#it covers a broad spectrum!

[whistlingstarlight]

In depth question time,

Which Genre of music do you associate with each train in Starlight Express? Do like, five of em :D

Ok you've not specified anyone so I'm picking <33

Greaseball - Very much rock and roll, but also earlier rock (e.g. The Beatles, The Byrds) and even a bit of jazz. Anything with a good rhythm to it and a bit of sax maybe.

Electra - Mostly synth-pop, maybe some trance EDM. Gotta be heavy on the electronic sound and ideally very otherworldly-sounding

Pearl - Pop rock (with the emphasis more on the pop). Gotta be bouncy and fun, but if some electric guitar can be snuck in that's ideal.

Flat-Top - Punk, but like the good kind. Think X-Ray Spex. A bit of standard rock too, I can see Hanoi Rocks fitting his vibe.

Rusty - Soft rock/acoustic pop. The kind of sound artists like Jack Johnson or Newton Faulkner have. Something overall pretty chill but still with a good rhythm or beat to it.

#it's a lot of rock stuff ik that's my favourite vibe sgjkdhj #it covers a broad spectrum! #thanks for the ask Becca! #asks #stex

[bittersweetresilience]

aspec characters on my character list: 73/96 arospec characters on my character list: 46/96 aroaspec characters on my character list if i wasn't repressed about it: 96/96

#🌃 #the last one is a joke but also it's not i do think i interact with characters and their relationships in a fundamentally aroace way #HOWEVER #i hate headcanoning characters to be different than they are stated to be in canon i think it's incompatible and personally disrespectful #but with gender and aroace headcanons it's different because #the good thing is aroace spectrums cover such a broad range of experiences that it can be reconciled with just about any relationship type #aro people can date ace people can have sex aro people can have unrequited feelings #sometimes being aroace is that fundamental feeling of isolation and not quite understanding how #other people do it like they're getting love right and you don't know what it is or how to get there #sometimes being aroace is not being interested in all of that sometimes it's desperately wanting it and then realizing #what you want isn't exactly the same as what other people do #sometimes it's nonhuman coding sometimes it's neurodivergence coding sometimes it's a drive for knowledge or truth in place of Romance™ #sometimes it's connection a bit to the left sometimes it's disconnection sometimes it's hunger sometimes it's looking through a window #reaching or wanting to reach or feeling like you should be wanting and not sure how to deal with the fact that you don't #for me always it's lonely #but it doesn't have to be #i can make these characters happy... like sisyphus and camus... #i don't know what i'm even going on about anymore 😂 #THE POINT IS #if you are my favorite character you cannot escape the aroaceification 😘 love you queerplatonically

[anonymousbandkid]

I don't like when artists in the Spy X Family community make Loid look super lean and skinny. In canon (especially in the manga), he's actually pretty big with broad shoulders. I think this really sets apart his character design from a lot of other anime men, who often have the same skinny body type.

HOWEVER there is also the other end of the spectrum where artists make him look freaking massive with like 2% body fat and covered in muscle. I completely understand the point of drawing him like this (it's hot), but there are limits. Personally, I don't find it attractive when a guy looks like a total bodybuilder. I'd much prefer for him to have practical, lean muscle.

My point is that I wish Loid was consistently drawn more correctly; big and bulky but not an absolute unit 😭

#spy x family #sxf #loid forger #twiyor #agent twilight #spy x family twilight #smash

[hotyanderedaddies]

you are legit my fav author on here your stories are amazing, could I possibly request yandere wolf daddy with a forced feminized male reader ( who secretly enjoys it)

and can I be 🪬 anon? :3

[Yandere! Werewolf Daddy x Male! Reader]

·゜·:.。..。.:·☆·゜·:.。..。.:·☆

"Princess, it's time to wake up," Daddy whispered into your ear as he tightened his hold on you, squeezing you in closer to his hairy chest. He leaned down and placed a large kiss onto your forehead, exaggerating his kissing noises.

You grunted in response, already rolling your eyes at the older werewolf's foolishness.

The big werewolf rolled out from under you and stood up from the bed, stretching his powerful arms over himself. He looked down at you and mock-frowned when he saw that you haven't budged, too tired to get out of bed at such an obscene hour (7 AM).

Daddy crossed his muscled arms over his beefy chest, tsking at you. "Princess," he warned, putting on an authoritative air, "it's time to get up so we can get ready for the day. Now be a good girl and listen to Daddy."

"Shut up..." you whined, shoving the bubblegum pink pillow over your head in frustration.

You heard Daddy utter out a low growl.

Before you knew it, Daddy threw your tiny body over his broad shoulder. He stomped over towards the bathroom, plopping you on your feet in front of the tub.

"I'll lay your clothes out on the bed," Daddy said as he reached over and turned on the hot water for the shower, steam already billowing out. "Unless, you want some of Daddy's help?"

"Pass," you muttered, slamming the bathroom door shut so that you had some semblance of privacy.

As you washed yourself under the hot water of the shower, you couldn't help but sigh as you lathered up your hair with the sickly sweet strawberry scented shampoo. It was such a girly smell and the bottle was even bright pink with flecks of glitter garnishing it- you wouldn't have been caught dead using it at the gym with all of your buddies around.

Still, even you had to admit that it did smell a little good. You couldn't resist taking a big whiff of the sweet strawberries as you lathered up your longer hair that Daddy forbade you to cut.

Normally, you opted for buzzcuts since it was an easier style to manage, but now your hair was shaggy and starting to cover up your ears due to its longer-than-normal length.

After rinsing out the suds from your hair, you grabbed your equally sweet smelling body wash (this one shaped like a red candied apple), and washed yourself.

It's been four months since Daddy stole you.

You'd been packing up your stuff to move out of your freshman dorm at college. You'd been all set to leave the next morning and had lied down to get some much needed sleep.

That'd been when Daddy had snuck in through your open window, and had snatched you out of bed.

He'd taken you to the cabin he calls "Home", where he'd claimed that you were soulmates and where he dotes on you hand and foot...

and where he insists on calling you "Princess", "Baby Girl", "Sweetiepie", et cetera.

Daddy dresses you up in the girliest clothes that he can find, and he keeps on giving you gifts that would traditionally belong on the more feminine side of the spectrum (roses, jewelry, vibrators).

It was mortifying for a manly athlete such as yourself... or at least, it used to be.

Despite your annoyance, even you had to admit that having such a strong, hunky, muscly wolf daddy pampering you constantly was sorta nice.

Ignoring your irritation for the time being, you stepped out of the shower and dried yourself off. You walked back into the bedroom and nearly wailed at the hot pink hoodie and light blue skinny jeans that Daddy had picked out for you to wear. It was a rather tame outfit considering that there were no frills or glitter this time; but you were never a big fan of pink to be honest.

Still, not wanting another spanking, you yanked on the clothes, surprised at how soft the fabric of the hoode was. Despite its garish color, the fabric was soft to the touch like fleece, and you could definitely smell Daddy's musk on it from when he absolutely rolled around on it to scent it.

As you examined yourself in the mirror, the bedroom door swung open and Daddy sauntered in, wearing tattered blue jeans and no shirt, allowing his buff chest muscles to be on display.

The split second his eyes landed on you, Daddy rushed forward and wrapped you up in his arms, nuzzling you lovingly.

"You look so cute, Princess," Daddy gushed happily. "You're Daddy's Baby Girl, right?"

The way Daddy looked at you with such love and adoration in his eyes, combined with the softness of the hoodie, the sweet scent of the strawberry shampoo, and the firmness of Daddy's large muscles caused you to completely melt into the wolf daddy's hold.

"Yeah, yeah," you mumbled, blushing slightly as you rested your head on Daddy's chest, hearing the deep rumble of contentment as he kissed your forehead.

#yandere boyfriend #yandere boy #yandere daddy #yandere x reader #yandere x you #werewolf #yandere werewolf #obsessive love #possessive boyfriend #Asks #Dom Daddy #Daddy x Reader #Male Reader #yandere x male darling #yandere x male reader

[antimony-medusa]

This is verging on discourse, but I have to say, as someone aroace with the emphasis on the aro, it's a trifle disheartening to ever try to look for queerplatonic relationships that look like mine within this fandom. QPRs can cover a broad spectrum of experiences, and it always seems that within MCYT what a QPR looks like has calcified into this one depiction that is very close (but not actually crossing the line) to shipping, just without kissing or sex! With emotional connections that are very similar (but not quite) to romance, hitting many of the same beats. And that just doesn't reflect my experience at all. Personally, I have more fun reading about straight ahead romance than a qpr that hits almost all the same notes, but just doesn't quite go there, that never digs into an aro or ace experience that I recognize, and that is always what I seem to find when I go cruising the tags.

For one thing, QPRs are not just an ace thing, and they definitely don't have to be a sexless thing! You can be aroallo and in a QPR and have sex, or you can be ace and in a QPR and have sex for the sake of your partner, or just for fun! Sex is fun for a lot of ace people, including those in QPRs, and using QPR eternally to mean "sexless" cuts off a large swath of the population that DOES have sex, for whatever reason. And there are tons of ace people who are extremely fine with kissing, including people who are sex adverse, so using a QPR are a shorthand to mean "sexless and also kissless" is only depicting a very narrow slice of the experience.

And QPRs in practice often look very different from romance, including with people who are romance-adverse, and who don't want any of the trappings that normally come with romance (marriage, specific terms like "love" or "darling", metaphors or positioning like "half of my heart" or "soulmate"), and I just never get to see that. A QPR can be two people who sleep in seperate rooms co-parenting a kid! (Or more than two people!) A QPR can be people married together and sharing a bed and holding hands at the movies and calling each other "darling", or it can be people who signed legal paperwork together who call each other "bro", and those are BOTH valid QPRs. But I only ever get to see the one that looks so close to romance that it's alienating to me, while people tell me that I should be happy to be depicted. (I'm not depicted.)

And I'm also frustrated because I have read QPRs that are sharing all the same hallmarks-of-romance-but-no-sex that I would theoretically have a problem with, but they also ring as true to me because people actually talk about what the relationship is and isn't to them, and I go Yes! Not me but I am on a similar wavelength! But so many people just go "QPR" but never unpack the actual ace/aro/aroace experience, so again I'm left with something that is using all the romance and affection tropes that I've come to expect over decades of living in an amonormative society, just slapping a "but it's platonic" on it at the very end. Where's people making assumptions about your relationship that you have to consider whether to correct or not? Where's the inside jokes? Where's the intimacy negotiations and teasing each other about what you want in terms of touch+? Where's the doing life together in a non-romantic way? Where's the epic friendship? Where's the aro experience? (If we're mutuals, you probably write all of these things, and I'm not complaining about you, you're good.)

And it's hard to escape the feeling that at least some of these people are writing QPR because they're afraid of shipping, as I see the tags scroll endlessly by, not because they actually want to depict the a-spec experience.

Some of it is just people not used to writing affection outside of the romance tropes in our society, and some of it is that so many guestures of affection in our society get romance-coded when like, holding hands is not inherently romantic, I know. But sometimes, man, I want to tell people that it's okay to romantically ship, they don't have to keep it platonic, if they're going to write something that is so similar to shipping but has a giant "don't worry, these guys don't fuck" stamped on it.

I don't know, maybe there are even less people like me than I thought. Or maybe the people like me aren't writing fanfiction (lol).

I don't know. QPRs are more varied than they get depicted, and the a-spec experience is special to me and I wish it got written in its diversity. It's frustrating to see only ever one type of QPR, one that is exclusionary to me. I wish I could see the tag and not know exactly what that relationship looked like, or saw something that I felt was strongly influenced by what the characters are, instead of the same sort of sexless romance-lite every time.

#discourse #fandom meta

[racefortheironthrone]

How close an analog do you think Mutants are to minority groups in our own world? Mutation seems to cover a rather broad spectrum of people: you have mutations that are basically disabilities; mutations that aren’t disabling, but set the person apart somehow; mutations that give superpowers, but also carry one or more serious drawbacks; and mutations that give great power without any serious drawbacks, making these Mutants physical gods in all but name. The farther up this spectrum you go, the more the analogy to prejudice in our own world breaks down IMO.

