible to avoid. You had to deal with him sometime.
“How far do you want to take it? I can kick things up a notch whenever he’s around or…should I follow your lead?” He paused, waiting for any other ideas that you might have.
You looked away, pursing your lips, considering it. After a long beat, you look him in the eye again. “I just want him to see what he’s missing out on,” you replied confidently.
He regards you intently. “Well…easy-peasy then,” he says smugly.
You cocked an eyebrow and scoffed. “Oh, really?”
He smirks at your skepticism.
“All in a day’s work, huh?” You say to him.
He shook his head. “I say it’s easy because,” he turns his hot gaze towards you again. “Only a blind man would fail to see what they’re missing out on,” he finishes without blinking. 
You swallowed hard while you watched him throw his head back, downing the final drops of his drink.
For a brief moment, you questioned his sincerity. If there was a fine line between truth and lies, Jungkook was excellent at blurring it.
And you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference.
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Part 2◥ | Main Fic Masterlist
Thank you for reading!
If you loved it and/or curious to learn more, please comment, reblog, or send me feedback! 📩. I love hearing from readers! If you didn't like it so much, I would still like to hear about it 💜
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Taglist: @internetjunkdrawer @deepseavibez @itdoesntmatterwhy @reliablemittenmain @jiminisnotavirgin @taleasnewastime @jkkkkkay @bruisedscrewedandtattooed
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evelhak · 2 months
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Feeling daring today - Haizaki for the character and ship bingo ;)
Your takes are much more interesting, so there may not be anything illuminating here but I tried. xD
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*Non-sarcastically normal. Haizaki is a pretty neutral character when I think about him by myself, I just don't have that special connection to him.
*However I love him when you talk about him and I'm sure I would love him more if I just had an incentive to write about him. But I don't feel anything like that because you're already giving him justice. My brain doesn't really work unless I feel like I have something substantial to contribute, which I don't.
*Haizaki definitely still gets a lot of unjustified hate, because he was framed as a villain and people then interpreted his every action as coming from the worst place imaginable, while other characters' actions get understanding just because they can see those characters' sides but can't see Haizaki's since he wasn't written in a sympathetic way. On one hand, that's fair to me, if your fic needs a villain it makes sense to pick a character whose motivations were not discussed deeply, so you can turn him into as much of a villain as you want, because you have no need to think about that particular character so deeply. However, the rate at which this happens to Haizaki perfectly exemplifies how the same dynamic happens in real life, especially at schools. He has the outward characteristics of the person who is always the easiest to blame. Not that there isn't stuff to blame him for, it's just that when he gets blamed for more than his share, it becomes a vicious cycle. Not to say it would affect his likability to me even if he never grew less violent or got his shit together, because my like and dislike for fictional characters is not based on morality or whether or not I would like that character in real life. 😂 I didn't pay that much attention to him solely because I just overlooked his story as pretty been there done that. Any character depth he has is implied at best, because he's a side character. I would much rather see an actual depiction of the dynamics that get projected onto him. And you are doing that, so, I'm not complaining.
*I do think Haizaki is pretty silly, he's so macho but he's also kind of wishy-washy about it. Like, one minute he can be thundering on like any of the other macho characters but then his line for changing his mind and going like "you know what, not worth it, actually" is much lower. And somehow he gets depicted as pathetic for that, even though it may actually just be common sense and self-preservation.
*Honestly I need to remind myself that Haizaki exists, sometimes. I'm sorry. He just wasn't that compelling to me initially. I didn't demonise him (I'd like to think that I don't demonise anyone) I just wasn't interested enough. I knew there were reasons he acts the way he does but I didn't make actual effort to find out. You've done some good to me, reminding me that my perception is more limited than I would like, because I tend to pride myself for considering everyone's viewpoints. (Not 100% possible, but I try.)
*Well you said it, Haizadick is not an inaccurate term, no matter what way you look at it.
I didn't ship anyone with Haizaki because I didn't think about his life much before talking to you, so...
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*Congrats, your Haizaki and his relationships are now basically canon to me. : D
*I just put that second tier text there because I imagine it's where the relationships that last a bit longer would go, and I think Haizaki just has many short relationships before maybe ending up with his end game.
*I mean I assume he has had fun short relationships with many girls.
*And probably many one-night stands.
*I literally just got it in my head that maybe he experimented with a guy once, while I was making this. He seems like a curious type even though I'm kind of assuming he's straight.
*Yeah, I theoretically get why these are ships but no I don't really get it, I would be lying if I said I truly deeply understood it.
I know my shipping tiers are a mix of "I actually root for it" and "I just sort of think it would happen" but that's what you get from me. : D
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Text
"For research" - part 3
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The third and final part of this super smutty fic :)
Here’s part 1 and part 2
wc: 4215
tw: this chapter is the definition of no plot just smut
--
Nesta
"Make it stop," Nesta muttered when the alarm went off, her words muffled by her pillow. 
The weight of Cassian's arm across her middle disappeared, and after a few seconds, the drilling sound stopped. 
She was about to drift off again when the man next to her rolled almost entirely on top of her, nuzzling her neck and purring like a huge cat.
"Good morning," he said, his raspy early morning voice almost enough to wake her up. Almost.  
She weakly tried to push him off and somehow ended up half on her stomach, one leg bent and the other straight out, Cassian's body plastered against her back.
"m'sleep," she mumbled as she attempted to wiggle free of his hold, and- oh. 
"How can you be horny at this ungodly hour?" 
Cassian's chuckle reverberated against the back of her neck. His hand sneaked under her shirt, cupping one of her breasts and giving it a gentle squeeze as his hips rolled against her ass. 
Her sleep was ruined now, but having Cassian's body pressed against hers felt too good to complain. Still, she couldn't let herself enjoy the moment without at least going to the bathroom and rinsing her mouth first. 
Finally managing to break free of the oversized teddy bear she had called her best friend for thirteen years, Nesta sat up and got her first look at early morning Cassian. He was sprawled on the mattress, the sheets only covering the lower half of his body, his hair a wild mess, and an even wilder grin on his face. He looked infuriatingly handsome with a hint of stubble and his eyes still slightly puffy from sleep. 
He wiggled his eyebrows at her, then lifted his arms above his head and arched off the mattress, stretching his muscles with a satisfied groan. "I texted Rhysand I needed the morning off," he said. "The perks of working for your brother." 
Nesta narrowed his eyes at him. "Why the hell did you wake me up then? We could have slept one more hour before taking care of-" she glanced at his lower body. "That." 
Cassian rested his head on his hands, his biceps flexing with the movement. "I'd much rather take care of you, sweetheart, But if you want to suck me off‌, by all means, go ahead." 
Oh, early morning Cassian was needy, cocky, and had no filter whatsoever. Nesta filed away the information for the future as she sent him a glare. "You're so-" She sighed and shook her head, abruptly getting up and making her way to the bathroom. "I hate you!" she added before closing the door. 
Cassian's laugh followed her inside the room. "Come back!"
As she used the toilet and rinsed her mouth, Nesta thought about the previous night's events. 
