#also ~dominant~ morph is very fun to write. he knows what he's doing he's just very self conscious about it

[cosmictapestry]

REQUESTS ARE OPEN AGAIN??? HELL YEAH IT FEELS LIKE MY BIRTHDAY <33333

may we have A37, please? 👉👈

A37. lucienne orgasm control

i have like five ahead of this one but listen..... listen......... i am in. the state of mind. for this one

morphienne prompt list + fills here

"Are you doing alright?" he asks her, conversationally, with three fingers stuffed in her cunt.

Lucienne makes a sound like a woman tortured, garbled and muffled by the couch cushions. She's on her belly, wrists bound with silken rope and tied to the arm of the couch, her hips in her lord's lap, ankles bound as well. She's naked, shivering and sweating.

Her lord is cool and calm and fully clothed. He shifts his fingers, flexing the middle between the ring and pointer, grinding so exquisitely that Lucienne can only tremble and will away a wail.

He stops, hums soothingly, fingers spread and stroking, his other hand kneading and petting the swell of one buttock. He's been at this for a while now, idly playing with her body, unraveling her softly. "Lucienne?"

She mumbles and shifts and manages, at length, in a voice wrecked with her choked-off moans, "it's good."

Lord Morpheus hums again, approving, and he grips her buttock to spread her open and watch the way her cunt grips his fingers as he grinds them out, then back in, twisting, torturous. Tears build in her eyes; she can feel herself leaking and spasming around him, can hear the squelching of his fingers. "You clench so tightly when you get close," Lord Morpheus murmurs. "Did you know that?"

Lucienne doesn't know if she's actually expected to answer, but luckily he seems satisfied with her muffled keening. He plunges his fingers and circles them, strokes her walls, then withdraws them entirely with an pronounced pop, leaving Lucienne bereft and open, fluttering. He rubs the pads of his fingers over her folds, parts them to spread her. The air is cool on the hot slick flesh that he plays with, tickles, dips his fingertips into. "But I don't think I'm ready to let you come yet."

Lucienne shakes and jerks and tries to rock back on his fingers, but he stills her with his unoccupied hand squeezing her hip, pressed her down on his lap. "Patience, Lucienne," he chides. His thumb circles her cunt, draws slick up to stroke over her arsehole.

An idea occurs to her. "Would you—" Lucienne swallows, focuses, finds her lord's hands have stilled while he listens. Her face burns. "Might you—spit?"

He hums quiet puzzlement, and, shoulders hunching up to her ears in embarrassment, Lucienne imagines it, and thinks he's quite unlikely to oblige. She jolts, then, when she hears him, and feels the coinciding hot splatter of his spit on her arsehole, feels it begin to roll. She's still reeling from the obscenity of the act when he swipes his thumb through the spit and pushes it inside her.

Lucienne's bound feet kick up and she gasps, whines, quivers as his thumb works in, softening the tightness of her insides, and his other fingers resume rubbing her folds. Lord Morpheus bends down, lays a kiss on the back of her neck. "Alright?"

Lucienne nods frantically. Sweet man, dear brave trusting lord, giving her just what she asks for, and she sobs and perhaps mentions her appreciation, and begs for whatever else he might have in mind.

He gives a little huff of laughter, straightens up again. Her arms are so tense they strain in their bindings, and her belly heaves with the easy slide of his fingers back into her. He pistons in and out of her arse, in and out of her cunt. She's so full, sparking with sensation, arching up, shameless and desperate—

And his other hand strikes her sharp and quick under the curve of her arse, makes her jolt and sob out a cry and clench and drool helplessly. Her glasses went from askew to missing completely at some point. She only notices now with her arse in the air and her nerves alight.

Lord Morpheus rubs the stinging heat of his handprint, murmurs soothingly to her. "You're alright," her lord whispers, then delivers another strike on the other cheek. She's so wet that when she writhes his hand nearly slips out of her. "Good girl, just try to stay still, you're alright."

This is how her afterlife ends, quite possibly. Tears and sweat dampen the couch cushions and the fabric drags roughly on her nipples and she tries to drag herself up on her elbows to escape some of the stimulation but he drags her back flat on his lap, thrusts his fingers in deep, moves them so slowly, not enough to finish her. "Is it too much?" he asks. Another tap makes her howl and struggle. "Do you want me to let you come?"

"Please," she begs, "my lord, my lord, my lord—"

"I would keep you like this," he tells her. He bends over her again, presses his head to the back of hers, his hair tickling her scalp and his breath hot on her neck. "Just so I could see it. You open up so beautifully for me, Lucienne." His little finger works its way into her cunt, spreads with the others so she can feel cool air inside herself. His thumb presses down and in, mercilessly, and she imagines she can feel it meeting his other fingers.

He works her like that for a few more torturous seconds. She is incoherent, mumbling, entire body sweat-slick and trembling-tense. "I'm going to let you come now," he says. As an afterthought, "what do you say?"

"Thank you," Lucienne manages, and again when his fingers move faster, and again when he licks the back of her neck, and again when he growls and moves his free arm to lie across her back and shove her down hard, pin her to him, and again while she kicks and squeals and fights and seizes and finally goes still and gushes, and she keeps mouthing it when she is beyond all capability for higher thought.

She floats, then, quivering in the aftershocks, soaked and whimpering and vaguely aware of continued stroking inside her that stills and withdraws and leaves her empty. Steady pressure holds her down, keeps her safe. "Almost took my fingers with you," she hears her lord say. His lips press to the back of her head, his hand pets her thigh. "You did not have to thank me, that was rather mean."

Lucienne snorts and giggles and pushes her face down into the couch and can feel him grinning. "I loved it," she mumbles.

#sorry about all the lucienne butt content?????? i'm having a moment. #idk i think lucienne deserves to get her brain turned off sometimes. she's got too much going on in there. #also ~dominant~ morph is very fun to write. he knows what he's doing he's just very self conscious about it #the sandman #the sandman fanfic #dream of the endless #lucid dreaming #morpheus #morphienne #lucienne the librarian #x #minors dni #btw if you do this to someone it takes a screenshot.

[writingseaslugs]

Scarabia NSFW Headcanons

Aaaaaand time for the sin, hope you enjoy it because, as per usual, it was tons of fun to write!

Disclaimer: All characters in this series is aged up. For more information about my version of this world and the type of reader you can expect, please do a quick read of THIS post. This post also has explicit content. If you’re under the age of 18, or are uncomfortable with this form of content, please skip this post.

Content Warning: Oral Sex, Public Sex, Heavy Petting, Service Dom, Consensual Mind Control

Heartslabyul | Savanaclaw | Octavinelle | Scarabia (You're Here) | Pomefiore | Ignihyde | Diasomnia

NSFW Headcanons

Kalim Al-Asim

What he lacks in experience, he makes up for in enthusiasm. The moment you tell him you want to take things further, he’s jumping on you and smothering you in kisses. He’s going to ask if what he’s doing is okay, and as long as you’re not in public, it should be fine. Kalim sometimes has a habit of forgetting where he is exactly and acting on impulse, so state some ground rules that he can only do that in private.

He likes to look at your body as though you were a fine gem. The first time seeing you naked, he just leans back on his heels, staring at you in wonder. It’s a bit embarrassing but when he snaps out of it, be prepared to be praised for simply breathing. He loves every part about you and likes to take you in any position; each one has a different view of your body, and he wants to see everything. His favorite will be when he can look at your face, though, seeing how it morphs into pleasure whenever he does something right.

He’s one of the few who will use some form of protection without being prompted. Jamil basically hounded it into his head that he should do that to protect both of you, and Kalim took it very seriously. Even if he sometimes does get a bit whiny about having to grab them when he just wants to tell you already. He keeps things near his bedside, desk, closet, and bathroom. You never know when Kalim is going to come up and begin nibbling on your ear and whispering about how he’d love to feel you right now. It’s always followed by his boyish laugh, so it can be seductive and cute.

He’s adventurous, wanting to try new things in new places. Expect him to take you to a private oasis for a picnic and then lean over, asking if you’d be willing to let him fuck you right here and now. He’s very straightforward with his wants, so if you’re down, he’s overjoyed to be with you. He also likes to make sure it’s worth your time, making you cry out for him.

Kalim is a switch; as long as he can be with you, he’s satisfied. You ask if you can ride him, and he’ll be patting his lap and making grabby hands at you while laughing. You ask him to flip you over a counter and take you like that while you’re clawing at the surface? Say no more; he aims to please. The best thing is probably the aftercare. It’s his favorite part, actually, since he gets to take his time and make sure you’re doing okay. Taking care of you than wrapping around you for some post-coital cuddles.

Jamil Viper

Jamil is another person who’s going to be more dominant when it comes to intimacy. He likes to take the lead with things and be in control, so give him the reigns. He’ll be a service dom most of the time, but he also loves putting you in your place when you’re acting up. Your pleasure is his own…but his pleasure is also his own, so he’s expecting mutual understanding on that one. Returning favors is a must. He does oral for you, and you do so in return. Equivalent exchange and all that.

He values privacy, so while he might play with you a bit outside of the bedroom, don’t be expecting to hit a home run. He might drag you into an abandoned room and put his hands down your pants, but he’s not about to flip you over and rail you on a desk. If it’s not easy for him to clean up and act as though nothing happened, then nothing is going to be happening. He has a reputation to hold, and the last thing he needs is to get ratted out to his mother about getting handsy with one of the school’s prefects in the alchemy room after class. The shame it would bring his family is too much for him to deal with.

He actually prefers being over at Ramshackle with Grim out of the house. Kalim has a bad habit of barging into his room at whatever time of the day, and he really doesn’t want to be in the middle of something when he decides he needs to ask him a question. It happened once, thankfully, the door was locked, but Kalim tried to twist the nob a few times before banging on the door, asking for Jamil. You guys had to clean up quick and act as though nothing was going on…thankfully Kalim didn’t realize.

Jamil enjoys teasing you, though. When nobody is looking, he’ll whisper some of the dirtiest things right in your ear to watch you go red. He’ll be working you up all day, maybe even sneaking into a closet and bringing you up to an almost orgasmic state before stopping and telling you you’re going to be late for class. It’s always worth it at the end of the day when he takes you for multiple rounds, possibly edging you a few times before letting you come undone under him.

Play with his hair. Please play with his hair. He’ll always say he doesn’t like it, how you’re ruining the style, but tug on his hair while pounding into you and watch his eyes roll to the back of his head. Just expect a few bruises and marks on your body after that because it gets him feral. Your legs are going to be thrown way over your head, something you didn’t expect to be possible, and small hickeys all over your thighs while he’s railing you so hard it’ll be impossible to walk straight for days on end.

Bonus Bullet: He’s going to be very hesitant if you ask, but he might just use his signature spell on you in the bedroom. You just have to be absolutely sure, and he’s going to tell you everything he’ll make you do before using his spell on you. If you agree to all the terms and conditions, he will fuck you while your mind controlled. You didn’t think you could deep-throat him? Well, you’re going to be when he’s using this spell on you. Your throat will be sore the next day, but at least you know it’s possible. Still, the hazy feeling when you’re under his spell is almost euphoric. You don’t have to think or do anything; just let him be in control. If this is your kind of thing, then congrats. If it’s not, you don’t ever have to try it. After all, he will be hesitant, so if it’s never brought up, he’ll never bother asking.

#Twisted Wonderland #Twisted Wonderland x Reader #TWST #TWST x Reader #TWST Wonderland #Twisted Wonderland Disney #TWST Disney #Kalim Al-Asim #Kalim Al-Asim x Reader #Kalim x Reader #Jamil Viper #Jamil Viper x Reader #Jamil x Reader

[waka-chan-out]

I love your blog and writing so much!!

The haikyuu Fandom is great but at this point I feel like I want some characters to be subs out of spite. Like, oh, kuroo is a sex God dom? No, he has a mommy kink now. Tsukki is a sadistic dom always? Now he's a pillow princess. I had to share because this entered my mind and won't leave ever since you talked about bad fanon characters

thank you so much darling and i agree completely !!!!!! i genuinely believe the only character i couldn’t dom is iwaizumi. here are my biggest examples of characters written as doms when i think they’re FAR from.

please keep in mind that these are just my thoughts and they don’t need to have any bearing on how you want to perceive these characters. you do what makes you happy. this is all in good fun.

tsukishima

you mentioned him already, but i think it’s extremely important to note him again here. he is NOT a dom. nowhere close. i honestly don’t think he’s even into sub/dom stuff. he strikes me as someone that doesn’t put a label on his sexuality and what he enjoys, and will experiment regularly. he’s a brat through and through and needs to get put in his place.

oikawa

holy shit, the king of bad fanon representation. what the hell about this man tells you he’s a dom? he’s a masochist, a big one at that, and i just think he gets too caught up in how he’s feeling to actually dominate anyone.

ushijima

in theory, yes. he’s a dom. he’s got the body and the determination for it. in reality, if y’all think he has the mental capacity to have any sort of command in the bedroom you’re sorely mistaken. love the guy, but boy howdy his brain is empty. he needs to work up to expressing love physically anyway, i don’t think sex would be that different. if you wanted him to be more in control you’d really have to push him on it and communicate very clearly. otherwise you get dumb little pillow princess ushijima, which is more than fine by me.

aone

this one always makes me scratch my head. i cannot conceive of a dominant aone. you just gotta hold his hand and walk him along through the whole process. there’s no way he could ever ever be a hard dom. dirty talk? out of the question. getting “railed” by him? good luck baby. he’s your soft, quiet boyfriend and you’d better take care of him or i will

kita

i’ve talked about this before. i’m not gonna beat a dead horse. i just have a very specific view of his character and it makes me wildly uncomfortable when he’s written as dominant, or worse, mean.

meian

yeah i know i know, meg shut up about meian, but i CAN’T LET IT GO. meian is at most a switch. captain kink. high heel fetish. likes being degraded and humiliated. he just doesn’t strike me as a mean dom, or a dom at all. he’s soft and will do anything in the world to make you come, probably wrecking his body in the process. then he’ll get up at 6:30 am the next day and make your coffee just how you like it and tell you you’re beautiful. husband material. he deserves a strong spouse that’s gonna take care of him right back.

i really appreciate you bringing this up! i think this is a super interesting thing to talk about. in any fandom people will project their own tastes onto the characters they write for, and that’s totally fine. but that’s also a huge reason that tagging and content warnings are so important. if i go into a fic with a comfort character of mine and it morphs into something i wasn’t expecting, it makes me incredibly uncomfortable and i avoid reading that character for a while. so yes, tag your fics and make sure people know what they’re in for beforehand.

in the meantime i’m gonna keep writing my dom!reader haikyuu content and minding my business. i love talking about things like this!

#i try my best to stick to canon characters but that always bends sometimes #so if y’all ever catch me slipping please let me know #🌼..conversations w meg #⏰..meg

[connorandersons-blog]

Computer Virus

Connor gets a virus from a murder victim, but the only way to 'cure' himself is... you guessed it! Have sex! This has definitely been done before it was still really fun to write! I also blame the convin discord server for this. It's just pure smut with feelings thrown in at the end.

The reference to rape is from the victims of the crimes, Gavin and Connor very much want this and consent. There is dubcon only cause its the whole fuck or die and I wanted to be safe!

Word count: 3,037 Rating: E

Hope you enjoy!

----------------------------------

He shifted in his sheet for what felt like the hundredth time since getting back from the case, trying to ignore the shivers and jerks that wrecked his body. He grabbed the edge of his desk, his knuckles turning white as his… problem got worse again. "Ha-Hank, I um, need help." It was getting too much, and he needed it to just stop. 

Hank hummed looking over with a raised eyebrow. "What's up, son?" 

"So, I uh, may have downloaded a virus." One that his systems didn't exactly know how to fight. "Normally I can fix it myself, but it isn't acting like a normal virus." It wasn't creating anything new but just enhancing things that were already there.

Hence why he kept staring at Gavin and having to stop certain programs, even when they kept coming back online without his permission.

He pouted when Hank burst out laughing, drawing nearly everyone's attention, even Gavin looked over rolling his eyes. Fuck, Gavin's eyes on him (or at least in his general direction) wasn't helping at all. Gavin caught his staring and stared right back with blinking. It reminded him of cats finding for dominance, and now he's thinking about that, fuck. 

He had to look away, trying to focus on Hank and not the rising heat in his face and his whole body for that matter. "Hank! This is serious! I got it when I connected to the victim." A dead one, so he thought it would be safe. Apparently, this virus didn't need power to stay alive, fucking wonderful. 

That sobered Hank up a bit, realizing exactly *what* virus Connor was infected with. "I am not helping in that way. Sorry, Con, I appreciate it, but no. Not happening." 

That only caused his blush to get deeper, shaking his head so quickly he's worried it would fall off. "What? No! I don't, oh my god, Hank, what the fuck? I meant I literally need help: I'm overheating!" 

"Oh. Uh, I can get you a drink? But you know what you have to do to kick this if you don't wanna burn up." Hank moved to stand, and Connor let him. They had both seen the burned bodies when the androids hadn't been able to work it out of the systems. 

And that was the problem. Connor would have to have sex with someone, the even worse problem was it didn't have to be consensual. With the cases they'd seen one too many sexual assaults due to it, which was hard to figure out how to charge them. On one hand it was self-defense, if they didn't they would die, but it was still rape. They'd let the lawyers figure that out, their main mission was to watch whoever created the virus. 

"I know, I know. I'm going to go to the bathroom, splash some water on my face so I can think clearly for a second." Standing was awkward but he shut down that program so he could at least make it there without his problem being too obvious. 