So this is something I've discussed in detail both here and over on Graphic Policy:

As I've said in these writings, the essence of the mutant metaphor is its protean nature - it can serve many allegorical purposes, from civil rights to gay rights to disability politics and beyond, and it's constantly changing to match the times. So I think that's actually one of its strengths, that it's not trying to do a 1:1 for a specific real-world minority experience, because it really couldn't.

That being said, I've never been that impressed by the argument that "The farther up this spectrum you go, the more the analogy to prejudice in our own world breaks down IMO." There isn't a minority group in the history of the world that hasn't somehow been described as having special abilities that make them dangerous to the majority - but the point of the mutant metaphor isn't to explore "what if that particular bigoted fear was right"? (I'm thinking here of something like BLACK by Kwanza Osajyefo, Tim Smith 3, and Jamal Igle, which imagines a world in which only black people can get superpowers and how our society would react to that transformation.)

Rather, and this is what gets into stuff I've linked above about the importance of the mutants being part of the Marvel Universe, the point is that the mutants are not the only people who can be physical gods (think various super-scientists, aliens, actual gods, magicians, or mutates) - but they are the only ones who are hated and feared as a minority group because of that, and that gets at the inherently irrational nature of prejudice.

#xmen #xmen meta #the mutant metaphor #people's history of the marvel universe

[cryoculus]

— thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife ⟢

thoma was taught to only take what’s reasonably given to him. but what if ayato offers something he can’t refuse?

★ FEATURING; kamisato ayato x reader x thoma

★ WORD COUNT; 11.5k words

★ TAGS; established relationship, resolved sexual tension, smut

★ WARNINGS; graphic sexual content (minors dni), consensual? cuckolding?, ayato basically orchestrates his own wife's ntr :/

★ NOTES; this is honestly so so nasty i still shiver a little whenever i read it SJAHSFSDH i hope you enjoy hehehe

★ HEADER ART CR; ashx_sool on twt

★ SMUT TAGS: accidental voyeurism, threesome, masturbation (m), brief m/m action; don't like, don't read, oral (m&f receiving), vaginal fingering, double penetration in one hole, unprotected sex, creampie, praise kink, aftercare

Thoma’s been acting strange lately.

You can’t help but notice that once you started living inside the Kamisato Estate. Of course, you’re no stranger to the four corners of the property – having been betrothed to the Commissioner for a few years now. This means you’ve become quite familiar with the rest of the Kamisato retainers, as well. 

Their chief retainer and housekeeper was always such an unintentional charmer. Thoma was as kind as he was diligent, accomplishing tasks from a broad spectrum of categories. Be it his cover-up job as a fixer in Ritou, being the right-hand man of Kamisato Ayato himself, or his duties as the main housekeeper, Thoma never fails to impress.

You’ve only managed to officially marry into the family two weeks earlier, and the Kamisato clan made you feel nothing short of welcome. Ayato even organized a small banquet on behalf of your marriage, and you couldn’t be happier to start the next phase of your life with him.

But going back to Thoma…

He’s a good friend that you’ve known for years. The blond housekeeper was always there for you in moments when you started to doubt your engagement. Ayato is a busy man, and that’s something you found difficult to fully accept when you were younger. You envied your friends, who didn’t have to share their husbands’ attention with mountains of deskwork. But no matter how childish your rants could be, Thoma would give you the reassurance you needed in a heartbeat.

“Marrying into any Tri-Commission family isn’t easy, miss,” he told you once, flashing you a comforting smile. “But I hope you know that there’s nothing Lord Ayato would want more than to fulfill his obligations both to Inazuma, and to you. ”

Admittedly, if it weren’t for Thoma, your marriage would’ve fallen through before you could even practice for the final rites. It’s a good thing he was such a good mediator that, once he helped Ayato realize he’d been falling behind in his role as your fiancé, you managed to salvage your engagement altogether. 

Long story short, you’re glad to have Thoma around.

So when he starts acting all shifty around you, it rightfully arouses a few questions in your head.

It’s been a week since you moved into the estate. The other retainers treated you the same way they have for years, finding nothing unusual for the Commissioner’s wife to start living in his home. After all, it was an Inazuman custom. Yet the person who you expected to give you the warmest welcome of all turned out to be the most evasive.

Things have been relatively normal during the first few days. Thoma would greet you whenever you passed him in the halls, invite you for strolls on Ayaka’s behalf, and even offer to do your errands in the city. But all of a sudden, he would start steering clear of you for reasons unknown. Thoma always refuses to meet your eyes in the rare chance you could speak to him – replying hurriedly before excusing himself. He doesn’t invite you for strolls, nor does he offer to run errands either. 

If it had been anyone else, you would’ve understood. Retainers always maintained a respectable courtesy for their masters and mistresses – you know this well. But the fact that it’s Thoma who’s suddenly treating you like a stranger makes you a bit…sad.

Ayato notices the shift in your mood right away.

“It’s not like you to brood,” he comments before climbing under the covers with you. “Anything on your mind?”

You manage a soft laugh. “Nothing that you should worry about, my lord.”

Ayato pouts. “I wonder when you’ll grow out of your habit of calling me that.”

“Hehe, maybe in a few years.”

Once both of you have settled underneath the large futon, you find your head pressed firmly against Ayato’s chest. The sound of his heart beating calmly beneath your ear manages to quell your unease somewhat. When you take a long whiff, you catch the faint scent of pearbells on his nightclothes. You sigh – burrowing further into your husband’s embrace.

“Will you answer me this time if I ask again?”

He stares expectantly with an important document he’s reviewing on one hand, while toying with your hair with the other. Ayato doesn’t even have to elaborate; not that you had any intention of hiding it from him any longer.

“Do you think Thoma hates me?” you mumble, shying away from his lilac stare.

Ayato pauses for a moment, as if considering your words, before he sits upright to toss the papers onto the nightstand. You mourn the loss of his touch a little – a pout of your own springing forth on your face. He laughs when he sees it before pressing a fleeting kiss on your lips.

“Now what could’ve given you that idea, darling?”

You heave another sigh, prompting your husband to pull you into a seating position as he settles you on his lap. This position is a bit too…promiscuous than what you’re used to, but when Ayato nuzzles the crook of your neck with his nose, you realize he’s trying to appease you, even just a little.

His affection makes you sigh with contentment. You’re glad that you’re at that phase of your relationship where he can hold you this freely and comfortably. Archons know it wasn’t exactly a smooth start for the both of you when it came to these kinds of things. Ayato is the world-renowned Yashiro Commissioner, so it’s normal for him to be absent. Back then, you dreaded the mere idea of bringing up intimacy with him, out of fear that you’re being too needy.

But you’ve long realized that Ayato is more attentive than you’d otherwise expect.

“I don’t know,” you admit. “It just feels like he’s been avoiding me. Did I do something wrong?”

He hums curiously. “It’s only been a few days, but you’re doing your part as a representative of the Yashiro Commission splendidly. I heard Her Excellency was quite impressed with your plans of expanding cultural relations with other nations.”

“Reviving the Irodori Festival was your idea,” you remind him, cheeks warming at his praise. “All I did was put the plan on the table… B-But that’s besides the point! I was thinking I might’ve done something of a smaller scale that unknowingly offended Thoma.”

“Oh? Do you have any idea what that might be?”

Despite the comforting warmth of his embrace, you turn around to flash Ayato a suspicious look. There it is again – that teasing lilt of his voice, clueing you in that he might know more about your predicament than what he’s letting on. 

“I wouldn’t be lamenting in the first place if I did,” you grumble.

He laughs again, planting a kiss on your cheek as an apology. “Well, if it eases your mind, I’ll be the one to tell you that Thoma isn’t the kind of person who avoids those he has problems with.” 

“Then why…?”

Instead of reassuring you with a direct response, Ayato latches his mouth across the thrum of your pulse, making you squeak in surprise.

“M-My lord –” 

He sighs. “You’re with me right now, yet you continue to worry about other men? My wife is so cruel~”

It was a statement that could have easily been laced with jealousy, but there’s none of that with Ayato. If anything, he spoke the words in that typically sly manner of his – a side of him you’d only gotten intimately acquainted with a few months before your marriage. 

You’re well aware that it’s in your husband’s nature to be more mischievous than most Commissioners, but…

Ayato takes you by surprise again when he turns you around on his lap, forcing you to come face-to-face with his half-lidded gaze. Your chest twists with embarrassment and the inexplicable desire to hide your flustered expression. Despite having shared his bed several times before, it feels like your first all over again whenever Ayato gets in the mood. 

“How about we worry about our favorite retainer in the morning?” he asks slowly, grazing your bottom lip with his thumb. 

Before you can even get a chance to respond, Ayato presses forward and kisses you deeply, hands migrating to the swell of your hips as he holds you in place. In spite of your initial timidness, you respond in kind. You move your lips to the rhythm he’s set like you’ve done so many times before, and you’re reminded of how perfectly in-sync the two of you have always been.

Ayato nudges the lapels of your kimono off your shoulders, exposing your bare breasts to the cool evening air. You don’t try to cover up like you usually would. After all, your husband likes it when you lay yourself bare for him to see.

“Always such a pretty little thing,” he sighs, fingers sliding across the curves of your waist – making you shiver with anticipation. “Someone as beautiful as you doesn’t deserve to stress themself as much as you’re doing right now, darling.”

“Now, won’t you let your husband help get your mind off things?”

His offer makes another wave of embarrassment crash over you. Your duties after marrying into the Yashiro Commission are no laughing matter, but they still pale in comparison to Ayato’s. If there’s anyone in dire need of stress relief between the two of you, it’s most certainly him.

But…

“Ayato,” you whine, tugging at the front of his kimono impatiently. “Don’t tease…”

The Commissioner chuckles, leaning forward to nuzzle his nose against yours. You would’ve fawned at the gesture, if the possessive grip he has on your waist hadn’t gotten tighter.

All those lingering thoughts about Thoma went up in smoke as Ayato shifts on the futon – making you rest comfortably against the headboard as he works his way between your legs. Your husband is a big fan of foreplay, unfortunately. Instead of taking you the moment he feels like it, Ayato enjoys stringing you apart with his bare hands more than the chase that comes with release. His desire to see you squirm lines up perfectly with the version of him that most people find insufferable.

(But it’s also the one you love the most.)

He bunches the hem of your kimono around your waist, peppering your thighs with soft kisses that make your heart flutter. Then, when Ayato drags your underwear down with his teeth, you’re too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

“Ah, ah~ We can’t have that,” he singongs, reaching up to grasp your chin with his fingers. “Come on, darling. Tell me what you’d like me to do with this sinful body of yours.”

The sultry look in Ayato’s eyes makes a wave of heat ripple through your core, but you’re convinced he already knows just how much you actually want him. You let out a shuddering breath once his free hand traces circles on the sensitive flesh of your thighs.

To his surprise, you decide to unfurl the digits curled beneath your face – taking his middle and index into your mouth with a long, seductive lick. A hint of surprise crosses his smug features as you shamelessly lubricate Ayato’s fingers with the heat of your tongue.

“I want you.” You speak the words before lowering his hand, spreading your legs wider. “Ayato, please…”

Your husband shakes his head with a withering smile, sliding the fingers you’d prepared for him so nicely into your sopping entrance. You cry out, completely taken by surprise as Ayato starts lapping at the juices dripping between your thighs.

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to push you over the edge. Even if you hail from one of the many noble families in Inazuma, no amount of etiquette classes can hide how sensitive you can be once you’re under the mercy of Kamisato Ayato. He knows you like it when he pumps his fingers slow and deep while quickly flicking his tongue across your swollen clit as an added stimulus. The squelch of your walls as he eats you out always sounds like music to his ears – much more the wanton moans that spill from your lips. 