Cassian was in love with her, and he had been pining after her for years. The smile on her face grew into a full grin as she remembered his words. "I've always been yours." "I think about you all the time." "You feel right." 
After years of reading and writing about fictional people finding love, it seemed it was finally her time to experience what that felt like in real life. Her very own friends to lovers romance. 
She'd feared dating Cassian would ruin her friendship with him and change its dynamic completely, but so far, nothing of the sort had happened. It was too early to be sure, but Nesta had a good feeling about it. And for once in her life, instead of imagining the worst, she let herself hope for the best. 
Waking up next to Cassian hadn't even felt as weird as she had anticipated. Whatever awkwardness she had expected to feel was strangely non-existent. It was almost weird that it didn't feel weird, she thought. 
A knock on the door interrupted her train of thought. "Nes, are you okay in there?" God, his voice still had that sexy morning rasp that affected her more than she'd like to admit. Cassian's voice had always done things to her. Like the previous night, in the heat of the moment-
"Come inside me." The memory had her cheeks flush red. Fuck, had she begged for it? Get it together, Nesta. Cassian doesn't need to know about that particular kink of yours. Not yet, at least. 
"Nesta."
Blinking the embarrassing memory away, she quickly opened the door, coming face to face with an extremely distressed Cassian. 
"Hey," she said, flattening her palms against his chest. "What's wrong?" 
As soon as her hands made contact with his skin, Cassian's entire body seemed to relax, his shoulders loosening and the frown between his eyebrows disappearing. He cupped the back of her neck, releasing a breath against her forehead. "Nothing. Come back to bed?"
Nesta pulled back to look at his face. "Cassian."
The faintest blush colored the tips of his ears as he ran a hand through his hair. "I just- I thought you were having second thoughts about last night." He cleared his throat, red spreading to his cheekbones. "I thought maybe you were trying to escape through the window or something." 
The strained laugh that broke out of him died as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm glad you didn't."
Nesta's eyes softened. "You live on the sixth floor, and I haven't turned into spiderman yet." 
Knowing words alone weren't enough to reassure him, she wrapped her arms around his middle and brushed a kiss on his chest, her lips lingering there. "I don't regret last night, Cass. I want to be with you."
His eyes lit up, and he suddenly caught her mouth in a kiss, slow and deep, hands tangled in her hair. He savored her, claimed her, angling her head where he wanted it and tasting every inch of her. 
God, this man could kiss. Nesta stood on her tiptoes and surrendered herself entirely to him as his hands traveled down her body, gripping her waist. Finding herself pressed against the wall, she could only sigh into Cassian's mouth when he slid his hands under her shirt and palmed her breasts, thumbs flicking and circling her nipples. 
"When can I take you out?" he rasped, lips lavishing her neck. 
Her breathless laugh was cut short as Cassian hiked one of her legs around his waist and rolled his hips into hers with just the right amount of pressure, driving her mad without really giving her body what it was already craving. She throbbed, wetness pooling between her legs as Cassian bit her earlobe. 
"What's so funny?"
Nesta roughly pulled at his hair. "It's just-" She gasped when his hand found its way where she needed him the most, easily slipping a thick finger inside her. "Cassian!" 
His chuckle made her clench around his digit, and he added a second one. "That's a good start. Go on."
If she hadn't been so desperate to come already, she would have answered with a creative insult. Instead, she only bit Cassian's shoulder, wiggling her hips to get his fingers even deeper inside her. "I'm thinking we're doing things in reverse," she breathed. "Friendship, oral sex, kiss, more sex-"
"Yes, we're good at that," Cassian rasped as he thumbed her clit, huffing a laugh against her cheek when she let out a string of curses. 
Nesta glanced at the hand moving between her legs, to the corded muscles of Cassian's forearm, and almost came right then. "And now you want to take me out," she managed to say. "It's all messed up." 
Humming, Cassian pinched her chin and tilted her head back. As he tipped open her mouth and kissed her, he found a spot that had her scramble for something to hold on to, her legs twitching. 
"You once told me the best books are those with unexpected plot twists," he said against her lips, retreating his fingers from her opening and bringing them to the apex of her legs, spreading her wetness there. 
Moaning, Nesta wrapped both arms around his shoulders, a bead of sweat running down her back. "They are." He remembered. "I'm free on Saturday. Pick me up at seven."
His grin lit up his entire face, and his fingers entered her again, curling just so. "Perfect. Now ride my hand, sweetheart." He moved faster, thumb working her clit, lips catching hers in a rough kiss. "Feels good?"
She whimpered, nails digging into his shoulders. "Don't stop. Please. Don't stop." 
"I won't, baby. I want to watch you come for me." Cassian kept murmuring praises into her ear as he touched her, turning her into a desperate panting mess. "You're so fucking gorgeous in the morning. I want you in my bed every day. Every day, Nesta." 
She didn't have time to think about what his words meant. "Right there! Feels so good. I-" Her knees bucked as she cried out, stars exploding behind her eyelids. 
Cassian held her up, working her through her orgasm, dragging every last bit of pleasure out of her. 
"Good girl. Breathe. I've got you." 
"I've got you," he repeated as he carried her to the bed, spreading her legs and settling in the cradle of her hips. At some point, the rest of her clothes had come off. Nesta didn't care about the whens and hows as Cassian teased her with sinful rolls of his hips, the slide of his cock between her slick folds turning her into a whimpering mess.
Instead of taking the edge off, her first orgasm had made her greedy.
It had always been like that with her best friend. She always wanted more. "Are you going to fuck me or not?"
Cassian chuckled and rolled onto his back, taking her with him, somehow managing to grab her and manhandle her until she was kneeling on the bed, her core right above his face. 
"Sit, Nesta," he ordered, lips brushing her inner thighs. "And don't hover."
Nesta had done 69 before, but weirdly enough, she'd never just sat on someone's face, riding it until she found her own pleasure. But then again, all her previous sexual partners had been more into receiving than giving.
Over the past few weeks, she'd learned Cassian was the exact opposite. He was a giver - and a very generous one. 
As if he'd read her mind, Cassian licked his lips, his thumb finding her clit and teasing it with the lightest pressure. "Please, baby, I need to taste you. I need it so badly."
The begging did it. With a hand on the headboard and the other on the mattress, Nesta lowered herself onto Cassian's face. Oh.
"Fuck!" Nesta cried out. "Please!" She didn't know if she was begging because she wanted more or because she was becoming too sensitive, everything lost in a dizzying haze since Cassian had pressed the first sloppy, open-mouthed kiss between her legs. His stubble rubbed against her most sensitive place as he ate her out, and it hurt so fucking good a tear rolled down her cheek. 
Cassian had been relentless from the start, gripping her hips tightly and pressing her core firmly against his face, licking and sucking like a man starved. Even lying down with her sitting on top of him, he oozed confidence, his mouth curving upwards at each of her moans. 
She leaned forward, a shiver dancing up her spine as Cassian's nose grazed her clit, and she let go of any restraint as her hips bucked wildly. 
