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#i love him. the correct amount of area defense frames is One More
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Still a bit shaky at using Mr Math Man for lanthorn hunting on account of whatever monster decided to make eximus nonsense go through the Rift, but he's really fun when I'm not trying to get him killed
He got me Trinity in three runs today (well, first run was Lavos on public, which is apparently a sort of hell, so I decided fuck this! Solo Limbo! And he made it actually fun) and I fed him one of my grand total of Two (2) Amber Archon Shards bc he's a bit slow at doing the funny circle thing
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compressednerve · 7 months
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Exploring Zachariah Trench's Office with @parasitefun
So many crazy white boy moments in his office so here's rambling about observations we made together. BTW we haven't finished the game yet (we're at The Prime Candidate Program and just found out who P7 is) so PLEASE DON'T TELL ME IF THESE ARE CORRECT OR IF I THEORIZE THE WRONG THING. I don't wanna be spoiled on anything >:O thank you.
Analysis, headcanons, and observations below!
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What does his diploma say? Lets zoom in
DIPLOMA THIS CERTIFICATE IS PROUDLY PRESENTED TO
Zachariah Trench
One morning, when Zachariah Trench woke from troubling dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.
..........oh!! oh ok, the Kafka quote about becoming so disabled you can no longer work? And you see yourself as A HORRIBLE VERMIN because you're disabled? And they put that on a diploma and proudly gave it to Trench! Jesus Christ!!! Go listen to some of The Downward Spiral, Zachariah!!! My god I'm so fucking heartbroken over how Zachariah talks about being old and frail and weak and BROKEN!!!!!!!!!!! and useless and-I could go on. I'm a mostly bedridden disabled person myself and I usually find myself relating the most to the older characters in casts of media because they're usually the ones portrayed with the same issues I have as a younghead (arthritis, brain damage/brain fog/amnesia, fatigue and exhaustion, difficulty moving and speaking, just.. yum). And being bedbound myself is something that I feel really deeply in Kafka's work. To realize Trench relates so deeply to Gregor Samsa as well is just such a juicy delicious detail for him. And it's a diploma? My head is spinning! His self-hatred is infinite...
I love that the diploma is tucked away behind the slide projector as well. I'm not sure if this is The Slide Projector that's been hinted at but it'd be neat if it was!
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NOBLE SHERIFF: "There can only be one Sheriff in town" ... :rolling_eyes: ok Mr. The Only Person You Should Fail Is Yourself ok Mr. She Knows I Don't Like Relying On Other People ok Mr. I Need A Team To Clean Up My Horrible Mistakes (k!lls self to avoid taking accountability for his actions and dumps it all in Jesse's lap). He was just drinking straight from the fucking bottle at his desk!! That's so disgusting I love it, no chaser or anything. I love the tasteful rolodex, the smooth marble pen holder (with silver in the black, but, kind of evocative of The Astral Plane hmm?), his stapler, his disgusting jug of booze, and the FRESH PACK OF CIGGIES!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!! God, Trench's addictions and compulsions being literally on his desk, the most intimate and well-frequented area of his general daily life, is just so fun! Remedy does so good with environmental storytelling.
I love how even the brands he uses are manifestations of his inner thoughts. The booze label, the tool that relaxes him and dampens his inhibitions, is of course praising him. The Lone Sheriff. The Director. The Last Line Of Defense. Zachariah Trench sees himself as the sole protector, and The Oldest House his town, his community, his ward. The most likely intentional framing of the documents he was signing being splattered with blood, acting like a barrier of his Work vs his Needs (need to relax, need for a painkiller cuz booze is a great painkiller)
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I got to his documents piles and literally shouted, "HE HAS SO MUCH MORE WORK TO DO!!!!". I love that the OUT pile is more full than the IN pile, Trench is so judicious with his correspondence :pleading_face: he's so tired. I bet he wishes he was still a Field Agent a lot of the time :sobbing: Looking at all the stuff on his desk like the sheer amount of documents and phone calls and other shit he has to do in a day to day as The Director must be sooo overwhelming...
It was during this moment that Paras and I realized that the greater joke of Control is about older people who stay in their jobs and refuse to make room for other workers, and they get Promoted To Incompetence! lmfao because like, Zachariah was so focused on Field Agent Stuff (in one of his Hotline calls he says, "I kept my head down. I worked my ass off." in a classic blue collar way) and being all tragic and putting his life on the line for his squad, then suddenly and forcefully being promoted to The Boss Of Everything. No wonder he has such a complex about Failing The Bureau :O
the same applies to Dr. Darling--! He's been in The Bureau for a 24 years!! He has 22 labs spread across the ever-shifting expanse of The Oldest House. He, mainly, wants to Do Research and Write Essays and all sorts of other shit that mainly revolves around being an isolated scientist with a modest team. And instead he has to make presentations for the laymen of The Bureau and he has to manage all THE ENTIRE RESEARCH SECTOR, who sends him catty memos about how their department deserves more funding (parakineseology department bribing him with his favorite booze???), and interns and junior scientists who don't know the first thing about The Astral Plane, and as Dr. Underhill complained about- The Bureau's ultimate goal is to exploit what they find, rather than actually comprehend what it is they're dealing with. Most Rangers retire due to cognitive collapse because The Bureau just shoves them in the meat grinder of trying to contain/control Everything. Ugh!
So anyways Zachariah Trench isn't a bad Director but then he's literally such a bad Director, the Worst Director Ever at the same time because it just wasn't his archetype. He took it way too seriously with a hammer in hand, seeing every problem as a nail. Dr. Darling fits the opposite of this niche as well in his own archetypical way- going from goofy underling to The Guy In Charge Of Everyone. They're both socially awkward, domineering, prone to pettiness/hostility, and under so so so much pressure for roles they were universally understood to not be able to fulfill.
All of the people we see in Control that are actually useful and agreeable with Jesse (who has been a dropout who mainly ever worked manual labor jobs up to and including janitor) so far are like, Ahti the mid-60yr old janitor who also just so happens to be the first friendly face you see when you enter the FBC and like, Simon? And fucking Langston (who is so hot I gotta write some Jesse/Frederick later)!
Langston, who is what I imagine is a direct parallel in a positive light compared to Dr. Darling and Director Trench, as in, how he entered The Bureau (he worked in the Postal Service of all places and an uncle at The FBC got him a job there), and Langston, like Trench, worked his ass off, kept his head down, but schmoozed enough to get a nice promotion, and then continued to work at a slow, steady incline for 15 years until he became Panopticon supervisor. He's like one of the only dudes in a high ranking spot who actually respects his position.
And of course who could forget dear Emily Pope :pleading_face: she's been Dr. Darling's underling for idk how long but clearly a while and she's so so ambitious like Darling is ambitious but she's so so so inhibited and held back by Darling's misogyny and higher ranking and having to be ordered to research shit but not actually be able to ask the real questions. You can really get a feel for how passionate Emily is in her work by like, not just how she talks to Jesse but in her correspondence and especially her research papers. The way she words documents ordered by Dr. Darling vs how she words documents ordered by Director Jesse Faden is literally night and day, but not for lack of enthusiasm. You can tell under Darling's mentorship she's soooo stifled, and with Jesse's lax permission "please just do whatever you want so long as it advances my (and The Bureau's) understanding of things". Emily's like a kid in a candy store and it's exactly what she needs to flourish.... Oh to bask in the light of a manual laborer :heart_eyes:
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Another angle of his documents which I find titillating. The majority of his blood splatter landing on the IN pile... efflorescent....
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THE FUCKING. BLACK ROCK PRISM ON HIS DESK. Paras has something to say about that later in a fic or some art. The other pack of ciggies that he was in the process of smoking (I counted the cigarettes. He has 8 ciggies left which means he's smoked 12 already. There are 4 in the ashtray which means at some point after opening the pack, he smoked 8 and then dumped the ashtray. This shows he keeps his ashtray relatively clean, which is a specific kind of character quirk about Tidiness and Cleanliness for Trench because chainsmokers like me and Paras are disgusting and our ashtray is overflowing by like, three packs and it smells horrible). The way it sits atop all his other shit he needs to sign, he's just drowning in documents (sort of like how I imagine Alan is drowning in manuscripts? WHO SAID THAT?)
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*looks over Jesse's shoulder and realizes Trench's body is gone* *nearly shouting to Paras, who is sitting right next to me* WHERE IS TRENCH'S BODY? WHERE DID HIS BODY GO? WHY IS HIS BLOOD ON THE FLOOR BUT NOT HIS BODY? DID THE FUCKING BOARD TAKE HIM? DID THEY EAT HIM? WHO ATE TRENCH?
I've been likening Zachariah Trench a lot to Rorschach in his perpetual death-wish (he wants to die so bad but he'll fight everything that tries to kill him to the bloody end because he feels he can only die when he's ready to die ugh yum). The empty blood splatter after you come back from The Hotline Chamber for the first time (and realizing that The Hotline Chamber is DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO TRENCH'S OFFICE? HELLO?) is soooo fucking reminiscent of Rorschach's final death scene, where the blood splatter is the shape of his mask :hand_over_mouth: soooo symbolic sooo iconic. Note to self: Paras and I need to write/draw something about different people devouring Trench's corpse (yum).
(SIDENOTE: PLEASE DONT TELL ME IF THERE'S A CANONICAL REASON FOR WHY TRENCH'S CORPSE DISAPPEARS. THAT'D BE BALLER IF THERE WAS A CANONICAL REASON BUT WE WANNA FIND OUT ON OUR OWN!)
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I wanna lick the blood off his desk and phone. Oohhhhhhn n the way it drips down the edge of the desk. I want to give him so many head wounds here. He spilled his final blood all over his classified documents and telephone and finished work and desk that he sat at a lot :pleading_face: and he was only 64 years old wah. He was so tragic and so sad and what if there was a dude who was so sad he DIED because his boss was like "put the gun to your head and see if we still like you" and Trench was like "oh good, finally, an opportunity to see if I'm still worthy" AND HE FUCKIN. WAS PROVED. UNWORTHY? OUCH, DUDE!!! HARSH!!!
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Zachariah's Personal Signature Rubber Stamp (CUMS UNCONTROLLABLY)
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Dude I had no fucking clue he had a picture of himself when he was younger (and healthier, and happier, and) with his kid that he accidentally killed. Like what??? He's so miserable and he sits at his desk with TWO packs of cigarettes and a giant bottle of like i'm guessing whiskey or scotch, and he just sits there and gets nosebleeds from using The Hotline and chainsmokes and stares at his Former Glory. MY GOD!
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...............pistachios :pleading_face: he eats pistachios. he has pistachio snack. he enjoys pistachios. there is a bag of pistachios at his desk. he had to have gotten that at a vending machine. zachariah trench had to either ask someone to get him some pistachios (vulnerable) or he had to get up and go to a vending machine and put his money into the vending machine because he wanted a snack and he chose to get pistachios and he had to bend over and get the pistachios out of the bottom of the vending machine. zachariah trench eating pistachios. he has to crack the shells open and dispose of them somehow. pistachios are green. he eats pistachios. he wants a snack. i am literally a shell of a human being.
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Imagine the smell of his nice leather briefcase. The weight of it in your hand. The privilege to watch Trench open it up and rifle through the papers, or *gets lightheaded* being able to hand him a document that he then has to place in his briefcase. I can't breathe. I like the pneumos in the background too. He has a very natural gentle clutter to his desk, like I imagine how he perceives the clutter of his mind. There's so many things to keep track of, and he's so tired... :weeping:
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I'm so utterly enraged that he didn't finish two of his cigarettes. He didn't even finish his ciggie before he died!! are you fucking kidding me?! I was somewhat bewildered because the texture of the inside of the ashtray (the ashtray) looks... wet? and the two finished cigarette butts are visibly wet (distorted color, swollen cotton) and Paras said that the ashtray probably has a sort of perpetually wet sand inside it. Works for me!
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Did you know if you shoot the Prism, it's breakable? I didn't know that. Makes the screenie a bit goofy but I don't care. Look at his over half-finished pack of ciggies. I would pay. kind of a lot of money. for like a collectors edition of real Black Pyramid Cigarettes are you kidding me? What kind of nightmare dimension tobacco do they put in those things?
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He looks so moe here receiving his gay little medals or whatever's happening (idk if this has story relevance and gets revealed later or not). His hairdo is so cute??? Did he... did he bleach his hair? It looks like his roots are showing thru old bleach... is... Yung Trench a bleached hair baddie? I'm gonna pass out.
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Me: look at that! Trench is watching the presentation! Paras: LOOK AT HOW SMOKY THE ROOM IS! HE'S HOTBOXING HIS OFFICE WITH NICOTINE! Both of us: *gagging*
So first of all this is such a big moment in terms of setting up Zachariah and Casper's relationship to each other, and how they interact with each other. Jesse uses The Hotline, and then we're treated to an interdimensional 3D Memory Flashback of observing Trench. He's sitting in his office, which is dimmed so the projector can play. He's chainsmoking so much that the ENTIRE VOLUME of his MODESTLY LARGE OFFICE is FILLED with CIGARETTE SMOKE. I genuinely am so disgusted and enamored by Trench's hardcore nicotine addiction, his.... dedication to the Ritual of Smoking. So anyways, engaging in his comfort ritual of Smoking, sitting in his nice chair and watching Darling's presentation. Imagine him ordering Darling to put together research on The Hotline immediately after his first call with The Board... and he's the only one who can communicate about what the experience is like... and then when Dr. Darling is done he delivers the video to Trench and then Trench sets aside specific dark-room-and-smoking time JUST to watch The Presentation? CAN IT GET ANY MORE HOMOSEXUAL THAN THIS? I *will* be writing about this later.
Sidenote the perspective of viewing behind his head like this is so intimate. I feel so voyeuristic, I want to hover closer to the back of Trench's neck and feel/see the hairs rise up in extrasensory response to my presence. I want to nibble on his ear.
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I need him. to blow smoke in my face.
...
Well that's all the screenshots I have at the moment! Thank you for reading my post and please feel free to contribute your own ideas and observations to this because I LOVE META!! And I love hearing other people discuss it too >:3
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perseusannabeth · 4 years
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I'll Hold Your Hand - modern AU Nessian fic
Summary:  Cassian is finally going to spend some alone time with Nesta, and he's going to woo the shit out of her. He's totally going to seduce her. This is his chance, finally! However, when he gets to Nesta's flat, he realises that this may not be the best time for seduction.
Notes:  This is not beta-read so please let me know if there are any mistakes! I wrote this for my friend @acourtofmarauders who asked for some Nessian fluff. If anyone has any acotar prompts they would like me to write, then please send me an ask!
Cassian would be lying through his teeth if he said he wasn’t dressing extra carefully today. He had spent 2 hours going through every combination of outfits he could possibly wear, and another hour (once he had chosen an outfit) had been dedicated to fixing his hair. He was nervous, and that was a new feeling for him. Cassian never got nervous, especially when it came to women.
Nesta Archeron however, was no ordinary woman. In fact, when she was angry, he wasn’t even sure she was a woman, she looked like a dragon sometimes, with smoke blowing out of her nostrils when she got angry and ready to breathe fire and burn down whoever angered her, which was usually him. He loved it though. At first, he just loved pissing her off for the sake of it. He didn’t hate her, he just didn’t really like her either and she irritated him, got under his skin and somehow knew how to push all the wrong buttons. Now though, he just loved to watch the way her cheeks would flush, her brows would furrow, and the slight clench of her jaw. He enjoyed their verbal sparring, which he had come to see as a release for the tension between them, only the past few months it felt like the verbal spars were not enough to get rid of the tension.
If she could see him now, primping and preening in the mirror for hours on end, she would have insulted him till he begged for a reprieve, but he doesn’t care. He wants to make sure he looks irresistible but make it look effortless. She could never know his effortless look took him 3 hours. In fact, none of his friends could ever know. They would never shut up about it. He thanked the cauldron that Azriel was spending a few days away with Elain so he couldn’t witness what a mess he was. Sometimes living with your brother had its downsides. He was just thankful that Rhys didn’t still live here. He shuddered at the thought of Rhys and Feyre seeing him getting ready for his not-date with Nesta.
Cassian knew he was acting like this was a date, but he didn’t care. Nesta had invited him to go over to her flat when she was home alone to eat junk food and watch films together, and Cassian was ecstatic. If he had known that mentioning that he had never seen Lord of the Rings, despite having read all the books would have made Nesta so outraged that she’d invite him to spend time with her, then he would have mentioned it ages ago.
He looked at the clock again to check if it was a reasonable enough time to set off. He didn’t want to get there too early, as eager as he was, because that might annoy Nesta and he didn’t want to start their 12-hour marathon with Nesta being angry at him. He also would rather die than get there late, so he kept checking the clock. Nesta had told him to come over for 6 pm so they could marathon all three of the films. She had warned that it would be an endurance test and that if he was a “weak ass bitch” (direct quote from Nesta herself), then she would “leave him for dead”.
Cassian looked at himself one last time in the mirror. His hair was tied in a messy man bun that had taken way too much time to make it look so effortless and not as though he had run in the wind. He had kept his outfit simple, wearing a grey fitted shirt which he knew made his muscles look great, and his favourite joggers which he knew did wonders for his ass (not that it needed help but still, every little helps where Nesta is concerned). Nesta had warned him to dress comfortable, but that didn’t mean he had to dress like a slob.
He grabbed his favourite red zip-up hoodie, made sure he had his phone, charger and keys as he walked into the kitchen. Nesta had said she would have some snacks but Cassian wanted to do a little extra, so he had prepared a pasta bake, which just needed to go in the oven when he got to Nesta’s place. He had also taken the liberty of buying an assortment of junk food, including sour sweets (Nesta’s favourites) and Yorkie chocolate bars (Nesta claimed she started eating them out of spite and can’t stop. He’s too afraid to ask what that even means).
He somehow managed to lock up while holding the pasta bake and the tonne of junk food, and then went and put his things in his car. He tried to drive as slowly as he could without annoying other people on the roads, just to make sure he didn’t get there too early, but still ended up arriving 15 minutes earlier than he was supposed to. Still, Cassian decided Nesta couldn’t be too mad at him for arriving early (could she?) so he decided to take a chance and go up to her flat.
He knocked on her door cautiously and heard a muffled swear from inside which made him grin. Perhaps their little Lord of the Rings marathon wasn’t only making him nervous. The idea that Nesta was nervous too made Cassian grin even wider, his heart fluttering slightly at the thought of Nesta getting nervous because of him.
The door swung open, interrupting Cassian’s thoughts. Nesta stood in the doorway, leaning against the door frame. She looked… tired? It threw Cassian, seeing her like this. Her hair was in a messy plait that she had clearly slept in, she was wearing what looked like some Mulan pyjamas and a pastel pink fluffy dressing gown over them. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, she looked a little sweaty, her eyes were half-closed as she looked at Cassian. This was not the poised and ready to step on his balls while wearing high heels Nesta he was used to.
“Hi sweetheart, are you okay?” Cassian forgot all about any ideas to woo Nesta, worry at the forefront of his mind now. Something was clearly wrong because Nesta would rather die than be seen in this state, especially by him.
“Hmm? Don’t call me that,” Nesta protested half-heartedly, her eyes still half-closed as she leaned against the door frame, her head moving to rest against it as though it was too heavy for her to carry.
Cassian decided to throw all caution to the wind and step forward, lightly touching her arm while balancing the ridiculous amounts of food he had bought for the two of them. “Nes, you don’t look very well. Are you okay?”
“I was gonna call you to cancel but then I got really tired and fell asleep. It was just really exhausting getting out of bed to go to the bathroom and kitchen so I had to rest on the sofa.” Nesta said softly. It was strange hearing the normally sharp-tongued Nesta sound so soft and sleepy. He had never seen her so vulnerable, and it made his heart swell.
“Why do you have your head against the doorframe sweetheart? You have a temperature too?”
“Yeah, I think so. Also, I’m a little dizzy right now. I’m not too bad when I’m ill usually, but the flu always affects my balance because once I had an ear infection.” She moved her head from the doorframe, turning her head to look at Cassian with those beautiful, sleepy eyes. As she moved her head, she swayed a bit, her grip tightening on the door frame as she did.
“Right, hang on a second,” Cassian said, quickly spurring into action and moving past her to put down the food he had bought on the kitchen counter, before rushing back to the front door, closing it and slowly guiding Nesta back to the sofa in her living area. Once he had Nesta safely seated, he let out a breath he had been holding.
“Thank you. You don’t have to stay, you know. As you can probably tell, I’m in no fit state to watch Lord of the Rings right now. Plus, the only correct way to do it is to marathon them and I don’t have the energy for that,” Nesta let out a small, sad-sounding sigh which sounded more like she was struggling to breathe as she lay herself down.
“That’s fine, we can watch Lord of the Rings another time. I don’t mind,” Cassian smiled at her softly as he grabbed the blanket at the foot of the sofa and covered her in it.
Nesta frowned. “You don’t have to stay,” she repeated.
“I know I don’t have to stay, but I want to stay.”
There was silence as Nesta looked at Cassian, confusion written all over her face plain as day. She never made it this easy to read her, but Cassian enjoyed the fact that for once, he might be able to guess what’s going on in her head.
“I… I don’t… why?”
“Why not? You’re ill, nobody else is here. I’m not going to let you deal with this on your own, especially when you tell me you’re getting dizzy. It’s not safe. Plus, I don’t mind what we do, even if it’s just sitting here and watching some mindless TV while you doze off. I just wanted to spend time with you.”
“Oh,” was all Nesta could say to Cassian’s confession. He couldn’t be sure, but she almost sounded shocked? But surely not, because he always told her how much he enjoyed talking to her.
“Okay, so have you had any food, water or medicine today?” Cassian asked, getting into his ‘nurse Cassian’ way of thinking, as Azriel had lovingly named it back when Azriel had been very ill when they were younger. Cassian just couldn’t help himself, he always felt the need to protect those he loved.
“I had some water and 2 cookies when I woke up. I fell asleep pretty soon after so I haven’t had anything else yet.”
Cassian frowned. “Nesta, it’s now past 6. Are you telling me that all you’ve had today is 2 cookies and a glass of water? What the fuck!”
“I fell asleep, that’s why! I only just woke up when you knocked on my door. Plus, it’s not so bad, I woke up at 1 pm today so it’s only been a few hours,” Nesta said defensively, a little sharpness returning to her voice.
“No wonder you’re feeling dizzy, you’ve not had any medicine or anything of nutritional value to eat, and most of the day has passed! Come on, what do you want to eat? Anything specific?”
“I don’t care as long as it’s not soup. I’m not dying, I still want real food, and soup never tastes good. Plus, I used to have it all the time when I was younger, it reminds me too much of starving and shoving random things in a pot to make ‘soup’ that we would have tiny little portions of so that it would last us a week.”
Cassian has never heard Nesta talk about their childhood. He knew from Feyre how tough things had been, but Nesta had never once spoken about it. He had always assumed that she didn’t care, and from what Feyre had told them, both her and Elain had pretended nothing was happening. Perhaps, Cassian mused, there was more going on there too, more than what she had let her sisters see.
“Okay, no soup. I made a pasta bake so we could always have that. It just needs to go into the oven for a little while. Does that sound good to you?” Nesta nodded, making Cassian smile.
He was glad that his pasta bake would come to good use. He was just glad that despite the fact that Nesta probably didn’t want him here, she didn’t seem to be kicking him out. He wanted to be able to help her and look after her. She hated people seeing her vulnerable, he knew that, and he was honoured that she was putting up with him and allowing him to be there for her.
Cassian walked over to the kitchen, put the oven on and pulled some dishes out of Nesta’s cupboards while the oven warmed up. Once the oven was warmed up, he put the pasta bake into the oven and set a timer on his phone, making sure it was on vibrate so it didn’t make too much noise and startle Nesta.
While he had been rattling around in the kitchen, Nesta had put the TV on and started Netflix up and was looking through to find something to watch. She eventually decided on Queer Eye but had the volume on very quietly, so it was just some comfortable background silence. Cassian glanced at her on the sofa and saw her struggling to keep her eyes open.
“Where do you keep your medicine?” Cassian asked, deciding he should also see what she had in her medicine cupboard too.
“There’s some in the small cupboard right at the end and then there’s some stuff in the bathroom cupboard too,” Nesta answered, jolting at the sound of his voice as she kept almost falling asleep. Cassian could see that she was fighting valiantly to stay awake. She would probably fight the illness with the same kind of energy and knowing Nesta, be fine in no time through sheer determination alone.
Cassian looked through the cupboards and managed to find some lemsip tablets in the bathroom, as well as the powdered stuff in the kitchen. “Do you want lemsip powder or tablets?” he asked as he walked towards her, holding both up in his hands.
“Ugh, the tablets for sure. The powered stuff tastes like shit. I used to suffer through it and drink that shit until Feyre told me that there was a tablet form of it.” Nesta looked at the offending powder with disdain, narrowing her eyes at it as though it had offended her.
“Okie dokie! The powder stuff is definitely evil. I don’t know how we’re expected to drink it. It does not taste like lemon and lime, it tastes like lies and poison.” Cassian said, throwing the powder back into the cupboard.
His phone started buzzing in his pocket and he quickly went to take the pasta out of the oven. He quickly plated it up for Nesta, putting it on the coffee table in front of her along with the biggest glass he could find, full of water. He then went to get his own plate and water and sat beside her.
Nesta looked at him suspiciously and then looked at the pasta in front of her. Cassian just grinned at her and started eating. Nesta watched him for a minute, before following his lead. Cassian knew as soon as she had put the fork in her mouth because Nesta let out a positively sinful moan.
“Fuck, that’s amazing,” Nesta said, looking over at Cassian, her eyes widened with shock.
Cassian felt his cheeks heat a little, a combination of her praise and the incredibly sexy noise she had let out. He would usually have made a dirty comment after hearing a noise like that, but he decided to hold back for once, only going easy on Nesta because she was ill.
Nesta ate the food at a slightly alarming pace, and Cassian was half worried that she would choke on her food at the speed she was eating, and was on edge just in case he needed to quickly stop her from choking. Nesta didn’t pay him any attention, eating and watching Queer Eye.
When her plate was empty, she drank some of her water. Cassian got up, taking both the plates to the sink and grabbing the cold and flu tablets and handing them to Nesta. She silently took one, before lying back down again.
Cassian turned back to the kitchen when he heard a soft “thank you” coming from the sofa. He stopped in his tracks, not quite sure he had heard it right. He looked at the TV, wondering if he had just heard it from that, and then looked at Nesta, who was watching him.
“Sorry, did you say something?” Cassian asked as he started washing their dishes.
“I know you heard me, don’t ruin it now by being a bastard.” Cassian simply raised his eyebrow at her, before drying his hands and putting cling film on the remaining pasta and putting it in the fridge. “I said, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed the food,” he said, sitting down near Nesta’s feet. She lifted them to make room for him. As he sat down, he pulled her feet back into his lap. “How are you feeling now?”
“Better. I guess you were right about the whole food thing making me feel better.”
“Wow, who would’ve thought we’d see the day where Nesta Archeron admits I was right?” Cassian said, feigning shock. Nesta huffed and gave his leg a light kick. “But seriously, you knew the food would make you feel better. You should take better care of yourself. Or maybe, let others in to take care of you from time to time. Like this, us right now.”
“But I don’t need anyone to take care of me,” Nesta said, not angry, the way she had said those words many times in the past. Just softly, stating a fact, but her voice tinged with confusion.
“Look, Nesta, admitting that you need help occasionally doesn’t mean you’re weak. Everyone needs help from time to time. Needing someone to take care of you when you’re ill doesn’t mean you’re needy or dependent or a burden on someone, it just means you’re human. And believe it or not, not everyone is out to get you. There are people in your life who would gladly help you, and ask for nothing in return.”
“Like you?” she looked at Cassian with an emotion etched on her beautiful face that he had never seen before. It was hope, softness, and perhaps maybe even fondness for him, all rolled into one.
“Nesta Archeron, I would drop everything to come and help you with whatever you needed, however stupid or mundane you might think it is.” Nesta looked away, and let a small smile grow on her face. Cassian had seen Nesta smile before, don’t get him wrong, but they were more smirks and ‘I’ll kill you’ smiles, in the heat of their arguments. This smile was something different altogether, and it reminded him of how Nesta truly took his breath away.