Once he gets you mounted on his cock, it’s another story entirely. Your tight cunt always takes him so well – like you were fashioned to be his from the moment you were born. Ayato likes you best when you’re still recovering from an orgasm he’d coaxed with his mouth and fingers alone; when you’re sensitive to the touch, yet receive his advances readily, still. 

Though he hides it well, your husband is quite obsessed with you. From the dignified way you carried yourself in court to your lascivious reception of his touch – he adores each facet that you trusted him enough to show. 

Now, as he watches you bounce on his cock, breathless, and beautiful, and everything he’s ever loved –

It doesn’t surprise him how you’d easily catch the eyes of someone else.

“A-Ayato,” you moan, fingers laced around his neck as you press your forehead against his. “You feel so good… You’re hitting me so deep.”

He chuckles softly, meeting your lips in a tongue-filled kiss. 

“You shouldn’t say such things, darling,” he tells you huskily. “If you don’t want me to ruin you, you’ll avoid stirring me up like that.”

Ayato groans when you bring down your hips with a particularly tantalizing roll. He feels you tightening your walls around his throbbing length, and he nearly loses it right there.

“But I want you to,” you tell him, lips parted as you pinpoint your own orgasm. “I want you to ruin me. Fill me with your cum…”

Archons above, you’re perfect.

Without warning, Ayato flips you back onto the futon, forcing your face onto the pillows as he pounds you from behind. His rough movements make you moan in delight as the head of his cock repeatedly hits a spot inside that makes you see stars. The tight grip he has on your ass is uncharacteristic of the calm and composed Yashiro Commissioner, but Ayato knows you take pride in your ability to make him lose all sense of control. 

He adores seeing you so utterly debauched for him. But as your husband finally spills himself inside of you, feeling your cunt tighten around his length in the height of your orgasm –

Ayato catches the shadows shift beneath the sliding doors.

“I love you,” you whisper breathlessly, turning around to meet his mouth with a sloppy kiss – oblivious to what he just saw.

He forces his lips not to shift into a knowing smirk after his discovery. Instead, Ayato murmurs the same words against the column of your throat as he slowly thrusts his hips – helping you ride out your orgasm. The satisfied purr that resounds deep in your chest lets him know that you’re more or less pleased with his performance, just as you were the other night. 

He wonders if your one-man audience enjoyed the show just like last time, too.

…

Thoma constantly wonders if he has the worst luck or the worst timing or both. 

Living in Inazuma already gave him his fair share of mishaps and misfortunes. But he’s confident to say that once he made a living for himself here in the Kamisato estate, his life had more or less turned for the better. He’s the chief retainer, the Kamisato housekeeper, the –

Scumbag who shamelessly pops a boner for his lord’s wife.

It was an accident, really. A few nights ago, he was supposed to deliver an important document for Ayato to go over, since the concerned party handed it to Thoma later than the prescribed date.

Though he definitely could've waited until morning to give it to him, Ayato once told Thoma that receiving updates for this project in particular was of high priority. Even if it was the dead of night, he’d given his chief retainer permission to disturb him if there was any progress with the paperwork involved.

So, he did! Thoma marched off to Ayato’s quarters with the extremely late document in hand just like he asked. 

But when Thoma raised a hand to knock –

“A-Ayato!”

He feels all his cognitive functions halt for a split second. Thoma has spent years by your side – not as much time as he devoted to the Kamisato siblings, but enough to recognize your voice even if the Commissioner’s name was shaped around…a moan.

That’s the other thing – you never call Ayato by his name. It’s always Lord Kamisato, or my lord, or some other variation. Even if the two of you already tied the knot, Thoma knows that you still hesitate to cross that line despite his lord’s insistence. 

So he can’t blame himself for feeling utterly shocked to hear you make such a lewd sound.

That’s not even the worst part. With how quiet the estate was that night, Thoma can hear the wet slap of skin-on-skin from inside the room – painting all sorts of pictures in his poor mind. The chief retainer is nothing short of courteous, but he was still a man. The moment his imagination conjured images of you intimately entangled with Ayato –

Thoma swiftly headed back to his room before he could finish the thought; even taking a long, cold shower to snap him out of it completely.

He tried to act like nothing happened the next morning – handing the document he was supposed to give to Ayato immediately after breakfast. The Commissioner didn’t seem to notice anything different, so Thoma was convinced he was doing a good job in acting the part. 

But when he crossed paths with you again…

“Thoma,” you greeted him cheerily. “The herbal tea you brought home from Ritou was really good. Lord Kamisato and I had shared a cup before heading to bed last night, and –”

Before doing all sorts of indecent things behind closed doors, you mean?

He nearly slapped himself for thinking such a thing, especially when you were looking up at him with innocent admiration in your eyes. It’s so difficult to imagine that the woman standing in front of him was the same one he heard last night. Even if Thoma wanted nothing more than to pretend like he hadn’t heard anything unusual out of courtesy –

“I-I’m glad you like it, milady,” he coughed out awkwardly, side-stepping you in the hallway. “I’d love to stay a while longer to chat, but Lady Ayaka asked me to do something for her, so…”

Gods. He felt like he committed a crime when the smile fell from your face.

“Oh, I’m sorry for holding you up,” you hastily apologize with a bow. “I’ll see you later then?”

Thoma didn’t answer at the time. But over the next few days, he did get to see you – more often than he would like. 

He was convinced that this was just a passing itch. It’s been a while since Thoma has taken any lovers – not that he had the time to entertain the idea in the first place.

Being the chief retainer to the Yashiro Commission didn’t give him more work per se. It’s Ayato that receives the brunt of it. Thoma’s job was to support him whenever he needed it – which was quite often, if the Commissioner’s tight schedule was anything to go by.

But every time he tried to act like his usual self around you, his brain always seemed to betray him. Images of your innocent face contorted mid-moan would plague his mind, and Thoma had no choice to dismiss himself in the middle of a conversation with you before you noticed the erection straining against his pants.

It’s embarrassing. He felt like a prepubescent teen who’s never had sex in his life. But what made this (hopefully) passing attraction all the more terrible was the fact that you belonged to Ayato, not him. Thoma knew that for a fact, and yet…

Tonight, when he was scheduled to fetch the document he’d given to the Commissioner days prior, Thoma lucked out once again when he walked in on another intimate moment. 

“You feel so good… You’re hitting me so deep.” A soft laugh, underlined by the sound of squelching flesh. 

“You shouldn’t say such things, darling. If you don’t want me to ruin you, you’ll avoid stirring me up like that.”

“But I want you to… I want you to ruin me. Fill me with your cum.”

Thoma’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor as you whined from the other side of the door – the sounds of your lovemaking doing him no favors in keeping his head in the right place. Archons, who knew you could talk like that? Were you the same, clueless woman who constantly questioned her betrothal to Kamisato Ayato?

For a moment, Thoma pictured himself on top of you, prying your legs apart as he eased himself inside your slick entrance. He imagined what you would look like as you begged him to fill you up the same way you did with your husband.

He knew he should’ve bolted back to his own room at the first signs of Ayato being occupied with…something else like last time. But Thoma’s feet were rooted to the spot as he had his fill of the obscene noises coming from inside. 

This was wrong – fucked up in so many levels. If anyone else caught him standing here, listening to his lord have sex with his wife, Thoma wouldn’t be surprised if that alone cost him his job. No matter how distinguished his name was today, some things just couldn’t be forgiven. 

That was all the nudge he needed to walk back to the bath – taking an even longer shower in hopes of cleansing the impure thoughts from his body.

It didn’t work, though. Because as Thoma lays in the solitude of his own room, his cock is painfully hard underneath his own nightclothes. He stares at the ceiling with resentment, wondering why he’s so goddamn pent up, that he’d lust after you despite knowing the consequences. 

A devilish voice in the back of his head insisted that once he’d gotten off once, it would all be over. He’d finally be able to go back to how things were before this unexpected turn of events without fearing for the loss of his livelihood. That’s the only thing that kept his conscience intact as Thoma let a hand slip between his legs – palming his hard length through the fabric.

Just once, he promised to himself. Just once, and never again.

As he undid the rest of his clothes, Thoma hissed once his rough fingers came into contact with his sensitive cock. He screws his eyes shut, gathering the beads of precum glistening across the tip as he lathers his shaft with his own essence. 

Not enough. This isn’t nearly enough lubrication as he needed. 

Shamelessly, the blond sits upright, spitting into his palm before wetting his cock in a more satisfying manner. He groans, wondering if the tight ring of your pussy feels just as warm, and just as wet. Thoma knows better, though, but tells himself that all he deserves is own hand and spit for thinking of you in such a filthy way.

He pictures you with your breasts pressed against his futon – ass mounted high in the air as you present your needy cunt. Imagining you saying his name the same way you said Ayato’s strikes several nerves at once, and Thoma is convinced you might actually make him come in real life only by calling out to him like that. 

Thoma pumps his length in a tight fist faster, breathing erratically as he leans against the wall. He lets himself fantasize how you’d look with his cock between your lips. Would tears glisten in your eyes as he thrusts himself into the heat of your mouth? Knowing how Ayato must’ve trained you, you’re the type to swallow each drop of cum he spills down your throat.

Though the gods might smite him for all these lecherous thoughts, Thoma is in too deep to backtrack now.

Thoma’s golden bangs stick to his forehead with each bated breath. His shoulders heave as he stares down at his swollen member, entertaining the silly thought that he’s forgotten how to masturbate after being occupied with work for so long. But instead of ridiculing himself more than he already has…

His eyes flutter closed as he cooks up another scene entirely. Instead of picturing himself vying for someone else’s wife, Thoma imagines you taking two cocks at the same time.

You’d be so good at it, too – sloppily sucking him off like a woman starved as Ayato pounds your abused cunt. Tears will streak down your face, and he would pull you off his cock to kiss them away. Ayato would then angle his thrusts until he has you crooning both of their names.

It’s pure bliss – he can almost taste it on his tongue. Thoma nearly pops a vein in his arm with how riled up he’s gotten as he inches himself closer and closer to the edge.

The image of your tight pussy stuffed with both of their cocks – his and Ayato’s spend dripping down your thighs as you showed them the most fucked-out look he could picture – is the last straw. The pinnacle of his pent-up fantasies. But as Thoma pumps his load into his own hand to avoid staining the sheets, the chief retainer is quickly roused from his lust-filled haze.

White noise rings in his ears. Thoma doesn’t feel relieved of a burden he’s been carrying for days.

In fact, his guilt only festers.

...

The next day, Thoma finds himself hard at work in the kitchen.

Springtime is easily his favorite season. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom all across Mount Yougou, and he can’t help but feel the uplifting atmosphere that surrounds the estate during this time of the year.

But sometimes, the weather in the mountains can be quite…erratic.

“I really wish I had the ability to make it snow at will,” Ayaka sighs as she fans herself on a nearby counter – bemoaning the sudden rise in temperature just like everyone else Thoma ran into today. “The occasional rainshower, I’d understand, but we rarely get heat waves in the middle of spring. Have you heard anything unusual about it, Thoma?”

He shakes his head apologetically before hefting a box of assorted ingredients into one of the cabinets. “Nothing of the sort. Maybe it’ll be cooler later in the day.”

She falls silent for a few moments, and Thoma chuckles to himself. It’s rare to see Ayaka openly complain about the things that are stressing her out, so –

“Hm, that reminds me… Have you seen Sister today? She promised to look at new kimonos with me in the city tonight, but I was told the Tenryou Commission saddled her with the paperwork for the Irodori Festival.” Ayaka shakes her head. “I wouldn’t put it past her to lock herself up in her study until she’s done.”

If Ayaka notices the way Thoma falters with his near-mechanical way of arranging the pantry, she doesn’t show it. The question isn’t strange, by any means. He’s a Kamisato housekeeper. He should at least have an idea about the whereabouts of the estate’s denizens. But when it’s an inquiry that involves you, Thoma still has some trouble saving face.