The pressure in her lower stomach became heavier and heavier, and she tugged on Cassian's hair, desperately chasing release. "Oh my god!"
He groaned against her, and then he was moving his tongue just so, and she was throwing her head back and opening her mouth in a choked cry, her voice trapped somewhere in her throat. 
The world around her became blurry, and she blindly scrambled for purchase as waves of pleasure rippled over her.
Her hands found the sheets, and she realized she was lying down, her body a boneless puddle tingling and throbbing everywhere. Cassian's lips were hungry on her neck, the heavy weight of his erection rubbing against her thigh. 
Keeping her eyes closed, Nesta wrapped her hand around Cassian's leaking cock, her thumb spreading the wetness around the head.
Cassian's breathy moan was muffled against her neck as his hips snapped forward, chasing her touch. "Nesta." His voice sounded almost pained, and she smiled as she pumped harder, her wrist twisting. She needed him undone, needed him moaning her name-
So quickly she barely had time to react, Cassian grabbed her wrists, pinning them above her head. "Fuck, baby, not yet. I'm not done with you." 
Oh god. Nesta's eyes snapped open as she tried to wiggle free, to no avail. "Please," she breathed, whimpering as Cassian switched both of her wrists in one hand and slid the other one between her legs. 
Squeezing her thighs together, she trapped his hand there. "I can't."
The grin Cassian gave her promised nothing but trouble. "You can, sweetheart. Open your legs for me." 
It was unfair how attractive he was, his lips bruised and her arousal still coating his chin. Her traitorous body throbbed, and Cassian's grin grew even more devilish. He kissed her, tongue asking for entrance, and as her lips parted, so did her thighs, allowing his fingers to tease her entrance. She trembled as he explored her, slowly and carefully, not leaving a single part of her untouched. Cassian collected her arousal, then spread it on her swollen clit, his touch gentle but firm. I know what you need, his hand said. Let me give it to you.
Her legs twitched, her back arching as a stuttering breath left her lungs. 
It felt so good it was almost too much, sweat gathering on her skin with each passing second and heat gathering everywhere else. "Cassian," she gasped, every muscle in her body tight. How was she so close already? 
Glancing at the clock on the nightstand, she let out a breathless laugh. Not even 9 am and she was getting closer to her third orgasm of the day.
"Cassian!"
"Yeah?" he chuckled knowingly as he released her wrists and braced his weight on his forearm. Nesta could barely kiss him back when he captured her mouth, too focused on trying to get some air into her lungs. His eyes were hungry as he sought friction on his cock by rocking his hips against her thigh. She wanted to touch him, but she was too gone to do anything but chase her high, a leg hiked around his hips as her body moved in tandem with his fingers. 
She whined as the pressure built up until she was gasping for air, her body wrung tight, a live wire ready to snap. Shaking her head, she tried closing her legs, but Cassian held them open, the desperation lacing his voice matching hers. "Relax, sweetheart. Just let go. Come on, baby, I know you can do it."
His words tipped her over the edge, her muscles loosening as if someone had flipped a switch inside her. The sudden release of pressure was an instant relief, pleasure spreading slowly to her legs, her hips, the tips of her fingers until all she could do was breathe and surrender herself entirely to it. 
A blurry Cassian appeared in front of her, pupils dark as he stared at his hand between her thighs. When he lifted his head, he was sporting the smuggest grin she'd ever seen. 
Nesta didn't need to glance down to know why. The wetness on the sheets told her everything she needed. Blushing, she covered her face with her hands. "Stop looking at me like that," she muttered, pushing Cassian off her. 
He fell on his side with a chuckle, immediately tucking her against him. "Like what?" he asked smugly, pulling her hands away from her face and bringing her in for a sloppy kiss. 
Nesta tried to master a glare as she attempted to wiggle free. "You're so annoying."
Cassian's eyes flared as his cock brushed against her stomach. "I love it when you're all riled up, sweetheart. It turns me on." He settled above her again, a hand finding her ass and giving it an indulgent squeeze. 
"God, Cassian, not again. I really can't," she whined, thighs clamping shut as her pulse quickened. She was so sensitive, and yet she didn't put up much of a fight when he spread her legs and began rubbing his cock against her soaked folds. 
How could she, when he was leaving open-mouthed kisses between her breasts, whispering sweet nothings on her skin? When each one of his touches lit her on fire? For years she'd fantasized about waking up next to him and having him look at her just as he was doing now, as if she was the only woman he wanted under him. Sometimes, in the morning, she clung to the remnants of her dreams and touched herself thinking of inked biceps and hazel eyes.  
"You can, and you will," Cassian rasped as he rocked against her, slicking his cock with her arousal. He teased her entrance, letting out a low chuckle as she shivered and let out a breathy moan. 
"You'll take every inch."
She throbbed, her body achingly sensitive and overstimulated. Three orgasms had definitely taken the edge off, but she still found herself craving the closeness of sex, the feeling of being stretched full, the vulnerability that came with being joined in the most intimate of ways.  
Holding Cassian's face, she breathed, "take me."
And he did. 
"Look how well you ride my cock, sweetheart."
Nesta glanced down to where their bodies were joined and moaned, her walls fluttering around Cassian's length. At some point during their love-making, Cassian had rolled them over and let her set the pace she was most comfortable with. He was sitting up now, his back against the headboard as Nesta rode him. 
The strain in his muscles told her he was close but was trying to hold out for her. She couldn't have that, not when she wasn't even sure she could physically reach another climax in such a short time. 
Trailing kisses down Cassian's neck, she moaned in his ear as she arched her back, pushing her breasts against his chest. 
His hands on her hips tightened, a helpless sound leaving his lips. Thumb finding her clit, he began tracing light circles on it. "Give me one more, Nesta," he panted. "One more. Come on, sweetheart." It was almost enough to make her come again, but she couldn't quite get there. 
Nesta bit Cassian's shoulder, licked the hollow of his throat. "I want you to let go," she breathed in his ear. "It's okay."
Ignoring his protests, she removed his hand from between her legs and placed it on her chest, encouraging him to touch her as he pleased. "I need it," she panted, purposefully squeezing her walls around him. "I need it so badly. Give it to me. Let go."
Suddenly she was lifted off his lap and half thrown onto the mattress.
She laughed, absolutely reveling in how she could make Cassian go from making sweet love to her, to fucking her like an animal with just a few words. 
Grabbing a pillow, Cassian put it under her hips and thrust back inside her with a deep groan, barely giving her time to adjust before he was pulling almost all the way out and slamming back in. "That's it. Fuck, you feel so good."
Gasping, Nesta gripped his biceps as he took her fast and hard, stretching her to the point of pain. 
Her nails dug into his back, and she cursed as he hit that spot inside her. Oh. 
"Good fucking girl. Take it." He hit that spot again, thrusting so deep she felt it everywhere. "Take it." And again, his pelvis brushing her clit. 
Nesta hitched her leg at Cassian's hip as he leveraged up on his knees, finding an angle that had her moaning and panting desperately. 