“I’m tired,” Nesta said after a few minutes of silence.
“Okay, well then you need to sleep.” Cassian stood up, switching the TV off, pulling the blanket off of her and picking her up. She barely weighed anything, which worried Cassian. He didn’t want to annoy Nesta by monitoring her eating habits, especially because he didn’t know why she was so underweight and that could be a risky move, but he hoped he would be able to get her to eat more. He’d even cook for her himself if she wanted.
Nesta, surprisingly, did not react when he picked her up. She just put her arms around his neck and stared at him as he carried her into her room. He placed her softly onto the bed, took her dressing gown off her and hung it up, then tucked her into bed. He then went back into the living room, picked her glass up from the coffee table, filled it up with fresh water and put it on her bedside cabinet, next to some more cold and flu tablets. He then turned to leave Nesta in peace, when she called out for him.
“Cassian?”
“Yes, sweetheart?” He asked, turning around. “Do you need anything else?” Nesta nodded, then gestured for him to come closer.
He walked closer until he was looming over her bed. She slowly reached out for his hand, and kissed the back of it, then let go and smiled at him. “Thank you, for taking care of me.”
“Is that what the kiss was for?” Nesta nodded. “Well sweetheart, if you want to thank me then there are plenty of ways you can thank me when you’re feeling better,” he smiled.
“I would’ve kissed you properly now but I don’t want you to get ill either. I’m nowhere near as good of a nurse as you are.”
“What you might lack in the care department, you could make up by wearing a sexy nurse costume.” he wriggled his eyebrows suggestively at her.
She laughed. “I think that would make you stay sick for longer.”
“I think you’re right,” he said, joining her in her laughter.
Nesta’s laughter subsided. She stared at him openly, her eyes roaming all over him. “Will you stay?” she said eventually, so quiet he could’ve missed it if there wasn’t total silence around them.
“Stay here?” he asked dumbly, not quite believing she would want him to continue to intrude, especially when she was about to sleep.
“Yes. Stay with me, please,” she said, her soft sleepy voice returning, her eyes starting to close before she opened them again. Cassian could see how much force and effort it was taking for her to keep her eyes open. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He grabbed Nesta’s armchair, where she no doubt spent many an hour reading her romance books, and pushed it until it was close enough to the bed that Nesta could reach out for him if she wanted.
He sat down on the chair, and Nesta instantly grabbed his hand, the same one she had kissed. He watched as she drifted off in a matter of minutes, the medicine making sleep come to her a lot quicker than usual. Even as she drifted off, she did not stop holding his hand at all. Cassian ran his thumb over the back of her hand softly, repeating the motion as he stared at the beautiful woman before him. He wasn’t entirely sure this wasn’t a dream, but if it was he never wanted to wake. Nesta’s face was much more relaxed now she was asleep, the frown lines and pursed lips smoothed out. She looked, younger, and almost carefree, apart from the clear signs of fatigue that lined her face. The bags under her eyes were prominent, and Cassian knew she studied into the night, working herself too hard.
Still, Cassian mused to himself, perhaps now that Nesta had let him in, he could convince her to take better care of herself. He needed to make sure that she knew that Cassian was in this for the long haul, and perhaps she would lower her walls more, and finally let him in.
As he drifted off to sleep, still holding her hand, he realised that perhaps she already had let him in.
End Notes: Thank you to everyone who is reading! Please let me know what you thought of it. Also, I've realised that perhaps some of the things I mentioned are very British? I'm not entirely sure but I figured I'd give an explanation just in case.
Yorkies are a chocolate bar, which used to have the slogan 'not for girls' which is obviously very dumb. They changed it years ago, however, before they changed it, when I was younger, I ate the chocolate bar out of spite because the slogan and some boys said I couldn't do it. The adrenaline rush was just wow, a lot at the time for an 8-year-old.
Lemsip is medicine for colds and flu. Most people tend to have the powdered stuff, which you have to mix into boiling water and drink like its tea. It claims to be lemon and lime flavoured but it's actually just lies and makes me gag because it's disgusting. I was very offended because I suffered for all these years but then my sister told me there were tablets too??? Betrayal??? Nobody bothered to tell me???
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bubblesuga · 4 years
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By My Side
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Summary|| Kim Namjoon- Teacher’s Assistant, Sex God, and the last thing you expected to have in your mouth. Name or otherwise. When Namjoon offers to tutor you, you couldn’t pass up that offer even though he didn’t give you much of a choice. 
Word Count: 8,892
Warnings: smut, fluff, and everything in between
Part 3 of my College!AU series
Astrophysics wasn’t top of your list on things to minor in. 
You could have chosen Literature, Creative Writing, hell you would have even been happy in Art. However, you took Astrophysics. Of all fucking things. 
For a while you wanted to drop the class, change your minor or just solely try to focus on your major which was Business Marketing. You hear you have a higher chance of obtaining a job in that field anyway, and you got a real ass chewing from your friend when they found out you signed up for Astrophysics. 
The problem was that the day you planned on dropping the course, Kim Namjoon of all people convinced you not to. 
It’s not like you had a reason to listen to him, and he wasn’t talking directly to you but instead offered his reasons to the class as to why he stuck through it and decided to become a TA the following year. He loved space that much. 
So now, every time you walked into the lecture room you couldn’t help but look to see if Mr. TA was at the front of the class. 
The thing about Namjoon was that he was smart, beyond what you believed anyone could be at your age and although he was only a little older than you, you still felt like he had the knowledge of the entire universe in the palm of his hand. 
You suddenly became much more interested in Astrophysics after that. 
“...and that makes a bit of you as old as time. While the heavier bits in your body were formed in the hearts of stars, the hydrogen in your body was formed a mere three minutes after the initial Big Bang,” you professor spoke, your pen scrawling across the paper, “but the protons in your body was made a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. Some of the protons that formed in the earliest parts of the universe, are in you today.” 
As he continued to speak, you watched Namjoon with a red pen, marking various papers. He gnawed on his nails, then looked up, sensing his eyes on you. You quickly looked away, clearing your throat quietly and looking down at your paper.
Your professor glanced up to the clock, “Okay. I want to go home early today so get out of my classroom please. Everyone except for Miss. (Y/L/N).” 
Confused, you stayed seated while you watched everyone else pack up and walk out of the classroom. The professor made his way up to your seat, sitting on the desk with a sigh. “So, I really don’t want to have to fail you. Your last two terms showed 67% on both of your finals.” 
“U-uhm, yeah I’ve been struggling a little bit.” You noticed Namjoon watching you, his eyes peaking softly out from his glasses. His hair was done so well, gelled up with the lilac color framing his face nicely. 
“Do you want to be in this class? Because I’d rather you drop it if you feel like it’s a waste of your time.” The professor came off harsh, but you knew his intentions were kind. 
“No! I love this class! I’ll work harder, I’m so sorry. I promise by the end of this term I’ll give you an A.” You explained, your voice coming off both apologetic and defensive at the same time. 
“Okay, I’m looking forward to giving you that A then. You may go.” 
You stood abruptly, trying to ignore the embarrassment you felt from Namjoon hearing that conversation. He didn’t seem to react to the things the professor said, and you were sure that he was used to hearing conversations like these but that didn’t take away your embarrassment nonetheless. 
As you were about to walk out, you heard your name. When you turned around, Namjoon was stood from his desk. 
“You know, I could tutor you if you want.” His hands gestured picking up and dropping the pen on the table. If you didn’t know any better, you’d assume he was nervous. 
“Oh, no thanks. I can’t afford a tutor.” You gave him a sheepish smile, shrugging and slipping your arms through the straps of your back pack. Mostly filled with math text books, you felt the weight take an immediately shift on your shoulders. 
Namjoon returned the smile, “I’ll do it for free.” 
“Really?” Your eyes went wide, “You don’t have to. I’m sure you have a busy enough schedule as it is.” 
“Not really, I’m ahead in all of my classes. I think by the time I have to start worrying about them again I can have you up to par in here.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. 
You pondered for a moment, wondering if it was really worth it to have the hottest guy you had ever seen tutoring you in a subject you had no idea about. He seemed to notice your ponder, chuckling softly. 
“I don’t bite.” 
Finally, you nodded. “Okay, when?” 
“I’m free right now.” He picked up his things, walking towards you. You allowed him to pass you, leading you out of the doors. He stopped walking in the center of the grass in front of the science building. Plopping down, he waited for you to sit. 
You raised an eyebrow, the grassy area shaded just well enough with trees but the warmth of the sun still hitting your skin. The grass was damp underneath your mostly bare legs, your shorts short enough for you to have to sit on your feet otherwise you would have a flashing situation that you really didn’t want to have to deal with. 
“Okay so the main test you need to worry about is the General Exam. A lot of the questions are on ancient science, more specifically how the Greeks began the human ascent into our knowledge of the stars and space itself.” Namjoon began, and already you felt your brain being clouded over with blank thoughts. 
“Okay.” You nodded, trying to follow along to the best of your ability. 
“How did the Greeks determine the size of the Earth?” 
You stared at him, your eye twitching while you dug around your brain for the answer. You knew the answer was there somewhere, so you open your notebook and flip through the notes from last week. 
“Uhm... They waited until a lunar eclipse and measured the shadow that the Earth cast on the moon.” The tip of your pen clicked against the notebook. Namjoon met your eyes, kindness lacing them while his eyebrow raised. He genuinely wanted to help you, and you prayed you didn’t become too enchanted by the way he pulls his bottom lip between his teeth. 
“Correct. What did they study specifically though?” 
You stared down at your notes again, “The diameter of Earth’s conical shadow, which they found that shadow’s diameter was about two and a half times the moon’s diameter.” 
“Good again.” Namjoon said, encouraging you while he continued to ask you questions. 
When it got to parts that were particularly hard to remember, he was patient while you sifted through your notes and textbooks to find the answer. Although your conversation with him previously was limited to asking him for a pencil, you found yourself comfortable with him quickly. 
Namjoon finally reached into his bag, pulling out an older textbook and opening it to a bookmarked page. Carefully, he explained Maxwell’s equations as if he was born to teach. You admired his intelligence, seeing a blush grow on his face once he noticed that you weren’t looking at where his finger’s were pointing on the page. 
“Uh, (Y/N)? Focus.” He snapped in your face, breaking you out of your trance and causing you to flip your eyes down to the paper. 
“S- sorry. You just have cute dimples.” As the words left your mouth you wanted desperately to swallow them back up and then sink into the ground in embarrassment. 
You expect him to laugh, but you didn’t expect him to laugh this hard. 
“H- holy shit, that was out of nowhere!” He hollered, clutching his stomach as he fell back into the tall grass. People around you two were beginning to stare, each holding a smirk of their own while you covered your face and fell backward into the grass yourself. 
Still laughing, he uttered his next sentence, “I mean, I knew you liked me but damn. I thought I would have to work you a little longer to get you to admit it.” 
“What?” You pulled yourself onto your elbows, staring at him with a gaunt expression, “who said I liked you? I just said you have cute dimples! I say that to everyone who has dimples!” 
“Don’t bullshit yourself, babe. I see the way you stare at me in class, you can’t deny it. Especially with how obvious you are about it.” He rolled his eyes, his laughter finally calming down while he reopened his book. 
“Whatever. Just tutor me.” Your voice came out in a growl, grabbing your pencil. Namjoon’s dimples deepened, deciding not to press the issue any further as he noticed your. . . agitation? Embarrassment? He couldn’t tell exactly. 
~*~*~
“Joon!” Namjoon’s head whipped towards the direction of his name, spotting Taehyung running towards him in his apron. Blue paint dripped from the ends of his hair, a trail of different colors in his wake while he rushed towards Namjoon. 
“What happened to you?” He couldn’t help but laugh, seeing Taehyung’s usually bright demeanor had been replaced with one of annoyance. 
“She happened!” Taehyung cried out, pointing to a girl across the campus yard with equally bright amounts of orange paint on her. She shot a middle finger his way and turned towards the girl’s dance hall. 
He turned back to Namjoon, “Can I shower at your place? I really don’t want to walk all the way to mine.” 
“Uh, yeah. I’ll give you my key, I’ve got a date.” Namjoon said, pulling out his keys and slipping his house key off the key ring. He dropped it into Taehyung’s red colored hands, sighing and rubbing his face from annoyance once he realized the apartment would be messy when he got home. 
“A date, huh?” 
“Well not really,” Namjoon and Taehyung walked somewhat briskly, ignoring the stares of passerby, “I’m tutoring her, but she likes me.” 
“And you like her?” Taehyung, ever so curious, walked passed the turn to Namjoon’s apartment to get an answer. 
“Go get cleaned up before the Dean spots you.” Namjoon turned back with a smirk, watching his younger friend roll his eyes. His shoes squelched as he walked, signaling the paint had made it’s way down into his socks. 
After the first tutoring session ended, Namjoon was sure to set up the next. Then the next, then the next. He found your reluctance to continue with tutoring sessions after he called your crush out somewhat cute. 
He had yet to bring it up again, instead opting to watch you while you drank way more water than you needed and stared at his lips while he explained formulas. Whether you believed it or not, he did intend on teaching you what you needed to know to pass the class. He knew you were absorbing the information, so he didn’t necessarily mind when he saw you licking your lips subconsciously while he slipped his jacket off his broad shoulders. 
Nonetheless, he felt that you were doing well. 
As far as class went, both of you always seemed to know when to look at each other. The professor would be droning on about topics that you and Namjoon had already covered, so you rested your head on the desk. Namjoon would mouth words to you, usually ‘pay attention’, but you knew he was always making sure you were okay. 
One particular class, Namjoon tapped his leg impatiently while he waited for you to enter the room. His favorite part of the day was seeing what you were wearing, because everything you wore seemed to compliment your shape in the best way. Not that he didn’t look before, but now that he knows you on a bit more personal level, he didn’t constantly tell himself it was wrong to look. 
When you finally did enter the room, your tight leggings and red heels made you look like a goddess. After that, his feelings were set in stone.
His plan today was to tutor you, as always, but then he wanted to make you feel good. After having spent so much time with you over the past couple weeks, he saw your personality blossom and suddenly he liked more than just your body. As he got to know you, he wanted you. More and more. 
He just had to make you beg for it. 
Namjoon knocked on your door, hearing squealing from behind the thick metal. A girl he didn’t recognize opened the door, leaning against the door frame. “Well hello there, I’ve heard so much about-” 
Just as she was about to finish her sentence, your hands snaked up from behind her and covered her mouth, yanking her backward and away from the door. 
“You said you’re leaving, Tamara. So leave.” You gestured, pointing out the door. Namjoon slid to the side, seeing her friend leave while sending a wink his way. He chuckled, waiting for you to invite him in. 
Your house was small, quaint, and old. It felt like you, though. Namjoon could tell you decorated, bits and pieces of things he learned you liked scattered throughout each room. 
He took a moment to look around while you told him to sit at the table, his finger running along the pictures on the walls. When you reentered the room, your hair was now pulled up and the bright blue fluffy pajama pants donned on your waist with a black tank top. 
“Sorry, it’s my house and I hate not wearing comfortable clothes in it.” You explained, crossing your leg and sitting on the chair across from him. 
You knew what Namjoon was playing at. After your third tutoring session, you noticed he became increasingly. . . sexy. Not that he wasn’t sexy before because you couldn’t deny your attraction, but the shirts became tighter, the hair was always styled, and his smirk. That damn smirk.
It was there, on his face. All the time. It was driving you absolutely insane. His tongue darted out to lick his lips and everything he said was so smart. 
Namjoon saw your wardrobe change, ignoring your skin peaking out from your tank top. “I can’t fault you for wanting to be comfortable.” He finally manages. 
You two got right to work, your eyes reading the numbers on the page. Namjoon leaned on the table, getting right into tutor mode and explaining a book he read that helped him understand advanced equations. 
You wrote down the book name, rubbing your forehead to get rid of your headache. Despite finally beginning to understand everything, your head still hurt at the prospect of taking the test in a few weeks. 
A couple hours later, your notebook was officially full. You tossed the pen onto the table, stretching your arms, “Yay! Done for the day!” 
Namjoon shut his own book, “I think we’re done forever.” 
“What?” You suddenly began to panic, did you do something to scare him away? Sure offering for him to tutor at your house was nerve-racking, but you didn’t think that he wouldn’t like it. 
“We’ve covered pretty much everything on the test. All you have to do is remember what I taught you, and then you’ll be good.” Namjoon stood, sliding his books haphazardly into his back pack. He slung it over his shoulder, giving you that same dimpled smile you had grown to love. 
“Wait- I know everything?” 
“Well not everything, but enough,” He grinned, “I’ll see you in class, (Y/N).” 
Namjoon turned to walk away and suddenly he was paranoid. He wanted you to call after him, to stop him and tell him to stay. However, as he made it closer to the door and began to slip his shoes on, he still hadn’t heard your call. 
He paused for a moment, a sigh leaving his lips while he turned his back and squeezed the doorknob in his hands. 
“Wait!” 
There you were.
“Let me make you dinner! You know, as a thanks for teaching me so well.” You said, coming into view. Namjoon turned around, “Dinner?” 
“Yes! I- I have steak that I was saving for Friday but I could make it now.” Your words became quieter as your spoke, your hand rubbing your arm nervously. There was no way that you wanted him to leave yet, and you weren’t sure how else to thank him. 
“I like steak.” Namjoon said, slipping his shoes back off and laying his back pack on the recliner beside the door. You grinned, letting out a nervous laugh, beckoning him into the living room. 
“Make yourself comfy and I’ll cook for you.” 
“Why don’t I help you?” Namjoon offered, following you while you walked out. You tilted your head to the side, “You can cook?” 
Namjoon, for the first time in a while, felt a blush creep on his cheek. The way you looked up at him, expectant and suddenly excited, made his head spin. He actually had to admit something that he couldn’t do to someone who he was trying to impress, “I didn’t say I could cook. I said I would help.” 
You giggled, “I’ll have you toss the salad.” 
“I like the sound of that.” Namjoon teased, following you into the kitchen. You began to prep everything, Namjoon watching in awe while you moved around the kitchen with ease. 
After setting a pan onto the open flame, you turned and connected your phone to the speaker and flipped on your cooking playlist. Namjoon, impressed with your taste in music, continued to watch you as you started dancing along to the beat. 
The sear of the steak against the hot pan was a welcoming sound, Namjoon’s mouth suddenly watering as he saw you toss butter and thyme into the pan. Your voice sang along with the song, your movements fluid. 
“You have a beautiful voice!” Namjoon called over the music, watching your face turn red. He sat on the other side of the island, waiting patiently for instruction. As the steaks cooked, you reached into the fridge and pulled out a head of lettuce, setting it down in front of Namjoon and rummaging through the lower cabinet for a bowl. 
Namjoon leaned over the counter, admiring your curves as your back peaked out from your tank top. The shirt you wore hugged you perfectly, he could see your heart-shaped ass squeezed into your pajama pants. Once he saw you stand up, he sat back down quickly but over corrected and managed to slip right off the stool. 
With a loud crash, he toppled over the stool beside him and let out a groan. 
“Are you okay?” You yelled, pausing your music and rushing around the counter. Namjoon’s eyes were shut tight, “I’m good.” 
“What were you doing?” You question, reaching your hand out. His large hand dwarfed yours, and you knew you weren’t any help to pull him up but you still tugged on his arm nonetheless. 
He smiled sheepishly, “I was just trying to see what kind of bowl you were grabbing.” 
“Oh?” you watched him dust himself off, “why are you so interested in bowls?” 
“More like the girl who was holding the bowl.” 
“I knew you weren’t tutoring me just to help me,” you roll your eyes, the feeling you had in the pit of your stomach finally coming true, “so is making you steak a dumb idea? Would you prefer I suck your dick as thanks?” 
Namjoon was somewhat shocked by your cool tone, watching you flip the steaks and almost cringing at the loud searing returning. Although he liked the words that came out of your mouth, he would have preferred if it came out in a moan. Something about the way you refused to look him in the eye caused him to swallow nervously. 
“N- no, I didn’t expect an extravagant thanks. The steaks will be fine.” He explained, sighing softly and allowing his face to fall into his hands. 
Silence fell over the two of you, Namjoon suddenly missing the blaring music that filled his ears 10 minutes ago. He nervously listened as you explained how to make the salad. He did so quietly, his hands carefully shredding the lettuce then mixing the ingredients to make the vinaigrette. 
You rolled your neck, exhaling through your nose. When you heard him admit his interest in you, you immediately wanted to hide yours. Sure, your feelings were reciprocated but he was a TA, he was basically your teacher. You couldn’t do anything with him, he’s likely the one to by grading your test. If anyone found out, favoritism would be called even if you did get everything right. 
“I’m sorry, I must have read you wrong earlier.” Namjoon’s voice sliced through the silence. His hands held the whisk loosely, dipping his pinky in to make sure the vinaigrette tasted good. 
“No, you didn’t.” You spoke carefully, pulling out plates and setting the steaks on each plate. 
“Would you be upset if I said I was confused?” Namjoon felt like he had to walk on eggshells. Sure, you didn’t necessarily yell at him earlier but he was much more careful of every word he said. 
“We can’t do anything, Namjoon,” you cut up a couple of hard boiled eggs and threw it into the bowl of salad, “you’re my TA. It’d be inappropriate. Believe me, I’ve been imagining going down on you for ages but it’s just not in the cards.” 
This whole conversation was so mature, Namjoon wasn’t used to so much honesty from women and he certainly didn’t expect it from you. Especially since you denied your interest in him so vehemently on the first day. It was new territory, he never had a problem waning women in his direction before.  
“Teacher’s Assistant or not, I still feel like we’d be good. Besides, I’m only your TA for a couple more months.” Namjoon said, finally tossing the salad together. 
“What makes you say that?” 
“Because I like you. Genuinely. You’re smart, funny, and one hell of a gorgeous girl.” Namjoon explained, using tongs to lay the salad on the plate beside the steak. 
You smiled at his compliment, grabbing forks and knives out of the drawer. Initially you planned on eating at the table but you decided to stand at the island, sliding a plate over to Namjoon and watching him cut his steak and eat. He moaned at the taste, gesturing wildly at his plate while he chewed. 
“This shit is immaculate.” 
After a few moments, Namjoon had eaten half his steak and you finished your salad. You found a good moment to speak again, “You’re saying you want something more than sex?” 
“The sex would be nice, but I’d like to take you out on a date as well,” he takes another bite, “dinner and dessert.” 
You chewed slowly, thinking over his words carefully. It was true, you’d only have to hide it for a couple months. That is if everything lasted that long. You looked him up and down, weighing the pros and cons. As far as you were concerned, there couldn’t be a con. 
If anything, dating him even briefly would be fun. A college romance. 
“What would be the dessert?” You questioned, taking his now empty plate and slipping it into the sink. 
He wiped his mouth with a napkin, revealing a devilish smirk when he was done. “Well, you of course.” 
You inhaled, watching him stand from his stool and walk around the island. “That is, if you want to be my dessert.” 
Finally, you nodded. Namjoon took your nod as permission, leaning down carefully and pressing a small kiss to your lips. You could taste the raspberry vinaigrette on his tongue when he slipped it gently between your lips. His hand held the back of your neck, his thumb stroking your soft exposed skin. 
Nothing about how he looked could prepare you for the sudden arousal you felt just at his touch. His hands were large, you wanted them all over your body but the stayed at the back of your neck. 
He gave no hint of taking it any further, pulling away just as softly as he started. His lips pressed a kiss to each of your cheeks, then the tip of your nose before pulling away completely. 
Your eyes fluttered back open once you felt his touch leave your body, and then you felt cold everywhere but where he once held you. “Thank you for the dinner, (Y/N).” 
“Wait! You don’t get to get me all hot and bothered and then leave after kissing me!” You yelled, calling after him while he once again made his way to your front door. He paused, turned, and grinned, “Believe me, there is nothing I want more than to bend you over the counter and fuck you into oblivion. I just- I don’t want to mess it up before it even starts.” 
You opened and closed your mouth a few times, trying desperately to find the words you wanted to say. Your mind was reeling with him, even though it was only a few seconds, his kiss was the most sensual thing you had ever experienced in your entire life. 
“I don’t think fucking me over the counter would mess anything up.” You replied, both shy and ready to rip your clothes off at the same time. 
Namjoon’s cock twitched in his pants at your words, swallowing. “So you’re okay with me fucking you before I take you on a date?” 
“Namjoon,” the way you said his name, desperation rolling off the tip of your tongue, turned him on more than anyone ever has, “I’m begging you to fuck me.” 
That’s what he wanted to hear. 
Namjoon rushed back over to you, his hands at your hips and gripping them roughly in his fingers. His lips were much more rushed, hard against yours. His teeth captured your bottom lip, tugging it gently. 
You grinned at the feeling building in your core, his strong hands lifting you onto the counter. He rested between your legs, only pulling away to take his shirt off of his body. His golden skin shined beneath the lights of your kitchen, your eyes scanning him for just a moment before bringing him down to your lips again. 
You lifted your hips enough for him to slide your pants down your legs. You wrapped them around his hips, grinding softly against him. The whines that left your mouth were sinful and it took everything in Namjoon not to cum just to the sound of your voice.
You pulled away, breathless. Your lips latched onto his neck, biting and sucking harshly.
“Still want to go down on me?” Namjoon grinned. 
You didn’t hesitate in dropping off the counter and onto your knees, unbuttoning his jeans and slipping them down his legs. Before moving on, you removed your Tank top from your body, your chest bouncing while you excitedly moved. 
Namjoon’s mouth went dry as he spotted your hard nipples, wanting desperately to latch his lips around them. 
Urgency was felt between the two of you, both of you waiting to feel the rush of pleasure. You pulled his cock out from his jeans, already hard and ready for your lips to wrap around it. You pumped it a few times, smearing precum across the tip before looking up at him through your lashes. 
His hand stroked your hair softly, giving you a subtle nod and urging you to continue. Finally, you licked a long stripe on the underside of his pulsing cock and hearing him moan loudly. You couldn’t help but moan back, watching him throw his head back. 
It was the perfect size, you were able to swallow his cock with ease. Your eyes began to water when he held your head all the way down, burying your nose in his pelvic bone. 
His chest was heaving, and you had never felt sexier. 
Even though you were only going down on him, you still felt pleasure in giving him pleasure. The way his hips tutted into your mouth, shoving his member further down your throat, had you reeling. You slipped your free hand between your legs, rubbing harshly on your clothed clit. 
Your hips lifted and dropped while you tried to find the best angle, you knew you could come just from sucking Namjoon dry. 
“Fuck, you feel so good baby.” Namjoon cried out, watching as his cock thrust in and out of your swollen lips. He continued to guide your head, your other hand dropping as he began to fully fuck your mouth. 
He noticed where your hands were, electrifying pleasure rushing through his body at the sight of you rubbing your clit beneath him. “If you don’t want me to cum on your tongue then I suggest stopping now.” 
There was no way you were stopping now, you felt yourself grow closer and closer to your release. As your movements sped up on your clit, you sucked harder. 
“Ah, ah! Princess please-” Namjoon pleaded, “(Y/N)...” Your name rolled off the tip of his tongue with a grunt.
As you felt your release wash over your body, cum sputtered out of Namjoon’s cock, coating your tongue and the back of your throat. He pulled out until the tip of his cock rested on your tongue, finishing off his orgasm. 
You knew you had soaked through your panties, but you had never came so hard just from touching someone. As Namjoon pulled away, you swallowed the bitter taste and looked up at his completely fucked out expression. 
“Holy shit.” He pulled you up, capturing your lips yet again. It shocked you, as every other man you had been with refused to kiss you after they had cum in your throat. “You are amazing.” 
“S- same to you.” You stuttered, your legs still weak from your release. 
Namjoon dipped his hand down your panties, shocked by the wetness enveloping his fingers. “You’re so wet.” He grinned, he knew he had an affect on you but he didn’t know it was this strong. 
He slid onto his knees, panic rushing over your features, “What are you doing?” 
“Well you made me feel good, now it’s your turn.” He explained, pulling your leg over his shoulder and slipping your panties to the side. 