“One of the many traits she shares with Lord Ayato,” he says in a last-ditch effort. “Milady has been securing venue permissions in Ritou even before the wedding. I’d say she cares a whole lot about this festival more than she’s letting on.”

“You can say that again.” She lets out another wistful sigh. “I didn’t think I would have to deal with a workaholic sister on top of a brother that doesn’t know when to take breaks. This heat wave isn’t helping either…” All of a sudden, Ayaka perks up from her seat – slapping her fan closed as if having realized something.

“The Hiiragi clan sent us a leftover batch of watermelons this morning, didn’t they?” she asks. “I was wondering why they would have so many this time of year, but maybe it’s a stroke of luck on our part.”

The insinuation makes Thoma swallow thickly. He’s fulfilled enough orders around the estate to know where this is going, but alas, he doesn’t have any reason to refuse. 

“Would you mind slicing a few melons for everyone? I’m sure we’re not the only ones affected by the heat… Oh, I’ll handle the rest, you bring up a few slices for Sister.” Ayaka smiles, completely oblivious to Thoma’s plight. “Sounds like a plan, right?”

That’s how this poor Kamisato housekeeper wound up in front of your study, a plate of fresh watermelons in hand as he wondered how he should face you. Thoma knows you aren’t stupid. You’ve definitely realized that he was avoiding you, but decided to let it slide. Whether or not you knew the reason behind his evasion, he still wasn’t sure, but he damn prayed that you didn’t. 

He internally tells himself to relax, raising a gloved hand to knock on the door. First and foremost, you’re now one of the ladies of the house. Second, you’re his friend. Even if Thoma still feels guilty for making you the subject of his sexual fantasies, he shouldn’t let that get in the way of work. Just sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened – easy as pie.

“Thoma?”

The soft chime of your voice makes his confidence spiral all over again. As Thoma lets himself inside your study, you glance up at him from your low desk with puzzled eyes – setting your brush down on the wooden surface. You were probably in the middle of drafting another correspondence.

“Milady,” he greets as casually as he can, flashing you a gentle smile. “I’ve brought some watermelon slices. The Hiiragi clan sent over a fresh batch, and we figured you’d want some respite from the rise in temperature.”

You’re quiet for a while, as if still coming to terms with the fact that he’s standing there. Thoma wonders what they would think if someone were to walk past your study and witness the awkward silence passing between the two of you. 

Thankfully, before Thoma ends up squirming under your contemplative stare, you beam at him from where you sat.

“That’s a bit much for one person to eat, no?” you tell him, glancing at the plateful of fruit. “How about you help me finish those while you hear out the rest of our plans for the festival?” 

The question rings in his ears for a while, and Thoma’s initial response would’ve been to decline. He doesn’t quite trust himself yet to be around you, even after the... drastic measures he took.

But for someone who always heeds his conscience, Thoma finds it awfully easy to slide the door back in place and keep you company.

…

The heat is absolutely killing you. 

Not only were your compliance deadlines piling up one after the other, but you were starting to sweat through your kimono as well. Isolating yourself inside your study isn’t how you would typically oversee the projects handed to your care. But with all the signatories and corrections you had to go over, you have no choice but to hole yourself up until every page was proofread down to the letter. The experience is twice as worse when you’re stuck inside the stifling heat of your study. 

So when Thoma drops by with some refreshments, you can’t help but convince him to stay despite his obvious avoidance.

Compared to the last couple of days, though, he seems less elusive. Thoma is seated comfortably right across your work table, going over the documents you were compiling as he listens to your rambling. 

Ever since the Raiden Shogun greenlit the Yashiro Commission’s plans for the festival, both you and Ayato have been working around the clock. Your husband delegated himself with the task of inviting guests from other nations, while you coordinated with the local government to make sure everything went smoothly. But even with Ayaka’s advice on the diplomatic side of things, you can’t help but feel…burned out. 

It hasn’t even been a month since you’ve married into the Kamisato clan, but whatever assumptions you had about their work all went up in smoke. Overseeing the cultural machinations of Inazuma is twice as difficult as you thought it would be. Even with your own experience, you couldn’t fathom how Ayato must’ve handled things when he was the only one managing the political affairs of the Yashiro Commission.

These days, you only ever see him during the evening – just when the two of you are about to sleep. While last night’s…escapade certainly left you flustered, you were back in business come morning, much to your dismay. 

But right now, your exhaustion has partially been stemmed by the company of your good friend, Thoma, who tells you:

“Aren’t you being too meticulous about this, milady?” 

He posits the question as he hands you a slice of watermelon – one that you absentmindedly accept as you process his words. “I was told that, when it comes to politics, one can’t be ‘too meticulous’.” 

“Forgive me. I meant to say you might be holding yourself to an unfair standard,” he clarifies with a worried look. “Lord Ayato also has these moments of perfectionism. He once told me to hold him back if the effort he’s exerting unreasonably outweighs his well-being, so I’m a bit inclined to do the same for you. We can’t have the newest member of the clan collapsing due to work-related stress, you know.”

Thoma told you all that in a somewhat scolding tone – one that reminds you of your mother back home. The thought makes you chuckle as you finally allow yourself a bite from the fruit in your hands.

“...This is pretty good,” you comment, chewing thoughtfully as you flash Thoma an impressed look. “Aren’t watermelons out of season in the spring?” 

“Heat waves are also out of season in the spring, but here we are.” He laughs, organizing the papers on your desk as you help yourself to a quick snack. “It’s kind of stuffy in here, though. Would you like me to open the windows, milady?”

You cuss silently when you feel the watermelon juice dripping down your fingers and onto your chest. The thought that Thoma is right there, bearing witness to your messy eating habits is a bit embarrassing, but you’d take that over his avoidance any day. 

“No, it’s alright,” you reply as you attempt to keep the papers on your desk free from stains. “I get distracted when I hear the noise outside, so I’ve been putting up with the heat all this time… But since I’m pretty much on break, I guess it’s fine.” 

Thoma doesn’t reply, but you don’t think much of his silence. Not when you’re busy trying (and failing) to consume watermelon like a normal human being.

Realizing that eating in front of your desk is not the way to do things, you place your half-eaten slice back on the plate to grab a towel inside a nearby drawer. Gods, your bangs are starting to stick to your forehead with how sweaty you are, too.

Dabbing the fruit juices and the sweat on your skin makes you feel like you deserve a long, cold shower. But with how much you have left to do, you might as well save it for last. Besides, Thoma’s company is enough to dispel the stress that’s been accumulating over the past few days. 

But when your eyes rivet back to him, you realize he’s staring at you rather…intently.

…

Thoma is, for lack of a better word, fucked.

Bringing you the Hiiragi clan’s watermelons isn’t as dreadful as he initially thought. He assumed you’d interrogate him about his behavior now that the two of you were alone, but you merely sat down and shared your current progress with putting the Irodori Festival into motion. The gesture brought him back to the time when you were still Ayato’s fiancée, so unsure whether Her Excellency was even going to approve of your initial plans. The sense of familiarity feels undeserved, but Thoma basked in it nonetheless.

He slowly eased into giving you some advice you needed to hear, too – making him think that he was finally able to forget about that indescribable itch he had last night. His gut was right. Getting off once really did help in –

Wrong.

Things were going so smoothly. Thoma was so sure he’d finally be able to look you in the eye without feeling ashamed of himself anymore.

But then you started eating the food he brought.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing! What’s wrong is the fact that his green eyes are riveted on the way the watermelon’s juices slide down your chest – disappearing into the conspicuous cleavage of your breasts. 

Now that he’s painfully aware, Thoma realizes that the lapels of your kimono are nudged somewhat wider today. Probably because of the heat. But he didn’t even notice you wearing it any differently until his brain decided to point it out, and now he can’t bring himself to peel his gaze away. 

His throat bobs as you try to lick the juices off your fingers, praying to all seven archons to help him keep his non-existent virtue. If this happened before his unintentional voyeur session, he would’ve found it amusing to know that nobles like you could be messy eaters, too. But since he lives in a world where the universe is out for blood, all he gets is a poorly timed erection in the middle of a sweltering afternoon. 

Thoma only realizes he spaced out when you call out his name. 

“Are you alright?” you ask, readjusting your clothes as you sling a small towel over your shoulder. “Don’t tell me the heat’s getting to you, too.”

It would’ve been better if the reason was as simple as that. But the longer Thoma lets himself stare at your curious yet worried expression, the more the guilt eats at his heart. 

“I just remembered I need to pick-up a fan Lady Ayaka commissioned in the city,” he lies, a poignant smile gracing his lips. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, milady.”

“Hey, Thoma – !”

Not waiting for you to speak any further, the chief retainer sees himself out of your study – shutting the door behind him with more force than needed. He tilts his head up to the ceiling with a withering sigh. The moment he closes his eyes, all he sees is the curve of your supple breasts, peeking from the window of skin from your kimono, as if inviting him to come closer.

This isn’t normal, Thoma finally acknowledges. I think I need to see a healer.

Before heading down to the foyer, where the other retainers ate their watermelon slices, Thoma readjusts the apron tied around his waist. Not too loose that it would slip off if he was careless, but not too tight that people could make out the contour of something hard and prominent between his legs.

In an act of wayward penitence, Thoma doesn’t relieve himself for the entire day. Maybe a little punishment would help him get over these lecherous thoughts.

Little does he know, what awaits him further down the road is far from punishment.

...

There are a handful of things you could’ve said the moment Ayato steps inside your shared bedroom come nightfall. Welcome home or I missed you would’ve been your top contenders. But instead of greeting him like any doting wife should –

“He’s definitely avoiding me!” you sulk, sinking into your husband’s arms with a pout. “I thought we were on good terms now, but Thoma’s being elusive again.”

Ayato hums with an amused smile on his face. He undoes the straps of his shoulder guards without breaking free from your embrace, planting a soft kiss on your forehead. The sweet gesture makes you flush – slightly ashamed at your sudden outburst.

“Your husband comes home after a long day chock full of meetings, and that’s the first thing you say to him?” he chuckles.

You sigh, breathing in the scent of his coat as you meet his gaze. “I’m sorry… I just – I don’t like feeling as if I’ve slighted him when I’m not doing anything wrong. Today, he even sat down with me in my study while we ate watermelon slices, and – Why are you looking at me like that?” 

Your eyes narrow once the grin on Ayato’s face curls a bit mischievously. You’ve been with him long enough to recognize his many misleading expressions, so you know a scheming Yashiro Commissioner when you see it.

“We’ve both had our hands tied for the past few days, but…” He trails off before caressing your face tenderly. Despite his obvious plotting, you can’t help but lean into his touch. “How about I help you get to the bottom of this, hm? I can’t sleep at night, knowing my wife harbors all these troubles in her head.”

You stare at him suspiciously. “You’ll help me even if it’s because of another man?”

“You speak of Thoma like he’s your paramour and not our long-time friend,” Ayato laughs again, and you feel your face warm with embarrassment. “Don’t worry. I’ve just finished drafting the invitation letters for all the special guests we’ll invite to the festival. I have a lot of free time on my hands now, actually.”

“Okay,” you play along. Despite your skepticism, you know Ayato would never put you in harm’s way. “How do you plan on ‘getting to the bottom of it’ then?” 

“Hehe, well...” 

You shouldn’t find it so endearing when his lilac eyes twinkle with anticipation – like he has a secret he longs to tell. But then again, one of the reasons you fell in love with Ayato is because there was simply never a dull moment with him. Times you can spend with the man behind the mantle of Yashiro Commissioner are few and far in between, especially with all the festival preparations in play.

What sort of fool would you be if you didn’t take his offer?

…

On the day before the Irodori Festival,  Ayato orders Thoma to drop by his bedroom before retiring for the night.

While he still has reservations about doing so, Thoma is sure he’s done a healthy amount of self-reflection over the past few days. Once he’s done his share of the preparations, the chief retainer would always make the trip to the Grand Narukami Shrine, offering prayers of absolution to the gods who dare listen to his pleas. It seems to work though, because even if he’s still wary of being around you, he’s no longer plagued with unsavory thoughts. 