The bathroom was blessedly empty, he went to the sink. He yanked off his tie, tossed that and his jacket to the counter, and unbuttoned his shirt, the cool air making him shiver in relief. "Fuck." He grumbled, leaning against the counter. He cupped his hands under the cool water and splashed it onto his face, feeling the wet trail down to his chest. 

He didn't have time to pull his shirt on again before the door swung open and none other than Gavin Reed stoked in, eyes catching Connor's before sliding down to openly stare at his chest. 

"Jesus, what the fuck Tincan?" Gavin said, crossing his arms. 

Connor ran a hand through his hair, trying desperately to not jump Gavin here and now. "I'm having some technical difficulties, I apologize for my appearance." 

"Right… you know if I found a human-like this I'd say they were horny. Can droids even get horny?" Gavin leaned on the counter, apparently forgetting why he came in. 

"We can, the case I currently have deals with a virus that does just that but to the extreme. If the android does not release the tension they will overheat and die." He should have told him to just fuck off, use the bathroom and leave, but he wanted Gavin to know. 

"Right." 

"I've been infected with this virus." 

He watched as Gavin's face morphed into one of shock, then worry, then… interest? "Well damn. Can't you just rub one off? Not the first time someone's done that in these bathrooms." Gavin let his arms relax, eyes trailing up and down Connor's body. He lingered on his chest and crotch where there was definitely a tent to his pants. 

"It seems it must be done with someone else. I'm not sure why. I was going to contact one of my friends, perhaps Markus, to help if I couldn't get this under control." He knew Markus would understand, he'd been kept up to date on the case and had worried about the possibility of Connor getting infected. He had assured Markus it wouldn't happen, his firewalls were too strong and if it did get in he could work it out without a problem. 

"Don't you have like… android antibodies?" 

"Not exactly. This virus is different than most. I have to go and find the strings of code myself but they keep multiplying faster than I can delete it. My systems aren't recognizing it as a virus but part of my normal coding." Which just made it so much harder. And it took them a while to find in the androids since scans had said nothing was wrong. 

Gavin's face scrunched up adorably, trying to process the information. "Fucking hell. Well, how much time do you got left 'til you literally die from being too horny?" 

"Approximately thirty minutes unless I have sex, then the timer stops as long as I eventually climax." Might as well be as honest as possible if he really was going to die. It didn't feel real like it was just some silly prank, but he'd seen the damage. He knew how much agony the androids went through as they caught on fire and burned alive. 

"What the fuck?! You're going to die in thirty minutes but you're standing around talking to me? Go get some dick or whatever!" Gavin pushed away from the counter, shaking his head. Connor couldn't help but try to get closer, leaning forward just a bit. "... Why are you looking at me like that?" 

"I'm sorry, I'm trying to control myself, I swear." He tried to say it normally but it came out as a whine. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to take in slow breaths. The closer he got to the timer running out the harder it was to think clearly or even stop himself from grabbing Gavin and fucking him on the counter. 

He jolted, biting his lip to stop the moan that threatened to spill out when rough, calloused, warm hands ran up his chest. "Oh god," he whined, tilting his head to expose his neck. 

There was a tentative hot lick to it, a moan slipping out of him. "Can't let you die, I guess. Do you need to fuck or be fucked?" Gavin asks, fingers massaging Connor's chest. He shivered when those hands started playing with his nipples, getting them since and hard. 

He kept his hands to himself even as they twitched to hold and pull Gavin even closer. Each touch from Gavin was like an ice cube to his skin, burning cold, yet it felt so good. "I don't know, just need you." 

Gavin hummed, pulling Connor down enough so he could suck a nice big hickey onto his neck. "I can do that." 

No. Fuck, no this wasn't right. He weakly tried to push him away and off but his hands just holding him by his shoulders. "Don't do this, don't want to hurt you or… not without you wanting it too." He couldn't rape someone, he couldn't do that to Gavin or anyone else. 

Gavin paused, pulling away so they could see each other's faces. "I've wanted to get my hands on you from the moment you walked in. It was so unfair, it was like they stole you from my dreams and made you real. Drove me fucking insane." 

"Please touch me," he whimpered, leaning closer. It hurt so much, his body tugging him closer to Gavin to get anything he could from him. 

"Shit! Right, sorry Tincan." Gavin grumbled, crashing their lips together, teeth clinking awkwardly until they got into a fast rhythm. Gavin leans against the sink until Connor needs more and picks him up to sit him on it, slotting himself between his open legs. 

Connor ground his hips forward, hissing at the electricity that shot through him, making his arms tighten around Gavin. 

Gavin broke the kiss, gasping for air but taking the time to shrug his own jacket off and Connor grabs his shirt and yanks it over his head. He needed his hands on Gavin and he needed it now. His chest has some hair, and Connor couldn't help but squish and play with those soft but firm pects. 

"I want you to fuck me." He sighed out when Gavin scratched down his back. "I need you to, please Gavin."

Gavin sucked at the skin on his collarbone before pulling off with a soft, wet pop. It hit him that they were in the bathroom… at work. Anyone could walk in and see them and yet he didn't want to stop. It only made him want to keep going, the idea of being caught sending a thrill through him. He could easily say he had to, he had the virus after all. 

"Yeah, yeah ok. I, oh fuck, I don't have lube or a condom on me." Gavin leaned forward, resting his head on Connor's shoulder, biting down to keep his own moans quiet. The bathroom may have thick walls but if someone walked past there was the possibility they'd hear. 

"Don't need a condom with me and uh… I don't need lube either. I kinda self-produce it." Thank God for that. He could get away with doing it without on himself, it wasn't like humans could hurt him in this way. 

Gavin's mouth dropped open as he leaned back, eyes wide as saucers. "Well fuck me then."

"I thought you'd be doing the fucking," Connor teased, reaching a hand down to cup Gavin through his pants. He bucked his hips into the hand, letting out his own small whimper. 

"Fuck off! Shit, ok uh, how do you wanna do this?" Gavin asked, pushing off the counter, but his hands quickly went back to touch and pull Connor close. 

Connor glanced around before eyeing the stalls. He hooked a finger around Gavin's belt loops and pulled him into one, sitting him down. "This ok?" He pulled his own belt off, tossing it to the ground. 

Gavin nodded so quickly his head was sure to fall off, but he pushed his own pants and boxers down, eyeing Connor as he did.

The cold hit him up but he really couldn't care less. He hadn't even closed or locked the stall door before he reached behind himself and pushed a finger in. He bit his lip, working himself open quickly, eyes squeezed shut. He could hear the slick sound of Gavin fucking his own hand roughly at the sight of Connor. And if that didn't do things to him. 

He pressed a second finger in, then a third after a glance down at Gavin's length. It wasn't too long to be a problem, but it was plenty thick, flushed from the blood rushing through it. His lube had already kicked in, it had done that the minute he was infected but now he had an actual use for it. 

"Have you done this?" It was probably a stupid question to ask, but he wanted to make sure Gavin at least had an idea of what to do, even if Connor would do most of the work. 

"Trust me, I've had plenty of dick and given plenty. You aren't my first pretty boy, not by a long shot." Gavin smirked up at him with all the confidence in the world. 

Connor keened at the petname, nodding quickly. "Thank god, so have I if you're wondering." He had been very curious after deviating and had some friends that had no problem helping him experiment. 

Apparently, he was taking too long because his body started to tremble and the timer started up again. He pushed it out of his HUD with a small huff. "Shit, ok, you ready?" He positioned himself over Gavin, glancing down to make sure they were lined up. 

Gavin's hands rested on Connor's waist, thumbs rubbing soothingly into his perfect skin. "Course I am, take what you need, baby. I'm yours to use." 

His hands rested on Gavin's shoulder as he slowly sank down onto his cock, both groaning at the sensations. He just felt so sensitive, skin burning in a good way from where they were connected. He sat himself down, hips twitching but he needed to give them both time to adjust. 

Then Connor rose up and sank back down, again and again, speeding up to an almost inhuman pace. Gavin leaned forward capturing Connor's lips in a heated kiss. 

"So good, baby," Gavin mumbled when he needed to breathe again. "Keep going, ok? Shit, you're so beautiful." 

He rolled his hips just the right way that had him close to screaming, but Gavin was quick enough to stick two fingers into his mouth. Connor sucked on them, licking between them and swirling his tongue around the tips. Gavin pressed the other to the small of Gavin's back, almost reverently as he let Connor fuck himself just how he wanted it. 

Connor took the fingers out his mouth to intertwine their fingers, his other still holding desperately to Gavin's shoulder as their foreheads pressed together. It was close to being caring and intimate, but Connor didn't want to think too hard on that. Gavin was just doing this to keep him alive, nothing more nothing less. Right? 

Gavin kept mumbling sweet nothings against his lips, their breaths mingling as Connor's bouncing started losing its rhythm. "You close?" Gavin whined, his hands tightening enough that would hurt a human, but the pressure just felt good to Connor. 

He nodded, already feeling the tenseness come over him. There was a coil inside him but he couldn't get there, he needed something. 

"Come on, Connor. Let me see you come." Gavin pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. Gavin probably had no idea what he'd done, but Gavin saying his name like a prayer shook him to the core and he couldn't hold on anymore. He said it like he… like he loved him, but his mind went blissfully blank as he sat him onto Gavin's lap, squeezing around him. 

He could feel Gavin in him, feel himself being filled up but he went limp in Gavin's arms. The man didn't seem to mind, just putting his arm tightly around him as they tried to slow their breathing. 

He checked for the virus but it was completely gone and out of his system. He felt overheated but not unnaturally so now, now he felt content and satisfied in Gavin's arms. He pressed soft kisses to his shoulder and neck, leaving lazy hickeys here and there. "Thank you," Connor mumbled against his skin. 

"Yeah, no problem. Hopefully, you enjoyed yourself?" 

Connor nodded, his eyes still closed in bliss. "Very much so. Though we should both get cleaned up and back to work." Not that he wanted to even move let alone work, but he had responsibilities. He had to tell Hank he was ok and managed to get it out of his system. 

Gavin's hold tightened protectively around him, their hands still clasped together. "Nuh-uh, not yet. You fucked me so hard I need more than a minute and you're staying with me for it." 

Connor hummed happily, nuzzling at Gavin's neck before laying his chin on his shoulder. "Ok." 

The two sat there and no one even came near the bathroom (little did the two know, Hank had said there was a problem in there and told people to just hold it for now, and everyone listened). It was calm and warm, but he did pull off, making them both hiss. He sat back down, wrapping his legs around Gavin's waist. 

"Could we do this again?" He asked meekly, still hiding his face. He didn't want to push, Gavin was generous enough, but he didn't want this to stop. 

Gavin was silent for so long he was sure he'd be thrown off and yelled at for even thinking it was a possibility. But then Gavin pulled back, cupping his cheek gently and pressing the softest kiss to his lips. "Yeah, we can do this if you want. I'm ok with whatever you want, just sex or… more?" Now Gavin looked nervous, but Connor broke into a wide grin.

"More! More, please, I um, yeah I'd like more." This couldn't be real, but Gavin was still holding him and pressing kisses all over his face making him giggle. "Gavin!" He whined, his smile widening impossibly. 

Gavin smiled back, his eyes lighting up beautiful even in the bathroom lighting. "Good, cause so do I. But I think we should at least leave the bathroom, my ass is getting sore."

"Oh!" Connor jumped back, offering a hand to help Gavin up. They got toilet paper and cleaned each other up with soft words and laughter. They still both looked thoroughly fucked, but maybe people would think they just fought? One look at either of their necks would prove otherwise, but that was fine. 

He wasn't sure if he'd first thank or punch the person who created this virus, but either way, he would catch them. Plus Gavin had promised a reward for doing so, and he wouldn't fail his mission.

#Convin #dbh convin #convin dbh #convin fic #gavin reed #gavin800 #connor x gavin #dbh gavin reed #detroit gavin #gavcon #gavcon fic #reed800 #gavin reed x connor #connor x gavin reed #Connor #Connor Anderson #connor army #dbh gavin #gavin reed800 #dbh game #dbh fanfic #dbh fandom #dbh fic #connor dbh fanfic #detroit connor #Detroit: BH #detroit become human #detroit: become human #connor rk800 #rk800

[august-anon]

 “Lot of courage for someone who’s about to get tickled.” with lee!virgil and ler!patton ~ Sensey

Of course of course, coming right up! Thank you @fluffymary, hope you like it!

(also I am very tired, I barely slept and I did not take my Sunday nap, so I actually dozed off partway through writing and then continued when I woke up so if it’s OOC or disjointed that is why lol, sorry!!)

8. “Lot of courage for someone who’s about to get tickled.”

TacTickle Advantage

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Ship(s): Platonic Moxiety

Characters (lee/ler): Lee!Virgil, Ler!Patton

Word Count: 715 words

Summary: Virgil should know better than to accept a challenge from Patton when he has that devious grin on his face.

[ao3 link]

——————————-

Virgil would admit, he was getting a little cocky. 

But, what, was he supposed to remain humble when dominating at MarioKart? While Patton wasn’t as much of a challenge as Logan, he was nothing to shake his head at. And Virgil was winning.

Patton huffed as he came in second place once again, then turned an easy grin onto Virgil. “Hey, let’s make this more interesting!”

Virgil raised an eyebrow, huffing out a laugh as he smirked. “You sure about that? You don’t seem to be in the best position to be making such deals.”

Patton grinned at him. “Come on, Virge! Just a little bet!”

Virgil shook his head, but smiled and relented. “Alright, what did you have in mind, Pat?”

Patton’s playful grin turned devious. “All or nothing for this last race. Loser gets tickled until they call ‘uncle.’”

Virgil’s own grin turned devious, as well. “You’re on.”

They loaded up the fourth and final race (at least, in this specific grand prix, there were many that came before it) and Virgil relaxed back into the couch. He’d won all the rounds beforehand, he felt secure in the fact that he would yet again.

Patton hummed and looked at him out of the corner of his eye. “Lot of courage for someone who’s about to get tickled, sweetpea.”

The tease, as minor as it was, caught Virgil off guard, and he missed the countdown speedboost. In fact, he got a false start, and he growled as smoke surrounding his kart.

“Aww, what’s wrong, gigglebug?” Patton asked, quickly maneuvering his way into first place. “Are you a little distracted?”

“No,” Virgil growled, even as he accidentally drove his car off the map.

“Really?” Patton asked, voice filled with false astonishment. “Well, I can’t imagine what else would have you in eighth place, after all this time in first!”

“I’m just… luring you into a false sense of security,” Virgil said, but the defense sounded weak even to his own ears.

“Aww, Virgey, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to distract you! My bad, sugarpuff!”

Virgil tried to tune Patton out, but it was rather ineffective. He giggled and cooed and teased throughout all three laps. Every tease would cause Virgil to falter in surprise, jerking his kart around the map and losing ground.

Patton cheered as he passed the finish line in first place, and Virgil groaned. He gave up where he was, back in 10th, and dropped the controller to the couch to put his face in his hands.

“You cheated,” he mumbled.

Patton hugged him from the side. “I never said teasing was off the table, cutiepie! It was, what would Logan call it, a tactickle advantage?”

Virgil groaned again, but it quickly morphed into muffled giggles as Patton gently began spidering his fingers against Virgil’s side. Virgil tried to shift away, but it only led to him cuddling further into Patton’s embrace.

“Aww, how sweet, you wanna cuddle, giggles?”

“No!” Virgil giggled, squirming in Patton’s hold as his fingers strayed over to Virgil’s stomach.

“No? You don’t wanna cuddle? What about… a tickle?”

Virgil shrieked and burst into loud laughter as Patton dug a finger into his bellybutton. The rest of his four fingers dug into the surrounding stomach, while his other hand finally joined in to claw up and down his ribs and sneak into his armpit.

“Patton!” Virgil squealed.

“Aww, isn’t this fun! Your laugh is so cute, look at that adorable little blush!” Patton cooed. “I just love playing these games with you, Virgey-poo! Aren’t you so glad you lost?”

“Patton, please!”

“You giving up, gigglemunch?”

Virgil didn’t reply, which just made Patton coo at him more. He held out barely a minute or two more, but the finger digging deep into his bellybutton, scratching away and the sides and vibrating so deeply into it that he felt the tickles tingling throughout his whole tummy.

“Uncle!” Virgil shrieked. “Uncle!!”

Patton giggled and stopped immediately, rubbing his hands firmly over Virgil’s skin to help settle the lingering ghost-tickles.

“Mean,” Virgil giggled against Patton’s shoulder.

“Aww, you don’t mean that!” Patton said. They sat in silence for a few moments before he felt Patton grin and speak again, “Wanna play another round?”

And what could Virgil do but grin and agree?

#tickle fic #My writing #sanders sides tickling #lee!virgil #ler!patton #ticklish!virgil #sanders sides #virgil sanders #patton sanders #moxiety #platonic moxiety

[honeymoonjin]

day 8

GWoo boy! The tension was nearly insurmountable going into this chapter. I’ll admit that my anticipation was laced with some trepidation. I was curious as to how the atmosphere would shift once someone was sent home; how being focused on the endgame now would shift the dynamics with each of the members as well as with our lady. Then to have PD-nim start the whole process by asking each of the members to vindicate their place in the show felt like a twist of the knife. It was a very sucky albeit effective tool to bring to the forefront of the audiences’ mind that they all have something to bring to the table and deserved to stay. It inadvertently justifies for us what you are about to have the show’s staff announce right before our lady reveals who was about to be sent packing. 