“I already came...” You said shyly, Namjoon’s pupil’s blown at the sight of your soaked slit. 
“Really? Just from-” you nodded, seeing his shocked expression, “well you get to come again.” 
Before you had a second to gather your thoughts, Namjoon buried his face between your legs. Already weak from before, you felt yourself lean back on the counter for support while his tongue attacked your entrance. You gasped at the sudden feeling of his warmth, his fingers holding open your lips as he moved against you fervently. You don’t think you had ever came so quickly after another, but in seconds you found yourself releasing on his lips, feeling them turn into a smirk while he excitedly lapped up your juices. 
As you tried to gather yourself, you heard your front door unlock. Both of you shared a panicked look, Namjoon slipping his jeans back up his legs and doing the belt up quickly. You looked around, noticing your pants on the other side of the kitchen, and it was too late. 
You heard footsteps approach on the wooden floor, and Namjoon slid you behind him, hiding your unclothed torso. 
“Hey (Y/N) did your hot tutor le- oh my god.” Tamara was cut off by the scene in front of her, Namjoon pushing you to his back while you hid behind him. Peaking your head out, you let out an embarrassed laugh, “I thought you were spending the night at your boyfriend’s.” 
“You said he was just tutoring you and you had sex in our kitchen?” Tamara’s mouth dropped open as she looked around at various items of clothes thrown around. 
“That’s my bad,” Namjoon spoke up, his face warm. From the sex or the embarrassment, he wasn’t sure, “I couldn’t help myself.” 
Tamara only raised an eyebrow at him, shaking her head and turning away. 
You let out a breath, sighing and hugging Namjoon’s back. He chuckled, turning in your arms and hugging you back. “Well that was a fun ride.” 
“Joon,” you still hid your face from him, his laugh filling your ears, “we can’t have sex in my kitchen again.” 
“Awe,” he pouted, grabbing your chin and lifting to meet your eyes, “but I still haven’t bent you over the counter.” 
You gasped at his words, slapping his chest playfully before leaning away and slipping your shirt back on. He dressed himself as well, handing you your pants and watching you cover your gorgeous body. 
“Are you going to stay the night?” You question innocently, most wondering if you needed to grab more pillows for your bed. Namjoon smiled softly, his hands yearning to hold you again but he held himself back, opting to scratch his neck to keep himself busy instead.
“Do you want me to?” 
“It’d be nice.” You grinned, excited at the prospect of falling asleep in his arms. 
Namjoon nodded, following you to your bedroom. 
~*~*~ 
The next morning was busy. You both woke up late, mostly because every time Namjoon’s alarm went off he snoozed it. 
The rest of the night was spent in your bedroom, talking about your aspirations while a movie played in the background. Your fingers clasped together, your heads on the same pillow. He never seemed to run out of things to talk about with you, and for that he was grateful. Never has a woman been so intellectually stimulating to him. 
When you did finally manage to tear yourself out of bed, Namjoon reached out for you in his half-asleep state. “Come back,” his voice was deep but still came out in a whine, “we can skip today.” 
“No we can’t,” you murmur, laying down beside him and pushing his hair from his face, “I already missed my first two classes. The next one is the one we both have to go to, if you and I miss it on the same day it’ll be suspicious.” 
Namjoon sighed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and sitting up. You pulled an outfit out from your closet, undressing and changing. Namjoon still sat on the bed, watching you in awe while he learned your morning routine. 
“What’s that perfume you use?” He asked after a moment, remembering the distinct strawberry scent that he always smelled radiating off of your clothes. You held up a perfume, “Gucci flora, it’s my favorite.” You smiled. 
Finally, he got up and slipped his clothes from yesterday on. You cringed, “You’re gonna have to go to class in the same clothes as yesterday.” 
He shrugged, “I’m sure no one will notice.” 
Namjoon pressed a chaste kiss to your cheek, fluffing up the back of your hair for you. 
So quickly did he fall into you. Everything about you was so captivating, down to the way you brushed your teeth. He knew from the first day you walked into that classroom that you were a heartbreaker, and he just prayed every day since he started tutoring you that he was an exception. He wondered how deeply you felt about him, or whether it was on a surface level. Trying not to think about negative things, he shook his head and followed you out of your house. 
When you both made it to the science building, Namjoon waited a moment to walk in after you did. As you sat down at your seat, you couldn’t help but watch Namjoon as he slipped into TA mode. Ready for him was a stack of papers to grade, and you knew you weren’t getting much of a look from him today. Either way, you were happy with the progress the two of you had made in one short night, not that you were expecting any of it to happen. 
The class went by a lot slower than you wanted, and it wasn’t until the professor dismissed you did you realize you had almost fallen asleep while you watched yet another video on Tycho Brahe. 
Everyone filed out of the classroom, and as you got up to leave you stole a glance to Namjoon. He dawned a pair of glasses and read intently on whatever he had in his hand. 
As the professor spoke to a student at the door, you made your way over to Namjoon, tapping your finger on the desk quietly to get his attention. He looked up, slipping off the glasses from his face and grinned, “Well hello gorgeous.” 
You blushed at his words, “I’m going to head back home, you can come if you want?” 
“Hm, I think I’m going to the arcade with my friend. I can come by after that?” He suggested, and you tried to hide your disappointment. Namjoon could sense it, “I’ll come by tonight for sure. Do you like take out?” 
You nodded, “I’d like that.” 
“Miss (Y/L/N)! I’ve seen your improvement and I’m glad, Namjoon has certainly helped you.” The professor walked over to you to, pulling you out of the trance that was Namjoon’s deep brown eyes. 
“Uh, yeah he’s certain good at teaching,” you stuttered, “I’m glad he offered to tutor me.” 
The professor nodded, “Well like I said before, I can’t wait to give you that A.” He patted your shoulder, and you took that as an opportunity to slip out of the room. Namjoon waved to you before discussing something with the professor. You watched for a moment, biting your lip then walking down the hallway and out the door. 
When you made it back to your house, your roommate sat on the couch in her pajamas. You rose an eyebrow, “I thought you had a lecture at 2 today.” 
“I skipped it,” She shrugged, “where’s your boytoy?” 
“At the arcade with a friend of his,” you explained, plopping down beside her and cringing at some reality show she watched. She paused occasionally to explain why some person was yelling at another and you tried to listen to the best of your ability but you couldn’t help but think back to last night. 
Sure, you enjoyed the physicality of everything but once you two began talking about things other than Astrophysics, you learned a whole lot more about him than you expected to. 
His love for rap and music in general was heart-warming, mentioning briefly on how he wished to one day drop a mixtape and maybe get signed. You encouraged him even though you hadn’t heard a single second of anything he’s ever written. Either way, you knew that he could do it because there wasn’t anything in the world you could imagine him being bad at. 
When he asked you about your dreams, you weren’t sure how to answer. You had always taken a, ‘it is what it is’ approach to everything. Yes, you did preemptively take Business Marketing as a gateway into adulthood, but as far as everything else went, you were unsure. 
Eventually you managed a small, “I’m happy to be alive.” 
Namjoon smiled, enjoying the simplicity of your answer. 
You shook your head from thoughts of last night, wiping the grin off your face. 
Just as you saw Tamara drift off to sleep, your phone lit up. 
friend is being lame, can I come over? 
Your heart was giddy, excited to see the man who couldn’t leave your mind. Quickly, you responded. 
please do
You locked your phone and waited on the couch, mindlessly scrolling through the TV while Tamara snored softly. You sighed, wondering if you should tell her to leave for a bit. You decided against it, knowing that he has had men over many times when you were just a thin wall away. 
You hopped up at the sound of a gentle knock on the door, practically throwing the door open to see Namjoon. His smile stretched across his face, “Hi baby.” 
You pulled him into the house, shushing him when you walked passed the living room. He chuckled softly, and when you were down the hall and in your room, he slipped his jacket off of his shoulders. 
“Soo,” you were suddenly shy, realizing you weren’t sure how tonight was going to go, “how was the arcade.” 
“Dumb,” Namjoon replied honestly. You noticed he went home and finally changed from yesterday’s clothes, a tight black T-shirt now hugging his skin. He hopped on the bed beside you, “my friend refuses to let anyone ruin his high score.” 
You giggled, “Ah KSJ? Some girl in my Marketing Research class has been talking about him a lot.” 
Namjoon nodded, “That man has more of an affect than he realizes.” 
It was quiet for a moment, and you watched while he adjusted himself onto your bed. He closed his eyes, and it amazed you at how quickly he became comfortable with you. He was already treating you like you had been together for a while, and you couldn’t complain. You enjoyed skipping the ‘get to know me’ phase, because you know as time goes on you will learn more about each other and in better ways than the standard first date. 
Still, even though you had already done some of the most intimate things with the man, you found yourself in awe of him. His chest rose and fell softly, and you realized that you hadn’t kissed him since this morning. You yearned for his touch but tried desperately not to come off as needy. 
You laid beside him, just far enough away for him to notice. Namjoon opened an eye, “You okay?” 
“I’m good, yeah.” You smiled, swallowing nervously. 
“How come you’re not touching me?” His question was loaded, though it came off innocent. His eyes were closed again, waiting for your verbal response. His hands, clasped behind his head, made his biceps flex beneath the tight black fabric. 
Earlier hesitation gone, you leaned your head onto his shoulder, feeling his arm move and fall around you as if he had been doing this for years. 
You snuggled into him, your eyes growing heavy. 
“Did I really come over here just to nap?” Namjoon asked outloud, more to himself than you. You nodded against him, feeling yourself fall asleep on his chest. 
~*~*~ 
Namjoon hadn’t been around since he fell asleep with you, and you assumed with everything going on that he was busy. He was sure to send a few texts your way a day, being sure to let you know that he can’t stop thinking about you. Even in class, you didn’t talk much but you didn’t mind, focusing on things that you needed to. 
Now it was Saturday night, your legs crossed on your bed and copious amounts of homework and papers surrounding you. Almost finishing, your hands filled out each question when you heard your ringtone throughout the room. 
“Hello?” You answered without looking, putting on your customer service voice out of habit from many years ago. 
“I still haven’t bent you over the table.” Namjoon sounded through, music coming through the speaker. You gasped at his words, immediately dropping your pencil, “Are you drunk?” 
“No,” he giggles, shushing someone else beside him, “I just want you. This bar is boring without you.” 
“You haven’t drank with me though?” You tease, questioning his motives for calling you. He shouted to someone in the corner, telling them to stop talking shit, “I bet you’re sexy when you’re drunk. Not that you aren’t sexy all the time, but I think you’d be even more wet than before if you drank a little with me.” 
“I really hope you aren’t saying these things in front of people, Joon.” You scold, but you can’t help but feel the heat between your legs at his words. You imagined him at a table with his friends, his hand over the speaker while he spoke dirty words into your ears. 
“I’m coming over.” Namjoon said, and he hung up without another word. 
You look around, quickly cleaning up your papers and books, sliding them onto your night stand. You rushed to the bathroom, brushing your teeth quickly. You weren’t exactly sure what to expect, so you changed from your sweats and into a satin nightgown. You studied your reflection carefully, shaking your head and changing into something else. 
Black and red lingerie rested on your body, and you knew you were finally ready. As if expecting that you were ready, Namjoon knocked on the door. You rushed to the door, the knocking not stopping until you were opening it. He took a moment to look at your scantily clad body, an audible groan slipping from his lips. 
He was drunk, or at least tipsy. He’s eyes were clouded over and every inch of your body only turned him on.
No words were exchanged, only Namjoon grabbing your face in his large hands and kissing you passionately. He pushed you into your house, his lips not leaving yours. You silently thanked your roommate for leaving, not having to worry about be walked in on until the morning. He already had the layout of your house memorized, carefully navigating through your hallway until he reached your bathroom. 
Confused, you pulled away when you heard the door creek, “What are you-” 
“I want you in the shower,” Namjoon said, already ripping off his shirt, “and as much as I would love to fuck you in that tiny little outfit, I like when you’re naked even more.” 
It didn’t take much to convince you. He stumbled out of his jeans, no boxers to be seen underneath. You watched him with a smirk on your face, his hand turning the shower on and testing the temperature. 
When he turned back to you, it felt like something switched in him, “Why aren’t you undressed?” 
Your core twitched at the demanding tone of his voice. He wasn’t hard yet, he held himself off from stroking himself until he saw that you were wet and ready. 
You unclasped your bra, slipping it from around your shoulders. He grabbed your arm, guiding you to the water and silently asking for you to test it. When you felt the warm liquid surround your hand, you nodded and stepped out of your panties. 
Without giving you much time to adjust, Namjoon was behind you, pulling the shower head off of the mount and switching it to massage mode. 
“I thought you wanted to fuck me?” You questioned, such dirty words falling from your sinful mouth. Namjoon smiled down at you, his cock rutting against your backside in anticipation, “I do, but I want to make you feel good as well.” 
He brought the shower head over the front of your body, running the water over everywhere he would kiss if he were in bed. Your tits were perky, a perfect handful for Namjoon to grab and tug at while the water moved down lower. 
His feet kicked yours apart, spreading your legs ever-so-slightly and allowing the harsh water jets to hit your clit directly. Immediately, your legs grew weak. Namjoon wrapped his other arm around your waist, holding you up while the jets pounded against your clit. 
“Oh my god,” you moaned, Namjoon’s cock twitching from behind you, “more.” 
Suddenly, he felt much more sober than previously, “What was that, baby?” 
“More, please. More.” Was all you could manage out, your head thrown back onto his shoulder while you clawed backward, desperate to touch him in any way you possibly could. When your hands settled on the back of your neck, you felt yourself growing closer and closer to your orgasm. 
Just as quickly as it started, it stopped. Namjoon pulled away, his lips attacking your neck while you whined from the lack of sensation against you. The water jets was replaced with his fingers, “I can’t take it anymore. I have to be inside you.” 
Catching your breath, you turned to him and kissed him harshly. Your nails raked down his abs, feeling the muscles clench at every touch against him. You gripped his now hard cock in your manicured hand, pumping it up and down quickly. 
“Are you sure you’re ready for me?” If he could tease you, you could tease him right back, “you might cum too quickly. I don’t know if you could last inside of me.” 
“Cocky, huh? Bend over. Now.” Namjoon demanded, not having any of it. As you turned around, your head under the water, Namjoon rubbed the head of his cock up and down your slit, collecting up your wetness and groaning at the feeling of you finally so close to him. 
He didn’t ask if you were ready like he wanted to, but the feeling was overwhelming, just running his cock over you was enough to send him into the most intense rush of pleasure he’s ever felt in his entire life and he forgot how to move his tongue to create the words running through his head. 
All he could do was slowly sink into you, earning a delicious moan from you. You gripped onto the railing in front of you, his length filling you and stretching you out in the best way possible. Even with the water running over both of you, you were numb to everything that wasn’t him. His fingertips digging into your hips, his length moving in and out of you at an agonizingly slow pace. In that moment, your entire being was consumed by him and him alone. 
“More.” You moaned, much like earlier except your voice was filled with much more need than before. Namjoon couldn’t help himself, though, continuing his slow thrusts. Whines, glorious and loud, filled the shower, echoing off of the walls. Namjoon was quiet, just listening to you while your knuckles turned white from gripping the handles. 
“Fuck!” you shout, letting go of the railing and leaning up, just enough for Namjoon’s hands to return to your breasts, massaging them as he finally began to speed up his motions. 
“I love that you’re so loud,” Namjoon manages, grunting while he spoke, “tell me more. Tell me how much you like it.” 
“You feel so good, Namjoon,” you look back at him, his eyes screwed shut and his hair soaked, droplets of water dripping from the ends of his hair, “you’re so big, I love your- I love-” your eyes rolled to the back of your head. You weren’t able to form anymore words as Namjoon’s cock hit just the right place to have you rolling in pleasure. 
“Come on, babygirl. You have to tell me.” His thrusts were faster, sloppier, and his fingers found their way back down to your clit. His calloused fingers spread your lips, moving in a figure 8 while he timed his thrusts with each twist of his finger. 
“I want you to fill me up!” You cry out, and you knew you weren’t helping Namjoon in anyway from the way your legs gave out. His arms held you close though, keeping you up so easily.
Namjoon buried his face in your shoulder, “You’re so fucking hot, please tell me you’re close.” His words were muffled but you could understand him loud and clear.
“Mmhmm.” You managed, biting your lip. 
“Say it.” 
“I’m going to come,” you moan, and then your release washed over your body in waves. Everything was too much, the way you came undone beneath him and the feeling of you squeezing his cock. He was a mess, and after a few more thrusts, he pulled his cock out of you and released onto your ass, letting you go in the process. 
You fall forward, grabbing the railing yet again for support and feeling his hot cum drench your lower half. With your orgasm still running its course, you felt your knees buckle while you dropped. 
Namjoon was quick to reach forward and catch you, setting you down on the ledge of the top and moving the hair out of your face. “Are you okay baby?” 
You nodded, “I’m more than okay.” 
Namjoon grinned, leaning down and kissing your cheeks, “Let’s get you cleaned up.” 
After cleaning you up, Namjoon massaged shampoo and conditioner throughout your hair, inhaling the sweet scent of coconut. Afterward, he even brushed your hair while you were wrapped in a towel, then finally handing you his shirt to sleep in. 
“So,” you said later that night, stroking his hair while you listened to music, “we going to go on that date you said you wanted to take me out on?”
“Breakfast tomorrow?” He looks up at you, that dimpled smirk stretching across his face. 
“I’d like that.” You grin, leaning down and giving him one of many kisses. 
204 notes · View notes
limited-practice · 5 years
Text
I saw a request from @shapeofmetal that @rawmeknockout filled fantastically well here and thought yes this is good, this is all great, I’d love to have a go at writing this myself some time. So I did. 
7424 words of explicit Shockwave/Reader are below the cut.
The human mouth is disgusting, and I am going to prove it.”
Shockwave states this coldly and firmly the second you step into his lab. But his optic is bright and wide and he’s already hovering next to you, holding out a tool box as if it’s a long lost treasure he’s graciously decided to share with you and only you, and as such you should turn speechless with awe and gratitude and silently beg to be allowed to help him prove how terrible you are.
You are supremely unimpressed. You haven’t even had the chance to take your coat off yet, and here you are being told by one of the greatest scientists you know that an essential part of you is disgusting.
“The human mouth is a medical marvel,” you argue back, dumping your coat onto the pristine floor of his lab. You lean casually and definitely against a lab bench and look at him in the way he deserves for such invalid arrogance.
“You are incorrect,” Shockwave says.
“I know you are, but what am I?” You shoot back.
“…incorrect.”
“I know you are, but what am I?”
“Incorrect.”
“I know you are, but what am I ?”
“…?”
You cross your arms in satisfaction. “Exactly.”
“Enough.” Shockwave steps closer, the tool box rattling excitedly in his hand. “Sit down. Stop talking. Open your mouth.” 
“Why? What are you going to put in it?” you say, ignoring all three orders.
“An incontrovertible means to prove my supposition that will allow even the most intellectually challenged being to understand.”
Shockwave opens the box.
You stretch up onto your toes and peer inside it. You nod your head repeatedly at what you see and what he’s just said. “Uh-huh, uh-huh. Now I’m no scientist, but there’s a few things in there that don’t look very scientific. Like that long yellow thing and that sharp purple thing with hinges.”
“You are correct.”
“I know.”
“You are not a scientist. You are an inferior life form existing with a poverty of comprehension, life expectancy and universally accepted currency.”
“Hey.” You may have agreed to be a volunteer for Shockwave’s experiments after he approached you earlier with a monetary offer you couldn’t refuse, and because he ignored you when you asked  him why he hadn’t publicly advertised for volunteers and is only asking you, but you’re not going to sit back and take that. “You don’t have to be a dick about this. You don’t know me.” Two of his three statements are correct, but you’ll be floating outside in space without a suit on before you agree with him.
Shockwave looms over you, bright and purple and powerful. You’re not nervous. You’ve never been nervous around him when so many rightfully are and you don’t know why.
“I will tell you something I do know,” Shockwave says. “Something that your human ‘scientists’ and ‘doctors’ have also documented and agreed on.” 
He puts the tool box down on the bench and takes out a long cotton swab from it. “The mouth is one of the filthiest parts of your body.”
You feel your lips tugging up into a smile. “But not the filthiest, am I right?”
Shockwave glances down to between your legs.
“Pervert,” you say, delighted. “I’m talking about my brain.” For added emphasis you tap a finger to your temple. 
“Enough.” Shockwave puts his other arm on your shoulder and pushes you down onto a medical stool. He does so carefully, as if wanting to give you the chance to say no to this.
You sit down on the stool. You don’t want to say no to any of this. 
You stretch your legs out and cross them at the ankle. “Are you trying to find out how many diseases I’ve got in my mouth? Will you be upset if there are too many or too few? Do you want me to stop talking? Or is that what you like most about my mouth? The different shapes it can make; the way my tongue moves; how wet everything is? Would you be upset if I keep it closed and denied you everything you so clearly want?”
And before Shockwave can respond, you preempt him and open your mouth.
“Are you going to slip into a radioactive suit first?” you ask. “Are you worried about your safety? It’s OK, there’s nothing to be concerned about - I’ll go easy on you. And I promise not to bite.”
Shockwave doesn’t answer. But he looks like he wants to. He very much looks like he wants to say something that he shouldn’t.
He inserts the cotton swab into your mouth and runs it along the wall of your cheek, coating the tip in saliva. He then pauses, as if reluctant to remove it so soon. He swipes the inside of your mouth again, this time anti-clockwise and this time slower. He repeats the clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations three times each. Maybe his interest with your mouth really is just scientific.
He finally removes the swab and puts it into a cylindrical container mounted to the wall. “Results from the buccal swab will be available almost instantaneously and will produce an accuracy rate of 99.99%”
“I’m so glad I’m sitting down here because wow, you just blew my mind with that fascinating statistic.”
Shockwave returns to you and doesn’t dignify you with an answer.
“There may be a trillions of bacteria in my mouth,” you tell him, rubbing the side of your face that he’d taken a painless sample from. “But they’re not just there to party. They pay their way and are useful. Essential, actually.” 
“Elaborate.” 
“So if we get germs in our mouth then our body doesn’t just give up and die an embarrassing death - the good bacteria are woken up and put up a fight and prevent us from getting sick. Or at least fatally sick. Sometimes we still get sick but they’ve done their best, you can’t blame them for everything.”
“Is that so.”
“Yep. Well some of the bacteria help out like that, I don’t think they all do. Some of them don’t do much and are just…there. I don’t know how many and what it is they actually do. And I’m not going to count them because one, that’s boring and two, I’m not a snitch.”
You lean forward. “Do you really not know all of this? This is basic biology even the dumb kids in the useless schools know.”
Shockwave reaches into the tool box again. “I am fully aware of the purpose of defence bacteria, how they operate, the ratio of useful to redundant organisms and how inefficient the entire mechanism is. But this has all been documented by others - by humans - and not by a cybertronian. Not by me.”
He extracts the small sharp purple thing.
You swallow. “So you don’t believe them.”
Shockwave puts his hand over yours, which is still on your cheek. “I do not believe them. I trust only my results. My methodology.”
He manipulates the instrument until it transforms into a medical instrument you recognise.
You open your mouth slightly. “And that’s the only reason you’re doing this? The only reason you want to probe me with that?”
“…correct. I need to examine and document the area personally in order to establish an accurate primary baseline.”
“Mm-hmm.” Of all the colours in existence, he chose the one that matches his frame’s colour exactly. “For science?”
Shockwave slides the purple tongue depressor into your mouth and over your tongue. “For science.” 
Shockwave is careful. Thorough. He uses his optic as a focused beam of light to peer into your mouth and examine it. The metal depressor on your tongue is smooth and warm, and whenever your gag reflex threatens to start up, Shockwave adjusts the instrument instantly to help it pass. He exacts the perfect amount of pressure every single time to still it. You’re impressed. But starting to get bored. He’s just looking at you and not moving, as if he’s never seen the inside of a human mouth before and is on sacred ground he knows he needs to tread carefully on. 
You make a sound, and he tears his relentless gaze from the inside of your mouth to your eyes. You raise your eyebrows to ask what’s taking so long.
“Tell me,” Shockwave asks, as he places the instrument underneath your tongue so that you can talk. “What are the carriers for the bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa that activate the defense mechanisms of the mouth?”
You roll your tongue on top of the depressor and feel your eyes itching to do the same. You didn’t sign up for a biology quiz. “You mean where do germs come from?”
“That is not what I meant or asked. Pay attention.”
You put a finger in your mouth. You reach as far back as the depressor goes and touch it. You run your finger along the smooth metal until it comes out of your mouth but you don’t break contact with it, you keep going, trailing your finger along the handle of the depressor until you come to the fingers that hold it. You rest your finger on Shockwave’s.
“Oh now I see,” you exaggerate loudly, as if only now the blinds have been lifted from your eyes and you finally understand what he means. “You want to know about things that shouldn’t go in my mouth. The dirty things that could make me sick. The forbidden things.” 
You swallow around the metal. “And you want to know if I know them.”
Shockwave slides the depressor out of your mouth and moves his hand back. But not far enough to dislodge your finger from his.
“What if I said I did know?” you continue. “That I know all of them. That I make a sustained effort to educate myself on biology and physiology not only because it helps me to stay healthy and alive, but because I find those areas of study fascinating in their own right?”
Shockwave doesn’t move and doesn’t answer. You can practically feel his spark contracting as he realises you’re telling the truth.
You tilt your head. If he tattooed his desires across his impressive chest he couldn’t be more obvious in what he wants. You feel your heart beat faster at what you’re going to say next. “But what if I didn’t know? What if I said I didn’t know what shouldn’t be going in my mouth and that I’d…like to?’
It should be impossible, but you can sense his spark expand.
“I…would experiment,” he tells you. “For science.”
“As opposed to the medieval fine arts?”
Shockwave’s optic bores into you. “We do not have time to undertake a battery of tests to determine if every substance is dangerous to human health if ingested orally. My selected carriers have been chosen carefully and will produce…results.“ 
You sit back on the stool and eye him critically. This is the first you’re hearing about ingesting something. He already knows what substances are dangerous to human health. He knows all of them and you, the planet Earth, and the rest of the known galaxy know almost all of them. This seems like a ploy to put things in your mouth and see if they’ll kill you or make you sick.
“You already know what substances are dangerous to human health,” you tell Shockwave. He lowers his hand and you remove your finger from his. “And I, the planet Earth and the rest of the known galaxy know almost all of them. This is starting to seem like a ploy to put things in my mouth to see if they’ll make me sick.” 
You point your finger sharply at him and speak with a fake fiery fury. “And this is the first I’m hearing about actually ingesting something. Is this whole experiment just to see if something will kill me? Is that it? Is it? Are you going to offer me a glowing stick of radioactive waste and say it’s a cybertronian delicacy and then watch me suck on it and melt from the inside and become a puddle of screaming goo as you take notes and call the overworked and underpaid cleaner to mop up what remains of me up? Is it?”
Shockwave actually takes a step back. “Incorrect. As always, you are incorrect. This is for science.”
If he had a medical frame he could detect your pulse and blood chemistry without even needing to touch you. But he doesn’t, and you’re grateful for that. If he wants to know how you’re truly feeling about this session then he’s going to have to put in the hard work and deduce it. 
“Fine,” you say. “I signed up for this ‘non-lethal experiment to determine the limitations of the human mouth’ that you’re paying me for and I’m not going to back out of it. So what’s coming out of the box next?”
But Shockwave doesn’t take anything else out. Instead he crouches down so that you’re at eye-optic level. “I am curious as to how the human mouth and resulting systems react to interior contact with something your scant years of evolution have not encountered before. My hypothesis is not encouraging for you, but facts are facts. And when I’m proven right you will eventually thank me.”
Shockwave raises his hand and flexes his fingers, and you know where this is going. But you’re overcome with a prickly irritation at the casual way he dismisses your species, and decide to play dumb with him. It’s illogical to feel this way, but you’re not a purely logical being. You’re someone better than that. 
You eye his fingers with a careful look of mild distaste. “My hideous ancestors went through a lot of shit to equip me with what I have now, and I’d thank you to remember that.”