The shrine maiden handing out fortune slips seems to be in a better mood as of late, too – entertaining him with small talk before handing Thoma the day’s fortune. 

So when he marches to his lord’s quarters that night – fully aware that he drew a Great Fortune slip today – Thoma doesn’t feel the slightest bit anxious. He repented for his sins and focused his attention on the Irodori Festival instead. The gods must be looking down favorably at him now. 

Right?

He ambles by the hallway in front of Ayato’s bedroom, not hesitating to bring a closed fist against the door. Thoma vaguely hears snippets of conversation inside, but the words are too hushed for him to make out.

“Thoma? Is that you?” Ayato asks aloud.

“Yes, my lord,” he responds in kind. “Did you need anything?”

The other side falls silent for a while, and Thoma strains his ears for any sort of noise to no avail. This late at night, you should probably be inside the room as well. But what could Ayato possibly –

“Come in for a while.” 

He looks around for a while, checking if there’s anyone else in the vicinity. Even if Thoma knows he probably has nothing to worry about, there’s still an inkling of self-consciousness that lingers in his chest. As if the sight of him stepping inside the room Ayato shared with you is a grave sin. But he reminds himself that, as long as he kept a pure and positive outlook on things, he wouldn’t be forced into awry situations.

All his efforts at keeping a clean conscience, though, are all for naught.

…

While Ayato has a way with getting things done in the most unorthodox ways, proposing a threeway is the last thing you thought he would cook up. You thought he was joking at first, but when you questioned the sincerity of his request, your husband flashed you a sulking look.

“As your husband, I have a duty not only to support you in all your endeavors, but to also make sure you live a happy, married life by my side,” he told you. “However, I also have duties as the Yashiro Commissioner.”

You stared at him, perplexed. “What does that have anything to do with having a threeway?” 

“Why, it has everything to do with it,” Ayato chuckled before placing a soft kiss on your forehead. “When one of my most trusted retainers is visibly tormented by…his untimely attraction for my wife, I should probably help him out, no?” 

Despite doing your best to hide your mortified reaction, you were sure Ayato could sense it either way. Who could blame you, though? You’ve heard rumors about this-and-that’s marriage falling through because of unsuspecting third parties. Your husband is completely aware that Thoma could be…vying for you, as well. But instead of taking action against him, he’s asking you if you want to sleep with him?

“Of course, the last thing I wish to do is force you into something you don’t want,” Ayato reassured. “We can both take Thoma’s secret to the grave, and let things run its natural course. He’s a smart man. He won’t let the temptations of the flesh cloud his judgment so easily. In a few months, he could dismiss this all as a fever dream and nothing else.”

“...Or, we can let him experience what he’s missing out on.”

You hesitated, still reeling from the fact that the poor chief retainer himself had heard you getting fucked to an inch of your life, not once, but twice. No wonder Ayato seemed rather distracted during those nights, despite the vigorous attention he paid to your body. 

The moral choice was, of course, to decline. Not only will you jeopardize Ayato’s reputation by agreeing to have Thoma as your lover, but you’ll compromise your own principles as well. You were raised not only to be a formidable leader, but also a faithful partner. Giving in to these subtle curiosities might cost you everything you’ve been working so hard for.

But as you watched the way Ayato smiled at you encouragingly – the beauty mark below his lip further accentuating his features – you’re reminded that being married to him wasn’t the same as being married to any other man.

You’d be lying if you said that knowing Thoma was attracted to you didn’t send a rush of conceit straight through your skull. Under all the layers of propriety, you knew you were quite the wicked soul at heart. 

Besides, you were crazy enough to get hitched with Kamisato Ayato, of all people.

You couldn’t fathom how he must’ve planned all this on top of his responsibilities for the festival. You barely had any time yourself once the venue preparations were underway. But your husband, ever the efficient schemer, scheduled the fateful encounter on the night before the celebration.

The moment Thoma steps inside the room, Ayato curls his fingers inside you with startling precision – ripping a moan from your lips as your eyes lock with your unknowing guest. Thoma’s emerald gaze widens with equal parts surprise and disbelief, and for a moment, you mirror the same expression. 

After all, no amount of planning could prepare you for what your husband has in store tonight.

“We’ve been waiting for you all night.,” Ayato chuckles, trailing his lips across the sensitive skin of your thighs. “I can hardly count how many times I’ve made her come, but at least the guest of honor is finally here.”

Thoma at least has the decency to shut the door behind him to keep any prying eyes out. Despite the fact that you’re still sensitive from Ayato’s godly oral, you can’t help the heat that boils beneath your skin once more as Thoma’s eyes rake over your bare form.

“M-My lord, has there been some sort of mistake?” he stammers. “I think I should see myself out –”

“You’re the one I ordered to come here at midnight, yes?” your husband sighs, rising from the nest he’s made of your thighs before passively teasing your entrance with gloved hands. “Now, would you like to sit back and watch or do you prefer being the one who directs the show?”

You whine as Ayato slides his fingers inside you once again – the feeling of leather brushing against your sensitive walls a foreign but welcome sensation. He teased you about it when he was still preparing you for the show, but you’re afraid that getting fingerfucked with his gloves on is going to be a staple from here on out.

Speaking of staples…

The internal conflict is pitifully evident on Thoma’s face. You can tell that his desire to partake in all this debauchery and his honor as the clan’s chief retainer are warring inside his head. 

“Thoma,” you call out, voice hoarse with need as you nudge your legs wider – displaying your slick entrance for him to see. 

“I want you.” 

Ayato chuckles as he surrenders his grip on your thighs. When you whimper from the loss of his touch, he consoles you with a soft kiss on your lips. 

“My wife wants you, Thoma,” he says brazenly. “Aren’t you going to give her what she desires?”

As Ayato teases your sensitive spots to keep you constantly wanting, you’re vaguely aware of how long it’s taking Thoma to give him an answer. For a moment, you fear that his rationality would win in the end, and he’d leave you high and dry without saying a word. 

But, tentatively, Thoma says:

“I’d like to watch first, my lord.”

Your husband’s mouth twitches into a no-good smile as he picks you up in one swift motion. This catches you by surprise for a moment, but you offer no complaints as he seats himself on his reading chair, and eases you on top of his lap. You feel lewd like this – back turned to Ayato as you spread your legs for another man’s appraisal. 

“Always so attentive,” Ayato comments, and you don’t know if he’s speaking to you or Thoma. His gloved hands massage idle shapes onto your thighs, and you can’t help but squirm underneath his touch. “Well, firstly, you won’t have to worry about finding out what feels good for my darling wife. She’s always so sensitive everywhere you touch her.”

As if to prove his point, Ayato grazes his teeth against the cut of your jaw – making a shiver rack through your whole body as your hips buck in the air. “See?”

“Ayato,” you whine, guiding his hands to your center. 

“Ah, she doesn’t like it when you tease too much. Unfortunately for her, I’m the one she chose as a regular bedfellow,” he laughs, cooing at you like a master to his pet as he lathers his fingers with your dripping essence. “That makes me wonder if you could offer her a better experience.”

Thoma, who still hasn’t moved from where he stood, gulps nervously. “I wouldn’t dare impose, my lord.”

“Oh, but we’d greatly appreciate it if you did.” Ayato casts him another misplaced grin, finally easing his thick digits into your heat as you rest your head on his shoulder. “How many fingers do you want, darling?”

In a delirious haze, you sigh, “All of them.”

“How greedy. You might as well just ask for my cock then.” He tuts. “But I could’ve sworn you came faster when I played with you like this.”

Your reaction is immediate when Ayato uses his free hand to rub tight circles around your clit – timing each movement with the squelch of his fingers inside your pussy. His hot breath ghosts against your ear, and you can feel the outline of his clothed erection against your ass. The fact that Thoma is watching all this unfold silently but with his own brand of hunger stimulates you in more ways than one.

“Oh? She tightened up just now,” your husband chuckles, taking out the fingers buried inside your cunt to bring them to your lips. “You like it when Thoma watches, don’t you, love?” 

You take the leather of his gloves inside your mouth without another word – tasting yourself on his fingers without much heed for decorum. Ayato never halts his ministrations against that sensitive bud, and you moan around his digits as he slowly builds you up to another orgasm.

“Thoma,” you whisper. “Please…”

This time, he doesn’t hesitate. 

The blond kneels before you like a devoted believer at the foot of the Shogun’s statue. You can sense the hesitation in his touch, still, when his warm, large hands slide across your thighs. As your husband continues his endless onslaught on your poor, abused clit, Thoma removes his own gloves – experimentally easing a finger into the tight ring of your cunt as those bright green eyes meet yours halfway.

It’s a good thing Ayato’s fingers are keeping you from moaning too loudly. Something about the way Thoma stares at you between your thighs has your toes curling with pleasure. 

With the chief retainer’s presence, Ayato elects to shift both of his hands on the spill of your breasts instead – sticky fingers kneading your flesh as Thoma eases another finger inside you.

“She’s so wet,” he says, almost disbelievingly.

“That’s all because of you,” Ayato chuckles before sucking another love bite on the side of your neck. When he rolls your nipples between his fingers, your walls unexpectedly clamp down on Thoma’s intrusive fingers once more. “She’s quite the vixen, isn’t she? A goddess you can’t help but worship. Oh, but she’s been working so hard these days. This warrants our undivided attention, doesn’t it?”

Thoma nods absentmindedly, pulling out his fingers, much to your disappointment. He’s still staring at your pussy like it’s a myth he’s come to confirm with his own two eyes. You’re about to dish out some teasing remark about it, but when he hoists your legs over his shoulders, the words die in your throat.

He’s unexpectedly talented with his mouth – alternating between dipping his tongue into your swollen entrance and licking swift patterns across your clit. Your fingers migrate to his hair, tugging at the golden tufts. You can hear Ayato make a satisfied sound behind you, but all you can think about is the sensation of Thoma tracing lines of poetry between your thighs.

“My, you’re enjoying yourself quite a lot, hm?” Ayato whispers in your ear, turning your head to the side to meet his lips in a hurried kiss. You never once pictured yourself in this situation – seated on your husband’s lap as another man fucks you with his tongue. Saying that you’re enjoying yourself is an understatement.

“I’m close,” you admit – murmuring the words against his mouth as you feel Thoma’s grip on your thighs tighten. “A-Ayato, I’m so close…”

Your husband breathes out a soft laugh. “You hear that, Thoma?”

“Yes,” he sighs, and you realize he’s already hauled his own cock out of the confines of his pants, fisting his engorged length as he brought you the pinnacle. The sight is nothing short of erotic, and once Thoma makes another pass on your oversensitive clit, you’re gone.

The waves of your climax hit you like a storm – making you convulse on Ayato’s lap as Thoma helps you ride it out. Your husband silences your moans with his lips once again and for once, you wonder if this is what heaven feels like.

When you come to your senses again, still boneless from your orgasm, you realize you’re now lying on the futon. In front of you, the two men strip themselves of their garments, making the heat rise to your cheeks at the idea that you really were going to push through with this.

“As much as I’d like to sit down and watch you fuck my wife with something else, I’m feeling quite famished myself,” Ayato admits once the last of his clothes falls to the floor. “Thoma, would you be a dear and grab the bottle inside the nightstand?”

The orders make you raise an eyebrow in question, but Thoma follows them wordlessly – procuring a small, glass bottle with a transparent liquid inside. You hate how you immediately recognize what it is.

Ayato leans closer to you once he retrieves the lubricant from Thoma’s grasp before caressing your cheek tenderly.

“Are you alright?” he murmurs, and you nod slowly. “Good. You should rest for a moment before we move on to the next.”

You pout. “But –”

“No buts,” your husband scolds, unscrewing the lid on the bottle before rising back to his feet. “Thoma over here deserves a reward, don’t you think? He’s been so good for you – making you come with his mouth and fingers alone.”