One hand planted on the headboard, Cassian licked his lips and sank into her over and over, his muscles clenching and releasing.
Nesta shamelessly enjoyed the view of the strong column of his neck, his defined abs, and the way his cock fit so well inside her. 
Their movements quickened, sweat-slicked bodies rocking together, the headboard thumping against the wall. 
Nesta's back bowed off the bed as Cassian fell on top of her again, his forehead pressed against her collarbones. Their lips met in a frantic clash of teeth and tongue, and they smiled into it. 
This wasn't just about physical attraction. It wasn't "research" for Nesta's book or two friends helping each other scratch an itch. When Nesta looked into Cassian's eyes, she let him see what she felt, and he did the same for her. None of them had spoken those three little words yet, but they were right there on the tips of their tongues, and they both knew it.
Cassian kissed every part of her he could reach as he thrust deeper, making her arch off the bed and cling to him for dear life, her body tethering right on the edge.
"Fuck, Nesta, I'm coming." His teeth sank into her shoulder as his hips jumped in uncoordinated, messy thrusts, and she gasped when a particularly rough thrust gave her body the push it needed. She could only choke on a sob as she tumbled over the edge, eyes rolling in the back of her head.
She couldn't move.
Cassian was a dead weight on top of her, his cock still buried inside her. But even if Nesta had been as light as a feather and with absolutely nothing trapping her on the bed, she wouldn't have been able to lift a pinky. 
"Did I make it up to you?" Cassian panted.
"What?"
The man on top of her rolled off her body, landing next to her with an exhausted grunt. "Last night, you said I had to make it up to you for not confessing my feelings earlier. Did I?"
Even laughing seemed impossible, but she couldn't stop the chuckle that broke out of her. "That is to be determined. I think you made me literally unable to walk."
"I'm serious, you big oaf," she added when Cassian snickered, clearly happy with her answer. "I might not be able to leave this bed. Like ever." As if on cue, her legs twitched. She had officially lost control of her limbs.
The mattress jostled as Cassian sat up, pushed his hair away from his sweaty forehead, and kneeled between her legs.
"Don't panic," he immediately said when Nesta tried to snap her legs shut and sent him the most terrifying glare she could master in her weak state. "I might have a lot of stamina, sweetheart, but I need at least two hours before I can go again."
Nesta pointed a finger at him. "If you try to get near my vagina before tomorrow, I will bite your dick off, Cassian," she said as his big hands began massaging her thighs, kneading her aching muscles. 
She sighed, her body relaxing and thoroughly enjoying the attention it was receiving.
Cassian's voice stopped her from drifting off to sleep. "Is that how your book ends? With the female lead depriving her love interest of her favorite part of his anatomy?"
Nesta opened her eyes and glanced at Cassian's cock. "Depends on how her boyfriend behaves." 
Cassian smirked. "Oh, I see." 
It was his triumphant grin that made her realize her tongue had slipped. Apparently, all those orgasms had killed some of her brain cells. Never in a million years would she admit she had based her main character's love interest on Cassian. "I'm talking about my book," she said in her most threatening voice. She probably didn't look particularly threatening at the moment, but she was too weak to sit up. "Don't get any weird ideas." 
"I wouldn't dream of it, Nes." 
She was about to reply when suddenly she found herself in Cassian's arms, giggling as he tried to stand and fell back on the bed, muttering a curse against the top of her head. 
"What's wrong?" she teased as she looped her arms tightly around his neck. "Did I work you too hard?"  
Cassian pinched her butt, the loveliest blush coloring his cheekbones. "Smartass. Just give me a second." 
He looked so adorable she couldn't help pressing her lips on his cheek. "You're so cute." She kissed him again, a soft brush of her mouth against his jaw, to which he responded by burying his nose in her neck and mumbling something incoherent against the hollow of her throat. 
"What was that?" Nesta asked as she gently pulled Cassian's face away from her neck. She wanted to do the exact opposite and tuck him close to her instead, but she knew if she got too comfortable, she'd end up falling asleep.
Cassian sighed knowingly and stood, his legs still a bit unsteady as he carried her to the bathroom. "I said know I'm cute." 
"Shut up, and try not to fall."
"Yes, ma'am."
——
Taglist:
@arinbelle @moodymelanist @julemmaes @bookstantrash @sayosdreams @letstakethedawn @perseusannabeth @thewayshedreamed @duskandstarlight @vidalinav @lady-winter-sunrise @swankii-art-teacher @generalnesta @oversizedbats @ssardothien @positivewitch @nesquik-arccheron @starksravings @rhysandswingspan @sleeping-and-books @brieq @sv0430 @candice-dick-fit-in-your-mouth @vanserrass @talkfantasytome @pintas3107 @1200flowers @ubigaia @claralady @leiawritesstories @nestaspegasus @dealfea @lady-riel @xstarlightsupremex @therapeuticrambling @euclavender @faeriebambula @thereadingrainbows @dontgetsalmonella @nestasgalpal @cassiansbigwingspan
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crankyfemme · 1 year
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Please talk to me about Joel and Tess I’ve been thinking about them all weekend
I don't even know if I have any coherent thoughts about them it's all just a wriggling mass of worms in here, screaming about their dynamic. (Update from after writing out the rest of this deranged essay: I did not mean for this to get so long and go off on so many tangents. I am insane. Thank you.)
I'm utterly obsessed with the way Tess is the one who calls the shots - just reblogged a post the other day about how Joel looks to her for decision-making, which mixed nicely in my brain with that quote from the podcast about Joel being "a little bit of a Frankenstein monster" that Tess is leading. This fermented in my brain with Joel's consistent characterization as someone who can't live for himself, only for someone else. As joking as it is, people are absolutely on the nose with the "acts of service being Joel's love language" posts. He doesn't know how to be a person unless he's orbiting another. (This also neatly parallels Ellie's greatest fear of ending up alone, but that's a whooooole nother essay.)
For a long time, Sarah was the axis around which he orbited, and that is why losing her led to a near suicide. Tommy managed to shift Joel's orbit around himself, to save his brother, which led to "all the things we did - the things you judge me for" from episode 6. This next bit is speculation, but I think it's fairly well supported by evidence from canon. I think that Tommy wasn't able to properly handle how Joel's trauma changed him, not okay with the level of violence Joel was willing to reach to keep Tommy safe, but utterly unable to lose the only family he had left.
(Continuing this Tommy tangent, sorry): he absolutely feels some level of responsibility for how fucked up Joel is now. If he had arrived just a little sooner, he could have saved Sarah, and Joel wouldn't be the way he is. Every time Joel does something morally reprehensible for Tommy's sake, Tommy thinks this is my fault. At least at first. They met Tess later, so there was no one else for Joel to orbit, so Tommy was the only option. And he was definitely there during and in the wake of Joel's suicide attempt, so he knows Joel cannot be alone. But the way they're surviving is fucking with him.