You fold your hands neatly in your lap, and transform the way you’re looking at his fingers to one of mild pity. “My teeth are composed of the hardest substance in the human body. They can tear through plants and flesh and all manner of substances with ease.”
“What about metal?” Shockwave asks instantly, bringing up his hand to your face. “Reports indicates that your teeth cannot break it and your fluids cannot digest it.” He waggles his fingers. “But in the name of science this must be corroborated or rejected.”
“You’re not even trying, are you?”
“…clarify.”
“Waving your fingers about like that, ‘accidentally’ brushing my lips with them, flexing and rotating them as if they’re part of your courtship dance and any second now I’m going to be consumed with lust and fall off my seat and whimper on the floor for you.”
“…you are incor-”
“No I’m not. Stop saying that. And stop thinking I’m an idiot.”
“Incorrect.”
“You want me to suck your fingers.”
“…for science.”
“For yourself.”
“I am science and science is me.”
“That was terrible. You didn’t practice that in the mirror before I came here did you?”
“…”
Before Shockwave can get upset and pretend his sulking is a convoluted chain of logical actions that make complete sense, you lick one of his fingers.
Shockwave freezes. 
You lick it again, this time slower. Your tongue moves carefully over the tip of his finger and down the entire length of it, all the way to his hand. He feels surprisingly warm and alive.
“There,” you say, rolling your tongue around your mouth. “It didn’t kill me. And if I come down with alien flu or turn a different colour later on, I’ll give you a call.” 
Shockwave doesn’t move. 
You don’t move.
Soft humming from the medical equipment and diagnostic machines fills the room.
“Incomplete,” Shockwave says. “The test is incomplete. You signed up for a complete test, and that is what will be undertaken.”
“First of all I didn’t sign anything, so if I choose to run out of here you can’t sue me for breach of contract.”
“Are you going to run out?”
“I was thinking of doing a jaunty saunter actually.”
Shockwave examines the finger you’ve licked. You don’t make any effort to move. 
“But,” you say, drawing out the word as you stretch your arms above your head. “I’m a person of my word. We both know enamel can’t crack metal, but in the interests of science we’d better try it out anyway and document it accordingly, shouldn’t we?”
Shockwave cups your face gently, his thumb resting on your lips. “If you insist.”
“If I insist?”
Before you can protest further, Shockwave pushes his thumb in between your lips. You don’t offer any resistance, and part your lips slightly to allow him to put it in. Seemingly satisfied that you’re not about to immediately die, Shockwave rests it on your tongue. Then he puts a finger in your mouth. And when you still don’t object, he puts another one in.
He tastes of electricity and steel and graphite. Like a living battery.
You suck on his fingers carefully. There’s a pulse of blood in your ears and a pool of heat spreading along the base of your stomach, and you’re sure you can feel the energon in his fingers throb as they slide over and around and below your tongue.
His fingers explore your mouth. They massage your tongue, and count your teeth, and stroke the inside of your cheeks. He acts as if he’s an explorer sent on a mission branded with royal assent.
You bite down on his fingers gently.
Not out of fear of hurting him, but out of self preservation. You’ll crack every tooth in your mouth if you’re not careful, and you’ve got better things to do than sit in the medical bay and get a lecture.
You bite down as hard as you dare. Shockwave makes a sound that sounds suspiciously like a whimper. You bite down again and are proven correct.
In satisfaction you pull your head back. Shockwave doesn’t move his hand as his fingers leave your mouth, and you don’t open your mouth wide. You make sure your teeth graze as much of his hand as possible as you retreat from it. 
Shockwave is thrumming. An undeniable thrum of excitement is pulsing throughout his frame just below his plating, and it’s bleeding into you. 
“Was that good for you?” you ask innocently. “Concluding an experiment gets me all hot and bothered too. Except I don’t raise the temperature in a room by ten degrees.”
Shockwave leans in closer to you. “Incorrect.”
“Oh, smooth!“
You lick his closest finger without thinking about it. And when you like to think the temperature’s clicked up another degree, you kiss it.
“I hope you washed your hands before I came in,” you say. You’re sure he did, but it’s the sensible thing to ask.
“Of course I didn’t,” Shockwave says. “Who do you think I am? A human? I sanitized them thoroughly.”
You run your tongue around the inside of your mouth. The unique taste of him hasn’t faded. “Hygiene is important.”
“Obviously.” 
“You don’t want an experiment to be ruined by contaminants.”
“Again, obviously.”
“And you don’t want your subject to suffer needlessly.” You look at his fingers and that pool of blood in your lower body heats up another degree. “You don’t want me to suffer.”
“…there is work to do and I do not like to repeat myself.” Shockwave reaches for the box again. “This next experiment is to determine the range of human taste in order to classify it as either limited, highly limited, practically non-existent or barely existent.”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” you say, holding your hands out with your palms facing towards him. “Slow down on all the accurate scientific jargon there will you, I’m having trouble keeping up.”
Shockwave shakes his head ever so slightly. “I thought those terms were within your sphere of comprehension, but I am obviously wrong.”
“Hey.”
“Here,” he says, holding the yellow thing you saw in the box earlier. “Unwrap this.”
You look at it but don’t reach for it. “Did you know that we have thousands of taste buds on our tongue? Thousands. Almost ten thousand, maybe more. Which means we can taste a lot. Maybe not as much as other species in the galaxy, I’m not claiming that, but we can tell the difference between a good piece of steak and a sorry looking chunk that’s unfit for a starving animal. And so could the animal. You’d throw the meat at it gently to feed it because you don’t want to get too close to it because it looks diseased, but the animal can tell the food’s terrible and has already given up the fight because it’s so disappointed and weary, and it doesn’t move as the meat thumps pathetically into the side of their face and slides down their neck to the ground and they whimper and back away into the shadows without even looking at it and now you’re out of pocket for the cost of it and starting to feel hungry.”
Shockwave twitches and looks at the fingers he put in your mouth. He’s probably wondering if he accidentally dipped them in drugs instead of sanitizing them. He holds two of them up to you.
“How many do you see?” he asks. 
“Not enough.”
This is apparently a top of the class answer, because Shockwave stops twitching and looks calmer. But still impatient. Still thrumming with something not yet satisfied. 
“This experiment won’t conduct itself,” he says.
“Won’t it?”
“The limited range of taste and texture offered by the human tongue must be documented precisely.” He finally unwraps the yellow thing himself and holds it out to you. It’s a thin grey rectangle on a stick and looks as appealing as rancid dish water.
“My range of taste isn’t pathetic.”
“Would you prefer I use embarassing instead?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you should put this on your tongue.” The grey rectangle he’s poking towards you reminds you of a non-frozen popsicle that’s been rolled around in dirt and hair. An abomination of a lollipop. “And tell me what you taste.”
You hold his hand to stop him from poking your eye out with it. And you don’t put it in your mouth or on your tongue as he asked. You can’t. It looks disgusting.
“This looks disgusting,” you say.
“Maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye,” he says.
You feel yourself smile. “Maybe. But why couldn’t you paint it in my favourite colour like you did with your tongue depressor?“
You bring the shape close to your nose and sniff it cautiously. And to your complete surprise it smells incredible. You make sharp eye contact with Shockwave and wish you knew what he was thinking, because he looks like he knows exactly what you are. You breathe in deeply and the scent sets off an explosion in your brain and wow, just- wow. 
It reminds you of freshly minted currency, that perfect slice of cake you once had, and the three other smells you love most in the world. Without breaking eye contact with Shockwave you lick the lollipop. It has the hard consistency of boiled candy and the flavour of genius. 
“It tastes OK,” you lie with difficulty. You lick it again, from the top all the way down to the bottom, smoothing out its sharp corners. It’s one of the best things you’ve ever tasted in your life. A lollipop cooked in a lab by a millions of years old robot scientist who’s got a thing for your mouth is making that mouth fill with an alarming amount of saliva. It’s as if he knows exactly what your favourite smells are and has transformed them into something edible for you. 
You swallow. “I’ve had better.”
“No you haven’t.”
“Don’t tell me what I have or haven’t had.”
“Then save us some time and don’t lie.” 
Shockwave waves the lollipop again. An image slips into your head and you can’t help but ask “Did you wear an apron when you cooked this?” You hope that he’ll answer but you’re not expecting him too.
Shockwave doesn’t answer. 
“I’m not getting paid enough for all of this you know.”
You finally take the lollipop from his hand and lick it slowly. From the base all the way to the top, again and again and again you lick it. You’d sell everything you own for another one of these. You’d commit all manner of crimes for one. Maybe Shockwave will cook you another one. Maybe he’ll give you the recipe and you can cook it yourself. Maybe you can cook it together and wear matching aprons. Maybe you should pay attention to this experiment before he stops it. 
Shockwave’s plating is gleaming. He isn’t moving, and looks bright and powerful and helpless. Perhaps what he’s seeing you do has incapacitated him. Now that’s a thought almost as good as what you’ve got in your mouth.
“Am I not doing this properly?” you ask, your voice unfreezing him. You lick it even slower. 
“How- how does it taste?” Shockwave finally asks instead.
You lick your lips and swallow. It tastes incredible. Delicious. Indescribably fantastic.
“Like cheap crappy candy,” you tell him. “The type you know is bad for you but you still eat too much of it. Yeah sure you enjoy it, but you’re left craving something else, something more substantial. Something more.” You give him a meaningful look that’s open to interpretation.
Shockwave leans in closer to you and takes a moment before he responds. His words are clipped and careful, infused with the energy of restraint. “What flavours do you taste? I have a list of- of all the flavours this product is infused with. I want to know how many you can identify.”
You can now identify seven flavours, but more keep blossoming into existence. But you don’t feel like telling Shockwave this. What you feel like doing is finding out what he’s going to do with you if you don’t.
You suck and don’t speak, filling the room with the sounds of swallowing.
“If…if you can identify all of them you will receive a bonus payment.” Shockwaves’s voice is thick and slow.
You suck harder, and throw in a loud groan of appreciation just to see what effect it will have on him. “I don’t know what you’ve put in this but mmmmmm, oooooooohhhhhh, it tastes so good.”
Something flashes across Shockwave’s optic. A stuttering line of shadow binary, like a line of warning code revealed and suppressed.
“Sooooo gooooood.” You swirl your tongue around it, painting it with saliva and never once breaking eye contact with him. You don’t think you’ve even blinked. “You give me all the best treats to put in my mouth Shockwave.”
An invisible wave of heat crashes into you. You know that his cooling system is silent and that he cools his frame without using fans. They’re noisy and inefficient he once told you, when you asked about modifications he’s made to himself. But he still needs a cooling system. He still needs to vent excess heat generated by reactions he has little to no conscious control over. You can feel his desire bleeding through his plating to fill the space between you, hot and heavy and invisible, like tainted steam you can practically taste.
“Metal,” you tell him truthfully, all thoughts of teasing him gone. “I can only taste you now.”
Shockwave’s optic is burning. 
You remove the lollipop from your mouth with a small pop. A thin trail of saliva still connects it to your lips. You’re pleased to see that it’s barely reduced in size, despite your enthusiastic sucking.
“…apologies,“ Shockwave says quietly. "I- the experiment needs to be reset then. Re-done. I will eliminate all outside variables to ensure purity of evidence collection and retreat from your orbit and stand in the corner.”
You lick your lips, breaking the strand. He can be so wonderfully melodramatic at times. “There will always be outside factors influencing you that you’re unaware of,“ you tell him. "It’s best to just roll with them. So don’t you dare go anywhere else.”
“You are incorrect,“ Shockwave says, with a slight tilt of his head that you’ve long ago translated as a smile. "And that attitude is not conducive to a rigorous scientific study.”
You shrug your shoulders. “But now you can verify that the relationship between a human’s taste and sense of smell is intimate and real. You can have fun noting it in your records. And do you know what else is fun?” You put the lollipop back into your mouth and nod your head towards his interface panel. “Proving you wrong.”
Shockwave follows your appreciative glance down to see what you’re looking at. 
His panel is open and his dick is out.
Neither of you move. You just look. You both just look.
“…how is that proving me wrong?” Shockwave finally asks in genuine confusion. 
"Well,” you say, speaking slowly in order to compose yourself and to give the impression that this is a bemusing turn of events that will soon be resolved instead of escalated and that you’re expecting the former and certainly, definitely, don’t want the latter. “It proves that you don’t have complete control over your all of your actions.”
“…that was not a proposition to be proven false or correct in this session. What is incorrect are you. I have control over all of my systems, and have multiple safeguards in place to prevent them from being overridden.”
You slowly lean forward and give him a Look. “So you…meant to pop your dick out? You gave yourself the order to initiate pre-interface protocols? You’re choosing to conduct an experiment like this?”
“… … …yes.”
You sit back and fold your arms and grin smugly. The lollipop’s stick is poking out of your mouth. “So you don’t really like what you’re seeing me do? You aren’t thinking thoughts that are so explicit they’re literally banned on several worlds? You don’t want to come closer and put something else in my mouth?”
Another wave of invisible heat punches you in the face. 
“…no.”
“You could save us some time here by not lying.” 
“…there is no unit of time that needs to be saved. The experiment is proceeding as planned.”
“Oh is it now.”
Neither of you move. The sound of the medical equipment has receded. All you hear now is the pulse of blood in your ears and the rich, slightly stuttering sounds of Shockwave’s vocaliser. 
“However,” Shockwave says slowly, eventually, “I am adaptable. Realistic. A scientist.” 
“Are these bullet points on a motivational poster you have hanging up somewhere?”
“I understand the benefits that absorbing unforseen actions can have,” Shockwave says, ignoring you. “And am rolling with them.”
“Wwhat?”
“Your reaction is more conducive to further experimentation than anticipated. I am willing to indulge you.”
“Excuse me?”
Now Shockwave is the one sounding smug. “If only you could see your expression, see your body language - if you could feel the heat and analyze the pheromones radiating out of you the way I can then you would know what I know. Which is that you’re enjoying yourself. You like what you see and want more.”
You don’t answer. You hate when you can’t answer back to him immediately. You open your mouth to say something, anything, but Shockwave interrupts you.
“Are you willing to progress with another experiment? Or are you scared?”
He should know by now that you’ve felt many things with him, but never fear. Does he really think that? Does he really think that reverse psychology is going to work on you? But he doesn’t look like he does. He looks like he’s not thinking things through fully, and is speaking mainly to keep the momentum going. He looks like he’s edging from need to desperation.
That goes a long way to mollify you. “Oh I’m terrified,” you exaggerate. “So very scared. But in the name of science I’ll force myself to be brave. So go on then, let’s start another experiment.”
Shockwave doesn’t move immediately. Then he shuffles closer, and wraps a hand around his dick as if to hide it or control it. “An experiment can be stopped at any time,” he tells you softly. “We have the rest of your life to try it another time if you are willing.”
A jolt of warmth blossoms in your chest and most of your body’s blood surges between your legs and you nod. Once again he’s left you temporarily speechless with his care and consideration for you. Bastard.
Shockwave makes a move to take the lollipop from your mouth, but you smack his hand away and find your voice again. “No. I’m not finished with that.”
“But-”
“The human mouth is very accomodating,” you tell him proudly. “We can’t detach our jaw like some animals can, but we can fit a lot in here. We can stretch.” You position the lollipop to one side of your mouth, so that it fits snugly into your cheek cavity as much as possible. “Still plenty of room. See?” You open your mouth to show him.
Shockwave trembles. You nod again, and he takes another step forward. His dick is now perfectly aligned with your mouth but then he pauses. He’s thinking. Calculating. Hesitating. He inches his dick forward and rests it on your bottom lip and stops again. The hot metal weight of it, the alien chrome smell of it, floods your mouth with even more saliva.
“Go on,” you encourage him, licking a bead of fluid from the dripping tip. “For science.”
For a long few seconds Shockwave doesn’t move. And then he slides his dick into your mouth. He does so slowly, inch by careful inch, giving you plenty of time to prepare and relax your muscles. It rubs against the lollipop in your mouth and you’re flooded with flavour. Saliva dribbles out of your mouth and down your chin but you ignore it, instead concentrating on how fantastically full your mouth is becoming. 
Shockwave’s dick hits the back of your mouth and he stops. You instinctively try to swallow and don’t achieve much. Actually that’s not true because Shockwave moans at what you’ve just done. Actually moans. You wonder what other sounds he’s capable of making, and what sounds you can cause him to make. 
You don’t swallow again. Instead you suck. You suck his dick and the lollipop at the same time again and again and again, and Shockwave has to put a hand on the back of your head to prevent himself from buckling and you both make a long noise.
You adjust the lollipop in your mouth, hold it in place, and slowly pull your head back. Shockwave doesn’t resist you, and doesn’t remove his hand from your head as you remove your mouth from his dick, which is soaking wet and dripping. You rub your thumb over the head of it, smearing the viscous liquid around it. You rub him with two fingers, and then your entire hand, stroking his dick up and down to coat it in a mixture of your saliva and the transfluid that’s steadily leaking out of him.
“Please,” Shockwave says haltingly, as he braces himself against the bench with his other arm. “The…experiment has not been concluded.”
“Experiment?” you ask, sucking on the lollipop. “Oh yes - this extra experiment that you haven’t actually told me about. What exactly is it we’re proving or disproving here?”
“I…the…to see.”
“That sounds important.” You stroke him hard and twist, and he makes a stuttering sound of mechanical pleading.
“The…human mouth is a combination of muscles,” he finally stutters, dragging some basic information up from his depths. “It- this experiment is to exercise them. See how far they can…stretch.”
That sounds mildly plausible. 
“I’ve just demonstrated how far they can stretch,” you tell him. “But do you think they can go further?”
“…yes.”
“Well would you believe it, so do I.” You lick the tip of dick and make it even wetter. “I think my mouth can take more.”
“That…yes. It would be complete. The experiment. As well as- This one. The experiment. I need…complete results or-”
“Or you’ll be a failure?” You speak around the lollipop,
your hand now languidly stroking him. “Well we don’t want that. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be associated with a failure. I have a poverty of life expectancy remember, and I don’t want to waste what I’ve got with a loser. So.”
You remove the lollipop from your mouth and hold onto his legs to brace yourself. You then slowly, slowly, take his dick back into your mouth. Shockwave doesn’t move. He lets you set the pace. Lets you do all the work more like. Not that you’re complaining, but you will complain out loud to him later just to annoy him. His dick reaches the back of your mouth again and you feel him relax slightly. 
Your scientist needs to learn to be more ambitious in his experiments with you. More fearless. 
You adjust your angle, instruct your muscles to relax further, and take his dick all the way down your throat until he’s fully hilted inside you. 
Shockwave shudders and grips your head harder. He then realises what he’s done and lets go immediately in case he’s hurt you, but he doesn’t want to break contact with you so he holds the back of your head again but this time lightly, but it’s not enough to stabilize him so he shoots his other arm out and scrabbles for whatever purchase he can find and makes a sound that sounds like dying.
He needs to get a hold of himself. You’re not even moving any more, and he’s reacting like he’s been blessed and cursed with divine revelation all at once. 
You pat the back of his legs to reassure him. 
Shockwaves’s stabiliser pistons finally align and steadies his frame.
And then you move. You fuck him slowly with your mouth. All the way up and then all the way back down. His dick tastes even better than that lollipop, and you suck him with control and purpose. Your chin is wet and your throat is sticky and your heart is thumping harder than you ever remember it doing.
Shockwave is doing his best to stay silent and is failing wonderfully. You wonder if he’ll match your rhythm and fuck you down your throat but he hasn’t, and you don’t suspect he will. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he doesn’t want to use more than a fraction of his strength in case even that’s too much. His self-control is impressive and welcome, but it’s not complete. 
Shockwave is holding the back of your head lightly, but his fingers are tightening infinitesimally around your hair and scalp every time you suck the tip of his dick and swallow it all the way down to its base. His self-control is not infinite and not indestructible. He’s not dead inside.  
You eventually feel his frame tense and tighten around you, and hear the pitch and whine of his engines straining up a gear. You’re enveloped in heat and know he’s close.
“There…is time for one more experiment,” he manages to say, his voice thick with static.
“Mmmm?” you ask around his dick, your full mouth still moving.
“…apparently saliva can digest various substances and…so can stomach enzymes and…the mouth is part of the digestive system and…if you…if you…”
You’ve swallowed transfluid before and liked it and know it won’t hurt you. You’ve had The Talk with all the medics on board just to be sure, and so long as he doesn’t pour his entire tank down your throat in one go you’ll be fine.
You nod your consent, and Shockwave makes a noise that sounds like gratitude.
He’s a bit less steady on his feet now, a bit more erratic, a bit louder and less efficient in his movements but you’re not. You’re a steady constant in the face of his fast approaching overload, fucking him in a perfect rythym that surprises him more than it does you.
He grips you harder and spasms and his engines scream dangerously loud as he overloads hard in your mouth. A shot of transfluid hits the back of your throat and you can’t help but gag at the quantity of it. You hold his legs tighter to prevent him from going anywhere, because you’re not going to miss a moment of this. You swallow as much as you can, and revel in the mechanical rumbling stuttering sounds his engines make as they fight not to cut out. His silent cooling system is blasting hard, which feels like opening an oven door and putting your face into it. Your hair is stuck to your flushed and sweating face.
Shockwave eventually quietens and stills and begins to regain himself. A series of small clicks indicate his cooling system is powering down. You suspect he’d like to keep his dick down your throat all day if you agreed to it and while that’s not something you’re opposed to, far from it, your mind is already churning with possibilities as to what three hands and a cannon can do while your mouth is occupied, it’s an experiment for another day.
Right now you have your own needs to attend to, and first on that list is to clean up the mess he’s made on you as best you ca. You gave it a good try but you couldn’t swallow everything he gave you, you’re only human, and a lot of it leaked out of your mouth and dribbled down your chin and throat. Your skin is sticky and your clothes are splattered.
You move your head back until his dick pops out, and cup a hand underneath your mouth to catch the gush of fluid that spills out. You look up at Shockwave and raise that hand to your mouth and lap up what’s in it.
Shockwave’s overworked engines make a pitiful sound as they rev back up again. You suck your fingers clean, and then you put your underestimated human mouth to good use and clean him up. 
Your work is not completed quickly.
But finally it is, and you make an effort to casually sit back in satisfaction at completing a job well done.
“So what do you think?” you ask him off-handedly, as your body thrums and fizzes. You wish your own temperature control system was more effective, no matter how noisy it would have to be. Your shirt is stuck to your back and you’re entering the non-lethal stage of dehydration. “Was the experiment a success?”
“I think,” Shockwave says, as he pours you a glass of water from the sink, “That the human mouth is…interesting.”
He hands you the glass and you drink from it without pausing. You know that’s as close as Shockwave will ever come to saying that he thinks the human mouth is incredible, yours especially, and that he wants nothing more than to fill it and worship it again.
“But still a concerning mystery,” Shockwave continues, as he takes the empty glass from you. “It requires further research. A lot of research.”
He kneels down in front of you and puts a hand on your knee.
“In fact,” Shockwave says, his warm fingertips languidly stroking up the inside of your thigh as if the thought has just occurred to him, “the human body as a whole needs to be researched further. One system, one organ, one session at a time.” 
His hand stops on your buckled belt.
“A breakthrough has been achieved,” you tell him, picking up his hand and removing it from your belt. Despite his claims to be highly dexterous, you don’t have time to wait for him to use one hand when you have two.
“It’s a minor miracle.” You unbuckle your belt, pull your pants down, lean back against the wall and put one hand behind your head to cushion it. With your other hand you make a motion for him to hurry up and get to work because you both know you’ve earned this.
“You finally said something correct. Now let’s see what else you can accomplish.“
“The human mouth is disgusting, and I am going to prove it.”
Shockwave states this coldly and firmly the second you step into his lab. But his optic is bright and wide and he’s already hovering next to you, holding out a tool box as if it’s a long lost treasure he’s graciously decided to share with you and only you, and as such you should turn speechless with awe and gratitude and silently beg to be allowed to help him prove how terrible you are.
You are supremely unimpressed. You haven’t even had the chance to take your coat off yet, and here you are being told by one of the greatest scientists you know that an essential part of you is disgusting.
“The human mouth is a medical marvel,” you argue back, dumping your coat onto the pristine floor of his lab. You lean casually and definitely against a lab bench and look at him in the way he deserves for such invalid arrogance.
“You are incorrect,” Shockwave says.
“I know you are, but what am I?” You shoot back.
“…incorrect.”
“I know you are, but what am I?”
“Incorrect.”
“I know you are, but what am I ?”
“…?”
You cross your arms in satisfaction. “Exactly.”
“Enough.” Shockwave steps closer, the tool box rattling excitedly in his hand. “Sit down. Stop talking. Open your mouth.” 
“Why? What are you going to put in it?” you say, ignoring all three orders.
“An incontrovertible means to prove my supposition that will allow even the most intellectually challenged being to understand.”
Shockwave opens the box.
You stretch up onto your toes and peer inside it. You nod your head repeatedly at what you see and what he’s just said. “Uh-huh, uh-huh. Now I’m no scientist, but there’s a few things in there that don’t look very scientific. Like that long yellow thing and that sharp purple thing with hinges.”
“You are correct.”
“I know.”
“You are not a scientist. You are an inferior life form existing with a poverty of comprehension, life expectancy and universally accepted currency.”
“Hey.” You may have agreed to be a volunteer for Shockwave’s experiments after he approached you earlier with a monetary offer you couldn’t refuse, and because he ignored you when you asked  him why he hadn’t publicly advertised for volunteers and is only asking you, but you’re not going to sit back and take that. “You don’t have to be a dick about this. You don’t know me.” Two of his three statements are correct, but you’ll be floating outside in space without a suit on before you agree with him.
Shockwave looms over you, bright and purple and powerful. You’re not nervous. You’ve never been nervous around him when so many rightfully are and you don’t know why.
“I will tell you something I do know,” Shockwave says. “Something that your human ‘scientists’ and ‘doctors’ have also documented and agreed on.” 
He puts the tool box down on the bench and takes out a long cotton swab from it. “The mouth is one of the filthiest parts of your body.”
You feel your lips tugging up into a smile. “But not the filthiest, am I right?”
Shockwave glances down to between your legs.
“Pervert,” you say, delighted. “I’m talking about my brain.” For added emphasis you tap a finger to your temple. 
“Enough.” Shockwave puts his other arm on your shoulder and pushes you down onto a medical stool. He does so carefully, as if wanting to give you the chance to say no to this.
You sit down on the stool. You don’t want to say no to any of this. 
You stretch your legs out and cross them at the ankle. “Are you trying to find out how many diseases I’ve got in my mouth? Will you be upset if there are too many or too few? Do you want me to stop talking? Or is that what you like most about my mouth? The different shapes it can make; the way my tongue moves; how wet everything is? Would you be upset if I keep it closed and denied you everything you so clearly want?”
And before Shockwave can respond, you preempt him and open your mouth.
“Are you going to slip into a radioactive suit first?” you ask. “Are you worried about your safety? It’s OK, there’s nothing to be concerned about - I’ll go easy on you. And I promise not to bite.”
Shockwave doesn’t answer. But he looks like he wants to. He very much looks like he wants to say something that he shouldn’t.
He inserts the cotton swab into your mouth and runs it along the wall of your cheek, coating the tip in saliva. He then pauses, as if reluctant to remove it so soon. He swipes the inside of your mouth again, this time anti-clockwise and this time slower. He repeats the clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations three times each. Maybe his interest with your mouth really is just scientific.
He finally removes the swab and puts it into a cylindrical container mounted to the wall. “Results from the buccal swab will be available almost instantaneously and will produce an accuracy rate of 99.99%”
“I’m so glad I’m sitting down here because wow, you just blew my mind with that fascinating statistic.”
Shockwave returns to you and doesn’t dignify you with an answer.
“There may be a trillions of bacteria in my mouth,” you tell him, rubbing the side of your face that he’d taken a painless sample from. “But they’re not just there to party. They pay their way and are useful. Essential, actually.” 
“Elaborate.” 
“So if we get germs in our mouth then our body doesn’t just give up and die an embarrassing death - the good bacteria are woken up and put up a fight and prevent us from getting sick. Or at least fatally sick. Sometimes we still get sick but they’ve done their best, you can’t blame them for everything.”
“Is that so.”