With each word that Ayato utters, the closer he draws to his chief retainer. Thoma, who’s standing there only in his underwear flushes at the praise, and you can only watch in quiet fascination as Ayato ghosts his lips across Thoma’s face. 

“Despite how I might look, I’m actually a greedy man,” your husband admits, lathering his palm with a copious amount of lubricant. “I don’t just share what belongs to me to anyone else. You’re quite the special case, Thoma. I’d trust you with my entire life…so it’s only fair for me to trust you with my wife’s satisfaction as well.”

Thoma doesn’t even flinch when Ayato takes out his cock – lathering the retainer’s length with the fluid on his fingers. He accepts his lord’s advances still, when Ayato captures his mouth in a sloppy kiss. The sight of your husband lubing up another man’s cock would’ve never crossed your mind, but as Thoma pants against the crook of Ayato’s neck, you find yourself squeezing your thighs to abate the stemming arousal.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?” Ayato asks. “The real thing is much better than simply taking care of it alone in your bedroom… Oh, but she looks ready to go, as well.”

You feel your skin prickle under the heat of both their stares – familiar lilac and intense emerald. Ayato chuckles before planting one last peck on Thoma’s lips, crawling towards you on the bed with heady anticipation.

“Having her take both of us at the same time is going to be a bit of a pickle,” he admits, resuming the position you were in on his reading chair, with him behind you and Thoma in front. “We’ve already loosened her up, but it might not be enough.”

Thoma nods in understanding, easing himself before you with a shy look. “I don’t want to hurt you either, milady.”

You sigh before pulling him in for a kiss.

It’s ironic, really – how Thoma got up close and personal with your cunt before getting to kiss you properly. The taste of you still lingers on his lips, making you curl your fingers around his messy blond hair to deepen your union. A low groan rumbles in the chief retainer’s chest, and you almost get carried away if it weren’t for the feeling of something hard prodding your entrance. 

“Oh, don’t stop on my account,” Ayato sighs – angling his hips before bottoming out with one languid push. “We’re just getting started, after all.”

This blindsides you for a moment, making you moan against Thoma’s mouth as Ayato does a few experimental thrusts. Despite the odd angle, you can feel the head of his cock brushing the sensitive sponge of flesh inside you. You couldn’t help but fear the loss of your sanity once Thoma manages to ease his cock alongside Ayato’s. One is enough to make you lose your mind, what more two?

Your brief contemplation is derailed by the sensation of Thoma easing a single finger into your stuffed cunt – one he lathered with Ayato’s lubricant as he thrusts in time with your husband. The intrusion is a little uncomfortable, but the longer Thoma loosens you up, the easier it is to get used to it. It doesn’t take long before he’s able to slide three fingers inside you, along with Ayato’s impressive girth. By the time the blond deems you sufficiently prepared, you’re already babbling his name like a string of prayers.

“Thoma… Please, please,” you whimper, embracing him as if your life depended on getting split open on his and Ayato’s cocks. “I can’t wait anymore.”

“I hope your stamina in bed is just as good as your stamina on the job,” Ayato quips breathlessly behind you, slowing his own movements to accommodate Thoma. “As you can see, she’s quite the nymphomaniac.”

Normally, you would’ve shot him a dirty look for saying such a thing, but then again, Ayato only told him the truth. Maybe it was from all the stress that’s been accumulating over the past month. Maybe you’ve secretly wanted Thoma all this time, too. But whatever the reason might be, all you know is that you need to be filled by both of them. Now. 

Your desperation for release takes form in the crystalline tears that roll down your cheeks. Thoma sighs, leaning down to kiss them away as he lines his lubed-up cock with your entrance. 

“You’re too beautiful to cry, milady,” he whispers almost reverently, and your heart soars. “Forgive me for bringing you to tears.”

Finally, finally, he breaches your pussy with slow yet firm movements. You have to bite Thoma’s shoulder to keep yourself from crying out and awaking the entire estate. Each inch of his length stretches you out far more than what you’re used to, but despite the unfamiliar burn of their intrusion, you force yourself to take these two men like you were made to be their cocksleeve and none else.

“You’re doing so well for us.” Ayato’s voice is a husky drawl in your ear, taking the lobe between his teeth. “Thoma’s right – you’re too beautiful to cry. But that’s what taking two cocks at the same time does to you, isn’t it?”

Thoma heaves a long breath when he finally bottoms out inside – making you feel how their members throb inside you. You’re convinced that you passed out for a few seconds, but Thoma brings your consciousness back to life with a kiss.

“Don’t fall asleep on us now,” he whispers, and for the first time, you spot a ravenous glint in his usually bright eyes.

You wonder if they talked about this without your knowledge beforehand. Because when Ayato and Thoma start pounding into you, they’re in such perfect sync, that it’s hard to think they hadn’t colluded. 

You can barely make a sound as the sensations overload your senses – pleasure rolling off your nerves in infinite waves as their cockheads kiss your cervix in tandem with the other. You’re so embarrassingly wet, whether it’s because of the lubricant or your own degenerate arousal, you don’t even know anymore. 

When Thoma mends your mouths together in another kiss, he plants a quiet apology across your lips. You don’t know what it’s for, but it tastes sweet on your tongue – a needed distraction from the stretch of being loved by two men at the same time.

You vaguely feel Ayato tug at your hair before he mirrors the same gesture, tongue invading the cavern of your mouth the same way his cock makes a mess of your cunt. Thoma doesn’t spare you the reverie either, and you moan in delight as he takes a pert nipple between his lips. 

“What an insatiable woman you are,” your husband huffs, grabbing fistfuls of your ass as he amps up the pace. “You’re clamping down on us so tight. It’s almost like you don’t want us to leave.”

Above you, Thoma lets out a breathless laugh. “Do you like it when we fuck you both at the same time, milady?”

The sound of the polite chief retainer talking so filthily sends a thrill through your core. You don’t answer aloud – not trusting your voice to carry a sufficient message. But you also fear that you won’t be satisfied with just having one or the other. 

It has to be both.

Inside you, their cocks rub against the other relentlessly, bringing you closer and closer to a pinnacle you never once thought of reaching. Ayato continues to murmur those sweet and filthy nothings into your ear as Thoma ferociously leaves his mark on your chest – a reminder of this fateful night. 

Your orgasm crests earlier than theirs – walls tightening even more against their thick members. Thoma latches his lips onto your neck as he slows his pace, and Ayato rubs your oversensitive clit to help you get off. 

You can vaguely feel Thoma’s cock twitch inside you, and he swears colorfully under his breath. But instead of letting himself go, he seemingly stares at Ayato for permission.

“She loves it when you finish inside her,” your husband chuckles – his own pace growing erratic with need. “Go on. Fill her up. Have her dripping with you for days.”

That’s all the push he needs until you feel a rush of warmth envelop the velvet heat of your pussy – filling you into overflowing as Thoma lets out a shuddering moan. Ayato isn’t far behind as you feel spurts of his cum coat your insides, mixing with Thoma’s spend in the most debauched way possible. 

You lay in between these two men for a while longer, reining your thoughts into a single place. The heat of their bodies, no matter how sweaty, makes you feel safe; secure. There’s nothing more that you want apart from laying here with them forever. 

But Thoma, ever-so quick to recover, pulls himself out – making you bleat like a lamb from the loss of his heat. 

“No…” you nearly sob, watching as their mixed essence trickles out of your gaping pussy. 

The chief retainer’s face is as red as his vision. You know that look. That’s the look Thoma always gives you when he’s ready to skitter away and avoid you.

Fortunately, Ayato notices the same thing.

“Why don’t you sleep here tonight, Thoma?” your husband offers with a sordid smile. “Who knows what rumors would circulate around the estate if someone catches you leaving our room in the dead of night.”

“I-I’m sorry?” Thoma asks, blinking in disbelief. 

He laughs, easing his own member slowly outside as he cradles you gently in his arms. You can’t even protest this time, now that the fatigue is starting to catch up to you. “You heard me. Besides, I might need some help taking care of this one. She’s a bit over the moon every time we have sex.”

“My mind is still intact, my lord,” you huff, but in spite of the teasing lilt of his words, you curl around Ayato’s embrace nonetheless. Still, you manage to look Thoma in the eye even after the lustful haze has dissipated.

“You’ll stay with us, won’t you?” 

The aftercare that Ayato provides you with is nothing short of endearing, but having two men fuss over you in the middle of the night is downright spoiling you. Once Thoma has helped clean you up, your husband makes enough room for three on your shared futon. No words are exchanged during the interim, but you feel the weight of their affection with each lingering touch, no less.

When you’re back in your rightful place between these two men, you wonder if this is going to be a one-time thing. Archons know you can’t just go back to the way things were – not when Thoma has littered your body with the marks of his teeth. 

Not when you and Ayato realize there’s room in your marriage for one more person.

“Thoma, how about I entrust you with an important task?”

Your husband utters the words when you’re on the brink of sleep. You barely catch them, but you cling to your remaining wisps of consciousness as you listen to what else they have to say. 

“What is it?” Thoma murmurs softly.

Ayato laughs, low and steady. “We both know my job as the Yashiro Commissioner often keeps me away when all I really want is to be at home with my wife and family. 

“In my absence, I trust you to keep her…satisfied. Am I making myself clear?”

You feel Thoma shift beside you, a large hand resting on the curve of your hip as if giving Ayato a wordless answer. When his hot breath ghosts the crook of your neck, you shudder in anticipation.

“Yes, my lord.”

★ MASTERLIST . AO3 ★

© cryoculus | kaientai ✧ all rights reserved. do not repost or translate my work on other platforms.

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin smut #thoma smut #kamisato ayato smut #genshin fanfiction #genshin scenarios #thoma scenarios #kamisato ayato scenarios #genshin headcanons #cryoculus

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: Microlabels

Almost ten years ago, when I first told someone who loved me that I was demisexual, he replied, “Do we really need all these labels?”

I don’t remember what I said back then, but my answer now is, ���Well, I don’t know about we, but I need this one.”

Labels are the words we use to describe the world around us and our experience within it. Language is full of labels. Our earliest language-learning activities include sorting things into categories. This is the red block; this is the yellow block. Elephants and giraffes are zoo animals; horses and cows are farm animals; cats and dogs are pets. Toothbrushes and toothpaste are bathroom objects; forks and knives are kitchen objects.

Some of these distinctions are more important than others. It doesn’t really matter if you build a tower of red blocks or yellow blocks. However, leaving a knife in the bathroom is a bad idea, and so is attempting to keep an elephant in your house (not that I haven’t been tempted to try). You’ll also find that not all categories are universal. Is octopus an edible animal? Depends where you go in the world and who you ask!

The point is, it’s natural to use labels to define our place in the world and how we interact with it. I call myself a writer because I am someone who writes; this is important to me. Calling myself a writer explains something about who I am. It makes it easier for me to apply for writing jobs. When I hear other people call themselves writers, I know that we have something in common that we can connect over. I know that these are people I might be able to talk with or who might be interested in having write-ins or book clubs with me. In this way, labels help us find and create community.

Now, “writer” is a pretty broad category, so our experiences won’t be exactly the same. However, I can use a more specific label. I can call myself a fantasy fiction writer, a poetry writer, or a themed entertainment show writer, which helps me find people who identify with those more specific labels and have even more in common with me.

People who are not writers and are not interested in finding other writers don’t need the word “writer.” It doesn’t help them as much as it helps me. It’s not their label.

Demisexual is an asexual spectrum microlabel. Asexual describes someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction. It’s a broad label that covers a variety of experiences. Demisexual describes someone who only experiences sexual attraction towards someone after forming an emotional bond with them.

Before I read the word “demisexual” about ten years ago, I didn’t know that there were other people like me. I thought that there was something wrong with how I experienced attraction towards others. Knowing that there was a label not only made it possible for me to understand that there were other people like me, but also made it possible for me to find them and find community with them. Having words like ace and demi in my vocabulary make it easier for me to explain my experience to other people. People who aren’t demisexual don’t necessarily need this word. But I do.