It's not until later, when Joel and Tess have become close enough for her to be Joel's new Person that Tommy can leave, which he does, of course he does, because seeing what's become of his brother makes him sick with guilt and anger. He couldn't leave until he knew for sure Joel had a Person to keep living for, but once that's a sure thing, he leaves. (There's another whole essay in here about Joel and Tommy being foils, where Joel must be devoted to a single person and Tommy must be devoted to some greater cause, but I've digressed enough. You came here for Joel and Tess. Sorry. I swear these thoughts are all related.) Back to Joel. Everything about him screams "experienced parentification as a child" and I know I'm still in speculation land but come on. He's several years older than Tommy and he became a father at a young age, and it's implied that he was a single father from pretty early on in Sarah's life (moreso in the game, but there's no indication they changed that for the show). Joel and Tommy's parents are never so much as mentioned.
Adults who were parentified as children have a hard time expressing and meeting their own needs, particularly emotionally, and have a hard time turning off their "caregiver" mode. Just for fun, I ran a quick search about parentification to refresh my memory, and I'd like to share a few sentences that made me insane: "A parentified child does not learn to distinguish their own needs and feelings from those of other people." Here's another: "In certain cases, some degree of parentification may have positive effects, such as building resilience and competency."
Who does that sound like? Joel "you were never gonna do it for yourself" Miller, that's fucking who. (For added derangement, rewatch the breakfast scene in episode 1, starting around 6:50 when Tommy comes through the door. "Awww, he loves you." "He's dependent on me. It's not the same." But I digress. Again.) ANYWAY: Enter Tess. Tess is fucking smart and ruthless about survival, Tess shares Joel's deep trauma of losing a child, and Tess doesn't have Tommy's angst about how Joel has changed from Before. She's exactly someone whose psychological profile can mesh well with post-Outbreak Joel's. She's resourceful and great at social engineering, and she quickly picks up on how Joel's mind operates. As the audience, we never get to actually see or hear how they met and grew close, but given how they are as people, I think it's likely that Tess initially saw Joel as a resource to use, then figured out more about him, and grew to actually give a shit - until she ended up giving a lot of shits. Too many, maybe.
She definitely knows she has power in their dynamic, that she can make the decisions and Joel will follow her lead, that Joel cares about her. The scene in their apartment kitchen where he sees her swollen eye and she already knows he's going to react the way he does, has her first sentence prepared so he'll sit back down. The casual way she allows him to tilt her head and pat at her face with the cloth? She knows his need to caretake, and she allows him a few moments to meet it, and then she gently redirects him and breaks the bad news about the battery to him.
She handles him emotionally like a fucking master pianist at the keys. (Follow along at about 53:25 in episode 1 if this next bit makes no fucking sense.) She starts gentle, reassuring, telling him "nothing's lost" after dropping the fact that Robert sold the battery. She matches Joel's energy when he stands, upset, saying "okay, fuck it, we get our money back and the battery" so he doesn't feel like she's being condescending or too calm about something that's a big deal to him. She approaches, makes physical contact with her hand to get him to meet her eyes, and lays out the logic - the goal is not out of reach, but will be unless Joel listens to her. And then she says "I need you to take a breath" and there's a quiet moment where you can see her exaggerating a breath for Joel to follow. (I think this is where I became unrecoverable, by the way, if it wasn't already back where Joel rolls over at her hand on his back to be her little spoon.) Notice the energy level in the room after that breath? They both continue speaking in lower, calmer voices. Even when Joel says "Well who'd he sell it to?" his tone is irritated without being loud and abrasive.
And then my favorite thing ever. "Now I promised Robert you wouldn't hurt him. But I would very much like for you to hurt him." Because Tess knows that she is Joel's Person, and what things Joel will do for his Person. She knows because she saw it back when it was Tommy. And Tess has no problem weaponizing Joel, unlike Tommy, who'd been driven away by that very thing.
The saddest part, to me personally, is that while Tess was able to understand that she was Joel's Person, she didn't let herself believe that meant love. Not the way she wanted it to. She figured that he had to revolve around someone, psychologically, but that didn't mean he had to love them. And Joel couldn't ever say it to her, because he loses everyone he loves. It's even more obvious with Ellie, later, when he so clearly loves her as a daughter and just cannot say it in such plain words. He loved Sarah, and she died in his arms, and he loved Tommy, and Tommy left him behind. So there's no way Joel was ever going to be able to be clear with Tess that he loved her, even though he so clearly did. Especially since Tess died before Ellie's presence in Joel's life started to heal the wound - "it wasn't time that did it."
God. I have no idea if any of this makes sense, I just had a million thoughts and feelings and went off on several tangents, but I've finally run somewhat out of steam and I did, in fact, talk about Joel and Tess like you asked. So I'm gonna call it a success.
Anyway, how was your weekend?
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dangermousie · 7 months
Text
I think it puts us on notice what kind of narrative it will be that when we first meet our FL as a child, she's being dragged as tribute to Yuan.
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It is so interesting watching this in retrospect because while I obviously can't know for sure, everything at the start was setting up SungNyang and Wang Yu as THE otp. I mean, they may not have ever gotten a happy ending, it wasn't this type of drama, but there were definitely being set as true loves. They have the first meeting (Ta Hwan doesn't even show up in ep 1 except in the framing coronation scene):
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He tries to stand up for her without knowing who she even is:
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I mean, he even tries to help them escape:
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But of course it all goes bad and her mother dies and she almost does too.
Side note: he's a bad guy but that styling makes me weak:
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Anyway, to get back to Wang Yu and SungNyang (side note - Empress Ki is so well done that even though I ultimately ended up on Ta Hwan x Sung Nyang ship, I totally got those who were rabid for SN x WY. And honestly, Wang Yu is by far the best person of the main three, it's not even a competition. His greatest tragedy is that he's smart, he's tough, he's righteous - and it is still not enough, never enough. Not to win. And I am not talking about love, I am talking in general.)
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It's an interesting parallel between him and Ta Hwan who, in ep 2, we find out is Yuan heir sent to Koryo to die just as the Koryo heir is sent to Yuan to die.
And then timeskip...
Ha Ji Won is queen of everything btw. I miss when we had roles like this. Here she is passing as a man, leader of an armed group, deadly archer. God. I love her.
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Wang Yu and Sung Nyang's meetings in ep 1 all scream "kdrama OTP OTP OTP!" It's fascinating. Live shooting has pluses and minuses, but one of the pluses is that they can alter things if they see the story would be better in a different direction due to actor interactions. This isn't as stark a case as the legendary case in Queen Seon Duk (Bidam, Bidam, Bidam, BIDAAAAAAAM!!!!) but it's up there.
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Heh...
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This was epic!
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This was gorgeous. Honestly, they had great chemistry and dynamics. If it wasn't for Ji Chang Wook being such a consummate scene stealer with a character basically written to cater precisely to me, I'd have been on this ship forever and ever.
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Mmmmmmm
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God
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I love them so much!!!!
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Man nobody does a tough BAMF the way Ha Ji Won does.
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Next episode: Mousie's unhinged favorite, the powerless Yuan heir Togon/Ta Hwan arrives or a threesome would have solved everyone's problems.