“Yep. Well some of the bacteria help out like that, I don’t think they all do. Some of them don’t do much and are just…there. I don’t know how many and what it is they actually do. And I’m not going to count them because one, that’s boring and two, I’m not a snitch.”
You lean forward. “Do you really not know all of this? This is basic biology even the dumb kids in the useless schools know.”
Shockwave reaches into the tool box again. “I am fully aware of the purpose of defence bacteria, how they operate, the ratio of useful to redundant organisms and how inefficient the entire mechanism is. But this has all been documented by others - by humans - and not by a cybertronian. Not by me.”
He extracts the small sharp purple thing.
You swallow. “So you don’t believe them.”
Shockwave puts his hand over yours, which is still on your cheek. “I do not believe them. I trust only my results. My methodology.”
He manipulates the instrument until it transforms into a medical instrument you recognise.
You open your mouth slightly. “And that’s the only reason you’re doing this? The only reason you want to probe me with that?”
“…correct. I need to examine and document the area personally in order to establish an accurate primary baseline.”
“Mm-hmm.” Of all the colours in existence, he chose the one that matches his frame’s colour exactly. “For science?”
Shockwave slides the purple tongue depressor into your mouth and over your tongue. “For science.” 
Shockwave is careful. Thorough. He uses his optic as a focused beam of light to peer into your mouth and examine it. The metal depressor on your tongue is smooth and warm, and whenever your gag reflex threatens to start up, Shockwave adjusts the instrument instantly to help it pass. He exacts the perfect amount of pressure every single time to still it. You’re impressed. But starting to get bored. He’s just looking at you and not moving, as if he’s never seen the inside of a human mouth before and is on sacred ground he knows he needs to tread carefully on. 
You make a sound, and he tears his relentless gaze from the inside of your mouth to your eyes. You raise your eyebrows to ask what’s taking so long.
“Tell me,” Shockwave asks, as he places the instrument underneath your tongue so that you can talk. “What are the carriers for the bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa that activate the defense mechanisms of the mouth?”
You roll your tongue on top of the depressor and feel your eyes itching to do the same. You didn’t sign up for a biology quiz. “You mean where do germs come from?”
“That is not what I meant or asked. Pay attention.”
You put a finger in your mouth. You reach as far back as the depressor goes and touch it. You run your finger along the smooth metal until it comes out of your mouth but you don’t break contact with it, you keep going, trailing your finger along the handle of the depressor until you come to the fingers that hold it. You rest your finger on Shockwave’s.
“Oh now I see,” you exaggerate loudly, as if only now the blinds have been lifted from your eyes and you finally understand what he means. “You want to know about things that shouldn’t go in my mouth. The dirty things that could make me sick. The forbidden things.” 
You swallow around the metal. “And you want to know if I know them.”
Shockwave slides the depressor out of your mouth and moves his hand back. But not far enough to dislodge your finger from his.
“What if I said I did know?” you continue. “That I know all of them. That I make a sustained effort to educate myself on biology and physiology not only because it helps me to stay healthy and alive, but because I find those areas of study fascinating in their own right?”
Shockwave doesn’t move and doesn’t answer. You can practically feel his spark contracting as he realises you’re telling the truth.
You tilt your head. If he tattooed his desires across his impressive chest he couldn’t be more obvious in what he wants. You feel your heart beat faster at what you’re going to say next. “But what if I didn’t know? What if I said I didn’t know what shouldn’t be going in my mouth and that I’d…like to?’
It should be impossible, but you can sense his spark expand.
“I…would experiment,” he tells you. “For science.”
“As opposed to the medieval fine arts?”
Shockwave’s optic bores into you. “We do not have time to undertake a battery of tests to determine if every substance is dangerous to human health if ingested orally. My selected carriers have been chosen carefully and will produce…results." 
You sit back on the stool and eye him critically. This is the first you’re hearing about ingesting something. He already knows what substances are dangerous to human health. He knows all of them and you, the planet Earth, and the rest of the known galaxy know almost all of them. This seems like a ploy to put things in your mouth and see if they’ll kill you or make you sick.
“You already know what substances are dangerous to human health,” you tell Shockwave. He lowers his hand and you remove your finger from his. “And I, the planet Earth and the rest of the known galaxy know almost all of them. This is starting to seem like a ploy to put things in my mouth to see if they’ll make me sick.” 
You point your finger sharply at him and speak with a fake fiery fury. “And this is the first I’m hearing about actually ingesting something. Is this whole experiment just to see if something will kill me? Is that it? Is it? Are you going to offer me a glowing stick of radioactive waste and say it’s a cybertronian delicacy and then watch me suck on it and melt from the inside and become a puddle of screaming goo as you take notes and call the overworked and underpaid cleaner to mop up what remains of me up? Is it?”
Shockwave actually takes a step back. “Incorrect. As always, you are incorrect. This is for science.”
If he had a medical frame he could detect your pulse and blood chemistry without even needing to touch you. But he doesn’t, and you’re grateful for that. If he wants to know how you’re truly feeling about this session then he’s going to have to put in the hard work and deduce it. 
“Fine,” you say. “I signed up for this ‘non-lethal experiment to determine the limitations of the human mouth’ that you’re paying me for and I’m not going to back out of it. So what’s coming out of the box next?”
But Shockwave doesn’t take anything else out. Instead he crouches down so that you’re at eye-optic level. “I am curious as to how the human mouth and resulting systems react to interior contact with something your scant years of evolution have not encountered before. My hypothesis is not encouraging for you, but facts are facts. And when I’m proven right you will eventually thank me.”
Shockwave raises his hand and flexes his fingers, and you know where this is going. But you’re overcome with a prickly irritation at the casual way he dismisses your species, and decide to play dumb with him. It’s illogical to feel this way, but you’re not a purely logical being. You’re someone better than that. 
You eye his fingers with a careful look of mild distaste. “My hideous ancestors went through a lot of shit to equip me with what I have now, and I’d thank you to remember that.”
You fold your hands neatly in your lap, and transform the way you’re looking at his fingers to one of mild pity. “My teeth are composed of the hardest substance in the human body. They can tear through plants and flesh and all manner of substances with ease.”
“What about metal?” Shockwave asks instantly, bringing up his hand to your face. “Reports indicates that your teeth cannot break it and your fluids cannot digest it.” He waggles his fingers. “But in the name of science this must be corroborated or rejected.”
“You’re not even trying, are you?”
“…clarify.”
“Waving your fingers about like that, ‘accidentally’ brushing my lips with them, flexing and rotating them as if they’re part of your courtship dance and any second now I’m going to be consumed with lust and fall off my seat and whimper on the floor for you.”
“…you are incor-”
“No I’m not. Stop saying that. And stop thinking I’m an idiot.”
“Incorrect.”
“You want me to suck your fingers.”
“…for science.”
“For yourself.”
“I am science and science is me.”
“That was terrible. You didn’t practice that in the mirror before I came here did you?”
“…”
Before Shockwave can get upset and pretend his sulking is a convoluted chain of logical actions that make complete sense, you lick one of his fingers.
Shockwave freezes. 
You lick it again, this time slower. Your tongue moves carefully over the tip of his finger and down the entire length of it, all the way to his hand. He feels surprisingly warm and alive.
“There,” you say, rolling your tongue around your mouth. “It didn’t kill me. And if I come down with alien flu or turn a different colour later on, I’ll give you a call.” 
Shockwave doesn’t move. 
You don’t move.
Soft humming from the medical equipment and diagnostic machines fills the room.
“Incomplete,” Shockwave says. “The test is incomplete. You signed up for a complete test, and that is what will be undertaken.”
“First of all I didn’t sign anything, so if I choose to run out of here you can’t sue me for breach of contract.”
“Are you going to run out?”
“I was thinking of doing a jaunty saunter actually.”
Shockwave examines the finger you’ve licked. You don’t make any effort to move. 
“But,” you say, drawing out the word as you stretch your arms above your head. “I’m a person of my word. We both know enamel can’t crack metal, but in the interests of science we’d better try it out anyway and document it accordingly, shouldn’t we?”
Shockwave cups your face gently, his thumb resting on your lips. “If you insist.”
“If I insist?”
Before you can protest further, Shockwave pushes his thumb in between your lips. You don’t offer any resistance, and part your lips slightly to allow him to put it in. Seemingly satisfied that you’re not about to immediately die, Shockwave rests it on your tongue. Then he puts a finger in your mouth. And when you still don’t object, he puts another one in.
He tastes of electricity and steel and graphite. Like a living battery.
You suck on his fingers carefully. There’s a pulse of blood in your ears and a pool of heat spreading along the base of your stomach, and you’re sure you can feel the energon in his fingers throb as they slide over and around and below your tongue.
His fingers explore your mouth. They massage your tongue, and count your teeth, and stroke the inside of your cheeks. He acts as if he’s an explorer sent on a mission branded with royal assent.
You bite down on his fingers gently.
Not out of fear of hurting him, but out of self preservation. You’ll crack every tooth in your mouth if you’re not careful, and you’ve got better things to do than sit in the medical bay and get a lecture.
You bite down as hard as you dare. Shockwave makes a sound that sounds suspiciously like a whimper. You bite down again and are proven correct.
In satisfaction you pull your head back. Shockwave doesn’t move his hand as his fingers leave your mouth, and you don’t open your mouth wide. You make sure your teeth graze as much of his hand as possible as you retreat from it. 
Shockwave is thrumming. An undeniable thrum of excitement is pulsing throughout his frame just below his plating, and it’s bleeding into you. 
“Was that good for you?” you ask innocently. “Concluding an experiment gets me all hot and bothered too. Except I don’t raise the temperature in a room by ten degrees.”
Shockwave leans in closer to you. “Incorrect.”
“Oh, smooth!“
You lick his closest finger without thinking about it. And when you like to think the temperature’s clicked up another degree, you kiss it.
"I hope you washed your hands before I came in,” you say. You’re sure he did, but it’s the sensible thing to ask.
“Of course I didn’t,” Shockwave says. “Who do you think I am? A human? I sanitized them thoroughly.”
You run your tongue around the inside of your mouth. The unique taste of him hasn’t faded. “Hygiene is important.”
“Obviously.” 
“You don’t want an experiment to be ruined by contaminants.”
“Again, obviously.”
“And you don’t want your subject to suffer needlessly.” You look at his fingers and that pool of blood in your lower body heats up another degree. “You don’t want me to suffer.”
“…there is work to do and I do not like to repeat myself.” Shockwave reaches for the box again. “This next experiment is to determine the range of human taste in order to classify it as either limited, highly limited, practically non-existent or barely existent.”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” you say, holding your hands out with your palms facing towards him. “Slow down on all the accurate scientific jargon there will you, I’m having trouble keeping up.”
Shockwave shakes his head ever so slightly. “I thought those terms were within your sphere of comprehension, but I am obviously wrong.”
“Hey.”
“Here,” he says, holding the yellow thing you saw in the box earlier. “Unwrap this.”
You look at it but don’t reach for it. “Did you know that we have thousands of taste buds on our tongue? Thousands. Almost ten thousand, maybe more. Which means we can taste a lot. Maybe not as much as other species in the galaxy, I’m not claiming that, but we can tell the difference between a good piece of steak and a sorry looking chunk that’s unfit for a starving animal. And so could the animal. You’d throw the meat at it gently to feed it because you don’t want to get too close to it because it looks diseased, but the animal can tell the food’s terrible and has already given up the fight because it’s so disappointed and weary, and it doesn’t move as the meat thumps pathetically into the side of their face and slides down their neck to the ground and they whimper and back away into the shadows without even looking at it and now you’re out of pocket for the cost of it and starting to feel hungry.”
Shockwave twitches and looks at the fingers he put in your mouth. He’s probably wondering if he accidentally dipped them in drugs instead of sanitizing them. He holds two of them up to you.
“How many do you see?” he asks. 
“Not enough.”
This is apparently a top of the class answer, because Shockwave stops twitching and looks calmer. But still impatient. Still thrumming with something not yet satisfied. 
“This experiment won’t conduct itself,” he says.
“Won’t it?”
“The limited range of taste and texture offered by the human tongue must be documented precisely.” He finally unwraps the yellow thing himself and holds it out to you. It’s a thin grey rectangle on a stick and looks as appealing as rancid dish water.
“My range of taste isn’t pathetic.”
“Would you prefer I use embarassing instead?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you should put this on your tongue.” The grey rectangle he’s poking towards you reminds you of a non-frozen popsicle that’s been rolled around in dirt and hair. An abomination of a lollipop. “And tell me what you taste.”
You hold his hand to stop him from poking your eye out with it. And you don’t put it in your mouth or on your tongue as he asked. You can’t. It looks disgusting.
“This looks disgusting,” you say.
“Maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye,” he says.
You feel yourself smile. “Maybe. But why couldn’t you paint it in my favourite colour like you did with your tongue depressor?“
You bring the shape close to your nose and sniff it cautiously. And to your complete surprise it smells incredible. You make sharp eye contact with Shockwave and wish you knew what he was thinking, because he looks like he knows exactly what you are. You breathe in deeply and the scent sets off an explosion in your brain and wow, just- wow. 
It reminds you of freshly minted currency, that perfect slice of cake you once had, and the three other smells you love most in the world. Without breaking eye contact with Shockwave you lick the lollipop. It has the hard consistency of boiled candy and the flavour of genius. 
“It tastes OK,” you lie with difficulty. You lick it again, from the top all the way down to the bottom, smoothing out its sharp corners. It’s one of the best things you’ve ever tasted in your life. A lollipop cooked in a lab by a millions of years old robot scientist who’s got a thing for your mouth is making that mouth fill with an alarming amount of saliva. It’s as if he knows exactly what your favourite smells are and has transformed them into something edible for you. 
You swallow. “I’ve had better.”
“No you haven’t.”
“Don’t tell me what I have or haven’t had.”
“Then save us some time and don’t lie.” 
Shockwave waves the lollipop again. An image slips into your head and you can’t help but ask “Did you wear an apron when you cooked this?” You hope that he’ll answer but you’re not expecting him too.
Shockwave doesn’t answer. 
“I’m not getting paid enough for all of this you know.”
You finally take the lollipop from his hand and lick it slowly. From the base all the way to the top, again and again and again you lick it. You’d sell everything you own for another one of these. You’d commit all manner of crimes for one. Maybe Shockwave will cook you another one. Maybe he’ll give you the recipe and you can cook it yourself. Maybe you can cook it together and wear matching aprons. Maybe you should pay attention to this experiment before he stops it. 
Shockwave’s plating is gleaming. He isn’t moving, and looks bright and powerful and helpless. Perhaps what he’s seeing you do has incapacitated him. Now that’s a thought almost as good as what you’ve got in your mouth.
“Am I not doing this properly?” you ask, your voice unfreezing him. You lick it even slower. 
“How- how does it taste?” Shockwave finally asks instead.
You lick your lips and swallow. It tastes incredible. Delicious. Indescribably fantastic.
“Like cheap crappy candy,” you tell him. “The type you know is bad for you but you still eat too much of it. Yeah sure you enjoy it, but you’re left craving something else, something more substantial. Something more.” You give him a meaningful look that’s open to interpretation.
Shockwave leans in closer to you and takes a moment before he responds. His words are clipped and careful, infused with the energy of restraint. “What flavours do you taste? I have a list of- of all the flavours this product is infused with. I want to know how many you can identify.”
You can now identify seven flavours, but more keep blossoming into existence. But you don’t feel like telling Shockwave this. What you feel like doing is finding out what he’s going to do with you if you don’t.
You suck and don’t speak, filling the room with the sounds of swallowing.
“If…if you can identify all of them you will receive a bonus payment.” Shockwaves’s voice is thick and slow.
You suck harder, and throw in a loud groan of appreciation just to see what effect it will have on him. “I don’t know what you’ve put in this but mmmmmm, oooooooohhhhhh, it tastes so good.”
Something flashes across Shockwave’s optic. A stuttering line of shadow binary, like a line of warning code revealed and suppressed.
“Sooooo gooooood.” You swirl your tongue around it, painting it with saliva and never once breaking eye contact with him. You don’t think you’ve even blinked. “You give me all the best treats to put in my mouth Shockwave.”
An invisible wave of heat crashes into you. You know that his cooling system is silent and that he cools his frame without using fans. They’re noisy and inefficient he once told you, when you asked about modifications he’s made to himself. But he still needs a cooling system. He still needs to vent excess heat generated by reactions he has little to no conscious control over. You can feel his desire bleeding through his plating to fill the space between you, hot and heavy and invisible, like tainted steam you can practically taste.
“Metal,” you tell him truthfully, all thoughts of teasing him gone. “I can only taste you now.”
Shockwave’s optic is burning. 
You remove the lollipop from your mouth with a small pop. A thin trail of saliva still connects it to your lips. You’re pleased to see that it’s barely reduced in size, despite your enthusiastic sucking.
“…apologies,“ Shockwave says quietly. "I- the experiment needs to be reset then. Re-done. I will eliminate all outside variables to ensure purity of evidence collection and retreat from your orbit and stand in the corner.”
You lick your lips, breaking the strand. He can be so wonderfully melodramatic at times. “There will always be outside factors influencing you that you’re unaware of,“ you tell him. "It’s best to just roll with them. So don’t you dare go anywhere else.”
“You are incorrect,“ Shockwave says, with a slight tilt of his head that you’ve long ago translated as a smile. "And that attitude is not conducive to a rigorous scientific study.”
You shrug your shoulders. “But now you can verify that the relationship between a human’s taste and sense of smell is intimate and real. You can have fun noting it in your records. And do you know what else is fun?” You put the lollipop back into your mouth and nod your head towards his interface panel. “Proving you wrong.”
Shockwave follows your appreciative glance down to see what you’re looking at. 
His panel is open and his dick is out.
Neither of you move. You just look. You both just look.
“…how is that proving me wrong?” Shockwave finally asks in genuine confusion. 
"Well,” you say, speaking slowly in order to compose yourself and to give the impression that this is a bemusing turn of events that will soon be resolved instead of escalated and that you’re expecting the former and certainly, definitely, don’t want the latter. “It proves that you don’t have complete control over your all of your actions.”
“…that was not a proposition to be proven false or correct in this session. What is incorrect are you. I have control over all of my systems, and have multiple safeguards in place to prevent them from being overridden.”
You slowly lean forward and give him a Look. “So you…meant to pop your dick out? You gave yourself the order to initiate pre-interface protocols? You’re choosing to conduct an experiment like this?”
“… … …yes.”
You sit back and fold your arms and grin smugly. The lollipop’s stick is poking out of your mouth. “So you don’t really like what you’re seeing me do? You aren’t thinking thoughts that are so explicit they’re literally banned on several worlds? You don’t want to come closer and put something else in my mouth?”
Another wave of invisible heat punches you in the face. 
“…no.”
“You could save us some time here by not lying.” 
“…there is no unit of time that needs to be saved. The experiment is proceeding as planned.”
“Oh is it now.”
Neither of you move. The sound of the medical equipment has receded. All you hear now is the pulse of blood in your ears and the rich, slightly stuttering sounds of Shockwave’s vocaliser. 
“However,” Shockwave says slowly, eventually, “I am adaptable. Realistic. A scientist.” 
“Are these bullet points on a motivational poster you have hanging up somewhere?”
“I understand the benefits that absorbing unforseen actions can have,” Shockwave says, ignoring you. “And am rolling with them.”
“Wwhat?”
“Your reaction is more conducive to further experimentation than anticipated. I am willing to indulge you.”
“Excuse me?”
Now Shockwave is the one sounding smug. “If only you could see your expression, see your body language - if you could feel the heat and analyze the pheromones radiating out of you the way I can then you would know what I know. Which is that you’re enjoying yourself. You like what you see and want more.”
You don’t answer. You hate when you can’t answer back to him immediately. You open your mouth to say something, anything, but Shockwave interrupts you.
“Are you willing to progress with another experiment? Or are you scared?”
He should know by now that you’ve felt many things with him, but never fear. Does he really think that? Does he really think that reverse psychology is going to work on you? But he doesn’t look like he does. He looks like he’s not thinking things through fully, and is speaking mainly to keep the momentum going. He looks like he’s edging from need to desperation.
That goes a long way to mollify you. “Oh I’m terrified,” you exaggerate. “So very scared. But in the name of science I’ll force myself to be brave. So go on then, let’s start another experiment.”
Shockwave doesn’t move immediately. Then he shuffles closer, and wraps a hand around his dick as if to hide it or control it. “An experiment can be stopped at any time,” he tells you softly. “We have the rest of your life to try it another time if you are willing.”
A jolt of warmth blossoms in your chest and most of your body’s blood surges between your legs and you nod. Once again he’s left you temporarily speechless with his care and consideration for you. Bastard.
Shockwave makes a move to take the lollipop from your mouth, but you smack his hand away and find your voice again. “No. I’m not finished with that.”
“But-”
“The human mouth is very accomodating,” you tell him proudly. “We can’t detach our jaw like some animals can, but we can fit a lot in here. We can stretch.” You position the lollipop to one side of your mouth, so that it fits snugly into your cheek cavity as much as possible. “Still plenty of room. See?” You open your mouth to show him.
Shockwave trembles. You nod again, and he takes another step forward. His dick is now perfectly aligned with your mouth but then he pauses. He’s thinking. Calculating. Hesitating. He inches his dick forward and rests it on your bottom lip and stops again. The hot metal weight of it, the alien chrome smell of it, floods your mouth with even more saliva.
“Go on,” you encourage him, licking a bead of fluid from the dripping tip. “For science.”
For a long few seconds Shockwave doesn’t move. And then he slides his dick into your mouth. He does so slowly, inch by careful inch, giving you plenty of time to prepare and relax your muscles. It rubs against the lollipop in your mouth and you’re flooded with flavour. Saliva dribbles out of your mouth and down your chin but you ignore it, instead concentrating on how fantastically full your mouth is becoming. 
Shockwave’s dick hits the back of your mouth and he stops. You instinctively try to swallow and don’t achieve much. Actually that’s not true because Shockwave moans at what you’ve just done. Actually moans. You wonder what other sounds he’s capable of making, and what sounds you can cause him to make. 
You don’t swallow again. Instead you suck. You suck his dick and the lollipop at the same time again and again and again, and Shockwave has to put a hand on the back of your head to prevent himself from buckling and you both make a long noise.
You adjust the lollipop in your mouth, hold it in place, and slowly pull your head back. Shockwave doesn’t resist you, and doesn’t remove his hand from your head as you remove your mouth from his dick, which is soaking wet and dripping. You rub your thumb over the head of it, smearing the viscous liquid around it. You rub him with two fingers, and then your entire hand, stroking his dick up and down to coat it in a mixture of your saliva and the transfluid that’s steadily leaking out of him.
“Please,” Shockwave says haltingly, as he braces himself against the bench with his other arm. “The…experiment has not been concluded.”
“Experiment?” you ask, sucking on the lollipop. “Oh yes - this extra experiment that you haven’t actually told me about. What exactly is it we’re proving or disproving here?”
“I…the…to see.”
“That sounds important.” You stroke him hard and twist, and he makes a stuttering sound of mechanical pleading.
“The…human mouth is a combination of muscles,” he finally stutters, dragging some basic information up from his depths. “It- this experiment is to exercise them. See how far they can…stretch.”
That sounds mildly plausible. 
“I’ve just demonstrated how far they can stretch,” you tell him. “But do you think they can go further?”
“…yes.”
“Well would you believe it, so do I.” You lick the tip of dick and make it even wetter. “I think my mouth can take more.”
“That…yes. It would be complete. The experiment. As well as- This one. The experiment. I need…complete results or-”
“Or you’ll be a failure?” You speak around the lollipop,
your hand now languidly stroking him. “Well we don’t want that. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be associated with a failure. I have a poverty of life expectancy remember, and I don’t want to waste what I’ve got with a loser. So.”
You remove the lollipop from your mouth and hold onto his legs to brace yourself. You then slowly, slowly, take his dick back into your mouth. Shockwave doesn’t move. He lets you set the pace. Lets you do all the work more like. Not that you’re complaining, but you will complain out loud to him later just to annoy him. His dick reaches the back of your mouth again and you feel him relax slightly. 
Your scientist needs to learn to be more ambitious in his experiments with you. More fearless. 
You adjust your angle, instruct your muscles to relax further, and take his dick all the way down your throat until he’s fully hilted inside you. 
Shockwave shudders and grips your head harder. He then realises what he’s done and lets go immediately in case he’s hurt you, but he doesn’t want to break contact with you so he holds the back of your head again but this time lightly, but it’s not enough to stabilize him so he shoots his other arm out and scrabbles for whatever purchase he can find and makes a sound that sounds like dying.
He needs to get a hold of himself. You’re not even moving any more, and he’s reacting like he’s been blessed and cursed with divine revelation all at once. 
You pat the back of his legs to reassure him. 
Shockwaves’s stabiliser pistons finally align and steadies his frame.
And then you move. You fuck him slowly with your mouth. All the way up and then all the way back down. His dick tastes even better than that lollipop, and you suck him with control and purpose. Your chin is wet and your throat is sticky and your heart is thumping harder than you ever remember it doing.
Shockwave is doing his best to stay silent and is failing wonderfully. You wonder if he’ll match your rhythm and fuck you down your throat but he hasn’t, and you don’t suspect he will. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because he doesn’t want to use more than a fraction of his strength in case even that’s too much. His self-control is impressive and welcome, but it’s not complete. 
Shockwave is holding the back of your head lightly, but his fingers are tightening infinitesimally around your hair and scalp every time you suck the tip of his dick and swallow it all the way down to its base. His self-control is not infinite and not indestructible. He’s not dead inside.  
You eventually feel his frame tense and tighten around you, and hear the pitch and whine of his engines straining up a gear. You’re enveloped in heat and know he’s close.
“There…is time for one more experiment,” he manages to say, his voice thick with static.
“Mmmm?” you ask around his dick, your full mouth still moving.
“…apparently saliva can digest various substances and…so can stomach enzymes and…the mouth is part of the digestive system and…if you…if you…”
You’ve swallowed transfluid before and liked it and know it won’t hurt you. You’ve had The Talk with all the medics on board just to be sure, and so long as he doesn’t pour his entire tank down your throat in one go you’ll be fine.
You nod your consent, and Shockwave makes a noise that sounds like gratitude.
He’s a bit less steady on his feet now, a bit more erratic, a bit louder and less efficient in his movements but you’re not. You’re a steady constant in the face of his fast approaching overload, fucking him in a perfect rythym that surprises him more than it does you.
He grips you harder and spasms and his engines scream dangerously loud as he overloads hard in your mouth. A shot of transfluid hits the back of your throat and you can’t help but gag at the quantity of it. You hold his legs tighter to prevent him from going anywhere, because you’re not going to miss a moment of this. You swallow as much as you can, and revel in the mechanical rumbling stuttering sounds his engines make as they fight not to cut out. His silent cooling system is blasting hard, which feels like opening an oven door and putting your face into it. Your hair is stuck to your flushed and sweating face.
Shockwave eventually quietens and stills and begins to regain himself. A series of small clicks indicate his cooling system is powering down. You suspect he’d like to keep his dick down your throat all day if you agreed to it and while that’s not something you’re opposed to, far from it, your mind is already churning with possibilities as to what three hands and a cannon can do while your mouth is occupied, it’s an experiment for another day.
Right now you have your own needs to attend to, and first on that list is to clean up the mess he’s made on you as best you ca. You gave it a good try but you couldn’t swallow everything he gave you, you’re only human, and a lot of it leaked out of your mouth and dribbled down your chin and throat. Your skin is sticky and your clothes are splattered.
You move your head back until his dick pops out, and cup a hand underneath your mouth to catch the gush of fluid that spills out. You look up at Shockwave and raise that hand to your mouth and lap up what’s in it.
Shockwave’s overworked engines make a pitiful sound as they rev back up again. You suck your fingers clean, and then you put your underestimated human mouth to good use and clean him up. 
Your work is not completed quickly.
But finally it is, and you make an effort to casually sit back in satisfaction at completing a job well done.
“So what do you think?” you ask him off-handedly, as your body thrums and fizzes. You wish your own temperature control system was more effective, no matter how noisy it would have to be. Your shirt is stuck to your back and you’re entering the non-lethal stage of dehydration. “Was the experiment a success?”