When you hear a microlabel for the first time, especially if it’s one you do not identify with, it’s easy to dismiss it. It’s easy to think, “That’s not really a thing,” or, “Do we really need a word for that?”

The answer is, “Maybe you don’t need that word, since it doesn’t describe your experience, and that’s okay. But clearly someone needs it. We all have the right to put our experiences into words. We all deserve the chance to know that we are not broken and to find other people who are like us.”

#thursday thoughts #writing #writer #writblr #asexual #asexuality #acespec #demisexual #ace #demi #microlabels #queer #lgbtqiaplus #2slgbtqia+

[onesidedradiostatic]

i like the pan-demi-ro val hc! i also like the idea of aroace velvette

because the idea of vox UNKNOWINGLY being like “there’s an empty slot in my team 🥺 i don’t know why it’s labeled with the aroace flag 🥺🥺”

… velvette (who would know about alastor’s aroaceness via aroace telepathy) jokingly saying that she’s alastors replacement and vox misses the pun like “no one could ever replace himmmm” (val in the corner like “vel don’t insult yourself like that”)

the vees covering as broad a spectrum as possible, for max customer reach

(reference to this post)

oh my god I had this in my drafts for a good while sorry sometimes this happens and I forget to finish forming my answer to asks

HELP LMAOSKGOHSFOGM I'm pretty flexible with velvette sexuality hcs only cause I generally don't even have a set one just that she's definitely queer. yes aroace telepathy is definitely a thing that exists no question. skkdkf with aroace velvette, if you subscribe to alloacespec vox this literally means the vees cover 3 types of aspecs which is incredibly funny. they also still manage to be aphobic btw.

#ask #osrs.txt #hazbin vox #hazbin hotel vox #vox #hazbin velvette #hazbin hotel velvette #velvette #hazbin valentino #hazbin hotel valentino #valentino #the vees

[soundprooft-visualz]

Humans are Space Orcs: Snipers

“I’m willing to put money on the fact you miserable fucks thought you got us all. No matter what records you dig through, what you look at, how hard you search, you won’t find us all.”

The communications relay post was a hive of activity as the first human voice crackled across a broad spectrum of wavelengths, completely flooding all lines of communication and making any kind of signals impossible to get out clearly. 

“See, what you fail to underestimate is the depth of human tenacity. I figure before I set to work, I can tell you what it is I’ve been up to these last few years. I’ve been in a cave.”

The officers scrambled to activate outdated technology that the human may have overlooked, but when the radio turned on it screeched an awful, high pitched noise before it synced up with the other devices emitting the low, gruff voice. 

“I’ve been eating bugs. Drinking water that dripped off the roof. Once in a while, when things got scarce, I’d head out for a day. But never longer. Didn’t want to risk your little drones spotting me. Been putting together a little something for you all to think about. You fought our armies, our units, our revolutionaries. You can find them, they’ll show themselves easy enough.”

The officers couldn’t do anything but sit and listen, pincers clacking nervously. 

“Finding one man is different. I am different, and I have decided that only one of you needs to survive for me to get my message out. Humanity is still here. We’re coming for you. ALL of you.”

The signal faded away to silence. A moment later there was the crackly sound of an exhalation on a microphone before a small red dot appeared on the lead communication officer’s head. They all stared in silence, confused as to the appearance of the laser right up until xir head exploded into blue goo and the window shattered, spraying us all in broken glass as we stood in stunned silence. A second later we heard a gunshot from a human ballistic weapon, somewhere far, far off in the distance. Moments later a leg was shot out from beneath another one of the aliens. Nothing made a sound but the wounded, screaming and clutching his leg until another shot through the head silenced him permanently. The two remaining aliens dove for cover, but a bullet found one’s chest in midair, throwing it against the wall behind it, leaving a blue trail as it slid down the wall. The last aliens breathing was fast and heavy as it reached it’s hand out for the rifle left out in the open, shaking fingers outstretched until-

The red dot appears in the middle of his talons, blowing it clean off and sending a burning pain through his whole body as xey gasped for air against the agony in their body. Only the human’s voice rang through the communcations signal, a low growl of a laugh and the sound of a magazine hitting the ground. 

“You can tell ‘em. I’m coming for them next.”

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #sniper

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: blue whale

It's the one-year anniversary of my Wet Beast Wednesday posts. My first post was on the smallest of all cetaceans, the vaquita. For the anniversary, I'm going to go to the other end of the spectrum and cover the largest of all cetaceans: the mighty blue whale. Join me as we explore the biggest of bois, the largest of lads, and the absolutest of units.

(Image: a blue whale at the surface of the ocean, seen from above. It is long, slender, and grey. The head is the widest point and takes up about a quarter of the body. The blowholes are positioned at the back of the head. Two flippers emerge from the body just behind the head. The tail fluke is very broad and pointed. End ID)

Blaenoptera musculus, the blue whale, is divided into four subspecies based on size and location. These are the northern blue whale (B. m. musculus), the north Indian ocean blue whale (B. m. indica), the antarctic blue whale (B. m. intermedia), and the pygmy blue whale (B. m. brevicauda). The northern and pygmy whales are further subdivided into population stocks based on what part of their range they live in. Blue whales are not only the largest cetaceans, they are the largest known animals to have ever existed. There are animals that can get longer, like the lion's mane jellyfish, but blue whales are the most massive animals. There are some extinct species that could potentially meet or exceed the blue whale in size, including some ichthyosaurs, whales, and sauropods, but all those species are known only from skeleton fragments so we can't get a fully accurate estimate of their size. Size varies depending on subspecies and population stock, but the longest group are the eastern north Pacific population, which can reach an average 24 m (79 ft). The antarctic subspecies is the heaviest, averaging 130 metric tons (290,000 lbs) for females. Females are larger than males. The pygmy subspecies is the smallest, though small is a relative term as they can still average 21.3 m (69.9 ft) and 99 metric tons (218,000 lbs). The longest scientifically measured individual was 30 m (98 ft), though there are unconfirmed reports of longer ones. The heaviest blue whale on record weighed 173 metric tons (381,400 lbs), though there are whales estimated to get up to 199 metric tons (438,720 lbs). Blue whales also have the largest hearts of any animal. One specimen measured in at 180 kg (400 lbs). The heart is about the size of a golf cart and 4 or 5 people could fit inside the chambers without having to squeeze. There's a commonly-quoted factoid that a person could swim through a blue whale's arteries without touching the sides. I wasn't able to find any exact measurements to confirm or refute this. I did find some sources saying that the blood vessels are highly elastic so its possible the factoids are talking about the arteries at their most stretched. Each heartbeat moves 220 liters of blood and the total blood volume is estimated at 5,300 liters. The heartbeat can be heard two miles away. I really just want to impress on you that these animals are fucking massive. A study on hydrodymanics suggested that a blue whale couldn't get longer than 33 meters (108 ft) before its metabolic and energy requirements would exceed the amount of food it could eat. Blue whales are verging on what is theoretically the maximum amount of big a whale can be.

(Image: an illustration comparing the size of a blue whale to other animals and showing their size. The whale is about as long as a line consisting of a polar bear, grizzly bear, human, asian elephant, giraffe, and great white shark. End ID. Source)

Blue whales are baleen whales, meaning that instead of teeth they have thick, keratinous plates called baleen attached to the upper jaw. When feeding, blue whales open their mouths and swim through clouds of krill. The mouth can open to 80 degrees and folds at the bottom let it expand to fit 220,000 liters of water at a time. The whale them closes its mouth and forces water out through the baleen. The baleen acts as a sieve, trapping krill in the mouth to be swallowed. Blue whales target patched of krill with the highest densities as their feeding style requires a minimum of 100 krill per cubic meter to offset the energy cost of feeding. Most mouthfuls provide 8,312 to 475,141 kilocalories of energy, more than enough to offset the cost of feeding. The current estimate for how much krill an adult needs in a day is 1,120 ± 359 kg (2,469 ± 791 lbs) and pregnant females need even more than that. Blue whales will dive in search of food, with the deepest confirmed depth being a pygmy blue whale that reached 506 m (1,660 ft). The deepest known dive from a non-pygmy blue whale was 315 m (1,033 ft). The longest recorded dive was 15.2 minutes and the estimated maximum dive duration is 31.2 minutes. During dives, a blue whale's heartbeat slows to 2 beats per minute, the slowest of any known animal. The elastic aorta seems to take over a lot of the heart's pumping job during this time. Blue whales are streamlined and similar in appearance to the relates sei whales and fin whales. Blue and fin whales are capable of hybridizing and producing fertile offspring. 3.5% of the blue whale genome comes from hybridization with fin whales. While blue whales can produce hybrid offspring with fin whales, the reverse is not true and the gene flow from fin to blue is unidirectional. It appears that all hybrids are the result of a fin father and a blue mother. Interestingly, blue whales do not appear to be capable of hybridizing with the more closely related sei whales. There are unconfirmed reports of blue whale and humpback whale hybrids. And because someone was going to bring it up if I didn't, the blue whale's penis is the largest of any animal at 3 m (9.8 ft) long and 30 cm (12 in) wide and they can release an estimated 17 liters of semen at a time. I know someone out there desperately wanted to know that and to that person I say you're whalecum.

(Image: a blue whale feeding at the surface of the ocean on its side, seen from above. The mouth is open with the troat and lower mouth inflated. It is swimming into a patch of krill, visible as yellowish coloration in the water. End id)

Blue whales can be found worldwide, though they typically prefer colder water and do not enter the Arctic ocean. They are usually solitary or travel in pairs, but can gather in groups up to 50 strong when food is abundant. Many are migratory, feeding in cold water during the summer and moving toward the equator in winter. They can follow complex migratory patterns that have to be memorized. There are multiple different strategies employed by different populations regarding who migrates when and some populations don't migrate at all. Their vocalizations are used for long-distance and short-range communication and scientists have classified multiple different types of sounds produced. Different populations of whales have different patterns of vocalizations which may be akin to languages or dialects. Blue whale sounds are some of the loudest and lowest frequency produced by any animal and most are too low-frequency to be audible to humans. Mating season happens in winter. Males use vocalizations to attract females, who they then court through special noises, blowing bubbles, inflating their mouths, chasing, and slapping the water with their flippers. Males compete with each other for the chance to mate. Once a female chooses a male, they will mate and then separate. Gestation takes 10 to 12 months. Newborn blue whales are the largest babies in the animal kingdom at 6-7 m (20-23 ft) and 2-3 metric tons (4409 to 6614 lbs). Mother produce between 110 and 320 kg (240 - 710 lbs) of milk daily. Claves are weaned between 6 and 8 months once they hit 16 m (53 ft) and have gained about 17,000 kg (37,500 lbs). Females typically mate every 2 to 3 years. Blue whale become sexually mature at 8-10 years old and can live over 90 years, with the oldest on record being 110 years old. Their age can be determined by earwax, which is laid down in rings like trees.

(Image: a mother blue whale (background) and calf (foreground). The baby is already very large and is a lighter grey than the mother. The baby is seen from the sied while the mother is rotates to show her underside. End ID)

All blue whale subspecies are classified as endangered by the IUCN, with the antarctic subspecies being critically endangered. Blue whales were heavily impacted during whaling, with their population dropping to the point of near-extinction. Since the end of whaling, populations have risen to an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 as of the end of 2023. This is still smaller than their pre-whaling population, but they have recovered quite a bit. The current largest threats to blue whales are climate change, collisions with ships, and human created noise. The effects of anthropogenic noise from shipping lanes on aquatic animals is still poorly understood, though it seems to greatly irritate and even harm whales, forcing them to change their migratory routes and avoid shipping lanes. Interestingly, as the population has increased scientists have noted changes in courtship behavior and vocalization tone. It is hypothesizes that the increasing population is resulting in greater competitive pressure between males for the right to mate.