To say I was surprised by the twist would be an understatement. And yet, I still found myself uneasy (after all, just because there wasn’t going to be an elimination for the first week, it didn’t mean that no one was going to go home in the second week; we had only delayed the inevitable). But it seemed as though my worries were all for naught because you seemed to have found a way to side step the emotional turmoil all together in a rather clever way. The reason I would argue this solution works for this verse is because by eliminating the potential emotional turmoil sending someone home would bring about (thus clouding our lady’s objective judgement of each member’s sexual performance) it turned the potentially messy and awkward situation into one where the stakes were equally as high but without the emotional shamble. Oof! I have no idea if any of this is making sense; I wish I was able to articulate how just happy I felt that no one was going home but that there was also a good - nay, beneficial reason for this amendment to the elimination process! Needless to say, this certainly changes things for the better because it feels as if you had just cranked the tension up to 100 now! I can’t wait to see how this aspect will play out! 😏

And speaking of things playing out, Namjoon was anything but playing with his first time. I loved how intimate and so very fitting his scene was! I really appreciate the decision to have his first time be something that was solely for him. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy because it’s exactly as our lady says: he deserves it. I love that it started with him stuck in his head (quite possibly hearing Hobi’s voice coaching him through his first time; lols!) and then, with our lady’s help, morphed into a scene about truly feeling himself and that just feels like Namjoon at his core. The entire scene had just the right amount of sweetness - even subtly romantic - filled with passionate kisses and an eagerness to please. It made for an unforgettable scene that left me both swooning and breathless in the very best of ways. I do love that ease that settles between him and our lady afterwards, even at the dining table. It feels like unspoken promises. (oh… was that just me? *shrugs* no matter, a girl can still hope)

How great then was it that the following scene comes with promises of more moments of bonding between the group?! I was cackling at Jin and Hobi and Tae! *content sighs* Every little detail from Jungkook playing with his party hat to Yoongi using his as a makeshift container to put his snacks in made my heart do cartwheels! The familiarity and ease of the scene makes for another special meal time with the added bonus of celebrating Joon over cake! Warm fuzzies overload! 🥰

But perhaps what was the real icing on the cake *😉* are those sext messages between our lady, Hobi, and JK! Oh the promises of dominance to come was such a tantalizing tease! And yet, as wonderfully hot as that entire scene was (like, I may or may not have had to physically walk away from just how hot that scene was getting) not having our lady climax the entire chapter and thoroughly put in her place did something to me. I couldn’t put a finger on what it was but I felt complete for some reason… 

And then Hobi spelled it out for me. And I was floored. 

As our lady chased her high at the very end of this entry, I too found a sense of calm and satisfaction I did not think I deserved prior to Hobi’s scene as my choice to vote Hobi off also weighed heavily on my heart. You were able to convey both understanding and a way for me to let go of the guilt in the most tantalizing way. Like… WOW! It was impeccably devised from a writer’s standpoint and I feel as though only the word “genius” could best sum up the emotional satisfaction that you were able to subconsciously evoke in me. How? How did you know? As the kids say: I am shooketh. Wow… just, wow. 

Magic Weaver, your work this week was truly spellbinding! I can say with certainty that there has never been a story that affected me on that level and I will forever be in awe of your amazing writing! What an honor to experienced with each new entry (knowing the caliber of talent that would be present) and still be taken by surprise each time. Thank you once again for sharing this very special entry with us and for your constant hard work. I cannot wait to see what you have in store for us next! 💜 Jan

----

no lie tho me writing the elimination scene i was like “....but will jan like this?” fsjdkf 

ahh it’s such a relief to finally have this big secret out in the open,, phew ! now it’s time for us to get to the fun stuff without worrying about losing numbers woo !

im so glad you appreciated yn’s journey in this chapter and how hoseok knows how to make her feel better. i, for one, felt awful having to write yn thinking of sending hoseok home, so it felt right that you readers would probably feel bad too. allowing that but also giving a resolution at the end felt really necessary to me so that we could move on guilt-free !

i’m too weak for serious angst BUT that doesn’t mean that our twist won’t lead to more emotional turmoil,,,,, what happens, my darling readers, if yn develops feelings for a member that’s been eliminated and they’re no longer allowed to touch? what happens when a member gets upset that they were voted out but they’re still around yn every day? so many new possibilities now that our villa is staying full !

thank you for your support on every chapter. it means so much and i always think about what you’d think about something or how you’ll react. but be sure to buckle your seatbelt because week 2 is going to be very intense now that we’ve revved our engines in week 1!

[fe-husband-heaven]

Time - Grima/Reader

I've had this in my head all day and had to write it gahhhh

It's also self indulgent on my behalf hee hee~!

Warning~! Slightly more docile Grima who has to deal his new bodies weakness to emotions~

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

He prowled through Askr's halls in a less than pleased mood. He'd been separated from his worm for far too long, and he had no more patience for it.

A small haughty laugh from behind halted the Fell Dragons stomps footsteps. He looked behind him to lay eyes on Julius, who possessed an almost crazed grin.

Grima's eyes narrowed, he's well aware of what kind of human Julius was. Corrupted.

Much more than others were, his own human had mentioned that it was his tome that had distorted him. He knew nothing more of him, he wasn't interested in hearing about him nor had he been happy that his human was speaking about another man.

He had ended that discussion quickly.

At the very least, Grima knew Julius wouldn't approach without an ulterior motive.

So automatically, he was on guard.

"Look what the cat dragged in."

His worm had already chided him about injuring others in the Order of Heroes, and as impudent as their lecture was, they were much easier to deal with when they weren't upset.

So he didn't crush the bug before him immediately.

Grima continued to stare at the man, maybe he could stare a hole through him, perhaps he'd disintegrate if he tried hard enough.

"Slithering off to your little pet?"

Grima was starting to get angry, he already didn't like being approached by pests but he especially didn't like when they started involving you.

"What do you want, worm?"

The annoyance in his tone was clear.

"Oh...nothing..I was just curious about how long you intend to play the human? How long you intend to pretend with that little summoner...?"

Grima growled,

"You don't know anything, worm. Stay out of my sight and I won't rip you to pieces. Come near what's mine and I can assure you that I'll have no qualms about ending whatever pathetic life you have."

A malicious purple aura was beginning to radiate from Grima, his eyes were glowing red and the air around him was suffocating enough that any other person would be on the ground begging for breath.

Julius however wasn't even fazed.

"Hmm..tamed you, have they?" He laughed,

"Any other day, you'd have already made well of your word...hah! How cute. The human taming the beast. Not that it'll last long."

Grima's smirk was almost feral,

"Is that a threat?"

Julius scoffed,

"Oh, please. As if I need to bother, you'll lose them either way."

Grima frowned, now confused,

"What are you babbling about, worm?"

Julius's smirk fell for a moment, then he studied Grima for a second before breaking into a loud howl,

"Oh this is too rich! You don't even realize it, do you?"

Julius cackled, clearly finding something very amusing. So much so that he had to clear the tears from his eyes from laughing so hard.

Grima stood baffled, any anger he had was now just confusion. Last he checked, most humans didn't behave this way. He considered just turning around and leaving this lunatic behind in favor of finding his human.

You were strange, but you were a bearable strange.

"You're a dragon! They're a human!"

Julius had to take a breath to speak,

"They'll die years before you ever do! To a dragon, a human life is merely a blink of an eye-"

Julius broke into another fit of laughter,

"That precious little human of yours is just like the rest of them, they'll wither away with age and there'll be nothing left but a lonely dragon and a skull. The end of the little Summoner."

Julius watched in glee as Grima was hit with the realization. The anger, confusion, and dread all in one. Grima hated such confounding emotions, he hated how he felt a chill at Julius's words. Hated how he felt as though someone's cold and clammy hands had raked down his spine, and he loathed the churning of his stomach at the thought of you leaving him behind.

Curse this frail human body, prone to every damning emotion known to man.

Julius stood with an impish grin as Grima snarled at him, that previous malevolent aura returning full force. He seemed to be awaiting a show, the complete explosion of Grima's wrath, but it didn't come.

He watched in surprise as Grima turned away from him and stormed down the hall, eyes a beading red, and his face set in a deep frown.

Disappointed, and with his entertainment gone, he huffed.

"How dull."

__________

Grima hurried his steps once he was out of Julius's sight. As much as he had wanted to rip the tongue from that fool's mouth, he was much too overcome with the urge to see his humans face.

He made his way to your room, surely by now you were done with whatever useless strategy meeting the worms had dragged you into. Along the way, he had managed to slow the frantic breathing he didn't realize he had developed.

However, as he neared your door Julius's words had rang in his ears

"-there'll be nothing left but a lonely dragon and a skull."

He shook his head, brushing the thought aside but when he gripped the doorhandle, the image of your smiling face morphing into that skull had flashed in his mind causing him to slam the door open, nearly breaking it off it's hinges.

The force of him opening the door had you nearly falling from your chair, the squeak you made had him locking his eyes onto your form.

"Gri-"

You tried to ask what the hell was going on but the intensity of Grima's gaze caught you off guard. That, and he charged towards you so fast you didn't have time to word questions.

He pulled you out of your chair by your wrist, the terrain maps you were looking at previously were now fluttering to the ground.

Grima scanned your face, for what you didn't know but he seemed to have found it since his tense shoulders relaxed. All at once, his frown melted away and he just looked drained.

Were all human emotions so taxing?

Pathetic.

You stayed quiet as Grima leaned forward to rest his head on your shoulder, clearly something was wrong with him, he often would coil himself around you in a show of dominance but he was being so...tame that you knew something had happened.

"Is something wrong?"

You wrapped an arm around him while your other raised to stroke his disheveled hair. If it wasn't the eyes and demeanor that made him distinct from Robin then the ruffled mess of white hair he always had, did.

He responded only by turning his head into the crook of your neck, inhaling your scent.

You toyed with his hair for a couple more seconds before turning the wrist that he held so that your hand held his. You lead him to your bed where you sat upright in the middle of it, knowing he'd just plop himself on top of you like he always did.

And he did, although this time, rather than throw himself on you haphazardly, he wrapped his arms around your waist and laid his head over your chest, listening to the steady beat of your heart.

You are so stupid to allow him near you, he could crush you in a split second.

You're so foolish, foolish and naive.

Stupid, foolish, naive, and warm.

"Grima...what happened?"

He let out a low growl, and for a moment you thought he wouldn't tell you. But he rocketed up to face you, clearly annoyed and angry.

"You're going to leave me."

"Huh?"

"You're going to perish."

"I..Excuse me?"

You stared at him incredulously, was..was he threatening you...??

"Grima what are you..."

You trailed off as you put the pieces together, "You're going to leave me."...oh...

"I see..so that's what this is about..." You smiled at him sadly, unsure of what to say. You couldn't lie to him, it was true. Eventually, time would take you away, it happened to every human. It would happen to you too.

Still, Grima hated that look on you. Before, he might have laughed at such an expression, but now he loathed it. Your incessant optimism was no where to be seen, and it perturbed him.

"Grima."

You called his attention, maybe you couldn't change the circumstances but maybe you could soothe him a little. You couldn't imagine his turmoil, the one human who managed to weasel their way into your life is bound to die by nature's laws.

You held his face tenderly, letting a thumb ghost over his cheek. You sighed and Grima watched intently.

"You know..." crimson eyes watched as your smile went from sad and sympathetic to honest and a light happiness.

"Even if my life may seem short...I..I wouldn't trade it for a longer life where I wasn't with you."

The stabbing pain was immediate, was this normal in a human host? To feel like you're being ripped in two?

He felt like a piece of him was being crushed, like he was losing, surrendering, laying down while what was his was being taken from him.

"No." he muttered, just low enough that you could hear.

"I-...No??"

You really wish he would elaborate sometimes but what can you expect from the Fell Dragon that does as he pleases-

"No, I refuse." he hissed.

Before you could ask what he meant, he tangled a hand in your hair and pulled you into a hungry territorial kiss. Caught completely off guard by his change in mannerisms, he managed to slip his tongue past your lips, ridding you of breath with the fervor of which his mouth claimed yours.

When he had reluctantly pulled away, he allowed you a brief moment to breathe before immediately pushing you down against your bed.

Caged between his arms, you watched as he licked his lips in anticipation.

"I won't let you go so easily, I won't- I refuse to relinquish what belongs to me."

You had squirmed your way into his life, cemented your place in it, made him feel what he was not meant to, and never asked anything of him. You became something that he was not willing to part with and nothing was going to stand in his way.

If he had to challenge time, then so be it.

And he knew how to start, by marking his possession.

_________

Julius made his way through the halls, looking for the next being to terrorize for fun.

Only to halt when he heard your laugh further down the hall, he grinned wickedly and with a little skip in step he moved in the direction he heard you.

His impish smile fell at the sight of you and Grima walking past at the end of the hall.

Grima caught his gaze and let a triumphant smirk take over his features, "I win." was splayed out on his face and for a moment Grima considered going over to rip off Julius's head for his previous impudent display.

But if he did, he would have to remove his hand from where it was intertwined with yours.

So he settled for extending his middle finger (something he learned from his summoner) and pointing it at the baffled Julius watching from afar.

Julius knew not what the gesture meant but he felt insulted anyway.

As the two of you walked further away from Julius, the Fell Dragon reflected on what had transpired. He had been claiming you when it happened, in the midst of marring your skin with his lips and making you his mate at last, he had felt it.

The interlacing of your life force.

You both had been confused at first, but then you felt the tug of an invisible bond, a stronger connection between the two of you. You had laughed, the solution to a problem that had arose as quickly as it had been solved was sitting in front of the two of you and the prospect that Grima had picked a fight with Time- a metaphysical thing- had finally registered.

The Fell Dragon unabashed, watched the little creature below him giggle, a human that belonged to him in now both body and spirit. When you had finished your fit of laughter, you had looked up at him and uttered 3 little words that had him going far beyond consummating your bond.

Yes, he had won it all.

Solved his problem through making your body his, showed off to the maggot that instigated this, your affection seemed to have doubled, and he found a new pastime that he very much intended to indulge in much more than he had.

A gentle squeeze on his hand pulled him out of his thoughts, turning to look at you, he was slightly blinded by the brilliant smile you had flashed him.

Hnn..

Grima was hit with the sudden urge to reenact what had occurred in your bedroom. Looking ahead, he took notice of the broom closet further down the hall.

How perfect...

__________

"So your plan failed spectacularly."

Julius narrowed his eyes at the new arrival standing next to him, watching you and the reptile walk away.

Valter.

"Hmph. That lizard only strengthened his clutches on them. I was sure at the very least that it would cause a rift between them.

Ugh, how droll...no matter, I shall make them mine eventually. He's merely a place holder."

Valter laughed.

"Yours? Perhaps you haven't noticed but the Summoner is my prey."

Julius scoffed,

"Surely you jest, I've made it clear that I intend to lay my hands upon them."

The air was dangerous, one waiting for the other to make a move. A lance and a tome at the ready, neither afraid to end a life.

But the tension dissipated as the loud threatening rumble of a dragon was heard in the distance...

#grima #lemonish #valter #julius #i indulged much more than i should have with this mwuaha #but i couldn't get it out of my brain gahhh i just love grima so much #i couldn't help but through in the other two since the summoner is apparently very villain prone- #reblogs are appreciated since i didn't post this one in the tags uwu

[groovyzombiellama]

Destiny

(I just finished watching Venom, finally, and I loved it! I don’t know how many people may have already done fics on a similar idea to this, but it just popped into my head after the movie and I wanted to give it a shot. Also Tom Hardy is one of my biggest celeb crushes, so I wanted to write about him.)

Title: Destiny Requested? No. Plot: Your own symbiote, Acid, had a relationship with Venom on their planet, and so when the two find each other, it forces you and Eddie to spend a lot of time together, and that eventually leads into the two of you developing feelings for one another aswell. Word count: 1489

---***---

“Acid! Quit it! There are cameras everywhere, I really don’t need to spend another night in jail because of your need to make our lives more fun by shoplifting.“ You whisper yelled to the other entity that was residing inside you. Apparently, when the lab with the symbiotes got breached into, by kids who wanted their own powers after seeing the huge fight between two symbiotes, one managed to escape the compound by morphing with a dog. One of the teenagers brought it with him to serve as protection if they needed it. And the symbiote travelled to find a better host, only to set it’s sights on you as you exited the gym one morning, about half a year ago. Obviously, at first you were incredibly terrified by the fact there was another entity living inside you, and that you compatibility was so strong that you would start dying one without the other if separated. And so you learned to live with it, or better yet, her. If those other guys can do it, the ones who were seen fighting next to a train, so could you. You learned that the symbiotes name is Acid and that she was one of the female warriors on her planet before she was brought here, and so she was fond of the fact that you work out a lot and it was a nice little bonus to your compatibility.

She didn’t open up to you too much however, not really interested in what you think about her life on her home planet, until she saw another symbiote she recognized, after you managed to talk her into leaving the store without shoplifting. To say she was causing you trouble in your life at the beginning would be an understatement. Even though you were a very busy woman, working as a manager of a small company that created ads for brands, working out, and socializing with your friends a lot, she still felt like your life needed some changes and needed some excitement. You even spent a few nights in jail at a time, due to Acid trying to figure out what was it that you needed in your life in order to make it way more fun. And then she saw it, them. “Venom?“ You frowned when you heard her voice, but soon noticed a tall, black creature wondering the streets. He was handling some really bad people in your neighbourhood, some of the most notorious criminals, who prayed on your innocent neighbours along with their illegal business.