PS Seriously, he'd be the antagonist or at the very least an evilish sml in any other drama. GOD. I love love love Empress Ki.
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thejockout · 10 months
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So I’m pretty smart and non-confrontational but stand my ground when necessary, yet it can be stressful and when I’m off work and just having fun I would like to be a himbo. Also while I like having what I want clear, I find the idea of being a sub really hot. Is there any way to have it both ways? Can I be the intelligent professional and also the sexy, happy himbo when I just want to stop thinking and have fun? And should I call you sir?
Short answer: yes to the professional/dumb duality, and "if you wanna" to the Sir thing, but I can tell you do want to.
Longer answer: It's early and I haven't been up long, so be warned this isn't going to be the most eloquent response in the world. Howeverrr. To make things easy, my stance is that the risks of 'dumbing' in hypnosis are hugely overblown by subs (including myself once upon a time) and represent a misunderstanding of how causing such an effect could actually be done. To be perfectly honest, if all the depth a hypnotist gives their dumbing is to put you in a trance and tell you over and over again that you're an idiot or that you love making mistakes, etc etc, you have nothing to fear from that kind of suggestion ruining your life. Are there files which represent a potentially dangerous level of dumbing? Sure. I'd probably shout out Vive's dumbing conditioning series as an example of that, where I believe that file system's engine really could have a lot of knock-on effects outside of trance.
But generally speaking, when tists like me or most other muscle/jock/himbo tf boys talk about dumbing, it's either done in so abstract a sense that it's up to the sub to decide what dumb actually means to them, or it's explicitly clarified to be more about becoming laid back, not giving a shit, etc. than it is actually 'losing intelligence' or something.
And to be honest, even that concept is so vague it's hard to make firm statements on - what does 'losing intelligence' mean, in a specific sense? Does it mean flubbing your words, changing your hobbies, losing the power to count past ten...? Everyone's going to have a different answer. But for my money, I believe THAT kind of dumbing to be the more unattainable kind. It can be achieved by hypnotic conditioning, but conditioning always fades with time, and the level of work required to keep someone in that state is just too much. (Sleepingirl's "The Brainwashing Book" covers a lot of this in more detail.)
SO.
All this is to say that in my dichotomy, the question isn't "can you be a drooling moron for half the day and a regular, competent person the other half?" Instead, it's more "can you be dumber, codeword less in your head and less inhibited by shame and higher thought, in specific circumstances and retain your normal self-awareness in others?" And the answer to that one is definitely yes. I'm not going to dig into how that'd be done right now because I've written enough and that wasn't your question, but hopefully this answered... something.
Basically man, you can do what you want. The only limits with this kinda thing, beyond common sense ones, are the ones you imagine for yourself. I mean, if nothing else, hypnotic triggers exist and can be very effective; why shouldn't you be able use some to be dumb sometimes and not at others?
(Also, as for whether you can sub while having a clear idea of what you want and needing that to be respected... yes, you can. And you should. That's just having good boundaries. You should never submit without knowing that ultimately, even in a domsub dynamic, you are PLAYING the role of a submissive/inferior and the truth is that you both get equal say in what happens.)
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mochamoth · 5 months
Text
Rant on why I love and fixate over Scratch (sorry for bad writing + Long warning!!)
If you couldn't tell by my profile I am literally OBSESSED with Scratch. I first actually started watching AoStH about a year ago, because of a clip of the show I saw on tiktok. I thought it was funny therefore I checked the show out. And omg I became so fixated on Scratch specifically. Also don't expect a lot of these reasons to be deep, I am NOT a deep person 😭.
So first off his personality. I adore how he's both an asshole, but also a total wimp. Also he is so SO dumb but in a charming way. I love when he acts like an actual chicken, it's funny and cute (plus his LAUGH OMG, MOST ICONIC LAUGH NEXT TO PAPYRUS'S). Scratch is just a total loser who tries to act cool and I love him for it. Oh also the way his mannerisms are. Omg. The way he SITS. He'll casually just do the splits. On the floor. And the way he walks. And how he STANDS. HE STANDS LIKE A CHICKEN WITH HIS WING HANDS. IT'S SO CLEVER AND CUTE OMGG.
Next is his design. It's just- nice. It's a nice character design, especially when paired up with Grounder (I'll talk about him in a bit, dw I'm also a Grounder fan). I loveee his outfit (?) he has going on, it's simple but nice. I like his extendo-neck, it adds a LOT to him, same with his wing-like hands and arms. Also I'm bias but chickens and crows are my two favorite birds, so that alone is just a yes for me. His eyes are cute. Simple and cute. His COLORS OMG. I am autistic and some colors overstimulate me, so Scratch and aosth as a whole just- the colors are so pretty and nice. I love Scratch's blue-ish color. It's a very nice blue. Oh and he is SO fun to draw. Thank goodness too, cuz the last character I was obsessed with was Guzma, I love his design too but it's a nightmare to draw. The only thing I'd change about Scratch's design (not counting headcanons or styles) is his feet. More specifically his lack of claws. Where are they?? His name is Scratch, so why doesn't he canonly have claws? It's not a big deal, I headcanon he has retractable claws, but still.
Third, I kinda relate to him? Not too much like I did, again bringing up the last character I was obsessed with, Guzma, but still relatable. I'm also very dumb and gullible, and I'm the oldest of my siblings not counting step. I know Scratch and Grounder are technically twins, but for the sake of this I'm gonna say Scratch is ever so slightly older. I relate to random quirks he has like copying and playing out fictional media I like, talking very loudly, and being extremely clumsy.
Probably the most dumb reason on this but I adore it; his outfits. Omg. His outfits. My favorites are def the knight one, the astronaut suit, and I'm not sure what it's called but the outfit he wears in the Egypt episode when he tries to trick Sonic's ancestor. LIKE HE SERVED?? HELLO?? And those are just my favorites. He has such good style in my opinion, he ate almost every single outfit up (almost).
Ok so finally getting to this: his duo dynamic. Omg. Scratch and Grounder are like- my favorite villain duo ever. They're perfect. They balance eachother so nicely and are literally siblings. I love the type of bond they have. They fight almost constantly over everything, and are constantly blaming eachother for no reason, yet they still care for eachother. It's just not obvious. It's more obvious in Grounder, but Grounder isn't really mean. Evil and a shitty influence definitely. But he's not really that mean? Grounder kinda looks up to Scratch a lot, no pun intended, but Scratch also cares back. He just won't vocally say it. Like he has saved Grounder's life MULTIPLE times. And gets very defensive of him when he feels like it. They're not perfect, obviously. Scratch especially can be a total jerk to Grounder for no reason. But at the end of the day they do care for eachother. Hell even when they're not up to catching Sonic or helping Robotnik they're hanging out together, very rarely do you see them on their own. Once in a while yes they do their own thing, but they do hang out a lot. Also how their designs balance eachother is so nice. Scratch is this tall, skinny, chicken robot while Grounder is short, chubby, and a mole robot. Also little side note, the chicken robots Scratch is based off of (Cluckers or something) drive me insane 😭. Like I died probably 26 times from them. Anyways the colors too. Grounder's greenish teal compliments Scratch's red details. Idk as an artist I just like that fact. Don't ask me any deep questions about art btw, ik I work as an artist but I'm not that smart 😰. I like how even though Grounder is the short one Scratch will coward and cling onto him 😭 it's funny. And I love how chaotic they are. Just two dumbass guys doing dumbass things!! Coconuts when added is also amazing. I wish we got to see them work together more. But Grounder and Scratch on their own are again, perfect.