(Image: a blue whale seen from the side. Its head is toward the camera. The lower jaw as larger and thicker than the upper jaw. The animal is streamlined. The eye is just behind the mouth and small. Further back is a paddle-shaped flipper. End ID)

#wet beast wednesday #blue whale #whale #whales #cetaceans #cetacean #marine mammals #baleen whale #marine biology #biology #zoology #ecology #animal facts #informative #image described #science #absolute unit #big #anniversary

[nordleuchten]

A quick question, which you may have covered already! (Ah, Tumblr search...)

Which portrait of young Lafayette is considered to be the most accurate? There are quite a few, and while some of his features remain fairly consistent, there's certainly variety too (and, of course, artists loved to flatter their rich and important subjects).

Thanks! 💕

My dear @my-deer-friend,

A quick question and a very slow response. I am so sorry but as they say: Was lange währt, wird endlich gut …

Since I am not quite sure what specific age spectrum you had in mind, I am going to give a broad response.

There are three portraits of La Fayette in his early youth (pre-teen to early teenage years), although one of them I have only seen referenced in writing. There are not many descriptions of La Fayette during this time of his life, but still these portraits can be considered quite accurate, based on what we do know.

I know of three or so portraits of La Fayette in his mid to late teen years – there are even less physical descriptions of La Fayette from that time. One of these portraits is part of set of portraits, made of La Fayette and Adrienne shortly before their wedding. If you were to ask me, that portrait is indeed too flattering.

Once La Fayette came to America, we have two paintings of him (or featuring him) by Charles Willson Peale and I would consider them the most accurate depictions we have of him in his younger years. Do I find them artistically pleasing and generally well done? Honestly, no, but they tick many important boxes.

Then there is also this print.

This print has many variations (different angles, standing, sitting, looking to the side, looking at the viewer) and that alone makes assessment difficult. But these types of prints are closely linked to each other and to the bust by Houdon. Houdon was not only extremely skilled, he also took a life mask from La Fayette, therefor having a perfect cast of his features. The paintings by Peale show more detail and is easier to pin to a specific date/age but I would nevertheless consider these prints (with all the restrictions and problems listed above) to be faithful representations.

I hope this helps and was not too late and I hope you had a wonderful day!

#ask me anything #my-deer-friend #marquis de lafayette #la fayette #french history #american history #american revolution #history #art #charles willson peale #houdon

[zeusmagnolia]

I'm curious what people really want out of D/s dynamic. There's so many flavors of domination- but how do you imagine/desire the actual relationship between you and your Dom/daddy/mommy/master etc? I'm curious about how much intimacy, you want outside of the power exchange?

edit: I used he/him pronouns in the options, but please this is open for everyone!

I'm so sorry if I missed something- there is an infinite spectrum of relational intimacy- but I hope these categories are broad enough to cover a lot of people.

#poll #bd/sm lifestyle #bd/sm community

[msbeanfl]

Back to Contents

Ms Bean Who? - A BIO

In almost all aspects of appearance, the word of choice for Ms Bean would be “austere”. Standing tall, straight, and broad, above average height for either/any sex, sharp angles adorn her countenance - from pointy chin to tightly-wound bun, pursed lips painted black, and a light scar crossing the piercing eye of a perceptive woman - punctuated by hollow cheeks: a trademark of hungry artists. 

But as strands of hair break rank, they frame her face in shadow. And those eyes, as round as figs, have a kind light lost within that betray this fiction of austerity. In truth, she is a hedonist through and through; many have witnessed her piercing eyes become softer glances, and the mask of temperance being thrown to the ground amidst other discarded garments…

Like many, Ms Bean was once fresh and penniless in the Neath, although recent ventures and windfall have made her healthy and spry; her body is lean in musculature, though covered in scars, both owing themselves to a new hobby in boxing. As for her academic pursuits, she has found talent as a Non-Speculative Author, which she is willing to fight people in defence of it being somehow different to non-fiction. Constantly adventuring for inspiration or recording the larger-than-life histories of fellow Londoners, her publications always stretch the boundaries of fact and fiction.

She has a reputation for both philanthropy (such as Ms Bean's Home for Dispossessed Unfortunates) and ruthlessness (found in the punishingly truthful pages of The Troubling Times). Driven by the idea that the world must be forced to change, she feverishly studies the Correspondence for some breakthrough in epistemology. Ms Bean will change hearts and minds; either with a spectrum of persuasive techniques, or by rewriting reality itself.

#fallen london #oc #writing #creative writing #oc writing #bio #Ms Bean

[cuprohastes]

Uh-Oh

The human formerly known as Davce (The Human), currently running under the moniker of Phalanges Mittens, who was, for staffing purposes a two-meter-tall marsupial lizard of no particular gender paused and took a step back to look at the hardware that was causing issues.

Phalanges looked over at the equipment cart, repurposed to be the office of Cat Fantastic, a small, iguana-sized Atrix, and technically Phalanges spouse adjacent partner.

"Doing OK, Cat?" he asked and got a cheery "Graak" back.

Garfield, an actual Atrix looked amused and asked her little guy the same. "Doing Ok, Un-Named?" and got a "Grak?" from her natural pouch where her little guy was riding.

"Nobody asks me if I'm OK." said Dave The Human, an Adult female Tsin.

"Should have got yourself a Little Guy." Garfield told her good buddy cheerfully.

"Ugh. They're too big to fit in a pocket and besides my pet rat would get jealous." Dave stated, and checked, for the twentieth time, the schematics of the lump of scheming machinery.

"What about that dude who nearly ate number 43?" suggested Phalanges, shining a light behind the input pipes.

Dave tried to recall them "Oh yeah... nah, they're nice but a bit thirsty. I'm not planning on a family yet." she said. "I need someone who's less desperate to..." she looked around at the other four all of whom were legally Atrix, the least sexually oriented species known to breathe oxygen.

Even Phalanges, who's genetically human had never shown any interest in sex. "... less desperate." she said. "But I think I need someone who gets me on a more... Tsin level? No offence"

Everyone paused to consider this, apart from Un-Named Male who was asleep again.

Dave was a Big Female: The klunky translation of a concept for the Tsin gender of "The most female type of female", which culturally also carried the suggestion of being the sort of person who's in charge of everyone else: "She who shouts at everyone to clean their claws".

Tsin have at least four main genders. At least one gender is capable of swapping naturally. Dave's at the far end of the Tsin gender spectrum, biologically at least, and interpersonal relationships are complex when one's bestie girl-friend might spend too much time hanging out with you and accidentally swap to male. On the other hand (of which, Dave has four) Dave's picked a male name from a species that has two broad categories for biological genders and still managed to make things weird.

Everyone took a moment to consider this as they stared at the hardware giving them issues.

The Waste Organic Matter/Biologicals from Living Environments Recycling unit was supposed to scavenge through any organic matter that ordinary people left behind, and crack the compounds down into base blocks that could then be used to build up any other chemicals or compounds via one of the bio-reactors. Soap for example.

On a space station, this sort stuff is considered useful, since nobody wants to be hip deep in garbage and leftover food.

"We need this thing's full name." said Phalanges thoughtfully.

"Wot?" said Dave and Garf did the rippling colour display that was equivalent.

"It's human hardware. It runs on human rules, so if we knew it's full name I could call it out and it'd know it was in trouble."

Dave and Garfield, who both had degrees in Human Stuff gave each other some pretty hilarious side eye.

Phalanges pulled up the pitch shifter for the rarely used translator, and said "Squeap sqk qk sqwp, what do you think you're doing?"

Dave, startled by the use of her real, full name dropped her tablet and cringed, scales all folding flat, and her big hands coming up over her head as she pulled her small hands out of her front pocket and covered her muzzle.

Garf stared in amusement, cheeks and forehead rippling opalescently. Cat Fantastic peered from the little office that Dave and Phalanges had built him. "Graak?"

"No it's not sorcery." said Phalanges.

"Could have fooled me." muttered Dave. "Gods of the place, I see what you mean. Don't do it again, I'd have to murder you and not eat you." she muttered shaking her scales back out and patting the air down one handed to show it was meant lightly.

"Graaaaak?" asked Cat.

"Tsin eat people they like or admire, if they can, when they die. It's respectful." explained Phalanges distractedly.

"'S right." agreed Dave. "For example I wouldn't take a single bite of this squeap machine."

Meanwhile Un-Named Male who'd been disturbed form his nap, reached out unseen by anyone but Garf and pointed at the fuse panel: The fuses were fine but the wiring harness connector had been pulled half out.

Garf looked around and pushed it back with a surreptitious claw...

"I have an idea." she announced.

Garf picked up Dave's Tablet and looked at it. Then she planted herself in front of it, crossed her arms, and said:

"Waste Organic Matter/Biologicals from Living Environments unit model Zero Romeo Indigo November Zero Charlie Oscar, serial number... five dash two dash one nine seven three, what do you think you're doing? We were relying on you to do your job. You need to take responsibility for your role on this station! I'm not angry, I'm just very disappointed"

And then clicked the reset button.

She stood there with Un-named Male's nose hanging out of her pouch, Phalanges, Dave and Cat staring in surprise: Of course the recycler clicked and powered up.

"Good." declared Garfield, who passed Dave his tablet back and grabbed her tool bag. "I'm on break!" she called as she swaggered off.

"How the hell did she...?" said Phalanges, and Dave shrugged.

"I guess it really does run on human rules." she said.

#Tsin #Atrix #Dave the Human #Phalanges Mitten #Cat Fantastic #Station Stories #Humans being weird little guys #humans are space orcs #when you see it...

[aroaceinaerospace]

since it's the start of a new year and I'm a bookworm, I figured I'd share some of the aspec books I read in 2023. I've added any of the big content warnings I can think of as well as a link to the books on storygraph where there are more in depth content warnings.

Fiction:

Wren Martin Ruins It All by Amanda DeWitt follows the titular character Wren Martin during senior year of high school as he becomes student council president and fights his vice president to try and get the school's Valentine's Day dance shut down. Wren is very much an externally grumpy person who becomes much more loveable as you get to know him and see the reasoning behind his grumpiness. Rep includes asexual main character and an aromantic side character, and note this book is a romance.

Is Love The Answer by Uta Isaki is a coming of age manga following Chika as she tries to find the answer to who she is and explores her identity. This book is full of aro and ace rep with different life experiences. CW for aphobia and attempted SA.

Just Lizzie by Karen Wilfred is a middle grade book following Lizzie in how a science class assignment helped lead her to an understanding of her asexuality. At the same time, Lizzie is having to adjust to a new home and changes in what was once familiar and safe. CW for aphobia, harassment.

Non-fiction:

*note: these books cover some triggering topics in different parts of them, including racism, SA, aphobia, and more

Ace and Aro Journeys by The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project (TAAAP) is a really great overview of aspec identities, it gives more time to aro identities than a lot of other books, and provides quotes and information from people on various parts of the spectrums. This book brings in some intersectionality, though it is more broad than a deep dive.

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality by Sherronda J. Brown, which has been my favorite read. This book is fantastic if you're ready for a deep dive into intersectionality and some deeper history on asexuality. This book, despite being very short, is a much heavier read content-wise, but it is very thought provoking and will stick with you. Each chapter gives you content warnings up front for the materials that will be addressed in the chapter. Personally, this book has been my favorite book on the subject and I intend on reading it many more times to capture more of the nuance.

#aro #ace #aromantic #asexual #aroace #aspec #if you have any recommendations pleaaaaase let me know #i have also read ace by Angela chen; lets talk about love by claire kann; loveless by alice oseman; every heart a doorway by seanan mcguire #gender queer by maia kobabe; the murderbot diaries (some people count it idk that i do); aces wild by amanda dewitt #paper planes by jennie wood; sounds fake but okay; the charm offensive and kiss her once for me by alison cochrun #i am ace by cody Daigle-Orians; elatsoe by darcie little badger; a quick & easy guide to asexuality; and ace notes by Michele Kirichanskaya #i currently have ace voices and being ace on my tbr for this year but am always open to suggestions