“What are you talking about Acid? Who is Venom?“ You asked her as you eyed the creature roughing up a few guys in front of you. You knew you could count on Acid to help you in case you get attacked, but once she spoke, you realized you had no reason to be afraid. Acid sighed and quickly recounted you the story of her and Venom. It seems that the two of them were lovers on their planet and they got separated upon being brought here, and she thought she would never see him again, but now she has him in front of her all over again, and she was unable to believe it. You smiled at her confession, hearing actual emotion in her voice as she talked about Venom, and you ask her if she was just gonna stand with you and watch him, or is she gonna go talk to him, symbiote to symbiote. Slowly you start feeling her form overcome you, and you turn into a lilac form, similar to the one of the black symbiote in front of you, but nobody would be able to miss her feminine curves.

As the two of you approached the scene, one of the men Venom had already tossed to the ground saw you and screamed, causing Venom to turn himself and his white eyes grew wider when he recognized who he was seeing. “Acid? Is that you?“ Without taking his eyes off her, Venom tossed the man he was holding, and he hit the wall of the restaurant building with a thud. He then closed the gap between himself and Acid slowly, as if he was still trying to figure out if it was really her. But when he made sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, because she didn’t disappear when he took her hand in his, they fell into each other’s arms, and you couldn’t help but smile under her form, as you had never seen her show any emotion other than anger and annoyance before. But your smile soon faded and was replaced with a panicked expression when you realized they were about to kiss.

You knew it didn’t mean that you were kissing the host of the Venom symbiote, but it didn’t make a very big difference really, as the two of you were one being, with two different minds, voices and skins. But you let them kiss, hoping to just be done with it and go back to your old life. However, neither Venom nor Acid had that in mind. Now that they have found each other, they didn’t want to let each other go that easyly, so you were stuck along for the ride. After spending some time ’alone’ Acid and Venom decided they wanted to introduce each other to their hosts and you two also. So your own human form was dominant again, Acid only now having her head appear, developing from your back. Venom did the same, and you could finally see his host. You immediately recognized Eddie Brock, you loved his show and even had an alarm set to make sure you don’t miss it every single time it aired, so it was quite the shock to be sitting in front of him, on the roof of your house, with symbiotes protruding from your backs. And not to mention you practically kissed him while the symbiotes were dominating your form. The moment he spoke to introduce himself, you were smitten by his voice, and you realized you wouldn’t mind spending more time with him, for the sake of Venom and Acid.

“Looks like you’re stuck hanging out with me a whole lot from now on. At least I get to spend my time with a beautiful girl.“ You blushed at his words, and spoke sooner than you might have wanted, telling him you didn’t mind spending time with him. He smiled at your response, while your blush only deepened. At first, Venom talked about getting Anne back, and you found out she was his ex, who was actually about to get married to a doctor she started dating a very short period of time after breaking up with Eddie. And every time you would hear her name, it was as if  you got stabbed through the heart. Over time you started developping feelings for Eddie and all this Anne talk was close to driving you insane. Eddie noticed you roll your eyes one time as Venom and Acid were talking about Anne being alone at her lunch break and that it would be a perfect moment to just have Eddie walk over, ’accidentally’, and spend some time with her. He asked you if you were okay, and you could only nod your head, but he could tell you were lying. Over time, Acid noticed your change, and asked you if you liked Eddie, to which you answered by admitting it to her, thinking she wouldn’t tell Venom, only to turn after finishing and realize Eddie was standing beind you.

Without another word, he rushed over to you and cupped your face, connecting his lips to yours. That’s when you relized he felt the same about you, and you kissed him back, your lips moving in sync. After parting to catch your breath, Eddie told you Anne didn’t want to listen to him explain what happened, she just left him, and moved on rather fast, but you had shown him so many times over the months you spent constantly around each other that you were not just there because Acid wanted to be with Venom, but also because you wanted to be with him. So many little things you thought didn’t really matter, they did to Eddie and it made him realize you were the one for him. Venom was a little sceptical, since he was all on board the ’getting Anne back’ train, but Acid managed to convince him that you and Eddie were the better pair, and that way they would always be together too. So it was settled, you got you man, Eddie got his woman, and your symbiotes got each other, and it worked. All four of you were much happier with this arrangement, your feelings growing stronger by the day. You were a family, somewhat weird, or better yet, totally weird, but a family nontheless, and you were happy.

---***--- This was sitting in my drafts for a while, and I just got around to writing it, and I hope you like it. I wanted to use an actual symbiote, like Scream or Agony, but they are both ‘born’ from Venom, so it couldn’t really work. Instead I created Acid, and I really like how it all turned out, I hope you do to :)

#eddie brock #eddie brock imagine #eddie brock x reader #we are venom #venom symbiote #venom #venom imagine #venom x reader #tom hardy imagines #tom hardy imagine #tom hardy x reader #marvel imagines #marvel #venom x acid

[kiruuuuu]

Doc/Lion oneshot in which, instead of going for each other’s throat, they reach a little lower (and Lion gets more than he bargained for). (Rating E, explicit, ~3k words) - written for @big-r6s-fan! 💗 I will never tire of thanking you for commissioning me and allowing me to write this because it was super fun :) Find my commission info here!

.

“Flament, a word.”

The tone of voice effortlessly conveys the blatant lie in Doc’s statement – what he really means to say is: The only thing keeping me from writing you a novel is lack of time. Lion narrowly avoids rolling his eyes in annoyance and obliges, throws Montagne a meaningful look which implies they’ll finish their rudely interrupted conversation later and trails after his other teammate. If he could’ve gotten away with it, he’d be dragging his feet just because the murderous glare Doc would send him never fails to be hilarious. He’s reasonably certain he knows what this is about and boy, is he not in the mood for this.

And of course Doc marches him into his office instead of just any room which would’ve served the same purpose. With his inflated ego, it’s no surprise he enjoys chewing people out in a place where he’s comfortable; Lion can’t even begin counting the occasions on which he ended up on this side of the mahogany desk, having his person and skills and ethics challenged by a man too naive to be in this line of work and who genuinely thought he could pull off that frankly ridiculous moustache for a few years of his life. Lion is almost sad it’s gone by now, it befitted Doc’s general absurdity.

It doesn’t matter. He’s secretly begun rebelling against the man’s authority in a satisfying way and now he puffs himself up whenever he comes face to face with the very desk which used to make his temper flare purely by existing, but by now has lost its sting. It was customary for him to view the solid piece of furniture as an unsurmountable obstacle rendering any proper communication between them impossible, yet his view has shifted. It’s converted. It’s working for him now.

“I will not stand for you endangering more innocent lives.” Doc’s French is clipped, efficient, yet more than a tool to be used – he has the same intonation and melody to his words as Lion’s parents, as Sophie, as former teachers.

“Then stop endangering your own”, he replies and wants nothing more than to stuff something down Doc’s throat to make him stop talking. His holier-than-thou attitude has always rubbed Lion the wrong way, created sparks of fury, hostility, and something… entirely different on occasion. There’s dust from the debris in Doc’s hair, making it whiter than it already is and Lion wants to bury his fingers in it and then pull sharply.

He needs to stop getting distracted.

“Stop interfering with my work”, Doc snaps and it’s wonderful how easily Lion can get under his skin. At this point, it’s almost a hobby for him to rile up his colleague. And while private hissy fits are a necessary-turned-amusing evil, they serve another purpose as well: providing excellent material for long, gratifying ‘self-care’ sessions in which he fantasises about what would’ve happened if instead of quoting a specific law to shut down Doc’s argument, he’d just crowded him against a wall, rumbled filth into his ear and showed him how unprofessional he really can be.

“Then stop interfering with mine.” He has to suppress a smirk at the frustration on Doc’s face and doesn’t mind in the least that he’s doing the grown-up version of ‘no you’.

“Pray tell, Flament, what exactly does your work entail then? Does it state anywhere you should prevent me from administering first aid to a wounded civilian? Hm?” His tone is cutting, sharp and sweet like a rose’s thorn, and he actually abandons his safe haven behind the desk to come down to Lion’s level – or rather lower. Because he is noticeably shorter and Lion gladly stands up straighter to emphasise this fact.

“Above all, my work entails keeping my colleagues safe, for example preventing an altruistic idiot from rushing head first into a potential ambush.”

Doc’s eyes narrow. Their faces are uncomfortably close together, a result of too many altercations in the past where both of them got scolded for raising their voice, so now they rely on dangerous hissing. His smell is making it hard to breathe because it’s earthy, mesmerising, distinct. Lion wonders how it’d feel to force him to his knees and have this defiant gaze directed up at him while his sharp tongue is used for something other than reprimanding him for - “Is that your way of saying you’re worried about me?”

Lion is halfway through formulating a reply in his head when his thoughts screech to a grinding halt. Nothing has changed, Doc’s posture is just as defensive as before, expression stony, intonation accusing, and yet the atmosphere has… tilted a little. Spilled into uncharted territory. Lion isn’t sure what to make of it. “I worry about all my colleagues”, he eventually responds neutrally.

“That doesn’t absolve you from jerking off at my desk. Repeatedly.”

Oh.

Well fuck.

He blinks owlishly, utterly speechless because how in the world is he ever going to recover. Doc knows. How does he know?

Sensing he’s not going to get a sensible response from Lion any time soon, Doc continues: “If you have a problem with me, I’m sure we can work something out.”

His mouth is faster than his brain because there’s no way he’d in his right mind shoot back: “Yeah, you can work out on my cock.”

Okay. Alright.

This is still salvageable. All he needs to do is to back off immediately, apologise for the inappropriate comment, not mention that Doc needs to stop wearing these blasted form-fitting shirts or else Lion will really end up doing a briefing with a raging hard-on in front of everyone, and then steer clear of Doc for the rest of his entire -

“Real mature, Flament, but I expected no less. I’m afraid you’re mistaken, though, as it would be the other way round.”

Once again, words elude him, this time out of indignation. The audacity. Lion has no doubt he’s the more experienced one, is taller and heavier, certainly more masculine and dominant, and Doc has the gall to imply… Shock slowly morphs into smug disbelief and he finds himself shaking his head at this bold claim. “You haven’t got the balls.”

And Doc grabs him by the collar and smashes their mouths together.

Lion just – he stops functioning for a few seconds until he realises that it’s Doc’s tongue prying his lips open so he parts them willingly with an involuntary moan he regrets the moment he utters it. His brain still refuses to acknowledge the whole situation, making it easy for Doc to overpower him, guide the messy kiss and shove his hands under Lion’s sweater and holy shit, is this really happening? The desk’s edge digs into the backs of his thighs and Doc’s teeth into his lower lip and it’s Lion who’s making these horribly embarrassing noises, isn’t it? Like a mixture of a dying whale and a prisoner of war about to be freed and this is not at all how he pictured this to go.

Despite the suddenness of it all, there’s a particular part of his body which has no trouble keeping up and draws even more attention to itself the moment Doc’s thumbs brush over Lion’s nipples and good heavens, he did not expect Doc to be such a fantastic kisser. Desperate to regain any sort of control, Lion tries to fight the onslaught by grabbing Doc’s hands, wrestling his tongue into submission and spinning them around – with an emphasis on tries. Because Doc chooses that second to push a thigh between Lion’s legs, presses it directly against his achingly hard erection in all the right ways and makes his brain short-circuit yet again. The gesture results in vague flailing on Lion’s part, a particularly vicious swipe of Doc’s merciless tongue which turns his joints into butter and some ungraceful bumbling of which Doc makes use by basically lifting him up and setting him down on his stupid desk.

Well, so much for that.

“If you want me to stop, now’s the time”, Doc murmurs against his mouth and curls his tongue around Lion’s in a way he didn’t think possible. His inner monologue has turned into no more than incoherent screaming because while this general situation is a wet dream come true, he’s conflicted about the details and yet the thought of stopping the other man doesn’t even enter his mind. When calloused fingertips twist his nipples, all he can produce is a throaty groan full of arousal and longing, and when his legs (the traitors) wrap around Doc’s to pull him closer, his opponent breaks the kiss to regard him with a disgustingly smug expression. “That’s what I thought”, he says and starts unbuttoning Lion’s trousers.

Why don’t you start lubing up my cock with your throat so the sliding in becomes easier, the monkey part of Lion’s brain provides helpfully, sends the signal to his mouth and witnesses in stark horror how he instead chokes out something very, very different: “Please, hurry up, I want you.” It seems his entire body has set out to betray him: his upper body gives in at the slightest push and lies flat on the largely empty surface he’s defiled in the past, his hands lie uselessly by his side instead of struggling, and his dick is magnificently hard. Painfully hard. So hard it’s continuously throbbing and will probably ejaculate as soon as Doc looks at it wrong.

“I noticed my hand lotion depleting unusually quickly and asked Meghan for a Black Eye when I couldn’t locate the source”, Doc informs him conversationally while ripping down Lion’s trousers with minimal resistance. And oh, that explains how he knew. And… also means that Doc saw him. Oh God. “Tell me, did you fantasise about me, Olivier?”

His cheeks are crimson. It’s impossible to provide an honest answer, not when Doc pulls his underwear down as if they’d done this a thousand times and throws his uncomfortably hard cock an appraising glance. “I”, Lion starts stupidly and then Doc’s mouth envelops him in wonderful tight heat, prompting him to thrust his hips up at the unexpected stimulation and the next thing he hears is a sharp snap.

Doc just slapped his ass as punishment.

It stings, but even worse is the realisation that Lion isn’t going to top anybody today. “You can’t do that!”, he gasps, appalled, yet the look he receives is unbothered.

“Watch me”, Doc says and does it again. This time, Lion moans at the sensation, can’t help himself, it’s just – he doesn’t even know what’s going on, only that he’s in too deep already, and he’s not only talking about Doc’s mouth and oh God, his tongue really can do what it promised earlier. A mere minute later, Lion is writhing on the cursed desk in agonising bliss, trying desperately not to come down Doc’s throat while producing so much noise it’s a miracle no one has checked on them yet. He’s so resigned to his fate that he at first doesn’t notice the warm hand creeping up his thigh and getting dangerously close to his crotch, up until the pad of a finger strokes over his entrance and absolutely no way.

“Don’t”, Lion pants and nearly knees Doc in the temple, “just – keep sucking, please, but not -”

Doc pulls off his dick with a wet pop and, unperturbed, conjures up a bottle of lube seemingly out of thin air. “Should’ve used this instead of the lotion”, he states. “Then you could’ve fingered yourself in preparation as well.”

“I don’t do that sort of thing”, Lion protests and yelps when Doc hoists his legs up, folds them in half and places Lion’s hands on his own calves. He’s much too overwhelmed to complain and so he simply holds his legs up, spread invitingly, and then there’s a slippery finger inside him.

He opens his mouth to object. The finger crooks in a way just as magical as Doc’s tongue earlier and a fierce wave of pleasure rolls through him. Lion closes his mouth again.

“I don’t believe it for a second”, Doc counters and adds a second one and good Lord, how is he doing this? Lion’s thoughts are running haywire and he’s ashamed to admit that at least half of them are focused on replacing those fingers with something else. “This looks like your natural habitat.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” He flinches when the digits withdraw and narrowly stops himself from substituting his own. It really does feel phenomenal.

“It means”, Doc replies while unzipping his own trousers, “that you’re a slut.”

Lion is stupefied. Did Doc just -

And before his brain even processes the insult, it shuts down completely because that’s definitely a dick pushing inside him, giving him the opportunity to adjust and then rubbing over all the right places. In utter disbelief, Lion stares down at himself and can’t fathom how he ended up here when by all means, he should’ve -

“Hold this too.” The hem of his sweater gets shoved between his teeth and he bites down automatically; his reward is warm palms stroking over his chest and fingertips finding his nipples yet again and he’s sizzling, he feels hot and weird and his skin prickles wherever Doc touches, and above all he never wants this to end. Especially when Doc starts thrusting. “Do you like this?”

Lion’s only answer is a muffled moan about an octave higher than he’d like. There’s something like fireworks going on and it almost drowns out Doc’s next words. Almost.

“You, Olivier, are a nasty little slut”, and Doc emphasises this with a particularly deep thrust, “and you deserve to be punished. Do you know why?”

He shakes his head, too preoccupied with the sight before him, the incredible feeling of becoming one with this man, something of which he’s been dreaming for a long, long time.

“But you do. Because it wasn’t just my desk, was it?” Panicked, Lion looks up and is met with a half amused, half heated gaze. Doc seems to be enjoying this at least as much as he is. “My underwear has gone missing a few times. So has my uniform. I know how you look at me.”

Oh shit. Lion’s face starts burning and it’s only partly the hard movements which rock his entire body. He must make for a shameful display: presenting himself, incapacitated of his own volition, whimpering and squirming on Doc’s magnificent cock. And he realises that he doesn’t even care – because it looks like Doc is having the time of his life, and that implies they’ll do this again.

“Look at you, you’re taking it so well.” His voice is mesmerising and Lion notices himself giving in to the thrumming desire, relishing the sharp motions reaching deep and causing small explosions of need, of want, of delight. When a hand closes around his throbbing erection, he throws his head back and arches his back, feels fingernails dig into his ribs and scrape over a sensitive nipple, prompting an elated groan. “You’re sucking me in and gripping me so tightly.”

Lion wants it to last so badly, wants to hear Doc talk some more about all the depraved things he’s done because he hasn’t even mentioned half of it, can’t know the full extent, but as always, the universe is against him and gave Doc not only a gloriously talented tongue as well as a perfectly shaped dick, but also awarded him with skilled fingers who identify Lion’s weakspots in seconds and massage the ridge of his glans, torture him with long, slow strokes just like he would himself and that’s right, Doc knows exactly how he does it because he’s seen it, and this knowledge mercilessly shoves Lion off the edge without so much as a warning.