Oh. Also. I like how they're ACTUALLY separate characters. With a lot of duos I see one of two things happen a lot. Either they have very watered down personalities, or are literally the same person. I like how Scratch ans Grounder work together, but on their own are great characters still.
The final reason is probably the most.. I guess vague out of the others. I just feel like he could have a lot of depth. Ok I know he's dumb. He's made as a comedic henchman. He's not supposed to be taken seriously and it's a silly kid's show. But how him and Grounder are treated is lowkey dark? Like they LITERALLY said they're abused. And that's normal to them. They thought "hm yes let's force our robot kid to do chores! That's love!" Like no.. No that's not love 😭. I feel like that could also be a contributing reason to why Scratch is so hostile and cold, even to people he cares for like Grounder. It's because he doesn't know how to show it. But that's more headcanon territory so I dunno. And I feel like them fighting for a BIT of Robotnik's love tears them apart and it's kinda sad to watch. Like they could be very close but can't.
This was more of a sloppy rant than anything. And I don't really watch aosth that often. Not often enough to remember every single detail. So if anything is wrong I am terribly sorry 😭. But those are just a few huge reasons why I love Scratch so much. That's not getting into tiny specific details that don't really matter at all. Anyways I'm sorry for this long ass rant, I swear I won't do this often 😰 probably just one more time for another "show" if I feel like it, I just felt like ranting today! Thank you for reading this!
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(Also photo of him. Cuz why not.)
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Well,I rarely see a Byleth ask so here I am,doing the hidden Byleth fans' work. I'd like some headcanons about how Byleth (both M and F,ofc separate) would fall in love with a student reader there (like how they fall in love with a character from the game) and some general fluff hcs along with it! This is my excuse to see a struggling pining Byleth(s) maybe possibly successing at courting their crush after the timeskip and getting the affection they deserve!
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Fire Emblem Three Houses
Character(s): F! Byleth and M! Byleth
Genre: Fluff + Slight Angst
Type: Headcanon
Description: Byleth's relationship with their student through the years and how it bloomed
Warning(s): Cut for Length, Teacher and Student Dynamic(Beginning), Spoilers, Some Hubert Slander, War, Death Mentioned, Reader is Injured(M! Byleth)
So I've never actually finished fe3h and I know the routes you take change things a lot- I'm close to finishing the azure moon route, so I can only use what I've gone through there. I kept it vague, but this is definitely not taking the crimson route into account.
I do hope you enjoy despite my lack of knowledge on other routes! Remember to take care, dear anon ♡
(I also realized this might not be what you were looking for, so I apologize TT)
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   ➢ F! Byleth
It always began with admiration
The diligence and kindness you delivered being all she knew
You would perform well in class and in practice
Although it wasn't long until she found you struggling with a lance near curfew
As your professor she understood she had to help you
She didn't mean to startle you, but she had
"Pah-P-Professor..!"
"Sorry, it looked like you needed help?"
Byleth felt warm with every touch she made whilst fixing your position- a touch on your wrist to a touch on your waist, she knew she was just helping but it flustered her ever so slightly
But maybe she wasn't flustered, perhaps it was just pride
She thought it was the latter
You've gotten much better after some pointers after all!
Byleth enjoys having meals with you, often inviting you alongside another professor or student
She pays plenty attention to what you like without realizing it herself
Manuela is often the one to point out her affections, and the one Byleth ends up going to when she finally realizes she likes you
She decided to keep her feelings to herself, the timing wasn't right and something.. something was happening
She hadn't been sure what until the day Edelgard revealed herself
Byleth almost couldn't believe it
No one truly could
Hubert was shady, but Edelgard was always earnest and looked out for everyone
It could only be described as betrayal, even if she had good intentions
The death.. the bloodshed
None of it was needed
But it needed to end
And eventually it did
It was mere months after Byleth returned
She gathered everyone, even the ones who had long left the church
Just as she always had
And when she found you, she held you within her arms
Relief was the only emotion she had
You were alive
And willing to help at that
It felt like she could finally move forward and take the steps needed to find Lady Rea and end the misery the Empire caused
Once everything settled, once everyone finally got to rest, she went to find you
The quiet within the monastery felt strange, perhaps even unbearable, to you one evening
Everyone could relax, which you were glad for, but the lack of bustling was unsettling
It felt wrong
"(Y/n)?"
Her voice was soft when she called out to you, yet it startled you all the same
"P-Professor..!"
She sighed in content, nothing had changed it seemed
"Are you alright?"
The concern, the love, she held for you had never changed either
"Oh- um.. yes, well... maybe not."
Coming up beside you, she nodded
"I'm.. thinking about how weird it's been, ever since the war ended.."
"It had been a huge part of our lives and now we're moving on, I'm.. I'm not sure if.. I can."
You hadn't noticed the hand she placed upon your own
"That's okay, (Y/n).. you don't have to if you're not ready."
"But it's terrible! I don't know what to do now that it's over and every day I wake to my friends leaving, I feel like I'm stuck.."
"I.. have no plan- no future it seems.."
Gently, she rubbed the back of your hand with her thumb
"..you're the only one who hasn't left, professor."
"That's because I never planned to leave you."
You looked to her, curious as to what she meant
She didn't make you wait for answers, carefully releasing your hand to pull her father's ring from her pocket
"..Byleth..?"
She liked hearing her name fall from your lips, but it did nothing to ease the flutters within her stomach
"..will you marry me, (Y/n)?"
The silence killed her yet she kept her eyes on you
"I- Byleth... o-of course, yes- yes!"
Once the ring secured itself on your finger, she brought you closer
An embrace to a lingering kiss; she showered you in the affections she had kept hidden for so many years
Millions of possibilities were to happen, in this life and the next
And she was happy to be by your side in each to come
   ➢ M! Byleth
Proud
Byleth was proud to call himself your professor
Even if you lag behind other students, you try your best no matter what
He rarely spoke with you outside of lectures, but one evening he found you cleaning windows at the church
"..huh? Oh, hi, professor."
"Hi, (Y/n). What are you doing?"
"Oh! Well, the people who usually clean the windows are recovering from the last expedition so I decided to pick it up for them."
He thought it kind and picked up a rag himself
"P-professor, you don't have to do that-"
"I want to."
The rest of the evening was quiet, but he felt that he got to know you better
When the dance came around he thought of asking for some of your time
He couldn't find you, despite having quite the knack for it
It took him some time so he thought to rest
At the tower
"..professor?"
He.. found you
It was strange how people and things showed up once you stopped looking so hard
Twas amusing to some extent
"Are you alright?"