“I think,” Shockwave says, as he pours you a glass of water from the sink, “That the human mouth is…interesting.”
He hands you the glass and you drink from it without pausing. You know that’s as close as Shockwave will ever come to saying that he thinks the human mouth is incredible, yours especially, and that he wants nothing more than to fill it and worship it again.
“But still a concerning mystery,” Shockwave continues, as he takes the empty glass from you. “It requires further research. A lot of research.”
He kneels down in front of you and puts a hand on your knee.
“In fact,” Shockwave says, his warm fingertips languidly stroking up the inside of your thigh as if the thought has just occurred to him, “the human body as a whole needs to be researched further. One system, one organ, one session at a time.” 
His hand stops on your buckled belt.
“A breakthrough has been achieved,” you tell him, picking up his hand and removing it from your belt. Despite his claims to be highly dexterous, you don’t have time to wait for him to use one hand when you have two.
“It’s a minor miracle.” You unbuckle your belt, pull your pants down, lean back against the wall and put one hand behind your head to cushion it. With your other hand you make a motion for him to hurry up and get to work because you both know you’ve earned this.
“You finally said something correct. Now let’s see what else you can accomplish.“
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lacvnc · 5 years
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sᴏғᴛ sᴇɴᴛᴇɴᴄᴇ sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇʀs — accepting [ x ]
for: @ofkngs 
    [ ▲— THERE’S NO DENYING that their relationship has been special since the day they first met. Noah wouldn’t be where he is right now if he hadn’t met Seungjun, and he considers it painfully apparent from time to time. for someone who has always been striving to be independent and not allow anyone to read the true extent of the pages that make up the complicated construct that has become his life it’s almost frustrating. he wants to keep the innermost thoughts, the things that reveal the nature that has been locked away for years, behind lock and key. so why Seungjun of all people can unravel his secrets is something he still can’t properly understand. or well, in one way he can. the hints that escape him so easily whenever he’s around the other are hard to miss. and little by little Noah has allowed Seungjun to piece together the puzzle that is him.  Effectively binding them together with red strings stretching beyond the emotional attachments one would call normal. and there he is again. back at square one. where the understanding for their bond seems to slip between his fingers like sand.
even like this, walking side by side on a seemingly endless quest, Noah feels so at ease by the other’s side that he easily lets his thoughts envelop him. at least until Seungjun’s voice breaks their lingering silence. “This is where we first met isn’t it?” steps come to a stop and Noah turns his head to gaze at the building the other was referring to. the grin ghosting over pale lips is small, brief, response initially nothing but a slow nod. he hadn’t realized they were heading this way. “Mhm.” he confirms. he had almost forgotten about the location by now. after moving locations to stand on his own two legs, he hadn’t reflected much on where he used to bide his time decorating the skin of strangers with permanent pieces of art. it almost feels strange to be back there now. so much time has passed, and so many things have happened. it feels like a place tied to a past he no longer wants to be a part of. it tugs on heartstrings that are not fully healed yet; re-opens wounds he wishes he could erase. his silent approach makes it clear, he supposes. he’s an open book anyway, right?
“I have an idea.” he says a moment later, suddenly reminded of the rooftop garden,  tipping his head back, gaze aiming for the top of the building. “but we have to walk around the back.” he adds, tone almost a bit cheeky. judging by the expression settling on the other’s features he’s skeptical. but thankfully noah has a few tricks to pull. he knows the reactions of his own system quite well, thus turning his head to let his gaze rest by the other’s features. inevitably, clear blue hues are decorated with a thin frame of contrasting pink, hugging the outline of his iris like a protective border between the eye of the storm and rapidly approaching clouds. even when the majority of his heart has been given away to someone else, there’s still a piece that’s permanently dedicated to the other. and it most likely always will be. ( guaranteed Noah will never ever mention or admit to it. ) if he’s not entirely mistaken, the meanings of the shifting shades of his eyes is something he has shared with the other. something which remembrance he is now entirely dependent on. if not, he has to figure out another plan.
“Ah, the puppy dog face. Check mate, huh?”
success. he doesn’t say another word, practically bolting towards the back of the building. he’s not usually excited like this. the rush feels almost childish, strange too. he waits patiently for the other to catch up, head once again tilted back to look towards the rooftop, calculating the distance and the amount of time it’d take him to get there. Noah never really realizes the full extent of his emotional attachments until they end in ruin. but something about the way they have spent their time together for the past years, the sense of loyalty that binds the nightwalker’s heart to that of the other’s own reveals his secrets earlier than usually, and even if noah constantly tries to convince himself that it all stems from obsession he knows that such an excuse is slipping further and further away from the truth. but such revelations are definitely sealed in his personal vault of secrets. many times over have the other attempted to draw affectionate words from the vampire’s lips. and he has yet to succeed. 
his trail of thoughts is impeded when the other’s approaching footsteps reach sensitive ears. blue hues are still directed upwards, head tilted back and causing blond curls to fall entirely out of place: messily. “Ten seconds.” is the only thing he says to the other, displaying an impish grin. the look of confusion that decorates familiar features is erased within seconds, and noah assumes that seungjun is finally connecting the dots. “only thing you need to do is hold on as tight as you can.” he then informs, patting his own back as an invitational gesture. this is well out of their regular pattern of engagements, but on the other hand no harm ( usually ) ever comes from some spontaneity.  
as soon as the other has settled into place on his back ( despite the slight awkwardness of their very apparent difference in height ) noah takes off.  it’s not often that he gets to show ow the abilities his rebirth has granted him, but whenever the chance appears he rarely allows it to slip through his fingers. it does not take too much effort, pushing off of the ground, rising a good four meters above the ground, angling his body as to allow himself to push off from the wall itself next, lunching both of their bodies in the opposite direction where another building stands proud. soles of newly purchased sneakers make contact with the opposing building and in one last motion noah gets them both far up enough to land steadily on the rooftop. “Correction, five seconds.” he chimes, pride present in his tone, before he lets the other down. he stretches a bit, ears picking up on the familiar crackling of old bones. before them lays a stretch of various plants, tended to by the building’s inhabitants, creating a somewhat shielded area that nonetheless provides a great view of the cityscape. he perches himself on one of the benches, glancing at the other for a moment. “been long since I went here, but it’s nice.” he hums. the undertone of his words is simple: special. he’s not the type to bring just anyone to places where he has spent a lot of time ( places of meaning ) because it to him it implies vulnerability. but for whatever reason, this sudden impulse had felt more than right. 
the pink frame hugging his irises is back again, persistent in the way in colors his entire demeanor with the truth of his sentiments. of course he does not know it himself, but realizes when words escape the other as he settles beside him. 
“You love me.”
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noah tips his head momentarily, lips parting for words when his phone interrupts what he had been about to voice. sliding the device out of his pocket, the screen illuminates to reveal text messages from his significant other, as well as the background image of them taken not too long ago. he opts for responding later, slipping the phone back into his pocket and deciding to let the silence linger for a moment longer. not responding to claims of affection is part of the oldest game they have ever played. the fact that it’s still ongoing surprises him. 
“ p e r h a p s .” 
he then says, eyes closing. he knows it’s a lie. there’s no question what the real response to this claim is. not now, not in the past, not ever. and he’s more than sure that seungjun knows this too. 
“ My only regret is not telling you I loved you sooner. ”
noah cracks an eye open to throw a brief glance in the other’s direction. his emotional defense is kicking in fast and he snorts in response. shutting down whatever it is that starts to tingle at his fingertips is the best way to go, he’s convinced. he’s not good at any of this. barely able to handle his own confessions, he certainly can’t handle anything of the like from anyone else. 
“ maybe in the next lifetime. if we both survive this one. ”
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(The Birth of Pennsylvania, 1680 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. That’s Charles II seated, and William Penn facing him.)
We introduce the last of the Middle Colonies, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and talk more about the Quaker migration to America and its surprising diversity.
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Transcript and Sources:
“At last the writer and his reader can breathe a sigh of relief. At last they can find some compensation for the disgust, the horror, or the sadness inspired by modern history, and above all by the colonization of the New World by Europeans. Up until this point, the only way these barbarians knew of taking possession of it was to begin by destroying its peoples, the only way of cultivating it, to begin by laying it waste. At last we can witness the seeds of reason, happiness, and humanity sown among the ruins and devastation of a continent still reeking with the blood of all its peoples, civilized or savage.” Those are the words of the 18th century French writer Guillaume Reynal in his history of European exploration and colonization.
He was speaking here of the Quakers of Pennsylvania. Obviously Reynal was no big fan of the history of colonization so far, so what made the Quakers different? Did they really sow “the seeds of reason, happiness, and humanity” in America? I’m sure that’s putting it too strongly, but I will say this about the Quakers: more than anyone else who colonized America, they at least tried to be decent. How did it turn out? Well, you’ll just have to listen.
Hello, and welcome to Early and Often: The History of Elections in America. Episode 20: The Founding of Pennsylvania (And Delaware Too).
Last time we saw the beginnings of Quaker migration to the Delaware Valley, which if you’ll remember is just north of the Chesapeake -- modern day New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware itself. Although the Dutch had claimed the region, the first real European colonists there were the Swedes, who set up the short-lived colony of New Sweden. New Sweden was conquered by the Dutch who were then in turn conquered by the English. The region then became part of the colony of New York. Well, at least the eastern half did. The patent the king gave to his brother James for control of the region only extended to the eastern shore. The western shore, which was right next to Maryland, was in an ambiguous position. It was claimed by both New York and Maryland.
Anyway, as we heard last week, James decided to split New York up, and he gave two of his friends a bunch of land in the southern half, which became the colony of New Jersey. After a bit of time, New Jersey was itself subdivided into two separate colonies, East Jersey and West Jersey. West Jersey was on the eastern shore of the Delaware Bay. The region as a whole was still sparsely populated, and most of the Europeans there were non-English. That only began to change with the arrival of the Quakers to West Jersey in 1677.
Got it? Good.
We’ll start this episode by introducing one of the most important Quakers and one of the most important figures in American colonization: William Penn. Penn was born in 1644 to a wealthy and influential family. His father was an admiral who fought for Parliament during the Civil War and for Cromwell during the Protectorate. But his father switched sides during the Restoration and stayed in favor. In fact, young William Penn became a good friend of Charles II.
He was very religious from a young age, and he had what David Hackett Fischer called “mystic visions”. Penn’s father had considerable estates in Ireland, and it was while working at those estates that Penn first encountered Quaker missionaries. He was drawn to the earnestness of Quakerism, since he found Anglicanism to be full of “empty shows and formalities that masqueraded as the religion of Christ”. In fact, he got kicked out of Oxford for refusing to conform to Anglican practices. He officially became a Quaker in the 1660s. This was after the Quakers began moving on from their early period of unruliness, which suited Penn just fine. He was no radical. He was a true believer, but he was also a practical man.
Penn was easily one of the most prominent Quakers, by virtue of his high position. But he didn’t just sit on his hands, giving out money. No, he went around preaching as a missionary in Europe, he wrote books on Quakerism and in defense of religious liberty, and he was even imprisoned four times for his heresies, maintaining his friendship with the royal family all the while.
On top of all that, he was a trained lawyer. And he also knew the philosophers John Locke and Sydney Algernon. In fact, Locke even owned several books written by Penn and he provided comments on Penn’s constitution for Pennsylvania. And Penn, for his part, helped get Locke a royal pardon while he was living in exile in the Netherlands. And like Locke, Penn was a big believer in toleration.
So you can see why Penn was in such a good position to do something for the Quakers, something to help them escape their persecution. It’s really hard to imagine anyone better suited, other than maybe a member if a member of the royal family had somehow become a Quaker.
Anyway, over time he became more and more interested in America, and as we heard last episode he became one of the proprietors of West Jersey. Not only that, he either wrote himself or at least oversaw the writing of the first constitution for that colony.
But it seemed to Penn that West Jersey wasn’t enough. It was too small; there wasn’t enough room for expansion. Plus all of New Jersey was hopelessly tied up in legal confusion. And persecution of Quakers was picking back up again in the late 1670s. Penn needed more. So he petitioned King Charles to give him the charter for a new colony. He reminded Charles that the Crown owed his family a substantial amount of money, and that this colony would be a good way to pay off some of those debts at little cost. And Charles would be happy to see a bunch of Quakers leave England, since that would take them off his hands.
And so in 1681 the King agreed, against the wishes of his advisors, and gave to Penn a charter for the area just inland from the Delaware Bay, more or less. (The exact borders were ambiguous.) This became the colony of Pennsylvania -- Penn’s woods, although the colony was actually named after his father rather than William Penn himself.
Unlike West Jersey, Pennsylvania was to be a proprietorship run by one man alone: William Penn. However, Penn was given less power than his counterparts in, say, Maryland or New York. There were some clauses in the charter designed to increase the power of the king. The charter specifically mandated obedience to the Navigation Acts, and gave the king the right to appoint his own customs officials to the colony to make sure the Acts were enforced. Also the king’s right to overturn court cases and to veto legislation passed within the colony was reemphasized.
Now, the land that Penn received didn’t actually go all the way to the ocean. It began instead right at the top of Delaware Bay. This was a problem for Penn, who wanted to ensure that he had access to the sea. So in addition to the grant for Pennsylvania, he also secured a charter for the west bank of Delaware Bay, which as I said was also claimed by Maryland. It wasn’t very big, only 2000 square miles.
There were maybe a thousand settlers already in this additional region, a mix of Dutch, Swedes, English, and so on. They weren’t generally Quakers and they resented being ruled by Quakers. Although this land was adjacent to Pennsylvania, in terms of climate it more closely resembled the Chesapeake. In the beginning this territory was lumped in with the rest of Pennsylvania, and the whole area was governed as a single unit. But because of its separateness, both geographically and culturally, within two decades it was separated from the rest of Pennsylvania. It was still controlled by the Penn family, but it was essentially separate. Over time, this became the colony and then the state of Delaware. But for now, it’s just an appendage of much-larger Pennsylvania.
Now that he had both of these charters, Penn then drafted a constitution for his new colony, the so-called “Frame of Government of Pennsylvania”. We have some of the earlier drafts of this constitution, so we can trace its development. In the first draft, Penn proposed that the legislature would have a hereditary upper house, but this was thought too pretentious. Then he went the other way and gave the lower house almost all the power, but the financial backers of the colony thought that was too liberal. In the final version, Penn worked out a compromise position.
The Frame opens with an extremely Quaker-ish preamble: “When the great and wise God had made the world, of all his creatures, it pleased him to chuse man his Deputy to rule it: and to fit him for so great a charge and trust, he did not only qualify him with skill and power, but with integrity to use them justly. This native goodness was equally his honour and his happiness, and whilst he stood here, all went well; there was no need of coercive or compulsive means; the precept of divine love and truth, in his bosom, was the guide and keeper of his innocency. But lust prevailing against duty, made a lamentable breach upon it; and the law, that before had no power over him, took place upon him, and his disobedient posterity, that such as would not live comformable to the holy law within, should fall under the reproof and correction of the just law without, in a Judicial administration.”
Basically, government was needed because not everyone listened to their Inner Light.
So, what sort of government did William Penn devise to match his ideals? Well, it wasn’t all that dissimilar to other colonial governments, but there were some differences worth noting.
There was to be a governor, of course, either William Penn himself or a deputy he appointed, if he left the colony. The governor was actually a very weak figure. His only real power was to oversee the upper legislative house, the provincial council. He couldn’t even veto legislation or anything.
This “provincial Council” wasn’t like the other executive councils we’ve heard about. It was more like the magistrates in New England. Instead of a small group of appointed men advising the governor, the provincial Council was to be a much larger body of 72 elected men, who would each serve terms of 3 years, with a third of the seats up for election in any given year. Members of the council couldn’t run for reelection for at least a year after their previous term ended. The council would have the sole right to initiate legislation. Pretty similar to the modern Senate, which is also a large body where a third of the members are up for election each cycle.
Below the council there was to be a general assembly of 200 representatives, all of whom were to be elected annually. But this body had fairly limited powers. They could propose amendments to legislation passed by the council, and they could veto bills, but that was about it. They couldn’t do anything on their own initiative.
As for other officials, they were to be chosen through a process of double nomination, like we saw in New Netherland. For instance, the council was supposed to name two candidates for a given judgeship, and the governor would pick the winner from the names supplied, while the assembly was given the right to nominate local officials such as sheriff or justice of the peace.
Elections were to be by ballot instead of by voice, which was apparently becoming the standard way of doing things in the newer colonies.
There were property requirements for voting and running for office: you had to be a Christian man over the age of 21 who either owned 100 acres of land (50 acres if you were an ex-servant) or paid a personal tax. This was quite lenient, and perhaps half of all men were eligible to vote.
Basic legal rights were guaranteed. The death penalty was restricted to cases of murder and treason, a big change compared to the laws of England, which could be quite harsh.
Freedom of religion was guaranteed for all those who believed in God. That didn’t mean that the government was above enforcing morality. For instance, the law stated that “all prizes, stage-plays, cards, dice, May-games, gamesters, masques, revels, bull-battings, cock-fightings, bear-battings, and the like, which excite the people to rudeness, cruelty, looseness, and irreligion, shall be respectively discouraged, and severely punished”.
The constitution could be modified with the approval of the governor and six-sevenths of both the council and assembly, a very high bar to clear.
It’s interesting to compare this constitution (and John Locke’s constitution for Carolina) with the earlier, pre-Restoration colonial constitutions. There’s a big difference. The later constitutions are based much more in theory than in tradition. Or at any rate, the authors tried to base them in theory. In practice, they always had to make compromises with reality.
Pennsylvania was no exception. Many Quakers were disappointed that Penn hadn’t gone further in securing their liberties or in weakening the authority of the proprietor.  And the philosopher Algernon Sidney called the Frame of Government “the basest laws in the world”. Which, to be fair, was an exaggeration more about Sidney’s disappointed expectations than about the Frame of Government itself.
On the other hand, in a later generation, Voltaire praised Penn to the heavens, saying that he “might well have boasted that he brought back the golden age of which so much is spoken and which in fact never really existed save in Pennsylvania.” As we’ll see, that’s also an exaggeration. The actual truth lay somewhere in between those two extremes.
Penn was never going to create a utopia. And as the proprietor, he was never going to completely eliminate the proprietor’s authority. To think otherwise was foolish. So he was necessarily going to fall short of whatever ideals people had in mind. Nevertheless, it’s clear, I think, that expectations for government were beginning to change. Tradition was no longer an adequate justification, at least in the minds of some. Reason was needed as well.
While the Frame of Government was being written and the legalities sorted out, Penn sent over an advance inspection team to scope out the land and figure out where to build a capital city. The spot they chose was a ways up the Delaware River, since too much of the land by the coast had already been claimed. This site would become Philadelphia - the city of brotherly love, a very Quakerish flourish.
In 1682, Penn and the first batch of colonists set sail. Almost a third of the 100 passengers died from smallpox on the way over. Penn, who had survived smallpox as a child, was thankfully immune and he did what he could to tend to the sick.
Soon after their arrival, Penn summoned delegates from Pennsylvania and Delaware so that they could approve his Frame of Government, as well as some associated laws. However, the delegates rejected a good number of provisions, especially objecting to the fact that the assembly had no power to initiate legislation. And so Penn’s constitution was only partly enacted.
Nevertheless, that next year the council and the assembly met for the first time. An act was passed which guaranteed equality between settlers regardless of their national origins.
Beyond that, there were still plenty of disagreements over the Frame of Government and Penn wound up drafting a new document. The council and assembly were both hugely shrunk, reduced to 18 and 36 members, respectively. And the assembly was given a greater say in legislation, although nothing close to what they wanted. But on the other hand, Penn gave himself the right to veto legislation, which he hadn’t actually had in the previous constitution. So it was hardly a total victory for the colonists. Mostly it just pushed Pennsylvania further into line with the other colonies.
There would be a surprising amount of discord in Pennsylvania, whether over the Frame of Government or over land sales or over trade policy, but that didn’t stop colonists from immigrating. Penn had also been writing pamphlets to advertise his new colony, and he was pretty successful. About 1400 Quakers had settled in West Jersey in those first few years, but by 1685 8000 people had gone to Pennsylvania. According to Fischer, “Altogether, as many as 23,000 colonists moved to the Delaware Valley during the forty years from 1675 to 1715.” So many came that Quakerism back in England took a demographic hit. Philadelphia soon became the largest urban area in colonial America, a position it would hold until it was finally surpassed by New York City in 1810.
This was as big a migration as to New England, though over a longer period of time. Mortality rates were in between the very low levels in New England, and the very high levels in the Chesapeake, but the mortality rate did increase over time, as diseases like malaria were introduced to the Delaware and became endemic.
Like the Puritans, the Quakers often came in family groups, which meant that Pennsylvania became a settled society almost immediately, rather than a rough frontier region.
The Quakers were of somewhat lower social standing than the Puritans had been. Unlike the Puritans, who tried to exclude the poor from New England, the Quakers actually raised funds to send poor Quakers to America. And William Penn aside, there weren’t many high class Quakers to begin with. According to Fischer, “Most were husbandmen, craftsmen, laborers and servants.” So, other than the servants, they were for the most part economically independent workers. Lower middle class, basically.
Conditions for servants were better than in the Chesapeake, at least. Like in New York, contracts couldn’t be freely bought and sold, which curbed at least some of the abuses.
Quakers cared about basic education, but not so much about higher learning. They favored widespread literacy and understanding the Bible, but anything beyond that was superfluous. And even wealthy Quakers were generally unable to attend universities in England because of their faith, so there wasn’t a large contingent of college-educated ministers like with the Puritans. And honestly, the Quakers were also lax in setting up a basic education system. There was no broad network of public schools like in New England, although there were plenty of religious schools. Nor did the Quakers set up universities. And the results were obvious. In the mid-1700s only half of adults in the region could even sign their own names, and the number was even lower for women.
David Hackett Fischer argues that this lack of concern for literacy and education increased inequality among the Quakers over time, since it meant that the poor had fewer opportunities to better themselves, which weakened the cultural cohesion of the Quakers as a whole as time went on.
Anyway, there was another difference between the Delaware Valley and most of the other English colonies. Unlike those other colonies, Pennsylvania was cosmopolitan. With the exception of New York, all the other English colonies in America were populated almost exclusively by Englishmen. That wasn’t the case in the Delaware Valley. According to Fischer by 1700 only two-thirds of the settlers in the region were English or Welsh. A majority, but not a very large majority.
A tenth of the settlers in Philadelphia County were Irish. Others were Welsh or European. Part of the reason was that the Quakers themselves were quite diverse. And members from some other Protestant denominations settled in the region as well, often from Germany. Between 1683 and 1726 some 5000 German speakers came to Pennsylvania, a large but not overwhelming number. But in the 30 years after that, some 57,000 Germans moved to the region. In fact, by the end, Pennsylvania wasn’t even a majority English colony anymore.
Some of these groups set up separate ethnic enclaves to live in, but most of them merged into the larger English culture over time, although a few unusual sects, like the Amish, retain their distinctive culture and language even to this day.
In the beginning, there were sometimes tensions between the different ethnicities, but nothing overwhelming. There was an attempt by English Quakers to weaken the power of Welsh Quakers. The Welsh had settled in their own region, and the English deliberately drew the county boundaries of Pennsylvania to divide the Welsh settlement into two. That way the Welsh formed a minority in two counties instead of a majority in one, which meant that they had less local authority and independence. Fischer calls this “the earliest instance of gerrymandering in American history.” Gerrymandering, if you’re not familiar with the term, is when politicians manipulate the borders of voting districts in order to strengthen one group at the expense of another. That’ll be an important feature of American politics in the future.
But the more important impact of this diversity wasn’t political, at least not immediately. It was cultural. Unlike in New England, where the Puritans made up a majority of the region for a very long time, the Quakers of the Delaware Valley were only ever one group among many. Quakers and Quaker-sympathizers together made up a majority in the region towards the start, but they were gradually overwhelmed by other groups in terms of numbers. No, Pennsylvania would not wind up a Quaker paradise, but for the time being they were still in charge.
The Quakers were not as overtly theocratic as the Puritans. They didn’t restrict voting to members of a particular religion. But in practice it was nevertheless the Quakers who got elected to important positions, and who controlled the government. To the end of the colonial period, Quakers always made up a majority of the assembly, even when they had become a small fraction of the population.
And the Quakers used their power to put Quaker norms into practice. For instance, there was no military or militia. The Quakers were pacifistic, and extremely optimistic about human nature. If you were good to people, they’d behave, with minimal need for force or coercion.
This policy succeeded at first, thanks in part to the good luck that the Indians of the region, the Lenape [LEN-uh-pee], also known as the Delaware, were quite friendly. Thanks to the previous settlements in the region they had experience with Europeans and they were quite willing to cooperate with the colonists. And William Penn, for his part, was determined to deal with them as fairly as possible. He was aware of how poorly relations had gone everywhere else. He even went so far as to try to learn their language, which was quite unusual at the time.
Both relations with the Indians and the Quaker policy of pacifism in general would break down in the decades to come, but for a while it was pretty successful.
Most of the settlers were of course farmers. Wheat was the most common crop, rather than tobacco, so no big plantations. Penn’s original hope for Pennsylvania was that colonists would set up their homes in small rural clusters. Imagine ten or so houses within walking distance of each other, surrounded by a larger area of farmland. Villages, rather than towns or remote plantations.
However, the colonists themselves frustrated Penn’s plans. They had no desire for anything so orderly. And Penn was never able to enforce strict land regulations, since he needed to sell off as much land as possible to whoever would buy it, in order to raise money, so people pretty much did as they pleased. As a result, colonists in Pennsylvania tended to live in spread out farms. Maybe not as spread out as in Virginia, but still pretty spread out.
Not everyone was a farmer. With Philadelphia becoming a trading hub, many other professions were needed. Within a few years of settlement, one observer noted that “they have also coopers, smiths, bricklayers, wheelwrights, plowrights and millwrights, ship carpenters and other trades, which work upon what the country produces for manufactories… There are iron-houses, and a Furnace and Forging Mill already set up in East-Jersey, where they make iron.”
The Quakers were also early pioneers of finance. It was Quakers who set up the first bank in the English colonies, and they established insurance companies as well. In fact, for a while it was Philadelphia which was the financial center of the colonies, rather than New York.
Nevertheless, in the early decades, wealth and land distribution were extremely equal. In one Pennsylvania county, according to Fischer, “the richest 10 percent held only 23.8 percent of assessed taxable wealth in 1693—an unusually small share by comparison with other cultures. In the Chesapeake colonies, as we have seen, the richest 10 percent held more than two-thirds of the taxable wealth.” Partly this was just due to Pennsylvania being a young colony, but it was also partly to do with Quaker culture. Quakers were much more concerned with alleviating poverty than the Puritans or anyone else. The Quakers actually did more than the grudging minimum. And in a break with tradition, Quaker inheritances generally went to all children equally, rather than just to the eldest son, which reduced the concentration of wealth as well.
Despite these efforts, Pennsylvania did wind up with elite families, who played a leading role in politics, although the elite families in Pennsylvania came from more humble backgrounds and were more open to newcomers than elsewhere. And in any case the values of the Quakers were extremely different from those of the First Families in Virginia. There were none of the aristocratic pretensions. The Quakers saw money and birth as poor substitutes for personal virtue, not that that stopped money from mattering more over time.
There’s one last aspect of life in early Pennsylvania to discuss: slavery. Quakers weren’t averse to slavery in the beginning. Even William Penn owned slaves. Quakers in the southern colonies held slaves just like everyone else, and in Pennsylvania slavery was not uncommon, even right at the start, although because Pennsylvania was slightly too far north for plantation slavery, the numbers remained small. In 1700 there were still only a few hundred blacks in the colony.
And Quakers shared the racism of their fellow colonists. In the 1720s a law was passed banning miscegenation, or sexual relations between races. Laws like that have become a recurring theme at this point. Quakers only began admitting black members in the 1780s, after independence, and even then black Quakers were segregated from everyone else.
However, Quakers were also among the first to turn against slavery. Within the first decade of colonization in Pennsylvania, some Quakers began to speak against slavery, and gradually anti-slavery sentiments spread. By the 1750s Quakers as a whole turned against the institution and many Quakers became important abolitionists.