He comes with a series of moans, abs contracting marvellously and sending shocks of pleasure through him while Doc milks him, keeps jerking him in time with the almost violent spurts of come Lion unloads on his belly. Doc fucks him through it and creates white noise in Lion’s head with his thrusts, the stimulation flirting with discomfort but never really reaching it; and if it wasn’t for Doc’s own orgasm, Lion might’ve passed out cold with how hard the relief hits him. His rhythmic spasming must’ve been too much for Doc, causes him to climax while Lion is still tensing up and riding the last of his high and he looks beautiful. Doc tilts his head back with a satisfied groan, hips stuttering, and comes deep -

He – he’s actually coming inside, dick pulsing, eyes rolling back. And if Lion is honest, it’s one of the hottest things he’s ever seen.

The hem of his sweatshirt snaps back the moment he lets go and he rests his head on the uncomfortable and frankly ostentatious desk with a sigh, lowers his legs but refuses to let Doc go by wrapping them around him once again. The fight has left him, but so has the heat of the moment which has shifted into an odd uncertainty. He’s not sure what to do other than enjoy the gentle afterglow.

As if he’d read his mind, Doc bends down to him for a kiss which lasts much longer than Lion expected it to, and when they separate after a good while, they’re both smiling. “How about we think of an excuse as to why our conversation took this long while we get you cleaned up?”, he murmurs good-naturedly.

The warmth spreading in Lion’s chest easily replaces the insecurity he felt, and so he nods happily.

“Really, though. Don’t touch my stuff again.”

He almost laughs at Doc’s serious tone and decides to take a chance: “And what if I do?”

To this, Doc smirks and Lion didn’t even know he was capable of doing that, is actually glad he didn’t find out earlier because it apparently doubles his heart rate and steals his breath away.

“Then I’ll see you in my office, Flament”, he says and raises a meaningful brow.

#rainbow six siege #doc #lion #doc/lion #fanfic #oneshot #commissions #lion is one of my fav unreliable narrators #stop letting your mouth write checks that you can't cash

[cheswirls]

tether notes 2/3

pt. 3

i mentioned this in the last part, but i used muroran as basis for veilstone, not abashiri. actually, if you want my opinion, i think shari, hokkaido, is a better depiction of veilstone than abashiri. mostly, i used muroran bc i could find pictures there that were more than just boat-icebreaker-drift ice-boat. abashiri is cold. and full of drift ice. if you need context, it’s level with toronto, canada. a pretty cold place to live. muroran is further south, and it’s also a port city, so i jus used that.

shari looks nicer, but it’s more into the hook of hokkaido (that piece on sinnoh map that jutts out right below battle zone) and not nestled into the mountains, so. mostly it was out.

makino’s cafe/bar is based on the diner in veilstone. so, walk in, counter bar to your left, tables to your right, possibly a happiny underfoot carrying trays of food. 

but, compared to the more rustic and colored veilstone, i wanted to depict more of hokkaido city here. so, more rundown, rusted due to sea breeze, older things without much repair. passable, sure, for daily life. but new and extravagant? no. far from.

if makino is so close with luffy, how come she doesn’t know sabo?

simple. she’s not close with luffy. makino has a fulltime job running a diner in veilstone, sinnoh. luffy grew up on the sevii islands, kanto. when he was in sinnoh, he was training with shanks. yeah, sure, they would come by for food, and makino is good friends with shanks, so of course she and luffy have a relationship. but, also at this point where shanks began to bring luffy around, instead of teaching him out in nowhere, sevii islands, they began to keep things secret. luffy was here “just visiting” to anyone who asks, but they wouldn’t seen him much around, not in the isolation shanks trained him in. also also at this point, because i derailed that sentence completely, ace and sabo were already out traveling. it just never came up. makino is friendly with luffy, she knows luffy, but she doesn’t know him, not really.

pokemon hunters is another anime concept i wanted to use, again to make the story more gritty. no evil teams here with world-domination plots, just poachers. pretty standard. still awful, especially if they’re poaching people, now, but nothing as wide-scale as team galactic.

i had so much fun writing ship captain jinbe. i wished i got more of a chance to write his crew, too. at this point i think i had just caught up reading blackbird by milo, and i was hooked on the idea of biker fishman gang and leader jinbe, so i adapted it into ship crew here. praline is there, yes. she’s badass. i said so, you heard it here. 

i talked a lot with my big bang partner, and we eventually decided jinbe’s a mix of hoenn and sinnoh descent. so, darker skin, almost polynesian, from hoenn’s more pacific island vibe. dark, curly hair. i drew a picture once? oh, here it is. jus a little sketch. he probably actually comes from hoenn, but he does cargo runs throughout sinnoh now. [i should probably say around, since there arent rly canals thru sinnoh?]

regarding law’s map error, i really jus wanted to reference flower paradise. of course the map he got was a tourist version, so of course it’s gonna include the magical pathway connecting the sinnoh league to an island of flowers. but it doesn’t actually exist, or if it does, it’s not always there, since they sail through the space with ease. just another fun easter egg. 

the marsh scene was another i’ve known i wanted since the beginning. i had so much fun drawing the map for it. i actually based the scenes entirely off the map, so while i knew the general direction i wanted it to go in, and that they would run into sabo, the part about wandering into the rain and encountering volcarona spawned while marking the map. crazy how things work, huh?

i think i made the chase move a little too fast, so most of the time out of their 12 hr limit is spent after departing from the marsh, wandering thru route 212. don get me wrong, the marsh scene spans over the course of hours, but its still less time from leaving the ship to leaving sabo than it is to get back to the ship.

the aegislash scene is the first one i conceptualized, of the marsh scene series. introducing law’s team was strategic, especially once i revealed luffy only had four pokemon. it was always meant to be a readers gamble how many law had. at the end of part 3, it’s pretty easy to gauge how many, but still, the surprise of the sixth pokemon in pt 4 is something im still proud of c:

anyway, yes, the first sense of real danger. poachers have no qualms in using their pokemon to harm other people. they’re there for the money, which they get from capturing and caging rare pokemon. who cares if they hurt a few people along the way? who cares if they brutalize them to take a particular pokemon, a-la mr. cleffa sir? law reacts to this very quickly, in part because he’s used to it, as explained in tragic backstory number 2, right behind one-brother-dies-and-the-other-runs-away from protag #2. 

actually, i guess the first danger was the wild kadabra, but this is the one in which someone gets hurt! . . . or, worse-hurt, because law’s scratch doesn’t count. luffy’s gash in his shoulder? that’s a big injury. especially when they can’t just stop to treat it, especially when law still has blood on his face from it, especially when they have to go right back to running around the marsh.

and then sabo appears!! i lied, this was the first marsh scene. i drabble-wrote it in my series-of-drabbles-to-add-to-the-outline before i made pt 3′s outline, and then wrote it for real. the aegislash-being-badass-therefore-law-also-by-proxy was the second. one of the first sentences i ever wrote for tether was law realizing the face from luffy’s picture was right before his eyes. 

so why do the hunters ignore luffy calling for sabo while running away?

yes, why the no consequences? i realized at this point they were too far away to hear and law too out of it (its law’s pov, still) to figure what they were saying, to i had to play it off. it’s another scene where i almost wrote a few paragraphs from a different perspective [the other two were the tsuru-caesar confrontation and the mr. cleffa dude ft. sabo scene, both of which i had to expand upon by talking, instead of a flashback to show it. i rly went full soul-eater approach here, huh? explaining everything through present means. well. save for law’s backstory, but that’s about the only thing.] but decided not to in the end.

here’s how the scene plays out, full disclosure. law and luffy spot the two hunters. a third person, sabo comes into view. the hunters tell sabo the situation, that they were being chased. law recognizes sabo, luffy does too, and calls out to him, loudly. this causes the hunters to panic, and they tell sabo, there, there’s the people chasing after us. law figures sabo has some secret reason for posing as a hunter and pulls luffy again out of view, not wanting to give him away. all three hunters take off running in the opposite direction. luffy calls out for sabo again, and sabo turns to question the other two, asking which pokemon they stole that was named ‘sabo’. he has a fake name, obviously. they don’t know he’s sabo. before they can figure it out, he derails the topic. but then he slips crossed fingers behind his back at the same time, signaling silently to luffy, who stops calling out.

so, tldr, sabo’s not using his real name while with the hunters and is smart enough to cover his ass from luffy’s mistake.

i wanted law carrying luffy, on their way down the route, to the stormclouds, and i’m pretty sure the one reason i didnt go thru with it is because law’s backpack. and, y’know, luffy being caked in mud. 

okay, do. panic attack time. ptsd time. a mix of both, ig. whatever you wanna call it. originally, this scene was going to be a bit different, and happen way earlier in the story. it didnt bc of sinnoh’s lack of fire types [there are only 2 i think, 2 lines i mean, so like 5] and the fact that ace’s team featured none of them. and then i thought, oh, i’ll jus make the same thing happen w sabo, except none of sabo’s team were one of them as well.

originally, it was going to be that law/lu encounter a clan of a specific type of wild fire pokemon. i think for the longest time it was talonflame, not sure anymore. anyway, so it was gonna go that luffy recognizes ace’s former pokemon outta the bunch, and they recognize lu as well, and the two reunite and all that jazz, and meanwhile law has his attack bc the group they encounter are one of the pokemon that tormented him in alola.

and, nope, now i remember why it didnt happen. as much as i hate dof, i had to craft a team for him for plot purposes, and that ended up being a bug team to go w the whole string motif. the problem was i had this scene planned for a looooong time, and it needed to be w a fire type, one of ace’s pokemon. except there are like no fire/bug pokemon, except for volcarona, who wasn’t on ace’s already-planned team at this point. i debated for foreeeeever and finally decided to screw it, and i made it sabo’s unova pokemon. so, instead of getting a unova dragon, in the land of dragons unova, sabo gets a volcarona and ace a darmanitan. all for plot purposes. no sense here. none at all.

[not that it matters, since sabo morphs into a fire trainer anyway after ace dies]

so, after i decided it would be sabos pokemon, the point came back to how they would encounter it. no hordes of wild volcarona in sinnoh. i sadly had to scrap the idea. this is what i came up with instead: volcarona coming to luffy to deliver a letter, and scarring law in the process.

Law has a chocolate bar, because he’s ten and anxious and chocolate seemed good at the time.

-aka my favorite line of the whole entire story!!!

and then law’s backstory time. so!!! for the longest time i was torn between setting the story in sinnoh or alola. this was my big compromise. i wrote a draft-outline for law’s alola backstory before i wrote a real outline for tether as a whole. this was the first part of the story i really wrote. i was done with it before i started pt 1, because i wanted to outline before i started writing. 

the thing abt law is that his life is so much of a tragedy. oda writes it so well, to the point where you’re thinking this can’t get any worse and then it gets worse, every time. i wanted to mimic that here. i didn’t do it justice, but i at least tried.

law’s life is filled with mistrust. his whole village dies, he nearly does as well, and so he packs up and runs away, and hides his one pokemon abra because he’s not a registered trainer and he refuses to abandon abra so theres mistrust towards everyone who can turn him in, and everyone who didnt care enough to help with the water crisis. he’s done with sinnoh. so he spends a bit holed up in a library, and once he reads about alola, he’s sold. he’s so mistrustful it’s not a matter of ‘anywhere is better than sinnoh’, its a matter of ‘i can’t end up in another place just like this’. alola is the solution.

except, he’s still mistrustful. so he hides abra, and he hides his money, and he doesn’t speak with anyone, and he leaves the city as soon as he can. he doesn’t know the rules of this place, but abra is all he has. he can’t lose abra. and then things go wrong.

because he’s out of sinnoh, but alola is different. he’s ten, and he’s never had a real pokemon battle, and all the wild pokemon of alola are too eager. he’s ten, and a pangoro attacks and he loses all his supplies on his very first day, because abra’s too exhausted to teleport them away this time. [in hindsight, i did a really bad continuity error here, throughout the entire flashback. it’s thru law’s eyes, so i describe the pokemon he doesn’t know about, and yet sometimes i name the pokemon he really shouldn’t know about. my bad.]

he’s ten, and the only food he finds is being guarded by a giant sumo crab, so he crawls to the other side of the beach and falls asleep on the sand, hungry. he’s ten, and he’s living off berries because money is only so good when you can exchange it, and he’s far away from civilization. he’s ten, and he spends the very last of his money on money for abra, for his only pokemon and his only ally, because going to a pokemon center would mean being seen and asking for a license to verify and its too risky, he can’t risk it. 

he’s ten, and he’s hungry, and he has nothing but the abra clutched in his arms and his ripped clothes clinging to his body, and he witnesses a murder. and they catch him in the act, and then he’s stuck, because he shouldn’t have a pokemon so young, and he’s a witness to a crime, and too quickly he’s in a very bad position.

he’s ten, and to keep abra alive, he joins a gang in alola.

he’s ten, and he’s blackmailed into working or risking abra being taken away. he’s ten, and he has morals, and there’s some tasks he won’t do, but the family boss punishes him for it, harshly. he stops having morals. it wouldn’t do him good here. 

law turns eleven, and suddenly gang tasks involve pokemon battles. law’s eleven, and doflamingo trains law himself, beating the weakness out of him, burning him, scarring him, terrorizing him because he can, and because law can’t refuse. 

law’s eleven when he realizes his picture-perfect alola was nothing but an illusion, because the lack of monopolies and corporations and factories actually had nothing to do with how much the natives cared about their own, or cared at all, about anything. just because alola didn’t have a pokemon league didn’t mean it wasn’t a bad place to be.

he’s eleven when he meets corazon, and finally, finally, gets a breath of fresh air, gets a taste of a person who isn’t there to ridicule him or abuse him. he’s eleven when he meets his first real friend since his sister died, meets someone that finally treats him like a human being. and it doesnt matter that he’s doflamingo’s brother, because he’s kind to law.

law’s eleven and corazon works to repair the damage done by the gang, little by little. he gets law out on an island challenge, and he wanders through melemele and akala and meets kind people and has fun and experiences the real alola. and he realizes, somewhere along the way, that he never wants to go back to the family ever again.

law’s eleven when he realizes he has no choice. because he belongs to doflamingo, because he has to skip out on ula’ula to accomplish a task for the family, because corazon sits there and lets it happen. 

law’s eleven when he’s given a pokemon egg, and when he’s given hope.

corazon was going to take care of everything. he was going to get them out, safely. they were going to rescue a captive pokemon. law was going to be free. law was never going to be hurt by the family again.

except, that’s not how it goes. corazon dies. corazon’s pokemon are tortured in order to lure law out. corazon’s pokemon all die for him and law has no option left but to run with all his might, all the way from one tip of ula’ula to the other. and then, because he can’t trust anyone, anyone, law runs away into a desert with no supplies to speak of.

law’s eleven when he comes face to face with the most temperamental tapu in the alola region, and even with all he’s been through, it’s the most scared he’s even been in his entire life. and then, when he comes to, he finds himself stranded in the kalos region. he’s eleven. he goes through all of this and he’s not even a teenager yet.

so, backing up just a bit, you can see how seeing a volcarona is going to invoke some rather strong emotions in law. he panics. he passes out. luffy puts volcarona away, because me might be oblivious on a lot of things, but he can understand the pure terror in law’s eyes.

alright, what else. the letter. of course luffy disavows the letter, he’s luffy, he can’t follow a plan to save his life.

#tether #pt 4 notes whenever i get around to formatting pt 4 #ill link the maps there too #and ill probably throw together a quick timeline too ive been thinkin abt it

[master-sass-blast]

Aaaaand one more Q for the evening because I need to retire - if there are any thoughts or tidbits about Hyde/Katuna or Hannah/Luis or Dakota/Frank or Hadassah/Frank or Piotr/Reader that are currently floating your boat, I would love to hear them, if you’re so inclined!! Pls and thank you muchly!

I HAVE SOMETHING FOR ALL OF THEM, OML.

Going under a cut again bc I’m expecting this to get long. Trigger warning for discussion about suicide/self harm.

Hannah/Luis: (This is the one with the trigger warning, FYI.) Okay, so I’ve been thinking about the first time they get into bed together, and I think the set up will look something like this:

They go out to dinner together (on a date, because they’re already romantically involved at this point), and Luis picks up on that Hannah’s not herself; she admits that she’s been in a depressive episode as of late, but says she’s fine with staying out when he offers to take her back to her apartment because: A.) her therapist says she needs to not work on isolating herself, B.) if she’s going to be out, she’d rather be with Luis because he makes her happy, C.) she genuinely enjoys listening to him tell stories.

When they’re back at the car (post-dinner), Luis asks if Hannah’s depression ever makes her feel like hurting or killing herself (bc he’s worried about her, not bc he’s nosy). She says yes, admits that why she wears long sleeves all the time, then starts to roll up her sleeves to show him her scars. He stops her and says she doesn’t have to; she smiles and says she’s okay with it.

Luis kisses her scars. Just saying.

Luis drops her off at her apartment building, and is about to head back to his place when he spies a flower shop.

He gets her some daffodils, then asks to be buzzed in and tells her he “has something for her.” Hannah buzzes him in, he heads up, and gives her the daffodils when she opens the door, citing “yellow is a happy color and might help perk you up” (along with an entire ramble about how it’s okay if she doesn’t perk up, because different things work for different people, and everyone’s brains are different which is so cool, but that he thought of her when he saw the flowers and thought she might like them).