He watched you hesitate
Noting how you fiddled with your fingers
"..yeah, I've just been thinking."
"About?"
"...you."
He felt his heart leap, he hadn't been sure why
Was.. that the type of fondness he's been feeling?
"An-and of my future..! I'm sorry, that must've sounded strange-"
"Not at all."
"Oh, um.. then not sorry."
Byleth's laugh was soft and breathy
It was a tad scratchy yet it filled the air just as pleasantly
But then he offered you his hand, not speaking for a moment as he seemingly gathered his words
"Would you.. like to dance with me, (Y/n)?"
Neither of you could hear the music well
It was farther, people were farther, than you realized
"Even though there's no music?"
"Even though there's no music."
He smiled when you took his hand
A reassuring, clumsy dance
You and he weren't sure of how to properly move your feet, yet you managed
Swaying one way to another
He allowed you to escape from the worries that plagued your mind that night
But he wasn't able to shield you from the next
Edelgard's reveal was much too sudden, not just for him but for everyone
Flayn and another girl from a few years ago had returned, everything seemed fine- they were fine
Maybe if he didn't let his guard down, you wouldn't have been hit
He knew it was a minor wound, you'd live
But there was so much blood
And you were right beside him
The emotions, they were hard to keep in check
He had people to lead
When the initial encounter was over, he was the one to rush you to Manuela
"You're worked up over nothing, professor! They'll be fine with a few days rest."
She was right, but it was still hard to leave your side
Either way he was forced to
The Empire left no time to dwell
Although, as the information of the battle came and went, so did the mention of Byleth and Lady Rea
Everyone knew they were gone, but none could speak of it
So, when a certain man walked back into the monastery, you were flabbergasted
No words were passed between the both of you, yet you knew what this meant
There was a chance
And as he brought everyone together, the future grew even brighter
The hardships never seized, but they were easier to bare
Having to cut down his past students, having to cut down your own friends, it hurt even when you both tried to ignore it
It weighed heavily on everyone even after the war was finally put to an end
Some were able to move on in the coming months but others couldn't find it within themselves
He was one of those that wished to move on
And he decided that it would begin with you
"(Y/n), I was wondering if I could ask you something?"
He had caught you staring at the church's windows
"..oh, yes, of course."
You watched as he grew stiff, was he not expecting you to allow him?
"Well..."
He took a deep breath before bringing himself to one knee, bowing his head whilst looking at his hand
"What are you doing..?"
He huffed a laugh, " 'm trying to ask you to marry me."
"Oh..!"
"Well?"
"Ye..yes! I- I will!"
"I'm glad."
He was beyond glad, the smile that trembled was enough to get that across
The ring easily fit your finger, just as his hands fit in yours
He bumped your foreheads and then your nose with his own
The warmth of the watching sun bathed you both in happiness unlike any before
And, as he gently brought his lips to yours, the two of you found yourselves swaying... one way to the other
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dazzlingskydreams · 8 months
Text
02 Arukenimon and Mummymon Headcanons
I was bored at the weekend and wrote these up. Figured I'd put them up here.
Let's get the usual one out of the way: They reconfigured fine and are out in the digital world. My personal preference is them coming back 1-2 years after 02; but, at the latest, the events of Tri 3-4 years later definitely brought them back anyway. (To the point that I'm not sure if this is even headcanons territory anymore; but I'll roll with it since they haven't appeared since.)
They didn't turn into eggs though. Oikawa programmed them as Ultimates, and that's all the data that the digital world had to work off of. So after trying to regress them and repeatedly calling up errors, the digital world basically gave up and dumped them, fully grown, into the digital world. Whatever location made the most sense at the time.
The kids know they're back, but they don't particularly mind. As long as the duo don't cause too much trouble; all is good.
They have no reason to be villains anymore, so they're basically off being chaotic-neutral together. Don't bother them and they probably won't bother you. (Unless you're Myotismon. In that case, you fully deserve whatever you have coming.)
They're usually in the digital world now. There's more for them to do there. On rare occasions; however, they go and have a look around the human world as well. 
They got their old jeep back. Mummymon takes excellent care of it and cleans it everyday. He's very attached to his car. Arukenimon just likes not having to walk everywhere.
Mummymon got his pink apron back too. I don't care how. It's back dammit! 
Mummymon talks to the Oikawa butterflies. At length, about anything. They're the boss after all. He needs to keep them updated. Plus the boss could be lonely! It must be hard to have rewarding conversations as butterflies. Oikawa can't respond but is happy.
Arukenimon is too cool to talk to the butterflies. Instead she takes their presence as a sign that she should be doing something. If there's a bunch of them together in one place; she will look for something nearby to get involved in. Chaos may or may not ensue. Oikawa, uh, usually appreciates the gesture. 
Mummymon's trauma from watching Arukenimon die means that his recklessness increases 100% if he thinks she's in any possible danger. He'll put his life on the line to make sure he never has to see her like that again. Arukenimon doesn't like seeing the idiot get badly hurt, especially for stupid reasons; but her difficult personality means she can currently only get this across by yelling at him and calling him names afterwards. 
Arukenimon tries to  offset her trauma partly by laughing at the incredibly embarrassing way Myotismon was finally taken down. She likes to imagine that the power of children's dreams took the form of fluffy kittens, plush toys, sweets, and rainbows that slowly beat him to death. If she ever finds him; she'll be sure to rub it in.
Arukenimon and Mummymon do eventually become a proper couple. It just takes Arukenimon another couple of years, and possibly a sharp shock to the system, to accept his feelings. Their dynamic doesn't change that much. 
Arukenimon can't cook. The one time she did, everyone got food poisoning. Mummymon got it the worst since he ate everyone's portions so she wouldn't be upset. Oikawa banned her from the kitchen afterwards. 
Mummymon's human form may look weird, but on the rare occasion that he's in Akihabara people just think he's a dude with amazing cosplay skills. He gets asked for advice and doesn't know how to respond. 
Mummymon reads horoscopes (yeah, pretty obvious where I got that one from). Not just his own; everyone's. He'll read them loudly at breakfast if he can get away with it. He's most interested in the love horoscopes, mind. He knows which ones to check because he was desperately trying to figure it out one day and Oikawa told him to shut him up. 
Arukenimon likes fine fabrics. Not just for drapes, for everything. She's a spider; she appreciates these things. She also loves Mummymon's cooking. She won't admit to that one though.
Mummymon is good with small children. He has strong papa energy. (Human children are included if they aren't scared of him.)
Arukenimon was created first. That's why Oikawa is showing her off proudly at Hiroki's grave. Mummymon's creation time was much shorter, since Oikawa had the process perfected by that point. 
The human forms weren't planned. They were just a side-effect of Oikawa using human DNA as a template. The design of the human forms was also 100% up to chance. Oikawa considers it a useful bonus. 
Bonus: I'm not saying that it definitely happened; but there is a strong possibility that Oikawa got drunk and dragged Mummymon to one of those karaoke places at least once. Lots of romantic ballads and Enka hits were heard from one of the rooms.
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