So that’s what life was like in early Pennsylvania. The foundation was an egalitarian Quakerism, but with increasing diversity and inequality over time. And Quakerism itself would change. Throughout the 1700s many Quakers withdrew from the inevitable compromises of public life to focus more on spiritual matters, and in the 1800s Quakerism splintered into various sects and lost members to other, more dynamic religious denominations. Still, two presidents came from Quaker families, Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon, while a number of others were descended from this Quaker migration.
Anyway, back to the narrative. Although William Penn had intended to spend the rest of his life in Pennsylvania, a dispute with Maryland over control of Delaware required his return to England just two years after his arrival, and he wouldn’t manage to get back to America until 1699. I won’t bore you with the details of the dispute between Penn and the Calverts; all you really need to know is that in the end Penn kept control of Delaware.
But in the meantime, instead of appointing a deputy in his absence, Penn just let the council run the government. These were elected men, but in practice the council was controlled by Penn’s allies. However, within a few years the council was splitting into factions, some of which were opposed to some of Penn’s policies, particularly his restrictions on the buying and selling of land. As a result, Penn took control of the government away from the council and gave it to a smaller body of just five men.
However, even that proved insufficient, and Penn wound up having to select a single person to rule in his absence. But the man he chose was for some reason a Puritan ex-soldier who didn’t even like Quakers. That guy faced such resistance from the rest of the government that he eventually resigned, and power returned to the council as a whole.
The point is: Pennsylvania’s government was still being worked out.
In some respects the proprietary model was a bad fit for Pennsylvania. The Quakers were by disposition egalitarian, and didn’t have much in the way of a hierarchy. Although William Penn was himself a Quaker, and although he was genuinely interested in founding some sort of Quaker utopia, the rights and privileges he had as proprietor would necessarily clash with everyone else. Having an elected governor like in New England probably would’ve worked better, but that just wasn’t how things played out.
Well, that wraps up the very early story of the Delaware Valley. There will be a lot more to say about Pennsylvania in the future, but we won’t be getting back to it for a little while. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that we’ve now introduced almost all of the original 13 Colonies. Only Georgia is missing, and that won’t be founded for a while. Now that we’ve taken the stories of all these colonies up through the 1680s or so, it’s time to look at an event that would have ramifications up and down America: the Glorious Revolution. So join me next time on Early and Often: The History of Elections in America.
If you like the podcast, please rate it on iTunes. You can also keep track of Early and Often on Twitter, at earlyoftenpod, or read transcripts of every episode at the blog, at earlyandoftenpodcast.wordpress.com. Thanks for listening.
Sources:
The Colonial Period of American History Volume III by Charles M. Andrews
John Locke, Carolina, and the Two Treatises of Government by David Armitage
History of Elections in the American Colonies by Cortlandt F. Bishop
The Quakers: A Very Short Introduction by Pink Dandelion
Albion’s Seed by David Hackett Fischer
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania May 5, 1682
Frame of Government of Pennsylvania - February 2, 1683
The Quakers in America by Thomas D. Hamm
Colonial Pennsylvania: A History by Joseph E. Illick
Religion in America: A Political History by Denis Lacorne
The Religious Roots of the First Amendment: Dissenting Protestants and the Separation of Church and State by Nicholas P. Miller
American Nations by Colin Woodard
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oliviagordonwrites · 6 years
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Lost Her Marbles - Short Mystery
The Branch House had been abandoned for years. It sat empty in the middle of the neighborhood, boarded up and undisturbed. The front lawn grew as high as the picket fence, and vines of ivy choked the front door and tangled in the gutters. Children dared each other to bring back chips of the crumbling bricks, but no one had gone in or out in the seven years since the homeowners had vanished without a trace, leaving behind all of their possessions, a gruesome urban legend, and a freezing cold case. This was the last chance to warm it up – the building was set for demolition in three days.
Luckily, cold cases are my specialty.
The front porch groaned under my loafers as I approached the door. The earthy scent of the flowers covering the backyard next door tickled my nose pleasantly. A lovely day to solve a crime. My assistant, Persephone Marlow, gracefully ducked around me to pry the boards off with a hammer. Within three minutes, we crossed the threshold and a chill went down my spine as I took in the alleged crime scene. I opened my mouth, but before I could speak Persephone placed the unlit pipe I like to chew on for aesthetics into my hand. I couldn’t ask for a better assistant. I should really consider paying her.
“Do you smell that, Persephone?” I asked, biting down on the stem of my pipe.
“No, Doctor; I’m suffering from a terrible cold.”
“Are you? Well, I was just setting up a witty quip about crime, anyway. What have those incompetents at the police station determined about this case?”
She pulled a file out of her bag and scanned it. Honestly, if not for the red nose and eyes, it would be impossible to tell she was ill. As she spoke, I glanced around the living room. It was sparsely furnished with no decorations or luxuries; not even a picture frame. They had two hard-backed dining room chairs facing a wall, but a light spot in the paint and a hole in the wall vomiting cut wires were the only evidence of a television. One built-in bookcase was near the boarded window, but no books or knick-knacks lined the shelves. Utilitarian was one word for it. Uncomfortable was perhaps more fitting. 
“Seven years ago, the residents of the house, Doctor Kathryn Marbles and her husband, Martin, disappeared without a trace. They left behind no visible clues about why and where they were going. In fact, Martin had just returned home from a business trip. Family members, friends, and the Darlings next door were all interviewed, but nothing strange was reported. As far as anyone knew, the Marbleses were happily married and had no enemies. The one oddity in the case is that even after several years of marriage, they never conjoined their bank accounts, and Kathryn’s was empty when they vanished.”
“She withdrew it all?”
“That’s the oddity, Doctor. The money was withdrawn in small amounts over the course of years; she stopped adding money to her account as soon as they were married. All of her paychecks were cashed immediately and never put in the bank. Martin’s account never showed significant change.”
“Aha!” I said. “She was a gambler.”
“Or,” my assistant interjected. “It could have been blackmail. After all, even extremely poor gamblers would win once in a while, and she never seemed to come into money in the years they were together. In fact, this room seems to support the fact that they were people of limited means. Very strange for a successful general practitioner and a business executive. Especially when the business executive was very wealthy himself. Perhaps they were using his money merely to keep up appearances while hers went towards the blackmailer.”
“Ah, yes. Blackmail was my second thought. You should have let me finish.”
“Sorry, Doctor.”
“All is forgiven” I assured her magnanimously. “Are there any suspects?”
“No, sir.”
“What about a reason to blackmail them?”
“Apparently not.”
“People don’t just vanish.” I handed her my pipe. “We must search the house. Has anything been touched?”
“Not a thing. We have pictures from the police to prove that nothing has changed since the case was abandoned seven years ago. Except, of course, the lawn and the dust.”
I set to searching at once, carefully going over every nook and cranny. I knew from experience that even the slightest thing could be a clue – and in a case as frosty as this one, I couldn’t afford to miss anything. Persephone followed close behind me, the dear heart, no doubt straining to notice the details that I took in at a glance. We swept the whole house, finding more nearly-empty rooms and gallons of swirling dust. A small deflated air mattress rested pathetically on the carpet of the master bedroom, the en-suite was in the middle of slowly mildewing to unrecognizability – the perfumed bottles of soap were already almost completely green -  and the walk-in closet housed musty dresses but no skeletons. We even paged through a photo album found near the air mattress. It showed only happy pictures of a comfortable married life. Kathryn and Martin snuggled together on a sofa, Christmas tree glowing behind them. Martin reclining in a La-Z-Boy while Kathryn smiled by his side. On and on the pictures went, revealing nothing but marital bliss.
“Doctor, look what I found.” Persephone held up several pieces of paper. “They were near the air bed, next to a box of tissues.”
“Bank statements. I know. I saw them. They’re worthless; we already have that evidence from the police.”
“But, sir, I don’t think these numbers mat--” 
“I’m starting to doubt whether a crime has occurred at all, Persephone,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s nothing here! Nothing to indicate they left of anything but their own accord.”
“Own accord…Of course! Doctor—”
“Not now, Persephone. I’m thinking.” 
She tried several times to interject into the silence that followed, but I cut her off each time with a look. Now I remembered why I don’t pay her. Sometimes she just doesn’t know when to stay quiet. Eventually, she wandered off into another area of the house muttering something about checking on a few things, finally leaving me in the silence I needed to put things together.
A missing couple. An empty bank account. Furniture that doesn’t reach even low middle-class standards of living. Altogether too much dust to do anything but blink and sneeze uncontrollably after every slight movement. What could possibly connect it all? Could it be blackmail, like I was thinking before Persephone interrupted me? But what could anyone have against such a seemingly sweet couple?
No, no. I was forgetting the tagline on my business cards. Everyone has something to hide.
I continued to ponder, looking out the window. The neighbors next door were out tending their beautiful garden of red and black flowers together. It was rather precious, the way they glanced at each other and all around, in sync like fish in a school. Looking at them, the dull ache of my own missing wife rose to a sharp pain in my heart. Oh, Sharon. How I long to see you again.
But I was losing focus. The Marbleses were still lost, and the timer was ticking ever downward to the demolition. There must be more clues around--
“Doctor, I—“
“My goodness, Persephone! I was this close to a breakthrough!” I held my hand up, fingers hovering centimeters apart. 
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought since we already figured it out—“
“What are you going on about?”
She took a defensive step back into the hall. “It’s just…I called the police to come arrest the Darlings next door. I thought you might want to be there when they arrived.”
I cleared my throat aggressively. “Of course. Yes. Samantha and Andrew Darling. Arrested for…” I began to cough. “My, this…dust. Arrested for…”
“Murder,” Persephone finished for me. “We’ll get Dr. Marbles for accessory tomorrow.”
“Kathryn Marbles, yes, because she…” I coughed some more. Confound this cursed dust!  
“Paid the Darlings to kill her husband.”
“Persephone, please. I’m entirely capable of finishing my own sentences.”
She smiled apologetically. “Then I’ll let you explain things to the police.”
As if her words summoned them, a police car pulled into the driveway at that very moment. Two officers, a man and a woman, stepped out and made their way to the door. I was strangely offended when they walked in without knocking. It wasn’t my house, but it sure felt like they were intruding into my case.
“Nonsense! That’s an assistant’s job! You deal with them.”
Persephone nodded, sneezed a few times, and began her story.
“Good afternoon officers,” she said. “Half the guilty party is next door, but first, here’s what happened. Sixteen years ago, Kathryn Plumber was targeted by a blackmailer.”
“Why?” asked the female officer. 
“Because Kathryn’s medical school made a mistake she never corrected: she’s six credits short of her doctorate, which means she was technically practicing medicine illegally for three years at the time it began. Shortly after she began paying the blackmailer, she met Martin Marbles.”
“How do you know?” demanded the male officer. 
“Facebook and bank records. Anyway, they fell in love. She must have told him about the blackmail before they got married - it’s a woman’s nature, you know - and that’s why they never joined bank accounts. He supported her and they were both happy. Until.”
The officers leaned forward. “Until?” they said together.
“Kathryn found out about her husband’s other bank account. The deposit records matched her income exactly. He had been blackmailing her the entire time.”
“No!” gasped the man.
“Yes!” Persephone continued. “He likely met her that first day to see if he could get anything more out of her and fell in love by accident. Then, he couldn’t tell her because he risked losing her, and he couldn’t stop because it would be suspicious. He supported her for their entire marriage, though. The photobook shows a lavishly furnished and decorated home. She really was happy, and Martin thought that meant the blackmail didn’t matter to her. But Kathryn was paranoid, as anyone would be if an unknown person knew one’s darkest secret. When she found out it was him the entire time, she was understandably angry. She sold everything they owned while Martin was on his business trip, as shown by the fact that the air mattress upstairs is a single and the only toiletries in any bathroom are feminine. She used the money to hire the assassins and left the house to start a new life. That’s why there’s no evidence of a crime here. There wasn’t one. Here, anyway. This isn’t the crime scene!”
“But why wasn’t Martin found murdered on his business trip?”
“Simple,” Persephone smiled. “He was supposed to come home the day he was killed, and Kathryn left the same day. No one considered they went missing for two separate reasons, and so no one was looking for him in Washington.” 
The female officer wrinkled her brow. “And the Darlings?” she asked, looking at me. “Why on Earth would you suspect they’re the murderers?”
I gestured to Persephone as I continued struggling with the dust coating my throat.
“The Darlings are growing opium poppies in their backyard. That, of course, is not illegal, but it was suspicious enough that their entire backyard is covered in the flowers and nothing else. The fact that they’re harvesting the opium at this very minute was near condemning. I went over to ask them about their garden, and they said they’d been growing it for decades. Surely a doctor such as Kathryn would recognize what they were doing. She had the money to pay them, the threat of accusing them to convince them, and they already had the perfect weapon - opium. Even if Martin’s body were found, addiction and overdose would be assumed before murder was even considered. 
“Of course, that was just speculation until I noticed Mrs. Darling’s ring. A diamond as big as the Ritz. I asked about it, and she said her husband gave it to her seven years ago. The very time Kathryn would have paid them. All of the evidence came together to form a convincing case against them. I’m sure they’ll confess easily enough, and finding Kathryn will be simple. With the blackmailer gone, she likely didn’t change her name, and is probably still practicing medicine.”
“Amazing, Doctor!” exclaimed the woman, reaching out to shake my hand. “What would our department be without you?”
I gracefully accepted her compliments. “Poppycock! You are incredibly capable officers. You simply must observe. The answers will just…come to you.”
“Advice we’ll all take to heart,” the man said. “We better go arrest those criminals. A pleasure as always working with you.”
They each shook my hand again and quitted the doomed building. Another case solved. Another criminal brought to justice. I inhaled deeply in satisfaction. Nothing more rewarding than a job well done, I always say.
My assistant efficiently gathered our things and handed me my unlit pipe once again.
“I was thinking, Doctor,” Persephone said as the Darlings were ushered into the back of the police car. “Isn’t it about time you started paying me?”
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shervonfakhimi · 5 years
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The Nerdtastic Blog Boy Unscientific 2019 NBA Mock Draft 1.0
Everything was all good just a week ago. Even in the span of one week, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson both got hurt for an exponential amount of time, the Raptors won the NBA Finals and Anthony Davis got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. No one could have expected all of that to happen in one damn week. So, with that in mind, it is damn near impossible to predict how these future draft picks will perform in their careers. No one has any damn clue. However, I always love to try to guess. So, here’s my 2019 NBA Mock Draft that I’m sure will look stupid not too far from now. Enjoy!
1. New Orleans Pelicans - Zion Williamson PF/C Duke
Umm, duh. One building block leaves New Orleans, another one walks right in with new pieces to fit around him that New Orleans was never able to surround Anthony Davis with. Zion is built for the modern game with the way he can run the floor, finish around the rim, create off the dribble (though he could afford to add more tools to his bag) and play anywhere defensively. He’s the obvious pick.
2. Memphis Grizzlies - Ja Morant PG Murray State
Not as obvious as Zion, but this one should not be up for much debate either. Ja is the ideal point guard for today’s NBA; a solid enough shooter who can burn dudes and transition and put anybody on a poster to go along with his pristine playmaking and feel. He and Jaren Jackson Jr. are going to be a lethal duo for years to come.
3. New York Knicks - RJ Barrett SF/PG Duke
Turns out New York will get two former Duke stars… just not the one they wanted. RJ Barrett isn’t Zion, but he has the size and scoring ability to become a mismatch nightmare. New York is the place RJ wants to be and I’m thinking they grant his wish.
4. New Orleans Pelicans - De’Andre Hunter SF Virginia
New Orleans gets this pick as part of the monster haul the Pelicans got from the Lakers for Anthony Davis. This pick could go any number of ways and might not even be made by the Pelicans, as reports are circulating that the Pelicans could trade the pick, per Jonathan Givony of ESPN, but if it is, let’s say they add Hunter. Scoring is not as pressing a need for the Pelicans after selecting Zion earlier and adding Brandon Ingram alongside Jrue Holiday. However, neither Lonzo Ball, Ingram or Zion are great shooters at this stage of their careers. That’s where De’Andre Hunter comes in. He can spread the floor and guard bigger forwards that continue to push Ingram around a little bit. Adding him essentially solidifies New Orleans will be hell to score against. Hunter doesn’t need the ball, which makes him a perfect fit in the Big Easy.
5. Cleveland Cavaliers - Jarrett Culver SG/SF Texas Tech
The Cavs need a little bit of everything. Jarrett Culver brings a little bit of… well, everything. While not a great shooter yet with mechanics needed to be fixed, Culver is a very solid playmaker and has potential as a scorer to score from all three levels and wreak havoc across the floor defensively. He’s a home run pick for the Cavs.
6. Phoenix Suns - Darius Garland PG Vanderbilt
The Suns need a point guard. They *finally* get a point guard. Garland and Devin Booker can play off each other beautifully as Booker has enhanced his playmaking skills in the NBA. Garland will need to do the same and learn to make his teammates better, but his backcourt has baby splash brother potential. It’s a perfect pick for the Suns.
7. Chicago Bulls - Coby White PG North Carolina
The Bulls need a point guard. They *finally* get a point guard too. White is a beast in transition and will need to learn to slow down and settle his team in the halfcourt, but is a great shooter and dynamic scorer in the backcourt, something the Bulls desperately need. He’s more of a combo guard than a pure point guard at this stage, but he’ll be able to play through mistakes in Chicago. He’s well worth the pick.
8. Atlanta Hawks - Cam Reddish SG/SF Duke
Cam Reddish is… an enigma. One play he looks like Paul George, the next he looks like Andrew Wiggins. His handle is suspect, he isn’t much of a playmaker yet, there were games where he disappeared, his jump shot was inconsistent, yet you see glimpses of the exact type of dynamic scoring wing everyone craves that was stuck in a situation with zero spacing. Atlanta seems like the best place for him to develop with Trae Young able to create easy looks and John Collins there to take the pressure off as a scorer. Hopefully, it pans out for Reddish.
9. Washington Wizards - Sekou Doumbouya SF/PF France
Ok, I’ll be painfully honest: I don’t know a lot about Doumbouya or much of these international guys. But Pascal Siakam has been a trendy comparison for him. That’s good enough for me!
10. Atlanta Hawks - Jaxson Hayes C Texas
Hayes is the prototypical rim-running, rim-protecting big man. Reddish, Collins and Hayes would make for one of the more modern and athletic frontcourts in the NBA to fit Young’s up-tempo pace. He’s a great fit here with Atlanta’s second top 10 pick.
11. Minnesota Timberwolves - Brandon Clarke PF/C Gonzaga
Clarke is an awesome fit in Minnesota. He helps bring a defensive impact in the frontcourt Minnesota has lacked with Towns, he can play center in small ball lineups next to Dario Saric, is a really active shot blocker, athletic around the rim and is a very solid passer inside the lane. He’d fix many of Minnesota’s problems right away.
12. Charlotte Hornets - Rui Hachimura PF/C Gonzaga
I thought about Charlotte potentially taking the shot on Bol Bol here due to the position they find themselves, thinking the risk is worth taking. But, I sided against it and went with Rui Hachimura instead. Hachimura reminds me a lot of John Collins when he came out of Wake Forest  Frank Kaminsky is not the answer there and Charlotte has to find spacing anywhere they can. Hachimura was comfortable with the three this season and can be another option offensively while still learning how to grow his game. He’ll be a solid player, Kemba or no Kemba in Charlotte.
13. Miami Heat - Nassir Little SF/PF North Carolina
Little was kind of lost in the sauce during his year in North Carolina. There were times it looked like the game was a bit too fast for him, but he at least always played hard. He was a top 5 recruit for a reason. He can be a dynamic scorer and is a freak athlete. Miami can develop him about as well as anybody could. He could thrive and be the steal of the draft if he lands in the right spot like this.
14. Boston Celtics - PJ Washington PF/C Kentucky
Boston could use more punch in the frontcourt, and Washington should be able to provide it. He is tough and really improved both as a shooter and playmaker this season at Kentucky. He’ll be able to soak up all the wisdom Al Horford has accumulated during his career, assuming Horford opts in to come back to Boston. This is a really nice, solid pick for Boston.
15. Detroit Pistons - Tyler Herro SG Kentucky
The Pistons really need shooting. Like, really bad. Incredibly bad. Poor Blake Griffin simultaneously had to do everything and had no room to do anything. Tyler Herro is one of the better shooters in this draft, raising his stock like Kevin Huerter did last year. This makes a lot of sense. That hasn’t stopped teams from doing something not as sensical before though.
16. Orlando Magic - Romeo Langford SG/SF Indiana
A long, athletic wing who isn’t a great shooter yet? He sounds exactly like a Magician (that’s what we call somebody on Orlando, right? Does anyone know the correct answer for this?). Assuming Nikola Vucevic returns, shooting can surround Langford in the form of Vuc, DJ Augustin and Evan Fournier, at the very least. We’ll see if Markelle Fultz’s jump shot is resurrected from the dead. But Orlando can’t count on it and needs shot creation in the half court from the perimeter. Langford excels in this area and has defense all around him. Steve Clifford can coach him out of some of his bad habits and would appreciate the toughness Langford showed playing through a broken thumb all season long. I think this could really work.
17. Atlanta Hawks - Mfiondu Kabengele PF/C Florida State
I doubt Atlanta keeps all three of their picks, but let’s just go with it. Mfiondu Kabengele is one of my favorite players in this entire draft and should fit in perfectly alongside this uber-athletic frontcourt. He can run the floor, protect the rim, plays super hard and has potential as a shooter. He can play alongside either Hayes or Collins. Trae Young should make his life really easy. He can be a major spark plug off the bench and has the potential to be much more.
18. Indiana Pacers - Nickeil Alexander-Walker PG Virginia Tech
Darren Collison and Cory Joseph are free agents and Tyreke Evans got booted from the league (hopefully he’s doing ok) for violating the drug policy. Aaron Holiday will get more looks at point guard but Indiana could use more playmaking alongside Victor Oladipo. Nickeil Alexander-Walker would be great for the Pacers, fills a need and fits their style of play.
19. San Antonio Spurs - Goga Bitadze C Republic of Georgia
Again, I don’t know much about Goga. But I do know San Antonio could use a more dynamic center than Jakob Poeltl next to LaMarcus Aldridge and have made a killing in the international route. It looks like a match made in heaven for Popovich here.
20. Boston Celtics - Bol Bol C Oregon
Danny Ainge can get a little frisky with this pick. Bol Bol has top 5 upside but has concerns with his motor, his frame and his foot injury he suffered this year playing for the Oregon Ducks. If Boston gets the most out of Bol, this is a home run. If not, then they just move on. It’s a risk worth taking here for Boston. Just handcuff Bol with Al Horford and make sure Bol never leaves his sight.
21. Oklahoma City Thunder - Cameron Johnson SF North Carolina
Remember how I said the Pistons needed shooting? Well, Oklahoma City might be the one team that needs it more. Cam Johnson is probably the best shooter in this draft. Oklahoma City needs more wings alongside Paul George and Russell Westbrook. If Johnson is on the board and Presti passes on him, I’d get visibly upset and I’m not a Thunder fan at all. They have to take him if he’s here.
22. Boston Celtics - Kevin Porter Jr. PG/SG USC
With Kyrie likely gone and Terry Rozier possibly bolting out of town, Boston could use more creation out of the backcourt. Had things gone swimmingly this year in Los Angeles, Porter would likely get drafted way higher. He’s a dynamic scorer. I like this pick for the Celtics.
23. Utah Jazz - Ty Jerome PG Virginia
Utah has already told Ricky Rubio they aren’t prioritizing him in free agency. I don’t think Donovan Mitchell is ready to take the reins at point guard quite yet, making Ty Jerome a great fit. He can get Utah solidified offensively and involve the rest of his teammates while Mitchell brings his much-needed scoring punch.
24. Philadelphia 76ers - Grant Williams PF/C Tennessee
Philadelphia desperately is in need of depth anywhere they can find it. With a team trying to win games now, they should be looking for guys who can play now. Grant Williams can do so and still has room to grow. Drafting him could unlock lineups where he or Ben Simmons serve as the ‘center’ on the floor. He’s smart, tough and does all the dirty work. Philly didn’t have anybody for that last season.
25. Portland Trail Blazers - Keldon Johnson SF Kentucky
Portland could use shooting on the wing. They’ve neglected it for years, so hopefully, they come to their senses. He shot well at Kentucky last season and won’t be counted on to create much offense. He can play to his strengths, strengths Portland could very well use.
26. Cleveland Cavaliers - Luguentz Dort PG/SG Arizona State
Collin Sexton did not provide a ton of playmaking or defense. They get that and another scoring punch in Jarrett Culver, but double down with Lu Dort. Basically a Marcus Smart clone, he can bring toughness and versatility in their backcourt.
27. Brooklyn Nets - Eric Paschall PF/C Villanova
Eric Paschall was miscast last season at Villanova. If Brooklyn is going to go star-hunting this summer, which by all reports they are, they need to surround the team with cheap, versatile players who can fit around said stars. Paschall can do exactly that. He’s smart, plays hard and has the chops to guard multiple positions. It’d be another smart pick on the Nets’ part to take him here.
28. Golden State Warriors - Dylan Windler SG/SF Belmont
It didn’t take long for the Warriors to come to the realization that they really need to cash out on this pick after the injuries suffered in the NBA Finals to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson. They need depth and shooting. Dylan Windler brings both. After playing in a free-flowing, ball-movement offense at Belmont, he should fit into the Kerr-ism system in Golden State.
29. San Antonio Spurs - Talen Horton-Tucker SF/PG Iowa State
I have no idea what the hell Talen Horton-Tucker is. I do think his skill-set is intriguing enough to go in the first round, I just don’t know what he is as a 6’4” 235-240 pound bowling ball who can push it in transition and jet by dudes. If anybody could figure him out, it is San Antonio. Give him a year to develop in the G League then let him loose.
30. Milwaukee Bucks - Jontay Porter PF/C Missouri
I don’t expect Porter to be picked in the first round. The Bucks may even trade this pick to shed some salary, per Marc Stein of the New York Times. But it’ll be difficult for Milwaukee to bring Brook Lopez back, which would mean the gravity he brings at the center spot to allow Giannis to terrorize the rim walks out the door with him. I’m not sure where else Milwaukee will be able to find that. Jontay has torn his ACL twice, but if he’s healthy, he wouldn’t go even this low. The medical has to check out, but if it does, his scoring versatility could fit very nicely with Giannis and the rest of this Bucks squad.
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Mental Health in my life
How do I begin? I have struggled with mental health issues my whole life. Originally I was under the care and duress of a very mentally ill mother who until this day does not acknowledge her illness. Because of circumstances being what they were, I was very depressed growing up but often told by my ill mother to “get over it”, “you are just being dramatic”. Never once in my childhood was mental illness taken seriously. It was always considered that if you were closer to God then you would be fine. I learned early on not to trust my parents with my emotional being. I recall the fights wherein my father was emotionally and physically abused repeatedly by my mother. I remember my father threatening to take his own life because of how worthless she made him feel.  Growing up in a “Christian” home made me long to see my savior sooner rather than later. Heaven was built as a glorious place, which I am sure it is, but it fed my depression and anxiety. I wanted to find ways to get there faster because it would be so much better there – with a parent who truly loved me for me, no more pain, no more humiliation at the hands of the one on earth who was supposed to love me.
I have read truly horrifying stories of others who have gone through childhood abuse – most instances worse than mine.  It has taken me a long time to realize that that does not diminish what I lived through – what to this day are things I can’t always remember but my sister tells me is best that way. It does not lessen my PTSD symptoms. When I least expect it, when I am feeling “normal”- I will have a flashback, or nightmares unceasingly reliving the lies I grew up with about myself, the core of my being and the beatings that I didn’t always remember.  I don’t welcome this, I don’t embrace it. I am not happy to say, yes I have forgiven but I can’t forget. More than anything I want the ability to forget forever. Hopefully heaven will allow that.
Dealing with my family history and my own issues, has helped me tremendously in the life I have chosen for myself. I am married to a mentally ill man. His issues run deeper than even he realizes most of the time. Times when he needs the most help are also the times he pushes people away the most, when he trusts the least those who love him the most.