Hannah cuts him off with a kiss on the cheek, says he’s sweet, and invites him in for a cup of tea. They drink tea and talk, then Hannah winds up kissing him while crawling into his lap, and then I think you can see where it goes from there.

Hadassah/Frank: Okay, these two are my angsty couple. They’ve both gone through a ton of shit, they’re both kind of broken inside, and UNGH the angst comes so easily with them. Case in point:

I was working on developing the growth of their relationship, trying to figure out how they wind up having feelings for each other, and it occurred to me that they’d probably fight a lot.

Aside from being stubborn jackasses, Hadassah and Frank both have very different points of view on life, despite being very similar in a lot of ways.

Case in point: Frank burned down his family’s home and everything left in it at the end of DD S2. Hadassah basically sees this as insanity and an act of cowardice, partially because she thinks Frank is running from his own self-perceived failures, and also because having grown up Jewish, she knows all too well that you don’t just destroy things that belonged to people and constitute part of their memories, no matter how painful it is to look at any of it.

They wind up having an ugly fight about it because neither of them can see eye to eye --and also because Hadassah is very willing to get downright nasty about things when she thinks she’s right.

They also fight about when it’s acceptable to kill people. They both think that some people have to be taken out, but Hadassah’s also willing to put down arguable innocents to “keep their six clear” or women and children (think the “Black Sky” and Hand fighters from Daredevil) because an enemy is an enemy is an enemy.

She also thinks that Frank’s “metric” is just his way of trying to absolve himself from his own past with his unit, because black and white seldom truly exists with villains. There’s always family, or a kid that joined a gang to try and make ends meet, and at the end of it, Frank’s probably killing as many “innocents” as she does.

That’s another nasty fight where they wind up not speaking to each other for a bit (which is awkward, considering they’re both staying in the same place).

They do learn how handle each other, eventually. Frank concedes that Hadassah’s tactics keep them safer than his do, and Hadassah acknowledges that you can’t keep an entire trove of stuff when you’re on the run, especially since it makes you easier to identify if someone breaks into your place.

Dakota/Frank: Okay, fun fact: the sex-related dreams Frank has about Dakota act as the story’s tell for how he views her, and how those views are changing. Let me explain:

This idea came from the fact that I have lots of weird (sometimes sexual) dreams because of my meds. I figured since Frank’s been shot in the head and knocked around a bit, he’d be a good candidate for weird dreams, too.

Case in point, the first sex dream he has of her is after watching a match and interview with the rest of Curtis’s group. She plays the cocky brat for TV, and his dream about her is him basically fucking her into the mat and dominating her because her arrogance/behavior annoys him.

As he gets to know her better and realizes that her tics are for the cameras and act as armor, the sex dreams he (rarely) has about her morph away from hardcore, domination focused stuff and towards more equal, love making stuff.

I don’t know how to end this, bc that’s basically the whole thought.

LLAMAS.

Katuna and Hyde: Ah, my sweet babies. My sweet, sweet dorks.

Katuna and Hyde get married at the end of their story. It’s a small ceremony, just with friends and family, but they’re okay with that.

Katuna’s daughter (who is a master seamstress) makes her wedding dress.

Not wedding related, but Katuna and Hyde snuggle a lot. Katuna’s favorite move is to lay her head in Hyde’s lap and have him play with her hair.

They also do a lot of napping together. It starts with them just sleeping on their sides of the bed (before they’re an extremely close couple), but eventually Katuna just takes to nestling right up next to Hyde.

Piotr/Reader: Okay, not exactly what you asked for, but I wanna talk about some things I have planned for the CHC:

Four AU specials for when we hit the end of the series! There’ll be a Zombie Apocalypse one, a loosely based on Beauty and Beast one, a 3+1 (or however many I decide on) Soulmate one, and a Coffee Shop one!

We’re gonna do an Infinity War fic that’s basically gonna be nothing but highlighting powerful woman, and I for one am Pumped about it.

Children of the Gods. OKAY, this miniseries is my BABY for the CHC. I have been working on and perfecting this arc for almost a year. It’ll be a four parter, brings in Karen Page and Frank Castle, Greek mythology, Alexandra’s assassin past and Mafia connections, and UGH. It’s gonna be so good, guys, you have NO idea.

Two kidnapping fics that directly impact the Reader, one of which will be the closest I’ll get to writing horror.

The Wedding/Engagement minseries, which we are V Close to.

At least two more smut fics.

Yeah, lots of exciting stuff! Obvs, I didn’t go into too much detail because this post would literally be a mile long, and also because I do want there to be some surprises, but if you want to know more feel free to ask!

[onestowatch]

Gia Woods Delves into a Dangerous Infatuation in “Feel It” Video [Q&A + PREMIERE]

Gia Woods came out to her Persian parents and the world all at the same time with her 2015 music video, “Only A Girl.” Soon after, the Hollywood native performed her first show ever at LA Pride in front of thousands of parade-goers. Her exotic charm swept the LGBTQ+ community, along with millions of pop perusers who have been streaming her songs ever since. Before long, she was signed to Disruptor Records and has dropped a killer lineup of alluring and breathtaking pop singles in anticipation of her debut EP. 

Her latest track is a roller coaster of maddening infatuation. Today, Ones To Watch is giving you an exclusive look at Woods’ new visual for “Feel It,” in which Woods and her love interest look-alike chase each other through a nightmarish dreamscape of hallucination and seduction. 

In celebration of the new release, we sat down with Gia Woods to talk about her original inspirations, her passion for authenticity, and the creative direction behind her new video. 

OTW: How did you discover your passion for singing/songwriting and what form did that take for you initially?

GW: I really started to become obsessed with just wanting to find out my musical taste through my sister. It was like Madonna, Green Day, Radiohead, she just had this amazing amount of different genres of music. So I was just always around it. And then growing up I had this guitar that was always sitting in my house but no one would play it. I started to just become curious about it, and eventually I just picked up the guitar and taught myself. My cousin was also a musician, so when I went to her house I would play around with her instruments. I was just always curious and wanted to learn almost any instrument I could find. From second grade to fifth grade I was in the school orchestra playing the violin, and then I did choir throughout middle school and high school. So I was just constantly wanting to be involved. Growing up I didn’t have much of a social life, like I didn’t have that many friends so I would always just be at home, writing music in my room with my guitar. So that’s really when I started writing and developing my voice. 

OTW: How does the new visual for “Feel It” compare or contrast with your "coming out" video and song "Only A Girl" in 2015? 

GW: Most of my songs are about a girl, but the thing I love about “Feel It” is that it’s kind of universal, like it doesn’t really matter who it’s about, it’s just about feeling that infatuation and obsession. But I definitely wanted to visual to tie in more of a narrative, like I really wanted to incorporate the infatuation with another person. So that’s why I actually included a visual with a girl, of us kissing, and of me seeing different versions of myself, whether I think it’s me or it’s not. That’s also kind of why I wanted to tie that back in, because in “Only A Girl” there is also a kissing scene. I thought it would be fun to show the narrative of what the song’s about. So that’s kind of where I wanted it to be cohesive with the first video I put out, because I haven’t really been doing much narrative in my videos since “Only A Girl.” The other videos since then have been visually more centered on me, but I thought it would be cool to incorporate more of a story with this one. By the way, I have to shout out one of my best friends, actor and model Sophia Ventrone, who plays the other girl in the video. We’ve been friends for a long time, and it was so much fun filming the video with her. 

OTW: Yea, I really liked seeing the juxtaposition between yourself and your love interest. What's the message behind the matching outfits and the way your faces morph into one another's? 

GW: Well the video is based on the film Black Swan, so it’s basically me confronting myself everywhere I go with this mysterious woman, whether it’s me actually seeing myself or it’s someone else, a twin of mine, or I’m seeing things. But this all goes back to infatuation, which is really what the song’s about. It’s like that feeling when you’re first starting to see someone and you’re just super infatuated with them. That’s kind of where I wanted to incorporate the twin element, because the video is basically just me being infatuated with the fact I can’t tell if I’m seeing myself, or I’m seeing this girl. I just really wanted the visual to make you feel that obsession, of like what is going on. And that control that you just do not have. 

OTW: This video seemed to have punk-ier, darker undertones than your past work. Are you going in a grungier direction with your look and music?

GW: Honestly, I feel like my style is all different ways, like I just love everything. I think it’s really cool to always trying something new, so that’s why I’m always down to try new concepts for videos, new visuals. But I definitely have always had more interest in the darker side of things, clothing wise. Like I would wear all black when I was growing up. I just think all my different songs and videos incorporate all the different styles I’m into, in general. But for this specific song, I really envisioned it being just a bit more like fiery and darker. A lot of people hear the song as like a fun summer song, but I hear it as the opposite. So I just wanted to vibe and the clothes to match that for this one. I like it when the visual doesn’t always match the sound of the song. 

OTW: If you had to describe the specific message you want to send with your music, in a few sentences or less, what would it be? 

GW: Honestly I just want people to feel like themselves when they listen to my music. If there’s any way that my music could make someone feel that way, that would mean the world to me. And just being honest and genuine through my music, because I think that sometimes people can put a front, or you don’t really get a genuine message when you listen to someone’s song. So, I hope to be an artist who can represent that for somebody. I only listen to artist who I feel like can genuinely connect to their words and lyrics. Because you can tell when someone’s not genuine, you know what I mean? And I hate that. 

OTW: Who do you look up to most in the music industry and why? 

GW: Madonna! I was always obsessed with her growing up, she was really the first pop artist that I latched on to as a kid. And I was just obsessed with watching her videos and what she stood for. Her message was just like “this is what you get,” and that really resonated with me.  

OTW: Which artist or artists would you do anything to collaborate with?

GW: Hmmm, that’s a good one. I would love to do a song with Daft Punk sometime because I’ve always been obsessed with them. And I’ve always loved that kind of like 80s vibe music. Madonna definitely had that vibe too so I would really love to do a song with them.

OTW: Who are your Ones To Watch? 

GW: Dominic Fike, I found him at the very beginning. As soon as he dropped his first song I found it, and I was like this song is gonna blow up. (And it did.)

#Feel It #Gia Woods #Pop #interview

[folklorestv]

Hamilton London: Review (Oct 2018)

I saw Hamilton in London on Oct 4, 2018 (matinee show) and I decided to write a little review; I was located in the stalls, row K, seat 40 (scroll further to the bottom of the post to see where my seat was exactly). I’d been wanting to see Hamilton for about two and a half years and I bought the tickets eight months ago, and it feels so surreal that the moment I’ve been looking for is over at last. I flew out to London on Wednesday, the show was on Thursday (two show day). We got to the Victoria Palace Theatre at around 1pm and by that time, a small queue had already formed outside. We got in pretty quickly as the paperless ticketing system works great! The redeveloped theatre is absolutely beautiful, not to mention fancy as hell. They let us inside the actual stage room at 1.45pm, there’s different entries and they let us know beforehand which one to take, so we were at our seats in no matter of time. Fortunately, my seat had plenty of leg room and sitting was not uncomfortable at all. Being in 11th row, I was super close to the stage. Like, for real, I was really close. You can’t tell on the photo, but when the actors were on stage I could see every single tiny facial expression. Let’s just say that I could always see clearly whenever the actors spit while singing/rapping.

I’ve written a review on each actor which I will put under the cut (it actually got really fucking long, I doubt anyone will read all of it). You will be able to tell that I actually prefer the West End company over the OBC! I only have the OBC to compare them to, anyway. One thing I want to mention beforehand (because I don’t want to write it multiple times) is that you could actually hear the cast’s British accents here and there, but overall they did a solid job at faking an American one! I rather enjoyed it whenever a bit of a British accent slipped through at certain words.

Jamael Westman as Alexander Hamilton: I honestly don’t know where to start. Jamael is absolutely amazing, in my opinion a lot better than Lin! He is a perfect Alexander Hamilton and I can’t praise him enough. I’m glad he extended his contract and hopefully I’ll be able to see him again next year. He is great down to every micro-expression, like I said, he definitely beats Lin. His voice is awesome and very lovely to listen to, he hits all his notes, and he speaks clearly which made the rapping fantastic as well. He has a wonderful gentleness about him that is beautiful in That Would Be Enough and Stay Alive (Reprise); his Hurricane and his verse in The World Was Wide Enough are breathtaking. Moreover, Jamael nails the role in both acts. He has that certain playfulness in the first act and I enjoyed watching him so much. In the second act, he plays the fatherly and slightly more serious role really well, too. In contrast to the serious part, he is amazing during the Cabinet Battles and earned a lot of laughs from the crowd! Opposed to Lin (in my opinion), Jamael just fits the role a lot better physically, too. He’s young, fresh and handsome and that is mirrored in his portrayal of Hamilton. To sum it up, Jamael’s energy as Hamilton is out of this world and I’m at a loss for words.

Rachelle Ann Go as Eliza Hamilton: She didn’t particularly stand out for me, but she is still an amazing Eliza! She brings the necessary eagerness in Helpless and you could see her go through a real character arc as she grew more mature. She has a phenomenal singing voice and her acting is great, too. She’s genuinely crying in Burn and you could feel all her disgust towards Hamilton, it was amazing. Furthermore, her scream in Stay Alive (Reprise) is heartbreaking. She’s an excellent emotional singer. She’s also a lot shorter than Jamael which just made them look cute as a couple on stage.

Giles Terera as Aaron Burr: I have mixed feelings about him. I had to get used to him first for a couple of songs as his lisp annoyed me a bit, particularly at the start with the spoken narration. I wasn’t a big fan of his voice but I soon realised that he’s an incredible performer! He can sing really well which he definitely shows in Wait For It and The Room Where It Happens, so as the show progresses the lisp became less noticeable and you can focus on his excellent performance and acting. Overall, he plays a different Burr than Leslie Odom Jr, and at the end I actually adored his portrayal since it’s fresh and new. I still preferred him in the second act, though. He does a great job of making Burr a victim and The World Was Wide Enough - especially the end of it - was simply beautiful.

Rachel John as Angelica Schuyler: Oh my lord, she is absolute perfection. She might have beat Renée Goldsberry for me just because she has that certain something, she is a lot more fierce. Her voice is badass and she killed Satisfied! You can see her gentle side in It’s Quiet Uptown which she plays really well. She can sing, rap, act and get all the right emotions across. I’m so glad I got to see her as Angelica! I would’ve loved to see her sing Congratulations as that song seems to be written only for her. As you can tell, I’m literally speechless when it comes to her. She definitely owns the stage whenever she is on it.

Obioma Ugoala as George Washington: Definitely one of my favourites. He was unreal. Imagine Chris Jackson but even better! He has a really powerful and super deep voice along with amazing vocals. He was full on yelling a few times in Right Hand Man and you definitely feel intimidated by him. He plays the comedic part in the Cabinet Battles well, which is something I haven’t seen with other Washingtons. He gives the role all the aspects that were missing and I was completely speechless after his performance! He gets the loudest applause after One Last Time as he does a particularly fantastic job during the song! His vocals are simply incredible and he dominates the tricky role of George Washington. Fun fact: He actually forgot his line “Remember, my decision on this matter is not subject to congressional approval / The only person you have to convince is me” in Cabinet Battle #2 while saying it and just changed it up quickly to “Anybody else’s opinion doesn’t matter”. I just thought that was funny, it just proves what live theatre is like.

Jason Pennycooke as Marquis de Lafayette / Thomas Jefferson: Absolutely loved him! I wasn’t immediately a fan of his Lafayette because I got caught up in how different he is to Daveed Diggs. But in reality, he brings completely new energy to the role, which I enjoyed a lot. Guns And Ships is flawless, so he is really likeable in the first act. He is sort of this small, young guy who comes out of nowhere and saves the day. The second act blows everyone away! His Jefferson is perfect, probably better than Daveed’s. His version is again different but he is so funny and gets the majority of laughs! Next to Jamael as Hamilton, he does perfect comedy in the Cabinet Battles - they both do. I am basically in love with his portrayal of both characters as he brings a lot to them each. He does a stand out performance and is a true joy to watch. Although he is so very, very different to Daveed, he is very talented and awesome in his roles! Again, the second act had me completely amazed. His rapping and singing is on point and he is really flamboyant and confident. I also met him at the stage door and he’s very lovely in person. He genuinely appreciated when I told him how much I liked his portrayal and he took tons of time with everyone.

Tarinn Callender as Hercules Mulligan / James Madison: Personally one of my cast favourites as I’ve been enjoying his Instagram stories (and Cleve’s) for a year now. I was super excited to see him on stage and he was perfect! His portrayal is quite similar to Okieriete’s, but I still enjoyed it! He brings a booming energy to the group as Mulligan in the first act and he morphs perfectly into Madison in act two. He kills his rap in Yorktown and I was in love. He has this  wonderful “I’m so done with this shit” attitude about Jefferson which is funny and he gets a lot of laughs as well. Tarinn is a wonderful performer and has an amazing comedic timing! He is awesome alongside Cleve in act one, and then alongside Jason in act two. He lifts the scenes and picks up the pace. He was the nicest person ever at the stage door (I had been dying to meet him) and he took a lot of funny photos with my phone! It was a blast to see him that day, definitely my favourite part of my London trip. (I’m putting the photos he took with my phone at the end of the post.)

Cleve September as John Laurens / Philip Hamilton: My other favourite besides Tarinn! Cleve and Tarinn are an amazing duo, on and off stage. They put a lot of comedy into the first act and bring new energy to the characters’ beliefs. It is absolutely heartbreaking when John Laurens dies (right after Dear Theodosia) and Cleve is able to bring the sadness and the pride across at the same time. He is absolutely fantastic as Philip, too, I probably prefer him over Anthony Ramos. Take A Break was sooo funny, I wish everyone could see him in it! His portrayal differs from Anthony’s while he still stays true to the character. He’s so scared during Blow Us All Away and he’s genuinely shaking before the duel. Stay Alive (Reprise) is absolutely heart wrenching to watch. Cleve’s acting is flawless during the conversation between Philip and Alexander (”I did exactly as you said, Pa / I help my head up high / Even before we got to ten- / I was aiming for the sky”). He actually screams out in pain while talking and my heart shattered into pieces. He does an awesome job! Definitely a bummer that I didn’t meet him at the stage door as Cleve is such a lovely and funny person as well.

Sharon Rose as Peggy Schuyler / Maria Reynolds: She is the only understudy of the main cast that I saw but she really kills her role! I had heard recordings of Christine Allado as Maria before and thought she was amazing; therefore I was really curious to see Sharon. She is really fun-loving during The Schuyler Sisters and her portrayal as Peggy is everything it has to be. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her and she is adorable during Helpless and Satisfied. She also kills her performance as Maria during Say No To This and it reminded me more of Christine Allado’s version, rather than Jasmine Cephas Jones’s. Sharon hits every note and plays that helplessness and state of being devastated well, she’s definitely an amazing emotional singer, similar to Rachelle!

Michael Jibson as King George: I wasn’t sure about him first but afterwards I can say that I definitely like his portrayal more than Jonathan Groff’s. I prefer Jonathan’s vocals as I felt like Michael was sometimes struggling with the high notes, but he absolutely owns the stage when he was on it! All of his mannerisms are superb; he might have got the most laughs and cheering from the audience. The British definitely love to make fun of themselves and poke at the Royals, it was awesome! Michael adds a lot of tiny tweaks to the character which is really creative. He changed several things about the performance as King George that make the whole portrayal a lot more fun to watch. You should definitely go see him in his role if you ever have the chance. I also met him at the stage door where he seemed like a really laid-back and nice guy!

Jack Butterworth as Samuel Seabury: Now, this is a super minor role but I thought I should mention it anyway. Jack Butterworth is a pure joy to watch as Samuel Seabury. Completely different energy compared to the OBC; Jack seems a lot more innocent and playful. Also, he is standing on a podium and Jamael is almost taller than him without a podium, just a funny thing I noticed. Jack was definitely the right casting choice (as are all the other actors involved).

Gregory Haney as Charles Lee: Another really minor role that I want to mention nevertheless. Charles Lee is usually played by Leslie Garcia Bowman so it came as a bit of a surprise to me that Gregory played the role that day. I’ve been following him for several years as he was part of the Broadway cast before and I was really excited when he starred as Charles Lee in Stay Alive! He did a really good job in both Stay Alive and Ten Duel Commandments. His “I’m a general, whee!” sounds different than the Broadway one and earns many laughs.

Ensemble - Jade Albertsen, Curtis Angus, Courtney Mae Briggs, Jack Butterworth, Jon Scott Clark, Kelly Downing, Gregory Haney, Leah Hill, Walyon Jacobs, Miriam-Teak Lee, Chris Tendai: The ensemble are the true stars of the show; they bring beautiful harmonies and mind-blowing choreographies. Leah Hill stood out for me as the Bullet and she did a beautiful job. Miriam Teak-Lee is another one who stood out in all of the dancers, I’ve heard recordings of her as Angelica (she’s actually an alternate for all the Schuyler sisters!) and she definitely has potential to rise up. Kudos to everyone in the ensemble, they’re doing an amazing job every night.

Like I said, I was pretty close to the stage. My ticket was £100 while the ticket for the seat to my right is already £250. This is because my view of the stage was slightly obstructed to the left side which didn’t matter at all. The only thing I missed was Washington’s “Me, I trusted him” during Alexander Hamilton and I couldn’t see Hamilton standing on the staircase during Satisfied. Both of those are, however, very minor things that didn’t bother me. I felt extremely close to the actors in 11th row, and it was definitely worth saving £150 (the rows in front of me are £250, too).

Aaaand here are the photos Tarinn took with my phone!

#hamilton london #hamilton west end #hamilton london cast #west end #hamilton #kristina.txt

[calamitycassie]

Warning: This Q&A is a little different, involving only one question and basically being an essay on why I made Cassie the way she is. Anyone not particularly interested in the technical aspects of novel writing are advised to skip it. Also, the usual caveat applies–this is only my opinion, but that’s okay since it’s my books I’m discussing.

A question came in for the Q&A, which I decided to answer in detail. That’s partly because I’m sick and taking a day off from my usual writing schedule, not feeling very creative at the moment. So I have the time. But it also happens to be a question that I’m asked regularly in interviews, and I’d like to set the record straight.

I read alot of urban fantasy and love yours, but it seems Cassie is, I don’t know, a little weak? Why did you make her the way you did? I mean, she can’t even shoot a gun!  

First, I’m going to be bitchy, because I am always bitchy, and because my head hurts right now. And point out that this:

is an alot. By the way, if any of you aren’t yet familiar with the awesomeness that is Hyperbole and a Half may I suggest you remedy that immediately? You are missing out.

You mean, I assume, that you read a lot of urban fantasy, and I’m glad that mine is a part of that (although probably not now, huh?) Anyway, I used to be confused by questions like yours, since I didn’t view Cassie that way, even in the first few books of the series. But eventually I realized that the question wasn’t referring to personality/backbone but to power.

Cassie starts the series as a clairvoyant who stumbles into time-travel abilities once she becomes Pythia, the chief seer of the supernatural world. Now, that doesn’t seem like a bad skill set to me (sometimes, especially near a deadline, I’d love to be able to turn the clock back!) But compared to the usual gun-toting, wisecracking, blow-’em-up-and-sort-’em-out-later types that populate much of urban fantasy, I suppose her attributes do appear a little “softer.”

My answer to this question was usually to point out that Cassie is the lead character, but that the Cassandra Palmer series is an ensemble effort (think Avengers Assemble rather than The Hulk). And that Cassie’s abilities were designed to complement those of the other characters. So she didn’t need to be all things to all people and do every single thing herself, which I always found stretching credulity anyway.

Now, that wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the truth, either. At least, not the whole truth. I just didn’t think that the bloggers who asked me for a short Q&A really wanted a novel on character creation. But you asked and I’m bored, so here goes.

Have you ever noticed that many urban fantasy series are fairly short-lived? In some cases, maybe the books just didn’t resonate with readers and they got the old corporate ax. But in many more, it was the author who chose to end them after only three to five books. Now, maybe some of those authors just like writing shorter story arcs, which is absolutely their prerogative. But that often seemed like kind of a waste to me, since a good portion of the space in most fantasy series’ early books is devoted to world-building. Ending a series early therefore doesn’t leave a lot of time to explore the characters’ personalities, or provide much room for a story arc.

That’s particularly true since, unlike epic fantasy, urban fantasy tends to have a limited page count. My publisher prefers nothing over 120,000 words, and ideally would like the books to come in at closer to 100,000. It’s simple economics: it costs more to edit, print and ship longer books, and while e-books are making those distinctions less important, they’re still there. I know because I frequently go over that maximum!

So, why have such short series? I think the reason has to do with where some authors choose to start their characters. Of course, few these days are going to go Dicken’s route and start a character off at birth, but every author has to decide whether to begin the story earlier or later in their character’s development. And most choose later. Why? Because it plays well with readers.

There’s little that most fantasy fans like more than an ass-kicking, name-taking, alpha lead character to drive a series. That’s why the rows of urban fantasy books tend to be dominated by leather-wearing protagonists, usually in scary surroundings and carrying one or more deadly weapons. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. And going that route does have some pretty big advantages.

For one, a lot of readers are not known for patience (don’t look at me like that–you know it’s true), and if you want them to get past book one, you have to hook them early. And the easiest way to do that is to give them what they want. So if they want the traditional butt-kicking hero, why not just give it to them?

For another, it’s just plain easier to write a hero who is at the top of his or her skill set. You don’t have to come up with explanations for why your lead is heading boldly out to confront the bad guys. Why wouldn’t he? He’s Iron Man! Or the Hulk! Or Captain America! He can handle himself. But, of course, if your hero is a normal gal in a happy face T-shirt who couldn’t hit the side of a barn with a gun even if she threw it, AKA Cassie when my series begins, then you have to work much harder to get her into a believable set of circumstances where she must confront the villain. You also have to manage to find a way for her to beat him when the opposite would seem far more likely.

It’s not surprising, then, that many urban fantasies choose to start their hero out either at or near the top of her game. And for a few books, that works great. The series is dynamic, villains are falling left and right, quips are being quipped and fun is being had. But then comes book number four, or possibly five if the writer is especially skilled. And the wall is hit.

The problem is that, even in fantasy–or maybe especially in fantasy–characters have to act in a way that is believable. When you’re demanding so much suspension of disbelief where your universe is concerned, something has to ground your story and that something is usually going to be your characters. And what is not believable is to have a character who never changes.

Change, whether good or bad, is part of human life, and a static character therefore starts to feel unreal after a while. The problem is, if you’ve started a character out near the top of her arc, where are you going to take her? Yes, it is possible for people to change in emotional ways: to work through a problem they’ve had with someone or something in their past (AKA the Inigo Montoya approach). Or to find true love (AKA the Harlequin approach), although that’s more often found in the realms of paranormal romance. Or to fulfill a destiny in some way. And all of those are legitimate story arcs. However, they also tend to be short ones.

So after a few books, when much of the world building is done and the characters are set and the hero has completed her arc, the author starts to wonder…now what? Or sometimes the audience does, when it seems like a bunch of otherwise good characters are wandering around in search of a storyline. The reason they don’t have one is that their story has been told. It’s done, it’s over, and all that’s left is to ride off into the sunset. And so the series folds.

At least, ideally it does. Since the only other option is to morph the character out of all recognition, AKA the weird approach, and essentially give yourself a new character to work with. And therefore a new arc, for a few books anyway. This has been done successfully on occasion, but it’s risky, since it can cause a backlash from readers when they see a favorite character change to the point of no longer being recognizable.

Which brings us back to Cassie–or Frodo at Bag End, or Harry Potter in his closet. Having heroes start at a much earlier point in their arc often makes an author work harder at the beginning, because there’s not as many bells and whistles to keep people entertained, and because their character can come off looking weak even in comparison to her own supporting cast! But it pays dividends in the long run. A lot of dividends.

Dividend 1: It makes the series longer, since your character needs time to change from Harry Potter to Harry Freaking Potter, which in turns allows you more books with which to explore his psyche and flesh him out. When your story starts before everything gets crazy (or at least before it gets as crazy as it inevitably will), the reader gets to grow along with your hero. They get taken on the journey, too, instead of just being shown this character that is already fully formed before the first scene opens. Also, if your main character’s arc is longer, it gives an opportunity to flesh out side characters as well, leading to a more well-rounded cast.

Dividend #2: It is wonderful for building tension. Nothing takes the wind out of a story’s sails faster than having overpowered heroes. You want the protagonist to have to work and struggle to overcome the odds against him or her. You want to have readers on the edge of their seats, wondering how your hero is going to get out of it this time. You want readers to identify with the character, to worry along with him, to bite their nails and be glued to the page, thinking that maybe this is the end because ohmyGodnowaywesurvivethis! And you don’t get that with an overpowered hero.

Dividend #3: You get to help with genre diversity. Urban fantasy is still a relatively young genre, which means it’s a bit more dynamic and less set in its ways than some. But there are already signs of tropes, clichés and stock characters developing. And let’s face it, if every hero is a super-powered, suave, take-no-prisoners type, things get boring fast. Personally, I like to play against type.

That’s why even my other heroine, Dorina Basarab, who is a lot more traditionally butt-kicking than Cassie, has elements that make her very unusual for the genre. She’s a dhampir, half-vampire/half-human, with something of a split personality thing going on, since her two halves never really merged all that well. In a sense, she’s two people in one, and at least one of them is as crazy as a bed bug. But that’s half the fun! Longer series give you a chance to do some pretty unusual things with your characters, and that’s only healthy for the genre overall.

Dividend #4: For the reader, your world and characters start to feel like home. Because, seriously, how many people read Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories for the mystery? I’m a mystery buff, and I love me some Rex Stout. But I’ll be the first to admit that his ability to put together a compelling mystery was, er, somewhat limited. But it didn’t matter, because nobody read them for the mysteries anyway. We read them for the characters.

We wanted to know what Fritz was cooking that day and what Wolfe was reading and what girl Archie was pursuing and how the orchids on the roof were doing. And we wanted to know these things because we cared about the characters, and because that old brownstone had become a second home for us, one where we felt completely at ease and yet suitably tingly, because a body could drop out of a closet at any second. It was our second home because we’d visited so many times over such a long period, that it began to feel like we’d actually lived there, too. But you don’t get that feeling out of a one-off book, no matter how good it is. For that, it takes a series and a long one. And a long series takes a special kind of protagonist.

#cassie palmer #karen chance #cassie palmer series #q&as #txt

[aion-rsa]

Doctor Who’s Best Comfort-Viewing Episodes

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I mean, it’s not like absolutely everything is terrible right now, but certainly a lot of things are and we could all do with a break. As a result, here’s a list of Doctor Who stories – one chosen per Doctor – that I put on for comfort. Sometimes you need something familiar and well-worn to unwind with.

This list is very much subjective, some of it is down to which Doctor Who videos I could afford when I was 10. These stories work for me and it’s unlikely they will work completely for someone else. Also worth mentioning is that this list is incomplete; these are not the only stories I watch for comfort, and indeed sometimes that’s not the reason I watch these stories.

First Doctor: ‘The Aztecs’

‘The Aztecs’ is a great example of Doctor Who that can be both familiar, endearing and brutal. In this story Barbara is mistaken for the goddess Yetaxa, and attempts to use her influence to stop the practice of human sacrifice. The Doctor rails against changing history, the High Priest plots to reveal Barbara’s ploy. To escape, Ian has to fight to the death, Susan has to avoid an arranged marriage, and the Doctor has to pretend to romance an Aztec woman who might have the key to letting them reach the TARDIS again. It’s all very morally murky yet comes away feeling generous.

A lot of the characters are flawed and interesting. You understand their motives even if you don’t agree with them. The original TARDIS crew, who have hit their stride now, are included in this. The Aztecs are shown to both practice human sacrifice and meet writer John Lucarotti’s description of ‘a highly civilised and cultured race’.

It’s also a well-made show, and if anything the improved picture quality has been cruel to Barry Newberry’s backdrops – not for lack of detail, but for picking out the folds in the material. With the script doing the same for the characters, ‘The Aztecs’ shows us that comforting does not have to equal light.

Second Doctor: ‘The Macra Terror’

There’s something counterintuitive about choosing a Troughton story with almost no existing pictures because so much of his performance is visual. However, having first experienced a lot of Troughton stories as audio there’s still a lot to admire in his expressive vocal performance.

Also something potentially counterintuitive here is that I’m picking a story outside of the Base Under Siege format that dominated Season 5, which for many people is their platonic ideal of Doctor Who. However I feel that this does a great disservice to a subgenre I’m going to call ‘Weird Troughton’, defined by being an outlier from the series format or featuring Troughton still working out the role (so ‘The Highlanders’, despite being a historical with no science-fiction elements, counts because Troughton is still trying out strange and fun things with the character). ‘The Underwater Menace’ is ridiculous and I love it anyway, David Whittaker very much ploughs his own furrow, and ‘The Mind Robber’ raises the possibility that Doctor Who is a self-aware entity. ‘The Macra Terror’, now available as an animation, is for me one of the best pieces of drama produced from this group, managing to be sinister, fun and have giant crab monsters in it.

It’s an angry take on uniformity, jingoism and control and feels very current. The Second Doctor’s response to having his clothes cleaned and hair combed in accordance with colony beauty standards is great. Ben’s brainwashing gives Michael Craze a chance to show his range, and by choosing not to play it in a zombie or fugue state it’s all the more chilling. Plus, and I can’t stress this enough, giant crabs.

Third Doctor: ‘The Sea Devils’

‘The Sea Devils’ is a sequel to ‘The Silurians’, Malcolm Hulke’s story of prehistoric lizard people who were the dominant species on Earth before humanity. That story was a more considered, intense tale, whereas this is more of a romp with depth. With aquatic lizards instead of underground ones, it also features the Navy rather than UNIT, and the Navy is credited with assisting the production.

Possibly because of this collaboration Jon Pertwee (formerly of the Naval Intelligence Division during World War Two) is clearly having a great time. Otherwise the tropes of the era (the Master, the military, meddling civil servants, Jo Grant gets to be resourceful and plucky, six episodes that could have been done in four) are all present and correct and ready to be argued at. It’s extremely comfortable, and directed with pace and energy by Michael E. Briant (he also knows when to slow down: the submarine attack, for example, where the sailors arm themselves and get into position, watching in horror and confusion as the door melts in front of them).

Hulke injects just enough detail into the characters to bring them to life, with the cast rising to the challenge. Colonel Trenchard, for example, feels like someone you could hear at a golf club complaining about immigration. The final two episodes dispense with any notion of depth and instead we get a big ol’ fight scene where the Navy gets to show off its machinery and the stunt team gets to show off its flips and falls.

This story also features an experimental synth score and a swordfight between the Doctor and the Master where one of them stops for sandwiches. The Pertwee era is pitched incredibly astutely. Sure, it’s absolute nonsense, but it’s amiable nonsense with teeth.