I have been subjected to various forms of emotional abuse from him over the years. While it has gotten better, I am still regularly reminded by him of what he believes my weaknesses are. I have fought very hard to have a healthy self-image and am willing to admit I, like others on the planet, have weaknesses but the one you love is not supposed to use those weaknesses against you. If this same attitude were turned onto him, then I would be “attacking” and “criticizing while a man is down”. I have had to leave work in fear for the safety of my children – thrilled at the same time to realize that when we created a safety plan they were listening, and were able to implement it. I have been stressed over the fact that I am working and going to college, leaving my kids to the whims of my husband’s moods. I have been stressed to think I am not a good mother either way – working or not working.  I have had my children take self-defense lessons from a trusted friend to defend themselves in the event he thinks he could get away with laying a finger on them. I have in my mind, distinguished between domestic violence as it is culturally defined and mental illness related “going off”. – Not that there is any research out there to really prove the difference, but with my history, trust me- there is a difference.
 The things I have gone through have left me alone. The church does not check in with a couple struggling with mental illness within their family. Heck, I found out at 18 that some pastors will just say you are a wayward teen – even if you are trying to unveil the truth and get your siblings to safety finally. I think there are a few reasons that the church isn’t behind the family dealing with mental illness:
1.      There are way too many people in the church who believe if your relationship with God were better you would be fine;
2.      Along the same lines, people believe if someone were to just pull themselves up by the bootstraps and think positively the ill person would magically be better.
3.      Mental illness is contagious – heaven forbid!!!
4.      The person is a sucker- sucking the life out of everyone who enters their orbit without giving back.
5.      The biggest reason- this is a long term care issue. Most illnesses have an ending time frame. Mental illness is life- long. Who has the time to commit to a friendship like that? Who even wants to?
After Robin Williams death, my mother started her platitudes about if one is closer to God then one will be happy. Apparently this is the same reason she won’t discuss her own nervous breakdown when I was 2 or3. Her belief is not that she was under stress with 2 children 16 months apart, and a mother who just died, but that all she needed to do was get right with God. I am a Christian. I believe God is Jehovah Rapha – the God who heals. I also believe as a church, we need to back off of this theology A LOT. In order for a church ordained healing to have taken place, there should be a further diagnosis from a doctor that symptoms are no longer present. There are some recorded times of this happening in the 20th & 21st Century. Just telling the world you are healed is not healing in and of itself. God still works today. I do not doubt that. What I have problems with is those who abuse this train of thought. Job was told by his friends that he must be disobeying God in some manner, have some secret sin. This was not the case; Job was still praising God through the storm. My own experience as a teen plays this out. I am sure that I am not the only teen raised “Christian” who thought life would be so much better on the other side of death then on this side. How could it be a sin to want to give your life and start life with God eternally?
People do not choose to be mentally ill, and especially when dealing with depression – can’t just CHOOSE to be happy. Have you ever woken up on a raining workday morning and the day has just sunk into your bones unbidden? If you haven’t, you are blessed. Depression is akin to the rainy morning, but it doesn’t stop when the sun comes out. It doesn’t stop if you sleep just 15 more hours because that is all you need – sleep.  It doesn’t stop if you have things on your schedule that are a “must do” yet you are too lethargic to make the must do list. So, the thing that works for you every time, your favorite hobby is calling for you to help pull you out of your pit of despair – instead what you hear is you are a failure, you won’t amount to anything, you can’t even do the stuff you use to enjoy doing, who would want to spend time with someone so worthless?
It seems that those who have no heart for the mentally ill think that just by listening to another’s struggles, you will get depressed too. Seriously? Can that be any more wrong? Yes, I understand talking too much to depressed people may make you see things through their eyes. So what? Isn’t that what compassion and empathy are about?  
About the great void created by the mentally ill in my life. No there isn’t one. It doesn’t suck you in. Mentally ill people who acknowledge they have an issue are nothing if not honest with their closest friends. They expect the same in return. One of my best friends has issues, and I can tell her, “Look, you are just too much like my husband right now and I can’t take it at the moment, I can only be a shoulder for one at a time right now. I will call you but right now he takes priority.” She understands this give and take. She understands that I love her enough to respect her while telling her constantly that she drives me crazy in the same way my husband does. She gets it – she sees the similarities.
At the same time, those who acknowledge their illness and are honest are the most loyal friends a person can have. These friends also seem to me to be gifted in some area and just don’t know how to apply that to the world at large. When they are stable, there are untold depths to their personality, person, character that people just do not take the time to see. The insight into their realms of subjects, their loyalty is unmatched. There is a wealth of information, philosophy and varied interest that lies within the mentally ill that many do not get to see because they judge first and never take the time to ask questions or get to know the person.
Please note that I have made a distinction between those who acknowledge their disease and those who don’t. People who regularly believe that they would be “…okay if…” are not accepting their diagnosis. It is normal, any psychiatrist will tell you, that once properly medicated, a patient will often begin to feel normal, and decide that the medicine is no longer needed. This is different than those who choose not to acknowledge their issues. It is common for anyone to just want to be “normal” and once that perceived state is reached, believe medicine is no longer a need. This is where good friends come in again- to correct the wrong perceptions of those in the struggle. Open, honest dialogue aids in the on-going care. The dialogue cannot be open, cannot be honest, can be thought to be traitorous if the true friendship isn’t in place.
The hard calls. Friends learn to make the tough decisions. I wish I knew when I was younger about calling the police to take my mom to the hospital so she would get treated. With my husband, we are at the point that we have long talks. Although he prefers never to see a locked ward again, we both know I would only do what is best for him mentally. My girlfriend, I am an ear for her to vent. I have had to consider the possibility of breaking her confidence, but somehow it all worked out.
Since I have learned over the years how to take care of me – because after all, not many others are looking out for my best interest –I am the caretaker. I have always felt a caretaker role but my depth of understanding has grown. No, I don’t have any college degrees (yet!); all I have is life as a teacher. There is no better student then one who wants to learn from the lessons life presents.
I have cried out for help, only to realize that none is really available. I have a son who was very young and couldn’t get to sleep because he was sure he would wake up with a knife in his hand and be killing us and him. Crisis response was that “he’s tired, calm him down and get him to sleep”. So the cycle continues in my life.
All that is continuously going on, all that I don’t really have time or the energy for - yet my kids deserve so much therefore - I will continue to make their lives the best I can according to my capability; according to the talents God has bestowed on me. Amid everything, we have a very open and honest relationship with the kids as to how this affects them personally and as people for the world at large. Their views of others struggles are so much more mature than that of their peers (and even a lot of adults I know) and that is an outcome I can be grateful for.
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boydchloe · 4 years
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Cat Pee From Carpet
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hachidorinoko · 4 years
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# all the odds >:3
50 headcanons || Accepting anything with an even number...!
Ya gotta be odd to be Number One!
OHHH BOY HERE WE GO… (the rest are under a cut because oh YES, I did all 25 of them and thoroughly enjoyed it.)
1. what’s your muse’s favourite album of all time / favorite artist?
Start with an easy one - Tenji’s favourite album is FAKE STAR ~I’m just a Japanese Fake Rocker~ by Kuroyume, and his favourite artist is Kuroyume’s lead singer Kiyoharu. Do NOT get him started on this topic of conversation because he Will. Not. Stop.
3. do they take baths or showers? do they prefer one over the other?
Showers to clean off, but Tenji loves a soak when he can. Back home in Gifu, his family have a traditional small tub which is heated from beneath by a wood burner to keep it warm so that the whole family can make use of it, one after another. He kinda misses it, but he’s also a big fan of onsen/sento, so since moving closer to Kamurocho, he goes there rather than waste water at home.
5. how many blankets / pillows do they like to have on their bed?
Tenji likes the idea of having a bed covered in fluffy blankets and pillows, but in reality he tends to kick them all away in the night so he’s given up bothering. In his apartment, he has a futon bed frame with a light comforter and a sheet - if he could choose, he’d just have a roll-up futon, but as he’s living in a furnished apartment at the moment, he’s stuck with the bed taking up too much space. (He does keep one fluffy blanket in the cupboard for winter though - cheaper than using the heater!)
7. do they wake up groggy or alert? do they like mornings?
Very groggy and gravelly until he’s had a coffee. Mornings are the WORST as far as Tenji’s concerned. He’s absolutely a night owl, and will stay out all night and get the first train home to sleep if he can. Generally, the only time he sees 7am is if he’s approaching it from the other side. He thinks 11am is an early start…
9. what do they smell like? do they use perfume or cologne?
Cheap cologne - and far too much of it, most of the time. Because it’s budget, it wears off pretty quick so he’s constantly re-applying it. He likes fruity scents on other people, but his own choice of cologne is quite… distinctly aftershavey, with sandalwood, neroli and vanilla. His favourite is Chanel Platinum Egoiste, but it’s so expensive he’s been carrying an almost-empty bottle around for a year in the hope one of his customers might buy it for him as a gift. (It’s nose-curdlingly strong, so it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t have it because he‘s usually half-drowned in it!!)
11. bar soap or liquid? do they like loofahs?
Liquid! He’s somebody who really hates the idea of finding hairs on the soap, and he’s so not about that arse/face soap life 😂 and as for loofahs, he could tell tales of loofahs which would make your hair curl in his Dragon’s Ward/Fourth Chairman verse, phew! 😳 Overall he’s not exactly a fan of bathroom paraphernalia because he feels that most of it just collects mold, but he has a pair of exfoliating gloves that he swears by — because if you wear that much fake tan, you gotta be smooooooth!
13. do they like the room cold or hot when they sleep?
Cold! He’s big on cuddling close for warmth, but he’s also one of those evil creatures with ice feet and yes, he will put them on your back when you’re least expecting it. He’s quite weak to temperature change and tends to overheat in the night though, so a cold room suits him better and makes it easier to regulate. Just don’t be surprised if you wake up wearing him like a scarf because he was having a cold shiver.
15. do they know how to drive? do they like to drive?
Tenji is a paper driver! His parents paid for him to learn and take his test, but he’s never owned a car and he hasn’t driven since. He doesn’t really enjoy driving much, and when he moved to study in Yokohama, he found that the transport systems in the bay and Tokyo areas are so good that there was never any need to bother with his own wheels. His friend Arata loves driving though, so they have hired a car together and driven out to the beaches in Chiba a couple of times. Tenji always says he’ll help with the driving, but he never does…
17. do they have pets? what kind? dogs, cats, etc?
No pets, and they’re not really on his radar. He likes animals well enough, but he never had pets at home growing up so it doesn’t really occur to him to get one. If he had a pet though, I imagine it would be a small ‘fashion breed’ dog like a pomeranian or french bulldog that he could carry around in a bag on his shoulder and spoil with all the snazzy accessories and tasty treats.
19. what are their phobias? do they have any at all?
Tenji doesn’t really have any phobias as such, but he’s a small fish in a big ocean, so he’s viably scared of quite a lot of things. The things which truly frighten him and keep him awake at night tend to be quite philosophical - he fears being forgotten, being outshone in the eyes of those he cares about.
21. did they have any fears growing up that they’ve since conquered?
Tenji has always had a sort of logical/illogical fear of falling off his bicycle, and it’s one of those things which is sort of like vertigo - the more mental space he gives the concept, the more he has that strange urge to engineer a crash outcome. As he’s gotten older and as he uses his bike more often to get to and from the station/supermarket, it has lessened, but it’s still very much present if he were to give it headspace.
23. how do they show fear? sweating, shaking, blankness, anger, etc?
It’s very obvious to see when Tenji is scared - he shrinks into that fight-or-flight pose as if ready to flee, and becomes visibly anxious, looking around, licking his lips. He tends to just start talking at this point - yammering on about anything, pointing out weird details, making odd conversation to try and distract from his fright. Saying that, talking is pretty much his coping mechanism for everything.
25. do they get scared easily? does loud noises, shouting, etc, scare them?
Yes, Tenji gets scared pretty easily. Sudden loud noises definitely make him jump - you’ll probably see him hit the deck if something goes bang close to him. That said, loud places like clubs, gigs, raves and parties don’t bother him at all - it’s just that sudden sharp shouts/screams/alarms etc will make him jump something awful. Good luck extricating his grip from around your neck if he jumps up on your shoulders to hide. 😂
27. what do they never, ever want to speak of, ever?
I can’t tell you, or I’d have to kill you……… truthfully, not so much, but there are certain things he would never tell certain people. For instance, he would go to extreme lengths to keep his parents from finding out that he dropped out of university after just one year and frittered his student loan (and extra money they sent him) on fancy clothes and nights out to live his host lifestyle. He’s not even sure what they would do if they found out, but he wouldn’t be able to cope with the weight of his father’s disappointment.
29. is there something they’d like to change about themselves physically?
Quite a lot, really, though most of it he changes cosmetically. He would like to be quite a bit taller, and so he always wears heeled boots to try and add a couple of inches. He’s 163cm/5’6”. He would also like to be naturally tanned, but he is quite pale-skinned really so he slathers on fake tan to get the look he wants - most of the collars of his shirts are stained orange as a result. He dyes his hair and wears contacts - he’s happy with how he looks with all these alterations, but it belies a dissatisfaction in his natural appearance, which is a shame.
31. do they have good fashion sense? or do they just wear whatever?
I don’t know about *good* fashion sense, but Tenji definitely has a passion for fashion! He wears mostly whites/greys/blacks and muted hues like khaki with silver accessories, and favours a distressed look, torn jeans and fashionably ripped shirts/sweaters. He’s a walking Men’s Egg model and is very taken in by trends - he will buy things because they’re ‘cool’, and then never wear them again if they fall out of style. A victim of fast fashion, he does have a few timeless things which he will always wear no matter what.
33. are they too hard on themselves over the little things?
Not so much hard on himself - he doesn’t really tend to think too much when he doesn’t have to - but Tenji finds it very hard to take rejection/correction from other people. He takes criticism very personally and can get very defensive and upset over the tiniest thing.
35. are they possessive over their things? or over other people? both?
Not particularly. You can bet if he lends you something precious, he’ll be asking for it back, but generally he doesn’t mind sharing. Arata tends to walk all over him and take his stuff, and he just kinda lets him do it because he doesn’t like confrontation. As for people - so long as he feels like he is important in a relationship, he’s not particularly possessive in a general sense - however, he can get extremely jealous if he feels that somebody is getting more affection/attention than he is. (This goes hand in hand with his fear of being forgotten or left behind - ‘what if he/she likes them more than they like me??’)
37. what do they think about polyamorous relationships? would they do it?
Being that his job requires the upkeep and management of many semi-intimate relationships (some closer than others, generally more romantic than physically intimate), Tenji can see the value in polyamory. He probably would consider entering a polyamorous relationship, but there would have to be a lot of communication and reassurance involved in it. Polyamory requires a certain amount of maturity which he doesn’t really have, but could be guided into if his partner(s) had more experience. He’s kind of wound up in a polyamorous relationship in his Diamondé verse - he’s been tied up with Sakurazawa while Sakurazawa is publicly with Paprika. Both Tenji and Paprika are aware of this, and are aware that the other partner supplies something they cannot or would not want to. The communication between Sakurazawa and his partners is terrible, but Tenji and Paprika stay in touch and have a relationship of their own (whilst neither romantic nor physical) which gives this arrangement some balance it might otherwise lack - Paprika understands Tenji’s immaturity and weakness, and tries to protect and mother him to an extent. Paprika does all the heavy lifting in that particular relationship - she is too kind for her own good, but an incredibly strong woman trying to hold her own heart together. Tenji is totally oblivious to the effort required in holding up the sky in that sense.
39. do they have siblings? if so, how many? do they like them?
Nope, Tenji’s an only child. Mummy and daddy’s perfect little boy… if only they knew.
41. where would they want to live if they could live anywhere? why?
A swanky penthouse in Kamurocho! He’s not particularly imaginative when it comes to that kind of thing - once he has a goal in mind, he will plough everything into achieving it. Right now, that’s Become The Best Host In Tokyo, and everything he wants are the trappings which go with that. He’s got grand designs on a walk-in wardrobe with automated hangars… heated floors, smart lighting, you know the drill.
43. do they like living alone or with another person / other people?
Tenji currently lives in a share house with roommates that he doesn’t know and barely sees outside of passive aggressive notes on the fridge, and he’s not really a fan of the setup. That said, he would relish living with friends or partners, but they might need a spare room to get a break from him following them around and chatting at all hours of the night 😂 ‘ Whatcha watching? Is it good? Did you see the first one? Is that Ishikawa? Man, did you see…’
45. what’s their dream job / profession? do they have one?
Tenji loves being a host more than anything else in the world (to an alarming extent, if you ask his peers.) If you ask him, he’ll tell you that’s his dream job. Besides that though - and he has no real intention to pursue this at this stage - he loves acting, and thinks he would make a great talk show host/TV personality. If he got scouted, he would totally go for it! (There was a host TV personality about 10 years ago who always wore a white suit and carried a bunch of red roses - his gimmick was mainly just flirting with the camera, I wish I could remember his name cus I’d show a picture otherwise - Tenji feels like a guy like that is wasting his opportunities, but he’s also a little jealous that a guy like that can get such airtime.)
47. do they like tv shows or movies? or neither?
Tenji is more of a movies guy - hasn’t got the attention span for a box set, he gets twitchy and distracted - but he loves variety TV shows, the daytime and late night dross. He learns a lot of odd facts and trivia from these shows, and they prove useful in his day job. How else would one discover the signature dish of Ehime?? And that Tsuyoshi from SMAP is allergic to peas!? Or how they flush toilets in space???
49. do they have a creative outlet? if so, what is it?
Tenji is more of a consumer than a creator - the closest to having a creative outlet is probably karaoke, which he LOVES. He doesn’t write music or play an instrument, but he sure can sing, and he’ll sing just about anything so if you need a duet partner, he’s your man!
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Your Friday Morning Roundup
There’s about five days until the Flyers take on the San Jose Sharks in their regular season opener. And most of their lineup is set in stone.
Five different Flyers scored in the 5-1 win over the Boston Bruins, including Travis Konecny’s third of the preseason. The power play unit also went 2-for-7, which was one of the team’s weak areas throughout the preseason. Alex Lyon played the entire game in goal for the Flyers, stopping 31-of-32 shots he faced, while starter Brian Elliott was a healthy scratch. And for some reason, Nolan Patrick decided to fight.
Robert Hagg, Taylor Leier, Oskar Lindblom, Andrew MacDonald, and Michael Raffl were other notable healthy scratches for the game. Who could be safe and who might start the season in Lehigh Valley?
Let’s start at forward: I think Raffl is a lock, as well as Lindblom. Taylor Leier is an NHL-caliber player, but with Patrick and Scott Laughton in front of him, Leier might have to start in the AHL.
There a very slim chance Ron Hextall decides to send Patrick back to juniors, but I absolutely see him contributing immediately with the big club.
The defense is still uncertain. Outside of Radko Gudas, Ivan Provorov, and Shayne Gostisbehere, four spots are up for grabs. Sam Morin, Travis Sanheim, and Robert Hagg have had their share of good and bad moments this preseason, but also have MacDonald and Brandon Manning with them. Morin is a beast at 6-6 and I would love for him to finally crack the Flyers roster. Hagg is the most NHL ready out of all three, and I think I see him and Morin up with the Flyers.
I would love to never see Andrew MacDonald again, but unless a team decides they want to eat up part of his huge cap hit, he’s sticking around. Manning is the more likely candidate for a trade, which means Sanheim stays in Lehigh Valley for another year.
The preseason concludes Sunday at home against the New York Islanders at 5 pm, which is in the middle of Eagles-Chargers.
In other Flyers news, Wayne Simmonds would rather discuss the actual issues involving racial inequality instead of kneeling.
The roundup:
The Eagles continue to get ready for their game in LA against the Chargers. After filling in for Jordan Hicks in the second half of last week’s win over the Giants, Mychal Kendricks still isn’t happy with the amount of playing time he’s getting.
A year and three games into his career, Carson Wentz is already showing he’s in charge of the offense:
Sunday highlighted the significant freedoms Wentz has in operating this offense. Pederson explained that there is a “take-it system” that the coach can shift into at any point in the game where he just gives Wentz the formation and has the quarterback take it from there, the restriction being that the plays are to be pulled from that week’s game plan. The playbook is loaded with run-pass options (RPOs), allowing Wentz to make a judgement call at the line of scrimmage based on how he reads the defense.
Center Jason Kelce believes Wentz — just 19 games into his professional career — has more pre-snap authority than any quarterback he’s worked with in his seven years in the pros.
“Under Chip [Kelly] we weren’t switching in and out of things. I though Sam [Bradford] was a guy that probably could do something like this, but he just didn’t get to do that. [Michael] Vick certainly had the ability to change the play and do certain things like that. We just probably do a little more of it with Carson,” he said.
“If you have a guy who can do it and you have a guy that’s good at it, obviously being in a conducive play is huge for the offense. Having the numbers be correct on a run play, you still have to block it up when the play is called, but it definitely sets you off the right foot. You’re not running uphill, you’re running downhill at that point.”
But why is Wentz struggling with the deep ball?
Wendell Smallwood may have a chance to become a feature back for the Eagles, and he could be worth picking up in fantasy leagues.
Kyle talked to Merrill and Mike on the Jake Elliott kick and their brand new podcast.
SB Nation did a cheesy video feature on Randall Cunningham and the 1987 Eagles.
Game predictions will come later today.
Over in Camden, Sixers training camp continued. Markelle Fultz is experimenting with new shooting mechanics.
It might take some time until Fultz is ready to take on some of the NBA’s top talent:
“It’s two things,” Brown said. “The first is the athleticism in the men who jump you right from the get-go. It is relentless. There is no sort of unforgiving stage. It is very, very ruthless, what he’s going to experience — not so much in preseason, but when all of a sudden John Wall crawls into him, and Otto Porter’s length is alive, you realize there is an athleticism and there are men, and it catches people off-guard. And then we’re going to talk about January the 10th, and we’re going to talk about a rookie wall because of the nature of our league.”
Because of the teammates surrounding him, because of their skills, Fultz may have more room on the court than Carter-Williams did. But that doesn’t mean teams will leave him alone. Everyone around the league knows, even from just his one season at the University of Washington, that Fultz can handle the ball and shoot well enough to excel in pick-and-roll situations. Opponents will try to prevent him from creating those matchups when he’s on offense, and they’ll try to trap him in those matchups when he’s on defense.
I also love his Players’ Tribune video, where he makes fun of his draft day Instagram blunder:
.@MarkelleF's first @sixers media day was … just watch. http://pic.twitter.com/PkJwxlKEa5
— The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) September 28, 2017
You can also start buying new Sixers Nike products this morning. Jerseys will be available through the Wells Fargo Center New Era Team Store this weekend, and the 11th Street Team Store will have special hours today and Saturday from 10 am until 5 pm, and Sunday from 10am until 1pm.
Jerseys can also be purchased online via Shop.WFCPhilly.com today at 10 am until October 12.
Head coach Brett Brown sees some interesting qualities in Furkan Korkmaz:
“I mean, really just trying to get him defensively built, like an attitude and a mindset to try to grow him as a defender,” Brown told reporters Thursday. “He can score. He’s got a real sort of interesting body for a basketball player in his position. He’s long and he’s lanky. Years ago I coached Brent Barry (who had) sort of that bouncy, pogo stick, can shoot, can dunk (body type). I see, you know, that (Furkan) has got some real interesting qualities. The defensive side needs work. I’m always trying to help and grow him, like you would any rookie, from a defensive standpoint.”
Part of the defensive improvement comes with bulk, and Korkmaz has already added about 15 pounds to his 175 pound frame. He won’t be finishing around the rim any time soon, but he’s a tall perimeter shooter with plenty of upside depending on how he adapts to NBA physicality.
The Sixers and Nik Stauskas have not engaged in contract extension discussions.
The Phillies wrap up the regular season this weekend at home against the New York Mets. Ben Lively takes on Matt Harvey.
Odubel Herrera takes an insanely long time during his at-bats, and that might change next year:
Major League Baseball will introduce rule changes this winter to help quicken the game. Average game times this season — 3 hours, 5 minutes for a nine-inning game — are 15 minutes longer than 10 years ago. The new rules have yet to be announced, but they could force a batter to stay inside the batter’s box or even employ a clock that times when a pitch must be thrown. Herrera’s routine will have to change.
“I’ll adjust if they change the rule or if they make it a rule,” Herrera said. “I’ll adjust to it. I don’t think I have a choice there.”
In other sports news, there was a Thursday Night Football game. The Packers beat the Bears 35-14. You didn’t watch? Good, because it was bad. Example:
Have a feeling this Mike Glennon kick-fumble is going to become an unfortunate meme. #Bears http://pic.twitter.com/xT5lgAqpaP
— Larry Hawley (@HawleySports) September 29, 2017
This was also bad, for different reasons:
Don’t let Danny Trevathan play the rest of the season for this garbage http://pic.twitter.com/Vf820PRPTP
— Barstool Sports (@barstooltweetss) September 29, 2017
And this hot mic caught the best reaction to every Thursday Night Football game.
NBA Draft reform, along with new rules on resting players, passed yesterday. Even though draft reform will give the three worst teams an equal 14% chance at the top pick, the “Sam Hinkie rule” may not stop tanking.
The league has a legitimate interest in its worst teams not feeling as if they have to get any more embarrassingly bad in order to secure improved lottery odds. The NBA does not want to relive Trust The Process, even though the architect of the most aggressive — and most coldly rational — multiyear tank job in league history was ousted precisely because of the scheme’s naked aggression. It would kindly prefer the Suns not send Eric Bledsoe home for two months; new rest regulations, also approved Thursday, may take care of that.
Reform may change team behavior on the fringes. Bledsoe types may play more. The next version of the Sixers might be more open to signing a couple of stable veterans, even at the “risk” of winning a couple more games. April basketball will be a little less bad.
Multiple NBA players have severed ties with agent Andy Miller in the wake of the FBI corruption probe in college basketball:
Los Angeles Clippers center Willie Reed filed the claim in part because of Christian Dawkins, one of the 10 people arrested on federal corruption charges on Tuesday. Dawkins was reportedly terminated by Miller and his company, ASM, in early May following a National Basketball Players Association probe into the unauthorized use of a player’s personal credit card.
However, Dawkins remained the primary ASM representative for Reed and other players, including Indiana Pacers rookie Edmond Sumner. Justin Patton of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Sumner both fired Miller since the FBI investigation became public, sources told ESPN.
But Joel will always Trust The Process:
Trust The Process https://t.co/7qHHiDomjz
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) September 28, 2017
Mets owner Fred Wilpon protected manager Terry Collins from being fired after other front office heads wanted the manager out:
People with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described organizational dysfunction, discord between Collins and his players, and a broken relationship between the manager and the front office.
Despite what the front office perceived as Collins’ constant tactical blunders and concerns about his relationships with the players, sources said efforts to explore a change seriously were thwarted by the elder Wilpon.
“I don’t interfere,” Fred Wilpon said while declining an interview request earlier this season.
A high school football team in Upstate New York is forfeiting their season after seven players took OxyContin before one of their games.
In a statement released Monday afternoon, Geneseo Central Schools Superintendent Tim Hayes wrote, “These dismissals stem from serious violations of the district’s Code of Conduct and Athletic Eligibility Standards.”
“Due to the sheer number of student-athletes involved and the serious nature of this incident…, the remainder of the varsity football season will be forfeited,” wrote Hayes.
During a late afternoon press conference, Hayes said the decision was painful because it also affected several players and families who were innocent and had done nothing wrong.  Some of those innocent players, said Hayes, had come forward to report the drug use.  However, Hayes explained the number of students involved made it impossible to field enough players to continue the varsity football program this year.
In the news, 6abc New Jersey reporter Nora Muchanic and cameraman Andy Doane are retiring at the end of October.
Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus revealed she has breast cancer.
Just when you thought… http://pic.twitter.com/SbtYChwiEj
— Julia Louis-Dreyfus (@OfficialJLD) September 28, 2017
Elon Musk has another idea for how to send people to Mars.
The first trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 is out and it looks really stunning.
Gambling while playing Pac-Man. You can do that now.
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