Fourth Doctor: ‘The Ribos Operation’

‘The Ribos Operation’ (or, as it should be known ‘The Best Fourth Doctor Story’) kicks off The Key to Time arc by systematically undermining the entire concept. The Doctor is given a mission by the White Guardian (ostensibly nicer than the Black Guardian but with a hint of unease to him), to find six pieces of The Key to Time and restore balance to the universe. The Doctor is given a new companion, a recent Time Lord academy graduate with all the book knowledge but no experience of the universe.

Robert Holmes’ script is layered, funny, and treads a perfect balance between anger and (unexpectedly) kindness. It hides its subtleties with engaging dialogue and characters, all played with the right levels of bombast. And such characters! Garron and Unstoffe, one of several Doctor analogues (he’s a big, booming and charismatic conman, with Unstoffe as his game but questioning companion who brings compassion that Garron can’t) are rightly regarded as the standouts, but it’s also worth noting the Graff Vynda K: a villain of the piece, a prissy warlord full of self-importance but never heard of before or since, a backwater despot bullying his way across a tiny corner of the universe. The Doctor’s solution to a vainglorious, self-mythologising monster? To blow him up. An interesting response on a number of levels.

There’s nothing wrong with this story. It’s superbly constructed and well-made. It’s a perfect anti-epic, and the only story I’ve rewatched on DVD as often as I did VHS.

Fifth Doctor: ‘Enlightenment’

A wondrous peak in Eighties Doctor Who, starting as a cerebral science-fiction adventure before morphing into a cerebral science-fiction adventure that’s camp as tits.

You may recall Craig Ferguson’s description of Doctor Who as ‘the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism’. ‘Enlightenment’ is a great example of this, with the romantic image of seafaring ships sailing through space corrupted by both the aloof officers and the Black Guardian’s influence. The Guardians here are ostensibly still representations of order and chaos, but mostly they’re ‘nice old man with bird on head’ and ‘ridiculous hyuk hyuking villain with bird on head’. The officer class are made up of Eternals – a race of godlike immortal beings who created this space race for entertainment – a great concept invented by writer Barbara Clegg after witnessing her rich relatives interact with her poorer ones at a family gathering.

The Doctor, through his intellect and faith in his companion, removes the corrupting forces. It’s not clear what happens to the surviving ships after the race is finished, but imagine finding one abandoned in space. It’s such a strong image in a story full of them. Clegg’s writing is full of great concepts and characterisation, including some excellent work with the regulars that makes them feel much more like real people than usual.

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Sixth Doctor: ‘The Mark of the Rani’

In which Time Lady the Rani experiments in a north-eastern mining town, causing violence to erupt.

First of all there’s the score, which is still of its time but feels distinctive due to its more tranquil ambient feel. It doesn’t sound dissimilar to The Microgram, someone who travels round the North East of England recording ambient noises and playing synths over them. There’s even one recorded at Beamish, which completes the loop here.

‘The Mark of the Rani’ is set in Killingworth, north of Newcastle, and technically so are the accents. They sound like someone went round RADA asking ‘Has anyone heard the song “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” by PJ and *checks notes* Duncan?’

This slightly askew version of reality fits Pip and Jane Baker’s version of Doctor Who. Their debut script for the show establishes their style of endearingly serious batshit nonsense (landmines that turn people into plants, leading to the immortal line ‘The tree won’t harm you’). It’s like their stories are written by Wallace with minimal input from Gromit.  

As a result ‘Mark of the Rani’ stands out amidst the aggressive stories surrounding it. It can be taken as merely enjoyably daft, but it’s also got some substance to it. Pip and Jane clearly remember Doctor Who as being the kind of show where the Doctor and his companion got on, so Peri is subjected to less arguing and is even defended (admittedly in terms of utility) by the Doctor.

The Rani is actually a character here, as opposed to her other appearances where she is simply A Villain In Doctor Who, and her presence immediately reduces Anthony Ainley’s Master to a supporting comic relief character. This suits him. When you’re standing in a field caked in shit pretending to be a scarecrow and laughing at passers-by for not noticing you clearly we can’t take you seriously anymore, so at least this story doesn’t pretend he’s a credible threat.

So on the one hand it’s daft, silly fun, but on the other it’s a mid-Eighties story featuring a chemist torturing Northern miners for her own gain. Guess what degree Margaret Thatcher graduated from Oxford with?

Speaking of Thatcher:

Seventh Doctor: ‘The Happiness Patrol’

Within Doctor Who fandom, no one has ever said ‘Oh you don’t like the McCoy era? I’m sorry, you never mentioned it’, and ‘The Happiness Patrol’ revels in all the things its detractors hate about the era. It’s intentionally camp and uses symbolism rather than demanding to be taken literally, like a more confident version of Season 24. The Kandy Man is rightly noted as (visually) a Bertie Bassett parody, played as the ludicrous creature he undoubtedly is.

Knowing that it is restricted in what it can show in terms of violence, the show had now worked out how to be ostensibly child-friendly and incredibly morbid, hence the screeching sweetie-creature, the Day-Glo ray-guns, and the guy who gets drowned in a vat of jam. When you’re three and have never seen Doctor Who before the Kandy Man is downright terrifying, this bizarre monster who twists and turns and screams. This was my first experience of Doctor Who and, appropriately enough, it scared the hell out of me.

As an adult, I find it’s a pleasing return to the ‘Weird Troughton’ stories of the Sixties, the ones where the Doctor was an unassuming but powerful anarchic figure. Here we have a variation of this, where the Doctor has been trying to explore the universe but finds it full of monsters, and starts doing something about it.

Before Season 26 attempted something approaching realism, this story suits Ace and the Seventh Doctor who both feel like Children’s TV archetypes who have grown tired of their roles. Ace’s CBBC leanings (with crap swearing and Blue Peter badges) fits into this heightened reality better than she does a less tonally certain story (like ‘Battlefield’). ‘The Happiness Patrol’ feels like a combination of the different approaches of the McCoy era, a best of album with a life of its own.

Eighth Doctor: ‘Night of the Doctor’

This is specifically because of the circumstances of broadcast, although it’s also a melancholy meta-commentary on the show’s cancellation and wilderness years in which Paul McGann gets to demand ‘Bring me knitting’.

It’s not merely the return of McGann to the onscreen role of the Eighth Doctor after 17 years, it’s that this was kept a surprise until the mini-episode was released in the build-up to the 50th anniversary special. It was such a treat, and I still remember the email I sent to the site’s TV editor when I watched it for Den of Geek. It read ‘OH MY F***ING GOD’ and was sent while the episode was paused just after the word ‘expecting’.

And so I told my friends. I know people watched this in work meetings on their phones under the table. It’s associated with a lot of feelings, not least building excitement. This one is connected very clearly to a moment of shared joy.

Ninth Doctor: ‘The End of the World’

While ‘Rose’ is rightly adulated as bringing Doctor Who back to a large prime time audience, ‘The End of the World’ had a different job to do. Viewing figures went down for this episode after over 10 million people watched the series opener, but went up again after this, suggesting positive word of mouth from this episode, consolidating the success of ‘Rose’.

The production team were aiming to use this episode to show off how Doctor Who could look in 2005, with hundreds of CGI shots and dozens of aliens gathered together. It also showed the new Doctor’s emotional distance, in that his idea of showing off to his new companion is to take her to see her planet getting destroyed.

We also get, in a late addition to the script, Russell T. Davies’ knack for making the alien familiar with the character of Raffalo (‘You’re a plumber?’) who is almost immediately killed, further demonstrating RTD’s knack for knowing which character’s death will have the most impact (and if you’ve not read his novelisation of ‘Rose’ you really should if just for Clive’s death in prose form. Honestly it’s incredible).

‘The End of the World’ is a comforting reminder of the nascent excitement surrounding the 2005 series, that feeling of turbulence that eventually settled because of the strength of these early episodes.

 Tenth Doctor: ‘The Fires of Pompeii’

The episode itself has a soothsay-off between Metella and Lucius to set up a plot point and the series arc, and the first TARDIS trip for Donna as a full-time companion. You immediately get to see the strengths that Catherine Tate is going to bring to the series, not merely her comic and dramatic ability but the way Donna is able to stop the Tenth Doctor from his worst impulses, and by bluntly dismissing the notion of fixed points in history meaning just allowing bad things to happen. This is, for me, the best episode in the first half of Series 4 by a long way.

Sure, there’s a colossal death toll here which is far from comforting, but as ever nostalgia and context plays a huge part here. This was an episode broadcast on the night of our fan club’s night out, a phase of my fandom that turned me from someone who liked Doctor Who in primary school into an adult fan. This has, overall, been worth it. So what this story reminds me of is, following on from ‘The End of the World’s establishing the series, is the initial excitement and patterns of Russell T. Davies’ series where he set up some key words or phrases early on and fandom tried to work out their significance, resulting in the heady days of someone saying Norman Lovett was going to play Davros in ‘The Parting of the Ways’ on IMDb.

Eleventh Doctor: ‘A Christmas Carol’

Quite a few contenders here, but I’ve gone with my favourite Christmas Special because these episodes are often Doctor Who at its broadest, suitable for the half-cut who dwell in food-comas. This episode is one of the last of these stories, before the Christmas Specials became steeped in the main continuity of the series. It’s also a great example of the childlike impulsiveness of Matt Smith’s Doctor before he became more of a teenager in Series 6. It’s great fun and the riffing on Dickens lands really strongly for people like me, who often respond more to a strong realisation of an idea than they do pathos.

This story is designed to be comfortable and succeeds by establishing what a Steven Moffat Christmas Special will look like: lots of time-travel, obviously, but also a big budget version of ‘The Happiness Patrol’s daring the audience to find it too ridiculous. As a result we get a remix of A Christmas Carol featuring flying sharks pacified by a mezzo-soprano, with the joy of these disparate elements coming together through that most underrated of Moffat staples – a grumpy old man learning to let go while being dragged through the sky by animals who usually lack the power of flight.

Twelfth Doctor: ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’

With Capaldi realising his initially abrasive take on the character was too much, this story relieved the tension that had been building with the Doctor’s behaviour, allowing him to explain himself and setting up the arc that culminates in ‘Hell Bent’.

Once this was broadcast I breathed a sigh of relief. Despite wanting it not to be the case I’d had to reach for the positives in the Capaldi era thus far; with the exception of ‘Listen’ the stories had felt like treading water until ‘Kill the Moon’ split the room. Even if you don’t like it (and I mostly don’t) that was the first story that felt like it was trying something different and paved the way for the increased complexity of the Twelfth Doctor’s character. Ultimately what the show needed at this point was a run of good stories, and – appreciating some people don’t get on with ‘Forest of the Night’ (and I mostly do) – this was the start of a really strong run.

‘Mummy on the Orient Express’ is a mash up of concepts that Doctor Who excels at, with an enjoyably horrific Mummy and the actual countdown to its victims’ demises contributing to making each death count. This is harder than it looks, the balance between violence and pathos taking into account the family audience, but the combination of ideas really makes them land as brutal without gore. By putting the Doctor through this writer Jamie Mathieson manages to explain his apparent heartlessness as weariness at making tough choices, but being unable to resist getting into situations that require them. The path is now clear from here to the heights of ‘Hell Bent’ and ‘The Doctor Falls’.

Thirteenth Doctor: ‘It Takes You Away’

Obviously there are fewer Jodie Whittaker fewer stories to choose from, and for me it has to be one from Series 11 because that felt like a palette cleanser for an approach to Doctor Who that never manifested. For all its ups and downs, limiting continuity references and focus on new characters or threats felt like a good move. Certainly the guest writers all provided solid stories, and while the series didn’t soar for me it felt like a good platform to improve from, which is partly why Series 12 was so disappointing (it felt like it addressed problems that weren’t there, ignoring the ones that were).

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‘It Takes You Away’ is frequently surprising, offering a simple blunt horror of loss (the childlike refrain of the title, the fear of absence) combined with endearingly outlandish performances by the actor Kevin Eldon and a sentient universe manifesting as a talking frog. It allowed Jodie Whittaker a rare success in negotiating her way out of a situation, and progressed the character arc of the series with Ryan and Graham’s changing relationship. It’s obviously imperfect (ideally, Hanne’s Dad’s manipulative behaviour would be properly addressed) but it’s also imaginative, moving, and weird, and these are three things I really want Doctor Who to be.

Share your go-to Doctor Who comfort viewing episodes below.

The post Doctor Who’s Best Comfort-Viewing Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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LIP’s Lockdown Interview

LIP are the South London band who describe themselves as ‘Ian Dury shagging Fugazi and Funkadelic’, and their latest track 'Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down' is their credentials to prove the claim. The band is comprised of Matt (Vocals), Wailen (Guitar), Ricky (Bass) and Jam (Drums). The debut track voices their opinion on our internet culture, specifically targeting how the internet likes to keep things very black and white, with no shades of grey.

Here’s our uncut conversation with Matt, Wailen and Ricky from the band, where we discussed the latest track in detail, as well as the #saveourvenues movement and future releases.

Can you give us a little context into the song ‘Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down’?

Matt: I think it started when I heard someone talking about how American football is no different to the Gladiators of Rome. Basically, working-class and largely black people are told; tow the line, entertain us and don’t protest. Get brain damage while you’re at it. 

That was what sparked the idea. But it morphed into a comment on internet culture. From Netflix to Spotify to Rotten Tomatoes you’re asked to give a binary choice about what you thought about your entertainment. Thumbs up or thumbs down. There’s no room for nuance. The same with twitter. It’s become Judge, Jury and executioner. The gallows. Rotten Tomatoes all round. 

What sorts of musical influences went into the creation of the track?

Wailen: Now that would be telling wouldn’t it! I have always been interested and attracted to the idea of bleeding and blending genres I guess. All the best music does it. It’s the Frankenstein monster aspect of it that fascinates and excites people I reckon. Maybe it was growing up mixed race and having a lot of different musical identities and expectations hurled my way? Maybe it’s just undiagnosed ADHD. In my opinion, though it’s the key ingredient to making good music; always has been. It’s just knowing where to stitch the right slabs together, that is the hard/fun part.

Matt: I don’t know about this track in particular but I’d say the lyric writing over the last few months has been influenced loads by Kate Tempest, J Hus and Fontaines.

About 2/3rds into the track there’s a real change-up in the pace of the song, and it takes a more direct approach at delivering the song's message. Why was this?

Matt: Wailen was just being pretentious I reckon. Jazz baby!

Wailen: *Why thank you for noticing Mattius* Again, you should probably take that ADHD test. This is my method (if you can call it that) at least when it comes to writing for the musical side in this group.

It just comes down to minimal thought, or ideally none at all! The less thought, the better. If it sounds good, do it. I’ve also had a little mantra for a while now. Laziness is the mother of invention. Overthinking it, well that’s the killer, isn’t it. I say. Pretentious enough? 

It’s great to see you guys getting involved with the #saveourvenues campaign. Which venues are you most looking forward to re-visiting after lockdown? Are there any you’re worried about?

Matt: The Windmill for sure. I don’t live far. It had started to become my living room for a while. That place is what we need more of. 

Wailen: It kinda wasn’t a choice really, what’s sadly going on right now is a cultural culling. Be it either through scum like Taylor McWilliams and his millionaire-DJ-playboy cronies trying to dismantle Brixton brick by brick (and segregate it lest we forget) or the Government under the cloak of “you know what”. We had to at least feel like we had given a minuscule hand in our short life span as a band to help.

One of my favourites is, of course, The Windmill. I would go there quite a lot when I was a likkle yoot, it’s one of our top venues to play! Sister Midnight Records (who we just did a live stream for) and Off The Cuff are great. And then there’s Paper Dress Vintage in Hackney. They’re just really nice genuine music-loving supporters. Always play your first gig there if you can kids, it’s great… The list obviously goes on and on but I need to shut up.   

Ricky: Well, it wasn’t long after Lockdown began that my Shacklewell Arms withdrawals kicked in. The Shacklewell has always been a bit of a boozy haven for me & I’ve seen countless great bands there… (As well as missed a couple while out front with Wailen & Matt plottin’ world domination). We also had the pleasure of playing there a few months ago which just added to the long (somewhat hazy) collection of memories I have of The Shacklewell.

Like Wailen, I also have to give a shout out to Paper Dress Vintage. Another staple of my East London Venue diet. 

Many artists have been releasing music over the last few weeks, even with the complications the lockdown has brought upon them. Has there been anything that has grabbed your attention?

Wailen: Hmm... Not a lot. Apart from our friends POZI who are great, I believe they have a new album coming out very soon, through PRAH Records. I need to rapidly get my ears holes around that. We played a show recently with Baba Ali, he is doing some really interesting stuff. I believe he’s just released a new mixtape too, and hopefully, we should have some more shows with him once this madness is all over. I would have maybe said PVA too, but they seem to be doing alright for press at the minute haha.

When can we next expect to see new music from you guys?

Matt: We recorded loads before lockdown so we’re in a good place. The thing is we discovered a new drum sound for ‘Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down’ so we’re in the midst of reverse engineering a few of the old ones. All that takes a while and a little bit of mixdown jiggery-pokery. That hasn’t really been doable in lockdown as it’s so much harder to communicate when you’re not in the same room. 

Wailen: One of the few beauties of lockdown is, there’s nothing to do but write. So not only have we still got the older ones, but we also have a whole stack of new stockpiled stuff to pick at. Like the ripest of spots. Some in their current state are going in a few differing avenues sonically, so that's cool. Who said a little bit of completely unnatural forced isolation wasn’t good for the soul? So again, I concur, we’re in a good place.

Ricky: We’ll be hitting the ground running as soon as lockdown is over so expect some fresh post-apocaLIPs tunes soon!